Royal Navy

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The Royal Navy of Great Britain was the world's greatest navy at the outbreak of the Second World War. However, Britain went to war with mainly First World War-vintage vessels. Since the Royal Navy already possessed many powerful units, construction of the most modern designs was limited. This meant that at the outbreak of World War Two Britain had far more battleships than most other nations, but they had smaller guns than those built to the most modern ships. Though the main battle force was kept concentrated in home waters, task forces were assigned to many distant areas, but the Royal Navy could not be strong everywhere. Although badly stretched, the Royal Navy lived up to its traditional ethos, fighting hard in all theatres. In addition to the battleship forces, the Royal Navy maintained a handful of fast battlecruisers, some of them quite old, and aircraft carriers. These were backed up by a strong cruiser force and light forces including destroyers, motor torpedo boats (MTBs) and motor gunboats (MGBs). As the war went on, aircraft carriers became increasingly important and air defences were steadily improved on all ships. Yet the big guns of the battleships and cruisers played a vital role in many theatres of war. British capital ships saw action in the Arctic and the Atlantic against German commerce raiders, in the Mediterranean against Italian forces, and ventured into the Pacific in an ill-fated attempt to stem the Japanese advance. Though the great fleet actions planned for and desired by the architects of the Royal Navy did not materialise during World War Two, the Royal Navy adapted well to the war it was destined to fight and emerged with great honour.

The Battle for the Pacific was only the beginning. Victory at Sea is the game of naval combat during the Second World War. Throughout 1939-45, the nations of the world duelled across the oceans across the globe, only to discover the fundamental nature of naval warfare changing in the face of rapidly developing technologies. Now you can play out these confrontations on the tabletop with entire fleets drawn from the Royal Navy, US Navy, Imperial Japanese Navy, German Kriegsmarine or any of the other nations featured in Victory at Sea. From skirmishes involving single destroyers hunting down merchantmen to the clashing of massive battleships, from invasions of islands across the Pacific to mastering waves of dive bombers, Victory at Sea enables you to fight exciting battles that take place on the oceans of World War II.

Submarines, designed for use in North European and Mediterranean waters, the S-class was manoeuvrable with a noted ability to crash dive extremely quickly. Combined with a large salvo of torpedoes, this was a successful design of pre-war years that was soon updated and put back into production.

MTBs:
The Fairmile A was designed from the outset to use prefabricated components that could be produced by small businesses such as furniture manufacturers, which would then be assembled at shipyards. Capable of 25 knots, it mounted a 3-pounder gun and a pair of .303 machine guns, as well as Depth Charge. Designed with the form of a destroyer's hull, the Fairmile B (like its predecessor, the Fairmile A) was intended primarily as a submarine-chaser, and so was fitted with Depth Charge. Manufactured in large numbers, the Fairmile B was also famously used on the raid on St. Nazaire. Capable of 26 knots, the Fairmile C was a motor gun boat, mounting two 2-pounders and eight machine guns of various calibres. It was mainly used for close escort duties and some clandestine missions. Nicknamed Dog Boat,' the Fairmile D was highly adaptable and could be fitted with a range of armament that meant it could act as both motor gun and torpedo boat. Some were used by the Royal Air Force for long range rescue of downed airmen.

The British air raid on the Italian port of Taranto demonstrated to the world the vulnerability of ships against attacks from the air. The planes of the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy proved a scourge to Axis forces throughout every theatre of the war. Short Sunderland Flying Boat:The Sunderland was a flying boat, developed for general reconnaissance from the S.23 Empire or C-class flying boat, the flagship of Imperial Airways. When British shipping came under constant attack by German U-boats, Sunderlands patrolled the approaches or flew convoy protection missions. When a U-boat was sighted, Sunderlands tried to attack it before it submerged. Although sometimes described as depth charges, its bombs were set to explode at a shallow depth and were equally effective against surfaced submarines. Hawker Hurricane:After having gained fame in the Battle of Britain where it was the mainstay of the RAF, the Hurricane went on to serve throughout the war. As the war progressed, it was slowly outmoded as a frontline fighter but adopted other roles such as ground attack and tank-busting. The Sea Hurricane was an important development but rapidly fell out of favour for carrier operations. Fairey Fulmar:At first rejected by the RAF, the Fulmar fulfilled the Fleet Air Arm?s requirement for a fighter with the same firepower as a Spitfire or Hurricane. Though inferior to a dedicated single-seat fighter, the Fulmar was reliable and long-ranged, making it suited for carrier operations. However, it was to be replaced halfway through the war by the much more capable Seafire.

At one time, the HMS Hood was the largest and possibly most famous ship in the world, representing the supremacy of British sea power. Though attached to Home Fleet, the Hood took part in the sinking of the French fleet at Oran. She was sunk by the Bismarck in 1941 after accurate shelling from the German ship caused a massive explosion on the Hood which sank within minutes, leaving only three survivors - certainly one of the more spectacular deaths of any capital ship.

HMS Warspite was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship of the Royal Navy. Built during the early 1910s, she served in the First World War, including at the Battle of Jutland. Modernized in the 1930s, she went on to serve in the Second World War. Warspite was part of the Norwegian campaign of 1940 and subsequently was transferred to the Mediterranean, squaring off in fleet actions against the Italian Regia Marina. During the Battle of Crete in mid-1941 she suffered damage from enemy German aircraft and spent 6 months under repair in the US. These repairs were completed shortly after US entry into the war, and she set sail across the Pacific to join the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean in early 1942. She returned home in 1943 to provide gunfire support as part of Force H in the Italian campaign. She again suffered damage, this time at the hand of radio-controlled glider bombs, during the landings at Salerno. She spent almost another year under repair as a result. Before her repairs were fully completed, she was back at sea, providing fire support the next year, supporting the Normandy landings and on Walcheren Island in 1944. These actions earned her the recognition of being the ship with the most battle honours in the history of the Royal Navy, and also accorded her the affectionate nickname, the "Grand Old Lady". At the conclusion of the war, she was decommissioned and ran aground undertow in 1947. She has broken up shortly after.

One of the most famous carriers of the war, the HMS Ark Royal received many battle honours in its service. The first enemy aircraft shot down by the Fleet Air Arm was with one of her Blackburn Skuas, while her bombers sank the German cruiser Königsberg, the first example of a capital ship being sunk by an attack from the air. Better remembered is the Ark Royal?s role in the sinking of the Bismarck, where her Fairey Swordfish launched a torpedo attack that damaged its rudder, leaving it vulnerable to the rest of the fleet. Other notable actions included convoys to Malta, the Norwegian campaign and involvement in the first U-boat kill of the war. In 1941 she was struck by a torpedo and sank while under tow.