4 replies to this topic

[W. Clark]

Trafalgar Late 1941

Herr Hitler taking a page from history that Goebbels had not doctored concluded that the Corsican had been right. England was the primary enemy and had to be dealt with before he could turn East. Von Ribbentrop therefore was very busy during the latter half of 1940 and into 1941 shuttling between Madrid and Vichy. He offered concessions to Franco and Petain to bring them and more importantly their navies on board. In addition, he made the statement and the thinly veiled threat that those who were not with Herr Hitler were against him. The combined ploy worked, Espana and Vichy France would joint the Axis.

The resultant plan was complex and required many of its disparate parts to work in order for the successful juncture of the Combined Axis Fleet at Cadiz. Patience was not one of Hitler’s virtues (although they were in almost limitless supply according to Goebbels) but even he realized that he would only get one chance at this.

The completion of Tirpitz and her working up as well as a successful Chanel dash by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau set the stage for Phase I, a sortie into the Atlantic by Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen. This was a feint intended to draw the Home Fleet out into the Atlantic and away from the Channel. Vice Admiral Lutjens would then elude the Home Fleet and make for Cadiz, the fleet rendezvous.  At the same time Spain would besiege Gibraltar to neutralize it while a combined French, Italian and Spanish fleet would break out into the Atlantic and join Lutjens at Cadiz. The whole would then steam into the Channel for a final confrontation with the Royal Navy. If successful, the Wehrmacht would invade Southern England and put paid to the British Crown.

Phase I worked as did Phase II. The Axis Fleet combined at Cadiz. Force H had withdrawn from Gibraltar to England under the threat of Spanish artillery that had made the anchorage at Gibraltar untenable.

But the Admiralty had figured out through various Intel sources what the Axis was doing. Churchill was raging that his worst fears had been realized and how wonderfully it had worked out not sinking the Marine Francais. The Royal Navy gathered every capital ship it could together and steamed out to meet this threat.

The wind was a Force 4 Easterly at 15 knots. The sky had one layer of clouds but was otherwise fairly clear on what promised to be a glorious day in October. There was neither squalls nor sea haze and visibility was 19,000 yards. Of course, this was the Atlantic and conditions were subject to change. The time was 0800 hours

 

DesFlot 5 (HMS Achates, Anthony, Antelope, Electra, Echo & Icarus) led the Home Fleet in line abreast (head to port) in a screen. This was followed by the Battlecruiser Squadron (Vice Admiral Holland in Hood with Renown & Repulse. The Battle Squadron under Admiral Tovey that followed was in two divisions, King George V (flagship) and Prince of Wales (1^st), Nelson DF (Vice Admiral Somerville), Rodney, Ramillies and Royal Sovereign.

To port was Rear Admiral Curteiss with Cruiser Squadron 2 (Galatea flag, Hermoine, Kenya, Aurora & Neptune) with DesFlot 3 (Inglefield, Intrepid, Active, Punjabi, Lance & Jupiter).

To starboard was Rear Admiral Wake-Walker with Cruiser Squadron 1 (Norfolk SF, Suffolk, Manchester, Birmingham & Arethusa) and DesFlot 6 (Tartar, Eskimo, Mashona & Somali) and DesFlot 4 (Cossack, Maori, Zulu, Sikh & Piorun.

To the rear was the Carriers (Ark Royal flag & Victorious) under Rear Admiral Boyd with DesFlot 8 (Faulknor, Foresight, Forrester, Foxhound, Fury & Hesperus).

Cruiser Squadron 18 (Edinburgh flag, London, Sheffield & Dorsetshire) under Commodore Blackman had just joined.

Tovey had aerial reconnaissance up and knew the Axis Fleet was just over the horizon to the SE and steaming North. No British Admiral had commanded such a force since Jellicoe and Beatty but they were off Cape Trafalgar and Tovey planned to emulate Nelson, he would sink them all.

Tovey opened the ball with air strikes from the carriers. 7 swordfish from Victorious and 5 Fulmers with light bombs as well as 24 Swordfish and 18 Fulmers with light bombs from Ark Royal struck at the Axis battleline. The AA barrage put up by the Axis was impressive. One pilot remarked that it appeared that you could literally walk across the sky on the black puffs of ack-ack.

Victorious’ air group lost a Fulmer to AA fire and got a near miss on Bismarck that caused minor hull damage. Victorious’ Swordfish took no losses and achieved no hits. Ark Royals’ Fulmers faired better against the AA with no losses and had better results with 2 near misses that combined for damage to Bismarck’s hull. They also scored 5 hits that with the earlier near miss combined to cause Bismarck’s hull thrice more as well as knocking out 2 SB. The Axis AA fire was harder on Ark Royals Swordfish, knocking one down and damaging another. But the Swordfish hit Bismarck 7 times! Bismarck suffered 4 more hull and lost both her aft turrets. Bismarck sank taking Vice Admiral Lutjens with her.

This was what the Royal Navy’s air arm intended for by those with the power to set policy and doctrine. It was not designed to be an independent striking force like the Kido Butai but rather to support and assist the battleline in achieving victory.

Tovey upon receiving that morning’s AAR decided to parallel the Axis Fleet northward and see what a second strike could do. He was sure that he could get three in today and then seek to finish the matter with the Fleet in a surface action.

Admiral Campioni checked morale and passed.

1100 hours

The carriers struck again Victorious’ 4 Fulmers lost 1 knocked down and 2 damaged without any hits. Victorious’ Swordfish lost 1 and the other 6 bore in and got 2 hits on Tirpitz. Tirpitz lost both fore turrets and took 2 hull. Ark Royal’s Fulmers again took no losses from AA and scored 4 hits and 2 near misses with light bombs that caused a combined 3 ½ hits to the hull and knocked out 2 SB. Ark Royal’s Swordfish also evaded the AA and hit Tirpitz 8 times causing 4 hull, the lost of her remaining MB, damage to her bridge and engines and a magazine hit that Tirpitz failed to flood causing her to explode.

Admiral Campioni checked morale again and passed again as he was prepared to fight to the last German.

1300 hours

Tovey had not expected the fly boys to sink much but he had expected them to slow the Axis fleet down and had been pleasantly surprised and at the same time disappointed in the results. Tovey ordered a 45 degree turn to starboard to close the range. He would cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war.

1400 hours

The wind had backed to the North but remained constant otherwise. There were squalls visible now coming on with the wind. Visibility had dropped to 18,000 yards.

Vice Admiral Holland had got the Battlecruiser Squadron in quarter line so that Hood’s smoke could shelter Renown and Repluse. Holland had DesFlot 5 off his port bow where they could make a torpedo attack when the enemy had been slowed enough. Hood immediately opened on Littorio upon sighting her and Littorio replied at 18,000 yards. Hood hit Littorio twice, knocking out a TB and damaging her hull that limited her to 25 knots. Littorio’s return fire knocked out a SB on Hood.

1406 hours

Both sides continued with RN’s BC Sqdn and her 1^st BatDiv at 29 knots while the 2^nd Bat Div came on at 21 knots. The Axis battleline was at 25 knots, so that the lead of the RN battleline was heading the Axis a bit. The range had closed to 15,000 yards.

Hood fired at Littorio again and hit her once, damaging her FP facilites and starting a minor fire. Littorio’s return fire hit Hood twice, damaging her FP facility, starting a minor fire and damaging her hull that limited her to 26 knots. Vittorio missed out on Renown and Repulse (covered by Hood’s smoke) and engaged King George V and hit her twice, KGV took two hull that limited her to 23 knots. KGV’s return fire missed all together. Prince of Wales engaged Strasbourg and hit her 4 times, knocking out 2 SB, damaging her fore turret and her hull that limited her to 25 knots. Strasbourg’s return fire missed. Nelson fired at Scharnhorst (Strasbourg was covering Dunkerque with smoke) and hit her 5 times, damaging her FP facilities, starting a minor fire, knocking out her PS TT, SB, and both her fore turrets. Scharnhorst’s return fire missed. Rodney fired at Gneisenau and hit her 4 times, twice in her FP facilities that started 2 minor fires, knocking out a SB and her fore turret. Ramillies and Royal Sovereign also engaged Gneisenau and hit her once more in her FP facilities and starting a third minor fire.

1412 hours

Campioni realized that the engagement was not going well (I rolled to se if he would be smart and he was IMHO) and decided to withdraw under smoke. The Home fleet was reduced enough in speed that it could not catch the Axis as things stood. However, the Fleet Air Arm was not done and struck again at 1600 hours. The reduced Axis AA didn’t do much and the Swordfish got several hits on Scharnhorst inflicted 4 hull, knocked out her MB and started a fire. The Fulmers swarmed Gneisenau and got 3 near misses along with 8 hits that caused 4 ½ hull, knocked out her SB and her FC. Gneisenau put out 1 fire quickly but the others burned long enough to give her 2 more hull and that sank her. Scharnhorst took 4 attempts before she put her fires out and took another hull because of it that sank her. The surviving Axis ships slunk back into the Med with the German cruisers joining the Regia Marina and were scuttled in 43. Franco and Petain would sue for peace immediately upon the Normandy landings in 44.

 

Tovey’s signal to the Admiralty was that every man had done his duty.

 

WMC

 

 

[Kenny Noe]

Wow that was exciting to read.   The Brits (esp Air Arm) rolled extremely well!!  Axis lost so many capital ship in one go....  almost feel sorry for them.  almost.

[healey36]

And here I thought Strasbourg hunting down Graf Spee was a reach   . A fun scenario fought to an ignominious outcome (if one is prone to Kriegsmarine sympathies). Good stuff...enjoyed it.

[W. Clark]

I'm of the belief that all of the Axis powers went to war based on the belief that the Allies would just quit. Italy IMHO became disabused of that fallacy pretty quickly but by then it was too late. Germany hung on thinking that their new super weapons would give them the result they wanted and, in some cases, held that view right into 1945. The Japanese IMHO never gave it up and thought and acted on the idea that arming their women and children with pikes would cause us to back off and leave them with their ill-gotten gains and their Emperor.

 

In each case, Germany, Italy and especially Japan attacked the Allies when their own logistical planners had told them they were not going to win because they lacked the means and yet they attacked in each case. The only explanation that I can see is that they convinced themselves that a strong initial blow would cause the Allies to just give up as that was the only way they could achieve what they wanted. 

 

The most destructive war in human history was fought because disparate groups of people wanted power over others that they could not acquire. It was a temper tantrum on a colossal scale. 

 

WMC

[W. Clark]

I've no empathy at all for the Axis. I feel that they amply deserved what ever happened to them and in some ways got off lightly. But it is a great lesson in Thucydides' "Melian Dialogue". In that the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. He also said that one makes war with money. 25 centuries later, those are still true and possibly the most profound statements about mankind every uttered.

 

WMC