Monday, First Day of Nats 2001 "

The Day the Axis Let Loose Hell"

Matt Moury, SMS Von der Tann

After ship testing at the lake on Sunday we had a wonderful captain's meeting at Don and Gina Fisher's beautiful lakeside home in Wrentham, Massachusetts. The food was fantastic, beer was cold, and the comradery and good-natured pre-Nats ribbing was intense. It was clear to all the axis captains that the allied captains had a few too many drinks when they insisted on battling traditional allied-axis the first day despite the significant axis advantage. I knew, as all true axis knew, that even if the allied had superior numbers the axis would still dominate.

Monday was a perfect New England day with clear blue skies and just a slight breeze. The lake was perfectly calm except for the wake from several geese patrolling the area. The captains arrived with the typical pre-Nats mix of emotions - a sense of excitement for the coming battle, and fear that their ship would malfunction and they'd be turned into mince meat. Don Fisher had done a good job advertising the event and many spectators, the press, and several TV news crews were on site to observe the battle.

The axis were very confident with a 51 unit to 28 unit advantage. The allied captains were maintaining their steady stream of bravado before the battle but it sounded pretty forced. Axis Admiral Will Montgomery's plan was to attack hard but save the 24-second Derfflinger's for the end of the sortie for cleanup. The ships were put on the water but Dave Tuttle's Krownprinz had mechanical problems and didn't make it in giving the allies their first break. The battle began and allied Admiral Decker's Kentucky immediately drew a crowd. After the battle every axis captain claimed to have put a few rounds into the behemoth target. Don Fisher's Valiant became the first Nats sink in the first sortie after he tangled with Will Montgomery's triple bow guns and a hoard of pig boats.

The second sortie was more of the same carnage as Bill Garthaffner's Houston, Dave Vogtman's North Carolina, and the Kentucky sank in rapid succession. After the North Carolina sank, we noticed Dave fiddling with his transmitter instead of retrieving his ship. He said "hang on a minute" and shortly after that a pink rubber punch balloon burst to the surface. The balloon pulled Dave's ship off the bottom to the surface where he calmly recovered it. The Vogtman Recovery System (VRS) worked to perfection and was a Nats week highlight. David Ricci spent both sorties juking and jigging with his North Carolina avoiding side mounts while maneuvering to get his triple sterns on targets. He still took heavy damage and was seconds from sinking when his five minutes expired and he touched his ship. Cam Moury gave the allied team a lift when his pump clogged and he went down with moderate damage. The outcome was as expected with all but one allied ship sinking and the axis racking up 15,900 points to the allied 5,480 points.

Top points for the morning:

Allied
Decker Kentucky 235-13-23 Sunk
Garthaffner Houston 78-9-39 Sunk
Vogtman N. Carolina 43-8-46 Sunk
Fisher Valiant 130-7-12 Sunk

Axis
N. Blattau Musashi 67-2-14
Cam Moury Nassau 8-0-11 Sunk
Andrews VU 21-2-4
Tanner Hindenberg 10-1-7

Following the morning battle Luigi's served the first of many exceptional catered lunches and we recharged ourselves for the afternoon battle. During the lunch break Admiral Decker conceded defeat to Admiral Montgomery and the fleets were split up. The flag fleet ships were given rainbow colored tie-wraps to affix to their masts and they were quickly named the Rainbow Warriors. Someone came up with the name Maulers for the other team and since no one had a better name it stuck.

The afternoon battling continued to be hot and heavy with the Maulers (my team) clearly dominating the wimpier Rainbow Warriors. The Rainbow fleet lost Marty Hayes' Viribus Unitis (VU), Ed Sheperd's Lutzow, the Kentucky and Carl Camarati's Yamato to Davy Jones' locker during the afternoon battle. The Maulers didn't lose a ship. One interesting sink was when Don Fisher, driving his Espana (changed from the Valiant after the morning carnage), bumped his transmitter and put his ship in reverse while he was helping recover Ed Sheperd's Lutzow. The Espana drove itself under and sank. Don emptied the water out of his ship and kept battling. Final score for the afternoon battle was a lopsided Maulers 14,495 to the Rainbow Warrior's 5,400. Top scores:

Rainbow Warriors
Decker Kentucky 99-10-26 Sunk
Camarati Yamato 130-5-9 Sunk
Vogtman N. Carolina 94-9-23
Tanner Hindenberg 77-9-21

Maulers
N. Blattau Musashi 105-5-10
Kelly Derfflinger 50-5-10
C. Moury Nassau 32-3-9
Andrews VU 14-3-5

Steve Andrews won the Monday Axis High Spirit Award and was "blessed" with lugging the 25-pound trophy around for a day. However, when we got back to the hotel, Tom Tanner presented Steve with a beautiful daily Axis High Spirit Award made by Peter Lienau, our German IRCWCC member. Peter made one for each of the daily winners that raised the stakes for winning the award significantly for the rest of the week.