homepage Forums SimHQ Community After Action Reports Glowworm (War on the Sea)

It's 8th April 1940 and in appalling weather, Gruppe Zwei, taking 1700 soldiers to occupy the Norwegian port of Trondheim, is struggling northwards. Separated from the flagship - the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper - one of the group's four destroyers, Z11 Bernd von Arnim, runs into a lone British destroyer, HMS Glowworm. The two ships exchange fire, but the heavy seas are too much for the German destroyer, which like her sister ships is a poor seaboat with unreliable very high pressure turbines. Other German destroyers are unable to intervene but relay von Arnim's reports to Hipper, which steams to the rescue...and the rest is history.

This battle comes with the Atlantic Campaign mod for War on the Sea. It's somewhat different to the original in that it opens with the two German ships steaming in line in a calmer sea state...and the German destroyer is the un-named Z27, commissioned in early 1941 and of a later type (1936A, von Arnim was Type 1934A). And the 36As didn't have their single forward gun mounts replaced by the intended twin turrets till later in the war.



I'm playing the German and am a bit taken aback when there's the wooshing and crashing of shells into the sea near Hipper. I can see precisely nothing of the enemy despite having radar in operation. So I order speed increased and start both my ships manourvrig independently, in the hope of locating the source of the incoming fire and also, avoiding it.



Hipper is twisting like a snake, as I've no desire to be hit by an unseen enemy. Why they can see us, but not the other way around, is a mystery.



Here we go! Z27 reports contact with a G or H Class destroyer at just over six thousand yards, which is crossing our 'T'.



I let Z27 close the range while turning Hipper to starboard, to bring her full broadside to bear, though wary of any torpedoes being launched.



Both my ships are shooting at the lone enemy destroyer, and are getting some hits.



But Z27 is taking a bit of a pasting in return. I turn her to port, to open her 'A' arcs too.



Caught in the crossfire, the enemy is soon in trouble...



...which inevitably, becomes catastrophic.



Z27 doesn't look to be in too bad a shape, but fires are burning within.



With the enemy destroyer below the waves, I continue to play, concentrating on damage control on my own destroyer. Her fires start spreading, faster than either damage control parties or even flooding can put them out.



Wracked by internal explosions, down she goes while Hipper circles back to pick up survivors.



In real life, von Arnim got away with storm damage while Hipper was damaged by Glowworm ramming her. Despite calmer conditions and a destroyer with heavier guns, I didn't do too well, methinks, even allowing for being unable to return fire initially and having my 'T' crossed by the time I knew what was what. As with Atlantic Fleet, gun battles in War on the Sea tend to start with the enemies quite close. so that you can find yourself drawn rather quickly into a knife fight. When replaying, I reckon I would open out the range and let my cruiser's 8 inch guns and superior protection decide the issue with less risk, although the downside is that she rather than my destroyer would have been the enemy's main target.

Anyhow I was glad Hipper didn't get hurt; this class is one of my favourite WW2 warships, with the Atlantic Campaign mod featuring two of the class, the other one being the famous Prinz Eugen.



At last, I have a worthy successor to Fighting Steel!

Very cool screen shots Lima, thanks for posting. Not bad for a $10 sim.

Luv the descriptions of action.