Slow Convoy (SC 48) October 1941 - Tonnage War Solitaire

Picking up where I left off playing the first scenario, SC-7 in the solo game Tonnage War created by Leonard Heinz and designed to recreate the war of the escort commander, you, versus the wolf-pack of Admral Karl Donitz's U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII.

In this the second of the created scenarios contained within the Vassal package, the events of almost a year later to the day we see another slow convoy, number 48 in the series, setting out for Liverpool from Sydney, Nova Scotia illustrating the speed of change in the abilities of the respective forces now starting to get bloody experience of the war they faced and with the gradual improvements in technology, numbers of escorts and aircraft now available to the allies, though not nearly enough.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2020/03/slow-convoy-sc-7-october-1940-tonnage.html

I include the summary card below, contained in the game, that helps to illustrate the great artwork used to represent the individual units along with the key codes that are carried by them indicating their armament and technology effectiveness and what they are doing at any stage in the game.

Most of the combat and spotting checks, visual, radio direction or asdic generated, are checked against the factor shown on the counter by needing to roll less than or equal to the number with a  D20 plus or minus any influencing factors to adjudicate success or not.

In the previous scenario I took time to look at the history involved with slow convoys and their defence, with a summary of how the game played, day by day.

In this game I will attempt to look in more depth at the way the game plays and some of the key decision points you, as the solo player, will make, with the actions and reactions of the U-boats generated by the U-boat reaction table and a D20 roll. The U-boat reaction table is modified for different convoys and the time in the war they were being run, together with the circumstances the U-boat commander faces when the test is required, such as threats from single or multiple air or surface escorts and where the U-boat is in relation to the convoy, will all modify the range of D20 results that will determine his reaction.

Likewise the area of sea-space shown on the display can be quite large in reality and as that space diminishes according to the proximity to the convoy, the chances of a U-boat being detected increases and so the movement into each zone is randomised on a D20 score to see if the U-boat commander is prepared to close at that particular moment and move into a closer zone. Once the U-boat attempts to move from the Inner Zone to an Attack Zone (AZ), you as the escort commander will not know into which attack zone it will move into, namely the four quadrants or the Straggler Zone (SZ), until that die result is resolved, and then you can hope to try and detect it with the escorts you have in that position, if any!

Below is a map illustrating the route of convoy SC-48 that set out from Sydney, Nova Scotia on the 5th October 1941 and the approximate area from where it was first picked up by the U-boats and where subsequent attacks by both sides occurred.

The Newfoundland Escort Force (NEF), consisted of the two Royal Canadian Navy Flower-class corvettes HMCS Wetaskiwin with the escort commander, Lieutenant Commander S. W. Davis RCN, and HMCS Baddeck, with two other Flower-class corvettes, HMS Gladiolus, and the Free French FFL Mimosa.

The Newfoundland Escort Force with none of the four escorts carrying Radar, and with HMCS Wetaskiwin setting the standard in spotting ability with a 10/5 Day/Night visual capability and with HMCS Baddeck marginaly better than the other three on ASDIC capability, needing an 8 or less to make contact. No HF/DF (Huff-Duff) capability is indicated so I won't be able to go after the contact U-boat out in the Inner Zone. These Flower class escorts only make depth-charge attacks at just 2 or less to hit and will expend all their depth charges on a roll of 19-20.

The picture below shows my arrangement of the convoy when first spotted at 0400 with low visibility making surface attacks by U-boats a distinct possibility. The convoy set up indicates that I should place 2D6 worth of merchantmen in the straggler box which showed seven stragglers leaving 46 others still in formation within the escort cordon.

With one U-boat in the Inner Zone (IZ), there are another four boats approaching using the course directions of the convoy that his regular HF radio broadcasts will allow the others to make an intercept and something I can do nothing about because none of my escorts have HF direction finding capability, thus I have none of them operating outside of the AZ where my ASDIC would be useless in the large open area of sea.

The Newfoundland Escort Force - left to right HMCS Wetaskiwin, HMCS Baddeck, HMS Gladiolus and FFL Mimosa

With four escorts available I have placed them in each quadrant of the AZ where they can each use their ASDIC and spotting capability at full effect. I could have placed each on the boundary between each quadrant, which would then have given me two escorts covering each quadrant but with their capability halved, rounded down,  to reflect the larger area off sea they would be attempting to monitor.

With just four escorts and no rescue boat, the stragglers will have to hope that they are ignored as the enemy focus on the main mass of shipping ahead of them.

The relatively small number of escorts available, as in the previous scenario, together with their limited capability, means I am very much on the defence, with the only opportunity to take the initiative being to change course on the first phase of play each four hour segment and/or to place one of my escorts in open water away from the convoy firing star-shells in an effort to decoy the enemy away.

Both options are designed to reduce the threat of the total number of U-boats able to intercept, if successful, but mean reducing my defence or risking more stragglers among the merchants, who miss the order to change course. Neither of these options were ones  I was willing to risk at this moment, especially as the Reinforcement Schedule seen below shows the developing Allied capability in escort coverage from Iceland in the form of surface and air escorts together with other elements arriving from the UK as we close on the Western Approaches.

As you can see the air assets have radar capability which means I can be more aggressive in my defence with the opportunity to hunt U-boats in the Outer and Inner Zones and hopefully either destroy or damage them or force them under and cause them to lose distance on the convoy as they get shifted away from it in the following phase, simulating the effect of their evading the aircraft.

The other key aspect to note is that by October 1941, the US, although not officially at war with Nazi Germany, are involved in an undeclared war designed to help protect principally their own ships and crews sailing to the UK with two squadrons of destroyer escorts available together with Catalina P-73 flying boats, so they will make a welcome addition to the defence over the three plus days of battle.

More surface escorts mean you can get multiple opportunities to detect in AZ quadrants and if the number of U-boats available is less than the number of escorts, allow escorts who make an ASDIC contact to pursue an evading U-boat into the outer zones attempting to maintain the contact and deliver further attacks, destroying or driving off the target.

Following the setting-up of the game as I have outlined, each day of battle is broken down into the six, four hourly segments of play, as indicated in the reinforcement schedule above, 0400, 0800 etc, with each segment of play split up thus:

First U-boat Movement Phase
Escort Movement Phase
First Escort Attack Phase
Second U-boat Movement Phase
Second Escort Attack Phase
Third U-boat Movement Phase
Third Escort Attack Phase
U-boat Attack Phase

Each of these phases is split into phases of play as U-boats test to advance closer to the AZ around the convoy and as escorts attempt to spot U-boats entering and trying to transit their sector of the ocean, and if spotting a U-boat, on the surface or under it, delivering an attack with the aim of destroying it or causing it to evade back to the zone it came from or better still off the board to regroup or not as the case may be, likewise the U-boat reactions to events will also be being tested for at the appropriate phase of play.

U-boats in the AZ, SZ or Convoy Zone (CZ) at the end of the three Move and Attack phases of play can then make attacks on the convoy after which they will make their way off board, again to see if they can regroup for another attack or break off.

Convoy SC-48, seen from a US Patrol aircraft about ten hours after USS Kearny (DD-432) was torpedoed in the early morning of  17th October 1941 

So as the reinforcement schedule above shows, the NEF have twelve hours or thirty-six phases of play against the four U-boats in contact before they can look forward to reinforcements, and will just have the five U-boats to contend with until the greater part of the wolf-pack show up four hours later.

My next post covering this scenario will look at this first three turns or twelve hours of SC-48’s passage up to the arrival of HMCS Columbia and show the key phases of play that develop and if the NEF can hold off the first U-boat attacks.

Next up - Steve M and I complete D+1 and 2 on our Vassal play-through of Breakout Normandy, with the Allies ending up having a torrid two days in the beachhead, and I hope to have the three British named 74's finished off this week in time for another All at Sea look from JJ's Dockyard.

Slow Convoy (SC 7) October 1940 - Tonnage War Solitaire

In my post looking at using Vassal to allow boardgames to be played remotely, specifically War of 1812 that I'm playing with Steve M at the moment and part of a theme very much in vogue at present with social distancing important, I thought I might illustrate a solo module available that can also fit the bill in between painting and reading.

Tonnage War Solitaire is a Vassal module for a free to download paper game developed by Leonard Heinz, a game I remember printing out many years ago and playing on a holiday to France on a bit of down time in between days out at the beach or trips to the Normandy countryside.

Now you don't have to print the game and cut out the paper counters as everything you need to play is available on the Vassal site to download with beautiful digital counters representing the various ships and aircraft needed to play convoy battles in the North Atlantic.

http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Tonnage_War_Solitaire

http://fireonthewaters.tripod.com/tonnage_war_solitaire.htm

Evidence of this excellent artwork is illustrated in the guide to reading the unit markers that is part of the module with many of the markers needed to record the status of individual aircraft and ships handled by the counters themselves with codes appearing on them when evading or attacking to help keep you informed of your progress through each phase of play.

The game is very much about numbers that generate the results - The various 'Attack Values' are the number needed or less on a D20 to cause a hit whilst the various visibility or asdic numbers likewise work to establish whether a contact has been made. With attack factors of 2 or 3 using depth charges, multiple escorts are the best way of going after U-boats often just trying to force them to evade and thus stop them attacking.

Those play phases recreate the often several days of attacks on a series of historic convoys included with the game, as U-boats controlled by the game mechanics of a U-Boat Reaction Table attempt to close with the convoy and with you the player looking to manoeuvre your escort assets of warships and aircraft to try and prevent attacks whilst also destroying the Nazi submarines.

Each phase of play consists of three U-boat moves and three Escort player moves representing four hours of battle with U-boats attempting to penetrate into the attack zones around the convoy and deliver torpedo attacks.

The zones surrounding the convoy formation are a neat division of the surrounding ocean that the escorts seek to monitor with radar and asdic (sonar to my US cousins, but seeing as we Brits invented both I will use the RN terminology).

The game recreates the 'wolfpack' tactics of the Kriegsmarine as the first U-boat in contact acts as a contact boat broadcasting a running commentary on the position of said convoy to allow other boats to move into the area to attack.

As the escort commander you are focused on trying to defend against those tactics by placing decoy escorts firing star shells to draw U-boats away from the merchantmen, identifying the contact boat and driving him off or better still destroying him, changing the course of your convoy to try and shake off the pursuit and of course attempting to identify and attack enemy submarines before they can attack the merchantmen.

In addition you may have or you can detail an escort to act as a rescue boat, picking up survivors from sunken shipping and thus reducing the victory tally of the enemy achieved from their sinkings.

So lots of decision points for the player in this game as you manage the assets you have whilst imagining what is was like for the real escort and convoy commanders managing their stress as well as their response to a merciless enemy.

The Attack on Convoy SC7 - The sinking of SS Assyrian - John Alan Hamilton (Imperial War Museum)

Slow Convoys, code-named SC, with a number to indicate their position in the running order, were convoys of older merchant ships, usually only able to cruise at about 8 knots, running east bound from Sydney Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada often to Liverpool which started with SC 1 on the 15th August 1940.

Sydney Harbour and the Royal Canadian Naval base HMCS Protector from where the Slow Convoys started their passage to the UK.

A total of 177 slow convoys ran between then and May 1945, totalling 6,806 ships and with only three failing to complete the passage, but because of their slow speed, they were particularly vulnerable to attack, especially in the early war years when Allied escorts, their equipment and tactics were not as effective as they would later become.

Slow Convoy SC-7 was a 35 ship convoy carrying mainly lumber and iron ingots for the British war industry, but also included the 9,512 ton tanker MV Languedoc carrying oil for the Royal Navy and the British SS Empire Brigade carrying vitally needed trucks for the military.

Leaving Sydney on the 5th October 1940 and meeting up with a five ship escort of corvettes and sloops, SC-7 would earn the unenviable notoriety as the convoy that suffered the worst day's shipping loss, twenty ships, in the entire North Atlantic campaign.

The first two weeks of the voyage was principally concerned with coping with the storms and gales of an October North Atlantic, with several ships in the 35 ship convoy becoming separated and forced to make the cruise independently and with the Greek freighter Aenos being intercepted and sunk by U-38.

It was not until the main convoy entered the Western Approaches on the 16th October that SC-7 found itself under attack from a seven strong U-boat Wolf-pack that started to methodically pick off ships on the approach to the Irish Sea in a three day and night sustained attack.



It is at this point that the scenario contained in the Vassal package picks up and the snapshot of my game shows the position at 08.00 on the first day as the U-boat pack, following the location broadcast of the contact boat seen centre in the 'Inner Zone' (IZ), moves into the attack with four boats joining the contact boat and another moved in to the 'Outer Zone'.

The 'Good-Guys' from left to right - HMS Bluebell (K80, Flower-class Corvette), HMS Fowey (L15, Shoreham-class Sloop) and HMS Scarborough (L25, Hastings-class Sloop).

With just three escorts available, HMS Bluebell, Scarborough and Fowey, the other two due to arrive the next day as reinforcements, I felt compelled to remain in close attendance in the 'Attack Zone' (AZ) rather than to push an escort out in to the more expansive IZ in an attempt to hunt down the growing threat but leaving a quadrant undefended. This is when you start to appreciate the problems of the chaps that did this for real.

In addition to the growing threat from gathering U-boats I had six merchantmen in the straggler zone and out of formation thus vulnerable to attack whilst unescorted and with no rescue ship I could not afford to detach my limited escorts to rescue any survivors, unlike my historical predecessors who ended up loaded with survivors but thus spent more time in rescue work rather than fending off attacks.

The situation at 08.00 after the first four hours of the 17th October, with the wolf-pack gathering.

The convoy came under attack mid-morning on the 17th October as U-38, U-48 and U100 managed to move into the port, starboard and bow AZ's, evading the escort which failed all attempts to pick them up on asdic, thus seeing them sink six merchantmen.

At the midday point, day one, six merchant ships have been sunk and U48 and U100 can be seen regrouping away from the convoy after their attacks. They will have to see if they will be able to pick the convoy back up to repeat their attacks. The other attacking boat U38 has lost contact and is placed in U-boat Exiting box seen at the top of the display, one less to worry about! However another two boats are in the 'U-boats Entering' box meaning they are available to move in to make attacks.

The attacks continued into the afternoon as the remaining boats less the contact boat made their attacks, with the stragglers coming under attack but suffering no hits fortunately and with HMS Bluebell making a contact and forcing a boat to evade, but which managed to return and make an attack later in the day.

My escorts were being run ragged as the attacks continued on into the hours of darkness which allowed the U-boats still in contact to adopt their favourite tactic of moving in close on the surface.

The only effect my close in escort was having was that the U-boats were delivering their attacks from the AZ, perhaps to avoid my escorts whilst taking the time to move closer into the 'Convoy Zone, CZ' amid the merchantmen where any attack would have been even more destructive.

Midnight at the end of day one and the fury of the wolf-pack has been vented on SC-7 with only three U-boats  in contact with the convoy, the rest having broken off as illustrated by the boats stacked at the top in the 'U-boats Exiting' box, but having sunk 14 merchantmen.

As the escort commander, I was starting to feel like an observer of events rather than a participant as the tally of sunken merchants grew to fourteen as the midnight hour of the 17th October drew near.

Surely I had to get a break! Then it happened, as the elite crew of the Type VIIB, U-46 under their 'experten' commander, Kapitanleutnant Englebert Endrass, only just awarded oak leaves to his Knights Cross and his U-boat War Badge with diamonds started to move in to make a second attack, this time in darkness on the surface from the starboard AZ.

Type VIIB veteran U46 met its nemesis in the form of HMS Bluebell when sunk by gunfire whilst making a surface attack at midnight on day 1

As U-46 moved into the starboard AZ, HMS Bluebell rolled to see if she could spot the U-boat at night on the surface needing 4 or less on a D20 and scoring a '1'!

The tension grew as I then proceeded to check the first time intercept rules at night by an escort, replicating the chance of the escort catching the U-boat by surprise.

On a second D20 roll a score of 1 would see Bluebell sink U-46 by ramming but suffering damage herself requiring her to withdraw from the battle or score a 2 seeing the U-boat sunk by accurate gunfire.

Needless to say that the highlight for me as the escort commander was seeing the two appear in the commentary screen as the simulated die roll sound effect heralded the result - scratch one elite U-boat.

Victory! of sorts, with 14 merchants at the bottom of the Atlantic, but the elite U-46 joining them (bottom left in the U-boat Sunk Box) after being taken out by gunfire at night on the surface by HMS Bluebell. U-101 has managed to get into the stern AZ and is about to sink another two merchants before the day is over.

By the end of the 17th October SC-7 has suffered a terrible mauling, only slightly compensated for the sinking of U-46, but just four ships away from suffering the same fate as the historical outcome.

Reinforcements due 08.00 on the 18th October in the form of (left to right) HMS Leith (U36, Grimsby-class Sloop) and HMS Heartsease (K15, Flower-class Corvette) seen here after her transfer to the USN in March 1942 as PG70, USS Courage

As the early hours of the 18th October played out, the consolation of two more escorts, HMS Heartease and Leith due to arrive at 08.00 together with the fact that the enemy wolf-pack was now reduced to just two boats left in contact with it gave some hope to cling to as the scenario entered the second day.

It's 08.00 on the 18th October and U-101 is still regrouping to the 'Outer Zone, OZ' after its stern attack on the convoy, sinking two more merchants, and with U-123 acting as contact boat, but with the escort group now reinforced by HMS Leith and Heartseas upping my abilities slightly to intercept attacks should they enter the bow and starboard zones where I have placed two rather than a lone escort.

U-101 moves into attack

It took most of the morning of the 18th before U-101 had managed to regroup and sadly, for me and the convoy, pick up the position for another attack. With her sister boat closing in, U-123 maintained the role she had carried out throughout as the contact boat as my escort team attempted to guess where the next attack might be pressed and to present the best chances of interfering with it.

With just two enemy boats in contact with my convoy, I was now willing to change tactics slightly in that with my reinforcements available I determined to press any attack from interceptions away from the convoy on U-boats leaving after an attack, but preferably during an evade.

I could now take the risk of leaving a zone vacant temporarily whilst pursuing an asdic contact at least into the IZ, and hopefully taking out another u-boat.

Contact, bearing 045! - HMS Bluebell picks up U-101 on her asdic and calls in HMS Heartsease to make a concerted attack, pursuing the contact into the IZ after she had sunk another three merchants.

As U-101 moved into the IZ at about midday on the 18th I awaited the result of her attempt to get into the AZ. In the game, this is a randomised process with a D200 result identifying with AZ quarter the U-boat enters to make its attack.

Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised to see U-101 move into the Starboard quarter of the AZ where I had positioned Bluebell and Heartsease ready for such an event and offering me two opportunities to make an asdic contact.

A hopefully chastened U-101 in the OZ, survives the full out attack by Bluebell and Heartsease, IZ right, in what proved to be her final attack on the convoy, leaving the contact boat U-123 to make the final attack in the dark hours of the 18th.

HMS Bluebell delivered the required asdic ping and called HMS Heartsease to her support as both escorts delivered their depth charge attacks as U-101 lined up and delivered another salvo of torpedoes taking out three more merchants.

However this time I was determined to pursue the evading boat into the IZ as it withdrew and HMS Heartsease managed to keep the asdic contact allowing both escorts to deliver a second attack, which failed to claim a kill and saw Heartsease use up all its depth charges in the process - Well I did order an aggressive defence!

With all her sister boats departed, U123 moves in to deliver her attack on SC-7 after two days of shadowing the convoy. A nice touch in the game is that the board darkens to remind you that the visibility has shortened as darkness closes in.

As U-123 prepared to move into the AZ I could only hope it would be in the bow or starboard zone where two escorts gave me a better chance to intercept a U-boat on the surface as the light started to fade.

Fortune favoured the brave as U123 attacked through the bow AZ submerging to deliver a salvo of fish and taking out two more merchants just as HMS Leith obtained an asdic contact,to call in Fowey to support the counterattack.

U123 makes good its escape after taking damage in a depth charge attack from HMS Leith and Fowey

The first salvoes of depth charges missed and U-123 went deep to evade the pursuit as HMS Leith maintained asdic contact into the IZ.

I couldn't rely on U-123 losing contact with the convoy even though she wouldn't have a contact boat to give the position for a second attack and so I continued with my orders for the day and sent both Leith and Fowey off into the IZ in pursuit.

Success, Fowey and Leith continue to pursue U-123 into the IZ with HMS Fowey managing to damage the U-boat with its final depth-charge attack forcing it to break contact with the convoy. Note the U-boat counter marked with a red 'DA' indicating she was damaged in the attack.

Night attack by surfaced U-boats featured large in the game, culminating in the final attack by U-123

HMS Leith maintained asdic contact into the IZ and in the two attacks with depth charges, HMS Fowey managed to damage U-123 thus at least ensuring she would break off and the survivors of SC-7 could make their way to Liverpool.

Midnight on the 18th October and with four turns of day three,the 19th, not required SC-7 makes its way to Liverpool after its terrible battle with the wolf-pack. I ended up losing two more merchants than historically but managed to sink and damage two U-boats in return, producing a remarkable simulation of the actual events

This was a great game and I really enjoyed the tension generated as the U-boats move into the attack coupled with the exhilaration of pressing back with a counter-attack by the escorts.

This early period of the Atlantic Campaign seemed to be well modelled with a weak escort force forced very much on to the defence with little opportunity of breaking up and disrupting a building U-boat attack.

I could have tried a change of course on day one to shake off some of the threat but may well have ended up with more merchantmen in the straggler box as a consequence. The thought of using a decoy escort or detaching one as a rescue ship was dismissed early due to my limited numbers.

With more escorts and of course air support there is a greater opportunity to take the battle to the U-boats as they advance across the OZ and IZ to make their attacks and the later scenarios should offer that potential, although facing more U-boats as well.

The next prepared scenario is another slow convoy out of Sydney, SC-48 which takes place a year later on the 14th October 1941 over five days and with a lot more escorts and aircraft involved, including a US escort group that historically saw USS Kearny damaged by U-568 that raised tensions further between the US and Nazi Germany.

Portsmouth 2017 - U Boat War Badge Postscript

In response to my post about the collection at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, 'Mr Steve' mentioned that he thought he had a U-boat War badge somewhere in his treasure box, where ever that was.
 
http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/portsmouth-2017-royal-navy-submarine.html

Well, having rummaged high and low, he found it!

This U-Boat crew member can be seen wearing his U-Boat War badge, bottom right

If this is an original and not a replica then it appears to be a mid-late war badge. Whatever its origins it is a nice thing to have in the treasure box.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-boat_War_Badge

Thanks for sharing Steve.

Portsmouth 2017 - The Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport

HMS Alliance at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum

The final part of our trip to Portsmouth this year saw us catching the ferry across the Solent to Gosport, home of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum

Royal Navy Submarine Museum

If you are interested in reading the other attractions visited on our trip this year and in 2016 then you can flip back using the following links.

Portsmouth Historic Dockyard 2016
Portsmouth 2017 - Mary Rose
Portsmouth 2017 - Historic Dockyard
Portsmouth 2017 - Portchester Castle

The first sight that greets the visitor arriving at the jetty on the opposite shore is the imposing silhouette of the Aphion Class, HMS Alliance, a World War Two veteran British submarine that saw extended service into the early decades of the Cold War; with a modernisation program that greatly reduced her underwater drag profile with the removal of her four inch QF gun and two forward torpedo tubes mounted in the prominent nose bulge seen in the picture of the submarine in 1947 below.

This rebuild together with a new streamlined aluminium hull and fin had the effect of making the vessel faster and quieter underwater.

In 1981 HMS Alliance became the museum vessel she is today, preserved as a memorial to those British submariners who have died in service.

HMS Alliance

HMS Alliance (P417)
Submarine Museum/HMS Alliance

The impression I got on entering the Alliance is the link she forms between the WWII diesel/electric boats and the modern era nuclear powered boats that revolutionised the potential of the submarine into a true submersible able to travel fast and with great endurance without the need to surface on a regular basis.

I have put together a series of pictures to give you an idea of the interior of Alliance starting, as we did, in the bow section with the forward torpedo tubes and the reloads and working towards the stern tubes with the other compartments in between.

After her modernisation and the removal of her external torpedoes, Alliance carried sixteen torpedoes with four 21 inch bow tubes and two stern tubes.

The business end of Alliance was probably the smallest and most cramped compartment on the boat.

21 inch torpedo reload in the front compartment with Commando canoe stowed below

HMS Alliance carried a compliment of five officers and sixty-three ratings after her 1960 modernisation and with a range of 10,500 nautical miles on the surface, was able to cruise at 2.5 knots submerged for 36 hours and provided no major mishaps occurred was limited only by the fuel or the provisions for the crew.

The boat has been displayed as set up ready for a cruise with the forward compartment loaded up with provisions to allow the crew to keep going for as long as possible.

The hatch seen below is where supplies and forward compartment torpedoes could be lowered into the vessel.

As we made our way aft we started to pass the first of the crew compartments. HMS Alliance was constructed with a passage way passing along the starboard side with all the compartments given over to the port side, allowing as much space as possible within them.

Here the camera and film collection are rigged up ready for some off watch entertainment.

As well as diesel propulsion, HMS Alliance could propel herself underwater with her two 625 hp electric motors and the hatch below the main passage way was exposed to show the lines of batteries used to store the charge for those motors.

The danger these batteries could present was clearly demonstrated when, in 1971, a battery explosion beneath the crew bunks, whilst Alliance was at Portland, lead to the death of CPO Raymond Kimber who was sadly killed when literally blown out of his bunk

Raymond Kimber

The patterned cushions and youthful portrait of Her Majesty really date the boat to a very particular time and era.

Moving past the crew compartments you arrive at the control centre with periscopes, dive plane controls and all the kit you need to allow HMS Alliance to fight her underwater war back in the day.

Our guides around the boat demonstrated the sounding of the dive klaxon whist downing the lights and switching to red lighting for night time surface cruising. All the WWII submarine movies come to life when looking at these pictures.

The driving seat

As we moved further aft I noticed the first of two hatches, the first,seen below, being an access hatch originally used for the crew of the 4 inch gun.

The Amphion class of submarines were built in the Second World War very much with the war in the Pacific in mind and these submarines are quite a bit larger than the boats designed for the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

During her service in WWII and later the Malayan Crisis, her surface gun was a useful weapon to have to take on unarmed or smaller surface craft, thus saving her torpedoes for the larger enemy ships.

Access hatch originally used to man the 4 inch deck gun

The next hatch seen below was the access up into the tower and flying bridge.

Access hatch to the tower and flying bridge

I have the utmost respect for those that volunteer to serve on board submarines and it certainly wouldn't have been my first career choice. The narrow claustrophobic confines of this boat only emphasise the effect of confinement especially when imagined submerged at great depth.

Ordinary ratings heads

Probably the most important compartment in terms of crew morale

The diesel part of the diesel-electric combination was provided by two 2,150 hp Vickers super-charged eight cylinder diesel engines driving two shafts.

These two engines can be seen crammed into the limited space of the engine compartment together with all the controls and instruments needed to manage their use.

On the surface, Alliance could use her diesels to barrel along at 18.5 knots and one can only imagine the noise of these things as she did.

The aft most compartment, rather like the bow, was given over to torpedoes and stores and I was quite happy to step back out into daylight after a very interesting tour, but one that convinced me that if men were meant to go under water we would have been born with gills.

That confirmation was only enhanced as our guide demonstrated the other aspect of this last compartment where the escape hatch was located with its pull down canvass tube arrangement designed to enable the crew to literally pop to the surface when used at a safe depth to make an emergency evacuation.

On chatting to our very helpful guides, both ex-submariners themselves, I was directed to a fenced off area close by where I was told I could find Alliance's old gun stored.

HMS Alliance's QF 4 inch Mark XXIII Deck Gun awaiting a bit of TLC

So with the tour of HMS Alliance concluded we headed towards the main museum building close by where there are displays and exhibits that cover the history of not just the Royal Navy and its submarines but submarine warfare in general and its development over the centuries up to and including the modern era.

It is perhaps not surprising that Britain with one of the most powerful surface fleets, certainly through modern history, should have been the first navy to be attacked by submarine, a natural weapon of choice to an enemy unable or unwilling to contest in the surface battle.

That first enemy submarine was the Turtle of 1776 and was really the first practical attempt at delivering an attack on a surface warship, in this case HMS Eagle, the 64 gun flagship of the Royal Navy in New York harbour by American Sergeant Ezra Lee during the American War of Independence.

The Turtle 1776

Turtle (submersible)

Reconstruction of the Turtle 1776

This reconstruction of David Bushnell's submarine designed to be pedal propelled towards its target and then to attach a keg of gunpowder with a timed charge to the hull of it, though primitive to modern eyes, clearly foretells of the submarine age to come.

Like all submariners Sergeant Lee was courage personified for simply climbing into this death trap, that alone attempting to fight it and I think Washington's tribute to his courage and skill emphasise the point perfectly.

HMS Holland 1

Jules Verne published 'Twenty Thousands Leagues Under the Sea' in 1870, the classic science fiction novel with the title referring to how far the craft travelled rather than the depth it achieved, rather foretelling the future of modern submarine technology.

Jules Verne's fantastic predictions started to become reality for the Royal Navy when in 1900 it ordered the first of six 'Holland' class boats with the first commissioned in 1901. The Holland 1 is the first of that first group of Royal Navy submarines.

HMS Holland 1

When viewing this submarine it is remarkable to think how quickly these kind of vessels have progressed in the one hundred and seventeen years from this tiny thin skinned riveted Holland 1 to the mighty nuclear powered boats of today.

Torpedo tubes

The Holland 1 and her sisters nearly went to war with the Russian fleet, that mistakenly attacked British fishing boats in the North Sea in 1904 as they made their way to to take on the Japanese in the Ruso-Japanese War. The British submarines were subsequently recalled and war with the Russians averted.

Open torpedo tube

A huge electric motor which when found had the batteries still intact and capable of providing power

The Holland 1 was thought lost when she sank off the south west coast close to the Eddystone Lighthouse in 1913 whilst being towed to the scrapyard.

Rediscovered in 1981 and subsequently raised and restored to the condition she is seen in today the Holland 1 is a very special boat in the history of the British submarine service.

X Class Midget Submarine
Royal Navy X-Craft were midget submarines that were designed to be towed to their area of operation by a mother craft, often a larger submarine, to perform specialist attack and reconnaissance missions that were not possible with conventional size boats.

X class submarine
X Craft

X5 being towed out to sea by HMS Thrasher on its way to attack the Tirpitz. X5 disappeared on 22nd September 1943

The most famous operations they took part in were the attack on the German Battleship Tirpitz, a constant threat to allied shipping that were convoyed around the north of Norway, providing vital supplies and war material for the Russians.

Operation Source - The Attack on the Tirpitz

The other was the reconnaissance missions to the Normandy beaches to allow divers to swim ashore to gather beach samples to determine how stable they would be for allied tanks to cross, to later acting as night-time navigation beacons for the assembly of the landing fleet on D-Day itself.

Operation Postage Able

The weapons carried by X-Craft were the two large side carried explosive panniers containing two tons of amatol explosives in each and designed to be detached under a target vessel to explode on a timer delay to allow the X-Craft to escape.

One of the explosive panniers can be seen here on the side of the X-24, the only surviving X-Craft

The endurance of these craft was down to how long the crew could deal with the cramped conditions seen below but was generally considered at about fourteen days.

The submarines would operate initially with a crew of three, commander, pilot and engineer, but would later carry a fourth crew member as diver when performing beach reconnaissance for example.

X-Craft were powered by a 42 hp diesel bus engine, together with a 30 hp electric motor when submerged, giving a maximum surface speed of 6.5 knots and one knot slower when submerged.

'Jolly Roger' Pennants

Submarine crews are the modern day version of the long range raider/cruiser that operate alone on the high seas often in enemy controlled waters, unseen, only betraying their presence when they attack then to disappear into the vastness of the oceans.

Their modus-operandi mimics the pirates of old and the fear and ever present danger of attack that could suddenly develop, a description summed up by First Sea Lord Sir Arthur Wilson who complained in 1901 that submarines were "underhanded, unfair and damned un-English" and that personnel should be hanged as pirates.

Remembering the words of Lord Wilson, Lieutenant Commander Max Horton, commanding HMS E9, which torpedoed the German cruiser SMS Hela ordered the manufacture of a Jolly Roger to be flown on their return to port; with an additional flag to be flown for every other subsequent successful patrol. On realising that they would soon run out of submarine to fly their bunting from, the E9 started to develop symbols to be added to the one flag.

Thus the practice of flying a 'Jolly Roger' after a successful patrol developed among Royal Navy crews during the First World War and became widespread during WWII.

Use of the Jolly Roger by submarines
Royal Navy Submarines-Jolly Roger

HMS Trenchant - Captured German Prisoners, Captured Japanese Prisoners, Sank Eleven Small Vessels,  Laid a Mine and Sank a U-boat (U 859) 

As the practice became common, procedures were developed to achieve a standard of common usage with symbols agreed on to denote the different types of achievement, such as coloured bars for ships sunk, mines for mine laying patrols or daggers to show 'cloak and dagger' missions.

HMS Trenchant

HMS Trenchant (P331)

HMS Ursula - Blew up a viaduct, Blew up Oil Tanks, Blew up Train Track

HMS Ursula

HMS Ursula (N59)

HMS Seraph - Note the seven 'Cloak & Dagger' operations, the most operations during WWII, Sank a U-boat and Carried out beach scouting and landed agents

The museum has a collection of these Jolly Rogers that are a testament to the bravery and achievement of the Submarine Service as a whole and the variety of missions they conduct, some rather extraordinary when it includes attacking railways and viaducts.

HMS Seraph - A submarine with a particularly remarkable career

HMS Seraph (P219)

HMS Statesman - Went below safe diving depth, Sank nine Junks, Laid eleven mines

HMS Statesman

HMS Statesman (P246)

 

As mentioned in the  heading to this post the museum also reflects the activities of other nations submarine activities in the displays on show with particular focus on WWI, WWII and the Cold War.

The German U-Boat exhibits covering WWI and WWII

World War Two saw the design and development of diesel electric boats reach its pinnacle, with the Royal Navy in the leading group of nations heading that development, with its need to prosecute the war around the globe.

Model of HMS Storm in WWII Far East camouflage pattern

HMS Storm

 HMS Storm (P233)

German U-Boat War Badge - issued to crewmen who had taken part in more than two patrols

German binoculars - Standard naval issue in WWII

German Submarine Torpedo Calculator - used to calculate the deflection angle and torpedo spread across the target

As mentioned in the description of HMS X-24, mini-subs and 'Chariot' human torpedoes added to the capabilities of the underwater arm to strike and act in waters that prohibited the larger boats.

Plaque commemorating midget submarines HMS X20 and X23's participation on D-Day. The two submarines were the first vessels off the coast of Normandy and acted as navigation beacons for the following landing vessels

X-Craft Net Cutter - Powered by pipes connected to the X-Craft these cutter blades were designed to cut through anti-submarine nets

D-Day Flag from HMS X-23 - When daylight came on D-Day and with their job done, the X-Craft replaced their signal beacons with these flags signalling D for D-Day 

Major-General Mark Clark 

HMS Seraph, the 'Cloak and Dagger' boat par excellence in WWII was responsible for landing US General Mark Clark into Vichy French controlled North Africa, preceding the Allied Torch landings in November 1942.

Operation Flagpole - October 1942

The general was tasked with a top secret meeting with French General Charles E Mast to secure Vichy cooperation in the upcoming landings, a mission only partially successful and, given the uncertainty of the loyalties of the Vichy negotiation team members involved, Clark went suitably prepared with his personal M1 carbine.

The carbine carried by US General Mark Clark when he was landed from HMS Seraph during Operation Flagpole

HMS Seraph or USS Seraph


Chariot Manned Torpedo

A few years ago we spent a very pleasant holiday in Crete in a wonderful villa overlooking the natural harbour of Suda Bay which during WWII was the scene of heavy fighting in May 1941 as German paratroops landed to capture the island from British, Greek and Commonwealth troops.

Raid on Souda Bay

Prior to the landings the Royal Navy was keen to develop Suda as a forward base of operations in the eastern Mediterranean and had based cruisers in the harbour to attack Italian shipping in the area supporting their North African forces.

The crippled HMS York in Suda Bay after the Italian attack

These Royal Navy ships came under attack on the 25th March 1941 by Italian Decima motor assault boats packed with high explosives and designed to be driven into the target at speed.

The attack left the cruiser HMS York severely crippled afterwards having been hit amidships and would be finished off later by Luftwaffe bombing attacks during the German landings.

The Italian success had much influence on Royal Navy thinking that lead to the development of their own human delivered attack craft or later known as the Chariot human torpedo.

Chariot Manned Torpedo
SM P.311 Reporting from Patrol
British Commando Frogmen
Operation Principle - Chariot Attack

These craft were perhaps not as successful as their Italian counterparts but were yet another way that small underwater craft could penetrate harbour defences to attack enemy ships in harbour.

Italian Cruiser Blozano sunk by British 'Chariot' human torpedo

Italian Cruiser Bolzano

Designed to add extra protection against the cold for X-Craft and Chariot divers these padded jackets
were worn under the Sladen one piece rubberised suit.

As well as in European waters, the X Craft saw service against the Japanese in the Pacific theatre and the improved XE class of X boat were used in the attack on Singapore harbour (Operation Struggle) in August 1945.

Nicknamed the 'Clammy Death' helmet these divers helmets worn by Chariot crews were designed
not to leave a tell tale trail of bubbles. This helmet was owned by Lt, Ian Fraser VC, DSC, RNR who
commanded XE3 during her attack on the Japanese Cruiser Takao

XE4 and improved X Class midget submarine of the type used by Lt. Fraser in
the attack on the Takao in Singapore Harbour

Lt Ian Fraser VC, DSC, RNR

IJN Cruiser Takao severely damaged by X Craft in the attack on Singapore in August 1945

Japanese Cruiser Takao

XE-class Submarine/Operation Struggle

The one-piece Sladen diving suit designed to protect divers in X-Craft
and Chariots from extreme cold

As well as the WWII collection there is also a very good section in the museum that covers the Post War/Cold War era of submarine developments, but time was drawing our day to a close and I had to quite literally whizz around the last displays before catching the last ferry back to Portsmouth.

As a nod to the modern era collection I will finish my post with a picture of the Tigerfish wire guided acoustic homing torpedo in service with the Royal Navy from 1980 to 2004 and a weapon I was familiar with during its run out in the Falklands War in 1982 and the design faults discovered then which underlined its rather troubled history of development that seems to be one of those weapon design disaster stories that rank alongside the improved Nimrod MRA4 aircraft finally scrapped in the 2010 defence review.

I often think weapons design can be likened to what a horse would look like if designed by committee, namely a camel!

Tigerfish (torpedo)

Tigerfish acoustic torpedo

So there we are the final post covering our trips to Portsmouth 2016-2017 with, I hope, an appetite whetting presentation of some of the amazing exhibits on view and to show that Portsmouth and its historic dockyard are well worth a visit if the opportunity presents.