Woohoo!
I can't wait for the nice picture that I bet is gonna be a Battleship
Well, it IS part of the current plotline, and I'm afraid, no Battleship- I'll find a nice picture though. And no, it's not everyones favourite Battlecruiser.
Well, it IS part of the current plotline, and I'm afraid, no Battleship- I'll find a nice picture though. And no, it's not everyones favourite Battlecruiser.
Just got my interwebs back, and get two (2!!) updates to read.
Brilliant story with Felix, he is one bad-ass mofo alright. Two shots to the driver while moving is pretty handy indeed!
I want a picture of the Hood! but alas no... is it going to be the Ark Royal? Ah well.
Hope Felix whips some more ass very soon!
Brilliant story with Felix, he is one bad-ass mofo alright. Two shots to the driver while moving is pretty handy indeed!
I want a picture of the Hood! but alas no... is it going to be the Ark Royal?
Ah well. Hope Felix whips some more ass very soon!
Indeed.
Also, vote for this AAR in the ACA awards! Pretty please. If not, then the 15" shells shall descend on you.
Also, vote for this AAR in the ACA awards! Pretty please.
If not, then the 15" shells shall descend on you.
Greetings Everyone,
I would like to announce that robw963 and myself will be conducting a Tempus Society sponsored collaborative AAR playing Finland with Doomsday 1.3. robw963 and I will begin (within the next week) a few introductory posts to get the ball rolling then hand off the AAR to others who are interested in participating. This won't be a vanilla Finland game. We have made some changes to the initial setup which are detailed HERE
Please contact me via PM if you're interested in contributing. All are welcome!
Chapter 82
October 6th, 1939
Light Cruiser HMS Aurora, Skagerrak Straight
Like the rest of the 2nd Blockade Group, HMS Dheli was usually steaming much further away from the prying eyes of the Luftwaffe. It appeared as if the term “Close Blockade” was rather relative. Normally the heavier ships of 1st Blockade Group, most prominently the three Battlecruisers, were covering the area up here, all as part of Home Fleet, or at least the parts of it that were constantly at sea. However, with Hood in dock an both Renown and Repulse on the way back to Scapa Flow for re-provisioning, the assets of Grand Admiral Backhouse were stretched thin, forcing him to send a group, in this case Dheli and her two escorting Destroyer, HMS Vanity, to cover the exit routes the Soviet Navy would have to take from it's bases in the Baltic Sea. The Red Navy was the but of many jokes within the service, but any of it's pre-Great War Battleships would blow Aurora apart. Her crew was very aware of this, but luckily for them HMS Rodney was close by, and they could always lure the Reds to her position, using their superior speed to keep out of range. Aurora's Captain was therefore calm, and used the time to drink a long overdue cup of tea while sitting in the warm, enclosed bridge. It was not yet mid-day, but his grumbling stomach told him that it couldn't be far off. He was just about to stand up and hand the bridge to his second in Command, when a voice from the tubes interrupted him. “Bridge, RDF plot. Sir, there's a blip coming out of the Kattegat, only about three miles from 'ere, bearing Red 110.” The Captain jumped up and yelled: “Action Stations! Signal Vanity!”after a second he added: “And plot, how, pray tell, did he get so close?”
While the three ships raced to action stations, their contact came ever closer. It was none other than the Kalinin, who had broken all records getting here, in order to take advantage of the momentary weakness of the British Fleet, as reported by their German 'allies' and the GRU. However, their lack of an RDF set forced them to sail essentially blind, as the British ships were all blacked out, while they, going with their cover as a Swedish freighter, were brightly lit, with a long Swedish flag hanging down their sides. All the experienced sailors felt mightily uncomfortable while doing this, but they had no other choice, their mission for the rodina demanded it. Little did they know that their disguise was about to be tested. “Enemy ship sighted!” the lookout yelled, “dead ahead!” Captain First Rank Ramius ran back up to the bridge, leaving the political officer where they had been standing. “Where?” he asked. “There, Comrade Captain.” the lookout said, indicating the direction. Ramius cursed inwardly. “A British cruiser, Leander Class.” He turned around and ordered the ship to battle stations. “And hoist the Swedish flag!” While his men raced to stations, the British Cruiser inched closer, it's forward turrets pointing their 6 inch guns at the seemingly defenceless Kalinin, or the Lutfisk, as which they had disguised themselves. The political Officer might think that the British sailors had become complacent, lazy and unable to perform in a stand up fight due to their capitalist luxuries, but Ramius had no such fantasies. Like every sailor, he had a healthy respect for the British Navy, and the cruiser was out-gunning the Kalinin anyway, not speaking of the Destroyer that now came into view behind the bigger British ship. The Destroyer raced ahead, coming to a parallel course with the Kalinin on her port side. The cruiser kept back, preferring to shadow from the other side, a few dozen yards farther away. The situation was not good at all, but Ramius not been selected for political reliability alone. The Kalinin possessed a feature that would soon be worth it's weight in gold: four hidden torpedo launchers that could be fired through ports in the side of the ship like the cannons of old. The British signalled for him to heave to, and prepare to receive an inspection party. Ramius seemingly complied, while ordering all the portside guns that could be trained without revealing them to prepare to fire on the Destroyer. Meanwhile the starboard torpedo crews were waiting for their own orders to fire, having a perfect line of fire on the British Light Cruiser, who obligingly presented it's broadside to them. The Britsh Destroyer came closer, so close in fact, that Ramius could see the inscription of it's name under the Bridge. “Vanity... what a fitting name for an Imperialist vessel...” he said for the benefit of the political officer who had joined him on the bridge.
At the same time the Captain of the Aurora was thinking that something was odd about this Swede. So far all attempts to verify their identification had failed. “Perhaps, Sir,” the Officer of the Watch replied. “What the...Sir, what do you think is that?” The Captain looked where the OOW pointed and saw a small gap opening in the freighters side. “No idea....” then he realized what it was, and his stomach constricted with cold fear. “ALL AHEAD FLANK! HARD TO STARBOARD!” But it was too late. The Kalinin had already launched two torpedoes, and as the Aurora had already come to a virtual stop, she couldn't hope to evade them. Both hit her almost amidships. Luckily ( or unluckily, depending whose side you were on ) one of the torpedoes was a dud, so only one of them exploded, tearing a gaping hole into the cruisers side, flooding her boiler rooms and extinguishing them. With the loss of propulsion and electrical power the cruiser came to a dead stop, her turrets frozen in position. At the same time the other side of the Kalinin was raking the Vanity with gunfire of all calibres. The Destroyer was already damaged, but it became worse when a shell from the old Battleship guns exploded against the depth charges arrayed on the aft deck, exploding them, along with the entire ship in a great oily fireball, showering the entire port side of the accelerating Kalinin in debris and burning fuel, starting a small fire of her own that was quickly put out. The Kalinin sped away, leaving the helpless Aurora behind, unable to anything but fight her own damage, which was fortunately not leaving her in a sinking condition. The Captain watched the Kalinin speed away in helpless rage, unable to raise Rodney or anyone else.
Meanwhile on the Kalinin the mood was a mixture of glee and sombre realism. While they were glad that their mission was not yet over, and that they had passed their test under fire, they also knew that the British would hunt them mercilessly now. To avoid this, they would turn north, trying to avoid the British by going through Norwegian territorial waters. The political officer was boasting about Soviet Naval strength, but Ramius doubted the trick would work again. From now on the British Navy would stand-off 'freighters' like the Kalinin from afar, at least that's what he would do. The political officer approached him and slapped him on the back in a friendly gesture that he hadn't earned the right to do. “Now, Comrade Captain, what is this again about British sailors, eh?” He took a deep breath and continued: “We will sneak past them and...” He was interrupted when three gigantic water sprouts straddled the Kalinin. “What the hell....What was that?” Ramius yelled. His question was answered shortly thereafter, when he could hear the tunder of the guns that had fired the shells. Slightly to the north east, a fog bank was suddenly backlighted by a flash of yellow light, and three more shells narrowly missed the Kalinin. Then they could see what had fired at them. The fog parted and the massive shape of HMS Rodney appeared, dwarfing the Kalinin even at this distance. The dumbstruck faces on the bridge of the Kalinin would have been amusing, had they known that the Aurora had radioed Rodney for assistance shortly before the Kalinin had opened fire. They would have also been less than pleased had they known that the Rodney's floatplane had been shadowing the whole action from above, passing word to the mothership, allowing Rodney to target the Kalinin via RDF without first confirming her identity. Then political officer recovered first. “Ha, we will fight them to the death, we will show them what Soviet Sailors are made of, we will...” he was interrupted by Ramius. “Have you gone mad, Comrade? They will blow us out of the water before we are even close enough to fire.” “But...” “But nothing. Yeoman, hoist the white flag. We surrender... let's hope they will allow us to....” The Political Officer jumped at Ramius in an attempt to wrestle command of the Kalinin from him, only to be struck down by a petty officer who simply kicked away his feet. When he was laying on the Bridge, bleeding from his nose, Ramius watched the British signal him to heave to, and said: “I will not needlessly sacrifice my own men. Break out the boats and prepare the scuttling charges.” Ten minutes later, the crew lowered the boats, with Ramius personally priming the charges and being the last off the ship. They rowed away as fast as they could in the general direction of the British battleship and barely made it out of save range before the charges went off.
[Game Notes: The next one will be a general situation report. This incident is my RP explanation for damage that magically appeared on the cruiser Aurora when it was part of Home Fleet in the north sea.]
And once again I want to direct your attention to the two posts above this update!
Great update. I love the battle ones. When I read about the Rodney coming through the fog I even cheered a little haha. Brilliant. Now what info could those higher powers pry from the soviet sailors...?
bastard sneaky soviets. got exactly what they deserved. cool to see Ramius is no more fond of commissars than that other Ramius.
Huzzah! The sneaky Soviets have been sunk before they could do any further damage, excellent news.
Though I would still pass on the order to sink any and all Swedish freighters just in case. Worst case you'll just sink more Swedes, which is a noble objective regardless.
Though I would still pass on the order to sink any and all Swedish freighters just in case. Worst case you'll just sink more Swedes, which is a noble objective regardless.
Raaritsgozilla Well, the thing with the enemy shooting from behind the fog and then coming into view is shamelessly stolen from Master and Commander, mainly because IMHo it is the most bad-ass Naval entry for an antagonist. As for how much the Sovs will talk... well, once again I shall use Cold War steretypes, i.e. exposure to capitalist luxuries.
BritishImperial Yeah, them sneaky ivans. I kinda like Ramius as a character, so we might see him again.
El Pip Yeah, we've shown them who rules the waves. I had originally planned them into a much larger role, as a part of the Canada plot, but I decided that it would have become too long. I'll re-do it.
Also, for now, I cant afford to take the risk of pushing the Swedes into the Axis, as the Royal Navy will be stretched thin, at least until the building programme pays off in a year or so. Until then at least we shall contend with simply observing them whenever they enter our sight.
BritishImperial Yeah, them sneaky ivans. I kinda like Ramius as a character, so we might see him again.
El Pip Yeah, we've shown them who rules the waves. I had originally planned them into a much larger role, as a part of the Canada plot, but I decided that it would have become too long. I'll re-do it.
Also, for now, I cant afford to take the risk of pushing the Swedes into the Axis, as the Royal Navy will be stretched thin, at least until the building programme pays off in a year or so. Until then at least we shall contend with simply observing them whenever they enter our sight.
Yes, but as I said, it was supposed to be much longer. I will at one point reveal just how long.
Ah, Naval Updates are cool
They dared think that they could beat the Royal Navy.
They dared think that they could beat the Royal Navy.
humancalculator Happy to oblige!
Griffin.Gen Yes. Obviously they haven't really checked their naval history.
BritishImperial Who knows?
Griffin.Gen Yes. Obviously they haven't really checked their naval history.
BritishImperial Who knows?
For my favourite British AAR, I award you the Lord Strange Cookie of British Awesomeness to you. ●
STOP! COOKIE TIME