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Author Topic: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]  (Read 136533 times)

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Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Quote
Triple turrets. In 1909. Oh my God, Germany can build a Scharnhorst right now.




Speaking of ships build for Brazil, Is the Agincourt possible at this point yet?
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline The E

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Oh, no, Russia. You are weak and we've outgrown you. And you insist on stealing from us. There will be no peace, until you're no longer a threat on our backdoor. All German officers now know this.

So, when asked by a reporter from the Morgenpost, Tirpitz says so. On record.



There are times, in an officer's career, where taking direction from the Commander in Chief in matters of policy and diplomacy is prudent and necessary.

This was not one of those times.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Speaking of ships build for Brazil, Is the Agincourt possible at this point yet?

Not exactly. We're still missing superimposed B.

But 7 centreline double 12-inch turrets are very much possible-.  :yes:

EDIT: -If a bit ... underwhelming.

There are times, in an officer's career, where taking direction from the Commander in Chief in matters of policy and diplomacy is prudent and necessary.

This was not one of those times.

^^
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 
Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Quote
Ahahaha. AHAHAHA.

Triple turrets. In 1909. Oh my God, Germany can build a Scharnhorst right now.

I'm expecting you to deliver great ships that will crush any pasta eating cowards and sink every vodka transport they can find.:D


Quote
That is not a capital ship, you Dummköpfe. Still, no reason to overdo it. That's suitable payback for the V1.

How did they manage to mix that up?
Actually I can totally imagine those guys sitting in some random italian bar directly at the harbour getting drunk with good wine financed by the german tax-payer cause their own courage back at home was a bit too much. Then after finally getting drunk enough to go forward with the plan they can't really tell any ships apart anymore and you have to be lucky they didn't find a german boat first.




Reading all of this got me motivated to play the game again as Germany but somehow the experience was underwhelming. Stupid Kaiser stopped every war after a few months so when I ended up fighting Japan these guys had conquerend my base in northeast asia within 3 months before my fleet got there. When it finally arrived, war ended...

Technology seemed to go go in a very similar way to your playthrough: Superimposed B and better guns weren't coming at all. Then things kinda went nuts and 1920 I laid down my first 28 knots, 17 inch Quality 1 in 3 triple turrets battlecruiser thing. From that point on ships just exploded left and right cause everyone was using lots of 16-18 inch guns all the while armor was just too heavy so that even the best BBs failed to resist 14 inch shells.
Here goes scripting and copy paste coding
Freespace RTS Mod
Checkpoint/Shipsaveload script

 

Offline crizza

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Quote
Triple turrets. In 1909. Oh my God, Germany can build a Scharnhorst right now.
We want that ship, now!



 
Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Damn, now I want pants which are also battleships.

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Mmmm, dem legs.  :eek2:  Goddammit, fast battleships, y u do dis to me. Unffff.

But, in all honesty, we can't settle for an OTL Sharnhorst. Too weak in everything that matters, except perhaps speed.


I'm expecting you to deliver great ships that will crush any pasta eating cowards and sink every vodka transport they can find.:D

^This. The Vaterland will not compromise. Am Deutschen Wesen....
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Enioch

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Balkan Wars - Ottoman prisoners.

"It was unavoidable. And yet we still chose war - against a nation that had not truly wronged us. Simply as a stepping stone towards the defeat of our true enemy. May God judge us mercifully.

-From the private writings of Herzog Johann Albrecht von Mecklenburg, Reichskanzler 1902-1920.

The aftermath of Tirpitz's statement is ghastly for von Mecklenburg and Germany's foreign policy. An unspoken truth in diplomacy is that the inevitable may be delayed by not acknowledging it; Tirpitz's callous statement that Germany perceived Russia as a future adversary lit a fuze that von Mecklenburg wished would remain dormant for at least a few more years.

And yet, being the statesman that he was, Germany's Kanzler changed his course like a virtouoso leaps from one melody to the next. War was going to happen, that was no longer to be disputed. It would behoove Germany to have the initiative. Therefore, any opportunity to escalate had to be grasped; and any opportunity to keep Great Britain out of the fight had to be exploited.





In July and August, two major developments from the R & D front. Krupp submitted their new Cementit formulas for the Navy's consideration; and new hydraulic rammers were installed in all German capital ships.



Shortly afterwards, a series of dockworkers' strikes shook Great Britain. Von Mecklenburg took the opportunity; German Intelligence was urged to discreetly provide the workers with bribes and incentives to continue their strikes. Unrest simmered in Albion; and the construction of several modern battlecruisers was considerably delayed because of this. If Great Britain wished to directly assist the Russians, she would have to do it with her older ships; and First Lord of the Admiralty Fisher was adamant that these older ships ("too slow to run and too weak to fight," in his words) should be kept away from any critical conflict and gradually phased out.



During the same month, the Kaiser sought to compromise with Russia - seek out a peaceful solution. The 1901 war was still fresh in His Majesty's memory; and he was not eager to strike against his Czar cousin yet again. But, for once, von Mecklenburg did not yield at all; not even superficially.

"Does Your Majesty seek to be the ruler of this country? Does Your Majesty seek to see perfidious Albion crushed? Then this needs to happen. It is unjust. It is, perhaps, dishonourable. But it is necessary for the good of the nation; and unless Russia is taken out of the picture for good, we shall always be as Bismarck feared: merely existing between ancient Powers that may decide to end us on a whim," he is reported to have said, in a meeting with Wilhelm.



October: and German engineers begin installing new plotting tables in all command ships. Some problems are encountered with the older Victoria Louise-class armored cruisers; a memo is sent to Tirpitz that a more thorough reconstruction of these ships might be necessary.

Nevertheless, German engineering once again proves to be-







FOR ****'S SAKE, BRITS.

15-inchers? In 1909? What sort of fire have you lit under your Naval Bureau's asses, Fisher?





Heh. You've got Fisher. We've got fishes.





In November, the French arrive, asking to buy the license to the German analog fire control calculators. The Admiralität looks at their shipyards, where only Moltke and Hindenburg are being worked on. Then they look at their budget: they only have four and a half million Goldmarken set aside. Then they say, "Yes, by all means. Would you like that gift-wrapped?"



Aaaaaand that's when the Kaiser stopped pouting and complaining about the inevitability of war and started seething and ranting about his treacherous cousin. Seriously, though, thanks Ivans. We couldn't have declared this war without your oh-so-kind (if slightly bumbling) attempts at industrial espionage.



December 1909. With war imminent, Galster spends some time inspecting his cruiser fleet. What he sees makes his hair stand on end. The Victoria Louises (his own beloved Hertha among them) have not received a proper maintenance for years. New hardware has been bolted onto the ships willy-nilly, in some cases causing interference with older systems. This is unacceptable. He personally discusses this with Tirpitz, who comes down on the drydock superintendents like a ton of bricks; and authorises a four-month refurbishment program for the three veteran cruisers.



Thankfully, some good news too: the intensive training regimen which had begun a year ago was now bearing fruit. With a good ratio of veteran sailors and new recruits, the German crews were now disciplined, well-drilled and excellent gunners.



Perfect. 38k-ton ships by next December it is.



And then, it all comes to a head when, shortly after the Neujahr celebrations, the Greek navy approaches the German shipyards with an order for what they called a 'pocket battlecruiser' - a capital ship that could tip the balance in the Aegean against the Ottomans. The Germans respond with a scaled-down version of the Moltke-class. The Greeks immediately offer a downpayment of three hunderd thousand gold pound sterling, generously donated by the Greek benefactor Georgios Averoff, after whom the ship was eventually named. The Averoff would completely and utterly dominate the Eastern Mediterranean for the upcoming years.

That said, this was the last straw for the Russians. The Balkans were, in their mind, their playground; and the German interference in the balance of power there was unacceptable. On the 12th of February, the Russian embassy in Berlin started burning their documents; on the morning of the 13th, an ultimatum was presented to von Mecklenburg.



Time to secure the eastern front, once and for all.

« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 10:17:55 am by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
And, since I mentioned her, here's the golden apple, the cause of all this, "Lucky Uncle George" herself. She recently was moved from her berth in Faliro to the docks of Scaramanga, to be refurbished.

Ain't she a beauty?



'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Silly russia is going to get another spanking.

So what exactly causes tensions to rise and fall? I noticed Italy went from yellow to dark green and then back up to yellow again when war with russia was declared.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
So what exactly causes tensions to rise and fall? I noticed Italy went from yellow to dark green and then back up to yellow again when war with russia was declared.

Tensions have a small chance of rising or falling on their own each turn. In the case of Italy, they fell on their own from yellow to green; and then they spiked again because I sold weapons to the Balkans. If Austro-Hungary was in the game, tensions would spike with them as well.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 
Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Here's to crushing ol' Czar Nicholas the Incompetent, and hopefully you won't be sending any revolutionaries in to end the war sooner.  That would be ill-advised after the chaos in Italy. :P
17:37:02   Quanto: I want to have sexual intercourse with every space elf in existence
17:37:11   SpardaSon21: even the males?
17:37:22   Quanto: its not gay if its an elf

[21:51] <@Droid803> I now realize
[21:51] <@Droid803> this will be SLIIIIIGHTLY awkward
[21:51] <@Droid803> as this rich psychic girl will now be tsundere for a loli.
[21:51] <@Droid803> OH WELLL.

See what you're missing in #WoD and #Fsquest?

[07:57:32] <Caiaphas> inspired by HerraTohtori i built a supermaneuverable plane in ksp
[07:57:43] <Caiaphas> i just killed my pilots with a high-g maneuver
[07:58:19] <Caiaphas> apparently people can't take 20 gees for 5 continuous seconds
[08:00:11] <Caiaphas> the plane however performed admirably, and only crashed because it no longer had any guidance systems

 

Offline Enioch

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The day after the declaration of war, Moltke is commissioned into the German navy. She still needs to go through her shakedown cruise before being deployed to the Baltic, but now there are four active-duty Schlachtkreuzer flying the Schwartz-Weiss-Rot.





AHAHA. Torpedo Protection II. In 1910. **** you, fishes, our ships have beer bellies.



Most importantly, the Russians are not blockaded. Unlike the Italians had been. Which means that, for the first weeks after the declaration of war, they still try to slip merchant traffic through the Baltic. This proves to be a very poor decision. The German submariners have been hammered into daredevil veterans by trying to sneak into Italian harbors; now they are faced with fat, unescorted freighters. It's a massacre.



The Russians, on the other hand, have no submarine force to speak of.



In an attempt to further drive the point home, the Germans mobilise their cruiser and Schlachtkreuzer fleet in the northern Baltic, to hunt down more Russian shipping. The Russians sortie to meet them with the near-entirety of their battle-line.

The two fleets meet off the coast of Bornholm, in an eerie repeat of their past conflict.



Germany's battleships are still in the Mediterranean; this will be a test for the battlecruisers. The Von der Tann, Goeben and Seydlitz are the core of the raiding force, escorted by the light cruisers Hamburg, Bremen and Medusa and seven Zerstörer. Büchsel has been recalled from the Mediterranean to command the battlecruiser force; Galster is still supervising the reconstruction of the heavy cruisers and has been placed in temporary command of the submarine forces. He will miss this battle.



The time is 07:00 in the morning of the 23rd of March. The German fleet is sailing north, near Bornholm.



For two long hours, the morning mist limits visibility. The Germans think that Intelligence might be wrong, and that the Russians may not contest their raid. They are proven wrong at 09:31, when the Bremen and Hamburg make contact.





It's a Russian cruiser line, and they've brought some of their heavy hitters. Three armored cruisers, of the Rossyia and Bogatyr class; as well as two light scouting cruisers. The Bogatyrs would not have been a problem for the Hertha and her sisters; but the lightly armored German cruisers present might have some serious problems with them. More importantly, however, the Bogatyrs can only reach 22 knots. The German Schlachtkreuzer can reach 25.



Büchsel closes in with his battle-line, as the light cruisers retrat. At 09:56, Seydlitz takes the Rossiya under fire; and scores a hit amidships. Büchsel remembers the old war and how the German gunners had laboured to score a single hit on the Russians. How things have changed!

His lookouts also spot smoke to the north-east. The Russian battle-line is closing.



Unfortunately, they arrive too late. It only takes half an hour for the German Schlachtkreuzer to prove their worth against their cruiser opponents. By 10:24, the Rossyia is a floating wreck, the Bogatyrs are running in disarray and the German ships are boring in toward the Russian forces at flank.



This...confuses the Russians. They have five pre-dreads on station, to match the three German capitals: four Pervenets- and one Imperator Pavel-class. As the German battle-line closes, the Russians turn and run, firing over their shoulder.



Their first shells (from 6- and 7-inch secondaries) strike the Goeben at around eight thousand yards. The German Schlachtkreuzer shrugs the Russian fire off and continues her charge.



Then, at around five thousand yards, the German ships turn to starboard and present their broadsides. Twenty-four 11-inchers speak in near-unison.

And Goeben, in particular, reaps a bloody toll from the Pervenets she has taken under fire. In two minutes, she scores five hits with her main battery, hits that rip through the Russian's belt and smash her superstructure to bits.



In the following ten minutes, the battle devolves to absolute chaos. This is not a civilised long-range duel; this is Büchsel taking his Schlachtkreuzer into the Schlacht itself, in a no-holds-barred brawl. The escorting destroyer S13 gets mauled by Russian secondaries as she seeks to lay smoke for her wards...



...the flagship, Seydlitz receives several waterline hits that flood several underwater compartments and drop her speed to 22 knots; on the flipside, she has scored more than twenty main battery hits on her target...



...Goeben continues not giving a flying **** as she wades in after her Pervenets, scoring twenty six hits on her, while bouncing heavy and medium shells off her own belt and decks...



...and the Von der Tann makes it through without a scratch, but having scored a respectable seven hits on her own target.



The German battle-line closes in from the east; and the Russians scramble to disengage. Their own line of battle is...disorganised to say the least. This lasts for a gruelling two hours.



By 12:00, the forward turrets of Goeben...



...and Seydlitz are silent. The Germans have expended their magazines.



And both fleets have lost any semblance of order. They both fall back, to regroup; light cruisers and destroyers patrol the no-man's-sea between them. As the smoke clears, Büchsel identifies a smoking, sinking wreck between the two forces: it's Goeben's Pervenets, listing heavily, her engines dead. The Germans have scored their first kill.



The fleets close back in. To the east, the sharp boom of the German cruiser 6-inchers cuts through the wind, as they engage the Russian cruiser Flora.



It takes them about ten minutes to put her to the bottom.



Goeben wades into battle again, taking fire for the flagship. Her belt laughs at the Russian shells; but her rear starboard turret jams in its bearings.



It doesn't matter. She leads the charge, passing less than five hundred yards away from a second, foundering Pervenets and raking her with secondary fire. Her main guns turn to engage the Pavel and a third Pervenets; Von der Tann engages the nearby battlewagon and triple-taps her with her 11-inchers, just to make sure.



The order is: 'pursue'! And the German Schlachtkreuzer do so. Seydlitz and Von der Tann focus their fire on the Pavel; Goeben seeks fresh meat and slams two 11-inch shells into the belt of a third Pervenets.



And another two hits from Goeben. And another three hits from Seydlitz.



13:30: three Pervenets-class battleships have now been sunk. the Pavel is manoeuvering desperately toward the west, but the Schlachtkreuzer are on her tail.



And by 14:45, the remaining two Russian battleships are in full retreat toward the north. Both are spotted; both are under fire. Goeben is hot on the heels of the fourth and final Pervenets, but is ordered to break off pursuit and focus on finishing off the Pavel.



By now, she's taken heavy superstructure damage and is flooding slightly. She has only been hit six times by heavy-caliber guns, despite being in the thick of it; but she has soaked many 6- and 7-inch secondary hits. It's a miracle she's not burning. More importantly, she has scored more than sixty confirmed main bettery hits: her gunners are ecstatic by her performance.



The Von der Tann, on the other hand, seems blessed. She has taken minimal damage, all her turrets are operational and she has only been hit by three six-inch and three four-inch shells from Russian cruisers and destroyers. In return, she has scored nearly fourty hits on enemy ships with her main guns.



As for Seydlitz, she has done Büchsel proud. Sixty seven confirmed hits, while only taking five heavy shells in return; her waterline has been breached but flooding is under control and her superstructure still stands proud and relatively undamaged. Perhaps more importantly, three out of her four magazines are empty. She only has 14 AP shells left, in her starboard wing turret.



No, Pavel. You will not escape.



16:28. Far to the east of the main battle-line, the Medusa scores a hit on the Pamyat Merkuriya. The shell penetrates the protected cruiser's magazines; she goes up in an apocalyptic fireball, which spells the doom of the Russian fleet.



Seydlitz empties her last magazine. Goeben, however, will not give up her quarry.



And then, at 17:26, the Von der Tann's luck runs out. The Pavel launches an underwater torpedo,which buries itself into the German Schlachtkreuzer's side. Three out of her six boilers are immediately flooded; her engines sputter and nearly die. She can barely do 12 knots; and is flooding.



But the Pavel is finished. The S19 rushes in, under her secondaries, and launches a torpedo at fifteen hundred yards. The Russian giant shudders; and dies.



Perhaps more importantly, she is denied her kill. Germans know how much torpedoes can hurt; and even though the Von der Tann has no torpedo belt, she is big and heavily compartmentalised. By 18:00, her damcon crews have stopped the flooding.



Night has fallen. The German fleet turns to port; the Von der Tann under heavy escort.



The mood is buoyant. Four battleships. Four. And only a destroyer lost, in the first chaotic moments of the fight.





Lang Lebe unsere Flotte!

« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 10:17:33 am by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline JSRNerdo

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Aw crap how the **** did we get blockaded
Former Inferno lead, BTA fredder-ish and DE fredder. Driven out by ordinary fascists the_e, aesaar and general battuta. Will return if they're ever removed.

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
The near-entirety of the battleline is in the Mediterranean or, in the case of the heavy cruisers, in drydock. All we have in the home waters are the battlecruisers. Of those, one is on her shakedown cruise, one is in drydock for the next three months because she was shot to hell and back; and the other two are 48k tons between them.

The Russians still have a battleship and a couple of BCs in active service. But don't worry. That's something ze Germans will address shortly.  :P
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
The death of the pervert class. An absolute slaughter. Gotta give props to the russians though, at least they give proper battle. Unlike a certain pasta country.
Dying russian battleships scoring a hit with their single underwater torpedo tubes in their final moments seem to be an ungoing theme though.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Oh, yes, mad props to the Russians for having the guts to come out and fight ze Hochseeflotte. You can't fault their bravery and they went down swinging. And when the VdT was hit by the torp I got PTSD flashbacks to Freya. ****ing hell, it's like we learned nothing:nervous:

What I can't get over (and I expect the Russians are having problems digesting it too) is the hit ratios of some of the Schlachtkreuzer. I mean, the VdT scored a total of forty-odd hits by the end of the fight, for a hit ratio of around 4%. That's perfectly respectable by 1910 standards, especially for a ship with just central firing. And then, you get Seydlitz' and Goeben's 7% and 6% respectively, which is an added 50%-75% compared to their sister. And I'm like :wtf:   :confused:  It's not like any of the crews are veterans or elites and all three ships were sailing in one division, in line of battle.

Goeben and Seydlitz are just that awesome, I guess.  :P
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Schlachtkreuzer über alles!



So um do the Russians have any ships left or have they just shot their wad in one go?
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Oh, they still have ships. At least one battleship and two new battlecruisers. Inferior designs, but more than capable of ruining our day.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Enioch

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The German Schlachtkreuzer Goeben, engaging Russian destroyers in the second battle of Bornholm (artist's depiction)

"Bornolm, glorious Bornholm. May God forgive us for what we did to those poor lads; but victory was sweet and our chests swelled, for we could now see the day the seas would be ours."

-Vizeadm. Galster K (post mort.) 1956, The Naval Question: Collected Papers and Letters, edited by Dr. Ernst Jablonka, Universitätsverlag Heidelberg.



After the crushing victory in Bornholm, the German navy retreated to its harbors. With Goeben beat to hell and back, the dockyards estimated at least three months of repairs before she could set sail again. The Admiralty decided that, during that time, the operations of the German fleet would be limited to raiding. Hopefully, with Moltke also finishing her shakedown cruise, it would be possible to push with four Schlachtkreuzer against whatever the Russians had left.

Meanwhile, with German ships steadfastly refusing to fight, the Russians established a flimsy blockade on German ports. The Germans shook their heeads condescendingly.



Early March: and Victoria Louise finishes her reconstruction. Hertha and Vineta are only a few weeks away. The balance of power shifts, slightly, but not enough for von Tirpitz to authorise a blockade run.



That said, the U-bootkommando was not idle. The U-79 on patrol identified the Russian minelayer Saratov and sank her in short order.



And ten Russian freighters, encouraged to sail the Baltic and the North Sea under the 'cover' of the blockade were also sent to the bottom.



Mid-April. The Russian fleet sails up to the the Finland border and offers battle. The Germans decline.

Politically, this is a mistake. The Kaiser comes down on the Admiralität like a ton of bricks, berating his Staff for their apparent lack of spine. They wanted a war to kick Russia in the teeth once and for all, despite his attempts to keep the peace; now they do not dare to face the enemy? This cannot continue.



And it doesn't. With Hertha and Vineta almost ready, the German navy pushes out. The Russians quickly realise that a blockade is no longer tenable; their ships fall back to their own bases.





She's back.



The cruisers start working. First, little Frauenlob pokes up to Finland and spots a Russian raider trying to sneak into German waters. The Vesta is quickly dispatched.

And then, the armored cruisers are finally enough to tip the scales. The Germans are now blockading the Russians and the noose draws tight.



A small note. The German submarine fleet is, at this time, the largest in the world; and its performance during these early months of the war have cold sweat running down the necks of Admirals world-wide. Germany can almost match each coastal patrol vessel of the Brits with a sub of her own, which is insane; and she has more submarines than Russia has ASW ships. The only nation that hasn't pissed its pants and gone full "build escort ships" is France, smugly secure with her ally.







A small note (and many thanks for the kind permission provided by the Admiralität to study their R & D archives). Something that is often overlooked is that it was during this time that the first designs for five- and six-turret Schlachtkreuzer were submitted by the R & D department. The future Zähringen-class battlecruisers can trace their birth to these early experimental designs.





And, meanwhile, the Admiralität was experimenting with new doctrines. The Schlachtkreuzer had proven to be excellent line ships; but might they, perhaps, be used as scouts as well? Galster and Büchsel organise a few experimental runs. The results are surprisingly satisfying. The Schlachtkreuzer are actually faster than Hertha and her sisters and sailing together gimps their speed; but they also get to respond faster to spotted enemies and Germany gets to face enemy scouting parties with her heaviest hitters. It's definitely a step forward.





The submarines keep up the good work, despite the blockade.



The Russians, on the other hand... Well, we can call their performance sad. Somebody's started on the vodka, I suspect...







Not so their raiders. Their cruisers dart in and out of German waters, seeking opportunistic targets all over the world. It won't help them, though.



For, on the 1st of July, the German fleet sorties en masse, and sails deep into Russian waters, way past the Gulf of Riga. The Russian forces are caught with their pants down.



Time to end this.

« Last Edit: May 31, 2018, 10:16:02 am by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)