At Dice of the Hill last Wednesday, four of us refought the Battle of the Falkland Islands, 1914. We used 1:3000th model ships, vinyl sea mats, and John Hammond's 20-page-long Skytrex WORLD WAR I NAVAL rules that were published in 1973.
The action began with the German East Asia Squadron (comprising the two armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau and the three light cruisers SMS Nürnberg, SMS Dresden and SMS Leipzig, accompanied by the colliers SS Baden, SS Santa Isabel, and SS Seydlitz) approaching the entrance to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands from the southeast. The German commanders (one of whom was me) thought that there was no enemy ships in the harbour, and our plan was to sail in, seize control of Port Stanley, arrest the Governor, and then re-coal our ships from the stockpile that was maintained there for the Royal Navy's use.
The German Far East Squadron.
Little did we know that a strong British squadron (the battlecruisers HMS Invincible and HMS Inflexible, the armoured cruisers HMS Carnarvon, HMS Cornwall, and HMS Kent, the armed merchant cruiser HMS Macedonia and the light cruisers HMS Bristol and HMS Glasgow) had arrived in the Port Stanley during the previous day.
The British Squadron less HMS Macedonia, which was patrolling the area to the east of the harbour.
Furthermore, the old pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Canopus was moored near the entrance of the harbour to act as a coastal defence battery.
HMS Canopus. She was so placed as to give her 12-inch guns the ability to engage any enemy ships approaching Port Stanley.
Led by the three light cruisers, the German squadron turned northward ...
The German Squadron on a course towards Port Stanley.
... and were surprised when heavy artillery engaged them from the shore! (It was actually HMS Canopus who fired at and hit SMS Nürnberg. Because they could not see HMS Canopus, the Germans assumed that the British has installed a coastal defence battery on the islands,)
The German Squadron comes under fire.
Despite being under fire, the German squadron continued to sail towards Port Stanley.
At the same time, HMS Kent (who had been ordered to keep her boilers lit so that she could relieve HMS Macedonia) set sail to engage the enemy whilst the rest of the squadron lit their boilers and prepared to leave harbour as soon as they had sufficient steam up.
The British Squadron prepare to leave Port Stanley harbour.
At this point the action began to become intense ... hence the lack of photographs!
HMS Kent and HMS Canopus engaged the Germans, and despite the German light cruisers being ordered to turn away, SMS Nürnberg was repeatedly hit and eventually sank.
The German Squadron comes under heavy fire. By this point the German light cruisers had been ordered to turn away and make their escape so that they could become independent commerce raiders.
By this stage in the battle, the leading British battlecruiser was leaving the entrance of Port Stanley's harbour and had opened fire of SMS Scharnhorst. At the same time, HMS Canopus hit SMS Gneisenau and both German armoured cruisers had begun to suffer significant damage.
SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau are hit and damaged by shells from several British warships.
My fellow German commander and I decided that our best course of action was to sail SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau towards the entrance of Port Stanley to engage the British ships at close range in the hope that we could seriously damage or even sink one or both of the battlecruisers.
The British Squadron making its way out of Port Stanley harbour.
As it was, we had run out of time and had to pack up and go home ... and the final outcome remained unclear. That said, the two remaining German light cruisers had got away and would be able to raid British maritime supply lines ... and there was always a chance that in sacrificing their two armoured cruisers, the Germans might be remove one or more British heavy units from frontline service.
It was interesting to see the number of regular Dice on the Hill attendees who paid a visit to the battle whilst is was being fought, and we hope to make these sort of wargames a regular part of the group's activities. Probably not every week, but possibly every month or so.
Looks like you had a great game Bob - pity you didn't have time to reach a conclusion, but you have some converts so perhaps next time!
ReplyDeleteMaudlin Jack Tar,
DeleteWe might have finished the battle if we had been using somewhat less cumbersome rules … but it was great fun and attracted some potential historical wargaming recruits.
All the best,
Bob.
I've gamed the 1914 Falklands battle a few times and it is always a bit of an uphill struggle for the Germans. I've had a copy of the Skytrex WW1 naval rules since the 1970s but never actually played a game with them, so it is nice to see them in use.
ReplyDeleteMartin Rapier,
DeleteAs one of the German commanders, I wanted to see what might have happened if the Germans hadn’t attempted to escape and had taken on the British battlecruisers.
As to the rules … well, I thought that they were cumbersome and very much in the ‘lots of detail = accuracy” mould. A sort of combination of Fred Jane and Fletcher Pratt that seems to require lots of looking at charts and recording cumulative damage.
All the best,
Bob