About This File
Battle of the Ligurian Sea, 18 March 1945. Last Stand of Kriegsmarine. Historical Scenario.
A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for the Mediterranean Battleset and the HCWW-101110 World Wars era Platform Database. To avoid spoilers is better to play first a few times the Allied/Blue side, and only after play the German/Red side.
Image: Camouflaged Yugoslavian destroyers Dubrovnik (left, then Italian Premuda), and Beograd (then Italian Sebenico), probably at Bocche di Cattaro (Montenegro) after their capture by Italian forces on 17 April 1941. Origin: taked from Wikipedia Commons and from Propagandakompanien der Wehrmacht - Heer und Luftwaffe (Bild 101 I) and German Federal Archives.
Battle of the Ligurian Sea was a small little known naval battle, last surface battle of Kriegsmarine executed by the last elements of Kriegsmarine's 10th Torpedo Boat Flotilla, composed by previously captured foreign warships of diverse origin, and fought near places with one of the world older naval history recorded,
Returning to Genoa after a minelaying action near Cap Corse and Gorgona Island, the small German force was surprised and attacked by marauding Allied light units.
Some months before, on 2 October 1944, the same German flotilla and ships encountered USS Gleaves (DD-423) in a similar minelaying mission towards San Remo (now Sanremo) but they did avoid contact and returned to Genoa undamaged, and this ill-fated encounter is depicted as the labelled LIGURIAN44 bonus scenario.
Both mini-scenarios are introductory scenarios or historical representations more than full-scale scenarios (but probably addictive on his simplicity).
Enrique Mas, February 2015.