Pitch black night in 1956, crowded Gulf of Suez, and a surface task force in two separate elements divided by about 50 miles. To the north the flagship, Her Majesty's Fiji-class cruiser Newfoundland (1943, 11000 tons, 9 x 6-in) supported by the destroyer HMS Diana (1954, 3800 tons, 6 x 4.7-in). At thesouth end of the Gulf the frigates HMS Crane and HMS Modeste (1943 and 1945 respectively, 1500 tons, 6 x 4-in) with the fleet oiler RFA Wave Sovereign (1946, 16500 tons).
Our orders are to maintain an overt posture, patrol the northern 2/3 of the Gulf, and engage/destroy any Egyptian naval units. ROE dictate to fire only after being fired upon. At scenario start, midnight local, there are roughly two dozen radar contacts, about evenly divided between the norther and southern groups. A couple have been identified as dhows, but the remainder are simply blips on a scope.
With six hours to complete the mission, I elected to leave the two groups separated in order to cover the most ground and proceeded to sweep both units north. Before too long one of the unknown contacts to the south self-identified as hostile... by opening up with a furious barrage at the Wave Sovereign. Which, being an oiler, responded by immediately catching fire.
The task group commander reacted quickly, bringing the two frigates to flank speed to close the range quickly so their 4-inch batteries could engage. The contact was identified as the Egyptian destroyer El Qaher, herself part of Her Majesty’s navy as the Z-class destroyer Myngs until just eighteen months ago. Her larger 4.7-inch guns outreached the two frigates by several miles. After its initial barrage the Egyptian shifted fire to the nearer of the two charging RN ships, HMS Crane. Both sides began inflicting damage with the Egyptian taking the worse of the volume of fire. The Crane was handled roughly too, with both forward 4-inch mounts damaged severely and the aft offline as well. The undamaged RN frigate, HMS Modeste, closed to within range of her 40-mm Bofors guns and repeatedly swept the Egyptian with all guns. In minutes she was aflame from stem to stern, and the RN flotilla turned away.
The map still contained dozens of unidentified contacts, most of them near-stationary and likely fishing dhows. I flagged anything moving over 5 knots as “Unfriendly” so I could keep track of them. I then built a plan to identify and, having been fired on once, eliminate all the Egyptian ships. The nearly undamaged Modeste was assigned to scout out all the southern unknowns, which all appeared likely to be dhows, while Crane was assigned to stay with the rather badly damaged and out-of-communication Wave Sovereign.
In the north I rearranged the formation to avoid any further possibility of being out-gunned. With Newfoundland’s 6-inchers ranging 12 miles and Diana’s 4.5-inchers at 10, I set Diana to maintain relative station 2 miles directly ahead of Newfoundland. Any contact that came within gun range could be fired on by both ships.
The one wild card was a potentially unfriendly contact in the central Gulf of Suez. It was about equidistant from the two groups, now separated by about 60 nm, and it was outside radar coverage. With the cruiser group in the north facing two likely opponents, and so far the unknown not showing up on Crane or Modeste’s (thankfully still functioning) radars, I was willing to let that one lie for a bit.
The Newfoundland churned north at full speed, identifying and then ignoring a multitude of small craft, before identifying an MCM on a 14-knot intercept course. Shortly thereafter the frigate Domiat was picked out as well, again a former Royal Navy craft, this time a River-craft escort. Both were brought under fire and duly executed before they could get within range of their 4-inch guns. That roused out two small motor torpedo boats, Fairmile D's from Port Adabieh, fast but also inadequate to the task. They met the same fate as the two larger ships.
I turned the cruiser group south at flank speed, now looking to find, fix, and destroy the missing ship in the central gulf. I brought the Modeste up from the south and the cruiser group from the north. Newfoundland’s surface-search radar found her first, and the two formations closed. I timed it so all three friendly ships came within firing range simultaneously, and the ship, frigate Rasheid, succumbed in less than ten minutes.
Mission complete with a "Triumph" and adequate points to move on to Mission 2. It also could have come completely undone in the opening 10 minutes, if I'd lost the Wave Sovereign. All in all this one was fun and a nice re-introduction to CMO, I've been away a while. On to some variety of border skirmish!!!
