Sturdee's Squadron

This idea for an early WW1 naval campaign based on the exploits of the German East Asia Squadron commanded by von Spee, using Navwar 1/3000 scale ships and the free and versatile Berthier Campaign Manager software, keeps going round in my head (inspired by Geoffrey Bennett's excellent Naval Battles of the First World War).  I've already painted up the first two forces required and have now finished off von Spee's nemesis at the Battle of the Falklands, Sturdee's Squadron.

After having destroyed Craddock's forces at the Battle of Coronel on the west coast of South America (bar the Otranto and HMS Glasgow), the British despatched a much stronger force under Sturdee to the South Atlantic to deal with von Spee once and for all.

HMS Defence

This included the armoured cruiser HMS Defence (1908), which Craddock had been expecting before he set off to fairly certain death against von Spee at Coronel.  However, HMS Defence had been diverted away from Craddock on orders from the Admiralty, though they didn't bother to tell him that.  If HMS Defence had been there it might have made a significant difference at Coronel, with its four 9.2" main guns and ten 7.5" secondary armament.

Sturdee's force also included HMS Cornwall (1904) and HMS Kent (1903), the sister ships of HMS Monmouth (1903) that had been lost at Coronel.  When refighting the Battle of the Falklands the ill-fated HMS Monmouth can stand in for HMS Kent.

HMS Cornwall / HMS Kent

Other ships in the squadron included the fast but unarmoured light cruiser HMS Glasgow (1911) and her sister ship HMS Bristol (1911), as well as HMS Carnarvon (1904), which appears a sturdy looking vessel, if you pardon the pun.

HMS Carnarvon

However, the main feature of Sturdee's squadron were the two fast, modern and heavily armed Dreadnought battlecruisers, HMS Inflexible (1908) and HMS Invincible (1909), each equipped with eight massive 16" guns.

HMS Inflexible and HMS Invincible

These had been released from the Grand Fleet and their unexpected presence in the South Atlantic resulted in the destruction of the East Asia Squadron, partly because von Spee could not believe the reports that two tripod masted warships were anchored in Port William until it was too late.

Anyway, all in all, I've now got plenty of ships for covering all of the actions in the Pacific and South Atlantic and I intend to use the random 'army plans' feature of Berthier to allow some different scenarios to be played out, for example allowing Craddock to actually have HMS Defence at Coronel (or even HMS Canopus, which missed out on the destruction because of engine trouble).

Other scenarios could involve von Spee taking his captains' advice and deciding not to try to attack the Falkland Islands, but rather to continue up the eastern South American coast picking off allied merhantmen, or perhaps cross to the eastern Atlantic to try to elude the Allies and eventually get back to Germany.  Hopefully more on that in subsequent posts.

Freighters and Drifters

A major issue for naval squadrons operating during wartime far from home base, and with the risk of internment if they lingered too long in port anywhere, was the continual problem of coaling and resupply.

As I've blogged earlier I'm thinking of some sort of WW1 early war campaign using the Berthier Campaign Manager based on the attempt of von Spee's East Asia Squadron to get out of the Pacific, into the Atlantic and possibly even make it back to Germany (or internment in Montevideo or similar).

SS Titania

One of the support ships that von Spee relied on was the Titania, completed in 1897 in Newcastle upon Tyne for the Finnish Merchant Navy.  It was subsequently converted to a supply ship in 1914 and was sunk at Mas a Fuera on 19 November 1914.

SS Titania - Navwar 1/3000

This is the Navwar version - not quite the same colour scheme as the one I found on the photoship website - so I may redo it in a more tropical guise.  One of the scenarios I was thinking about, particularly for an SMS Emden campaign, was the difficulties of warships and supply ships trying to meet up without being detected and this is where the Titania would come in.

SMS Emden

In addition, there are options for ships such as the Emden preying on merchant ships as it did successfully in the Indian Ocean and elsewhere.  Navwar do various cargo ships but I thought that something called the A/B Standard ship would fit the bill.  Here is the War Brahmin, listed as a freighter of this type.

A/B Standard Ship - War Brahmin

According to the Navwar website these ships date from 1917 and many operated into WW2 so, although a bit late for the Emden era, it will do and can also be used for WW2 actions, should I ever get around to them.  Here is the Navwar version of this class of ship.

I was a bit closer to the mark with the colour scheme with this one as you can see.

Craddock's Squadron

First post of the year here - it's been a bit of a slow start this year, wargaming-wise.  This is mainly because I've been away on business - twice - to Istanbul, and it's not even February yet.

However, having managed to get the German East Asia Squadron sorted out here are some pics of their heroic and ill-fated opponents - the ships of Admiral Kit Craddock's squadron.  As before these are Navwar 1/3000 scale vessels.

HMS Good Hope

Craddock's flagship, HMS Good Hope (1902) - so outdated that the broadside batteries could not be used in rough seas - which was naturally a significant factor in her loss at the Battle of Coronel (1 November 1914).

HMS Monmouth

HMS Monmouth - an obsolete armoured cruiser (1903) that was just as useless in bad weather as HMS Good Hope.  Also lost at Coronel.

HMS Glasgow

HMS Glasgow (1911) - by far the fastest of Craddock's ships (she looks it) but unarmoured and armed only wth two 6" and ten 4" guns.  However, she was fast enough (at 25 kts) to evade destruction at Coronel and later to take part in the Battle of the Falklands where revenge was exacted, lucky for Captain Luce.

Otranto

The Otranto, a relatively slow and unarmoured 12,000 liner fitted with eight 4.7" guns and not really fit to form part of a light-cruiser hunting squadron.  I thought I'd paint this in cruise liner colours, just for a change.

HMS Canopus

HMS Canpus is the big old battleship (1900) that got left behind at the Falkland Islands, that may, or may not, have made a difference at the Battle of Coronel.

Having finished these, I'm ordering a few more ships from Navwar to try to work though a planned mini campaign (using the Berthier Campaign Manager) recreating (sort of) the voyage of the German East Asia Squadon from the Pacific into the Atlantic.  It's all written down on paper - I just need time to put it into action....

German East Asia Squadron

I keep thinking about some sort of solo campaign using the Berthier Campaign Manager (now on version 8.0) and it seems to me that a fairly simple naval campaign would be ideal.  In fact I've long thought about the adventures of the Emden and/or von Spee's German East Asia Squadron early in WW1.

SMS Emden

These are some shots of my 1/3000 scale East Asia Squadron that (so far) have only seen action once.

SMS Gneisenau

The models are by Navwar and they are based on card with textured woodflex on them.  I painted the ships before mounting them

SMS Scharnhorst

Waves generally run parallel to each other (perpendicular to wind direction) so that was the first level of texturing.  This was followed by creating the bow wave and the 'residual bow waves' down each side of the ship and finally the wake.

SMS Dresden

I then painted the bases in "silk-matt" (i.e. slightly glossy) Revell acrylic "Lufthansa-Blau", which is actually quite a deep blue colour. When I painted them I had not long come back from a long sojourn in the South Atlantic and a week at sea certainly gives you an idea of what colour the open ocean can be.

SMS Nurnberg

The bases were then given quite a heavy dry brush using matt Revell acrylic Seegrün.

SMS Leipzig

Finally, the bases were finished off with some dry brushing with basic white to pick out the wave tops, the bow wave and the wake.

Now to come up with a campaign.  As I said I was thinking to start with the Emden's course to and through the Indian Ocean, with the merchantmen she hunted and forces hunting her programmed in to Berthier.  On the other hand, it could be run from the Allied side with the movements of the Emden programmed and everyone else looking for her.  Battles will be fought with General Quarters 2, when the time comes.  Needs a bit of preparation I think and I'll post about that when it looks like I'll be up and running.

Dreadnought and Castles of Steel

Not much activity of late, other than to to say that, what with my various travels and what not, I have finally had time to finish both volumes of the really rather splendid two-parter - Robert K Massie's twin tomes: Dreadnought and Castles of Steel.

The first deals with the origins of the naval rivalry between the British and German Empires and certainly doesn't portray the Germans/Prussians in a very good light.  As you would imagine, there's also some good stuff on the naval side of the Russo-Japanese War.

What I did find fascinating was the very real concern about Germany's ambitions expressed in Britain and the anticipation that there would be a war eventually.  This to me was interesting as it tied in very nicely with Esrkine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands, which deals with exactly the issue of a supposed build up of German naval forces in the waters around the German islands off East Friesland, poised to invade England.... in 1902.  A fantastic book if you're into sailing, by the way.

The next installment, Castles of Steel, covering the consequence of the development of HMS Dreadnought, Churchill, Jackie Fisher, Tirpitz, U-boats and the whole naval history of the lead up to and progress of the First World War, is great and certainly provides the definitive account of those naval actions.

I am particularly interested in the early action including the Emden, Coronel and the Battle of the Falklands and there is plenty of information on that in this book.

Anyway, both books are a darn good read and I'd also highly recommend The Riddle of the Sands as a ripping yarn in the mould of John Buchan or Rider Haggard (except with much more stuff about the technicalities of sailing without modern instruments).

Wish List No. 2

This continues my ramblings on current wargaming periods and what I’m planning to do down the line and when I get back to Blighty.

20mm ACW
We’ve quite a few 20mm plastic ACW figures stored away that get an airing now and then (see earlier posts).  We started out with home grown rules but have used Circa 1863 (slightly modified) for a very long time.  However, I’m looking seriously now at Regimental Fire & Fury (and vanilla F&F) which would mean wholesale rebasing.  It’s possible that I may just start again with a 15mm ACW project (Geoff already has).

My cavalry is actually all 30mm plastic Spencer Smiths (there weren’t any 20mm plastics when I did them as Airfix had stopped making the 7th Cavalry at the time) but I now have some Revell ACW cavalry to paint up, which are very nice figures.  There’s plenty of terrain available though some of this needs ‘refurbishment’ and there are one or two additional buildings I think are necessary.

AK47
I bought two whole AK47 Version 1 Peter Pig armies on ebay last year and they’ve never been used; and I have a well thumbed copy of the Version 1 rules but may need to upgrade.   After playing the computer game Operation Flashpoint (and ARMA/ARMA2) for years, I’m keen on supplementing one of the armies with some BMPs, which are on my to-do list.

As an alternative to AK47, I downloaded a copy of Ambush? some years ago (before Jerboa went commercial) and they look like a good free modern infantry combat set for low level warfare, so I am keen to try those out at some point.

I’ve got various 15mm (up to 20mm) African style modern buildings half made, including shanties, a hotel and 1950s style airport terminal, which I’ll need to finish off (watch this space). Some of these are generic enough to be used for other earlier periods in arid terrain (also watch this space).   In addition, other terrain pieces including walls, palm trees, thorn trees, banana trees (after seeing them here), advert boards (Welcome to the Rumbabwe Hilton!) and factories are planned.  Figures may need rebasing also as they’re just PVA and flock at the moment.

WW1 Naval (General Quarters)
I have some Navwar 1:3,000 scale German and British warships (mainly cruisers, destroyers and some merchantmen) and have had one or two WW1 games using General Quarters 2 which is a fine set of rules.  The plan with these was to run a solo campaign in Berthier based on commerce raiding in the far east and/or Indian Ocean. I’m hoping to have a few more games with what I’ve got and intend to build up fleets gradually.

More wish-lists later.