PGR-21 class river gunboat
The PGR-21s, commissioned in 1333, were a unique class of riverine warships in two ways: they were designed by the navy but used by the army, and they were more heavily armoured than the navy's treaty cruisers. The class filled a special spot in Antaran military doctrine that arose from growing trends in the warfare unique to Antara's Western region, on her border with Ilyanora.
While inland seas gave the navy access to important coastal cities and choke points, there were a great deal many rivers that needed to be patrolled. While previous river gunboats could have done the job somewhat adequately, the military was worried by the prevalence aircraft and tanks began to play in war. This meant the 21s became one most heavily armoured river boats in the world, and we expected to come under fire from tanks, bombs and artillery from the shore.
Another threat that was only realized once the class had entered its design faze was naval incursion from the Ilyanorans. While the navy was already prospecting on the potential of mounting cruiser level artillery on the boat for shore bombardment, the naval threat further solidified the desire to install somewhat overkill weaponry on a river boat.
The artillery would be procured from the stocks of 8"/50 guns and mounts from the Cascadia class cruisers, who had swapped out their armament for the standardized 8"/55 gun. While the navy had plenty of guns in stock, the army wanted only six vessels and took the bill for the ships. The navy design went to the Bureau of Construction and Repair, who drew up the final plans and contracted the boats out to Riberton Naval Shipyard and Entarro State Shipyards.
When the World War erupted in June 1342, the six PGR-21s were at the forefront of the action. True to their design, no boats were sunk directly in naval combat or from fire from ground forces, rather half were sunk via sabotage, and one was boarded and captured, the ARS Lake Chimera. Chimera, was however sunk by 1000 pound bomb from an Antaran naval aircraft in February 1343. No monitors saw action against anything larger than torpedo boats or gunboats, with the exception of a destroyer which fled from combat.
When the boats were not offering fire support to ground forces along rivers, they were instead pounding coastlines meters from the shore. By the end of the war five gunboats were lost, the 5th by air attack (unrelated to Lake Chimera) in 1344.
Specifications
Tonnage - 2730 tonnes standard, 3050 tonnes full load
Speed - 15 knots
Range - 5000nm at 11 knots
Main battery - 1xII 203mm/50 Mk24
Secondary battery - 4xI 100mm/45, 2xI 152mm/45, various 12.7mm machine guns
Armor - 152mm main belt and conning tower, 100mm extended belt, 36mm deck amidships, 20mm fore and aft decks,
152mm turret face and barbettes, 100mm casemates
Complement - 215
Ships in class
Lake Anara - captured and ran aground, 1342
Lake Chimera - captured and sunk by aircraft, 1343
Lake Vissenu - destroyed by explosive charges, 1343
Lake Barton - sunk by aircraft, 1344
Lake Jinora - scrapped, 1348
Lake Rasmise - destroyed by explosive charges, 1342
That was primarily due to the fact that it had to be a river monitor instead of a regular one. Maybe next time i'll do a coastal monitor instead.
