I still don't buy Bulletheads assertion that the Germans changed nothing after what happened at Dogger bank. Lots of extra propellant is more dangerous that a little extra propellant so I am inclined to think that could matter.
Well, they didn't add any flash protection hardware to existing units, not even to
Seydlitz, after Dogger Bank, and just put minor items that don't seem to have mattered much on new construction like
Lutzow.
Seydlitz apparently followed the new guidelines on exposed charges at Jutland, but still had a turret burn out, and apparently so did
Lutzow.
Derfflinger didn't follow the new rules, and had turrets burn out, too. So whatever the Germans did or didn't do, it doesn't seem to have mattered at the bottom line. Their turrets burned out either way.
And Coypus, to show that flash WAS a respecter of nationalities, because different nations used different chemicals that had vastly different properties, how many long-duration propellant fires in turrets did the Brits have at Jutland? :smoke:
Also would the Germans bring York and Roon? They did sortie them earlier in the war.
Hmmm.
Yorck was in fact lost on German mines returning from an HSF sortie.
Roon, however, never seems to have left the Baltic.
Prinz Heinrich was west of Kiel until April 1915, so might have gone out, too, but after that she went to the Baltic
What about CLs, the British had 26 at Jutland, how many were available a year before?
Counting the older "scout" cruisers, which were actually weak PCs, I think a good number for early 1915 would be about 14-18 total, depending on when you look. Most of the non-Australian
Chathams and
Birminghams, most of the
Weymouths, most of the
Arethusas, and the 1st few of the C-cruisers, plus a
Bristol or 2. Apart from the Australian CLs, there hadn't been many new CLs chasing von Spee, due to the concentration against the HSF.
There were some even older "2nd Class" and "3rd Class" PCs still in service in the UK area very briefly into 1915. However, most of these weren't with the GF or BCF but blockading, with a few converted to minelayers. But within a couple months, these had almost all been laid up, due to being replaced by AMCs or running out of mines. The few remaining were harbor guardships.