poetic with the duke of york and duke of lancaster scoring distant hits right after one another, as if the war of the roses kinda rivalry is still going on in a sporty manner like who will hit the enemy BB first and/or harder. lovely stuff
03:59: If you'd recorded the pre-battle pop-up for this and for ambushes, I'd know who the ships were, even if you avoided or the enemy ghosted you. Now it's lost to history. 😒
05:01: Just like that. [for viewers who are wondering why I'm asking BrotherMunro to record and show all these skipped ambushes I'm the 'Leifr' he just asked to check how many times the Royal Army achieved a conquest and who's keeping the spreadsheet he refered to.]
24:06: But heavy cruisers and light cruisers stick around to defend their convoys. There must be something messed up in the battlecruiser mission profile that says it can escort a convoy but not to defend it when one is retreating. Otherwise this makes no sense.
Poor Dengzhou, such a lousey reputation she must have.
The KGV class battleships have been deployed to the western end of the Baltic Sea to block Soviet access to the North Sea. This was the first battle for the HMS King George V, HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Duke of York, HMS Duke of Kent, and HMS Duke of Lancaster. They were supported by the Admiral class battlecruisers Nelson and Rodney, the heavy cruisers HMS Scunthorpe and HMS Dorsetshire, the light cruiser HMS Bellona, and the destroyers HMS Robin, HMS Sable, and HMS Rapid.
There they were attacked by four Derpt class heavy cruisers, the Neptun, Novaya Nadezhda, Rurik, and Sviatoslav, accompanied by the Vnushitelnyi class destroyer Leitenant Dubasov.
HMS Prince of Wales, leading the battle line, sighted the enemy ships and opened fire, followed by the other capital ships. HMS King George V and HMS Prince of Wales got two hits on the first cruiser to be abandoned, mostly likely the Novaya Nadezhda. HMS Duke of Kent nearly obliterates the next with one hit through the main belt, killing 91 of her crew, and forcing the crew to abandon ship. This was likely the Neptun. Down to two cruisers, the Soviet division leader took both a red and a white rose hit and was forced to fall back. Still the two Derpt class cruisers tried to work their way into range, but seven capital ships armed with 16” guns weren’t letting that happen. The former leader, probably the Rurik, was still the target of the battle line, and took a huge salvo, forcing her crew to abandon ship.
The Leitenant Dubasov got into range to send torpedoes at the battle line, only to have HMS Nelson smash the destroyer. Twenty-six of her crew were able to abandon ship.
The last Derpt gave up, and tried to run. But the battlecruisers and battleships were fast enough to keep her in range until they finished her off. This was the Sviatoslav, which got the one Soviet hit of the battle on HMS Scunthorpe, the City class heavy cruiser, causing one casualty.
The four Derpt class cruisers suffered 4102 killed or lost at sea with another 322 taken prisoner. Leitenant Dubasov had 233 killed or lost at sea with her 26 survivors taken prisoner and sent to Ireland.
HMS Glasgow, a City class heavy cruiser and the preeminent raider of the Pacific Fleet, leading a squadron of seven destroyers with the S-class HMS Sampson and R-class HMS Roberts repaired, the KLM-class HMS Khartoum, HIJ-class HMS Jamaica and HMS Javelin, and the E-class ’25 build IRN Simoon still with her, and the E-class HMS Empire added, ran down a convoy of eight Feicheng class 10 thousand ton 71 man crewed armed transports moving along the Chinese coast south of Hangzhou.
The convoy’s escort was the Huaibei class battlecruiser Dengzhou which HMS Glasgow had seen five months earlier but who hadn’t then defended her convoy.
HMS Roberts lead first division on HMS Glasgow’s starboard, with HMS Empire, HMS Jamaica, and HMS Javelin. The Indonesian destroyer IRN Simoon led the second division on HMS Glasgow’s port, with HMS Khartoum, and HMS Sampson. Sighting the transports, all the ships charged in, waiting to see what the escort would do. Dengzahou once again abandoned her charges, with HMS Glasgow sending shells after her to urge her to leave, inflicting 22 casualties.
The convoy fared much worse. All eight ships were sunk, many before their identities could be determined. The seventy-seven survivors were allowed to take their life boats and row back to the mainland to spread the news that the Republic of China Navy had once again failed to even try and protect their ships. The Republic of China had lost another 80 thousand tons of shipping capacity.
HMS Khartoum had one combat related accidental casualty.
The Rump state of China, which calls itself a Republic but is little more than a client state of the Soviet Union, has control of many land locked provinces at the Soviet Union’s deference, but only two ports on the East China Sea, Shanghai, the seat of their government, and Hangzhou.
HMS Glasgow, famed raider of the Asian theatre, led her squadron of veteran destroyers with two willing Indonesian Republic Navy volunteers on a strike against Hangzhou.
To stop them the Republic of China Navy sent to of their last Qahar class heavy torpedo cruisers, Henan and Jianying.
HMS Javelin, a HIJ-class, lead the IRN Vittoria, a D-class ’25 build, the HMS Primrose, and NOPQ-class, and the IRN Simoon, an E-class ’25 build in the first division while the HIJ-class HMS Jamaica led the S-class HMS Sampson and the KLM-class HMS Khartoum in the second division. All the Royal Navy ships headed directly at the enemy cruisers.
As they closed the Captain of the HMS Glasgow and acting Commodore wondered what he would do in the enemy’s position. He concluded that they should close to secondary range, put their mains on the City class heavy cruiser, and their secondaries on the destroyers.
HMS Glasgow turned to open her broadsides and fired on the closing enemy and got an early hit that wounded 94 men. The two destroyer divisions continued forward, the first division under HMS Javelin to HMS Glasgow’s starboard and the second division under HMS Jamaica to her port. With HMS Jamaica closing in the Soviet Kapitan failed, and turned his main guns on the destroyer, leaving HMS Glasgow to hit the cruisers with impunity. HMS Jamaica took one 7.3” hit through her main belt that temporarily disabled her #1 turbine but her division was getting hits back, including destroying enemy torpedo launchers. HMS Jamaica turned and launched her torpedoes just as she took a solid hit that started her flooding across five forward compartments. HMS Jamaica was ordered to retreat, which would draw the fire of the Soviet cruisers more. HMS Sampson, launching her torpedoes, now led the second division with HMS Khartoum following and launching as well, they then moved off so that first division could close.
HMS Javelin fired her torpedoes but the Chinese cruisers were avoiding every spread, they weren’t avoiding the 5” fire from the destroyers, nor the shells from HMS Glasgow either. The fires on Jianying overcame her damage control, but the crew kept fighting. Not a man of her 1320 crew complement survived. Henan turned her stern to HMS Glasgow but the Captain of HMS Javelin leading the first division was well in range with his four ships. Henan turned to engage the destroyers but this just made her a better target. Flooding fore and aft, with crew losses over 40%, Henan surrendered, with 792 survivors.
HMS Glasgow took 44 casualties, HMS Jamica took twenty-six and HMS Javelin took 9, the price of leading a destroyer division. IRN Vittoria took 2.
The Royal Navy declined to report their estimates of the damage that HMS Glasgow and her destroyer squadron inflicted on the port of Hangzhou.
The Retribution class light cruiser HMS Black Prince, a torpedo and 5” armed ship equivalent to some of our bigger destroyer classes now, went on a deep penetration raid into the Baltic Sea on reports from our Norwegian Allies of a convoy leaving the port of Helsinki in the Soviet Republic of Finland. Consisting of three Imperator Nikolai I class 8 thousand ton 56 man crewed 4.2” and 3.3” armed transports, when HMS Black Prince sailed across the Baltic the possible escorts were unknown. The Soviets assigned the 5.3” armed Kerch class light cruiser Leitenant Dadymov and the Griden class light cruiser Dmitrii Pzoharskii.
When the Captain of HMS Black Prince sighted the convoy he knew he would have a fight. He sailed south after the transports while the enemy cruisers sailed north, attempting to engage him at range. But the Royal Navy has the world’s most advanced naval technology, and this includes in range finding and fire direction. So though the enemy had more guns a slightly bigger caliber HMS Black Prince found the range to the enemy that let her get the most hits and them few and steadily pounded the Soviet cruiser to scrap.
Dmitrii Pzoharskii sank first with 24 survivors of her 600 man crew. When the Leitenant Dadymov tried to fire armour piercing shells at HMS Black Prince the Royal Navy ship closed to present her bow, bouncing shells off it. In a close in dance around the torpedoes launched by Leitenant Dadymov HMS Black Prince couldn’t reply because her launchers were destroyed. Eventually however she was able to sink the Leitenant Dadymov, leaving 191 survivors.
HMS Black Prince was flooded in two aft compartments and fighting the flooding in a third. She was flooded in the 2nd forward compartment and fighting the flooding in the compartment adjacent. She had a starboard list of 5 degrees. Her torpedoes were gone, her damage control and main gun crews undermanned and X turret destroyed with nearly two hundred casualties. But she had a convoy to deal with.
She closed on the smoke left by the fleeing transports. Quickly she spotted the Sig and opened fire, intending to stay out of the range of their 4.2” guns. Sig sank with ten survivors of her 56 man crew. Making only 27 knots HMS Black Prince crept into range of the Prospeshnyi and began to hit her. Prospeshnyi sank with eight survivors. The master of the convoy leader Imperator Nikolai I looked back in despair, knowing that the Dmitrii Pzoharskii and Leitenant Dadymov had failed to at least cripple the Royal Navy cruiser enough that he could have gotten his convoy away. As she closed on him he waited to the moment that her shells would begin to bracket his last and own ship. After watching splashing starboard of him the first hit struck forwards, taking out his 4.2” gun and magazine, starting flooding in three compartments, and wounding ten men. The second hit went through his amidships, wounding only one man, but now flooding had nearly taken over his forward three compartment, with his bow almost totally destroyed. Two more 5” hits and he was taking flooding in two compartments aft and three engineering spaces, with two engines. #1 and #3, disabled and his rudder damaged. Three more men were killed. His 3.3” guns weren’t positioned to fire aft nor did they have the range. He looked from his still intact bridge to see two fires raging on his ship. Two more hits struck, and his ship took one aft that extended the flooding. The fatal blow struck his bridge, killing his helmsmen just as the rudder was repaired. With is main tower destroyed around him, the Captain got reports that all underwater compartments were flooding and they had only one engine to power the pumps to fight the rising waters. He ordered the ship abandoned but got off with only one other man.
HMS Black Prince initially reported her crew losses at 175 but was able to find some men who had gone overboard while she was picking up Soviet survivors and also some of her men that were returned to duty with treatable injuries. Her final losses were 131 officers and ratings killed, seriously wounded, or lost at sea.
The Soviet Merchant Marine lost 25 thousand tons of shipping and 148 officers and merchant seaman killed or lost at sea with 20 taken prisoner, including the convoy master. The Soviet Navy lost 1506 officers and ratings killed or lost at sea with 215 taken prisoner.
The Republic of Austro-Hungary has declared war on the Soviet Union. It’s the opinion of various foreign policy experts that the Austrians would have been better served to stay out of this conflict. The Soviet Navy may be taking a beating but their army exists and attacking their immediate neighbor in Europe might be the distraction of their public that they need to stay in power.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Empire of Greater India, and the Kingdom of Eastern Africa of course applauds the participation of the Republic of Austro-Hungary. The French Republic, the United States of America, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Kingdom of Spain have sent communiques to Austria in support of their actions.
The Asian powers, strangely, support the Soviet Union.
The super dreadnoughts HMS Warspite, a Queen Elizabeth class, and four Revenge class, HMS Royal Oak, HMS Ramillies, HMS Royal Sovereign, and HMS Resolution, accompanied by the battlecruisers HMS Glorious, a Courageous class, HMS Repulse, a Renown class, and HMS Courageous, the class lead, the County class heavy cruiser HMS Kent, and the C-class destroyer HMS Constant, were attacked by a Derpt class heavy cruiser and a Vnushitelnyi class destroyer while establishing their control of the Black Sea.
HMS Warspite led the battleship line, and after a first salvo turned South-Southeast to open their broadsides. HMS Glorious led the battlecruiser line, and they continued to close, as did the HMS Kent and HMS Constant.
Normally, naval battles progress in a way that you have time to identify the ships you’re engaging or the time afterwards to find out who they were from their survivors. If you have good intelligence you may even know who they are before the battle even commences, in which case sorting them out may be the only issue, not really a problem between a Derpt and a destroyer.
HMS Repulse and HMS Ramillies didn’t get the first hits on the Soviet cruiser, they did get the last. HMS Repulse’s 15” shell destroyed a secondary gun on its way through the main belt, wounding 135 men. HMS Ramillies went through the fore belt, doing less overall damage but destroying a main gun, disabling #2 engine, and wounding 37 men. The Derpt class cruiser was abandoned to the fires consuming it by the 155 men surviving her.
The destroyer was trying to close under smoke, but RADAR sees through that. She went down with two survivors.
Neither ship ever got in range of the Royal Navy fleet.
HMS Glasgow, noted City class cruiser with a string of victories painted on her tower, found the Derpt class cruiser Krasnodar in the middle of the Sea of Japan. Each operating along, HMS Glasgow closed until she could fire, and finally got the first hi, destroying a secondary gun, setting a fire, and wounding twenty-nine men on the Krasnodar. Her second hit set another fire on the Soviet cruiser. HMS Glasgow’s third hit penetrated the aft belt and started flooding. Krasnodar was down another eleven men. Two more hits and Krasnodar lost another secondary guns, took more flooding, and lost ninety-nine men. Her citadel was open to the sea. Two more hits and Krasnodar’s torpedo magazine was destroyed, forty more men lost, and more fires set. HMS Glasgow’s 4” guns were now hitting, and the Krasnodar’s tower was hit. Ten more men were lost. More 4” hits meant another fire on Krasnodar. HMS Glasgow’s 9” guns took out another secondary on Krasnodar with its nine crew. Krasnodar took more hits on her secondary guns, losing crews and getting more flooding.
Krasnodar sank with 967 of her 1078 men on board. HMS Glasgow took twenty-nine casualties and collected 111 Soviet sailors from the Sea of Japan.
The allies now had to chase down the convoy. Formed in three columns, with three transports to port, two to starboard, and seven in the middle, the convoy leader was trying to ensure that on any approach the allies would face his guns. The problem was that the allies didn’t need to approach. HMS Anson’s 15” guns outranged anything the transports carried, and the destroyers were able to avoid taking casualties.
Muraview Amurski sank first, with seven survivors. Inzeher-Leitenant Malaev surrendered with thirty-four survivors. Zvonkly sank with only one survivor. Metkly had nine survivors.
HMS Anson and the destroyers were closing quickly, and chewing their way up the convoy. Zmeya surrendered with thirty-four survivors. Imperator Aleksandr III immediately followed suit, saving the same number of men. Kronshtadt II surrendered but took more casualties. Only thirty-one men survived to be taken prisoners and sent to Ireland. Imperatritse Ekaterina Velikaya, named for Catherine the Great, surrendered with thirty-one survivors.
HMS Anson was beginning to pass the surrendered ships on her way to the head of the convoy. Mecheslav II sank with six survivors. The convoy leader, Velilkii Knyaz Konstantin #2, surrendered with thirty-one survivors. Desna II surrendered also with thirty-one survivors. The last transport, the Bars II, struck her hammer and sickle ensign when she was down to thirty-four survivors, which didn’t include her komissar.
The Royal Navy ships and the Royal Norwegian Navy ship had taken no casualties. The Soviet Merchant Marine lost 103 thousand tons of shipping and 396 officers and merchant seamen killed or lost at sea. The Soviet Navy had lost one destroyer and 241 officers and ratings killed or lost at sea. The Royal Belgian Navy had lost one ancient semi-dreadnought, one fairly modern though under armed battlecruiser, and two usable destroyers as well as 1557 officers and ratings killed or lost at sea.
Destroying Soviet commerce will be the best way to bring this monstrosity to its knees. To this end the Royal Navy has stationed a strong fleet in the Baltic Sea with orders to conduct whatever raids are needed to reduce the Soviet Merchant Marine. Informed by our allies the Norwegians and accompanied by the Royal Norwegian Navy ship HNMS Sylph, a British built E-class ’25 destroyer, HMS Anson, a 15” armed Admiral class battlecruiser, with the R-class destroyer HMS Ross and the C-class destroyer HMS Cameron, cruised off the Latvian Soviet Republic’s capital and main port of Riga, waiting over the horizon for an expected convoy of twelve Velilkii Knyaz Konstantinclass 8.5 thousand ton 57 man crewed 3.5” and 1.4” armed transports to appear.
When they did they presented the opportunity to further reduce the Royal Belgian Navy, as the Soviets had provided only one Vnushitelnyi class destroyer of their own, the Garaga, to escort the convoy. The rest where Belgian ships of American or Spanish design. The San Pablo class semi-dreadnought battle hexagon with 9.2” twin turrets built in Spain, HBMS Santa Teresa, the Alaska class battlecruiser with five 9.1” twin turrets built in Norfolk, VA, HBMS Cushing, the Nembo class destroyer built in Spain, HBMS Rigel, and the Damato class destroyer built in Los Angeles, CA, HBMS Swasey. Further the Soviet Navy had failed to fill the bunkers of HBMS Santa Teresa and HBMS Cushing, leaving them riding high and vulnerable in battle.
HMS Anson was waiting north of the Island of Saaremaa for the convoy to exit the Gulf of Riga through the Irbe Strait. When the smoke of a large body appeared they closed on the luckless enemy. HNMS Sylph led the destroyers with HMS Ross and HMS Cameron behind, relying on the Norwegians to keep them all off the shoals. HMS Anson first sighted the HBMS Santa Teresa but fired on the HBMS Cushing as the more capable opponent. HMS Anson put a 15” shell through the battlecruisers fore deck, wounding 37 men and starting the first fire. After three salvos the Belgians abandoned the HBMS Cushing with 117 of her 837 man crew getting off the ship.
In HMS Anson’s first full salvo on HBMS Santa Teresa she got one hit through the Belgian’s main deck, wounding 32 men and starting the first fire. The third salvo saw the main tower of the HBMS Santa Teresa destroyed with 20 of her bridge crew killed or wounded. The fourth salvo saw two hits with one destroying a main gun, 13 crew were wounded and another fire started. The fifth salvo saw multiple hits and the crew of the HBMS Santa Teresa abandoning ship. Seven men made it off alive.
The allied destroyers were still closing, now having only three enemy destroyers to face before they could begin cleaning up the transports. As they closed the Belgians and Soviets tried to launch torpedo spreads to destroy them, while the allies relied on good 5” and 2” guns, blasting holes in the enemy destroyers. The Garaga led the HBMS Swasey and HBMS Rigel, and the Garaga sank first, with eighteen survivors of her 259 man crew. HBMS Swasey was next, caught by a pair of 15” shells from HMS Anson. She sank with twenty-five survivors of her 209 man crew. HNMS Sylph caught a shell on her B turret from HBMS Rigel, the only hit by the Belgians or Soviets in the battle, which caused no casualties. HBMS Rigel sank from two 15” hits but many 5” and 2” hits, leaving thirteen survivors of her 140 man crew.
Perhaps being stationed in a city named after him has let some of Alexander’s greatest rub off on the ships of the Alexandria Station. HMS Tiger and HMS Jaguar, two battlecruisers of the Tiger class, certainly seem to have some. Sent through the Suez Canal to hunt Soviet cruisers haunting the Arabian Sea and poaching our transports, their first encounter was with the Derpt class heavy cruiser Pamiat Azova.
The two battlecruisers found her and quickly opened up with their 13.5” guns. Designed in a twin turret design with two forward and one aft, their forward firepower is impressive. After a couple of small hits they finally struck the forward belt just below the foremost twin 7.3” turret, destroying it and wounding 58 men. HMS Tiger got the killing blow, striking the main belt, destroying a secondary gun, and wounding 79 men, the Pamiat Azova was now raging with fires and the crew abandoned her with 166 survivors out of her crew complement of 1106 officers and ratings.
29:16 what Willis Lee could have done with that battle line…
poetic with the duke of york and duke of lancaster scoring distant hits right after one another, as if the war of the roses kinda rivalry is still going on in a sporty manner like who will hit the enemy BB first and/or harder. lovely stuff
What do mean you're not building a 200k ton battleship with 20.9 inch guns?!?
Well I could see creating a transport raiding ship that had a shipload of 2 inch guns. Those little 2 inch guns just wrecked those transports.
03:59: If you'd recorded the pre-battle pop-up for this and for ambushes, I'd know who the ships were, even if you avoided or the enemy ghosted you. Now it's lost to history. 😒
05:01: Just like that. [for viewers who are wondering why I'm asking BrotherMunro to record and show all these skipped ambushes I'm the 'Leifr' he just asked to check how many times the Royal Army achieved a conquest and who's keeping the spreadsheet he refered to.]
21:45: I love watching the ricochets off the Henan.
24:06: But heavy cruisers and light cruisers stick around to defend their convoys. There must be something messed up in the battlecruiser mission profile that says it can escort a convoy but not to defend it when one is retreating. Otherwise this makes no sense.
Poor Dengzhou, such a lousey reputation she must have.
27:33: Has anybody else pointed out that HMS Lancaster should be HMS Gloucester? Not that I mind Lancaster, that's where my family was from I believe.
27:44: Ah, I see the special build City class HMS Scunthorpe has gotten into a battle. I hope his patron is well pleased.
King George and His Boys
The Times: 6 November 1933
The KGV class battleships have been deployed to the western end of the Baltic Sea to block Soviet access to the North Sea. This was the first battle for the HMS King George V, HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Duke of York, HMS Duke of Kent, and HMS Duke of Lancaster. They were supported by the Admiral class battlecruisers Nelson and Rodney, the heavy cruisers HMS Scunthorpe and HMS Dorsetshire, the light cruiser HMS Bellona, and the destroyers HMS Robin, HMS Sable, and HMS Rapid.
There they were attacked by four Derpt class heavy cruisers, the Neptun, Novaya Nadezhda, Rurik, and Sviatoslav, accompanied by the Vnushitelnyi class destroyer Leitenant Dubasov.
HMS Prince of Wales, leading the battle line, sighted the enemy ships and opened fire, followed by the other capital ships. HMS King George V and HMS Prince of Wales got two hits on the first cruiser to be abandoned, mostly likely the Novaya Nadezhda. HMS Duke of Kent nearly obliterates the next with one hit through the main belt, killing 91 of her crew, and forcing the crew to abandon ship. This was likely the Neptun. Down to two cruisers, the Soviet division leader took both a red and a white rose hit and was forced to fall back. Still the two Derpt class cruisers tried to work their way into range, but seven capital ships armed with 16” guns weren’t letting that happen. The former leader, probably the Rurik, was still the target of the battle line, and took a huge salvo, forcing her crew to abandon ship.
The Leitenant Dubasov got into range to send torpedoes at the battle line, only to have HMS Nelson smash the destroyer. Twenty-six of her crew were able to abandon ship.
The last Derpt gave up, and tried to run. But the battlecruisers and battleships were fast enough to keep her in range until they finished her off. This was the Sviatoslav, which got the one Soviet hit of the battle on HMS Scunthorpe, the City class heavy cruiser, causing one casualty.
The four Derpt class cruisers suffered 4102 killed or lost at sea with another 322 taken prisoner. Leitenant Dubasov had 233 killed or lost at sea with her 26 survivors taken prisoner and sent to Ireland.
Glasgow Squadron in Action Again
The Times: 14 October 1933
HMS Glasgow, a City class heavy cruiser and the preeminent raider of the Pacific Fleet, leading a squadron of seven destroyers with the S-class HMS Sampson and R-class HMS Roberts repaired, the KLM-class HMS Khartoum, HIJ-class HMS Jamaica and HMS Javelin, and the E-class ’25 build IRN Simoon still with her, and the E-class HMS Empire added, ran down a convoy of eight Feicheng class 10 thousand ton 71 man crewed armed transports moving along the Chinese coast south of Hangzhou.
The convoy’s escort was the Huaibei class battlecruiser Dengzhou which HMS Glasgow had seen five months earlier but who hadn’t then defended her convoy.
HMS Roberts lead first division on HMS Glasgow’s starboard, with HMS Empire, HMS Jamaica, and HMS Javelin. The Indonesian destroyer IRN Simoon led the second division on HMS Glasgow’s port, with HMS Khartoum, and HMS Sampson. Sighting the transports, all the ships charged in, waiting to see what the escort would do. Dengzahou once again abandoned her charges, with HMS Glasgow sending shells after her to urge her to leave, inflicting 22 casualties.
The convoy fared much worse. All eight ships were sunk, many before their identities could be determined. The seventy-seven survivors were allowed to take their life boats and row back to the mainland to spread the news that the Republic of China Navy had once again failed to even try and protect their ships. The Republic of China had lost another 80 thousand tons of shipping capacity.
HMS Khartoum had one combat related accidental casualty.
Port Strike on Hangzhou
The Times: 25 September 1933
The Rump state of China, which calls itself a Republic but is little more than a client state of the Soviet Union, has control of many land locked provinces at the Soviet Union’s deference, but only two ports on the East China Sea, Shanghai, the seat of their government, and Hangzhou.
HMS Glasgow, famed raider of the Asian theatre, led her squadron of veteran destroyers with two willing Indonesian Republic Navy volunteers on a strike against Hangzhou.
To stop them the Republic of China Navy sent to of their last Qahar class heavy torpedo cruisers, Henan and Jianying.
HMS Javelin, a HIJ-class, lead the IRN Vittoria, a D-class ’25 build, the HMS Primrose, and NOPQ-class, and the IRN Simoon, an E-class ’25 build in the first division while the HIJ-class HMS Jamaica led the S-class HMS Sampson and the KLM-class HMS Khartoum in the second division. All the Royal Navy ships headed directly at the enemy cruisers.
As they closed the Captain of the HMS Glasgow and acting Commodore wondered what he would do in the enemy’s position. He concluded that they should close to secondary range, put their mains on the City class heavy cruiser, and their secondaries on the destroyers.
HMS Glasgow turned to open her broadsides and fired on the closing enemy and got an early hit that wounded 94 men. The two destroyer divisions continued forward, the first division under HMS Javelin to HMS Glasgow’s starboard and the second division under HMS Jamaica to her port. With HMS Jamaica closing in the Soviet Kapitan failed, and turned his main guns on the destroyer, leaving HMS Glasgow to hit the cruisers with impunity. HMS Jamaica took one 7.3” hit through her main belt that temporarily disabled her #1 turbine but her division was getting hits back, including destroying enemy torpedo launchers. HMS Jamaica turned and launched her torpedoes just as she took a solid hit that started her flooding across five forward compartments. HMS Jamaica was ordered to retreat, which would draw the fire of the Soviet cruisers more. HMS Sampson, launching her torpedoes, now led the second division with HMS Khartoum following and launching as well, they then moved off so that first division could close.
HMS Javelin fired her torpedoes but the Chinese cruisers were avoiding every spread, they weren’t avoiding the 5” fire from the destroyers, nor the shells from HMS Glasgow either. The fires on Jianying overcame her damage control, but the crew kept fighting. Not a man of her 1320 crew complement survived. Henan turned her stern to HMS Glasgow but the Captain of HMS Javelin leading the first division was well in range with his four ships. Henan turned to engage the destroyers but this just made her a better target. Flooding fore and aft, with crew losses over 40%, Henan surrendered, with 792 survivors.
HMS Glasgow took 44 casualties, HMS Jamica took twenty-six and HMS Javelin took 9, the price of leading a destroyer division. IRN Vittoria took 2.
The Royal Navy declined to report their estimates of the damage that HMS Glasgow and her destroyer squadron inflicted on the port of Hangzhou.
Attack on Convoy from Helsinki
The Times: 18 September 1933
The Retribution class light cruiser HMS Black Prince, a torpedo and 5” armed ship equivalent to some of our bigger destroyer classes now, went on a deep penetration raid into the Baltic Sea on reports from our Norwegian Allies of a convoy leaving the port of Helsinki in the Soviet Republic of Finland. Consisting of three Imperator Nikolai I class 8 thousand ton 56 man crewed 4.2” and 3.3” armed transports, when HMS Black Prince sailed across the Baltic the possible escorts were unknown. The Soviets assigned the 5.3” armed Kerch class light cruiser Leitenant Dadymov and the Griden class light cruiser Dmitrii Pzoharskii.
When the Captain of HMS Black Prince sighted the convoy he knew he would have a fight. He sailed south after the transports while the enemy cruisers sailed north, attempting to engage him at range. But the Royal Navy has the world’s most advanced naval technology, and this includes in range finding and fire direction. So though the enemy had more guns a slightly bigger caliber HMS Black Prince found the range to the enemy that let her get the most hits and them few and steadily pounded the Soviet cruiser to scrap.
Dmitrii Pzoharskii sank first with 24 survivors of her 600 man crew. When the Leitenant Dadymov tried to fire armour piercing shells at HMS Black Prince the Royal Navy ship closed to present her bow, bouncing shells off it. In a close in dance around the torpedoes launched by Leitenant Dadymov HMS Black Prince couldn’t reply because her launchers were destroyed. Eventually however she was able to sink the Leitenant Dadymov, leaving 191 survivors.
HMS Black Prince was flooded in two aft compartments and fighting the flooding in a third. She was flooded in the 2nd forward compartment and fighting the flooding in the compartment adjacent. She had a starboard list of 5 degrees. Her torpedoes were gone, her damage control and main gun crews undermanned and X turret destroyed with nearly two hundred casualties. But she had a convoy to deal with.
She closed on the smoke left by the fleeing transports. Quickly she spotted the Sig and opened fire, intending to stay out of the range of their 4.2” guns. Sig sank with ten survivors of her 56 man crew. Making only 27 knots HMS Black Prince crept into range of the Prospeshnyi and began to hit her. Prospeshnyi sank with eight survivors. The master of the convoy leader Imperator Nikolai I looked back in despair, knowing that the Dmitrii Pzoharskii and Leitenant Dadymov had failed to at least cripple the Royal Navy cruiser enough that he could have gotten his convoy away. As she closed on him he waited to the moment that her shells would begin to bracket his last and own ship. After watching splashing starboard of him the first hit struck forwards, taking out his 4.2” gun and magazine, starting flooding in three compartments, and wounding ten men. The second hit went through his amidships, wounding only one man, but now flooding had nearly taken over his forward three compartment, with his bow almost totally destroyed. Two more 5” hits and he was taking flooding in two compartments aft and three engineering spaces, with two engines. #1 and #3, disabled and his rudder damaged. Three more men were killed. His 3.3” guns weren’t positioned to fire aft nor did they have the range. He looked from his still intact bridge to see two fires raging on his ship. Two more hits struck, and his ship took one aft that extended the flooding. The fatal blow struck his bridge, killing his helmsmen just as the rudder was repaired. With is main tower destroyed around him, the Captain got reports that all underwater compartments were flooding and they had only one engine to power the pumps to fight the rising waters. He ordered the ship abandoned but got off with only one other man.
HMS Black Prince initially reported her crew losses at 175 but was able to find some men who had gone overboard while she was picking up Soviet survivors and also some of her men that were returned to duty with treatable injuries. Her final losses were 131 officers and ratings killed, seriously wounded, or lost at sea.
The Soviet Merchant Marine lost 25 thousand tons of shipping and 148 officers and merchant seaman killed or lost at sea with 20 taken prisoner, including the convoy master. The Soviet Navy lost 1506 officers and ratings killed or lost at sea with 215 taken prisoner.
Austro-Hungary Should have Stayed Out of It
The Times: 13 September 1933
The Republic of Austro-Hungary has declared war on the Soviet Union. It’s the opinion of various foreign policy experts that the Austrians would have been better served to stay out of this conflict. The Soviet Navy may be taking a beating but their army exists and attacking their immediate neighbor in Europe might be the distraction of their public that they need to stay in power.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Empire of Greater India, and the Kingdom of Eastern Africa of course applauds the participation of the Republic of Austro-Hungary. The French Republic, the United States of America, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Kingdom of Spain have sent communiques to Austria in support of their actions.
The Asian powers, strangely, support the Soviet Union.
Brave Little Derpt
The Times: 8 September 1933
The super dreadnoughts HMS Warspite, a Queen Elizabeth class, and four Revenge class, HMS Royal Oak, HMS Ramillies, HMS Royal Sovereign, and HMS Resolution, accompanied by the battlecruisers HMS Glorious, a Courageous class, HMS Repulse, a Renown class, and HMS Courageous, the class lead, the County class heavy cruiser HMS Kent, and the C-class destroyer HMS Constant, were attacked by a Derpt class heavy cruiser and a Vnushitelnyi class destroyer while establishing their control of the Black Sea.
HMS Warspite led the battleship line, and after a first salvo turned South-Southeast to open their broadsides. HMS Glorious led the battlecruiser line, and they continued to close, as did the HMS Kent and HMS Constant.
Normally, naval battles progress in a way that you have time to identify the ships you’re engaging or the time afterwards to find out who they were from their survivors. If you have good intelligence you may even know who they are before the battle even commences, in which case sorting them out may be the only issue, not really a problem between a Derpt and a destroyer.
HMS Repulse and HMS Ramillies didn’t get the first hits on the Soviet cruiser, they did get the last. HMS Repulse’s 15” shell destroyed a secondary gun on its way through the main belt, wounding 135 men. HMS Ramillies went through the fore belt, doing less overall damage but destroying a main gun, disabling #2 engine, and wounding 37 men. The Derpt class cruiser was abandoned to the fires consuming it by the 155 men surviving her.
The destroyer was trying to close under smoke, but RADAR sees through that. She went down with two survivors.
Neither ship ever got in range of the Royal Navy fleet.
Cruiser Duel in the Sea of Japan
The Times: 27 November 1933
HMS Glasgow, noted City class cruiser with a string of victories painted on her tower, found the Derpt class cruiser Krasnodar in the middle of the Sea of Japan. Each operating along, HMS Glasgow closed until she could fire, and finally got the first hi, destroying a secondary gun, setting a fire, and wounding twenty-nine men on the Krasnodar. Her second hit set another fire on the Soviet cruiser. HMS Glasgow’s third hit penetrated the aft belt and started flooding. Krasnodar was down another eleven men. Two more hits and Krasnodar lost another secondary guns, took more flooding, and lost ninety-nine men. Her citadel was open to the sea. Two more hits and Krasnodar’s torpedo magazine was destroyed, forty more men lost, and more fires set. HMS Glasgow’s 4” guns were now hitting, and the Krasnodar’s tower was hit. Ten more men were lost. More 4” hits meant another fire on Krasnodar. HMS Glasgow’s 9” guns took out another secondary on Krasnodar with its nine crew. Krasnodar took more hits on her secondary guns, losing crews and getting more flooding.
Krasnodar sank with 967 of her 1078 men on board. HMS Glasgow took twenty-nine casualties and collected 111 Soviet sailors from the Sea of Japan.
Striking at Riga, Striking at Belgium, Part 2
The Times: 24 November 1933
Commerce Warfare
The allies now had to chase down the convoy. Formed in three columns, with three transports to port, two to starboard, and seven in the middle, the convoy leader was trying to ensure that on any approach the allies would face his guns. The problem was that the allies didn’t need to approach. HMS Anson’s 15” guns outranged anything the transports carried, and the destroyers were able to avoid taking casualties.
Muraview Amurski sank first, with seven survivors. Inzeher-Leitenant Malaev surrendered with thirty-four survivors. Zvonkly sank with only one survivor. Metkly had nine survivors.
HMS Anson and the destroyers were closing quickly, and chewing their way up the convoy. Zmeya surrendered with thirty-four survivors. Imperator Aleksandr III immediately followed suit, saving the same number of men. Kronshtadt II surrendered but took more casualties. Only thirty-one men survived to be taken prisoners and sent to Ireland. Imperatritse Ekaterina Velikaya, named for Catherine the Great, surrendered with thirty-one survivors.
HMS Anson was beginning to pass the surrendered ships on her way to the head of the convoy. Mecheslav II sank with six survivors. The convoy leader, Velilkii Knyaz Konstantin #2, surrendered with thirty-one survivors. Desna II surrendered also with thirty-one survivors. The last transport, the Bars II, struck her hammer and sickle ensign when she was down to thirty-four survivors, which didn’t include her komissar.
The Royal Navy ships and the Royal Norwegian Navy ship had taken no casualties. The Soviet Merchant Marine lost 103 thousand tons of shipping and 396 officers and merchant seamen killed or lost at sea. The Soviet Navy had lost one destroyer and 241 officers and ratings killed or lost at sea. The Royal Belgian Navy had lost one ancient semi-dreadnought, one fairly modern though under armed battlecruiser, and two usable destroyers as well as 1557 officers and ratings killed or lost at sea.
Striking at Riga, Striking at Belgium, Part 1
The Times: 24 November 1933
Warships Battle
Destroying Soviet commerce will be the best way to bring this monstrosity to its knees. To this end the Royal Navy has stationed a strong fleet in the Baltic Sea with orders to conduct whatever raids are needed to reduce the Soviet Merchant Marine. Informed by our allies the Norwegians and accompanied by the Royal Norwegian Navy ship HNMS Sylph, a British built E-class ’25 destroyer, HMS Anson, a 15” armed Admiral class battlecruiser, with the R-class destroyer HMS Ross and the C-class destroyer HMS Cameron, cruised off the Latvian Soviet Republic’s capital and main port of Riga, waiting over the horizon for an expected convoy of twelve Velilkii Knyaz Konstantinclass 8.5 thousand ton 57 man crewed 3.5” and 1.4” armed transports to appear.
When they did they presented the opportunity to further reduce the Royal Belgian Navy, as the Soviets had provided only one Vnushitelnyi class destroyer of their own, the Garaga, to escort the convoy. The rest where Belgian ships of American or Spanish design. The San Pablo class semi-dreadnought battle hexagon with 9.2” twin turrets built in Spain, HBMS Santa Teresa, the Alaska class battlecruiser with five 9.1” twin turrets built in Norfolk, VA, HBMS Cushing, the Nembo class destroyer built in Spain, HBMS Rigel, and the Damato class destroyer built in Los Angeles, CA, HBMS Swasey. Further the Soviet Navy had failed to fill the bunkers of HBMS Santa Teresa and HBMS Cushing, leaving them riding high and vulnerable in battle.
HMS Anson was waiting north of the Island of Saaremaa for the convoy to exit the Gulf of Riga through the Irbe Strait. When the smoke of a large body appeared they closed on the luckless enemy. HNMS Sylph led the destroyers with HMS Ross and HMS Cameron behind, relying on the Norwegians to keep them all off the shoals. HMS Anson first sighted the HBMS Santa Teresa but fired on the HBMS Cushing as the more capable opponent. HMS Anson put a 15” shell through the battlecruisers fore deck, wounding 37 men and starting the first fire. After three salvos the Belgians abandoned the HBMS Cushing with 117 of her 837 man crew getting off the ship.
In HMS Anson’s first full salvo on HBMS Santa Teresa she got one hit through the Belgian’s main deck, wounding 32 men and starting the first fire. The third salvo saw the main tower of the HBMS Santa Teresa destroyed with 20 of her bridge crew killed or wounded. The fourth salvo saw two hits with one destroying a main gun, 13 crew were wounded and another fire started. The fifth salvo saw multiple hits and the crew of the HBMS Santa Teresa abandoning ship. Seven men made it off alive.
The allied destroyers were still closing, now having only three enemy destroyers to face before they could begin cleaning up the transports. As they closed the Belgians and Soviets tried to launch torpedo spreads to destroy them, while the allies relied on good 5” and 2” guns, blasting holes in the enemy destroyers. The Garaga led the HBMS Swasey and HBMS Rigel, and the Garaga sank first, with eighteen survivors of her 259 man crew. HBMS Swasey was next, caught by a pair of 15” shells from HMS Anson. She sank with twenty-five survivors of her 209 man crew. HNMS Sylph caught a shell on her B turret from HBMS Rigel, the only hit by the Belgians or Soviets in the battle, which caused no casualties. HBMS Rigel sank from two 15” hits but many 5” and 2” hits, leaving thirteen survivors of her 140 man crew.
Success Out of Alexandria
The Times: 15 November 1933
Perhaps being stationed in a city named after him has let some of Alexander’s greatest rub off on the ships of the Alexandria Station. HMS Tiger and HMS Jaguar, two battlecruisers of the Tiger class, certainly seem to have some. Sent through the Suez Canal to hunt Soviet cruisers haunting the Arabian Sea and poaching our transports, their first encounter was with the Derpt class heavy cruiser Pamiat Azova.
The two battlecruisers found her and quickly opened up with their 13.5” guns. Designed in a twin turret design with two forward and one aft, their forward firepower is impressive. After a couple of small hits they finally struck the forward belt just below the foremost twin 7.3” turret, destroying it and wounding 58 men. HMS Tiger got the killing blow, striking the main belt, destroying a secondary gun, and wounding 79 men, the Pamiat Azova was now raging with fires and the crew abandoned her with 166 survivors out of her crew complement of 1106 officers and ratings.