All at Sea - On the Stocks in JJ's Dockyard (Bob's British Squadron)

It was nearly two years ago that I first started work on the Warlord Games Black Seas British Squadron box set of model 1:700th ships, which comes complete with a British first rate, three third rates Colossus, Ajax and Mars and three fifth rates, Euryalus, Naiad and Indefatigable plus some brigs and a set of gunboats.

However in 2022, JJ's Shipyard is contracted to build a squadron for a foreign power, and Bob has commissioned me to put together a British and French squadron to form the core of his own collection, which I plan to build in between projects of my own.

Naiad, nearest camera and partly sporting standing rigging sits next to Indefatigable and Euryalus, fully rigged and with the third and first rates behind awaiting their fitting out. 

Thus with the completion of my AWI Jaegers over the Xmas break, I immediately popped the box on the British squadron and had them primed before New Year to begin work on them in the January and this week the build moved into the fitting out yard where the models get rigged and have their colours attached.

Close up of the three British frigates getting rigged this week. Naiad awaits her shrouds before work on the running rigging can be done.

With regard to my own collection, I only have a few smaller models to add and am really 'treading water' on new builds until Warlord release their new models and while I work up playing the large battles that the current collection was designed for.

HMS Colossus - Austin Johnson
http://scillydivers.blogspot.com/p/wreck-of-hms-colossus.html
A reconstruction of HMS Colossus wrecked off the Scilly Isles in 1798 and the inspiration for the model seen below.

The big battle practice started this month with the Battle of Cape Finisterre scenario played at the Devon Wargames Group meeting and I am now in the process of putting the final touches to a 225th anniversary playing of the Battle of Cape St Vincent, also at the club using Kiss Me Hardy, alongside a campaign to run a series of games through this year.

Devon Wargames Group - An Opportunity Mist, Battle of Cape Ferrol

In the meantime, whilst looking to share some love with other collections of figures, I am keen to bring to the table, I thought the love could go a bit further by helping mates to complete their own collections of model ships, whilst allowing me to keep up my painting and modelling skills for these kits which I will need for the Dutch.

The mighty first rate in Revolutionary War trim stands proud next to the third rates, Ajax and Mars and with HMS Colossus, built in 1787, seen, back left, also in a similar trim, representing the vessel that was wrecked off the Scilly Isles in December 1798

So the next time I feature Bob's British Squadron it will be to cheer them down the slips with a jaunty rendition of God Save the King before getting the band to brush up on their version of La Marseillaise in preparation for a similar French Squadron build.

The All at Sea theme will also include a look at the planning and preparation that has gone into putting the Battle of Cape St Vincent project together which has included much fun sorting out which Spanish ships were actually there!

More anon

JJ

Battle of Cape Finisterre/ Ferrol or 'Calder's Action' - 22nd July 1805

A brand new year started at the Devon Wargames Group this weekend and with a lot of optimism that slowly but surely things are and will get better, with at least the hope this year of getting a full calendar of events completed at club this year when compared with our late start last year

Keen to carry on playing games with my own lockdown project, the 1:700th collection of Napoleonic ships, I ran a Kiss Me Hardy (KMH) Scenario from the Too Fat Lardies Summer Special of 2006, entitled 'An Opportunity Mist' recalling the difficult visibility conditions that accompanied the somewhat indecisive Battle of Cape Ferrol or perhaps more commonly referred to as the Battle of Cape Finisterre or 'Calder's Action' fought in the summer of 1805 

If you would like to see how this game turned out then you can follow the link below to the club blog to see an AAR of our game.

Devon Wargames Group - An Opportunity Mist, Battle of Cape Ferrol

This post is designed to throw some light on to what led up to this battle and its aftermath.

The complex manoeuvring that ensued in the summer of 1805 is well illustrated by Mark Adkin's map of what would become known as the Trafalgar Campaign with the Battle of Cape Finisterre or Ferrol or Calder's Action, depending on your preference, shown occurring on the 22nd July.

On the 7th July 1805, HM Brig Curieux arrived in Plymouth, having been sent by Admiral Nelson from the West Indies after his fruitless pursuit of French Admiral Villeneuve's, Combined Fleet, there from the Mediterranean, carrying the latest news of the whereabouts of the enemy fleet, updated by Captain Bettesworth, commander of the Curieux, who had seen Villeneuve's fleet standing to the northward, some 900 miles north-north-east of Antigua on his voyage home and thus indicated they were heading towards the Bay of Biscay area rather than back to the Mediterranean, as Nelson had suspected. 

The confused indecisive skirmish that was the Battle of Cape Finisterre 22nd July 1805 comes to life on our table at the Devon Wargames Group for our first meeting in 2022

Devon Wargames Group - An Opportunity Mist, Battle of Cape Ferrol

Bettesworth hastened to the Admiralty in London, arriving late on the 8th July, to find Lord Barham, the First Lord had retired to bed and no one dared wake him, leaving his Lordship furious the next morning to find that seven to eight precious hours had been lost.

Admiral Charles Middleton, Lord Barham, First Lord of the Admiralty in 1805 - Isaac Pocock (Royal Museums Greenwich)
Similar to Lord Dowding's handling of the victory that was the Battle of Britain, perhaps Lord Barham is the unsung hero of the Trafalgar Campaign having the wit, even at the grand age of 80 together with a superior understanding of commanding naval forces over vast distances to undo all the machinations of Napoleon Bonaparte, unable to grasp the differences and difficulties in manoeuvring Naval Squadrons to that of Army Corps.

Without waiting to dress, he jotted down a note of what he considered should be done, stating;

'My idea is to send the intelligence direct to Admiral Cornwallis (Commander Channel Fleet) who may be directed to strengthen Sir Robert Calder's squadron with the Rochefort squadron and as many ships of his own as will make them up to 15, to cruise of Cape Finisterre from 10 to 50 leagues to the west. To stand to the southward and westward with his own ships, at the same distance for 10 days. Cadiz to be left to Lord Nelson.'

Barham had decided to strengthen his forces at the likely decisive point designed to unhinge French plans to dominate the English Channel by decisively defeating and destroying one of their key squadrons, that of Villeneuve, at the expense of abandoning the blockade of Rochefort. However he failed to clearly reveal this intent to Cornwallis who clearly failed to recognise the importance of Calder's mission by informing Stirling and thus Calder on his arrival.

Calder's Action living up to its billing recreating the confused action in the fog that were the key characteristics of the battle.

Devon Wargames Group - An Opportunity Mist, Battle of Cape Ferrol

On receipt of this new information, Cornwallis immediately ordered Stirling to join Calder which he did on the 15th July and as soon as the French in Rochefort realised that Stirling was no longer blockading the port, Captain Zacharie Allemand led his squadron to sea bound for Ireland in compliance with his orders to create a diversion. Napoleon had changed these orders, wanting Allemand to rendezvous with Villeneuve off Ferrol, but his new orders arrived after the French squadron had left port and thus Allemand would not take part in any of the upcoming actions.

Barham's planned interception took place almost on the exact position predicted on the 22nd July with the advance squadron of Calder's fleet consisting of the frigates Egyptienne, Sirius and the 74's Defiance and Ajax out ahead of the fleet in two columns, when, towards noon, the mists parted to allow men in the crosstrees of HMS Defiance to spot strange sails far to the south-west.

Captain Richard Durham and his officers excitedly scanned the horizon with their telescopes, identifying the strangers as the enemy and signalling first twenty-four, then later twenty-seven ships of the line and frigates in sight, and Calder ordered his fleet to bear to the south-west and clear for action.

With sixteen miles separating the two fleets it would take a further five hours sailing at about three knots in the slight breeze before the closest ships would be near enough to open fire.

It was not until 13.00 that Villeneuve's lookouts on his leading frigates reported the approach of the British fleet of twenty-one sail at which the French admiral hoisted the signal for his three columns to form a close hauled line of battle on the Spanish leeward squadron led by Admiral Gravina in the Argonauta 80-guns.

Map adapted from Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail - Tunstall & Tracy

The decks were cleared for action and the ships closed up to half a cable (100 yards), riding a heavy swell and passing through thick patches of fog, that only parted sufficiently at 15.30 to allow both commanders to get a longer and more informative look at each other.

At about 16.30 Calder appreciated that if he maintained his current course, with the two fleets only about eight miles apart and with the Combined Fleet heading north, the enemy might escape and so he signalled the fleet to tack in succession and come round onto a northerly course, surprisingly he did not consider tacking together and thus speeding up the whole progress to the north.

Map - The Trafalgar Companion, Mark Adkins

At about the same time as Calder ordered his fleet to head north the British frigate Sirius 36-guns, operating well ahead of the fleet, found herself at the rear of the Combined fleet heading towards the French frigate Sirene, herself towing a captured treasure galleon, reportedly valued at 15 million francs; a tempting prize for Captain William Prouse who on closing with the Sirene came under fire that so alarmed Villeneuve that his rear was under attack caused the French admiral to order a change of course by wearing south, back towards his rear, thus causing both fleets to return to approaching each other from opposite directions.

The change of course had a sobering effect on Captain Prouse aboard the Sirius as his attempt to seize the treasure ship was abruptly halted with the looming shape of the 80-gun Argonauta suddenly bearing down from out of the fog and causing the British frigate to make a hasty retreat, with the Spanish honouring the code by not firing a single shot at the much smaller British ship.

However the Argonuata soon found herself otherwise engaged as at around 17.30 the 74-gun Hero under Captain Alan Gardner complying with Calder's signal to 'engage the enemy more closely' yelled to his ship's master to tack immediately to larboard, thus bringing his starboard battery to bear and followed by the following ships in the British Van Squadron and from which position our game progressed, as seen below.

Devon Wargames Group - An Opportunity Mist, Battle of Cape Ferrol

The rather confused and certainly indecisive battle that followed would last about three and a half hours with the firing ceasing at about 21.00 with the failing light and gloom together with Calder's signal to break off combining to bring the fighting to a close; with the Spanish squadron having taken the brunt of the action, with Villeneuve's own flagship Bucentaure only suffering six casualties and the eight ships behind her taking no real part in the fighting.

The Spanish would see two of their ships captured, and 1,200 of their men taken prisoner whilst most of the 480 casualties were among their surviving ships a fact that would lead to much recriminations between the allies afterwards and see Villeneuve make a dramatic reorganisation of his squadrons to include both French and Spanish ships when they next met the British under Nelson off Cape Trafalgar in October.

Both admirals claimed success, and indeed Calder had captured two enemy ships with light casualties of under 200 men, with Calder's dispatch the next day declaring that it was;

'A very decisive action which lasted upwards of four hours, when I found it necessary to bring up the squadron to cover the captured ships.'

But with Villeneuve rather 'gilding the lily' by reporting;

'The enemy then made off. He had several vessels crippled aloft, and the field of battle remained ours. Cries of joy and victory were heard from all our ships.'

Calder would face a court martial, not for what he did, but rather for what he failed to do, allowing difficulties to persuade him not to resume the action in the following days, with both admirals sailing away from the area on the 25th having let each other move out of sight of each other and with Calder heading north to rejoin Cornwallis whilst Villeneuve sailed south-east for Vigo to replenish supplies and carry out repairs before heading south to Cadiz and the decisive Battle of Trafalgar nearly three months later.

Admiral Sir Robert Calder

Calder's trial lasted three days between 23rd to the 26th December 1805 held aboard the 98-gun three decker Prince of Wales and presided over by the Commander in Chief, Admiral George Montague delivering its condemning verdict after a rather lengthy and laborious preamble;

'the court is of the opinion, that the charge of not having done his utmost to renew the said engagement, and to take or destroy every ship of the enemy, has been proved against the said Vice-Admiral Calder; that it appears that his conduct has not been actuated by cowardice or disaffection, but has arisen solely from error in judgement, and is highly censurable, and doth adjudge him to be severely reprimanded, and the said Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Calder is hereby severely reprimanded accordingly.'

Sir Robert Calder never received another active command but was promoted to full admiral by seniority in 1810 and later appointed Commander in Chief at Portsmouth in 1815, dying in 1818 at the age of seventy-three.

Sources consulted for this post:

Far Distant Ships - Quintin Barry

The Trafalgar Companion - Mark Adkin

Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail - Brian Tunstall

The Battle of Trafalgar - Geoffrey Bennett

Target for Tonight, Op Eight- Dusseldorf (A Brutal Battle in Happy Valley)

No Turning Back - Robert Taylor

A very suitable header to start the post of our final game in our eight game Battle for Berlin Campaign with a Lancaster of 61 Squadron, piloted by Flight Lieutenant Bill Reid under attack from a Freejagd FW190 en-route to Dusseldorf on the 3rd November 1943, the very raid we were recreating in our final campaign operation and a climactic one to end our campaign on.

 https://www.aces-high.com/news/view/danger-in-the-dark---

This weekend I was at the DWG monthly club gathering and got to run the final game in an eight game campaign recreating the largest of the twelve Bomber Command operations over Germany that heralded the start of the Battle of Berlin; using the game rules Target for Tonight by David Wayne Thomas, originally intended to represent single Lancaster aircraft as part of a squadron on night operations which I have modified to include the range of British bombers used from mid 1942 and to represent the operations at a group level instead.

Of course I couldn't really know how playable my modifications were until they had been tested and so I have been very fortunate to have had a group of players in the club who have played the rules through each game to see how well they fitted with the original game system and how easy they are to get the hang of.

Flight Lieutenant William Reid, VC, 61 Squadron 

So that exercise came to an end this weekend with the playing of our Op to Dusseldorf recreating the historical attack carried out by 589 aircraft on the 3rd-4th November 1943 that would see the loss of eleven Lancasters and seven Halifaxes or 3.1% of the raiding force together with the award of the Victoria Cross to Flight Lieutenant William Reid of  61 Squadron who was attacked twice by a nightfighter on the way to the target.

Pressing on over the next 200 miles to the target with his aircraft badly damaged, most of its guns out of action, his navigator dead, a fatally injured wireless operator and with himself and his flight engineer also wounded, he obtained an 'aiming point' photograph over the target before turning for home.

The return flight was no less perilous with a shattered cockpit windscreen, no oxygen supply, and with both he and the flight engineer, Sergeant J.W. Norris, lapsing into semi-consciousness as they took turns to fly the plane but with Reid recovering enough to land it in misty conditions in Shipdham in Norfolk, even though he could not see properly with blood running into his eyes from a head wound.

The final alarm for that night concluded with the undercarriage collapsing after what turned out to be a successful landing.

Flight Lieutenant Reid was an exceptional pilot and very brave officer who would go on to serve later in the war with 617 (Dambusters) Squadron and surviving a Tallboy bomb destroying his aircraft after it had been dropped by another above him on a raid to destroy a V-Weapon storage dump at Rilly-la-Montagne, seeing him successfully bail out and end up a prisoner of war in Stalag-III west of Berlin

The list of the early raids for the Battle of Berlin period taken from the 'Bomber Command War Diaries' and used to generate the eight games we have played since March 2019, culminating in this one

If you are just joining our campaign in this the final post, you can follow all previous seven ops in the links below with Op 1 played back in March 2019 before Covid rather than bad light stopped play.

Op 1 - Berlin, 23rd-24th August 1943
Op 2 - Nuremberg, 27th-28th August 1943
Op 3 - Berlin, 31st August-1st September 1943
Op 4 - Mannheim, 5th-6th September 1943
Op 5 - Hannover, 22nd-23rd September 1943

Op 6 - Mannheim-Ludwigshaven, 23rd-24th September 1943

Op 7 - Hannover, 27th-28th September 1943

Our campaign has seen our Bomber Command force take a commanding lead in the early attacks on Berlin back in August with the Nachtjagd in disarray after the summertime firestorm attacks on Hamburg in July and with the use of Window (aluminium foil strips) dropped by bombers wrecking the previous ground radar directed intercepts; and forcing a change in German tactics with the nightfighters having to adopt a 'freejagd' intercept with their own airborne radar set to guide them after being directed as best as possible by ground radar into the suspected bomber stream.

However the Nachtjagd have clawed their way back with a mix of these improved tactics and just bad luck for Bomber Command on some of its target marking and drift consequences that have seen increased losses of bombers for poorer bombing results and the campaign hanging on a minor German victory with the following pronouncement on the result of the operations so far.

Bomber losses outweigh the damage inflicted

The raid planning map, part of the 'air-officers commanding' briefing notes sent out prior to each op with the last mission to Hannover reducing the average score per op to 7.6 VPs and the current situation

Obviously senior command could not possibly tolerate this situation with Bomber Harris keen to prove his theory that a land invasion of occupied Europe will be rendered unnecessary following a German capitulation once his 800 strong main-force of night bombers has fire-stormed its way through Berlin and the the other major German cites of the Reich.

Thus with Mainforce responding to the call for an all out operation and with squadrons pulling out the stops to put as many aircraft into the air the groups managed to muster a magnificent turn out for this last op in our campaign with just three novice and one experienced crew talking part and with the rest all veteran crews with no less than 14 operations to their credit and with two second tour elite crews one from Halifax (P-Popsie) from 4 Group and a Lancaster (R-Roger) from 5 Group each with 47-ops and 38-ops respectively.

This is what a maximum effort by Bomber Command can look like and giving every chance for a punishing last Op to Dusseldorf

Given the importance of this particular mission Bomber Command have insisted on a Very Heavy bomb lift at the expense of fuel given the close proximity of the target and relatively short flight time to and from and with the weather reports showing broken cloud over home airfields and clear skies over the Rhur Valley only offset by the persistent haze that covers the area all year round, much is expected from the attack.

The winds over the target were predicted as light and from the south, perfect for accurate bombing with only the haze interfering and requiring the use of 'Parramatta' target indicators rather than the ground marker 'Newhaven' flares, thus with a slight chance of drift, offset by the clear weather, the city falling under OBOE coverage and offering a good ground looking radar signature.

Dusseldorf is located at the confluence of the Rivers Rhine and Dussel and the seventh largest city in Germany and is a key oil refining centre with the Rhenania Ossag refineries located in the southern Reisholz district of the city together with the Mannesmann tubular steel works on the northern outskirts.

Our target map representing the city of Dusseldorf and with the 'Parramatta' target indicators yet to be placed by our pathfinders, ordered to mark the suburbs of Reisholz to allow for any potential drift north over the city centre and rail yards.

With our last op taking place at the end of September, a month has passed in the technological war and thus in October we find our Mainforce bombers equipped with H2S Mark II ground mapping sets for the first time, enhancing navigation and target identifying at night, but offset with the German introduction of Naxos Z radar sets, better able to pick up the downward beams emitted from the bombers and thus aid their location in the dark.

All our Mainforce bombers would be carrying H2S Mk II navigation radar sets together with Fishpond attack warning modifications.

In addition the survivability of the bombers is enhanced with Fishpond nightfighter attack warning radar and with the support of 100-Group now flying ABC Airborne Cigar frequency jamming aircraft to interfere with German ground to air direction communications which has forced the Nachtjagd to adapt, using Morse Code transmissions as a stopgap measure to overcome the interference, now being countered by 'Drumstick', seeing RAF operators filling the gaps in the Morse signals with dots and dashes of their own.

The intel sheet used to determine the latest technological developments in night bombing used to brief the players

As part of the briefing the group commanders all get a copy of the prepared group aircraft stat sheets, an example of which is shown below, showing each aircraft by call-sign and allowing them to mark off hits to any aircraft from flak or nightfighters, plus fuel used inflight and the factors indicating crew efficiency at their particular role or their gunnery skill in yellow, together with crew experience and any other particular factors that might affect their flight.

A very experienced turn out from 4-Group and their Halifax squadrons, with Bomber Command Royalty in the mix in the shape of P-Popsie ready to lead the way and prepared to press on regardless.

With the table set up and the commanders briefed, the bomb load was constructed and call-signs allocated to each model together with an extra call-sign marker used to indicate the photo flash on the bomb run.

All the models set up ready to go

Our op began as every op begins with bombed up aircraft rolling down runways in eastern England to climb into a dusk sky as the bomber stream assembled before setting course for the enemy coast.

All our aircraft assembled, save one, Halifax Y-Yoke from 6 Group, that successfully managed to abort the take-off run after problems with the landing gear were discovered.

The bomber stream assembles after take off, less Halifax Y-Yoke, which aborted with landing gear problems

The stream set its heading over the North Sea to appear to be making a track for the German coast at Wilhelmshaven before abruptly altering course midway and turning directly for the Dutch coast which seemed to have the effect of confusing German radar and seeing no interference from nightfighters enroute to the target.

The bomber stream climbs hard towards the English coast. Altitude means safety from nightfighters.

However the flight into Germany was not without its alarms and losses with Elite crew Lancaster R-Roger showing some complacency on this, their forty-eighth Op by failing to monitor their climb rate out over the coast causing alarm at the possibility of encountering ice and having to abort, only mitigated by a particularly mild October evening with normal icing conditions only occurring at a much higher altitude.

This was followed soon after as the stream crossed the Dutch coast with the loss of Lancaster B-Beer, on their thirtieth Op and looking forward to leave following it having achieved their first tour, making a navigation error that caused them to stray too close to the flak batteries near Rotterdam.

The subsequent flak barrage lit up the starboard outer engine, with all but the pilot, bomb aimer and wireless operator escaping in the bail out that followed as the aircraft went out of control.

Individual bombers in the stream would be tasked with laying 'Window' to mask to approach route to German radar.

With no other losses the stream turned on to a course for the southern approach to Dusseldorf reporting a fierce barrage in the flak zone and the German searchlight batteries ominously shining their beams on to the underside of the Rhur Valley haze to create a ground glass screen that would silhouette the enemy bombers to any nightfighters patrolling over the city.

A good grouping of bombers turns in over the target to begin their bomb runs. The key was to get in quick and leave just as quick, whilst bombing accurately to the TI's. Note the position of Lancaster E-Eddy which bombed successfully but drifted off track and failed to get back on it, running out of fuel and crashing near the Dutch coast. Just another hazard of night-time navigation! 

The first bomb drops were very accurate and grouped in and around the target markers clearly visible in the night sky above the haze below, but with the crews very aware of their feeling of nakedness standing out against the backlight below and keen to get in and get out as soon as possible.

A 3-Group Stirling over the target with previous bomb runs marked by the photoflash chits showing which aircraft have bombed and where. The TI marker helps the players gauge where they are in relation to the target map, hoping for none but allowing for drift or an error in laying by the pathfinders. 

Then it began with a series of nightfighter encounters with freejagd FW190 single seat fighters taking full advantage of the conditions conducting fast moving raking attacks against bombers lining up on their target drop.

Seven aircraft would succumb to these attacks three Lancasters, three Halifax and a Stirling, together with the loss of Lancaster T -Tommy that collided with another bomber in the mayhem causing an explosion in the bomb bay that only added to the sense of disaster with falling aircraft that was observed by the rather shattered survivors that pulled away from the burning city.

The nightfighters didn't have things all their own way and the sharp eyed gunners of Halifax N-Nanny were able to shoot down one of the attackers before their aircraft fell due to the damage it sustained in the battle.

A radar equipped single seat FW190 closes on a 3-Group Stirling from behind, likely G-George the only aircraft lost by the group, a novice crew on its sixth op and with only the bomb aimer, flight engineer, wireless operator and rear gunner able to bail out over the city.

The only compensation for the heavy losses sustained over the target was a heavy concentration of bombs delivered to the southern oil works, rail yards and city centre, with multiple fires reported by returning crews.

 

6 Group Halifaz Z-Zebra under attack from a Ju88 near Aachen on the return leg.

However before the night was over, two more aircraft would be lost with the veteran crew Halifax Z-Zebra on their twentieth Op falling to the guns of a rookie NJG3 Ju88 nightfighter north of Aachen when it lost control after the port inner engine caught fire after suffering hits in the hydraulics after the first surprise attack, only three of the crew managing to bail out.

This was followed by the loss of novice crew Lancaster V-Vick on its fourth Op limping home after taking flak hits earlier that damaged the fuselage and hydraulics and subsequently becoming uncontrollable from that earlier damage with just three of the crew baling out near the Dutch coast.

Finally the last loss of the night occurred to veteran crew Lancaster E-Eddy another thirtieth OP crew looking forward to ending their first tour and a well earned leave, succumbing to the limited fuel allowance the very heavy bomb lift incurred and with a navigation error leaving the aircraft well off track, never able to correct the error, it was forced to bail out on the Dutch coast due to empty fuel tanks with all the crew safely contacting the Dutch resistance.  

The survivors limp home having to land at different airfields due to fog. The carnage of the night is displayed in the models to the side of the airfield.

Well what an Op to end on and with a series of games that have been thrilling in their own right but now with the added consequences of the effects on the overall campaign as the context for each game.

The map below is the final analysis of the bombing results that, given myself and the players were looking forward to a well earned pint in the pub was only a top line assessment at the time, indicating that with the losses sustained and the bombing damage caused, a potential draw was in the offing but that I could only confirm things once I had sat down and totted up all the points.

The final situation over the target with the number of bombs dropped and fires
started in relation to the target indicators that proved to be dead on target.

So with the situation left at Bomber Command sitting on a tally of 53 points over seven games to produce and average score of  7.6 points per Op and needing to get that score up to 12 per Op for a draw, we see this final game produce the following score.

Bomber Command - 2VP for the target, 56VP for 14 major fires caused in Dusseldorf, 32VP added for major fires in the Industrial and Transport areas, Four additional bomb types that hit the targets but did not cause fires for 4VP = 90VP in total.

Less the score for the Nachtjagd with bombers destroyed - 2 Novice Crews 4VP, 8 Veteran Crews 32VP = 36VP in total.

Thus Op eight generated 54VP added to the 53VP scored previously brings the total to 107VP divided by eight operations delivering an average score of 13.4 VP per Op and a handsome draw to Bomber Command in this bloody final operation to Dusseldorf, thus leaving the historical record showing 

'Mounting losses cancel out the effect of the bombing'

The remarkable and pleasing aspect of this campaign playthrough is how very similar the raid results have been to their historical predecessors and that if the result in the last game had not produced the disastrous drift to the TI's that it did and also did in the historical attack, then Bomber Command would be looking at a major victory at this stage, so each series of games in any campaign should leave things all to play for right up to the end in most cases.

To emphasise my point about similarities between the game results and the historical outcome, the Bomber Command War Diary makes interesting reading with its conclusions on the result of this particular OP;

'The main weight of the raid fell in the centre and south of the city but it is difficult to obtain precise results of the outcome; like some other German cities, Dusseldorf's records start to show a deterioration under pressure of the severe raids of 1943. There was certainly extensive damage both to housing and to industrial premises but a detailed resume is not possible. The same problem exists with casualties. An early local report says that 23 people died but this appears to have been altered to 118 at a later date. The United States Bombing Survey gives a figure of 622 dead and 942 injured for the whole month of November; there were no more other attacks on Dusseldorf in that month.'

I hope you have enjoyed following our progress through this series of games and my intention now is to pull the campaign rules together into a more user friendly format for other to use with plans to run another similar campaign for the earlier Battle of the Rhur and with Steve Land, a fellow TfT enthusiast, putting together a Dambuster project to be worked on in the New Year.

It leaves me just to thank my fellow DWG club members Steve Land, Bob Connor and Ian Toogood, who joined me in this game and to others in the club who have played in the seven other games that preceded it. Many thanks for your enthusiastic playing, help and input into what has been a very fun time and to give an idea on how our games have progressed over the campaign you can see a short clip below of this game with the guys getting the bomber stream moved with Bob trying his best to crash R-Roger and Steve explaining the delights of dodging nightfighters on the bomb-run!

I will also end with a thank you to my fellow TfT enthusiasts on the Facebook Group who have also been following the progress of this little series of games and for the generous availability of their ideas to modify and improve on the original game, many of which can be found on the page and by simply joining the group.

Target for Tonight - Facebook

More anon 

JJ

Clotted Lard 2021 - Devon Wargames Group & Too Fat Lardies Weekend

This weekend I was at the club involved in our annual Lardy gathering Clotted Lard which for myself, started on Friday night as I and other club members assembled at our venue to arrange tables for the next day before retiring to the hotel-pub in Exeter to join our guests staying over for the show for a swift pint or two.

The next day started at 08.00 setting up the other room as game organisers arrived and set up their tables ready for a welcome address together with some housekeeping announcements and the usual group pictures, before I set off touring the two games rooms to sit and join each game in turn to try and capture the look of the action for our show report; together with a video clip below which I think shows what a Lardy event and especially Clotted Lard feels like when you're in the room and everyone's deeply involved in their game and having fun.

For a full report of the show together with pictures of all the games then just follow the link to the club blog:

Devon Wargames Group - Clotted Lard 2021

Having taken the morning session to gather my pictures for the show report I was doing a 'hot table' as I think my American readers would say, typical of a US Convention, as I swapped with Andy Crow who ran the Bag the Hun game in the morning to set up my Kiss Me Hardy, Leeward Line scenario with the Warlord collection of 1:700th ships.

The warm-up game I ran in July at the club really paid dividends as I was able to take the time in between to really tweak the scenario and make sure the player aids and record sheets worked much better on the day which allowed the game to really get going and we played through to a conclusion.

One aspect I wanted to include was a measure of a clearer winner in this microcosm of a much larger battle and so settled on the idea of basing the criteria as if the two formations were in fact very separate squadrons from the larger fleet action that was going on around them.

The dogfight underway as the Santisima Trinidad and the French 74-gun Fougueux open fire on the Royal Sovereign as she attempts to cut the Combined Fleet's line. Meanwhile the 74-gun Belleisle has passed behind the Fougeueux, delivering a stern rake on her as she passed, and is now swapping broadsides with the 74-gun Spanish Monarca on her starboard quarter.

Thus the Combined Fleet squadron, composed of elements from the Rear Squadron and Squadron of Observation were deemed as one under the control of Spanish Admiral Alava leading in the Santisima Trinidad, and likewise the British under Collingwood.

With these formations delineated, relegating French Rear-Admiral Magon as Alava's second in command on his flagship, the 74-gun Algeciras, I allocated a Fleet Preservation Value (FPV) to each ship, with each third rate valued at 2 points per ship and a first rate or flagship valued at 3 points. 

This idea of Fleet Preservation, that is that a fleet, like a land army, doesn't fight on to the last man or ship, like wargamers, but will attempt to break off when losses cause a break of confidence.

This idea then of Fleet Preservation is not mine and I know I harvested it from another discussion forum for use at a later time, so apologies for not remembering who to credit for this simple but effective idea.

As the Royal Sovereign and Belleisle go about their work, the Mars under Captain Duff can be seen further back, preparing to move in after opening fire on the French 74-gun Pluton

The total Fleet Preservation Point Value of each force then equated to 13 points for the British and 16 points for the Combined Fleet, which allowing for a loss of 25% for the Franco-Spanish and 50% for the British equated to 4 points for the former and 6.5 points for the latter.

Thus the Combined Fleet Squadron under Alava would be likely defeated with the loss of more than two of its 74 gunners or one of the flagships and a single third rate, with loss defined as being caused to strike, sink, burn up and explode or captured through boarding and with a dismasted vessel counting one point less in the total, i.e. a flagship dismasted equating to two rather than three points off the total.

HMS Mars opens fire on the Pluton and sets her helm to pass behind Admiral Magon's 74-gun flagship Algeciras as to her starboard side HMS Tonnant, Colossus and Bellerophon approach menacingly like sharks moving in for the kill with the Spanish 74-gun Bahama dangerously separated from her consorts.

This simple calculation would determine when a particular force was likely broken, to the extent that a test would normally be taken at that point in the game with the roll of a d6 adding the quality rating of the commanding admiral, +1 for Collingwood and 0 for Alava and Magon, should the latter find himself in command, needing 5 or 6 for the squadron to stay in the fight and with failure seeing the Combined Fleet for example, attempting to disengage and move to the leeward table edge, only shooting back if fired upon, and obviously, likely captured at the end of the scenario if prevented from escape by British ships on their leeward side.

In addition, with the role of admirals influencing the morale of their respective squadrons, I wanted the potential for their loss through death or wounding to have an effect, so included Nick Skinner's 2005 Trafalgar Scenario,  'Death of Nelson' rule to allow for all the admirals involved to test if their respective flagship suffered 'High Officer Casualties' as a special damage hit.

As our game progressed the Combined Fleet got the majority of their ships to deliver extreme and long range broadsides at the British rigging in the approach phase with the Royal Sovereign for example reduced from a base speed of 12cm to 8cm plus 2d6 cm for having a quarter wind, because of damage recieved in her rigging from the Santisima Trinidad on the approach. 

However as anticipated the delivery of stern and bow rakes by those British ships that managed to break into the Allied line added to by other British ships pouring in close range broadsides reduced two Spanish and one French third rate to floating wrecks with fires breaking out on two of them.

Fire breaks out on the Spanish Monarca which she managed to extinguish prior to her striking, after being pummelled into submission by the Belleisle, astern of the hard fighting Fougeueux.

Inevitably the two Spaniards struck and the British went for the killer blow by grappling the battered Fougeueux, and boarding her, winning the first round of melee to capture the Frenchman's upper-deck, whilst pouring in a point-blank bow chaser shot, which missed, as she attempted to get the French ship to test for a strike.

The final twist of the game came as we prepared to head off to the pub as the Fougeueux, then managed to come storming back with what remained of her crew of 'Elite' Sans Culottes to push the Royal Sovereigns back to their own bulwarks and thus still fighting when we ended the game.

However it seemed likely that another strike test caused by the next round of firing would see her strike eventually, breaching the Combined Fleet's four point threshold and a likely failed FPV test and so I called the game in favour of Collingwood's column.

If you want to give this scenario a go with the adaptions I have added then just follow the link below for the scenario briefing together with the orders of battle and ship record sheets.

Kiss Me Hardy - The Leeward Line Scenario

Target for Tonight, Op Seven - Hannover (A Very Dark Night for Bomber Command!)

The amazing aviation artwork  of Piotr Forkasiewicz, https://www.peterfor.com/ captures the moment of a Lancaster under attack from a Freejagd, FW190 Nightfighter, an all to common event in our seventh Target for Tonight op to Hannover

This weekend at the Devon Wargames Group, myself, Bob and Steve L. sat down to play through the seventh and penultimate game in our Battle of Berlin Campaign game for Target for Tonight (TfT) with the state of play at the end of six ops balanced on a draw and with Bomber Command needing to restore confidence and its advantage with a devastating attack on the relatively close range target of Hannover, which was attacked historically on the 27th-28th September 1943 by 678 Mainforce aircraft.

The first eleven ops in Bomber Commands 1943 offensive against Berlin from which the eight largest were selected to test out our eight game campaign module for TfT

A lot of factors seemed to bode well for Bomber Command with this op, as 'Bomber Harris' gave his crews a much needed break from the deep, long range attacks on the 'Big City', Berlin, Nuremburg and Mannheim and returned to Hannover raided only a few nights previously and with our next op to Dusseldorf, deep in the 'Happy Valley' of the Rhur.

The situation set-up and preceding ops can be followed below:

'Mounting losses cancel out the effect of the bombing'

Op 1 - Berlin, 23rd-24th August 1943
Op 2 - Nuremberg, 27th-28th August 1943
Op 3 - Berlin, 31st August-1st September 1943
Op 4 - Mannheim, 5th-6th September 1943
Op 5 - Hannover, 22nd-23rd September 1943

Op 6 - Mannheim-Ludwigshaven, 23rd-24th September 1943

As well as being a shorter flight to Hannover, reducing the time in the air to be attacked and the strain on aircrew, the weather was forecast as 'broken cloud' over the target with light winds allowing 'Newhaven' target markers to be used, much more accurate in their placement with a small chance of drift and thus a good chance of accurate grouped bombing. Only fog over airfields on the return slightly spoilt the planned attack, but with a strong turn out of veteran crews across the groups including two second tour elite crews, the chances of a good result seemed in the offing.

The Players briefing sheet showed a solid turn out of aircraft from across the five Mainforce Groups with thirteen veteran and two second tour elite crewed aircraft out of twenty participating in the attack, with the other five being novice crews averaging three ops apiece.

Hannover was an important target being the thirteenth largest city in the Reich at that time, with 471,000 inhabitants and an important role as a major transport hub and industrial centre producing military vehicles, aircraft together with rubber parts and products at the Continental AG and Hanomag factories and with the large AFA VARTA factory producing batteries and torpedoes for U-boats. in addition, on the outskirts of the city, two large refineries were built producing gasoline and motor oils for the Luftwaffe.

The players briefing notes of Hannover included the target map with the key industrial sites of Continental AG, VARTA and the refineries indicated together with the winds expected over the target.

The intelligence briefing indicated no known changes to Luftwaffe technical capabilities, but updates on passive receivers such as Flensburg were now enabling nightfighters to home in on Bomber Command's Monica tail warning radar, somewhat reducing the effectiveness of the cloaking effects of Window.

Confident in the forecast of low winds affecting target marking by the pathfinders, our player commanders opted for target marking on the railyards to the north-west of the city to act as their reference point and, with a short range target allowing a comfortable fuel load out of 18-19 units of fuel, a very-heavy bomb lift was selected allowing for an extra 20% lift capacity for the attack.

Mainforce starts to gather in darkening skies over eastern England and already the first casualties of the night, P-Popsie and R-Roger, remain on the ground as burning wrecks at base airfields.

Thus with the plans and briefing complete our respective Group commanders arranged their aircraft and started the first most critical parts of flying any aircraft, taking off, with perhaps only landing being of a higher priority, particularly if you get to walk away from it!

The night's work started badly for the op and very badly for Five-Group Lancasters, in what would be a devastating night for the group, as the 38-op, Elite crew of P-Popsie veered off the runway in an attempt to abort take-off, only to loose control with a very heavy bomb load, and crash amidst a fireball explosion, this followed by a similar devastating crash by 24-op Veteran crew R-Roger with fatal results for all on board.

Three casualties before Mainforce had crossed the enemy coast!

The next casualty of the night soon followed as the bomber stream crossed the coast out over the North Sea with a warning of icing conditions to contend with, the Three-Group, 3-op Novice crew of Stirling F-Freddie were forced to bail out after the flight engineer failed to adjust the fuel mixture on climb out with an engine failure resulting from icing that put the aircraft into an uncontrollable dive despite dumping their bomb-load and seeing only the wireless operator successfully bail out, to be picked up the next morning.

The rest of the flight from the enemy coast to the Hannover flak belt proved relatively uneventful with jumpy crews having their flight unsettled by the occasional Monica false alarm.

The bomber-stream reaches the Hannover flak belt where the next casualty of the night would fall in a direct hit from flak in the bomb bay killing all aboard Halifax M-Mother.

Then the next casualty fell as Four-Group, 14-op Veteran crew, Halifax, M-Mother found itself coned by searchlights and hit by flak in the bomb bay which resulted in a massive aerial explosion and the loss of all on board, as the stream flew on with all crews in the vicinity noting the use of scarecrow shells as they concentrated on their approach to the target.

A Freejagd Wildboar attack roars into the attack over Hannover, one of six such attacks as Mainforce made its run over the target.

The lack of nightfighters to this point was intriguing and perhaps indicating the controllers aranging fighter cover in prediction of a deeper raid, but any sense of relief for our bomber crews was to be soon tested as the run over Hannover was met by no less than six Freejagd 'Wildboar' single seat attacks from staffing FW-190's two of which were using airborne radar to home in on unsuspecting bombers.

The bomb run is always a very tense and drama laden part of a game of TfT but this raid on Hannover is up there with the most dramatic of all, with multiple single-engine fighter attacks, determined grouped bombing, and acts of heroism as bombers dealt with damage received over the target, to then press on and make their attacks.

Despite the attentions of the Wildboar fighters the bomber crews went about their task methodically, with very few 'jumpy' bomb drops and very good concentrations of bombing on suspected key locations around the city, but not without loss and damage from the repeated fighter attacks, with another Five-Group Lancaster, the 29-op, Veteran crew, T-Tommy, shot down on the bomb run by a nightfighter that hit it in the bomb bay killing all aboard, a Four-Group Halifax, 29-op Veteran crew K-King, hit by a fighter in the port fuel tank, setting it on fire and causing it to crash, with three crew, the flight engineer, wireless operator and rear gunner bailing out over the city, and a One-Group Lancaster, 16-op Veteran crew, B-Beer being hit by a fighter in the port wing fuel tank that then caught fire only to see the pilot save his aircraft by extinguishing the fire in a dive, before pressing on to complete his bomb run. 

Inevitably the bombers cleared the target and turned for home with crews jubilant that they had pressed their attack accurately with a strong concentrated grouping that would leave Hannover a smoking wreck the next day, with minds now focussed on getting home with out loss on the remaining fuel.

A Ju-88 from II/NJG3 closes in on Lancaster S-Sugar, to cause the last casualty to Bomber Command on a very costly raid to Hannover, and this loss being the fourth out of five Five Group Lancasters committed to the  raid.

With throttles opened, ours crews raced back to the coast with no more losses until the crossing into the North Sea - Channel approaches as another Five-Group Lancaster, 3-op Novice Crew, S-Sugar was intercepted by a II Gruppe, NJG3 Ju88 equipped with Schrage Music upward firing guns that closed in undetected by the inexperienced crew, pouring its fire into the port inner engine and sending it crashing out of control with no survivors.

The target map revealed an exemplary bombing attack with an ample mix of HE and Incendiaries placed together on key targets together with Cookie High explosives aimed at the industrial, city centre and transport areas. A quick assessment of the results reveal twelve major fires started and if this had been in summertime good weather conditions have resulted in a 'Firestorm' in Hannover city-centre.

With all of us exhausted after a very dramatic game we gathered around the computer display to see the results of what looked like a very good bombing attack that would help to offset the high losses in veteran and elite crews.

However each raid has then to add in the components that can easily affect good accurate bombing such as actual winds versus forecast, ground looking radar city profile, additional radar navigational support for pathfinders and target markers alike, etc.

For our op there were no other factors thus leaving a roll on 2d6 requiring seven or less for the Newhaven markers to have been on target and the bombing as seen above.

That was when all the good work of the night combined with the heavy loss of aircrew was undone as the die roll came up with a score of eleven and a target marker drift of two zones showing a target presented to reconnaissance Mosquito's the next morning looking thus;

Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory as forecast light winds prove false and undo the results of a very concentrated bombing attack falling on open fields and with not one bomb hitting the city of Hannover.

You might think this result bizarre and unrealistic if you knew nothing of the difficulty of hitting a target as large as a major city from some 20-25,000 feet in pitch darkness, under fire from Flak and nightfighters with the technology available in 1943, that is until you read the report of the results of the historical attack made by those 678 aircraft losing 38 of their number, some 5.6% of the force with the summary of the attack from the Bomber Command War Diary, blandly stating;

Bomber Command War Diary - Hannover 27/28 September 1943

678 aircraft - 312 Lancasters, 231 Halifaxes, 111 Stirlings, 24 Wellingtons. 5 B17s also took part. 38 Bomber Command aircraft - 17 Halifaxes, 10 Lancasters, 10 Stirlings, 1 Wellington - lost, 5.6% of the force and 1 B17 also lost.

'The use by the Pathfinders of faulty forecast winds again saved the centre of Hannover. The bombing was very concentrated, but fell on an area 5 miles north of the city centre. No details are available from Germany but R.A.F. photographic evidence showed that most bombs fell in open country or villages north of the city.'

I hadn't realised this was the historical outcome before writing up this AAR and it is uncanny when a game manages to replicate the result of an actual air-battle in this way and perhaps helps underline what an enthralling game TfT is in its ability to put you in the hot seat of those involved without all the risks to life and limb they endured doing it for real.

However this was a tough night for our bomber crews that leaves the campaign looking thus, with victory points in value of the target attacked less the crews of seven aircraft lost, four Lancasters, two Halifax and one Stirling resulted in 19 victory points to the Nachtjagd, thus reducing Bomber Commands tally of 72 points over six ops to 53 points over seven, leaving it averaging 7.6 points per op and placing the campaign firmly into a German Victory, with Nazi newspapers and Signal Magazine proclaiming,

Bomber losses outweigh the damage inflicted. It's a good night for the Nachtjagd!

Thank you to Bob and Steve L for once again braving the flak and pressing home their attack regardless of losses. 

Will Bomber Command's efforts be rewarded in the final op of this campaign? All will be revealed in the night skies over Dusseldorf.