[The E]

I am interrupting this thread of awesome to point out something that just popped up on the youtubes: Extra Credits is doing another coop thing with Wargaming, and this time, they're covering the hunt for the Bismarck, which is one of the very few times actual battleships got to do what they were designed to do (well, in the first half of the story anyway).

Now bacl to your regularly scheduled alternate history.

BTW, Enioch, what's that last screenshot from?

[StarSlayer]

The Saga of Tanya the Evil.  Props to them for being quasi WW1 setting and using the Bayern.

[Enioch]

*Bismarck Awesomeness*

Literally just sat through it. I love these guys for their magnificent popularisation of history with no loss of quality (and respect them very much for their gutsy 'lies' / errata episodes after each series)

BTW, Enioch, what's that last screenshot from?

The Saga of Tanya the Evil.  Props to them for being quasi WW1 setting and using the Bayern.

^This. Episode 7, for all it's worth. The attack on Norway analogue.

EDIT: I also need to fix the TOC and threadmark links at some point. I'm like six or seven posts behind now. 

[Enioch]

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The German Schlachtkreuzer force, off the coast of Riga



1st of July, 1910, just after dawn. The German fleet has just passed the Gulf of Riga and is steaming at cruise speed towards the Finnish coast.



And we do mean "the Fleet". The only ships absent here are the obsolescent Schwabens, on permanent patrol in the Med.





The scouting force is comprised of the veteran armored cruisers Hertha, Victoria Louise, and Vineta, with their Zerstörer escort. Galster is in command of this task force, in what would prove to be the last time he led a heavy cruiser force to battle.



Büchsel, once again, leads the Schlachtkreuzer. This time, they're all here. Seydlitz, Büchsel's flagship, is leading the line of battle, followed by her sister-ship, Moltke; and, following them is Von der Tann and her bloodthirsty sister.



06:01: Hertha spots the enemy - and holy crap that's a lot of funnels spewing smoke. Leading the enemy force is a Rossiya with her destroyer escort; then a gaggle of what seems to be light cruisers and destroyers; and, bringing up the rear, are two capital ships. Two fast capitals.

Hertha brings her force around. These are not old battleships; these are the pride of the Russian navy. The Izmail and the Pobeda, the Czar's pride and joy. Built in secrecy, very little is known about them. Not even their basic designs. Hertha runs, bringing her scouts back into the safety of the German Schlachtkreuzer guns; and her lookouts strain their eyes to make out the enemy silhouettes in the morning light.





What. The. ****.

Russia, what are you doing.

Russia, stahp.

This is not a battlecruiser. This is a fat battleship, with a couple of extra boilers strapped onto it. Galster doesn't believe his lookouts when the enemy ship is described to him - he actually climbs Hertha's mast and has a look on his own. The Russian is closing fast, at 26 knots, but she only has four 12-inchers.

In God's name, she's got half the broadside of a single German Schlachtkreuzer. And if her sister is anything like her...

...You know what? Screw this ****.



The German battle-line just charges forward - and they stop for nothing. They pass less than five thousand yards to the east of the Russian vanguard, pouring 11-inch fire into the Rossiya; and then the German Schlachtkreuzer slot next to the Russian pair of battlecruisers, while the latter were trying to turn around to disengage.



The Pobeda fires first, scoring a hit that ricochets off Moltke's conning tower armor; and then Moltke returns the favour, burying an 11-inch shell into the Izmail's belt.

The Germans also get their first good look at the Pobeda, as she emerges from the Izmail's smoke trail.





May God have mercy on these brave men, for their ship designers certainly didn't. And Büchsel doesn't intend to show them any either...



The Germans put accurate fire into the Russian capitals. At 07:16, the Russians manage to strike back, with a waterline hit against Seydlitz. The German damcon crews laugh; and immediately contain the flooding.



Meanwhile, Galster and his darlings are harrying the Rossiya. It's risky to push into her destroyers (especially since the heavy cruisers have no torpedo protection) and, therefore, the Germans engage from long range.



Goeben drills an 11-inch shell into the Pobeda; the Russian fires back at Seydlitz. This time, the shell penetrates her superstructure; and another shakes the ship as it explodes under the waterline armor. No damage. Krupp Stahl über alles, cyka blyat.



The Russian formation falls apart. The Germans have blocked their escape towards the north and east; and Hertha and the other heavy cruisers are coming up from the south. Izmail runs towards the west, while Pobeda turns to engage the German cruisers.



She's not allowed to. The Germans ignore the fleeing Izmail and go after the Pobeda. Seydlitz interposes herself between the Russian and Hertha and takes a penetrating hit on her foredeck.



In return, she pounds the Russian's fore turret with 11-inch shells until it jams.





And then, at under 5000 yards, she puts another shell into her engines. The Pobeda...well, she dies, with very little fuss.



The Izmail tries to take advantage of the gap that opened towards the east. Büchsel will have none of that and turns to pursue.



Goddammit, Rossiya, just die. (Yes, I realise the irony).



08:51: The German battle-line crosses the Izmail's aft T. Goeben, Von der Tann and Seydlitz pound her with their main batteries at around three thousand yards.



08:56: She will not strike her colours. Hit her again. This time, her guns fall silent.



08:58: Strike your gottverdammte colours, Russian. Hit her again.

Meanwhile, the heavy cruisers are running out of ammo and that bloody Rossiya is still running away.





09:22. After half an hour of unrelenting pounding, with only her secondaries returning fire, the Izmail finally strikes her colours. It's clear she's sinking, but the Germans detach Zerstörer to pick up survivors and salute the wreck. This is the bravest and most desperate fight the Russians have put up so far and you can only respect them for it and pay homage.

Meanwhile...



09:50: Get...



10:05: ...back...



10:41: ...here...



10:52: ...you ****ing...





11:16: ...HAHAHA!. Glorious victory. Seriously, Hertha, that took you girls much longer than expected.

Well, time to...







11:58: Water fountains high over Moltke's starboard decks. The entire ship groans and lists. Her engineering is breached and water quenches the boilers. Her speed drops to 14 knots and her damcon teams cannot reach the flooded compartments. Dozens of men die, drowned or crushed beneath her decks. She drops out of formation and gradually comes to a halt, alarms blaring.

She's the newest Schlachtkreuzer in the German navy. This is her first fight. And it looks like it's going to be her last.







The fleet cannot assist in her damcon efforts: they need to keep the circling Russian destroyers at bay. Her captain, Kapitän zur See Sammler dispatches divers and diverts all power to pumps to keep his stricken ship afloat. By 12:55, the flooding has been somewhat limited, but the ship has less than a foot of freeboard on the bow and water keeps seeping in.



Ten more minutes of frantic work manage to bring the secondary pumps back online. Still, more water comes in that goes out. The Germans are desperate, but nothing seems to work.



Motherf***, look at that HP bar. Keep in mind that this is all flotation damage. She has taken literally no superstructure hits.



13:10. A team of exhausted divers, at the brink of hypothermia, claw their way up onto the ship.





The main leak's been plugged. The pumps can handle the secondary flooding - barely. The Moltke will survive.

She'll live. And she makes her way back to German waters, at five knots.



Well, apparently the Russians had brought their last Pervenets along - although it must have turned and ran as soon as our smoke crested the horizon. **** that, though. We got our prizes.





Unsurprisingly, Goeben is MVP, with 27 hits on enemy ships and a 3.5% hit ratio (for Chrissakes, she was bringing up the rear! How the hell does she have more hits than the flagship?)

Kek @ Russian battlecruisers scoring a grand total of three main battery hits on out forces.







You bet your bloody Lederhosen it was a major victory. They have nothing left, except that Pervenets, a fleet of obsolescent cruisers and four battlecruisers under construction that won't be ready for a year.

(And if they're anything like the ones we fought, the Admiralität is not particularly worried)





Well. The Admiralität could use the increased budget for a few more months (Tirpitz shudders to imagine the extent of the budget cuts that will take place once peace is declared). Let's undermine the peace talks with a bit of saber-rattling, shall we?

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[The E]

From the archives of the Reichsmarineamt:

Preliminary report of the Admiralitätsrat in the Moltke matter

1. Background

During the Battle of Finland on July 1st of this year at around 1200, the Schlachtkreuzer Moltke was struck by a russian torpedo, assumed to be fired by one of the Zavetni-class destroyers then in contact with our fleet. The Torpedo hit just forward of Moltke's 'Gerda' turret, detonating on contact with the hull. Over the next 70 minutes, officers and crew of Moltke scrambled to contain the flooding, ultimately succeeding at around 1310. On the recommendation of her chief engineer, the ship then made best speed back towards Kiel, being admitted into drydock for extensive repairs immediately.

2. Analysis

Post-battle analysis of the damage sustained reveals major design flaws in the Moltke class. The placement of her 'G' turret and its below-deck infrastructure left little room for compartmentalization found in other areas of the ship, leading to extensive and hard to contain flooding once the armor was breached. It was only through the heroic efforts of Wachtmeister Adelbert Ellerbach and his work crew that the flooding was contained; It took a long, grueling underwater repair effort to seal the hull enough for the ship to be able to move again.

3. Recommendations

It is the opinion of this Rat that the efforts of His Majesty's naval engineers be directed towards two areas in particular. Firstly, the danger posed to our capital ships by Torpedoes cannot be discounted, and we absolutely must ensure that if our ships are struck by these weapons, such strikes cannot inflict fatal damage on their own. Secondly, we feel that efforts to move critical machinery towards the centerline of the ship should be stepped up.

For the Admiralitätsrat in the Moltke matter,
Michael Kohlhaas (Sekretär)

[StarSlayer]

So is a Schlachtkreuzer eating a Parthian fish after battle is decided becoming some sort of bizarre tradition?

[Enioch]

From the archives of the Reichsmarineamt:

Preliminary report of the Admiralitätsrat in the Moltke matter

1. Background

During the Battle of Finland on July 1st of this year at around 1200, the Schlachtkreuzer Moltke was struck by a russian torpedo, assumed to be fired by one of the Zavetni-class destroyers then in contact with our fleet. The Torpedo hit just forward of Moltke's 'Gerda' turret, detonating on contact with the hull. Over the next 70 minutes, officers and crew of Moltke scrambled to contain the flooding, ultimately succeeding at around 1310. On the recommendation of her chief engineer, the ship then made best speed back towards Kiel, being admitted into drydock for extensive repairs immediately.

2. Analysis

Post-battle analysis of the damage sustained reveals major design flaws in the Moltke class. The placement of her 'G' turret and its below-deck infrastructure left little room for compartmentalization found in other areas of the ship, leading to extensive and hard to contain flooding once the armor was breached. It was only through the heroic efforts of Wachtmeister Adelbert Ellerbach and his work crew that the flooding was contained; It took a long, grueling underwater repair effort to seal the hull enough for the ship to be able to move again.

3. Recommendations

It is the opinion of this Rat that the efforts of His Majesty's naval engineers be directed towards two areas in particular. On one hand, the danger posed to our capital ships by Torpedoes cannot be discounted, and we absolutely must ensure that if our ships are struck by these weapons, such strikes cannot inflict fatal damage on their own. Secondly, we feel that efforts to move critical machinery towards the centerline of the ship should be stepped up.

For the Admiralitätsrat in the Moltke matter,
Michael Kohlhaas (Sekretär)

This is now canon, with all that it implies for future German capital ship design and production.

The_E, for this contribution you may commission a blurb with a theme/topic of your choosing for this universe and I will attempt to deliver. The same applies to any other forumite who chooses to contribute with an omake such as this.

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate feedback of this sort. 

So is a Schlachtkreuzer eating a Parthian fish after battle is decided becoming some sort of bizarre tradition?

Clearly. It's the German way of pointing at their chins and saying "here, give me your best shot", just to show how tough they are. 

[Spoon]

Why... why didn't they just surrender? Those poor drunken russian sailors...

Clearly. It's the German way of pointing at their chins and saying "here, give me your best shot", just to show how tough they are. 

[The E]

This is now canon, with all that it implies for future German capital ship design and production.

The_E, for this contribution you may commission a blurb with a theme/topic of your choosing for this universe and I will attempt to deliver. The same applies to any other forumite who chooses to contribute with an omake such as this.

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate feedback of this sort. 

Thank you, my pleasure. As for blurbs, I'll have to get back to you on that; I got exactly zero ideas right now that would actually fit.

[SpardaSon21]

Hey, Enioch.  Is there any chance you can put up something like a "naval archives" thread tracking ship designs over time of Germany and its foes?

[Enioch]

Hmmm.

What do you have in mind, exactly? How do you envision this?

[SpardaSon21]

Well, I really like the pictures you post up of the general overviews of vessels with tonnage, speed, armor, and armament, so I'd like to see those in a somewhat organized manner.  The nation status pics you have of fleets and tonnage are also fun to look at IMO.  Overall, was thinking a semi-RP layout, you have the years, the ship classes laid down, and a small blurb about the performance and history of the classes.

[StarSlayer]

Basically the ONI Recognition Manual?

[SpardaSon21]

I guess?

[Enioch]

It's possible, but it's also a HUGE amount of work. I'm not promising anything.

Also, some foreshadowing:

EDIT: Found the time to fix the table of contents. Should be fully updated now.

[Enioch]

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Victory Parade in Berlin

We had started this war with the Long War in the Mediterranean still fresh in our minds. We were confident, but wary; apprehensive of the possibility for another dragged-out conflict, which would bleed us out and leave us defenseless when the inevitable time came to test our mettle against the British.

My faith in our Navy and Army, however, proved to be well-founded. The sea battles of Bornholm and Finland and the horrible defeats inflicted upon the Russian forces along the eastern front made it clear to the world that Russia was in no position to threaten our eastern borders. Furthermore, our decisive naval victories established our complete dominance over the Baltic. With the Russian fleet all but destroyed, the Baltic became a German lake.

When the August Peace was signed, Germany had completely and utterly established its dominance in north-eastern Europe; and with France still firmly on our side, in the Kerneuropa, it was obvious that no European crisis could threaten the unified front we presented to the world.

With their options now severely limited, the British took what action they could to undermine us - and thus the Far Eastern Front was opened..

-From the private writings of Herzog Johann Albrecht von Mecklenburg, Reichskanzler 1902-1920.

The month-long derailment of the peace negotiations proves to be worth it. The increased budget makes more resources available to the R & D bureau; and they, in turn, submit new designs for small-tube boilers. German ships could now make steam faster and reach higher pressures!



In addition, new hydraulic rivet hammers were introduced to the shipyards, massively improving work speed as well as the quality of the finalised hulls.



And better fuzes were tested and introduced - German shells now operated with delay fuzes. This provided a significant improvement in the effectiveness of AP shells, in particular, as they now detonated reliably after penetrating enemy armor.





Russians, for God's sake, you are blockaded. And German subs are still sinking more ships than your subs do.







Hrm. Well, in all fairness, their raiders are performing well. Then again...







Um Gottes Willen, Hertha. How can you still be so awesome? Don't you know your time is past?



Also, while the war is still, officially, ongoing, Blohm & Voss are given a significant tax cut in exchange for them funding a considerable expansion of the Kaiserliche Werfte in Kiel. 39,000-ton ships will be a possibility before the end of the year.



By the end of July, the Russians plead for peace, again. Their army has collapsed and is in full retreat, pursued by General Hindenburg's army. Their Navy is non-existent. They are blockaded; and internal strife rears its ugly head. The situation is untenable for them.

Von Mecklenburg weighs the pros and cons; and despite Tirpitz's assurances that the Navy could, theoretically, exact better terms if hostilities continue, he chooses to grant the Russians peace. Further exhausting German resources, at this point, with the enemy so throughly beaten would be a mistake. Germany needs to be preparing for the inevitable clash with the Brits, not waste her time with her unruly eastern neighbor.

Also - von Mecklenburg's contacts in the Far East are reporting a worrying degree of English diplomatic overtures towards Japan. This is a new front, that needs to be factored in and dealt with.





Peace is formalised on the 20th of August, 1910. War has lasted for a relatively short six months. Once again, von Mecklenburg does not ask for any territorial concessions from Russia - but he cements, beyond any question, the German industrialists' control over the mineral wealth of Siberia (gaining him massive support among the industry leaders in Germany) and also secures extensive war reparations from beaten Russia.



The Naval budget is reduced in peacetime, but war reparations still mean that the Admiralität still has more than two million Goldmarken to play with monthly. It is decided to lay down a new class of Zerstörer, to complement the new battle-line.

The new V3-class are 900-ton ships, with three centreline 4-inch rifles and three single torpedo launchers. They can reach 33 knots - they are the fastest such craft in the world, if lighter armed than their French and British counterparts.



A small downpayment to various shipbuilding firms; and seven keels are laid down in yards all over Germany.



September - and France approaches the Admiralty with some of their new pump designs. The Admirals just barely manage to not drool at the idea of getting their hands on them. However, the fact is that there are no funds available at this time. With great regret, the French proposal has to be turned down.





****.

Overnight, stock markets all over the world buck like wild horses. The Brits have struck black gold in Sierra Leone - massive reserves of the stuff, enough to fuel their entire fleet and then some. Investors trip over themselves to get a slice of the pie.

In short: the Brits have 15-inch guns, almost double the German naval budget and a massive colonial source of oil.

****.



Well, at least the new Imperial docks are complete. This will, hopefully, allow the construction of ships that can somehow deal with the British threat. And on that note...





...on the 18th of October, the Schlachtkreuzer SMS Hindenburg is formally commissioned into the Kaiserliche Marine. She is the largest warship afloat, in the world. Her sisters are delayed (the reduced, after-war budget has done them no favours) but they are coming.



Unsurprisingly, she atracts attention. A British agent is identified by Counter-Intelligence, covertly attempting to acquire copies of the ship's blueprints. He is discreetly expelled from German territory, after a few uncomfortable hours in the hands of German interrogators. Germany raises no diplomatic stink; surprisingly, the Kaiser also remains silent on the matter. After long discussions woth von Mecklenburg, the two men had finally finalised their plan to deal with Britain; and Wilhelm is quite happy to 'stall and outsmart' his perceived foes. The notes of von Mecklenburg and the Kaiser's own writings seem to indicate that Wilhelm greatly enjoyed what he called the 'spying game' ('Spionspiel'). Again, surprisingly, he showed some aptitude in it.





Meanwhile, the Admiralty also finalises their designs for a new class of light cruisers. The serving Medusas are serviceable, but they were built on the old style, of broadside, 'wing' turrets, and following the protected cruiser scheme. The new Arconas are 6.3k-ton ships, with a sloped deck armor scheme, a 2.5-inch belt and, more importantly, a fully-centreline broadside of six 6-inchers. They were meant to serve as fleet scouts, raider interceptors and destroyer-killers, with their 29-knot top speed; but they were unsuited to being raiders themselves, because of their relatively limited range and their fragility.



Aiming for 42k-ton ships by next Christmas, the Admiralität pours more funds into its docks. Hopefully this is the way to counter the Brits. Hopefully...





And then the news hit. More oil for the Brits. The Canadian West Coast is brimming with it. British engineers and geologists flock there, to map out the oil fields and lay down the foundation for what may very well turn out to be the largest oil reserve in the Americas.

The Admiralität is, understandably, morose. It would be, theoretically, possible to mount an attack on Sierra Leone, from nearby Kamerun, with sufficient fleet support, and thus deprive the Brits of their one major source of oil. But now the Brits have alternatives - and they control the vast majority of the world-wide oil market.



Wait.

Waitwaitwaitwaitwait.

Borneo has oil. Everybody knows this. And Germany has several colonial gunships stationed in the Pacific islands and Polynesia. Frantic telegraph messages are dispatched; avisos carry the urgent, so very urgent orders to the Far Eastern Squadron commanders.

Get to Borneo. In God's name, SECURE BORNEO.



Too late. Far, far too late. Forewarned by the British, and with their support, a Japanese battleship force is already on station.



Germany seethes.

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[Commander Zane]

The Arcona pretty interesting to see, what does the superstructure design reflect in being drawn that way?

[Enioch]

The Arcona pretty interesting to see, what does the superstructure design reflect in being drawn that way?

A rounder and more shapely ass? 



(Yeah, yeah, OK, that's a protected cruiser, and the Arcona is a light cruiser, but the game can be stupid occasionally).

[Mika]

Peace is formalised on the 20th of August, 1910. War has lasted for a relatively short six months. Once again, von Mecklenburg does not ask for any territorial concessions from Russia - but he cements, beyond any question, the German industrialists' control over the mineral wealth of Siberia (gaining him massive support among the industry leaders in Germany) and also secures extensive war reparations from beaten Russia.

This I think is a mistake. I'm not sure how well the game simulates the actual yield of the minerals coming from Siberia, but I'd expect the efficiency of that operation to be very low, and the quality of materials almost rejectable.

Then again, the Red Revolution has not yet sweeped through Russia in this time line, and the Czar is still in control. The yield rates dropped quite drastically immediately after communism rose into the power.

Once again Germany fails to secure its Northest allies, Finland and the Baltic States

Meanwhile in Sweden during the battle of Bornholm:
Swede #1: "Vad är det hemskt larmet ut då?"
Swede #2: "De är de tyskarna och ryskarna i slaget ut där på sjö!"
Swede #1: "Vad  tror du, vem ska vin det slaget?"
Swede #2: "Svårt att säga. Tyskarna är god i tekniket, men ryskarna är inte rädd för nederlager"
Swede #1: "Jå, de är sant. Ska vi sätta en lägereld och lyssna mer på det?"
[At this point, Swedish mainland has not seen war for like 200 years]

Meanwhile in Finland during the battle of Finland:
Finns: "Viekää Ahvenanmaa mennessänne!"

Historically speaking, Finland and Sweden wanted to resolve who does the island of Åland belong to in more civilized fashion. The task was given to the League of Nations, who ruled it belongs to Finland. Because, you know, even if the island clearly is more on the Swedish side and the population speaks Swedish, it still clearly belongs to Finland. The current nowadays sentiment (used often humoristically) stated above is because of the rather extensive tax breaks that region enjoys, yet it is not easily possible to buy any land from the island by Finns. The funny thing is that today, neither Finland or Sweden would particularly like to have Åland. This island still has to belong to either one because the alternative is that it belongs to Russia, which neither Nordic country wants.

Meanwhile, in historical 1910, Finland is still mostly an agrarian society at this point with partial ground slavery still in place. There are tons of other dumb regulations which modern people find very hard to relate to, such as all encompassing curfew after 22 o'clock at night and total prohibition of alcohol (which is the reason for Finnish alcohol culture that finally started to break up around 2008 due to cheap good quality beer coming from Central Europe). A grassroots Jääkäriliike (Jäger movement) is boiling up and sending people to be trained in German Jäger battalions in anticipation of the upcoming Red vs White civil war. The biggest motivation for this movement was the increased popularity of communism in Russia. In consequence of the Russian revolution, Finland acquired its independence in 1917, and the trained soldiers provided by the Jäger movement (White side) were instrumental in that.

Unfortunately I can't particularly relate to the German point of view. I find it a bit dull.

EDIT: Perhaps I should clarify the last sentence. I didn't mean I'm not interested to see this saga to the end from German side. What I meant is that I personally find it hard to write anything from the German point of view. Russian on the other hand is far easier, because a lot more imaginative and almost unimaginable things can and WILL happen...

[Enioch]

Peace is formalised on the 20th of August, 1910. War has lasted for a relatively short six months. Once again, von Mecklenburg does not ask for any territorial concessions from Russia - but he cements, beyond any question, the German industrialists' control over the mineral wealth of Siberia (gaining him massive support among the industry leaders in Germany) and also secures extensive war reparations from beaten Russia.

This I think is a mistake. I'm not sure how well the game simulates the actual yield of the minerals coming from Siberia, but I'd expect the efficiency of that operation to be very low, and the quality of materials almost rejectable.

Then again, the Red Revolution has not yet sweeped through Russia in this time line, and the Czar is still in control. The yield rates dropped quite drastically immediately after communism rose into the power.

I cannot give you the exact numbers. However, just to give you an idea, the relative boost provided to the German economy through these war reparations is the equivalent of almost twice the income Hong Kong provides to the British at this point in time (Maybe 160% or so).

Once again Germany fails to secure its Northest allies, Finland and the Baltic States

Unless you fight the Russians to the(ir) bitter end, you're not getting any of those. And, even then, you're only getting one before the Soviets scream bloody murder.

Meanwhile in Sweden during the battle of Bornholm:
Swede #1: "Vad är det hemskt larmet ut då?"
Swede #2: "De är de tyskarna och ryskarna i slaget ut där på sjö!"
Swede #1: "Vad  tror du, vem ska vin det slaget?"
Swede #2: "Svårt att säga. Tyskarna är god i tekniket, men ryskarna är inte rädd för nederlager"
Swede #1: "Jå, de är sant. Ska vi sätta en lägereld och lyssna mer på det?"
[At this point, Swedish mainland has not seen war for like 200 years]

Meanwhile in Finland during the battle of Finland:
Finns: "Viekää Ahvenanmaa mennessänne!"

Historically speaking, Finland and Sweden wanted to resolve who does the island of Åland belong to in more civilized fashion. The task was given to the League of Nations, who ruled it belongs to Finland. Because, you know, even if the island clearly is more on the Swedish side and the population speaks Swedish, it still clearly belongs to Finland. The current nowadays sentiment (used often humoristically) stated above is because of the rather extensive tax breaks that region enjoys, yet it is not easily possible to buy any land from the island by Finns. The funny thing is that today, neither Finland or Sweden would particularly like to have Åland. This island still has to belong to either one because the alternative is that it belongs to Russia, which neither Nordic country wants.

Meanwhile, in historical 1910, Finland is still mostly an agrarian society at this point with partial ground slavery still in place. There are tons of other dumb regulations which modern people find very hard to relate to, such as all encompassing curfew after 22 o'clock at night and total prohibition of alcohol (which is the reason for Finnish alcohol culture that finally started to break up around 2008 due to cheap good quality beer coming from Central Europe). A grassroots Jääkäriliike (Jäger movement) is boiling up and sending people to be trained in German Jäger battalions in anticipation of the upcoming Red vs White civil war. The biggest motivation for this movement was the increased popularity of communism in Russia. In consequence of the Russian revolution, Finland acquired its independence in 1917, and the trained soldiers provided by the Jäger movement (White side) were instrumental in that.

Thanks for this. Small historical parentheses like this are always welcome.

Y'know what? I need to encourage stuff like this. Have a blurb. Same rules I gave to The_E apply.

Unfortunately I can't particularly relate to the German point of view. I find it a bit dull.

EDIT: Perhaps I should clarify the last sentence. I didn't mean I'm not interested to see this saga to the end from German side. What I meant is that I personally find it hard to write anything from the German point of view. Russian on the other hand is far easier, because a lot more imaginative and almost unimaginable things can and WILL happen...

It's a good thing you clarified that, because I was trying to figure out ways to make this more exciting (and, sadly, failing).