Operation Albatross (Pardes)

Operation Albatross
Part of 3rd Ostlander-Trinovantan War
Aerial reconnaissance image of the impact site for the M28 nuclear shell deployed during Operation Albatross
Date July 22nd-24th, 1962 Location Mare Centralis Result Trinovantan Victory
Belligerents
Trinovantum	Ostlichtor
Commanders and leaders
Admiral Douglas Anson Vice Admiral Martin Kelly	Vizeadmiral Franz Krause
Strength
Trinovantum 7 combat ships 1 aircraft carrier 1 battleship 3 destroyers 2 frigates	Ostlichtor 10 combat ships 1 battle cruiser 2 guided missile cruisers 2 light cruisers 1 guided missile destroyer 4 destroyers
Casualties and losses
5 aircraft destroyed 3 dead	1 battle cruiser sunk 2 guided missile cruisers sunk 2 light cruisers sunk 1 guided missile cruiser sunk 1 destroyer beached 3 destroyers sunk 10,230 dead

Operation Albatross was a Trinovantan naval operation that took place between July 22nd and July 24th during the 3rd Ostlander-Trinovantan War. The operation planned to lure the powerful Seestreitkräfte Kampfgruppe Krause into the open ocean and destroy it in a quick and decisive manner. This battle is particularly notable as it involves the first combat use of nuclear artillery in Pardes, which resulted in the complete destruction of Kampfgruppe Krause. The significant and lasting damage done to the ships, personnel, and local environment that occurred during Operation Albatross affected at least two international treaties: the Treatise on the Conduct of Warfare for the Civilized Nations and the Limitations on Nuclear Artillery Treaty.

Background

One of the primary goals of the Ostlichtor's Seestreitkräfte during the 3rd Ostlichtor-Trinovantum War was to disrupt trade between Trinovantum and its allies and colonies, in order to cause damage to Trinovantum's economic ability to maintain a protracted war against Ostlichtor. This was meant to be done primarily through the doctrine of "Plötzlicherschlag" (sudden strike), high-speed hit and fade raids making extensive use of signals intelligence, aerial reconnaissance and RADAR tracking to detect viable targets in conjunction with small groups of fast, well armed ships to engage and destroy the targets and their escorts. In contrast with the doctrine employed during the 2nd Ostlander-Trinovantan War, prolonged engagements with the Trinovantan Navy were to be avoided at all costs.

Initially, submarines were the principal ship type used in early Seestreitkräfte actions as they were expected to enjoy the greatest levels of success in the hit and fade tactics outlined by Ostlander naval doctrine. However, the prolific use of submarines in the 2nd Ostlander-Trinovantan War had spurred the development of new weapons and tactics to combat submarines in Trinovantum. These advancements in anti-submarine warfare made engaging even lightly defended convoys a perilous undertaking. After suffering significant losses, the Seestreitkräfte relegated its submarine forces primarily to patrol and observation duties. Other tactics were developed to work along the principals of Plötzlicherschlag. Initially these duties were given to the Seestreitkräfte's only fleet carrier, the Wolfgang Koehler, which would direct numerous air strikes against Trinovantan convoys until its destruction on October 24th, 1961 at the hands of air groups from the Trinovantan aircraft carrier Majestic.

Cumulative losses over the 4 years of war had reduced the Seestreitkräfte's ability to commit to its raiding actions significantly. By January, there were only two active raiding kampfgruppes, both of which were in need of replenishment. In late January, these two groups were combined together and bolstered by the newly converted Ritter-class guided missile cruisers. The senior-most officer of either kampfgruppe, Vizeadmiral Franz Krause, received command of this reformed kampfgruppe. Krause was already an accomplished naval commander of the 2nd Ostlander-Trinovantan War and one of the men who laid the foundation for the Seestreitkräfte's Plötzlicherschlag doctrine. With his expertise and this powerful new fleet at his disposal, he undertook an intense raiding campaign against Trinovantan forces in Mare Centralis. His fast moving and well-balanced battle fleet saw significant success over this period. Several attempts were made to eliminate Kampfgruppe Krause, using various methods such as fake radio transmissions and mock convoys to lure them into an open battle, air raids against the ports they were known to operate from, and submarine patrols along expected operating routes. However, none of these various operations saw any notable success against Kampfgruppe Krause.

On May 8th Admiral Douglas Anson, commander of the Trinovantan Navy's 2nd Fleet, formulated a plan to neutralize Kampfgruppe Krause and sent it forward to Naval High Command for approval. The document sent to high command outlined the strengths of Kampfgruppe Krause and the ways in which previous Trinovantan plans played into Krause's relative strengths. The final sections of the document then laid out a plan to destroy Kampfgruppe Krause in a single, decisive strike. This plan was approved on May 11th and preparations began on the next day.

Order of Battle

Trinovantan Forces

• Albatross Carrier Group
  • Archer-class Aircraft Carrier Majestic
  • Axe-class Destroyer Rook
  • Dosidicus-class Frigate Hopeful
  • Owens-class Frigate James Owens
• Albatross Surface Action Group
  • Astoria-class Battleship Enforcer
  • Daring-class Destroyer Decoy
  • Daring-class Destroyer Dragon

Ostlander Forces

• Kampfgruppe Krause
  • Dieterich-class Battlecruiser Prinz Dieterich
  • Waldreich-class Light Cruiser Rietzmar
  • Waldreich-class Light Cruiser Dambeck
  • Glatisant-class ASW Destroyer Glatisant
  • Drewen-class Guided Missile Destroyer Tessin
  • Type 1948 Destroyer Flieden
  • Type 1943 Destroyer Johann Eisen
  • Type 1943 Destroyer Reiner Ganz

Prelude

Of the various plans to neutralize Kampfgruppe Krause, Admiral Anson determined that the use of decoy ships to "bait" the hostile fleet into an unfavorable engagement were the closest to viable and used this concept as the basis of his own plan. Anson, however, determined that these previous plans had two major flaws that undercut their effectiveness. The first flaw was that use of decoy ships was believed to be unconvincing, being identified as decoys either due to irregularities in their radio transmissions, RADAR signature, SONAR signature, route of travel, or any combination of these factors. Furthermore, the decoys would often emulate simple transport and merchant ships which, while being Krause's primary target, were not sufficiently enticing to override his naturally cautious nature.  As such, Krause would not engage these targets unless he was absolutely certain that they were both genuine and that his battle group possessed total firepower superiority over any Trinovantan naval forces that were operating in the local area.

The second flaw was in the reactionary forces. In previous attempts, it was believed that the forces intended to destroy Kamfpgruppe Krause were either too lacking in firepower, or too large in the number of ships, or in some cases both. Kampfgruppe Krause possessed three capital ships, and could bring a formidable amount of firepower to bear on any attacker. Any force that would engage them directly would have to be capable of a similar volume of fire whilst also being able to resist Krause's ships through either superior mass, range, or overwhelming firepower. A force relying on mass to overcome Kampfgruppe Krause would almost certainly require many capital ships, and be detected via hostile signals intelligence. Krause's flagship, the battlecruiser Prinz Dieterich, possessed relatively modern large-caliber naval guns, and all of the ships in his fleet were capapble of speeds in excess of 32 knots. Any battle group relying on range would have to outclass the Prinz Dieterich in either range or firepower and be fast enough to prevent the hostile battlegroup from escaping. Air attacks via land based or carrier based aircraft had already proven ineffective against Kampfgruppe Krause due to the presence of three advanced air-defense oriented guided missile ships. Anti-shipping missile technology was still in its infancy, and aircraft deployed anti-ship missiles were almost unheard of at this time. As such, these guided-missile ships possessed a significant advantage in engagement ranges over Trinovantan aircraft. A conventional force relying on superior firepower would run into the same problem as a force relying on mass, early detection due to the number of capital ships.

Anson, however, had an unconventional plan to attain firepower superiority. Due to his high position within the Trinovantan navy and his connections to the Trinovantan military academia, he was very well informed of upcoming developments in military technology and theory. As such, he was aware of a little-known development in naval artillery, the M28 nuclear shell. The M28 was designed for the 16 inch Mk.5 guns used on the Astoria-class battleships, being the first and only Trinovantan nuclear artillery shell specifically designed for naval deployment. With two tests of the design undertaken in 1956 and a low-scale manufacturing run of 40 shells were made between 1957 and 1958, these shells were very rare and had not been carried aboard an Astoria-class ship in combat conditions before. With a yield of 20 kilotons and a range in excess of 35 kilometers, Anson believed that this would give a single Astoria-class battleship the ability to neutralize Kampfgruppe Krause with a single shot, more than satisfying the need for superior firepower.

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