分类： 美舰本·Pacific

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

Subcorner 18 – Intro to Geneva

by Morgane 2017年9月24日

IN OTHER WORDS: SILENT SERVICE: ON SUBMARINE DESIGNS AND WHY LE SURCOUF IS BEST SUBMARINE OF DEUXIÈME GUERRE MONDIALE

Hohum! Now that the Morgane is currently sick in bed no one is going to do sub-corner. Which means it is time for I, Surcouf, to save the day! Surcouf will teach you about the engineering marvel that is the Surcouf, which is biggest and best allied sous-marine of –

ENOOOOUGH!!

OUT! I’M ANGRY NOW! EVERYONE KEEP ON HIJACKING MY SUBCORNERS! THEY’RE MY SUBCORNERS! IT EVEN HAVE MY NAME ON IT! LITERALLY! TITLED! TAUTOG’S SUB! CORNERS!

Uh oh –

YOU HAVE THREE SECONDS TO GET THAT STUFF OUT OF HERE BEFORE I SHOVE YOU OFF INTO THE APPENDIX SURCOUF!

O-okay, okay! Bonne mère, you are in a bad mood …

MORGANE’S SICK! DO YOU SEE THE BACKLOG OF WORK UP THERE? I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ELSE OTHER THAN SUBMARINES! AND I DON’T SPEAK CHINESE! I CAN’T MAGICALLY MAKE BOOKS SHIP FASTER! GAAAAAAH –

Tautog? Oh. Hey. So I got that –

NOT NOW TAMBOR THIS A BAD TIME. I’M PRETENDING TO BE SARGE AND YELLING. IT CALMS MY NERVES!

– research page you wanted.

OH. Good. Okay. We’re actually going to talk about this today. Surcouf, you can actually hang around. This actually involve you (sort of).

Hi everyone! It’s another one of my sub-corners. Today’s topic is actually a very simple one. It’s politics.

Specifically, the politics that lead to the U.S. navy’s development and design of submarines. We’re going to talk about the Geneva and London conferences (since they happened more or less closely).

Now, we’ve touched on the Washington naval treaty before, where a number of great powers came together to discuss and develop limitations on naval build-up. We came up with this idea called “collective security,” after all, and we were pretty happy to generally keep massive shipbuilding to a minimum.

Not so the other countries. Battleships were still being developed and built, and there was no agreement on an overall tonnage limit for smaller ships. So, everywhere you see, cruisers and destroyers, and yes, submarines, were all being built. This put the US navy at a pretty tough spot, since Congress really didn’t give it much money. What money went instead to the modernization of the Battle fleet (if you read vol. 1 and some of the BB girls talk about that? Yeah. It’s a reference to that process) and the conversion of the Lexington and Saratoga into aircraft carriers.

The problem here is that if you look at other countries, they were building a lot of stuff. Below I’ve put a table of new ships authorized to be built from 1922 to 1926 by the other major powers.

America Britain Japan France Italy
Cruisers 5 14 8 7 2
Large destroyers N/A N/A 9 12 12
Destroyers N/A 2 12 26 16
Large submarines 3 9 16 24 5
Submarines N/A N/A N/A 19 10

Where’s Germany?

Silly kraut Germany can’t into boatbuilding honhonhonhon –

Let’s not interrupt. Come on.

Hey! Peanut gallery! Settle down! I’m still talking!

…

Okay. Where was I? Right. Look at that chart up there. The only new things we were building at this time were the large submarines we’ve already talked about and the Omaha-class cruisers. Meanwhile, the Japanese and the English were both building some pretty advanced ships of all types. Thus, president Coolidge thought it might be a good idea to call the other powers together to see if we can’t put some limitations on what kind of smaller ships could be built. This first conference was the Geneva conference in 1927.

The British, of course, had more plans. The Admiralty planned at least seventy cruisers, and the British Empire would need to construct close to fifty ships by the 1930s to maintain imperial hegemony. They came in wanting the limits lifted, because funding issues prevented the RN architects from fully optimizing their ship designs, and they weren’t really interested in taking on the Japanese and French cruisers armed with the big 8” guns.

Japan, too, of course wanted more tonnage. France, however, along with Italy, declined to attend.

In fact, to further insult the US, the French foreign minister submitted a draft treaty to outlaw war to the League of Nations on the same day this naval conference began.

We had our reasons! First of all, the Washington Treaty was not fair to the French! You can’t trust the English to keep their word! Not when they design their forces explicitly to check the Marine Nationale!

A French shipgirl, attacking the English, when they aren’t even here to defend themselves. Why am I not surprised.

If any such conference is to take place it will happen AFTER they are built. Do you see how many submarines we are building? THE FRENCH ARE THE MASTER OF SOUS-MARINE COMBAT –

Yeah, well. The massive rearmament coming out of the UK and France basically scared the Italians. They really didn’t want to come into a conference where there was always a chance that everyone else’ll gang up on them and stop them from building more ships. You have to remember that basically everyone other than the US was still in a massive, massive shipbuilding frenzy right now.

By the way, this conference really went nowhere. America went in wanting to limit everyone’s shipbuilding. Britain went in wanting to make sure the Empire stays on top, and so wanted to push out as many ships as possible for the maintenance of the empire. Japan went in offended by western bias – literally calling the US and UK “imperialist hegemons” attempting to keep the definitely-not-invading-Asia Japanese inferior – and came out even more offended by western bias. I mean, people got assassinated back home because of these treaties!

You know what, I underestimated the length of this particular piece. I’m going to talk about London in the next sub corner instead. Or, actually, probably the next few sub corners.

… I’m seriously confused. Why did I dig out those documents again?

You know, I started out wanting to talk about how the British constantly tried to outlaw submarine warfare at every major naval conference. The one they came close to was at London, and this would end up significantly influencing submarine design of pretty much all the countries that had good submarines.

Well, to do that, I need to explain what the naval conferences are. Specifically, I’d need to talk about the London naval conference in greater detail.

To do that, I need to basically dig out the context for why these terms are discussed. Submarines were a small part of the conference overall, but the implications behind trying to limit the submarines was much bigger, since it revealed different historical objectives by all these powers.

In order to do that, I need to probably talk about Geneva, and what didn’t work there. Since, well, if Geneva had worked, maybe the start of the war would have turned out differently.

To explain Geneva I probably should go research just what the period was like. After all, we called that convention…

To do that, well, I had to look at what led to Geneva. That’s how the table got made.

…Hmm, we should probably talk a bit more about Washington too… That’s how this started after all.

Okay, so, dear reader, if you were to just remember one thing after reading this, I’d say it’d be this.

“The Geneva Naval Conference was initiated by the US due to concerns over increasing numbers of new ships being built by foreign powers. Meant to reach an agreement over limitations on naval construction, it failed.”

Hmm, yeah. That sounds good.

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

[Mail Call] 9/23/2017 – Weekly Round-up (ish)

by Morgane 2017年9月23日

Hi everyone! Just thought I’d sort of leave a note on where things are. Morgane is obviously sick (it explains why no new content, for instance), so she probably shouldn’t be working.

Everyone else has been pretty busy, too. Zero is running around working hard at both his job and on Pacific, so we’re expecting to bring a new batch books to print when he can return to Chengdu to oversee printing. The artists are drawing (as well as settling in their new jobs, too) and the rest of us are either busy with exams or other forms of assessments.

So have a cute fat bird. I’ll be back later! 🙂

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

(Historical Inspirations) Nose art in the Pacific War

by Morgane 2017年9月21日

I’m still sick, but I thought I’d talk a bit about something an old, old reader of ours asked.

Reading your creations was a pleasure & I’d like to comment.

[Commentary on shipgirls removed]

Your grand father surely are aware that WHILE the NAVY had stricter rules from THIS OLD FARTS PERSPECTIVE plenty of WARPLANES had nose art on them THOUGH I THINK (I MIGHT NOT BE WRONG HERE …) the BRITS had a lot MORE of their planes with nose art on EM

BUT WE HAD

yes we definitely had nose art on our aircraft. MIGHT BE TOO RISQUE FOR YOUR WEBSITE but it WOULD BE NICE to SHOW THE JAP GIRL & YOUR CHINAMEN what some of the ART looked like. I WAS ON SAIPAN IN 1944 & THERE WERE DEFINITELY BOMBERS THAT HAD TO BE PATCHED UP I DEFINITELY REMEMBER SEEING NICE YOUNG WOMEN PAINTED ON THE SIDES OF ‘EM

ONE OF THEM LEATHERHEADS THAT WAS REAL GOOD AT IT TOO HIS NAME WAS MARK I WONDER IF YOU’D KNOW HIM

ONE HAD A NICELY PAINTED YOUNG LADY THAT LOOKED KIND OF LIKE YOUR IOWA BUT SHE WAS COYLY HIDING HER ASSETS BEHIND A NICE BIG BOMB

You should see if you can find some to show IT WOULD BE NICE

[Rest of the message redacted]

Firstly, thank you for writing in. You’re definitely not wrong in your memories there. Family members mention that while the officers are generally very strict on nose art/pin-ups being not allowed on the planes, below decks & inside the cockpit were different tales.

Secondly, as the war went on, these standards became less and less relaxed. I am more familiar (ironically) with nose art over in the European theater, but it took me a while to find nose art in the Pacific.

Simply put, they did exist. In fact, there were a lot more of them than we’d realize. They went from something simple – such as this one here, “Barbie” is the name of the pilot’s wife…

To this particular P-38 in the Philippines in 1945…

“If it moves, salute it. If it doesn’t, paint it.”

I don’t know how true this is, but it’s what I’ve heard some of the older folks in the other side of the family say. It certainly seemed to be the case. For instance, this one’s from a fighter.

Of course you have stuff like the iconic “Shark Mouth” – here’s a commemoration P-40 that’s pretty colorful.

Then as bombers started showing up, the designs become increasingly more elaborate.

YOU EVER THINK ABOUT PUTTING YOUR GIRLS ON A PLANE? SURE HOPE YOU WOULD. MAKE THE LITTLE FAIRY MEN DRAW EM ON BOMBERS. BIG ONES. I SEE MITCHELLS ALREADY

Er… Well, yes and no. We actually did have something rather entertaining in mind. For instance, I’m sure you recognize this dashing gentleman here.

前线来信·Mail call, 美舰本·Pacific

[Mail Call] 9/18/2017 – Sune’s Fireside Chat

by Sune 2017年9月19日

Hi everyone. This is Sune. Morgane is overworked again. As such I will answer the questions that have come up that mostly fall under my specialty.

If Japanese shipgirls aren’t kami do they see themselves as kami?

Most do not. One does but she should not be taken seriously.

Where are the other Japanese shipgirls?

Pacific’s focus is on American shipgirls and their friends. Japanese shipgirls only appear when they make sense in Pacific’s overall storyline or have important roles to play.

I am too lazy to retype all of that.

Thank you for your comments.

The main volume Pacific character design process moves roughly in chronological order. We are somewhere around Midway and Santa Cruz right now. The contributions you mention by the British Pacific Fleet occurs in 1944. This is well after America established naval dominance through systematic attrition, superior shipbuilding, capable development of novel naval battle tactics, and an overall strategic vision that we lacked.

Personally I have no impression whatsoever of Royal Navy capabilities. In Japan among naval enthusiasts they are famous for suffering crippling defeats at the hands of the Imperial Navy in 1941 and 1942. In fact from my own (Japanese) sources it is understood that the British only joined in the Pacific War for fear that America would free up their former territories and colonies. In any case a general sentiment in Japan is that we lost (or in the words of our prime minister “the war ended”) to America and not the Allies.

If the contributions of the British are very significant then unfortunately I do not know about it. We are happy to learn more about it but the matters of the Royal Navy rarely come up within team discussions. Without knowing anything about the Royal Navy we obviously cannot create shipgirls that would be a good and faithful depiction of the actual history.

Furthermore. There is no one on the Pacific team who works on the Royal Navy. Not since our British person retired years ago. Without someone to advocate for British characters it is unfortunate but inevitable that they get pushed back further and further on the illustration schedule.

By the way Morgane is an anglophile who loves many things that are British. She has a degree in Arthurian and Celtic legends. She is also very knowledgeable in the roles that were played by the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain and the European theater. However Morgane is busy working on everything else. As such the British shipgirls that she has created are relegated to background status and once again do not get drawn.

The reason why the Soviet characters get drawn first is that there are people who are actively working on them. Furthermore given Pacific’s world building the USSR remains a dominant power. Without anyone working on the resurgent British Empire it is natural that foreign shipgirl art tend to prioritize those that the team are interested in.

We are very sorry.

——-

And now actual content.

I want to do a Fireside Chat too. Should I title it that?

Despite my reputation for being the one who provides fanservice I also provide significant cultural elements into all of our shipgirl designs. For the Japanese shipgirls that come into Pacific I want to make their “Japanese-ness” explicit. In other words rather than drawing from contemporary Japanese culture such as the high school uniform or the school swimsuit I draw almost all of my inspiration from traditional and ancient Japanese culture.

There are certain character attributes that are immediately recognizable by those familiar with the references. As such my Japanese shipgirl designs draw liberally from all sources. For instance below.

The armor pattern of this particular shipgirl is not simply that of the approximate shape to what her turret mounts would be. Given her namesake’s region I thought it prudent to provide Sima with reference images of an iconic individual from said region. As such you can see that specific armor pattern weaved into her clothing design.

A great deal of the Japanese shipgirl’s personality comes out of a composite of their histories, crew, historical performance and the like. However much like how American shipgirls in Pacific exemplifies certain aspects of America the Japanese shipgirls do so as well. For example because of its association with Japanese faith and primitive religion Pacific’s Kumano is a reserved and calm individual. She is not very similar to her KanColle counterpart in that regard who makes funny howling cat noises during attack. In the example above the shipgirl is heavily associated with winter due to the magnificence of the wintery frost that appears every year.

An example of this is preserved in art as you can see above. With this theme her personality writes itself. Someone who is outwardly cold but like the joys of winter is warm inside. This aspect symbolizes the part of Japan in which she is named after and it superimposes over any “ship” part that is her.

Afterwards it is my honorable duty to make the shipgirls sexy. I have never understood the prudishness that some of our western readers exhibit.

Seriously. They are shipgirls. GIRLS. DO I NEED TO SAY ANYTHING ELSE.

ALSO I’M BORED NOW.

SEE YOU NEXT TIME.