Victory at Sea - The Slot

 

Victory at Sea: Night action off Recife

The culmination of our month long Wollongong Wargamers lock down campaign #1939commerceraidingcampaign was fought out yesterday on the tabletop using Victory at Sea rules.

In my last post Victory at Sea: Action off Monty we saw how the Allied hunting groups had engaged the Admiral Graf Spee, damaging her. Entering Rio for repairs, she then slipped out in the dead of night evading the waiting British cruisers. Well now history was repeating itself further north. Having lost an oiler to the British cruisers, and run at constant high speed throughout the campaign, the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper had entered Recife for fuel and spare parts. 

Somehow, British naval intelligence got wind of these arrangements and a reception committee was awaiting as the Hipper attempted to leave the following dawn. The skipper hastily put about, hoping to repeat the Graf Spee's moonlight flit in the dead of night... 

Unfortunately for the Hipper, its route out to sea took it right opposite the centre of the Allied cordon, where the most powerful unit, the heavy cruiser Australia was stationed. Both ships have 8 inch guns, although the Hipper is much better armoured..

The German team's tactical instructions were to concentrate on knocking out the nearest ship encountered in the cordon, making liberal use of starshell, whilst making for open water. (The Hipper had to make it off the opposite short table edge to escape).

I didn't receive tactical instructions from the Allied team, so played the long game - the Australia drew away from the heavier Hipper, whilst keeping her in contact, relying on support from the rest of the cordon to come up in a few moves time... 

Initially then the Australia sacrificed the fire of her forrad turrets in order to draw away, and was getting the worst of the exchange...

But was then able to come about to clear her aft arcs.

The two light cruisers of Force H, Ajax and Achilles were closing at flank speed, but would not be closing to night engagement range (20") just yet...

Which was giving the Hipper ample time to batter Australia with some pretty good shooting...although the Aussie was causing damage in return, by move 5 the lightly armoured cruiser was just one point away from becoming 'crippled'!

The two Leander class cruisers arrived on scene in the nick of time, allowing the Aussie to stand off slightly. 

Ajax's first salvo causes critical damage and a fire aboard the Hipper. The fire is rapidly extinguished by the phenomenal German DC teams, but Hipper loses an inch of speed - this could be significant!

Hipper refuses to be distracted from pummelling Australia, and the Aussie becomes crippled, losing both aft turrets and reduced to 3 inches of speed. However her final few volley's manage to cripple the Hipper, which loses its after turret and is now at only 2.5 inches of speed...Ajax launches its port torpedo battery at Hipper, but at long range all 4 fish miss...

The Hipper however, launches both of its port batteries at the nearby Achilles, and 2 of the 8 fish strike! Achilles quickly sinks....

Hipper is now close to limping over the home strait, with Australia effectively out of the fight with one hull integrity point remaining - so Ajax desperately manoeuvres to bring her stbd torpedo battery to bear...

One of the four fish strikes Hipper's hull and detonates, causing 7 points of damage - with only 5 hull points left, Hipper also goes down to Davy Jone's locker...10'' from the edge of the world and safety...

So near, and yet so far! Force H remains on station to pick up survivors and count the cost of eliminating the threat to the merchant navy lifeline in the South Atlantic: Achilles sunk, Australia barely afloat, Ajax virtually unscathed...

To sum up the outcome of the campaign as a whole, the two German raiders, and their two auxiliary consorts, have sunk over 50,000 tons of Allied shipping. They sank a light cruiser, and crippled a heavy and a light cruiser. This at the cost of one heavy cruiser, one auxiliary, and the Graf Spee and Esso Hamburg are now left to attempt the perilous 'channel dash' back home....

Victory at Sea: Action off Monty

 

Since the start of August, entering a protracted lockdown, I have run a naval campaign game, #1939commerceraidingcampaign focussed on surface raiders, with the Wollongong Wargamers on our fB page. The campaign is set in the South Atlantic from the outbreak of war, with strategic day by day moves. 

The campaign has been paused since one of the Allied Hunting groups has now located one of the German raiders, and the I fought the ensuing tactical engagement out on the table top, using Victory at Sea rules, following the advice of the players on how they wanted the action to go. I was also able to get a mid-game update from the Allied players half way through the game, via messenger.

Ian has been the German player, and whilst I can't give away his complete orbat, his units have so far done well, sinking 31,000 tons of allied merchant shipping right across the South Atlantic, a matter of some concern at the British Admiralty...

Through astute use of the ship's flight and DF intercepts from his onboard B-Dienst team, Ian, though by no means fully in the strategic picture, was able to gain the tactical initiative for this encounter. He knew that at 1500z (3.00pm) when he met the enemy they were on a reciprocal course and that last light was around 1700z in these latitudes in September. So he had to survive without significant damage for 2 hours and escape back into the Atlantic wastes to continue his mission of sinking merchant shipping...

Admiral Graf Spee's 'Anton' (Fwd) turret of 3 x 11 inch rifles.

He also knew his 11 inch guns, compared to Exeter's 8 inch and Belfast's 6 inch guns, was his ace in the hole...For the record, Spee is classed as 280 points, Exeter at 115, and Belfast as 130.

His tactical instructions (CA= Cruiser Armoured, CL=Cruiser Light) : 

The Spee will keep sailing away and use range to punish CL. Then zig zagging and broadsides. Idea is to cripple the CL before it comes within torpedo range then punish the CA. I anticipate heavy damage if they press attack. If the CA keeps up engagement I will sink it then turn around come back and sink CL by standing off and punishing it. 

For strategic reasons which I am not yet at liberty to divulge, the Allied team, John and Chris, were not desperate to sink the Graf Spee at all costs, they simply had to keep track of it and damage it if necessary: 

TF M when engaging are to close as fast as possible to 8 and 6 inch range. All aircraft to be launched to provide target indication, and to prevent damage. EN ship is to suffer observed loss of speed or damage to main armament. Once this is observed, TF M launch torpedoes then withdraw beyond effective EN fire using smoke. If (damage experienced ) TF M is to withdraw and shadow .

Split allied attack:

Exeter steams north and closes distance to improve broadside and bring all turrets to bear

Belfast turns E/NE and attempts to get around opposite side and bring guns to bear.

In the first move with the Germans holding the initiative, the RN cruisers had to move first. Following orders, the Belfast headed off E/NE to open up a crossfire...

Spee opened the engagement according to the best German naval traditions with two extreme range hits from its rear Dora turret on the Belfast, which was unable to land any hits herself. 

The Exeter got two in though!

The second round went much the same way, with both Belfast and Spee taking damage...

I resigned myself to a game involving lots of table scrolling as the RN cruisers, with the same speed as the Spee, simply gave chase. As they say in the RN, 'a stern chase is a long chase!'  

But then in the third turn, the Exeter scored a critical hit on the Spee's machinery spaces - her flank speed was now cut from 6 to 5 inches. 

Realising that escape was now less likely, in turn 4 the Spee turned broadside on to fight it out!

Similarly, the Belfast deliberately brought her ship's head around to clear arcs for all 12 of her quick firing 6 inchers...

Inevitably however, in trading 6 inch 'freedom bringers', no matter how quickly, with 11 inch rounds was not going to be healthy for the Belfast, which remained the focus of the Graf Spee's wrath...

Whilst not having experienced any critical damage, her hull integrity was down from 26 to 13. At 8 she would be classified as 'Crippled'...

Explaining in campaign terms that the Spee would have a 50% chance for her Marine Engineers to make good the propulsion damage whilst underway, and reminding them of the overall strategic situation, I sought advice from the Allied players via messenger:

Belfast to make smoke and disengage. Exeter to shadow at long range and try for lucky hits.

Belfast thus turned away to the South, no doubt heading for the nearest Allied dockyard, making smoke for all it was worth...

The Exeter opened to the WSW, keeping Spee under long range fire...

landing a few more hits...

and taking a few herself in return...So as dusk turned to night, Spee disappeared once again back into the lonely wastes of the South Atlantic, with her crew working feverishly on her propulsion systems.

So as well as inflicting the prop. damage, the two RN Cruisers reduced the Spee's integrity from 32 down to 18 - she becomes crippled at 10. Not bad! However, the poor Belfast went from 26 to 12, and would have been crippled at 8. Exeter got off fairly lightly, dropping from 21 to 17.

It remains to be seen what impact this will have on the campaign...