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Old 01-02-14, 04:53 PM   #5
Raptor1
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They would not have pulled off anything. Even assuming the High Seas Fleet could tactically defeat the Grand Fleet (a dubious proposition, as Oberon points out), it would have achieved nothing in strategic terms. Germany's ground forces were very much in the process of being driven back by the Allies on the Western Front, Bulgaria had already been knocked out of the war the previous month and the Ottoman Empire was in the process of surrendering, with Austria-Hungary's disintegration following soon afterwards. All those factors combined with the long-lasting effects of the blockade on Germany, war weariness and so forth means that the outcome of the naval battle could do little to effect Germany's situation except maybe provide some manner of general morale boost.

Probably the only real effect this would have would be slightly delaying Germany's surrender by the sole fact that this event would not have provided the immediate trigger for revolution in the German Empire. So Germany's surrender might have come a few days later, perhaps under different internal conditions. But as far as the actual battle is concerned, I'm pretty sure it would have resulted in an outright defeat for the Germans and would not have provided any strategic advantage to them in any case.
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