116 - Night Vision Brings Triumph to the British! - WW2 - November 14, 1941

by Panzer
They bombed a warehouse?
So the Axis are in London?
No, they just think they are.
Um... what?
November 14th 1941
It’s not usually a good idea for a naval force to attack another naval force that outnumbers
and outguns them, but if you can aim at night and they can’t, then you are looking at
total victory.
I’m Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.
Last week was a week of big plans- in Japan, North Africa, and the German High Command
in the USSR- all for making great new offensives.
This is what follows:
There is a fair amount of action at sea this week.
On the 9th is the Battle of the Duisburg Convoy.
Royal Navy ships from Force K sink seven merchant ships and an Italian destroyer.
The attackers are light cruisers Penelope and Aurora, and destroyers Lively and Lance.
Those seven merchant ships sunk are actually all the merchant ships that are in the convoy.
They are protected by two Italian heavy cruisers and ten destroyers, so the attackers are outnumbered
and outgunned.
This is a big failure for the Italians.
The British are aiming using radar, since the attack takes place at night, and the Italians
have no answer for this- they don’t have any low light range finders, but they also
don’t order the convoy ships to just scatter to allow some of them to hopefully escape-
but the convoy thinks they’re being attacked by air, which is a more common danger, and
such evasive action isn’t so useful in that case..
The next day, German Commander in North Africa Erwin Rommel tells Berlin that convoys to
Libya have been suspended and he’s received only 8,093 of 60,000 troops supposed to arrive
in Benghazi.
This convoy was bringing fuel for Rommel and a lot of motorized transport, but their cargo,
the date of departure, and their route were known in advance to the British, who have
cracked the Italian naval codes.
Also in the Mediterranean, on the 12th, 34 Hurricanes are flown from Ark Royal and Argus
to Malta.
This is the end of Ark Royal’s career as it turns out.
It is torpedoed by U-81 the following day and sinks the 14th.
There is still, of course, plenty of fighting on land this week.
Georgy Zhukov has ordered the Soviet 49th and 50th armies to attack Heinz Guderian’s
advancing panzer spearheads near Tula.
That fighting begins south of Tula the 8th near Uslovaia, together with some 3rd army