Action in the Channel 1666 - Part 1

Dutch Wars Fleet Action With Form Line of Battle

Having painted up a load of merchant ships I wanted to do a convoy action, but given the number of ships I knew it would have to involve some off table movement. I set up a situation on the map with the convoy escorted by three squadrons under De Ruyter, Evertsen and Tromp attempting to pass through the Straits of Dover, unaware that the English fleet is out looking for trouble. Although the fleet sizes are similar, the English have the distinct edge with their larger ships and heavier guns.

Starting situation. English top right, Dutch bottom left.

Initial Moves

After 24 hours of sailing with mostly light winds, both fleets are becalmed and anchor for the night. At dawn the fleets are in sight of one another about 8 leagues SW of Beachy Head. A light north westerly springs up, giving De Ruyter the weather gage. Ayscue's White squadron is isolated to windward of the rest of the fleet and the Dutch bear down on him. Ayscue gives ground to leeward to allow the Red and Blue squadrons to come up and De Ruyter, not wanting to  be dragged too far from the convoy, calls off the attack and hauls up on the larboard tack.

After the English tack the White squadron is again isolated from the rest of the fleet. De Ruyter decides it's now or never. If he allows the English to form their squadrons in line they might be able to cut off the convoy's advance. If the English give too much ground, then the convoy will be able to slip past them and through the straits.

The Battle

Situation at about 07:10. De Ruyter and Tromp bear down on Ayscue, while Evertsen stays to windward to guard the convoy's flank.

About 07:30. (After scrolling the table). The Dutch continue to bear down on Ayscue, but struggle in the light airs. Albemarle's Red squadron is beating upwind to support. The blue squadron are still off table.

07:10. The fourth rate Yarmouth fires the first broadside at De Ruyters flagship De Zeven Provincien.

07:15. General engagement. De Ruyter and Tromp press the attack against Ayscue. The Red squadron tacks in succession.

The Weather Changes

 From 08:00 to 08:15 the wind backs to westerly and freshens. This changes everything. The weather gage is now contested as elements of Tromp's and De Ruyter's squadrons are now to leeward of the English. Worse, the convoy's current course means that the English can form line to leeward at their leisure and still be able to head it off. It's a precarious position and De Ruyter orders his fleet to haul up on the larboard tack and signals the convoy to come about on the opposite tack.

The situation at 08:15 seen from the Dutch side of the table (the NW). The wind is now westerly (diagonally from bottom right).

08:30. The convoy is now on the starboard tack heading out into the Channel.

08:35. Ayscues White squadron engage Tromp's retreating ships, with the Red squadron forming line in their wake. In the bottom left are two of Ayscue's damaged ships forming in the lee of the Blue squadron.

Sub Plot: the Frigates

While all this was going on there was an entertaining sideshow. The Yarmouth mentioned earlier, being the last in line of the White squadron, has borne the brunt of De Ruyter's attack. Dismasted and adrift but with her colours still flying, she is set upon by two Dutch frigates - the Nijmegen and Harderwijk.

Nijmegen runs aboard the Yarmouth and boards. Yarmouth surrenders. The prisoners are taken off and, unable to tow their prize away, the Dutch set fire to the crippled ship.

During this time Harderwijk attracts the fire of the Red Squadron passing to leeward. She catches fire and although the ship is saved the crew strike their colours.

The captain of the Defiant, unable to let a prize go unclaimed, sends a boat to take control of the Harderwijk. Note the burning remains of the Yarmouth top left. The fifth rate Sweepstakes (bottom right) lends support.

Ten minutes later the fire gets into Yarmouth's magazine and she explodes, just as Defiant's prize crew pulls up to the Harderwijk. Nijmegen has been keeping her distance to windward.

Nijmegen hurtles downwind and opens up on the boat, missing.

Sweepstakes goes about and gives the Nijmegen a good talking to. The prize crew scramble on board the battered Harderwijk and get her under sail.

Nijmegen comes alongside the captured ship and fires a broadside. The Harderwijk is reduced to a shattered wreck.

Sweepstakes continues to hammer the Nijmegen causing major crew casualties and bringing down her foremast. A fourth rate from Evertsen's squadron, the Stad Gouda, comes to assist and Sweepstakes yields, turning away to leeward.

The Fleets Disengage

The Dutch come about on the starboard tack and work upwind toward the convoy.

08:40

The final turn, viewed from leeward (east). Smith's Blue squadron tacks while the Red and White squadrons wear in succession to fall in behind him.

What's the Damage?

English:

The White squadron has suffered the worst -
The fourth rate Yarmouth sunk
The third and fourth rates Gloucester and Happy Return have lost masts and their rigging is in shreds.
The fifth rate Oxford has serious fire damage.
The second rate Swiftsure and third rate Fairfax have come through relatively unscathed.

The Red squadron -
The third and fourth rates Dunkirk and Mathias have each lost a mast, but otherwise the squadron is intact.

The Blue squadron didn't manage to engage and so is untouched.

Dutch:

Van (Tromp) -
Four of Tromp's largest ships have had their batteries seriously reduced, and taken some hull damage.
Only the two fifth rates remain undamaged.
 -
Centre (De Ruyter)
Three ships with light to moderate damage - De Zeven Provincien, Eendracht and Klein Hollandia.
Fourth rate Gouden Leeuwen severely damaged by fire, but with her rigging still undamaged.
Fourth and fifth rates Dordrecht and Nijmegen heavily damaged.
Fifth rate Harderwijk sunk.

Rear (Evertsen) -
All undamaged apart from the fouth rate Stad Gouda which has medium damage.

Repairs

Both fleets will need to make running repairs, which I will have to make up some rules for. I have some vague ideas how it'll work. I suspect we'll then see a running fight with small pockets of damaged ships being picked off, and hopefully we'll have the merchant ships make an appearance on the table. Should be fun, but it'll have to wait for now as I have some other things to get on with. This one's going on the back burner for a week or two.

War Plan Orange

Fleet Action in the Pacific 1936

 

I wanted to try out the Find, Fix and Strike rules with a larger action so I got the 1/6000 War Plan Orange fleets out. I was going to be sensible and keep it to about 6 capital ships a side with a handful of light forces, but in the end I just got my big bucket of ships out and poured them onto the table. Go big or go home.

Working from the lists in ODGW's Sudden Storm, I gave the Japanese all 10 battleships of the First Fleet in 3 divisions, along with 2 CA divisions, 1 CL division, and 4 DD divisions. The US had 14 BBs in 5 divisions, 2 CL divisions and 4 DD divisions.

To help identification, and to avoid having to constantly refer to a stats sheet, I made up some divisional markers printed on thin card, to be placed on the table next to the models. These show the name of the division and all the ships in it, and all the stats in a compact and hopefully readable form. They also have spaces for each ship's torpedo launchers and float planes, so they can be marked off when used or destroyed. For now I'm using the ship stats as provided in the rules, the only difference being that long range torpedoes can fire out to 14" with a 4" spread, instead of the usual 25"/6".

I decided it was best to ignore floatplanes for now. With almost every ship having 2-3 planes, trying to track them all just isn't practical. In fact I'd intended to have no aircraft ops at all, but I did end up throwing some in toward the end just to try them out. At setup though, I'm assuming the weather is just bad enough to preclude air ops but not bad enough to slow down DDs - yes, I know that's ridiculous but I wanted the light forces to be useful! I also included some randomly placed rain squalls - 4-6" ovals which drift 1D3" downwind each turn and block LOS.

US approaching from the E (top), IJN arriving from the western edge (bottom). Wind is from NW. Visibilty is 18,000 yards.

The Kongo class fast battleships of Sentai 3 form the van of the Japanese line.

US Main Battle Force in line of division columns.

The fleets deploy.

IJN cruisers launch long range torpedoes at the US van.

Light forces exchange torpedo fire.

The battle lines engage.

IJN battle line viewed from the south.

After many turns of pounding away, the Japanese line holds while the US retreat in disorder, with their light forces laying smoke.

The US destroyers are slowly whittled down by the advancing Japanese cruisers, with the battleships following up.

At this point it was pretty much game over, but I thought I'd try and get my head round the air rules. The weather clears up and aircraft from Saratoga, Lexington and Ranger arrive: 6 flights of SBU divebombers, 6 TG-2 torpedo bombers, and 6 escorting F3F flights. At the same time 6 flights of Japanese A4N fighters arrive from the Ryujo and Hosho to fly CAP over the fleet.

The cavalry are here!

IJN fighters flying CAP.

All but 2 planes are driven off or destroyed by Japanese fighters and AA fire. The divebombers target Ise, but do no appreciable damage.

A sprawling dogfight as the A4Ns chase the retreating strike planes, hotly pursued by the American F3Fs. Actually they're all Fairey Swordfish and Gloster Gladiators, but ssshh, don't tell anyone.

Thoughts and stuff

I had a blast playing this, even though it was really just a kickabout to get a proper feel for the rules.

I'm glad I took the time to make the divisional name/marker thingies - I felt they were a definite success. It's great having all the information you need right there next to the unit, and they make identifying 1/6000 ships much easier. It made the whole thing feel a bit like a monster board-wargame without the hexes, and with little model ships instead of counters. The overall visual impression feels somewhere between the the perspective of a reconnaissance plane circling the battle, and a plotting table at the Naval War College.

I love this ground scale (1"=1000 yards, or 1/36000) with 1/6000 models, and managed, just, to fit everything on a 6'x4' table, albeit with a couple of scrolls northwards. I'd have been hard pushed to get many more divisions on the table, and I am quietly eyeing up the space I have and thinking about squeezing in a bigger table. (Don't tell the missus I said that). I would love to be able to deploy all the cruiser and DD formations of both fleets, rather than the small selection I used here, and use the light forces as they were intended: en masse.

Lots of work to do in terms of tweaking stats and so on, but I feel like FF&S are the rules I'll end up using for fleet actions and campaigns in this period.

Just in case you're interested, here are some YouTube links for more info -

Lecture by Dr John Kuehn on naval innovation in the interwar period:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz7DcC3Brp8

Evolution of War Plan Orange by Peter Pellegrino (wargame designer at the US Naval War College):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXal8JUqAfQ

An overview of actual rules, maps and components used by the Naval War College:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmTy8kBB76U