Today marks the 110th anniversary of the opening phases of the Battle of Jutland, which was the world’s biggest pre-aircraft carrier naval battle*.
A map showing the course of the Battle of Jutland.
I suspect that in the great of almost all naval wargamers there is a desire to recreate this battle, but its sheer size makes this very difficult. Avalon Hill’s board wargame about the battle certainly makes it a feasible project … but it uses counters rather than model ships and somehow it doesn’t quite ‘hit the spot’ for people like me.
The box art on Avalon Hill's board wargame about the Battle of Jutland.
Now, I have been extremely lucky over the years to have taken part in two re-fights of the battle using 1:1200th-scale model ship. (In my eyes, this is the best size of model ship to wargame with if one has the space … but as my recent blog post shows, I am rather biased!)
The first was not actually a true recreation of the Battle of Jutland: it was the so-called Second Battle of Jutland as staged by the United States Naval War College in the Queen’s House at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
The Queen's House at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
The second was staged in central London by the informal grouping of wargamers known as the Jockey’s Field Irregulars. I had the honour to command the Grand Fleet … and the sheer scale of this wargame is difficult to adequately describe. Even the photographs I took don’t do this wargame justice.
A photograph of the recreation of the Battle of Jutland at Jockey's Field.
I don't know if I'll ever be able to take part in such a huge naval wargame again ... but the memory of the game at Jockey's Field will live with me forever as one of the outstanding wargames I ever took part in.
* This is almost an untrue statement! The seaplane carrier HMS Engadine ...
HMS Engadine.
... participated in the battle as part of the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron. One of her seaplanes (a Short Type 184 flown by Lieutenant Frederick Rutland) ...
A Short Type 184 seaplane.
... spotted three cruisers and five destroyers of the German II Scouting Group. This is thought to have been the first heavier-than-air reconnaissance mission during a naval battle.
During the battle, she came upon the heavily damaged armoured cruiser HMS Warrior, and assisted in rescuing approximately 750 of her crew before she sank.
.webp)
This is my wargaming passion-albatross-fixation .. I have tinkered but never been satisfied with teh small vignettes, battles or campaigns I have tried, but they do build on the knowledge and the story!
ReplyDeleteGeordie an Exile FoG,
DeletePerhaps you can persuade Nigel Drury - who supplied many of the models used at the Jockey’s Field wargame - to restage the re-fight at a location you could get to.
All the best,
Bob
That floor game looks like a lot of fun, Bob, tempting even for septuagenarians such as we!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
DeleteIt was a lot fun … even though there were quite a few of us who had trouble getting up and down!
All the best,
Bob
I recall the 2016 wargame based on Jutland, and organised (in the margins of a substantial conference at Greenwich) by some of the staff attending the conference from the US Naval War College. The game was played with a somewhat-simplified version of the US NWC rules from the early 1920s, and (like the fuller version the NWC had themselves used in the inter-War era) emphasised correct tactics and did NOT allow for individual hits causing catastrophic damage. I suspect that one of the simplifications in this game was to permit several ships to concentrate on one target without apparently reducing their chances of hitting.
ReplyDelete(I'm not sure when this approach to rule-designing began in the US; the slow-firing guns of some pre-dreadnought battleships meant that concentrating fire would have been significantly less disruptive. E.g. Some French and Italian battleships of the 1880s could take 7 to 15 minutes between shots; the guns originally fitted to the battleship "Potemkin" took c4 minutes between shots, and some other Russian battleships of 1904-5 were almost as slow in their firing cycle. After the war with Japan, the Russians, at least, modified the guns to materially increase their rate of fire.)
I recall commanding one of the German dreadnoughts in the 2016 game, in turn under the command of the squadron admiral, played by an actual admiral: the late James Goldrick. From memory, the ship models used in this game appeared a little larger than 1/1250, though nothing remotely as big as 1/600.
Toby E,
DeleteI was also at the wargame staged as part of the Jutland conference at the NMM. I must admit that I didn’t like the rules that were used (they were far too deterministic for my taste) but I understand that they were designed to teach officers how to conduct fleet evolutions and test tactics and not to evaluate the effectiveness of different ships. I much preferred Jane’s rules even though they are more complex to use. The latter also take into account the speed at which guns can fire.
The US Navy’s rules can be identified as being the basis for Fletcher Pratt’s rules, even though his firing system is completely different. The graduated damage system used in the US Navy rules is certainly copied by Pratt but I find it somewhat unsatisfactory and - in my opinion - does not reflect the reality of damage suffered by warships during the Great War.
I was attached to the US fleet to give advice to the players … all of whom were people who seemed to have little understanding or knowledge of the naval tactics of the period. I well remember trying to explain about ‘crossing the T’ and ships in one battle line ‘pairing off’ to fire against the opposite ship in the enemy’s battle line … but to little avail.
All the best,
Bob
I hope we can repeat that. It did bring home how much space the formations take up in a way you don't get with counters on a hex sheet. I like the way you've annotated that photo.
ReplyDeleteNigel Drury,
DeleteI am sure that there will be plenty of people who would love to take part in another re-fight.
All the best,
Bob