World War One

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

They did a few years ago. Battleship.

...a non-Hollywood film.

[Sailor Steve]

Coming soon: The Battles of Coronel and The Falklands!
http://www.theguardian.com/film/vide...-trailer-video

I'm excited.

[Jimbuna]

Looking forward to that

[Sailor Steve]

I've just post in the 100 Years thread about Graf Spee's squadron coaling at Más Afuera. This Island is today known as Isla Alejandro Selkirk, since it is the Island on which Alexander Selkirk was marooned from 1704-1709. While there is no direct connection, Selkirk's adventures are believed to be the inspiration for Daniel DeFoe's novel Robinson Crusoe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Selkirk

Mas Afuera's sister island, Más a Tierra, is today known as Isla Robinson Crusoe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Fe...A1ndez_Islands

[Oberon]

Planning to swing by the moat of the Tower of London tomorrow, see their poppy field. Will be quite sobering.

[Sailor Steve]

Since I'll likely never get a chance to come there, please post pictures.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Since I'll likely never get a chance to come there, please post pictures.

Will do.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Will do.

....and make sure tis Gemma in the foreground and not you

[Oberon]

Cheeky bugga!

Took some pics there, very busy, lots of people visiting it, which is great to see.
Also took some pictures of the Merchant Navy memorial which is next to the Tower.
Then went to the IWM and walked through their WWI exhibits, It's nicely setup, good use of exhibits and modern tech.

All the pictures are from my phone, since I went to Lewisham in the morning before we went to Tower Hill and I didn't fancy getting the camera half-inched in bandit country

Will post them all up when I get back home.

[Jimbuna]

Nice one...not been there for an age

[Oberon]

As requested, the sea of poppies at the Tower of London, I'll put the MN memorial in the photos thread.











Personally, I think the memorial should have marked the war dead of all nations rather than just that of the UK, but I guess it would have been a bit harder to fit 17 million poppies in the moat....

Still a very sobering sight...

[Jimbuna]

That must have been an awesome experience Jamie

[Sailor Steve]

Beautiful shots. Sorry I didn't respond sooner, considering that I requested them.

[Sailor Steve]

On this, the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Coronel, I thought it the best time to bring up an old and oft-discussed question: What if HMS Canopus had been there?

On the one hand is the opinion of many of the old battleship's crew, that the 6" armor would have been almost useless, the four 12" guns had the range of the German 21cm, but could only fire 1 round per minute vs the Germans 3 rpm. So either Scharnhorst or Gneisenau alone could put out 24 rounds in a minute to Canopus's 4. Of course the 12" round was going to do a lot more damage if one did hit. Also the German fire would be divided among three ships rather than two.

On the other side is the opinion of Spee himself, which was that "Against her we could hardly do anything. If they had kept their forces together we should, I suppose, have had the worst of it." But Spee had originally thought he was facing a newer battleship, armed with newer, faster-firing guns and carrying 12" armor. This leaves a third option, which is that if Canopus had showed up Spee might have simply used his superior speed to run away.

Of course such speculation is always fruitless in the end, but for the wargamer it opens up endless possibilities.

[Aktungbby]

IMHO: the wily Spee would have not taken on a Battleship knowingly on the ''far side of the world'. I only venture this on the subsequent action at the battle of the Falkland Islands when Canopus did open fire from her protected mooring using hilltop spotters; "The British cruiser Canopus opened fire and, although the two German ships were out of range, drove them back to rejoin their group which then steamed eastward at full speed to avoid action. Canopus then fired her rear turret using practice rounds which were already loaded for a planned practice shoot. The blank shells ricocheted off the sea, one of them hitting the rear-most funnel of Gneisenau." firing the first shots of the Battle of the Falklands at the extreme range of 12,000 yards (11 km); although von Spee was beyond the range of her guns she did succeed in hitting the after funnel of the armoured cruiserSMS Gneisenau with a 12-inch (305-mm) shell that ricocheted off the water Under fire from Canopus and spotting the tophampers of Sturdee's battlecruisers, von Spee called off his force's planned attack on the Falklands' radio and coaling stations and ran, allowing Sturdee's force to raise steam and pursue the German force. ADM Sturdee gave chase and destroyed von Spee's squadron by the end of the day. To go from attack to retreat on the effect of a 12" superior battery firing blanks indicates Spee understood his squadrons' greater value as " a threat-in-being' tying up precious British naval resources in the Pacific. Had the determined Cradock been able to uptick his firepower with Canopus present, to cause any amount of harm to Spee's squadron, Spee would have used his vessels' speed to evade harm at Coronel...http://www.christopherlong.co.uk/pub/coronelfalklands.html