rs2excelsior :
Surprisingly, no! Even more surprisingly (...well, okay, not
that surprisingly, if they truly had no idea), I don't think it had any effect on the tension bar either. Hence why I toyed arount with the idea of the culprit provably being an italian sea mine.
...just not laid by an italian vessel. It will also tie into the idea of dedicated minelaying submarines as a preceding proof-of-concept, should I ever reach to that point.
prophetinreverse : Some relatively close RL examples inspired me when I said to myself "y'know, I can see this chain of events being semi-plausible". In 1956 for example, during the revolution against the communist regime people wittingly destroyed my county's archives, and similar vandalism took place all over the country, regardless of these papers containing false accusations, people reported on a whim by "concerned" neighbours, secret police surveillance reports, or detailing actual, proper, legitimate judicial processes and crimes. Adding some high-profile executions, large-scale desertions and all those fun things to this coming with a near-total collapse á la Russia of 1917, mixing in a bit of inspiration from the detonation that doomed the ex-Giulio Cesare / Novorossiysk, and I had my "solution" to the "we have no idea what even happened, but it was probably the bourgeoisie".
Regarding the ensign +
garrisonchisholm : While I actually thought about tampering with the flags much earlier (for example the RL K.u.K. Kriegsmarine officially implemented a new kind of naval ensign in 1915, with a bit less "Austria" and more "Austria-Hungary", these flags in the end became barely used in practice until the end of the war, but it is still an interesting what-if scenario and would be a fitting visual representation of the alternative/semi-historical route of the AAR), I did decide against it for the same reason I use the not entirely precise "squadron / division" nomenclature RtW uses (for example, strictly speaking my "destroyer divisions" should rather be "destroyer flottilas") - to provide my readers a better grasp on what and how stuff happens in my Rule the Waves game. I thought that if I'll leave things such as the OOB references and flags as default, it will be just a tad bit easier to follow things based on the readers' own experience with the game. Since the game did not feature an alternative flag for ITA likely due to the lack of historical references and at least up until 1.22 (I am documenting the game I played a year prior, good Lord...), I simply left it as is. I do like
this one I've found, but I am unsure about it being used as a naval ensign. Not that I have a better idea, mind you.
May, 1912
Battlecruiser Lissa has finished her working up and is now deemed combat ready! ...well, more or less.
There are undoubtedly some issues with the ship, some of them appear to be lingering ones too. The turret traverse mechanism is prone to malfunction (although the superfiring turret's commander worded the issue as the mechanism being "temperamental as the whores of Trieste") and the 'A' turret isn't sealed well enough. In fairness, likely none of the turrets are sealed well enough, but only the foremost one had the opportunity to get swamped so far. Fortunately, the freeboard is satisfactory enough to the point where it should not be a pressing problem under normal circumstances. ...or so the reports officially stated - regardless, the issue is being looked into right now. Going further, the oil spraying system made the boilers on this scale arguably far too complex, although on her speed trials Lissa did manage to achieve 27,2 knots without breaking too much of a sweat. Still, upscaling the system originally introduced on the the Leopards did not go quite as smoothly as planned. The fire control side of things once again appears to be satisfactory, although the adaptation of Petrevic-type firing instrument will be delayed once again, so the good ol' gong has to do it for now. Stability and shiphandling leaves not a lot to be desired, fortunately, and the officers appear to trust the ship's distributed armor layout a great deal. At the same time, blast protection and compartmentalization follows old standards which is not a good look given the advancements in torpedo technology in the last twenty years or so.
Intriguingly - and with impeccable timing! -, we've managed to grab some intel on the new italian battlecruisers recently, thus gaining an entirely new angle of insight on the capabilities of the Lissa-class.
First and foremost it is important to note that the Umbria is a design that is three years younger, and chances are the ships won't be ready until at least 1913, with some luck even '14-'15. With that said, Lissa still appears to be a competitive design: although lagging behind in terms of armor (we do not have any intel on the exact armor layout of the Umbria-class however, only a few raw numbers) and we better assume that she's similarly lagging behind in speed as well, she's able to bring nine guns onto target - with six of those being able to fire almost dead ahead even - compared to Umbria's broadside of six rifles at best. In summary, Italy does not appear to work on anything that is a reason for major concern in the next three years, which is certainly a refreshing, novel sensation.
June, 1912
After a few months of tense standoff, the People's Republic of Italy decided to break the ice and in order to "Aid and liberate the proletariat from the imperialist oppression of the parasitic ruling elite of the Habsburg Monarchy as well as to repay the grievances suffered by the italian workers in the recent past", they have formally declared war on us.
...and then - as far as the seas were concerned - virtually nothing happened for weeks. The ships of the Red Fleet remained at anchor, did not disturb the shipping lanes, and the Naval Council was mostly preoccupied with fortifying their positions, erecting barriers, manning coastal batteries and generally preparing for what might come. Given that Tirol, the second unit of the Lissa-class still needs at least three months to gain even a rudimentary level of combat readiness, we aren't much in a hurry either.
The Conte Mittrowsky, an MT.600 of the Cattaro Coastal Defense District
Once again the ones praised the least are expected to work the most
Perhaps the most immediate effect the sound of the first shells impacting Austrian soil had was that the gemeinsame Ministerien had a much easier time conjuring up some additional financial assets for the Navy. As such, one of the most debated project of the Kriegsmarine now has a chance to come into fruition: the Ersatz Donau-plan. For a while now there were repeated attempts at trying to clear up the future of the armored cruisers, if there is any. Ultimately however, the plans led towards a somewhat different, rather unique approach, which - truth be told - only really enjoys the support of the bare minimal majority of the Navy.
Opinions are torn on the Ersatz Donau-program - and in fairness, the opposition has some convincing arguments
The new vessels are aimed at seeking answers to multiple questions, such as the nature of the future cruisers in general, their place inside the austro-hungarian naval organization and conduct of war, possible technical solutions and armament choices and so on. Although both the Cantiere Navale Triestino and the Ganz-Danubius each laid down the keels of a single cruiser (as the Stabilimento Technico Triestino is still busy with the battlecruisers), the project is not of primary priority and proper details will be shared with the concerning parties at a later stage - not least because (partly both due to the ongoing war and the experimental nature of the design) changes are expected to occur on the fly. Broadly speaking the class is aspiring to be a lightweight, high-speed cruiser design utilizing purely oil-fired boilers, multi-stage turbines and a rather unusually heavy main armament. The hulls will serve as a testbed for the british know-how on underwater protection we've managed to get a deal on back in 1909 as well, ranging from major torpedo protection bulkhead dimensions and positioning to as minor things as caulking pipe passthrough holes. Overall, the entire project got allocated a budget that's roughly 70% of the price of a single Lissa-class battlecruiser.
A fair number of officers still have serious reservations and are not sure about the value of the resulting cruisers, but worst case the Ersatz Donau-poject will help us gain some insight and answer some questions - even if those answers will turn out to be negative ones in the end.
The axonometric view of the brand new 20cm L/45 1912M twin turret
The Ersatz Donaus may be overgunned or underarmored, depending from where you are looking at it,
but the ships certainly do spark international curiosity.
July, 1912
With little to no official help crossing the borders over land discounting some groups of lunatic volunteers, the italian Central Executive Committee naturally turned their attention to their colonial holdings in order to gear up for the conflict at hand. The Evidenzbüro catched wind of this and promptly briefed the Marinesektion about the convoy of TRs loaded with colonial troops and raw materials which was expected to depart Tripoli and arrive under Taranto on the 27th of July. The convoy was to cover most of the distance at night and was expected to pass Cape Rizzuto roughly at noon. Based on recent intel, the presence of capital ships in the escorting force was assumed to be implausible.
Thus in order to grant the italian reconnaissance the least opportunity to deter our ambush and retaliate in force, a relatively fast group was assembled and tasked with intercepting the transports and preventing them from slipping into the harbor, consisting of the Cattaro-based Third Cruiser Division's Admiral-class ships (except for the Sterneck which was unavailable at the time) and the majority of the First Destroyer Division.
Much to the - both italians' and austro-hungarians' - surprise, everything went according to plan: at 12:47 local time, the portside lookout of the Wimpffen reported contact to the south. Almost immediately after that the Dahlerup signalled contact closing in from the north as well: Taranto has sent out the welcoming party, but they were late by just a mere hour. Between them and their long-awaited supplies they were now unfortunate enough to find a rather sizable austro-hungarian squadron rapidly approaching into the gap.
Despite the unpleasant development of events, the morale of the Red Fleet could not be considered poor by any means. Their ships were almost at home by now save for a ~100 nautical miles, and despite the Kriegsmarine's numerical superiority (ultimately a single italian cruiser and eight destroyers took part in the engagement), they certainly had good reasons to think that there is a fair chance to succeed. Sill, it was clear that Italy had to fight a desperate uphill battle today.
As the Third Cruiser Division rapidly advanced towards the cargo- and troopships, it became more and more apparent that just for the sake of healthy variety, this time the intel was spot on for a change: Taranto was indeed helpless to adequately respond to our squadron with sufficient force. Credit where credit is due however, the captain of the enemy flagship, a small, aging, 3800-ton protected cruiser, the Brindisi clearly wasn't going to let the first notable engagement of the war become a leisure cruise for the Kriegsmarine, to hell with the odds.
NOTE: The "catapult aircraft" is likely some legacy shenanigans
due to the save file and the ship itself originating from around the ~1.01 - 1.03-ish version of RtW2.
As truly remarkable as this behaviour was, heroism alone never in the history stopped shells in mid-air, and the
Brindisi quickly found itself mauled by a hail of 15cm shells, with her escorting destroyers lagging behind and generally unable to contribute much to the initial breakthrough attempt anyway. The wolves were about to reach the lambs, the only question remained the extent of the damage - and the price paid for said damage.
As the Brindisi was promptly forced to back off and the austro-hungarian cruisers clawed themselves into the middle of the convoy, it perhaps looked like a nightmarish situation for the italian officers, but it also created a dangerous situation for our ships. Formations had to break up as the massive cargo ships tried to steer clear of the real or perceived directions of danger, smoke started to accumulate, signalling and keeping track of the situation became more and more difficult, and the ensuing chaos created ample opportunities for the italian destroyers.
These opportunities remained unrealized thanks to the attention the austro-hungarian squadron paid to these attempts, but these attacks forced our ships to maneuver and react nonetheless, which was coincidentally as much as the italian destroyers needed to achieve to be considered successful. The engagement thus became more and more prolonged, and even the Brindisi joined the fray once more. The veteran cruiser - one of Italy's two remaining protected cruiser in service at this point - soon came to regret that.
After finishing off the Brindisi, at 17:00 the three Admirals still had on average 40% of their ammunition remaining - and those shells still had plenty of targets to choose from. As such, the pursuit continued, yet the crews of the italian destroyers (mostly 500-ton vessels, veterans of the first war) were far from losing heart. They were hellbent on containing the austro-hungarian incursion, and once again to their credit, showed off some excellent seamanship.
They tried to veil the fleeing merchant ships with their smoke screens, they kept our force under constant pressure, distracting the pursuit, feigning or delivering torpedo attacks, all of which forced our ships to react accordingly. All in all, the italians on this day presented some exceptional work. It wasn't due to their fault or lack of effort that our squadron did not make a mistake either - as such, they weren't able to cause any sort of meaningful damage for now.
The moment to break the stalemate arrived when the italian destroyers broke off towards north momentarily, allowing our force to swing to the south, blocking their potential torpedo paths with their very own transport vessels - and as they could not contend in a pure gunnery duel, this northern group, now isolated and out in the open, was forced to increase the distance. Meanwhile the destroyers closely escorting the TRs found themselves ran over by the new type of austro-hungarian destroyers twice their size and armed with 10cm caliber ordnance. This marked the point of the battle in which the italian organized defense finally fell apart.
There was a minor issue however: by now it was almost eight o'clock in the evening and we began to lose the light. The chaotic nature of the engagement made it extremely problematic to give a meaningful evaluation of the effect of the raid at this point, but it was clear that there were still more or less intact transport ships out there trying to sneak by the melee individually or in very small groups. The mission was still on, and the hunt continued.
Of course, disaster struck when resistance finally appeared to give way and and all that remained was to methodically seek and destroy the fleeing enemy units. Just four minutes before 20:00 a massive explosion sent a shockwave through the evening sea, heralding the sudden demise of the S.M.S. Condor.
The most likely explanation seems to be that a 5cm shell originating from the destroyer Espero detonated Condor's remaining main gun ammunition. While it is strongly assumed that Condor did not have any torpedoes left, the explosion was still powerful enough to flood and bring the ship down in under a minute. During the firefight and worsening visual conditions very little attention could be diverted towards searching for potential survivors, and indeed no ships' logs reported anyone in the water. Condor was lost with all hands.
As the unfortunate loss of a single destroyer did not warrant a change in stance, the order to return to Cattaro was not broadcasted up until midnight. At midnight the destroyers got finally recalled to form up and with the new heading of 90 degrees the squadron began distancing itself from the italian coastline.
Little did we know that fate still had one last surprise in her backpocket. The SS Sagamore, a ~3000-ton steamer of the convoy was heading towards Taranto under the protection of three destroyers (with said destroyers having virtually nothing else still afloat to protect by this point), with her crew surely thinking that they are done for the day and they were lucky enough to flee far enough to avoid the catastrophy.
Right up until 01:02, when the completely surprised S.M.S. Spaun ran right into her - with the entire austro-hungarian squadron emerging from the darkness following the cruiser.
The chance meeting resulted in the swift destruction of the steam cargo ship - the italian destroyers, likely with empty torpedo tubes by now, could do little else than fleeing and saving themselves.
The last known photograph with the S.M.S. Condor in frame
Taken on the morning of the 27th by the Oberstabswaffenmeister of the Spaun
In the end, our squadron arrived back home at dawn without the
Condor and her 126 crewmen. In return, Italy lost the
Brindisi, the destroyers
Zeffiro and
Borea, the corvette
Adelina, and fifteen of the convoy's vessels. Only three cargo ships managed to reach Taranto, one of those in critical condition. The mission, while taking quite some risks with the overly aggressive approach and short ranges, was a resounding success, and the Wimpffen had every reason to enter the harbor of Cattaro with a broom attached to the top of her foremast. Italy failed to secure their assets on the Mare Nostrum in no small part due to squandering their light forces in the last war and pushing to build battleships instead of replenishing them - and the month was still not over: said battleships had their share of friendly attention coming towards them as well as U 5 reported a hit on one of the
Littorio-class dreadnoughts. This was later
confirmed by the Evidenzbüro, as one of said ships entered a drydock for repairs. Once again, the lack of sufficient escort vessels came back to haunt the Red Fleet. It is no surprise that they immediately began constructing six corvettes and converting an armed merchant barely a few days after the engagement.
Not a great month to serve on the Proletariat's Warships
Apart from that, the italian reaction was - quite understandably - rather passive, barring us from the capitalization on these notable blows. Although the submarine arm proposed an attack on Venice, this could've been a suicidial venture against the fully deployed barriers of the lagoon even with such small and nimble boats as our current submersible types - similarly, further immediate attacks against other hard targets also didn't promise a lot in turn for the risks. The last notable event of the month was the armored cruisers Donau and Sankt George rejoining the fleet after their "medical checkup". The aging, creaking hulls once again gained momentum under their own power with their boilers fired up, but as the ships passed by the anchored Lissa on their way out, their crews had some time to ponder about this one likely being the last major conflict of their vessels - in one way or another.
For now however, duty called still.