Battle Report - Sector 33, Fall 1942

Sector 33, Fall 1942

British Forces:

     HMS Warspite

     HMS Victorious

          Martlet Mk.II

          Hurricane Mk.IIC

     HMS Jamaica

     HMS Cleopatra

     HMS Croome (x2)

     Land Based Air (2-turn re-arming)

          Fairey Fulmar

     Land Based Air (2-turn re-arming)

          Sunderland Mk.I

German Forces:

     Gneisenau

     Admiral Hipper

     Blücher

     Nürnberg

     Köln (x2)

     Karlsruhe

     ZG3

     T27

     Z28

     U-66

     Land Based Air (2-turn re-arming)

          FW190

          BV138

The weather is fine and there are four islands on the map (G5-G6, C5, E3, and J3).   Standard 25-point objectives are in F1, F4, and F7.

START: The Warspite, Jamaica, and a Croome start together in A5 while the Victorious, Cleopatra, and the other Croome start together in A7.  The Gneisenau and Karlsruhe begin in K4, the two Kölns in K5, the Hipper and ZG3 in K7, and the Blücher and Nürnberg in K6.  The T27 and Z28 begin in K3 while the U66 starts in G4.  The Kölns use Lead the Attack to move to I4.

Turn 1: The Germans win initiative.  The Warspite’s formation moves to C4.  The Kölns combine with the U-66 ion H4 while the other units advance, the Gneisenau’s formation to I3, the T27’s to I4, the Blücher’s to I5 and the Hipper’s to I7.  The Hurrice, escorted by the Martlet goes after the Kölns in H4 while the Sunderland deploys to G7.  The FW190 moves to defend the cruisers while the BV133 deploys to I3, under cover of the battleship’s guns.  The FW190 aborts the Hurricane while the Sunderland mines G7.  The Warspite and Gneisenau take long shots at each other, but both miss. 

Turn 2: The British win initiative.  The Hipper’s formation moves into H7 where the Hipper hits a mine and is crippled.  The Kölns move to F3, the Gneisenau’s formation to G3 and the two destroyers to H4.  The Blücher’s formation combines with the U-66 in G4.  The Jamaica and Croome leave the Warspite and move back to B4, leaving the battleship to face the German guns alone.  The Hurricane and Sunderland go after the Kölns, with the Fulmar shadowing from E3.  The Sunderland is aborted by flak, but the Hurricane lands a hit on one of the cruisers.  The big ships exchange fire, but while the Warspite and Blücher both miss, the Gneisenau lands a hit on its British counterpart. 

Turn 3: The Germans win initiative.  The Warspite, slowed by engine trouble, combines back with its escorts in C3.  The Hipper’s formation crawls ahead to F7.  The Kölns advance to D3.  The Gneisenau’s formation moves to E4 and the Blücher’s to E5.  The destroyers combine with the U-66 in F4.  The Hurricane and Sunderland go after the Hipper, but are both aborted by German flak.  The Warspite hits the Gneisenau with its main guns, but misses a Köln with its secondaries and tertiaries.  The Jamaica hits the undamaged Köln with its main guns, misses with its secondaries, then finishes off the cruiser with its torpedo attack.  The Croome cripples the remaining Köln with its guns.  The Nürnberg misses the Jamaica with its main guns, but the Karlsruhe lands a hit.  The two Kölns fire their guns at the Jamaica, one managing to land a hit and cripple with cruiser, while both land hits on the Warspite with their torpedoes.  The Gneisenau cripples the Warspite with its main guns and sinks the Jamaica with its secondaries.  Its tertiaries, however, miss the Croome.  The Blücher takes a long range shot at the Victorious, but misses.

Turn 4: The Germans win initiative.  The crippled Warspite leaves its remaining escort, the Croome, and advances to D4, wanting to do as much damage as possible before going down.  The carrier formation moves to A6 to try to keep the island between it and at least some of the incoming German ships.  The Hipper’s formation advances to E7.  The Blücher’s formation advances to C6 and the Gneisenau’s to C4.  The crippled Köln moves to D4.  The destroyers, still grouped with the U-66, advance to E4.  Both the Sunderland and Hurricane, escorted by the Martlet go after the Blücher, which is defended by the FW190.  The Nürnberg’s flak knocks down the Sunderland but the Hurricane gets through, landing a hit on the Blücher.  The northern Croome manages to sink the crippled Köln.  The Warspite opens up, missing the Gneisenau with its main guns.  The battleship fires its remaining guns at the Nürnberg, but only the secondaries hit.  The Victorious misses the Blücher with its main guns, but the Cleopatra is able to land a hit on the German cruiser, crippling it.  The Croome attempts to finish off the German cruiser, but misses.  The Cleopatra then manages to cripple the Karlsruhe with its torpedo.  The Gneisenau’s tertiaries and the crippled Köln combine to sink the northern Croome while the cruiser’s dying torpedo attack sinks the Warspite.  The Karlsruhe, the Blücher, and the secondaries from the Gneisenau combine to sink the Cleopatra.  The Karlsruhe and Nürnberg combine to sink the southern Croome.  The Gneisenau then lands a hit on the British carrier with its main guns.

Turn 5: The Germans win initiative.  The Victorious moves to A7 to create as much space as possible while still hugging the end-line.  The Blücher’s formation advances to B7, the Hipper’s to D7, and the Gneisenau’s to B6.  The two German destroyers move to D6.  The Hurricane and strafing Martlet go after the Blücher, with the Fulmar shadowing from B8.  The two attacking planes dodge the flak, but neither lands a hit, despite the 10-die bomb attack of the Hurricane.  The Victorious manages to sink the Blücher with its guns then faces a barrage of fire from every German weapon in range.  Luckily, only the main guns from the Blücher and Gneisenau land hits, crippling but not destroying the carrier.

Turn 6: The Victorious escapes.

Surviving British Forces:

HMS Victorious (crip)

Martlet Mk.II

Fairey Fulmar

Hurricane Mk.IIC

Surviving German Forces:

Gneisenau (1 dmg)

Nürnberg (1 dmg)

Admiral Hipper (crip)

Karlsruhe (crip)

ZG3

T27

Z28

U-66

FW190

BV138

After Action (UK): Both my gunnery and bombing were generally poor and leaving his battleship effectively untouched while mine went down was a tough pill to swallow.  It quickly turned into just trying to cripple or kill as many of his cruisers as possible before my entire fleet was destroyed.  The escape of the Victorious was a nice bonus, but hardly makes up for how bad of a loss it was.