Battle of Revilagegdo Islands

[Borys]

 Battle Report: Battle of the Revillagegedo Islands

May 28, 1900

To: Eormil Eorlson, Marshal of the Northern Seas
From: Heorl Lithol, Captain of Goldwine, Battleship of the Mark
Marshal, as per your orders and the plan of the King, The Northern Seas Fleet set upon the Enemy's Fleet late in the afternoon of May 28, after deducing that they would set forth with all forces to get the King of Rohan and the Army of the Plains. The ruse worked, as they all came out of their protected harbors to greet us properly for a change. It was the last mistake for many of them.


Rohan's Fleet of the Northern Seas

Battleships:
Elfwine
Fengel
Eomer
Brego
Goldwine
Gram
Helm Hammerhand
Eorl

Combat Cruisers:
Ondoher
Ostoher
Araval
Argeleb
Orodruin

Armored Cruisers:
Beren
Turin
Egalmoth
Belecthor

Protected Cruisers:
Calenhad
Halifirien
Minrimmon

Destroyers:
Haleth
Leofa

Pacific Navy of the Anahuac:

Battlebarges
11
10
9
8
4
3
1

Armored Barks
25
24
23
22
14
13
12
11
10
7

Torpedo Boats
96
94
93
92
91
Once the Enemy discovered that we had set forth the entire main fleet against their numbers they accelerated to close on us. They had learned that close in they can deal killing blows to our slower vessels. But we had prepared long and hard for the longer ranged exchanges that would happen. As while the Anahuac's 13 inch guns have as great a range as out newest 12 inch rifles, they have poor marksmanship, as seen by their attempts to hit the destroyer Haleth and cruiser Calenhad as they entered their range.
Our brave destroyers, knowing their usefulness in combat was their torpedoes, closed with the enemy line rapidly closing in very tight with the enemy, yet none of their torpedoes hit targets. Probably because we've not bothered much with torpedo technology as we let out guns do the speaking for the fleet. Enemy Bark 25 crippled the Haleth with 140mm guns fire. While she might be salvageable, it might be best to scrap her...if we can tow her to a port. Cruiser Calenhad was sunk by heavy fire from Barge 11 that her hulled below the waterline. Halifirien was knocked out of the action by fire from Barge 10. However the long ranged for from Barge 11 missed the Battleship Brego. The Enemy Barks opened fire on our O Cruisers, but only got a minor hit on Ondoher.
Halifrien did manage to sink the Torpedo Boat Number 92 before her guns were silenced. And while many of our ships missed on their first salvos, and Gram only scored a minor hit on Barge 11, other ships scored grand hits. Such was the case of the Armored Cruiser Belecthor which fired a broadside on Bark 25 at maximum range, and hit with every shot, destroying the bridge and with a shell from Armored Cruiser Beren hitting the secondary magizine, the vessel was effectively out of action. The three O cruisers managed to sink Bark 24 in a hail of shells. Our mighty battleships were still on the other side of our older battleships and cruiser, and not yet in an effective firing position.
We split out forces, maintaining lines within the various cruiser and battleship formations by age and speed. The Anahuac, continued to charge out lines, though did maintain some resemblance of order.
Heavy fire from Battleship Brego and Cruisers Araval and Argeleb knock Barge 11 out of action, while heavy fire primary and secondary batteries on the Battleships Gram, Helm, and Eorl utterly destroys the Enemy Barge 10 when some shells (9 inch) hits the boiler room and explodes the vessel's bottom out.
Cruiser Ondoher hit Bark 11 with a full broadside, penetrating the hull and destroying the ship's magazine...and the ship along with it. Its secondary batteries targeted the Bark 7 and crippled its engines and starting some flooding. It might have been able to limp home at this point.
Enemy Barge 11 was able to get a small hit on the Eomer before being knocked out and crippled the cruiser Belecthor with heavy secondary fire.
Beren was also heavily damaged by Barge 9.
However the Enemy managed to destroy or cripple many cruisers quickly.
Turin was sunk.
Egalmoth was heavily damaged.
Minririen was sunk.
Destroyer Leofa was knocked out of action.
Ondoher exploded.
And to the regret of many in the service Orodruin, pride of the cruiser force, was hit with only a few shots by Barks 7 and 10, but they managed to get through her light armor and detonated the magazine....destroying the Oyama-built ship.
The Enemy attempted to capitalize on our heavy losses by charging and circling the battle lines with their remaining Barges and torpedo boats, their barks trying to chase down our remaining cruisers.
Cruiser Argeleb took the brunt Barge 8's fire and was knocked out of action. But for some reason, the enemy seemed to not be able to hit us much more in the following minutes. Even their torpedos attacks fail to do anything aside from provide our gunners with targets.
The enemy torpedo boat flotilla lost boats 91, 93, and 94 in quick succession. This was followed by the explosion of Barge 4 from main guns of the Eomer. Bark 10 was heavily damaged by Elfwine. And my own vessel (Goldwine) took out the aft battery on Bark 13. Barges 8 and 9 receive heavy fire from the older battle line, crippling Barge 8.
At this point the Enemy began to retire from the field, trying to get their crippled ships away from our new battleships. But our two battleship lines were now moving to cut the enemies older barges and newer barks off from the rest of the retreating forces.
Elfwine's secondary battery sunk Bark 7 while Eomer took Bark 10 out of action.
Ostoher managed to get two plunging shells into the boiler rooms of Barge 1 which exploded from the reaction.
Battleship Eorl managed to take Bark 23 effectively out of action by destroying her bridge and forward main battery.
Cruiser Belecthor was sunk by the combined fire from Barks 13 and 14.
Now the ranged got extremely close, and the faster Anahauc ships managed to cross our T directly behind Battleship Helm.
Cruiser Ostoher puts two more shells at long range into the crippled Bark 13 and takes her out of action.
Battleship Helm hits and starts some flooding on Bark 14.
Battleship Eorl takes Bark 23 out of action.
Battleship Gram sinks Barge 3 with combined primary and secondary fire.
Battleship Elfwine takes out Barge 8.
The Enemy managed to get a few hits on Gram and took out Helm's aft battery.
The Remaining Anahuac ships fled or tried to ram Battleship Fengle.
They managed a few hits on Eomer before being total destroyed by our heavy guns and point blank range.

Survivors:
Anahuac:

Barge 9
Bark 25
TB 96
(Others might have been captured or scuttled instead of sunk)

Rohan:

Battleships:
Elfwine
Fengel
Eomer
Goldwine
Brego
GramEorl
Helm

Combat Cruisers:
Ostoher
Araval
(See Sim Report for fate of other survivoring ships)

After Action Report:
Our victory was costly. Had the enemy not have missed when they did in the middle of the battle it could easily have been a loss for our forces. While out great numbers of guns did the enemy in, our lighter the needed armor sometimes defeated out vessels purpose, especially our cruiser forces that were nearly wiped out. What few surviving crippled ships that are out here we will try to bring to port and maybe repair them, otherwise we will have to scrap what is left of the Northern Seas cruiser forces. But the enemy lost all but three ships, and only the torpedo boat was undamaged. Barge 9 might be able to return to duty soon, but Bark 25 looked badly damaged last we saw it. The remaining Enemy vessels out here though. Well their surviving crews look like they are more ready for a knife fight then to be picked up. Some commanders refuse to help them on the grounds that the enemy can't be trusted to not try to take out ships in boarding actions or detonations. Warnings have been issued to the enemy vessels that any attempt to attack out vessels that are attempting to secure their vessels will be met with their deaths. We will wait until morning to attempt rescue as it has gotten dark on this nearly moonless night.

Signed,

Heorl Lithol
Captain of Goldwine, Battleship of the Mark
   
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Desertfox    
Posted: Nov 8 2005, 10:21 AM


Commander Johann Wyss
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Looks like the light forces took a beating. Could Rohan maybe abandon light ships althogether? How much will be released to the public?
   
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Ithekro    
Posted: Nov 9 2005, 01:18 PM


King of Rohan
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Joined: 7-February 05



   
I think this will encourage stronger light ships. Since the torpedoes did nothing for either side Rohan still is not investing heavily in that area. Rohan is a little shocked by the loss of Orodruin, but figure it was due to the fact that she wasn't designed for serious line actions, but as a long ranged scout. Future ships will be slightly better protected. The protected cruisers involved were the oldest in the fleet so Rohan cannot guage the results by their loss. The destroyers were used rashly, but also in too small a number, as they were suppose to be used with the protected cruisers against torpedo boats. Since their were few of those in this action, they were not very useful to Rohan. The destroyers attempted a torpedo run, but failed to hit any targets at close range (with 14 inch torpedoes).

Rohan was impressed by the performance of the battleships and combat cruisers in action. Though they lost one of the new combat cruisers (as oppose to Orodruin the "belted" cruiser), The firepower they can put out was impressive compared to the Armored Cruisers and Armored Barks of the Anahuac.

I suspect the Anahuac might have some comments on this action as well.
This was actually one of the first things we did for the war and the results surprised me, but with the tactics involved it does make sense as opposed to the "Jutland" type battle we originally invisioned...we got a "Tsushima" instead.
   
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dougwise13    
Posted: Nov 11 2005, 05:28 PM


California
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Group: Head of State
Posts: 251
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Joined: 11-January 05



   
For the Anahuac, this battle is going to have a very similar result in diplomatic and political circles as Tsushima did in Russia in OTL. The Anahuac have been generally evenly matched at sea against the Rohirrim, but this complete disaster coupled with the Rohirrim's new offensives is making the position of the Emperor and his supporters very precarious.

The Tenochtitlan Times is no longer being published. Its offices were torched by Christian sympathizers during a particularly nasty riot and its editors shot execution-style on May 28, 1900. Tenochtitlan is the scene of many riots, and the Imperial forces there are hard-pressed to say the least. News from the city is quite haphazard, and atrocities are being committed by just about any faction that has a grievance against another. The economy is crashing down, and word has it that some of the nobility are quietly making their way out of the country via the Caribbean coast (as the Caribbean Fleet is still loyal to Montezuma XX) and the CSA border.

The army facing the Rohirrim invading OTL Mexico from the Pacific Coast is holding well for now, but the armies in the south are breaking and running a la OTL Russia in 1917-8. The only thing slowing down the armies of Rohan advancing north from New Gondor is the ancient, generally convoluted road system of the Anahuac and the fact that the towns they travel through are full of riots featuring Christian rebels, Imperial remnants, governors declaring themselves independent rulers, etc.
   
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dougwise13    
Posted: Nov 16 2005, 10:52 PM


California
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Group: Head of State
Posts: 251
Member No.: 12
Joined: 11-January 05



   
APPENDIX: "AS IF IT COULD GET ANY WORSE"

Battlebarge 9 returned to port after the miserable defeat at the Revillagagedos Islands, where her captain and officers were promptly executed. Her crew mutinied, and when it appeared that they would be forced to surrender to Imperial authorities after several days of being blockaded by torpedo boats in an isolated cove they had sailed into, they scuttled her.

Bark 25 was brought into Acapulco harbor just in time for her to sink in shallow water, with her freeboard just barely awash. 25 does not look like it will ever be returned to service.