The Doggerland Front; where are the Dutch?

[Daeothar]

[With regard to "A War Transformed"], I find it interesting that all belligerent parties in WW1 are mentioned, but not the Netherlands. Which is strange considering that a large portion of the North Sea/Doggerland is actually Dutch.

I don't have the book, so I don't know how this would factor in the established fluff for the setting, but I'm figuring that this would draw the Netherlands into the war for certain.

The country is/was extremely dependant on sea trade; even during the real-world conflict Dutch shipping was vital to the survival of the country and a lot of German international trade would be conducted via/through the Netherlands.

I can imagine the Dutch wanting to protect their territory so uninterupted access to sea lanes could be guaranteed, but lacking the military manpower to control the now hugely extended borders. This would probably drive them to side with Germany and allow German troops to co-defend Dutch territory.

Anyone given this any thought? Was this addressed in the book?

[Gunbird]

The book is very light on any kind of info tbh, only that everything changed, the rest is rules and stats. Nothing Dutch in the book I'm afraid.

[Daeothar]

Dutch - no not mentioned. But the book only covers a few key countries - and I think these are probably largely linked to figure availability.  By 1916 with Britain, German and France already being on a serious war footing, I’m not sure the Dutch army would be able to do much against any of these powers if they choose to attack. But its alternate history so no reason not to include them if you want to.

As if I don't have enough projects already  

But the concept is looking really enticing now...

[area23]

I can imagine the Dutch wanting to protect their territory so uninterupted access to sea lanes could be guaranteed, but lacking the military manpower to control the now hugely extended borders. This would probably drive them to side with Germany and allow German troops to co-defend Dutch territory.

Anyone given this any thought? Was this addressed in the book?

Oh that would be interesting. I'm not aware of any period Dutch miniatures though. Or any well made colonial KNIL that could work.
We were notorious for having an obsolete army at the start of WW2 but I really don't know what the situation was 1914-1918.

Need to do some researching...

[Daeothar]

Right, that did it...

I did a bit of a dive tonight, and I found some interesting stuff. Almost enough to kickstart a new project. Which I am trying my darnest to resist; I don't even have an opponent to play this game against 

This here is a very interesting article regarding Dutch neutrality and military standing during the war. Turns out the Netherlands were much more geared towards the western allies as they were towards Germany. In fact there were secret talks about British aid in case of a German invasion. Which, in light of Germany wanting control over Antwerp harbour, became an ever growing possibility towards 1918 and not at all in line of what I had been expecting. This with continued (limited) trade with Germany, Fokker being active there etc.

https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/military_and_strategy_the_netherlands

There's some more material in Dutch as well, but since few can read that, I won't needlessly link them here.

As far as uniforms are concerned: they used basically the same uniforms as they did at the outbreak of WW2. The later ones were just cut a bit better and more uniform. Also, there were no helmets, but kepi's. Rifles were the same (M95, in use since 1895) and there was no real standard for webbing.

So with just a very little work, May40 Dutch infantry could be converted into WW1 troops. Just switch out the helmeted heads with suitable kepi wearing ones, add some pouches and maybe a gasmask or two and they're ready for combat!

I'm also already thinking about several really old local myths and monsters that might fit right in...

Also, here's a period map of the area of the North Sea/Doggerbank. The orange area is Dutch territory.

Ooh, I'm trying sooo hard to resist this... 

[fred]

Excellent stuff - I feel you are fully committed now!

[zeppelfahrt]

Oh that would be interesting. I'm not aware of any period Dutch miniatures though. Or any well made colonial KNIL that could work.
We were notorious for having an obsolete army at the start of WW2 but I really don't know what the situation was 1914-1918.

Need to do some researching...

I found these chaps online, but they are only available for 3D printers. Perhaps there is a service that can print them for you somewhere locally?  You would have to get some Austro Hungarians to finish them off.

I am not quite sure, but from what I have seen online, the helmet shape didn't change much between 1918 and 1940.   

Hope this is of some help to you. 

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/28mm-dutch-and-knil-soldiers-add-on-pack

[Daeothar]

The M27 helmet was introduced in 1927 (who knew, eh  ); during WW1 the Dutch interestingly wore kepi's. Which was actually an improvement over the previous shako's...

[zeppelfahrt]

Interesting subject, thanks.

I suppose it would then be possible to kit-bash French 1914 heads with Austro Hungarian torsos and change the colors as required to get Dutch figures for AWT?

I just found this interesting summary online:

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-Germany-respect-Dutch-neutrality-in-WW1-but-not-in-WW2#:~:text=However%2C%20another%20very%20important%20factor,to%20and%20from%20German%20ports.

[Daeothar]

I suppose it would then be possible to kit-bash French 1914 heads with Austro Hungarian torsos and change the colors as required to get Dutch figures for AWT?

Like I said; the easiest route would be to go and grab some May40 Dutch and headswap them. All uniform and equipment was basically the same in 1940 as it was in 1914, bar the aforementioned helmet.

Sadly the May40 range has been downsized considerably to just a single squad of 10 regular troops. Because they previously had a very wide range, which also included packs of officers, and those were still wearing those kepi's in 1940 that were standard headgear during WW1. I don't know what happened there; they seem to have shifted their focus to the German invaders. A shame really, because we're already spoilt for choice when it comes to Fallschirmjäger, Heer and SS troops...

+++EDIT+++ Maybe I should either start a new thread on this topic or have a mod split this Dutch discussion from this thread! Apologies to Hermann for the very severe case of thread-hijacking... 

[area23]

Verdomd interessant!

I'm sure that IF the Netherlands were drawn into war they would be issued helmets.
Considering the french Adrian helmet was used by russians, italians and all over the world really, I'm sure we'd have the adrian helmets too.

I'm not sure if May 40 fit with my other WW1 and interwar miniatures (Brigade, Renegade, Great War, Copplestone...) Maybe converting Austrians is an option.

[Daeothar]

Good suggestion. The Adrian helmet was ubiquitous on the Western side, so it would stand to reason that it would be the go-to helmet type eventually. In fact, as I read, the French were in a similar position before 1915, with their troops also wearing kepi's at the time.

So Adrian helmets over Dutch uniforms would certainly work. perhaps with the Dutch helmet shield with lion on the front, as was used on the M27?

I think virtually any WW1/interwar miniature line can be used, as long as the troops wear puttees and are armed with long rifles. As I'm not a rivet/button counter, if those would turn out to be the wrong type of rifle, I think I could live with that. We're talking about a completely speculative/fantastic situation anyway, so who cares if they started buying their gear from abroad, right?

I'm steadily building my head-canon, and it won't be long before I will put it to paper/disk and share it here.

And at this point it feels as if I'm going to have to commit and buy the book now...

[tin shed gamer]

This might be useful in a slightly in direct fashion.As it shows the relationship Your Dutch territories musing,and the areas either side of Dogger that were considered areas to be denied. It may help in campaigns knowing which areas are least likely to have naval bourne assault coming in from.Or areas that would most likely have land based areas of denial ( Once you over lay Dogger).

[area23]

At this moment I'm exploring Last War/Forbidden Psalm as a base for my own setting. I'm still not convinced about the A War Transformed background story.
Reemerging Doggerland though is a really nice idea.

About soldiers and their uniforms; an area which is basically an extended Waddenzee would call for intervention by onze jongens, the expert Marines instead.

[Daeothar]

Thanks TSG; I've used basically the same Exclusive Economic Zone map. This division has been in existence since halfway the nineteenth century, but has only been ratified in the early nineties! Before that, it was more or less a gentlemen's agreement, but the division was largely the same.

@ area23: obviously the marines (were they called Black Devils then already?) would play a major role. But since the entire Doggerland has risen and has quickly become abundantly verdant, their role would be largely the same as standard infantry units I reckon. But they should definitely be there, yes!

Here's a first draft of my head-canon for the whole setting, shoehorning the Netherlands into it

When the moon was struck and the waters fell, the Netherlands were thrust into an even more awkward position. Their neutrality, so carefully balanced and maintained, now seemed even more difficult to uphold. Both the Western allies and the Germans were eager to grab land and open up opportunities for themselves.

And Dutch territorial borders were now significantly harder to maintain. The country went into a full war economy at a rapid pace as it was abundantly clear that conflict would turn out to be inevitable.

For the British, the fact that so many of their ports were now unusable and their country, for the first time in recorded history, could be reached overland, created a completely new situation. It would have to think about defensive strategies as well as a completely overturned logistical situation.

The Germans on the other hand, were not affected to such a degree. In fact, since the Elbe estuary was still navigatible, not much had changed for them on the naval front. However, the opened up stretches of land did provide the opportunity to drive Westwards in ways previously unheard of.

For the Dutch, the fact that their harbours were now all hundreds of kilometers inland, posed a significant issue. And the fact that the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt rivers now all reached the ocean on British soil hugely complicated matters politically as well.

The German threat of attempting to capture Antwerp was now gone, but Imperial incursions in the North were already a reality a mere month after the upheaval.

With the entire country now landlocked, a new reality dawned for the Netherlands. it was realized almost immediately that, considering the dependance of the country on international trade, a sovereign access to what was left of the North Sea should be established.

There were no official treaties regarding the division of the North Sea previously, but territorial waters were internationally respected and maintained. It was widely accepted that these unofficial borders were the de facto land borders in the new situation. And this posed a myriad of new problems.

Germany now had a tiny land border with Britain and this small strip of a mere 20 kilometers wide was immediately fortified on both sides. However, this meant that any Dutch ambitions for open sea access was squashed, as both super powers now maintained a strong presence in the North, directly in the way of the aspired expansion.

However, Britain was not happy at all with the fact it now shared a land border with its enemy, so was actually amendable to ceding a sizeable tract of land to the Dutch, to act as a buffer zone between the two warring countries. About a hundred kilometers of the new Northern coastline was considered for this during long talks at the highest level of government and eventually a treaty was signed.

That did not alleviate the Dutch problem of a direct access to the sea though, since none of its elongated main rivers opened up into the ocean in this extra territory. But the Dutch were industrious and were soon engaged in digging work, creating a canal from the new IJssel river, which flowed into the ocean on German territory now, to the new Dutch coastline.

All beligerents respected this new status quo in the North, but considering the poor state of the growing, but still small Dutch army and it's vastly expanded territory, it was inevitable that both Allied and German incursions further South would occur. From the former Wadden islands troops of cavalry could sometimes be spotted in the North, traversing the vast plains of the Doggerland.

Dutch efforts to halt these raiding parties were usually ineffective, although some successes were had every now and then. But the amount of border crossings was simply too great for the overtasked Dutch army to halt completely.

the Dutch adopted a strategy of fortified positions along their borders at key points, with the inbetween areas patrolled by both cavalry and infantry units. The ambition was to establish enough strong points to be able to cover the entire border inbetween them with artillery fire and patrols. But whilst certainly a pragmatic solution, the reality was that large lengths of the expanded borders were often left undefended for weeks because of how thin troops had to be spread.

Most efforts were focussed on the North, where digging took place to redirect the IJssel river, and the old Northern and Western coastlines. But this meant that especially in the middle, gaps in the defense and patrols were quite evident and often exploited by both Allies and Germans to covertly scout and raid.

No major incursions were attempted though, as this would mean invading a still neutral country, and also because both sides simply lacked the resources to open up a completely new front. So they stuck to small off the books actions actions. Whenever possible, tresspassers were captured and detained, but it was estimated that recorded incursions on Dutch soil formed just a mere twenty percent at most of the actual number.

At the same time, with the Lunar changes, a great many local myths and sagas turned out to have been rooted in reality after all. Dutch soil appeared to have been especially susceptible to the effects of moon magics. it was speculated that this was because of the fact that tidal effects on the land had always been very great, infusing the land with dormant magic.

Especially burial mounds and dolmen turned out to be focal points of ethereal energies, and it was found that the newly risen land contained a great many of these. Witte Wieven rose from these locations, both on the old land and the new. Will-o'-the-wisps meandered through the trees and high grasses and scarecrow like defenders of the land roamed everywhere. It seemed as if the Doggerland and Dutch mainland were finally awake and whole again.

And the Dutch population, having lived in this tide-affected land since before reckoning, was revealed to have a larger than average amount of people with magic abilities. So the defenses in the new Northern territories were added to with witches, who were often stationed and billetted together with the border troops.

They quickly became a staple addition to the Dutch military, by which they were afforded great respect. What the Dutch army lacked in resources such as armour, vehicles, artillery and other resources, they made up for in sheer magical abilities and an innate connection to the land.

So, the Dutch: below average troops (exception being the marines, obviously), very little to no armour, machine guns or field artillery (perhaps something captured, but very rare) and a larger than average reliance on magic and cavalry...