The SMS Kaiser Wilhelm II from which the German High Seas Fleet would receive its final order to set sail during World War One. She would survive the war to be decommissioned in 1920.
1. The German Navy, in a flight of truly wackiness, orders the German High Seas Fleet, now supported by returning submarines, to deploy in a few days against the British fleet for the long awaited giant naval showdown. The act, coming after the German fleet had remained in port for years, only served to spark German sailors, largely drawn from the Socialist German working class, and radicalized after years in port, into rebellion which would flower in several days.
It is difficult not to view the Order of October 24, as it has come to be known, as both insubordinate and completely unhinged. Moreover, it came about in no small part as the German Navy, save for its submarine fleet, had basically sat the war out but was now upset on how it was going to clearly end in a German defeat.
The entire effort of Germany to build a high seas fleet capable of rivaling the British was a dubious effort from the onset, but the Germans under Kaiser Wilhelm II had attempted it. Building a navy is a difficult prospect of any nation and traditionally only nations taht have a strong seafaring culture have managed it. The Germans did not have a high seas history to speak of and geographically any sane German surface navy was always going to be principally a Baltic entity. None the less, starting in the 19th Century, the Germans had engaged in a dreadnaught building war with the British.
When the moment for the Germany navy came during World War One the German Navy largely flunked it, save for its U-boat campaign which was both brilliant and ruthless. The surface navy, however, the Battle of Jutland notwithstanding, largely did nothing. The huge expensive entity remained mostly bottled up, predictably, in port, with its officers largley fearful of committing it in a decisive engagement as any such effort stood to most likely cause its expensive loss. In their defense, such a loss would have exposed northern German to the potential ravages of the Royal Navy, so their reluctance to commit it was not completely unhinged.
With the Germans acquiescing to Woodrow Wilson's October 5 demand that they cease unrestricted submarine warfare it became plane to those in the military and the upper echelons of government that Germany was indeed defeated and that coming to terms with the Allies was now a matter of weeks. Surprisingly, the upper command elements of the Army, which was well aware of the situation Germany was in, took the matter much better than the navy did. The Navy objected to the loss of its U-boat campaign and its commander, Admiral Carl Friedrich Heinrich Reinhard Scheer ordered the commander of the High Seas Fleet, Admiral Franz Ritter von Hipper, to prepare an order sending the High Seas Fleet with the released submarines into action in the English Channel, but anticipating that the British would meat the fleet first off of the Dutch coast. Von Hipper issued his order on this day, which read:
Commander of the High Seas Fleet
Op. 269/A I
SMS KAISER WILHELM II, 24.10.1918
VERY SECRET
O. MATTER
O.-COMMAND No.19.
A. Information about the enemy
It is to be supposed that most of the enemy forces are in Scottish east
coast ports, with detachments in the Tyne, the Humber and the Channel.
B. Intentions
The enemy will be brought to battle under conditions favorable for us.
For this purpose, the concentrated High Seas forces will advance by night into the Hoofden,
and attack combat forces and mercantile traffic on the Flanders coast
and in the Thames estuary. This strike should induce the enemy to
advance immediately with detachments of his fleet toward the line Hoofden/German Bight.
Our intention is to engage these detachments on the evening of Day II of
the operation, or to have them attacked by torpedo-boats during the
night of Day II or III. In support of the main task the approach routes
of the enemy from east Scottish ports to the sea area of Terschelling will be infested by mines and occupied by submarines.
C. Execution
i) Departure from the German Bight by day, out of sight of the Dutch coast;
ii) Route through the Hoofden so that the attack on the Flanders Coast and the Thames Estuary takes place at dawn on Day II;
iii) The Attack:
- a) against the Flanders coast by the commander of the 2nd Torpedo-Boat Flotilla with Graudenz, Karlsruhe, Nürnberg and the 2nd Torpedo-Boat Flotilla.
- b) against the Thames estuary by the 2nd Scouting Group with Königsberg, Köln, Dresden, Pillau and the 2nd Torpedo-Boat Half-Flotilla
- Covering of a) by the fleet and b) by the C-in-C of the Scouting Forces;
iv) Return so as to reach the combat area favorable to us, near Terschelling, one or two hours before nightfall on Day II.
v) Protection of the return (Day II) by part of the 8th Flotilla
vi) Mine laying by the leader of 4th Scouting Group with 4th Scouting Group (supported by minelayers by Arkona and Möwe) and the 8th Flotilla, on the approaches of the enemy, in accord with plan No. I.
vii) Disposition of submarines on the enemy routes in accord with plan No. III
viii) Attack by torpedo-boats during the night of Day II to III, in case
an encounter has already taken place, from near the Terschelling Light
Vessel towards the Firth of Forth,
in accordance with the orders of the commander of torpedo-boats. On
the meeting of the torpedo-boats with the fleet in the morning of Day
III, see the following order;
ix) Entrance into the German Bight by departure route or by routes 420, 500 or 750, depending on the situation;
x) Air reconnaissance: if possible.
This effort would have been risky at any point during the war, but its taking place in October 1918 was simply delusional. Indeed, it's doubtful that it could have taken place at any point after mid 1917. By the fall of 1918 German sailors, largely drawn from the German Socialist working class, were becoming heavily radicalized and mutinous. Indeed, mutinies had occurred in 1917. The years of being idle in port had contributed to massive discontent among them and the morale necessary to conduct such an operation had evaporated at some point mid war.
Moreover, even assuming that the loss of loyalty of the sailors could have been overcome, which it could not, this attack would have made very little sense as a solo effort so late in the war. If it had been undertaken in the Spring of 1918 in conjunction with the 1918 German Spring Offensive it would have at least have taken place in context with what was going on in the war. Even if it had been effective in October 1918 it would have had little long term impact with the German army now steadily in a fighting retreat.
Indeed, thinking that a navy that had been idle in port for years was capable of taking on a navy that had been on the high seas for years was itself delusional. And by this point in the war the Royal Navy was augmented on the North Atlantic with the American Navy, which was a major surface navy in its own right.
In any event, as will be seen, the High Seas Fleet never sailed. It's enlisted men wouldn't allow it to.
2. The Italians commence an assault on Austro Hungarian positions at Vittorio Veneto on a massive level, firing 2,500,000 artillery shells over seven days and sending up 400 aircrfat to oppose 470 or so Austro Hungarian ones.
Victorious Italian troops, October 1918.
Fifty-seven divisions were committed to the assault, including three British divisions, two French division, one Bohemian division and an American regiment. The Austro Hungarian Empire started the battle with sixty one divisions but Austro Hungaria would come apart during the battle, which would go on to the Austrian surrender on November 3, by which time all of the empires constituent parts had declared independence or withdrawn from the empire. It was the concluding battle for Austro Hungaria of the war.
U.S. troops of the 332nd Infantry at Grave di Papadopoli, October 31, 1918. We do not usually think of Americans fighting in Italy during World War One, but they did in small numbers.
3. The Allies continued to advance in France.
American troops waiting to go into action at Fismes. Note how heavily laden these troops are laden, more for marching than for fighting.
