Military History

The Battle and Siege, 8-23 December, 1941

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

Amidst the bursting, flashing Japanese shell fire explosions of the pre-invasion naval bombardment impacting around Wake island that late December 1941 night, Second Lieutenant Robert M. Hanna, commander of the antiaircraft machine-guns of the beach defense, could hear the ever growing sound of many approaching ship and boat engines offshore. Two of Wake Island’s huge 8-million candle arc 60-inch search lights snapped on, their brilliant lights turning darkness into day while clearly showing two destroyers headed at high speed directly towards the island’s coral reef shore. In addition, other landing craft filled with men were heading towards nearby Wilkes Island. This confirmed all of Hanna’s worst fears and suspicions. He now knew what was about to occur and shouted to his men. “I need four volunteers! You, you, you and you! Come with me!” Corporal Ralph Holewinski and three civilians ran alongside their officer towards a nearby unmanned 3-inch anti-aircraft gun that had been recently emplaced there to cover the beach. Hanna intended to use it in a direct fire role upon the destroyers that were now noisily running themselves hard aground upon Wake’s coral reef. There were no sights on the cannon, so after prying open a box of ammunition, Hanna sighted in on the nearby ex-destroyer by looking down his gun’s bore as he aimed at the ship’s superstructure up forward. The closest ship was well less than 200 yards away, but clearly defined in the searchlight’s brutally brilliant glare. The gun spoke and his first round was high, but he corrected his aim and the second ripped into the ship’s bridge, badly wounding its captain and navigation officer. Hanna went on to score more direct hits on the grounded ship’s superstructure followed by dozens more along its entire length, turning it into a slaughterhouse.

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Wake Island The Battle and Siege 8-23 December 1941

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

The first shrieking Japanese aerial bombs to land upon Wake Island that hot early December morning exploded among the 8 Marine F4F-3 Wildcat fighter planes parked along the island’s airstrip. As the first bombs impacted, two Marine pilots sprinted towards their waiting Wildcats, then warming-up on the airfield apron and parked outside the unfinished protective revetment plane bunkers. Direct bomb hits killed both pilots and destroyed their planes as well as the other 6 Wildcat fighter planes standing close nearby. The four remaining Wildcats, who were aloft and still on the outbound leg of their air patrols well offshore, never saw the Japanese bombers because of extremely poor visibility. By the time they returned, much of their island atoll was under a thick pall of black smoke. The 34 land based Mitsubishi “Nell” Japanese bombers, flying from their airfield at Roi in the Marshall Islands, made a leisurely slow turn above the island as if happy and pleased with the viewing of their handiwork. They returned home without loss. The enraged Marines on Wake Island who watched their departure could do little more than curse, impotently grit their teeth, and angrily shake their fists at their attackers. The next time the Japanese bombers came, the island garrison would be ready and would give far and away much better than they received then and during the days to come.

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The Scarborough Naval Raid, December 1914

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

The silent grey line of massive battle cruisers sailed majestically and intimidatingly out from the mist shrouded winter sea wastes, and the fog shrouded cloud banks seemed to part out of respect at their passing. Morning was coming to these northerly latitudes, but it would be some time yet before the winter sun’s rays could cut through most of the foggy gloom. However, a freshening offshore breeze raised the fog, revealing the intended targets ashore. The warship’s main gun turrets swung out for a full broadside salvo as firing solution data was relayed from the range finders. The gun barrels now adjusted their elevation accordingly. Bright booming flashes belched forth from the gun muzzles followed by gouts of black cordite smoke as the giant shells arched their way across the sky towards their intended targets inland. The other warships inline followed suit, adding their own explosive steel to the man made hell they were creating ashore. The high explosive shells detonated throughout the town and upon its factories, shipyard and support facilities, causing great consternation and considerable civilian casualties amongst those who were then on their way to work. However, this was not some historical scenario from WWII taking place along the shores of occupied Europe, this scenario actually took place in three towns along the Yorkshire coastline. Nor were the affected civilians German, French, Belgian, Dutch or Norwegian, they were British civilians and the warships offshore delivering this punishing artillery bombardment were German battle cruisers of the WWI German High Seas Fleet carrying out a series of punitive shore bombardments upon the towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby England in December 1914.

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The David vs. Goliath naval battle between destroyer HMS Glowworm and the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

A fierce Force 10 late winter gale blew across the icy, storm swept Norwegian Sea on the early morning of 7 April 1940 as the solitary British destroyer HMS. Glowworm, badly hit and blazing brightly from numerous shell hits from German heavy cruiser and destroyer gun fire emerged from behind her own smokescreen to confront her five attackers. She was now running at a full flank speed of 38 knots to present an impossible and nightmarish spectacle to the nearby German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper. Many of Hipper’s crewmen’s jaws dropped open in shock and awe at what was about to befall them. The heavy cruiser had already successfully dodged 2 salvos of Glowworm’s torpedoes, before hitting the British destroyer a number times with her main and secondary gun batteries, setting the ship afire. Glowworm’s Captain Lt. Commander Gerard Roope, noting Hipper’s position, now deliberately cut across the cruiser’s bow, before putting his helm hard over to deliberately ram the cruiser. Glowworm’s bow slammed into the Hipper just abaft her anchor, scrapping along its starboard side for over 150 feet, The collision ripped away both most of Glowworm’s own bow and a good deal of armor plate from the Hipper’s side. One of Hipper’s torpedo mounts was sheered away overboard and the cruiser shipped over 500 tons of seawater through the rents in her hull, but was able to contain the damage. Not so the Glowworm. Even though ablaze from stem to stern a few of her guns were still in action as she continued to hurl their hatred at the German enemy. The out of control fires quickly reached the destroyer’s ammunition magazine and the ship exploded in a fitful roar to capsize and quickly disappear into the Norwegian Sea’s dark, icy depths. Of Glow-worm’s crew of 146 men, only 40 souls survived to be plucked out of the near frozen water by Hipper’s crew. Lt Commander Roope was momentarily one of those few survivors. He grabbed at one of the life lines thrown to him, but exposure and fatigue overcame him and he dropped back into the water to disappear into its depths, never to be seen again. He later was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously. When regarding fighting men of this bravery and caliber, one tends to immediately think of the adage of the Emperor Napoleon who said: “Audacity, audacity, above all audacity.”

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The Canadian – American 1st Special Service Force

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

Freezing rain and biting sleet pelted the men of the elite Canadian-American 1st Special Service Force (aka The Devils Brigade) as they climbed the ice slick ropes up the steep side of Monte la Difensa Italy on the night of 2 December 1943. After hours of climbing the sheer rock mountain walls with their weapons and heavy packs strapped onto their backs, the men of the Second Regiment reached its summit and deployed, going to ground to lie motionless in holes and defiles well above the dug-in German positions further down the mountain. Before long the men lying absolutely still on the ground, were encased in a thin rhyme of ice. They were nearly completely glazed over as they waited patiently for the remainder of their men to join them and begin the attack on the clueless Germans still sleeping below. In the wee hours of the morning, and at the appointed attack hour, the Forcemen, with their faces blackened with boot polish, arose in a body and low-crawled to enter the German defensive trench works, silently slitting the throats of every sentry they encountered. The Germans, still fast asleep in their bunkers, at first remained completely unaware of their enemy’s presence. Around 0600 hours, one of the advancing Forcemen tripped a loose shale of rock sending a cascade of gravel and rocks noisily rattling downhill. One of the surviving German sentries popped a parachute flare skyward, bathing the mountain top in unworldly magnesium light and the fight was on. Both sides exchanged grenades, their targets illuminated only by explosions or the constant popping of aerial flares. A 1st SSF captain was trying to take a surrendering German prisoner when the German’s comrade sprang from his hiding place and shot the officer point-blank in the face, killing him. From then on, Frederick’s men took no prisoners unless specifically ordered to do so for interrogation purposes.

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Murray Walker OBE opens The Tank Museum’s latest exhibition, ‘Fury’

Sponsored by Wargaming, this exhibition gives a fascinating insight in to the Museum’s involvement in the making of David Ayer’s latest war film, Fury, starring Brad Pitt.

On the day of the opening, Curator of The Tank Museum, David Willey welcomed guests and introduced Tracy Spaight, Director of Special Projects at Wargaming, who spoke about the company’s contribution to heritage organizations worldwide and their long-running cooperation with The Tank Museum.

Murray Walker, a former Sherman tank Commander with the Scots Greys during World War II, well-known for being a racing commentator, then enthralled the audience with stories from his time in service and officially opened the new exhibit.

The ribbon in front of the new exhibition was cut by two Tank Museum employees, Ian “Buzz” Aldridge and Brian Frost, who were heavily involved in the filming of Fury.

Situated in the World War II hall, ‘Fury’ tells the story of the Museum’s integral part in the making of David Ayer’s visionary war film, using props and images from the set, interviews with Museum staff and the Sherman M4A2E8 Fury itself.

Visitors will be transported from the familiar surroundings of a cinema to the backdrop of a destroyed town at the end of World War II; similar to the sets used in the film.

The exhibition also includes gaming stations, where visitors will be invited to play World of Tanks and recreate battles fought in the film.

It is hoped that people will come away with an insight in to the issues faced by the Museum during this time; the difficult decisions that had to be made when working to protect the vehicles, what being involved might mean for the Museum’s reputation and what it was like for the staff on set.

This video, put together by The Tank Museum, gives viewers an insight in to the themes explored in the ‘Fury’ exhibition, as well as a look at the exhibition itself.

The ‘Fury’ exhibition is set to run until the end of 2015 and entry is included in admission price.

About The Tank Museum

The Tank Museum is a collection of armoured fighting vehicles at Bovington Camp in Dorset, South West England. The collection traces the history of the tank. With almost 300 vehicles on exhibition from 26 countries it is the largest collection of tanks and the second largest collection of armoured vehicles in the world. It includes the only working example of a German Tiger I tank and a British First World War Mark I, the world’s oldest surviving combat tank.

Please visit The Tank Museum website.

About Wargaming

Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher. It is one of the leaders in the free-to-play MMO market. Founded as a privately held company in 1998, Wargaming has shipped more than 15 titles. Currently, Wargaming is focused on its team-based MMO war series dedicated to mid-20th century warfare including the armoured fighting machines of World of Tanks, the flight combat of World of Warplanes and the naval clashes of World of Warships. These three intertwined titles will form a common gaming universe integrated within the portal www.wargaming.net.

Concluding part of our series on Japanese aircraft carrier operations in early WWII

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

The small Japanese naval task force sailed sedately along on this sunny 24 August 1942 morning, a hundred miles off the northerly coast of Guadalcanal, with the light carrier RYUJO escorted by a heavy cruiser and two destroyers. It was a near picture perfect South Pacific day and all was serene until the sudden and unexpected arrival of an airstrike of 30 American Dauntless dive bombers and 8 TBF Avenger torpedo planes from the US aircraft carrier SARATOGA. Four bomb hits, and at least one torpedo ripped into RYUJO knocking out the ship’s boiler room, leaving her dead in the water with an ever growing list to starboard. An escorting destroyer removed most of her crew but 133 men and officers were lost as the ship capsized to starboard, revealing an insulting torpedo hole in her bottom. Before the attack, the captain of one of the destroyers, who was an Etta Jima Naval academy classmate to Ryujo’s skipper, had worried about the carrier’s lack of any combat air patrol overhead in these fiercely contested waters so close to Guadalcanal’s US Marine airstrip at Henderson Field. Using a signal man’s light, he blinkered the carrier, inquiring as to the reason for the lack of any protective fighter aircraft escort patrolling overhead. He received the blinkered light answer from his class mate skipper. “Deeply appreciate the admonition. Will try and co-ordinate better in the future.” An instant later, Zero fighter planes, with their engines turning, appeared on the carrier’s flight deck carried up from the hangar deck below. After launching two air strikes bound for Henderson Field, RYUJO launched an additional small CAP overhead just in time to meet the inbound American airstrike who soon caused the carrier’s complete destruction. The Battle of Guadalcanal and the six month campaign around the Solomon Islands soon sounded a second major, death knell of Japanese aircraft carrier aviation in WWII. The first death knell, with its ruinous and ever mounting attrition rate of so many highly trained pilots and their air crews, began with the Battle’s of the Coral Sea and especially so at Midway. However, they were only a portent of the incredible amount of blood letting of Japanese pilots and planes that would later take place throughout the embattled Solomon Islands.

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Japan’s Aircraft Carrier Operations in WWII

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

The bright sunny brilliance of a warm Pacific Ocean early June day was marred by the angry black mushrooming flak shell bursts of anti-aircraft fire as the remaining American Douglas Devastator torpedo planes of USS HORNET’S Torpedo Squadron 8 swung into their final low level attack runs on the four Japanese aircraft carriers of the Midway invasion task force. Previous torpedo attacks had proven fruitless so far as the combat air patrols of Zero fighter planes had attacked the earlier torpedo bomber formations like so many swarms of enraged bees, shooting down virtually every one of them. This latest attack proved no exception. The last remaining torpedo plane, piloted by Ensign George Gay was rocked by flak bursts, but he grimly pressed on with his attack as Japanese Zero’s attacked him from all quarters. He heard his back seat radioman gunner shout over the plane’s intercom. “Mr Gay! I’m hit!!” and then, nothing more. Gay himself was wounded in the hand and leg by machine gun bullets. As he pulled the plane’s manual torpedo release lever, he felt the aircraft’s aileron controls go slack, obviously shot away by Japanese machine gun fire. There’d be no returning to the carrier now. The badly damaged plane, its engine coughing and blowing black smoke, bucked and lurched along, gradually losing most of its remaining altitude. Gay somehow managed to fly his terminally damaged plane a few more miles before crashing it into the ocean. The torpedo plane sank like a rock and he only just managed to keep from being carried down with the plane to the ocean bottom, surfacing with his yellow seat cushion and attached un-inflated life raft. He later remarked how he had a “ring-side seat” for what happened next.

• PART 1
• PART 2

The Siege of the Fortified Islands of Manila Bay 1942

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

Hundreds of Japanese heavy artillery shells smashed down upon the still smoking, darkness shrouded island fortress of Corregidor in early May 1942, shattering the momentary stillness with ear shattering noise and blindingly bright, explosions. The shells landed all around the fortress’ remaining undamaged coastal gun batteries, and especially upon seacoast mortar Battery Way’s glacis wall and into the gun pit itself. To any onlooker so many staccato shell bursts must have sounded like a near endless machine gun of howling shell fire landing all around the island. As soon as this latest artillery barrage momentarily lifted, Captain “Wild Bill” Massello dashed out of the bomb proof shelter into Battery Way’s gun pit with broom in hand to sweep away this latest batch of blast-broken chunks of concrete and spent shell shrapnel from the approach leading to the last functioning 12-inch sea coast mortar remaining of the four gun battery. The other three mortars had been put out of action following a long week of sustained heavy Japanese artillery bombardment. With the approach now cleared, Massello shouted and waved to the men crouching in the shelter and to those in the nearby reinforced concrete magazine to reload the mortar. Instantly the men dashed from the shelter to service the mortar as several others wheeled a trolley carrying a single 12-inch, high explosive shell from the magazine. As the gun crew man-handled the big 650 lb. anti-personnel shell into the mortar’s breech, a second trolley arrived carrying bags of high explosive propellant. These too were methodically loaded into the breech and they quickly primed the piece before closing the gun’s breechblock. As the gunner re-set the mortar’s range and azimuth settings using his quadrant and the gun’s elevation wheels, another attached the long firing lanyard to the mortar. The gun Captain raised his arm in readiness and he took up the tension on the firing lanyard as the gun crew quickly disappeared once more back into their shelters. He yanked hard on the lanyard and the remaining mortar again roared out its defiance with a flashing, ear splitting roar as the shell arched high over Manila Bay toward Bataan’s Cabcaben Docks several miles away.

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The Battle of Ypres Autumn 1914

By John Dudek @ The Wargamer

In the Autumn of 1914, during WWI’s “Race For the Sea,” the final gasp of mobile warfare between the warring Anglo-French Allies and German Central powers came with the Battle of Ypres. The Great War that began with the assassination of an Austro-Hungarian Grand Duke now spread throughout the far corners of the world, while encompassing most of the key players on the world stage. Nowhere was the fighting more fierce and prolonged as that now taking place throughout France and Belgium.

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