Adventures from historical incidents

[BlackBat242]

From a military discussion/warship photo board I'm on comes this gem:

“Budapest 1919” is not one of the Royal Navy’s many battle honours. Yet in March 1919 British naval personnel were engaged in an operation in Budapest that was unauthorised and which nearly ended in disaster.

The situation in Hungary in March 1919 was tense. On 20 March Colonel Fernand Vix of the French Army had delivered an ultimatum to the Hungarian government led by Karolyi for the withdrawal of Hungarian troops from eastern Hungary. Vix backed up the ultimatum by threatening allied sanctions on Hungary should Karolyi not comply. Karolyi replied by resigning and handing over power in Hungary to the communist Bela Kun.

Where does the Royal Navy fit into all of this? You might well ask. A number of armed motor launches (MLs) supported by personnel had been sent up the Danube to enforce the naval terms of the Armistice with Austria-Hungary. The force was under the command of Captain Vernon Haggard but also under the general authority of Rear Admiral Ernest Troubridge. Court martialled in 1914 for his failure to engage the German battlecruiser Goeben, Troubridge had been sent out to the Balkans in 1915 in the hope that he would be forgotten about.

But Troubridge, five years later, wanted his name cleared and saw the situation in Budapest as a chance. There were rumours that not only had Vix had been taken hostage by the Communists but also the crew of the British ML.228 which was in Budapest to provide Vix with secure communications. Troubridge thought that, even though he had been ordered not to interfere, a little cutting expedition to Budapest and the release of Colonel Vix would do wonders for his career. Sadly for Troubridge the outcome was very different. A scratch force was hurriedly put together consisting of the British ML.210 under the command of Captain Haggard, and the former KuK (Austro-Hungarian Navy) monitors Bosna and Enns flying the British and French flags respectively, which left Baja on 22 March.

What happened next was a shambles. Colonel Vix was not a hostage but the crew of ML.228 were and, worse, the boat had been taken over by the communists, without any resistance by her crew, and was flying red flags. Over the next four days Haggard successfully brokered the release of the crew of ML.228 and the return of the vessel only to find the Red has seized ML.210 and carted off the crew. More negotiations were required to secure their freedom. At the same time Haggard had to organise the “breakout” of the monitors Bosna and Enns whose largely Croat crews were getting edgy at the sight of machine guns and artillery being deployed on the river banks.

On 27 March Haggard returned safely to Baja- the same day on which Colonel Vix left Budapest, entirely peacefully, by train. Inwardly fuming at what he saw was a botched operation that could have ended very differently, Haggard’s temper was about to get worse. Troubridge had been mulling over events in Budapest and didn’t like what he saw. British warships had been captured and their crews imprisoned, Troubridge could see a series of courts of enquiry and courts martial ahead at which his decision making would be examined. Not liking that prospect, he buried the whole affair. Haggard’s report was suppressed, the ML crews sworn to silence and Troubridge’s report skipped over anything which might possibly be awkward.

And there the matter lay until a handwritten account of the incident in the Haggard papers told a different story.

 

[saundby]

Wow, that's a good one. Yet more proof of Troubridge being less than sound.

It also brings up the run of the Goeben, which I've run with PCs on either side.

 

[Timerover51]

The link that I provided for US Marine Corps publications no longer works, as they have changed the system a couple of times. The current link that works is as follows.

https://www.marines.mil/News/--Publications/MCPEL/Custompubtype/2002

It is not at all friendly when it comes to finding things, as you have to wade through all 34 pages if you want to find something, and for some bizarre reason, they have made a lot of the publications into two or three parts. Also, some of the earlier works are missing.

If you want something that you do not find, PM me and I will see if I have it and email it to you.

The Center for Military History website is still running fine, and has a lot more of short booklets on various American Wars, including the War of 1812, and the problems on the Mexican border. Pershing's expedition into Mexico would be an interesting campaign to play with, including the operations of the various German agents with the revolutionary groups.

 

[Selandia]

Any "raiders" story will frame an adventure sized group into a larger set-up doing significant things. ex The Cockleshell.

A wonderful set-up is the operations of the RM against Gibraltar from the Oltera and the beaches at Algéciras. All the logistic of covert operations, politics, technical expertise (T5 experimental tech bonus), daring, out thinking the other….. Both a Big Navy Operation with years of preparation by X MAS and a squad level execution.

have fun

Selandia

 

[JimMarn]

H. Beam Piper used various early gunpowder battles in his book 'Lord Kalven of Otherwhen'.

Didn't realize it when I read it, but saw mention of it years later.

 

[Timerover51]

There is a lot of ideas in the following book put out by the U.S. Army, but written by German officers.

Small unit actions during the German Campaign in Russia. Unfortunately, the Digital Library split it up into 5 parts, but they are all in one spot for download. I also have a complete copy in digital format if someone wants to PM me.

http://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p4013coll8/id/850/rec/1

One of my favorites is Operation Quarry, where a group of Russian partizans holed up in an underground quarry.

A systematic search of the area revealed numerous holes in the ground that looked like shell craters. Closer examination, however, proved that these holes were entrances to a huge underground quarry. Quarries in this region were the source of the stone used to build the white houses in Kerch. When freshly cut this stone was so soft that it could be sawed. Once exposed to the air, it became hard and durable. In the course of 2,000 years the inhabitants of Kerch had worked almost a dozen of these underground quarries, the largest of which had multistoried galleries several hundred yards long, as well as numerous side galleries.

It would also be a fun D&D verses the Germans scenario.

There is also a very good account of a sabotage operation attempted against the Murmansk Railway from northern Finland, that does include detailed sabotage unit organization. That one is worth a look as well.

I should add that the Center for Military History publications website also has a lot of information on Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combat. it just depends on what strikes your fancy.

https://history.army.mil/catalog/browse/title.html#s

 

[BRJN]

If your group likes to bluff and confuse their enemies rather than shoot at them, the early American Revolution offers some stories.
- Barging into the barracks of Fort Ticonderoga demanding, "Surrender in the name of the Continental Congress and the Great God Almighty!"
- A Georgia colonel who single-handedly captured a platoon of British regulars (by lying about them being outnumbered and surrounded). His real squad escorted them into captivity.
- Colonel "Light Horse Harry" Lee and his company being stalked by a wolf pack, but thinking they were British soldiers, all night. He had set up camp near where the wolves hid a large kill.

 

[BRJN]

You also have T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom to work from for desert adventures.

Continuing in the vein of "confuse your enemy",
In one incident, Lawrence goads a Turkish cavalry unit to follow him and some Arab volunteers into difficult terrain. They dismount to continue the hunt. More Arab volunteers sneak around to the Turks' horses, steal them and ride away. Lawrence obtains the Turks' surrender because they are too far from base, and have too little water, to walk back.

 

[Enoki]

Not historical, but you could do any number of movie plots as a game.

For example, take The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Turn it into a space Western.

Now, you'd need three players who are willing to be cutthroat to each other but you use the same premise. Two know a secret that between them will gain them a massive haul of loot. The third knows they know this and is willing to do whatever it takes to get them to tell him where the loot is...

Do Kelly's Hero's. Oddball and his crew are the owners of the ship the others need to get to where the loot is. The weirder that is, the better. The other players are an assortment of the original types in the cast. Can they pull of the heist of the Imperial (Solomani, Zhodani, etc.) bank?

 

[whartung]

- Colonel "Light Horse Harry" Lee and his company being stalked by a wolf pack, but thinking they were British soldiers, all night.

Sorry, I have to post this scene from the movie Bowfinger (highly underrated and very funny movie with Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy).

Spoiler:

To set it up Eddie Murphy plays Kit Ramsey, famous Hollywood Action Star. He's also suffering from paranoia and delusions. Meanwhile, Steve Martin is making a movie "starring" Kit Ramsey, but Kit doesn't know about it. So he's clandestinely filming Kit in various locations. In this scene he's supposed to be being stalked by the female lead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0i1ldFm-oI

 

[kilemall]

My go to book for 'only ship in the quadrant' freebooting solve problems with your Imperial gunboat is Gold Braid and Foreign Relations. You can get it at Naval Institute Press or Amazon.


This link goes to the table of contents-



https://archive.org/details/goldbraidforeign00long/page/n9


Just a ton of RL historical actions USN commanders actually did that had more diplomatic consequence then just a pirate/national battle, and all before telegraph or radio.