Dutch Ships

[JWE]

Harald Velemans has provided some very interesting data on the 'whens' and 'wheres' of the Dutch merchant fleet in Pac Theater. That raises some interesting questions and also some interesting possibilities.

The Kota class of ships had several (Baroe, Agoeng, Inten) that started life in their nominal merchant configuration at ports in the DEI, but were immediately snagged by WSA, sent to Mare Island, and converted to USATs. The rest (Gede, Radja, Tjandi) remaind as nominal but, of course, were stripped out for action.

Right now, we have the Baroe, Agoeng, Inten entering game at Mare Island in their USAT configuration a few months after opening day. However, they did play a role in DEI in December '41 in their nominal configuration: what to do? There's two alternatives - keep things as they are, or .. make a class tweak and start them out on opening day in their nominal config as xAKs. They will upgrade nominally (still to xAKs) with a few more weaps, but will have a conversion option to a USAT config. In order to ensure the conversion is done at an appropriate place, the 'convert to' class will have a large shipyard requirement. Additionally, only the opening day class will be able to convert. Once they upgrade, too bad.

Am looking at similar tweaks for Poelau/Moeller/Maersk class.

Comments?

[Anonymous]

I think this number 2 is smart. When NEi was attacked ships went scatter like ducks. Maybe a player is more bold and holds out longer but has options from the wartime situation. I like it to make the conversion to have to go to a California port. So can you make 2 ship classes that can convert and cannot convert, I like that only some can do that. I know Poelau but what is Moeller and Maersk?

MO

[Don Bowen]

I agree with option 2. I like the idea of a high shipyard requirement to force the ships to a major location for conversion. Let the player make the choices.

[Kitakami]

+1

[JWE]

Okay.

[JWE]

Did some thin'nin Baba Louie, and did this: Poelaus (PMMs) and Kotas are P&Cs and start life that way, scattered here and there on opening day. They got some nominal troop capacity and upgrade in about mid '42 to a Brit/CW/Euro version of a trooper with an ok troop capacity. Requires a yard, but not a big one. But they can "convert" to a USAT transport in Jan '42, with lots of AA and a nice troop capacity, but requires a bigger yard (like on the West Coast).

So if you want capability early, then move the little bottoms to the WC and convert them to USATs. Otherwise, let them hang out and maybe upgrade (if you push the button) to something not quite as good, or even leave them as P&Cs. I can think of lots of reasons to do any of the three options, but it be your nickel to play with.

Ciao. J

[oldman45]

I swear this just gets better and better!

[akdreemer]

I have researched this also and discovered that there were quite a few Dutch merchants in SW Pacific early 1942 found in various harbors in Australia. Some discussion of these ships can be found in " US Army Transportation in the SW Pacific Area 1941-1947." SWPacCom chartered something like 21 of these in early 42, along with an additional 40 more somewhat later, all for SWPacCom needs. Chapter 6 of this volume has a lot of nuggets for ships in the SW Pacific operations. Also, most of the ships chartered were for support of local operations.