Story posted below
- Announcements
- Alternate History Fiction
- Alternate History Discussion
- Historical Discussion
- Ottoman History Discussion
- General Discussion
- Polls
- ASB Scenarios - inc. Mosaic Earth
- Archives
- Tsar Michael The Great
- A Feast of Eagles
- Poetry Writings
- Science Fiction Writings
- Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery Writings
- Alternate History Links
- Military History Links
- 19th & 20th Century History Links
- Other Historical Links
- The Books Forum
| Author | Comment | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 TomB1
|
Operation Unicorn May 17 Part III |
Lead | ||
|
Posts: 2829 01/09/09 00:52:22 Administrator |
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
TomB1 |
Kynochs at Arklow | #21 | ||
|
Posts: 2840 01/15/09 10:11:50 Administrator |
Thanks Mike. I concur with your reasoning.
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
TomB1 |
It's Complicated | #22 | ||
|
Posts: 2841 01/15/09 10:46:18 Administrator |
Uwe,
This is not an easy question to answer. One complication is the British have detached some battalions from their divisions to perform LoC duties and deal with rebel flare ups. When the Germans invaded in April the forces in Ireland were the 10th ID, 16th ID and 36th ID. The last had not artillery brigades and had never operated as a complete division. The British reinforcements have been the West Riding, Welsh, Lowland and 11th divisions plus 2 brigades of yeomanry. Let us go over it by division: 10th ID: This division has nearly 10,000 cumulative casualties but this is getting worse hourly. It has aleady lost a dozen guns. 11th ID: This division has just arrived and participated in the last phases of the Battle of Dublin. It's casualties are ~ 400. 16th ID: This division is effectively destroyed. All of its artillery was lost. It has a clump of ~ 900 remnants on the Cork coast. There were 2 other battalions that were detached early on but one of those was reduced to company strength in the very early fighting in Limerick. 36th ID: This division never operated as a composite division and its HQ at Athlone was captured. It currently has 2 brigades operating. One under the command of the West Riding Division and the other under the command of Welsh Division. It's cumulative casualties are approx 9,000. West Riding Division: Has had 4 battalions detached. Its cumulative casualties are over 5,000. Welsh Division: Was badly hurt at the Battle of Rathmore where it lost ~ 70% of its artillery. Its total casualties incl. prisoners are around 13,000. Lowland Division: Has 2 divisions detached (one fighting at Sligo and another in County Wexford) but its main action was at Dublin. Total casualties are over 3,500. |
|||
|
|
||||
|
borys68 |
#23 | |||
|
Posts: 515 01/16/09 02:33:36 |
So the 36th is practically destroyed as well. Seeing that it has lost 9 battalions worth, and never had much artillery ...
So is the Welsh Division - what's left - a weak Brigade is all that is left. From my reading elsewhere I discovered, that the 10th Division got the most of available officers/NCOs. Of the three Irish Divisions, the worst served with professional cadres was the 16th. Borys |
|||
|
|
||||
|
borys68 |
#24 | |||
|
Posts: 516 01/16/09 02:35:26 |
Ahoj!
A very good piece! As I get to read them in a different mode, I don't see as many typos as I used. Or maybe there's fewer of them? Borys |
|||
|
|
||||
|
Syphon1 |
British casualties | #25 | ||
|
Posts: 7 01/16/09 04:11:10 |
Tom those casualties figures that you quotes has to hurt.
With all the lost equipment Ireland will remain a festering sore for moths to come regardless as to when or if the Central Powers forces are destroyed. This is very bad news. If the Germans can manage a few more naval defeats and get more reinforcements into ireland even if they are only yanks then Law will have the devil of a time putting the Irish rebellion out. As I said earlier Ireland is going to be a massive drain of British resources and I believe it is only a matter of time before the truth of the situation get out into the commons and once that happens a change of government will follow quite quickly. Any new government will have some hard decisions to make and laws hang all the rebels will only make the IRA and the other Irish independence groups fight to the death after all if captured they will hang anyhow so it is better to take your enemy with you.. What I'm interested in now is what division are going to be sent to Ireland and not to france and the balkans. I don't think France will like the decisions that will shortly have to be made.
We satisfy our endless needs
And justify our bloody deeds In the name of destiny And in the name of God David |
|||
|
|
||||
|
TomB1 |
Typos | #26 | ||
|
Posts: 2842 01/16/09 20:34:55 Administrator |
I thought I found most of them but Mike stumbled on some. Glad you got beyond the posting problem.
Tom |
|||
|
|
||||
|
TomB1 |
Available divisions | #27 | ||
|
Posts: 2843 01/16/09 20:39:07 Administrator |
You raise some good points but I would point out again that the British must also worry about an invasion of England. King George for one still thinks Ireland
was invaded primarily as a diversion to allow an invasion of England.
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
TomB1 |
36th (Ulster) ID | #28 | ||
|
Posts: 2844 01/16/09 20:42:00 Administrator |
The 13th ID had 13 battalions and some of its casualties came from support units (engineers, signals) at Athlone.
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
Syphon1 |
Available divisions | #29 | ||
|
Posts: 8 01/17/09 17:00:00 |
TomB1 wrote:This is OK. I'm just trying to get a feel as to the position that GB is in against the forces of unicorn. And also the relative positions between the Entente and the Central Powers. The impression I'm getting is that the Entente is right on the edge. These politically driven operations by France will not in the long run help the strength of the french army or the entente in general. As I've stated previously Operation unicorn has the appearance of having more benefits then the sum of its parts. For Gb Ireland is going to be a pain in the bum for generations unless of course they just say bugger it and conceed Irish indepentence.
We satisfy our endless needs
And justify our bloody deeds In the name of destiny And in the name of God David |
|||
|
|
||||
|
borys68 |
#30 | |||
|
Posts: 517 01/18/09 02:47:59 |
I can post as I'm on a different machine. My home machine is boycotted by yuku. But I plan to reinstall me OS, so maybe that'll cure the problem.
Unelss yuku hates my ISP, which is also a possibility.
Borys |
|||
|
|
||||
|
Abdul Hadi Pasha II |
#31 | |||
|
Posts: 936 02/24/09 17:01:03 Administrator |
I think maybe you're making Bratianu seem a little like a fool - in OTL he was a pretty accomplished statesman, even if he and Ferdinand did have terrible
timing.
Your portrayal of Curzon is very grumpy - I had imagined him as more arrogant in that British way than pissy, but you probably know a lot more about him than I do. I think it's important that no matter what a dick he is that he remains intelligent and perceptive - and I think you do that here with his insight into Pearce's importance which a military mind might dismiss. Again, I'm almost surprised how level and cordial you are in person - I would almost expect you to bite everyone's head off for saying "hello" the way you write dialog - but I'm not complaining - you do it well. |
|||
|
|
||||
|
TomB1 |
The Sagacity of Bratianu & Curzon | #32 | ||
|
Posts: 2872 02/25/09 10:02:00 Administrator |
Hmm part of the reason I did the Buchharest scene is that the stategic situation can still be cherry picked to look favorable to the Entente---Compiegne,
Celtic Sea, Dublin, the Bukovina offense, the Serbian counterattack can all be spun into strategic turning points in the Entente's favor. The news of
Kovno's fall and sobering news out of Belgrade will provide Bratianu a badly needed reality check anon though. This scene aswritten could not occur May 20
(I am assuming delays in the dissemination of news).
Hmm I was trying to paint Curzon as arrogant. He has issues as we say left over from his experience in India and they are coloring his handling of the crisis in Ireland. He is not accepting that the Irish Viceroy has become a largely ceremonial role. For that matter neither did Lord Wimborne (a cousin of Churchill) the OTL Viceroy in this period. Dialog with some tension is more exciting to read than "Do X Y Z" "Jawohl, general" dialog. Also there were so many ill tempered characters---Clemenceau, Ludendorff, Tirpitz, Sir John French, and of course Conrad. |
|||
|
|
||||
- Announcements
- Alternate History Fiction
- Alternate History Discussion
- Historical Discussion
- Ottoman History Discussion
- General Discussion
- Polls
- ASB Scenarios - inc. Mosaic Earth
- Archives
- Tsar Michael The Great
- A Feast of Eagles
- Poetry Writings
- Science Fiction Writings
- Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery Writings
- Alternate History Links
- Military History Links
- 19th & 20th Century History Links
- Other Historical Links
- The Books Forum
