The Battle of the Denmark Strait has a special place in the Royal Navy's, indeed the UK's history, as it was the engagement in which the then iconic pride of the RN, HMS Hood, was lost. The Hood, a thin skinned battlecruiser, particularly lacking in top deck armour, should have been subject to a major refit and upgrade to its protection since its WW1 days, but the pressure on our capital ships was such that there was no choice but to send her, and her half completed consort Prince of Wales, up against the Bismarck.
It also has a personal meaning to me as I was privileged, on several occasions to host the WW2 veteran Lieutenant Ted Briggs RN to mess dinners at the RN Signal School, indeed he graced my dining out night shortly before passing over the bar.
Ted was a Yeoman of Signals on the Hood and was one of the three survivors, by virtue of his action station being on the bridge roof, which skimmed away from the ship's explosion. He got away with a 'mere two broken ankles and a prolonged dunking'!
The Bismarck, in contrast to the British ships, was fully worked up and represented the usual toughness and excellence of German shipbuilding.
May 1941. The Bismarck and Prinz Eugen slip from their fuel buoys at Grimstatfjord and head to sea. ..
Prinz Eugen, a heavy cruiser, only has 8 inch guns, but has torpedoes and is built to the usual tough standards of German warships.The aim of Operation RHEINUBUNG is to intercept and destroy Allied shipping in the Atlantic. The chosen route is via the narrow gap between Greenland's pack ice and Iceland - the Denmark Strait!
However, tipped off by the Swedish government, Vice Admiral Holland sailed to intercept, with the only heavy units available...
In our scenario we have added an extra complication: if critical damage does not impact either RN ship, they have to roll again, but only take the critical damage peculiar to their specific weaknesses: Hood's paper thin top armour, and Prince of Wales's teething problems with her innovative four barrelled main gun turrets.
The two fleets sight each other on a converging course, just out of 15inch range!
The formations start the game historically, which is unfortunate for the British team, Colin and myself, as the Hood with its paper armour, but carrying the Flag, leads...
Perhaps foolishly, the British team targeted the Prinz Eugen first - we were scared of her torpedoes and wanted her out of the way fast so as to concentrate on the Bismarck...
Despite consistent poor dice rolls from the British team - on my brand new RN themed dice! - the Prinz Eugen eventually went down to Davy Jones' locker. But she had inflicted serious damage on the Hood in the process...
We then ganged up on the Bismarck but she in term sank the Hood - not through a magazine explosion, but through steady attrition.
She then turned her attention to the Prince of Wales, knocking out all three of her main gun turrets, although again not needing the scenario specific rules to do so...
She then sailed off into the long Arctic sunset, hopefully aiming to RTB! Well done to the German team, Darren and Geoff!
Actually, we had such a quick but fun game we set it all up again and swapped teams - with much the same result! And below, what really happened:
The Battle of the Denmark Strait has a special place in the Royal Navy's, indeed the UK's history, as it was the engagement in which the then iconic pride of the RN, HMS Hood, was lost. The Hood, a thin skinned battlecruiser, particularly lacking in top deck armour, should have been subject to a major refit and upgrade to its protection since its WW1 days, but the pressure on our capital ships was such that there was no choice but to send her, and her half completed consort Prince of Wales, up against the Bismarck.
Very nicely presented. I am assuming that with your naval background and your groups regular use of these rules, that you are finding the Nimitz rules to be a good balance between accessibility and a fair simulation ?
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Norm! Yes absolutely - I have absolutely no doubts about stating objectively that Nimitz is highly playable and fast. The extent to which it gives authentic outcomes is harder to calibrate, but the results certainly gel with my reading of WW2 naval history.
DeleteInteresting game, well presented. The rules do have a good result on the table as to play, and sound like they reward tactics.
ReplyDeleteThanks mate! Yes my opponents regularly demonstrate that Nimitz does reward good tactics - I have yet to do so!
DeleteAnother fun account of a great set of rules. We are up to our fourth game and thoroughly enjoying them. The only possible house rule I have been pondering is whether some form of forced break-off rule might be useful as we have a tendency in our games to keep pounding it out in spite of the accrued losses. Great that you met Ted Briggs. He would be top of my list of people I would like to have met. My grandmother was born and raised in Belfast and used to tell the story how she went on board the Hood for an officer's dance an evening or two before it set sail on its last voyage.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lawrence! Yes I take your point. We played again today - Battle Off Calabria - and after losing Renown we called it so sometimes it comes naturally to effectively 'break-off' when the first capital ship meets its fate. Yes Ted was a real gentlemen - too much perhaps as we really had to coax his war stories out of him, may he rest in peace.
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