WesWorld

April 3, 1931 - Wilhelmshaven

More export work for German naval shipyards begins as the keels of a destroyer and a submarine destined for Peru are laid. The destroyer is reminiscent of the GTB-1916 type vessels completed at the end of the Great War in armament, being armed with 15cm guns, a single 8.8cm weapon, 53.3cm torpedoes, and 25mm cannon supplied by Peru. The submarine will be the largest undersea vessel built in Germany since the end of the Great War, displacing over 1000 tons when it is beneath the waves, and armed with 53.3cm torpedoes and a 10.5cm cannon.


April 12, 1931 – Dresden

The Heer's trial of rifle cartridges to possibly replace the 7.92mm x 57 IS got underway, with representatives, rifles, and ammunition from the contending companies on hand at the At the Infanterieschule Dresden. One company, Solothurn of Switzerland, has dropped out of the competition, leaving ERMA, GECO, RWS, MauserWerke, and Pedersen from the US.

The contenders were –

7.92mm x 57 IS - the current Heer rifle cartridge, used strictly as a benchmark and a basis for comparison. This round fires a 9.9 gram bullet at 878 m/s.

7mm x 51 Pedersen - A cartridge originally developed in 1923 for the semi-automatic Pedersen rifle, which is on display as well, and is currently under review in the US as a possible replacement for the .30-06. The round, however, does not meet the Heer's specifications specifying a maximum length of 45mm. It is, however, a useful benchmark round, firing a 9.7 gram bullet at 730 m/s.

7.92mm x 45 GECO – the most powerful round in the competition, a straightforward shortening on the standard 7.92mm IS round to the maximum length allowed by the competition. This round fires a 9 gram bullet at 750 m/s.

7.92mm x 39 GECO – a less powerful version of the GECO 7.92mm x 45 entry, firing the same 9 gram bullet as the longer round but at a lower velocity (700 m/s).

7mm x 33 ERMA – a quite short round, firing a smaller and lighter (8 grams) bullet at a moderate velocity (680m/s).

6.5mm x 30 ERMA - another short round, firing an 8 gram bullet at a moderate velocity (650 m/s).

7mm x 40 RWS – a moderate length round, firing a similar weight bullet (8 grams) at a higher velocity than the 7mm ERMA (750 m/s).


April 19, 1931 - Vienna, Austria

The German Foreign Minister and Interior Minister are visiting the Austrian capital, discussing ways in which the two Germanic nations may more closely align their policies.


May 1, 1931 - Berlin

The Kriegsmarine has announced that a delegation will be sent to Nordmark to examine the new aircraft carrier Gas, accepting an invitation from Germany's neighbor across the Baltic. "Of course we are interested in their new carrier," answered Grand Admiral Raeder to a question in the Reichstag, "we would like to know if the KM would be well advised to build one ourselves or not."

Quoted

April 19, 1931 - Vienna, Austria

The German Foreign Minister and Interior Minister are visiting the Austrian capital, discussing ways in which the two Germanic nations may more closely align their policies

Anyone else getting worried?

Quoted

Anyone else getting worried?

No, I have other things to worry about. Now ships to Peru, and Italian ships to Argentina, that I can worry about.

Quoted

Originally posted by Red Admiral
Anyone else getting worried?

The Danes will be interested (and a little concerned) to see what comes of these talks.

The other side of the world... Japan's not worried. Japan's never worried!
^_^

Not even when Manzo's flying over his home country?

Atlantis is keenly interested in German politics but is optimistic that their intentions no longer resemble the desire to prevoke hostility's.

May 3, 1931 - Berlin

The Foreign and Interior Ministers have returned to Berlin from their visit to Vienna, which the Foreign Minister described as "productive and business-like." The Foreign Ministry announced that the Prime and Foreign Ministers of Austria would be visiting Germany in July.


May 19, 1931 - Dresden

The competition fairly quickly eliminated the 7.92mm x 45, the 6.5mm x 30 and the 7mm x 33 rounds, the first as too powerful and the latter two as not powerful enough (while most of the Western Front battles showed no need for a infantry rifle with a range of over 300m, the Eastern and Italian Fronts were more demanding of a rifle cartridge, and the officers and men reviewing the cartridges included personnel who had served on those fronts). The competition between the remaining two cartridges was quite close, with flat trajectory favoring the 7mm and bore size the 7.92mm. In the end, the somewhat lighter recoil and flatter trajectory of the 7mm x 40 RWS won the day and the competition for the RWS cartridge.

The Pedersen rifle and its cartridge were inspected and fired as well, even though the cartridge does not meet the Heer's requirements. The 10 round en bloc clip was thought to have both advantages (ease and speed of loading, unfussy) and disadvantages (no ability to reload a partially empty clip, logistics issues with the clips), while the waxed cartridges used in the rifle were not highly thought of as they had a tendency to attract and hold grit and feed it into the action. A version of the Pedersen rifle (or it's competitor in the US, the Garand) chambered in the 7mm x 40 RWS round and without the waxed cartridges would, the general consensus of the inspectors ran, be a quite formidable challenger for the semi-automatic rifle competition, to be held in late 1932.

Having chosen the 7mm x 40 RWS, the follow-on rifle competition was announced. The competition would be for a semi-automatic rifle that would:
- weigh no more than 4.5 kg loaded and equipped with sling and cleaning kit.
- hold at least 8 7 mm x 40 RWS cartridges in it's magazine
- have a maximum length of no more than 1200 mm
- require no preparation of the cartridges prior to loading (ie, no waxing or oiling of the cartridges).

The competition would be held in November of 1932, all companies foreign and domestic were encouraged to submit prototypes for examination.


May 20, 1931 - Berlin

The Kreigsmarine has announced that the delegation currently examining the carrier Gas in Nordmark will be following this up with a visit to Atlantis to examine the Atlantean carriers Arrogant and Fearless. "The two Atlantean ships are much larger than the new carrier Nordmark has built, and that will make them an interesting comparison", was the comment made by a KM spokesman.

May 29th, 1931 - Berlin

The Luftwaffe has chosen the winners in it's machinegun competition. The winner of the 7.92mm x 57 observers MG is the Rheinmetall MG 15, a close cousin of the MG 30 recently chosen by the Heere for service on the ground. The winner of the fixed machinegun competition is the Mauserwerke MG 151, a 15mm x 96 weapon.


June 1st, 1931 - Berlin

The Foreign Ministry cabled the sorrow of the German people to Karlskrona over the accident yesterday onboard the Oskar II. "The prayers of Germany are with the families of those who were killed in the tragedy yesterday, and with those men who lie injured today."


June 5th, 1931 - Berlin

Over the vehement objections of the KPD, and some left-leaning members of the SPD, a new defence budget was passed today. The reasons for the objections was that the budget did not hold the line on spending, instead authorizing an increase in the size of the Heere, the Luftwaffe, and the Kriegsmarine. By the end of 1933, the Heere is authorized to grow to 400,000 men, with the other services growing at a somewhat lower rate.


June 15th, 1931 - Wilhelmshaven

The news of the Peruvian purchase of the Indian BB Babur has brought an unsurprising result: the follow-on vessels to the destroyer and submarine being assembled here will be delayed by approximately 6 months. "When we heard that the Peruvians had won the bidding for Babur we had a suspicion that this might happen. Peru is not the largest country in the world, and they do not have an unlimited budget, so the purchase of a dreadnought like Babur forces them to adjust in other places. Luckily we have had assurances that the two vessels already under construction will be paid for as scheduled, so there will be no affect on the workers currently working in the yards. And there might be other opportunities in the near future, we'll have to see how things turn out."


June 29th, 1931 - Grafenwohr

The Heere has announced the signing of a license production agreement with the U. S. Wheel Track Laying Corporation, allowing Germany to produce vehicles to the design of the tanks supplied by the US company, and to use inventions contained within them.


June 30, 1931 - Berlin

The Kriegsmarine has announced it's intention to purchase up to 6 tanker/freighters over the next few years. "With the increase in deployments away from our bases, the need for ships like this has greatly increased. In the short term, leasing civillian tankers is working well enough, but in the long term it will be better for the Kriegsmarine to own it's own resupply vessels." [The ships in question will be very similar to the historical Dithmarschen class, the only real difference being that the 15cm guns are replaced with a twin 10.5cm deck mounting fore and aft that is not hidden.]