Historical/What if Battles

[HP_Dreadnought]

There's obviously a lot of knowledge here about historical battles and situations.

I would love it if people could share some scenarios for actual historical engagements, or engagements that MIGHT have happened. . . or even ones that were possible and would have been interesting, but never came about.

I'm really interested more in surface actions. . . destroyers, cruisers, battleships. I'm not interested as much in subs and carriers. I'm looking for orders of battle for each side, as well as any interesting/unusual events that happened or factors that had a bearing on the outcome of the battle. Fog, poor ammo handling, random electrical failures, etc.

Anybody have anything to suggest?

WWI I'm looking for British-German conflicts.

WWII conflicts involving any of the "big 4" would be interesting. Thanks!

(I'm going to post this on the U.S. forum also.)

[johnny07]

An interesting encounter that you might like to look up is the Hipper v gloworm of ww2

[Old Salt]

Battle of the River Plate would be a good one to investigate.

I had a computer game with this battle on it.

If I played 'British', I consistently got sunk.

If I played 'Graf Spee' I always won.

What about a scenario where she comes out of Montevideo with all guns blazing ?

Brian

[Scurs]

Old Salt........there used to be a PC Game I've mentioned elsewhere, called "Great Naval Battles"........it recreated Atlantic surface war WW2. You could play as "campaign" or play scenarios, one of which was Battle of River Plate.

Usually managed to win playing as British......I recall usually by torpedoing the enemy.

Managed to "save" GLORIOUS......."save" HOOD by getting POW to take the lead, but never managed to keep GLOWORM afloat!

A 1992 game that has never been bettered IMO.

[jainso31]

Let me get this straight-this "what if" battle -would it include what if the Hood had full magazine protection, as indicated;p following the ignominious loss of 3 battlecruisers at Jutland; which were not so protected.That she approached her opponent with her A arcs open instead of closed and was accompanied by a battleship that was virtually useless in action--I could go on but is this the sort of thing you want in this thread???


jainso31

[glojo]

Battle of the River Plate would be a good one to investigate.

I had a computer game with this battle on it.

If I played 'British', I consistently got sunk.

If I played 'Graf Spee' I always won.

What about a scenario where she comes out of Montevideo with all guns blazing ?

Brian

Do these games take into account the fact that Graf Spee only had 138 shells left, her main diesel propulsion engines
were badly damaged and she had not had time to carry out proper repairs caused by the three British cruisers? There were temporary repairs to all the holes beneath the waterline but these would never be a long term watertight solution.

Unfortunately the Graf Spee's fate was sealed through a couple of tactical errors just before the first battle and at its commencement. The commanding officer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Langsdorff) of the German pocket battleship was an honourable man, a true Naval officer and one that should be commended for his humanity.

A computer game is just that and they are an excellent way to pass the time of day, but they are just that.... A game.