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Post by prophetinreverse on May 21, 2021 4:11:43 GMT -6
Wait how far along was the Nancy—class Marseille to completion? If it was only a few months out, then why did you scrap it instead of halting construction until the money to finish it could be raised?
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Post by maxnacemit on May 21, 2021 6:22:05 GMT -6
It was 16 months to completion, and it construction was already halted. And the war didn't allow to resume construction, so I decided to order a new Marceille when the cruisers are finished.
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Post by maxnacemit on May 22, 2021 10:00:46 GMT -6
CHAPTER 11: REARMAMENT WASTED In March, the German Reichstag approved a naval rearmament program "to contain French ambitions". The French replied with a rearmament program of their own, which caused the Germans to declare war "in the interests of internatonal stability". Unlike the Marine Nationale, the Kaiserliche Marine was very well-funded. The money allowed the Germans to build three more dreadnoughts to replace the ships sunk during the Second Franco-German war, while the French only had two battleships constructed since the end of the war. That meant that the French were blockaded as one of the new French ships, the Tourville, was still working up. In April, French torpedo cruisers and destroyers unsuccessfully raided Helgoland. The raid was unsuccessful as the French had to run from the German force as the Germans had a much better armament, but it wasn't catastrophic as no French ships were lost. In May, Tourville finished her working-up process, and a purpose-built airplane tender was designed. The ship' armament consisted of eight 102-mm guns in single high-angle mounts and 24 planes it had on board. The ship's armor was light, protecting only aganist splinters, and the armoured deck was flat. The ships were expected to keep themselves out of trouble and send torpedo-equipped planes in. Still, the ships would take long enough to construct to have a slim chance of fighting in the current war with Germany.
In June, the Germans decided to intercept a convoy supplying Norway. Since the German admirals knew that fast and powerful ships that could intercept any raider and return undamaged were plentiful in France, and the convoy was carrying supplies to Norway - and the Germans wanted to weaken French forces in Norway as it was a rich region which would be very useful for the German Empire - the whole German fleet sortied out to intercept the convoy. What the Germans didn't know, however, is that French intelligence successfully decrypted communications of the German naval staff and Charner was informed of the plan. On a military council in Paris, the decision was made to attach the whole French fleet to the convoy to destroy the Kaiserliche Marine in one decisive battle.
On the 15th of June in 1921, sun was rising above the North Sea. The Lille was sailing behind the main part of the French battlecruiser fleet, as Charner suspected that the Germans will run when faced with 380-mm guns. Of course, they could be chased down, but baiting them into a fight aganist Nancy, Tourville and Duquesne and then bringing Lille in was seen as a better idea as the torpedo cruisers would have more opportunities to make their runs in this case. The French battlecruiser line was steaming northeast at 16 knots when unknown ships were seen on the horison. The range didnt't allow identefication of the vessels, but Lille was ordered to steam at its full speed of 27 knots to join the other battlecruisers as it was suspected that the Germans were close. After ten long minutes, Charner understood he's seeing an unescorted German battleship. "Unescorted" meant that there would be little danger for the destroyers if they rushed in; "German battleship" meant that engaging it with gunfire from the start was likely to be futile. And so Charner detached a division of modern destroyers escorting Lille to accelerate and attack the German battleship with torpedoes. Ten more minutes passed, and two more German battleships were seen about 12 thousand yards further east, behing the first ship which was identified as a Von der Tann-class battlecruiser at this point. "Too bad this isn't one of their new Goebens... Still, the Von der Tann class is still not ancient enough to be considered irrelevant." - Charner thought, looking at the enemy ships from his flagship, the Tourville. French destroyers were approaching, and the German ship turned towards the two battleships making up the main attacking force. The French destroyers, however, were much faster. After ten more minutes, when both sided started exchanging gunfire and the Von der Tann almost joined the battleline, four explosions were heard. The German battlecruiser, chased down by French destroyers, stopped instantly. Despite the damage control efforts by the German crew, the ship started developing a noticeable list, but was staying afloat for the time being. The German battleships continued on their way towards the French battlecruisers, which were steaming at 27 knots and holding a single line, but still couldn't reliably hit the Germans. The Germans only turned away when, after five more minutes, a French torpedo hit each of them. The French destroyer capitains clearly gambled by firing torpedoes at long range - and the gamble succeeded. Despite the fact that Germans also had good torpedo-defence systems, their battleships were slowed down to 15 knots and sailing east, probably to return to East Prussia.
The destroyers making the initial torpedo run were now out of torpedoes. Some of them were damaged by the fire of Von der Tann's secondary guns. So they were sent back to screen Lille or to France, depending on the damage, while the torpedo cruiser Lavouasier was accelerating towards a damaged Schwaben-class German battleship. A division of destroyers escorting the main battlecruiser force set their sights on Weissenburg, which was now leading the battered German line which turned south, in the direction opposite to the charging French ships. A German protected cruiser, which sailed in to protect the retreating German battleships, forced the French destroyers to seek cover behind their own battlefleet. Lavouasier, on the other hand, managed to get to a firing position and fired all of its port torpedo tubes at Schwaben. When the torpedo cruiser was turning to retreat towards the battleline, a 360-mm shell struck its superstructure. The wooden deck plating was quickly set on fire, so the ship slowed down to 12 knots to make firefighting easier. Schwaben, hit by four more torpedoes, suffered much more. The battleship was quickly taking water in, and by the time the French battleline was steaming by, shooting at Weissenburg, the ship's crew was already abandoning ship. French destroyers pulled about 70 men from the water. The extremely armoured German battleship was sunk by torpedoes, exactly as Charner predicted.
The Weissenburg's armor wasn't as tough as Charner feared. Both 380-mm and 360-mm guns could get through, and when the French closed the range to about 7000 yards, even Duquesne's hits started damaging the German ship. Either the French shells were better than before or the German armor wasn't as tough as it was feared, but after an hour of being pounded by gunfire from all four French battlecruisers present, Weissenburg was lying dead in the water. Torpedoes were fired by destroyers escorting the battlefleet to ensure that it doesn't repair itself, as happened with many German ships. Still, Charner signalled the fleet to gather together and slowed the battlecruisers to 16 knots, to allow the light ships to catch up and keep an eye on the sinking Weissenburg.
"It's bad that the Goebens weren't here. Sinking three ships is good, but these aren't the best German ships. Their two surviving battlecruisers will always be a threat as they're at least a match to the Lyons and the Lille. The Nancys and the Marceille - when she's constructed - will, of course, be able to sink the Goebens, but the Germans will make some better battleships at this point. Still, the intelligence mentioned they'll be here. But where exactly are they?" - Charner thought, as the fleet was steaming south at 16 knots, while the damaged destroyers and Lavouasier, whose crew managed to extinguish the fire, were sent to France to avoid risking them unnecessarily. The German light forces retreated eastwards, and Charner didn't pursue them as the German light cruisers were faster than the French battlefleet, while the French torpedo cruisers were fast enough to chase down the Germans but were too lightly armed to sink them. As the fleet was steaming south, observers aboard the Lille noticed a silouette resembling a German ship on the horison to the southeast, near Jutland Peninsula. Tourville immediately signalled the fleet to accelerate to full speed and investigate what the ships are. The ships turned out to be the Goebens, and, unlike the main German fleet, they were escorted by three destroyers each. Since it was known that French destroyers are undergunned in comparison to their German counterparts, no flotilla attack order was given. Instead, the French battlecruisers opened fire at both ships. Despite the Goebens turning away, they were doomed. To the east lay the Jutland Peninsula, and the French were approaching from the west, able to intercept the Germans if they turned. To make matters worse for the Germans, the French 360-mm shells had a high muzzle velocity, so the French managed to land several hits at ranges close to the maximum ranges of the guns, and the German ships were slowed down by hits to their less-protected areas. Despite the French ships being much faster even when the Germans were undamaged, the German admiral decided to retreat towards Jutland.
The French were closing the range on the German force. The Germans had no hope of escaping into the night as it was just 15:00. The Goebens were riddled by French shells, and even French destroyers started scoring hits on their German counterparts. Still, the Germans managed to reach the Jutland Peninsula, and the Goebens weren't even close to sinking. The French fleet was keeping its distance from the coast to avoid running aground, and when a damaged German destroyer, steaming at merely 15 knots, was seen, it wasn't considered a serious threat. Two torpedoes striking Tourville amidships while it was sailing by proved the French capitain wrong.
- Let's hope that the torpedo protection system works, capitain. - Charner said. - Losing both a new battlecruiser and the admiral of the fleet aboard will be quite bad for your career.
And the torpedo protection system did work, as the damage control crews could repair the hole in the hull of Tourville, and the ship joined other damaged ships steaming towards France at 12 knots. The French fleet was still in sight, however, and Charner ordered a destroyer charge when Lille reported that the German destroyers are setting up another torpedo attack. The best-armed of French destroyers screening the main battlecruiser force accelerated to 31 knots to destroy the Goebens, which were already slowed down to 10 knots. The German destroyers couldn't offer any real resistance as they were already damaged and chose to flee to survive the French gunfire. The French flotilia proceeded to fire six torpedoes at each of the two Goebens. One of the ships exploded after being hit by the first torpedo, while the other was sinking relatively slowly, and the French could pull 136 survivors from the water.
After the Moltke rolled over and sank, Charner knew the fleet battle was over. There could be no more German battlecruisers lurking around as today, on the 15th of June, the whole German battlefleet was sunk. Losses of the French side consisted of one Pistolet-class destroyer which couldn't contain the flooding caused by 6-inch hits from German light cruisers which were protecting Weissenburg from French destroyers. Six more destroyers were severely damaged, as was the Tourville. All these ships managed to make port, and, to make matters worse for the German admiral(who seemed to be picked up by the German light cruisers), the convoy the Germans tried to intercept didn't even see German vessels. The battle was a once-in-a-lifetime victory for Charner, and he bathed in the glory when he returned to Paris. The Prime Minister wanted to make him his running mate, but Charner had no interest in politics. It was war that was drawing him to itself - the thrill of planning battles, the uncertainity of fighting them, and the glory from winning them.
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Post by maxnacemit on May 27, 2021 16:40:38 GMT -6
CHAPTER 12: PROTECTING THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH
After the battle of Skagerrak, a naval blockade of Germany was swiftly estabilished. The Germans had no ships except for some light cruisers left, and their plans of taking Norway were thwarted. Still, they attacked convoys supplying the region throughout 1921, losing destroyers in the process. The Germans' use of submarines was concerning, however, as they intended to wage a trade war aganist France, hoping to get good peace terms by threatening to starve the French. An emergency convoy escort conversion program started in December of 1921, converting ten large fishing trawlers to ASW escorts, and the conversions were to be finished by June. French submarines were torpedoing German ships, sometimes their merchant raiders would hit a mine, but it was mostly calm on the naval front of the war. In January, Charner moved Jeanne d'Arc to Northern Europe to test the carrier's capabilities. The test wasn't particularly successful - when a report came of a German raiding force approaching the French Atlantic coast, planes from Jeanne d'Arc couldn't locate the German ships, and the resulting battle was a night cruiser action. A German light cruiser was sunk by Amiral Cecile, and no French ships were lost.
In April, peace talks with the Germans started. The French took all German colonies in regions where there was a French presence already, which made sending some more ships to colonial service a necessity. The fleet could be moved to reserve during peacetime, so a Marseille-class batlecruiser was laid down. In November, large flight decks suitable for use while converting large ships were developed, and after an economic boom in the beginning of 1923, plans to convert Duquesne into a carrier were drawn up. Charner knew that battlecruisers were very expensive to build, and his level of funding...left a lot to be desired, to put it softly. So aircraft carriers equipped with the newest torpedo bombers were seen as the way for France to keep its naval superiority, Two more Arromanches-class carriers were ordered as an attractive order was received from a shipyard, and the commissioning of the second Jean Bart-class cruiser gave Charner some free funds. In October, Tourville was sent to evacuate French citizens from Libya which suffered from an uprising, Austria-Hungary condemned the move, stating that its purpose was intimidating neighbours of France into submission. A strong force sent to China seemed to give more weight to the claim, and in October naval spending was raised because of tensions with the Austrians. Dunkerque was deemed unfit for carrier conversion and scrapped, and the increased level of funding allowed to reduce delays in the construction of Marceille. In May of 1924, pilot training programs were updated. Competition was fierce, and training was harsh - but French pilots were soon considered the best-trained pilots in the war. Such a system, however, prevented the most experienced pilots from teaching new pilots during wartime, but Charner was convinced that pilot losses will be low enough for the veterans to be able to serve throughout any future war.
In September of 1924, Duquesne finished her conversion, and a strong squadron containing a majority of French battlecruisers and all French carriers was moved to the Mediterranean to deter Austria-Hungary. New Rapiere-class destroyers were also developed with better guns and more torpedoes than existing types.
The ships also carried mines, like preceding destroyer types. Despite the ships turned out to be a knot slower than designed, their torpedoes still remained dangerous weapons. Four ships were ordered in January of 1925, and the construction of Marceille was accelerated as tensions with the Austrians reached a boiling point after the French helped the British and Germans to suppress an uprising in Angola. Political concerns caused the French to proclaim neutrality in a Greek-Turkish war that broke out in April. Lilles completed their refits with better guns, fire control systems and DP guns that month, and Charner was no longer inclined to view the French situation as perilous, especially when the first light carrier of the Arromanches class entered service in May. A new fleet cruiser design was drawn to use the money freed from carrier construction, and the result was the Isly class.
The armour of the ships wasn't their selling point, as was the usual state of affairs with French cruisers. However, the main armament consisted of 10 150-mm guns, and the ships' heavy AA suite was quite good for the time. The speed of 31 knots allowed use of the ships as scouting vessels, and eight torpedoes didn't leave them hopeless even when facing much larger enemy ships.
in October, the Navy seized power in Japan in a mostly bloodless coup. This was of no concern for the French as the Japanese were seen as far away and technologically inferior. Some nationalist politicians attempted to capitalize on "the yellow peril", but the Austrian problem was seen as much more urgent. Tensions with them increased again when the French refused to send a delegation to the Hague Conference, but neither side was willing to declare war for the time being. In January of 1926, the French refused to consider any concessions to Austria on a meeting of the Parliament dedicated to this persistent foreign threat. Instead, five medium-range submarines were ordered, and Sfax-class cruisers were sent on the workd cruise of the Ecole Navale by Charner to squeeze some more funding out of the politicians. The first Isly-class cruiser was laid down in February, and in March, the Troude-class torpedo cruisers were designed.
The ships were as fast as destroyers, and differed from earlier torpedo cruisers mostly in their AA suite, fire control systems and the ability to carry mines. In June, two ships were ordered, along with another Isly-class cruiser. The old Surcouf-class torpedo cruisers were scrapped to save money as they were seen as too slow and carrying too few torpedoes. In July, the Marceille was finally commissioned, and two Rapiere-class destroyers were ordered. A foreign policy crisis ready to erupt in Africa was resolved by French diplomats, which helped avoid immediate war aganist the Austrians, but caused attacks on the Marine Nationale in the press. Fleet in the Mediterranean, however, was mobilised to be ready for Austrian provocations. And in October, a provocation came in the form of an Austrian submarine firing a torpedo at Marceille and missing. An ultimatum was issued, demanding submarine bases in Dalmatia to be handed over to the French and the Austrian capitain to be tried. No response came from the Austrians, and the French fleet moved into the Mederranean.
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Post by maxnacemit on Jun 8, 2021 16:11:54 GMT -6
CHAPTER 13: DEATH FROM ABOVE It was November of 1926, and the French ships were moving in to estabilish a blockade of Austria-Hungary. As the Austrian submarine fleet was seen as a concern making supplying the fleet difficult during the first months of the war, when submarine activity would be strongest, it was accompanied by a huge supply convoy. At 3 am, observers on the torpedo cruiser Amiral Cecile saw a silouette of a large enemy ship less than two miles from the convoy. The trained French crews quickly recognised the vessel as a hostile battlecruiser and relayed the information to the French heavy vessels. The torpedo cruisers, however, weren't waiting for the French big-gun ships to deal with the problem. Amiral Cecille and Lavouasier accelerated to flank speed, moved in and launched their torpedoes. Four hits were recorded, and the Austrian vessel stopped in the water and started to sink.
This wasn't the whole Austrian force, however. When the sun started to rise, Marceille and Tourville saw another Austrian battlecruiser, surrounded by escorts, about 10 thousand yards to north-west. The Austrian ship also saw the French vessels and opened fire. Its first salvo managed to explode Marceille's front turret, and debris from the explosion jammed the remaining turret. "It seems to be their most modern ship... It would be bad if something happened to it as their other battleships have guns of 330mm caliber at most..." - Charner thought, as he ordered his flag lieutenant to signal the torpedo cruisers to make an attack on the enemy capital ship.
Fortunately, the French cruisers still had torpedoes left, and secondary guns of the first Austrian battlecruiser encountered didn't even hit them. They accelerated towards the enemy battlecruiser, which was indeed recognised as the most modern Austrian design, while Marceille and Tourville also closed the range to draw fire to themselves and give the Tourville better chances of hitting its target. The Austrian ship didn't even attempt to run from the French torpedo cruiser. It seemed to only pay attention to the French battlecruisers, and its fire was quite accurate. It abruptly stopped, however, when two French torpedoes hit the Austrian ship. And then two more. And then two more. The hole in the Austrian battlecruiser's hull could be seen from Marceille at this point, and so the battlecruisers retreated, despite the Marceille finally managing to unjam her superimposed turret.
The battle showed the potential of torpedo cruisers to the world. A similar action off Greece in January of 1927, where two more Austrian battlecruisers were sunk, again by French torpedo cruisers, further convinced the naval estabilishment of the ships' capabilities, despite two French torpedo cruisers getting sunk while pursuing the third Austrian battlecruiser. That battle was also the first battle where aircraft carriers were able to attack and sink an enemy ship, which was an Austrian light cruiser, but that paled in comparison with the torpedo cruisers' achievements. In April, though, the carriers got a chance to redeem themselves.
The French blockade, combined with diplomatic efforts to impose an embargo upon Austria-Hungary, bore fruit, and considerable social unrest was observed among the ordinary Austrians. The Austrian navy made a desperate attempt to break the blockade to somehow quell that unrest, and the Austrian fleet sortied into the Mediterranean to find and destroy the French in a decisive fleet battle. The French battleships, however, were undergoing routine maintenance in Tunisia. The Austrians, of course, managed to find the French ships. But torpedo bombers from Duquesne found the Austrian fleet first. When reconnaisance planes reported a sighting of three battleships with escorts near French territories and maintaining a course towards the French fleet, a strike from Duquesne, consisting of twenty new torpedo bombers, was ordered.
The French pilots were worried. After all, the pre-war carrier excercises showed that a battleship will easily chase down and destroy a carrier, if they were to be pitted againist each other. Of course, the carrier in the excercises was the Jeanne d'Arc, converted from the only French proper pre-dreadnought battleship, but even Duquesne wasn't protected well enough for the armour to matter in case the carrier was seen. Their planes' range would be insufficient to land in Tunisia in case anything happened to the Duquesne, so the pilots could only pray that the French battlecruisers stop the Austrian ships. Still, an order to strike was received, and twenty planes took off from Duquesne.
An hour later, the pilots could see their target. Three Austrian battleships were steaming towards Tunisia, surrounded by escorts. The pilots' orders were to attack the battleships, and so they started their torpedo runs. Austrian anti-air artillery wasn't well-developed - in fact, two of the ships had no AA protection at all. So five torpedo hits were recorded, four of them - on the leading battleship of the line, which was, as all ships encountered by the French, unprepared to deal with such flooding and listed hard to port, where the torpedoes hit. The planes turned away towards Duquesne, and the Austrians continued on their grim mission. Unfortunately for them, the French battlecruisers Nancy, Tourville and Marceille approached the Austrian battleline merely twenty minutes after the airstrike and started exchanging gunfire with the Austrians. The enemy ships promptly turned east, the Austrian admiral unwilling to have his entire fleet slaughtered when his mission was to do the same to the French. Only one of the ships, however, had a chance to escape, and the Austrian slow battleship soon started receiving hits from Marceille. Prolonged 410-mm fire riddled the Austrian ship's hull, destroying the engine rooms, jamming turrets and tearing down the superstructure until the Austrian vessel was sinking. However, a lucky 305-mm hit from the vessel meant that the Tourville's rudder was jammed, forcing it to close the distance to an escaping Austrian battlecruiser. At short range, 330-mm guns could penetrate even the armoured belt of the Tourville. And the Austrians seemed to be investing heavily into gunnery training, as many hits were recorded aboard the Tourville. By the time the ship managed to turn away, it was forced to slow down to 12 knots to make damage control work easier. It helped, as the heavily battered battlecruiser was able to make port. The other French battlecruisers turned away because of the Austrian destroyer threat, but a second aitrstrike was sent out to deal with the escaping battlecruiser, which failed to find its target. In the end, two Austrian battleships were sunk without French losses. The carriers proved themselves to be true kings of the seas, being able to send strikes from an unprecedented range and the strikes themselves being more powerful than torpedo cruiser salvos. Carriers were extremely vulnerable, however, so torpedo cruisers were to intercept enemy capital ships that somehow got within visual range from the carriers to sink or at least distract them while the carriers are moving away at flank speed.
After the battle, the Austrians switched to a convoy-raiding strategy. As fleet light cruisers were scarce in the Marine Nationale, the convoys were protected by torpedo cruisers and destroyers, which had very few chances againist modern light cruisers. In the first convoy action in May, the French managed to sink one of the Austrian light cruisers with torpedoes from long range, which made the Austrians break off, but the second convoy wasn't so lucky. The French warships managed to escape, but a quarter of the convoy was sunk, and the majority of the surviving ships sustained damage. In July, Sfax managed to sink an Austrian converted merchant sent to raiding duties, and in August, the last surviving Austrian battlecruiser sortied to break the blockade and bring much-needed supplies ordered from Germany. It was intercepted near Algeria by Marceille and Tourville, and the French didn't make the mistake of being too close this time. The Austrian battlecruiser was outnumered and vastly outgunned by its opponents, and 410-mm hits to the engine rooms meant it couldn't even escape. The loss of their last capital ship and the lack of supplies meant that the Austrian government was forced to proceed with the peace negotiations. As Austria-Hungary had few colonies, the French decided to make the Austrians pay hefty reparations instead. After the war, funding for the submarine department of the Engineering Committee was reduced as over the wars of the 1920s France couldn't make use of its large submarine force as the enemy was blockaded after two or three months at most, and submarines had too few chances of catching modern fast warships for them to be useful in supporting the fleet.
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