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5. TO All Officers
FROM Major Peter "OK, lets talk Gatling guns" Howland
Subject: OPERATION CRUMHORN
Colonel Killgore has rightly focused attention upon the manufacturing requirements of King Kurt's Gatling guns. I have consulted the Deenar III JIM-0000 archives [ Meta note, actually Jack Coggins' "Arms and Equipment of the Civil War" and Edwards' "Civil War Guns" ] and would add the following comments.
The first Gatling guns did not use a disposable brass cartridge case, but a re-usable, steel chamber. This chamber was filled with a standard paper cartridge with a lead, minie (conical) bullet and black powder charge, and fitted with a percussion cap. The loaded chambers were placed in a hopper on top of the gun, and the empty chambers dropped out of the breach. These could be collected in a bin mounted under the gun on the carriage. The rate of fire was 150 to 250 rounds per minute.
The gun used steel components including rifled barrels, but the weapon could have been made from cast iron, wrought iron and brass if so required [ IMHO; correct me if I'm wrong, Colonel. They had steel in 1862 so they used it. ]
The consumable items for this weapon are the bullet, gun powder charge and percussion cap. Standard Magrathean gun powder could be used;
spherical bullets can be used whether the barrels are rifled or smoothbore, since the gun is breach loaded; thus the only novel, consumable component is the percussion cap. I contend that these percussion caps might be hand assembled by Magrathean cottage industry rather than anachronistic machine tools. Fulminate of mercury is required for the charge and it seems more likely that this is imported.
But given this chemical the Magratheans should be capable of enclosing the necessary amount within two brass stampings, crimped together.
There is an obvious danger in handling the chemical and completed caps, but it is less hazardous than gunpowder [ at least I think it is; but it can hardly be much worse, so similar precautions should do ].
With regard to the Gatling guns themselves, I would expect these to have been imported and then mounted on gun carriages in Magrathea. It is therefore possible that whereas advanced chemicals and weapon design are being employed by King Kurt, no advanced manufacturing technology or machines are required. The re-usable steel chambers could be reloaded in the field by hand with standard gunpowder and spherical bullets (perhaps glued in place rather than in an anachronistic paper cartridge), plus the innovative percussion caps. It just takes time and care.
The point I am making is that there is not necessarily (although clearly there could be) an advanced factory for manufacturing bullets with disposable cartridges for the Gatling guns. The re-usable steel chambers require collection for reloading; a bin may be fitted below the breach of the gun to archive this which would also minimize the likelihood of finding this revealing evidence.
Whatever advanced facilities and techniques are being used by King Kurt, it will be necessary to discover the source of this technological leak, trace it back as far as possible and plug it there. As the CO so rightly points out, it will not be sufficient to remove all the means of producing these guns on Magrathea.
6. Debate Continutes
Major Howland
>>I recommend that such agents should be identified and then captured or eliminated first since this will cut communication with the source. The
>>removal of anachronistic technology can then follow. We need sigint to identify the com links to / from enemy agents before
>>acting against them.
Lt Kemp
>A quick spectrum scan should find them quickly, no-one else on the continent will be using anything that is an RF transmitter. A check on
>the ownership of satellites in orbit over that way wouldn't help. Nothing comms related has any purpose in being over Magrat on a regular
>basis, there wouldn't be any profit in it.
>We should also jam all frequencies we identify as carrying traffic as routine unless we decide that we don't want the external influences to
>know that we are on to them.
Lt Mepants (Imperial Intelligence):
We have already looked for transmissions. There are none. We believe, therefore, that the anachronistic enemy agents (or whomever they are) can't be communicating with the outside universe at present.
7. Databurst Update from JIM0000
There are quite a few hotspots on the continent. Most cities show up well due to the large number of unshielded cooking and heating fires - the widespread use of open fires with low levels of thermal insulation makes pinpointing separate heat sources from orbit more difficult.
There is a probability of a higher than normal level of heat (consistent with a particularly large blacksmith shop - or somewhere where they might fabricate musket barrels, say) in Fort Beneficial, Grand, Fort Alacrity, Homebase and several in Wise and Amos. IIA agents say that there is a large black powder mill on the outskirts of Wise, and another in Grand, where some of the ingredients are imported by river.
The Magratheans already make use of water power extensively for powering some small manufacturing processes. This tends not to show up well on thermal imaging - but is fairly obvious by direct observation.
8. To: All Officers
From: Lt Col Killgore, 130th EMR
Subject: OP CRUMHORN
For General Discussion.
Points:
• We don't need to capture a gun. An empty case will tell us all we need to know. Poor quality steel, and the Genie is out of the bottle. Brass, and the manufacturing is outside the southern continent (but probably on planet). Extremely high quality steel, and the manufacturing is elsewhere, but potentially more of a problem as they can refill them and running out of ammo will be slower when we "plug the leak". An empty case could be achieved by bribery etc. If not we may have to mount a preliminary operation to capture a gun or an empty case.
• Are we on King Kurt's side, or against him? If we are on his side, it will be difficult as the "leakers" will be looking for this sort of thing, so we will have to be continually on our guard for treachery. Small groups would be easier to infiltrate than large, and the risk of catastrophic loss is reduced. Special training and aptitude are needed and may not be available in the Regiment. If we are against him, life is easier to organise, and "more honest".
• We need to conduct some operational analysis on the Gatling guns deployments. If they are normally used from vantage points, we should be able select a likely battlefield and conceal personnel or explosives and detonate them when we can see the Gatling guns are in position. (Telescopes were available from about 1600 onwards so our high-grade optics should be able to be easily disguised, and satellite tracking should be able to do the rest).
(See Operational Analysis by IIA representatives.)
• The leak can be maintained by infrequent visits - but there will have to be visits. These will very probably come from the north. What are the capabilities for transport. Sea (or sub-surface) transport is the most likely. We need to conduce a detailed forensic survey of the coast of King Kurt's original kingdom for signs of a landing, unburned hydrocarbons, etc.
| Insert from JIM0000: Er..
Colonel...with respect...um...Irion is land-locked.
However, it has had friendly relations with Oldham for a long time - but without obvious modern technology and a close overflight capability, it would take a very long time (months, or possibly years) to do this sort of survey on the 600 kilometres of Oldham's coastline. The Deenar GF could step up submarine patrols along the coast though (it would seem that they tend to rely heavily on satellite recce - but this might not pick up a determined submarine smuggler). The only logged visits are equipment insertions for IIA field agents (rare) - and more common over the horizon interceptions of IIA sailing ships with IIA submersibles to off-load kit and personnel. |
• Organising the demolition of the black powder factory would be very easy to achieve. It will require the introduction of carefully selected binary chemicals (sodium chlorate and potassium permanganate) into the raw materials (carbon and saltpetre). When the gunpowder in ground up the chemicals become mixed and the reaction starts. Over a period of several hours (long enough to make it to the store) an exothermic reaction takes place, a fire starts and... the products of combustion are carbon-dioxide and water... This might force a communication from the "leakers", or at least some moves that will draw attention to important sites.
Comments?
T A Killgore
Lt Col, Commanding The 130th Regiment
Classification: RESTRICTED
9. Lt Rockford asks
>In passing, have Naval Int been able to rule out the Northern Colonists on Deenar (presumably loyal Imperial subjects?) as the source of the machine-gun
>technology?
Lt Mepants: Naval Intelligence believe it is highly unlikely that the Deenar colonists are behind such a dastardly plot.
Intelligence report that they are all loyal to the Empire because there hasn't been any major insurrection or disturbance here for over 75 years.
10. Lt Kemp thinks:
To: All Officers, 130 EMR
I've had another thought about how we could achieve some success after reading some histories of warfare in the period of earth history that
equates to the stage that the colonists on Magrat have regressed to.
Apparently it was quite common for the troops to loot when they captured places and usually all discipline broke. There is at least one famous account of an army losing the campaign because it came across a warehouse full of spirits and drank itself insensible to a man. The enemy too them all prisoner and sent them home by ship.
Perhaps we could arrange a similar fate for the army of King Kurt by arranging for a large warehouse, or perhaps several warehouses, full of spirits to be captured in front of their advance. We could then conduct a night operation when they were all roundly drunk and make good our escape before the bulk of the army was bale to react. Potentially we could also introduce some soporific drugs into their supplies such that those that didn't drink would also be sleeping things off.
Of course before we do all this we need to do some reconnaissance so that we know what we are up against. We also need to find some cartridge cases and deal with the powder mills as suggested by the colonel.
Lt. J M Kemp