| Opening Salvo: Pt. 5 |
| War at Sea -- Task Force Set |
| by Rich Baker |
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The new Axis and Allies Naval Miniatures: War at Sea -- Task Force set hit store shelves on Jul 25th! For our fifth salvo, we take a look at Germany's Admiral Hipper and U-66.
Admiral Hipper
The Hipper-class ships were large, powerful heavy cruisers that played an active part in the Atlantic campaign. Blücher was lost during the invasion of Norway in April of 1940, one of the few large warships lost to shore battery fire during the war. Prinz Eugen accompanied Bismarck during her fateful sortie (May 1941), and later participated in the famous Channel Dash with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau (February 1942). The Admiral Hipper herself scored significant success as a commerce raider and threatened the Murmansk convoys until damaged at the end of 1942. She was not repaired until the end of the war.
U-66
In early 1942 the Kriegsmarine sent five U-boats to the east coast of the United States to bring the Battle of the Atlantic to the shores of America. This was called Operation Drumbeat, and it was spectacularly successful. Under Korvettenkapitan Richard Zapp, U-66 sank five ships totaling 36,000 tons of shipping off Cape Hatteras between January 18th and 24th.
Check back next Monday when we will be focusing on a new pair of units from the Task Force set. Until then, go to our message boards to talk about this preview.
Additional Material
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