Monday, 13 August 2012

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.
at

15 comments:

  1. Peter Douglas13 August 2012 at 19:09

    Tim

    Great report (and you're fast on the gun in getting the game in). There's lots of potential in this little almost action. I might be tempted to do it as a night action, or to give the Vichy air support since a short while after they bombe Gibraltar in retaliation (stuff your history books don't tell you). You could also have fun by adding a Vichy submarine to the mix, given that the Brits had a battleship torpedoed by one off of Dakar, and again in Madagascar (a Jap mini-sub in that case, but in operations against Vichy France).

    I agree that Dakar was a fiasco, but it could have gone the other way and might actually have been worth the roll of the dice on Churchill's part.

    Cheers

    PD

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  2. Wg Cdr Luddite13 August 2012 at 19:26

    Why am I the only one Tropical Kit ?

    Brilliant show by Frank whose three obsolete destroyers effectively turned back the whole Frog squadron.

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  3. Tim Gow13 August 2012 at 20:11

    Peter Douglas
    I agree that there's plenty of scope for tweaked versions of this game. Watch this space. Thanks again for the heads-up on the scenario!

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  4. Tim Gow13 August 2012 at 20:14

    Wg Cdr Luddite
    Tropical Kit? How I miss that girl!
    You're right about Frank - star of the show.

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  5. Pete.13 August 2012 at 23:20

    Nice game and AAR. Just started to read 'Struggle for the middle sea' should give me a bit more background.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

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  6. Geordie an Exiled FoG13 August 2012 at 23:41

    I do like the 1/1200 stuff
    I must do this scenario in 1/3000 GQ2

    Thanks Tim

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  7. Archduke Piccolo14 August 2012 at 01:51

    A fine, plausible, 'what if' scenario. It also shows that naval actions are almost never between evenly matched opponents, and the outcome isn't always as you would expect. Naval campaigns can be extremely difficult to conduct well, too, from my reading.
    Cheers,
    Ion

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  8. Paul14 August 2012 at 05:27

    Nice AAR...Buy more pipe cleaners!

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  9. Tim Gow14 August 2012 at 11:15

    Pete
    Glad you enjoyed it.

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  10. Tim Gow14 August 2012 at 11:17

    Geordie
    I'll be interested to see how your game goes.

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  11. Tim Gow14 August 2012 at 11:20

    Archduke Piccolo
    One of the spectators did comment on the apparent futility of the game but that is I think rather missing the point. The game could easily have gone very differently.

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  12. Tim Gow14 August 2012 at 11:21

    Paul
    One of the difficulties I had was keeping track of which torpedoes belonged to whom. Perhaps different coloured pipe cleaners are called for? A trip to Hobbycraft beckons.

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  13. Peter Douglas14 August 2012 at 14:01

    Tim

    Looking forward to seeing more. As for the torpedo tracks, as an alternative to pipe cleaners I am using thin sticky tab notes with an arrow on them. If you poke around an office supply store you'll find a variety of types to choose from. They typically come in multi-cloured packs which helps keep sides straight and you can write on the tab to show the number of fish and the turn that they were launched.

    FYI, the politically correct term is "fuzzy chenille sticks" not pipe cleaners - or so my ex Brownie leader spouse tells me!

    Cheers

    PD

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  14. Tim Gow15 August 2012 at 08:56

    Peter Douglas
    So what did you use for cleaning pipes?
    I'll probably move to sticky arrows for gunfire but the pipe cleaner - sorry - fuzzy chenille stick - torpedo tracks do provide a certain air of menace.

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  15. Peter Douglas15 August 2012 at 13:56

    Tim

    I guess that the rare pipe-smokers among us can still by pipe cleaners by name at a Tobacconist (if such things still exist). However, most of them get purchased in the crafts sections as "Fuzzy Chenille Sticks" . The typical user tends to be young girls under the age of 12!

    Cheers
    PD

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