WesWorld

I agree with Brock. Within 20 years former allies could become enemies or vis a versa. However, the reason for that behavior was, that said powers were also willing to press for their goals and fight for their targets. This is what I do not see in WesWorld. Instead, we have this careful diplomacy of our current OTL days. So it does not fit. Either we have quick changing alliance as in the 19th century - which also means people wage war more easily - or we have 20th century diplomacy and prople being careful not to start armed conflicts.

I disagree on your second point. It is obviously aimed on "people like me". Please note however, that I have never been a great poster of many news. But still I scripted a conflict, or was part of the team that did, wrote all kind of news and combat reports. Motivation is the key word here. At least for me. Daily news are no fun for me, interesting story arcs including combat and the like is much more to my liking - and this might be true for others as well.

Quoted

Originally posted by HoOmAn
I disagree on your second point. It is obviously aimed on "people like me".

It was not aimed at you - you've actually helped write out a logically-done war. It's just been my personal experience from trying to sim wars - the Yugoslavian War in particular - the people who wanted a war to be written generally declined to do the actual work.

8 July 1942

The South African Empire and the Empire of Bharat have announced plans to develop new joint-training facilities for their respective armies. Both facilities are expected to be in operation in mid-1943.

The Bharati facility will be located at Udaipur, Rajasthan, and will provide an opportunity for South African troops to train in the Aravalli mountains. A secondary facility, based in Kashmir, will provide an opportunity for training lesser numbers of troops in the much higher Karakoram range.
The South African facility is expected to be situated in Grand Uruguay, although a specific location has not yet been publically identified.

In related news, the Bhartiya Nau Sena has laid down a transport to support this exchange. However, the Panipat is not expected to be completed until 1945, so the BNS is expected to charter a Ramayana-type steamship for use as a long-haul transport in the interim.

19 July 1942

Work is now underway in Trincomalee to convert a third trawler into a weather observation ship. The Atri and her sisters will monitor conditions in the Bay of Bengal, with the intention of providing early warning and tracking of tropical cyclones.

Four ships have been slated for conversion thus far, with the first just now finishing its shakedown cruise.

Quoted

Originally posted by The Rock Doctor
8 July 1942

The South African Empire and the Empire of Bharat have announced plans to develop new joint-training facilities for their respective armies. Both facilities are expected to be in operation in mid-1943.

The Bharati facility will be located at Udaipur, Rajasthan, and will provide an opportunity for South African troops to train in the Aravalli mountains. A secondary facility, based in Kashmir, will provide an opportunity for training lesser numbers of troops in the much higher Karakoram range.
The South African facility is expected to be situated in Grand Uruguay, although a specific location has not yet been publically identified.

In related news, the Bhartiya Nau Sena has laid down a transport to support this exchange. However, the Panipat is not expected to be completed until 1945, so the BNS is expected to charter a Ramayana-type steamship for use as a long-haul transport in the interim.

Interesting news...

Why's the SAE so hot to train in the mountain ranges?

"Be prepared", I suppose.

I suppose, but none of the places the SAE would reasonably expect to fight really have high mountains like the Karakoram. And for the mountains where they would expect to fight, the Drakensbergs would be perfectly adequate practice.

So if I'm understanding this correctly, the Indians will be sending troops to train in Gran Uruguay?

Correctamundo.

interesting...

very interesting...

Q4 News...

Politics

The Transitional Council has, as directed, prepared a report on transitioning Bharat from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary monarchy. Although initially presented solely to the Samraja and his advisors, the document is made public shortly thereafter.

The report considers different aspects of parliamentary monarchies - unicameral versus bicameral systems, Westminster versus Consensus systems, and first-past-the-post, transferable, and proportional representation voting processes. The report also notes the rather daunting challenge of establishing an electoral process in time for a 1943 election. This includes matters of who will actually be entitled to vote.

It is considered that a Consensus system provides a less adversarial governing environment - a significant consideration given that - despite last year's upheavals - Bharatis are not accustomed to win/lose domestic politics. Legislation will take longer to pass, but will better reflect the will of the people at large - also an important consideration given that the first cadre of politicians will be inexperienced.

The report recommends against a bicameral system. An upper house organized and elected in the same manner as the lower house would be redundant. There is no formal noble class to function as a House of Lords (nor would it be especially democratic if there were...). There is opposition against a regionally-based upper house on the basis that it would introduce regional biases into debates that are supposed to be on national issues. From a checks-and-balances and "sober second thought" perspective, the Samraja and his advisors would be expected to serve that function.

It is agreed that a first-past-the-post voting system would be simplest in some respects, but its ability to deliver a legitimate outcome is in question. Given the short time frame available to would-be politicians to establish parties and political platforms and begin stumping, it is expected that there would be a number of candidates - often with similar platforms - on a single ballot. In an area with ten candidates on a ballot, a winner could be declared with as little as eleven percent of the vote - not a credible level of support. Transferrable voting is considered too complex for large populatons at this time, given the expected high number of candidates. Party-list voting is considered a useful compromise, and could allow for regional representation if the list constitutencies correspond to state boundaries, rather than the empire as a whole.

In the end, the Samraja's decision is:

-Unicameral System

-Consensus System: House Members, once elected, will elect a Speaker, Prime Minister, and a fixed number of Ministers from amongst themselves. The Prime Minister will determine the portfolios assigned to individual Ministers.

-Seats: 400 (~1 per million inhabitants, with a few small states and territories receiving a flat 1 seat each)

-Voting: States with 1 seat - STV. States with 2 or more seats - Party List Proportional.

-Eligibility: Citizen of legal age.

-Election Date: December 15, 1943, with fixed four year term.

To support voter registration, the Samraja directs that a significant component of the current year's national service draftees be put at the disposal of the National Electoral Commission.


Military

SAINTEX-42 is held in December in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. Apart from South Africa and Bharat, there is a strong role played by Nordmark, which dispatches three aircraft carriers and escorts to play part of the Red Force. Persia, the Netherlands, Kongo, and Hedjaz also participate on a limited scale.

The bulk of the exercise concentrates on a trade warfare scenario, with Red Force seeking to interdict seaborne trade along the Maldives-Chagos-Seychelles route and the Persian Gulf-Mumbai route. Amphibious warfare exercises, somewhat detached from the overall scenario, take place concurrently. Gunnery shoots take place after the formal end of the exercise, along with miscellaneous port calls.

The exercise is characterized as a success, despite the collision-related loss of a Hedjazi MTB and a potentially serious deck-landing incident aboard one of the Nordmarchian carriers. Next year's exercises are expected to take place in the Atlantic.

The aircraft carrier Bichawa completes its mid-life refit in December and begins trials in the Bay of Bengal. The former Filipino Sulu has had new engines installed, her armament replaced, and her flight deck and hanger extended so that she is now functionally identical to Urumi. It is expected that the carrier will take on a strike-oriented air group and operate with the larger Talwar and Val once trials have been completed.

Redirection of a large number of national service draftees away from military service (see above) will be more than offset by reductions in the army's overall manpower. With funding being curtailed and the outlook for major land wars considered to be low, the army is having to cut units.



OOC: I may get to a more detailed SAINTEX report at some point, but at least you get a 50,000 foot overview.

Quoted

Originally posted by The Rock Doctor
Q4 News...

Politics

The Transitional Council has, as directed, prepared a report on transitioning Bharat from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary monarchy. Although initially presented solely to the Samraja and his advisors, the document is made public shortly thereafter.

France applauds the Indian government's move towards democracy, and offers their hope that India can maintain a stable and productive balance between the strength of the monarchy and the energy of the people.

"Do we know what happened?"

"We're in luck - a news crew was aboard Lulea, filming the landing. In color, even. Here's the analysis."

"I'll read it. Summary for now?"

"An Orkan pilot stuffed it on landing - came down too hard, broke one of his landing gear. Spun, tumbled - right into the deck park area. We had an entire strike squadron there, warming up."

"Jesus Christ in Heaven."

"God's grace that they were carrying dummies rather than live torpedoes, but they were fully fueled. We still haven't sorted out all the testimony, but the fire was... bad. Figure the entire flight group as a write-off, burned on the deck or ditched for lack of safe landing, and more than two hundred dead."

"And Orn herself?

"Drydock. She'll need her hanger and flight decks replaced, at the least. It's all superstructure, but there's very little above the armor deck that isn't damaged somehow. Figure six months before she's in the water again, then another six before she's worked back up."

"Damn. What do the observers know?"

"We don't think that the Bharatis got a good look at her, but of course the South Africans know."

*sigh* "Right. I'll read the details and get a drydock cleared for her. Dismissed."

"Sir."

OOC: The Dutch probably wouldn't get a look at her - their involvement is limited to escorts in one of the Blue Force convoys.

Quoted

Originally posted by The Rock Doctor
OOC: The Dutch probably wouldn't get a look at her - their involvement is limited to escorts in one of the Blue Force convoys.

Right! *fixes*

No worries - good write-up otherwise!

The South Africans know EVERYTHING.... Even if there was first an egg or a chicken. But we won't tell! *muahahahahaha*

;o)

Nice news bits, btw.

There were eggs long before there were chickens so...
MYSTERY SOLVED!!

The chicken came first. It's constituent atoms were spun into existence at the beginning of the world. Canadian Super-Science was unavailable for comment at this time, however.



Indian Ocean Flotilla HQ, Djibouti
Contre-amiral Marcel Geffroy put on his spectacles and peered at the freshly-developed photographs. "Oh dear me," he muttered to the FMF/2 man across the table. "Now that is a nasty mess. It's probably not as bad as it looks, but from these photos the Nords were fortunate to save their ship." Geffroy continued looking through the photos, squinting to try to see more detail. "Did these come from the Brits?"

"No sir," the intelligence man replied. "One of our long-ranged flying boats turned that in a half hour ago."

"Copy these and send them on to the British consul in town; I'm sure my friend in Aden would like to see them. Do you have any better idea what happened than you did this morning?"

"We picked up a number of radio transmissions made in the clear. It appears they were simultaneously warming up a strike in a deck park and recovering aircraft. From what we've determined, a landing aircraft jumped the wire and plowed straight into the parked strike."

Geffroy frowned. "That's almost too incredible to believe. What about all of their safety doctrine? Their preventative measures? The Nords aren't babes in arms when it comes to carrier operations. No decent carrier commander would be caught dead recovering aircraft with a fully-loaded strike on the deck. Particularly with a light carrier like the Orn - there's no room for error."

The intelligence officer looked thoughtful. "Perhaps he was under pressure, sir."

"Perhaps. But a captain's duty is always to the safety of his ship first and foremost. Given the extent of this damage, there will probably be a pretty thorough courts-martial to determine what went wrong - and no doubt a major shift in the way the Nordish naval aviation force does business. I'll pass on the word to Paris to keep an open eye and see what we might learn."

As word of mouth and telegrams rise up the Red Sea, towards the nerve centres of Cairo and Alexandria orders are given to ensure that salvage tugs and any other required assistance is ready for any transit of the Suez Canal.

Also orders are passed down the chain of command to the various RAF martime reconaissance units around the Arabian Horn to overfly the area and get pictures of the damage if possible for intelligence assessment.

[No doubt given the good working relationship between the GNUK naval partners a fuller report will be made in time to share the lessons of such a tragic disaster and the impact they might have on safety procedcure, deck equipment and ship design.]