The Adventures Of Harvey Knight - 4

Sometimes everything comes together as planned. Lt Cdr Knight's fourth mission as flotilla commander was just that!

Once again it was a simply convoy attack; three freighters with a light escort. With the moon over the coast Knight sent his three boats - his own MTB 413, Orion James' MTB 430 and Lennox Dean's MGB 91 - straight into the middle of the convoy. No fancy tactics; just straight at  them.

Quickly spotting two freighters, Knight's crew deftly torpedoed the first.

Lt James launched a difficult attack against the third freighter ...

... and sunk that.

Two freighters went down in one turn. The escorts - a KFK and two R-boats - fired a few shots and inflicted light damage, but were no real threat.

James and Dean sped away ...

... whilst Knight provided covering fire. There seemed to be no reason to go after the third freighter and risk tangling with the escorts.

The three British boats fled into the night, and home.

Two freighters sunk in one mission did a lot to enhance Knight's reputation, and gave the three boats involved some much needed experience. Indeed only Lt Ewan McDonald's MGB 103 was still a little green, and he would get a chance on the next mission.

The light damage was easily repaired and the only really fly in the ointment was Knight's inability to create much improvement in his flotilla's gunnery, despite him scheduling some special training. 

Coastal Forces

I've been churning out cheap and cheerful 1/1200th WW2 coastal forces vessels for about four weeks now. So I thought I'd post a quick fleet review. Here's what I've done so far.

The latest additions are the two destroyers (one German and one British) you can see top-left. They're pretty much the biggest ships you're likely to encounter in a game.

The Adventures Of Harvey Knight - 3

The previous post in this series had ended with Lt Cdr Knight and his crews having a celebratory drink. The next night they were off on another foray. And it was only as they approached the intercept point that Knight began to realise that the previous evening's beer was maybe reacting with the sleep medication he was taking; he definitely felt off colour and really not as alert as he should have been at this point in a mission.

Once again they flotilla was attacking a convoy and, once again, there were three boats attacking. With his own MTB-113 now repaired, Knight could lead his men properly. In addition he selected Lt James' MTB-430 and Lt Lennox Dean's MGB-91. This was the latter's first mission.

They attacked the convoy head on. With Knight not feeling his best the aim was to get in, do what damage they could and then get straight out.

Dean's MGB immediately took fire from a Kriegsfischkutter escort, but there was a freighter just beyond it.

The three British boats ran down the length of the convoy. They couldn't get a clear torpedo shot at he lead freighter, and contented themselves with lightly damaging it with gunfire. Two other escorts were revealed - another Kriegsfischkutter and an R-boat. Exchanges of fire saw a KFK lightly damaged but also Knight and Dean's boats.

The light damage was enough for Harvey, who decided enough was enough and signalled a return home. However Dean and James were still happy to try and inflict some damage on the Germans. James' MTB-430 launched a pair of torpedoes at the second freighter, and almost scored a hit. Almost.

A disaster for the Germans. In the confusion KFK 256 collided with a freighter and was sunk.

Dean and James both descended on the third freighter, guns blazing. They soon had it damaged.

But they couldn't inflict the final hits they needed to seriously damage or sink it, and heeding Knight's signals the three boats headed back into the darkness and turned for home

Two British boats were lightly damaged, and in return they'd inflicted a few hits on a couple of the freighters. Their biggest success was causing the confusion that saw a German escort sunk in a collision.

The three boats got home safely. The mission hadn't been a disaster but neither had it been much of a success. However it gave two crews much-needed experience - Lt Orion James' MTB-430 could now be considered competent - and the light damage they took meant that the repair yard could catch up a little. Only one boat - Ewan McDonald's MGB-103 - needed any attention now.

In fact Lt Cdr Knight, now recovered from his temporary inconvenience, spent a fair bit of his spare time with the repair crews, getting to know them and especially their commander, Lt Cdr Carter Reynolds. 

The flotilla was looking in good shape for their next mission.

In case you're not tracking things, after three missions (and a side-adventure) their kills are:

1 x Freighter (Torpedoed)
1 x Small Verpostenboot (Torpedoed)
1 x Kriegsfischkutter (Collision)

Ten Years Ago - September 2015

Continuing my new monthly resurrection of a post from ten years ago.

I'm not sure why I suddenly decided that I needed to wargame the English Civil War using One Hour Wargames, but I did. And because I wanted to do it as soon as possible I put together some armies using paper figures from Junior General.

I did a few posts in September 2015 showing how I assembled the armies themselves, but I highlighted a 'make' last month. So I thought I'd take you back to their first game. It's one of the One Hour Wargames scenarios rebadged as the first action in a mini-campaign set in the county of Midsomer.

So let's go back to 1642, and the  Battle of Midsomer Barrow

Since that outing those paper figures have seen many more battles and have fought under at least five different sets of rules!