WesWorld

The Rock Doctor
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 65
(5/1/03 9:20:18 pm)
Reply AWNR India: 30 November 1920
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AWNR: 30 November 1920

Reports from Al Salif indicate that India has taken control of the town after a day and a half of intense fighting. We start out coverage with this statement from the Government of India:

“On the morning of November 27, the Government of India attempted to resolve the crisis with Yemen by diplomatic means, but our diplomatic party was imprisoned and charged with capital offences. Twenty-four hours later, two battalions of infantry were landed in order to locate and rescue both the diplomats and Raveena Pillai. Acting on fresh intelligence data, a half-battalion of the South Assam Rifles liberated the diplomatic party from the town gaol, while the first battalion of the Mumbai Guard rescued Ms. Pillai from the governor’s palace.

“Ms. Pillai and the diplomats are in good health but need time to rest. We regret that a number of casualties have been suffered by both battalions and the light cruiser SR Columbo, and will seek to have a complete list available shortly.”

From that statement to Al Salif, where we have correspondent Nick Quick on the telephone.

AWNR: Nick, what’s the situation in Al Salif right now?

NQ: What’s that? You’ll have to speak up - I’m only just getting my hearing back.

AWNR (louder): Sorry, Nick - what’s the situation in Al Salif right now?

NQ: Well...the town’s a bloody shambles, really. Ruined buildings are still smoldering the eastern, central, and western parts of town as well as the main fortifications on Kamran Island. A warehouse on the east side has been taken over by the Indians to serve as a morgue, and their troops are patrolling the streets continuously. Out in the harbour, the Columbo's in rough condition, with two obvious areas of serious damage.

AWNR: Can you give us a quick summary of what happened?

NQ: It might not be that quick...to start with, the Indian diplomatic part came ashore three mornings ago and were arrested within minutes. There was no further traffic from the Indian squadron after that, until the next morning.

NQ: The first I knew of the landing was gunfire from the Indian squadron as they began shelling fortifications on Kamran Island and to the east on the mainland. I rushed down to shore and saw a number of boats heading for the northeastern part of the town - this turned out to be the Rifles. The Guards were apparently landing on the northwest tip of the mainland, near the Governor’s Palace, but I didn’t have a good line of sight to there.

NQ: Yemeni counterfire was sporadic and ineffective for awhile, perhaps due to some command confusion, but they began scoring near misses about an hour after the shooting had started. At about 9:12 or so, a big shell hit the Columbo and started a fire between the first and second funnels. A few minutes later, a Japanese destroyer headed in and started spraying water at the fire, but was also near-missed by the Yemenis. After a few minutes of this, a Japanese battleship began firing.

AWN R: Nick, there were reports that the battleship shelled the town. Is this correct?

NQ: Two shells landed very close to me - close enough to knock me silly for several minutes and deafen me. A number of homes were destroyed and twenty or more civilians were killed. However, all further shelling by the Japanese was directed at Kamran Island so I think that these two shells were some kind of error.

AWNR: So perhaps an effort to defend their destroyer. What’s the condition of the Kamran fortifications now?

NQ: Destroyed. Those walls were built decades ago to soak up damage from eleven-inch shells of the time, so they didn’t hold out well against the fourteen-inch shells being thrown at them. On an interesting side note, scuttlebutt around here is that the governor was in the fortifications and was killed in the shelling, but no body has been found yet.

AWNR: Nick, before we went on the air, you mentioned rumors of a mutiny among the Yemeni troops - can you elaborate?

NQ: I managed to speak with one of the Guards that entered the governor’s palace, and he told me that there were no live defenders inside - just a lot of dead ones. He says most of them looked to have died in hand-to-hand fighting; since the Indians didn’t do it, the Guards are thinking that some of the Yemenis attacked their colleagues and then fled. Apparently they secured the place without a shot being fired, unlocked the various doors, and found Ms. Pillai behind one of them.

AWNR: Have you seen Ms. Pillai?

NQ: I asked for an interview this morning, but was turned down. I’ll keep trying.

AWNR: Nick, if the Indians rescued everybody by noon, why was there still fighting yesterday?

NQ: A number of Yemeni troops rallied during the night and launched a counterattack yesterday just before dawn. The attack eventually failed, in part because one of the Indian destroyers came close inshore and started shelling them again. By early afternoon yesterday, Indian and Japanese medical teams were coming ashore to help with casaulties of all nationalities.

AWNR: Do you have a sense of the number of casualties?

NQ: Not for sure. I heard fourteen dead on the Columbo, and about twenty injured. That includes a South African exchange officer, Lieutenant Wim van de Loo, who may have saved the ship by jettisoning the ship’s port-side torpedoes as the fire reached that area; I'm happy to say that he has some minor burns and cuts but nothing serious. Onshore, perhaps seventy of the infantry were killed, plus a lot of wounded - most from the Rifles. The civilians are telling me that there are as many as fifty civilians dead, probably more. As for the Yemeni military, there’s a very vague guess of two to three hundred. It’ll be some time before we get an accurate number of Yemeni casualties overall.

AWNR: Nick, we’ll let you go at this point. Thanks for speaking with us.

NQ: A pleasure as always.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni government is demanding that the League of Nations require India to repair the damage caused to Al Salif. The League is expected to convene in the next week to discuss the matter and AWNR will keep you advised.

[Player Note: SR Columbo was struck by five shells during the engagement.

A shell in the 8" to 9" range struck amidships close to the portside 5.9" mount, destroying it, killing its crew, and starting a fire. This fire was contained with Japanese assistance, and only after the port-side torpedoes were jettisoned. A second large shell struck the hull a foot below the waterline, causing minor flooding without detonating.

Three lighter shells holed the aft funnel, damaged "X" mount, and causing a minor fire in the petty officer's berthing. The ship is assigned a rating of 72% and will require dry-docking once emergency repairs are made to render the ship water-tight again.

Neither destroyer was struck was by Yemeni gunfire during the engagement.]





Pengolodh
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 17
(5/1/03 10:25:43 pm)
Reply
ezSupporter
Re: AWNR India: 30 November 1920
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think one can expect the Nordmark government to be worried by the development, but supportive towards the Indian action when they learn about the Yemeni arrest of the Indian diplomatic delegation. The government might be rather mores keptical towards the involvement of the Japanese Navy.


Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile, the Yemeni government is demanding that the League of Nations require India to repair the damage caused to Al Salif. The League is expected to convene in the next week to discuss the matter and AWNR will keep you advised.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Has the League of Nations been founded yet? Is Yemen a member?
Best regards
Pengolodh
"Iraq will not be defeated. Iraq has now already achieved victory - apart from some technicalities."
- Mohsen Khalil, Iraqi Ambassador to the Arab League

The Rock Doctor
Spammer wanna be
Posts: 66
(5/2/03 5:33:40 pm)
Reply Re: AWNR India: 30 November 1920
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I didn't actually check to see if the League existed yet...but I thought they did. Yemen might not be a member (I'd be surprised if they were, actually) but after this they might be considering it. India would be a member, I expect.

J



Rooijen10
So you want to be a spammer
Posts: 121
(5/2/03 5:41:31 pm)
Reply Re: AWNR India: 30 November 1920
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I thought I saw somewhere that it existed from 1919 to 1946

www.library.northwestern.edu/govpub/collections/league/background.html

Yes, India is part of the league and no, Yemen is not.

Walter

Edited by: Rooijen10 at: 5/2/03 5:42:04