CHAPTER 12 -- THE COMMERCIAL PIER
Chapter 12: THE COMMERCIAL PIER
Like all naval bases, the Imperial Dockyards Wilhelmshaven must have a pier to receive commercial deliveries by civilian shipping. These two tramp steamers from the 1930’s are indicative of the dingy freighters carrying mundane cargo along the thousands of miles of sea lanes between Shanghai and San Francisco or Colombo and Bristol. Nondescript, rusty, and slow, they were not as flashy as the “Great Liners” of their day, nor did they display the dash and daring of the mighty warships. But they hauled the goods to feed nations, the smelting ore for roaring blast furnaces, and the manufactured goods that were the staples of the World’s economy. One of the chief reasons for the existence of powerful battle fleets was to protect these ugly ducklings and the vital commerce of nations.
Located in the “Center Loch”, the cargo pier originally consisted of a small, somewhat shabby, wooden structure with a steam powered crane. As time went by, and the Hochsee Fleet grew in numbers, it became necessary to construct a more modern facility to meet the needs of the ships and the sailors that manned them. The small pier was rebuilt and extended, and large container cranes installed to handle the new type of freight. A smaller bulk-break cargo pier was built beside it, specifically to handle non-containerized goods.
The Maxis seaport was far too “vanilla” for realism, and the PEG seaports were decidedly “un-military” – so I set to work to see what could be done. Using the PEG Container Seaport as a starting point, I first built a single 20x7 lot that included both piers and the handling yards. But, for some unknown reason, the game refused to recognize this lot as a seaport and insisted in sending freight trains off the map. I cut the project down to a single container pier on a 12x7 lot and tried again. This time, something worked and trains were accepted by the pier. I then tried re-lotting the PEG “Vandy Shipping”, but plopping that one broke the rail link and the game refused to send trains. Consequently, I tried the “Vandy” lot without modification – and that worked – but only for through traffic. So the trains will not stop in the Vandy lot, but will run through and be accepted by the container lot. For anyone who has tried working with the PEG seaports, you have my admiration for the degree of patience you posses!
The old PEG container dock was lengthened by two squares and WMP Seawalls installed around the edges to provide wooden “bumpers” for docking. The PEG container cranes were removed and replaced with far more realistic NBVC Cranes. The ship was replaced with a better looking PEG “timed prop”. I completely re-worked the handling yard behind the cranes with more realistic container props and trucks and generally organized it rather than scattering stuff all over the place. The bulk of the lots and props are from NBVC’s container port kit. They are VERY useful, as well as remarkably flexible and easy to use. @tariely did me a huge favor by “traffic-enabling” the new rail lines and vehicle gates.
The rail line comes in east of the cargo area, loops around in a “horseshoe”, runs through just behind the piers, and continues off the map to the west. In this shot, you can see one of the ships has “disappeared” – the “timed-prop” creates the impression of ship traffic coming and going.
Across the road is a storage / handling area for incoming freight. This provides a temporary storage point until the proper warehouse or supply team can pick it up. This was composed from a huge collection of 1x1 custom lots I have made for use in seaports and industrial zones. The modular nature of 1x1 lots gives the area a slightly jumbled look and helps to avoid repetition. Note the Tugboat Station in the upper left. This one is located to assist shipping at the cargo piers as well as the coal receiving piers. Steam tugs courtesy of @WolfZe.
Off the south end of the peninsula, the USS Alaska and USS Guam have been anchored in a “temporary berth”. Normally assigned to the 1st Scouting Group of the Hochsee Fleet, they have been ordered to the main anchorage for installation of improved rangefinders and fire control equipment. When one of the refit or repair basins opens up, they will be moved in.
The two-ship Alaska Class was launched in 1943 and named after US Territories rather than states or cities, because they were neither battleships nor cruisers. At launch they carried the designation of “battlecruiser” and were the only two ships in the history of the US Navy to do so. However, as they neared commissioning, their role was reconsidered. Since there was no major German surface fleet to fight, and the Imperial Japanese Navy had been considerably reduced in strength, the chance of the Alaska’s participating in a set-piece fleet engagement was practically zero. Pre-war, they had been conceived as a counter to the German “pocketbattleships” of the Admiral Graff Spee Class, and later it was thought they might be effective against the “super-cruisers” rumored to be building in Japan. But eventually, the Pacific war turned against Japan and the new US battlecruisers found themselves without specific targets. Being practical, the Navy canceled the remaining four ships of the class, and reclassified the two finished units as “large cruisers”.
After many studies. the final design was based on a scaled-up version of the Baltimore Class heavy cruisers – and they were, indeed, “large cruisers”. At 808 feet, they were longer than many battleships. With a beam of only 91 feet, they appeared inordinately long and thin. In keeping with a battlecruiser’s reputation for speed, the ships were equipped with eight boilers driving steam turbines with reduction gearing turning four shafts. This was the same equipment installed in the Essex Class carriers and the Alaska’s were capable of up to 33 knots. With a cruising range of 12,000 nautical miles, these ships could have been deadly commerce raiders – but by the time they joined the fleet, the Japanese had no commerce left to raid.
Heavy cruisers of the era were equipped with 8 inch main battery guns, mainly due to the constraints of disarmament treaties between the wars. But Alaska and Guam, originally conceived as battlecruisers, were equipped with the newly developed 12 inch 50 caliber Mark VIII rifles – making them the most heavily armed cruisers in the world. The Mark VIII could throw a 1,140 pound shell out to 38,500 yards at a rate of 3 rounds per minute. And the quality of this superior weapon was equal to or slightly better than any of the pre-war 14” gun battleships. The nine guns were arranged in triple-mount turrets – two superimposed forward, and one aft – making this ship a true “cruiser-killer”. Even Alaska’s armor arrangement was, by comparison, exceptional. The class devoted 28.4% of total tonnage to protective armor. The old HMS Invincible had 19.9%, while the HMS King George V (1940), USS Iowa, and HMS Hood were only rated around 32%. Though scant underwater protection left them vulnerable to torpedoes, mines, and shells falling short enough to hit the hull below the waterline – for a 30,000 ton ship, the Alaska Class showed a remarkable balance between speed, protection, and firepower.
By the time of The Great War, swarms of “torpedo boats” (about 140 present at Jutland) had become a deadly menace to the lumbering leviathans of the battle line. The small, fast, ships could twist and turn at high speed, avoiding the defensive fire of the battleships, while rushing in close enough to launch their lethal load of torpedoes. As time went on, the various navies developed the “torpedo-boat-destroyer” – an equally small and fast ship designed to repel enemy torpedo boats with quick-firing guns – usually 4 inch, 4.7 inch, or 5 inch weapons.
As “torpedo-boat-destroyers” became bigger and more heavily armed, the name was shortened into what we now know as the “destroyer”. Eventually, they would carry their own torpedo armament alongside the guns and the simple torpedo boat fell out of favor. By the WW II era, destroyers had become a jack-of-all-trades. They screened battle groups from submarine attack or attack by other destroyers, launched their own torpedo attacks, laid smoke screens, and became the primary practitioner of anti-submarine warfare in two World Wars.
Off the east side of the peninsula two sets of mooring points are occupied by Fregattenkapitan Schuur’s 2nd Destroyer Flotilla. They are but one of the nine flotillas assigned to escort and protect the Hochsee Fleet during time of war. The flotilla is composed of ten boats of the USS Fletcher Class, named after Admiral Frank F. Fletcher.
With 175 ships, the Fletcher’s were the largest class of destroyers ever built for the US Navy. During WW II they would be seen in all theaters of war engaging in every imaginable duty. The ships were a significant improvement over previous classes with a lethal increase in firepower, numerous anti-aircraft weapons, and more armor plating than their predecessors. Destroyers were often referred to as the “Greyhounds of the sea”, and the flush decked, two stack construction of the Fletcher’s gave them a sleek and swift appearance, while their top speed of 36.5 knots fully lived up to the image.
Built between March, 1941, and February, 1945 – the Fletcher Class was the first generation of destroyers laid down after the abrogation of the naval arms treaties of the 1930’s. During that time, the Navy planners had come to realize that Japan would be their chief antagonist in any future war. The new destroyers were built large at 2,000 tons and nearly 400 feet in length, with double-bottoms to store the fuel oil necessary for a 5,500 mile cruising range in the vast expanses of the Pacific.
To counter the known Japanese destroyer types, the Fletcher Class was designed with a ship-killing punch. Five dual purpose 5 inch / 38 caliber QF guns in single turrets were mounted two forward, one amidships, and two more aft – all on centreline. These MK XII guns could fire 15 rounds per minute – effectively “smothering” a target. Grouped fore and aft of the second stack were two centreline quintuple 21 inch torpedo mounts. The fantail carried two racks for depth charges and six K-Gun depth charge “throwers” were arrayed on either beam for anti-submarine work.
The men who manned these ships were often referred to as “Tin-Can Sailors” because the joke going around the Fleet was that the armor on destroyers was so thin it could be opened up with a can opener! But the Fletcher’s were deemed an unqualified success and were popular with their crews.
If you want to know just a little about “courage in the face of the enemy” – you might want to “Wiki” the “Battle Off Samar” – and perhaps, even read a book about that battle. The “Tin-Can Sailors” lived by a creed...”I wish to have nothing to do with a ship that does not sail fast – for I intend to take her in Harm’s way.” – John Paul Jones
In the previous chapter, I mentioned the searchlights that were considered basic equipment on dreadnoughts of the Hochsee Fleet, and how they were used in battle. I was lucky enough to find an oil painting illustrating a real incident of night fighting.
HMS Black Prince was an armored cruiser assigned to a scouting group of the British Grand Fleet in the May 31 – 1 June, 1916, engagement at Jutland. During the chaos of battle, the cruisers found themselves trapped between the two mighty lines of battleships and careened about trying to avoid falling shells while dashing in and out of thick clouds of funnel smoke and banks of gunsmoke.
Some time around 17:00 (GMT), Black Prince became separated from her squadron mates, and in the gathering darkness, was unsure of her position – or that of the enemy.
Just after 23:30 hours, Black Prince encountered and briefly engaged SMS Nassau, one of the battleships in the van of the Hochsee Fleet returning to base. The cruiser scored two hits with 6 inch shells before dodging back into the night. Turning back to her original course, Black Prince unknowingly approached the German battle line yet again. As black shapes and luminescent bow waves appeared ahead, the British helm went hard-over – but it was too late.
SMS Thuringen snapped on her searchlights, fixed Black Prince in their glare, and opened fire. SMS Nassau, Ostfriesland, and Friedrich der Grosse quickly joined in. With the range of the various ships being between 750 to 1,500 yards – this was point-blank – flat trajectory fire for the German’s 11 inch and 12 inch guns. Forty-five seconds later, it was clear Black Prince was finished. The Germans ceased fire, switched off their searchlights, and were once more hidden in night’s protective cloak. The flaming, listing wreck of the armored cruiser had been hit with a minimum of 12 heavy caliber shells and numerous 6 inch shells from the battleship’s secondary batteries. Within 15 minutes, she had gone down with all hands.
MY THANKS to @Barroco Hispano for his beautifully done warship models – and to @mattb325 for his “Offshore Mooring Pontoons”. Their talents are ALWAYS appreciated.
If you enjoyed anything you saw – please punch the “like” button so I will know. A comment would be even more informative.
Comments and critiques requested and gratefully accepted. All questions answered promptly to the best of my ability.
THANK YOU for your visit !
NEXT WEEK…...Shore Billeting.
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