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| - This caused lots of diplomatic pressure for the Czar as the British government demanded that the Baltic fleet stop to aid in the investigation into the incident. However, Tsar Nicholas II wanted the fleet in the east quick as possible and demanded the British postpone the investigation, but the British weren't having any of this and forced the Baltic Fleet to stop in the Bay of Biscay on October 22nd and placed troops on the Russian ships to make sure they followed the British fleet returning to Portsmouth. Then when in the English Channel, approaching the Isle of Wight on October 23rd, the Baltic Fleet commander Zinovy Rozhestvensky received a message from the Tsar demanding to make haste to Japan regardless of the current situation or face a court martial, the new only recently appointed Head of Naval Staff wanted to keep his reputation and decided to throw the British troops on board his ships over board and they messaged the British Home fleet escort commander to tell him that they were leaving to Japan and they wouldn't be sidetracked. The British demanded that they stop and as they left the escort they continued, they British continued to demand the Russians stop, then as the Russian fleet was passing Alderney in the Channel islands, a small merchant British ship traveled in front of the Russian Fleet, the Russians believing this was another British cruiser fired at it and sunk the ship in a small barrage (the Russians didn't mean to hit the ship as it was warning shots but due to miscommunication the gunners thought they were to destroy the ship), the British seeing another British merchant ship being shot at, where furious and fired hitting and destroying a Russian destroyer; the Russian fleet then turned around to fight the British, thus the Battle of Alderney began and a British victory followed with the majority of the Russian ships destroyed as they turned to meet the British, but poor Russian naval artillery fire meant only 7 of the British ships were hit, with only one British ship sunk, 1 ship needing major repairs, and the rest minor repairs. However, during this battle other merchant vessels and fishing vessels where destroyed in the cross-fire. This battle then caused the British to declare war on Russia in order to avenge the civilian ships, respond to social outcry over the Dogger Bank incident and the political reasoning behind the declaration, to honour the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 since Montenegro also declared war, which set off Article 2 of the alliance and Britain declared War on Russia and Montenegro. This was the start of the conflict in Europe in this World War as after this declaration the German Kaiser Wilhelm II saw interest in the war and decided to wait to see how serious the British would be in the war, and if he deemed them serious enough, he would have Germany enter the war against Russia; or if the British looked like they would lose, the Kaiser would help the Russians. However, the French were torn between helping either the British or the Russians in this war since they had alliances with them both, and decided if another country was to join with Britain and Japan attacking Russia, then they would join on Russia's side, or if another two countries joined with Russia to fight Britain and Japan, then the French would help the British; this agreement was known as the Dijon compromise. The British begin a naval blockade on October 30th of where the North sea meets the Baltic sea, by destroying any Russian Naval craft and charging all other Russian Merchant ships with a toll, and failure to pay the toll resulting in the confiscation of the trade goods and ships, with the ships being given to the families of people who had their lives and ships taken by the Russians in the Dogger Bank incident and the Battle of Alderneyther; and the trade goods sold for cheap in London. A similar blockade was set up in the Straits of Ottranto on November 3rd to stop Montenegrin naval ships, and charging a fee to merchant vessels, but failure this time to comply with the toll, meant the ships and trade goods where sold of cheap in Malta. Also due to the war effort, the British admiralty decided to have all future battleships turbine powered, and the plans for the HMS Dreadnought are pushed forward, and it is laid out on the 29th November (2 years earlier than in the real world time line), it was launched on 14th January 1906 and commissioned on the 26th of January 1906, before joining the North Sea blockade.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)