WesWorld

Not sure how contol in the Middle East would look like. As you may have seen (if you look good) I removed Saudi Arabia and redrew the borders there based on a post WW1 map concerning the Treaty of Versailles and the German Colonies. I did manage to find a map of Britain and its territories around 1900, but seeing something called 'British Hinterland of Aden' probably means that it is controlled by the British. I will need to look further for maps that shows what is controlled by who in that area.

Look for maps from between 1923 and 1946. I don't think the borders changed much if at all in the period of time.

I am definitely going to look for such maps once I am back home. Those Versailles Treaty maps were quite good and they clearly had the borders on them for the middle east region, part of the pacific area and Africa, but they were black-white so I could not see who contols what there.

I have a map dated to 1923 in a WW1 book I have. It dosn't show all of the middle east but it does show Trans Jordan (British Mandate), Syria (French Mandate), Iraq (British Mandate), Persia, Kuwait (British protecturate), Nejd (Saudi arabia 1932), Asir, Yemen and Aden (British protecturate).

Atlantis has gained a mandate in North Western Turkey and did have one in Armenia/Azerbaijan which are now independant countrys with current day boarders except Baku is in control of the Russians.

Well those are bits I can use. I will make the adjustments once I am back home.

Lets keep this as historical as we can, we're primarily concerned with naval development and not huge international relations.

e.g. War starts in 1916. Jutland is maybe delayed until 1917. At that point both sides have more battlships, but there is a lot more chance of the HSF being creamed like they should have been.

My propositions;

War starts as normal in 1914. war on the Western front proceeds as normal. Dardanelles plan goes into action as historical in 1915-16 and fails as historical. Italy enters war in 1916 as historical. by-mid 1917, the Italian fleet has damaged the Austrians enough so that they aren't a threat any more. That means that Atlantis has a lot more support when she launches her campaign on the Dardanelles in 1917. This actually works.

more thoughts later....

Acctually thats initially what I envisioned for the Dardanelles campaign, the historical defeat followed by a second battle. By this time Atlantis has more modern AC's (Lyra class) and more dreadnoughts to make serious moves in the Eastern Med. I also seem to recall us hashing out details on Italian/Atlantian naval operations against Austria/Hungary. Perhaps Greece would also have a small part to play? Like Britain and France, Atlantis looses several Pre-Dreads in the initial Dardanelles operation.

With more troops in the Galipoli campaign the historical retreat may not take place, but the presence of more Italian and Atlantian ships in a second Dardanelles campaign in addition to an intact front in western Turkey would definately lead to a successfull defeat of turkey, and lead to the Italian/Greek gains in southern Turkey.