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Bullwinkle58 -> RE: Nothing Up My Sleeve: Magical Moose Tricks--Bullwinkle58 vs.1EyedJacks (12/1/2012 10:37:20 PM)
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January 10, 1942
Traffic
E-mail indicated turn was a bit of a snooze. Not untrue. But still a ball of confusion near Hawaii. What the heck he's up to I have no idea. If that's the point I'll say for the Nth time, fine, but time marches on day by day. Japanese operations around Hawaii are tying down some Allied assets, but not redirecting Allied efforts from what they would be otherwise to any great extent.
Just some of the patrol reports picked up this turn by Allied searchers. Where's a traffic light when you need it?
SOC-1 Seagull sighting report: 8 Japanese ships at 179,104 near Lihue, speed 12, Moving Southeast
SOC-1 Seagull sighting report: Japanese SS at 180,106 near Pearl Harbor , Speed 12 , Moving East
PBY-5 Catalina sighting report: 7 Japanese ships at 175,116 near Pearl Harbor , Speed 14 , Moving Northwest
PBY-5 Catalina sighting report: 8 Japanese ships at 177,116 near Kona , Speed 10 , Moving Northwest
PBY-5 Catalina sighting report: 9 Japanese ships at 175,116 near Pearl Harbor , Speed 19 , Moving Northwest (Speed and vector suggest this TF might have been chasing the Johnson bombarders.)
PBY-5 Catalina sighting report: 8 Japanese ships at 172,114 near Johnston Island , Speed 11 , Moving West
1) Tank Regiment walks into vacant Rangoon. Not gonna be a good VP day . . .
2) IJN using DDs to clear mines at Miri. Two down, many to go. Two Dutch O-boats just laid forty more each in selected Borneo ports and headed to port for more.
3) USS Argonaut, with mines aboard herself and headed to Johnson I., catches I-4 on the surface and puts it down from 2000 yards. The "sub sunk" breaking-up-noises sound effect is the most mournful in the game.
Sub vs Sub: SS Argonaut attacking SS I-4 at 174,112
Japanese Ships
SS I-4, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
Allied Ships
SS Argonaut
4) DD Asakaze brutally works over USS Sargo between Miri and Brunei. She may be mortal. Have to see.
5) A large conglomeration of ships continues to cluster at Miri. Previously some were IDed as cruisers and destroyers, but now S-39 goes into the harbor and attacks a small TF of a PB and two xAKs. No hits, but it indicates supplies are probably being landed. Perhaps to repair Oil damage?
6) A Dutch fighter squadron moved from Batavia to Palembang to shore up against the daily supply denial attacks takes it on the chin from a 10-Zero sweep, losing three. In better news, at Singers British Hurricanes fight their first action of the Pacific war and do well, shooting down a Zero for no losses of their own. Following, the Dutch fighters at P. are too rocked back to do anything against the follow-up bombing.
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses
Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 44
7) China has normal daily bombing. Japan attacks several core railroad hexes, including abandoned Chengchow. The Chinese are done with railroads now, converting all formations to gray and yellow roads. In the northern river basin, slow movement of the northernmost regiment combined with a 1-VP per turn loss for Urimachi (sp?) cause the Allies to divert that LCU to that base, to remain and squat. I doubt Japan will ever go that far north in China, and losing 30-VPs a month to gain a regiment is stupid. I never should have done a wholesale movement from the north anyway.
8) Pontianak fell last turn with no visibility as to why. Couldn't be Rowboats given NW Borneo make-up, so Port strikes from Palembang mounted to try to catch unloading merchants. Two Zeros meet the Dutch who do 1 Port hit and get away with no losses. Unclear if LRCAP, carriers, or organic unit already. No read on LCUs present during the movie. Singkawang continues in Allied hands.
9) B-17 raid on Miri from Batavia battles many Oscars and gets no hits due to disruption. No losses, but many Forts damaged. I can see now why PBEM Japanese players hate them. They're tanks.
10) B-17s from Pearl hit Johnson and destroy a Betty on the ground.
11) A LR sweep on Hilo by KB Zeros exchanges two lost for two P-40s lost. This is prep for a full-bore KB strike later:
Afternoon Air attack on Lahaina , at 182,108
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid spotted at 40 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 17 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 35
B5N1 Kate x 4
B5N2 Kate x 87
D3A1 Val x 54
Allied aircraft
P-36A Mohawk x 5
P-40B Warhawk x 22
P-40E Warhawk x 8
F4F-3A Wildcat x 3
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 2 damaged
D3A1 Val: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
P-36A Mohawk: 1 destroyed
P-40B Warhawk: 2 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 1 destroyed
Allied Ships
xAK Jacob Luckenbach, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage (sinks)
Allied ground losses:
7 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Port hits 14
Port fuel hits 1
Port supply hits 2
This raid is a pure Allied win. Not being smug, but it is. Local CAP feeds in additional planes all through the encounter, some from Pearl on LRCAP, so ratios are roughly 24 Allied to 30 Zeros throughout the fight. The CAP is stacked, and there are many Zero diving attacks, but eventualy the Americans do burn through to the Vals and rough them up a lot. Yes, one large xAK is lost, but three more are recieved by the Allies at the end of the turn. The Allies never lack for merchants. The Luckenbach was part of a TF which brought the 2nd Marine defense unit to the island, and it's all ashore. Only supplies being unloaded. The Americans can keep doing this sort of thing a long time. I just don't understand what the overall objective is at Hawaii. Broken record I know, but I don't. Every day the KB hangs around it's chased by a LOT of subs. One might get lucky. And it's burning fuel and accumulating system damage. I'm not bringing the USN carriers out with the planes they have right now. Maybe that's his hope? Don't know. But I re-vectored all the subs in the region last turn and will again next. One might get lucky.
12) Amphibious Assault at Sandakan (70,88). Vacant NE Borneo base. Next stop is Balikpapan, which should put up a defense.
13) Lonely base force at Victoria Point moving toward Chumpton met by tank regiment coming other way. VP falls. (duh.) Base force remnants retreat into jungle.
14) Other: About a week until many forces sent to CT on first day arrive there. Over forty transports in CT waiting.
Five plane P-38 Lightning unit at Pearl as a "sweep surprise" in the next ten days. Very slow repair by Pearl aviation guys. There's no backstop for them; they're all she wrote for a long, long time.
USA Banshee DBs, only on the map for a short time, have been distributed to PM (1) in anticipation of landings in Lae area, 1 to Soerbaja for possible use at Balilpapan, and 1 to Cocos I. for transhippment to Batavia/Palembang. These planes are excellent xAK killers in my AI experience, and are use-it-before-lose-it units. Against the AI I use them all in PM as the AI is always ashore in NG by now. In this game they have to go look for work.
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