The Ship Model Forum

Measuring on a map, it appears that based out of Kiel, the High Sea Fleet actually has less distance to travel to Dover and Calais than the Grand fleet would have from Scapa Flow. What would happen if the High Sea fleet were to deploy to disrupt the movement of BEF to France while accepting the it may be brought to action and destroyed by the Grand Fleet?

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Assessing the impact of new area rug under modeling table.

What does it do about the Harwich force and other torpedo forces based from the Firth of Forth South.

Sheer (and von Pohl before him) were strictly advised by The Kaiser himself that they may venture the battlecruisers where there was some large prospect of political or military gain, but the battle fleet was not to be risked unless the outcome of victory was a certainty.

The idea of even one battleship lagging behind on a retreat from Dover and falling victim to torpedo or gun forces was probably a strong deterrent.

As a German, one has to speculate about the disposition of minefields as one approaches the SouthEast of Britain.

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If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.

-- "A Nation at Risk" (1983)

Never happen. The Germans had contempt for the Brit Army, one. Two, the Kaiser was sort of like Mussolini with HIS navy in WW2: mostly show, not much go. And then you throw in an admiral like Ingenohl on top of it, and you have a never-were that really would be a never-were.

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Gerard>
Snohomish, WA USA
If you don't know the definition of erudite, you're not.

The constablery was to arrest the BEF if it landed on the continent.

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No Quarter Asked - None Given

I think we debated this awhile back. It is an interesting question. For sure the RN would detect the German Fleet moving past Dover and all sailings would stop. The Germans had a short time window to act both in the sense of coal and the arrival of the Grand Fleet. It would have been a bad place for the High Seas Fleet to fight. But had they stood their ground, both fleets would have been beat to hell big time. Not much chance of damage to the BEF, but a naval battle for the ages.

Bob B.

What would be the effect on the left wing of the French army if BEF were delayed by a few days? If the BEF had still not embarked when the French offensive in the Ardennes had clearly failed, and the French left wing appeared to be retreating in disorder before the German right wing, would the British, especially BEF commander on the ground - the Francophobic Field Marshall French, still have honored British commitment to the French and committed British army into the midst of what would appear to be a German route?

As it was, Field Marshall French was all for pulling the entire British army out of line and retreat past Paris back to England when the French left wing began its general withdraw from the Belgian border.

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Assessing the impact of new area rug under modeling table.