Scharnhorst vs. Greyh Seer: Battle Report of a Channel Dash scenario!

[Scharnhorst]

Speculative History, Part 4.1701-D:

Speculative Date: February 13th, 1942

Admiral Scharnhorst (me) had a small raider force stationed in Brest. With reports of British fleets closing in from the north the Admiral made a bold move: His fleet would run the channel in broad daylight in an attempt to make it to safer waters. Initial plans would have the ships steaming through on the 11th, but bad weather and a giant squid prevented the German force from departing, so they left Brest on the 13th with the following ships:

Scharnhorst
Gneisenau
2 Z20 Karl Galsters
Luca Tarigo

Admiral Greyh Seer was becoming quite efficient at guessing the strategies of young Scharny, and prepared his fleet accordingly. Scharnhorst had to move or he would be cornered in a French port. The skies were clear on February 13th, and Greyh correctly guessed that Scharnhorst would leave port, confirmed quickly by the morning scouting plane's Brest patrol route. A task force with the Rodney came from the north, the Nelson escorted the Ark Royal from the west, and the Hood sat in the channel to the east. Greyh was confident that Scharnhorst would not dash through the channel with the legendary Hood in the way, and was sure the German task force would be diverted into one of the others. It was broad daylight, and the giant squid had moved north. The Nelson and the Ark Royal would engage the German force and end their raiding ways.

Greyh Seer was caught off guard when the Hood reported the sighting of the Kriegsmarine fleet. Signalling all available ships and air units, Greyh Seer prepared to engage with everything in the area, which was:

HMS Hood
HMS Javelin x 2
HMS Truculent x 2
Sea Hurricane Mk. 1B x 2

The stage was set. The Germans steamed forward, hugging the southern coast and doing its best to steer clear of reported submarine activity. The Hood closed in. The two Javelins sped ahead of the Hood and promptly set off smokescreens to disguise the Hood's bearings. Frustrated, both German battleships fired at the Javelins, but the cover of smoke prevailed and the Javelins continued their pouring of cover. The Luca Tarigo managed to cripple one British Sub with the other being far out of range. The Truculent fired torpedos at the Scharnhorst but to no avail.

Time was growing short and Scharnhorst knew he must press forward. He signaled all ships to move forward. Then it happened. Floating directly ahed of the two pocket battleships sat the Hood, all guns fixed on the Scharnhorst. Admiral Greyh Seer was determined to sink the German Admiral's namesake. The Hood fired off mighty rounds but only damaged the Scharnhorst. Both the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau returned fire but could not pierce the Hood's armor. The secondary guns of both German battleships fixed on the Javelins and prompty took them out.

Admiral Scharnhorst watched carefully. As the Hood began to turn, he ordered the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau to make a break for it down the starboard side of the Hood. They complied, but the Hood was only feigning the turn! The Hood repositioned himself and the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were split. The Hood was in the middle of them, all guns again pointing at the Scharnhorst. Scharnhorst fired but was panicked and overshot, barely missing the Gneisenau. The Gneisenau's captain waited for the Hood to fire its rounds at the Scharnhorst and then opened fire while it was reloading. The full broadside on the Hood was devastating, and a huge explosion sent the Hood plummeting to the channel (was actually a fatal flaw hit not a vital). The Luca Tarigo finished off the local Truculent.

The German fleet sped towards the edge of the channel. With both plane squadrons rearming, the final HMS Truculent dove down deep to avoid detection and the German fleet escaped the conflict, in friendly waters and ready to resupply and wreck havoc on British shipping.

-------End Transmission---------

Director's Commentary: It was a fun battle and the best part was neither myself or Greyh planned a channel dash. We built our fleets and when we saw that we had a pure British fleet and a German fleet we decided to run a channel dash scenario. We scored victory points in a unique way. It was the number of points that the Germans could exit off the far side of the map against the number of points that the British could sink. Final score was 92 to 8. The planes (mostly ineffective) harrassed and crippled two destroyers but could not sink them. There were no torpedo hits all game. The second Truculent was deployed too far north and could not engage. The part about the Truculent diving deep was really Greyh conceding as nothing was left that could stop the German ships from escaping. No giant squids were harmed during the battle.

Thought you might enjoy reading, have a nice day!

[TheJudge]

Good report, sounds like it was a fun game, especially for the German commander.

The British might be better served by having Swordfish instead of Hurricanes.

[Scharnhorst]

When I said I'd play Axis I think Greyh was anticipating me using my Japanese air fleet and not my German Channel Runners.

[Greyh Seer]

Yes, a very fun game. And as Scharn just mentioned, I was expecting a small carrier force. We made our fleets in secret and when we revealed, we decided a channel run it would be!

I have to admit, one or two more turns and the outcome could have been vastly different. A excellent time! I look forward to the next run (though perhaps I will keep the hood at range next time! )