Hello all, June 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland, the first and last sea battle of the Great War. The confrontation between the Royal Navy and the Kaiserliche Marine just off the coast of Denmark had been expected by the British to be a 'Second Trafalgar', it was anything but. Instead the KM inflicted a crushing defeat on Jelicoe's forces, sinking almost a third of the fleet and serverly damaging another, to just six losses on the German side. The impact of the battle was tremendous, even the most optimistic of reports could not have foreseen such a victory for the KM, for Britain the fallout was devastating, the very psychological make up of the country had been shattered, 'What are we but another country without the sea'. Support for the war was already tenuous, after Jutland it practically vanished. Britain would withdraw from the war by early 1917. The rest of the conflict bares little for the discussion, the defeat of the French and occupation of Paris, the collapse of the Russian empire and the rise of the German satilites and the democratic reform of Germany itself, can be discussed elsewhere.
What concerns us is the Anniversary celebration that took place on Shetland. Of particular note was the dicision of the German Monarch, Kaiser Heinrich II (https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/dbwi-thoughts-on-kaiser-heinrich-ii.377636/) crowned 2013, to accept an invitation by Prince William to attend the cermony at Scarpa Flow. This was particularly controversial and hard for some to swallow, regardless of Heinrich's established Britophilia. This is not some field in Belgium, this is Juland, the place were Britain's maritime supremacy ended. The conservative leader Nigel Faringdon condemned the invitation, describing the idea of German destroyers sailing into Scarpa as 'a final humiliation', newspapers such as The Rising Sun proclaimed it a planned insult by Heinrich himself, despite the fact that the British had invited him.
Ironically it would fall to the Kaiser himself to sooth the feathers, for a week prior to the anniversary he toured Scotland, meeting with the locals and even making a point of utilising the Scottish Rail Network. Finally at Scarpa itself his speech focused very little on the battle, or the war for that matter. Instead Heinrich emphasised the common brother hood of the two Navies and the companionship to be found between soldiers, even somewhat emotively recalling his time in the Persian conflict and the people he meet there. Overall I would call the visit a success.
What do you think.
Luath
What concerns us is the Anniversary celebration that took place on Shetland. Of particular note was the dicision of the German Monarch, Kaiser Heinrich II (https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/dbwi-thoughts-on-kaiser-heinrich-ii.377636/) crowned 2013, to accept an invitation by Prince William to attend the cermony at Scarpa Flow. This was particularly controversial and hard for some to swallow, regardless of Heinrich's established Britophilia. This is not some field in Belgium, this is Juland, the place were Britain's maritime supremacy ended. The conservative leader Nigel Faringdon condemned the invitation, describing the idea of German destroyers sailing into Scarpa as 'a final humiliation', newspapers such as The Rising Sun proclaimed it a planned insult by Heinrich himself, despite the fact that the British had invited him.
Ironically it would fall to the Kaiser himself to sooth the feathers, for a week prior to the anniversary he toured Scotland, meeting with the locals and even making a point of utilising the Scottish Rail Network. Finally at Scarpa itself his speech focused very little on the battle, or the war for that matter. Instead Heinrich emphasised the common brother hood of the two Navies and the companionship to be found between soldiers, even somewhat emotively recalling his time in the Persian conflict and the people he meet there. Overall I would call the visit a success.
What do you think.
Luath
