Union of Pacific Dominions

[Cockroach]

Ok, this is where most of the stories etc about the Union of Pacific Dominions will be posted.
__________________________________________________ _
Some Days Before The Event
The Commodore commanding the 2nd Escort Squadron (4 Destroyers and 5 Sloops) looked out across Sydney Harbor. The full might of the R.A.N. was in plain sight... the two battlecruisers, HMAS New South Wales and HMAS Tasmania... The bulk of the carrier HMAS Albatross complete with half a dozen KS-4 "Anzac"s on deck... the empty hulk that had been HMS Royal Oak, until it had been brought here to 'donate' its 15" turrets to the new Vanguard class battleship HMNZS New Zealand... the hull of HMNZS New Zealand, mere months away from being complete... in the dry dock the half complete hull of HMNZS New Zealand's sister ship HMAS Australia... in betwen all these vessels lay the cruisers, destroyers and sloops...

[Cockroach]

Mere Minutes Before the Event, 20km off the Australian East Coast
The torpedo bombers were rapidly bearing down, mere minutes away from releasing their loads Air Commadore Michael Hall thought...
He was aboard the battlecruiser HMAS Tasmania acting as one of the judges in this series of exercises between the air force and the navy. So far the honours had been mixed; a heavy cruiser, a light cruiser and several sloops and destroyers had been "sunk" but the fool that had sent the Handley Page Hampden level bombers against the force had got a rude shock when the navy's KS-4 'Anzac's bounced them, if it had been for real most of 22 bombers would have been down in flames well before they could get at the fleet...
A sudden series of blasts told the Air Commadore that the battlecruiser's 4.5 inch AAs had opened up, judging by the position of the bursting flack the gunners were not quite up to their usual standards of the previous days, the KS-3 'Dingo's looked sure to get throught, just at that moment out to the East Michael Hall noticed a flash that seemed to extend from horizon to horizon...

[Cockroach]

Several hours post event, small town in Union of Pacific Dominions
The Colonel commanding the 3rd/2 Battalion ANZAC Corp had a problem; some of his troops had brought in 13 unidentified cavalry trooper that had attacked them and he understood that at least as many had been left for dead on the battlefield. His big problem was who they were and how the hell they had got there; maybe when the one wearing that fancy insignia regained conciesness he could that out...
Major Van Tromp awoke; he had a terrible headache, had he been drinking last night? No, suddenly it all came back to him, the strange flash, gathering his cavalry unit, the search, the sighting of soldiers, the charge and the shock of being thrown from his horse; he looked around, he appeared to be in a hospital of some kind but his was the only bed in this rooms. Was he a prisoner? if so the soldiers he had encountered must be treating him quite well...

[Cockroach]

3 Days post event, Melbourne
It was bad enought to be out of contact with the naval authorities in Singapore but to have these colonials crawling over his ship was just plain terrible thought Captain Thomas Marsh RN. What was it now? three days with no radio contact and the telegraph system being down. His vessel, the battlecruiser HMS Tiger and her half sister HMS Lion (both armed with 8 13.5" main guns, 16 4" AAAs and with a speed of 27 knots due to old turbines and boilers, both have for recent years been based at Singapore) had been ordered to Melbourne to undergo a refit, the two ships were to gain 12 4.5" AAAs and with the major work on the boilers and turbine hopefully they would be able to reach a speed of 29 knots.
The Captain turned his attention to a letter he had recieved from the commander of the local Navy depot...He tore it open the envelope and started reading, the letter in effect said: something weird is going on, unknown forces have occupied much of the country, contact lost with the rest of the British Empire, your ship is hereby formally commisioned into the RAN... He then turned to a more recent letter from the admiral commanding the RAN, this letter contined orders -proceed in direction of Perth...

Edit to add changed to RAN Strength: 2 NSW class BCs, 1 Lion class BC, 1 Tiger class BC

[Cockroach]

5 days post event, Somewhere in the Great Australian Bite
This fight hardly seemed fair thought Captain Thomas Marsh, here they were facing off against what appeared to be a second rate copy of a Panzerschiff (the Van Dieman) and a collection of destroyers that looked moderatly antique. Once the fireing began HMAS Tiger managed to get in three broadsides before the hostile ship managed to fire back and even that was badly inaccurate. One of Tiger's shot despite missing the "Panzerschiff" landed on a destroyer, there was no explosion -evidently the shell was a dud, but the destroyer turned away from the battle and made what appeared to be its top speed in the direction of the coast... The fireing continued, eventually the "Panzerschiff" found its range and knocked out the stern most turret, the reply from Tiger proved to be much more deverstating, three shells landed on target one exploding on the bridge, one knocking out the forward turret and one taking out the funnels. The "Panzerschiff" made no reply but flames were visably spreading across the deck. This was the moment that the destroyers went in to finish off the "Panzerschiff" and clean up their opposite numbers... less than ten minutes later a series of explosions echoed back and forth as half a dozen torpedos hit the crippled Van Dieman, barely five minutes later the ship rolled over and sank.
Captain Thomas Marsh turned his attention to other matters, there would be survivors to rescue and then interrogate...

[Cockroach]

6 Days Post Event, Off Tasman
Captain Thomas Marsh scanned the horizon, it was less than a day since his ship had destroyed what he had since discovered to be the Van Dieman a coast defense ship. His force had picked up around 300 survivors from dutch fleet they had encountered, but reports of a submarine in the area [note: Ward's french submarine] meant that at least another 170 were left behind. Now the Captain's ship was off what was belived to be the capital of New Holland, in a few days when the transports and HMAS New South Wales and Albatross arrived a raid against the costal fortresses defending the city would occure...

[Cockroach]

Only concerned with movements at 3: New Holland: 5000 VOC infantry and 500 local Cavarly 25 medium guns (75mm-95mm) Note: tech level circa 1900, machine guns while present are comparitivly rear (aprox 1 machine gun to 200 men)
UOPD: elements of the 2nd Division of the ANZAC corp (4300 men), 2nd Mounted Rifles (750 men), Royal New South Wales Lancers (400 men), 5 Vickers Medium Mk IIA medium tanks, 8 Vicker Light Tanks Mk VI, 35 Field guns (18 pounders and 25 pounders) Note: tech level 1930s, light machine guns are common (1 per 15 men) heavy machine guns are also in use (1 per 50 men)

6 Days Post Event
The battle was over, smoke still drifted across the battlefield. The UOPD army held the field...
The UOPD forces had reached the site that was to become the battlefield just over two days back, the elements of the 2nd Division had dug in while the cavalry and mounted infantry patrolled and establish foward posts.
Just over 24 hours back the New Hollanders had turned up... evidently due to a lack of experiance of modern warfare they tried what was virtually and head on charge by the cavalry and 2000 infantry... this attack was repulsed leaving around 200 cavalry and 640 infantry dead while the UOPD forces took less than 100 wounded or killed.
The battle continued to rage all day but by the late afternoon New Hollanders started to retreat.
All up the New Hollanders lost 214 cavalry and 1350 infantry killed and 350 infantry and 10 guns captured...

[Cockroach]

Sydney, 6 Days Post Event
To Governor General Sir John Monash, ASAP
Union of Pacific Dominions

Please state location and meaning of previous message. The Russian Empire will welcome any civilian ship to its ports in time of peace. Trade contacts are currently being run through the Regency Ministry of Trade out of Saint Petersburg.

His Highness, Prince Georgi Nikolaevich
Regent of the Russian Empire
Serious debate was raging in government house, members of the government and opposition argueing with Sir John Monash and with themselves about why he had authorised the dispatch of a message to this Russian empire and what to do next. After several hours the entire group eventually settled on a consensus, a reply would be sent and a diplomatic mission dispatched aboard a liner.

To His Highness, Prince Georgi Nikolaevich
Regent of the Russian Empire
First to clarify some points as requested:
The Union of Pacific Dominions consists of the Commonwealth of Australia and the Dominion of New Zealand;
Surely the meaning of the message was clear but judging from your use of ASAP in your reply you didn't understand that it is an abreviation for as soon as possible.

Now onto buisness, we intend to dispatch a diplomatic mission by ship to the nearest port under your control, Vladivostok I would assume. We will also dispatch a sample of our nations products including a Kingsford-Smith "Dingo" torpedo/dive bomber (http://alternatehistory.com/discussion/attachment.php?attachmentid=1236&stc=1) and the Kingsford-Smith "Anzac" light fighter (armed with 4 machine guns and a 20mm cannon). We also must note that in our world Russia had degenerated into a number of warring states including a Tsarist one based around St Petersberg and a communist state based around Moscow.
Governor General Sir John Monash

[Cockroach]

To Governor General Sir John Monash
Union of Pacific Dominions

Please send your diplomatic mission on board a civilian ship to the city of Petropavlosk. All contact has currently been lost with Aleksandrograd, seat of our Eastern government. We would welcome the chance to inspect your aeroplanes

His Highness, Prince Georgi Nikolaevich
Regent of Russia


7 Days post event
The liner Jervis Bay was a hive of activity; two Walrus seaplanes sat on deck, two 4" and six 40mm AA gun mounts were being fitted either side of the bridge, two Kingsford-Smith "Anzac"s and a "Dingo" were being lowered into the hold, provisions were being brought aboard as were assorted products of UOPD industry. This activity had been running for the last two days and with any luck by this evening the ship would be leaving port in the direction of Russia...

[Cockroach]

8 Days Post Event, abord Jervis Bay
Four or five more days of this thought Air Commadore Michael Hall, he couldn't stand the rolling of the liner on the high seas... indeed the battlecruiser he was on a few days back was bearly tolerable despite it being a fine day. The Air Commadore was part of the diplomatic mission to Russia, to think it was only 17 years back since he had as a pilot officer participated in the intervention against the communists indeed one of his bombs had claimed the life of a major bolschevik, someone who had taken the russian word for Steel as his name* if Michael Hall recalled properly... but that was a very different Russia, one rent by civil wars; the one he was about to encounter was still stable and apparently still in the hands of the Tsars, if that was good or bad the Air Commadore couldn't decide...

*-Do I realy need to tell you who this is refering to?

Edit to add image of Anzac light fighter

[Grey Wolf]

How long will it take you to get to Petropavlosk ? Currently Russia is running at the tail end of day 3, so we have some additional time to make up methinks

Grey Wolf

[Cockroach]

I will give it 4-5 days in game and as we were going with (I think) 2 weeks Real=1 month game that equals 2 days or so

[Grey Wolf]

I will give it 4-5 days in game and as we were going with (I think) 2 weeks Real=1 month game that equals 2 days or so

Sorry I don't know what you mean

If your ships are going c 20 knots you should be able to compute ?

I understand there is a sort of game turn aspect of 1 month for 2 weeks, but it seems sort of arbitrary

I'll look up the distances for you if you want. What port are you departing and on what day ?

Grey Wolf

[Cockroach]

If your ships are going c 20 knots you should be able to compute ?Sorry I just made a moderatly random guess based upon it taking 4-5 days for a Liner to cross the Atlantic, I guess I should actually allow 8-10
I'll look up the distances for you if you want. What port are you departing and on what day ?Departing from Sydney and making for the nearest port on your Pacific coast, no idea which one it is.

[Cockroach]

Radio Transmission for the High Command for Imperial Affairs in Central Africa (Canary Warf, London).

Due to the weird phenomenon that took place thirty six hours ago the communications with the rest of the African Colonies and the Imperial Office in Central Africa have been cut off. As the Niger HQ lacks the transmision media to communicate with the High Command our kind Northafrican allies have offered us the long range instalations in Tunis.

We have sent an airship to determine the situation in the rest of the British Central Africa but apparently all the instalations, such as telegraph lines, railways and roads have disappeared, even the towns, villages and british colonies. It seems that there are no traces of violence and that there are some native settlements. When our scouts talked to the civilians they were surprised to see a white man and could not give any clue about what have happened just the usual reports of unusual lights.

Awayting your instructions,
Sir Archibald Bradley Governor of the Niger Colony
Day 8, Sydney
Sir John Monash read the message, it had taken some days for intelligence to decode it... So the UOPD wasn't the only remeinant of the British Empire post event, but was this a recognizable let alone the same British Empire?

[Cockroach]

Near Tasman 9 Day Post Event
Captain Thomas Marsh stalked around the bridge, his ship was engaged in the bombardment of the capital of New Holland... away on the fortress guarding the port the occasional flash could be seen as the fort's guns attempted to reply or the battlecruisers' shells exploded... A sudden larger flash demonstrated that a shell had penetrated to the magazine below one of the fort's batteries...

Over Tasman
Commander Thompson (Fleet Air Arm) banked his Kingsford-Smith Dingo to line up for his torpedo run... The Dingo, a brillant torpedo bomber and in the attack role its 20mm cannon provided a useful punch but, he thought, how on Earth had it been adopted as a dive bomber- the Dingo was slow and had a tendancy to be excessivly stable making it a nightmare to put it into a steep dive or to recover... tracers danced across just in front of him, the engine spluttered- his plane had been hit, he jettersoned his torpedo and turned out towards the sea... but he knew that he might not make it so he decided to ditch his plane instead... The Commander and his gunner/navigator had the luck to have a fish eye view as the other five planes finished the attack, one Coast Defense ship took two torpedos and sunk in less than ten minutes while a destroyer took a direct hit and desintegrated in a ball of flame...

[Cockroach]

Around, In, Near and Over Tasman 11 Day Post Event
The UOPD's armed forces had made brillant progress, the majority of the city of Tasman was in their hands now and the last trace of New Holland's navy in the shape of a single coast defense ship was firmly aground under the guns of the fortress. However not everything had gone correctly, the sloop HMAS Derwent had attempted to enter the harbor to rescue a down aircrew but had been riddled with 5.9" shells from a hidden battery, the crew had abandoned ship but had been captured by the enemy.
Now that virtually all of the fort's 9.4" guns had been eliminated the battlecruisers had closed the range considrably for the final bombardment before an attempt would be made to take the fortress....

[Grey Wolf]

Pretty sure you missed a decimal point

94" guns

Those would be MIGHTY BIG !

Grey Wolf

[Cockroach]

14 Days Post Event, abord Jervis Bay
It was mere hours before the Jervis Bay would be arriving in a Russian port, Air Commadore Michael Hall was down in the hold supervising the preperations for the unloading of the Dingo and the two Anzacs. On deck a Walrus seaplane was being readied for launch to carry an officer into port to finalise the arrangements for the ship's arrival and transportation of the diplomatic mission on to St Petersburg...

OOC:
Pretty sure you missed a decimal point
Yep thanks for that, I have corrected it.

[Ward]

From The Governor General of French IndoChina Genereal Collin
To : Governor General Sir John Monish
Union of Pacific Dominions


Dear Sir :

We are asking you to stay neutral in the war agains India that we are engaged in . If you are intrested, we are willing to share the oil wells on Sumatri, if your nation will help us bring them in. We will need help in the building of the oil fields. We do not have the industry to build them, ourselfs at this time .

From
General R.J Collin

[Cockroach]

To: General R.J Collin
From what we understand the India you are at war against in a member of the British Empire, hence we cannot provide any garantee of our neutrality.
However this does not mean we intend to stab you in the back, besides we currently have sufficient problems of our own to deal with.
Sir John Monash

[OOC: Problems=New Holland]

[Ward]

To: General R.J Collin
From what we understand the India you are at war against in a member of the British Empire, hence we cannot provide any garantee of our neutrality.
However this does not mean we intend to stab you in the back, besides we currently have sufficient problems of our own to deal with.
Sir John Monash

[OOC: Problems=New Holland]



To Sir John Monash

We hope that this War can stop very soon we do not want it, but if we are attacked we will deffend ourself . As you could tell from are last letter we are willing to work with members of the British Empire . We offered the Indians the same offer we offered you instead they declared war against us .
Please keep your ships out of the Indian Oecan at this time unless you have large letters stating they are UPD ships . We donot want to sink any of your ships by misstake . We are ordering all are ships to stay 100 miles from the coast of Australia exect near the Island of Sumatra ( I'm not certian if this Island is with in 100 miles of Australia ) And New Caladonia .

From R.J collin

[WngMasterD]

TO: The Union of Pacific Dominions
FROM: The Republic of Canada

Greetings, we would be interested in starting diplomatic and economic relations with your relm. Although we do not have a direct border with the pacific, we would still be interested in gaining your friendship. Please respond

Prime Minister Dan Johnson
Repulic of Canada

[Cockroach]

In Tasman 14 Day Post Event
After the incidents of the previous days the UOPD's troops were not inclined to show mercy to the occupants of the fortress... The entire crew of the sloop HMAS Derwent had been shot in the last three days and now that the fortress had been breached the New Hollanders were on the recieving end of the same treatment... Commander Thompson looked around, he was one of the few UOPD officers captured to survive the last few days, the memories of the men led away to be shot would haunt him for the rest of his life; but the conflict was over, New Holland had formally surrendered...

[Cockroach]

Orders for All Aircraft Factories Dated 4 days post event
1. Production is to be immeditaly increased to emergancy (non-war) levels (50 KS-3s, 36 KS-4s and 23 Cyclones per month)
2. Production of the Hinkler (http://bundabergonthe.net/hinkler/) company's Albatross Mk 1 dive bomber will comense ASAP. [OOC: similar in appearance to the Wirraway, 1 20mm cannon and 1 .303" MG fireing fowards, 2 .303" MGs for rear defense, 750 pound bomb load speed with out bombs of 360 km/h or with bombs of 278 km/h]
3. Development of CAC-6 twin engined fighter bomber (currently at the prototype stage) is to be accelerated. [OOC: similar in appearance to Bf-110, max speed of 455 km/h or 310km/h with full bomb load, 2 20mm cannons and 3 .303" MGs fireing fowards, 2 .303" MGs for rear defense, 2000 pound bomb load]

Edit to add figures for aircraft in service on day 15:
135 (125+15 new-5 lost) Kingsford Smith [KS-3] Dingo close support aircraft; 69 (60+9 new) Hawker Cyclone fighters; 50 Handley Page Hampden medium bombers; 88 (75+13 new) Kingsford Smith [KS-4] Anzac light fighters

[Cockroach]

16 Days Post Event, abord Jervis Bay
Air Commadore Michael Hall wandered the deck of the Jervis Bay, the ship had arrived in a russian port but no arrangements had yet been made for transport to St Petersburg. Yesterday he had supervised the unloading of the aircraft and had taken one of the KS-4s for a test flight... but today was different, the Air Commadore had very little to do...

[Grey Wolf]

16 Days Post Event, abord Jervis Bay
Air Commadore Michael Hall wandered the deck of the Jervis Bay, the ship had arrived in a russian port but no arrangements had yet been made for transport to St Petersburg. Yesterday he had supervised the unloading of the aircraft and had taken one of the KS-4s for a test flight... but today was different, the Air Commadore had very little to do...

Sorry, I haven't got to Day 16 yet - I don't want to jump ahead or I'll get confused and fall out of synch with everyone else I am negotiating with. I'm headed towards day 11/12 currently. Shouldn't be too long before day 15/16 but I've got visitors the rest of the week so my time will be limited

Grey Wolf

[Cockroach]

In the Indian Ocean, 18 Days Post Event
The battlecruiser HMAS (ex-HMS) Tiger and the two destroyers cut throught the waves. Captain Thomas Marsh thought that the orders he had been given were hare-brained in the extream, sailing around a war zone to make diplomatic conntact with all of the bloody nations involved. The Captain worried about the possibility, no the almost-certainty of being accidentally attacked.... well, thought the Captain, the 13.5" guns could deal with anything short of the Prince of Wales, Richelieu or possibly Warspite and the 4" and 40mm AAs would hopefully be sufficient to repell any attack...

[Ward]

In the Indian Ocean, 18 Days Post Event
The battlecruiser HMAS (ex-HMS) Tiger and the two destroyers cut throught the waves. Captain Thomas Marsh thought that the orders he had been given were hare-brained in the extream, sailing around a war zone to make diplomatic conntact with all of the bloody nations involved. The Captain worried about the possibility, no the almost-certainty of being accidentally attacked.... well, thought the Captain, the 13.5" guns could deal with anything short of the Prince of Wales, Richelieu or possibly Warspite and the 4" and 40mm AAs would hopefully be sufficient to repell any attack...


The French Poilts know the ships of the British Empire of there time The Tiger was out of service for over three years and scraped .

The Guns on the Two French BC are just as strong as the the BC tiger .

[Cockroach]

The French Poilts know the ships of the British Empire of there time The Tiger was out of service for over three years and scraped .

The Guns on the Two French BC are just as strong as the the BC tiger .
If we were talking about the 13.5" guns in their WW1 state then I would accept your point. BUT I have specifically and repeatedly pointed out that these guns have recieved upgrades including increased elevation (i.e. more range I would guess maybe a maximum range of 28000-32000 yards). I am assuming that the ship is mounting a 13.5"/45 (34.3 cm) Mark VI (http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNBR_135-45_mk6.htm) so the ship can fire heavier shells than the french 33 cm/50 (13") Model 1931 (http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNFR_13-50_m1931.htm), and assuming the use of more advanced shells this would put me at an advantage. Your 13" guns do out range my 13.5" BUT remember that hits even with heavier guns rarely occured beyond about 20000 yards so that is not too much of an issue.

[Cockroach]

In the Indian Ocean, 18 Days Post Event
The 13.5" twin turret slowly turned.... but not to discharge a 1500 pound projectile, instead to point the seaplane and catapult mounted on the roof into the wind... The Walrus amphibian shot off the catapult and turned towards the north east.
Lt. John Edward scanned the surface of the sea for any sign of a ship of any type, he had been at it for around two hours by the time he sighted something... Away to the north west the unmistakable bulk of a capital ship. The Walrus approached and the ship became recognizable, Lt. John Edward suddenly realised that this ship bore a strong resemblance to the French Dunkerque class, yet it also pocessed some suprising diffrences one for instance was the completely different superstructure... A sudden burst of flak snapped Lt. John Edward's attention away from the features of the ship, he rapidly reached for the radio and transmitted what infomation he could... another burst of flak, closer this time, the Walrus started to roll... Lt. John Edward dragged himself to the open aft gunner's position and launched himself into the air... Lt. John Edward slowly drifted down into the sea under his parachute, he inflated his life raft and dragged himself into it. Looking around he could clearly see that the other aircrew hadn't been as lucky, no other 'chutes and an oil slick and floating wreckage told him that the Walrus had not managed to ditch and indeed quite probably hadn't made it to the surface intact. However his plight had apparently been noticed, a boat had left the battlecruiser to pull himfrom the sea -well, he thought, I may get a chance to practice my school boy french after all...

OOC: Ward, I hope you don't mind me having your ship have some different superficial features to OTL

[Cockroach]

Report on the UOPD's Navy, day 18
Effect of the event on current programs and recomendations:

1. 5.25" turrets for HMNZS New Zealand and HMAS Australia not delivered due to the event.
-Installation of 4.5" on HMNZS New Zealand intended for Lion and Tiger reccomended.
-Production of 4.5" guns to be upped to provide suffiecient guns for HMAS Australia.

2. 15" turrets for HMAS Australia not avalible
-Purchase of turrets and guns reccomended if possible.
-Install 13.5" turrets from coastal fortresses.

3. The three AA cruisers building in the UK cannot be delivered.
-Conversion of the older CLs recommended.

New Program propsals:

1. Reactivate HMS Royal Oak
-Install 13.5" turrets from coastal fortresses.
-Pack 4" and 40mm AAs on deck.

2. New CL construction
-Reuse 6" twin turrets from conversions of older CLs into AA cruisers.

3. Conversion of a CA into a CVL
-Oldest CA HMAS Cockatoo recomended.

[Cockroach]

Day 21, St Petersburg
Air Commadore Michael Hall sat in the hotel in which the Pacific Dominions' Embassy had occupied... Less than a day back a bomb had gone off near him, he had survived bloodied, bruised and with a couple of pieces of shrapnel firmly embeded in his flesh. Next time he went out he planned upon carrying his old pistol that had served him well all those years back during the intervention against the Bolsheviks, it hardly seemed like those 16 years had passed.... Back in 1923 Michael Hall had been in the Australian Flying Corp for just over four years when his squadron had been deployed as part of the British Empire's effort in the intervention. Over the next four years he had flown countless sorties in anything from the old Bristol Fighters that equiped the Tsarist airforce to the latest products of the UK's aircraft factories. On more than one ocasion Michael Hall had been forced to bail out or crash land.... But what purpose had all that activity served? the Bolsheviks had until this event controlled a vast swath of territory covering Moscow and a decent chunk of Siberia; Tsarist Russia held most of the land on the near the Baltic coast, indeed since the union with some of the Baltic Republics in 1933 that area had grown; but all the rest of Russia was split between a variety of warlords and failed states...

[G.Bone]

Is there a reason why you posted the same thing in two different threads?

[Cockroach]

Is there a reason why you posted the same thing in two different threads?Perhaps I shouldn't have posted it in both places, but it is directly concerned with the activities of my diplomats in Russia so it was either post it in both, post it in this thread only (and presumably have Grey Wolf not notice it) or post "post related to this over at [other thread]".

[Grey Wolf]

Perhaps I shouldn't have posted it in both places, but it is directly concerned with the activities of my diplomats in Russia so it was either post it in both, post it in this thread only (and presumably have Grey Wolf not notice it) or post "post related to this over at [other thread]".

I do read all the threads, but I do welcome your posting it to the Atmosphere thread as it feels right :)

Grey Wolf

[Cockroach]

Sydney, 30th of September
The news from St Petersburg wasn't good. The last transmission from the embassy seemed to indicate that a coup had taken place. Again politicians swarmed around government house, demands for the dispatch of a rescue mission were issued by government and opposition alike. But also again and again the point was raised about the fleet lacked the range to reach St Petersburg without refuelling and with no known secure ports between Tasman and St Petersburg there would be one hell of a problem...
-----------------------------------------------------------
Captain Thomas Marsh walked the docks. He had just been relived of command of HMAS Tiger a matter of days back but now things had changed.... He looked over the fleet, his new ship HMNZS New Zealand lay along side a pier... Suddenly a car bearing a government number plate pulled up next to him, "Commadore Marsh get in, I need to get you to government house" shouted the driver... During the drive thoughts charged randomly throught Thomas Marsh's mind: a new ship? a promotion? a meeting with the governor-general? all of these seemed to add up to some special and potentially secret opperation...

[Cockroach]

Tasman, 4th of October
The Commodore looked over the city, the damage from his bombardment several weeks back was still obvious... it was funny how mere weeks back New Holland had numbered as one of the Pacific Dominions' enemies but now was something of a willing puppet.... His attention then turned to his own ships: the newly commisioned HMNZS New Zealand; the carrier HMAS Albatross; two cruisers; four destroyers and half a dozen tankers... The Commadore's train of thought was inturrupted with the arrival of an officer from New Holland's now non existant navy..

[Cockroach]

3rd of November, North Atlantic
The squadron had been at sea for over a month, all but one of the half dozen tankers had long since departed... Commodore Marsh scanned the horizon, in mere hours the squadron would be off the coast of Britain, but a very different Britain to the one the Commodore had left four years back... But it would be good to see old England again... The objective of the squadron had changed drastically since the squadron left Australia, initally it had been dispatched with the expressed purpose of rescuing the Embassy in St Petersburg but since news of the diplomats escape had been recieved the mission had changed to supporting the rightful russian government...

[Cockroach]

15th of October, United Nordic Kingdoms
Air Commadore Michael Hall walked the halls of the old castle in which the survivors from the UOPD's diplomatic mission had taken up residence. The days after the Russian coup had been some of the most horrifying Michael Hall had seen: How much blood had been spilt in the streets? How many men, women and children lay dead?
And then had come the evacuation... the Nordics and Japanese had reached the docks without any trouble but their movements had apparently tipped off the rebels. His men on the other hand had suffered greatly, the ambush had left five of the soldiers and nine of the diplomats dead...

[Cockroach]

Aircraft in service on 1st November:
185 (135+50) Kingsford Smith [KS-3] Dingo close support aircraft; 92 (69+23) Hawker Cyclone fighters; 50 Handley Page Hampden medium bombers; 136 (88+38) Kingsford Smith [KS-4] Anzac light fighters; 14 Albatross Mk I dive bombers

[Cockroach]

Narvik, 6th of November
Air Commadore Michael Hall looked over the Pacific Dominions squadron, such a large force to be sent to engage in a conflict over the other side of the world. Up the gang plank, throught the standard ceremony and onto the Commodore's cabin and the standard introductions.... the Commodore looked strangely familiar...
"I belive we have already met" came the Commodore's response to the introduction. Michael Hall thought for a second... St Petersburg, April 1924, the day after he shot down his 20th enemy plane... He and several other members of his squadron had gone on a bit of a binge in celebration and had gotten into a brawl with some equally drunken RN midshipmen... yes, this man had been responsible for breaking up the fight and dragging the Michael Hall off to the brig aboard a RN cruiser...
"yes I belive we have" replied the Air Commodore...

Stockholm, 7th of November
Another endless round of meetings.... this one with a representitive of the exiled Russian government....
"How many of these aeroplanes do you have avalible?"
"The airgroup of HMAS Albatross... 25 Dingos and 20 Anzacs with pilots. We also have another 10 Dingos and 8 Anzacs carried as spares for the carrier and another 23 Dingos and 22 Anzacs crated up... uhm, still needing to have their wings fitted..."
"When can we expect your troops?"
"I don't know, apparently a division was being readied when the naval squadron left so I would say at least another month"
"What does your naval force plan upon doing?"
"We don't know until we have been given some intelligence about what forces the rebels have?"
After another few hours of this Air Commadore Michael Hall finally emerged... he was exahusted but still he had to get on with the buisness of establishing a flying school to train these Russians how to handle an airplane...

[Cockroach]

see http://alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?p=82651#post82651 for story prior to this.
Narvik, 15th of November
Commodore Marsh stalked back a fowards across the bridge... this was an act of piracy, cowardice and probably trechery... He swore that this upstart Commander would hang. How had he gotten away with the tanker? mutiny didn't seem likely so it must have been some other way. There were reports of two fishing boats being sighted near the vessel shortly before the shooting started, could these have caried a boarding party? That was under investigation at this very moment.... A sudden rattle of rifle fire indicated that something very suspisious had been found....

Commodore Marsh examined the rifle, it looked similar to the rifles carried by the exiled Russian soldiers he had encountered in Stockholm. But this particular rifle had been recovered from the corpse of one of several men of slavic appearance that had ambushed the marine detatchment searching for the fishing boats seen near the tanker the previous night.
To Commodore Marsh this presented only one possibility: The rebels had decided to lay their grubby paws on some aircraft

[Grey Wolf]

Hey, its all fascinating ! I'm still trying to work everything out but I think I have the general hang of things...except for the last bit ? Who are these rebels ? Do you mean secret service forces of Tsar Simeon II ? It would certainly be in keeping with Dmitri Breshkovsky's background (Okhrana) and the way he views the world !

I'm assuming the United Nordic Kingdom is happy having all these foreigners sitting in its ports ? Or perhaps nobody has asked DuQuesne and we're just imposing on him ?

I wonder who the representative at Narvik is ? It probably makes more sense for it to be Aleksandr Chubin, who was going to be headed back to the Baltic on the old scout cruiser Minsk, but upon learning of the presence of Pacific Dominions forces in the area would head to meet them.

There is one small problem for the Konstantine Russians using any of this force available to them, and that's ICE - the Gulf of Finland is soon going to become impassable, and it basically IS where the Alexandrine Russians are. I wouldn't give much hope for a mid-Winter march South from Archangel. The likeliest alternative is the planned coup in Riga by the Germanic landowners, and as part of the deal with Pavel Kamenin, the Russians get rights of passage across Latvia.

The small problem is the SS invasion by rogue units into Lithuania which is causing something of a distratcion. If it gets worse, the Baltic Federation will need to mobilise and send in federal forces

Best Regards
Grey Wolf

[DuQuense]

I'm still wondering where Narvik is. I don't see it on my map, thru it sounds familiar some how. Saab designers are swarming over the planes the UPD brought. Our Naval Architects are drooling over the Aircraft carrier plans. The Merchants are getting rich selling supplies [ Thru Gas and Tires are still rationed. till whe get the first shipment of rubber from Brazil the shortage will continue] And the UNK Secrect Service is justifing it budget trying to keep tabs on everyone. If the Baltic does start over delaying things I'll probally ask everyone to move to Norway, for the Winter.



PS Hint - when making Jello pudding forget the whisk, just pour the cold milk and pmix in a empty Mayonaise jar, put the lid on and Skake. Five minutes, later--- Banana pudding to eat while typing, even better, if you add choclate chips to it.

[Grey Wolf]

I'm still wondering where Narvik is. I don't see it on my map, thru it sounds familiar some how. Saab designers are swarming over the planes the UPD brought. Our Naval Architects are drooling over the Aircraft carrier plans. The Merchants are getting rich selling supplies [ Thru Gas and Tires are still rationed. till whe get the first shipment of rubber from Brazil the shortage will continue] And the UNK Secrect Service is justifing it budget trying to keep tabs on everyone. If the Baltic does start over delaying things I'll probally ask everyone to move to Norway, for the Winter.



PS Hint - when making Jello pudding forget the whisk, just pour the cold milk and pmix in a empty Mayonaise jar, put the lid on and Skake. Five minutes, later--- Banana pudding to eat while typing, even better, if you add choclate chips to it.

I have no idea what your last paragraph means - is it a political analogy ?

Narvik is in Northern Norway, it was in WW2 the scene of a major destroyer battle which ended up with a host of German vessels on the bottom of the fjord.

I'll say that Chubin is there in the old Minsk. I guess the presence of the Foreign Minister would mean that the UNK would have someone important head there as a matter of courtesy

What did this mean -
If the Baltic does start over delaying things I'll probally ask everyone to move to Norway, for the Winter.

Thanks
Grey Wolf

[DuQuense]

Had a major computer crash am leaving Windows and moving to Linux, don't have a spellcheck program yet,

knew Narvik sounded farmiliar, guess they are they to visit Archangel. I thought they were in south Scandia.

"Starts ICEING over' - got to get a text program quick.

Felt like something good to snack and all I could find was a pint of milk , a old box of Pudding & a small bag of cookie chips. It worked well together. But I definently have to restock my junk food cupboard.

[Cockroach]

Do you mean secret service forces of Tsar Simeon II ? It would certainly be in keeping with Dmitri Breshkovsky's background (Okhrana) and the way he views the world !
Well I was actually refering to all the trouble makers back in Russian in general but secret service forces of Tsar Simeon II should do...

Don't feel like writing much just now I have only just dragged myself out of a 1st Year bachelor of engineering maths exam... I hope I have done well///

[Cockroach]

"Somewhere" in the United Nordic Kingdoms, 17th of November
Half a dozen Dingos sat on a small airfield, one by one their engines spluttered to life and then took off. Commander Thompson was piloting the lead aircraft on what he knew was a far from normal mission...

Approximatly an Hour Later, St Petersburg
The Dingos streaked in at mere meters above sea level... past numerous ships and boat of various descriptions; past palaces and ministries... There was only one objective for this raid: the stolen tanker...
A badly aimed barrage issued from the 4" AAs on the tanker and had no effect on the incoming 'planes.... The quad .303" mounts blazed away at the 'planes sending one plowing into the warehouses along the docks.... Commander Thompson placed his gun-site on one of the quad .303" machineguns and blazed away... The 20mm cannon litrally tore the gun crew to pieces... one by one the airplanes released their two 250 pound bombs.
----------------------
Of the ten bombs dropped four hit the tanker, tearing its hull open.
The tanker setteled onto the harbour floor with the deck only just submerged.
----------------------
The five surviving Dingos turned for home....

"Somewhere" in the United Nordic Kingdoms, 19th of November
The result of the mission hadn't been as good as was hoped, thought Commander Thompson. Of the six Dingos that had started the mission one had been shot down and another had been forced to ditch due to damage suffered during the attack. And now intelligence informed them that most if not all of the aircraft had been off loaded from the tanker before the attack...

[Cockroach]

Northern Pacific Ocean, 23rd of November
A sizable force of warships and transport were riding out a storm in the North Pacific. Aboard the transports the men of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions of the 6th Division AIF* and the 750 men of the New South Wales Lancers were making frequent runs for the railing to discharge their stomach contents into the sea. Things were not much better aboard the battlecruiser HMAS Lion, the admiral commanding the squadron was lying imobile in his cabin overcome by sea sickness. But not Captain John Collins#, he was the first Australian born and trained officer to take command of a capital ship and a small matter of sea sickness wasn't going to stop him doing his duty.
The squadron held its course for Petropavlosk..

*Note: numbering retained from WWI. The division actually consists of around 5000 active duty troops and another 10000 reservists.
# Yep using an OTL character.

[Cockroach]

Narvik, Early December (Is that right?)
For Commodore Marsh the news wasn't good. His ships were in need of a number of repairs and quite simply Narvik didn't have the facuilties. However this war that was raging in Europe made it near suicidal for his squadron to leave port. At the same time another thought pulled at the Commodore's mind... an England- true it wasn't his England, lay just across the North Sea. After his years of service, the last four spent in the tropics, didn't he deserve to go home? At that moment another thought started to form in his mind... Surely several suitable dry docks would be avalible in England, so why didn't he take this squadron with him...