Neil Wicker and Pat Hreachmack had a very interesting discussion last June concerning the actual effects of carrying troops aboard a destroyer, as the Japanese often did in WW II. I'm not talking about the APDs that were modified for the task, but just loading a bunch of guys on a DD and ferrying them to their destination.
Destroyers are terribly cramped to begin with, and the troops loads often doubled the number of men aboard. Careful organization will deal with things like messing and berthing, but what happens when a fight starts?
First, to make room for the troop's gear, the reload torpedoes were offloaded. Sometimes even the tubes themselves were used to store their gear, which means no torps at all. On the other hand, if you're carrying troops, you're not looking for a surface engagement.
Rule: If the ship is carrying troops equal to half or less of its complement, it isn't carrying any reload torps. If a destroyer doesn't carry reload torps, the tubes are used instead. If it is carrying troops equal to half or more of its complement, there are no torps at all. It's possible that DC stowage could be used for this as well.
There's also the matter of damage control. That many men below decks would certainly make it harder to move around. They're also unused to shipboard procedures and untrained in any type of damage control. The troops themselves are also a target, and should be entered on the critical hit table.
Ships carrying troops in a scenario should treat them as an additional "Other Weapon." Each Critical Hit on the embarked troops reduces their strength by 25%.
When attempting to reduce fire or flooding, add one to the die roll to reflect the difficulty of the damage control teams moving quickly through the ship.
Thanks to Pat Hreachmack and Neil Wicker.
BT
Back to The Naval Sitrep #19 Table of Contents
Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2000 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com