Battle of the Rigoman Sea

The Larvokean battle line consisting of the LRV Larvok, Brashonego and Zayleros open fire on the Vostovian formation

### Location

Rigoman Sea, South of the Lemetiate of Larvokea

### Beligerents

 Vostovia

 Lemetiate of Larvokea

### Leaders

 Admiral Durez Hilred

 Admiral Vulin Faelar

### Strength

 Vostovia:
2 heavy cruisers
1 light cruiser
3 destroyers

 Lemetiate of Larvokea:
1 heavy cruiser
2 light cruisers
6 destroyers

### Casualties

 Vostovia:
1 light cruiser sunk
2 heavy cruisers and 2 destroyers damaged
~500 killed

 Lemetiate of Larvokea:
1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser and 2 destroyers sunk
4 destroyers damaged
~1400 killed

The Battle of the Rigoman Sea was a naval battle fought during the Invasion of Larvokea by the Vostovian and Larvokean navy which saw the destruction of much of Larvokea's surface fleet and a Vostovian blockade placed on the port city of Horntefract , following the Raid on Deporpets 9 days prior.

## Background

The Larvokean victory during the Raid on Deporpets had humiliated the Vostovian navy which severely underestimated the ability of the Larvokean navy to damage one of their ships, the defeat enraged Avan Kolkan, the dictator of Vostovia himself who demanded a significant blow to be dealt to the Larvokean navy.

In response, Vostovian Admiral Durez Hilred, with Avan Kolkan's approval hatched a plan to bait the Larvokean surface fleet into battle by sailing to Larvokea's southern coast with the fleet that was still in Deporpets, which consisted of 2 heavy and 1 light cruiser accompanied by 3 destroyers, as the GVV Laner would be unable to take part in the operation due to being struck by a torpedo during the Raid on Deporpets, and the wrecked GVV Rukkok was still in the process of being raised and repaired.

## Prelude

On the 15th of April, 1919, The fleet, under command of Admiral Hilred set sail for Horntefract at precisely 2AM with the hope of going unnoticed until they had reached their destination The fleet would be spotted at approximately 9 AM by the destroyer LRV Clitryfield, which was on patrol in the area.

Larvokea sent out a fleet led by Admiral Vulin Faelar, from the naval base at Horntefract to consisting of 1 heavy and 2 light cruisers as well as 6 destroyers, which represented all of Larvokea's naval vessels with the exception of 2 destroyers.

## Battle

The two fleets would sail towards eachother for another 2 hours before meeting eachother. The Vostovian fleet was arranged in two lines which sailed adjacent to eachother, one consisted of the heavy cruisers GVV Cronnid (which was Hilred's flagship) and Crekkok while the other had the light cruiser Tekeb and the 3 destroyers (GVV Okel, Zivak and Aurok).

The Larvokean fleet sailed into battle in 3 lines sailing adjacent to eachother, the left and right lines both consisted of 3 destroyers while the centre one contained the heavy cruiser LRV Larvok and the light cruisers Brashonego and Zayleros.

The Vostovian line was first to fire, with the guns of the GVV Cronnid at the front firing as the two Vostovian lines turned to head towards opposite directions to allow the entire fleet to open up. Meanwhile, the Larvokean formation had the two lines of destroyers speed up to their max speed and head towards the Vostovian fleet as the Larvokean cruisers turned to face their broadsides, very early in the initial broadside, Vostovia got lucky, with a hit landing on the LRV Brashonego's bow, however the actual damage caused was minor.

The range of the engagement at the start was around 5 kilometres, the close range led to higher accuracy on both sides and also allowed the Larvokean destroyers to close the distance quickly, however with the Larvokean destroyers sailing directly towards the enemy fleet in two lines, they were essentially letting the Vostovians cross their T. With the Larvokean destroyers coming close, the entire Vostovian fleet shifted their focus on them, bringing a large amount of guns to bear, the resulting fire sunk the LRV Jackwell and Darton while the Clitryfield took severe damage, forcing her to retreat and dealing light damage to the Horntefract which was still able to continue on.

WIth the Larvokean destroyers closing into torpedo distance and the battle line still being fired upon by the Larvokean Cruisers, Admiral Hilred ordered all his ships to lay smoke and to break formation for evasive manuevers, this severely diminished the accuracy of both sides, although given the circumstances it was more problematic for the Larvokeans, who had 3 destroyers spend their torpedoes on blind shots which all ended up missing due to the combination of smoke and Vostovian evasive manuevers. Following the failed torpedo attack, the Vostovian line quickly reentered formation and ceased laying smoke, while the Vostovian destroyers pursued the retreating Larvokean destroyers, managing to deal moderate damage to the LRV Westford but in return taking minor damage to the GVV Zivak. It was around this point Admiral Hilred would make a remark on the lack of hits the Vostovian fleet had sustained;

> Either the Larvokean navy can't hit the broadside of a barn, or we are the luckiest men alive.
>
> Admiral Durez Hilred

Following both sides returning to exchanging fire in line formations, both sides managed to score hits, the Larvokean side however was more unlucky, the LRV Larvok took a hit around the rear mast from GVV Crekkok's main battery, which penetrated and detonated inside the ship, causing structural damage and starting a fire which nearly reached the aft secondary magazines. the LRV Brashenego took another hit to the bow, however unlike the previous one, the hit was very close to the waterline, which led to some flooding and minor loss of speed.

On the Vostovian side, the lead heavy cruiser GVV Crekkok found herself the focus of all the Larvokean guns, taking a hit to the superstructure amidships below the funnels, causing no significant damage from LRV Zayleros, a hit to one of the starboard side casemate secondaries which completely destroyed the gun, from the LRV Larvok as well as a hit to the second turret from the stern which failed to penetrate as it was from one of LRV Zayleros's smaller secondary guns.

As the gun duel raged on, Admiral Hilred decided it was time to use their three destroyers which were still intact, apart from Zivak which had taken minor damage earlier, to launch their own torpedo attack on the Larvokean line. The Vostovian destroyers were sent out in a line abreast formation, closing in quickly under the cover of smoke and letting loose 6 torpedoes in total across the 3 destroyers. Vostovia was significantly more lucky with their torpedo attack, despite having significantly less ships due to a more well trained crew and the lack of Larvokean evasive manuevers. 5 torpedoes missed, but one launched from GVV Aurok clipped the LRV Brashonego on the stern, essentially tearing it off along with the props and leaving her dead in the water. LRV Zayleros located behind nearly collided but was able to swerve out the way. On the retreat, the GVV Okel took two hits from the destroyer LRV Botbury, one taking out the stern dual 4 inch turret and the other landing below the bridge.

Admiral Vulin Faelar, seeing that they had essentially lost a light cruiser and were now even more disadvantaged decided to retreat his remaining ships, however Admiral Hilred seeing this decided to give chase with his cruisers, tasking the Vostovian destroyers with reloading their torpedoes and finishing off the crippled Brashonego, which was done easily as the Larvokean cruiser was dead in the water, being struck by 4 torpedoes and sinking rapidly. Following the sinking, the crew of the Vostovian destroyers took time to gun down any lifeboats they saw, leaving the enemy crew for dead in the ocean.

The loss of the Brashonego turned the battle in Vostovia's favour as Faelar found his that he had a single heavy and light cruiser to go up against Hilred's two heavy cruisers and one light cruiser, he still had his destroyers although they had expended their torpedoes and only carried two guns each and were lightly armoured meaning they'd be easily sunk in a gun duel, however leaving the cruisers on their own would certainly be suicidal and Admiral Faelar needed every gun he could get, so he decided to keep his destroyers around.

In the ensuing surface battle, the LRV Larvok was focused by the Vostovian cruisers, while Larvokean gunnery was less coordinated with each ship picking their own targets depending on the size of their guns. The LRV Larvok fatally took a large amount of hits, most notably resulting in the destruction of the sternmost primary turret and shell over penetrating the bridge which nearly killed Admiral Faelar himself in addition to various hits to the hull which had caused fires and let some water in, but most critical was a main gun hit which managed to land below the waterline that hit while the cruiser was turning, revealing a portion of the hull that was usually submerged, this hit managed to cause severe flooding, which the cruiser would succumb to in the aftermath of the battle. The LRV Zayleros also took its own punishment, as the smaller Vostovian 4 inch secondaries started fires and caused moderate structural damage on deck. The destroyer LRV Botbury was also hit by a stray shell intended for the Zayleros, that penetrated and detonated inside the bow, causing structural damage and small amounts of flooding.

During the gun battle, the Vostovian destroyers were still busy reloading their torpedoes and finishing off the Brashonego, which had been left dead in the water from earlier, which meant the cruisers were the only target for all the guns of the Larvokean cruisers and destroyers. While the two heavy cruisers were armoured enough to be able to take the 5 inch guns that were used by the Larvokeans as secondaries on the cruisers and primaries on the destroyers, the GVV Tekeb was not, and suffered great damage as a result. High explosive shells ravaged the ship, dealing significant damage to the superstructure located amidships and killing the captain with a hit to the bridge, forcing the next highest ranking officer to take command of the ship. The Tekeb hadn't taken any flooding, but had numerous fires onboard which would remain for a few minutes as Vostovian crew tried frantically to keep it under control in vain, resulting in a fire eventually reaching the forward magazine and causing a magazine detonation, leading to the light cruiser sinking in 15 minutes with 35 survivors.

The Vostovian heavy cruisers were more fortunate than the Tekeb, GVV Cronnid and GVV Crekkok both managed to get off mostly intact, with the former having a hole in the hull from a 10 inch shell and the latter a 7 inch hit to the bow.

The gun battle continued until the retreating Larvokean force was able to get close to Larvokea's coast, bringing them within range of Larvokean coastal gun batteries, leading to Admiral Hilred finally disengaging, and ending the battle

## Aftermath

Admiral Faelar, following the battle sailed straight back home as his crew tried to save the LRV Larvok which he was on, however the flooding eventually won over, with the flooding gaining an upper hand over the ship. With the ship having a 9 degree list and sitting dangerously low in the water, Admiral Faelar decided to order ship, waiting until all the other sailors and officers had boarded lifeboats before he himself got on one. With 7 ships picking up survivors, the crew of the Larvok were able to be rescued before the stern even slipped beneath the waves.

In terms of their other ships, the LRV Zayleros was moderately damaged and had firefighting efforts to deal with, while the LRV Clitryfield was heavily damaged early in the battle and was already nearing home, the LRV Westford was moderately damaged while the Horntefract and Botbury both had minor damage. Admiral Faelar's fleet was able to return to port without any further incident.

On the Vostovian side, the remaining cruisers both had large holes in the side of their hull to patch up, while the GVV Okel and Zivak also had minor damage, the destroyers and cruisers would link up before sailing back to Deporpets.

Strategically, the battle was entirely unnecessary for Vostovia, the Larvokean navy had no further naval operations planned other than the Raid on Deporpets, and even if they did they would've have used torpedo boats again due to their low cost, none of which were sunk during the battle and were easily replaceable again. However the battle did help somewhat mend the morale of the Vostovian navy following the humiliation at Deporpets, and Admiral Hilred's plan of satisfying Avan Kolkan.

For Larvokea, the battle was a blow to morale, but again, as they didn't have any further naval operations planned, wasn't significant strategically. Admiral Vulin Faelar was criticised for fighting the pitched battle out of range of the Larvokean coastal guns but in the end he was allowed to keep his job.