Off Coronel, 1 November 1914

Started by MengJiao, February 01, 2022, 10:28:01 AM

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MengJiao


   Now with a French armored cruiser (historically the Gloire-class Conde, but here represented by the Gloire herself)!  Apparently, a French Cruiser could have joined Craddock's squadron, especially if the Karlsruhe had blown herself up sooner:


On 21 August Condé left Kingston for Fort-de-France, arriving on
28 August. There she replenished and her complement was brought
up to full strength. The French cruisers were then left in
charge of the zone while Cradock hurried south with his own
cruisers to look for von Spee. On 16 October Condé joined
HMS Berwick to hunt for Karlsruhe off the Brazilian coast.
On 8 November, concerned that von Spee would pass through
the Panama Canal, the Admiralty concentrated all available
cruisers in the West Indies; however, five days later
he was signalled off the coast of Chile.
This chaotic situation stabilised following the elimination
of von Spee's squadron at the Battle of the Falkland Islands
on 8 December, and the cruisers resumed their search for
Karlsruhe, unaware that she had been lost to an
internal explosion on 4 November.


Jordan, John. French Armoured Cruisers (pp. 226-227).



MengJiao

#1
Quote from: MengJiao on February 01, 2022, 10:28:01 AM

   Now with a French armored cruiser (historically the Gloire-class Conde, but here represented by the Gloire herself)!  Apparently, a
French Cruiser could have joined Craddock's squadron, especially if the Karlsruhe had blown herself up sooner:


  A WWII French light cruiser Gloire is standing in for the armored cruiser Gloire and a generic WWII armed merchant cruiser is standing in for the WWI armed merchant cruiser Otranto.
After lots of manoeuvering, the sun sets and the Germans are silhouetted at 11,000 yds.  They should still have the advantage with their 8.2-inch guns...but we will see (and on the next turn
a little over half an hour into the battle, there are plenty of hits, but only one with a serious consequence -- a 7.6-inch shell from Gloire, at 7000 yds punches through the belt armor on Scharnhorst and
damages the engines reducing Scharnhorst's top speed to 20 knots.  It's going to be a long night.)
Or not...another hit knocks out Scharnhorst's forward 8.2 inch turret and flotation is getting close to problematic so, von Spee makes smoke and escapes south into the dusk: