|
Post by director on Jan 4, 2019 16:12:00 GMT -6
It seems the Admiral's Plot Armor was insufficient to turn the Narrative Bullet. Another casualty of Chekov's Gun!
|
|
|
Post by cv10 on Jan 15, 2019 0:18:49 GMT -6
November 11th, 1917
Admiral Rowley’s finally back in command, and I think most everyone will be happy to have him back. Admiral Jellicoe hasn’t been a bad acting C-in-C, but we’ve had the worst luck ever since he took command. We haven’t seen a single German battleship, or even a whiff of a battleship in the North Sea. Not a single sighting by cruiser, submarine, and no signal intercepts either. Our own sorties have been dismal. Jellicoe took the Grand Fleet out about a month ago on a sweep, found nothing but minesweeper trawlers to sink, and HMS Ajax nearly foundered in a storm after striking a drifting mine. What’s worse is that Jerry has an operational battlecruiser force again. It’s “only” a pair of Mackensens, but they announced their arrival by smashing a convoy off Aberdeen, only hours from the BCF’s home port. Beatty got his battlecruisers to sea and chased after them, but the Germans took off for home before he could find them. Piling on, the boys over in Naval Intel have reports about some sort of new German monster battlecruiser with big guns, heavy armor, and fast speed. We’re hoping they don’t arrive until after the new Admiral Class battlecruisers are commissioned. I’d give anything for pair of our own Lexingtons. We could sure use them. But speaking of Admiral Beatty, he’s to be relieved of his seagoing command on medical grounds. He’s been ill, and has some complications from having his feet amputated and other old injuries. However he’s not being invalided out of the service. This shocked everyone, but Admiral Rowley requested that Beatty be made his chief of staff. David couldn’t believe it. He had overheard a small part of Rowley’s first conversation with Beatty as C-in-C, and he swears that he has never seen anyone leave Rowley’s office looking as enraged as Beatty did, though David also said that the two have been much more civil now. I managed to overhear the old man talking to the First Sea Lord on the telephone when he made the request and he said something about “ying and yang going well together, and at the very least it will let me raise Tyrwhitt to command the Battlecruiser Fleet.” I haven’t met Tyrwhitt yet, but David and Izzy both swear he’s one of the finest officers in the Service. Hopefully things start to go better in the coming months. (As taken from The Nimitz Journals, Volume II: On Distant Service, 1917-1919)
|
|
|
Post by cv10 on Jan 16, 2019 18:16:41 GMT -6
April 11th, 1918
To Sir John Jellicoe, Commander of Naval Combat Forces North Sea
CC to Sir Arthur Rowley, C-in-C North Sea
Dear Sir,
In accordance with your orders of April 8th, the Battlecruiser Fleet sortied from Edinburgh to conduct sweep of the North Sea to a point due north of the Frisian Islands. My force consisted of eleven battlecruisers, 12 light cruisers, and in excess of over forty destroyers. The Battlecruiser Fleet sailed southeast down the East Coast in order to reach a point where it would turn due east to sail straight at our designated sweeping point. During the course of this, I received a report from certain sources* that an enemy force was proceeding from Wilhelmshaven down the Dutch Coast towards the Dover and Sheerness. I immediately altered my course to investigate this contact.
After some time, we began to receive wireless reports from our shipping and shore batteries about German dreadnoughts raiding our facilities and traffic off Dover. I was disinclined to believe that the Germans had deployed capital ships until several destroyers from the Dover Patrol reported sighting dreadnoughts. At this juncture, the forces under my command were passing the Norfolk Banks, and I felt it justified to disregard the planned sweep in order to investigate this enemy force.
Thinking it unlikely that German capital ships could or would take shelter in the occupied Belgian ports, the Battlecruiser Fleet deployed on a patrol pattern near the Broad Fourteens in order to intercept them as they made their return voyage. The 1st Battlecruiser Squadron patrolled a line on the Broad Fourteens, while the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron patrolled further north in order to guard against the enemy slipping past the first squadron. A submarine patrolling outside of the three-mile limit off Rotterdam spotted several German ships on a course to the North, as if to round the minefield that had been placed off Texel. An hour later, HMS C1 reported spotting German ships off Texel.
Both squadrons immediately converged on the sighting, and three German battlecruisers were spotted shortly thereafter. Two of them were of the Mackensen Class, but the third was of a new design, suspected to be of the new Blücher Class. This new class of battlecruiser carries eight 15-inch guns in its main battery, has an armored belt of twelve inches, and can make up to 28 knots.
At the time the Germans were spotted, the 2nd BCS was still to the north, while the 1st BCS was to the west of the German squadron. I immediately ordered the 2nd BCS to converge on the German line from the north while I had the 1st BCS move southeast. The purpose of this was twofold: one was to get the sun out of the eyes of our gun crews, and the other to try and catch the Germans between two forces. This maneuver was successful, and the German battlecruisers came under fire from both squadrons of the BCF. Over the course of time, our fire damaged them greatly and they began to slow down. At this juncture, I ordered our destroyer flotillas to converge on the German squadron in order to bring our destroyers’ torpedoes into action.
The German force lacked a large number of screening vessels, having just five light cruisers and eleven destroyers. However, the fire from the German battlecruisers shifted to our destroyers as they made their torpedo runs, and a number of them were badly damaged and sunk from accurate heavy caliber gunfire. In addition, the German light cruisers kept up a good defense even after I had our battlecruisers shift their fire to aide our destroyers. I am also sorry to say that a number of our destroyer captains were careless with their targeting and torpedoed their squadronmates. In total, eight of our destroyers were lost in this skirmish or suffered enough damage to force their abandonment before making port. Ten suffered heavy damage and forced them to break off from action to retire towards our ports on the Southeast Coast to make emergencies repairs.
In spite of this, the attack successfully torpedoed two of the German dreadnoughts, as well as one light cruiser. They were ordered back into their screening roles while the BCF finished off the German forces with gunfire. An additional two enemy light cruisers were sunk, as well as one heavy destroyer of the S114 Class, which was fitted with four 6-inch guns. The remaining German ships, consisting of two light cruisers and ten destroyers retired towards the German Bight. Considering the heavy casualties sustained by our own destroyer forces, I broke off action. Some of our undamaged destroyers were detached to pick up survivors from our destroyers and to rescue sailors from the German dreadnoughts. Three hundred and sixteen men were recovered, a figure which is equal to only half of the men in our own destroyers, and less than ten percent of the total of the German crews. I fear that the heavy caliber shell hits that our destroyers took caused many of the hands to be killed before they could get off.
After the survivors were recovered and the rescuing destroyers detached to return to port, I took the Battlecruiser Fleet back into the North Sea and completed the sweep by reaching the designated position. At this juncture, certain sources reported 4 enemy armored cruisers sailing towards our position. Taking into account our expenditure of ammunition in the action off Texel, battle damaged suffered by our battlecruisers, and fearing that these four armored cruisers would in reality be four dreadnoughts or the whole of the High Seas Fleet, I felt it prudent to order the Battlecruiser Fleet to return to Edinburgh.
Respectfully,
Admiral Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt, Commanding Officer Battlecruiser Fleet.
Hits and Sunk Lits
|
|
|
Post by garrisonchisholm on Jan 16, 2019 18:54:52 GMT -6
Germany should stop sailing. Unless they are going to coordinate everything they have, they can't hope to succeed with these nickel-and-dime raids. They may be facing serious morale issues though, and Scheer finds himself in a Catch 22.
None-the-less, well done, though the escorts need some training I think!
|
|
|
Post by director on Jan 17, 2019 19:29:48 GMT -6
Settin' them up...
... knockin' them down.
Good work!
|
|
|
Post by cv10 on Jan 21, 2019 20:41:04 GMT -6
May 10th, 1918 I was hesitant when I was informed that I was to become Admiralissimo Rowley’s junior French staff officer. I can’t complain too much that the Supreme War Council appointed an English officer Admiralissimo of the Allied Fleet when we have a Frenchman as Generalissimo by land. At any rate, it seems that it will more of a title to reflect the fact that the North Sea Fleet is made up of over seven nations now, though only five if Australia and Canada are not counted. The prospect of being taken away from my gun turret on the Bretagne and toed to a desk, at the beck and call of an English admiral, did not please me. This was only made worse when I found out that the Bretange and her sisters were to be shifted up to reinforce the English in the North Sea: The Austrians were never going to come out, but everyone had high hopes of seeing a fleet action against the Germans. I was convinced that I had missed mu chance. However, I was mistaken. In the last two days, I became the only officer in La Royale to have seen a fleet action against the Boche. The Admiralissimo, as it turns out, is not one for sitting behind a desk. He prefers to go out with whatever force is sorting as often as he can. Due to this, his staff officers have seen a surprising amount of combat for their positions. Commanders Jacobs, Yamamoto, and Nimitz have all seen at least one fleet action, and I “joined the club” as Nimitz said, during this most recent sortie. Admiral Jellicoe, who serves as combat commander of the Allied North Sea Fleet, led 3 squadrons of the Grand Fleet and the full Battlecruiser Fleet out on a sweep of the North Sea. The Admiralissimo decided to join this as a guest aboard the American battleship USS New York, which was flying Admiral Rodman’s flag. I would have preferred being on a British ship, as the American Navy is “dry” with not a single drop of alcohol permitted aboard, and their cage masts seem terribly unsteady. We swept down the North Sea, reaching our designated points without sighting anything. On our way home, Admiral Jellicoe received a report of an attack on one of the English coastal patrols, and he sent the battlecruisers to investigate while holding the Grand Fleet back in the North Sea, presumably to cut off a retreating enemy force. We were passing the western section of the Doggar Bank when the scout cruisers of the Grand Fleet spotted them. Eight German dreadnoughts steaming on a course for home, and they had blundered into fifteen Allied dreadnoughts. Admiral Jellicoe ordered us into a line of battle, and we bore down on the Germans, trying to cut them off from home. We opened fire at about the same time as they did, but we had them bracketed on the first few salvoes, while their shooting was much less accurate. After a while, we were on a line parallel to theirs, blocking their way home. At this juncture, the division that the New York was a part of was ordered to break off from the battle line and engage the rear of the German line. This move would prove decisive in the action. While the New York and the rest of her division smashed the end of the German line, Admiral Jellicoe took the other two squadrons south and then west, as if herding the Germans back towards the English coast. At this stage, our detached position became crucial, as the Germans tried to turn and run straight at us to break off for home. Admiral Rodman refused to sheer off, and we crossed the German T, blazing away with our 356 mm (14 inches in the accursed “Imperial System”) guns. The only hope that the Germans had of escaping was to press on in spite of this fire, but they couldn’t. The New York was firing with deadly accuracy, and the German fleet turned to the southeast and tried running itself between our division and the rest of the Grand Fleet. Caught between two fires, the Boche never had a chance. Before long, six of their dreadnoughts were struggling in every direction, as if their captains couldn’t decide which way to fleet. The two leading Kaiser class dreadnoughts, not plagued by such indecision, fled for home with Admiral Jellicoe in pursuit. We continued to fire at the remaining Germans, but our ammunition ran low. For a time we feared that some of the Germans might be towed home if we could not finish them off. A flotilla attack by our destroyers wasn’t considered, as the Grand Fleet had brought only a handful along, and needed them as screens. Admiral Rodman was also a bit apprehensive, as the USS Texas, sister to the New York, had taken several bad hits that had penetrated her belt and let the sea in. However, we were fortunate to look to the west and find Admiral Tyrwhitt with his battlecruisers bearing down on the Germans. Together we finished off the Hun with gunfire, and heard the news that Admiral Jellicoe had finished off the other two German dreadnoughts. The “icing on the cake” as Commander Nimitz would say, was when an English destroyer had come alongside the New York in order to transfer a special passenger. It had taken the crew of it a while to sort through the Germans that they had rescued from the burning wrecks and the frigid water of the North Sea, and they hadn’t found him crowded among the German sailors until the fleet was back on its way to Scapa Flow. The Admiralissimo was standing next to Admiral Rodman and a file of American marines when the man came aboard, and cried “Hello Reinhard! I hope I find you well!” When we get back to Scapa, we’ll be ordered to splice the mainbrace. Apparently, this is the English custom when they sink eight enemy dreadnoughts and capture the commanding officer of the High Seas Fleet. [As found in the Diaries of Jean Aurand, Amiral de France. Volume I: 1914-1920]
|
|
|
Post by garrisonchisholm on Jan 22, 2019 9:26:55 GMT -6
Tremendous! They must have nothing left. Surely the war is over!
|
|
|
Post by cv10 on Jan 22, 2019 11:28:10 GMT -6
Tremendous! They must have nothing left. Surely the war is over! Almost! They've still got 11 capital ships, but they're due to be turned into submarines!
|
|
|
Post by matnjord on Jan 23, 2019 15:46:13 GMT -6
Great AAR mister Yorktown! Besides providing a very nice read you've inspired me to do two things: -Bought SAI. A great game, definitely provides a different gameplay experience than RTW. -Not to play as Britain in my own AAR. I don't know what was your experience playing it, but reading from the safety of the peanut gallery I never got a sense of real tension or fear that things might go horribly wrong at any moment. But I guess that with the benefit of hindsight, which poor Jellicoe never had, it's hard to imagine how the High Seas Fleet ever really had any chance of winning (ok, maybe if the Scarborough had gone differently), which is something that SAI, to its credit simulates well.
What made you decide to continue playing as the Brits in Arena of Steel after the trouncing you gave Harry Hun in the normal campaign?
|
|
|
Post by cv10 on Jan 23, 2019 20:51:43 GMT -6
The thrill of the hunt: It's fun to try and piece together Room 40 reports, submarine and search plane sightings, possible targets, and to then try and intercept them. Plus, there's no overwhelming pressure of time to destroy the other fleet before it becomes too massive to deal with.
I look forward to seeing your AAR, and I may do a German one (with a comic bend to the narrative) to kill time before RTW 2 comes out. I'm also praying that the Devs might consider doing an SAI 2 to put carriers and other new aspects in the game. I'd love to see a Pacific or Mediterranean strategic campaign, or even a ficitional North Sea campaign with a much more powerful Kreigsmarine.
|
|
|
Post by director on Jan 23, 2019 20:52:48 GMT -6
That's the Jutland that never was... London will soon have a Dogger Bank Circle to complement its Trafalgar Square, with a heroic statue of Rowley atop it, clutching a dreadnought instead of a sword.
|
|
|
Post by cv10 on Jan 23, 2019 21:05:54 GMT -6
That's the Jutland that never was... London will soon have a Dogger Bank Circle to complement its Trafalgar Square, with a heroic statue of Rowley atop it, clutching a dreadnought instead of a sword. I'm already planning the futures of each character for my Epilogue: Rowley will be more than rewarded!
|
|
|
Post by cv10 on Jan 24, 2019 0:19:39 GMT -6
The North Sea Fleet has had quite a good month, sinking three enemy dreadnoughts and two enemy battlecruisers. The Germans, never being particularly good with the management of their fleet, lost all good judgment and sent out the remaining strength of their fleet on suicide missions so foolhardy that even a “landlubber” would have known better. As a Frenchman, I rejoice over the destruction of the Boche navy. As a naval officer, I find the manner in which the Boche threw their fleet away to be an insult to the profession. The first matter was their “raid” into the eastern Channel with their two surviving battlecruisers back at the beginning of the month. The idiots should know by now that Admiral Keyes has six battlecruisers attached to the Harwich Force as well as numerous destroyers and light cruisers to make any movement by capital ships in the region exceedingly dangerous. Even if those old battlecruisers aren’t a match for these new German heavy battlecruisers, six to two would have been long odds anyway, and at any rate, it wasn’t those “bad old cruisers” that they ran into. It was Admiral Tyrwhitt with the whole of the BCF, including the 1st BCS with its two Admiral class as well both Renowns. The Germans never had a chance, and old got lucky in damaging HMS Hood when one of their rounds set off a torpedo mount. For moderate damage to the Hood and light damage to the Repulse, the Boche lost their last two operational battlecruisers. However, this raid might almost be considered sane by comparison to their most recent blunder. The new commander of the High Seas Fleet decided it would be a good idea to send three dreadnoughts out with almost nothing in the way of scout cruisers and supporting destroyers. Perhaps more astounding was that he damn near sent them all the way to Scapa Flow!. It was over in a short sharp action, as Admiral Jellicoe had taken most of the Grand Fleet out on a sweep, and had found them blundering about. They barely had time to see us before we opened fire, though they did die magnificently. HMS Resolution took a torpedo hit and listed badly as she steamed home, and HMS Warspite was damaged moderately by gunfire. However, neither ship was sunk, or even severely damaged, as the hit that the “Reso” took was not as bad as initially thought (the hole in her was easy enough to fix once the vast quantity of water was pumped out). Quite frankly, I don’t think that we have much to fear from the Germans anymore at sea. Now if the Generalissimo, an excellent Frenchman, would just give the Boche the same treatment that the Admiralissimo has given them at sea. I’ve been at war now for four years, and I like the idea of being able to steam out of harbor without worrying about mines, submarines, and torpedoes. I rather relish the idea of living long enough to die of old age, or to at least hoist my flag as an Admiral. [As found in the Diaries of Jean Aurand, Amiral de France. Volume I: 1908-1920]
|
|
|
Post by matnjord on Jan 24, 2019 2:15:52 GMT -6
It really looks like the end for the Kaiserliche Marine. Just a few embers to snuff out and it'll be all over. What's the VP count at the moment? The thrill of the hunt: It's fun to try and piece together Room 40 reports, submarine and search plane sightings, possible targets, and to then try and intercept them. Plus, there's no overwhelming pressure of time to destroy the other fleet before it becomes too massive to deal with. I look forward to seeing your AAR, and I may do a German one (with a comic bend to the narrative) to kill time before RTW 2 comes out. I'm also praying that the Devs might consider doing an SAI 2 to put carriers and other new aspects in the game. I'd love to see a Pacific or Mediterranean strategic campaign, or even a ficitional North Sea campaign with a much more powerful Kreigsmarine. Aaah, the thrill of the hunt that I can understand I've already started that AAR, but it's on another forum. It's one of those semi-interactive AAR, with the occasional voting and reader's characters included in the narrative as captains and other officers. Are we allowed to link to other places here? I'd love a fictional Med campaign with Italy joining on the side of the Triple Alliance, that would be fun. And a SAI 2 campaign in the Pacific would indeed be amazing. War in the Pacific was always too dauting for me
|
|
|
Post by director on Jan 24, 2019 8:30:21 GMT -6
I cannot remember if we have seen any exploding British battlecruisers... if not, one wonders why Admiral Hood would be commemorated with one of the Admiral class? So this is it... as the admirals of the High Seas Fleet preferred to go down fighting in 1918, so these chaps actually have. There is no longer even a pretense of having a fleet-in-being. The only reason I can think of for such behavior would be to prevent the Allies from standing down old ships to conserve funds, resources and manpower. But at this point Great Britain can send the Allied ships home with a hearty 'Thank you', demobilize everything younger than the Orions and send half the destroyers to convoy duty. It's not over until the fat lady sings... and she just finished. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWykGod bless the sailors.
|
|