Snigbert
Posts: 2956
Joined: 1/27/2002 From: Worcester, MA. USA Status: offline
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More of the AAR:
I spend the remainder of May working to increase my stranglehold on the Eastern Solomons, reinforcing the bases there and trying to build them up. Lunga is converted to a level 2 airfield and Tulagi is a level 2 port.
2 Fresh infantry divisions arrive at Truk, and I ship them off towards Rabaul, and send the Yekaza (sp?) and an independent infantry brigade to Lae.
I also notice that the rest of Japans carriers have arrived back in Japan from their sorties into the Indian Ocean, and get some good news. The Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, Ryujo, Kongo, Haruna, 8 cruisers, 5 light cruisers and about 20 destroyers are being dispatched to Truk. They will arrive in 11 days.
Early June is spent using the Yekaza brigade and the Indie brigade to take Wau and Buna (the latter was undefended). I now control all of New Guinea except Port Moresby and Gili Gili.
The Zuikaku which had been badly damaged is sent back to Japan, and I'm told she wont be available for 327 days! Ouch! Well, I take solace in the fact that the Americans will never have use of the Lexington or the Yorktown again, so I can wait a year for the Zuikaku.
While I'm impatiently waiting for the carriers to arrive from Japan, Shokaku and Shoho sit in port at Rabaul. The Shokaku is slowly having the systems damage repaired she took in the battle with the Lexington and Yorktown. It was a bit more serious than I had initially realized, Shokaku has about 30% systems damage...but she should be much better in 11 days when the rest of the fleet arrives.
Also in this somewhat passive phase the Allies sneak cruisers in twice and bombard Lunga at Guadalcanal. I decide I'd better not let it happen again, I'm trying to keep those guys busy building airfields and they can't do it while being shelled by those pesky Americans. I gather a Surface task force consisting of 5 Heavy Cruisers, 3 Light Cruisers and 5 Destroyers and send them down from Rabaul to patrol Iron Bottom Sound. Sure enough in a couple days the American cruisers return looking to hit their easy target once more, and my cruisers pounce on them in a daylight battle. The Americans brought 3 Cruisers and 5 destroyers to the fight, and we duked it out for quite a while at about 10000 yards. At the end no ships were sunk, but several ships on each side were smoking and trailing oil in the water behind them. I think I at least showed them that Lunga wasn't a 'soft target' and they wouldn't return in the next few weeks to take another whack at it.
Soon enough my reinforcements arrive at Truk (which has also been receiving a steady supply of tankers, minesweepers, subs and cargo ships). I send all of the carriers, battleships, cruisers and bunch of destroyers down to Rabaul in one task force and they go into port there.
Now I have a dilemma. I have 4 Fleet Carriers, 2 Light Carriers, and a considerable surface force with 2 battleships and lots of cruisers and destroyers. What do I do next? Are there any American carriers in the theatre? If so, how do I draw them out? I decide to form to air combat task forces, one with the Akagi, Kaga, Kongo, CAs, CLs and DDs. Then next with the Hiryu, Ryujo, Shoho, Haruna, CAs and DDs. I leave the Shokaku behind because I'm not expecting a tough fight and she is still repairing. I also form a surface TF of Cruisers and Light Cruisers.
The Surface Combat TF is sent to bombard Port Moresby, while the two air combat TFs will move to positions about 100 miles East of PM and launch airfield attacks. PM has been the main thorn in my side as far as a land based air threat, and this should help reduce that and soften them up for an invasion.
Unfortunately things dont go quite as well as I'd hoped. Our two waves of attack on the base took a seemingly inordinate amount of flak and CAP casualties, and both dropped some bombs on the airfield. I think I lost around 30 aircraft totally, which was much more then I was expecting. Also, they launched a counterstrike against the Hiryu/Shoho/Ryujo TF with their wimpy little Chickenhawk planes or whatever they are, and got a lucky hit on the Shoho which nearly sent her to the bottom. So I quickly recalled the Air TFs to Rabaul, and diverted the surface TF to bombard Gili Gili instead since it looked much less dangerous. However, in the good news department, two more battleships have arrived at Truk with some more cruisers and destroyers.
Now I am at this situation where I have another carrier in rough shape, and I made zero progress to show for it.
Next Chapter: Invasion of Port Moresby (to be played tonight)
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