OP Pedestal forms up for the long, dangerous journey to Malta. Now where are the escorts?
OP Pedestal
OP Pedestal forms up for the long, dangerous journey to Malta. Now where are the escorts?
See you on the Dark Side......
There's a target rich environment !
True, but think how many FLAK guns are down thereOriginally Posted by flash
Karl
It is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he thinks he knows. -- Epictetus
Very nice, Neil. Those will elevate the Malta campaign.
Easy pickings for the subs and HE 111
I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing
I was reading a transcript of a conversation between the Captain of the Ohio and his Chief Engineer: Roughly it goes like this:
Chief Engineer: "Bridge, Chief here, Apologies but that last Stuka bounced off the sea onto the fore deck, luckily the bomb didn't go off".
Captain: "Don't worry we've had a JU88 on the after deck for most of the day".
Before sailing the Ohio had it engines protected by rubber shock absorbers as its sister ship when bombed lost propulsion when its engines were knocked out of line and jammed the shaft. It took 22 hours to fix and she was sunk.
The Ohio was bomb repeatedly and when turning was straddled by a bomb load which lifted the ship clear of the water. The boilers went out but quick work to relight them and the ship was under way again.
Make you wonder what this ship was made out of to survive bombs, crashed aircraft on the decks, decks nearly awash etc etc etc.
Another ship fought off an attack by 5 JU88's, downing 1 or 2 of them. So yes the AA on these ships was important. But sometimes you need luck and lots of it.
Neil
See you on the Dark Side......
Beautiful ships, Neil.
Mine won't be so pretty, diverse and so close to the real merchant ships.
Here you go Neil.This is specially for you with my utmost thanks.
Sorry for the quality of the pictures but the pilot was a bit busy with other things at the time.
Here is your Pedestal Convoy assembled just off Gib, awaiting one more Carrier and Cruiser/ Destroyer escorts to arrive before leaving for Malta.
Make the most of it as you won't see this actual size of convoy or warships assembled again until we get to the
actual scenario in two years time.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
Impressive, Rob
Excellent, Rob. Just excellent.
Got a bit carried away there.
Then Neil sent me all the Pedestal Merchantmen.
Most of the ships will only appear in the usual Malta convoys of four or five freighters with destroyers, maybe a Carrier and a brace of Cruisers as escorts. A lot of the time Force H only accompanied them to about 500 miles from Malta.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
They look amazing all together. Glad they survived the Royal Post, now they have to survive Italian and German deliveries.
Last edited by Lt. S.Kafloc; 02-25-2014 at 15:16.
See you on the Dark Side......
Very impressive. 1/1200 or 1/2400?
Karl
It is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he thinks he knows. -- Epictetus
1/1200, all the target cards are in the ww2/games aidsfile section and include target cards for 1/1200 and 1/1800 scale.
See you on the Dark Side......
What manufacturer are the ships by?
The military ships you will have to ask Rob but I believe they are mainly Airfield plastic models. The merchants are scratch built balsa models taken from photos and any plans I could find.
Neil
See you on the Dark Side......
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