Jutland Campaign German Sortie No.4

 In Sortie no.3 the Germans attempted to gain economic brownie points by sinking shipping in the Skagerrak & off Bergen in Norway.  The High Seas Fleet went to the Skagerrak while a Task Force of Light Cruisers & Destroyers simultaneously went to Bergen.  The Bergen mission was a success, but the HSF was intercepted by the Grand Fleet before it could complete its mission. 

The battle in the Skagerrak, described in an earlier post was indecisive, but at nightfall the Germans were inside the Skagerrak Bight with the Grand Fleet between them & home.  The Germans managed to find a way to avoid the grand Fleet during the night & all ships made it home.  While only one British capital ship was sunk, both sides faced the need of some rest after two back to back sorties & a long period of repairs before they can take their whole fleets to sea again. 

However the Germans did not take their 6 obsolete battleships of the Deutschland Class to the Skagerrak & they immediately embarked on Sortie no.4 sending the old ships across to England bombard Hull & gain another economic Brownie point.  The raid took the Brits by surprise, but the ships did not get off scot free being attacked by planes & submarines on the way home.  The 2nd phase of the sortie involved sending out a Task Force of light ships to scout for British minelayers in the Helgoland Bight.

This task force encountered a detachment of British destroyers & light cruisers they identified as the Harwich squadron which had set out in a vain pursuit of the raiding force.

The two fleets were evenly matched, but neither side was keen on causing a bloodbath & they dallied around just out of effective range for some time.  It was pretty obvious both sides were hiding something.

The first new arrival for the Germans was a Zeppelin (base only visible in pic).  Then Beatty showed up from the north.  The Germans about faced & ran SE.

The British followed in hot pursuit, but they suddenly had second thoughts when torpedoes started shooting past their leading destroyers - revealing they had run into a wolf pack of German submarines.  Only one destroyer was hit, but the Brits called off the pursuit & turned for home.  

We whipped through about 4 hours of game time in a bit over an hour with the only shooting being several torpedoes fired by hidden subs.   It is a fact of life in this era that it is hard to force a decisive action, but with hidden campaign movement the risk of disaster is still always there & this keeps the games exciting & interesting. even when they are in the end indecisive.