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Article
Back On The Water
by
William Litchfield
First of all, thanks again to those who helped make this
battle happen despite everything that is currently going on. Here is the
link to the videos of the December Battle which include GoPro video for each
sortie and some on-board videos facing both
forward and aft showing Scharnhorst's action. One of the Scharnhorst cameras even
catches the Mogami sinking!
For the morning battle we had enough ships to battle Axis/Allied
and to put it lightly, the Axis were foiled again! Bayern, Sharnhorst and Mogami took on
Warspite, Chester and Duca d'Aosta. This gave the Allies a speed advantage but the unit
advantage was with the Axis.
Axis
Captain Ship Units Speed
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William Litchfield SMS Bayern 5.5 28
David Snyder DKM Scharnhorst 5 24
Craig Matsuura IJN Mogami 3 23
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Allied
Captain Ship Units Speed
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Ty Siouxpancic HMS Warspite 5.5 26
Brian Eliassen USS Chester 3 23
Chris Pipitone RN Duca d'Aosta 2.5 22
=============================================================
AM Battle - Sortie 1
In the first sortie the Mogami suffered some propulsion
issues which was later identified as the captain using the wrong battery for the
sortie. Test batteries are not battle batteries. This caused the Mogami to
become engulfed by enemy cruiser fire resulting in a watery grave. Warpsite and
Bayern traded some sidemount fire with Sharnhorst swooping in from time to time
adding her firepower. The Mogami was the only ship to sink in the first sortie.
AM Battle - Sortie 2
During the second sortie, the Mogami had a battle battery
installed so the event went much smoother for Craig. Unfortunately, the mighty
Sharnhorst suffered a pump failure and hit the bottom. Bayern then runs afoul of
some weeds which reduced her forward speed to barely a knot. Even after de-weeding,
an internal driveline failure had occurred and she had to call five minutes
out-of-control. Chester and Duca essentially empty the rest of their magazines
into the nearly helpless Bayern. Fortunately the Bayern survives her five minutes
and made it off the water. The scores were:
Axis
Captain Ship A O B Pen Sink Total
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William Litchfield SMS Bayern 55 8 9 1200
David Snyder DKM Scharnhorst 60 0 0 1500 2100
Craig Matsuura IJN Mogami 18 6 6 900 1530
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Total 4830
Allies
Captain Ship A O B Pen Sink Total
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Ty Siouxpancic HMS Warspite 37 2 8 820
Brian Eliassen USS Chester 2 0 0 20
Chris Pipitone RN Duca d'Aosta 2 0 0 20
============================================================================
Total 860
Due to the Bayern driveline failure, a Scharnhorst pump
failure and the loss of Craig for the afternoon, the second battle was not
Axis/Allied. Instead we had Warspite and Chester versus Invincible, Duca and
the French destroyer Volta.
This Might Be Our First Time
Captain Ship Units Speed
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William Litchfield HMS Invincible 4 26
Chris Pipitone RN Duca d'Aosta 2.5 22
David Snyder FNS Volta 1.5 21
=============================================================
Where's Craig?
Captain Ship Units Speed
=============================================================
Ty Siouxpancic HMS Warspite 5.5 26
Brian Eliassen USS Chester 3 23
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PM Battle - Sortie 1
The Invincible suffered multiple fire control issues and
essentially became a moving target for five minutes. Duca and Volta put in
several good firing runs against their larger opponents. This was Volta's
maiden battle and was captained by David Snyder. Despite being essentially
ganged up on by Chester and Warspite, Volta managed to survive both sorties.
PM Battle - Sortie 2
In the second sortie Invincible took a little too much
damage and her captain (your's truly) left the pump off for a little too long
and she slipped beneath the waves. Warspite ram sank the Duca and afterwards
Chris had radio issues so this effectively ended the second sortie with the
following scores:
This Might Be Our First Time
Captain Ship A O B Pen Sink Total
============================================================================
William Litchfield HMS Invincible 45 4 3 1200 1900
Chris Pipitone RN Duca d'Aosta 1 1 1 85
David Snyder FNS Volta 1 0 1 60
============================================================================
Total 2045
Where's Craig?
Captain Ship A O B Pen Sink Total
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Ty Siouxpancic HMS Warspite 38 1 2 600 505
Brian Eliassen USS Chester 24 2 1 340
============================================================================
Total 1445
Everyone had a great time. Also a huge shoutout to
Ron Knight from HobbyWars.com who paid for everyone's gas fee and generously
donated $20 to the club for each filmed sink. He managed to get all four sinks
recorded so that brought in $80 to the club.
Here's hoping for more battles in the near future!
Copyright © 2020 William Litchfield
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