Lutzow's First Patrol

[bill44]

Frustrated by the capture of her neutrals and their precious cargo of war material by the British AMC's, Scheer decided to adopt a new tactic, a lone raider, that was fast, heavily armed, and armoured, one that was not hampered by attending CL's or DD's, this vessel could take on the AMC's and also begin preying British merchant fleet.

The first cruise would go to the new BC Lutzow.

Sailing far north of the British patrols she soon spotted her first victim, the AMC Alcartara, under bleak rain swept skys the BC accelerated to 28 knots, 11 knots faster that her quarry. Firing opend at 9000 yards, and her green gunners took a long time to start making hits, but over time those hits had a devestating effect on the ship. Some 30 minutes later a shell touched off her magazines, and the gallant ship dissapeared from sight in 15 seconds.
Her next victim was a merchant the CS Tyler, then she bagged the CS Admiral Courbet, next she intercepted another AMC Orctava, who herself was attempting to capture a German laden CS. This battle lasted little more than 20 minutes, before Orctava joined the Alcartara at the bottom of the sea, 27 survivors were picked up from the icy water, joining the 8 survivors from the Alcartara. One more British CS was captured before Luzow headed home, to a heros welcome from Scheer.
He would be sending out more lone wolves that was a certainty.

 

[gascan]

I've been planning to do that in my campaign as well. Those northern patrols are annoying! It's nice to hear a success story before I get started. I've been too busy with school recently, though. Once finals are over, I'll have some time to play again. I'll probably also send a CL or two through the Channel to raid Britain's west coast (I already nailed the French AC when I sent my BCs to raid the west coast, so there's nothing big left to worry about). Nice screenshots. I like to keep hearing about this operation, keep up the good work.

 

[kotori87]

I'm actually kinda curious, how would Britain reacted, historically, to raids like this? Would they send the whole GF out in pursuit, or would they send a smaller unit like the BCF or individual battle squadrons? How would their reaction differ if they didn't get warning from Room 40?

 

[Von der Tann]

I think that the Battlecruiser Fleet would have taken up the habit to be on call not far from the blockade line and tried to cut off or destroy the lone raider/s. But of course that could have opened excellent opportunities for u-boat ambushes and mining, or even trying to destroy part of the British fleet. To counter that, the entire Grand Fleet would have to keep on full alert - very frustrating in the long run, especially if not much is happening for a long time.

That far up north, the Royal Navy didn't really expect any surface ships and tended to be careless in their escort duty, which enabled Bremse and Brummer to win an easy victory in 1917 when they mauled that convoy inbound from Scandinavia. But the sheer distance from Germany would also have posed a serious risk for the raiders, since it would only take one unlucky hit, machine breakdown or mine hit to make them helpless far off from home. To minimize this threat, the High Seas Fleet might have taken up a support position some way off.

A rhigh-risk gamble, to be sure. But with much to be gained as well, so it might be worth it.

 

[NR61]

So far I've had a lot of luck using the BC's to partol north of Scotland. So far I've only done this on 1 campaign but I didn't get a peep out of the british naval forces.

I usually send them out at intervals so there was a constant rotation of BC's on patrol.

 

[gascan]

This is probably a good question for Bullethead: does the AI do anything if the German player sends raiders up north or through the channel to the west coast? As a British player, how would you react to such a a raid?

 

[Von der Tann]

Good question... what would Jellicoe or Beatty have done about it? Perhaps they would have sent the BCF after them, or maybe assign battleships to the convoys - which would have jeopardized the British superiority in the North Sea, of course. However, the German BC were not really built for long cruises, and their weakest point would be the necessity to refuel and repair. Room 40 might have proven to be critical in that respect, and the loss of one of the priceless battlecruisers could have put Scheer or the Kaiser off further sorties of that kind.

The Germans might have a chance to shock the British public with a move like this, especially if the navy would have thought it counter-productive to send any major forces after the raiders. The actual effect of such a cruise could have been outweighed by far by the damage in extra carefulness and pointless actions taken to pacify public panic, much like the zeppelin attacks did. And in forcing the Royal Navy to safeguard the western approaches against more than subs alone, other raiders could have profited from that dispersion, or the High Seas Fleet might have gained more manoeuvring space, since it would have taken longer to assemble the whole of the Grand Fleet.

 

[bill44]

All, some more intell on Lutzow's cruise, the RN did indeed react to the attacks, sending the GF and BCS out looking for me, in fact I ran in to the BCS, but distance and speed were on my side. I have also sent Zepplins out to spot the British, so I can keep ahead of them, Seydilitz is now in enemy waters !