HMS Cossack

Unit Card:

WASHMSCossackStatCard.jpg

Set - Rarity - Number

Condition Zebra - Common - 11/40

History:

Cossack was perhaps the most famous British member of the Tribal class of large destroyers which served with the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. War at Sea also includes two other Tribal class destroyers, HMAS Arunta and HMCS Haida. Cossack's war began in the Mediterranean, but soon she was transferred to the North Sea as the flotilla leader of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, commanded by then-Captain Philip Vian. Vian and Cossack rose to prominence together when Cossack, on 16 February 1940 entered neutral Norwegian waters in pursuit of the German freighter Altmark. Vian detained Altmark and removed nearly three hundred British prisoners, victims of the German raider Graf Spee. The Altmark incident provided the Germans with a pretext for the invasion of Norway. Cossack, still patrolling the North Sea, quickly responded to the invasion of the port of Narvik, when the 4th Destroyer Flotilla escorted the battleship Warspite into the German occupied harbor there. In the resulting Second Naval Battle of Narvik, Warspite and her escort wiped out the German fleet units stationed there. Cossack briefly ran aground during the battle, and needed repairs before continuing her service.

Though the Germans succeeded in taking Norway, they did it at the expense of much of their surface fleet. By the next year, 1941, Cossack's duties consisted mainly of escorting convoys across the Atlantic. In May, however, the German battleship Bismarck broke out into the Atlantic and the 4th Flotilla, detached from their convoy, joined the hunt. Vian found Bismarck on 26 May and mounted a night torpedo attack which, though it scored no hits, kept Bismarck's crew busy all night, ensuring their weariness the next day when British battleships closed in to finish the job. For this and his previous service, Captain Vian was promoted to Rear Admiral, a rank that put him above destroyer duty, forcing him to relinquish command of Cossack.

With Bismarck gone, the threat of major German surface units decreased even more. Once again Cossack was dispatched on escort duties, protecting convoys from smaller German opponents. With their heavy gun armaments, the Tribals excelled particularly in warding off S-Boats which preyed on coastal convoys in the English Channel. By the Fall of 1941, Cossack was reassigned again, escorting an ocean-going convoy to Gibraltar and back. In protecting her convoy, Cossack was torpedoed by German submarine U-563, falling prey to the very enemy that the destroyers were sent to seek. Despite losing their captain and more than one hundred crewmen in the attack, the remaining sailors doused a fire and were able to restart several of Cossack's boilers. Any hope of getting Cossack back to port faded, however, when increasing winds forced swells over the deck of the already low in the water ship. Cossack settled into the water and finally sank on 27 October 1941.

Reviews:

Hushpuppy:
The Cossack is a weird ship, her SA of Chase the Salvos and Valiant Stand make her look like he's wanting to fight some battleships, but her stats are nothing special, meaning that she'll get pummeled out of the water by a BB. If engaging a BB, keep her at range 2 so he gets the most out of her torpedoes and not too bad main gunnery, though any battleship can sink her with secondaries or damage her with tertiaries. Basically, send this unit out against a BB to damage it, just don't expect it to come back home.

Herky80: (after Condition Zebra)
Identical in stats to Haida and Arunta with the exception that Cossack is available in 1939 and the other Tribals are 1942. The other Tribals also have Sub Hunter while Cossack's Special Abilities give a better defense and an extra torpedo against battleships. If playing a 1941 or earlier game, the UK Commonwealth had only one 5 ASW rated ship, the Javelin at 9 points. Now they have two. The U-47's 4 armour threat in early games makes bringing a 5 ASW rated ship important, and although Javelin with Smoke Screen and Sub Hunter is the UK's best choice, Cossack can hold it's own at two points cheaper. 7/10

Tincancaptain: (after Condition Zebra)
If I had a choice between Arunta and Haida, Arunta's Close Escort would always put her before Haida's Destroyer Hunter, but this is much harder to chose between due to Valiant Stand.

Plastic Figure Notes:

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