RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A)

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition >> After Action Reports >> RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari, please.

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 8/21/2011 7:58:57 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

I'm using one of modified maps from here:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2189709

Number show port/airfield potential of a base.

(in reply to bk19@mweb.co.za)

Post #: 601

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 9/3/2011 4:21:44 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

May 16, 1943 - At the Gates of Chungking

Well, as you can see below, my main force is indeed there. I took the longer road, to avoid a river crossing attack into Chungking itself. Almost all Chinese units in the heartland are concentrated in Chungking, so, I'm sending my tanks around to take other cities, while infantry and artillery will march into Chungking directly. With about 90% of Japanese artillery on map (over 3000 guns) concentrated in that stack, I'm pretty sure my troops will be able to pound Chinese in x2 defensive terrain to dust, particularly as they should be stariving. A test bombardment in clear terrain caused over 1500 casualties...

Reduction of Allied Airbase on Little Andaman

Started in the first week of May. Bigred usually had no CAP there, relying on massive flak fire to protect against raids of opportunity. He apparently didn't expect the massive air offensive I launched right after the bulk of IJAAF was no longer needed to ensure success in China, using over 200 bombers from various Japanese airbases in the region. Massed use of bombers reduced Japanese losses per sortie very considerably. A day of bad weather allowed Allies to repair the airfield enough to put a good fight, and my airforce has suffered huge losses to Corsairs, Spitfires and thankfully small number of Hellcats, including my best ace. However, after, IIRC, two days of fighting Bigred decided to ground his planes, maybe not expecting me to be back. But my bombers flew once again and plastered the airfield, ending serious resistance in one shot, and destroying about 40 of the first-line Allied fighters on ground in two days.

So now the Allied airbase at Little Andaman is nonfunctional. Bigred didn't get many convoys there intact lately, so I expect Allied supplies to run out quickly, which will make an invasion possible.

Fleet had to pay the for this victory as well, though - I needed to push convoys to Trinkat and Port Blair, so that these bases will have enough supply for the air offensive. In the prosess a DD was sunk by British divebombers, another by a PT boat. PT boats also very heavily damaged one of the training cruisers.

By the way, after the patches presense of planes on an airfield is no longer always detected by recon... I'm also not sure if attempts to intercept transport planes led to bloody duels with CAP before, but now they do.

Island Hopping

Meanwhile, a great storm gathers in Southwestern Pacific. Stay tuned - I'll describe the outcome once the battle will be over.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by FatR -- 9/3/2011 4:22:22 PM >

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 602

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 9/3/2011 10:06:38 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Ocean of Blood: Kirakira Version

Long story short, on May 15 of 1943, my airsearch detected a massive Allied armada that just left Ndeni and was heading in the general direction of Solomons. Betties from Nauru sortied against it and got annihilated by LRCAP. Their colleagues from Munda were more lucky, stumbing on a forward Allied minelaying TF. It had no CAP, so DM Montgomery, CM Weehawken, and AM Motive were sunk at no loss.

At the moment I had a considerable naval force at Rabaul (5 CAs, 4 CLs), with BBs Kongo and Kirishima currently escorting a large resupply convoy to Milne Bay (I decided to use battleships to counter skipbombers I expected Bigred to have on watch, he did, it worked, in combination with providing heavy CAP, of course). To be honest, I was somewhat vary of contesting Allied landing in force. It resembled a bait, dangled before my nose, so that Allied carrier force/skipbombing 4Es from Ndeni can massacre my reaction force.

Still, considering conservative play and tendency not to commit his forces decisively, displated by Bigred before, I decided in favor of counterattacking with all available strength. Considerable bomber force, including 3 (4 on the next day, although one group in both cases was based in a base without torpedo HQ) groups of Betties, 1 group of Judies, 1 group of Nicks on low naval and some Jakes on low naval was set to strike at the Allied fleet with all its might, while my own naval forces gathered at Munda, under modest aircover, to attack on the next day.

Unfortunately, instead of the expected bang, May 16 ended in a whimper. None of my planes in Solomons sortied at all. Allied fleet subjected Tulagi and Lunga to relatively light bombardments, at countering which my coastal DP guns seemed ineffective. 2 midgets were sank in the process, without even making a single shot at the enemy.
However, the Allied sub fleet fared even worse:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submarine attack near Normanby Island at 102,133

Japanese Ships
APD Tsuta
xAK Ryunan Maru
xAK Yosyu Maru
xAK Tatuha Maru
AV Kimishima Maru

Allied Ships
SS S-45, hits 11, and is sunk

SS S-45 launches 4 torpedoes at APD Tsuta (One actually hit, but miraculously was a dud.)
S-45 bottoming out ....
APD Tsuta attacking submerged sub ....
SS S-45 forced to surface!
APD Tsuta firing on surfaced sub ....
xAK Ryunan Maru firing on surfaced sub ....
xAK Yosyu Maru firing on surfaced sub ....
xAK Tatuha Maru firing on surfaced sub ....
AV Kimishima Maru firing on surfaced sub ....
APD Tsuta firing on surfaced sub ....
Sub slips beneath the waves

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack near Vella Lavella at 110,133

Japanese Ships
DD Fubuki
CA Maya
CL Kiso
CL Kinu
CL Niyodo
DD Shirakumo
DD Shinonome

Allied Ships
SS Permit, hits 20, heavy damage

SS Permit launches 4 torpedoes at DD Fubuki
Permit bottoming out ....
DD Shirakumo attacking submerged sub ....
DD Shinonome attacking submerged sub ....
DD Fubuki fails to find sub and abandons search
DD Shirakumo attacking submerged sub ....
DD Shinonome attacking submerged sub ....
DD Shirakumo fails to find sub and abandons search
DD Shinonome fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Shinonome fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Shinonome fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub

It should be noted, that no meaningful attempts to suppress my airfield or beat back my aviation was undertaken by the Allies before this operation, which, as I saw on 16th, targeted Kirakira. Kirakira went to level 1 airfield on that very day, suggesting that Bigred already was sneaking troops there.

For the next day, May 17, I formed two TFs of 1 BB and 3 CAs/bigger CLs + 4 DDs each (with Tanaka and Nishimura, the two most aggressive Japanese admirals, in command), and another TF of 8 DDs led by Yubari, and send them on a bombard/retreat run to Kirakira. Probably I should have accepted fuel burn and send them as full speed SCTFs, but I have little trust of full speed moves - in my experience they can result in TFs moving or stopping unpredictably, due to AI detecting fuel shortage on some ships, or whatever. Aviation had pretty much the same order, except with sweeping Kirakira.

This resulted in the longest sequence of night surface battles during this war so far.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Lunga at 113,139, Range 10,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo
CA Chokai
CA Furutaka
CA Kako
DD Kawakaze
DD Yugure
DD Ikazuchi
DD Inazuma

Allied Ships
PT-224

Improved night sighting under 96% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 96% moonlight: 12,000 yards
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 10,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 10,000 yards
Tanaka, Raizo crosses the 'T'
DD Kawakaze engages PT-224 at 9,000 yards
Task forces break off...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Lunga at 114,139, Range 10,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo
CA Chokai
CA Furutaka
CA Kako
DD Kawakaze
DD Yugure
DD Ikazuchi
DD Inazuma

Allied Ships
PT-224, Shell hits 1, and is sunk

Improved night sighting under 96% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 96% moonlight: 12,000 yards
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 10,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 10,000 yards
Combat ends with last Allied ship sunk...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Kirakira at 115,139, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Kirishima
CA Atago
CA Maya
CL Niyodo
DD Fubuki
DD Shinonome
DD Shirakumo
DD Yugiri

Allied Ships
LCT-146, Shell hits 3, and is sunk

Improved night sighting under 96% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 96% moonlight: 12,000 yards
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 12,000 yards
Japanese open fire on surprised Allied ships at 12,000 yards
LCT-146 sunk by BB Kirishima at 12,000 yards
LCT-146 sunk by BB Kirishima at 12,000 yards
Combat ends with last Allied ship sunk...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Kirakira at 116,140, Range 11,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
OS2U-3 Kingfisher: 2 destroyed

Japanese Ships
BB Kirishima
CA Atago
CA Maya, Shell hits 2
CL Niyodo, Shell hits 2
DD Fubuki
DD Shinonome
DD Shirakumo, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Yugiri

Allied Ships
CA Pensacola, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CL Detroit, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Woodworth, Shell hits 1
DD Anderson
DD Dunlap, Shell hits 1, on fire

Improved night sighting under 96% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 96% moonlight: 12,000 yards
Range closes to 23,000 yards...
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 11,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 11,000 yards
Task forces break off...

So far so good, but the Nishimura's division used up most of its torps here...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Kirakira at 116,140, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo, Shell hits 5
CA Chokai, Shell hits 2
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 3, on fire
CA Kako, Shell hits 8, on fire
DD Kawakaze
DD Yugure, Shell hits 6, on fire
DD Ikazuchi, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Inazuma

Allied Ships
CL Helena, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Montpelier, Shell hits 16, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Chevalier
DD Conway, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Cony, Shell hits 2
DD Downes, Shell hits 1

Improved night sighting under 96% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 96% moonlight: 12,000 yards
Range closes to 23,000 yards...
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 11,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 11,000 yards
Lee, Willis "Ching" crosses the 'T'
Task forces break off...

(Tanaka getting his T crossed? How can this be?!? My SCTF managed to win this by sheer superior weight, but at the cost of damage, that caused it to fragment, and, as it happened, the entire assault to fall apart.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Kirakira at 116,140, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 10, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Kawakaze
DD Ikazuchi, on fire

Allied Ships
CL Boise, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Strong
DD Drayton
DD Lamson

Improved night sighting under 96% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 96% moonlight: 12,000 yards
Range closes to 23,000 yards...
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 11,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 11,000 yards
Tanaka, Raizo orders Japanese TF to disengage
Task forces break off...

(Here you can see the result of the previous battle. I guess I was lucky to escape That Damn Boise with only an old CA in danger of sinking.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Kirakira at 116,140, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Yubari, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Shimakaze, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Oyashio
DD Arashi
DD Oshio, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Natsugumo
DD Arare
DD Yamakaze, Shell hits 2
DD Kikuzuki

Allied Ships
CA Quincy, Shell hits 1
CL Cleveland
DD Waller
DD Gansevoort, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Kane

Improved night sighting under 96% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 96% moonlight: 12,000 yards
Range closes to 23,000 yards...
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 11,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 11,000 yards
Task forces break off...

(The third SCTF arrives and immediately wastes its torps on DDs.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Kirakira at 116,140, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Yubari, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Shimakaze, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
DD Oyashio
DD Arashi
DD Oshio, on fire
DD Natsugumo, Shell hits 1
DD Arare
DD Yamakaze
DD Kikuzuki

Allied Ships
BB Pennsylvania, Shell hits 8, on fire
CL Denver
DD Philip, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Bagley, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

Improved night sighting under 96% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 96% moonlight: 12,000 yards
Range closes to 23,000 yards...
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 11,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 11,000 yards
Merrill, A.S. "Tip" crosses the 'T'
Task forces break off...

(I hate Allied BBs apparent ability to snipe my destroyers. And for the record, Shimakaze wasted her torpedoes sinking Bagley, instead, of you know, targeting the friggin battleship).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Kirakira at 116,140, Range 7,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Yubari, Shell hits 4, heavy fires
DD Oyashio, Shell hits 1
DD Arashi
DD Oshio, Shell hits 4, heavy fires
DD Natsugumo
DD Arare
DD Yamakaze, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Kikuzuki

Allied Ships
DD Allen, Shell hits 1
DD Schley
DD Kortenaer
DD Piet Hein, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage

Improved night sighting under 96% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 96% moonlight: 12,000 yards
Range closes to 19,000 yards...
Range closes to 13,000 yards...
Range closes to 7,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 7,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 7,000 yards

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Kirakira at 116,140, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Kirishima, Shell hits 1
CA Atago, Shell hits 2
CA Maya
CL Niyodo, Shell hits 2
DD Fubuki, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
DD Shinonome, Shell hits 26, and is sunk
DD Shirakumo, Shell hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Yugiri, Shell hits 11, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DD Bache, Shell hits 2
DD Eaton, Shell hits 22, and is sunk
DD Lansdowne, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Bailey, Shell hits 6, and is sunk

Improved night sighting under 100% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 100% moonlight: 12,000 yards
Range closes to 23,000 yards...
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 11,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 11,000 yards
Nishimura, Teiji crosses the 'T'

(The final encounters basically consist of Allied DDs wreaking havoc despite wastly inferior odds. They account for most of my immediate losses in these battles.)

4 Japanese DDs are sunk. Furutaka is in danger, every other Japanese capital ship will survive unless finished by subs. 10 Allied seaplanes destroyed on ground indicate that both of the heavily damaged CLs went under. Victory, I guess? I'll soon run out of destroyers at this rate, though. And none of my TFs reached the landing zone.

Daylight activity by Japanese - and, I believe, Allied - aviation is much less than expected. Allied skipbombers damaged another DD at Tulagi. Betties, appearing after Allied CAP at Kirakira already was swept, did much better:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Kirakira at 116,140

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid spotted at 11 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5b Zero x 30
G4M2 Betty x 36
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 13

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M2 Betty: 2 damaged
G4M2 Betty: 1 destroyed by flak

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
APA Leonard Wood, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
SC-635
APA Harris, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
APA Zeilin, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
APA W.A. Holbrook, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
LST-446, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

This strike was less than 1/3rd of the available force, though. And all of the Allied ships were unloaded already.

Allied subs failed to hit anything this day. Japanese subs sank a number of unescorted LCTs over the last three days, but did not engage any bigger targets.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by FatR -- 9/3/2011 10:10:56 PM >

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 603

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 9/3/2011 11:59:51 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

As a funny sidenote, I'm still receiving intelligence confirmations about Allied ships sunk in Manila at the beginning of the war...

Returning to the Battle of Kirakira, I wonder if Bigred specifically waited for nearly full moonlight to launch his operation. Certainly no engagements tonight started at knifepoint, where trademark Japanese torpedo attacks are most effective. I supposed 4-DD TFs were ASW patrols, but even not counting them, Bigred divided his fleet into quite a lot of taskforces. This certainly succeeded at preventing my TFs from interrupting the landing, but did not succeed in defeating them. The Allied naval force, taken together, was roughly equal in strength, but, in the end, suffered considerably higher losses.

I also notice, that despite both sides having numerous ships with radars, detection in all of the above episodes was visual. Not sure if this is not a bug.

< Message edited by FatR -- 9/4/2011 12:00:04 AM >

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 604

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 9/4/2011 12:37:38 AM

GreyJoy

Posts: 6750
Joined: 3/18/2011
Status: offline

...a very interesting read...must have been a great battle to watch!

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 605

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 9/8/2011 2:26:28 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

May 18-20, 1943: Naval Battle of Kirakira: Aftermath

Retreat to the relative safety of Rabaul proved to be costlier than the battle itself. CL Yubari was finished by a sub attack, and CA Furutaka reached Rabaul but failed to disband into port and sank in the harbor. While Yubari was not particularly valuable, losing another CA hurts. Allies still suffered heavier losses, but this is no longer an one-sided victory.

Allied fleet suffered more damage from the air, meanwhile. In a night attack Betties damaged BB Pennsilvania with a single torpedo. APA Zeilin, torpedoed on 17th, was caught in harbor of Kirakira by Betties and heavily damaged, some small ships (PTs, LSTs, an SC) sunk. Speaking of Kirakira, I was amazed to not find a massive garrizon with heavy flak there. A massed Betty attack demolished the airfield easily, after CAP was swept away with more numerous Japanese fighters from Lunga and Tulagi.

The First Step Back

While fighting at the tip of Solomons chain raged, Bigred snuck a landing force to Horn Island unnoticed. While I fortified Horn Island quite a bit, the very first combat demonstrated, that without heavy reinforcement and resupply, which was practically impossible to pull off, considering proximity of large Allied airbases in Australia, defenders are doomed:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Horn Island (91,128)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 4092 troops, 39 guns, 152 vehicles, Assault Value = 208
Defending force 4267 troops, 58 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 132
Allied adjusted assault: 60
Japanese adjusted defense: 127
Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 5)

Combat modifiers
Defender: forts(+), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
556 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 62 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 14 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 34 (5 destroyed, 29 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
144 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled

Assaulting units:
2/8th Armoured Regiment
II Aus Corps Engr Bn /4
Port Moresby Bde /3
Bowen RAN Base Force
2/16th Field Rgt /1

Defending units:
82nd Naval Guard Unit
46th Naval Guard Unit
47th Field AA Battalion
42nd Road Const Co
8th JAAF AF Bn

Presence of Allied armor is likely to blame...

This is a good move on Bigred part. One look at the map will demonstrate that this conquest, executed with only a small force of obsolete ships and landing craft, is a far more important for Allies than Kirakira. Of course, my own relaxed attitude towards building up defences around Torres Strait is also to blame, and this mistake might cost me dearly.

A Research Bug?

A7M2 accelerated on May 20th. I have no fully repaired factories researching it, and I hope the patch did not allow unrepaired facilities to produce research, because I imagine facing Shindens in early 1944 will suck for Allied players.

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 606

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 9/21/2011 4:10:10 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

June 1st of 1943 - Situation Update

Battles rage on three fronts, as the game enters summer of 1943. Both sides are currently on the offensive in different sectors, but I hope that my target is more strategically important.

Attachment (1)

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 607

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 9/21/2011 4:22:52 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Andamans Campaign: Near Conclusion?

After seeing that Allied forces on Little Andaman are out of supply (by absence of flak fire), I've decided to proceed with the landing operation even though many of the units prepared for Little Andaman are still busy in China. My forces hit the beaches on May 31. Allies put no resistance so far except a single unsuccessful 4E raid and sub concentration, which so far resulted only in a massive number of hits reported by experienced Judies's crews from covering Japanese carriers (I train all my divebombers with ASW as a secondary skill). Allied CD guns fired little, probably plagued by supply shortages as well, so my sacrificial minesweeper force had survived as well. However, a bug that prevents sweeping of mines by a TF patrolling in a single hex struck, and it did not sweep any mines on the second day. As the result, AK Tatuharu Maru was mined and went under, carrying alot of men from the elite 5th Division with her. I really should have included a couple of empty transports to fish survivors out of water in my amphibious TF.

The first taste of the defender's strength left me cautiously optimistic:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Little Andaman (44,59)
Allied Bombardment attack
Attacking force 27876 troops, 731 guns, 435 vehicles, Assault Value = 1223
Defending force 49377 troops, 254 guns, 388 vehicles, Assault Value = 2111

Japanese ground losses:
19 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
14 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Assaulting units:
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
18th British Division
7th Australian Division
6th Australian Div /2
1st Bengal Construction Battalion
I Australian Corps
222 Group RAF
1st Indian Coastal Artillery Regiment
35th Light AA Regiment
III Indian
48th Light AA Regiment
IV Indian /2
175 Wing
24th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
RAF 223 Group Base Force
6th Heavy AA Regiment
Sikh Construction Battalion
Eastern Fleet
2/9th Field Rgt /2
RAF 222 Group Base Force
2/11th Field Rgt /2

Defending units:
18th Div /1
27th Electric Engr Rgt /2
5th Div /3
38th Div /1
48th Div /1
53rd Div /1
3rd Ind. Mtn Gun Rgt /2
15th Army /2
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Bn /1
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Bn /2
Southern Army /1

I have another division fully prepared for Little Andaman in reserve, so I think, taking into account supply shortage on the defenders' part, my highly experienced force can overwhelm them even despite undoubtely high forts. Presence of numerous fragments suggests to me that Bigred is airlifting his troops from the island.

However, I'm dismayed that just 3 AA regiments wrought such a carnage upon my airforce. I shudder at the thought of what a proper flak fortress can do.

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 608

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 9/21/2011 6:18:14 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Southwestern Pacific

Things aren't going too well, as you can see on the map. My fears started to come true, when Allies grabbed unoccupied Merauke. Countermeasures against the possible movement to eastern DEI is already well in action, but I'm afraid they will consume disproportional amount of troops, indirectly and greatly weakening my defense in Solomons. It is possible that the entire Solomons theatre soon will be rendered irrelevant.

Speaking of Solomons, fighting in late May was mostly centered on Tulagi and Kirakira. Both bases suffered devastating naval bombardments. I've failed to prevent reinforcement of Kirakira, and sinking a large LCI convoy was a weak consolation. In turn, IJN managed to resupply Tulagi, but three of four AKs that participated in the operation, and an AV were moderately damaged by 4E skipbombers and sent home for repairs. Well, I guess that can be considered a good result at this time. Ndeni is a mightly Allied base now, with level 6 airfield, and Liberators from there range as far as Munda, but so far Allies have failed to shut down any of the Japanese airfields. Losses on ground are mounting, though.

Attachment (1)

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 609

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 9/21/2011 6:35:07 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

China

Quite a bit of chaos here, as annoying Chinese remnants try to interrupt my communications. Meanwhile, north of Lanchow my armored force, that moved to capture the oil center at Urumchi, was defeated and cut off by surprisingly numerous Chinese defenders. Painful, but not catastrophic.

The main event, though, was my attempt to assault and take Chungking:

Ground combat at Chungking (76,45)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 284088 troops, 3469 guns, 1471 vehicles, Assault Value = 9318
Defending force 187681 troops, 1615 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 6201
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 5
Japanese adjusted assault: 2920
Allied adjusted defense: 19343
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 6 (fort level 5)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(+), preparation(-)
experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
48141 casualties reported
Squads: 268 destroyed, 3032 disabled
Non Combat: 9 destroyed, 255 disabled
Engineers: 29 destroyed, 477 disabled
Guns lost 192 (10 destroyed, 182 disabled)
Vehicles lost 44 (1 destroyed, 43 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
9089 casualties reported
Squads: 117 destroyed, 282 disabled
Non Combat: 35 destroyed, 360 disabled
Engineers: 11 destroyed, 65 disabled
Guns lost 135 (33 destroyed, 102 disabled)
Units destroyed 4

Assaulting units:
3rd Division
104th Division
32nd Division
6th Division
22nd Division
35th Division
10th Division
36th Division
110th Division
4th Division
116th Division
1st Division
9th Division
33rd Division
17th Division
60th Division
41st Division
39th Division
40th Division
19th Division
12th Division
26th Division
55th Division
Imperial Guards/C Division
Botanko Hvy Gun Regiment
21st Mortar Battalion
North China Area Army
2nd Mortar Battalion
13th Mortar Battalion
10th Mortar Battalion
2nd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
Tonei Hvy Gun Regiment
4th Army
10th Mortar Battalion
6th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
8th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
4th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
RGC Army
8th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
9th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
Mongol Garrison Army
14th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
21st Medium Field Artillery Battalion
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
4th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
1st Medium Field Artillery Regiment
10th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
4th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
12th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
15th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
5th Army
13th Army
3rd Army
5th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
NCPC Army
7th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
15th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Field Artillery Regiment
3rd Hvy.Artillery Regiment
22nd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
4th Mortar Battalion
7th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
52nd Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
17th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
12th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
Kwantung Army
6th Army
China Expeditionary Army
13th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
22nd Ind.Mtn Gun Battalion
20th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
12th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
1st Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
11th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
11th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment
14th Army
5th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion
13th Ind.Hvy.Art Battalion

Defending units:
5th Chinese Cavalry Corps
97th Chinese Corps
57th Chinese Corps
41st Chinese Corps
77th Chinese Corps
39th Chinese Corps
14th Chinese Corps
7th New Chinese Corps
30th Chinese Corps
93rd Chinese Corps
6th Construction Regiment
100th Chinese Corps
23rd Chinese Corps
75th Chinese Corps
14th Construction Regiment
45th Chinese Corps
18th Chinese Corps
11th Construction Regiment
3rd Prov Chinese Corps
3rd New Chinese Corps
87th Chinese Corps
7th Construction Regiment
303rd Regiment
76th Chinese Corps
29th Chinese Corps
36th Chinese Corps
78th Chinese Corps
90th Chinese Corps
5th Construction Regiment
32nd Chinese Corps
47th Chinese Corps
73rd Chinese Corps
83rd Chinese Corps
6th Chinese Corps
60th Chinese/B Corps
26th Group Army
15th Group Army
19th Group Army
7th Chinese Base Force
39th Group Army
14th Group Army
7th Group Army
25th Group Army
1st Artillery Regiment
32nd Group Army
4th Heavy Mortar Regiment
10th Construction Regiment
9th War Area
35th Chinese Corps
20th Chinese Base Force
4th Construction Regiment
10th Group Army
22nd Artillery Regiment
1st War Area
49th AA Regiment
23rd Group Army
20th Group Army
CAF HQ
38th Group Army
21st Group Army
18th Chinese Base Force
China Command
57th AT Gun Regiment
Lusu War Area
4th Group Army
30th Group Army
13th Construction Regiment
6th War Area
20th Artillery Regiment
Y' Force
16th Construction Regiment
2nd Group Army
29th Group Army
17th Construction Regiment
8th Construction Regiment
56th AT Gun Regiment

As you can see, the biggest land battle of the war didn't quite go as I hoped... Over 3000 AV were destroyed or disabled. I think, though, that thanks to sufficient supply for steady recovery in the hex, my grand army will be able to batter the defenders down. Effects of artillery bombardments improved markedly after the reduction of fort level from 6 to 5, so I hope that after another attack, this time reinforced by my tank divisions, after they stop sweeping Chinese troops outside of Chungking, hopefully dropping the forts further, artillery will be able to do real damage. I also believe that the Chinese forces shouldn't have any supply to recover their losses (although unit regeneration still can expand their ranks).

Attachment (1)

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Post #: 610

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 9/21/2011 7:03:30 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Japanese Economic Overview

Can't say that I'm in terribly good shape, although there are no immediate shortages. Oil/Fuel reserves are down to 3.9 millions, and my intentions of keeping my existing Merchant SY points in reserve remained intentions... The supply situation started to improve, at least. I think patches have more to do with it, than any of my decisions.

Attachment (1)

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Post #: 611

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 9/21/2011 7:16:24 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Air Production

Ki-44-IIc just started to roll from assembly lines. As did N1K1-J. I've stopped production of A6M4, as George is going to replace it as the main IJN land interceptor and superior A6M8 is not far away. I'll restart it in case of large losses. Production of Hiens was stopped as well, because Ki-44-IIc is generally better, while having good Service Rating. At the moment I'm stockpiling Kawasaki Ha-60 engines until Ki-61-II KAI enters service. Ki-61-Id probably will be available even later than Ki-84 at the current rate of acceleration, so I have little interest in it. However, Ki-61-II KAI carriers 4x20mm cannons in this mod, so I want it as a bomber interceptor for my biggest and most important bases.

Rearming of carriers with new torpedo and dive bombers is mostly complete by now. Soon they will find their way in land-based units as well, significantly increasing their potential.

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Post #: 612

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 10/2/2011 7:32:42 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

June 13, 1943 - Fall of Little Andaman

The fourth attack, preceded by a battleship bombardment that targeted entirely troops caused the defenders' morale to collapse earlier than I expected:

Ground combat at Little Andaman (44,59)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 65149 troops, 799 guns, 271 vehicles, Assault Value = 1853
Defending force 42500 troops, 918 guns, 674 vehicles, Assault Value = 921
Japanese adjusted assault: 2696
Allied adjusted defense: 401
Japanese assault odds: 6 to 1 (fort level 4)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Little Andaman !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(+), disruption(-)
experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
2563 casualties reported
Squads: 9 destroyed, 225 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 24 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 37 disabled

Allied ground losses:
37050 casualties reported
Squads: 1230 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 3012 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 415 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1331 (1331 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 835 (835 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 19

Assaulting units:
48th Division
27th Electric Engineer Regiment
5th Division
38th Division
21st Division
8th Engineer Regiment
53rd Division
18th Division
8th Mountain Gun Regiment
15th Army
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion
Southern Army
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment

Defending units:
18th British Division
7th Australian Division
6th Australian Div /2
35th Light AA Regiment
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
6th Heavy AA Regiment
175 Wing
IV Indian /2
Eastern Fleet
RAF 222 Group Base Force
24th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
RAF 223 Group Base Force
1st Indian Coastal Artillery Regiment
48th Light AA Regiment
222 Group RAF
I Australian Corps
1st Bengal Construction Battalion
Sikh Construction Battalion
III Indian /1

Quite fortuitiously, as Allies are marching on Burma again, while pummeling my secondary airfields (Mandalay and Myitkina) with relentless night raids, while situation in SWPac deteriorates. However, the time when Bigred could safely advance on other parts of my perimeter using constant commitment of fleet and aviation to keeping Little Andaman suppressed is now over.

Also, point ratio is currently 2.794:1. If Chungking falls, which seems probable, it will likely pass 3:1 necessary for a point victory in 1944. Bigred should pay more attention to his losses...

Another thing to ponder is whether it was possible to storm Pearl Harbor, in the light of massive disadvantage imposed on the defenders by the lack of supply, as demonstrated above (people might remember, that long time ago I decided against a landing on Oahu in favor of clearing Andamans). I'm still not sure. Even without any supply, coastal guns fire at Little Andaman was considerable. I lost an AP, with several ships damaged, and many squads cut down before reaching the shore. And Allies had only one coastal gun regiment.

I should note that the starved Allied garrizon on Great Nicobar still persists. At the moment it poses no danger to my communications, at least without a massive resupply and reinforcement effort. Under the current beta air transport provides very little supply, so such effort can only be undertaken by sea. I'll watch this island carefully, though.

Note, that during the Andamans campaign, IJN had lost:

CVL:2
CA:2
CL:3
DD:18
SS:4

Air losses are harder to calculate, but I believe that at least a third of approximately 9200 Japanese planes lost by this day, perished in over Andamans and in operations directly related to this campaign.
So, the tremendous victory achieved was not without a considerable cost. It is not as high as it could have been, parly because I was consistently lucky in this campaign, but mostly due to some mistakes of my opponents. I don't think that my leadership was noteworthy - my decision to seek the decisive carrier battle was risky, but straightforward, and after winning it the rest was just a combination of plowing forward with superior strength and exploiting my opponent's mistakes. I cannot even credit myself with concentration on my goal, due to the long lull in fighting after Port Blair fell.

< Message edited by FatR -- 10/2/2011 7:33:46 PM >

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Post #: 613

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 10/2/2011 10:51:23 PM

janh

Posts: 1216
Joined: 6/12/2007
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: FatR
... 27th Electric Engineer Regiment
Southern Army

Congratulations to this victory!

I wouldn't have expected that to happen so early and easily, but maybe battlewagons nuking supplies in the base hex and causing disruption aided you more than to be could be hoped for. But you really brought the kitchen sink for this one, he? Electric Engineers for electrocuting the fish?

BigReds casualties are huge, and offset the losses you have taken here and in Burma in the recent months. Especially the CA/CLs and DDs, and also the IJA LBA. In what shape is the latter now?

For sure you need to get the Solomon AO under control quickly, else BigRed will bleed you there in the same fashion as in the Adamans/Burma theater. And it can't be too long until he must have sufficient CV strength again to engage you...

Not sure about Pearl, but I would keep a safe a this point and test it once the game is officially over and you have the Allied password. In case you can see a "win by points", you could negotiate to continue the game after "victory" day and take the risk? Might make the game more fun, and after all the losses, maybe BigRed needs some motivation backup.
In general I would still consider it a worthy target, since if taken, the Allied war effort might truly come to a standstill. Other than Solomon, N-OZ to DEI, and Burma proper, no theater for an advance would remain. And with KB in being, and USN CV Fleet rather untrained and untested, any option will be either a huge risk, or purely a slow land-campaign to the HI.
Yet, as you surely know, a couple of people did some testing with invasions in mid-1942, with varying setups, but always loosing heavily up to totally. Of course that can't be compared directly to this game, since Pearl now should be pretty starved and bombed to dust. Maybe supply problems, plus disruption by LBA bombing will allow to overcome the heavy coastal defense? Hmmh, very risky, but very worthy...

< Message edited by janh -- 10/2/2011 10:52:18 PM >

(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 614

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 10/4/2011 12:31:24 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: janh
Congratulations to this victory! I wouldn't have expected that to happen so early and easily, but maybe battlewagons nuking supplies in the base hex and causing disruption aided you more than to be could be hoped for.

All supplies on Little Andaman were wiped out before landing by air attacks. Flak going silent is a good indication of this. I don't think it can be turned off volutarily.

quote:

ORIGINAL: janh
But you really brought the kitchen sink for this one, he? Electric Engineers for electrocuting the fish?

I don't know, they somehow use tanks in their electric works)). Seriously, one of the more useful units, too bad that separate engineer regiments usually take horrific losses during assaults and can't accumulate experience due to that.

quote:

ORIGINAL: janh
BigReds casualties are huge, and offset the losses you have taken here and in Burma in the recent months. Especially the CA/CLs and DDs, and also the IJA LBA. In what shape is the latter now?

I think my losses in Burma were minimal, except in the air. In fact, divisions that stormed Little Andaman just now were ones that dealt the Allies their last defeat in Burma. So far, Japanese ground forces suffered no really costly defeats. Horn Island was the only case of a destroyed stack, and I managed to pull out approx. 1/3 of the troops by the air. While losses in mega-stack attacks in China are heavy, they are mostly disablements and spread between various units, so only 4 Infantry Divisions have their combat strength severely reduced for more than 2-3 weeks.
As about LBA, IJAAF has large reserves of fighter and bomber pilots trained on map (I can't find exact count anywhere in the game or the Tracker), IJNAF, not so much. I've started moving training Army groups to the front, once the current beta closed the abulity to pull undergraduates from the program. However, I don't feel I have sufficient pilot reserves for an offensive air campaign, except against isolated bases. Planes are plentiful as well. There is a bit of Betties shortage, but Francis will enter production on the next month.

quote:

ORIGINAL: janh
For sure you need to get the Solomon AO under control quickly, else BigRed will bleed you there in the same fashion as in the Adamans/Burma theater. And it can't be too long until he must have sufficient CV strength again to engage you...

By my calculations, Allies (assuming CVEs sailing with the fleet) still aren't going to enjoy long-term aircraft carrier superiority until well into 1944. By early November I'll have all 17 Japanese CVs present in the scenario active, with 3 CVLs and several CVEs (I wonder where to get escorts for them, though...). Assuming no unexpected losses, of course. Aircrews are in top shape, save for freshly arrived groups placed on CVEs, because they had almost a year with little combat to train. Actively seeking a carrier battle in 1943 would be quite foolhardy for Bigred. Allies will have 50/50 chances of victory at best, which is not a gamble one should take when your forces will continue to grow and the enemy is at the peak of his strength. If I was a more aggressive player, I'd concentrated on luring USN carriers into battle now...

quote:

ORIGINAL: janh
Not sure about Pearl, but I would keep a safe a this point and test it once the game is officially over and you have the Allied password. In case you can see a "win by points", you could negotiate to continue the game after "victory" day and take the risk?

We'll see. At the moment I have another plan (that might easily backfire). But at the moment I need to truly take China out of the war first. Otherwise I cannot spare enough troops for Pearl. Burma is weakly held now, and I see more Allied troops trying to march across the jungle... I also need to reinforce Eastern DEI ASAP. Solomons don't bother me very much. This axis of Allied advance is the most strategically beneficial to Japanese, because it does not directly lead to anything important. Allied entrenchment in southern New Guinea is much more dangerous, because once Torres Strait is open to Allied shipping, they can go for the vitals directly. Taking Horn Island, Merauke and Terapo was a very good move on Bigred's part, because it made continued defense of Solomons relevant only as far as Allies are willing to sacrifice assets to overcoming it. And left said defense without reinforcements, which went to Boela, Biak, Hollandia, and other bases to the west.

< Message edited by FatR -- 10/4/2011 10:19:19 AM >

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(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 615

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 10/14/2011 6:21:53 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

June 22-24: Battle of Munda, or Tokyo Express Under Fire

Fighting at Solomons (in form of air raids and Allied bombardment missions against my outlying bases), was going with mixed results for most of June. I avoided disproportional losses, but the only serious Japanese counterattack was an attempt to strike at Allied shipping around Horn Island. While the mission went well, almost 60 Bettie sorties resulted in only a single torpedo hit. I must say, their torpedo attack accuracy now is not even close to what it was and as pilot skills weren't bad (65-71 in NavT), I blame improved Allied flak.

Then I decided to make another resupply run to Munda, possibly with a detour to bombard Kirakira, after my transports unload. The mission was ill-fated from the beginning. On June 22th xAK convoy and the covering battleship TF arrived at Munda, but the latter strayed south, drawing CAP after itself. While warships were not hurt by consequent American air attacks, glide-bombing Avengers pounded the convoy, sinking APD Tsuta and damaging one of the xAKs.

That fault in my SCTF positioning was an important warning about setting reaction for it to 0, which I ignored with perilous result. On June 23th Raizo Tanaka led his ships FAR south of Munda, where they were caught without CAP by torpedo-carrying Avengers, probably from Ndeni. While half of American torpedoes were duds, BB Kirishima took two that exploded, and, while not in immediate danger, was far too crippled to retreat further than the assumed safe harbor of Munda.

Unfortunately, on June 24th...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on TF, near Munda at 111,134
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid detected at 73 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 29 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M4 Zero x 13
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 16
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 19

Allied aircraft
Martlet IV x 12
F6F-3 Hellcat x 82
SB2C-1C Helldiver x 24
SBD-3 Dauntless x 18
TBF-1 Avenger x 39

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Martlet IV: 1 destroyed
F6F-3 Hellcat: 15 destroyed
SB2C-1C Helldiver: 2 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CA Maya
BB Kirishima, Bomb hits 9, on fire, heavy damage (no penetrations, but she was already in a bad condition after 2 torpedo hits the day before)
CA Atago, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Aircraft Attacking:
8 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
15 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo
3 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb SAP Bomb
15 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo
9 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo
13 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb SAP Bomb
6 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
4 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
8 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 4000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb SAP Bomb

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on TF, near Munda at 111,134

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid detected at 42 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 19 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M4 Zero x 6
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 3
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 7

Allied aircraft
TBF-1 Avenger x 12

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
TBF-1 Avenger: 7 destroyed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Munda at 111,134
Weather in hex: Light rain
Raid detected at 75 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 29 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M4 Zero x 13
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 15
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 19

Allied aircraft
Martlet IV x 12
F6F-3 Hellcat x 57
SB2C-1C Helldiver x 21
SBD-3 Dauntless x 17
TBF-1 Avenger x 48

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Martlet IV: 4 destroyed
F6F-3 Hellcat: 10 destroyed
SB2C-1C Helldiver: 3 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
TBF-1 Avenger: 7 damaged
TBF-1 Avenger: 1 destroyed by flak

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei, Bomb hits 7, on fire, heavy damage
CA Atago, Bomb hits 1
DD Oyashio
DD Yudachi
CA Maya, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires
BB Kirishima, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Isokaze

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
15 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo
8 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb SAP Bomb
12 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo
4 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo
7 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo
9 x TBF-1 Avenger launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo
4 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
3 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 4000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb SAP Bomb
10 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb SAP Bomb
8 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb

Heavy smoke from fires obscuring BB Hiei
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CA Maya

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Munda at 111,134
Weather in hex: Light rain
Raid detected at 28 NM, estimated altitude 2,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 9 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M4 Zero x 8
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 6
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 12

Allied aircraft
PB4Y-1 Liberator x 7

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
PB4Y-1 Liberator: 2 damaged
PB4Y-1 Liberator: 1 destroyed by flak

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Kirishima, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x PB4Y-1 Liberator bombing from 1000 feet
Naval Attack: 5 x 500 lb SAP Bomb

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on Munda , at 111,134
Weather in hex: Light rain
Raid detected at 79 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 22 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M4 Zero x 6
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 6
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 11

Allied aircraft
B-25D1 Mitchell x 11
F6F-3 Hellcat x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 2 damaged
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 1 destroyed, 10 damaged
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 1 destroyed on ground
A6M5b Zero: 1 destroyed on ground
G4M2 Betty: 1 destroyed on ground

Allied aircraft losses
B-25D1 Mitchell: 3 damaged
F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed

Japanese ground losses:
5 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 7

Aircraft Attacking:
11 x B-25D1 Mitchell bombing from 11000 feet *
Airfield Attack: 3 x 500 lb GP Bomb

Kirishima went under in the afternoon phase, while Hiei is so cripped, that she can only survive by disbanding into harbor. Maya can't got at full speed, so her chances of running away also aren't great. The only good thing, Allied carrier fighter squadrons were crucified by CAP, losing 45 Hellcats + 11 Martlets IV according to the Tracker (in exchange for about 3-5 Jap fighters - escorts disadvantage against CAP is nothing short of amazing in AE, although defeat this severe makes me suspect that Bigred's carrier pilot training standards are too low), which, although not a fair exchange for even one battleship, should encourage Bigred to withdraw his carrier TF for now. I really got more luck than I deserved, as most of Allied land-based planes probably didn't fly that day, while those that did appeared only in afternoon, after all the carrier strikes already happened.

Regardless, this is the second clear-cut Allied victory since the fateful Battle of Ceilon, and I must congratulate Bigred on exploiting my blunder in decisive manner.

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(in reply to FatR)

Post #: 616

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 10/17/2011 10:13:30 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

Late June: Fallout of Disaster

Long story short, Hiei did not survive this ordeal. Despite size 3 port and over 200 naval support, shore personnel failed to extinguish the fires, fanned by more bomb and shell (from naval raids) hits. So after a few days the burning hulk was abandoned by the surviving crew.

Well, I should have known that Solomons hold doom for Hiei and Kirishima. All other ships got away, though.

This also puts me in a problematic strategic situation. Anything lighter than a battleship or KB is going to be screwed over by skipbombing 4Es (and KB is not really safe too). But if I withdraw my ships permanently, my airfields will continue to be pounded from the sea, never mind the supply problem. What to do, what to do...

To lighten the mood - take a look at another loss IJN suffered recently:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TF 63 encounters mine field at Little Andaman (44,59)

Japanese Ships
DMS W-21
DMS W-4
DMS W-2
DMS W-1
E Manazuru, Mine hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
PC Ashi

149 mines cleared

So, any ship can be a minesweeper... up to seven times.

Burma Airwar

Mostly it manifests as persistent Allied air raids against the trio of major airfields in Irawaddy valley. I must say, while I have nothing against night bombing accuracy, ability of bombers to shoot down interceptors by night drives me nuts. Two Ki-45 airgroups were literally reduced to 1/4th of their strength by persistent 4E night raids at one point. Massing planes by temporarily switching day CAP to night helped to hold the tide for now, though. I found that my 1E fighters seem noticeably better than Ki-45 at actually shooting down night invaders... might be due to difference at pilots' skills and experience, though.

Bigred also attempted one day of massed sweeps and day airfield bombing of Magwe. My aigroups managed to score well against sweepers and seemingly discouraged Allies from returning on the next day. Old Ki-44-IIa performed the best. And Ki-61-Ia remains highly disappointing so far. Judging by unit victory numbers, they seem to be inferior to Ki-44s in actual dogfight, never mind inferior range and service rating.

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Post #: 617

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 10/22/2011 10:18:59 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

July 1-4, 1943: The Days Of Hard Luck

Allies made an impressive comeback at the beginning of July, thanks to my carelessness and the random number generator finally showing Bigred some much-needed favor.

First, as you can see on the map below, Allies have established bases on Rossel and Tagula Islands, while I wasn't looking. An attempt to stage a naval bombardment mission ended with my cruiser TF hit by divebombers as soon as it left Rabaul. LRCAP reaped a number of kills, but 2 CAs were lightly damaged and CA Aoba moderately damaged, cancelling the mission.

Meanwhile, delivery of divisions from Little Andaman to Rangoon resulted in another air battle and 2 AKs sunk, thankfully after unloading almost everything. CAP didn't fail - Dauntlesses that did the damage arrived in one package with B-24s and were shielded by them.

On July 2 I spotted a few Allied ships near Port Moresby and, not sure if that was invasion or Terapo resupply, decided to launch an all-out air assault on Allied shipping across the region, sweeping Rossel, Kirakira and Terapo, while sending a number of bomber groups to roam freely. I relied on surprise primarily, as before that the Allied airforce was on the offensive for weeks, facing no counterraids.

On July 3 Allies landed at Port Moresby, and my bombers didn't fly (partially because real Allied TFs weren't present at Rossel and Kirakira on that exact turn, despite being spotted before). Except for some Betties and Emilies, which got butchered by Hellcats.

But all was not lost, for KB was not so far away, on the way to Truk (call it a hunch or analysis, but I believed that Bigred's next target will be SWPac again). Too far away to reach the striking range at normal speed, so I decided to order a full speed approach. Forgetting that it doesn't f*cking work. I've marked the place on the map where my carriers should have ended their move after running for 14 hexes (fuel was in the green for that move) as 1. Yeah, just the position from which they should have been able to destroy the main Allied landing force, including CVEs and at least one BB, at no risk. You can see where they ended up (2). Yeah, I should have remembered that full speed movement functions erratically at best, instead of testing my luck. One of KB's TFs was even spotted on 4th, so I think Bigred will certainly get his ships away... not even a possibility of moving past Rabaul and trying to surprise the Allied ships at the Ndeni anchorage now, as this move burned too much fuel. For nothing.

Anyway, most Japanese bombers still didn't sortie on 4th - less than 1/3rd of those within range and with dedicated fighter escorts. Emilies still sunk a worthless xAK. Judies missed at CVEs. Escorts managed to butcher Hellcat CAP somehow and allow all strikes to go in unharmed, but this was a weak consolation.

Worse still, unescorted Mitchells raided Rabaul on the same day. CAP failed to engage them before the drop point, despite detection at 67 NM. I lost a RO-sub and a CM, with several ships damaged.

I also lost a small convoy at Hollandia, but that was purely my fault - I forgot to actually provide CAP.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by FatR -- 10/22/2011 10:20:28 PM >

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Post #: 618

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 11/2/2011 9:20:03 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

July 5-11: Disaster on Home Front

Before I was able to think up a plan of rebuilding my dislocated defenses at New Guinea, I found even worse oversight than leaving that region weakly defended. In early spring I changed my convoy routing, shipping oil, fuel and resources from Singapore to Canton/Hong Kong, allowing them to flow by land into Shanghai/Port Arthur and picking them from there to Honshu. Except, I absolutely forgot to actually order my main Shanghai tanker convoy to start running. So, as a result, I found I have over 650k of fuel in Shanghai, with Tokyo out of it, and not producing. The blow to HI stockpile is massive and I expect it to drop from over 500k to 400k before the situation can be rectified.

Speaking about New Guinea, I found that Terapo has more strategic importance than I thought - it is 25 hexes from Truk, and Allies have a few super long-range recons capable of flying that far. So, Truk is no longer viable as a KB base now... I have to bring KB (which predictably failed to catch any elements from Moresby invasion) there at the moment, though - it needs to be refueled. I had a DMS sunk and an AO heavily damaged by subs in an attempt to bring enough fuel for my carriers to even reach Truk.

Meanwhile, an Allied force is marching overland from Moresby to the northern coast. At the moment only Milne Bay has a garrizon of over 100 AV (until this month almost all reinforcements were sent to Solomons, not NG), so this overland campaign poses a great danger to my positions.

However, after a long period of refusing to fly and/or inaccurate attacks, Japanese aviation finally struck back. Sweeps of Terapo, PM and Horn Island (I didn't know where scattered Allied convoys can be found in the morning, so I tried to weaken CAPs over the entire zone) produced roughly 1:1 losses over July 10-11, but on 11th Betties from Lae finally flew and found CVEs Suwannee and Chenango with weak escort, covered by only one Hellcat squadron and stray Kittyhawks from nearby Cooktown. Chenango is confirmed sunk by two torpedoes (a number of Avengers was lost on ground, ensuring that this is true) and Suwannee is heavily damaged by one. An escorting AM also was sunk.

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Post #: 619

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 11/13/2011 9:07:45 PM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

July 12-21: Johnston Island Falls, Woodlark Island Holds (For Now)

Consequences Of Full Speed

KB wasn't really in position to save Johnston. It just limped to Truk on the turn I spotted the invasion fleet, with 0-1 speed after refueling and significant system damage. So I didn't bother. Johnston was held very lightly, as I had no intentions to fight for Hawaii seriously anymore. I saved fragments from there - rebuilding units from fragments allows them to keep some of their experience, while destroyed and recreated units come with minimal experience possible.

However, this victory proved costly for Americans, as I-22 managed to find and sink CVE Nassau on her way back. That's third Allied CVE lost for certain during this war.

Allied Nightbombing Offensive at Burma

Is severe. At one point I lost over 30 planes on ground at Magwe in a single turn. However, every time my defenses start faltering Bigred ceases massed raids for a day or three, allowing my fighters to catch their breath and recover losses. I'm not sure about the reason. Most likely accumulated damage to bombers reducing their availability.

SWPac Situation

Critical. I believe I'm facing an overland offensive from PM, and there is very little Jap infantry on entire New Guinea at the moment, as I hoped for fleet and aviation to hold Allies at bay, at least until I finish China off. However, air superiority gradually slips from my hands. I barely managed to get some air support and a radar from Rabaul to Lae, losing CL Naka and DD Hokaze to air attacks in the process, although CAP shot down alot of Avengers in return.

The Naval Battle of Woodlark Island

However, my airbases from Tulagi to Milne Bay aren't exactly inactive, as Bigred might have thought (in a month or two things might change, as supplies run out). So, when Allied moved to land on Woodlark Island:

they were contested by both fleet from Rabaul and aviation.

The former did better than the latter:

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Jul 21, 43
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Woodlark Island at 104,133, Range 7,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
OS2U-3 Kingfisher: 2 destroyed

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo
CA Chokai
DD Yugumo, Shell hits 1
DD Onami, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Michishio, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Hibiki
DD Oboro
DD Minazuki

Allied Ships
CL Concord, Shell hits 11, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Buchanan
DD Meade, Shell hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Lang

Improved night sighting under 82% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Overcast Conditions and 82% moonlight: 8,000 yards
Range closes to 23,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 23,000 yards
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 17,000 yards
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
Range closes to 7,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 7,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 7,000 yards
Conolly, Richard L. crosses the 'T'
Massive explosion on CL Concord (The opening Long Lance salvo from Chokai was right on mark and decided the battle)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Woodlark Island at 104,133, Range 8,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Natsugumo
DD Arare
DD Kasumi
DD Shiratsuyu, Shell hits 2
DD Yudachi
DD Kawakaze
DD Umikaze
DD Suzukaze, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
DD Meade, Shell hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Lang

I omitted the slaughter of the massive LCT/LCVP convoy and sinking of about 5 PT boats in the morning. Both squadrons returned to Rabaul in time and weren't subjected to air attacks.

Aviation, though, did poorly. I estimate we sank a small Dutch AO, a Dutch PC and a xAKL, while damaging an old Dutch CL and a couple of troop-laden transports, at the cost of about 30 fighters, all from veteran squadrons, and 10 attack planes. Allied fighter losses were less than 10. My principal mistake was not shutting down airsearch around Torres Strait and southeast of Solomons for this turn, so airstrikes flew all over the map. Also, it seems that the upper altitude of divebombing attacks is reduced now. My Judies at 15k bombed from level flight, which contributed to poor results, as they flew most sorties on 21st.

Anyway, the Allied landing force was clearly chased out, and with few Allied AV unloaded on the previous day, plus reinforcements brought by airlift, I expected good results on the defense, even though supply situation was pretty bad (I failed to get a good load of supplies to Woodlark before Bigred established his foothold at Rossel/Tagula).
But I was wrong:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Woodlark Island (104,133)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 2150 troops, 24 guns, 146 vehicles, Assault Value = 79
Defending force 2166 troops, 12 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 101
Allied adjusted assault: 51
Japanese adjusted defense: 481

Allied assault odds: 1 to 9 (fort level 4)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
172 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 21 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Vehicles lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
39 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Vehicles lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)

Assaulting units:
2/6th Armoured Regiment
II Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
168th Field Artillery Regiment
F Det USN Port Svc

Defending units:
66th Naval Guard Unit
3rd South Seas Gsn /1
3rd Raiding Rgt /3
49th JNAF AF Unit /1

Goddamn Allied tanks. At this rate they will be able to grind down the defenders quite fast, and I don't have actual good units to fly in.

China

The siege of Chungking still continues. With great losses, I was able to grind forts down to 1, and now, bombarding every second day, I'm able to destroy or disable 70-90 squads per bombardment attack. This seems to be enough to keep the Chinese numbers down. Hower, two more costly attacks probably will be needed to rout the defenders.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by FatR -- 11/13/2011 9:10:15 PM >

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Post #: 620

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 11/18/2011 10:01:17 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

July 22-24: Melee in Solomon Sea

Clash of the Titans: On the night of 23th, IJN returned to Woodlark, albeit without Kongo, which failed to rearm on the previous day. Raizo Tanaka led the Japanese destroyer squadron once again, while the enemy TF was commanded by Willis Lee. The forces clashed amids a fierce storm and this time Americans found themselves outmaneuvered:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Woodlark Island at 104,133, Range 1,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
SOC-1 Seagull: 2 destroyed

Japanese Ships
DD Natsugumo
DD Arare
DD Kasumi, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Yudachi, Shell hits 13, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Kawakaze
DD Umikaze, Shell hits 1
DD Suzukaze
DD Shikinami

Allied Ships
CL Honolulu
CL Columbia, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
DD Allen
DD Litchfield
DD Schley
DD Stewart, Shell hits 4
DD Dent, Shell hits 5, on fire
DD Brooks
DD Sands, Shell hits 3, on fire

Poor visibility due to Thunderstorms with 60% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 60% moonlight: 1,000 yards
Range closes to 23,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 23,000 yards
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 17,000 yards
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
Range closes to 7,000 yards...
Range closes to 5,000 yards...
Range closes to 3,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 3,000 yards
Range closes to 1,000 yards...
Tanaka, Raizo crosses the 'T'
CL Columbia sunk by DD Yudachi at 1,000 yards
CL Honolulu engages DD Yudachi at 1,000 yards
DD Yudachi sunk by DD Dent at 1,000 yards
DD Kasumi sunk by DD Stewart at 1,000 yards

Yudachi heroically continued to launch torpedoes at Columbia even after being mostly pulverized by gunfire.

The second Japanese TF entered the knifefight with the weakened enemy:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Woodlark Island at 104,133, Range 1,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Chokai, Shell hits 8
CL Abukuma, Shell hits 9, on fire
DD Yugumo, Shell hits 1
DD Shiratsuyu
DD Hibiki
DD Oboro
DD Minazuki
DD Hayate, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Honolulu, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Allen
DD Litchfield
DD Schley
DD Stewart, Shell hits 1
DD Dent, Shell hits 5, on fire
DD Brooks
DD Sands, Shell hits 1, on fire

Reduced visibility due to Thunderstorms with 60% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 60% moonlight: 2,000 yards
Range closes to 23,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 23,000 yards
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
Range closes to 7,000 yards...
Range closes to 5,000 yards...
Range closes to 3,000 yards...
Range closes to 1,000 yards...
CA Chokai engages CL Honolulu at 1,000 yards
CL Abukuma engages CL Honolulu at 1,000 yards

Honolulu managed to score penetrating hits on both Chokai and Abukuma, but these did surprisingly little damage.

And coup de grace:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Woodlark Island at 104,133, Range 2,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
OS2U-3 Kingfisher: 2 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CA Chokai, Shell hits 2
CL Abukuma
DD Yugumo
DD Shiratsuyu
DD Hibiki
DD Oboro
DD Minazuki

Allied Ships
CL Honolulu, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Stewart, Shell hits 1
DD Dent, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Sands, Shell hits 3, and is sunk

Reduced visibility due to Thunderstorms with 53% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 53% moonlight: 2,000 yards

Strange that with less moonlight visibility is better.

Considering the storm and chaotic condition of the knifefight, Second Battle of Woodlark Island probably was one of the bloodies naval battles of the war, with most or all sunk ships perishing with all hands. I was surprised to see Bigred using so many old four-stack DDs on the frontline. Does he actually suffer from a shortage of escorts this late in the war? Well, losing another 3 DDs, even if one of the was an old type, certainly does not alleviate mine own shortage of them. On the good side, neither of my cruisers took major damage during the battle, except a 100/65 AA gun turret knocked out on Chokai. Unescorted Dauntlesses tried to attack them in Rabaul harbor during the day, and paid for it, while achieving no hits. Some PT boats tried to intercept my ships too, but achieved nothing.

All in all, another significant victory for IJN. Before fighting around Woodlark, cruiser losses (1st class/2nd class) in Solomons were 1/2 : 3, now they are 1/2 : 5/1 in my favor.

However, I excepted an even bigger victory in the day phase, after seeing, that Allies are not running for their lives, because both Kido Butai TFs (except Taikaku, which was stuck at piercide in Truk lagoon on the day of sailing) entered Solomon Sea on 22th. Indeed, search found a large number of TFs at Rossel Island. And then neither KB squadrons not LBA sortied against them. I can only assume weather saved Allies this time. Some Nells from Munda sank DDs Stewart and Dent at sea, and Judies from Tulagi flew against Ndeni instead, this time with markedly better results:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Ndeni at 120,143

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 97 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 25 minutes

Japanese aircraft
D4Y1 Judy x 43
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 18

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk IV x 4
P-40K Warhawk x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
D4Y1 Judy: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 1 destroyed

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
xAKL Darvel, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Lady Isobel, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
YMS-119, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAKL Pulganbar, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Fiona, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Kindur
xAKL Karuah, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Vichy, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
YMS-136, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
AM Bayfield, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x D4Y1 Judy releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 500 kg SAP Bomb
9 x D4Y1 Judy releasing from 1000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 500 kg SAP Bomb
11 x D4Y1 Judy releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 500 kg SAP Bomb
10 x D4Y1 Judy releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 500 kg SAP Bomb
4 x D4Y1 Judy releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 500 kg SAP Bomb

Indeed, the upper altitude of divebombing attacks apparently got reduced to 14k. What's up with these minor but potentially game-crippling (if you fail to notice them in time) changes?

Anyway, this failure of Japanese aviation irritated me more than it should have. Also, I wanted to cover a resupply convoy to Milne Bay. So, on July 24, I decided to move KBs closer:

A mistake that nearly led to a huge disaster. During their night approach, my ACTFs were attacked by PT boats no less than five times, one of them getting close enough to hit CV Ryukaku with its 12.7mm MG. Miraculously, all torpedoes missed, and a couple of PT boats were sunk.

During the day, I found that the half of the Allied transport fleet that remained at Rossel Island was disbanded in the port, and the second half, thankfully, was in 8-hex strike range from KB position. Except that only 2 tiny strikes got launched and hit nothing. Allied strike from Rossel, however, was huge, despite clear overstacking, that led to my nightbombers destroying a significant number of Allied aircraft on ground there during two previous days:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on TF, near Deboyne Islands at 104,135
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 31 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 16
A6M5b Zero x 172

Allied aircraft
Beaufort VIII x 10
P-38G Lightning x 17
P-40K Warhawk x 11
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 3
F4U-1 Corsair x 12
F6F-3 Hellcat x 24
PB4Y-1 Liberator x 7
SBD-3 Dauntless x 10
SBD-5 Dauntless x 20
TBF-1 Avenger x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5b Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort VIII: 6 destroyed
P-38G Lightning: 3 destroyed
P-40K Warhawk: 4 destroyed
P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 1 destroyed
F4U-1 Corsair: 1 destroyed
F6F-3 Hellcat: 3 destroyed
PB4Y-1 Liberator: 2 destroyed, 4 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 6 destroyed
SBD-5 Dauntless: 8 destroyed
SBD-5 Dauntless: 3 destroyed by flak
TBF-1 Avenger: 11 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CVE Hosho
CV Kaga
CV Ryukaku, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
BB Yamashiro
CV Akagi
CVL Ryujo, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Carrier elite shot down close to 90 Allied aircraft, but sheer numbers allowed some to got through, and Dauntlesses scored. Ryukaku is amasingly at 31/3/5(1 major) damage, with 4 fires. Maybe I was lucky, but these Shokaku-kai carriers seem pretty tough. Ryujo is at 33/33(15 major)/4 damage, no fires. Will need a trip to shipyards, and its fighter squadron got rerouted to the closest airfield, for some reason.

LBA also flew no flights this time. Except for some unescorted Judies from Rabaul bombing loaded Allied troop transports at Horn Island and scoring some hits, at high cost:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Horn Island at 91,128
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 119 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 30 minutes

Japanese aircraft
D4Y1 Judy x 21

Allied aircraft
Beaufighter VIc x 1
Spitfire Vc Trop x 3
P-38G Lightning x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
D4Y1 Judy: 10 destroyed, 1 damaged
D4Y1 Judy: 1 destroyed by flak

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
xAP Kota Tjandi, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
LST-456
LST-17, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
LST-32, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
AM Wagga

Allied ground losses:
Vehicles lost 14 (1 destroyed, 13 disabled)

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x D4Y1 Judy releasing from 3000' *
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
4 x D4Y1 Judy releasing from 1000' *
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb

Of course, KB is going to withdraw at this point. I already was lucky to not suffer any irretrievable losses (yet) and I can't risk crippling my carrier force to the point it can't chance a battle with USN carriers even around my own bases.

And unfortunately, while Allies suffered quite numerous ship losses over the last four days, and now brutal plane losses as well, I don't think they were nearly enough to break their momentum in SWPac. Meanwhile, Woodlark Island was overran by their ground forces. The attack on July 23 ended up like this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Woodlark Island (104,133)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 2202 troops, 24 guns, 145 vehicles, Assault Value = 81
Defending force 2000 troops, 12 guns, 1 vehicles, Assault Value = 81
Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 3
Allied adjusted assault: 39
Japanese adjusted defense: 119
Allied assault odds: 1 to 3 (fort level 3)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
417 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 28 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
116 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 16 disabled
Guns lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)

Assaulting units:
2/6th Armoured Regiment
II Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
1st Australian Para Bn /2
168th Field Artillery Regiment
F Det USN Port Svc

Defending units:
3rd South Seas Gsn
3rd Raiding Rgt /3
66th Naval Guard Unit
3rd South Seas Gsn /2
49th JNAF AF Unit /1

After it, I decided to cut my losses and start air evacuation. The island fell on the next day:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Woodlark Island (104,133)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 2190 troops, 24 guns, 145 vehicles, Assault Value = 75
Defending force 923 troops, 2 guns, 1 vehicles, Assault Value = 17
Allied adjusted assault: 25
Japanese adjusted defense: 5
Allied assault odds: 5 to 1 (fort level 3)
Allied forces CAPTURE Woodlark Island !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(+), preparation(-)
fatigue(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
223 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 16 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
36 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled

Assaulting units:
II Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
2/6th Armoured Regiment
1st Australian Para Bn /2
168th Field Artillery Regiment
F Det USN Port Svc

Defending units:
66th Naval Guard Unit
3rd Raiding Rgt /3
49th JNAF AF Unit /1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
66th Naval Guard Unit Wiped Out at Woodlark Island by attrition!!!
Japanese Unit(s) Wiped Out at Woodlark Island by attrition!!!

I managed to save approximately 35% of 66th Naval Guard by air. Overall, considering x3 defensive terrain and forts, this was quite disappointing.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by FatR -- 11/18/2011 10:02:35 AM >

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Post #: 621

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 11/22/2011 11:14:34 AM

FatR

Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline

July 25-28, 1943

My LBA dealt the final blow of the Solomons air offensive to the Allies, hitting airfield and port at Rossel Island. The cost in Zeros was pretty high, and not compensated with aircraft destroyed on ground, but bombers managed to attack the targets unscratched. Following damage was done to the ships in port:

LSI(L) Empire Star, Bomb hits 1, on fire
LST-461, Bomb hits 1, on fire
PT-343, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
LSI(L) Glenstrae, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Barwon, Bomb hits 1, on fire
LSI(L) Glenartney, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Aeon, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
PT-283, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAP Daisy Moller, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AM Constant, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Sepia, Bomb hits 2, on fire
PG Swan, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Theofano Livanos, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAP Clan Macbean, Bomb hits 1
xAK Trevaylor, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
AKE Barbara Olson, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
LST-18, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAKL Iowan, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage

This is a bit of compensation for repeated failures to launch a decisive strike against the Allied landing armada, but I don't think it is a serious blow.

Meanwhile, I managed to resupply Milne Bay under KB's shadow and, save for DD Minekaze, damaged by a sub, the convoy returned to Rabaul unscathed.

On the other side of the empire, meanwhile, the long-predicted doom finally struck my airforce:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47
Weather in hex: Clear sky
Raid detected at 71 NM, estimated altitude 42,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 21 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 16
A6M7 Zero x 14
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 29
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 38
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 27

Allied aircraft
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 65

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 3 destroyed
A6M7 Zero: 2 destroyed
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 1 destroyed
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 6 destroyed
Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 1 destroyed

Aircraft Attacking:
24 x P-47D2 Thunderbolt sweeping at 42000 feet
8 x P-47D2 Thunderbolt sweeping at 42000 feet
6 x P-47D2 Thunderbolt sweeping at 42000 feet

Final losses are 6:1 in Allied favor, despite good units playing for the defense and proper layered CAP. I had a unit that just converted to Georges within range, but they were busy getting their planes ready for combat. And George is inferior to these monsters too, just to a lesser extent. But abandoning Burma airspace is out of the question. I need just a few weeks more, before China hopefully falls, and Frank enters service. With Franks and Georges I hope for favorable enough kill ratio to overwhelm almighty Jugs by numbers (Burma has plenty of air support at the moment).

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Post #: 622

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 11/23/2011 8:31:43 AM

FatR

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It is almost August 1943, and it is turn 600 (43/07/29), so I think it is a good time for my next empire review.

Japanese Industry

My convoy mistake was costly, and I failed to preserve my stockpile of merchant points. On the positive side, I'm already able to shut down some naval shipyards, so HI stockpile now grows a bit faster, despite expanding air production. I'm also contemplating shutting down more HI, to preserve fuel for the fleet operations, if not now, then within the next month.

Take a look at the industry screen too:

Decelerating Katsuragi allowed me to stockpile a lot of Naval SY points, I think I'm too reluctant to actually turn shipyards off... It is sad to see how few destroyers I have in the queue. IIRC, none of the newest Yugumos and Akizukis were lost yet, but older types suffered grievously, so, as I said before, I'm short on them.

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Post #: 623

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 11/23/2011 8:57:50 AM

FatR

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Air Production

I got too relaxed about it in early summer, seeing light losses everywhere and shut down some factories. Recent massive battles drained my pools for some planes, including Ki-44-IIc and Zeros.

As you can see, I decided to produce A6M4-J, even though I did not want to previously. That's because Bigred discovered the power of 4E nightbombing, and my Ki-45 squadrons, which previously held night invaders at bay, are quite literally getting wiped out, to the point that Ki-45 stockpile is now half of what it was. I have no doubt, that A6M4s will die in droves to bomber fire in the night as well, but at least they will take less engines down with them, and with 4x20 armament they might be able to shoot down something as well. Unless I'll staff nightfighting squadrons with untrained pilots, meant only to cause penalties to bomber accuracy. Which, I fear, I'll be forced to do at the current rate.

E15K Norm entered production this month. With its range, it should radically improve my search capabilities, maybe freeing some heavy flying boats for torpedo duty.

P1Y1 is also here, but it is not delivered to units yet. I'm stockpiling them for late-game defensive battles, as at the moment my forward airbases tend to lack air support for keeping these unreliable beasts operational.

Finally, N1K1-J is my best hope of countering Allied fighter superiority at the moment. Two big units are currently equipped with them, and I'm thinking about expanding production. Unfortunately, service rating 3 means that Georges also are difficult to maintain in operational condition, and suited only for my biggest airfields.

Aircraft research goes well:

I expect Frank to enter production in mid-August. Otherwise, much effort now goes into bringing 1945 planes into 1944. I accelerated D4Y3 to 44/3, and I think that at the current rate I'll be able to go straight to D4Y5 around this date.

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Post #: 624

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 12/24/2011 4:29:29 PM

FatR

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I'm really short on time, but just to support Bigred's effort to maintain his AAR, I'll give a bullet point summary of events until August 26 of 1943:

1)CVL Ryujo was sunk by a sub attack when returning to Truk from KB misadventure in Solomons. This is the first major success of Allied subs in the war. Super-Es and air ASW, meanwhile, apparently killed a lot of subs during August, but their sacrifice had strategic consequences.

2)Chungking was taken. All that remains in China is far north and enormous numbers of remnants scattered across forest hexes.

3)Bigred launched the operation to retake Hawaii. Japanese LBA managed one big, coordinated strike with over 60 Betties getting through, but due to my screwup 2/3rds of them carried bombs. Remeber to always switch bombs to torpedoes manually for each group. BB Indiana was heavily damaged by 2 torps, an AKA, an APA, and a landing ship (all loaded with troops) sunk - maybe a fair exchange for about 100 planes this late in the warm but not nearly enough to weaken the Allied fleet. I turned KB back to port after seeing over 360 Hellcats on CAP and failing to damage any carriers. With most of my airbases already low on supplies and airgroups attrited, there was no chance of my LBA surviving at least 2-3 more turns to support KB, and every chance of Pearl being resupplied and reactivated this time. Hawaii finally will be reclaimed by Yankees.

4)Quite timely move for Bigred, I wanted to evacuate weak forces left there already, but wanted to wait 1-2 weeks more before first Unryus and repaired Ryukaku will join KB.

5)Ki-84a entered production. I have high hopes for it and believe it will allow me to maintain daylight air parity for at least another half-year. A6M8 is also now accessible, lots of them will be stockpiled for kamikaze attacks, alongside with Oscars.

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Post #: 625

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 5/23/2012 10:03:21 PM

FatR

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After a huge pause, it is a good time to finally update this AAR, as the game currently is on December 31, 1943. I'll post here an exhaustive report on the Empire's condition, which might take several days.

Overall Situation

As you can see from the victory screen below, the second half of 1943 wasn't quiet by any means. In fact, air warfare reached unprecedented intensity by late autumn and ship losses on both siders remain high as well. While Allies made some gains, as will be described later, and might be on the verge of a major strategic victory, Japanese forces continue to exact severe cost in ships and planes for these advances. You might notice, though, that while Allies have lost a far greater number of ships since beginning of July, VP cost of sunk ships in that period increased roughly similarly for both sides, which is fairly troubling tendency for me, reflecting both the overall shift in the balance of power and increasing skill of Bigred, who managed to inflict about four significant naval defeats on my weakly protected convoys in Burma and Solomons. Allied ship losses, meanwhile, include a large proportion of landing crafts and PT boats.

One of the main reasons why situation on the frontlines gradually worsens in the crucial flaw in the Empire war machine, that I recognized inexcusably late. Namely, the severe lack of supply. Not only this was the key reason why I abandoned my master plan for 1943 (again, more on this later), at the moment all of my active fronts are in various degrees of supply starvation, thanks both to general shortages and successful destruction of several loaded convoys by Allied surface forces and aviation. Only DEI, which remains quiet, has a surplus of supply, and I'm currently forced to move it from Java and Sumatra, to feed the frontlines.

One of the reasons for this is large scale-battles, of course, but the detrimental effect of various production expansions is obvious here, which should be remembered, when observing my naval and air production wizardry. At the moment I'm trying to cut down on supply expenditures by shutting down non-essential base construction, but increasingly intense fighting and need to continue production expansion for late-war aircraft models eat all savings.

Otherwise the economics are in reasonable condition. I fear that I don't have nearly enough of a safety net in case Allies manage to impair the fuel flow from DEI, though. Overall oil-fuel balance was in equilibrum for a time, but the reserves started to dwindle again recently, due to greater fleet activity.

At the moment bigred is quite safe from Japanese autovictory:

Well, at least he has a very hard road ahead if he intends to actually end this game by autovictory of his own, before time runs out.

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by FatR -- 5/23/2012 10:10:36 PM >

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Post #: 626

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 5/24/2012 2:25:00 PM

FatR

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Manchukuo and Plans Regarding USSR

For a long time I intended to invade USSR in 1943. However, the combination of several factors eventually forced me to cancel the attack:

(1)Delay with Chinese operations which meant that forces weren't avaialable until about early November of 1943.
(2)Above-mentioned supply crisis led to realization that I won't be able to provide enough for the campaign of this magnitude.
(3)Low reserves of trained fighter pilots. Constant attrition left me with no more than 500-600 of them, which is clearly not enough to sustain a large air offensive without risking a drop in quality - particularly if I'll inevitably be forced to commit units that currently peform training duties to fighting Soviets or at least providing air cover for Japanese industry.
(4)General insufficiency of forces. Out-of-game events led me to reevaluating the balance of power again and I found that in pure AV I might not even have 3:2 superiority (after leaving very minimal reserves for other theatres), while Soviet 1943 infantry squads basically have twice the firepower of Japanese 1943 squads. Even knocking out some troops by the initial assualt won't be enough to ensure sufficient numerical edge.

As recent events in other theatres proved, my decision probably was correct.

At the moment I'm committed to preparing for the eventual defensive operations in Manchuria. On the map below, the solid line demarkates my intended MRL, and the dashed line my likely forward positions.

Everything to the north of that will be left with only static units and necessary garrizons. It is too vulnerable to flanking and once the inevitable retreat comes, Japanese troops are likely to be cut off or decimated by airpower and armor in the open terrain. In addition, holding these territories provides no real gain after USSS activation, as Russians will have airfields closer to Home Islands from the start and there is no valuable industry in Manchukuo to the north of my intended defensive lines (industry to the south is likely to be immediately nuked from the air too, but I'll try to keep it functioning as long as possible).

The plan is to, basically, hold position and keep Kwantung/Chinese Expeditionary forces surviving as long as possible after the Soviet activation, hopefully stalling the USSR juggernaut in a few protracted sieges. The maximum goal is to hold the line on the map, keeping valuable LI on the continent and bits of oil in the Empire's possession. If IJA will be too weakened by events on the other fronts, the minimum goal probably will be to keep Korea, so that enemy tactical aviation won't be able to cover nearly all of Japan from there and Sakhalin.

Attachment (1)

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Post #: 627

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 5/24/2012 5:38:13 PM

FatR

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SWPac Front

Fighting was pretty much concentrated here until December. The main event was the protracted siege of Milne Bay, eventually won by Allies due to impossibility of effective resupply, even at great cost.

Japanese fleet losses in Solomons since the last update:

1 CA (Chokai this veteran of SWPac fighting fell victim to a stupid escort TF forming routine during a bombardment run to Buna, being detached to escort DD Ikazuchi, damaged by collision and sunk by aviation during the day).
3 CL (Katori, Kashima, Sendai, the first two lost to air attacks at Milne Bay, the last one to torpedoes from American destroyers in a naval battle near Gasmata)
6 DD (Onami, Minazuki, Hibiki, Ikazuchi, Yugiri, Okikaze, only Ikazuchi lost to air attacks, after the above-mentioned accident, and other destroyed or fatally damaged in surface battles, with Hibiki and Okikaze taking fatal blows from PT boats)
6 E (one to sub and the rest in surface battles)
4 SS (I-11, I-162, I-177 and RO-63, the last one bombed at Rabaul, others to surface ASW)
1 LSD (air attacks)
2 AV (air attacks)
6 AK (2 subs, 2 air attacks, 2 surface combat)
Plus a number of normal merchants and patrol boats.

Allies fleet losses are harder to ascertain. CVE Nassau was sunk by air attacks during the landing at Milne Bay and this was the only major Allied loss. I estimate that Allies lost about 14 DD and 6-7 SS in Solomons and on approaches since my last report, plus a metric ton of PT boats and landing craft, but no more assault transports.

As you can see on the map below, the focus of fighting entirely shifted to New Guinea. Allies make no effort to move up the Solomons chain, even though the Tulagi cluster was abandoned after becoming nearly impossible to resupply. The thick red line is my MLR, "The Bismark Barrier", so to say, the thin line marks bases that are still garrizoned and operable, but are not to be reinforced. As you can see, Bigred made two incursion into my defensive line. Finschhafen held against the initial Allied landing and I hope to push the small force ashore into the sea, but I was way too slow to garrizon Gazmata and it fell. A counterinvasion might be in order, if I manage to solve my supply problems in time. Green circles mark major operable Allied airfields - Buna and Woodlark Island so far were kept suppressed by air and naval raids. Just at the turn of the year Allies unloaded a convoy at Salamaua (not without losing a buch of loaded landing craft to my surface raiders, but Japanese air response failed pathetically), so it is likely that Bigred intends to continue pushing along the coast. Lae and Nadzab are fairly well garrizoned, while Finschhafen has an infantry regiment. I'm not sure if I should deploy my infantry reserve from Truk at the region - the problem at the moment is resupply, not lack of AV, as Allied invasion so far haven't been very strong (you'll soon see where most of the Marines really are).

Attachment (1)

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Post #: 628

RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 5/24/2012 7:49:43 PM

FatR

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Gilberts and Marshalls

As you can see, Allies have landed at the far outer end of my perimeter at the second half of December, overrunning weakened garrizons at Tabiteua cluster and later taking undedended Abemama. Japanese LBA responded with little sucess, eventually sinking 2 DDs and 1 LST and damaging CA Quincy (almost certainly not sunk) at the cost of approximately 100-120 planes. Also a sub (I-175) was lost in exchange for a single DE sent to the bottom. I must admit that I'm uncertain whether to fight, or to fall back. Mili is really the only strongly defended base in the entire region (as fragments of units destroyed at Hawaii were rebuilt there) and Marshalls will need a large influx of troops to stand a chance of seriously delaying the Allied advance. Again, I have reserves at close rear, at Truk, but probably not enough even if I manage to deploy them without losses (particularly as divisional units, even after being split in three, are unlikely to fit small atolls). As you'll see soon enough, events on the other side of my perimeter may force me to abandon my weak outer perimeter east of Ponape to its doom.

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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 5/26/2012 11:16:03 PM

FatR

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Burma

Until late December Burma was an entirely quiet theatre, save for occasional, successfully suppressed, bursts of Allied air activity and some convoy battles, that ended very poorly for Japanese, due to my negligence. This lulled me into entirely unwarranted complacency, to the point, where I forgot to actually order a search LBA unit, placed on Andamans to scan eastern part of Bay of Bengal/Arakan coast, to fly searches. For at least several weeks. Yes, my attention to the game was slipping now and then, due to various problems, why are you asking?

Anyway, Bigred cleverly used my monumental screwup and managed to stealthily move a whole invasion force along the coast, to (undefended, yeah, that was another dumb mistake) Pegu. I was basically alerted to the fact that something is up by US Marines and Australians hitting the beaches. Even more cleverly, Bigred moved a significant force through jungle to the road between Mandalay and Lashio. First, that severed the supply flow from China (so once Pegu was taken, Burma was entirely cut off from resupply by land). Second, that disctracted a large part of my main force at Mandalay at the crucial moment. Even better, immediately before the invasion the Allied fleet sent another Burma resupply convoy to the bottom, leaving Japanese forces in Burma with nearly nonexistent reserves. Japanese LBA entirely failed to interfere with unloading, although, due to the surprisingly weak carrier cover, a number of British ships, including CVL Hermes and CVE Boxer, were sunk.

Two factors prevented this huge crisis from immediately escalating to absolute disaster. First, Bigred's landing force had split into three directions, marching on Rangoon, Toungoo and Moulmein at once. Toungoo was swiftly reinforced by troops detached from Mandalay, while the weak garrizons at Rangoon and Moulmein received reinforcements by airlift, that allowed them to survive initial assaults. Second, and more importantly, while Bigred probably expected KB to hang somewhere in the Pacific, because that's where it was for most of 1943, it, in fact, was at Balikpapan, and swiftly arrived to the scene, alongside with hastily assembled surface forces, providing air and surface superiority, and allowing supplies and major reinforcements to reach Rangoon.

This might need a bit of elaboration - during late autumn I started to strongly suspect that the Allied drive through SWPac is too half-hearted. Air activity was heavy, but I haven't seen much in the way of major naval forces in months. The conclusion was that Bigred is planning a major landing operation elsewhere. I discounted Gilberts because Bigred knew that KB is at Truk since late spring (although, as you can see, that was not entirely justified - Allies managed to launch a quick island grab there). Obvious targets were DEI or Northern Pacific. But it was too late to invade Kuriles before winter, and they are exceptionally well-fortified anyway. DEI, though, particularly Eastern DEI, has just too many bases to rely on garrizons for defence. So, after Bigred checked Truk for a few days in November and then stopped recon flights, after confirming carrier presence, I stealthily moved nearly all of the Japanese carrier force west.

It should be mentioned here, that shortly after that Kido Butai suffered its biggest loss in the war. CV Renkaku, one of extra carriers added in RA mod, and the final Japanese CV to join the fleet, was torpedoed on its way from Home Islands. She reached Truk with moderate damage. But, unfortunately, I got the bright idea of sending Renkaku back for repairs by roughly the same way near Marianas. So, another US sub dealt a fatal blow to her. That was a loss that could have been avoided had I paid more attention.

Anyway, at the moment large and well-supplied Japanese reinforcements have unloaded at Rangoon. They might well be still insufficient to kick the Allies out, though - the initial deliberate attack has failed. Japanese forces in Central Burma meanwhile inflicted horrendous casualties on Allies in defensive battles, particularly in failed assaults on Mandalay, but lack of supplies prevents them from counterattacking. This is also the reason why Japanese airforce has a very hard time protecting troops at Mandalay. Supply doesn't flow by western road from Rangoon to Magwe, maybe there is still not enough of it in Rangoon.

Meanwhile, several USN carriers suddenly made their appearance on December 31 in the southern part of the Andaman Sea and hit Japanese convoys and fleet train, as well as the small force of second-rate carriers fresh from Home Islands (recently arrived Shinyo and Chiyoda and Hosho which was involved in escorting damaged Renkaku). Hosho was torpedoed twice but reached Victoria Point safely, while Chiyoda took a couple of bombs and the port crews at Victoria Point seem to be failing to contain raging fires. I also lost the entire force of fast AOs that served KB, a bunch of small tankers and a couple of troop-loaded AKs. This Allied fleet most likely just arrived into the theatre... I really did not expect it, after noticing Allied carriers in Gilberts and seeing how the Pegu invasion fleet was guarded just by British junk. Japanese LBA failed to do much of anything, launching just one sortie. But that ended with putting 2 torpedoes into BB Washington. I can only hope she fails to get out of range on the next turn.

I'll try to make an (approximate, for the Allied side) list of fleet losses in this campain to date later.

Attachment (1)

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