Next year will be the 75th Anniversary for the start of World War II. I proposed a campaign in Armorama focused on Poland, 1939 but would also be interested in one for the begining of the naval conflicts and the longest campaign of the war -the Battle of the Atlantic.

Within hours of the declaration of war, the SS Athenia was sunk by the U-30.

The HMS Courageous was sunk by the U-29.

The Admiral Graf Spee began her sorties into the Atlantic
.
Gunther Prien in th U-47 penetrated Scapa Flow and sank the HMS Royal Oak.

I was thinking of keeping it a 1939 time frame for this campaign as well but am wondering if that would be too limiting to attract enough builders.

I did a preliminary search about 1939 ship inventories of the Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine and this is what I got from a Royan Navy history site:

The Royal Navy, still the largest in the world in September 1939, included:

15 Battleships & battlecruisers, of which only two were post-World War 1. Five 'King George V' class battleships were building.

7 Aircraft carriers. One was new and five of the planned six fleet carriers were under construction. There were no escort carriers.

66 Cruisers, mainly post-World War 1 with some older ships converted for AA duties. Including cruiser-minelayers, 23 new ones had been laid down.

184 Destroyers of all types. Over half were modern, with 15 of the old 'V' and 'W' classes modified as escorts. Under construction or on order were 32 fleet destroyers and 20 escort types of the 'Hunt' class.

60 Submarines, mainly modern with nine building.

45 escort and patrol vessels with nine building, and the first 56 'Flower' class corvettes on order to add to the converted 'V' and 'W's' and 'Hunts'. However, there were few fast, long-endurance convoy escorts.

In Wikipedia, I found this ship count for the Kriegsmarine for ships 1939 and prior:

Fast battleships
Bismarck class
Bismarck, 1939
Tirpitz, 1939
Scharnhorst class
Scharnhorst, 1936
Gneisenau, 1936
Heavy cruisers
Deutschland class
Admiral Scheer, 1933
Admiral Graf Spee, 1934
Admiral Hipper class
Admiral Hipper, 1937
Blücher, 1937
Prinz Eugen, 1938
Light cruisers
Emden class
Emden, 1925
Königsberg class
Königsberg, 1925
Karlsruhe, 1927
Köln, 1928
Leipzig class
Leipzig, 1929
Nürnberg, 1934
Destroyers
Type 1934
Z1 Leberecht Maass, 1937
Z2 Georg Thiele, 1937
Z3 Max Schultz, 1937
Z4 Richard Beitzen, 1937
Type 1934A
Z5 Paul Jakobi
Z6 Theodor Riedel
Z7 Hermann Schoemann
Z8 Bruno Heinemann
Z9 Wolfgang Zenker
Z10 Hans Lody
Z11 Bernd von Arnim
Z12 Erich Giese
Z13 Erich Koellner
Z14 Friedrich Ihn
Z15 Erich Steinbrinck
Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt
Type 1936
Z17 Diether von Roeder
Z18 Hans Lüdemann
Z19 Hermann Künne
Z20 Karl Galster
Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp
Z22 Anton Schmitt
Type 1936A (Narvik)
Z23 through Z30
Type 1936A (Mob)
Z31 through Z34
Z37 through Z39
Type 1936B
Z35 through Z36
Z43 through Z45
Torpedo Boats
Torpedoboot 1935
T1 through T12
Torpedoboot 1937
T13 through T21
Flottentorpedoboot 1939 (Elbing)
T22 through T36
Submarines
Coastal submarines
Type IIA
U-1 through U-6
Type IIB
U-7 through U-24
U-120 and U-121
Type IIC
U-56 through U-63
Type IID
U-137 through U-152
Type XVIIB
U-1405 through U-1407
Ocean-going submarines
Type VIIA
U-27 through U-36
Type VIIB
U-45 through U-55
U-73 through U-76
U-83 through U-87
U-99 through U-102

What does everyone think? This could be opened up for aircraft as well.

Hi Michael,

For me sticking to '39 only will be a bit limiting, with the exception of River Plate there was little in the way of surface action. May I suggest 1939-40, as that would include the Norwegian Campaign, Dunkirk, and the early stages of the Mediterranean War. Allowing navel aviation as well would make it bit more interesting.

What timescale would you be thinking for the campaign?

Si

I'm a firm believer in 6 months for campaigns. Not sure of a start date yet.

I think 1939-1940 is very reasonable.

I'd be in for a 1/700 waterline build. 1939-1940 time period.

Same here, couple 700 scale Deutschland class, maybe a sub
Cheers

As Michael is working on a new way to do his campaign and I have talked to him about it.
I am going to lock this thread till he is ready to start a new one with the campaigns.
Cheers,
Bruce