BOTA 15 – Greyhound
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC PART 15 – GREYHOUND:
February 1985. TF 24.11 GREYHOUND drives east through a hard North Atlantic gale, seven hundred nautical miles south-southwest of Reykjavik. Sea state five, fog, rain that stings the face. The escort line holds station around a convoy loaded with fuel, armour, and munitions for the European theatre. NATO needs these ships ashore to prepare for the Spring offensive.
In Moscow, Marshal Ogarkov’s leadership is creaking as the war drags on. Dissidents are being arrested and loyalists are forced to swear allegiance to the cause of the motherland. The Soviet surface fleet continues to regroup under “Fortress Norway” while Admiral Vladimir Chernavin’s submarine war presses forward.
TF GREYHOUND continues to carry the burden. While there is no motr threat from Soviet aircraft carriers and missile cruisers, the threat from below continues to rattle the minds of every sailor crossing the dark Atlantic waters. The mission does not change. Deliver the convoy or watch the ground war tilt the wrong way.
Chernavin’s doctrine echoes an older playbook. Pick the lanes. Spread the boats. Strike the edges and then the heart. NATO analysts call it a Doenitz-style offensive for the missile age. Ogarkov accepts the risk because the payoff is time. Every freighter delayed buys him another day along the Elbe. The message out of Murmansk is blunt. Sink the convoys under the ice of winter and the alliance will starve in spring.
That is why this formation wears the name GREYHOUND. In the last Atlantic war, destroyers earned that title by running lean and fast to shield convoys through storms and wolfpacks. They closed the range and faced down the black boats lurking below. Today’s escort captains continue the brave tradition. It is not nostalgia. It is SOP.
MISSION:
The thunderous orchestra of the storm deafens sonar for both sides, masking cavitation under the churn of the waves, the driving rain and the crash of thunder. Keflavik’s squadrons are grounded by icing and crosswinds. There is no ASW air cover riding above the mastheads. The convoy is on its own.
At 0500 Zulu the first real contact rises out of the noise. On the port advanced point, USS Cook’s sonar detects the unmistakable signature of a submarine – bearing steady with a hint of machinery. Cook signals standby across the net. To starboard, USS Whipple’s sonar comes to life. The wolves are closing in. There is no help coming from Keflavik. Only the escorts, the submarines in support, and what their sonar can make out from a hostile ocean.
In the film that gives this mission its name, the moment of truth arrives without ceremony and with no margin for error. This reality is the same. TF GREYHOUND steadies into the gale. Helicopter crews strap in and wait for the command. Somewhere ahead, Chernavin’s hunters are setting their firing solutions. Across the formation, sailors and officers alike, prepare themselves for the fight.
CAMPAIGN:
The Battle of the Atlantic campaign unfolds in a dark reimagining of 1984, where Cold War tensions erupt into full-scale war. After seizing power in the Kremlin, Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov launches a lightning invasion of Finland, Sweden, and Norway. Soviet forces pour across Scandinavia and surge into the Norwegian Sea, threatening to sever NATO’s transatlantic lifeline and dominate the GIUK Gap. In response, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and allied NATO naval forces mobilise for a desperate stand to preserve control of the seas.
From the fog-choked Baltic to the windswept North Atlantic, players will command Task Forces through a series of missions: from the defence of Gotland and interdiction of Soviet amphibious landings, to high-stakes carrier battles in the mid-Atlantic and convoy escorts across submarine-infested waters, to full-scale amphibious warfare. In this struggle for maritime supremacy, every decision counts—and the future of Europe hangs in the balance.
A 25+ mission linear campaign, The Battle of the Atlantic, is inspired by famous naval battles of WWI and WWII. Please let me know in the comments about any bugs or suggestions.
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
