The Lars Chronicles:
MWC Nats 2004
The Best Nats So Far
by Lars
Copyright (C) 2004 by
Larry S. Dahl
It wasn’t until the
Monday before Nats that I knew for sure that I could go. Work had been a bear from last September up
until mid-May, but for the last two months it had been slowing down, and so was
I. Still, there was this task, out in
I was somewhat
relieved at getting the go-ahead from work, because I was half hoping that I
could make it, but now I was in trouble, because I wasn’t ready. I’d done some boasting to Ron Horbul that I’d
have the Tiger ready to go and team with his Lion, but other tasks (like a late
refinance of the home loan) had slowed that project down to the point where to
get it done I’d have to knock myself out.
I needed a vacation, and I wasn’t in the mood for a week of late nights
before I went to Nats. So it was back to
Bellerophon. In fair shape from her last
fight, all she needed (I thought) was a new hull skin and fresh coat of paint. That was more manageable. I relaxed a bit, and started work.
The work was made more
manageable in the fact that my two boys, Grant and Andy, who have accompanied
me to my last two Nats, were way behind in some required school work, and there
was no question that they would be going.
It was time to show them that their home-schooling mother and I meant it
when we said that ‘school comes first’.
But it felt rather odd for me, not having to worry about them or their
boats. Grant’s ship was still in the
dockyards, getting an overhaul, but Andy’s was in good shape. I’d even used it earlier that year, up until
I decided that I should fix up my own boat and quit getting his sunk under the
guns of Bob Hoernemann’s Warspite.
On Friday Bob called
up, and we discussed our drive down. We
were to take my stuff, Bob’s stuff, and Ron’s ships, because Ron had to stick
around for a wedding on Saturday, and wouldn’t be driving down until
Sunday. “Can you be here at
I’m a night owl, and
like to sleep in. I tried to bargain for
a few more hours of sleep, but only managed to get one out of Bob. Oh well, at least once I picked him up, he
could keep me awake while I drove.
Saturday came, and my
wife pushed me out of bed at
Finally, we were
almost packed when Kevin Bray called.
He’d left something behind, and wanted Bob to bring his. He called again a few minutes later, this
time with Gerald Roberts on the phone, as Gerald suddenly had room when Jim
Pate had to back out of Nats due to a family problem. I had just managed to wrangle
a single room (one that Patrick Clarke had surrendered when he got Dana
Graham’s room) out of the Nats hotel clerk, and after all that work I had
started to look forward to a nice quiet room to myself. I hemmed and hawed and thanked him for his kindness,
but finally told Gerald that right now I ‘kind of wanted a room to myself’, but
that I might join him later in the week.
Well, we were out of
Bob’s driveway about ten minutes to eight, only fifty minutes late. Bob was instantly feeling like he’d left
something behind. “I always leave
something behind, I just hope that it’s something you can buy down there.” I told him.
It wasn’t long before
he remembered that he’d left some pictures that he wanted to give to Kevin
Bray. Later he remembered some gag that
he’d left at home. Then down in
As we drove there was
a fairly steady stream of conversation.
Bob, that social butterfly, wanted to make it down in time for ‘supper
with the gang’, so we only stopped twice.
Of course, I had to show off how out of it I was by forgetting which
side of the truck the fuel cap was on, when I pulled up to the pump for our first
refueling. Bob matched me by not properly
triggering the gas with his ‘pay at the pump’ credit card. I went in to use the restroom while he went
digging for his travel directions, which were buried in the bottom in the back
of the truck. When I came back we had to
start the pump over.
We took the scenic
route through the capitol of
Later on, we passed
Royal’s Stadium in
We had our second stop
on the freeway between
The last stretch of
road, after we passed through the
We finally reached
Rolla, only forty minutes behind Bob’s planned arrival time, and located the
motel. We drove around the parking lot
and then stopped at the office. Inside
we found Fluegel and his son Dallas. We
exchanged pleasantries. Then Bob and I
got our rooms. For some reason the lady
clerk, when she heard my name, shook her finger at me, and then asked if I
wanted a non-smoking room instead of a smoking room, which is what she’d told
me I would get when I finally got her to give me one. So she moved me from room 146 to room
144. “Should be able to remember that
number,” I said, thinking of my duties as TF144 Ediot in chief. But I was puzzled because Luis Gomez ended up
with room 146, and it was also a non-smoking room. Go figure.
But Luis got a king size bed whereas I only got a double.
Well, as Bob’s stuff
was on top, we went to drop off his and Ron’s stuff first. We were soon surrounded by other model
warship combat captains. The Melton
brothers, Tom and Mike, along with Mike Tanzillo, were in a room nearby. Ted Brogden and Swampy were a few rooms further
down. Kevin Bray also joined us.
We saw Tom first. “Ah, Tom Melton!” I
said. A few minutes later Mike
appeared. “Ah, Tom Melton’s brother!” I
said.
Tom laughed, “Oh, I see it’s who
you meet first!”
With each captain we
met, it seemed like the first question we got was, “Where’s Ron?” We started out by telling the truth, but we
quickly tired of that response. Later,
Bob claimed it was he who started it, whereas I remember it as being me, but
Ron’s staying behind to attend a wedding soon became ‘staying behind for HIS
wedding’.
“Oh really,” said most
folks. Some were amazed that his new
wife would let him run off to a boat meet immediately after getting
married. “Must be some woman to let him
go like that,” they said. Others were
concerned that future anniversaries would keep Ron from attending future
Nats. Only Bryan Finster pushed it
further.
“I thought he was
already married,” said
“This is his third
wife,” we told him.
If Bryan had pressed
it further by asking if Ron had divorced his previous wives, or was widowed, I
planned to respond, “Oh no, he’s a Mormon.”
I told Bob about it after he left, and we had a good chuckle.
Well, since we’d
driven ourselves to get down here in time to join the other captains for the
evening meal, we next got ready for that event. Somehow I got all sweaty unloading my stuff,
and found that most everyone had ‘gone to Shoney’s just up the road’ while I
took a quick shower.
They were all in the
back, having a good meal and lots of yucks while everyone caught up with
everyone else that they hadn’t seen in a year or two. I joined the party late and took a seat next
to Chris Grossaint and Jim Coler. I
didn’t know Jim too well, but we started off well. Grossaint had warned him that he ‘had to
watch what he says because Lars will write it down.”
When the waitress
delivered a plate for someone nearby, I asked if I could place an order. “Oh, you wanted to eat too?” asked the
waitress in a ‘haven’t I got enough to do with this crew’ attitude. I ordered the steak and shrimp special, and
when the steak came I asked the waitress where the shrimp was. She didn’t even get to answer.
“It’s at the buffet,”
said Grossaint, in a tone that suggested that everyone knew that. The waitress just raised an eyebrow in
confirmation.
Later during our
conversation, however, we started off on the subject on what things were like
in the old days. “Back then we had to
make everything from scratch,” I was saying.
“Guns, pumps, switches, props.”
“Back when they made
ships out of rocks,” said Jim, cracking Chris and me up.
“Now I have to write a
Lars Chronicle this year, just for that line,” I said.
After the meal, it was
back to the motel for the standard Saturday Night ‘Check for Leaks and Paint
the Waterline” job in the bath tub. As
usual, minor leaks were found in the area around the props.
I’d left my masking
tape at home (the other forgotten thing!) and stopped by Ted and Swampy’s room
on the way to Bob’s room. We got to
chatting about how fast some folks progress.
“For some folks, it takes forever to get out of their first year,” said
Steve. Then he turned to me. “When are you going to do so?”
In addition to the
waterline, I also got one ship test out of the way. Luis Gomez had a drop test kit, and said that
the CD had told someone to go ahead and start testing. So the tester went from Axis to Allied and
back to Axis and so forth, so that the tests were done by someone on the other
side. The
Bedtime was about
Sunday:
It was out to the lake early on Sunday.
Bob had a number of ships to test.
<Bruder_241> I
had one but as I have had problems in the past few years, that was enough for
me. We loaded the ships on the platform
that we’d used on the trip down, but without the other luggage I was rather
nervous about them staying there between the motel and the lake. I had guessed correctly, despite my best
efforts, the carrier took a tumble, along with Bob’s cruiser. Fortunately damage was minimal. Bob did whine about the loss of several
anti-aircraft guns.
As we were getting out
of my truck, Bob picked up a button that was on my dash. It was a button from
First
things first for tests was the weight test. Dave or Chris Au in years past had told me it
was best to get weighed before putting the ship into the water, as the balsa sides,
even without leaks, would absorb water into the siding. Finster brought out his scale and plugged it
in right next to Bob. John Bruder
produced a ship list with the required weights.
The Bellerophon and all of Bob’s ships passed their weights easily. Lief brought his von der Tann up later, and
found his ship a tad overweight. “Must
be the water,” I said.
“Oh, right,” said Lief. He took the
ship and flipped it over, and water poured out.. He placed it back on the scale, and it was
now a quarter pound under the limit.
“Thanks,” said Lief, and went to get his test sheet for me to sign. He wasn’t the only one. John Bruder had a ship that came in just legal. It also was much better after he removed some
water from the hull.
With the two easiest
tests done, I next went for the regulator test.
This one I usually failed the first time around. Once again Finster came through with a test
gauge. My regulator registered about 145
lbs. of pressure, and Finster signed my sheet.
Now all I had left was the speed test, and it wasn’t even
The first runs had the
ship running a good second slow. It was
odd, however, how the ship was almost two seconds slower in one direction
versus the other. Jacob Bruder, who was
doing my timing, also commented on it.
Well, despite my best
efforts at remembering, I moved to a smaller gear which made the ship even
slower. I ran a speed run and discovered
that it was true. Embarrassed, I thanked
Jacob for his time, and promised to be back shortly. After moving to a gear with more teeth than
the original, the ship came in at 27 seconds one way, and 29 the other,
averaging out right at 28 which was what I needed. With a heavy sigh, I figured I was done, and
it was just a few minutes after
So, I sat back and
relaxed, watching Bob work his way through four ships. I did feel a little guilty, but he seemed to
be enjoying it. Ron’s Lion had finished
first, and Bob’s cruiser had passed quickly too. His Warspite took a few runs to get it nailed
down. But the carrier was more
difficult. With each run it seemed that
he knocked off more anti-aircraft guns.
He played with speed disks for about an hour. Finally he was reduced to swapping props,
trying to find the right combo. <Bruder_239>
Bob wasn’t the only
one having prop problems. Jim Coler was
sitting on the other end of the pavilion, and was complaining that 1 and 3/4
inch 27 pitch props were not to be found in either the inventory of Swampy or
Charley. “I’ve got a set,” I said. Jim was reluctant to take them, as they were
my last complete set of spares. But
since I did have two left handed props (the boys always seemed to break the
right handed ones), he finally took them.
Well, I mentioned that they were ‘somewhat pricey’ and he handed me some
cash the next day, so he took them home with my blessing.
“Just don’t tell me
you threw a prop later this week,” he said as he installed them.
“Oh, I’ve got those
two left handed ones, I’ll just put them on and reverse the one motor so I’ll
only be crabbing through turns,” I said.
He didn’t seem to think that was a good idea. “Then just pray,” I said, slapping him on the
back. “There’s no
rocks here that I can see.”
Jim did have something
else that got him some attention. He had
homemade guns that instead of having plastic tubing to run the gas from the
piston to the back of the magazines and to the breech behind the o-ring, they
had brass metal tubing. “Cool!” was the
response that was heard most from those that saw them. <Bruder_232>
As we were doing all
these tests, we were also visiting. Chris Kessler, who went to college in Rolla and was thus the Site
Host’s assistant, finally found some time to work on his cruiser. The cruiser looked like it had come straight
from last year’s Nats to this one, as it was covered with patches. <Bruder_228> In addition to the patches, folks noticed that
he’d painted “2004, Best Nats Ever” on the ship’s stern.
The Bruder’s, another
one father, two sons team, were quickly done with the ship testing of their
fleet. <Bruder_227> They spent a good deal of time helping out
others, especially with the speed trials.
While I was roaming
around, testing done, chatting with old friends and introducing myself to folks
I didn’t know, I was chatting with the
At
Lief also announced
the additional two items that would be checked on the ships. The down angle on sidemounts would be
checked, along with the pump outlet.
Lief was handling the down angle checking. Jeff Lide was given the task of checking the
pumps, which he seemed to do with great pleasure. “I’ve come to check your orifice,” he would
say slowly. “Your pump
orifice.” For some of the
captains he knew better he accentuated his message by playfully slipping on a
rubber glove.
After the captains meeting,
it was discovered that Finster’s test gauge was 20 lbs. different from the
‘official’ gauges of Dave Au and Rick King.
Of course, my regulator was now showing up as 160 on the official
gauges. I’d been through this before,
and set off to cleaning it. After four
attempts had refused to budge the value on the test gauge, I gave up. Swampy had dropped a “Sunday Special” flyer
on the tables and lightweight regulators were on special. “I give up,” I told Bob. “I’ll just get a new one.” But Swampy had left so I had to wait to go
back to the motel to finish the ship testing.
I knew it had been too easy.
Well, Bob finally got
the CVL to make speed. The ship had been
receiving a lot of attention, both on the water and on the bench. Bob did some more cussing as more work meant
more displaced AA guns. He’d made them
out of electrical connectors, soldering a pin to them. They made pretty good looking AA guns. Chris Pearce took a look at them and said, “I
can get you some that bend when they’re hit, for a decent price.”
“These are free,” said
Bob. “I’m an electrical contractor and
I’ve got these coming out of my ears.”
“Go with it then,”
said Chris.
As he started to
leave, Bob hollered after him, as he had been doing all afternoon, “Remember to
vote for the Carrier for Best of Scale Convoy!”
With the days testing
done, we slowly loaded up the ships. I
do remember certain folks wandering into the nearby tweaking area and testing
their guns. The Bruder’s guns sounded
mean and nasty and I vowed to be very careful when in their vicinity on the
water. Brian Lamb was also tweaking, and
at one point borrowed a file from me.
When he returned it, he said, “Thanks, I’ve now got all seven guns
working for the first time.” His new
As we loaded up the
ships to go home, I dropped the table down to the floor of the truck, to
prevent another mishap. The ships barely
fit in. “I can’t wait for Ron’s truck,”
said Bob.
Back at the motel, I
dropped off Bob and his fleet. I found
Swampy roaming the parking lot, and gave him the money for a new
regulator. He asked if he could drop it
off later, because Ted, his roommate, was taking a nap. I needed a shower, so I said sure.
After my shower, I
returned to Bob’s room and found that Ron had arrived. Ron’s first words to me were, “Thanks for telling
everyone I was getting married.”
“Not a problem,” I
said. Bob was grinning like the Cheshire
Cat.
“First I get is
several handshakes and congratulations and all I can say is ‘huh’?” he
grumped.
“That’s what you get
for being the last one here,” said Bob.
It was time for
supper, and soon a large group was headed for a Steak Buffet. I’ve forgotten the name of the place, but it
had a large statue of a cow on its roof.
Ron and I had fallen behind, but Bob was in his element, in the middle
of all the others. Ron and I took a seat
on the end of the long set of tables the wait crew set up for us. The food was decent but not great, the
conversation was far better.
When it was time to
leave we started the walk back. Ron and
I had lagged behind on the way there, now with the main group, someone
congratulated him on his recent marriage.
By this point he was tired of explaining also, so with a subtle dirty
glance in my direction, he simply said, “Thanks.”
On the walk back, I
had a lengthy chat with Rick King, another Lockheed Martin employee like
me. We compared notes. Where I’d come to the company through a
series of takeovers, he’d come after being laid off at Disney’s
There was an Allied
Captains meeting after supper, in Doug Hunt and Chris Kessler’s room. It was a large room, the ‘bridal suite’ they
claimed. Charley Stephens, the Allied
admiral, gave his plans for Monday’s battling, and assigned us to two and three
man teams. He also picked one captain
from each group to be in charge of that group.
Then he told us to go out and fight.
The opposing line up for the Axis looked tough, but it was hoped that we
could hold our own during fleet battles and make up points in campaign.
After the meeting I
made a run to Walmart with Chris Kessler, to get some masking tape and other
supplies, and some epoxy for Charley.
Someone had discovered that the rudders for the Class 5 or Class 6 boats
were not as big as they could be, by rule, and folks were adding rudder surface
area all over the place as the news spread.
The next task was
wiring up the new batteries. I had to
run back to Ron and Bob’s to borrow some solder (I later found mine), and got
caught in a conversation with Ron, Bob and Jeff Lide. Jeff had us all in stitches until he started
a story on his wife complaining about him making boat noises in the
shower. To him it seemed the most
natural thing in the world. When we reacted
differently, he stopped and asked, “Don’t you make boat noises in the shower?”
All that I had left to
do was check out the pump. I opened up
the watertight box for the second time that week, expecting to find a bad micro
switch, but to my surprise it was working fine.
I tried playing with the whole setup for some time. The pump worked fine on the bench, not even a
hint of trouble. At this point I was
getting mildly tired. So I crossed my
fingers and hoped that it was a one-time thing, and wouldn’t come back. I put the box back together, loaded the guns,
and then signed off and went to bed, about
Monday:
I got up once about
Just as I was coming
out with the last items, I passed Fluegel.
“Fluegel, you just made me feel much better,” I said.
“Why,” he asked.
“Usually I’m the last
one to leave the motel and the last one to get to the lake. I guess I’m not doing so bad,”
I said.
“Maybe you’re doing
great,” he said, “but that bothers me.”
Out at the lake, I
found a table in the pavilion, not far from Bob and Ron. I was surprised, as the pavilion was not large
enough for the whole group. However, at
least half of the battlers had brought tables and chairs and in some cases,
tents, to set up down closer to the water’s edge. The weather was perfect, about 80 degrees and
sunny and a light breeze to keep things cool.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were hotter, but Friday was somewhat
cooler again.
At this point, I
usually try to describe the lake. The
best description I’ve come up with is as follows: Think of a right triangle. The right (or ninety degree) corner is on the
farthest side of the triangle from the point where we battled. The two sides running from the right angle
are roughly equal in distance, and very straight (one
reason, no doubt, why speed trials were done on one of them). The third side of the triangle, the longest
side, is not straight, however. I’m
embarrassed to say this, but looking at the map of the lake from above, the
third side is more like the outline of a lady’s bosom, from above. The bulk of our battling was done from the
left bosom. The right bosom did not go
unused, but was closer to a playground, and so got less play. A home base during campaign was set up there,
in addition. The cleavage between the
bosoms narrowed to a point, at which was found a large stand of cattails, six
to eight feet tall. These cattails were
enough to obscure sight of the lake and ships as one walked (or more likely,
ran) from one bosom to the other. Later
in the week, someone pointed out that a bird was nesting in the cattails, and
it would swoop in on anyone who came too close.
Bob Hoernemann had
made a large map or the lake, and as the week went by and sinks accumulated,
he’d put a flag on the spot where the ship went down. The map, especially in the cleavage, soon
filled with British, American, German, Japanese and Italian flags. <RobertsNatsLake>
But as I don’t think I
can call the locations ‘left bosom’ and ‘right bosom’ and ‘the cleavage’ for
the entirety of this account, I’ll instead refer to them as the ‘Left Bend’,
the ‘Right Bend’, and ‘Cattail Cove’. In
addition, the cove down on the extreme left was partially roped off, due to a
nearby handicapped playground that the Lions Club refused to have us close
down. This cove I’ll call Handicapped
Cove. The visibility was very good along
the shore, except for moving from the Left Bend to the Right Bend, as there was
a ditch behind the cattails and so captains tended to run with all haste behind
the cattails in transferring from one
As for the shoreline,
it started out the week being somewhat soggy.
The shoreline was ringed by long grass, and for those wearing shorts, it
could be nasty. I took a couple of
scratches that left red marks on my legs for the rest of the week. “I see you found the saw grass,” Chris Au
told me at one point. He too had some
marked up legs. However, as the week
went by the grass go trampled down and the soggy
shoreline got progressively muddy. By
Friday it was just down right gloppy.
Shoes and socks (for those who wore them) took a beating during the
week. Here’s a photo of some Axis
captains late Monday <Melton_M_100>. Up by the pavilion was a small water spigot,
and most folks used it to wash off their footwear before leaving for the motel
each day.
The Lineups:
As is normal, the
lineups for the week remained relatively unchanged, but minor tweaking were
done here and there as people left, or ships fell out due to malfunctions. Friday saw a mass change in that the Allies,
with nothing to lose, tried a Fast Fleet and a Slow Fleet. But the line up for Monday morning shaped the
battling for the bulk of the week.
Allied A:
Brian Lamb: Brian was driving the
8 unit
Chris Grossaint: Chris brought his tried and true class 6
Jim Coler: Jim hails from
Kevin Bray: Driving his experienced class 6
Dave Au: Driving a class 5 Queen Elizabeth, Dave is a
tough battler in any ship he captains, and the QEs are known to be slugger type
ships. <QE_Melton>
Doug Hunt: Doug was driving a
class 5
Ted Brogden: Ted was once again captaining the class 5
Valiant. An experienced ship and captain
his only problem was he spent too much time worrying about Lars. <Valiant_Melton>
Lars (me): The class 4 Bellerophon was the only Allied
28 second boat, and it had been mostly sitting on the shelf since the last
Nats. As such it was expected that it
would be fish food. It was only hoped
that she would score some points on Axis ships on the way down. <Bellerophon_Bruder>
Patrick Clarke: Patrick was driving a
class 4 Invincible. Patrick had used the
ship for some time, and it was expected to live up to standard I-boat
expectations. <Invincible_Melton>
Matthew Clarke: The junior Clarke was
driving the 3 unit Houston. A natural
cruiser captain, the shortest Allied battler was expected to be a major
irritant with his well-worked cruiser. <ClarkeHouston_Bruder>
Tom Brown: Also driving a Houston, Tom was back in
battling after a few years absence.
Would he be rusty? <BrownHouston_Bob, BrownHouston2_Bob>
Allied B:
Kevin Hovis: Kevin had the other Allied big boat, an 8 unit
Charley Stephens: As Allied Admiral, Charley was bringing his
well tested class 6
Tony Stephens: Like his brother, Tony
was driving the North Carolina’s sister ship, the Washington, and the two who
work so well as a team were expected to be the main punch for the fleet. <Washington_Bruder>
Don Cole:
Don has been fighting for years, and was once
again using his favorite ship, the class 6
Rick King: Rick left his favored
Scharnhorst back in
Bob Hoernemann: Returning with his second year class 5
Warspite, and heavily refit over the long Minnesota winter, would the ship with
the rotating polar bear head be more than just a flashy display? <Warspite_Melton>
Mike Melton: Mike was back with his class 5
Ron Horbul: Ron’s class 4 Lion was back for another go
round. Even if he had improved the
turning on the arrow-like hull, he was still likely to get a lot of attention. <Lion_Roberts>
Chris Kessler: Chris Kessler, after
improving every day during the previous Nats, was back again with his class 3
Pete Demetri: Pete is one of the
battlers whose name I’ve seen for years, but we’ve never crossed paths until
this year. He was driving a class 3
Steve Milholland: Steve showed up
without a ship. Bob Hoernemann gave him
his class 3
Axis A:
Tim Beckett: Tim had brought back an oldie but a goodie. D.W.
Fluegel’s old 1/150th scale
Chris Pearce: Fighting a well-worked class 6 Nagato, Chris
is tough in any ship he has and was expected to be a major pain for the
Allies. <Pearce_Melton>
Steve Crane: A new battler, originally from the east coast
of Canada, but having since moved to warmer climes, Steve was an unknown to
most of us, but his Nagato looked mean and nasty none the less. <Crane_Bruder>
Gerald Roberts: Gerald had also caught the Nagato bug. However, I’m not sure if his was a new ship or
one that he’d brought back after his stint in the Settsu. I was going to miss that Settsu. <Gerald_Melton>
Lou Meszaros: Lou was back in the Italian big ship, the
class 6 Vittorio
DW Fluegel: DW had brought more than a couple of ships
this year. He’d also brought along his
son Dallas. Between the two of them and
their two ships, the class 5 Baden and the class 2
Tim Krakowski: Tim was back for another year with his Fuso,
hoping for better times with the class 5 ship. I’ve always wondered just how much that tower
superstructure weighs, and what effect the wind has on it. <Fuso_Melton>
Lief Goodson: Lief was back in his tried and true class 4
von der Tann. He’s always been a natural
with this ship, and was expected to be a real pest. <Lief_Melton,
Lief2_Melton>
Chris Au: Chris was driving a new class 4 French
battlecruiser, the
Axis B:
Bryan Finster: Back with his class 6 Nagato with her rear
pointing bow sidemounts, his ship was experienced and dangerous. <Finster_Melton>
John Bruder: The head of the Bruder clan, and President of
the club for the year, John was driving his experienced class 6 Italia. One of three big Italian boats, they figured
to be returning some of the attention that they’d gotten in past years. <JohnItalia_Roberts>
Josh Bruder: Like his father, Josh
was also sailing a class 6 Vittorio
Michael Tanzillo: Mike was driving a
Nagato this year. Unfortunately I didn’t
get a chance to find out much about it.
But being that this was his third Nats, Mike should hold his own. <Tanzillo_Roberts>
Tom Melton: Last year’s rookie of
the year, Tom was driving the Nagato he’d used the year before. With another year under his belt, he seemed
likely to improve. <Tom_Roberts>
Rob Stalnaker: A rookie captain from the east coast (
Jeff Lide: I keep thinking that Jeff’s Kirishima is a
class 6 ship, as it resembles the Nagatos so closely,
and the class 4 battlecruiser fights like it has the two extra guns of the
bigger ship. Maybe that’s why he
occasionally forgets about his pump. <Lide_Melton>
Jake Bruder: The other Bruder brother (and son) likes the
short, compact hull of the World War One German battlecruiser von der Tann, a
class 4 ship, over the longer more elegant Italians. His battling style was much the same, not
flashy but rather steady. <JakeVDT_Melton>
Luis Gomez: Luis, after a good
year as a cruiser captain the year before, opted for one more gun, and was
driving a class 4 Kongo rigged up in the World War One configuration. A good looking ship, it was not expected to
have troubles after his Garibaldi had run so well the year before. <Kongo_Roberts>
Randy Stiponivich: Another von der Tann
captain, the heavy camouflaged paint scheme was graced by a bright blue Smurf
figurine on her stern. The ‘Pirate
Smurf’ proved to be as tough as Randy’s ship, surviving several direct hits and
remaining standing. Only the Pillsbury
Dough Boy would have been more annoying than the Pirate Smurf. <SmurfVDT_Melton,
SmurfVDT2_Melton>
Steve Reynolds: The rookie of the year
from two years ago, having missed last year’s Nats, it was hoped that his class
4 Moltke would continue from where she’d left off. <Moltke_Roberts>
Ship Identification: If
you looked at any of the photos above, you’re probably wondering how I can tell
the
The
There were six
Nagatos, and they were divided up three to a fleet. The Axis B group gave me the toughest
problems. Fortunately there is a picture
with the three of them together <AxisB_Nagatos_Melton>. Finster’s Nagato is the furthest away in the
picture, and is the easiest to identify, due to the smaller pagoda
superstructure and the rear-pointing A and B turrets. Tom Melton’s (middle) and Mike Tanzillo’s
(closest) ships are virtually identical to the casual observer. However, their sidemount turrets are set up as
mirror images of each other
<TanzilloAndTom2_Roberts>.
In addition, Mike’s rear barbettes are white, while Tom’s are painted
dark gray like his turrets. To cause
further confusion for this fleet, the battlecruiser Kirishima has a similar
profile to Finster’s ship, and has a red painted section of deck just above the
rear step deck, just like Finster’s.
In the other fleet, Chris Pearce’s Nagato is also a near match for Tanzillo’s and Melton’s ships. Pearce’s ship differs in that the bow sidemounts are opposite from that of Melton’s, and Chris’s stern haymaker is opposite that of Tanzillo’s. The other two Nagatos were Steve Crane’s and Gerald Roberts <GeraldCrane_Melton>. Steve’s Nagato was painted a lighter gray, and had his radio antenna mounted forward of his A turret, from which he flew a flag most of the week. This made him relatively easy to pick out. Gerald’s Nagato was painted a shade of gray between that of Chris’s and Steve’s. Sometimes this helped, sometimes it didn’t, like when it got cloudy. Gerald’s Nagato was sporting a plane just forward of the rear turrets, seen in this picture along with Pearce’s ship <PearceGerald_Melton>, but it may have been shot off as it is not there later. Another distinguishing mark for Gerald’s ship is that it has several lines with flags flying, coming from the pagoda mast structure.
During the week, at
various times, some of the Nagato captains adopted further identification
aids. Pearce’s, Melton’s, and Tanzillo’s
three ships each has a small wire rod sticking out of the stack. For Monday’s afternoon battle, Pearce mounted
a clown’s head on his ship <PearceClown_Melton>. The clown was removed later in the week. As for Tanzillo and Melton, Tom mounted a
heroic figure holding a sword and wearing a funny hat on the very bow of his
ship (note it’s not there in the group picture which came from Monday), but was
definitely there at the end of the week <TanzilloAndTom_Roberts>.
By the way, I figured
all of this ship ID stuff out after I finished writing the fleet battle on
Thursday, and I doubt if I’ll go back and review 5 hours of videotape to
correct my descriptions. But as I kept
things generic when I couldn’t tell whose ship it was, the description is technically
correct. Hopefully the readers will now
be able to tell from the pictures as to whose ship did what.
The Action descriptions:
I don’t know what it was this year, but I’ve
been tangling with borderline sleep apnea since February, and even had surgery
in an attempt to correct it back in May.
While at Nats I thought the surgery had cured the problem, but I found
when I got home that I’d been half-asleep the whole week. I found that other than a few incidents, like
most of my sinks, I could barely recall any thing from these battles. For some strange reason I remember most of
the evening meals fairly well (go figure!).
So I’m using Bob Hoernemann’s and John Bruder’s videotape footage to
help me with my faulty memory. As for
the photos, they come from mainly three groups of guys, the Meltons, who posted
theirs on the web, and Gerald Roberts and John Bruder. Thanks guys!
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then their pictures have turned
the Lars Chronicles from a light pamphlet into a 1000 page brick like ‘War and
Peace’. For the most part, I’ve tried to
match up the photos directly with the narrative, and I think most of them come
from exactly the spot in the battle I’m describing. There are cases where I don’t have an idea
where a good photo went, and so I tried to place it with a description of the
ships involved, but this doesn’t happen as frequently. But I’m pretty sure I’ve got all the photos
matched up with the correct battle sortie, especially for the Bruder and Melton
photos. In addition, late in the
writing, I found myself taking frames from the video. It started because I didn’t have a good
picture of Tom Brown’s cruiser (most of the cruisers were tough), and I’d
thought my video captures were pretty fuzzy.
His ship picture didn’t turn out too bad, so I started doing it
elsewhere.
Fleet
At the lake, I found
out the first battle was delayed to
I’d gotten out to the
lake earlier than I usually do, and so I was ready to go with nothing to do for
a bit, after filling up the CO2 bottle.
I sat on the bench and stared off into space. Folks would walk by and say, “Lars doesn’t
know what to do without having three boats to worry about.” Actually, I was in the midst of a root canal,
and I had problems all week with a temporary structure. Most of the week, when it appeared I was
staring off into space, I was probably working on freeing a piece of meat stuck
in the teeth from the night before. I
was curious if the resident dentist would figure out what I was up to, so I
didn’t mention it to anyone.
Allied A vs. Axis B, first sortie:
The first sortie of
Nats is usually the worst one for butterflies.
The only other battle that sometimes comes close is when the score is
very close on a Friday morning. The contest
director was calling out time intervals to begin, and then there were delays as
one captain and then another needed a few extra minutes, and the admirals each
called for an extension. At last the
extensions were gone and the CD called out the count down to zero.
“Happy Nats
everybody,” called out a small group.
“2004,” added Kevin
Bray. “And a whole lot more.”
The Axis started with
a run around the outside. The rookie
Tirpitz was leading the pack, and the NCs headed out to meet her. “Don’t everyone
counter that,” yelled Patrick Clarke, as the other Allies reacted. Just as the Tirpitz took her first salvo, the
Axis hollered “Bonzai!” and there was much whooping and yelling as the first
shots hit home. <Melton_M_013>
I had been set up in a
three ship team, myself with Bellerophon, Patrick Clarke and his Invincible,
and our leader, Kevin Bray, with his
“Well, should we go
get him?” ask Kevin.
“Might as well,” said
Patrick and I, and we were off. <Melton_M_016> Meanwhile,
the Tirpitz had wound her way around and now came in close to Allied slow boat
country. <Melton_M_014> In addition to Kevin’s group, Ted Brogden’s
Valiant, Dave Au’s QE, and Doug Hunt’s West Virginia were defending the same
turf, and the Tirpitz sailing through our ‘turf’ was an unexpected
surprise. She circled through once
without much attention, and then headed out to deeper water. Some of the Allied fast boats, including the
new
It was too soon for
the ship to have been sunk by gunfire alone, so I later asked Steve what had
gone wrong. He said that his weight
setup in his ship had been towards the stern, which had worked great for speed
trials. “However, it didn’t work when my
ship and the ship I’m sitting next to both hit full forward at the same
time. The stern deck dropped under and
never came up,” he said. “Shifting some
of the weight forward took care of the problem,” he added. On the video, it looks like Dave Au’s QE next
to him as he went down, so to Dave (and the Allies) went the first sink of
Nats.
“Yankee Doodle!” cried
out Charley, trying out a new Allied cheer to counter the Axis Bonzai.
“Tall
Trees! Tall
Trees!” yelled out someone else. I
didn’t understand the reference at all.
After battle resumed,
the Tirpitz swung through again and backed into the Allied slow boats to fire
twin sterns at Kevin Bray’s
“Now’s your chance for
glory,” a spectator said.
“Get him Larry,” Bob,
manning the video, was yelling.
“Why don’t you declare
it sunk,” suggested another spectator.
At this, the Axis started hollering, “Stop, he declared, stop he
declared!”
By this time Ted
Brogden’s Valiant had backed in with his twin sterns, but didn’t fire, and took
a ram from Doug Hunt’s ship in the process, and announced that he was coming in
on ram check. The other Allied ships
drifted away from the big ship, but Bellerophon stayed right beside her. Behind me, the questioning began. “You did declare it, didn’t you,” someone
asked.
“I didn’t say a
thing,” said Rob.
“Never mind, it’s
live,” said Lief.
I started plinking methodically away again with the
“Make up your mind,”
called Ted as the Allied ships cleared the area once more.
Rob went in and picked
up his ship. A pop was heard and Rob
said, “There it is, now it’s working.”
After the Tirpitz’s
departure, the Allied slow boats seemed to control the immediate area close to
shore. The two von der Tanns (Randy
Stiponivich and Jake Bruder) contested the area <Melton_M_020>
while the two big Italians (Josh and John Bruder) picked on the left flank. <Melton_M_018,
Melton_M_019> The Japanese ships (Lide,
Tanzillo, Melton and Finster) were further out, along with the two NCs and the
It was several minutes
of this melee. The Bellerophon floated
down close to shore, in the middle of things, without much to shoot at. She spent more time trying not to run into
Ted’s Valiant than she did engaged with the
enemy. She did have another interesting
occurrence when maneuvering in tight spaces when the
Dave Au’s QE got on
the outside of one of the Italian VVs, and stung the ship with several
sidemounts. <Melton_M_021,
Melton_M_022> The Pirate Smurf
moved in to take on four Allies, the Bell, Bray’s Massachusetts, the
Invincible, and the Valiant, and
appeared to take little damage. Those
VDTs are hard to hit where it hurts. <Melton_M_023>
Finally, not long
after a cry of “Allied cruiser beached” (which everyone seemed to ignore),.the dreaded Kongo caught Tom Brown’s
“Sit and pump,” Bob H.
called to Tom. The dreaded Kongo made it
difficult. The cruiser was obviously
heavy with water. “Go help Tom,” said Bob
to Matt Clarke. Matt was slow to
respond, as he had Bob check to see if his props were both turning. In the meantime Tom drove deeper into Cattail
Cove, and with the dreaded Kongo beside him, the stern of his ship went under,
the bow rising out and then sliding back like a knife into a sheath.
When battle resumed,
Bob H. noticed the pirate Smurf for the first time. “Who’s got a Smurf on their ship,” he called
out.
Out in the deeper
water, one of the NC’s was playing with a Nagato.
“Coler!” yelled out
Chris Grossaint.
“Shut up,” said
Jim. “Or get over here, one or the
other!” The NC headed out towards deeper
water with the Nagato in pursuit.
Back in the shallower
water, the Invincible was low in the water.
Patrick was one of my wing mates, but I had no idea who had stung
him. One of the big VVs was chasing him
with their triple sterns as the I-boat ran along shore. <Melton_M_024> With a little
waddle she turned right and nosed into shore as her stern kept dipping
under. Upon hitting shore, her stern
settled to the bottom. <Melton_M_025>
“Bonzai!” came the cry as Patrick handed his radio to someone else and
went in to recover.
Apparently his pump
quit working. “Worked all day yesterday,
worked all morning, until now,” he said as he poured water out of her
hull. Later he blamed the sink on the
speed controller glitching and somehow knocking out the pump servo.
Out on the water, the
VV now took a pass at the
The main action now
moved into Cattail Cove. The Jap ships
were working on the
After she went back
out, she took a run across the battling area, from right to left. On five, she was just looking to survive, but
her pump was kicking out a heavy stream.
“Brian, if you come back this way, we can protect you,” called Kevin
Bray.
“I’m trying,” called
Brian Lamb. She came in and tucked
between the
By this time, I
realized that the Bellerophon had been out on the water for a good long
time. While the guns weren’t empty, it
was time to think about saving some battery for the second sortie, so I called
five. With the rest of the Axis chasing
Brian, I only had the two big Italians to worry about, and they seemed to be
low on ammo themselves, and didn’t press home any attacks with any vigor.
The Bellerophon was
pumping just fine, and I thought I had no worries. But then with just under 90 seconds to go,
the pump stopped. I knew very quickly
that she wasn’t going to make it. So did
Josh Bruder, who started calling, “Hey, the Bellefonte’s going down!” I tried toggling the power on the
transmitter, and the pump switch itself, but it was no go. I don’t remember trying the throttle, but
probably wouldn’t have helped as this would have sunk her even sooner. The
“Bonzai!” yelled out
the two Italians.
“Larry!” muttered Bob
H, in that mildly scornful tone a parent uses when his kid lets him down, and
so quietly that probably only the camera heard it.
The
“Wait ‘til second
sortie guys,” said one of the watching Axis, referring
to the pursuit.
“Second Sortie!” said
another, as if he wasn’t aware of such a thing.
The
“YES!” said Brian, and
turned the ship towards shore.
Many of the Allied
captains were worried she’d sink, and started yelling, “Hurry up and touch
it!” Brian complied.
That pretty much ended
the sortie, as the ammo was very low by this point, and no one else was in
serious danger. I’d waited for the
action to slow down before I went out to recover my ship. Fluegel took my transmitter from me as I
stepped towards the water. Just as I was
about to step in, a large froggy type critter jumped out of the grass and
disappeared under the water, scaring the jeepers out of me. “I didn’t need that,” I muttered.
When I picked up the
ship, and was wading back to shore, the guns started to fire. Startled, I moved for the off switch, and
then looked at Fluegel. “Oh, I was just
clearing the guns for you,” he chirped.
“I didn’t need that
either,” I muttered quietly to myself.
Allied B vs. Axis A, first sortie:
The Allied fleet set
up on the left side of the left bank, while the Axis took the right. With a minute to go to battle, Bob
Hoernemann’s Warspite and Mike Melton’s
The other
disappointing news for the Allies was that Kevin Hovis had to pull his
War was called. Almost immediately, like a switch had been
flicked, Lou Meszaros’ Vittorio Veneto (VV) started spitting her stern guns on
the fringes of Cattail Cove. “Whoa!”
muttered some of his fellow Axis.
At the same time, a
challenge was called out. “BOB
HOERNEMANN IS A SISSY!” called out Lief.
I’m not sure if it was their gauntlet run a few seconds before, or the
rotating polar bear head on the bridge of the Warspite that generated the
challenge.
Meanwhile, the VV was
still firing off shots at regular intervals.
The other Axis had moved away to attack, except for the Fuso, which
stayed back a safe distance. “I can’t
get the channel!” said
Lou, swearing at his Polk radio.
“Did you try to turn
it off?” asked Tim.
“Yes, but it keeps
going back to channel 17! I don’t care
about channel 17!” said Lou, getting more exasperated.
“Go on five out of
control,” said Tim.
When the VV spit
another load from all her guns, he called, “I’m on five minutes.” Okay, he added a colorful metaphor as well,
but he apologized for it immediately.
With the quick call
for five minutes, the Axis fleet came back to defend their teammate. The Warspite and
the
The increased distance
opened up gaps in the line, and with Don Cole’s
Catching some twin
sterns from Fluegel, the Warspite left the VV.
“Where’s my wingman,” called out Bob as Lief’s VDT
moved in to sidemount the Allied ship.
The
In the distance, a
cheer went up. A ship had sunk on the
left side of Left Bend, and it was the honorary Minnesotan Swampy. The
Bob continued to try
to get to the VV, but finally someone pointed out, “Ah, Warspite, it’s four on one there.”
“I know,” said Bob,
sounding disappointed, dropping the pursuit.
The VV came off five about five seconds later.
The battle now moved
to the left side of Left Bend, some of it moving into Handicapped Cove. The
Then the Fuso called
five, and raced past the firing stern guns of the
Back down in the Cove,
the Warspite was once again in the middle of things. His teammate the
The Allied fast ships,
the two NCs of Charley and Tony Stevens, were trying to keep the Axis big fast
ships busy, but there were too many of them for the twin NCs to pin down. <Melton_M_038,
Melton_M_036>
The Warspite was
getting low in the water by this point, and the Polar Bear Head was spinning
slower and slower.
There was a near sink
as Steve Crane’s Nagato was extremely low, and Steve can even be heard to say,
“I think I’m sunk,” but his pump was working great. The ship was out of trouble by the time the
hard pumping Warspite arrived to try to finish him off. He might have taken on the water while
checking out a ram, as the camera had caught him bending over his ship for a
minute or so. He easily shook off the
slower ship, with the help from a block from the
Now the Axis moved in
to finish off the Warspite. The
Meanwhile, Kevin Bray
jumped into the camera frame, saying ‘Hey, there’s live
critters in there.”
After Bob sank, the
last surviving Minnesotan became the target.
Ron’s Lion became the center of attention, with even the
“Have a triple gun
salute,” said an Axis.
The Lion caught the
Ron laughed. “I’m not stopping!”
Steve Crane’s Nagato
got outside and managed to get alongside for a few sidemounts, before being
forced to swing wide to avoid the light cruiser
The Lion shook herself
free again, but the
With the Lion’s sink,
the battling was soon over, as most ships were out of ammo and on five by this
point.
Allied A vs. Axis B, second sortie:
I didn’t watch this
sortie. After handing the video camera
back to Bob, I went back to check out the intermittent pump problem. I opened up my water tight box for the third
time, and cleaned all the contacts for getting power from the main switch out
to the pump. As the motors seemed to
keep working, I didn’t think I had to work on that as well. I took my time and slapped the thing back
together during the break for lunch.
So this description
comes totally from Bob Hoernemann’s tape.
Down in Cattail Cove,
the Allied slow boats, the Valiant, West Virginia, and QE, tangled with a
couple of Nagatos. The
For the first time, a
large group of captains were over on the Right Bend. The reason was that that was where the
Amidst the cheers was Dave Au and Doug Hunt discussing a damaging ram that
Doug had taken from Dave. Doug wasn’t
sure of the damage, but Dave was, and pulled his own QE into shore. “You got a crunchy there,” said Dave.
“Oh, that’s a big
one,” said Doug.
While Brian Lamb and
Patrick Clarke were recovering the sunken
With all the ships and
all the shots, something had to give, and soon the camera centered in on a
Nagato being worked over by Kevin’s
The camera then swung
to the action near the Right Bend. The
When the battle
resumed, the hard pumping Nagato, which belonged to Mike Tanzillo, now had her
pump momentarily losing prime, so she’d benefited from the small break. But the
“Keep her right there
so I can get your sink on video,” said Bob to Mike.
The
“Yankee Doodle!” came the Allied cry.
Several others cried “Nicely Done!” as the ship
settled upright. And a final “Who Rah!”
was also heard.
The camera stopped for
a time, and then picked up the QE chasing Jake Bruder’s VDT. Jake had called five just after the
The QE was back, and
finished off his haymaker into the German hull.
Jake’s father was coming to the rescue, but just as he was coming up
alongside his son, the Italia miscalculated by just an inch, and caught the
VDT’s stern. The VDT rolled unto her
starboard side and the stern went under.
Everyone gasped as the stricken ship freed herself and started to right herself while she headed for shore, but she had gone too far
and went under by the stern.
“Who did it,” someone
asked.
“His dad did it,” said
Ted.
“Thanks, John,” called
Bob.
Jake took up the theme
too. “Thanks, Dad,” he said in a ho-hum
voice, which generated much laughter.
When battle resumed,
there now began two parallel chases. The
QE came racing by and matched bows with the faster
Kongo. The QE pushed the Kongo over
(without rolling) until her bow matched with the bow of Randy’s VDT. A split second later the VDT was pushed into
the Italia, and the four ships sailed off, the three Axis pushed by the one
Allied. Racing behind, Josh Bruder’s VV
was getting chased by a NC, and a nice block from the
To make matters worse,
Dave jumped into the water to rescue his ship, but he’d placed his radio on the
ground and then caught it’s strap with his foot and
pulled it into the water behind him. The loss of his QE for the afternoon’s
battle was going to hurt.
The next chase was the
two NC’s trying to catch Finster’s Nagato, but the ammo was low and shots were
difficult. The Valiant helped out too,
but seemed to be low on ammo too. As the
ships moved along the Left Bend towards the right, the captains moved up the
shoreline, sloshing as they went.
“Slosh, slosh, slosh,”
Fluegel is heard to mutter, to the accompaniment of sloppy footsteps. “Sounds like war.”
Behind the camera
comes the comment, “There she goes!” The
camera swung quickly but caught only bubbles.
Josh Bruder was out quickly to recover his sunken VV. The VV’s pump had a few bbs clog the pump intake, aiding significantly in her
demise. As he was bringing in the ship,
Bob said, “Why don’t we just extend the battle until everyone sinks. I mean, there’s no one left!”
There was still life
out on the water however. Randy’s VDT
was still alive, and led the two NCs and the Valiant on a merry chase as he ran
out his five. The Kongo was also
spinning out in the distance, but was left to herself. And after the VDT came in off her five, the Valiant
can be seen playing with Jeff Lide’s Kirishima, which had somehow missed the
camera for most of the sortie. The
Allied A beat the Axis B fleet by a score of 18,635 to 15,700.
Top Five High Point ships Total Pts Hits
Brian Lamb (sunk) 3515 74-9-27
Doug Hunt (sunk) 2405 43-5-19
Chris Grossaint 1755 38-9-23
Lars (sunk) 1540
Dave Au 1525 70-5-14
Rob Stalnaker (declared) 3210 46-8-11
Mike Tanzillo (sunk) 2520 77-2-14
Josh Bruder (sunk) 2245 62-5-10
Randy Stiponovich 2135 56-5-29
Jake Bruder (sunk) 1670 32-2-10
Oh by the way, note to
the score keeper, Ted Brogden did not have a score for this sortie. I don’t want to seem to be picking on Tim
Krakowski, who did the bulk of the scoring.
Instead I’m just trying to point out errors as I find them, in the hope
that it might help in future events.
Allied B vs. Axis A, second sortie:
At the start of this
battle, folks were quizzing Bob on which ships would sink. Since they said, “That one and that one, and
that one,” it’s hard for me to guess which lucky vessels they were talking
about.
When battle started,
Kevin Bray hollered out, “Watch out for Fluegel, he’s eyeing the
Fluegel can then be
heard in the background muttering, “It’s a vicious rumor.”
Almost immediately,
Ted told Charley that Gerald’s Nagato called five immediately, and the Stevens
brothers’ NCs soon departed in pursuit.
The camera cuts for a
bit, coming back on the
The Allies were trying
to hold their own and still protect Mike Melton’s
After the fighting
resumed, the melee moved down to Cattail Cove, where there was a chain reaction
ram, VDT to NC to Fuso, with all the last two calling ram and coming in to
check. The action continued here for
several minutes, with fast boats mixing with slow boats and everyone firing for
a few shots before the target disappeared. <Melton_M_056, Melton_M_059, Bruder_294>
Then Fluegel called five. His
Normally that kind of
a call brings sharks like blood in the water.
However, the Allies had trouble disengaging and swarming the new
target. The
“Can I get some help
here, or should I declare?” called Fluegel.
“Just let it go down,”
said Jeff Lide, Axis Admiral.
The Axis closed ranks
now, Lief’s VDT driving off a NC <Bruder_295,
Melton_M_060>, and then the
When the battle
resumed, a call went up, “Hey cruiser, I’m on your side!” Dallas Fluegel was sitting next to the
Chris Pearce’s Nagato
and the Bismarck next took a long run at the
In shore, the
The salvo brought
several exclamations. “Cooter!” drawled Jeff Lide.
“You’re da man, Cooter!”
“Yes,” said Lou calmly
but with a hint of pride, “Yes I am.”
Now the
The camera cuts, and the next shot is Lief’s VDT, pumping hard and
decks nearly awash. “Come on VDT,” a
spectator called, but the ship got lower and lower until the starboard gunwale
was awash, and Lief stepped in and plucked her out. <Bruder_299>
The
The
There weren’t many
folks with BBs left, so the big ships were trying to prop wash the
“Yes, but folks are
blocking me,” the youngster called back.
“Well, you’re on the
wrong side anyhow,” said his father. The
“Ram,” murmured some
of the Allies wistfully. Others just
groaned. The tape ends here, but I’m
guessing, as there was no penalty points given to the
youngster, that Don did the right thing and waved it off.
Axis A beat the Allied B fleet by a score of 17,620 to 10,575.
Top Five High Point ships Total
Pts Hits
Bob Hoernemann (sunk) 3160 71-6-28
Mike Melton (sunk) 3010 51-12-26
Don Cole (sunk) 2910 106-8-13
Charley Stephens 2475 95-7-27
Ron Horbul (sunk) 1840 49-6-8
Lief Goodson (sunk) 1825
Tim Beckett 1540 64-10-13
Gerald Roberts 1410 61-8-12
D.W. Fluegel (sunk) 1315
Chris Au 1220 57-8-9
Fleet Battle Two, Monday Afternoon:
The
Meanwhile we relaxed
and patched. Bob and Ron and I bemoaned
the fact that we’d all sunk in the first sortie. Even Swampy, the
honorary Minnesotan, had done the same.
“At least Ted is upholding the honor of the British Fleet,” said Bob.
When I went over to
get my CO2 refilled, Fluegel, who had very nicely given me a ‘happy birthday
salute’ on Sunday, noticed that I was once again wearing the “It’s my
Birthday!” button.
“Hey, you can’t have
two birthdays!” he protested.
“You’re right, but
coming to Nats is like getting a birthday present,” I said, to which he readily
agreed. “And besides, I’m really a New
Year’s Eve baby,” I said.
Allied A vs. Axis A, first sortie:
The winners of the
morning, both unaware of that fact, although the Axis probably could have
guessed, faced off against each other first.
The Allies were at full strength, but the scoresheet has the Axis going
without the Fluegels.
The battle started off
the center of Left Bend, with the Allied slow boats clustered in towards shore,
and the Axis wolves pecking on their borders.
<Bruder_102> A
Nagato shot through the center and the
This battle seemed to
start with a long series of quick exchanges, with no long running chases for
the video to center on. Bob the
cameraman, kept the camera jumping here and there as series of triples could be
heard, but rarely caught the action as the ships broke away. Towards the end of the sortie, however, the
quick exchanges would change into prolonged chases.
The camera cut, and
came back to the
When the battle
resumed, the Bismarck and a Nagato raced twenty yards from the left to the
right to catch Doug Hunt’s
In the background Lief
called out, “That’s me behind you Steve.
I’m a good guy, not a bad guy.”
Kind of late for introductions, but Lief as CD, can be given some slack
in this case I think.
After having the
WeeVee escape, the Bismarck and two Nagatos now found they had the Valiant
surrounded. <Melton_M_070>
Once again, the target escaped by backing
free. <Melton_M_071>
In the meantime, more
Axis ships had come in from the left, like the
Meanwhile Lief’s VDT
was now playing with Patrick’s Invincible.
<Melton_M_073> A
Nagato and the VV came to help, and then a pop was heard and CO2 started
venting. It was coming from Gerald’s
Nagato. He called five and moved away. No Allied ship took up the chase.
Patrick’s Invincible
and Ted’s Valiant were staying fairly close, <Melton_M_075>
and the
When battle resumed,
the Axis drove the Allies back deeper into Cattail Cove, backing in with their
stern guns ready to bark. It was too hot
for the Bellerophon and she squirted out of the melee like a wet watermelon
seed pinched between two fingers. The
Valiant and the
The camera cuts again,
and then comes back on the Bellerophon, being pursued by the VDT while the
The
The camera now swung
away. Grossaint’s NC had gotten caught
in a sandwich of three Allied ships and one Axis, <Melton_M_082>
and took a beating for it. The
In so doing, the
camera missed the ram sink of the
Immediately Lief said to Chris, “When you said ‘careful’ to me, I was
backing as hard as I could.” It was an
accident, free and clear.
I’d sunk with about
About this time, a
loud call is heard, “Dallas Fluegel is off five!” (Another note to the
scorekeeper.
Grossaint’s NC was now
eating some
While the NC kept up
her lonely fight with Beckett and Pearce, folks started calling to me. “Lars, you can go get it any time,” called
Tony Stevens.
“Lars, look out,
there’s a big stump right about where you sank,” called Kevin Hovis.
With all the
attention, I decided to go get my ship.
Firing the guns again brought a bubble to the surface, <Bruder_122> and I
found her with no trouble. She came up
with the pump still running, and immediately a big stream came out when it
broke the surface. <Melton_M_085> I
almost squirted my own radio with the
The
Beckett-Pearce-Grossaint battle continued when battle resumed. <Melton_M_087,
Melton_M_088> The Nagato was kicking
out a healthy pump stream, but the NC was pumping only sporadically.
A healthy string of
shots was now heard, and the camera caught the tail end of Lou’s VV getting
pummeled by the twin sterns on Matt Clarke’s
When the camera swung
back, Grossaint had been rejoined by his wingman, Jim Coler. Jim tried to continue the work on Pearce’s
bow, <Melton_M_089> but his turn to fire
sterns took him the wrong way as Grossaint headed back down to the
cattails. <Melton_M_090>
While Grossaint tries
to avoid the Bismarck and Nagato down there, I can see the Bellerophon back out
on the water, emptying her guns. After I
had recovered her and dumped the water, I’d noticed that my timer was still
running and had a
After a brief exchange
down in the cove, Grossaint now took his NC for a run back along the shore of
the Right Bend, pursued by Beckett, Pearce and Coler. Lou’s VV looked interested in picking up the
chase too. Way out there, the
The camera cuts, and
back in shore, the Invincible was being tag teamed by Steve Crane’s Nagato and
Lou’s VV, but looked to be holding her own.
Kevin’s
The camera cuts again,
and from the angle, Bob the cameraman had run over to the Right Bend. Grossaint’s NC was pumping very hard. “Get out of there,” hollered Coler, as Chris
was taking hits. <Melton_M_092, Melton_M_093>
The talk on shore was
about the huge holes in Pearce’s bow, plainly visible from shore. But the NC was getting low in the water now,
and target area was disappearing. Pearce
moved in to prop wash now. The
Barely moving, driven
only by her pump stream, the NC’s bow slowly dipped under. “There she goes,” muttered Bob H.
softly. As her bow sank, it pulled the
NC slowly forward, then accelerating slightly as she went down. <Melton_M_095> But then the bow struck
bottom and she stopped abruptly, her stern hanging for a brief second, <Roberts_001> and then falling back and under
like a door swinging closed.
As Grossaint
was recovering his ship, Pearce called from shore. “Hey Chris, by the way,
good work on my bow.” <Melton_M_096, Melton_M_097>
That was the end of
the major action, as the ammo was pretty much exhausted by then.
After the sortie, I
got to talking with Chris Pearce and Lief about my ram sink. Chris wanted to make it clear that he was
going to take the ram sink penalty.
“I forgot you were supposed
to pull your ship off the water,” I said to Pearce, the thought just hitting me
then. Lief and Chris looked at each
other, apparently they’d both forgotten that rule as well. “But then I didn’t go right in and get her
for a full two minutes,” I continued.
“It kind of bothered me but I didn’t know why, so I threw her back on
the water after I’d dumped it out, and at that point you were legal again,” I
said.
“Yeah, sounds fair for
now,” said Lief, somewhat chagrined. I
guess even the old hands like us can forget a rule or two. Either that or we’re all going slowly
senile. Or maybe it was the sun….
Allied B vs. Axis B, first sortie:
About this time, James
Foster showed up with his daughter and her boyfriend. A long time battler, now retired, he had
driven over from
There was eleven Allied boats facing 12 Axis in this battle. Fluegel’s
During the countdown
to the fight, the shoreline chatter was going big time. “Hey Kevin,” said Brogden to Kevin Bray. “Look sideways so I can see through your
ears.” The chatter was needed because
all week long every sortie started with at least one admiral calling a delay,
and usually both. So folks were a little
anxious by the time a battle actually began.
This sortie started
with a Mexican Standoff right off the center of Left Bend. The Allied ships were on the right backing in
with their sterns, and the Axis on the left doing the same. It is a strange dance, watching ships back
here and there, looking for a quick shot, then darting
away.
“Fluegel, don’t be the
only one,” cautioned Lief, as the
“Don’t tell me I’m the
only one,” said Fluegel.
“Get him Fluegel,
you’ve got them surrounded,” laughed Brogden.
“I have them
cornered,” corrected Fluegel.
After a time, the line
started to break, especially further out on the pond. <Melton_M_108> The Missouri circled through the melee, trying
to sidemount an opponent. Randy’s VDT
appeared alongside the
The standoff was now
down to the two NCs of the Stevens brothers, and the
A chatter of shots off
to the left brought the camera around, onto the Lion, the
After a move up the
shoreline, the camera next catches the
Out in deeper waters,
the Lion and the two cruisers had found a VV and were trying to peck it to
death.
The
Charley’s NC now found
itself with it’s stern about 10 feet away from the bow
of Jake Bruder’s VDT. About a dozen
triples rang out, striking the smaller German battlecruiser. The VDT soon left the area, looking for friends. Others moved in to pick on him, like Don
Cole’s
Jake’s ship was now
listing slightly, and after spinning away from the NC’s she cut throttle and
coasted. Randy’s VDT came in behind her,
and Jake’s ship, like a wounded beast, started firing sidemounts to keep her
clear as she passed. The
for some reason, the ship started to move again, maybe to come in
towards shore, but as she turned slightly to port her starboard side rolled
under. Jake hit reverse to try to bring
her back, but it only seemed to pull her under the waves. <Melton_M_110>
After the ship
recovery, Bray called out that John Bruder’s Italia was at half speed. The ship drove right past the camera,
growling menacingly. It sounded as if a gear
was going to pieces. Other folks
speculated that she had lost a prop.
Whatever the case, the tag team of the
Next was a minor
furball centered around the slow movements of the
She dropped pursuit
however, to come back and play with the
The Kirishima drove
away. “Five minutes,” said Jeff
emotionlessly.
The camera cuts next
to the center of Left Bend. The
“Stay there, Kev,” called Mike Melton.
“I’ll bring him to you.” The
Then Finster tried to
back the Nagato down to catch the
Randy’s VDT and the
Italia then sailed past, while someone asked, “What about Bob?”
“WHAT ABOUT BOB,”
responded Bob.
Sailing behind them
were the two NCs, the
The camera stayed
pretty much on the Warspite from here on.
Steve Reynolds’s Moltke approached her from the wrong side and got
caught by the Warspite’s haymaker. After
taking about a dozen shots, the Moltke backed off. “You showed him,” said a spectator, getting a
laugh. The Moltke wasn’t done however,
and managed to get on the Warspite’s starboard side where the Moltke’s haymaker
could now hit home.
The Moltke then
circled around, and the two ships came to dance with both their haymakers
facing off directly. The Warspite’s pump
stream was coming hard, and the stream continually struck the Moltke’s funnel
which diffused the spray into a nice sprinkler effect.
The Warspite suddenly broke
away, and raced up alongside the VV.
“OHHH!” groaned Bob, as the VV’s five minute timer sounded just as the
Warspite was going to open fire.
The Moltke next went
on five out of control. “Hey HOVIS!,” shouted Bob in a call for help, and sent the Warspite in
pursuit.
“I’m just getting a
bit freaked out by that rotating bear’s head,” murmured Lou Meszaros
as he slowly followed the action up the shoreline.
“Kinda
has that ol’ exorcist thing going, don’t it,” laughed Patrick Clarke, walking
along with him.
“Absolutely, it’s
demonic in nature,” agreed Lou.
The Warspite and
Allied A vs. Axis A, second sortie:
This sortie, the last
of the day, started off lazily. Dave
Au’s Iszuzu, a Jap light cruiser but fighting on the Allied side due to the
temporary loss of the QE, was playfully teasing Lou’s VV by backing up to it
while Dave yelled, “Bam! Bam!” A nice little tap of the stern against the
VV’s side was another bam. <Bruder_178>
“Five,
… Two, One!” yelled Lief. “
The Bellerophon,
during her trials in the first sortie, had taken a large, nearly dime sized
hole just under her forward turret.
Fortunately it was a half inch above the waterline, but the sight of the
thing didn’t leave me with the desire to run in circles. Instead, I planned to make as little
movements as possible and let the wolves come to me. I had a full load of bbs and planned to use
them, however. I launched in the center
portion of the Left Bend, while most of the rest had launched down closer to
Cattail Cove. <Bruder_179>
There was no rushing
to start this sortie. Most ships
remained sitting after the call for battle was made. Sporadic firing wafted over the water. <Bruder_180>
Pearce’s Nagato, sporting a clown’s head on top of the rear funnel, drew some
attention. The light cruisers of Dallas
Fluegel and Dave Au seemed to be the most aggressive. Folks explained to
The camera cuts, and
comes back to the Bellerophon, sitting still and pumping. Lou’s VV tried to line up her sterns, but the
“Hey Lou, Bang!”
yelled Dave Au to the VV’s captain. Then
his Iszuzu backed in and fired for real.
“What is that, a
gentleman thing?” asked Kevin Bray.
The VV backed in
towards the
Steve Crane now came
to play, along with Lief’s VDT, but the
“Bellerophon Five out
of Control,” I said with a tired voice. <Bruder_181> At
that point the camera cuts off. Ron
must’ve been trying to save me from re-living the anguish.
I was somewhat
anguished. The only feeling worse than
having a ship dead in the water is not having your ship ready to go at
all. And a sink after a hard fight is
far easier to live with than a ‘gimme’ to the enemy. The ship slowly got lower, taking fire from
the nearby Axis, but they kept some distance, not wanting another ram
sink. Once the ship got low enough for
the water to reach the dime sized hole, it didn’t take long for the sink to
follow.
“Bonzai,” said Lief,
in a half-hearted tone of voice, as if he was already thinking of another
target but couldn’t bring his mind to focus on it. A couple of other half-hearted ‘Bonzai’s’
rang out.
“Oh, COME ON!” I
said. My pride was somewhat damaged but
the
The Axis started to
laugh, and responded with a far healthier ‘BONZAI!’ “Give him another one,” said Fluegel, and
another Bonzai rang out. “He deserved
it,” said D.W.
As I recall, I went in
rather quickly to recover the ship.
Steve Crane’s Nagato was sitting directly in my path, not far from the
sunken ship. I could see the smoky
outlines of her gray masts in the cloudy water.
“Steve, move your ship please,” I asked.
I expected the Nagato to sail in the direction she was pointed, which
would have cleared her nicely, but Steve swung her to port and sailed right
over her. I winced, expecting to hear
the Nagato’s props chewing the
The battle lazily
continued. The Valiant sailed away from
the pack, with the Invincible following for a
bit. “Patrick, you have a Nagato backing
down on you,” warned Ted. The Nagato fired
four long distance twin sterns at the I-boat, which moved off. “That’s what I was trying to tell you,” said
Ted. Patrick then found himself in the
center of the VDT, Fuso and VV, and the I-boat raced away.
Out in fast boat land,
the
Then the camera came
back in, where the Valiant and the Invincible where taking on about five Axis
boats <Bruder_184>. Valiant took a ram from the VV. <Bruder_185,
Melton_M_119> “Kevin, come out and play,”
hollered Lief at Kevin Bray, perhaps feeling the need for more targets while
Ted checked his boat. The Valiant was
soon back, taking haymakers from Pearce’s ship.
<Melton_M_121> The
Invincible, chased herself by the Fuso, came in and chased away Pearce. Pearce returned quickly, her stern now on the
other side where the haymaker could score, and made Patrick pay
for his insolence.
“What’s the matter
Lief,” called out Ted in the background.
“You told me you were
over here,” said Lief.
“Can’t you see me, I
stand out like a big neon sign,” called Ted in response.
Meanwhile, Pearce’s
Nagato continued to score on the Invincible, which was trying to chase but soon
learned that the back end of the big ship was a nasty place to be. But Gerald’s Nagato was trailing in pursuit,
and there wasn’t too many options open for the I-boat other than to peel off.
The camera cuts next
to Matt Clarke’s
“Yah,” said Matt. “I know.”
Steve’s Nagato came
charging back and swung in front of the Valiant, which was engaged with the
VDT. “Ah, I’ll check that,” said
Steve. The Valiant didn’t hesitate, but
headed directly to shore in the correct assumption that there was ram damage.
By this time, Jim
Coler’s NC was on five, after tangling with the
The camera cuts,
resuming on the
The
“OH NO!” yells Lief in the background. Then in a more resigned voice he added, “von
der Tann on five.” As he can be seen on
the video looking in a direction other than the
With the
The Valiant’s death throes was an odd spectacle.
The Axis ships were all gathered around, but the target was in such
delicate shape that the slightest nudge may have sent her to the bottom <Bruder_193>.
Not wanting a ram sink, the Axis ships just kept station alongside <Bruder_194>, as if in salute of an honored
enemy that could do no more harm. Or
else they were standing by to take on survivors. On shore, her captain, Ted, could be heard
laughing along with the rest of the spectators.
Finally, she went down
on her pump side, no doubt the strong stream tipped it just enough to roll it
to starboard <Melton_M_135>. She rolled onto her beam ends <Bruder_196>, hung there for a moment, and
then went down by the stern <Melton_M_136>,
to a chorus of cheers.
With the Valiant’s
demise, the
Axis A beat the Allied A fleet by a score of 19,530 to 8,165.
Top Five High Point ships Total Pts Hits
Patrick
Clarke (sunk) 4160 61-12-49
Kevin Bray 3420 82-10-47
Ted Brogden (sunk) 2825 60-5-24
Chris Grossaint (sunk) 2235
Lars (sunk) 1960
Lou Meszaros 2300 85-10-24
Tim Beckett 1885
Chris Au 1365
Chris Pearce 895 57-3-5
Tim Krakowski 660
Allied B vs. Axis B, second sortie:
The tape for this
battle starts with the battle in progress.
Like the previous sortie, it starts with a relaxed atmosphere. Ships were spread out here and there, and
moving with no great sense of urgency, and firing sporadically. <Melton_M_138> Then a whoop is heard, far to the right. The camera flips over to see the triangular
shape of a ship’s bow disappearing, far over on the Right Bend.
“HEY, I SUNK A SHIP!”
hollered out Kevin Hovis. The sunken
ship was Bryan Finster’s Nagato. Later
Kevin would say, “I
didn’t sink him with gunfire, but he’d been chasing me all during the first
sortie and came back for the second, and was so intent he forgot to turn on his
pump. So in a way it was me who made him
sink, and that felt pretty good.”
As for
The bulk of the
action, still fairly spread out, was taking place of the left side of the Left
Bend. On the right side of Left Bend,
the
Back in the big group,
the spread out melee continued. For a
time it seemed like the twin NCs were holding the center <Roberts_011> and driving everyone else wide <Roberts_012>.
In the middle of the battle, someone yelled out, “Hey, is that a SMURF
on that ship?”
<Roberts_010>
While the battle moved
slowly deeper and deeper towards Handicapped Cove, the Warspite was off in
Cattail Cove, tangling with the VV and Italia.
The two bigger ships were doing a good job of keeping the slower ship
between their guns.
The
Back in Handicapped
Cove, the Lion and
The camera then cuts,
and returns with the NCs working over the Kirishima
<Melton_M_142>. Fluegel’s
Every time the Moltke
kicks on her pump she sends a heavy stream high into the air <Melton_M_140, Melton_M_141>. This finally catches the eyes of the NCs, who
start to pursue. The
Running right along
the shoreline, the Moltke suddenly nuzzles up to the side of the NC, safely
under her guns, and turns out to sea.
This opens up some room to turn away temporarily, but the
The Moltke now got a
brief moment of relief, slowing slightly to edge between the Baden and shore,
and the Baden then shoved her way to shore after the Moltke’s passing, which
effectively cut off the Alabama. The
Moltke continued her run, shadowed by the Kirishima, while the
The camera cuts then,
and comes back for the final moments of the Moltke. The Kirishima and the Baden are working on
the ships circled around the barely moving Moltke, but then move off in pursuit
of the
The camera cuts again,
coming back with the Moltke still afloat.
The ship was being escorted by the VV, but the
“Good job, Steve,”
said Don Cole, and the others watching agreed.
A VV now raced in, as
if to shoo the Allied ships away, and then ran off back to the right herself <Melton_M_137>. The
Allied B beat the Axis B fleet by a score of 15,710 to 11,810.
Top Five High Point ships Total Pts Hits
Bob
Hoernemann (sunk) 2455 33-7-21
Mike Melton 2035 61-9-24
Charley Stephens 1650 65-10-15
Don Cole 1180 58-2-11
Ron Horbul 1090
Steve Reynolds (sunk) 2685 51-11-22
Bryan Finster (sunk) 2130 43-6-11
Tom Melton 1770 42-10-22
Mike Tanzillo (sunk) 1605
Jeff Lide 1455 68-9-11
After the battles were
over, it was time to pack up and head for the motel. However, as there was limited parking, I
usually waited for folks to clear out so I could bring my truck in closer. So I sat and patched at the lake. Bob and Ron did likewise. While we were working, Lief came up to
examine Bob’s large poster of the lake.
Bob had been putting the flags of the nationality of the sunken ships
onto the map, marking the approximate spot they had sunk. Lief continued to check on
the map all week, to see if Bob was ‘keeping it accurate’.
Soon most folks were
gone. Kevin Hovis, the site host, had a
huge covered trailer to carry all his gear, and was usually the last one to
leave each day. Several others stayed to
help him, Jeff Lide being the most outstanding in my mind.
Back at the motel it
was unload, take a quick shower, and relax for a short bit. When I went out to find out what the others
were doing for the evening meal, most were already gone, and the ones that were
around were all munching on pizzas. I also
noticed that several pairs of shoes were carefully propped here and there. Some were against walls, some leaning against
the air conditioner outlets, and still others were sitting on windshields. Most were facing the sun. My own were back in the room, propped in
front of the air conditioner to get lots of air movement through them.
As for my meal plans,
I decided to go shopping for some needed items instead, which included a run
out to the edge of town to Lowes, and on the way back I stopped at Papa John’s
to order my own pizza.
Back at the motel, I
only had power concerns to really trouble me.
With only the pump being bad Sunday and Monday morning, and the cleaning
in the morning, I was thinking the problem lay with my brass connections for
getting power into and out of the water tight box. The brass screws go right through the
plywood, and the brass nuts on the inside and outside allow for somewhat easy
disconnects. I opened up the watertight
box for the fourth time, and spent the night working over and cleaning these
connections, some which seemed like they needed it. It worked well when I got it all back
together, but then as it was an intermittent problem only lengthy runs would
prove that it was gone.
I had taken my time
doing the repairs, and was astonished to see that it was
Tuesday:
Tuesday was brighter and hotter than the day before, but it was not intolerable, like the 2000 Nats in Perry. I got up without much trouble, and was instantly wide awake when I put on my still wet lake shoes, which, if you recall, had been leaning against the a/c all night.
The table setups out at the lake were pretty much like the day before. The cycle started again of unloading, setting up, getting the CO2, and then waiting for the battle.
Fleet
Allied B vs. Axis A, first sortie:
This battle started
with Bob Hoernemann pulling his Warspite out of the water just ten seconds
before the battle started. He asked for
an extension, was told there were no more to give, and then asked if he could
get into the next sortie.
The battle started
slowly, with the Allies waiting for the Axis to come to them. Two fast Japs and the Bismarck circled in
from the deep water. About thirty
seconds into the battle, Josh Bruder asked if the fighting had started.
“Yes, we are
battling,” replied another, to the sound of a smattering of shots.
“Oh, I guess I was
confused,” said Josh Bruder, “because Tim Beckett was supposed to go out
there.”
“Ooo, an evil plot,”
said another spectator.
The tape cuts, and
comes back on the Allied group in a big circle on the left side of Left
Bend. Ron’s Lion is pumping hard, and
the Axis slow ships are sitting in the foreground, waiting for their
chance. The
Away from the Allied
circle, the
One of the NCs was
enticed away from the group, trying to briefly catch a napping VV, but then got
caught herself by Lief’s VDT when she retreated to the circle. The
A call for Man in the
water is heard, and then another call to resume comes almost immediately. The camera didn’t pick it up, but this may
have been the declared sink of the
In the Allied main
circle, Axis are chasing the Lion, which just keeps
circling through his friends so that they can fire on his pursuers <Melton_T_001>.
Off to the right, the
The Lion also runs
afoul of the
Due to the quick
recovery, battle soon resumed, but Ron didn’t hear the call. When the VV started hitting him with triple
sterns, he protested. “’Man in the
water’ and I’m getting blasted,” he said calmly.
“Resume was called,”
he was told.
The Allied circle was
breaking up. The
The NCs were staying
fairly close to the
The Bismarck and
Pearce’s Nagato appear, backing into the battle. The
As the battle
continued, the three Nagatos, the Bismarck, and the VV were taking shots at the
bows of the NCs as they presented themselves.
The battle started to spread out.
The Axis slow ships were off somewhere else, probably chasing the rest
of the Allied fleet.
The camera cuts, and
comes back <Melton_T_007> on the slower
ships, back over on the left again. The
Lion can been seen skirting by on the outer fringe of
the fighting. The
The wind is blowing,
whipping up the waves a bit, making the ships bounce as they sail. The wind has also been buffeting the camera’s
microphone, drowning out the shore chatter.
Then a rasping sound like a kid making propeller noises by humming and
blowing bubbles in the water is heard.
Soon it is obvious that the noise is coming from Gerald Robert’s Nagato,
whenever the ship goes into reverse.
Thinking she was in
trouble, this attracts the attention of the
The chase is halted by
Ron’s recovery of the sunken Lion. This
got several folks to wondering where the Warspite was.
After the battle
resumed, it moved to the center of Left Bend.
The
The
The NCs and the
At this point, it
seemed like we were back to the beginning of the sortie. The
The
No one was really
hurting at this point, and so the battle broke up gradually into smaller chases
as folks called five. The
Allied A vs. Axis B, first sortie:
I had assumed that Bob
Hoernemann had asked to fight in the second sortie with his Allied B fleet, but
to my surprise he and his Warspite showed up on the shoreline with the Allied A
fleet. Too much of a measly minion to
say anything in protest, I left the matter for others to worry about. If Bob was looking to fight a full battle,
he’d have to change his battling style, after all. And besides, having another Minnesotan for a
target should’ve increased the odds for the Bellerophon’s survival.
The battle started in
a cluster between the two Bends, but outside Cattail Cove. I believe captains were standing on either side
of the cattails. Once again, the Allied
slow boats and cruisers clustered together, like a herd of nervous sheep, while
the Axis wolves were waiting to race in to nip at the slowest and weakest one.
The firing was quickly
hot and heavy <Melton_T_014>. “Spectators please stand back,” called the
Contest Director.
“Including those with
cameras!” added someone else. As Ediot of the
club newsletter, I feel that I must protest this callous censorship of the free
press.
The Bellerophon is in the video footage only briefly. The Warspite and Valiant are pounding the
Pirate Smurf while a Nagato looks on, and the Bellerophon breaks away to swing
alongside the Kirishima’s unengaged side as she worked over an opponent. Then the camera cuts to a point after the
Working from my faulty
memory, I remembered being challenged by one or two powerful ships. My memory has it being Beckett’s
The suddenness of it
surprised everyone, especially me. “WHAT
THE HECK WAS THAT?” I asked loudly of no one in particular.
The camera starts
again with a pumping Moltke, free of the battle, but then she backs in again
with the Nagatos and VVs. The sound of
firing is quick and heavy <Melton_T_015>. Doug Hunt’s
The camera cuts, and
comes back on me, picking up a piece of superstructure in the water. A few seconds after I got to shore, the QE
showed up with a large open area amidships, I’d say the superstructure came
from Dave Au’s QE, and it was his ship that had been rammed. After grabbing the QE’s smokestack, I then
needed a burst of gas from the
When battle resumed,
the Warspite tried to follow three Jap ships that were after Bray’s
Meanwhile Finster’s
Nagato and Lide’s Kirishima had sandwiched the
The Warspite and the
WeeVee caught the Pirate Smurf momentarily napping, forcing the VDT to back
away. Matt Clarke’s Houston cut through
the scene, having called ram and pumping a healthy stream, and then Dave Au’s
QE, with her smokestack returned to its proper location, drove off a Nagato
which may have been following the Allied cruiser. The
The camera cuts to Tom
Brown’s
Next the two VDTs
swing in on the Valiant, Jake Bruder’s ship doing the bulk of the firing into
the Allied ship’s port bow <Melton_T_22>. The Warspite returned to put some double
sterns into the Pirate Smurf, while Dave Au’s QE came outside of Jake and
caught him for some action.
The camera now follows
Tom Melton’s Nagato as it chased the Warspite <Melton_T_23>. The Warspite was pumping quite frequently
now. The Nagato looked like it gave up
the chase when the Warspite got out into the waters where the Kongo was
cruising.
The
camera cuts now, coming back to a Nagato pumping hard, surrounded by the
Warspite <Melton_T_024> and the Valiant <Melton_T_025>. It’s not Melton’s ship however. It belongs to another. Although wounded, it is still firing shots
that count into the hulls of its attackers.
Down nearly to the gunwales and pumping hard, she attracts the
attentions of friend and foe alike. The
two VDTs try to torment her attackers <Melton_T_026>,
but also end up blocking her path <Melton_T_027>. A NC tries to bring her stern guns to bear,
but the Pirate Smurf pushes the Warspite into her path to block the shot and
drive off both <Melton_T_028>. It was like a running back blocking a
linebacker and a defensive end from getting to the quarterback.
Relief is only
temporary. The Warspite is like a hungry
hyena, returning again and again to strike at the wounded <Melton_T_030>, only to be driven away herself
<Melton_T_031> when Melton’s Nagato plays
the part of a lion protecting its young.
But there are other scavengers to harass the dying ship, the Valiant
especially <Melton_T_035>.
The camera cuts in
what seemed to be a shoreline collision (Ron is heard to say, “Sorry!”) The Allies seem to have backed off as they
didn’t want a ram sink <Melton_T_037>. A couple shots are heard and someone hollers,
“Shore battery! Shore
The Invincible now
swings in for a quick shot, followed immediately by the QE blitzing past her
stern. Melton’s Nagato was hard pressed
to catch her and shove her away <Melton_T_040> from
her sinking sister, her own props and its wash jostling the ship into a further
list and nearly putting it under.
Amazingly the Nagato
righted itself, and the pump stream seemed to pick up in such a strong way that
she looked to be pumping herself out <Melton_T_042>. The Warspite was back and moved in to get her
moving again. The Nagato swung out into
the middle of the cove while the Warspite tried to get in front of her to use
her sterns, but the Warspite rammed the Invincible which cut in front of the
two ships. Melton’s Nagato escorted the
Warspite in a direction away from the action, but the Valiant finally caught up
with the sinking ship <Melton_T_043>,
only to take a fairly hard tap from the Invincible’s bow. At this point the water came over the stern
gunwale of the stricken ship. The pump
stream was down to nearly nothing <Melton_T_045>. An Allied bow appears close, but Jake
Bruder’s VDT forces it rudely aside as the Nagato rolls further to port. “Don’t touch it!” yell the Allies.
The stubborn ship, now
with almost her full port gunwale in the water, still refused to sink. Suddenly reversing, she darted with amazing
speed back away from her tormenters. “Bail! Bail! Bail!” yelled one of the spectators. But then when her captain stopped her reverse
run, she seemed to lose life, and the Invincible came up and tapped her lightly
with the bow, much like Dallas Fluegel had done to Don Cole’s
“Yankee Doodle!”
hollered Charley.
As the Nagato settled
on the bottom, she came to rest on her bottom, and her tower superstructure and
the mainmast stayed defiantly above the surface
<Melton_T_047>. “Good fight
Mike!” said several folks. Mike Tanzillo
reached in and pulled out his ship.
The camera cuts again,
and returns to catch the bow of the sinking Warspite as the ship sinks by the
stern <Melton_T_051>. “Oh Polar Bear!” Don
Cole cries.
“Bonzai!”
yells an Axis.
After Bob’s sink, the
cameraman got confused on the state of the record switch, and I report further
based on audio combined with quick, sideways glances of action on the
pond. Tom Melton and Jim Coler are seen
walking the shoreline, but far enough apart that they didn’t seem engaged with
each other, but maybe not <Melton_T_048>. Other chases seem to be going on up and down
the shoreline. The two NCs and Matt
Clarke’s
In action not covered
by the video, Kevin’s
Allied B vs. Axis A, second sortie:
I thought all the
bumping and banging of ships running into each other in the sortie just past,
was a thing peculiar onto itself.
However, the sortie that follows continued the series of thumpings and
thwackings between opponents and friendlies alike. If these had been cars we were driving, the
police would’ve shut down the freeway and sent us all home. I began to think that something was in the
air to cause this, like say, the sun.
But while the orb was high and bright, it wasn’t square in our vision,
and so the rash of rammings must be due to something else. Tunnel-vision, vendettas, obsessions, or fun,
it could have been any of these.
As the sortie is
starting, our intrepid CD calls out to his Axis brethren, “All the little boats
are us. If you see a little boat, it’s
good.” The little boat he was referring
to was Tim Krakowski’s Mogador. Tim had
been having radio frequency problems with the Fuso, and was running his
campaign ship to get some control time.
Again, the battle
starts in the center of Left Bend. The
two fleets converged on each other in reverse, the Allies teasing with the
Charley’s NC has raced
ahead and then stopped, her bow right in line with the
twin stern guns of Gerald Robert’s Nagato.
Lief’s VDT sails past the NC and nuzzles up to the Nagato, and pushes
her away to take her place. Then the VDT
backs down to bring her haymaker up to the NC’s port bow. Her stern catches the NC’s deck, causing her
to bounce as she slides past, giving the NC a chance to shoot several
sidemounts herself.
The VDT is sitting
still, and the NC turns and pushes the VDT towards the waiting
The ships pull apart,
and the
The action is now hot
and heavy and ever changing, ships circling in and departing like a Busby
Berkeley dance routine (this 1930’s film reference shows my schooling, I having
took several film classes in college). <Melton_T_056>
The camera cuts to an
exchange between the two NCs ,
Then the
Rick later told Bob
(who relayed to me), “As far as I can tell my sink was caused mostly by my own
ineptitude. I was banging sterns with the Dunkerque(I
think) when my stern went under his for a second. I hit the throttle and
attempted to pull away. When I did this, the bow went up and the stern went
even lower. Instead of letting off the throttle I kept pulling away, a huge
pump stream started and she went under stern first real quick. I do have a
pretty good deck seal in the stern but I think that water washed up the deck
into the barbette and by keeping full throttle I never gave the bow a chance to
lower so all the water rushed into the stern and she sank. There certainly
wasn't enough damage to the
Meanwhile, the chase
of the
“Man in the
water!” The call comes just as we hear
the cameraman grunt loudly and the camera swings up to catch the treetops
behind us. No idea on where he took the
shot, however. Kevin Bray went in to get
Rick’s ship, which gave the
When the battle
resumes, three quick shots are heard.
“Thank you Charley,” calls Pearce.
Chris Kessler’s cruiser darts into an opening in the melee, fires some
sterns, and races away, passing in front of Charley’s NC which then rocks the
A blast of firing
attracts the camera’s attention to the
The
Then the camera
returns to Pearce’s Nagato <Melton_T_057>. Both NCs are there now, to block and shoot
for each other <Melton_T_058>. Kessler’s cruiser is there to try sniping,
but pulls back in deference to the big NCs.
Pearce’s Nagato finally turns towards shore, just as waves start lapping
at her starboard gunwale. She continues
on towards shore, but when the rising waters meet her pump stream her doom is
sealed <Melton_T_059>. Her stern hits bottom with her bow about four
feet from shore.
“
“Bonzai!” yelled an
Axis.
“Yankee Doodle!”
yelled Charley.
Pearce went in quickly
<Melton_T_060>, and when battlers on the
other side of the bend ask, Charley responds, “It’s a Yankee Doodle!”
When the action
resumes, the
“Oh, I better check
that,” Don Cole is heard to say. An
off-camera ram no doubt.
The Nagato sat for a
moment, but Charley’s NC sent her off again, to take a nudge from the
While he does, the
“I’m okay,” says Lief,
taking Don at his word even though his ship is pumping hard.
Steve’s Nagato is back
out now, running from a NC and still acting tippy in the turns. He sails off to the right and disappears in
the direction of Cattail Cove. Charley’s
NC is still looking for game, and someone tells Gerald that Charley is coming
for him. “He is?!” asks Gerald. But Charley’s NC finds himself cornered by
three ships with ammo, and the NC turns and heads for open water.
“Allied ship out of
control,” Lief calls out. When others
ask which one, Lief responds, “This one.
The
“It’s a