"Raise high the black flag!" - A Prussia AAR

[robou]

Not knowing much about the Franco-Prussian war, it took me a while to realise that the second update was not following history, such was the intensity of the detail you added. This looks to be an amazing piece of work, trek, and I will be following all the way!

[trekaddict]

Thank you, good sir.

[almoravid]

I'm confused. Did Sedan occur in your timeline or didn't it?

[trekaddict]

Originally Posted by almoravid

I'm confused. Did Sedan occur in your timeline or didn't it?

It didn't.

[almoravid]

Originally Posted by trekaddict

It didn't.

Why do you mention it in first installment then?

[trekaddict]

Originally Posted by almoravid

Why do you mention it in first installment then?

Oh dear. I knew I missed something.

[BritishImperial]

this is pretty interesting. i don't know a massive amount about this time period either. i do however guess that 1936 in this aar is going to be look pretty different.

[trekaddict]

Originally Posted by BritishImperial

this is pretty interesting. i don't know a massive amount about this time period either. i do however guess that 1936 in this aar is going to be look pretty different.

You could say that...

[quantum]

Does Russia join in the Fray now ?

[trekaddict]

Originally Posted by quantum

Does Russia join in the Fray now ?

No, I don't think so. The Russians are sitting back and watching their European opponents bashing away at each other.

[Hardraade]

Another good update, trek. I'm eager to see how the war ends and what Europe looks like in '36.

[trekaddict]

For the next few days I have a lot of stuff to do and not much time for writing. Anyway, AAO was updated too. What are you all still doing here?

[Hardraade]

Originally Posted by trekaddict

For the next few days I have a lot of stuff to do and not much time for writing. Anyway, AAO was updated too. What are you all still doing here?

My apologies. I'll head right over!

[trekaddict]

Introduction Part III

On 20th January a crisis meeting was convened in Berlin. King Wilhelm I was asking Bismarck and his Generals what they were supposed to do, now that their largest Field Army and their best General was destroyed, Prussia had few allies, the North-German federation was showing sings of buckling and on the streets of Berlin the people started to call for an end of the war, so far they were kept in line by the presence of Cavalry units that patrolled the streets. In the end it was decided to fight on, and it stands to reason that had peace been made there and then, the history of Prussia and Germany would have been vastly different.

However the decision was made and the Prussian High Command faced the problem that aside from the battered II Army, no major field force remained. This forced the Prussians to forcibly conscript every able-bodied man that could be rounded up into so-called “Flying Battalions” or “Fliegende Battalione” that were basically men whom the quartermasters had handed Rifles and some old guns left over from before the American Civil War. Two new Armies were raised this way, and that did not help to stifle the discontent that was rising in Berlin and all over Prussia. On 12th March 1871 the Armies marched out of Berlin and an eerie silence settled over the city. One way or another Prussia was in for severe upheavals. Meanwhile the French had not been sitting still. While Napoleon III had expected that the Prussians would make peace after the disaster at Stuttgart, no plans for further action had been made, and by the time the new Prussian Armies marched out of Berlin, the French were slowly marching into the Prussian Rhineland. Karlsruhe fell on the 19th, after the population had forced the small Prussian Garrison to open the gates. This was a sign for the growing discontent in Prussia and the entire North-German Federation that was overlooked by all, but it was only the beginning. By the time the two Forces met near Braunschweig on 9th April, the French had captured Hamburg, Dortmund and Hannover without much fighting, while the Prussians had lost more than 20% of their initial force through desertions. The two-day Battle of Braunschweig was a drastic reversal from earlier Battles. Where initially in the war the Prussians had had the edge in terms of Artillery, now the French had the edge in training, Artillery, manpower and above all motivation. The French were determined to win the war and had received news of the Autrian invasion of Schlesia and their very own march on Berlin. The Battle was opened by a clash between the French and Prussian Cavalry that was the biggest mounted Battle in Europe since the end of the Napoleonic wars. Two Divisions of Prussian Cavalry under General Graf von Müritz attacked the French Vanguard of one Cavalry Division belonging to I Corps. Initially the Prussians forced the French back on the road towards Peine, but then ran into concentrated and massive rifle fire delivered by the forward French Infantry Regiments. One Division charged regardless and were slaughtered by the French that held fast and coined the “Thine Blue Line” in French popular conception. The French Emporer, upon notification of the engagement was elated and said:

“Finally, finally! We have them at last. Now we shall smash them!”

The French had been chasing the Prussians around Northern Germany for weeks and Napoleon III was beginning to tire of the endless chase. He ordered a general pursuit of the fleeing Prussian remnants, despite being cautioned by his Generals that feared an elaborate trap by the Prussians. This was not so though. By one o'clock the main bodies of both Armies made contact on the wheat fields. It was like a battle of old, with lines of Infantry hammering away at each other, attacking and withdrawing, suffering massive losses. In the end the French won this day's engagement when at around five o'clock the Prussian left flank collapsed under the combined hammerblows of Cavalry and Infantry charges and the strain of hours of sustained combat. The Prussians retreated towards Braunschweig and for a while it seemed that a repeat of Stuttgart was on the cards, but then the French 7th Army that had already brought the decision at Stuttgart came struck. They had been marching the northern route towards Berlin, and it had been troops from that Army that had captured Hamburg. The slammed into the right flank and routed the enemy, chasing the Prussians through the city until a late arrival to the Battle rallied the Prussian soldiers to their cause: King Wilhelm I, having realized that the day of reckoning had come had decided to overrule an increasingly desperate and incoherent Bismarck and decided to be with his troops for better or worse.

The first Cavalry charge


King William during the Battle

Wearing the uniform of a Brigadier General and having cut his beard and thinning hair, the King personally took command of the Army and ordered a holding action to allow the II Army, retreating after their defeat at the hands of the Austrians near Breslau, to reach Berlin and man the defences, of the Captial for a do-or-die last stand. During the night however, as both sides licked their wounds, and in the morning the sound of the guns set the scene for another day of bloody slaughter. This time however the Prussians refused to budge, and for most of the day the battle raged in the suburbs of Braunschweig and in the fields around it. The French attacked again and again and again, but the Prussians held in hastily dug trenches. Nevertheless, superior French numbers forced the line back until the Prussian position had a roughly U-shape and both wings of the French army could already see each other. At this point King Wilhelm I decided to call it a day and a triumphant Napoleon III took the sword of his defeated opponent on eight o'clock that same day as the Prussian King went into captivity with his troops. The news of this quickly reached Berlin and it was as if the city had come to a sudden halt, as everybody tried to decide what to do. Bismarck almost immediately tried to rally the Army around him in order to be able to negotiate with the French from a position of strength, but failed to secure the support of the General Staff. When further news reached the city that the Austrians were a mere ten miles away, the situation boiled over as the masses assembled in front of the War Ministry to demand and end to the war. Bismarck ordered the troops to disperse the crowd, but much to his amazement they refused to fire on their wives and children. The Chancellor was forced from his Office and incarcerated, while a flurry of activity ensued within the city. A national convention was quickly called that tried to decide about the continuation of the war. The message about the Austrians had turned out to be false, but the French were indeed on the march. Rumours about the goings-on in Berlin quickly reached the French Emporer and the Prussian King who was treated like a state guest. The French accelerated their speed and reached Berlin about two weeks after the battle, to find a city that was against expectations not in utter and total chaos. When Napoleon III rode into Berlin through the Brandenburg gate like his illustrious ancestor, he found a population that was not as hostile as expected and that more displayed an air of lethargy and war weariness. By the time the Austrians at last reached the city a week later, the French had already set up shop and Napoleon III, along with the Austrians, sat idly by as the Prussian Monarchy began to crumble.

Wilhelm I was greeted with an icy coldness in Berlin, as most blamed him and Bismarck for the defeats suffered. The national assembly tried to force the King to agree to massive reforms that would have reduced the King to a position that was even more powerless than that of Queen Victoria in the United Kingdom, and the King refused. For the next month, under the guns of the French and Austrians, the discussion raged back and forth, and in the end the Assembly was fed up with the King's stubborn refusal to agree to even the slightest reforms and declared the Republic of Prussia on 6th June. The King and his family, along with Bismarck, were sent into Exile to Britain and banned from ever returning. The new Republican Government stood on shaky ground but decided to hammer out the final peace treaty with the enemy powers. The negotiations at Vienna were lengthy, but in the end the Prussia and Würtemberg got off lightly.

Prussia would demobilize to a strength of twenty-thousand Infantry and one-thousand Cavalry.
The remaining Prussian heavy guns would be handed over the France and Austria, and the plans for them would be equally divided.
Prussia would dissolve the North-German Confederation.
The North-German Confederation states would be reformed into several larger states.
Baden would be folded into Würtemberg, which would in turn be forced to cede all claims to Alsac to France and be forced to demobilize their Army down to a total strength of two-thousand Infantry and Cavalry
The Kingdom of Würtemberg would sign a perpetual non-aggression treaty with France
Bavaria would do the same.
Prussia would pay a war indemnity of five billion mark (due within four years).

The treaty of Vienna marked the end of the war but not the end of Prussia's troubles. Monarchists, Republicans, radical Socialists and Anarchists waged a shadow war in the streets of Berlin and the cities of western Prussia. Secret societies from all points of the political spectrum vied for power and political assassinations became commonplace. When the French and Austrians left Berlin in September 1871, there were twenty-seven recorded 'secret' societies in Berlin alone. The de-mobilized Prussian Army however sided with the Government and in the end most of the troubles died away. Economic troubles were another point. Prussia was far from an Industrial power of the likes of the United Kingdom, and the massive war indemnities and the fact that there were thousands of former soldiers that wanted to be fed and clothed made for several difficult years. The Republican Government struggled to fix the problems before the radical socialists or the extreme monarchists decided to topple them. Each of the factions claimed that it was representing the will of the street, but in 1877 however elections for the National Assembly however showed that a centre-left coalition could lay the most claim to it. Both the monarchists and the radical Socialists took to the streets and Prussia raced ever closer to civil war. Both of the factions raised militias that took to the streets and joined forces with some select military units that switched sides. Sporadic fighting started in Berlin with both sides starting to build barricades and the loyal parts of the Army and the Government standing in the middle.

Monarchist barricade near Berlin

In the end however the lack of popular in the countryside and most of the broader population base in the cities collapsed both revolutions before they could begin. Repeated elections in late 1877 showed the support for the Republic was still shaky and would remain so for the time being although the politicians did their best to change this stance, as shown by a quote of President of the Republic Heinemann (SAPP) during a National Assembly speech in 1878:

“Revolutionary Socialism cannot solve our problems as they are facing us now, but neither can an absolute monarchy. This Republic, born out of war and defeat, can do nothing but try and find the middle way.”

It was the middle way that the Republic would struggle to find for the remainder of it's existence. However by 1884 the economy had reached pre-war levels again and continued to grow. In the meantime, Napoleon III had died in 1879, and his son, Napoleon IV, was going not as hard on Prussia as his father had. The war debts had been paid and the French were busy with countering British ambitions in Africa and Indochina, so less attention was on the Prussians. When this had become clear to Berlin then-President Schuhbauer (National-Democratic Party) declared the pan-germanic idea dead. Claiming that the other South-German states were either too weak to be part of Germany or were lackeys of the French, or, on the case of the Austrians backstabbing bastards. If Prussia was to rise to greatness again, she needed to re-assert herself on the world stage. A massive program of modernization both in the small Army and the even smaller Prussian Navy ensued. With Napoleon IV's attention on Western Africa and the British at least sympathetic to their cause after the recent cooling of Anglo-French relations, and the Russians content with exploiting Siberia and plotting against China, the way was free to absorb the remnants of the North-German Confederation directly into Prussia. Most of the smaller German states in the North had only enjoyed limited autonomy within the Confederation anyway and by 1892 all of them had been made part of Prussia through a series of treaties and political manoeuvres. The French kept quiet and this allowed Prussia to become bolder. The military restrictions of the treaty of Vienna were cast away and the army began to grow again. In a move to both increase Prussia's standing in London to counterbalance Paris and increase the eroding political support for the current policy, the Republic, again under Schuhbauer after an interlude by the SDP ( Social-Democratic Party of Prussia ), ordered two Majestic-Class Battleships and bought the already finished HMS Mars from the Royal Navy, along with several treaty ports in East Africa. The Colonial ambitions of Prussia came as a surprise to both the country itself and Europe as a whole, especially for the French who had interests in the area.

The future PFS Preußen before being turned over to Prussia

Africa became the focal point of both French and Prussian politics, and in a game of cat and mouse the Prussians.





[Notes: It may seem strange that the reportedly so orderly Prussians could break down like that, but remember, they got their behinds handed to them by the French of all people. Politicians are made up, but inspired by RL counterparts. Up next: The Great game. The Prize: Madagascar!]

[Griffin.Gen]

Boooooooo!
Down with the Republic! DOWN WITH IT! HAIL DER KÖNIG VON PREUSSEN ÜND DEUTSCHLAND!!!!!

[robou]

That series of politic and economic events sounds o' to similar. The French will no doubt learn they made a mistake soon enough...

[trekaddict]

Griffin.Gen Well, what can I do? It is the will of the people.

robou True, but I was more modelling it on post-1871 France in OTL, and I thought that a full Commune of Berlin was a bit much for oh-so Germanic Prussia.

[canonized]

Ahh so you've indeed begun Quite a fun premise , very much so . Kind of humiliating in the beginning but I want to see how you do with this XD

Naturally , excellently researched as well !

[Griffin.Gen]

Originally Posted by trekaddict

Griffin.Gen Well, what can I do? It is the will of the people.

So...We wont see Whillem II's epic mustache?

[trekaddict]

Originally Posted by Griffin.Gen

So...We wont see Whillem II's epic mustache?

Doesn't look like it for now.