CONVOY OBG 72
A NAVAL WARGAMES BATTLE REPORT FROM THE AUSTRALIAN, REYNELLA WARGAMES GROUP.
All those usual things that affect a planned wargame happened this week
with four players unable to make it, mostly due to some nasty weather.
However Huw Davie was able to make it for the first time, and our Baldric,
who doesn't have far to travel, also turned up. Three players were
sufficient to run the convoy battle I had planned and set up for. I
therefore resolved to command the German forces that might appear, while the
other two ran the escorts and convoy between them. Huw stepped up to take on
the role of Escort Group Commander.
Convoy OBG-72 was to run from EASTOMP (off Londonderry) to Gibraltar
along a different route to the game we did last week. It was a slow convoy
but only comprised 12 ships, the second time in a week that such a small
group of ships had been drawn. They comprised a mix of ships, drawn up in
six columns of two each.
The Norwegian freighter Kristen Amundsen led column one. The French
freighter Libreville following.
Column two comprised, The British collier Kilkenny, followed by the
Norwegian freighter, Hammerfest, led column 2.
Column three had the small British Tramp Lord Mornington, with a larger
British tramp Prestopans in number two position.
Column four was led by the convoy Commodore, in the cargo liner Port
Fremantle, with the small collier Middlesex following.
Column five had the medium size British freighter Elliston leading, with the
old collier Penguin following.
Column six had the small collier Castor leading the small Norwegian tramp
ship, Vaargoss.
Huw chose to dispose his escorts with the old destroyer HMS Skate
leading, and his own flagship the old destroyer HMS Viceroy at the rear.
This gave him the ability to use his fastest two ships to move forward or
back as required. The Viceroy was also a V&W converted to a WAIR, and would
provide good AA support it the Condors got up to their usual tricks and came
in for a stern attack. The starboard side leading escort was the sloop HMS
Hastings, with the corvette HMS Bluebell following 2,000yds astern. To port
he led with the ASW trawler HMS Sir Kay, and placed the corvette HMS Dahlia
2,000 yds astern of her.
The convoy had not progressed through the morning move when it was
picked up by a Fw200c Condor which circled for some time radioing the
position. The convoy could do nothing about it as the enemy remained out of
range and there were no catapult ships present.
The afternoon passed quietly, but darkness had no sooner fallen than
Viceroy detected a U Boat on radar, as it closed from astern of the port
column. He quickly turned his flagship to run down the contact, and
instructed Dahlia to turn back to assist. The U Boat was sighted at 1500yds
and immediately crash-dived. Viceroy and Dahlia obtained Asdic contact and
commenced a series of attacks that caused no damage to the boat, but I
decided to dive deep. It didn't take long to reach the tolerance for a type
VIIB but I decided to risk going deeper. My intent was that if I could keep
them depth charging me without damage, for as long as possible, I could draw
them away from the convoy, while other U Boats moved in. Unfortunately I did
not do well on the die roll and had not moved much below my designed depth,
when the boat imploded! Satisfied with the nasty sounds coming from below
him, Huw ordered Dahlia to join him and they sped back to the convoy,
arriving before anything else actually happened.
Another boat did attempt a run in, but was forced to dive when the
Skate charged at it. This boat remained dived as the convoy passed over it,
then was picked up by Viceroy and subjected to a brief attack, after which
the destroyer adopted ‘observant' keeping the U Boat down, out of the way as
the convoy got clear. He was joined in this by Bluebell. As soon as he was
satisfied it could no long be any trouble that night, Huw ordered Bluebell
to break off the attack and resume station, although it had a good contact,
and did the same himself. This precaution, although a wise move and well
meant, was fortunately not needed and the rest of the night passed without
incident.
Day two and night two were so quiet, it seemed as if the convoy was
going to have an easy run. The silence of morning three was however, broken
by a sudden attack by a Fw200c Condor which swooped in to attack the
Vaargoss, at the rear of column six. Placing his WAIR at the rear of the
convoy paid off, as the Viceroy was able to put up some strong flak to join
the weaker efforts of the rear placed merchants, and the corvette Bluebell.
The Condor was shot down but not before it could drop its bombs. Vaargoss
was damaged and lucky not to be sunk. The rest of the morning was quiet, but
in the afternoon his only ship with HF/DG the Hastings, picked up a contact
at somewhere inside 20 miles astern. Weighing up the time and how long it
would take to get out there, and back again before dark, Huw ordered Baldric
not to follow up. That was probably a tactical mistake as the Italian
submarine transmitting, then drew in a German wolf pack.
Not long after dark the first attacks started. A type VIIC U boat
dashed in from starboard, on the surface, passing astern of the Hastings,
and ahead of Bluebell without being sighted. It fired a full spread of
torpedoes at a thousand yards, only to find all of them either missed or
were duds. It then went about and fired its stern tube at Vaargoss,
achieving a spectacular hit as the small tramp blew up. On Huw's orders all
ships fired ‘snowflake', turning night into day. The offending U Boat was
sighted as it tried to run back out and immediately engaged by both
starboard escorts. Under gunfire it dived, but Baldric got an Asdic contact
almost at once, ran in and dropped a pattern from Hastings. An even larger
one accompanied the detonations, and Asdic contact was not regained. Shortly
after Skate detected another VIIC as it ran in surfaced, attempting a
frontal entry. Starshell illuminated it and the boat was forced to dive. It
too dove deep and allowed the convoy to pass over it, but on this occasion,
made good its escape.
Dawn of day four saw only one gap in the convoy ranks. No aircraft
were sighted, and all seemed quiet. However in the afternoon another U Boat
was detected on HF/DF by Hastings, and was obviously transmitting a
shadowing report. Again Huw decided not to put this one down, as he was
concerned he might not have everyone back in place by dark. This time it was
not just a mistake, but also a very serious one. After the game, the night
of day four was nicknamed ‘The terrible night' by the players.
Trouble started immediately after dark. Three U Boats closed the
convoy. One each from astern, port, and starboard. The starboard one fired
at long range into the convoy, sinking Penguin, the rear ship of column five
This set off alarms and Huw ordered his ships to perform ‘Raspberry'. The
sky lit up with snowflakes and immediately revealed submarines on the
surface. The rear one, a type VIIB had already passed Viceroy and was nearly
in to the gap between columns two and three.
The one from port was revealed astern of Sir Kay, and the one that had
fired from starboard was outboard of Bluebell. Both these were type VIIC
boats. All attackers were of course on the surface. Viceroy opened fire on
the one near her, which had just let loose a full salvo of torpedoes at the
convoy, and its stern tube at Viceroy herself. None of these scored a hit
and with shells landing all around, the U Boat quickly crash dived, going
deep. It escaped. The one to starboard was already running out away from the
convoy having used all its loaded tubes. It was briefly illuminated by
Hastings and engaged by Bluebell, but at full speed had soon cleared the
convoy area and disappeared into the darkness. The two escorts therefore
resumed station. Skate turned and steamed back through the ranks of the
convoy. As she did the intruder entering from port was spotted, briefly
engaged with gunnery by Skate and some of the merchants, before it also
dived. Before it did so it inflicted some minor damage on the Hammerfest and
knocked out that ships' deck gun. Skate picked it up on Asdic as it exited
via the rear of the convoy and subjected to a thorough and heavy depth
charge attack. A strong secondary detonation announced a kill, and a third U
Boat had been sunk.
Just then Sir Kay came under gunfire from another surfaced type VIIC U
Boat entering from red 45, and shortly after was hit by a torpedo. The
Trawler didn't stand a chance and sank immediately. This boat stormed into
the convoy catching the Escort Group with too many of its ship to the rear.
A spread of torpedoes from the bow hit two ships. Prestopans, and SS Port
Fremantle, flagship of the convoy commodore. The former sank at once, but
Port Fremantle was a larger vessel and hung on, fighting its flooding damage
as it dropped out of position. However the U Boat was not finished with her
and used its stern tube to finish the wounded cargo liner off. Port
Fremantle did not survive a second hit.
Hastings was turning to engage yet another contact, this time on radar,
when she was hit by a torpedo and sank quickly. The U Boat concerned only
briefly showed itself off the starboard bow of the convoy, but fired a
spread, one of which hit the small Castor, sinking her outright. In the
meantime a type VIIC was sighted right in the middle of the convoy and Skate
turned about to chase it down. This boat got off a spread of torpedoes from
the bow, without any hits, and then using its stern tube, fired on the Skate
but also without result. (Personally I was loath to fire on the Skate, as
the rusty old tub is my favourite WW2 escort). The U Boat was forced to
crash dive and was then hunted by Skate and Viceroy. However in the middle
of this hunt, Viceroy picked up a radar contact closing from astern at
almost 20 knots. This was one of the large type IXD boats and had the cheek
to engage Viceroy with her deck gun. To everyone's amazement, hits were
scored inflicting machinery and flooding damage. That was bow on, so Huw
swung the Viceroy around so her four 4" guns could engage with rapid fire,
which knocked out the deck gun. She fired torpedoes at Viceroy then ran
directly astern, away from the convoy. With machinery damage Viceroy could
not catch her, and although Dahlia had also joined in, the big U Boat showed
them a clean pair of heels, disappearing into the darkness and radar contact
was lost.
At this point Viceroy, Dahlia and Skate, were all near the rear of the
convoy. Bluebell had moved up to take over the forward position from the
sunken Hastings, but most of the frontal approaches to the convoy were now
open. Another type VIIC dashed in from the port bow, fired a spread of
torpedoes, which sank Kristen Amundsen and Kilkenny. Due to the escorts
having all been drawn off to the rear, this boat was able to then use its
stern tube to sink the Lord Mornington, although this ship hung on for some
time and looked as if it might be able to be saved.
As if the night had not been hectic enough, another type VIIB attempted
to attack from the rear, but she was picked up on radar, and the Skate
charged at her firing Starshell. The boat attempted to dive but suffered
damage to her pressure hull and was unable to dive. Under fire from Skate
and Viceroy, she was soon in a sinking condition and abandoned.
The final effort for that long night came from a small type IID boat
that sneaked in from ahead. The only escorts with the convoy were the
Bluebell to starboard and the Dahlia to port, as the two destroyers were
busy sinking the above-mentioned boat astern. The small U Boat had an easy
shot at Middlesex, which sank at once. The remaining three undamaged
merchant ships were by now scattered, as Baldric tried to round them up. The
sinking Lord Mornington was creeping along at three knots, fighting her
flooding, but dawn was breaking.
The crippled freighter sank after Bluebell took off her crew, so Huw
and Baldric formed up the remaining four escorts around the remaining three
merchant ships. Of the escorts Viceroy was damaged, and capable of no higher
speed than the corvettes, so any last minute high-speed work was now down to
Skate.
Five U Boats had been lost for nine merchant ships and two escorts so
far, although the first U Boat was more of an own goal than a kill to the
escorts. (No doubt Huw and Baldric will claim it!) Both corvettes had used
more than half their depth charge loads, and Viceroy had hardly any left at
all. Only Skate, which carried a large depth charge load by 1941-42, was
still able to meet a prolonged fight.
Day five-morning move produced only one contact and that was friendly
A Hudson from Gibraltar joined the screen and a relay helped out for the
eight-hour move. The afternoon check showed no contacts at all, and the same
followed this for the night. As submarine commander I was now thirsting for
a chance to have another go at the convoy. I was confident that in its
battered condition I could wipe out the remaining merchant ships and was
therefore disappointed when they achieved another quiet night. It was even
more annoying that now they were close to Gibraltar, the contacts for day
six were all friendly aircraft, and to my disappointment, on day seven the
convoy, battered as it was, made it to Gibraltar. Two of the merchants
remained undamaged, and the third, Hammerfest, had only minor damage from
gunfire.
It was a highly enjoyable game fought out in 4.5 hours of really
intense gaming. I felt I was unlucky with my torpedoes as so many had missed
despite short ranges, and passing through multiple rows. In such a target
rich environment I would have hoped to get more hits. An after the action
analysis the next evening showed that I was just downright unlucky with my
die rolls. Time and time again I had the opportunities, and yet kept rolling
terrible die scores. The potential was there to have sunk every ship in the
convoy. However I also have to credit Huw and Baldric, because their
spirited and quite intelligent defence tactics spoilt the majority of my
attacks. Huw certainly seemed to know when to order ‘snowflake', or
‘Raspberry', and his escort placements were annoyingly accurate for the
interception of my incoming attacks.
They were also lucky in that the 'draw' was a 12 ship convoy, with six
escorts. If they had drawn a larger one I think my job attacking would have
been easier, as long as they did not also draw a larger escort screen. Some
of the convoys for the Gibraltar run can run as high as forty merchants. I
cant wait to tear into one of those! Especially if it only has a normal size
escort group.
As a side note; I kept remarking to the players that I was loath to
fire on HMS Skate. She was the only British built three-funnel WW1 destroyer
to survive into WW2. I've read a lot about her and confess to having four
models of that ship. One in her WW1 glory days, one in her 1939
configuration and paintwork, one in her 1941 configuration and paint scheme,
plus a fourth in her later paint scheme. I was sort of glad she survived the
game, but less happy that she carries so many depth charges and was a darned
nuisance throughout. But everyone has a 'favourite ship', and the rusty of
veteran of two world wars is mine. I remember reading a remark from one of
her officers that it would have been impossible to swing a cat in her radio
room. Mainly because one could not have fitted in both the man attempting to
swing it, and the cat! I presume she was rather crowded. But like her near
sisters of the old S class, the Skate had most of her guns removed, all the
torpedoes deleted, and the weight saved used to add light AA, radar, and
more depth charges. Some of the reserve depth charges helped provide ballast
They carried such a useful load that when Sir P. Stretton left HMS Sardonyx
for the much larger HMS Duncan, his main regret was no longer having so many
depth charges available to him.
It was fun to do another battle in which the ‘battleships' of the game,
are destroyers, assisted by game little corvettes, and plucky trawlers,
doing battle with the section of the Kriegsmarine that really did the
majority of the fighting, instead of all the usual "Sink the Bismarck" stuff
Mal.Wright.
worries about not losing his rules stuff.
