Exercise Rhine in 2009

On 24 May 1941, one of the greatest sea battles of all time took place.
The pride of the German navy, the battleship DKM Bismarck, in accompany with the heavy cruiser DKM Prinz Eugen, engaged in combat with the British battlecruiser HMS Hood, in accompany with the new battleship Prince of Wales.
In less than ten minutes, the Mighty Hood was sunk, and the Prince of Wales was retiring under her own smoke screen, and the two German ships sailed into history.

Crazyhawk has come up with the idea of trying out some theme events this year, and Washington Treaty Combat is proud to announce our first attempt at this exciting new idea.

And what better battle is there to re-create, than the battle of the Denmark Straits.
And what better date, than the anniversary of the actual battle.

So on the weekend of May 22-24 2009, Washington Treaty Combat will be hosting a three day event to commemorate the battle of the Denmark Straits.
We will have 2-3 normal fleet battles each day, and will work in those interested in re-creating the Denmark Straits battle in-between our regular fleet battles, and possibly before, and/or after the fleet battles (depending on how many of the participating ships take part).
We have not decided on a location for the event just yet, as we want to see how many captains want to participate, and where they are all from. We will then try to host the event somewhere centrally located.

We plan to re-create the Denmark Straits at least once each day of the event, and as many times during the event as possible.

So if you have one of these ships already, or always wanted to build one of them, then let us know that you are interested in participating, and with which ship.

Thanks.
Washington Treaty Combat

 

Glad to see you took the ball and ran with it. I'm looking forward to the event, I want to see it!

 

What ships took part from sighting to sink of bismark

 

Bismarck, Prinz Eugen, Hood, Prince of Wales, took part in the Denmark Straits battle.
Norfolk, Suffolk, King George V, Rodney, Dorsetshire, Victorious, Sheffield, and some British destroyers also took part in the shadowing, and final destruction.
We plan to do the Denmark Straits battle mainly, but if there is enough interest, we could add more to it.
Mikey

 

Mikey,
What a great idea! I no longer have the Hood but still have a Kent Class hull and Steve Hill makes the London/Norolk Class hull so I could build Suffolk or Norfolk by next year.

Have you thought about staging the follow up battle too? (I'm building the Rodney.)

Bad Bob

 

I think the cruiser that shadowed it at first are just as important

 

This will really grow into a neat, "event".

 

Bad Bob
I can't actually take the credit for the idea. It was the other Mike. You know.. the Good Mike.. the Crazyhawk..the "I sank Mikey" Mike, blah-blah-blah.
I personally don't see what's so good about him...
Haha. Just funnin ya Mike..
Anyhow, he had a great idea, and as we are in the early planning stages of the event which is a year away, we can pretty much do whatever we want.
We certainly want to re-create the Denmark Straits portion of the exercise.
But beyond that, as we will have three days to work in various scenarios, in between the normal sorties of the rest of the combatants, we have plenty of options open to us, and it can be as fun as we make it.
So basically what we need at this time, is to start a list of those that want to participate in the Exercise Rhine portion of the event, and with which ship, or ships.
We may have more than one of each ship, so we can then come up with a way of not only allowing each of them there chance to re-create the battle at the event, but we might also generate a tournament (of sorts) to determine which Bismarck will get to do the final battle on Sunday. Or something like that.

Another think we need at this time, is the thought on how far into the exercise we will be going. Just the Denmark Straits, or if there is enough interest, we can play the entire exercise out right up to the sinking (or survival) of the Bismarck.

I think that the most important thing to keep in mind here is that we want this to be fun for all. So if someone has a ship that was involved in the exercise, but might not have actually gotten a chance to engage in the actual battle, then we need to try to work them into our event.

So for now, we need to post the ships, and captains, and also generate a list of possible scenarios.

Mikey
P.S. I wanna be like Mike.
Haha

 

I have read that there were two reasons that the two British heavy cruisers that were shadowing the Germans watched the battle, and didn't take part.
First one said that the British wanted to keep them intact, so that they could continue to shadow the German ships if the battle went bad for the Hood, and POW.
The other said that Holland kept radio silence to avoid letting the Germans know he was trying to cut them off. And that the two cruisers took no part in the battle as they had not received orders to engage.
Mikey

 

Now that I think about it.
It looks like this could be a grand idea.
So I am glad I thought of it.
Hahahaha.
Sorry Mike..
Mikey

 

Somebody mentioned the two British cruisers that were shadowing the German ships during the Denmak Straits battle, and asked if they could take part in the battle as well, even though they didn't take part in the actual battle at the time.
It was then mentioned that it would really make the teams un-even.
Well here is something to consider..
The commander of the brand new German battleship Tirpitz (Topp I think), was begging to be allowed to breakout with the Bismarck, but his request was turned down by the German high command due to the fact that his brand spanking new battleship was not worked-up.
Now considering the fact that the brand new British battleship Prince of Wales was thrown into the battle when she was even less worked-up, makes one wonder what would have happened had the Tirpits been allowed to participate in the opperation.
So keeping that in mind.
What if we planned a scenario, where the Tirpitz was allowed to participate, along with the two British heavy cruisers?
So Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Prinz Eugen facing Hood, POW, Norfolk, and Suffolk.

Just my thought..
Mikey

 

http://www.navweaps.com/index_oob/OOB_WWII_Atlantic/OOB_WWII_Rheinubung.htm

Bob from ESBG sent this cool link.
Mikey

 

I think it would be cool, but wouldnt want to replace the actual 2v2 reenactment.

 

I agree that we don't want to replace the 2v2 battle.
I was just saying that we can also try other scenarios in addition to it.
Mikey

 

I would agree. I'll take the video.

 

Mr Pottle, little off topic here, are you going to be doing anything with a QE bulged hull plug?
thanks,

 

By the way, I would still like to put out there that I would like to host the 2009 Operation Rhine event.
Thanks,

 

All
So far we have Mike P. running his Prince of Wales, and Roland running his Bismarck.
Mikey

 

Wasn't Eric looking at the Prinz Eugen?

 

Well as far as the Eugen goes I have plans and could possibly have Her ready by the Event date....Mikey suggested that I might want to participate....sounds good will do my best to get Her keel laid in the next 2 weeks...here we go again...hehe