11 October: Compensation Payments Concluded
The Indian government has now delivered payment to every family who lost a loved one aboard Danish warships engaged with Indian forces in 1924.
“We had no quarrel with them, nor with Denmark”, the Raj noted. “Denmark led by example in its treatment of its Asian friends and I regret that it was necessary to use force against them in this specific instance. That force cost the lives of brave and honorable men with families to support, families I do not wish to see left bereft of income as a result of their losses.”
28 October: TWA Trials Conclude
In Alleppey, the trial of eight men charged in the Torpedoworks Alleppey scandal has concluded after just nine days of testimony. Chief Justice Rustam Dasgupta heard testimony from investigators, witnesses, and two of the accused, regarding allegations that TWA’s senior management conspired to hide serious flaws in its torpedo products - flaws the Prosecution claimed cost the nation the lives of numerous sailors in last year’s conflict with Denmark and Siam.
TWA’s Vice-President of Finance and Manager of Propulsion Systems were surprise witnesses, having struck deals with the Ministry of Justice beforehand. Both men testified that TWA’s management was aware of problems with its torpedos as early as 1922, but feared losing contracts if any information was passed along to the Navy.
2 November: Sentencing in TWA Trial
Chief Justice Dasgupta has found all eight members of TWA’s management team guilty on charges of Fraud, Uttering Threats, and Treason. Ajay Kajol and Kuku Devgan, who testified for the Prosecution, were sentenced to twenty years imprisonment.
Aksay Kapoor (Director, Product Development), Ram Bhansali (Director, Client Services), and Daya Chopras (Manager, Warhead Development), who was in tried in absentia, were sentenced to life in prison.
Bhagat Ghosh, the company’s president, was sentenced to death, as were Saif Chopras (Vice-President, Government Liaison) and Veeru Johar (Vice-President, Operations). As is the case in all treason cases, the method of execution was referred directly to the Raj, who decreed that all three would be thrown to the tigers. The date of execution is to December 9.
1 December: India Announces 1926 Estimates
The focus continues to be on new construction, says Admiral of the Navy Sanjay Das.
“Over eighty percent of our capital budget will be spend on construction this year”, noted Admiral Das. “Our three largest projects - Akbar, Jahangir, and Urumi - alone take up over a third of our overall budget. This burden will, of course, be eased by Akbar’s completion at the end of the year.”
New construction for the navy will include two light cruisers, four destroyers, two minelayers, twelve coastal torpedo-boats, twelve anti-submarine launches and the third unit of the I-6 class of submarines. “The commencement of the Agra class is an important step in Indian cruiser evolution”, Admiral Das observed. “They’ll take on a front-line role in our critical sectors, and will logically lead to a follow-up class later in the decade.”
Admiral Das said that the early order of the minelayers, ASW launches, and coastal torpedo-boats reflected renewed interest in littorial combat. “The minelayers are derived from the T-19 torpedo-boat design, and are intended for short range, high-speed laying operations. We expect that there may ultimately be several built over the coming years. Meanwhile, we’re going to bolster the coastal torpedo-boat fleet with additional construction of some forty tonne models. The ASW launches, displacing 200 t, will be used for coastal escort and submarine hunting work. All three programs will help with the Hornets’ Nest strategy we’re adopting in our eastern waters.”
Also on the agenda are extensive upgrades for the elderly cruisers Goa and Chennai. “Our intention, frankly, was to delete the class in the next couple of years. However, after some consultation with our South African friends, and looking to some recent Russian work, we’ve concluded that we can upgrade their capabilities significantly. They won’t be on par with a full-sized treaty cruiser, but they’ll be as good as anything in their size category, and useful in the quieter sectors of our operating area.” It’s not currently known if the Pondicherry and Sittwe will receive similar work in the future.
Admiral Das confirmed that the navy is now starting to look at alternate uses for its four Godavari-class colliers. “Within two years we’ll have no coal-fired warships left in front-line service. Those hulls offer some opportunity - what it is has yet to be determined. It’s possible we’d be willing to sell some of the class, convert them, or we may just scrap them.”
There will be no infrastructure development this year as a result of all this construction, but Admiral Das expects this to change in 1927. Three old destroyers and two old torpedo boats will go to the breakers. “It’s reincarnation in a sense; the old warships will live on as part of new warships.”
9 December: Executions Carried Out
The three men sentenced to death in the Torpedoworks Alleppey scandal have been executed in the most gruesome manner possible in India.
At 1 PM, Daya Chopras was thrown into the fifteen-foot pit on the grounds of the Imperial Court in Hyderabad. Two of the court’s tigers were released in to the pit soon afterward, and quickly mauled Chopras to death.
At 2 PM, after the tigers had been removed from the pit, Veeru Johar called out an apology to the Raj and asked for permission to jump into the pit, rather than be thrown. The Raj agreed, and Johar jumped in head first, striking his head on the stone bricks that make up the pit’s floor. It is not known if he was alive when the tigers were released, but he was certainly not conscious.
At 3 PM, TWA President Bahgat Ghosh was thrown into the pit after unsuccessfully begging for his life to be spared. As is often the case, the Raj took some time in ordering the tigers to be released, with the result that Ghosh was not actually attacked and killed until almost six in the evening.
They were the first executions by mauling in over a decade, and drew fire from human rights groups worldwide. The Raj did not comment on the criticism.
14 December: Insight into SAINT and SATSUMA Exercises
Recently, AWNR had an opportunity to speak with Captain Subhash Baru, of the aviation ship Otta, and Captain Puneel Gandhi, of the battleship Babur, for their thoughts on the two major naval exercises in which India participated in 1925.
AWNR: You gentlemen are in a unique position, having commanded the only vessels to take part in both exercises. How do you feel?
B: Glad we’re done until next May. These are very exhausting events - granted, SAINT lasted longer than SATSUMA.
G: Quite a bit longer. Bit surprising, hey?
AWNR: First off, then, your impressions on SAINT?
G: Good exercises. A little humbling, perhaps, as there was no effort to put our battleships on par with the South Africans’. Dara Shikoh in particular was sunk a lot.
B: It was good, though, in that we used pretty much every type of weapon platform we had, and in multiple scenarios. It avoids putting too much emphasis on something that did or didn’t work well in the first go-round.
AWNR: What was the most challenging aspect of SAINT?
G: Trying to deal with the South African battleships. We had no perfect solution. We still don’t.
B: Its duration. My boys were exhausted when it was all said and done. The stokers were black with coal dust, the pilots were half-awake, and the mechanics were going overtime just keeping the aircraft serviceable.
AWNR: How did that work out?
B: As well as can be expected. We’d start with pretty much everything ready, but after the first mission we usually had as many aircraft genuinely sidelined for maintenance as we had been ruled to have lost. It was tragic to have lost one aircraft and its pilot, but over a long and intense period of operations like that, it’s not a bad loss rate.
AWNR: Now, SATSUMA - your impressions there?
[G & B look at each other]
B: Well, to me it reinforced the fact that aircraft carriers are going to replace battleships as rulers of the seas.
G: Come on now. Whose ship was sunk, and whose ship wasn’t?
B: I wasn’t sunk.
G: Fine - your “survival was doubtful” or something. You were a mission-kill at the least.
B: Said the referees. And that only happened because of the stunt.
AWNR: The what?
[Silence]
AWNR: A stunt?
G: Let’s say that not everybody was entirely satisfied with how the night engagement proceeded. It seemed, shall we say, optimistic to have the MAS boats manage to get every one of their fish off, score a 12.5% success rate and manage to hit every major target they faced - with the loss of what, one boat?
B: And then Presidente Malvar happened to time her attack perfectly. It left some of our colleagues questioning whether it was just how things worked out, or if there was some sort of pre-arrangement at work.
AWNR: Meaning...?
G: Meaning that there was speculation it was set up this way specifically to cast a good light on recent Filipino acquistions.
AWNR: You think it was?
G: No, I said there was some speculation. I didn’t say I was doing the speculating.
AWNR: So do you think then that MAS boats aren’t a threat?
B: No, that’d be silly. We’ve seen how effective they can be in the Med and off Phuket. However - with an alert screen and the larger ships all firing off tremendous volumes of ammunition, you might expect more MAS losses and less accurate torpedo spreads in reality.
AWNR: It didn’t work for Delhi at Phuket.
B: That was six MAS boats taking on one small cruiser, rather than five MAS boats taking on four capital ships. Bit of a difference there.
AWNR: Point taken. So, that aside, what was the most challenging aspect of SATSUMA?
G: I’d say language and liaison. Whereas SAINT was strictly split up along national lines, we had opposing forces each containing elements of up to five different nations, some of which we’ve only been interacting with for a year or so. Finding liaison officers to work with the South Africans and Japanese was not too difficult, but the good luck finding men who speak Tagalog or Iberian or Chosenian.
B: Agreed. We were working with ships and men we’d never met before and it made for a lot of confusion. But I suppose that’s something that any alliance has to work through at some point.
AWNR: Aircraft and aircraft carriers got a lot of attention in both exercises. Is their ability being accurately portrayed in these exercises?
Both: No.
G: It’s being overplayed. Yes, they’re invaluable as scouts, but they just haven’t got the bomb load to seriously affect larger warships, and as with the MAS boats, I think the referees continually under-estimated the distraction value that comes from all those light guns when they’re spitting lead in the airplane’s direction.
B: I was going to say that the effects were being under-estimated. The Japanese carriers gave us a good look at the future - big, fast strike platforms with airgroups capable of dropping dozens of bombs on the targets. Those bombs are going to have excellent deck penetrating ability. They’ll hurt even the battleships.
G: You’re speaking of the future. Look at SAINT - the three engagements were all settled in capital ship fights. The aerial stuff was all just preliminary stuff aimed at weaker ships.
B: SATSUMA wasn’t. Look at the effects of those air strikes.
G: Compare it to your actual live-fire strike on the Danes. That showed some potential, but didn’t do much to impair the Danes themselves.
AWNR: Okay, moving on...Captain Gandhi, were you bothered that Admiral Sen hoisted his flag on the Filipino battleship rather than yours?
G: I was a little perplexed, perhaps. I believe it was a political decision, rather than an operational one. Note that the Filipino battleship Fernando ended up being the victorious flagship, not an Indian or Japanese ship.
AWNR: The reports noted that your battle squadron routed what remained of the opposing force’s battle squadron. Yet the Mutsu was in that force - did Babur and Fernando overwhelm her?
G: Gods, no. We never saw her, just the so-called cripples. That’s just as well. She could have handled us both with ease.
AWNR: Where was she?
B: I believe she was dis-engaging. From what I heard, there weren’t sufficient light forces to protect her from the MAS boats and aircraft still available to Admiral Sen. We’d been mauled pretty badly at that point and there was no sense in getting her sunk too.
G: She could’ve made a draw out of it. She could have wiped out my entire battle squadron.
B: With those MAS boats still lurking about? She wouldn’t get anywhere close.
G: True. Never mind then.
AWNR: How have these exercises affected senior level thinking?
B: Something’s in the works, but I’m not sure if it’s related to the exercises directly or not. I think Admiral Das referred to it the other week when he mentioned the “Hornet’s Nest”, but that’s as much as anybody at our level seems to know about it.
G: I’d say the brass has been reminded of the need for a balanced fleet that can address every threat we face. From what I’ve seen of the 1926 estimates, that’s being acted on.
AWNR: What would you like to see happen next year, when India hosts?
G: Multiple scenarios. Three days isn’t enough for something like this.
B: I’d like new bombers, so I can put some holes in Captain Gandhi’s deck.
AWNR: Thank you both for your time.
Both: Thank you.
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Quoted
The flagship was a mix-up on my part - it was originally going to be Fernando, but then when the senior officer turned out to be Indian I meant to switch it to Babur - but forgot to remove the "(FF)" notation from Fernando. Oops.
Tuesday, May 21st 2024, 6:59am
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