War With Britain To Be Rehearsed.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 8, 1912:
Hypothesis on Which German Manoeuvres in North Sea Are to be Conducted.
GREAT FORTS FOR BORKUM
All Energies of German Navy Department Directed Toward Possibility of War with England.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    BERLIN, Sept 7.— The hypothesis that Germany and England will be at war in the North Sea between Sept. 10 and 20 is that on which the great "Kaiser manoeuvres" of the German fleet will be brought to a spectacular finish in the presence of Emperor William and the highest commanding officers of the army and navy.
    The fleet, which is now engaged night and day in battle practice in the region of Heligoland and other strategic points along the island-dotted coast of the North Sea, is the most powerful armada ever gathered under the German flag. It consists of thirty-nine ironclads — eight dreadnought battleships, three dreadnought battle-cruisers, fourteen pre-dreadnought battleships, three armored cruisers, and eleven protected cruisers — in addition to forty-four of the highest power torpedo boats, six submarines, and four mine-searching vessels.
    This armada is described in the press as the exact fleet with which Germany would take to sea if war should begin at this hour. The manoeuvres, to be carried on in the presence of the Kaiser, who will be on beard the flagship Deutschland, will be based on the theory that a superior force — meaning, of course, the British fleet — has blockaded the North Sea, and, having blocked up the German fleet within the blockaded, area, is seeking to find it and compel it to fight a decisive engagement.
    It becomes increasingly plain from day to day that all the energies of the German Navy Department, like those of the British Admiralty, are directed exclusively toward the possibility of an Anglo-German Armageddon in the North Sea. It was announced, for instance, by the German Navy Department this week that the Island of Borkum, which has hitherto possessed only second-rate coast defenses, is about to be converted into a first-class fortified position like Heligoland, which has been called the German Gibraltar.
    Borkum is one of the islands covering the entrance to the channel which leads to Emden, and its new fortifications are with a view to preventing a blockade of the mouth of the Ems.
    A no less significant announcement is that all German dreadnoughts, as fast as they are completed, are to be stationed at the powerful North Sea base of Wilhelmshaven. Of the thirteen German dreadnoughts built or building, two, the Prinz Regent Luitpold and the Kaiserin, had been temporarily assigned to the Baltic station, but they will now be sent to Wilhelmshaven as soon as they are ready for commission.