WW2 Coastal Forces, Torpedoes & Tides, 1/1250-scale 

The recurrent interest in WW2 Coastal Forces games continues at the club, and this week we were back in the chops of the Channel, with a game organised by Nick. While I have 1:600 models, Nick favours 1:1250 ones, so we decided to take turns to run games – giving us a flavour of the charms of both scales. This time it was the smaller scale, and while I sometimes had to peer at a model to figure out what it was, it was just as much fun.The German commerce raider Orion had made it into Bordeaux  in August 1941 after a successful cruise lasting over a year and a half. Later, Orion returned to Germany, but never made another cruise. In our scenario, though, Orion did cruise again, and this time reached Rotterdam. Now, in our game, set in mid-1943, Orion was heading to Wilhelmshaven, accompanied by a strong force of escorts. The British, of course, were out to stop her. For this game we used ‘blinds’ – the blue markers you see up above – with each blind being either a dummy or a real ship. they are revealed when a ship is spotted. So, it’s a bit like that game with a bean and three cups. Orion was escorted by two Kriegsmarine armed trawlers, two armed fishing cutters and two R-boats – quite a potent force. Nick and I took command of the Germans for the evening, and had the task of escorting Orion safely off the table.Opposing us were Chris and Sean, who had three Fairmile D MTBs apiece. These ‘Dog Boats’ were potent craft – bristling with guns, and torpedoes. Knowing too much about naval history, Nick and I deployed in a standard widely-dispersed convoy formation. The two British players favoured a more Napoleonic deployment, with a close-packed line of ships approaching the convoy at speed, from off its starboard beam. So, contact was inevitable!Inevitably, the first clash came on the convoy’s starboard side. It was a little confusing for everybody – as night actions were meant to be – with both sides occasionally confusing which ships were hidden by which blinds. Still, we more or less sorted it out in the end, and the initial clash came between an armed fishing boat and an R-boat on one side, and two ‘dog boats’ on the other, who sped past the convoy, scouting it out. In the brief firefight that followed all four vessel suffered damage, with one Fairmile D having her engines hit, and another suffering heavy structural damage. The Verpostenboote – the larger armed trawler suffered damage too, while the R-boat further astern lost a gun mount. It was all quite exciting, with tracer flying in all directions. Meanwhile, though,four more ‘dog boats’ were heading around the front of the convoy, to block its way. this is where our confusion with the blinds came home to roost. Both Nick and I thought the other was covering Orion. Instead, what we both thought were a pair of well-armed little Kriegsmarine warships were actually dummy markers. I was busily fending off three Fairmile D’s now, as one of the boats sneaking round the convoy had been spotted and fired on, causing engine problems. These well-armed dog-boats were proving quite hard to sink…We had a slight problem too – or at least I did – with these smaller-scale models, identifying which ships were which. I can see the advantages of 1/1250 scale models, as they give players more room on a tabletop, and arguably offer more realistic ranges for weapons. For me, though, telling an R-boat from a Kreigsmarine fishing cutter or even a Royal Navy ‘dog boat’ was proving difficult, especially with my tired old eyes! Anyway, the game was now reaching a climax. Blind ’13’ above came within range of Blind ‘8’, and so both had to reveal each other’s blinds. ’13’ turned out – surprise surprise – to be another Fairmile D, while ‘8’ was none other than Orion, with no escort protecting her on her starboard side. Incidentally the red ‘flashes’ in the photo above represents boats firing – making them much easier to see at night. So now, the British had a clear shot at their target. At this point something of an argument began, with one of the Brits claiming some of his ‘dog boats’ carried four torpedoes, rather than two. It became quite ungentlemanly, but in the end calm was restored, and we got back to the business on hand. I think the problem might have been  Nick’s models had four tubes, representing later 1944 dog-boat types. Apologies have since been accepted…The number of torpedoes per boat turned out to be a moot point anyway. Two Fairmile D’s, both launching even two torpedoes apiece at point-blank range was always going to be messy. In this case, Chris and Sean both scored two hits apiece, each player’s boat launching a two torpedo salvo. So, poor  Orion was torn in two!  While Nick and I were disappointing in our own poor deployment, we’ll know next time, and might get a better handle on the use of our ‘blinds’! BTW, this is one of Nick’s Vorpostenboote – German armed trawlers – and quite a detailed model for 1/1250 scale – and one just 2cm long! 

, and was now on her way up the coast to Kiel

Tags: Torpedoes and Tides