Bizmark Never Had a Chance

[Commander Gizmo]

During my current career, I sent messages just after leaving Brest informing the fleet about the presence of a British task force hanging about in BE. Shortly there after word was sent to rush to the assistance of the Bismark, which would shortly be engaging said task force.

Not having anticipated this matter developing within my range of operations, I decided to do my best and set flank speed to the given location. My Leipzig light cruiser made good time at 34 knots and arrived one hour before the rendezvous with the task force. After assisting the might battleship in dispatching waves of planes, she suddenly began firing at something to far away for me to see. I adjusted course and left my escort formation in order to intercept the target.

Once in range, I was able to identify the HMS Rodney and King George. I opened fire only to be reminded of the caliber of my guns. Seeing that I would be unable to get within torpedo distance of such a powerful ship in such clear weather, I kept at range and fired hoping to do what damage was possible.

Within a few minutes, I was startled to find shells landing in the water near my boat despite the lack of targeting from known vessels in the area. Quickly scanning the horizon, my view through my binoculars passed just in time to see another ship coming out of the fog at the edge of visibility with plenty of bright flashes as her guns made themselves known. After a few tense seconds, the ship was visible enough to identify -- the Hood! There wasn't time to determine the exact name of the ship however. Her crew had apparently been in engagements such as this before and was very accurate in their aim.

I immediately ordered a full about and an increase back to flank speed. These ships were moving fast. I also order guns pointed at the new target. Now that all available action was taken, we began to check our quick identification efforts from earlier only to find that there were two identical battleships! Those sneaky Brits! After a quick changing of pants, the excellent crew under my command was able to identify not two battleships, but two heavy cruisers. Whew!

Unfortunately, they appeared to be not only better armed than my ship, but much better armored as well. My shells did no discernible damage, and I was forced to withdraw to leave the flagship of the fleet to fend for herself.

It as at this point that I discovered that the heavy cruisers were also much faster than my ship. With such an unfortunate piece of information before me, I did what anyone would do. I ordered flank speed directly at the enemy with all guns firing in a blaze of glory. Oh, and a few torpedoes to go with them.

I now present you with a lesson and a bit of experienced wisdom: do NOT, I repeat, do NOT engage two ships twice your size, speed, and armament!

There was no torpedo explosions, no glory, and no escape. At a distance of 17km from my targets, my ship exploded quite nicely and through some freak accident I was thrown from the command deck over 50 feet away into the water.

Amazingly, after being rescued, interrigated, and returned back to command they gave me a bright shiny new boat just like the one I lost and a trip through their fancy new time machine for a chance to try the mission over again. I was told that I would forget everything I had learned from the last try save for one short message inscribed on the back of a pocket watch. Trusting their statement, I chose an appropriate message to be placed there. I now refer you back to the afore mentioned wisdom.

They were wrong, I did recall the previous try. I began to shout the order to make best speed to save the mighty Bizmark, but then glanced down at the back of my pocket watch, which I couldn't recall ever owning previously. I immediatly changed the order to ahead two thirds and a course to our patrol grid. On my way back to the captains bunk, I did stop to unplug the radio...