"Lest We Forget" Topic

Tonight in 1904, the Russian Second Pacific Squadron began the Dogger Bank Incident, hysterically firing on British fishing boats in the darkness and killing a few fishermen. This very nearly lead to war with the United Kingdom, and did lead to a long delay in arriving in the far East, since diplomatic pressure sealed the Suez Canal against it.

- Ix

From a wargaming perspective, the Dogger Bank War that never happened would be a great excuse for a lot of big pre-dreadnought battles. I posited a few ideas in this thread earlier this year, and I've come up with a few more since then.

One these days I really must get some of these variations on the gaming table. It would be a nice opportunity to put in action a lot of designs that never got tested in battle. I would love to see how the Royal Sovereigns do in action (very badly at long range, I suspect), and the French have so many delightfully weird designs just begging to get onto the gaming table.

- Ix

Am I correct in thinking that the Russians believed they were being ambushed by Japanese warships, in the North Sea?

A very sad event and astonishing stupidity on the part of the Russian fleet. It would make for an interesting what if scenario as you say.

…Not so stupid.

The Japanese were having destroyers built on the Tyne, with crew ready to man them on completion. The Russians were aware of this.

The Japanese had so many warships built at Armstrong's Elswick yard on the Tyne, that at the Battle of Tushima, a squadron of their armoured cruisers was known as 'The Elswick Squadron".

The Japanese had also spread rumours that they were planning to ambush the Russians in the North Sea.