Thiaria: Reboot

Garlicdesign

Posted: May 22nd, 2015, 5:26 pm

Posts: 1071
Joined: December 26th, 2012, 9:36 am
Location: Germany

2. Escort Carriers

2.1. Conocht-Class

When the second world war started in September 1939, Thiaria interned a total of 17 German merchantmen. At that time, the Thiarian Navy had no plans for the construction of escort carriers, and this did not significantly change when they entered the war themselves. The initial defeats against the British between January and March 1940 however convinced the Thiarians that the acquisition of more flattops should be given maximum priority. A quick survey of the interned German ships indicated that the two newest of them, two freighters named Rheinfels and Gutenfels, were large, seaworthy, long-ranged and at 16 knots not quite hopelessly slow, so they were suitable candidates for conversion to auxiliary carriers. The other 15 German merchants were too slow, but nine of them were useful as auxiliaries. In May 1940, the Thiarians formally acquired Rheinfels, Gutenfels and nine other merchants (five oilers and four freighters) from Germany. An auxiliary carrier design for Rheinfels and Gutenfels was prepared by October, and in November, both ships were taken in hand and razed. They received a full-length hangar and flight deck with two lifts and a catapult; aircraft capacity was set at 24 (twelve twin-seat long-range fighters and twelve torpedo-bombers, although that number proved unpractical in actual service). Four new 100/60 flaks, 12 old semi-automatic 37/50 cannon and eight 20mm HS404 cannon were provided. The funnel was bent to discharge vertically to starboard, and a small island was mounted well forward of the funnel. The bridge design was nearly the same as on the Realtbhuion-class fleet carriers, and very similar bridges were also used for Thiaria's standard wartime escort sloops, which is just one example for the large degree of standardization the Thiarian Navy had achieved. The conversion was done thoroughly and took fifteen months per ship; both were ready for trials in February 1942. They were named LT Conocht (Equinox) and LT Eiclips (Eclipse), in keeping with the practice of naming aircraft carriers for astronomical phenomena. Both ships were commissioned in May and June 1942 and at first mostly employed for pilot training with a dozen F6Cs and T3Ss each; during the South Atlantic winter of 1942, there was not much need for escorts. This changed when the fleet carrier LT Antartach was lost in September 1942 and the Royal Navy became more active; while Eiclips remained in the Bauaine, Conocht went on convoy escort duty between Cathair Riordan and Montevideo. Her planes sunk the British cruiser submarine HMS Forth in December and assisted ground operations along the Brazilian coast in January 1943. At that time, Conocht had received a full radar suite and an air group of 12 T10C fighters and 6 F3N torpedo bombers.

LT Conocht 1943
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She was relieved by the new larger escort carrier LT Ghrianghaoth in March 1943 and assumed training duties again, re-joining her sister in the Bauaine. Their service proved invaluable in providing enough proficient aircrews to replace the heavy losses Thiaria's front-line carriers were taking in 1943. But when the Thiarians rallied all their strength for a tactical invasion behind enemy lines in April 1943, both vessels joined the invasion fleet. They were hit by an overwhelmingly powerful British force in the first phase of the battle of Faoigabhar, and both escort carriers were damaged: Eiclips took a torpedo from the Brazilian submarine Arpao and had to return to base even before the battle proper had started, and Conocht was hit by two aerial torpedoes from planes from HMS Renown. Unable to retreat fast enough, she was hunted down by the heavy cruiser HMS Hampshire and sunk with gunfire on May 4th, 1943, with all hands. Eiclips made port, and despite severe structural damage was deemed worthy of repair. She was ready for action again in August and again assumed training duties. With enemy submarine activity increasing during the second half of 1943, it was clear by year's end that the intense training programme could no longer be kept up and all flattops were needed up front. Eiclips rejoined the escort command on November 29th and - together with the three Ghrianghaoth-class ships - brought seven convoys to Montevideo between December 1943 and April 1944. When the Thiarian main battlefleet was bloodily decimated in the battle of Anfa Caolas in April - the last battleship versus battleship gunnery action in the western hemisphere - the escort carriers were absent, and they also did not intervene when the Allies invaded New Portugal in May; despite their great efforts (six enemy submarines sunk between December and May by carrier airplanes alone, and another five by other escorts; Eiclips was credited with HMS Truant), the Thiarian transport fleet kept being decimated, and the escort carriers could not possibly be released to support the battlefleet. Due to the strenuous use she had seen and the hasty patch-up of her torpedo hit a year befiore, Eiclips was only good for 13 knots and regularly leaking by June 1944, hardly enough for flight operations. During the last major convoy mission, the British finally committed a major surface task force including the fleet carriers HMS Golden Hind, Audacious and Irresistible and the battleships HMS Anson, Africa and Queen Mary, plus eight cruisers. They engaged the Thiarian convoy escorts - three escort carriers, a heavy cruiser and two light cruisers - on May 13th and wiped them out; only a light cruiser escaped. Eiclips was torpedoed by a Barracuda from HMS Audacious, and due to her sorry state, a single 457mm aerial torpedo proved enough. She immediately stopped dead, and after two hours of fruitless efforts, rolled over and went down. Of her crew, 215 died, the rest could be rescued. At the time of her loss, Eiclips had received modernized fire control radars and additional electronic gear, and the number of her 20mm cannon was doubled to 16. The biplane F3Ns were replaced with six modern F5N torpedo bombers.

LT Eiclips 1944
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Greetings
GD

Last edited by Garlicdesign on April 22nd, 2016, 8:14 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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