Real time Discusion thread

Class and type Fletcher class destroyer
Displacement 2,050 tons
Length 376 ft 6 in (114.7 m)
Beam 39 ft 8 in (12.1 m)
Draft 17 ft 9 in (5.4 m)
Propulsion 60,000 shp (45 MW); 2 propellers
Speed 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range 6500 nmi. (12,000 km) @ 15 kt
Complement 273
Armament

5 × single 5 in (127 mm)/38 guns
5 × twin 40 mm (1.6 in) AA guns
7 × single 20 mm (0.8 in) AA guns
2 × quintuple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
6 × single depth charge throwers
2 × depth charge racks

Naval operations: The SEEADLER’S captain captured

The SEEADLER, a German raiding ship, has preyed on Allied shipping in the Atlantic and Pacific before being accidentally wrecked on the island of Mopelia in the Society Islands. Felix von Luckner, the SEEADLER‘S captain is however determined to continue his war. He leaves Mopelia with five of his men in an open boat, hoping to capture a ship that he can use to continue his raiding.

Pretending to be Norwegians crossing the Pacific for a bet, Luckner is able to obtain supplies from the New Zealand authorities on the island of Atiu. He travels on to the Fijian island of Wakaya (a journey of some 3,700 kilometers in an open boat) but here his luck runs out as the local police see through his Norwegian-sailor ruse. Luckner and his men are arrested and sent off to New Zealand as prisoners-of-war.

German occupied Baltic's

Most of Courland (roughly, the parts of modern-day Latvia south of the Dvina) had been occupied by the Germans since August 1915. The fall of Riga in early September 1917 secured the German position there, and emboldened the influential Baltic German minority there. On September 21, the Russians evacuated Jakobstadt [Jēkabpils], their last major bridgehead south of the Dvina.

On the same day, a council of Baltic German nobles proclaimed the independence of Courland and immediately asked for German protection. The next day, they agreed to a plan proposed by Ober Ost that a third of the land in Courland would be given to German war veterans after the war. The Latvian majority was decidedly less enthused about these plans; Latvian troops remained some of the most reliable soldiers in the Russian Army, and there would be no firm push for Latvian independence until after the Bolshevik takeover.

Arctic naval operations

The 'Tirpitz', in Altenfiord, was attacked by British midget submarines. These two man subs had been towed behind conventional fleet submarines from Loch Cairnbawn in Scotland to a point 150 miles from Altenfjord. They were code named "X-craft" and were powered by engines from London buses. Their only weapons were two detachable charges with clockwork detonators, dropped below the target. They had a crew of four. Six set out: two (X-8 and X-9) were lost in transit and one had to be scuttled, but three got through the mines and approached the target. Attacks on 'Tirpitz' had been allocated to X-5, X-6 and X-7, with X-8 to make an attack on 'Lützow', and X-9 and X-10 to attack 'Scharnhorst'. Since X-8 and X-9 were lost before reaching the Norwegian coast, the attacks intended to be made against 'Scharnhorst' and 'Lützow' were abandoned, and X-10 reallocated to make an attack on 'Tirpitz'. Lt. Cameron in X-6 lost his periscope and attacked blind. He was sighted, but was too close to the 'Tirpitz' to be engaged by other than small-arms, and laid his charges before scuttling his boat. Lt. Place in X-7 was caught in nets, escaped, laid his charges under the ship, was caught in nets again, and then was blown free by the explosion, but X-7 was damaged and had to be abandoned. All of the X-6 crew were captured and brought aboard the 'Tirpitz', only the commander and one of the crew of X-7 were able to abandon their craft (the other two men lacking sufficient oxygen for their (DSEA) escape equipment) and taken prisoner, where they had the rather unusual experience of being able to witness their success at first hand. At 0812 hours, the 46,000-ton battleship was blown up. The blast lifted the ship several feet out of the water, disabling her three main engines and leaving her with a 15 degree list. Repair would disable 'Tirpitz' until March, 1944. Submarine X-10, commanded by an Australian, Lt. Hudspethm attacked after X-6 but was sunk with all hands. X-10 had suffered from a number of faults which made her close to unnavigable underwater. When the crew heard the others' charges explode, on the morning of 22 Sept., they decided to abandon their part in the operation and made a successful rendezvous six days later with towing submarine HMS 'Stubborn'. However, it was then decided to scuttle X-10, rather than risk the lives of a passage crew to bring the craft back to the UK under tow. The third midget submarine X-5 was last seen in close proximity to the 'Tirpitz' but its precise fate was not known, but recent underwater discoveries at Kaafjord (at the head of the Altenfjord) now suggest that it, too, may have been successful in reaching its target. The 6 survivors of the operation remained POW's until the end of the war; both commanders were awarded the Victoria Cross.