Force Z

 

A little background, from Wikipedia:

"The Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a World War II naval engagement which illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against naval forces that were not protected by air cover and the resulting importance of including an aircraft carrier in any major fleet action ... What was then designated as Force G , consisting of the modern battleship Prince of Wales, the World War I era battlecruiser Repulse, and the four destroyers HMS Electra, HMS Express, HMS Encounter, and HMS Jupiter, arrived at Singapore on 2 December, 1941. They were then re-designated Force Z ..."

 

Date: December 10, 1941 (evening)

Location: East of Malaya, near the island of Pulau Tioman

Weather: Cloudy, medium wind

U-boats: 3 x VIIB (1941)

Enemy force encountered: Task force

 

Results:

 

Brains: HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Jupiter

 

CV32: HMS Repulse, HMS Electra

 

TonyE: HMS Encounter

 

Friendly Losses:

 

CV32 (depth charged by HMS Vampire)

Convoy SC-7

 

Background from Uboat.net:

 

"The slow convoy SC-7 left Sydney, Nova Scotia, on 4 October 1940, bound for Liverpool and other British ports. The convoy was supposed to make 8 knots, but a number of its 35 merchant ships were much slower than this. The convoy consisted of older, smaller ships, mostly with essential cargoes of bulk goods. For the first days all was quiet, but as the convoy entered the Western Approaches on 16 October 1940, seven U-boats launched a coordinated attack. On the 17th the U-boats sank three more ships. The 18th was worse with seven ships torpedoed and sunk. 19 October 1940 was the blackest day of all, with the U-boats sinking nine ships. The convoy lost 20 ships out of 35. No U-boats were lost."

 

Date: October 19, 1940 (dawn)

Location: North Atlantic, Western Approaches

Weather: Cloudy, medium wind

U-boats: 2 x VIIB (1940)

Enemy force encountered: Large escorted convoy

 

Results:

 

TonyE: HMS Fowey, HMS Leith, HMS Scarborough, SS Empire Brigade, SS Fiscus, SS Scoresby, SS Empire Miniver, SS Shekatika, SS Sedgepool, SS Aenos (a Greek neutral), SS Thalia (another Greek neutral), SS Beatus, SS Creekirk, SS Boekelo

 

CV32: HMS Bluebell, HMS Heartease, SS Blairspey, SS Languedoc, SS Soesterberg

 

Friendly Losses: None

Friendly Losses: None

No that's the way we like to see it.

Friendly Losses: None

No that's the way we like to see it.

Amen to that, an unqualified success on SC-7. Most of the kills ended up being gun kills, our Kriegsmarine brothers on the surface were somewhere close but I didn't see them come into action (received a radio report of friendly surface units nearby). Now if we can get Brains in on that action.