Little After Battle Report / 1910 German Campaign using latest Version of the Mod NAR

[Kraut]

I know its usually called AAR, but i dont want to give false impressions since im really only planning to give some brief context to the pictures i took and thought, others might enjoy looking at.

Im playing NAR from O Barao. Its a 1910 Start with the German Empire. After a first kinda early War against the British Crown, wich lead to the Conquest of 3 Provinces on the Isles ( Wales, East and North West), multiple Colony States in Africa and Asia and the total decimation of the Royal Navy as well as a Revolt and a new Form of Government in the UK, France was left to be the only State or Empire with a higher GDP then Germany.

To ensure Peace, Freedom, Justice and Security for the German Empire,

Technological Leadership or atleast Equality musst be reached. And since the Rules of the World dictate, that Research can only ever be a certain % of Naval Spending, wich can only ever be a % of the Total GPD, Leadership or atleast Equality among the most potenst Nations and Germany musst be achieved.

The War against the French waged for some years and resulted ultimatly in the loss of some their Colonies in and around Africa as well as all of Indochina except Laos, wich could not be taken even after Multiple offensives from 3 sides...

The Battle to be told was the last one where the French forced a BB Encounter on somewhat equal Terms as an desperate Attempt to Win back Supremacy in the Biscaya and break up the Blockade strangeling their Economy, after most of their Navy was already destroyed.

Battle took part in the Evening of a calm and otherwise uneventful December Day in 1926.

A German BB Group consisting of two Hannover-Klasse Ships Hannover and Helgoland and the remaining Ship of the "Kaiser Wilhelm der Große"-Klasse, Gneisenau, escorted by 7 Destroyers of various Types.

The Gneisenau is a super Dreadnought of classical German Design notable for her MA of 4x2 38cm/52 Gunz and, unusual on Multi-Deck Dreadnoughts, for her 5x2 15,2cm SA in Turrets instead of Casemates, a Standard Geared Turbine Engine Installation accellerating the 54k tons Displacement to respectable 25 knots. 

The two Hannover-Klasse Ships are the result of german lessons learned from the War against the british, where after battle analysis showed, that in almost all engagements Torpedo-Attacks and consequently hits by small ships were the deciding factor of said confrontations. To reduce the blood loss in the brave destroyer flotillas, the Destroyer Leader Concept was taken to an, some would consider unnatural, radical approach and new dogma of the Kaiserliche Marine; 

First, every new ship designed and built musst be armed with Torpedoes, atleast two Multi-Launchers, with atleast 7 Torpedoes per Salvo in total.

Second due to the low survivability of Cruisers during engegaments were Capitals are present, the designing and Building of Cruisers is postponed until high enough speeds together with stronger armour and armanent than the potential opponents might bring to bear can be achieved. Therefore, Capital Ships, especially BBs take over the Role of Destroyer Leaders in Battle and lead the First Encounter Torpedo Attack.

Consequently radical the Hannover-Klasse in its first Version and during the battle about to be told was Equipment with 5x4 Mutli-Launchers per Side, resulting in impressive Torpdedo-Count of 20 per Salvo per side. For Safety and tactical Reasons it was decided to not hold further Reserve-Torpedoes on board.

The unpreceded sheer size of the Hannover-Klasse of 70k tons a caliber of at least 40,3cm was required to justify the investment in Material and Manpower used to build the new Rulers of the Waves. But it was still not large enough to bear the preferred 4x2 40,3cm turret layout. Annoyed by the lack of Alternatives the Hannovers are equiped with 2x3 40,3cm in A D layout. But were is shadow, there is light. With the weight saved by two Barrels and two whole Turrets as well as the designated space the Hannover-Klasse could be outfitted with another extreme. 2x3 22,3cm/64 SA in B X Layout, enabling the Ships to effectivly combat and sink small Ships beyond Torpedo-Range. As a sort of final defense against those the ships were also equipped with 12,5cm/70 multi-Purpose gunz, 4x3 and 4x2 per side and a number of 3,7cm/64 Flak with 2-3 Barrels per mount. The Speed of 30 knots made the ships faster than even the preceding BCs and only surpassed by Destroyers or very rare enemy Cruiser Designs at the time. The Armour Design made the ships withstand a penetration power of over 50cms for the Citadel and Turrets.

 

So much for my plan for giving just a little bit context to the pictures about to be presented... in the next post!

[Kraut]

Since im short on time now the ABR sadly has to wait untill im back!

Can somebody explain to me how that inserting of pic URL workz? i tried mutliple link forms and languages, but nothing work. I would expect an inserted URL to depict the picture here without the need to click a link. is that wrong?

I tried again to integrate the pictures directly into the post, but to no avail. Even made the Pic public on imgur. changed nothing. Tried the "Other Media" button and the "Code" button in the editor menu. html, bbcode. nothing.

I made now one post with all the Images, so you only have to click once and scroll down.

 

French BB Pair vs German BB Group meeting in the Biscaya, a December Evening 1926:

https://imgur.com/a/FfCyhSh

Report for context to the Pics:

The two brandnew BBs of the Hannover-Klasse, Hannover and Helgoland, complemented by the older and smaller Gneisenau, were already roaming the Biscaya for some Month on their first Mission, when finally Messages from Smoke ahead, eastward, arrived the Bridges. 

Their Mission was, to challenge the last remaining french BBs ported at the french West-Coast and to lure them out, the Group was kept small, since intel reports suggested, that the french had only two of their Jean-Bart-Class BBs left and operational in the theatre towards end of 1926.

Thatswhy the mood lighten up visibly, when the closing in unknwon ships were reported as BBs with 2x2 gigantic Diameter MA Turrets at the front. Finally the French made an attempt to break the Blockade. Finally the Hannover-Klasse ships could proof, wether or not the new Doctrine of the Kaiserliche Marine is a genius breakthru in BB tactics or a failure, that puts capital ships at risk of Torpedo-Explosion on Deck while limiting the MA and SA Firepower.

The atmosphere was tense, but optimistic. The French Jean Beart-Classe fielded a much Bigger Caliber of 45,7cm, enabling them to deliver heavy destruction everywhere they hit. To save Weight for Armour and Engines, the French had to reduce the Barrel length and also had no Ballistic Caps wich limited the muzzle Velocity and finally the Penetration Power and Accurracy of their MA. Nevertheless, even non-penetrating or even HE-Hits from the french MA caliber had proofen to be devasting in the foregoing battles. 

This and the Fact, that the German BB Group, coming from the West, with the Sun in their back, obstructing the view of the french and made a clear identifcation of the German Ships impossible, lead the decision of the French, to close the distance rapidly and going broadside at around 8-9km distance. Maybe they did not expect the Hannover-Klasse operating so close the the French Coast, with still some french Subs around, wich have caused catastrophic loss in the past. For example Gneisenaus Sister, the Name-Giver of her Class, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Große, sunk in the Mediterranian in the early years of the French-German War. 

What evar was the Reason, the decision should proof to be fatal, as what to be expected an Artillery Duel between BBs driving in Parrallel, with Destroyers alongside battleing each other in an attempt to bring their Torpedoes to bear, turned out in a devasting Torpedo Attack carried out by the Hannover-Klasse, the new Typus of German Capital Ship design. The Biggest Possivle Destroyer-Leader. 

Thx to the relativly high speeds of Both sides, the fleets were closing in on each other very fast and the German Destroyers on the right, southern Flank found themselves quickly entangled with the Gros of the french DDs and Large Torpedo Boats. Due to the Lack of Zig-Zagging, the leading German Destroyer V-4 was the first Victim of the Battle, as it was struck by multiple french Torpedoes. Despite sinking rapidly, the brave crew managed to fire their own torpedoes, wich struck multiple hits on french ships and caused disarray in the french formation as they tried to evade, wich helped the remaining german Destroyers to hold on until later of the Battle and ultimativly take the victory.

While V-4 was already sinking, the two opposing BB groups prepaired their First Salvos to be fired. But the French, having the numerivcal Advantage in Small ships, brought also some Destroyers to the Main Battle Line, threatning the german BBs with their torpedoes. When the French finally realized, wich enemy they were facing, it was already two late. After the exchange of only a handfull of Salvos, Hannover launched its 20-Torpedo-Salvo, aiming at the leading French BB, the Mirabeau. Due to the short Distance of only around 7-8 km now, the Torpedoes took not long to find their target, hitting the Mirabeau at almost every section of the Ship, resulting in catastrophic explosions, tearing almost the whole hull apart and causing heavy flooding. As if that was not enough, the Mirabeau was struck into the Magazines of its A-Turret. The resulting Ammo-Explosion and Flashfire shot the Turret high up in the Sky, the fires engufling the Ship as if they wanted to devour it...

The View for from the Democracie musst have been extremly shocking and traumatizing, gaving them a gloomy feel of what could happen to them next. And it would. Almost in parallel the French Destroyers and the Helgoland now launched their Torpedoes. While a little bit of Zig-Zagging threw of the aim of the shocked french Sailors,resulting only in one Stern Hit on the Hannover, resulting in a fire that was quickly put to rest, Helgolands aim proofed to be deadly as multiple Torps hit the Democracie and a couple of Destroyers in her trail. 

As the Democracie was hit only by a fewTorpedoes, the Crew was almost letting out a sigh of relief, when the whole ship was shaking violently from the ammo Explosion in the Barbette of the B-Turret, wich started towards the sky, as if it would try to impose a rocket, aimed for the stars, leaving behind a standing flame almost as tall as the ship was long. 

Taking in much less Water than her Sister, that was already listing, Democracie shot past the already sinking Mirabeau and turned westwards in a desperate attempt to deliver as much payback as possible, also minimizing its target area. Nonetheless she was hit heavy from the 3 german BBs while unable to deliver any dmg herself. The German BBs answered that Maneuver and the threat of french DD ahead with a Turn to the West, changing direction southwards, as reports were reaching the Bridges, that the german DDs on the right flank needed assistance. 

With that Daring Manuever the Democracie put herself broadside to a german Destroyer from the germans left Flank, wich had won its battle against the respective French right flank. Focus on the german BBs and the now heavy damage to the ship rendered her SA almost ineffective against the rapidly closing in german DD, wich launched its Torps in two Salvos, already the first hitting the Democracie on the full broadside, resulting in a eruptive explosion that took the remaining structure of the ship apart, flooding her evenly at full length of the ship.

With the two BBs gone, the remaining french Light Cruisers, that mainly kept themselves in the Background, and Destroyers quickly turned home, leaving behind 7 Torpedoboats and one Destroyer already gone or at the verge of beeing sunk. 

The German Side losses were, as so often in the past, mainly concentrated among its Destroyers. One sunk, and multiple with medium or heavy dmg, while the BBs were seemingly untouchend, except for the one Torp Hit on the Hannover, wich left no lasting damage behind.

All this what was reported in detail happened only within 10-15 Minutes, creating an outbreak of Joy and Celebration over the seemingly genius of the German Naval Design and Admirality, as the Battle seemed to be a 100% proof of Concept of Capital Destroyer Leaders. Only very few voices kept their cool and ushered skepticism, wether this could be the Future of Naval Warfare regarding the Development in Naval Gunnary and Target Aquisition, resulting in ever increasing effective Combat Ranges, wich soon might outclass the effective Range of Torpedo-Salvos... But untill then, The German Hannover-Klasse and its following, even bigger Designs, shall Rule the Waves.

With the French and British ultimativly defeated, the German Empire dominates Europe and the Globe with its Lead in GDP, Technology and Fleet Size. Will there be ever another Power again able to Challenge its Position? In the Last years (its already 1932 by now) rumors about a giant sleeping in the West are heard more and more often. The US are currently fighting the French over Disputes in the Carribean. Will they emerge even stronger? Or will the War prevent them from ever catching up the German Empire and see the French raise again?

 

Edited July 9 by Kraut

[Kraut]

out now! *push*