Little Lead Lightfoot

Newly refurbished in the South Yorkshire Navy Yard (40 miles inland...) is this venerable MY 1/1200 scale model of the WW1 British destroyer leader HMS Lightfoot. 

I picked this up in well used and 'pre-loved' condition a few years ago and my repair work was restricted to cleaning up the casting a bit and adding a mast (florist wire).  The vessel was then treated to a blast of black spray paint before heavly drybrushing on a dark-ish grey and finishing off with some modest detail painting.

A member of the Marksman class, like her sisters Lightfoot was a rather larger ship then contemporary destroyers, the extra room being occupied by the Capitain 'D' and his staff.  Completed in 1915, Lightfoot had only a brief career before being scrapped in 1921.  None of which neccessarily rules out it's appearance in future WW2 games....

3 DLM part 5 - cavalry

The division's recce unit is made up of four squadron-sized stands of light AFVs.  Two (above) are AMR-35 light tanks, accompanied by two Panhard P.178 armoured cars.  All are resin models of unknown origin.

Getting it strait

The scenario was based on one found on the Naval Wargames Society site. My thanks to Peter Douglas for mentioning it on his blog.

In short, a French (Vichy) cruiser squadron is making a break for the open sea and has first to pass through the Straits of Gibraltar.  Meanwhile the Royal Navy has sent pretty well everything that will float to support Operation Menace - the proposed landing at Dakar in French West Africa.  Historically the French were allowed to pass - and even wished 'Bon voyage' by the RN!   In our game the Admiralty had issued rather clearer orders.

The forces were as follows:

Royal Navy

Force H (at Gibraltar): Renown (above), 4 V/W Class destroyers

Shore Batteries: 8 9.2in guns

13 Destroyer Squadron(-): 3 G/H/I Class destroyers

Vichy French

Force Y: 3 La Galissionere Class cruisers, 3 Fantasque Class destroyers



Lloyd (left) the French CO and Dave were provided with (slightly) appropriate silly hats.

Force H started in Gibraltar harbour and John commanded, assisted by Tony (Renown) and Frank (13DF).

Wg Cdr Luddite (seen here) and Martin made up the rest of my umpire team.

John set 13DF on a patrol pattern and at first light they sighted the French hugging the African coast and heading west at high speed.  After some initial hesitancy on both sides the French opened fire.

Under heavy French shellfire Frank fired off half his torpedoes.

The hastily scratchbuilt shore batteries joined in as soon as the targets came in sight.

The British torpedoes certainly shook the French up a bit.  All this despite my oft-repeated suggestion that ships keep a decent distance apart.  A lucky hit took the bow (that's the pointy bit at the front) off one of the French DDs.

Frank celebrates 'first blood'.

The other French DDs managed to evade the torpedoes - while the cruisers manoeuvred frantically.

Georges Leygues was hit by 3 torpedoes, resulting in 103% damage!

As the shore based guns began to find the range, Admiral Bourrague decided it was time to go.  The remaining DDs imposed a strain on my stock of pipe cleaners by loosing off their remaining torpedoes!

I think that the French decision to cut and run was in the circumstances correct.  It was unfortunate that the RN destroyers found them so early, thus alerting Force H and the shore batteries.  If the French had come along when the Brits were further from the African coast it could all have been so different.  Meanwhile historically, Operation Menace was a fiasco even without the intervention of extra French warships!

To add to the fun, Force H had set sail...

... and Renown opened fire....

...making a few new portholes in Montcalm.

3 DLM - part 4 - tanks

The division's tank component is made up of four battalion-sized units.  Two of these are equipped with medium 'cavalry' tanks and two with light tanks.  The mediums above are Somua S.35 tanks - arguably the best of the French tanks in 1940.  These are both metal models by Skytrex.
The light tanks should generally by of the Hotchkiss variety, as these were designed to be fast enough for 'cavalry' operations.  Equpiment shortages mean that my division has one battalion in Hotchkiss H-39 and the other with Renault R-35.  Both are RAFM metal kits, and as the turrets are the same casting (in both real life and 20mm) it's close enough.  The Renault is the one with the trailer (pinched from the Chenilette Lorraine which featured in an earlier post...)  The French practice of painting the national colours in the form of a roundel on the dome-shaped commander's hatch is in my view, something to be encouraged!