What if the Dogger Bank Incident Sparked an Anglo-Russian War?

[jimmy olsen]

What if the Russian navy's incompetent flailing had managed to sink a few more British fishing boats and killed enough civilians to force London's hand and declare war?

France is not obligated to intervene in this situation and indeed it would be borderline suicidal to do so but I don't see the Russians accepting that. It will ruin their relations for years.

Do the Germans jump in or just watch? It would seem a golden opportunity to do so.

Does Russia melt down into revolution at the end of it all?

[Grinning_Colossus]

I'd never heard about that, but it's hilarious to imagine the Russian Baltic Fleet sailing around the word, shooting at everything that moves and generally being incredibly incompetent until it get itself annihilated at Tsushima.

[jimmy olsen]

I'd never heard about that, but it's hilarious to imagine the Russian Baltic Fleet sailing around the word, shooting at everything that moves and generally being incredibly incompetent until it get itself annihilated at Tsushima.

I believe they had fired on Danish, German and French vessels as well before they even ran into the British fishing fleet.

[Admiral Yi]

Accidents generally don't create a causus belli.

[CountDeMoney]

And revolutions can't be stopped.

[grumbler]

Dogger Bank is often misunderstood by the kinds of amateurs who write Wikipedia articles; they sneer at the Russians for fearing Japanese torpedo boats tens of thousands of miles from Japan, ignoring the fact that they were only hundreds of miles from Britain, the supplier of Japanese ships.  The Japanese had opened the war with a torpedo attack, and the Russians were right to think that the Japanese would plan to buy torpedo boats in Britain, crew them with sailors sent from Japan, and attack the Second Squadron en route to Japan.  The Japanese planned to do exactly this, and had sailors in Britain already (as the Russians knew).  The British wouldn't sell them warships during the war, though, so the Japanese plan was never executed.  But the Russians couldn't know this, and so their fears were not at all groundless.

[Neil]

Dogger Bank is often misunderstood by the kinds of amateurs who write Wikipedia articles; they sneer at the Russians for fearing Japanese torpedo boats tens of thousands of miles from Japan, ignoring the fact that they were only hundreds of miles from Britain, the supplier of Japanese ships.  The Japanese had opened the war with a torpedo attack, and the Russians were right to think that the Japanese would plan to buy torpedo boats in Britain, crew them with sailors sent from Japan, and attack the Second Squadron en route to Japan.  The Japanese planned to do exactly this, and had sailors in Britain already (as the Russians knew).  The British wouldn't sell them warships during the war, though, so the Japanese plan was never executed.  But the Russians couldn't know this, and so their fears were not at all groundless.

Pretty much this.

Also, it's not that unusual for a task force to like some space in potentially dangerous waters.  Try sailing a little fishing trawler up to a USN CVN near the Persian Gulf and see what happens.

[Razgovory]

Tim, didn't you create a thread like this a few years ago?

[jimmy olsen]

Tim, didn't you create a thread like this a few years ago?

Not if the search function is correct.

All true Grumbler, however that doesn't mean that the incident didn't cause incredible tension between Britain and Russia and resulted in the mobilization of the fleet. If the butcher's bill were higher the reaction would have been greater.

[Razgovory]

Search function only goes back to 2009.

[grumbler]

All true Grumbler, however that doesn't mean that the incident didn't cause incredible tension between Britain and Russia and resulted in the mobilization of the fleet. If the butcher's bill were higher the reaction would have been greater.

It caused great public outrage in Britain, enough that the government felt it necessary to pretend to be preparing the fleet for war, but the British government had no desire to fight a war with Russia, nor the Russian government to fight one with Britain.  If the butcher's bill had been higher, the Russians would have paid more in reparations.  That's all.  I don't see any way this leads to war.