Thanks
ddg . I don't think I want to spend the weight penalty for long range on a BC but it helps to have that information so I can maybe try it in the future.
In any event, I finally got her. Thirteen months into the war she was intercepted by the battlecruiser
Saratoga. The actual fight was anti-climatic due to the disparity between a 1903 armored cruiser and a 1917 battlecruiser almost three times it's displacement but satisfying nonetheless. One of the features I like about RTW that I wish they would expand is when a scenario ends with a ship sinking (as apposed to sunk) you can access the ship's log in the ship details screen to see exactly what happened to her. I would like it as well if the scenario log and the ship's logs could be copied to clipboard so you could paste it in a separate word or notepad file to review later. So, it was a short, very one-sided battle but I wrote an AAR for it anyway since I had been anticipating this moment for a while since this last war started. I had never written an AAR for a game before I started playing this one but I have learned to enjoy it. No small credit there goes to
director and
Bullethead for some of the work they have done in the past.
The actors of this drama:
Jun 1922 The British armored cruiser HMS
Aboukir which had been acting as a commerce raider for most of the war and was responsible for the capture or sinking of fourteen merchantmen, about 36% of American merchants lost in the war to date from all causes, was finally run down by the battlecruiser USS
Saratoga. Sinking
Aboukir had been a publicly stated priority for ADM Raleigh for several months. She was frequently compared to the Confederate Raider CSS
Alabama in the nation’s newspapers. The Admiralty in London had contemplated recalling
Aboukir for the propaganda value of having her safe and celebrated in England but they had had few successes so far in the war and no decision had been made when she sailed for her final mission from Halifax, Nova Scotia. American agents posing as dock workers and bar maids had learned of the approximate sailing date for
Aboukir and passed word to Washington who had alerted the Commander of the Atlantic fleet. Since the British had withdrawn most of their fleet to home waters to counteract the American and French blockade, The Commander was able to unleash his battlecruisers to hunt down
Aboukir as she sailed from Halifax. Due to the time delay in the communications chain from Halifax to Norfolk, VA, USS
Yorktown and USS
Saratoga were not able to arrive before
Aboukir’s departure. The two American Captains decided to split up and cover as much ocean as possible along what they hoped were the most likely paths for
Aboukir to steam down the East Coast looking for unprotected merchantmen.
Aboukir had initially followed the Gulf Stream current east because of reports of a supply convoy headed to refurbish American ships in Europe but was unable to make any contacts. Therefore, she returned to her original mission and steamed southwest towards the American coast. At 1530 on the fateful day,
Saratoga was 40 miles southeast of Halifax with her Captain and officers believing they had missed their quarry and planning to turn south to resume the search nearer to
Aboukir’s suspected hunting areas when lookouts reported smoke over the horizon to the northeast. It was a clear, mildly breezy summer day with the crosswind making it easy to spot the smoke from
Aboukir’s coal fired boilers.
Saratoga’s Captain ordered Battle Stations manned and the engines brought to full speed pending identification of the unknown ship. The smoke from
Saratoga’s oil fired boilers was less visible at a distance than their own but
Aboukir’s lookouts reported the sighting just before the large battlecruiser came into view on the horizon.
Aboukir’s Captain quickly realized he was outmatched and ordered the ship turned around and the engines brought up to flank speed as his crew manned their Action Stations. As soon as it was clear that the contact was a warship,
Saratoga’s Captain ordered flank speed and moved to cut off any chance of the enemy vessel turning for the safety of Halifax harbor. Once his lookouts identified the enemy vessel as HMS
Aboukir, the grim business of sinking her commenced.
Saratoga was almost three times
Aboukir’s displacement, carried ten 12 inch and twelve 5 inch guns to
Aboukir’s four 9 inch and fourteen 7 inch guns and was 6 knots faster. Under clear skies with dusk still almost 4 hours away there would be no opportunity to use the weather or darkness to escape.
Aboukir’s Captain realized that he had almost no chance of success but was determined to carry out his duty.
Saratoga opened fire at 13,000 yards. The first hit was a 5 inch shell at 12,800 yards. Then, at 1604, at a distance of roughly 12,000 yards the first 12 inch shells landed. Two hits, one striking the belt armor and the other exploding in the superstructure causing splinter damage to
Aboukir’s uptakes and starting a fire. One of
Aboukir’s 7 inch secondaries scored a hit at that time but had no visible effect. Two minutes later a 12 inch shell struck the armored cruiser’s Y turret disabling it for the duration of the action. Now that
Saratoga’s gunnery officer had the range, a steady rain of deadly fire was poured on the hapless British vessel. One 12 inch round struck the secondary battery destroying at least one gun outright. Then three more struck the belt and deck armor surrounding the engine rooms. The initial fire was put out but less than a minute later another 12 inch round hit the superstructure starting another fire. The range was now just under 10,000 yards and
Saratoga’s guns continued to score hit after hit. Another 12 inch round hit the secondary battery destroying more guns and killing their crews. At 2020 at 12 inch round struck
Aboukir’s A turret disabling it as well. The new fire in the superstructure began to spread despite the efforts to combat it. At 2023, a 12 inch shell struck the turret top of Y turret further frustrating efforts to restore it to service. A 12 inch shell and a 5 inch shell struck the hull causing flooding in some of the spaces near the engine room and forward. At 2025, another 12 inch shell struck A turret disabling it again. Then one minute later A turret suffered another 12 inch strike but this one fully penetrated the weakened armor destroying the guns and killing their crews. Elsewhere, the damage control parties were initially able to get the flooding under control quickly. At 2030 a 12 inch shell penetrated an engine room damaging the feed tanks and disabling the machinery and stopping the ship dead in the water. The engineers worked valiantly and were able to quickly get the machinery restarted and propulsion was partially restored within 2 minutes. However, before the stricken ship could get underway again, four more 12 inch rounds simultaneously impacted the hull near the waterline from a range of 8,500 yards. Two rounds penetrated the engine rooms and all four caused serious flooding with the ship immediately listing to port.
The British Captain, his ship on fire, dead in the water, one main turret destroyed and the other disabled and only two of seven secondary guns surviving on the port side was about to order his colors struck to save the lives of his remaining men when he felt his ship begin to list beneath him and then he received the reports of heavy flooding in several areas of his ship. He instead gave the order to abandon ship sending runners to notify as many of his surviving men as possible. He was one of the last to jump overboard and swim away as the Royal Navy’s only remaining armored cruiser capsized and sank by the stern with her colors still flying. In an action lasting a little over a half-hour total,
Saratoga’s spotters reported thirty-six heavy caliber hits on Aboukir with the 5 inch guns achieving at least four hits.
Saratoga suffered only one 7 inch hit in return that caused no damage. Seeing the vessel roll over,
Saratoga’s Captain immediately slowed down and approached the location of the sunken vessel launching all available boats to search for survivors. One hundred twenty-one men including
Aboukir’s Captain out of the ship’s complement of eight hundred twenty men were rescued from the water.
Saratoga’s Captain having performed his duty and proud of the conduct of his men during the battle nevertheless realized there had been nothing fair or sporting in the defeat of his outmatched opponent and ordered his Chief Petty Officers to ensure that the British survivors be treated with the utmost respect and dignity. When the report of the sinking of HMS
Aboukir reached Washington, ADM Raleigh privately shared a toast with his senior staff, raising a glass of his best Kentucky bourbon to
Saratoga’s Captain and crew and made a public statement personally in front of the gathered media praising them for their determination and dedication to duty and country.
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