The other day I was rummaging around on the book shelves in the Volunteer’s Centre and came across a copy of Jackie Fisher’s book “Memories” and immediately began searching for any references to von Spee because… well it’s me.
Great article. I wonder how different things would've been had the Germans had a few more years to build up the High Seas Fleet. The Kaiser's rashness certainly put them at a strategic disadvantage. British shoddy performance at the start of the war helped the Germans appear more formidable than they actually were, (loss of Cressy, Houge, and Aboukir among others). Also, Beatty's bum rush at Jutland gave the Germans a propaganda victory, if not one in fact. The "Spell of Trafalgar" was bent, but certainly not broken. Thanks for posting. Always enjoy learning something.
I think if there had been a few more years the Germans would have still been behind the British in numbers (the RN were still building more) and there would have been a few less of the British older vessels with modernisation in some of the distant stations such as the Cape.
I think the loss of the Cresseys was a masterstroke on the part of the crew of U9 and it proved to very dubious Admirals how good submarines were and had the war been postponed to 1916 I fear it would have happened again but I know what you mean.
So glad I came across your page. My wife and I are in the process of opening a bookstore, and I've been adding model displays over the sections. Your fantastic page will be an incredible resource.
Great article. I wonder how different things would've been had the Germans had a few more years to build up the High Seas Fleet. The Kaiser's rashness certainly put them at a strategic disadvantage. British shoddy performance at the start of the war helped the Germans appear more formidable than they actually were, (loss of Cressy, Houge, and Aboukir among others). Also, Beatty's bum rush at Jutland gave the Germans a propaganda victory, if not one in fact. The "Spell of Trafalgar" was bent, but certainly not broken. Thanks for posting. Always enjoy learning something.
I think if there had been a few more years the Germans would have still been behind the British in numbers (the RN were still building more) and there would have been a few less of the British older vessels with modernisation in some of the distant stations such as the Cape.
I think the loss of the Cresseys was a masterstroke on the part of the crew of U9 and it proved to very dubious Admirals how good submarines were and had the war been postponed to 1916 I fear it would have happened again but I know what you mean.
So glad I came across your page. My wife and I are in the process of opening a bookstore, and I've been adding model displays over the sections. Your fantastic page will be an incredible resource.