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Meh, the only way to solve that issue is to irradiate the Holy Land, thus meaning no one wants to live there. Problem solved.
 
No, people would still live there. Trust me, human determination and foolhardiness is stronger than reason. Always.
 
yh or we could ship them all to mars as the first non earth colony
 
Hmm, this had better be pretty special as it's quite the intractable problem you've chosen to poke at.

Quite aside from the formidable nature of the basic issues as Churchill himself admits any short term rushed solution will probably come back with different or bigger problems later (or worst of all a bigger and different problem).

Interesting to see what you come up with, I recommend bribing the head Rabbi to proclaim an amazing reinterpretation of the Bible proves the Holy Land is actually not Jerusalem but Jersey. But then I just like the idea of a nuclear armed Channel Island so that may not be the best plan. :D
 
Interesting to see what you come up with, I recommend bribing the head Rabbi to proclaim an amazing reinterpretation of the Bible proves the Holy Land is actually not Jerusalem but Jersey. But then I just like the idea of a nuclear armed Channel Island so that may not be the best plan. :D

Solution: the Holy Land is actually not Jersey but New Jersey. Unless you want the Yanks to have nukes too it'll be a so-funny-that-it-is-great-idea. :p
 
arya126 Indeed it was, but the Civil servant is, or rather was, one of the last old school diplomats that are left within the service, and he clings to the old ways.

Lord Strange Has been considered and discarded, because Nuke tech isn't yet far enough along.

ColossusCrusher True. That's what I like about us, because it can be one of our great advantages.

arya126 Same as above. :)

El Pip As said in the PM, I have a not yet fully developed plan that needs some fine tuning before I can post it here. The solution I have in mind isn't perfect either, but it's the only one I can see work with both sides reasonably at peace with each other.

And Channel Islands with nukes. OH THE HORROR!


gaiasabre11
Now that would be too hard on the Jews and Arabs. :D
 
Wait, did I just seriously read the first proposal for Commu-Jews? Wait! They ARE Commu-Jews already! :rofl:
 
Research, Uni work and some other distractions have prevented me from getting much writing done this weekend, so probably no update today, and if then very late.
 
Eeeeeep!


Now this is seriously awesome photography.




Thumbnail to prevent thread breakage.
 
Chapter 185


Photo06clEdinburgh1NP1.jpg

HMS Belfast during the operation, photographed from the Destroyer

10th November 1941

The surface of this particular bit of the Mediterranean Sea was relatively calm and the weather was still warmer than it would be farther north. The eleven figures that set out from the dark black shape of the warship that was at anchor just out of night-time sight of the island the men were heading towards. Unlike usual landing parties these men were not using regular Navy issue boats but were canoeing to shore instead, relying on their skills and long, hard training in Britain and on the coast of North Africa to reach their destination. The SBS was based around the idea of using them instead of more cumbersome boats, saying that it was easier to infiltrate along any given shoreline if the men went ashore in groups of two instead of a whole bunch. The men of the SAS mocked the SBS for using such toy boats, but then again the Island was too small for insertion by air, and so the SBS had been chosen for this mission, keeping this as low-key as possible. Normally an attack like this would have involved more than the 24 members of the SBS, but the nature and the political circumstances of the mission had made this impossible, same with the Naval support being restricted to a Destroyer and a Light Cruiser, with the two ships at least being probably the most modern vessels available in the Mediterranean Sea, in the person of a Battle Class Destroyer and a Southampton Class Light Cruiser. Twelve canoes left from the Cruiser, and as they turned their way towards the Island and the men inside began to row, the Cruiser began it's slow approach, having orders to provide off-shore cover while the Destroyer would go in close to provide fire support if needed and land the second wave, namely the demolition engineers and the Intelligence People.


The SBS rowed and thanks to the preparation and the confined waters of the Aegean Sea, and the closeness of the Island to Rhodes. Normally going this close to a major Italian base was suicide for a single Cruiser and a Destroyer, but the Italian Air Force on the Island had long been destroyed, and the lack of bases between the Italian possessions in the Aegean Sea and Italy prevented any reinforcements. In the beginning all went well, all twelve canoes managed to stay on course and land within a mile of the target area. The Lieutenant gathered his men in the shadow of the ruins of an old Lighthouse and they moved inland. Studies of aerial photographs had given them a clear idea of what was where on the island, but the detailed defences were unknown to them. Meanwhile the German intelligence post was sleeping the sleep of the innocent less than three miles inland, at the opposite coast of the Island where the country was better for that sort of work, no one expecting any form of attack. Why should they? The Italians were between them and the British, Greece was very friendly towards the Axis powers even though they feared the British just as much and therefore hadn't entered the war yet, and no British ship would dare to run the gauntlet this deep into enemy waters. Unknown to them the SBS was already assembling for the final attack on a small clearing in the woods in the hills overlooking the coastal area where most of the German installation was placed. The place where the British Commandos were waiting for the time of attack to arrive was roughly half a mile from the only lightly guarded compound, and began to work their way closer. In the East the sun was beginning to rise, and so the compound was illuminated and the bit of the woods where the British worked their way closer to the perimeter. The Lieutenant had his men wait while he approached the lone sentry who was walking around the few barracks from behind. The man was obviously tired and didn't really want to do his turns, because he stopped and lit a cigarette, even though this was against blackout regulations. He would never have the time to enjoy, because before he could take his first drag, the Lieutenant had already his right hand over his mouth and made a deep cut in the German's throat with the other and his combat knife. He signalled the others with sign language and soon twenty-four mirages were racing through the camp, killing every German that could be found, be it asleep, awake or on duty. After less than fifteen minutes the British had taken the post. One of them ran out to the beach past the high wireless receiving antennas and signalled the Destroyer and the Cruiser with a signal lamp that he had been carrying for this express purpose.

Aboard HMS Belfast, Captain Beattie saw the flashing light immediately. He made the appropriate noises of approval before beginning to ease his new command closer to the shore, as close as he dared. Down in the bowels of the ship his RDF crew was keeping an eye on the surface and air search plots, he had lookouts doubled on starboard which was facing the open sea and his guns were continually sweeping the horizon, so that Belfast would instantly be able to engage any threats that came her way. Beattie himself had his binoculars still trained on the beach when the Destroyer went in close and landed the boffins and the Intelligence people. The group had appropriated the largest boat aboard the Destroyer and rowed to the shore towards the jetty and they jumped onto the island. Beattie turned back and watched the outside while on shore the men were busy gathering papers and closing in onto what they were looking for. Beattie on the other hand found something that he had not wanted to see. “Sir, RDF surface plot reports six contacts coming towards us at high speed.” “Any chance on an ID? Could they be Greek?” If they weren't, how could the Italians found out this fast? Beattie didn't know and couldn't know that this was simply a regular patrol that passed by the Island every six hours day and night, and the six German E-boats were expecting a signal from shore, and not the darkened hull of HMS Southampton. Fortunately the fast attack Craft of World War Two lacked RDF sets, so they did not yet know that the British were there, with Belfast and the Destroyer hidden in the in the shadow of the Island, even though that particular respite was fast going away. The Commander of the small group therefore went as close as he dared and used his signal lamp. In the beginning he was merely confused about getting no reply – and just that. He knew nothing about the post, but that fact alone told him that it had to be Intelligence types and these guys tended to forget everything around them. But orders were orders, and so he went closer and closer, only to be rewarded by the sight of a warship.

Beattie spotted them at the same time, and immediately recognized them for what they were.

“Full speed ahead! Hoist Battle Ensigns and open fire with the secondaries!” he bellowed, and before the sentence was fully over the machine telegraph was at all ahead full. Seconds later the White Ensign rose on the masts and the six four inch and the 40mm Bofors guns that British ships now mounted instead of the old pom poms on the side facing the E-Boats fired with one voice. The first E-boat with the formation's commander on it was riddled with 40mm before it received a 4 inch hit and blew up even as the Cruiser began to gather speed. The Germans were stunned, they had not expected a British Warship and in fact most thought it was merely a Destroyer, since Belfast was still partially hidden and had not yet used her main armament. Belfast was roughly a mile from the coast, but the gunfire could still be heard, and so as per standing orders the Destroyer raced off, trying to get out of the shadow of Belfast and the path of the torpedoes that were surely on the way already.

But they weren't. The Germans had lost their commanding Officer, and in the confusion that reigned and under the gunfire from Belfast, no one had yet realized that the volume of fire was too heavy for a single Destroyer. The boats fired back at their attacker with only their other armament, and 20mm and 7.92mm fire couldn't do much more than scratching the paint. On the Bridge of Belfast Beattie knew that he had to end this fast. His turrets were too large to effectively engage the E-Boats, but there was something he could do. He had the Destroyer signaled. The smaller ship acknowledged the orders and raced out from between the Island and behind Belfast as if spat out like a cherry core. By now the sky was light enough for the Germans to actually see what they were fighting, and it was immediately identified as an 'enlarged Southampton Class' as it was known with the Kriegsmarine. The Germans had by this time lost another boat to Belfast which was beginning to run circles between them and the Island, and only then the remaining four thought about launching their torpedoes, but the inaccurate but intense fire from HMS Belfast threw off their aim, so none actually came close to any British ship as they were fired over the next ten minutes. However in the pre-dawn light the close range gunnery from the Light Cruiser also suffered, and only few hits were scored. Those that were scored however were damaging enough on the E-Boats because unlike Belfast they were not made to withstand 4'' fire, and soon the remaining three beat a hasty retreat, all of them damaged in various degrees. Since they had fired their torpedoes and had no other weapons that could really threaten a Light Cruiser and a Destroyer if properly handled, Beattie decided to let them go, and HMS Belfast returned to her station.

On said Island meanwhile the Intelligence people and the scientists had scraped together every piece of paper that could be found in the compound and had carried it back to the boats that were bringing them now to the Destroyer that was waiting in the shallow bay. One of the men, wearing a tattered uniform with insignia that made him part of the Intelligence Corps even though he worked for an establishment back in Great Britain that was not part of the Army, carried a box that had the approximate size of a typewriter, and even though the machine inside looked like one, it wasn't, and since the post had been under the command of the Kriegsmarine, the British had just captured their first fully functioning naval Enigma Machine.

This machine would eventually find it's way to Bletchley Park where it was instrumental in the construction of the next generation of the 'Turing–Welchman bombe', which would greatly ease the decryption of Axis signal traffic from Germany and later the Soviet Union and co-designed by Alan Turing who would later go on to pioneer modern computers in the 1950s. There had been those that had feared that the Germans might suspect that the British had captured the machine, but the E-Boats, standing off just out of range reported that the British Light Cruiser had proceeded to shell the establishment for almost twenty minutes, and that it had not been there very long before they had encountered it. The Germans had not the slightest idea about the shore party, and since a day later a formation of three British Mosquitoes dropped bombs on the same area, Berlin was falsely led to believe that the British had simply aimed to destroy the place, all the while at Bletchley Park ULTRA continued to make it's vital contributions to the Allied War Effort.



[Notes: My reference book on the Wartime Fleet classifies the Southampton Class as a CA, but under the Washington Naval treaty she is a CL, so I will go with that, since the game and this AAR see her as a CL too. After HMS Southampton herself, all her sisters were built to the Edinburgh Class specs. Note though that I might have said otherwise earlier in the AAR, but unfortunately much of the pre-war alterations to the fleet was lost along with some of my notes as mentioned. Also, what was done to Alan Turing is... despicable to say the least. How I am going to deal with that is something I really have to think about. On one hand, it would be easy to have the British Government simply overlook his homosexuality, and on the other hand this could be seen as too much wish-fulfilment.]
 
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You are writing very good naval updates which I'll use as references someday when I write my own. Side note: I thought that you know that the Germans used 7.92 mm MGs. ;)
 
Ackh! That's what you get for being used to NATO ammunition. Shall be edited. And I am glad you liked it.
 
Ackh! That's what you get for being used to NATO ammunition. Shall be edited. And I am glad you liked it.

I'm more used to 7.62 x 54mmR for using the Dragunov way too much in sniping. :p Kinda miss the 7.5 x 54mm too. ;)
 
I would had thought that the Brits would use submarines for their insertions... nicer this way, indeed.:D
 
I forgot to ask this: Did you removed all the original 4.5" guns on the Battle and replaced them with the 4"? Or is it yet another typo?
 
I forgot to ask this: Did you removed all the original 4.5" guns on the Battle and replaced them with the 4"? Or is it yet another typo?

4" is referring to the secondaries on HMS Belfast.
 
I would had thought that the Brits would use submarines for their insertions... nicer this way, indeed.:D

Yup. Beattie and Belfast are a the teamup Ian was initally supposed to be.
 
4" is referring to the secondaries on HMS Belfast.

Oh, my bad. On a side note, I kinda want to draw a true pocket battleship displacing around 20,000 tons standard carrying 8 x 305mm guns in quads with speed of 30+ knots and armor good against 8" shells. She'll be able to hunt down cruisers like the Belfast with ease. :p