Alexandria, hier kommen wir

It is 17 March 1942, except it isn't. This is the first year of a counterfactual Second World War, which broke out in 1941 after the accord previously signed by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and German Führer und Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler finally broke down. German troops have flooded into Western Europe and war has broken out in North Africa as well.

The delay in the beginning of war has not halted the forward march of technology. Far from it. The 'industry' of war continued to produce more potent planes, tanks and armament, the Germans especially developing potential 'super weapons' for the conflagration that seemed all to likely to erupt. Of course, none of it has yet been tested in combat: while troops have no doubt been trained in using the new weapons and 'kit', they have had no experience in action. Nor have their leaders nor command systems. Pilots are far from expert too - even those who served in the Spanish Civil War are already finding that their experience is ill-suited to the new generation of planes.

But now, with a British fleet amassed in Alexandria, exerting control over the Mediterranean, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht has developed an audacious plan to cripple it, in place, with an attack using the newly developed Fritz X guided bomb. A Staffel of six He-177 bombers, each armed with three of the potentially deadly Fritz X, took off from Comiso (Vincenzo Magliocco), Sicily at 0230 hours. Two of them developed engine over-heating early on, so returned to base. The remaining four bombers were joined, en route, by their fighter escort, two flights each of three Reggiane Re.2001 Falco II, launched from the carrier Aquila, operating riskily quite close to the North African coast.

A Fritz X, fresh off the production line (Source: Wikimedia commons)

Meanwhile, in Alexandria, at 0555 radar operators identified suspicious contacts, 129 km to the north-north-west. Two minutes later the plotters and controller confirmed the contact and six fighters were ordered to scramble.

In another three minutes, they were in “cockpit readiness” (“readiness 5”). They took off rapidly, the last becoming airborne after a few minutes had elapsed. It was now 0603.

The Spitfires then climbed and vectored onto course for interception. We pick up the action at 0606.

[Note: at this early stage of the war, aerial photography is still very much in its infancy 😀]

(Above and below) Forty-nine kilometres to target: the four He-177s with their close escort of three Re.2001s flying at 15 000 ft, and top-cover slightly behind and above at 16 000 ft.

The intercepting Spitfires were some 3 km (3 000 yards) to the south, cruising at 17 000 ft.

Closing to 500 yards, the Spitfires dove to 16 000 feet.

Green section, lead by Flight Lt Battler Britton turned 180º to port, decreasing altitude to 15 000 ft, while red section, lead by Capt Oliver Biggs, flew ahead at 16 000 ft. For their part, the bombers and escorts flew straight ahead to the target, while top-cover increased speed, Sottotenente Figus and Malvezzi banking slightly to port and starboard respectively, Capitano Robetto flying straight ahead.

However, things did not go completely as planned. Pilot Officer Wallace Wood, did not control his hard turn, losing more altitude than planned and only effecting a turn of 30º.

Responding to red section, Capitano Giuseppe Robetto ordered his top-cover wingmen, Sottotenente Giovanni Figus and Nero Malvezzi to make 180º turns to starboard and port respectively, while he reduced altitude to 15 000 ft and airspeed to fall in behind the bombers and escorts.

The tight turns proved too much for the Regia Aeronautica pilots too, as, like Wood, they lost altitude during the manoeuvre and only effected a 30º turn.

Having flown 'as if at a show', Flight Lt Britton came within range of the starboard escorting Re.2001 of Sottotenente Alessandro Veronesi, causing five points of damage.

The He-177s and their escorts increased speed to maximum, but were unable to outrun the Spitfire's of green section. Flight Lt Britton and Flying Officer Arthur Rogers each scoring six points of damage on bomber vier and bomber zwei respectively. Shrapnel from the fire of the former temporarily dazing bombardier Hans Grasser.

Meanwhile, red section turned 180º trying to return to the fray, but Pilot Officers Alfred Lacey and Barrington Ainsworth did not complete the manoeuvre effectively, 'falling' well below the altitude intended and heading off away from the bombers.

The action had now split into three parts. Britton and Rogers locking onto the bombers, but wary of their close escorts, Biggs and Robetto trying to speed back to the fray, while Lacey & Ainsworth, Figus & Malvezzi, some 2 1/2 km north of the current location of the bombers, were looking to engage one another.

Tailing the bombers, Britton and Rogers closed to point blank range and fired, long and hard. Bullets from the bombers' tail and dorsal machine guns flying past, within millimetres of their machines.

Each inflicted another six points of damage on their respective targets (bomber vier and zwei once more). Battler Britton caused two critical hits, damaging bomber vier's rudder and elevators and wounding rear gunner Dietrich Schmidt.

Seeing the Italian fighter escorts closing in and with Britton's plane out of ammunition, the British pilots turned to port and sped away from the action, but not before Tenente Mario Baron fired on Britton's spit., narrowly missing his target.

A couple of kilometres to the north, glancing right and left respectively, Capt. Biggs and Capitano Robetto turned towards one another. Yet the sky before each was suddenly empty. Losing control, or perhaps deliberately, Biggs had descended rapidly, heading away from the Italian capitano and effectively out of the fight. Taking stock, Robetto turned to starboard and increased speed to maximum, attempting to return to his position behind and above the four Heinkels.

It was now 0607.

The four He-177s were 43.4 km from Alexandria. A mere five and a half minutes to release of their ordnance.

That was an absolutely fabulous game of aerial warfare with plenty of drama. It's a challenge just to 'fly' the darned planes, let alone when the other fella is moving as well AND trying to shoot at you!

Taking the Heinkels and Reggianes I thought that we were going to get away scot-free then, all of a sudden, I had two Spitfires on the tail of the bombers! At point blank, hits from the fighters were definite, but the all important critical hits are more difficult to obtain (a 1 in 6 on a D6). Then, if successful, a separate D10 for location, with only a 1 in 10 of the 'dreaded' explosion.

That was only our second use of Scramble (with our adjustments) and they are definitely the ducks nuts for us.

Game details

Rules

Scramble! by Alan Butler and Andrew Finch, but with simultaneous movement, firing (once per turn) anytime in the move and with modification (reduction) to the effect of a hit (to the damage per weapon factor) and the probability of a critical hit, as described above.

Planes

All 1/700 Skywave He-177s, 3D-printed Spitfires and scratch-built Re.2100s (scaled on computer, printed and then assembled by moi)

90 Built

I know that the masses of people who follow this blog have been checking every day to see how the ship building is going, only to find nothing posted since early Feb...

#Clunk!

Back to reality. For the couple of people who are interested... it has been going well.

Under construction presently: Chitose (the seaplane tender version), Nippon Maru (the next in line of my scratch-built Japanese oilers) and Hatsuzuki (the second of two Akizuki-class destroyers to fit my purposes).

Did I achieve that self-appointed target of 70 ships built in 90 days? Of course not! I have, though, made a huge 'dent' in the unassembled kits.

I am not exactly sure how many of the original target of 70 that I built by the end of March. I had completed 84 in total at that point. I think 40 of them I had made prior to January, so I reckon that I managed to make 44 over January–March. My uncertainty with this came about because, in early February, I decided to stop the double-accounting and simply focus on building all that I have. Then, in March, I purchased a few more. Confused? So was I for a while, especially when I seemed to be making no progress and the number remaining to be built went up!

First of three photos showing progress with construction. Those built to the beginning of Feb are at left. To the right of the scratch-built oiler are the ships that I had built by 7th March.

There were a few hiatus in Feb. and Mar, but I am content with what I got done. I can see the end point (just over there) and it is well in sight and eminently achievable. Here are the stats 'to the minute':

The current total is 187 ships. This includes all ships, carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers, transports, oilers and other 'auxiliary' vessels, a motor mine sweeper (MMS51) and six little torpedo boats, but not the Japanese miniature submarines that come with a few of the kits.

In this second photo we see progress to 24th March.

Of these, 150 have been 'constructed'. I used inverted commas since 28 of them are 3D-printed models, so came ready-made. Of the remainder, Julian built 32 in years-past and I have made 90—82 kits and 8 scratch-built ships—since April last year.

Lastly, the recently built ships, as of today. I did not notice until I cropped the photo for posting here that the last two built are out of photo to the right (part of the scratch-built Kenyo Maru just visible, Shimozuki off to her right).

So, only 37 more to go. I have set up a few mini-targets along the way, viz.:

- all Japanese cruisers built—completed!

- 30 remaining,

- 100 built by me,

- all Japanese destroyers built,

- all Japanese carriers built,

- all Japanese battleships built,

- 18 remaining,

- all RN & RAN ships built,

- 10 remaining.

The last ten will be the remaining US ships that I have: six carriers, two battleships and a couple of destroyers.

A view down the line of the remaining 37, with bits of post-it notes indicating my little interim targets.

First interim target achieved: all Japanese cruisers built.
Light cruisers to the front, heavy cruisers at the back. In order of launching (historically) from left to right they are: front row, Tenryū & Tatsuta (Tenryū class), Kiso (Kuma class), Abukuma and Natori (Nagara class), Yūbari (her own class of experimental light cruiser), Jintsū and Naka (Sendai class), Yūbari (Agano class); back row, Furutaka and Kako (Furutaka class), Aoba and Kinugasa (Aoba class), Myōkō and Haguro (Myōkō class), Takao, Atago and Maya (Takao class), Mogami and Mikuma (Mogami class), and Tone and Chikuma (Tone class). 
These are all that I 'need'/want to represent, with the exception of Ōyodo which I have ordered and will receive once it is available.

 Japanese cruisers coming your way!

With the end so clearly in sight, I aim to get back ro some painting, in addition to building ships. There are plenty of ships to be painted, of course, but I'll also get back to the figures; plus a 1/6000 representation of Alexandria.

Julian is keen to do a hypothetical attack on the British fleet at Alexandria using Henschel Hs 293 radio-controlled anti-ship glide bombs launched from Heinkel He-177s. It's part of an alt-WWII campaign that he's involved in, so will be occurring in 1943 in that 'world'. To this end, a couple of weeks ago we constructed a section of the harbour and city.

Outline of the harbour of Alexandria. The strips of plastic sprue are to represent the breakwaters.

Looking out on the azure blue southern Mediterranean.

With pieces of foam added to represent groups of buildings or larger buildings.

The town is purely backdrop, so need only be a representation. Except, I found a really nice diagram of Alexandria in 1941 from Alamy. I could not resist and had to make some changes. I added a few buildings near the lighthouse, removed some from behind the three piers (Kamaria Port) and added in the three fortresses, oil stocks and storage tanks, Gabbari Quarantine Station and laid out some thin plastic to represent the railway. None of it is really necessary for Julian's (our) purpose, but it had to be done!

Alexandria with added oil stocks and storage near the three piers, forts on hills, quarantine station and railway.

This will now be added to the items to paint! Once I have undercoated it I'll stick on the railway and then paint buildings and other features.

It has been a fascinating exercise and I have learnt lots, event though I have not delved deeply. The lighthouse on our model is not THE lighthouse, or what remains of it, that is on the other side of the (former) Island of Pharos. Wondering why there was no island in the model, I looked it up. The ancients built a bridge (mole) out to it, the Heptastadion, which progressively silted up over the centuries and lead to the land connection—and fabulous real estate potential. The Ras El Tin Palace was built on it, for one!

Six from six

That's six ships constructed over six days. I'm now down to 51 of 70 to go (or 63 of 82).

Constructed since Monday, from right to left: Enterprise, Nagato, Pensacola, Houston, Northampton and Kyokuto Maru.

Enterprise at centre with Zuikaku and Akagi to her right and left respectively to show her relative size, especially height above the waterline. I had not appreciated how tall the Yorktown-class carriers were until I made this model. She's not much lower than the Akagi, which, as a converted Amagi-class battlecruiser, was a towering ship.

Nagato (left) indicating her size compared with the earlier constructed (and partially painted) Kongo. This Aoshima model of Nagato was a particularly fine kit to build.

Check out those 410 mm main guns on Nagato (c.f. Kongo's 356 mm)! It will be really interesting to put Nagato beside Yamato/Musashi with their 460 mm main guns, but I'll not be building them until towards the end of the 70. By comparison, Bismarck with her "guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees"** 'only' had 380 mm main guns. 
**To my way of thinking, he had this lyric the wrong way around. Perhaps it says something about Texans and their sense of size? Or maybe it's because I think of the height and overall size of a tree, whereas he is thinking of the girth of one that has been cut down?

R to L: Pensacola, Houston and Northampton, adapted from the Tamiya kit of Indianapolis, beside the model of Indianapolis that Julian had built earlier (a Revell kit).

Pensacola, Houston, Northampton and Indianapolis (bottom to top). The differences are subtle, but significant. It took me a while to work out what to change and how to use the parts that I had. Paint will cover up that line of putty filler that I added after cutting the deck to make Pensacola into a ship with a 'level' deck. The Pensacola-class should be about 8 m shorter than Indianapolis, the Northampton-class around 3 m shorter, but I was not going to worry about 11 mm and 4 mm at 1/700!

Kyokuto Maru, first of five fleet oilers that I will be scratch-building. Not my most accurate attempt, but it will serve the purpose.

I have been enjoying this: crossing off the previous tally and adding the new total to make.

Yamashiro is currently under construction and I am also working on Kenyo Maru, top left, the next of the fleet oilers on my list.

I am working on Ise and Hyuga concurrently.

My aim for my next post is to be at or below 35 to go. I have 16 to make to get to this milestone. It should be a far simpler process than the recent ships that I have made as they will all be direct builds of the ships according to the kits. I'll make my scratch-builds as I go along, doing a bit on whichever one is 'in progress' while glued sections of the kit(s) are drying. Can I get there by next weekend?!!

Out on the ocean white

I finished the conversions to make HNLMS Java and De Ruyter this past week. Now I have 'launched' all of the Dutch ships that I require for the battles involving the 'ill-fated' American-Dutch-British-Australian Command (ADBA) of early '42.

L to R: De Ruyter, Java, Tromp and two Admiralen-class destroyers. All except for Tromp are only undercoated so far—'fitting out' (aka painting) will occur at a later stage.

Tromp, which I scratch-built and have featured in a post previously, is the only one of these ships that is completed. I built the two Admiralen-class destroyers late last year, simple conversions of the Tamiya kit of HMAS Vampire.

Looking more closely at the Admiralen-class destroyers

Photo of a simple 3D model of an Admiralen-class that I downloaded from the web. Prior to realising that I could adapt the kit of HMAS Vampire, I thought that I'd used this a a guide for a simple scratch-built version.

The real thing, in this case HNLMS Everston in 1942 (netherlands navy.nl).

I'm happy with the conversions to represent the destroyers as well as those of Java and De Ruyter. The former look better than that 3D-printed model and the latter two hold up pretty well against contemporary photos of the ships.

My version of HNLMS Java, from the port side.

From above. I am particularly pleased with the look of the 'wings' around the fore-funnel, which mounted anti-aircraft machine guns (you might have to zoom the photo to see them).

A photo of Java in 1942 from the website of the Australian War Memorial. Those 'wings' are clearly evident.

A photo of Java viewed from the starboard side (netherlands navy.nl).

Box-art of HMS Penelope, the kit that I adapted.

My version of HNLMS De Ruyter, from the port side.

And from above.

Box-art of HMS Ajax, the kit that I adapted.

A photo of De Ruyter viewed from the starboard side (from netherlands navy.nl).

There are now 57 of the 70 ships remaining to construct (or 69 of the ultimate target of 82). I have six that I am building at the moment. Enterprise, Nagato and Kyokuto Maru are nearly completed and I expect to finish within the next couple of days—the latter is the first of the five Japanese fleet oilers that I am scratch-building. USS Pensacola, the first of three conversions of kits of USS Indianapolis (and the one involving the most alterations) is about 50% completed. The other two, which will represent Northampton-class cruisers, are in the early stages of construction.

I am quite obsessed with making these ships at the moment and spending more than a few hours a day on them. The combination of the target, challenge, interest and pleasure are driving me on. Added to this I am finding it really enjoyable and rewarding, with tangible results at every stage! 

Ship building on target

As anyone who has set milestones, deadlines or other targets will know, the trick is to aim low, or at least below the best/most that could be done, so as to be able to over-achieve—under promise and over-deliver! Such is the case with my self-appointed target of 70 ships to be built in 90 days. I would like to average one per day, or close to it, but even I am realistic enough to know that I won't build one every day, so having 20 days 'spare' should provide sufficient latitude.

Recently constructed ships. From left to right: scratch-build Francol and Anking, three Kagero-class destroyers and two Fubuki-IIs, a couple of Japanese oilers/seaplane carriers, two transports and five Sims-class destroyers at the right.

I was going at a ship per day for the first five days of January (helped by having 'cheated' and built a couple in late December, haha), but then 'lost' nearly a week around 5th–11th as I had a visit by my brother from Queensland. He had come over to buy a car and then to drive it home (as you do). We had a top few days getting stuff for his trip, going to a couple of nights of speedway and generally have wonderful bro' time. Building 1/700 ships was not on the programme.

I have now caught up (basically), thanks particularly to building five Sims-class** destroyers. Amazingly, these are the first US ships that I have built. The other 26 US ships in the combined collection that have been 'constructed' comprise eight built previously by Julian and 18 x 3D-models that I bought (so no assembly required).

[**I crack myself up by calling these 'Sums' class, in my best Kiwi accent, in reference to 'Detictive Sums'; specially for Keith and others, like me, who enjoy the marvellous banter and humour of Brokenwood.]

My 'flurry' over the past few days means that I am now down to 59 of the original 70 ships to be built by the end of March. That's 59 to be built in 72 days, so my target is looking good.

Currently building: HNLMS Java and De Ruyter (as conversions of HMS Penelope and Ajax),  five scratch-built Japanese oilers (one in foreground) and then three kits of USS Indianapolis to convert to USS Pensacola, Houston/Chester and Northampton.

The next 10 ships could be the most challenging of all, since they are conversions or scratch-builds. I am progressing with the first two, conversions of HMSs Penelope and Ajax to HNLMSs Java and De Ruyter respectively, as well as the first of five Japanese oilers that I will scratch-build. Following these I'll do conversions of three kits of USS Indianapolis into a Pensacola-class and two Northampton-class cruisers.

I am hoping that I'll complete these ten by the end of the month, which would leave me with 49 more to build in 59 days. I did quite a bit of work on Java this arvo' after finishing the last two Sims class destroyers, so am feeling quite confident that I won't need 13 days for them.

Next in line: ships for Pearl Harbor—the Japanese battleships of the first and second divisions for the 'climb Mt Niitaka' bit# and USS Enterprise along with here cruiser escorts (described above) which, along with the Sims-class destroyers, form her carrier group for alt.-Pearl Harbor. We'll do the re-fight of the attack on Pearl Harbor at 1:6000, so I don't need the ships that were there (and they did not feature prominently later in the war after being repaired).
#Absent: Fuso, which is one of the eight that I am yet to purchase. I won't bother with Mutsu (sister to Nagato) as she did not feature at all in later actions of the war and was sunk in home waters after a mysterious explosion.

Following that: Japanese ships for the attacks on Wake Island (through to its eventual capture).

Then we have: ships needed for Sinking of Repulse & Prince of Wales, Operation C, Java Sea, Sunda Strait (others have or will have already been constructed). A notable absence is HMAS Perth. This is not counted in the 70 or the 82 since a model is not yet available in 1/700. A kit of HMAS Sydney is being produced by Flyhawk and will hopefully—HOPEFULLY— be released soon. I'll use it to represent Sydney, Perth and Hobart.

Finally: ships for Coral Sea and the actions of '42 which followed. Hatsuharu is missing from this lot, yet to be purchased.

Of course, my ultimate construction target is 82, which includes another 12 kits that are of ships that did not 'feature' until 1943 or later. I cannot see myself stopping before I have built these too and I am determined that I will build ’the lot’, while I am in ship building 'mode'. Mind you, I am yet to get hold of eight kits: two of which are part of the 70, six to make up the 82. They are not yet available in Oz, but hopefully they will be by the end of February at the latest. This is based on the expected date shown on the website of one of the shops over east (I have them on order from my 'local' shop in Perth, but they use the same suppliers).

Then there is HMAS Sydney/Perth/Hobart...