Battle off Messina-AAR From a Historical British Start
Jul 28, 2019 21:05:56 GMT -6
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Post by seawolf on Jul 28, 2019 21:05:56 GMT -6
January 7, 1927
Its been several months since war broke out in the Mediterranean, following the Italian invasion of Albania.
Submarines on both sides have been extremely effective, killing two British destroyers and damaging the Nelson and HMS Courageous, who has only just returned from repairs at Gibraltar, while several Italian scout cruiser and seaplane tenders are now sitting at the bottom of the ocean.
Two months ago heavy cruiser forces clashed east of Sicily, with a shell from the Italian treaty cruiser Marco Polo causing the magazine death of an unfortunate Hawkins class WWI cruiser.
Although the Battlecruiser squadron of Hood, Renown, and Repulse are still at Gibraltar blocking the Italian raiders that have been devastating British shipping, every other capital ship in the Mediterranean has been put together to launch a massive bombardment of the Italian coast south of Naples. The task force consisted of 36 warships:
4 Battleships
Valiant
Queen Elizabeth
Barham
Rodney
4 Aircraft Carriers Carrying 152 aircraft total
Courageous
Glorious
Furious
Hermes
4 Light Cruisers
Dauntless
Dragon
Dispatch
Emerald
24 Destroyers of the V&W classes
They traveled east between Sicily and Sardinia, while torpedo bombers from the carriers and floatplanes from the QEs scouted for any Italian reaction
Around 12:30 a report was received that a large force was approaching quickly from the south, much closer than expected. The scouts had missed them on the first pass. The carriers scrambled their torpedo bombers and turned north while the Battleships and their escorts positioned themselves between the carriers and the enemy force.
The torpedo bombers found the enemy fleet around 14:00, successfully launching the first ever massed carrier attack. For the loss of 4 aircraft, 14 torpedo hits were scored, on suspected enemy Battlecruisers. Unbeknownst to the British they had scored hits on every heavy Italian ship but one.
The infamous CA Marco Polo took a two hits, one of which was a dud and managed to limp back to Sicily
The BB Conte di Cavour takes 4 hits, and almost made it home when a bulkhead ruptured and sent it to the bottom
Her sister ship Giulio Cesare was even less lucky and took 8 hits, and went down in 10 minutes.
Last, the Andrea Dorea class BB Caio Duilio takes a single hit, that fails to defeat her TDS.
One hour later the forward turret of Rodney opened fire on the Italian scout cruisers as the two battle lines approached.
Several large enemy ships were spotted, so the four British battleships turned together and exchanged salvos with what ended up being the Andrea Doreas.
As dusk was falling the Italian Battleships turned away and their light forces advanced, but not before a 16 inch shell from Rodney blew apart both aft turrets of Caio Duilio, forcing it to retire. Both light forces engaged for the next hour and a half with two of the four Italian light cruisers dying to large torpedo salvoes and two of the British destroyers dying from long range fire.
As the British forces retired another torpedo salvo hit the battleship Andrea Dorea, who thanks to her TDS survived but was significantly slowed. The British battleships than moved in hitting her with 35 15 and 16 inch shells, before Rodney delivered the coup de gras with her submerged torpedo mounts.
The British forces were then able to carry on with their bombardment while the battered Italian force withdrew to the south. They were spotted on the way by the submarine E-11, but both torpedoes fired by her missed the Marco Polo. They again reversed course and slipped along the coast until they reached Napoli, as the British fleet returned to Gibraltar
Its been several months since war broke out in the Mediterranean, following the Italian invasion of Albania.
Submarines on both sides have been extremely effective, killing two British destroyers and damaging the Nelson and HMS Courageous, who has only just returned from repairs at Gibraltar, while several Italian scout cruiser and seaplane tenders are now sitting at the bottom of the ocean.
Two months ago heavy cruiser forces clashed east of Sicily, with a shell from the Italian treaty cruiser Marco Polo causing the magazine death of an unfortunate Hawkins class WWI cruiser.
Although the Battlecruiser squadron of Hood, Renown, and Repulse are still at Gibraltar blocking the Italian raiders that have been devastating British shipping, every other capital ship in the Mediterranean has been put together to launch a massive bombardment of the Italian coast south of Naples. The task force consisted of 36 warships:
4 Battleships
Valiant
Queen Elizabeth
Barham
Rodney
4 Aircraft Carriers Carrying 152 aircraft total
Courageous
Glorious
Furious
Hermes
4 Light Cruisers
Dauntless
Dragon
Dispatch
Emerald
24 Destroyers of the V&W classes
They traveled east between Sicily and Sardinia, while torpedo bombers from the carriers and floatplanes from the QEs scouted for any Italian reaction
Around 12:30 a report was received that a large force was approaching quickly from the south, much closer than expected. The scouts had missed them on the first pass. The carriers scrambled their torpedo bombers and turned north while the Battleships and their escorts positioned themselves between the carriers and the enemy force.
The torpedo bombers found the enemy fleet around 14:00, successfully launching the first ever massed carrier attack. For the loss of 4 aircraft, 14 torpedo hits were scored, on suspected enemy Battlecruisers. Unbeknownst to the British they had scored hits on every heavy Italian ship but one.
The infamous CA Marco Polo took a two hits, one of which was a dud and managed to limp back to Sicily
The BB Conte di Cavour takes 4 hits, and almost made it home when a bulkhead ruptured and sent it to the bottom
Her sister ship Giulio Cesare was even less lucky and took 8 hits, and went down in 10 minutes.
Last, the Andrea Dorea class BB Caio Duilio takes a single hit, that fails to defeat her TDS.
One hour later the forward turret of Rodney opened fire on the Italian scout cruisers as the two battle lines approached.
Several large enemy ships were spotted, so the four British battleships turned together and exchanged salvos with what ended up being the Andrea Doreas.
As dusk was falling the Italian Battleships turned away and their light forces advanced, but not before a 16 inch shell from Rodney blew apart both aft turrets of Caio Duilio, forcing it to retire. Both light forces engaged for the next hour and a half with two of the four Italian light cruisers dying to large torpedo salvoes and two of the British destroyers dying from long range fire.
As the British forces retired another torpedo salvo hit the battleship Andrea Dorea, who thanks to her TDS survived but was significantly slowed. The British battleships than moved in hitting her with 35 15 and 16 inch shells, before Rodney delivered the coup de gras with her submerged torpedo mounts.
The British forces were then able to carry on with their bombardment while the battered Italian force withdrew to the south. They were spotted on the way by the submarine E-11, but both torpedoes fired by her missed the Marco Polo. They again reversed course and slipped along the coast until they reached Napoli, as the British fleet returned to Gibraltar
