All Guns Blazing — March 2017

All Guns Blazing! Newsletter of the Naval Wargames Society No. 269 – MARCH 2017 EDITORIAL “Salute” is the next big wargames day in London. We've now been confirmed a table at Salute 2017 (22nd April), looks like there's still going to be a couple of slots left for free entry into the show for NWS members so please drop me a line if you want to come along and help out running the game. The game, in keeping with the show theme this year of the Russian Revolution, is a river gunboat participation game based on actions that took place on the Dvina in North Russia in 1919. Thanks Simon Stokes simonjohnstokes@aol.com Get there as a visitor or give Simon a hand if you can. Also do not forget about the Naval Wargames weekend at “Explosion” Museum in the summer. There is just time to send any articles for the next edition of “Battlefleet” to Stuart Fieldhouse at fintactica@gmail.com The plan is to have the usual tip top standard “Battlefleet” available for possible new members to see at “Salute”. Welcome to new NWS Members, Seg Giddings, Roger Sidwell and John Carlson. NWS continues slow but sure growth. Cheers Norman Bell FORTUNE OF WAR. Mentioned in the Daily Telegraph newspaper and possibly others:- a giant French Flag, captured by one of Lord Nelson’s ships is to be put on display for the first time in 112 years. The 52ft by 27ft ensign, which is nearly the size of a tennis court, was captured when the French ship Le Genereux surrendered at the Battle of the Malta Convoy on Feb 18th 1800. Nelson and one of his captains, Sir Edward Berry, presented the trophy to the City of Norwich. It has been kept in storage since 1905 but will be on display this summer in the city’s castle.

The formation of the Royal Navy Submarine Service took place in 1901, an event which was closely followed on 20 March 1902 with the first dive of Holland 1. She was lost in 1913 while under tow to the scrapyard following decommissioning. Recovered in 1982, she was put on display at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport.

Here is a reminder of the questions of Sea Quiz 58 and the answers. Check out www.spanglefish.com/mickyarrowminiatures for 1/1200, 1/3000 and 1/4800 scale ships. Also flags suitable for Norman, Saxon and Viking vessels. Mick Yarrow 7 St Peters Lane Laxton Goole East Yorkshire DN14 7UA Tel: 01430 431009 Rob Morgan

The following is from the MOD Website. With a flash of fire and a thunderous roar, HMS Daring lit the gloom in spectacular style with the test firing of a Sea Viper missile. Missile success for HMS Daring [Picture: Crown Copyright] The rare sight of an eruption from the silo was a jaw-dropping experience for those on board. Sub Lieutenant Alexandra Evans was on the bridge when the ops room gave the order to test the system. She said: “It was incredibly bright and fast. It shot off in the blink of an eye. We were watching from the bridge and you could feel the anticipation and adrenaline as everyone waited, silently, listening to the ops room counting down the track. “All eyes were fixed on the launcher. It was all very British when the test was confirmed. There were no high fives or cheers – just a sense of a job well done.” Missile success for HMS Daring [Picture: Crown Copyright] The first of the Royal Navy’s six Type 45 destroyers, Portsmouth-based HMS Daring has had a very busy life. She completed a circumnavigation of the globe from May 2013 to February 2014, during which she conducted important trials of her radars in the Pacific Ocean, helped relieve the stricken islands of the Philippines after typhoon Haiyan struck in late 2013 and conducted wider regional engagements in the Far East and Asia. Sea Viper is the combination of the Sampson radar system – the distinctive spinning spiked ball on top of a Type 45 destroyer’s main mast – and the Aster missile system in a silo on the forecastle. Depending on the missile used – the shorter range Aster 15 and longer range Aster 30 – the system can deal with aerial threats up to 75 miles away, protecting not just the ship herself but an entire task group.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Royal Navy bomb disposal experts detonated an unexploded Second World War bomb on 22nd February after it was dredged up from the bottom of Portsmouth Harbour. The German SC250 bomb was found in the early hours in the excavator head of a barge dredging the harbour – part of the infrastructure upgrades taking place in readiness for the arrival of the Royal Navy’s new 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier. Divers from the Royal Navy’s Portsmouth-based Southern Diving Unit 2 towed the bomb away from the harbour, lowered it to the seabed, and planted explosive charges for a controlled detonation of the device. It was destroyed in a plume of smoke and spray. This type of Second World War German SC250 bomb weighs 500lb and contains 290lb of high explosive. This is the fourth unexploded bomb found due to the dredging works that are taking place for the arrival of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers. These bombs

are still dangerous despite being several decades old and sitting at the bottom of the seabed for such a long time. English Channel and Isle of Wight Ferries are stopped, train services terminated at Fratton Station. Roads, the “Gunwharf” shopping centre and part of the Naval Base are closed each time just to be sure.

More from ‘Spy Story.’ My note on the Len Deighton novel dealing with big wargames was, my colleague Geoffrey suggested, ‘incomplete.’ Thanks Geoff… On Pages 64-65, there appears a crucial point in the wargame, when Red Suite acquires two Be- 10 ‘Mallow’ jet flying boats operating from Murmansk ( and I thought this was a seventies novel?) . The Red Ops commander decides to ‘put the ‘Mallows’ down on the ice’ to hunt for a US Elint sub. Saying’ they’ve got wheels-either the ice is thick enough to take the weight of them, or they’ll float.’ Hm? Interesting…….not surprisingly the Study Centre Umpire decides to wreck the two, but the Red Ops commander argues that it could be done. Could it? The ‘Mallow’ was a poor choice of flying boat, so obviously sound fiction, as most of them, only around fifty were made in all, operated in the Black Sea I believe, and in any case the aircraft suffered problems after crashes in the early sixties, was made of poor quality aluminium and indeed only had auxiliary landing gear, they were after all, simply flying boats. The question is of course whether this or any other Soviet flying boat could operate in this unusual way? Well armed and with a decent ASW suite it might, as Deighton’s book suggest change the tactical maps if it worked. Is there a wargame option in this? Has it ever been done? Rob Morgan 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