warspite1
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26th July 1942
The US Navy are out for revenge - although need to temper this emotion with the fact that they have transports to watch over.
The old battleships New York and Arkansas spotted an Italian light cruiser squadron and pulverised the hapless unit - which then barely escaped with just one cruiser afloat. New Mexico and Texas finished the job and were ordered to keep heading west to seek out any other units of the RM. Off the coast north of Benghazi they came across the Guilio Cesare. Idaho and Mississippi were ordered to attack and, in a most uneven contest between the WWI-era ships, the Cesare was sent to the bottom of the Mediterranean.
The 7th Cruiser Division, with the carriers under their protection, took the van as the USN continued to seek any possible targets - but there were none to be found.
The Allied navies, cursing their lack of destroyers, attempted to deal with the known U-Boat menace, whilst seeking to protect the transports from potential new ones. The US 10th and the British 1st Destroyer Flotillas left their respective fleets to attack the German Wolf Pack spotted south of Crete. The attack was successful but after taking serious hits, the remaining U-Boats made their escape. Meanwhile the 9th Destroyer Flotilla, although badly mauled from the previous encounter with a battleship, was ordered to continue through the Sea of Crete in order to appear in the Kythera Channel and hopefully catch any retreating U-Boats. Instead the British destroyers came across the Italian submarines they had previously duelled with and so began a deadly game of cat and mouse that resulted in destruction of all remaining Italian submarines and the almost total annihilation of the destroyer flotilla.
At this point the British ordered all ships - regardless of their state of repair - to sea. The US 1st Army was aboard transports south of Crete with little to no protection - the transports with Task Force 34 were no longer adequately covered, and the survivors of the British 9th Destroyer Flotilla was struggling to remain an effective fighting force. First the Greek Squadron put to sea with the four elderly battleships that had still not been properly repaired after their previous encounter with the Regia Marina. Warspite, Barham, Ramillies and Malaya headed into the Sea of Crete to cover the withdrawal of the 9th Destroyer Flotilla - but in so doing came across the Conte di Cavour 200 miles west of Rhodes. The Italian battleship fought well but could not overcome four 15-inch gunned battleships and was soon sunk. The Greek Squadron was ordered though the Kythera Channel to act as a picket for all three Allied task forces.
While all of this was happening, to the south of Crete, more U-Boats were spotted. The carriers Illustrious and Victorious used their already depleted air power to help destroy the German Wolf Pack, but at a cost of all remaining aircraft.
The final act of the day was the order to US ships Ranger and Wasp and HM ships Illustrious, Victorious, Ramillies, Malaya and the 9th Destroyer Flotilla to head for Alexandria.
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< Message edited by warspite1 -- 12/30/2016 1:34:34 PM >
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England expects that every man will do his duty. Horatio Nelson October 1805  |
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RE: How the Axis could have won II. Allied AAR - 
- I really wish there was a pause button......
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