Umi_Ryuzuki

The 2005 1/72nd scale Nationals was held August 26-28th, in Molalla Oregon.
Captains from Washington, Oregon, Wisconsin, and California were in attendance.
With all the trailers set up, and the benches shaded, everyone set to clearing and dredging the ports. (images 1-3)

Once the ports were working satisfactorly, for the weekend, a few tweeks to access the low water off the jetties and we were off and running.

See (images 4-5)

The target event was to chase after a small armored corvette.

The cruiser Louisville won with 16 hits. That big tub basically parked outside the course, and ranged the target.
I managed to win a toss for second place with 7 hits with my destroyer Scirocco, and "DJ" took third place with a borrowed boat.(his channel was the same as the target ships)

We then launched into a 3 hour campaign battle. This presses every captain and his boat to the breaking point. We managed to last an hour and a half. The axis boats (for the first time in years) experienced failure after failure.
One failure to launch, one gun loading issue, one ESC failure,...I rotated into the pond to relieve an DD captain in need of ammo, and to support a schnell boat sailing general harrasment. The schnell boat quickly used its torpedo loads, and headed for port for ammo.
At this point I was left out on the pond alone. I managed to beat the two ships on the pond down to an slow armistice as their ammo ran out. However that led to a ship rotation, and the launching of two fresh destroyers.
I dragged them into a slow lazy battle trying to conserve my remaining ammunition, but having been hammered by the previous two DD, and being cat and moused by two fresh DD, My ship ran out of ammuniton, and then succumbed to overwhelming odds before my team could bring a fresh ship to the pond.

(image 6)

Everyone took a break, and then set up for a 20 minute sortie battle.
With 12 destroyers and one heavy cruiser on the water the battle was fast and furious. Imagine the sound of popcorn, but every "pop" is a ball bearing hitting the side of a boat.
The allies won by point count 102/136

At this point everyone settled down to bar b que and boat repairs.
After dinner we set up for one more 20 minute battle.
Once again 12 destroyers and the one heavy cruiser put to sea. The Axis plan was to swarm the heavy and put as many holes into the unmaneuverable pig as possible. How can we miss an 8 foot target.
Four of our ships set out to empty the magazines into the Louisville. The other three dd were to pick up the opposing destroyer flotilla and keep it engaged. The Melee that ensued is almost indescribable. The Louisville got caught inside the islands unable to maneuver and moving at dead slow was just how we planned.

(image 7)

Each time the Louisville's guns would traverse to target one destroyer someone would try to sweep the opposite side of the ship and put holes into her hull. One of her escorts even resorted to pushing one of our ships into the weeds!
What looked like a succesful strategy put into action soon became a rout.
After succesfully putting my destroyer along side the Louisville, my exit strategy suddenly deteriatated as her rear gun swung around and began firing on my ship. A quick turn of my ship put my ship's narrowest aspect to the fire, however the third shot from that turret caught my port side and sliced a gash into my hull about an inch long. Almost instantly my bilge pump fired up at full force. Already low in the water my destroyer headed to port.
But it was too late, My ship went decks awash in about 3 minutes. As I pulled my boat I saw another destroyer the Tachikaze had also been pulled in the allied port. Same type of damage. a large hole below the water line created by a 1/4"(6mm) ball bearing. As people came to snap shots of my damage, a cheer went up from the allie harbor. Just outside their harbor a second Japanese destroyer the IJN Yukikaze was foundering. I looked up just in time to see the bow slip under the surface.
With such devastating losses the the Axis fleet, the remaining destroyers retired for the eveing and head for home port.

Saturday 1/72nd Combat Report, Molalla Oregon

(image 8)

SUNDAY
Sunday was a tough day for the Axis camp. Sortie after sortie was putting water into the boats. Despite the large schedule that had been planned for the weekend, there didn't seem to be a dry enough boats to meet that time table. The Allie port on the other hand was a machine. Each sortie, every boat they had would put to sea. By the fourth sortie of the day it became evident what the problem was.

On the command of "commence fire", the Louisville proceeded across the battle lines, and began to patrol the across the axis harbor entrance. As she passed, Axis ships would have to dart in and out of the harbor while she turned to come back. Allie destroyers that came under attack would sail to the Louisville, and lead our ships into her gun range. My entire action this sortie came down to:
Dash out of the port, Turn attack enemy DD, sail past the Louisville, fire eight shots into her hull, take six 1/4" rounds "THROUGH" the bow, and sit in the harbor and hope not to sink.

The club had been so excited by the new facilities, and the number of participants that we had ignored one of our basic rules.




We had been sailing our destroyer fleet against the Louisville without a matching boat. We were missing a ship with six 1/4"(6mm) guns on board!! The Japanese cruiser Kinagusa had been put down due to unsolvable RF difficulties on Saturday.

We discussed the matter and ran one more sortie for the day.
Theory put to the test, All ships that put to sea came back to port.
With the weather changing, and several captains with desk duties to perform Monday, we began to break camp for the weekend. Overall, it was a great event and everyone is looking forward to next season. [8D]

I was trying take quick time movies so I could capture some actions shots of gun fire, but my camera only took three stills... [&:]
We'll see if anyone else has good images from Sunday.