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Voting closed: April 25, 2019, 04:30:47 pm

Author Topic: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]  (Read 136498 times)

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Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
It's even more funny when you realise that a lot of such discussion tends to lead to the argument that "The Iowa would win, because even at poor weather and visibility  she could use her radar to track targets."

Thus demonstrating that a lot of people fail to realise that under those conditions (which are the standard for the north Atlantic) the Iowas can't bloody fire their guns

Not to mention that the Bismarck armor scheme is specifically designed for the N. Atlantic close-range brawl and that German and British ships are specifically designed with 'Atlantic bows' for such situations.

But 'Murica.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Seems people forget just how CRAP it is to sail the North Atlantic, let alone engage in a GUN DUEL in seas like that.  :lol:

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
People also often seem to vastly overestimate the effectiveness of radar on ships during WW2. False readings, false readings everywhere. Radar being turned deliberately by commanders for all sorts of reasons. Radar breaking due to the shockwaves of their own guns firing. etc
Late model american radar was superior to what most other nations had, sure, but it wasn't this infallible system that guaranteed that nobody could ever escape the mighty Iowa's during literally all weather situations.

Interesting thing I didn't realize: Iowa class BBs are borderline useless in the north Atlantic. Makes all those "Who'd win in a fight, Iowa or Bismarck" discussions a bit more interesting.
Those discussions are rarely very interesting because they're always like "one on one, calm seas, clear weather, both ships commence battle from 40km away, who would win". Which eliminates so many variables and often completely negates certain traits a ship can have.
Not to mention that at best you can just make up a percentage on who would more likely win. Because naval warfare is random as ****. Tiny of a chance as it might, the first shell fired could very well find its way straight onto a bridge or central firecontrol, or knock a turret out and cripple a ship for the rest of the fight.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline The E

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
People also often seem to vastly overestimate the effectiveness of radar on ships during WW2. False readings, false readings everywhere. Radar being turned deliberately by commanders for all sorts of reasons. Radar breaking due to the shockwaves of their own guns firing. etc

Another of his anecdotes is about a US cruiser detecting something on their radar and blanketing it with over a thousand rounds of ammo... only to find out that the enemy ships they've been firing at were a bunch of birds.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline HLD_Prophecy

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
I knew of a fiction author, recent, who had responsibility for a vast schizo-tech universe, filled with beings of power. He never, ever, EVER answered "who would win" questions from fans.

His reason? It's never safe to say who would win. Too many variables. Morale, environment, luck, providence, outside help, hunger, thirst, ammo, distractions, dreams, mental state, mind games... to name a few;)

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Another of his anecdotes is about a US cruiser detecting something on their radar and blanketing it with over a thousand rounds of ammo... only to find out that the enemy ships they've been firing at were a bunch of birds.
Those birds must have had a really rough day.

I knew of a fiction author, recent, who had responsibility for a vast schizo-tech universe, filled with beings of power. He never, ever, EVER answered "who would win" questions from fans.

His reason? It's never safe to say who would win. Too many variables. Morale, environment, luck, providence, outside help, hunger, thirst, ammo, distractions, dreams, mental state, mind games... to name a few;)
Good call of him imo.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 
Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Another of his anecdotes is about a US cruiser detecting something on their radar and blanketing it with over a thousand rounds of ammo... only to find out that the enemy ships they've been firing at were a bunch of birds.

I thought that were 99 Balloons. ;)

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
IIRC there was an issue with the early sets that it was possible the director would get confused and start chasing its own shell splashes wince they were the strongest return.
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Also a good channel
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Enioch

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SINKING THE PRINZ: THE BATTLE OF CORNWALL (Part 1)
A slow fade in from black: the rocky shores of Cornwall looming over a darkened sea. The sky is a uniform gray. The cries of seagulls can be heard over the surf.



Quote from: NARRATOR
In the cold days before the Third War, nobody would have expected the British Navy to put up a fight. The old days of Nelson and Trafalgar were gone forever. The Grand Fleet was a shadow of its former self; barely capable of patrolling the waters of the ever-diminishing Empire.

A wave breaks against the rocks, scattering foam in the sea breeze.

Quote from: NARRATOR
The Dreadnoughts of old were thought to be a fool's toy, a wasteful attempt to wrest the seas from Germany's control and her relentless submarines. If another war were to come, it would be fought by light forces, and below the waves.

ARCHIVE FOOTAGE: a small corvette launching from her berth. Then, cut to REAR ADMIRAL SIR ARTHUR MOUNTJOY, in full dress uniform, in an Admiralty office.



Quote from: MOUNTJOY (a serious man, in his fifties, with a hard jawline and a matter-of-fact manner of speaking)
The people had lost faith in their Navy. These were truly dark times - the failure of the Navy's doctrine had been proven beyond doubt. Twice the German U-boat forces had...

Cut to ARCHIVE FOOTAGE: a German U-boot on the surface, her deck gun blazing at a distant target; cut to a burning merchantman.

Quote from: MOUNTJOY (voiceover)
...brought the British Empire to the brink of starvation, in what were two merciless unrestricted submarine warfare campaigns. They had proven the effectiveness of the new combat arm of their Hock-Zee-Flotte beyond any doubt.

Cut to PROFESSOR GEORGE HODDER (a man in his early fifties, with small, gold-rimmed glasses, a square-patterned woolen shirt and a slightly hunched stance; he is seated in front of an old fireplace, with an oil painting of the HMS Ceasar above it).

Quote from: HODDER
People were talking of starvation. They were talking about another war ruining Britain forever. Nobody expected victories. Victory was something that happened to the Germans. Good news meant getting a convoy through the wolfpacks. Nobody could dream of something more. It wasn't just the submarines: the High Seas Fleet had smashed the Dreadnoughts apart again and again and again, there was no doubt that in a surface action the Navy would...lose.

ARCHIVE FOOTAGE of the officers of SMS Gneisenau posing and laughing under her mighty 16'' guns. Then, cut to DR. JEREMY SPALDING (a man in his late forties, bald and with a double chin, standing in front of his library).

Quote from: SPALDING
They could not imagine that a German capital ship could be sunk. That was impossible.



SPALDING moves over to a table, where the blueprints of the SMS Prinz Eitel Firedrich are laid out and picks up a photograph of the ship on her maiden voyage. The camera focuses on his hand and the image of the ship, her graceful bow pushing the water aside in a high, white wave.

Quote from: SPALDING (voiceover)
But, of course, it wasn't.

Cut to a 3d rendering of the Prinz sinking fast, bow first, her broken turrets slipping out of her bearings. ARCHIVE FOOTAGE of naval rifles firing.

Quote from: SPALDING (voiceover)
Everything went wrong for the Germans.



Cut to ARCHIVE FOOTAGE of part of the Hochseeflotte sailing in formation, the Gneisenau leading the squadron. Then, quick succession of ARCHIVE COMBAT FOOTAGE with naval rifles firing, interspersed with re-enactment scenes of sailors manning action stations, loading and firing guns, fighting fires etc. The rapid sequence ends with a lingering shot of CAPTAIN MARCUS VON HOLSTEIN (played by then-little-known Austrian actor CHR. WALTZ) on the bridge of the Prinz, with black smoke wafting towards him from outside the frame. He is drenched in sweat, a slight trickle of blood runs down his left temple. He slowly lowers his binoculars, his expression stunned, almost oblivious to the frantic activity of other officers and damage control crews around him.

Quote from: NARRATOR
The Battle of Cornwall was joined on the 18th of September 1936 - a clash in which the British Home Fleet was called to defend the Isles from one of the most modern and terrifying weapons the German Reich had ever put to sea. It was more than the first great battle fought in the Third War; it was an event that rocked the German Admiralitaaaaaaaaht to the core. The German forces were more powerful, and possessed greater firepower; yet the flagship of the German Shlaacht-krau-zayr divisions was sunk by a combination of heavy and light British forces, in the first German capital ship loss for a generation. It led to one of the most famous utterances of Wilhelm II:

Cut to the KAISER WILHELM II, in his Berlin residence, played by CHR. PLUMMER, reading a telegram. His hand is trembling imperceptively as he looks back at the members of his Admiralty there present.



Quote from: WILHELM II (his voice that of an old, old man, but tinged with steel and sarcastic reproach)
"Meine Herren, heute stimmt etwas mit Unseren gottverdammten Offizieren nicht."
[SUBTITLES: "Gentlemen, there is something wrong with our goddamned officers today"]

A 2008 BBC PRODUCTION



SINKING THE PRINZ: THE BATTLE OF CORNWALL

Title card fades; ARCHIVE FOOTAGE showing the Gneisenau under construction on the Wilhelmshaven yards



Quote from: NARRATOR
The Prinz Eitel Friedrich and her sisters were a product of Mosley's Folly; conceived by German Admiral Rheinhard Scheer, to counter British cruiser and battlecruiser forces. The so-called Gneisenau-class ships were laid down on January 1929, mere weeks before the declaration of that war, and they never saw action during it. They were not as heavily armed as some British battlecruisers, but they were incredibly fast, meant to catch and destroy anything that they could outgun and to outrun anything they couldn't.

ARCHIVE FOOTAGE from the launch of the Gneisenau. The Kaiser and the Imperial Family are present, saluting the cheering crowds.



Quote from: NARRATOR
The Gneisenau was launched and commissioned almost a full year before her two sisters, and it was her presence that sealed the doom of the Russian Navy in the 1932 war. After a series of naval battles with disastrous results for the Russians, the Gneisenau proceeded to single-handedly hunt down and destroy no less than fourteen Russian cruisers and armed merchant ships in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean in less than three months, utterly smashing the attempts of the Russian Admiralty to counter the German submarine operations with surface raiders.

Cut to MOUNTJOY.

Quote from: MOUNTJOY
Even under Mosley, the British Admiralty had identified the danger that these ships would pose, and their performance in the Russo-German war clearly demonstrated that our original estimates were correct. The Gneisenaus were a terror and they were ranked at the same threat level as the German submarine fleet. We had reason to believe that they would be used in the same fashion as German battlecruisers and light cruisers during previous wars, positioned off the western coast of the United Kingdom to intercept incoming convoys nearing their destination.



Cut to a map of the western approaches, with 3d models of the Gneisenau battlecruisers patrolling the waters.

Quote from: NARRATOR
The Admiralty had identified the problem - and had come up with a novel solution. Enter: the Arethusa.

Cut to SPALDING, who is poring over the blueprints of an Arethusa-class cruiser.



Quote from: SPALDING
The Gneisenaus were made to kill cruisers - so it might seem counter-intuitive that the British respond to them with light cruisers. But the Arethusas are made for a purpose. They are fast enough to keep up and even outrun their hunters if they push their engines; they are equipped with early radar sets; and they have a low enough silhouette to patrol the German hunting grounds while escaping detection themselves.



Quote from: NARRATOR
The Arethusas are the eyes of the Fleet. And, on the morning of the 18 September 1936, they are out hunting monsters.



Cut to ARCHIVE FOOTAGE of Gneisenau leaving harbor, dwarfing the small tugboats assisting her, her massive guns gleaming in the sunlight.

Quote from: Dr WERNER RAHN (voiceover)
Zee Gneizenau vas einer Grosser Kreuzer - ein large cruizer, not einer Schlachtkreuzer, as zee German Admiralität defined zee term.



Cut to Dr WERNER RAHN, seated in an ornate chair in the German Admiralität art gallery.

Quote from: Dr WERNER RAHN (gesticulating wildly)
Arh ! Sche vas puilt for sbeed, und for killing lighder schibs. Zo vere her zisters.

Cut to ARCHIVE FOOTAGE of naval guns firing; cut to a merchant ship sinking

Quote from: NARRATOR
The Prinz Eitel Friedrich was the second ship of the class. Captained by Marcus von Holstein since the start of the war, she had joined her sisters in blockading the western approaches to the United Kingdom, where she had proved to be a terror.

Cut to REENACTMENT FOOTAGE; CHRISTOPH WALTZ, as M. v. HOLSTEIN is shown on the bridge of the Prinz Eitel Friedrich, using his binoculars. He lowers them and turns to the ship's FIRST OFFICER, giving a few orders sotto voce. His eyes are hard, and there is a slight, thin smile on his lips - the epitome of the stereotype of the near-insane German naval commander.



Quote from: NARRATOR
Von Holstein runs a tight ship, and he is out for blood.

Cut to PROFESSOR GEORGE HODDER.

Quote from: HODDER
Von Holstein is an officer of the old school. He grew up with stories of Karl von Müller and Felix von Lückner, and their daring raids. He is in command of the closest thing Germany has to the old Frauenlob and Bremen, the glorious raiders of old. He wants to sink British ships. He wants glory.

Cut to CGI OF PRINZ EITEL FRIEDRICH, sailing into a fogbank.

Quote from: NARRATOR
In his desire to hunt down British ships and convoys, Holstein makes a grave error. On the morning of September 18, he splits off from the Gneisenau and the Friedrich Carl, and takes the Prinz Eitel Friedrich closer to the British coast. In doing so, he overextends, reaching deep within the prowling grounds of the coastal British patrols - and the Royal Navy is ready for him.

CGI of TWO BRITISH LIGHT CRUISERS, cruising through the mist.



Quote from: NARRATOR
The Calypso and the Amphion, two Arethusa-class cruisers under the overall command of Captain Jeremiah McNair are patrolling the area. At 09:24 in the morning, their radar sets pick up the German raider. And thus begins a game of cat and mouse, with the mice stalking the cat.

TO BE CONTINUED...
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Merry Christmas, and all that sort of thing.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

  

Offline Spoon

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Merry krismasu, Enioch-sama.

Very rude to leave us half way into this thriller imo.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline Darius

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
The bit with Dr Werner Rahn cracks me up  :lol:

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Funetic Akzent for ze vin.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline StarSlayer

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]


Schlachtkreuzer S.M.S. Graf Spee
“Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world”

 

Offline The E

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
10/10 would run away from
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns

 

Offline Enioch

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Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
**** me, she's gorgeous and terrifying.

I particularly love the Lexington-style slab of a funnel, and the superstructure details are to die for.

Sail on, lovely shieldmaiden!

StarSlayer, far be it from me to accuse you of bias, but I think you have a favourite ship...

Note: This also earns you omake rights, if you want to commission a blurb in this universe...
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Enioch

  • 210
  • Alternative History Word Writer
SINKING THE PRINZ: THE BATTLE OF CORNWALL (Part 2)
Fade in from black after advertisement break. Two cruisers, sailing through the fog.

Quote from: NARRATOR
The Calypso and the Amphion, two British picket light cruisers have located the German battlecruiser Prinz Eitel Firedrich, as she prowls the hunting grounds off the northwestern shores of Cornwall. They are stalking the larger ship using radar, and relying on the superb seamanship of their commanding officer, Captain Jeremiah McNair, who knows these waters like the back of his hand.



Cut to REENACTMENT FOOTAGE; DAVID TENNANT, playing Jeremiah McNair is standing on the bridge of the Calypso. He is a bundle of nerves, jumping between observation stations and the telephone lines, taking in information and barking out orders to his bridge officers and crew.

Quote from: NARRATOR
As the two light cruisers dance at the outer limit of their radar range, McNair gives the order to report their contact to the Admiralty. Lieutenant Matthew Rolson writes down the message and rushes to the nearby radio room.

MCNAIR screams at the young actor playing ROLSON and points imperatively, never taking his eyes away from the radar plots; the young lieutenant is frantically scribbling down and then rushes towards the camera, which cuts to the actual MATTHEW ROLSON being interviewed



Quote from: "MATTHEW ROLSON, starting as a voiceover and then switching to interview footage
"You should have seen the Captain. The instant we picked up the Germans on our scopes, he knew what was going on. We all thought we were done for, going up against the Germans. But he knew exactly what to do, and he knew exactly how to spur us into doing it. We played cat and mouse with the Prince for half an hour, until the radar boys could figure out exactly what we were dealing with, cold sweat running down all of our spines. And then - I remember - his eyes just lit up and he said, I remember, 'We 'ave the blighta, we 'ave 'im. Call it in!' he cried. 'Tell 'em we caught a bloddy whale!' And so I wrote down the message, as he said to me, I did, and we sent the message."

Cut to a map, displaying the positions of the Prinz and the two cruisers; A pulsing circle indicates the outgoing radio signal; further to the north, two more red blips appear, blinking in reply: HMS Ceasar and HMS Hood.

Quote from: NARRATOR
The heavy forces, standing ready to respond to German incursions signal their reply. Two massive superdreadnoughts, HMS Ceasar and HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy, sail south to intercept the German behemoth. Mc Nair has gotten his message through



Cut to CGI FOOTAGE; the sleek, deadly shape of the Hood, cutting through the sea, her bow wave carving through the waves.

Quote from: NARRATOR
What McNair does not know is that the German raider possesses the very best in radio communications technologies and her radiomen are amongst the best in the Hochseeflotte. The Calypso's signal is immediately intercepted by the Prinz, and her relative position to the German warship is quickly traced.

Cut to VON HOLSTEIN on the bridge of the Prinz, receiving a report. He smiles thinly.

Quote from: NARRATOR
Von Holstein knows that he's being stalked, and he knows where his stalkers are. By calling for help, the mice have revealed their position to the cat.



Cut to CGI FOOTAGE, of the Prinz turning, her turrets training to port. Then, cut to REENACTMENT FOOTAGE, of German sailors manning the guns and engineers tending to the boilers. Cut to CGI footage of the ship speeding up to flank speed

Quote from: NARRATOR
The Prinz Eitel Friedrich accellerates to her maximum speed of thirty-four knots and charges down the British cruisers. It is an aggressive move, one that takes Captain McNair completely by surprise



Cut to CGI footage of the Prinz sailing through a fogbank and emerging into a patch of clear air, her threatening silhouette almost materialising out of nothing into a massive slab of armor and guns. Camera pans to follow the ship's movement and reveals the two British ships out in the open, frantically trying to retreat into the fog. Cut to MCNAIR, staring horrified at the fifty-two thousand tons of death bearing down on him and his ship, as ROLSON'S voice plays over the footage.

Quote from: MATTHEW ROLSON
"I remember the radar officer saying 'hold on...' and then he started saying something like 'he's closing the range!' and the Captain ordered us to reverse course, but she came in like a bloody Juggernaught, she did. I thought the Calypso was a fast ship, but then the fog parted and we could see her approaching on the oblique, from the south, and I remember the Captain's face draining of all colour. He was pale as a corpse. And that's when I thought 'we're all dead'."



Cut to close-up of ROLSON'S face. His voice is trembling as he says the last sentences and he looks away from the camera. The veteran sailor is clearly shaken at the memory. A few seconds of silence, to underline the emotion.

Cut to CGI of the Prinz training her guns on the cruisers. Cut to VON HOLSTEIN on the bridge, nodding to his first officer.

Quote from: NARRATOR
At a range of less than six thousand yards, the Prinz fires her first shots in anger. Nine sixteen-inch rifles fill the air with thunder



Cut to CGI of the Prinz doing exactly that. The flash of the rifles is like a strike of lightning and the smoke clouds fill the screen. The sea surface is pitted with overpressure craters.

Quote from: ROLSON (voiceover), as the camera follows the shells
"I remember the flash before the sound hit, and when it came it really hit us. It was nothing like our own six-inchers. It was a distant roar, like the world was breaking apart and then a whistle like a dozen freight trains passing by over our heads. And I remember thinking 'oh, thank God, she's missed us'. And then the shells hit the water, not even a hundred yards to our portside, and the splashes were higher than the ship's mast. And every shred of relief I had felt disappeared.

Cut to REENACTMENT FOOTAGE of McNair crying out orders; cut to CGI FOOTAGE of the British cruisers heeling in a wild turn, and then to Dr. WERNER RAHN.



Quote from: Dr WERNER RAHN (voiceover)
"Von Holstein does not know zat zere are British cabidal schibs coming. Arh! He only knovs zat he has tvo light cruizers in front of him, schibs zat zee Prinz is puilt to fight. Und zo he charges in, Ja? He zinks 'Aha, I can kill zee light schibs guickly und zen dizabear!' Und he is half right! Not combledely right, nein, of courze. But half right."

Cut to CGI FOOTAGE of the guns of the Prinz booming again.

Quote from: NARRATOR
For the crew of the Amphion, the game is over



Cut to REENACTMENT FOOTAGE of a shell impacting the Amphion's bridge. Officers are thrown across the room, a flaming inferno spreads. Cut to CGI footage of the Amphion dying - the ship bucks and heaves and her hull cracks under the funnels

Quote from: ROLSON (voiceover)
"There was an almighty bang from behind us and I looked and I could see the Amphy right there, all covered in smoke. And I thought 'she's making smoke to cover our retreat, good lads'. But then I saw the fires as well, and realised she was falling behind, dead in the water. And there were splashes all around, as the Germans started firing their secondaries and it rained bloody fire."

CGI FOOTAGE: The Prinz traverses his main guns and fires again.

Quote from: NARRATOR
With the Amphion out of the fight, Von Holstein turns his guns to the Calypso. McNair desperately evades the incoming fire. But not for long.

Quote from: ROLSON (voiceover)
"I remember Lieutenant Andrews coming up, with a radio message, telling us that the Caesar was closing and they were about to open fire, and I thought 'That's it. We've made it.' And I remember feeling bad about the lads on the Amphy, but now we could turn around and save them, because we were safe thanks to the Dreadnoughts."



Cut to ROLSON, looking away from the camera, nodding sadly. A moment of silence.

Quote from: ROLSON, softly, almost to himself
"We weren't safe though, were we?"

Cut to CGI FOOTAGE; the Prinz fires yet again. Cut to REENACTMENT FOOTAGE: Von Holstein, smiling thinly on the bridge. Cut to McNair, lowering his binoculars and lowering his head in surrender, acknowledging what's going to happen.

CGI FOOTAGE: The Calypso is hit behind the funnels. A gout of flame; a detonation; the ship breaks in half.



Quote from: NARRATOR
The monstrous German 16-inch shells punch through the lightly armoured cruiser and penetrate the Calypso's aft magazine. The hull cracks like an eggshell.

Cut to ROLSON, clearly shaken by the memories.

Quote from: ROLSON
"I don't remember the explosion. I remember the floor moving beneath my feet, rippling like a snake, and then there was a sharp pain on my shoulder, as the Cally jumped about six feet in the air and slammed me against the ceiling of the bridge. Broke my arm and four ribs. And then things get a bit hazy and the next thing I remember is falling into the water and being dragged away from the wreck by my mate Billy Gallagher. I remember seeing the Cally burning like a torch."



Cut to CGI footage of the Calypso - she is a column of flame. As the camera pans back, the flame gets hazier and hazier, as the fog starts creeping back in - and then the camera shakes as a massive ship enters the shot from the right, bearing down on the burning beacon.



Quote from: ROLSON
"They tell me that's what the Caesar and the Hood used to find us. The funeral pyre of the Cally. That's how they found the Germans too.

The Germans regretted burning the Cally, I can tell you that!"

TO BE CONTINUED...
« Last Edit: January 16, 2019, 11:37:10 am by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 
Re: Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
DAVID TENNANT