Here is a card to go with your repaint. You'll find it has the exact same stats and SAs of the original BF 109E Ace card. Creating the card was a successful mission in redundancy.
In the WW2 Replay thread, Pendragon68 met me a couple of weeks ago to replay the Italian fleet escaping German clutches following the Armistice of Cassibile in 1943. As the thread sits nicely tucked away deep down in the AAM scenarios page, I thought you boaties might like this link just to find the report:
Well, that scenario will have to wait for some days. We first have to deal with the report on:
Operation Achse – fleet actions (German: Fall Achse, "Case Axis", originally called Operation Alaric) 8–19 September 1943
In the spring of 1943, preoccupied by the disastrous situation of the Italian military in the war, Mussolini removed several figures from the government whom he considered to be more loyal to King Victor Emmanuel than to the Fascist regime. Following the Council meeting held on July 23, 1943, Mussolini was summoned to meet the King and was dismissed as Prime Minister. Upon leaving the meeting, Mussolini was arrested by the Carabinieri. Pietro Badoglio took the position of Prime Minister. Although the nomination of Badoglio apparently did not change the position of Italy as Germany’s ally in the war, many ways were being probed to seek a treaty with the Allies. Secretly, an agreement was reached between the Allies and the Kingdom of Italy, signed on September 3 in Allies-occupied Sicily. The armistice presented a total capitulation of Italy and was approved by both King Victor Emanuel III and Prime Minister Badoglio.
The clauses of the Armistice of Cassibile specifically demanded the surrender of the Italian fleet, as the 'elimination' of the battleships of the Italian Royal Navy would allow a reduction of the Allied naval forces in the Mediterranean. The commanders of the Italian Navy showed indecision; the Chief of Staff, Admiral Raffaele De Courten, who had been forewarned of the armistice, remained undecided till the evening of 8 September whether he should comply and surrender the fleet, or order it to be scuttled.
In the mean time, the Germans were well aware of things to come. They had started to devise a plan – Operation Achse – to effectively take control of Italy as soon as the Italian government had switched allegiance to the Allies. Several German divisions had entered Italy after the fall of Benito Mussolini, despite the protests of the new Italian government. When the Italian armistice with the Allied forces (the Armistice of Cassibile) was made public on 8 September, German forces moved rapidly to take over the Italian zones of occupation in the Balkans and southern France, and to disarm Italian forces in Italy. In Achse the Germans had also planned to take the whole Italian battle fleet, which at that time was divided in two squadrons, the main one at La Spezia under Admiral Carlo Bergamini and a small one at Taranto, in the heel of Italy, under Admiral Alberto Da Zara.
It was only at the evening of 8 September that De Courten did inform Bergamini about the armistice. A bewildered Bergamini was ordered to take his warships to rendezvous with a British squadron near Bone, a city in northeast Algeria, while Da Zara was ordered to take his flotilla to Malta...
Battle Report
Pendragon68 suggested to once again modify Admiral Duncan's Java Sea scenario to fit Achse's setting. aaminis.myfastforum.org/about33486.html&highlight=java+sea We decided the Italian fleet to be build around Roma (releasing the restraints of historical accuratesse) and the Germans to bring some long range bombers, among other stuff.
(Italian flotilla)
(German build)
The Italians were to try and escape the map over the opposite edge, scoring double VP for any escaped vessel.
(initial setup; to be clear, the Italian fleet had to sail past the orange juice to score double VPs)
For the first four turns the Initiative went to the Germans, apparently having surprised the escaping Italians. The German tactics concentrated on first slowing down (=crippling) the more lightly built Italian ships, before trying to sink the lot. The Italians on the other hand tried to stick together as much as possible, hoping to accumulate enough air screen, while speeding across the Mediterranean Sea, hunting for the horizon.
(early air maneuvers)
(and the result of long range fire in return)
That was largely what happened. Both fleets managed to whittle down the opposite force for a large part, up to the point that the Graf Zeppelin was the only German vessel left afloat (counting U-boats as not being exactly afloat, while the Italian force was reduced to the Roma with some minor supporting hulls.
(the thick of the fight)
Highlights: the Bf 109s' strafing attacks against the Italian destroyers turned out to be rather effective; at least more accurate than the U-boats' torpedoes were. Of course, the main cannons of the Roma put some devasting fire to the German cruisers and destroyers.
In the end, Roma managed to cross the edge of the Mare Nostrum, accompanied by just the Giovanni delle Bande Nere. After calculating and re-calculating VPs, it turned out that the Germans had managed to score a victory, albeit a very marginal one.
(Roma escaped)
Another Axis victory!
Epilogue
After a near mutiny, the Taranto squadron, including the battleships Andrea Doria and Duilio, arrived at Malta in the afternoon of September 10, escorted by the battleship King George V. In spite of Italian protests, armed guards were posted on the warships while British sailors began to dismantle the breech-blocks of the guns. Many Italian officers wanted to scuttle the warships but Da Zara decided to await developments. The Italians were left in peace, so no hostalities developed and the ships remained afloat.
The voyage of Bergamini’s squadron, which included the battleships Roma, Vittorio Veneto and Italia (ex-Littorio), was more eventful. Bergamini, who thought the King had escaped to La Maddalena, Sardinia, had decided to disobey orders and was taking his warships from La Spezia to La Maddalena. Shortly afterwards, Rome informed Bergamini that the Germans had occupied La Maddalena, so Bergamini ordered his squadron to turn back westwards. By then, German Do-217K bombers intercepted the Italians, attacking with Fritz X-1400 radio-controlled bombs. Two of these hit Bergamini’s flagship, Roma, which caught fire, and her forward magazine blew up. The battleship capsized, broke in two and sank rapidly, with two-thirds of her crew perishing, including Bergamini and all his staff. A few destroyers and torpedo boats were left behind to pick up Roma's survivors, and afterwards reached the Balearic Islands.
German bombers attacked again, targeting the Italia. One Fritz X hit Italia just forward of turret no. 1; it passed through the ship and exited the hull, exploding in the water beneath. Although seriously damaged, the renamed battleship continued steaming to Bone. Upon arriving at Bone, Italia's flotilla was met by a British squadron comprising the battleships Warspite and Valiant. All sailed towards Malta, reaching the island at September 10.
Other ships were captured in port by the Germans or scuttled by their crews. Only a few Regia Marina crews chose to fight for Mussolini's new fascist regime in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic.
British Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham issued his famous signal to the Admiralty: “Be pleased to inform their Lordships that the Italian battle fleet now lies at anchor under the guns of the fortress of Malta.” It was a fitting end to three bitter years of war where Malta just managed to survive a siege from the air and the sea thanks to hard-fought convoys from Gibraltar and Alexandria.
In the Cunningham/De Courten Accord, it was agreed that the Italian military and mercantile shipping would collaborate with the Allies as co-belligerents against the Germans and were to operate on the same conditions as applied to the vessels of other German-occupied countries, that is, while the vessels would continue to fly the Italian flag and be responsible to Super Marina, but the Royal Navy would assign their duties. There was little use for the surrendered Italian battleships and there was doubt about the loyalties of the crews, so the ships were interned in Egypt. In June 1944, the less powerful battleships (Andrea Doria, Caio Duilio and Giulio Cesare) were allowed to return to Augusta harbour in Sicily for training. The others, Vittorio Veneto and Italia, remained at Ismaïlia in the Suez Canal until 1947. After the war, Giulio Cesare was passed to the Soviet Union.
I use the Hotz mat I once ordered for playing large W@S games. The map is nice and large, which allows for a lot of maneuvering. It is also rather bland, having no print apart from the hex pattern.
Delivery can take some time, indeed. I had to place my order twice just to get 1 map, which still took > 2 month to get delivered (in Europe).