Noob Campaign May 1916 Room 40 German

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Pursuit of the BCF

By 0421 the Hochseeflotte had sunk two battlecruisers and Lion had sunk from collision damage.

We are pursuing the BCF, but are delayed by waves of light cruisers and destroyers pushing us back and launching torpedoes. We target the light cruisers and our secondaries rip up their destroyers.

We continue to pursue and fire on the Cats and Fifth BS at long range.

Valiant is making 22 knots.

Over the next hour we sink all their light forces except for Fearless, Cordelia and two DD groups.

Meanwhile, our Torpedoboote have sailed at high speed to the north of the enemy and form up ahead of them.

The Cats and BCF are moving away at 22 knots WNW.
 
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Massed torpedo attack!

At 0528 we commence a mass torpedo attack!

This is intended to operate as an "anvil" attack from ahead on both bows.

One flotilla crosses their bow heading SE, another just afterward heads NE.

I have problems getting the tubes to bear fast enough, but eventually we do launch a lot of torpedoes.

Sadly, the Cats nimbly dodge our torpedoes, while shredding us with their secondaries.

Within minutes most of our Torpedoboote are sinking.

But we do seem to have gotten one hit.

Valiant has slowed from 22 knots to 15 knots and is moderate.

The Cats flee at 24 knots.

In the end, the cost is high: fifteen Torpedoboote sunk in this attack.

We turn our leading two division to course 315 to open up their broadsides.

At 0545, our efforts are rewarded! Warspite explodes!

We continue to pursue, exchanging fire with Barham and Malaya. We leave Valiant alone so she can slow the others, but by 0552 she has a 5 degree list.
Kronprinz's steering is damaged (29%).

At 0557, Kronprinz's forward turret is destroyed.

At 0603, we notice Barham increasing speed to 24 knots and passing Valiant. Malaya stays behind Valiant matching speed at 15 knots.

Then, at 0612, with Valiant listing nine degress, Malaya is hit amidships and explodes!

0618 A 15" shell hits Kronprinz's conning tower. The captian is disabled, and central fire control is damaged.

Valiant finally rolls over to starboard at 0636, and goes down by the bow.

We continue to pursue, but cannot make 24 knots. Our forward magazines are exhausted. Grosser Kurfurst fires her last few rounds just before Barham slips out of range.

We gather our remaining forces and head southeast.

Unfortuntely, as we turn away, Grosser Kurfurst rams Konig (which was following Markgraf, which I had ordered to form on GK). The damage is not too severe, but slows Konig.

In the end, the BCF has lost 33 ships (including AVs Engadine and Manxman) and now consists of Princess Royal, Tiger, Queen Mary, Barham, Fearless, Cordelia and 9 destroyers.

They depart at 24-25 knots on heading 290.

We have lost sixteen Torpedoboote, and have relatively little damage to our battleline. However, ammo is low in the forward turrets, and also port side.
Secondary ammo, 15 cm, is especially low.

At 0732, after 3 hours and 49 minutes the engagement ends.

I plan to reorganize the task forces, but there is no opportunity!
 
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Reunion with uninvited guests

Admiral's Log, Hochseeflotte
0733 June 3, 1916

Lookouts report much smoke to the north. At first, I thought that the BCF was back for more. But, no, there are 13 British battleships, many destroyers, light cruisers and another seaplane tender.

We probe with our own kleine kreuzers and Torpedoboote, and soon we realize that we have encountered the entire Grand Fleet! And they are heading straight for us!

Tired and low on ammunition, particularly our forward batteries, we turn away in line abreast to the Southwest on heading 225.

0801 Cordelia is spotted by Hannover, 27 km to the NW on course 125, speed 26 knots.

0810 Bayern and KGV exchange shots. Queen Mary appears! The BCF is back for revenge!

0823 Bayern gets her first hit on KGV!

0845 Hannover hit by a 13.5" shell. Schleswig-Holstein is hit by a 15" shell. The BCF is attacking the predreadnoughts on our western flank!

I order the First Battle Squadron to reform in line ahead on our west flank to cover the Second Battle Squadron's predreadnoughts.

0848 Westfalen is hit by two 13.5" shells. Hannover is hit by four 13.5" shells.

0901 Hannover dodges a torpedo launched by the Cats!

0907 Bayern has moved beyond the range of the British and has matched course and speed to KGV. She uses her superior range to hit KGV, occasionally, with impunity! KGV now slows to 18 knots.

We hear guns to the north! It is our Grosse Kreuzers fighting their way through the BCF and GF destroyers!

Hannover is holding up well, but Hessen has been hit hard. Both of her main turrets are out of action and she has lost speed.

We continue to battle the Cats and Barham to the west of our line. I order Frauenlob and Graudenz behind our line to discourage the Grand Fleet destroyers which creep up from time to time.

0917 Hessen is fighting fires and flooding, her starboard 17 cm ammo is gone.
A bit more than five minutes from this brave ship!

0932 Princess Royal is the first of the of the Cats to falter, slowing to 19 knots and turning away. Queen Mary and Tiger follow, but Barham continues to pound us with her 15" guns.

We reduce our fire to conserve ammunition. Only two ships fire at Barham now to make more efficient use of our remaining shells.

0934 Barham slows to 20 knots, with waterline hits on her port bow.

0938 The Cats return at 20 knots. The Grosse Kreuzers are still working their way around the enemy destroyers. But their own destroyers are growing near.

0951 KGV is making 18 knots with some large holes near the waterline. Bayern shifts fire to Ajax, moving directly in front of their line so that unders may hit KGV and overs hit Centurion. At this range, over 22 km, Bayern is not very accurate.

1003 Barham is moderately damaged, slowing to 18 knots.

1029 Oldenburg explodes and quickly sinks, our first loss of a capital ship!

1036 Barham and Princess Royal are reduced to 17 knots, we are wearing them down!

1043 Princess Royal begins to list to port!

1047 Derfflinger and Moltke fire on Queen Mary which turns north to engage them with Tiger following. Helgoland has suffered numerous 15" shells and has lost four of her six 30,5 cm turrets.

1055 V28, V27 and S51 launch torpedoes at Barham! Tiger, damaged, slows to 19 knots. Princess Royal is heavily damaged and her list to port is increasing!

1109 Barham lists to port, Princess Royal has a pronounced list of seven degrees to port.

1118 Helgoland is listing to starboard and down to 10 knots (82%/42% starboard flooding).

1120 Moltke and following BCs (all except Derfflinger) turn away from a torpedo attack.

1129 Princess Royal is silent as she rolls over, but at the last she fires a couple of secondary rounds before she sinks at 1136.

Tiger heads north; Queen Mary and Barham steer towards Hessen.

1145 The Grosse Kreuzers cease fire to conserve ammunition. The remnants of the BCF are slowed and listing.

1147 Helgoland hits Queen Mary, which is now heavily damaged, listing four degrees to starboard and making 16 knots.

1157 Barham has turned north and begins to slowly sink, in full view of the Grand Fleet battleline, which is struggling to pursue, but only gaining on Hessen and Helgoland.

Our Grosse Kreuzers turn away under fire from the GF battleline!

Derfflinger and Moltke are each hit once.

1205 Queen Mary is listing twelve degrees, Tiger is listing five degrees and Barham is sinking. Helgoland reports status: Damage control 78%, steering 5%, power/propulsion 13% persistent, port flooding 3% persistent, starboard flooding 51%/42% and she has nothing to fight back with (all remaining turrets are out of ammo).

1212 Queen Mary sinks.
1214 Barham's crew abandons her.
1218 Barham sinks. Tiger is no longer visible but was listing badly with the sea reaching more holes as she lists further to port (six degrees at our last sighting).

1239 Bayern hits Centurion (an over).

1241 KGV fires on Helgoland.

1245 Bayern hits Ajax (her target)

1304 Bayern hits Centurion (over easy :)!

1120 Most of our battleline is beyond their vision, we come around to course 180.

1121 The GF battleline turns to course 239, towards brave Helgoland, Hessen and the rest of the Sceond Battle Squadron.

The question is now: Do we save the fleet, sacrificing these brave men or do we stand and fight?

Stay tuned for the next installment of Skagerrakschlacht, June 3!
 
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Schlachtkreuzer ran an den Feind, voll einsetzen!

Admiral's Log, Hochseeflotte, June 3, 1916

My apologies to Firestorm for using his sig, but it is certainly fitting!

This is a bit confused, as it all happened rather quickly, but here are my recollections and brief notes.

Between 1320 and 1404:

I order our Torpedoboote to move north of our line and prepare for torpedo attack. I issued the following order to Admiral Hipper:

"Schlachtkreuzer ran an den Feind, voll einsetzen!"

Scouting Group One (heading NE) and the Torpedoboote sped toward the enemy at full speed! Bayern charged as well to use her 60 cm torpedoes.

Our losses were grave, first to fall was Seydlitz, then Lutzow, Derfflinger and finally, Bayern. Many Torpedoboote were lost as well.

But, our brave men did not die in vain!

The enemy lost: KGV, Ajax, Orion, Erin, Centurion, Monarch, Conqueror and Superb!

And their line was thrown into confusion!

But they were not done with us yet!
 
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Five against the Hochseeflotte

Admiral's Log, Hochseeflotte, June 3, 1916

Following the death ride of the battlecruisers, we continued to work our way around to the south and east.

I believe that most of the destruction they caused was due to the guns of SG1 and Bayern. However, a torpedo did find Royal Oak limiting her speed to 13 knots. This would loom large as you will see.

Out of the chaos of the British battle line emerged first Thunderer and then Collossus, Collingwood, Neptune and St. Vincent.

We turned the Third Battle Squadron, Moltke and von der Tann north and engaged them at long range.

Thunderer had uncanny accuracy and hit von der Tann twice in her engine rooms, but we were able to effect repairs and get much of her speed back.

Konig Albert lost one turret destroyed and another damaged, but we struck back as well:

1545 Neptune blows up and sinks!

1559 Thunderer explodes and sinks!

We continue dueling the other three until at 1625, the rest of their line sorts itself out and starts to deploy, we turn away and they turn back on themselves. Colossus and her brood join them in confusion. We observe Temeraire ramming St. Vincent!

Suddenly, at 1638, after nine hours and five minutes, the battle ends!

German: 59 ships, 31 damaged, 16 lost.
British: 106 ships, 32 damaged, 25 lost.

Note: Some British destroyers sank for reasons unknown to us, especially near the beginning of the engagement. Mines, perhaps?
 
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The deck is reshuffled!

Admiral's Log, Hochseeflotte
June 3, 1916

No sooner do we resume our task force formation (which we accomplish with unbelievable speed), than we once again sight the enemy, who has also accomplished an amazing transformation, all the more so, since their battleships were rather in a knot when last seen!

Thankfully, Hessen and Helgoland have slipped past them!

The sea state is 4, visibility 241 hm, wind 20 knots ENE.

We see our old friends Cordelia, Fearless and Lydiard.

And we get a closer look at Minotaur (should the middle 7.5" have a 180 degree filed of fire?), Hampshire and Owl; Defence and Warrior; Black Prince, Duke of Edinburgh and Mischief.

1700 SG I pursues the BCF (no battlecruisers left, but it's how we know them)! Moltke hits Cordelia with a 28 cm shell! Moderate damage, but no reduction in speed:upset:

1718 The Armored Cruisers flee, and we see Iron Duke heading own way at 12 knots.

1812 Emperor of India has joined the enemy battleline!

1906 Motlke is hit twice by Royal Oak, but fortunately, damage is light, and speed is soon restored. We are more careful about chasing the ACs, as the visibility becomes less than the enemy's range.

We continue to have intermittent contact with the enemy until 1925 at which time we consolidate our task forces and prepare for night action with the enemy Armored Cruisers. Kaiser, Prinz Regent Luitpold and Kaiserin take up rearguard position, preceed by the Konigs. An important reason ofr this disposition is that the Kaisers trailed in the pursuit of the BCF, and thus have more ammunition, especially the now rare 15 cm shells! The Konigs have no 30,5 cm ammunition for their forward turrets. KA, FdG and VdT take the lead, followed by the Nassau class.

I decide to change course from bearing 136 to 90, so as to take the northern route around the minefields, and hopefully confuse our pursuers.

As night falls, it seems that we have shaken the pursuit!
 
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The last of the Mohicans

Quite a battle! Hope you make it home ;)
Thanks!

Admiral's Log, Hochseeflotte
June 3, 1916

We sail undisturbed for two hours into the night.

Suddenly, Frauenlob sounds the alarm and activates her searchlights!

She is off the port bow of the leading ships of the battleline! We had expected contact from behind, off the rearguard's starboard quarter.

It is 2136.

Frauenlob identifies a light cruiser off her port quarter at about 3 km.

KA, VdT and my flagship turn quickly to port frantically searching for the enemy!

Kaiser leads her division and encounters a destroyer.

2142 Lydiard is sinking.

2153 After leading two battleship divisions and five light cruisers a merry chase, Cordelia is cornered and hit by a 30,5 cm shell.

2154 Cordelia is hit repeatedly, heavily damaged, riddled by 15 cm shells from KA. Seconds later she is listing and ablaze!

2200 Another crusier has slipped past us and spotted by Posen which had circled around after Cordelia's destruction.

2202 Posen slams a 28 cm shell into the stern of Fearless!

2205 Cordelia is gone. She was our most relentless antagonist!

2207 Grosser Kurfurst, Posen and Markgraf fire on Fearless hitting her near simultaneously with main battery fire and leaving her broken and in flames!

2216 Fearless' crew abandons ship.

2217 Fearless sinks, Roper perishes.

2218 The engagement ends.
German: 46 ships, 33 damaged, 0 lost.
British: 86 ships, 29 damaged, 3 lost.

We receive an encrypted signal from Wilhelmshaven. The wait while the message is decoded wears on my nerves. But, it is necessary to maintain secure communications!

Many ships have been spotted at:
55 degrees, 30' N, 3 degrees, 6' E, course 62.

Destroyers spotted at: 55 degrees 43' N, 3 degrees 6' E, course 135

Our position is: 55 degrees 30' N, 3 degrees 53' E, course 90.

The weather is becoming rougher, and the waves higher.

June 4, 1916
0056 Kaiserin sights a destroyer directly behind her at 1800m!

0057 Kaiserin turns to starboard as the destroyer turns to port,
she fires, direct hit by her stern 30,5 cm turrets! The destroyer is utterly destroyed and sinks about 15 minutes later.

0100 Another destroyer is spotted, we turn on her!

0104 The second destroyer is sinking. The heavy seas doom their crews.

Wind 30 knots NNE, sea state 6, 4m waves.

0112 Ariel sinks, Estes is lost. Attack sinks.

These are the last of the Mohicans. The BCF has been utterly annihilated!

No ships will return to Rosyth! No battleships will return to Cromarty!

0342 With the daylight we receive additional U-boot sightings.

The Grand Fleet is pursuing us, but is 100 km behind us!

Sea state 7, 6m waves. Wind 34 knots NNE. Visibility 237 hm.

The seas again rise to foil their pursuit!
 
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Storm warning

Meanwhile, back at Scapa Flow:

CS Thunberg makes her way through heavy weather NE of Scapa when she is spotted by HMS Cheerful. At first she turns away...the weather, sun in her eyes. No. after a full 360, she comes for us...at 11 knots, but we are only making 8.

I get some nice screenshots as she makes her way through the 6 meter waves, but she runs us down in the end!

And back at Weymouth, Mowe strays into range of the batteries off Portland, and is hit once for minor damage (1% persistent flooding).

At 0850 Mowe sights CS Benlawers and chases her toward the shore, but we lose her in the mist, then sight her again, but in the end lose her for good:upset:

It is now 1054 and the sea state is 8, 12 meter waves, 42 knot North wind!

1149 We sight her again. but out to sea!

But, no, this isn't CS Benlawers, it is CS Benlomond!

She struggles to make 6 knots as we manage 8! She is fiercely rolling and the waves even reach her deck!

1508 After three hours and nineteen minutes, she is ours!

1827 The weather suddenly clears as the storm rolls past and we sight TB 324.

She pursues us until at 1939 we hit her with a 15 cm shell at 2100m.

1941 A second hit, and she is sinking. But she peppers us with her 37mm revolver damaging a 15 cm mount, the 10,5 cm mount and two torpedo tubes.

Fortunately, she is already doomed, and our damage can be repaired.
 
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The Trap

2023 June 4, 1916

SMS Arcona is patrolling at the edge of the Bight minefields when she is struck by an 18" Mark VIII torpedo. Damage is moderate. Best speed is down to 10 knots.

2029 A second torpedo hits!

2034 A third!

2057 A fourth!

2108 The fifth torpedo hits!

June 5 0019 SMS Arcona list 3, seems to be chasing off two E class British subs (she should make for port, but seems intent on her patrol).


Admiral's Log, Hochseeflotte
June 5, 1916

0455 The Hochseeflotte returns home to a glorious welcome!

The celebration is dampened by the news that Arcona has been struck by a sixth 18" torpedo hit, ironically, just as we reach safety.

0500 Arcona sinks.

It seems that the British set a submarine trap for our return! My decision to sail east instead of southeast foiled them, but they took out their frustration on poor Arcona!

The Hochseeflotte begins loading ammunition; after all, there are still British ships afloat!
 
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Storm Warning

Bullethead,

Here's one for you! I need to load photoshop on here, as I play at full screen! I believe that this is sea state 7.

DS!
 
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Sea State 8!

Here are two of Mowe running down a merchant in heavy weather, these are of the merchant. She was making 6 knots.
 
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Peace in our time

Admiral's Log, Hochseeflotte
June 5, 1916
0950

I have been advised to suspend further operations as the foriegn service wishes to exploit the current victory as the effect on British public will be dramatic!

Since no ships at all are returning to Rosyth, and no battleships are returning to Cromarty (and Jellicoe may well have taken them all to Scapa Flow), the British fleet has vanished from the eyes of the public.

Our papers are putting out editions describing a crushing defeat of the Grand Fleet and the annihilation of the Battlecrusier Fleet.

We have acheived parity in Dreadnought battleships, and have good reason to believe that ours are superior.

Perhaps, now the British will see the futility of their entry into this war on the side of the French and Russians.

Note: Here is my end game notice (I fixed the grammar a bit):

Germany's position is more advantageous.
The war will continue, but the Imperial Navy's
success at sea has resulted in serious internal
political problems for the Entente powers. A
negotiated end to the war seems likely.

Your campaign victory level is 30.

I had German++ at the end.

So, that's it, my first campaign! I made a lot of mistakes, and really need to work on my torpedo attacks (Could we have a Ready - Train (the torpedo tubes) - Fire set of commands. I always seemed to be waiting for the slothful training of the torpedo tubes during the attack. I mean, what is the point of charging into the enemy with the tubes pointed straight aft, when they can only fire off the beam?

But, I had a really great time! The AI does some strange things, and the transition from battle mode to campaign mode is a little anomalous sometimes, but this is a really incredible experience!

If you haven't tried the campaign, I highly recommend it!
There is nothing quite like the thrill of entering a battle in the early dawn light with only a couple of enemy ships visible, wondering if it is a detachment, or the whole Grand Fleet!

And be certain to explore! Bullethead has researched and populated shore batteries everywhere, make certain to visit them all! Just don't get too close!

DS!
 
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More screenshots

Here are a few more photos:

1) Barham sinking in view of the Grand Fleet.

2) The Grand Melee!

3) Grand Fleet maneuvers.

4) Ramming speed!
 
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