Flames Of War at the USS Hornet Museum 2024

Flames Of War at the USS Hornet Museum 2024 By Russell Moore On July 27th and 28th we held a Flames Of War Tournament on the USS Hornet, one of the most famous ships in the US Navy and now a museum in Alameda, California. The USS Hornet was launched in late 1943 and fought in all the major battles of World War II in the Pacific from March 1944 until June 1945 when she was damaged by a hurricane. Upgraded multiple times, the USS Hornet served in the Pacific during the 1950s and 1960s, including 3 tours off of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. She finished her career as the recovery ship for the Apollo 11 and 12 Moon missions, the first two manned missions to the Moon.

16 players came from across northern and southern California and we even had 2 players from New Mexico! The tournament was Late War, 95 points and we played in the Hangar Bay. We played 4 games over 2 days so there was enough time to enjoy the ship without too much rushing and everyone had a great time. We had an even mix of Axis and Allied players (6 German, 1 Hungarian, 1 Romanian, 1 Russian, 5 US and 2 British) and tried to keep the battles red vs blue (but couldn't for every round).

Battlefront provided some great prize support and the USS Hornet added in some historical unit books as well so everyone came away with something! The battles were well fought and there was definitely some rank shifting all the way to the last game. In the end, Richard Barnes and Clive Henrick tied for first (even with 2 tie breakers), Chris Hansen came in third, Brian Nevis won best painted, Hayden Eckles won Best Sportsman and Hal Lotman won the coveted Purple Heart Award.

As the TO, I was even able to play 2 games since one player had to drop out for the second day. I was able to bring out KG Hummel and his trained Tigers for some wild games. My thinking was play fast, win or lose fast so I still had time to run the event.

~Russell Moore, NORCAL FOW

Photos from the Event