A Gentle Breeze - A Discussion

[ShockTrooper262]

United States Navy:

Since 1906 the USN has wanted to strike a balance to be at least the 2nd largest navy in comparison to the Royal Navy, however they also wanted to protect US and World Trade in the event of hostilities.

When the war began in 1914, the US was more than fine to allow trade with all sides (minus war equipment) as long as it was paid for and transported by foreign or commercial shipping. When the British and Germans began searching, seizing and scuttling ships, the USN drew a hard line by declaring the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific within 260 nautical miles of North America and the Panama Canal a protected zone.

The USN also began escorting ships to both Germany and England until they hit the limits of the patrol area. This served to help the British in the long run since convoys from Canada inadvertently were covered by the USN and their Atlantic Fleet. The biggest issue the USN wanted to call out was the British Blockade, though the German AMCs and possible Armored Cruiser operating from a possible Mexican base had defacto solidified the order to seize any hostile ship that was operating in direct opposition to the USN operations in the area. Here the American Battlecruisers did great, but the USN had now prefered a possible 10-12" armed super armored cruiser thus not being as expensive as the actual heavy scouting cruiser (CC-1 through CC-6) that was being authorized in 1915 and 1916.

For now the USN had ordered 60 new Destroyers and 40 purpose built submarine hunting light ships for harbor patrol and coastal duties since the 14" and 12" shore batteries where considered perhaps overkill for that duty.


Here the USN's Submarine Fleet was being tasked with doing 'deep recon' and stalking suspicious shipping in the areas making contact and then hiding as to not be discovered. These experiences would be best learned and shown in the US Submarine Campaign of the 2nd Great Conflict.







Royal Navy:


The Royal Navy at the beginning of 1914 had begun the convoy system in piecemeal, only dedicating large or full convoys for very important things such as men, weapons and technology.

The German submarine campaign had proven to be quite effective at being a minor inconvenience, though Room-40 had begun collecting data and providing the RN with valuable data for things that the Germans put out there. Things had slipped through though as the months of March and April would show.

With Six Queen Elizabeth Class Battleships to be finished before late 1916, the RN had decided to go over and (with Scott's help in gunnery lessons and ideas) revamp the shell handling and ammo storage of the Battleships and Battlecruisers of the Fleet.

While not quite stopping the fact that Cordite was temperamental at best, the Shells wouldn't be quite prone to falling and most of the flash doors would be closed since rate of fire was being beaten by the improved accuracy of the gunnery. Two ships had begun receiving brass stored powder, but that was slated for a general refit after 1915.

Naval Infantry had been reorganized into 12 Man Squads with a dedicated medium machine gun platoon being allocated for each division. By March 1915, this also included 2 men armed with the Model A 1915, or as it would come to be the Mk I Submachine Gun.

While officially being apart of the Army, the second set of commando units, Commando 3 and 4 pulled from a mix of new and old NCOs/COs and volunteers from the Royal Marines had been slowly being rotated into the Med area. The ANZACs had also been drilled in shore operations, though the main issue was still where exactly to land.








Imperial German Navy:

The German Navy at the start of 1915 had begun to start implementing radio and wireless signal down times for some of their fleets as better prepare against attempts to find them. While most of the Navy believed this to be an overreaction, they did keep signals and orders for secret raids to a minimum, with two battlecruisers being sent to run the blockade. Since they were spotted by a float plane they went to the secondary target of Norway to secure trade and show the flag.

However 3 AMCs and a Armored Cruiser had indeed ran the blockade, though the AMCs were expected to do raiding in the Pacific, Atlantic and South Atlantic after getting pass inspections and the like.

The Armored Cruiser SMS Prinz Adalbert was forced to turn back and run the blockade again. She would be dispatched once more during October for another special mission.

Since the German Navy lost the Armored Cruiser, the plan was to assist both of the Mexican Governments, but only Pancho Villa's forces joined on the German side, using the support to fight the Mexican Civil War and the US Forces on the border.


The Germans had design studies with 16.5 inch guns being designed to beat the Queen Elizabeth's but those were now being vetted to see if they were really needed when U-Boats and lighter ships would be prefered.

 

[ShockTrooper262]

Well, while I've been on quite a hiatus from the actual writing of the Timeline, that doesn't mean I haven't been writing it in the background. More to come this Friday, and the weekend, but yeah I'll try to keep to one or two things a day, whether that's TL Chapters, or TL Lore/Art/Doctrine.

Which of course will go here, unless it's specific to the chapter I'm working on.

To catch the reader up to the current TLs date.

The Great Conflict is in February 24th 1915, and so far the war hasn't been too bloody. All sides assume the war will be decided in 1915/16 and that they must act aggressive to seize the initiative before the enemy does.

The Entente are favoring the Russians withdrawing from Eastern Prussia and parts of Austria to draw them into the depths of Russia before destroying them, while pushing for an Invasion of the Ottoman Empire to quickly beat them out of the war.

The American's are marching into Mexico to assist Pancho Villa's fall from power, while running the American people are angered that Germany or some other European power would dare assist the Mexicans to fight them.

The Germans and Austrians have stepped up their pushes in the West, and in the East, while the Germans are pursuing the full implication of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare.


The Neutral Italians are preparing to DoW on a warring nation, though they're not ready for the drastic changes to warfare, at least not until the first 100,000 men are killed.

The Ottomans are gearing up for a push to the Suez, while increasing in worry that the raids on the coast are only preparation for some sort of landing. While the straits are mined, more evidence points to the target being the north or the south and not the Dardanelles.

Finally the Japanese and Chinese, while being 'allies' with each other are constantly running into issues, that to the outsider seem as just two brothers play fighting, but internally are really two nations realizing that the other has to be knocked down, lest a bigger conflict in the region breaks out.

 

[ShockTrooper262]

As the United States Navy began the 1908 Shipbuilding Program, authorised several new battlecruisers to counter the British, German and Japanese ships built.

The First Four Battlecruisers, designated CC-1 to CC-4 were the 34,000t Tennessee Class Battlecruisers. The Armored Cruisers of the ACR-10 through ACR-17 Class were renamed to free up USS Tennessee for the battlecruisers. Designated as “CC” these ships formed the advanced scouting leader for cruisers, making up a niche that would fall out of use during the 1920 and 30s. One CC would lead a wing of 4 armored and 8 protected cruisers, though in practice the USN had less protected cruisers than needed for this. While the battleline was to do the fighting, the Scouting force would track and harass the enemy using their high speeds to out run hostile battlelines, and use their torpedo advantage* to deter hostile battlecruisers. Once the battleline had begun the melee, the CC would serve to cut off escaping forces and keep the hostile fleet near to the heavier guns of the battleships. For this they had a designed speed of 28 knots, though most of the ships could push well into 29.2knots and they had 14” guns similar to the ones found on early American Battleships.

During 1914, the USN brought up the fact they were very top heavy, and so instead of the last two Constitutions being laid down in 1916, they would be laid down in 1919 or 1920 to free up space for protected cruisers and destroyer leaders. The first of these would not be completed for two years, but this was perfect since the USN were watching the Royal Navy deal with the German U-Boat presence.






*(with their supposed eight protected cruisers)


**Of the six ordered, four would be completed and the last two were ordered as the 40,000t Constitution Class Battlecruiser. These two would be renamed and converted to CVs in the period after the Great Conflict. The USN's CC doctrine would give way to the CB Doctrine that would round out the later 1930s and 40s.

 

[ShockTrooper262]

After the Battle of the Adriatic many of Austria-Hungary's ship underwent refit periods. To address the issue of shellfire impacting the bridges of a few ships, all ships received larger C.T. rooms with more armor and some secondary guns were removed.

Funnel experiments were tested but only ships in deep repair would see them.

 

[ShockTrooper262]

It's been quite a dry spell and I've finally gotten my headspace back right to crank out more stories.

I had hoped to be into 1916 by 2020, but life always works strange like that.