Rule The Waves 3 - A Graphical Experiment - Complete

How should we fight this war? Focus on the Mediterranean - the British can manage the North Sea

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Focused War
With the Germans immediately under close blockade by British forces now that we have freed them from some of their responsibilities in the Mediterranean, we are in turn able to move more forces into the Med to contain and corral the Italian threat. The Bearn transits the straits of Gibraltar under closer escort, watchful for Italian submarine packs.

We receive word of an Italian invasion force approaching Greece and make the hard decision to allow them to land unopposed. They would have been able to put prodigious forces into supporting the action, and if we attempted to fight them we risk losing significant fleet assets without significant return. Several days later, however, we are able to ambush a Super Cruiser sailing with a small escort, a pair of surface action groups closing on the enemy as night falls before unleashing a huge proportion of their missile stocks.

The enemy replies as viciously, spitting SSM's so fast it could be mistaken for rainfall. Radar identifies two enemy ships as carriers, which our intelligence reports did not indicate would be in the area, and so our two protected cruisers Isly and Alger unleash their full force against those targets. Close enough now to utilise them, SAM launchers go into work as ad-hoc anti-surface launchers, firing their interceptor missiles against enemy ships. The Alger group loses contact with the enemy, but the Suchet group presses the attack until they close to torpedo range. The Italian ship Muzio Attendolo is reportedly hit twice by missiles during the close action.
It is not all victorious. Suchet is hit by a torpedo but sets a course for port and returns home. Our forces disengage from the enemy and begin the return home, leaving the clean up to the air power. While the after action report indicates that we did not intercept the Super Cruiser, we did at least sink a cruiser and four destroyers of various sizes, a fair turnaround for our chances in the war.

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Choices Made
We are presented with another opportunity to sink large Italian forces as we come to the aid of a merchant convoy moving between the Greek islands. The Italians manage to make the first attack, locking up Alger even as she sails into the combat area, but it is reportedly an Italian Armoured Cruiser that receives the first hit. Night falls again, lit by rocket plumes and flare launchers. A heavy SSM hits Alger just below her SAM launcher, detonating a missile on the rail and starting a fire. A second penetrates her engine spaces, slowing her significantly. We detach her and hope she can return home.

Isly comes under enemy gunfire unsupported, and Captain Deramond calmly notes that the Italians were only supposed to have a single heavy ship in the area. Despite taking hard hits, one of which ruins the ships turbines, Deramond calmly orders the Isly to close with the convoy and provide close support. She empties her missile magazine long before any of her allies do, a clear sign of her hard fighting.

The enemy turns away, and that's when our air power pounces, LeO.313's out of Heraklion launching missiles at long range under the cover of night. An Armoured Cruiser is set aflame by mixed missile attacks. Then, an hour after last contact, radar reports a Super Cruiser closing to within fifteen kilometres of the convoy. She is in turn set aflame, attacked repeatedly by missiles, before the French forces switch targets for what appears to be a battleship! Eventually the only SAM available to the convoy is aboard the Kabyle, a Poignard-class destroyer, all other ships having expended their entire stocks.

The After Action report tells the full story, once information is gathered from source in Italy. The convoy was not attacked by a single Armoured Cruiser and support - it was attacked by four Armoured Cruisers, two protected cruisers and a broad squadron of destroyers. While the Alger will be sorely missed, we sank the Paolo Emilio, a remarkable Armoured Cruiser, four destroyers and did heavy damage to the entire surface group. The willingness of Captain Deramond to empty his ships magazines is considered the lynchpin of the battle, and is certainly a contributor to the survival of vital war supplies.
Some commentators are calling this the end of the naval gun - if a cruiser armed with twelve 250mm rifles can be sunk by a cruiser a third of its tonnage, with no real guns to speak of, then what use are those guns?

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Shifting Power
We move some air power around, bringing an extra fifty of our swing-wing air superiority fighter into the region to better support the naval strike fighters we are already operating in great numbers. We haven't had much issue with Italian air power yet - their surface forces being more than enough to give us trouble thus far - but we want to be ready for just such a circumstance. Plus, if we don't see the vaunted Italian fighters, those jets are also well suited for launching long range missile attacks.

We also order the construction of a new MTB squadron for Durazzo, equipped with modern SSM's which can hopefully support any fighting in the vicinity. We would have liked to equip one in Greece proper, but the Italian invasion forces are holding the coastal waters of the West Coast very closely.

Our intelligence systems are clearly faulty - How do we prosecute this war?
[ ] Only engage where we have clear superiority and air support.
[ ] Take battles we can seemingly win, even if our reports are wrong.
[ ] We are winning - deny as much combat as possible and leave the war to our submarines.
[ ] Something else - write in.

Our intelligence systems are clearly faulty - How do we prosecute this war? We are winning - deny as much combat as possible and leave the war to our submarines.

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Submariners War
With the Germans under blockade and our intelligence and reconnaissance in the Med faulty, we pull back our forces and order our surface groups to only prosecute actions where they are absolutely certain of their superiority. Our submariners will to the lions share of the fighting for now. Unfortunately, days after this order is given, a cruiser group (Jean Bart, Troude, Forbin) are ambushed by enemy forces while transiting around the coast of Crete. With dawn rapidly approaching, a flying boat reports an Italian carrier group south of Krios. Captain Douzans, commanding the combined surface force, orders a turn about and a return to the port defences at Heraklion if possible.

By the time Douzans and his action group have rounded the Eastern tip of Crete, Heraklion is already under attack. Italian jets conduct low level bombing sweeps, striking hangered aircraft and air search radars in their first attacks. At the same time, a combined raid of eighteen jets out of Heraklion find the enemy forces and begin their own attack. Dodging SAM launches and evading exploding shells they fire their own missiles down at the enemy fleet. At least four hits are reported before the strike group begins the return leg of their journey. In turn, enemy jets arrive over Douzans' group and the ships SAM launchers fire for effect, damaging two and shooting down two of the buzzing Italian jets. Forbin gets another pair minutes later, bringing her shoot-down count to four. She gets a fifth before that attack is over, as well as damaging several planes with her AA guns.

LeO.313's report a successful bombing run against an enemy transport, and everyone including the pilots is unsure of why it's there. A remarkable occurrence comes not long after that strangeness, as the Jean Bart engages and damages a pair of prop driven dive bombers using her SAM launcher. Troude is lost to a single 2,500lb bomb hit, a hit amidships which soon causes the cruiser to sink. Forbin picks up the ships survivors including the Captain.

The battle is considered a victory, but only just. Despite the loss of Troude, planes out of Heraklion managed to put three bombs into the deck of an Italian carrier (mistaken for a merchant), disabling her for several months. The Forbin is also jokingly referred to as the first ship to make ace-in-a-day as her SAM gunners managed to shoot down five Macchi M.174 strike planes in the course of 90 minutes. She also picked up 203 survivors out of a total ships complement of 562.

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Ambush!
Another month later, and the same again, but this time its a combined group; Forbin and Isly sailing in formation with the pearl class air defence cruiser HMS Sappho and the older gun armed cruiser HMS Glasgow, some 150 kilometres south of Kalamata. The guided missile submarine Cigogne reports enemy cruisers, fires a spread of missiles and crash dives to avoid retaliation. Helicopters flying recon report at least one of the submarines missiles hitting, at least judging by the flash of an explosion in the gloom of early dawn, but cannot make a target ID.

The moment targets appear on radar, the group unleashes a barrage of some twenty HSSM missiles. At least five hits are reported, and at least one heli crew is convinced that multiple missiles have struck a carrier. HMS Glasgow is hit repeatedly by enemy missiles, the old ship absorbing at least five due to her limited defences. Why the British despatched her of all ships into the Med, we cannot know. The radar screen fills with reports of enemy ships, and the cruiser group turns South in an attempt to open the range. The Captains of the Glasgow and the Observer, both heavily damaged, decide to refuse orders and turn North to engage the enemy closely before their burning ships sink. Bravery and stupidity are remarkably similar things without context.

It does, however, work. The Italian force turns away, HMS Glasgow reports her fires put out and that the ship will be scuttled and abandoned, and air forces from Heraklion begin their attacks. After the battle is over, ships return to port and cryptography begins assessing enemy activity, we realise quite how much of a coup this battle turned into. The Italian Armoured Cruiser Goito (of the same class as the previously sunk Paolo Emilio) had her magazines penetrated by a missile and exploded shortly after the battle was joined. The Lombardia was hit at the same time and the crew was never able to stop the fire or the flooding that resulted. The destroyer Folgore was sunk by a bomb dropped from a plane out of Heraklion.

The British sacrificed two ships to save our squadron, and we will recognise that in time. In the meantime, we reassign Amiral Bonnier from the Mediterranean to the West African station, assigning Amiral Davin - a flying officer and well regarded man - to the Med. It costs us some social cachet, but such is the price of ensuring a better command.

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Cruiser Action
Stumbling across radar contacts in the night, the Jean Bart and the Isly turn for Patra in the vain hope that they can avoid being spotted in turn. However it is soon realised that the enemy ship is not moving and so the cruisers redirect to investigate. However, as soon as a radar lock is detected, both ships fire their full complements of missiles. Better to waste a few shots than be surprised without shooting. What follows is an ugly little skirmish that is remarkably clean for the French forces, losing a single destroyer for two Italian ones.

With the war so clearly favouring our protected cruisers, we plan to lay down several more as soon as the budget becomes available. However, we are currently massively favouring submarines, with two missile boats laid down every month. We currently have 24 under construction and a surviving fleet (at time of writing) of 48.

We should:
[ ] Stop building submarines in order to lay down additional cruisers.
[ ] Maintain the submarine program We cannot choke the Italians yet.

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The Italians really, really want Greece. So badly that they will sacrifice ship after ship to get it. It's not going well for them.