Friday, 19 August 2022

The Battle of Pantelleria, July 1938 - A Find, Fix and Strike Scenario

The French air force has been bombing Italian convoys supporting the Italian invasion of the French Protectorate of Tunisia, by land forces based in Italian-occupied Libya. The Italian army high command has requested support from the Regia Marina to bombard the airfields along the coast, in order to stop the French bombers from cutting off supplies of fuel, ammunition and equipment that are essential for the invasion to make progress. 

A powerful bombardment force consisting of the modernised battleships Guilio Cesare and Conte de Cavour (F), with an escort of light cruisers, has sortied from Taranto to conduct a night-time bombardment of the airfields. The French naval intelligence division has de-coded Italian signals traffic and a French cruiser squadron, led by the heavy cruiser Algerie, has been dispatched from Bizerte to intercept the Italian bombardment task force.

This is a night action, with visibility at 12'' (full moon), a moderate sea state and a fresh wind blowing from the NW. The French and Italian command and crews are all rated as Average. The French must cripple both of the Italian battleships to win the action, while the Italians must inflict at least heavy damage on all of the French cruisers to claim victory. The scenario will end after ten turns, when both sides will be forced to break off due to the threat of a daylight air attack.

I'll have a crack at playing this scenario, which is based on a Naval Thunder scenario for the first battle of Guadalcanal, at some point in the next couple of days

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