British Situation Environment: Night, visibility 10%, sea state 4. Wind direction 250°, speed 20 knots. Dawn is at 0535. Location: Somewhere in the Philippine Sea, 2324 on 3 Apr, 1945 (Showa 18). British Operational Situation: The British Pacific Fleet, designated TF 57 and assigned in support of the fast carriers of American TF 58, carried out strikes on Sakishima Shoto, an island group south of Okinawa, starting on 1 April 1945. Kamikaze attacks on TF58 started on the same day, and the carrier Indefatigable was hit in the morning, along with the destroyer Ulster. Indefatigable was operational again within the hour. In the evening, the Illustrious task group was surprised by another flight of kamikazes, which managed to evade detection until they were 15 miles out. Hellcats of the CAP could not find them, and the next sign of them was as they were diving on their targets. One of them hit Illustrious as she was fueling and arming planes, diving through the open elevator before exploding in the enclosed hangar. Damage was heavy and casualties enormous, but quick and heroic damage control put out the resulting fires before the ship had to be scuttled. British Tactical Situation: Illustrious and Ulster have been sent back to Leyte under tow. An escort of two long-range W-class destroyer conversions will protect them on the journey. British Forces: Illustrious (Illustrious class CV), Captain C. E. Lambe, under tow by two fleet tugs, Lipan and Apache (both Apache class ATF) Ulster (‘R’ class DD), under tow by HMNZS Gambia (Colony class CL), Captain R. A. B. Edwards. Wallace and Whitehall (long range ‘W’ class), 27th Destroyer Flotilla British Orders: Escort the damaged vessels safely to Leyte. British Victory Conditions: Decisive: Avoid further damage to Illustrious, and inflict more damage points than are taken. Tactical: Avoid further damage to Illustrious. British Setup: Open ocean. Formation and movement at the discretion of the British players. Special Rules: Maximum speed while towing another vessel is 5 knots, and the maximum turn rate is 5° per Tactical Turn. Acceleration maximum is 1 knot per Tactical Turn. Every Intermediate Turn, check the towline for parting. In the current sea state the chances are: Speed Chance (kts) of parting 1 5% 2 10% 3 15% 4 20% 5 25% Turns greater than 5° automatically part the towline. Special Notes: Remember to include emissions status on turn orders. Japanese Situation BT Back to The Naval Sitrep # 24 Table of Contents Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history and related articles are available at http://www.magweb.com