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Perhaps the German fleet will simply hoist the white flag and sail to London? Anyone?

Perhaps they'll finally notice they went bankrupt some time ago? Perhaps.
 
Perhaps they'll finally notice they went bankrupt some time ago? Perhaps.
Nazi Germany would never go bankrupt.

Implode into a catastrophic mess of shortages, riots, starvation and inflation? Yes, and that's at least two years over-due. But they didn't have many foreign currency liabilities, so I think they'd avoid formal bankruptcy on a technicality.
 
Nazi Germany would never go bankrupt.

Implode into a catastrophic mess of shortages, riots, starvation and inflation? Yes, and that's at least two years over-due. But they didn't have many foreign currency liabilities, so I think they'd avoid formal bankruptcy on a technicality.

When they lose, can we then say they went bankrupt to take all their stuff?
 
When they lose, can we then say they went bankrupt to take all their stuff?
That's what reparations are for.
DYAEiOu.gif
 
Nah we can't use reparations. We used that one last time.
Didn't really use them as they weren't enforced properly and Germany was allowed to play silly buggers with the printing presses.

This time we must go full Morgenthau Plan, it's the only way to be sure.
 
Didn't really use them as they weren't enforced properly and Germany was allowed to play silly buggers with the printing presses.

This time we must go full Morgenthau Plan, it's the
only way to be sure.

We should probably also check the zone of occupation maps because the french and Americans screwed it up last time.

Haha, this is fun! I see now why rampant imperialism can be enjoyable even if it is morally bankrupt. How on earth did the Victorian foreign office go from this to its sorry state a few decades later?
 
Once this story had the British make zero reaction to the enormous German and Italian naval build up we passed the point of any possible attachment to reality.

Well the Germany naval buildup was mostly Battlecruisers, and most of them are the 11 inch Sharnhorst class. The Royal Navy still holds a massive numerical superiority in every other type of ship so one could, with some suspension of disbelief and assumption of some British political squabbles, see the Royal Navy think that they still retained naval supremacy against Germany and therefore any additional buildup of the already massive Royal Navy would be... unneeded.
 
Well the Germany naval buildup was mostly Battlecruisers, and most of them are the 11 inch Sharnhorst class. The Royal Navy still holds a massive numerical superiority in every other type of ship so one could, with some suspension of disbelief and assumption of some British political squabbles, see the Royal Navy think that they still retained naval supremacy against Germany and therefore any additional buildup of the already massive Royal Navy would be... unneeded.
A brave effort, but it is impossible to suspend disbelief that much. ;)

Bear in mind that Germany is not just building up a fleet, but building up the exact 'Freak Fleet' the Admiralty was most concerned about. Fast battlecruisers that can easily out-run a WW1 veteran battleship and out-fight a Treaty heavy cruisers, fleet optimised light cruisers and a huge U-boat arm - this is not a fleet for re-fighting Jutland but for raiding and hit-and-run against isolated portions of the Royal Navy. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement exists purely to stop that happening and force Germany into a conventional fleet build, because that can be countered by the existing fleet and because a conventional naval arms race is something Germany has to lose - she cannot afford to neglect her army and physically cannot produce enough steel (and everything else) to do both.

Then we have Italy building all four Littorios with a pair of da Vincis as well, any of which is more than a match for an 'R' or un-modernised Queen Elizabeth and can easily outrun a Nelson. Bearing in mind that I believe Anglo-French relations are terrible at this point so the UK cannot rely on the French Fleet to help secure the vital Med supply lines, making further demands for modern ships to counter that threat, demands which were never really present in OTL until war had already broken out (first Littorio commissioned in May 1940 in OTL)

And in this terrible scenario, which has been blindingly obvious and indeed boasted about for the last 6 years, we are supposed to believe that the Royal Navy has built nothing? Not nothing extra, but no capital ships at all - Britain hasn't even matched the OTL build up. As a former mining engineer let me assure you there is not enough lead in the world to produce sufficient lead-paint laced tea for this to ever be possible.

As I have indicated previously, no pretence of realism can be made at this point and it would be churlish to attempt it. Let us instead put aside such trivial concerns and instead enjoy the excellent writing and wonderful graphics as the world is relentlessly and perfectly painted Grey. :)
 
Yeah, theres not much point in being realistic with the fascists (if nothing else because it's in poor taste) so just treat them as very silly magic clowns who can somehow do all this because the game god is literally mid controlling all of them and making resources come from nowhere.
 
Oh dear, what a lackluster showing by the RN. And over the tattered remnants of the Polish navy, no less. Perhaps they will learn from this and not make such blunders again? Perhaps the German fleet will simply hoist the white flag and sail to London? Anyone?

At this rate, being an island will end up being very inconvenient for the Brits. The numerical superiority is still there however, so hopefully they can put it to good use, at least good enough to give us a show. Would be a shame to have all those hulls and just... fade away bit by bit. Nay, if British dominance of the seas must end, at least let it end with the thunder of guns and crashes of steel! They deserve no less.

Certainly I will try and make a good show of it, but until I take over, it's the usual refrain of...
tenor.gif


Perhaps they'll finally notice they went bankrupt some time ago? Perhaps.

Nazi Germany would never go bankrupt.

Implode into a catastrophic mess of shortages, riots, starvation and inflation? Yes, and that's at least two years over-due. But they didn't have many foreign currency liabilities, so I think they'd avoid formal bankruptcy on a technicality.

When they lose, can we then say they went bankrupt to take all their stuff?

That's what reparations are for.
DYAEiOu.gif

Nah we can't use reparations. We used that one last time.

Didn't really use them as they weren't enforced properly and Germany was allowed to play silly buggers with the printing presses.

For sure, there's been a bit of overcompensation for Germany from Paradox to be sure... Unfortunately (borrowing from my above responses) my refrain of "Had I Only Known" is sounding a bit trite.

This time we must go full Morgenthau Plan, it's the only way to be sure.

For those who weren't aware: The Morgenthau Plan.

A brave effort, but it is impossible to suspend disbelief that much. ;)

Bear in mind that Germany is not just building up a fleet, but building up the exact 'Freak Fleet' the Admiralty was most concerned about. Fast battlecruisers that can easily out-run a WW1 veteran battleship and out-fight a Treaty heavy cruisers, fleet optimised light cruisers and a huge U-boat arm - this is not a fleet for re-fighting Jutland but for raiding and hit-and-run against isolated portions of the Royal Navy. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement exists purely to stop that happening and force Germany into a conventional fleet build, because that can be countered by the existing fleet and because a conventional naval arms race is something Germany has to lose - she cannot afford to neglect her army and physically cannot produce enough steel (and everything else) to do both.

Then we have Italy building all four Littorios with a pair of da Vincis as well, any of which is more than a match for an 'R' or un-modernised Queen Elizabeth and can easily outrun a Nelson. Bearing in mind that I believe Anglo-French relations are terrible at this point so the UK cannot rely on the French Fleet to help secure the vital Med supply lines, making further demands for modern ships to counter that threat, demands which were never really present in OTL until war had already broken out (first Littorio commissioned in May 1940 in OTL)

And in this terrible scenario, which has been blindingly obvious and indeed boasted about for the last 6 years, we are supposed to believe that the Royal Navy has built nothing? Not nothing extra, but no capital ships at all - Britain hasn't even matched the OTL build up. As a former mining engineer let me assure you there is not enough lead in the world to produce sufficient lead-paint laced tea for this to ever be possible.

As I have indicated previously, no pretence of realism can be made at this point and it would be churlish to attempt it. Let us instead put aside such trivial concerns and instead enjoy the excellent writing and wonderful graphics as the world is relentlessly and perfectly painted Grey. :)

For sure, I appreciate the final comment. I can only work my tail off trying to continue to earn such high praise. Were I ever to attempt something akin to the Redux, there would be significant changes to how things were run... mostly because I'd already have the six computers on various nations... ugh, now I'm getting ideas. STOP! :rolleyes::confused:

Yeah, theres not much point in being realistic with the fascists (if nothing else because it's in poor taste) so just treat them as very silly magic clowns who can somehow do all this because the game god is literally mid controlling all of them and making resources come from nowhere.

[resources intensify.gif]
 
For those who weren't aware: The Morgenthau Plan.

This isn't even the nastiest plan the Allies came up with. This is just the nastiest the Americans could do. The british on the other hand had put some thought into slightly more genocidal ways of removing 'the western europe problem' once and for all.
 
This isn't even the nastiest plan the Allies came up with. This is just the nastiest the Americans could do. The british on the other hand had put some thought into slightly more genocidal ways of removing 'the western europe problem' once and for all.
Apart from Operation Vegetarian, which was a wartime "If they use Bio/Chem weapons we will use them back" type plan, I'm unsure what you are referring to. Do elaborate as it sounds intriguing.
 
Apart from Operation Vegetarian, which was a wartime "If they use Bio/Chem weapons we will use them back" type plan, I'm unsure what you are referring to. Do elaborate as it sounds intriguing.

Those are some disturbing plans indeed. I was mostly joking but fhere was talk also of possibly turning these anti-German war plans into anti-Soviet war plans if the Red Army either didn't stop or took the whole of germany before france could be liberated.

Unfortunately/fortunately if these plans/ideas existed then the british were smart enough to either not write them down or destroy the files (unless some moron kept them and they're in that fabled SAS locker somewhere) so we only have really unreliable and unverifiable oral 'evidence' about it.

Naturally all this was eventually spun into a truly exquisite conspiracy theory where churchill and some other die-hard anti-communists were deliberately holding back throughout the war to give them an excuse to wipe out Russia and germany at the same time. Of course they'd then blame roosevelt for the attack, and they were secretly poisoning him as well because he was a secret communist. Something something restored empire with europe firmly back in the shutter where it belonged, with France ruined and begging for help, germany and russia dead, and everyone else firmly under the allies thumb.

And this isn't even the most insane ww2 conspiracy theory out there. The body double ones are much stranger.
 
Apart from Operation Vegetarian, which was a wartime "If they use Bio/Chem weapons we will use them back" type plan, I'm unsure what you are referring to. Do elaborate as it sounds intriguing.
Those are some disturbing plans indeed. I was mostly joking but fhere was talk also of possibly turning these anti-German war plans into anti-Soviet war plans if the Red Army either didn't stop or took the whole of germany before france could be liberated.
Unfortunately/fortunately if these plans/ideas existed then the british were smart enough to either not write them down or destroy the files (unless some moron kept them and they're in that fabled SAS locker somewhere) so we only have really unreliable and unverifiable oral 'evidence' about it.​

Naturally all this was eventually spun into a truly exquisite conspiracy theory where churchill and some other die-hard anti-communists were deliberately holding back throughout the war to give them an excuse to wipe out Russia and germany at the same time. Of course they'd then blame roosevelt for the attack, and they were secretly poisoning him as well because he was a secret communist. Something something restored empire with europe firmly back in the shutter where it belonged, with France ruined and begging for help, germany and russia dead, and everyone else firmly under the allies thumb.​

And this isn't even the most insane ww2 conspiracy theory out there. The body double ones are much stranger.​

Those aren't bad conspiracy theories, probably just enough truth to be believable. Then again, most of them are beyond the realm of discussion here.
 
X: 2. Operation Catherine Continues: Good Money Chasing Bad, February 1942
K6kyAPj.png


2. Operation Catherine Continues: Good Money Chasing Bad
18 - 20 February 1942


The initial bloody nose given to the Royal Navy by the Kriegsmarine either failed to get Baron Chatfield to reconsider his orders for the Baltic deployments or more likely, Churchill was working around his First Sea Lord. Already more vessels from the Home Fleet were being activated and deployed, including several of the most powerful of the surface fleet units. In the meantime--given the lack of any threatening posture of the other Axis powers to that point--the plan of “Each In Their Turn” led the Admiralty to recall the Mediterranean, African and Far East squadrons. By the 17th, the Mediterranean Squadrons were passing Malta from their home port of Alexandria, African station was closing with the Moroccan coast while the Far East Squadron (centered on HMS Eagle) crossed the international date line en route to the Panama Canal.


X1KxzX8.png

Graphic with locations of the various force dispositions,
19 February 1942.

The first sortie had been planned with only one mission in mind: a rapid deployment to get the Polish navy out of the Baltic and into the relative safety of British ports. Hastily assembled with limited resources, the Admiralty had assumed they could sneak in and out without getting involved in a general action, or at the very least, draw out at least a portion of the Kriegsmarine to be attacked by the surface action groups that were setting up to follow Force H. While some records of these initial groups have been lost, as vessels and units were nearly constantly rearranged, Force L initially consisted of four heavy cruisers (including two of the most advanced cruisers in the Royal Navy, Exeter and York, as well as London and Devonshire) escorted by sixteen destroyers and entered the Kattegat early on 18 February to assist in covering the withdrawal of what remained of Hermes’ group. This was also the vanguard for Force F, a powerful squadron centered on the battleship Ramillies, the battlecruisers Hood, Renown, and Repulse, a light cruiser Durban and eight destroyers. Speeding to catch up was Force O, centered on Ark Royal, flanked by Revenge and Warspite, and escorted by the light cruiser Despatch at the head of twelve destroyers.


BLByGU6.png

HMS Repulse, and her sister ship Renown, both participated in the
actions in the Kattegat in late February.

Operationally, Force L was divided into two groups each of the two sister ships, as until Force H limped into harbor in England the failure of British Intelligence to recognize that the Scharnhorsts were armed with 15 inch guns was unknown. Two Kriegsmarine heavy surface action groups remained at sea: MKGs Saalwächter and Bachmann. Warzecha had taken charge of the damaged vessels from previous days’ actions to bring them into port and repair and refit. Saalwächter’s group, with Saalwächter transferring his flag to Hindenburg, joining Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Von Der Tann, escorted by the Stettin, Nautilus, Köln, and Magdeburg. MKG Bachmann remained the Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Pommern, escorted by Leipzig, Albatross, Königsberg and Mainz. These vessels had expended a significant amount of their ammunition and fuel, and were slowly making their own way back to port.

In the Oresund, both sides’ radars detected the other at roughly the same time, but the superior range of the heavy guns aboard the battlecruisers made the contest one-sided. York and Exeter’s group were closer to the gap between the two groups of German battlecruisers than the London and Devonshire group, with Saalwächter’s force spread out, only Hindenburg and Von Der Tann could engage. Saalwächter ordered his light cruisers to drive off the British destroyers, which were attempting to lay smoke and run in a torpedo spread. Problems with the British torpedoes saw those that made it to the light cruiser line cause only minor damage, but the light cruisers, already low on ammunition, expended their last rounds in the engagement for no noticeable hits. Von Der Tann rapidly gained the range through the fog with its radar and smashed several destroyers. Hindenburg focused their fire on one of the largest returns, and bracketed York. Already a lighter design than the preceding County-class, York heeled over and sank, taking roughly half of her crew with her.


SisDv4I.png

York
sinking in the Kattegat. The number of warships that would

wind up on the bottom of the Denmark straits made for a
significant hazard to navigation.

Exeter laid on full speed and tried to extricate herself at the head of eight destroyers. In an unorthodox move more typical from his time in the Coastal Motor Boats, Captain Walter “Joe” Beckett[*] ordered the group into a Gefechtskehrtwendung or “Battle About Turn,” conducting a rapid 180 degree turn for each ship in the line. This placed Exeter at the back of the line, disregarding their own safety, and they managed to engage Tirpitz at the extreme of their guns’ range. Tirpitz sustained damage amidships, and several of her secondary battery and anti-aircraft guns were put out of action. Tirpitz, however, gave back much more than she received by putting several main battery shells into the Exeter, blowing her up in spectacular fashion with the loss of her entire crew. The action then concluded for the time being: the two Kriegsmarine forces had virtually exhausted their ammunition and the Royal Navy forces did not want to face down forces at such odds.

With their heavy surface units in port refueling and conducting emergency repairs, the SKL’s “light” battle force--MKG Marschall--sortied from Kiel. Centered on the three Deutschland-class panzerschiff or “pocket battleships” in British parlance, they were escorted by the three K-class light cruisers, Kolberg, Karlsruhe and Kiel. German Naval intelligence had lost track of the heavy forces the British had sent into the area, and I UbFlte (U-boot Geschwader (UbG) 1, 2 and 3) and Kommando U-Boot Ausbildung (KUBA) were both heading back into Kiel to refit. The destroyers from Force L encountered several of those u-boats and engaged them, sinking or causing significant damage to several, especially harming KUBA, UbG 1 and UbG 3.

Late in the afternoon of 18 February, MKG Marschall was steaming around Oresund in a wide arrowhead formation when flashes were observed to the north. The Deutschland-class cruisers had not yet upgraded their radar systems to “sweep” and thus their situational awareness to their flanks was minimized compared to their larger brethren. Within only a few salvoes, Admiral Scheer and Graf Spee were on fire almost from stem to stern, leading to Captain Patzig's order that Graf Spee be run aground to prevent her sinking; the escorting light cruisers also suffered with Kiel absorbing several hits from an escorting heavy cruiser. Deutschland managed to escape damage from any hits and responded in kind, but only caused minor damage with a few short rounds in retaliation. Though again records are confused, but the heavy units involved included the battleships Rodney and Royal Sovereign, a heavy cruiser, and the light cruisers Calcutta, Caledon, and Neptune. The damage was so extensive that the German heavy cruisers did not deploy again for the remainder of 1942.

This engagement startled Raeder. The loss (albeit temporary) of 27% of the Kriegsmarine’s large surface combatants--especially a vessel named Deutschland--and almost 19% of their escorting cruisers would strike a significant blow to his power and prestige in Berlin. Raeder immediately ordered all battlecruisers which were not suffering from any damage to sea, to chase down the hostile forces. The first vessel to depart Kiel, Konigsburg, rushed to assist the stricken units and was met with withering fire from the 15-inch guns of Royal Sovereign and lost steering. Radio direction finding from RN units provided indications that the Kriegsmarine’s battlecruisers were drawing near, and so the task force attempted to withdraw but the speed of the venerable battleship combined with a lack of maneuvering room led to Royal Sovereign being caught out of position and sunk by Tirpitz. The escorting light cruisers attempted to take off the crew, but this cost them time to escape and thus Calcutta, Caledon, and Neptune were sunk by Hindenburg, Gneisenau, and Bismarck, respectively.


TRKGkWD.png

Sailors being taken off of
Royal Sovereign after the engagement.
This cost those cruisers time to get away, and also their survival.

Ill luck continued for the British, as Rodney and Dorsetshire struck mines or were possibly torpedoed (the record is vague). The Tirpitz, approaching from astern of Rodney, was given the best possible positioning for engaging the hapless battleship, and thus Rodney was smashed, but Tirpitz had expended the last remaining ammunition and drew off leaving Madgeburg to finish Rodney with torpedoes. Dorsetshire was closer to Denmark and managed to get off most of the crew who were then interned in Copenhagen until the German takeover of that nation in late 1943, but scuttling charges failed and Tirpitz’s secondary battery used the cruiser as an unmoving target after recovering any intelligence available from the vessel (which had had her boilers nearly destroyed by the mines and was thus unrecoverable).


uM1xpft.png

Rodney during better times. A compromise design courtesy of the
Washington and London Naval Treaties, the layout would prove
disastrous to both British and French examples.

With that engagement completed, the Kriegsmarine again returned their vessels to port, as they had not been adequately resupplied. The vessels that had been in port for three days now and had fully resupplied and conducted enough repairs so as to be serviceable were sortied under Warzecha, this constituted only the battlecruiser Blucher and the light cruisers Lubeck and Dresden. This task group responded to Marinefliegergeschwader reports of a trio of cruisers nearing Rostock towards the Swedish side of the water making their way back towards the Oresund early on 20 February. This group was the two British heavy cruisers London and Devonshire and the light cruiser Durban. Warzecha deployed his Stettin-class light cruiser Lubeck as a lure, while keeping the slightly slower Dresden (of the Leipzig-class) as an escort. Radar aboard these vessels was having difficulty, as weather came in, and so Lubeck found herself very suddenly engaged by London and Durban. A snap spread of torpedoes from Lubeck caught London by surprise and she sheared out of line as they impacted aft and sent London’s shafts out of alignment, flooding the engine rooms. Lubeck took several hits from London’s remaining forward guns, and a return spread of torpedoes from Durban forced Lubeck off and running to rejoin the coverage from Hindenburg. London would sink nearly three hours later, with much of the crew being rescued by the Swedes.


si5BVMG.png

HMS London at anchor at the start of a convoy exercise.
The misuse of so many of the Royal Navy’s escorts led to
a shortage of escorts until almost 1944
.​

Later in the day, with sufficient ammunition and fuel brought aboard, MKGs Bachmann and Saalwächter returned to the Oresund. The Royal Navy’s Force O, a carrier task force centered on Ark Royal, which combined with what remained of Force L contained two battleships, one heavy and two light cruisers and twelve destroyers, but only one air group was available and ready at the time to deploy with Ark Royal. The Kriegsmarine forces at sea were seven battlecruisers and eight light cruisers, commanded by Bachmann and Saalwächter. Saalwächter laid on a high speed run and closed the gap with the approaching Royal Navy ships. Bachmann’s force was held beyond reach by air attacks trying to maneuver in the constricted waters of the Oresund and did not participate in the surface action, but sapped the British air groups’ organization to such a point that they were combat ineffective.


o9iB94E.png

Ark Royal coming under fire in the actions of 20 February.
That a second Royal Navy aircraft carrier was engaged by
Kriegsmarine surface forces in as many weeks was proof
positive that interwar training had not had the desired outcomes.

Revenge and Warspite, leading the cruiser Devonshire and the destroyers, attempted to cross the T of Saalwächter’s force, but their speed difference made it difficult for rapid firing solutions. Saalwächter, an admirer of British naval hero Lord Horatio Nelson, took a page from Trafalgar and deployed what he called Kampftrennungsmanöver, or “battle separation maneuver,” which alternated battlecruisers to port and starboard at high speed from line ahead, thus negating the “T.” The British battleships attempted to adjust but Warspite and Revenge were taken under fire by two German battlecruisers each and sunk with credit for Warspite being given to Scharnhorst and Revenge falling to Von Der Tann. The destroyers laid smoke and managed to get Devonshire to safety, but with more Kriegsmarine units coming out of port, Force O’s commander, Admiral Roger Backhouse, attempted to extricate his task group from where it had been ordered as quickly as possible.

Bachmann, with his group now free of air attack, rejoined the fray, and worked his way into position on Backhouse’s starboard side (closer to Sweden), while Saalwächter was cruising towards the port side (and closer to Denmark). Through clever use of radio deception, the pursuing Germans believed that they were catching up with the Ark Royal because of a boiler casualty, but it was the Devonshire with Durban attempting to take off the crew. Air units managed to continue their show, but at a distance; they did, however, find time to locate and destroy KUBA’s u-boats which had been deployed to operate in the shallow waters of the Kattegat and Oresund. OKKM did not become aware of the loss of those vessels until several days later when they failed to return to port. Bachmann’s force took the pair of cruisers under fire, with Tirpitz sinking the Devonshire, and severely damaging Durban. The Germans finally recognized the trickery of the British and attempted pursuit, leaving the wreck of the Durban to be finally sunk by the Lubeck as Warzecha’s group passed it, but failed to make contact with the remaining enemy forces.

The Second Battle of the Kattegat ended with a triumphant Kriegsmarine victory. Despite the smashing of the panzerschiff and several light cruisers, the British had suffered the loss of four battleships, four heavy cruisers, four light cruisers and eight destroyers, plus additional unknown damage to other units in the fleet. Churchill refused to acknowledge the unsustainable losses and ordered another force sortie to cover the retreat of the carrier and to harm German shipping to Sweden and Norway, under the impression that the Kriegsmarine would be exhausted by their efforts in the previous two weeks.

*****
Author's Note: As ever, the AI combined with an absolute crap game system results in wonky outcomes. There is absolutely no reason nor rationale for the RN to have sailed their heavy units into the Kattegat, and indeed, while there were plans drawn up, they were shelved when they figured out that most of the Baltic was too shallow for the draft of the battleships. This was also before I was taking proper notes (ie, screenshots) and so was relying on short hand during gameplay and transcribing the details later (thus, confusion on who was involved and when).

In updatey news, I've managed to play through May 1944, and have made a few edits to the save game to continue to play June. It's a bit slow going, but there will hopefully be reasonable progress and opposition now rather than the ROFLSTOMP that the AAR had been up to this point.
 
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Yes, unfortunately it turns out sorting out a navy AI is hard work. I think they do manage a somewhat better job in HoI4, but it is a very low bar and it is very much a qualified improvement
 
Author's Note: As ever, the AI combined with an absolute crap game system results in wonky outcomes. There is absolutely no reason nor rationale for the RN to have sailed their heavy units into the Kattegat, and indeed, while there were plans drawn up, they were shelved when they figured out that most of the Baltic was too shallow for the draft of the battleships. This was also before I was taking proper notes (ie, screenshots) and so was relying on short hand during gameplay and transcribing the details later (thus, confusion on who was involved and when).

It does make for an interesting writing challenge, and I've enjoyed how you've written around it :)

Edit: And excellent use of photos/imagery :D

Denmark straits

In case useful for the future, the Denmark Strait is located between Greenland and Iceland. Confusion over its location, given its name, is easily understood :) I'm not as confident, but I'm fairly sure that unlike the shallow seas around Denmark, the depth of the Denmark Strait is such that sunk ships are unlikely to cause much trouble to passing ships.
 
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While the game system and AI handling may be sub-optimal (ahem) the narrative is compelling. A good job there to recreate largely from notes and the technical description of the naval manoeuvres and damage reports imagined for the engagements was entertaining.

And of course one of those bodacious graphics to kick things off. Bravo.
 
4 Battleships down, I'm sure they'll be replaced in no time...

It's not surprising the Royal Navy is redeploying all it's forces to the Atlantic. This is the most dangerous German Navy they've ever faced, and it was built right under their noses... The empire is doomed.