Captain Hurricane

Thanks OI Paint, very enlightening.

The preliminary report on the sinking of the Manuwanui has been released: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/hmnzs-manawanui-sinking-inquiry-defence-minister-judith-collins-navy-chief-reveal-initial-findings/WWJLDAKUS5ENPJKFCJASBPAX7M/ It blames human error for the sinking in that the auto pilot was not disengaged prior to trying to manuvere away from the reef. Note that none of the personnel who were running the ship at the time of its loss have been named as the enquiry is on-going. As is normal when any naval ship is lost, the Commanding Officer will potentially face disiplinary action for the loss of the ship. There does not appear to be anything in the report to suggest that the CO was directly responsible for the sinking, so don't start howling about the RNZN's personnel policies. It's interesting that the Cook Strait ferry Aratere ran aground in Picton harbour eariler this year under very similar circumstances, so its not just a uniquely RNZN problem..... https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/532441/aratere-grounding-began-with-a-36-second-autopilot-mistake

A Youtube interiew with the developers - Triassic is a very small outfit, with only two people involved with the main development of Sea Power apparently. https://youtu.be/n5xmAgoplKU They also talk about the dynamic campaign development and adding further content (the Royal Navy and Falkands stuff is being worked on currently and will be a future DLC).

It's now been reported that there was a fire in the engine room of the Manawanui prior to her grounding and that although some of her fuel oil burnt off before she capsized residual oil is still leaking from the wreck. Most current efforts are about stopping three leaking pipes in the engine room. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/talanoa/hmnzs-manawanui-sinking-fire-started-in-engine-room-before-doomed-ship-sank/N4YMAJYVSBCVVGR6YL3MGEVOTI/ Being close to a reef on a lee shore in a vessel with no power is not a good place to be, no matter who is in command.

The Commanding Officer of Manawanui was lauded by the Minister of Defence and Navy Chief for getting everyone on board safely ashore. https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/10/06/captains-decision-to-abandon-hmnzs-manawanui-saved-lives-navy-chief/ The events leading up to the ship hitting the reef are still unknown, at least publically. No doubt that will become clearer as the investigation progresses. Focus at the moment is to mitigate any environmental threats from the wreck and get the crew home (First mission for one of our newly arrived C-130J's! ).

This doesn't look good................the RNZN survey/dive ship Manawanui struck a reef off Samoa yesterday and has now apparently completely sunk... https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350441671/flames-seen-100m-hmnzs-manawanui-reportedly-sank Thankfully all on board were able to abandon ship sucessfully and make it ashore safely. Manawanui was built as a commercial offshore vessel in 2003, bought for the NZDF in 2019. https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/nzdf/our-equipment/ships-and-watercraft/hmnzs-manawanui/ Sorry, didn't see the other thread that has just been posted....

There are a fair number of videos on youtube featuring scenario playthroughs by various players which show just how wide the scope of this game potentially is. Having watched a few I feel like I would definely not make some of the same tactical decisions as they do, put it that way Here is a link to a video that shows every land/sea/air platform represented in the game so far: https://youtu.be/GbmvRYFmKq4 Sorry Stuart the RN is NOT represented at all, though they evidently plan to add it as an official DLC down the track. I would have thought with the North Atlantic featuring heavily in the game that the RN would have some representation, but its down to the USN and Norwegians to hold the line initially. There seems to be a lot of comments already about modder scenarios being planned for the South Atlantic in the early 1980's.

This looks pretty good.........good enough to make my Steam wishlist anyway. https://youtu.be/w5kx9QaPfew

Torpedo armed B-26's (from the 28th Composite Group) were also in action in the Aluetians agianst Rear Admiral Kakuji Kakuta's 2nd Carrier Striking Force on June 4 1942 when six B-26's took off to attack the Japanese carriers. Only one aircraft, flown by Capt Thornbrough located the carriers and attacked Ryujo. The torpedo missed the carrier but Thornbrough made his escape, only to be lost on a later mission that day. https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-26/40-1408.html http://www.aleutianplanes.com/B-26-Thornbrough.html

Enough of a story there for a book to be written about it........... https://www.amazon.de/Fla-Raketenkomplex-S-300PMU-NVA-Bernd-Biedermann/dp/394247722X

The best information I have come across on the Dutch OOB in the 1980's is Hans Boersma's very comprehensive website - https://www.orbat85.nl/ He focuses on 1985 but often shows what changes happened to units up to the early 1990's as well. If we are talking about NATO OOB we should continue in the correct thread here: https://www.tanknet.org/index.php?/topic/46610-nato-orbat-update/page/5/#comment-1733442 as this thread is about the Warpac OOB.

Amen to that futon, brave men all. Patrol reports for USS Harder 1942 - 1944: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IKk9WmgCMfYe5z6JXbOFVHBQFwX5SKO2/edit Patrol reports for most other WW2 USN subs can be found here: https://maritime.org/doc/subreports.php

Came across this article about the retirement of the A-7 from the Greek Airforce back in 2014: https://www.touchdown-aviation.com/reports/reports-2014/haf-a7-corsair-ii-retirement It also gives details of squadron service dates which might be useful. Looks like they had a visit from Captain Jack Sparrow before hanging up their boots. In couple of those pictures the A-7's look pretty tired.

Always wondered where those top secret Mig 28's came from Stuart 😀

I think I might have posted that link before somewhere here but, yes it certainly has a lot of useful stuff on various NATO countries as well as the NVA and GSFG in the late 1980's.