WesWorld

5th July 1942 – The Navalist

Cape Town. Recently the battlecruiser RSAN Mocambique left the naval yard in Cape Town after a period of 23 month. Extensively modified, the mighty warship emerged from the docks as an almost new design. Most of her superstructure was modified, as was all her secondary and light gun armament. Instead of the former 15cm battery the vessel now carries twenty-four dual purpose guns in twelve twin mounts, testimony of the increased threat modern aircraft impose on a capital ship and an expression of the need to save weight by use of dual purpose batteries as separated low-angle secondary guns of 15cm caliber and heavy AA guns would cost too much. With the new weaponry came modern command and control features, resulting in a heavily modified bridge structure and additional range finders and antennas. To counter the increased weight of all these features and to bring performance at sea to a new level for the years to come the battlecruiser also got a brand new set of enhanced boilers and turbines implanted, increasing speed and endurance. With a new internal layout the requirement for deck space could be reduced by merging together all uptakes in a single funnel, freeing room and space for other equipment in the process.


[SIZE=1]RSAN Mocambique as she emerged from the yard after modernization[/SIZE]

RSAN Mocambique will now conduct tests and trials for a period of six month before returning to duty with 1st BS in South America.


9th July 1942 – Evening News

Montevideo. In a small ceremony officials and workers of the Montevideo Naval Yard laid down the keel of project #1765 on the large 270 meter slip No. 3. Until launch in October 1943 a new aircraft carrier will be shaped, second ship of a class of four that is known as Design CV42C. Completion of the vessel is planned for October ’45. At a standard displacement of 31,500 tons the class will be made of the largest such vessels in service, forming the nucleus of the RSAN carrier force with ninety of the most modern aircrafts aboard each unit.


14th July 1942 – The South African Telegraph

Posadas. Following the official announcement of plans for joint training facilities of the Indian and South African armies, rumors speak of a training complex that is to be created southeast of the city of Posadas, half way to the city of Apostoles. According to an anonymous source the camp should allow units to be trained in combat under subtropical conditions. Other information hint for a camp close to the cities of San Lorenzo and Saladas near the River Parana where combined operations with the Navy and her Marines can be trained, the need for such cooperation being a result of the lessons learnt during the war of ‘35/’36.


28th July 1942 – Pretoria Herald

Pretoria. The Argentine ambassador was called to an audience with the King yesterday. According to a spokesman military high ranks of all armed force as well as legal advisers attended to the meeting too. As became known, the King demanded an official statement by the Government of Argentina on the violation of Article V of the Treaty of Valparaiso by building the large so-called “Project 617 Class Gunboats”, also referred to as “river battleships”. Article V (2) of the treaty that settled peace after the war of ‘35/’36 allows for no warship larger than 600 tons to be constructed. The new design built by the Argentine is clearly above that limit. Then there is also a violation of Article V (3), defining a total upper limit of 4,000 tons of warships to be operated by either navy on the Rio Parana. With the entry into service of the Class 616 gun boats the limit was already exceeded by almost 1,000 tons. Should the ARA Rio Paraguay also enter service, the total sum of warships operated on the river would be in excess of 6,400 tons.

[Note]Here is what I used for calculation:
Name (Class)/#/Tons/Sum
El Plata (Los Andes Class)/1x542
Humaita (Paraguay Class)/2x636=1,272
Parana (Project 616 Class)/4x460=1,840
Rio Parana (Project 617 Class)/1x1,435
Type 7A River Gunboat/5x27=135
Type 3A River Gunboat/5x27=135
RTS 410 ex-Parana/1,055
Total = 6,414 tons


30th July 1942 – Grand Uruguay Times

Montevideo. The Royal South African Army announced to conduct her annual exercise in the area of Olavarria [Note] this year. The city lies in the province of Buenos Aires, about 300 kilometers southsouthwest of the City of Buenos Aires, and about 250 kilometers northwest of Mar del Plata. She is the central hub of the agricultural zone in southern Gran Uruguay. The exercise will last for three weeks and will be used to train the interaction of all elements of the RSAA in light of the new combined arms doctrine. This includes cooperation with the Royal South African Airforce, making this exercise truly a multi-arms operation. Until start of the exercise in October time will be used to prepare the exercise area, to build barracks, prepare provisional airfields and install shooting grounds for live fire of attending artillery, tank and RSAF units.

[Note]OTL the city is named after an Argentine hero, José de Olavarria, which would not fit to our WesWorld history. But to keep things simple, I keep real world names.


5th August 1942 – The Courier

Pietermaritzburg. The general management of the Pietermaritzburg Arms and Ammunition Manufactory PLC (PAAM) released business data for 1941 today. Monetary gains were higher than expected especially because of the high number of guns and ammunition ordered by the Royal South African Armed Services and some success on the export market. The management of PAAM expects to extend their position in 1942. “Our products are of superior quality thus setting the benchmark to which foreign manufactures have to compare their own guns of the calibers in question. International success and a good relationship to our customers will help us to open new markets all over the world.” Stock market analysts in Pretoria agree on this statement. “The anticipated profit for 1942 will be another 8 to 12 percent above the ´41er gains. Stock price of PAAM will be very stable.”

Quoted

Originally posted by HoOmAn
Monetary gains were higher than expected especially because of the high number of guns and ammunition ordered by the Royal South African Armed Services and some success on the export market.

out of curiousity, who is importing South African munitions?

Well, PAAM sells their high quality rifles and excellent ammunition to customers all over the world, be it an English big game hunter, a Macedonian franctireur, a Canadian forest ranger, a Angolean tribesman or an Australian dingo hunter.

For the bigger stuff there had been customers in Mexico and China lately, for example, that bought several thousand shells and placed options for more.

[That's only the official version of course. You can expect sales to almost everybody with a purse full of gold and an interest to protect his home or interests, may it be farmer or private organization.]

In general we are talking business here and there is this saying about SAE arms dealer: For a good profit, they would sell a gun to the devil and a rifle to a blind man.

I imagine there's some purchases from Bharat, and possibly Persia.

Stands to reason Peru would have bought some stuff in the past, given that they did buy battleships from SAE.

While I had been presuming that the Kingdom of Kongo was using FN- made Mausers in 7.5mm, I hadn't considered PAAM. If they had been willing to make such, the Kongo would have happily have looked to them.