Baltic Project

[vonfriedman]

Following Wikipedia: "The Baltic Project was a plan promoted by the Admiral Sir (later Lord) John "Jacky" Fisher. It involved landing a substantial force, either British or Russian soldiers, on the flat beaches of Pomerania on the North German coast [between Stettin and Danzig], less than 100 mi (160 km) from Berlin.

Submarines and extensive mining would keep the invasion force safe from the Imperial German Navy. More than 600 vessels would be required, including landing craft, minesweepers, destroyers, light cruisers, monitors and some heavy shallow draft support ships. The latter were built in the form of the three Courageous-class [light] battlecruisers, HMS Glorious, Furious and Courageous. The plan was never implemented."

I don't know more details about this risky plan (a kind of Dieppe raid ante litteram), but I would like to try to develop a long scenario that simulates the initial phases.
First of all, I don't know what date the proposed landing could have happened, because some planned assets, such as HMS Furious or M-class "monitor" submarines, were missing or delayed even when WW1 ended.
I have some further questions for those who would like to kindly answer.

• What was planned to be done in order to mine the entrances / outlets of the Kiel Canal and thus prevent the intervention in the Baltic area of big warships of the Hochseeflotte?
  
• It is realistic to think of a fleet battle around an important British convoy, that was supposed to cross the Skagerrak / Kattegat channel?
• What support could the Russian fleet have given?
• How would neutral Denmark and Sweden have reacted?

[vonfriedman]

In the enclosed scenario it is assumed that the British have obtained free passage through the Danish straits and also an advanced base there, in which they have concentrated the landing craft and monitors of the "Siege fleet".
It is assumed that, thanks to a diversionary action in the Bay of Heligoland, the British have managed to keep half of the Hochseeflotte engaged in the North Sea.
On D-Day, the British landing forces proceed towards their targets with the protection of BCs and BBs coming from the north.
The Germans react by strengthening their Bs already located in the Baltic and concentrating their BCs and their best BBs in Kiel.
The clash between the main forces will depend a lot on fate: it may in fact happen that the Germans can "cross the T" of the British, if they arrive late, but the opposite can also happen.
There is also a certain possibility that some Russian ships will arrive to support the British.





Baltic Project02.NSC (76.95 KB)

[antonin]

Oct 12, 2021 4:21:54 GMT -6 vonfriedman said:

...I don't know more details about this risky plan (a kind of Dieppe raid ante litteram), ?...

That is the first thought that entered my mind.  

Thank you for designing this interesting scenario. Maybe I will try it this weekend. 

[stww2]

I love the scenario concept! Unfortunately, during loading a whole bunch of errors were thrown-mainly for missing files (including the environment file and a lot of ship designs) and once I loaded the game no terrain existed anywhere in the world. I'm can't claim to be particularly familiar with SAI file structures, but it looks like there might be some more files that have to be shared beyond the nsc file?

[vonfriedman]

Baltic env files.zip (200.02 KB)Here are the ENV and TXT files. All the ships should be included the "Designs" SAI file.

[stww2]

Thanks! That solved the map issues.

I don't have the following designs, apparently:

Brandenburg
Large Merchant
Transport
Thirty Knot
Oleg

I've never tinkered with any of the SAI files before, so if they're vanilla ships I'm not sure how that happened. Nonetheless I am apparently missing them!

[vonfriedman]

These are the ship designs you need. Apparently you have a different SAI release than mine.

Baltic ships.zip (5.51 KB)

[stww2]

(I have version 1.64)



Thanks for the ship designs! That got rid of the rest of the errors.



Played through this one as the British, and it was ton of fun! Here's what happened:


-During night monitor Prince Rupert was torpedoed and detached

-Force F was sent to screen monitors and transports from Danzig direction, while Force B was deployed to guard Kiel direction

-at 0406z, received a sub report of 4 BB's coming out of Kiel; Force B maneuvers to intercept 
-0450z: German main battle line and Force B engage, force from Dazing direction also spotted near convoy and Force F sent to intercept

-0454z: New Zealand turret hit by Konig-class BB; suffers a Flash fire and blows up

-0457z: Barham hit by Seydlitz-class BC; suffers a flash fire and blows up

-Kiel force turns out to be destroyers, CLs and DDs from Force F sent to engage while BC's hold back; most of their torpedoes are expended against the destroyers which in retrospect probably should have been avoided
-0515z: Force B Flotilla attack ordered; enemy BC hit by torpedo; allows Force B to start withdrawing

-by 0630z: enemy Danzig based DD attack thwarted; CL Undaunted torpedoed during engagement

-by 0638z: Force B disengages as does German BB/BC force (appears to retreat back to Kiel); Force B maintains screening position to block enemy BBs from convoys

-0706z: Force F spots enemy force from Danzig direction, subsequently discovered to consist of B's and CA's
-by 0754z: Force F engages enemy B and CA force while remnants of Force B move to assist (it is hoped/assumed that the German main force had withdrawn to Kiel
-by 0904z: Enemy B/CA force briefly disengages. Minor damage to each side. Each side reengages about 20 minutes later

-by 1138z: Force B links up with Force F and engages enemy B/CA force; Monitors begin engaging Kolberg land targets

-1246z: one bombardment target destroyed; one B Worth dead in the water

-1329z: aforementioned B sunk; Force B closes in to finish off or drive away remaining enemy forces

-1402z: second B Worth dead in the water

-by 1502z: CLs from Force B and Force R engage two enemy CLs near crippled B

-1522z: second B Worth sunk; Mission sink two large ships accomplished!

-by 1553z: CL engagement continues. Jershoeft land targets sighted

-by 1616z: both enemy CLs dead in the water; Monitors engaging Jershoeft land targets and Force F engaging retreating CAs

-by 1731z: CA's and escorting DD's mount a counterattack along the coast in the direction of the monitors; Force B engages; during battle, Malaya hit by torpedo and disengages 
-by 1814z: Objective destroy 2 bombardment targets at Jershoeft accomplished! Four CA's dead in the water

-2017z Scenario Ends (1277 out of 900 minutes)


Overall, this turned out to be a German tactical victory. However, the landing still succeeded (even if the TRs didn't technically get to the objective LZ by the end of the scenario) Additional Grand Fleet reinforcements would likely be needed to defend the supply lines from surviving German heavy units. In the days/weeks to come. 


Thoughts/Recommendations:

-As a practical matter, if the British were to attempt the Baltic project, I assume it would occur after a Trafalgar-like defeat of the High Seas Fleet, rather than the indecisive Battle of Jutland that happened historically. Consequently, they could probably spare more dreadnoughts than are featured here. Given Jellicoe's cautious deployment of the Grand Fleet during the war, I doubt the British would want to deploy their fleet in such numbers where the High Seas Fleet (or presumably in this case, the remnants of the High Seas Fleet) could outnumber and defeat in detail a significant if partial portion of the British battle line. On the other hand, the scenario as it currently stands is relatively balanced, so perhaps the forces should be left as they currently are (if it hadn't been for the unfortunate flash fires, I probably wouldn't have lost any British capital ships here)

-I would make Force B's flagship one of the Queen Elizabeths, rather than one of the BC's.  At least in my opinion, it would be easier to control the battle line that way. 

-If I were the British, I would deploy old CA's or CL's as convoy escorts to help protect the convoys against light surface forces. (I often do this in the campaign with seaplane raids, for instance). These could be either integrated with the convoy or deployed as a separate "Escort Force." I have no idea if this would have actually have been done, however, and again, scenario balance would have to be considered. 

-I would recommend making the scenario longer. In my playthrough, even with the length being dragged out by maintaining contact with enemy forces, there wasn't enough time to get the transports to their objective. 

The above are just some minor critiques. Overall, this was an extremely enjoyable scenario and can definitely be considered a finished project as is. Thank you for making it! 

[stww2]

[vonfriedman]

The implementation of the Baltic project would have depended on many factors, which are difficult to simulate.
Regarding the ships blowing up, I read somewhere that more precautions in cordite management were introduced by the British after Jutland.

Using the scenario editor you can modify the OOB as you prefer and possibly extend the duration.
Be aware that by introducing new ships they may appear with fuel = 0 and various scenario saves be required to obtain fuel = 100.
Perhaps it may be appropriate to put "attack" instead of "normal" in the attitude of the two main forces, otherwise they tend to retreat as soon as they suffer some damage.
The scenario is best played on the side of the British, because otherwise their 7 knot monitors, who are considered by the AI as Bs, tend to engage in battle instead of proceeding towards their bombardment
objectives.

The latter is something the NWS team should consider when improving AI for simulating amphibious operations.