SC2 and Prewar Force Structure Intelligence

[Edwin P.]

When WWII broke out the order of battle of the UK, French and German Navies was widely publicized. During the war the sinking of each capital ship was also widely publicized in the news accounts of the day.

Prehaps, SC2 should attempt to duplicate this fact with a screen that shows the names of each major capital ship fleet in existance at the start of the war and whether or not it has been sunk. Newly constructed ships would be added to this scorecard only if they were spotted.

[JerseyJohn]

As always an interesting idea.

Of course there are always cases of misinformation. For example, Italian frogmen succeeded in blowing holes in the bottom of two British Battleships anchored in Alexandria. The frogmen were captured, however, and presumed lost.

British Admiral Cunningham realized that the ships, awash at the deck, would still appear to be afloat. He had the crews walk the decks and superstructures appearing to be busy at routine tasks, the flags were raised and lowered daily and no word was leaked about their disabling.

Looking on through binoculars from the Italian Embassy (Egypt, incredibly, was neutral!) the ambassador and his staff concluded that mission had been a failure.

This was critical because the HMS Barham, a third battleship, had been sunk by a U-boat near Tobruck at almost the same time. Italy never realized that, for a few weeks till other ships were sent around the Cape, she was the main power in the Mediterranean!

We'd need some way to simulate that same situation if the idea is to be properly utilized.