Coral Sea

After a few tries Tim and I finally got around to playing Coral Sea by Avalanche Press. It was an interesting game with some issues.

The first issue was the weather. From the opening of the game to when the Japanese were approaching Port Moresby the weather was rainy or worse. Air searches were ineffective until the invasion was underway a little to late for the Allies.

Once the weather cleared, at least cloudy, the Allies attacked concentrated on attacking the transports. After two strikes one transport was sunk and three were damaged. We had some issues with those rules but we were still learning.

The Japanese used land based and seaplanes for effective searches finding the carrier Yorktown. Two waves came in one finishing off the USS Yorktown and the other heavily damaging two cruisers.

Submarines came in handy for both sides in tracking targets and the Allies put a torpedo into the Shōhō. Damaged she limped back towards Rabaul.

So the out come was a Japanese victory with the Japanese holding  Port Moresby and Tulagi and inking the USS Yorktown. The Japanese loses when we called the game was a transport.

This will effect the Battle of Midway in that the USS Lexington will be there in all of her glory, but the Japanese will also have the IJN Zuikaku and Shōkaku with their full aircraft complement.


Now for the issues with the game...

Submarines can spot but it does not appear they can spot for airstrikes. Which they historically did. A rule change and a modifier on the chart would be helpful for the the players and historically accurate.

Clear examples of play and stand alone charts for air attacks and torpedo shoots would be helpful. I was using the charts from their WWI rule set, OK for now but improvements would be welcome by the publisher.

I have seen reviews of these rules showing mixed results. One of the chief complaints was that they were rules for The Great War with aircraft  rules superimposed on them. And not very cleanly. This I have to agree with.

Will I play them again, yes but with some serious house rules. Keep an eye on this blog for the changes.

Do you have any thought on these rules?

Holding Action - Sealion

In the third game the LDV were attempting to slow a German advance. After some minor shooting and a few causalities (4 German and 2 British) the brave volunteers attempted to launch an anti-tank attack with a Molotov cocktail.  The die roll says it all.

The British pull back and leave the battlefield to the Germans. For those playing at home that is 3 - nil to the Germans. Next up a change of scenery.

Mystery Writers at War

Many of the mysteries written in the late 1930s and into 1940 took the approaching conflict in Europe and China as a backdrop. What is interesting for me as the historian is how close many of their suppositions were correct. Well at least some of them.

Agatha Christie in N or M and Margery Allingham both write about the fears that were prevalent in England in 1940. Both talk of the concerns of Germans landings (some dressed as nuns), 5th Column activates and a general feeling of fear. France had fallen, the army lacked arms and there were no easy solutions. All took time and that appeared to be in short supply.

In these stories, as in the reality of 1940, the British saw it as their duty for each individual to do their part. While not everyone can be an Albert Campion or Tommy and Tuppence, there were the Peter Fleming and George Orwell.

The stories give a good feel for the period. A time when no one knew if America would be entering the war or if Germany was going to cross the channel. When most people were not aware of what Peter Fleming was up to or the fellows in Bletchley Park.

Taking the LDV Out for the Weekend

This past weekend I took Chain of Command (CoC) out for a spin using my 1940 early LDV (Home Guard) for a little Sea Lion fun. And I wish it was fun for the British. This game was mostly to let me re-remember the rules before taking it to the club in general and Mark in particular. So while I was learning some of the rules again I was finding the LDV a difficult force to command.

In the first game, the LDV barley lasted past the pre-game patrol phase with the Germans quickly splitting the British and called the game. The issue was the British had little depth and were quickly going to lose not one but two Jump Off points. There are no pictures of the first game.

In the second the German Platoon with two tanks were going to try to spit the British again. A fire fight occurred by the German Jump Off Point at the church and the Germans took significant causalities. And than the German Oberleutnant showed up. He organized the Panzer I to support the second section and the two MG34 teams were in support. The significant firepower on the center farm house and the infantry went in and cleaned it out. After breaking the center of the British line the Germans turned right and headed for the second farm house when I remembered I had enough Command Dice saved up to end the turn. That forced the British section to rout with both the British Senior Leader and Junior Leader in tow causing the British moral to collapse.

Will have to rethink how to effectively use the LDV. At a minimum forces with only a couple of Lewis guns for support have to stay closer. Limited support will force them to concentrate firepower and the limited leadership. Looking forward to the next game.

The Battlefield

British Command on the run.

Causalities were heavy to both sides.

Germans advancing on the next farm...

...and than I remembered.

British trying to get around the Germans but ran out of time.
Would hate to see them meet up with two MG34.

Overview by the church.

Sea Lion Books Part 1

Wanted to share with you my reading list for this project. It will grow as there are a number of titles I am reading grow.

Read

• Operation Sea Lion by Peter Fleming 1957
• Invasion: The German Invasion of England, July 1940 by Kenneth Macksey 1980
• Sea Lion by Richard Cox 1977
• More to come…

Reading

• Hitler's Pre-Emptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940 by Henrik Lunde 2009
• Hitler's Armada: The Royal Navy and the Defence of Great Britain, April - October 1940 by Geoff Hewitt 2008
• The Home Guard: A Military And Political History S.P. Mackenzie 1995

On the reading list to get

• Ultra goes to war by Ronald Lewin 1978
• The Ultra Secret by F. W. Winterbotham 1975

On order

• When Britain Saved the West: The Story of 1940 by Robin Prior 2015
• If War Should Come: Defence Preparations on the South Coast, 1935-1939 by Philip MacDougall 2013

 As the list grows I will move it over to its own page. Any suggestions are welcome.

Sea Lion as Cover Art

I have always been intrigued with cover art. I have been known to purchase a second copy of an Agatha Christie mystery just based on the cover art. Those of the 1960s and 70s had a very distinct look and feel to them compared to the earlier works for the 30s and 40s. . While at the Navy Exchange I was known to buy a sci-fi or alt-history novel based on the cover art, with mixed results. Now that I am adding to my early World War II library, I am intrigued by the cover art and dust jackets of the books I am buying come from the 1940s to the present. Much of my Sea Lion collection is fiction with appropriate art.

My most recent purchase for this project is Sea Lion by Richard Cox. This novelizes The Staff College wargame that was fought by real 1940 Sea Lion participants in 1974. It is an enjoyable read and has well though combat examples. Well worth a read by anyone interested in World War II in general or Operation Sea Lion in particular.

What I find most distressing is the fictional artwork on the cover. It is not the shallow eyes of the soldier, or the Ju-87 bombing the building (a church?) but it is the little tank in the lower left corner. To me it looks like a Soviet T-34. My assumption is that the artist was told to draw a tank and the T-34 was what was in his sketchbook. Does this make the book less valuable, no, but it makes the arguments about the History Channel getting video wrong just the most recent errors that I have caught. Oh bother.

For now back to the landing beaches. Cannot wait to find out what is going happen,

The Home Guard

Part of my thesis dealing with the historiography of Operation Sea Lion is how the British dealt with the prospects of invasion at different time. And while the German Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) was not prepared to invade Britain right after Dunkirk and the capture of the channel; the British forces were not ready to repel any Axis forces that landed on their shores.

The LDV while started to organize after Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden radio speech on 14th of May, by early July most units were limited in the number of official weapons distributed to the units with most still relying on personal and museum pieces.

So while a 4th of July invasion sounds good in a novel (more on that latter) both the Germans and British will have to wait until September or October before their forces are ready.

And yet Admiral Raeder conceived a possible landing as early as the late fall of 1939...

Right now I am reading Mackenzie's The Home Guard and enjoying it immensely. It is an ex-library copy and the amusing thing is that it came from the Cornwall County Council Library system, the same location as my proposed miniature campaign. The other is Hitler's Armada by Hewitt. This is covering in some detail how the two navies stack up in a possible Operation Sea Lion. Well worth looking at if interested in naval affairs or Sea Lion.