Sultanhisar

Notes: Another development team pick, Sultanhisar marks the introduction of Turkey into these decks - that's 20 nations now by my count! While Turkey of course remained neutral during WW2 (until the very final stages), she's a common topic for 'what-if' scenarios. Like Spain, her involvement might have made all the difference in the often finely-balanced Meditteranean theater.

As is typically the case when developing ships without an active war history to work with, the Development Team have based Sultanhisar's SA suite on the role she might typically have performed instead. Of course the inclusion of Close Escort prompts the question of whether this deck will also include something *for* her to escort, but I suspect most of you can likely guess the answer to that one! ;-)

Sultanhisar has a class limit of 2 (4 were ordered but Gayret and Muavanet were taken over by RN on completion as HMS Ithuriel & HMS Inconstant. Ithuriel was damaged beyond repair and Inconstant eventually returned to the Turkish March 1946).

Prototype: While Turkey of course remained neutral during WW2 (until the very final stages), she's a common topic for 'what-if' scenarios. Like Spain, her involvement might have made all the difference in the often finely-balanced Meditteranean theater.

4 ships of this class were ordered by Turkey but Gayret and Muavanet were taken over by RN on completion as HMS Ithuriel & HMS Inconstant. Ithuriel was damaged beyond repair and Inconstant eventually returned to the Turkish March 1946.

Class History: The G- and H-class destroyers were a group of 18 destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. Six additional ships being built for the Brazilian Navy when World War II began in 1939 were purchased by the British and named the Havant class. The design was a major export success with other ships built for the Argentine and Royal Hellenic Navies. They were assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet upon completion and enforced the Non-Intervention Agreement during the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39.

Most ships were recalled home or were sent to the North Atlantic from October–November 1939, after it became clear that Fascist Italy was not going to intervene in World War II. Then they began to escort convoys and patrol for German submarines and commerce raiders. Two ships were lost to German mines in the first six months of the war. Three more were lost during the Norwegian Campaign, one in combat with a German cruiser and two during the First Battle of Narvik in April 1940. The Battle of France was the next test for the destroyers from May–June, with many of the Gs and Havants participating in the evacuation of Dunkirk and the subsequent evacuations of Allied troops from western France. Three ships were sunk, two by bombs and the other to torpedoes. Most of the H-class ships were sent to the Mediterranean in May in case Mussolini decided to attack France and the majority of the surviving Gs were sent to Force H at Gibraltar in July. Several of them participated in the Battle of Dakar, before being assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet with their sister ships. By the end of the year, the ships participated in several battles with the Royal Italian Navy, losing two to Italian mines and torpedoes, while sinking two Italian submarines. The Havants spent most of the war in the North Atlantic on convoy escort duties, losing half their number to German submarines, while helping to sink six in exchange by the end of the war.

Country: Turkey is a nation straddling eastern Europe and western Asia with cultural connections to ancient Greek, Persian, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires. Cosmopolitan Istanbul, on the Bosphorus Strait, is home to the iconic Hagia Sophia, with its soaring dome and Christian mosaics, the massive 17th-century Blue Mosque and the circa-1460 Topkapı Palace, former home of sultans. Ankara is Turkey’s modern capital.