After the great success of our last outing beneath the waves in the Italian Navy, we were raring to go again. Tim put on another remote session of 'Beneath the Waves', the solo game if Italian WW2 submarine warfare.
There was much excitement as this time, we were allocated to the Gugliemo Marconi, the name ship of the Marconi class of ocean going subs and a considerable step up from our previous ride which was stuck pottering around the Med.
Ship data card above. This particular beast has an impressive range of over 10,000 nautical miles and is slightly heavier armed than our previous boat with four torpedo tubes both fore and aft, with reloads for each. It packs a bit more punch than the smaller boat but still carries far fewer torps than a Kriegsmarine U Boat. Otherwise it has a 100mm deck gun with about 120 rounds of ammo and a pair of 13.2mm AA guns which hopefully we won't have to use.
The fairly standard torpedo, gunnery and enemy attack charts.
Unlike our previous run which was restricted to the Med, this boats operated quite a lot in the Atlantic so we had potential missions as far afield as the Caribbean and the coast of West Africa. Once France had fallen we would generally be operating out of the submarine base at Bordeaux.
Once again the merry band of pirates assembled. Mark was the Captain, John the 2iC, Jim took on guns and torpedoes while Jerry was the medic and I was the engineer.
I could only play on Tuesday, but Russell was joining us on Wednesday, so that worked out OK as he took over my position.
A chart I'd not seen before covered the progress of various types of attack, but tbh the combat chart was pretty clear about all this stuff.
As with many toyless and mapless games, there isn't a great deal to see going on, it was all in our heads, but here is the log as far as it goes. Most operations took two months due to their extended nature.
July 1939 to February 1940. Boat launched and commissioned.
June/July 1940, operating along the Spanish Coast. Sank three merchantmen (12,800 tons) and escort, damaged another freighter. No damage sustained, all ammunition expended. Captain awarded the Bronze Medal. Crew no longer rated Green.
August 1940, refit.
September 1940, Weather duty in the Atlantic. Suffered an irreperable engine failure in one diesel engine and had to abort mission. While limping back to France sank one 8,000 ton freighter with four torpedoes. Evaded air attack.
October 1940. Refit and engine repaired.
November/December 1940, Atlantic patrol. Sank three merchantmen (17,600 tons) and expended twelve torpedoes. Captain awarded Silver Medal for 25,000 tons sunk in total.
January 1941, refit.
February/March 1941, West Africa patrol. Engaged a 1,400 ton freighter with an escort and missed. Engaged by escort by escaped without a damage. A trap.... Crew awarded Submarine Badge for three completed patrols.
April 1941, refit.
May/June 1941, Weather duty in the Atlantic (again). On return trip engaged enemy convoy and sank one large freighter (9,200 tons) and expended eight torpedoes. Attacked by enemy escort and sustained damage to hydrophones, tubes 6 and 8 and to the pressure hull. Evaded enemy and returned to port.
July/August 1941, Refit and damage repairs.
And there we ended it with no less than 48,200 tons of shipping to our credit (just shy of the 50k required for another medal for the Captain). The real Gugliemo Marconi went down in October 1941 with just 17,000 tons to her credit, so we are already doing better than our historical counterparts.
As with all these 'solo' game played as teams, that was really good fun and very engaging. The repeated attacks by aircraft and escorts were very tense and felt quite relentless at times. I didn't particularly distinguish myself as a submarine engineer as I failed to repair any damaged systems at all, but at least we made it back to port each time.
No comments:
Post a Comment