Find Fix and Strike: Operation Alphabet variants.

Operation Alphabet was an evacuation, authorised on May 24, 1940, of Allied (British, French and Polish) troops from the harbour of Narvik in northern Norway marking the success of Operation Weserübung the Nazi Germany invasion of April 9 and the end of the Allied campaign in Norway during World War II. The evacuation was completed by June 8.

The Tragedy.

On 8th June 1940 as part of Operation Alphabet, the carrier and her two escorts, the destroyers HMS Acasta and Ardent, were intercepted by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The carrier and her escorts were sunk in two hours, roughly 170 nmi (310 km; 200 mi) west of Harstad, with the loss of 1,519 men.  There were only 45 survivors. 

The Variants 

With Operation Alphabet yet another resounding British defeat followed by a heroic rescue effort from the Royal Navy, the sinking of Glorious was hidden and never really investigated in full.  Questions as to why a major carrier was left isolated, without support or a CAP, or indeed even readied aircraft on its catapults were simply not asked.  

I wanted to explore some of the other possibilities of the action and have identified several options.

Renown supported British forces during the Norwegian Campaign and engaged the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on 9 April.  Both German ships fled the accurate fire from the British battle cruiser.  If Renown had been supporting Glorious perhaps matters would have been different.  

Warspite and her battle group were also off Narvik. The Battleship and her ten destroyers would have made an exceptionally difficult opponent for the Germans.

The heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire was actually quite close to Glorious position during the battle, certainly within distance to support, but were evacuating the Norwegian Royal family to safety.   Devonshire's Captain obeyed orders and headed for Scapa at high speed.  The Cruiser was no match for two German battlecruisers, but what if her flotilla sister ships had been present.  Berwick, Suffolk and York were all involved in the Norwegian campaign. 

Another possibility would be the heavy units of the Home Fleet out of Scapa.  The battleships Rodney and Valiant with eight destroyers as escort would give the Germans real problems.  

Glorious herself could have altered the battle by flying a CAP, and bearing in mind that Bismark herself was damaged by swordfish, the presence of these aircraft could shift the balance of the fight.  Historically Glorious had offloaded her planes to assist the disaster taking place on land, but it is still a what if.

The Light Cruiser Group of Birmingham, Glasgow, Sheffield, Manchester and Southampton were available.  Even Scharnhorst would be concerned by the torpedoes that lot could throw down.  Or indeed Cossack and her Tribal destroyer flotilla.

On the German's side:

If the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and her destroyers had been the enemy Glorious would still have been in big trouble.  

The Light Cruisers Koln and Konigsberg, complete with S-boat squadrons attached would also have been an issue.

Finally the heavy cruisers Blutcher, Lutzow and Emden were all involved in the campaign, and escorted by a squadron of S-boats would have been far too much for Glorious and her two destroyers alone.

So these are the forces available   

A.  CV Glorious and 2 x DD

B.  BC Renown  8 x DD  

C.  BB Warspite 10 x DD

D.  CA Devonshire, CA Berwick, CA Suffolk and CA York 

E.  BB Rodney and BB Valiant 8 x DD

F.  CL Birmingham, Glasgow, Sheffield, Manchester and Southampton.

G. DD Cossack and her Tribal destroyer flotilla.

1.  BC Scharnhorst, BC Gneisenau

2.  CA Admiral Hipper 10 x DD

3.  CL Koln CL Konigsberg, + S-boat squadrons 

4.  CA Blutcher, Lutzow and Emden

Find Fix and Strike

(D6 = 4)  Daylight.  Wind (d6 = 2) fresh.  Sea State 3 Moderate

Visibility (2d6 = 9) 26000yds (26")

German Admiral (Ave) German Crews (Ave)

British Admiral (Ave) British crews (Ave)

1 Spotter aircraft up.

Initiative RN.

RN Deploys the Germans go down 26000 yds away on blinds.  This is solo and I want to mix up my forces.

Turns out its the two German Battlecruisers anyway, and the other blind is empty.  Oh well this is still a major force.

Glorious sends a flight from her patrol to investigate.  "Bloody Hell its the Turpitz," Scharnhorst actually but even so...

The other British blind.  Renown.  And my phone camera overheats.  the dangers of outside wargaming at 34 degrees.

Glorious launches her strike and they muster just outside AA range of 4"  They go in and drop torpedoes.  Five aircraft lost, four damaged, but Scharnhorst takes a strike to the engines.  This is looking interesting. 

Acasta and Ardent make smoke as Glorious heads for the horizon

Renown's destroyer screen nip in and launch a torpedo strike at extreme range.

But the big guns open up.  Gneisenau misses.  Scharnhorst takes a critical strike in the first salvo, and its a heavy damage one.  She is hulled and taking on water.

The German ships turn out of the path of the Destroyer's torpedoes.  They fire back at Renown, and Gneisenau manages to straddle the target.

The Germans use initiative to open the range.  Glorious recovers her aircraft.

Gneisenau and Renown slug it out but the honours are even.  Scharnhorst is limping.

Renown switches back to Scharnhorst as her destroyers try to close down Gneisenau for another torpedo run.  The critical hit is another heavy damage but the ship is now crippled.  I roll a 4 and Scharnhorst has a raging fire aboard.

Gneisenau makes off as the destroyer flotilla come in to finish off the wreck. The second in line puts her down with two strikes. 

The game ended with the Germans in full retreat.  An enjoyable first look at Find Fix and Strike.  I found the naval rules quite straightforward, with the attack mods maybe a little too complicated.  however this was an hour long game.  The Air rules took some getting used to.  I think that submarines could be added to the rules without any problems at all, after all the torpedo rules are already there. 

I feel the Denmark straights coming on, a straightforward two vs two that will play really well under these rules.