Major Victory for the HSF

[bill44]

What a two weeks it's been for the HSF.
For the loss of Nassau, and Westfalen, they have accounted for 5 BC's and 5 BB's.
I had noticed that the British had begun to split up their forces, smaller groups of BC's and BB's, with various escorts, patrolling the North sea, I wanted to exploit these smaller forces, so I formed three battle groups.

1. My BC's, Seydelitz, Derflinger, Moltke, and Lutzow.
2. BB's, Westfalen, Nassau, Helgoland, Oldenburg, and Rheinland.
3. BB's Ostfriesland, Grosser Kurfurst, Kaiserin, Konig, Konig Albert, Prinzregent Leopold, Kronprinz, Kaiser, and Thuringen.

Initially I hoped to use my BC's as bait, to lure a larger force in to range of my BB's, but with the added advantage of speed should I need a quick escape.
My first battle however was between my 14 heavies and a BC group, it was early morning, grey skies, and I had the advantage, the British seemed to had split their group, Australia, New Zealand and Indefatigable, were sailing in line abreast, all three carried light damage from previous encounters. Invincible, Inflexible and Indominitable were further back they too sailed abreast.

I turned my group round to port, and roughly parralell to the British ships course, range was around 9000. I targeted the the first three BC's, and as they were in a direct line abreast, I targeted New Zealand, as she was in the middle I knew any shells that were over or under were bound to hit the other two ships. My stratetgy worked, Australia and Indefatigable were hit, but NZ bore the brunt of the hits and soon fell out of line, and was reduced to sinking condition in just 6 minutes, I then turned on Invincible, Inflexible, and Indomitable, hits were obtained very quickly, Inflexible, blew up, 14 minutes in to the battle, followed 5 minutes later by Invincible.
In all this I had suffered only minor damage, Australia and Indefatigable were leaving the battle as fast as they could, along with Indomitable, the escorting DD's turned to attack and were blasted to pieces..
I headed out of the area as I believed that there were other British heavies, out of sight.

 

[bill44]

Part II

I now had my blood up, and wanted to finish off the suviving 3 BC's, my zepplins tracked them as they fled SSW.
I caught them early next morning, very early 02:58, A hail of shells exploded Australia's midships magazine, the pride of the RAN was gone in 30 seconds, I then began to blast her escorts, that was intill Indefatigable appeared out of the darkness 7 minutes later, I pounded her mercilessly she survived what appeared to be a magazine blast some 3 minutes later and the exact time of her sinking was not noticed.

 

[bill44]

Part III
The exhausted german sailors were jubilant, extra rum rations were passed around, but their greatest victory was still to come.
Three hours later, the German battle group ran in to a group of light forces, they accounted for these and chased after another group, soon dark smoke was sighted, it took some time for the ships to be identified, they were the super dreadnought's, the biggest in the fleet, the Queen Elizabeth's, and it was all five of them. Surley they would turn and run thought the German commander, but no, they charged straight at the German battle line.
In responce the Germans increased speed, they were broadside on to the approaching British, and could bring all their guns to bear, whilst the british would have to make do with their forward turrets only, the range was around 9000 for the lead ship Ostfriesland to 14000 for the rear most ship Thuringen.
The Westfalens were further back, they targetted the Valliant, the rear most ship, whilst the lead ship Barham was targeted by the other ships.
Eventually all five ships were targetted by at least two German ships
Warspite was the first lost at 6:53, followed by Queen Elizabeth two minutes later, Malaya blew up at 07:04, followed by Valliant at 07:10. But Barham refused to give up, she was battered, but still fired her one good turret in defiance, she finally slipped under at 07:21.
The battle had cost the Germans two ships, Nassua blew up in a fire ball early on in the battle and after that Westfalen was targetted, and battered, she was unable to recover from her damage and sank at 07:22.

 

[bill44]

Part IV
This is the curent situation for my surviving ships, 4 British BB's are after me at 19 knots, with AC's and CL's in support, and the BC Invincible, who is not actually part of this force, but they are spread out all over the sea, which leads me to believe they are remnants of the previous task forces I have engaged. I'm heading roughly SSE, if I stay on this course, the BB's will intercept me, of my 12 remaing ships, only Helgoland is really not battle worthy.
Shoud I turn and fight or head for safety ?

My BC's were engaged in a running chase for 6 hours ! they finally gave the British the slip and headed for home, but perhaps I may need reinforcments.

 

[gascan]

Check the ammunition levels of your ships. After a big fight like that, they may be very low, and undamaged ships may be lost if they can't return fire. In my campaign, the British have nothing larger than an armored cruiser by the end of February. I sank half the fleet at the Battle of Great Yarmouth, then fought the Battle of Hull. At Yarmouth, most of my casualties were during a night action, and the darkness resulted in a battle at less than 5km. At Hull, I fought during the day and sank all but two of their capital ships for the cost of a single destroyer and almost all of my ammunition. As dusk fell, their ACs caught up to Von Der Tann, the only ship that had any ammo left, and engaged at close range in the fading light. VDT sank two ACs, but was sunk by the British 9.2" guns. Had I backed off the earlier fight and saved some ammunition, I would have been able to engage any pursuers with my whole force, rather than let them overwhelm any single ship.

Take advantage of the German advantage: you have the initiative. You can choose to come out whenever you are ready, and the British must respond. For now, you probably want to go home to reload, since pushing too hard can cause irreplaceable losses. You can head out afterward with ships that are still in good health. Keep your fast CLs alive as best as possible, since these are invaluable for small-ship operations like raiding or sinking patrols.

I would also advise against getting close to Agincourt: her 12 cannons are not accurate at range (central control, but no director equipment), but they pack a HUGE wallop when they start hitting at closer ranges. When I finished off the last survivors of the fleet in a yet-to-be-named battle between Lerwick and Scapa Flow, I passed within 1 km of the sinking wreck of Agincourt and she scored two volleys in a row on Seydlitz, which barely survived.

 

[bill44]

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll head home, but I'm going to have to sail SSW, to put some space between me and the British.
I'd love to hear about those two battles, how did you manage to achieve victory ?