The simulation's uncooperative supply ships lead into the command friction inside a high-risk convoy. During Operation Pedestal, merchant captains and naval escorts did not always share the same assumptions about authority or acceptable risk. Royal Navy officers sometimes used the threat of force to keep ships following orders during the Malta run. The account distinguishes one captain's conduct from that of his crew, who performed well after their vessel was sunk. Those survivors helped bring the damaged tanker SS Ohio into Malta, showing how convoy success depended on merchant seamen as well as naval escorts.
Notable Point · 1:02:26-1:03:52
Operation Pedestal and convoy command friction
The game's wandering merchants lead to a Pedestal anecdote about the difficulty of keeping a mixed naval and civilian convoy together under pressure.