Trapped.....

So, the big pre-WWI naval campaign had it's first battle last night. All of South America plus some European Allies taking on the US over the barely averted crisis in Mexico at Vera Cruz in 1914. The Allied fleets were called to rendezvous at Caracas, Venezuela, so the Spanish and Germans (under my command) went there. The Germans went to tweak American noses and as the Spanish/Portuguese fleet went to relocate, American contacts were reported to the north. My threat estimate was a maximum of seven American dreadnaughts (to my three) so we sallied with light recon elements to locate the Americans and break east to the allied Brazilian and Argentinean fleets.

The Portugese made first contact, engaging an American cruiser line but finding a line of battleships behind it. Then another line of battleships appear to the west, spotted by the Spanish cruisers...... Eleven battleships, not seven, plus several large armored cruisers....


We make smoke and turn east. The Western American battleline sinks my cruisers one by one as the run for the destroyer screen, the Eastern American Battle line doubles back to break through the smoke screen and engage my dreadnaughts just clearing the harbor....


But when the Americans stick their nose through the smoke screen it gets bit off. First a torpedo run by the modern destroyers forces the Americans to break their line and a lucky torpedo hit damages Louisiana. As Kentucky clears the smoke, the Spanish dreadnaughts and the Caracas fort smash and sink it. The destroyers dashing between the American battleships are obliterated by heavy gunfire.

Louisiana and Missouri break West and the antique Spanish destroyers with their short range torpedoes break through their smoke screen for a perfect run on them. Both ships soak up multiple torpedoes and two of the Spanish destroyers escape unscathed....

Kentucky is sinking and Louisiana and Missouri were last seen limping northwest. Without the modern destroyers, the smoke screen to the north disappated and the heavies engaged. Wisconsin was battered out of the line, Maine was hammered by a combined salvo and the Spaniards appeared unfased to the Americans. After that unpleasantness, the Yankee battlelines combined and ducked behind their own smokescreens, but the only photos I have are out of focus. We left the table their on acount of 2:00 AM, so I'll take the tripod next time and get starting photos when action recommences.

It Can't Be Said Better

I have to say that I never really got Republican policy and have never understood how anyone with a lick of sense and/or a college education could fall for it, but the Republican nightmare just keeps getting worse and worse:

Let's just stipulate DC Republicans are simply not part of the discussion when it comes to repairing the US economy or arresting our slide into deep economic misery. And any reporters who aren't clear about this are just lying to their readers or viewers. The latest Republican plan, in the face of today's new spike in unemployment, is a freeze on federal spending. I'm not even sure it's fair to say that this is a replay of the disastrous decisions that magnified the Great Depression between 1929 and 1933. It's more a parody of it. When the crisis is a rapid and catastrophic drop off in demand, you handcuff the one force that can create demand (i.e., the federal government) in the throes of the contraction. That's insane. Levels of stimulus are a decent question. Intensifying the contraction is just insane and frankly a joke. It's time to recognize that the only debate here is happening among Democrats and sundry non-affiliated sane people. The leaders of the GOP are simply not part of the conversation.

--Josh Marshall

It Can't be Said Better

Yes, it is indisputable that the New Deal dragged the United States out of the Great Depression. But only if you can count.

Art

Kimberlyn's latest work, a combination of old and new. The original colored pencil sketch was scanned into the computer. Using the GIMP (the Graphics Image Manipulation Program), an open source image editor, she converted it to a line drawing then inked it layer by layer with the coloring tools the GIMP provides. The text was added with Picasa, a simple photo editor, also open source, supported by Google. I post it here for everybody, 'cause she never posts on her own blog anymore....

Parental fear moment, I think she's getting psyched for the Rave at RadCon. She had too much fun at SpoCon....

It can't be said better, 01/20/09

"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals"

Barack Hussein Obama, 44th President of the United States of America. 01/20/09

YEssss! Yes, yes, yes!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/9/22401/59477/76/680315

Annual Wooden Ships and Iron Men

War Eagles has an annual Wooden Ships and Iron Men bash on New Year's Day. Last years report is here.

This year's battle is based on the historical events that inspired some of the Horatio Hornblower novels, the Battle of Algeciras. In the first phase, the British lost a ship of the line, the first in nearly a century and so a real scandal, at Algeciras Bay. The French attempted to move the prize, with a reinforced French battle line plus a Spanish fleet to Cadiz. The British launched everything that could be readied from Gibraltar (just across the straights from Algeciras) including the ships that had been knocked about in the first phase. The British intercept at dawn outside Cadiz. (click on the photo for enlarged view)


The French admiral is tasked to make port safely, with the British prize, Hannibal. The Spanish commander is tasked to make port safely. The British admiral must retake the Hannibal to salvage his honor and received orders to prevent a junction of the French and Spanish fleets at all costs.

The intercept by the Superb missed it's goal and trailed the prize until ultimately achieving the recapture. The main French fleet sailed easily into Cadiz, since the British admiral ignored them, focusing on retaking the Hannibal.



The British frigate next to the red die managed a rake on the French tow ship, slowing it for the Superb to overtake and guaranteeing that the British admiral can head reach the tow ship and the prize. A follow on by a brig left the tow ship with a mast over the port side masking it's guns and no longer able to sail into the wind at all.

But a timely change in the wind changes things.


At the bottom we see the fate of a Spanish frigate that came out of Cadiz harbor expecting gunboats to follow, but only one did. Sailing straight into the three British ships of the line, it is a dismasted and a burning hulk that ultimately exploded between the second and third ships doing some small sail and hull damage, temporarily impairing the battle line as fires were put out all over the two ships. Above is the British brig that knocked down a mast on the French SOL towing the Hannibal and bringing it to a stop. Unfortunately, the wind change left it trapped by a French frigate and schooner and overwhelmed.

By the time the battle line closed to firing range, the fires were out and the line dished out a pounding that blew up the French tow ship in a single round. Some additional damage was done to Superb which was closing to board and the Hannibal which remained in proximity.



For reasons sufficient to the British Admiral in temporary command, (I had to leave for a RadCon committee meeting) the Spanish were allowed a negotiated free pass into Cadiz and no further action took place. IMO, the main British line should rake the leading Spanish ship, sail down the starboad side of the Spanish line, penetrating it at some point and scattering the Spaniards. The two additional British SOL's approaching should then have opportunities for additional actions and at the least, the Spanish fleet would get knocked about by the superior British gunnery and most likely a prize or two could be taken. The relatively weak Spanish gunnery would likely do some damage, but it seems unlikely to me that they would score any substantial success. I invite comment. (click on the comments button and type your thoughts)