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The June 2001 AusBG "Battle for Walka".

Queen's Birthday Long Weekend
June 9th - 11th, 2001

A man and his shed
Glendon and Leonie Pryor welcomed all to their home and into their shed, where feverish preparation took place late into the night. Glendon stands in front of his workbench on the Saturday morning, preparing RMS Littorio (out of frame) for battle
Photo: Simpson

Preliminaries.

The Meet.

The 2001 June Nationals took place over the 3 day Queen's Birthday long weekend. The format being as follows:

Saturday Morning - preparation of vessels.
Saturday Afternoon - a standard campaign battle.
Sunday - two standard campaign battles.
Monday Morning - Last Man Standing battle.

The hosts, the Newcastle Battle Squadron, took a great deal of care to make sure everyone was welcomed, accomodated and looked after generally. They did a wonderful job, especially the Pryors.

Members once again travelled long distances to sink and get sunk. Attendees came from Bowning, Canberra, Sydney, Armidale, Brisbane and Fremantle Western Australia.

Due to problems getting score sheets promptly in January at Bowning, special effort was made to follow them up at this meeting and as a result a running score was available at the end of each campaign battle at this meeting. This had a major effect on how the battles developed as each side now knew where they stood, what was working and what was not.

The Vessels.

A total of six armed vessels took to the water and engaged the enemy, while eleven convoy ships ran the gauntlet.

**Allied Warships**
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	USS Indiana Skippered by Mark Raisbeck, Newcastle Battle Squadron. Overall Allied Commander Photo: Shaw
	HMS Invincible Skippered by Gordon Cranfield, Desert Edge Battle Squadron (Western Australia). Photo: Simpson
	USS Alabama Skippered by Richard Simpson, Sydney Battle Squadron. Photo: Shaw

**Axis Warships**
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	RMS Littorio Skippered by Glendon Pryor, Newcastle Battle Squadron. Overall Axis Commander Photo: Simpson
	VNS Strasbourg Skippered by Bill Kirwan, Canberra Battle Squadron. Photo: Simpson
	Panzerschiffe Deutschland Skippered by Scott Darcy, Newcastle Battle Squadron. Photo: Simpson

**Allied Convoy Vessels**
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	SS Mission Capistrano Owned by Michael Raue, TONE (Armidale) Battle Squadron. Skippered by many. Photo: Simpson
	HMS Nelson Skippered by Owen Foster, Newcastle Battle Squadron. One of the vessels we hoped to have armed, but, alas it was not to be. Photo: Simpson
	HMS Terrible Skippered by Steven Cowan, Sydney Battle Squadron. Photo: Simpson
	SS Margaret Anne Owned by Mark Raisbeck, Newcastle Battle Squadron. Skippered by many. Photo: Simpson
	SS May Bee Skippered by Matthew Shaw, Newcastle Battle Squadron. Photo: Shaw
	USS Iowa Skippered by Bruce Curran, Iron Bottom Sound (Queensland) Battle Squadron. Photo: Shaw

**Axis Convoy Vessels**
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	SS Imperator Owned by Glendon Pryor, Newcastle Battle Squadron. Skippered by many. Photo: Membrey
	SS Fuso Maru Owned by Michael Raue, TONE (Armidale) Battle Squadron. Skippered by many. Photo: Simpson
	SS Fujikowa Maru Owned by Brett Farquharson, Bowning Battle Squadron. Skippered by many. Photo: Shaw
	VNS Jean Bart Skippered by Richard Single, TONE (Armidale) Battle Squadron. Another vessel we hoped to have armed, but, alas it was not to be. Photo: Simpson
	Hindenburg Skippered by Gary Oschadlin, Iron Bottom Sound (Queensland) Battle Squadron. Another vessel we hoped to have armed, but, alas it was not to be. Photo: Hawkins

The Course.

The course was laid out so each side's convoy vessels has 3 buoys to go around to do a lap. One buoy was off the merchant's home port and the other two were common to the two sides, one 50m out and the other half way between the two ports. This meant a warship that wanted to go hunting would have to come away from its port, and risk itself on the high seas, to get a crack at the enemy merchants.

Skippers were restricted to only their own side of the "half way" buoy in and effort to make it a bit harder to get in close and pound. This worked rather too well and nobody was very happy with it. We might try something else in future battles.

In the photo, the Allies used the port on the left on Saturday and the port to the right on Sunday. The Axis visa versa.

The Course
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Saturday Afternoon