Ingenohl's Glory - Introduction

The Point of Divergence for this alternate timeline is the High Seas Fleet sortie of 15th and 16th December 1914. The 'what if' is the simple one - what if the German fleet had come into contact with the detached portion of the British fleet that was out in the belief that it was only hunting the German battlecruisers ?

First, the facts as they were in reality . . .

The Germans operational plan was for the Scouting Groups to bombard Scarborough and Hartlepool and lay mines in the inshore shipping channel , while the battlefleet was in support approx. 130 miles behind and was to be at 54 - 40 N, 3 - 00 E at dawn. They were aware that a number of RN battlecruisers were in the Atlantic and expected to meet only detached forces. However Adm. von Ingenhol's orders were very restricting regarding the battlefleet and he was not supposed to take it outside of an arc from Terschling to the Horns Reef. From the increase in radio traffic and DF (not code breaking) the RN surmised that an operation was in the offing, assumed that a raid on the east coast was most likely and planned to intercept the raiders on their return, however they anticipated only a battlecruiser raid and not that the whole HSF would be out.

The British forces were to rendezvous at 54 - 10 N 3 - 00 E at 0730 hrs only 30m S of the HSF dawn position.

German Forces

Raiding Force (RA Hipper)
1st. SG Seydlitz (F), Moltke, Derfflinger, Von der Tann, Blucher.
2nd SG Graudenz (F), Kolberg, Stralsund, Strassburg
1st TBF 9th TBF (18 tb total, 1st TBF consisted of boats from the V186/G192 classes, 9th ot the V25/S30 classes)

Battle Fleet (Adm von Ingenhohl)
FF Friedrich der Grosse
1st BS Ostfriesland (F), Helgoland, Thuringen, Oldenburg, Posen (2nd F), Westfalen, Rheinland, Nassau.
2nd BS Preussen (F), Hessen, Lothringen, Deutschland, Hannover (2nd F), Pommern, Schleswig-Holstein, Schlesien.
3rd BS Prinzregent Luitpold (F), Kaiser, Kaiserin, Konig Albert, Grosser Kurfürst
3rd SG Roon (F), Prinz Heinrich
4th SG Stettin (F), Stuttgart, Danzig, Munchen, Frauenlob,
attached Hamburg (Leader of U-Boats) Rostock (Leader of Torpedo Boats) 2nd TBF 5th TBF 6th TBF 7th TBF 8th TBF (54 tb in total, 2nd TBF S138 class, 5th V1/G7 classes, 6th V150 class, 7th S13 class, 8th G174/S176/V180 classes)

RN Forces

(V A Warrender on KGV)
2nd BS KGV (F), Ajax, Centurion, Orion (2nd F) Monarch, Conqueror
BCF Lion (F) Queen Mary, Tiger, New Zealand.
1st LCS Southampton (F), Birmingham, Falmouth, Nottingham.
3rd CS Antrim (F), Argyll, Devonshire, Roxburgh.
4th DF (part) Lynx, Ambuscade, Unity, Hardy, Shark, Acasta, Spitfire. (CL Blanche and Boadicea had returned to Scapa due to bad weather in the Pentlands)
Hartlepool Local Defence Forces CL Forward, Patrol
9th DF (part) Doon, Waverney, Test, Moy.

The Harwich Force of 4 CL and 25+DE was to be off Great Yarmouth at 0630 (approx 140m S of the above forces)

This probably was the Germans greatest opportunity to defeat a major detached portion of the Grand Fleet, according to the Official History the British considered the 2nd BS equal in speed to the German 3rd BS, the other German BS being slower. The large numbers of torpedo boats present on the German side may have been crucial, but von Ingenhol was far too cautious and mindful of the Kaiser . . .

With thanks to Brad Smith and the original poster of the information at the Battleship v Battleship Board for the information in detail

We now move on to the events of this alternate history - 'Ingenohl's Glory'

Ingenohl's Glory - Part One