WesWorld

April 2
Tsar Boris and his wife, along with prominent members of the Bulgarian government and military, traveled today to Varna to attend the launch of the new light cruiser HBMS Danube. The launch, attended by almost twenty thousand people, went without a hitch as the sleek hull met the water at precisely noontime. The battleship Varna, cruiser Stara Zagora, and four torpedo boats docked in harbor welcomed their future comrade with shrieking steam-whistles, and then a rousing broadside of guns fired out to sea.

The launch has been seen as an important triumph for the Bulgarian Royal Navy, as the force is starting to build up from its virtual annihilation following the Second National Disaster (the local name for the Great War). The Danube will be the first modern warship ever built entirely in Bulgaria, and the third-largest ship ever to fly the Bulgarian ensign.

In Turkey, a sister-ship to the Danube, named Maritsa, also launches, albeit to less fanfare than her sister. The launch was slightly delayed because a press boat had dropped anchor in the launch area, and a Turkish police-boat had to signal them to move or be run over by the significantly larger cruiser.

Both cruisers will complete sometime in January 1937, then spend six months working up in the Black Sea and eastern Mediterranean.

Dispite the lack of fanfare upon her launch, Maritsa still represents a milestone in Turkish industry being the first warship built for a foriegn buyer by Turkish shipyards.

Such a milestone would not had occured if Turkey hadn't agreed to the territorial concessions that resulted in lost industry being compensated in a more focused developement.

Quoted

Originally posted by thesmilingassassin
Dispite the lack of fanfare upon her launch, Maritsa still represents a milestone in Turkish industry being the first warship built for a foriegn buyer by Turkish shipyards.

Such a milestone would not had occured if Turkey hadn't agreed to the territorial concessions that resulted in lost industry being compensated in a more focused developement.

Hm. I didn't realize that...

Up till now, most ships have been built in Turkey, for Turkey, with German assistance as with the Kocatepe class DD's and the first ship of the Ankara class.

The Turkish Spica class clones, the Agri's, would be the first ships built without foreign assistance, while the newer Seljuk and Bozcaada class are an extention of the expanding shipbuilding capacity Turkey is currently developing.

April 6
Admiral Dimitar Dobrev, the ranking officer of the Bulgarian Royal Navy, spoke at length today before the Sobranie to discuss Bulgaria's current naval program, then answered questions posed by the representatives. Dobrev quickly outlined the Navy's current status before moving on to discuss new projects.

Current Status
The current Bulgarian Royal Navy is composed primarily of new light vessels and elderly heavy vessels. When Dobrev became naval chief of staff in 1935, he evaluated the existing forces and made several significant changes to both the force structure and it's composition.


Bulgaria's flagship, the dreadnought battleship Varna, is recently refitted in Bulgaria's own naval yards, and is the largest concentration of Bulgarian naval might - indeed, she comprises 56.5% of Bulgaria's total naval tonnage. Dobrev is the former commander of the Varna, and said that although the ship is elderly, she is still a powerful expression of the Navy's presence, and her refit will keep her active until at least the mid 1940s.

The light cruiser Stara Zagora (not pictured) is another one of the large though elderly vessels currently in the Bulgarian fleet. The Stara Zagora, being currently the eldest ship in the fleet, has recently taken the role of a training ship for crews and cadets. Stara Zagora still is assigned to the First Battle Squadron. Dobrev spoke in depth about this ship, mentioning various plans that have been discussed back and forth relating to a possible modernization, or alternately scrapping. Dobrev indicated that a full modernization is unlikely, as the ship does not have much in the way of flexibility to install new guns or other modern systems. Instead, Dobrev indicated that Stara Zagora will continue in her role as a training ship, though she will undergo minor modifications sometime in the future to serve as a floating MTB tender.

The newest completed warships of the Navy are the torpedo boats of the Slivnitsa and Hristo Botev classes.




These torpedo boats comprise the majority of vessels currently in the Bulgarian Royal Navy, and have replaced older, obsolescent vessels which are now retired. These vessels are mainly workhorses, carrying 18" and 21" torpedoes but few guns. Dobrev discussed how the Naval Treaty of Constantinople, negotiated with Romania, permits Bulgaria to retain ten thousand tons (light) worth of torpedo boats; the current total being 12,126 tons (light).

Dobrev pointed out that the Navy needed to downsize its torpedo boat tonnage by two thousand tons, and discussed several different plans to do so. First, he noted that the treaty specifically did not limit craft of under 700 tons light tonnage, which thus theoretically removed the ten Slivnitsa-class torpedo boats from the limitations. Dobrev acknowledged that the conflict had been a result of the treaty's negotiating party being unaware of this discrepancy, and then went on to say that even though many in the Navy wanted to claim the Slivnitsas as exempt under Annex C.3, the leadership decided to submit to the spirit of the agreement.

Dobrev spoke then about the options for removing the excess tonnage in order to be treaty-compliant. As all of the torpedo boats are less than five years old, scrapping is not an option. Bulgaria had approached both Byzantium and Lithuania offering to sell four of the Slivnitsas, but despite some interest no serious offers have materialized yet. The current plan, according to Dobrev, retains all the vessels but converts four Slivnitsas to a new role. By removing the torpedo tubes from four of the vessels, and installing some additional equipment, the vessels can easily be remade into fast submarine chasers. Though all of the torpedo boats technically have ASW capabilities, the modifications will make them more capable as antisubmarine platforms. Dobrev noted that since these converted vessels would no longer be carrying torpedoes, they would fall out of the torpedo boat category, and would come indisputably under Annex C.3, rather than straddling two categories.

Dobrev also briefly discussed the purchase, from Turkey, of eighteen 35-ton motor torpedo boats, though few comments were made regarding them.


More discussion was reserved for the newest vessels in the Bulgarian fleet, the three Struma-class minesweepers.


Dobrev, upon becoming head of the Bulgarian Navy last year, pushed the construction of mine warfare vessels quite heavily. The three Struma-class vessels, the first ships to be designed and built solely in Bulgaria, are the first result of Dobrev's work. Dobrev nevertheless admitted the Strumas had some design flaws which were revealed in their shakedown cruises, though he adamantly said the ships were not a failure, but rather a step in the right direction.

Dobrev also took a few minutes to discuss his somewhat controversial decision in late 1935 to send the predreadnought battleship Sofia and the light cruiser Montana to the scrapper's torch. Dobrev noted that the Montana had been damaged during the "Kaliakra Chase" during the late unpleasantness, and wasn't worth the time to repair or modernize, even to serve as a training vessel. The decision to scrap the Sofia was harder, however, as some in the naval leadership advocated her use as both a training ship and a naval gunfire support vessel. Dobrev pointed out that Sofia was becoming quite expensive to maintain in exchange for very little tangible benefit to the Bulgarian Navy, and was heavily outclassed by even some existing cruisers.

Future Projects
The second part of Dobrev's discussion revolved around the future plans and projects of the Bulgarian Navy. Dobrev spoke briefly of Bulgarian strategy in preparing ships to supplement and aid allied Turkish forces, either through escort and antisubmarine patrols or through contributing to an allied naval squadron.


The main topic of discussion was of course the Danube and Maritsa, the two light cruisers currently under construction in Bulgaria and in Turkey. These two vessels will form the core of the current naval expansion, supplementing the Varna and replacing Stara Zagora and Montana as combat vessels.

Dobrev also discussed his intent to introduce destroyers into the Bulgarian Navy. He indicated that final plans had been decisively concluded for a squadron of destroyers of approximately two thousand tons each; he noted that this category in the Bulgarian Navy was mentioned in the Naval Treaty of Constantinople, although Bulgaria has no destroyers at all; hence it will be one of the primary focus points for future construction.


Dobrev further commented that the destroyers would without question receive the names of the former small torpedo boats, and he expected construction on HBMS Drazki, the class leader, to begin construction within the year, with more to follow. According to the CNT, Bulgaria can build up to fourteen of these vessels before she approaches the treaty limits.

Finally, Dobrev noted that the Naval Construction Board was looking into eventually acquiring an "Ersatz Sofia" vessel of 15,000 tons or greater, in order to replace the lately-retired Sofia. Dobrev noted that the Naval Construction Board was undecided, with one group advocating a thirty-knot heavy cruiser, another advocating the purchase of a heavily-gunned but slow coast defense battleship (the Russian Revansh and the Yugoslavian Kornilov being mentioned), while a third group advocated purchasing a used battleship from a foreign supplier. Dobrev himself joked that the discussions were ongoing, and probably would not be concluded decisively before he retired.

-------------------------------------

[SIZE=1]All drawings modified by me from original work by thesmilingassassin[/SIZE]

April 10
The Bulgarian Air Force, as part of its continued expansion, released an order to acquire twenty-four more Avia B.135 fighters, to be built at the D.A.R./Avia plant in Bulgaria. Additionally, in May and June, the VNVV will send a number of pilots to Great Britain in preparation to take delivery of thirty-six Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Is, which will be incorporated into three newly-created Maritime Fighter squadrons.

Quoted

Dobrev spoke then about the options for removing the excess tonnage in order to be treaty-compliant. As all of the torpedo boats are less than five years old, scrapping is not an option. Bulgaria had approached both Byzantium and Lithuania offering to sell four of the Slivnitsas, but despite some interest no serious offers have materialized yet.

Mexico could be interested in taking them of your hands. What would be the asking price?

Italy would be interested in buying the Silvinitsas as they are built to Italian standards and would be easy to integrate into the fleet.

Hrm. I didn't expect to receive offers *now*... part of the reason I was planning to convert them to subchasers was that once the Treaty of Constantinople expires in 1941, Bulgaria can put the mounts back on them and return them to torpedo boats.

Let me consider again selling them, and think through what price I'd want...

Asuming no one forgot to object to me running Yugoslavia, the Yugoslavian Navy may be interested in 4 of them (assuming they fit in the budget!)

Quoted

Originally posted by Earl822
Asuming no one forgot to object to me running Yugoslavia, the Yugoslavian Navy may be interested in 4 of them (assuming they fit in the budget!)

Bulgaria and Yugoslavia are not exactly best buddies, though. Remember that Bulgaria and Yugoslavia have, in this OTL period, one of the most fortified borders in the world. Considering the situation in the Balkans is very much like OTL, I don't expect Bulgaria will sell to Yugoslavia unless there's some serious changes in politics!

Mexico of course would be willing to buy them and then resell them for a profit to Yugoslavia...

Depending on the cost Byzantium may want to seriously consider purchasing the 4 Slivnitsas.

Interesting. Romania is taking note of these developments.

Regarding the torpedo boat issue, Romania is not too concerned about this. We also, will be quickly running up against the treaty with our current destroyer building program, and some ships which were planned in 1938 may be delayed into 1939. The lack of a sufficient number of drydocks able to scrap the six obsolecent destroyers is currently messing around a bit with our plans, due to the fact that we can build 2 destroyers on slips, but only scrap one in our drydock. The other difficulty is the rapidly accumulating stockpile which may grow even more if Romania doesn't find a CL design for Q3.

Byzantium has a type 1 drydock that could be used for scraping the Romanian ships.

Turkey could offer the following...

Izmit

Type 1 drydock #1 - Idle

Samsun

Type 1 drydock #1 - Idle
Type 0 drydock #2 - Idle

Trabzon

Type 1 drydock #1 - Idle

The docks at Samsun and Trabzon would be ideal as they are hurting for work.

Belgium has a Class 3, 1 and 0 drydocks that are available to any user. The Belgians are seeking employment not profit.

I'll have to remember that. Thanks for the offers everyone, although the bottleneck in the Romanian yards isn't going to be happening until 1937/38. And we're planning on keeping the old destroyers until then when we can replace them with shiny new ships.

Quoted

Originally posted by TheCanadian
Regarding the torpedo boat issue, Romania is not too concerned about this. We also, will be quickly running up against the treaty with our current destroyer building program, and some ships which were planned in 1938 may be delayed into 1939.

If you'd like, we can negotiate a correction to that problem. I actually had an idea - if a "lower" category gets run over, it gets added to the next "higher" category. For instance, Bulgaria's extra TB tonnage could be taken out of the destroyer category, and Romania's extra destroyer tonnage can be taken out of the CL category. Probably best to assign a limit to that, though...

May 6
Today Bulgaria celebrates St. George's Day, memorialized as the Day of the Bulgarian Armed Forces.

Most of the celebrations took place in Sofia, joined by several participating neighboring nations. An hour-long parade made its way through the center of the city, passing before the palace and the Largo for the review of the Tsar and Sobranie (Parliament). Joining the Tsar at the palace was Mustafa Kemel, leader of Turkey, and the Turkish Minister of the Army, Damad Ferid. The majority of foreign ambassadors present in Bulgaria, and also the Atlantean foreign minister, were likewise present at the palace.

Leading the parade were two crack Bulgarian infantry units in their finest dress uniforms, and displaying the brand-new K31 Schmidt-Rubin rifles acquired from Switzerland. Immediately following were the Bordo Bereliler, troops sent by allied Turkey. Next came a battalion of Russian soldiers, followed by the Atlantean Lyrian Guards, and a troop of Corsairs (Atlantean marines). The Greek troops, with their distinctive dress costumes, followed just behind the Atlanteans, and proved to be quite popular with the crowds. The Romanians sent a battalion from the Guards Division. Trailing the foreign formations was the Varangian Guard from Byzantium.

Once the foreign units had passed, the main section of the Bulgarian Army paraded by, dressed in field uniforms and displaying a mix of both the new K31 carbines and M95 rifles. Following them came the cavalry forces, first with horse-mounted units and artillery, but then with over a hundred tanks (old Atlantean FT-17s and newer AT-33 and AT-34 tanks) and then 36 AAT-36 self-propelled guns. Following the tanks came a hundred Brossel TAL 13 artillery tractors towing 150mm Skoda howitzers, 75mm mountain guns, and other 105mm artillery.

In the penultimate moment, as the final section of the parade passed the palace, all eyes turned to the sky as a thunderous roar grew. After it's non-showing in 1935 following bad weather, the Bulgarian Air Force turned out all the stops to put on a magnificent show. The lead formation numbered sixty strong, composed solely of Bf109 Strelas. The second formation was composed of one hundred and fourteen bombers, fifty-four being Atlantean Vanquish types, but also thirty-six Accrisius dive bombers and twenty-four Papagal recon bombers. The third formation was also composed of fighters, being mixed types: forty-eight Fokker-Avia B135s, twenty-four Eclipse Uragans, and several new Fokker GIb fighters. A fourth formation, composed of training aircraft, artillery spotters, and transports, followed the second wave of fighters. Altogether, over four hundred aircraft overflew the capital in a single pass.

The festivities were not confined solely to Sofia, but the most notable occurred at the city of Varna, where the Bulgarian Navy turned out. Joining them for the festivities were warships from neighboring powers. The largest visitors were the Russian battleship Imperator Nikolai I and the light cruiser Admiral Lazarev. The Turks turned out with two fine fast Agri-class torpedo boats. From Romania came the new twin destroyers Transylvania and Bucovina, which many of the Bulgarian naval officers were seen admiring.

The Dutch ambassador, accompanied by his guests Staatssecretaris de Rave and Herr Shuyt, will compliment his hosts on a splendid show.