The Red Shield - Union of Britain AAR

[trekaddict]

@ Gigalocus -> The Grand Fleet will be presented in the coming update. You'll see that RNS Digger was not invented during designers' prime...

@ th3freakie -> A person who wrote AARs with SOV and UoB should be the last one to demand a royalist AAR

@ trekaddict -> I'll make things worse - Tovey's in the officer pool as well

Well, my Cunningham will eventually get the Royalistic Victoria Cross so

[demokratickid]

Oh my! This is quite an interesting piece! I think I'll be reading!

[RGB]

Wow, a British KR AAR.

I always love those. I love battleships and I love red flags. Count me in.

[Jedrek]

VI
Spring manouvers of 1936

(from: the Red Banner and the Seven Seas)

The Grand Fleet left Liverpool on the 16th of March. According to the orders, my men assumed a perfect example of march formation - all battleships and battlecruisers poised in lines, with Rebecca providing air cover and long range recon. Cruisers protected the formation's flanks. Of course, all that were unneccessary precautions - Irish fleet was almost non-existant - but we all viewed this as a perfect opportunity to see if our training programmes and drill procedures produced any visible results.

Composition of the Grand Fleet

The most unpleasant surprise during this first long range sail were numerous technical defects and failrues. Ironically, the newest ship and most unorthodox vessel of the fleet - Rebecca - provided the smallest amount of surprises. But this can be explained easily - Gladiators were perhaps the most reliable aircraft in Britain and the carrier herself had few complex mechanisms that could have produced a failrue. The second most reliable ship was Renown - quite surprising this time, considering her age. The old flagship could have served as an example for all new types, especially for the Liberation-class craft. RNS Digger had malfunctions in all her turrets, and even had to skip firing exercise after leaving Liverpool - I didn't want such precious vessel to explode, should something go wrong.

The mission itself was peaceful - the Grand Fleet sticked to her path, with only a lone Irish destroyer enterning eyesight about one hundred miles North-East of Belfast. The Irish craft attempted to track our fleet, without leaving Irish territorial waters. After about three hours, it turned back and headed South, leaving us free to proceed.

One calm day, I asked a Swordfish pilot to take me as a passenger so that I could have seen the fleet under my command from the air. A magnificent view, to say the least. Seeing those castles of steel dashing across the Atlantic I realised for the first time the scale of effort British workers had put in the Great Reconstruction. I wondered how those craft would fare in battle, assuming their drawbacks and defects were removed.

British battleships advancing

However, the tranquill atmosphere of our manouvers has been devastated by news from Ireland itself. Disturbed by our actions, the Canadians have declared Ireland to be under their protection and proposed the Irish nationalist government to join the Entente. Our ambassador in Dublin attempted to explain the situation and prevent this disaster, but in vain; ultimately, Ireland came under direct Canadian protection.

Our return to Liverpool on the 2nd of April was grim and silent. No-one questioned the purpose of our mission, though. Sailors and officers alike have realised our destiny - to fight Imperialism and Capitalism everywhere it flourishes.

A less than welcome result indeed...

[RGB]

Well, all that means is that after Canada is done, Ireland is next

[trekaddict]

Lemme see if I can dig up the Communist Version of Rule Britannia I wrote a while back...

*rummages through everything*


Ah, there we go.


Ahem....


When Britain first, at popular command,
Arose from out the azure main,
Arose, arose, arose from out the a-azure main,
This was the Union, the Union of the land,
And all the workers sang this strain:

Onward Union! The Union rules the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

The Unions, not so blest as thee,
Must in their turn, to tyrants fall,
Must in ,must in, must in their turn, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish, shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.
(Chorus)
Onward Union!
The Union rules the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.


Onward Union!
The Union rules the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

[Jedrek]

A splendid job with Rule Britannia, my comrade! And regarding Ireland - don't worry. Remember Cromwell! <evil laughter> :->

Those familliar with Kaiserreich probably don't recall those events. This means your memory's correct - I made them up to make the game more dynamic. I'll try writing some more of them as the game progresses.

[demokratickid]

Great R,B! Interpretation! And, nice update Jedrek!

[hyme]

keeping an eye on this one

[carmen510]

Interesting NES.

Great writing style, hope to see more.

[Jedrek]

Thanks for encouragement, lads. This weekend I'll download the BetaV version (I already have the pre-release installed, but I want to have the final version for the AAR) and update the files with new events (Irish entrance into the Entente is just the beginning, as I've said before ). Then we shall see what the Republican Britain has in store!

[Beladriel]

Awesome! It's back!

[RGB]

Not dead. Nice.

[Jedrek]

VII
The Six Year's Plan

(Oswald Mosley's speech, 3rd of April 1936)

Comrades!

Every socialist worker in Britain is shocked by news from Ireland. Even though our fleet did not voilate any international regulations, the imperialists of Canada and nationalists of Ireland declared our actions a sufficent reason to unite themselves, putting our beloved island in grave danger. Of course, our patrol was merely a pretext - those elements have been planning a united front since years. We should thank comrades Snowden and Horner, for their efforts towards the Great Reconstruction. Should there be no Republican Navy, the royalist would have appeared on our shores a long time ago.

But even the strongest of navies is not sufficient, without a proper army and industry to support it. Britain was the vanguard of the industrial revolution of the XIX century. Many decades before Germany, Italy, France and even America, our proud nations worked together to change the world around them. Now, when the capitalist oppression has been overthrown, we may begin a second revolution. A revolution that will result in socialist awakenings in other countries, that will be a prelude to glorious global revolution! Recent events - the Irish access to the Entente and the increasingly hostile behaviour of Canadian monarch, Edward VIII, are truly disturbing. We must be prepared to make a stand, should a necessity arise!

Comrades! Workers! All proud peoples of England, Wales and Scotland! I hereby anounce the first day of the Six Years' Plan! A plan that will make our industrial output exceed the German one, bring Britain back to her righful place under the sun! Central authorities will soon issue precise directives for every British industrial complex, mining facility and agricultural settlement. The more precisely they are executed, the greater shall be our success. And the greater is our success, the closer will be the ultimate defeat of worldwide capitalism and imperialism!

All hail Brittania!

Manchester, one of the first cities to get affected by Mosely's Six Years' Plan

[Davisx3m]

Those UoB & Ireland events are those in the official version of Kaiserreich?

[Jedrek]

No, they are my own work. Once the AAR is dead/finished, I'll make a nice package and submit them to the Kasierreich team for Beta VI.

AAR update: restarted the game, only to be surprised by new names for craft and modified composition of the fleet (4 CVs instead of CAs, different CL naming and so on...). I did some modifications to keep the new game as close to the already written parts as possible. I also modified part V to reflect the changes. Expect an update sometime this week

[Zuckergußgebäck]

When Britain first, at popular command,
Arose from out the azure main,
Arose, arose, arose from out the a-azure main,
This was the Union, the Union of the land,
And all the workers sang this strain:

Onward Union! The Union rules the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

The Unions, not so blest as thee,
Must in their turn, to tyrants fall,
Must in ,must in, must in their turn, to tyrants fall,
While thou shalt flourish, shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all.
(Chorus)
Onward Union!
The Union rules the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.


Onward Union!
The Union rules the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

I salute you all, workers and peasants.
I salute you all, workers and peasants.
May this dear land we love so well
In brotherhood and freedom dwell.
Though worlds may change and go awry
While there is still one voice to cry - - -

There'll always be a Union
While there's a country lane,
Wherever there's a cottage small
Beside a field of grain.
There'll always be a Union
While there's a busy street,
Wherever there's a turning wheel,
A million marching feet.

Red, white and blue; what does it mean to you?
Surely you're proud, shout it aloud,
"Workers, awake!"
The peasants too, we can depend on you.
Freedom remains. There are no chains
No-one can break.

There'll always be a Union,
And the Union shall be free
If the Union means as much to you
As the Union means to me.

[trekaddict]

I salute you all, workers and peasants.
I salute you all, workers and peasants.
May this dear land we love so well
In brotherhood and freedom dwell.
Though worlds may change and go awry
While there is still one voice to cry - - -

There'll always be a Union
While there's a country lane,
Wherever there's a cottage small
Beside a field of grain.
There'll always be a Union
While there's a busy street,
Wherever there's a turning wheel,
A million marching feet.

Red, white and blue; what does it mean to you?
Surely you're proud, shout it aloud,
"Workers, awake!"
The peasants too, we can depend on you.
Freedom remains. There are no chains
No-one can break.

There'll always be a Union,
And the Union shall be free
If the Union means as much to you
As the Union means to me.

HERESY! But good heresy.

[RGB]

I want more British Union patriotic songs.

Also, you need industry to get more ships, that's right.

[Jedrek]

VIII
Economical problems of the Six Years' Plan

(fragment of Exchequer's monthly report to the Congress of Trade Unions for April 1936)

Comrades delegates!

As you all probably now, the people's reaction to my April speech was increadibly enthusiastic, not only in London, but in other parts of Britain as well. My office has recieved dozens of letters from agricultural collectives, steel mills and factories all over the country, promising absolute devotion to the Plan. Directives have been issued; however, there was a number of problems my office had to attend.

The most important one was a permanent lack of boxites, chromium, nickel and other rare metals. Potentially, the problem was obvious in the previous years, but numerous factors, such as seemingly sufficent reserves, preparations to finish the Great Reconstruction, prolonged negotiations with Mexico, and so on, made us treat the problem with low priority. However, once our factories' powers had been toggled to full-scale heavy industrial production, reserves started shriking rapidly. National supplies were depleated within two weeks and overall industrial efficiency dropped by over 27%.

However, the situation is slowly returning under control. Negotiations with Mexico have recently been finished, which, coupled with intensified cross-channel trade with France, should allow us to reduce the lacks to about 23%. Comrade Niclas y Glais has recently informed me about new trade negotiations with Sicily and Bengal. According to his estimates, our lacks should be reduced to 14% until the end of May. Still, this is not enough; thus I ask for a permission to commence negotiations with non-socialist, yet neutral, countries. My subordinates have prepared a list of potential partners - for example, Persia, Burma and Bolivia. Should the Congress accept this solution, diplomatic channels shall be opened immidiately.

I understand that this is a very difficult decision. We have sworn to defend socialism and doom both the capitalists and imperialists. Still, even a global revolution has her priorities. Former imperial colonies, like the countries I have just mentioned, are politicaly unstable and completely harmless. Let me ask those who hesitate a short, simple question: would you rather remain fanatically orthodox to our dogmas and face the capitalists unprepared, or perhaps you would rather violate less important principles in order to stand strong and ready when the time of reckoning comes?

Thank you for listening, comrades. Let the will of the People decide!
All hail Britannia!

Mosley triumphant. His proposition was accepted, though by only a handful of votes' majority.