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Post by janxol on Apr 17, 2021 11:09:05 GMT -6
I must admit this war's been a little confusing to follow in places. Could you maybe post yours and Britain's ships and sunk ships tabs in the almanac? I will be making a war summary/ post war situation update soon.
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Post by janxol on Apr 19, 2021 6:16:58 GMT -6
Lessons learned, lessons taught
The war may have ended, but Mikhail's work quite clearly did not. There were arrangements to made, preparations and plans and analysis of past events. Artem was put in charge of overseeing the dockyard expansion as well as the process of disarmament of 25 armed merchant cruisers that survived the war, so that they can be resold or returned back into civilian use. The vessels served admirably, being no small part - arguably the largest part - of Russian victory. The victory itself was... Well, a victory. One thing to keep in mind, however, was that the Royal Navy was larger than the Imperial Russian Navy. It was larger before the war and despite the much higher losses remained the larger force even after the war. The Russian victory was won primarily be means of commerce warfare. Mikhail set for himself two primary tasks: one was to deal with the post-war budget cut. Luckily, the navy's budget remained respectable, as the Tsar clearly wanted to maintain the new-found prestige as a "true" naval power. Also, the navy was prepared for the cut by amassing a decently sized budget reserve towards the end of the war. By putting appropriate ships into mothballs and into reserve status and properly juggling them between bases, Mikhail was confident that the navy could remain afloat and finish all ships currently under construction without additional delays. Before thinking to the future, however, he had to go back to the past, ponder the lessons of the war, both those learned and those taught to the Royal Navy.
For one the war proved once again that commerce raiding is a viable tactic, though to bring Great Britain to its knees it took 44 months and over 30 surface raiders, not counting submarine efforts.
Speaking of submarines, the war proved their usefulness, but also showed their flaws. The Russian navy lost 17 of its 28 submarines deployed during the war, part to enemy action and part due to malfunctions. The technology was still in its infancy and the boats suffered due to their short range, in turn their contribution to trade warfare was completely overshadowed by ravenous hordes of Russian armed merchant cruisers. As such, the later part of the war submarines were focusing on British warships, operating closer to Russian bases and managing to damage multiple ships and sink a couple destroyers. One of the submarines was also responsible for the ultimate sinking of the battlecruiser Invincible. Despite the limitations of current submarines, there was hope, as even the submarines currently under construction were vastly different than the original boats of the Flotilla, with new technologies continuing to be introduced and flaws eliminated.
Then, there was the torpedo, which proved to be a deadly weapon. The range, payload and speeds of torpedoes have increased significantly over the past 10 years, making torpedoes much more than just a coup-de-grace weapon. During the war, Russian navy had come to embrace the potential of torpedo, and additional training on torpedo warfare proved to have visible effect on the effectiveness of their use. Another thing to keep in mind was that - with exception of gunboats and minesweepers - EVERY SINGLE Russian ship was equipped with torpedo tubes, a feature which came in very handy in crucial moments in battle. Successful torpedo attacks were performed not only by light cruisers, but also armored cruiser and even battleships, but the majority of torpedo launches naturally came from the destroyers. Russian destroyers featured a lot more torpedo tubes than destroyers of other nations and have also grown larger than the earlier 500-ton ships. Ironically, most of the older 500-ton destroyers survived, while majority of the suffered destroyer losses consisted of the newer ships. Admittedly, many of those 500-tonners were part of the Pacific Squadron and didn't see much action in the war.
With regard to the Pacific Squadron, it was fair to say the war was fought primarily in Europe, but Andrei's force didn't sit on their asses either. The battleship force of the Squadron acted as a fleet in being, preventing the British from invading Port Arthur as they had planned. In later stages of the war the Tri Svyatitelya was also sent to Formosa to bolster the island's defenses. As the British didn't commit any heavy units to the Far East, the war there was primarily commerce warfare, with occasional cruiser engagement.
Overall, the Russian Navy had lost 49 vessels during the war.
Russian losses
1) 6 Light cruisers a) 2 Varyag-class - Varyag, Velikii Knyaz Konstantin b) 1 Svetlana-class - Novik c) 1 Avrora-class - Flora d) 1 Rynda-class - Pamyat Merkuriya e) 1 Almaz-class - Almaz
2) 23 Destroyers a) 4 Boevoi-class b) 2 Buinyi-class c) 4 Smetlivi-class d) 4 Storozhevoi-class e) 2 Veseli-class f) 4 Vnimatelni-class g) 3 Zavetni-class 3) 2 Armed merchant cruisers - Yaik, Onega 4) 1 Seagoing minesweeper - Novgorod (bomb explosion, direct cause of the war) 5) 17 Submarines
The loss of cruisers was particularly saddening, especially the Varyag-class ships and Pamyat Merkuriya. As for the destroyers, losses were expected due to the nature of their tasks, though it was unfortunate that the newer ships seemed to find themselves in more dangerous places.
The Russian losses paled, however, when compared to those suffered by the British.
British losses
1) 3 Dreadnought battleships - Ocean, Goliath, Glorys 2) 1 Battlecruiser - Invincible 3) 11 Pre-dreadnought battleships a) 2 Rodney-class b) 1 Resolution-class c) 1 Royal Sovereign-class d) 1 Magnificent-class e) 1 Mars-class f) 3 Formidable-class g) 2 Prince of Wales-class 4) 4 Armored cruisers a) 1 Diadem-class - Diadem b) 1 Niobe-class c) 2 Bacchante-class 5) 16 light cruisers a)including 8 small scout cruisers <3500 tons 6) 1 Armed merchant cruiser. 7) 24 Destroyers 8) Multiple gunboats 9) 6 Submarines 10) Estimated 1350 merchant ships The most notable was of course the sinking of three British dreadnoughts, as well Princee of Wales-class and Formidable-class pre-dreadnought battleships, which were the most modern vessels of British battleline. Battlecruiser Invincible was also sunk, though the ship did prove to be a threat to Russian armored cruisers, which otherwise dominated cruiser engagements. Despite the losses Royal Navy was still outnumbering the Russian navy and could maintain the naval blockade the entirety of the war, but the commerce warfare proved to be their downfall, with estimated 1350 merchant ships of various sizes sunk during the conflict. Vast majority fell victim to the ravenous hordes of Russian armed merchant cruisers. For better or worse the new Vengeance-class dreadnoughts didn't get a chance to sail into battle before the war ended, and their practical capabilities remained unknown. Now Mikhail had to plan for the future. Many of Russian vessels were showing their age, in particular vessels of the Pacific Squadron. Additionally majority of the 500-tonners required an overhaul and a new coat of paint, as they were simply starting to rust. Tri Svyatitelya was doing little better, but in this particular case Mikhail would be quite content to let the ship fall apart of its own volition and save on wages for the scrapping crew. The downside of getting rid of old ships would be the need to replace them with new ones. It was on the horizon, but Mikhail made the decision that the process will begin in 1902, which should be enough time to gauge the nature of financial tides and plan the next fleet program. Until then, all candidates for decommissioning would remain in mothballs. Construction of ships would also continue as planned and the wait until 1902 wouldn't mean a pause in shipbuilding already being planned. In fact, the shipbuilding itself was of interest, as Russia earned the name of a naval power, but Russian shipbuilding could be generously described as "underdeveloped". With Tsar's approval great effort would be taken to remedy that, but the process would be slow, painful and costly and Mikhail didn't really expect Russian shipbuilding to match that of other powers, no matter how many resources, technologies and foreign expertise is brought into it, if only for the "quality" of the workforce itself. Workforce which, for all they knew, may be the greatest danger in the current situation. The end to the war didn't eliminate communist sympathies, it merely robbed the communists of easy means to sow discontent.
There's the post-war situation. Time to find some funds for modern ships.
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Post by maxnacemit on Apr 19, 2021 8:31:55 GMT -6
Time to scrap the humble-home and build a nice shiny dreadnought to counter the Vengeance-class. I hope the British naval budget sufferet a lot because of this humiliating defeat, though...
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Post by prophetinreverse on Apr 19, 2021 15:42:13 GMT -6
I petition that the next Tri Sviatitelia be a similarly bonkers battleship design, but in a slightly more endearing or useful way, say all main guns forward Nelson-class style.
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Post by janxol on Apr 21, 2021 5:06:01 GMT -6
Live and let spy
June of 1910 was a month that Mikhail spent occupied by the technical state of the fleet. All of 500-ton destroyers were gradually being dry-docked for major maintenance, and arrangements were being made to do the same for the old Vestnik-class minesweepers. At some point his attention turned towards the three Svetlana-class cruisers. Due to small size and lower speed vessels of the class were never truly capable of standing up to many foreign protected cruisers and now, with advancing technology and advent of the steam turbine their usefulness was even more limited. Still, it was thought that similarly to the even smaller and slower Almaz-class, the ships can still be of some use on second-rate duties. As such, Svetlana-class ships would also be undergoing an overhaul and certain modifications.
Svetlana-class (original configuration)
Central firing system was installed and ten of their 76mm guns were landed to make space for a pair of 152mm guns, which were mounted amidships.
Svetlana-class (new configuration)
The final ship needing maintenance and overhaul was the Tri Svyatitelya and it was promptly ignored. 19:00, July 12th, 1910, St. Petersburg, General-admiral's office Mikhail sat at his desk, furiously shuffling the tarot deck as he stared at the massive pile of papers lying in front of him. Paperwork. The bane of his existence. At least he had organized, unlike he would've had it within the first year after taking the position. He has since learned through trial and error that suffering through organizing it saves a lot more suffering of having to comb through the chaos at a later date. Additionally, he knew exactly which pile of papers is mostly safe to ignore for extended periods of time. Now he had in front of himself a multitude of things, the one being at the forefront of his attention was a report regarding the situation in Great Britain. They were dealing with the outcome of the war and their social unrest, which led to cuts to their naval budget. For a very brief and beautiful time, the Imperial Russian Navy was funded better than the Royal Navy. It wouldn't last, though, and there was no point to delude oneself it would be otherwise. For now, however, the construction of the Vengeance-class dreadnoughts had to be halted, which made the British a smaller concern that they would otherwise be. It was fair to say, however, that Russia's position in the "dreadnought race" was far from the front, and Mikhail wasn't sure if that can be so easily remedied. His goal was to not stay behind, however, and the Imperatritsa Elizaveta Petrovna-class ships were a direct result of having that goal, far larger than any ships currently conceived by the foreign designers and hopefully powerful enough to somewhat compensate for numerical inferiority of Russian dreadnoughts. And he didn't even want to start thinking about the cruiser force and the need of modernising it. The Pamyat Azova-class cruisers and the Gromoboi were showing their age and no longer compared so favorably with foreign designs. Bayans remained a symbol of the Russian pride, for better or worse, and Latnik was a powerful ship, but already there were armored cruiser entering service which matched their speed or even were slightly faster. Also, Dmitri's thoughts on the topic were usually involving battlecruisers, and Mikhail was running out of ideas on how to describe that speed and armor are two very different things and that strapping capital ship guns to a cruiser results in a cruiser with capital ship guns - no more and no less - which is an awkward configuration for a cruiser. Still, as other navies constructed battlecruisers Mikhail knew he may need to gently give in to some of Dmitri's requests, despite his fears of this becoming another Bayan-project - in terms of being an endless carousel of ballooning costs. And indeed, even today the upkeep costs for a single Bayan-class cruiser were still greater than those of either Russian dreadnought. Then Mikhail's eyes drifted to a pile of enveloped on the side of his desk. Curiously, he took one to investigate what they are and discovered they are the detailed captain reports with regards to wartime operations. And even though he remembered that he himself ordered them to be collated and brought to him, he immediately felt a headache at the prospect of reading them. A knock on the door. "Enter.", said Mikhail, somewhat happy to be distracted. Dmitri entered the room, approaching the desk with an envelope in hand. "What news do you have, Dmitri?" And say nothing of battlecruisers or I will throw you out of here.", said Mikhail. "No battlecruisers this time. Counter-intelligence busted a revolutionary cell in St. Petersburg which was in contact with an agent who was undercover... Well, here....", said Dmitri. "Does that mean we have found our friend, the communist spy?" "Not really. Counter-intelligence only confirmed that he does exist." " We already knew that. Seems counter-intelligent indeed.", murmured Mikhail. "We have also confirmed that it is an officer rather than a guard or maid or whatever... And someone you have dealings with on a regular basis." "Is this the moment you tell me they suspect Yevtushenkov, despite his very friendly demeanor?" "Yevtushenkov isn't the only suspect. Him... Golubov... Even Artem and me." "I imagine you'd find it quite shocking if it turned out to be you.", chuckled Mikhail. "I also can't imagine they would tell you're among the suspects, so good job on getting to that information." "Counter-intelligence also learned they were planning an attack soon, quite possibly on you." "Oh, good. And here my life was starting to get boring... Here's hoping it's not too soon." Mikhail got up from his chair, approaching one of the windows. Admittedly he couldn't really look out as the windows were mostly covered by curtains and he was far too lazy to attempt to move them, only to need to cover them again once the setting sun becomes too annoying. As he moved away from the window and back towards his desk, several things happened. For one, there was a loud bang, associated with shattering of the glass in the window. Secondly, there was a wheezing noise, not unfamiliar but also not one that Mikhail was accustomed to particularly well - a rifle bullet flying past. Thirdly, there was a stinging pain in Mikhail's left arm, one which could quite clearly be connected to the uninvited bullet. Immediately Mikhail dropped to the ground, as did Dmitri. They both reached for their service guns and stayed as close to the floor as possible. The office was on the first floor and the window was overlooking the harbor, so getting a shot in was impressive in the first place, as angles were rather limited. "You're bleeding.", noted Dmitri. "It's a graze, I'll be fine.", responded Mikhail. Office door opened rapidly and violently and in dashed Eugeni, revolver in hand and pointing it into the room. He looked surprised at Dmitri, the window and Mikhail hiding behind his desk, before ducking behind an armchair to cover himself from the window. "Are you hurt, general-admiral, vice-admiral?", he asked. "We're fine. Get the guards, search the area. Find me that ambitious shooter.", said Mikhail. Indeed the guards were already rushing into the office and soon Mikhail was evacuated and a search was underway. 20:00, Admiralty building - medical office "Thank you, doctor.", said Mikhail, putting his shirt back on over the bandage. As he put the uniform back on and left the room, he made a sad note that injury to the left arm won't even excuse him from being unable to sign things. "If we keep meeting like this, you'll have to excuse me for hoping we never meet again.", said Mikhail, looking at Dionisiy Afanasevitch Dobrolyubov, who was clearly waiting for him outside. The lieutenant-commander immediately put on his counter-intelligent polite smile, stopping to lean against the wall. "The news are better this time. Your injury is far less severe and we have gotten our hands on the shooter. We spooked them by closing in on that cell, they were planning to attack you in the next week, but opted to speed things up and thus weren't prepared as well." "You say that, but the man only missed by an arm-width.", noted Mikhail. "But he did miss, so it counts as a win in my book. Also, we learned that the agent they have in here was supposed to act as backup if the shooter failed, which means that he was in the building when it happened and thus means that he is still in the building." "One would think you would've found him by now." "Espionage and counter-espionage is an elaborate art-form, general-admiral. I certainly intend to find him, which is why no-one will leave the building until I question them." "I don't suppose I have something to say about that?" "Not if you want me to catch that man, general-admiral.", responded calmly Dobrolyubov. Mikhail was silent for a few seconds, deep in thought. "Do you accept bets?", he asked finally. "Bets?", lieutenant-commander raised an eyebrow. Mikhail reached into his pocket, pulling out a tiny notepad and a pencil, tore out a piece of paper and scribbled something down. Then he folded the paper and closed it down, so that the contents couldn't be read and passed it to Dobrolyubov. "My suspect. If it turns out I am right, then the art-form is clearly not elaborate enough.", he said. "And you've been less helpful than you claim to have been." Well then, who can it be? Hopefully the spy is found and it is one less problem to deal with.
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Post by prophetinreverse on Apr 21, 2021 9:25:32 GMT -6
It’s Eugeni, isn’t it?
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Post by janxol on Apr 22, 2021 5:03:11 GMT -6
Moving forward
21:00, July 12th, 1910, St. Petersburg, Admiralty building Dmitri glanced across the room, in which he and other increasingly annoyed officers were waiting for questioning by lieutenant-commander Dobrolyubov. Admittedly, he was getting annoyed himself, as the entire thing was taking much longer than it reasonably should and in his opinion the whole theatric of waiting for "interrogation" was pointless. All of them were officers of the Imperial Navy and all except Eugeni were of admiral or equivalent ranks. And yet they were treated by the counter-intelligence agents like they were common criminals. Artem was currently being questioned, which left Dmitri, Golubov and Yevtushenkov to ponder the nature of human existence as the only pretense that this wasn't a complete waste of time. Eugeni appeared to be taking it best, seemingly more concerned by the fact he's surrounded by admirals who don't really acknowledge his presence and wasn't quite sure if he's supposed to stand at attention. Golubov was sitting at the meeting table in silence, with a grim expression on his face. Yevtushenkov was just standing idly in the middle of the room, not making the slightest motion though his annoyance could easily be felt. At some point, the admiral moved, reaching into his pocket to take a look at his pocket watch. "If nothing changes within 10 minutes, I leave. I have things to do.", he said calmly. "We all do.", responded Dmitri. "But you won't leave before you explain where you've been and what you've done." Yevtushenkov turned towards him and everyone in the room suddenly felt an increase of tension. "That was starting to sound like an accusation, vice-admiral Vedernikov." said Yevtushenkov, in a very Yevtushenkov-specific, passively threatening tone. "At ease, gentlemen.", they heard Mikhail's voice, followed by the sound of door closing. They didn't even notice that Koshkin had entered the room. He was looking at them with raised eyebrows, shuffling a tarot deck in his hands. Yevtushenkov and Dmitri turned towards him, Golubov raised his head at the table, Eugeni stood at attention. "You appear to be in a good mood, general-admiral.", said cautiously Dmitri, wondering if Mikhail had received a bonus dosage of painkillers . "I am never in a good mood. Well, not for the past ten-or-so years at least.", he responded, ceasing to shuffle the deck and hiding the cards in his pocket. "But you could say I am in a strangely good mood, considering that one of you had plotted to kill me. I think I know who it is, though." He took great effort not to point or look at anyone specific and faced the wall as he was saying that. He also fought with himself not to peek to try to asses everyone's reactions. "And in fact, I would be quite curious to know whether you do. Well, one of you does, but... I would ask you who is your prime suspect, as it would likely result in an interesting exercise showing how little we trust each other, but I will instead ask you a different question, in spirit if friendly rivalry between military branches. It should be the more interesting since counter-intelligence are barely military. And barely a branch. Who do you think is THEIR suspect?" "General-admiral, you appear to be high on painkillers.", said calmly Yevtushenkov. "Plausible, but irrelevant. So, would anyone take a guess?" Silence. Mikhail raised his eyebrows, looking from one face to another. "It's no secret there's been... Disagreements... Between the general-admiral and admiral Yevtushenkov.", said Golubov after a moment. "If they're too stupid to look past that, the admiral would likely be their prime suspect." Yevtushenkov looked briefly at Golubov, but there was no sign of anger or worry on his face. Clearly, it was nothing he found offensive or disagreed with, and fundamentally, neither did Mikhail. He looked around, but it seemed that nobody else is willing to speak up. "No-one else? Eugeni? What do you think? Who is the prime suspect?" The lieutenant perked up, once again standing at attention. He hesitated for a few moments, before finally responding. "Me.", he said. Mikhail raised his eyebrows. "Interesting. Elaborate." "As your flag lieutenant and aide, general-admiral, much classified information is passing through my hands. I am collating and delivering reports and relaying orders, all information a spy would find useful, and I know your daily schedules. I am also often within earshot when you discuss various matters with vice-admiral Vedernikov or other members of the admiralty.", he said. "All valid points. Do you think it's enough for them to blame you?" "I... I don't know.", he admitted, with a clear worry in his voice. Mikhail turned away from him, slightly regretting he put away the tarot, but not quite willing to get them out of the pocket. "I don't know either.", he said. "I do not have a particularly high opinion of our counter-intelligent friends. They are questioning lieutenant-colonel Sapalyov right now and appear to be missing all the important questions they should ask. For example, who was the only person present both times when I was attacked?" All eyes turned towards Dmitri. "If vice-admiral Vedernikov wanted you dead in the first attack, all he had to do was nothing.", said calmly Yevtushenkov. "Indeed.", agreed Mikhail. "Another question: if I die, who is the next in command?" And this time everyone looked at Yevtushenkov. "By rank and seniority, that would be me or admiral Andrei Yablokov.", he said. "Though history has shown that the "succession" depends entirely upon the Tsar's will and not rank. Even if you call loyalty or honor into question, it's not the kind of risk either of us would take for a very slim prospect of "reward", if you could call it that." "Once again, indeed. Then, there's the man who cannot possibly be linked to anything, like a true spymaster." "I have nothing to add. I keep being busy. With submarines, mostly.", said Golubov. "And the final question that comes to my mind... Who was the first to reach my office after today's attack and why did he get there before the guards posted at the stairs?" Everyone looked at Eugeni. "I was already on my way to your office, general-admiral. You had asked me to bring in reports", he said. "When I heard the gunshot, I left them in the corridor and rushed in to assist you. After the whole ordeal I have also retrieved the reports from the place I dropped them in and placed them on your desk." "Well then... I suppose there's at least one more question that could be asked.", said Mikhail. "What reports?", asked Yevtushenkov. Mikhail had noticed that while other people have already turned away from the lieutenant, Yevtushenkov kept staring at him with that stern gaze that made lesser men crumble. And indeed now he even took a few steps towards Eugeni, who was quite visibly uneasy due to that fact, stopping just an arm-length in front of him. The lieutenant looked at Mikhail questioningly. "You may answer the question. Everyone here has access to that information." Eugeni nodded, forcing himself to look back at Yevtushenkov. "They were reports from the war, sir. Detailed reports of ship captains concerning wartime operations of their vessels.", he said. Mikhail nodded a few times. "These reports were already on my desk before the attack.", he said. "But it was a good effort. And a fair assumption I wouldn't have noticed them." Once again, everyone looked to Eugeni. And to everyone's surprise, the lieutenant threw a punch at Yevtushenkov. Now, admittedly the base reasoning was sound, as the admiral was the main obstacle between him and the door, but the assessment of chances for success could be questioned. Eugeni was a lean man, not quite scrawny, but far from athletic. Yevtushenkov, on the other hand, was essentially a bear, somehow forced to fit into an admiral's uniform. Of course, there were situations in which the David could slay the Goliath - but this wasn't one of them. Indeed, Yevtushenkov appeared to be of similar opinion as he made no real attempt to defend himself, opting instead to block the punch with his mighty jaw. As the blow had remarkably little - if any - effect, Yevtushenkov took half a step forward, striking Eugeni with the backside of his fist with enough force to send him to the floor. A keen observer could also notice at least two teeth have abandoned their owner to find their own trajectories to the floor. Yevtushenkov was ready for a second strike, but held back seeing that the lieutenant wasn't moving. The blow had stunned him to the edge of consciousness. Now guards were rushing in to investigate the noise, followed by a few counter-intelligence agents... "Well, that answers an important question.", said Mikhail, watching as the guards attempted to bring Eugeni to a state allowing some form of interrogation. "Yes, seems we have finally found the spy.", agreed Dmitri. "That too, but I have always been curious what would happen if someone punched Yevtushenkov. Never felt like trying though..." With that, Mikhail left the room. "He's yours. Get out of my admiralty.", he said, passing Dobrolyubov in the corridor. The liuetenant-commander turned on his heel to look at him, but said nothing, instead reaching into his pocket to unfold Mikhail's note. Lieutenant Eugeni Pronin. With that ordeal out of the way, the admiralty has once again returned to normal operations. Mikhail was forced to appoint a new flag lieutenant, being cautiously optimistic that this one will not try to murder him. He needed the help with all the papers. In early September of 1910 improved design for small tube boilers was introduced, and the engineering committee ha started their inquiry into a new and somewhat exciting field - various balloons were in use as observation platform by certain militaries and time had come to investigate the application of such technology in the navy. It was also in September that upheaval happened in Mozambique - again - and the Germans decided to send a force to restore order to the area, and likely to benefit from that fact. When once the British attempted the same thing, an international force of German, Russian and French ships prevented it from happening. Now the French wanted to do the same, but Britain was still dealing with the aftermath of a lost war and Russia was quite happy to ignore the situation, having no interest in Eastern Africa and no longer having interest in cooperation with France. Thus, altercation with Germany was avoided. In October certain diplomatic problems arose with regards to the Balkans. Austria-Hungary decided to step up arms exports to the region about two months back, a fact to which Russia and Germany didn't take particularly kindly, especially since Germany fought a war explicitly to disarm certain groups in said region. At the same time, Germany didn't take too kindly to Russian involvement in the matter, which lead to a worsening of relations between all three countries. Interestingly, Italy, who had the least to do with the entire thing, appeared the most offended by Austro-Hungarian exports, calling it an "act of an imperialistic war-merchant", whatever that was supposed to mean. As far as emotions regarding the "powder keg" go, the event were mild at most. In November an uprising has begun in China, prompting Russia to send an expeditionary force to safeguard Russian interests. Admittedly, there weren't that many of them, but they were Russian, and so they needed protecting. All of the armored cruisers of Pacific Squadron were mobilized and tasked with keeping an eye on China until things quiet down again. Great Britian's economy was very slowly getting back on track. Tula arsenal managed to purchase design schematics for a British 7-inch gun, demonstrating that they are clearly in no position to refuse such deals. Before the end of November, Russian navy has also commissioned the third dreadnought, the Sisoi Veliki.
Sisoi Veliki (1907) Ships in class: 1 Sisoi Veliki was the third and final of the "first batch" of dreadnought battleships designed and built by Russians. As such it was more advanced, but also took the design in a somewhat experimental direction. The ship displaced 23 500 tons, being larger than previous ships and for the time being taking the name of the largest vessel in the world. Coal-fired boilers and steam turbine propulsion produced 28 400 horsepower, driving four shafts for a design speed of 21 knots. The armor belt had a uniform 10" thickness and covered the majority of the waterline, but was also more narrow than in other dreadnoughts. The sloped deck was 2" thick and additionally the ship possessed underwater protection in the form of a reinforced bulkhead running along the side of the ship to offer protection from torpedoes and underwater shell hits - a system which would come to be referred to as "TDS". The ship's armament consisted of eight 330mm obr. 1907 guns - more powerful than those on Gangut and Borodino - mounted in four twin turrets. One turret was placed forward, on the raised forecastle, one was placed aft, with the remaining two turrets being mounted in an en-echelon arrangements on the ships wings, in such a manner that they could fire across the deck. This allowed the ship to bring all eight guns to bear on either broadside, even if the field of fire was limited for the turret shooting over the deck. Secondary armament consisted of fourteen 130mm guns in casemates, seven on each broadside. Additionally the ship was armed with eight 76mm guns - two were placed in casemates in the forecastle, two were casemates in the aft superstructure and four were mounted in deck mounts around the central superstructure. The ship also possessed two torpedo tubes, one on each broadside. In December Mikhail was asked to speak at the Navy League gathering, at which he spoke about the Russian victory over Great Britain and the readiness of the Russian navy to face any threat that may arise. And with that, the year had come to an end, with the first New Year party since the Russo-British war had begun. As January of 1911 came, Mikhail put more efforts into the Russian attempts to improve the shipbuilding process. Deals with various foreign shipbuilders were on the table, as the Russians attempted to learn as much as possible about foreign practices and also to bring in some foreign experts to improve the operations of their own shipyards. In the process, an American spy was caught, attempting to pose as one of said experts, whose offered deal was just too good to be true. In February, more concerns arose with regards to the development of the Balkan situation. While Russian diplomats were focusing on relations with Germany, armored cruiser Latnik was sent to Austria-Hungary on a goodwill visit, as part of an attempt to ensure that relations stay on the warmer side, despite the occasional act of an "imperialistic war merchant".
Armored cruiser Latnik
There's the spy, and the navy is moving on. Germany better stay calm.
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Post by akosjaccik on Apr 23, 2021 15:29:47 GMT -6
Ah, I was late with my guess. Although Eugeni did not came to mind until tehporp mentioned him. Yevtushenkov seemed like one with a motive, but treason didn't fit his personality in my mind (I reckon he'd be an officer being shot in a standoff during bolshevik revolt, not one leading it Ochakov-style); I thought about Artemy as well, having access to technical documentation and perhaps working a bit too close with the workers of the shipyards, but of course he had all the opportunity to carry out the intent at the first attempt. I certainly didn't see the writing on the wall. However! I believe both of Svetlana's cards depict the post-refit configuration in the update earlier than the current one. The text describes the work on the class, no harm, I was just surprised when I played "spot the difference"
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Post by prophetinreverse on Apr 23, 2021 15:57:17 GMT -6
To be frank, I caught it immediately based on the description of how Eugeni entered the office. He charged in right after the gunshots and was shocked to see Dimitri in there. He clearly expected Koshkin to be alone so he could shoot him in the head immediately and make it look like another shot from the snipers hit him, then escape past the guards in the chaos before anyone realized the angles were wrong. With Dmitri there, he would have had to shoot both men, and even if they hadn’t managed to get a shot off, he still would not have had enough time; the guards would still have realized what would have happened immediately.
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Post by janxol on Apr 24, 2021 1:17:55 GMT -6
However! I believe both of Svetlana's cards depict the post-refit configuration in the update earlier than the current one. The text describes the work on the class, no harm, I was just surprised when I played "spot the difference" Whoops. Fixed, you should be able to spot the difference now.
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Post by janxol on Apr 24, 2021 2:06:06 GMT -6
Blitz for Krieg
In April of 1911, the Russian navy laid down its second battlecruiser, the Fokshani. While Mikhail was very much still unconvinced by the concept, he saw the need for the ship as other nations were building battlecruisers in various amounts - with France seemingly going insane on that point, almost ignoring dreadnoughts in favor of them - and the Russian navy needed a vessel of similar weight-class. While Mikhail was reluctant to call it a "counter", since the armor on any of the ships was incapable of keeping out shells of their own guns, but he supposed it could be called a response. He was also pleasantly surprised that the design seemed to grow smaller, rather than larger and the costs didn't balloon as much as he feared - so far.
12:00, May 6th, 1911, St. Petersburg, Navy secretary's office Mikhail looked at the newly appointed secretary with a polite smile, already knowing that the man is trying to seem much more an expert on naval matters than he was in actuality. Too much effort was taken to speak of every battle of the Russo-British war and at the same time far too little detail was brought up for the type of conversation he was trying to make it into. "... and so it would stand to reason that the observers saw the power of our destroyers.", he continued. "In fact, I have read a book recently, one about the nature of naval warfare demonstrated in our war. And it too seemed to agree that destroyers are the most important vessels of the fleet!" A dangerous assumption. And the book was probably written by the French. "And as such, I have decided to pull additional funding towards the navy and I expect you to make good use of it, by building twenty new destroyers.", finished the secretary with a smile. Ouch. And as Mikhail thought of the cost of the endeavour and of the fact that additional funding will be nowhere near the required amount, of the Russian destroyer force, already largest and mightiest in the world, and of the fact that he had all the old destroyers renovated explicitly to save on not building new ones, he forced himself to smile even wider. "Of course.", he said, almost choking on his own tongue. And so the navy ordered twenty more destroyers of the Vidni-class, using funding that was originally being planned for use to modernize the cruiser force.
August brought another development of the Balkan situation. The powder keg never failed to disappoint, and in this case the event of the year - so far - would be a political murder. And of course what explodes in the Balkans tends to set off at the very least the Russians, the Germans and the Austrians, and in this case even the French joined into the argument, even if nobody truly knew why. Interestingly, Russia was a proponent of diplomatic resolution of the ordeal, and while Austria-Hungary was rather receptive, the Germans wouldn't have it. Part of the problem was that the murder was carried out by one of the parties that were armed by the Austro-Hungarian war exports and now Germany and France were both accusing Austro-Hungarians of being responsible for it and Russia for being an accomplice in the plot and trying to protect Austria-Hungary from the repercussions. The matter wasn't helped by the fact that a Russian spy was caught in Germany in September and all the German press immediately jumped on that fact, followed by a truly bombastic speech on the topic given shortly after by the Kaiser. Tensions skyrocketed with both Germany and France and for Mikhail, who was until now just a spectator, that became a problem - Germany had the second largest dreadnought force in the world. Somewhere in the middle of all this, late in September, Russian navy commissioned the Kinburn - its first battlecruiser. Kinburn (1908) Ships in class: 1 Kinburn was the first battlecruiser of the Russian Imperial navy, built as a response to the British Invincible-class. As it was the first Russian vessel of the type, and the type itself was considered awkward by many members of the Russian high command, the designers weren't really sure where to begin. Ultimately the design of the dreadnought battleship Sisoi Veliki was used as a base for the Kinburn. It had identical displacement, but the hull was lengthened and thinned and the machinery spaces were expanded to fit in a set of coal-fired boilers and turbine propulsion capable of producing 66 600 horsepower, driving four shafts for a design speed of 26 knots, faster than the Invincible-class, and matching or exceeding the speed of most battlecruisers currently in service. The armor was much thinner than on the original Sisoi hull. The belt was 6.5" thick, tapering down to 4" towards bow and stern. The sloped deck was 2" thick and the ship possessed the same TDS system as the Sisoi Veliki. The armement was essentially identical to that of the dreadnought, with eight 330mm obr. 1907 guns in four twin turrets, though the en-echelon layout of the two middle turrets was inverted, for no other reason than to see if there would be a difference in performance. For reasons of stability and the need to fit on a thinner hull the turret and barbette design from the Sisoi was altered, resulting in 1" thinner face protection, primarily due to barbettes. The ship was also armed with fourteen 130mm guns in casemates and eight 76mm guns - 2 in casemates in the forecastle, two in casemates in the aft superstructure and four in deck mounts around the central superstructure - a layout identical to that of the Sisoi, and similarly to the dreadnought featured two submerged torpedo tubes. In the trials it turned out that the ship was slightly heavier than expected, and while it won't substantially affect the ship, minor modifications were necessary to correct the trim of the vessel. 17:00, October 11th, 1911, Gulf of Finland, Destroyer Sposobni (Vidni-class) Captain Marinin looked once again over the papers he was holding in his hand before heading down onto the deck of his destroyer. The ship was sailing in formation with three other sister ships, following the leader, Hitri. "Gentlemen!", he said loudly, getting the attention of sailors standing near the nearest torpedo tube. "When we were reloading I received the results from the first stage of the exercise. We have scored two torpedo hits, which means we're tied with Vidni for the worst result in the squadron." There was a few laughs and snickers and a few disappointed groans. "Worry not, people, for this is exactly why we have so many torpedo warfare exercises. This is why we train this. Still, I expect at least one perfect salvo!", he said. With that, he left the crew to continue their duties and preparations of the torpedo tubes, loaded with training torpedoes. Coming up to the bridge he exchanged nods with his second in command. "Calm sea, the torpedoes should run straight and easy, will be easier to score.", said the lieutenant-commander. "What of it, if the sea may not be so calm when we need to hit a live target?", responded ironically the captain. Then a bright flash happened, followed by a loud noise and in front of them Hitri rocked, shaken by an underwater explosion. The event was surprising, but both the captain and his officer were well accustomed with its nature - a torpedo just impacted the destroyer in front. "Battlestations.", ordered Marinin, fully aware this isn't part of the drill. "Rig for ASW. We have an unidentified submarine in the vicinity. Relay the message to the admiralty." As the radio operator started to furiously send dots and dashes through the ship's radio, the officer's have taken up the captain's call. "Battlestations! Move, move, move! This is not a drill! Lookouts to the top! Bring out the sweep!" The three destroyers accelerated, taking sharp turns to avoid any possible incoming torpedoes. As Sposobni maneuvered around the crippled and quite clearly sinking Hitri, her crew took up positions, with lookouts keeping an eye out for a periscope and men preparing ASW equipment on the ship's stern. The daylight was nearly spent and finding the offending submarine in the darkness would be impossible, and even finding it now seemed improbable. "The sweep is ready to deploy, sir!", reported the lieutenant-commander. "Stand by on that. I won't be towing explosives on a cable with people in the water...", responded Marinin, looking towards the sinking destroyer. As the search continued it became clear that the submarine was nowhere to be found. With Vidni taking up survivors from Hitri, Sposobni and Stroini continued the search, but in vain. "Captain, message from the admiralty", reported the radioman, passing along a piece of paper. Marinin read the message, feeling himself grow pale. "Sink any unidentified submarine near Russian territorial waters." 11:30, October 12th, St. Petersburg, Admiralty building "Mikhail!", called out Dmitri, approaching the general-admiral. "Destroyer Sposobni found and sunk a submarine in the Northern Baltic. Type and nationality unknown." "Was the kill confirmed?", asked Mikhail. It was clear that he was furious, with dangerous sparks darting from his eyes. "The explosive sweep caught contact and was detonated. Captain reported a 90% kill probability. I must note though that the submarine was in international waters, there may by repercussions from this event." "That may be so, but I will not allow a submarine to sink our ship in our waters and I will not leave it without response. Get a message to the intelligence service. I 'd like to know whose submarine goes missing." And so the event had a rather profound effect both on the internal and international situation. The Russian public was outraged, but at the same time the communist movement once again started spewing their nonsense about the common people being used as tools in the coming war. At the same time Germany made a statement condemning the sinking of Hitri and sternly denying responsibility. France even went as far as accusing Russia of perpetrating the accident in order to gain an excuse for the war it is no doubt planning. With various diplomats on all sides yelling at one another, both the Imperial Russian navy and the Kaiserliche Marine were now at full readiness and ships were maneuvering in the Baltic in a rather dangerous proximity, one prone to sparking unfortunate accidents. Early in November the first of the Yakhont-class cruiser, the Yakhont, was commissioned. Yakhont (1909) Ships in class: 2 Yakhont, Flora Yakhont-class were the latest class of light cruiser of the Imperial Russian navy and the second class built with turbine propulsion. Unlike the smaller Posadnik-class, envisioned as scout, the Yakhont-class were built primarily for fleet action and engagements against other cruisers, being both larger and heavier armed and armored. In fact, the armoring of the ship was extreme by light cruiser standards, as the class was itself a "light armored cruiser" rather than a protected cruiser. Displacing 6 200 tons, among the light cruisers the vessels were second in size only to the Varyag-class. Equipped with oil-fired boilers and turbine propulsion the machinery produced 35 000 horsepower, driving three propeller shaft for a top speed of 26 knots. The class also retained the ability to cruise using only the center shaft for increased fuel efficiency. Being technically an armored cruiser, the ship posses a narrow belt of uniform 3" thickness, in addition to the 1" thick sloped deck behind it. On top of that, the vessels were designed with the underwater TDS protection in the form of reinforced bulkhead similar in principle but smaller in size than those on the latest battleship and battlecruiser. The ship armament consisted of eight 152mm guns in deck mounts protected by 2" thick gun shields. One was mounted fore, two were mounted on the forecastle beside the bridge - one on each side, one on the centerline aft of the bridge, one on the centerline between the funnels and the aft mast, two were mounted in the aft wing positions on the main deck and one was mounted aft on the quarterdeck. Additionally the ships were equipped with four 76mm guns mounted on the main deck, two on each broadside, and five torpedo tubes - two starboard, two port and one forward. During the trials the ship performed up to expectation and it was expected that she will have a large advantage in protection over the earlier protected cruisers. The second ship, Flora, carrying the name of the Avrora-class cruiser lost in Russo-British war, was expected to be commissioned later in November.
Protected cruiser Griden
November was also the month in which a certain accident took place. Russian cruiser Griden (Almaz-class) was performing an illicit intelligence operation near Tsingtau and run aground on the Chinese shore. With the Chinese threatening to impound the ship, Russian authorities became worried about possible involvement of the Germans and ordered an immediate release of the ship, sending armored cruisers Gromoboi and Pamyat Azova to make sure the point is well received. The Russian vessel was promptly released, but the incident sparked yet more tensions with Germany and France. Come December, Russia and Germany were on the brink of war. Then the news came that only made the situation more complicated - one of the German U-boats was confirmed missing.
Well that went downhill rather quickly.
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Post by janxol on Apr 26, 2021 11:54:29 GMT -6
Diplomacy actually works?
In January it became clear that whether the Russian navy was ready for war was largely irrelevant, as it seemed the country itself is not. Too much danger lied in the communist sympathies, too little time has passed for the government to take a firm handle on things. The Tsar, Imperator Nikolai II, was no fool. He understood all this. While remaining adamant in his belief in authoritarian government, he did initiate various social reform programs after the Russo-British war, addressing certain concerns of the population. While they wouldn't offer a complete solution, they were a step in the right direction for controlling the communist propaganda by invalidating several of their points. Still, they needed time and Russian society wasn't yet ready for another war, not if the risk of revolution was to be avoided. To that end the Tsar himself reached out to the Germans and on January 21st 1912 he and Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Denmark, to meet face to face on neutral ground. And after a few days of talk between the two cousins it seemed that, against all expectations, a compromise had been reached on certain outstanding issues. While Germany still firmly denied any involvement in the sinking of Hitri, the tensions were no longer critical and some could argue relations with France were actually worse. Still, by Tsar's direct order the navy received an increase in funding in order to attempt to keep up with the dreadnought race. Engineering Committee was already looking into new designs, preparing for when the Imperatritsa Elizaveta-class ships will be completed. With the new funding the plan was altered and in addition to the pair of dreadnoughts planned to follow the Elizavetas, one more battleship would be laid down as soon as February of 1912. The ship would be Andrei Pervozvanny.
As time went on relations with Germany seemed to be very slowly improving and so in March Gangut was sent to drydock for certain adjustments, as well as replacement of its main guns for the significantly better 330mm obr. 1909, such as those mounted on the Elizavetas. Borodino would follow suit within the next 3 months if development of the international situation permitted. An ambitious plan was also made to completely phase out all pre-dreadnought battleships from the Baltic Fleet until 1918. In June a Russian spy was caught in Great Britain, causing some strain on the relations. Situation wasn't helped by the Russian press, which called the agent a national hero, or French diplomats behaving like angry chihuahuas, or Great Britian finally getting back on its feet after the post-war slump and the newly appointed admiralty members looking to reclaim their glory and prestige. In July time has come to take a look at the state of the navy and decommission old ships. Originally it was planned to happen at the beginning of the year, but due to the German crisis the action was delayed. All four Navarin-class coastal battleships were decommissioned and sold for scrap. Tri Svyatitelya was also decommissioned, but in her case a wierd offer from a private investor came in, who apparently wanted to make her into a floating restaurant combined with a mini-museum. As more money was offered than for simply scrapping the ship, the offer was accepted, but the navy would only disarm the vessel, while maintenance and transportation was up to the new owner. And so it seemed that the humble-home would finally have the opportunity to become what it was probably designed to be...
The four Rostislav-class battleships were sent to join the Pacific Squadron, as a replacement for the decommissioned battleships - for now, at least.
Decommissioning of Pamyat Azova-class and Gromobi armored cruisers was also on the table, but the navy had no real replacement for them and as such it was deemed the vessels should remain in service.
In August the intelligence managed to get their hands on a design for a new German dreadnought, currently under construction. It clearly showed that the German designs are starting to grow in size, and while not nearly as heavily armed as the Imperatritsa Elziaveta-class, they had thick armor.
The Russian efforts to bring the shipbuilding industry up to international standards also continued. Deals were made with various foreign shipbuilder, primarily with Austro-Hungarians and Americans and gradually gained knowledge was implemented into the Russian shipyards. Early September the admiralty shipyard offered to construct a second Fokshani-class battlecruiser at a discounted cost, an offer which Mikhail reluctantly agreed to, hoping it would at least demonstrate the improvements of Russian building practices. The ship, named Rymnik, was laid down within a week.
20:00, September 25th, 1912, St. Petersburg, Koshkin's apartment Mikhail's mind has been focused on the navy ever since the war ended. It was a lot of work, but in a way, it helped him. It was contributing to his efforts to not think back to the dark events of the past, it let him escape, give him something to focus on. Unfortunately in his efforts to manage the navy, he also managed to get sick. And so now he was laying in his bed, in fever and rocked by excruciating cough, with his mind unbound on the edge of delirium, despite the medicines that the doctor pushed into him. He was laying on his back, taking rapid and shallow breaths, fighting against the tide, against the nightmares forced upon him. Nightmares so vivid they were a threat even when he was awake. "It is true what they say.", he heard a man's voice. "Madness does run in your family." Perhaps. That was indeed what some said about his family. Some simply called it madness. Others called it a "Koshkin's gift". Mikhail's family had a reputation in the military as brilliant strategists and tacticians, though admittedly historically they served in the army and not in the navy. At the same time, they had a reputation for being... "Eccentric"... Some more than others. Some would even say "mad". Partially a family myth, Mikhail never gave much thought to it, but now he was starting to think that whatever curse or blessing flowed through his veins, was more than superstition. He turned his head to better see the chair standing next to it. A chair he knew was empty. An yet it was not, because Katya was sitting in it. She looked just like he remembered, wearing a bright yellow dress, threatening to blind the unprepared observer with audacity of its color, barefoot, in the unending defiance against their mother and she-only-knew what else, sitting in the chair with hands on her knees, in blatant defiance of reality of the last 12 years. And when she reached out to touch Mikhail's hand with a concerned look on her face, it felt as real as it ever could, despite Mikhail knowing it was false. Whether this was the onset of this rumored madness or an image brought forward by his mind exhausted by disease, he could not know. Even as he turned his head away he could clearly see Katya with the corner of his eye, feel her hand in his forearm. Part of him wanted to speak to her, but he resisted the urge, fearing that he may start to believe in this shattered reality. And from somewhere beyond he once again heard a voice, this time his own. "You know very well why I'm here...", and yes he knew, for a moment he felt as if he was once again back there. "You killed my sister."
No war this time.
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Post by prophetinreverse on Apr 27, 2021 10:21:09 GMT -6
To be honest, I’m not sure how accurate the display of Tsar Nicholas is here, particularly in the field of foreign policy. Historically at least, it seems that Wilhelm II took advantage of him at every turn. www.jstor.org/stable/1835392?seq=22#metadata_info_tab_contentsBut of course this story is not exactly trying to be reality, so a more competent Tsar is not a problem.
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Post by janxol on Apr 27, 2021 14:59:13 GMT -6
The real enemy
Despite the general-admiral being temporarily unfit for duty, most of the navy's operations continued as normal. In November of 1912 the two dreadgnough battleships, Imperatritsa Elizaveta Petrovna and Tri Ierarha, were commissioned. Imperatritsa Elizaveta Petrovna (1909) Ships in class:2 Imperatritsa Elizaveta Petrovna, Tri Ierarha The international trend of dreadnought battleships seemed to be that the ships were steadily growing larger. Still, the Imperatritsa Elizaveta Petrovna-class dreadnoughts took the cake and the biscuit when it came to size, comfortably outmassing the largest planned dreadnought by about 5000 tons. The ships were so large and heavily armed that the outside observers started to refer to them as "super-dreadnoughts". The ships displaced 30 000 tons, were equipped with oil-fired boilers and steam turbine propulsion producing 45 000 horsepower and possessed a top speed of 21 knots. The main armor belt was 11" thick tapering down to 3" and the sloped deck was 2" thick. The ships were also equipped with underwater TDS protection in the form of reinforced bulkhead. The armament consisted of twelve 330mm obr. 1909 guns, renowned to be the best Russian-produced gun to date, possessing excellent ballistics and penetration capability. With twelve guns, the battleships would also carry 50% more firepower than the preceding Sisoi. The guns were mounted in four triple turrets, which was a novelty. One turret was mounted aft, one behind the bridge, one behind the second funnel and one aft. The Russians weren't the first to experiment with triple turret design, but certainly there were lessons to be learned on the subject. Even during early construction and design the problems started presenting themselves. For one, the turrets were incredibly cramped, presenting certain challenges to the gun crew and the process of reloading the guns was slower than it was in previously used twin turrets. On top of that, the turrets were notoriously jamming and the rotation gear was best described as "temperamental". Usage of triple turrets allowed for weight saving, but the problems that arose during the construction lead the Engineering Committe to recommend usage of twin turrets when possible until proper solutions can be found. The ships were also equipped with twenty 130mm guns in casemates, ten per side and four submerged torpedo tubes, two per side. Despite the reliability issues of the triple turrets, the Imperatritsa Elizaveta-class could be with a good dose of confidence called the most powerful dreadnoughts afloat. It was also in November that the British introduced director firing, a technology which was very promptly adopted by a Russian agent and evaluated in St. Petersburg. The device proved to be a very capable means of fire control and not a month would pass after the sea trials of the new dreadnoughts that they would be sent back to the shipyard for final adjustments as well as mounting of two directors. Another ship to be equipped with directors would be Latnik and the navy was considering the possibility of adding the system onto other warships. 11:00, January 15th, 1913, St. Petersburg, General-admiral's office "Good to see you back in good shape.", said Dmitri. "I've had enough of the bloody disease.", murmured Mikhail. "I have no time to be sick." As he sat down at his desk he sighed, still feeling a bit groggy in his bones. " On the topic of not getting sick, could you take a look out the window and explain to me why, in the name of all that is holy, is that blasted abomination in my field of view?!" Dmitri smirked, approaching the window and looking out, only to see the Tri Svyatitelya moored at the pier. "Well...", he said. "It appears they brought it here to properly convert it into a... Uhm... Whatever it was they bought it for." "If I knew it would be parked in St. Petersburg...", sighed Mikhail. "Oh, it would have made a great artificial reef somewhere in the Pacific. And it better not be parked there for long, I want it gone, out of my sight! The longer it stays there, the higher the risk one of the dreadnoughts will... Accidentally... Ram it." "I'll make sure of it, general-admiral.", smirked Dmitri. "Meanwhile... Yevtushenkov asked to see you." Mikhail laughed. "I may be sick, but I'm not that sick. Yevtushenkov asked to see me. Not a single part of that sentence makes sense. He neither asks nor wants to see me." "And yet he did.", said Dmitri. And as Mikhail realized Dmitri was serious, he suddenly felt growing curiosity. 14:00, January 18th, 1913, St. Petersburg, General-admiral's office Mikhail lifted his eyes from the desk to look at Yevtushenkov, who just entered his office. The admiral was as calm as ever, an iceberg indifferent to the passing storms. Mikhail understood fully that his presence here was completely unnatural however, as "requesting" was highly irregular for Yevtushenkov and so was meeting with Mikhail when given a choice not to. "Admiral Yevtushenkov, you've requested a meeting.", greeted him Mikhail, carefully pronouncing the word "requested". Yevtushenkov remained silent, stopping right in front of Mikhail's desk and looking down at him with that stern gaze of his. "How can I help you, admiral?", asked Mikhail with forced cheerfulness. Still not saying a word, Yevtushenkov took out an envelope and put it on Mikhail's desk. As much as Mikhail wanted to make him actually talk, he understood that reading the contents of the envelope was a simpler and more pleasant way of sating his curiosity. He opened the envelope, unfolded the paper within and glanced over it several times before his gaze returned to Yevtushenkov. "Retirement?", he asked, somewhat surprised. "May I ask your reasoning behind this decision?" "I am almost eighty, general-admiral. ", said Yevtushenkov. "I have given the navy everything I had to give. And at the end of it, I am an old man, trained in old kind of warfare." For a few moments they stared at each other in silence, as Mikhail pondered the admiral's age. He had always known that him and Andrei Yablokov were the seniority among the admirals, which also brought forward the question of Andrei's age. Still, knowing they were old was one thing. Actually realizing how old they are and how quickly the time passed was another. Very slowly, Mikhail reached for the pen and put his signature on the paper, before handing it back to Yevtushenkov. "Custom demands that I wish you the best, though it may sound insincere considering our past.", said Mikhail. Yevtushenkov glanced at the paper, before straightening his back. Suddenly Mikhail realized that Yevtushenkov's imposing posture was achieved despite the fact that he seemed to have been slouching for the past 20 years. Knowledge that Yevtushenkov was actually approaching or breaching two meters of height could have very well terrified Mikhail under different circumstances. "May I speak freely?", he asked, returning his indifferent gaze to Mikhail. Koshkin raised an eyebrow. "I have a feeling I am going to regret this, but yes.", he said. "I respect your skills. You have a tactical and strategic mind like few others, and you've started showing that already when in the academy. At the same time, I consider you weak-willed and therefore unfit to command. I judged it as such at the academy and was proven right when your shoulders crumbled under the weight of your captain's death and your new command. And whatever personal tragedies you have experienced - they have broken you, when they should have merely scarred you. And a broken man, no matter how skillful, is always a liability.", said Yevtushenkov. They stared at each other for a few seconds, before the admiral turned towards the door without another word, leaving Mikhail slightly shocked in his chair. And it wasn't necessarily the words that shocked him. It was more of a fact that he was used to ignoring Dmitri's words, that they were like water off a duck's back to him. But Yevtushenkov, whose opinion was never relevant to Mikhail, somehow managed to sting him with his words. 13:30, January 27th, 1913. St. Petersburg, Testing grounds near Peterhoff "Airship". A strange word, perhaps, considering it was used to describe a vessel that at first glance appeared to have nothing in common with it very distant cousins, the "waterships", which the navy was quite accustomed to by this time. And yet that was the word to be used and accurate in principle for the craft that remained afloat due to buoyancy. Interestingly, though, it remained afloat in the air. Mikhail was of course no barbarian, he knew very well about flying balloons, as well as the airplane which has appeared about 12 years ago. But still, it was quite an interesting sight to watch the bean-shaped sack of air float towards him, propelled by the engine slung in a gondola beneath it. "I see you've been busy.", he said, turning to Artem. "I hope they're steerable." "They are, yes. Improvements to be made of course, but they are functional to the point they could be useful to the navy. Of course you realize that by being higher above the water they offer an excellent observation point.", responded Artem. "I'll take a flying scout, yes. And I am impressed, by the way, that you managed to get this thing operational so quickly. All navies are experimenting with observation balloons, but as far as we know only we and the Brits are actually ready to start using them." "Well, do you remember that Polish engineer with whom we made a deal a few years back?" "Yes, right, you told me about him. What was his name? Geralt?" "Gerwazy", corrected him Artem. "And he was actually quite helpful with getting the whole airship idea up to speed and steerable." "Good. Does that mean I can expect some sort of dreadnought airship in a few years?", asked Mikhail, chuckling. " By the nature of how these things work, I wouldn't exactly count on that", laughed Artem. After evaluation of the new airships the decision was made to employ them in the capacity of aerial scouts. Airship bases would be built in Libau (Baltic States), Stavanger (Norway), Takao (Formosa) and Port Arthur. By the end of the year, the Imperial Russian navy would be operating 32 airships, the largest such force so far, with Britain employing their own airships in similar capacity, though not fielding as many of them, as per intelligence reports. Early February a pair of dreadnought battleships would be laid down of a new Pervenets-class, these being the original planned successor to the Imperatritsa Elizaveta Petrovna-class, before a favorable gust of budget allowed for additional battleship in the form of Andrei Pervozvanny laid down earlier.
Relations with Great Britain were deteriorating and several incidents contributed to the rising tension. In rapid succession, a Russian spy was discovered in Great Britain, followed by a British spy caught in Russia, followed by another Russian spy being caught in Great Britain. That all happened over a span of three months and as all three men were deemed heroes by their respective countries, it was reason enough to seriously strain already fragile Russo-British relations. At the same time, Russian shipbuilding continued the gradual implementation of various improvements to the technology and procedures used in ship construction. Among the foreign contractors, vast majority were in the end American shipbuilders who offered good prices and weren't restricted by their government in terms of what they were allowed to share. Battlecruiser Kinburn would also be sent for modification to be outfitted with director system. June of 1913 would unfortunately see an economic slump and thus the navy's funding saw some cuts, but Mikhail was confident that with some clever financial maneuvering all three battleships and both battlecruiser currently under construction would be finished on schedule - at least that was the hope. The navy has also ordered 10 new coastal submarines. Superheater was also introduced, as well as a new torpedo model with horizontal turbines. At some point the involvement of American shipbuilders into the Russian efforts must've come into the attention of US Navy and US government. In August of 1913 American battlecruiser Saratoga would arrive in St. Petersburg on a goodwill visit.
The officers of both navies had a chance to mingle and exchange pleasantries and Mikhail was afterwards polled by the press to comment on the visit, saying that it was a pleasure to host the fine ship and the friendly crew. Indeed the Russo-American relations were excellent and seemed to get better, a complete opposite of the British relations, which appeared to be spiraling out of control. The Brits, it seemed, were out for blood, and for vengeance after the last war they lost. They were expressing worry about Russia's imperialistic ambitions and "demanded" that Russia reduces the military expenditures. The full extent of the situation was that the European powers, including primarily France, Great Britain, Russia and Germany, managed to get themselves into a bit of an arms race, not only due to dreadnoughts alone, but also because when one country increased spending, the other had to match. This was especially true for Russia and Great Britain due to high tensions between the two countries, which also forced Mikhail to once again pull out the major fleet units from reserve. Then, to everyone's surprise, Tsar Nikolai announced to Kaiser Wilhelm and King George that in the interest of peace Russia will be reducing its military spendings. And so it did, though the reduction wasn't as high as other countries would've hoped for and not significant enough to greatly affect Mikhail's budget plans, though some adjustments had to be made. There was also another reason.
On 6 December 1913 an alliance was announced between Russia and the United States.
Goodbye to Yevtushenkov. Who knows, maybe we'll se him again.
Also, I am obviously taking certain artistic liberties with historical characters and the history is getting further from real one with each passing year, its just the nature of the AAR and the events the game gives me as fuel. At the same time, I feel like the Tsar's portrayal is not that far from the historical (though I obviously can't say much, if anything, what kind of personality he actually had), once again its just the nature of this sort of fiction.
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Post by akosjaccik on Apr 29, 2021 5:28:48 GMT -6
I'll miss Yevtushenkov. Friends are great, but he represented a different kind of pull/input/motivation compared to Dmitri, which certainly had it's value. Tula Arsenal however is seemingly stepping up their game; I believe we may be able to strike a mutually beneficial deal in the future involving one of their naval gun systems.
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