Use of Protected Cruisers

Are there any good reasons why the navies of the world kept their protected cruisers in service? Astraea-class, one of my favorites, was in service for twenty plus years with the Royal Navy. Germany and the United States still had protected cruisers as well with the USS Olympia C6 as one of the oldest steel vessels still afloat.

These protected cruisers often had name changes to second-class cruisers and the such, but their faults still remained. With weak armor and limit use these vessels were best for showing the flag in the colonies.  And it was in the colonies that these vessels were able to assist in the war effort. Protecting trade and landing shore parties were needed.

The reason for my interest in Astraea-class is that one of these cruisers, HMS Fox, was to be part of the invasion of Tanga in German East Africa. Unfortunately her guns were never put to use against the Germans in Tanga. They were used successfully along the Red Sea supporting the Arab Revolt.

The USS Olympia was used on the fringes of the war when she was part of the American intervention in and around Murmansk.

With better armor and armor protection and more efficient engines the protected cruisers and armored cruisers were coming to an end replaced in service by light cruisers and battle cruisers.

The lack of protection and poor training helped bring it all to an end. On the 22nd of September 1914. U-9 and six torpedoes sunk three of the Cressey-class. It shook up the Admiralty and ships of limited use were regulated to the farthest corners of the empire.

Sounds of the Battlefield

This morning I had the feeling that I was on a World War I battlefield and I was not in northern-western France or Belgium. Just near a construction site on a foggy day.

Image a golf course sans grass on a damp foggy morning. In the distance I could hear the treads of the construction vehicles a mile away. (I knew the distance as I saw the front-end loaders after the fog lifted.) It was a very surreal moment. Since I have been reading more books on The Great War than may be good for me my imagination took me to the fields of France.

I have not seen any studies about the effects of sound on the troops but I am certain artillery can be effective without actually hitting the troops. And there is always the issue of tank scares against troops in the early stages of World War II. We have even seen how the mock German Tigers in Saving Private Ryan could unhinge experienced soldiers.

From an educational standpoint, how do you explain this effect to students? Do miniature game designers have a way to use sound to their products.

It was just one of those aw haw moments for me. Let me know what you think.

100th Blog

Somehow over the last year and three-quarters I have posted 99 blogs. That is more than I ever expected to post. So thank you for reading and following my blog.

As this is my 100th blog I wanted it to be special. After talking to my spouse about ideas for the 100th blog she suggested a top 100 list. While I can come up with a top 10 list of interesting battles or campaigns, but 100 was a bit out of my league.

That is until I started to think what makes The Great War period interesting to me.  The closest my family came to The Great War, was giving me some hand me down WWI tin American soldiers. One of the few things I still have from my childhood.

So, sitting down with a legal pad I started to freely right down a list of topics that I find interesting. After twenty or so I moved the list to a spreadsheet. So these are the reasons why The Great War is of particular interest for me. There isn’t a particular order

I am also sure that many of these will make it as a blog post.

Let me know what you think and what I should add.

Thank you
Jonathan

• The Schlieffen Plan
• World War I Myths
• Book – “The Guns of August”
• HMS Dreadnought
• Battle of Jutland
• The Zimmermann Telegram
• Movie “Lawrence of Arabia”
• Study of American Chutzpah in the War
• U-boat Campaign
• Really Cool Uniforms – Pickelhaube
• Propaganda
• The Rape of Belgium
• Regimental Histories – The Hood Battalion
• SMS Emden
• Battle of the Falkland Islands 1914
• Webley Revolver
• The African Queen
• Zeppelin
• Mexican Expedition
• Pith Helmet
• Hercule Poirot
• Captain Arthur Hastings, OBE
• Book – “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”
• SMS Scharnhorst
• Battle of Dogger Bank
• Maschinengewehr 08
• Movie “My Boy Jack”
• Snoopy vs. the Red Baron
• Champagne-Marne
• Russian Greatcoats
• Home Front
• Little Willie
• Storm of Steel
• SMS Goeben
• Scapa Flow
• Leichte Kampfwagen
• Movie “Hell’s Angels”
• Nationalistic Movements
• Mesopotamian Campaign
• Adrian Helmets
• S.E.5a
• Adventures in Persia/Iran
• Castles of Steel
• HMS Queen Elizabeth
• U-Boat Campaign
• Sopwith Camel
• Movie “Gallipoli”
• Short Magazine Lee-Enfield
• Dardanelles & Gallipoli Campaigns
• German Infanterie-Panzer
• British Mark IV
• Bristol M.1
• Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships: 1906-1921
• HMS Furious (In all of her versions)
• Raid on Yarmouth
• Gotha G.V
• Movie “Paths of Glory”
• Renault FT
• Bloody April
• Turkish Kabalak
• Fokker Dr.I
• Crossing the Sinai
• A Peace to End All Peace
• How did the HMS Black Prince meet her end?
• Battle off Texel
• PM M1910 – Maxim’s Machine Gun Model 1910 on Sokolov’s Mount
• Movie “The Blue Max (1966)”
• K-Wagen
• Somme Offensive
• White Silk Scarves
• Monarchies role in the conflict
• SMS Königsberg
• Regimental Histories – Nelson at War 1914 – 1918
• HMS Iron Duke
• Zeebrugge Raid
• Mark VIII “The International”
• Movie “Sergeant York (1941)”
• Belgium Uniforms
• South-West Africa Campaign
• Brodie Helmets
• Medium Mark A Whippet
• Battle of Tanga
• Official History of the War – Military Operations 28 volumes
• Danton Class Battleship
• Suez Canal
• A7V Sturmpanzer
• Movie “All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)”
• Vickers Machine Gun
• Fokker Scourge
• Tank Corps’ Colors
• Habsburg-class battleship
• Belgium Fighting Till the End
• Room 40 : British Naval Intelligence 1914-18
• HMS Terror
• Battle of Coronel – 1914
• Stokes Mortar
• The Lost Battalion
• Lewis Machine Gun
• Dardanelles
• Jaeger Uniforms

Battle of Tanga – Reading List

It often happens after Mark and I run a game that the players will ask were we obtained our information. The Battle of Tanga has been one of the best-researched battles Mark and I have ever run.  And the research I think shows.  For me it goes back to 2002 when I picked up Anderson’s Battle of Tanga on a whim.

For those not familiar with the Battle of Tanga here is a short write up from firstworldwar.com.

Often referred to as ‘The Battle of the Bees’, the Battle of Tanga, an amphibious attack launched by British and Indian forces, established the burgeoning reputation of Colonel (later General) Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck by the manner in which he successfully beat off the British-led attempt to capture German East Africa.

So this is my list of books used in researching this battle and campaign. Anderson’s Battle of Tanga is the first book anyone interested in the conflict should look to. It is short and concise with photographs rarely seen. Unfortunately this book now cost over $100 in the resale book market.

The other book that I think is important is LtCol Holdern’s East Africa Vol 1. This is part of the Official History, and while not perfect, it gives a great deal of information on the Indian Army used in the campaign. The one weakness (and this is of little effect on our battle) has to be that the volume ends in 1916 and a second volume was never released. As volume 1 was released in 1941 I am assuming World War II interrupted volume two.

Here is my list. I you have any additional books of the war in Africa please share them so I can add them to my large list of books to read. Luckily many of these titles are available as eBooks.

Tanga Specific
Anderson, Ross. Battle of Tanga 1914. Tempus Publishing, Limited. 2002. ISBN13: 9780752423494.

General Histories on the East Africa Campaign
Abbott, Peter.Armies in East Africa 1914-18. Osprey Publishing. 2002. ISBN-13: 978-1841764894.

Anderson, Ross. The Forgotten Front 1914-1918: The East African Campaign. Tempus Publishing, Limited. 2004. ISBN13: 9780752423449.

Collyer , John Johnston. The South Africans with General Smuts in German East Africa, 1916. Printed by the Govt. Printer (1939). ASIN: B004J0OKB2.

Farwell, Byron. The Great War in Africa, 1914-1918. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989. ISBN 0-393-30564-3.

Holdern, Lt Col C. EAST AFRICA VOLUME 1. August 1914-September 1916. OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR OTHER THEATRES: 2011 N & M Press reprint (original pub 1941).

Hoyt, Edwin P. Guerilla: Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck and Germany’s East African Empire. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. 1981; and London: Collier MacMillan Publishers. 1981. ISBN 0-02-555210-4.

Miller, Charles. Battle for the Bundu: The First World War in German East Africa. London: Macdonald & Jane’s, 1974; and New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. 1974. ISBN 0-02-584930-1.

Paice, Edward. World War I: The African Front. Pegasus. 2010. ISBN-13: 978-1605980805.

von Lettow-Vorbeck, Colonel.  My Reminiscences of East Africa. Naval Military Press Ltd, United Kingdom, 2004. ISBN 9780857064189.

Young, Francis Brett.  Marching on Tanga: (With General Smuts in East Africa) Nabu Press (August 4, 2010) (reproduction of a book published before 1923)  ISBN-13: 978-1176815124.

2014 Commemorations

As we are fast approaching the centenary of The Great War I am intrigued how it is being handled around the world.  Or in the case of the United States, not.

At least three new books (including one by Sir Max Hastings) will be coming out this year covering the period before the war and up to the Christmas Ceases Fire. More will appear as we get into 2014 and 2015. Regiment and Divisional histories are to be reprinted by publishers in the United Kingdom.

In the United Kingdom most of the plans are to be in place by this fall for the commemorations. Scotland appears to be a little behind as next year is also the 700th anniversary of Bannockburn. But Wales and England are moving along nicely. As my French is nonexistent and German only manageable I will leave it to you my fellow bloggers to share what is going on the content.

Here is the United States I am afraid we will not get our act together until 2015 or 2016 as most Americans see no reason to know about The Great War.

So is your community doing anything for 2014?

Shapeways to the Rescue

In the last month I ordered three AEG G.IV bombers from Shapeways. These I was planning to use as a bomber formation to tryout the new rules on bombers for TOOFATLardies Algy rules.

I was a little concerned that one of the bombers had a broken strut. The strut was there, just not attached to the wings. Pre-Internet I would have rumbled about it and do a house fix. I would always know that the plane wasn’t perfect.

What I did was let Shapeways know in a courteous manner and after exchanging emails about the packing the damage to the plane I not only have a replacement aircraft but the aircraft is actually stronger so other collectors will not run into this again. Way to go Shapeways.

For those not familiar with this aircraft here is the write up from Wikipedia.

The AEG G.IV bomber entered service with the German Air Force in late 1916. Because of its relatively short range, the G.IV served mainly as a tactical bomber, operating close to the front lines. The G.IV flew both day and night operations in France, Romania, Greece and Italy, but, as the war progressed, the AEG G.IV was restricted increasingly to night missions. Many night operations were considered nuisance raids with no specific targets, but with the intention of disrupting enemy activity at night and perhaps doing some collateral damage.

The AEG G.IV carried a warload of 400 kg (880 lb).While Gotha crews struggled to keep their heavy aircraft aloft, the AEG was renowned as an easy aircraft to fly. Some G.IV crews of Kampfgeschwader 4 are known to have flown up to seven combat missions a night on the Italian front. A notable mission involved Hauptmann Hermann Kohl attacking the railroad sheds in Padua, Italy in his G.IV bomber.

My Library

I am really happy. My library dealing with The Great War expanded by three books. Néry 1914 is an extract from The Royal Artillery Museum. It is only 60 pages and should be a fast read. But it is a period book and a bit of a slog.

The other two that came today deal with my Centennial Project. Mark does not realize it, but we are taking our gaming west.

Togoland and the Cameroons, is one of the official histories and always a go to when I am starting a project. (The other set is the Battleground series.) This 450 page book covers the two years it took to complete the conquest of these two German colonies.

The other title is The Great War in West Africa. This was bought with little knowledge of the title. From what I have seen the photographs alone are worth the purchase.  It also helped that The Naval Military Press was having a big sale.

One that I like showed the French cruiser Bruix off of Cameroon. I have always liked those whacky French designs.