Romanian News

[ctwaterman]

The Rome Times:  Feb 6th 1919

The House of Savoy and Senate of Rome today anounced a day of Morning for the tragic victims of an explosion in the Port of Varna.  The Imperial Marina has been ordered to Ready the IMS Mercy the Empires Newest Hospital Ship and to loan it to the Green Cross in it efforts to help aleviate the suffering from this tragic accident.

[ledeper]

Hamburger Abendblatt:
6 January 1919
Due to the disaster in Romania , The Esc is sending $ 1 as a help to mitigate the suffering of victims in Varna.

[TexanCowboy]

Constanta? You mean Varna, I presume.

[Jefgte]

His Excellence Jorge Martinez y Garcia, President of the Nations Unitas del Suramerica present the Condoleances from the Suramerican People to the Royal Family & the People of Romania.


:o

[TexanCowboy]

The Imperial Palace, Air Wing
Febuary 9th, 1919
3:43 P.M.

Commander Varonis Limoda, Executive Officer of the Romanian Naval Air Force, walked into the drawing room of the commander of the Romanian Naval Air Force, Commander Princess Flora Flowranis.

"Your imperial majesty, we have a major problem with the attempt to bring in supplies to Varna, or what remains of it," he stated.

"And just what would that problem be?" replied the Princess, in a soft, soothing tone, that was completely out of place in the area of the air wing.

"The entire port....the explosion rearranged the sand dunes and such. The result is that Varna, never a deep harbor to begin with, is relatively inaccessable. The sandbar caused by the explosion causes the harbor to inaccesible to anything but a canoe. The Smuel checked it with their boat," replied Commander Limoda.

"So...what can we do about this? The Italian hospital ship is due here in just a week and a half, and we desperatly need the medical help for all the injured," asked the Princess, in a harsher tone, more suited to her command.

"We....have no idea, your majesty," replied the Executive Commander.

"Wait," said the Princess, with a conspirical gleam in her eye. "Weren't we testing out a method to safely remove pilots from an airplane without them certainly dying?"

"Wait, wha?.....Oh, yes, the parachute. The lastest version can support a 150 pound person, with fifty pounds of supplies," replied the Commander.

"Well, then. If it can support a 150 pound man, and fifty pounds of supplies, why could it not support a doctor, with fifty pounds worth of supplies? In that case, we could 'parachute' the doctors in, from the hospital, while we try to remove the sandbar to allow the main facilities in. I'm fairly sure that the hospital would have some field doctors. Can we get most of the planes in the airforce running by next week?" asked the Princess of Romania.

"Yes, your imperial majesty. There is no reason why we couldn't."

"In that case, make it done," said the Princess, over her shoulder, as she put on her tight black leather jacket, and prepared to take her plane for a spin.

[Sachmle]

Q: How does one propose to get said physicians INTO the planes to parachute them from to begin with?

[Valles]

A: Candy.

[TexanCowboy]

I'm expecting all of 10 to volunteer, out of a staff of 1,000....

Many of them will be the doctors of the Romanian Naval Air Wing.

[Sachmle]

OK, I presumed that you meant physicians from Italia's hospital ship, not local ones....who can just drive/ride their overland...

[TexanCowboy]

NO! Bad Samchle. *Thwaps with newspaper*

It's more fun this way, obviously.

[ctwaterman]

Looks at the 2 Amphibious Support Ships accompanying the Hospital Ship neither have more then a few troops aboard but what they do have is a huge number of Small Boats capable of carrying stretcher cases.  The IMS Mercy also has a good number of Small Boats.

The Italians propose bringing the Patients to the Operating Rooms and medical wards on the Hospital ship using medics and local troops brought in by train.

Im pretty sure the IMS Mercy can be in Varna in under a week,
Edit:
Given the priority of the need I figure I order a quick transit at high speed say 14 Knots, I add 2 days 1 for a priority transit of the Suez Canal, and another for a priority transit past Constantiople [ooops Istanbul]  and I can have my ships thier in roughly 7 Days.   If they had been in Taranto it would have only been 3 to 4 days.

[maddox]

2 weeks later, the Battledigger Gargantua arrives at Varna. The ancient workhorse has the job cut out for her.
Digging a new channel trough the sandbars, opening another channel so relief can reach the port better.


But.....

[TexanCowboy]

Varna Harbor
Febuary 11th, 1919
8:45 A.M.

Commander Litha Husbarna, commander of the effort to coordinate all of the foreign ships efforts in Varna, approached the IMS Mercy, the large Italian medical ship, by the Smuel's boat. After hailing the Mercy, he was allowed on board and was escorted to see the captain.

"The Romanian goverment, and people, thank you for the aid of you, and your ship, in aid the thousands of people left defenseless againist the elements after the explosion, Mi Captain," began Litha Husbarna, ending with a pathetic attempt to speak in Spanish.

Modestly, the Italian Captain replied, "It was the least we can do."

"However," started Commander Husbarna, "as you know, the port is blocked off. We understand that you have a huge number of small boats, but at certain points, we don't believe even that is possible to traverse the sandbars. We found this out the hard way, with one of the Smuel's boats sticking to the shore."

"Dear lord," replied the Italian Captain, shocked at how far out of the water it was.

"We have began shipping in canoes from Constanta, but, as you may understand, Romania does not have many military canoes, and so the 50 or so that are here will be all we have for the next week or two. We understand that we can get some of the patients on board with those, and we can also deliever supplies using a new method that our comrades in the Naval Air Wing began using last week," furnished the Commander.

"Really?" said the Italian Captain. "And what would that method be? Bombing them back to the Stone Age?"

"No, actually," replied the Commander, failing to catch the clear sarcasm in his voice."We plan to use the parachute, a circular silk cloth with strings attached to the package, to slow down air to allow the supplies to land safely. The Naval Air Wings commander, actually our empress, said it worked wonderfully, with just two fails in 36 attempts. With our large planes, we can drop half a ton worth of supplies in one go. Now my question is, do you have any supplies to spare that can be dropped in this method? Food, water, anything?"

The Italian Captain scratched his chin and looked out toward the port. "Not much," he replied,"with all of the projected casualities. But we do have a small amount of supplies that can be dropped this way, not more then ten tons. Can you work with that?"

"Certainly, Mi Captain!"

"In that case, I think that I should go down to the hold and start organizing men to transport it. Would you like to come, or.."

"I'll be leaving, sir. I need to get a report out to Bucharesti, and I still need to meet with the DKB ships."

[Desertfox]

Why don't the Romanians use the same method that caused the disaster to solve it? Just blow the sandbar. Faster, easier, cheaper... Oh and clear a landing strip, these ain't C-5s that need 10,000 ft concrete runways.

The Swiss are sending supplies via the Athens, but due to the distance, she will take some time to arrive.

Oh and why waste Spanish on the Italians?

[Walter]

I was just thinking...

Wikipedia:

Towards the end of World War I, Major Lewis H. Brereton and his superior Brigadier General Billy Mitchell suggested dropping elements of the United States 1st Infantry Division behind German lines near Metz. The operation was planned for February 1919 but the war ended before such an attack could be seriously planned.

Coincidence? Probably but I doubt it. :)