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Post by akosjaccik on Sept 6, 2020 11:20:22 GMT -6
June, 1907
"One last sortie to break the blockade."That was all the italian Chief of the Naval Staff asked in his last, widely distributed letter addressing his men. Asked, although it still being formally an order. There were very good reasons for this extremely unusual way of managing the fleet, amongst them chiefly the fact that the high command was about to lose the last bit of semblance of authority over the ship's crews, who were by then openly organizing themselves into committees and disarming their officers.
The celebrating crew of S.M.S. Panther (Historical photograph: Pola, taken before the fleet's departure, 23rd of May, 1915)
For a long time the agitators could not account for any meaningful success when it came to spreading the ideas of Marx and Engels. Things changed radically once people started to starve. As losses began to mount up and the standard of living downgrade, the common men started to show interest in alternatives - more importantly, common men serving in the Army and the Navy, working at the shipyards, manufacturing the shells, weaving the textiles for the flags. On the eighth day of the month these flags suddenly turned into blood-red colour in the wake of a massive protest growing out from a clash between the police forces and workers on strike.
The success of the revolution surprised just about everyone, likely including the revolutionaires themselves. There was one more notable matter that was also unexpected: that they were far from being idiotic or suicidial doctrinaires.
The new government seemed to be aware that in response to the danger their ideology poses to the european status quo, they will immediately find themselves on top of the "issues to deal with"-lists of the neighbouring states - and that they are in no shape to fight on against the grip that's already wrapped around their country with full force. Most likely this is why they did not dare to touch the king, Vittorio Emanuele the Third, but simply forced him to appoint their government and "hand over the country to its people". Finally, they pragmatically proclaimed that the workers of Italy are responsible for Italy and Italy alone (thereby carefully indicating that they do not wish to influence the internal affairs of other countries, no matter the idea of "world revolution"), and in the name of humanity they lay down their arms unconditionally. Admittedly, this was smart. By keeping the old guard de jure in charge and then surrendering unconditionally, they've created a situation where it was extremely dangerous for our alliance to push on, not least because of the war-weariness on our sides as well.
We've won a total, yet uneasy victory. For quite some time nobody really understood what's actually happening apart from the fact that we've won. Ultimately however, we needed to get to work and clean up or, well, contain this whole mess.
France pretty much immediately announced it's claim on Sardinia, although the french Ministry of War was kind enough to inform us beforehand and only then landed to occupy the island. ...the difference between the two act was barely two hours, but technically we got notified. The french landing force merrily sailed past the completely dumbfounded S.M.S. Wimpffen, who was patrolling the area, and the communist regime showed virtually no resistance. The act itself met with quite a dire uproar amongst our ranks, where it was generally seen as the french exploiting the success the Kriegsmarine fought and bled for first and foremost. Germany and Great Britain no doubt weren't exactly thrilled about the expanding french dominance in the area either - Germany due to the "french" part, and Great Britain because of the "dominance" part. All this noise, in turn, was overpowered by the joyous french shout of victory.
In turn our statesmen were entertaining the thought of seizing Rhodes in the peace deals, but for a "vanity prize" and for denying the enemy of a rather inconsiderable base the costs seemed to be too severe: disputes with the Ottoman Empire, potential disapproval of the other great powers, the extension of our area of operations to defend a not particularly valuable asset - all of this demanded caution and self-control. In the end, beside a few minor border changes the Monarchy did not make any territorial claims - in exchange for significant compensation. Internally speaking, what happened with Italy should serve as an alarming example, and ought to motivate our finest to start thinking about the future of both the state and it's people, and how the government interacts with both, perhaps even sketch up plans for social reforms and federalization of the territories. As we are taking our first steps in the twentieth century, the need for flexible adaptation seem to come forth with a haste.
Regarding our immediate future however, it's time to get back to the matter we have the means to directly control: the fleet. Especially so since the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Finance showed exceptionally responsible spending given how they immediately cut our funding while the ink did not even properly dry on the peace agreement. Hence the restructuring of the fleet was ordered as illustrated:
The first battleship division was placed in reserve primarily due to financial reasons. The Wien-class ships, although fought this war from the first battle to the last, are armed with Krupp's 24cm L/40 K94 rifles about which one can make the argument of already having been obsolete before the war even began. Although this will only get worse as time goes on, our experience with the blockade pointed at the fact that for a wide variety of tasks at least a given quantity of ships are sorely needed - thus chances are the Wien's will quickly find their purpose in the near future as well. When it comes to the Second Destroyer Division, the formation (equipped with the small, 400-ton Lussin-class destroyers) lost two vessels in the conflict, the Cobra and the Kigio, leaving three available destroyers. Although there are no plans to disband the division - if anything, the contrary -, the unit is on the verge of combat incapability due to their numbers, hence currently they are awaiting for rearming and reorganization in reserve as well.
S.M.S. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand in floating dock, late June of 1907 (Historical photograph: S.M.S. Habsburg in Pola, 1908)
For similar reasons as stated above, the S.M.S. Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand was sent into mothballs. Ships of the First- and Second Coastal Defense Divisions were also by and large mothballed after they completed their work with dismantling the ports' wartime artificial barriers such as submarine nets and minefields. The greatest outrage was caused by placing the Zenta class into mothballs. Sure enough, it was a harsh and heavy decision, as the small cruisers were always where they needed to be, be it a surface engagement, blockade duty or trade protection, however, their task (and their select crews largely) has now been taken over by the, well, nomen est omen: Ersatz Zenta or Admiral-class ships of the Third Cruiser Divison. Currently there is no decision regarding the fate of the ships themselves, but since the related costs are negligible, for now there is no intention to scrap them either. The relatively unsung heroes of the war, the AMCs - more precisely the surviving four - were disarmed and sold off to private companies, for example the Irma is now serving the Österreichischer Lloyd under the name SS Thalia. No doubt the caoutchouc she's shipping now is a more pleasant cargo than the 10cm shells were - both to herself and her clients. With all that said, the world isn't completely at rest and without tensions. No doubt the freshly minted "People's Republic of Italy" won't forgive so easily such a humiliation and stranglehold either. For now however, perhaps the best course of action for us will be to tackle the tasks one after the other. In the next months, we'll need to evaluate the actions taken-, and results occurred in the war, evaluate the financial situation, overview the fleet and lay down the foundations for the upcoming years to come. Even still, the world cannot go mad so much so that we don't have time for a celebrational champagne. To the men who lived to see this glory, and more importantly to the men who made their sacrifices so this achievement became possible!
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Post by pastur on Sept 8, 2020 19:02:59 GMT -6
Victory at last! And what better solidifies an Empire than Victory? Interesting approach with the Italians-- the way you described it I almost expected you to have a kind of Red version of the Fascist revolution in 22, where the King appoints them to government while he himself is sidelined. Hopefully the reparations will be enough to see Austria-Hungary into the Dreadnought age in good budgetary strength.
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Post by thefleetofoceans on Sept 9, 2020 14:45:17 GMT -6
Private Journal of Captain A. Blackadder: officer commanding Armoured Cruiser HMS Antrim The Austrians have won, the Italians have caved in to a socialist revolution. Whether that will lead to further problems down the line remains to be seen, but for now peace has returned to the Adriatic. Another circumstance has occurred however as a result, I have bade goodbye to the vindictive as she sails off to a station in the Caribbean. In recognition of my service as his majesties representative in Pola during what I have come the term the Austro-Italian war, I have been granted command of the Armoured Cruiser HMS Antrim. With our nation now being friendly with the revitalised Qing Dynasty and with my experience as a diplomat I have been ordered to the china station to liaise with the Chinese navy. It is a shame to leave Pola behind as I have made good friends here, I'll miss hogans wit and intellect and hell i'll even miss Klink. But with Austria Resurgent and American presence in the pacific, who knows perhaps in the future I might find american and austrian cruisers sharing the same harbour as myself once again. Until my next entry. Albert Blackadder
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Post by thefleetofoceans on Sept 9, 2020 14:45:35 GMT -6
That picture was bigger than I was expecting
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Post by akosjaccik on Sept 10, 2020 13:37:47 GMT -6
thefleetofoceans Armored cruisers tend to play that trick on myself as well. I don't expect them to be that large. Bon voyage, Sir, I hope will have the means to experience the hospitality of the Kriegsmarine once again in the near future! o7 pastur : It was roughly the model really, as the game specified the "communist regime", but without the usual process of changing the colors, renaming the streets, ships, cities sometimes, converting the bourgeoisie into biocompost and so on; so in my mind I shifted the events more towards a socialdemocratic "end the war at all cost" rather than a communist "end the former oppressive regime at all costs". I admittedly did not focus so much on the world building as ieshima or MateDow though, not least because of my lack of language skills (and different emphasis, but that's the lesser issue ). In anycase, I'll further the events in this small-ish update, which aims to harbinger a new era regardless
July, 1907
In hindsight, it was a fairly clear decision. First, we've finished the conflict with an estimated advantage of 240% more capital ship tonnage - this number does contain the obsolescent coastal defense battleships, but does not count with the french fleet. Secondly, all trends seem to point towards this - the rather friendly liaison officer of His Majesty, before departing onboard the HMS Antrim first-rate cruiser, discreetly informed us about the rough parameters of their groundbreaking new ship type called "battlecruiser" to be completed around September. The venerable Royal Navy esentially gave the answer to our recent questions regarding the rampant armored cruiser-issue well before we even began working on it. Thirdly, the italian government desperately needs to create jobs for it's citizens and to do something with the economy. Battleships might not be popular, but going to bed with an empty stomach is even less so, and the heavy industry can take up quite the number of workers.
And yet, it was still surprising to be briefed about Italy laying down the keel of a new type of all big-gun battleship, a "dreadnought" in english theoretical terminology, just one month after their quasi-collapse.
Well inside the boundaries of Montenegro's territorial waters, S.M.S. Dahlerup shamelessly utilizesher Parseval-Sigsfeld 'Drachenballon' observation balloon to take a peek at the neighbours.As the Ottoman Empire gradually loses it's grip over it's european holdings, the Monarchy's interest grows ever more so in the area.(Click HERE for a larger version!)
(Historically, the K.u.K. Kriegsmarine's Naval Technical Committee suggested that an aeronautical department should be estabilished and they began experimenting with observation balloons in early 1902. Although the organizational adaptation never came to fruition due to financial reasons, the Army loaned one of their balloon sections to the Navy in each summer up until 1907, when the Navy decided against the technology and proposed the further development of optical signal stations instead.)
Naturally, the Evidenzbureau was tasked to handle the issue with the upmost priority, but so far barely anything more is know than the ship's name and displacement, the former being Vittorio Veneto, and the latter is assumed to be 18.800 long-tons. The Kaiser-class perhaps may be able to fight the threat, but we ought to expect an uphill battle to say the least. The basic layout may look similar to our design studies of january, however Italy has access to 13" armament. At least we have good reasons to believe that they do not have any designs of triple turrets ready for implementation just yet, so we can assume - but not necessarily count on - the Vittorio Veneto utilizing a six-gun broadside.
When it comes to gunnery, we are perhaps catching up, but only slowly: Skoda presented the improved 30,5cm rifles (Q0) this month in front of the MTK - although too late for the Kaiser-class to take any advantage of without a costly rearmament process. At least the opportunity is there, and this is something we could address in wet berth and under six months theoretically. The Technische Hochschule in Vienna also built a testing tank for hydrodynamical experiments. Perhaps it is too early to explicitely state that the package of measures referred to as "Prometheus-plan" started yielding results, but the direction we seem to head towards seem to be the right way. Well... until the foreseeable diplomatic complications.
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Post by thefleetofoceans on Sept 10, 2020 13:42:47 GMT -6
Thanks for canonising my involvement. Now then off to china to become Canon in that AAR and become the bridge between the keeps the two AAR's in the same canon.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Sept 10, 2020 14:10:16 GMT -6
You shall be the "Canoneer". Alas you'll be retired by the time my AAR gets off the ground. akosjaccik "converting the bourgeoisie into biocompost" *guffaw, guffaw, many guffaws*
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Post by thefleetofoceans on Sept 10, 2020 14:45:56 GMT -6
probably . But i've established a lore now. We've got Blackadder (portrayed by myself), Klink (A introduction to canon by yourself), Hogan (Where klink goes hogan is never far behind). Now all we need is chinese officer commanding a cruiser to join the mix and we'll be good to go.
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Post by akosjaccik on Sept 12, 2020 7:47:34 GMT -6
Well. I've apparently ran out of storage space for the webpage. This is, as you can imagine, a very calm, comforting feeling. Understandable that a garbage little free webhosting service stops at ~250Mb, but it wasn't a news I was desperately needed in my day. Aaanyway. I was almost more afraid of the next post than the war itself, but I pressed through to some degree, as I wanted to give some justice to the first ever war of the AAR. I sure hope you gentlemen like to read "I am not quite sure" in seventy different ways, over and over again!
August, 1907 It's rather simple to summarize what did we do right in the previous conflict arching over two and a half years: we've came out victorious. A much more important topic to address would be: what did we do wrong? Glory may lull us into a false sensation of security and overconfidence, so in a way it is crucial that we should be more critical of ourselves than in defeat, where failure and misconduct show themselves in a more noticeable way. So now that our experts are busy playing with the new testing tank, we have ample opportunity to take the time and take an overall look at the events of the war, and perhaps interpolate from its datapoints. S.M.S. Hunyadi shown in the historical scheme of S.M.S. Radetzky
BATTLESHIPS - priority: mediumApart from the two great battles and some other large engagements of lesser importance, the capital units give the impression of them not being particularly overworked. However, their presence and availability were crucial when it came to enforcing the blockade. While on one hand, this meant that our smaller, less capable battleships were able to effectively aid us in concluding the war with a - for all intents and purposes total - victory without risking direct engagements, at the same time, it also means that it will be difficult to do without them and the process of replacing them should be approached carefully. The need for replacement is, unfortunately, obviously there. The war shockingly quickly pointed out the fact that any waterline hit might cause flooding easily capable to compromise speed, steering or even dangerously reduce the reserve buoyancy. Pre-war tests indicated that as much as ~20% of the shells hitting a battleship may end up striking areas protected by plates falling under the "extended belt" category ( see the combined test results of the fleet exercises of 1900 and 1901 here). Meaning, even though the coastal defense ships' vital parts are well-armored and can be expected to hold up against today's high-caliber guns at expected ranges (although not for long), the older ships' ~5cm thick plates on the extremities are very clearly liabilities. To quote the report dealing with the very first engagement of the war back from January of 1905: "As a rule of thumb, the main belt held true, but the extended belt section very clearly did not, resulting in hits at the waterline tearing the ship open and causing flooding. Shipping water, coupled by one instance where the deck armor was pierced by fragments which damaged the machinery were the main causes for the fleet to slow down. For example, the Wien suffered a waterline hit from a 24cm armor-piercing shell fired from ~5700 yards by the armored cruiser Amalfi. It proved technically possible for armored cruisers to sink the Wien-class(...)"Comparison of the old and new type armor layout. Note the advantage of the Kaiser-class ship even with assuming the usage of equal armament. More importantly: note the disadvantage of the ship type that 78% of our capital ships consist of.
This then directly led towards the fleet taking a more cautious stance to only open up and take the offensive once again after the presence of french forces secured that losing capital ships would not necessarily dissolve the blockade. The development and construction of the Kaiser-class ships already incorporated these experiences. However, this still only means that two capital ships out of nine can be expected to actually stand and fight a line battle to it's conclusion given their capabilities, and even then the emergence of the new "dreadnought"- and "battlecruiser"-type ships indicate that while survivability and staying power should be adequate, firepower and speed are less and less so. When it comes to addressing these issues, the problem is that we are not quite able to build better ships than the Kaiser-class just yet, and the "dreadnoughts" make it very questionable to build more of those. Arguably it's also more pressing to reorganize the destroyers who lost an entire division-worth of vessels. Currently some very well financed ongoing projects deal with the development of domestically produced large turbines, after which the biggest headache would be the caliber-gap. For now, we will give the experts and the intelligence services some time to show something promising before sacrificing a large portion of the funds for something that may still not be much better than a six-month "solution". The pre-dreadnoughts don't cost a whole lot in mothballs for now, and we can't do without their presence just yet, else we risk getting blockaded ourselves - there is little to no sense in extensively rebuilding them however. CRUISERS - priority: low to mediumThe cruiser force is both blessed and cursed by ups and lows. In short: blessed are the Admirals. The 5000-ton protected cruisers were the top of their line at the time of their launch, and they conducted themselves in the war accordingly. The seven 15cm rifles per broadside give them the opportunity to fight each and any cruiser of their class at least on an even footing, and their 23 knots of speed is adequate still for a multitude of tasks. It is safe to say that the Third Cruiser Division has every reason to see itself an elite force, and their four ships are the pride of the fleet. They are still somewhat hindered by the horizontal section of the armored deck which isn't quite fragment-proof, their short operational range and to a lesser extent the fact that development trends in machinery construction predict even greater speeds in the future. The crew of the S.M.S. Donau trains to operate one of the 7cm SFK L/45-s in fireproof gear. They were unfortunate enough to quickly gain firsthand experience about the importance of fire prevention and fire-fighting. (Historical photograph of 1916, unidentified A-H vessel)
The rest of the cruiser force, the Zenta- and Donau-class ships have a whole lot more issues - issues that arguably prevent their effective participation in a primary combat environment in the future. In a way, it's already a miracle how well the two ship class performed in the war. The Zenta-class was never particularly heavily armed to begin with, but with two 15cm and four 10cm guns they were still a decent deterrence. Perhaps surprisingly, the Admiral-class isn't particularly better armored compared to them either, however they do utilize better quality steel. The Zenta-s also need to rely on local aiming for the 10cm guns, have to deal with 21 knots of speed, and have to go to battle with the reserve buoyancy 3000 tons of displacement gives them. The latter parameter heavily restricts their potential for reconstruction as well, although as long as well-maintained, even their current form is acceptable and valuable for trade protection duty.
The Donau-class arguably has it worse, despite their glorious contributions to the war effort. The 24cm L/40 K94 main guns are not up to date, and their fire control is problematic with only two barrels. Their secondary suite is decent, but they rely on local aiming. Their armor can be considered to be good enough still against up to 15cm-caliber shells, but those targets - the protected cruisers - they cannot outrun with their 20 knots of speed, and the larger, especially newer opponents cannot outfight. Adding to that, mainly due to the relatively complex engines and the concentrated weight the main turrets added, their maintenance are nearing to that of the Wien-class battleships. While the Navy isn't in dire need of the money currently spent on keeping the Donau-class in active service, they seem to be nearing towards the end of their service time.
DESTROYERS - priority: very highAll three destroyer squadrons suffered losses during the war, notably the Second Division's Lussins almost to the point of losing their operational readiness. To evaluate the current capabilities, torpedo performance can be placed on a scale ranging from adequate to excellent. The speed of 26 knots in case of the Tiger-class seemed satisfactory up until the last engagement, where destroyers overall struggled to build up advantageous positioning. Granted, a couple knots likely wouldn't have changed much, but generally speaking (for example in destroyer-on-destroyer actions) more speed, and in parallel improved seaworthiness is desirable. Regarding gunnery: the 7cm SFK was having trouble causing critical levels of damage upon hits, and if so, then the 47mm L/47's performance was downright miserable and the guns can quite literally be considered a worthless waste of weight and space. In the future, the MTK will not accept any destroyer plans utilizing main armament with a smaller than 10cm caliber.
In summary, the DESDIVs require replenishment and that should be done with a new class of ships. The plans for both the organizational changes and the new destroyers shall be done in a year, depending on the available infrastructural background.
SUBMARINES - priority: low
Worthless death traps, prone to accidents and posing more danger to their own crews than to the enemy. Perhaps. ...but.
During the war, the Unterseeboots were ordered to keep the rules of engagement in mind, forcing them to surface, identify, contact and search the merchant vessels, evacuate the crews and sink the ships - if necessary - preferably with the deck gun. This was already admittedly risky and convoluted, but once the blockade solidified, it also became unfeasible. No luck with warships either. While one could draw the conclusion that funding the submarine arm any further is a waste of money, there is merit in retaining a proficiency in operating subs we've fought for and sacrificed for so much, including lives. Not least because nothing guarantees that the current pattern will remain stationary or the effectiveness of submarine warfare will spike up. Either this will be the case or not, our potential adversaries may field submarines in any numbers, in which case the knowledge of countering the threat can very well stem from the knowledge of operating them. As such, the current plan is to roughly keep the submarine force on the same level as is. Viewing from below, Lake-type submersible 'U 1' launches a torpedo During the war the crews of the subs did not have much opportunity truly throw this untested technology into the fray
A BRIEF EVALUATION OF SOME OTHER ASPECTS Trade warfareOnce again, a mixed bag. Keeping the submarines and the blockade aside, on the offensive side equipping the armed merchant cruisers was probably the right call, not least because their services proved to be useful even after the blockade went into effect. Perhaps the viability of a cheap, fast dedicated raiding cruiser class should be discussed? On the defensive side, AMCs and the Zenta-class small cruisers have managed to thwart quite some attempts from opportunistic raiders, however the core issue remained the same thorough the war and in essence, it remains still: Arguably, one of Italy's errors was squandering the otherwise formidable armored cruiser force on piecemeal raiding attempts against the merchant shipping instead of concentrating their capital ships and strike at our forces before the french forces arrived into the area - and looking from this angle, Italy had all the time in the world. Even still, it's undeniable that the italian raiders did put some strain on supplying the industry and the population, and once again: as much as we did not have a clear-cut answer to this issue three years ago, we still do not have one today - and the armored cruisers did not go anywhere just yet:
Should we invest into a solution on the tactical level, roughly speaking there are two directions we can turn towards. One would be "simply" building a faster, stronger large armored cruiser ourselves, potentially exploiting the concentration of firepower our triple turret technology seems to promise. The other would be following the Royal Navy's footsteps and laying down the keel of a so-called "Schlachtkreuzer" - a battlecruiser, which would very well suit the vague "cruiser-killer" concept that was starting to get shaped up during the war. Once again, building domestically would mean that - apart from the usual favourable aspects in this case - we could incorporate Škoda's triple turret design, but the information gained through our cordial relations with the UK suggest that we are still far behind in engine technology. For once, we know that HMS Indomitable is equipped with steam turbines, but it is also possible that her boilers might be entirely oil-fired as well. All in all, while perhaps this isn't the most pressing matter - and a somewhat divisive one at that -, simply ignoring the enemy armored cruisers worked for now, but the war also showed that this approach has it's own very real risks. We would be wise to remember that while economical warfare esentially won the war for us, the sword can cut both ways. We should consider announcing an open tender a few months or years down the line maybe and listen to multiple voices, see if that leads to something useful.
Mine warfareShould one put it that way that "we have lost two destroyers to mines", perhaps it doesn't sound half bad. Once we say "33% of our warships were lost to mines", the numbers gain a different context though.
Somewhat strenghtening the coastal defense divisions' numbers is on the table, however we should also examine a proposal entertaining the idea of refitting the Tiger-class destroyers with minesweeping equipment.
Do note also how much of a threat underwater detonations in general posed. The importance of both passive protection via technical solutions and active defence by proper tactical approach cannot be understated. The Donaus got bulged pre-war, and the Kaisers are featuring double bottom and improved subdivision, but the underwater protection of the fleet is still very much unreliable to non-existent overall.
IN SUMMARY
Admiral-class cruisers are excellent additions, and the Kaisers are valuable assets as well, although they can be seen as a stopgap solution rather than the clear way out. The need for a generational change is nearing ever closer, but for the time being we cannot do without the legacy technology. Click HERE for the full map! Finally, we need to address the crews of two destroyers in particular. Seiner Majestät Zerstörer PYTHON never steered clear of harm's way from the very beginning, as the report about the fleet battle of January, 1905 attests for: "(...)despite the Python having to deal with a 15cm passtrough hit, two 7cm hits (one damaging the engine) and several near misses." In June, Python continued to aggressively push for opportunities, resulting in her skillfully aimed torpedo hitting and subsequently sinking the battleship Leonardo da Vinci. The ship participated in the last engagement of the war just as she did so in the very first, and did so all the way with the pride and offensive spirit that can be expected from a 400-ton vessel that has slain an almost forty times larger leviathan. For her crew's conduct, S.M.S. Python will be awarded with the right to bear the Silver Wreath, her name shall never be retired, and her bell shall be carried over when necessary. Seiner Majestät Zerstörer PANTHER aided the Aspern in the February of 1905, when during the night phase of the battle ran down, torpedoed and sunk the armored cruiser Marco Polo, potentially saving the Donau with her assault, then her crew brought the destroyer back home despite her heavily damaged state. After her repairs, Panther continued her service, and in September, 1906 the destroyer participated in the crucial attack against the convoy about to enter Cagliari. After scattering and sinking the merchant ships, the austro-hungarian squadron began rescue operations, and the italian destroyers decided to try to exploit this vulnerable moment, launching a counter-attack. In response, Panther detached from the squadron and charged the italian formation alone, with her crew infuriated by the fact that the vast majority of the survivors being rescued were italians even. With her attack, she then managed to drive back the RM destroyers to port, and in the process fired just about everything onboard at the enemy. For the reasons above, S.M.S. Panther will be awarded with the right to bear the highest possible honor a vessel can be decorated with, the Naval Signum Laudis, which "(...)can be granted to recognize outright heroic and self-sacrificing behaviour in order to reach a critical aim, protect one's comrades and serve the Monarchy and it's citizens despite all odds." Her name shall never be retired, and her bell shall be carried over when necessary. Additionally, the two destroyers will lead the Fleet Review celebrating the victory, and the flagship of the fleet, the S.M.S. Budapest will fire a six-gun salute honouring them. Although truth be told, the crews will be similarly, if not more happy for the monetary rewards and the two weeks of extraordinary leave. It's understandable, it is a beautiful late summer, after all.
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Sept 12, 2020 13:10:27 GMT -6
I Loved reading this. LOVED. First class presentation, all the details I love reading about. Brilliant.
Klink liked it too, though he wants more pictures, and explosions. ^.^
(He will try to not be offended that the navy hasn't seen fit to honor his vessel. Though it hasn't left the quay-side in years, and only serves to hold excess mail bags until they get the harbor post office expanded. He has Schultz ring the ship's bell once a day, it makes him feel better as he works in his office. He's overworked you see. Helga asked for time off, and was singing something about a slow boat to China. And where has Hogan gone off to? He was chatting with that British Captain. Ah well...)
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Post by mycophobia on Sept 14, 2020 0:25:34 GMT -6
Great read as always, and truly a great wrap up for the war. (You said you weren't gonna track the stories of individual destroyers, and yet you did anyway xD). In anycase, all this reflection really gave a feeling of history to all this AARs, and I do continue to look forward to the coming years as well!
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Post by akosjaccik on Sept 14, 2020 1:30:04 GMT -6
(Ah, on mobile I can't see the former posts when replying. Oof.) garrisonchisholm Hah, so it is once again clear that merit and valour aren't the stairways to be aknowledged and renowned, but connections and birthright. Despicable! I am glad you enjoyed despite the even-worse-than-usual text. Proofreading still isn't my forte. :/ mycophobia Usually I get happy-go-luck yover an idea, and then halfway through the work I go "aah, sh*t", but by then it's too late. That was sort of the deal with the destroyers as well, although it is still more vague than the original "ship logs" section started off as. Plus I wanted to take a semi-last look at them before the project "Z-900" reshapes the desdivs. Unless Italy forces a rematch before that.
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Post by thefleetofoceans on Sept 14, 2020 12:03:45 GMT -6
Just a thought. Perhaps Klink could be given a 'reward' by giving him an old Zenta class cruiser and bumping him off to china. (Ergo when you decomission one of the cruisers just say you sent klink to china.)
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Post by garrisonchisholm on Sept 14, 2020 12:48:18 GMT -6
An amusing thought, but if we really try to be serious about Klink then we have to start worrying about how the time clocks sync up. Besides, I can't imagine why Klink would want to go to China, that would be more of a shock than the Eastern Front! He would be happiest in his little office and pretending he has complete control over his world. ^.^ Helga and Hogan though, I'm sure they will enjoy the American Captain's tour of Austrian naval establishments on HMS Antrim.
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Post by aeson on Sept 14, 2020 13:05:19 GMT -6
Not that it matters, but I feel like the First Destroyer Division at the height of its strength was perhaps mis-designated; a formation of eight destroyers would more likely be designated as a destroyer flotilla or squadron than as a destroyer division, going by historical practice. Now that it's reduced to five destroyers, of course, 'division' is probably a reasonably appropriate designation, though it could also retain the 'squadron'/'flotilla' designation despite losses even if not reinforced up to full strength.
Anyways, good work defeating the Italians, and hopefully Vittorio Veneto isn't anything too dangerous since it looks like building a counter might put a bit of strain on the budget right now.
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