Off-Topic Discussion > Gaming Discussion
Enioch's naval shenanigans - RTW as Germany - [Image Heavy!]
Enioch:
TWO WORDS.
Whoops, just realised that I used the same image twice. Will fix tomorrow morning, I need to go to bed.
Enioch:
Right, fixed. Unapologetic double post, shut up, I do what I want in my own thread. Also, I'm tired from negotiating, do you know how expensive Tennant is to hire?
Next update: Ruling the waves in the Mortal Engines universe, with Shivans from the depths.
Admiral MS:
Woah... not again such a long commercial break ;) Really want to see how they finally managed to sink the PEF (in some glorious 2008 CGI sequences, no less).
Enioch:
Fade in from black after advertisement break. HMS Caesar and HMS Hood are sailing towards a distant pillar of smoke, their mighty main batteries already turning to engage the Prinz Eitel Friedrich.
--- Quote from: NARRATOR ---The Prinz Eitel Friedrich has brutally smashed the British patrols and is sailing straight for the defenseless merchant shipping all across the western shores of Britain. But the sacrifice of Captain Jeremiah McNair's cruiser patrol force has bought just enough time for the British response to arrive. Two British Dreadnoughts have been detached to fight the intruder and they are closing in fast.
--- End quote ---
Cut to ADMIRAL MOUNTJOY.
--- Quote from: MOUNTJOY ---HMS Caesar was a troubled ship. She was an Europa-class Superdreadnought, designed and built during the years of Mosley's folly, and she was seen as something of a dishonourable relic, to be honest. On paper, she was a magnificent ship, that outgunned the Gneisenau even though she was more than ten thousand tons lighter. But the Europas, in general, had not given a good accounting of themselves against the German battle-line in clashes such as Jutland. They were much more thinly armored than the German 'Unsinkables' and the officer corps under Mosley was...less than competent.
--- End quote ---
Cut to ARCHIVE FOOTAGE of a badly hurt British Dreadnought entering Portsmuth; the camera lingers on the massive shell craters dotting her armour and her mangled decks. The crew, wounded and despondent, are lining the gunwhales.
--- Quote from: MOUNTJOY (voiceover) ---But this tine around, the Caesar was commanded by a skilled officer: Commander Daniel Bolton, a distinguished veteran, protégé of Admiral Hubert Brant and survivor of the Mosley purges. It was time to wipe the stain off her honour.
--- End quote ---
Cut to DANIEL BOLTON on the bridge of the HMS Caesar, played by KENNETH BRANNAGH. The camera lingers on his determined expression.
--- Quote from: NARRATOR ---The Hood, on the other hand, is an unburdened lesser child of an impoverished Albion. Although she was almost three years younger than the Caesar, she had both fewer and smaller rifles: only ten 14-inchers. And although her belt armor was thicker than that of her older sister, it was still nowhere near as thick as that of the German 'Unsinkable' battleships of her time. It was, however, considerably thicker than that of the Prinz, and Bolton was ready to use any and all advantages he could, against the German Kreuzer.
--- End quote ---
Cut to the Prinz; the two British ships are now clearly visible and the German behemoth begins a hard starboard turn. There are distant flashes of light on the silhouettes of the Brits and the guns of the Prinz boom in response.
--- Quote ---Von Holstein is not taken completely by surprise, but his firing directors are slow to respond; the British ships fire first and Bolton has drilled his crew well. Just as the 16-inch rifles of the Prinz fire their first ranging salvos, the British shells arrive. The Hood straddles her target with her first salvo; the Caesar overshoots by less than 200 yards.
--- End quote ---
Cut to Dr WERNER RAHN.
--- Quote from: Dr WERNER RAHN ---Zee Prinz is not puilt for zis fight, not hakainst pattleschips, ja? Put Von Holstein zinks pack ven German Schlachtkreuser fought Pritisch Dreadnoughts und von, und he looks at his pig guns und he forgets zat he is in ein Grosser Kreuzer, verstehen Sie? Not ein 'Unzinkable'. It is ein eazy mistake to make. Arh ! Und zo, he sdays und fights, ven he schould haffe turned, made smoke und run pack to zee other tvo Gneisenaus.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: NARRATOR ---The British ships fire again; this time their shots find their mark. One shell from the Hood strikes the main superstructure of the Prinz and holes her funnel, cutting the updrafts. Another shot buries itself in a secondary turret and kills the entire crew. And a third and final shot from the Caesar penetrates the 'Bruno' turret of the Prinz and blows it sky-high in a pillar of flame. A flash fire - thankfully one that does not reach the magazines, but one that is nonetheless lethal.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: NARRATOR ---The German capital ship shudders and slows, her firepower diminished by a third. Von Holstein himself is blinded by the blast, close to the bridge as it was, and overall casualties are high; her damage control crews flood the forward magazines, adding to the sleek vessel's sluggishness. The Prinz is stunned under the unexpected blow; and they are not given the chance to recover. Less than thirty seconds later, the next salvoes arrive.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: NARRATOR ---Over the next five minutes, the Prinz is hit more than twenty times. Her 'Cäsar' turret is blown off its bearings. Internal secondary explosions knock out four boilers and douse the engineering crews with burning oil and water. Her main fire control director is hit twice and simply ceases to exist. Two shells penetrate her forward plating and torpedo belt, and cause uncontrollable flooding. Fires rage on her decks. And yet, her 'Anton' turret keeps returning fire, again, and again, and again, until, finally, a shell from the Caesar fuzes the bearings solid.
--- End quote ---
Cut to the radio room of the PRINZ EITEL FRIEDRICH
--- Quote from: NARRATOR ---She has one thing left: somehow, impossibly so, her radio aerials have survived the dreadful beating she has suffered and she has enough power to call for help. Von Holstein, bleeding and battered on the conning tower, orders an SOS to be sent. Fifty miles to the south-west, the Gneisenau and the Friedrich Carl pick up the desperate signal and immediately make revolutions for thirty-two knots, pushing against the sunset, rushing to the aid of their sister.
--- End quote ---
Cut to ADMIRAL MOUNTJOY.
--- Quote from: MOUNTJOY ---Of course, Bolton was aware that German capital ships operated in larger flotillas - that had been the case since the days of Hipper's raids. He had intercepted the message from the Prinz and he realised quickly that he had very little time until reinforcements arrived. And so, he concentrated all his fire onto the Prinz, aiming to sink her quickly, and then deal with her would-be rescuers. There was only one problem with that, of course.
--- End quote ---
Cut to DR SPALDING, gesturing over the technical plans of the Prinz
--- Quote from: SPALDING --- The bloody thing just would not sink. Her superstructure was a mass of slag - Von Holstein died in this conflagration; three out of four crewmembers were effective casualties; her guns were silent; but her underwater compartmentalisation meant that, even if her belt was penetrated, flooding would not immediately doom her. In this, the Prinz saved her honour, and this places her among the legends of modern naval history.
--- End quote ---
Cut to PROFESSOR HODDER, reading from a thick volume; next to him, the journal of the Prinz lies open to the last entries, the paper still stained by fire.
--- Quote from: HODDER ---There was a Greek wrestler once, named Arrhichion, who fought in the Olympic games. His opponent managed to place him in a stranglehold and he died, refusing to submit until the end. In his death throes, he struck a blow that broke his opponent's foot; and his opponent yielded in pain. Arrhichion died, but was declared the winner posthumously and remained, until the end of the ancient Olympics, 'the most famous of wrestlers'.
--- End quote ---
The camera pans to the book and a sculpture of two wrestlers....
...then back to HODDER, who looks up, smiling, his eyes sad.
--- Quote from: HODDER ---So it was with the Prinz. The ship and her crew knew they would not win the fight; and yet, they fought to the bitter end, for that extra second, that one more heartbeat, that fraction of a minute that might bring their salvation closer. As long as they lived - as long as the Prinz lived, the enemy was pinned there with them.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: MOUNTJOY (as CGI FOOTAGE OF THE PRINZ BURNING plays) ---Bolton realises that this is taking too much time. He has no idea what is coming; he has lost his radar cruisers; light is fading fast; his lookouts report smoke approaching from the south-west. The stubborn refusal of the Prinz to die, has pinned his ships in the same spot for almost forty-five minutes, an eternity in modern naval combat. Unless he moves, now, the approaching enemy will know exactly where to find him and, if there is an Unsinkable out there, his chances of survival in a night-time engagement - the close-range brawls that the German monoliths excel in - would be minimal.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: NARRATOR ---And so, Bolton does the only thing that he can: he retreats - from a sinking enemy. His ships essentially untouched, he leaves the field, incapable of scoring that final decisive blow that he was so desperate to achieve. When the Gneisenau and the Carl Friedrich arrive at the scene, they find the Prinz Eitel Friedrich a burning, drifting hulk, her enemies having disappeared into the twilight gloom.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: NARRATOR ---The crew of the Prinz has managed to stop the flooding, but the ship is completely impossible to navigate. Dead and wounded litter her decks (Von Holstein amongst them) and her upperworks are still burning. It is a little slice of Hell for the sailors and commanders of the Gneisenau and the Carl, as they face the hardest choices they will ever have to make: isolated in enemy waters, their comrades dead or dying, and the spectre of the enemy lurking in the darkness, they are called upon to save the Prinz and her crew at horrifying risk to their own lives, or consign their comrades to their fate and use the cover of night to escape the British patrols to safety.
It's going to be a very long night.
--- End quote ---
TO BE CONCLUDED...
Enioch:
THAT IS NOT DEAD WHICH CAN ETERNAL LIE
Bolton, after this battle:
But the Prinz didn't.
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