The June 2001 AusBG "Battle for Walka".

The First Battle - Saturday Afternoon.

The Battle.

As the time for battle approached, eager eyes scanned the clouds looking for a break, and just before 2pm it came. The storm blew over, the wind dropped, and the sky cleared to a brilliant blue afternoon. We had fine weather from this point to the end of the meeting on Monday afternoon.

The sun was now smiling on our mid-winter meeting. Let the battle commence !

Launching next to the dam wall, the allies quickly had 4 warships and 3 merchants at sea. HMS Nelson was soon found to have defective guns and withdrew but USS Indiana, USS Alabama and HMS Invincible stood toe to toe with the Axis. The Axis were able to launch 3 warships from their port near the pontoon to match (RM Littorio, VNS Strasbourg and DKM Deutschland) but only got 1 merchant, the ever present Fujikowa Maru onto the water in this battle. With many merchants deployed and no great advantage in warships, the Allied Admiral (Mark Raisbeck) directed his skippers to make sure the merchants made it through. This strategy worked well, with Mission Capistrano and HMS Terrible soon completing two laps each, then the wheels came off and the Allied battle plan fell apart.

Mission Capistrano Goes Down.

Taking her oportunity while USS Alabama and HMS Invincible were in port, and USS Indiana occupied by VNS Strasbourg, RMS Littorio snuck in and ran along side Mission Capistrano. It was just a few seconds, a few well placed shots, and Mission Capistrano was doomed.

Mission continued seemingly unhurt, but slowly she was settling. Eventually the rising water reached the low mounted servos inside Mission Capitrano's hull and it was over bar the shouting. When Michael Raue called '5 minutes - out of control' on his merchant the Axis swarmed in to make sure of her, but their efforts were not needed. Out of control, Mission Capistrano turned slowly through a 24 point turn while the waves washed across her rear pipe deck, then her stern slipped under and down she went in 20 feet of water.

Click on a thumbnail to see the full sized picture.

Mission Capistrano, out of control.	Millimeters of freeboard left.	Her rear pipe deck is now fully underwater.	Strasbourg hurries in to claim a kill.
Photo: Simpson	Photo: Simpson	Photo: Simpson	Photo: Simpson
Bill is to late.	Mission Capistrano's stern drops away.	Her bow points to the sky.	She plunges to the bottom, 20 feet down, her float deploying moments later.
Photo: Simpson	Photo: Simpson	Photo: Simpson	Photo: Simpson

The Destruction of HMS Terrible.

Shocked by the loss of Mission Capistrano the Allies were disorganised and confused. The Axis took advantage of it and stuck again. HMS Terrible was Steven Cowan's first vessel in Biggun, though he was already an accomplished model boat builder in 1/144 scale. He was still learning and it showed. With a high freeboard, Terrible presented a lot of surface to the wind and sailed with a permanent list contra-windward. Seeing all three Axis warships ahead, stopped and waiting for him, with not an Allies ship in sight, Steven decided to return to port, but this time the list was due to more than wind action. HMS Terrible was taking on water. Running for home she was pumping steadily but the list was just as steadily increasing. Just before her starboard railing went under, water made it into the radio gear and she kicked into reverse, another Allied convoy vessel out of control. Strasbourg rushed to finish her, but as she approached HMS Terrible's list diminished and after one shot from Strasbourg which passed completely over the sinking troop transport, Terrible suddenly rolled fully onto her beams ends and vanished stern first beneath the surface of the Walka Dam.

Built as an experiment from Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) soaked in fiberglass resin, HMS Terrible suffered when underwater. The shots she had taken had cracked the resin seal on the MDF and under 10+ psi pressure, water penetrated inwards, warping and destroying her MDF frame. HMS Terrible will never sail again and we will avoid using MDF as a structural material in the future.

Click on a thumbnail to see the full sized picture.

Out of control, HMS Terrible reverses out towards deep water.	She rolls onto her beam ends.	Her stern goes down.	She plunges to the bottom 20+ feet below.
Photo: Simpson	Photo: Simpson	Photo: Simpson	Photo: Simpson

The Rest.

The Allies were convinced they had to pull of a miracle to win this round and threw themselves at the Axis forces. Unfortunately, HMS Invincible started to behave erratically and the Allies pulled in to cover her withdrawl. Several times it seemed all control had been lost and Invincible would sink, but she finally made it back to port under her own steam.

Now there were just two Allied warships to the three Axis with one merchant left on each side. The warships threw themselves at each other and serious damage was done. Honours appeared to be about even until USS Alabama returned to port to re-arm. While in port her transmitter unit was trod on and the aerial snapped. After a quick test on shore, Alabama sortied again hoping that all would be OK with just the stub aerial, and for a while that was the case. Eventually, however, she sortied too far and went out of control. She appeared lost but by holding the two parts of the aerial together in his hand, her skipper manage to get her back home.

The battle ended with the Allies despondent and the Axis well pleased, the Axis had lost nothing while Alabama and Invincible ended the battle with defects and Mission Capistrano and HMS Terrible were sunk.

Surprise was total when the scores were announced. Allied 3055 points to Axis 2055 points. The Allies had won the battle!

The detailed score was carefully analysed over the spit roast that night, and it was discovered that the convoy runs were the key to the Allied victory. A successful run by a typical merchant (a Liberty ship for example) was worth 1,000 points, but such a ship lost was just a 500 point deduction, so even if a merchant was sunk twice for each successful run, its side would break even. With the Allies having 6 completed runs to the Axis 2, the Allies had won hansomely despite their losses.

Merchants were the key and each side digested the implications. Overnight all outstanding problems were corrected and each side went into the next day of battles confident. The Allies because of the score sheet, the Axis because of their performance on the pond.

Both sides had surprises in store for them.