Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Good fighting here, spotting him and not getting spotted in return.

Now is the time to hit Japan, circumstances favor the Allies especially if the weather is clear.

It happens to every Japanese player, eventually chaos reigns, you fall behind your schedule, and try to make do, and take risks.

quote:

ORIGINAL: apbarog

I'm certainly anxious about the next turn. This is my first big opportunity to inflict some meaningful damage on the enemy. If I can catch a big invasion task force, and destroy some significant ground units, I could disrupt the New Caledonia landings, and maybe save the Marines at Noumea. Can I accomplish something significant without risking the US carriers? We shall see.

I'm wishing for another turn tonight, but it will probably be tomorrow.

quote:

ORIGINAL: apbarog

6 Feb 42

Night Time Surface Combat, near Makin at 136,125, Range 6,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Yubari, Shell hits 6, heavy fires
DD Kamikaze
DD Oite
DD Hayate
xAP Rakuyo Maru, Shell hits 18, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAP Atsuta Maru, Shell hits 5, heavy fires

Allied Ships
CA Northampton, Shell hits 3
CA Chester, Shell hits 1
CL Concord, Shell hits 1
CL Raleigh
DD Craven, Shell hits 3
DD McCall

The US ships then found another task force during the day.

Day Time Surface Combat, near Makin at 136,124, Range 15,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Kamikaze
DD Oite, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Hayate, Shell hits 4, on fire

Allied Ships
CA Northampton
CA Chester
CL Concord, Shell hits 1
CL Raleigh, Shell hits 1
DD Craven, Shell hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD McCall

There were 2 sinking sounds later in the turn. xAP Rakuyo Maru is almost surely sunk. xAP Atsuta Maru may have sunk. DD Hayate is another possibility, as is CL Yubari. The 2 transports were very big, but the troops had already unloaded at Makin. Destroyer Craven is badly damaged and will try to make it to Tarawa, which is only a size 1 port with no troops. I fear that it is going to sink, but I'll give it a chance. Craven is SYS 73/FLOT 26-6/ENG 29-1/FIRE 43. The other US ships will return to Pearl Harbor. Northampton, Chester, and the destroyers are due for upgrades.

Oscars swept near Yenan, and P-40Es intercepted. 4 of each went down. Lilys bombed troops but the P-40s were exhausted and did not respond.

Bettys from Rabaul bombed Steward Island's port. This is southeast of Tulagi. The enemy knows that there is a searchplane base somewhere in the Solomons, as the Catalinas are spotting enemy ships. Aurorus will find the right base eventually.

Wenchow is heavily bombed, like every day, whether I report it or not.

Bombers hit Sabang's troops.

9 Marys hit Dutch remnants in the jungle near Oosthaven. They been doing so for a number of days. Today Dutch fighters at Batavia did LRCAP over the units, and shot down 5 Marys. Batavia itself was swept by many Oscars, but the Dutch fighters were elsewhere.

12 B-17s from Calcutta bombed the airfield at Chiang Mai, Thailand. This is a forward base for the eventual enemy move into Burma. Unfortunate that the bombers flew before the sweepers. 4 bombers were lost running up against 27 Oscars. Almost no damage to the airfield.

6 B-17s from Townsville bomb the port at Horn Island. No CAP. 1 port hit, and no ships hit. I'd suspected that a damaged light cruiser was here. It may be.

Enemy carriers moved a bit further east of Koumac, and send more big Kate strikes against Noumea. No CAP. A couple of Catalinas were damaged. Moderate damage to the airfield. Other carriers remain at Koumac.

On Java, the enemy pushes the remnants of the defenders of Malang to the eastern tip of the island. Their end is near.

6 C47s arrive at Norfolk Island, and will start ferrying in supply to Noumea. There's only 6 of them, and reinforcements are many weeks away. But the C47 unit has more transport capacity than larger units with less capable planes in Australia, such as the Dutch transports.

Allied cruiser task force will move east of Luganville. Once Koumac's airfield can support enemy fighters, KB won't be tied to the area. Suva is at immediate risk. A big convoy of supply just unloaded there: over 50,000 supply.

The Dutch destroyer Tenedos is leading a charmed life. After its encounter with KB, and surviving a battleship task force, it made it to Brisbane with the help of bad weather, and will now be repaired. And it will only take a week in the shipyard for complete repairs.

quote:

ORIGINAL: apbarog

The xAPs unloaded enemy troops at Makin before I intercepted them. The enemy light cruiser and destroyers were escorting the transports.

I did consider keeping my carriers near Noumea to stop an invasion. But Yorktown was hit by a sub torpedo, so not only was surprise lost, but I only had 3 good carriers left. That's not enough to fight all of the Japanese carriers. Especially not when I still have Buffalo fighters on them, and my pilots are poorly trained. And I have TBD torpedo bombers which, in my experience, are not very useful in torpedo attack. I chose to send my carriers far away and defend with cruisers and destroyers. My choice may be a poor one. I may lose Noumea. My thinking is that the war will not be lost with the fate of Noumea, but it could be lost foolishly losing the US carriers for little or no gain.