362 replies to this topic

[Peter M. Skaar]

Very interesting battle and a great AAR Healey!  It is great to see some of the old battleships get some attention and use in a game.

[simanton]

Absolutely concur, Peter!

[healey36]

Thanks for the read, guys. I think we satisfied ourselves that the model we built will bring ships onto the tactical table in clashes that result from actions/decisions on the operational map. The decision-making process often has one "tilting at windmills", which, I guess, is realistic given the way things played out historically. For the HSF, the notion of being careful to not lose anything makes it quite difficult operationally - if the RN chucks a BB/BC or two, well maybe that's acceptable, but if Scheer/Hipper sheds one of their top-tier assets, the Kaiser will be most displeased, which than only serves to make things even harder for the next go-round. 

 

Trying to attrite the RN's ability to develop and maintain a blockade of the German homeland probably isn't even a strategic consideration in the early going of 1914/1915, but it certainly begins to take form by 1916. Attempting to deliver a hammer-blow without the bending of a few nails seems a pretty tough requirement. The HSF really needs to inflict a major defeat on the RN with losses running at something like three or four to one, maybe even greater, in order to have a strategic chance, and the notion that Jellicoe couldn't win the war in an afternoon, but very well could lose it, would/did generate caution on the RN side as well. 

 

One of the game group members suggested that we bag the whole notion of trying to replay history through 1914, 1915, and the early goings of 1916, just accept the historical outcomes and replay Jutland starting on the operational map. Presume that all of the things that brought the great clash into being have occurred and start things on the operational map at some moment where there can still be considerable variability in maneuvers and the decision-making process. Fight the fight, accept the outcome, then play the balance of the war in view of that result.

 

If I'm honest, it would require a staggering amount of effort, but I suppose I'm up for anything. There's a part of me, however, that says I've already done this maybe a half-dozen times, but that was some fifty years ago with a bunch of school mates on the basement floor of my parents' house using Avalon Hill's/Jim Dunnigan's Jutland.

 

Those were heady days and a long time ago, but count me in for an FAI replication. I think I still have some of those homemade measuring sticks somewhere

 

Paul R.

[healey36]

Is it my imagination or is the ODGW site mucked up? Clicking on "Forums" on the home page takes me nowhere. Usually I'd get the entire forum "tree".

[Begemot_]

Both Pete Skaar and I have recently had this problem. In both our cases clearing our web browser's cache took care of the problem. I suggest you give that a try. But I have no idea why three separate computers should develop the same problem on the same website.

[healey36]

Thanks for the tip, I’ll take a look. I did notice that I don’t have the problem when using the tablet.

 

Edit :: Went into Chrome and cleared all of the stuff...worked like a champ. Never ran into this issue before. Thanks again.

[healey36]

The game table has been deadly quiet; absolutely nothing going on. I fear the game group has disbanded, or worse, they've dropped me from their ranks, lol. I can't raise anyone. Maybe it's vacation time, who knows?

Debby rolled through here this past week and drenched the place, although if I'm honest, the front three days before dumped more. Nearly nine inches of rain in four days. I'll be cutting grass three times per week for awhile once we get back to normal August heat/sun.

I helped a friend of mine with a bit of genealogy recently. His mother was Welsh, married an American in 1949, an ad exec from New York. My friend, an only child, grew up in New York City, living in a ritzy high rise apartment building in Midtown. He's a great guy, very humble and soft-spoken (unusual for a native Manhattanite in my experience, lol). He said his mother had told him that his grandfather, her father, had been killed in the war. She knew he'd joined the navy, but that was it. We poked around in a number of places online, but couldn't find anything. I have a college roommate, an expat living outside of London who used to work as an economist for the Office for National Statistics. I gave him some info and asked to see if he could dig anything up.

A week ago he came back with word that he'd found her father, my friend's grandfather, in the National Archives. He'd been born in Wales in 1895, one of nine children, and that he'd gotten himself a job with the London & Northwestern Railway at the ripe old age of 14. He'd married and enlisted in the Navy shortly after the balloon went up. My friend's mother was born in May 1915.

Once he had the guy's name and some other ancillary information, he was able to find him on a series of ship's musters, specifically for HMS Invincible, the last being for May 1, 1916. His last noted rank was that of Armourer's Mate.

[Peter M. Skaar]

Wow!  That is a very interesting story, Healey.  It is too bad he did not survive. 

[simanton]

Yes, indeed!  The only survivors I am aware of from Invincible were in the fire control top.

 

I hope things pick up for you soon, Healey

[healey36]

It’s a horrific story, one of a number during the war, which bears some resemblance to the fate of Hood some 25 years later. It’s hard to wrap one’s head around 1000+ guys wiped out in a matter of seconds.

Ironically, I had a distant relative, a Scotsman, that served as a stoker on Inflexible. He was fortunate to have survived the war, living well into his nineties. Makes ya think.

I’m hopeful the game group finds itself in the fall.

[healey36]

Did a bit of playtesting in August/September, but not much else. The daughter got married this past weekend, so I've been swamped with family here at the house. Not one dang gamer in the lot, lol. My son's in town, however, so I'm hopeful we'll get something on the table later this week. 

[simanton]

Congratulations!

[Kenny Noe]

Congratulations

[healey36]

Congratulations!

 

Thanks...it was fun, but frankly, I'm glad the wedding bit is over. I'm trying to figure out my new life as a pauper 

[healey36]

Congratulations

 

Thank you, Ken. Having endured what, eight or nine straight days of rain, I was worried we'd get no break from it. Somehow, perhaps through divine intervention, we got about 4-5 hours of sunshine Saturday afternoon. It was a bloody miracle, especially since it started raining again the next day and has continued through today. I've never seen a storm that makes a sixty-degree turn to the west like this one (too late for many, though)...whatever the reason, I'm very thankful for that little window we got. A lot of heartache out there after this one, but we, for one, were very lucky. I don't think I've ever emptied the rain-gauge so many times. Big donation to the American Red Cross went out on Monday AM.

[healey36]

Son stopped by today; we wanted to do some snow squall work. What a disaster...

 

Action off Lerwick II

20 February 1915

 

As an aside to his other plans, Scheer dispatched Rostock to the upper reaches of the North Sea during February 1915, aimed at sowing mines along the increasingly important convoy routes between Britain and Norway. Stettin would join her in support. There was to be no dilly-dallying about…sow the mines quickly and get back home ASAP. The two ships slipped the Jade on the evening of the 17th, with FKpt Friedrich Rebensburg in command aboard Stettin.

 

Stettin, pride of the HSF.

 

Weather reports received from U-28 indicated conditions were poor the further north one went. By the time Rostock and Stettin reached the field position 80 miles ESE of Lerwick, the sea was roiling and visibility was exceedingly poor. Still, by 2100 on 19 February, the mines had been sown and the ships departed the area four hours later with orders to execute an easterly sweep before turning south for home.

 

At sunrise, the sky was overcast, interspersed with numerous snow-squalls. Visibility was approximately 19000 yards between the roving bands of snow which reduced it to just 1000-3000 yards. There was a strong breeze with gusts nearly gale-force.

 

Day of battle.

 

At approximately 0842, a watch officer on Rostock spotted a large cargo ship on the port bow, the range being just 7000-8000 yards. The sighting was signaled to Stettin, just 700 yards ahead, with Rebensburg ordering a turn ENE and speed raised to 18 knots. Six minutes later, Stettin opened fire on SS Black Heath at a range of 5300 yards. Gunnery was difficult in the rolling seas, the light cruiser’s first salvo missing long.

 

Bands of snow obscured the view ahead, but at 0954, both Stettin and Rostock spot the destroyer HMS Manly emerging from a snow squall dead ahead. Both open fire at ranges of 3000-4500 yards, missing. Stettin continues to close on the destroyer, nearly colliding in the blinding snow. Other ships become visible in the gloom ahead, revealing a small convoy moving west at around ten knots.

 

As Manly glides past Stettin, Rostock opens on the M-class destroyer, hitting her twice (engineering hit and disabling a torpedo mount). Six minutes later she hits her again, wrecking her bridge and wireless room, critically wounding her captain, LC Charles Ramsey. Manly’s return fire is ineffective.

 

The battle rages for nearly an hour, often at point-blank range. Rostock wades into the convoy, scoring numerous hits, nearly all of them resulting in superficial damage, even as the convoy moves between the bands of obscuring weather. Stettin’s gunnery is abysmal, scoring a single hit in over an hour, that on destroyer HMS Partridge (forward four-inch mount).

 

Rostock narrowly misses clipping a pair of freighters.

 

At 0930, Rostock turns NW while increasing speed. A simultaneous southeasterly turn by SS Dallington Court and destroyer HMS Owl results in a three-ship collision. Dallington Court suffers a hull-box hit and Owl a ruptured bulkhead, but Rostock is laid open with four hull-box hits. The freighter lurches ahead and Owl scrapes past, but Rostock staggers to a stop, seawater pouring into the ship. The crew frantically works to stop the flooding, soon able to staunch the inflow. Within twelve minutes, the ship is able to start moving away, her top speed now reduced to just eight knots. Her final volley peppers Dallington Court, holing her hull below the bridge.

 

A disastrous turn of events seals Rostock’s fate. Moving off, she turns due north, straight into the path of the onrushing Stettin who is unable to avoid the collision. Rebensburg watches as Stettin strikes Rostock on her already badly damaged starboard beam, breaking her open in two more compartments. Within minutes, Rostock heels over on her starboard side and sinks, taking most of her crew with her. Those in the freezing water quickly succumb before any rescue effort can be made. Within miuntes, Rebensburg orders Stettin to turn back to the southeast, even as the convoy escapes nearly unscathed to the west.

 

The convoy escapes (the collision of Stettin and Rostock seen in the upper right).

 

Rebensburg would have much to answer for.

[healey36]

I hate when this happens:

 

 

Rarely happens, but sometimes, in fact often, it's catastrophic.

 

 

 

[simanton]

Thanks...it was fun, but frankly, I'm glad the wedding bit is over. I'm trying to figure out my new life as a pauper 

I totally understand!

[simanton]

I'm glad the weather gods smiled!

[simanton]

Nice action, especially in terms of weather effects and gunnery under the circumstances!