It was our usual Thursday morning gaming session, and being at my place and my buddy wanting to fly Stukas, I threw together a quick scenario.
The HMS Glorious needed to get out of the box, so this was a possibility. Air cover for the Royal Navy Norway Task Force had shot down a Ju.87 on 1 May, as it was attempting to land planes in support of the Norwegian Campaign. I use the WGS Points System to 'balance' the planes, but didn't calculate the AA guns of the Glorious (Point System for WW2 Wings of Glory ).
German Side:
2x Ju.87B Stuka, with 250kg bombs 68 pts
1x Bf.109 E-3 (Non-historical) 167 pts
British Side:
3x Gloster Sea Gladiator Mk.I 99 pts
8x 4.7" QF guns (AA HMS Glorious) ? pts
3x Vickers 2-pdr QF Mark VIII mounts (8x40mm autocannons in a single mounting) ? pts
The Germans came on at one end of the table, the British started at the Glorious, with one plane on CAP and two on deck. The Gladiators on deck would take off in sequence.
The Set-Up:
One Gladiator at the ready, and two on deck on the left, with the German attack coming from the right.
First AA shots taken and a hit, with a Gladiator being shot at by the Bf.109 while the Gladiator takes a shot at the lead Stuka.
Second Gladiator is on the way to intercept, and the third is just finishing his take-off.
The AA Hit in close-up. Mike decided to do a slow gentle turn maneuver, and ran right over the shot I thought would be a complete miss:
Another AA hit, this time on the 'Lead' Stuka. The Bf.109 took a hit here as well.
The last hit on the Bf.109 lit him up, but he toughs it out and does a Split-S to get back at the Gladiators.
Point to note: the Bf.109 pilot had the Acrobatic Pilot Skill. This let him do Split-S turns without straights, so "legal" even if on fire. At least, in our game.
Lots of traded shots here, and the AA markers are about to be encountered by the Stukas:
The AA shots missed the Lead Stuka, and the Winger gets his first hits:
A mutual kill, as the First Gladiator succumbs to accumulated damage, but not before taking out the Lead Stuka:
Damage from the last round had lit up the Third Gladiator (shots from the Bf.109), and the remaining Stuka was smoking:
The counters along the side of the Glorious are the AA counters, in the first phase of their reload.
Two turns later, and there are a bunch of AA counters on the table, some aimed at the Bf.109, and some at the Stuka.
The Bf.109 has survived the six turns of fire, and is still in the fight.
And before we could take the next move, the Third Gladiator falls from the sky due to fire damage.
Both the Bf.109 and the Stuka take hits from the AA guns, as the Stuka straffs the Glorious on approach:
Combined shots from the Bf.109 and the Stuka rear gunner take out the remaining Gladiator. No more air cover for the Glorious.
After two and a half hours of heavy shooting, the last photo of the day:
This Glorious is equipped with a '2-pdr QF Mark VIII' mount just aft of the superstructure, and the Bf.109 was in range. It took two hits as it attempted an Immelmann over the deck. The second hit was enough and we drew a damage chit to see if it went into the water or hit the deck (Special damage and it hits the deck). Mike drew a 'smoke' special damage. Using Neil's [Skafloc] Anti-Shipping Special Rules, the Smoke special damage is actually the same part of the ship that the Bf.109 hit! No bombs, but a plane diving into the deck will do at least as much damage as a 250kg bomb. The Stuka dropped his bomb on the rear elevator, and destroyed it. Also, there was special damage to the ship, but not enough to really threaten it.
Debrief:
The Germans did serious damage to the Glorious, taking out the rear elevator and three Gladiators.
The Royal Navy took down a Bf.109 and at least one Stuka. The second could have gotten away, now that it could change speeds to dodge the AA guns.
Not a good day for the RN. Well done, Mike!
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