Thiaria: Reboot

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Warning - big chunk of text wrapped around the drawings, but that will become less in further posts, promise...

1.2. Realtbhuion-Class

The London Naval treaty allowed Thiaria to build 43.350 tons worth of aircraft carriers, which could be divided into two 21.600 ton vessels or three 14.400 ton ones. LT Antartach, which was just undergoing conversion to a full-fledged fleet carrier, did not count and was officially referred to as 'Aviation Training Ship', although nobody really believed that. As the three-carrier option allowed for more latitude to cheat in terms of tonnage, the Thiarian navy issued a specification for a 14.400 ton carrier in 1932. The design process dragged on for several years, as the Thiarians had little experience with building aircraft carriers; the only example in this size category upon which they could model their carrier was USS Ranger, which was not exactly the most satisfying carrier around. In order to attain the desired characteristics - armour protection against heavy cruiser fire, 30 knots of speed, 10.000 miles range at 15 knots, eight 130mm DP guns and four of the new 37mm quad turrets, and an air group of 64 - a series of adjustments to the hopelessly insufficient displacement had to be made, and by late 1934, the ship had grown to 17.500 tons. Fortunately, nothing needed to be rushed, because construction of the Conlan-class battlecruisers used up all available funds in 1933 and 1934, and the design process was most thorough; the drastically increased displacement was not considered a drawback, because the Thiarians had never intended to play fair about the displacement limits. The 1935 budget eventually provided funds for the first ship, and she was laid down in September that year at the Nuatearman Naval yard; a twin was approved in the following year and laid down at the Riordan private yard in July 1936. The planned third unit never materialized; by 1937, development of a much improved 21.000 ton follow-on design was already in full swing, and it was decided to wait for the newer design. During construction, draught - and thus displacement - was further increased to meet all design requirements, and final design displacement exceeded 18.000 tons, although both ships were officially always referred to as 14.400 ton carriers. The first ship was launched in December 1937 and christened LT Realtbhuion (Gaelic: Constellation), establishing the convention that Thiarian carriers be named for space phenomena, which is still observed at present. The second ship was launched in February 1938 and received the name LT Stoidiaca (Gaelic: Zodiac). Fitting out went about quickly, and Realtbhuion was delivered for trials in March 1939. The second ship was taken over by the navy in November 1939. At that time, their air group consisted of 48 airplanes: 16 F2M torpedo bombers, 16 F6C dive bombers and 16 T3S long-range scout fighters; 8 additional fighters were carried in a disassembled state to replace attrition. Unlike USS Ranger and the Japanese Soryu and Hiryu, to which they were often compared, the Thiarian carriers were robust, well protected ships. Their flight decks were unarmoured, but they had a 100mm armoured deck and 140mm side armour. They were propelled by twin screws coupled to 90.000hp turbines, which was just enough for a fraction over 30 knots. Their main hangar had a height of 5,20 meters and was not part of the structural integrity of the hull; it had open sides in the US fashion which aided in the dispersal of avgas fumes and enabled the Thiarian carriers to warm up the engines of their planes in the hangars. The lower hangar was inside the hull and for storage only; regulations explicitly forbade to store fueled and armed airplanes there. Although their open bow construction was considered unsatisfactory for South Atlantic winter conditions, the flight deck was sturdy enough to prevent damage from heavy waves.

LT Stoidiaca 1939
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When Thiaria went to war in December 1939, Realtbhuion was far enough in her initial training cycle to join the fleet; Stoidiaca had just begun hers and was kept back in the Bauaine while completing her trials and training her crew. Realtbhuion missed the first few engagements (and was missed herself sorely by the badly clobbered Thiarian fleet) and had her combat debut during the battle of Daicheadach on February 18th, 1940, where her air group was hopelessly outnumbered by four British flattops and nearly wiped out. To add injury to insult, she was also torpedoed by a Swordfish from HMS Golden Hind and had to be towed to Abernenui with 2.000 tons of water in her belly. Although Stoidiaca still had not completed her training, the Thiarians were desperate enough to commit her, and she replaced her sister in mid-march 1940. At that time, nearly all surviving Thiarian combat units were damaged to some extent, and the Thiarian fleet ceded control of the waters around their homeland to the victorious Royal Navy while frantically repairing the damage. When the British started to withdraw most of their forces due to the commencement of the Norwegian campaign in April 1940, the Thiarians received an unexpected respite. By late May, Realtbhuion was patched up and had the Air Group of the more severely damaged Antartach transferred to her, and both carriers sortied - together with the battlecruisers LT Conlan and Caithreim and three cruisers - to challenge the last remaining British squadron of one battleship, one fleet carrier and two cruisers. The ensuing battle of Poncportan on June 7th 1940 resulted in the annihilation of the now badly outnumbered British force and the complete resurrection of Thiarian morale. Realtbhuion's planes torpedoed the carrier HMS Repulse, Stoidiaca's planes did the same to the battlecruiser HMS Howe, and both british ships were finished off by the Thiarian surface fleet (the crippled HMS Howe gave them such a fight that the Thiarian battlecruisers received credit for the kill, but it had been the carrier planes who had laid the groundwork for the victory). After this last-minute triumph, the Thiarian fleet once again ruled the ocean around their homeland. For the rest of 1940, there was little action in the South Atlantic; the Thiarian fleet staged several raids against British convoys on the cape route, which was however risky business because the British kept in range of land-based planes and the Rechercheans sent every available unit to Capetown in order to protect the vital trade route around the Cape. While Realtbhuion was thoroughly repaired, Stoidiaca participated in five raids during the the second half of 1940, carrying two squadrons of fighters and only one of torpedo bombers, so she could provide effective protection against enema air strikes. Although the British convoys only had token close escort forces, the Rechercheans effectively shielded them, and the the Thiarians only once dared to push the raid through. This one however met with smashing success: On December 3rd, 1940, they sunk 9 merchants and five British and Recherchean warships. In January 1941, Stoidiaca underwent a refit in preparation to the planned invasion of New Portugal. Both carriers, now with new F3N torpedo bombers instead of the old F2Ms, were back in action and started to strike against Brazilian installations on New Portugal on February 23rd, and when the Brazilians eventually committed their fleet in March, they intercepted and destroyed it in the battle of Cairnmallacht on March 6th. Thiarian carrier doctrine called for their air groups to try and hit as many different enemy surface units as possible; damaging was considered more important than sinking, because the decisive part was assigned to the battlefleet for which the enemy was to be softened up. This doctrine usually worked well for the Thiarians, and at Cairnmallacht - as at Poncportan nine months previously - it was executed to perfection. The Brazilian battleships Riachuelo and Sao Jorge da Mina were torpedoed, as was Brazil's sole fleet carrier Independencia and the heavy cruiser Almirante Vidal. All four ships were then sunk by Thiarian surface forces dashing in only hours after the air strike, together with another heavy cruiser. Only the Brazilian carrier - ironically a near-clone of USS Ranger, which had been the initial inspiration for the Thiarian carriers as well - was credited to Thiarian carrier planes (of LT Realtbhuion in this case) because she had already been abandoned when she was found by Thiarian cruisers; the other Brazilian ships still fought back, although not very effectively. Thiarian losses were virtually nil. After this triumph, the Thiarian fleet cruised around New Portugal for two months in order to seal the archiple off against any Brazilian attempts to supply the garrison; some rather furious attacks by land-based planes were repulsed in late March before the Brazilians ran out of fuel. The Brazilians eventually surrendered on May 10th, 1941. In early June, the Thiarian fleet - Realtbhuion, Stoidiaca, two battlecruisers and three heavy cruisers - for the first time crossed the equator in force, but the convoy they were after managed to evade them. When they were back, Germany and Russia were at war, and the Thiarian communists changed their stance towards the war by 180 degrees, resulting in strikes, riots and several mutinies on large ships. Although Realtbhuion and Stoidiaca were not affected by outright mutiny, they were for all practical purposes out of commission for two months as their crews were purged from known communists. Remarkably, neither the Brazilians nor the British were in any position to take advantage of this turmoil (although their shipping around the cape was completely unmolested during this time, which was advantage enough to them), and the Thiarians were not back in action prior to October 1941. Their carriers covered the landings in Uruguay and the fighting in and around Montevideo from early November 1941; they provided invaluable air cover for Thiaria's ground forces until enough land-based planes could be deployed to Uruguay. The Thiarian fleet was three times hit by full-scale land-based air attacks, and Stoidiaca took a bomb hit on November 17th, 1941. Ten days later, the Brazilian fleet tried to attack a Thiarian convoy outside of Realtbhuion's range, but the Thiarians scrambled to intercept them. The Battle of Punta del Diablo resulted in the loss of two Brazilian two cruisers and heavy damage to the battleship. While Stoidiaca was repaired, Realtbhuion remained continuously in action off Uruguay and supported the ground operations there, alternating with Antartach between providing distant cover and direct ground support. Stoidiaca rejoined them on April 5th, upon which time Realtbhuion returned to Abernenui for some well-deserved rest and refit. She missed the invasion of Florianopolis, which Stoidiaca and Antartach both supported, and returned on July 26th. By that time, both Realtbhuion and Stoidiaca had replaced their T3S fighters with T10Cs, their F6Cs with a newer version of that plane and their 13mm MGs with 20mm cannon; both had been fitted with a full radar suite.

LT Realtbhuion 1942
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On August 2nd, 1942, Realtbhuion and Stoidiaca performed the first major surface raid towards British shipping around the cape since half a year; taking advantage of an unexpected spell of quiet weather, they attacked Capetown harbour proper on August 18th and sunk the escort carrier HMS Charger (dive bombers from Realtbhuion), the light cruiser HMS Durban (torpedo bombers from Stoidiaca), a destroyer, two escort destroyers and five merchants. This daring raid was often cited as the reason for Churchill's decision to finally commit more forces to the South Atlantic, although preparations for a major British naval offensive were underway since the invasion of Cricriuma in early April. On August 31st, the Thiarian main fleet was back at New Portugal and immediately departed again to search for a convoy reported to carry aircraft, tanks and artillery for the Brazilians. This convoy was however protected by a very powerful distant cover fleet of British, Free French and Recherchean forces, and on September 6th, planes from the British carriers HMS Renown, Irresistible and Audacious (plus the free French Neptune) attacked the Thiarians, sinking LT Antartach and one heavy cruiser and damaging LT Stoidiaca and the brand-new battleship LT Athartha. The battle of Meanchiorcal was the first purely naval air battle without surface gunnery elements in the South Atlantic. This battle effectively removed Thiarian carrier support for their ground forces in Brazil and ruled out any further tactical invasions which had been conducted so successfully early that year; indirectly, it resulted in the successful defence of Blumenau against a determined Thiarian assault and the stabilization of the Brazilian front. It was not yet obvious, but it was the turning point of the war in the South Atlantic; Thiaria had lost initiative. The next Thiarian move turned out to become the most daring and famous naval operation of the war; it was also one of the most pointless ones. On October 4th, 1942, LT Realtbhuion, the battlecruiser LT Conlan and the heavy cruisers LT Ogleidhras, Caitriona and Trionaid, accompanied by six large destroyers and four fleet replenishment ships, left the Bauaine and rounded Cape Hoorn in order to proceed towards the gulf of Panama. Their goal was to raise such ruckus there that the Americans - who had committed sizeable assets to the Atlantic, freeing British units for use against Thiaria - would have to commit these assets to protect their so far completely unprotected shipping in the eastern Pacific against further raids; this would - in theory - result in the British having to withdraw their fleet back to the Northern Atlantic. The raid coincided with the Allied invasion of Morocco, so the British failed to take advantage of the absence of Thiaria's most experienced crews and their ships, and from an operational point of view, was executed masterfully. The fleet arrived off Callao, Peru, on December 10th, where they used freighters and tankers belonging to a Thiarian company in Peru and flying the Peruvian flag to refuel and resupply. They then proceeded northward, and on December 30th, they intercepted an US convoy bound for Australia, sinking 24 merchants and three small exscorts against virtually no resistance, creating chaos and confusion in an area considered backwater by the USA. They escaped unharmed and without leaving any evidence about their identity; the attackers were repeatedly reported as 'Japs' by confused Americans. On the return leg, they sank another seven US merchants underway along the South American coast and refuelled again in Peruvian waters on January 26th. They then proceeded towards Cape Hoorn, which they rounded on February 21st in a heavy summer storm, losing a destroyer and a supply tanker, these being the only Thiarian losses on that mission. Its effect had already been undone weeks earlier, when the US were supplied with photographs of the Thiarian ships refuelling off Callao, so they could discount the theory that the perpetrators were Japanese. The Peruvian government was forced to confiscate the involved civilian ships, and Thiaria's commercial network in Peru was dismantled before February 1943 was over. As a repetition of this raid was virtually impossible, the desired effect never materialized; the US still did not commit any sizeable naval forces to protect the Gulf of Panama. Not knowing any of this yet, the returning fleet was hailed upon its return as if it had single-handedly won the war; Stoidiaca was repaired by that time and re-joined the fleet, as did the brand-new fleet carrier LT Chros Deisceart. The T10C fighters were replaced by navalized T6As; their smaller size enabled an increase of the air group to 56 (24 fighters, 16 torpedo bombers and 16 dive bombers; on many missions, the dive bombers were however disembarked and replaced with T10C long-range fighters, as shown below). Their radar suite was further augmented and modernized, and more 20mm cannon were added.

LT Stoidiaca 1943
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With their fleet back together and at peak strength - both Athartha-class battleships were now in service and fully worked up, the first three escort carriers were in service and the number of heavy cruisers was brought back to five - the Thiarians decided to finally break Brazil's back by performing another tactical invasion behind the enemy lines. About forty transports were laden with a fully equipped crack amphibious division and several supporting units. Three fleet carriers, four battleships and seven cruisers were to accompany the invasion fleet. Allied intelligence was quite aware of what was coming, and they amassed a huge fleet of four British fleet carriers and a free French one, four British escort carriers, eight battleships (five British, two Brazilian and one Free French) and a dozen cruisers from four nations. The meeting of these fleets in the battle of Faoigabhar on May 4th, 1943 would bring about the largest fleet action of the whole war outside the Pacific. The Allied commander Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser took the risk of dividing his force into two halves, each of which was individually inferior to the Thiarian fleet; one of the squadrons was to draw the Thiarians away from their transports and then retreat, while the other half was to destroy the transports and retreat as well. This extremely un-British approach, which conspicuously lacked the intention to bring the enemy main fleet to battle and destroy it, took the Thiarians by surprise. When the diversion fleet, mostly consisting of Brazilian and French ships, was sighted, the Thiarians immediately charged after it; their commander Admiral Cuighnahan was firmly convinced to have Fraser's entire fleet in front of him and needed to engage it as far away from his transports as he could. An initial airstrike involving planes from Realtbhuion and Chros Deisceart overwhelmed the air Groups of the five allied carriers (one Free French fleet carrier and four British escort carriers), then severely damaged the Brazilian battleship Niteroi and set two British escort carriers ablaze, one of which would later sink (HMS Attacker, credited to LT Chros Deisceart). The remainder of the Allied fleet then turned heel, leaving behind the crippled Niteroi - and thus overdoing the masquerade. Cuighnahan realized he had swallowed a bait and immediately turned back towards the transports. But it was too late, and they were pounded by planes from the British fleet carriers HMS Renown, Illustrious, Audacious and Irresistible, sinking five transports and a light cruiser and damaging the sole battleship LT Artacain. Before the Thiarian fleet could return, three battleships and five cruisers charged into the Thiarian transports and destroyed 21 additional transports and ten escorts. Over 9.000 Thiarian elite marines died that day, the very elite of their ground forces, while the fleet had allowed itself to be lured away. It was a complete and abject failure. But one small aspect of Fraser's plan was not properly executed - the retreat. This would result in the battle of Faoigabhar to become the bloodiest of the war not only for the Thiarians, but for the British as well. By the time the Thiarian main fleet came back into range, the British fleet was spread over a wide area hunting down Thiarian transports and completing their victory - a victory the Thiarians were only too aware about due to a storm of uncoded distress calls. Past caring about the survival of his fleet, a furious Admiral Cuighnahan launched the entire air groups of his carriers, without keeping anything back, and had his battleships and cruisers charge the enemy at 30 knots. They swept over the left flank of Fraser's fleet like a hurricane. The fleet carrier HMS Illiustrious, the battleship HMS Drake and the cruiser HMS Gambia were sunk by the carrier planes, and the carrier HMS Renown and the battleship HMS Raleigh were damaged. Realtbhuion took credit for the Illustrious; Stoidiaca sank the Gambia and damaged the Renown. The Thiarian surface fleet then finished off HMS Renown and HMS Raleigh and two cruisers. HMS Anson was heavily damaged by Thiarian gunnery and barely escaped; the flagship HMS Queen Mary was in a bad way as well. Fraser's fleet disengaged in disarray and fled the battlefield as fast as it could. It was the first time a British fleet acted like that since the 17th century; British personnel losses approached 6.000. Yet, although it certainly did not feel that way, the battle was a strategic victory of the first magnitude for the British. Although the Thiarian government had the 'revenge' bombastically celebrated, Thiaria had permanently lost her ability to conduct amphibious landings, and even the transport capacity to supply her forces in Brazil was severely compromised. To hammer home the lesson, LT Stoidiaca was unceremoniously sunk by the Brazilian submarine Tikuna on the return leg, making her the biggest Thiarian warship to be sunk by an enemy submarine. Within days after the Battle, the Allied ground forces went on the offensive and dealt a crushing defeat to the Thiarian army. With transports in short supply, the Thiarian fleet now received the priority task to ferry supplies and reinforcements to Montevideo. Although the lost LT Stoidiaca was replaced with the new LT Andraimeide in July and two further heavy cruisers joined the fleet late in 1943, the Thiarians avoided further offensive operations; the Allies however easily replaced their losses from Faoigabhar. By August 1943, the Allies went on the offensive, preying on Thiarian supply convoys with surface raids, but usually breaking off when Thiarian escorts were sighted; LT Realtbhuion was locked in an exhausting series of escort missions and also frequently called upon to provide ground support for the Thiarian army. An allied attempt at a tactical invasion in December 1943 could be thwarted however; the Thiarians inflicted heavy aircraft losses upon the British in an indecisive naval air battle and forced them to withdraw lest their vulnerable troop transports came under attack by a second wave of the still fresh Thiarians. Without the tactical invasion, the US/Brazilian land offensive turned into a veritable disaster, giving the Thiarians their last ground victory of the war. The Allies now changed their approach and decided to neutralize New Portugal before any further land offensives were started. In the following weeks, the allies subjected the New Portugal islands to intense strategic bombardment; the Thiarians abandoned all naval bases there in March 1944 due to the intensity of the bombing. By late March, the Americans and Brazilians had assembled enough amphibious muscle to take out New Portugal; they however needed to get rid of the Thiarian fleet to do so. In April 1944, a substantial US-Brazilian fleet sailed south-westward between Thiaria and New Portugal to intercept a Thiarian convoy out of Cathair Riordan bound for Montevideo, keeping just outside the Range of Thiaria's land-based torpedo bombers. With five battleships (USS Iowa, USS Congress, USS President and the Brazilian Aquidaban and Niteroi) and four carriers (USS Constellation, USS Ranger and two Brazilian Independence-class ships named Republica and Patria), they were strong enough to take on the Thiarians, but not so strong to send them running; they needed the Thiarians to engage them if they wanted to weaken them enough to prevent it from interfering with the invasion of New Portugal. For the Thiarians, abandoning the convoy was not an option; they knew they were being baited, but they had to engage. The result was the battle of Anfa Caolas, a quite confused engagement which involved the last fleet-level surface gunnery action ever fought in the Atlantic. Realtbhuion and the other Thiarian carriers had been reinforced with even more light flak and improved radar; Realtbhuion and Chros Deisceart also featured a squadron each of the brand-new F7S dive-bombers.

LT Realtbhuion 1944
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On April 20th, both fleets met. The weather was rough, as befit Southern hemispheric late fall, and the carrier planes of both sides needed several sorties to hit something, with both carrier squadrons evading each other's strikes wildly. The Allies lost the Brazilian carrier Patria and had the flagship Constellation heavily damaged; the Thiarians lost the brand-new Andraimeide, with her sister Chros Deisceart damaged and forced to retreat. In the end, the Thiarians dealt more damage than they received, and their convoy came through; but the Allies had also achieved their objective; of the Thiarian capital ships, only Realtbhuion and two heavy cruisers came away undamaged. Although the Thiarians managed to get their damaged ships back into working order by July, they could not prevent the loss of New Portugal. The main fleet was also absent during the last major allied convoy raid on June 22nd, when three escort carriers and most transports were lost. What remained of the Thiarian fleet was kept back by the government for a last stand which never came about. When Thiaria descended into civil war, Realtbhuion's crew at first remained loyal to the government, and the carrier led a final sortie against Recherchean forces in August, when her planes sank the Recherchean cruiser Munglinup. The victory did little to improve morale as Thiaria's government turned upon its own people ever more harshly. After having witnessed firsthand the gruesome fate of the mutineers on the battleship Tirghra, Realtbhuion and most other remaining Thiarian warships went over to the rebels on October 11th. No Thiarian carrier was accepted into the co-belligerent fleet that supported the US in 1945 against Japan and Koko because the Thiarian naval aviators had been among the most fervent supporters of the Murchada regime. After Thiaria's surrender, Realtbhuion became a British prize and was scrapped in 1948.

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