stldiver
Posts: 724
Joined: 7/6/2006 From: West Palm Beach, USA Status: offline
|
I am playing 2 PBEM's one as Japan one as allied. In my allied game my opponent has covered his landings in DEI very well with KB, his initial thrust into Rabaul and Lae were meet with surface forces so he slowed down there. But no where else. I was constantly looking for an opening but he gave none as he covered with LBA and KB, and surface ships all his landings. This left me with my 4 carriers so I decided to try a strike on Tokyo, it has been debated whether this was wise in AE due to units that are stuck there. Well I did it with a lets roll the dice, and the knowledge that in my gave vs Scott, I trained early not expecting this. Thus the dice was rolled and on Jan 25th 1942 4 US carriers showed up on 160 miles SE of Tokyo with Naval attack as primary and Tokyo port as secondary. I had the CV groups split into two groups of two carriers, I was willing to take the cordination hit for the fact that I didn't have enough escorts. Here are the results, 2 attacks AM/PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on TF, near Yokohama/Yokosuka at 113,61 Weather in hex: Heavy cloud Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 15 minutes Japanese aircraft A5M4 Claude x 11 Ki-27b Nate x 8 Allied aircraft F2A-3 Buffalo x 8 SBD-3 Dauntless x 85 TBD-1 Devastator x 30 Japanese aircraft losses Ki-27b Nate: 1 destroyed Allied aircraft losses SBD-3 Dauntless: 5 damaged TBD-1 Devastator: 1 destroyed, 8 damaged Japanese Ships xAK Atlantic Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Celebes Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Bengal Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Sinsei Maru, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk xAK France Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage xAK Hiteru Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires xAK Mantai Maru, Bomb hits 1 xAK Calcutta Maru, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk xAK Denmark Maru CM Sokuten xAK Hohuku Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires xAK Naniwa Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Manzyu Maru xAK Sinkoku Maru, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk xAK Brasil Maru, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk AO Shiriya, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires CM Hoko xAK Norway Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire AK Sakito Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire CM Naryu TK Toa Maru xAK Miyadono Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 17 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000' Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb 17 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000' Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb 17 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000' Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb 13 x TBD-1 Devastator launching torpedoes at 200 feet Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo 17 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000' Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb 17 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000' Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb 15 x TBD-1 Devastator launching torpedoes at 200 feet Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on TF, near Tokyo at 114,60 Weather in hex: Severe storms Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 18 minutes Japanese aircraft A5M4 Claude x 2 Ki-27b Nate x 1 Allied aircraft SB2U-3 Vindicator x 17 SBD-2 Dauntless x 51 TBD-1 Devastator x 27 No Japanese losses Allied aircraft losses TBD-1 Devastator: 1 damaged Japanese Ships xAK Sansei Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Kiyama Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Omi Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires xAK Kyokuzan Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire xAK Ryuyo Maru, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk xAK Toko Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Eli Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Sansho Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Zinzan Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage xAK Kosei Maru xAK Ryuko Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires xAK Toko Maru xAK Heito Maru, Bomb hits 1 xAK Kinmo Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires xAK Tsukuba Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Shinkyo Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire xAK Monji Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires xAK Kuretake Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage Japanese ground losses: 234 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 16 destroyed, 4 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Aircraft Attacking: 17 x SBD-2 Dauntless diving from 2000' Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb 12 x TBD-1 Devastator bombing from 5000 feet * Naval Attack: 2 x 500 lb SAP Bomb 17 x SBD-2 Dauntless diving from 2000' Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb 17 x SBD-2 Dauntless diving from 2000' Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb 15 x TBD-1 Devastator bombing from 5000 feet * Naval Attack: 2 x 500 lb SAP Bomb 17 x SB2U-3 Vindicator diving from 2000' Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Yokohama/Yokosuka at 113,61 Weather in hex: Partial cloud Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 15 minutes Japanese aircraft A5M4 Claude x 10 Ki-27b Nate x 7 Allied aircraft F2A-3 Buffalo x 6 F4F-3A Wildcat x 14 SBD-3 Dauntless x 82 TBD-1 Devastator x 20 Japanese aircraft losses A5M4 Claude: 1 destroyed Allied aircraft losses SBD-3 Dauntless: 3 damaged TBD-1 Devastator: 3 damaged Japanese Ships xAK Denmark Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK France Maru, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk xAK Chicago Maru, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage CM Naryu, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk xAK Italy Maru, Bomb hits 7, and is sunk xAK Manzyu Maru, Bomb hits 7, and is sunk xAK Erie Maru, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage AK Sakito Maru, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk CM Hoko, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk CM Sokuten, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk CM Nasami, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk TK Toa Maru, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Tokyo at 114,60 Weather in hex: Partial cloud Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 18 minutes Japanese aircraft A5M4 Claude x 2 Allied aircraft F4F-3 Wildcat x 16 SB2U-3 Vindicator x 16 SBD-2 Dauntless x 34 TBD-1 Devastator x 13 No Japanese losses No Allied losses Japanese Ships xAK Kizan Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Kosei Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires xAK Tsukuba Maru, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk xAK Sansho Maru, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk xAK Ryuko Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Shinkyo Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Heito Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Zinzan Maru, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk xAK Toko Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Kinmo Maru, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Akasi Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Monji Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Taian Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires xAK Kyokuzan Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Ikoma Maru, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage Japanese ground losses: 125 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 3 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled My opponent sent this reply back you have selected the best moment... Radio Tokyo Rose: Our brave navy carries out extremely realistic excercise in Tokyo and Yokosuka.... Summary It can happen, after this in my game as Japan I am now sending out picket boats, as a mavis was shot down by CAP, so he was scouting. Probably most of his planes were training as the next day over 50 fighters were spotted at tokyo alone, in the second attack some units were pulled in from training. The other side of the coin, is the Japanese player should upgrade the home island forces, something I have also neglected and will remedy quickly. The KB is to far to interfere, I lost it about 3 days ago as it pulled away from Timor, probably Truk bound for an invasion or PM or Noumea. He also had no idea of where my CV's were prior to this strike. What would I do different, the torpedo bombers carried 500lb bombs to Tokyo, it was 5 hexes, since it was my primary I would have moved within 4 hexes. I also set CAP to 40 and had been for 8 days so the fighters were a little fatigued. Might have waited till strike day to up the CAP, usually I fly 30 percent. There are many what if's but I know if this was tried on me this early, probably close to same results. Here is the 1st strike at Yokohama
Attachment (1)
|