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I am prepping for Sand Wars here in Mesa, AZ on May 18-19.  In order to tweak my Cruisin' for a Bruisin' scenario and get back in the groove so to speak, I decided to run a couple of games at Imperial Outpost which is an FLGS in Glendale, AZ.

The first game was played this last Saturday, April 13th.  I had only 2 players for the game this time with Matt W. taking the role of the British and Jeffrey M. taking the role of the Germans.  Each player had a reduced company with the Germans having 10 Panzer IIIs with 3 being "Specials" and the British side with 11 Crusader IIs.

We played through 4 turns before the game was called but there was a lot of action.  The British got the worst of things but did manage to kill a few German tanks including the German HQ tank.  The British also lost their HQ tank as well.

Both players were fairly new to the game.  Matt had played in the game I hosted in October while Jeffrey had never played Mein Panzer before.  They enjoyed the game and want to play again so I consider it a success.

The next game will be on April 27th at Imperial Outpost.  I think I may have more players for that one.

Here are a few pictures of the game from Saturday.

A Night in Bharu and Singora Too

It was midnight with a Quarter Moon, but the overcast made the moon like new. The wind was a Force 4 Southerly at 15 knots. There were no squalls or sea haze, so it was a dark but not stormy night and smoke was still an option.

0000 hours. Force Z was at sea heading due North at 25 knots looking for those Sons of Nippon. The Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere was reported to have landed another Beach Party at Koto Bharu the RN intended to voice its objection at this blatant repeat of earlier trespasses at this same location.

The steward brought Admiral Phillips a cup of tea with a bit of brandy in it. It was after all a new year and that called for a bit of cheer. HMS PoW (Prince of Wales) the flagship led a column of cruisers (1^st Div. Exeter, Mauritius & Emerald; 2^nd Div. Danae, Dragon and Durban) under RAdm Palliser. There was a destroyer division in column to the port and to the starboard of the central column respectively. Repulse had been left in port. This would be a torpedo ambush if Phillips had his say. He might not have Enterprise, but he did have Emerald, and he intended to boldly go where he had not gone three weeks ago.

Unbeknownst to Phillips, the invasion convoy was still at sea and was closing on Force Z from the NE on a heading of 225 degrees at 11 knots. That made for a closing speed of about 36 knots. Also unbeknownst to Phillips was that the Port IJN destroyer column could see 16.000 yards (I rolled a 1!) which equaled the best (DesDiv 1) RN radar return but DesDiv 1 was to port of the central column. Those Sons of Nippon would get first peek. This would allow the IJN to accelerate and maneuver to port opening up their arcs.

0012 hours. PoW and Electra both made radar contact some 12,000 yards off PoW’s starboard bow. This was the exact opposite of Phillips’ expectations, whoops. PoW fired star-shell from her SS SB and illuminated the second and third ships of what appeared to be a 4-ship division of destroyers.

0015 hours. Phillips accelerated Central column to 29 knots and turned 2 points to port. He had DesDiv 1 accelerated to 35 knots and for it to take station ahead of the Central Column. Phillips had DesDiv 2 (S&T class) fall in behind the Central Column. PoW now engaged the first illuminated DD with it SS SB and whiffed completely. Mauritius fired at the other illuminated DD and hit it 6 times.

But PoW found herself under fire from very large guns indeed, the Nagatos were putting in their two cents.

The Isonami took a hit to her DC racks that started a minor fire. She also lost 2 turrets, had a bulkhead damaged and suffered critical hits to her bridge and engineering. PoW was straddled but not hit with shell splashes that went as high as her main mast.

0018 hours. Phillips turned the central column and DesDiv 2 away together under smoke to break LOS and used DesDiv 1’s SWR to keep situational awareness. This was not the fight Phillips had hoped for.

0021 hours. Phillips turned back into column on a heading of 340 degrees and continued to smoke. He needed to get them within 8,200 yards to torpedo them and he needed to do it without them shooting his cruisers and destroyer to pieces before they could launch. It was obvious that at least some of the Japanese could see as far his radar. DesDiv 1 could still see the damaged DD. It had put out the fire but still had 2 EDR fires burning.

0024 hours. Phillips decided to separate PoW from the cruisers. PoW radar was currently good out 12,000 yards and her SB could fire star-shell that far. He’d light the DDs up again at 12,000 yards and pray that the Nagatos were further away when he did it. If he could get lucky and avoid damage, he might just be able distract the IJN while he slipped his cruisers and DDs within 8,000 yards. If he could pull that off then he would launch torps and let the chips fall as they may. He was going to get Napoleonic on the Japanese, engage, then wait and see.

0030 hours. PoW illuminated another contact at 12,000 yards that turned out to be anther DesDiv of 4 Asashio class DDs.

0033 hours. PoW engaged the lead illuminated DDs with her MB and her SS SB. PoW MB inflicted 4 hits on the Oshio and her SB hit Arashio once. Oshio took a hit to her DC racks that started a minor fire, lost her fore turret and two engineering hits that threatened to knock her DIW. Arashio took a hit in her DC racks and a minor fire. PoW was fired upon by the Nagatos and they missed again.

0036 hours. Phillips had his cruisers and DDs turn together towards the gun flashes that he believed were the Nagatos and turn back on course together while moving the last half of their movement straight ahead. He then had DesDiv 2 fire star-shell in an attempt to illuminate what he believed were the Nagatos. PoW engaged the DDs again with her MB & SB. PoW hit Oshio 4 more times but missed Arashio. Oshio took 3 hits to her hull and a bulkhead. Nagato hit PoW once knocking out a TB and a SL. DesDiv 2 illuminated Nagato and Mutsu.

0039 hours. PoW engaged Nagato with her MB and Arashio with her SB. Nagato returned fire. PoW missed and Nagato hit her once damaging her hull. Several IJN DDs fired at DesDiv 1 & 2 without effect.

0042 hours. All the RN cruisers and DDs fired their torps off at the Nagatos at 8,000 yards. All of Force Z then turned away under smoke to break LOS.

0045 hours. Phillips continued with Force Z almost in a line abreast away from the Japanese under smoke while Electra kept track of them on radar.

Nagato took 5 torps from the 31 fired at her from DesDiv 1, Exeter, Mauritius and Emerald. Mutsu took 4 torps from the 26 fired at her by Danae, Dragon, Durban and DesDiv 2. Nagato took 11 hull and sank after 7. Mutsu also took 7 hull and sank. Admiral Yamamoto went down with Nagato, never to rise again and that was a first for me.

0048 hours. Phillips knew that he had gotten hits but did not know how many or what he had hit. Phillips withdrew and 3 WAF invasions convoys succeeded. The Singapore Index moved to 4.

2nd Vella LaVella continued.

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.

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.

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.

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 1^st spread and unluckily (or not if you were the IJN) 3 more from the 2^nd spread! Hit by 4 Type 93’s O’Bannon disintegrates.

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

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.

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.

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

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).

1^st 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).

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

I'm flying this one solo.

Defending the Malay Barrier (DTMB) Campaign

This is the standard start option. There are no capital ships, Force Z is sunk and the Singapore Index is at 1.

GT 1 16-31 December 1941

The ABDA has not formed yet and the Americans, Brits, Australians, and Dutch are all operating independently. They may not combine excerpt that the USN could transfer a division of Flush Deckers to Singapore. I’ve never seen that done and I’m not going to do it now.

Weather Forecast DR: 6 That results in a +0 modifier in both the WAF and EAF areas this GT.

Japanese

TE (Theater Event) DR: 9        Random ship damaged in the EAF and Oyashio is not available this GT as a result.

WAF 3 CDs

CD 1: Convoy (L) against Kota Bharu-Singora (3^rd Malayan) under VAdm Ozawa (Vet)

CA Chokai; CS7 (RAdm Kurita) CA Kumano, Suzuya, Mikuma & Mogami; 3^rd DesFlot (RAdm Hashimoto) CL Sendai; DesDivs 11^th, 12^th, 19^th & 20^th 14 Fubuki DDs, 12  APs & AV Kamikawa Maru

CD 2: Convoy (L) against Kota Bharu-Singora (2^nd Malayan) under VAdm Kondo

CS4 (VAdm Kondo) CA Takao & Atago; DesDiv 4, 4 Kagero DD; DesDiv 6, 2 Akatsuki DD; DesDiv 8, 4 Asashio DD; 12 APs & AV Sanyo Maru

EAF 4 CDs

CD 1: CG in the Center Axis under RAdm Kakuta

CVL Ryujo & DD Shiokaze

CD 2: Convoy (M) against Davo under RAdm Takagi

CA Haguro; 2^nd DesFlot (RAdm Tanaka Vet) CL Jintsu; 15^th DesDiv 3 Kagero DD, 10 APs & AV Chitose

CD 3: Convoy (M) against Jolo

CS5 CA Myoko & Nachi; DesDiv 16 (-), 2 Kagero DD; 8 APs & AV Mizuho

Aillies

TE: 7    Houston gets her SW radar installed; SW – radar

Singapore: Brit CD used to transfer HMAS Vampire to Darwin

Tarakan: American CD used to transfer Marblehead and DesRon 29 to Surabaya

GT Results: All objectives taken and Singapore index now at 2.

GT 2 1-15 January 1942

The ABDA still not formed and the Allies are stuck operating independently.

Weather Forecast DR: 12       That results in + 4 modifier in the WAF and a +2 in the EAF

Japanese

TE DR: 1           Admiral Yamamoto intervenes, add 2 CDs to either Attack Force as desired.

WAF 4 CDs (1 from TE)

CD 1: CD Reinforcement of CL Yura to WAF

CD 2: Convoy (S) against Miri/Brunei under RAdm Hashimoto

3^rd DesFlot (RAdm Hashimoto) CL Sendai & Yura ; DesDiv 11 &  19, 7 Fubuki DD; 4 APs & AV Sagara Maru

CD 3: Convoy (S) against Kuching under VAdm Kondo

CS4 CA Takao & Atago; Desdiv 12 & 20, 7 Fubuki DD; 4 APs & AV Sanyo Maru

CD 4: Convoy (L) against Kota Bharu-Singora (4^th Malayan) under VAdm Ozawa (Vet)

CA Chokai; CS7 (RAdm Kurita) CA Kumano, Suzuya, Mikuma & Mogami; DesDiv 4, 4 Kagero DD; DesDiv 6, 2 Akatsuki DD; DesDiv 8, 4 Asashio DD, 12 APs & AV Kamikawa Maru

EAF 5 CDs (1 from TE)

CD 1: CG in Center Axis under RAdm Kakuta

CVL Ryujo & DD Shiokaze

CD 2: CD Reinforcement CL Nagara (RAdm Hara)

CD 3: Convoy (M) against Tarakan under RAdm Hara

CS16 CL (RAdm Hara) CL Nagara; DesDiv 2, 4 Shiratsuyu DD & 8 APs

CD 4: Convoy (M) against Balikpapan under RAdm Takagi

CA Haguro; CL Jintsu; DesDiv 15 & 16, 6 Kagero DD, DesDiv 24, 4 Shiratsuyu DD 8 APs & AV Chitose

CD 5: Convoy (VS)

CS5 CA Myoko & Nachi; DesDiv 9, 4 Asashio DD, 1 AP & AV Mizuho

Allies

TE DR: 9 Marblehead has run aground and not available this GT.

Singapore: Brits take Mauritius as a CD reinforcement

Batavia: Dutch transfer to Surabaya

Surabaya: Americans transfer DesRon 29 & DesDiv 59, 5 DD to Darwin

Darwin: ANZACs sortie a sweep in the Eastern Axis under RAdm Crace

CAs Australia & Canberra, CLs Perth, Hobart, Leander & Achilles & DD Vampire.

Weather was overcast and Japanese LBA failed to contact the ANZAC sortie. All objectives were taken. The Singapore Index is now a 3. WAF LBA Tier 1 is complete. EAF LBA Tier is still at 0.

GT 3 16-31 January 1942

The ABDA has now formed. The Allies may combine forces and share CDs.

Weather Forecast DR: 4 resulting in +0 modifier.

Japanese

TE DR: 10 Carrier raid against Ambon, does not cost a CD, counts as CG in the Eastern Axis

CV Hiryu & Soryu; DesDiv 7, 2 Fubuki DD & DesDiv 27, 2 Shiratsuyu DD

WAF 3 CDs

CD 1: Convoy against Jesselton (VS) under RAdm Hashimoto

CL Sendai & Yura, DesDiv 20, 4 Fubuki DD & 1 AP

CD 2: Convoy against Endau (VS) under VAdm Kondo

CS4 CA Takao & Atago; DesDiv 19, 4 Fubuki DD, 1 AP & AV Sanyo Maru

CD 3: Convoy (M) against Bangka Island under VAdm Ozawa (Vet)

CA Chokai; CS7 (RAdm Kurita) CA Kumano, Suzuyu, Mikuma & Mogami; DesDiv 4, 4 Kagero DD, DesDiv 8, 4 Asashio DD, DesDiv 11, 3 Fubuki DD, 8 APs & AV Kamikawa Maru

EAF 4 CDs

CD 1: CD Reinforcement CA Ashigara (VAdm Takahashi)

CD 2: Convoy (M) against Menado under RAdm Hara

CL Nagara; DesDiv 2 & 24, 8 Shiratsuyu DD & 8 APs

CD 3: Convoy (M) against Ambon under RAdm Tanaka

CL Jintsu; DesDiv 15, 4 Kagero DD; DesDiv 21, 4 Hatsuharu DD, 8 AP & AV Chitose

CD 4: Convoy (M) against Kendari under VAdm Takahashi

CA Ashigara; CS5 (RAdm Takagi) CA Haguro, Myoko & Nachi; DesFlot 4 (RAdm Nishimura) CL Naka; DesDiv 9, 4 Asashio DD; DesDiv 16, 4 Kagero DD, 8 APs & AV Mizuho

Allies

TE DR: 7           HMS Emerald at Singapore as a 1 GT reinforcement

Singapore: Sorties a sweep against the WAF under RAdm Palliser

CA Exeter, CL Mauritius, Emerald, Danae, Dragon & Durban; DesDiv 1, 3 E class DD & 1 J class DD; DesDiv 2, 4 S & T class DD

Surabaya: Americans and Dutch sortie a sweep against the Eastern Axis under RAdm Doorman

CL DeRuyter, Java & Tromp; DesGrp 1 & 2, 7 Admiralen class DD; TF5 (RAdm Glassford) CA Houston, CL Boise & Marblehead; DesDiv 57, 4 Clemsen class DD

Darwin: Using the Dutch CD, the Aussies take the 3 N class DD as a CD reinforcement

Darwin: The ANZACs sortie a sweep against the Eastern Axis under RAdm Crace

CA Australia & Canberra; CL Perth, Hobart, Leander & Achilles; DD Vampire & DesRon 29, 5 Clemsen class DD. Pope & Pillsbury breakdown and fail to sortie.

WAF Japanese LBA attacked the RN sweep but failed to straddle and lost a bomber to AA fire from Stronghold.

RN Sweep vs Bangka Island Convoy

0400 Hours (12 GT of dark before dawn) Dawn at 0436 hours. Dawn Reduction: 4,000 yards

Wind: Force 2 North eastly at 4 knots.         Cloud Cover: Overcast            Smoke: lasts 2 GT

Moon State: Full but overcast reduces to new.        Sea Haze & Squalls: None at start.

Max Visibility during dark: 20,000 yards but Night Acquisition DR determine.

Max Visibility after 0436 hours: 24,000 yards

RN Sweep on a heading of 45 degrees at 25 knots

Relative Bearing to convoy: 4 points to starboard.

IJN Convoy on a heading 315 degrees at 11 knots and crossing the RN’s Tee.

RN Sweep’s Formation

In a column, cruiser divisions leading, then DesDiv 1 & 2, 3,000 yards between divisions

Cruiser Division 1 RAdm Palliser (RN)           DesDiv 1                      DesDiv 2

CL HMS Mauritius FF                                      DD HMS Electra DL     DD HMS Stronghold DL

CA HMS Exeter                                               DD HMS Encounter    DD HMS Scout

CL HMS Emerald                                             DD HMS Express         DD HMS Tenedos

Cruiser Division 2                                           DD HMS Jupiter          DD HMS Thanet

CL HMS Danae DF

CL HMS Dragon

CL HMS Durban

Bangka Island Convoy’s Formation

In a column, Cruisers than DDs followed by APs in two 4 ship columns and then the AV. There is 3,000 yards between the cruisers, DDs, APs and AV.

Convoy: VAdm Ozawa (Vet)               DesDiv 4                      DesDiv 8

CA IJNS Chokai FF                               DD IJNS Arashi DL       DD IJNS Oshio DL

Cruiser Sqdn 7: RAdm Kurita             DD IJNS Hagikaze        DD IJNS Arashio

CA IJNS Kumano SF                            DD IJNS Maikaze         DD IJNS Asashio

CA IJNS Suzuya                                   DD IJNS Nowake         DD IJNS Michishio

CA IJNS Mikuma DF                            8 APs                           DesDiv 11

CA IJNS Mogami                                 CV Kamikawa Maru   DD IJNS Hatsuyuki DL

                                                                                                DD IJNS Fubuki

                                                                                                DD IJNS Shirayuki

The opposing forces are laid out with 20,000 yards between their lead ships. No one can change course or speed until they contact or acquire the enemy.

Mauritius rolls an 8 for radar and ranges out to 12,000 yards. Both Mauritius and Chokai roll 4s for night acquisition. Chokai can see 12,000 yards in the new moon state and Mauritius can see 8,000 yards. However, Exeter has a broadside arc at the Japanese lead ship and rolls a 1 for radar allowing her to detect out to 24,000 yards and contact is established immediately. But Exeter has to report the contact and a 1 GT delay is imposed on RAdm Palliser.

0406 hours, the IJN at 11 knots has closed the range to just under 18,500 yards. Palliser ordered an in increase in speed to 29 knots and a two-point turn to starboard as he intended to cross the Japanese Tee.

0412 hours the range was down to just under 16,600 yards.

0418 hours the range was down 14,500 yards.

0421 hours the range was down to just under 12,500 yards.

0424 hours, Chokai acquires a long line of ships crossing her bow and broadside to her but the detection occurs to late in the turn for her to respond immediately. The range is down to 9,500 yards.

0427 hours, Chokai turns two-points to starboard and Ozawa orders an increase in speed to 16 knots. Ozawa orders the APs and AV to reverse course and the DesDivs to 21 knots and a turn in succession to port to strike the enemy rear. The range is down to 8,000 yards.

0430 hours, Palliser orders everyone to fire all their torps off, make smoke and turn away to 270 degrees.

Ozawa also orders his cruisers to fire off their bearing torps, but his destroyers are not yet in position.

0433 hours, neither side can see each other due to all the smoke the Allies are laying down.  Palliser is waiting to hear any torpedo impacts before turning to investigate.

0436 hours, Palliser is trying to maneuver west to take advantage of the dawn reduction. The RN cruisers and DesDiv 1 targeted the IJN cruisers while DesDiv 2 targeted DesDiv 4. The IJN cruisers split their torps between the two RN cruiser divisions.

Mauritius and Exeter both targeted Chokai with triple mount each and Chokai failed to evade but both missed completely. Emerald targeted Kumano with two quad mounts and she failed to evade but both missed. Danae, Dragon and Durban each targeted Suzuya, Mikuma and Mogami respectively with two triple mounts each. Suzuya evaded one mount but all other attempts to evade failed. Danae missed.  Dragon hit Mikuma once and Durban also hit Mogami once. DesDiv 1 targets the Mogamis with one mount each. Only Mogami successfully evaded. Electra missed but Encounter hit Suzuya once. Express missed but Jupiter overcame Mogami’s evasion to hit her once. DesDiv 2’s torps (all twin mounts) missed.

The IJN torps were attacking the rear aspect of the Brits and all 10 mounts missed.

It was dawn now and Palliser rethought his idea of returning to attack to that of preserving his force and aborted the sweep (I rolled for morale and he failed).

The RN had fired off 1 Quin, 5 quads, 8 triple and 8 twin mounts and hit 4 times. But they were intact and could try again. Mogami lost her fore and aft turrets and 5 hull hits.

Suzuya lost her aft turret and suffered 3 hull hits. Mikuma suffered 2 hull and a fire that took her 3 turns to put out and she suffered a third hull hit for it. The bottom line is that 3 of the Mogami class are forced to undergo repair, reducing the WAF CAs available to 4.

But the convoy was not aborted and all objectives were taken and the Singapore Index now at 4. All other WAF objectives were also taken. So, a nice try for the Brits but no cigar.

The rest of the turn will be completed in a follow up and we’ll go turn by turn from there on.

WMC

The dust tactic suggested above probably envisions something like  this:

A nice thick lasting cloud of dust generated by armored cars masking the following armored attack.

How realistic is this for the real world?

Further observations on dust in the desert.

The amount of dust a vehicle will generate will depend on the character of the ground.

If it is damp: no dust. It does rain in the desert sometimes.

If the ground is hard and rocky then little to no dust - certainly not enough to create sight line obscuring dust plumes.

If the ground is firm and not heavily trafficked not a lot of dust.

Dry surface but lots of vehicles moving together - more dust.

Hard packed dirt roads - not too much dust.

Soft dusty ground, lots of dust.

Then there is the consideration of how much dust is thrown up, how opaque and how long will it provide obscuration.

For a very effective cloak of dust to conceal an approach, how about one of these?

Of course, when this type of dust was in play, the war came to a halt while the wind blew.

This last Saturday, May 3rd, I got together with 4 players at Imperial Outpost Games in Glendale, AZ to have another go at my "Stemming the Tide" scenario using the Mein Panzer rules.

This time, I had 1 returning player from my game in December, Richard B., 1 player that has played before but not this scenario, John C. and two new players, Rodriguez Rod and Max F.  I had Richard and Max play as the Germans while John and Rod took the Russians.

The scenario takes place in August 1943 as the Russians are going over to the attack after Kursk.  They have broken through the German lines with elements of a tank brigade leading the advance to continue the penetration of the German front lines.  The Germans have 2 mixed tank companies of Panzer IIIs and IVs  to attempt to stop the Russians from securing their objectives.

This game went 3 full turns in addition to the German pre-game move to allow them to get to the battlefield first.  We called the game after 3 turns since a couple of the players had to leave and it appeared as if the Russians were getting the upper hand in this one.  The Germans had lost most of their 9 Panzer IVs by this time and while the Russians had suffered some losses of their T-34s there were still plenty of them left.  The Russians also occupied the road at the top of the hill which was one of the geographical objectives for their side.

This game was essentially a warm-up for the game I will be running at the local Sand Wars convention in Chandler, AZ the coming June 7th.  Between now and then I will be looking to see what if any tweaks I need to make.  I designed the scenario to run 6 to 8 turns or so to reach a good conclusion.

The guys that I had all seemed to have a great time and I know at least a couple of them have expressed a definite interest in doing more games including 1 of my newbies.  That is reward enough for me.

Here are a few pictures of our game.

Thought I would use this thread to post photos of my miniatures, many of which have previously appeared in my AARs posted in the AAR thread.

The latest additions to my Toy Box are these GHQ Panzer II Fs.

The full platoon:

In the paint shop:

Out in the Middle

1-15 March 1942

1200 hours. The wind was a Force 4 Northeasterly at 15 knots. The sky was cloudy, and max visibility was 26,000 yards. There was not any sea haze but there were 6 squalls scattered about the area. The squalls were light and only reduce sight into or through them by 1,000 yards.

Out in the middle of the Java Sea, Task Force 5 under RAdm Glassford was steaming 25 knots on a heading of 45 degrees. The reduced cruiser squadron, Houston had been withdrawn, was limited to 30 knots in any case due to hull damage to Phoenix received in the engagement that morning with a Japanese patrol. In addition, two Clemson class destroyers were now missing from DesDivs 57 and 58 (1 sunk by aerial torpedo and 1 detached to escort Houston).

Glassford had reorganized the Task Force after the engagement back into its earlier formation. If anything, his hopes were even more firmly tied to the Brooklyn’s. Glassford had recovered and then relaunched his spotter a/c.

1206 hours. The masthead reported enemy in sight, bearing 4 points to starboard on what appeared to be a heading of 225 degrees. With a closing rate of about 30 knots the range was already down to 25,000 yards when the lead two enemy cruisers (later identified as Takao and Atago) opened fire on Boise and Phoenix with their fore turrets. The fire missed.

1212 hours. Glassford ordered an increase to 30 knots and a 2-point turn to port. Phoenix began laying smoke to cover the other three Allied cruisers. The 3 DesDivs took station on the cruisers unengaged flank. The Japanese also increased speed and turned slightly (2-points?) to starboard and there were at least 8 destroyers in sight that took station to starboard flank of the enemy cruisers.

The range was now down 20,000 yards. Boise fired at Takao and hit her once. Takao fired back and missed. Phoenix fired at Atago and hit her once. Atago fired back and missed. Takao suffered minor hull damage and the hit on Atago bounced.

1218 hours. Glassford continued his 2-point turns to slow the closure and maintain his gunnery. His spotter a/c reported the invasion convoy as being about 30,000 yards away and behind the enemy cruisers and escorted by 2 more divisions of destroyers along with at least 1 AV. The visible Japanese continued to accelerate on their new course.

Boise hit Takao again and Takao missed again. Phoenix hit Atago again and Atago missed again. Both Boise and Phoenix’s hits bounced.

1224 hours. Glassford made another 2-point turn to port as the Japanese continued to accelerate and maintain their course.

Boise hit Takao again and Takao missed again. Phoenix hit Atago thrice and missed again. Takao lost her fore turret. Atago lost 2 fore turrets, and the third hit bounced.

1230 hours. Glassford continued his course, and the Japanese accelerated again and held to their course. Takao and Atago ceased fire and Kumano and Suzuya next in line opened up.

The range was now under 18,000 yards but not yet 15,000 yards. The Japanese change in engagement had caught the Brooklyn’s by surprise and they continued to engage the lead cruisers. Boise hit Takao once. Kumano fired unengaged at Boise and hit her twice. Phoenix hit Atago thrice more. Suzuya firing unengaged hit Phoenix 6 times. Boise’s hit bounced. Atago lost 2 more turrets and minor hull damage. Boise took minor hull damage twice and was limited to 30 knots. Phoenix took minor hull damage thrice and three more hits bounced. Phoenix was reduced to 26 knots and the Allied cruiser line slowed.

1236 hours. Glassford turned Task Force 5 together 90 degrees to port under smoke to increase the range. The move caught the Japanese by surprise, and they continued on course.

1242 hours. Glassford continued on his new course and the Japanese responded by turning 45 degrees to starboard, but the smoke precluded any engagement.

1248 hours. Glassford turned 90 degrees together to starboard and Boise and Phoenix cleared the smoke. The range was just over 18,000 yards.

Boise now fired at Kumano and hit her. Kumano fired back and hit Boise once. Phoenix fired at Suzuya and hit her. Suzuya fired back and missed. Kumano lost her fore turret. Boise took minor hull damage. Phoenix’s hit bounced.

1254 hours. It now became apparent to VAdm Kondo that Glassford was trying to edge round him, and he reversed course together to prevent that but ended up in reverse order in doing so.

Boise fired at Mogami (closest to her) and missed as did Mogami’s return fire. Phoenix fired at Mikuma and missed her as did Mikuma’s return fire.

1300 hours. Glassford was just beginning to realize that his Brooklyn sniping tactic was probably not going to win the day. But he had yet to come up with a via alternative; so he continued as before.

Brooklyn fired at Mogami and hit her twice and Mogami’s return fire returned the favor twice also. Phoenix missed Mikuma and Mikuma’s return fire hit Phoenix twice. Mogami lost her fore turret and the other hit bounced. Boise took 2 more minor hull hits and was limited to 26 knots. Phoenix took a hit to her a/c facilites that started a minor fire and minor hull damage that slowed her to 21 knots.

1306 hours. Phoenix failed to put her fire out and took minor hull damage. Glassford was conflicted by VAdm Helfrich’s order but decided to withdraw under smoke (he made his morale) while he still had the speed to do so. Kondo let him go as he had already lost enough turrets to make him leery of further engagement with the Brooklyn’s (he also made his morale).

WMC

I am a user of both GHQ Individual Infantry and Heroics & Ross infantry.  I have tried Adler, C-in-C and Scotia as well, but settled on GHQ and H&R.

For basing I have chosen US Pennies (1 cent coins).  19mm across (about 4/5 of an inch). Good sturdy metal, takes paint well enough, low cost (I get 100 for as little as $1!), and plentifully available (I have never yet had to wait to finish a unit because I ran out of pennies).

I have arranged my stands based on:
- 4 figures on a base to represent a "standard" squad. Major armies of WW2 were usually populated mostly by a standard squad organization.  As long as all of the squads are standard, it hardly matters what figures I put on the stand -- they are only there for the look of it.

- 3 figures is squad-sized, but not a standard squad.  Here the figures matter, to tell me what the base represents.  But they are far fewer than the standard squads so that's workable. Examples of 3-man bases:  8-12 man gun crews, combat engineer squads, 8-12 man HQ / command units, etc.

- 2 figures is a half-squad / team / crew sized stand. Again the figures might matter.  Examples of 2-man bases:  infantry support weapons, small command teams, artillery observation teams, vehicle crews.

Separate from that I use a marking style to identify command units.  I use small stripes/dots on the back rim of the stand:  3 = platoon command, 2 = company command, 1 = battalion / battlegroup command.  The dots are done in a dark paint similar to the dominant color on the stand (dark green for temperate zone units, dark brown for desert units).

Here are some pics of various units from my active forces:

This is a US Army armored infantry platoon, dismounted from their halftracks.  3 rifle squads (4 man stands).  By doctrine the platoon commander would ride and fight with the 1st squad.  There are 3 MG teams (splitting up the MG squad).  There is one 81mm mortar squad.  In this case the figures are older H&R castings.

Here is a Romanian rifle squad.  I use a prone LMG and loader figure with each squad, but the figures hardly matter, as every rifle squad had an LMG.  My Romanian infantry figures are all GHQ.

The Romanian army was very short on infantry anti-tank weapons.  So each platoon would have an individual who might carry any sort of improvised explosive, and a team of SMG gunners would support this tank hunter ("vanatori di carre").  Here I have re-purposed a grenade throwing figure, clipping off the stick grenade, bending the arm, and attaching a teller-mine (a random circular bit from the extras bin), and made a 2-man stand with an SMG gunner.

Here is a platoon commander.  Romanian officers did not travel and fight with the squads.  But platoon resources were thin, so it is only a small team.

Here is a company commander.  A full squad of men supported the company HQ.

Here is an infantry battalion/battlegroup HQ.  There is a command squad, a commo team (communications equipment was rare in the Romanian army, and should not be assumed to be available if not specifically provided), and a medical aid team.

Here are my Romanian AT guns. For big guns I tend to base the crews, and leave the guns loose. That way I can manage the casualties and moral of the crews separately from damage to the guns, and I don't have to do as much work, as I will usually have more gun choices than I would use in a typical game.  You see that demonstrated here -- I have 4 gun crews, and show here 4 different types of guns that they may use (late war Resita 75mm guns, mid war Pak97/50 75mm guns, early war Boehler 47mm and Bofors 37mm guns).  The kneeling gun crews are H&R.  The guns are H&R (Resita, Boehler), GHQ (Bofors) and C-in-C (Pak97/50).

This is a Romanian artillery battery.  The same crews can be used for French 75mm guns (H&R) or Austrian/Italian 100mm howitzers (GHQ).  There is a full squad battery HQ (with embedded commo) and an LMG security team.  The LMG figures are GHQ, the HQ squad has 2 standing GHQ artillery crew figures and one kneeling Scotia radioman, and the gun crews are a mix of GHQ and H&R figures.  I do not find the GHQ infantry to be out-sized too much, and generally have little hesitation in mixing them with H&R, even on the same stand when it suits my purpose.  The Scotia figures, however, are indeed too big, and I only occasionally use them, in particular using kneeling figures as that tends to hide their extra height.

Here are my Italian combat engineers.  The squad sized (3-man) units have riflemen and kneeling figures with satchel charges.  The flame throwers and supporting LMGs are on team-sized stands.  Figures are a mix of GHQ and H&R (new castings).

Hope that helps.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Springtime for the Kaiser

March 1915

At long last the game group has reconvened in recent days, albeit down a few members. Two additions following the holidays, together with a general subsidence in recent plague-like conditions, has the table active once again. With the weather favorable for travel and this season’s tax filings completed and mailed, my calendar opened up significantly. I, for one, am grateful for it.

A number of ideas were proposed, with considerable interest found in the three to four months that followed the January 1915 dust-up at Dogger Bank. This was a period when the Royal Navy vigorously patrolled the North Sea, ratcheting down their blockade while hopeful for another crack at the High Seas Fleet. For its part, however, the HSF remained largely in port, its strategic focus shifting from the North Sea to the Baltic, together with a reemphasis on submarine operations in and around the British Isles.

Dogger Bank had provided a glimpse of combat in terms of training, tactics, and a susceptibility to damage. The notion of and vulnerability to “plunging fire” had been demonstrated, and the inadequate armor protection of horizontal surfaces in some designs was exposed. Thinly armored decks and turret-tops were now revealed as problematic. The Royal Navy acknowledged it, made a few cursory changes in tactics, then pressed on. The HSF, somewhat better armored but with fewer platforms, hung back while revisiting the damage they’d absorbed.

It was also the first time that the absolute lack of proficiency in gunnery by the British battlecruisers had been witnessed. Massie writes that Beatty had recognized it months earlier during exercises, but Dogger Bank revealed it to be more than just a veiled suspicion. He regaled the commanders for improvement, yet little seemed forthcoming.

All that aside, the HSF could have come out had the War Staff, and more importantly the Kaiser, had the stomach for it. The RN’s North Sea “parading” would continue until mid-summer when the British mine strikes bit, then Jellicoe dialed back the patrolling/sweeping in the interest of preserving his coal stocks. This campaign centers on the supposition that the HSF might have been so moved during the spring of 1915 to answer Jellicoe’s challenge.

The Operational Game

For this campaign, we went back to the double-blind system we’d used for North Sea – December 1917, played just a bit more than a year ago. We made a few minor changes after having reviewed the post-mortem notes from that debacle, but the basic structure remained the same. We had ten players available, so we set one aside as game-master/umpire, a second as another umpire, two as fleet commanders, and the other six as squadron commanders. This might seem administratively heavy, but having a couple of umpires had proven fortuitous during the other session, especially given the double-blind system.

This scenario, the first in a planned series, is built around one of the RN’s sweeps of the central North Sea, of which there were a number executed during the March-May period of 1915. It followed the action at Dogger Bank, a time when Jellicoe must surely have been thinking that the HSF would soon try again. They didn’t, primarily for the reasons outlined above. According to Scheer, there were those in the Staff that firmly believed that a pause was unwise, and this series looks to explore the possibility that they’d acted otherwise.

The game-master drafted a fairly large multi-layered random events table, a cursory review of which was held with his counterpart umpire and the fleet commanders beforehand. Similar to ODGW’s North Sea Campaign, some random events were serial in nature, i.e. inclusion of if-than statements based on die-rolls, adding to the “randomness” and/or “downstream effects” of outcomes. The overriding consideration, however, was that the HSF, under orders from the Kaiser himself, should lose nothing (the primary reason the fleet remained bottled up through much of 1915).

An added wrinkle: All orders/communications were to be made in hand-written note form between parties, passing through an umpire. All communications were subject to a single d12 die-roll by the overseeing umpire. Any result other than a “12” had the order passed to the other party; a result of “12” had the slip torn up and thrown away, undelivered. A communications log was maintained by the umpires for the purposes of tracking numbers of communications. Fleet command initiated communications were limited to four per hour; squadron command initiated communications were limited to six per hour, with all inter-squadron command communications having to pass through fleet command. Poorly written communications requiring clarification were to be handled by hand-written note, counted against the four or six-per-hour limit.

Order of Battle

An order of battle was drafted by the game-master based on an approximation of forces available, developed from multiple sources. Ships undergoing repairs, refit, or detached have been removed based on the best information available. Destroyers divisions were randomly compiled from the fleet lists. A full list of capital ship commanders was drafted, but is not included here.

Grand Fleet

Force W - First Battle Cruiser Squadron (Rear-Admiral Osmond de B. Brock)

                HMS Princess Royal

                HMS Queen Mary

                HMS Tiger

Force H - First Light Cruiser Squadron (Capt. Edwyn S. Alexander-Sinclair)

                HMS Galatea

                HMS Caroline

                HMS Cordelia

                HMS Inconstant

Force A - Second Battle Cruiser Squadron (Rear-Admiral William C. Pakenham)

                HMS Australia

                HMS New Zealand

                HMS Indefatigable

Force B - Second Light Cruiser Squadron (Commodore William E. Goodenough)

                HMS Southampton

                HMS Birmingham

                HMS Lowestoft

                HMS Nottingham

Force D - Third Battle Squadron (Vice-Admiral Sir Edward E. Bradford)

                HMS King Edward VII

                HMS Hibernia

                HMS Africa

                HMS Britannia

                HMS Commonwealth

                HMS Dominion

                HMS Hindustan

                HMS Zealandia

                HMS Blanche

Force E - Third Cruiser Squadron (Vice-Admiral William L. Grant)

                HMS Antrim

                HMS Devonshire

                HMS Roxburgh

Force C - Third Destroyer Flotilla (Capt. Francis G. St. John)

                HMS Undaunted (Leader)

                First Division

                                HMS Laurel

                                HMS Liberty

                                HMS Lookout

                                HMS Loyal

                                HMS Lysander

                Second Division

                                HMS Laforey

                                HMS Lance

                                HMS Lark

                                HMS Lawford

                                HMS Legion

Force F - Fourth Destroyer Flotilla (Capt. Charles J. Wintour)

                HMS Swift (Leader)

                First Division

                                HMS Acasta

                   HMS Owl

                   HMS Sparrowhawk

                   HMS Spitfire

                Second Division

                                HMS Achates

                                HMS Midge

                                HMS Paragon

                                HMS Shark

                                HMS Unity

High Seas Fleet

Flot 101 - First Scouting Group (VAdm Hipper)

            SMS Derfflinger

            SMS Moltke

            SMS Vonn der Tann

Flot 102 - Second Scouting Group (KAdm Georg Hebbinghaus)

SMS Kolberg

SMS Graudenz

SMS Rostock

SMS Stralsund

SMS Strassburg

Flot 100 - First Battle Squadron, First Division (VAdm Richard Eckermann)

            SMS Ostfriesland

            SMS Thüringen

            SMS Helgoland

            SMS Oldenburg

Flot 106 - First Battle Squadron, Second Division (KAdm Friedrich Gadeke)

            SMS Posen

            SMS Rheinland

            SMS Nassau

            SMS Westfalen

Flot 103

Ninth Torpedo-boat Flotilla – Seventeenth Half-Flotilla (KptL Hermann Ehrhardt)

                S51

                V26

                V27       

                V29

                V30

Ninth Torpedo-boat Flotilla – Eighteenth Half-Flotilla (KKpt Werner Tillessen)

                S31

                S32

                S33

                S34

                S35

Submarine and Zeppelin activity was incorporated into the random events table; these units have been excluded from the OB.

The players had access to their respective OB only; no information regarding enemy ships/group-content was provided.

The North Sea minefields were already extensive in 1915, but certainly less so than just twelve to eighteen months later. Those that had been sewn by the spring of 1915 were generally known and mapped. Of far greater risk were the fields spontaneously laid by German submarines and raiders (see HMS King Edward VII and/or HMS Hampshire less than a year later). Drift mines were also a constant risk. For purposes of this scenario, the effect of mines has been incorporated into the random events table.

Table actions were fought at 1/6000-scale.

Operations – Part I

Beatty’s battlecruisers set sail from the Orkneys at 0330, 11 March 1915. Brock’s Force W (BC’s Princess Royal, Queen Mary, and Tiger) was first to depart, along with Alexander-Sinclair’s light cruisers. At 0616, they were joined by Wintour with Swift and the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla. Their orders were to sweep the western edge of Dogger Bank, then continue southwest toward the Dutch coast.

Pakenham’s Force A (BC’s Australia, New Zealand, and Indefatigable) weighed anchor at 0254, with orders to proceed due south along a course parallel with the coast, joining Force W at a point some 130NM east of Atwick. They rendezvoused with Goodenough’s light cruisers at 0342, along with St. John’s destroyers at 0406 (40NM southeast of Aberdeen).

Third Battle Squadron departed Rosyth at 0100, 11 March 1915, having raised steam the day before. They were joined by Grant’s Third Cruiser Squadron some five hours later, where they then proceeded due east in support of the BC’s, albeit at some considerable distance.

Hipper and the five battlecruisers of First Scouting Group had slipped the Jade at 1018 the night before. The light cruisers of Second Scouting Group followed an hour later. Both groups sailed 35NM northwest before turning due west. Their orders were an eventual turn north for a sweep of the eastern half of Dogger Bank, then to turn eastward toward the Danish coast before eventually making a southerly turn to return to port.

First Battle Squadron departed Cuxhaven around Midnight, shadowing Hipper’s Scouting Groups some 100NM due east. At 0518, Kameke’s Helgoland developed engine trouble that would reduce her flank speed by nearly half. Admiral Gadeke, commander of the Second Division, ordered her back to port, sending Oldenburg with her should a tow be required. The balance of the squadron continued north.

Weather conditions off Scotland were generally good early on the morning of the 11th, but they deteriorated as time went on. A number of storms were soon moving across the center of the North Sea and the Dogger Bank, just as Brock was reaching his sweep area. Visibility was poor, at times just a few thousand yards. At 1124, they received a report by a trawler having sighted a number of German destroyers on a northerly heading less than 30NM east-northeast of Brock’s position. Presuming this might be the van of an HSF force, Brock ordered Force W to turn due east. This, unfortunately, took him into the backend of a line of storms running ahead, enduring gale-force winds and reducing visibility even further. This, combined with Hipper’s actual position some 25NM northeast of the destroyers, and Brock missed everything/everybody.

Pakenham was 75NM east of Scarborough when the trawler report was heard. He continued another 70+ minutes and 30NM south before receiving orders to change course to the northwest and join Brock at his earliest convenience.

Bradford and his Wobblies were 130NM east-northeast of Brock, having only just made their planned turn southeast, when they were spotted at some considerable distance by LZ-26. The report was relayed to the HSF squadrons some forty minutes later, by which time the intervening distances had slightly increased. LZ-26 was unable to maintain contact, forced to leave its patrol area due to dangerously high winds.

A wartime photograph of Admiral Edward Eden Bradford (courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Bradford, unaware that Third Battle Squadron had been sighted, received a message from Beatty at 1406 that he was to expand his search by dividing his force, sending a group southwest to meet up with the onrushing Pakenham. The rest of Bradford’s command was to head due south, then turn southwest on a course some 30-40 miles south of and behind his detached battleships. Since Hipper and his BC’s and light cruisers were well north of these positions/headings, it achieved nothing other than to bring Bradford’s remaining four battleships and the trailing cruisers crashing into Eckermann’s First Battle Squadron support force.

Action at Bruceys Garden

The weather in the area had marginally improved; the seas had calmed slightly and the cloud ceiling had risen to about 4000 feet. Bradford, skeptical of the intentions of his part of the planned sweep east of the Bank, prematurely ordered his line of four battleships to make an eighteen-degree turn to the southwest, a heading he believed replicated that of his detached group some 40NM ahead and northwest of him. Grant’s Third Cruiser Squadron was eighteen miles astern.

At 1612, a lookout high on King Edward VII’s director position reported the smoke of approaching ships, broad on the port bow, the range estimated at 18000 yards. Bradford ordered the column to maintain its heading and speed at 12kts while monitoring the possible transgressors.

Gadeke was alerted to a group of ships ahead at 1618, a column of four moving across his bow at some 16000 yards. Clearly capitals, he ordered KptzS Lange, commander of Posen, to hold the heading and maintain his speed at 13kts.

At 1630, Bradford ordered KE VII to fire a ranging salvo on the lead ship, now identified as a Nassau-class dreadnought. The salvo, falling short, allowed a quick adjustment to the target.

Six minutes later, the range down to 11000 yards, KE VII sends a volley of 12-inch toward Posen, straddling the German battleship, incurring no damage other than a bath of seawater and a few shell splinters. Posen responds with a ranging shot from her forward 11-inch, hitting KE VII just below the waterline at her aft port-side torpedo position. The compartment floods, the torpedo crews drown, and she loses half a hull-box.

Gadecke sends a message to Eckermann and Second Division, now nearly twenty miles aft of him, to turn northwest and raise speed to join him. He orders Posen and the column to begin a 90-degree course change to the northwest, attempting to close the range on Bradford while bringing the rest of his column into a firing line.

As the German battleships comes around, Bradford’s old pre-dreads hammer away, the range falling to less than 8000 yards. Hits are hard to come by, however. At 1654, KE VII manages to take out Posen’s foremast, destroying her fire-director position and collapsing the searchlight platform. It’s a gruesome scene, but the structural damage is light. German return fire is ineffective.

The two lines settle into a running battle, separated by some 7500 yards of water. At 1700, the British line fires at Gadecke’s column, just as the German is completing his turn to the southwest. Their shooting is poor and they miss everything. The German replies, however, begin to find the range; Rheinland scores two hits on Hindustan, the first a hull hit below the bridge that disables and floods the forward torpedo position (1/2 hull box), the second an 11-inch round that slams into the bridge, severely damaging the conning tower, the radio room, and killing Capt. Nicholas and most of his immediate staff. Nassau scores a single hit on Commonwealth, disabling her forward 12-inch turret.

Within minutes, Commonwealth’s damage-control parties have her forward 12-inch restored and on line. At 1706, Bradford signals all four of the old BBs to execute a torpedo attack…six fish are soon observed streaking toward the German line. British gunfire inflicts scattered damage amidships on Posen and Nassau, disabling a 5.9-inch secondary on each. Posen, however, delivers two 11-inch into KE VII at the waterline, increasing her flooding and reducing her speed to 12kts; Capt. Maclachlan orders counter-flooding to maintain an even keel. Britannia takes an incoming 11-inch through her mainmast, destroying the aft searchlight position.

Six minutes later, Bradford receives a welcome signal from Vice-Admiral Grant that the cruisers of Third Squadron should be on Bradford’s position well within thirty minutes. Folding the message and placing it in his pocket, he feels KE VII stagger as she takes another hit amidships, this forward of her main engine room, knocking a boiler offline. Attempts to repair the boiler are unsuccessful, and the interruption of power hinders the operation of her pumps. Britannia absorbs an 11-inch into her conning tower from Westfalen; her radio room is wrecked and the shelter deck is torn up, with a large number of casualties found behind her bridge.

The British torpedoes, fired anticipating the Germans would continue to close the range, run short of the target by some 500 yards. The lively exchange of gunfire continues, however, with the Wobblies getting the worst of it. Hindustan is severely battered, enduring multiple hull and bulkhead hits that reduce her speed to just six or seven knots. Capt. Nicholas orders her to turn out of line as all efforts are made to save the ship. By 1742, the flooding has been stanched, but she sits dead in the water, barely afloat.

Britannia soon avenges Hindustan with a 12-inch hit on the barbette of Nassau’s aft turret, sending red-hot splinters into the shell-handling room. A quick order to flood the magazine saved the ship but not the turret crew, incinerated in the resulting fire.

At 1748, a lookout on Westfalen spotted smoke on the darkening horizon, well aft of the German column. The report is passed along to Gadeke, who initially thinks it’s First Division. However, within minutes a second signal is received indicating these are cruisers coming up from the northeast, almost certainly not friendly. Gadeke reluctantly makes the decision to disengage from the battered British battleships and move away to the southwest where he hopes to rejoin First Division. He has suffered some damage, but nothing critical. Second Division will survive to fight another day.

Bradford watches the German line turn away in the gathering darkness. He orders his guns to stand down while an assessment of the damage is made. At 1830, he sends Beatty a report of the action, together with the disposition of and direction of the German withdrawal. A few hours later, a tow by Britannia is secured for Hindustan, and this part of Third Battle Squadron begins the long trek home.

Beatty, his battlecruisers recalled, regroups while planning his renewed search for Hipper east-southeast of the Dogger Bank. But is he there?

(Part II to follow)

USS Gambier Bay 

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

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.

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.

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.

*****

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Scenario 1 - Hide and Seek (Continued)

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

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.


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

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

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. 


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


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.
 

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


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.


A view from the German right.


Another view.

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

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.