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File Name: Battle of the River Plate, December, 13, 1939. Historical Scenario. File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 04 Sep 2009 File Category: South Atlantic Battle of the River Plate, 13 December 1939. Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for South Atlantic The Americas Battleset and the HCWW-101110 World Wars era Platform Database. Picture: Source Wikipedia Commons from Imperial War Museum. IWM caption : The German battleship Admiral Graf Spee in flames after being scuttled in the River Plate Estuary off Montevideo, Uruguay. 17 December 1939. This is photograph A 3 from collections of Imperial War Museums (collection no. 4700-01). A very fast and furious encounter between the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine, in middle of the Phoney War, decisive for aftercoming naval events. Good also for testing the artillery. I did played it many times, and the results can be surprising due to the hazards and random capability of the AI and the Game Engine mechanisms. Playable from Red or Blue sides. December 1939. In this period of the phoney war, while a couple of months the German pocket battleship (classified as heavy cruiser or armoured cruiser for others scholars) Admiral Graf Spee had been commerce raiding since the start of the war in September, a very extent cruise while avoiding killing anyone but with no very impressive results. And she's now the only Kriegsmarine warship operating in far seas. And the fate led she to fulfil the same destination as her predecessors in the South Atlantic in WWI, not far from the places where the CL Dresden and the rest of the East Asia squadron commanded by her name-sake Vice Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee were sunken 25 years earlier, almost entirely in the now forgotten First Battle of the Falklands (Malvinas) Islands. Her own captain, Kapitan zur See Hans Wilhelm Langsdorff , a not Nazi sympathizer officer and old neighbour of the family of the own Maximilian von Spee, was himself a longstanding naval officer who had seen action at the Battle of Jutland. Now, after a bloodless cruise, enfaced with a group he think is composed of CA Exeter and two DDs, Langsdorff must decide to fight or to flee. His ship is superior in battle capabilities, and she's diesel engined with more rapid response than the steam engined British ships, but the enemy is faster, and aided by his very numerically superior forces,undoubtedly can speed-up and chase his slower ship at middle term. More informations at http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/WH2Navy-fig-WH2Nav03a.HTML Enrique Mas, September 2009. Click here to download this file

File Name: Battle of the Ligurian Sea, 18 March 1945. Last Stand of Kriegsmarine. Historical Scenario File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 14 Feb 2015 File Category: MEDC 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. Click here to download this file

File Name: Mine incursion in the Phoney War, 12-13 December 1939. Historical Scenario File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 07 Feb 2015 File Category: GIUK Minelaying Incursion in the Phoney War, 12-13 December 1939. Historical Scenario. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for GIUK Gap Battleset and the HCWW-101110 World Wars era Platform Database. To avoid spoilers is better to play first a few times the British/Blue side, and only after play the German/Red side. Image: pre-War photos of German destroyers Z1 Leberecht Maas and Z5 Paul Jakobi, as depicted on the A503 FM30-50 booklet for identification of ships, published by the Division of Naval Inteligence of the Navy Department of the United States and as consequence in public domain. Taked from Wikipedia Commons. A mining scenario based on the 12-13 December mining incursion near Newcastle by German light surface forces in the Phoney War. Both sides have limited resources and many task to do and many paths to victory. The present forces are all the historical correct as I can get them. Are depicted the historical surface and subsurface naval forces, the complete RAF Coastal Command order of battle at 12 December 1939, and the on the German side in the same date the near to North Sea units of Kustenfliegergruppen, Seeaufklarungsgruppen and the only and one Tragergruppe 186 with instructional land-based aircrafts to ready Luftwaffe air crews for future naval use in the Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier, ship who never entered in service. Notes: Some very few British DD/DE not are of the exact time period represented, but almost all of them are historically correct and present as in the operations in December 1939. The number of aircraft in the air units of both sides are hypothetical and not strictly historical. A very few of the German aircraft types subvariants are not historical accurate. Some aircrafts of the RAF Coastal Command are represented by similar types because limitations in the Database: 30xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II. 4xLondon I, London II, Stranraer or Skeeter represented by 1xSunderland III. 2xSunderland I represented by 1xSunderland III. The ahistorical SOSUS or CAESAR contacts on naval units can be considered as representations of SIGINT or HUMINT detections. Enrique Mas, February 2015. Click here to download this file

File Name: The First Convoy, September 1939 File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 18 Jul 2012 File Category: GIUK First Convoy in the Phoney War, 14-18 September 1939. A Harpoon Commander's Edition scenario for the EC2003 Battle for GIUK Gap Battleset and the HCWW-101110 World Wars era Platform Database. That's an essay of building an historic and realistic scenario, and as consequence, something boring for most of the time, with some moments of terror, as in the real world ASW operations, in this case in the Western Approaches. And probably most of the played scenarios will be finished with a draw. Playtesting after built the scenario reflects it is more playable in the Red/German side. It reflects the Phoney War in all his splendour and peculiarities, with though fighting in the sea lanes, in opposition to the calm land and air fronts. It reflects also the very limited UK ASW capabilities at the war start, the approximative initial Order of Battle of the RAF Coastal Command and his historical bases (Most of the Hudson represents Anson MkI, Sunderland MkIII represents Sunderland MkI, and minor types as Stranraer, London, Lerwick or others are not represented, some Air Stations only with detachments are neither in play), merchants sailing unescorted, also is depicted OB-4 (OB stands for Liverpool - Outward (North America)) the first convoy attacked in WWII by German submarines, the great number of German submarines operating at this time in the sector (in patrol from before the hostilities, his number was later inferior because maintenance and transit times), with his approximated historical positions (Including the after the Cold War infamous U-34, who sunk the Spanish Republican submarine C -3, my grandfather boat, in the Spanish Civil War, in the covert Operation Ursula), and also is present the fleet carrier HMS Courageous and her nimble escort, the last attempt to employ the large fleet carriers as ASW platforms ... Ironically, in the Phoney War time period Hitler was attempting to seize the peace with Great Britain, and the objective victory reached by the Kriegsmarine sinking the Courageous was contrary to the Fuhrer interests, and dismissed by him. The represented historical Coastal Command bases and squadrons are: AXa RAF Leuchars EGQL, 233 Sqd RAF Coastal Command (Hudson MkI/II). AYa RAF Thornaby, 224 Sqd Det (Hudson MkI/II), 220 Sqn (Hudson MkIII), 608 Sqd (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). AZa RAF Aldergrove EGAA, 224 Sqd. Det (Hudson MkI/II), 502 Sqd Anson I (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BAa RAF Gosport, 224 Sqd (Hudson MkI/II). BBa RAF Prestwick EGPF, 102 Sqd, 30?xWhitley MkIII (represented by MkII). BCa RAF Thorney Island, 48 Sqd (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BDa RAF Sullum Voe, 201 Sqd with London I, London II, Stranraer, represented by 2xSunderland III. BEa RAF Mount Batten, 204 Sqd (8?xSunderland I represented by 4xSunderland III). BFa RAF Bircham Newton, 201 Sqd, (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BGa RAF Pembroke Dock, 210 and 228, Sqd, (8?xSunderland I each, represented by 4xSunderland III). BHa RAF Warmell, 217 Sqd, Anson I (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BIa RAF Montrose, 269 Sqd, Anson I (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BJa RAF Detling, 500 Sqd, Anson I (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). BKa RAF Dyce EGPD, 612 Sqd, Anson I (30?xAnson MkI=15xHudson MkI/II). Some British DD not are of the exact time period represented, but most of them are historically correct and present in the Western Approaches operations in September 1939. The ahistorical SOSUS or CAESAR contacts on German submarines can be considered as representations of SIGINT or HUMINT detections. Enrique Mas, July 2012. Click here to download this file

File Name: Battle of North Cape, 26 December 1943 File Submitter: broncepulido File Submitted: 12 Sep 2009 File Category: GIUK Christmas 1943, bad day for sailing in the Far North. Picture: BC Scharnhort, circa 1939. Source: Wikipedia from German Federal Archives/Kommando der Volksmarine - Bildbestand (DVM 10 Bild), Accession number DVM 10 Bild-23-63-12 With BB Tirpitz damaged by attack of midget submarines, BC Scharnhorst remains the only Kriegsmarine capital ship available to be utilized against the Arctic convoys from Great Britain to Soviet Union. Admiral Fraser, Home Fleet commander, decides to set a trap to the last operational German capital ship, reinforcing the convoys escort, and using HUMINT from Norwegian agents for request information about the Scharnhorst movements. At the closing hours of December, 25, 1943, westbound convoy RA55A was converging with eastbound convoy JW55B, near the Bear Island area, while the German group, coming from Altafjord, was approaching the area from south. At 0755 on December, 25, 1943, Konteradmiral Erich Bey on command of BC Scharnhorst orders his accompanying DDs of the 4th Zerstorer-Flotille to explore in search of the convoys. Bad transmitted orders, bad weather and bad luck, and the BC and the DDs lost contact one with the others. It's the time of the British trap execution ... Some links: http://www.scharnhorst-class.dk/scharnhors...rnostfront.html http://www.naval-history.net/Cr03-56-00NorthCape.htm http://www.9thflottilla.de/9s130.htm For U-Boat patrols on this date: http://uboat.net/boats/patrols/patrol_1673.html http://uboat.net/boats/patrols/search.php Enrique Mas, September 2009. Click here to download this file