WesWorld

Q2 1934 Newsflash

03-04-1934
Corrientes. The situation in all refugee camps along the Paraguayan border got worse. With actually more than 120.000 civilians in various camps all supply lines are stretched beyond their capacity. Alarming reports indicate food and fresh water have run out in some camps as has medical care. Sanitary circumstances are critical at best. As a result crime rate and violence is rapidly increasing as refuges fight each other for food, medicine and shelter.

Both the Red Cross and the Government asked all parties involved in the civil war in Paraguay to agree to a cease fire to allow peace negotiations. Peace in Paraguay seems the only way to allow those who fled into the SAE and other neighbour countries to return to their homes and ease the situation in all camps along the border.

09-04-1934
Corrientes. Riots in several camps had to be fought by the army during the last few days. 12 people are reported dead and about three dozen injured. According to a spokesman these had been the most intense fights ever and for the first time the army encountered what seemed to be an organized and well armed band inside a camp. As it seems some former Paraguayan soldiers or criminals have made it into the camps bringing their weapons with them  despite a total ban of weapons inside the camps and our controlling efforts. These men use their weapons to oppress other refugees and take what food, water and medicine they can lay their hands on. A discussion within army high ranks has started how this new threat could be answered.

14-04-1934
Pretoria. A spokesman of the Air Ministry states that the SAE may send a DeBroek F-3C "Buzzard" (a modified F-3 with a LMF750 of 750PS increasing her capabilities) and a new JFM F-6B "Swollow" to the Talons over Cordoba event this year. A final decision has yet to be made.



15-04-1934
Lüderitz. The Lüderitz Power Boat Company started with a new series of fast attack craft for our Navys coastal squadrons. In lieu with similar developments in other countries such as Italy small but very fast torpedo boats for use in coastal waters have been designed. Two torpedoes are carried and can be launched over the vessels bow while light guns serves to protect the boats from air attacks or to engage enemy light forces. Experts also value these units highly if used in constricted areas such as estuaries and rivers where larger units are of limited use.

21-04-1934
Buenos Aires. Initiated by some Argentinean and South African business men a foundation was born to live in reaction to the civil war in Paraguay. The new People Help People foundation will use its members influence to collect money to help and rescue civilians suffering from war. But we are not just another aid organisation. Beyond financial help it is our goal to spark the flame of sympathy among the worlds community. We want to put pressure on those in command to end the raging war in Paraguay and any other current and future war. Thus we are a political organisation too.

PHPs first goal is to find godparents in areas far away from the raging conflict who can help Paraguayan families caught in refugee camps along the border. These godparents should be able to house and feed their wards for a fixed time of three, six or 12 month or until peace could be established again and a safe return to their home sites is possible.

11-05-1934
Montevideo. The local representatives and diplomats of Argentina and Brazil have been invited to a conference with the Government of Grand Uruguay to discuss how the situation at the border to Paraguay could be dealt with. One of the points on the agenda is the idea of combined endeavours to bring more supply up the Plata and into the border region by small freighters and river barques. Due to Argentinean experience with enemy fire by renegades these transports will be escorted.

14-05-1934
Lüderitz. Millionaire Gustaf Brenner, self-made man and well known adventurer, will start at the Great McRobertson Air Race. The worlds longest air race will start in Mildenhall/Great Britain on the 20th of October and will end in Melbourne/Australia. Especially for this race Mr. Brenner ordered a new plane to his specification, the Brenner Comet. The plane is powered by two 680 PS 10-cylinder inline engines, has a max. span of 19,20 meter while her fuselage is 12,50 meters long. Due to aerodynamic fine tuning a cruise speed of 440 km/h can be achieved under optimal conditions. During the flight four men will form the Comets crew. Mr. Brenner will act as pilot, his friend Raymont Brugger will be navigator while Alfred Humbel and Paul Costey are mechanics ensuring everything will be fine with the hardware.



22-05-1934
Beira. Experiments with a point-to-point radio system at the University of Beira are ongoing. To develop a tap-proof communication link between governmental facilities or elements of a fleet at sea tests with various frequencies and antenna installations have been run. The idea behind is to avoid the spread of information like with a usual radio transmitter which could then be heard by unauthorized parties. In addition with coding one expects a method which is proof against espionage. However, the system is not yet perfect. Depending on the configuration of the antennas and frequencies used the technicians have run in problems time and again when something enters the area between source and receiver of the signal. Several times the signal has then been blocked or reflected and no message could be send from A to B.

27-06-1934
Corrientes. Again elements of the Royal South African Army had to fight down a group of well armed men who attacked a refugee camp to steal food and medical equipement. Among the 15 reported casualties are also two soldiers of the 23th Regiment responsible for the protection of this part of the border.

05-06-1934
Corrientes. After Argentineans decision to secure their borderline with Paraguay and establish some kind of defensive de-militarised zone local military commanders of the Army send an open letter to the Government asking for a similar action. They argue such action is our great Empires only chance to effectively close the border for armed bands, smugglers and criminals while on the other hands protection of civilian objects could be increased significantly.

09-06-1934
Kronstad. After prior consultation of the Royal South African Airforce the DeBroek Aircraft Company plans to send one of their test planes, the DeBroek FD-2, to the Great McRobertson Air Race starting in October in England this year. The plane is a prototype heavy fighter/light bomber and is powered by two supercharged 12-cylinder engines of 1250 PS each. For the race her gun turret will be removed and her crew reduced to three to save weight and enhance aerodynamics. An expected cruising speed of 480 to 500 km/h and a top speed of about 580 km/h will make it a serious contender for victory. Pilot of the racer will be Cpt. Henry Johan. His crew will consist of navigator Thomas Kogg and mechanic Benjamin Kleber.



17-06-1934
Montevideo. Reacting to bad news from the border the Second Commerce Secretary of Grand Uruguay, Mr. Hoyedaz, blamed the Argentineans today for being responsible the internal situation in Paraguay got out of hand. The Argentineans always had much interest in the region, seeking more land and resources. But instead of putting effort in increasing commercial relationship they decided to take advantage of the situation and moved their agents into Paraguay to destabilize the country, hoping they could then take what they want from a weakened opponent.

18-06-1934
Cape Town. A novelty has finished out fitting in the navy yards  the Navys first purpose-build light cruiser RSAN Antenor. For the first time the navy will have a ship available that takes care of all requirements of a cadet training ship. Accommodations, classrooms and equipment on board serve only one purpose: to train our glorious navy new generations of officers and petty officers perfectly. After a period of tests and trials the new cruiser will be added to the fleet serving the Navy Academy in Durban.



19-06-1934
Asuncion. The first convoy of four small river freighters and barques has made it to the town of Asuncion today. Carrying food in first place these ships will ensure the supply of several camps for at least two or three weeks. With this success the fundament for ongoing supply up the Rio de la Plata and the Rio Paraguay seems to be set.

25-06-1934
Cordoba. Mr. Hoyedaz official statement has caused some diplomatic tumult resulting in the retirement of Mr. Hoyedaz. We regret what Mr. Hoyedaz said and in light of our great nations joint efforts to save all the refugees that made it to our soil his personal opinion sounds even more absurd. Lord Kruger (First Commerce Secretary to Grand Uruguay) stated.

27-07-1934
Durban. The Navy got another new major unit. After a building time of 39 month the second unit of the new Triumph-class of battlecruisers was commissioned yesterday. The nearly 250 meters long RSAN Victory will now start her six month of trials and tests before she will actually be entering service as fully active unit. Experience with her sistership RSAN Triumph which is already three month into her test phase showed these ships are well designed. However, so far no full-scale gunnery tests have been run and some critics of the new 33cm quadruple turret are still highly sceptical if their main armament will be as effective as calculated prior to the laying down of these two warships.

MTBs : It'll probably take a few years to develop a successful design if you're using home-grown components. Engines need developing so they're reliable. The hull forms needs testing a tweaking. Above all, experience will tell your crews how to make them better.

HF radio : IIRC, the driving force for this wasn't anything to do with secure communications but to massively increase range for a given power. Focusing the beam along a narrow area means a far greater range can be achieved for the same power. The secure bit comes from having the thin beams. This was favoured by Montgomery for his mobile headquarters ; he drew a circle where he more or less wanted to be and then set up camp on the largest hill in the circle.

The DeBroek FD-2 seems like a Mosquito-class aircraft. What is the picture of? I don't seem to recognise the type.

I'm suspecting the FB-2 is a Fw-57, but I could be wrong.

Yep, thats a Fw 57. Its ugly snout is easy to recognise.

What is the Brenner Comet though, its not one I've seen before.

Hey Hoo you've stolen the La Argentina!
Lucky the WW La Argentina will be Bigger and Better with 190mm guns...

I think the Brenner Comet is a plan to create confusion alongside the de Havilland Comet.

So you guys have missed some posts in the past, haven´t you?

[Too funny I´m the one who can dare saying that, eh?]

Remember this article.....

Quoted

Originally posted by Hood
Hey Hoo you've stolen the La Argentina!

Not really. It is one of my older drawings which I just "de-mothballed" and alt_naval did the photo quite some time ago - including all the modified details I added. Should you spend the time comparing both ships drawings you´ll see what has changed.

Siam is very interested in the FD-2; perhaps an example of the type could be demonstrated in the airshow at ToC?

I added the FD-2 to my encyclopedia for more details.

There will be no FD-2 at ToC as the plane is not yet into mass production and both prototypes are needed for tests (including the Great McRobertson Air Race). However, a representative of Siam is surely welcome to the DeBroek plant.....

Thanks for the info Stephan. The idea of an escort fighter is interesting. Your version seems to have evolved more into the medium bomber category. The US planned a series of bomber escorts for staging missions out of the US, i.e. escorting B-29s or B-36s to Europe. The escorts rapidly matured to bomber size themselves. This is the one I find most interesting;

You´re right. The RSAFs A-18 is similar in size to the FD-2 - so light bomber category seems about right. However, in this case I just liked the view of the FW57 and thought I should use her somehow. I wasn´t looking for a mid-sized planes.

For mass production I envision her to have en enclosed nose like the historical Me110....with probably two more cannons or guns.

I can't remember any actual escort fighters from this period in OTL. The then current generation of bombers were fast enough to escape the most modern fighters. The bomber will always get through. An example is the Spanish Civil War when Italian SM.79s could operate with impunity. Aircraft are a bit more advanced here, and your B-14 isn't particularly fast so its possible that an escort fighter would arise. I'm just not sure that a large twin is the right way to go. Most missions would be 500miles or less.

Victory is a nice ship but she's in a world of giants against which she is outclassed. It might have been worth spending another 10,000tons to bring her to standard. I've examined ships of around 30,000tons a lot in an effort to get more numbers but stability and size are always detractors. Too cramped and with limited future growth.

Thanks for your analysis, Gavin. Actually escorting the slower heavy bombers is what I had in mind for the FD-2. Her main armament will be able to cripple any other plane (attackers) easily while her rear turret may come in handy against multiple targets and to avoid getting shot down herself.

Is the pic you posted from a real US design study or some weird Sci-Fi-stuff?

You´re absolutely right that Victory may have problems with full-size treaty BBs or those behemoth´ now on the slips for the post-CT period. However, you´ve to consider she was designed and build under the limitations of the CT. In fact, she´s a pretty tough nut to crack in a CT environment and may be even so afterwards.

These are the specs she was designed to:

- Replacement of the aging HERTOGs
- Not exceeding total BB allotment knowing some other full-size BBs will be laid down too
- As fast or faster than the HERTOGs
- Superiority to all semi-BCs, super-cruiser or mini-BBs in battle
- Imunity against 30,5cm guns (heaviest on mini-BCs) inside 100hm
- Armor suffice to withstand 38cm shells outside 200hm
- Imunity against 500kg bombs droped from no higher than 5.000m
- Range similar to actual RSAN BB designs
- Command acilities to operate with and command of cruiser forces
- At least 2 floatplanes for increased scouting range

I think she fulfills all these requirements quite nicely. Her belt may look too thin against 380mm shells but with a turtledeck armor sheme where the armored deck supports the belt I´d say she´s similar immune to penetrations into her vitals as OTL Bismarck was.

Known drawbacks:

- Shallow belt (I wanted it 4m high) so there might be a chance for diving shells to enter below or shells pass over it and directly hitting her deck

- Lack of upper belt armor to support deck armor against shells that pass over belt armor (here my design differes from German practice but the upper belt simply was too heavy for the limited displacement)

- No full-scale secondary battery (I wanted a 15cm battery as on my larger units but that would have been too heavy, so I went with DP guns all over the place)

- Misc weight does not include reserve for future improvements

- Main guns lack power to overcome true BB armor (35cm belts immune outside 160hm) but as the ship is not build to fight those opponents that´s a minor drawback only. From Big Gun:

Caliber = 33.0 cm (13.0 inch)
Shell weight = 515 kg (1135 lbs)
Muzzle velocity = 883 m/s (2896 fps)

Relative ballistic performance: 1.02

Muzzle energy = 200.8 megajoules = 73979.0 foot-tons

Relative muzzle energy: 1.05

Barrel length: 52 calibers

4.6 deg 10200 meters 45 cm
6.0 deg 12500 meters ... 4 cm
6.3 deg 12900 meters 40 cm
8.5 deg 16200 meters 35 cm
9.3 deg 17100 meters ... 6 cm
11.7 deg 20100 meters 30 cm
13.6 deg 22100 meters ... 8 cm
16.5 deg 25000 meters 25 cm
17.9 deg 26300 meters ... 10 cm
21.3 deg 29000 meters ... 12 cm
24.7 deg 31500 meters ... 14 cm
24.8 deg 31500 meters 20 cm
28.2 deg 33700 meters ... 16 cm

That's a real design, posted over on the Secret Projects forum, though I don't know if its still there with their recent problems.

Quoted

Is the pic you posted from a real US design study or some weird Sci-Fi-stuff?

Its a real USAAF study. I don't seem to be able to find that thread at the moment.

I found it. It wasn't an escort bomber but a "Super Strafer" powered by 2xV-3420 engines giving it a speed of around 400mph. Alongside it was a modified version of the B-25H with uprated engines and revised gun emplacement.