All Guns Blazing — September 2016

1 All Guns Blazing! Newsletter of the Naval Wargames Society No. 262 – SEPTEMBER 2016 EDITORIAL NOSTALGIA. IT AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE. Surveillance drones inspired by dragonflies, laser weapons, mobile robots, autonomous ships and UVAs and virtual reality helmets to practice calling in simulated air strikes. Using specialised headgear, our personnel could see simulated aircraft, enemy personnel and vehicles appearing on the real surrounding landscape, immersing and testing soldiers in complex joint forces situations. [Crown Copyright] These are the types of futuristic technology that along with other smart solutions are set to be backed by the government’s new defence innovation initiative, which launched in August. Model train enthusiasts overwhelmingly prefer steam locomotives for their layouts. Bullet Trains and Intercity 125s do not fly off the shelves in the same numbers as models of the Mallard and the Flying Scotsman. Change and improvement are unstoppable but there is something to be said for having the wind in your sails, putting your ship alongside your enemy and letting him or her have a broadside which can now only happen on the war-game table. Cheers. Norman Bell The “Inshore Squadron” was formed in 1998 to help commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of the Nile at the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth. Since then their models and demonstration games at the Naval Wargames Society Wargames Weekends at “Explosion” Museum, Gosport have never failed to impress.

2

3

4

5 The article on dazzle camouflage, is brought to our attention by Rob Morgan. Can you identify the ship in the picture? If so, let me know and give yourself some Brownie points. SEA QUIZ 56. The compiler of the original quiz in the first years of the decade of the fifties had an odd sense of humour, but he did draw some excellent responses from those who did know their stuff! One of these is a bit obvious, but number 3’s a beauty! 1. Who was known as ‘The Ocean Swell.’?....and why? 2. Which Admiral was known as ‘Old Close the Range!’? 3. What were known as number 7i’s? 4. What were ‘The Muckle Flugga Hussars’? 5. Last but not least….’The Holy of Holies’? ‘A Splendid Failure.’….Confederate Ironclad Matters. The Confederate Ironclad CSS Georgia bears this unfortunate title in a six page illustrated article by M. Blackburn in the September/October issue of the US produced journal “Archaeology” (pp. 44-49). The wreck of this warship has been found in Savannah harbour, in Georgia, and is in the process of examination. I found it very interesting, especially as the 1/1200th CSS Georgia, clad in old railroad iron, features in my ACW fleet. Never a great deal of use, she couldn’t steam under her engines, apparently, and was scuttled by the Confederates to avoid capture in Sherman’s great raid of 1864. The old Navwar model was described as an ‘Ironclad Floating Battery’, but a US illustration published in the article describes her as a ‘Confederate Ironclad Ram’! The funnel on the vessel is shown by the illustration as Sea Quiz 55 …answers. One or two difficult answers, but a couple were give-aways! 1. This was the Cruiser HMS Aurora (8th of that name.) A host of reasons were given by those who knew or thought they did! 2. This is slang for the English Channel, as you all know perfectly well! 3. This was the first flotilla of US warships to reach the UK in 1917, after Admiral Sims, C in C US Navy. 4. The guns of HMS Pegasus were landed and fought in German East Africa in WWI. 5. Easy this one…the veteran Submarine Depot Ship- Cyclops.

6 at one extreme end (stern?) of the superstructure, while that of the model is amidships. She didn’t go down very far when scuttled, and the wreck was used as a gunnery target in 1868, to break her up for scrap. The article is good ACW background, and an astonishing amount of equipment was left on board the Georgia when she was scuttled, about 170 projectiles, and it seems some seven guns, including two Dahlgrens, now all recovered. That seems surprising, given the dire straits in which the Confederacy found itself by 1864. In recent decades there’s been a huge amount of work on recovering ACW wrecks, and this adds some valuable wargames information about a little used warship- in fact or on the table top! The US ordnance journal ‘The Artilleryman’ (Summer 2016) contains a sound six page article by Jack Bell on “Fort Powell & the Mobile Bay Campaign’, pages 24- 30. It deals with the encounter which led to the loss of the Ram CSS Tennessee. A good read, plenty of material for the Rebel table-top Admiral Buchanan, and some good illustrations, including a contemporary map. I think Tennessee was the only Confederate capture to be taken into the Federal navy list (she was sold for scrap in 1867) but I may be wrong. Rob Morgan. Wednesday 23rd August 2016. North Korea has fired a ballistic missile from a submarine off its east coast, say the US and South Korea. The KN-11 missile was launched from waters near Sinpo and flew about 500km (300 miles) before falling into the Sea of Japan. Japan's PM said it fell inside Japan's Air Defence Identification Zone, calling it a "reckless act". It comes as South Korea and the US begin annual military drills, which routinely anger Pyongyang. “Ulchi Freedom” involves about 80,000 US and South Korean troops in a largely computer-simulated defence of South Korea from a fictional North Korean invasion. North Korea, which sees these drills as a rehearsal for an invasion of the North, recently warned they were pushing the Korean peninsula towards the brink of a war and threatened a "pre-emptive nuclear strike" in retaliation. North Korea is banned by the UN from any use of ballistic or nuclear technology. But in recent months it has carried out repeated missile launches, and is believed to be close to conducting its fifth test of a nuclear device. SLBMs are of particular concern because of the mobility of submarines and the ease with which launch preparation can remain undetected. The US State Department said it "strongly condemned" this, and previous missile tests, and would raise concerns at the UN. One area of the World which provides Naval Gamers with “what if” possibilities.

7 SIGNAL PAD! ANCHORAGE SUMMER SALE! A large delivery of Hai models both finished and as kits have arrived. These range from ironclads to today's warships. Our next shows are: 10th September Chatham Ship Show, The Historic Ship Yard 18th September Exeter Toy Fair West Point 25th September Bristol Toy Fair Abbeywood College Visitors are very welcome. Please phone beforehand to check I'm at home. There is a public carpark in front of house. Best regards Stuart & Slavi Welcome to new NWS Member Richard Bigg. There is just time to send your articles to Stuart Fieldhouse, fintactica@googlemail.com for inclusion in the next “Battlefleet”. HMS Forth, the first of five new offshore patrol vessel has arrived in Scotstoun where it is being fitted out with complex combat systems before being handed over in 2017. At the end of August, HMS Enterprise took part in the rescue of more than 6,000 migrants in one day in the southern Mediterranean as part of Operation Sophia. The ship saved 708 people from six ‘rickety boats’, and transported them to Southern Italy. The Italian Navy and Coastguard rescued over 5,000 men, women, children and babies from un-seaworthy vessels that the people traffickers fuel just enough to travel out of Libyan territorial waters. The number of people that set out from Libya and don’t make it is not known. Coming in October’s AGB: The Sea Quiz, Naval Command Wargame Rules, plus lots more he says confidently.

8 JOINING THE NAVAL WARGAMES SOCIETY If you have been lent this newsletter and would like to join the Naval Wargames Society, please follow this link to join our Society: www.navalwargamessociety.org. Membership secretary: simonjohnstokes@aol.com NWS Events and Regional Contacts, 2016 NWS Northern Fleet – Falkirk East Central Scotland Kenny Thomson, 12 Craigs Way, Rumford Grange, Rumford, Stirlingshire, FK2 0EU Tel: 01324 714248 e-mail: kenny.thomson@hotmail.com - Website: http://falkirkwargamesclub.org.uk/ Falkirk Wargames Club meets each Monday night at 7pm with a variety of games running each evening. Naval games are popular with 2 or 3 run each month. Campaign games sometimes feature in our monthly weekend sessions. Games tend to be organised week to week making a 3-month forecast here a waste of time. Please get in touch if you’d like to come along.  Popular periods – Modern (Shipwreck), WW1 and 2 (GQ), WW2 Coastal (Action Stations), and Pre-dreadnought (P Dunn’s rules) Devon and the West Country Naval Wargames afternoon/evening/all day on a regular basis. Contact Stuart Barnes Watson to arrange the details. stuart_barnes_watson@hotmail.com 3 Clovelly Apartments, Oxford Park, Ilfracombe, DEVON, EX34 9JS Tel: 01271 866637