March, 1941 at Sea

Using a scenario I shamelessly lifted from The Miniatures Page shared by the Yarkshire Gamer, we played a "what if" scenario that could have happened in March, 1941.  We used Naval Thunder for rules with 1/2400 miniatures (mostly).

Handy-dandy reference chart on an easel for all. 

Historically the "Twins," Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had gotten loose in the convoy lanes between January and March of 1941 in Operation Berlin and encountered a convoy escorted by HMS Malaya.  Admiral Lütjens chose not to attack and just shadowed the convoy to help U-Boats attack. In our game a squall has obscured the details of the convoy escort till 15" shells began to fall around the Scharnhorst. Note that various stand-ins were required, most obvious is HMS Barham for the Malaya.

The forces were as follows: Convoy of 12 merchantmen with four destroyers in close escort. Along with the Barham were two other destroyers. Moving in to take over the escort duties is HMS Repulse with two destroyers. While they were to trade duties the timing is such that they are together. To add to the Twins woes, a hunting group lead by HMS Renown with Ajax, Furious and four destroyers answered the call.

Convoy with Repulse on the right, Barham in the center and
Renown in far corner as we look east. 

Bob (Lütjens) giving me the "are you kidding?" look. 

No two of the British WWI-vintage capital ships would give the Twins much trouble but three is another matter and the Furious has 20 Swordfish torpedo bombers on board. Then there is the luck factor. The Germans were reminded several times that they had the only two German capital ships at the time and preserving them was more important than a convoy or embarrassing the Royal Navy. Add to that the fact that the Barham and Repulse only had a max 44" range against the Twin's 80" and it was very doable.

The first turn Barham hit the Scharnhorst at extreme range while the latter dropped two 11" shells onto a merchantman, reducing it's speed to 1". The Gneisenau hit the Barham several times. The convoy escorting destroyers put the pedal to the metal and started laying smoke as the convoy turned away.

Barham moves to close as the convoy flees under smoke.

Battered Barham shifts fire to Gneisenau and draws even closer.

The Renown, who had historically engaged the Twins the previous April showed that her gunnery hadn't lost anything by landing an extreme range hit that penetrated the Gneisenau's armored deck.  It was the first of many.

All of the engaged ships on both sides had to deal with fire and
flooding at some point in the combat.

Things seemed to be going well for the Germans.  Renown lost one of just three main gun turrets and the Barham lost two.  The Repulse had to decide how to approach the battle and in hindsight had made the wrong turn, not yet engaged.  She had not been modernized yet so her main guns only reached 44" compared to 60" for the Renown and 80" for the Twins.  As the Germans switched on their radar, it reported an incoming airstrike from the Furious which (off table) had launched what was available rather than wait for a max effort.

A formidable looking airstrike wings in, strafing fighters leading.

 Ships within 12" of each other can add their AA suit to the defense but by now the two Germans were well separated and the Gneisenau was alone.  But no problem for hot dice are the best dice and all three flights of Swordfish were neutralized.  Still the damage to the unlucky Gneisenau continued to accumulate and the fires continued to burn.  In Naval Thunder you can have multiple fire or flooding results and while lucky to not lose any main guns, the Gneisenau was unlucky elsewhere.

Barham, hammered from Turn 1 succumbs to the inevitable,
but knowing her convoy will survive.

 By now the convoy had run south for several turns and now turned east again, the escorting destroyers returning to cover against U-Boats that might lurk nearby.  The Repulse was coming around the corner and was almost within range when Lütjens remembered he had the only two capital ships in the current arsenal and began to disengage.  For the Gneisenau it came a bit too late.

The fires aboard the Gneisenau are extinguished by the rush of
water as she sank.

The failure of the damage control parties finally doomed Gneisenau just as escape may have been possible.  For whatever reason the Scharnhorst hadn't drawn the attention of the initially hot shooting British as much and was less than 30% damaged.  She had however lost some speed due to flooding before it was controlled.

As a parting shot, the secondaries and tertiaries sank the Hotspur.

As the Scharnhorst turned away to make best speed away, the British chose not to pursue.  There was still the matter of escorting the vital convoy which was the original mission for Repulse.  The Renown was down to just four main guns and those were outranged by the nine guns still operational on the Scharnhorst and the Admiral Scheer was rumored to be out there somewhere.  The Furious was preparing her remaining operational Swordfish for another strike but it would come near dusk if at all. 

In the final tally the Ajax was down 30%, the Renown was a "mission kill" down 65%, as was Acasta which was down 85%.  The Repulse and her two escorting destroyers were untouched.  One merchantman likely wouldn't make port with her speed reduced to 4 knots, but the other damaged one had gotten off lightly.

Point-wise it was a German tactical victory but strategically was a disaster.  Though Bismark would be operational in two months and the Tirpitz in nine the Kreigsmarine was now reduced to a pair of "pocket battleships" to prosecute the war at sea in the short term.

Still, a fun little game, completed in a couple of hours.  My thanks for a light-hearted and enjoyable session.