21 – 23 Aug. 42

21 – 23 Aug. 42 (Full Version)

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Jim D Burns -> 21 – 23 Aug. 42 (3/29/2008 9:27:18 AM)
21 – 23 Aug. 42 There is only a single sub attack on 21 August, SS Narwhal torpedoes a Japanese ML at Kwajalein. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack near Kwajalein at 81,84 Japanese Ships ML Tokiwa, Torpedo hits 1 Allied Ships SS Narwhal -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 66 Hudsons hit Daily Waters today and cause moderate damage to the base. Allied A-24s and Beauforts from Townsville fly two missions against Japanese fleets at Cairns today and 3 APs are hit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Cairns at 48,102 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 17 Allied aircraft Kittyhawk I x 19 Beaufort V-IX x 6 A-24 Dauntless x 26 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 1 damaged Allied aircraft losses Kittyhawk I: 1 destroyed, 7 damaged Beaufort V-IX: 1 damaged A-24 Dauntless: 4 damaged Japanese Ships DD Karukaya DD Hasu AP Tanba Maru AP Ryujo Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage AP Nitta Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 2 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Cairns at 48,102 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 16 Allied aircraft Kittyhawk I x 15 A-24 Dauntless x 6 No Japanese losses Allied aircraft losses Kittyhawk I: 3 destroyed, 6 damaged A-24 Dauntless: 2 damaged Japanese Ships AP Shanghai Maru, Bomb hits 1 Aircraft Attacking: 6 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Both sides conduct land bombardments at Cairns today. There are no sub ops for 22 August. Japan conducts a naval bombardment at Cairns with a CA force and causes moderate damage to my troops. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naval bombardment of Cairns, at 48,102 Japanese Ships CA Kako CA Kumano CA Suzuya CA Mikuma CA Takao Allied ground losses: 327 casualties reported Guns lost 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KB then flys a ground strike with 33 Kates against the 6th AIF Division at Cairns and causes light damage to the unit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on 6th Division AIF , at 48,102 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 8 B5N2 Kate x 33 No Japanese losses Allied ground losses: 58 casualties reported Guns lost 1 Aircraft Attacking: 16 x B5N2 Kate bombing at 16000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allied bombers from Charter Towers and Townsville fly missions against the Japanese fleets at Cairns today and a total of 6 APs are hit by bombs. It appears some or possibly all the APs had troops aboard. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Cairns at 48,102 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 22 Allied aircraft P-39D Airacobra x 6 B-25C Mitchell x 16 B-26B Marauder x 19 P-38F Lightning x 17 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged Allied aircraft losses P-39D Airacobra: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged B-26B Marauder: 2 damaged P-38F Lightning: 4 damaged Japanese Ships AP Kuraido Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire DD Hasu DD Kuri AP Higashiyama Maru DD Mikazuki DD Minekaze AP Teiun Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire AP Sanura Maru AP Genoa Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire AP Yamakuni Maru, Bomb hits 1 Japanese ground losses: 115 casualties reported Guns lost 1 Aircraft Attacking: 1 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 6000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Cairns at 48,102 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 21 Allied aircraft Kittyhawk I x 17 Beaufort V-IX x 20 A-24 Dauntless x 15 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged Allied aircraft losses Kittyhawk I: 3 destroyed, 11 damaged Beaufort V-IX: 2 damaged A-24 Dauntless: 3 damaged Japanese Ships AP Kirishima Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage AP Horai Maru CL Jintsu AP Muro Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage DD Arashi Japanese ground losses: 226 casualties reported Guns lost 2 Aircraft Attacking: 4 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today’s land bombardment at Cairns shows Japan has evacuated most of his three divisions from the base. I’ve ordered a deliberate attack for tomorrow to retake the base. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Cairns Allied Bombardment attack Attacking force 45378 troops, 403 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1194 Defending force 96 troops, 6 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1 Japanese ground losses: 74 casualties reported Guns lost 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub ops for 23 August consist of 1 allied sub attack and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. All attacks fail to score any hits on their targets. Allied air power in Northeastern Australia finally gets its act together and launches a total of 5 attacks against the fleets in KB’s hex. One of the attacks even goes after the CV’s, but the 108 Japanese zeroes flying CAP shred all my attacks and no hits are scored on any ships. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 49,101 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 108 Allied aircraft B-25C Mitchell x 3 B-26B Marauder x 12 P-38F Lightning x 19 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 11 damaged Allied aircraft losses B-25C Mitchell: 2 destroyed B-26B Marauder: 2 destroyed, 8 damaged P-38F Lightning: 17 destroyed Japanese Ships BB Ise CV Soryu CV Junyo Aircraft Attacking: 1 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 6000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 49,101 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 106 Allied aircraft Beaufort V-IX x 16 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 13 damaged Allied aircraft losses Beaufort V-IX: 6 destroyed, 4 damaged -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 49,101 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 76 Allied aircraft B-25C Mitchell x 20 B-26B Marauder x 12 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 13 damaged Allied aircraft losses B-25C Mitchell: 1 destroyed, 15 damaged B-26B Marauder: 2 destroyed, 8 damaged Japanese Ships CL Kiso CA Chikuma CL Naka CL Abukuma CA Ashigara Aircraft Attacking: 3 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 49,101 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 60 Allied aircraft Beaufort V-IX x 9 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 4 damaged Allied aircraft losses Beaufort V-IX: 2 damaged -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 49,101 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 54 Allied aircraft B-25C Mitchell x 5 B-26B Marauder x 8 P-38F Lightning x 2 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 8 damaged Allied aircraft losses B-25C Mitchell: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged B-26B Marauder: 8 damaged P-38F Lightning: 2 damaged Japanese Ships CL Abukuma CL Kiso CL Naka CA Kinugasa Aircraft Attacking: 3 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two more attacks are launched against Japanese evacuation task forces. Another AP is hit and a CL and DD get hammered by 1000lb GP bombs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 49,98 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 19 Allied aircraft B-26B Marauder x 6 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 1 damaged Japanese Ships AP Kiyoshima Maru AP Ayaha Maru, Bomb hits 2 Japanese ground losses: 32 casualties reported Aircraft Attacking: 2 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet 4 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Cairns at 48,102 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 14 Allied aircraft Kittyhawk I x 14 A-24 Dauntless x 14 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed Allied aircraft losses Kittyhawk I: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged A-24 Dauntless: 3 damaged Japanese Ships CL Jintsu, Bomb hits 1, on fire DD Arashi, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 6 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet 8 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allied troops assault the now empty base at Cairns, retaking it. Even though I have no air support at Cairns, I rebased in my ready A-24s and Kittyhawks in an attempt to get some more hits in on the withdrawing Japanese fleets. The rest of my bombers and fighters are stood down as they are exhausted after all the missions flown recently and about 80% of their planes are disabled. Here’s a strategic overview screenshot of Japans expansion. I doubt he’ll be expanding much more, so excepting for the loss of Cairns this turn, this would be his high water mark for the game. I suppose he can still make some headway in Burma if he wants to as well, but so far he appears content to hunker down and defend there. [image]local://upfiles/5815/2BBACB8C161E4083BA3CC5F1E6893876.jpg[/image] I’ve therefore set some broad goals for myself over the next year. Given the fact I’ve lost one of my CVs, I don’t want to make any open ocean landings against level 4 airfields. So for the period starting now and ending Sept. 43, I want to do the following: Retake all of the Aleutian Islands. Retake all of Australia Get a foothold in SE New Guinea Start an offensive in Burma Start an offensive in China I’m not sure if China will be a northern offensive or an offensive into Indo China down south, but I want to do one of the two. The north is very dependent on the supply levels, and right now there are too few. But with 32 transport planes flying supplies north from Chungking every turn, I may be able to put together an offensive in about three months. If supplies do not build up fast enough, then I’ll focus on going into Indo China. Burma is always a slugfest, so my main goal there is to simply increase Japanese supply needs. I doubt I’ll be able to force him out until 44, but if I start a large enough offensive I can cause him to use a lot of supplies, so the sooner I can get started the better. Getting into SE New Guinea will depend largely on where KB is. I also doubt I can achieve this goal until after I have enough air power in Australia to make it suicidal for KB to sail within range of my LBA. As things are now, KB as been happily cruising along the east coast for over two weeks now and I haven’t been able to touch him. Were I to base enough shipping to invade SE New Guinea along the east coast of Australia right now, KB would come calling and conduct port attacks until it was all sunk, so this will be the hardest goal to achieve by Sept. 43. Unless Japan brings more land forces to Darwin, I think I can force him out of Australia by mid 1943. If he brings two or more divisions to add to his forces already there, then I doubt I can achieve my goal of driving him out in 1943, and will have to make it a 1944 goal then. The Aleutians is a side show theatre, but believe it or not I think the best chance of a CV battle in 1943 will occur here. To retake any islands I will have to bring up my CVs and I doubt he’ll simply let me take them back without a fight. With my land based air within range of any potential CV battles, this is the only area I would be willing to stand against KB toe to toe right now. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 24 – 26 Aug. 42 (3/30/2008 6:31:21 AM)
24 – 26 Aug. 42 Sub ops for 24 August consist of 5 allied sub attacks and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. The star of the show today is US sub S-32 which made two attacks on Japanese APs scoring 3 torpedo hits on one (sinking it) and 2 torpedo hits on the other. [image]local://upfiles/5815/11E00B20E9714902BC8EFDAC3923352A.jpg[/image] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack at 48,97 Japanese Ships AP Kuraido Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage AP Tanba Maru PC Shonan Maru #1 DD Karukaya DD Minekaze DD Mikazuki Allied Ships SS S-32 Japanese ground losses: 20 casualties reported -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- None of the other allied sub attacks or the Japanese ASW attacks managed to score any hits. Japan conducts a naval bombardment attack with CAs and CLs on Cairns today and nukes the base causing 2300+ allied casualties. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naval bombardment of Cairns, at 48,102 Allied aircraft no flights Allied aircraft losses A-24 Dauntless: 2 destroyed Kittyhawk I: 1 destroyed Japanese Ships CL Kiso CL Tama CL Kuma CL Abukuma CL Naka CA Kinugasa CA Ashigara CA Maya CA Chikuma Allied ground losses: 2362 casualties reported Guns lost 17 Airbase hits 9 Airbase supply hits 2 Runway hits 27 Port hits 16 Port fuel hits 3 Port supply hits 14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 120 Hudsons and 16 Beauforts hit Tennant Creek today causing moderate damage to the base. I also flew my first bombardment mission against Lunga today with A-29s flying out of Koumac. The mission is at long range, so the 89 bombers do light damage to the base, but several Japanese planes are destroyed on the ground. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Lunga , at 67,101 Japanese aircraft A6M3 Zero x 13 Allied aircraft A-29 Hudson x 89 Japanese aircraft losses A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed, 8 damaged G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed G3M Nell: 3 destroyed Allied aircraft losses A-29 Hudson: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged Japanese ground losses: 7 casualties reported Airbase hits 5 Airbase supply hits 5 Runway hits 14 Aircraft Attacking: 2 x A-29 Hudson bombing at 6000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fatigue from the mission is high, so I’ll only be able to fly one or two of these raids a week. My A-24s from Cairns still flew a couple of tiny missions today even though the base was nuked by a naval bombardment. The one hit scored on the Yamashiro bounced off its deck armor even though it was a 1,000lb GP bomb. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 49,99 Allied aircraft Kittyhawk I x 17 A-24 Dauntless x 5 Allied aircraft losses A-24 Dauntless: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged Japanese Ships BB Yamashiro, Bomb hits 1 Aircraft Attacking: 4 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 49,99 Allied aircraft Kittyhawk I x 13 A-24 Dauntless x 2 Allied aircraft losses A-24 Dauntless: 2 damaged Japanese Ships BB Nagato Aircraft Attacking: 2 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub ops for 25 August consist of 2 allied sub attacks and 3 Japanese ASW attacks. The net effect was one US sub took two hits by counter-attacking Japanese escorts. Nothing else of note occurred today. Sub ops for 26 August consist of 2 allied sub attacks, 1 Japanese sub attack and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. Results for the turn are one Japanese AP loaded with troops is hit by the Halibut, Japanese escorts damage the Narwhal at Kwajalein, one US AP is hit by the Japanese sub attack and the escorts sink the attacking Japanese sub in return. Japan flies a large air raid over Mandalay and scores 1 hit on the oil resource there. I have to assume this means that my opponent does not plan to try and take Mandalay. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Mandalay , at 33,29 Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 21 Ki-61-Ib Tony x 2 Ki-21-II Sally x 45 Ki-49 Helen x 37 Japanese aircraft losses Ki-21-II Sally: 1 damaged Ki-49 Helen: 1 damaged Oil hits 1 Aircraft Attacking: 9 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 18000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Allied troops launch a deliberate attack against the unoccupied base of Cooktown and retake it for the allied cause. With both Cairns and Cooktown back in allied hands, I took the time to assign new objectives for my units along the east coast of Australia. I’m sending my ANZAC Command brigades south to garrison Melbourne and Adelaide to free up the Philippine Corps and Australia Command units at those two bases. Those units will all go to Sydney to hasten their reconstruction efforts. Each east coast base from Cooktown south to Brisbane will have a division assigned for defense. I’m sending another ANZAC Command division to Alice Springs. I’ll refrain from retaking the bases north of Cooktown until more of my SWPAC Command units are rebuilt and ready for action. I don’t want to get any units trapped off road north of Cooktown without sizable units defending their supply line, so I’ll have to wait a few months before I can finish mopping up the NE. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 27 – 29 Aug. 42 (4/1/2008 6:20:24 PM)
27 – 29 Aug. 42 Sub ops for 27 August consist of 5 allied sub attacks and 1 Japanese ASW attack, resulting in one Japanese tanker hit by a torpedo at Balikpapan and 1 Japanese AP hit near Cooktown. Casualties were reported, so the AP had troops aboard. After weeks of rest, I tried an air raid at Rangoon at 15,000 feet with my B-24’s and Liberator III’s from Calcutta today. Over 100 Japanese fighters were flying CAP over the base and they hammered my 59 attacking planes. Damage to the base was negligible, guess I’ll have to wait until I can put over 100 heavies into the air before I try and close Rangoon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Rangoon , at 29,33 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 12 A6M3 Zero x 12 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 41 Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 21 Ki-61-Ib Tony x 21 Allied aircraft Liberator III x 36 B-24D Liberator x 23 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 6 damaged A6M3 Zero: 8 damaged Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 1 destroyed, 11 damaged Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged Ki-61-Ib Tony: 1 destroyed, 15 damaged Ki-49 Helen: 1 destroyed Ki-21-II Sally: 2 destroyed Allied aircraft losses Liberator III: 2 destroyed, 32 damaged B-24D Liberator: 9 destroyed, 5 damaged Japanese ground losses: 249 casualties reported Guns lost 5 Airbase hits 5 Airbase supply hits 1 Runway hits 8 Aircraft Attacking: 1 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 15000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 84 A-29s from Koumac hit Lunga again today, and damage caused wasn’t too bad considering this was an extended range unescorted mission. The fact only 12 zeros were flying CP probably helped. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Lunga , at 67,101 Japanese aircraft A6M3 Zero x 12 Allied aircraft A-29 Hudson x 84 Japanese aircraft losses A6M3 Zero: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged G4M1 Betty: 3 destroyed H6K4 Mavis: 1 destroyed G3M Nell: 1 destroyed Allied aircraft losses A-29 Hudson: 2 destroyed, 15 damaged Japanese ground losses: 52 casualties reported Guns lost 1 Airbase hits 6 Airbase supply hits 4 Runway hits 22 Aircraft Attacking: 3 x A-29 Hudson bombing at 6000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nothing else of note to report today. Things are really slowing down now that Japan’s evacuation from northeastern Australia is pretty much finished. Given how slow things are for 28 and 29 August, I decided to post the combat report texts for both days in their entirety. AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/28/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 1026 encounters mine field at Adak Island (97,38) Allied Ships PT PT-37, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack near Attu Island at 91,35 Japanese Ships AP Kitsurin Maru DD Hiyodori Allied Ships SS Silversides -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack near Kwajalein at 81,84 Japanese Ships ML Okinoshima, Torpedo hits 1 Allied Ships SS Grenadier -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Canton Japanese Bombardment attack Attacking force 4868 troops, 62 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1108 Defending force 75579 troops, 320 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2053 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Japanese land bombardment at Canton is due to the fact 12 Chinese Guerilla units are one hex northwest of Canton now, and Japan must think I’m starting a large offensive there. The bombardment revealed just 2 Japanese divisions are defending Canton. I may try a deliberate attack once I train all the units above 50% with land bombardments. AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/29/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack near Balikpapan at 31,64 Japanese Ships DD Mochizuki, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage DD Uzuki Allied Ships SS Sturgeon -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Daly Waters , at 35,90 Allied aircraft Hudson I x 51 F-4 Lightning x 2 Allied aircraft losses Hudson I: 8 damaged Japanese ground losses: 53 casualties reported Airbase hits 5 Runway hits 9 Aircraft Attacking: 3 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SigInt revealed to me today that Japan has the 38th Division aboard transports on route to Hong Kong. The last time I saw the 38th Division, it was at Townsville, so it’s a long way from Hong Kong. It’s also a major redeployment of the unit, looks like Japan’s offensive in Australia is over, since I doubt he’d send a division to China if he intended to attack Western Australia. [image]local://upfiles/5815/B56913F48533431BA2AC21E41229A898.jpg[/image] I’ve dispatched a few subs to Hong Kong to give me warning when the transport fleet arrives. I’ll try a few attacks at Canton in hopes I can cause some damage, but with urban terrain and probable level 9 forts, I doubt I can hurt Canton with just 12 guerilla units that combined total about 1,000AV and 7 Corps worth another 2,000 AV. But with just 1100 AV defending, I may go ahead and attack Canton to see how things go. Jim

Gen.Hoepner -> RE: 27 – 29 Aug. 42 (4/1/2008 6:26:33 PM)
Hi Jim, first note is that your subs are starting to do a really good job. every day they hit something...quite a good performance considering we're still in 42. Secondly...do you really think he's going for HK!?!?! Sounds too stupid...my guess is that he simply gave the destination hex to give your de-crypter guys a bad time and the he'll switch to the real destination as soon as he passes the straight between Oz and NG...just a guess eh, but i know many players do this to counter the allied intel. I'm quite curious...how's the flak at Rangoon? At 15k feet your liberators should still suffer a bit too much in this mod, right?

Jim D Burns -> RE: 27 – 29 Aug. 42 (4/1/2008 6:33:59 PM)
Hi G.H., The timing of the report coincides with my 12 units appearing one hex northwest of Canton last turn. He conducted a land bombardment last turn to get a look at what I had at Canton and then I get this report, so it all fits into a reaction move on his part. I think he probably believes this is a major attack and his Intel only says 12 units. Once he sees that they are all guerilla units, then perhaps he’ll divert the division. Flak at Rangoon isn’t too bad right now, as my opponent hasn’t held the base for very long and I doubt he has decent flak units there yet. But with 100 fighters damaging almost every one of my attacking bombers and shooting down about 20% of the raid, who needs flak? Some of the squadron’s morale levels fell to 30% after this raid. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 30 Aug. 42 – 3 Sep. 42 (4/3/2008 4:17:48 PM)
30 Aug. 42 – 3 Sep. 42 Things have really slowed down in the game, so I’ll be doing 5 day updates until things get exciting again. What can I say for 30 August, here is the entire combat reports text file: AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/30/42 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack at 28,66 Japanese Ships PC Ch 2 PC Ch 1 APD Patrol Boat No. 2 APD Patrol Boat No. 1 Allied Ships SS Sturgeon -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 August consists of an allied sub attack at Attu Island which missed and 2 Japanese air strikes in China against my units NW of Canton. Nothing else of note occurred. 1 September arrives and the British high command demands a CV and 2 DD’s. I can’t get a break with these damn recalls, this is the 4th or 5th capital ship demanded in 1942. I won’t be sending the CV, but the two DD’s are sent. If I manage not to spend any political points at all this month, I’ll barley have 100 left after keeping the CV. Sub ops consist of 1 allied sub attack and 1 Japanese ASW attack. No hits are scored in either attack. 130 allied bombers hit Tennant Creek today and cause heavy damage to the base. Chinese bombers conduct a port attack at Takao today but fail to hit any ships in port. The base suffers no damage, but some minor losses are caused to ground troops. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Takao , at 47,45 Allied aircraft F-5A Lightning x 2 LB-30 Liberator x 9 IL-4c x 6 Allied aircraft losses F-5A Lightning: 1 destroyed IL-4c: 1 damaged Japanese ground losses: 14 casualties reported Guns lost 1 Aircraft Attacking: 3 x LB-30 Liberator bombing at 15000 feet 3 x IL-4c bombing at 6000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan flies 1 raid against my Chinese troops NW of Canton. Japan flies a 100 foot raid against my PT boats at Adak Island and sinks one PT. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Adak Island at 97,38 Japanese aircraft D3A2 Val x 20 Japanese aircraft losses D3A2 Val: 2 damaged Allied Ships PT PT-78, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage PT PT-43, Shell hits 4 PT PT-77 PT PT-76 Aircraft Attacking: 4 x D3A2 Val attacking at 100 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan conducts a land bombardment at Nanchang. Nothing else of note occurred today. 2 September is another very slow day. I conduct a ground attack on the Japanese Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit in the base north of Cooktown with P-39s, and Japan conducts an air raid on my units NW of Canton. Nothing else of note occurred today. Sub ops for 3 September consist of 2 allied sub attacks and 1 Japanese sub attack. All three sub attacks miss their targets. 3 allied ASW attacks are conducted against Japanese subs located at Trivandrum on the southern tip of India. One attack finds the depth and 6 hits are scored against the Japanese sub I-27. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack near Trivandrum at 11,21 Japanese Ships SS I-27, hits 6 Allied Ships DD Tjerk Hiddes DD Isaac Sweers -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 89 Blenheim IVs hit Magwe today and cause moderate damage to the base. 128 allied bombers hit Tennant Creek today and cause heavy damage to the base. 38 P-39s hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the base north of Cooktown. 86 Japanese bombers hit Mandalay today and cause moderate damage to the base, destroying 2 recon planes on the ground as well. Nothing else of note occurred today. My Chinese units are arriving in Canton now, with all but 2 units now at the base. Once all the units are present, I’ll conduct some bombardment attacks to see how well my units do against the entrenched Japanese units. Intel reports 13 Japanese units at the base now, so it appears Japan has been flying in a unit with air transports, since he only had 12 units a few turns ago. Jim

Gen.Hoepner -> RE: 30 Aug. 42 – 3 Sep. 42 (4/3/2008 4:44:03 PM)
still following here....

Jim D Burns -> 4 – 8 Sep. 42 (4/7/2008 8:36:22 PM)
4 – 8 Sep. 42 There are no sub ops to report for 4 September. 93 Blenheim IVs and 31 B-25Cs hit Meiktila today in two separate raids. Damage to the base was heavy. 86 A-29s conducted a port attack on Tulagi and scored 2 port hits on the base. Japan conducts a large air raid on my units in China marching towards Canton. Japan conducts three land bombardments in China, one in the forest hex east of Changsha, one at Nanchang and one at Ichang. Sub ops for 5 September consist of two allied sub attacks and 1 Japanese ASW attack. Both allied sub attacks score hits on their targets, and the Japanese ASW attack misses. The AK hit at Hong Kong was loaded with troops. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack at 26,66 Japanese Ships APD Patrol Boat No. 33, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage APD Patrol Boat No. 35 APD Patrol Boat No. 34 APD Patrol Boat No. 32 Allied Ships SS Snapper -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack near Hong Kong at 43,42 Japanese Ships AK Aobasan Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire AK Naniwa Maru DD Satsuki Allied Ships SS Haddock Japanese ground losses: 14 casualties reported -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 85 A-29s hit Tulagi again today (I forgot to stand them down) and score 1 port hit and 2 port supply hits. 49 P-39Ds hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the inland base north of Cooktown. Japan conducts the same three land bombardments in China this turn as he did last turn. I conduct a land bombardment at Canton this turn and find I still have a hefty advantage in AV over Japan. Given the fact I hit a loaded transport in port at Hong Kong this turn, I decide to go ahead and toggle a deliberate attack before he can bring in more troops. [image]local://upfiles/5815/756009DE35A64E1D929670B105000A23.jpg[/image] 6 September arrives and it’s time once again to look at air to air fighter losses. To date the allies have lost 761 fighters and Japan has lost just 183 fighters in air to air combats. That’s a kill ratio of 4.15 – 1 in Japan’s favor for the game. Sub ops consist of 1 allied sub attack on the damaged APD from last turn. Allied sub Stingray finishes her off as she tried to head to port towards Soerabaja. Japan now only has 3 APDs with the uber ASW value of 10 left in game (my CV raid near Noumea when Japan tried to land sank 4). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack at 24,67 Japanese Ships APD Patrol Boat No. 33, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage Allied Ships SS Stingray -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 114 allied bombers hit Tennant Creek and cause moderate damage to the base. 54 P-39Ds hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the inland base north of Cooktown and are intercepted by 22 zeros flying LRCAP. The zeros only manage to shoot down a couple of my planes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Yokosuka 1st SNLF, at 47,96 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 22 Allied aircraft P-39D Airacobra x 54 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 1 damaged Allied aircraft losses P-39D Airacobra: 2 destroyed, 18 damaged Japanese ground losses: 29 casualties reported Aircraft Attacking: 20 x P-39D Airacobra bombing at 2000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A large Japanese air raid from Rangoon hits Akyab and causes light damage to the base. Japan flies a large air raid and hits the 4th Chinese Corps at Canton. Japan conducts a land bombardment at Nanchang today. My land attack goes it at Canton and is an unmitigated disaster. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ground combat at Canton Allied Deliberate attack Attacking force 105985 troops, 465 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3642 Defending force 89870 troops, 354 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1311 Allied max assault: 3391 - adjusted assault: 600 Japanese max defense: 1444 - adjusted defense: 16637 Allied assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 9) Japanese ground losses: 389 casualties reported Guns lost 5 Allied ground losses: 6664 casualties reported Guns lost 68 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some of my units have over 90% of their equipment items disabled. This was a dumb move on my part, I hope Japan doesn’t counter-attack as he’ll push me out of the hex for sure. There are no sub ops for 7 September to report. My Chinese bombers conduct a port attack on Hong Kong hoping to hit the Aobasan Maru which was torpedoed there a couple of turns back. Instead they hit a different AK with 3 bombs finding their mark. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Hong Kong , at 43,42 Allied aircraft F-5A Lightning x 3 LB-30 Liberator x 24 IL-4c x 12 No Allied losses Japanese Ships AK Alaska Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage Port hits 2 Port fuel hits 1 Port supply hits 2 Aircraft Attacking: 6 x IL-4c bombing at 6000 feet 6 x LB-30 Liberator bombing at 15000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 P-39Ds hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit again this turn. Nothing else of note occurred to report today. Sub ops for 8 September consist of 1 allied sub attack and 1 Japanese ASW attack. Both attacks miss their targets. 25 B-25Cs hit Meiktila today and cause light damage to the base. 43 P-39Ds hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit again this turn. Nothing else of note occurred to report today. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 8 -12 Sep. 42 (4/15/2008 8:11:10 PM)
8 -12 Sep. 42 Sub ops for 8 September consist of 1 allied sub attack and 1 Japanese ASW attack. Neither attack manages to hit its target. 25 B-25s hit Meiktila today and cause light damage to the base. 43 P-39s hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit north of Cooktown. Nothing else of note occurred today. Sub ops for 9 September consist of 1 allied sub attack which scores a hit on a Japanese AP at Amchitka Island. 3 Japanese ASW attacks today all fail to score any hits. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sub attack near Amchitka Island at 94,37 Japanese Ships AP Meizan Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage DD Kisaragi PG Takunan Maru #3 PG Shotoku Maru PG Hakkaisan Maru PG Fukui Maru Allied Ships SS Halibut Japanese ground losses: 32 casualties reported -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I assume my repeated air strikes on the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the base north of Cooktown ticked off my opponent. He conducted a naval bombardment of Cooktown today with a CA force and hammered the base pretty good. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naval bombardment of Cooktown, at 48,100 Allied aircraft no flights Allied aircraft losses P-39D Airacobra: 4 destroyed PBY Catalina: 1 destroyed Japanese Ships CA Kako CA Kumano CA Suzuya CA Mikuma CA Takao Allied ground losses: 4412 casualties reported Guns lost 39 Vehicles lost 16 Airbase hits 7 Airbase supply hits 2 Runway hits 29 Port hits 4 Port fuel hits 6 Port supply hits 22 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan followed up the naval bombardment with an air sweep and an air strike. The sweep only managed to kill one of the 2 Kittyhawks flying CAP over the base. These must have been bleed over from the Kittyhawk group at Cairns. The sweep is followed by 119 Betty’s, but damage isn’t too bad. These planes must have been flying long range missions as I expected far worse damage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Cooktown , at 48,100 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 48 Ki-46-II Dinah x 1 Allied aircraft Kittyhawk I x 2 No Japanese losses Allied aircraft losses Kittyhawk I: 1 destroyed -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Cooktown , at 48,100 Japanese aircraft G4M1 Betty x 119 Allied aircraft Kittyhawk I x 1 Japanese aircraft losses G4M1 Betty: 1 damaged Allied aircraft losses P-39D Airacobra: 3 destroyed Airbase hits 3 Airbase supply hits 3 Runway hits 13 Aircraft Attacking: 11 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 16000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan fly’s two other missions this turn, one hits a Chinese corps near Canton and the other is flown by 23 Vals at 100 feet against my PT boats at Adak Island. The PTs survived without damage. Amazingly 23 of my P-39s still fly a mission to strike the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the base north of Cooktown. Sub ops for 10 September consist of a single Japanese ASW attack that misses its target. 89 of my bombers hit Tennant Creek today. Japan fly’s another sweep over Cooktown and manages to kill another bleed-over Kittyhawk today. Two missions are flown against Chinese corps near Canton. 11 September is even slower than yesterday. Only two events occurred today. A Japanese ML is torpedoed at Kwajalein and 27 P-39s fly a ground attack mission against the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the base north of Cooktown. There are no sub ops for 12 September. My B-17s from Dacca fly a very high altitude mission against Rangoon today and did surprisingly well considering there were at 36,000 feet. This kind of damage won’t close the base or drive his airforce out of Burma, but at least the morale of my bombers isn’t shot for the next month like the last disastrous raid caused. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Rangoon , at 29,33 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 12 A6M3 Zero x 12 Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 35 Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 21 Ki-61-Ib Tony x 15 Allied aircraft B-17D Fortress x 24 B-17E Fortress x 18 Japanese aircraft losses A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 1 damaged Ki-61-Ib Tony: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged Ki-21-II Sally: 1 destroyed Japanese ground losses: 84 casualties reported Airbase hits 5 Airbase supply hits 1 Runway hits 5 Aircraft Attacking: 6 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 36000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I’ll continue these high altitude raids until I have escorts that can accompany my bombers. 95 Blenheim IVs hit Meiktila today causing moderate damage to the base. Japan flew another raid against my PT boats from Adak Island and sunk one of the boats. These boats were returning to base after having failed to intercept a detected task force at Attu Island. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF at 92,35 Japanese aircraft D3A2 Val x 23 Japanese aircraft losses D3A2 Val: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged Allied Ships PT PT-77 PT PT-76, Shell hits 4 PT PT-43, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage Aircraft Attacking: 3 x D3A2 Val attacking at 100 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nothing else of note to report today. Jim

Gen.Hoepner -> RE: 8 -12 Sep. 42 (4/16/2008 5:48:22 PM)
Hi Jim. War seems to be slowing down in this phase. It could be the right time to review all you fronts and analyze them. How's the overall situation in North and West Oz?

Jim D Burns -> RE: 8 -12 Sep. 42 (4/17/2008 12:03:32 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner Hi Jim. War seems to be slowing down in this phase. It could be the right time to review all you fronts and analyze them. How's the overall situation in North and West Oz? Hi G.H., We're actually about 20 days further along, I've just had no time to catch up on my writing lately. I'll try and get things up to date within the next week or two if I can find the time. Jim

Jim D Burns -> RE: 8 -12 Sep. 42 (9/18/2008 12:23:53 AM)
Well it’s almost 1 year in game since my last update, sorry about the inactivity in here, but things simply became too boring and routine to be of much interest. But now that a year has gone by and I’ve finally gotten some fighters that can stand up against the Japanese (well, sort of anyway), allied offensives have begun. I made some grand pronouncements near the end of my updates last year, so I thought I’d rehash those goals as I again get the thread going. Here’s what I said: I’ve therefore set some broad goals for myself over the next year. Given the fact I’ve lost one of my CVs, I don’t want to make any open ocean landings against level 4 airfields. So for the period starting now and ending Sept. 43, I want to do the following: 1. Retake all of the Aleutian Islands. 2. Retake all of Australia 3. Get a foothold in SE New Guinea 4. Start an offensive in Burma 5. Start an offensive in China 1. The operations to retake the Aleutians were halted in their tracks when Japan showed up with several divisions and took Adak from me destroying a full regimental combat team in the process. I had to shift to the defensive there and gave up all hope of retaking those islands with so much Japanese land power in the area. I’ve slowly built up a huge 400 plane airforce at Umnak, which now dominates the sea around it. If North Pacific command ever gets enough land force to take on 2+ Japanese divisions, I’ll again entertain the notion of retaking the Aleutians. But for now I’d have to pull troops away from another theater to do it, so it simply isn’t worth it. 2. Retaking all of Australia is also a failure. But this has more to do with too few cargo ships than anything else. I’ve found that in CHS it takes two or three trips extra from the US to get the same amount of supplies to forward bases I used to count on in stock, due to the lower cargo capacities of the ships. So I had to delay my offensives until just recently as I slowly built up adequate supplies to support such huge land armies. The NE was easily retaken just recently as Japan evacuated most of his troops, but my drive up the center was halted in its tracks when it found about 1500-2000 AV defending at Daily Waters. With only about 1800 allied AV, I pulled my troops back to Tennant Creek to rest up and await further reinforcements. I saw no benefit to having them sit there and get hammered by Japanese bombardments for nothing. At this stage the option to continue the drive north vs. making an amphibious landing at Darwin or another northern base is up in the air. It will depend on how well current amphibious ops go and how many ships survive. 3. Getting into SE New Guinea is also delayed due to the supply problems in Australia. But everything is on track in the NE now, so I suspect I’ll be getting ashore there within a month or two. But with so many shipping losses currently occurring at Guadalcanal, I may have to put off this or any other amphibious landings indefinitely. 4. The Burma offensive was launched, but not in Burma. In a recent sortie with the British navy, I ran my CVs along the west coast of Sumatra in an attempt to bait any Japanese CVs at Singapore into showing themselves. When nothing materialized, I headed back to Colombo, but conducted a port strike on a ship docked at Sabang on the way. After the strike, Intel reported only 4,000 troops defending Sabang. So I decided to scrub the Burma offensive and go for Northern Sumatra instead. I shifted all my troops to Colombo and had everything in place about 2 weeks ago or so. Unfortunately my fleet was spotted 2 or 3 days out, which gave Japan plenty of time to react. By the time my lone division started unloading (house rules prevent amphibious landings off of non-amphib type ships), Japan had 2 units 1 hex away and about to enter the base. Search planes also spotted a Japanese fleet in the Malacca Strait. With over half the South East Asia Commands land army sitting aboard AKs 2 hexes off shore, I had to make a decision. Intel reported only CAs in the force, but I simply had to assume it was a carrier force. So I made the decision to scrap the operation and fled, leaving behind the lion’s share of the British 18th Division. Thankfully I was able to unload at Colombo and form a large evacuation task force that returned and pulled the division out. Unfortunately I lost two cruisers (1 CA and 1 CL) because I mistakenly thought my range 4 Seafires would fly LRCAP at range 4… 5. Amazingly this is my only fully completed goal, and it was done with the most inept forces I have. Initially I planned to attack Indo-China, but Japan landed sizable reinforcements at Hanoi just before the offensive got underway. So I cancelled that op and started planning for a northern offensive instead. I gathered together about 5,000 AV of troops at Sian and had them prep for Yanku and other bases beyond. Slowly allied transport planes built up supplies in China, and after almost a year I felt I finally had enough to launch the attack. My units moved one hex SE of Sian and then crossed the river onto the road to the east. I then marched straight to Yanku and was surprised to find only 2 Japanese units defending there. Just as I launched my attack, those units fled, so the base was taken without a fight. I tried to continue my momentum, but the disruption and fatigue caused by the long march from Sian (took well over 1 month), meant my guys were barely making half the progress in a day that they normally would. I calculated it would take a week or more to get to the closest base and at least 2 weeks to get to the other. Then my units would be so disrupted and fatigued they’d have to wait several weeks before they could attack. So instead I’ve halted my offensive and began to dig in, in the forest hexes east and northeast of Yanku. I’ve also left a sizable force at Yanku and begun building up the airfield there. Japanese bombers have been making life difficult however, and the Chinese airforce is getting pushed around all over the place in air to air battles. So it looks like I’ll need to bring in some of the US baseforces and the US engineer unit to complete the job. They’ll be able to repair ground strike damage and keep the airfield building almost every day. So all in all most of my goals were not reached and the allies are behind schedule quite a bit. But with the recent arrival of the F6F, I feel confident to finally go looking for a fight, so things are going to get busy from this point on. I am currently in the process of landing troops on Guadalcanal. Based on the problems I ran into at Sabang due to our house rule about amphib landing ships, I’ve decided not to make a direct landing on Lunga and am instead offloading my huge force at the dot base on the north end of the island. This is risky in the sense that I’ll need to build up the facilities ASAP, but I’ve got enough Seabees going ashore that I should be able to get the base built in a reasonable amount of time. My only other option would have been a direct landing at Lunga, but with only enough amphib type landing ships to combat load 2 divisions, there was no guarantee they could take the base. This would have left me in the same dilemma I faced at Sabang, with a huge land army trapped at sea awaiting the fall of the base. And unlike Sabang, I expected the full KB to show up relatively soon here, so getting my troops off the ships was the priority. And as expected KB has appeared and is reaping havoc among my ships. Thus far the F6F has proven less than adequate to protect my ships, in their first contact with zeroes, they were swept from the skies without a single zero being downed. The next battle fought wasn’t as bad, but it did force me to return to port to draw new fighters as my carrier squadrons that participated in the fight were again wiped out. The F6F needs to be a dominate airframe for me to have any chance of counter-attacking the Japanese. I’ll hold off final judgment until the first big carrier battle, but so far things look pretty grim. All I can say is that one year later, I still HATE nik mod. And to top everything off, AAA is so ineffective I am beginning to fear I’ll be unable to sustain offensive ops period. In the past two days, Japan has probably launched 600+ sorties at my ships. I’ve only downed 36 airframes by flak and very few others were damaged, even though some of the battleship task forces Japan attacked were rated at 6,000 or 7,000 AAA value. This next turn I have an 8,000+ AAA surface group in the hex, I suspect flak will again prove utterly worthless should they get attacked. Historically it wasn’t uncommon to see half or more of a raid downed by US flak at this stage of the war, and most of the rest of the attackers would have been damaged by it. Without effective Flak and with the crappy nik mod fighters, I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to force landings against heavily defended bases. I’ll go into more detail about each theater in future posts. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 23 Aug 43 (9/18/2008 9:25:24 PM)
23 Aug 43 Sub ops today consist of four Japanese attacks on some of my ships that are retiring from the Guadalcanal area due to damage or the fact they’ve unloaded all their cargo. Two of the attacks fail and my ASW counter attacks pound both the subs, RO-60 and RO-102 both go to the bottom. The third attack hits and sinks LST-465. Later in the turn, Japanese sub RO-64 slams 3 torpedoes into the already damaged BB Tennessee, causing very heavy damage. With damage levels at 75/92/24, I doubt she’ll make it to port. Only US damage control efforts can hope to save her. Even though her odds are pretty slim, I decide to give her a fighting chance and resist the urge to scuttle her. At Rangoon, 111 of my heavy bombers hit the airfield causing moderate damage. No Japanese fighter opposition appears, as I successfully ran them off the base in a huge multi-day air battle around the time I conducted the Sabang landings. US medium bombers hammer Port Moresby and cause massive damage to the airbase. Again no Japanese air opposition is over the base, but at Port Moresby Japan left without a fight as soon as I retook NE Australia. At Tassafaronga (the northern base on Guadalcanal), Japan conducts four relatively tiny raids compared to the huge raids that have hit my ships over the past few days. My newly arrived supply fleet has 3 CVEs in it and their fresh F6F squadrons easily deter the small raids. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101 Japanese aircraft A6M2-N Rufe x 7 N1K Rex x 3 D3A2 Val x 3 Allied aircraft F6F Hellcat x 37 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2-N Rufe: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged N1K Rex: 2 destroyed D3A2 Val: 1 damaged -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 19 A6M3 Zero x 27 B6N2 Jill x 5 G4M1 Betty x 4 Allied aircraft F6F Hellcat x 37 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged A6M3 Zero: 6 destroyed, 2 damaged B6N2 Jill: 4 damaged Allied aircraft losses F6F Hellcat: 4 destroyed, 21 damaged Allied Ships CVE Altamaha Aircraft Attacking: 1 x B6N2 Jill launching torpedoes at 200 feet 4 x B6N2 Jill launching torpedoes at 200 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101 Japanese aircraft N1K Rex x 2 D3A2 Val x 4 Allied aircraft F6F Hellcat x 25 Japanese aircraft losses N1K Rex: 2 destroyed D3A2 Val: 2 damaged -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 8 A6M3 Zero x 19 G4M1 Betty x 3 Allied aircraft F6F Hellcat x 25 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed A6M3 Zero: 3 damaged G4M1 Betty: 1 damaged Allied aircraft losses F6F Hellcat: 4 damaged Allied Ships CVE Copahee Aircraft Attacking: 3 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Given that most of the action is occurring in the Solomon’s, I decided to do the detailed update for today for this area. With both New Caledonia and Luganville maxed out quite a while back as far as base size and forts go, I then decided to land my idle engineers at all the surrounding dot bases in New Caledonia, New Hebrides and three of the four dot bases in the Santa Cruz Islands. Of all these bases, only Ndeni can exceed our house rule (we agreed on a new rule around the time I started landing engineers) of no stacking more than 1 engineer, 1 battalion and 1 small baseforce on an atoll. So I’ve focused my efforts on trying to get Ndeni built up ASAP so I can base fighter air there. Unfortunately, even with over 150 Engineers and 90 engineer vehicles on the island, progress has proceeded at a snail’s pace and I am still only 74% of the way to a level 2 airfield. Given how slow progress was going, I figured it would take another month or two before I could base fighters there. Being so far behind schedule already, I decided I simply couldn’t afford to wait anymore, so I decided to launch my invasion without the 100 P-38s that I could have used to help protect my fleets once I had a level 2 airfield. As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to land at Tassafaronga so I could unload all my troops without first needing to capture the Lunga base. Recon consistently reports over 47,000 Japanese at Lunga, so I think this was the right decision. My guess is he could have close to 600-800 AV at Lunga if most of those troops are combat troops. I have about 800 AV at Tassafaronga now, so the battle will be decided by naval and air bombardments reducing the enemy’s combat power over time I think. If I have to, I can bring the 3rd Marine Division ashore as well to boost my combat power with it. But I’d prefer to keep it as a reactionary reserve force to reinforce any bases Japan may try and attack. It will also be the tip of the spear for my next invasion, so I want to keep it in perfect fighting trim if possible. Rennell Island, Irau and Stewart Island are all getting engineers and baseforces over the next few turns, along with some defensive troops. I plan to build up these bases to support Tassafaronga, as I expect Japan to heavily pound that base regularly from air and sea. These rear area bases will probably be able to support fighters long before Tassafaronga can, so they’ll get the lion’s share of engineering from now on. So that’s the situation around the Solomon’s. Currently I have been on station and unloading troops at Tassafaronga for 3 or 4 days now. 95% of the troops are ashore now and my big supply fleet arrived this turn and has begun offloading the 200,000+ supplies it carries. Here’s a screenshot of the current situation: [image]local://upfiles/5815/8F0001AC7E7A433591B72B154D4474A1.jpg[/image] The main battle started out with a bit of a disaster on the first day of fighting. I was under the mistaken impression that my fighters could fly LRCAP at extended ranges. I had been burned at Sabang with the same mistaken impression, but I had attributed that to a bug and not to my own misinterpretation of the rule. So I assumed my 150 P-38s from Luganville would cover my three CVEs out to a range of nine hexes while 2 of the 3 squadrons of F6Fs were then assigned to cover Tassafaronga. Disaster then followed. Of course no P-38s were over the CVEs, but then the two F6F squadrons sent to Tassafaronga failed to appear. Net result was I had just 15 F6Fs over my CVEs when Japan struck. My F6Fs were blown away without causing a single enemy loss and at the end of the day just 1 CVE was still capable of flight ops. The next day went a little better as I sent two full carrier squadrons to LRCAP over the fleet as it arrived at Tassafaronga. Combined with the F6Fs from the remaining CVE, the CAP was at least able to down a few incoming planes. But the cost was horrific. Two entire CV F6F squadrons were practically wiped out to a man, and over 30 of my best pilots in game were lost. This of course forced my CVs to retire (they had been hovering four hexes SE of Tassafaronga) to Luganville to draw new planes and pilots. This of course opened the way to unopposed Japanese air strikes on my fleets at Tassafaronga. The cost in lost shipping at this point has been horrific. Fully ¼ and possibly 1/3rd of the AP ships involved are sunk, or will sink. Several good surface vessels (the Boise being one of them) are lost and it now looks like at least 1 BB will go under as well. And it isn’t over yet. This turn saw the Japanese carriers fail to launch a strike. They had been hovering 5 hexes NE of Tassafaronga, so I assume they retired to Munda or Shortlands (many fleets spotted there) to refuel and rest. I expect them to return this turn with a vengeance. My 3 CVEs in hex are only putting up about 30 or so CAP, so KB will rip through it when they do return. I’ve gone ahead and cancelled the unload command for all my APs and ordered them to retire to try and preserve some lift ability for future ops. That leaves 2 large AK fleets, my surface BB fleet and several soon to arrive PT boat fleets in the hex. I predict I’ll need at least 4 more days of unloading to get a decent amount of the 250,000 or so supplies left aboard ships unloaded. One of the AK fleets still has about 8000 troops loaded, but I expect them to finish unloading this turn. I brought so much supply because I assume huge amounts will be lost to spoilage and Japanese bombardments. I want to give the troops time to get the base built up before I have to brave any further Japanese attacks by bringing in another fleet. So all in all it’s a very tough fight for the allies. I’ve barley caused any damage to Japan, while he’s eviscerated me. And to top it all off, Tassafaronga is a damn 0(0), 0(0) base. Why in hell CHS made this an atoll base eludes me, but it’s going to take far longer to construct anything here than I thought it would. I wish I could see a dot bases potential port and airfields with a mouse over, I’d have probably postponed my landings until I had Rennell Island built up had I known it was a blasted atoll base. Jim

Cathartes -> RE: 23 Aug 43 (9/18/2008 11:42:16 PM)
Nice to see your AAR return! My sympathies on your rough handling. Tassafaronga may have poor base potential, but don't think it's technically an atoll based on what the map shows. There are a lot of dot islands in that chain that are worthless as you are discovering the hard way. There are some glitches in the CHS map that will allow certain ports and airfields to build up more quickly than a zero potential rating is supposed to allow to happen. I found this out quite by accident, but I honestly don't know about the bases that you're in currently. In lieu of the situation, I recommend cutting your losses and getting the hell out of dodge. A zero-zero base in your current surroundings will get pummelled before you can ever make it into anything--you have no supporting bases nearby to offer meaningful LBA support.

Jim D Burns -> RE: 23 Aug 43 (9/19/2008 2:20:59 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Cathartes Nice to see your AAR return! My sympathies on your rough handling. Tassafaronga may have poor base potential, but don't think it's technically an atoll based on what the map shows. There are a lot of dot islands in that chain that are worthless as you are discovering the hard way. There are some glitches in the CHS map that will allow certain ports and airfields to build up more quickly than a zero potential rating is supposed to allow to happen. I found this out quite by accident, but I honestly don't know about the bases that you're in currently. In lieu of the situation, I recommend cutting your losses and getting the hell out of dodge. A zero-zero base in your current surroundings will get pummelled before you can ever make it into anything--you have no supporting bases nearby to offer meaningful LBA support. Hi Cathartes, Thanks, I’m glad to be back at it. The last year in game has been pretty mundane. I’m worried Tassafaronga is treated like an atoll as far as construction goes not how combats are fought. It is taking months to get Ndeni built up even with lots of engineers there. Hopefully Tassafaronga will go up quicker than that, otherwise I’m in deep trouble there. I simply can’t pull out to cut my losses. It’s almost September of 1943, if the allies can’t force a landing now, they’ll never have time to make any real inroads into Japan’s defensive perimeter. I’m already way behind schedule as it is. Besides I’ve already paid a huge price, cutting and running would make the entire operation an utter disaster and it would be mid 44 before I could be in a position to launch another invasion. I’ve got to be able to succeed with the tools I have now, as they don’t get any better. So if I can’t succeed, then perhaps this just proves nik mod is simply unplayable for the allies. It’s such a pro Japanese mod I should have never played it, but it’s my fault for not investigating it more before I asked for an opponent. I chose to play it because of the positive responses I saw it get on the forums. My guess now is that it was Japanese players who were making those remarks. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 24 August 43 (9/19/2008 5:48:33 AM)
24 August 43 As expected the BB Tennessee goes under along with several APs damaged earlier. Sub ops today consist of 2 Japanese sub attacks, 1 Japanese ASW attack and 2 allied ASW attacks. One sub attack misses, but the other slams several torpedoes into a crippled AP. One of the allied ASW attacks scores 2 hits on a sub, but damage appears to be very minor. The allies launch four air strikes today. Port Moresby, Munda and Lunga are hit. Lunga gets slammed twice. Only the attack on Munda is opposed, 24 zeroes defend against 88 A-29s and manage to shoot down 3 and damage 24 others. Damage to the base was light. Japan launches 5 airstrikes against my fleets at Tassafaronga. Another tiny strike launches against the task forces at Rennell Island. No major damage was caused, though a few hits were scored. Only two of the strikes on Tassafaronga are large enough to merit attention, here’s their reports: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 12 A6M3 Zero x 28 D3A2 Val x 18 A6M3a Zero x 14 G4M1 Betty x 5 Allied aircraft F6F Hellcat x 28 Japanese aircraft losses A6M3 Zero: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged D3A2 Val: 15 damaged A6M3a Zero: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged G4M1 Betty: 5 damaged Allied aircraft losses F6F Hellcat: 4 destroyed, 9 damaged Allied Ships CVE Nassau CVE Copahee AK De Klerk, Bomb hits 1, on fire CVE Altamaha Aircraft Attacking: 1 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 24 A6M3 Zero x 16 D3A2 Val x 11 G4M1 Betty x 8 Allied aircraft F6F Hellcat x 18 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged A6M3 Zero: 5 destroyed D3A2 Val: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged G4M1 Betty: 4 damaged Allied aircraft losses F6F Hellcat: 4 damaged Allied Ships CVE Copahee CVE Nassau AK Haurakii CVE Altamaha Aircraft Attacking: 1 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet <snip> My opponent complained to me that this is the second day in a row KB failed to find my invasion fleets. I watched the replay closely and saw no reports about his pilots getting lost or failing to locate a target. I suspect he may be trying to mislead me and has purposefully stood down his attacks. Though the first of the above 2 listed Japanese air strikes was actually a coordinated strike between KB and Shortlands, so I may be wrong about that. In the afternoon phase there was a cloud over KB’s hex (it’s back where it was earlier), so perhaps they were socked in by weather. I’m glad for the reprieve however, as it’s given my CVs time to get back into the area. This turn they’ll stop 5 hexes south of Tassafaronga. Next turn I’ll debate whether to fly LRCAP or to try and force a CV engagement. With two turns in a row of no KB strikes, I’m sure his KB pilots are rested up, so I wouldn’t want to sally north against fresh pilots. But if he flies this turn, I may head north depending on how many of his planes are reported as damaged. I’ve run into a bug however that is going to put a crimp on any possible offensive actions with my CVs. Enterprise’s F6F group is failing to repair any airframes. In fact they are becoming more damaged, as last turn 5 were ready and only 3 were ready this turn. So I’ve stood down all her squadrons and ordered her out of theater. I find nothing out of the ordinary, though her pilot experience level is down significantly due to all the new pilots she had to draw. My task forces at Tassafaronga are unloading much slower than I thought they would, there are still slightly less than 4,000 troops aboard the one fleet that had about 8,000 last turn. I guess I’ll need a week or more to get a decent amount of supply ashore instead of the three or four days I first thought I’d need. Jim

Cathartes -> RE: 24 August 43 (9/19/2008 7:19:24 AM)
Tassafaronga is treated like a level 0 base, regardless of whether it's an atoll or not, it takes roughly 10x longer to build up to a level 1 airfiled compared to a level 1 base potential. This is why if you linger there, as a Japanese player, I would relish the time I have to strike you from land and sea as you spin your wheels at a level 0 base. Your carriers can't possibly patrol long enough, even with replenishment, to protect you before you reach a level 2 base (which finally allows you some offensive capability) because your CV CAP will grow weary, it takes you forever to unload at a 0 port hex, and your base is in construction purgatory with men and supplies exposed to naval bombardment. I have plenty of time to amass resources to strike while you spin your wheels. I don't mean to be an armchair commander here, and I really have no experience with NikMod, so FWIW... If you think you're behind, it's all relative. In my PBEM, I don't even have Noumea back and its October 1943! Good luck!

Jim D Burns -> 25 Aug 43 (9/19/2008 8:18:40 PM)
25 Aug 43 Sub ops today consist of 3 Japanese sub attacks, 1 Japanese ASW attack, 1 allied sub attack and 1 allied ASW attack. One of the Japanese sub attacks slams the DD Lardner which was damaged in a surface battle this turn and sends her to the bottom. The next attack fails and escorts score 6 hits setting the sub I-37 afire. The allies then conduct an ASW attack on the same sub and score 9 more hits and causing heavy damage. I think the sub sunk but can’t remember for sure. Later the final Japanese sub attack slams an AK at Rennell Island. The big news this turn is multiple surface engagements at Rennell Island. Two allied BB task forces detect and react to a CA force moving into the hex, and battle then ensues. As far as I’m concerned the results this turn are total bullshit. First my ships detect and react to the Japanese fleet. Then they begin tracking it on radar. Then BOTH fleets are surprised in their first round of battle. WTF? Surface battles in WitP are so ridiculous it’s laughable. Each of my task forces fought 2 engagements with the Japanese. The fleet with 3 BBs fought two rounds and then the 2 BB fleet engaged. Here are the first fleet’s results: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Rennell Island at 65,103 Japanese Ships CA Tone, Shell hits 2, on fire CA Chikuma CL Isuzu, Shell hits 3, on fire CL Tama, Shell hits 2 CL Kiso, Shell hits 2, on fire DD Michishio DD Arashio DD Yamagumo, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage DD Minegumo, Shell hits 4, on fire Allied Ships BB Maryland, Shell hits 6 BB Colorado, Shell hits 3 BB Idaho, Shell hits 1 CA Indianapolis, Shell hits 3 CA Salt Lake City, Shell hits 3 DD McCalla, Shell hits 2 DD Barton, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk DD Woodworth, Shell hits 1, on fire DD Bancroft, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Rennell Island at 65,103 Japanese Ships CA Tone, on fire CA Chikuma, Shell hits 1 CL Isuzu, Shell hits 7, on fire CL Tama CL Kiso, Shell hits 11, on fire, heavy damage DD Michishio, Shell hits 1 DD Arashio DD Yamagumo, Shell hits 2, and is sunk DD Minegumo, on fire Allied Ships BB Maryland, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire BB Colorado, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1 BB Idaho, Shell hits 3 CA Indianapolis, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, on fire CA Salt Lake City DD McCalla, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk DD Woodworth, Shell hits 1, on fire DD Bancroft, Shell hits 3, on fire, heavy damage -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not only was the second fleet surprised in the first engagement, Japan launched an unanswerable long lance attack in the beginning of the second. So it was basically surprised twice. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Rennell Island at 65,103 Japanese aircraft no flights Japanese aircraft losses E7K2 Alf: 1 destroyed Japanese Ships CA Tone, on fire CA Chikuma CL Isuzu, Shell hits 1, on fire CL Tama CL Kiso, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk DD Michishio, Shell hits 1, on fire DD Arashio DD Minegumo, on fire Allied Ships BB New Mexico BB Mississippi, Shell hits 7 CA Chicago, Shell hits 3 CA Pensacola DD Lansdowne DD Lardner, Shell hits 6, on fire, heavy damage -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Rennell Island at 65,103 Japanese Ships CA Tone, on fire CA Chikuma CL Isuzu, on fire CL Tama DD Michishio, on fire DD Arashio DD Minegumo, on fire, heavy damage Allied Ships BB New Mexico BB Mississippi, Shell hits 1 CA Chicago CA Pensacola DD Lansdowne DD Lardner, Shell hits 1, on fire, heavy damage -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The thing that makes these battles totally pathetic is that the allied fleet tracked the Japanese on radar before every single engagement… How in hell are you surprised when you are actively tracking them on radar? Obviously surface radar is not working properly in game, instead of preventing surprises, I think it guarantees them. [image]local://upfiles/5815/A5C8FC99628E4A90823064EB83CFDB23.jpg[/image] Net result is a small Japanese Cruiser force defeats the total allied surface force supporting the invasion and walks away practically unscathed. I now have just two BBs, 2 CAs and 1 DD left from this force to face the as yet to appear Japanese BBs. The allies fly 2 large air raids and smash the base at Daily Waters. This is my routine raid in northern Australia, Japan has conceded the air to me here. Allied SBDs and TBMs from my CVEs at Tassafaronga launch several small strikes at two Japanese stragglers from the surface engagement, but fail to score any hits even though they have perfect morale and fatigue and no enemy CAP is present. Then Japan’s fatigued airforce from Shortlands launches some small raids on my ships at Tassafaronga. Of course in keeping with the turn’s utter poor luck, not only do they penetrate my CAP, 2 of the three CVEs are hit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 24 A6M3 Zero x 12 G4M1 Betty x 3 Allied aircraft F6F Hellcat x 19 Japanese aircraft losses A6M3 Zero: 1 damaged G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged Allied aircraft losses F6F Hellcat: 6 damaged Allied Ships CVE Nassau, Torpedo hits 1, on fire Aircraft Attacking: 2 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101 Japanese aircraft D3A2 Val x 9 Allied aircraft F6F Hellcat x 10 Japanese aircraft losses D3A2 Val: 3 damaged Allied Ships CVE Altamaha, Bomb hits 1, on fire Aircraft Attacking: 3 x D3A2 Val bombing at 2000 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Given result like these, I throw in the towel and order my supply fleet at Tassafaronga to withdraw. I’ve kept the other AK fleet there to try and finish offloading the rest of its troops. My small surface group shall remain at Rennell Island to try and hold off the BBs that are sure to arrive any day now. With the base set to reach a level 1 airfield tomorrow, I’ll bring in some Corsairs to use as CAP. But for today, I’ve ordered the CVs south of Rennell Island 5 hexes with orders to fly 2 squadrons over the base as LRCAP. Tassafaronga is on its own as far as air defense. The priority is to get Rennell Island up and running so I can cover future supply fleets. Progress at Tassafaronga is also going unbelievably slow. I’ve got 300 or so engineers and about 80-90 vehicles, but I’m at less than 10% on the port. I want to get the port up first so I can offload quicker and also so I can get fuel into the base to resupply the hordes of PT boats I’ll be sending in. Jim

Jim D Burns -> RE: 24 August 43 (9/19/2008 8:23:37 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Cathartes I don't mean to be an armchair commander here, No problem at all, that's why I post the AAR, to get others views. All comments and critiques are welcome. Had the past three days been like the first 2, I suspect I'd have regretted not leaving. But as things are now decidedly going against me in the luck rolls, I'm outta there after next turn for sure. I expect I'll be gone within three days from Rennell as well. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 26 Aug 43 (9/19/2008 8:39:46 PM)
26 Aug 43 Sub ops today consist of 1 Japanese sub attack, 1 Japanese ASW attack and 2 allied sub attacks. Japan’s sub attack slams an AP that was leaving the battle area. One of the US sub attacks sinks an AG at Shortlands with its deck gun. Japan flies two air raids on Yanku today causing moderate damage to the base. These attacks are causing too much damage for me to keep up with, so I’ve ordered all my troops back to the base to maximize my engineering capability. It’ll be months before the US engineer unit can get there as it has to march overland since its vehicles can’t be airlifted. I don’t want the base to be a wreck when it arrives. Besides, with 5,000 or so AV in the base, there really is no need to defend the forest hexes, I can blow away any Japanese units that arrive, unless it’s a huge army. And I’d much rather see his big effort in the north than in the center, as I have far less to lose in the north. Japan launches two small air raids on the task forces at Tassafaronga, scoring hits on two AKs. With over 100,000 supplies ashore at Tassafaronga, I’ve pulled up anchor and ordered everything home. Only some PT boats squadrons and a crippled AK remain. I don’t expect the AK to survive, so it’ll stay and try and offload its supplies before it goes under. Rennell Island is now a level 1 airfield and 22% of the way to level 2. I’ve rebased in two squadrons of Corsairs flying 50% CAP. I think only 10 airframes per squadron are allowed to fly from a level 1, but I’m not sure. With the airbase about to be self sufficient, I’ve ordered my CVs to port for refueling. They’ll head back north if the Japanese venture south with their CVs. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 27 Aug 43 (9/20/2008 5:30:11 AM)
27 Aug 43 Sub ops today consist of 1 Japanese sub attack, 1 Japanese ASW attack, 3 allied sub attacks and 1 allied ASW attack. The Japanese sub attack slams an AK at Irau Island, but the escorts pound the sub 6 times causing heavy damage. One of the allied sub attacks puts two into the side of a tanker loaded with fuel mid ocean about 6-8 hexes south of Japan. Finally an allied ASW attack at Rennell Island sinks RO-67. As suspected, the battleships Ise and Hyuga leading 2 CAs, 1 CL and 8 DDs shows up at Tassafaronga and sinks the crippled AK I left behind. Allied PT boats then launch 3 attacks, and even though one of them surprises the battleship fleet, no hits are scored. Several PTs are sunk. Japan then bombards the troops ashore and causes heavy damage. No base damage is caused as this is a night bombardment. My brand new shiny port doesn’t get finished until daylight, so the base is untouched… [8\|] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naval bombardment of Tassafaronga, at 66,101 Japanese Ships CL Noshiro CA Kako CA Aoba BB Hyuga BB Ise Allied ground losses: 1234 casualties reported Guns lost 16 Vehicles lost 11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan conducts two more attacks at Yanku. Damage is going up pretty quickly. Hopefully my other units will arrive back at the base soon and I can make a dent in the repairs. Japan then launches several air strikes at my task forces unloading at Rennell Island. The Corsairs take to the skies and I’m happy to see more than the 10 per squadron I thought a level 1 base would limit me to. Even though I scored my first 3-1 air to air victory of the game today, Japan still manages to push through most of his bombers and the BB New Mexico gets hammered. [image]local://upfiles/5815/6370CFA8B2E542FB96A56B6D639D4FC6.jpg[/image] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Rennell Island at 65,103 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 10 A6M3 Zero x 8 G3M Nell x 5 Allied aircraft F4U-1 Corsair x 26 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged A6M3 Zero: 2 damaged G3M Nell: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged Allied aircraft losses F4U-1 Corsair: 4 damaged Allied Ships DMS Zane Aircraft Attacking: 3 x G3M Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Rennell Island at 65,103 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 17 A6M3 Zero x 12 D4Y Judy x 33 A6M3a Zero x 15 B6N2 Jill x 43 Allied aircraft F4U-1 Corsair x 31 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged D4Y Judy: 4 destroyed, 25 damaged A6M3a Zero: 6 destroyed, 3 damaged B6N2 Jill: 3 destroyed, 37 damaged Allied aircraft losses F4U-1 Corsair: 3 destroyed, 15 damaged Allied Ships BB New Mexico, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage BB Mississippi, Bomb hits 1 CA Pensacola Aircraft Attacking: 3 x D4Y Judy bombing at 2000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Rennell Island at 65,103 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 9 A6M3 Zero x 6 G3M Nell x 3 Allied aircraft F4U-1 Corsair x 28 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged A6M3 Zero: 1 damaged G3M Nell: 3 damaged Allied aircraft losses F4U-1 Corsair: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged Allied Ships AP Empire Chivalry Aircraft Attacking: 3 x G3M Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I launch a huge air strike of almost 200 bombers in the Aleutians against the port at Adak and score 5 port hits and 5 port supply hits. This is another one of my routine raids. I switch between the port and the airfield each time I fly, which allows me to keep the base almost 100% damaged for both its port and airfield. With the crippling of one of my two remaining battleships, and the appearance of the Japanese battleships, I throw in the towel at Rennell Island and order my fleets south. I’ll have to wait until my airfield is large enough to dominate the local area before I can safely operate in the Solomon Islands without sufficient surface assets to protect my fleets anymore. Of the 7 battleships I took into the op, 1 is sunk, 1 may yet sink and 4 will need significant yard time. Only 1 BB remains for surface duty, as the other 4 I have in theater are operating in CV fleets as flak platforms and torpedo magnets. I’m very pleased with the corsairs today, as they did go up against carrier zeroes and held their own shooting down quite a few of those good pilots. But I suspect it was the fatigue of the Japanese pilots that allowed me to do so well, the next few turns will tell the tale for sure. The total air to air tally today was 5 corsairs lost (only 1 pilot) to I think (can’t remember for sure now) 16 Japanese fighters and 4 bombers. But the Japanese numbers may be a bit lower, I’m not sure. Jim

Cathartes -> RE: 27 Aug 43 (9/20/2008 5:27:30 PM)
Corsairs are gold from here on out. At their worst they trade 1-1 in A2A. You can generally expect between 2-1 to 3-1 A2A victory ratio on defensive CAP if they are not outnumbered. If you have a number advantage on sweep they can be devastating. I can't wait until I can put them on carriers myself.

Jim D Burns -> 28 Aug 43 (9/20/2008 11:02:33 PM)
28 Aug 43 Sub ops today consist of 2 allied sub attacks, one of which scores a hit on an AK, and 1 allied ASW attack which gets two minor hits on the sub. The Kongo and Haruna leading 2 CAs and 4 DDs then shows up at Rennell Island and sinks a single AK left there that was trying to finish unloading the troops it had aboard. My PT boats then attack but all 3 attacks fail to score. Then this: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naval bombardment of Rennell Island, at 65,103 Allied aircraft no flights Allied aircraft losses F4U-1 Corsair: 4 destroyed Japanese Ships CA Suzuya CA Kumano BB Kongo BB Haruna Allied ground losses: 5091 casualties reported Guns lost 73 Vehicles lost 62 Airbase hits 7 Airbase supply hits 2 Runway hits 27 Port hits 12 Port supply hits 18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Man how I hate the stupid nuke effect of bombardments in this game. The irony is I don’t even have a port, so I don’t know if the port damage is even repairable until I build one… The base is a mess. A cruiser group then bombards Tassafaronga and gets more reasonable results. No airfield built yet, no airfield hits scored as you'd expect. And troop damage is more reasonable as well, no nukes going off here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naval bombardment of Tassafaronga, at 66,101 Japanese Ships CL Yubari CL Agano CA Furutaka CA Kinugasa Allied ground losses: 711 casualties reported Guns lost 9 Vehicles lost 5 Port hits 1 Port supply hits 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan conducts a large air strike on Yanku, and does heavy damage to the base. Two small air raids on my fleet unloading at Irau Island score 1 torpedo and 2 bomb hits on an AP. The allies launch another air strike at Adak (oops forgot to turn it off) Islands port, this time 3 port hits and 10 port supply hits are scored. With most of my BBs in bad shape, I’m going to have a tough time keeping Rennell Island in decent shape given the nuke effects it is going to suffer. Guess I’ll have to try and catch him with my CVs and send a few of his ships to the bottom. Unfortunately the Enterprise is still having major problems repairing the F6Fs. Over half the planes are still damaged even though I have them stood down. I have no idea what the hell the trouble is. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 29 Aug 43 (9/21/2008 8:15:06 PM)
29 Aug 43 Sub ops today consist of 2 allied sub attacks and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. One of the allied sub attacks puts two torpedoes into a Japanese AK at Kwajalein. All three of the other attacks result in minor damage to the allied subs. Allied bombers hit Meiktila in Burma today causing moderate damage to the base. This is another routine raid I conduct with my Medium bombers in India. The intent is to burn Japanese supplies in Burma and to keep the airbase from becoming operational again. Adak Island’s port is hit yet again… causing 3 port hits and 2 port supply hits. I’ve been so focused on operations in the Solomon Islands, I have forgotten to turn this mission off for the past two turns. I make sure I do turn it off at the start of this turn. I send 126 medium bombers from Luganville to hit the port at Lunga (Intel shows the airfield at max damage), 6 port hits and 2 port supply hits are scored. Japan hits Yanku and causes minor damage. Japan flies two small air raids against the ships unloading at Irau and scores a torpedo hit on a DD. Another raid of Kates hits Tassafaronga at 16,000 feet causing no damage. The fact China was the most recent area to see action outside of the Solomon Islands, I decided to do a recap of what’s going on there today. [image]local://upfiles/5815/7E7F9E8DD959425A9061414F0CD9A142.jpg[/image] Right at the game start, I rushed units into Canton and established a strong position in the urban terrain. This multiplier of force has allowed me to keep Japan bottled up in the South of China for the entire game. Japan has made no effort to break out since the early battles we fought showed it was a stalemate there. Early on in the game I established some roadblock positions east of Changsha in the closest two forest hexes along each road. I did this after abandoning my holdings east of Nanchang due to supply problems. Both Japan and I have tried at different stages of the game to push beyond these roadblock positions, and we have both failed. I made an early game attempt to take Ichang, but Japan easily reinforced. So it has become a stalemate hex along with the three other positions I have mentioned south of it. So basically all of central and southern China have been in a state of Stalemate most of the game. Of course Japan could usually easily overwhelm any one of the 4 positions if he made a concerted effort. What has allowed me to stop him in our game is my liberal use of reserves. I keep large reserve forces at Wuchow and Changsha. These forces can rapidly react to moves Japan makes, and have allowed me to stop him whenever he moves in large forces to try and break through. As soon as the fighting dies down, I again withdraw my reserve army to the city. The other added benefit of this setup is that these armies sitting in the cities have slowly gained a lot of morale. Many Chinese corps now have 70-90+ morale levels. I’ve swapped out the high morale troops with the lower troops in the roadblock positions so now most of China’s army is well above 70 morale with 59+ experience levels. I doubt Japan can conquer China now because of this. I went over the recent northern operations to take Yanku in an early post a few turns back, so I won’t go over that ground again. Currently the battle is an air battle in the north. I’m trying to get the airfield built up, and Japan is trying to prevent it. So far he’s won by keeping my base damaged too much for me to continue building it up (level 3 now). I’ve recently redeployed my entire 5,000 AV army back into the city to try and up my engineering capabilities, and it seems to be working. On turns when Japan does not damage the base, I actually can make some progress. But on turns he does hit the base, total damage goes up by about 3-10 points from the previous damage levels. So it looks like it’s a stalemate here too, as long as Japan keeps pounding the airfield. Chinese fighters have been decimated and are stood down doing nothing trying to slowly raise their morale. The good news is a Chinese Command P-38 squadron recently arrived in Aden and should be ready for action in a few weeks. It has low morale too, so it’ll need time before I can send it in with the rest of the garbage planes. Supply wise China is in great shape, especially now that about 60-80 of the 100+ transports shuttling supplies in are now Commando’s. I’m bringing in about 2,000 points a turn to Chengtu now. Yanku doesn’t have high levels of supply, but it is drawing sufficient supplies to sustain itself in the orange/red border zone. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 30 Aug 43 (9/21/2008 8:40:05 PM)
30 Aug 43 Sub ops today consist of 3 allied sub attacks and 1 Japanese sub attack. Looks like a snake eyes was rolled or something, as all 4 attacks score hits. All three allied subs hit AKs, one at Guam (carrying fuel), one at Kwajalein and one at Tinian (carrying fuel). The Japanese attack hits an AP at Irau and the escorts counter attacks hit the sub twice, damage appeared minor. The allies fly two routine raids on Daily Waters, damage is very heavy. 157 heavy bombers hit Rangoon, damage there is also heavy. Japan flies two raids against Yanku, combined they cause heavy damage. Japanese Vals fly two raids against PT boats at Rennell Island. Even though I have a few Corsairs in the air, no Vals are shot down. The raids are broken up though, and no PT boats are hit. Two small raids hit the ships at Irau again today, and an AK is hit by a torpedo. Another Val raid hits the PT boats at Tassafaronga and 2 PT boats are hit. Finally a small raid hits a tanker convoy of small 2000 ton tankers on route to Tassafaronga to offload fuel for the PT boats. One tanker eats a torpedo. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 31 Aug 43 (9/21/2008 9:16:55 PM)
31 Aug 43 Sub ops today consist of 2 allied sub attacks, 1 Japanese sub attack and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. The only successful attack was the USS Argonaut which torpedoed and sunk a Japanese MSW in the Aleutians at Attu Island. It then planted a minefield and withdrew. At Tassafaronga, my tanker fleet arrives at night and DD Dunlap hits a mine. Then a Japanese BB fleet shows up and engages my one remaining PT boat squadron at the base. No torpedo hits are scored and I lose a PT boat. Next it’s the tanker fleets turn. Luckily I’m not surprised, and the screen prevents most tankers from being detected. I manage to withdraw before any major damage can be dealt out, though the lone tanker that was hit will probably go under. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Tassafaronga at 66,101 Japanese Ships BB Ise, Shell hits 1 BB Hyuga, Shell hits 1 CA Aoba CA Kako, Shell hits 1 CL Noshiro, Shell hits 1 DD Akizuki DD Teruzuki DD Susuzuki DD Hatsuzuki DD Niizuki DD Suzunami DD Hayanami DD Asashio Allied Ships DD Dunlap, Shell hits 3, and is sunk DD Fanning, Shell hits 2 TK B. C. J. Grootes, Shell hits 1, on fire, heavy damage TK Colina, Shell hits 1 TK D. L. Kruithof TK J. D. Schreijers TK P. J. Duinker TK P. P. Buisman -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan’s BBs then bombard the base, but damage is minor and no base damage at all occurs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Naval bombardment of Tassafaronga, at 66,101 Japanese Ships CL Noshiro CA Kako CA Aoba BB Hyuga BB Ise Allied ground losses: 306 casualties reported Guns lost 3 Vehicles lost 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan hits Yanku today and damage is heavy. The 9 Vals from yesterday return to Tassafaronga and sink another PT boat. Then a small raid locates the lone tanker Grootes (damaged by the BB fleet) and scores a bomb hit and some strafe hits at 100 feet. This must be the same squadron that is shredding my PT boats. With several of the tankers as yet undamaged, I order the survivors and 1 remaining undamaged DD back to Tassafaronga. Hopefully Japan won’t revisit the base with a surface fleet this turn and I can offload some fuel for the PTs. I have about 20 or so on the way in from Luganville, they’ll be bone dry when they arrive. I’ve run into a bug with one of my CVEs. The CVE Chenango made it to Luganville and is repairing flood damage before returning to a major port for long term repair. As I looked over its damage status this turn, I noted the AC capacity was 31/37 and red. [image]local://upfiles/5815/24E448ED154F45A8A786753223562AD9.jpg[/image] Upon inspection I noted that both air squadrons had increased their max capacities. It now has 27 fighters and 10 torpedo bombers, far too many planes for the CVE to ever be able to launch planes again. Does anyone know a way to fix this? Am I going to have to permanently offload the torpedo bomber group in order to use this CVE? I hate bugs. Jim

Jim D Burns -> 1 Sep 43 (9/22/2008 12:15:44 AM)
1 Sep 43 The allies pay 2600 PP for not withdrawing a CV and 2 DDs yet again this month and are required to withdraw a CA next month. I send a damaged CA and 2 damaged DDs from the Sabang fiasco to Bombay for the requirement. As usual I’m well into negative territory PP wise, so things like changing commanders and stuff can usually only be done rarely near the end of the month, if at all. I have had a capital ship withdraw requirement almost every turn except for perhaps 4 or 5 turns all game. Of those 4 or 5 turns, only two of them had no withdraw requirements at all. Needless to say PP’s are a rare commodity if/when they ever do go into positive territory. Sub ops this turn consist of 3 allied sub attacks, 2 Japanese sub attacks and 3 Japanese ASW attacks. Two of the allied sub attacks score hits. At Kwajalein an AK takes two torpedoes and the escorts hit the sub twice causing minor damage. In the Solomon Islands, the Soryu’s task is spotted by sub S-28 and the battleship Mutsu is hit with a torpedo. Damage is light. Japanese sub RO-65 makes its presence felt today and slams 2 of the small tankers trying to get fuel to Tassafaronga. Both tankers are hit twice. At Tassafaronga a Japanese surface fleet enters the hex and one of its DDs hits an allied mine. Then my tanker fleet enters the hex and a tanker hits a Japanese mine. Next comes the surface action and I pay for last turns hubris. Thankfully my two remaining PT boats help ease the pain by finishing off the mine victim from earlier. Though it would have been nice if the one PT torpedo hit I’ve gotten thus far in this area hit a fresh ship instead… -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Tassafaronga at 66,101 Japanese Ships CA Kinugasa CA Furutaka CL Agano CL Yubari DD Murakumo, on fire, heavy damage DD Shikinami DD Ayanami DD Sagiri Allied Ships DD Fanning, Shell hits 21, and is sunk TK D. L. Kruithof, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk TK J. D. Schreijers TK P. J. Duinker TK P. P. Buisman, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Tassafaronga at 66,101 Japanese Ships CA Kinugasa CA Furutaka CL Agano CL Yubari DD Murakumo, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk DD Shikinami DD Ayanami DD Sagiri, Shell hits 1 Allied Ships PT PT-238 PT PT-239 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The allies launch only one air attack today, but it is a big one. Ever since Portland Roads recently finished its level 7 airfield, I’ve been flying recon flights over Lae every day. After watching Japan pull out of several major bases like Rangoon, Port Moresby, etc. without a real fight for the air, I fully expected Lae to soon be empty of airframes as well. But with huge numbers of planes still spotted there last turn, I launched the attack today. My rested P-38s did ok, scoring a 3:4 kill ratio (21 of mine to 28 of his) in air to air. Not great, but better than the 1:2 or 1:3 they’ve been getting. The heavy recon of the base and my bombers high experience pays off and massive damage is done to the base and the aircraft based there. If I had to guess, my opponent will be abandoning all bases within range 14 of Portland Roads soon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on Lae , at 56,90 Japanese aircraft A6M3 Zero x 15 N1K Rex x 6 A6M3a Zero x 67 Allied aircraft P-38G Lightning x 116 B-24D Liberator x 180 F-4 Lightning x 3 Japanese aircraft losses A6M3 Zero: 11 destroyed N1K Rex: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged A6M3a Zero: 39 destroyed Ki-21-II Sally: 3 destroyed G4M1 Betty: 6 destroyed G4M2 Betty: 5 destroyed Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 destroyed Allied aircraft losses P-38G Lightning: 18 destroyed, 57 damaged B-24D Liberator: 30 damaged Japanese ground losses: 147 casualties reported Guns lost 2 Airbase hits 25 Airbase supply hits 4 Runway hits 215 Aircraft Attacking: 6 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 15000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Japan’s air attack on Yanku causes minor damage to the base today, and my engineers manage to fix all damage and add a small amount to airfield construction. The Solomon Islands see a lot of small Japanese air strikes today. A fast transport task force of mine arrived in Rennell Island and Japan launches 3 strikes at it. The 15 Corsairs on CAP get no kills, but they manage to prevent any damage. A small strike on one of the surviving tankers fails to score any hits. Then two strikes of 6 Vals each, one of 5 Vals and one of 21 Vals all go after my PT boats today. None score a hit. Japan’s pilots must be getting fatigued from all the recent activity. As I watched the replay, I was planning to order my carriers north to patrol near Rennell Island in an attempt to hit some of these surface groups that he’s been sending south as they tried to return to base. But then I saw this when I entered the turn: [image]local://upfiles/5815/C0817A35A57046519F46313958FF1F48.jpg[/image] With what looks to be the entire KB is now 5 hexes north of Rennell Island, I assume he could be doing three possible things. First he may just be trying to launch an air strike on one of my bases, but this isn’t likely. Next he may just be fishing for ships, as he’s seen the tankers in the area recently and may think I have more convoys inbound. Finally he may be getting ready to head south 4-5 hexes or so in an attempt to get my CVs to reaction move to within range of his land based air. So with the Enterprise missing as it is still trying to repair its F6F compliment, I decide to pull my CVs south a bit to prevent a lopsided battle. If he ventures south of Tassafaronga or Rennell Island, I’ll head out to fight, but no way am I venturing into an engagement under his land based air until Rennell Island is a level 4 airfield with at least 100 corsairs to spare that can LRCAP my CV fleet. Jim

Monter_Trismegistos -> RE: 1 Sep 43 (9/22/2008 8:25:47 PM)
Goood! One of many now-dead AARs I was reading was resurrected. Could you put a strategic map and outline in red Japanese possesions to remind us what is happening in this game?

String -> RE: 1 Sep 43 (9/22/2008 8:34:35 PM)
CV capacity decreases with system damage afaik. Should go up again when it's repaired.

Jim D Burns -> 2 Sep 43 (9/24/2008 5:35:02 PM)
2 Sep 43 Sub ops today consist of 2 allied sub attacks, 1 allied ASW attack, 1 Japanese sub attack and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. Both allied sub attacks are conducted by the SS Amberjack at Amchitka Island. The sub surfaces and sinks two AGs with its deck guns. The Japanese sub attack occurs at Irau Island in the Solomons and sub RO-107 slams one of my best British minelayers with a torpedo causing heavy damage. It’s questionable if she’ll make port. As payback the escorts hammer Ro-107 with 14 hits setting it on fire. Japan hits Yanku again today and causes minor damage. I’ve caught up on repairs and am now repairing most of the damage caused each day and building up the airbase slightly as well. Unless Japan can find a way to cause more damage, I’ll eventually be able to reach level 7, so I can then begin strategic bombardments of Kyushu. At Stewart Island, Japanese Nells show up and put 2 torpedoes into the side of APD Fox, sinking her. Fox was part of a fast transport task force that delivered more engineers to the base. For some reason the task force changed from fast transport to transport, so it was still at the base when day arrived allowing it to be attacked. I’ll keep an eye on it for future deliveries, as this was an unnecessary loss. Japanese Vals also conduct four missions against my PT boats today. In China I sent 37 heavy bombers to bomb the unidentified unit NE of Yanku and found it to be the 13th tank regiment. This unit is far too small to threaten Yanku, I guess he is simply reconnoitering the road net up to the base. Looks like all three of my guesses were wrong about KB. Looks like it moved forward to react to any possible moves by my CVs to hit a cargo task force that appeared at Lunga this turn. Unfortunately I hadn’t spotted this task force before today, otherwise I’d have set up a welcoming committee. As it is, my medium bombers from Luganville attack the fleet, and I’m thankful KB didn’t set any LRCAP, as I had no escorts. The mediums launch two strikes today, and my heavies from Koumac launch one. Damage to the fleet is depressingly light. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Lunga at 67,101 Allied aircraft A-29 Hudson x 61 No Allied losses Japanese Ships DD Shinonome AK Manila Maru AP Murasaki Maru AP Hasuna Maru AP Ryofu Maru AP Monji Maru PC Takunan Maru #2 DD Hatsuyuki AK Kaga Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire AK Kokoku Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire AK Arabia Maru DD Shirakumo AK Taihoku Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire AP Sumire Maru AP Kogane Maru Aircraft Attacking: 2 x A-29 Hudson bombing at 6000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Lunga at 67,101 Allied aircraft PV-1 Ventura x 19 A-29 Hudson x 31 No Allied losses Japanese Ships DD Hatsuyuki AP Nachi Maru AK Taihoku Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire AP Daifuku Maru, Bomb hits 1 AP Ryofu Maru DD Shinonome PC Takunan Maru #2, Bomb hits 1, on fire DD Shirakumo AP Herbil Maru AP Murasaki Maru Aircraft Attacking: 2 x A-29 Hudson bombing at 6000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day Air attack on TF, near Lunga at 67,101 Allied aircraft B-17E Fortress x 9 PB4Y Liberator x 15 No Allied losses Japanese Ships DD Shinonome DD Hatsuyuki AP Monji Maru Aircraft Attacking: 9 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 15000 feet <snip> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Action in the South Pacific has been all but non-existent, so most of these bombers still have 1942 experience levels. Hopefully I can get them trained up to decent levels now that I have some targets in range that my fighters from Rennell can fly escort over for them. Jim

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