Battle Report: Britain vs Italy 1941 ('Naval Thunder' Rule Set)

This Naval Wargame is a scenario that could have happened in the 1940s, in the Mediterranean. It is a duel between an older & slower British Nelson-class battleship and a brand new Italian battleship of the Litttorio-class. Both ships are accompanied by a light cruiser. Wargame Rules: Naval Thunder Battleship Row. In August 2024 I played a slightly similar duel (also solo) between both battleships, under Victory @ Sea Rules. 

The participants

HMS Rodney and HMS Nelson were the first British battleships built after the signing of the 1922 Washington Naval Disarmament Treaty. While that Treaty precluded new construction of battleships, both the USA and Japan were already building battleships carrying 16-inch guns. Britain was therefor allowed these 2 ships to provide balance, although the ships had to stay within the new displacement limit of 35.000 ton. To keep within these limits they had a radical new design concentrating all main armament forward (to concentrate armored protection of this) and have boiler and engine rooms much further astern as ‘conventional’ battleships. Although an unusual profile, both ships were the most powerful battleships of their time. The camouflaged model is painted as HMS Nelson in 1942-’43. Both ships have served extensively in the Mediterranean during WW2. 
HMS Nelson is accompanied by a 1930s Leander-class light cruiser, like HMS Ajax or HMS Achilles (1939 Battle of the river Plate) or HMS Orion (participated in several amphibious landings in Italy and France). The cruiser is armed with 8 x 6-inch guns and painted as HMS Ajax in the common 1940 livery (without camouflage).

The Italian fast battleships of the Littorio-class were designed & build after the expiry of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. Italy didn’t want to participate in the following limiting Naval Treaties of London (1930 and 1936). The design of the ships was supposed to be an answer to the new class of French battleships under construction. Both countries wanted to dominate the Mediterranean. Two of the 4 intended units of the Italian class were completed just before Italy entered WW2 in June 1940. The ships had 3 turrets with each 3 x 15-inch guns, 4 turrets with each 3 x 6-inch secondary armament and lots of 90 mm AA-guns grouped around the funnels. The model is painted in the common 1941 ‘double fishbone’ camouflage scheme (including the air recognition markings on her foredeck).
The battleship is accompanied by a fast 1930s Italian light cruiser of the Condottieri-class (8 x 6-inch guns). This is represented by a model of the light cruiser RN Atillio Regolo, although during the wargame I used the stats for RN Duca d’Aosta (to keep it in balance). RN Atillio Regolo is painted in her 1942 ‘Pappagallo’ (Parrot) camouflage, which only lasted for a couple of months… 
Britain has 759 + 105 = 864 points; Italy: 733 + 103 = 836 points.

Tactical situation:
It is 1941. Both Italian ships are en-route to the Aegean Sea, to support the German/Italian attack on Greece. British intelligence has got knowledge of this and the Royal Navy has dispatched HMS Nelson and a Leander-class light cruiser from their convoy duties (to Malta) to intercept both ships. Both British ships are radar equipped. The Italians rely on visual fire control means.. No air support is available.

Set Up:
Rules: Naval Thunder Battleship Row (& ‘Bitter Rivals’ extension). I didn’t use any optional Rules. The Rules don’t roll for ‘initiative’; manoeuvres and gun battles are supposed to happen simultaneously. 1:3000 scale ships (NAVWAR). Seamat: 6 x 4 ft. Distances in inch. Starting positions: 38 inches apart. There is no specific detection phase and not much indication on the distance scale in use. Following the suggestions within the Rules, the ships can open fire from turn 1. A big difference compared the Naval Wargame Rules for post-WW2 engagements: finding the enemy and building a ‘recognized maritime picture’ is a key feature of those Games. 

Turn 1
HMS Nelson (blue flag) and her accompanying cruiser HMS Ajax sailed at speed ‘5’ towards the expected position of the enemy. At the horizon smoke was detected. Both Italian ships sailed in a line-of-bearing on an easterly course with speed ‘6’. The British radar found the targets quickly and determined their course & speed. This was valuable input for the analog fire control system, which came forward with suggested bearing and elevation of the 16-inch main battery of HMS Nelson. Visually it was clear that an Italian light cruiser was guarding a new battleship of the ‘Littorio’-class.

Although close to the Italian battleship (red flag), the light cruiser was not obscuring the target and wasn’t making smoke to hide her. HMS Nelson opened fire with her 3 main turrets at medium range. 9 x 16-inch shells of 900 kg each screamed through the air, resulting in a lucky 7 hits on the surprised battleship! 4 shells penetrated the Italian armor, resulting in flooding, penetration of the aft main 15-inch turret and penetration of both port-side secondary 6-inch armament. When those British shells were fired, RN ‘Vittorio Veneto’ saw the flashes and clouds at the horizon, turned her visual fire control sensors towards the threat and determined the distance with the optical rangefinder. The speed of the British was guessed.

The Italian fire control system came forward with a firing solution and all 9 x 15-inch guns opened fire towards HMS Nelson at medium range. Nine shells of 885 kg. flew over the nearby light cruiser RN ‘Duca d’Aosta’ towards the British. This first salvo resulted in 3 hits at HMS Nelson and 6 splashes. Two (twin) 6-inch turrets at port side were damaged and fire broke out. The fire was quickly extinguished by the battle-hardened crew. RN ‘Vittorio Veneto’ was not so lucky; although the flooding was ‘minor’ her crew couldn’t contain it.
During the cruiser step of the shooting phase, both cruisers did shoot at each other. HMS Ajax used her radar to determine the firing solution for her 4 (twin) 6-inch turrets and 8 shells of 50 kg. were fired at long range (28 inches) towards the Italian cruiser. All missed. The same happened to the Italian cruiser: all 8 shells of 6-inch missed HMS Ajax.
At the end of turn 1, RN ‘Vittorio Veneto’ had taken quite a lot of damage: her aft 15-inch main turret was out of action (white square counter) together with her complete port side of secondary 6-inch armament. The minor flooding (water droplet) was still not contained and the resulting damage rating was 150-60-2 = 88. HMS Nelson faired a little better, because her fire was extinguished although she had lost 66% of her 6-inch secondary armament at port side. Her damage rating was 141-20-1 = 120.

Turn 2
All ships increased to max. speed while the cruisers maneuvered to close the distance towards their respective enemies. So RN ‘Duca d’Aosta’ raced with a speed of ‘9’ towards HMS Nelson and HMS Ajax tried to intercept RN ‘Vittorio Veneto’ at max speed.
HMS Nelson opened fire for a second time at RN ‘Vittorio Veneto’, at a range of 25 inches (medium range). 5 hits of which 2 were penetrating her armor. Another main turret was penetrated, together with additional flooding (which wasn’t stopped by the Italian crew - again). The remaining port 6-inch (twin) turret of HMS Nelson fired at the fast closing RN ‘Duca d’Aosta’ light cruiser at medium range (16 inches) but didn’t hit her. RN ‘Duca d’Aosta’ was equipped with 2 x triple 533mm torpedotubes and a danger for HMS Nelson.
Italian battleship RN Vittorio Veneto returned fire towards HMS Nelson: 2 penetrating hits, taking out the remaining port 6-inch turret and one of the starboard 6-inch turrets. Both Italian (triple) 6-inch turrets at port side were out of order and couldn’t engage the closing ‘Leander’-class cruiser…
During the cruiser step of the shooting phase, the Italian light cruiser returned fire towards HMS Nelson at 16 inches distance. She scored 3 hits (and 5 splashes) but couldn’t penetrate the substantial armor of the battleship. Given the torpedo-threat coming from the Italian light cruiser towards HMS Nelson, the ‘Leander’-class light cruiser fired at 16 inches (medium range) with her 8 x 6-inch guns at the fast cruiser (speed ‘9’/36 kts). Resulting in 2 hits including a (lucky) critical hit at one of her triple 533mm torpedotubes.

At the end of turn 2, RN ‘Vittorio Veneto’ had collected quite a lot of damage: only 1 of her three 15-inch main turrets was still operational; her complete port side of secondary 6-inch armament was out of action. And the flooding was still not contained. The resulting damage rating was 88-37-2 = 49 (1/3 of the original remaining!). Conducting a ‘Command Check, she passed (just). HMS Nelson faired much better, although she had lost all of her 6-inch secondary armament at port side and 33% of her secondary armament at starboard side. Her resulting damage rating was 120-20-3 = 97 (twice that of RN ‘Vittorio Veneto and with 100% main armament available). The Italian light cruiser had some light damage: 33-4 = 29. HMS Ajax had no damage (yet).

Turn 3
While the battleships continued their cours and speed, the cruisers raced towards their intended targets with speeds between 36 and 32 knots.

        While the Italian torpedo threat was closing in fast, HMS Nelson fired her full main battery at RN ‘Duca d’Aosta’ at 9 inch distance (short range). Remarkable only 2 hits, of which one resulted in a 6-inch magazine explosion, which was the end of the light cruiser… While the cruiser went down in a large column of smoke and continuing explosions, HMS Nelson was fired at by the 3 remaining 15-inch guns of RN Vittorio Veneto from a distance of 22 inch (medium range). 1 non-penetrating hit…with little damage. 
During the cruiser step of the shooting phase, the British light cruiser fired at RN ‘Vittorio Veneto’ at 15 inches distance. She scored 3 non-penetrating hits.
At the end of turn 3, the tactical situation for the Italians was disastrous. The heavily  damaged RN ‘Vittorio Veneto’ was still up to 2 operational British warships and had no chance to change the situation. Her resulting damage rating was 49-3-2 = 44 (less than 1/3 of the original remaining!) and her flooding was still not contained. After conducting an official ‘Command Check this turn (which she passed as flagship) her admiral decided anyhow to run away, using her higher max. speed than the British ships, in order to repair in an Italian naval base. 
End of game…

Verdict
This was my first ‘Naval Thunder’ ruled Naval Wargame. By doing it, you learn how the rules work. I am convinced I need more practice with these rules, but after a while the calculations will be faster. It is definitely possible to play this as a quick game. As a solo player (and a blogger) I used more time because I had to play both sides, make some pictures and make notes (for this Blog) :)
Looking back to my last time an Italian ‘Littorio’-class battleship was fighting a ‘Nelson’-class battleship (August 2024) I noticed a couple of surprising similarities. First: in both games the Italian battleship lost 2 main 15-inch turrets and lost the duel. Second: in both games the Italian battleship took a lot of damage of those British 16-inch guns (2/3 of her original damage rating), much more than the damage inflicted on the British battleship. However, two games is still not a good sample rate to prove a point…

  

Battle Report 'A Greek Tragedy' (1965; 'Naval Command 2021')

This Naval Wargame is a ‘What if?’ scenario in the 1960s, the decade of Revolutions. It is situated in the Aegean Sea. Political background: Turkey and Greece were firmly under the long shadow of the US and the Western Bloc, yet they contained a militant populace straining towards non-alignment. The Cold War was raging, with events like the Berlin Wall (1961) and the Cuba Crisis (1962). Greece was still battered by her Civil War of 1946-1949 (80.000 dead!). Other issues were the problems around Cyprus and the Greek (and European) protests against US involvement in Vietnam. US concerns were dictated not only by the danger of a split in NATO resulting from a possible Greece-Turkey War, but also by increased Soviet influence in the area and the siding of the Cypriot government with the Non-Aligned Movement. Greece and Turkey were considered the first in a long line of Cold War ‘dominoes’. The US utilized the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan to force them upright, using economic aid and propaganda campaigns to ward off Soviet influence and, when soft power failed, lending tacit support for military rule.
    Soviet Union engaged in several actions that can be interpreted as attempts to influence or interfere with Greece, though these actions were not necessarily direct military interventions. The Soviets were interested in the Eastern Mediterranean region, saw Cyprus as a strategic location in that area and sought to influence the political landscape to their advantage. Therefore it supported the Greek Communist Party, which at times was engaged in internal political struggles in Greece, and the Greek Cypriot communist party, AKEL.  
The polarization and instability of Greek politics in the mid-1960s was a direct result of the Civil War and the deep divide between the leftist and rightist sections of Greek society. A major crisis as a result was the murder of the left-wing politician (Lambrakis) in 1963. The crisis of the ‘Royal Coup’ followed in 1965, together with the "ASPIDA affair", which involved an alleged coup plot by a left-wing group of Greek officers. 

        In this historic political constellation the following ‘What if?’ scenario was used:
The Sovjet High Command deploys a Soviet Naval Taskgroup (TG) for a high profile diplomatic port visit to Athens in order to support the Greek Communist Party. The Soviet TG consist of 2 ‘Sverdlov’-class cruisers (project 68bis), a ‘Don’-class armed auxiliary and 2 ‘Skory’-class destroyers (project 30bis). A couple of major NATO countries fear this port visit can trigger unwanted turmoil in Greece and decide to form a ‘coalition of the willing’, and send a Naval Taskgroup to prevent the Soviets to reach Athens. Ships for this TG are provided by the US, UK, the Netherlands and Germany: 1 x US cruiser USS Galveston, 1 NL Cruiser (‘De Ruyter’) and 1 NL Friesland-class destroyer (HNLMS 'Groningen'), 1 UK Daring-class destroyer and 1 German Hamburg-class destroyer. Highly unlikely in the 1960’s, but these 1950s/1960s warships happened to be in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean.

Set Up:
Rules: Naval Command 2021. 1:3000 scale ships (NAVWAR). Distance scale: 1 inch = 1 nautical mile (nm.). Seamat: 6 x 4 ft. 3 islands: 2 green islands are high elevation (you can’t see through); 1 light blue island is lower and only smaller ships, like destroyers, can sail through the archipelago.
House rules:
1. All FC radars have a radar rating of ‘1’.
2. Number of radar/ESM detections allowed by a ship per turn is based on the radar rating of its search radar (‘2’ allows 2 detections/turn).
3. we did some adaptations in speed for certain destroyers (they all used speed ‘9’).       
Both TG started approx. 65 nm. from each other; the islands were in the middle of the Sea Mat.

Turn 1
NATO has the initiative. Only all-gun cruiser HNLMS 'De Ruyter' is radar active on the NATO side; both 'Skory'-class Soviet destroyers (‘Skory’ & ‘Seryoznyy’) are active on radar as well. The NATO TG proceeds with speed 7, the Soviets with speed 5. Detections on each other are hindered by the islands.

Turn 2
USSR has the initiative. Both TG’s close each other a little more. The British and Dutch all-gun destroyers are getting near the islands. The German all-gun destroyer FGS Hamburg detaches towards the Archipelago. Detections of radar-transmissions or positions of units fail at ranges of 32 nm.

Turn 3

USSR initiative. HMS Daring (D05) activates her search radar when sailing between the islands. The 2 Soviet 'Skory'-class destroyers are the only Soviet units who are active on search radar. The nearest Soviet destroyer (‘Seryoznyy’) detects HMS Daring at 21 nm. HMS Daring detects the Soviet ‘Don’-class auxiliary at 22 nm. The ‘Skory’ detects the Dutch destroyer HNLMS Groningen at 22 nm. FGS Hamburg was unsuccessful in detecting the Soviet radar transmissions between the islands.

Turn 4
NATO initiative. All Soviet ships activate their radars as they realize that NATO warships between the islands are waiting for them. Both Soviet ‘Sverdlov’-class cruisers keep their distance to the NATO threat, but within their 6-inch gun range… FGS 'Hamburg' remains within the Archipelago. Both US and Dutch cruisers pass the islands and both UK and Dutch destroyers try to get closer to the Soviet cruisers, simultaneously defending the NATO cruisers against a possible torpedo attack by both 'Skory'-class destroyers. By now NATO has detected all Soviet ships, either by radar (at 21 nm.) or visually (< 12 nm.). And activate their radars. The Soviets have detected most of the NATO units as well.

    HMS Daring opens fire with her 3 x 4,5 inch (twin) turrets at 6 nm. at the nearest 'Skory'-class destroyer (‘Seryoznyy’ - right side of above photo), resulting in 4 hits. Damage: 2x flood (blue droplet), 1x fire (yellow) and 1 structure (brown wooden stick). The Soviet flagship ‘Sverdlov’ answers the unprovoked attack by a salvo of her 12 x 6-inch guns on the nearest HNLMS 'Groningen' (damage rating: ‘9’) at 18 nm. Nine hits, resulting in 27 damage points. Within seconds she sinks to the bottom! HNLMS de Ruyter tried to revenge the sinking of her companion HNLMS 'Groningen' and opens fire towards both 'Skory'-class destroyers at 11 nm.: her 2 forward 6-inch turrets place 1 hit at ‘Skory’ and her 2 aft 6-inch turrets places 3 additional hits on ‘Seryoznyy’, which sinks due to the total amount of damage. Both NATO cruisers have taken away the threat of imminent torpedo attack, but are still outside range of the Soviet cruisers… The second ‘Sverdlov’-class (‘Dzerzhinsky’) now opens fire at FGS 'Hamburg' at 19 nm. Only 1 hit, but fire breaks out and a lot of structural damage

occurred. The remaining, slightly damaged, ’Skory’-class fires at FGS Hamburg as well with her 2 x (twin) 130 mm guns and places 3 additional hits at 12 nm. FGS Hamburg can’t return fire towards any Soviet attacker as she has only (shorter range) 100 mm guns… Then the flagship USS 'Galvaston' moves in and fires with her forward 6 inch turrets at the ‘Don’-class auxiliary at 18 nm: 3 hits. The damage is extensive: 2x fire, 4x structure (4 x 'structure' = 1 white square). Her speed is limited to ‘1’!     
    During the resulting damage control phase all units on fire (FGS Hamburg, ‘Skory’-class destroyer and ‘Don’-class) managed to extinguish their fires. 

Turn 5
NATO initiative. NATO took a lot of hits in last turn: 1 Dutch destroyer sunk, 1 German destroyer severely damaged and both Soviet cruisers still out of range… Although the Soviets had their setbacks as well: 1 destroyer sunk, 1 slightly damaged and the ‘Don’-class auxiliary almost sunk. The remaining NATO warships tried to close the Soviets: FGS Hamburg crawls forward between the Archipelago and HMS Daring closes towards the ‘Don’-class, while maintaining an intercept course towards one of the Soviet cruisers. The ‘Don’-class tries to crawl back towards her cruisers. Those cruisers manoeuvre very professional: maintaining contact with the enemy but keeping the NATO cruisers just outside range.
The Dutch cruiser ‘De Ruyter’ is forced to finish off the remaining Soviet torpedo threat to the force and has only her 6-inch battery to do it (no secondary guns available). She places 4 hits at point blank range at the ‘Skory’-class destroyer, which sinks immediately. However, the ‘Sverdlov’ 12x 6-inch guns generates 10 devastating hits on USS Galveston in return at a range of 12 nm. which sinks her quickly. To make the situation worse, ‘Sverdlov’ secondary 100 mm armament placed 7 hits on HMS Daring, at a range of 8 nm. (damage: 5 x structure, 2 x fire). HMS Daring is able to return the fire and places 5 hits on the ‘Sverdlov’ (resulting in 4 fires and 1 structure).

The crippled ‘Don’-class is able to fire her 100 mm guns and places 1 additional hit on nearby HMS Daring..(right hand corner). The second ‘Sverdlov’-class (‘Dzerzhinsky') now opens fire at HNLMS ‘De Ruyter’ and sinks her with 5 hits (resulting in 15 damage points, 2 more than her damage rating).

   During the damage control phase HMS Daring is overwhelmed by her fires, gets therefore an additional fire marker and sinks… The ‘Sverdlov’ is unable to contain her multiple fires and gets 1 fire marker extra.

Turn 6
Although most NATO units are sunk, NATO keeps initiative. The heavily damaged destroyer FGS Hamburg turns around and tries to escape at speed ‘4’. Both Soviet cruisers (1 engulfed in flames) follow her outside her 100 mm gun range). 

    The ‘Dzerzhinsky' opens fire with her 9 x 6-inch guns for the last time and finish the German destroyer off…. However, during

the last damage control phase her sister ship ‘Sverdlov’ was still not able to contain the fires and an ammunition explosion did sink her as well. NATO lost their whole TG and the remaining Soviet TG consisted of an operational cruiser ‘Dzerzhinsky’ and a crippled ‘Don’-class auxiliary. Hardly capable of a ‘high profile’ port visit in NATO-country Greece… So the port visit was cancelled, there was no further direct Soviet involvement in Greek politics and in 1967 the Greek Armed Forces executed a coup and Greek Colonels ran the country until 1974…            

Verdict
We had 2 reasons for this scenario: we wanted to test Naval Command 2021 with an all-gun naval battle and I like those 1950s/1960s warships. Initially I thought we had comparable TG’s, but during the game I realized my thinking had a two-fold flaw: I never took into account the secondary guns on the ‘Sverdlov’-class cruisers. HNLMS ‘De Ruyter’ only had much smaller AA guns as secondary armament and the secondary armament of USS Galveston was limited due to the fact that her rear deck was re-arranged for RIM-8 Talos (SAM). My second flaw: I didn’t take into account during the development of the scenario that the Soviets had multiple 533mm (anti ship) torpedo tubes and the western ships hadn’t (those at HMS Daring were removed in 1958). I realized this just before the actual game.

      Can you use Naval Command 2021 for these kind of all-gun engagements? Yes, that is possible but we encountered some flaws in the USSR Fleet List and Rules (some of them we already took care of in this wargame):

1. we noticed that USSR warships were sometimes better rated in the Fleet Lists than more modern western ones… which seems a bit unrealistic. For instance: western 6-inch guns generated 2 damage points, Soviet 6-inch guns 3 damage points. Combine this with the fact that more 6-inch guns are on Soviet ships (vs western ones), that made a huge difference! Also: Some Russian WW2 radars are apparently better than 1950’s Western ones (which is probably not true).
2. the gunnery rules don’t take into account the orientation of the firing ship. So all guns have always been used; even the whole secondary battery (look at 7 hits 100 mm at HMS Daring in Turn 5, while a ‘Sverdlov’ class only has 3 twin 100mm guns at each side…). It is probably wise to limit this in next wargame to all guns of 1 side (‘house rule’).
3. Within the damage rules there is no ‘critical hit’ or ‘crippled’ possibility. So a damaged ship, which is hardly afloat (let say: 1 damage marker left) can apparently still use all her weapons (unless damaged by ‘systems’)…
4. Naval Command rules don’t take into account armour of (ex-) WW2 ships, like ‘Sverdlov’-class cruisers or Dutch ‘de Ruyter’-class cruisers. This is not a big issue, because if you want to play ‘armour’, there are sufficient wargames around who take that into account. Even ‘Shipwreck’ for 1950s warships.