Strategy in U.S. Navy Plan Red
By Doug McNair
January 2006

Manifest Destiny points northward in Great War at Sea: U.S. Navy Plan Red, our game of planned-but-never-executed naval conflict between the U.S. and Britain in the 1920s.

As Fowler reminded us in Chicken Run (“Overpaid, oversexed, over here, showin’ up late to every war. . . .”), relations between the U.S. and Britain haven’t always been tip-top, even when we were fighting on the same side. As the introductory notes for Plan Red point out, in the 'teens many Brits saw the U.S. as an upstart power that was using the Great War as cover to build up its navy to the point where it could challenge Brittania for the rule of the waves. And for America’s part, President Wilson was none too keen on allying with Britain (he termed them an “Associated Power”), and the U.S. Navy saw itself as the front-line force in any future trade war between the two Powers. The Department of the Navy drew up War Plan Red accordingly.

War plans on both sides assumed that the U.S. would be the aggressor, and after beginning by disrupting the British sea lanes, the U.S. would invade Canada to deny Britain a base on this side of the Atlantic. Operational Scenario #2 in U.S. Navy Plan Red simulates a US invasion of Nova Scotia, with troop ships launched from Boston, New York and Norfolk, Virginia. The U.S. player must land transports within one zone of the main Nova Scotian naval bases of Sydney, Halifax and Yarmouth. Seizing Nova Scotia would deny the Royal Navy access to the St. Lawrence River, and make the conquest of all points west in Canada a much easier proposition.

HMS Dreadnought heaves garbage overboard. WIll the American player stand for such arrogance?

At the start of Operational Scenario #2, the Brits would seem to be in a bit of a sticky wicket. This is because the U.S. has . . .

Overwhelming Firepower

The Royal and Royal Canadian Navies in Operational Scenario #2 have six battleships at their disposal, with a total of 60 primary gun factors between them. These are based in Halifax, along with four light cruisers, four destroyer leaders, and twenty destroyers mounting 30 torpedoes in total.

That’s all well and good, except for the fact that in Boston alone the U.S. Navy has four battleships, three battle cruisers and two armored cruisers with 93 primaries between them, plus light ships including 24 Clemson-class destroyers mounting 96 torpedoes total!

So the Brits in Nova Scotia are seriously outgunned and out-torpedoed by just one U.S. Task Force, to say nothing of the older BB’s in Norfolk, their escorting DD’s, and the Coastal Defense ships and DD’s in New York. The Brits do have a cruiser squadron as well, but it’s based way down south in Bermuda. The cruisers mount no primaries, and it will take them 15 turns at maximum speed just to get to Halifax (where they’ll be almost out of fuel).

So, it would seem then that all the Americans have to do is send out a screening force while their transport ships in Boston, New York and Norfolk all link up. At that point, their BB’s and DD’s could return to port, be assigned an escort mission, and accompany the united transport fleet to Nova Scotia, where it can invade at its leisure with the Royal Navy in no position to do anything but serve afternoon tea.

However, this is not the case, because of . . .

British Minefields and Coastal Defenses

In the race to build a massive battlefleet to wrest control of the seas from Britain, the Navy Department seems to have overlooked a key issue. In all the U.S. North Atlantic Fleet, there is not a single minesweeper. This is somewhat understandable: Minesweepers just aren’t as sexy as battleships, and it’s hard to get the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee excited about them. But it’s unacceptable in the current situation.

The Brits are highly adept at mine warfare, and have placed 12 minefields in Nova Scotian coastal waters. This means that if the U.S. were to unite her transport ships into one fleet and send them out together, she’d run the risk of seeing large numbers of troop ships explode and go to the bottom (netting the Brits 10 VP per transport sunk) without the British firing a shot. Add to that the fact that British coastal defenses in Nova Scotia must be breached before troops can land. Two U.S. BB’s or BC’s must bombard the landing zone before transports can unload there, and if the U.S. has all its BB’s and BC’s in one fleet, the ships loaded with bombardment ammunition can’t fire in combat or their ability to bombard will be negated (they’ll have to abort and go back to port for more ammo).

So, the British can negate the invasion threat from a huge U.S. fleet by sending their CL’s and DD’s to torpedo any U.S. BB there that refuses to fire. Failing that, a mine hit will strike dead in the water a U.S. BB with a Speed of 1 50% of the time. So, if the Americans have only two BB’s on a bombardment mission along with the main invasion fleet, one mine hit on a BB will bring the whole operation to a halt. And if the U.S. puts more BB’s on bombardment detail to reduce the chances of that happening, that just reduces U.S. primary gunnery strength and gives the Brits a better chance of repelling the invasion fleet before they get to the coast.

Coast Guard navigation. USCG Paulding under repair after ramming submarine S-4, supposedly while hunting rum-runners.

So, the U.S. has no choice but to send small task forces composed of low-value ships out at start. These unfortunate sailors will have to probe the approaches to Nova Scotia in hopes of finding a route to the American invasion objectives that’s free of minefields.

This rather high-risk proposition (due to mines and freely-roaming British forces) might not have many takers, were it not for . . .

Admiral Jackson

At the end of the Great War, haunted by images of thousands of German sailors in hospital suffering from shellshock, Admiral Jackson retired from the Royal Navy and traveled to the Colonies, taking a cottage on the New England coast. But his guilt over the ways and means of British imperialism followed him, and soon he decided to renounce his ties to his homeland and become a United States citizen. The U.S. government welcomed him with open arms and made him an Honorary Admiral in the U.S. Navy (knowing that the Hero of Wilhelmshaven could provide them with vital information about the strengths and weaknesses of the Royal Navy).

Admiral Jackson was happy to serve his new country in this way, but as the war drums grew louder along the St. Lawrence, he became vocally concerned about the U.S. Navy’s willful disregard of the British mine threat. His warnings garnered no results, as the invasion loomed he could not sit idly by while numerous American lives were lost due to bureaucratic inertia. Taking a night train to Portsmouth in full dress uniform, he rousted the newly-installed skipper of an aging coast guard cutter from bed at 3 a.m. Intimidating the young, flustered Lieutenant Commander into handing over command (“This is war, man!”), he set sail for Yarmouth at dawn, ordering strict radio silence. He would rid himself of his demons by probing the British minefields himself, keeping off the radio until he’d found and recorded a safe route to Yarmouth, or gone down with the ship while trying.

Game Summary

The following summary of a recent game shows how each of the factors above drive game play in U.S. Navy Plan Red.

Setup

The U.S. player postpones assigning missions to most of his ships until his scout fleets have found safe routes to the U.S. invasion objectives. Besides Admiral Jackson, he sends out two Sea Canary task forces composed of two CL’s and six DD’s each from Boston and Norfolk, Virginia. Once they’ve found safe routes, he’ll assign his battle cruisers in Boston to bombardment missions, while the larger, slower U.S. battleships will escort the transports to their targets.

The British player will send his cruiser squadron from Bermuda to Halifax at maximum speed, while the destroyer forces at Bermuda (which don’t have enough fuel capacity to keep up with the cruisers for that long) will head slowly on a westward course toward the weaker U.S. invasion forces in New York.

Finally, the British player forms his battleships into two task forces, with the faster Canadian BB’s in one task force with Canadian destroyer support, and the slower British BB’s in a separate task force. The Canadian BB’s, plus a scout fleet composed of the British CL Diomede plus destroyers, will move aggressively to intercept the U.S. fleets scouting the minefields. The British BB’s will keep to the rear of the Canadians and deal with any threats that get by them.

Don’t mess with Texas. The Lone Star battlewagon prowls the North Atlantic.

Turn 1

Starting weather is mist as both sides move fleets out of ports. A U.S. submarine stationed off Halifax fails to contact the forward Canadian battlefleet.

Turn 2

The U.S. submarine off Halifax attacks the slower British battlefleet as it passes through, but its torpedo misses and it’s sunk by British destroyers. 4 VPs for Britain.

Turns 3 and 4

The weather condition changes to fog, and Admiral Jackson steams slowly toward Yarmouth from the west. The Canadian battlefleet, the British scout fleet, and a British sub all cross paths with him in the fog, but Admiral Jackson avoids them all!

Turn 5

Night falls, and the weather condition deteriorates to squall. Admiral Jackson steams to within one zone of Yarmouth, and the Canadian Battlefleet and British scout fleet once again miss him! All task forces except for the British cruiser squadron out of Bermuda are slowed to a speed of 1 due to bad weather (the CA squadron is the only active task force with no destroyers, which are slowed by bad weather).

Turn 6

The British slow battlefleet contacts a U.S. probing fleet six zones east of Halifax, but the U.S. gets the initiative and runs into the night before the British can do damage. The British scout fleet misses Admiral Jackson in the darkness and rain once again, and he crosses the zone boundary to Yarmouth without encountering any mines. The Admiral breaks radio silence and sends full details on his course to Fleet Command, then turns the helm southeast into a bank of rain and fog, just as the Canadian battlefleet rounds the point to the west. No contact.

Turn 7

Day breaks, and the weather clears. This is wonderful for the battle cruisers and their destroyer escorts in Boston who just got their orders to head out at full speed and bombard Yarmouth, but not so great for Admiral Jackson. The Canadian battlefleet sights him running southeast east close by the coast, and they pursue. Modoc’s speed of 1 Slow is hardly worth mentioning compared to the Canadians, and Admiral Jackson salutes from the bridge as his ship goes down. However, the Brits are there to scoop him out of the surf, and he is taken into custody by his former countrymen and forced to eat their rations. 2 more VPs for the merciless Brits!

The U.S. player also orders his weakly defended transport ships in New York to steam up the coast to Boston, where many powerful battleships wait to escort them to Nova Scotia.

Turns 8 through 10

The Canadian battlefleet fails to contact the U.S. battle cruiser squadron, which makes it to Yarmouth. But then a British scout fleet 5 zones southeast of Halifax contacts a probing fleet headed for Sydney. The Brits get the initiative, and find that there are two U.S. ships with large counters and two with small counters. The Brits have only the CL Diomede plus two destroyer leaders and two W-class destroyers, but they steam in for a closer look and discover that they’re outgunned 8 secondaries to 2 (by the CLs Memphis and Milwaukee). The Brits maintain their poise and decide to go for a torpedo run on the CLs, but the U.S. ships are able to keep out of torpedo range long enough to sink Diomede. The British DDs withdraw to the northeast. It’s now 10 VPs to 6 in favor of the U.S.!

Cruiser Memphis will avenge Admiral Jackson.

Turn 11

The Canadian battlefleet is only two zones east of Yarmouth, and with the weather remaining calm the U.S. battle cruiser squadron knows that there’s no point in sticking around. They have 27 primaries to the Canadians’ 30, but the BC’s only have light armor (meaning they’ll take extra damage from Canadian primaries), and as soon as a BC fires its bombardment ammunition is gone. Even though it’s a night turn now, the Canadians will find them automatically when they enter the zone (it’s tough to miss all the noise and muzzle flashes from shore bombardment . . . ), and the BC’s won’t be able to complete their mission anyway. So they abort, running for the U.S. coast at full speed. They head for Portland, hoping that once they get there they’ll be able to spend the six turns necessary to get another bombardment mission either for Yarmouth or Sydney (if the scout fleet that just sank Diomede can plot a safe course there).

The Canadians enter the Yarmouth zone as predicted, but they fail to contact the battle cruisers before they leave.

Turn 12

The British destroyers which were accompanying Diomede before she sank have to break off the chase due to low fuel, and head for Halifax. CLs Milwaukee, Memphis and destroyers head for Sydney. The British cruiser squadron out of Bermuda is coming up fast, but they have just one fuel box too few to make it to Sydney, so they have to follow the DD’s to Halifax for now (hoping to refuel for one turn then make best speed for the enemy).

U.S. CL’s Milwaukee and Memphis have 19 fuel boxes, so they have all the time in the world to reconnoiter the coast at top speed. Their screen of Clemson-class destroyers is not so well endowed with fuel, however (they have only three boxes remaining), so they may have to divide the task force and break off for home soon.

Turn 13

The weather condition worsens to squall, and the U.S. battle cruiser squadron makes it to Portland and puts in for new orders.

Turn 14

The weather worsens to storm! Ships plow through it slowly.

Turn 15

The weather lets up a bit (squall again). The British cruiser squadron and the destroyers that watched Diomede go down make it to Halifax. The U.S. transport fleet from New York with their escort of old Coastal Defense ships makes it to Boston.

Turn 16

The British fleets in Halifax refuel. The Canadian and British battlefleets have been steaming south through heavy seas and are now nearing Portland, and the light defenses there are not enough to keep them out. So . . . the U.S. battle cruisers have to leave fast and head for the safety of Boston Harbor. They head south and away from the enemy, hugging the coast.

Turn 17

The U.S. probing fleet that sank Diomede moves into the coastal zone just south of Sydney . . . and encounters a minefield. However, no ships are sunk. It will keep probing for a safe route in. The British cruiser squadron steams out of Halifax at full speed to try to catch them before they can. Since they have no destroyers with them, they’re faster than the U.S. fleet in this bad weather, so they may have a chance.

At this point, the U.S. player notices that in their effort to catch the hapless U.S. battle cruisers, the British battleships are getting rather close to Boston, where most of the U.S. battleships are now gathered. The British and Canadian battleships are in two separate task forces, since the Canadians are Speed 2 while the British are Speed 1. That, plus the fact that the two task forces are separated by two sea zones, prompts the U.S. player to act.

He gives all his BB’s and AC’s an intercept mission, puts them plus a screen of destroyers into the Admiral Jackson Memorial Task Force, and sends them out to get between the two British task forces and catch one of them before they can combine. Even if the British fleets can combine, the U.S. fleet is slightly better in primary gunnery, so it’ll be a fair fight.

At the same time, the U.S. player orders his ships out of Norfolk in two task forces, with the transports, one BB and light ships on a transport mission to Yarmouth, and the other two older BB’s with a bombardment mission for same (in case the battle cruisers never make it).

They had contractors in those days, too. The monitor Cheyenne.

Turn 18

The weather worsens to storm, and the probing force near Sydney finds a route in with no minefields. The British cruiser squadron steams toward Sydney to try to at least sink them (assuming the weather ever lets up enough for secondaries to fire). The Canadian battlefleet plows down to the New England coast. The U.S. battle cruiser squadron is just leaving the zone the Canadians enter, but the Canadians just barely miss contacting them in the stormy night (picture Tom crashing into a wall as Jerry skitters away, with lots of wind and rain . . . ) The slow British battlefleet follows the Canadians, and the U.S. battlefleet out of Boston steams directly between the two British fleets, just as planned!

Turn 19

Day breaks, as does a full-blown nor’easter! It’s a gale, and all destroyers at sea must roll to see if they sink. Many, many take on water (rolling elevens on two dice), but none sink.

The British scout fleet out by Sydney tries to find shelter, and finds a minefield instead! Miraculously, only one destroyer goes down. The score is now 14 to 10, with the Brits up. The British cruiser squadron stays on course, and is now only two zones away from the Yanks.

The Canadian battlefleet, spotting the U.S. move, stays on course in hopes that it can run south of the northward-moving U.S. fleet. It pursues the battle cruisers but once again fails to contact them in the maelstrom.

The slow British battlefleet, its orders for the turn already written, decides that steaming directly toward the U.S. battlefleet isn’t so bad since this gale will surely protect them from contact. It and the U.S. battlefleet end up in the same zone, CC27, offshore between Portland and Portsmouth.

The American player rolls for Contact, and rolls a 6! This is automatic contact, with a surprise sighting! Suddenly, the British commodore looks up into the stormy night, and sees massive prows plowing down on him!

The U.S. battleships open up at point-blank range, with a primary gunnery advantage of 66 to 30. The British destroyer screen can do nothing in this gale but bail, and it’s a slaughter. Within two combat rounds, all three British battleships are dead in the water and have taken more than half their Hull boxes in damage, which puts them in danger of foundering in the gale. The Brits do their best to give a good account of themselves, concentrating all their fire on the U.S.S. South Dakota, but do nothing but knock out all its secondaries and do a few hull hits. There’s no time for commiseration, and the Brits strike their colors and request assistance to keep from sinking.

The British battlefleet has been cut in half, and there are plenty of British flag officers that the U.S. can exchange for Admiral Jackson. The U.S. battlefleet can steam back to Boston, get its invasion orders, and steam to Yarmouth with the transports at its leisure. Nova Scotia will fall. . . .

And America wins!