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.

Death above the desert

The Collections, Part III:

 1960-1980: Middle East Air Combat

When I decided to have a go at air combat, choosing a setting was quite tough. I considered the Falklands War initially, but I decided against it as there was not a huge variety in aircraft or the missions that could be played. Vietnam struck me as a somewhat overdone period, and I have little interest in the history personally. Eventually I landed upon the idea of wargaming the conflicts between Israel and Egypt.

The collection has expanded from the originial 10-20 planes a side to more like 40-50 a side. On the Egyptian (standing in for Syrians, Jordanians etc. where needed) side have some Hawker Hunters, MiGs 15, 17, 19, 21s, Su-7s, Il-28s. The Israeli's have Mirages, Super Mysteres, Vautours, F-4 Phantoms, and (when I finish painting them) some F-15s and F-16s. Almost all the models are from Tumbling Dice. They're good models, nicely detailed for 1/600th and as of yet I've never had a model with any serious moulding issues.

I use the Check Your Six! Jet Age rules, which are fun and quick. They give a good feel, yet allow a single player, even a relative novice to handle at least two aircraft with ease. The games I've played have been quick and frequently brutal.

The most recent game I ran consisted of an Israeli fighter formation intercepting an Egyptian bomber force heading towards Tel Aviv during the Six Day War. The scenario was Hollywood "based on" an actual event in the war. The Egyptian bomber force had an escort of 10 fighters, mostly MiGs, while the Israeli's were attacking with 8 Mirages.

Israeli Mirages (anachronistically painted for the War of Attrition) sweeping in to the attack.

The Egyptian strike force.

 The Israeli's swept in to the attack in a broad formation, passing through the first escorts to engage them to attack the bombers at the heart of the formation. Unfortunately, the Egyptian top cover came into the engagement on the Israeli right flank, and a massive dogfight ensued. After initial successes downing a MiG, the Israelis found the battle turning against them.

The screams of jet engines fill the sky as a massive dogfight breaks out.

Israeli pilots plot their attack on the bombers.

Thanks to terrible dice rolling, several Mirages were soon sent spiraling into the desert, trading off with MiGs at a rough 1:1 ratio. One of the Il-28 bombers was brought down by a Mirage, before that Mirage was felled by defensive fire from a second bomber's rear turret.

Losses among the Israeli aircraft mount.

A bomber falls, and is avenged by another bomber.

 By the time the Israelis broke off and fled, they had lost 5 aircraft and three of their pilots, including one of their best. The Egyptians had lost one bomber and 3 MiG 21s, with two bombers breaking through to attack an airfield around Tel Aviv.

A dark day for the Israeli Air Force with heavy losses in aircraft and pilots.

 Overall this collection has proven popular with my wargaming mob, and I'm looking forward to putting many more of these planes into the sky, and sending them crashing back down again. I've painted up the Israeli's for the later War of Attrition, firstly because that colour scheme lasted longer than the silver with red flashing used during the Six Days War, and also because personally I think it looked better. The Egyptians are painted a mix of the various schemes in use at the time of the conflicts.

A Day for Eagles 1

Recently I ran a game, based on the Flying Tigers mini-campaign from the back of the Check Your Six rulebook, adapted to fit the desert war. Subbing in for the P-40s of the Flying Tigers are Spitfires of the Western Desert Air Force's No 92 Squadron.

Tobruk, Libya, May 1942


Rommel's Afrika Korps has launched an assault to cut off and then sieze the vital port of Tobruk. In order to keep the Western Desert Air Force away from the advancing columns of Panzers and their supply columns, the Luftwaffe is launching a concerted air attack on the port and its garrison and air defences. The first game consisted of a large force of bombers hitting the El Adem airbase to smash the resistance.

Before each scenario the players (Rob and James for the Brits, Tom and Gordon for the Germans) have a series of choices to make determining how their aircraft would set up. The British went for an aggressive push, leaving the members of their flight who were late to scramble far behind and plunging into the German formation head first. The Germans meanwhile chose not to wait for their supporting flights who were late, maintaining a steady speed to allow the Bf-109 escort to catch up, but leaving a ground attack formation far behind.

The Germans deployed their bomber formation first some distance south from their bombing objective, the airfield, with Stukas forming a wing on either side of the central formation of Dornier Do-217s. Two RAF P-40s from another squadron set up behind the centre of the bomber formation, with a flight of four Bf-109s closing in on the formation in a broad line to the rear of the P-40s. The Spitfires came into the gaming area from the east and west of the German bombers, aiming to smash through the formation before the German fighters could make contact.

Early morning commute to downtown Tobruk

In the opening turn the two P-40s fired ineffectually on the rearmost of the Dornier Do-217s, before deciding to dive out of the engagement, though they did get one more volley of fire off, damaging the aircraft in the following turn as the Spitfires swept into range from both sides. The massed firepower of Rob's Spitfire Vcs blew two Stukas from the sky in their opening volley. James' pilots were less fortunate, hitting but not harming their targets. The next turn found British fighters in amongst the bombers, despite lead being fired in all directions by both sides, no more aircraft went down, though three German bombers took damage. This was a reasonable result for the Brits, as damaged bombers don't contribute to the outcoming of bombing on targets.

On turn 4, the eastern Bf-109s got into range to start taking pot shots at the British aircraft, though sadly for the Germans, the pilots forgot to check their line of fire, and the first victim of German fighter fire was a Do-217, fortunately causing no serious harm. The British performed much better, with Rob wiping out the last of the Stuka flight on the western flank after some fancy flying and James damaging a further Do-217.

The brutal dogfight starts to claim planes.

Over the next couple of turns, British fighters cut in and out of the German formation, damaging another bomber, but failing to stop them reaching their objective. As bombs began to rain down on the airfield, Spitfires began to run out of ammunition, with two diving away rapidly. The final two Spitfires damaged a further German bomber, not before it dropped its ordinance, before James' final aircraft suffered damage from the rear machine gun of a Stuka. Both of the remaining Spitfires dived away, leaving the remaining six German bombers to hit the airfield and the nine bombers still in the air to fly home.

The game had run well, though the British were consistently poor in their damage rolls (with most in the single digits out of a possible maximum of 24) which meant the very tough Dorniers usually had to make little more than 5-7 on 2d6 to avoid taking any damage. The Germans did much better, scoring the maximum damage on several occasions, but the bombers rarely had more than a single machine gun able to bear on any target, meaning the effects were minimal.

In the after action paper section, the German bombing of the airfield resulted in four Spitfires being reduced to burning wrecks, while one damaged bomber from the action fell foul of the late arrivals from the players' flight, two more of the damaged birds cracked up on landing, writing them off.

The second action of the day was an attack on the docks by an unescorted bomber formation. The Germans set up almost ontop of their target as the British chose to close in from the rear to maximise their chance in the attack, taking the time to sweep around. The Spitfires swept in to the formation, getting close in to maximise their chances of hits, as the previous game had taught Rob and James that they couldn't make high damage rolls to save their lives, which against the tough German bombers wasn't resulting in the necessary kills.

Achtung, Englander! British planes charge into the German formation.

Unfortunately for the Tom and Gordon, the bad dice plague had infected their robustness rolls, as German bombers began to plunge into the desert, including their only veteran pilot. This added further complications for the Germans as the loss of the flight leader caused their crews to become confused and change their targets, meaning their two formations had to then assault the other's target. This level of confusion gave a perfect opportunity for the British fighters as the formations swung slowly and predictably around. Careful flying allowed the British to minimise the retaliatory fire, while pouring close range fire into the German bombers. In the course of eight turns, six German bombers, including three of the previously untouchable Do-217s were hit. With their formation being slowed by heavy bomb loads and the slower Stukas, Tom and Gordon made the decision to ditch the bombs on the Stukas and use them to distract British fighters, allowing the last undamaged Do-217s to make their bombing runs and dash for home. Ultimately, the most damage done to a British fighter was the result of friendly fire as Rob provided "assistance" to James. Spitfires also started to run out of ammunition as another Stuka took damage. Ultimately though, not a single German aircraft survived unscathed to drop its bombs effectively. When the British finally broke off, with only one of their aircraft with ammunition remaining, 6 German bombers had fallen, 5 were damaged and 1 escaped having disposed of its ordinance and fled. As the sun set over the desert after a hard days fighting, many bunks in the German airfield remained empty, while the British sat down to congratulate themselves on inflicting heavy losses while losing none of their own in the air.

A dark day for the Luftwaffe as the stragglers are run down by the rampaging RAF

But both sides know the Germans will return, most likely in greater numbers, and with more fighters. For today the fighting is done, but tomorrow will bring more violence.