The Sound of Drums - A British Hearts of Iron II AAR

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Would you people be interested in reading a Crusader Kings AAR?

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certainly, I have no clue how to play and eventually gave up on it

I could use something to rekindle my interest

germanicus12 said:

How soon will the 4th fleet be ready? *prepares letter to request transfer*

I am bored with the Italians, and I prefer to meet a nice Australian girl eventually and I cannot do that in the Mediternean sea....

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Probably not until 1942, and I would imagine by then you will have seen a lot of action against the Italians.

rabidveggie said:

Ah must have been shown when I had to take a tinkle halfway through the briefing. The map I had mailed to me a month ago was never handed to me either by my secretary. I promptly fired her upon discovering her error, she was lagging being in her other duties anyways, in fact I can't even remember the last time I slept with her!

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sheep21 said:

may I suggest a fair ratio for distributing the RAF amongst our various theatres
3:1

three units for Home Islands and Mediteranian and 1 Unit to Far East Command in every four produced.
I must stress the need for modern interceptor aircraft to defend the airspace andour interests in this theatre against the very strong Japanese Airforce. Also sending interceptor aircraft will not be as antagonising as sending infantry\armour yet send the correct message that Britain is prepared to defend her Empire and the rights of Empire and Commonwealth citizens around the globe.

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I would say this will depend on what's happening in each theatre. Of course it's important to have air wings defending the Far East and the Mediterranean, but at the moment we need as many aircraft as possible in France and the Home Islands just to fend off Germany - and this need will only increase when Germany begins their offensive.

But in ideal conditions I agree with your suggestions on how to distribute the airforce.

Raisin Bran said:

I suggest a new Dress code.

Let's plate the Tanks in real shiny Chrome too. Not only will they be stealthy the will look sexy in low rider 22's.

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You crazy intelligence boys crack me up sometimes

Hitti-Litti said:

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Would you people be interested in reading a Crusader Kings AAR?

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I would! But you've already started so my opinion's moot.

1st January - 23rd February 1940
The Naval War Intensifies

Mere hours into the year 1940, and once more a great naval battle erupted in the Heligoland Bight. After months of inactivity, the German First Flotte was again attempting a breakout, and again it was intercepted by the Royal Navy. This time however, it was the First Support Fleet that engaged the Germans, Cleric’s Grand Armada a day away. With no aircraft carriers in the First Support Fleet, this was a relatively even-handed battle.

Except for one ship - the KMS Bismarck. The British fleet had no equivalent - it’s largest vessel being the HMS Repulse, an old battle cruiser that had seen action in the Great War. Realising this, Admiral Dönitz plunged his battleship into the British lines at 11:30, sinking the light cruiser Columbo in the opening volleys.


The guns of the Repulse in action.

Unable to strike at the Bismarck itself, the Repulse, aided by the heavy cruiser Northumberland, struck instead at her escorts. By now the Bismarck was under threat by tactical bombers sent from France - very unlikely to hit the great battleship, but they frightened Dönitz enough to pull the ship away from the British fleet. In that time the Repulse and Northumberland managed to wipe out not just one of the destroyer groups, but the KMS Schlesien, one of the few German capital ships available to the Kriegsmarine.

Had the battle ended there it would have been a clear British victory, despite the loss of the Columbo. However the German fleet was not withdrawing back to Kiel, instead just staying out of range of the British guns. Dönitz knew that Admiral Cleric’s Armada was steaming towards him at full speed, and that his only chance to cause serious damage to the Royal Navy would be to hit the Support Fleet once again before Cleric arrived.

At 23:45 the First Flotte attacked. The darkness meant that the British tactical bombers would no longer be a threat, and it was being reported that Cleric wouldn’t arrive until 06:00 the following morning. The Bismarck, supported by cruiser escorts, began firing at the main British capital ships, while the smaller cruisers and destroyers engaged their British counterparts. The HMS Berwick was destroyed immediately by the initial salvos from the Bismarck, with the Devonshire and Cornwall taking heavy damage.

The smaller ships fared better, with Captain Carnage of the Coventry taking charge of their defence. The German destroyers never managed to breach their lines to launch their torpedoes at the British command ships, and were instead forced into a long gun battle with little results. The Support Fleet were saved at 05:45 as planes from the Furious and Argus entered the battle, wiping out one of the German destroyer flotillas but unable to engage the Bismarck - Dönitz had already begun his withdrawal. Cleric was unable to pursue - with the Cornwall sinking and other Support Fleet vessels heavily damaged, the Grand Armada had to stay to protect against a possible German air attack.


The Second Battle of the Heligoland Bight

Like Jutland before it, the Germans claimed victory due to more enemy ships being lost, and the British claimed victory as they had achieved their aim of containing the German fleet. It was essentially a draw - the German First Flotte was able to return to service a month later (though greatly weakened by the loss of a battlecruiser), whereas the First Support Fleet was sent back to Scapa indefinitely, and the Third Fleet moved to take its place in the meantime.

Grand Admiral Cleric would get his revenge however. On three more occasions the First Flotte attempted another breakout, and this time they engaged only the Grand Armada, its planes giving total dominance in every engagement. The cruiser Deutschland and light cruiser Leipzig were both destroyed, with no losses for the Grand Armada. On the 23rd February the First Flotte attempted a fifth breakout, and this time Cleric managed to openly engage the Bismarck. Bombed, torpedoed and fired upon, the battleship absorbed all damage and managed to escape, but only barely. The damage caused to the Bismarck would put her out of action for several months, if not a year.


Bismarck is hit!

Not that knocking the Bismarck out of action was any sort of problem for Germany. Knowing how much trouble it had taken for the Royal Navy to cause this sort of damage to one such vessel, Hitler took great delight in announcing the commissioning of the KMS Tirpitz at the end of February, with it also to be assigned to the First Flotte. There was also worrying reports that a third Bismarck-class vessel was under construction.

Of course, this raised questions in the Cabinet - why was the German Kriegsmarine receiving such support when the Royal Navy, despite some losses, was achieving victory after victory against them? And more worryingly why, after months of inactivity, had the First Flotte attempted to breakout of Kiel and engage the British fleet four times in less than two months? The most obvious answer was that Hitler had decided that Norway was to be taken soon, and he needed to test the capability of his surface fleet against the British…

Nice update

Good to see that the Royal Navy is still ruling the waves.

glad to see that the Royal Navy won the day

still, may I reccomend the fitting of Radar sets to RN ships at the earliest convinence, with those we should be in a fine position to win night actions, paticuarly against the Italian flet.

any chance on replacing our losses in the next year or so. Oh, and I have found shelved plans for the Lion class BB in the admiralty, with US and Japanese BB'sof better speed an armament of ours, maybe constructing one of these if possible.

How are things in North Africa, any new italian reinforcements?

Good show old man, keeping jerry in his place like that. Cant let him onto Britannia's waves what.

Anyone for Pimms?

Perhaps we could develop a Seafire. I hear that Mr Goering isn't to keen on air-naval co-operation, so why not beat them out here?

Darth_Pugwash said:

Nice update

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Thankee, I had fun with it

sheep21 said:

still, may I reccomend the fitting of Radar sets to RN ships at the earliest convinence, with those we should be in a fine position to win night actions, paticuarly against the Italian flet.

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There doesn't seem to be anything specific in-game regarding ship-based Radar other than improving the ship-classes and naval doctrines themselves. The good news is that we're doing just that - Admiral Noble is working on a new doctrine that should see a performance increase of 15% when implemented across the fleet.

sheep21 said:

any chance on replacing our losses in the next year or so. Oh, and I have found shelved plans for the Lion class BB in the admiralty, with US and Japanese BB'sof better speed an armament of ours, maybe constructing one of these if possible.

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The good news is that most of our ships that were knocked out of action are still seaworthy, though only just. These will be repaired over the next year, and we will begin the construction of brand new vessels soon.

The First Support Fleet was only to do just that - support. I had always intended to remove ships from it to boost the Grand Armada, which is why the latter is still at 100% strength despite its own losses. I will make a decision on whether it would be better to completely disband the fleet and shift the ships to other theatres or to construct additional ships to make it a full blown fleet soon enough.

sheep21 said:

How are things in North Africa, any new italian reinforcements?

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Will be mentioned next update

GinandTonic said:

Good show old man, keeping jerry in his place like that. Cant let him onto Britannia's waves what.

Anyone for Pimms?

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Gave the jerries a damn good licking, didn't we? Tally ho, pip pip, my old man's a dustbin and all that lark.

e350tb said:

Perhaps we could develop a Seafire. I hear that Mr Goering isn't to keen on air-naval co-operation, so why not beat them out here?

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Not until 1943, it seems.

well, so far I can say that the war is being fought with the utmost profesionalism and with trade largely unaffected the balance of payements arent getting too out of hand, im sure the Treasury will be pleased

apologies for the absence, chaps, goodwill mission to the US I'm afraid- I know there's a war on and all that, but not that much is happening, really, but good show against the Bismark, nonetheless

Try to keep showing Jerry he can't waltz up and down the North Sea as he pleases- and if that's not possible at the moment- are there any fleets that can be relocated?

4th January - 24th March 1940

They were late by four days, but Supermarine didn’t need to make any excuses for the new designs they had delivered. The new Spitfire Mark IX was an improvement in every regard to their original fighter plane, and the new plane went into immediate production, with existing squadrons getting top priority on replacements. The question was how quickly could significant numbers of the new Spitfire be produced, and would they be delivered before the inevitable German offensive?


The new Spitfire designs

Existing squadrons in France could not afford to wait for the new designs. The Luftwaffe were continuing to bomb Allied facilities and troops along the border, and as such the fighter squadrons of the BEF returned to the air in mid-January. They did not penetrate into German airspace, and it seemed that defensive actions over France came more naturally to the RAF pilots, as within two months Germany had lost two bomber squadrons, with little damage to the British strength.

It was only the fighter squadrons in France that were in the air. LordKestrel’s Bomber Command remained grounded, and there was only limited operations above France and the channel. Similarly, the Royal Navy were recalled to ports for a period of resting after the great battles of the Heligoland Bight. British Command had come to the conclusion that it was only a matter of weeks before Germany began operations in the west, and they wanted all army divisions as rested and ready as possible before the storm.

Reinforcements continued to be sent overseas. The last of the Spitfire Mark. I squadrons were completed to make way for production of the Mark. IX. Crusader tanks were deployed in France, while additional Motorised Infantry divisions boosted the reserve lines of the BEF and Egypt Command. The Peck-Nodikus Recruitment Drive began to yield results, as fresh infantry divisions were made ready for deployment to France.


The Winter War

It was events in Finland that made the headlines though (Phoney War’s gave very little to report on). Of much interest was the fact that the ‘invincible’ Red Army had repeatedly failed to pierce the Finnish lines throughout November through to January. Only with the appointment of Marshal Shaposhnikov and his breakthrough at Kajaani on the 25th January did the Russians manage to break the Finnish morale, flanking their main armies near Leningrad and forcing them to agree to peace on the 21st February. Finland was forced to surrender territory north of Leningrad, but it was quietly accepted that the perseverance of the Finnish defence had saved the country from becoming just another Soviet Republic.

The Baltic states were not so lucky, as from the 24th February to the 13th March the nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were given the simple ultimatum of being annexed into the Soviet Union or suffer invasion. All three wisely accepted the former option.


The new eastern Europe

That Germany did not protest the Soviet invasions made it plainly clear that the same deal that had split up Poland between the two powers meant that Hitler had also given Stalin free reign over the Baltic countries. It was also just as likely that Germany didn’t have the strength to back up any protests about the annexations - her armies were now completely deployed in the west and ready to strike against the Allies. On the 24th Match Hitler gave the order to begin Fall Weserübung - the attack on Denmark and Norway. The Phoney War had ended…

excellent news about the new spitfire designs enetering production.

cant wait till the next update

Phase one of Operation crumpets is done.

Radio message and leaks about the massive reeinforcement of the maginot line is well underway and I have reports of the Germans looking at Belgium.

The British sixth Army is doing its job!

I recommend immediate evacuation of the Danish royal family to London. Denmark will surely fall swiftly. In regards to Norway, do we expect amphibious or airborne German landings?

Amphibious only, we don't think the Germans have any airborne infantry.

That aircraft is absolutley brilliant. I assure the Prime Minister that it will prove excellent againt to Messerschmitt Bf109 in combat.

Kan' Sharuminar said:

Amphibious only, we don't think the Germans have any airborne infantry.

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I see, will there be any attempt by the Royal navy to prevent this?

Certainly during our own landings in Norway the Grand Armada and Third Fleet will guard the Norwegian coast, with the Armada possibly even sent into the Skagerrak Strait. If we are lucky Hitler will launch an attack quickly, allowing us to hit their navy and landing craft early on. After that the Royal Navy in the North Sea should be able to return to normal operations.

The Baltic states probably tried to attack the USSR since I doubt Stalin has an aggressive bone in his body