Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: ComradeP

Congratulations on the well-deserved victory Cuttlefish, it should be good for morale at Cuttlefish HQ.

With what looks like most of your modern warships engaged near the Solomons, which ships are protecting the Central Pacific and the DEI? Do you intend to try and intervene with any further landings in the DEI with your ships, or will you use mostly air power?

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The important result was that the Allied force withdrew and the Japanese force proceeded on to attack and completely destroy the Allied invasion fleet:

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Unfortunately for the JAAF, the develpoment of the Tony illustrated everything that was wrong with the Japanese aviation industry. Although Kawasaki had been given permission to prepare for production in 1941, the numbers of aircraft proceeded at a sluggish pace. As we will see the JAAF soon confronted disaster in New Guinea and needed more planes desparately. However, from April to October 1942, production averaged barely fifty planes per month, nowhere near enough to keep up strngth in New Guinea, much less replace Oscars with the more advanced plane . . . .

Numbers were not the only problem. Despite having German blueprints and German aircraft to study, Japanese factories could not produce a reliable aircraft. A very high percentage of Tonys received from the plant failed inspection and had to be delivered to the large JAAP depot at Kagamighara in Japan to be repaired. As mentioned many Tonys were lost during deployment, and many others arrived suffering mechanical difficulties. There were, however, only a handful of well-trained Tony mechanics, and spare parts were always terribly short. Repair equipment was in short supply or non-existence in New Guinea. The closet Tony supply depot was 1,000 miles away in the Indies. An engine change required the plane to be shipped to ClaRK FIELD in manila. Problems with engine cooling and hydraulic systmes plagued the warplane and frustrated inexperienced gound crews in the field.

Still, Kawasaki continued to work on the Tony. Late in the war, it became one of the most effective aircraft to defend Japan against bomber attack. Yet when the Tony was needed it was a failure . . . .

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ORIGINAL: ny59giants

How is your pool of both trained pilots and planes holding up?? If you could post screen shots or just the info, it would be appreciated by other Japanese players.

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ORIGINAL: crsutton

CF, I don't understand why QBall would not just start to bomb your oil in Palembang or Soerjaba rather than risk so much trying to take them now? I would think that once he kills the oil facilities, the bases could be bypassed for a while at least. Your take on this?

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ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

If blood be the price of admiralty, Lord God, we ha’ paid in full!
- Rudyard Kipling: The Song of the English, 1893


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3/6/1943 – 3/11/1943

The Imperial Japanese Navy saw action again for the second time in a week, this time against Allied forces invading ungarrisoned Den Pasar, just off the tip of Java. I did not see this one en route but a scratch force built around BB Nagato was assembled and ordered to attack on the second night of the enemy invasion.

The Japanese force met a covering force of three enemy heavy cruisers. The Japanese had slightly the better of the resulting action, sinking DD Stuart and doing significant damage to CA Frobisher.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Den Passar at 58,108, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Shell hits 1
CA Ashigara, Shell hits 5
CL Kinu
DD Yamagumo
DD Umikaze
DD Suzukaze
DD Uzuki
DD Kikuzuki, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Yuzuki, Shell hits 2, on fire

Allied Ships
CA Cornwall
CA Exeter, Shell hits 1
CA Frobisher, Shell hits 7, on fire
CL Perth
CL Hobart
CL St. Louis
DD Mahan, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Hull
DD MacDonough
DD Stuart, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Arunta

The important result was that the Allied force withdrew and the Japanese force proceeded on to attack and completely destroy the Allied invasion fleet:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Den Passar at 58,108, Range 10,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Shell hits 2
CA Ashigara
CL Kinu
DD Yamagumo
DD Umikaze
DD Suzukaze
DD Uzuki
DD Kikuzuki, heavy fires
DD Yuzuki, on fire

Allied Ships
DMS Zane, Shell hits 14, and is sunk
SC-708, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
SC-738, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
xAP Thomas Barry, Shell hits 20, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAP Esperance Bay, Shell hits 16, and is sunk
xAP Largs Bay, Shell hits 24, and is sunk
xAK Glenaffric, Shell hits 17, and is sunk
xAK Mahsud, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
xAP Felix Roussel, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Rangitata, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk


Allied ground losses:
718 casualties reported
Squads: 12 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 18 destroyed, 69 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Vehicles lost 13 (5 destroyed, 8 disabled)


Japanese Ships Reported to be Approaching!
Allied TF begins to get underway
Reduced sighting due to 17% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 17% moonlight: 11,000 yards

The two damaged Japanese destroyers, Kikuzuki and Yuzuki, came under attack by 25 Vindicators when the sun rose. CAP from Soerabaja shot down 9 of the attackers but the survivors sank the two destroyers. Den Pasar fell but the Australian brigade involved in the attack seems to have been mostly destroyed aboard ship.

Allied bombers, B-24s and B-25s, have been attacking Soerabaja for the last three days. They have destroyed about 20 planes on the ground at a cost of only about a dozen bombers shot down or crashed but the attacks are growing more feeble and the airfield is not heavily damaged. I expect Q-Ball will give up the attempt soon unless he can commit fighters to the operation. Early-war Japanese fighters are terrible at shooting down bombers but they do put a number of holes in them and the accumulated airframe damage seems to make sustained bombing rather difficult.

Koumac Falls: actually, I don’t know if there are any falls at Koumac. There might be. If there are, they are Allied falls now. Koumac fell on 11 March to the second Allied attack. The survivors are retreating to Noumea. It will probably take another week or two for Noumea to fall but New Caledonia is pretty well cut off by now and its fate is sealed. Allied ships are also off Babo, near the western end of New Guinea. The thing about Babo is that it can be easily hit by carrier planes from the Pacific ocean side. My carriers are currently at Truk and I am sending them over to see if they can attack the invasion force before it withdraws. It will probably take three days for them to reach attack position.

Under the Sea: Allied subs sank two of my TKs during the period, which I always hate to see. One of the attacks, SS Truant, was sunk by the convoy’s escorts off Singapore. Revenge is sweet and all that. Two xAKs were also damaged by sub attack, one off Kyushu and the other off northern Borneo. Both may or may not survive. Japanese subs had several contacts but did not make any successful attacks. Both the DEI and the Coral Sea/New Caledonia area are swarming with I-boats, though. My sub losses have been very light and so I have a lot of submarines in the water right now. Most of them are being employed defensively but I do have a few out looking for enemy shipping from the Aleutians to down around New Zealand.

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ORIGINAL: crsutton

Yes, I am not too happy with this aspect of surface warfare. It seems that esorting ships are too easily brushed aside and invasion forces just get creamed too often. Considering it is a night action and the Allied ships have radar, the Nagato force really was inferior force and the invasion force should have at least been protected or at least had time to build up steam and scatter. Even if the screening force lost, they should have provided some sort of protection. As it is now, sometimes the attacking forces gets nailed hard yet still makes it to the transports and wipes them out. Really, how often did this happen?