Somewhere in the South Atlantic 1939, Game 2

The carrier HMS Hermes was built on a cruiser hull, and was therefore somewhat smaller than the later WW2 fleet carriers, but she was purpose built to carry planes (sea-planes initially) and had fore and aft lifts.  She carried a squadron of twelve Swordfish torpedo bombers, and in my second game, with the Kriegsmarine capital ships Blucher and Scheer being shadowed by HMS Cumberland I decided that it is the swordfish that will be next to have a go at the Germans.

Two of the aircraft failed to get onto the tabletop, one being lost in a catapult accident, and another having engine problems and ditching.  That is annoying since I had painted up all twelve.  Come to think of it I painted the carrier as well, and that doesn't get on table. .  That left me with two formations of, five aircraft to take on the Germans, Red Flight and Blue Flight.  They entered the table at mid ceiling, level 3, dropping quickly to level 2 height.   

Red flight was first to attack, taking the port side of the German ships.  The Nord-Reich as a Merchant ship was an easy target, but not the priority here.  She turned and moved off to the east.  I divided red flight into two waves.  The first three dived to level 1, 100 feet, and moved in.  The German AA Flak should have dealt with this easily.  

The Swordfish was a notoriously slow aircraft, and almost immediately young Ginger, leading red Flight, found himself exploding at 100 feet, failing to drop his torpedo.  The remaining two in the first wave did manage to drop and began to climb to level two trying to avoid the flak.

Ginger comes to a quick end.

As I turned the Kriegsmarine ships away the second wave dropped from level 1, and also turned away climbing.  Miraculously, apart from the loss of their red headed leader, Red Flight had four of its aircraft regrouping for the return to Hermes.

I turned the Blucher and Scheer sharply to port, as Blue Flight dropped to level 1.  Sly old Squadron leader Quigglesworth, leading Blue Flight in two waves, dropped the first torpedoes cleanly.  Then the havoc started as Bertie's Swordfish lost its engine to flak and dropped into the sea astern of Scheer.  Another of Quiggles flight exploded as it failed to climb away quickly enough, and the Squadron Leader himself had an oil fire in his engine.  That however has never stopped a hero like Quiggles, and he probably made it back to the Hermes with a blazing engine, smoking a woodbine and drinking a horse`s neck of gin!

Quiggles loses half his flight to Flak

I suddenly realised that Quiggles had spread his torpedoes so that one was aimed at Blucher, the rest at Scheer.  Amazingly the Scheer took two torpedoes to the stern, exploded and rolled over.  Blucher took a torpedo midships, essentially undamaged, but critically in game terms, slowed.

Not sure why that lead Destroyer is going the wrong way!

So it seems that the campaign will come down to HMS Renown and her Task Force B.  With Blucher damaged that is probably overkill. (to put it mildly)

Please note that the model of HMS Hermes is in perfect proportion, being the same size as the Cruiser Cornwall in this picture.  My Ark Royal is of a similar length to Renown.  

With the South Atlantic out of the way I will probably turn to the cruise of the Bismarck!

Battle of the River Plate, sort of...

I rediscovered my 1:6000 WW2 Naval collection this morning.  With a huge electrical storm closing in on Cyprus today some gaming seemed the best thing to do with my time  I went for early 
war, and some cruiser actions.  As a wargamer I added in some what if... angles.

The Battle of the River Plate was the first naval battle in the Second World War and the first in South American waters. The German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee was loose in the South Atlantic  and one of the hunting groups of Commonwealth cruisers discovered her off the South American coast.

In my version of history Admiral Scheer (and note that the Brits thought that the Spee was in fact the Scheer) has escaped into the South Atlantic.  The Admiralty has however realised that a second German capital ship, the Blucher, a Deutschland class heavy cruiser, and the Nord-Reich, an auxiliary supply vessel, have made the journey to join her.  


A naval task force has been sent in pursuit of Blucher, hoping to meet with her before the Germans can unite their capital ships.    

In the first game I gave the Commonwealth four cruisers.  HMS Exeter, Ajax and Achilles all fought at the River Plate so were my first choice.  HMS Cumberland was refitting in Port Stanley in the Falklands and so missed the battle, but rejoined the squadron in time to blockade Graf Spee in Montevideo.  For my alternate history Cumberland would be with her sisters, and the first game would have them fighting the Pocket battleship Admiral Scheer.  

The Scheer was sighted at 12000 yards, against the Commonwealth Squadron which was steaming parallel in two divisions, Ajax leading Achilles, and to starboard Exeter leading Cumberland.  The rules would be GQ3, really super detailed, so this one would take a while!

Sheer opened fire as the Royal Navy split forces, their lines diverging.  Ajax came under fire, and immediately took damage as Scheer ranged in.   The other Royal Navy ships began to range in on Scheer, but it was too late for Ajax, as both her front turrets were lost and she was severely damaged.  Making smoke Ajax fell out of line, circling away.  Achillies speed was reduced after a shell exploded among her boilers.  Both light cruisers were out of the fight.

Exeter`s 8 inch guns managed to range in on Scheer, and caused some damage, but the Germans now turned their guns on Exeter and Cumberland.  Trading salvos Exeter was silenced and slowed to a minimum speed.  Her bulkheads gone and clearly sinking by the bow.  Cumberland running past her made smoke to cover herself as Scheer turned away.  

I decided that Scheer had done enough, and turned for the table edge heading for the horizon.   With Cumberland nervously shadowing her the Scheer went in search of Blucher.

The General Quarters 3 rules are really some of the most detailed I`ve ever used.  I quite liked them but it made for a very slow game.   I may have to cut them down to size a little, but overall I`m on to someting with them.  The photos show that this is an empty battlefield.  My 1:6000 ships are lovely models, and they really convey the sense of distance needed for WW2 naval.  

So it`s on to game 2.  The Battle Cruiser HMS Renown, of 15 inch guns, with the Carrier HMS Hermes and her (814) squadron of Swordfish torpedo bombers, have followed Blucher to the South Atlantic.   Next time it`s a bigger game altogether (and may even need two games?)

Major Mick Dundee at Bardia, 1941 game 1

I`m part way through Robert Avery's Operation Compass scenario/campaign book, using the great "I Ain't Been Shot Mum" rules from Toofatlardies.  The next three games cover the assault on Bardia, a coastal fortress held by the Italians.  In the first game the 6th Australian Division attack a fortified position held by Italian Infantry and Artillery.

The battle is covered in Barrie Pitt's Crucible of War, as well as the Official Australian online history.  Both make great reading.  I made my Big men fictional characters: this was a battle with heroism and tragedy on both sides.  

The paper wargames journal on the table in this photograph is as a result of my returning to bad habits!  I`ve kept one of these on the go for years and I`m meant to be blogging this sort of thing.  Now I`m back in Cyprus I`ll see how I get on, but I used the paper journal to plan these three games.  
   

To create the Italian strongpoint I used light sand coloured felt to represent the trenches.  This is the lighter coloured sand dug out and piled around the trenches.  The anti-tank ditch is a darker brown colour to represent its depth, as are the dugouts.  The main wire at the front of the emplacement was made using strips of cloth from an old ragged tea towel, and the wire perimeter of the outpost itself made from much thinner strips of a stone coloured felt, twisted and looped. 

It works for me! 

Major Mick Dundee of 22 Aus Inf Brigade has only a single platoon of Infantry, plus three Matilda II tanks. The good news is that he has outflanked the fortified position and is attacking the weaker Italian flank.   The tanks went onto the table, being spotted almost immediately.  The following Infantry remained on their blinds a little longer.   

Tenente Alphonso Pachino of the 62nd Italian Infantry division, has two full platoons plus a reserve, as well as MMG and dug in artillery.  His men are in trenches, and he has placed himself, with his reserve, in the rear dugout. Most of his forces were spotted automatically since the tanks were almost on top of his trench line. The tanks were also enfilading the trench line.  After a "Hussar!" of a dice roll the machine guns from the tanks minced the Italian Infantry.  

Major Dundee then lead his own Infantry forward, Australians, elite in close combat.  They day was about to get a lot worse for Tenente Pachino.  With the Italians losing section after section of Infantry to the bayonets of the Aussies the Tenente lead out his reserve in a bid to stem the rout that seemed imminent.  

The Tenente leads out his reserve sections.

I really like the Italian Officer figure in his pith helmet firing his Beretta pistol. This is a Minifigs 12mm figure, but it fits perfectly with my Pendraken 10mm.  Style over substance... that`s my WW2 Italians all over!  
He inspired his gunners to immobilise a Matilda, but its a tank that is quite rightly hard to kill. 
  

Even so the immobilised tank still used its machine guns to spray the reserve as they charged to the rescue. Pretty soon the Aussies came to grips with the Italian reserve, killing two and inflicting four more shock.  The Tenente failed his survival roll and his men promptly ran away.

The fighting around the central Italian gun pits grew nasty as the Aussies closed in, although the Italians managed to kill one man and inflict two shock.  Not really enough since they lost four men and received four shock points too.  

At that point I called it job done.  Mick Dundee had proved that he had a bigger knife than the Italians, although to be fair it was the Matilda Tanks of  7RTR that really won this.  They focused on the Infantry, and especially on killing that Italian MMG, largely ignoring the danger of the Italian artillery.  A risky strategy but it paid off. 

Really nice to get back to IABSM.  I`m looking forward to the next couple of games.  Let's see how Capitane DeNiro does against Mick and his Aussies!