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Post by mmaker52 on Aug 9, 2010 21:58:57 GMT -5
This is a WWI scenario that takes place in the North Sea in 1918. The American dreadnought in Battle Squadron 6 accidently runs into units the German High Seas fleet. The forces are pretty balanced, with the Germans having a slight advantage. Of course the American destroyers have twelve 21" torpedo tubes, if they can figure out how to use them... Attachments:
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Post by warchariot on Aug 9, 2010 22:56:43 GMT -5
Lots of great action, thanks for the map.
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Bluebear
Commander
He who laughs
Posts: 405
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Post by Bluebear on Aug 9, 2010 23:24:05 GMT -5
A nice account and a good map. I enjoyed your report.
-- Jeff
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Post by TheDreadnought on Aug 10, 2010 8:49:02 GMT -5
Text only version for the non-forum members:
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The American 1918 North Sea Incident
Background:
The American Battle Division 9 arrived in late 1917 to join with the British Grand Fleet as Battle Squadron 6. It originally consisted if the New York (Flag), Wyoming, Delaware and Florida. These were selected to operate with the Grand Fleet, among other reasons, because they burned coal and would not put additional strain on the Grand Fleet’s fuel oil supply. In addition, the Nevada, Oklahoma and Utah were based at Bantry Bay Ireland. There were also newer US destroyers that were based in Queenstown for convoy escort.
In February 1918 the Texas arrived to supplement the 6th Battle Squadron. Later in the year, the Arkansas arrived to replace the Delaware, the oldest of the battleships. This scenario depicts a sweep through the North Sea before the Delaware was sent home, kind of a training exercise for the Arkansas. During this sweep nine destroyers were detached from Queenstown to escort the battleships. These were DESRON 7 (Cummings, Nicholson, Cushing, Allen) and DESRON 8 (Cassin, Ericson, Rowan, Tucker and Benham).
During this sweep they encountered the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet (König, Kronprinz, Markgraf and Großer Kürfurst), which were augmented by the Friedrich der Große (Flag) and the Kaiserin from the 1st Division. These were escorted by the 14th Half Flotilla (V125, V126, V127 an V128) and the 6th Half Flotilla (G101, G102, G103, G104).
A comparison of the destroyers is:
[See document]
At 15:00 the German and American Fleets sighted each other (see map). The US fleet was heading north, the German fleet was on a south-west heading, both fleets cruising about 15 knots.. Upon sighting other both fleets worked up to full speed, the Germans with their turbines could increase speed faster than the American fleet with reciprocating engines.
Turn 1.
The Americans continued on their northern heading, the destroyers kept themselves between their battleline and the German destroyers. The German fleet also continued on their south-west heading.
Turn 2:
The American fleet continued on course, The German Konig’s also kept on theirs, but the Friedrich der Große and Kaiser changed course to north-west in an effort to cross the American’s T. The German destroyers passed astern of the Friedrich der Große and changes course to WSW to attack the American battleline.
The Germans held their fire, while the overexcited Americans fired their first shots from their forward guns.
The Texas with her 14” guns drew first blood on the Kronprinz, hitting her hard and starting a fire. The New York, also with her 14” hit the König, causing some damage and also starting a fire. The Arkansas and Wyoming both fired at the 14th half flotilla, but the shots fell short,
Turn 3:
The ships stayed on their courses.
The ranges had closed enough now so that most of the German battleships could fire their broadsides. The Kaiserin fired at the Wyoming and the Friedrich der Große fired at the Arkansas, but both ships missed. The König hit the New York, causing only minor damage. The Kronprinz got revenge on the Texas, causing a large explosion as some secondary ammunition went up, destroying a 5.9” casement and starting a large fire. The Texas also took a bridge hit, killing her captain. Markgraf and Großer Kürfurst were still masked.
The four closest American battleships could now bring their full broadsides to bear. The Texas, shifted her fire to the Kaiserin and KABOOM. The Kaiserin blew up, taking all of her crew with her.
The New York shifted fire to the Kronprinz, taking out a 5.9” casement and starting a fire, which caused some damage.
In addition, the Arkansas settled down and hit the König, knocking out a 12” turret and starting a small fire, which after burning furiously and causing a lot of damage, was finally contained by her repair parties.
The Wyoming continued to fire at the 14th half flotilla and continued to miss, The Delaware and Florida were still out of range.
Turn 4:
The Germans, shaken up, continued to close on the Americans, the Friedrich der Große was planning on rejoining the German battle shortly. Alas, this was not to be.
The Friedrich der Große changed targets to the Texas, starting two fires and other minor damage. The König shifted her fire to the Delaware, causing a large amount of damage, which knocked out a 21” torpedo mount and starting a small fire. The Kronprinz shifted targets to the Wyoming hard, starting two fires and destroying a 21” torpedo mount.
The Markgraf, finally being able to fire hit the Arkansas, causing some damage. In like manner, the Großer Kürfurst punched the New York hard, causing major hull damage and both of New York’s 21” torpedo mounts.
The Texas, with her executive officer in command and feeling pretty cocky now, shifted fire to the German flagship, hitting the Friedrich der Große causing major damage and a small fire, which was quickly put out. One of her 14” shells, however penetrated the port engine room temporarily knocking it out of action. Thus caused, however, flooding so great that the ship had a severe list.
The New York fired at the Großer Kürfurst, but missed. The Arkansas fired at the Kronprinz and took out her forward fire control. The Wyoming fired on the Kronprinz causing some damage, and took out a 5.9” casement and starting a fire.
The Florida also fired on the König, wrecking the bridge, taking out a 12” turret and starting two fires, one of which was put out quickly. The Delaware opened fire on the Markgraf, which, for the first time, took minor damage.
Turn 5:
The American destroyers now shifted course to intercept the German destroyers, but both groups were still out of range.
The Texas continued to hammer the Friedrich der Große; this time penetrating the center engine, reducing her speed even more, her speed being down to eight knots.
The New York got the range of the Großer Kürfurst, her 14” guns hitting the ship hard, knocking out a 5.9” casement. The Arkansas shifted fire to the König, causing major damage, starting a large fire and knocking out a 19.9” torpedo mount.
The Wyoming continued to fire on the Kronprinz, knocking out her forward fire control.The Delaware fired on König, but the shells fell long and she missed. Florida fired on Markgraf, which, keeping her good luck going, only received minor damage.
Friedrich der Große continued to hit the Texas, causing major, but not significant damage. The König, after regaining control of the ship, evened the score when it fired on the Delaware. Her shots hit the center turret, starting a flash fire, which penetrated into the turrets magazine. With a loud explosion, the Delaware broke in half and quickly sank, the US destroyers were only able to save 12 of her crew.
Kronprinz continued to track the Wyoming, causing major damage and knocking out a 5: casement. The Markgraf hit the Arkansas, causing moderate damage. The Großer Kürfurst slammed the New York, opening her sides up to the sea in many places and destroying her bridge.
Turn 6:
The Friedrich der Große’s executive officer regained control of the ship and hit a lucky shot on the Texas, her #2 magazine being penetrated and blew up. Her forward section disappeared quickly, but her after part rolled over, and shortly, her propellers still turning (and her engine room crew undoubtedly being thrown into the rotating machinery), slowly settled to the bottom.
The Flagship turned to a S course, but at only eight knots and a severe list, was not moving very fast. Admiral Hipper, signaled the V126 to reverse course and pick him and his staff off his badly battered flagship. In addition, he ordered the other König’s to continue on back to Wilhelmshaven and the other destroyers to make smoke and cover the retiring battleships.
The König hit the Florida very hard, taking out her bridge and a 12” turret.
The Kronprinz continued to fire at the Wyoming with great accuracy, causing major damage and knocking out her port engine room, reducing her speed.
In like manner, the Markgraf pounded on the Arkansas. Knocking out two 5” gun casements, other major damage including knocking out her fire control. The Großer Kürfurst fired on New York, causing only minor damage. The German destroyers starting making smoke around the battleships that were retiring.
The Texas’s last falling shells knocked out two of Friedrich der Große’s 5.9” gun casements. The New York’s shot’s came screaming into Großer Kürfurst, causing a lot of damage, removing a 5.9” gun casement and starting a fire.
The Arkansas fired on the Markgraf, again causing only minimal damage, Markgraf’s good luck was holding.
The Wyoming, repairing her bridge enough to control the ship, fired on the Kronprinz knocking out her bridge and started a small fire, which was quickly contained. The Florida continued to shoot at the König, hitting a 5.9” gun casement. The American destroyed shifted course to N to pick up survivors from the sunken battleships.
Turn 7:
The badly damaged Friedrich der Große fired on the New York, but her shots fell short. The retiring Markgraf and Großer Kürfurst fired at the Florida and Wyoming through their destroyer’s smoke missed. The German destroyers continued to make smoke and shield the Konig’s.
The American line shifted course to the NE. The Wyoming and Florida tried to hit the Großer Kürfurst and König, through the smoke, but missed.
The remaining American battleships fired on the only German target left, the Friedrich der Große. They hit the German flagship very hard, causing huge explosions from secondary ammunition going off, causing huge holes in her hull. Her bridge was knocked out again, and her fire control was destroyed. Fires raged on the ship from stem to stern. Admiral Hipper and his remaining staff were transferred to the V126 and they sped off, using evasive movement, to catch up with the König’s.
The Americans have had enough, and were leaving.
Turn 8:
The Friedrich der Große firing one of her few guns at the New York, causing minor damage.
The New York firing her guns at the at the sinking Friedrich der Große, which rolled over and went down. The struggling survivors were picked up the American destroyers.
Summary:
As an engagement, the battle was a tactical draw, both sides losing two battleships, and both sides choosing to retire.
The action was an eye opener for the Americans, illustrating some short comings in their designs and their lack of experience. For the Germans, their opinion of the American’s rose, the Americans were learning to fight.
Supplemental Info:
Game Time - Approx 2 hrs.
[American Dreadnought Specs - See Document]
[Battle Map - See Document]
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Post by jmilesr on Aug 10, 2010 18:54:49 GMT -5
Excellent report - The US statistics are very helpful
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shigure
Commander
IJN Shigure
Posts: 356
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Post by shigure on Aug 11, 2010 0:06:09 GMT -5
I have downloaded the pics to photobucket and should have them up in a couple of days.
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shigure
Commander
IJN Shigure
Posts: 356
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Post by shigure on Aug 11, 2010 22:43:36 GMT -5
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Post by warchariot on Aug 11, 2010 23:23:30 GMT -5
Love the use of Litko makers in the pictures, it looks great!
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shigure
Commander
IJN Shigure
Posts: 356
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Post by shigure on Aug 11, 2010 23:56:49 GMT -5
The markers certainly add a more visual aspect to the game. I guess beings this is a WWI action many of the pics would be considered a Zeppelin eye's view. ;-))
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Bluebear
Commander
He who laughs
Posts: 405
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Post by Bluebear on Aug 12, 2010 0:40:23 GMT -5
Thanks for the photos. Next battle I'd like to see more "close-up" shots of the ships so we can enjoy their details more . . . but the long shots are worthwhile too.
-- Jeff
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Post by TheDreadnought on Aug 17, 2010 15:30:35 GMT -5
Yeah, the problem is the historical combat record reflects the fact that heavy units pretty much always wound up avoiding (or missing) each other during the war. The record would look substantially different if the commanders had been as motivated and willing to engage as your average wargamer.
No commander at the time would ever have accepted battle on the terms outlined in this scenario, because the forces were too evenly matched and they couldn't know for sure that some other enemy force wasn't lurking just over the horizon.
But that's the whole point of wargaming, is to try out the "what-if's" that could have happened, but didn't.
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Bluebear
Commander
He who laughs
Posts: 405
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Post by Bluebear on Aug 17, 2010 15:55:00 GMT -5
That is one of the fun things about the (earlier) Pre-Dreadnought era. Indeed, during the Russo-Japanese War there are a number of relatively even scenarios. On paper the Russians had a superior force to the Japanese at Tsushima . . . but we all know that it went very much the other way.
The Battle of the Yellow Sea (1904 version) may well have ended with a Russian breakout and victory except for a pair of lucky shots that sent the fleet flagship turning out of control (with the rest of the fleet following it, not knowing that their admiral was dead and there was no one controlling the flagship.
-- Jeff
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Post by capndave on Aug 17, 2010 16:00:32 GMT -5
Yeah, the Great War at Sea was very hard on the Protected Cruisers and Destroyers. Dave |
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shigure
Commander
IJN Shigure
Posts: 356
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Post by shigure on Aug 17, 2010 16:43:11 GMT -5
Certainly as 'The Dreadnought' has pointed out, unless both sides had good intelligience as to what was over the horizon, they would have to assume that the other's fleet was out in force. To press the engagement could risk your small portion of the fleet.
On the German side we could expect the BC's to be out scouting ahead of the BB's. There would probably be a Zeppelin in the air depending upon the weather at this period of the war.
In regard to ships exploding we had probably played 3 major scenarios since the last loss of a ship by a magazine explosion. This happened to be a RN BC. Several ships suffered major fires and extensive damage to secondary batteries. So while the die roll showed a magazine explosion, it might not have really happened from a main turret. It could have been a poorly protected secondary casemate gun that was penetrated by a large shell.
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Post by afilter on Oct 13, 2010 13:43:48 GMT -5
This scenario looks great. Where did you get the data cards for the USN fleet?
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Post by mmaker52 on Oct 15, 2010 19:31:34 GMT -5
A couple of us have been helping the designer with SSD, as needed, so we have access to the methodology. The basic information about the ships from good references, like Conway (the 'official reference', widely available), and others. Janes Fighting Ships is very useful for the firing arcs (they have reprints available for the key years). An example is the Russian Imperator Pavel predreadnoughts. The 12" guns are in two turrets, with arcs of F/P/S and A/P/S. Eight of the 8" guns are in two wing turrets on each side, with the firing arcs F/P, F/S, A/P amd A/S. The remaining 8" guns have arcs of P and S. See attached. Attachments:
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Post by warchariot on Oct 16, 2010 11:13:21 GMT -5
As I've said before, love that Conway fellow.
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