SCARBOROUGH FAIR 1914

Played March 1^st 2016

Length 24 minutes

News that the British battle cruisers had destroyed Admiral Spee’s East Asian Squadron off the Falkland Islands stunned the German navy. Admiral Hipper quickly realized that there was a silver lining to the news, and a chance for revenge. With two of the British battle cruisers in the South Atlantic, the High Seas Fleet battle cruiser squadron would be on equal numbers with the British.  Hipper's superior Admiral Ingenohl agreed.

       A raid on the British coast was prepared as a trap for the British Grand Fleet. The Germans knew that the British plans to counter such a raid did not include a full mobilization of their fleet, but only their battle cruisers and a supporting “Reaction Force” of dreadnoughts. They did not take into account the possibility that the full German High Seas Fleet might sail. The German plan was to draw out this smaller portion of the Grand Fleet and destroy it. On the Night of December 17^th 1914 it almost worked, but the two fleets missed each other in the dark.

BRITISH OBJECTIVE: Engage for one turn then escape through the minefields in the north. Save as many if not all of the dreadnoughts.

GERMAN OBJECTIVE: Destroy as many British dreadnoughts as possible before they escape.

OUTCOME: All the British ships were sunk except the battlecruisers which were fast enough to escape. The German ships only received light damage.

A Decisive German Victory. British dreadnoughts lost:

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