Fleet Battle October 1914
Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 2:01 pm
Hello,
I am a (German) journalist, doing some research on the Naval History of WW 1. I
would much appreciate members' comments/advice/opinion on an (unpublished) interwar
source (war diary with many comments added in the late 20s and 30s) given to me be a great granddaughter. The writer was appearently some high ranking staff member in the German Navy (still trying to verify details). In 1925, he argued that
Germany's chances for winning a decisive fleet action were
never better than after the loss of HMS Audacious in October 1914. His main points:
At that point the Grand Fleet would have been able to put no more than 17 Dreadnoughts and Super-Dreadnoughts to sea.The
rest were unavailable due to repairs, maintenance
The Hig Seas fleet would have been able to field around 14-15 sheeps of this class.
This was the only point in time when the two sides would have been somewhat evenly matched.
Superior German fire control togehther with hitherto undetected weaknesses in British battleship and battlecruiser design
(the flash
explosions that proved so disastrous at Jutland) and the vicissitudes of war might conceivably have turned the odds in
the High Sea's favor.....
Thanks in advance for any help provided (in particular facts that contradict this view).
Chris
I am a (German) journalist, doing some research on the Naval History of WW 1. I
would much appreciate members' comments/advice/opinion on an (unpublished) interwar
source (war diary with many comments added in the late 20s and 30s) given to me be a great granddaughter. The writer was appearently some high ranking staff member in the German Navy (still trying to verify details). In 1925, he argued that
Germany's chances for winning a decisive fleet action were
never better than after the loss of HMS Audacious in October 1914. His main points:
At that point the Grand Fleet would have been able to put no more than 17 Dreadnoughts and Super-Dreadnoughts to sea.The
rest were unavailable due to repairs, maintenance
The Hig Seas fleet would have been able to field around 14-15 sheeps of this class.
This was the only point in time when the two sides would have been somewhat evenly matched.
Superior German fire control togehther with hitherto undetected weaknesses in British battleship and battlecruiser design
(the flash
explosions that proved so disastrous at Jutland) and the vicissitudes of war might conceivably have turned the odds in
the High Sea's favor.....
Thanks in advance for any help provided (in particular facts that contradict this view).
Chris