Atlantic Campaign

[nate]

The first gaming session for the campaign lasted three hours and covered events from 30 August 1939 through 3 January 1940. The action included four engagements (though two did not get to the stage of setting up miniatures). The models used in the two actions that were fought out were 1:6000 scale miniatures from The Last Square.



The Polish destroyers departed for England on 30 August. For the Germans, Scheer started in Kiel, Deutschland and Graf Spee were at sea. British forces were not able to sortie to support the Polish ships, but in any event the Poles evaded the Germans and arrived safely in England.



The first action occurred when U-29 attacked and sank Courageous on 17 September. Although Deutschland was at sea, the moratorium on merchant ship attack remained in effect through 25 September.



Berwick and York missed Deutschland on 20 September, but six days later the German raider found convoy HX2. Deutschland approached from the south and quickly hit two merchant ships as the British destroyers raced ahead of the convoy to attack Deutschland as a group. One merchant took four 11” inch hits and sank quickly, the second suffered a fire that her crew was ultimately unable to bring under control. Poor weather hampered Deutschland’s effort to engage, and also gave the British destroyers the chance to turn hard to starboard to close the range. With heavy squalls continuing, Deutschland broke away to the southeast. “Ship X” resulted as the British variable reinforcement, heading south toward the remnant of the convoy, which had turned north in consecutive column turns. As the weather cleared the British destroyers were just beyond their secondary gunfire range, so they steered back to the east. Deutschland turned back to the north, engaging St. Laurent, the trailing destroyer, with her aft main turret while using her forward turret to hit another merchant ship. Ultimately, two more merchant ships, for a total of four, were destroyed. St. Laurent evaded Deutschland until a chance hit at long range crippled her, leaving her in sinking condition. But by now the convoy had faded out of range, and not knowing what was to the north, Deutschland again turned to the southeast, ending the engagement. Ammunition expenditure was relatively low, so Deutschland continued her patrol.



Unknown to the Germans, Force A was dispatched on 28 September to join the hunt for Graf Spee. Two days later Graf Spee scored her first victory, sinking Clement. The merchant was not able to radio a warning prior to sinking.



With no other knowledge of German dispositions, the British decided to concentrate on covering the Denmark Strait in mid-October. A few days after this disaster struck at Scapa Flow as Prien with U-47 penetrated the anchorage and sank battleship Royal Oak.



British fortunes turned, however, as Graf Spee managed to sink only three additional merchant ships in October, Ashlea early in the month with additional victims on the 22nd and 26th. The last was able to get of a ‘RRR’ signal.



Deutschland received orders to return to Germany on 24 October. She took the Denmark Strait, but despite interception by Shropshire, Edinburgh, and Southampton, she evaded the British in horrific weather with sea state eight conditions. With Hood and Belfast unavailable to enter the action, the British reluctantly gave up the chase. Deutschland made port on 1 November, having sunk four merchant ships and destroyer St. Laurent.



Two more merchants were intercepted and sunk during November by Graf Spee. Both got off ‘RRR’ signals. Partially as a result, the British intercepted Graf Spee on 20 November, but the force was only Exeter and Achilles. With the disparity in force, the British briefly tailed the raider and then prudently broke off.



British intelligence, meanwhile, did not spot any German activity. The Germans were preparing for Operation Camulos, which ultimately broke out into the Atlantic on 26 December [it turns out the Germans did not sortie for the possible Operation Anvil].


Early in December Graf Spee sank two more merchants, bringing her sortie total to eight before she was recalled to Germany on 8 December. British carrier Furious, on anti-submarine patrol, was attacked, unsuccessfully, by a U-boat on 12 December (the presence of the carriers helped with the U-boat campaign, keeping the intensity ‘low’ at the year-end 1939 resolution).



With no firm information on the German heavy ships, the British Admiralty ordered heavy escorts for convoys commencing on 26 December. The first intelligence result was the detection of the returning Graf Spee on 31 December. As a result the raider was spotted just before midnight on 2 January 1940 by cruiser Gloucester. She successfully trailed Graf Spee all night. Daybreak found Gloucester hanging on steaming east, but dropping back as visibility improved. At this point Graf Spee opened fire, quickly hitting Gloucester and knocking “B” turret out of action. The raider then turned to the northeast, bringing all guns to bear. Gloucester altered course slightly to east-southeast, and despite taking a pounding, scored a couple of hits, one of which started a fire. At this point Dauntless and Dragon came out of improving skies to the northwest of Graf Spee. The momentary diversion took attention off Gloucester, but cost the British as Dauntless was hit repeatedly, ultimately foundering. Dragon had steered to the northeast to cut across the bow of Graf Spee. Dragon was hit hard, but did score several hits in return, but none were critical. The loss of Dauntless enabled Graf Spee to re-engage Gloucester with the rear main turret. Several eleven inch hits in quick succession spelled the end for another British light cruiser. But by this point Suffolk and Glasgow were in the chase from the south, with Cumberland not far behind to the southwest. Graf Spee’s damage control parties struggled with the fire started by Gloucester. Unable to extinguish the blaze, after several turns it spread, adding materially to the raider’s damage. Just at this point Suffolk landed an eight inch round that started flooding. It quickly caused a list, slowing Graf Spee and enabling all British forces still in the hunt to close the range more rapidly. Despite a main battery hit on Suffolk (which failed to penetrate) and several secondary hits on Dragon, Graf Spee took three more penetrating eight inch hits from Suffolk, along with several six inch hits. She slowed to a stop, burning out of control and listing, sinking shortly thereafter. In addition to the loss of Gloucester and Dauntless, Suffolk made port with about ten percent hull damage. Dragon, fortunate to survive, had hull damage of almost 80 percent.



This gaming session ended with Event 80. Operation Camulous, still undetected by the British, is presumed to be at sea.
More to follow . . .

[mmathews]

Great start. I have the Atlantic Campaign too but we haven't started anything yet. Anxious to hear of more sessions.

[TheDreadnought]

Sounds like a lot of fun!

[nate]

The campaign resumed for a two hour gaming session. The British received ‘negative’ intelligence on 4 January 1940, with no indication of German ships reaching port. Presumably, this meant Operation Camulos was still at sea. However, with such spotty information on German dispositions, no changes were made to convoy traffic (Event 84). Convoy HX 15 got through without being spotted, but the British did decide to send Force B (Nelson and Hood) and Force C (Rodney and Renown) to sea in mid-January.

On 20 January U-25 reported contact with convoy HX 17. British intelligence failed to provide actionable information, so it was not possible to dispatch either Force B or C as distant cover, but fortunately intelligence did provide enough time to order HX 17 to scatter. This order was just in time as four fleeing merchant ships were overtaken by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. All four were quickly sunk.

Late in January Force C was diverted from the hunt for the German raiders to provide heavy cover for a Canadian troopship. Several days later a U-boat spotted Force B and put two torpedoes into Nelson. One penetrated and caused flooding, but repair parties quickly contained the damage. Nevertheless, Nelson sustained 25 percent hull damage. The Admiralty gambled and kept her and Hood at sea in an effort to intercept the German raiders. The effort failed, however, as the German battlecruisers, under the cover of stormy weather, returned to Germany in early February.

Despite a plea from Admiral Doenitz, the incomplete Seydlitz was sold to the Soviets. The British next created an international incident when Cossack boarded Altmark in Norwegian waters. On the plus side, over 300 POWs were freed.

British shipyard efficiency helped the war effort as repairs to Nelson, Suffolk, and Dragon were all completed in February.

German planning for Weserubung was underway in February, but the Germans did get in one more Atlantic sortie, Operation Donner. British intelligence picked up signals immediately, and as a result Hood and Valiant were ordered to cover convoy HN 16. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were again at sea, but they missed the two convoys that were off Norway. They did encounter stragglers from HN 16, but almost immediately a decision was made to turn away, unaware of what was lurking in the poor visibility (the German ships failed the very first Battle Continuation resolution). Two more merchants were sent to the bottom in the brief engagement, however. Operation Donner returned to Germany on 11 March.

Some two weeks later the armed merchant raider Atlantis successfully made it out to the North Atlantic, quickly taking her first prize. After finishing trials in the Baltic, Blucher joined the German fleet on 30 March.

Despite the good results against Allied merchant traffic, U-boat intensity remained ‘Low’ at the end of the first quarter. As the Germans made final plans for the Norway operation. The Royal Navy, reluctantly, sent forces to the Mediterranean in an effort to insured Italian neutrality. The force for Alexandria included battleships Nelson and Barham, carrier Argus, cruisers Cumberland, Galatea, and Calcutta, and twenty destroyers. The Admiralty did not immediately send any additional ships to Gibraltar.

British intelligence sounded the alarm on the morning of 9 April as the unmistakable scale of German operations in Denmark and Norway became apparent. The Norwegians fought back as best as they could, severely damaging Blucher off Oslo. Though gravely damaged, the cruiser did make it back to Germany with 80 percent damage. In the chaos of Norwegian landings, armed merchant raider Orion broke out to the North Atlantic.

The Royal Navy first scored against the Germans when submarine Turant hit cruiser Karlsruhe off Kristiansand. The German cruiser, accompanied by destroyer Z-4, was then intercepted by a British force of cruiser Manchester, with destroyers Janus, Javelin, Juno, Kandahar, and Kingston. British gunnery was excellent as Manchester quickly hit Karlsruhe, knocking out ‘X’ turret and causing further engine room damage. Z-4 took the better part of valor, leaving the crippled Karlsruhe to her fate. The German cruiser managed a couple of hits on Manchester before going under, but the hits failed to penetrate.

The following day, 10 April, the Luftwaffe sank destroyer Gurkha. In the afternoon destroyer Hero attacked and sank U-50.

The campaign paused here, with further Norwegian action pending.

[craig]

Two things of note:

1. My Battle Cruisers are apparently cursed to never find a full convoy.

2. It is worth noting that the second session was played at a different location than the first. The gaming system of The Atlantic Campaign makes it easy to pick right back up after stopping. A half dozen sheets of paper contain all the information needed to keep track of on-going operations, battle damage, strategic allocations, etc.

[nate forney]

A final four and one-half hour gaming session completed the campaign. The German Trondheim force, Hipper and four destroyers, made it back to Germany undetected. The next ship lost was a merchant ship sunk by U-59 on 11 April. British forces evened the score by sinking the U-boat. The following day U-64 was sunk.

Lutzow was torpedoed on the way back from Oslo, sustaining 25 percent damage. British success continued later in the day with the sinking of U-25.

British intelligence (Event 146) resulted in the creation of Forces D (Repulse, Berwick, Orion and six destroyers). E (Hood, Rodney, three heavy cruisers and three destroyers), G (King George V, Renown, four cruisers and four destroyers), and H (Ark Royal, Valiant, Warspite, three cruisers and six destroyers). German intelligence identified four forces were at sea, but did not have any clearer picture of British dispositions.

Tanker Jan Wellam made it to Narvik unmolested. As a result seven German destroyers sortied for the return trip. They encountered Force D at 0700 on 13 April. Despite determined attacks that resulted in torpedo launches against Repulse by Z1 and Z6, and on Orion by Z22, none of the torpedoes struck home. Orion did have ‘X’ turret knocked out during a sharp exchange of gunfire. but the weight of steel for the British resulted in the loss of all seven German destroyers (the others being Z2, Z7, Z11, and Z15). Force D continued on into the fiord, and sank Z3, Z9, and Z17, all of which were extremely low on fuel and unable to offer coordinated resistance.

The German Screening Force, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, headed south to patrol the North Sea. The RAF sank Koln, and alerted surface forces that two light cruisers and four destroyers were headed south from Bergen. The Royal Navy sent heavy cruiser Dorsetshire to support their forces off Bergen, but she was not able to rendezvous with Manchester, Southampton, Penelope, and three Polish destroyers before the British light forces encountered the German light cruiser force. The Manchester group turned to engage, quickly scoring a pair of hits on Leipzig. After a brief long range gunfire exchange, the forces broke off. Leipzig was a little worse for the exchange, with both ‘A’ and ‘X’ turrets out of action. A fire raged for several turns, but damage control crews were able to extinguish it. Manchester took several minor hits, the most damaging of which destroyed a torpedo mount. Later in the day U-34 was sunk.

With the Luftwaffe establishing forward bases, the British broke away with Forces D and E. Forces G and H evaded air attack, but also failed to engage the German battlecruisers on their return to Kiel. German air power came up empty as Manchester, Emile Bertin, and Suffolk all avoided air attacks. By 18 April the initial phase of the Norway operations was over.

In the South Atlantic, armed merchant raider (AMR) Orion sank a merchant in April. Under cover of the confusion off Norway, German AMRs Widder and Stier joined Atlantis and Orion at sea on 8 and 10 May, respectively.

On 15 May a U-boat found armed merchant cruiser Prince Robert off Newfoundland and sank her.

With tensions in the Mediterranean heating up, the British sent carrier Furious, battleships Queen Elizabeth, Renown, Repulse, Resolution, and Revenge to Gibraltar, along with eight cruisers.

Force J, Rodney and five cruisers, was dispatched on 16 May as a cover force for troop ships withdrawing forces from Norway. Although German intelligence identified the convoy, German Operation Erda (which was another sortie by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau), declined to close on a target suspected of having a strong escort. The battlecruisers instead headed into the convoy routes, having successfully evaded British patrols during the breakout. Despite a lack of firm intelligence, the pair found HX 43 early on 30 May. Shortly after long range gunfire on the merchants commenced, five British destroyers, running at full speed, turned toward the German raiders, coming around from the unengaged side of the convoy. Glowworm, Hero, and Hyperion were sunk in the effort, and were unable to get within torpedo range. Kingston was badly damaged but managed to escape. Javelin, undamaged, also withdrew, covering Kingston. However, the sacrifice of the destroyers did force the battlecruisers to alter course, which allowed the range to the convoy to open. Six merchant ships were sunk before the German pair had to break off the action. British battleships were in the area, but were not able to close in time to come to the aid of the convoy.

British yards completed repairs on the lightly damaged Manchester, Orion, and destroyer Keith. Kingston, more severely damaged, remained in the yards. On the German side, despite priorities, Blucher remained out of service, as did moderately damaged Leipzig. Repairs for Lutzow’s minor damage were completed.

During May German AMRs failed to find any merchant traffic, but Orion was discovered by AMC Jervis Bay. Unfortunately for the British, Orion fooled Jervis Bay until the range was very short, then turned and opened fire, quickly knocking out the AMCs two forward six inch guns. Jervis Bay turned broadside to open her port guns, but over the next ten minutes failed to land a single hit. German gunnery was very accurate, starting a fire and also causing flooding. Unable to get the fires under control, Jervis Bay slowed to a halt, a burning wreck. She sank shortly thereafter.

After the attack on HX 43, several British forces put to sea in an effort to cut off Operation Erda, but the big ships returned to Germany undiscovered.

Off Dunkirk, the British lost eight destroyers during the evacuation effort. Later in June AMRs Thor and Pinguin made it into the Atlantic, the latter sinking a merchant early in her cruise.

During June Atlantis, Widder, and Thor sank one merchant ship each. This was the only action as the Germans declined to send a potential Operation Frey to sea, given questions about the availability of the battlecruisers.

The intensity of the U-boat war ticked up to ‘Medium’ at the end of the quarter, setting the stage for the final scoring.

The Germans sank Royal Oak and Courageous (8 points), cruisers Dauntless and Gloucester (4 points), and picked up five points as a result of the loss of 14 British destroyers plus AMC Prince Robert. Thirty merchant ships were sunk, for another 15 points, giving a total of 32 points.

The British received seven points for sinking Graf Spee. Blucher, unrepaired, was 5 points. Koln and Leipzig were another four points. Other losses were the ten destroyers at Narvik and five U-boats during the Norway operations. With two points for Medium U-boat Intensity, the final tally was 33 points.

This was the closest campaign result to date and a draw (and almost an actual draw with just one point separating the scores). German losses were light and several convoys were successfully attacked (HX 2 by Deutschland and HX 43 by Scharnhorst/Gneisenau). However, other British losses were relatively low. German light forces lost ten destroyers and five U-boats, which helped in the final result.

Total playing time for the entire campaign was just under ten hours in three gaming sessions.

[nate]

Sept 26, 2018 17:26:25 GMT -5 nate said:

The first gaming session for the campaign lasted three hours and covered events from 30 August 1939 through 3 January 1940. The action included four engagements (though two did not get to the stage of setting up miniatures). The models used in the two actions that were fought out were 1:6000 scale miniatures from The Last Square.



The Polish destroyers departed for England on 30 August. For the Germans, Scheer started in Kiel, Deutschland and Graf Spee were at sea. British forces were not able to sortie to support the Polish ships, but in any event the Poles evaded the Germans and arrived safely in England.



The first action occurred when U-29 attacked and sank Courageous on 17 September. Although Deutschland was at sea, the moratorium on merchant ship attack remained in effect through 25 September.



Berwick and York missed Deutschland on 20 September, but six days later the German raider found convoy HX2. Deutschland approached from the south and quickly hit two merchant ships as the British destroyers raced ahead of the convoy to attack Deutschland as a group. One merchant took four 11” inch hits and sank quickly, the second suffered a fire that her crew was ultimately unable to bring under control. Poor weather hampered Deutschland’s effort to engage, and also gave the British destroyers the chance to turn hard to starboard to close the range. With heavy squalls continuing, Deutschland broke away to the southeast. “Ship X” resulted as the British variable reinforcement, heading south toward the remnant of the convoy, which had turned north in consecutive column turns. As the weather cleared the British destroyers were just beyond their secondary gunfire range, so they steered back to the east. Deutschland turned back to the north, engaging St. Laurent, the trailing destroyer, with her aft main turret while using her forward turret to hit another merchant ship. Ultimately, two more merchant ships, for a total of four, were destroyed. St. Laurent evaded Deutschland until a chance hit at long range crippled her, leaving her in sinking condition. But by now the convoy had faded out of range, and not knowing what was to the north, Deutschland again turned to the southeast, ending the engagement. Ammunition expenditure was relatively low, so Deutschland continued her patrol.



Unknown to the Germans, Force A was dispatched on 28 September to join the hunt for Graf Spee. Two days later Graf Spee scored her first victory, sinking Clement. The merchant was not able to radio a warning prior to sinking.



With no other knowledge of German dispositions, the British decided to concentrate on covering the Denmark Strait in mid-October. A few days after this disaster struck at Scapa Flow as Prien with U-47 penetrated the anchorage and sank battleship Royal Oak.



British fortunes turned, however, as Graf Spee managed to sink only three additional merchant ships in October, Ashlea early in the month with additional victims on the 22nd and 26th. The last was able to get of a ‘RRR’ signal.



Deutschland received orders to return to Germany on 24 October. She took the Denmark Strait, but despite interception by Shropshire, Edinburgh, and Southampton, she evaded the British in horrific weather with sea state eight conditions. With Hood and Belfast unavailable to enter the action, the British reluctantly gave up the chase. Deutschland made port on 1 November, having sunk four merchant ships and destroyer St. Laurent.



Two more merchants were intercepted and sunk during November by Graf Spee. Both got off ‘RRR’ signals. Partially as a result, the British intercepted Graf Spee on 20 November, but the force was only Exeter and Achilles. With the disparity in force, the British briefly tailed the raider and then prudently broke off.



British intelligence, meanwhile, did not spot any German activity. The Germans were preparing for Operation Camulos, which ultimately broke out into the Atlantic on 26 December [it turns out the Germans did not sortie for the possible Operation Anvil].


Early in December Graf Spee sank two more merchants, bringing her sortie total to eight before she was recalled to Germany on 8 December. British carrier Furious, on anti-submarine patrol, was attacked, unsuccessfully, by a U-boat on 12 December (the presence of the carriers helped with the U-boat campaign, keeping the intensity ‘low’ at the year-end 1939 resolution).



With no firm information on the German heavy ships, the British Admiralty ordered heavy escorts for convoys commencing on 26 December. The first intelligence result was the detection of the returning Graf Spee on 31 December. As a result the raider was spotted just before midnight on 2 January 1940 by cruiser Gloucester. She successfully trailed Graf Spee all night. Daybreak found Gloucester hanging on steaming east, but dropping back as visibility improved. At this point Graf Spee opened fire, quickly hitting Gloucester and knocking “B” turret out of action. The raider then turned to the northeast, bringing all guns to bear. Gloucester altered course slightly to east-southeast, and despite taking a pounding, scored a couple of hits, one of which started a fire. At this point Dauntless and Dragon came out of improving skies to the northwest of Graf Spee. The momentary diversion took attention off Gloucester, but cost the British as Dauntless was hit repeatedly, ultimately foundering. Dragon had steered to the northeast to cut across the bow of Graf Spee. Dragon was hit hard, but did score several hits in return, but none were critical. The loss of Dauntless enabled Graf Spee to re-engage Gloucester with the rear main turret. Several eleven inch hits in quick succession spelled the end for another British light cruiser. But by this point Suffolk and Glasgow were in the chase from the south, with Cumberland not far behind to the southwest. Graf Spee’s damage control parties struggled with the fire started by Gloucester. Unable to extinguish the blaze, after several turns it spread, adding materially to the raider’s damage. Just at this point Suffolk landed an eight inch round that started flooding. It quickly caused a list, slowing Graf Spee and enabling all British forces still in the hunt to close the range more rapidly. Despite a main battery hit on Suffolk (which failed to penetrate) and several secondary hits on Dragon, Graf Spee took three more penetrating eight inch hits from Suffolk, along with several six inch hits. She slowed to a stop, burning out of control and listing, sinking shortly thereafter. In addition to the loss of Gloucester and Dauntless, Suffolk made port with about ten percent hull damage. Dragon, fortunate to survive, had hull damage of almost 80 percent.



This gaming session ended with Event 80. Operation Camulous, still undetected by the British, is presumed to be at sea.
More to follow . . .

I put together a few photos from the action. Drop a note to me at [e-mail] and I'd be happy to send the pdf.

Attachments:

Atlantic After Action Photos.pdf (352.85 KB)

[nate]

OK, so fortunately I was able to post the photos . . .

[tricericon]

Neat. Thanks for writing this up!