Strategy in 'U.S. Navy Plan Gold'
Scenario #1: French Invasion
Day 3
By Doug McNair
November 2006

The American defense of the Caribbean continues today in my ongoing replay of U.S. Navy Plan Gold Operational Scenario #1: “French Invasion.” As dawn breaks on Day 3, two battered American light cruisers are limping west from St. Thomas — the sole survivors of the Guantanamo battlecruiser squadron that repelled the French invasion fleet and sank most of its escorts, including the battleship Lyon.

The French transports are undamaged and can still invade after the battleships Languedoc and Flandre bombard the invasion target . . . but then Languedoc and Flandre must steam away to Port Louis to re-arm and get a new mission, leaving the transports defended only by the battleship Gascoigne while they unload their troops. That’s a high-risk situation to say the least. Gascoigne took only light damage from the battle and still outguns any American ship that can get to St. Thomas within the next 30 turns (plenty of time for the transports to unload and take St. Thomas), but if a large flotilla of American destroyers were to arrive on the scene, Gascoigne would be all but helpless to prevent them streaking past her and wiping out the transports.

The French cannot stomach abandoning the invasion with St. Thomas glittering there in the rays of dawn, so they’ll have to make some adjustments to their plans . . .

In another lifetime, Swayback Maru fires her guns.

Day 3

Turn 13: The French destroyer fleet accompanying the Panama Canal invasion force (just off the north coast of Venezuela) aborts its mission and plots a course northeast to Port Louis at maximum speed. They’ll get there in six turns by exhausting all their fuel. Then they can spend six more turns refueling and getting an Intercept mission, after which they can make best speed for St. Thomas and hopefully join with Gascoigne to stave off American interlopers.

Meanwhile, the offboard French raiding fleet of three light cruisers (ten zones north of Puerto Rico’s western tip) receives orders to abandon all caution and steam directly toward the rich merchant shipping lanes just off Guantanamo Bay. The French hope is that the fast light cruisers can dive into the Cuba-Hispaniola strait, sink enough merchant shipping to draw American patrols away from St. Thomas, and then make a run for it. The raiders will be low on fuel at that point, so the French order all four of their colliers (two just seven zones west of the raiders, two more just off the northeast cape of Honduras, and all of them offboard with Supply missions) to make for the straits. If they’re discovered and sunk, all the raiders can hope for is a friendly welcome in a neutral coaling port like Port au Prince, Santiago or Kingston.

Tahoe lays another minefield on the boundary between AL16 and AM 16, then heads one zone east to lay more. The lone American bomber step remaining at San Juan after the costly airstrike on the St. Thomas invasion fleet decides to stay on the ground, since St. Thomas is still within range of French CAP from Port Louis.

The French invasion fleet moves back into the St. Thomas zone while the damaged American light cruisers steam out toward San Juan and contacts them. The French get the initiative, and in their damaged-and-slowed state the Americans fall within Gascoigne’s range once again before they can run. Pensacola goes down before Gascoigne’s guns on the first round (France: 24 VPs) and while Salt Lake City gets initiative on the second round, she goes down before she can get away (France: 24 VPs). The French invasion target is now clear of American surface forces.

The American search planes out of San Juan spot the French raiders ten zones to the northwest, but not the French colliers.

Pensacola meets her end.

Turn 14: The battleships Languedoc and Flandre bombard St. Thomas, clearing the way for the transports to land their troops. The American search planes lose contact with the French raiders northwest of Puerto Rico.

Turn 15: The American scout cruiser squadron on the north coast of Hispaniola that was heading for St. Thomas diverts northward to intercept the raiders, leaving the job of avenging Pensacola and Salt Lake City to the main battlecruiser squadron six zones to the northwest. Fifty French slow transports start unloading at St. Thomas. The search planes out of San Juan again fail to contact the French raiders, which disappear from the board ten zones northwest of the Cuba/Hispaniola straits (just at the edge of American air search range).

Turns 16 – 18: The airship Dixmude out of Fort de France spots the American scout fleet out of Colon, seven zones northwest of Maracaibo. The weather turns misty as night falls, and Tahoe lays another minefield on the boundary between AL17 and AM17. The slow American battleships out of Key West don’t catch the French colliers steaming northeast from Honduras, and the French destroyers make it back to Port St. Louis on oil fumes.

Turn 18 ends with the Panama Canal invasion fleet three zones northeast of Willemstad, and the two French battleships that bombarded St. Thomas just off St. Kitts on their way back to Port St. Louis. As for the offboard French raiders and two colliers heading for the Cuba/Hispaniola straits, they’re right in the eye of the needle: One American patrol fleet is three zones northwest of them and another is three zones south of them. But both French fleets are offboard, so the Americans may never know . . .

The score at the end of Day 3 is France: 158, USA: 153.

Will the raiders thread the needle, sink a decent chunk of the 20 merchant ships the French need for their victory objective, and then outrun their pursuers to get some life-preserving coal? Will Sonny really kill his brother for conspiring with Lorenzo? Will the Key West battlecruiser squadron get past the battleship Gascoigne and destroy the St. Thomas invasion transports? Or will Gascoigne hold them off long enough for the battleships and destroyers mustering at Port St. Louis to arrive and secure the invasion beaches? Tune in next time and find out!

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