All Just a reminder that the Washington Treaty Group is having a two day event with the big gun groups battling between our sorties in Ravenna Ohio on August 4-5. I will be the Contest Director. Roland is site host. We also have several new skippers that might be attending with boats that are still under construction, so please bring any loaner/back-up boats that you have. I will post more later. Mikey
And rule the waters we did. In the first battle, the British Battlecruiser squadron (HMS Invincible and HMS New Zealand) whipped the Axis battleforce of the SMS Markgraf and MN Strasbourg. Strasbourg was sunk outright, and the BCS chased the Markgraf all the way back to Kiel and expended 100% of its ammunition. In the Second battle, the panzerschiff Lutzow joined the Axis fleet, giving them 13 units to the Allies 8. The Axis had a plan though, and a ram of the New Zealand by the Markgraf put the New Zealand on the beach to get patched, while the Axis triple teamed the Invincible. At one point in time, the Invincible actually had and took shots on all three axis ships at the same time. Invincible had surrounded the Axis fleet. Alas though, that worked out both ways, and the Invincible was hammered into a watery grave by the time New Zealand was able to return to the fray. She went down guns blazing though in the best tradition of the Royal Navy. The rest of the battle consisted of the Axis trying their best to corner the New Zealand, but she was able to last out her 5. Day two had the Strasbourg on the Allied fleet as the New Zealand was ordered to return to Scapa. The Allied plan was simple: Sink the Markgraf. Try as we might (and we hammered the Markgraf pretty good) we were unable to put her down, as she is extremely hard to hit when she wants to be. So, the final score for the weekend was the Allies bagged one 4.5 unit ship sunk while the Axis got one 4.0 unit ship sunk, and thus the Allies claim the victory by the narrowest of margins. A good time was had by all, and special thanks go out to Roland and his wife Jennifer for opening their home to us and hosting the battle even though his ship wasn't ready to fight. Mike D
