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#16970 2nd Vella LaVella

Posted by Thomas J Fitzgerald on 04 February 2024 - 06:51 PM

2nd Vella LaVella continued.

 

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2300 USN begins some radical turns to port and starboard aiming to evade torpedoes. This was initially successful until an 8 point turn to port placed the Selfridge in the path of one of Kazekumos spreads at just beyond 5000 yards. This shot did considerable hull damage and another engineering hit. Quick and effective reaction by the damage control teams restored power but the ship was still limited to 23kts due to the hull damage and previous engineering hit.

 

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Gun fire continues with Kazekumo now taking the brunt. She ultimately takes 15 5” hits leaving her without guns or torpedo tubes and down to 19kts.

 

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Kazekumo attempts to disengage under the cover of smoke while Samidare accelerates to 30kts hearing due north. The USN formation settles on course 270 and just becomes aware of the Transport Group DDs. These old DDs moved to the south to assist their modern sisters who were being roughly handled up to this point.

 

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2309 with Selfridge starting to feel the results of her cumulative damage, Walker orders smoke and a 90 simultaneous port turn to the south. At the same time Samidare takes a Parthian shot with 8 Type 93s (2 groups of 4 each). At just short of 4800 yards they just miss astern of Chevalier but intersect O’Bannon just to starboard. O’Bannon is hit by 1 torpedo from the 1st spread and unluckily (or not if you were the IJN) 3 more from the 2nd spread! Hit by 4 Type 93’s O’Bannon disintegrates.

 

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A longer shot of the O’Bannon hits with Kazekumo on fire and trying to disengage.

 

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Additional gunfire erupts between the Transport Group DDs and Walkers formation. The Fumizuki is roughly handled but Selfridge takes another engineering hit and this time she can’t repair the damage. She begins to coast to a stop. At 2309 Yunagi fires 6 old 21” torpedoes and after a run of 3000 yards hits Selfridge 3 times. Selfridge can take no more and Commander Walker is going for a swim.

 

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The Larson formation is closing the action but will arrive too late to do anything but rescue Selfridge and O’Bannon survivors if any, and perhaps pick up some Japanese prisoners. The IJN recall the small craft leaving the garrison to their fate.

 

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The waters off Vella Lavella are still again with 3 IJN and 2 USN DDs on the bottom.


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#16939 1st Vella LaVella

Posted by Thomas J Fitzgerald on 09 January 2024 - 08:54 PM

After a few months naval gaming pause we got back to the Central Solomons Campaign. This was the 8th action of the campaign and is based on the historical action off Horaniu. (OOBs are slightly different due to losses in previous campaign actions).

 

1st Vella Lavella 8/18/1943

Ref:        “USN Against the Axis” pg. 195-198

                “Dark Waters, Starry Skies” pg 384-392

Time: 0040-0130

WX: Squalls (1x D6 in area with a max of 4), light breeze glassy = Force 2. 6 Kt wind. Smoke last 2 turns. 2 days past full = Full Moon.

 

USN Forces                                                                                                         IJN Forces

O’Bannon (flag) DesDiv 41                                                                           Sazanami (flag) DesRon 3

Taylor                                                                                                            Arashi

Chevalier                                                                                                      Kawakaze

Jenkins                                                                                                         Isokaze

                                                                                                                     15x barges (5 groups of 3)

                                                                                                                     4x PT {2 groups of 2)

                                                                                                                     2x PC (1 group of 2)

 

USN Mission: Interdict enemy supply mission. By sinking at least 50% of enemy small craft traffic.

IJN Mission: Deliver troops/Supplies to Horaniu on Vella Lavella to establish a barge base. Small craft must exit south edge. DD escort to exit west edge.

Notes: Torpedo dud rate: USN = 1-3 (D12), IJN = 1 (d12).

USN may launch torpedoes on radar contacts.

IJN has 1xPete floatplane in the air. A roll of 1-2 on a D12 in the detection phase indicates the Pete has located the USN task force. Once located the Pete may illuminate 2x during the game. If illuminating the Pete may be attacked by short range AA fire but only ODD results on the AA table will have effect due to night. AA fire will reveal a ships position but not count as illuminated for gun fire purposes. It will cause a 2 columns left shift for visual detection.

Small Craft are engaged using the AA tables. Due to night engagement only ODD results have effect (unless targets can be illuminated).

 

Setup:

Vella Lavella is on the south edge of the table with the small craft formation due north at 12k yards.

The USN formation with O’Bannon in the lead bearing 100 at 21k yards from the small craft formation. USN formation in column with course between 270-340 and speed between 25-30 kts (at player’s choice).

IJN Approx. 9-10k yards bearing 020 from small craft formation. Kawakaze and Isokaze in column, Sazanami and Arashi in column echelon to port of Isokaze. Course parallel to USN formation. Speed 20-25 kts (player’s choice).

 

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IJN DD formation initially detected by radar indicated by markers place on contact blips. Small craft to the west of the DDs. Even with a full moon spotting these would prove to be very difficult for the USN player.

 

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USN formation sprinting toward the radar contacts at 30kts. As the models are on the table it indicates they have already been spotted by the IJN formation

 

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The USN visually acquires the IJN formation which has consolidated into a single column and begins a starboard turn. The USN formation is about 15K yards away. Still too far for effective shooting by either side. But visible in this shot is the Pete searching for the USN formation.

 

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Sazanami, Arashi and Kawakaze between them launch 14 torpedoes assuming the USN would continue moving to the west. Unfortunately the US DDs execute a well timed 90 degree turn to starboard causing all torpedoes to miss. In the pic you can see the torpedo markers off the port side of the US formation. Their launch points are visible at the top of the pic. Sazanami's Type 90's lag behind the faster Type 93's fired by Arashi and Kawakaze.

 

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USN illuminates and opens fire concentrating on Kawakaze. Pete manages to find the USN formation and also illuminates. All IJN gunfire misses the mark, but the USN tags Kawakaze 3 times taking out both aft 5" mounts and the aft torpedo mount. (A search light was also lost). The IJN held one mounts worth of torpedoes in reserve and Isokaze prepared to launch another spread of four type 93's.

 

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The USN held course prepping for their own torpedo launch but paid the price with the Jenkins taking a type 93 from Isokaze's spread of 4 sinking her outright. 

 

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Isokaze pays the price for her success by becoming the favored gunnery target. She takes 10 5" hits. She lost 2 5" mounts a torpedo mount her DC rails a fire, bulkhead and bridge critical were added to her woes. Ultimately reduced to 19Kts due to progressive fire and flood she was fortunate that the bridge crit locked her on course toward the cover of a squall. At this time in the action the USN also launch 15 torpedoes on the 33Kt long range setting.

 

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Fortunately for the IJN they were fast enough to outrun all these torpedoes (markers visible in lower right corner). The small craft commanders were less than thrilled when the DD's tore through their formation while heading for the cover of a squall line. 

 

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The action ends with the IJN DDs reaching the cover of the squall line. Isokaze manages to control the fire and flood and the small craft are never actually detected by the USN. Unknown to the IJN the US force was out of ammo firing prodigious amounts of 5" using rapid fire rates the entire action. Even had the US remained in the area to hunt for small craft they would have been limited to close range AA weapons. 


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#11158 General Quarters 3.3 AAR September 2013

Posted by Adam H. Jones III on 05 November 2013 - 03:07 PM

This is an after action report of a General Quarters 3.3 game played at Recruits convention 2013 in Lee’s Summit, MO on September 14, 2013. The scenario was generated by using the scenario generation system included in the GQ 3.3 rules. The scenario involves a Japanese destroyer transport task force of four converted WW I destroyer transports( PB 2, PB 31, PB 35, PB 36) carrying supplies to a base located in the Solomon Island chain in late August of 1943. Leading the destroyer transports is the light cruiser IJN Abukuma. Escorting the destroyer transports is the heavy cruiser IJN Myoko and a division of four Kagero class destroyers ( IJN Hatsukaze, IJN Yukikaze, IJN Shiranui, IJN Urakaze)with the light cruiser IJN Nagara leading the destroyer division. The night seas are calm with no clouds and a full moon. As the Japanese move through the channels of the Solomon’s toward their objective, they stumble across a US cruiser task force of two heavy cruisers(USS New Orleans, USS Chester), one light cruiser(USS San Diego) and four Sims class destroyers(USS Russell, USS Morris, USS Anderson, USS Hughes). The US task force is sailing to perform a bombardment mission on an island scheduled to be invaded next month. Both forces are surprised to see an enemy task force interfering with their missions:

The US cruiser task force, having organized in line ahead formation, was cruising at twenty one knots; weaving through the island studded channel toward their objective a few hours away. Tasked to arrive in the early morning, the cruisers were scheduled to bombard a Japanese held island to inflict maximum damage on the garrison as preparation for an invasion next month continued. The destroyers USS Russell and Morris led the column followed by USS New Orleans and Chester and USS San Diego. US destroyers USS Anderson and USS Hughes brought up the rear of the column. The admiral of this force was stationed on USS New Orleans. He patiently sat in the command chair on the bridge as the ships quietly glided through the unusually calm waters and clear night sky. The silence of the bridge is broken as the TBS (Talk between Ships) radio crackled to life. An ensign wrote quickly as the TBS spilled forth its report, unintelligible gibberish to the admiral located away from the radio room. The ensign approached the admiral, paper in hand, and reported to the admiral that the lead destroyer, USS Russell, had a radar contact bearing 300 degrees, range 20,000 yards. The contact appeared to be three distinct groups of ships. The admiral nodded as he listened to the report and replied to the ensign to tell USS Russell to continue to track the contact and send updates every five minutes. The admiral turns to the captain of USS New Orleans. He tells the captain to send to all ships….increase to max speed and send the task force to General Quarters!!!
About the time that General Quarters was sounded throughout the US task force, the Japanese admiral on board the heavy cruiser IJN Myoko was still oblivious that a US task force was nearby. The resupply force commanded by the Japanese admiral consisted of two distinct divisions: one was the destroyer transport division of four converted WWII destroyers that had guns and boilers removed to make room for a cargo hold and a landing barge to unload and load supplies to garrisons without harbor facilities. The once speedy destroyers are now slow, eighteen knot cargo vessels that are well suited for work within the confined waters of the Solomon Islands. The destroyer transports had the light cruiser IJN Abukuma escorting them to their scheduled location. The IJN Myoko was not alone. Myoko had a division of four destroyers led by the light cruiser Nagara. The IJN Myoko and the attendant destroyer division were tasked to protect the destroyer transports so they could deliver their precious cargo to the island garrison.
So far, the mission had gone without any interference by the enemy. The Japanese admiral was confident that his experienced sailors would spot trouble in plenty of time. The Japanese heavy cruiser was sailing toward a tight channel between two small unnamed islands to provide a screen as the destroyer transport division transited the gap between the islands. IJN Myoko was intending to hug the shore of one of the islands and swing around the island and hide in the shadow of the island to degrade the ever improving radar on the US vessels. The IJN Nagara and her destroyers were following IJN Myoko to assist in the screening. Just as IJN Myoko approached close to the island to begin her close swing around, lookouts shouted that unidentified ships have been spotted some 20,000 yards off of the starboard bow of the cruiser. At the same time, bright gun flashes broke the darkness from in front of the Japanese heavy cruiser and huge splashes appeared around IJN Myoko. The combination of the gun flashes and lookouts confirmed to the Japanese admiral that a US force was in front of him and had gotten in the first blow.
The US admiral had a clear picture of what he was facing thanks to the magic of radar. A large vessel led a column of ships that approached the channel. If ignored, the enemy column would push in front of his task force. The large vessel was followed by another large vessel and at least four smaller vessels. This was most likely two cruisers leading four destroyers. There was another group of ships with one cruiser target leading four slow moving smaller targets. This force was moving behind the small island. The US task force readied their guns and waited for the fire control director to let them know that they have a visual on the large cruiser target approaching them. The two rear destroyers sped up to maximum speed, swung out from behind USS San Diego and were pushing forward toward the expected battle. Just as the admiral had sorted out all of the data in his head, he heard the fire control director bark that a Japanese cruiser was spotted leading a column of ships visually some 20,000 yards away and requested to open fire…the admiral’s positive response was immediately lost with the boom of the eight inch cruiser guns.
The Japanese admiral did not hesitate due to the intense fire coming from the US cruisers. Calmly, he ordered the cruiser to return fire. IJN Myoko fired back with her forward turrets at her shooters with unknown effect. The US fire as well was not hitting anything. The Japanese admiral knew that the string of good luck would not last. The Japanese admiral’s concentration was interrupted by a report that the light cruiser following him had swung out of the line and taking the four destroyers with him. It appeared that the cruiser captain was attempting to close to torpedo range with his charges. The Japanese admiral watched as the column soon faded into the dark heading toward the rear of the US cruiser force. The USS New Orleans and USS Chester ignored the new move and continued to concentrate on the heavy cruiser. The Japanese admiral’s prediction of their luck came true as the US cruisers began to find their target. IJN Myoko took two eight inch hits that smashed into the hull but doing no significant damage. IJN Myoko’s guns were hitting the area around the US cruisers as well but nothing visual was telling the admiral how effective his return fire was. Both sides traded shots that did not seem to do any more significant damage. The US destroyers USS Russell and USS Morris began to fire at the cruiser as well. The US destroyer’s rapid firing 5’ guns peppered the IJN Myoko with multiple hits and did take out two of the IJN Myoko’s secondary five inch AA guns, but most of the hits were ineffective as they could not penetrate the thick cruiser armor.
There is a decisive moment in the flow of a battle that moves the direction toward victory to one side or another. This battle between the Japanese and the US was no different. Here is the tactical situation at the decisive moment for this battle. The heavy cruiser IJN Myoko is steaming at close to top speed toward a small island with the intention of hugging the shore of the island and swing around to use the island’s shadow to decrease US radar effectiveness. IJN Myoko’s move was detected by the US cruiser task force and now the Japanese heavy cruiser is the sole target of every US ship that is firing. The light cruiser IJN Nagara and the destroyer force that was following IJN Myoko has broken away from the heavy cruiser and is streaking toward the rear of the US cruiser line with the intention of launching their deadly cargo of “Long Lance” torpedoes. The USS San Diego and two destroyers located at the rear of the US line have just spotted the Japanese destroyer line and have begun to engage them. USS New Orleans and USS Chester are continuing to fire at the IJN Myoko as the Japanese cruiser steers toward the small island. US destroyers USS Russell and Morris have added their rapid firing five inch guns to the broadsides by the two US cruisers. The Japanese destroyer transports led by the light cruiser IJN Abukuma have been effectively screened by the Japanese warships and have slipped behind the same small island that IJN Myoko is steering toward. So far the destroyer transports have avoided being engaged. Both sides have avoided major damage from each other gunfire although IJN Myoko has taken two eight inch shell hits into her hull and non-penetrating five inch hits have destroyed two of IJN Myoko’s five inch secondary batteries. IJN Myoko continues to fire her forward eight inch turrets at the US cruisers with no telling hits observed. The US cruisers USS New Orleans and USS Chester along with the destroyers USS Russell and USS Morris return fire.
All of the US ships open fire simultaneously sending a blizzard of eight inch and five inch shells streaking toward the IJN Myoko. The eight inch salvos straddle IJN Myoko with two shells striking her. One twenty four inch torpedo mount disintegrates and bursts into flames. The other shell penetrates into IJN Myoko’s hull and adds to the damage already inflicted by previous hits. The swarm of five inch shells adds their effects to the eight inch shell hits. Four of the swarm hit the thickly armored sections of the ship, adding their explosive effects to the sight of the IJN Myoko being swamped by gunfire but doing no damage. The fifth five inch shell, for reason only known to scientist and God, took a slightly higher trajectory toward the Japanese heavy cruiser. While the other shells hit low on the ship, this shell bore in and struck the unarmored bridge of IJN Myoko.
The Japanese admiral was just beginning to send the order to slightly change course to avoid the island when the US five inch shell slammed into the bridge and exploded. The admiral never got to finish the order as the explosion killed all on the bridge instantly. The IJN Myoko continued on her present course and speed…which meant that six minutes later, IJN Myoko slammed aground on the small island.
The US cruisers did not show IJN Myoko any sympathy for her plight as USS New Orleans and USS Chester continued to shoot at the now grounded Japanese heavy cruiser. The US destroyers decided that maybe this is a good time to launch torpedoes at the hapless IJN Myoko. Torpedoes shot out from USS Russell and USS Morris and they appeared to run hot, straight, and normal. The angle of attack however had the torpedoes transit over the shallow reef before hitting the now grounded Japanese heavy cruiser. The torpedoes slammed into the reef and exploded harmlessly.
The balance of the Japanese force watched in horror as IJN Myoko slammed into the island. The will to fight drained from the two division commanders and all decided that this supply run needed to be aborted. The destroyer transport division used the small island as an effective screen and swung to return to their starting point. The IJN Nagara and her charges had just set up to launch torpedoes when the IJN Myoko grounded. The IJN Nagara’s captain aborted the launch and ordered a general retreat.
The US admiral was elated when he saw the result of their last broadsides. Staring at the burning Japanese heavy cruiser cocked at angle as it lay stranded on the reef sent a wave of satisfaction through him. The US admiral did not savor his victory too long as he still had a job to do. The US admiral sent an order for all ships to cease fire and to reform the battle line. The admiral also sent a message back to naval headquarters notifying them of the battle and sent a position report of a Japanese heavy cruiser grounded. The US admiral knew that in the morning, the planes from Henderson field would seek out the cripple and destroy her. The US admiral sat back into his chair and resumed his mission to sail to the island that he was scheduled to bombard in the morning.
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#17106 Hussars Shipyard

Posted by Thomas J Fitzgerald on 11 March 2024 - 10:18 AM

USS Gambier Bay 

Gambier 4b

 


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#17036 Task Force 5

Posted by W. Clark on 23 February 2024 - 11:42 PM

Task Force 5

GT2 DTMB 1-15 January 1942

USN Sweep vs Japanese Invasion Convoy & Escort

RAdm Glassford looked at the ship’s chronometer, it was 1200 hours and he was already coffeed out. Task Force 5 had sortied from Surabaya the night before. Intel said that there were Japanese invasion convoys at sea. That was a real help. Where else would invasion convoys be? What would have been nice was some clue as to where they were going but the Intel Types had been just as clueless as he was on that subject. Glassford rejected trying for Ceram or Celebes. He would leave that to Crace and the ANZAC Squadron. He would stake his claim on the east coast of Borneo. Tarakan or Balikpapan was his best guess but he would look in on Banjermasin in passing.

 

Task Force 5 was the USN in this part of the world. The ABDA was still forming so, he still did his reporting to the USN Asiatic Fleet under Admiral Hart and Hart had told him to find something Japanese and sink it. Glassford took that instruction to heart as Hart had gone out on a limb for him to augment his force by pirating Pensacola from convoy escort. He’d try and return her in the shape they borrowed her in but that was not guaranteed.

 

Task Force 5 was steaming North at 25 knots led by DesRon 29 (John Paul Jones) and DesDiv 57 (John D. Edwards, Alden, Edsall & Whipple) in line abreast as a screen. They were followed by the cruiser division (Houston, Pensacola, Boise & Marblehead) under Glassford. DesDivs 58 (Stuart, Parrott, Barker & Bulmer) and 59 (John D. Ford, Pope, Peary & Pillsbury) were in divisional columns to port and starboard respectively of the cruisers.

 

Task Force 5 was a series of that’s OK and that’s not so good with later outnumbering the former. On the plus side was that it was daylight and Japanese LBA must be some where else. The Clemsons had all made the trip so far and given their age that was unexpected. And they had 10 more 8-inch guns than normally. Then there was the minus. This was a much longer list that we’ll save for another time.

 

The wind was a Force 2 from the North at 4 knots. Who rang up this weather. Glassford didn’t mind wind. He just didn’t like wind from the North or anywhere near there. It did not help him at all. He’d have been very happy with wind from the East or West and ecstatic over wind from the South. At least smoke would last a bit if he ran into more than Task Force 5 could handle. The sky had at least 3 layers of clouds and the overcast probably was the real explanative for the absence of LBA. There were squalls (he could see 3) dotted over the sea to the north and crawling towards him. There was also Sea Haze to the North and he was sure that he could not see North as well as someone could looking South. Glassford would turn out to right as the fog reduced visibility northward 2,000 yards. Otherwise, visibility was about 27,000 yards. Too far as far as Glassford saw it.

 

Glassford decided to launch FP. He’d look into the Borneo ports and if nothing was there, he would recover his FP and RTB to Surabaya.

 

1400 hours Banjermasin and Balikpapan had been clear, now for Tarakan and home. 1406 hours Glassford’s FPs reported enemy ships bearing 45 degrees on course for Tarakan. Glassford ruefully thought; you always find what you’re looking for in the last place you look.

 

Glassford ordered Task Force 5 to flank speed but kept the same relative formation until he had a better idea of what he was facing.

 

1412 hours FP reported 4 cruisers, 12 destroyers, 8 APs, 1 AV and probably a partridge in a freaking pear tree. The Japanese formation mostly mirrored his but a cruiser now determined to be light led the bunch at about 11 knots.

 

And now for said the weatherman. The wind had freshened to Force 4 and veered to the Northeast (worse and worse thought Glassford). There were more squalls but they were not going to help him coming from dead behind the Japanese. At least the haze was gone.

 

Glassford would have liked to get his flush decks involved but their 4” popguns were useless and their torps had short legs and there was no cover. Nope, this was daylight gun fight and he was as well off as he could expect to be. Glassford turned Task Force 5 to a 90-degree heading and stationed his destroyers fore and aft to his unengaged side. DesRon 29 with DesDivs 57 & 58 would lead and DesDiv 59 would trail.

 

1418 hours FP reported that the Japanese were increasing speed appeared to be reforming along the same lines as he had. They must have a spy in the sky Glassford thought. Well, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

1430 hours The Japanese came into sight with a light cruiser leading 8 destroyers followed by 3 heavy cruisers and then 4 more destroyers. 30 eight inch to his 19 gave him pause but he considered Marblehead a match for any Japanese light cruiser and Boise’s fifteen six inch surely redressed the balance to some degree. What was it some Army puke had quoted from Napoleon. Oh, yeah “First you engage and then you see”. Glassford tried to forget Nappy’s naval record even as he followed his advice.

 

1430 till 1442 nether side opened until the range had come down to 21,000 yards. Then the Japanese heavies opened on their USN counterparts and Boise. The USN cruisers fired back and Marblehead engaged the light cruiser, who returned fire.

The Japanese missed Houston, Pensacola and Marblehead and bounced off Boise’s fore turret. Houston hit the lead heavy (later identified as Haguro) thrice, and Pensacola did the same to the second heavy (later identified as Myoko). Boise and Marblehead missed. Haguro had her FP facilities damaged and a fire and minor damage to her hull. But Myoko lost her fore turret and suffered minor hull damage as well as a bounce off her belt.

 

1448 hours Haguro failed to put her fire out and that minor damage when coupled with earlier damage slowed her to 30 knots. The range came down a bit but not enough and both sides engaged as before. Haguro hit Houston twice. Myoko missed. And Nachi hit Boise once while Jintsu missed Marblehead. Houston hit Haguro once as Pensacola hit Myoko. Boise hit Nachi once and Marblehead missed.

Houston lost her fore turret and suffered an engine hit. Nachi’s hit bounced off Boise’s belt. Houston knocked out another fore turret on Haguro. Myoko had damaged FP facilities and a fire started. Nachi had her FP facilities damaged and a fire started.

 

1454 hours Haguro failed to put out her fire and suffered further minor hull damage. Myoko and Nachi put their fires out. Houston fixed her engine hit. The range had come down to 18,000 yards. This (per the CRT) was supposed to make things better for IJN. It did. Haguro hit Houston twice. Myoko hit Pensacola once. Nachi missed Boise and Jintsu missed Marblehead. Houston missed as did Pensacola. Boise hit Nachi twice and Marblehead missed Jintsu.

Houston took another engine hit and hull damage slowing her to 29 knots. Pensacola lost her fore turret. Nachi lost a secondary and suffered minor hull damage.

 

1500 hours. Haguro failed to fix her fire and that slowed her to 26 knots. The range was coming down but still exceeded 15,000 yards. Both sides engaged their previous targets. Houston missed and Pensacola hit Myoko once. Boise hit Nachi once. Marblehead hit Jintsu once. Haguro hit Houston twice and Myoko hit Pensacola twice. Nachi hit Boise twice. Jintsu missed.

Houston lost a secondary and her last fore turret. Pensacola had her FP facilities damaged and a fire and lost her fore turret. Boise had her FP facilities damaged and a fire set and a bounce off her fore turret (which was starting to dent). Myoko suffered minor hull damage that slowed her to 30 knots. Nachi lost a TT and had a major fire set. Jintsu lost a TT and had a major fire set.

 

1506 hours Houston failed to fix her engine and slowed to 21 knots. Pensacola put her fire out but Boise failed to and suffered minor hull damage that slowed her to 26 knots. Nachi failed to fix her fire and suffered hull damage that slowed her to 30 knots. Jintsu also failed to put her fire out and suffered hull damage that slowed her to 28 knots.

 

1512 hours Houston’s black gang broke her engine (now needs a dockyard) so no Golden Monkey Wrench Award for them. Boise put her fire out. Nachi fixed her fire but Jintsu failed and slowed again to 21 knots. The range was now down to 15,000 yards. But Glassford had had enough and got while the getting was still possible. Task Force 5 turned away under smoke and the Japanese let them go. Tarakan fell. Naci and Jintsu both burned for several several turns (3 and 2). Haguro, Nachi and Jintsu are gone for repair and unlikely to return.

 

Glassford couldn’t understand it until a gunnery guru explained that 8 inch was 3 to 2 against cruiser armor and when you get a hit you need to then roll odd to get a second hit. The Japanese understood this and got two hits to Glassford’s one almost every time.

 

As for the Intel Types it turned out that they too had recently received a bottle of sake and a D12. A rueful remark that die was worth a dozen trying for 12 was overheard.

 

WMC

 


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#17035 why is USA armored infantry so small when comes to platoons

Posted by Mark 1 on 23 February 2024 - 06:08 PM

I thought I might return to this old thread to post 'em up, to inform, entertain ... those who see the topic and open the thread.[/quote]

I am returning to the thread to post one more tidbit.  This is more along the lines of entertaining, but may also be valued as informing those who are interested...

 

 

 

The platoon consisted of 3 rifle squads, an MG support squad with 3 MGs (2 x .30cal, 1 x .50cal), and an 81mm mortar squad.  Here you see them all dismounted and ready for action.

This past weekend I visited, for the first time, the Charles M. Schultz / Peanuts Museum in Santa Rosa.  Just a Sunday outing, but certainly a worthwhile destination for a few hours of weekend enjoyment if you are in the area.

 

In the display on Schultz's life story, I read that he was a Sargent in the US Army in WW2.  I was interested to find out he was the leader of an MG squad in the armored infantry regiment of the 20 Armored Division in ETO during late 1944 and 1945, in that division's advance across France, Austria and Germany.

 

I always enjoy doing research on my gaming units, to make sure I get them right!

 

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Respect to you, Charlie!

 

-Mark

(aka: Mk 1)


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#17028 Force Z in the Dark

Posted by W. Clark on 21 February 2024 - 08:14 PM

Force Z in the Dark

Admiral Phillips peered ahead into the gloom. He could see little or nothing in this soup. The steward handed him a cup of tea and he looked at it blindly while he considered asking Flags his opinion on whether they should slow down. But Admirals do not ask lieutenants what they think and Force Z continued at 25 knots.

 

Force Z was heading due North parallel to the Malayan coast out of Singapore for Kota Bharu-Singora where aerial reconnaissance said another landing was on. They were a week into a war with Japan and there had already been one landing at Kota Bharu. Force Z’s last foray had been in daylight and ended abortively when what seemed like every Japanese bomber in their inventory had swarmed them. And if British AA fire had not been any more effective for real then it had in practice, they had enough luck to survive with only near misses before escaping into a series of squalls and running for home. Phillips had vowed, no air cover, no daylight sorties after that.

 

It was midnight and Phillips hoped to be in and out before dawn and that was the real reason that slowing down was not an option. All the rest was the jitters.

Force Z was led by the only relative modern destroyers (Electra, Encounter, Express & Jupiter) that he had in line abreast as a sub screen, 3,000 yards ahead of the column that was comprised of the battleship squadron (Prince of Wales FF & Repulse) and a cruiser squadron under RAdm Palliser (Exeter SF, Danae, Dragon & Durban). A destroyer division of old S&T class (Scout, Stronghold, Tenedos & Thanet) was 3,000 yards to port to guard his inshore flank. Phillips would trust to radar to seaward.

 

The wind was a Force 2 from the Northeast at 4 knots. Smoke, squalls and haze were just going to hang there in these conditions. There was sea haze to the east that reduced visibility by some 6,000 yards in that direction. They were presently in a squall that they could not see more than 1,000 yards in and he was sure there was more to come. The moon was in a quarter state but out side the squalls the sky was only partially cloudy.

 

The 4 leading destroyers’ radar was performing rather poorly (die rolls of 9, 10 & 12) except for Jupiter who had a sharp operator (rolled a 1) and he picked up on a contact at 16,000 yards.

 

The contact report put Phillips in a quandary. His original intention had been to use star shell and his big guns to shoot the hell out of the Japanese before sending his cruisers and destroyers in to finish the matter. But in this soup visibility was so constricted that he now doubted that would work. Phillips now decided to send in the old S&T. Their 4” popguns range was so limited that the soup wouldn’t affect them as much. Phillips would have Palliser’s cruisers and the newer destroyers follow them in. He’d start this with torpedoes and go from there.

 

At 0012 hours DesDiv B (S&T class) accelerated upon order to 36 knots and turned towards the reported contact on a heading of 315 degrees.

 

Mean while the Japanese under VAdm Kondo were split into three groups. The 12 APs and AV Kamikawa Maru were anchored in 2 lines, facing NE about 2,000 yards off shore. DesDivs 11 (Hatsuyuki, Fubuki & Shirayuki) & 19 (Uranami,
Ayanami, Isonami & Shikinami) were 2,000 yards further from shore in a 10,000 yard race track patrol pattern. Cruiser Sqdn 4 under VAdm Kondo (Takao FF & Atago) followed by Battle Sqdn 2 (2nd section, Fuso SF & Yamashiro) and then the rest of DesFlot 3 under RAdm Hashimoto in Sendai DF with DesDivs 12 (Shirakumo, Murakumo & Shinonome) and 20 (Yugiri, Amagiri, Asagiri & Sagiri) were 4,000 yards further out in a 7,000 yard patrol box.

 

At 0024 hours Scout emerged from a squall and immediately acquired a long column of ships led by cruisers 8,000 yards off her port bow. If it had not been for the squall Takao would have seen Scout 4,000 yards earlier but she just come out of the soup as Takao was turning 90 degrees to port to a heading of 360 degrees to continue her box patrol. The sighting was Kondo’s first awareness that his patrol under VAdm Ozawa had failed in its purpose. The convoy’s defense now devolved onto its escort.

 

 Scout followed her division turned starboard to a heading of 360 degrees and got off her sighting report that would alert Palliser that it was better to head due north now. Scout and her division fired star shell (2 each) to illuminate the enemy.

 

Takao followed by the remainder of the column accelerated to 20 knots and engaged Scout. But the turn and the fact that the targets were destroyers resulted in a total whiff. The Brit star shell must have come from a batch either newly made (unlikely) or stored properly as all 8 rounds functioned correctly (none rolled over 8) and illuminated the first 8 ships (all the bats, cruisers and DesDiv 12) in the Japanese column.

 

RAdm Palliser’s cruisers at 29 knots and his destroyers at 35 knots and having started further North than the old crocks were now due East of Kondo and Palliser was aware of the Japanese location because of radar contacts from Exeter and his destroyers, turned 45 degrees to port to a heading of 315 degrees to close the range and get out of the squall.

 

0027 hours Scout and her division disappeared into the fog due east of Kondo but their star shell continued to illuminate him as he accelerated to 25 knots while the bats could only do 24. Kondo ordered Hashimoto to flank speed to close with these irritating old cans with his cruiser and destroyers. Kondo would support him if he could ever see anything.

 

0030 hours, Hashimoto in Sendai and followed by DesDivs 12 and 20 accelerated to 33 knots and turned to starboard on a heading of 45 degrees and went straight at the guns flashes he could see buried in the fog ahead.

 

0033 hours Palliser emerged from the squall and acquired Kondo’s cruisers and the bats and reported the sighting to Phillips who at 29 knots decided to follow Palliser in.

 

0036 hours Palliser’s cruisers and destroyers fired off every TT that was in arc at Kondo’s cruisers and the bats for a total of 1 quintuple, 3 quads and 7 triples. With quin and quads at the cruisers and the triples targeting the bats. They were just inside 8,000 yards when fired. Scout and her division fired their TT (8 twins) at Sendai but they were bow shots.

 

0042 hours Takao was able to attempt evasion against one of the two spreads targeting her and that might have saved her if she had not taken 3 out of 5 from Jupiter. Takao took 7 hull, lost her aft turret, was set afire and had her rudder jammed to starboard. Takao turned out of line at 5 knots. Atago failed to evade at all and took a hit each from the two spreads targeting her for 6 hull, a fire and a hit to her engines. Atago was reduced to 10 knots. Fuso attempted to evade one of the four spreads targeting her and the others missed on their own. Yamashiro was not so fortunate and took two hits that damaged her hull thrice and knocked out her forward turrets. Yamashiro was reduced to 16 knots. Sendai evaded the only real threat.

 

0045 hours Palliser knowing that Phillips would be up soon held fire and reversed course to bring his starboard tubes to bear. Scout and her division turned back into the squall and disappeared yet again. Hashimoto not having seen Palliser’s group turned East after Scout and her gaggle.

 

0048 hours Hashimoto continued his pursuit East after Scout. Palliser’s cruisers now fired their remaining 7 triple TT at Fuso and Yamashiro. Only Exeter targeted Yamashiro, who at 16 knots could not evade and took another hit for another hull and a fire. 6 spreads targeted Fuso who took two hits for 3 hull and the loss of fore and aft turrets. Fuso was reduced to 16 knots while Yamashiro was down to 11.

 

0051 hours Phillips emerged from the squall and PoW targeted Fuso with her MB while her secondary took on Atago. Repulse engaged Yamashiro.

 

PoW hit Fuso 4 times, knocking out her fore starboard secondary, damaging her hull (down to 11 knots), knocking out her remaining fore turret and her FC. PoW secondary firing rapidly hit Atago twice, knocking out her fore starboard TT and bouncing off her belt. Repulse hit Yamashiro once in the hull reducing her to 7 knots.

 

Palliser’s cruisers also got into the act with Exeter and Danae targeting Takao and Dragon and Durben targeting Atago. Exeter hit Takao twice, knocking out a turret and damaging her hull (that was enough to sink her). Danae also hit Takao once, knocking out another TT and setting a fire the sea quickly put out. Dragon and Durben hit Atago 4 times, knocking out her FP, setting her afire, knocking out a starboard secondary and hitting her hull twice sinking her.

 

0054 hours Phillips sent Palliser after the anchorage while he finished off the Fusos. PoW hit Fuso 5 times, knocking out her FP, setting her afire, knocking out another starboard secondary as well as a tertiary and both her amidships turrets. Repulse hit Yamashiro twice, knocking out a secondary and hitting her engines.

 

0100 hours Phillips recalled Scout’s division. PoW and Repulse sank Fuso and Yamashiro and pressed in on the anchorage. Scout having turned towards the anchorage ran into Sendai and DesDivs 12 & 20 who sank Scout and her division almost without any damage in return due to the 4” being only half damage to DDs and the S&Ts inability to roll odd even when they got a hit.

 

0103 hours Palliser’s cruisers and destroyers took on DesDivs 11 & 19. This would have gone better if the cruisers had been better suited to shooting at DDs. But Exeter’s 8 inch were shooting with a negative and the D class’s 6 inch do not rapid fire. But they still had shell weight. It was the rapid firing 4.7” of the 4 destroyers that really told. Jupiter hit Hatsuyuki 7 times right off, knocking out a TT, a gun mount, damaging her hull twice and her engines, her FC and jamming her rudder amidships. Express and Encounter whiffed but Electra hit Uranami 4 times, knocking out all her guns and damaging her hull. Exeter and Danae whiffed but Dragon hit Isonami 4 times, knocking out a TT, damaging her hull twice and a bulkhead, Durben hit Shikinami 5 times, knocking out 2 TT, damaging her hull twice and her bridge.

 

Uranami failed morale and tried to withdraw. DesDiv 11 made their morale and decided to fight it out.

 

0106 hours But Palliser had gotten too close and the Japanese acquired his force (fog can only do so much). The Japanese fired off every TT that could bear. DesDiv 11 got 8 triple Type 90 TT off at Palliser’s cruisers and destroyers, 1 each just to be fair. Of the destroyers targeted, only Encounter managed to evade. Of the 4 cruisers, it was Danae that managed to try and evade.

Jupiter took a hit that damaged a bulkhead and set her afire. Express was missed outright as was Encounter. Electra took a hit that sank her. Now for the cruisers. Exeter was missed. Danae almost evaded but this was not horseshoes and close does not count, Danae took a hit that gave her 3 hull and knocked out her two aft gun mounts. Dragon was missed. But Durben took a hit that gave her 3 hull and knocked out her aft 2 gun mounts.

 

0109 hours Jupiter repaired her bulkhead. Japanese failed to repair (their dice went south again). DesDiv 19 was running under smoke as fast they could for the exit. The rest were in a swirl of ships in various states of damage fighting to the death.

 

Jupiter’s guns were still working and firing rapidly she hit Fubuki twice, knocking out a now empty TT and damaging her engines. Encounter hit Shirayuki twice, damaging her hull and her engines. The cruisers whiffed. DesDiv 11 return fire did nothing.

 

0112 hours into this mess steamed PoW and Repulse. PoW’s rapidly firing secondary sorted Fubuki with 7 hits, that having knock her FC then took out all her guns and two of her TT mounts as well as damaging her hull. PoW’s MB hit Hatsuyuki 4 times. Finishing off her guns and damaging her hull twice. Repulse hit Shikinani 12 times, damaging her DC, setting her afire, knocking out all her TT as well as her last gun mounts, damaging her hull thrice, a bulkhead and her engines.

DesDiv 11 now failed morale and also tried to flee the field.

 

0115 hours Now it was the anchored transports and the AV’s turn. They were trying to get up steam but needed 15 more minutes just to get under way. They were not going to get it. PoW and Repulse went past them at point blank range creating 14” and 15” port holes with rounds that didn’t find something hard enough to detonate them and total devastation if they detonated. The slaughter went on for some 15 minutes. The Japanese would later claim that it was a merciless atrocity but their outrage, given their behavior throughout the war would find very little sympathy anywhere for several decades.

 

Phillips’ s Z Force or what was left RTB’d to Singapore. The landing as Kondo ruefully admitted when fished out of the water by Hashimoto was aborted.

 

WMC

 

 


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#16814 FAI redux

Posted by healey36 on 04 November 2023 - 09:48 AM

Having lost these accounts in the data corruption of a couple years ago, I wanted to get them back on here as I think they were fun (others may find them tedious or inconsequential, lol). They are missing subsequent edits and all of the photos, stuff lost to the ether. I cobbled this composite version together from my notes, those of our game-session scribe, and the recollections of a few players gleaned from a number of phone calls. If I find any other bits or photos, I’ll add them over time.

 

 

The Riddle of the Sands

22 April 1915

 

In 1903, Smith, Elder & Company published a novel written by Erskine Childers, a guy who was born in England but raised by his mother’s family in Ireland following the death of his parents. The book, “The Riddle of the Sands”, is considered a ground-breaking piece of fiction, arguably the first of the espionage genre that would become so popular five decades later following the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War.

 

My father, a voracious reader throughout his life, had a copy of RotS in his library, the place where I first encountered it. I’m not one for reading bits of historical fiction more than once, but I recall reading Childers’ book two or three times when I was a kid. Much like the later works of Fleming, Clancy, and others, the story is heavily laden with political, geographical, and technical facts which bear heavily on the story. This, together with the writing style of the late Victorian era, required a few reads to digest everything and make sense of it.

 

Childers wrote his book at a time when Britain’s Foreign and War Offices were trying to determine who and what was the country’s primary threat as the calendar turned over into the new century. To his credit, Childers identified Germany as Britain’s likeliest adversary and developed his somewhat fantastical story within that premise.

 

The Frisian Islands are a long band of barrier islands that run along the western Danish and northern German and Dutch coasts. Much like the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of the United States, the Frisians are ever-shifting bits of sand formed by the tides and currents of the North Sea. Only in populated areas where man has attempted to intervene in the endless ebb of water and sand has there been any stability; otherwise, these islands are relentlessly on the move. For centuries, they have played both havoc and sanctuary for the coastal shipping lanes of northwestern Europe, and their strategic importance lies at the center of Childers’ book.

 

From the First World War’s start, both the British and German navies found reason to extensively mine this southeastern corner of the North Sea, first as a means of interdicting the flow of goods and materials in and out of Germany’s northwestern ports, and second as protection for the great German naval base on the Jade. Throughout the war, there was an extensive effort by both sides to penetrate, disrupt, and/or defend the integrity of the vast minefields sown here. Minelayers, minesweepers, trawlers, drifters, submarines, and various light units fought a seemingly endless series of actions in these treacherous waters, a cycle that appeared to be nearly as predictable as the tides.

 

Some historians credit Childers’ book with having influenced Britain’s strategic deployment of its naval assets in the years leading up to the First World War. That seems rather far-fetched to me, but Churchill, for one, was known to have commented on it.

 

With this as a backdrop, together with the grander strategic notions laid out in Childers’ book, there forms the basis for a series of games to be played over the remaining weeks of this summer of 2021. More than a century after it all went down, there remains only a cursory view of these vicious actions fought in coastal waters, so they will be largely surmised. No matter, the heaviest units of the Grand Fleet and High Seas Fleet shall be restricted to the fleet cabinets, for this shall be the realm of the destroyer and the torpedo boat.

 

In mid-April, 1915, Admiral von Pohl dispatched 2nd Scouting Group on a mining operation supported by the HSF, and a week later a sweep in the direction of Dogger Bank was ordered with hopes of engaging British units. Concurrent with this operation was a secondary effort to clear British minesweepers and drifters operating around the eastern end of the Frisian Islands.

 

Action off Ameland

22 April 1915 (part 1)

 

Von Pohl took command of the High Seas Fleet (HSF) in the first week of February, 1915, relieving von Ingenohl following the debacle at Dogger Bank. There was a price to be paid for the black eye suffered less than two weeks before, and von Ingenohl, a man whose operational view was not too different from his replacement, paid it.

 

Within months of the start of the war, there developed two prevailing strategic notions within the Imperial Navy high command regarding the employment of the HSF. One advocated for an aggressive campaign directed at the Royal Navy, anytime and anywhere, while the second was far more conservative, prioritizing coastal defense and preservation of naval assets. Von Ingenohl’s thrust-and-parry strategy had ended in failure, primarily due to poor operational execution. Von Pohl largely withdrew from the North Sea, focusing instead on the U-boats and their assault on the shipping lanes surrounding Britain.  

 

For the next twelve months, the HSF would see little action. Operations were conducted primarily in coastal waters, the only exceptions being a token number of sorties less than 150 miles out with the misplaced hope of encountering British sweeps. The Royal Navy, however, had scarce reason to venture south other than to support its interdiction efforts and to observe its rival’s activities. A “phony war” of sorts developed, only ended by von Pohls’ death from liver cancer in January, 1916, and Scheer’s elevation to command.

 

The Day Before - 21 April 1915

 

Korvettenkapitän Gerhard von Gaudecker was on the bridge carefully surveying the charts with his executive officer when the change of orders were received early in the afternoon of April 20. SMS Hamburg, a Bremen-class light cruiser, had been sent two days earlier to patrol northwest of Mellum. It was treacherous work, plying the narrow band of open water that intersected the vast mine belt that protected the mouth of the Weser. His patrol area would occasionally take Hamburg within 800-900 yards of the field, leaving a razor-thin margin for navigational error. Only five months earlier, the armored cruiser SMS Yorck had been gutted by a pair of mines when she inadvertently wandered outside a designated channel through the field. Many lives along with a number of naval careers were terminated that day, and Gaudecker desperately wanted to avoid a repeat. Unlike Yorck, he had no pilot aboard, and the weather was poor, with low-lying clouds, occasional fog, and a steady light rain. When new orders came sending him west, Gaudecker was not displeased.

 

SMS Hamburg
SMS Hamburg.

 

Hamburg’s new orders would take her west to join four torpedo boats from 2nd Torpedo Boat Flotilla to execute a sweep of the waters north and west of Borkum, the westernmost of the East Frisian Islands some 10-12 miles northwest of the mouth of the Ems. The Germans maintained a sizable military installation on the island, one that had been the subject of a clandestine British operation in 1910. Now, some seven months after the start of the war, a number of drifters and other small craft had been observed in the area, along with reports of suspected Royal Navy minesweepers. Hamburg and the torpedo boats were charged with clearing the general area of enemy operators.

 

*****

 

Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Layton stood peering over Petty Officer Davies’ shoulder, the latter’s hands and arms covered in grease and diesel oil, using an adjustable spanner to gently tap on the broken driveshaft coupling at the back of one of E13’s two Vickers 8-cylinder diesels. With the dim light overhead flickering ominously, there was no longer any fooling themselves. They both knew it was a mechanical failure they had no capability of repairing while rolling about in the middle of the North Sea. They would have to return to Harwich for repairs, if they could.

 

Despite the sentiments of a number of her crew, Layton refused to believe E13 was a jinxed boat. Following his command of the coastal submarine C23, he’d been assigned to the new E13 at her commissioning in December, 1914, the fifteenth of the E-class submarines that had started rolling down the slipways in late-1912.  Admittedly, she had encountered a number of “incidents” during her shakedown and early maneuvers, but now she was on her first war patrol, destined for the western Danish coast. Departing Harwich on April 18, she had made good progress when, approximately 45 nautical miles north of Ameland, diesel No. 2 let go. After 36 hours trying to make repairs, they’d given up and would now turn for home. Barely able to make five knots while pushing against the North Sea swells, half the crew sick, and difficulty recharging the batteries, she was largely a sitting duck for anything that might come along. Layton, his sense of optimism fading, began to rethink his relationship with E13.

 

Reporting his situation in a coded message to Harwich, Layton was advised that HMS Bonaventure, an old Astraea-class cruiser which had been tasked as a submarine tender, was being dispatched to assist with repairs or, failing that, to take E13 under tow for return to the yard at Dovercourt. Bonaventure’s captain, Commander Stanley Willis, estimated he could be on E13’s position in less than a day’s sailing. Until then, Layton and his submarine were directed to continue inching their way westward.

 

To escort Bonaventure in her efforts to reach E13, a small scratch force from 4th Destroyer Flotilla was assembled, consisting of leader HMS Swift and destroyers Acasta, Christopher, and Owl. Captain Charles J. Wintour, overall commander of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, would personally lead the destroyers. Wintour’s 4th DF, which typically operated in conjunction with Tyrwhitt’s Harwich Force and the Dover Patrol, found itself temporarily short-handed, as most of the DDs were having to maintain patrols of the Thames Estuary and coastal waters as far south as eastern end of the Channel. Wintour, with his four destroyers, expected an out-and-back of no more than 72 hours.

 

*****

 

Bert “Duffy” Landon’s trawler, motoring northeast at ten knots, was pretty far south of the traditional fishing grounds off Dogger Bank. Overnight they had passed a scant 10 miles from the Dutch coast, at one point close enough to have seen the light at Zandvoort. With the hold empty of fish, the booms drawn, and the nets stowed, they showed little pretense to be where they were.

 

Primrose had been Landon’s boat for more than a decade, acquired from an old Cromer fisherman who’d retired not long after the millennial calendar turned over. Prior to that, Landon had briefly worked in the pits, something he’d despised despite his family’s long history with mining. No, he’d left the mines, instead working as a fishing hand for seven or eight years, saved his money, and when the trawler came up he’d made arrangements with the owner to buy it on time. Crab and lobster in the summer, herring in the fall, then cod through winter, it was a never-ending rotation of long hours and hard, dangerous work. Still, he never once considered returning to the pits.

 

Primrose B

Trawler Primrose.

 

If it wasn’t already difficult enough, the war had raised the bar even further. A couple of the boats operating from Cromer had inexplicably gone missing; one day they went out and simply never returned. No trace was ever found – no wreckage, no debris, no bodies, nothing, they just vanished. Now the drifters had taken to operating in pairs or small groups, and within a few weeks the new dangers of the trade became apparent.

 

In November, a pair of Cromer’s trawlers were surprised by a surfaced German submarine. Ordered to stop and abandon their boats, one captain did so, the other dropped his lines and managed to slip away. Upon returning some thirty-six hours later, the captain of the escaped boat reported the incident to local authorities and subsequently to Royal Navy personnel. No trace of the other drifter or her crew was ever found.

 

Two weeks later, a trawler dragging for herring unknowingly snagged a naval mine in her nets and was destroyed while winching her catch alongside. One badly-injured survivor was picked up by a nearby fishing boat, the man able to detail the circumstances of the incident. A second drifting mine was observed a few days later by another boat, this successfully detonated from a safe distance by rifle fire. The danger was escalating rapidly.

 

By January, 1915, 45 boats had been lost or disappeared and the fishing fleet was in an uproar. There were reports of submarines and torpedo boats sweeping the fishing grounds and, true or not, of crews being machine-gunned in the water following the sinking of their boats. Calls for protection by the Navy were dismissed as impractical, but offers were made to arm trawlers for their own defense. Landon, for one, jumped at the opportunity. In early February, he and his six-man crew took possession of a 20 year-old short-barreled Hotchkiss 3-pounder which they mounted near Primrose’s bow (positioning and deck modifications as directed by the RN team that delivered it).  A few days later they received 90 minutes of training on the gun’s use, along with two crates containing 40 shells. Landon supplemented his armament with a pair of Lee-Metford .303 rifles that he stored in the wheel-house.

 

Primrose made a pair of short fishing runs in late February and early March, both of which were uneventful. On their third outing, a 96-hour run south and east of the Norfolk coast, they encountered nothing unusual other than an overturned, partially submerged steel buoy which they initially thought might have been a drifting mine. Three shots from the Hotchkiss (two misses and one hit) dispatched the buoy, an object that posed a considerable threat to any small vessel that might come upon it.

 

After a relatively quiet March, the number of boats lost started to rise again. With the risk of mines, submarines, and torpedo boats increasing, a number of trawlers were being requisitioned for minesweeping and patrol duties, a fate Landon hoped to dodge. The cod, however, were running in small numbers, and doing some paid work for the navy began to look lucrative. An early-April meeting produced a request for Primrose to temporarily move south where an increasing number of drifters and fishing boats were working. Landon’s assignment was a reconnaissance of sorts, a slow meandering cruise up the Dutch coast to observe and document the extent to which the German Navy was expanding its reach into the southern end of the North Sea. Couched as a one-off, and in light of everything going on, Landon and his seven-man crew agreed to undertake the request.

 

Primrose departed Cromer early in the morning of April 19, 1915, slipping past the breakwater at 0340. Preparations were minimal, laying in a couple weeks’ worth of provisions while offloading or stowing most of the fishing gear. A ring of sandbags now encircled the shield-less Hotchkiss, a stiff canvas tarp tied over it.

 

The voyage south was uneventful. Landon set a three man watch, rotating every six hours. They made the 100-mile trip south to Harwich in twelve hours. There they received charts and maps of the Dutch and German coast, including the position of known facilities and minefields. A new three-kilowatt radio was installed, along with the protocols for its use, and they were given a Danish flag to be flown if challenged. The radio and all charts, maps, and papers were to be destroyed if confronted. At 1930, having topped off the bunker with diesel oil, they slipped their mooring and headed down-channel at a leisurely eight knots. Twelve miles out, the coast disappearing behind them, they doused the lights and set their course due east, raising their speed to ten knots. A days sail and they’d be on the Dutch coast.

 

*****

 

Von Gaudecker and cruiser Hamburg met the four torpedo boats at dawn on April 21, five nautical miles southwest of Juist near the mouth of the Ems River. He brought the torpedo boat commanders aboard to both meet them and to strategize on how best to execute their sweep of the waters north and west of Borkum. His inclination was to divide them in an attempt to cover as much of the assigned sweep area as possible, but he had concerns about maintaining control of the operation. He instead directed that they would execute a broad sweep of the area in a wide, quarter-line formation, with the TBs slightly ahead and no more than 5000 yards apart. Given good weather, this would yield a search pattern some 18 miles wide. Hamburg and her TB charges would proceed west along the north shore of the Frisian Islands some 80 miles to a point past Terschelling, then a turn north-northeast into a broad arc that would eventually reach Heligoland. There they would run south to return to base, threading their way through the mine belt laid across the mouth of the Jade.

 

The torpedo boats, S141, S142, S143, and S144, were all of the S138-class, commissioned in 1907. They were an older type and relatively lightly armed, recently refitted with a pair of 88mm SK (quick-firing) L/35 cannon, a single 50mm SK L/40 cannon, and three 18-inch torpedo tubes arranged in single-mounts. They were quick, but not as fast as one might expect, topping out at around 31 knots.

 

S141
Torpedo boat S141.

 

If the torpedo boats were old, Hamburg may have seemed geriatric. Launched in 1902 and commissioned in 1904, she was armed with ten quick-firing 4.1-inch, supplemented with ten 1.5-inch Maxim for close-in defense. She also had a pair of 18-inch torpedo tubes in reloadable submerged broadside mounts. Flank speed was 22 knots. Hamburg, assigned to 4th Scouting Group, had participated in December’s raid on Scarborough where she’d had a brief encounter with British destroyers. Otherwise, her war had been relatively quiet.

 

The run west was largely uneventful, encountering only a few Dutch scows and the German coastal steamer Tümmler churning past, her holds piled high with a load of coal. At 1530, having pushed nearly 20 miles west of Terschelling, Gaudecker ordered the turn north, continuing at a leisurely 14 knots. Twenty minutes later they encountered what appeared to be a large trawler sailing across their bows heading southwest. Gaudecker sent S141 to investigate, soon reporting it as the French armed trawler Faucon. Apparently surprised by the German torpedo boat’s rapid approach, a shot across the bow and the Frenchman stopped. After a brief boarding and inspection, the crew was ordered into a pair of dinghies and Faucon was dispatched with three or four rounds from the torpedo boat’s 88mm.

 

In just over ninety minutes, S141 was back in its position on the point.  At 1806, S143 reported a fisherman some seven or eight miles ahead on a northwest heading. Gaudecker again ordered S141 off for a look, and the TB was soon charging off at 30 knots to run down its quarry.

 

*****

 

The weather overnight had been good, almost too good for Landon’s liking. The sky was crystal clear, and a high half-moon reflected off the sea ahead. Good visibility, yet around midnight Primrose was nearly run down by an unknown steamer heading south along the coast at what Landon estimated to be 25 knots. Running without lights in the dark was a huge risk, no doubt, and he and the crew were left badly shaken by the near-miss. How his first mate MacGregor, on watch at the time, had missed the onrushing behemoth was a mystery. Sunrise, with its own associated risks, couldn’t come soon enough.

 

By 1030, they were past Texel and headed out into the open sea. Landon watched the Frisian Islands and the Dutch coast melt away astern, glad to be clear of the constrictions he felt when operating close to shore. Consulting the charts, he set a course that continued north-northeast, figuring he’d pass the last checkpoint and turn for home by 1800. A long 200-mile run west would have them back in Cromer by evening the next day.

 

Primrose continued on her northeastward heading throughout the day, uninterrupted by not so much as a glimpse of another craft. The calm sea was eerily empty, horizon-to-horizon, and Landon began to suspect the entire excursion to have been a great waste of time. Midafternoon, he turned the trawler a few degrees further north, continuing at a steady ten knots.

 

At 1818, one of the men yelled that a craft was approaching from the port quarter. Through glasses, Landon couldn’t quite discern who or what it might be, but the tall bow wave indicated it was coming fast. Large, dark, and low to the water, he figured it was likely some sort of German patrol craft.

 

With the Danish ensign fluttering from the fantail, gear stowed, and the Hotchkiss hidden under the heavy tarp, he wondered how long the charade might last. Suspecting not long, he figured he would have three choices - continue pretending to be a neutral and act dumb, immediately stop and surrender, or fight it out. All three seemed likely to get them killed, some sooner than later. Leaving the wheelhouse unattended, he ran forward to tell MacGregor to get the men ready to use the 3-pounder. While the Scotsman began untying the tarp, Landon returned to the wheelhouse. He pulled out the two rifles, handing one to a deckhand along with a cartridge box. The other he kept for himself.

 

The German torpedo boat gradually reduced its speed as it approached, closing to within a few hundred yards to casually look over the trawler. While the fisherman appeared rather nondescript, Second-Lieutenant Wilhelm Keil had his suspicions this wasn’t just a Danish fishing boat. Why would one of their boats be so far south and west of the Danish coast? It wasn’t impossible, but it wasn’t likely either. Keil told his XO to have the trawler stopped for boarding and inspection.

 

Flashes from a lamp meant nothing to Landon, nor would he have heeded them had he known what was being signaled. He could see a sudden milling about mid-ship, along with a few crewmen manning a rather ominous-looking gun forward of the main-mast and the conning tower. Feeling a mixture of anger and adrenalin welling up inside him, he maintained his course, raised speed slightly, all the while keeping an eye on the dark-gray silhouette gliding along off to his starboard.

 

Minutes later he heard a loud crump, a shot fired by the torpedo boat, throwing up a great geyser of seawater a 100 yards or so ahead of Primrose’s port bow. There could be no misunderstanding this message, Landon thought to himself. Never one to shrink from a fight, no matter the odds, he eased his speed ahead another knot, then waved his arm at MacGregor who, with a great heave, pulled the tarp off the Hotchkiss and, together with another crewman, scrambled over the sandbags.

 

Praying to God he’d hit something, the Hotchkiss recoiled as MacGregor sent his first shot toward the German torpedo boat. The lack of training did not serve them well as, even at such short range, the round sailed over the TB’s aft funnel by some 30 feet. This served to get the attention of the German gunners who, within less than a minute, began returning fire.

 

Landon looked at his watch, surprised it was 1842, only 20-odd minutes since they’d first seen the German’s approach. MacGregor fired again, this round also sailing far wide of the target. The TB’s forward gun barked, missing short by some 75 yards, sending seawater raining down on the trawler. Landon spun the wheel to starboard, hoping to turn into his antagonist’s line of fire while presenting his narrowest profile as a target.

 

MacGregor continued firing but was unable to put a round on the TB. The Germans, however, seemed to be gradually getting the range. An 88mm round slammed into the water just a few yards off the port side, steel splinters tearing into Primrose’s wooden hull. Keil ordered S141 to increase her speed, trying to get around on the trawler, but Landon kept turning inside him, so he decided to straighten up and move away, then make a run back in.

 

On his first pass, Keil’s TB put a round into Primrose’s forward hold, blowing a large hole in her hull just above the waterline. As S141 passed, the aft 88mm landed another round, this burrowing into the sandbag ring around the Hotchkiss, crushing the mount and disabling the gun. The blast threw MacGregor nearly twenty feet, pinning him against the port-side gunwale under a steel hatch cover. The crewman who’d acted as the Hotchkiss’ loader was dead. Another crewman scrambled over to get MacGregor out from under the heavy cover while Landon, his knee braced on the wheel and the rifle laid across the ledge of the wheelhouse window, pumped .303 rounds into the torpedo boat as it hurtled past.

 

On the TB’s next pass, Primrose took another hit, this at the waterline on the starboard side where she began slowly flooding. Twelve minutes later, another hit on the opposite side, showering the trawler in seawater and splinters. The shell had penetrated to the engine compartment where the marine diesel, immersed in rising seawater, spluttered to a stop. Slipping down a ladder, Landon was greeted by a sight of total carnage; in places he could see sunlight through parts of the hull. Smith, his engineer, was nowhere to be found. With water nearly to his chest, he climbed back up the ladder to the clatter of machinegun fire.

 

As the deck began to pitch sharply to starboard, the mast and derrick came crashing down, nearly crushing the wheelhouse. His youngest deckhand, a 15 year-old boy from Metton, remained crouched on the stern, blazing away with the other rifle. Landon yelled to him to go over the side, telling the same to another crewman who helped MacGregor get clear of the sinking trawler. Landon smashed the radio with the butt of his rifle, then threw the maps and logbook into a steel box on the deck. He calmly shot a hole in the box, tucked it under his arm, then tossed the rifle and himself over the port side. Once in the water, he held the steel box under him, feeling it fill with water and sink out of his grasp. He looked up to see the 15 year-old swimming toward him, then together they swam off through the debris and diesel oil, to find MacGregor and the other man. Primrose, his beloved trawler, rolled over and sank behind them.

 

*****

 

It was dark when S141 rejoined Hamburg and the other torpedo boats. The action with the trawler and subsequent recovery of the survivors had consumed nearly three hours and expended more than 40 of their 200 88mm shells. Landon, who’d felt certain they’d be shot before or after they were fished from the sea, found himself drinking coffee in the torpedo boat’s wardroom. MacGregor, his left leg badly lacerated and his left arm broken in two places, was being tended to by a couple of German crewmen. The other two men had been taken below for dry clothes. The loss of the others weighed on him, especially when S141’s young second lieutenant commander gave them the news that they would likely spend the rest of the war in a prisoner camp once S141 returned to Germany.

 

His boat gone, a third of his crew dead or missing, and facing an uncertain time ahead, it could have been easy to feel sorry for himself. Then again, four of the seven of them were still alive; it seemed likely that things could have turned out worse, much worse.

 

Tomorrow would prove him right.

 

 

Action off Ameland

22 April 1915 (part 2)

 

Day of Battle

 

With E13 in tow, Wintour directed Willis and Bonaventure to set course on a west-southwest heading, aiming to take the shortest route back to Harwich. An alternative would have been to head due west, approaching the sanctuary of the English coast and its patrol regimen overnight. There, in relative safety, they could turn south to reach the Thames Estuary. This, however, would add upwards of ten hours to the return voyage and risk entanglement with German fleet units engaged in an operation to their northwest (Wintour had received wireless reports in the early hours of the 22nd of enemy operations northeast of Dogger Bank).

 

Wintour split his escort, with HMS Christopher and HMS Owl taking up a position approximately 3000 yards off Bonaventure’s starboard bow, while HMS Swift, his flag, and HMS Acasta stood some 4000 yards off the old cruiser’s port quarter. The crews suffered some discomfort as the destroyers rolled in the gentle swells while trying to maintain their positions at this dreadfully slow speed. No matter, they’d be home soon enough. Wintour ordered the watch doubled and went below to check on repairs to a ventilation problem that had been reported by the galley earlier that morning.

 

HMS Bonaventure
Old RN cruiser HMS Bonaventure.

 

At 0948, a report of a smudge of smoke on the horizon dead ahead came to Bonaventure’s bridge. It was faint, but there, and after a few minutes they were able to confirm that, whatever “it” was, it was headed directly for them. Commander Stanley Willis ordered his men to their action stations while advising E13 that, depending upon a determination of any threat approaching, the tow would be dropped and that the submarine would be on her own. A quick wireless message was sent to Wintour, advising of the sighting.

 

Upon his recall to Swift’s bridge, Wintour turned his attention westward toward the oncoming ship(s). They remained unable to discern precisely what approached, but at 1018, a second message soon came in from Bonaventure, reporting that the oncoming target was comprised of one large ship, possibly a light cruiser, trailed by a number of destroyers or torpedo boats. Willis estimated the range was some 19000 yards and that the presumed enemy force was closing at an estimated speed of 17 knots. Wintour ordered Willis to drop his tow and raise his speed to 12 knots. He then ordered the destroyers to ascertain and engage the target at flank speed.

 

*****

 

Korvettenkapitän Gerhard von Gaudecker watched the torpedo boats gradually form into a column astern of Hamburg, a maneuver largely completed by 1000. On their current east-northeast heading, the cruiser, churning along at 15 knots, was headed straight into the morning sun, hampering his ability to see dead ahead. It did not, however, present a problem for the men in the forward director position, reporting smoke ahead and off both their starboard and port bows. Within minutes, Gaudecker radioed Keil in S141 to raise speed to 20 knots and to maintain the line astern.

 

It wasn’t long before Gaudecker had reports from his XO that the force ahead comprised a light cruiser escorted by two pairs of destroyers, one pair on each side. By 1048, the range between Hamburg and Bonaventure was down to 11000 yards, with Wintour’s destroyers less than 10000 yards out and closing fast. He had to make a decision quickly, the two forces running in on each other at a combined speed of some 50 knots. To turn south in a running battle risked getting himself quickly pinned against one or more of the mine belts. No, he would turn north-northeast to gain position and bring his torpedo boats to bear. At 1054, the Germans began making their turn north.

 

At 1100, the umpire declared the first random event of the day, a ship striking a drifting mine. A series of die rolls reveals S141 as the unlucky ship. With the turn northeast underway, Gaudecker hears a tremendous blast astern. He turns to see S141 shrouded by a curtain of smoke, steam, and seawater, pitched to starboard some 30 degrees. Her back broken, the torpedo boat’s stern drifts in a slow spin to port, her forward section sinking rapidly. S142, immediately astern of the stricken torpedo boat, veers sharply out of line, narrowly avoiding collision with the aft section of S141. Second-Lieutenant Keil, his crew, the survivors of Primrose, along with his ship are lost.

 

Hamburg barrels ahead, but the TBs, having had to turn out of line to avoid the wreckage of S141, are now some 700 yards astern on the cruiser’s port quarter. Gaudecker orders Hamburg to open on HMS Christopher, now a scant 2800 yards off the cruiser’s starboard bow. At 1106, a German 4.1-inch round penetrates Christopher’s forward boiler room. The resulting carnage sharply reduces her steam, dropping her speed nearly in half with the partial loss of power.

 

As the ships close to near point-blank range, the combination of headings, tube positions, and blocked line-of-sight temporarily prevents anyone from acquiring a firing solution for a torpedo attack. HMS Owl slashes past Hamburg, scarcely 500 yards astern of the cruiser. Owl’s 4-inch scores a single hit, disabling one of Hamburg’s stern 4.1-inch mounts. Hamburg batters the destroyer in turn, scoring two engineering hits that knocks out all power. Gunfire from the torpedo boats is ineffective.

 

With both DDs from his northern flank temporarily out of action, Wintour begins a charge from the south. Bonaventure, creeping along in the center of the table at a leisurely 12 knots, now opens on Hamburg at a range of 7300 yards, missing with her forward 6-inch. Gaudecker and Hamburg, who’d not been paying much attention to the old cruiser, returned fire, his salvo landing well short of the target. Wintour orders Swift to open on the torpedo boats, the range being just 4100 yards. A single 4-inch hit in her engineering section drops S144’s maximum speed to 19 knots, just a knot less than her current speed.

 

HMS Swift

HMS Swift

 

The battle has now taken on this great clockwise rotation, with the Germans being at the Noon position, Bonaventure at the four o’clock position, and Wintour with Swift and Acasta at the seven o’clock position. Wintour maintains his speed at 29 knots while trying to turn inside Gaudecker’s arc toward Bonaventure and Willis, who is now turning toward Hamburg as well. Lieutenant-Commander Robert Hamond, HMS Owl’s skipper, manages to get her forward boiler room back online by 1130, and she, together with the wounded HMS Christopher, turn east to resume their pursuit of the German torpedo boats.

 

HMS Swift is rapidly reeling in the German force. At 1136, she lands a hit on S142, stoving in bulkhead A7 just ahead of her forward engine room. The torpedo boat begins flooding, but is able to maintain her speed and position as damage-control crews try to repair the damage. The torpedo boats return fire with their 88mms, but score no hits. Six minutes later, S142 fires a spread of torpedoes at the oncoming Bonaventure, but all fish pass safely ahead of the cruiser without any evasive action. S144 takes a hit at the waterline from Swift, resulting in one hull-box of damage.

 

A steady exchange of fire continues with few hits. Swift manages a 4-inch hit on Hamburg that takes down her foremast along with her searchlights and disables the wireless room. S142 gets her flooding under control and S144 restores full power. At this point, Gaudecker decides to break off the action, knowing he can outrun Bonaventure and deems it unlikely that Swift and Acasta will continue their pursuit. He orders all ahead flank.

 

Of course, the wildcard in all of this is E13. After being cast off by Bonaventure, Lieutenant-Commander Layton crept along on the surface at five knots, the action of the morning being some distance to the west. By 1130, however, the battle was observed to be moving back toward them, and he ordered E13 to submerge. With fully charged batteries, he expected he had some ninety minutes to two hours of runtime under water before he’d have to consider resurfacing. As the Noon hour approached, he sees that the Germans were moving in his direction and that he was likely to get at least one chance before they passed.

 

Layton, however, had misjudged the speed of the onrushing German ships. He ordered E13 hard over and lined up his shot. The oncoming torpedo boats would pass scarcely 500 yards in front of him, and Hamburg not more than 1000 yards beyond the TBs. At 1206, Layton fired both of his bow tubes, then went deep to avoid the possibility of the TBs veering over top of him. The die rolls, however, just weren’t there; the torpedoes passed in front of S142 and the column of TBs, then slipped safely aft of the light cruiser.

 

Wintour now made the decision not to pursue Gaudecker, although confident he could have run him down given another thirty minutes. The odds had run in his favor this day, and he didn’t want to press it. If his overall objective was to get E13 back to base, then they should resume that effort once assured the German force would not return. HMS Christopher, still short of steam from her engineering damage, reaches the site of S141’s sinking to search for any survivors. None were found.

 

 

Over the years, we’ve fought some pretty large actions that involved upwards of 40-50 ships, and those have often been rather bloody affairs. These smaller battles, as seen in RotS II, tend to be more a game of maneuver, often relatively bloodless. After you’ve spent five or six hours on one of these, the lack of a clear result is often a bit frustrating. I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to understand why this is, and I have a few ideas.

 

I think the first is the simple fact that each side has so few “assets” available. Players come to understand that the loss of just one or two ships can put one side or the other in a serious bind. As platforms decline in number, the gunfire starts to concentrate on fewer targets and it’s possible/likely for damage to accumulate even faster. For this reason, people grow skittish and tend to play not to win, but instead to not lose.

 

The other thing that seems to happen can be laid at the feet of the relatively small-caliber weapons that are employed. In RotS II, the largest gun on the table is the pair of 6-inch single mounts on Bonaventure; everything else is 4.1-inch or smaller. This is a situation where a player is not racking up lots of equivalent hits when sorting through the gunnery results, so damage tends to accumulate quite slowly. Degrading the enemy seems a long process.

 

Torpedoes were greatly feared by the WWI navies; whole flotillas were seen to turn away at the very threat of a torpedo attack. For the life of me, I don’t understand why. My experience with FAI and torpedoes is one of great promise yielding little in result. I’ve come to the conclusion that one would have to darken the sea with vast shoals of tin fish to raise the likelihood of achieving anything, and even then, I have my doubts. The mounts are small, the numbers are low, ranges relatively short; only a brilliant die roller is going to lay open a few hulls.

 

If this game (scenario) was one primarily of maneuver, the Germans had executed miserably. On numerous occasions Hamburg had found her line-of-fire blocked by an intervening column of torpedo boats, and more than once suffered flank shots by the pursuing Swift and Acasta. The disruption caused by the loss of S141 stayed with the German commander for the rest of the day, largely preventing him from getting his units back into a better tactical formation.

 

HMS Acasta
HMS Acasta.

 

Still, the game proved to be great fun; another stride back toward something that feels normal. A good friend of mine used to say, “You’re not lost as long as there’s gas in the tank.” With that in mind, we’ve decided we’re not done with the Frisian Islands.

 

PostScript

 

Erskine Childers, a native Englishman, soldier, naval officer, later an Irish nationalist and gun-runner, got himself shot at the age of 52, but his life, whether you agree with his politics or not, is an amazing but complicated tale unto itself. If you get a chance to read The Riddle of the Sands, do it; I think you’ll find it a great beach-read, or better, a good book for this winter while sitting in front of the fire on a cold evening. Lay in a box of wood, two fingers of Jameson, then settle in. Let me know what you think.


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#16788 FAI redux

Posted by healey36 on 23 October 2023 - 09:22 AM

Wow, 30K views on this thread...I am truly humbled.


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#16782 Mein Panzer Cold War - The Jossa Scenarios

Posted by Begemot_ on 20 October 2023 - 04:19 PM

Scenario 1 - Hide and Seek (Continued)

 

The Tale of the East Patrol
 
The east patrol enters and like the west patrol skirts the tree lines as they advance:
 
JHS_E02.jpg
 
Working razvedchiki, vehicle and dismount team:
 
JHS_E04.jpg
 
The east patrol clears a dummy counter and then comes up to the end of the tree stand. By this time they have heard the fire of the US tank and the reports of contact and the loss of one of their comrades. Caution is very much the order of the moment.
 
A dismount team is sent across the open space to check out the small copse. Undetected by the US the team finds the copse to be empty of US forces:
 
JHS_E06.jpg
 
It is fairly certain to the Soviets that the hidden marker on the tree line is an actual American unit, but attempts to spot it have been failures. Getting closer would help. The second dismount team is sent across the open terrain, angling to the left. The American spot this move and fire on the Soviet team, pinning it:
 
JHS_E07.jpg
 
The Soviets put fire into the woods and both Soviet dismount teams begin to maneuver, working to the American's flanks:
 
JHS_E08.jpg
 
The American ground team falls back to the waiting M113, boards and the APC withdraws to the south and off the table. The contact is reported by both sides. The American now know that their positions are being heavily probed, a harbinger of a likely Soviet move through the Jossa area.
 
The Soviet patrol presses on, searching for the American main line of resistance:
 
JHS_E09.jpg
 
The game ends.
 
Results
 
The US mission was to screen the approaches leading to the south from the village of Jossa, identifying the presence and composition of enemy forces moving through their position and to engage enemy forces to attrit and delay their advance. With the exception of delay, the Americans accomplished their mission.
 
The Soviet mission was to recon south though the Jossa area, identifying enemy forces present while remaining undetected and to penetrate enemy positions as far as possible. The Soviets detected US forces in the Jossa area, but their own presence was revealed to the US. They did not spot the US M113 on the west ridge and did lose a BRDM They did continue moving south.
 
Assessed: Draw
 
 
Comments
 
In my experience screening and reconnaissance actions are not common game topics, so I was interested in trying one out. This type of game would be best with fully hidden movement mediated by an umpire so that the full tension and suspense of probing the unknown until contact is made could be realized. The next best solution is using markers to represent units until they are spotted using the game's spotting mechanics. Dummy markers also increase the uncertainty. A problem with using markers is the very process of resolving spotting attempts can reveal to players what is and isn't likely to be a real or a dummy unit.
 
The Mein Panzer rules have a good spotting mechanism. The only change to the rules I made was to allow non-moving reconnaissance troops to make 2 spotting attempts in an activation rather 1 to reflect their better training and experience in spotting.
 
As OGDW has only published an abbreviated 'teaser' listing of Cold War vehicles and equipment for the US and Soviets there were some gaps that needed filling in. For example, the 'teaser' charts do not have the BRDM 2. So data from other rule sets for the period were cobbled to fit the Mein Panzer data format.
 
I'm no expert on reconnaissance and cavalry unit tactics, so those who know about these things will probably find fault with how the forces were used in this game. Constructive criticism is invited.
 
While big tank actions may have more appeal I think this aspect of modern combat, the screening battle, has a lot of potential.

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#16368 FAI redux

Posted by W. Clark on 26 April 2023 - 07:01 PM

When it was working (and that was a huge if) and your target was at least 800 yards away and no one was jamming the radio signal; it worked like a charm. Just as easy to hit with as a TOW in my experience. And mechanically, the Sheridan was better than a M113 IMHO. But that all changed with the first conventional round you fired. Firstly, the shock almost aways unseated some of circuit cards in a box behind the TC's seat knocking out the ability to fire the missile. I always immediately after firing a main gun round unlatched the box cover and patted the 10 to 20 (I'm old and don't remember exactly how many) circuit cards back into place and at least one if not many more would need it. After we had fired a couple of main gun rounds, I would be out on the rear deck with engineer compartment hatches open and a 9mm box wrench tightening the bolts that held the engine and transmission together. And that does not take into consideration all the other things that could come lose from the kind of shaking the recoil subjected the entire tank too. The testimony to the vehicle's mechanical reliability IMHO was that it was the primary vehicle that OFOR used for its mockups of Soviet vehicles in the National Training Center at Fort Irwin in the Mohave Desert. It was fast and it ran better than any other vehicle I ever crewed including jeeps. I loved it in peace and was deathly afraid to take it to war. 

 

I remember at Ft. Riley (I was in 1/4 Cav) the Army (OK, DOD) had bought up a bunch of farmlands including their buildings. 1st Engineers was out there blowing stuff up for fun and officially for practice. I thought if they can do it why not me? Of course, I didn't have anything on hand that went boom. but I did have my Shank (the shortened nickname for the Sheridan that we called a "son of a Tank"). So, I drove it through a silo and of course the silo collapsed on my shank. But my shank didn't care, and I drove out the other side. So, I'm sitting on a pile of brick that covers the front slope of my shank using the tube for an arm rest when the Lt. walked by. He asked me where my shank (actually A-28) was, and I replied that I was sitting on it. His response was "great camouflage job" and that was the end of the matter.  I really liked that Lt. We affectionally called him "Peaches" because that was the only part of C-rations that he would eat.

 

WMC


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#16131 April 1940 Action off Utsire Island

Posted by W. Clark on 23 February 2023 - 08:43 AM

Force du Raid

France’s what if contribution to the Norway Campaign

 

The First and Second Battles of Narvik had come and gone. Britain could claim that she had gutted Germany’s pre-war destroyer force (although at great cost), but she had not fulfilled her objective of closing the port of Narvik to iron ore shipments bound for Germany. German Gebirgs infantry held the town and the port. Of course, that is not the whole story. The Germans were short of ammunition and had not landed the bulk of their heavy weapons before the ships carrying them had been sunk. They therefore determined to remedy that situation with a new convoy bringing ammo, support weapons and an entire regiment of Gebirgs infantry. The Allies had divined their intent and it was France’s turn to stop their new effort.

 

The French engaged in no half measures. They committed all of Vice Admiral Gensoul’s Force du Raid except for the Second Ligne Division (the Bretagne class being considered too slow for the mission). The Germans responded with just about their entire surviving fleet. This set the scene for the largest surface action the North Sea had seen since Jutland.

 

VAdm Gensoul was on the bridge of his flagship, Strasbourg, trailed by Dunkerque.  The six La Galissoniere class cruisers of Cruiser Divisions 3 and 4 under RAdms Marquis and Bourrague followed astern. The Second Legere Squadron and the Second Destroyer Squadron under RAdms Lacroix and Dorval made up the light forces. The French Navy had a great many ships under repair or refit and four Contre-Torpilleur and three destroyer divisions making up the two groups were almost all short a ship or even two. Nevertheless, the nine Contre-Torpilleurs and six destroyers present were bound to exceed what Germany could muster. The seaplane tender, Commandant Teste held the French to 20 knots, but also provided aerial reconnaissance as long the North Sea’s legendary bad weather allowed. Gensoul’s mission was to keep the Kriegsmarine from getting anything resembling aid or comfort to the Germans at Narvik.

 

Vice Admiral Lutjens commanded the Narvik relief force from the bridge of his flagship Scharnhorst and her sister Gneisenau followed astern. A cruiser force (Admiral Hipper, Koln, Konigsberg & Karlsruhe) under RAdm Schmundt trailed the battle cruisers. The eight remaining destroyers (in 2-four ship divisions) provided the screen. The transport Duisberg and the cargo ships Saar and Adolf Luderitz carried the troops, ammo, food and heavy weapons intended for the garrison of Narvik. As Lutjens made clear to his subordinates; the Fuhrer had ordered him to deliver the convoy and its cargo to Narvik and Lutjens had never failed to carry out an order in his entire life.

 

The Germans were steaming due north just off Utsire Island at 12 knots (the best speed of the Duisberg). The French were closing from the west on a northeast converging course. Float planes from both sides had reported each other’s course and approximate speed.

 

The Weather God had rolled the customary D12 and D6 with a 5 and a 4 as a result. Thus, we had a Force 4 wind from the north (another DR) with 2 layers of clouds. Spotter a/c were going to have to get a bit closer than they would like to spot shots. The visibility was 18,000 yards at noon when the fleets sighted one another. Smoke could only be expected to last few minutes in the prevailing wind.  Two squalls were visible on the northern horizon about 36,000 yards apart. There was no sea haze. Both sides launched their remaining FP and got ready to shoot each other up.

 

Or at least the Germans did. Gensoul had other ideas. He had turned the 1st Ligne Division together as soon as he saw the Germans and now heading due north in a quarter line. He had Strasbourg make smoke and that covered Dunkerque. Gensoul also ordered his cruiser divisions to take station on his port (unenaged) side where they too were covered by Strasbourg’s smoke as well as being beyond max visibility. Gensoul ordered an increase in speed for the Strasbourgs and the cruisers to 29 knots. He ordered the contre-torpilleurs to flank speed and to stay beyond 18,000 yards for now. The destroyers would escort the AV until Gensoul had a clearer idea of what the German reaction would be.

 

 At 1206 hours Strasbourg opened on Scharnhorst while Scharnhorst and Gneisenau fired back. Strasbourg hit Scharnhorst once. Scharnhorst missed, but the unengaged Gneisenau also hit Strasbourg once. Strasbourg suffered the loss of a search light while Scharnhorst was hit on the fore turret and the shot bounced off.

 

At 1212 hours Lutjens realized from the various spotter a/c that several French destroyers (the contre-torpilleurs) were forging ahead just out of his sight at something like 30 plus knots to his 12. He ordered Schmundt to flank speed with his cruisers to keep them from heading his line. Meanwhile the duel between Strasbourg and the Scharnhorsts continued. Strasbourg hitting Scharnhorst again and Scharnhorst returning the favor. Strasbourg bounced another round off the Scharnhorst’s fore turret (Oh the ringing in their ears) While Scharnhorst devastated Strasbourg’s search lights.

 

By 1218 hours the French FP had reported the increase in the German cruisers speed and Gensoul ordered his cruisers forward at flank speed to assist the Contre-Torpilleurs. For the next 12 minutes Strasbourg and the Scharnhorsts exchanged fire without effect except for some slight damage to Strasbourg that did not affect her speed.

 

The Contre-Torpilleurs were restrained to 31 knots by Lynx and Tigre. These Chacal class ships were a bit long in the tooth and had lost some of the speed they had been built with. But at 32 knots it was going to take the Kriegsmarine cruisers some time to catch up given the head start by the Contre-Torpilleurs. The French cruisers at 31 knots were not going to catch up either unless the Contre-Torpilleurs slowed down. Something RAdm Lacroix had no intention of doing.

 

At 1230 hours Strasbourg was finally finding the range and hit Scharnhorst twice, knocking out 2 of her starboard secondaries. German return fire was ineffective. Gensoul had reduced speed to match the Germans rather than pull ahead of them too much. Gensoul radioed the Contre-Torpilleurs and his cruisers and ordered them to close with the German cruisers once they had left the German BCs far enough behind to prevent their interference. He realized this would take some time and he resolved to keep the German BCs busy with Strasbourg while his light forces got into position.

 

Gensoul had not forgotten his destroyers, but he did not see them having the numbers, speed and fire power needed to take the German destroyers on by themselves. He wanted to keep them intact until his CTs and cruisers had had a chance to take the German cruisers out.

 

By 1330 hours Strasbourg had hit Scharnhorst once more while Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had hit Strasbourg 9 times in return. Strasbourg’s hit had caused some damage. But at 12 knots who could tell what it had done. Strasbourg’s searchlight platform continued to be hit and she lost her forward starboard side secondary and her starboard quad secondary; as well as two hits that bounced off her fore turret. Her bridge suffered 2 hits that failed to penetrate, but her gun director was not so lucky and that probably explains her abysmal shooting.

 

At 1336 hours RAdm Lacroix figured that he was far enough ahead of the BCs and turned 45 degrees to starboard with the Chacals leading and making smoke. RAdms Marquis and Bourraque followed suit, including the smoke.

 

At first only the fore turrets of Admiral Hipper could be brought to bear and shooting at 18,000 yards at a DD (a large DD, but still a DD) resulted in no joy for the first salvo. Schmundt changed course 45 degrees to starboard also. The French turned 45 more degrees to starboard in response and were now heading 90 degrees.

 

Schmundt continued on a course of 45 degrees to preserve his gunnery and opened up on Lynx with everything that could bear. The range was coming down and Lynx was engaging both Admiral Hipper and Koln to keep them under fire. Admiral Hipper and Koln between them hit Lynx thrice at 15,000 yards. Karlsruhe and Konigsberg were farther away and not hitting yet. Lynx suffered damage to her hull, including a bulkhead and her fire control. Lynx slowed to 25 knots and the Mogadores and La Fantasque class DDs surged around her rapidly accelerating to 38 knots. Lynx repaired her damaged bulkhead.

 

The range was down to 12,000 yards and Schmundt’s ships had changed to firing at Mogadore. German gunnery at this point went straight to bad and all 4 cruisers missed (that was a lot of 4-9 results with 16 D12 with a few 11 & 12 by the ships still beyond 12,000 yards). Mogadore fired at Koln and hit her twice knocking out her fore and second 5.9” turrets. Lynx was now firing at Admiral Hipper and Konigsberg to keep them busy. Schmundt upon learning of Koln’s problems was heard to say; “That really is a super destroyer”.

 

The range was now down to 9,000 yards or less when the French cruisers who had been making smoke also stopped and steamed out into clear. Schmundt hurriedly ordered a change of targets for his cruisers to the new threat.

 

Marseillaise and her division (Jean de Vienne & La Galissoniere) all targeted Hipper while the 4th CruSqdn engaged opposite numbers against the German light cruisers. At the same time the CTs turned another 30 degrees to starboard and were threatening to cross Schmundt’s Tee while closing the range quickly.

 

Marseillaise hit Hipper twice while her sister ships missed. Hipper lost all her post side TT. Georges Leygues hit Koln once damaging her hull. Gloire hit Konigsberg once, knocking out her port secondary. Montcalm hit Karlsruhe once damaging her hull. Mogadore hit Koln thrice, knocking out her catapult and her aft turret. Lynx hit Koinigsberg once, further damaging her hull.

 

Hipper hit Marseillaise 5 times, Knocking out her catapult, her fore turret and hull. Marseillaise also took 2 hits in her engines and went DIW. Koln missed Jean de Vienne. Konigsberg hit La Galissoniere thrice, knocking out her fore turret, damaging her hull and a bulkhead. Karlsruhe missed George Leygues.

 

Marseillaise failed to repair her engines and her petrol stores now caught fie causing further damage. La Galissoniere failed to repair her bulkhead and took further damage. Koln also failed to repair and her petrol stores for her FP caught fire causing further damage. But Koln was still in the fight (she rolled a 1 for morale).

 

Schmundt belated realized he was too close to the Contre-Torpilleurs and tried to reverse course together. The French cruisers and Contre-Toprilleurs had now stopped making smoke and they all opened up on the Germans. Mogadore and Volta got end on fire against Hipper inside 6,000 yards. Between them they hit Hipper 4 times, knocking out her aft turrets, a hit to a magazine damaged a third turret and she took a hit in her engines slowing her to 21 knots. The 5 Fantasques all fired at Hipper and hit her 5 times, knocking out her aft starboard side TT, her remaining turret, damaging a bulkhead and her engines again making her DIW.

Lynx and Tigre hit Koln once to no effect. Jean de Vienne and La Galissoniere hit Hipper 8 times, damaging both her catapults, knocking out a starboard secondary, stirring the rubble of a turret, damaging her hull twice and hitting her twice more in her engines. Gerorges Leygues hit Koln once, taking out another secondary. Glorie hit Konigsberg once, knocking out her fore turret. Montcalm hit Karlsruhe once, knocking out anther turret.

 

Hipper shifted targets to Jean de Vienne and missed all together. Koln’s secondaries were ineffective. But Konigsberg rapidly firing hit La Galissoniere 5 more times, Damaging her second catapult twice, her starboard fore secondary, her hull and another bulkhead. Karlsruhe firing rapidly hit Georges Leygues once in the bridge. Schmundt kept his head (he rolled a 6 for morale) and by now was desperately trying to disengage.

 

Marseillaise fixed one engine and got under way, but her fires caused more damage. La Galissoniere failed to repair a bulkhead as well as her fires and took quite a bit more damage to her hull. Koln put out her fire. Hipper failed to repair and took quite a bit more damage.

 

The German cruisers that were not DIW all made smoke and tried to retire at their best individual speed. But none of them could exceed 32 knots when in good shape and the Contre-Torpilleurs were rapidly over taking them at 38 knots. The good news for the Germans was that the French 4th CruSqdn was compelled to steam straight because of the bridge hit to the Georges Leygues. But Jean de Vienne turned to pursue the Germans as did Tigre.

 

Over the next 18 minutes the Mogadores and 5 La Fantasques overtook and sank all the German light cruisers (The Germans were rapid firing and could not roll a 1,2,3,10,11 or 12 to save their lives) . The Contre-Torpilleurs seemed to have a knack for knocking out 5.9” turrets. The Germans eventually started failing morale, but they were over 10 knots slower by then and that did not save them. Lynx took her revenge on Hipper by steaming up to her and putting a torpedo in her at point blank range which with her bulkhead and other hull damage was more than enough to sink her.

 

By this point the German BCs were starting to poke over the horizon and the Contre-Torpilleurs turned away under smoke. La Galissoniere failed to repair the second bulkhead and she sank. Marseillaise eventually made her repairs but was too damaged to reengage and limped back to Brest. The French cruisers were now reduced to 4 and some of them had some damage.

 Lutjens by this point realized that his cruisers were gone and that there was a substantial French force of cruisers and destroyers between him and Narvik. He was also concerned about the French destroyers trailing this whole mess.

 

But what of his duel with Strasbourg? Strasbourg had hit Scharnhorst 4 more times during last hour. And Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had collectively hit Strasbourg 17 times in return. Scharnhorst had lost 2 more secondaries and some hull damage. Strasbourg had also suffered some hull damage, but the bulk of the hits were on her turrets, and they failed to penetrate. So, stalemate so far. Gensoul was thinking about making torpedo attacks from the front and the rear as close together as he could make it happen. The trouble was that he was running out of daylight.

 

Lutjens was also praying for dark. Lutjens was in a quandary. He was not sure how strong the French force in front of him was, but he figured it was stronger than his 8 destroyers. He had counted on his cruisers to clear the way and that was not going to happen now. He was well aware that there were 6 more French destroyers behind him and he was at a loss on how to deal with both threats at the same time. And he was still faced off with the Strasbourg and her consort.

 

Lutjens belatedly rolled morale for the loss of his cruiser division and rolled a 12 solving his dilemma; he would retire breaking his here to perfect record of always obeying his orders.

 

 


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#16019 FAI redux

Posted by healey36 on 24 December 2022 - 01:01 PM

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#16003 Question for Peter (since he's the only one here) :)

Posted by Phil Callcott on 06 December 2022 - 12:01 PM

One reason the M10 had worse gun stats, is that the Sherman had a power traverse turret, the M10 was hand cranked, very tiring for the crew...

 

Regards, Phil

 


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#15881 MP tutorial

Posted by Peter M. Skaar on 26 September 2022 - 10:50 AM

Here we go... again.  Mein Panzer Tutorial.  We are now on Turn 6.  The action has been pretty intense so far.  The Russians have been taking a toll of the Germans but have suffered some significant casualties, especially in the 1st Company on the Russian left.

Both sides pass their morale checks this time.  Both sides will continue to fight.  For those interested, I published my own morale rules for Mein Panzer here a couple of posts ago.

The action on the Russian left was relatively quiet on Turn 6 as both sides, despite passing their morale checks, are pretty well spent.  The Russian 1st Company is now down to 2 fully functional tanks while the German 1st Platoon opposite them is down to the XO tank.  Some shots are traded but neither side has much gas left in the tank.

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1st Company down to 3 tanks with 1 of those immobilized.  It can still shoot but not move.

 

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Another view from the Russian left showing the 7 knocked out tanks from 1st Company.

 

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A view showing what is left of the German 1st Platoon.  2 tanks are knocked out, 1 is brewed up, 1 is immobilized but otherwise functional, and only the XO's tank is fully operational.

On the Russian right, the action is a lot more intense as 2nd Company, despite a few losses, still has a lot of strength left. 

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The Russian 2nd Company makes its big push on the right.  The action here is very intense and both sides take more casualties.

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Another view from the Russian right.  The 2 immobilized tanks are now out of Command as the rest of 2nd Company moves forward.

The command distance for the Russians in this game is 2 inches between tanks of the same platoon and 12 inches to the Company CO.  In the case of these immobilized tanks, it is not a big deal as they can still perform their standard action during the turn.  Out of Command means they cannot use their bonus move but only perform the standard action.  Since they are immobilized and cannot move anyway this has no further adverse effect.
 

 

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The German 2nd and 3rd Platoons have suffered very heavy casualties in the short range gun fight.

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Here is a picture of the whole situation at the end of Turn 6.  The Germans have suffered very heavy casualties as well as the Russians.  Both sides are near their break point.

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A view from the German right.

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Another view.

Next, we will wrap up the game with Turn 7,8, and 9.


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#15756 HISTORICON 2022 The Wobbly Eight, using Fleet Action Imminent

Posted by William Cira on 29 July 2022 - 12:14 PM

It is a gloomy morning in January 1915 and once again a German force consisting of the battlecruisers Seydlitz, Moltke, Derfflinger, and Blucher have succeeded in bombarding a port city on the British East coast.  With several groups of British ships looking to intercept their escape run back across the North Sea, heavy weather has resulted in reduced visibility of only 12,000 yards. It looks like the Germans are going to escape but then their luck runs out when they are suddenly confronted by a formation of British ships emerging from the gloom, and already at close renege!   They have managed to bump into a squadron of eight obsolete British pre-dreadnought battleships of the King Edward VII class. These ships are affectionately known in the Royal Navy as the "Wobbly Eight."  

 

The Wobbly Eight don't have much of a chance but their 12 inch guns are enough to inflict serious damage on the German battlecruisers. The Germans are in a battle column while the British are in a long line abreast to facilitate their search for the Germans.  The German ships turn North in an effort to maneuver around the British ships.  This almost succeeds, but it does take them a bit closer to a strong force of British battlecruisers who are nearby and closing rapidly from the North.   Both sides open fire at around 10,000 yards.  The Germans guns score hits on the Wobbly Eight, who also manage to get a couple of good hits on the Germans.  

 

The German turn to the North takes them very close to the British Division consisting of King Edward VII, Hibernia Hindustan, and Zealandia.  Three of these British ships eventually succumbed to the German fire, but the British ships, who had been concentrating their fire on the Blucher, managed to cause enough damage to slow her to only 11 knots.  

 

The German attempt to get around the Wobbly Eight by side stepping to the North is blocked by the squadron of four British armored cruisers consisting of the Hampshire, Argyll, Devonshire, and Roxburgh.  This event, plus the sudden arrival of the British battlecruiser force from the Northwest, forces the Germans to turn Southeast, putting them in close range of the second squadron of British pre-dreadnoughts consisting of the Africa, Britannia, Commonwealth, and Dominion.   In this exchange, the Dominion was lost but Seydlitz took enough damage to slow her to only 18 knots.   

 

The game was wrapped up at this point.  The Germans would of course claim victory when they returned to port, pointing out that they had sunk four British "battleships" even though the loss of those ships would have no real impact on the further conduct of the war.  On the other hand the German battlecruisers Seydlitz and Blucher, had been roughly handled and they slowed to the point where it was unlikely that they would make it home.  This would of course discourage any further German attempts to send the battlecruiser squadron to bombard the English coast.  So, in the end, the Wobbly Eight succeeded in accomplishing what they needed to do.  

 

 


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#15730 why is USA armored infantry so small when comes to platoons

Posted by Mark 1 on 21 July 2022 - 06:26 PM

Thanks for the kind words, Kenny.

 

I probably should have described my basing approach in the post above, to give readers an extra clue as to how to decode what they are looking at.  Better late than never, so if you are still scratching your noggin' about the captions to some of the pics (particularly the dismounts), here is now I base my forces.

 

I base on US Pennies (1 cent coins).  These are about 19mm in diameter. They are cheap and plentiful (I can get 100 for $1, and I can always fish between the cushions of the couch for a few extras if I run out while trying to finish a unit).

 

It is important to understand that each stand is not necessarily modeled to show the exact number and composition of the troops on that stand. Rather, they are just representative. 

 

Here is how they are organized and what they represent:

- I put 4 figures on a stand to represent a "standard" rifle squad.  If all the squads in the unit are the same, then the actual models don't really matter except for the look of it.

- I put 3 figures on a stand to represent a "special purpose" squad.  Here the figures might matter in identifying what kind of squad it is.  If you look at the HQ platoon pic, you'll see three different 3-man stands. One is the HQ squad, as can be observed by the RTO and the figure with binoculars.  The other 2 are squad-sized groups, each with a rifleman figure and two figures carrying ammo boxes, representing the maintenance and supply sections (who would be armed with M1 carbines).  You will also see that the 81mm mortar stands and AT guns have 3 crew figures, as these were 8 - 10 man crews (full squad sized), but were not standard rifle squads.

- I put 2 figures on a stand to represent a support team / half-squad. For the platoon's MG squad you will see 3 MG stands (2 x .30cals, 1 x .50cal) that have 2 figures.  These represent smaller 3-5 man MG gun crews.  In the HQ platoon you will also see a few 2-figure stands. These are the XO with an RTO, and 2 vehicle crews (jeeps, trucks, whatever).  Several vehicles which might not have a squad of men might need to have their crews represented.  The medic is based singly, just to make him a bit more obvious to my eye at game time.

 

My platoon leaders are with the rifle squads of the 1st Halftrack of each platoon.  So there are no separate platoon CO stands.  I identify HQ elements by placing dots on the back rim of the penny used as a stand. 

- 3 dots = platoon CO

- 2 dots = company CO (or 2IC)

- 1 dot = battalion / battlegroup CO.

 

The dots are generally done with a darker shade of similar tone to the dominant colors on the stand -- so with grass flocked stands this is usually a darker green.  It is very low visibility on the table to anyone but me, but from my position behind my force (it's on the back of the stand, facing me), and with me knowing that it means, it is quit easy for me to scan my force and see my command units.

 

Often I model or paint my command vehicles a little differently as well. In this particular formation I have used the HMG pulpit of the M3A1 halftrack to denote the commanders' vehicles, with the rest of the vehicles just getting the pedestal mounted MG of the M3 halftrack. Again, quite easy for me to find, but perhaps not entirely obvious to an opponent.

 

That might help y'all understand the pics a bit better. Or maybe it's just me yammering on for no gain. But if you are interested in at least one guy's approach, there you have it.

Good luck and good gaming.

 

-Mark

(aka: Mk 1)


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#15701 MP tutorial

Posted by Peter M. Skaar on 14 July 2022 - 06:15 PM

Finally!  I am getting ready to run a solo game of Mein Panzer.  This will be an ongoing tutorial of sorts whereby I point out the rules as I use them and provide plenty of pictures showing the game in progress. I have set-up the terrain and have selected the forces I will use for this game.

This scenario, which is not strictly historical, takes place on the Russian Front in August 1943 when the Soviets are going on the general offensive after Kursk.  A breakthrough has occurred and the Russians are racing to seize 2 bridges over a minor river.  The Germans have put together a company of tanks to stop them.  This will be a meeting engagement and feature use of the advanced rules for tanks and command but no infantry, artillery, or anti-tank guns will be used for this scenario.

Here are a few pictures of my layout using GHQ Terrain Maker.  The game is being played in 1/285th scale aka 6mm.

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The pictures show the table covered with flannel to keep the terrain tiles from sliding around during play, a view from the German side, a view from the Russian side, and the two bridges.  The total layout is 4' x 2'8".


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#15947 Mein Panzer Core Rules v2.1b

Posted by Bob Benge on 01 November 2022 - 12:42 PM

I have completed the last of the File Updates/Uploads to the Private Access Library for MP Core 2.1b. I have updated all of the scale template files and the Printing Instructions File. There are now only 3 Scale Templates files to download as I have consolidated all of the templates.

  • 6mm Templates (comes in the full download and print version)
  • 10-12mm Templates
  • 15mm Templates

I also have updated and uploaded the Markers file to match the 2.1b Version of the rules. I have also added 3 other Markers files that contain additional Overwatch, Activated and Pin Markers for those large games (Additional Markers #1 and #2) and Building Markers (Cellar, Roof, 1st Floor, etc.) Weapons Markers (Rifle, SAW, Molotov Cocktail, Satchel Charge, etc.), Rubble (for those destroyed Buildings) and Fire Lane Markers.

 

Finally, I updated and uploaded the Advanced Playsheets file. 

 

All of these files are located in:

 

Old Dominion GameWorks → Downloads → Private Access Library→ Mein Panzer→ Core Rules→ Component

 

Have fun and enjoy!


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#15231 FAI redux

Posted by healey36 on 07 May 2021 - 02:31 PM

January 17, 1916

 

This fourth and final part of the three-day Möwe saga is a recast of the events of January 17, 1916, centering on the notion of HMS Essex and her captain acting upon the radio messages of SS Clan MacTavish, received on the evening of January 16, 1916. These garbled messages were, in fact, discarded/ignored by the wireless operators, with HMS Essex continuing her patrol some 150 miles south of the freighter’s last reported position. It was a long-shot opportunity to have ended Möwe’s career early on, tragically cast aside. Apologies given in advance for its long-winded nature.

 

 

Alone in HMS Essex’s cramped radio room, a young telegraph rating sat hunched at his station, head down, his headset held tightly over his ears. There it was again, he thought, a faint message, nearly obscured by crackling interference, a call for assistance, under attack, Clan MacTavish, along with a position. It repeated nearly a dozen times before it faded into an indiscernible stream, but he was able to jot down most, if not all of it. Looking at his watch, he noted the time and date in the wireless log as 1848, 16 January 1916.

 

He’d no sooner written into the log then the steel door behind him swung open, the CPO sticking his head in to check on him. Turning, the operator said nothing, just handed him the slip of paper.

 

“Are you sure?” his chief asked. He always harbored some doubts about these newly-minted wireless operators.

 

“It repeated a number of times; I wrote down what I could, but then I lost it.”

 

“Give it another twenty minutes. See if you can raise it again. I’ll be back ‘round in a bit.”

 

A half hour slipped by and the operator heard nothing, just a few faint wisps of inconsequential traffic. When the chief returned, the operator had nothing new to report. The surly CPO, mumbling something about having had his doubts, told the radioman he would need to stay on past the end of his watch as the lead telegraphist had taken ill and was laid up in sick bay.

 

He’d nearly given up on it when, at 2048, a new message from Clan MacTavish was heard, quite clear, reporting that the freighter had been attacked by an unidentified ship which they’d managed to elude. The message provided a revised time, position, and an approximate heading. The operator alerted the watch officer, who had the message taken to the bridge. At 2100, Essex’s captain, Hugh D. R. Watson, was sent for and told of the message. Looking at the charts, they determined that Essex could be on Clan MacTavish’s approximate position within eight or nine hours. At 2124, Watson messaged Cape Verde station, who ordered Essex off her patrol and sent north.

 

__________

 

At 2018, Dohna-Schlodien ordered Möwe around to resume the pursuit of Clan MacTavish, but after nearly two hours searching in the darkness, no trace of the big freighter was found. The German made the presumption that MacTavish’s captain would quickly resume his original due-north course and set Möwe’s search in that direction; Oliver, in fact, had turned onto an ENE heading, moving nearly 180 degrees opposite the last glimpse he’d had of his adversary. Shortly before 2100, Oliver took one hell of a chance and ordered a short message sent advising of their encounter, the time, and an approximate position. Receiving no response and presuming no assistance was coming, he resolved to put as much water as possible between him and the German cruiser before dawn.

 

Dohna Schlodien
Nikolaus Burggraf und Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien.

 

Dohna-Schlodien had decisions of his own to make, none of them particularly good. First, he radioed Berg on Appam, advising him that Möwe would not rendezvous with the liner again, instead ordering him to take the ship west to a neutral American port. He directed Berg to do this in a leisurely fashion, both to delay the release of the British prisoners she was carrying, as well as optimizing Möwe’s chances to disappear.

 

He next had to decide whether to remain in the area south of Funchal, move to another location somewhere along the West African coast, or simply push off for the hunting grounds of South America and a rendezvous with Corbridge for recoaling. While they had not detected any radio traffic overnight indicating the gig was up, he had to presume that the freighter, if able, would do so by morning. As the hours slipped by and no “alarm” traffic was overheard, Dohna-Schlodien made the decision to remain for a few days before heading west.

 

Hugh D. R. Watson had taken command of Essex on New Year’s Day, 1915. During the years leading up to the war, she’d had a reputation as a rather undisciplined ship, performing subpar on maneuvers while wreaking havoc in a number of ports of call. Watson, together with Hugh Tweedie, her previous commander, had gone a long ways toward getting the troublemakers and malcontents sorted. By January, 1916, she was performing as well as any of the cruisers assigned to foreign stations.

 

HMS Essex C2
Möwe's pursuer, HMS Essex, a Monmouth-class armored cruiser.

 

The Monmouth-class armored cruisers, of which Essex was one of ten, had been purpose-built for defending the sea lanes against marauding enemy cruisers and armed merchantmen. They were relatively lightly armed (14 six-inch in two twin turrets and six casemates) and armored (just 2-4 inches along the belt) as compared to the preceding Drake-class, but they had good speed, which was critical for the task at hand. Besides the lighter main armament, there were a number of design issues, the most glaring being eight of the six-inch were configured in two-tiered casemates, the lower of which were nearly awash in all but the calmest of conditions and lowest speeds. An anomaly in White’s string of cruiser designs, faults aside, they were lovely ships.

 

While Essex charged north at 18 knots, Watson was left to plan his search. With precious little information from MacTavish to build on, he started with the approximate position of her encounter which she’d radioed some eight hours earlier. Presuming the German was, at worst, a light cruiser, operating at a speed of 20 knots or less, he was left with a potential area of some 80,000 square nautical miles to deal with. That was, however, only if the raider had bolted in a straight line, which he thought unlikely. If the German had spent any significant time trying to track the freighter, the distance from the point of contact was probably far less, which would reduce the search area considerably, and a presumption that the German would stay close to the shipping lanes reduced it further. Drawing a circle around an area of some 6000 square nautical miles south and west of Madeira, he would focus his search there.

 

Sir_Hugh_Watson_in_1928.jpg

A postwar photo of Sir Hugh D. R. Watson from 1928.

 

Some ninety minutes before sunrise, a lookout reported a smudge of smoke on the horizon off Essex’s starboard bow. Sending the men to action stations, Watson had the cruiser move to investigate. What they discovered was nothing more than a 500-ton Portuguese trawler, belching a plume of oily smoke while dragging nets from its extended booms. Satisfied that this was no German raider, Watson pressed on at 15 knots, still more than two hours south of his targeted search area.

 

At 0740, another ship was encountered, this the Norwegian-flagged refrigerated motor vessel Sardinia, bound for Luanda with a cargo of fish, machine oil and parts. After a cursory inspection consuming the better part of forty minutes, both ships were back on their way, with Sardinia quickly disappearing over the southern horizon.

 

Nine hours after having dispatched Appam for her run west, Dohna-Schlodien was having second thoughts. The cargo liner might have proved useful as a decoy, screening Möwe in the event of a confrontation with a well-armed adversary. He made no effort to recall her, but it had him thinking. His failed overnight search for the freighter had taken him further north and east than he wanted. Presuming that any threat would likely come from the direction of Madeira, he ordered Möwe’s speed reduced to eight knots and a turn to the south-southwest. This would take them slowly across the established shipping lanes, as well as a line some forty miles west where traffic was reportedly moving in an attempt to avoid submarines that might be operating in the area. Once beyond that, sensing the risk of hanging around was too great, they’d head west for the Brazilian coast.

 

At 0920, Essex reached Clan MacTavish’s reported position at the time of her encounter with the German raider. As expected, there was nothing to be seen, the sea empty in all directions. MacTavish’s radio-location shortly before 2100 was nearly fifteen miles north-northeast, so Watson ordered Essex off on a line in that direction. He planned to continue on that heading for two or three hours, then begin a wide turn that would take the cruiser to the northwest.

 

By early afternoon, air temps had risen to a seasonal 61 degrees while sea conditions remained “gentle” (d12 roll of 3). At 1348, a faint wisp of smoke was reported off Essex’s port bow, some eight to twelve miles off. Checking the charts and their current position, Watson determined they were just outside the western edge of the standard north-south shipping lane, placing the ship fifteen to twenty nautical miles outside of where he’d expect one to be. Deciding to investigate, he ordered the helmsman to make a ten degree turn to port and speed increased back to 18 knots.

 

After nearly an hour of steaming, Essex had made little headway in reaching and identifying the vessel, although the smoke was a bit darker and better-defined. Watson realized two things: (1) Essex was slowly reeling in its quarry, and (2) the ship was travelling nearly perpendicular to the “normal” traffic lanes, highly suspicious behavior in Watson’s mind. He ordered speed increased to 20 knots.

 

Up ahead, Dohna-Schlodien had run through a similar analytical process, although his being laced with considerable caution. A topside lookout had spotted smoke off Möwe’s port quarter at 1406, and while Dohna-Schlodien would have dearly loved to turn back and harvest another merchantman, he did not, instead observing its position over time with the intention of determining its course. If it was observed to be moving north-south along the sea lane, then he would pursue it. It did not; in fact, after nearly an hour the ship’s position astern of Möwe had barely moved, indicating the ship was travelling on a similar heading, possibly in pursuit. Dohna-Schlodien decided it would be prudent to try and put as much water between them as possible. At 1436, he ordered a slight turn to port which, after a few minutes, the ship astern mimicked. This confirmed his suspicion that Möwe was being pursued, and he ordered his ship ahead at flank speed (14 knots).

 

__________

 

The inexorable march to some sort of endgame had begun, and Dohna-Schlodien was up against it. With more than three hours until sunset, he knew there was little chance of escaping into darkness, and the cloudless blue skies overhead gave little hope of a sudden squall or fog-bank to provide sanctuary. Short of a miracle, he knew he would have to face down his pursuer or strike his colors.

 

At 1512, Watson received word from the watch officer overhead that the ship had come into view, revealing itself to be a two-masted, single-funnel steamer, flag unknown. Still nearly twelve miles off, Watson ordered a signal sent, identifying himself as the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Essex and requesting the steamer’s identity. Receiving no response, he ordered the query sent again, to which a delayed response was returned that the ship is the Harrison Line’s Benefactor out of Liverpool. Watson finds that curious and decides he wants a closer look. At Essex’s current speed, she is closing on the merchantman at a rate of one mile every ten minutes.

 

SS Benefactor
SS Benefactor of the Harrison Line.

 

Peering aft through his battered Zeiss binoculars, Dohna-Schlodien could clearly see the outline of the three-funnel cruiser bearing down on Möwe. He was playing it coy, the British Red Ensign still fluttering above his ship, but he wondered how long the charade could last. To bring his 5.9-inch to bear, he would need to turn out from his present course to present his broadside, and his gun crews, which had proved themselves largely ineffective against a hostile ship less than 24 hours ago, would require a range of 4000-6000 yards for any chance, a torpedo half that. He didn’t like the odds, but to simply give up without a shot was unacceptable.

 

By 1542, the range was down to nine miles, still nearly 16000 yards. Watson ordered a new signal sent by lamp, demanding the ship heave to. There was no response, nor any indication that she intended to stop. Perhaps at the outer limits of lamp range, it was possible the signal was missed or misunderstood, but Watson had his doubts. At 1612, having closed to within six miles, he ordered the signal sent again, and again received no reply, although the ship was now observed to slow somewhat.

 

Dohna-Schlodien realized Möwe was rapidly approaching her Götterdämmerung moment. She couldn’t run and she couldn’t hide, but perhaps she could act in an erratic manner, thereby confusing her pursuer. With the range down to 8800 yards, he ordered a pair of distress flares launched, hoping this might give Essex pause. He then ordered Möwe’s speed to be gradually reduced to ten knots. Presuming the cruiser would continue her rapid approach, he hoped to get the range down to three miles or less, whereupon he’d turn across the Englander’s bow and open fire.

 

Watson and the others on Essex’s bridge watched in wonder as the pair of flares arced into the afternoon sky. What sort of tomfoolery was this, Watson wondered. Whatever it was, he’d had about enough of it. By 1642, the range was just a shade more than two miles, with Essex overtaking the freighter by a mile every six minutes. Sensing that his ability to maneuver was tightening as the distance closed, he ordered the cruiser’s speed reduced to 15 knots with an 18-degree turn to port. He then turned to his XO, “Signal them again, full stop, or we open fire.”

 

Watson’s “final” signal proved too late as an increasingly edgy Dohna-Schlodien, just seconds before, ordered Möwe into action. The Red Duster flying over her stern was quickly hauled down, replaced by the German naval ensign, with the ship lurching into a sharp turn to starboard, her speed returned to flank. The partitions are dropped to reveal her 5.9-inch, the disguised 4.1-inch on her stern is cleared and swung around for action, and the torpedo crews rotate their mounts outboard. He had, however, made his first mistake, choosing a turn to starboard under the presumption the cruiser would continue its rapid direct approach. Watson had not, instead choosing to turn to port, outside the freighter’s line, which now presented him a stern-on shot.

 

If Watson harbored any doubts of the German’s intentions, those were quickly dispelled. At 1648, Möwe’s stern mount 4.1-inch fires at a range of 3200 yards, scoring a non-penetrating hit on the face of Essex’s A-turret, sending splinters in all directions but causing only superficial damage and no casualties.

 

Möwe’s turn brings her starboard 5.9-inch to bear, commencing their fire at 1654. Dohna-Schlodien curses as a pair of tall columns of water erupt 50 yards off Essex’s stern. He knows every shot must count if they are to survive this fight. Watson, standing along the rail on the flying bridge, orders his main battery to commence firing, with nine 6-inch firing nearly in unison. With the range at 3000 yards (just 1.7 miles), all miss.

 

HMS Essex C
SMS Möwe's first 5.9-inch volley lands astern of HMS Essex.

 

At 1700, Dohna-Schlodien makes a second blunder. Anticipating the cruiser to turn in on his ship attempting to further close the range, he orders Möwe to turn sharply to port, reversing back to something close to her original course. In so doing, her 5.9-inch again lose their fire angle. The 4.1-inch fires but misses. Essex unleashes another broadside, the range having widened to 3600 yards. While they score no direct hits, they are dreadfully close.

 

01171916 B
SMS Möwe bracketed by a 6-inch volley from Essex.

 

Möwe continues her turn back to port, now bringing her onto a line roughly parallel to Essex. With her 5.9-inch back on line, she fires a broadside, holing the cruiser at the waterline aft of Z-turret on her starboard side. At 4100, yards, however, Möwe has slipped outside the range of her torpedoes. Seconds later she is rocked by three hits from Essex, crushing two bulkheads below deck and starting a fire in her aft cargo hold (converted for coal storage). As seawater pours into the ship and smoke billows from her aft hold, Möwe’s speed drops to eight knots.

 

Within minutes, Möwe has gotten the bulkhead damage and related flooding contained, but the fire in her aft hold continues to burn (causing additional flooding). At 1712, the range widening, both ships fire and miss.

 

01171916 A
SMS Möwe on fire.

 

By 1718, Dohna-Schlodien’s XO reports the fire is under control, but the German’s speed has now fallen to just 5 knots. With scarcely enough momentum to maneuver, Möwe sends another volley in Essex’s direction, missing from 4500 yards; Essex returns fire, scoring a single hit which stoves in her forward port-side 5.9-inch position and making hash of the gun crew.

 

Minutes go by and the range continues to widen, now nearly 4800 yards. Looking at his watch, Watson realizes they’ve been at this for scarcely a half-hour. A-turret thunders and he looks up to see a 6-inch round plow into the German aft. As smoke again begins to pour out of her cargo hold, her remaining port-side 5.9-inch fires, the shell passing safely up and over the British cruiser’s funnels.

 

While Möwe quickly gets her fires back under control, the entire back half of the ship is now little more than a blackened hulk. With her pumps struggling to contain the flooding, her speed down to just five knots, nearly a third of her crew dead or wounded, and a quarter of her main armament out of action, her career comes to a fictional end. At 1730, Dohna-Schlodien orders the colors struck, his crew and prisoners into the boats. Standing along the rail, he watches as the men pull away, then heads below to open the seacocks.


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