Boat Wars: Axis Admiral Makes Deadly Mistake


(Thursday at the 2002 IR/CWCC Nationals)


by Tom Tanner, AP (Axis Press)

Hagerstown, MD Jul. 18 --- The Axis lost night battle. There, it's said. Not by much, but we lost. But a new day had dawned at Greenbier State Park and the Axis Fleet was in pretty good shape. The Axis were ahead 34,020 to 32,760, not a lot but Admiral Tom Tanner was confident they could add more to it this day.

As the fleets gathered for the Thursday morning battle, John Boyer had a new rudder servo for the RM Vittorio Veneto, Matt Moury had the SMS von der Tann's gun pins in his pocket, and Paul Camurati had control of the RM Doria once again. Cameron Moury had been designated Stan for the day and the SMS Nassau immediately headed for deep water while Bill Garthaffner was using the ill-gotten gains from the Thursday grab bag to keep the SMS Posen in working order. But unfortunately the Axis had lost Dave Lawrence's IJN Yamato while the Allies lost Dave Vogtman and his USS North Carolina.

Declaration of war initiated furious combat as individual battles erupted, with the usual fast jockeying for position and the steady ripple of weapons fire. Suddenly a cry went out that Matt Moury's von der Tann had fouled her props on a Hayes buoy! Allied vessels converged to exact revenge upon the ship that had been tormenting them all week. Nassau (already out in deep water in true Stan style) and the Derfflinger Duo of Tom Tanner's SMS Hindenburg (Flag) and Ken Kelly's SMS Derfflinger closed to defend their squadron mate. Serious damage was inflicted on David Ricci's USS North Carolina, outfitted with two pumps and both were pumping as she departed, and for the battle she took 23 above the waterline hits, 11 on the waterline, and 17 below the waterline, or 23-11-17 (funny how putting the waterline in the correct location changes the number of belows that ship takes). The quad sterns of Lee McKinsie's HMS Queen Elizabeth (64-5-9) lined up to take shots on the immobile von der Tann when she discovered the disadvantage of bringing stern guns to a sidemount fight, departing with a number of belows. A ram call and "30 Second Moss" released the von der Tann, who's low freeboard saved her yet again, ending the battle with a week high 1025 points in damage (60-9-4). As Lee McKinsie remarked, "the Axis dogs saved the VDT's life."

While the battle to defend the VDT raged, other units of the Axis fleet were engaging and chasing their Allied counterparts. The Derfflinger, released from escort duties, sought out her natural enemy, the HMS Invincible (19-2-2) run by Brandon Graham. Ken and his young son Kieran, running the SMS Scharnhorst (11-0-5), gave chase along the shoreline heading for the boat docks and the "Line of Death.". The Axis Admiral yelled three warnings to young Graham to turn around but the Invincible continued on, crossed the line, and was declared sunk. Late comer Steve Pavlovsky and his USS South Carolina received a warm welcome from the Axis fleet and was sunk in the first sortie with 7-1-5.

Second sortie saw the quick exit of most of the damaged Allied fleet, led by Dave Ricci's damaged NC. Allied admiral Don Fisher's USS South Carolina (74-4-9) found itself the center of an Axis wagon wheel, with up to six Axis vessels attempting to corner the wily captain and squirming ship (or is that squirming captain and wily ship ;-). Moss kept the Derfflinger Duo slow, but the Derfflinger and VDT still kept Lee's QE on the run. Lee later commented that it's "not good to be the last person on 5."

As predicted the Axis won the battle 8,590 to 6,050, adding some comfortable padding to a slim lead. Spirits were high and liquor flowed in the Axis ports as the fleets prepared for Campaign. Axis repair crews went to work to prep the vessels. John Boyer, noting the patching being done to the Derfflinger, remarked "even (Ken's) patches are detailed." In the Allied shipyards Steve Andrews newly bought light carrier HMS Argus was readied, sporting a rebuilt bow after being dropped bow-first during Tuesday's Campaign, the balsa supplied by Axis legend Carl Camurati.

Target placement and homeports were switched from Tuesday. The Axis were given the wide open targets on the left to defend, the Allies the targets in the bay of weeds to the right. And here the Axis Admiral, Tom Tanner, may his name be reviled for all time, made the crucial decision. Assuming the Allies could not drop all 20 of his targets in less than 30 minutes, he committed all his forces to the offensive - Sink the Convoys!

The Allies quickly realized that the targets, already vulnerable because they were in the open, were undefended and ships that normally would not have been committed to target duty came in to make firing runs. In the confusion Paul "Doc" Broring's HMS Queen Elizabeth forgot that the sides had switched targets and fired on Ron Thibault's USS Witchita, thinking Ron was firing on Allied targets. Paul Camurati's RM Doria closed to defend the rapidly disappearing targets, but the Axis Admiral made another crucial error, calling him off. Soon after, two events occurred that turned the tide against the Axis. First, Nassau sank when her pump failed, then the quad sterns of Lee's QE arrived to drop the last Axis targets. Only 15 minutes of the hour long battle had elapsed. The cry went out to the incredulous ears of the Axis "All the Axis targets are down! All the Axis targets are down!" The Axis fleet could no longer reload. Ships already ashore reloading couldn't come out. As Steve Andrews observed, "I saw two Axis captains on shore crying because they couldn't reload and contemplating suicide capsules."

Realizing his ships were limited to what ammunition they were carrying, rationing was ordered in the Axis fleet, Derfflinger and Scharnhorst were sortied to take out the Allied targets, and all available hands were ordered to assist the convoy ship captains. The race to run convoys was on.

Ken is an accomplished target shooter with his Derfflinger, but before he entered the Allied target area disaster struck - a BB had jammed in his bow gun. Kieran continued on alone and launched a valiant, lone attack against the targets, defended by Dave Ricci's NC and Ron's Witchita. Advised Derfflinger was unable to engage targets, signals flew for Derff to use her sidemounts on enemy convoy ships while Hindenburg took her place. With casual disregard for the safety of his ship, risking becoming mossed and a sitting duck, Hindenburg wound it's way through the weeds to the left of the targets to assault the Witchita and NC and the Allied targets while providing cover to the Scharnhorst as she escaped to deep water with heavy damage. Hindenburg expended all her stern gun rounds attempting to drop all the Allied targets, but in the end 4 remained when she slipped her moorings to join Scharnhorst and escort her to safety.

Meanwhile, the Battle of the Convoy Runs was in high gear. Steve Andrew's light carrier Argus had launched at the start of battle only to have the Nassau engage her at the 30 second mark, then the VDT at the 1 minute mark, and sinking after only four minutes on the water. The same thing occurred on his second run, but the addition of some well-placed ballast (three crescent and 1 adjustable wrenches in the bow to replace lead removed when the bow was crushed Tuesday), the early demise of the Nassau and the Axis ammunition shortage allowed him to complete the next four runs.

The lightweight foam boat Patoka completed 7 (!) runs, Don Fisher's well detailed (and Best of Scale Convoy Ship) USS Hornet made 3, and Marty "The Legend" Hayes' Trader 2 another 3. For the Axis, David Tuttle brought out the beautiful, and large, German carrier DKM Graf Zeppelin which completed three runs. John Boyer's USS Lexington (running as the Italian Lexingtonia and only worth 1,000 points) completed six runs, while Cameron's small Italian seaplane carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi made 8 runs (six driven by Cameron, two by Bill G.). On its seventh run, in the last minutes of the battle, the Lexingtonia's batteries finally gave out. Slow and unable to maneuver, she slowly settled just yards short of safety.

Hornet was in similar straights as the battle ended, slow and even worse, the rudder had locked over to port and all she could do was circle outside her port. Unfortunately the Axis fleet had no more rounds to fire, and all the Axis could do was stay close to keep Allied ships outside the 10 foot radius circle restricted to the lone attacking vessel. Ramming the ship under was contemplated, and faints were made in the hope of scaring the ship under water. As time ran out the Allies were allowed to close and attempt to push her to shore, but Allied ship handling skills were lacking and Axis assistance was provided to bring the Hornet to shore after the battle was declared over.

The score? Allied 19,800 to Axis 14,600. The gamble had failed, and with a decisive Campaign victory the Allies had taken the lead, 58,610 to 57,210. It was a slim lead, and going into Friday's final battle the question was on everyone's lips -

Who would win the war?

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