13:30 Hrs, 130 miles West of Cape Blanc, Mauritania
Able Seaman Wilkes rubbed his eyes; he was tired. It had been a rough night – they'd lost five merchant ships to U-boats and his ship, the destroyer HMS Forester, had spent hours picking up survivors. They were down there now, black with oil, dazed or dying, or both.
He lowered his eyes again to the powerful mounted binoculars. He was on the bridge, which always made him nervous. At just nineteen he preferred to keep out of the way of the officers.
There was something there, he thought. Rubbing his eyes again he shifted his weight to get comfortable and steady the binoculars: yes, a ship. It was large and powerful and it didn't look like anything he'd seen before at Scapa or Valetta. It couldn't be, not after last night, not this…
"Ship bearing Red oh-five-oh, Sir!"
"What have you got, Wilkes?", it was the officer of the watch, Lieutenant Harding. He raised his own glasses and searched where Wilkes had indicated.
"I think it's a battleship, Sir. One of the twins – the Scharnhorst, Sir, Or Gneisnau."
Lieutenant Harding barely moved, just his finger as he adjusted the focus, "No, Wilkes, I'm afraid you're wrong. It's both of them."
Wilkes could see them both now too; pale grey shining in the harsh tropical light, white moustaches of bright foam from the bow waves against the deep azure of the Atlantic. Harding was giving orders and he could feel the ship heeling as she turned away, the deck vibrating as her speed increased. He could sense the change as the Captain arrived on the bridge.
"Well done, Seaman; we'll rejoin the convoy and warn HMS Malaya to expect company. It's going to be quite the day, isn't it?". The captain looked at the young rating's anxious face, "Don't worry, lad; remember our motto – Audax potentes caedo?"
"Boldly I cut down the mighty, Sir."
The Captain grinned, "That's it! And we're going to do exactly that."
* * *
Henry and I tested out a scenario I've been working on this afternoon; an attack on an Atlantic convoy by the Gneisnau and Scharnhorst during Operation Berlin. This is a historical ‘nearly happened' as the ‘twins' had encountered Convoy SL67 on its way from Freetown to Liverpool on the 7 March 1941 but withdrew when HMS Malaya was spotted. Admiral Günther Lütjens informed OKM and during the night U-boats were able to account for five of the 54 merchant ships. The next day Lütjens again closed with the convoy, being spotted by HMS Forester to the west but again the Germans decided going broadside to broadside with a British battleship carried greater risk than reward and withdrew.
This scenario imagines that they did not. Henry was the Germans in this game and I took the part of Capt. Sir Arthur Francis Eric Palliser, DSC, RN, captain of HMS Malaya. To assist in defending the convoy I also had two destroyers, HMS Forester and HMS Faulknor.
THE WESTERN COLUMN OF SL67 WITH HMS MALAYA AND THE DESTROYERS ASTERN
For reasons of space, only a portion of the westernmost column of SL67 was represented (and I don't have 49 more merchants…) Malaya was a little ahead and the destroyers were covering the flank.
THE SCHARNHORST, WITH THE GNEISNAU LEADING, APPROACHES THE CONVOY
The set up was that the convoy was steaming north on the eastern side of the table and the Germans were approaching at high speed on an easterly course. At 16:45 they made contact with the defending destroyers, visibility in a slight haze being 20,000 yards. Henry ordered a turn to port whilst still maintaining a converging course while I immediately ordered my destroyers to make maximum revolutions and close with the enemy. Malaya, being three miles ahead of the convoy, couldn't react in the first turn and plodded on at the convoy's pace.
ENGAGE THE ENEMY MORE CLOSELY! FORESTER AND FAULKNOR BEING TYPICALLY AGGRESSIVE
My plan was to be as aggressive as possible to try and cause the Germans to turn away, figuring that no capital ship wants destroyers coming anywhere near. As Gneisnau opened up with her secondaries, though, I got a shock: a 5.9" blasting my aft torpedo mount – within minutes I'd lost a quarter of my main deterrent.
Soon after Malaya was turning to the west to engage, battle ensigns unfurling, and she and Gneisnau began trading blows.
HUZZAH! MALAYA TURNS TO ENGAGE
Henry seemed to become fixated with my destroyers and they were severely mauled during their run in; Faulknor taking hits to her forward muster station which killed or wounded many of her damage control party, as well as her electrical generator being temporarily knocked out. Forester was suffering similarly as shells rained down, one crucially flooding her forward machine room and reducing her maximum speed. Even so, the converging course meant that the range was steadily coming down.
Malaya, however, was having more luck as the German shells weren't penetrating her armour. Some minor damage was sustained and bits were knocked off, but her vital spaces were protected as the Germans were too far away for the velocity of their 11" guns to punch through her armour but were too close for the shells to be plunging onto her weaker deck armour.
With Malay's 15" guns, though, the Gneisnau was having no such respite and the German battleship was starting to suffer. Her guns were still intact and she was still making 30 knots, but fires were taking up command dice and flooding had caused a marked list to starboard, which was starting to become difficult to manage.
THE GENERAL SITUATION AT ABOUT 17:18 HRS
Battered, the destroyers finally got close enough and Capt. (D) Antony Fane de Salis on board the Faulknor, hoisted signal Flag 4: attack with torpedoes. Lt.Cmdr. Edward Tancock on the Forester was first to launch his fish, firing four at the Scharnhorst. On the Faulknor things were too chaotic to get the shot.
AUDAX POTENTES CAEDO! FORESTER SEEKS TO LIVE UP TO HER MOTTO
Things had now gone very badly wrong for the Germans, boiler room hits on the Gneisnau had reduced her speed and a hit on her wheelhouse was making manoeuvre very difficult. The Scharnhorst was now starting to overhaul her but this meant that when Forester's torpedoes were launched she had no space to turn away: two slammed into her starboard side and caused extensive flooding.
On board the Faulknor the valiant efforts of the ‘Jimmy' – First Lieutenant Guy Reid – sorted out the carnage below decks and Petty Officer ‘Sparky' Wright got the generator working. Capt. de Salis managed to get the four torpedoes that had not been destroyed away but these missed.
Both German ships were now in real trouble and Henry and I decided to end the game there.
In the post mortem he said that he seriously misjudged quite how slow convoys were – he'd closed quickly so it couldn't slip away when there really wasn't need and this had allowed my destroyers to get far too close. I was obviously pleased with the result, but if he'd stood off so my destroyers had taken another few turns of shooting, I really don't think they'd have made it. Against different tactics I might be better staying with the convoy and making smoke…
But another fun game – it was good to play with the big guns and the scenario had a nice little tactical puzzle. It was also our first game since I got my 6' x 4' table so it was great not to keep running out of space.
Nick
's first experience with 1:4800 scale naval models.
