JW 50c Passage to Murmansk
This was a theoretical convoy played out by my group on December 27th 2008 as a part of the testing process for my Russian convoy rules. There never was a convoy JW50c we just needed a convenient name with the right sound. The evening started with a lovely roast dinner prepared by my wife, so the players were in a pretty good mood by the time we settled down at the table top ocean I had laid out under my pergola, to take advantage of a nice cool evening breeze after a rather warm day.
The convoy consisted of 32 merchant ships with a large escort. Taking it out from Scotland was a local escort of several older or short ranged ships, which would later break off to Iceland to refuel and join an inbound convoy. Most of the ships of the through, or close escort, were already in company. These included three destroyers, two sloops, five corvettes and an escort carrier. A Colony class cruiser joined from Scapa Flow, along with its own escort of two destroyers.
Being a winter convoy the AA strength was secondary to the ASW capabilities, and just in case of interference from German surface ships, a fighting escort would join from Iceland later. This comprised six destroyers, mostly of the O class.
JW50c departed from Scotland at dawn on the 21st of December 1943. The weather was cold but clear, with a slight sea and good progress was made without any enemy contact. The escort carrier HMS Activity flew off ASW patrols and a CAP, but no aircraft made a sighting. However just after night fell a U Boat was detected on radar bearing red 40 at 6,000yds. The sloop HMS Depthford ran down the bearing and opened fired as soon as it sighted the enemy. The German boat was transmitting a sighting report when a salvo of 4.7" shells landed around it. One killed all the bridge crew and started a small fire, while another damaged the rudder. The U Boat was able to eventually dive deep as its watertight integrity was not breached. A brief hunt resulted before Depthford rejoined the convoy. U 454 had been damaged sufficiently for it to be forced to return to base instead of shadowing.
During the dawn northern twilight of December 23rd another U Boat was detected transmitting a sighting report but was unable to be located as a severe storm blew up. This prevented air operations by Activity. Under cover of the storm the convoy proceeded through the night without further incident until the dawn of the 24th when it was found one merchant ship had become a straggler. This vessel was later sunk by a U Boat before it could catch up to the convoy. There was little sign of the enemy as long as the bad weather held. But conditions eased during the late twilight period and radar indicated an enemy aircraft circled the convoy out of gunnery range and visibility. Signals traffic intercepted a sighting report and JW50c had obviously been sighted. Night closed in and the escort screen prepared for the worst.
In the meantime the destroyers of the fighting escort had left Seidisfjord but during the afternoon twilight of the 24th the third destroyer of the group, HMS Oribi, suddenly staggered under two torpedo hits and then sank quickly. The U Boat was quickly detected by the other ships of the group and in the counter attack U 411 was sent to the bottom by HMS's Orwell and Onslow. As if this loss was not bad enough, after dark two of the other destroyers collided. One was severely damaged, the other less so, but neither could proceed to meet the convoy and they would have to return to Iceland. As they were unable to protect themselves from submarine attack, another destroyer had to return with them. It was hoped this ship could rejoin later, but she was unable to do so. The fighting escort had been reduced to only two destroyers already.
The morning twilight period of December 25th came, the local escort detached, and the two remaining escorts from Iceland took up their places. The Commodore and Escort commander were worried men. The convoy had been sighted and there was still a long way to go. It was not a happy Christmas day. Things got worse after dark. The weather was bad but a U Boat managed to sneak in close, torpedo a freighter and escape unscathed. No longer able to make convoy speed the stricken ship dropped out and made its way independently toward Iceland. It later arrived safely in Reykjavik.
In the early hours of the 26th, while the convoy steamed through snow squalls and choppy seas a three boat Wolf pack made contact despite the darkness. Some frenzied activity took place, during which one U Boat was sunk and another severely damaged. The third failed to hit anything despite getting close enough to fire a full spread into the convoy columns. In the later part of the night a merchant ship caught fire due to non combat reasons, and although it was eventually able to bring this under control a U Boat took advantage of the illumination to fire four torpedoes at her. These missed the burning vessel but two hit a ship in the next column instead. The stricken ship sank like a stone. Two escorts advised they needed to refuel from the accompanying tankers but this would depend on the weather being suitable in the coming twilight period.
When the brief Arctic twilight of the 26th arrived the weather was bitter, with choppy seas and strong wind. The convoy had run into a pack of ‘growlers' (Floating ice) and was forced to reduce speed. Half the AA armament was out of action due to icing and only some radar was working for the same reason. One escort lost its ASDIC dome to a growler and a merchant ship suffered floatation damage. None the less the two thirsty escorts were able to refuel then resume their positions in the screen.
Then seemingly out of nowhere an Fw200 Condor swooped down and dropped a string of flares over the merchant ships of the centre column. Three other Condors were hot on its tail and bombed the brightly illuminated targets. All three were hit. One sank quickly, the second suffered machinery damage and fell out of the convoy, while the third managed to control a brief fire and some flooding, and regained its position. None of the Condors were hit and retired back to Norway with barely a shot fired at them. The ship forced to drop out became a straggler and was later posted as missing without trace.
Darkness fell but brought no let up. A single U Boat slipped in past the two screens and managed to torpedo a large freighter. Escorts counter attacked and U1212 was sent to the bottom with all hands. A storm then hit the convoy and although preventing further attacks, when the twilight of the 27th arrived and the weather moderated, the torpedoed freighter was found to be a straggler. This ship later made it safely to Iceland. Meanwhile a raid was detected on radar. The CVE HMS Activity was unable to put up a CAP due to icing, but proved to be valuable all the same. As the Ju88's streaked in she shot two down, and the sloop HMS Stork scored another. The leading Ju88 illuminated two targets and the following aircraft homed in. Another fell to the AA guns of the sloop HMS Depthford. HMS Stork damaged two more of the attackers. Two merchant ships were hit, both sinking almost at once. Again the raid was over quickly and the convoy was left to struggle on.
Just after dark on the 27th a surface contact caused a flurry of concern, but after signals were exchanged two Soviet destroyers joined the fighting escort. Ominously a signal from the Admiralty warned that German ships had put to sea from Altenfjord the previous day. The group's worst fears were realised when three hours before the next twilight a group of radar echoes were picked up at ten miles south and closing. Pre warned, the fighting escort had already detached, and with the cruiser HMS Trinidad leading the way, steamed off to give battle. JW50c had little choice but to continue. They were already only a few miles short of the winter icepack line and dared not turn north in case they ran into it in the darkness. Two more of the older destroyers of the close escort were now in need of refuelling, and thus unable to join the fighting escort.
On making radar contact with the fast moving destroyers and cruiser of the fighting escort, Tirpitz, under the usual restrictive orders from the Fuhrer not to get involved with ships that may cause its loss, turned away, its three destroyers with it. Illumination rounds filled the sky and a confused action resulted. The Germans were anxious to keep clear of torpedo attack and not having detected the actual convoy, turned the wrong way as they searched for another approach. Time ticked by and the opposing ships raced through the Arctic night drawing further away from JW50c. In the mean time the British Home Fleet had picked up the ‘most immediate' messages from the fighting escort but was too far out of position for its surface ships to intervene. The best that could be done was to prepare a small strike from the fleet carrier HMS Victorious and as twilight of December 28th broke, this headed for the Tirpitz, which was an hour's flying away. British hopes to cripple or slow down the German battleship were not met. None of the eight Avenger's carrying out the attack was shot down, but two were damaged. Having come under attack by modern single engine carrier aircraft, the German admiral was aware the Home Fleet was at least near enough to launch such a strike. He broke off action and turned at best speed for Altenfjord rather than risk being damaged by subsequent air attacks and over hauled by major fleet units. This action had however caused the Home Fleet to turn and run further north than had originally been intended. This was probably a wise decision as the Home Fleet had been strengthened by the addition of an American battleship and a heavy cruiser. Its combined gun power probably quite enough to put an end to Tirpitz.
Meanwhile JW50c received some help when two British Halcyon class minesweeping sloops joined from Polyarnoe. They had barely taken up position when another raid was picked up on radar at maximum range and in good visibility the Luftwaffe was greeted with a heavy AA barrage. Three Ju88's were driven off and three others shot down, but again they got into the convoy to drop their bombs. Two of these hit the little escort carrier Activity and everyone thought she was dead for sure, but the damage was confined to a small fire, damage to the flight deck, and some AA guns knocked out. Her floatation was unaffected and a small speed loss was not enough to make her drop out of the convoy. The escorts in need of refuelling were able to complete this despite the air attack.
When the short twilight ended the British expected relief from further air attacks, but instead found the night turned into day by a brilliant Aurora. Shortly after a raid was detected approaching and an ineffective AA barrage put up. Several He111's attacked ships of column one with deadly effect. One ship sank at once, a second was set on fire, and a third was left stopped dead in the water. Yet another bombed the corvette HMS Bluebell, leaving her stopped dead in the water, although she was able to control her flooding. The convoy escort commander detached one escort to tow the stricken merchant ship, and another to tow Bluebell to Kola Inlet. Another scare occurred when large ships were detected on radar at 14nm. To the relief of the convoy this turned out to be units of the Home Fleet investigating a contact. Their quarry was identified as a Soviet merchant ship sailing independently and the startled Russian freighter was left to continue on its way after being menaced by heavy guns.
By this time the twilight of December 29th had arrived to cold but clear skies and choppy seas. As feared a raid was soon detected and Ju87's dropped from the icy blue to as heavy a Flak barrage as could be provided with so many ships iced up. Three were shot down, two were forced to break off their attack, but seven others selected targets and went in for the kill. One large merchant ship took two hits and quickly disappeared. A far smaller one also suffered two hits but was lucky to receive survivable damage, although it had to be towed stern first by one of the corvettes. A third ship suffered a fire and flooding damage. Fortunately for the convoy, a thankfully black Arctic night closed in before any further German air attacks could be launched. Skirting the ice pack JW50c pushed on through the night without a single alarm, but two ships became stragglers. Everyone was aware that they were now at the closest point to Luftwaffe airfields in northern Norway.
Twilight of the 30th saw the convoy moving along the edge of the ice pack just north of Cape Kanin and getting ever closer to its destination. But the Germans had not yet finished. After night arrived the convoy once again found itself brilliantly lit up by the northern Aurora. A single U Boat attacked. U787 could hardly miss in the circumstances and sank the destroyer HMS Witch. Before it could do any more damage it was attacked by the sloops Stork and Depthford, which sank it in a rain of depth charges. As the night drew to a close a Russian escort joined and led JW50c in.
But the trials of JW50c were not yet over. Strung out in a narrow column they entered Kola Inlet. No Soviet minesweepers appeared and the two British Halcyon class ships did their best. In the murky twilight of their arrival and within sight of the frozen coastline either side, a merchant ship struck a mine and quickly sank. Shortly after the corvette HMS Marigold also struck a mine and blew up, sinking with all hands. The convoy had arrived. At its destination battered, bruised, and iced up, but with 21 ships still present. Eleven Merchant ships had been sunk. When stragglers were tested for arrival or loss, it was found that one of the stragglers made it to Murmansk independently and the damaged corvette had been towed to Polyarnoe. Another four merchant ships were damaged by enemy action but eventually made it to Murmansk. The ship that had accidentally caught fire also arrived safely. Two other stragglers made it to Iceland. The escort screen also lost one destroyer sunk, one corvette sunk and another damaged. Prior to joining, the fighting escort had also lost a destroyer sunk and two others damaged in collision. The escort carrier Activity was also too damaged for air operations until repaired, but was able to maintain a good speed, which later enabled her to return to the UK safely.
German losses were 2 U boats sunk, 2 U Boats severely damaged. 10 German aircraft were shot down and four others damaged.
Wargame length was three hours from start to finish. It was the first test run of this new rule set and worked relatively smoothly, considering that it was quite a complex convoy run. Some need of amendments became obvious but most of these related to the layout of charts and better explanation of the various elements that made up the operation as a whole.
finds himself in the Workbench with several 15mm scale Russian WWII fighters...
