June-July 1942

Following the decisive battle of Algiers the Italian navy saw action again in June 1942 as opposing cruiser patrol groups met and clashed in the Ionian Sea. The allies were keen to press the Italian navy into action, to further weaken the axis and their hold on north Africa, so when the cruisers Pensacola and Salt Lake city came across three italian cruisers and their escorts they attacked immediately.

The action took place in shocking conditions for June in the Med, and both sides had difficulties landing telling hits on the enemy. However in an effort to get a better bead on Pensacola, the cruiser Garibaldi inadvertantly opened herself up to a coordinated torpedo strike by the american destroyers. The result was predictable and the Garibaldi went down with all hands in the rough Ionian sea. In the melee both sides lost two destroyer class vessels, and the Salt Lake City suffered some damage to her superstructure. However the Italians came off worst and the allies once again asserted their dominance in the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile the Germans were turning to a different tactic in the channel and north sea. In early June the disastrous loss of three surface raiders in a singla action made the Kriegsmarine wary of sorties, so the Luftwaffe decided to try out "big wing" actions with large numbers of Stuka divebombers. The first of these was tried against a convoy making its way along the channel, and included the an ocean liner full of troops, as well as munitions and supplies headed for north africa. The Luftwaffe attacked in force, but th Royal Navy escorts put up a storm of fire. Many of the divebombers were swatted out of the sky by AA fire, and although the troopship was damaged, casualties were not severe. The Luftwaffe had tried - and failed to stop the allies using the channel as their own private highway.

Battle of the North Sea

In June 1942 the german Kriegsmarine, emboldened by their success in the Baltic, made a major sortie into the north sea. The german high command were in the main confident, sending out the battlecruiser Scharnhorst along with the Prinz Eugen and pocket battleship Graf Spee. However some in the navy expressed grave concerns, citing that such a concentration of powerful warships had a serious drawback, no guns heavier than the 11" carried by Graf Spee and Scharnhorst.

The British navy were quick to respond to the sortie, having broken the german naval codes. The royal navy had organised into rapid reaction task forces, each consisting of a battleship, an aircraft carrier as well as escorting cruisers and destroyers. This enabled the British to split up their forces and cover the maximum area of sea, while still packing enough punch to deal with one, or maybe two of the german navy's surface raiders on their own. Now however they needed to deal with three.

Unperturbed, the home fleet sent their nearest battle group towards the expected breakout point of the german raiders. The force consisted of the aircraft carrier Corageous and the venerable Valiant, a modified WWI battleship which none-the-less sported 16" guns. Escorted by the cruisers Hermione and Naiad and a group of destroyers, the british ships made good time in the pleasant June weather and early morning on the 7th June the british and german vessels sighted each other.

Both forces closed immediately for battle, and confidence was high on both sides. The germans kept their forces together, and revealed they were protected by Luftwaffe fighters. The air strike launched by Courageous was easily dealt with by the german fighters, and realising the carrier was in 11" gun range, Graf Spee and Scharnhorst opened up on her, damaging the flight deck and forcing the british to disengage. Courageous played no further meaningful part in the battle.

The german ships now concentrated on Valiant, but found to their distress that her armour held up well to their 11" and 8" guns. Meanwhile accurate plunging fire from Valiant's 16" main battery began to take its toll, with Scharnhorst the main target. Hit several times the german battlecruiser was soon a burning mess. Now the british cruisers and destroyers charged into the fray, and although the destroyers were themselves sunk by the german ships' secondary weapons, they succeeded in torpedoing the Prinz Eugen, crippling the heavy cruiser, which later sank.

The Scharnhorst tried to get away, but Valiant continued to pour shells into her with some spectacularly accurate shooting. Soon she stopped dead in the water and sank at 09:07. The Graf Spee should have escaped, but the Valiant was not done. At 10:15 and at extreme range, the british ship landed a 16" salvo with almost pinpoint accuracy. Hit by five 16" shells the Graf Spee was fatally holed, and rolled over and sank in under twenty minutes.

Niaid and Hermione picked up survivors, while the Valiant's crew could hardly believe their crushing victory. In one morning the Kriegsmarine had lost three of their most dangerous surface raiders, almost a third of her capital vessels, for the loss of three destroyers, a handful of swordfish and some damage to Courageous and Valiant's superstructure. Immediately the british were reporting the great naval victory, although it took the german regime several weeks to admit their losses. Hitler was furious, forbidding any further "rash actions" by the Kriegsmarine. The initiative in the atlantic naval war had shifted heavily in favour of the allies.

Repulse sank running Sydney blockade

Japanese fleet sinks Repulse. Nagato crippled

Battle of the western Med

With the Russians pushing through the Dardanelles in the eastern Mediterranean, Winston Churchill ordered that the Italians be cleared from the Western Med, at any cost. Churchill suspected Stalin was playing power politics over the future of Europe, and he was determined to show the Russian dictator the British resolve to keep the Mediterranean under British influence. To support this, the Royal Navy would have to clear the Italians out of the way.

Admiral Cunningham was determined to use every advantage he had over the Italians to the fullest. With Ark Royal refitting, air power could not be the deciding factor in the battle to come, but radar and night fighting ability could. Cunningham therefore resolved to attack at night. The second problem would be luring the Italians to battle, so the British made the decision to sail in force past Malta with a force of battleships. They would bombard first the African coast and if that failed to rouse their enemy, shell Taranto itself if necessary. The British stripped their other areas of control of all but the most vital assets. Cunningham now had Duke of York, Nelson, Resolution and Revenge, as well as three cruisers and a flotilla of destroyers. On 25th May 1942 this force sailed into Axis controlled waters, daring the Italian navy to come out and fight.

As it turned out the Italian Navy, despite their losses to the US fleet earlier on in the year, were spoiling for a fight and had already sent a powerful force to sea to face the Russians. This force now turned to intercept the British, but as planned Cunningham dodged the Italian fleet until night had fallen. Worse still an unseasonal gale blew up in the region, making conditions particularly difficult for both sides. Knowing his force had radar and were better trained in night fighting, Admiral Cunningham now attacked the Italian fleet.

The Italians soon detected the lead elements of the British fleet, and sent their light forces to investigate. The cruisers London, Dorsetshire and Norfolk were soon fighting a furious action against the italian cruisers Trento and Bolzano, and the arrival of the Italian battleship Ciao Dullio spelled disaster for the british vessels. Norfolk and London were sunk by a combination of gunfire and torpedoes, although the trento was reduced to a wreck by determined torpedo attacks from the British vessels.

Hearing these reports the Italian admiral felt that he had isolated a portion of the British fleet and would now eliminate it with his superior forces. The super dreadnoughts Littorio and Roma, accompanied by the modernised Guilio Cesare rushed to join the action, oblivious to the presence of the British battleship Nelson, which had kept her guns silent. Suddenly the italian searchlights played along the squat structure of the British battleship. Alarmed, the Italians launched a torpedo run by their destroyers, but to their dismay most of the torpedoes missed or failed to explode. Nelson suffered two hits, neither causing significant damage. Despite this setback the Italians still had four battleships to the British one, or so they thought. The Italians engaged Nelson and the Dorsetshire for around twenty minutes, before they were rudely awoken by lines of gun flashes along the horizon. The remaining British battleships had arrived, and took up station line astern of Nelson.

The Italian admiral now had a stark choice. Facing four British ships similar to his own, but with more destroyers who had yet to loose their torpedoes, at night and in bad weather knowing the British had radar, the Italian chose to run. In a well executed manouvre he ordered the about turn of Littorio, Roma and Guillio Cesare. The Littorio suffered a torpedo run from Cunningham's destroyers, but the giant ship was able to evade them by making wild turns. The Ciao Dullio was still fixated on the British cruisers however, which would cost her dearly.

The Ciao Duillio belatedly realised the Italian fleet was fleeing the battle and turning for home. She also turned for home, but by now the old battleship was facing the combined gunfire of five British dreadnoughts. Nelson. Duke of York, Revenge and Resolution poured fire into the ageing italian warship, and within one hour the vessel had rolled over and sunk. The remaining Italian vessels had escaped, the Roma having recieved no hits at all, and returned to port.

Having sunk one battleship and one cruiser for the loss of two cruisers, the British were able to claim victory. More importantly the Italian navy had fled rather than face the British guns, and now the Western mediterannean was firmly under the control of the allies.

Russia enters the naval war!

In spring 1942 the Russian navy made its presence felt for the first time in the war. After securing the agreement of neutral Turkey to pass their navy through the Dardanelles, in exchange for the relinquishing of territorial claims in the east, the Soviet navy prepared to sortie through the Sea of marmara into the eastern Mediterranean. Stalin had a geopolitical agenda as well, aiming to show Russian strength in the Mediterranean to support his claims over eastern Europe. This wasn't lost on the British, who began to step up their own campaign against the Italians.

The Russian sortie composed of three cruisers and four destroyers, but the news they had sailed was quickly leaked to the Italians, who dispatched Three Zara class vessels and four destroyers to intercept them. The two forces clashed in the eastern Agean, with the Italian destroyers making a torpedo run on the Russian vessels. Although they managed to sink one crusier, the destroyers paid the ultimate price, being sunk in turn.

The battle now revolved around the remaining cruisers, as of the two Russian destroyers which weren't sunk, only one managed to get off any torpedoes, and the Pola, damaged, quickly retreated under a smokescreen. The Italians now formed a battle line of their two remaining cruisers, and repeatedly crossed the "T" of the Russian cruisers, who focussed on presenting as small a target to the enemy by constantly pointing to face the Italians. The Italian shooting was poor anyway, and the Russian tactics only highlighted this fact. Another cruiser was crippled but the Italians in turn had Zara badly damaged by the front guns of the two soviet light cruisers. What should have been a victory for the Regia Marina turned into defeat, as Fiume and Zara also fled the scene, leaving the eastern Agean open for further Russian sorties.

In the Baltic the soviet navy also sortied in strength,, and the Kriegsmarine were alarmed to find that the Russians had completed and commissioned a super Battleship, the Sovetsky Soyuz class Sovetskaya Belorussiya. Displacing nearly 60,000 tons and armed with nine 16" guns, the ship left Leningrad and was quickly spotted by the German navy. Escorting her was the Kronshtadt, a recently commissioned battlecruiser, and the old WWI battleship Gangut.

In response the Germans sent Tirpitz, along with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and soon enough the two forces met in the Baltic. The judgement of the Soviet Navy was quickly called in to question as the Tirpitz opened fire on Gangut at extreme range. The ageing battleship was totally at a loss to reply, and within minutes was blasted apart by the superior firepower of the german monster. Kronshtadt and Sovetskaya Belorussiya replied with their heavy guns, damaging the Tirpitz, but not decisively. Eventually poor weather forced both sides to return to port, but the Germans now had the upper hand in the Baltic, although the discovery of a Soviet Super-dreadnought was cause for concern. 

US attack on troop convoy fails

During April 1942 the US became increasingly concerned by intelligence reports of a lareg troop buildup in the Marshall Islands. Following the US recapture of Wake Island, the Japanese Empire seemed to be preparing for the next big strike at American posessions in the eastern Pacific. The most likely target was Midway, and to disrupt the Japanese while the US prepared to defend their island bases, a task force was sent to attack the troop convoys now arriving regularly at Kwajalein Atoll.

Because the US fleet was still recovering from the events of Pearl Harbour, and new vessels were still undergoing construction or undergoing sea trials, the Japanese still enjoyed naval superiority in the Pacific. Despite the retaking of Wake Island the US forces were vulnerable, and British reinforcements would not arrive until May at the earliest.

The US admiral Chester Nimitz sent the carrier Saratoga, escorted by a flotilla of destroyers, as well as four Gato submarines to the area. The Saratoga soon found a large convoy of five troopships, escorted by a powerful Japanese fleet which included an aircraft carrier and two battleships. Saratoga and her escorts launched an attack wave of dauntless and devastators, while the Japanese similarly launched an aerial attack on the small US task force. The US carrier turned away under the cover of a smoke screen, while the Japanese and American fighters duelled in the air.

The Japanese and US bombing runs were ineffective, with the US pilots suffering at the hands of combined heavy anti-aircraft fire. Few made it back to the carrier after discovering the devastator torpedo bombers were particularly slow and vulnerable to AA fire. Only one torpedo found a target, the Japanese battleship Ise, and this did minor damage. An attack from two US destroyers on the Japanese carrier came to nothing, the Japanese battleships eaasily sinking the US escorts at long range before they could make a torpedo run.

The US did enjoy more success with their submarines, who had been radioed the positions of the Japanese convoy. Four submarines converged on the Japanese, managing to sink two enemy troopships and damaging the Japanese carrier before a determined attack by destroyers forced them away from the convoy. One Gato class vessel was sunk by the destroyers, but one of the Japanese escorts was also lost. The destroyer action bought time for the convoy however, and the remaining three troopships, crammed with Japanese soldiers, were able to get away from the slow moving submarines.
The US had inflicted some damage on the troop buildup but they had been unable to strike a critical blow. Now the US forces in the pacific waited for the next blow to fall.

Battle for Wake Island

Between the 10th and 12th of February 1942 the much awaited allied counter attack in the Pacific finally took place at Wake Island, which the US high command had decided to retake as a prelude to greater operations and a test of the resolve of their Japanese enemy.

The main landing force was protected by three battlegroups. To the north the battleship New York provided cover for the American flanks while the Yorktown formed the heart of the southern force. The main force of US carriers and battleships never saw action and the landing proceeded to plan on the 10th of February. Taken by surprise by the landings, the Japanese chanced upon the Yorktown with routine patrols, and launched an attack immediately.

A carrier battle developed to the north of the island even as the US forces landed on Wake. The Shokaku launched waves of bombers before retiring in the face of US aircraft bearing down on her, eventually disappearing over the horizon and out of range of the bombers. This also meant death for the Japanese pilots, but they pressed home their attacks with vigour, damaging the Yorktown badly and sinking the cruiser New Orleans.

The US pilots, robbed of their chance to sink a flattop did manage to sing the Japanese cruiser Aoba, but the result of the initial battle was a tactical victory to their enemy. Many Japanese pilots, forced to ditch, were picked up by Japanese destroyers once the US fleet had withdrawn to lick their wounds. Admiral Spruance was concerned, but the landings continued as no major Japanese had yet taken place.

During the night of the 12th however, the Japanese attacked again, this time with the super-battleship Musashi and the battleship Kongo. However the night action favoured the Americans, whose use of radar proved the decisive factor, as well as the presence of two US submarines in the area, who managed to inflict some damage to the Musashi, possibly influencing the Japanese commander to withdraw.

Between the battleships, who barely fired a shot at each other, a furious destroyer battle took place which quickly involved the cruiser Brooklyn. Both sides suffered horrendous casualties in their destroyer fleets, both losing eight escort vessels, and the American cruiser was sunk during the action, the Japanese torpedoes proving deadly. Repeated American torpedo attacks on the Kongo, along with a few salvoes from New York severely damaged the Kongo, and with the Musashi losing A turret out of action and suffering damage below her waterline, the Japanese withdrew. The landings on Wake continued unmolested, and the Japanese committed no more forces to the battle. By the end of February Wake had been retaken, the first step in what the allies hoped would be a fight back in the Pacific.