(Armored) Cruiser Fight-1916
Disclaimer
This scenario is a complete fantasy that stems from my personal affinity for armored cruisers and their first cousins, second class pre-dreadnought battleships. I wanted to see what might happen if the best (IMHO) designs of armored cruisers from the various navies involved in WWI clashed in a daylight fight. That grew into what can now only be described as a cruiser fleet action involving cruiser squadrons from every navy involved.
I wanted each ship involved to have at least the following attributes; CA armor, 4 main guns of 10” to 7.5” in caliber and 20 knots of speed. I found that I had to use some 2nd class pre-dreadnought battleships to make up numbers for the Austrians and I also substituted 2 of the (what some call) pre-dreadnought battle cruisers for the Japanese to give the squadron some strength (these are the only 12” ships in the scenario).
Situation (a total of many what ifs)
The German Far East Squadron rather than breaking for home had succeeded in making its way into the Mediterranean Sea. In addition most of the armored cruisers in home waters had been sent to reinforce the Mediterranean squadron before the outbreak of war. Both groups of German cruisers had joined in the Adriatic Sea in hope of keeping Italy true their alliance while the Goeben and the light cruisers made for Turkey. This had resulted in the cruisers being bottled up in the Adriatic by the French and British.
On the Allied side, the Russians had sent Rurik and Rossia to Britain just before the outbreak of war to show the flag and hopefully inspire the Czar’s cousin to support Russia. Being cut off from the Baltic upon the outbreak of war they (with British blessing) transferred to the Mediterranean to support the Allied effort against Turkey as this would have allowed them to join the Black Sea Fleet. The Brits faced with the German cruiser reinforcement of the Mediterranean theater felt compelled to reply in kind and sent the 2nd Cruiser Squadron to reinforce the 1st Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean Fleet.
As for the neutrals; Italy remained neutral until late 1915 when she decided to hold to her treaty and joined the Central Powers. Greece upon seeing the Allies move against Turkey joined them. Japan looked at her strategic and resource needs and concluded there was more to gain by taking from the Allies than by joining them and threw in her lot with the Central Powers sending a cruiser squadron to support the Central Powers in the Mediterranean (the squadron transited the Suez before Japan made her intentions known). Japan’s repudiation of her alliance with Britain forced America’s hand and brought her into the war in early 1916 to protect her possessions in the Pacific. The U.S. matched the Japanese deployment to the Med with a squadron of her own cruisers.
At this point the scene is set; its mid-summer 1916 and the Central Power Combined Cruiser Fleet under Vice Admiral Graf Spee is trying to break out of the Adriatic into the Mediterranean to raid troop and supply convoys and a Combined Allied Cruiser Fleet under Vice Admiral Robeck is trying to stop them.
The Set Up
Time: 0800 hours Wind: Force 3 NE Visibility: 19,000 yards Sea Haze: N -1,000 yards
Squalls: Not yet Gunnery: US & Germans DCT, everyone else is Local
The fleets are 19,000 yards apart in 4 line astern squadron columns at deployment distance when they sight one another. The Central Powers are to the NE heading S and the Allies are to the SW heading N.
Vice Admiral Graf von Spee decided to try get around the Allies to the west but his Italian 2IC, Vice Admiral Condonte misunderstood his intent and tried to get past the Allies to the east. This placed von Spee with the German and mixed Austro-Hungarian/German squadrons against Vice Admiral Robeck with the Royal Navy and Marine Francaise squadrons while Condonte with the Regia Marina and Japanese squadrons took on the American and mixed Russo, Royal Navy and Greek squadrons under Vice Admiral Pereria.
The wind held steady for an hour from the north east while German gunnery although obscured by funnel smoke pounded the French squadron sinking Victor Hugo, knocking out all Jules Ferry’s main armament, halving Leon Gambetta’s main armament and forward guns of Edgar Quinet for no damage in return. The Austro-Hungarian/German squadron traded shots with Robeck’s Royal Navy squadron during this same period suffering minor damage and inflicting nothing in return.
To the east the U.S. Navy cruisers showed the world what really good (dice) gunnery was all about knocking the stuffing out of the Regia Marina by knocking out turret after turret while the Italians showed what really good (dice) damage control is by repairing half the turrets they lost. The Americans also reduced the Italians to 18 knots. In return Seattle lost her fore turret and San Diego was reduced to 19 knots. The Americans also reduced Ikoma to 16 knots and knocked out Asama’s fore turret. On the down side, American efforts at damage control reduced Seattle’s fore turret to something only a dockyard could fix. The mixed Russo/Greek/RN squadron followed behind waiting for its chance to clean up whatever the Americans left for it.
The Allies caused 15 hits total while the Central Powers inflicted 11 in return. The bulkhead hit on Victor Hugo was the hit that caused the most damage as it eventually sank Victor Hugo. The excessive funnel smoke had reduced visibility to 17,000 yards by the time we called the game. The Central Powers failed to achieve their objective (exit 4 undamaged ships) but caused more damage. We ran this with only 4 players (I did not push and only refereed the game) and 3 hours of game time and got 10 turns done.
I intend to run this next year at Enfilade as my nod to Jutland’s 100 year anniversary in an 8 hour time block. In retrospect, I should have used the wide side of the table for each side’s rear and dropped the funnel smoke gunnery modifier which I will do when I run it again.
Allied Cruiser Fleet-Vice Admiral Robeck Central Powers Cruiser Fleet-Vice Admiral Graf von Spee
1st Cruiser Squadron-Rear Admiral Moore Far East Asia Squadron- “
CA HMS Defense SF CA SMS Bluecher FF
CA HMS Warrior CA SMS Gneisenau SF
CA HMS Duke of Edinburgh CA SMS Scharnhorst
CA HMS Black Prince CA SMS Yorck
CA HMS Achilles FF CA SMS Roon
CA HMS Natal CA SMS Prinz Adlbert
1st Leger Escadron-Contre Admiral Robere KuK Cruiser Squadron-Rear Prestonovik
CA MFS Edgar Quinet SF PDB KuK Erzherzog Friedrich SF
CA MFS Waldeck Rousseau PDB KuK Erzherzog Karl
CA MFS Leon Gambetta PDB KuK Erzherzog Ferdinand Max
CA MFS Jules Ferry CA KuK Kaiser Karl VI
CA MFS Victor Hugo CA KuK Sankt Georg
CA MFS Ernest Renan CA SMS Friedrich Karl
Atlantic Cruiser Squadron-Vice Admiral Pereira 5th Battle Squadron-Rear Admiral Trifari
CA USS Seattle SF CA RMS Pisa DF
CA USS Missoula CA RMS Amalfi
CA USS Memphis CA RMS San Marco
CA USS Charlotte CA RMS San Giorgio
CA USS Pittsburg CA RMS Garibaldi
CA USS San Diego CA RMS Varese
Allied Cruiser Squadron-Rear Admiral Pererovski Sentai 3-Vice Admiral Condonsama
CA IRS Rurik SF BC IJS Tsukuma SF
CA IRS Rossia BC IJS Ikoma
CA HHMS Georges Averof CA IJS Azuma
CA HMS Minotaur CA IJS Yakumo
CA HMS Shannon CA IJS Asama
CA HMS Cochrane CA IJS Tokiwa
