U-Boats Off Messina

Based on a recommendation in the 'Torpedoes & Tides' rules I picked up a copy of Pat Hreachmack's 'Clear The Coast', which is a collection of over 30 WW2 small ship action scenarios, many of which are adaptable as scenarios for T&T. At our club the other weeks we'd been discussing how submarines might fit into the game. Given the small time-scale of the actions the answer is really 'they mostly wouldn't', but one of the scenarios in 'Clear The Coast' features them, and I thought I'd have a go at adapting it.

Of course the first thing I needed was a couple of submarines. Theses were made in a hurry, and I want to redo them at some stage although you all know that I will probably never get around to it. 

So it's the night of 12/13th July 1943, and two U-boats are slipping through the Straits of Messina between Sicily and Italy, heading south. They are on the surface, but once they clear the narrows they can submerge.

But with Germans ships slipping through the straits on a regular basis, the British are waiting for possible targets. Three Vosper MTBs are lurking in the darkness.

OK, here's the scenario.

British - three Vosper 73' MTBs. These are MTB 81, MTB 77 and MTB 84 (see rules for stats)
German - Two U-boats (U 375, U 561). I'll post their stats below.

All crews on both sides are Q3.

The board is 60cm x 80cm (if using 50/80/120mm sticks). Short edges are North and South. The east edge is coast. Aside from that there is no terrain or mines. There is a partial moon to the South*.

All vessels start on blinds.

U-561 starts with its rear edge against the northern edge of the board, 1D3 x L from the East edge. U-375 is 1 x M directly in front of it.

One British MTB starts 1D3 x L from the southern edge and 1D3 x L from the eastern edge facing West. The other boats are placed each side of it facing West and 1xS away (so they are in line-abreast).

Roll for initiative.

And that's it. I haven't worked out VPs for it, but obviously the British are trying to sink one or both U-boats, whilst the Germans are trying to get them both off the South edge with no, or minimal, damage. The British mustn't lose any boats. The Germans can only exit via the North or South edges, whilst the British can exit from the North, South or West. However if a boat exists the West edge roll a D6. If it scores equal to or less than the number of hits the boat has taken, then the boat is considered lost to Axis shore defences. Anything hitting the East edge runs aground and is lost. 

Here's how it ended up for me, with the U-Boats heading straight for the British boats. The British got the initiative.

Their line swung around to investigate the contacts, and immediately spotted U-375. 

U-375 fired a starshell at the British blinds ...

... and this enabled U-561 to spot and fire at one of the British boats (MTB 413 in this scenario. My boats have fixed labels and I wasn't changing them). The shot, from an 88mm deck-gun, came close but not close enough. 

MTB 413 swung around and fired torpedoes at the lead U-Boat, but missed.

(After playing my campaign it was exciting to have 73' boats with four torpedoes!)

Distinctly unorchestral manuevers in the dark, as everyone's activation rolls failed dismally.

U-561 fired again, and a shell smashed the bridge of MTB 430. 

The U-boats began to head south as fast as they could go. MTB 413 lined up another shot. It was at the stern of U-375, but at least the target was silhouetted against the moon. That was enough. BOOM! The U-boat began to sink, and not voluntarily. 

MTB 413 now had no torpedoes left but closed with U-561 looking to supress the gun-crews and make it easier for the other two British boats to make their torpedo attacks. MTB 430 was suffering obvious difficulties from its damage, but MTB 414 was now coming up after having lost contact with the action earlier. 

Another near miss as U-561 kept up a steady fire. 

However fire from MTB 430 caused the German crew to dive for cover. MTB 414 made its approach. But the German crews were still fighting hard, and managed to score a hit on the approaching MTB. The British boat caught fire. 

As the fire reached the bridge the captain ordered the torpedoes fired. Through the smoke and flames they were overjoyed to see the second U-boat heel over and start to sink.

So both U-boats were sunk. The British suffered bridge hits and light damage on two boats, with one of them also having fire damage as well. Overall it was a pretty successful attack for the MTBs though.

Here's the stats I used for the U-Boats:

Q3 C3 - Short, Large, Over-Gunned, Large Calibre, Unarmed (Stern), Secondary Armament (C1)

These are boats with a 88mm gun on the front deck. In fact around July 1943 these were being removed in favour of more AA-guns abaft the conning tower. The original scenario states that it's not clear if either of the German boats had had this refit. The author suggests maybe rolling a 50/50 chance for each boat. With the refit the stats would be:

Q3 C3 - Short, Large, Under-Gunned

Note: In theory a sub should also have the Torpedoes trait, but within the context of any scenarios likely to feature one I think they're probably irrelevant. Add them as you wish. 

So what happened historically? The two sides discovered each other when U-375 almost collided with MTB 81. MTB 81 realised there were two German boats present and got in a torpedo shot at he second, U-561, sinking it. The other two MTB chased after U-375. One had a torpedo misfire and the other simply missed. U-375 submerged and escaped.

*The scenario says a partial moon, but doesn't specify the direction. I used THIS SITE to determine its direction.