Fisher's Invasion Plan

[truthergw]

I am pursuing a line of enquiry of my own and I keep meeting references to pre war naval plans. I have met several references to Fisher's plans and they seem to date from about 1911/12. At a meeting of the CID of that time, the navy were rather dismissive of the army. The navy referred to the army as being an arrow which it was their job to launch at the enemy. The Admiralty war plan was a close blockade of German ports and they doubted whether they could transport the troops across the channel. They also suggested that the army would need to remain in UK to protect against invasion as the navy could not guarantee against one. I am quoting all this because, at the meeting, Churchill and Lloyd George gave the naval chiefs a very rough time. The conclusion of the meeting was that the Navy had no war plans worthy of the name. Big changes ensued at Admiralty. Fisher's plan seems to belong to this period. Now, I am almost entirely ignorant of naval matters, these references are to stuff which I normally read then disregard as they are not relevant to my enquiries. Is it possible that Fisher's invasion plan was laid out at this time when there seems to have been some very strange ideas floating around and the navy were entirely ignorant of anything to do with their own army, far less the German? 

[bob lembke]

Tom et al;

Yes indeed, this is all very strange. But it is one thing for Fisher drawing up plans, in 1911, for the army without seemingly knowing much about either army, and in 1915 being allowed to build 612 ships for a whacky plan that hundreds of British Army officers would know was impossible in seconds, while in the midst of a fight for the life of the UK. And what about doubting that the Navy could get troops actoss the Channel (20 miles?), while they were planning to take an army and land it in the Baltic hundreds and hundreds of miles away traveling thru straits, other people's territorial waters, etc.? What about fuel? The ships being built didn't include tankers. Did the RN have "fleet tankers"?

The rough outlines of the German homeland forces that I outlined should have been apparent to UK MI from published materials and known things about the German Army. I guess that this info was just ignored, if not actively avoided.

Based on inperfect info, it seems very unlikely that there was much chance to block the HSF from shuttling thru the Kiel Canal. Just dropping mines in the North Sea would not block anything, they could not have gotten anywhere near where they would have to go. There were defenses in depth for quite a way out, and the entrances to the canal were not on the shore-line, but up rivers.

Bob