Action of the 22nd of December, 1942

Action of the 22nd of December, 1942

Flora II MTB Base, Invergordon, UK

Lieutenant R. Hansen RN headed toward the Flotilla Office for the morning briefing. For some reason, he had a nagging feeling this was not going to be a normal day. Two Royal Marines were guarding the office, an unusual precaution. The other boat commanders were already there, waiting impatiently for the Squadron Officer to brief them.

When the SO strode in, he placed in front of the assembled officers a piece of paper.

Well, that confirmed that this would be a dangerous mission. This was the first time the Admiralty had sent orders directly to the squadron, and such a deliberate targeting of a single convoy was unusual. Still, there was no option but to head to the boat and the sea.

Sailing to Norway took the night and most of the next day, although with the winter darkness it was difficult to distinguish between the two. The boats hid up in a fjord for the few hours to wait for the enemy convoy.

The force consisted of two Fairmile MTBs (656 and 660), each armed with a 2 pounder, 6 pounder, a twin 20mm cannon and two twin LMG mounts in addition to 2 18" torpedoes, and 4 MTBs, 22 and 29 armed with two twin HMG turrets and 2 21" torpedoes and 527 and 531 armed with a 6 pounder, twin 20mm cannon and two twin LMG turrets, plus two 21" torpedoes.

Working as two small forces, 656, 22 and 527 as one group, 660, 29 and 531 as the other, the boats took up a position on the convoy's expected route. At 2212, Lt Hansen heard the growl of approaching diesel engines. The boats began to crawl towards the noises, preparing to hit their prey. A fog bank provided cover for 660, 22 and 527 as they moved forward.

The boats close in on the sounds of a convoy

 Taking advantage of surprise, the British boats swept in, picking out two E-boats and two merchants. One E-boat found itself the centre of attention of three of the MTBs. 

Contact! Contact!

Tracer rounds began to fly back and forth, with 660 and the German boat both taking hits. A small fire broke out on 660, while the German boat was hit by 531's 6 pounder, taking serious structural damage, before catching fire, losing the use of its twin 20mm cannon mount and her engines cut out, leaving the boat adrift.

Under a hail of fire, the German boat is left in a serious state.

Additional fire from other boats hit a second German E-boat, damaging the steering gear and caused a small fire on the lead merchant ship, the SS Lina Fisser, allowing the MBTs to launch a barrage of torpedoes cutting across the convoy's route. 

The merchant crews fail to react to the suspicious trails in the water as the firefight rages around them.

With their torpedoes in the water, the British boats swept further into the convoy, using their guns to rake the German E-boats and merchants. The two lead E-boats were left without any useful weapons, while the Lina Fisser manage to extinguish the fire, another broke out almost immediately, as did one on the right hand merchant, the SS Laknes. Two more S-boats came roaring forward from the rear of the convoy, opening fire on the MTBs. 531 took fire and a small fire broke out, while the left flank S-boat took heavy fire, which kept the German crew's heads down as a small fire broke out.

The two forces close in on each other under a hail of fire, with the Germans generally getting to worst of the engagement.

Then the torpedoes struck. The one torpedo launched by 656 missed the Lina Fisser, passing beyond her to hit the Laknes, tearing her stern off, bringing her to a complete stop. Two further torpedoes from 22 struck the wreck moments later near the bow.

The two torpedoes launched by 660 struck the Lina Fisser amidships, leaving her wrecked with the crew hastily abandoning the ship.

Torpedoes devastate the convoy.

29 was able to launch a further pair of fish towards the third German merchant, the SS Maudie. To further confuse the situation, from the south a star shell was launched, illuminating most of the boats in the fighting.

In the next moments, one German E-boat tried to ram 22, but skilled maneuvering by the crew managed to keep them out of harms way, while they battered the German craft with machine gun fire leaving the crew stunned and the boat burning.

A crazed German mariner scrapes the paint clean off MTB22

Being the only remaining merchant, the Maudie suffered horrifically at the hands of the British, raked by machine gun and cannon fire from at least three boats. Seven separate fires broke out along the length of the ship, with bridge hits reducing the crew's ability to respond, but not before she managed to turn head on into the oncoming torpedoes.

Battered from all sides, the SS Maudie rapidly turns into an inferno

To add the the misery of the crew, one of the torpedoes from 29 struck home, causing massive flooding and ripping open the hull, leaving the Maudie barely afloat.

With the Maudie having just 6 Hull Points remaining, Lt "Why is it always me?" Arvinda got 2d6 bonus flooding damage. Oh well.

While the Maudie was in her death throes, MTB 531 was torn apart by close range fire from an S-boat, while on of the first S-boats attacked was finally sunk by 660. From the gloom to the south, more German vessels, a destroyer and two R-boats emerged, rushing to intervene and save what little could be saved of the convoy. 660 suffered a near miss from the destroyer's 105mm heavy guns, causing minimal damage but convincing the British it was time to clear out.

A German patrol rushes into the chaos, with the Elbing class torpedo boat blasting away.

With the final German merchant rapidly succumbing to fire and flooding and enemy heavy forces closing in, the British boats began to make a break for the open sea. 29 bravely chose to halt to pick up the survivors from 531 just as she slipped beneath the waves. 

660 made a break to the west, while 656 broke east with 527. 22 headed north while exchanging fire with a German S-boat. With the R-boats in a half-hearted pursuit of the MTBs, the German destroyer charged into 29 while she was stationary. A last second burst from 29's engines allowed them to escape without serious harm, but left her at point blank range for the German close range armament. Raked by the Flakvierling and a single 20mm cannon mount, 29 was cut apart and foundered.

The action winds down as smoke and darkness make picking out targets impossible. The last German boats concentrate on rescuing survivors

To further compound British woes, 660 was still illuminated and visible to the German destroyer, and with no better target, the German vessel opened fire with her 105mm guns. A solitary hit smashed 660's flank in and she sank, leaving her crew adrift. With all other targets receding into the night and survivors to be rescued, the Germans left the remaining British boats to make their way home. 

In the post game clean-up, it was determined that 660's crew were rescued by another British boat, but the captured crews of 29 and 531 broke under interrogation and admitted they were tasked to attack the convoy specifically. Fortunately, German counter-intelligence failed to link this to the Enigma messages sent concerning the convoy and blamed local resistance movements. While several innocent Norwegians would doubtless be arrested or killed, the ULTRA secret would remain safe.

Lt Hansen shivered uncontrollably for nearly an hour after being hauled out of the freezing ocean. The remaining boats made good time back across the North Sea. 'Whatever was on that convoy had better be worth a whole damn lot.' he mused. With two crews missing, not to mention the wounded and dead among the other boats, this had been a painful day for the MTBs.

With all three merchants, and their cargo of heavy water for the German atomic bomb project, sunk the game was an Allied victory, even with the loss of 50% of the attacking force. Even better, all the players and myself had a blast, even if there were persistent complaints about the heaviest armaments on most of the boats not being able to fire forwards.

We used A & A Game Engineering's Action Stations rules for the game, which performed very well, giving a good feel and a briskly paced game, even with none of the players having played them before. The only major rules mistake I have since spotted was me missing a bonus to hit large vessels, but that was due to my idiocy rather than any fault of the rules or the handy QRS A & A provide. The models come from the Skytrex (now Heroic and Ros) 1/600th Coastal forces range.