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Originally Posted by kumppi
Hi there!
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Welcome aboard! Thanks for your business! New guy buys the drinks
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My question is about the torpedoboat flotilla sitting in Zeebrugge at the start of the german campaign. What are they good for? I put them on area patrol, but the constant clashes with french torpedoboats started to irritate me. Now they just sit there. Perhaps I could use them to hunt merchant ships passing by? What do you do with them? How were they historically used?
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I've often wondered what the Germans were smoking when they designed the A1-class TBs. I mean, they were designed in 1914 in full knowledge of the likely opposition in the Channel, yet were made too slow to run from and too weak to fight even obsolete RJW-vintage destroyers. Despite this, they were intended for offensive operations, primarily raiding the cross-Channel shipping.
Unsurprisingly, when the boats entered service from mid-1915, on one of their first operations several of them were wiped out couple of ancient French destroyers. Thereafter, the A1s did defensive stuff very close to home, under cover of the massive Flanders shore batteries. They pretty much stayed between the beach and the 1st row of sandbars, sweeping mines and deterring enemy minelayers.
In early 1916, Marinekorps Flandern finally managed to beg 3 modern DDs from the High Seas Fleet but had to provide its own crews for them. To do this, MKF used the personnel from 6 of the A1s, taking them out of service. Most of the rest continued to be used as minesweepers, now escorted by the DDs so they could work further out, although with only 3 DDs it didn't take much effort by Dover Patrol or Harwich Force to run them off. Other A1s were retired during the year so their personnel could be used for other purposes, and IIRC 1 or 2 more were sunk sweeping mines.
By the end of 1916 to early 1917, very few were left in operation, because by then MKF finally had a real destroyer force and needed the people, plus the new A26-class was coming into service. The few A1s still operating were by then mostly used as training ships to accustom officers and men to working in Flanders, minesweeping having been taken over by trawlers.
So, in the game, don't expect the A1s to be very useful. If you send them out to sea, they're easy meat for anything bigger than a French TB, although in daylight they might lure some enemy ships within range of the shore batteries. Otherwise, their only real use is resting in port, which will cause them to lay defensive minefields there. If you're feeling brave, you can try them on offensive mining, but expect heavy losses.
As an aside, I think a large part of the reason for building the A1s was the Germans' lack of a coherent naval strategy. It wasn't until early-mid 1914 that anybody in the German navy gave serious thought to doing anything in Flanders, and when this did happen, it was only amongst a small group of officers. Prior to this point, the total focus had been on the North Sea and besides, the war was supposed to be over by Christmas, before anything could be done in Flanders anyway. A long political battle then ensued, involving the German army as well, but in the end (mostly after the start of the war), MKF was created. This was a naval organization of all arms: ground troops, sailors, and aviators, plus coast artillery, port and base personnel, etc.
MKF was always seen as a rival of the High Seas Fleet and the army as well, so had to beg and plead to get anything. The HSF commander, who was superior to the MKF commander, refused to send large numbers of modern destroyers to Flanders, claiming he didn't have enough (like Jellicoe) for fleet operations. However, Antwerp was within MKF's area and could build ships, so they decided to build their own. However, Antwerp was landlocked by neutral Dutch territorial waters, so warships had to go down canals to Brugge, and thence to Zeebrugge or Oostende. And at the time, only tiny things like the A1s, and the UB-I and UC-I type subs, could fit down the canals. Thus, the A1s were designed as they were for want of a better alternative, on the theory that something was better than nothing. But I still can't figure out why the Germans expected them to do any better than they did.
Ironically, Scheer was involved with MKF in the early days and was one of the most passionate advocates of basing modern DDs in Flanders. When he became boss of the HSF, MKF thought it was finally going to get real ships. However, Scheer also didn't think the HSF had enough DDs, so didn't send any until after Jutland, and then only temporarily until early 1917 when the Germans went to submarines for the 2nd time.