Second World War at Sea: Java Sea - Wicked Sisters

In February 1942, the German Navy prepared a top-secret mission, known as Operation Cerberus, to move the battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau (known to British sailors as the “Wicked Sisters”) and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen from Brest in western France to Norway. Without special training operations or any other moves that might alert the British, they would suddenly dart up the narrow English Channel. The daring “Channel Dash” caught the British by surprise, and all three ships made it to German though Gneisenau suffered damage that would never be fully repaired.

As a cover story for the preparations, the German Navy put about the rumor that the three ships would head south, around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean to join the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies. Crews were told of this objective, tropical helmets and uniforms were loaded, and rumors spread through the French dock workers.

Wicked Sisters is a Second World War at Sea Campaign Study making this deception a reality. It’s a set of a dozen scenarios for our games Horn of Africa, Eastern Fleet and Java Sea tracing this cruise that never happened. The German squadron is pretty much on its own until they reach safe harbor. And the Royal Navy has no intention of letting them get there.

You’ll need Bismarck Second Edition or Playbook Edition, Horn of Africa, Eastern Fleet and Java Sea to play the scenarios.