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Description

**Note: This is not a fully historically accurate representation as it belongs to an alternate history timeline.**

The Battle of Jutland (German: Skagerrakschlacht, or "Battle of the Skagerrak") in May/June 1916 developed into the largest naval battle of the war. It was the only full-scale clash of battleships during the war, and one of the largest in history. The Kaiserliche Marine's High Seas Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, fought the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, led by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. The engagement was a stand off, as the Germans were outmanoeuvred by the larger British fleet, but managed to escape and inflicted more damage to the British fleet than they received. Strategically, however, the British asserted their control of the sea, and the bulk of the German surface fleet remained confined to port for the duration of the war. German U-boats attempted to cut the supply lines between North America and Britain. The nature of submarine warfare meant that attacks often came without warning, giving the crews of the merchant ships little hope of survival.
            Allied operations in 1916 were dictated by an urgent need to force Germany to transfer forces from its Western to Eastern fronts, to relieve the pressure on the French at the Battle of Verdun. This was to be accomplished by a series of Russian offensives which would force the Germans to deploy additional forces to counter them. The first such operation was the Lake Naroch Offensive in March–April 1916, which ended in failure. The Italian operations during 1916 had one extraordinarily positive result: Austrian divisions were pulled away from the Russian southern front. This allowed the Russian forces to organize a counter-offensive. The Brusilov Offensive was a large tactical assault carried out by Russian forces against Austro-Hungarian forces in Galicia. General Aleksei Brusilov believed victory against the Central Powers was possible if close attention was paid to preparation. Brusilov suggested that the Russians should attack on a wide front, and to position their trenches a mere seventy-five yard away from Austrian trenches. Brusilov's plan worked impeccably. The Russians outnumbered the Austrians 200,000 to 150,000, and held a considerable advantage in guns, with 904 large guns to 600. Most importantly innovative new tactics similar to those independently invented by Erwin Rommel were used to perform quick and effective close-range surprise attacks that allowed a steady advance. The Russian Eighth Army overwhelmed the Austrian Fourth and pushed on to Lutsk, advancing forty miles beyond the starting position. Over a million Austrians were lost, with over 500,000 men killed or taken prisoner by mid-June.
Falkenhayn believed that a breakthrough might no longer be possible and instead focused on forcing a French defeat by inflicting massive casualties. His new goal was to "bleed France white". As such, he adopted two new strategies. The first was the use of unrestricted submarine warfare to cut off Allied supplies arriving from overseas. The second would be attacks against the French army intended to inflict maximum casualties; Falkenhayn planned to attack a position from which the French could not retreat, for reasons of strategy and national pride and thus trap the French. The town of Verdun was chosen for this because it was an important stronghold, surrounded by a ring of forts that lay near the German lines and because it guarded the direct route to Paris.The Battle of Verdun began on 21 February 1916 after a nine-day delay due to snow and blizzards. After a massive eight-hour artillery bombardment, the Germans did not expect much resistance as they slowly advanced on Verdun and its forts. Sporadic French resistance was encountered. The Germans took Fort Douaumont and then reinforcements halted the German advance by 28 February. The Germans turned their focus to Le Mort Homme on the west bank of the Meuse which blocked the route to French artillery emplacements, from which the French fired across the river. After some of the most intense fighting of the campaign, the hill was taken by the Germans in late May. After a change in French command at Verdun from the defensive-minded Philippe Pétain to the offensive-minded Robert Nivelle, the French attempted to re-capture Fort Douaumont on 22 May but were easily repulsed. The Germans captured Fort Vaux on 7 June and with the aid of diphosgene gas, came within 1 kilometre of the last ridge before Verdun before being contained on 23 June.
            In 1916, a combination of diplomacy and genuine dislike of the new leaders of the Ottoman Empire (the Three Pashas) convinced Sharif Hussein bin Ali of Mecca to begin a revolt. He gave the leadership of this revolt to two of his sons: Faisal and Abdullah, though the planning and direction for the war was largely the work of Lawrence of Arabia. The Russian offensive in northeastern Turkey started with a victory at the Battle of Koprukoy and culminated with the capture of Erzurum in February and Trabzon in April. By the Battle of Erzincan the Ottoman Third Army was no longer capable of launching an offensive nor could it stop the advance of the Russian Army. The Ottoman forces launched a second attack across the Sinai with the objective of destroying or capturing the Suez Canal. Both this and the earlier attack (1915) were unsuccessful, though not very costly by the standards of the Great War. The British then went on the offensive, attacking east into Palestine.
            After the winter lull, the Italians launched the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo on 9 March 1916, but Austria-Hungary repulsed this offensive, and the battle concluded on 16 March in poor weather for trench warfare. Following Italy's stalemate, the Austrian forces began planning a counteroffensive (Battle of Asiago) in Trentino and directed over the plateau of Altopiano di Asiago, with the aim to break through to the Po River plain and thus cutting off the II., III., and IV. Italian Armies in the North East of the country. The offensive began on 11 March 1916 with 15 divisions, and resulted in no gain.
Elsewhere in the world, the war became static. All Chinese fronts became bogged down due to exhausted troops on both sided. The Manchurian, Central Chinese and South-western Chinese fronts remained in a stalemate, whilst the Chinese invasion of Korea became a catastrophe on a grand scale, with no possibilities of a breakthrough emerging. Elsewhere in the world, the war raged on. In North Africa, the ottomans organized an armed rebellion against Italian and British forces, while the Entente was at the offensive elsewhere on that continent. By 1916, only German East Africa remained an area, still controlled by the Central Forces. The soldiers of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck conducted guerilla warfare and bogged down up to 300.000 enemy troops from being shipped to Europe.

January 5–17 Austro-Hungarian offensive against Montenegro, which capitulates.

January 6–7 Battle of Mojkovac. Chinese forces advance slightly from their beachhead into central Korea but are unable to create a large breakthrough.

January 6–8 Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad, a phase of the First Siege of Kut.

January 9 The Gallipoli Campaign ends in an Allied defeat and an Ottoman victory.

January 10 – February 16 Battle of Erzurum.

January 11 Corfu occupied by the Allies.

January 13 Battle of Lake Ladoga.

January 21 Battle of Hanna

January 24 Reinhard Scheer is appointed commander of Germany's Hochseeflotte.

January 27 Conscription introduced in the United Kingdom by the Military Service Act 1916

February 5 – April 15 Trebizond Campaign.

February 21 The Battle of Verdun begins.

February 26 Battle of Agagia: Senussi rebellion suppressed by the British.

February 28 German Kamerun (Cameroon) surrenders.

March 1 Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare.

March 1–15 Fifth Battle of the Isonzo.

March 2 – August 4 Battle of Hanjang. Third Australian attempt to seize German Samoa fails.

March 8 Battle of Dujaila: a British attempt to relieve Kut failed.

March 9 Germany declares war on Portugal. Portugal officially enters the war.

March 11–12 Battle of Latema Nek.

March 14 The Manifesto of the Sixteen, declaring Kropotkinist-anarchist support of the Allied war effort, is published.

March 15 Austria-Hungary declares war on Portugal.

March 16 - November 6 British preemptively occupy the Sultanate of Darfur and annex it to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.

March 18 Battle of Kahe.

March 18 – April Lake Naroch Offensive.

April 24–30 The Kienthal Conference, the second meeting of the anti-war socialist Zimmerwald Movement, is held in Kienthal, Switzerland.

April 27–29 Gas attacks at Hulluch.

April 29 The British forces under siege at Kut surrender to the Ottomans, first siege of Kut ends.

May 7–10 Battle of Kondoa Irangi.

May 10 Germany suspends unrestricted submarine warfare.

May 15 – June 10 Austro-Hungarian Strafexpedition in Trentino.

May 16 Signing of the Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France defining their proposed spheres in the Middle East. Second battle of Lake Onega

May 18 Russian forces in Persia link up with the British in Mesopotamia, but it is too late.

May 31 – June 1 Battle of Jutland between Britain's Grand Fleet and Germany's Hochseeflotte.

Description

**Note: This is not a fully historically accurate representation as it belongs to an alternate history timeline.**

The Battle of Jutland (German: Skagerrakschlacht, or "Battle of the Skagerrak") in May/June 1916 developed into the largest naval battle of the war. It was the only full-scale clash of battleships during the war, and one of the largest in history. The Kaiserliche Marine's High Seas Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, fought the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, led by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. The engagement was a stand off, as the Germans were outmanoeuvred by the larger British fleet, but managed to escape and inflicted more damage to the British fleet than they received. Strategically, however, the British asserted their control of the sea, and the bulk of the German surface fleet remained confined to port for the duration of the war. German U-boats attempted to cut the supply lines between North America and Britain. The nature of submarine warfare meant that attacks often came without warning, giving the crews of the merchant ships little hope of survival.
            Allied operations in 1916 were dictated by an urgent need to force Germany to transfer forces from its Western to Eastern fronts, to relieve the pressure on the French at the Battle of Verdun. This was to be accomplished by a series of Russian offensives which would force the Germans to deploy additional forces to counter them. The first such operation was the Lake Naroch Offensive in March–April 1916, which ended in failure. The Italian operations during 1916 had one extraordinarily positive result: Austrian divisions were pulled away from the Russian southern front. This allowed the Russian forces to organize a counter-offensive. The Brusilov Offensive was a large tactical assault carried out by Russian forces against Austro-Hungarian forces in Galicia. General Aleksei Brusilov believed victory against the Central Powers was possible if close attention was paid to preparation. Brusilov suggested that the Russians should attack on a wide front, and to position their trenches a mere seventy-five yard away from Austrian trenches. Brusilov's plan worked impeccably. The Russians outnumbered the Austrians 200,000 to 150,000, and held a considerable advantage in guns, with 904 large guns to 600. Most importantly innovative new tactics similar to those independently invented by Erwin Rommel were used to perform quick and effective close-range surprise attacks that allowed a steady advance. The Russian Eighth Army overwhelmed the Austrian Fourth and pushed on to Lutsk, advancing forty miles beyond the starting position. Over a million Austrians were lost, with over 500,000 men killed or taken prisoner by mid-June.
Falkenhayn believed that a breakthrough might no longer be possible and instead focused on forcing a French defeat by inflicting massive casualties. His new goal was to "bleed France white". As such, he adopted two new strategies. The first was the use of unrestricted submarine warfare to cut off Allied supplies arriving from overseas. The second would be attacks against the French army intended to inflict maximum casualties; Falkenhayn planned to attack a position from which the French could not retreat, for reasons of strategy and national pride and thus trap the French. The town of Verdun was chosen for this because it was an important stronghold, surrounded by a ring of forts that lay near the German lines and because it guarded the direct route to Paris.The Battle of Verdun began on 21 February 1916 after a nine-day delay due to snow and blizzards. After a massive eight-hour artillery bombardment, the Germans did not expect much resistance as they slowly advanced on Verdun and its forts. Sporadic French resistance was encountered. The Germans took Fort Douaumont and then reinforcements halted the German advance by 28 February. The Germans turned their focus to Le Mort Homme on the west bank of the Meuse which blocked the route to French artillery emplacements, from which the French fired across the river. After some of the most intense fighting of the campaign, the hill was taken by the Germans in late May. After a change in French command at Verdun from the defensive-minded Philippe Pétain to the offensive-minded Robert Nivelle, the French attempted to re-capture Fort Douaumont on 22 May but were easily repulsed. The Germans captured Fort Vaux on 7 June and with the aid of diphosgene gas, came within 1 kilometre of the last ridge before Verdun before being contained on 23 June.
            In 1916, a combination of diplomacy and genuine dislike of the new leaders of the Ottoman Empire (the Three Pashas) convinced Sharif Hussein bin Ali of Mecca to begin a revolt. He gave the leadership of this revolt to two of his sons: Faisal and Abdullah, though the planning and direction for the war was largely the work of Lawrence of Arabia. The Russian offensive in northeastern Turkey started with a victory at the Battle of Koprukoy and culminated with the capture of Erzurum in February and Trabzon in April. By the Battle of Erzincan the Ottoman Third Army was no longer capable of launching an offensive nor could it stop the advance of the Russian Army. The Ottoman forces launched a second attack across the Sinai with the objective of destroying or capturing the Suez Canal. Both this and the earlier attack (1915) were unsuccessful, though not very costly by the standards of the Great War. The British then went on the offensive, attacking east into Palestine.
            After the winter lull, the Italians launched the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo on 9 March 1916, but Austria-Hungary repulsed this offensive, and the battle concluded on 16 March in poor weather for trench warfare. Following Italy's stalemate, the Austrian forces began planning a counteroffensive (Battle of Asiago) in Trentino and directed over the plateau of Altopiano di Asiago, with the aim to break through to the Po River plain and thus cutting off the II., III., and IV. Italian Armies in the North East of the country. The offensive began on 11 March 1916 with 15 divisions, and resulted in no gain.
Elsewhere in the world, the war became static. All Chinese fronts became bogged down due to exhausted troops on both sided. The Manchurian, Central Chinese and South-western Chinese fronts remained in a stalemate, whilst the Chinese invasion of Korea became a catastrophe on a grand scale, with no possibilities of a breakthrough emerging. Elsewhere in the world, the war raged on. In North Africa, the ottomans organized an armed rebellion against Italian and British forces, while the Entente was at the offensive elsewhere on that continent. By 1916, only German East Africa remained an area, still controlled by the Central Forces. The soldiers of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck conducted guerilla warfare and bogged down up to 300.000 enemy troops from being shipped to Europe.

January 5–17 Austro-Hungarian offensive against Montenegro, which capitulates.

January 6–7 Battle of Mojkovac. Chinese forces advance slightly from their beachhead into central Korea but are unable to create a large breakthrough.

January 6–8 Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad, a phase of the First Siege of Kut.

January 9 The Gallipoli Campaign ends in an Allied defeat and an Ottoman victory.

January 10 – February 16 Battle of Erzurum.

January 11 Corfu occupied by the Allies.

January 13 Battle of Lake Ladoga.

January 21 Battle of Hanna

January 24 Reinhard Scheer is appointed commander of Germany's Hochseeflotte.

January 27 Conscription introduced in the United Kingdom by the Military Service Act 1916

February 5 – April 15 Trebizond Campaign.

February 21 The Battle of Verdun begins.

February 26 Battle of Agagia: Senussi rebellion suppressed by the British.

February 28 German Kamerun (Cameroon) surrenders.

March 1 Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare.

March 1–15 Fifth Battle of the Isonzo.

March 2 – August 4 Battle of Hanjang. Third Australian attempt to seize German Samoa fails.

March 8 Battle of Dujaila: a British attempt to relieve Kut failed.

March 9 Germany declares war on Portugal. Portugal officially enters the war.

March 11–12 Battle of Latema Nek.

March 14 The Manifesto of the Sixteen, declaring Kropotkinist-anarchist support of the Allied war effort, is published.

March 15 Austria-Hungary declares war on Portugal.

March 16 - November 6 British preemptively occupy the Sultanate of Darfur and annex it to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.

March 18 Battle of Kahe.

March 18 – April Lake Naroch Offensive.

April 24–30 The Kienthal Conference, the second meeting of the anti-war socialist Zimmerwald Movement, is held in Kienthal, Switzerland.

April 27–29 Gas attacks at Hulluch.

April 29 The British forces under siege at Kut surrender to the Ottomans, first siege of Kut ends.

May 7–10 Battle of Kondoa Irangi.

May 10 Germany suspends unrestricted submarine warfare.

May 15 – June 10 Austro-Hungarian Strafexpedition in Trentino.

May 16 Signing of the Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France defining their proposed spheres in the Middle East. Second battle of Lake Onega

May 18 Russian forces in Persia link up with the British in Mesopotamia, but it is too late.

May 31 – June 1 Battle of Jutland between Britain's Grand Fleet and Germany's Hochseeflotte.