Victory at sea – August 5, 2017

Also during the Summer the club was opened, generally normal people go to the sea in this period but in a wargame club sometime the sea can arrive in the club.

Thanks to Ezio’s idea and miniatures we played some naval battles using “Victory at sea”. My mates played a couple of battles during this month but I took part only to the one fought on 5th August.

During ww2 the Italians and the Royal Navy fought some naval battles with alternative success.  The Italian Royal Fleet (Regia Marina) had generally a good reputation but during the war it suffered some defeats. The lack of radar systems (only in the late war our ships will be equipped with a radar device but it will be too late), the idea not to develop carriers, a command chain not flexible (all Italians commanders’ decisions had to be approved by Italian HQ’s – Supermarina) and the lack of gasoline reduced significativally the efficiency of Italian actions. 

The scenario is inspired to an historical situation. The idea was to create a “Battle Matapan prelude" with three Italian heavy cruisers (Trento, Trieste and Bolzano) and their destroyers (“Soldati” class) against four British light cruisers (HMS Orion, HMS Glouchest, HMS Ajax and HMS Perth) and their destroyers escort (two “H” class, one “I” class and one “V” class).

Below a photo where, in the foreground, there are the Royal Navy forces and, in the backgroud, the Italian units that have to reach them.

Some pictures of the Italian force and …

… a detail of Italian heavy battleship Bolzano in the game and during the war

Maurizio (and for a little time me) had the control of Italian navy while Ezio, Enzo and Flavio lead the Royal Navy.

After to be individuaded, the British force tries to confuse Italian units with smoke.

The Italian ships goes directly against the enemy force while British units change course to intecept them ...

As soon as the ships are in contact the English navy starts the bombardment

... but now it the turn of the Italians

The game continues for other turns with a continuous bombardments. At the end the Royal navy sinks an heavy cruiser and the Italian forces turn back to their bases