Welcome to the New AusBG Newsletter.

This is hoped to be a new beginning for further communication between all our members.

As the first of many future issues we are beginning with many articles that is hoped to be of interest. Because this is a new start the name has changed slightly from the old name of "Southern Command HQ". We will try to issue these several times a year.

We will be expecting some articles to come from any, and all our members. As we are spread out right across the country, this newsletter is a form of communication. To aid this there will be regular articles from the various local groups and The "Intel Column". This is where any member can ask a question that is bothering them. Hopefully it will be something relating to the Big Gun Hobby. Also people can submit answers or views on the question highlighted in the issues. Also there be "The Scuttlebutt!", tales true and maybe true of things happening around the country.

Further to this I will try and continue the TO Talk articles and I will welcome any suggestions on future subjects. Also there will some historical and funny articles. And anything else that anybody would like to send in.

So, if you have a favourite ship with a interesting history, a story on a battle, or just what is happening in your area, send it in. Send them into myself, email or snailmail, what ever, in word format preferred. If you have photos, even better. Send scanned to myself, or the photo's to Brett, who can scan them.

To start this newsletter off there will be a new series of articles called the "Who is That?" on the various personalities in the club. To be fair, some of the more well known, and involved in the production of the this newsletter, will be first. To set the standard, so to speak, we are picking on ourselves first!

Who's Next? J
The Editor!
Tony Collins AusBG TO

The Neosho sinking in 1999

The Tokyo Rose sinking watched by the SoDak in 1999

The Next AusBG Battle

There has been a good response to Brett's suggestion for a June Battle at Bowning, NSW. The Canberra BG is all for it and the Newcastle BG's Glendon Pryor and new member Scott Darcy who are expecting their Indiana's next week, feel they will be ready with their Littorio and South Dakota Class Battleships. Also interested are the Adelaide Battle Group's Scott 'Gadget' Gage and new member Peter Hawkins. Gadget will have the Iowa and Peter's ship is unknown so far. Don't know if Khan Beaumont will be there with his Scharnhorst/Bismark? class but his transport should be available. Trevor Gotte's Scharnhorst will have sorted out his minor problems and be fully combat ready. Of course, the Mighty Rodney of Tony Collins will be there from the Victorian Battle Squadron. Maybe the Wagga people might get there with a couple of transports. How is your Jean Bart going, Brian Evans?

Adelaide BG have asked that the Battle dates be confirmed ASAP as they need to plan their trip up and arrange leave. So Brett, will you please see the Pearsalls and confirm if the Bowning Sea will be available for the 4th weekend in June. Remember, it will be our winter and fairly cold - definitely not diving weather, add that extra length of line to the float Ant!

If Bob Booth of Bowning, can get his cannon too, he could also be a combat skipper (Italian). Any other AusBG member who has a ship nearing completion should get his finger out and aim for June! It is not that far away, 4 months exactly. The Burden Brothers will be happy to help with advice and some parts. The Bowning Shipyards facilities will also be available for repairs and Brett should make tentative bookings with the Commercial Hotel - their BBQ was offered at the last Meeting (if Brett and Lesley want to have a break from cooking). I have flags for most ships - 'flags maketh the Navies' is an old Naval saying -I think, (my Tokyo Rose's flag has survived 10 sinkings-covered with contact).

Don't you love it when things start coming together. Imagine 4 to 6 new warships boosting the Navies. We will have as many warships as merchantmen soon. Now if that Stephen would look at my Strasbourg..........

Richard Single, Chris Chappell, Wayne Laws, Gary Oschadlin, Colin Jones, Ben Collins and Peter Collins, you are not too far away and should consider the trip, even if you don't have a ship. You will learn a lot and the company is top quality! Have a think!

Bill Kirwan
ah, the sound of cracking balsa and tearing metal,
join the war game with real war damage!

The June AusBG Battle dates

It has been suggested that the battle be held on the Saturday and Sunday 10th and11th June, which is the Queen's birthday long weekend. See page 9 for the notification.

Well another glorious day for battle at the Canberra Battle Groups water. Cool and overcast to start with, little or no breeze. Finishing up in warm sun shine.

The usual skippers and their ships were present, The Burden's with their South Dakota, Houston and Deutschland, Bill with his Richeleau and Tokyo Rose Maru, Brett with his (now operational) Fujikowa Maru, Bob with his Lucky, Barry with his Hornet (tramp steamer) Roger with his Scorpion. But today was different, a different format was tried, and it worked. Each convoy run was protected by their warships, but the attaching warships could not shoot at the defending warships.

There were 3 battles for the day, an Allied convoy run followed by an Axis convoy and lastly a Grand Melee with everyone on the water.

For the first time in a long while no ships were sunk, although some came close and all the freighters completed their cargo runs. The scoring was so close that Anthony had to take the score sheets home to work out who won the day.

Some good long range shooting of 5 or more meters by all side showed good result, with a number of holes registered. Some lucky shoots also with the South Dakota putting a hole in the Fujikowa Maru right on the 25mm line below the water, which nearly sunk her. The feel good story of the day was Bill's TRM completing a cargo run and was not being sunk once during the day.

Regards
Brett

A Rare Scene - The South Dakota on the bottom

The TO's Tech Talk.
From Tony Collins, AusBG TO.
PP ?

Looking at the dimensions, let's see, LWL, which must mean Length Water Line. Easy enough to understand. What else, OA or LOA, yep, that must mean length overall. Simple! Now what's this,

PP? Or sometimes LBP? What the hell is this? Between Perpendiculars, is what people tell you! What the Hell does that mean? Dunno!

That's about as far as I went when I was looking at the plans and books about my dream ship. I was lucky that there were both the LWL and OA measurements available on that ship. But there are times where you get the dimension OA and PP! But not the LWL . Bloody hard to check the length of the ship against the plans and references!

Well, one day I discovered the definition of PP. And this is what I got: -

"Length between Perpendiculars (LBP or PP) is the length between a vertical line drawn through a the point of intersection of the designed waterline with the fore side of the stem (the Forward Perpendicular or FP) and a line perpendicular to the designed load waterline at the point where this line intersects with the after face of the stern frame or, where there is no stern frame, with a line through the center of the rudder stock (the After Perpendicular or AP).".

Whew! What a mouth full!

Luckily there was a diagram (below) that shows the various lengths.

That's a bit easier to understand!
It might not be of any use, but that's what PP means!

BECAUSE, on individual ships there are different measurement points, depending on whether it meant it is to the aft stern frame or to the rudder stock. They don't say. Depends on the ship. See the next picture, (Left) which are from the BB56 plans (USS Washington). Notice where the AP point is marked. Confusing, isn't it! Remember that the Washington had twin rudders and this is why, in that case, the AP is where the last frame is. But where is the last frame? The determination of that last frame will vary from ship to ship.

So, all up, this has not cleared much up. But at least you know what the LBP means now. Not that it will be of much use to you, apart from giving you an idea of roughly how long the ship is.

But it still is bloody confusing!

Till next time,
Keep on Battling,
Tony Collins, AusBG TO

Subject: News release
Date sent: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 13:50:03 +1100
Hi All,

The Bowning Ship Yards are pleased to announce the launching of the following ships:

H39 which is going to SA for outfitting. Her vital statistic are- Length 1935mm, beam 260mm, 110mm high and 75mm draft. She takes 13.6k to bring her to the waterline.

Brooklyn class cruiser going also to SA for outfitting. Her vital statistics are- length 1300mm, beam 127mm, height 95mm and draft 55mm. She takes 2Kg to bring her to the water line.
Regards
Brett

Subject: News release
Date sent: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 16:03:08 +1100

Hi All,
The Management of the Bowning Ship Yards are pleased to announce the launching of the following ships.
2 South Dakotas going to Western Australia for outfitting.
A Liberty going to Wagga Wagga for outfitting.
A Cimerron going to California for outfitting.
A Iowa going to Brisbane for outfitting.
The Ship Yards also launched a mould and hull for the HMAS John Oxley (a requisitioned coastal freighter used as a anti submarine ship) going to Wagga Wagga for outfitting. Her vital statistics are length 360mm, beam 70mm, draft 35mm, weight to water line is 400 grams.

Regards
Brett

Interesting - A member of the Vic Battle Squadron has reportedly moved interstate (the next one up). Apparently he is joining the other Navy (RAN). He was last seen with a battered transport, and a new warship hull under his arm, swearing revenge after his first battle and consequent first sinking.

Subject: News release
Date sent: Mon, 20 Mar 2000
Hi All,
The Ship yards are pleased to announce the launching of an Iowa hull which will be cut in half and go to Taiwan as hand luggage.

Regards
Brett

Subject: Reported Sighting Bowning Sea
Date sent: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 19:11:21 +1000
Reported sighting unnamed vessel 5.15pm EST stop.
Flying no ensign repeat no ensign stop.
Sighted steaming between islands Bowning Sea heading for the Grave straights in heavy mist & fading light stop.
Believed to be QE Class possible KGV class under going sea trials stop.
Reported to be carrying NO armaments repeat NO armaments stop.
Reported steaming 36 knots end.

Work has quietened down at the Shipyards at the end of March. Apparently a huge proportion of the workforce is in need of medical treatment. Health & Safety Inspectors are investigating. Reports that the workload has caused this, has been denied by the management, saying the Ship Yards are still accepting orders.

From: "Steve B" <axb@rosella.apana.org.au>
Subject: weight to w/l
Date sent: Wed, 8 Mar 2000

Brett how did you arrive at the weight to waterline?
The weights you give are way too light.

Steve B

Brett WILL be giving his answer next issue!

Answer from last issue - Well there wasn't a last issue for a while. So, a answer to a commonly asked question at the Jan 200 AusBG battle was where did Khan Beaumont get the Tip120 transistor? This is the heart of the simple water sensing device that switches on his pump. This diagram was shown in a previous issue of the TO's Talk and is shown again to the Right.

Khan reports that they are available from Tandy stores and says ,
"For those that are interested the order code for the TIP 120, it is simple enough TIP0120, and this should enable you to order it through any Tandy electronics store."
The TIP120 is a Darlington pair transistor, if they ask.

Some Mottos
As you may, or may not know, most ships had a motto that went with their name. As this was based on heraldry, these mottos were in Latin for the Commonwealth ships. In other Navies this was not always the case. Anyway I have found a few that I think I might apply to my ships. These come from fictional and in one case, a real ship.

So, is there any Latin scholars that can translate these? (Answers on page 9 )

1/. CATAPULTAM HABEO. NISI PECUNIAM OMNEM MIHI DABIS, AD CAPUT TUUM SAXUM IMMANE MITTAM

2/. ODERUNT DUM METUANT

3/. Sum, ergo bibeo

The last one is very applicable after the last AusBG Battle in January.

Some Interesting Facts from History

"…. the stern went under water..."

Apparently this is true and comes from the Gunnery Trials report on a Famous Ship,
" .…when fired above 10 degree's the stern went under water..."
" ....when fired at 10 degrees or less, most stern fittings (hatches, guard rails, bollards etc) disappeared.."
" ....when firing astern, a three knot increase of speed was recorded..."

Which Ship? Have a look at the Photo (Right)
Any Guesses? Answer at Bottom of Article
.

A Good Idea ????

There was a dummy U boat conning tower packed with explosives issued towards the end of WWII. The idea was that it spent most of its time strapped to the hull of a real U boat and when an escort was spotted it was let out on a tow line to simulate a U boat running with decks wash. The escort was then supposed to ram it with the result of rather more damage to the front end than they were expecting.

Needless to say, the thought of carrying several tonnes of high explosives on deck resulted in most, if not all, being lost overboard shortly after leaving port.

Answer to Which Ship? - Hint, it was the first instance that a 18" Gun was mounted in a warship. One of the Famous "Weird Sisters" which were the brainchildren of Admiral Fisher during WW1. They were all built light, fast and with big guns for their size. They were all converted into aircraft carriers before WW2. Answer - HMS Furious - Designed for two single 18", but only one was fitted before the ship went into service as a experimental carrier.

Report on the Canberra Battle Group March Battle.

G'day Skippers,

Not much news on the chatline lately. Heard from Phil Sensibaugh in the US, that their first Meeting for the season was wiped out by rain and cold. Skippers spent most of the time by the fire chatting.

Here in sunny Oz, the weather was perfect for our March Meet. The Canberra mob had a beautiful day with flat water and no ripples.

Unfortunately, the Deutschland, skippered by Capt Rod of the Tramp fame (rammed the Richelieu and will stand trial) was quickly holed by the Allies and beached. Bob Booth's ship Lucky was soon diving to the bottom and I was left alone with the SoDak and the Houston. I thought I was doing pretty well, blasting at the SD and imagining opening up her waterline with a string of BB holes and waiting for the result. But between the Houston and SD combined fire, I started taking water and when I ran out of ammo, decided to make port. Seems that I had not prepared my ship well enough and all my shots were ineffective and hitting below their hulls at my normal firing range, while the Allies got 12 below hits and a total of 80 holes in the Richelieu. Sweet revenge for the Bowning Battle.

Definitely the Allies Day.

This constant battling has forced me to now start re-planking my Richelieu as there is nothing left to repair. My Tokyo Rose is a piece of floating cheese, with so many holes and half my superstructure gone. We desperately need new ships on the water as battling the same ships is not the same as facing new unknowns so please accelerate your building program. So many ships are in the pipeline and many cannon have arrived, but it is still the same ships pushing the hobby. We need more help. In many ways, the shorter season the Yanks have, with a lay-off or building season, must be great as it gives some impetus to the coming battle season. Curse our fantastic climate! This all-year round 'Battling' weather takes a heavy tole on ships.

Our coming Queen's Birthday Meeting at Bowning in June, will see Adelaide's Scott 'Gadget' Gage and Peter Hawkins with an Iowa and Conte di Cavour and I hope Bob Booth of Bowning with his King George V. Newcastle BG's Glendon Pryor and his mate Scott have their cannon and should have 2 warships going. We are looking at having at least 10 warships and maybe 13 with luck. Also the Midway Battle Flotilla at Wagga will have 3 transports there and as Brett says we could have more ships than skippers to run them. Oh, Brett goes into hospital for a minor refit for a week or so and we wish him well.

It looks like I am now retired now as no bastard wants me, so I will have more time to do these repairs on my battered ships. I do like the look of the little Tramp as it is so hard to hit although both it and the Tokyo Rose had their superstructures surgically removed by the Allies this week. Most pieces were recovered but will be of little use.

This week's battle has shown me you cannot just pick up your ship and battle. It must be prepared and checked over and adjusted prior to battle. My main problem is I have a list to my Richelieu and you cannot do adjustments to firing angles on both sides until this is corrected. The battering I took this week has taught me a lot, I was getting too confident.
Bill Kirwan

ah, the sound of cracking balsa and tearing metal,
join the war game with real war damage!

Who ?- Brett Farquharson (Current AusBG Secretary)
Where ?- Bowning NSW, (the home of the Bowning Battle Squadron?)
Past Military or Naval Experience ?- Bait Layer ¹ or "Fitter & Turner" ²
Ships ?- Fujikowa Maru (Mamiya - Axis Transport - operational)
Planned ships ?- Yamato (When people stop buying HIS off him. The first 6 built were sold within 24 hours of building.) Shimakaze (Axis DD)
Favorite Ship?- Any ship I can get time to get on the water operationally, at the present that is the Fujikowa Maru.
Distractions from the Hobby ?- Wife Lesley and Fishing (for fish, not just boats as in the Picture) The Scouting movement, Rural Fire Service and speleology (bet you don’t know what that is)
What pays for the Ships?- Retired (But the Bowning Shipyards helps!)
Most memorable thing in the AusBG ?- The look of despair on Bill’s face when he finally realised that the float for the Tokyo Rose Maru hadn’t deployed, and the look of joy when I’d salvaged it. (refer to the photo)
Famous for?- Selling dozens of ships before putting one of his own on the water!

Who ?- Tony Collins (Current AusBG TO)
Where ?- Melbourne VIC (the home of the Victorian Battle Squadron?)
Past Military or Naval Experience ?- Chocko ³ Bucket ⁴
Ships ?- USS Neosho (Cimarron - Allied Tanker)
HMS Rodney (Nelson - Allied BB - still completing)
SS San Christofo (Modified Tramp - Salvage Ship - Neutral)
Planned ships ?- Manxman (Abdiel- Allied Minelayer)
HMAS Kybra (Coastal Tramp - Allied)
Secret Project 1870 (It's a Surprise - Allied) And a couple of others!
Favorite Ship?- HMS Agincourt (one day! One day!)
Distractions from the Hobby ?- Wife Sandra
What pays for the Ships?- Electrical/electronic tech.
Most memorable thing in the AusBG ?- Watching the Sodak blow black bubbles from the bottom of the pond (AusBG Jan 2000)
Famous for ?- Being the first combat sink in the AusBG (USS Neosho AusBG Jan 1999). Sometimes called "Capt'n Nemo" after this and other sinks are repeatedly shown on video during displays and shows.

Notes - ¹ and ² - Army Cook (ie, fits food into pots and turns it into sh**). ³ - Army reserve. ⁴ - Armoured (ie Tankie).

AusBG Battle Notification.

Due to continuing intelligence reports of fleet movements towards the Bowning Sea from SA, Vic, NSW, ACT and possibly from QLD, AusBG command has authorised the formation of the following groups and names to classify the various groups of personnel within AusBG.

Bowning Sea Headquarters Intelligence Team (BSHIT)

                    To comprise of all RATS, NUTS and FLIES
                    1). Maintain sufficient stocks food and refreshments to look after the exhausted RATS, FLIES and NUTS at the BBQ after the BBQ.

Ruthless Armed Talented Skippers. (RATS)

                    Refers to all Captains of armed vessels.

New Unarmed Trainee Sailors. (NUTS)

                Refers to the new Captains of unarmed freighters.

Fun Loving Interested Enthusiastic Skippers. (FLIES)

Barbecue (BBQ)

Using the above codes, the following is an official notification to all Skippers.

BSHIT has determined from intelligence of fleet movements that there will be a BBQ at the Bowning Sea on the long weekend of 10th, 11th and 12th June. BCRAP and BDUST have been notified. FROGS will be arranging a BBQ for Saturday night. All RATS, NUTS and FLIES are to use BSHIT as a means of communication in terms of BCRAP and BDUST to FROGS.

Remember that:-

FROGS, RATS and FLIES love BSHIT, BCRAP and BDUST as they attract NUTS to a BBQ.

After a BBQ FROGS will look after the BBQ so that RATS, FLIES who bring NUTS can talk about BSHIT, BCRAP and BDUST.

- Brett

A word from the Executive.

Hi All,

Well, what news do I have for you this time?

The Bowning Ship Yards is busier than ever with an ever growing list of plans (thanks to Scott) and a steady increase in the number of moulds. I had thought that demand would peak and then drop off. How wrong I was as people are still ordering new ships. At present the Ship Yards hold 50 plans and have 29 moulds, with 4 new plugs being made at present. When they are finished there are orders for another 3 plugs and moulds to be made.

Since the last newsletter the following ships have undergone sea trail or have started to be built.

The Midway Battle Flotilla has the HMAS John Oxley ready for battle to go with the SS Rusty Oak and shortly a Liberty operational as well.

The SA Fleet as acquired a Graf Spee which is being hastily built to be ready for June. Scott is putting the finishing touches to his ships also to have them ready for June.

The KGV is reported to be undergoing sea trails also to be ready for June.

The big news of course is the big battle on the Queen’s birthday weekend of 10^th, 11^th and 12^th of June.

At present we have confirmation of the operational ships from the South Australian Fleet, the Midway Battle Flotilla, the Newcastle Fleet and the Canberra Fleet will be there. In fact we look as though will have more ships than skipper. Most importantly it will be the first 10 armed warship battle (could be as many as 15) and there will be about 15 unarmed ships (unarmed warships as well). A big weekend, so if you can make it please come.

Even if your ship isn’t completed, bring it with you so you can ask questions, get advice and you might even get some work done on it as well. Just talking to all the other skippers will fill a lot of blanks in your knowledge.

The question has been asked a lot recently, with all those hulls out there, where are the new ships. A few have disappeared, a lot are being built and will, one day in the not too distant future, appear at a battle. The possibility of 30 ships at the June battle would represent about a third of the hulls the Ship Yards has built. If you take into consideration that the other 2/3 of the hull have gone interstate either to be built or stock piled for on selling (14 hulls in SA) things are progressing very well. It won’t be to long until we have our first 20 armed warship battle, then our first 30 and so on.

A reminder, if you haven’t ever completed a membership form please complete the attached copy and return it to the Secretary (me). They are required for insurance and legal purposes. Under our act of Incorporation we must hold the membership forms. Please complete and send back the form, even if you don’t intend joining at present. If we have a membership form you can come and look and even sail and still be covered.

To any American or overseas skippers, if you are planning an overseas holiday, Australia is a good destination. We are friendly and will look after you, we could even put on a battle for you.

Regards
Brett

A Final Note

Well that's it for the first of the new Newsletters. Please feel free to comment, and to write something for the next one. We need all the articles, photo's or ideas you can think of.

The next issue is planned to be issued after the next AusBG battle on 10^th, 11^th and 12^th of June at Bowning NSW. In this there will the usually articles of the TO's Talk, Scuttlebutt, Intel Report and Who's That?, as well as battle reports and hopefully some photo's of the Battle. But if you can't get there, let us know what is happening on your pond.

Till then,
Tony Collins. Late Breaking News !

CORAL SEA CYCLONE DAMAGE REPORT: Lost power at 2300 Sunday night 2^nd April. Coral Sea fleet shipyard, front doors blown away on Sunday night. Found HMAS Australia and HMAS Canberra floating on floor of shed. all electronics safe and dry. I think I can claim to have the only AusBG ships that have floated through a cyclone and survived. Some water has entered the Allies headquarters. All family members high and dry, including the Coral Sea fleet's mascot dog. Still haven't got power, water has gone (no inland sea, now). Repairing damaged to shipyards. And to top it all off, then is another cyclone on it's way. Maybe I better arm up the ships, and make sure they go down fighting. (would be a good photo).

Damen, now works with me. His new email address is stevens.damen.ds@bhp.com.au
<mailto:stevens.damen.ds@bhp.com.au>
His Musashi is in storage at the moment while he moves house(again!!!).

Signed

Betteridge, Scott SJ <Betteridge.Scott.SJ@bhp.com.au> Coral Sea Fleet

Answers to the Mottos on Page 6.
1/. I have a catapult. If you do not give me all your money, I will fling a huge rock at your head. (Watch out Khan!!)
2/. Let them hate, so long as they fear. (HMS Caligula 18th Century )
3/. I am, and therefore I drink.  (Well, it'll be good for a Tanker? Maybe?)

Southern Admiralty Command
An AusBG Publication
Is produced by the Australian Battle Group Inc.
Submissions to be sent to - Tony Collins  Email to tonyac@ozemail.com.au
Or Brett Farquharson Email to brett.lesley@ruraloz.com.au