The Adventures Of Harvey Knight - 5

When dicing for Lt Cdr Harvey Knight's missions I seem to be beating the odds a little. His fifth mission was yet another convoy attack! Still, in terms of missions it's the one that offers the most in the way of reputation and glory, so no bad thing for Harvey.

With his flotilla now experienced Knight took four boats out, attacking a bigger convoy; four transports and three escorts. The boats were his own MTB 413, Stewart's MTB 414, Porter's MTB 418 and McDonald's MGB 103. Once again the MGB was used to spot the targets and provide fire support. 

Knight sent his vessels in on the centre again. The moon was over the land behind the convoy, so the targets would be silhouetted. He quickly spotted a freighter and, unable to line up an immediate torpedo run, took it under fire. 

Stewart in MTB 414 came up on his starboard and fired off his torpedoes, sinking the freighter. Seconds into the attack and the enemy had already lost a ship.

The Germans swung into action. A transport at the head of the convoy made a run for it, and Knight decided to let it go and focus on the two remaining targets. A Verpostenboot appeared out of the darkness, firing as it came. The next transport they spotted was a Siebel ferry. This would be a tougher proposition; its shallow draft made torpedo attacks next to impossible and, unlike the coasters, it was armed, albeit lightly.

Lt Porter took MTB 418 into an attack on the final transport, revealed as another freighter, but his torpedoes went wild. The other boats engaged the transports with gunfire, badly damaging the Siebel ferry. The German response was sluggish, with the two remaining escorts still trying to move up from the front of the convoy.

However the ferry and two of the escorts had Stewart's boat surrounded and under heavy fire. Somehow he took his little craft through it all unscathed.

Stewart and Porter hammered away at the freighter and the ferry, with both German vessels taking damage. The freighter was already belching smoke from a damaged engine, and more fire saw it slow to a halt, immobilised.

Knight's was the only MTB not to have fired torpedoes. He'd missed a clear shot at the freighter and, sensing that the British might need to escape now, decided to take a wild shot at the Verspostenboot. Against the odds he scored a hit and the escort went down!

McDonald's MGB had moved away from the action now, and headed for home, whilst the three MTB's poured gunfire into the stricken freighter. Try as they might they couldn't finish it off

A second Verpostenboot hove into view. And an R-boat was turning in to support it as well. 

Finally the freighter heeled over and began to sink. Knight ordered all boats to head for home.

The British boats now became uncoordinated in the darkness. Knight and Porter ran close inshore, looking to make their exit past the Siebel ferry on the hope that they could finish that off as well. But the second Verpostenboot, the Rahel, badly shot up Porter's MTB.

Stewart was running in teh other direction. Both German escorts pursued him and he started taking hits as he struggled along the coastline. Things were beginning to look dangerous for the British. But eventually Stewart escaped to safety.

Knight's boat took ineffective fire from the ferry; last gasp of a finished vessel. Another burst of gunfire sunk it.

The final act in the action was a sad one. In the confusion and darkness, the panicked crew of MTB 418 mistook Knight's boat for a German escort and opened fire, seriously damaging it. They quickly realised their mistake and joined their commander in speeding for home.

The trip back to base passed without incident.

Knight's flotilla had sunk three transports and an escort, with his own boat accounting for two of them, and Porter and Stewart picking up a transport each. All four boats had suffered heavy damage, though, mostly from the end of the action where things got a little confused. In game terms what happened was that the first boat to act each turn had failed two activations, so for three turns the British were all but inactive, whilst the Germans hammered them with fire. The damage to Porter's boat had caused them to have to roll on the All At Sea table and fire on the nearest vessel; Knight's 

Results like that should have seen Knight's reputation increase considerably, but whilst he attracted some notice it wasn't the high praise he truly deserved. All of the crews involved had picked up valuable experience though; McDonald's crew may have made a limited contribution to the action, but they could finally be considered competent now, whilst Knight's boat were considered veterans. 

Knight did a careful debriefing of his crews and together they refined their tactics, something which would hopefully make them even more efficient in future missions. The repair yard did its best, but by the rime of the next mission both Lt Porter and Lt Stewart's boats were still badly damaged, and unlikely to see action for a while.