Timid?

This is coolbert:

Again, from the excellent web site "The Imperial German Navy, 1869 - 1919":

"Wilhelm sold his countrymen short. The record of German seamanship and courage proves the High Seas Fleet was an effective and canny fighting force when permitted to fight, and that its more recent ships were at least a match for the British. The war record of von Spee's Asiatic Squadron . . . of German commerce raiders and submariners . . . [the] strikingly effective escape in the night at Jutland -- this is a worthy record. It bespeaks high standards of gunnery, seamanship, and discipline, with not a little gallantry and panache thrown in"

"pa·nache - – noun 1. a grand or flamboyant manner; verve; style; flair"

The German Navy, at Jutland [1916], giving out better than it received [sank more enemy ships with greater enemy casualties], twice successfully executing difficult high-speed maneuvers to prevent English entrapment, escaping under conditions of low-visibility, demonstrating considerable prowess and fighting ability when outnumbered and out-gunned. Jutland is generally considered to have been a DRAW! On several occasions, however, the "contest" could have gone either way?

Consider also those surface naval engagements during the early years [1914-1915] of World War One [WW1] between English and German squadrons.

1. Coronel.

"The World War I naval Battle of Coronel took place on 1 November 1914 off the coast of central Chile near the city of Coronel. German Kaiserliche Marine forces . . . defeated a Royal Navy squadron"

Decisive German victory.

Coronel having been:

"This was Britain's first naval defeat since the Battle of Lake Champlain in the War of 1812 and the first of a British naval squadron since the Battle of Grand Port in 1810"

2. Falkland Islands.

The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a British naval victory over the Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 during the First World War in the South Atlantic.

Decisive British victory.

3. Heligoland Bight.

"The First Battle of Heligoland Bight was the first naval battle of the First World War, fought on 28 August 1914"

British victory.

4. Dogger Bank.

"The Battle of Dogger Bank was a naval battle fought near the Dogger Bank in the North Sea on 24 January 1915, during the First World War, between squadrons of the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet."

British victory.

[not to be confused with the Dogger Bank incident of 1905. Russian naval forces obliterating British fishing vessels in a case of mistaken identity!!]

This too - - as written by an English naval officer in the aftermath of Dogger Bank:

"The German Navy was manned by a personnel no less courageous and at least as well trained as our own; their ships were superior type for type; their gunnery was more accurate. Yet in the mind of every German seaman was the reflection that they were challenging the might of a navy [British] which, by and large, had dominated the seas for four centuries. The German seaman had a respect and almost traditional veneration for the British Royal navy, and entered the war with an inferiority complex in striking contrast to the superiority complex which the German Army felt towards all other armies." - - Lieutenant Stephen King-Hall.

And once again, "the moral is to the physical as three is to one" - - Napoleon.

The German - - when timid, did not succeed? The German - - when having the initiative, did succeed? You have to judge for yourself!

Timid - - that word, when used in the military context, is extremely pejorative - - a big NEGATIVE!

coolbert.