It had been a frustrating time for Vizeadmiral Otto Ciliax; he had taken the most powerful ship in the Kriegsmarine, the battleship Tirpitz, out to intercept an Allied convoy but days of fruitless cruising had yielded nothing. The only ‘victory', if it could be called that, was a straggler sunk. And that had been by the destroyers he had detached to search the frigid wastes. Now he was returning to Trondheim, each mile cutting deeper into his pride.
"The Fuhrer is not happy, Karl. Not happy at all."
Kapitän zur See Karl Topp stiffened, "He's an army man, Sir. You see an army one day, it's still there the next. Convoys are different. The sea is different."
Ciliax nodded, letting out a weary sigh. He stared into the early morning gloom, the visibility couldn't be more than five miles. Three days and only one freighter; where was the fight in that? Where was the glory?
"Ship, green zero-four-zero!"
The vizeadmiral raised his glasses, focussing on the grey shape emerging from the mist and drizzle.
"What do you make of it, Kapitän?"
"Not sure, Sir… it could be… no! ACTION STATIONS!"
Ciliax stood transfixed at the glowing orange and yellow flashes. A battle cruiser! The salvo fell short as Tirpitz's guns recoiled in reply.
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So my bit of scene-setting puts us on the bridge of the mighty Tirpitz as she returns home after the abortive sortie against convoy PQ12: Operation Sportpalast.
In the event there was no contact, but there easily could have been as the British Home Fleet only just missed the leviathan due to poor weather. A courageous but unsuccessful attack by planes from HMS Victorious was enough to convince the Kriegsmarine that the game wasn't worth the candle, but this scenario envisages part of the Home Fleet intercepting her on the way back.
On this occasion Henry took the part of Vice Admiral A.T.B. Curteis, flying his flag in HMS Renown and accompanied by HMS Duke of York. Close by was HMS Berwick on a sweep and the set up allowed for Tirpitz to try and force her way past the cruiser before the British heavies arrived.
In the event Henry made a fluky arrival throw. It was to be his only bit of good luck in the engagement.
Rules GQ1 with GQ2 revised tables, cms instead of inches used. Miniatures are Hallmark 1:6000. Visibility 10,000 yards. Drizzle.
05:36 – RENOWN and DUKE OF YORK make cotact. RENOWN opens fire, followed six minutes later by her consort. TIRPITZ's response was brutal, destroying a turret and causing extensive flooding.
05:42 – RENOWN suffering badly; already she's lost three armament boxes and she still hasn't brought the flooding under control.
05:48 – The poor visibility mercifully allows RENOWN to break contact. DUKE OF YORK continues alone after she pulls out of line. Soon she too is suffering.
06:00 – Finally, after six salvoes with a 2/3rds chance of a straddle, Henry gets on target! Apologies that Bismarck is standing in for TIRPITZ.
06:06 BERWICK makes contact – better late than never, eh, lads?! Incredibly an 8" shell manages to jam the traversing mechanism on one of her turrets (she had half a box crossed off – BERWICK inflicted another half a box)
BERWICK lost contact as quickly as she'd found it, fading into the mist again by 06:12. By 06:18 DUKE OF YORK had lost all her main armament and disengaged, then at 06:24 BERWICK again made contact and received a bit of a mauling from TIRPITZ's secondary armament.
It was pretty much over by now. TIRPITZ stumbled into RENOWN limping away and dispatched her, BERWICK and DUKE OF YORK escaped in the murk.
Henry had unbelievably bad luck. The close ranges, sometimes down to 7,000 yards, meant that 1-7 on a D10 would straddle. Of the 7 salvoes fired by DUKE OF YORK and 2 by RENOWN he achieved only 1 straddle. I, on the other hand, had neither good nor bad – I had the hit rate that would be expected according to the odds.
Even so, I have now finally accepted that RENOWN is a bit too brittle, much as she's still one of my favourite ships.
Best wishes,
Nick