SMK-at-work
Posts: 3396
Joined: 8/28/2000 From: New Zealand Status: offline
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FYI there's a nice page that lists every ship in the RN and where it was stationed at the outbreak of war here There are a few discrepancies - even allowing that many ships might be assumed to be included in various other units: BB's: In the game there are 10 in home waters (7 Home Fleet, 3 Channel), which is more or less correct (1 of the 10 was refitting but was back in service at Scapa in early September), although it should be 8 and 2. There are 4 in the Med when there should only be 3, and 1 in the Far East when here should be none - 2 BB's refitting in the UK seem to have made it into the order of battle some time before they were ready - they did not become available until Feb 1940 and Jan 1941. CV's - there are 5 in the game - 1 each Home, Channel and Far East fleets, 2 in the Med Fleet. Actual deployment was 1 in Home, Med and Far East (ie China Station) Fleets, 2 in the Channel, 1 at Rosyth (Edinburgh more or less) on training duties made into a front line unit, for a total of 6. Cruisers: 28 Cruisers in the Home, Channel, North Atlantic & Med Fleets are represented by 9 Cruisers. At an average of, say, 3 Cruisers per strength point, the British are missing about 10 Cruiser points scattered around the world - particularly from Asia/Pacific and Sth Atlantic. Destroyers: the RN had about 110 modern and 70 old destroyers in service at the start of the war. Some of the old ones were being converted the "escort ships". Many others were scattered in squadrons around the coast of England and at stations empire wide. There are 7 units in the game representing all "deployable" destroyers. Submarines: 3 submarine units 1 each at home, Med & Far East, represent over 50 modern submarines. A quick Summary for the Kriegsmarine: 3 BB's seems reasonable for 2 Scharnhorsts, 2 "Pocket Battleships" and 2 old pre-dreadnought BB's in service in Germany 1939 (Graf Spee was of course, famously, not there at the time!). 2 CA's for 2 heavy and 6 light cruisers is not unreasonable (viz 1 per 3 cruisers for known UK numbers they could arguably get 1 more) 2 DD's for 22 Destroyers gives a strength of about 11 DD's per point - in which case the UK should get about 4 more. 6 Sub II's for 62 subs (6 Type IIA, 18 Type IIB, 2 Type IA, 10 Type VIIA, 8 Type IXA, 11 Type VIIB, 7 Type VIC ) means the UK should get 2 more The Italian fleet gets 3 BB II's and 1 BB1, 6 cruisers, 4 destroyers and 10 subs when it joins the war. This represents 4 old reconstructed WW1 era BB's, and 2 new BB's. The Roma joins later as a BBII. The WW1 era BB's were only armed with 12" guns - and even reconstructed they probably should not be BBII's. Andrea Doria and Caio Duilo's rconstructions were not finished until October 1940, so they should not be in the initial fleet, but should arrive in November 1940. Given that much larger British "Super Dreadnoughts" of the Queen Elizabeth & "R" class are only BBI's, there is no case for the WW1 era Italian ships to be BBII's - the fleet should start with 2 BBI's and 2 BBII's, and get 2 more BBI's in November of 1940. the 6 cruisers represent 19 heavy and light cruisers - there were also 3 pre-WW1 era old cruisers I don't count. This seems reasonable if other navies are given Cruiser units at the same ration of about 1 per 3 ships - which means a lot more for the RN! 4 Destroyers cover 57 destroyers - at 1 per 11 they rate 1 more. 10 Submarines represent no fewer than 116 submarines - so is pretty close to the ratio for the Kriegsmarine - but again if the ratio is to be followed the RN needs about 3 more units.
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