The Adventures Of Harvey Knight - 2

The aftermath of Lt Cdr Knight's first mission in command of the flotilla had left him sleepless. That last shot from the Kobold had come so close to destroying his boat and despite the small reputation he had acquired from the attack it had left him feeling he'd been too reckless. After a couple of nights tossing and turning he went to the Medical Officer for something to help him. And it did. By the next mission he felt his old self again - confident and ready to take on the Germans.

The flotilla's next mission was another convoy attack. This time there only seemed to be a couple of escorts so Knight was hoping it would be relatively straightforward. In fact it offered the chance for a bold ambush; the convoy had to work past a series of inlets and Knight was able to place his flotilla in them, ready to ambush the convoy from the landward side. True he's lose the advantage of the moon, but it put the freighters between him and the escorts. A quick attack and then away before the escorts could even respond.

Knight's own boat was still in for repairs, so he transferred his flag to MTB 414 under Lt. Steward. The other boats were MTB 418 (Lt Brian Porter) and MTB 430 (Lt. Orion James).

Lt James came in separately from the other two boats; a risk given his crew's inexperience, but a chance to hit the lead freighter.

The MTBs edged forward in the darkness, but the Germans were suspicious. A small verpostenboot fired a starshell which illuminated their approach, but still failed to spot the attackers. The British found a freighter.

And that's when it went wrong. For some reason the crews of MTB 414 and 418 froze at the moment of attack and both freighters began to move past the optimum position for torpedo attack.

As the British blundered about, the second German escort was revealed - a well armed Siebel ferry, with plenty of light guns. Its opening shots damaged MTB 414. Knight seemed to attract effective gunfire.

By the time the two British boats got it together they were too close to the freighters to launch torpedoes. Stewart's crew managed to damage a freighter with gunfire, but it would take time to sink it by that approach. And the flak ferry was now closing slowly, spitting fire and inflicting more damage on MTB 414.

The freighters turned to avoid presenting their broadside to torpedo attack. This convoy was well- coordinated. The vorpostenboot went after MTB 430, which had been slow in its approach.

Finally some initiative from the British. seeing MTB 430 in danger, Lt. Porter fired up his engines and took his boat in for a torpedo attack on the German escort. With the moon in his favour ...

... it was an easy hit, and the German vessel was sunk.

Lt. Stewart took his boat to teh seaward side of a freighter, but the freighter turned again, throwing off the crew's aim and threatening to collide with the little MTB.

Freed from the danger of the German escort, Lt James in MTB 430 launched torpedoes at the lead freighter, but they went wide.

Only Lt. Steward in MTB 414 had torpedoes left at this stage, and he turned towards the second freighter, which was already under attack from the gunners on MTB 418.

But with activations like this, what were the British to do? Knight ordered all boats to break off an head for home.

So a promising attack had been thwarted by a combination of bad luck and inexperience. At least they flotilla had a small escort sunk to their credit, and only one boat was damaged, so things weren't a total disaster.

Or were they? On the way home, the crews were concerned to see a couple of small grey shapes in pursuit - S-boats!

With his damaged boat Knight resisted the temptation to fight and ordered the boats to pile on speed, hoping to escape the Germans. But the enemy was closing quickly. Lt James in MTB 430 opened fire, with the Germans returning in kind. No damage was inflicted.

Showing great initiative, James laid smoke to cover the escape of the other two boats. The Germans seemed to be put off by this, and floundered in the darkness. Maybe with the element of surprise gone they no longer felt up for a fight. Be that as it may the British escaped.

(This second action was a surprise event that the British were not allowed to avoid. I randomised the start position of the opposing flotillas, with the edge opposite the British deployment being their escape edge. The Germans came on in a position to chase the British, and could have intercepted them, but they rolled some appalling activations after their initial attack and lost momentum.)

So Knight returned home after a mission that initially seemed promising, but had quickly gone wrong. Lt Porter's crew were happy with their sinking of a German escort, though, and organised a celebratory drink at the Speckled Eagle. Knight was happy to join it; he'd been less reckless in this mission, and felt a lot better about himself. Or maybe that was just the beer.

One positive thing was that the repair crews had more capacity for him this time, and his own boat would be available for the next mission. MTB 414 and MGB 103 were still lightly damaged though.