World in Flames is the computer version of Australian Design Group classic board game. World In Flames is a highly detailed game covering the both Europe and Pacific Theaters of Operations during World War II. If you want grand strategy this game is for you.
For my thoughts on the Langley I was just working off my memories of reading Samuel Eliot Morison; I just now went through the appropriate passages once more. You are correct, the USN considered the Langley a seaplane tender at the outbreak of war. It was ordered from the Philippines to Balikpapan almost immediately, and thence to Australia, while the other tender stationed in the Philippines lead a more adventurous fighting retreat. So my only memory of the Langley's activity was from it's delivery mission to Java. Morison contrasts the P-40s delivered whole from the Langley, ready to stage from their delivery port straight to forward airfields, to another load delivered simultaneously from another transport, but in crates. So the Langley could still move airplanes (probably on the original flight deck I would guess) and that was another angle to what I was thinking about.
And with a speed of only 3, it is not a very good investment to build the Langley in the game; though it can make a nice ASW carrier in the Atlantic it is not treated like an ASW CV as in the Convoys in Flames kit, so you have to keep moving it out to sea all the time.
Actually before the war…
Langley completed conversion 26 February 1937 and was reclassified AV-3 on 11 April she was assigned to Aircraft Scouting Force and commenced her tending operations out of Seattle, Sitka, Pearl Harbor, and San Diego. She departed for a brief deployment with the Atlantic Fleet from 1 February to 10 July 1939, and then steamed to assume her duties with the Pacific fleet at Manila arriving 24 September.
University of Science Music and Culture (USMC) class of 71 and 72 ~ Extraneous (AKA Mziln)
For my thoughts on the Langley I was just working off my memories of reading Samuel Eliot Morison; I just now went through the appropriate passages once more. You are correct, the USN considered the Langley a seaplane tender at the outbreak of war. It was ordered from the Philippines to Balikpapan almost immediately, and thence to Australia, while the other tender stationed in the Philippines lead a more adventurous fighting retreat. So my only memory of the Langley's activity was from it's delivery mission to Java. Morison contrasts the P-40s delivered whole from the Langley, ready to stage from their delivery port straight to forward airfields, to another load delivered simultaneously from another transport, but in crates. So the Langley could still move airplanes (probably on the original flight deck I would guess) and that was another angle to what I was thinking about.
And with a speed of only 3, it is not a very good investment to build the Langley in the game; though it can make a nice ASW carrier in the Atlantic it is not treated like an ASW CV as in the Convoys in Flames kit, so you have to keep moving it out to sea all the time.
Warspite1
Depends what you mean by whole [:D]. From looking at this picture - I would say the aircraft must have required some form of assembly. Are Thirty two fighters going to fit on her? I have no idea if the P-40 had folded wings, if they did that may be possible but I very much doubt it.
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Now Maitland, now's your time!
Duke of Wellington to 1st Guards Brigade - Waterloo 18 June 1815
Isn't this the picture of the Langley delivering PBY's to Pearl Harbor?
If you look just forward of where the wings for the PBY's are stored for shipment you can see 2 floatplanes.
I would think floatplanes should be slightly larger than a P40 (no P40’s didn’t have folding wings).
All references to Langley’s cargo at the time of her sinking says thirty-two P40 aircraft.
49TH FIGHTER GROUP FORMERLY THE 49TH PURSUIT GROUP IN AUSTRALIA DURING WW2
USS Langley was actually one of the support ships for the US Navy's Patrol Wing Ten. The PW10 War Diary for 27 February 1942 lists the names of the 31 USAAC pilots missing (none survived the War) as a result of the attack on USS Langley. There was one 1st Lt. and thirty 2nd Lts. The latter includes J.P.Martin (0-427557). Also lost were 12 crew chiefs from the 35th Pursuit Group, but their names are not recorded in the above War Diary.
University of Science Music and Culture (USMC) class of 71 and 72 ~ Extraneous (AKA Mziln)
A couple of clarifications on a series of much earlier posts on this sad event. The "junior officer" named was in fact the very senior Captain Holland, then CO of the aircraft carrier 'Ark Royal' and on the promotion list for rear-admiral. He had also recently served as the British naval attache in Paris, was obviously fluent in French and knew personally many of the senior French admirals. The problems began when Gensoul refused to let the ship he was approaching in, the destroyer 'Foxhound', enter the harbour and then refused to meet Holland when he got into a motor-boat!
However what really matters is that Gensoul eventually concurred and even offered to disarm his ships in place, which both Holland and Somerville thought was reasonable. Unfortunately all this took far too much time and the Admiralty (obviously Churchill wearing the caps of Prime Minister and First Lord) instead ordered Somerville to end negotiations and issue an immediate demand.
Having taken a bit of R+R after completing the named German surface units, I have now made a start on finalising the Royal Australian Navy units. The first of these is the light cruiser Perth.
[4006 Perth - by Robert Jenkins]
.B Engine Output: 72,000 hp
.B Top Speed: 32.5 Knots
.B Main armament: 8 x 6-inch (152mm), 4 x 4-inch (102mm) guns
.B Displacement (full load): 9,150 tons
.B Thickest armour: 3-inch (belt)
.P The Amphions were a sub-class of the Leander-class light cruisers, although
some sources state they were a separate class. The main difference between the
two types was the layout of the boiler and engine rooms, resulting in the earlier
Leanders having just one funnel, while the Amphions had two.
.P All three ships that made up this sub-class were ultimately transferred to the
Royal Australian Navy (RAN). In Royal Navy (RN) service they were named after
Roman or Greek mythological characters, but their names were changed upon
transfer to the RAN and they were re-named after major Australian cities.
.P The treaty that followed the London Naval Conference of 1930 allowed Britain
to build 91,000 tons of cruisers up to the end of 1936. The original plan was to
build fourteen Leander-class at 6,500 tons each. However the class ended up
heavier than planned, resulting in a reduced number of this type being built. The
first ship completed was significantly over-weight and subsequent ships had their
weight pared back. As a result, the Amphions were lighter than the Leanders.
.P As was by then standard for the RN, the class were fitted with a six-inch main
armament, backed up by four, high-angle, four-inch secondary guns that provided
the main anti-aircraft (AA) defence.
.P The design proved very rugged and capable of withstanding severe punishment,
although the Amphions proved unluckier than the Leanders; two of the three ships
were sunk early in the war.
.P HMAS Perth was completed in July 1936 as HMS Amphion. In Greek mythology,
Amphion was one of the twin sons of Zeus. Upon transfer to the RAN, she was named
after the capital of Western Australia. She was originally crewed by the officers
and men from the old First World War vintage cruiser Adelaide, who had sailed to
the UK in May to man the ship.
.P Perth was commissioned into the RAN in June 1939, just three months before the
German invasion of Poland, and she was in the West Indies in August, on her way
to Australia, when the RN was placed on a war footing. As a result, she began the
Second World War deployed in the West Indies, where she took part in searches for
enemy blockade-runners.
.P At the start of October, she was part of the Atlantic escort for the large
forty-five ship convoy KJ3 to the UK, during which she received weather damage.
She returned to Bermuda and after completion of the repair work, was sent to the
Pacific briefly, where she was deployed with two Canadian destroyers. Perth
returned to the West Indies at the end of 1939 and remained in the Caribbean
until the end of February, when she was released from duty in the West Indies and
sailed through the Panama Canal for Australia.
.P Perth reached Sydney on the 31st March 1940 and was initially deployed for
trade protection duty off the east coast of Australia. She took part in the
search for the German auxiliary cruisers Orion in May and Pinguin in November,
each time without success.
.P With Italy having entered the war the previous June, and the naval war in the
Mediterranean beginning to escalate, Perth was sent to reinforce the RN there and
she sailed for Alexandria, Egypt, in December; escorting convoy US7 on the way.
At the start of the following year, she was deployed in Force D in the Aegean
with fellow cruisers Orion and York as part of the multi-purpose Operation Excess
(see HMS Southampton). Perth was lightly damaged during an air attack at the end
of the operation, but safely returned to Alexandria on the 18th.
.P Following Excess, Perth had repair work carried out and she also received
additional close-range AA weaponry at this time. In February, she was deployed in
the eastern Mediterranean for the ill-fated Operation Abstention, in which the
British tried to gain a foothold in the Dodecanese island chain (see HMS
Bonaventure).
.P In March, Perth covered the Lustre convoys that took an expeditionary force to
Greece, escorted convoy MW6 to Malta (see HMS Bonaventure) and took part in the
successful Battle of Cape Matapan (see HMS Barham). The following month, she
took part in covering two convoy operations (see HMS Ajax) that included a
shore bombardment mission against Tripoli and was then called upon to assist the
evacuation of the expeditionary force from Greece after the Germans intervened
there, to devastating effect (see Transport Counter 4725).
.P At the start of May, Perth took part in a complex operation that involved the
sailing of the famous Tiger convoy through the Mediterranean to Egypt (see
Transport Counter 4729) and two convoys being sent to Malta from Alexandria. The
Mediterranean Fleet covered the latter two convoys and then the Tiger convoy once
it had passed Malta. Later that month, Perth was sent to operate off Crete, where
she was tasked with intercepting enemy shipping seeking to land reinforcements
for the paratroopers that had previously landed on the island (see HMS Fiji). She
was hit by a bomb during this operation that damaged her bridge and she returned
to Alexandria for repairs. She was quickly patched up and returned to Crete to
assist the evacuation operation.
.P Despite the German invaders facing a number of obstacles, including the
problems of re-supply and the good defensive terrain, the paratroopers managed to
push the Commonwealth forces back until eventually, an evacuation was the only
avenue open to them. Once again, just as in Norway, France and Greece, the RN
were tasked with the job of saving the Army in the face of overwhelming enemy air
superiority. The operation would prove costly but Admiral Cunningham refused to
allow the Navy to let the Army down. When asked about the cost of the operation,
Cunningham famously said, “It takes three years to build a ship; it takes three
centuries to build a tradition”. Thanks to the RN, over the period of four nights
from the 28th May, 16,000 of the 22,000 troops on Crete were evacuated from
Sphakia and Heraklion. The cost to the Navy had been high, losing three cruisers
and six destroyers in the process. Heavily involved in those last few days were
the cruisers: Ajax, Calcutta, Coventry, Dido, Orion, Perth and Phoebe, the
cruiser minelayer Abdiel and the destroyers Hereward, Hotspur, Imperial, Jackal,
Kimberley and Napier. On the 31st May, Perth was damaged during an air attack and
she required a further period of repair.
.P In June and early July, Perth took part in RN operations to support the
fighting against the Vichy regime in Syria (see HMS Phoebe). This was to be the
last Mediterranean operation for the cruiser, and in mid-July, she was ordered to
return to Australia. She arrived a month later and was taken for a refit, which
lasted until December. She was ready in time to meet the new threat from Japan,
following their attack on Pearl Harbor on the 7th December 1941.
.P She was initially deployed as part of the ANZAC Squadron and along with the
heavy cruisers Australia and Canberra and her "half" sister HMNZS Achilles, she
escorted US troop convoys to New Caledonia and New Guinea during that month.
Then, in the New Year 1942, with Allied forces being pushed back in the
Philippines and Malaya, ABDA - American, British, Dutch, Australian - command was
set-up to pool the few assets available to the Allies, and to try and contain the
Japanese. Perth became part of the naval force, under the overall command of the
American Admiral Hart. Her initial role within ABDA remained convoy defence in
Australian waters, but this changed at the end of January as the crises in Malaya
and then Singapore began to unfold.
.P On the 24th February, Perth arrived at Tanjong Priok, western Java along with
the heavy cruiser Exeter and three destroyers. From there, the ships were sent to
join the Eastern Striking Force at Soerbaya, on Java`s north-east coast. There,
she was part of a force containing the Dutch light cruisers De Ruyter (Flagship
of Admiral Doorman) and Java, the US heavy cruiser Houston, Exeter and nine US,
British and Dutch destroyers. Notably absent from the Allied order of battle was
air cover, as it had been for most of the campaign; this lack of air cover was to
have dire consequences for the Allied ships.
.P The force sailed on the night of the 26th in order to try and locate an
invasion convoy, although they returned the following morning having found no
sign of the enemy. No sooner had they arrived back in port, than a new sighting
was reported, and Admiral Doorman put to sea once more. This time the Allied
force found the Japanese and what became known as the Battle of the Java Sea was
fought (see HMS Exeter). The battle was a disaster for ABDA, losing the two Dutch
cruisers, along with Doorman, and two British and one Dutch destroyer.
.P Perth and Houston retreated back to Tanjong Priok and arrived there in the
early afternoon of the 28th. Later that day, at 1900hrs, the two cruisers were
ordered to sea for what would be their final time. Short of both ammunition and
fuel, they were to head for Tjilatjap, southern Java. There were no destroyers in
working order available to escort them, although the Dutch destroyer Evertsen did
get underway after the cruisers had left and sailed some way behind them. This
lack of destroyer escort would prove crucial to the events about to unfold. With
Perth`s Captain Waller senior to the US Captain Rooks, Perth was the command ship
as they began their journey west, sailing toward the Sunda Strait, that separated
the islands of Java and Sumatra.
.P However, at 2200hrs, at the entrance to the Strait, they came across an
invasion convoy that was taking Japanese troops to land in Western Java. The
convoy was defended by a light carrier and numerous cruisers and destroyers,
although for close escort the convoy could call on only the light cruiser Natori
and eight destroyers. The fifty-ship invasion convoy presented Waller and Rooks
with a most unexpected, but highly important target.
.P What became the Battle of the Sunda Strait began just after 1100hrs, when the
cruisers opened fire on the Japanese destroyer Harukaze. They were then subjected
to a torpedo attack launched from Fubuki, but the torpedoes were avoided. The
Natori arrived with five destroyers shortly afterwards, and a fire fight broke
out. The Allied cruisers found their targets, damaging two of the Japanese
destroyers, and the enemy ships had to make smoke and withdraw. At around 1120hrs
the heavy cruisers Mikuma and Mogami arrived to assist the lighter forces and
this enabled the destroyers to get in close for torpedo attacks. Perth and
Houston were running out of ammunition but bravely fought on, giving at least as
good as they got. However, sheer weight of numbers told in the end and there were
simply too many enemy to keep at bay. The Japanese launched wave after wave of
torpedoes from both their destroyers and their cruisers and at 0025hrs on the 1st
March, Perth, having been hit by four of these, sank. She was joined shortly
afterwards by Houston. The damage to the convoy came courtesy of friendly fire
and not from the Allied ships. No less than four transports were sunk by Japanese
torpedoes, one of which contained the commander of the Japanese land forces,
Lt-General Imamura, though he survived the sinking. The Evertsen, that was
sailing to catch-up with Perth and Houston, stumbled across the Japanese shortly
afterwards and was beached after receiving numerous shell hits.
.P Over 1,000 officers and men from the two cruisers perished, of which 375 were
from Perth. Many of the survivors were later to die at the hands of the Japanese
whilst prisoners of war.
Now Maitland, now's your time!
Duke of Wellington to 1st Guards Brigade - Waterloo 18 June 1815
[4011 Submarine Australian - by Robert Jenkins]
.P This is one of the many "what if" counters included within World in Flames. In
actuality, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) did not have a submarine service
during World War II, but this could easily have been different. This counter
allows the Commonwealth player to build a RAN submarine unit.
.P There were three attempts to raise an Australian submarine service before the
outbreak of the Second World War, starting in 1914 when two British built
submarines were transferred to the RAN. Neither vessel survived that war. The
next attempt was made in 1919 when once again, the Royal Navy (RN) were the
provider and this time five submarines were transferred. However, a lack of money
available in the depressed inter-war years meant that these vessels were only in
service for three years before being decommissioned. Then in 1927, one more
effort was made, and two ex-RN O-class submarines, Oxley and Otway were
commissioned. Once again it was economic considerations that forced their
downgrade to reserve status after only a year, and a year after that they were
sent back to the RN. Both O-class served the RN in World War II (see Submarine
counter 4731).
Now Maitland, now's your time!
Duke of Wellington to 1st Guards Brigade - Waterloo 18 June 1815
P Perth was commissioned into the RAN in June 1936, just three months before the
German invasion of Poland, and she was in the West Indies in August, on her way
to Australia, when the RN was placed on a war footing. As a result, she began the
Second World War deployed in the West Indies, where she took part in searches for
enemy blockade-runners.
.P She was initially deployed as part of the ANZAC Squadron and along with the
heavy cruisers Australia and Canberra and her "half" sister HMNZS Achillies, she
escorted US troop convoys to New Caledonia and New Guinea during that month.
Isn't it Achilles ?
Nice story. It is a pity that she sinks in the end, after all what she achieved.
Does such a ship have the same crew from the day it is commissioned into the RAN in June 1939 from the day when she sinks ?
Or did the allied navies rotated crews ?
P Perth was commissioned into the RAN in June 1936, just three months before the
German invasion of Poland, and she was in the West Indies in August, on her way
to Australia, when the RN was placed on a war footing. As a result, she began the
Second World War deployed in the West Indies, where she took part in searches for
enemy blockade-runners.
Warspite1
Clearly, further R+R required [X(] - thanks Michael, I have changed to June 1939 [:)]
Now Maitland, now's your time!
Duke of Wellington to 1st Guards Brigade - Waterloo 18 June 1815
.P She was initially deployed as part of the ANZAC Squadron and along with the
heavy cruisers Australia and Canberra and her "half" sister HMNZS Achillies, she
escorted US troop convoys to New Caledonia and New Guinea during that month.
Isn't it Achilles ?
Nice story. It is a pity that she sinks in the end, after all what she achieved.
Does such a ship have the same crew from the day it is commissioned into the RAN in June 1939 from the day when she sinks ?
Or did the allied navies rotated crews ?
Warspite1
It certainly is - change made [:)]
Yes pretty much the entire ABDA fleet that took part in the Java Sea battle were either sunk during that battle or within a day or two.
Re the crew situation, I don`t know the definitive answer, but am guessing that unless there was a specific requirement - typically promotions - the crew remained the same. In order to maximise fighting efficiency I guess it would help to have a crew and - particularly officer complement - that knew each other well.
Now Maitland, now's your time!
Duke of Wellington to 1st Guards Brigade - Waterloo 18 June 1815
HMAS Perth
[font=arial]A large portion of the gunnery crew was involved in the training of new gunners on other ships. Of the compliment of 682 who had commissioned the HMAS Perth into the RAN, forty remained. The shortfall consisted of new, raw recruits and reservists with experience manning merchant cruisers.[/font]
University of Science Music and Culture (USMC) class of 71 and 72 ~ Extraneous (AKA Mziln)
[4007 Sydney - by Robert Jenkins]
.B Engine Output: 72,000 hp
.B Top Speed: 32.5 Knots
.B Main armament: 8 x 6-inch (152mm), 4 x 4-inch (102mm) guns
.B Displacement (full load): 9,150 tons
.B Thickest armour: 3-inch (belt)
.P The Amphions were a sub-class of the Leander-class light cruisers, although
some sources state they were a separate class. The main difference between the
two types was the layout of the boiler and engine rooms, resulting in the earlier
Leanders having just one funnel, while the Amphions had two.
.P All three ships that made up this sub-class were ultimately transferred to the
Royal Australian Navy (RAN). In Royal Navy (RN) service they were named after
Roman or Greek mythological characters, but their names were changed upon
transfer to the RAN and they were re-named after major Australian cities.
.P The treaty that followed the London Naval Conference of 1930 allowed Britain
to build 91,000 tons of cruisers up to the end of 1936. The original plan was to
build fourteen Leander-class at 6,500 tons each. However the class ended up
heavier than planned, resulting in a reduced number of this type being built. The
first ship completed was significantly over-weight and subsequent ships had their
weight pared back. As a result, the Amphions were lighter than the Leanders.
.P As was by then standard for the RN, the class were fitted with a six-inch main
armament, backed up by four, high-angle, four-inch secondary guns that provided
the main anti-aircraft (AA) defence.
.P The design proved very rugged and capable of withstanding severe punishment,
although the Amphions proved unluckier than the Leanders; two of the three ships
were sunk early in the war.
.P HMAS Sydney was completed in September 1935. When ordered for the RN, she was
to be named Phaeton; after the son of Helios in Greek mythology. However, her
transfer to the RAN was agreed whilst she was under construction and she was
commissioned directly into the RAN with the name Sydney, after the state capital
of New South Wales.
.P At the outbreak of the Second World War, she was based at Fremantle, Western
Australia. From there she was deployed until the end of the year in the Indian
Ocean and off the west coast of Australia on convoy defence and patrol duty,
searching for commerce raiders and blockade runners.
.P In January 1940, she was part of the convoy escort, whilst in coastal waters,
for convoy US.1 that took Australian and New Zealand troops to the Middle East
(see Transport Counter 4728). After detaching from the convoy, she was ordered to
Sydney for a refit, and this was completed in time for her to take part in the
second large troop convoy, US.2, in April. She escorted this convoy as far as the
Cocos Islands after which, she was ordered to sail for the Mediterranean to join
the Mediterranean Fleet in Alexandria, Egypt. At the end of May, with Italy just
weeks from declaring war, Sydney joined the 7th Cruiser Squadron (CS) and carried
out fleet exercises in early June.
.P She took part in the first fleet sortie after Italy entered the war on the
10th June (see HMS Calypso) and took part in the last Anglo-French operation in
the Mediterranean on the 20th and 21st June (see HMS Neptune). At the end of the
month, the 7th CS were covering convoys in the Eastern Mediterranean when they
came across an Italian destroyer force. In the ensuing action, the destroyer
Espero was sunk by Sydney (see HMS Liverpool).
.P At the beginning of July, Sydney was part of Vice-Admiral Pridham-Wippell`s
cruiser force that played a key role in what became the Battle of Calabria (see
HMS Royal Sovereign). Later that month, she claimed her second Italian warship
when she took part in the Battle of Cape Spada. Sydney was patrolling in the
Aegean with five destroyers, four of which were operating some distance from the
Australian Flagship. Two Italian cruisers, Bande Nere and Bartolomeo Colleoni,
were sailing to Leros on a supply mission to the island, when they came across
the four destroyers on the morning of the 19th. The Italians gave chase as the
smaller British ships withdrew, purposely leading the unwary Italians toward
Sydney. Although the Australian vessels was no more powerfully armed than the
Italian cruisers, she did have the advantage of better armour protection. Just
before 0830hrs, Sydney opened fire on the advancing Italians who quickly turned
around and tried to outrun Sydney with their superior speed. However, Colleoni
was hit by a shell that damaged her steering gear, and further hits soon caused
her to stop dead in the water. The crippled Italian ship continued to fight for
as long as she was able, but two of the destroyers, Ilex and Hyperion, were able
to get close enough to launch torpedoes, and ninety minutes after commencement of
the battle, Colleoni blew up. Bande Nere however, was able to outrun Sydney and
the destroyers.
.P At the end of that month, Sydney was back with the Mediterranean Fleet,
covering convoy operations in the Eastern Mediterranean and the fleet carried out
subsidiary attacks against Italian shipping and installations (see HMS Capetown).
Her next operation came in August when she took part in Operation HATS, a complex
operation to reinforce the Mediterranean Fleet, supply Malta and attack Italian
targets (see HMS Calcutta). At the end of the operation Sydney, the cruiser Orion
and two destroyers were deployed to shell Italian positions on Scarpanto.
.P At the end of September, Sydney took part in Operation MB.5, in which she was
part of the Mediterranean Fleet that covered the cruisers Gloucester and
Liverpool that were delivering troops to Malta (see HMS Liverpool). On the return
journey at the beginning of October, she teamed up with Orion once more, this
time to bombard enemy airfields at Stampalia. She was then deployed with the
fleet as distant cover for convoys MF3 and MF 4 (see HMS Calcutta) and at the end
of the month Sydney and Orion undertook a further sweep in to the Aegean Sea.
.P At the end of October, Sydney remained in the Eastern Mediterranean and then
helped to escort a convoy to Crete at the beginning of the following month. This
was part of a wider operation, MB.8 (see HMS Malaya), that culminated in the
famous air attack on the Italian Fleet at Taranto (see HMS Illustrious). At the
end of the operation, Sydney ventured into the Aegean and in company with Orion
and Ajax, they managed to sink a four ship Italian convoy off Brindisi.
.P At the end of November, Sydney took part in another multi-pronged operation,
Collar, that was used to supply Malta and Crete and re-position naval units in
the Mediterranean (see HMS Despatch) and then took part in Operation Hide at the
end of the year. This was another operation with a number of varied objectives
and that resulted in Sydney making another sortie into the Strait of Otranto. She
returned initially to Malta and from there she sailed for Alexandria as part of
Operation Excess at the beginning of January 1941 (see HMS Southampton).
.P Following this, Sydney was replaced in the Mediterranean by HMAS Perth, and
she sailed for her namesake port in mid-January 1941. She was diverted briefly on
route as she was ordered to search for the German commerce raiders Atlantis and
Pinguin, but reached Sydney harbour in March. She underwent a refit upon arrival
and was then deployed for convoy escort. Her war was very different from that
experienced in the Mediterranean, and the following months were marked for their
lack of enemy activity. That changed in November when Sydney was ordered to take
part in the search for the commerce raider Kormoran.
.P On the 19th November, while off the west coast of Australia, Sydney came upon
the German ship. Captain Burnett in the cruiser ordered his ship to approach to
identify the merchant vessel. Kormoran tried to pass herself off as a Dutch
merchant, but Sydney kept closing the range while trying to get confirmation.
This gave Kormoran the chance to surprise Sydney and open fire from close range.
They were just 1,600yds from each other when the order to fire was given.
.P It is believed that Sydney was hit over 150 times and she also took a torpedo
that badly damaged her bow. However, she began firing back and both ships were
soon mortally wounded. The engagement was broken off as the two crews became more
involved in saving their ships than fighting each other. Kormoran eventually sank
but 320 of her crew were rescued.
.P There were no survivors from the 645 officers and crew of the Sydney, which
was the largest ship to be lost with all hands from any navy in World War II. No
one knows exactly what happened to her, but at the time she broke off the
engagement with the Kormoran, she was on fire and seemingly unable to steer.
Now Maitland, now's your time!
Duke of Wellington to 1st Guards Brigade - Waterloo 18 June 1815
Looking at the list of unit counters and force pool. I think there is an aircraft type missing from the Japanese force pool, the Nakijima G8N Renzan (Allied code name Rita). It is a four engine bomber developed late 1944 to 1945. Four were built of which one was taken back to the US for flight testing. Range up to 4600 miles, max speed close to 370mph, up to 8000lb bomb load, defensive armament 6 20mm and 4 13mm.
Looking at the list of unit counters and force pool. I think there is an aircraft type missing from the Japanese force pool, the Nakijima G8N Renzan (Allied code name Rita). It is a four engine bomber developed late 1944 to 1945. Four were built of which one was taken back to the US for flight testing. Range up to 4600 miles, max speed close to 370mph, up to 8000lb bomb load, defensive armament 6 20mm and 4 13mm.
The initial prototype was completed in October 1944, a mere one year after the Navy ordered development to start, and delivered in January 1945. However, the worsening war situation and a shortage of aluminum led to the project's cancellation in June. Four examples were built between October 1944 and June 1945.
University of Science Music and Culture (USMC) class of 71 and 72 ~ Extraneous (AKA Mziln)
Looking at the list of unit counters and force pool. I think there is an aircraft type missing from the Japanese force pool, the Nakijima G8N Renzan (Allied code name Rita). It is a four engine bomber developed late 1944 to 1945. Four were built of which one was taken back to the US for flight testing. Range up to 4600 miles, max speed close to 370mph, up to 8000lb bomb load, defensive armament 6 20mm and 4 13mm.
Welcome to the forum.[:)]
I read all the posts and take all the comments seriously (well, almost all[;)]).
Your suggestion is outside my area of expertise, but then my task is to transport the board game of World in Flames to the computer. Adding new units is (mercifully) not something that I am contracted to do. But the unit data files are easy to edit and purposefully designed to let players make changes such as what you describe here. You could even add your own writeup.
Looking at the list of unit counters and force pool. I think there is an aircraft type missing from the Japanese force pool, the Nakijima G8N Renzan (Allied code name Rita). It is a four engine bomber developed late 1944 to 1945. Four were built of which one was taken back to the US for flight testing. Range up to 4600 miles, max speed close to 370mph, up to 8000lb bomb load, defensive armament 6 20mm and 4 13mm.
From RAW: An aircraft unit represents 250 aircraft in 1939 gradually increasing to 500 aircraft by 1945.
Four aircraft do not make a unit in WiF. (When I clip my air counters, I probably destroy that many. [;)])
Looking at the list of unit counters and force pool. I think there is an aircraft type missing from the Japanese force pool, the Nakijima G8N Renzan (Allied code name Rita). It is a four engine bomber developed late 1944 to 1945. Four were built of which one was taken back to the US for flight testing. Range up to 4600 miles, max speed close to 370mph, up to 8000lb bomb load, defensive armament 6 20mm and 4 13mm.
From RAW: An aircraft unit represents 250 aircraft in 1939 gradually increasing to 500 aircraft by 1945.
Four aircraft do not make a unit in WiF. (When I clip my air counters, I probably destroy that many. [;)])
Warspite1
Yes but WIF have loads of "What if" counters too where the required number were not actually built (or built at all) so that would not be a reason for not having the unit. Interestingly, the aircraft does not feature in the America In Flames counter-mix either. Most likely reason for omission is the age old problem with cardboard games - the restriction on counter numbers.
Now Maitland, now's your time!
Duke of Wellington to 1st Guards Brigade - Waterloo 18 June 1815
interesting stuff folks, thanks. I think they could always use new counter ideas down there in Australia....what fun would a new WiF kit be without some new cardboard pieces to play with?
