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Forum Name: Our Witches at War/Gallian Gothic
Topic ID: 119
Message ID: 15
#15, RE: OWaW 22: To Glory We Steer
Posted by Gryphon on Dec-26-20 at 05:11 PM
In response to message #8
>I assume I am also parsing this right that since Fleet is over, most
>of what G is doing is finalizing and getting the rest of Mogami's rig
>right, at which time that engineering LT will take over as production,
>repair and refit supervisor?

That's the plan. That's why they brought in Nishimura in the first place, because G and Shizuka have to get back to their regular assignments eventually.

>If it was me, I'd homeport the Euginnie at castle
>rock, concentrating (for good or ill) the anti sea special magic
>forces in one place.

Crone Rock was an RAF base, so it doesn't have the kind of facilities required to support a heavy cruiser (particularly one with Prinzessin Eugenie's, uh, special needs), but there is a Royal Dockyard in nearby Dover that could be modified for the purpose relatively easily. Most Reichsmarine facilities in wartime Europe are in Gallia, though, rather than Britannia, so they would be more likely to set something up in Calais, which is right across the Strait of Dover (much nearer to Folkestone than Le Havre).

>Also, from Shirley's comment about ON the water, one gets the feeling
>there is the occasional sea witch, but they don't skate across the top
>of the water the way Kanmusu do? Meh. To much curiosity.
>Investigating it too closely.

There are sea witches; they operate underwater rather than in the air, and are both less numerous and much less famous than their flying cousins. They mostly have to contend with "land" Neuroi that are walking on the bottom of bodies of water. "Swimming" Neuroi are a new wrinkle.

I actually wanted and originally planned to include one of Karlsland's Unterseehexen in this story arc, but it was already so busy and had so many moving parts that it turned out not to be practical—although we can assume that a U-witch or two were among the force that responded to secure the area at the end of the battle in this ep (and probably one or two Gallian and/or Britannian sub witches as well).

Part of the reason why the sea witches are not as famous as their flying counterparts is because their operations take place out of sight, where the public can't witness them, but mainly it's because the Britannian government deliberately kept them and their activities very secret during the Battle of Britannia. The fact that the Neuroi didn't have anything like ships was one of the propaganda levers they used to maintain public calm in the period when Britannia stood alone in Europe.

The assumption among the brass was always that, if the aerial Neuroi could gain air superiority over the Channel and the southern coast of Grand Britannia, the true invasion would come in the form of ground Neuroi walking across the bottom of the Strait of Dover and flooding unopposed onto the beaches of Kent. By focusing the public's attention on the threat from the air, they hoped to avoid the panic that might ensue if people twigged to the danger from the sea. And it mostly worked! But the upshot is that most Britannian civilians don't know the part that the submarine witches played in securing the Channel while the air forces were holding the line above.

(Meanwhile, on mainland Europe, they didn't have much of a part to play, though a few nations developed the technology anyway, because what else are you going to do with a witch whose familiar is a fish?)

--G.
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