WesWorld

A short post to get me started.
[SIZE=3]Whoops - should have been titled Q3/30![/SIZE]
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Filipino News Information and Entertainment Radio (F.I.N.E.R.) - July-September 1930

18 July

The American Fleet Problem X was completed today. Although little information has been released, the exercise has been deemed a success. It is known that the carrier Sulu received a flight of new Martin BM torpedo bombers after the exercise as part of a new purchase deal.

The main force - Sulu, battlecruiser Samal, oiler Bambú and four destroyers - will be returning to the Philippines to prepare for SATSUMA's Indian Ocean naval exercises, beginning October 2nd of this year. The exploration ship Pacifica set out for the far south today, initiating her first Antarctic cruise. More information on this as it becomes available.



3 August
The pirate situation in the South China Sea has been heating up. A Nord tanker and two Filipino tramps have been captured and sunk by a mysterious force off the China coast.

Several bands of survivors have washed up on Palawan, describing the new pirate force as composed of "one or more large ships" and "several smaller ones". AdF officials described their reports as "not very helpful".

It is feared, however, that the reports of "large ships" might mean the returnof the enigmatic pirate force that operated in the SCS during the early 1920s. Notes have been dispatched to the Philippines' SATSUMA allies and the British in Singapore callling for a cooperative effort against this threat. "We cannot allow banditry and criminality to prevail", intoned Vice-Almirante Wilhelm Adama. Observers questioning the existence of the word "criminality" were suppressed.


30 August
The Armada de Filipinas recently solicited bids for the privatisation of the national naval yards at Manila, San Fernando, and Butuan. Blohm und Voss of Germany, IBOIIE and Kanzaki Juukougyou of Japan, Oyama Yards of Chile, and Ansaldo of Italy have all submitted bids, along with several Anglo-Saxon shipyards. After considering all candidates carefully, the AdF has awarded contracts:

San Fernando Naval Yard is to go to Blohm und Voss
Butuan Naval Yard is to go to Oyama Yards
and Manila Naval Yard is to go to.. Newport News!

The AdF's Chief Designer, Commander de la Croix congratulated these fine companies in their success. "We're especially looking forward to re-starting construction on Bohol in Manila with the help of Newport News. Since construction was halted by the so-called Revolution, we've had time to consider a number of improvements to her design."




12 September
The small force centered around Sulu arrived in Manila Bay today and immediately began provisioning for the upcoming SATSUMA exercises.

Exploration ship Pacifica has arrived in Auckland yesterday.

Quoted

Whoops - should have been titled Q3/30!

Looks like you will need to fire a few guys for making that mistake.
Good stuff as a start.
... too bad I couldn't get my greedy hands on the yards.

Quoted

Looks like you will need to fire a few guys for making that mistake.

Garcia spilled adobo on the teletype!

Quoted

Good stuff as a start.
... too bad I couldn't get my greedy hands on the yards.

Arigato gozaimashita! I'm sure Japan will be playing a role in Presidente de la Vega's mysterious plans for the future of the AdF

Quoted

Arigato gozaimashita!

No problem... though I haven't got my dictionary around to give a proper reply to that.
^_^;;

Quoted

I'm sure Japan will be playing a role in Presidente de la Vega's mysterious plans for the future of the AdF

Naturally. I will continue with the construction of the rocket-powered air battleships.
... Whoops! That was supposed to be a secret!

Australia will dispatch a cruiser squadron consisting of HMAS Sydney, HMAS Darwin, HMAS Spencer, and 5 S class destroyers, to the South Chinese Sea. To hunt for these "Pirates"

Quoted

Originally posted by Desertfox
Australia will dispatch a cruiser squadron consisting of HMAS Sydney, HMAS Darwin, HMAS Spencer, and 5 S class destroyers, to the South Chinese Sea. To hunt for these "Pirates"

The AdF welcomes this Australian commitment to the preservation of peace in the SCS.

OOC: I plan on developing a subplot based on these guys.. should be interesting. Here's Swampy's last post on the subject:

Quoted

The Pirates of the South China Sea are an engima. They appeared in force circa 1920, having some serious naval firepower - an armoured cruiser was sighted several times (and finally sunk by a Filipino predread), and there have also been reports of battleships (don't remember for sure offhand but think one was sunk) - there were two "late-model predreads" built "on speculation" in Iberia that vanished, first physically and then from the paperwork...

The Filipinos later blamed Chinese warlords for the whole mess, and briefly had an agreement with the Chinese Central Government to "seek, locate, destroy" said pirate-warlords, but the first time the semidreadnought San Pablo engaged a "pirate" shore battery - which engaged it first - there was an uproar over "Filipino imperialism" that brought the operation to a screeching halt.

The point seems to have been made, though, as the Pirates of the South China Sea haven't been heard from since...

...at least, not yet.

(Barring any local objections...)
Victoria Times-Colonist
August 8th, 1930
VANCOUVER, B.C.

The Dominion of Canada has authorized the Royal Canadian Navy to dispatch it's Pacific Squadron to operate with the RAN Squadron. The Pacific Squadron is scheduled to depart within the week. Given the reports of at least one 'large ship' being involved with the pirate activity, there are rumors of 1st Battlecruiser Squdron being moved west.

Quoted

Norweigian tanker

What's Norway? Nordmark is the name.

Whoops, edited.

August 12th

5 officers from the Navy's anti-piracy office have been despatched to Japan in order to discuss the situation surrounding the dissapearance of a Nordmarkian oil tanker in the South China Sea. They will also provide experience, and advise our Government as to wheter it is necessary to send a squadren to join in the search.

Looks like it might become busy in the South China Sea.
^_^

by the time any ships of the Nordmarkian Navy got to there the rest of the ships could have blown the pirates off the face off the earth.

Don't worry. We'll make sure there are some bits left for the Nordmarkian Navy to play with.
:-)

They will have to fight with the sharks over them though....woops did I let the cat out of the bag?

I make no promises.. but I will say that these particular pirates are a pretty resistant bunch.

Quoted

wheter it is necessary to send a squadren to join in the search.

Is it ever neccessary to send, at exorbitant cost, a squadron of ships half way round the world? At this time vessels do just disappear, usually sinking or running around because of weather. No cause for mass hysteria.

Chile still does some anti-piracy patrols in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, but since first the Arcadia was sunk, and various other incidents, Chile has not been patroling the South China Sea as it was in 1925 and 1926.

I don't think this is the work of Captain Harlock, as his vessel was never seen in that area. Also he usually only attacks military targets, but then he might need a tanker to fuel his warship, and he might need to stock food stuffs. So I don't know for sure.

The French Pacific Fleet headquarters announced the assignment of 5th Corvette Flotilla to patrolling for pirates in international waters off the coast of French Indochina, and a number of Emilia class patrol boats and S-1930 class subchasers to coastal anti-piracy patrols.

Seaplane antipiracy patrols have also been instituted, by French Naval Aviation from Saigon and Haiphong, and by Russian Naval Aviation from Cam Ranh Bay.

Batavia Bugle, August 20th, 1930.

The Admiralty has announced the temporary redeployment of Naval forces to Balikapan with forward staging in Tarakan. These forward bases in Borneo will shorten the distance to the patrol areas of the South China Sea and Celebes Sea considerably.

The temporarily detached forces consist of
3rd Battle division
3rd Cruiser division
5th destroyer flotilla
7th destroyer flotilla
a seaplane tender will also be assigned to Tarakan.

The Admiralty expressed the goal of ensuring the recent smuggling problems in the Celebes sea remain solved, and that the “South China Sea” pirates are not involved with the recent problems. The Netherlands has always supported free trade and has no tolerance for piratical activities.

OOC: I’ve decided the unrest in the Philippines led to smuggling across the Celebes Sea to Borneo and Sulawesi, as well as a small Philippine rebel group having temporary (now evicted) rebased near Manado in NE Sulawesi in the Celebes. This all will get written up shortly

Edit: Corrected 8th DD to 7th

Should India's allies require the assistance, India can second the seaplane carrier Palk Bay (10 x Dhairya B scout-bombers), a motor-torpedo boat squadron, and their associated tender to Filipino command.

I'd offer larger stuff, but I think there's probably enough offers in that regard already.