Silesian Confederate Navy

The Silesian Confederate Navy (SCN) was the armed space force of the Silesian Confederacy.
Internal affairs of the Confederacy caused the main duty of the SCN to be the suppression of secessionist movements. Therefore, the means to cope with the extensive piracy in the area were very limited. Corrupt Silesian politicians were also notorious for handing over SCN ships to pirates.HH0, HH10, HH11, Jayne's, 15-20% of the ships were long gone before 1920 PD. All these factors, as well as poor quality of both ships and personnel, made the Confederate Navy a second-rate fleet at the turn of the 20th Century PD.
Silesian warships used the prefix SCNS.
== History ==
(1672 - SI1)
== Structure and command ==
There were squadronsThere was an eight-unit fake battlecruiser squadron mentioned in HH11; four cruisers of the Chalice Navy in Sidemore were also called a squadron, however it could be the Chalice Privateer Squadron's legacy. () and divisions (comprising two units) mentioned, but SCN detachments were not described as fleets, task forces, task groups or squadrons. (, )
* Some commander of naval operations was probably appointed by the Confederacy's central government, located in the Silesia System, Silesia Sector.CA reinforcements mentioned in HH0 were directed by somebody to the Saginaw Sector, as well as the Sachsen naval department to the Psyche System in 1909 PD. In 1672 PD, the hypothetical capital navy detachment was weaker than a Manticoran task group consisting of a battleship squadron and two divisions of superdreadnoughts; that task group caused the fall of a piracy-supporting Silesian government.
* Sector Governors were military commanders-in-chief of their sector, assisted by a sector naval commander.In the Saginaw Sector in 1880 PD, the naval commander was a Commodore. There was no standard size for sector naval detachments; in 1880 PD, the Saginaw Sector's one included no ships bigger than a light cruiser. However, the Sachsen Sector's detachment around 1909 PD was described as powerful. Sector detachments appeared insufficient to suppress strong rebellions such as that in the Prism System or in the Chalice Cluster in a reasonable time.Both operated at least a dozen warships, including heavy cruisers.
* The system governor was assisted by a system naval commander with a command staff.A system governor was in charge of the local LAC security force in the Zoraster System. () There was no standard size for system navy detachment:
** it was possible that a battlecruiser squadron could be assigned to a system navy detachment.
** there were possibly systems where limited navy detachments were stationed; the Telmach System detachment was described as a "joke", the heaviest unit of the Schiller System detachment was a corvette charged with customs patrols (), and in the Zoraster System, there were probably only LACs. ()
** there were possibly systems whithout any navy detachment, like the Walther System in 1909 PD, which only had a small customs station. ()
=== Government monopoly on warships ===
The Confederacy's central government was leery about providing possible future secessionists with warships, so it implemented a prohibition against armed merchantmen as well as a refusal to countenance privately flagged warships in Silesian space. (, ) Also, Silesian protectorates had no right to establish their own navies. ()
Neighboring powers' warships presence had to be tolerated by the government; it accepted the Imperial Andermani Navy base in the Sachsen System. (, ) The IAN also maintained a small permanent picket in the Tyler's Star System. () Hauptman Lines' armed passenger liners were also allowed in Silesian space. ()
=== Auxilliary warrants ===
An exception from the governmental warship monopoly were auxillary warrants. There was a legal opportunity to obtain them, but they were only available through expensive patronage of government members. It was also well known that auxiliaries would never actually be called upon in their naval capacity; at least some ships with Silesian auxillary warrants were pirates themselves. Two auxillary ships belonged to Thomas Bachfisch of Manticore. ()
== Rank structure ==
: See: Silesian naval ranks
== Military actions ==
The most common military action for the SCN was the suppression of rebels, connected with the fight against regular and privateer fleets.It was even possible that privateer fleets were armed with battlecruisers. () Its other military activity were anti-piracy patrols () and merchant convoy protection. () Notable secessionists from the Confederacy were:
* the Council for an Independent Prism (CIP) with its Prism Space Navy. They seized half of the Prism System around 1880 PD, which was why SCN heavy cruiser reinforcements from the capital were involved.
* the Libau Independence Force, around 1895 PD ()
* Andre Warnecke's government in the Chalice Cluster, Terrance Sector, before 1909 PD. It took the SCN more than one T-year to drive them out.Remnants of the official privateer squadron included 4 CA, 2 CL and 6 DD in two classes; the remnants under Warnecke's command fled to Marsh and were later defeated by the RMN. ()
* the Psyche System in the Saginaw Sector. A rebellion was mentioned twice, in 1880 PD and again around 1909 PD, when Sachsen detachment was planned to be used there. (, )
* the Zoraster Freeman. ()
* the Logan Freedom Fighters. ()
Moreover, at least three secessionist governments in the Breslau and Posnan sectors hired privateers around 1909 PD. ()
== Examples of fraud and corruption ==
* Auxillary warrants were possible to obtain through patronage only. ()
* Around 1880 PD, light cruisers and frigates like the Lydia and the Javelin were sold to Prism rebels by Saginaw Sector Governor Janko Wegener and Commodore Nielsen, his sector navy detachment commander. ()
* At the same time, a number of destroyers were sold to Prism rebels by the Tumult Sector. ()
* In 1919 PD, Grayson intelligence managed to acquire access to a confidential report concerning an IAN patrol's stealth ambush. ()
* Around 1920 PD, it was discovered that one system governor and his local naval commander had listed a non-existing squadron of battlecruisers and twenty thousand personnel as present and on active duty to get the funds. ()
== Under Manticoran control ==
The Silesian Confederacy was divided between the Andermani Empire and the Star Kingdom of Manticore in 1920 PD, and the Andermani policy towards the SCN remnants in its influence sphere remained unclear.
The Royal Manticoran Navy established its own Silesia Station and appointed Admiral Mark Sarnow as its senior officer. Sarnow began reorganizing the Silesian forces by completely reshuffling the systems' command staffs and decommissioning older units while updating the official ship list.
There was a lot of passive resistance against Sarnow's instructions to decommission so many older units, and even more against the staff reshuffling. Also, it was not possible to account for almost thirty percent of the official ship list; at least half, but more likely two-thirds of the missing ships were long gone before the annexation of the Confederacy, including a battlecruiser whose very existence was in doubt. Some of those ships really did disappear, but it was suspected that some of them converted from part-time to full-time pirates. (, )
== Ships ==
The Silesian Confederate Navy consisted of light ships only.according to SITS, Shipbook 2.0, neighboring powers sent no bigger warships than battlecruisers. (, , ) The SCN used at least seven ship classes around 1900 PD:
* Mazur-class LAC
* corvetteIt is uncertain if this was a hyper-capable warship smaller than a frigate, or some kind of LAC. ()
* Gryf-class frigate
* Cheslav-class destroyer
* Wroclaw-class light cruiser
* Telmach-class and Jarmon-class heavy cruisersThe Telmach-class heavy cruiser Versimov was referred to in Jayne's; heavy cruisers, including small units, were mentioned around 1880 PD. ()
* Silesia-class battlecruiser ()
* auxillary armed merchant cruiserseg. Ambuscade and Pirates' Bane, latter one - rearmed and refited ex-Andermani Vogel-class armed collier with battlecruiser level armament; both ships were owned by Thomas Bachfisch (HH10)
In 1672 PD, the Confederate Navy comprised some modern units handed over by pirates after Commodore Saganami's anti-piracy campaign. () 
In 1880 PD, some of the older units were obsolete. In the 19th and 20th Century PD, the SCN had unified standards for sensor and EW systems, but those systems were inferior to their Manticoran or Havenite counterparts. (, , , ) 
Silesian-origin warships were built with more and stronger energy weapons than missile tubes.However, according to SITS imagery, Silesia-class BCs had 20 missile broadsides and few energy weapon ports, and a Chalice origin destroyer was as strongly armed as a Bastogne-/City-class one. A heavy cruiser-capable shipyard was present in the Chalice Cluster, Saginaw Sector. ()
== References ==
== External links ==
* Map of Silesia from HH6 and HH10 (Some Silesian systems, including Prism, not marked)
* specultative examples of Silesian origin vessels at Nefarious Honorverse Ship List
* Bohemian page with Sliesian naval officer picture by Thomas Marrone - left down corner
Category:Military
Category:Silesia