The Harp and Crown: An Irish AAR

[Regno]

Nice read

[Nikolai]

Nikolai: Damn straight. Oh congrats on being declared fan of the month - I meant to post on that thread but it slipped my mind.

Thanks.

[RossN]

The Tawian Straits
(October 1914 to January 1915)


The Japanese capture Ningbo, 3 December 1914

"More old ships sunk. We might as well be sending longships or galleons at them!"

- Admiral O'Sullivan in a letter to his wife; Jan 1915

Rear-Admiral Jack Moore, commander of the Reserve Fleet was a tall and handsome Kerryman of fifty three with a trim black moustache and beard and piercing blue eyes. He had once been O'Donnell's flag captain and had an established a reputation as a highly capable subordinate; hard working and not prone to kick up a fuss. However there was another side to the diligent aide that attracted less favourable comment in the Admirality. Quite simply there were severe doubts about his courage. In a career of over thirty years he had managed to avoid action and whenever possible take quiet commands. Well his courage (or lack of) would be put to the test because he and the Reserve Fleet had been ordered to distant Zhangjiang. In this war everyone was going to see action.

Moore's flagship was the RIS Emer, a twenty year old 14,000 ton Mucha-class pre-dreadnought battleship. Along with her similarly elderly sisters Deirde, Eithne and Clíona she had begun the war rusting peacefully at anchor in Belfast waiting to be scrapped. With every gun now needed to face Japan the warships had been given a fresh coat of grey paint, manned by whatever naval crews were available and sent east.

At Zhangjiang O'Sullivan - still technically in command - was at a loss as to what to do with the new (old) ships. Moore's fleet was incapable of reaching the 22 knots that the battle cruisers and new light light cruisers could easily make and sending the lumbering pre-dreadnoughts into Japanese coastal waters was obvious death sentence. So for the moment Moore was ordered to patrol the Taiwan Straits under the assumption the Japanese would strike at Okinawa and/or Bonin before taking the fight to Formosa.

Meanwhile O'Sullivan was fighting desperately to save his career against loud and growing calls for him to be sacked. As a vice-admiral he outranked Moore but the arrival of the Indian Squadron under Vice-Admirial Connor McGrath, Viscount Tyrone changed matters. Tyrone was an old school aggressive commander in the traditions of Eamonn O'Brien, the infamous 'Sea Wolf' of the Irish-American War. Physically uninspiring, the fifty five year old Tyrone had one quality held by neither of the other Irish admirals. He was keen. He longed for the chance to match his guns against the Japanese. He was also of equal rank to O'Sullivan which left the command situation uncertain.

While Tyrone and O'Sullivan butted heads Moore's fragile pre-dreadnoughts continued to patrol the straits. But the ships were old and their crews inexperienced and it was a rare day when Moore had all four available to take to sea. So it was perhaps not surprising that the Japanese managed to bypass the patrols and land troops at Ningbo at the start of December. Appalled and shocked - no one had expected a Japanese strike at Irish holdings in mainland China - the Admirality ordered Moore to step up his patrols and sink any Japanese supply ships they came across. Moore, anxious not to risk his ships (and himself) delayed his patrols until he could count on all four being present. On the evening of 13 December, reassured that Tyrone's squadron was making for Okinawa and was therefore a much more likely target for the Japanese Moore finally took his four battleships into the straits. At 8.33 am the following morning he encountered the Japanese ten miles off the coast of Formosa under the command of Rear Admiral Sato.

The Japanese had four cruisers and seven torpedo boats. Moore had 16 12-inch guns against 18 8-inch guns. Unfortunately this clear advantage on paper didn't take into account the age of the Irish guns; so old were they that Moore effectively had no range advantage. Then there were the torpedo boats. The battleship admiral who did not fear torpedos did not exist. Not for very long anyway.

The Battle of the Taiwanese Straits, 14 December 1914

Things began badly for the Irish. Moore was steaming into a headlong wind meaning his gun crews were hampered by the thick black smoke from their own funnels. For twenty minutes the two squadrons fired at each other and yet again the Irish found to their dismay that Japanese naval gunnery was excellent. Eithne and Clíona took multiple hits but true disaster took place when Sato launched a torpedo attack on Moore's fleet. In the clash two of the small Japanese ships were sunk but not before the flotilla launched three torpedos at Emer. Moore's flagship started going down by the head and the fleet withdrew leaving Sato victorious. Moore had time to evacuate but Emer herself foundered before reaching Formosa.

The month following the battle was one of unending gloom for the Irish Navy. On Christmas Eve Tyrone ran into Sato in the Ryukyu Trench area and managed to send one of his cruisers to the bottom, at the cost of Tyrone's own modern light cruiser Cavan. And on 2 January Moore, trying to make a break for Zhangjiang lost the already damaged Eithne when she struck a mine in the Straits.

The loss of yet another battleship - the fourth since the beginning of the war - ignited a firestorm of criticism in Ireland. What was the Navy doing? Since 5 August 1914 it had lost no less than seven warships of 4,000 tons or more. So in late January the heads began to roll...

[RossN]

Agent Larkin: Think someone associated with the sea.

KanaX: Not quite that bad, but bad enough.

Eams: Still a pretty big if at the moment, but yes it is. Perhaps a 'Weimar' Japan?

RGB: Heh. Well if things keep going so badly I might need to rethink it.

Regno: Thanks! Keep reading!

Nikolai: You're welcome.

[Viden]

This is becoming like the War of Cuba...

[Agent Larkin]

Irish and associated with the sea......

I've got nothing. Bring on the surprise.

OT I'm surprised it has taken this long for heads to start rolling in Dublin.

[RGB]

Oh dear. This is worse than the RJW, at least there it was a couple of mega-disasters. Here you're getting nickel-and-dimed to death.

[RossN]

Apologies for the lack of a recent update but I'll try and get something up soon.

I'm also trying to determine a new AAR to start now that this is winding down. So far I'm leaning towards Vicky 2 or EU III but a Crusader Kings or Rome AAR is not off the table. Any thoughts?

[Nikolai]

CK2 is not too far off in the horizon. I'd love a good RossN AAR from that game!

[RGB]

I liked your old Antioch AAR in CK, wouldn't mind seeing another CK one from you.

[Vesimir]

I second RGB. Antioch.

Would be interesting if you latinized during the crusades too.

[RossN]

The Blame Game
(January to March 1915)

Joseph 'Wee Joe' Devlin

'MacNeill. O'Donnell. Harrison. Out. Out. Out.'
- A Freeman's Journal headline, January 1915


Ningbo was perhaps the least important of the Irish enclaves in China and it's loss did little to change the military situation but it was Irish territory and the shockwave that accompanied its fall nearly swept the Government out of office. The Irish public where accustomed to hard fought wars but up until now those wars had been (hard) fought on foreign soil. The navy - built and maintained at huge expense over the past two decades - seemed incapable of doing its job properly.

Redmond was able to fight off a vote of no confidence in the Commons but he knew he had to at least appear to be doing something. After private discussions with the PM J. G. Swift MacNeill was the first fall on his sword, resigning on 20 January nominally due to ill-health. The following day Admiral O'Donnell was sacked and Henry Harrison, the Minister for War was sent to the back benches. A dozen or so lesser names were dismissed, resigned or were reshuffled into jobs where they could do no further damage. The Goverment was weakened - and Redmond had to face anger in his own party over dumping O'Donnell who was a war hero ("Who is still fighting the last war" as the PM replied) but the press settled down a little, part satisfied that the party was prepared to throw some of its own to the wolves.

Admiral O'Donnell was replaced by Vice Admiral Seamus Murphy, a grey faced non-entity whose only claim to fame was that he was an enthusiastic backer of magnetic mines. His appointment excited no one but the only other options were desperately needed for sea. At least he was likely to be a safe pair of hands. Much more interesting were the new Minister for War and Minister for the Navy.

Joseph 'Wee Joe' Devlin and Robert Erskine Childers were both young men (born in 1871 and 1870 respectively) with untraditional backgrounds. 'Wee Joe' - he was not the tallest of men - was a tough, street smart Belfast Catholic who might have ended up in Larkin's labour party if not for his strong religous streak. Ferociously patriotic and one of the best orators in the house he represented the new urban Ireland and made a suitably strong willed impression at the War Office. Ningbo, he declared, would be liberated and Irish soldiers would land on Japanese soil within the year.

Robert Erskine Childers

Erskine Childers - he never went by Robert - was a very different kettle of fish. He was half-English and was born in Mayfair. An enthusiastic yachtsman and writer he had written the world famous spy novel The Riddle of the Sands. Very little in his early life had spoken of his attatchment to Ireland which he had inherited via his Irish mother. He had become a radical patriot during the Irish-American war when he volunteered to serve in the Royal Irish Navy. Wounded at Pamlico Sound he had returned to Ireland still awash with patriotic fevour and now a war hero as well as a popular writer he was head hunted by the NCP and swept into parliament in the next election as a deputy for Wicklow. Truth be told the passionate, otherworldly Childers was not a natural politician and despite his name he languished on the back benches until 1915. Yet no one in the Irish Goverment knew more about the sea so he was the first and only choice to fill the Naval Office after Swift MacNeill went.

Of course regardless of who sat in the War Cabinet the conflict continued. Japan retained the iniative for the moment and far from planning to retake Ningbo the Irish gloomily expected Shanghai to fall as a matter of course ("We cannot realistically defend her," the PM privately admitted to the King.) Even the hawkish Devlin was prepared to recognize that but where he and Childers parted company with the PM was Okinawa. Redmond felt strongly that the Irish should concentrate on holding Formosa, home to a major naval base and easily defensible - a rock for the Japanese wave to break upon. In this light Okinawa was expendable, and if anything holding the line there was an unacceptable drain on Irish resources.

The hawks on the other hand insisted Okinawa be held at any cost. The blow to morale if the islands fell would be undeniable but even more important was that they served as a link to Korea. A Japanese controlled Okinawa and Shanghai meant that the Irish were essentially writing off the Koreans and the naval base at Cheju which had been won at such enormous cost a decade earlier. Childers even questioned whether Formosa was nearly as strong a fortress as Redmond believed, pointing out that the Japanese had captured it in the last war.

Of course all plans depended on two aspects: what the Japanese planned and whether the battered Irish forces in the Far East were still strong enough to hold the line should the blow fall on them.

[RossN]

Finally back after a very long break. This time I'm determined to see this story through!

[Nikolai]

And what a comeback! Good to see this one revisited.

[ComradeOm]

Just when I thought I was out... you drag me back in

[Agent Larkin]

Woohoo.

Nice to have you back Ross.

[Eams]

Great to see this resurrected!

'Wee Joe' - he was not the tallest of men - was a tough, street smart Belfast Catholic who might have ended up in Larkin's labour party if not for his strong religous streak. Ferociously patriotic and one of the best orators in the house he represented the new urban Ireland and made a suitably strong willed impression at the War Office. Ningbo, he declared, would be liberated and Irish soldiers would land on Japanese soil within the year.

Devoutly Catholic and socially progressive? Does anyone know the Irish translation of Zentrumspartei?

[KanaX]

Great, I'm waiting eagerly how this all plays out.

[RGB]

Wow.

It has been a long time indeed and nice to see you back. So many places to defend...Ireland has their work cut out for them.

[Viden]

Good to see you back!