PBEM - Battle of the River Plate Turn 4

"Helm – Starboard, full ahead."

"The Scheer is engaging both Ajax and Achilles now... Achilles has been hit!"

"Those big guns of the Scheer are a damn advantage we sorely need. Give me a battlecruiser any day!"

As the allied ships continued to pursue the German pocket battleship, the Spee turned to port to allow her front battery an arc on the Achilles.

What would follow would be a (relatively) lucky round for the Commonwealth forces.

Rolling a total of 4 on 3 dice (with a 13% chance of success), the Ajax landed a hit on the Graf Spee while firing at half capacity with her main guns. Her lone torpedo attack was ineffectual.

This damage meant that she wouldn't now have the extended range that she had been enjoying all battle.

Achilles attempted to add to this damage (firing for the first time), but wasn't quite able to get enough to cause damage.

In return the Spee split her fire between the Ajax and Achilles.

The Spee's main guns got 8 hits on the Achilles (a 9 would’ve been an automatic sinking). However the Achilles is now crippled. This means her Movement is reduced to 1, armour is weaker (by 1) and guns need a 5 or 6 to hit (with a 6 still counting as two hits). This was clearly showing the potential of the 28 cm guns.

Meanwhile in frustration Captain Bell (Hookie to his friends), launched one of the ship's Supermarine Walrus seaplanes to get a better idea of what was happening (or was it to get closer so he could hit the Spee with his sword?). Historical note: with her third salvo the German ship straddled the Exeter; shrapnel from the near misses killed the crew of the starboard torpedo tubes, started fires amidships and damaged both the Supermarine Walrus seaplanes.

A photo from the air crew showed that the Achilles wasn't faring well,

Things were starting to heat up.

I need to iron out that mat, as the photos aren't as great (or maybe I even just use my dark blue map for photos and add more hexes to the virtual map). We'll see, I haven't got as much time as I would like as work is actually pretty busy, so I shouldn't complain.

Next post, turn 5.