ABSTRACT
The Agadir crisis had caught the German naval leadership with the question of the deployment of its fleet unsettled. The First Squadron had been transferred to Wilhelmshaven and the number of large cruisers incapable of passing the canal had increased. The Admiralty Staff, allegedly in consultation with the Fleet, therefore drafted new directives for a war with Britain which Heeringen on 24 October 1911 presented for Kaiser Wilhelm’s approval. The task of the High Seas Fleet is to come to battle with the enemy as soon as possible, even involving all the forces at its disposal. The North Sea, including the Skagerrak, is the operation area under normal conditions. The war game even drew on the old notion of using the Moon Sound as a base against the Gulf of Finland. The game was handicapped by ignorance of the operational plans of the army, which led Coerper to suggest a joint army-navy war game.
