THE SHOWBOAT engages THE IRON CHANCELLOR

[575]

Such an awaited ending; well written with all the expected detail!
To me there is no formula how to write - I do it my way - You should do it yours. I like Your way of writing Senior Chief. Thanks for a well worked out AH scenario.

[lordroel]

Jan 5, 2023 20:10:14 GMT oscssw said:

Jan 5, 2023 19:30:27 GMT lordroel said:

So now what will the crazy corporeal in Berlin do, declare war, ore let it be which would be a sign of weakness.

No idea.   See last page.  I leave it undecided.   Quite frankly I am eager to get on with NOVA GENOVA

Well then we agree that this is a open end to the TL, open for discussion for those who want to in what i now christen the SHOWCHAN Universe with the blessing of Senior Chief (oscssw).

[miletus12]

Jan 5, 2023 15:18:28 GMT oscssw said:

5 Jan 2023     last update   (I hope )
THE SHOWBOAT Engages THE IRON CHANCELLOR

12 JUNE 1941 1700 Seated in Bismarck’s flag quarters Vizeadmiral (Rear Admiral, upper half) Brinkmann held in his hand BdU’s latest estimate of the “Englanders” and “Amis” search for him. It told him very little. Aside from a few Type IX U-boats operating this far West and South there was no other Kriegsmarine intel (in his opinion the only reports that were both reliable and accurate as to naval issues) available. 

So far It had been a stressful but successful, high speed run away from Trinidad Tobago raid. The weather had cooperated in hiding him from the long range patrol flying boats, his biggest worry. Prince Eugene's damage had been minor although the loss 9 and and wounding of 16 men was regrettable. He still had been forced to keep his TG Brinkmann “closed up” to a fifty percent manning. That, at least, allowed his sailors to get some sleep, feed and attend to personal needs. Unfortunately, there had been three occasions when Kapitäns zur See Lindemann and Kommandant Seeadler’s von Luckner had ordered "Action Stations" due to either radar or sonar reports that turned out to be nothing in the end. The alarm bells and the announcement caused stressed and tired men to hurriedly race to their battle stations until the threat was evaluated as "nothing". It could not be helped this far in the enemy's back yard and almost alone Lindeman, von Luckner and especially he could take no chances. So his off watch men stumbled back to try and get some badly needed sleep before they all too soon had to relieve the watch. 

He then looked at the fuel reports of his Flag and The Prince. Not good. Three days of high speed operations had reduced his bunkerage down to 75%. His UNREP with PSS Cabello was still 29 hours away. He would order speed reduced to 20 knots at nautical twilight. He was was far enough from the raid now and he had to keep in mind that in this hostile part of the Western Atlantic an encounter with enemy forces was a dstinct possibility for Vabello as well as his TG. He might need to stretch his fuel. 

On the brighter side he also had a signal from BdU announcing that Hitler had conferred the Knight Insignia of the Iron Cross on Fregattenkapitan Schneider, Bismarck's "first" gunnery officer. Tired as they were Lindemann had ordered a short wardroom celebration to Wet Down Schneider's award. He also ordered the cooks to prepare a holiday meal of Smoked sausage fruits, cheese, honey, freshly baked bread, chocolate and juices. He authorized a special cigarette or pipe tobacco ration and a shot of ole Jägermeister. for his sailor’s much loved “Jäger ,Bomben” which consist of a shot of Jäger dropped into a pint of beer and drunk all together. He was taking a small chance but they all needed to celebrate their epic victory and relieve the strain of this cruise.

13 JUNE 1941 2200 PSS Cabello lay one cable length ahead of his "Prince" as she took on fuel. The astern UNRED method was a long process. The fact it was working even this well was due to Fregattenkapitan Friedrich Max von Muller and his 6 man team of Marinenachrichtendienst (Naval Intelligence Division AKA MAD) special operations group aboard Cabello. Kommandant Seeadler’s von Luckner's Chief Engineer estimated 6 hours to top them off. Bismarck's tanks were bigger which meant about 8 hours. That made it mid afternoon before they were free of the tanker.
The weather had cleared and gave them this moderate sea and wind. It also made it possible for for Vizeadmiral (Rear Admiral, upper half) Brinkmann, to authorize flight operations, so the Arado's would be up at morning twilight conduct a thororgh search and then establish constant patrols out to 150 miles during daylight. That should give them plenty of warning.

14 JUNE 1941 0315 S-13's juinior sonarman was fighting sleep. He had to maintain his "Listening Watch" for another 30 minutes then he could climb into the rack of his relief and get some sleep. He began another 300 degree sweep of his JT microphones the chief had atught him to conduct his search in 10 degree increments listening three to five 5 minutes, in the forward sectors and a minute of so as the sectors moved aft to the baffles before moving on. He was listening on 030 relative when he picked up a sound source. It was intermittent and he took his time because he didn't want to report another pod of whales or school of squids. The chief told him "Report everything" until you get the hang of it. It was his fellow junior sub sailors that gave him the ribbing and that bothered him.

14 JUNE 1941 0325 He was certain and, what's more, they were multiple contacts probably 2 but possibly three. He reported his contact report to the watch officer who came over and picked up the spare ear phones and listened for about a minute and a half. The OOW then sent for the COB and picked up the sound powered phone to inform "Cowboy" they had something on the JT and it wasn't whales banging. The CO was in the control room in three minutes; it took the COB about 5.
COB imediately clamped the spare phones on and started minipulating the JT. He said to the watch sonar operator to start a paper trace on what he gave him. He then turned to the CO, "Captain the kid has something solid, at long range and I make it three surface contacts. The bearing is 030 relative and it is definitely at least three contacts."
CO "Any idea of the distance COB"

COB "Captain it's not close but I think we are overtaking whatever it is."
CO "Well we're doing 12 knots on a course of 040 surfaced with a 80% charge. Lookouts report nothing.
This looks like a chance for you to work one of your Target motion tricks. Let's go to the DRT." COB gave the listening watch back to the kid after telling him he was doing a good job. He then, working from the log plotted the sound bearings of the last 10 minutes. He then factored in what S-13 had been doing and he came up with a rough estimate that whatever the contacts were they were not moving anywhere very fast. 

The CO had been reviewing the position of all known convoys and other ships in the area. Nothing seemed close enough to be picked up by the JT.

COB, "We got to make some estimates on the speed of this bunch Captain."
CO "Use 7 knots COB." 20 minutes went by with COB plotting sound bearings and occassionally just listening on the spare phones.

COB "Captain we got to do some maneuvering to nail these guys down."
CO, "OK COB just tell the OOD what you want him to steer." "OOD this is th captain take your course from the COB I'll be right beside him."

OOD "Aye, Aye Captain." To the quartermaster "Make sure you get that order in the log Hammet." Aye, Aye Sir.
Next CO S-13 talked to the Radio watch "RM-2 Mahr this is the CO. Are you picking up anything in the very high frequency band?"  RM-2 Mahr " No sir. I am copying the Fox scheds now and they are in the HF band. I can bring a UHF reciever on line but I'm alone right now."

CO S-13 "Continue to copy the Fox scheds. The RMC will be with you in a few minutes."

CO S-13 "Messenger of the watch lay down to the goat locker and tell the RMC I want him in radio yesterday."
Messenger, "AYA AYE Captain" and he shot out of the space for the "Goat Locker", AKA Chief's bunk area.
Less than five minutes later the "growler" groaned and was picked up by the OOD.

OOD, "Captain it's the RMC reporting he's in radio."
CO S-13 "Very Well. Hand me the hand set. Chief we think we found a Nazi raider group. I want to see if they are radiating their Seetakt or Fumo sets." 

RMC " Sir we have a VHF reciever I can tune in but it's going to be at the top of it's frequency range. From what I kow about Seetakt & Fumo we just might be able to pick them up. Got to look at the pub on them but I'd guess it is in the low Megahertz range and that's UHF gear we don't have. Even if we can't get them on the VHF set I can screw around with our gear and drive it further up the Megahertz scale but it will probably not last too long so we got to use it for short periods."

CO S-13 "How long do you need chief?"

RMC "I can have it on line in 15 minutes Captain. If I have to modify it we are talking hours.
14 JUNE 1941 0445 The better part of an hour with two more course changes yielded a TMA Solution of sorts.

COB "Captain it works out to a target course of 075 plus or minus 5 degrees; at 5 knots plus or minus 1 knot; and a range of 55 miles plus or minus 15 miles. That's the best I can do. This TMA is real new to me and our gear was not designed with it in mind."

CO S-13 "Good job COB. I can work with that.

COB was thinking "now is the time "Cowboy" gets to earn his pay. Imediate sighting report based on JT listening tracking and experimental TMA? No doubt the Nazis were monitoring fleet frequencides and could make a shrewed guess they had been spotted. Stay silent and close the range on the surface at 15 knots and try to get a visual confirmation of the target? If it's Bismack and that heavy cruiser they would have FORD on radar at about 10 miles. Too far for a visual ID. At that range they could sink us without too much trouble. 

14 JUNE 1941 0445 CO S-13 was reviewing the nautical almanac entries for this position. Morning nautical twilight begins at 0454 and full sunrise is 0543. If that Nazi TG boss knows what he is doing he'll have his scout planes up at 0500 and conduct a local area search before they go off on morning patrol. When they fly our way we should see them before they see us, if I go to PD about 0545. No, I need my lookouts not the limited view from a perisacope.
His decision made "Cowboy" announed. "This is the Captain. I have the conn. Bring us down to "decks awash. Course 090 and cut back the speed to 7 knots to reduce our wake. Pointing directlly at them, even in this sea, we'll have to be within visual range for them to pick us up on their radar.

14 JUNE 1941 0450 The growler groaned and was picked up by the CO S-13. "Captain here"

RMC " Took a while but we got them Captain. Intel Pub says both Seetakt and FuMO transmit on a Frequency of 368 Mhz . We have two close sources at 070 true. Those sets are suppose to pick up a destroyer size ship at 10 to 12 nautical miles."

CO S-13 "I'd given up on you when you told me no luck with our VHF set and were going to try to jury rig it into the UHF range. Chief this entire crew just might make it back to Gitmo now. Damn well done. Standby for a flash sighting report to CincLantFlt. "
CO S-13 picked up a blank meesage form and wrote out a short concise sighting report:

LFT
DE RFG NR 121 U 140500 E JUN
FM SS-318
TO CINCLANTFLT
WD GRNC
BT
FLASH
1. Sighted TG Brinkmann
2. My Position Latitude: 18 57 41.5 Longitude: 59 51 37.3
3. TG Brinkmann bears 070 degrees True at 55 miles, on course 075 true at 5 knots
4. SS-318 Has not been detected.
5. Will continue to track and report

BT
NNNN

CO S-13 to watch messenger "Bring this to the Com Officer and tell him I said to encode it and transmit ASAP. Keep transmitting until he gets a reply from Admiral King."
14 JUNE 1941 0503 Radio Room abaord KMS Bismarck watch Funker (Radio operator) was picking up transmissions from a fairly close source "west" of Bismarck. After 3 minutes of monitoring he informed the radio watch Maat (PO) of his findings. The Maat came over and plugged in his head phone set. No doubt abpout it the kid had something and it was in code.

The Maat informed the watch officer of the transmission.

Watch Officer "Matt what do you make of it?
Matt, " I agree with the Funker Sir. It is definitely close by and from the west. It also is in code but I have no idea whose. That Frequency could be one of our type IXs operating this far out."
Watch Officer to the Encoding watch Warrant Officer "I need to know if this signal is one of our codes now." The WO took the punched paper tape and fed it into a teletype that printed out the signal letters. He then reviewed it and determined it was not one of theirs.

Encoding watch WO, " It is not one of ours. The format is all wrong for an enigma cypher. It looks like an Ami code. At least it does not look like any Englander code I ever saw Herr Erster Wachoffizier (Watch Officer).
The Erster Wachoffizier quickly informed the OOD who informed Kapitäns zur See Lindemann who informed Vizeadmiral (Rear Admiral), Brinkmann on his flag bridge watching his tanker disappear to the south West. An aide handed him the SP phone and he listened to the report. The Vizeadmiral quickly ordered a flashing light, immediate execute signal to come to course 090 speed 28 knots. It was once again time to run but this time to his next operating area in the Cape of Good Hope convoy Lanes. The Englanders were forced to send much of their shipping to North Africa around the Cape because the Med was too dangerous for most convoys. He also ordered the Prince to arm an Arado with bombs and send it along the bearing of the radio transmission. Make sure the air crew knows no matter what nationality they found they were to silence that radio immediately after we acknowledged their sighting report.

 
16 JUNE 1941 0945 USS Brooklyn CL-40 morning Curtiss SOC Seagull scout, about 80% of the way out on his sector search is spotted first by Bismarck's Arado Ar 196. At contact the Arado Ar 196 was above the Seagul and in the sun. The German pilot imediately dived for the Seagul in a blow through attack. His two wing mounted 20mm auto canons and one forward firing 7.92 MG ripped through the tail and after cockpit of the SOC killing the Observer. The shaken and wounded Seagul pilot transmitted an aircraft sighting report but is killed before he could transmit his posit. The brief transmission was picked up by only two ships in Hewitt's force, Brooklyn and Dunlap's DD-384. The incomplete sighting report gives him a first proof a German capital ship is in the area. No firm Datum, No course and speed, no confirmation of which ship or ships it is but he and Lee are very sure it is Bismarck/and or The Prince. 

16 JUNE 1015 TG Brinkmann's Arado aircraft continued with it's sector scout and at the very end of it's fuel outbound fuel reserve sighted what appeared to be either convoy or a naval formation "bumps" on their horizon. The aircraft commander decided these ships being over 200 miles away from his TG it was prudent not to trans mit a posit report from right on top of them. He then selected a dog leg course back to TG Brinkmann. Heading to the North until he judged himslef out of radar range and then dropped down and headed straight for his TG. After another 30 miles he came up to best cruising altitude, leaned out his fuel mixture and hoped his guages were accurate. 

16 JUNE 1941 1045 despite marginally acceptable flying conditions and sea state Hewitt orders Lee to launch a recon SOC to the last estimated position of the downed Seagull. Lee selected LT Stryker OIC of his Air Det and his observer Chief Craig on this very dangerous but vital mission because they would do the job no matter what the odds. LT Stryker was also the nephew of CMDR Joe Stryker, BB-55's Executive Officer. He informed both men what happend to the CA-40's aircraft. Pilot was ordered to conduct a sector search and if successful to take whatecer action he deemed neccessary to ensure his sighting report is acknowledged by Hewitt's TG. He was then to shadow the German force signalling posit, course and speed changes. Lee agin thanked God for Hewitt because the man had the iron to order a couple of good young men to their death. Also because Hewitt was taking a big chance, by breaking radio silence, Lutgens would pick up the acknoldgement and know the Seagull's home was a USN capital ship and atleast it's bearing from Bismack. 

16 JUNE 1941 1230 2nd scout reaches last position of Brooklyn's aircraft and begins sector search to the North West .

16 JUNE 1941 1345 Stryker and Craig spot The Prince steaming SOUTH East at 19 kts and imediately transmit sighting report which is not recieved by TG 39.1 Stryker orders Chief Craig to keep sending that "Fvcking signal until we get an acknowledgement" and then takes the SOC into a cloud bank. For the next half hour Stryker skips in and out of the clouds, varifying The Prince's Course and speed and avoiding another Arado Ar 196.

16 JUNE 1941 1420 Chief Craig recieves TG 39.1 acknowledgement of the sighting report. Actually BB-55 had transmitted it's first acknowledgment at 1250. Hewitt authorized further trasmissions at 1355, 1409 and 1416. The American reconnaissance aircraft spotted Nazi warships, prompting Hewitt to order his ships to condition two (half crew on watch and guns manned and ready at all time). The four destroyers were arrayed ahead of BB-55 and USS Brooklyn CL-40.
The American task force, having been operating as TG 39.1 for some time and was a coherent unit with a well understood and practiced doctrine. BB-55, thanks to the "Gun Club's very best Gunner "Ching" Lee, was a well drilled, technically expert in visual and radar guided fire control, experience in shooting their main battery, by day and night. To put it brutally Bismarck and Prinz Eugen were up against the best gunnery ship in the USN, commanded by an absolute master of this black art. It would be a case of "Diamond scratch Diamond.

16 JUNE 2300 The Prince spotted Hewitt's DD screen ships with his forward FuMO 23 radar. Luckner sent his sighting report and turned about to take up her station abreast of Biamarck. BB-55's search radar picked up the Nazi cruiser at about the same time, followed by a much larger blip, Bismarck soon after. In the TC Tolley's team had plotted the positione on the DRT. Rear admiral Hewitt had decided to run this battle from the TC and was there with "Ching" Lee.

16 JUNE 2310 first CL-40's, soon followed by BB-55's fire control radars, began tracking the Nazi vessels. Hewitt , also a member of the Gun Club, knew he who fired first acurately had a big advantage in a sea fight and ordered guns "Free " as he closed the range. Both of his capital ships were now free to opened fire when ready. BB-55 fired first with her main battery at 2317 at a range of 18,000 yds landing over. Bismarck returned fire shortly after but her first salvo was aimed at the American destroyer screen, allowing BB-55 to target TG Brinkman's Flagship, with her second and third salvos unopposed. The third salvo scored a significant 2 shell hit that knocked out 1/4 her propulsion machinery and started a fire. First blood to BB-55.

16 JUNE 2322 with the range down to 16,500 yds CL-40 fired a 15 gun AP salvo of her 6 inch Mark 16/16DP at Prince Eugen scoring three hits. Her Gunnery officer imediately adjusted his fire control solution Luckner had put his helm over hard turning away from Bismarck. Therefore CL-40's 2nd main battery salvo fell short but her third salvo was over. Brooklyn now thought they had the range and commenced to blanket The Prince with full 15 gun salvoes at the rate of 12 per minute.
The Prince returned fire with her four forward 8 inch SK C/34 naval guns under radar control. She straddled Brooklyn with salvo 1. CL-40 took evasive action that caused her next two salvos to score only 2 hits, neither of which did more than light damage to The Prince. 

16 JUNE 2330 an error in the electrical switchboard room knocked out power aboard BB-55, disabling her radar systems and leaving the ship all but blind to the Nazi vessels approaching the force. By this time, Brinkmann's ships had inflicted serious damage on the American destroyer screen; two of the destroyers were hit by 8 inch fire and a third was destroyed by gunfire. 3 members of BB-55's DC party, led by EM3 but once EM-1 SS Madrick, managed to restored electrical power but it did take time. Until power was restored BB-55's captain, Ching Lee, kept his ship on the disengaged side of the flaming wrecks of the destroyer screen until BB-55 was forced to turn in front of one of the burning destroyers to avoid a collision, which backlit her to the Nazi ships, drawing their fire. 

16 JUNE At 2358, even with electrical power restored it took RMC O'Shea and his other radar techs time to restore and calibrate the gear. Captain Lee ordered two of his 5 inch mounts to fire star shells to illuminate TG Brainkmann. That was the old school way to aid his Gun boss and fire control team as they engaged Bismarck using visual his directors in visual mode. Mounts 54 and 52 (the marine manned twin gun secondary) were assigned the illumination mission. GM1c Borgnino USN (AKA Ernie Borgnine) and 1st Sgt Carlo Morano had done their jobs well because the mount and it's gun crew perfromed flawlessly. While her radars were down BB-55 managed to score some straddles and a few close aboard overs and unders but no solid hits. 

At last BB-55's radar picked up the Nazi ships again less than 5 nautical miles ahead. Two minutes later, the Prince illuminated BB-55 with her search lights and the Nazi line promptly opened fire, scoring several hits. BB-55, opened fire, under radar control now, assigning only mount 54 fired star shells, while the rest joined her main battery in battering Bismark at a range of 8,400 yards. BB-55 scored nine 16-inch hits and as many as forty 5-inch hits, inflicting moderate damage. Bismarck was holed below the waterline, her forward two turrets were knocked out temporarily. Bismarck's steering was very sluggish due to her rudder pintals being bent by the jack hammer blows of near misses, forcing the helmansman to fight her with every bit of skill he had. Even then it was impossible to keep her on a straight course for long. She also developped an increasing starboard list.

With BB-55 back in the fight CL-40 shifted fire to the Prince alone and though straddling her, failed to score any vital hits; the barrage nevertheless convinced the German cruiser to turn off her search lights and reverse course in an attempt to launch torpedoes. 

17JUNE 0013, the Nazi cruiser fired her two remaining torpedoes at BB-55 , then about 6,000 yards away. Lee combed their wakes and they both missed. TG 39.1 promptly took evasive maneuvers. At 0020, Hewitt, fearing more close range torpedo attacks, turned his TG 39.1 to open the range (he had ordered the surviving destroyer to disengage earlier in the engagement). 

Bismarck was burning, still steering like a drunken whore, with moderate progressively flooding and two disabled boilers. She was still belting out 4 gun 15 inch salvoes at TG 39.1 although her accuracy was steadily declining.

17 JUNE 0025 BB-55 landed a devestating 5 round hits on Bismarck along her water line belt. Although Bismarck's DC crews fought a furious battle against flooding they lost and most of them drowned while trying to save their ship. Her pumps could not cope with the flooding and she began an ever increasing list.

17 JUNE 0031 BB-55 administered the death blow in a full 9 gun slavo that landed 7 AP rounds and tore the heart out of the proud battleship when her after powder magaine was penetrated. Brinkmann died, Linderman died along with all but 135 of her sailors. Bismarck capsized and sank with her props still turning and her guns still firing.

17 JUNE 0037 CL-40 was firing CXAM RADAR guided continuos 15 gun 6 inch /47 caliber guns at their crews most rapid rate (12 rounds per minute) combined with half her 5 in/25 caliber guns into The Prince. The prince's upper works were wrecked, her radars and fire control directors were destroyed and even her turrets and barbetts had been penterated by multiple AP hits disabling all. Her CO, XO, gunnery officer and almost all her topside crew were dead.
BUT
Her mighty 132,000 shp Blohm & Voss steam turbines were still intact and her hull was mostly sound. Her senior surviving officer, conning her from back aft, ordered up flank speed of 32 knots and made for Brooklyn. The Prince might be finished but she was going to take her murderer to hell with her.

17 JUNE 0044 BB-55 landed 3 16 inch AP rounds on the roof of her forward turrets. The shells smashed all the way down to her keel and blew her bows off. Her own 132,000 shp Blohm & Voss steam turbines drove her into the sea which defeated her water tight integrety and literally drove her under like a diving U-Boat taking the rest of her crew to the bottom with her.

17 JUNE 0050 CL-40 and the lone destroyer had formed back up with BB-55 to withdraw from the area. Hewitt hung out the signal Bravo Zulu and repeated it with both flashing light and TBS. TBS stands for “talk-between-ships”, a relatively low-powered crystal-controlled system. TBS was new and used mainly for maneuvering, target (and friendly) identification, and weapons employment. By operating in the VHF part of the electromagnetic spectrum, these radios essentially kept the range to “line-of-sight” distances, approximately 25 miles. 

Hewitt also ordered TG39.1 to go to Condition III - Wartime Cruising, generally one third of the crew is on watch, and strategic stations are manned or partly manned. (e.g. weapons). His kids deserved some rest.

CO BB-55 to the OOD. "Set condition III with the exception of DC parties and those donducting essentail gear repair." After giving his crew 15 minutes to stand down to condition III Captain Lee walked over to the 1MC (ship's general annoucing system) and said to the Bosun of the watch "whistle me up a tune son I'm going to address the crew." After the pipe was finished he took the mic. This is the captain. Well done. I am proud of each and everyone of you. You just might have won the last battleship to battleship gun fight the USN will ever see. That is all"

17 JUNE 0115 In the Goat Locker BB-55 the CPOs sat around their mess tables drinking their Navy brew, liberally spliced with their own brand of scotch whiskey. To a man the chiefs went to sea with a few the largest bottles of Listerine mouthwash. About 95% of those bottles did not contain the dental hygene concoction. They did hold each chief's personal supply of liquor. It had to be Scotch even though the individual chief might have preferred bourbon, by a very large margin, or some other libation because only scotch had the same color as the listerine which was packaged in clear bottles. 

It was pretty much an open secret among the senior officers that the chiefs had their own stash and it was in the Listerine bottles. However, on BB-55 under "Ching" Lee, as long as they kept their drinking under control, they got a wink and a nod. The chiefs, being the wily old sailors they were, knew better than to let the "Skipper" down and hence the Listerine Bottles and scotch. It was far more important to keep the secret from the junior O's and enlisted for "morale purposes". 

Last thing they wanted was to "spark a mutiny" was the running Goat Locker Joke. The shipwide joke, even among thr Jar heads was the Skipper was also a dead shot with an M1911A1 which was another reason not to fuck with him. All kidding aside, these pros knew Lee had started preparing them to fight, win and survive a battleship battle the day he came aboard.   They loved him for that and of course being reasonable about their booze. It was their very good luck they were skippered by the best Battlleship skipper in the fleet and probably the smartest Naval officer any of them would ever see.

17 JUNE 0138 Ernie King's face was crowned with a smile as he read Rear admiral Hewitt's high priority, Top Secret Eyes Only CincLantFlt message.
" 1. Mission Accomplished
2. Both raiders sunk.
3.Our casulaties 3 DDs sunk most of their crews rescued.
4. No enemy survivors.
TG 39.1 is ready in all respects to carry out all orders.
Hewitt sends."

To his aide. "Make to Rear Admiral Hewitt ASAP by same code as his message.
1. Well done.
2. I will inform CNO and he will let POTUS Know.
3. I expect FDR to contact the PM personally.
4. Now standby for whatever we deserve beacuse I think we just dragged our country into a war that is going to get alot of poor kids killed.
5. Break out the beer for your men because I am ordering you to "Splice the Main Brace."
King sends."
He then sat back in his chair and lit up another smoke. On this momentous occasion King thought back on the path that had led him here. Born in Lorain, Ohio, on 23 November 1878, attending the U.S. Naval Academy ( The old Baltimore Barge School) beginning in 1897, including Spanish-American War service in USS San Francisco, and graduating in 1901. As a JO, serving in a variety of large and small ships, instructor duty at the "Barge school", performing engineering duties and was twice on flag staffs. He commanded the destroyer Terry (DD-25) and a torpedo boat flotilla during the "Teens". From 1915 through the First World War, he was assigned to the staff of Admiral Henry Mayo. Following "The War to End all wars", utter bull shit and another tour at the Naval Academy, now Captain King commanded a submarine flotilla and the New London, Connecticut, submarine base.

In August 1928, following flight training and further service at sea, he became Assistant Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics. The next year, he moved onto command NavSta, Hampton Roads, Virginia, and, in 1930, became captain of the large aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2). Promoted to Rear Admiral in 1933, he was made Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics. During the later 1930s, he commanded the Battle Fleet's aircraft carriers. In early 1941, following service on the General Board and as commander of the Atlantic Patrol Force, King was appointed to lead the newly recreated Atlantic Fleet responisble for the Nuetrality Patrol among alot of other things. 

He had no doubt the undeclared warfare, that was the Nuetrality Patrol up to this point, against German U-boats and raiders would all change with Hewitt's sinking of Bismarck and Prinze Eugen. He hoped that bastard Hitler would do them a favor declaring war on the USA . If not, his patron FDR would maneuver the Congress to do so IF he survived impeachment for authorizing Hewitt to commit an outright act of war. His money was on FDR paying a high price in political capital but still POTUS when that three ring circus was over. 

When his aide returned King pulled a bottle of Irish and two glasses from his bottom drawer. He said, "Sit down Johnnie and join me in a drink to Hewitt, Ching Lee and all of TG 39.1. We Naval Officers & Gentlemen will have a lot of blood on our hands by the time we reach Berlin and a lot of that blood is going to be our own people. But that's what they pay us bastards for right?
Now drink up because your going to need it.
Aide, taking the offered full glass straight "Aye, Aye Sir" !
THE END.

I will have comments in a day or two about this accounting. 

[oscssw]

Jan 5, 2023 20:20:06 GMT lordroel said:

Jan 5, 2023 20:10:14 GMT oscssw said:

No idea.   See last page.  I leave it undecided.   Quite frankly I am eager to get on with NOVA GENOVA

Well then we agree that this is a open end to the TL, open for discussion for those who want to in what i now christen the SHOWCHAN Universe with the blessing of Senior Chief (oscssw ).

If "SHOWCHAN Universe" is good for you it is for me.

[oscssw]

Jan 5, 2023 21:07:38 GMT miletus12 said:

Jan 5, 2023 15:18:28 GMT oscssw said:

I will have comments in a day or two about this accounting. 

Oh,Oh that looks ominous miletus12.   May I be truly grateful for the abuse I am about to receive.

[lordroel]

Jan 6, 2023 1:14:10 GMT oscssw said:

Jan 5, 2023 20:20:06 GMT lordroel said:

Well then we agree that this is a open end to the TL, open for discussion for those who want to in what i now christen the SHOWCHAN Universe with the blessing of Senior Chief (oscssw ).

If "SHOWCHAN Universe" is good for you it is for me.

Can you answer a question, was THE SHOWBOAT damaged in the battle.

[oscssw]

Jan 5, 2023 20:14:14 GMT 575 said:

Such an awaited ending; well written with all the expected detail!
To me there is no formula how to write - I do it my way - You should do it yours. I like Your way of writing Senior Chief. Thanks for a well worked out AH scenario.

1.   575 you are too kind.

2. I am very happy you liked the ATL

3. I'll take your words of wisdom on writing to heart.   I am very comfortable with the log entry format so I'll keep using it.

4. Have I provided too much technical detail?   Do you think it slows down the narrative?

5. I know my characters need development and I must work especially on how to portray females realistically.    

[oscssw]

Jan 6, 2023 14:26:56 GMT lordroel said:

Jan 6, 2023 1:14:10 GMT oscssw said:

If "SHOWCHAN Universe" is good for you it is for me.

Can you answer a question, was THE SHOWBOAT damaged in the battle.

Yes she took both main battery hits from Bismarck and near misses from Prince Ugene including knocking out her main electrical switchboard.  However, the main battery hits were effectively countered by BB-55 armor.

[lordroel]

Jan 6, 2023 14:38:51 GMT oscssw said:

Jan 6, 2023 14:26:56 GMT lordroel said:

Can you answer a question, was THE SHOWBOAT damaged in the battle.

Yes she took both main battery hits from Bismarck and near misses from Prince Ugene including knocking out her main electrical switchboard.  However, the main battery hits were effectively countered by BB-55 armor.

So she will have to go to dry dock for a while.

[575]

Jan 6, 2023 14:35:45 GMT oscssw said:

Jan 5, 2023 20:14:14 GMT 575 said:

Such an awaited ending; well written with all the expected detail!
To me there is no formula how to write - I do it my way - You should do it yours. I like Your way of writing Senior Chief. Thanks for a well worked out AH scenario.

1.   575 you are too kind.

2. I am very happy you liked the ATL

3. I'll take your words of wisdom on writing to heart.   I am very comfortable with the log entry format so I'll keep using it.

4. Have I provided too much technical detail?   Do you think it slows down the narrative?

5. I know my characters need development and I must work especially on how to portray females realistically.    

1. You deserve it.

2. even being Airforce and HomeGuard; my old man was a Navy man and Merchant Mariner for some years and I liked his tales. He was a mechanical end electrical engineer so naturally ended up being made Corporal by the Chief.

3. Thats Your way of writing so do continue - some day You may want to try another format.

4. No and No - can't answer for others of course but I do like it. It just shows that You have been doing Your homework thoroughbly which give credence to a TL writer.

5. I'm in no position to give critique on such but I like your storytelling which matters to me. I know I'm no great character-builder but I try.

[drunknsubmrnr]

Jan 5, 2023 17:26:08 GMT oscssw said:

Jan 5, 2023 15:45:41 GMT lordroel said:

Thanks for posting you first TL here Senior Chief.

Now I would like to know what I did wrong.

I liked it. The only thing I would say is that the formatting sometimes was a little difficult to read, but I don’t think that’s something under your control.

One other thing is that mouthpiece Borgnine improved after he has clocked by FN Madrick, so clearly Madrick is the hero of the story.

[oscssw]

Being clocked often is exactly what a lot of people need. It is a way of getting their attention!

[miletus12]

Jan 10, 2023 11:59:57 GMT oscssw said:

Being clocked often is exactly what a lot of people need. It is a way of getting their attention!

The old "twelve and six", one to the back of the head, and when the motivatee is bent over, a motivational boot in the rear to point him in the right direction.

Not recommended when there are "unreliable" witnesses present.

[miletus12]

Post by oscssw on Dec 27, 2022 at 3:00pm
27 Dec update
THE SHOWBOAT Engages THE IRON CHANCELLOR
I have been asked to post in black and am happy to comply.
Please note I have revised the Op Order to exclude the USMC and USN from Trinidad Tobago refinery raid. This works better that no US forces are present.

See Map. 



With any kind of warning at all more than a day, there wilol be land based air to greet the Germans.  

The WW II German naval Operations Order was very similar to the army version and consists of an orientation and five paragraphs. The five paragraphs are: Situation, Mission, Execution, Administration & Logistics, and Command & Signal.

1. SITUATION.
a. Area of Interest. British Crown Colony Island of Trinidad Tobago
b. Area of Operations. North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea 150 nautical miles centered on Trinidad Tobago
(1) Terrain. Map included in the folder with all important locations marked
(2) Weather. To be updated during the approach for now forecast good

c. Enemy Forces. Trinidad Tobago Garrison and any allied units present
(1) Composition, Disposition, and Strength.
Coast Artillery Battalion Royal Marines Siege Regiment
HQ Battery locate at Trinidad at Carenage Bay
Service battery Carenage Bay
Six sections, each with a searchlight and aircraft sound locator
colocated with Flak batteries

Coastal Defense Group
Three batteries, each with two BL 6-inch Mk VII Surface only guns.
See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Projectiles Surface AP, HE, Shrapnel 100 lb
Rate of fire 8 rounds per minute
Maximum effective range 25,000 yds at 20° elevation

Antiaircraft Group
Four FLAK batteries, each with 4 mobile QF 3 inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns mounted on towed, 4-wheeled sprung trailer FLAK platforms.
Each battery is equipped with Vickers No. 2 Predictor based on a US Sperry AAA Computer M3A3. The No 2 could track targets at 400 mph at heights of 25,000 ft. The No 2 Predictors received height data, generally from the Barr & Stroud UB 7 (9 feet base) instrument.
See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Projectiles 24 lb Fixed round 12.5 lb projectile weight
types: AP, AA , HE, Illumination
Rate of fire 16 – 18 rounds per minute
Maximum effective range 16,000 yds at 43° elevation 30,400ft AA ceiling

Two AAA machine gun companies, each with 12 Oerlikon guns
See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Projectiles High Explosive with tracer, H.E. without tracer and Incendiary
Cyclical rate of around 500 rpm from 60 rounds magazines
Maximum effective range 1,000yds

One Seaplane tender of the AVD class converted WW I destroyer
Anchor in Carenage Bay.

Supporting 4 to 6 Catalina II Patrol Seaplanes
Maximum speed: 196 mph Cruise speed: 125 mph
Range 2,520 mi
Service ceiling: 15,800 ft
Guns: Three .30 cal Mgs (two in nose turret, one in ventral hatch at tail)
Two .50 cal HMG (one in each waist blister)
Bombs: 4,000 lb of bombs, depth charges or torpedoes

Radar Fitted with ASV Mark II Surface Search Radar
Wavelength 170 cm Pulse Width 2.5 microsecond
Pulse Repetition Frequency 400 Hz Peak Power Out 7 kW
Range 20 miles for destroyer 30 miles Capital ships and merchants
60 miles for coastline
Minimum range 1 mile

As of last report no land based military Patrol, Bomber or Fighter aircraft are permantly based on Trinidad and Tobego as their bases are in the early phase of construction.
No land bases search radar is operational. However, as this is a key Convoy assembly area various radar equipped warships are often present.

Local Patrol Boats There are about a dozen police and customs launches armed with pistols and rifle. No radar but they do have two way radios which are considered their most dangerous weapon. No more than two of the boats have been observed actively patrolling between Midnight and nautitical sunrise.

d. Friendly Forces. TG Brinkmann and PSS Cabello and various U-boats
(1) Higher HQ Mission and Intent. BdU Destroy oil refining capability on Trinidad Tobago
(2) Mission of Adjacent Units. N/A
e. Attachments and Detachments. N/A
f. Civilian Considerations Avoid civilian casualties unless they jeopardize success of the mission.

2. MISSION. In a night action destroy the refineries, port facilities and any tankers in the vicinity of Trinidad Tobago without sustaining major damage to TG Brinkman that would degrade primary, commerce raiding mission. To withdraw before enemy forces can pose a threat to TG Brinkman. Radar Navigation and gun laying will be employed along with beacon(s) planted by sleeper agents.
Pointe a Pierre refinery is one of the largest and most modern (due to constant upgrades) refineries in the world. Point Fortin a somehwat smaller refinery and being of recent expanded and modernized has better fire fighting facilities. The fuel, refined at Pointe a Pierre and Point Fortin is very important to the RAF, Royal Navy, British home Islands Industry and allied merchant fleet. The total destruction of Pointe a Pierre and Point Fortin will be a major strategic victory for the Fatherland and a serious loss for the enemy.

3. EXECUTION. TG Brinkmann will destroy the refineries, port, air field facilities and any tankers or naval vseesls in the vicinity of Pointe a Pierre and Point Fortin by gunfire on the night of 9/10 June.
a. Commander's Intent Total destruction of Trinidad Tobago's Refineries. Inflicting as much damage to Trinidad Tobago's port, tankers, communications and naval units as reasonably possible.
b. Concept of operations. To use surprise, radar navigation and fire control and precision gunfire under cover of darkness
(1) Maneuver. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(2) Fires. As required
(3) Reconnaissance and Surveillance. U-boats, local sleeper agents, Arado scouts and radar will be the chief methods of Recon and Surveillance
(4) Intelligence. As provided by BdU
(5) Engineer. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(6) Air Defense. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(7) Information Operations.

c. Scheme of Movement and Maneuver. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
d. Scheme of Fires.
e. Casualty Evacuation.
f. Tasks to Subordinate Units
g. Tasks to Combat Support.

(1) Intelligence. See Appendix
(2) Engineer. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(3) Fire Support. See Appendix
(4) Air Defense. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(5) Signal. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
4. SUSTAINMENT. Per TG Brinkmann SOP
5. COMMAND AND CONTROL.
a. Command.
(1) Location of Commander. Bismarck
(2) Succession of Command. Per TG Brinkmann SOP

c. Signal. Per TG Brinkmann SOP
(1) SOI index in effect.
(2) Methods of communication by priority.
(3) Pyrotechnics and Signals.
(4) Code Words.
(5) Challenge and Password.
(6) Number Combination.
(7) Running Password.
(8) Recognition Signals.

Comments: at this stage of the war, I am uncertain the Germans would have intelligence this good. The Americans were in the middle of a spy war in the Caribbean and inside "unfriendly" South American states. The American aim was to roll up the German networks, at which they were surprisingly successful,k and cajole the major "unfriendlies" that it would be a good idea to not anger Washington.     

7 JUNE 1941 1130 One of CPO Sharkey's Radar operators reported a "contact" at 005 relative, distance 17 and a half miles to his watch PO. Second Class Petty Officer "Bertie" O' Higgins came over and studied the "O" scope presentation for a minute and then adjusted the "gain" control. He was rewarded with two small contacts. Bertie informed the watch officer and log keeper of the new contacts. Bertie worked out the contacts' course, speed, CPA (closest point of approach) and time of CPA at current course and speed. He provided that amplifying information to the watch officer who, after a quick check, informed the OOD. The OOD picked up the sound powered phone to the anchor windless room, where CDR Edmund Blackadder, acting CO Sheffield, was inspecting the shoring strong back recently installed. It replaced the emergency "Patch" from the battle that had failed about an hour and a half ago. The pumps had been making slow but steady progress "dewatering" Shiny until that patch let loose. He had to order speed reduced to a little above steerage way while the DC party, working in waist high and then chest high water fashioned and emplaced the replacement. Just 25 minutes ago he had ordered Shiny Back to her best speed, 15 knots in 5 knot increments. He was watching, along with the DC party, the patch which he was now almost convinced would hold when he got the contact report.

That patch had better have been V braced to take the shear forces.

He said to the Chief Stoker DC party leader, "Chief I'm heading back to the bridge" and to the DC party, "Job damn well done. I will order up a dram for each of you. Chief see our men and you get that rum issue after you secure."

Modern comment; this is contraindicated for a coldwater workparty. Hot coffee, and heat is recommended.  

He was then on the run up 6 ladders to the jury rigged bridge. He made it in less than 5 minutes puffing like an old man and got the full report from the OOD.

No comment here. But he will be one tired messenger bunny. 

Blackadder to the OOD, "That should be the Norwegian manned Ocean going Tug Hafgufa and "OUR" escort the Flower class Corvett Primrose." Both men smiled at the lame joke but that was the best he could do at present.

The two radar contacts, I presume.

"Make sure the lookouts keep a sharp eye on that bearing and order action stations NOW. " They were not out of the woods yet by a long margin and he was not taking any more chances than he had to with Shiny leaking like a colander and his engines held together with wire and the sweat of his Chief and his stokers. In due course his signal men acknowledge the flag hoist challenge. It was the Tug and Corvette. He immediately ordered the crew secure from Action Stations. He ordered the Corvette to maintain an ASW screen and the tug to take station abreast of Shiny at 500 yds to starboard. No sign of the promised Coastal command patrol bomber or fighter escort so far. Well he had not really expected the RAF to drop everything just to nursemaid old Shiny.

Do you mean ASW guard watch on the likely threat axis? 

7 JUNE 1941 1200 TG 39.1 was at 18.0708° N, 62.0501° W heading South at 25 knots with the destroyers in a bent line screen, BB-55 as guide with USS Brooklyn CL-40 scouting 50 miles ahead. Rear admiral Hewitt had three SOC souts out patrolling search sectors to the East,West and South out to 150 miles. Nothing so far. The TG was heading for an UNREP with one of the fast oilers. His Destroyers needed fuel after the long high speed transit.
7 JUNE 1941 1315 The Southern scout sighted the oiler at 70 miles, speed 15 knots heading for TG39.1

Does USS Brooklyn have her aircraft up?

Do the destroyers keep a passive acoustic watch and sprint and drift? 

Why is the tanker a sitting duck for U-boats?  

7 JUNE 1941 1830 the last of TG39.1 broke away from the oiler and was heading back to it's screening station. The oiler was heading to the next UNREP station. Hewitt was sure he would need more fuel after an action with TG Brinkmann.

Does Hewitt have an ETC? 

8 JUNE 1941 2100 There was no black out at all on Aruba, U-156 's target lay there, fully lit. He had easily eluded the Two 34 ft. " customs launches. These boats are armed with small arms and a single, pedestal mounted, Canon d'Infanterie de 37 modèle 1916 TRP (37mm mle.1916) French infantry support gun. Rate of fire Sustained: 25 rpm, Maximum Effective range1,600yds But their most dangerous weapon was their excellent radios. He also beat the Six 24 ft. Radio equipped Police/rescue boats stationed in the island. Without radar fire control he had no fear of the shore battery located at Juana Morto, the highest point of the easterly part of the island, a coastal battery consisting of two pre WW 1 150 mm 40 caliber guns.

Why is there no blackout on Aruba? Officially Holland is still at war. Wartime measures should still be in effect.   

What he did fear was Stationed at KLM Field Savaneta, a graded runway if caught close in during daylight was the 6 Martin 139s WH-3As the Export version of the B-10. With Maximum speed: 213 mph, Range of 1,240 mi and armed with 3 30 caliber Browning machine guns and 2,260 lbs of bombs. Even the 6 Brewster 339Ds Export version of the F-2A Buffalo wuth two 0.50 in nose and 2 wing -mounted M2 Browning machine guns and two 100 lb bombs could damage his boat enough to cause real trouble.

I would be afraid of the Martins. Those could dive bomb. The Buffalos would be lucky to get aloft without something breaking.    

U-156 was a Type IXC with one × 4.1 inch SK C/32 deck gun with 180 rounds, a 37mmAA gun and one twin 20 mm FlaK 30 AA. She surfaced off the Lego refinery and the guns crews manned their weapons, sighted them on the refinery and bombarded Lego with everything they had. A fatal error by one of the 5.9's gun crew disabled the breach block after firing 97 rounds. That very UNGreman error spared Lago refinery total destruction But not by much. With the needless loss of his main deck gun, the U-boat only had left the much lighter guns. The CO, in a cold rage, the hapless gunner having been beaten severely by the gun captain (who knew he was really in for it), continued the bombardment. They hit the refinery and at the surrounding buildings and a nearly empty Venezulean tanker carrying crude to the refinery repeatedly but the damage was only minor. Lago escaped total destruction that night and only because the bombardment had been terminated early.

Oil refineries were remarkably tough customers. Naval and air bombardments did relatively little damage. Ploiesti is the case example. Unless the AVgas created a fuel air explosive condition instead of evaporation and ventinmg, the likely real result is a lot of holes in the structures and some containable fires. A U-boat just does not pack the pyro required to set a massive heavy oil fire.   

The U-156 torpedoed 2 tankers and a ship loaded with 3000 tons of dynamite, waiting for daylight to enter the port of Oranjestad, on her way out. Both tankers caught fire and sank. The luckless merchant literally disintegrated showering pieces of her over a space of three miles inlcuding ashore on Aruba.

A kind of Halifax or Corpus Christi effect? Tankers would be burndowns and scuttles. Dynamite ship exploding? The Lusitania was packed with high explosives and she did not blow up. Dynamite needs an initiator. Plenty a Liberty ship jammed with explosives did not blow up when hit.

See video.

Kaleu U-156 thought "With luck we just drew every Englander ship and aircraft away from Trinidad Tobago for long enough for Bismarck and The Prince to destroy those refineries. The question is is it good or bad luck for U-156? At least his U-Boat stood a fair chance of getting back into the Atlantic, something Bismarck would never be able to do if she was insane enough to actually enter the Gulf of Mexico. She would never get past the Island chain to the East on the way in let alone on the way out.

Time. It would take time to bring the the British concentrations. 

Drachinifel does cover the basics, but he still gets a lot wrong. Note that the U-boat attempts to bombard shore targets were spectacular failures? U-boats were lousy gun platforms.   

9 JUNE 1941 0800 HMS Cambletown, flying a broom from her foremast head, secured from Special Sea Detail. Old Gift Horses crew had made her as presentable as possible given her many battle wounds. She still looked like a tired old whore but they had come to love her. After all, despite far too many times the old gal's machinery had made the Stokers lives a living hell, in the end she had brought most of them home, mostly safe and sound to Halifax's repair basin, pier #3.

No comment.

She still had her Nazi U-boat prisoners aboard but not for long. A section of Canadian Army infantry and two big Bedford QLD 3 ton lorries were waiting on the pier. They would soon take the Nazi diehards to the POW, temporary holding barracks in the dockyard. The Officers were in for a real grilling by the Intel section, real right bastards, mostly RN hard boys. At this point in this loosing Battle of the Atlantic no one was playing by Marques of Queensbury rules.

Most likely the RCN would take them to Farnham.

9 JUNE 1941 0315 All that was left of TG Cilax the two type 1936A destroyers Z23 and Z25 after evading Force H's aerial scouts and the feigned incompetence of the Spanish Navy and Air Force were now moored safe and sound at the Kriegmarine base in the southwestern French port of Hendaye in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Z23's 29 year old skipper Korvettenkapitän Wolfgang Becker was now not only "Commodore" of 8 Zerstörerflottile (8th Destroyer Flotilla), but also the commander of TG Becker the successor to TG CILAX. At least until BdU noticed they were still alive.

Still, wondering how they had the fuel to make it.

9 JUNE 1941 1800 What was left of WS-12 passed the boom into Gibralta's harbor. 24 of HM's converted liner Transports, with 20,000 soldiers, over 200,000 tons of vital war material and another 6 thousand sailors started out. 12 of HM's Transports with 11,200 soldiers dropped anchor at 36.1485°N 5.3652°W. Commodore, Admiral Bertram I. Thesiger, and HMT Strathaird were not among them. The escort had also been badly savaged by the Ruder but they had sunk three U-Boats including the Wolf Pack Alpha Commander . All in all BdU and especially "Onkel Karl" (Uncle Karl), were quite pleased. Too bad his nephews did not find and sink "Des Teufel" (The Devil) Renown.

Everybody, British, commanding in this disaster should have stood Boards of Inquiry or courts martial. Uncle Karl ought to read his U-boater reports. Some of those clowns need a steel Innsbruck all expenses paid vacation, too.    

9 JUNE 1941 2245 Bismarck and The Prince were within easy 15 inch gun range of the Point-a Pierre refinery and it’s 100-octane aviation fuel, essential to the RAF. That was Bismarck’s primary target; The Prince would close on the No.5 Dubbs and the hydrogen and iso-octane plants. They were both well outside the Maximum Effective range ,10 miles,of the marine manned coast defense Battery Able’s two five-inch-fifty-one-caliber rifles. The five inchers were discards from the battleships Texas.

That should be interesting. The German ammunition was defectively fused and most of it in real history was  20.5 and 38.0 cm capped AP anyway, with small bursting charges. Lindemann's incompetent staff had bungled the loadouts for Operation Rhine.   

The radar approach, using the land mass to shielded TG Brinkmann from the radars of the escorts that lay in the harbor as their tanker heavy convoys waited for the remaining merchant ships to form up and head out into the Atlantic went well. The first Battery Able and the refinery crews, escorts and merchants knew of the presence of Bismarck was her opening 8 gun salvo, which was controlled by her Radar and the three beacons planted by Nazi saboteurs. The 1,764 lbs., HE L/4 nose futzed shells burst within the refinery starting fires fed by consequent salvos. At the same time Bismarck’s secondary battery of 5.9s smothered battery Able before the marines got a single round off. The fifth Salvo obliterated the cracking plant,.The 8th salvo set the tank farm afire and it was pretty clear the fire fighting crews were no match for the conflagration, fed by more salvos.

German practice, like British, was ranging fire to walk falls in, at 4 and 4. This land bombardment mission would be no different according to doctrine since it was 100% optical fire control. You do not get "the works" unless you were a crazy American cruiser captain in 1842 or the Japanese with radioed human directed forward observers.  How does an automatic radio beacon give range data? At that point of time of the war, the only ones with radio timed range pippers were the British and even they did not know how to use them properly. You have to have human observer control and guide in onto the targets or you miss, wildly.  And by miss I mean by as little as 30 feet to achieve no effect. Refineries, I write again are tough targets to kill. You should read Indian Navy reports about Operation Trident and what the results of STYX missile bombardment really achieved. They managed to set 1 fuel tank on fire and the Paks promptly put the fire out. It took the Indians two tries with modified NAPALM bombs and a dozen missiles in followups to get what they wanted.    

Bismark's secondaries did jack-diddle in the Denmark Strait, but I will let it slide. If those were authentic American coast defense gunners, Bismarck would sport a few new manholes and portholes. 
 

9 JUNE 1941 2300 The Prince closed on No.5 Dubbs with it’s hydrogen and iso-octane plants at 20 knots. Once on station she commenced firing, laying her guns on the saboteurs beacons. Kommandant Seeadler von Luckner, named after his uncle Count Felix von Luckner Captain of SMS Seeadler AKA Der Seeteufel (The Sea Devil)of first world war orderd The Prince to open fire. His first target was Battery “4“ ,another Royal Marines two gun Six inch position, with a full salvo from both her main battery eight inch and six 4.1 inch SK C/33 guns, with a maximum effective range about the same as the 6 incher. Unlike Bismarck his “Prince“ did not have the range advantage over Battery“4“, which was positioned on a promontory to seaward of No.5 Dubbs. First salvo was over for the 8 inch but on for the 4.1s which was more than enough to kill the gun or wound the crews and damage the guns. Second 8 inch salvo targeted No.5 Dubbs and 4.1s hit battery “4“ again destroying the guns, killing the wounded Royal Marines and the navy sick berth attendants and marines trying to get them to safety. The ready use ammunition of the battery also exploded in a succession of rapid and multiple flashes that lasted for ten minutes.

Same as before. (^^^) 

Kommandant Seeadler von Luckner, brought his cruiser in as close to shore as was prudent in order to bring his 4.1s in range of No.5 Dubbs with it’s hydrogen and iso-octane plants. This was a calculated chance because one of the Royal Marines three gun, 3-inch FLAK batteries was reported in the area. Although Projectiles only weighed 13lb they did have FLAK, HE, Illumination and most dangerous for Prinz Eugen, an AP Round fired at 15 – 20 rounds per minute with a maximum effective range of seven miles. Each individual AP round could not do much damage to the heavily armored areas of the ship but 15 or twenty all landing in the same sapot just might defeat the protection on the lighter armored areas, to say nothing of that the HE and AP would do to antennas and other light structures on the cruiser.

Ready use ammunition? Rake the superstructure and hope for a salute gun or AAA gun ready use ammo hit and get a reverse USS Arizona?  

Prinz Eugen got off 18 more salvos from 8 inch (576 rounds) and almost as many more from the 4.1 inch battery doing substantial damaged to the refinery which was a blazing inferno now, completely destroying the hydrogen and iso-octane plants. After all a refinery, especially one turning out 100 octane aviation fuel, was nothing but a bomb, just waiting for someone like TG Brinkmann to set it off. Kommandant Seeadler’s von Luckner, Prince also demolished the four berth tanker pier, it’s pumping stations and left two tankers on fire and a third with it’s stern blown off all aground after multiple 4.1 hits and single torpedo strikes.

A refinery, I must reitierate,  only goes up in an inferno and burndown,  if you are completely incompetent or Pakistani. 

9 JUNE 1941 2349 She was making her turn for the Convoy marshaling anchorage when the Royal Marines three gun, 3-inch FLAK battery oped up. First salvo was illumination rounds quickly followed by a mixture of AP and HE that walked up to the the Prince and raking "Caesar“ and "Dora"and upper decks aft. The turrets were unharmed but the men at the light FLAK and other unshielded aft stations suffered casualties. Kommandant Seeadler’s von Luckner, gunnery officer immediately commenced counter battery fire and silenced all 3 marine guns in five minutes. The Royal Marines had chosen to place their guns as far seaward as possible and that meant a beach with zero concealment or protection. The Marine battery C.O. chose this site that allowed him to reach the ship as soon as possible because she was rapidly drawing out of the range of his 3 inch pop gun

That man will be court martialed for incompetence. You can LOB those shells and punch the thin PZ DECK ARMOR...  

9 JUNE 1941 2355 In the harbor it was pure chaos as the ships desperately got underway to clear the area In accordance with the Emergency Sortie Plan. SOPA (Senior Officer Present afloat), Captain, RN John T. Stenrud III in the C class light cruiser HMS Coventry, Commissioned 1918. HMS Coventry served with the 5th Light Cruiser squadron until May 1919, and in the Baltic during the Russian civil war. In 1935, Coventry refitted as an anti-aircraft cruiser. This refit involved the removal of her 6-inch guns and torpedo tubes, and the fitting of 10 QF 4-inch Mk V guns on single high-angle mountings and 2
octuple-mounted 2-pounder 'pom-pom' guns.

And in real history how did she work out? NOT TOO GOOD.

Coventry Displaced 4,190 tons, Length 450ft, Beam 43.6ft and Draft of 14ft. She was powered by two Brown-Curtis geared turbines, Six Yarrow boilers producing 40,000 shp to her two propellers giving her a Speed of 29 knots. Her 950 tons maximum of fuel oil gave her almost 7,000 miles range. Her wartime complement was on 327.

Her effective air defense rating was 1/2 that of a US Sims class destroyer. The Sims class destroyer had a terrible air defense rating. 

Coventry’s armor was no match for for The Prince let alone Bismarck. She was protected by 3 inch side (amidships), 2¼-1½ inch side (bows), 2 inch side (stern)1 inch upper decks (amidships) and 1 inch deck over rudder

WWI Vickers plate. Decent, but thin. It was the framing steel which was deficient. That structural steel was "brittle" and not that malleable. Expect her to break up.    

Captain, RN John T. Stenrud III ordered four destroyers to join him and formed a SAG, (surface action group) that would sortie and engage the attacker. The Prince rapidly engaged the SAG and quickly put the Light cruiser out of action but the four destroyers, under the senior offiicer left, came to 35 knots and sped to their launch point for their torpedoes. Prince’s 8 inch main battery and some of Bismarck’s 5.9s quickly engaged the destroyers under radar control. Two of the escorts were sunk by the 8 inchers as the other two, both damaged, launch their torpedoes at maximum range greatly reducing the chances of a hit. One of the remaining destroyers was hit hard and went DIW (dead in the water) soon after launching her fish. The last destroyer followed her fish in and commenced firing with her main battery of 4.5 inch guns at Bismarck. The flashless powder did not conceal her from the FuMO radars and she too was soon a burning wreck. Her fish were easily avoided; The Prince and a short while later Bismarck continued to engage every ship that came within range.

And those British guys should be court martialed. The destroyers and the cruiser apparently did not split the Eugen's fire in a tail end circle jerk, but allowed themselves to be cakewalked one at a time. You pick ONE target (Eugen) and you run in as a division and mass your fires. Bismarck is too clumsy to do a turnback and her captain, at least historically, was too frightened and cautious to charge a massed torpedo volley. That clown was no Marschall or Hipper or Lee.     

10 JUNE 1941 0015 Bismarck, only using her secondary battery massacred a Seaplane tender HMS Wiltshire formerly USS Childs AVD 1 (ex-DD 241), of the AVD class converted WW I destroyer in Carenage Bay. Bismarck then engaged 6 RAF Catalina 1 B flying boat Patrol Seaplanes and 3 Supermarine Walrus capital ship float planes newly equipped with ASV radar moored close by the ADV with with her medium and light FLAK battery. All were sunk or left burning wrecks.

No. Just no. I can see the AVD being scuttled by the Bismarck's secondaries, but the CATs should have ramped out and gotten airborne long before the first salvioes from the Bismarck's mains opened up.

Courts martial for those guys, too. 

Vizeadmiral (Rear Admiral, upper half) Brinkmann, and Kapitäns zur See Lindemann both knew the destruction of those aircraft was vital to their survival. The RAF Catalina 1 B was very dangerous to surface ships as well as the U-Boats. With a max speed of 196 mph and a Cruise speed 125 mph they would no speed records. However it was their Range 2,520 miles and their ASV Mark II Surface Search Radar with it's 170 CM Wavelength, 2.5 microsecond, Pulse Repetition Frequency 400 Hz, Peak Power Out 7 kW, Range of 20 miles for destroyer, 30 miles Capital ships and merchants and 60 miles for coastline and Minimum range 1 mile. That made them so dangerous to TG Brinkmann. As far as both men were concerned against ships with speed, maneuverability and excllent FLAK batteries the Catalina 1 B's three .30 cal Mgs (two in nose turret, one in ventral hatch at tail),Two .50 cal HMG (one in each waist blister), 4,000 lb of bombs, depth charges or torpedoes were of little worry. In fact their Arado scout would have no problem shooting them down all by themself.

It was the co-pilot with his Bausch and Lomb binoculars and the radio which was dangerous about the PBY. British radar even the best ASV sets of the era, was weather sensitive and in the quality, as in lack of, British manufacture, was likely to pack it in if it got WET.   

Bismarck then turned back to the merchant ship killing but only with her secondary and FLAK battery rounds. The main gun rounds, which were mainly AP now, were reserved for something alot bigger, a lot tougher, a lot more dangeroues and for a naval officer, a lot more satisfying opponent.

Like a submarine? Kongo, Royal Oak and I believe Barham ate fish. 16 others bought it through ye olde aeroplane.   

10 JUNE 1941 0300 TG Brinkmann was running dew east at 30 kts into an area of low clouds and rain storms. Vizeadmiral (Rear Admiral, upper half) Brinkmann, had signaled his after action report 2 hours ago, shortly after clearing the target area, while on a deceptive course. The reply had been a curt "Well Done. God Speed BdU."

Way to go, Brinkmann; by now Station Norfolk has you RDFed.    

FDR, the PM, CNO Stark, Ernie King, the newly appointed Admiral of the Fleet and Rear Admiral Hewitt USN were even more determined to sink that God Damned Nazi battleship but they also had to admit Brinkmann, Nazi bastard that he was, had pulled off an absolutely masterful strategic operation. No matter what happened to him, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen the damage had been done and Hitler was, a pretty long step, closer to defeating the UK. These being Hard Men could admire a man even as they hunted him to his death. After all it was not personal. It was just business!

Stark? He's not breaking rocks at Portsmouth? What kind of alternate history is this? Put that aside. See previous comments about Brinkmann. We used to call such "2 stripers" captains of the head.   

11 JUNE 1941 0930 HMS Renown settled onto the keel blocks in the dry dock in sight of HMS Victory's masts. Old Reffit's C.O. Capt. C.E.B. Simeon, RN and his crew were eager to get ashore and celebrate their great victories over TG Cilax. About two thirds of his men would be at liberty in less than three hours; many enjoying the fleshpots of Portsmouth and well they did deserve it. He, on the other hand. along with most of his department heads, warrants and senior Chiefs had a lot of work to do getting Renown's latest Refit off to a quick start.

Should have put into a US yard. Why? Luftwaffe. 

She had been lucky, on 8 June to first find and then engage Kapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt 's Gneisenau before she entered Spanish Territorial waters. The outcome of the battle was never in doubt. Renown's 15 inch rifles against what was left of the Nazi's 5.9s was more like target practice. Still it put an unwanted strain on her engines and torpedo damage that made this Dockyard period all the more urgent.

Still should have tried for Norfolk.

The Admiralty wanted Force H reconstituted as soon as possible so they pretty much had a carte blanch now. The CO planned to take full advanatge to bring his ship up as close as possible to the latest standards.

Norfolk. 

Vice-Admiral Sir James Somerville commander of Force H, was in London now meeting with the new 1st Sea Lord. He told Simeon, he would be getting Repulse to temporary work with Ark Royal but it was his intent to have old Refit back with Force H as soon as possible. He also needed to scare up one or more new cruisers, which were very tough to come by. He had pretty much used up his Escorts and would need replacements there also.

"Hapless Harold" is (not) hard to classify. He was well liked by everyone (Including King.), but as an admiral, I could write that he lacked the killer instinct, had a rotten sense of how aircraft actually worked and could not read a battlespace or know where everybody was if his fleet's life dependedb on it. He was repeatedly neutered by supposedly technically inferior enemies. Churchill wanted to court martial him constantly.  It has been (British RN) argued that Somerville was more sinned against than sinning in these outcomes; because he was constantly handed a manure sandwich that landlubber Churchill or the incredibly incompetent Dudley Pound had fixed for him and then he was told to eat it like a BLT.         

That cuts no ice with me.  If you want a sob sister story with bells and whistles then you stand a better chance with Frank Jack Fletcher, There was the admiral who was told to make do with what little he had and do not lose or we will ruin you.  And he won and won and won and what did they do to him anyway?  They crucified him, just like they crucified Winfield Scott Schley back in the day.  

Speaking of Ark Royal, she would soon be working up a new Air Group. Based on Her CO Capt. C.S. Holland, RN after action report the old String Bags had done very well as did Fairey Fulmar in it's reconnaissance mission. Ark desperately needed much better fighters and a dedicated Dive Bomber. The real "sin" was Ark's surviving air crew wanted American replacements like the F4F and the SBD.

The report was flawed. Put the Stringbags or the Fulmars in against THE FIRST TEAM (The Japanese)_and note what happened> April Fool's Day in the Indian Ocean 1942. Nothing worked. Nothing.  

The current FAA (Fleet Air Arm) Fairey Fulmar made an excellent scout but was a poor fighter. Its performance as a fighter was severely compromised by its dual role as a scout. The Navy had specified a two-seat machine so that the pilot would have the assistance of another crew member in reporting back to the fleet the observations made, which were done using wireless telegraphy (W/T) and navigate over the ocean. As a result, the Fulmar was too large and often unwieldy in engagements with single-seat, land-based opposition, as it did in the Mediterranean Theater; its performance was clearly inferior to typical land-based fighters. However, the long range of the Fulmar was often very useful.

The Fulmar was useful in its limited defensive role as a scout and harassment aircraft. The recon feature was never properly employed. 

Contemporary Japanese Mitsubishi A5M and American Grumman F3F carrier borne fighters along with the Royal Navy's Gloster Sea Gladiator were much better "Fighters" than the Fulmar. Even these naval fighters compared unfavourably with land based fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 which reached 290 mph at sea level over the Fulmars 265 mph. Especially in the Med, they were up against really excellent land based fighters and the FAA pilots were paying the price.

Now that we are on the subject of pilots, these scarce trained human beings were being squandered. It took two years to get an FAA naval aviator to where he needed to be to do his job. The British at this time had about 1,100 of them who knew their  business. They MURDERED about half of them in totally pointless and stupid ways not involved in making sure the fleet air arm had a good pilot / air crew cadre into the crunch time of 1942-1943.  

11 JUNE 1941 2315 S13 / SS -118 / USS FORD surfaced, recharging batteries and ventilating the boat. Lat 11 30 54.2, Long 52 42 34.2, Course 270T, Speed 15, wind from 080T, Speed 16 knots gusting to 22, moderate sea, raining hard. 30 minutes until watch relief. The Fox scheds informed the boat that the Kriegsmarine was in West Lant in force. Refineries in Aruba and Trinidad Tobago had been hit and hit hard.

What kind of a "fish" is a "ford"? Back in the day we had naming conventions. 
--aircraft carriers were famous American battles.
--battleships were states.
--ammunition ships were named after volcanoes. 
--attack transports were named after soldiers and marines.
--oilers were named after idiots or rivers.
--cruisers were named for cities or territories.
--destroyers were naval heroes,
--and submarines were named after mobile sea life, usually FISH. 

Unless you are honoring John Ford and the fictional submarine S-13 in the film; "Men Without Women", As I remember the S-13 in that film was in a pickle. How did it end for all involved? For the extras fine, but for the sub and the two leads> NOT TOO GOOD. 
   

What only the Skipper, XO and Commo knew was the RN had lost a Cruiser, a Sea plane tender, a bunch of PBY flying boats and four destroyers. Trinidad Tobago had two coatsal and one AA battery wiped out with heavy loss of life. S-13's CO, Lt. Peter "Cowboy" Holt USNA class of 1938 had an eyes only message in his hands. He was appraised that ONI had determined the attack on Trinidad Tobago was by KMS Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.

See? Different plot, different idiots, same outcome,    

Ernie King ordered him to his current course and speed. He was to search for the German capital ships and, at all costs to transmit a sighting report highest priority. He was to keep transmitting until he was either acknowledged or he deemed the situation made diving and evading more likely to get that message to higher authority than continuing to transmit on the surface.

Planes. That is actually why they exist. Subs are supposed to SINK what the planes find for them. 

It was made absolutely clear to "Cowboy" that sighting report was of the highest importance even at the cost of his sub, his crew and himself.

King was a submariner. He knew what could be done and what could NOT be done. Lookout on the sub, at best 20 feet above the water with binos at 10X if lucky. Primary optics on Bismarck, 80 feet above the water. Has magnification 50X. Who sees whom first? Hint: those shells coming the Ford's way are not British.   

How much of this possible death and to whom does he inform this death sentence?
OK he has to inform the XO and the COB, that's enough for now.

The whole crew knows 5 minutes after the yeoman decoded the flash traffic. This is a WWII United States sub. 

Hell the chances of the USS FORD finding those Nazi's is really pretty small. He does not have radar, in this rain his lookouts can't see more than a boat's length but the storm will let up and then he has about a five mile visual radius.

Hint: The incompetent Germans built Bismarck with THREE popcorn sound making very LOUD and inefficient noisy props. Dive the boat and use the hydrophones. There is a better than even chance that three simultaneous Ker-da-tramms and that sizzling popping sound two convergent zones away might be a German battleship.  

His longest range sensor, given good sea conditions, is the model JT directional listening system. The JT is designed to detect, identify, and locate sources of both sonic and ultrasonic sounds. It is designed to use the JP (Active sonar sonic equipment and has a super-sonic converter so that ultrasonic as well as sonic sounds can be amplified by the JP amplifier. In addition, it has a more directional hydrophone than the JP hydrophone and has a right-left indicator (RLI) for taking bearings on sonic sounds with greater accuracy than is possible with the tuning-eye indicator of the JP equipment. From personal experience he knew the JT's longest range was while his boat was at periscope depth. His sonar Chief had actually tracked ship noise sources as far as 60 miles away. Not often, usually it was more like 15 to 20 miles, if at all but that beats the hell out of 5. Problem was he could do 15 surfaced and only11 submerged and that only for about an hour before he had to surface, run his diesels and recharge his batteries for 8 to 12 hours.

See (^^^)?

He picked up the growler and told the control room to send the COB, who was a sonar man, to his cabin. Once COB arrived he told him to take his chair and shifted himself to his bunk. He explained it all to COB and then asked him how we can get the best range on a couple of big noise targets running at high speed from the out of the model JT?

This will be fascinationg. 

COB "your taking a real big chance relying on the JT Captain. Yah I know we have picked shit up at 60 miles but that was really rare and even at 15 to 20 it is not all that common. Mostly we get stuff at 5 to 8 miles, not much better than the look outs. What we could do is put a couple of my kids with really unbelievable hearing on the phones and dive the boat to just above the surface layer, cut back the electrics to steerage way make a few slow 360s. If we get nothing; surface for awhile running on the diesels at 15 and charging the batteries. I have no idea how long we stay doing donuts and how long to run on the surface before the next dive."

The COB is a pessimist. Has all those "negative vibes".  

S-13's CO, Lt. Peter "Cowboy" Holt " So COB we sprint and drift ?"

Sprint and drift is postwar, but yeah, you do that thing.  

COB "Call it what you want Captain." Oh there is one more thing if, big IF, I can get a half dozen solid bearings on those Nazi Bastards I might be able to give you a pretty good estimate on their Course, Speed and position from FORD. There is something they are working on at Key West (Navy sonar school) they picked up from the Limeys. It's called TMA I think it means Target Motion Analysis."

It takes four for a 2 point intersectional plot baseline and the Brfitish got it from us. 

S-13's CO "How does it work COB?"

Let us see?

"TMA is done by marking from which direction the sound comes at different times, and comparing the motion with that of the FORD When I get enough good sound bearings, say 6, I study the changes in relative motion using some fancy techniques like Ekelund Ranging, 1934 Rule, Spears Wheel they "dumbed down" for us sailors at Key West. We have to plug in some guesses such as courses and speeds based on what we think the target is of what the targets are doing. You'd be better at that than me captain.

The Ford is the base of a triangle, er moving rhomboid. She takes two bearings one at the beginning and one at the end of her allotted timed run for base length. Her tracking party does some plotting magic  and she gets two blobs (circular probabilities) on a chart where her tracking party thinks the noise is. Where the blobs merge (Venn diagram time) is a scalar.  She does that again and then she has two scalars (noise range estimates at a direction indicated), the tracking party connects the probable noise regions and voila; a track and if the soundman can manually hear a doppler shift, probably a direction arrow. More "interferometry follows and maybe, just maybe, the USS Ford gets close enough to contract that blob position to something useful, like a torpedo solution.        

I got to warn you Captain this is a lot more witch craft than it is science."

Still is. 

S-13's CO "Can you do this COB?"

In 1944? Maybe. This is 1940.

COB "I learned it at the school about 6 months ago when we was playing target for the Cans. Since then I've playd around with to keep my hand in and win some bets. Water conditions off key West are a hell of a lot better than what we got down here and even then most of the time we got nothing we could use Captain. All I really need is a kid with good ears, a circular slip stick and a really hot math man, I'd say the Navigator, he's a wizard with numbers to check out my figures."

Good luck without a trainable sound setup. You have to point the sub at the noise. 

12 JUNE 1941 0500 HMS Sheffield entered No. 5 Basin, North Yard, HMNB Devonport. Newly advanced Captain Sir Edmund Blackadder, VC was preparing to turn over his command old Shiny, to the Dock Yard for a long wartime refit. His command was one of the shortest in RN history, lasting only 7 days. Well really strange things happened in war time.

HMS Sheffield did good work.

He had been promised. by no other than The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff,Vice Admiral Ramsay, two weeks home leave. He was off to his low haunts in London and his adoring , insatiable lady friends. Sir Edmund Preferred his women mostly attractive, bored, married (with either distant or really stupid) husbands and rich between 35 and 40 who doted on their cynical, charismatic, intelligent, very randy Naval Officer.

Not my cup of tea, but whatever floats the story. 

12 JUNE 1941 1530 Sheffield's newly promoted Gunnery Officer CDR Simon Baldrick RN, DSC was sitting in the Senior officer's mess at HMNB Devonport or "Guz", as he used to call it when a rating' He was drinking his second pink Gin and thinking about his career. He had started out on the lower deck in 1910, was promoted to Warrant Gunner just after Jutland and commissioned in October 1918. After the Great War Simon recived exactly one promotion, to Lt. and was forceably retired, along with many others, in 1934 to Chigwell a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. He had been called back, to the great anger of his wife Adelaid and sorrow of his four daughters, in Sept 1939 as a LCDR. Now he wore 3 gold "rings" and a loop on his sleeve marking him as a Commander, RN not one of those wavy navy imposters or Naval Reserve merchant "Navy" call ups.

Quentin McHale; RN style?

At heart he was still a "Gun Buster" and always would be. At 50 he was getting a bit old for wartime sea duty according to the Ship's junior Surgeon. So it was off to H.M.S. Excellent, AKA Portsmouth Gunnery School or what he would always refer to as "Whale Island". It was the Royal Navy's main gunnery training establishment for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He had been a student there both as an Matelot and officer. He had taught there as a Warrant Gunner. He knew the place well and he had a lot to contribute due to all his first hand battle experience.

Yup. 

What really surprised this newly promoter Commander was he was going back to Whale Island as Executive Officer on the staff of "The Captain". Captain RN, Eric J. P. Brind, had asked for him as soon as he saw his promotion gazetted and the Admiralty was happy to oblige. The job came with a large house, servants and all the things his long suffering wife wanted from the RN and never thought she would get. Ought to keep her happy. Happy wife, Happy Life. Maybe, just maybe, he could coach the Field Gun crew and attend another Royal Tournament?

Where is the sour sauce? There has to be sour sauce.

12 JUNE 1941 1600 Newly promoted Warrant Electrician Otto Sharkey had been detached from HMS Sheffield. He was on his way to HMS Valkyrie the Royal Navy's No. 1 Radar Training School shore establishment or "stone frigate" located in Douglas, Isle of Man. Sharkey was to attend a number of advanced level, Radar courses. HMS Valkyrie was established with its personnel billeted in a number of guest houses which had been requisitioned for the duration and which were situated on Loch Promenade, Douglas. The training was undertaken at a series of buildings on Douglas Head, one being the Douglas Head Hotel.

Social graces may seem superfluous, but it is part of the "command presence" and it is the part which can be taught so you average alleged officer can at least pretend he knows what she / he is doing with confidence, so that the dumb enlisted follow blindly and the SMART enlisted do not panic.  

He was also to attend lectures on how to act as a wardroom officer. These lectures were mandatory for the large number of pre war former CPOs now RN Warrant Officers and recent civilian technical specialists who are now Warrant Officers RNVR.

90 day Blunders were the curse of the mid-war USN. Later (Samar and Surigao Strait) after they learned their trade, they would show the "professionals" up, but at least in this one regard at this time the RN one-upped the Americans.   

================================================================================

Tommorrow I look at the finale.

M.

[oscssw]

Jan 11, 2023 0:09:44 GMT miletus12 said:

Post by oscssw on Dec 27, 2022 at 3:00pm
27 Dec update
THE SHOWBOAT Engages THE IRON CHANCELLOR
I have been asked to post in black and am happy to comply.
Please note I have revised the Op Order to exclude the USMC and USN from Trinidad Tobago refinery raid. This works better that no US forces are present.

See Map. 



With any kind of warning at all more than a day, there wilol be land based air to greet the Germans.  Yup those B-10s and Buffalo's just might get lucky.

The WW II German naval Operations Order was very similar to the army version and consists of an orientation and five paragraphs. The five paragraphs are: Situation, Mission, Execution, Administration & Logistics, and Command & Signal.

1. SITUATION.
a. Area of Interest. British Crown Colony Island of Trinidad Tobago
b. Area of Operations. North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea 150 nautical miles centered on Trinidad Tobago
(1) Terrain. Map included in the folder with all important locations marked
(2) Weather. To be updated during the approach for now forecast good

c. Enemy Forces. Trinidad Tobago Garrison and any allied units present
(1) Composition, Disposition, and Strength.
Coast Artillery Battalion Royal Marines Siege Regiment
HQ Battery locate at Trinidad at Carenage Bay
Service battery Carenage Bay
Six sections, each with a searchlight and aircraft sound locator
colocated with Flak batteries

Coastal Defense Group
Three batteries, each with two BL 6-inch Mk VII Surface only guns.
See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Projectiles Surface AP, HE, Shrapnel 100 lb
Rate of fire 8 rounds per minute
Maximum effective range 25,000 yds at 20° elevation

Antiaircraft Group
Four FLAK batteries, each with 4 mobile QF 3 inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns mounted on towed, 4-wheeled sprung trailer FLAK platforms.
Each battery is equipped with Vickers No. 2 Predictor based on a US Sperry AAA Computer M3A3. The No 2 could track targets at 400 mph at heights of 25,000 ft. The No 2 Predictors received height data, generally from the Barr & Stroud UB 7 (9 feet base) instrument.
See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Projectiles 24 lb Fixed round 12.5 lb projectile weight
types: AP, AA , HE, Illumination
Rate of fire 16 – 18 rounds per minute
Maximum effective range 16,000 yds at 43° elevation 30,400ft AA ceiling

Two AAA machine gun companies, each with 12 Oerlikon guns
See map for last known locations. Be advised these guns are moved sporadically.
Projectiles High Explosive with tracer, H.E. without tracer and Incendiary
Cyclical rate of around 500 rpm from 60 rounds magazines
Maximum effective range 1,000yds

One Seaplane tender of the AVD class converted WW I destroyer
Anchor in Carenage Bay.

Supporting 4 to 6 Catalina II Patrol Seaplanes
Maximum speed: 196 mph Cruise speed: 125 mph
Range 2,520 mi
Service ceiling: 15,800 ft
Guns: Three .30 cal Mgs (two in nose turret, one in ventral hatch at tail)
Two .50 cal HMG (one in each waist blister)
Bombs: 4,000 lb of bombs, depth charges or torpedoes

Radar Fitted with ASV Mark II Surface Search Radar
Wavelength 170 cm Pulse Width 2.5 microsecond
Pulse Repetition Frequency 400 Hz Peak Power Out 7 kW
Range 20 miles for destroyer 30 miles Capital ships and merchants
60 miles for coastline
Minimum range 1 mile

As of last report no land based military Patrol, Bomber or Fighter aircraft are permantly based on Trinidad and Tobego as their bases are in the early phase of construction.
No land bases search radar is operational. However, as this is a key Convoy assembly area various radar equipped warships are often present.

Local Patrol Boats There are about a dozen police and customs launches armed with pistols and rifle. No radar but they do have two way radios which are considered their most dangerous weapon. No more than two of the boats have been observed actively patrolling between Midnight and nautitical sunrise.

d. Friendly Forces. TG Brinkmann and PSS Cabello and various U-boats
(1) Higher HQ Mission and Intent. BdU Destroy oil refining capability on Trinidad Tobago
(2) Mission of Adjacent Units. N/A
e. Attachments and Detachments. N/A
f. Civilian Considerations Avoid civilian casualties unless they jeopardize success of the mission.

2. MISSION. In a night action destroy the refineries, port facilities and any tankers in the vicinity of Trinidad Tobago without sustaining major damage to TG Brinkman that would degrade primary, commerce raiding mission. To withdraw before enemy forces can pose a threat to TG Brinkman. Radar Navigation and gun laying will be employed along with beacon(s) planted by sleeper agents.
Pointe a Pierre refinery is one of the largest and most modern (due to constant upgrades) refineries in the world. Point Fortin a somehwat smaller refinery and being of recent expanded and modernized has better fire fighting facilities. The fuel, refined at Pointe a Pierre and Point Fortin is very important to the RAF, Royal Navy, British home Islands Industry and allied merchant fleet. The total destruction of Pointe a Pierre and Point Fortin will be a major strategic victory for the Fatherland and a serious loss for the enemy.

3. EXECUTION. TG Brinkmann will destroy the refineries, port, air field facilities and any tankers or naval vseesls in the vicinity of Pointe a Pierre and Point Fortin by gunfire on the night of 9/10 June.
a. Commander's Intent Total destruction of Trinidad Tobago's Refineries. Inflicting as much damage to Trinidad Tobago's port, tankers, communications and naval units as reasonably possible.
b. Concept of operations. To use surprise, radar navigation and fire control and precision gunfire under cover of darkness
(1) Maneuver. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(2) Fires. As required
(3) Reconnaissance and Surveillance. U-boats, local sleeper agents, Arado scouts and radar will be the chief methods of Recon and Surveillance
(4) Intelligence. As provided by BdU
(5) Engineer. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(6) Air Defense. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(7) Information Operations.

c. Scheme of Movement and Maneuver. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
d. Scheme of Fires.
e. Casualty Evacuation.
f. Tasks to Subordinate Units
g. Tasks to Combat Support.

(1) Intelligence. See Appendix
(2) Engineer. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(3) Fire Support. See Appendix
(4) Air Defense. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
(5) Signal. Per SOP TG Brinkmann
4. SUSTAINMENT. Per TG Brinkmann SOP
5. COMMAND AND CONTROL.
a. Command.
(1) Location of Commander. Bismarck
(2) Succession of Command. Per TG Brinkmann SOP

c. Signal. Per TG Brinkmann SOP
(1) SOI index in effect.
(2) Methods of communication by priority.
(3) Pyrotechnics and Signals.
(4) Code Words.
(5) Challenge and Password.
(6) Number Combination.
(7) Running Password.
(8) Recognition Signals.

Comments: at this stage of the war, I am uncertain the Germans would have intelligence this good. The Americans were in the middle of a spy war in the Caribbean and inside "unfriendly" South American states. The American aim was to roll up the German networks, at which they were surprisingly successful,k and cajole the major "unfriendlies" that it would be a good idea to not anger Washington. That is a  distinct possibility but you could not fault the Nazi's for not trying.  By 1940, South America had become a hotbed of German intrigue. More than half-a-million German emigrants—many supporters of the Third Reich—had settled in Brazil and Argentina alone. In line with the Bureau’s earlier intelligence work on threats posed by Germany, Roosevelt wanted to keep an eye on Nazi activities in our neighbors to the south. .   There was no CIA in 1940—and its predecessor, the OSS, would not be launched until June of '42. FDR assigned intel responsibilities for different parts of the globe to various agencies. Logically Hoover's FBI's AOP was closest to home—the Western Hemisphere.  His Special Intelligence Service (SIS) overcame a significant learning curve.  As to be expected it took some time for the FBI to get undercover operatives in place and to master the languages. But within months,the SIS was working well. The SIS was gathering info and sending it back to FBI HQ in Washington, where it was crafted into useful intelligence for the military and others. And overseas, it developed ways of sharing crucial information with law enforcement and intelligence services there so they could round up Axis spies and saboteurs.

7 JUNE 1941 1130 One of CPO Sharkey's Radar operators reported a "contact" at 005 relative, distance 17 and a half miles to his watch PO. Second Class Petty Officer "Bertie" O' Higgins came over and studied the "O" scope presentation for a minute and then adjusted the "gain" control. He was rewarded with two small contacts. Bertie informed the watch officer and log keeper of the new contacts. Bertie worked out the contacts' course, speed, CPA (closest point of approach) and time of CPA at current course and speed. He provided that amplifying information to the watch officer who, after a quick check, informed the OOD. The OOD picked up the sound powered phone to the anchor windless room, where CDR Edmund Blackadder, acting CO Sheffield, was inspecting the shoring strong back recently installed. It replaced the emergency "Patch" from the battle that had failed about an hour and a half ago. The pumps had been making slow but steady progress "dewatering" Shiny until that patch let loose. He had to order speed reduced to a little above steerage way while the DC party, working in waist high and then chest high water fashioned and emplaced the replacement. Just 25 minutes ago he had ordered Shiny Back to her best speed, 15 knots in 5 knot increments. He was watching, along with the DC party, the patch which he was now almost convinced would hold when he got the contact report.

That patch had better have been V braced to take the shear forces.

He said to the Chief Stoker DC party leader, "Chief I'm heading back to the bridge" and to the DC party, "Job damn well done. I will order up a dram for each of you. Chief see our men and you get that rum issue after you secure."

Modern comment; this is contraindicated for a coldwater workparty. Hot coffee, and heat is recommended.  

He was then on the run up 6 ladders to the jury rigged bridge. He made it in less than 5 minutes puffing like an old man and got the full report from the OOD.

No comment here. But he will be one tired messenger bunny. 

Blackadder to the OOD, "That should be the Norwegian manned Ocean going Tug Hafgufa and "OUR" escort the Flower class Corvett Primrose." Both men smiled at the lame joke but that was the best he could do at present.

The two radar contacts, I presume. YES

"Make sure the lookouts keep a sharp eye on that bearing and order action stations NOW. " They were not out of the woods yet by a long margin and he was not taking any more chances than he had to with Shiny leaking like a colander and his engines held together with wire and the sweat of his Chief and his stokers. In due course his signal men acknowledge the flag hoist challenge. It was the Tug and Corvette. He immediately ordered the crew secure from Action Stations. He ordered the Corvette to maintain an ASW screen and the tug to take station abreast of Shiny at 500 yds to starboard. No sign of the promised Coastal command patrol bomber or fighter escort so far. Well he had not really expected the RAF to drop everything just to nursemaid old Shiny.

Do you mean ASW guard watch on the likely threat axis? Yes and also from the Condors, especially those working clandestinely out of Spain.

7 JUNE 1941 1200 TG 39.1 was at 18.0708° N, 62.0501° W heading South at 25 knots with the destroyers in a bent line screen, BB-55 as guide with USS Brooklyn CL-40 scouting 50 miles ahead. Rear admiral Hewitt had three SOC souts out patrolling search sectors to the East,West and South out to 150 miles. Nothing so far. The TG was heading for an UNREP with one of the fast oilers. His Destroyers needed fuel after the long high speed transit.
7 JUNE 1941 1315 The Southern scout sighted the oiler at 70 miles, speed 15 knots heading for TG39.1

Does USS Brooklyn have her aircraft up? Combo of BB-55's and CL-40's SOCs.

Do the destroyers keep a passive acoustic watch and sprint and drift? No they are banging away with their active sets.  TTBOMK sprint and drift is a post WW II tactic.

Why is the tanker a sitting duck for U-boats?  Tanker small, West Lant big, number of U-boats in West Lant at this time very small. 

7 JUNE 1941 1830 the last of TG39.1 broke away from the oiler and was heading back to it's screening station. The oiler was heading to the next UNREP station. Hewitt was sure he would need more fuel after an action with TG Brinkmann.

Does Hewitt have an ETC? No.

8 JUNE 1941 2100 There was no black out at all on Aruba, U-156 's target lay there, fully lit. He had easily eluded the Two 34 ft. " customs launches. These boats are armed with small arms and a single, pedestal mounted, Canon d'Infanterie de 37 modèle 1916 TRP (37mm mle.1916) French infantry support gun. Rate of fire Sustained: 25 rpm, Maximum Effective range1,600yds But their most dangerous weapon was their excellent radios. He also beat the Six 24 ft. Radio equipped Police/rescue boats stationed in the island. Without radar fire control he had no fear of the shore battery located at Juana Morto, the highest point of the easterly part of the island, a coastal battery consisting of two pre WW 1 150 mm 40 caliber guns.

Why is there no blackout on Aruba? Officially Holland is still at war. Wartime measures should still be in effect.   

What he did fear was Stationed at KLM Field Savaneta, a graded runway if caught close in during daylight was the 6 Martin 139s WH-3As the Export version of the B-10. With Maximum speed: 213 mph, Range of 1,240 mi and armed with 3 30 caliber Browning machine guns and 2,260 lbs of bombs. Even the 6 Brewster 339Ds Export version of the F-2A Buffalo wuth two 0.50 in nose and 2 wing -mounted M2 Browning machine guns and two 100 lb bombs could damage his boat enough to cause real trouble.

I would be afraid of the Martins. Those could dive bomb. The Buffalos would be lucky to get aloft without something breaking. Are you sure about the B-10s?  I was of the impression they were capable of Glide bombing but thier air frame was stressed enough for a power dive bombing run.   

U-156 was a Type IXC with one × 4.1 inch SK C/32 deck gun with 180 rounds, a 37mmAA gun and one twin 20 mm FlaK 30 AA. She surfaced off the Lego refinery and the guns crews manned their weapons, sighted them on the refinery and bombarded Lego with everything they had. A fatal error by one of the 5.9's gun crew disabled the breach block after firing 97 rounds. That very UNGreman error spared Lago refinery total destruction But not by much. With the needless loss of his main deck gun, the U-boat only had left the much lighter guns. The CO, in a cold rage, the hapless gunner having been beaten severely by the gun captain (who knew he was really in for it), continued the bombardment. They hit the refinery and at the surrounding buildings and a nearly empty Venezulean tanker carrying crude to the refinery repeatedly but the damage was only minor. Lago escaped total destruction that night and only because the bombardment had been terminated early.

Oil refineries were remarkably tough customers. Naval and air bombardments did relatively little damage. Ploiesti is the case example. Unless the AVgas created a fuel air explosive condition instead of evaporation and ventinmg, the likely real result is a lot of holes in the structures and some containable fires. A U-boat just does not pack the pyro required to set a massive heavy oil fire.   It does in my ATL

The U-156 torpedoed 2 tankers and a ship loaded with 3000 tons of dynamite, waiting for daylight to enter the port of Oranjestad, on her way out. Both tankers caught fire and sank. The luckless merchant literally disintegrated showering pieces of her over a space of three miles inlcuding ashore on Aruba.

A kind of Halifax or Corpus Christi effect? Tankers would be burndowns and scuttles. Dynamite ship exploding? The Lusitania was packed with high explosives and she did not blow up. Dynamite needs an initiator. Plenty a Liberty ship jammed with explosives did not blow up when hit. Lusitania was lucky and so is my Type IX

See video.

Kaleu U-156 thought "With luck we just drew every Englander ship and aircraft away from Trinidad Tobago for long enough for Bismarck and The Prince to destroy those refineries. The question is is it good or bad luck for U-156? At least his U-Boat stood a fair chance of getting back into the Atlantic, something Bismarck would never be able to do if she was insane enough to actually enter the Gulf of Mexico. She would never get past the Island chain to the East on the way in let alone on the way out.

Time. It would take time to bring the the British concentrations. Agreed.

Drachinifel does cover the basics, but he still gets a lot wrong. Note that the U-boat attempts to bombard shore targets were spectacular failures? U-boats were lousy gun platforms.   

9 JUNE 1941 0800 HMS Cambletown, flying a broom from her foremast head, secured from Special Sea Detail. Old Gift Horses crew had made her as presentable as possible given her many battle wounds. She still looked like a tired old whore but they had come to love her. After all, despite far too many times the old gal's machinery had made the Stokers lives a living hell, in the end she had brought most of them home, mostly safe and sound to Halifax's repair basin, pier #3.

No comment.

She still had her Nazi U-boat prisoners aboard but not for long. A section of Canadian Army infantry and two big Bedford QLD 3 ton lorries were waiting on the pier. They would soon take the Nazi diehards to the POW, temporary holding barracks in the dockyard. The Officers were in for a real grilling by the Intel section, real right bastards, mostly RN hard boys. At this point in this loosing Battle of the Atlantic no one was playing by Marques of Queensbury rules.

Most likely the RCN would take them to Farnham.

9 JUNE 1941 0315 All that was left of TG Cilax the two type 1936A destroyers Z23 and Z25 after evading Force H's aerial scouts and the feigned incompetence of the Spanish Navy and Air Force were now moored safe and sound at the Kriegmarine base in the southwestern French port of Hendaye in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Z23's 29 year old skipper Korvettenkapitän Wolfgang Becker was now not only "Commodore" of 8 Zerstörerflottile (8th Destroyer Flotilla), but also the commander of TG Becker the successor to TG CILAX. At least until BdU noticed they were still alive.

Still, wondering how they had the fuel to make it.  They refueled before the action from the Heavies.

9 JUNE 1941 1800 What was left of WS-12 passed the boom into Gibralta's harbor. 24 of HM's converted liner Transports, with 20,000 soldiers, over 200,000 tons of vital war material and another 6 thousand sailors started out. 12 of HM's Transports with 11,200 soldiers dropped anchor at 36.1485°N 5.3652°W. Commodore, Admiral Bertram I. Thesiger, and HMT Strathaird were not among them. The escort had also been badly savaged by the Ruder but they had sunk three U-Boats including the Wolf Pack Alpha Commander . All in all BdU and especially "Onkel Karl" (Uncle Karl), were quite pleased. Too bad his nephews did not find and sink "Des Teufel" (The Devil) Renown.

Everybody, British, commanding in this disaster should have stood Boards of Inquiry or courts martial. Uncle Karl ought to read his U-boater reports. Some of those clowns need a steel Innsbruck all expenses paid vacation, too.    

9 JUNE 1941 2245 Bismarck and The Prince were within easy 15 inch gun range of the Point-a Pierre refinery and it’s 100-octane aviation fuel, essential to the RAF. That was Bismarck’s primary target; The Prince would close on the No.5 Dubbs and the hydrogen and iso-octane plants. They were both well outside the Maximum Effective range ,10 miles,of the marine manned coast defense Battery Able’s two five-inch-fifty-one-caliber rifles. The five inchers were discards from the battleships Texas.

That should be interesting. The German ammunition was defectively fused and most of it in real history was  20.5 and 38.0 cm capped AP anyway, with small bursting charges. Lindemann's incompetent staff had bungled the loadouts for Operation Rhine.  The bungled load out is news to me.  Even if I'd known, they would still have in my ATL.

The radar approach, using the land mass to shielded TG Brinkmann from the radars of the escorts that lay in the harbor as their tanker heavy convoys waited for the remaining merchant ships to form up and head out into the Atlantic went well. The first Battery Able and the refinery crews, escorts and merchants knew of the presence of Bismarck was her opening 8 gun salvo, which was controlled by her Radar and the three beacons planted by Nazi saboteurs. The 1,764 lbs., HE L/4 nose futzed shells burst within the refinery starting fires fed by consequent salvos. At the same time Bismarck’s secondary battery of 5.9s smothered battery Able before the marines got a single round off. The fifth Salvo obliterated the cracking plant,.The 8th salvo set the tank farm afire and it was pretty clear the fire fighting crews were no match for the conflagration, fed by more salvos.

German practice, like British, was ranging fire to walk falls in, at 4 and 4. This land bombardment mission would be no different according to doctrine since it was 100% optical fire control. You do not get "the works" unless you were a crazy American cruiser captain in 1842 or the Japanese with radioed human directed forward observers.  How does an automatic radio beacon give range data? At that point of time of the war, the only ones with radio timed range pippers were the British and even they did not know how to use them properly. You have to have human observer control and guide in onto the targets or you miss, wildly.  And by miss I mean by as little as 30 feet to achieve no effect. Refineries, I write again are tough targets to kill. You should read Indian Navy reports about Operation Trident and what the results of STYX missile bombardment really achieved. They managed to set 1 fuel tank on fire and the Paks promptly put the fire out. It took the Indians two tries with modified NAPALM bombs and a dozen missiles in followups to get what they wanted.    

Bismark's secondaries did jack-diddle in the Denmark Strait, but I will let it slide. If those were authentic American coast defense gunners, Bismarck would sport a few new manholes and portholes. 
 

9 JUNE 1941 2300 The Prince closed on No.5 Dubbs with it’s hydrogen and iso-octane plants at 20 knots. Once on station she commenced firing, laying her guns on the saboteurs beacons. Kommandant Seeadler von Luckner, named after his uncle Count Felix von Luckner Captain of SMS Seeadler AKA Der Seeteufel (The Sea Devil)of first world war orderd The Prince to open fire. His first target was Battery “4“ ,another Royal Marines two gun Six inch position, with a full salvo from both her main battery eight inch and six 4.1 inch SK C/33 guns, with a maximum effective range about the same as the 6 incher. Unlike Bismarck his “Prince“ did not have the range advantage over Battery“4“, which was positioned on a promontory to seaward of No.5 Dubbs. First salvo was over for the 8 inch but on for the 4.1s which was more than enough to kill the gun or wound the crews and damage the guns. Second 8 inch salvo targeted No.5 Dubbs and 4.1s hit battery “4“ again destroying the guns, killing the wounded Royal Marines and the navy sick berth attendants and marines trying to get them to safety. The ready use ammunition of the battery also exploded in a succession of rapid and multiple flashes that lasted for ten minutes.

Same as before. (^^^) 

Kommandant Seeadler von Luckner, brought his cruiser in as close to shore as was prudent in order to bring his 4.1s in range of No.5 Dubbs with it’s hydrogen and iso-octane plants. This was a calculated chance because one of the Royal Marines three gun, 3-inch FLAK batteries was reported in the area. Although Projectiles only weighed 13lb they did have FLAK, HE, Illumination and most dangerous for Prinz Eugen, an AP Round fired at 15 – 20 rounds per minute with a maximum effective range of seven miles. Each individual AP round could not do much damage to the heavily armored areas of the ship but 15 or twenty all landing in the same sapot just might defeat the protection on the lighter armored areas, to say nothing of that the HE and AP would do to antennas and other light structures on the cruiser.

Ready use ammunition? Rake the superstructure and hope for a salute gun or AAA gun ready use ammo hit and get a reverse USS Arizona?  

Prinz Eugen got off 18 more salvos from 8 inch (576 rounds) and almost as many more from the 4.1 inch battery doing substantial damaged to the refinery which was a blazing inferno now, completely destroying the hydrogen and iso-octane plants. After all a refinery, especially one turning out 100 octane aviation fuel, was nothing but a bomb, just waiting for someone like TG Brinkmann to set it off. Kommandant Seeadler’s von Luckner, Prince also demolished the four berth tanker pier, it’s pumping stations and left two tankers on fire and a third with it’s stern blown off all aground after multiple 4.1 hits and single torpedo strikes.

A refinery, I must reitierate,  only goes up in an inferno and burndown,  if you are completely incompetent or Pakistani.   Not in my ATL.

9 JUNE 1941 2349 She was making her turn for the Convoy marshaling anchorage when the Royal Marines three gun, 3-inch FLAK battery oped up. First salvo was illumination rounds quickly followed by a mixture of AP and HE that walked up to the the Prince and raking "Caesar“ and "Dora"and upper decks aft. The turrets were unharmed but the men at the light FLAK and other unshielded aft stations suffered casualties. Kommandant Seeadler’s von Luckner, gunnery officer immediately commenced counter battery fire and silenced all 3 marine guns in five minutes. The Royal Marines had chosen to place their guns as far seaward as possible and that meant a beach with zero concealment or protection. The Marine battery C.O. chose this site that allowed him to reach the ship as soon as possible because she was rapidly drawing out of the range of his 3 inch pop gun

That man will be court martialed for incompetence. You can LOB those shells and punch the thin PZ DECK ARMOR...  
No need for the CM, he is KIA.

9 JUNE 1941 2355 In the harbor it was pure chaos as the ships desperately got underway to clear the area In accordance with the Emergency Sortie Plan. SOPA (Senior Officer Present afloat), Captain, RN John T. Stenrud III in the C class light cruiser HMS Coventry, Commissioned 1918. HMS Coventry served with the 5th Light Cruiser squadron until May 1919, and in the Baltic during the Russian civil war. In 1935, Coventry refitted as an anti-aircraft cruiser. This refit involved the removal of her 6-inch guns and torpedo tubes, and the fitting of 10 QF 4-inch Mk V guns on single high-angle mountings and 2
octuple-mounted 2-pounder 'pom-pom' guns.

And in real history how did she work out? NOT TOO GOOD.

Coventry Displaced 4,190 tons, Length 450ft, Beam 43.6ft and Draft of 14ft. She was powered by two Brown-Curtis geared turbines, Six Yarrow boilers producing 40,000 shp to her two propellers giving her a Speed of 29 knots. Her 950 tons maximum of fuel oil gave her almost 7,000 miles range. Her wartime complement was on 327.

Her effective air defense rating was 1/2 that of a US Sims class destroyer. The Sims class destroyer had a terrible air defense rating. 

Coventry’s armor was no match for for The Prince let alone Bismarck. She was protected by 3 inch side (amidships), 2¼-1½ inch side (bows), 2 inch side (stern)1 inch upper decks (amidships) and 1 inch deck over rudder

WWI Vickers plate. Decent, but thin. It was the framing steel which was deficient. That structural steel was "brittle" and not that malleable. Expect her to break up.    

Captain, RN John T. Stenrud III ordered four destroyers to join him and formed a SAG, (surface action group) that would sortie and engage the attacker. The Prince rapidly engaged the SAG and quickly put the Light cruiser out of action but the four destroyers, under the senior offiicer left, came to 35 knots and sped to their launch point for their torpedoes. Prince’s 8 inch main battery and some of Bismarck’s 5.9s quickly engaged the destroyers under radar control. Two of the escorts were sunk by the 8 inchers as the other two, both damaged, launch their torpedoes at maximum range greatly reducing the chances of a hit. One of the remaining destroyers was hit hard and went DIW (dead in the water) soon after launching her fish. The last destroyer followed her fish in and commenced firing with her main battery of 4.5 inch guns at Bismarck. The flashless powder did not conceal her from the FuMO radars and she too was soon a burning wreck. Her fish were easily avoided; The Prince and a short while later Bismarck continued to engage every ship that came within range.

And those British guys should be court martialed. The destroyers and the cruiser apparently did not split the Eugen's fire in a tail end circle jerk, but allowed themselves to be cakewalked one at a time. You pick ONE target (Eugen) and you run in as a division and mass your fires. Bismarck is too clumsy to do a turnback and her captain, at least historically, was too frightened and cautious to charge a massed torpedo volley. That clown was no Marschall or Hipper or Lee.     

10 JUNE 1941 0015 Bismarck, only using her secondary battery massacred a Seaplane tender HMS Wiltshire formerly USS Childs AVD 1 (ex-DD 241), of the AVD class converted WW I destroyer in Carenage Bay. Bismarck then engaged 6 RAF Catalina 1 B flying boat Patrol Seaplanes and 3 Supermarine Walrus capital ship float planes newly equipped with ASV radar moored close by the ADV with with her medium and light FLAK battery. All were sunk or left burning wrecks.

No. Just no. I can see the AVD being scuttled by the Bismarck's secondaries, but the CATs should have ramped out and gotten airborne long before the first salvioes from the Bismarck's mains opened up.

Courts martial for those guys, too. I guess you come from the " ‘Swing, swing Admiral Byng’" school of accountability?

Vizeadmiral (Rear Admiral, upper half) Brinkmann, and Kapitäns zur See Lindemann both knew the destruction of those aircraft was vital to their survival. The RAF Catalina 1 B was very dangerous to surface ships as well as the U-Boats. With a max speed of 196 mph and a Cruise speed 125 mph they would no speed records. However it was their Range 2,520 miles and their ASV Mark II Surface Search Radar with it's 170 CM Wavelength, 2.5 microsecond, Pulse Repetition Frequency 400 Hz, Peak Power Out 7 kW, Range of 20 miles for destroyer, 30 miles Capital ships and merchants and 60 miles for coastline and Minimum range 1 mile. That made them so dangerous to TG Brinkmann. As far as both men were concerned against ships with speed, maneuverability and excllent FLAK batteries the Catalina 1 B's three .30 cal Mgs (two in nose turret, one in ventral hatch at tail),Two .50 cal HMG (one in each waist blister), 4,000 lb of bombs, depth charges or torpedoes were of little worry. In fact their Arado scout would have no problem shooting them down all by themself.

It was the co-pilot with his Bausch and Lomb binoculars and the radio which was dangerous about the PBY. British radar even the best ASV sets of the era, was weather sensitive and in the quality, as in lack of, British manufacture, was likely to pack it in if it got WET.  The Cat crew got lucky.

Bismarck then turned back to the merchant ship killing but only with her secondary and FLAK battery rounds. The main gun rounds, which were mainly AP now, were reserved for something alot bigger, a lot tougher, a lot more dangeroues and for a naval officer, a lot more satisfying opponent.

Like a submarine? Kongo, Royal Oak and I believe Barham ate fish. 16 others bought it through ye olde aeroplane.   

10 JUNE 1941 0300 TG Brinkmann was running dew east at 30 kts into an area of low clouds and rain storms. Vizeadmiral (Rear Admiral, upper half) Brinkmann, had signaled his after action report 2 hours ago, shortly after clearing the target area, while on a deceptive course. The reply had been a curt "Well Done. God Speed BdU."

Way to go, Brinkmann; by now Station Norfolk has you RDFed.  "Deceptive Course" only held long enough  to throw off pursuit from a flaming datum  

FDR, the PM, CNO Stark, Ernie King, the newly appointed Admiral of the Fleet and Rear Admiral Hewitt USN were even more determined to sink that God Damned Nazi battleship but they also had to admit Brinkmann, Nazi bastard that he was, had pulled off an absolutely masterful strategic operation. No matter what happened to him, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen the damage had been done and Hitler was, a pretty long step, closer to defeating the UK. These being Hard Men could admire a man even as they hunted him to his death. After all it was not personal. It was just business!

Stark? He's not breaking rocks at Portsmouth? What kind of alternate history is this? Put that aside. See previous comments about Brinkmann. We used to call such "2 stripers" captains of the head.  Yup you do come from  the " ‘Swing, swing Admiral Byng’" school of accountability.

11 JUNE 1941 0930 HMS Renown settled onto the keel blocks in the dry dock in sight of HMS Victory's masts. Old Reffit's C.O. Capt. C.E.B. Simeon, RN and his crew were eager to get ashore and celebrate their great victories over TG Cilax. About two thirds of his men would be at liberty in less than three hours; many enjoying the fleshpots of Portsmouth and well they did deserve it. He, on the other hand. along with most of his department heads, warrants and senior Chiefs had a lot of work to do getting Renown's latest Refit off to a quick start.

Should have put into a US yard. Why? Luftwaffe. 

She had been lucky, on 8 June to first find and then engage Kapitän zur See Harald Netzbandt 's Gneisenau before she entered Spanish Territorial waters. The outcome of the battle was never in doubt. Renown's 15 inch rifles against what was left of the Nazi's 5.9s was more like target practice. Still it put an unwanted strain on her engines and torpedo damage that made this Dockyard period all the more urgent.

Still should have tried for Norfolk.

The Admiralty wanted Force H reconstituted as soon as possible so they pretty much had a carte blanch now. The CO planned to take full advanatge to bring his ship up as close as possible to the latest standards.

Norfolk. 

Vice-Admiral Sir James Somerville commander of Force H, was in London now meeting with the new 1st Sea Lord. He told Simeon, he would be getting Repulse to temporary work with Ark Royal but it was his intent to have old Refit back with Force H as soon as possible. He also needed to scare up one or more new cruisers, which were very tough to come by. He had pretty much used up his Escorts and would need replacements there also.

"Hapless Harold" is (not) hard to classify. He was well liked by everyone (Including King.), but as an admiral, I could write that he lacked the killer instinct, had a rotten sense of how aircraft actually worked and could not read a battlespace or know where everybody was if his fleet's life dependedb on it. He was repeatedly neutered by supposedly technically inferior enemies. Churchill wanted to court martial him constantly.  It has been (British RN) argued that Somerville was more sinned against than sinning in these outcomes; because he was constantly handed a manure sandwich that landlubber Churchill or the incredibly incompetent Dudley Pound had fixed for him and then he was told to eat it like a BLT.  Is that not what the Brass gets paid the big bucks for?      

That cuts no ice with me.  If you want a sob sister story with bells and whistles then you stand a better chance with Frank Jack Fletcher, There was the admiral who was told to make do with what little he had and do not lose or we will ruin you.  And he won and won and won and what did they do to him anyway?  They crucified him, just like they crucified Winfield Scott Schley back in the day.  

Speaking of Ark Royal, she would soon be working up a new Air Group. Based on Her CO Capt. C.S. Holland, RN after action report the old String Bags had done very well as did Fairey Fulmar in it's reconnaissance mission. Ark desperately needed much better fighters and a dedicated Dive Bomber. The real "sin" was Ark's surviving air crew wanted American replacements like the F4F and the SBD.

The report was flawed. Put the Stringbags or the Fulmars in against THE FIRST TEAM (The Japanese)_and note what happened> April Fool's Day in the Indian Ocean 1942. Nothing worked. Nothing.  

The current FAA (Fleet Air Arm) Fairey Fulmar made an excellent scout but was a poor fighter. Its performance as a fighter was severely compromised by its dual role as a scout. The Navy had specified a two-seat machine so that the pilot would have the assistance of another crew member in reporting back to the fleet the observations made, which were done using wireless telegraphy (W/T) and navigate over the ocean. As a result, the Fulmar was too large and often unwieldy in engagements with single-seat, land-based opposition, as it did in the Mediterranean Theater; its performance was clearly inferior to typical land-based fighters. However, the long range of the Fulmar was often very useful.

The Fulmar was useful in its limited defensive role as a scout and harassment aircraft. The recon feature was never properly employed. 

Contemporary Japanese Mitsubishi A5M and American Grumman F3F carrier borne fighters along with the Royal Navy's Gloster Sea Gladiator were much better "Fighters" than the Fulmar. Even these naval fighters compared unfavourably with land based fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 which reached 290 mph at sea level over the Fulmars 265 mph. Especially in the Med, they were up against really excellent land based fighters and the FAA pilots were paying the price.

Now that we are on the subject of pilots, these scarce trained human beings were being squandered. It took two years to get an FAA naval aviator to where he needed to be to do his job. The British at this time had about 1,100 of them who knew their  business. They MURDERED about half of them in totally pointless and stupid ways not involved in making sure the fleet air arm had a good pilot / air crew cadre into the crunch time of 1942-1943.  

11 JUNE 1941 2315 S13 / SS -118 / USS FORD surfaced, recharging batteries and ventilating the boat. Lat 11 30 54.2, Long 52 42 34.2, Course 270T, Speed 15, wind from 080T, Speed 16 knots gusting to 22, moderate sea, raining hard. 30 minutes until watch relief. The Fox scheds informed the boat that the Kriegsmarine was in West Lant in force. Refineries in Aruba and Trinidad Tobago had been hit and hit hard.

What kind of a "fish" is a "ford"? Back in the day we had naming conventions. 
--aircraft carriers were famous American battles.
--battleships were states.
--ammunition ships were named after volcanoes. 
--attack transports were named after soldiers and marines.
--oilers were named after idiots or rivers.
--cruisers were named for cities or territories.
--destroyers were naval heroes,
--and submarines were named after mobile sea life, usually FISH. 

Unless you are honoring John Ford and the fictional submarine S-13 in the film; "Men Without Women", As I remember the S-13 in that film was in a pickle. How did it end for all involved? For the extras fine, but for the sub and the two leads> NOT TOO GOOD. 
  USS FORD was the crew's nickname for their sub as in Fix Or Repair DailyWhat only the Skipper, XO and Commo knew was the RN had lost a Cruiser, a Sea plane tender, a bunch of PBY flying boats and four destroyers. Trinidad Tobago had two coatsal and one AA battery wiped out with heavy loss of life. S-13's CO, Lt. Peter "Cowboy" Holt USNA class of 1938 had an eyes only message in his hands. He was appraised that ONI had determined the attack on Trinidad Tobago was by KMS Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.See? Different plot, different idiots, same outcome,    

Ernie King ordered him to his current course and speed. He was to search for the German capital ships and, at all costs to transmit a sighting report highest priority. He was to keep transmitting until he was either acknowledged or he deemed the situation made diving and evading more likely to get that message to higher authority than continuing to transmit on the surface.

Planes. That is actually why they exist. Subs are supposed to SINK what the planes find for them. 

It was made absolutely clear to "Cowboy" that sighting report was of the highest importance even at the cost of his sub, his crew and himself.

King was a submariner. He knew what could be done and what could NOT be done. Lookout on the sub, at best 20 feet above the water with binos at 10X if lucky. Primary optics on Bismarck, 80 feet above the water. Has magnification 50X. Who sees whom first? Hint: those shells coming the Ford's way are not British.   

How much of this possible death and to whom does he inform this death sentence?
OK he has to inform the XO and the COB, that's enough for now.

The whole crew knows 5 minutes after the yeoman decoded the flash traffic. This is a WWII United States sub. 

Hell the chances of the USS FORD finding those Nazi's is really pretty small. He does not have radar, in this rain his lookouts can't see more than a boat's length but the storm will let up and then he has about a five mile visual radius.

Hint: The incompetent Germans built Bismarck with THREE popcorn sound making very LOUD and inefficient noisy props. Dive the boat and use the hydrophones. There is a better than even chance that three simultaneous Ker-da-tramms and that sizzling popping sound two convergent zones away might be a German battleship.  

His longest range sensor, given good sea conditions, is the model JT directional listening system. The JT is designed to detect, identify, and locate sources of both sonic and ultrasonic sounds. It is designed to use the JP (Active sonar sonic equipment and has a super-sonic converter so that ultrasonic as well as sonic sounds can be amplified by the JP amplifier. In addition, it has a more directional hydrophone than the JP hydrophone and has a right-left indicator (RLI) for taking bearings on sonic sounds with greater accuracy than is possible with the tuning-eye indicator of the JP equipment. From personal experience he knew the JT's longest range was while his boat was at periscope depth. His sonar Chief had actually tracked ship noise sources as far as 60 miles away. Not often, usually it was more like 15 to 20 miles, if at all but that beats the hell out of 5. Problem was he could do 15 surfaced and only11 submerged and that only for about an hour before he had to surface, run his diesels and recharge his batteries for 8 to 12 hours.

See (^^^)?

He picked up the growler and told the control room to send the COB, who was a sonar man, to his cabin. Once COB arrived he told him to take his chair and shifted himself to his bunk. He explained it all to COB and then asked him how we can get the best range on a couple of big noise targets running at high speed from the out of the model JT?

This will be fascinationg.   I think so.

COB "your taking a real big chance relying on the JT Captain. Yah I know we have picked shit up at 60 miles but that was really rare and even at 15 to 20 it is not all that common. Mostly we get stuff at 5 to 8 miles, not much better than the look outs. What we could do is put a couple of my kids with really unbelievable hearing on the phones and dive the boat to just above the surface layer, cut back the electrics to steerage way make a few slow 360s. If we get nothing; surface for awhile running on the diesels at 15 and charging the batteries. I have no idea how long we stay doing donuts and how long to run on the surface before the next dive."

The COB is a pessimist. Has all those "negative vibes". I consider him a Realist with great VIBES

S-13's CO, Lt. Peter "Cowboy" Holt " So COB we sprint and drift ?"

Sprint and drift is postwar, but yeah, you do that thing.  Yes I know that but it's my ATL and I make or break the rules because I am Omnipotent on the key board anyway!

COB "Call it what you want Captain." Oh there is one more thing if, big IF, I can get a half dozen solid bearings on those Nazi Bastards I might be able to give you a pretty good estimate on their Course, Speed and position from FORD. There is something they are working on at Key West (Navy sonar school) they picked up from the Limeys. It's called TMA I think it means Target Motion Analysis."

It takes four for a 2 point intersectional plot baseline and the Brfitish got it from us. That is with an SQS 23 or 26 or later Sonar, not with Early WW II sets.  I'll give you that the USN came up with it first and COB was wrong.  Even chiefs, but never senior chiefs, make a minor error from time to time.

S-13's CO "How does it work COB?"

Let us see?

"TMA is done by marking from which direction the sound comes at different times, and comparing the motion with that of the FORD When I get enough good sound bearings, say 6, I study the changes in relative motion using some fancy techniques like Ekelund Ranging, 1934 Rule, Spears Wheel they "dumbed down" for us sailors at Key West. We have to plug in some guesses such as courses and speeds based on what we think the target is of what the targets are doing. You'd be better at that than me captain.

The Ford is the base of a triangle, er moving rhomboid. She takes two bearings one at the beginning and one at the end of her allotted timed run for base length. Her tracking party does some plotting magic  and she gets two blobs (circular probabilities) on a chart where her tracking party thinks the noise is. Where the blobs merge (Venn diagram time) is a scalar.  She does that again and then she has two scalars (noise range estimates at a direction indicated), the tracking party connects the probable noise regions and voila; a track and if the soundman can manually hear a doppler shift, probably a direction arrow. More "interferometry follows and maybe, just maybe, the USS Ford gets close enough to contract that blob position to something useful, like a torpedo solution.        

I got to warn you Captain this is a lot more witch craft than it is science."

Still is. At least it was in 1995, not sure now.

S-13's CO "Can you do this COB?"

In 1944? Maybe. This is 1940. 

COB "I learned it at the school about 6 months ago when we was playing target for the Cans. Since then I've playd around with to keep my hand in and win some bets. Water conditions off key West are a hell of a lot better than what we got down here and even then most of the time we got nothing we could use Captain. All I really need is a kid with good ears, a circular slip stick and a really hot math man, I'd say the Navigator, he's a wizard with numbers to check out my figures."

Good luck without a trainable sound setup. You have to point the sub at the noise. 

12 JUNE 1941 0500 HMS Sheffield entered No. 5 Basin, North Yard, HMNB Devonport. Newly advanced Captain Sir Edmund Blackadder, VC was preparing to turn over his command old Shiny, to the Dock Yard for a long wartime refit. His command was one of the shortest in RN history, lasting only 7 days. Well really strange things happened in war time.

HMS Sheffield did good work.  Yup and so did Blackadder and Simon Baldrick. 

He had been promised. by no other than The First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff,Vice Admiral Ramsay, two weeks home leave. He was off to his low haunts in London and his adoring , insatiable lady friends. Sir Edmund Preferred his women mostly attractive, bored, married (with either distant or really stupid) husbands and rich between 35 and 40 who doted on their cynical, charismatic, intelligent, very randy Naval Officer.

Not my cup of tea, but whatever floats the story. 

12 JUNE 1941 1530 Sheffield's newly promoted Gunnery Officer CDR Simon Baldrick RN, DSC was sitting in the Senior officer's mess at HMNB Devonport or "Guz", as he used to call it when a rating' He was drinking his second pink Gin and thinking about his career. He had started out on the lower deck in 1910, was promoted to Warrant Gunner just after Jutland and commissioned in October 1918. After the Great War Simon recived exactly one promotion, to Lt. and was forceably retired, along with many others, in 1934 to Chigwell a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. He had been called back, to the great anger of his wife Adelaid and sorrow of his four daughters, in Sept 1939 as a LCDR. Now he wore 3 gold "rings" and a loop on his sleeve marking him as a Commander, RN not one of those wavy navy imposters or Naval Reserve merchant "Navy" call ups.

Quentin McHale; RN style?  Not as charismatic as McHale.  Simon is a bit of a plodder but he sure does know his job.

At heart he was still a "Gun Buster" and always would be. At 50 he was getting a bit old for wartime sea duty according to the Ship's junior Surgeon. So it was off to H.M.S. Excellent, AKA Portsmouth Gunnery School or what he would always refer to as "Whale Island". It was the Royal Navy's main gunnery training establishment for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He had been a student there both as an Matelot and officer. He had taught there as a Warrant Gunner. He knew the place well and he had a lot to contribute due to all his first hand battle experience.

Yup. 

What really surprised this newly promoter Commander was he was going back to Whale Island as Executive Officer on the staff of "The Captain". Captain RN, Eric J. P. Brind, had asked for him as soon as he saw his promotion gazetted and the Admiralty was happy to oblige. The job came with a large house, servants and all the things his long suffering wife wanted from the RN and never thought she would get. Ought to keep her happy. Happy wife, Happy Life. Maybe, just maybe, he could coach the Field Gun crew and attend another Royal Tournament?

Where is the sour sauce? There has to be sour sauce.  I like Simon and so he makes out well.  My ATL you know!

12 JUNE 1941 1600 Newly promoted Warrant Electrician Otto Sharkey had been detached from HMS Sheffield. He was on his way to HMS Valkyrie the Royal Navy's No. 1 Radar Training School shore establishment or "stone frigate" located in Douglas, Isle of Man. Sharkey was to attend a number of advanced level, Radar courses. HMS Valkyrie was established with its personnel billeted in a number of guest houses which had been requisitioned for the duration and which were situated on Loch Promenade, Douglas. The training was undertaken at a series of buildings on Douglas Head, one being the Douglas Head Hotel.

Social graces may seem superfluous, but it is part of the "command presence" and it is the part which can be taught so you average alleged officer can at least pretend he knows what she / he is doing with confidence, so that the dumb enlisted follow blindly and the SMART enlisted do not panic. Concur. 

He was also to attend lectures on how to act as a wardroom officer. These lectures were mandatory for the large number of pre war former CPOs now RN Warrant Officers and recent civilian technical specialists who are now Warrant Officers RNVR.

90 day Blunders were the curse of the mid-war USN. Later (Samar and Surigao Strait) after they learned their trade, they would show the "professionals" up, but at least in this one regard at this time the RN one-upped the Americans.   

================================================================================

Tommorrow I look at the finale.

M.

I'd just like to thank you for taking the time to critique my sorry attempt at an ATL.  We are all Good my friend.

I will now down 4 fingers of single malt and thank God you were NEVER my CO, XO, Dept head or chief.

but

John T Stensrud III was and that is a story for another day.