Happy and Glorious.

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Norway Campaign

April 9th 1940 and HMS Renown opens fire on the Gneisenau. Scharnhorst is there too and trains its guns on the Renown whose 10 accompanying destroyers are beyond range.


OTL Renown was hit twice by 11" shells that failed to explode while Gneisenau was hit 3 times having a turret rendered inoperable and its fire direction knocked out. Then they part company in the gloom as Scharnhorst and Gneisenau run away.

In ATL land things change. One of the 11" shells has exploded on the Renown. The damage is not great but there's alot of smoke. The confidence of the Germans grows. Admiral Lutjens decides to hurt the Renown a little more. He knows she's an old ship and a Battlecruiser. British Battlecruisers liked to blow up in the last war. Would they blow up now?

He dared not hope for that but with smoke visible could he force her to retreat. The world would see that the Kriegsmarine was just as good as the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht.

He orders the Scharnhorst to close the range while the Gneisenau with its damaged rear turret moves on ahead. She will re enter the fight if needed.

Shells fall around the Renown. Admiral Whitworth is not worried by this. He knows the Renown is old, older than many of her crew but she has been modernised extensively. She is a battlecruiser but so are the ships she's facing. They have 11" guns and he has 15". He knows that this is not Jutland or at least he hopes it's not. He knows that his fire control is as good as anything the Germans have and he knows his shells won't break up n impact but will hurt when they land. He is just seen the Gneisenau run behind the Scharnhorst. He knows he has hurt her. Can he hurt the Scharnhorst too?

TBC
 
The 15inch shells will make a real mess of Scharnhorst if Renown can land a hit. Now that is the crux of the problem. IIRC the weather was terrible and both sides were missing each other and their turrets were partially flooded.

Now Scharnhorst was a poor seaboat, which may give the advantage to Renown. However I think what will happen is that both with exchange fire until Scharnhorst probably pulls ahead and disengages with no real damage on either side.
 

sharlin

Banned
As JN1 noted the weather was terrible, they were fighting in a storm, the seas were so rough the destroyers had to slow down to stop themselves getting damaged by the very rough seas.

This would be an interesting brawl. If the OTL hits have already occured thats 15 x 11 inch guns against just 6 x 15 inchers. But the Renown did have a reputation as being a very good gunnery ship and her shells can do fearsome damage to the S&G. She also benifitted from a full refit unlike the Repulse.

If the Germans planned to fight they would have to A: Disregard the Furer's orders about risking capital ships and B be willing to take a pouding in what would basically be a close quarters brawl but in a one on one brawl i'd say it would go down to who lands the first serious hits, and with her bigger guns its probably going to be the Renown. If she can slow the Scharnhorst enough the DD's could finally get in range to fire their torps, not that it would be fun firing in such atrocious weather.
 
Happy and Glorious

continued


His orders were to escort the invasion convoy to Narvik and then head for home. By slowing down to fight the Renown he was technically disobeying orders but he was an admiral and not a dumb soldier. Naval officers are smarter than army officers and he could never imagine a German general being ordered to stay on the defensive but then disobey orders and attack. That would require brains. Brains were for navy officers.

However Lutjens was beginning to wonder if having brains was always a good thing.

The Renown didn't seem to care about its own safety. He had seen 11" shell after 11" shell hit. She was outnumbered two to one by ships a generation younger and with a greater combined firepower. Why didn't the Renown care about that?

Lutjens was right. Admiral Whitworth showed no sign of concern as the damage reports came in. One 15" turret was knocked out and a fire among the anti-aircraft ammunition had caused havoc on deck killing more than a dozen. He also seemed unmoved by the sight of the Scharnhorst burning in three places. He was told that they had hit the Scharnhorst 6 times with 15" shell. One hit had blown one of its 11" turrets clean off, a sight that caused an exclaimation of "bugger me" from an officer standing next to him. He was, however worried about the Gneisenau returning to the battle by slowing down and turning full broadside as its rear turret had been knocked out earlier.

Lutjens meanwhile was worried about everything. The Scharnhorst looked like a cross between hell and an abbatoir. There were also the enemy destroyers. He believed that there were perhaps 6 although one report said 7. He could see 5 at the moment. They had began to close on his position but did not look like they were attacking. The rough sea was obviously giving them problems. He identified them as I class and perhaps there was an E class too. He was glad they weren't H class.

Four H class destroyers had broken from the main body and were taking advantage of the mayhem to work around the enemy battlecruisers. They had problems with the rough sea but fortunately Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had slowed to 28 knots in order to let the Renown catch them and fight. The time to attack must be soon if the Renown is to survive.

TBC
 
Happy and Glorious

continued

Lutjens desperately wanted to withdraw. The Renown was not behaving in a way that he considered rational. What could the British admiral possibly hope to achieve by being pummelled and then sunk? No one would criticize him if he withdrew from the battle. He could cite weather conditions, being outnumbered, lack of reconaissance, even lie.

Lutjens for all his logic just didn't understand that British admirals don't retreat if they think they have a chance of hurting the enemy. He didn't understand that Nazis weren't the only people who could be unreasonable.


"Why won't you make smoke and withdraw?" Lutjens whispered through clenched teeth.

The captain of the Scharnhorst was the only one to hear him. He understood Lutjens' frustration but his understanding was giving way to fear. Scharnhorst had been hit 8 times by 15" shell and 7 or 8 times by smaller calibre hits. He had just been told that the number of dead had passed 70 and there were others trapped in wreckage. One 11" turret had been blown off and another turret was beginning to develop mechanical problems.

Lutjens was in a quandary. If he withdraws he will be humiliated. First Graf Spee and now Germay's two finest ships run away when things get hot. The English would have a field day and the world would laugh at the Kriegsmarine. If he stays then his precious ships will continue to take damage. How will he explain all this to the high command. How will the Fuhrer feel? There was only one thing to do in this situation. Sink the Renown but first he had to make sure his ship would get home. He issued the following order,

"Captain, turn 10 degrees to the north east and increase speed to 30 knots. These fires are obscuring our ability to target the enemy. We need to deal with the fires and then return to the fight later. Order the Gneisenau to take up the strain. Wish them success"

The captain knew that the fires were only having a marginal effect on marksmanship but he was more than happy to comply.

Admiral Whitworth was glad that the Renown had been extensively modernized and had re entered service just a month before war broke out. Unlike her cousins at Jutland she had not blown up. On the other hand things were still looking grim. Renown had just suffered her 14th 11" hit. Three shells had failed to explode. Had the Germans lost their edge in shell design? At least one of the unexploded shells would have severely reduced Renowns speed if it had gone off. Was this his lucky day?

Four H class destroyers that had detached themselves at the beginning of the battle were now in a position to launch an attack but the flotilla leader knew that a successful torpedo attack depends on timing and above all luck. He now saw the Scharnhorst turn closer and he knew that the poor weather conditions plus the fires meant that Scharnhorst hadn't spotted them. He orders the attack on Scharnhorst.


One H class the Havoc was dead in the water and burning while the Hardy had taken 3 5.9" hits and lost its captain. The destroyers had opened fire with 4.7" guns and hit the Scharnhorst 5 times. They had not been spotted until they were within torpedo range and the destroyers pressed in hard knowing that the target and the weather conditions meant that no restraint would do. Two torpedoes struck home.
 
Lutjens evidently doesn't understand the Royal Navy mindset. The RN does not scuttle its ships to avoid a losing battle and generally doesn't withdraw.

Btw I think you've saved HMS Glorious whoever wins.

I'll need to dig out my Death of the Scharnhorst and see how many 14inch hits DOY scored because I think you are getting perilously close to the number that wrecked her. Plus all it takes is one lucky shot on that hump over the machinery space.
Moreover those two torpedo hits are likely to do a great deal of damage.
 
Lutjens evidently doesn't understand the Royal Navy mindset. The RN does not scuttle its ships to avoid a losing battle and generally doesn't withdraw.

Btw I think you've saved HMS Glorious whoever wins.

I'll need to dig out my Death of the Scharnhorst and see how many 14inch hits DOY scored because I think you are getting perilously close to the number that wrecked her. Plus all it takes is one lucky shot on that hump over the machinery space.
Moreover those two torpedo hits are likely to do a great deal of damage.

Hence

Happy and Glorious.

A bit cheap I know but hey.
 
Happy and Glorious

continued

The Gneisenau was having problems. Her fire control had been damaged earlier and one turret was out of action. The weather conditions weren't in her favour either. The Scharnhorst class weren't good sea boats and this was becoming a factor. Renown had hit her three times without Gneisenau scoring a hit in reply.

Admiral Whitworth was given two pieces of news. He was asked if wanted the good news or bad news. He replied bad news first.

"'B' turret has had it sir. There's no way she can be brought back into action"

"I see. That's pretty bad. So what's the good news. Do the met office predict a warm summer?"

"I am not sure about whether we will be having a warm summer sir but I can give you one forecast that I am sure of. The Scharnhorst is not going home today or any other day"


In better weather the Scharnhorst would probably have made it much as the Seydlitz had made it back after Jutland but the two torpedo hits had leaked in enough water to increase her draught and reduce her speed to 12 knots. The other destroyers were now ordered to close on the Scharnhorst and deliver the coup de grace.

The Gneisenau finally withdrew after landing two 11" hits on the Renown. Yet again one of them failed to explode. Admiral Whitworth knew he was in no position to pursue and finish off the Gneisenau. The Renown herself was leaking water with two turrets knocked out and 15" ammunition almost gone.

The Gneisenau finally arrived in Wilhelmshaven after receiving 4 15" hits and 5 smaller calibre hits. She had 9 dead. Questions were asked about why she had so little damage while her sister was permanently resting off Norway.

The Scharnhorst continued to fire on the attacking destroyers scoring a hit with a 5.9" shell on one of them. It didn't save her. Three more torpedoes hit.

Less than 100 survivors were retrieved from the cold rough sea. Lutjens wasn't one of them.

The German invasion of Narvik went ahead without a further hitch. Damage to the Royal Navy force meant that the destroyers were unable to attack the German force in Narvik until April 13th when the Warspite helped to eliminate most of the destroyers.

It was to no avail. The Norwegian campaign was handled apallingly by the Allies and the Chamberlain government fell. Norway would remain under German occupation for the rest of the war.

Churchill was spared criticism because even though he was as responsible as any one else for the mess he was chiefly remembered for his glowing speech that was given on the battered deck of the Renown; after all the dead and wounded seaman had been removed of course.

The Norwegian campaign was seen to have ended when the carrier HMS Glorious returned home. It was good to have another carrier back in home waters with the threat of invasion hanging over England.

HMS Glorious was kept with the home fleet at Scapa Flow just incase the Admiral Hipper or the repaired Gneisenau try to break into the Atlantic.

TBC
 
Sounds and smells of Regia Marina Officers crapping their pants in 3...2...1...

If ITTL Taranto happens the Brits might have an additional, albeit small, deck. :D
 
Small?! By British standards, Glorious was quite big, (48 aircraft in hangar to Illustrious's 36). Being late of the home fleet, it's possible that she may also have Skuas as divebomber/flare dropper aircraft).

If Glorious is used we double the number of available torpedo bombers. If however, she is used instead of Illustrious (which I suspect would have been the case) we will still have the Skuas (the swordfish would all use torpedoes and the Skuas would have the arial bombs). Either way, I think Taranto's going to be very different from OTL. If Glorious makes the strike on her own, it might call the armoured carrier concept into question (slightly smaller and yet carrying 25% more aircraft in hangar).

Also, what happens to Commander Heath (Glorious's air group Commander)? He was in Scapa awaiting court-martial when the sinking took place (he'd been ordered to attack ill defined shore targets with inadequate aircraft).

Cue major rethink on naval aviation.
 
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sharlin

Banned
With the Glorious surviving you can see her being very busy in the med and atlantic, perhaps joining the Illustrious for her strike on Taranto could see bigger losses. But the Glorious also is vulnerable, she's not a tough boat like the armoured carriers, and does not have much in the way of anti-torpedo protection as the fate of the Couragious showed. Perhaps the brits start operating carriers together, the Illustrious and Glorious as a proto carrier battlegroup.
 
I'm sorry, I'm just writing a piece where two alt-Implacables with Essex-size Airgroup pound the stuffing out of a Japanese base so my perception is skewed. :D
 
With the Glorious surviving you can see her being very busy in the med and atlantic, perhaps joining the Illustrious for her strike on Taranto could see bigger losses. But the Glorious also is vulnerable, she's not a tough boat like the armoured carriers, and does not have much in the way of anti-torpedo protection as the fate of the Couragious showed. Perhaps the brits start operating carriers together, the Illustrious and Glorious as a proto carrier battlegroup.

I am a bit worried about the protection for Glorious too. I hadn't thought about using her for Taranto because I don't think she would be needed.

HMS Eagle was already there and earmarked for the attack but developed problems just before. Maybe some of the aircraft or pilots lost OTL in Norway could have been sent to the Med but I won't be using the Glorious for that.
 

sharlin

Banned
Personally i'd pull the Eagle out of the Med, she's small, slow and has a rather small airgroup. Team the Glorious up with the Illustrious, along with their escorts and get a proper CBG going. Slow boats like the Eagle and Argus could be used to help with convoys but should not be risked in major operations.
 
Happy and Glorious

continued


When it became clear that there would be no German invasion until at least the spring of 1941 the HMS Glorious was sent for a short refit. The uncertainties of the global situation meant that the refit would be short.

A plan to send the carrier to the Mediterranean was abandoned after the success of the Taranto raid. Also with the HMS Formidable coming into service it was considered best to keep the lightly armoured carrier away from the confined and increasingly dangerous waters that existed in that theatre.

Her one real excursion was to ferry some aircraft to the Gold Coast.

As Winter turned to spring 1941 the Glorious was maintained at operational readiness at Scapa Flow. The crew were becoming bored at the lack of action and were envious of the crews of the Ark Royal and Illustrious who seemed to be fighting the war single handed.

They shared their frustration with the crew of the HMS Hood that although being considered 'mighty' had seen no real action apart from attacking firing on French battleships in harbour at Oran. They felt impotent as the Battleship Warspite seemed to be everywhere from Norway, to Malta to Crete sinking ships and scaring Italians.

When news finally arrived that the Glorious was to join the HMS Hood and the still not fully worked up KGV class Prince of Wales her crew wondered if it was all just an exercise planned by the Admiralty to keep the crew on their toes. As she set sail a rumourbegan to spread that a significant German naval force was trying to break into the Atlantic. The crew tried not to get their hopes up too much but if true most agreed that it would be the Admiral Hipper or perhaps The Gneisenau. Most, however, thought it would be unlikely that the Germans would be foolish enough to send a large ship such as the Gneisenau into the Atlantic without her sister ship.



Admiral Raeder was pleased that the Norwegian campaign had been a success but the losses were huge. The loss of the Scharnhorst in particular had overshadowed the role played by the Kriegsmarine and instead people talked about how the paratroops, the Luftwaffe and the bravery of the mountain troops won Norway. The Kriegsmarine was seen as having lost the Blucher, Scharnhorst and half its destroyer fleet. Its submarines had done little and the Gneisenau had run away as her sister was driven off by an old WW1 battlecruiser and then sunk by destroyers.

Admiral Raeder escaped being blamed openly but it was clear that Hitler was disappointed with him and was starting to favour the more Nazified Doenitz and his U Boats. He had even heard some rumours that Hitler was thinking of abandoning all new surface ship projects altogether. Plan Z was already dead and Raeder accepted that but to lose the Graf von Zeppelin and the Tirpitz and see them scrapped without ever leaving harbour was too much. With the Bismarck coming into service he was determined to show that the surface fleet still counted. He started to make plans.
 
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