Italy at the start of WW2 faced essentially 3 scenarios : war against France, war against Britain, war against both. In all 3, it was essential to keep open sea communications to Libya and the Italian possessions in the Dodecanese islands. Regia Marina – the Italian royal navy – enjoyed the benefits of a central position in all cases, but was bottled up in Mare Nostrum (the Mediterranean name in Latine, « Our Sea ») if it ever went to war against Britain, and perhaps also against France as access to Gibraltar implied sailing along French controlled Algerian coast.

Left with a strong navy at the end of WW1, Italy saw its naval power steadily decline until a few years before WW2. This was due to the restrictions of the treaty of Washington, budgetary constraints, and the lack of regard Il Duce had for his naval arm.  It did not take long before competent Admiral THAON di REVEL was replaced at the head of the Regia Marina by more pliable officers. For a time, prior to the Ethiopian Invasion, it was far from certain Italy would be a threat to Western Powers : in 1934, it resolutely sided with France and opposed the attempted nazi takeover of Austria. The sanctions it was subjected to brought out a reversal of Mussolini’s positions in this matter, and the Spanish Civil War cemented Italy’s alliance with the Third Reich.

BATTLESHIPS

Italy never owned a carrier in WW2, on the assumption that its central position awarded it of air control over surrounding sea expanses. This was never the case, as cooperation with the Italian Air Force never reached a satisfactory level. The « barber shop stripes » on the Italian bows are a recognition device designed chiefly to prevent Italian airmen from bombing their own ships… At the start of the war, Italy had 4 dreadnoughts , 2 of the Cavour Class, 2 of the Andrea Doria class.

Extensively rebuilt and upgraded in 1937, Andrea Doria was a fast ship, toting 10 x 320 mm guns. It was moderately armored, but fairly fast (26 kt). Undamaged at Taranto, she took part in but one combat, in the inconclusive action of the 1st battle of the Gulf of Sirte under the command of Admiral Iachino. She saw escort duty and was eventually interned in Malta after Italy’s surrender.

VITTORIO VENETO

Second ship of the Littorio class, launched in 1937 & commissioned in 1940, she was at the apex of battleship technoly at the time, in a class shared by the French Richelieu and the German Bismarck : fast, well armed and armored, she could have posed the Royal Navy the same kind of problems posed by the Bismarck and the Tirpitz. This was not to be, not out of an excess of pusillanimity, but because Axis fuel resources needed to be husbanded : fuel for Rommel’s panzers first, the remainder for naval operations. Vittorio Veneto saw action at Cape Spartivento, and came close to inflicting a defeat on the Mediterranean squadron, and at Matapan, where, as admiral IACHINO’s flagship , she was torpedoed by a Swordfish biplane. Repaired, she was once more torpedoed by HM submarine Urge in December 1941. She was interned after Italy’s surrender.

HEAVY CRUISERS

Fast, well gunned & armored, the Zaras were well-balanced ships, equivalent to any European competitor, and superior to the French ones. Launched around 1930, they sported 8 x 203mm guns in their main battery, and 16 x 100 mm guns as secondary armament but no torpedoes.

She took part in most of the surface engagements in the Med. Damaged by an Allied air raid in 1943, the ship under repairs was seized by the Germans, but deemed beyond repair. Eventually broken up in 1947.

She served throughout 1940, possibly destroying a turret on HMS Berwick at Cape Teulada. Hit by a Swordfish torpedo at Cape Matapan, she lost propulsion. Her fellow cruisers, Zara & Fiume were surprised and destroyed by Bristish battleships in their rescue attempt. Pola herself was latter finished .

LIGHT CRUISERS

Well armed & extremely fast, but poorly armored (their armor being equivalent to that of a Panzer II), the Giussano class light cruisers suffered from a poor conception, as they had but a single steam main, leading to possible immobilization of the ship if hit.. The risk was deemed negligible, but nevertheless happened to Colleoni at Cape Spada. Banda Nere was the last to be sunk, by a torpedo from HMS Urge in March 1942.

The Abruzzi class light cruisers were an improvement of the Condottieri class, they were as fast, as armored and slightly better gunned (10 x 152mm to 9) than their French La Galissionnière class equivalents. Garibaldi took part in the battles of Calabria & Matapan, took a torpedo hit in July 41, and eventually was interned  in Malta after Italy’s surrender.

One of the Condottieri class cruisers, Duca d’Aosta was a lucky ship that never took a hit throughout the war. As fast, but less armored and gunned as the French La Galissonniere, she took part in the battles of Calabria and Sirte, and various attempted intercepts of British convoys to Malta. She was eventually was interned  in Malta after Italy’s surrender.

DESTROYERS

A class of 8 built in the second half of the Twenties, the Turbines, named after winds, were somewhat outdated at the outbreak of WW2. Moderately fast for Destroyers (33 kt) they were lightly armed (2x2 x 120mm guns and 2 x triple torpedo mounts). All were sunk in action.

A numerous class of 17 ships, the Soldati were well armed and relatively fast (35 kt). A real workhorse of the Regia Marina, they took part in most naval actions in the Mediterranean. At least 10 were sunk in action. Armed with 5 x 120mm guns, and 2 triple torpedo mounts.

Let's face it, it's hard to identify a 1/2400 model, however great the sculpt can be. From 1 meter, it's not that easy to tell a Kagero from a Fubuki destroyer. So you'll need a way to identify ships. Of course, you can be content with scribbling the ship name under the base, but it's not handy to pick up the model to check its name under the base. It's better to have the label on the upside, but then, it needs to be nice not to detract from your work.

It's not that hard : all you need is a color laser printer, and a computer equipped with Excel (or any substitute) and good old MS Paint. First you need to write the ship name in an excel box, like this.

1 Okay, now it's better to have different colors to differentiate nationalities, I picked this light blue grey for the Royal Navy, but the choice is yours !

2 Then give the box thick sides, you'll need them when you cut off your label,

3 I prefer a right side alignment (nothing political, eh!) for the ship name because I'll add a flag to the label. These models represent ships on which brave men fought and died, however misguided and criminal their leaders were, adding a flag to the label is but a small tribute to remembrance of their sacrifice.

Fortunately, the Nimitz ships lists are topped with flags, you can pick it from there, using the snipping tool, and edit it with MS Paint. You'll also find lots of other sources on the web if you don't play these rules.

Now the hardest part, resizing the flag so it can fit your Excel box. Copy, paste into the box, et voilà !

Make as many labels as you need with Excel, then copy and paste them into MS Paint.

That's the trick : copy and paste them into a Word file. Now resize your MS Paint work, say to 66% and paste it into the Word file. Resize it again to 50%, and paste it again : this way, you'll have 3 different labels for each model, and you can pick the best sized one to fit your base.

Never had France, since the times of Napeleon III’s Empire, had such a strong navy, with some of its ships at the cutting edge of naval technology : its Gloire class light cruisers were unmatched in the world when they were launched, and its contre-torpilleurs, its big destroyers, were capable of speeds above 40 kt, unrivaled except by light torpedo launches , its battle cruisers of the Dunkerque class and battleships of the Richelieu class were innovative designs, well capable of preserving the vital sea routes to North Africa. The man at the center of this revival was François DARLAN, who would become a key player in the Vichy collaborationist state, shown here a few days before his assassination.

And yet the French Navy of that time never lived up to the expectations. That was of course the result of the failure to fend off the Blitzkrieg. The point of the blog is neither to discuss what went wrong then, nor what could have been had it not or had France followed another path after its defeat however. I’ll just leave it there, for you, dear reader to ponder and dream about it.

There is no discussion that the « Royale » - the unofficial name French sailors give the Marine Nationale as the ministry is located Rue Royale in Paris – was first & foremost designed to control the Western basin of the Mediterranean, and, to accomplish that goal, keep open sea lines to Tunisia & Algeria against the Italian Regia Marina. Some day, perhaps, I will design a campaign about this, and the problem of safeguarding parallel sea lines of communication – the Italians had likewise to keep open communications to Libya…

BATTLESHIPS

The core of the French Navy was its battleships : at the start of the war, France had 7 commissionned capital ships : 2 old Courbet class dreadnought, 3 slightly newer Bretagne class (Bretagne, Provence, Lorraine), and 2 recent battlecruisers, Dunkerque & Strasbourg.

Fast and well armored, it sported 2 x 4 barrelled 330mm turrets forward, and her secondary battery in 3 3 x barrelled 130 mm turrets aft. Launched in 1935, she was scuttled in Toulon in 1942, but before that was severely damaged at Mers-el-Kebir. Towed back to Toulon, she was never fully repaired. This is one of my older models, and at that time I was not too  demanding on paint scheme accuracy.

A very successful design, Richelieu was a well protected, well armed, and fast ship, that could have dominated the Western Mediterranean, a role it had been intended for and yet, ironically, never fulfilled. Armed classically with 8 x 380mm guns, yet in 2 forward four barrelled turrets , and a 155mm battery of 9 guns in 3 turrets aft, it took part in the battle of Dakar that saw the Vichy French navy inflict a tactical defeat on a Royal Navy force tasked with taking control of Senegal. Repaired, refitted  and added to the Free French fleet, it joined the RN Far Eastern Fleet and was present at the battle of the Malacca Strait.

CRUISERS

Namesake of her class of 4 cruisers, she was also the sole survivor, the other three being scuttled at Toulon while she was interned at Alexandria after the 1940 Armistice. Well armed and fast, she suffered from her weak armor, which was however an improvement over that of the preceding class. Added to the Free French Navy in 1943, she spent the remainder of the war mostly in lusterless but vital sea-control missions in the South Atlantic.

ALGERIE

Successor to the Suffren class, namesake and only ship in her class, Algerie was a  well balanced ship, well armored, fast and toting the classical 8x8" guns main battery of most heavy cruisers in World War 2. Sadly enough, she never got to take part in a naval battle, and ended up scuttled at Toulon in 1942.

Part of the Dugay-Trouin class of 3, she was deployed to the Far East squadron at the start of the war, and consequently never received a Loire 130 seaplane. Well armed with 9x 155mm guns, fast, she was virtually unarmored, the thickest plates no thicker that the armor of a Panzer II. She nevertheless fought a winning battle at Koh Chang in 1941 under the command of Capitaine Bérenger, leading a motley collection of sloops and inflicting a crushing defeat on the vastly superior Siamese navy they caught at anchor. She was sunk  by US naval aviation in 1945, under the Japanese occupation of French Indochina. For all his efforts, Bérenger had to retire in 1945 as it was not commendable then to have fought under the flag of Vichy.

Gloire & Montcalm were part of a class of 6 ships built just before WW2. Very well protected, fast, and with a main battery of 9 155mm guns, they were better than German or Italian light cruisers. Half of the ships were scuttled at Toulon, of the remaining 3, Montcalm & Georges Leygue took part in the victorious defense of Dakar in 1940. With Gloire, they served after the occupation of Southern France with the Free French Navy. Montcalm intercepted a German blockade runner, and with her sisters, took part in the following Allied landings in Corsica, Normandy and Provence. These are part of my older models, and at that time I was not too  demanding on paint scheme accuracy.

DESTROYERS

Designed around 1925, the 12 torpilleurs de haute mer of the Bourrasque class were in fact powerful destroyers, toting 4 x 5.1" guns and 2 x triple torpedo mounts, with a good speed of 33 kt. Most were lost during the war, either at Toulon, or in battle, during Operation Dynamo in front of Dunkerque, or Operation Torch in front of Oran.

Vauquelin & Kersaint were part of a 6 class ships, both were scuttled at Toulon. They were big ships, ported 5 x 138 mm guns and could reach 36 kt. All ships of the class were sunk either at Toulon, or in action off Syria (Chevalier Paul) or by accident (Maiilé Brézé at Greenock).

FANTASQUE CLASS

Fantasque & Terrible were big ships, fairly similar to the Vauquelin class. Like them, they carried 5 x 138mm guns, and 2 triple torpedo mounts. Their best known quality was, however, their exceptional speed. They were deemed to be the fastest destroyers afloat at the time, Fantasque reaching  an astounding top  speed of 42.75kt.

The refight of our previous game, somewhere North of Java, some time at the end of winter in 1942. Here are the opposing sides, 2 fairly evenly matched forces. In the previous game, the Long Lances had availed the IJN of a crushing victory, sending both  Houston to the bottom, alongside with a Clemson class DD 1 box from sinking. Would it happen again ?

Starting positions were according to NIMITZ rules, and both fleets were facing each other, still out of range. 10 ships a fleet make the 1’x1’ starting square of each fleet severely crowded, making each player forced to adopt a multicolumn placement…

This left little room for niceties, as both sides understood it would be like a bar room brawl, not unlike 1st Guadalcanal. IJN won advantage on the 1st 2 turns. 1st turn saw te fleets get closer, and things started in earnest no later than turn 2. 

The gunnery phase was quite bad for the ABDA : a single Japanese DD was hit (though the crit destroyed a torpedo mount), but De Ruyter, Exeter & Van Galen were hit, Van Galen ending crippled. Then it was a festival of Long Lances. Both Myoko & Haguro, both Jintsu and Sendaï, as well as a destroyers Siratsuyu and Samidare let loose with all they had at Houston.

Surprisingly, not a single hit was achieved, taking a lot of the fangs out of the IJN’s maws.

Turn 3 saw the ABDA win the advantage roll for the 1st time, and they would do so till the end of the game. While Myoko put an end to the sufferings of Van Galen in the secondary battery phase, the main battery phase saw  2 interesting duels take place.

The 1st one pitted  Encounter and Piet Hein vs Harusame & Murasame, seeing Murasame destroyed by a torpedo and Piet Hein severely damaged, Harusame & Encounter taking moderate damage. Light cruisers of both sides, each side supported by DDs, engaged on a duel at point blank range. This saw the end of De Ruyter in the gunnery phase, but a torpedo from a Clemson  class sent Jintsu to the bottom (Renzo Tanaka will have to find a new flagship !). Haguro and Houston traded desultory long range fire, with a plunging shell from Houston scoring a solid hit on Haguro however (destroying 4 structure boxes).

Turn 4 saw Sendaï & Java keep on their duel, Sendaï taking some damage in the process. The plucky Clemsons took on the Japanese heavies, losing USS Edwards but adding 2 more boxes destroyed & planting a 21’’ fish into Haguro, which was very close to being crippled. Shiratsuyu, Shigure and Samidare finished off Piet Hein, one of them being also destroyed by shots from Exeter & Houston.

The next turn saw a decrease in the violence of the struggle, as both sides started to disengage. Java & Sendaï however were once more heavily damaged, but remained afloat. Turn 6 was the last one, both sides disengaging, trading desultory & ineffective shots. The butcher’s bill was bad for everyone : ABDA lost De Ruyter, Piet Hein & Van Galen, took heavy damage to Java, light damage to Exeter. The IJN lost Jintsu, Samidare & Shiratsuyu, taking severe damage to Sendaï & Haguro.

We agreed on a draw, and stopped the game at that point, it could have gone either way, with perhaps a slight edge to the ABDA.

Few people are aware of the tragedy that was the lot of the gallant Dutch Navy in World War 2. Indeed, the war did not stop for the Dutch after Germany invaded their homeland : there remained, on the other side of the planet, a place they had called home for centuries, their Dutch East Indies colony. As of now, this place is called Indonesia, with a booming economy & an expanding population of 285 millions people. But at the start of World War 2, it was a Dutch dominion, ruled from its capital Batavia, modern day Djakarta.

This all came to an end at the end of 1941, when Japan started a war aimed in priority at laying their hands on the mineral & energy ressources of the colony. A mere 3 months later, on 5th March 1942, Batavia fell. For Admiral Hellfrich, commander of the Dutch Navy in the Pacific, Java was home, his birth place, and he made sure forces under his command fought tooth & nail to stop the invasion.

Dutch Surface Naval Forces in the Pacific consisted of 3 light cruisers and 7 destroyers, under the tactical command of Admiral Karel Doorman. The ships were relatively good, and of reasonable age : HNMS Java, the oldest ship, was built in 1921, the most recent, HNMS Tromp in 1937. But facing the more recent Japanese heavy cruisers and destroyers, they were utterly outclassed.

This light cruiser was Admiral Doorman’s flagship. Built in 1935, it carried 7 x 150mm guns in 4 turrets (Turret B had but a single gun), but no torpedoes. It was fast enough, but lightly armored, as most light cruisers built in the thirties. It was sunk at the battle of the Java Sea on February 28th 1942, taking most of her crew, among them Admiral Doorman, to a watery grave.

Built in 1921, it still kept an adequate speed, and its armament was not inferior to that of De Ruyter, consisting of 10 x 150mm guns, the arrangement of which only allowing 7 to fire at a same target. Like De Ruyter, i twas deprived of torpedoes. And like De Ruyter, it met its end at the battle of the Java Sea under the guns of cruisers Haguro & Nachi.

The most recent ship, she was also lighter and less armored, but sported a decent 6 x 150 mm guns main battery. And unlike the other two cruisers, she was fitted with 2 triple torpedo mounts, one on each side of the ship. She was also luckier, having been damaged earlier in February 1942 and sent to Australia for repairs that were completed in May. It kept serving the A llied cause till the end of the war, to be decommissioned in 1955.

8 of these ships, with a variant, were built between 1925 & 1930, so buying both blisters available from  GHQ , 4 models each, will net you the whole class. They were very efficient ships, well designed for their time, but of course, they were hard pressed to fight  the bigger and better armed Japanese destroyers. 1 was lost in Europe, and the other 7 were lost in the campaign around Java.

Admiral Beatty’s management of the Battlecruisers force at Jutland remains a subject of controversy, more than a century after the battle. The truth of the matter, however, seems to be less a lack of protection than defective ammunition procedures, compounded by a rash decision to rush at Hipper’s throat, cancelling the advantage awarded by his bigger guns’ longer range.

Under Beatty’s command, on that fateful 31st May 1916, were 6 battlecruisers and the 4 superdreadnoughts Admiral  Evan-Thomas’  5th Battle Squadron, the biggest, best armored, heaviest gunned ships (15’’ caliber guns !)  of the line at the time. Confused signals kept them too far away at the start of  the engagement, compounding Beatty’s tactical error. Under his command only the 6 ships of the 1st & 2^nd Battlecruiser Squadrons rushed at Hipper’s force.

British Battlecruisers design evolution, illustrated with this top-down picture : the apparition of superfiring turrets gave the Lion & Tiger class improved arcs of fire. The most notable improvement, though, can’t be made out on the picture : instead of 12’’ caliber guns like the Invincible & Indefatigable classes, they sported 13’’ guns

HMS New Zealand and Indefatigable

Barely improved versions of the original Invincible class battlecruisers, the class comported 3 ships in all, alongside HMAS Australia that was accidentally damaged days before the battle and so missed the engagement. Indefatigable was the 1st RN ship lost at Jutland. New Zealand survived the battle without even being hit.Tradition has it that her captain wore the traditional Maori garb & amulets he’d been offered by a Maori chieftain for the protection of the ship.

The Lion Class

The « Splendid Cats » as they were collectively known, were the joy and pride of Admiral Fisher. They  were better gunned, 13’’ caliber guns instead of their predecessors’ 12 ‘’, moreover sporting superfiring turrets forward, giving overall better arcs of fire. They were fast, and better armored (though not as  well as their German counterparts). Lion was Beatty’s flagship, and took part at the Dogger Bank battle where i ts propulsion was knocked out, ruining Beatty’s ability to pass orders efficiently, and hit again at Jutland, where she was saved from Indefatigable’s & Queen Mary’s fate by the quick thinking and sacrifice of Royal Marines Major Francis Harvey who managed to get the magazines flooded. Queen Mary was the 2^nd Battlecruiser exploding during the battle. From Lion’s bridge, a bitter Beatty commented « There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today ».

HMS Tiger

The last of the « Splendid Cats », Tiger was an improved version of the Lion class. Launched & commissioned in 1914, she took part in the Dogger Bank engagement. She was moderately damaged at Jutland, but her gunnery was deemed to be the poorest of the Battlecruiser Force, that was itself inferior to that of Jellicoe’s Battle Squadrons.

5th Battle Squadron

HMS Warspite

HMS Barham

HMS Valiant

HMS Malaya

Attached to Beatty’s Battlecruiser Force, they were left behind at the start of the battle due to bungled signals from HMS Lion, and the strict adherence to received orders, traditional among British admirals of the Victorian era ; Admiral Evan-Thomas, the 5th BS commander, was no exception. He nonetheless managed to get back in time to pull Beatty’s squadron from its predicament, inflicting Grievous damage on Hipper’s ships and the 1st Battle squadron of  the High Seas fleet, getting hammered in return. With the exception of Warpite that was badly damaged, the British Queen Elizabeth suffered no combat efficiency loss for the treatment, dishing out more than they got.

British Destroyers

A few L class Destroyers, as some of those that were with Beatty’s force at Jutland.

My second contact with the battle of Jutland came in the late eighties, with the little group of wargame enthusiasts that played around Bordeaux. At that time, we used The MicroFleet series to play naval battles, especially the WW1 pack that allowed you to recreate the whole of Jutland – we never tried ! – and more simply, battle cruisers battles.

That brought me to purchasing models from Navwar – much less expensive that GHQ’s, to accommodate my modest purchasing power then – and with a friend, we used these to play the Run to the South (the 5th Battle squadron was there, but for them I used the Microfleet counters). In that battle – sorry, no pics – I remember the German player decided to rapidly  close the distance as the Brits were  turning to bring all guns to bear and he feared their longer range. In that instance, he allowed his T to be crossed, with devastating effect – Beatty would have been happy ! – and broke the engagement after losing a battlecruiser to nothing for the Brits. The 5th Battle squadron never had a chance to close the distance.

Nearly forty years later, and with a bigger purse, I decided it was time to replace these long sold Navwar models with GHQ ships. They still have to see the tabletop, perhaps using the WW1 NIMITZ rules set spinoff you can find on Sam Mustafa’s Facebook group. Or, if I’m lucky to find an able & willing  opponent and have the wherewithal to hang on through the game, Harry Pratt’s excellent NAVAL THUNDER rules.

First, a  topdown view of the 4 German classes, highlighting the evolution of their design (bigger size, superfiring turrets)

SMS -Seine Majestäts Schiff - Von der Tann took but a mere 18th months from order to launching, and as much again to commission.  Bewildering times as we see know how long it takes to build a mere frigate… Anyways, Von der Tann sank HMS Indefatigable, but  took a beating at Jutland, losing all her primary battery guns, but gamely staying in formation to attract British fire.

SMS Moltke – sister ship of the infamous Goeben also took but 3 years from order to commission. She too was also heavily damaged at Jutland, coping 15’’ shells from the 5th Battle squadron.

SMS Seydlitz, a one-class ship, ordered March 1910, commissioned May 1913. She was nearly sunk in 1915 at the Dogger Bank, and at Jutland, was once more so heavily damaged that she barely made port again, miraculously escaping the clutches of a vengeful Grand Fleet.

SMS Lützow was the2nd  of the German Battlecruisers to be commissioned after the start of the Great War, beginning her career in may 1915, and becoming Admiral Hipper’s flagship. Unlike her predecessors, she sported 12’’ guns instead of their 11 », with superfiring turrets both fore and aft. Jutland was the only time she ever saw action, as she was too badly damaged to get back to port and had to be scuttled. She was the most advanced ship lost by any side during the battle.

SMS Derfflinger was Lützow’s sistership, being commissioned on September 1st 1914, less than a month after Great Britain’ s entry into the war. She took part in the battle of the Dogger Bank, and was heavily damaged at Jutland, suffering KIA losses of 1 man for every 7 crew member in the occurrence.

Lastly, some German S Class Torpedoboote, part of a modern and numerous class that saw combat at most of the naval engagements of World War 1

I started collecting WW1 Micronauts with the ships present at the battle of Coronel. At the time, you couldn't find a GHQ model for SMS Nürnberg, so I substituted SMS Bremen in its stead, and acquired both HMS Canopus and SS Otranto from another manufacturer. I added HMS Defense, which barely missed being present in the South East Pacific at that time.

Coronel… A forgotten battle today, but one from which the mind recedes with horror at te image of the savagery of the combat, of its  terrifying conditions, of the horrible butcher’s bill at the end of it, of the utter absurdity of it all : 2 commanders trapped in the rigid code of honor of 19th century European aristocracy fought a battle that could but doom them and their crews to destruction : Craddock, hopelessly outmatched by the superior German squadron, Von Spee trapped by geography and logistics, fully aware that after his victory, a merciless chase would be on. And yet they fought, in the cold water of Southern Chile, in a stormy November night…

The British

Good Hope, launched in 1901, and already an obsolete design, with half of her secondary 6’’ battery out of action in moderate weather conditions, without modern targeting equipment, barely good enough to show the White Ensign in far off backwaters. Sunk with all hands.

Monmouth, throwing a heavy, but desperately outranged punch, one of the 10 County class cruisers launched in 1901. Sunk with all hands.

Glasgow, a modern light cruiser, with the punch to outfight German light cruisers and the speed to outrun Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. Heavily damaged, retreated and was present for retribution at the battle of the Falklands.

HMS Defense, somewhat of an unlucky ship. Flagship of Admiral Troubridge during the Goeben chase, its squadron retreated when admiral Troubridge, who was court-martialed for his decision, wisely renounced to intercept. It could have been present at Coronel as it was ordered to join Craddock’s forces but  the order was cancelled as the Germans were still in the Pacific at that time. It met a fiery death at Jutland, the 4th Royal Navy ship lost to a magazine explosion that day.

The Germans

SMS Scharnhorst & Gneisenau, possibly the best armored cruisers ever built. Heart of the East Asian Squadron, they were also reputed to be the best gunnery specialists of the whole German Navy. The reservists on board Good Hope & Monmouth never stood a chance against them. Likewise, they were utterly outgunned, out-sped, out-armored when they had to tackle HMS Invincible & Inflexible at the Falklands, 2 battlecruisers specifically designed to destroy marauding armored cruisers.

SMS Dresden, Leipzig & Bremen (to substitute for SMS Nürnberg). Unlike their heavier brothers, they were outdated ships, sporting a light armament compared to their British counterparts. Their crews, however, like in the rest of the squadron, were top notch.  Nürnberg also gave the derelict Monmouth the coup de grâce at Coronel.

The French

Lastly, and because I cannot think of another page to display it, the French semi-dreadnought Vergniaud of the Danton class. After taking part in the battle of Antivari at the beginning of the war, the Vergniaud spent the remainder of the war in lackluster - but risky, as illustrated by the torpedoing of its sister ship the Danton, -  blockading duties. Part of the allied task force at Sebastopol during teh Russian Civil War, its crew took part in the  mutiny that affected numerous French ships in that occurrence.

Since my youth, I’ve always been a fan of military history, especially naval history. I can date it back to my 14^th birthday, more than 50 years ago, when a friend offered me “Tonnerre sur le Pacifique” written by Commander Vulliez.

I’d always been an avid reader, but that was my first “long” non-fiction book. Vulliez had mostly made a shorter recapitulation of Morrison’s naval history, adding some colorful portraits & vignettes (McArthur’s voyage out of the Philippines and arrival in Australia, the last stand of the Houston...). All this captured my imagination, and I was enthralled. I started reading history, first about the Second World War, then about nearly every conflict that ever occurred.

A few years later, I stumbled upon an oddity, “La Bataille de l’Océan”, written by a retired French naval officer in 1932. It was a novel in a genre inaugurated by the late Emile Driant under the moniker of Capitaine Danrit, a genre which led to the works of Tom Clancy, a genre of novel based on available information,  in which the story revolves about a possible coming war. In that novel, Fernand Boverat imagined a war between France & Germany where the decision is made... on the open seas! The novel is made of two parts. In the 1^st one, the French Navy, hopelessly outmatched by the Germans’ Deutschland class, cannot protect the vital convoys carrying supplies from the United States. The 2^nd part revolves around the same theme, but this time France has built its Dunkerque class battlecruisers, and with these, victory is at hand.

Over the course of my studies, I managed to acquire a reasonable command of the English language, which opened to me the many treasures of English naval fiction. Too many books to quote them all, but if I had to pick one, Fullerton’s “The Blooding of the Guns “ made a lasting impression on me. This left me a strong supporter of Jellicoe’s in the everlasting Jutland controversy, and have had quite a few – gentlemanly, as naval fans are a civilized lot- debates on the web.

This is why I picked up wargaming some 40 years ago. I had a glimpse of my first GHQ Micronaut at that time. It was still unpainted, but the richness of detail and the quality of the cast didn’t fail to impress me. But the price of the models made it a challenge for a beginning teacher’s salary, a challenge unattainable at that time. I’ve grown older since, and richer, and thankfully, my eyesight and hand coordination are still good, good enough for me to be able to start a growing collection over the years.

There has been a few years interruption since I started collecting Micronauts however, and you’ll notice that some of the models are, well, not up to what I do now,as well as my photo technique (about a year ago, I started using backgrounds). Please be indulgent! We live & we learn! I will not want to delay you longer with these inane ramblings, just to give an illustration of the path that leads to GHQ addiction... and now, let’s form line of battle, and cross the enemy’s T!