Cuttlefish
Posts: 2454
Joined: 1/24/2007 From: Oregon, USA Status: offline
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March 5, 1943 - March 15, 1943 Some days you get the bear, and some days the bear gets you. On 6 March my search planes spotted large numbers of Allied warships, including a carrier task force, moving into the Solomon Sea. My guess was that the Allied plan was to come through the Vitiaz Strait and either attack Manus or effect a landing somewhere in the Bismarck Sea area. So I sent two SCTFs from Manus to Umboi Island hoping to intercept them. My fondest hope was that I might manage a night intercept of his carriers. The first task force, consisting of Fuso, Ise, Hyuga and escorts, encountered only a destroyer and three DEs. The destroyer was sunk, the DEs fled, and my ships returned to Manus. The second task force, based around Musashi and Kirishima, failed to retire and remained at Umboi as the sun rose. I don't know why. It's possible I failed to set "retirement allowed." It's also possible they just got notional. At any rate they encountered a powerful Allied surface force of three battleships. The Battle of Umboi Island was on. And quite a battle it was. I have never witnessed a longer surface battle. The two sides slowly closed the range, slugging it out, while shooting each other to rags. It was an epic battleship duel against two closely matched forces and it was a lot of fun to watch. The Japanese got somewhat the worst of it overall, I believe, though the only ships that actually sank during the battle were BB Maryland and DD Harusame. The crusher came when the air phase started and Allied carrier planes (the carriers had remained in the Solomon Sea after all, off Gasmata) and land-based air sank everything of mine that was badly damaged. I lost both battleships, four heavy cruisers, and a light cruiser. It was a heavy blow. The battle: Day Time Surface Combat, near Umboi Island at 100,125, Range 29,000 Yards Allied aircraft no flights Allied aircraft losses No Allied losses Japanese Ships BB Kirishima, Shell hits 5, heavy fires BB Musashi, Shell hits 11, heavy fires, heavy damage CA Haguro, Shell hits 11, heavy fires, heavy damage CA Mikuma, Shell hits 9, on fire CA Furutaka, Shell hits 12, heavy fires, heavy damage CA Kako, Shell hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage CL Naka, Shell hits 4 CL Isuzu, Shell hits 4, on fire DD Teruzuki DD Makigumo, Shell hits 3, heavy fires DD Yukikaze DD Isokaze, Shell hits 1 DD Murasame, Shell hits 1 DD Harusame, Shell hits 5, and is sunk DD Sazanami Allied Ships BB Maryland, Shell hits 18, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk BB South Dakota, Shell hits 5, on fire BB Ramillies, Shell hits 12, on fire CA Australia CA Devonshire, Shell hits 5, heavy fires CA Exeter, Shell hits 2 CL Perth, Shell hits 10, heavy fires, heavy damage CL Nashville, Shell hits 4, on fire CL Columbia, Shell hits 2 DD Nicholas, Shell hits 6 DD Waller, Shell hits 5 DD McCalla, Shell hits 1, on fire DD Bancroft, Shell hits 4, heavy fires Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions: 30,000 yards CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 29,000 yards CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 29,000 yards Subsequent to the battle a small amphibious force invaded and captured Cape Gloucester. Always look on the bright side of life, as Eric Idle advises us. To that end I have found a couple of silver linings to the sorry affair. The first is that another American battleship is gone. That's eight so far, not bad considering I only sank one at Pearl. My opponent is going to miss those ships later when trying to support amphibious landings and form bombardment TFs. The other thing is that between losses and damaged ships the Allies are short on surface forces right now. This will hamper him for the next several months, I would think. I still have seven battleships, enough firepower to keep fighting back effectively. I really want to stall the Allied offensive in New Guinea and vicinity until June or July. That's when I start receiving more air and infantry reinforcements and can better cover some areas that are now weak points. In other activity, a US infantry division arrived at Kavieng and a marine division arrived at Madang after overland marches. They found both bases too strongly defended to attack and are at the moment just sitting there, looking menacing and awaiting further developments. And I was wrong about Ponape. It cost my opponent some more Liberators but they did succeed in closing my airfield there. There's no sign of an invasion yet but the loss of my forward air position in the Central Pacific does give my opponent more room to maneuver in the area. Over in China things continue to be fairly hot. I turned my spearhead around above Anyang and crushed a Chinese corps that had cut the road behind it, destroying 220 Chinese squads. As long as I can keep killing Chinese I'm pretty happy. I have some paratroops en route from Singapore, which I hope to use in a future attack against Kienko. The suggestion ny59giants made about shipping supply upriver to Hankow turned out to be a good one. But I have to say that it still looks weird to me, after all those years of WITP, to see one of my task forces that far inland. *** This game has not gone as I had hoped. But I'm still oddly optimistic and committed to continuing to fight and fight hard. I like my defensive setup and am determined to make the Allies pay in blood for every yard of coral and every wretched patch of jungle. I've yet to fire up AE from the Allied side. All I know about the Allied order of battle is what I know from history, from reading the forum, and what my previous opponents have used against me when. Charbroiled's forces have suffered heavy losses so far this game, especially in warships, APs, and tankers. His ground units in the Pacific have also been battered. But as we get later into '43 I know these losses will be made good. He will get a number of new carriers, new cruisers and destroyers by the truckload, and lots of ground units and the APAs and AKAs to carry and supply them. His planes are going to get better faster than mine will. It's going to get ugly. But that's one thing you know when you play Japan - no matter how well you do, in the end it's going to get ugly. Until, of course, I succeed in bringing about and winning the Decisive Battle, thus breaking my opponent's will to keep fighting and forcing him to sue for peace.
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