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Article
A Day That Will Live In Infamy
by
Ty Siouxpancic
The day before Pearl Harbor Day dawned cool and clear. Assembled at lakeside were the "Kaiser's fleet" composed of Steve Thrall's SMS Konig and Tanner Thrall's SMS Von Der Tann. Rear Admiral Olson was at the helm of DKM Dungflinger. The "good guy fleet" consisted of Brian Eliassen's USS South Dakota and the author's HMS Warspite.
Team Allies
Captain Ship Units Speed
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Brian Eliassen USS South Dakota 6 26
Ty Siouxpancic HMS Warspite 5.5 26
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Team Axis
Captain Ship Units Speed
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Todd Olson SMS Dungflinger 4.5 24
Steve Thrall SMS Konig 5 28
Tanner Thrall SMS Von der Tann 4 26
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I cannot speak to the Axis battle plan, but the Allies decided that their first target of the morning would be Konig, which has been an elusive and crafty target in the past. It's a slower boat, but maneuverable and difficult to
 |  | | Steve Thrall's SMS Konig heads to the bottom. |
get in the crosshairs. But the crew of Konig was cooperative that morning. Trying to focus on Konig was difficult with the VDT and Dungflinger fully operational and aggressive, but we tried to stay focused. The first sortie ended without any sinks, but all the boats were pumping.
In the second sortie the Allies agreed to focus more diligently on Konig. Warspite went so far as to totally ignore the other German ships even as they moved their cannons into position and fired. Working effectively as a team for perhaps the longest sustained period to date, SoDak and Warspite attempted to keep Konig boxed in and brutalized. Not an easy task with such a crafty captain.
 | | | Tanner Thrall's SMS Von der Tann follows his dad's ship to the bottom. |
At one point in the battle, SoDak was headed North as Konig sailed south and out of the way of SoDak's stern guns. In a remarkable stroke of luck, Warspite was able to engage SoDak's bow and swing her around 180 degrees so that she was able to give chase. Within a few minutes Konig went down.
With Konig out of the battle, we turned our attention to the equally slippery VDT. Within minutes, she went down as well.
The Allies then turned their attention to Derflinger, which promptly ran itself aground and got its props mossed. As the Allies moved in to finish her off, Warspite got horribly mossed - no, twigged - at the shoreline but the Allies were successful and the Admiral's flagship went to the briny depths.
With the entire German fleet sunk, it was decided that they would be allowed to patch all of their damage for the third sortie.
|  | | Ty Siouxpancic's HMS Warspite was 'twigged'. |
The third sortie began and the Allies turned their attention to Von Der Tann. She sank. About this time, Derflinger ran aground and called 5 out of control. Nevertheless, the Allies were not distracted from their efforts to sink Konig a second time. See, Todd had loaned Brian a CO2 tank on the condition that Brian show some mercy. Brian did. Warspite did not. After Konig went down a second time, Warspite turned its attention to Derflinger, but Derflinger was able to get off it's five-out-of-control before Warspite was able to do any serious damage.
After the third sortie the scores were counted and it was a resounding Allied victory.
December's battle was a great learning experience for all captains brave enough to attend. All of the boats performed better than in the past. Piloting was polished and strategies were adopted AND adhered to. It took 37 belows to put down Derflinger. She is clearly a well-made ship in the capable hands of a now seasoned veteran. The Axis put a good beating on SoDak with 57 aboves, but need to continue practicing their targeting below the waterline as the SoDak only had 5 belows.
A quick note about our scoring system. You may have noticed that I stated that it took 37 belows to sink Todd's Derflinger but the totals below show 91 belows. SCRAP battles are a single battle that is three sorties in length with people being allowed to completely patch their ships once they sink and after they are counted. Todd, after sinking in the second sortie, had 63 above, 25 on and 37 belows. After he patched, he was allowed to return for the third sortie. In order to speed up his patching, we told him we would not count aboves on his ship after the third sortie. After the third sortie, Todd had 28 on and 54 below. These are added to the original count and the single sink is added to his score. It's similar for everyone else. Both of the Thrall's sank in sorties #2 and #3. They patched between these sinks. The damage totals were added together and they received double sink points for their two sinks. SCRAP has discovered that this allows everyone the greatest number of sorties of participation and this system is agreed upon before each battle by the attending captains.
Team Allied
Captain Ship A O B Pen Sink Points
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Brian Eliassen USS South Dakota 57 9 5 0 0 4476
Ty Siouxpancic HMS Warspite 25 3 15 0 0 4029
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Total 8505
Team Axis
Captain Ship A O B Pen Sink Points
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Todd Olson SMS Derfflinger 63 53 91 0 800 -122
Steve Thrall SMS Konig 47 10 10 0 2000 -1237
Tanner Thrall SMS Von der Tann 28 2 9 0 1600 -922
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Total -2280
With several more Axis ships in construction by several new members, the Allies are going to need a lot of help very soon.
Copyright © 2008 Ty Siouxpancic
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