WesWorld

What! Heresy! Canada demands it's rightful recognition, or we will cease any and all foreign exports of Science!™ until our demands are met! If that does not work, we may have to resort to reposessing all instances of Ballistics, Combustion, and Pornography. >


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Originally posted by ShinRa_Inc
Science!™

Does that include the reel-to-reel movie shot in northern BC of the original production of "The Lumberjack Song" ?

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Originally posted by ShinRa_Inc
What! Heresy! Canada demands it's rightful recognition, or we will cease any and all foreign exports of Science!™ until our demands are met! If that does not work, we may have to resort to reposessing all instances of Ballistics, Combustion, and Pornography. >

Well, at least one of those three won't be terribly missed...

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Originally posted by Kaiser Kirk

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Originally posted by ShinRa_Inc
Science!™

Does that include the reel-to-reel movie shot in northern BC of the original production of "The Lumberjack Song" ?

...Possibly, but intelligence suggests the song refers to those heathens infesting Newfoun-, I mean fine, strapping lads inhabiting Vinland. ^_^

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Originally posted by Brockpaine

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Originally posted by ShinRa_Inc
What! Heresy! Canada demands it's rightful recognition, or we will cease any and all foreign exports of Science!™ until our demands are met! If that does not work, we may have to resort to reposessing all instances of Ballistics, Combustion, and Pornography. >

Well, at least one of those three won't be terribly missed...

So when a Canadian sneaks through the woods, slowly creeps up on the placid pond impounded behind the lake, slowly raises his camera and takes a beaver shot.... is that Canadian porn?

*snickers*

The battle of Pisco is very interesting.

Good use of airpower although perhaps a bit too well co-ordinated but sometimes things go according to plan.

Good use of deception, your a man after my own heart!

An interesting amphibious operation that shows the Chilean's have a useful capability against lightly defended ports. What are the Attack boats? Are they specialised craft or normal rowboats?

Agreed, probably a bit too well coordinated, but everything COULD go right for once.

I'm a bit doubtful about the idea of moving the Peruvian submarines (one of their major remaining assets) to an undefended port that's just as vulnerable (if not more so) to being covered by ASW patrols and has few defences to threaten those patrols and keep them away from the harbor. Not to mention that if Callao is the main port of the Peruvian (Presidential) Navy, off Callao is one place where the Peruvian submarines might get a torpedo shot at major FAR units.

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A Peruvian patrol boat was quietly sunk by the cruiser Tierra del Fuego.

How could one quitely sink a patrol boat just outside an enemy harbor?

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Originally posted by HoOmAn

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A Peruvian patrol boat was quietly sunk by the cruiser Tierra del Fuego.

How could one quitely sink a patrol boat just outside an enemy harbor?

I interpreted that as a mispelling of "quickly", but I might be wrong. If it's supposed to be "quietly", I'm not sure how it could happen either.

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Originally posted by Hrolf Hakonson

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Originally posted by HoOmAn

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A Peruvian patrol boat was quietly sunk by the cruiser Tierra del Fuego.

How could one quitely sink a patrol boat just outside an enemy harbor?

I interpreted that as a mispelling of "quickly", but I might be wrong. If it's supposed to be "quietly", I'm not sure how it could happen either.

It's a bit of a word choice issue I probably should clarify. In my mind I saw the guard-boat being sunk by gunfire without getting a warning off about the Task Force's approach.

Otherwise, "quietly" could include the 'ka-thump' as an 8,000-ton flak cruiser runs down a 100-ton guard boat.

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Originally posted by Hood
Good use of airpower although perhaps a bit too well co-ordinated but sometimes things go according to plan.

Sometimes, yes. I actually didn't intend for it to look as well-coordinated as it apparently did, though.

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Originally posted by Hood
Good use of deception, your a man after my own heart!

Thanks. It seemed like an appropriate thing to do...

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Originally posted by Hood
The battle of Pisco is very interesting.

An interesting amphibious operation that shows the Chilean's have a useful capability against lightly defended ports. What are the Attack boats? Are they specialised craft or normal rowboats?

Some of both, actually. Much of that comes from the motley assortment of the troopships. For instance, note the inclusion of "the Patrol Squadron" in the list of Chilean ships assigned to troop transport: that'd be an icebreaker and two Michimalonco-class floatplane tenders. They're probably carrying the second wave troops and landing them straight onto a dock, or landing them via small boats. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've got the Parinacota-class attack transports, which have more specialized assault boats to land on the beach.

For those boats, I'm envisioning something in the 6-9 ton range, probably like a Higgins boat without the bow ramp: flat-bottomed with an open top, a single Oerlikon or heavy .50cal on a pintle, and the troops standing or sitting on benches inside. It's purpose-made for the Chilean Marines, but it's not idealized for an opposed beach landing. Obnoxiously, that's precisely the role they're supposed to play.

I feel fortunate that one of the first things I did when I started playing Chile was picking up and converting those Parinacota-class attack transports - boats I promptly forgot about until we were batting around the ideas for the conflict. I figure the Chilean Marines will start batting around a few ideas in the postwar discussions on how to better land troops over the beach, because they suffered quite a few equipment bottlenecks in this raid.

The entire Pisco raid, in truth, went very well; but if it had gone wrong, it could have gone very, very wrong. The Presidentialist infantry weren't deeply dug in and half of them probably fled the moment 14" and 8" shells began smashing into their positions. The Peruvian artillery didn't play a role. Neither side made good tactical use of airpower in the raid itself (though the Chilean fleet has a significant flak presence). The Peruvian guard boat didn't get to alert the commanders. The Peruvians didn't defensively mine the harbor. And most of all, the garrison of Pisco wasn't the creme of the Peruvian Army, but more like a militia unit composed of individuals chosen for their loyalty and not their martial professionalism.

Even though the Chilean Marines have won this round, it's going to show them they need to put a lot more effort into it for the future. Once we get done posting all the war stories, I'm going to write a piece for the ship design folder basically addressing what the Chilean Navy *thinks* they learned from their experience. (I make no claims it's going to be a correct lesson, but it's going to be their perception of the action.)

Heh, while the guard boat might not have radioed it's superiors, if it's fairly close inshore (and why would a 100-ton boat be way offshore), the cruiser firing at it wouldn't exactly be quiet. The sound of the 8" guns, the shells exploding, the waterspouts, etc.

In that case the cruiser probably pulled alongside, pointed a lot of guns at the guard boat, and asked "Do you feel lucky, punk?"

That doesn't work, really, either, unless the boat had both an engine and a wireless malfunction. After all, even at night, the cruiser would be visible for a ways (further than the patrol boat), and the boat would have time to either radio a warning or run for it (perhaps not successfully, mind, but stopping it would be loud).

A 'Bah' upon you for taking my joke seriously!

The last two sections (Bolivian Proxy War and the Battle of Barranca Part I) posted are missing. I am re-posting them right now, with the addition of a third installment (Battle of Barranca Part II).

Barranca:

The idea of sending a Peruvian force to attack a convoy escorted by Iberian warships is ...... a surprise, considering that the Iberian alliance is relatively recent and as I recall a creation of the Presidente and his faction.

A night torpedo attack is a good plan, but why would Grau, which was manuevering to open its arcs, be the one that was almost hit? It seems more likely that Callao, which was not manuevering, would be the one that saw torpedoes.....

Yeah, Nevado vs Grau is definitely a match the Peruvian Navy would approve of, even at closer ranges.

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Originally posted by Hrolf Hakonson
Barranca:

The idea of sending a Peruvian force to attack a convoy escorted by Iberian warships is ...... a surprise, considering that the Iberian alliance is relatively recent and as I recall a creation of the Presidente and his faction.

As nearly as I can tell... Diaz took over Peru in 1936 from the previous administration, which Howard killed off with that truck bomb. As we had discussed with Mac in the scripting process, the Iberians are not very enthused by Diaz's actions as El Presidente, and are supposed to be slowly weighing in more and more in favor of the Congressionalists throughout August and September.

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Originally posted by Hrolf Hakonson
A night torpedo attack is a good plan, but why would Grau, which was manuevering to open its arcs, be the one that was almost hit? It seems more likely that Callao, which was not manuevering, would be the one that saw torpedoes.....

Bad torpedo doctrine on Somavia's part. He launched a broad spread then opened fire with guns, intending for the torpedoes to come in as the Peruvians turned away as they realized the Chileans had crossed the T. Remember that Somavia was the cruiser commander who got embarrassed by his no-show at the Battle of Ilo: he wants to show "Yes I can fight!" and not entirely doing the smart thing.

Admiral Somavia isn't the brightest bulb in the Chilean Navy's ranks; dedicated officer, but he's impulsive and doesn't always think things through - he tries to do things fast and fancy. In this case, (IMHO) he should have launched torpedoes then turned away, while guiding the Memnon and Scouting Force in on the Peruvians.

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Originally posted by Hrolf Hakonson
Yeah, Nevado vs Grau is definitely a match the Peruvian Navy would approve of, even at closer ranges.

Oh yes, indeed. The Grau is probably going to be the Chilean Navy's bogeyman for the next few decades, even though they've got bigger stuff.

I like the story so far. Always nice to see good seamanship.... Do you have a photo of that scene where a big grey cruiser surrendered to a small MTB? Must have been an unforgetable moment. ^^^

One thing I find odd is the extensive use of the Latecore 298 floatplanes. While a powerful plane she is amongst the heaviest and largest - 1,5m longer than the Ar196 or Supermarine Walrus with +3m wingspan and 1,2 tons more weight. Given the very limited deck/hangar space and weight reserve on cuisers and other surface combatants I really doubt the 298 is a good choice. On purpose build AVs things are differnent of course....