First NZBG Battle held 8th July 2001

Allied victory!!! (by default)

Well after a full on week of building and preparing for this weekend (and a limited amount of sleep over the last couple of days) it was a close thing. All the guns were made, as well as firing mechanisms (accumulators, manifolds and firing valves) for all three ships but the axis just ran out of time in the end.

All guns were mounted in the Gearing but the firing assembly for the 4 forward guns literally wouldn’t fit in the boat. With a little more planning it would have been OK. Initially 3 different manifolds were made and tested, then 3 were fabricated of the best one for the 3 DDs. Individually the parts were small but when assembled they were just too bulky. They will be redesinged for the next battle.

We managed to get Art’s and John’s ships sheeted and painted but they failed to make it on the water. Art came close, so close that another 30 minutes would have seen it manoeuvring at least. At this stage we were just starting to lose the light and we headed for the lake anyway.

We raced out to the lake in the failing light and launched the Artemis (fully operational) and the Gearing with only her aft guns working. It was so close to being fully operational with all 6 guns but anyway… So for about 20 seconds the Allies ruled the pond! I say 20 seconds for that was about how long it took the Gearing Captain to think "well no point just sitting here looking pretty" so the Gearing turned on it’s own and started pounding the Artemis. The Artemis was being skippered by Andrew Calvert and he certainly wasn’t expecting it!

The speeds of both ships were about right thought the Artemis was a bit slow. The tactics of the Gearing Captain was to approach from the side or bow of the Artemis then slow and turn so the stern was pointing at the side of the ship then let her have it with both of the aft guns. We could see the holes being ripped in the side as it happened! There were no blast shields in either ship so some of the rounds from the Gearing passed right through. The exit holes seemed to cause more damage than the initial holes. Maybe it was the paint on the outside taking more material with it when hit… See photos below.

The Gearing captain though he was pretty much invincible going up against a much slower, less manoeuvrable, cargo ship with less fire power. In his arrogance he "forgot"!!! that she had a stern gun. The Gearing crossed the stern and of the Artemis and they didn’t miss the opportunity. Three hits along the port side, none of them below though.

After both ships came to shore to refill guns and tweak the firing of them we put out again. The Artemis had lost part of a prop sometime in the first "sortie" and was now moving at a snails pace. The prop didn’t come of the shaft but the end bush came unscrewed and fell off along with the blades. This was because the 2 props counter rotate and hence the torque of the drag from the water was eventually sufficient to unscrew the blades on the prop that was rotating the wrong way for the thread.

The Artemis put out again. This time with very little speed and even less ability to turn. Although she had a full magazine this was of no real benefit for 2 reasons. Firstly The Gearing captain wasn’t silly enough to get in a position where she could get hit and secondly Andrew forgot to put in a new 12g CO2 cartridge of the Artemis. After squeezing of a few shoots he was out of CO2. At this stage the Artemis had about a dozen above the waterline holes but nothing serious. The aft guns of the Gearing were set up so they would hit the water at about 10 feet. The Gearing got 2 hits from both guns, in almost exactly the same place. The first was just beneath the waterline with the rounds from both barrels hitting in the same window right next to the ribs. The next shot which was a few (four) seconds later was directly below the place of the first hits. If you can imagine 4 bb holes making a rectangle about 1.5 inches long by an inch deep this is what it looked like. BUT the second group of shots punched in the window and the sea just poured in and no pump! See photo below

She was about 15 feet from shore at this stage with only one prop and losing way. We would have let her sink but the lid to the radio box was not on (Damn!). The Gearing then came to her aids and pushed her to shore to prevent damage to the radio gear. As she got to shore water was already spilling over the top of the radio box. The radio is fine now.

We packed it up as we were getting cold and losing the light. Unfortunately we didn’t get any photos on the water with the digital camera as it was just too dark. Art and another spectator, Harvey managed to get some pictures on wet film.

Some photos supplied by Art

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