WesWorld

The Chief of Staff of the Navy Almirante Dominguez was sat at his desk at Naval Headquarters in Bahia Blanca catching up with the endless stream of paperwork and reports on his desk. There was a knock at the door and his aide stepped in, “Sir, Capitan de Navio Pascal is here Sir.” The Admiral looked up, “Show him in.”
Capitan de Navio Pascal marched in, in his immaculate white summer uniform and he smartly saluted as he approached the desk, “Capitan Pascal reporting as ordered Sir.” “Ah, yes Capitan. Please have a seat.” Admiral Dominguez waved his hand, “Thank you Sir. I have here the reports from the engineer.” "What is his opinion?" the Admiral asked as he twirled a pen in his fingers. "He has looked over all the vessels and has made a brief assessment of their material condition. Five are in need of repair and another is in very poor condition. That leaves three in more or less good condition. He feels in his opionion that if we go ahead to rebuild them anyway this is not of serious concern." The Admiral mused for a while, "Hmm, well it will add to the final costs of the programme. And take time." "Yes Sir, he has enclosed his estimates on cost, of course the TTR is not yet complete but..." "yes very well, I'll look at his recommendations. I still need the approval of the Finance Minister, with the cruiser programme coming up its akward timing, we need to find enough funds for that." "What the public will say when we lay these vessels up on arrival is another problem Sir." The Admiral frowned, "that's not of your concern Captain. It's my job to run the Navy, not to run a popularity agency. The Minister will deal with that. Without funds and dock space things will be tricky enough but certainly we must go ahead. Those vessels will be very useful to us. You may go Captain. Thank you for your report, I'll read it in depth later on." The Captain stood, saluted and turned on his heel and left the room. The Admiral relaxed in his chair and spun round to face the large model of the battlecruiser Veinticinco de Mayo in a glass case behind his desk. “Ah its the devil to build a balanced fleet, these battlecruisers are fine ships but the support to go with them will cost us. And this is the only way we can afford what we need in enough numbers, buying other nation's cast-offs,"he murmured to himself. He turned round again to his desk and opened the next file of papers; the first line read ‘The Proposed Purchase of Fleet Destroyers …’

Nice stuff, James. Got to read it all again to make sure I get every bit of information. :o)

Thanks Hoo.
I hope the spy stuff makes a new sideline on the SA War and certainly going back over early WW history helped me understand what went on the early days better!

December 12
In a press release today the Compania Argentino de Navegacion Dodero annouced they have ordered three Deschimag Mehrzweckfrachter neu Art freighters to further expand its shipping line. It is understood that funding will partially come RM 7,000,000 of credit guaranteed by the Reichsbank which was annouced last year.

December 15
The Army confirmed that it was still testing three Auto Union Type 82 utility cars. It is rumoured that Auto-Union Argentinas S.A. in Santa Rosa will begin production of the Type 82 under licence next Spring for the Argentine Army. The trials seem to have gone well and now the final phase has begun in Patagonia after mountain trials were stasifactorily completed.

December 18
The football team San Lorenzo de Almagro wins the 1941 Argentine Primera División tournament.

December 20
During a typical moderate but sunny summers day at Puerto Deseado the Navy’s newest ship sailed into harbour. Once alongside the quay Contra Almirante Dahmon-Sanchez went aboard and officially commissioned the ship into the Navy. The icebreaker Piedra Buena is a patrol vessel for the southern seas and will have an Antarctic supply role as well. Upon commissioning she will join the 1st Escort Squadron which Contra Almirante Dahmon-Sanchez commands.