WesWorld

January 1
The Irish Army has elected to order thirty-two Daimler Armoured Cars to replace the antiquated vehicles currently deployed in the Armoured Car Company.

January 24
The Irish Air Corps has notified bidders for P.1/39 that twelve deBroek Petrels will be ordered from South Africa. [1]

January 27
The brand-new heavy cruiser Granuaile, the new flagship of the Irish Naval Service, has docked in Dun Laoghaire for a commissioning ceremony. This majestic vessel is open to the Irish public for short tours this weekend. The ship will be based out of Haulbowline, and is the first Irish warship equipped with radar. [2]

February 7
Lady Jutland, the ship's cat of the destroyer Connacht died of old age today. She was buried in naval ceremony by her crew. She is survived by at least four offspring who have found their way into the Irish Naval Service. Lady Jutland first adopted the LE Connacht during her commissioning ceremony, and has since stuck faithfully to "her ship" through storm and battle.

February 21
A Curtiss Robin owned by Mr. Douglas Corrigan, an American, landed at Baldonnel today. Mr. Corrigan, who rebuilt the plane himself, has previously been denied permission to fly across the Atlantic due to the "rickety" nature of his Curtiss Robin. Upon disembarking at Baldonnel, Mr. Corrigan asked Irish officials "I just got in from New York. Where am I?" and claimed to have suffered from a "faulty compass". [3]

March 2
Mr. "Wrong Way Corrigan" has embarked for the US on a passenger steamer. His plane, being deemed unsafe to fly, will remain for the moment at Baldonnel.

March 15
During a production of Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar in Dublin, the actor playing Julius Caesar was moderately injured by a prop sword during the assassination scene. Caesar managed to finish his final line of the scene before being removed from the stage for medical treatment. The other players continued the play without interruption.

[Note 1]: This was such a tough decision for me that I had to flip a coin to decide.
[Note 2]: The Irish got a set from the Brits. Now they just have to figure out how to turn it on.
[Note 3]: This actually happened in 1938; I missed it. I figured an eighteen-month delay isn't too terrible...

"Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!... damn! That really hurts!"

We normally use the button marked "On" , of course the tag dangling off it on a bit of string marked "push 'ere" should do the trick.

Splinters can hurt, unless its foil covered, and nothing cuts flesh like tin foil...

Quoted

Originally posted by Rooijen10
"Et tu, Brute? Then fall, Caesar!... damn! That really hurts!"

Quoted

Originally posted by Hood
We normally use the button marked "On" , of course the tag dangling off it on a bit of string marked "push 'ere" should do the trick.

Splinters can hurt, unless its foil covered, and nothing cuts flesh like tin foil...

...anyone notice the date, perchance?

No, but I should have guessed it!

"The pains of the tin foil swords are come."

"Ay, Caesar; but not gone."

Quoted

and nothing cuts flesh like tin foil...

Do not underestimate the power of the paper sheets on which the actor's lines are written. Very sharp, very deadly.

Quoted

Originally posted by Brockpaine
[February 21
A Curtiss Robin owned by Mr. Douglas Corrigan, an American, landed at Baldonnel today. Mr. Corrigan, who rebuilt the plane himself, has previously been denied permission to fly across the Atlantic due to the "rickety" nature of his Curtiss Robin. Upon disembarking at Baldonnel, Mr. Corrigan asked Irish officials "I just got in from New York. Where am I?" and claimed to have suffered from a "faulty compass". [3]

March 2
Mr. "Wrong Way Corrigan" has embarked for the US on a passenger steamer. His plane, being deemed unsafe to fly, will remain for the moment at Baldonnel.

Hello, American Manzo. Nice to know that America has at least a counter....with their luck, they'll crash into each other...

It's assumed - with a LOT of proof - that "Wrong Way Corrigan" actually did it intentionally and claimed he went the wrong way. Manzo doesn't do that.

April 4
The Irish shipyards have been busy this spring, with a new destroyer, two submarines, and a number of ship rebuilds underway. Additionally, under the terms of an inter-Commonwealth lending agreement, a sail-training vessel named the Southern Cross is under construction for Australia. [1]

April 28
The Electricity Supply Board has received permission to construct a reinforced weir at Athlone and a new weir at the mouth of Lough Allen in order to better control water levels. The necessity of this project has been made clear following the completion of the hydroelectric power station at Ardnacrusha, which supplies most of Ireland's electricity.

May 13
Investors cut the ribbon to open a new factory in Dublin today. The factory will be filled by PumpWright Ltd, a startup company manufacturing effluent pumps for water and wastewater systems.

May 18
The Irish Army has reportedly been investigating the possibility of manufacturing military vehicles and trucks at the Ford plant in Cork.

May 26
The Irish Naval Service has announced it will stage a series of small naval exercises off the western coast of Ireland between June 5th and June 8th.

June 4
Construction has started on the new weirs at Athlone and Lough Allen.

June 14
Mr. Peter FitzGerald, owner of the Irish-flagged cruise ship company the High Line, has announced that due to High Adventure's excellent service as a cruise ship in the Mediterranean, Tauran, and Caribbean, he would be investing in two new ships to expand his business. Unlike the massive square-rigged High Adventure, the new ships will be four-masted barquentines named High Seas and High Spirit. FitzGerald, an avid sailing enthusiast who helped found the Tall Ships Race in 1938, chose the barquentine design primarily for the mix of easier operation and good appearance.

June 21
The frigate Airmed came out of her refit today, re-equipped with all manner of new upgrades to make her one of the most modern ships in the Naval Service. Airmed's two sisterships are similarly being updated over the course of the rest of the year.

Note 1: Basically, I'm satisfied with a slow-and-steady buildup of the INS, and I want to avoid overbuilding. As a result, I'm gifting/loaning my spare tonnage to other Commonwealth members. I might never need it back, but hey, that's the way things go.

July 18
The Republic of Ireland has released data concerning the 1940 census data. Eire's population now numbers 2,897,700 persons, an increase of 53,700 (1.8%) since the last census in 1938. This has cheered observers within the government, as most previous years have seen a net overall decline in the Irish population.

[SIZE=1]Historical facts and figures.[/SIZE]

July 22
Major General Eoin MacDonald of the Irish Army has been selected to command the League of Nations Afghan Field Force. MacDonald's selection is not entirely a surprise, as he previously has served as the chief organizer of the Afghan Field Force. General MacDonald is already in Karachi organizing for the arrival of the troops and equipment, which will go overland to Kandahar to meet with Afghan government troops under local commanders.

September 10-12
The Irish Naval Service participated in the 1940 NATO Fleet Exercise. All five participating ships received damage due to heavy weather because none of the other participants agreed to take storm damage, the rogues!

September 14
News has reached Dublin that the Irish troops participating in the League of Nations Afghan Field Force have engaged hostile Afghan forces. The Army admitted that the Irish Brigade had suffered casualties, but contributed to a "major tactical and strategic victory".

September 23
The Irish Army has issued an Immediate Operational Requirement for "submachine guns or light automatic carbines". 9mm Parabellum ammo is preferred for supply reasons, but all entries will be considered.

October 4
The Naval Service has announced that the 1941 naval construction program will be partially curtailed as an economy measure to support the I Brigade's deployment to Afghanistan, and a number of vessels deemed "surplus to current requirements" will be sold to the British for "unspecified Army equipment". Nevertheless, the INS will repair the four damaged Province-class destroyers and will acquire a small quantity of Type 271 and Type 272 radars to install during repairs. As one spokesman replied off-script, "Making the Naval Service better, not bigger."

October 29
The company Murphy & McKeown Shipping has announced that it will merge with the Irish & Atlantic Steamship Line as a precursor to purchasing a 34% stake in Inver Tankers Ltd. The I&A and M&MK companies, both founded in 1936, are two of the companies formed as a result of the Irish merchant marine's growth in the late 1930s. The combination of the two companies will become "Irish Shipping Ltd."

Quoted

The Irish Army has issued an Immediate Operational Requirement for "submachine guns or light automatic carbines". 9mm Parabellum ammo is preferred for supply reasons, but all entries will be considered.

The German Military Attache at the German Legation in Dublin advises that the Maschinenpistole 36, the standard submachinegun of the German Heer, is available for immediate delivery in quantity, and, if desired, examples can be provided for demonstration testing.

Details of the design can be found here

and it looks as though the final part of the October 29 entry may have been chopped off, as the appears to end in mid-sentence...

Quoted

Originally posted by BruceDuncan
and it looks as though the final part of the October 29 entry may have been chopped off, as the appears to end in mid-sentence...

Ah, thanks.

Quoted

Originally posted by Brockpaine
The Irish Army has issued an Immediate Operational Requirement for "submachine guns or light automatic carbines". 9mm Parabellum ammo is preferred for supply reasons, but all entries will be considered.

Beretta would offer their MAB 38 which equips the Carabinieri and some Esercito units. It's available now and very reliable. Most importantly for Afghanistan is the long effective range for a submachine gun at up to 250m. This is a product of the long barrel and 9x19 Fiocchi ammunition, which is more powerful than standard 9x19 Para (and handily coloured green so you don't load the wrong sort), although it works fine with 9x19 Para.

The Sterling Armament Company at Dagenham, Essex, can offer the 9mm Machine Gun Lanchester No.1 Mk I

George Lanchester in 1935 began developing a copy of the German MP28 for the export market. An example was brought by the company in 1934 and George Lanchester began a series of refinements. The wooden butt is finely machined and based on the Rifle No.3 design, the blow-back system is machined from the finest steel and the magazine housing is solid brass. A bayonet mounting was added (for the usual SMLE bayonet), the rifling was altered to suit British 9mm rounds, and a single or automatic firing selector was added. A 50-round box magazine is used. This gun is 33.5in long, weighs 9.57lbs, rate of fire (cyclic) is 600 rpm and muzzle velocity is 1,245 ft/sec.

The Irish Army has decided to purchase the MAB 38, as they were most impressed with broad capabilities it offered.

November 4
Aer Lingus has announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Blohm und Voss of Germany to take a sixty-day lease of the Bv144 demonstrator airliner, starting in January of 1941. Aer Lingus is interested in acquiring four new aircraft to replace or supplement the two Dragon Rapides and Lockheed Electras currently in service, and the Bv144 is reportedly a frontline contender for this potential order.

November 8
The Irish Air Corps publicly acknowledged rumours alleging that the IAC had purchased a number of Focke-Wulf Fw-190A fighter aircraft, several of which have already been sent to join the League Field Force in Afghanistan. The Air Corps' spokesman noted that replacement of the current Hurricanes and Resistants had long been planned for 1941, but that the purchase was moved forward as the Irish Hurricane fleet is aging, and the Irish P.94 Resistants were deemed mechanically unsuitable for deployment in Afghanistan. The IAC's spokesman noted: "We sought a high-performance fighter-bomber with all the advantages we've come to associate with our Hurries; the Fw-190 is exceptionally rugged and offers outstanding rough-field performance far exceeding any other type we evaluated."

I only wish you had being purchasing for the real Air Corp in the 1940's.............