First World War In The Mediterranean, 1914 - 1918

By André Geraque Kiffer

The basis of British Naval Military Planning was to keep the waterways open to Britain and the Allies, but closed to Germany and the Central Powers. The military strategic objective of the Ottoman Empire was, at a minimum, to maintain its territorial integrity, while Britain s was to neutralize and / or block Turkish support for the Central Powers war effort. To this end, while the British planned to achieve the above objective by taking advantage of their maritime outer lines, and based on the readiness of their fleets, they could attack anywhere on the extensive Ottoman coast. In the simulation will be devoted more study to the naval and / or peripheral military problem, being a way of proving the possibility of the Allies victory, albeit partial - because of the uncertainty of the behavior of Germany in France -, in the war, without the need to erode Franco-British ground power in the western trenches.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clube de Autores
• Release date: Feb 2, 2024

Book preview

ANDRÉ  GERAQUE  KIFFER

First  World  War

in  the  Mediterranean,

1914  -  1918.

A  British  Historical  Simulation

Author’s  Edition

Resende

2019

---  Kiffer,  André  Geraque.

First  World  War  in  the  Mediterranean,  1914  -  1918.  A British  Historical  Simulation.  André  Geraque  Kiffer.

Author’s  Edition,  Resende,  2019.

Bibliography:  144  p.  31  im.  21  cm..

1.  History.  2.  Art  of  War.  3.  War  Science.  4.  Wargames.  I. Author.  II.  Title.

ISBN  978-85-9136-874-7

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My  story  will  be  less  certain  than  history;  but  whoever  wants to  relive  the  past  to  study  the  similarities  and  analogies between  human  conflicts  in  the  present  is  enough  for  me  to find  it  useful.  This  War  History  of  mine  is  a  definite achievement  and  not  an  ostentatious  work  for  a  current audience.

(André  Geraque  Kiffer)

4 PROLOGUE

I  was  inspired  to  build  this  work  by  reading  Arnold Toynbee's  book,  A  Study  of  History,  and  Trevor  N. Dupuy's  Future  Wars.  Between  2005  and  2007  I acquired  a  collection  of  board  wargames  in  New York,  and  reading  the  book  Wargame  Design published  by  Strategy  &  Tactics  Magazine consolidated  a  Matrix  for  A  Study  of  Military History.  Thus,  from  2008,  I  was  able  to  begin  an analysis  of  the  wars,  campaigns,  and  battles  of history  of  a  particular  time  and  /  or  civilization described  in  the  Smithsonian  Institute's  Atlas  of Military  History.  So  far  I  have  published  the  following series:  I.  Historical  Simulation  of  the  First  Empire Wars  in  2010;  VIII.  World  War  I  Historical Simulation  in  2011;  II.  Historical  Simulation  of  the Wars  in  Classical  Greece  in  2012;  III.  Historical Simulation  of  the  Roman  Wars  in  2016;  and  IV. Historical  Simulation  of  Wars  in  the  Medieval  Era  in 2018.  In  2014,  to  continue  my  work"  A  Study  of

Military  History  ,  I  read  the  book  Japanese  and

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Chinese  Chess  -  The  Science  and  Art  of  War  and added  a  new  book  The  Study  of  Wars  and  Chess Games  to  my  planned  study,  associating  the foundations  of  chess  games  with  the  principles  of Art  and  Science  of  War.  In  each  book  of  the  work  a selected  war,  campaign,  or  battle  is  studied  at  any of  the  applicable  decision  levels,  namely  the Political,  Strategic,  Operational,  Tactical,  and Technical.  Based  on  a  summary  of  the  historical  fact I  seek  to  highlight  the  decisive  fact  (s)  causing  the negative  result  (s)  before  playing  the  simulation through  a  board  wargame  -  the  actions  on  the  other side  of  the  hill  (from  the  enemy)  are  studied through  a  parallel  electronic  war  game.  In  the simulation  all  the  possibilities  of  the  purpose  of  the study  are  completed  when  the  past  of  history  is analyzed  on  the  basis  of  present  theory  and projected  into  the  future  or  revived  as  a  what  if schematic  case.  When  we  play  we  will  follow  the maxim  WIN  ALWAYS  BUT  WITH  THE  LOWEST

POSSIBLE  COST".

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Keywords:  History.  Art  of  War.  War  science.

Wargames.

7 SUMMARY

CHAPTER  1  –  FIRST  WORLD  WAR  IN  THE

MEDITERRANEAN,  1914  –  1918............................8 CHAPTER  2  –  MILITARY  STRATEGIC ANALYSIS..............................................................43 CHAPTER  3  –  BRITISH  MILITARY  STRATEGIC SIMULATION.........................................................60

REFERENCES….................................................140

8 CHAPTER  1

FIRST  WORLD  WAR  IN  THE  MEDITERRANEAN,

1914  -  1918

Part  of  Germany's  strategic  objectives  were expressed  in  its  desire  for  Equal  rights  with England  over  the  Sea.  The  Pan-Germans  made clear  this  desire  for  such  phrases  as  Why  can  a nation  of  70  million  like  Germany  be  dictated  at  sea by  the  British,  a  nation  of  45  million?  The  demands went  as  far  as  demanding:  Gibraltar,  a  Calais  and  a Flanders  -  French  coast  -  German,  as  well  as  the Germanic  control  of  Belgium;  in  other  words,  a  free passage  to  the  Atlantic,  threat  directly  addressed  to England".

The  annexationist  repeated  openly  the  words  of

Frederick  II,  "A  war  that  does  not  lead  to  annexation

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of  territory  is  a  wasted  war.  In  addition,  during  the war,  the  annexation  of  Poland,  Lithuania,  control  of the  Gulf  of  Finland,  and  military  control  of  the Balkans  and  Dardanelles  was  considered  in  1916 and  1917.  It  was  not  by  itself  the  Mittleuropa  but also  the  Mittleafrika",  the  national  objectives,  and these  guided  German  military  plans  and  operations.

Im  1:  German  territorial  objectives.

We  will  begin  our  study  by  characterizing  the main  geographical  spaces  involved  in  the  war.

A  look  at  the  map  of  Europe,  North  Africa,  and the  Middle  East  in  1914  will  highlight  certain

geographical  features  that  have  affected  the  naval

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planning  of  European  countries.  Geography  plays  a fundamental  role  in  military  plans,  whether  land  or naval,  although  this  influence  is  exerted  differently for  each  prevailing  environment.

The  Central  Powers  had  few  exits  to  the  sea. Germany  has  two  coasts,  one  over  the  Baltic  Sea, which  it  dominated  throughout  the  war  and  one  over the  blocked  North  Sea.  As  a  result,  exits  from Germany  to  the  world  by  sea  were  generally  denied either  by  geographical  location  or  by  Britain's  naval power.  All  German  ships  in  or  out  of  Germany, coming  or  going  to  the  ocean,  had  to  cross  a  long British  coast,  exposed  to  attack.  While  Austria  had only  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  the  Adriatic,  and  this sea  as  its  most  likely  area  of  naval  operations.

On  the  other  hand,  regarding  the  geographical position  of  the  Allies.  Russia  had  four  exits  to  the sea.  Of  these,  Arcangel  on  the  White  Sea  in European  Russia  and  Vladivostok  on  the  Sea  of Japan  in  Asian  Russia  are  kept  frozen  for  much  of the  year  and  were  very  far  from  the  battlefronts,

requiring  long