[Aktungbby]

Duly considered with Dreadnaught and Castles of Steel thrown into the argument. Hindsight prevails and Germany and its hope of global power and expansion were shut down at Jutland. No world sea power, no anything else...the land war (trenches) should have stopped right then and there as a tactical exercise in futility for the next two years 1916-1918 after the strategic issue at sea was resolved in a day in 1916. But governments and the men in them seldom see other than the moment they are in, or as Churchill, largely responsible for the buildup of dreadnaughts, said in The River War: "every soldier sees a battle along his particular gunsight." Political and military myopia in war is not uncommon; but it is the greatest killer. The German Navy, as with France, Holland and Spain in previous centuries, simply could not surmount the tremendous geopolitical position of England which covers all major rivers out of Europe and the North Sea. Throwing in the classic removal of the Royal Navy to safety at Scapa Flow at the outset of WWI completely threw off the German battle timetable plan of 1914 to draw the British into a main fleet engagement. All battles...and wars take place in two mediums: time and terrain-England controlled both at sea where it counted most strategically and Germany could only resort to offset warfare ie submarines, a poor second choice in both world wars especially as it politically alienated the USA. And if your tactics and strategy aren't carrying out your political aims, you need to be not doing the war past the point where it has become unfeasible! Von C. in a nutshell!