The Indian Ocean Raid 2023

“The most dangerous moment of the war, and the one which caused me the greatest alarm, was when the Japanese fleet was heading for Ceylon and the naval base there. The capture of Ceylon, the consequent control of the Indian Ocean, and the possibility at the same time of a German conquest of Egypt would have closed the ring and the future would have been black.”

– Winston Churchill

This is a scenario for my ruleset There's The Effing Scheer, and its expansion Striking Effectively First, which allows you to wargame early- to mid-war WW2 naval combat.

I have been interested by the what-if nature of the Indian Ocean Raid of 1942 for some time. While researching Coral Sea and Midway for SEF, I was struck by the fact I knew so little about the British capital ship losses (a carrier and two heavy cruisers) just a few months before these two huge, better known clashes. What had happened? And how had the Kido Butai got out of it unscathed?

After the string of British defeats in the Pacific with Japan's entry to the war, the British were on the back foot. Enter the Eastern Fleet, a motley mix of WW1 battleships, modern aircraft carriers and a jumble of other vessels thrown together to block further Japanese expansion. But it never directly fought the Japanese carriers, instead Somerville chose the far more sensible option of keeping the fleet 'in being' so as to remain a long-term threat. But what if he'd gone another way?

This scenario allows you to play as Somerville, aiming to engage the veteran Kido Butai in favourable night conditions and finally shatter the brittle sword of the Japanese carrier fleet. Or perhaps you will play as Nagumo, seeing if you can remove the Royal Navy thorn in your empire's side as it continues to expand in all directions?

-description from the designer