Capturing Fleets

[f1nalstand17]

I heard that during the Second World War (before its scuttling) that French Fleet was one of the most advanced and powerful navy in the war, and if the Germans had captured it, the Kriegsmarine would've posed the Royal Navy a very difficult challenge. This begs the question of: Can Germany by an event capture the French Fleet? Perhaps if the French don't have a GiE? Or more importantly, is there any way to capture ships/fleets(not just equipment) in general?

 

[Zupanicarr]

Well that's just it, the crew'd scuttle the ship before it got captured. The only times I can think of ships getting captured were U-boats at the end of the war.
Perhaps it was more common than I'm aware? But as far as I know, they'd sink em' before letting them fall into the hands of the enemy.

 

[Cynical Dreamer]

Ships are very technical and complicated to operate objects. If you capture a vessel without it scuttling prior, which is a very rare occurence, you would need to train a crew for months if not years. You would have to change the language on the warning signs. You would have to change the cannons to be able to use your amo. Same for the engines. Nah, simply too complicated and time consuming, the only vessels worth capturing are cargo ships.

 

[SpermCube]

Historically the Vichy regime got to keep its navy but had to dismantle large parts of its army. How about an ahistorical option for Germany to have France keep its army but hand over its navy, thus giving Germany much less captured land based equipment for the Heer.

 

[SpanglishEmpire]

There is already a thread here somewhere about captured ships/fleets, The general consensus was it never happened. The ships were always scuttled by their own crews.

 

[Big Nev]

If I've done this correctly... this should link to the last thread on this topic.

I think in at least HOI1 there was a chance of capturing ships when conquering a province with ships in port. I liked that feature and have missed it in later installments of the game.

It would be neat, though there would be a high chance of the ships being scuttled, leaving them either sunk (uncapturable) or badly damaged.

And it's not the first.

Personally, I'm against it other than by gaining a puppet that keeps its fleet or some similar mechanic like Vichy France keeping very useable parts of a surface fleet.

To actually capture a large warship with troops (even paratroopers as has been suggested) is simply not realistic.

I can just imagine a squadron of tigers pointing their 88 L56s at a light cruiser from cover of a warehouse and demanding the crew surrender.

The CL turns its rear triple 155mm turret and the captain reminds the tiger's commanders there are four of them & three guns. The guns are loaded with an armour piercing round which, at this range, is capable of penetrating about 200mm of armour plate, after which, the four pounds of high-explosive it contains will make it explode. So the one question they need to ask themselves is...

Do I feel lucky?

 

[ieuanwyn45]

There were instances where some of the warships were scuttled by their crews, but the manner and location made them easy to recover and usable. Some were outfitted with new weapons, but there were ships which kept most of their original armament as the Germans had seized their ammunition dumps so had a useful supply to use. They also captured warships in various state of build on the slips, and tried to finish them to bolster their own home built naval vessels. An event in which you could capture some of the vessels in port in a province you've over-run would be a good thing for the game.

 

[Zupanicarr]

I seem to recall there being a slight chance to capture any ships when taking a port, in Darkest Hour?

 

[-Stukov-MK VII]

This was a great hoi 1 feature and it should be brought back though maybe not the whole fleet but atleast partial. Though I can see this being really problematic in multiplayer games with the current hoi 3 ninja landings.

Kudos on this thread

 

[Mercenary46]

As it stands currently in HoI3, Vichy France does not acquire ANY ships from the french fleet, nor do they get any air force or land units. I would like to see that modeled correctly first and foremost. I'm not against having a way to capture ships as long as it's something that's relatively rare and can't be relied on to be used to, out of nowhere, capture several ships and turn the tide. I wouldn't mind having the same idea go for aircraft captured idle on an airfield either.