War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen [Archive]

Molon Labe

06-01-21, 09:19 AM

The war has begun.

7 December 1941

My opponent opened with the traditional attack at Pearl Harbor plus several others, the biggest historical difference appears to be in the Philippines.
Starting with Pearl:

https://i.ibb.co/TtTwdW1/1941-Dec-7-Pearl-Damage-Report.jpg (https://ibb.co/dDcfxmt)

The strikes here outperformed the historical results, with no battleship left un-crippled or sunk, and plenty of attention given to the cruisers. The shipyard is overtasked and I'm going to be forced to send some of these ships east across sub-infested waters.

Airfield damage was relatively light, which is probably how he got the better ASUW results:
B-17E Fortress: 14 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed on ground
B-17D Fortress: 30 damaged
B-17D Fortress: 1 destroyed on ground
P-40B Warhawk: 18 damaged
P-40B Warhawk: 3 destroyed on ground
A-20A Havoc: 11 damaged
A-20A Havoc: 1 destroyed on ground
PBY-5 Catalina: 56 damaged
PBY-5 Catalina: 3 destroyed on ground
SBD-1 Dauntless: 21 damaged
B-18A Bolo: 7 damaged
B-18A Bolo: 1 destroyed on ground
C-33: 1 damaged
P-36A Mohawk: 1 damaged
R3D-2: 2 damaged
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 damaged
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 destroyed on ground
O-47A: 1 damaged
SOC-1 Seagull: 1 destroyed
OS2U-3 Kingfisher: 2 destroyed
These reports are "fogged" so the actual results are probably a bit worse for me--but I count 14 aircraft destroyed. His loss was at least 3 Vals and 3 Kates. The base itself only took about 10% damage, so I'll have no trouble getting a CAP up to meet any followup strikes.

While this was going on, a small group of destroyers (3 reported) approached Johnston Island, southwest of Pearl. As it turned out this was nearby the USS Lexington, whose SBDs spotted the attempted raid. The Lexington launched a strike of SBDs, scoring hits on 2 DDs--one is confirmed sunk, and it's likely the other will join it.

Philippines
My opponent launched sweeps over Manila and Clark Field, shooting down 4 defending fighters for no losses. These were followed by strikes, damaging the destroyer Pope in port and damaging most of the B-17s at Clark; he also shot down another 5 defending P-40s.

My opponent's ground operations in the Philippines included the traditional landing at Bataan Island--hey, it's a "free" size 2 airfield to base fighters on--but there have not been any landings on Luzon proper. What was interesting was that a bunch of ground units popped up in 5 empty bases all over Luzon--I presume these are paratroops. The landing at Bayombong along the road north probably means I won't be able to evacuate or reinforce the rifle battalion near Appari, and the southernmost landing at Boac threatens to cut the rail lines to a likely landing site in Legaspi.

https://i.ibb.co/5FHBysr/Ph-airdrops.jpg (https://imgbb.com/)

Malaya
Japan launched airstrikes on Georgetown harbor (in the strait), and Kuantan airbase. The Georgetown raid wrecked 5 transports at harbor--good thing I wasn't planning on evacuating by boat anyway. A fighter sweep over Georgetown took out 5 defending fighters for 1 zero lost. The Kuantan strike hurt-the airbase was damaged to 44%, with 5 a/c destroyed on the ground and 20 more damaged. Flak claimed a Sally for their trouble.

Local British forces attempted to counterattack, but were turned away with 2 Hudson bombers shot down.

Japanese marines landed in Kota Baru with at least 14,000 troops, plus armor support.

China
Air raids on Hong Kong damaged 7 cargo ships at in port and damaged the airbase to 35%. There was also an ineffective torpedo bomber attack against a few destroyers on patrol. Japanese light bombers made raids in Pengpu (eastern China near Nanking) and near Kiukiang (frontline) with minimal results. As for me, I started with Ichang mostly surrounded--I hit it with an air raid from Chungking to soften it up, but got little results and a bunch of bombers grounded with holes all over them for my trouble (edit: 3 bombers crashed on the way back, and a fourth had to be scrapped due to damage).

This is as good a place as any to mention Guam was also attacked by floatplanes of all things, and surprising no one they didn't hit anything.

-----
Strategically, there wasn't much for me to do for the next turn other than pick up the pieces. Malaya and Luzon should really heat up tomorrow--I'm especially interested in seeing what kind of results my surviving B-17s can get. Logistically, there are a ton of ships on the move now, mostly to start setting up supply lines, and a ton of fortifications being built. My subs have all put to sea, focusing on interdicting likely troop transport lanes. I'm also gathering surface forces outside the reach of his Betties with the hope of finding opportunities to hit-and-run as he pushes south. I'm not happy about the Lexington revealing itself (and the Enterprise isn't far from it), but I should have time for them to run away before the Kido Butai can find them. For now, I want my CVBGs on the sidelines.

Molon Labe

06-02-21, 01:29 AM

8 December 1941

This was an ugly turn as the IJN pulled several unexpected plays and as the submarine forces jumped in... very much favoring Japan.

Pearl Harbor Area
Overnight, a task force of DMSs led by a heavy cruiser cleared out the last, crippled DD out of Johnston.

Then, the submarine I-16 managed to intercept the Enterprise CVBG. Attacking from long range to avoid the screening destroyers, it fired a full 8 torpedoes, striking the Enterprise once. Miraculously, the hit did almost no damage, I guess it hit the very tip of the bow or something (no torpedo blister until 1942 upgrade).

The Kido Butai moved off from its position north of Pearl to the southwest, apparently pursuing the Lexington and Enterprise. This left it in range of Pearl as the sun rose. It launched a Val strike at extreme range against Lahaina. Only 3 fighters from the Pearl CAP were able to respond--and were overwhelmed. One Texan was shot down. The Vals hit 2 AGs, 2 tankers, and a cargo ship with little 60kg bombs, sinking one AG and TK each, and the other 3 are still burning.

Pearl itself was also hit again--but just by Zeroes, with no bombers. There was a severe storm in the area--perhaps the Kates got separated and turned back? The Zeroes claimed 8 P-36s and 2 P-40s for only one loss. The downside to the Japanese about staying in range of Pearl, though, was that we had a chance to strike back. Unfortunately we mostly just have level bombers there, which I thought have been wasted on their CAP, so I ordered them to stand back and stand by. But I had one squadron of 14 SBDs. So they went out with a ridiculously oversized fighter escort because I forgot to set several squadrons to CAP (20 P-36, 55 P-40, 8 F4F, and 3 Texans). There were only 18 Zeroes on CAP, but they managed to claim 5 P-36s and an SBD with only one loss. The SBDs attacked the cruiser Chikuma (what the hell, man?) and the Hiryu, but missed. Hiryu's gunners claimed one more SBD.

Malaya/Burma/South China Sea
Overnight, minesweepers cleared out 13 mines in Singapore harbor. They'd disarm another 28 over the course of the day. There were also night air raids against Rangoon (sinking 1 HDML) and Georgetown (light airbase damage)

I had ordered a few transports to try to evacuate British base forces from Miri and Brunei. One of these transports was intercepted and sunk by the submarine I-158 before arriving.

In the morning, Japan raided Singapore harbor with unescorted Betties; these were routed by defending Buffalos and Blenhiem fighters, with 5 kills claimed. A major raid struck Kuantan airbase - 47 Sallies escorted by 27 Nates. We opposed that with 10 Buffalos, so a slapfight between obsolete fighters ensued. Neither sides fighters could hurt the other, but a few of my fighters got through to claim a Sally. The Sallies did moderate damage to the already bombed-out base. A sweep of 6 Oscars arrived later--apparently a scheduling SNAFU--which splashed another Buffalo. In the afternoon, 7 Oscars swept Singapore, taking out 5 Buffalos and a Blenhiem IF for only one loss. A massive raid of 39 Lilys hit the hapless defenders in Kota Baru, ensuring the success of the land battle below. More Sallies hit Kuantan again, unescorted, but it didn't matter because we weren't able to get a significant CAP up between losses and airfield damage.

I put a little bit of pressure on him with strikes of my own. 9 Blenhiem Is hit the landing site at Kota Baru, causing light casualties to the troops while losing 3 bombers to patrolling Nates. We also hit ships landing in Patani with a raid of 6 Blenhiem IVs and 7 Swordfish torpedo bombers (equipped with bombs, apparently my air HQ had not yet acquired torpedoes as ordered). Buffalo escorts took out a defending Nate, and the Swordfish managed to hit two troop-carrying cargo ships, causing significant casualties. They'll have torpedoes ready to go tomorrow.

The IJN closed out the day with another unescorted Betty raid against Singapore harbor. The CAP was diminished by the earlier sweeps that they got through and took a run at the HMS Repulse, but missed. (Task Force Z is laying low in harbor, I'll send them out to wreck **** up if I can keep them under air cover when they go) One Betty was splashed.

Allied forces are in full Sir Robin mode in Malaya, except for a few units serving as delaying forces. All aircraft still flying have evacuated Kuantan. Georgetown and Alor Star to the north are still operating but that won't last long.

Philippines
Minesweepers found the expected sub-laid minefield outside Manila and got to work. The first ship through, a cargo ship evacuating Manila, was torpedoed once it got clear of the minefield. The Japanese submarine, not satisfied with a single torpedo hit, came back to hit the ship with two more fish to guarantee a kill. Fortunately, this ship wasn't loaded with troops. Our luck would not hold after sunrise.

Asiatic fleet boats attempted 3 attacks on invasion forces around San Fernando, all three missed despite minimal ASW protection with any of these convoys.

The air war over Manila became ferocious. Zero sweeps got at 8 P-40s and 2 P-26s while losing only one of their own. We hit back when the bombers arrived, though, taking out 7 escorting Zeroes and 2 Nates while only losing 2 P-40s. The bombers hitting the airfields and ports were mostly ineffective. And I got a gift when Sallys and Lilys arrived without escorts--we got nine of them. But strikes against ships trying to evacuate were more successful. A task force evacuating the Cavite Base Force was targeted by three raids; one transport was torpedoed by a Betty and is on fire and at risk of sinking. The AV Langley, trying to set up a temporary seaplane base and eventually evac some scout planes, was also hit and returned to port.

Adding injury to, well, more injury, a CVL entered the Celebes and interdicted US and Dutch surface forces where they were trying to form up. The Dutch cruiser De Ruyter and US destroyer Bankert were torpedoed by Kates and sunk. The "good" news is the most likely CVL here, the Ryujo, only carries 27 torpedoes, and it just used up 24. Also, my surface forces have now formed up and are under friendly air cover. The bad news is the default task force for her has 3 CAs and 6 DDs (my scouts report this formation as 9 CAs, for whatever that's worth), so even if I can get close enough for a slugfest it probably won't go my way. Maybe I could get lucky with the B-17s? Nah, Ryujo's top speed is 29 knots, they won't hit it.

Speaking of B-17s, the raids I had been looking forward to fizzled. In the north, I bombed a captured airbase that I expected to house enemy fighters, but it was empty. In the south, my mission was scrubbed due to weather.

I didn't think they could move a full hex in a day, but that paratrooper unit that landed along the rail line to Legaspi/Naga has already moved north a hex and severed the line. More paratroops landed in Mabuan, right next to Manila--well, that gives the troops I was going to send to Naga something else to do. Yet more paratroops took Vigan, and a force of just 91 paratroops kicked the 491 troops of the 3rd/12 PA battalion out of Tuguegarao. I guess that's what happens to troops with low morale and experience when they get surprised by razors.

Java Sea
Possibly the most unexpected development was the presence of 4 Japanese DDs in the Java sea. They blundered into another surface group (2 CL 2DD to start, 2CL 5DD later) that I was assembling in what I thought was a rear area, getting into three separate fights throughout the day. We concentrated our hits better: two IJN destroyers were badly damaged (I suspect one will sink), while we have one DD with fires burning out of control and several ships with light damage. Very disappointing considering how outgunned we had them, but, at least we got some low-risk gunnery experience.

Everywhere else
A night raid against Changhsa airbase took out a bomber on the ground. I raided Ichang again (a mistake, I should have allowed them to recover from yesterday).
Wake was raided by Nells, which was ineffective.
Makin Island was invaded and taken without resistance.
Zeroes from Takao swept random Chinese bases (looking for the AVG?)
IJA took Pengu.

--------
I can't help but notice that no marines have showed up in Guam or Wake yet. I wonder where they'll turn up. The damaged PBYs at Pearl are starting to get repaired, I may be able to forward deploy some patrol squadrons and get a better picture soon.

Definitely a bad day for the Allies, but it could have been a lot worse.

Threadfin

06-02-21, 08:22 AM

Molon Labe

06-02-21, 08:57 AM

Good reports, thanks for taking the time. I've done many AARs and I know they take a lot of time to put together.

One of the things that appeals to me about Grigsby's games is seeing how I can change history by err, changing history and not making the same mistakes force commanders did in the war.

So concentrate your fleet boats in Formosa strait :)

Good luck commander!

Thanks. I was just reading in the Matrix AAR threads that "you always miss something." Well, I missed the CAPs at Pearl right after I said I'd have enough CAP! Which led to that crazy Dauntless raid. Didn't quite change history but we came pretty close.

Funny you should mention the strait. I've got a lot of boats heading to choke points around Taiwan right now, but I'm actually thinking about turning four of those boats back. Those 3 submarine attacks that missed their targets yesterday targeted at least two different convoys that look like they're about to land in San Fernando. It looks like they're using minelayers as their primary ASW protection. I've got 11 boats in that hex right now, mostly traveling to other places. Shouldn't hurt too much if I keep a few there to take some potshots, I just wish I thought of it before turning my 12/9 orders in. EDIT:: NOPE! Our scouts have detected several TBs in that group. Those actually carry the deep-reaching depth charges, which makes that convoy one of the best ASW-capable units on the board.

https://i.ibb.co/2gy0TSk/1941-Dec-9-San-Fernando.jpg (https://ibb.co/dGrsRt5)

Molon Labe

06-02-21, 10:55 AM

You ever play realtime strategy games where the first thing your opponent does is build defensive towers near your base and resource areas?

I think that's what's going on with Johnston. For two consecutive days, SigInt has reported troop movements to Johnston--first the 144th Inf Regiment, then a construction unit. The 144th? That's usually one of the Guam assaulters. And that's in the direction the KB is moving out of the area through, so the landing would have air cover. If they have torpedo bombers operating out of there this early, it would be a problem. Seems chancy though, I can carpet bomb the hell out of it with B-17s from Pearl, even if they put fighters there, they won't be up to the challenge of stopping the Flying Fortress. And the air HQs that equip planes torpedoes are very valuable. It's entirely possible he has his units "prepping" for Johnston to send false intel to me so that they can show up somewhere else by surprise.

HunterICX

06-03-21, 04:45 AM

Great write up :up:

Looks like you had to endure quite some punches and slaps in the face in the wake of his opening turns but still manage to lash out which hopefully makes him sweat a little.

Keep it up commander.

Threadfin

06-03-21, 09:32 AM

For two consecutive days, SigInt has reported troop movements to Johnston--first the 144th Inf Regiment, then a construction unit. The 144th?

That's very bold, if it isn't deception. If that construction battalion builds an airfield there Pearl is in peril. How can the Japanese supply it? Seems easy to cut that move off, but I haven't played WitP so not sure how that works. In WitE such a lunge would be punished, unsustainable.

I'm curious if you had any opportunity to redeploy forces prior to hostilities? For example did you have the option to disperse the B-17 fleet in the Philippines before bombs rained down?

Looking forward to more.

Molon Labe

06-03-21, 11:01 AM

9 December 1941

The IJN aggressively interdicts evacuation attempts while the air campaigns in Luzon and Manila start to tip.

Luzon
My minesweepers still have't finished clearing the Manila harbor entrance. A small IJN SCTF intercepted and sank 3 cargo ships that had escaped Hong Kong and were passing south to the west of Luzon. An enemy sub also picked off an AKL loaded with fuel for Cebu to the south--other ships on similar missions would follow. Asiatic fleet boat S-38 because our first sub to get a kill, sinking a subchaser off Laoag. The Porpoise, Seadragon, Seawolf, and Swordfish also attempted a attacks there, but were chased off by...subchasers. S-41 attempted an attack at Aparri.

The expected landing at San Fernando happened, with at least 631 AV worth of troops coming ashore. Presumably, support troops were landing at Laoag.

The Dutch submarine O20 arrived on station off Cam Rahn Bay and immediately got to work, sinking a light cargo ship loaded with troops. The captain then got cocky and tried to chase down a larger, more heavily armed cargo ship, only to find out the AK's guns outranged his own. He aborted after taking two hits. This would draw a response from area destroyers, and the O20 got into a game of cat and also cat against the IJN Yomogi, trading misses with each other. The USS Perch tried to join in on the fun with a failed attack on a destroyer-transport.

In the air, the Japanese switched tactics. The bombers were going unescorted, they counted on sweeps to clear the air in advance. It worked. (There were also far less sorties). Zeroes brushed aside the CAP at Clark, trading 3 A6Ms for 7 P40s. Fortunately, the Lillies that followed were too high up to do any real damage. I lost just one P-40 on the ground. On my end, the B-17s dissapointed again. I managed to get 8 in the air to attack the fighter base on Bataan Island--they got through but only did minor damage. And the southern strikes were aborted due to weather for the 3rd day in a row.

What I assume are the last of the paratroopers dropped unto a superior Philippine Army unit in Cantabuan--this time, instead of routing the inexperienced PA soldiers, they were wiped out completely by them. It was was just 70 guys, but I'll take it.

Malaya, Rangoon, and West Java Sea
Malaya was very much the same story as Luzon--we're losing the air war and evacuating ships are getting picked off. Minesweeping continued in the morning. To the south, Japanese submarines had a turkey shoot near Batavia, claiming two tenders intended to set up a PT boat base, 2 AKLs carrying fuel to small bases, damaging a transport evacuating to Cape Town, and missing a transport headed to Miri for evacuations.
https://i.ibb.co/64VDk9K/1941-Dec-10-sub-attacks.jpg (https://imgbb.com/)
*Image should say 12/9, not 12/10.
I've ordered some patrol aircraft over to try to sanitize this area. Also, 4 destroyers intended to round out a SCTF to compliment Force Z (I've been calling it Force Y) are being reassigned to try to chase down whatever the seaplanes find. It's a shame my DDs near Surabaya got so shot up, they would have been my first choice to respond.

I had a much larger group of transports trying to evacuate Kuching (4 AP, 1 AK), they were interdicted and wiped out by a SCTF of 4 DD and 4 CA. This was a covering force for an invasion fleet, so my attempt at evacuation was too late anyway. At least 165 AV worth of troops came ashore. Blenheims from Singapore attempted to bomb the transports, to no effect.

Likewise in Luzon, the air campaign switched to unescorted raids. It didn't work as well here as Luzon. I lost 4 Buffalos over Singapore with no local payback. The Buffalos are simply being outmatched, numerically and qualitatively, by the Oscars. But Buffalos on CAP over Kuala Lumpur got a crack at the unescorted bombers pummeling the smoking hole in the ground that once was Kuantan airbase. We got at least 6 of them. IJAAF bombers also tallied another HDML with a night raid on Rangoon, softened up Georgetown a bit with another, and light bombers took out an evacuating AKL in the strait. My Blenheims tried to hit Kota Baru, but were routed by Oscars. ASW air patrols spotted just about every Dutch sub that I placed off Indochina to pick off Malaya reinforcements, so I'm expecting those convoys are just going to avoid the trap tomorrow. Patrols spotted ships off Kuantan--looks like they're ready to land troops and take it.

Celebes Sea, Makassar Strait, and East Java Sea
The Ryujo CVBG did what's called a pro-gamer move, hauling ass out of the Celebes Sea and parking off Balikpapan, where it used its last 3 torpedoes to take out a minelayer. It passed an AVP on the way, which managed to report an accurate composition of her escorts: 3CA, 11DD. Not worth trying to gun down. Scout spotted two more task forces approaching Manado from the east--probably troops followed by airplane mechanics.
Another CVL is entering the Celebes Sea from the East. It sank some evacuating AKLs with Vals (which I think is poor form, AFAIK the IJN light carriers couldn't carry Vals).
https://i.ibb.co/FYx3XGP/1941-Dec-10-Celebes-Sea.jpg (https://ibb.co/s1mRCLB)

Near Surabaya, I had the worst damaged two ships in my SCTF return for repairs, sending 1CL and 3DD back to hunt the 4 enemy DDs. The found the two healthy ones (did the damaged ones both sink?) Another disappointing round of shelling saw one enemy DD blazing with flames, but all 3 of my DDs were hit, one quite badly.

Elsewhere
-Hong Kong suffered serious damage in an air raid. Zeroes from Takao are doing sweeps there. In theory, I could provide some support from the AVG there, just not sure it's worth it.
-KB launched an Alpha strike against Johnston ground forces. There's nothing there of value to hit. I don't get it.
-Jap marines landed in Tarawa, capturing it without resistance
-A minesweeper evacuating Guam blundered into a troop convoy (10 merchies, 2 DD, 1 CM) north of Papua New Guinea. They didn't report a heading. My guess is they're headed for Rabaul; it's too big to commit to the north coast of PNG, and they're too far east to be headed for the southern Philippines.
-4 ships were spotted entering the Bismark Sea. I'm tempted to try to interdict such an apparently small force, but except for a few spotted covering the Malaya landings, the Japanese battleship fleet has been absent. This would be a good place for them to make an appearance.

Today was the first and only day so far that Japan lost more aircraft than me--26 to 14. 14 of the Japanese losses were medium bombers.
But, fighter losses aren't going my way (to 14 to 6), and whichever way the fighters go, the bombers will follow, so I'm not counting this as a good result.

---------------
10 December is going to be an aggressive turn for me. Except for the subs that got spotted that are going to be more focused on evasion than attacking, most of the forces that I set up to make a move are now in position, and have targets available. It's just a question of whether I get away with it. I think putting the Ryujo deep into the Makassar Strait with no torpedoes and ALL THE SURFACE COMBATTANTS left stretched him thin in the Celebes Sea, enough that I'm willing to risk some surface assets. And it is risky--I'll be potentially exposed to 2 CVLs (CVL #2 in particular with Zeroes and Vals on board is a problem) and Betties. But, my ships are fast enough to hit their target before sunrise, the Betties are at the extreme limit of their range, and the evacuating ships moving through the area will probably draw some attention. If the air strike still happens, I have land-based fighters providing cover so at least I'll put up a fight. And lets face it, if Manado becomes a Betty base, my SCTFs in this area are pretty much trapped. It's time for them to leave, and as it happens their targets are in the same direction as their escape route...

Molon Labe

06-03-21, 11:47 AM

That's very bold, if it isn't deception. If that construction battalion builds an airfield there Pearl is in peril. How can the Japanese supply it? Seems easy to cut that move off, but I haven't played WitP so not sure how that works. In WitE such a lunge would be punished, unsustainable.

I'm curious if you had any opportunity to redeploy forces prior to hostilities? For example did you have the option to disperse the B-17 fleet in the Philippines before bombs rained down?

Looking forward to more.

Great question! The way "December 7th Surprise" mode is set up, the Japanese have several task forces that get a huge movement boost on the first day, effectively allowing them to show up just about anywhere. This lets the Japanese player experiment with different openings. As for the Allies though, the AI throttles CAP and airstrikes on 12/7 way down. We're otherwise free to issue normal orders to our forces, so we could in theory move squadrons around.

But there are two other considerations. First, many units are "restricted", meaning they aren't allowed to-rebase outside of certain commands. The Philippine Islands B-17s are partially restricted, meaning I'm allowed to "buy" them with Political Points and then rebase them at will. This system allows commanders some flexibility to move units to ahistorical areas but limits how much you can do it. The other consideration is my own play style. In the spirit of the December 7 surprise, I voluntarily chose not to issue orders to Allied units on the first turn, with the exception of China (they were already at war), the Lexington and Enterprise (it would suck if the KB blew them away in the first week-they need to get far away from Pearl) and ordering rear-area squadrons to start training pilots.

I'm fairly sure Johnston is a feint. The only way it makes any sense is if he bases torpedo bombers there, that takes an AirHQ. Japan starts with too few AirHQs to cover the space they want, losing one here just means he has to pick some other critical area where the Betties are only carrying bombs and can't do their jobs properly.

Threadfin

06-04-21, 08:05 AM

If that is indeed a feint using deceptive sigint I'm impressed. That's a neat thing that adds gobs to a campaign like this, as you sift through it all and try to divine which is legit and which is intended to deceive.

I have not played WitP as I said, but I'd be looking to minimize losses during the retreat. I assume you have no real shot at holding anything north of Java, and even Java must be too much with your measly forces. But that's the beauty of this sort of alternate history. Maybe you will hold Java, and kick of the counterattack from there.

Good luck commander. Give 'em hell!

Molon Labe

06-04-21, 08:35 AM

He might be doing it again. Check this out.

https://i.ibb.co/JHRtDVg/1941-Dec-11-Sigint.jpg (https://ibb.co/PgZjqK0)

That's a whole lot less crazy than Johnston. Committing a regiment plus to that is questionable when he's trying to take Singapore and Manila and push quickly into Sumatra and Java, and is apparently going hard into the Bismark Sea area with more forces than was done historically. EDIT: In addition to the 16th Regiment, the inclusion of elements of the 4th Regiment imply he's ordered the bulk of the 2nd Division to plan for Midway.

As for holding Java, I don't think it's a realistic goal. The balance of forces is too extreme, I'd have to wipe out entire divisions in their boats while getting my own troop convoys across a sub-infested ocean unmolested. When I sink transports, I'm not saving Java or Sumatra, I'm saving some little island that he might otherwise take after he secures the oil-rich areas.

Threadfin

06-04-21, 09:30 AM

I had briefly forgotten this is a head to head, and that a crafty human player could indeed use deception in this way. Yeah, Midway is more realistic, but it's still a huge gamble. Having a human opponent makes it all much more interesting.

How many flattops do you still have afloat, and in ready status? It would seem that is a huge key to your early game, putting these limited assets in the right place to do the most good. No "AF is low on fresh water" type stuff to sniff out Japanese intentions. Or is there?

Molon Labe

06-04-21, 09:44 AM

I have the Lexington, Saratoga, and Enterprise in theatre now, and all more or less operational. Saratoga's escorts are a little busy for now, so she's not deploying yet. Lexington and Saratoga still have Buffalos on board instead of Wildcats, that will need to change before I send them out. Yorktown should arrive around 30 December. 3 months for Hornet.

Beyond doing what he's going and telling units to plan for places they have no intention of going to, I don't think I can send fake intel to him.

Threadfin

06-04-21, 09:48 AM

Molon Labe

06-04-21, 10:09 AM

Thanks. I don't want to sink you with questions, but I have one more related to the last. How does the game handle new construction? Do you have to spend points and choose what is built? Or is it historical and the same ships roll out on the same schedule as they did historically?

Depends on the side you play for. For the Allies, ships just "arrive" on the historical dates, +/- some variability based on game settings. For Japan, the ships come from shipyards. To produce a ship by its historical date, a certain number of "naval points" need to be spent on that ship each day until its complete. To accelerate production, the rate of expenditure can be increased. Production can also be suspended. To produce naval points, they need to first produce Heavy Industry points. Heavy Industry points are produced by factories, which need to be fed Fuel and Resources. Heavy Industry is also needed for aircraft, vehicle, and weapons production, so there is a tradeoff.

Here's a diagram of Japan's economy (Naval Yard is what produces the naval points, so you can follow it backward to its inputs):
https://i.ibb.co/N9JT7y7/Japan-Economy.jpg (https://ibb.co/R3sj7D7)

Threadfin

06-04-21, 10:33 AM

Sounds similar to how it works in WitE,where the German commander has all historical arrivals and departures, where the Russian commander can build whatever the hell he wants. It's never made sense to me why the devs would not have each side using the same rules, and it is the thing I dislike most about that game.

Good luck commander, and may none of your S-Boats run aground :)

Molon Labe

06-05-21, 10:49 AM

10 Decebmer 1941

Allies roll the dice on risky counter attacks and hit the INJ where it hurts!

Celebes Sea
https://i.ibb.co/ZLk5xzz/1941-Dec-10-Celebes-Sea.jpg (https://ibb.co/kHWjX22)
I don't usually start here but I don't want to bury the lede. My most aggressive move was an interdiction of the forces about to land in Manado. A surface task force of 5DD led by the light cruiser Marblehead sprinted south from Jolo, arriving in Manado right before sunrise and catching the phibs by surprise. They were defended only by the 2 Japanese seaplane carriers and a bunch of PBs. My skimmers sank the CS Chitose outright, along with 2PBs. The CS Mizuho was shelled and hit with a torpedo, and 2 more PBs were damaged. The transports, though, weren't hit that hard. An AP was left a burning wreck along with 2 tankers badly damaged. But the enemy turned east to run, and my boys called it a day at that point and got the hell out of there before they could get hit with an air strike.

Those CVLs apparently switched planes--the Vals did fly, but from the direction of the Ryujo, and as hoped they went after some evacuating AKs instead of my SCTF. Manado is still in my hands for now, but I'm not under any delusion that I can hold it, I've just made him pay a little bit for sending his CVL deep.

The B-17 strike I ordered three days ago finally happened: the port in Babeldoab was hit, destroying a minesweeper. Looks like everyone already left!

The destroyers Hatsuharu and Wakaba were spotted moving north up the Makasar Strait. These were the ships left undamaged from the first Java Sea engagement and attacked the second day. I presume he is reorganizing his CVL task forces and these are becoming escorts. That I've spotted these two again but not other two probably means the other two sank.

Malaya and West Java Sea
https://i.ibb.co/9VFWfwj/1941-Dec-10-Malaya.jpg (https://ibb.co/3MDc8fH)
My gambit here was to throw Force Z into the mix for the first time. The plan was to go East, out of range of the Vietnam-based Betties, and try to get in position to smash the ARG in Kuching overnight. This didn't go so well. The enemy ARG was very efficient and had left before Force Z arrived. My ships have been detected, and most concerning, it appears a massive number of bombers have been rebased from Vietnam to Kota Baru. It's a safe bet that if they don't have an AirHQ there yet, they will within a day or two. I expect they will attempt an air strike tomorrow as they return to Singapore. I'll have Buffalos protecting them, but I have a lot more aircraft down for repairs right now than I have flying. The ground forces in Kuching seized the base there as Force Z turned around.

As expected, my destroyer group didn't arrive yet in the Batavia area, so the submarine turkey shoot continued. 4 Merchies were hit, 3 are already on the bottom. Just outside Singapore, another Japanese sub captain took the sage advice "be more aggressive" to heart and put a heavyweight torpedo into a little motor launch patrolling outside the harbor. Maybe some day we'll recover that wreck from orbit. Another Japanese sub attempted to penetrate Singapore harbor and hit a defensive mine--potentially the first first submarine loss of the war (excluding midgets). I'm not sure if the presence of 2 subs at Singapore means he's trying to break out into the Indian Ocean or if he just got tired of seeing Force Z sitting there under air cover.

Predictably, the follow-up troop/supply convoys off the Indochina coast turned south to avoid the Dutch subs they detected yesterday. I had ordered the subs to move south, anticipating this reaction. The KXVII hit 2 troop-carrying ships in rapid succession, one of which was hit 3 times so we can safety assume it sank. Wouldn't it be nice if THAT was the AirHQ for Kota Baru?

The air war over Malaya took an interesting turn as Zero-escorted Betties started attacking ground forces just south of Georgetown. This is actually a really good sign--these are probably the guys the rebased to Kota Baru, and we know that Force Z was spotted and in range. They probably didn't have their torpedoes yet. The fight in the skies was otherwise remarkable for the lack of casualties. I lost 4 Buffalo to a sweep over Singapore, but our fighters otherwise stalemated today. My medium bombers attempted attacks on phibs in Kota Baru and the Mersing covering force but missed. My torpedo bombers sortied but failed to locate their targets.

Luzon
My third aggressive play of the day was a PT boat raid on the phibs in San Fernando. The PTs were escapees from Hong Kong that slipped past their surface fleet and refueled on the Philippine coast. The fleet they met was massive--32 merchies and 8 small escorts (PC, TB, CM, PB). The results were poor; they torpedoed one AK while getting 2 of the PTs blown away. There were at least two collisions as the gators tried to get underway in the chaos. That was followed up with a 10x B-17 raid on the landing area, which caused significant disruption but not enough to tip the scales on the ground. By day's end their soldiers had pushed mine out, resulting in the first mass-casualty ground action--over 2600 Philippine soldiers were lost.

In the air, the raids against Clark/Manila paused. My read on it is they're giving their mechanics time to catch up--partly because a lot of the Zeroes flew north instead...

China
The American Volunteer Group made their debut defending against a sweep of Zeroes in Changsha, and boy did they blow it. We lost 5 AVG P-40s with nothing to show for it. Compounding this, the same squadron had been ordered to escort medium bombers to raid Ichang, but failed to link up. Fortunately, the Nates waiting for the bombers couldn't bring any down with their pitiful .30-cals. Another AVG squadron swept Canton (where they are bombing Hong Kong from), downing three Nates.

Ground forces began their assault on Hong Kong. Japanese engineers immediately demolished fortifications--Hong Kong isn't going to last long, could fall as early as tomorrow.

Elsewhere
-The Enterprise CVBG encountered an armed merchant cruiser at night near Christmas Island. It was a little hairy for a moment as the surprised warships traded shots, but the Big E disengaged and let Lexington send 9 SBDs after it in the daytime. 4 of them hit, I assume the burning ship won't survive the 3,000 mile trip to Truk.
-IJN Marines finally assaulted Wake. Wake's coastal batteries hit two of the merchant cruisers unloading troops. They made a hasty assault on my Marines, but it was a disorganized mess. We took out half their force--about 700 men--without taking a casualty.
-That minesweeper that left Guam ran into another convoy, just 4 AKs this time. It's a safe bet that this means at least 3 IJN task forces are either in or near the Bismark Sea.
-US fleet boats continue to suck. My subs attempted a total of 6 torpedo attacks around Luzon, Marcus, and near French Frigate Shoal (western Hawaii, targeting KB's replenishment group)
-Japanese marines landed in Brunei and Miri. We don't have enough troops to offer meaningful resistance.

Molon Labe

06-05-21, 03:58 PM

11 December 1941

A good day for British air forces

Malaya and West Java Sea
My ASW group arrived off Batavia but failed to find the subs, which happily attacked more shipping in the area. A group of HDMLs that had moved to Kuantan from Georgetown drew a Nell airstrike--one was blown away, but while the Nells were playing in Kuantan, Force Z returned to Singapore unmolested. IJAAF light bombers pounded Georgetown. I have far more damaged, grounded planes there than airworthy, and the facilities are taking a beating. I'm worried those planes are going to be trapped there when their armies come.

Then came the good part--the torpedo bombers at Kuala Lumpur finally got into the fight with three airstrikes. In one of them, the Japanese merchants were able to maneuver away from the attack. But the other raid of 16 Vildebeests hit four troop-carrying ships, sinking two. Thousands of Japanese soldiers and hundreds of vehicles went down, their worst tactical defeat in the war so far. The third was a bomb-carrying raid against ships too far out to reach with heavy torpedoes; those Swordfish hit a troop-carrying AKL, likely sinking it.

To the north, Japanese soldiers seized Victoria Point.

Celebes Sea and East Java Sea
The Ryujo didn't swap planes with CVL#2 (likely actually the CVE Taiyo) after all. The reason I thought the Vals came from the Ryujo is because the Taiyo followed the Ryujo into the Makassar strait, and the Ryujo, went south towards the Java Sea. This seems absolutely insane to me. I thought it was a mistake for him to push so far, and that yesterday's routing of his Manado force would have made that point to him as well. But instead of protecting his forces, he doubled down on the advance. The Ryujo's Kates bombed some tankers that I had trying to bring fuel to the eastern island bases. They'll probably get more. But as far as I can tell, all those heavy cruisers are still with the Ryujo. So, that SCTF that had hit Manado and had been leaving the area is turning back for another round. My 2nd SCTF, this one at full strength (the first lost a cruiser in the opening days), is now retracing the path of the first. He has landings in progress near Manado and at Ternate--I'm going to lose Ternate--but with any luck I'm going to shatter the fleets that delivered them. Speaking of Ternate, Dutch medium bombers took a crack at the landing ships there, and managed to bomb one of them. Won't make a difference.

The thing I said the other day about not being intimidated into keeping my ships in port... well, I don't have a choice anymore, not with two carriers approaching Surabaya.

Luzon
I had my B-17s shift focus. My southern-based bombers, instead of hitting the empty Babeldoab again, hit a captured airfield in San Fernando that I know for sure he moved aviation support into. But once again, there were no planes there. The bombers did moderate damage to the airfield facilities. As for my Clark-based B-17s, they went all the way to Cam Rahn Bay and bombed the port facilities, hitting a heavy cruiser. Maybe this will force him to pull some fighters away from somewhere else.

My British PT boats tried to get back to San Fernando but were driven off by subchasers. Northeast of Taiwan, the USS Swordfish made a successful night surface attack against an unescorted AO, scoring 2 torpedo hits.

Japan pretty much hit Clark with everything they had today-70 Zeroes, 30 Nells, 60 Betties. I had maybe 40 fighters defending. The raid resulted in 7 Zeroes and a Betty shot down, for 6 of my P-40s. That may look like a good result, but it's not--going close to 1-for-1 with them only means I'm going to be even more outnumbered next time. I credit the superior durability of the P-40 for the even numbers. Fortunately for me, the bombers bombed from very high altitude and caused almost no damage. With my P-40s all defending Clark, 40 Sally and Lily bombers hit my troops hard at Lingayen, the last stop on the enemy's march toward Clark.

Everywhere else
-My armies in Ichang probed the enemy there and found the defenders appear to be weak. I may be able to take Ichang soon.
-I attempted a land attack in Paotow, China, but there the enemy there appears to be stronger (we outnumber them, but the terrain favors Japan and my conscript troops are pretty ****ty). They'll be backing off for now.
-The enemy in Hong Kong took the day mostly off to recuperate from yesterday's attack. They'll probably attack in force tomorrow.
-The KB is still near Pearl. They sank a patrol craft and supply ship bound for Midway, then launched a series of sweeps over Pearl. Disgustingly, they achieved air superiority over the base. Kills were in their favor with at least 15 of mine shot down to 5 of his.
-The extended presence of KB west of Pearl gives credence to the SigInt about an early attack on Midway.
-I lost a transport to a submarine attack in port at Canton Island. Fortunately, the transport had already dropped off nearly all its cargo--USMC AA and coastal defense artillery.
-Japanese marines landed in Rabaul. I had been trying to reinforce it, but that now looks like a mistake. Coastal defense batteries managed to hit some of the phibs, but probably not enough to endanger the operation. At least, it won't be enough if there are more to come, and there probably are.
-Japanese marines landed on Ocean Island. I had already evacuated.
-My marines counter-attacked the desperate IJN marines on Wake, killing about a third of the remaining troops while taking only light casualties.
-Miri and Brunei were captured; more troops landed in Jesselton.
-10 paratroopers (not a typo) attempted to seize a hex west of Hong Kong only to be wiped out. I can only assume he thought that space was empty.

-----
I find it interesting that despite constant sub attacks by my side, mostly against escorted targets, the only ASW hit Japan has scored was by the gunners on that cargo ship the crazy Dutch captain tried to get into a surface duel with.

Molon Labe

06-06-21, 12:41 AM

12 December 1941

Force Z goes down fighting, and Japan captures Hong Kong.

Malaya
After its failed hit-and-run attempt on Kuching on the 10th, Force Z was ready for another attempt on the forces landing in Kuantan. They hit two of the damaged transports that survived the Vildebeest raid yesterday, causing a similar mass-casualty defeat. But the covering force spotted Force Z and engaged:

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo, Shell hits 1
BB Haruna, Shell hits 18, on fire
CA Takao, Shell hits 2, on fire
CA Atago, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Jintsu
DD Asashio, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
DD Oshio
DD Michishio, Shell hits 1
DD Arashio, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Akatsuki, Shell hits 3, heavy fires
DD Hibiki
DD Shikinami
DD Ayanami
DD Asagiri, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 33, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
BC Repulse, Shell hits 1
CL Danae, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
CL Mauritius, Shell hits 2
DD Vampire, Shell hits 1
DD Vendetta
DD Tenedos
DD Electra, Shell hits 11, on fire, heavy damage
DD Express, Shell hits 16, heavy fires, heavy damage

It had been a pretty even fight until that torpedo hit the Prince of Wales. The PoW wasn't nearly as accurate after that and the shelling became mostly one-sided. She sank shortly after this engagement. An enemy submarine intercepted the damaged Electra and Express, but they still had some fight left in them and managed to damage the sub with depth charges and drive it off. Both wounded ships sank before reaching Singapore. The rest actually made it back to Singapore, but the airstrike we've been dreading finally caught up with them. The defending Buffalos were overwhelmed by Zeroes and Oscars. 34 Nell and Betty bombers got through, scoring 5 torpedo hits on Repulse. Even if it doesn't sink, repairs will take months--and Singapore isn't going to be in my hands for months.

My air forces attempted a few raids today, but didn't get great results. I lost 2 Hudsons and a Blenheim bombing Kota Baru in exchange for some light facility damage. My torpedo bombers made another attempt on ships near Kuantan, but got separated into two groups, one with escorting Buffalos, the other without. We lost 6 Vildebeests and didn't manage to get any hits. The Japanese finally made landfall at Kuantan.

A little bit to the south, my ASW force finally caught up with those damn subs and damaged one of them with depth charges. One of the braggart captains is claiming he sunk it--I call BS.

Luzon
USS Tarpon intercepted a troop convoy south of Taiwan and sank a minelayer, while on the other side of the Strait, USS Sculpin put 3 fish into a troop-carrying cargo ship. I tried to get the British PTs back into the fight, but it looks like they're just too well prepared at this point. They were driven off again. Likewise, a PT squadron made a run at an ARG landing on the east side of Luzon, but was cut off by a pair of destroyers. But, with those destroyers occupied, the S-41 snuck by and torpedoed an AKL, and the Porpoise shelled another on the surface.

In the Sulu sea, the Japanese landed troops at Puerto Princesa, which I've been using as a seaplane base.

Japan focused on Lingayen this turn, pounding it with medium bombers before a decisive ground assault. We lost about 4,000 soldiers there, with survivors retreating to Clark. A smaller force took the abandoned base at Iba, and a few Betties made a naval attack in Manila harbor, destroying one of the minesweepers on ASW duty. Aerial losses on both sides were light: 3 P-26s for us and a Betty for them.

Celebes and Java Seas
"CVL #2" wasn't the Taiyo. It was the Soryu!
The second of the surface forces (CA, CL, 4DD) I sent in to interdict enemy ARGs around Manado and Ternate intercepted the Soryu and its pitiful escort of 4 DDs. Or maybe not so pitiful, those damn IJN destroyers got the job done! Soryu was only hit 3 times, and only one of those 3 hits did major damage. After shaking my task force off, Soryu launched airstrikes, their Zeroes laughing at the few Dutch Buffalos trying to play defense, and scoring a torpedo hit on USS Boise; Boise's gunners shot down one Kate.

Apparently bored of Luzon, they sent 27 Nell bombers all the way down here to bomb Cagayan airbase, which was staging P-35s that were trying to protect my surface forces here. The P-35s were not up to the task of defending their own base and the airfield took moderate damage.

I bombed the troops landing in Ternate with B-17s from the north and Dutch 139WH-3s from the south. It wasn't enough--Ternate is now in enemy hands.

Further south, the Ryujo CVBG turned east and sank a seaplane tender near Bima. Just as well, if they went towards Surabaya I'm sure my untrained attack pilots would have embarrassed themselves trying to hit it.

In Tarakan, one of my cargo ships hit a mine. Gotta give him credit, this was a good place for a sub-laid minefield. There's significant traffic here during the general retreat, it doesn't start with a minesweeper, and his sending carriers through the Makassar Strait delayed the arrival of minesweepers from the south.

China
Hong Kong has fallen. This appears to be a major success for my opponent as the historical capture date was 25 December. I hope this means he committed substantially more ground forces; but I suspect it was the concentration of light bombers that made the difference.

There were other scattered raids in China, but the one that probably matters was in the Chengdu area, because I had also noticed ground forces advancing there. This may signal an offensive.

I made a land attack on Ichang but failed to capture it. The city has significant fortifications. I outnumber the defenders by about 3-to-1, but I lack engineers to bring down the forts and my supply situation isn't great. It might be better if I just let this go.

Everywhere else
-The Soryu-less KB humiliated the USAAF over Pearl some more with another series of Sweeps that saw the Zeroes again controlling the skies. It cost them 6 Zeroes; we lost 4 P-40s, a P-36, and 2 USMC F4Fs. While embarrassing, I suspect this is to my benefit. His shot down pilots aren't making it back, and they're probably the best he has. At least some of mine are bailing out and getting another plane.
-Midway isn't a feint. One of my subs headed for Japan came across an invasion fleet. There isn't much I can do about this.
-Japanese destroyers raided the harbor at Suva, Fiji, and sank a minesweeper.
-My Marines on Wake finished off their Japanese counterparts.

--------------------------

Missing my chance at the Soryu was both frustrating and relieving. If he had burned himself that badly this early in the war I'd feel bad. But my forces in the area are in disarray after those strikes. Everything he has is pulling out to the east while the Ryujo looks like its ready to come through the island chain from the south. So, him going that deep wasn't as crazy as I thought it was (at least if you don't think a 4DD escort for a fleet carrier isn't crazy).

https://i.ibb.co/yybWKJK/1941-Dec-12-Strategic-map.jpg (https://ibb.co/G2bcGjG)

Molon Labe

06-06-21, 01:47 PM

13 December 1941

The Battle of Celebes Sea

Celebes
So, not only did my opponent manage to surprise me but moving a fleet carrier in with a minimal-sized escort that I didn't think could possibly be bigger than a CVL, he managed to put two battleships into the mix with no escort whatsoever. Why would I think two ships off on their own were heavyweights? Sigh. So my committment of both Celebes area surface groups to this fight ended up leading to exactly the sort of decisive engagement I wanted to avoid.

By days end I'd lost the CA Houston and 5 destroyers. My fleets scattered and disorganized. CL Marblehead managed to escape to air cover but the Soryu's Kates got two hits on her anyway (at a cost of 4 Kates).

The battleship Ise was badly damaged in the exchange, so we probably won't see her for months (if ever again), and the Hyuga took a decent pounding. But even with these ships putting in for repairs, the IJN now has uncontested control of the Celebes Sea.

Luzon
The SS-40 took light damage in a depth charge attack as it tried to hit troops ships.

Japan had an absolutely dreadful day in the north. The Zeroes and Oscars escorting their bombers were apparently easily distracted. We bagged 16 bombers and four Zeroes over Manila and Clark at the cost of 6 P-40s and 2 P-26s. My B-17s hit their troops in Lingayan again while they're still in open territory.

Naga has been captured.

Malaya
The Repulse limped into port and our dockyard got to work. Who knows, maybe I can get her seaworthy in time to escape.

Japan didn't have a good day in the air here, either. Their Oscars failed to keep my Buffalo off of bombers hitting Kuala Lumpur; we got 5 Anns, a Sally, and 5 Betties at the cost of 2 Buffalo. We lost 3 more Buffs trying to defend Singapore from an escorted Betty raid, and three Vildebeests in a raid on landing ships (which managed to get one hit). My medium bomber raid on Kota Baru was unescorted, but successful (light damage, no losses) as the base was only being defended by anemic Nates. Even with our territory rapidly shrinking and our mechanics more concentrated, we just can't keep enough fighters in the air to hold them off.

One of the Dutch subs hunting troop ships was depth charged for light damage. Japanese subs continue to probe Singapore.

Alor Star was captured by advancing armor. We're now in a race to get damaged fighters out of Georgetown before they're overrun. Kuantan has also been taken; 5 damaged bombers had been left behind at the overrun airfield.

Elsewhere
-Japanese marines landed on Midway and the nearby Kure Island. One of their Kure troop ships was torpedoed by USS Gudeon. But Kure was taken without resistance. US Marines are giving them hell on Midway hitting several troop ships and supporting warships with coastal defense artillery, but it's not looking good. I've evacuated the aircraft based there. The KB didn't sweep Pearl again today, so it's likely moved to Midway to provide some CAS to the troops.
-Midway being under seige means that Wake is effectively cut off, including the Wildcat detachment operating there.
-Japan landed troops on Guadalcanal and Kevieng, taking both without opposition.
-More troops and supplies came ashore in Rabaul, but our batteries got good hits on two of the cargo ships. It's a relatively small force, it's a shame my bombers can't reach them from Port Moresby because I'd probably win if I had air support.
-That pair of DDs at Suva wrecked another minesweeper. I'm going to have to be careful about landing troops around there. I tried to attack them twice with Vincent bombers, but the pilots aren't trained for it and unsurprisingly whiffed.
-Lily bombers have started bombing British troops in southern Burma.
-Jesselton has been captured.

-------------
https://i.ibb.co/jkBHfJj/1941-Dec-13-air-losses.jpg (https://ibb.co/nMZRmPK)

We managed an air-to-air kill ratio of 2.5 today. We're still losing fighters too fast, but the enemy's loss of bombers should help our ground forces hold out.

Molon Labe

06-06-21, 10:12 PM

14 December 1941
Time for my bomber forces to take a beating
The dark days of the war are in full swing

Philippines
Taking advantage of their victory in the Celebes Sea yesterday, a SCTF of 3 CA and 3 DD went on a tear, sinking 5 cargo ships trying to leave the area. Fortunately, they did not spot the transports evacuating the Cavite Base Force.

The Japanese gave most of their medium bombers the day off to recover from yesterday's beatdown. Fighter sweeps cleared all my fighters out from over Clark, 5 P-40s and a P-26 lost. Light bombers attempted to hit ships in port but came up empty. We shot down a few, but these are obsolete models that aren't good for much other than coastal ASW patrols, so it doesn't really matter.

The Soryu finished off the Marblehead, while Claudes from Ryujo shot down a Dutch bomber trying to attack Ternate.

The P-35s at Cagayan once again failed to stop the unescorted bombers hitting their base. With my surface forces defeated, there's not much point to keeping them here, time to head back to Manila/Clark.

Weather kept my B-17s on the ground.

Malaya
My bombers took a beating. I decided to go with unescorted medium bomber strikes while cancelling torpedo bomber strikes for a day, to let my fighters repair. Instead of meeting Nates, my bombers found Oscars on CAP at Kota Baru. I lost three to the Oscars and two more to flak. Another Blenheim and 3 Wirraways were lost to the CAP over Kuantan. And about those torpedo bombers..I forgot I had them at two bases, so I didn't cancel all the strikes. I lost 6 Vildebeests thanks to that.

Other
-They made a push in Rabaul and failed. But they're landing more troops. Just a matter of time.
-I still hold Midway, for now. It looks like my coastal guns actually wore them down enough that my marines could take them in a head-to-head fight. But my troops are too disrupted by naval gunfire to attempt a counterattack. I had the USS Indianapolis and several destroyer-minesweepers make a stop there (it was in the area trying to avoid the KB), too late to shell any of the transports. The Indy's scouts spotted a covering force, so I'm going to shell the marines and GTFO before KB arrives.
-My ASW group in west Java managed to find one of their subs but only caused light damage
-Two enemy subs are now known to be operating east of Surabaya, one took out an AKL.
-I lied about Kavieng yesterday--we do have troops there. Just 55 of them, but enough to shoot 12 Japanese soldiers in the face and send the invaders running for cover for the night. They'll be surrounded by tomorrow, though.
-I don't think any of my subs attempted a single attack today. Probably means the troop convoys passing through their areas finished their missions, it may be time to shift patrol areas. It's definitely time to change the Asiatic Fleet's homeport from Manila to Surabaya; any sub returning to Manila at this point is likely to be bombed.

Molon Labe

06-09-21, 01:16 AM

15 December 1941

Midway falls.

This turn was slow enough I don't need to break it down by headings.

-In Malaya, routine-ish air raids continued in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur; I lost two Buffalos, he lost 2 Anns (both by the same pilot from a New Zealander squadron flying out of K.L., his #5 and #6 to become my first ace). The Repulse was damaged lightly in the shipyards.

-In the Philippines, he continued to raid Clark with little effect. A few of his ground units started trickling into Clark so I attempted a counterattack, but not fast enough. He's got a CVL pushing down through Makassar again, probably pursuing the Boise as it makes a run for Surabaya.

-My surface group near Midway was intercepted before it could get away, but it fought off the CL and DDs that came after it with minimal damage. But their marines got the push they needed. Midway is theirs.

-He's hitting my forces fighting for Ichang with significant air raids. I ordered the AVG to fly a CAP over it instead of trying to escort bombers, maybe we'll have a little party in the sky.

-Manado is holding for now.

-Rabaul has been captured.

-He's definitely on to my subs near the Indochina coast. A 4-ship ASW group is patrolling there now with nothing else coming through.

-I got a boost with the arrival of 8 radar-equipped Sims class DDs from the Altlantic. Since my CVs already have radar, I'm guessing these will be used best with surface groups, so I'll probably scatter them around.

https://i.ibb.co/fQjZyLR/1941-Dec-15-strategic-map.jpg (https://ibb.co/x3xwBdv)

Threadfin

06-10-21, 08:18 AM

Awesome! These are excellent reports, full of detail and the thinking behind your decisions. Very much enjoying the read. Keep it up mate and good hunting.

The Midway occupation could be a thorn. Any thoughts on what you will do about that? They'll be able to reach Pearl from there with air strikes?

Molon Labe

06-10-21, 10:07 AM

It's a little too far for air strikes on Pearl directly, or for me to bomb him from Pearl.

Especially after suffering two major defeats in surface battles, I'm reluctant to allow myself to get provoked into another. Doing nothing is definitely on the table. For now, the KB is still at Midway, so nothing is all I can do. If it leaves maybe I'll find a way to hurt him.

Midway is mostly useful as a patrol aircraft base or a sub refueling stop, for both of us. If I find out he's moved a sub tender there, I might be more inclined to hit it somehow, I'd really rather not have his subs have their time-on-station boosted that much. Otherwise, I should just expect that he's going to put his longest-range seaplanes there. Right now that's the Mavis: 25 hexes, would get within 5 hexes--200 miles--of Pearl. I really don't need to send anything on the surface west, so that's not a big deal. But in two months he'll have a small number of Emilies, which can make it all the way to Pearl, and he'll be able to start producing those in mass starting around July 1942. So potentially he can monitor traffic in and out of Pearl, but departures in particular can probably be mitigated by leaving at night.
https://i.ibb.co/VBbjKz6/Mavis-vs-Emily.jpg (https://ibb.co/3hVrJjK)

Threadfin

06-10-21, 10:22 AM

I thought it might be a simple matter to cut in an airstrip and start Betty strikes from there. Pearl's what, 1000 miles? Well within range, and for the Zeros too. But perhaps it's not so simple. And of course his aircraft would be equally vulnerable to your strikes.

Yes, a tender based there could be problematic. If nothing else, he has denied it to you, which is a good move.

Molon Labe

06-10-21, 11:01 AM

16 December 1941

CVL Zuiho gets a rude welcome into the combat zone

Malaya
We've got nearly all our Buffalos out of Georgetown. It actually looks like none are going to be left behind when its overrun. His air raids are switching focus somewhat, he's targeting my frontline troops and trying to finish off the Repulse in drydock. I can live with that, every bomb he hits Repulse with is a bomb that doesn't destroy a Buffalo on the ground, potentially anyway. He's outnumbering me badly over Singapore, during the peak raids he had about 40 Zeros and 20 Oscars to maybe 10 of my Buffs. I could really use some Hurricanes right about now. I lost 4 more Buffs over Singapore, but in Kuala Lumpur my Buffs got 4 unescorted Lilys.

He's not doing that great of a job protecting his ships; my medium bombers went after ARGs and missed, but my torpedo bombers got on the board again today, hitting two cargo ships with one sinking immediately. These appeared to be supply ships, not troop ships. The onboard fuel burned really nice though.

Philippines/Celebes/Makasar Strait
He's already got troops in Manila, and one of the battalions I had tried to send towards Naga has been cut off before I could get it to Manila. His soldiers made a push on Clark that failed, taking significant casualties. Clark is a hard nut to crack, fortunately. I'm continuing air operations there for now. Speaking of which, the air was was pretty even, we got a Zero and 3 Betties while losing 2 P-40s and a P-26. We also got our first US ace... who was in one of the P-40s that was shot down and is now wounded and off the roster.

One of his surface groups managed to intercept two sub tenders I was trying to pull out, he sank one and damaged the other. They're still looking pretty stuck there.

I should mention that I gave my opponent a "Mulligan" on this turn--he was working late and forgot to give orders to ships at anchor at Ternate, which included the Ryujo. I'm told in the first version of this turn, the Ryujo suffered 300kg bomb hits from Dutch bombers. In the redo, these bombers just bombed land forces in Manado.

But, the Zuiho appeared for the first time (the first time I identified it anyway, it could easily have been responsible for raids in the area in the prior days) in the Makassar strait, escorted by just 1 cruiser and 4 destroyers. Dutch sub KIX spotted her and fired 4 sadly-small 45cm torpedoes, hitting the Zuiho once.
https://i.ibb.co/YXMtdvZ/1941-Dec-16-Zuiho-hit.jpg (https://ibb.co/T1SH0zL)
I checked the database on these, the 45cm hit about 2/3rd as hard as a Mark 14. So it's probably still a pretty good hit.

Air raids around Celebes and Makassar continued (they got some retreating tankers and a minelayer), and the Zuiho was probably responsible for some of those, so she's still in the fight. Land based light bombers attempted an attack on her and got massacred by Zeroes, 7 Falcon bombers lost along with 1 Demon fighter. I lost another Buffalo over Balikpapan that was trying to defend ships in the harbor.

China
Putting the AVG on long-range CAP over Ichang worked out. The air raid came and we got 5 Nates. I just didn't have enough planes to get to the bombers though, so my troops were still hit. But my bombers got through to and hit theirs. I'm not sure whether I'm actually going to press the ground attack, but if I can draw their planes into a trap over it I'll keep going.

Enemy troops are starting to move out around Wuchang. I'm not sure if they're just clearing the roads or if this is the beginning of a push.

Further north in the Chengchow area, he's captured the central crossroads area. Again, there's not big enough of a commitment to tell whether he's clearing roads or starting an offensive.

Solomons Area
He's landed a unit of marines at Luganville, and he did it while I was offloading artillery there. If he was just a day earlier, I would have had more there, along with cruisers covering it. This could complicate matters, I was hoping Luganville would be a major base for me that would help get me a foothold in the Solomons later on. I still have other potential bases around here though, so as long as he doesn't grab those too I should at least be able to make life miserable for them on Luganville with daily air-delivered explosive hate mail. I'd consider an early-game amphib landing to get it back too, I'm just not sure it's practical right this moment with no air support and not a whole lot of troops in-theatre.

I'm kind of screwing up the logistics out here, I'm trying to land ships that I started with at sea and loaded with troops. They're not in amphibious configuration so they can only land at ports, and the ports here are mostly too small to dock at, and I didn't notice. That's slowing me down, and well, now he's going to get Luganville instead of me.

Molon Labe

06-10-21, 11:04 AM

mapuc

06-10-21, 11:35 AM

Molon Labe

06-10-21, 11:44 AM

This is a very interesting thread indeed.

Some questions

1. Do you have to follow the story-line completely ?
2. If one of you send a fake message, does the other have to answer correctly as it happened in our history ?

Markus

Not really. There are some limitations but we're mostly free to set our own strategies. We chat a little bit by email but without giving too much away. He keeps asking me if the Prince of Wales sank but I keep ignoring the question, I'd rather let him hesitate if he ends up believing it survived.

Molon Labe

06-10-21, 09:59 PM

17 December 1941

Luganville ARG smashed by joint US-AUS SAG.

Philippines
Enemy air forces mostly took the day off. Call it a maintenance holiday. There were only skirmishes among the ground forces too--my isolated troops fought two with a small IJA armored unit and came out ahead.

Here's the current map of the area:
https://i.ibb.co/ZLB4dH0/1941-Dec-17-Philippines.jpg (https://ibb.co/w0SGyJf)

Celebes Sea, Makassar Strait area
I sent PT boats from Manado to Ternate to raid enemy ships in the harbor. We scored two torpedo hits for the loss of one PT boat. Dutch bombers hit the same ships later and scored another hit.

Japanese marines made another attempt to capture Manado but failed. They did take down the fortification level, though, so the next attempt could succeed.

The Zuiho and possibly the Soryu continued to operate in the Makassar strait, striking Balikpapan twice. The first time, shooting down 4 defending fighters, the second time getting Kates through to bomb two tankers and a destroyer. Another tanker was chased down by a surface group.

Malaya
We had a bad day here. The medium and light bombers attacked shipping at Kuantan, mostly avoiding the fighters on the way in, then dropping their bombs and missing, then getting massacred on the way out. 1 Buffalo, 3 Blenheims, and 3 Wirraway were lost. Over Singapore, we got two Zeroes and two Nells in exchange for 1 Buffalo while they continued to focus on the port. They got some hits on the Repulse, along with some merchant cruisers.

Enemy patrol gunboats attempted an attack on Singapore--a fortress armed with coastal defense artillery overlooking a naval minefield. It went as you'd expect it to.

On the other side of the South China Sea, Singkawang was captured.

Solomons Area
Kavieng was finally captured.
But the big news for me involved the Luganville landing. Yesterday I mentioned I had cruisers covering my own landings. That task force had split up, so my warships hadn't gone far. So the USS Pensacola (heavy cruiser), HMAS Leander (light cruiser) and HMAS Voyager (destroyer) rushed back and engaged the enemy force of 2 Minelayers, 2 destroyers, a patrol boat and two cargo ships. The Voyager was apparently led by an idiot, it got in really close to torpedo one of the CMs, but got shot up a ton on the way in and was a bullet magnet for the rest of the fight. She's gone. But the two cruisers absolutely wrecked the IJN fleet. The destroyers got away with light damage, one CM is limping away in denial of its fate, and the rest are on the bottom.

Of course, this ARG had already landed a full naval guard unit, so the situation on Luganville itself hasn't changed much, with the possible exception that the troops may be short on supply.

Elsewhere
-Two enemy submarine hit mines trying to enter the harbor in Batavia. I don't know if they'll sink, but they won't be making any attacks. Just in time, too, I have a troop convoy coming through that area. Also, this probably opens up an escape route to start evacuating merchies through again.
-An enemy submarine sank a cargo ship trying to replenish Palmyra. This actually hurts more than it should, I have very few cargo ships operating out of Pearl right now and a lot of thirsty bases.
-The USS Sealion finished off a damaged AKL trying to make it to Truk lagoon.
-The AVG intercepted air raids in Ichang again, this time bypassing the escorting Nates and going after the bombers. We only got two, I'm really hurting for numbers there.
-The IJAAF is hitting my forces in Paotow hard enough that a successful attack there looks very unlikely.

Molon Labe

06-11-21, 02:28 PM

18 December 1941

Japanese land forces advance

Malaya
Japan gave most of its bombers a maintenance holiday. They flew a few strikes near Kuala Lumpur, escorting Oscars took out 2 Buffalo and lost 1.

I tried to sneak in a couple AKLs to resupply Singapore--kind of a test to see if I could. One was intercepted by a sub and sunk. But now we know why subs were spotted around there, it's a quiet blockade.

On the opposite side of the South China Sea, we had another incident of a Dutch sub captain running on the surface getting shot at but not shooting, resulting in damage to the sub. Was it the same guy?...Yes. Yes it was. I looked up the sub's specifications, the main deck gun is an 80mm Bofors AA with a range of 15,000yd... that beats the ranges of some of the ships he's engaged. Is the behavior of this sub bugged in some way? I'm not sure I can do anything to change its behavior other than replacing the captain...which I will, his stats suck. But if that doesn't fix it, I may have to relegate this sub to minelayer duty. :k_confused:

Java Sea and Makasar Strait
I tried to move to take advantage of two enemy subs being crippled/lost in Batavia, sending tankers out of Palembang. But there were yet more subs waiting for them and I lost two tankers. He's clearly made this mission a priority for his sub fleet, I will need to try to get more destroyers down here. I'm a bit aggravated that the DDs already here have yet to get a confirmed sub kill between the availability of targets and the shallowness of the water that should be making them easier depth charge targets.

A heavy cruiser and two destroyers entered the harbor at Balikpapan and sank a minesweeper. One of the DDs hit a defensive mine on the way out.

What I assume was the Zuiho raided Surabaya, my biggest base in the area. Their fighters fought my Buffalos and Hawks to a stalemate, and their Kates flew into the harbor to bomb a US destroyer, causing serious damage. This is just humiliating.

China
The IJA cleared my troops out of 2 road hexes near Wuchang, opening supply routes to Kuikang and Nanchang. One of my units--a third of a division--surrendered instead of retreated! I'm going to see if I can look back at the previous turn to see if there was a problem with hexside control that made retreat impossible...No, they had valid retreat options. ****ing conscripts. Somebody really ought to tell these guys that being in a Japanese POW camp isn't a vacation.

The enemy also captured Kweiteh, a small town sitting on a rail line that when held by China obnoxiously blocks units from moving by train from the main Japanese-held coastal areas to the front line at Kaifeng. About 6,000 Chinese soldiers were killed or captured in these battles.

The AVG drew some more bombers over Ichang. Most of them arrived unescorted; we claimed 4 kills while the rest went through to bomb my troops. It's clear at this point that as long as those bombers are getting through, my troops won't take the city.

Elsewhere
-Luganville is officially theirs, their marines finally pushed and destroyed my partial artillery unit there.
-He's asking me for the status of the Arizona and Nevada by email. As if. :haha:
-We've detected 9 submarines near Pearl. A Bolo bomber on patrol managed to hit one with a 500 pounder before it went deep (decent chance that's a kill), but the rest are still lurking. I'm putting a lot of destroyers out there that I'd rather have escorting something, but I have to deal with this.
-This was the first time we had fewer planes lost than them for two days in a row.

Molon Labe

06-12-21, 01:16 AM

19 December 1941
Major landing at Mersing

Malaya

Won't bury the lede--a division plus just came ashore at Mersing, barely north of Singapore

https://i.ibb.co/3TF7nRY/1941-Dec-19-Malaya.jpg (https://ibb.co/b6vPkbR)

That's very bad news because of how much I still have much further north up the penninsula. I'd been planning a small delaying action in or near Georgetown and a much bigger one at Kuala Lumpur. They only have to move inland a hex to cut off the rail line.

I had given the bombers the day off today, not because they needed it but because the fighters that would be escorting them did. So I missed a chance to interdict them before they landed. Maybe I can hit some with landings in progress. But, I'll be doing it with 11 less Buffalos then I had yesterday--and I only managed one Zero shot down to show for that. Good news for me, a convoy of reinforcements made it through the submarine gauntlet unscathed and are offloading now.

Java
An uneventful day. A submarine near Batavia attacked and sank an AKL, but hit a mine while leaving the scene of the crime. Mines are easily my most successful ASW weapon right now.

Philippines
He attempted a major raid on Manila, probably trying to hit some destroyers there being repaired after getting shot up in the Celebes Sea. We lost 4 P-40s and 4 P-35s while taking out a zero, and oscar, 2 mabels, 3 kates, a nell, and two vals. The raid was unsuccessful, and my destroyers have completed repairs and will slip out overnight.

[This turn was another Mulligan. In our first play of it he forgot to escort his bombers and ended up with a campaign-altering loss of more than 50 planes. But they got my destroyers anyway]

To the south, two SAGs bombarded Cagayan without much success. This is great news for me because it means those two groups are probably very low on ammo. So this works out well with my destroyers trying to escape Manila now.

Elsewhere
-He took two more small islands in the Hawaii-Midway chain. I don't know why. They are both within B-17 range. Well, my crews could use the practice.
-We detected a task force of about 10 ships coming heading south past Rabaul, looks like destroyers and transports. Might be adding more to Guadalcanal, or moving on something else around espiritu santo. I have significant surface forces in the area--probably enough to interdict, but I'm going to hold back for at least a day.
-Speaking of my surface forces, a group of my AUS-US cruisers ran into one of the shot up enemy destroyers from the Luganville landing and finished it off.
-I'm having no success getting rid of the subs at Pearl. But they aren't hitting me either--too busy evading the hunters. A supply run and a fuel run from CONUS docked in Pearl, I'm going to keep the cargo ships there since I was so short.

Molon Labe

06-12-21, 10:31 PM

20 December 1941

Maybe the "building towers on my base" analogy wasn't that far off.

Pearl Harbor
Kido Butai returned, which sucked. The supply convoys and ASW patrols became targets for Kates. My fighters, though numerous, didn't stop them. And to top it off, two entire squadrons of my dive bombers were shot down trying to counter attack. Did I mention this sucked?

My losses: 7 P-40, 7 P-36, 2 F4F, 18 Vindicator, 18 SBD-1, 1 DMS, 2 DD, 2 tankers damaged.
His losses: 5 Zeroes, 9 Kates.
I found it very suspicious that Vals did not participate in these raids.

B-17s from Pearl hit the forces landing on the western atolls and caused heavy troop casualties.

It seems the KB is just going to sit off Midway, rotate into Pearl to dish out some punishment, then return to Midway to replenish off tenders. Rinse and repeat. I'm not sure I have an answer. My fighters just aren't cutting it. The silver lining might be that if I know where his carriers are, then I know where mine can go.

Malaya
We lost 7 bombers trying to hit the troops landing in Mersing.
The submarine O20 returned to port in Singapore for a change of command.
Mersing was captured.

Java Sea
Enemy sub attacks claimed an AP and an AKL east of Surabaya. Cruisers shelled Kendari, and there was a battleship-supported landing at Ambon. I had been using both as bomber bases to hit Ternate and Manado. Damage at Kendari was light, but I don't think I'll hold Ambon for long. Carrier based Kates hit Koepang, sinking 4 minesweepers.

Philippines
The bright spot of my day was finally, one of my B-17 raids on a captured airfield actually hit a base full of planes! 11 planes from Clark hit the San Fernando base, destroying 25 planes on the ground and causing significant facility damage.

The air war over Manila went our way too, we got 3 Nates, 3 Zeroes, an Oscar and two bombers; they got 3 P-40s. The US got its second ace and this time, he's still healthy and ready to fight some more.

Elsewhere
-USS Sturgeon sank a cargo ship off Tsushima in a night surface attack. It bounced 5 dud Mk14s off its hull before finally getting two to detonate. This was probably a resource transport from northern China or Korea.
-We captured Sinyang, China with minimal resistance--which means the armies that started there have gone somewhere else.
-I'm monitoring two task forces in the Solomons. If my patrol planes can be believed, the burliest ships in them are minelayers. I have my doubts.

https://i.ibb.co/12CNvpc/1941-Dec-20-Air-losses.jpg (https://ibb.co/5cQ3MzZ)
Today marked the biggest aircraft losses of the war for both sides, even exceeding the losses during the original Dec 7 Pearl Harbor raid.

Lugermann

06-13-21, 10:39 AM

Great AAR but horrible graphics, sorry. You don't know the graphics mod for WITP AE?

Without mods:

https://i.ibb.co/FYx3XGP/1941-Dec-10-Celebes-Sea.jpg

With mods:

https://i.postimg.cc/RZNFKDPB/grmod.jpg

Advice: press F6 to hide those horrible hexagons.

Molon Labe

06-13-21, 01:00 PM

21 December 1941
This isn't a war, it's a slaughter.

Pearl Harbor
My DDs retreated to harbor, making a few ASW attacks before the sun came up. We came up empty.

Lacking dive bombers, I rallied my medium and heavy bomber squadrons for an attack on the Kido Butai. We located them near Lihue (where they're landing yet more troops) and made our attack. Our escorting fighters didn't shoot down a single Zero. Our bombers didn't score a single hit. Six fighters, 11 A-20 Havocs, 15 B-18 Bolos, and 2 B-17 were shot down (and that's not counting damaged bombers crash landing at base).

The enemy did not launch any airstrikes.

There are a lot of troops being committed to Lihue: at least a division, plus engineers and a base force.

I'm going to try to rotate my best pilots into Pearl.

Malaya
A Dutch sub I had ordered to try to sink troops ships around Mersing and Kuantan was severely damaged in a depth charge attack.

Sweeps over Singapore claimed another two Buffalos.

My torpedo bombers attempted an attack against the ships in Kuantan, but apparently lost their escorts. I lost 15 Vildebeests and 5 Swordfish with nothing to show for it. This effectively takes the torpedo bomber squadrons off the board.

My medium bombers attacked troops in Mersing, Zeroes defended and took out a Buffalo and a Hudson. Enemy casualties on the ground were light.

Philippines
My southern B-17 squadron attacked the port at Babeldoab and found the damaged battleship Ise there, hitting it with two 500lb bombs.

I tried to hit San Fernando airfield again, but they did a much better job defending it. They shot down a P-35, 2 P-40s and a B-17. Damage to the airfield was very light, looks like we go at least one bomber on the ground.

Elsewhere
-USS Tambor sank another cargo ship in the Korea Strait. I now have other subs entering the convoy routes for the northern home islands.
-Japan captured Naaru island
-A task force of destroyer-minelayers encountered a damaged enemy destroyer at Guadalcanal (probably the other damaged DD from Luganville). They shot it up pretty good, but it looks like they forgot to do what they came for...
-CVL-based Kates took out another 4 minesweepers in the Java Sea, and attacked Kendari airfield. At Ambon, their marines began their assault, destroying defensive fortifications.

Air losses were 90 to 11 today. Losing 90 in a day is my worst daily loss. His low daily loss is 10.

Molon Labe

06-13-21, 01:01 PM

Lugermann

06-13-21, 02:37 PM

It could use the upgrade. Where did you get it? I never saw that on the Matrix forums.

Kamikaze Bellum Pacifica Map.

Install it with JGSME.

Do not install the Extended version of the map mod.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4268822

If you want you can see mi AAR “Guadalcanal” with this mod (and others). In spanish, sorry.

http://www.puntadelanza.net/Foro/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=21093

Molon Labe

06-13-21, 03:39 PM

Kamikaze Bellum Pacifica Map.

Install it with JGSME.

Do not install the Extended version of the map mod.

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4268822

If you want you can see mi AAR “Guadalcanal” with this mod (and others). In spanish, sorry.

http://www.puntadelanza.net/Foro/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=21093

Thanks, I'll look into the upgrade.

mapuc

06-13-21, 04:42 PM

This strategic game WITP AE looks very interesting it is a little to expensive for my pocket though. I hope it's worth the money.

Markus

Chazz

06-13-21, 07:08 PM

I play WITPAE often, it appeals to my love of details and the micromanagement.

I usually play as the Allies vs AI, it's just too bad that the AI plans are so weak, though I have learned to use my CV's in hit and run raids and I NEVER risk having a go with the IJN carriers until well into '42.

I haven't played as the Japanese yet, and understand it to be far more complicated- perhaps I need to know where the tutorials are?

Molon Labe

06-14-21, 03:02 AM

Molon Labe

06-14-21, 03:48 AM

22 December 1941

Malaya
Mostly quiet. Sweeps over Singapore took down a Buffalo. His bombers are focusing on land forces near Johore Baru. The last of my Buffalos are out of Georgetown. There's nothing left for me up there, time to pull back to Kuala Lumpur.

An enemy sub hit a mine at Billion, an island south of Singapore that I'm using as a seaplane base. Was intended for troop ships but I'll take any hit I can get right now. This was a very recently laid minefield--I noticed that he isn't methodically advancing in the DEI area, he's targeting airbases specifically. Billiton looks due. The Dutch are pretty much out of surface-laid mines now, I've got one CM out on a mission right now and that's going to be the last for awhile.

Philippines
I've successfully evacuated the Cavite base force from Manila. They'll be setting up in Australian territory. I'm now declaring an evacuation of Cagayan, starting with the B-17 squadrons. The airfield is too bombed up to maintain operations. Operational B-17s are moving to Clark, others to follow as they repair.

Not much else to report here except a failed PT boat attack, one boat got shot up and returned to base.

Java
A crusier-destroyer group bombarded Kendari again, that airfield isn't going to last.

Hawaiian Island Chain
I had subs moving through the Midway area so I had them make an unscheduled stop to look for tenders. We did spot an AO there but surprisingly no AEs. The USS Gar was badly damaged in a depth charge attack in the shallows and is returning to base.

Nihau island was captured. Our forces are actively fighting on Lihue, we're outnumbered and losing.

USNS Neches (an AO) was torpedoed and sunk by a sub outside of Pearl. The KB is still lurking but did not launch any strikes today. My mechanics at Pearl are working overtime to get planes back on patrol there. I have two squadrons of Warhawks stateside ready to come over, but they won't be in time for operation "build towers on my base."

Elsewhere
-USS Thresher got a cargo ship near Aogoshima (small island along the approach to Tokyo harbor. I think that's 3 consecutive days of kills for the US sub fleet, in spite of the crap Mk14.
-He finally invaded Guam
-Enemy cruisers made belligerent port calls at Pago Pago and Canton Island. They found an AKL to blow up at Pago. They shelled both bases too, but there isn't much there to shoot up. I have a cruiser and 2 DMSs near Pago that might be able to respond.
-The AVG shot down a Nate and two Sonias near Nanchang. They are targeting one hex in particular to bomb, but I don't see any corresponding troop movements. I wish I had more recon planes in China.
-Japan has reinforced the garrison occupying Ichang.
-USS Lexington has suffered an engineering casualty and might remain in port for longer than intended. Not the end of the world, I'm struggling to find Wildcats to replace her Buffalos with anyway. (Historically, she embarked the Saratoga's VF-3 while her own VF-2 was changing aircraft. But my Saratoga wasn't torpedoed, so my VF-3...Thatch, O'Hare... stays.)
-Enterprise and Saratoga are about ready to head out. I haven't decided where they're going yet other than that it will not be Pearl or Midway. But I will find a way to make him pay a price for keeping the KB off Pearl, or at least force him to redeploy to prevent me from counterattacking.

Molon Labe

06-14-21, 12:17 PM

Going to take a moment to pause and think about my opponent's opening.

https://i.ibb.co/5MWzpQC/Whiteboard.jpg (https://ibb.co/j6vx0Cq)

Comparing the historical force allocations to what I'm observing in this campaign, and the historical timelines for the these theatres:

Malaya: Japanese reach Johore 1/14/42--he's about 3 weeks ahead of schedule. (But, he hasn't taken KL yet). There were two divisions assigned to this historically that I have not spotted anywhere yet. If they aren't there, this is an amazingly good performance on his part.

Philippines: Manila abandoned 26 December. He looks behind schedule, he has strong forces in Manila and Clark but they aren't pushing too hard yet. I've only identified one division as being present there but he clearly has at least two, so this looks like a historical allocation.

Burma: Campaign began in earnest in late January. There is a small amount of troop movement in the south. I'm going to call this "on schedule". The 33rd division usually assigned to this had not appeared.

South Pacific: Rabaul was captured late January, Guadalcanal May 1942. Way, way, way ahead of schedule. Force estimates are sketchy right now but I'd say a major division hasn't been assigned here, just smaller marine units.

Borneo: Balikpapan fell 24 January. Brunei fell 16 December. He looks on schedule.

Hong Kong: fell Christmas day. He's ahead of schedule significantly and that division is now free to be deployed elsewhere.

Java: began 28 February
Sumatra: began 14 February
Honorable mention--Hawaii: at least one division has been assigned (a "wildcard" that was historically used to reinforce the Philippines).

Overall it looks like he's doing really well and he's doing it with potentially as many as 6 divisions still in reserve and ready to pop up somewhere. I'd look for the 38th division to go from Hong Kong to the Philippines--waiting for them to be transported may be why he's not making strong attacks there yet. As for the rest, I'd guess he'd start a major offensive somewhere else ahead of schedule. As paralyzed as my naval forces have been around Java, and as ineffective as my air forces have been, my guess is that Sumatra is going to be the target.

I won't have the reinforcements available to stop that move, but I will note that his forward bases supporting the ARGs and covering forces need a whole lot of fuel to sustain this OpTempo, and that there are really only two routes into the Java Sea. So it's time for the Asiatic Fleet boats to take center stage ("while we still hold a base here, that is").

Molon Labe

06-15-21, 01:32 AM

23 December 1941
Training is King

Hawaiian Island Chain
The Kido Butai launched three major strikes: two against tankers entering Pearl and a strike on Lihue. Compared two the last two air battles, this went much, much better. Moving experienced pilots into these squadrons made a huge difference.
His losses: 6 Zeroes, 12 Vals, 3 Kates
My losses: 1 P-40, 1 P-36, 2 Texan, 2 DD badly damaged, 4 TK/AO sunk.

They landed at least two regiments on Lahaina, with plenty of AA and engineering support. Lihue was captured.

https://i.ibb.co/GT5cbJJ/1941-Dec-23-Hawaii.jpg (https://ibb.co/Sr3R9xx)
The map is much nicer with the mod, thanks Lugerman!

USS Grayling spotted a tanker approaching Midway and missed. He clearly intends to use the base as a refueling station. USS Cuttlefish got caught in the shallows and was damaged in a depth charge attack.

Malaya
Apparently enraged that he missed my troops convoy, his Nells started attacking the only available target ships. They orbited an HDML with a torpedo, Buffalos took out an escorting Zero. His Mavis flying boats even got in on the action, bombing a minesweeper on ASW patrol.

Another Buff went down escorting a strike against enemy troops at Johore Baru. The bombers got through but were ineffective.

A strike on Singapore took out another two Buffalos at the cost of one Oscar.
And another strike on troops headed south resulted in another Buff shot down, their strike was fortunately ineffective.

Philippines
Zeroes swept Clark and managed to take down 7 P-40s and 2 P-26s with no losses. Hellcats and Corsairs when?

The 16th Division is confirmed to be in Luzon, it's the force attacking Manila.

Dutch East Indies
The 146th Regiment landed on Manado to reinforce the stalled invasion there. So it looks like the 56th Division (its parent unit) has been assigned to DEI operations.

He's combined the carriers Ryujo, Zuiho, Hosho, and Chiyoda (seaplane carrier) into a single CVBG and it looks like it's headed to raid Darwin. Along the way, near Timor, it found an transport group I had been using to shuffle base forces in the area, sinking a cargo ship and its escorting minesweeper, and damaging another AK. Fortunately, they were empty at the time. A followup strike took out the last undamaged AK in the task force.

South Pacific
Canton was invaded. They achieved complete tactical surprise, immediately capturing the island before the PBY squadron could be evacuated.

A patrol craft that had been hunting the sub prowling off Palmyra was instead torpedoed by its quarry.

The light cruiser Katori bombarded Pago Pago for the second consecutive day. She can't have much ammo left onboard. I'm ordering a cruiser of my own to take her down. I have some concern that he might invade Pago rapidly as he did Canton, so I'm temporarily moving the PBY squadron there out. Suva may be under similar threat as well.

I believe my naval forces operating from the Solomons all the way east through Canton island are superior to his, I just have to be careful about airpower, especially around Rabaul. Also, I've lost track of the Soryu, so she might turn up there.

Elsewhere
--USS Thresher torpedoed an Akasi class cargo ship between Okinawa and Kyushu, then chased down the wounded ship to administer a coup-de-grace.
--I'm not sure how I know this (coastwatchers?), but an AKL hit one of my mines at Guadalcanal.
-The AVG took out three Nates and two light bombers trying to protect Chinese troops near Nanchang. Oddly enough, two divisions crossed the river there and attacked a completely different unit. Casualties were heavy on both sides, but my troops held the line for now. My bombers will be shifting targets to this from Ichang.
-He moved land forces to try to retake Sinyang from me. It doesn't look like he has enough to do it, I'm counterattacking.

HunterICX

06-15-21, 03:34 AM

Interesting he pushed a lot of his offensives ahead of schedule, just trying to think up what the consquences are when you're taking the initiative after you have recovered from the initial blows and push offensives of your own to take back the control in the pacific.

It's always fun to find out what the results are from having changed events from history. Did it come out better then historical or did you made a worse mistake then whoever you tried to correct.

Keep it up and yeah that map mod looks lovely!

Lugermann

06-15-21, 12:03 PM

The map is much nicer with the mod, thanks Lugerman!

You're welcome.

I recommend you press F6. No need to see the hexagons. On that map there are points that can be used to calculate distances and without the hexes the map is much nicer.

As we say in Spain: ¡Bravo!

Molon Labe

06-16-21, 12:59 AM

24 December 1941
Is it time to start believing the unbelievable?

Hawaiian Island Chain/Central Pacific
https://i.ibb.co/HgLWk2c/1941-Dec-25.jpg (https://ibb.co/MNyY3hz)

It was a bad day to be a tanker near Pearl Harbor. A sub got one, air raids took out another 4. The air raid cost them 7 Kates and a Zero, we lost a P-36.

Two divisions with tons of naval and AA support came ashore in Lahaina, and captured it. It now appears FOUR divisions are committed to the occupation of Hawaii. His goal appears to be to encircle Pearl Harbor, and he's digging in those forward bases so much that it's going to take a long time to dislodge them. So, I have to think about the unthinkable--do I evacuate Pearl Harbor? It won't take much upgrading of the airfields in Lahaina to support Betty torpedo bombers, so if I'm going to do it, I have to do it soon, or else the fleet will be trapped there.

To the south, at Palmyra, the Japanese sub there took advantage of it's kill of a PC yesterday and the fact that the supply ship it was escorting can't return to Pearl and made a gun attack, sinking it.

Malaya
We lost 6 bombers trying to interdict their armies pushing towards Johore and the railway. We lost 4 Buffalo trying to keep their Nells from bombing troops near Malacca and Singapore, but did manage to clip a Zero. We have so few fighters left flying that his Nates were assigned to strafing attacks today.

His airstrikes apparently disrupted my troops trying to get to those tanks blocking the railway. Some infantry arrived first, before the Anti-tank guns they were supposed to be supporting. I'm sure that will go well.

Philippines
A sweep over Clark claimed 2 P-40s, while my attempted raid on San Fernando was aborted due to still resistance from the CAP.

Dutch East Indies
Landings continue at Manado and Ambon. The mini-KB raided Koepang, Timor, destroying a bomber on the ground. He's not pushing to Darwin yet, apparently.

Elsewhere
-USS Salmon had a pitiful failed attack on a light cargo ship, running its deck gun nearly out of ammo without causing enough damage to sink it. The Gudgeon followed up the attack, and also ran low on ammo without sinking it. USS Spearfish did the silent service proud, though, sinking an Aden class cargo ship north of Taiwan.
-At Pago Pago, The USS Trenton rendezvoused with two destroyer-minesweepers to attack the Katori. The Katori managed some hits on a DMS despite it likely being low on ammo and the US commander lost his nerve. The Katrori took significant damage before we whimped out, but it's not crippled.
-The two divisions that crossed the river near Nanchang defeated my defenders there, despite the disruption of being bombed and their opposed river crossing. But we pushed the enemy out of Sinyang. The AVG managed to get 3 Nates and 2 light bombers.

Molon Labe

06-18-21, 10:07 AM

25 December 1941
"and Merry Christmas, by the way"

Hawaiian Island Chain
A quick note on the logistic situation.
If the manual is to be believed, they need a size 4 airfield with an AirHQ to operate torpedo-equipped Betties. The capture of Lanhaina gives them a size 3. So land-based medium bombers cutting off Pearl is a near-term, but not quite immediate threat. But the KB can fill in for that really nicely. To operate the KB continuously, they need fuel, replacement aircraft, replacement avgas/bombs/etc, and regular maintenance. Lahaina is the largest port in Hawaii other than Pearl, and is big enough to dock the Hiryu and Soryu, but the others can't dock. But, you don't necessarily need to dock to replenish, it's just inefficient. He's bringing in naval support crews to address that, and although I haven't seen them, tenders such as AOs and AEs can refuel and rearm carriers efficiently even if they can't dock. As for maintenance, the naval support will help if they can dock the carriers, but the others will have to rotate out on occasion. So, all things considered, if he moves in an AO and AE, I would expect he can maintain the KB on station and fully operational as long as 1-2 CVs are occasionally being rotated back to Japan for maintenance.

With his forces moving east, I noticed a small task force near Lihue to the west--I suspected these were the tenders. So I put a force of 2 CA and 4DD to run out of Pearl and hit them while they were vulnerable. I also ordered some B-17Es to hit Lihue, as these versions of the B-17 are the best protected and, I thought, would wear down their fighters a bit. And I sent some PT boats out raiding their landing at Lahaina as a diversion. It was a complete disaster. The task force failed to find the target and was hit with an airstrike as it returned. The B-17 raid also took heavy losses and didn't inflict a whole lot of damage either on Lihue or their fighters. The PT squadron was intercepted by a covering force and never got within range to fire torpedoes.

My losses: CA New Orleans sunk, CA Minneapolis severely damaged, 4 DDs bombed, 2 minesweepers sunk, 5 PT sunk, 3 P-40, 2 P-36, 3 B-17E

His losses: 2 MTB (entered the harbor and hit mines), 5 Zeroes, 5 Vals, 2 Kates.

He landed about a regiment on Kona.

Philippines
USS Pike torpedoed and crippled an Aden class cargo ship off Luzon.
His bombers took the day off in the north while bombing the mostly abandoned southern airfields. He swept Clark while I tried to raid San Fernando. Overall losses: 11 P-40, 1 P-35, 1 P-26, 1 B-17 to 1 Zero and 1 Nate, and 2 bombers blown up on the ground. Ouch!

His forces made an attack on Manila, reducing fortifications. It looks like he has enough there to take it, but it should take a few days.

Malaya
My medium bombers went after their land forces in and around Johore, but relative fighter strength between us made the bombers basically unescorted. 1 Buffalo and 7 bombers lost with nothing to show for it. It's time for the bombers to leave, they are't accomplishing anything anymore.

Taiping was captured.

Elsewhere
Ambon and Manado were finally captured.

Molon Labe

06-19-21, 08:40 PM

26 December 1941
Waiting for the hammer

Hawaiian Island Chain
Pretty uneventful actually. My recon aircraft dropped a few bombs, and CAP took a few of them down.

Dutch East Indies
A task force evacuating base forces from the Phillipines ran into a 2C 4DD SAG that wasn't all that interested in engaging it. I'm guessing it was a retiring bombardment task force. One AKL took 2 hits before they broke off.

The baby KB raided Koepang again, losing a Kate to defending Buffalos.

The ASW task force working Sumatra finally made an effective depth charge attack on a Jap sub. The destroyer skipper is claiming a kill, this is the first such report I believe.

An enemy CA and DD found a PT squadron adrift, trying to escape Manado without any fuel to do so. All 6 PTs were sunk.

Philippines
USS Shark torpedoed an Aden class cargo ship in the Luzon strait.
The troops at Manila attacked and wrecked the fortifications. Manila could fall as early as tomorrow.
My brigade of troops that had been bypassed in southern Luzon retook the area is Manila-raiding troops landed in without resistance, capturing 1000 supplies. Not much, considering. They'll try to joint the fight for Manila if they can get there in time.

Raids over Clark claimed 3 P-40s.

Malaya
He pushed enough troops into Johore Baru to make an attack. He didn't capture it, but he wrecked the forts and should take it tomorrow. We lost 3 Wirraways and a Buffalo trying to support the troops below.

Elsewhere
-USS Stingray seemed to go through its entire stores of torpedoes and gun rounds attacking a troop-carrying Husimi-class cargo ship. It managed to get one Mk14 to detonate, plus 9 shell hits. Decent odds it sinks.
-Troops landed on Wake. IJN marines took heavy casualties, but it looks like they'll get it tomorrow.
-He made an opposed river crossing near Yenan, China at brigade strength. I had even numbers opposing; he took the worst of it.
-His invasion of Guam looks stalled until he can land reinforcements
-The battleship Ise is being reported as sunk again. And again, I doubt it--but--it's possible that it lost control of its flooding trying to get to Truk.

https://i.ibb.co/vhS2MBj/1941-Dec-26-Strategic-map.jpg (https://ibb.co/ZS0ybJM)

Molon Labe

06-20-21, 02:45 PM

27 December 41
The Empire advances

CentPac
I made the decision--I can't leave the fleet at PH while it's being encircled. It could even be captured--I'm now counting as many as 5 divisions landing in and around Hawaii. The forward HQ of our fleet will be Sydney. The bulk of our undamaged cruisers and destroyers slipped away at night during a rainstorm. What's left are mostly auxiliaries--quite valuable, but also slow. I couldn't risk endangering the evac of the combattant fleet by including them.

He landed on Johnston and took it immediately. The Patrol squadron based there was destroyed before it could evacuate. I would expect Palmyra and Christmas Island will be next.

The KB launched air raids over Kona to support the landings there.

Wake has been captured, along with the Wildcat detachment based there that had no where in range to fly to.

Dutch East Indies
I sent PT boats to raid Ambon and sank a cargo ship loaded with troops. The PTs escaped with only minor damage.

The task force evacuating Philippine base forces was engaged again, this time by a SAG that was ready for combat. One transport and an escorting minesweeper were sunk, three more transports were damaged. I had 4 DDs escorting but they only managed one hit on the attacking warships. He followed that up with air attacks with Betties from Palau and probably Ambon. None were carrying torpedoes. They managed one hit each on a cargo ship and minesweeper (both of which were previously damaged).

I have lost track of the CVLBG. I expect it's either going northeast to help the surface group intercepting my escaping base forces, or northwest to go after surface traffic passing through the Oosthaven strait.

Philippines
He launched a shock attack on Manila, which failed. It's just a matter of time here, though. I've pulled my aircraft out.

Malaya
Johore Baru has been captured. I had my bombers avoid the area, favoring strikes on less-well defended ships. Only lost one bomber.

The Imperial Guards Division was spotted in Mersing. This is the last major division that was unaccounted for.

China
In the north, enemy reinforcements arrived at Paotow and pushed my troops out. I'll regroup to the West.

Japanese bombers have picked a new target, an army near Hwianan that I am hoping to use to hit a smaller enemy army here in the riverlands. Fortunately it was just 19 light bombers, probably not enough to protect their troops from me.

I had a rare victory on the southeastern coast at Chaechow. The enemy attacked first only to find I had more troops, the damage he took made my attack all the more effective. I should be able to take at least one more city down here before he can regroup and counter.

Elsewhere
-The Allied submarine fleet came up completely empty today. I was getting spoiled by 1-2 ships sunk per day.
-The Soryu showed up off Guam to try to give the stalled invasion a little push. The terrain seems to be working against them.
-I tried to take a little base in Thailand I thought would be undefended. It wasn't. The battalion has been ordered to retreat, but the only retreat path has an enemy unit now as well. So that's not going well.
-Japanese marines have taken Tulagi (next to Guadalcanal)

Japan's opening force allocations:
Malaya: 3 divisions
Luzon: 3 divisions (including the 38th from Hong Kong)
Burma: 0
DEI: 1/3 to 1 division (plus marines)
Hawaii/CENTPAC: 5 divisions

I'm hoping the price he's going to pay for putting a plurality of his forces into Hawaii is that his operations in Luzon and Malaya are going to grind down as they become proper sieges. I should look into areas in the DEI to reinforce since he isn't going to be able to take Java or Malaya anytime soon.

Molon Labe

06-21-21, 01:56 AM

28 December 1941
Mosquitos bite an elephant

CENTPAC
PT boats from Pearl hit forces landing at Lihue, scoring single torpedo hits on 3 transports. I probably sunk one, maybe two. The PT boats retreated without casualties.

Dutch East Indies
My retreating transports were continually attacked throughout the day as the entered the Ceram Sea, first by pursuing warships, then land based Betties, and finally by the CVLBG's kates. The bomb-equipped aircraft had no trouble hitting crippled transports. I lost two transports, a destroyer, and two minesweepers. This evac hop is a failure--all that's left are destroyers.

The CVLBG also took out 3 local minesweepers protecting island bases.

I got some payback after spotting a target of opportunity on the west side of Borneo--he got a little overconfident and sent an ARG beyond the strong covering forces further north. "Force Y" (comprised of 1 CA, 4 CL, 2 DD) was already leaving Sumatra and didn't have to go far out of its way. We caught a task force of 7 transports, 2 light cruisers, an APD, and 3 light combattants. The CL Ceres did not fare well--it attracted gunfire that its armor was able to take, but two torpedoes left the ship crippled. But it was a slaughter on the other side. My ships torpedoed nearly every transport. Three sank while still in contact with us, 2 more are likely to sink, and another was damaged. The APD was crippled by naval gunfire. One CL was moderately damaged, the other lightly, along with two of the light escorts. Unfortunately, it does not appear that these ships had troops aboard at the time, so all I really accomplished here was making him call in more ships to pick up the marines already ashore.

Malaya
His bombers are now focusing on Singapore's ground forces. It's costing them some planes, I think our gunners had 5 confirmed kills today, and at least 20 more went home full of holes (some % of which surely crashed later or will need to be scrapped). Buffalos added a Zero and a couple Sallies. Our attempted raid on ships at Kuantan cost a Buffalo and two Blenhiem bombers.

I'm in desperate need of Recon in Malaya. I have about a division's worth of troops caught in the middle from Kuala Lumpur to Malacca. They won't be able to engage the main force that's about to hit Singapore. But I don't think he has enough in Malaya to take Singapore while also holding his landing sites--something has to be relatively unprotected right now.

https://i.ibb.co/zfBZBty/1941-Dec-28-Malaya.jpg (https://ibb.co/Th7t7NV)

Philippines
They've taken Manila. But my dumbass retreating troops went to Mauban instead of Clark, where most of the rest of my troops are, and which has a valid retreat to the Bataan peninsula. I didn't want my troops divided! Well, I guess they can heal up there with captured supplies and try to threaten to retake Manila if they move away from it

Threadfin

06-21-21, 10:11 AM

Molon Labe

06-21-21, 10:36 AM

Great reports mate. Following along and enjoying the read. Things are looking bleak at the mo, but help is on the way as the arsenal of democracy ramps it up.

Your opponent is far more bold than I would have guessed possible. It feels to me like he is lunging, and I'd think sustaining these moves would prove very difficult. Will be interesting to see if he pays the price for reaching so far so fast. I mean the war is only 3 weeks old at this point.

You're like rope-a-dope. Absorb the blows then explode off the ropes.

What are the victory conditions for each side?

Every choice has consequences, and I'm really hoping the committment of so much to Hawaii hurts him everywhere else. I've already reinforced Singapore and Burma, and I've got two more convoys of troops enroute. I should have at least 2 more brigades in the west in another 2 weeks.

I'm also going to take advantage of the fact as long as the KB is at Pearl, and that as long as Pearl exists and is sending out recon flights, I know where the KB is. Yorktown arrives in theatre tomorrow.

[EDITED!!!] Victory is based on Victory Points. The game starts checking for a winner (by "Automatic Victory") as early as 12/7/42 and will end in 1946 by default.

Decisive Victory: x1.75 opponent's VP
Marginal Victory x1.25-1.75 opponent's VP
Draw: x1-1.25 opponent's VP
If the game times out in 1946, the rating above shifts two rates in favor of Japan. So, what would be a Decisive Victory by points for the Allies becomes a Draw.
Automatic victory: 1943: 4x opponent's VP; 1944: 3x opponent's VP, 1945: 2x opponent's VP

VPs come from mostly from bases held and enemy units destroyed.
Our current score is 1.472:1 in my favor (because I still hold most of the bases in the southern resource area). There hasn't been a single turn in which I have gained VP against him, though, he chips away every turn.

https://i.ibb.co/6tSrjvG/1941-Dec-29-VP.jpg (https://ibb.co/jwYbnVq)

Threadfin

06-21-21, 10:52 AM

Yes, I'd think that at some point he will have exhausted his striking power, and that should dovetail nicely with your ships rolling off the ways and divisions and squadrons coming on line.

It's very much like how the German player must approach the opening of the WitE campaign. He must strike while the iron is hot, grab as much as possible as fast as possible and then hope it was enough to survive until the end. I imagine your opponent is thinking exactly this. Take advantage of your weak start and then try to hold on to what he has gained. But that bill will come due as the big blue fleet grows to irresistible size and strength.

Molon Labe

06-21-21, 11:30 AM

I edited the previous post to correct some errors in the scoring system.

Here's what a Japan autovictory in 1943 might look like. This is from my last game against the AI, right before an auto-victory end on 1 January 1943. VP is 4.5 to 1.

https://i.ibb.co/8mHG7Hx/Japan-Auto-Victory-1943.jpg (https://ibb.co/cyjRrj8)

So in terms of territory, this is all of the southern resource area, all of Burma and starting to get into India, China is essentially completely conquered except for one last fortress city, and Japan controls the Solomons all the way south to Noumea.

What you really can't see here is the extent of the damage to Allied units. Sunk ships and destroyed army units, each on their own, are accounting for more points than territory. The Allies essentially have no navy, merchant marine, or available troops at this point. So consider this a minimum for how much they'd need to hold for a 1943 auto-victory.

Threadfin

06-21-21, 12:15 PM

Molon Labe

06-21-21, 12:38 PM

I hope you were Japan :)

One more question, what are the relative experience levels of you and your opponent with this game?

I'm pulling for the Americans in this one. And I'd watch out, I bet he has designs on invading the west coast of the US. You need your own Midway, a pivotal victory that puts him on the back foot.

Yes, I was Japan.

This is my first campaign against a human opponent. I've played one Allied and two Japanese campaigns against AI.
I'm not entirely sure how experienced he is. I just know it's not his first. And he has surprised me a few times already.

I'm probably not going to look to take on the KB until after I replace the Wildcats with Corsairs or Hellcats. I still have 1 CV with Buffalos, waiting for Wildcats, as it stands. And his pilots are better. I don't even have USN training squadrons filling out my reserves with trained pilots, so any pilot I lose is replaced with someone right out of basic flight, or not at all.

As of tomorrow, the carrier balance will be:
Japan: 6 fleet carriers, 2 CVL, 2 CVE
US: 4 fleet carriers
UK: 1 CVL

Molon Labe

06-22-21, 10:01 AM

29 December 41
IJN disengaging in DEI

Dutch East Indies
https://i.ibb.co/g3pWPkd/1941-Dec-29-Banda-Sea.jpg (https://ibb.co/VtZCQfx)
A Dutch sub torpedoed a troop transport off Manado, 50/50 it goes down.

The big news is that the CVLBG is leaving--after finishing off my evac task force yesterday, it moved north through the Moluccas and turned east towards Truk. It's due for replenishment and refueling, plus one of those CVLs ate a torpedo awhile back. With how little activity is going on in the DEI, it might not be coming back. If the KB stays tied to Hawaii, it might want to try to disrupt my supply chain and bases in SouthPac.

It's not just the CVLBG that's gone, too. The ports at Ambon, Manado, and Ternate are mostly empty. A surface group left with the CVLBG. Except for one surface group still near the Moluccas, it doesn't appear that there are any surface threats east for Borneo, and the only air threats are fragments of Betty squadrons with no torpedo support.

West of Borneo, as Force Y pulled back from its raid, a heavy-cruiser escorted group invaded Billiton. One transport hit a mine. These guys have now advanced far south enough that my land based bombers are in range. They've had a few weeks to train--I wouldn't call them proficient just yet, but hopefully they aren't as useless as when the war started and their CVLs just parked off Surabaya and laughed at us.

What I presume to be the invasion forces scout planes snooped one of my troop convoys heading north near Palembang. This has the potential to be devastating. In hindsight maybe I should have ordered them to turn around, but I didn't. I split them into two groups based on speed and ordered them to sprint to Singapore. I think if they make it, they could tip the balance and let Singapore hold out until they allocate at least another division. So, they're scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Possibly, while under air attack.

The Ceres continues to limp to port from its torpedo damage. I don't think she's going to make it.

Oh, that reminds me. It's of little consequence, but the HMS Thanet is about to arrive in Surabaya. This little DD might be the luckiest ship afloat. Part of a group of 3 DD, it survived the air raids in Hong Kong, escaped the surface groups patrolling for Hong Kong evacuees, avoided the covering forces around Luzon, and got caught up in the rout in the Celebes Sea, where it came face to face with the Ise and Hyuga (Ise took a torpedo hit in this fight, so it's possible that if the Ise really did sink, maybe the Thanet was responsible), which sank one of its sister ships, and later the Soryu battlegroup, which sank the other sister ship. After disengaging from Soryu it was attacked by its Kates, evading their bombs in the morning only to take a critical hit in the afternoon, inflicting 88% flooding damage. That sinks most ships--the damage control teams need to get medals. It's been limping to Surabaya ever since at like 5 knots, and somehow, none of the surface groups, subs, or betties prowling the Celebes Sea or Makassar Strait ever found her. DC teams brought the flooding down to 62% enroute.

Malaya
My one dedicated recon aircraft is earning his paycheck. We've confirmed at least a Division is still up at Kota Baru. But Kuantan has only a few thousand troops, and it looks like mostly engineers.

I attacked his forces blocking the road outside Johore, but he got additional forces there in time to prevent me from having local superiority. It probably didn't help that I couldn't keep his bombers away, either. So, the road is theirs. I'm going to have my boys head back north to Malacca and then decide whether these troops are better used to keep him from putting his full force into Singapore or going after a vulnerable-looking Kuantan.

The air campaign favored me today, I traded one Buffalo for an Oscar and three Sallies.

Philippines
He bombed and sank an AKL waiting to take on evacuees from Cagayan. Looks like he's onto me. But, barring unforseen events, the majority of the Cagayan base forces are going to get out. The base force mostly lost yesterday was from Cebu, but trailing elements from them are also still evacuating--which means I might end up with enough to rebuild the unit from.

His air forces mostly took the day off with no raids in the north. By B-17s hit some units in the open headed towards Clark and Manila. I also probed his Clark forces and found that he pulled a Napoleon and moved a lot of them to Manila to get local superiority. Right now it appears its just the 65th Brigade in Clark, plus a few engineers.

China
The AVG suffered its first two losses of the war as Changsha was swept by Tojos. Most of the CAP here was focused on protecting frontline troops instead of the base itself, so we were outnumbered. Fortunately both pilots bailed out without injuries. EDIT: HA! I completely forgot about the Zero raid about a week ago that shot down a handful of AVG fighters!

We pursued the routing armies from Sinyang to the gates of Hangkow and dealt them another defeat in the open before they escaped into the city. I had been bombing Hangkow to use the BDA as a kind of recon, and it actually looks like I can take it. But, it's heavy urban terrain and probably well-fortified. I'm going to take my pound of flesh here and go home.

Thanks to this small victory, I actually gained VP on my enemy this turn, for the first time in the campaign.

In the south, the army that took Chaochow is now closing on on Swatow, and its size 3 airfield and port. Recon shows I have him outnumbered, and most of those troops are the broken troops I defeated a few days ago. My next move would be Amoy, but I expect I'll find more resistance there.

SouthPac
I think awhile back I mentioned a CL poking around Fiji (at about the same time as the CL at Pago if I didn't). Well, it's still there. And the task force is growing as it sits there, last reported as 2 CL + 3 other ships, also a sub hanging out to his west. If he's looking for a fight I might just give him one. Maybe after we make sure I'm not walking into battleships again like in Celebes, though. That sucked.

SigInt reports enemy activity just north of the scouting range of our PBYs at Pago. I wish I could say I have enough troops at Pago to hold it. But with 5 divisions deployed to the north I'm sure he had some to spare.

The supply situation here is starting to suck, thanks in no small part to Pearl being surrounded and enemy SAGs hanging out around Pago and Fiji, and of course, the capture of Canton Island.

West Coast
Yorktown has arrived and is now forming up with escorts. Lexington is about to complete repairs of its engineering casualty ahead of schedule--great timing. I've also got enough DDs available, and enough transports arriving after evacuating from all over the place, that I can start putting more troop convoys to sea to reinforce SouthPac and/or Australia.

Arizona and Nevada (the BBs damaged in the original 12/7 attacks that were the most seaworthy) have arrived in Seattle for repairs. Moving them was a bit risky because most Japanese players will try to finish them off with subs, but these guys had a quiet transit. But it takes pressure off the overburdened shipyards at Pearl, and fortuitously, out of the danger zone I had no idea PH was when I ordered these two to move out.

Speaking of PH, thunderstorms tomorrow. I'll just leave it at that.

Molon Labe

06-22-21, 10:54 AM

https://i.ibb.co/rGTYRGC/1941-Dec-13-Thanet-FTW.jpg (https://ibb.co/fYBfzYh)

About the HMS Thanet, it's confirmed. It's the ship that scored the last torpedo hit on the Ise, which was probably the last significant damage. It was bombed by a B-17 while it was getting patched up, but I don't think the bomb did that much damage due to the ship's armor.

I'm going to do something out of character and ask my opponent about the fate of this ship.
*
*
*
He says the Ise is safely in Japan for repairs. Damn.

Molon Labe

06-23-21, 01:27 PM

30 December 1941
PTs strike again, 65th Brigade routed, Singapore reinforced

CENTPAC
I used the expected thunderstorms to cover the escape of several tenders from Pearl. Surprisingly, it worked, even though they're pretty slow. Night storms are the best. I also tried to evac a key engineer unit. The enemy took notice of this, though, and launched an airstrike while they were loading. I lost an AK and had an AP shot up, a P-40 went down trying to hold them off. Japan lost two Zeroes and 4 Vals.

My PTs tried to attack at Lihue again, as all the heavies seem to be east. But they chickened out and turned around.

Japan now controls all of Hawaii except for Oahu.

SOUTHPAC and Solomons area
The feared invasion of Pago has not yet materialized. At this time all surface contacts are at or near captured bases.

The enemy SAG remains in position at Fiji, still nothing reported as larger than a CL. Fiji's supply situation is getting bad.

Landings have commenced on the northern shores of Papua New Guinea. My bombers apparently don't feel like doing anything about it. Bad weather? I am disappointed.

Dutch East Indies
Maybe they're not withdrawing everything after all. Two SAGs are in the area, one by Manado and another that looks like it's going to take a run at my bomber base in Kendari. Please, bombard it! There's a new minefield there waiting for you! That's also my PT refueling base for hitting Ambon, though, so hopefully my torpedoless-PTs can refuel and get out of there before the cruisers arrive.

Why torpedoless? Because they just raided Ambon and sank two transports filled with troops! Good job guys, now stay alive and do it again.

The CVLBG is approaching Palau, it might even be headed for Japan. I've got 2 subs in position at Palau to attempt a night intercept.

My bombers didn't attack Billiton. Not sure if it was bad weather or they just needed time to organize after rebasing. Again, disappointed.

Philippines
I made him pay a price for dividing his forces between Manila and Clark, driving out the 65th Brigade from Clark. Casualties were about 2500 to 900 in our favor, but I'm concerned about the supply situation in terms of not being able to repair/heal disabled units. I'll be assigning some Asiatic fleet boats to transport duty to try to help them hold on. Some portion of the force at Manila is now moving to Clark. My forces that retreated from Manila are now reorganized and resupplied, I'm moving them into the hills to threaten to re-engage Manila or cut off a road and base that's probably supplying them.

In the air, it was my turn to take a beating. Oscars took down 6 P-40s and 2 P-35s with only one loss. The absence of Zeroes is noted. The may be confident the Oscars are enough and distributing the Zeroes elsewhere... Rabaul, maybe.

He sent nearly 90 bombers after an army unit in the central area that has no hope of being evacuated. Probably softening them up for an invasion.

USS Pike torpedoed a troop transport north of Luzon. I expected everyone that's coming ashore to be ashore already, so this is interesting. Who are these mystery reinforcements?

https://i.ibb.co/KyP6nfB/1941-Dec-30-Luzon.jpg (https://ibb.co/gg2yYfQ)

Malaya
An odd choice for my opponent--he raided the airfields and port at Singapore but not the troop transports about to dock there. That raid traded an Oscar and a Sally for a Buffalo, a Blenheim blown up on the ground, and hits on the Repulse and a couple other ships under repair. Now my transports will be unloading while the bombers sleep, who knows maybe they'll even be gone by morning. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but reinforcing Singapore twice now probably means he doesn't have enough there to do the job.

Hurricanes have also arrived to start replacing the craptacular Buffalos. The top-performing New Zealand squadron is getting the first batch.

Air raids against my forces withdrawing from the Johore road did significant damage at the cost of 1 Oscar.

Georgetown was captured. 1 bomber was destroyed on the ground that I was trying to move up to Rangoon to rejoin the rest of its unit. They're trying to aid the retreat of the small unit I allowed to be surrounded.

Elsewhere
-USS Sargo made a gun attack on an AKL that it abandoned after running low on ammo. Really sad that we can't even sink little guys like this.
-My army fighting in the Chinese riverlands has been outmanuevered. It isn't strong enough to take down the army I sent it after (especially because they can get bombers here, but I can't), and another enemy unit appeared behind it. The only retreat is through them.
-Most of the Indian Ocean evacuees are safely in off-map bases and are available for forming supply convoys to India, Sri Lanka, and Australia.
-I'm starting to get together convoys from the west coast as well, but I'm being hampered by lack of availability of decent-speed ships. I'm absolutely shocked that the only west coast transports interdicted by subs have been those going to PH before it was encircled. This party can't last, so I'm reluctant to get lacksadaisical about moving supplies out here, and especially troops.
-I don't know why I was happy that the Lex will be repaired early. I still don't have enough Wildcats to fill out her air wing. It didn't help that the Yorktown arrived about 10 planes short.

Threadfin

06-24-21, 11:13 AM

Threadfin

06-24-21, 11:17 AM

I should also ask if he is a member here and reading this AAR? If so I could understand a reluctance to share your plans.

Molon Labe

06-24-21, 11:25 AM

31 December 1941
Enemy Air Strikes In Singapore Come Too Late

Malaya
My reinforcements were nearly fully disembarked when the strike came. Japanese bombers flew 60 sorties against Singapore harbor. We lost two Buffalos defending the harbor and claimed three Nell bombers. Three mostly empty transports were torpedoed, but they're big ones and they should survive as long as they don't get hit again.

My opponent emailed me to criticize this move, said it was too risky because these transports are too valuable. I mentioned I had second thoughts in my prior post, but I think I made the right move here. Yes, losing the transports would hurt, but I had a chance to turn the balance of the Malaya campaign by landing these guys. And at least for now, on paper, it looks like it worked. My defense at Singapore is truly formidable now, at least two divisions strong with a **** ton of artillery and AA support. Factor in that he needs to attack fortifications over a river, naval bombardment support is chancey because I have a ton of mines and coastal defense artillery, and his bombers can't consistently attack from low altitude because I have a lot of AA, and his (probably) three divisions have their work cut out for them. I needed to make him pay a price for putting 5 divisions in Hawaii, this move might have accomplished that.

Dutch East Indies
A cruiser-destroyer group went hunting for my PTs in eastern Borneo, but they escaped.

The expected strike against Kendari hasn't happened yet, but they're lining up three task forces. Looks like phibs, a covering force, and a bombardment group. We launched an airstrike with level bombers but missed.

My strikes against Billiton launched, the ships were gone so the bombers hit the troops they landed, causing light casualties. Falcon light bombers also tried to hit ships at Miri but missed.

I have lost track of the CVLBG. If it doesn't show up in a day or two that probably means it went back to Japan.

Philippines
Major raid on Clark. We lost a P-40 and two P-35s but got 2 Sallies, 3 Lillies, and an Ann. The bombers dropped from too high to be effective.

Elsewhere
The KB is giving me a little bit of a scare. My recon aircraft around PH are getting thinned out and my coverage is spotty. We actually didn't confirm the continued presence of the KB around Hawaii this turn. There is a whole of of shipping traffic heading south around Hawaii that he might try to interdict. I think it's still at Hawaii, though, he has so many ships there that I don't see him sacrificing fighter coverage for them just to get some transports. All the same, the convoys that are most at risk have been ordered to adjust course. Plan for what he can do, not for what he would do, and all that.

Threadfin

06-24-21, 11:30 AM

Yep exactly, command according to capability, not intentions. It's good to see some successes! A redoubt in malaya is a thorn he could do without.

Molon Labe

06-24-21, 11:45 AM

Grim. Hang in there mate.

Is there any offensive action you've been thinking of that could put your opponent off balance? Or is a fighting withdrawal the only real option at this point?

You need your subs to start getting in and hurting his ability support all of these far-flung occupations, if that's a thing. But you have neither the numbers or I guess reliable torpedoes to get this done.

I'm interested in the submarine side of this. Are you choosing where they patrol? If so where are you sending them? As you surely know (I can tell from your posts you are well-versed in the Pacific war), dull-minded leaders such as Christie and English wasted many patrols by placing them at route terminuses, terminii, err, at the place they dock. lol

But experience, hindsight and sharper brains of course showed that there were several chokepoints that could have proved far more profitable in interdicting the merchant traffic of the Japanese while allowing the sea room needed to be effective, and out from under the most intense enemy ASW. It's tempting to put boats outside Rabaul or Truk I would imagine, but they may prove more effective say in Makassar or Luzon straits. Could a concentration of available submarine striking power in very few places make a difference and maybe make him reign in his audacity? :)

Maybe if you get the time and want to hit on how you approach the submarine war, I'd be interested in how it works mechanically and from a tactical or strategic point of view. But I know how much work it is just producing the reports, so no obligation of course. Things should hopefully be brighter for 1942, as more boats come to the theatre, and their effectiveness improves due to technical advances (radar, improved torpedoes, depth capability, tubes, capacity, etc). Not sure how deeply this is modeled, but I'd expect that your boats will become more effective, all else being equal.

Good AAR, mate. Keep it up.

I've looked around to try to find a username for him here, as far as I know he's not here. But, I've been googling random naval stuff before and been directed to subsim threads. So, OPSEC is something I have to think about when posting here. You'll notice I have a lot more to say about what's already happened than about what happens next.

Right now I'm looking at the potential for limited counteroffensives in the DEI and SouthPac areas. I've appeared to have the stronger fleet in SouthPac for awhile. In DEI, even with three task forces operating near Kendari, it looks like his Optempo has caught up with him and a lot of surface forces have had to pull back for refuel/rearm/maintenance. But, with that reduction in forces, he's being more methodical. I wouldn't attack those three task forces off Kendari with what I have there now, too much strength in a small place. In SouthPAC, the big question is airpower. Rabaul is going to be a problem soon, if it's not already. The KB isn't far from there. The CVLBG might be headed there. And the way he has cruisers just sitting off Fiji waving at our scoutplanes is just weird and unsettling. It really looks like he's trying to bait me.

Right now the Dutch sub fleet are focused on choke points in the DEI. US Asiatic fleet boats are mostly tasked to shipping lanes from the Luzon area to the southern/western part of Japan. US West coast boats are mostly sitting off Japan or major hubs like Truk and Rabaul. I think he's figured out most of my patrol areas and has adjusted, I'm starting to open up a little to try to find the traffic. The sub mission is still mostly anti-troop transport at this point, he's conquered so little of the resource areas there isn't going to be a whole lot of fuel/resource convoys to interdict.

EDIT: about the sub's capabilities. All torps have a dud rate, but the US torps are especially bad until sometime in 1943. So that is modeled. Also, just about every ship has an upgrade schedule. That includes things like radar, so yes, they're going to get more effective over time. Speaking of which, it's almost January, I should look at the upgrade schedule and see who's due.

EDIT 2: here's an example of a scheduled upgrade. This one improves the subs AA guns and puts some radars on it.
https://i.ibb.co/hMvDwzy/Tambor-upgrade.jpg (https://ibb.co/W31gjJ6)

Threadfin

06-24-21, 12:00 PM

Thanks a lot for the info. It's all very interesting, in a vicarious sort of way.

It makes me want to play it honestly. I'm deeply interested in the Pacific war, and in these sorts of game. WitE had no naval component at all, which among other things allowed me to bypass and isolate Sevastopol, which I would not have done had it been a naval base.

But in the Pacific this is centrally improtant of course, and the notion of controlling it all according to what I think should be done is appealing. Having a human opponent just makes it all the more interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience Molon Labe.

Molon Labe

06-25-21, 09:45 AM

1 January 1942
Japan lands on Kendari

Dutch East Indies
The attack on Kendari finally came. 8 transports plowed through the minefield. One took two hits and sank. One of my PT squads ran into their covering force and was driven off. Casualties from losing the AK to a mine were bad, but he still landed at least a regiment. It's enough.

Near Surabaya, a damaged cargo ship that had been sheltering at Balikpapan but was moving to Surabaya for "real" repairs was picked off by a sub.

He moved some Oscars to protect Billiton from my air raids with a long-range CAP. And Murphy showed up and made sure my escorting fighters got separated from their bombers. I lost two medium bombers and 3 Swordfish torpedo bombers.

The CVLBG is still gone. It might be replenishing at Palau, headed for the Solomons, or returning to Japan. If its the Solomons, I'll probably reacquire it in another day, maybe two.

Philippines
The S-36 sank two cargo ships in the Luzon strait, a Kyushu class and a C-class. Way to show up the more modern boats! It helps that its Mk10 torpedoes work. The Kyushus in particular are valuable, they're 18-knot boats that are great for moving armies around.

Air raids on Clark claimed a P-35 but cost him a light bomber and 2 mediums. He's still bombing from too high to hit anything in these hills. His main force has moved from Manila to Clark and is ready to attack. As expected, he left behind enough in Manila to stop my isolated units from retaking it.

I mixed things up a bit by sending my B-17s back to Cam Rahn Bay to bomb the port, but the raid was ineffective. I'm sad to report that all of my fighter squadrons here have taken such heavy losses that they're essentially combat ineffective. He's basically won the air campaign and will enjoy air superiority going forward.

Malaya
He hit the retreating transports again with Nells and did better today. We lost 2 Buffalos and claimed 3 Nells. But the Nells got 3 hits on the transport Leonard Wood, sinking it. They also got a minesweeper on ASW patrol and hit the drydocked Repulse with a pair of bombs.

His army (Imperial Guards Division and 18th Division) attacked my units as they withdrew from the Johore road. They didn't cause a rout, but thanks to their air support they inflicted much more severe casualties than they took.

I've replaced another Buffalo squadron with Hurricanes. The first conversion should get their first taste of combat tomorrow.

SouthPac
The enemy SAG sitting south of Suva decided to attack and bombarded the base. The base reports the enemy composition is 2 CL and 1 DD. Yeah, I can take them, just not this turn. The bombardment damaged 2 scout planes and did minor facility damage. Frustratingly, it appears this group has left the area. I had just positioned some cruisers for an attack overnight. Maybe it's still there and my scoutplanes missed it. Or its withdrawing towards the Solomons. It could even be headed to Pago.

CENTPAC
My patrol aircraft continue to suffer attrition from enemy CAPs. They're pretty badly degraded now. But not so badly degraded that I wasn't able to confirm that the KB was still there. And also not so degraded that I missed this:
https://i.ibb.co/QmLY4NK/1942-Jan-1.jpg (https://ibb.co/C0gVf7H)

Is that really a CVE off to the east? Probably not. (EDIT: The CVE Taiyo is NOT known to be part of the CVLBG, so this could be her) But if it's a scoutplane-carrying cruiser, that's not much better. The only thing to the southeast is my shipping lane to SouthPac. Traffic there is a lot thinner than it was a few days ago, but there is at least one convoy there that I'd really rather not get sunk.

China
My southern army trying to take lightly-guarded bases ran into an unexpected surprise: level 4 forts at Swatow. So even though I outnumber them significantly, and a lot of those troops are broken from a recent defeat, I'd need more troops to take this--combat engineers in particular. Oh well.

Guam
Added this as an afterthought. He's been bombing Guam pretty consistently with Nells/Betties and Kates from probably the Soryu. Today it was just Nells. Soryu may be on the move.

Threadfin

06-25-21, 11:39 AM

Molon Labe

06-25-21, 02:48 PM

When I was posting yesterday I thought about the Mark 10s and wondered if your S-boats had them or if other fleet boats might be sailing with them or mixed loads.

And good to see your S-boats aren't just running aground all over the place haha. Two sinkings is good, and that's the place I'd be sending them too. I hope one of your boats can pick off a CV. We need more good news from the war front :)

I gave the S-boats the high-priority tasks in the expected Luzon landing areas right from the beginning because of this.

I can't control loadouts except for torpedo bombers, so the rest of the fleet is stuck with the Mk14.

Molon Labe

06-26-21, 01:11 AM

2 January 1942
And you thought he was dangerous in a Buffalo...

Dutch East Indies
One of the PT squadrons trying to get out of Kendari got trapped between land and an approaching landing force, including a heavy cruiser. This squadron was already down to 3 boats, now it's just one. Kendari withstood the enemy's assault, but with reduced fortifications.

I have yet to reacquire the CVLBG.

Malaya
He sent over 100 bombers to hit my army units on the Johore Road. His army would later attack and turn their withdrawal into rout. They're trying to recover at Malacca now.

My first ace, G.L. Hesketh of the New Zealand No. 488 Squadron, had the honor of being the first to fly the Hurricane into combat in the Pacific theatre. The enemy showed up to bomb the airfield and port facilities at Singapore. Hesketh claimed two zeroes and two Sally bombers before his plane was damaged too badly to continue fighting. The only other victory was a Sally brought down by AA. Hesketh is now a double-ace with 11 kills. The raid bounced a few more bombs off the Repulse, which is apparently destined to live in drydock for the rest of the war.

Philippines
A sweep over Clark cost me a pair each of P-40s and P-35s. My B-17s went to Takao this time to bomb the port and once again were ineffective.

CENTPAC
A change in tactics for the enemy today--they sent in 2 minesweepers to try to clear a path to Pearl, and then bombarded the base with a battleship at long range. The minesweepers were shot to hell by coastal defense guns. But the battleship hurt, sending shrapnel into about two dozen planes all over Hickam Field and causing significant human casualties.

No sign yet of the maybe-Taiyo near my shipping lanes.

Burma
A sub-battalion sized unit took over Mergui, an empty base on the Thai-Burma border and the top of the Malayan peninsula.

Molon Labe

06-26-21, 01:46 AM

3 January 1942
Joint Defense of Kendari, and an Ace in a Day

CENTPAC
The morning started with a PT raid on Lihue. This has to be something like 3 in 5 days, but he was unprepared. My PTs found 9 transports loaded with troops (loading to move somewhere else?) defended by only 4 PBs (militarized cargo ships). The PTs found themselves not outgunned at all, so not only did they get close enough for torpedoes, they stuck around to rake the ships with .50cal gunfire. 4 transports were hit with torpedoes, 2 sank while the PTs were still there. The other two will probably sink as well. Enemy casualties were reported as 2854. One PT was lightly damaged by return fire.

For some reason, his Kates flew to Pearl today without fighter cover. My CAP probably can't withstand the KBs full force, but it can handle unescorted torpedo bombers. 20 Kates showed up, none went home. P-40 pilot D. Billings got 5 of them by himself, the campaign's first Ace-in-a-day.

https://i.ibb.co/822PzfP/1942-Jan-3-Pilots.jpg (https://ibb.co/BjjT4QT)

The weather was supposed to be bad, so I used the opportunity to get some more ships out of Pearl. This time is was seaplane tenders and tankers. The tenders ran into a sub, but the sub missed. They managed to get far enough away by dawn that an airstrike never came.

Dutch East Indies
I really tried to exploit the fact that my enemy is trying to fight from inside a minefield at Kendari. PT attacks will continue, but today it was time for subs and light bombers to take a crack at the invaders. The sub O19 entered the landing area and found a destroyer already crippled from hitting a mine. She torpedoed and sank it. Another destroyer detected the O19 and tried to get some revenge, but the sub escaped with minor damage. After sunrise, two Falcon bomber squadrons attacked, one dropping from 5000 feet and the other coming in low for strafing and bombing. Just wanted to see if it made a difference. Both squadrons managed two hits each. Sadly their bombs were only 50kg, basically oversized hand grenades, so damage was minor. But they got to watch an AKL sink from damage sustained from hitting a mine earlier in the day. One Falcon was shot down by AA.

Near Surabaya, a minesweeper and a pair of destroyers went after the sub that sank the cargo ship two days ago. We actually found two. The minesweeper tracked one down and caused minor damage with depth charges.

The light cruiser Ceres got within 1 hex of Batavia, but her luck ran out. Efforts to control the flooding failed, and she went down.

A portion of the Cebu base force that was on a different transport convoy than the one that got sunk last week has made it to Surabaya.

Philippines
I was wondering when he'd actually start bombing Clark--not the hex, the actual airbase. He hit it today, with about 110 bombers. The airfield is now damaged to 33% and almost nothing is flyable anyway. I did manage to get some B-17s off the ground first, they hit an overstacked enemy airfield at San Fernando, destroying at least two bombers on the ground. But flak downed one B-17 and two more had to be scrapped after the lander.

Burma
The army that I sent into Thailand and got surrounded has surrendered.

SouthPAC
I believe I've reacquired the small SAG that was sitting outside of Suva, they've merged with a troop convoy on an atoll north of the Solomons.

EDIT: Japan
USS Cachalot was bombed by an ASW aircraft and is returning for repairs.

Molon Labe

06-26-21, 01:11 PM

4 January 1941
New activity in the Santa Cruz Islands, Kido Butai detaches a carrier.

CENTPAC
He sent another minesweeper into Pearl, along with a few barges and PTs. The minesweeper was shot up by coastal defenses, the barges and PTs hit mines. He also had a battleship and cruiser bombard the base again, but this time it was ineffective. He got close enough for coastal defense to return fire, and the battleship took a hit--but not more than its armor could handle.

Probably because that sub spotted the seaplane tenders evacuating yesterday, he sent part of the KB north to intercept, and found the evacuating tankers. My scouts still report "6 CV" near Lahaina, so I'm guessing he only sent one (the reports are never 100% accurate as to number and ship type). He bombed both with kates (just 13, tending to confirm only one carrier detached), sinking one and damaging the other. What sucks is they both had fuel onboard. I didn't offload it because based on my experience from when I tried to load troops to evacuate, I expected that moving them into the docks to unload would have triggered an attack. So now that fuel is helping the fires along.

One of my Catalinas is claiming that it bombed a CV as a target of opportunity. I have no way to verify this or determine the amount of damage.

I decided to do PT attacks on consecutive days instead of giving them a day to rest and repair, hoping to hit that damaged ARG some more. They were ready this time, 3 destroyers screened Lihue and drove the PTs off before they could approach.

A task force to the west of Pearl instead of the east is now reported to include a CVE. I still don't know if the Taiyo is really here. So far there's been no sign of enemy ships near the shipping lanes, including scout plane sightings.

Philippines
While the PTs in Hawaii failed, those in the Philippines succeeded. While he invades central islands in full view of my scoutplanes, I sent a PT squadron in to ruin their day. I found 6 transports escorted by only one PB. Again, the PTs were able to make a sustained attack instead of a hit-and-run. Two transports were on the bottom before the PTs left, two more crippled and likely to sink. Another was set on fire by .50cal hits. These ships had already offloaded their troops, though.

The IJA made a proper attack on Clark. We fought back well and gave far worse casualties than we took--5246 to 681, but lost a fortification level. It would probably be a pretty even fight, with favorable terrain balancing out their superior numbers. But factor in air support, and that we're running low on supplies while they can ship in more anytime... it's looking bad.

Dutch East Indies

More PTs arrived to harass the landing forces at Kendari, but they arrived in broad daylight and met the task force outside of the base rather than onshore. The task force, which included a cruiser and a destroyer, was able to disengage. Bad weather is obscuring the location of the task forces from scout planes.

Malaya

I had two AKLs trying to get badly needed supplies to Malacca. They were detected and sunk by Nells.

Other airstrikes targeted my retreating ground forces in Malacca. Enemy bombers caused significant damage to the severely disrupted units. But bad weather caused their escorts to do a **** job of protecting their bombers. Five Nells and a Val were shot down, they managed one Buffalo. Vals? What are they doing here? I'm not sure. There were only 3, my guess it it's a small unit from Taiwan.

I sent bombers to Malacca as well. Oscars on CAP managed to slip past my Hurricanes and shot down a Wirraway. But my bombers hit the enemy tanks chasing my troops and did pretty OK damage.

China
I've been bombing Ichang pretty much daily, and he's been letting me. Apparently he got tired of that. Nates and Tojos were on CAP there today, shooting down one medium bomber and turning the rest around. Those Tojos have been getting the better of the AVG so far, so I have to take them seriously. Fortunately, he only has a squadron of them.

SouthPAC
https://i.ibb.co/VmNfT79/1942-Jan-4-Santa-Cruz.jpg

Lots of activity here all of a sudden.

A fast transport group (reported as 4 ships, including 1 CL and 2 DD) landed troops on Ndeni in the Santa Cruz islands. That I didn't see them until they arrived highlights a blind spot in my search capacity in the eastern solomons. If he thinks Luganville might have been a bridge too far, Ndeni can help give it air cover. Which reminds me, he's already completed a small airstrip at Guadalcanal.

We also spotted a 4-ship task force closing on Efate from the east, and a three ship force approaching Guadalcanal (reportedly with 2 CLs).

It's now been long enough since we've last seen the Soryu or the CVLBG that it wouldn't be surprising if they showed up here. But there's no sign of enemy scoutplanes this far south, yet.

Molon Labe

06-26-21, 09:26 PM

5 January 1942
Missed Opportunities at Santa Cruz and Pearl Harbor

Hawaii

I launched a major attack against the Kido Butai. It was a somewhat complicated plan, which worked against me. I was trying to capitalize on three mistakes by my opponent: first, the KB has been here too long, been flying too many missions, and is low on aircraft, fighters in particular. Second, he just detached one of his carriers to chase after escaping tankers. And third, he's keeping his fleet in a base hex, which reduces the amount of aircraft it can put on CAP. I expected to have an equal number of fighters on the board as him. The strike package had three components: A sweep by 26 P-40Bs, an attack on Lahaina's port and airfield by 11 B-17s and 8 LB-30 Liberators, and an attack against the Kido Butai by 35 SBDs.The heavies would be unescorted so that the SBDs would have maximum protection by 10 Wildcats, 2 P-36s, 15 P-39s and 9 P-40Es. I made sure my not-so-great pilots rode the bench for this one.

Murphy showed up right away... the heavies went first, and the escort fighters went with them. The zeroes had them outnumbered and pounced. A rather one-sided battle saw my fighters take heavy losses. The bombers got through, but didn't do a whole lot of damage.

My sweep arrived next, and they in turn jumped the Zeroes which had come down below 15,000ft to attack the strike package. We kicked their asses. The enemy CAP over the KB ended up looking like my CAP over Clark.

The SBDs got there late and without escort. They only managed to scrape four Zeroes together to attack. They shot a few down, and some chickened out. In the end, 13 SBDs were able to make an attack, targeting the Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, and... a heavy cruiser. They got only one hit. On the cruiser. There was no sign of any damage to any of the ships from that Catalina's report a few days ago. Also, there was no sign of the Shokaku or Zuikaku. So he either detached both to chase the tankers, or one or both is getting replacement aircraft in Japan.

Total losses in this battle:
19 Zeroes
4 F4F, 5 P-39, 1 P-36, 5 P-40, 2 B-17, 6 SBD

Also occurring at Pearl, he's sending more barges and a bunch of midget subs into the base hex. They're all hitting mines---which is probably the point. Apparently these are sweeping mines more cheaply than minesweepers that get sunk by my coastal guns.

SouthPAC
The task force approaching Efate was a priority target, and I got there just in time. It was two troop transport ships escorted by a light cruiser. I brought 4 heavy cruisers and 3 light cruisers to the party. You'd think I slaughtered them with those numbers, but no. All fire was concentrated on the CL while the transports got away. And that CL fought hard, firing multiple torpedo salvoes as shell hits slowly wrecked her. One torpedo from the last salvo hit the HMAS Canberra, causing serious damage. This is a serious missed opportunity--he knows I have troops on Efate so he wasn't going to bring a small unit. And those were proper troop ships, not cargo ships being used to transport troops. I can't even say with any confidence that the CL is fatally damaged.

My scouts failed to find this task force after it disengaged.

East China Sea
USS Saury found and torpedoed a cargo ship, probably sinking it (I had just adjusted its patrol area this turn, too. Glad it didn't take long!)

China
Looking for some payback against the Tojo squadron, I stopped bombing Ichang for a day and just sent the AVG there. The Tojos didn't show, but 17 Nates did. Nates have no business in a fight against P-40s. 12 of them didn't make it back.

The army I'd used to defeat enemy forces in the open near Singyang easily defeated a force that was guarding the supply road to Ichang. Ichang is now cut off from supplies. Probably still has redonkulous forts though.

Near the coast, an enemy force moved into Chusien. I don't know his strength yet, but I am not weak here, so this is a possible opportunity to counterattack.

Philippines
Another day of Clark AF being absolutely pummelled by over 100 bomber sorties. The airfield is now damaged over 60%. There's essentially nothing airworthy there anymore. But, I did manage to get a few fighters up with very experienced pilots. We got two Zeroes... but that's meaningless right now.

The Soryu showed up in the Celebes sea, narrowly avoiding a sub guarding the eastern chokepoint. If found a small task force of mine that was going to try to evac the base forces on Jolo island. They sank a small escort, one transport and badly damaged the other transport. Mission aborted!

Malaya
Another 100+ sorties targeted my forces trying to regroup in Malacca. They're taking a beating. I also sent my own bombers, which ran into Oscars on CAP. I lost 5 Hudsons and a Blenhiem. Time to stand those guys down again.

Raids also targeted Singapore. We lost three Hurricanes but took down 5 Zeroes, 8 medium bombers, and 4 light bombers. They damaged the Repulse again, along with the transport Mount Vernon.

Burma
I'm embarrassed to say I didn't notice that the unit that took an empty southern base a few days ago moved north to Tavoy, which wasn't empty. They easily defeated my meager defenders (that I should have evacuated).

At least those soldiers are now close enough for my bombers to hit them while having a fighter escort. It's close to Saigon, I'm expecting fighters to be defending them.

-------
Today marked the greatest one-day loss for Japanese aircraft with 80 planes lost.

https://i.ibb.co/QkgC8NF/1942-Jan-5-Air-Losses.jpg

Molon Labe

06-27-21, 12:13 AM

6 January 1942
The return of the Silent Service

Hawaii
Operation "any ship can be a minesweeper once" continued. Looks like four barges and a midget sub were sacrificed.

Dutch East Indies
A Dutch sub finished off a damaged Aden-class cargo passing through the Mollucas. This should be one of the damaged ships from Ternate.

Japan
USS Porpoise torpedoed a Gozan class cargo off Kobe. It tried to finish it off with guns, but broke off to save ammo. It's only a 2000-tonner, 1 torp should be enough.

Philippines
The Soryu didn't press any further into the Celebes Sea. The only undamaged escort from the Jolo evac sprinted through the Makassar Strait and is safely off Surabaya now. At Clark, he shifted from bombing the airbase to ground forces again. Between the forts and the terrain, it's not very effective.

Malaya
He's really got it in for that army that tried to push him off the Johore road. More bombing sorties in Malacca. He hit Singapore too, with Nells going after a pair of AKLs making a brief stop under fighter cover. Defending Hurricanes snuck past enemy escort fighters and bagged two Nells. He missed the AKLs.

China
The unit entering Chusien is the 15th Division. I have more than a division there, so I'll be the one attacking tomorrow.

West Coast
For the first time, we have a sub contact off Seattle. I don't have too much surface traffic here (just a mine tender headed to the Aleutians), but plenty of ASW assets. We'll give him a warm welcome.

https://i.ibb.co/RPrxNfY/1942-Jan-6-Map.jpg

Molon Labe

06-27-21, 12:58 PM

7 January 1941
Hickam Airbase bombarded, Soryu CVBG advances towards Makassar Strait

Hawaii
Operation "any ship can be a minesweeper once" continues, with at least 3 midgets and 2 barges offered as a sacrifice to Neptune. Destroyers also entered the area to assist with mine clearance, although probably not intending to clear them by hitting them. But one did hit one. Three battleships then bombarded Hickam AFB hard, destroying at least 4 aircraft on the ground and damaging 19 more. I'm not going to be able to put another strike together if this keeps happening. He got close enough for coastal defense to shoot back, we got 4 hits on BB Yamashiro, but it wasn't anything the heavily armored ship couldn't handle.

An attempted PT raid on Lahaina got caught between covering forces at Lahaina and the battleships attacking Pearl. No losses on either side.

SigInt reports elements of the 4th and 55th Divisions are boarding ships at Lahaina. I forgot to mention yesterday, patrol aircraft bombed Palmyra. Probably as a form of recon. So that's a possible destination. But there are others that make more sense...

Philippines
Air strikes continued to target ground forces instead of the air base. For good reason, my CAP this turn was 1 P-40, which was damaged and returned to base. My only flyable aircraft there are now recon.

The enemy army made a deliberate attack on Clark and reduced the forts to level one, at a cost of about 4600 men. I'm not sure they have enough right now--but if the two divisions from Hawaii head over, they'll pull it off.

Dutch East Indies
https://i.ibb.co/Bw5Jtzr/1942-Jan-7-Map.jpg

The Soryu battle group, after pausing for a day, has moved into the Celebes Sea. At the same time, a small 3-ship task force was observed moving north from the Celebes into the Sulu Sea, the carrier may be providing cover for continued landings in the central/southern Philippines. Or this could be a move against eastern Borneo, although I haven't spotted any larger troop convoys approaching from the east (EDIT: But there are cargo ships in Brunei right now. They might be picking up troops there to move here from the north.) The Soryu's Zeros strafed the PTs (that hit an ARG in the Philippines a few days ago)heading south to rearm, causing light damage to one of them. The pilots probably aren't trained for this.

The humiliation of the CVLBG sitting off the coast of the biggest bases in the DEI with impunity is still fresh in our minds. Since then, we've upgraded a few fighter squadrons from Buffalo to Demons or Hawks. We've also been training our bomber crews for naval attacks, although they still only have medium and light level bombers to do it with. We've also got enough surface assets to put up a decent fight--but also fresh in our minds is our defeat in the Battle of the Celebes Sea a week into the war, so I'm going to be very careful about identifying what's out there before I commit to a surface battle.

ASW operations off Surabaya continue to suck. There are at least two subs there, our planes keep spotting them, but they're always gone by the time our destroyers or minesweepers get there.

Malaya
Air raids targeted Singapore and Malacca. The Singapore Zeroes on escort did well, taking out 2 Hurricanes and 2 Buffalos while only losing 1. But they let a bunch of Hurricanes through, costing them 5 Sonia light bombers. 2 more Sonias were claimed by AA. In Malacca, enemy fighter coverage was spotty. Hurricanes shot down a Nate and 5 Sallies with no losses. Two light cargo ships arrived in Malacca to deliver badly needed supplies to the armies trying to hold on there.

A tank regiment has advanced from Georgetown all the way south to Kuala Lumpur, where I wanted to try to hold off the southern advance originally before we got outflanked by the Mersing landing. The tanks attacked, causing significant damage to personnel and fortifications. The defenders are mostly in Malacca now, so that's not going to hold.

EDIT: I forgot to mention when I posted this, we have another Ace-in-a-Day here, FLT J.R. Huchinson of the No 488 Squadron--he got six kills today.

China
I was wrong about Chusien. We outnumber them significantly, but they have better leaders and the terrain is hampering offense and boosting defense. They've also got trailing units that look like they are going to guard a road that I otherwise might have cut off to block enemy supplies from reaching Chusien. This looks like the beginning of a prolonged battle.

SouthPAC
Ndeni is officially theirs now, and we spotted two ships approaching it from the east. Probably engineers. I could, in theory, interdict this, but I decided to be cautious. There's a huge blind spot just to the north/northeast of there, for all I know the CVLBG or Shokaku CVBG are in it, waiting for me.

Resupply operations are proceeding in Fiji and Pago now that the surface threat has passed. No sign of that sub either.

Molon Labe

06-27-21, 04:33 PM

January 8, 1942
Soryu changes places with the CVLBG, Shokaku and Zuikaku still out there somewhere

Hawaii
I think the success of the PT squadron at Pearl is at an end. They got lucky and ran into two unescorted AKs on the way to Lahaina, sinking one for sure. I was annoyed with the commander for firing their torpedoes at such long range, only one boat still had torpedoes left after this. They then met an ARG at Lahaina, escorted by Kaibokans and PBs. They pressed the attack to make sure the last boat could shoot its torpedoes...and missed. They got close enough to cripple a PB with .50cal fire and set a cargo ship on fire. The cost of this was two boats sunk by Kaibokans. A destroyer detachment responded to this and sank two more. The PTs, having been cut off from Pearl last turn, and now in 3 combat actions this turn, ran out of fuel.

Sacrifices to Neptune continued with the offering of five midgets. Three destroyer minesweepers were also thrown into the fray, clearing 62 mines before my coastal batteries took care of them. The DMSs actually degraded the minefield significantly. I'm ordering one of my tenders to replace some of them. If that draws an airstrike and I lose the tender, the remaining tenders will be able to manage the mines that are left.

Dutch East Indies
I was wrong about that being the Soryu the moved into Celebes. I'm fairly sure it was the Soryu that hit the Jolo evac group (the damaged AP from that group sank at harbor today, by the way...fires were never brought under control). But the task force moving into the Celebes now is the CVLBG, less the Zuiho (which was hit by a torpedo last time it was here). Attempting a repeat of recent history, the Dutch sub KIX (the same boat that torpedoed the Zuiho) hit the Shoho as it entered the Makassar Strati. But this time, the torpedo did not detonate. Force composition is: CVL Ryujo, CVE Hosho, CS Chiyoda, 4 CA, 10 DD.

Zeroes from the CVLBG strafed the retreating PTs again, but were much more effective than last turn, 3 were damaged at least one pretty badly. Possibly because they aren't the same planes.

Fortunately, the strafing mission kept them away from the carriers when my airstrike came. But unfortunately, Balikpapan does not have an AirHQ and does not organize strikes very well. So we only got 4 of 9 medium bombers in the air, and the light bombers never found the target. The fighter battle was even, 12 Claudes against 11 Demons and a Buffalo. We shot down 3 Claudes, and they got one bomber. The rest tried to bomb the Ryujo but missed. We tried again in the afternoon, the bombers got through again, missed again, and AA shot one more down.

The CVLBG is hugging the east coast of the strait and continued past Balikpapan. My read is that it's going to support further landings in the Ceram Sea area. As for the Soryu, I've lost track of it for now. Supporting landings in the Phillipines makes a lot of sense, so I'm not convinced it's gone. I also wouldn't be surprised if it met up with the missing Shokaku and Zuikaku and showed up in the Solomons, now that he knows I have a bunch of cruisers there.

The S-40 torpedoed a Toho class AK in a Ceram Sea choke point.
The Surabaya ASW forces managed a decent hit on one of those pesky subs, but they continue to generally evade attack.

Solomons
The S-28 found two mine tenders moving towards Tulagi and Guadalcanal. The skipper decided they were not important enough to use ammo on and let them get away. That skipper is getting fired.

That task force headed towards Ndeni landed on the Reef Islands instead. It's a marine garrison unit rather than engineers.

Malaya
Malacca has been captured. I hope my armies got some supplies, because from this point forward it's going to have to be flown in, if at all. The AKLs delivering the supplies were bombed by Nells, one will probably sink. That these guys are using bombs instead of torpedoes probably means he's rebasing his Air HQ.

Our Hurricanes shot down 4 Zeroes and 2 Sonias over Singapore.

China
That army unit that got surrounded in the riverlands has pulled out from the hex it tried to attack and into the hex of the army that cut it off. It's two divisions. This is going to be a major loss for me.

Philippines
Army units commenced an attack on the central airbase of Iolio. This is a potential midpoint to evacuate any fighters I might be able to repair at Clark. For now it looks like they can hold, but supplies are a problem. And they have a task force here that could very well be there to reinforce them.
---

Today was the 7th consecutive day enemy air losses were greater than mine.

Molon Labe

06-27-21, 07:45 PM

9 January 1942
Major raid on Hickam/Pearl, attack on CVLBG fails

Hawaii
My mine tender laying more mines didn't trigger an airstrike. Instead, a bombardment task force about to shell Hickam used it for some pre-game gunnery practice. The bombardment destroyed 5 planes on the ground and about 50 more. So, when he launched an airstrike in the morning, my CAP was rather short. Fortunately he was bombing ffrom 20,000 feet, so he didn't hit much. A CL took a hit from a Val that was level bombing. Hickam was barely scratched. Air losses were 7 Zeroes, 14 Nells, 4 Betties, 9 Kates, and a Val for him; I lost one each of P-35, P-39, and P-40.

USS Gar laid a minefield at Lahaina. Looks like it was detected immediately and they're already working on clearing it.

Dutch East Indies
At Kendari, I made another PT boat attack. Looks like they've adapted to this. The troop ships there had plenty of decent escorts: 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers, plus a few little guys. I lost 3 of 5 PTs and the others went running home.

The CVLBG apparently had so much fun sitting off Surabaya last time it had to do it again. Once again, I tried to coordinate an airstrike, and again, it didn't go as planned. It was supposed to be two packages: Swordfish torpedo bombers (borrowed from HMS Hermes) escorted by Buffalos, and medium bombers escorted by Hawks. The Swordfish went first, and without escort. Every last one (12) was shot down by the CAP. The well-escorted medium bomber package claimed a Zero, losing 3 Hawks, 2 Buffalo, and 3 bombers. The bombers that got through missed. The carriers launched a strike of their own trying to hit ships at Surabaya. Fortunately they weren't any more successful. Escorting Claudes shot down a Hawk, but that was the extent of the damage.

Solomons
My bad luck with that sub skipper was partly made up: one of the ACMs he let go hit a mine at Guadalcanal.

Japan
USS Sailfish engaged an AKL on the surface near Kyushu. The AKL hurt the Sailfish as bad as it got hurt, and the sub aborted the attack.

Malaya
He switched from bombing Singapore to sweeping Singapore, and got results. 14 Oscars went up against 10 Hurricanes and a Buffalo--he got 7 Hurricanes with only 3 losses. One of those Hurricanes went down with an ace, another ace pilot bailed out but was wounded.

The bombers were still hitting my units retreating from Malacca. We traded a Mohawk for an Oscar in the air, but the bombers hit the land forces hard.

https://i.ibb.co/YDBgP8D/1942-Jan-9-Aces-Lost.jpg

Molon Labe

06-28-21, 01:20 AM

10 January 1942
Pearl Harbor and Surabaya Air Forces on the ropes, Palmyra in the crosshairs

Hawaii
He tried to sacrifice 2 more barges on the altar of Neptune, but the USS Gar, back from its minelaying mission, gunned them down instead. One of his destroyers hit a mine near Pearl, though. The damaged boat retreated and was intercepted by USS Cuttlefish, which bounced a dud Mk14 off its hull and then had to evade depth charge attacks from other destroyers.

A bombardment group hit Hickam and Pearl, destroying at least 2 bombers on the ground and damaging at least 22 more aircraft. The battleship Oklahoma, still under repair from the original 12/7 attack, was also hit.

He made another airstrike that was mostly ineffective, but between fighting these raids the the battleship bombardments my air forces are breaking. The score in the sky was 4 Zeroes to 2 P-40s.

Two ships have been detected moving south from Hawaii toward Palmyra.

Dutch East Indies
For the second day, the CVLBG defeated my air raids. Once again, my torpedo bombers didn't get their escort. I blame a combination of inexperienced pilots and that the difference in cruising speed between the medium bombers and the fighters is less than the difference with the torpedo bombers. But, even the escorted medium bombers took a beating. Overall losses were 4 Buffalo, 2 Swordfish, and 17 medium bombers. We didn't get anything. These air forces are pretty much spent, I'll need a plan B.
https://i.ibb.co/DkJptbp/1942-Jan-10-Map.jpg

Japan
USS Tautog torpedoed a Gozan class cargo south of Tokyo.

Malaya
A task force of 4 DD circled around Singapore and attacked an ASW patrol in the strait. I lost ML and had another damaged.

In Singapore, Nells torpedoed a pair of AKLs. The raid cost them 3 Oscars and 3 Nells, they shot down 2 Mohawk fighters.

Philippines
Iolio has been captured.

China
His secondary force outside Chuhsien brushed aside an infantry unit of mine that was trying to cut off a supply road, casualties were about 1800 for us.

SouthPAC
Floatplanes have been snooping Noumea for two turns now. There's no sign of any cruisers nearby... maybe one of those pesky aircraft-carrying subs is poking around. I've got a lot of traffic going through this area, I'd rather not let him have a look. ASW assets inbound.

Molon Labe

06-28-21, 10:10 AM

11 January 1941
Heroic sacrifice by USS McCall, USS Maury, gives Palmyra fighting chance; CVLBG continues to frustrate in Java Sea, Heavy cruiser torpedoed off Noumea

CENTPAC
When I detected those "two" ships near Palmyra yesterday, I detached 2 DD from a convoy passing near the area to intercept. They found a lot more than 2 ships.
https://i.ibb.co/WBcQgkD/1942-Jan-11-Palmyra.jpg

CL Abukuma
CL Oi, Shell hits 3
DD Isokaze, Shell hits 2
PB Magan Maru, Shell hits 2
PB Shoei Maru
xAK Okiyu Maru
xAK Nichiyu Maru, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
xAK Nitisan Maru, Shell hits 2, on fire
xAK Kosei Maru, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
xAK Kotoku Maru, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
xAP Taizan Maru
PB Yamahagi Maru #3, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DD McCall, Shell hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Maury, Shell hits 17, and is sunk
Japanese ground losses:
1886 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 46 destroyed, 91 disabled
Engineers: 34 destroyed, 53 disabled
Guns lost 6 (2 destroyed, 4 disabled)

Despite being outgunned, the two tin cans did awesome, splitting their fire between the transports and escorts. They took out one of the Oi's gun mounts and hit 4 of the 6 transports. One went down in view of the DDs. Unfortunately, so did the Maury, and the McCall isn't going to make it either. None of the damaged ships landed troops, and one of the two transports that continued was struck by coastal defense artillery. The Oi was also hit two more times. The damage done seriously disrupted the landing, resulting in heavy casualties to the Japanese troops coming ashore under fire from US Marines. They would have taken Palmyra easily with 6 transports full of troops, but as of now the fight could go either way.

At Pearl, four enemy destroyer-minesweepers were shot up and two barges were sacrified to Neptune. One of my subs tried to finish off one that retreated but missed. USS Gar was damaged by depth charges trying to mine Lahaina.

Air raids over Pearl cost two zeroes, but level-bombing Kates managed to hit USS Maryland with an 800kg AP bomb, and 250kg hits on W. Virginia and Pennsylvania.

SouthPAC
That sub I was looking for found me first. My cruisers, instead of pursuing enemy ships north, had been covering reinforcements landing on Efate. The sub found them returning to Noumea and torpedoed the USS Pensacola. So that's two heavy cruisers in this group sidelined with torpedo damage. I'm suspending troop movements and reassigning their ASW escorts to deal with this (in addition to ASW assets summoned yesterday).

Malaya
The Japanese destroyer group found two more ASW craft before they could shelter in port, both were sunk.

Air losses were one Oscar to one Hurricane, in a sweep of Singapore. Enemy bombers are now focusing on Kuala Lumpur, too far north to be worth dividing my fighter coverage. The armies at Johore appear to be waiting for this mop-up operation to complete before beginning the siege of Singapore.

Java Sea
"Plan B" was a surface battle with the CVLBG. I sortied a rather large UK-Dutch-US fleet--it should have outmatched them even with 4 heavy cruisers escorting the flattops. But the CVLBG had moved off to the east under darkness, and my ships didn't find them. The carriers launched an airstrike at the fleet, fortunately only scoring hits each on two cruisers, neither inflicting serious damage. They lost two Vals and two Kates but shot down a Hawk and a Buffalo.

Dutch East Indies
I had been raiding Miri and Kendari with light bombers with little result. I changed them to low level attacks for today and it worked; I got 2 hits on a tanker at Miri (likely a kill thanks to fires) and a hit on a cargo ship at Kendari.

Elsewhere
Guam, finally, has been captured. I'm sure that's a relief to him.

Molon Labe

06-28-21, 06:23 PM

My opponent is traveling this week, so we might be pausing the campaign for now. He did send me the replay file for 12 January, though, so I have partial information on the outcome of that:

12 January 1942
Invasion of Palmyra stalled, Shokaku and Zuikaku return to Pearl to boost air raids

CENTPAC
USS McCall sank as it limped away from yesterday's battle. The landings at Palmyra continued without further interference from my navy, but it looks like the damage was done. The surviving transports took more artillery fire from ashore, and a bombardment by the Oi appeared to be ineffective. The soldiers ashore gave it their best, but took 244 casualties without hurting my marines at all. This invasion looks to be stalled unless they can reinforce. They also landed combat engineers, so they might be able to deal with the forts, but it doesn't look close enough for that to be a difference-maker.

At Pearl, 6 battleships and 3 cruisers bombarded the bases. At least 2 planes were destroyed on the ground, with at least 25 more damaged. That these numbers are so small is testament to just how little is left. I don't have an estimate of facility damage yet, but I know runway damage was 10% and service damage 47% before they hit us today.

The base being nicely softened up, the Shokaku and Zuikaku rejoined the KB to join the series of air raids. The damage from today's raid was probably as serious as the original 12/7 raid:
BB Pennsylvania - 8
BB Maryland -6
BB Oklahoma - 5
BB W Virginia - 5
CA Minneapolis - 6
CL St. Louis -2
CL Helena -2
CL Detroit -1
DD Blue -1
DD King -1
AE Pyro -1 (and ironically, on fire)
AD Rigel -1
AV Wright - 2
AM Grebe -1

A whole lot of these were 800kg AP hits. The raid cost them 4 Zeroes, 4 Betties, 8 Nells, and 5 Vals. Zeroes shot down 1 Wildcat on patrol.

Well, I guess he has a decision to make now. Should he send reinforcements to have his soldiers on Palmyra, and if so, should the carriers support it? A major potential downside to saving Palmyra might be that he starts to consider my convoys a threat. I've been enjoying commerce-raider free traffic so far. For now, convoys heading to that area are going to have to turn around.

As for me, I'm SOOOOOO glad I got most of the undamaged combattants and the faster tenders out of Pearl when I did.

SouthPAC
USS Pompano found an unescorted AKE near Truk and attacked on the surface, scoring a torpedo hit and several gun hits. The AKE also hit the Pompano twice, but I won't know how badly until I get the save file. If this were further into the open ocean I'd say the enemy ship was doomed, but he might get to Truk and survive.

Malaya
Trying to imitate the success of the light bombers in the DEI, I set my Wirraways to low level attack to try to get the destroyers that are sinking my ASW craft. They didn't find the destroyers, so the went after transports in Mersing. They missed; defending Nates shot down an escorting Hurricane and flak got one of the bombers.

His bombers continue to harass the forces around Kuala Lumpur. He'll wipe them out, then consolidate to the south for the final siege.

Dutch East Indies
We repeated yesterday's raid on Miri and hit a PB. The little 50kg glorified hand grenades don't do too much damage when there's no fuel or oil to set on fire.

No raids by the CVLBG today. I wonder if he's going to head east towards the Coral Sea to deal with my cruiser force that's been giving him headaches.

Molon Labe

07-01-21, 07:29 PM

13 January 1942
Kido Butai committed to finishing what it started at Pearl

Hawaii
The assault on Pearl is maintaining yesterday's ferocity. They sent destroyers into the minefield (chasing a submarine maybe?). They cleared 3 mines on purpose, but detonated another the wrong way. 3 of my DDs made a run for it (and toward Palmyra, might as well put them to use if they make it). SIX enemy battleships bombarded Pearl/Hickam, destroying at least 11 planes and damaging 93 more. Service damage is up to 73% so we're not going to repair them quickly. The KBs air raids were devastating. For the low cost of 4 Zeroes and 5 Vals, they sank the BB Pennslyvania, CA Minneapolis and DD King, and just about everything else is severely damaged:
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
PG Sacramento, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Helena, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL St. Louis, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Detroit, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
CA Minneapolis, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 3, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AD Dobbin, Bomb hits 1
DD Monaghan, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD King, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
AE Pyro, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AV Tangier, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AG Antares, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires

https://i.ibb.co/V92Vcgm/1942-Jan-13-Pearl-Damage.png

At Palmyra, I got a CL, a DD, and a DMS into the space to try to interrupt further landings. They met a CL and a DD. The enemy DD was the star of this battle, sinking my DD and convincing my task force to leave. Very disappointing. Fortunately, no more troops arrived today. I also realized this was within SBD flying range of Pearl, so I transferred all of my flyable SBDs here. Gets them away from the battleships' bombardments and will be useful for bombing troop ships, as well as the jerks already ashore.

Dutch East Indies
A small cruiser-destroyer group moving through the Maskasar straight sank an AKL of mine that I was trying to useto get desperately needed supplies for airplane repair to the Philippines.

He resumed his invasion of Borneo, landing troops at Sandakan (northeast area). My Falcon bombers split their attention between this task force and merchant traffic in Brunei/Miri, scoring only one hit on an AK in Brunei.

The CVLBG was reaquired at Kendari. Fine by me, hang out in the minefield. A Buffalo-escorted Falcon raid against the task force got no results, though, except for two Buffs and a Falcon shot down.

Malaya
They're not waiting for the mop-up to complete. The main force is on the move to Singapore right now. They'll probably begin their assault in 1-3 days. Right now the only air activity over Singapore are Oscar sweeps; the bombers are all dealing with my scattered forces around KL where I can't reach them with fighters.
https://i.ibb.co/Y3Spkdp/1942-Jan-13-Malaya.png

Burma
For the first time, a sub appeared off Rangoon and tried to intercept a troop convoy delivering reinforcements. An escorting gunboat depth charged it, possibly sinking it.

I'm planning my first major counteroffensive here as a result of reinforcing Burma with the expectation of a major invasion to repel, that doesn't look like it's coming. Operation Kinky Boots will use the British forces intended to defend Burma push into Thailand, hopefully forcing him to abandon his siege of Singapore. The biggest problem is air support. We'll probably be facing a very large number of very experienced fighter pilots, with a downright oppressive amount of bombers following them. I'll have a decent amount of my own fighters to counter that with, but I'm not sure about the pilots. I can't check their experience levels until they actually arrive in theatre.

China
My surrounded unit near Hwainan (in the riverlands) is taking a beating from the IJA. Over 2000 casualties today. I'm going to be able to get these guys some air support soon--just fighters, though. No friendly airfields big enough to support medium bombers, and I don't have any light bombers in China.

The IJA began an assault on Tsiaotso, a mountain base at the northern front. We're holding; casualties were 1116 IJA to 487 ROC.

SouthPAC
I know that sub is still there but I haven't actually detected it. I'm going to give it one more day before resuming troop transport operations, with special care to include ASW escorts. Major convoys have arrived in Sydney, I'm proceeding to distribute those forces immediately. This includes a fighter group, airbase engineers, and artillery. This whole area is going to be a hard nut to crack pretty soon.

Molon Labe

07-02-21, 08:04 PM

14 January 1942
Time to abandon Clark airbase?

Hawaii
USS Cuttlefish torpedoed a troop-carrying cargo ship off Lihue.

Taking advantage of the KB being focused on raiding the harbor, I formed another evacuation task force and ordered it north. These were slower ships, tenders and minesweepers, and it appears we got away with it. A sub tried to attack them but that's it so far.

The 3 DD that escaped to the south yesterday met an AP and a PB, probably intended to evacuate enemy troops from Palmyra. My destroyers left both ships ablaze and sinking.

Six BB attacked Hickam again. Damage appeared light because there isn't much left there to hit. 10 aircraft damaged, 1 destroyed. The KB followed that up with a surprisingly light attack, just 44 Vals (30 Zeroes escorting), which blew up 3 more planes on the ground but let my gunners take out 8 of them. I only had 6 fighters on CAP for this fight--they got one Zero.

Japan has a total of 10 BB at this time in the war. 6 of them we know are here. Two, the Kongo and Haruna, were deployed to Malaya and are probably still there--although I didn't see them this turn. The other two are the Ise and Hygua, both of which were damaged in the Battle of the Celebes Sea. So, provided I can verify the Kongo and Haruna are still covering Malaya, this probably means the commitment of 6 BB to Hawaii leaves literally everywhere else without any BB available to cover them.

The relatively light air raid at Hickam might have meant that carriers have been detached from the KB, but recon aircraft are still reporting a full carrier fleet hanging out at Lahaina.

Dutch East Indies
My ASW groups outside Surabaya had some minor success, lightly damaging a sub with a depth charge attack. Then that cruiser-destroyer task force (2 CA, 2DD) in the Makasar Strait yesterday raided the ASW groups. Both sides took light damage, my DDs retreated to port.

https://i.ibb.co/JdcPKxH/1942-Jan-14-Surabaya.png
It's frustrating, I easily have superior numbers here right now, but he's inside my OODA loop. I didn't have a fix on their position yesterday, didn't realize they were already far south enough to get here, and now that they've shown up to attack, I once again don't have a fix on their position. Trying to chase them would be foolish, they have air cover whether they run east (Kendari, Ambon, the CVLBG) or west (Malaya).

My Falcon light bombers attacked Miri again, sinking a mine tender and setting an oil-laden tanker ablaze.

Philippines
He's pushing to take Clark again. Fortifications are reduced to zero and I have no supply. I'm considering a retreat to the Bataan peninsula, at least they have forts and supply there. But not enough to share with Clark. I'm trying to repair the planes at Clark to evacuate them but right now that's only arriving by sub. Maybe repair just isn't realistic anymore.

The central island base of Bacolod has been captured and paratroops are landing on the southern island.

China
Chaochow has been recaptured. Aggravating, our armies were of equal size and the advantage usually goes to the defender. But his troops are much more experienced, and his leaders better. I have to do better than match him man-for-man.

The air support I provided to the surrounded army in the riverlands proved meaningless as no air raid came. Their army doesn't need the help, my units are beginning to surrender.

SouthPAC
I know that damn sub is still at Noumea because his scoutplane keeps buzzing my ships. But I've let him disrupt me enough. Troop movements will proceed. We also spotted a large cruiser-destroyer TF at Rabaul.

West Coast
A sub's scoutplanes also got spotted snooping an ASW task force near Seattle. Looks like our guest from a few turns ago is sitting just outside my aircrafts' patrol range. There still isn't a whole lot of traffic here. A few ships coming back from dropping off troops or supplies, nothing unescorted.

https://i.ibb.co/RYfL7XQ/1942-Jan-13-Analysis.png

Threadfin

07-05-21, 12:48 PM

Good reports as always. The Ami's need a victory. I appreciate the detail you provide, such as whether a sub attacks on the surface or the aircraft losses of each raid.

One of the things I praised about WitE was despite the scale it was depicting, it was still calculating down the every shot fired. This sort of detail in a game so broad is great.

I'm pulling for you mate, but the outlook is grim. What can you see coming in the near future that could help swing the balance? What major reinforcements are on the way?

Molon Labe

07-05-21, 04:14 PM

So far most of the reinforcements are from the UK through Aden. I think I sent two of those to Singapore and at least two more to Rangoon. My plans for Operation Kinky Boots are based on Brit reinforcements already in Burma with more to arrive soon. We've got a lot of Hurricane squadrons coming in. The UK has also provided the CV Indomitable and a BB.

On the US side, I've been reinforcing everything from Australia to Christmas Island. So far the focus has been to make sure the islands in that southern chain can't be successfully invaded without him making a real commitment. So an infantry garrison, AAA, coastal defense batteries, and fighters. Most of those are coming online now--that's why that damn sub off Noumea is aggravating, I don't want him to pick any of these off. The next big deal for the US are construction battalions. The base forces' engineers haven't been doing great work so far, so I'm hoping dedicated engineers are going to help get important bases built up. Actual US army/marine reinforcements are coming in painfully slow. I'd say I have one regiment right now, but it's really just a command waiting to get filled out with actual troops and equipment. Two more of those should arrive in about a week. I'll also have another 3 US BB within the next two weeks. American army air corps fighters are arriving so fast I almost feel bad for him. Assuming he doesn't interdict the convoys delievering them, the south pacific and possibly the Java Sea is going to become a very hard place for him to fly in over the course of the next month.

Molon Labe

07-06-21, 03:30 AM

15 January 1942

Hawaii
Three more destroyer-minesweepers were sacrificed to my shore batteries, but they cleared out over 60 mines. Battleships continued to bombard--at this point I'd just say Hickam is out of operation. We're only putting up token resistance to the air raids. Speaking of which, strikes today finished off the Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Maryland.

SBDs that escaped from Pearl are now bombing the enemy troops stranded on Palmyra. I might be able to counterattack and wipe them out soon.

Dutch East Indies
One of my ASW groups managed to moderately damage a sub hanging out at Surabaya. Maybe enough to send it home for repairs.

He's moved a Nate squadron to Miri. My Falcon bombers were chased away with one shot down. Being able to raid was fun while it lasted.

The CVLBG is back on the move again, heading east towards Surabaya and strafing PTs on the way. Should I give it a surface battle?

The new Dutch sub O23 got its first taste of combat, hitting a cruiser-minelayer with 2 torpedoes and sending it to the bottom. Well done,
noob.

Malaya
Kuala Lumpur has been captured.

The first wave of enemy troops is now attacking Singapore. It was only about 6,000 troops to start--artillery and combat engineers--3,000 of them were killed.

Philippines
By the numbers, he doesn't have the strength to overrun Clark, and he's taking heavy casualties trying anyway. But, because he has supplies and I'm besieged, the numbers could gradually change. And there's always possibly troops about to be moved here from Hawaii.

SouthPAC
They've brought in minesweepers to clear out the presents I left form them at Shortlands. I doubt there are that many left since there is no tender managing them.

I finally found that damned sub handing out east of Noumea. Every ship that tried to sink it missed, though.

USS Argonaut found and attacked a large troop ship north of Shortlands but missed.

Burma
More reinforcements needed for Operation Kinky Boots are arriving, and I note with some disappointment that one of my new fighter squadrons is filled a blend of quality pilots and scrubs. I have more pilots than planes in Malaya, though, so I might be able to fix that problem. But the operation will not proceed if it means I have to put rookie pilots against veteran Oscar (and Zero?) pilots in large numbers.

Molon Labe

07-06-21, 03:58 AM

16 January 1942
Enterprise and Saratoga reveal themselves to sink Luganville reinforcements

Hawaii
He got wise to my northerly evacuation route and had subs and a cruiser-destroyer group ready for today's escapees. This cost me a seaplane tender, a minesweeper, and two cargo ships. Battleship bombardment of Pearl continued, sinking a destroyer and a cargo ship in port. The enemy began clearing the sub-laid mine at Lahaina; one PB escorting a sweeper hit one of the mines.

Dutch East Indies
Dutch sub O21 torpedoed an oiler in the Ceram Sea, looks like she'll go down. The KXIV also struck, hitting an Akasi-class cargo ship near Miri. I sent a PT squad back towards Kendari, which was intercepted by the cruiser-destroyer group that hit the Surabaya ASWs yesterday, one PT was lost before they bugged out. Claudes from the CVLBG took a turn at them too, causing light damage.

SouthPAC
USS Argonaut had another crack at a large AP near shortlands, and missed again. It then surfaced and briefly engaged with its gun before it decided that was a bad idea. The AP took only light damage.

I was moving the Enterprise-Saratoga battle group through the Santa Cruz islands towards the Coral Sea when they spotted 5 cargo ships dropping troops off at Luganville, they launched SBDs and sank all of them. 1631 troop casualties were reported.

Malaya
He shifted his medium bombers back to Singapore while the light bombers are on mop-up duty near Kuala Lumpur. Raids hit the Repulse again along with a cargo ship and merchant cruiser under repair there. The raids shot down 2 Hurricanes and Mohawks, with a loss of 4 Nates, 2 Zeroes, 3 Nells, and a Sally.

More enemy units crossed the channel into Singapore under fire. Casualties were 5000 to 200, favoring us. Fortifications are holding. They've got at least a division across now.

China
The last of my surrounded armies in the riverlands has surrendered.

Molon Labe

07-06-21, 04:43 AM

17 January 1942
Major surge of activity in the Solomons and Dutch East Indies
CVL Ryujo claimed sunk

Hawaii
No air strike on Pearl/Hickam today, just BB bombardments. My airbases are so wrecked I can't even get recon in the air to see if the KB left.

He sent 2 heavy cruisers, the light cruiser Oi, and 3 DD to bombard Palmyra, hoping to give his troops a chance. The SBDs that had escaped Pearl went after them. We got one hit on each heavy cruiser and two hits on the Oi. None of the ships appear heavily damaged, but they're going to need air cover to keep this up. His soldiers attacked and did fairly well, but couldn't overcome the fortifications. I'm getting a little nervous that he might actually have enough.

Dutch East Indies
https://i.ibb.co/LdrcRmW/1942-Jan-17-Ceram.png

After a bit of a lull in activity here, the invasion is back in full swing. Troops have landed in Morotai. A new carrier group has shown up way east in the Banda Sea, I would guess that's the Zuiho coming back after getting her torpedo damage repaired. The CVLBG is moving back west.

My PTs completed their trip to Kendari and found transports to sink. They got torpedo hits on 3 ships, but one took a direct hit from a deck gun and was destroyed. No troops on board these when I hit them. The PTs ran into the CVLBG on the return trip and lost another boat to their escorts.

As the CVLBG approached Makassar, the Dutch sub O24 penetrated the screens and hit the Ryujo with 2 of 4 torpedoes fired. Unlike when we hit the Zuiho, these were full-sized heavyweight torps. The ship is definitely knocked out of action--the O24 is claiming a kill.

Malaya
More IJA units crossing the channel. Casualties 2687 to 7. Still looks like his forces that made it are 1-division strong, we're not in any real danger yet. Sweeps shot down 2 Buffalos, the bombers stayed north.

Japan
USS Sargo torpedoed (and likely sank) a cargo ship off Okinawa while she was on her way back to Surabaya to replenish.

SouthPAC
https://i.ibb.co/nsPSpDY/1942-Jan-17-Milne.png
Even though my CVBG revealed itself in the Santa Cruz islands yesterday, he has a pair of large task forces that appear to be advancing towards Milne. It looks like he's committed enough to overcome this fledgling base, so I'm a bit annoyed by this development. But, these look like great targets. They're close enough to Rabaul to enjoy a long-range CAP, and his Betties can potentially reach my carriers if I move them in, but I think he's spread pretty thin on those right now. Port Moresby has army Banshee dive bombers and Airacobra fighters to escort them, plus Hudson level bombers. Looks like the stage is set for a battle tomorrow.

Molon Labe

07-07-21, 12:15 AM

18 January 1942
Port Moresby in the crosshairs

Hawaii
The KB and land based bombers resumed attacks on Pearl as the BB bombardments continued. They sank a minesweeper, a general tender, an oiler, a troop ship, and a destroyer.

The SAG hit Palmyra one more time and made a run for it, so they were out of range of my SBDs by morning. My SBDs bombed their troops instead, causing heavy casualties.

Dutch East Indies
A dutch sub sank a Lima class cargo ship in between islands in the Ceram Sea. Another dutch sub, the O21, started doing the surface attack without attacking thing. It took two hits without causing damage.

A SAG consisting of the BB Kongo and 4 DD attacked two ASW squadrons outside Surabaya, sinking one DD and crippling another. Two other DD were lightly damaged. We dealt insignificant damage back on them. Force Y was not able to retaliate. I lost track of both these guys and the CVLBG.

Oscars from Malaya swept Palembang, Sumatra; I had Buffalos on CAP. Only a few damaged planes on each side.

SouthPAC
The Argonaut made up for a bit of bad luck lately with two attacks on tankers between Rabaul and Shortlands, one of which was finally successful. The tanker was fuel-laden and will almost certainly go down.

The two enemy task forces near Milne went right by the fledgling base and headed for Port Moresby. Banshee and Hudson bombers attacked. The Hudsons came up empty, but the Banshees did quite well considering their low experience levels: two transports hit with major damage, and two cruisers hit for moderate damage. I note with pleasure that Rabaul did not provide a long-range CAP for them, but P-39s were escorting just in case.

https://i.ibb.co/1b8zKC6/1942-Jan-18-PM.png
This is a curious move. Having bypassed Milne, his ships have only two ways to go. Further west towards Java, in which case his transports can't outrun my carriers, or back east, through my carriers. Seems like a lot of ships to sacrifice for an attack on PM that has no guarantee of success, especially without BB support and where bomber support is going to be contested by fighters. Is he just that confident that Rabaul's bombers can get through and sink me?

Japan
USS Sailfish attempted a surface attack on a cargo ship between Okinawa and Kyushu. It inflicted moderate damage before deciding it used up enough ammo and broke off. This sub is out of torpedoes too, I manually ordered it to return to rearm.

Molon Labe

07-07-21, 07:24 PM

19 January 1942
The Dutch submarine service strikes again: Scratch one flattop!
Battle of the Coral Sea in progress....

Hawaii
Just 4 BBs pounded Pearl again. Where did the other 2 go? Two of the BB took hits from coastal batteries, nothing serious though. Hickam remains incapacitated, and just about every ship in port is shot up. Did I mention I'm glad I decided to evacuate when I did?

I have a confession to make. I was holding out on you. The Lexington and Yorktown were hanging out near Palmyra. Those token forces I sent there were bait, trying to get him to detach something from Pearl that I could defeat in detail. He didn't bite. My carriers bombed his troops on Palmyra and are now moving West towards the action.

Battle of the Coral Sea
This is shaping up to be a major engagement. Those two task forces pressed on, in spite of yesterday's damage. The enemy's order of battle appears to be:

2 Task forces, approx 20 ships, including: CA Suzuya (damaged yesterday), CL Nagara (damaged yesterday), CL Yubari, CL Tatsuta, 3 DD, 3PB, 2 AK (1 damaged yesterday), 2 AMC
(1 AK sunk or aborted mission yesterday)
Air support: One squadron of Oscars (12+ planes) and 3 of Zeroes (~45 planes)
Ground forces: At least 1/3 army division and 2 marine units, plus an armored regiment
Reinforcements: probably Betties and more Zeroes. Possible the Soryu CVBG is lurking--one of the Zero squadrons is hers but it looks like they are flying from Rabaul.

My forces:
Enterprise + Saratoga CVBG (full air wings)
1 P-39 squadron (18 planes)
1 A-24 banshee squadron (18 planes with a few reserve)
4 Hudson medium bombers
Total ground strength approx 1/2 division, including an armored regiment, and an AA regiment
Scoutplanes everywhere!

Reinforcements:
1 Wirraway Squadron
At least 2 P-40 squadrons
1 A-24 Banshee squadron
Surface task force: 2 CA, 3CL, 2 DD

He started landing troops before dawn. Shore batteries scored hits on two AKs (one that was damaged yesterday) and 2 AMCs. He began sweeping with Oscars and Zeroes but I gave him nothing to shoot at. We then sent 17 Banshees and 17 P-39s up against a CAP of 11 Zeroes to try to get at the ships. The Zeroes were pros, they got 5 P-39s and 5 Banshees without loss. The Banshees that got through hit an AMC and an AK--which appeared to have already disembarked all their troops. A raid of 3 Hudsons followed that up, but the Zeroes tore into them. All were shot down, two managed to attempt an attack first, but missed. Our Banshees rearmed and tried again, just 10 this time with 6 P-39s escorting. They shot down one Zero this time, but three more Banshees went down. 6 Banshees survived long enough to attempt attacks, but all missed.

So that's where things stand now. My CVBG is still out of range but should be able to join in tomorrow or the day after. I'm moving fighter squadrons to help out. The amount of troops he landed is a problem, but they're disrupted from being bombed twice plus taking fire on landing. Will the cavalry arrive in time to save the day? The biggest question, though, is Rabaul's Betties. There might be a lot there. And possibly more Zeroes to escort them than I realize. But range is on my side, I doubt I'll ever need to get inside Zero range, and I'll be right at the limit of how far a Betty can carry a torpedo. Decent odds they can't even find me, and if they do, it'll probably be unescorted Betties and they might only be carrying bombs. The Wildcats--and Butch O'Hare--are waiting for them.

https://militarygraphics.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/VF-3.png

Dutch East Indies
Submarine KXIII won a game of cat-and-also-cat against an ASW squadron, putting 2 fish into a TB and slipping away.

Submarine O24--the likely killer of the Ryujo--once again encountered the CVLBG near the Makassar coast. This time it targeted the Hosho, hitting it with 2 of 4 torpedoes. The torpedoes caused multiple secondary explosions, including a magazine that cooked off. No doubt about this one, she's gone.

Enemy troops have landed in Makassar.

Oscars swept Palembang but we were unable to get any Buffalos in the air to meet them. None were shot down yesterday, but they all got shot up. Bombers took advantage and caused significant facility damage.

Philippines
The S-36 torpedoed and likely sank a cargo ship in the Luzon Strait.

China
He attacked in Chusien but he's way short on strength to succeed there right now. He lost 3200 men for trying and only killed about 300 of mine.

Malaya
Another attack on Singapore, more dead Japanese soldiers. 3472 to be exact, we only lost 39 and the forts are holding. Looks like he's up to two divisions across the river though.

Molon Labe

07-08-21, 08:31 AM

20 January 1942
Combattants escape Enterprise and Saratoga, transports destroyed

Hawaii
Four BB (same 4 as yesterday) continued to pound Pearl. Even the shore batteries seem to be knocked out at this point. The KB, or perhaps just a detachment of it, are sprinting towards the Lexington and Yorktown. But I've got a head start. For now, the SBDs on Palmyra have been pulled back to Christmas Island, no point in attacking the KB without escorting fighters.

I've got fighter support along the chain of southern islands and can move some Banshees there as well. If KB wants to chase me I'll make a tower defense game of it.

Malaya
This seemed like a really uneventful turn until I got to the ops reports. There was a raid on Singapore. We traded 2 Hurricanes and a Mohawk for a Zero, three Nells, and 7 Sallies. They hit the Repulse again. But one of those Hurricanes was our leading ace, G.L. Hesketh of the 488th, with 14 kills. May his memory be an inspiration to those still in harm's way. We also lost 3 Hudsons trying to bomb enemy troops outside Singapore.

Battle of the Coral Sea
We did not get the slaughter we hoped for. Did we get the slaughter we deserved? He opened the day by bombarding Port Moresby with every combattant he had, bringing them to within 1000yd of shore and firing every gun down to the AA. The airfield took some damage, removing a few planes from the coming fight:
Wirraway: 4 damaged
P-39D Airacobra: 7 damaged
Catalina I: 4 damaged
A-24 Banshee: 1 damaged
Then they turned and ran towards Milne and back north to Rabaul. They ended up in two groups (maybe the original 2 groups?), one fast and one slow. The fast one made it far enough my carriers didn't try for it.

The first air mission was their Oscars sweeping PM again. I put some P-39s on CAP this time because I was worried about bombers. The Oscars shot one down. SBDs acting as scouts spotted the task forces, but 2 were shot down by the CAP. But now the strikes began. The Wirraways went first with a low-level attack. They slipped past the CAP, but these rookies failed to hit anything. Then came the Banshees, which split their attacks between the two groups. Only the attack on the fast group had escorts: it was 4 P-39s against 4 Zeroes. The Zeroes took out 2 P-39s and moved onto the Banshees, getting two before their bomb runs and one more after. The 2 bombs were aimed at the CL Nagara but missed. The slow group drew only 2 unescorted Banshees. The CAP splashed them without difficulty.

Finally, the air strike I've wanted since I first spotted these task forces near Milne happened. A package of 20 Wilidcats and 62 SBDs arrived over the slow group. They had 10 Zeroes defending. They fought the F4Fs to a stalemate, but a few snuck past and shot down 4 SBDs before they got on target. But 58 SBDs dropping bombs is going to ruin your day. Somewhat frustratingly, every warship in the group that was attacked was missed (1 CL, 2 DD). But it appears that the transports were wiped out:
xAK Hauraki Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Lyons Maru, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk
xAK Tusima Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
AMC Kongo Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Teiryu Maru, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk
CL Tatsuta
xAK Shinsei Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
AMC Hokoku Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Hayate
xAK Daihachikyo Maru, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Huzikawa Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Akikaze

So that's where it stands. I'll try to bomb any stragglers tomorrow, but the CVBG's focus will now shift to supporting the troops fighting in PM. Meanwhile I'm moving in fighters and level bombers in expectation of an air campaign with Rabaul.
https://i.ibb.co/L94drGT/1942-Jan-20-PM.png

Dutch East Indies
Makassar, now being invaded, was my PT base. So I sent the PTs there to do something about it. They were driven off by a cruiser-destroyer SAG. Makassar was overrun as they left.

China
I wiped out the last of the troops hanging out in the open around Ichang. Nothing to interfere with my siege anymore. My question now is whether my troops can handle the forts without combat engineers, while the enemy is probably hurting for supplies and with low morale due to being cut off for weeks and being bombed almost daily.

Threadfin

07-09-21, 08:42 AM

Nice! Give 'em hell!

Molon Labe

07-09-21, 11:11 AM

21 January 1942
Mutual error leads to surface skirmish in Coral Sea

CENTPAC
The KB, fully restocked on aircraft, is in pursuit of the Lexington and Yorktown. They took the time to bomb Palmyra's airbase on the way, destroying 1 PBY. Looks like he thought he'd find my SBDs there, what a waste of an alpha strike.
A6M2 Zero x 36
B4Y1 Jean x 27
B5N1 Kate x 44
B5N2 Kate x 53
D3A1 Val x 87
That's 211 bomber sorties! For one patrol aircraft!

The same 4 BB bombarded Pearl again. There's so little left there that the damage done seemed insignificant.

Coral Sea
In an apparent mutual blunder, his "fast" task force doubled back to attack my task forces, while my reinforcing SAG raced to intercept them. I had forgotten to limit the distance my SAG was authorized to travel to meet the enemy--and it looks like my opponent did the same thing as that task force clearly has orders to run to Rabaul. But we ended up in a small surface skirmish near Milne, both groups well in range of possible air strikes by the other. The early hits were in our favor--we got first contact thanks to radar--but evened up by the end. But neither side had any ships seriously damaged. In what I have to assume was the result of unexpected bad weather, neither my CVBG nor Rabaul launched air strikes at the 2 task forces in no man's land. We didn't launch the strikes on PM that I had ordered either. My land-based bombers did fly, though, and bombed the enemy troops. It doesn't appear that they did much damage.

For tomorrow I'm ordering the SAG to bombard the enemy troops to supplement the air strikes. We've detected 2 enemy subs so I'm dispatching minesweepers and destroyer-minelayers from Australia to try to keep them away from the CVBG.

Malaya
The situation in the air is now so bad that I lost 4 Wirraways that tried to bomb enemy troops at Singapore itself. We had no fighters available for escort and the CAP was already too busy to help. Operation Kinky Boots is badly needed to relieve the pressure here, but that's still 2 weeks away, minimum.

I attempted a counterattack in Singapore thinking that his recent failed attacks caused enough disruption that I'd tear through them. I was wrong, casualties were 965 to 244 favoring them.

China
Like with Singers, I thought between massively outnumbering the enemy at Chusien and the enemy having recently been repelled, the time was right for a counterattack. It also failed, casualties 952 to 246 favoring them. I noticed that a portion of the airstrikes hitting my troops here were coming from the west instead of the east. Probably Nanchang. I'm assigning some assets to offensive counter air missions here for next turn, maybe I can shoot down some Nates and bomb a congested airfield.

Strategic considerations
As bad as it feels to have Hawaii occupied, it looks like the Japanese advance has already run out of steam. It looks like they want to actually invade Oahu, but it's going to be a quagmire for them. Even suppressed, they're going to take a lot of damage from mines and shore batteries. Their attempt at Palmyra, although it still could succeed, is stalled. Same with Port Moresby, but they don't have the KB there to control the seas. Their progress in Luzon appears stalled. The balance of forces in Malaya makes it appear that even once their forces in the north make their way down to Singapore, they won't have enough. In the Dutch East Indies, the loss of two CVLs is going to make their fleets vulnerable to air attack just in time for the HMS Indomitable to show up. Land based aircraft could fill that gap, but their Zero fleet in particular is stretched thin due to losses well above replacement rate since the war began.

It sure looks to me like allocating so much to Hawaii--troops, carriers, battleships, and submarines--has been a huge mistake. Huge enough to cost him the whole war soon if he doesn't make a correction. His next move has to be getting some troops out of Hawaii and into the Philippines. If he breaks through there, he can send those troops to Singapore to break that seige, and then onto Java and Sumatra. So, detecting this troop movement and possibly interdicting it is now the #1 priority mission for my sub fleet. Lots of new patrol areas to assign. I'm also going to start moving US medium bombers into the DEI (this will take time) and generally looking to take a less passive approach there.

Molon Labe

07-09-21, 04:38 PM

22 January 1942
Port Moresby repels land attack, barely

CENTPAC
Another day, another BB bombardment of Pearl. The KB launched another massive strike on Palmyra's airbase with essentially nothing to show for it, because nothing's there. But the KB is now between Palmyra and Christmas Island. I imagine he'll switch targets soon. At which point the SBDs will have nowhere to go. The KB was last reported heading east, maybe he's finally going after my shipping lanes? Not thrilled about that, but it looks like the Lex and Yorktown are in the clear.

Burma
A Japanese sub attempted to intercept a convoy delivering bombers to Rangoon. An escorting corvette depth charged it instead, causing moderate damage.

Operation Kinky Boots is scheduled to begin 2/13, although I may bump that up 5 days if I decide to send the last Hurricane squadron to Sumatra or Singapore instead. The pilot situation looks good enough to proceed and the last convoys should depart in less than a week.

Dutch East Indies
A force of 2 CA, 3 CL, and 4 DD is entering the Sulu Sea from the South China Sea. A Dutch sub took a shot at them and missed. I'll be interested in seeing where these guys go. They might merit some air strikes, maybe even Force Y can take a shot at them.

What's left of the CVLBG was spotted retreating out of the area, north of Papua-New Guinea, headed east towards Truk.

Coral Sea
My bombardment task force encountered some presents left behind in Port Moresby. The HMAS Adelaide hit a mine and is returning to port for repairs. A small air battle broke out as Zeroes flew all the way from Rabaul to try to stop my bombers from tearing into his armies. Three Zeroes were shot down, along with one of our P-39s. Land based and carrier-based bombers hit the enemy troops hard, causing at least some disruption. The thick terrain is limiting the usefulness of air strikes.

His armies attacked anyways, reducing my fortifications to level 1. The good news is that it cost him a lot of troops, casualties were 1188 to 684 favoring me. It should take him some time to recover from that. I'm considering evacuating the airbase, but for now I'm going to put my faith in the grunts. The carriers will stick around for longer than I wanted to help make sure this goes my way. I'm also going to send some extra ground forces over...and minesweepers.

Philippines
I managed to get a few more B-17s flyable and evacuated them. Paratroops landed on Jolo Island, which has a fragment of a base force still there. I've evacuated the PBYs that had been flying there, and I'm going to try to counterattack the paratroops. They've got nothing to lose, they are already dead, they now go into battle to try to reclaim their lives.

China
My sweep of Nanchang came up empty, although this is apparently an Oscar base. My bombers blew up an Oscar on the ground and caused light to moderate facility damage.

Molon Labe

07-10-21, 11:25 AM

23 January 1942
Port Moresby appears doomed

CENTPAC
The daily 4 BB bombardment of Pearl happened again. Shore batteries hit back a bit, enough to start a fire on the Fuso. As expected, the KB switched targets to Christmas Island and incapacitated the SBD squadrons. I'm glad though, better this than sinking the transports to the east or south. Lexington and Yorktown are long gone.

Dutch East Indies
Our Falcons tried to hit the SAG entering the Sulu Sea, but the only result was one lost to flak. A few went to Miri too and didn't bother to bring the escorting fighters I made available. Fortunately the Nates missed.

US fighter squadrons are arriving from Australia. I had been hoping to position them in areas to support attacks on enemy ships, but I've lost most of the airbases that would be useful for that. So out of necessity these are just going to end up at our largest bases.

Coral Sea
Zeroes tried to stop us from bombing the troops again but were beaten back, 1 P-39 and 1 P-40 lost to 5 Zeroes. But, this will be the last attack by land-based bombers for awhile. The enemy troops have reduced our fortifications to nothing and it appears our base will be overrun soon. So, all flyable planes have been evacuated. After all this, it looks like they've won. I still have reinforcements on the way, maybe I'll get lucky and the enemy will need to pause before the final push.

China
I bombed the Nanchang airbase again but it appears to have been empty this time. There's an army unit that moved into the open near Ichang, so it's time to switch targets anyway.

Molon Labe

07-10-21, 08:19 PM

24 January 1942
Port Moresby Hangs on, mostly quiet everywhere else

CENTPAC
The two BB that stopped bombarding Pearl showed up to bombard Christmas Island. And then the KB hit it again right after. I've moved away what I could, but the SBDs are stuck there. There is also another task force approaching from the north. Probably reinforcements for Palmyra to push that invasion over the top.

EDIT: My opponent just emailed me to thank me for dropping off the SBDs at Christmas Island for him to kill. He thinks they're from when the Lexington and Yorktown were there! I think I'm just going to tell him... EDIT2: Hahahahahaha no I'm not, I'm going to admit to this mistake and call myself a dumbass so he thinks the Lex and Yorktown are at half offensive strength!

Coral Sea
2 minesweepers arrived at Port Morseby and got to work. They might have finished the job already .My CVBG hit the enemy troops, Zeroes managed to shoot down an F4F and an SBD on the way in. The enemy then began a shock attack, and our troops barely stopped the enemy from overrunning them. With this minor success, the chances of PM surviving increased significantly, but that doesn't mean the odds are on my side. Just not quite as hopeless as it looked yesterday. The first (small) group of reinforcements should arrive tomorrow. Hopefully the minefield is taken care of. I'm also flying some troops in from Milne--Milne won't survive if PM falls anyway.

Malaya
Temuloh has been captured, and with it 5,000+ British troops surrendered. There is one (broken, retreating) unit left north of Singapore.

China
I bombed the division I caught in the open near Hankow. They're falling back. Mission accomplished I guess. The bombers are going to target Ichang again next. I'm going to make a serious attempt at capturing it. He might even be evacuating, there are at least 5 units that snuck across the river into the swamps to the south.

Dutch East Indies
The enemy SAG coming down from the Sulu sea appears to be targeting Tarakan. As much as I'd like to airstrike them again, they'll be able to bombard the base before sunrise. I've evacced the planes.

Indomitable is probably 2 days out from being able to get involved in anything, 3 if she's going to head up to Tarakan. There isn't a whole lot of other activity here right now. I'm bombing some troops in Celebes without any fighter opposition. There's a very small ARG in the islands south of Celebes. I'll send out someone to greet them. I'm also moving Force Y to Balikpapan now that I'm relatively sure they aren't going to run into battleships on the way.

That's basically it. It's been quiet. So much so that they really haven't sunk anything since finishing off a bunch of ships at Pearl:
https://i.ibb.co/jb6kbKs/1942-Jan-24-PM.png

Molon Labe

07-11-21, 03:18 PM

25 January 1942
Cautious optimism for Port Moresby, concern about greater logistic picture in SouthPAC

CENTPAC
Yes, that new task force was an ARG for Palmyra. Palmyra is now theirs. Christmas Island will be taken far more easily with the KB around to make sure I don't intercept their transports.

He sent 4 short-range minesweepers into Pearl, and all 4 were shot up, but not before clearing about 90 mines. The minefield has been whittled down to the point it might not be effective when the time comes. Apparently concerned about Honolulu's industry being able to sustain supplies for my troops, he has begun bombing the city.

China
The AVG finally managed to shoot down a pair of elusive Tojos over Ichang. They only had 2 on CAP there, so that probably means that the squadron is combat ineffective now. I think these are our only confirmed kills, but we've been damaging a bunch of them, this was probably all that was left that was airworthy. I think my extra troops should arrive in Ichang tomorrow, triggering a shock attack as they cross the river. I'm expecting relatively light resistance as it really does appear they've evacuated a lot.

Malaya
Their attention is starting to turn back to Singapore. The slight lull allowed me to repair some planes and get a decent CAP up for a decently-sized air battle as we both tried to bomb each other. We lost 2 Hurricanes, a Buffalo, and 2 Wirraways; we shot down 2 Zeroes, 2 Nells, and 3 Sallies. One of our aces went down with a Hurricane. I'm starting to transfer some of the better pilots out--this losing campaign has enough dead heroes.

Burma
Nothing actually happened here, but I realized two mistakes I made affecting my plans. First, when planning Operation Kinky Boots, I forgot to take drop tanks into account when deciding whether to fly Hurricanes in or ship them in. So, instead of shipping them to Rangoon, I'm going to ship them to western India, send them by rail to eastern India, and then fly them the rest of the way. I'm sure that will be quicker, but I don't know by how much. I also completely forgot about some base forces I had sent by rail to Calcutta, which means a base force I was sending here from Aden isn't needed--so it gets to go to Sumatra instead, which desperately needs it.

Dutch East Indies
My bombing of Celebes is now focusing on enemy armies chasing my retreating garrison forces. The task force off the Borneo coast didn't attack, it's just sitting there. I'm not sure what it's waiting for. My best guess is that it's a covering force that just got there way ahead of the transports. There is another task force near Jolo that we haven't identified, so that may be related. Force Y was detected moving to Balikpapan so I'm not going to get to surprise anyone with it. I'm not inclined to challenge the covering force because I don't see any strategic benefit to it at the moment. This feels like a calm before a storm--there still aren't a whole lot of enemy ships here, possibly because he's preparing a surge.

Coral Sea
The Japanese army attempted another shock attack at Port Moresby, but again our troops held, and it wasn't nearly as close this time. Looks like the enemy finally peaked, which is really good news for us. The first reinforcements are arriving and didn't even hit any mines. I should be able to back that up with a USMC regiment in another 2 days or so. The problem I'm facing now, though, is I've been putting off refueling my CVBG to keep them bombing the enemy. It outpaced a replenishment group that had been following it here, and the Aussies only have one AO available locally and it's slow. The next best solution is to transfer fuel from merchant ships, but that's asking for trouble with at least 2 enemy subs lurking. I'm not sure heading to port is any better, I might have a ship run out of gas on the way and the ports appear to be where the subs were headed.

SouthPAC
I've managed to run Sydney out of fuel by transferring so much to my island base chain, and even those bases are barely managing to feed my thirsty convoys. With Palmyra and probably Christmas Island falling into enemy hands, my supply route keeps getting longer and more fuel-consuming. I'm getting very concerned that these long supply routes might not be sustainable. I'm going to try to route some middle-eastern fuel to western australia, but it's going to be awhile before that makes a difference. And if Singapore falls, I would expect it to become an enemy submarine base, with convoys to Australia being target #1.

https://i.ibb.co/jfKr0LB/1942-Jan-25-strat.png

Molon Labe

07-11-21, 11:11 PM

26 January 1942
Last resistance north of Singapore wiped out

Malaya
He tried to send 4 midget subs into Singapore harbor. There isn't much there to kill... all 4 hit mines.

As the tag above says, my last army unit north of Singapore surrendered today. Singers will soon be facing the full brunt of his armies. With little left elsewhere to bomb, his aerial focus is also on Singapore. The air battle claimed 2 Hurricanes (taking with them a double-ace) and 4 Zeroes, 2 Nells, and 4 Sallies.

Coral Sea
I finally managed to attack one of the subs prowling this area and scored a little bit of depth charge damage. I bombarded enemy troops at PM with 4 cruisers while the transports for the first wave of reinforcements completed offloading and headed back to Townsville. The enemy army did not attack today as they licked their wounds. I feel comfortable enough that we're going to hold PM for at least one more day, so I moved fighters back in. This way he can't turn the tide with a bombing campaign, they'll also provide protection to the next wave of reinforcements. My CVBG is retiring to refuel.

China
All that's left in Ichang is a tank regiment. We attack tomorrow. He moved some Oscars in to help the few Tojos that are left on CAP; they managed to shot down one Hawk fighter escorting my bomber raids.

Thailand
Some very timely SIGINT came in confirming the presence of 1/3rd divisions at 2 bases. Recon flights observed only token forces at Tavoy airbase and they appeared to be leaving to the east. Recon of Raheng shows a large number of troop encampments but not a lot of artillery--probably engineers to build up the base. If anything, this information makes the area look weaker than expected.

Philippines
He's detached a significant portion of his Clark force to go after my displaced Manila garrisons. Once he eliminates them, he won't have to divide his forces to finish off Clark. As for Clark, I had been trying to smuggle in enough supplies to repair some bombers and fly them off, but it's not going to happen. Once that detachment comes back to Clark, it's going to be time to pull back to the Bataan peninsula for the last stand. If I try to hold out, the supply shortage is going to make several units ineffective and lead to an overrun and massive casualties. At least Bataan still has some supplies left for the troops.

CENTPAC
He's still using the KB to bomb Christmas Island into the stone age, along with the battleships Hiei and Kirishima.

Dutch East Indies
I've lost contact with all Japanese ships except for a task force of two (reported) ships in the center of the Celebes Sea heading northwest. We now have 2 US fighter squadrons in theatre. I've got scoutplanes everywhere, submarines clogging up the chokepoints, ships pre-positioned... they're probably coming soon in force, I hope I'm ready.

Ostfriese

07-12-21, 01:28 AM

Please don't stop writing these reports, i really enjoy them even though I've never played WiTP.

Molon Labe

07-12-21, 12:20 PM

27 January 1942
Ichang liberated from IJA occupiers

CENTPAC
Ordered to Pearl to try to evacuate a headquarters fragment, USS Cuttlefish was depth charged by the escorts of the BBs Yamashiro and Nagato as they moved in to bombard the port. Damage to Cuttlefish was light. The reduction of bombarding battleships from 4 to 2 helped the shore batteries be more effective; Yamashiro was hit 9 times. The armor probably handled most of it, but it looks like it hurt a little. The KB hit Christmas Island again, while I presume the 2 BB there are returning to Lahaina to rearm.

Singapore
The air campaign took a dark turn as he sent Zero escorted medium bombers to bomb the city itself, while Nate escorted light bombers targeted our troops. It looks like attrition is catching up on their fighter forces--that Nates are even being thrown in here is a bad sign for them. But numbers wise, for the first time in a long time, we matched numbers with the Zeroes, sometimes outnumbering them (looks like our peak CAP was 8 Hurricanes, peak Zeroes were 9). But, the bombers are quite numerous. Losses were 3 Hurricanes for 3 Zeroes, 2 Nates, 4 Nells, 6 Sallies, and 1 light bomber.

Celebes Sea
The new task force was an ARG headed to Jolo to relieve the pinned down paratroops there. The two P-36 fighters there switched from attacking the paratroops to strafing an incoming destroyer. They hit it (not seriously), but one was shot down.

The troops landing on Jolo have been identified as the 113rd and 148th Regiments of the 56th Division, plus two marine units. This represents a major concentration of troops in an increasingly dangerous part of the sea for him--the whole area is lousy with submarines, I have a large surface fleet nearby, and I have a lot more airpower here than I did in December. I figure they'll take Jolo tomorrow, then load back up in a day or two for their next target. It looks like it's actually two separate ARGs, plus the covering force has reappeared at Jolo as well.

https://i.ibb.co/qMNg3g2/1942-Jan-27-Celebes-Sea.png

Dutch East Indies
Claude fighters tried to stop my bombers from attacking ships of Kendari and troops chasing my retreating Makassar garrison, but were only able to damage a few bombers. The naval attack missed, but the land attack was rather successful--our troops turned the tables on their pursuers and wiped them out (a rifle battalion and a fragment of a mortar battalion--we actually outnumbered them pretty badly).

China
At the cost of about 500 men and an AVG P-40, we finally liberated Ichang. The defending tank regiment was completely wiped out. But now we have the enemy army that evacuated on our flank, hiding in the swamplands. I'm probably going to have to deal with them before I send my troops to clear out any other occupied cities.

Coral Sea
Quiet at PM for today. My CVBG has been refueled by the slowpoke aussie oiler and by transports moving through the area.

SOUTHPAC
The fuel situation is getting worse thanks to my 2nd CVBG in this area also needing gas. I have some tankers arriving at various bases soon, but it's going to be tight for awhile.

I was dismayed to see that it's going to take about 40 days to repair the two cruisers that have been torpedoed. Each. And the one that hit a mine won't be any better. Making matters worse, I didn't realize that playing as the Allies, I can't build up the repair yards in Australia. I got too used to playing as Japan, which is allowed to expand facilities. The idea of Sydney being a decent substitute for Pearl now looks pretty ridiculous. Japan is going to have a huge logistical advantage if our ships start duking it out.

Molon Labe

07-12-21, 08:02 PM

Please don't stop writing these reports, i really enjoy them even though I've never played WiTP.
Thanks, it's good to know people are getting something out of this. Years ago, it was AARs like this that got me interested in WitP. It took me years before I worked up the nerve to commit to it, but the AARs definitely sold me on it.

-------------------
28 January 1942
Stage set for another battle in the Celebes Sea?

CENTPAC
The HQ units I want to evac from Pearl weren't ready yet, so the Cuttlefish is still patrolling the harbor. It can't dock because then it's just going to get bombed by planes. So it got depth charged again, and got away again. BB Yamashiro and Nagato bombarded Pearl/Hickam, again, not doing much apparent damage because everything is already a wreck. So then for the new turn, I tried to finally load Cuttlefish and Pamano only be reminded that these subs can carry cargo in a pinch, but not troops, so I'm not evacuating anyone this way. Sigh.

Celebes Sea: Battle of St. Lucia Bay?
The name St. Lucia doesn't appear in the WitP map, but it's the bay that Tarakan sits on. One ARG from Jolo is headed this way. It's intentions were made clear when Sallies from Brunei bombed our troops at Tarakan, powering through resistance from a Buffalo squadron there. That airfield is too small for them, so they have to be flying with a reduced loadout. USS Sailfish made the contact report on the ARG and attempted a torpedo attack before being driven off by the escorts. The two army regiments he started to land in Jolo have apparently been re-embarked for Tarakan, it's just the marines in Jolo now--and they've taken it.

The HMS Indomitable battle group is transiting the Makassar strait and will be in position to attack, hopefully, in the PM phase tomorrow. They will be supported by fighters from Balikpapan and Tarkakan, if I don't lose it first. Force Y will act as a covering force with orders to intercept any enemy task force that approaches the CVBG. I'd prefer to avoid getting into a direct surface battle with their covering force, at least until I soften them up a bit with airstrikes. Betties/Nells are potentially based in Manila and Kendari--the Manila ones will be too far to bring torpedoes to the party, but Kendari is completely in range. Dutch medium bombers and US B-17s that escaped the Philippines will hit the Kendari airfield to try to mitigate that threat. The CVBG was detected today but not attacked, so that's a good sign. I also have medium bombers in range to hit the ships, but after those bombers pulled the fighter escorts away from dive/torpedo bombers at Pearl and Surabaya, I'm just going to have them sit this the first day out. My airfields are overstacked anyway so this will help keep more planes airworthy, and I'll have them when I need to start bombing troops on the ground.

Enemy Order of battle:
ARG1 (Tarakan): 1 CL, 2 DD, 2 DMS, 1 TB, 1 APD, 2 AK, 1 AP.
ARG2 (Jolo): 1 PB, 1 AMC, 3 AKs (very low confidence in this)
Covering force: 2 CA, 3 CL, and 4 DD
Air: At least 28 Sallies in northern Borneo. Unknown number of naval bombers from Manila/Kendari, possibly Menado. Fighter escorts expected to fly from Menado--even Jolo if he brought aviation support with his invaders.
Reinforcements: The CVLBG and 2 BB could be out there somewhere. He can fly Betties in from almost anywhere.

Allied order of Battle:
Indomitable CVBG: 1 CV (6 Hurricane F, 9 Fulmar FB, 26 Albacore TB), 3 CL, 5 DD
Force Y: 1 CA, 8 CL, 5 DD
13 US and Dutch subs (mostly at the entrances to the Celebes rather than in the immediate battle area), not including US subs on transport missions to Bataan.
Air: 9 Buffalo, 24 P-39 Airacobra, 7 P-40E Warhawk, 12 139WH-3 medium bombers. P-40 reinforcements available.

https://i.ibb.co/TLLZgkK/1942-Jan-28-Celebes-Sea.png

Malaya
Our moment of fighter parity in Singapore is already over. Our fighters were overwhelmed early and most bombing raids went unopposed. Before that happened we shot down 2 Zeroes and a Nate. Most of their raids targeted the airbase, but apparently my flak is intimidating because he kept his bombers high. 1 Hurricane was blown up on the ground and we took some mild facility damage, but the raid wasn't very effective.

Coral Sea
Bettys from Rabaul made their long-anticipated appearance with a night attack on PM's airbase, putting 2 craters in the runway. Nothing my engineers can't handle.

A pair of TBDs attacked submarines (attacked the same submarine twice?) along the PIM of the Enterprise-Saratoga CVBG in the Torres Strait and reported hits. The subs were variously classified as L4, KD4, and KD6A. All of these classes are small boats that would probably not survive a direct 500lb bomb hit. I may have just telegraphed my intentions with this group, though, and I'm not sure there is much point to sending this group west if surprise has been lost.

China
The few remaining Tojos and some Oscars are flying CAP over the former Ichang occupiers. They managed to get past my escorts and shoot down an SB-III bomber. When we took Ichang, it had no supply stockpiles--those troops bogged down in the swamp are probably running on empty, and the swamp is a terrible place to be when low on supplies.

Philippines
He's not waiting for the detachment to return to Clark. He attacked today at about 1.5 division strength. Casualties were 3600 to 1000 favoring us. Still, if he's going to attack now I might be better off beginning my retreat. Bataan has some supplies and fortifications. Clark does have more favorable terrain, though. There's also a new small task force at the north end of the Sulu sea, probably an ARG picking up troops there to bring them to the central or southern Philippine islands.

Papua New Guinea
He's been landing paratroops and other small forces across the north side of PNG and in the Leae area. Nothing too important, they're potential airbases later on.

Molon Labe

07-14-21, 12:27 PM

29 January 1941
Round one of Battle of St. Lucia Bay becomes this timeline's first-ever fight between carrier battle groups

CENTPAC
Christmas Island was invaded and immediately captured. My bombed-out troops offered no real resistance. The only attack on Pearl today was Betties and Nells out of Lahaina. He's already moving scoutplanes in even though the whole base is wrecked--I'm worried my shipping lanes are next.

Coral Sea
Several near disasters here. A minesweeper escorting a reinforcement convoy was attacked by Betties from Rabaul. Somehow, we had no CAP on these guys. The Betties were only carrying bombs, though, and missed the small ships. My other minesweepers at PM would then find and clear 15 mines after going a day or two without finding any--which probably means a sub just laid these. My cruiser group arrived next and bombarded his troops again. The destroyers escorting them detected a sub on the way out but lost track of it before they could attack. I think there are at least 5 enemy subs in this area now--with 2 of them potentially being severely damaged by bombs. More than 20 Oscars swept PM; we managed only 9 P-40s to meet them. Neither side took any losses--we probably averted casualties because these were 2nd rate Oscars, armed with just 1 .30cal and 1 .50 cal machine guns.

We're also landing engineers on Milne. A submarine tried to attack them, but my single destroyer-minelayer escort drove it off. Then he dropped paratroops in--bad call, they're now outnumbered and surrounded. More concerning is a new task force approaching that includes cruisers. They're already close enough that there isn't anything I can do to stop them from getting to my transports. I'll try to hit them with Banshees if they're still there at sunrise.

Battle of St. Lucia Bay
As expected, Tarakan was invaded pre-dawn. Most of the cruisers from the covering force had transferred to the 56th Division's ARG to try to suppress the coastal defenses there. This was a good call--even with the fire support, my batteries managed hits on 4 transports-3 of them probably fatally. But that won't be enough to stop 2+ regiments. 7000+ troops made it ashore, with armor support. Tarakan will be his tomorrow. A Dutch sub tried to penetrate the landing area, it took a shot at a CL but missed.

The enemy began the air battle with a raid of 12 unescorted Vals seemingly coming from Tarakan. They ran into a wall of fighters: 6 Sea Hurricanes, 3 Fulmars, and 7 US Army P-39s flying from Balikpapan. The Vals were wiped out. But this could only mean that the enemy force at Tarakan includes at least one carrier.

Our strike package was 18 Albacores and 6 Fulmars, plus a few Buffalos from Tarakan. The enemy had 36 obsolete Claudes on CAP, plus 5 Zeroes and 2 Oscars. This would have gone very poorly if he had enough Zeroes to replace the Claudes, or if if he hadn't dropped the Soryu's Zeros off at Rabaul to support his attempt at Port Moresby. We can thank our pilots in the Philippines and Singapore for that. Outnumbered, we weren't able to shoot down any enemy fighters, but they only managed to splash one Fulmar and 1 Albacore. The strike package made contact with 3 ships that hadn't been reported here before: CV Soryu, CVE Taiyo, and BB Hyuga. The Fulmars missed, but the Albacores scored one torpedo hit each on Taiyo and Hyuga. Flak claimed one more Albacore.

Afternoon saw both of us launch unescorted strikes (I continue to be frustrated by my commanders' inability to pair fighters on escort duty with dive/torpedo bomber strikes). Our group was attacked by 11 Vals; our CAP got all but two of them. Of those, the CVBG's gunners shot one down before it could attack--and the other right after it dropped its bomb, which missed. Our strike was 12 Albacores. A pair of Buffalos from Tarakan tried to help, but the target is more or less between them and the fighters they're trying to protect, so they didn't even get into the fight this time. We lost 6 to the CAP and another to flak, with no hits. The enemy CAP wasn't any weaker this time around, which leads me to believe the damage to the Taiyo did not incapacitate its flight ops.

The last event here was him landing a paratroop unit fragment at the small base of Tanjoengselor, just south of Tarakan. It was empty, so it's his now.

And that's the end of round 1. Now I have to decide if I want the Indomitable to stick around for round 2. Shooting down 2 waves of Vals probably means the enemy carriers can only play defense, and I can shift my own fighters from CAP to escort to get more TBs through. But, I still have to worry about long-legged Zeroes and Betties flying in from other areas to reinforce here. Actually, now that I'm writing this out, the answer is obvious--with the carriers playing defense, my bombers aren't getting easy targets, which was the reason for this entire operation. It's time to go.

Malaya
I forgot to mention this earlier, but I noticed a day or two ago that there is a large task force at Mersing and troops seem to be leaving Singapore to head there. I'm not sure what to make of this yet. One possibility is he's planning on bypassing Singapore for now and taking Sumatra. If that's the case the Indomitable is in the wrong place right now. Yet another reason to pull out now.

Air raids here were all army--which makes me concerned that the Zeroes and Nells here are reinforcing the battle at Tarakan. But anyway, the Nates were just no match for our Hurricanes, and their bombers too high to bomb accurately. We claimed 7 Nates and 2 Sallies and they had only light damage to my airfield to show for it.

Dutch East Indies
Aside from the the major battle in progress, the enemy is progressing overland in Celebes, and a task force was detected south of Celebes, possibly headed towards Timor. I have Falcons there waiting for him, plus Dutch surface forces held in reserve that can potentially interdict.

Burma
Enemy land units have crossed overland into the road space adjacent to Pegu. The scale of this offensive is not yet known. I'm going to hit them with bombers tomorrow and see if they can tell me how many there are. The enemy picked a great time to show up, Hurricanes and medium bombers for Kinky Boots have been assembling at Rangoon and are ready to get to work. Kinky Boots took the possibility of enemy movement into Burma into account, the plan is to defeat the invaders first and then press on against a hopefully weakened enemy. If the enemy pushes further north to flank our frontline, though, Kinky Boots will have to be postponed.

Molon Labe

07-15-21, 02:44 AM

30 January 1942
Repositioning

Coral Sea Area
His task force (4 CL, 4 DD) bugged out from Milne without engaging my transports. Our aircraft didn't get a shot at them.

USS Narwhal torpedoed a Gozan class cargo ship in the Bismark Sea.

China
His Oscars and Tojos got the better of the AVG over his troops near Ichang, 3 lost 3 P-40s, a Hawk, and 6 bombers with nothing to show for it. I'm going to pull back on bombing missions to try to sort this out a bit. We've also noticed some troop movement east of Hong Kong that we're keeping an eye on.

CENTPAC
Betty/Nell raids on Pearl today appeared ineffective. The KB raided Fanning Island, wiping out a small French garrison there.

Malaya
Another air raid that was just Army, no Zeroes or Nells. One again, the Nates couldn't handle it. With no losses of our own, we shot down 4 Nates and 14 Sallies. He managed to sneak a few light bombers in underneath our cap, strafing an ASW craft. Then he tried it again when my pilots were wise to it and they got 4 light bombers.

Makassar Strait
Both sides appear to be retiring. But his troops have conquered Tarakan. A Dutch sub fired 6 torps at the Soryu but missed. He's also got paratroops into Samarinda--not many but my garrison there is really week. They held on for today, but with the ships leaving, these troops are now my bombing target.

SIGINT reports an AirHQ from Taiwan is headed to Miri. I had moved subs patrolling off Miri to Sumatra, so to deal with this I re-tasked some of the subs trying to mess with the Tarakan landings along with some from the Luzon area.

Dutch East Indies
Enemy troops are landing on the east side of Timor. Unfortunately my scouts lost track of their ARG and airstrikes were not launched.
If the air HQ makes it to Miri, and he builds the airfield there up to level 4, torpedo-armed Betties would essentially have the entire Java Sea in reach. I'm going to try to get more fighters in here before he can build up the airfield.

Burma
The invading unit is the 3rd Royal Thai Army, and at least for now it appears to be alone. We softened them up with bombers and should be ready to engage for real after a few days.

Molon Labe

07-16-21, 09:41 AM

31 January 1941
Siege of Singapore aborted? IJA troops massing on Thai-Burma border.

CENTPAC
We have lost track of the Kido Butai. That's what happens when every base capable of running scoutplanes gets bombed or conquered. I'm temporarily suspending convoys until we know it's not going merchant raiding. But the ships already at sea will proceed for now.

Fighters originally intended for Christmas Island are about to be delivered to Pago Pago. This will allow me to shift squadrons to the west, ultimately letting me move one more squadron into Java.

Malaya
A US sub laid a minefield at Mersing (where ships appear to be waiting to pick up troops leaving Singapore). It was detected already and at least one destroyer-minesweeper is working on clearing it. It appears that most of the troops that crossed the river into Singapore have left. The enemy didn't send bombers to Singapore today, just a sweep of Nate fighters--our Hurricanes shot 5 down with no losses.

Coral Sea
ASW escorts are now actively prosecuting 3 subs at Port Moresby (light damage to one of them) and another off Townsville. There's at least one more near Milne. Oscars swept Port Moresby, the battle claimed 3 fighters on each side. Zeroes followed up, but we weren't able to get a CAP up to meet them--not a good sign if this is turning into an air campaign. USMC reinforcements are now landing at PM. My Milne engineers are landing again after being chased away yesterday.

Makassar Strait
We had dueling sweeps here, his Oscars vs P-39s at Balikpapan and my P-40s vs Zeroes at Tarakan. We lost 2 P-39s and and claimed a Zero. We bombed enemy troops in Samarinda, causing major casualties.

China
I reduced my bombing raids on Ichang down to just Hudsons, which up until now had been too low for his CAP to reach, but today they engaged and shot one down. Our P40s got one Oscar. I'm going to stand all raids down for a day to repair some fighters and then try to work on this enemy CAP some more before sending the bombers back.

Burma
We sent 41 medium bombers after the 3rd RTA but failed to cause significant casualties. Still no enemy fighter presence. Recon detected probably another RTA division at Chaing Mai. This might actually alter the plan here. If we advanced as planned the army here would be on the flank of the advance. For now I'll just worry about the 3rd RTA and see what develops.

Timor
Falcon bombers out of Koepang bombed the enemy ships landing troops at Lautem, scoring 3 hits on an AK and setting it on fire.

Celebes
Our displaced Makassar garrison got behind the advancing armies and retook Watampone. The only enemy unit present was an aviation support company.

Molon Labe

07-17-21, 09:35 AM

1 February 1942
Japanese surface action group smashed off Milne, displaced Manila garrison surrenders

CENTPAC
No sighting of the KB. That makes 2 days.
Some aircraft are getting repaired at Hickam. Not wanting to send any into combat, I set them to train. So they trained--and were in the air when the Betties and Nells came. Apparently they train with live ammo, so they shot down a few. So this was a great accident--if he's transfered fighters out of Lahaina, they'll have to come back. Or the KB has to come back.

Coral Sea
An enemy SAG of 3 CL and 4 DD approached Milne. My cruiser group (2 CA, 2 CL, 2 DD) was covering the transports this time and went out to challenge them, resulting in a long range night battle. Neither side took many hits. Two submarines took shots at one of my CLs shortly after the battle but missed. We found two of the subs near Townsville and dealt some damage to one of them with depth charges. Also got a hit on a sub off Port Morseby.

The enemy formation ended up on the Coral Sea side of Milne during the day, and the Enterprise/Saratroga battle group pounced on them. They had no air cover.
CL Tatsuta
CL Kinu, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Tenryu, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Yayoi, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Mutsuki, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Kisaragi
The Tatsuta got lucky the first round, at least 12 SBDs attacked and missed. Not so much the second round:
CL Tatsuta, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Kinu, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
DD Kisaragi
DD Yayoi, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk
DD Mochizuki

So that's probably 3 CL and 2 DD sunk.
Enemy paratroops managed to take Salamaua (north side of P-NG) from a small Australian garrison.

https://i.ibb.co/CBwf01N/1942-Feb-1-PM.png

Timor
I raided his landing area with a force of 2 CL and 3 DD, finding a small task force of 2 AKs escorted by a PB. One AK got away but with significant damage. All the troops had already disembarked.

Philippines
I'm pulling more forces out of Clark to Bataan as their supplies dwindle. I'd say it will become a general retreat within the next 2 days. The enemy forces in Manila attacked my displaced garrisons nearby. I thought I had left them a valid retreat, but apparently empty "enemy" bases don't count. 14,000 troops surrendered and are now on their way to POW camps. An enemy attack at Clark resulted in 1000 friendly and 2000 enemy casualties.

Malaya
In what had to be an accident, 5 Nates swept Singapore by themselves. Only 2 made it back, and they won't be airworthy again for awhile, if ever.
It looks like there are now more troops headed to Singapore from Mersing. Perhaps what was going on was some sort of swap-out--fresh troops replacing tired troops?

Makassar Strait
We finished off his paratroops at Samarinda. But the air battle at Balikpapan was a tactical defeat for us. Our P-39s were at low altitude to protect the bombers hitting Samarinda. Oscars pounced on them from high altitude. We had a few P-40s up high but apparently not enough. We lost 6 P-39s with no Oscars shot down.

Molon Labe

07-19-21, 08:49 PM

2 February 1942
Coral Sea overrun with submarines, USS Louisville critically damaged

Coral Sea
The morning started off with a submarine attack on the Milne covering force that resulted in two hits on Louisville. She didn't sink, but is severely flooded and is headed to port for emergency repairs. Two other subs took shots at CA Australia and DD Hatfield in the same task force. There are now at least 8 subs operating in the Coral Sea and they're starting to move towards blue water instead of the coastal areas.
https://i.ibb.co/42dqtm2/1942-Feb-2-PM.png

The damaged CL Tatsuta and 2 DDs moved through the Milne area and got spotted by my PT boats, which administered a coup de grace on the Tatsuta and fled. The destroyers were taken down by later airstrikes by the Lexington-Yorktown CVBG and Banshees from Port Moresby.

The enemy army at Port Moresby made an attack but was easily repelled, as the 8th USMC regiment is now backing up the Aussie troops there. Casualties were 424 to 59 and we knocked out 21% of their tanks.

CENTPAC
The extended absence of the KB and reduced battleship bombardments have allowed repairs to progress rapidly at Hickam field. The runway is fully operational again, most service facilities are online and we have have a bunch of planes repaired. Enemy bombers hit Pearl at night instead of day due to the fighter threat. I'll have a decent CAP up tonight, hopefully we can pull the KB back over here. I liked knowing where it was. Only two battleships bombarded today and they didn't accomplish much.

Borneo
USS Sailfish encountered a large transport task force in the South China Sea--I suspect this is the AirHQ I was specifically trying to interdict. The escorts spotted her, though, and she was unable to engage.

Several sweeps targeted Balikpapan, gradually wearing down the US fighters there. Losses were 1 P-40 and 2 P-39s to one Zero, but nearly all our fighters need repairs before they can fly again.

Sumatra/West Java
11 Oscars swept Batavia, opposed by the CAP of 2 Buffalos plus 6 Sea Hurricanes and 2 Fulmars from the Indomitable. Two Buffalos and an Oscar were shot down.

Singapore
Whatever troop shuffle was going on here appears to be over with, as the task forces have left. We took an opportunity afforded by our fighters being allowed time to repair by bombing the airfield at Johore Bahru, which was overstacked with enemy bombers. We destroyed 9 Sallies and 2 Marys on the ground.

Molon Labe

07-21-21, 10:48 AM

3 February 1942
CVL Shoho torpedoed on an otherwise uneventful day

Hawaii
I've got enough working planes to get a nightCAP up, and it worked. We shot up 2 Betties that attacked at night, shooting down one of them.

Still no sign of the KB anywhere.

China
It appears that enemy reinforcements are arriving to break the stalemate at Chusien.

Sumatra and West Java
Oscars swept Batavia again, they didn't have the numbers to take over the skies, but were able to shoot down a Buffalo before being driven off.

Celebes
He's almost got complete control. Betties are now bombing my displaced garrisons that took rear areas.

Philippines
Submarine O21 was vectored into an enemy surface combat task force entering the Celebes Sea headed towards the Sulu Sea. Unexpectedly, the CVL Shoho was with them. O21 managed to hit her with 1 of 6 torpedoes fired. These Dutch subs are just owning the enemy CVLs!

Probably 2/3 of my units are now retreating from Clark to Bataan, only units with decent supplies are staying to cover the retreat.

Threadfin

07-21-21, 12:29 PM

Molon Labe

07-21-21, 03:24 PM

4 February 1942
Kido Butai unseen for 5 days as enemy task force activity ticks up around Solomons and Celebes Sea.

Hawaii
He sacrificed two coastal minesweepers to my coastal guns at Pearl. Haven't seen that in awhile.

Philippines
S-36 detected a large-ish fleet approaching Luzon from the west. Maybe what was going on in Singapore was a transfer of troops to the Philippines? Regardless, S-36 was counterdetected before she could fire, and there's nothing to stop them from arriving. At Clark, we're so short on supplies that I don't even think our artillery and counter-firing when we're bombarded.

Celebes
My displaced units from Makassar were finished off. I have a few more scattered troops on the east side but they aren't numerous enough to matter. For all practical purposes, Celebes has been fully pacified.

Malaya
The air campaign for Singapore was resumed with massive airstrikes--I'm counting 128 bomber sorties. Their fighter coverage was sparce though, I think they had 18 Oscars at it's peak, while my peak number of Hurricanes on CAP was 12. The fighters mostly cancelled each other out, we got 1 Oscar. But they weren't able to stop us from getting at the bombers from time to time--we got 13 of them. The bombers targeted the airfield but hit it from too high up to do real damage. We sent our bombers to Johore Barhu, trying to get more planes on the ground. Not so much this time.. we traded 2 Nates for a Hurricane, and our bombers got 3 planes on the ground at the cost of one shot down by AAA.

Borneo
20 Zeroes swept Samarninda instead of Balikpapan. A pair of P-40s assigned to patrol Balikpapan were nevertheless close enough to get involved. Badly outnumbered, one was shot down.

Coral Sea Area
We attacked enemy troops at Port Moresby, casualties were pretty even, but we have supplies and support, while they are stranded. Advantage us. Most of the subs have disappeared, but we did find one and dealt light damage to it.

Two enemy task forces are moving east on the north side of the Solomons. With the KB now missing for 5 days, if I was going to bait me with something, this is where I'd do it. I still have a huge scoutplane blind spot in that area, those guys are right on the edge of it.

China
In the north near Taiyuan, an army that's been slowly retreating was attacked by an enemy unit crossing a river. Disrupted by the crossing and outnumbered, we kicked their butts. 2863 to 13.

Molon Labe

07-21-21, 03:58 PM

Too bad about the Philippines, but that was always a long shot to hold, wasn't it? You've nearly lasted as long as they did in real life.

Otherwise, some encouraging results from your aircraft and submarines. This should only begin to snowball in to 1943 and then watch out.

Keep it up mate.

I'd like to hold out as long as we did in real life, but I think having my Manila garrison retreat south instead of to Clark/Bataan really hurt my chances of that.

Molon Labe

07-22-21, 11:42 AM

5 February 1942

Hawaii
Only 2 BB bombarding Pearl today.

China
We had an air battle near Ichang for the right of my bombers to bomb their troops again. They got through. We shot down a Tojo and 3 Oscars at the cost of 2 P-40s. These guys are good pilots.

My army that was attacked overriver in the north yesterday counterattacked, routing the enemy army and causing over 900 casualties with little losses to themselves.

Timor
Unescorted Betties from Kendari tried to hit Koepang but ran into P-40s they probably weren't expecting. 7 of 15 Betties shot down, the got through but did minimal damage. Our bombers from Koepang attempted an airfield attack at Kendari in turn and embarrassed the Claude fighters defending it. None were shot down most planes from both sides were damaged. We failed to cause any damage to the airbase.

Malaya
Massive air raid on Singapore. Our fighters were overwhelmed but managed to pick their spots throughout the day, resulting in 7 Sallies shot down. Once again, their bombers were too high to cause serious damage.

We tried to bomb Johore Bahru again, but with Oscars on CAP in addition to the Nates, the juice isn't worth the squeeze anymore--my fighters are better used protecting Singapore than escorting these raids. The bombers got through and blew up one Nate on the ground.

Coral Sea
Zero-escorted Betties targeted my ships covering landing at Milne. We had some P-40s protecting them, the fight resulted in the loss of 2 P-40s, 2 Zeroes, and 1 Betty. Fortunately, the Betties were only carrying bombs--they missed the cruiser they targeted.

The Louisville got within 1 hex from the port at Townsville when it was attacked by yet another submarine. It took one torpedo hit, but as badly damaged as it already was, that was more than enough.

-------------------
6 February 1942
Enemy CVBG in the Java Sea, Indomitable gets lucky

Hawaii
4 BB bombarding Pearl today. I expect Hickam will be out of operation soon again at this pace.

Philippines
My phased retreat from Clark is now a general retreat.
S-36 torpedoed and sank an Aden-class AK in the South China Sea.

Timor
Rather surprisingly, the Betties came back to Koepang. They had the sense to turn around this time when the P-40s met them, so we only shot down 2.

Java Sea
An enemy CVBG--probaby the Soryu--entered the Java sea on the west side and launched two strikes against the Indomitable CVBG at harbor in Surabaya. The first raid was 13 Zeroes escorting 12 Mabel and 30 Kate torpedo bombers. The battle group was defended by land-based fighters in addition to its own air wing, 24 in total. The Zeroes are flown by elite pilots though, and it showed. We shot down 3 Zeroes, but couldn't get any bombers. A Sea Hurricane and a Fulmar were lost. Fortunately, these bombers weren't carrying torpedoes and mostly attacked from high altitude--nothing hit. Flak claimed 2 TBs.

The second raid was 25 TBs escorted by 5 Zeroes, and did much better. They shot down another Fulmar, and once again, our fighters couldn't get to the bombers. But this time, the bombers were more accurate:

CV Indomitable, Bomb hits 2
CL Dragon, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CA Exeter, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Java, Bomb hits 1
Fortunately, the Indomitable has a heavily armored deck which the relatively small bombs failed to penetrate, so she is fine.

The enemy attacked from outside my task force's strike range so there were no retaliatory strikes. This might be why the TBs weren't carrying torpedoes. I consider myself lucky that they fixated on the well-defended Indomitable instead of the transports landing two regiments of troops in Sumatra right now. I have significant surface forces that should be able to defeat this task force, but I'm not convinced it's a good idea because the Java Sea is now in Betty range from Miri, which by now has an AirHQ to provide torpedoes. Also, my local repair capacity sucks. So for now, I'll allow my surface forces to attack if they approach Surabaya, but I won't go hunting for them. I've transfered the Hermes' TBs back to Indomitable and moved some planes around, hopefully we'll get a decent strike tomorrow.

https://i.ibb.co/r5qDXGB/1942-Feb-6-Java.png

Malaya
The enemy continues with massive raids against Singapore, too many bombers for their small number of fighters to protect. We shot down an Oscar, two Nates, 7 Sallies, and 2 light bombers. Our only loss was one Blenhiem bomber destroyed on the ground.

Ostfriese

07-23-21, 12:53 AM

How long does a typical WiTP game usually take (single player, not PBEM)?

Molon Labe

07-23-21, 07:46 AM

A few months to play the full campaign.

Ostfriese

07-23-21, 10:53 AM

A few months to play the full campaign.

Thanks. I'll have to restrict myself to reading your reports then, as much as I'd like to give the game a try.

Molon Labe

07-25-21, 10:53 AM

7 February 1942
Soryu defeats Indomitable

Hawaii
4 BB bombarded Pearl today.

Malaya
Absolute carnage in the skies over Singapore. Our fighters were in about equal numbers, but half his numbers are obsolete Nates. For the cost of 1 Hurricane we downed three Oscars, 9 Sallies, and 9 light bombers.

Java Sea/Makassar Strait
Dutch bombers attemped a strike on the BB Kongo at Tarakan. The enemy CVBG was in range but the Kongo was within range of escorting fighters, not just the bombers, so this was probably a good call. But, we missed. Enemy Betties tried to hit Balikpapan back but were routed by defending US fighters, with one Betty shot down.

Both CVBGs faced off with competing airstrikes. He sent 22 TBs, 3 Vals and 21 Zeroes against me. I had 21 fighters on CAP. Losses were severe: a P-40, 1 Demon, 3 Fulmars for us, and 4 Zeroes, 9 Kates, 9 Mabels and a Val for him. But that left plenty getting through. Indomitable was hit by another bomb that failed to penetrate its armor, and three torpedoes. The torpedo damage was surprisingly light--this is a really tough ship--but she's listing bad enough to prevent flight operations.

As for my strike, I really screwed this up. After having so many strikes go unescorted, my biggest concern was making sure my fighters and bombers could coordinate, and I though the best way to do that was to let the carrier-based fighters handle escort duty while land-based fighters guarded the ship. But I forgot that the Hurricane has terrible range. So my strike proceeded with only Fulmar fighter-bombers able to defend the Albacore biplanes. Five of seven Fulmars went down. All sixteen Albacores were splashed without shooting a single torpedo at Soryu.

Indomitable has been ordered to retire, I'll try to make it to Sri Lanka for repairs.

Coral Sea
He put a long-range CAP over Port Moresby that we tried to break through to bomb his troops, our P40s shot down a Zero but failed to prevent them from reaching the Banshees--4 were shot down. This is an unaccapable loss due to having so few of them so going forward Banshees will only be used on enemy ships here, bombing the troops will be for the far more replaceable Hudson level bombers. Below, our armies fought, casualties were 344 the to 373 us.

Timor
Boela has been captured.

8 February 1942
Indomitable slinks away from combat area, Soryu does not pursue

Japan
USS Tautog torpedoed and sank a light cargo ship off Okinawa. Been awhile since our subs got any merchant traffic so I'm glad to see this.

Hawaii
4 BB bombarding today, plus fighter sweeps (2 P-40s, 1 Zero lost)

Coral Sea
We found 2 enemy subs lurking off the Horn Island choke point and damaged one of them with depth charges. We are still struggling with ASW proficiency. Off Townsville, despite probably 4 patrol ships on ASW duty, light bombers patrolling overhead, and the convoy itself having destroyers escorting, a tanker from Java was torpedoed by an enemy sub. The fuel-laden tanker made it to port still on fire, so the support crews will help battle the massive blaze. We'll probably know if this ship survived by tomorrow.

Malaya
In a humiliating defeat for the IJAAF, 17 Oscars challenged 15 Hurricanes to battle over Singapore. 10 Oscars didn't make it back, compared to just 1 of ours. A huge formation of Nates would try again later; our Hurricanes just swooped in, shot 3 down, and ran for it.

China
The AVGs fight with Oscars near Ichang was far more balanced: 1 P-40 for 1 Oscar lost today. Our armies have finally made it across the river into swamplands adacent to the enemy army (I didn't cross right into them because my troops would become disorganized). So now we march on the enemy encampment itself, which will take several days.

Dutch East Indies
The Soryu CVBG has apparently retired as our scouts did not find it today and it launched no strikes. The Indomitable CVBG safely transited the southern island chain and is now south of Java heading west. I've detected an enemy ARG on the northwest side of Borneo which could be bound for Malaya, Sumatra, or Java. I've ordered my local surface forces to move towards Sumatra to attempt to intercept.

There is also a surge in enemy ASW activity in the Java Sea area choke points. Soryu might need to leave to replace its losses, but something else is coming.

---

Enemy bomber losses over Singapore are driving a trend of an Allied advantage in air losses:

https://i.ibb.co/nnB4G7z/1942-Feb-8-air-losses.png

Molon Labe

07-26-21, 11:38 AM

9 February 1942
A change in bombing tactics in Malaya increases damage being done

Hawaii
4 BB bombarding again. A Zero sweep resulted in the loss of 2 Zeroes and a P-40. I'm just happy he had to move Zeroes back here.

Borneo
Submarine O20 laid mines at Miri and then decided to go after some cargo ships leaving port. That turned out to be a bad idea, and the submarine suffered a depth charge attack in shallow water. Fortunately it got away with only minor damage.

The Soryu launched a strike from Tarakan against my ASW patrol outside Balikpapan, 12 Zeroes escorting 4 Mabels, intercepted by 8 P-39s and 6 P-40s. We shot down one Zero and 3 of the Mabels, the one that got through missed. The Zeroes took down 1 P-39.

Philippines
USS Perch torpedoed and sank a cargo ship in a night surface attack in the Luzon strait. A bit to the east in the South China Sea, USS Pickerel torpedoed a cargo ship as well, finishing it off with the deck gun.

Malaya
He dropped the bombing altitude for his strikes on Singapore to deadly effect. The air battle itself was the carnage we've come to expect--1 Hurricane down with 2 Nates, 2 Sallies, and 3 light bombers shot down. The reduced altitude resulted in 4 more bombers shot down and many more shot up, but facility damage was significant and we had a bomber and a fighter blown up on the ground.

Burma
The 3rd RTA is retreating now that it sees my armies advancing on it after probably a week of being bombed daily.

China
The enemy army in the Ichang swamplands has already left for Hankow, so my armies have nothing to engage there. That's fine, all I wanted was to get them off my flank. Next stop: Nanchang. The AVG shot down one Oscar while supporting this aborted operation.

Molon Labe

07-26-21, 12:04 PM

10 February 1942
Yet another cruiser hit by submarine in Coral Sea area; Clark airbase captured.

Coral Sea
The Townsville area was meant to be an antisubmarine bastion, with a dozen light bombers on patrol and three ASW groups made up of minesweepers and destroyer-minelayers. But that didn't stop a submarine from hitting the HMAS Leander as if finished escorting transports back to port. The torpedo impact caused a massive secondary explosion, but the ship survived. I'm now up to four cruisers in this area out of action with torpedo damage, plus a fifth sunk.

The attack resulted in a flurry of ASW activity, with three subs detected in the area, two of which were prosecuted for significant damage. The one that hit the Leander was quite possibly sunk.

Hawaii
4 BB bombarding again. It's a shame I haven't found the supply line that's supporting this endless stream of ammunition.

Japan
USS Trout attacked a cargo ship in the Kyushu-Okinawa gap, oddly closing range to rake it with .50cal fire before eventually deciding this was what torpedoes were for, sending it to the bottom far more efficiently than Ma Duce could.

Malaya
Yesterday's strike against Singapore reduced the numbers of fighters we could get in the air today; we never had 10 or more to try to intercept any wave of bombers. Our Hurricanes picked their spots against enemy light bombers mostly--we got 4 Nates, 1 Sally, and 5 light bombers for 1 Hurricane. The bombing wasn't as successful today as it was yesterday but it still caused some facility damage at the airbase.

Timor
He deployed Zeroes to defend his troops at Dili from my bombers flying out of Koepang. We lost 2 P-40s to them during our strike.

Borneo
Soryu made another attempt on the ASW group outside Balikpapan, 10 Zeroes escorting 2 Mabels and 4 Kates. We lost 2 P-40s trying to stop them, shooting down a Zero and a Kate. The bombers that got through missed again.

China
The Japanese army attacked at Chusien, our lines held but fortifications were reduced to level 2. Casualties were 4229 to 616 favoring us. They still don't have enough to break through without reinforcements.

Philippines
Our retreat to Bataan became a rout as the Japanese attacked in full force. We had nearly 5000 people killed or captured. The supply situation in Bataan isn't much better than it was in Clark, although they did have enough to resupply some of the units that made it there. But at least we have level 3 forts there, that should help us hold on for at least another week. I should probably task a few more subs to supply runs.

Molon Labe

07-26-21, 06:20 PM

11 February 1942
Allied destroyers strike back against Coral Sea submarines

Japan
USS Trout torpedoed a cargo ship in the Kyushu-Okinawa gap, but it appears this one will survive long enough to make it to port.

Coral Sea
Intensive ASW operations around Townsville led to decisive results today. Events began with a minesweeper prosecuting a medium-sized sub near shore. The sub was severely damaged, the captain claims a kill and he may be right. A pair of destroyers had contact with two enemy subs, attacking each in turn--these got away with just one lightly damaged. Then a destroyer-minelayer pair had a contact to prosecute. USS Sicard scored a critical hit with the last depth charges it had, which forced the sub to the surface, where it was quickly gunned down. This was the RO-65, and it is the first 100% positive sub kill of the war. The Sicard returned to port to rearm, and contacted another sub shortly after getting back underway. It ran itself out of ammo on this one too, but only caused moderate damage this time.

Malaya
Japan lost two light cargo ships at Mersing, presumably on a supply run. The first hit a sub-laid mine, the second was attacked by Wirraway light bombers on a low-altitude attack. A third AKL was bombed and damaged.

Air raids on Singapore continued. We did not have many planes up and only managed to shoot down 2 Nates and 3 light bombers today. Flack added 3 more light bombers. Airfield facility damage isn't as bad as I thought it was, it appears our low CAP levels have more to do with aircraft being damaged on the ground.

Java
A CVL appears to be headed for the Java Sea via the Makassar strait. Ahead of them, Zeroes swept Surabaya from Kendari. Losses were nearly even, 5 Zeroes for a P-40, 2 Sea Hurricanes (left by the Indomitable) and a Hawk.

Sumatra
7 Nells and 3 Betties attempted an attack on a Dutch surface force sheltering at Palembang. They had 20 Zeroes escorting, and I only managed 6 fighters on CAP during the worst part of the raid. The attack cost only 1 Betty and 1 Buffalo, but the point was made--I don't have enough fighters here yet to protect ships. The SAG is retreating to Batavia.

Borneo
A sweep by Zeroes and Oscars was followed by another attempt on the ASW group. We lost 4 fighters, they lost a Zero and 4 torpedo bombers. We launched bombers right back at Tarakan, but they didn't hit anything and flak took down a P-40 on escort duty.

Philippines
Enemy air raids are now including port attacks at Bataan, apparently they're trying to catch my supply subs docking.

Surigao has been captured.

https://i.ibb.co/qY9ZcJc/1942-Feb-11-shipssunk.png

Molon Labe

07-26-21, 09:26 PM

12 February 1942
Invasion fleet approaching Balikpapan

Coral Sea
Got another one! RO-64 was attacked two separate times today, it escaped with some damage the first time, but the second it was forced to surface and shared the fate of its sister ship yesterday.

Borneo
Oscars swept Balikpapan apparently in advance of an amphibious landing to take place tomorrow. The Oscars got two of our fighters without loss. Torpedo bombers from the CVL/Soryu made another attempt on my ASW patrol but only managed to lose one of their own. There are at least two task forces in the Makassar Strait headed south now, one of them includes a battleship and cargo ship, a combination that must indicate a landing force. Our level bombers made several attempts throughout the day but came up empty. Few to zero enemy fighters were protecting the fleet.

Lexington and Yorktown have been sitting just south of the Java Sea waiting for a development along these lines. I had intended to have them for the battle that neutralized the Indomitable, but they were a day late. I'm a little concerned about the possibility of land based bombers wrecking things up, but all indications for the last two weeks have been the bombers are usually torpedo-less and rarely escorted. Plus those task forces aren't having CAPs flown on them. It's looking favorable. Balikpapan is a major strategic objective, so the size of the army they're deploying should be substantial. Sending them to the bottom would be a major blow to their ability to continue their expansion in this area--it's worth a bit of risk to the carriers, so into harm's way they go.

https://i.ibb.co/vxsFWTm/12-February-1942-Makassar-Strait.png

China
6 Oscars swept Wuchow in what I assume was a probing attack. They found obsolete I-15 and -16 fighters on patrol and shot down 1 each with no losses. He hasn't shown any interest in anything this far south since repelling me from Swatow, so this may be a sign that something new is afoot.

Sumatra
The Nells came back and attempted a port attack on Palembang, but no one was home. Escorting fighters took out a Buffalo on CAP.

Molon Labe

07-27-21, 08:58 PM

13 February 1942
Showdown in Makassar Strait postponed as Lex and Yorktown wait for surface support

Japan
USS Tautog sank a cargo ship off Okinawa in a surface night attack using torpedoes and guns.

Hawaii
Air strikes on Pearl/Hickam cost Japan 6 medium bombers and a Zero as we only have enough flyable planes for our very best pilots.

Sumatra
One of our light cargo ships was shot up by a Japanese submarine while en route to Singapore for a supply run. We hit the sub with a little bit of return fire but nothing too serious--he found another ship to attack later in the day, a regular-sized cargo ship, which it torpedoed and sank.

Java
A Japanese submarine tried to transit into the Indian Ocean but hit a mine and likely sank.

Celebes
A Dutch sub torpedoed and sank a cargo ship transiting south of Celebes between the Banda and Java seas.

Borneo
In the South China Sea near Miri, a British sub torpedoed a troop transport. The ship is mortally damaged but might make port before it goes down.

Balikpapan was swept by Oscars, which downed 2 Allied fighters with no loss. Light and medium bombers from Balik are trying to stop the approaching invasion forces but can't hit anything; one Falcon bomber was shot down by flak. At least no fighters are trying to stop them. Another TB attempt on my ASW group was attempted, fighting them off cost us another P-40.

The Lexington and Yorktown failed to get in range to intervene today. I think this is because they waited for a surface force that I ordered to follow them to protect them from surface attack. It probably didn't help that I had to steer them away from an entrance to the Java Sea that had an enemy sub on patrol. I won't be able to stop the landings in time, but I can still cause massive casualties. The ambush will proceed.

Philippines
Enemy landing barges are assaulting Corregidor and hitting mines and getting shot up by coastal batteries for trying. These aren't just improvised minesweepers, at least one had troops on board.

Molon Labe

07-28-21, 08:43 AM

14 February 1942
Soryu, 2 CVLs sunk in St. Valentines Day Massacre

Battle for Balikpapan
I ordered the ASW group that's been under daily attack at Balikpapan to retreat to Surabaya--a day late. They ended up running into several incoming fleets, retreating from one only to encounter another. The two destroyers were sunk by sunrise, although they did manage to score some hits on the main invasion force, severely damaging a destroyer-minesweeper. As the fleets approached our base, we sortied PT boats to attack them, but they had so many warships in company that we couldn't get close enough to score torpedo hits. We lost 5 of 8 PTs for trying. Next up were the minefields. He had 3 destroyer-minesweepers and a regular destroyer go in first to blaze a trail. The destroyer hit a mine and the DMSs were damaged/sunk by coastal defenses, but it was successful: no other ships hit mines here today. Enemy troops came ashore amid a fierce battle between our coastal batteries and enemy battleships and cruisers... a lot of cruisers. Enemy ground forces appear to be about 2 regiments plus artillery and light armor support.

I had lost track of the enemy CVBG yesterday, probably hiding in a rain squall or something. But I knew it was still here. What was shocking was we both apparently wanted to stage in the same spot of ocean--daybreak revealed the Lex/Yorktown group within sight of the Soryu CVBG! Both fleets turned around to engage in their preferred form of battle. I am disappointed that the covering force my carriers waited for yesterday didn't step in here. This could have really messed things up... the close range of the opposing task forces probably affected our ability to get a decent CAP in the air...

Japan was first to strike, with a raid of 20 Kates and 14 Vals escorted by 39 Zeroes. We only managed to get a CAP up of 12 Buffalos, 14 Wildcats, plus 1 P-40 from Surabaya. The CAP arrived piecemeal, we never had more than 10 fighters engaging at any time. It was nearly a disaster as the Zeroes prevented our fighters from reaching their bombers, 3 Zeroes, a Buffalo, and A Wildcat went down in the fight. We were fortunate that most of these Kates didn't have torpedoes and were assigned to attack from high altitude. They were completely ineffective. The Vals had poor accuracy and missed everything. But the Kates that had torpedoes--just 6 of them--managed to score 3 hits on the cruiser Chicago (she sank immediately), and 1 on the Yorktown. The hit on the Yorktown was bad enough to prevent further flight operations. Fortunately, its strike was already airborne and there were air bases to divert the planes to.

As this went on, land-based fitghers swept Balikpapan again and shot down two more of our fighters without loss. USS Pickerel tried to reach the invasion force but was driven off by destroyers.

Then our strike arrived at the enemy CVBG. Their CAP was just 9 Zeroes and 12 Claudes, quite sad compared to how many Zeroes they had on offense. Our strike package was 61 SBDs and 30 TBDs escorted by 11 Buffalo and 13 Wildcat. Our fighters, too, managed to keep the enemy fighters away from the package; 2 Wildcats and a Buffalo went down along with 6 Claudes. With the enemy fighters pushed aside, my strike was devastating:
CV Soryu, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
CVE Taiyo, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVL Zuiho, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
CA Mogami
DD Shinonome
DD Isonami, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Myoko
DD Sazanami
DD Kuroshio
All 3 carriers were knocked out of flight ops, with the Taiyo apparently sinking shortly after our planes retired. The Yorktown's planes diverted to a small base in the southern island chain (why not Surabaya? Baka!) while many enemy planes appear to have diverted to Makassar (southwest Celebes).

https://i.ibb.co/ngFBX73/1942-Feb-15-Makassar.png

Round 2 involved the diverted enemy planes re-attacking from Makassar--I'm impressed that he apparently had aviation support there, enough to refuel and rearm 10 Zeroes and 7 Kates. But, no torpedoes. We were only able to vector a single Buffalo and a P-40 to defend; the P-40 was shot down along with a Zero. But once again, the Kates were level bombing from high altitude and hit nothing.

Our divert base had enough support to send 5 Yorktown Wildcats and 15 SBDs back into the fight. They bombed the enemy CVBG without opposition, hitting the Zuiho with a 1000-pounder and 2 hits on the cruiser Myoko. The Lexington's air group returned with 29 SBDs and 13 TBDs:
CA Mogami, Bomb hits 1
CV Soryu, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Asagiri
DD Arashi, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Murakumo
CA Ashigara, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVL Zuiho, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Kuroshio
The Soryu and Taiyo are gone for sure. Zuiho was still afloat when our planes retired, but appears doomed.

We had land-based bombers get in on the action too, but they didn't hit anything. One medium and one light bomber out of Balikpapan were shot down.

I'm probably going to have to evacuate my aircraft from Balik. As for my CVBG, I feel like I'm in the same position Admiral Mikawa found himself in after defeating US surface forces near Guadalcanal. Especially with the Yorktown disabled, letting the Lexington press the attack seems risky, even more so when I can't get a decent CAP up.... now that I've slept on this for a day, at the risk of repeating Mikawa's error, I have to prioritize the safety of the Yorktown. He has a ton of surface forces in the area, including what's left of the Soryu's battle group, and they might attempt to charge instead of retreat.

Japan
USS Sturgeon torpedoed and sank a light cargo ship near Okinawa, then surfaced to attack another AKL with guns. It aborted the second attack after taking a hit from return fire.

Coral Sea
Japan swept Port Moresby in force with at least 26 Oscar sorties. It ended up being an aerial chess match with few actual hits scored, just one P-40 and 1 Oscar went down. His armies attempted to attack but were beaten down hard.

Hawaii
Hickam was still in operation enough to get fighters up again today, we splashed 7 medium bombers. 4 BB bombarding again.

Sumatra
A small task force including at least one cruiser is making its way up the channel near Palembang. Too small to be an invasion force, maybe looking to bombard the base? He's asking for trouble. Level bombers took their best shot at them but missed.

Ostfriese

07-28-21, 12:01 PM

Sounds like a very early Battle of Midway moment. If I counted correctly Japan has now lost one CV and four CVL/CVE in less than three months. Astonishing :Kaleun_Applaud::Kaleun_Salute:

Threadfin

07-28-21, 12:54 PM

14 February 1942
Soryu, 2 CVLs sunk in St. Valentines Day Massacre

Bravo! :up:

Molon Labe

07-28-21, 01:53 PM

Sounds like a very early Battle of Midway moment. If I counted correctly Japan has now lost one CV and four CVL/CVE in less than three months. Astonishing :Kaleun_Applaud::Kaleun_Salute:

Thanks!

Here is the status of the CVL/CVEs as I understand them (fog of war and all that). I'm inclined to agree, probably 4 on the bottom.

CVL Ryujo - hit by two heavyweight torpedoes on 1/17, definitely disabled, likely sunk
CVL Shoho - damaged by heavyweight torpedo hit 2/3, status uncertain
CVL Zuiho - likely sunk 2/14 (4 bomb hits, 1 air-dropped torpedo hit)
CVE Hosho - sunk by 2 heavyweight torpedo hits 1/19
CVE Taiyo - sunk 2/14 (6 bomb hits)

mapuc

07-28-21, 03:41 PM

Great action reports.

It happens that I recall War in the Pacific, while reading your report, where they in some episode talked about the problem at home. factory problem, resource problem a.s.o.(can't remember everything that had been said in these episode)

What if a game producer added this to a wargame, where the player not only has to take care of his troops and material at the front, but also get things to work at home ?

Just a thought

Markus

Molon Labe

07-28-21, 06:29 PM

15 February 1942
Japanese surface forces press into Java Sea to hunt US carriers

Java Sea
As I mentioned yesterday, my biggest concern here was that Japan would use its heavy surface forces to try to take down my carriers. To try to protect them, I first merged the covering task force with the Yorktown's detached tf headed for Surabaya for emergency repairs. This would hopefully make them strong enough to survive an attack from the Soryu's escorts. Next, I detached the battleship Royal Sovereign from Force Y to prioritize speed, then sortied Force Y from Surabaya to take up station on the cape in southwestern Borneo. This would act as a blockading force to try to stop task forces moving south through the Makassar strait. The Lexington CVBG would move in a hook pattern, moving away from the Soryu's escorts before turning back north to get in a strike position against his surface forces. Every available ASW group was ordered to sanitize the path for the Yorktown to get to Surabaya. The flyable Wildcats from Yorktown were flown from Denpasar to the Lexington to supplement their CAP, and some of the flyable SBDs were rebased to Surabaya (in hindsight, that should have been the TBDs, because Surabaya has an AirHQ to arm them with torpedoes).

As feared, he did press his attack. The first encounter was between Force Y (1 CA, 7 CL, 3 DD) and a the former Soryu CVBG (2 CA, 1 CS, and 15 DD). I'd call that evenly matched since I'm mostly cruisers and he's mostly destroyers. Our heavy cruiser, HMS Corwall, took an early torpedo hit but stayed in the fight peppering the CA Myoko (already damaged from bombs yesterday) with hits, two of which penetrated her armor at the waterline, causing severe damage. The CA Mogami struck back, getting solid main battery hits on Cornwall and Glasgow. In the end, each side lost a DD to torpedo hits, and each side had a cruiser crippled. The Cornwall would sink before the end of the day.

A second surface group of 1 BB, 5 CA, and 5 DD bypassed Force Y heading south, apparently trying to prevent my carriers from escaping to the south. They encountered 2 of my DD moving towards the Yorktown for ASW duty, the DDs turned away and escaped.

Daytime brought a flurry of airstrikes, with a surprisingly high number of Zeroes on patrol despite the absence of any IJN carriers, probably all flying out of Makassar. A quick summary:

14 SBDs (Yorktown's) and 9 TBDs vs southern SAG: 3 SBDs downed by Zeroes, 1 bomb 1000lb hit on CA Nachi, 1x500lb hit each on BB Kongo, CA Atago

6 Vals vs Force Y (close enough to Lexington to get CAP protection): 3 Buffalo shot down by Zeroes, Vals missed Glasgow.

7 Kates vs ASW group (2 DD): 1 Zero shot down by land-based fighters, 1 Kate downed by DD's gunners. Very low altitude attack, no hits.

14 SBDs from Lexington vs former Soryu CVBG: 9 SBDs and a Buffalo shot down, SBDs attacked Mogami and missed.

7 Kates vs ASW group (AM and PG), no hits.

3 139HW-3 medium bombers vs southern SAG: no hits

3 Hudson medium bombers and 4 B-17s vs Makassar airbase: light facility damage

10 Kates vs Yorktown escort group: 1 Buffalo shot down by Zeroes, 1 Zero and 9 Kates shot down by land-based fighters. No Kates reached the ships.

13 Yorktown SBDs vs southern SAG: 1 SBD shot down by Zeroes, no hits.

5 Kates vs HMS Royal Sovereign's Force Y detachment: no losses, all Kates damaged by AAA or land-based fighters.

7 TBD (Yorktown's) vs southern SAG: 2 bomb hits on BB Kongo

5 Kates vs ASW group (AM and PG): no hits

12 SBDs from Lexington vs former Soryu CVBG: 3 hits on CA Ashigara-SUNK.

17 SBDs from Lexington vs southern SAG: 2 hits on BB Kongo

Without naval gunfire support, our shore batteries took a serious toll on their transports at Balikpapan. But with about 2 regiments ashore, the enemy attacked and easily overran the base. This is an important strategic site for Japan as it's one of the major oil/fuel sites, well-positioned to keep Truk supplied while other locations feed Japan. It had also been serving as a forward submarine base for me, including for the supply runs to Bataan. I'm also going to feel the loss of this as a seaplane base, as it was the last place I had that could observe most of the Celebes Sea as well as the waters north of Bornea (to help vector my subs into their merchants).

https://i.ibb.co/rQw3dBL/1942-Feb-15-Java.png

Celebes Sea
S-39 torpedoed and sank a cargo ship off Manado in a surface attack.

Banda Sea
A Dutch sub torpedoed and sank a cargo ship near Kendari.

Sumatra
The Japanese task force entered Palembang harbor, the light cruiser Jintsu hit a mine and they aborted whatever they were doing there. Later in the day, level bombers attempted an attack on the task force, but missed.

More concerning, well-escorted raids of Nells and Betties hit Oosthaven, where I have a growing backlog of transports piling up waiting to offload reinforcements. Zeroes took out a P-40 and 4 Buffalos, while our fighters got a single Zero and 3 Betties. Fortunately, most of the bombers did not have torpedoes and were as ineffective as level bombers generally are. One scored a torpedo hit on a troop ship, again fortunately, one that had already offloaded its soldiers. This party is over, time to find another way to get troops to Sumatra.

Hawaii
4 BB bombarded, and airstrikes on Pearl focused on the naval base instead of Hickam Field. The cruiser St. Louis was destroyed in drydock, also damaged was the CL Detroit, 2 tenders, 2 tankers a transport, and a minelayer. Our CAP was only a few planes today, time to ground everyone again.

Coral Sea
Oscars swept PM again, taking out a single P-40.

Molon Labe

07-28-21, 06:39 PM

Molon Labe

07-28-21, 07:07 PM

16 February 1942
Aircraft losses mount as chaos envelops the Java Sea

Java Sea
Forget Surabaya. This area is too hot, if the Yorktown stops there they'll just attack the base until they get her. We're going west.

One of my ASW groups detected a submarine ahead of the Yorktown's PIM and prosecuted it. We didn't get any hits but at least the sub was on the defensive. The Yorktown's escorts would later spot it and also failed to hit, but again, the sub wasn't able to attack.

At Balikpapan, the tenders and merchants in base sortied to try to escape to Surabaya, as the PTs drifted about without fuel. A small cruiser-destroyer task force took down the PTs and an AG, an ADP, and 3 AKLs, while Betty bombers from the north side of the island sank most of the escaping tenders.

As for airstrikes:
7 SBDs and 6 TBDs (Yorktown's) vs the Kongo's group - the SBDs ran into LRCAP Zeroes, 5 SBDs shot down, the rest aborted. The TBDs slipped in below and shot at the Kongo, but missed.

Vs. Makassar airbase: 9 139WH3-9, 5 Hudsons, and 8 B-17s. Ran into stiff reistance from Zeroes and a few Oscars (fine by me, less defending their fleets). The medium bombers were wiped out, 2 Hudsons made it to the base but didn't hit anything. One B-17 was shot down, and they took out one Zero with their defensive guns, but also failed to hit anything.

Lexington CVW (28 SBD, 8 TBD) vs Kongo group: Zeroes avoided our fighters and shot down 3 SBDs. 2 bomb hits on Kongo, it's armor is soaking most of the damage.

Yorktown TBDs (6) from Surabaya vs Kongo group: slipped in under the Zeroes, no hits

Lexington CVW (23 SBD, 13 TBD) vs Kongo group: Zeroes once again avoided my fighters, shooting down 4 SBD and 2 TBD. No hits. These TBDs were carrying bombs--Lexington must be out of torps for them.

Sumatra
The task force at Palembang is just a single CL. It sank an AKL and suffered at least 3 air attacks (medium bombers, Wirraway light bombers) without damage.

Malaya
The CL from Sumatra made its way all the way up to Singapore and tried to attack motor launches on ASW duty, which retreated safely to harbor.

Hawaii
BB bombardments and air attacks finished off a transport, cruiser, and patrol gunboat.

It appears that the KB is back. The attacking aircraft included 26 Kates. At least one carrier.

Japan
In what must be the most overkill recorded so far this game, the USS Trout sank a cargo ship in the Kyushu-Okinawa gap. It attacked on the surface, striking the ship with multiple dud Mk14s before closing to machine gun range, where it severely damaged the ship with is main gun, AA gun, and a .50 cal. Then fired more torpedoes, scoring 3 hits on the probably-doomed ship with Mk14s that managed to detonate.

Coral Sea
I stopped CAPing Milne to improve my strength at Port Moresby. Didn't work, the Oscars came and shot down 3 P-40s with only one loss.

China
In the northern area, I have an army that's been retreating since failing to take an enemy base early in the war. The territory is mountainous so movement has been slow. They're getting bombed daily. I just noticed that a base force as arrived at a base close enough to help them, so I moved some I-15 fighters over to there hoping to catch some unescorted bombers. And they did, but these old planes were so crappy they failed to shoot anyone down.

Molon Labe

07-29-21, 10:36 PM

17 February 1942
Enemy surface fleets abandon pursuit of Lex & Yorktown

Java Sea
The main enemy force met 2 of my DD on ASW patrol and broke off, then ran into one of my tenders evacuating Balikpapan, shot it once, and broke off again. This would be the last I saw of them as out scoutplanes did not make contact. Are they still here and we just missed them? Yorktown's about halfway to the western escape route through Oosthaven. That's in range of the Betties/Nells, so I'd be relying on the Lex's aircraft and several land-based fighter squadrons to see them through. I could turn them around if the surface threat is gone and exit through the east. But he can move Betties into Kendari just as easily. On balance, I think going west is still safer. I'm ordering my medium bombers at Singapore to hit the Johore airbase to try to reduce the threat level.

To remind me of the air threat, he hit Semarang with a port attack, perhaps thinking the Yorktown would put in there. The strike cost him a Zero, a Nell, and 2 Betties, one of the Lexington's Buffalo's was shot down playing defense.

Philippines
USS Spearfish torpedoed and sank a PB that was on ASW patrol off northern Luzon. You hate to see it!

We've confirmed that one division of troops has been moved from Malaya to Luzon. So that's the big play, that extra division here probably breaks my back, then these armies rest for a bit and head to Malaya. These reinforced armies attacked today, knocking my fortification level down from 3 to 2, casualties were 900 to 700 favoring me. That's going to flip as the fort level decreases further. I'll be lucky to hold out another week at this rate.

Malaya
An enemy sub tried to enter the harbor and hit a mine.

The air battle was an absolute massacre today. With just one Hurricane shot down (killing a triple ace!), we got 11 Nates, 4 Zeroes, 17 medium bombers, and 10 light bombers. Flak is responsible for probably 3-5 of those. We managed to get about 10 planes into the fight at a time, which is still badly outnumbered (peak enemy fighters, 28 Zeroes and 25 Nates) but better than we've been able to do consistently. I'm still not sure how we're managing to avoid the fighters and get to the bombers so efficiently. It's happened even when the escort/bomber ratio is high. Hurricanes are much faster than Nates, faster than Oscars, but slower than Zeroes, so it's not speed.

Our bombers hit Singkawang, gambling on them not having fighter coverage with him using them so extensively for LRCAPs right now. We were right, but damage was minor.

Japan
USS Sturgeon torpedoed a cargo ship in the Korea-Japan gap. It's been a long time since I saw any traffic here, what I expect would be a hot spot. This ship is going to survive, sadly.

Coral Sea
The daily Oscar sweeps got off to an early lead, but we rallied and broke even, 3 dead Oscars and 3 dead P-40s.

Ostfriese

07-30-21, 07:46 AM

No action at Hawaii on the 17th? A much needed day of rest at Pearl, then :)

Molon Labe

07-30-21, 03:52 PM

Just the daily 4 BB bombardment, plus an Oscar sweep with no one to greet them.

Molon Labe

07-31-21, 11:53 AM

18 February 1942
Massive Betty raid on Oosthaven area, USS Yorktown finished off

East Java Sea
The enemy surface forces truly were gone. The only action on this side were submarines. A Jap sub sank an AKL off Surabaya, while Dutch sub K XII put two fish into the light cruiser Kashima south of Celebes, which was part of a replenishment task force.

West Java Sea
The Yorktown made it about as far west as Batavia when the Betties came. Despite having the Lexington in company with its own fighters and most of Yorktown's fighters assigned to CAP, supplemented by land based fighters from Batavia and Oosthaven (P-40s, Hurricanes, Buffalos), the CAP over Yorktown was just pathetic for most of the day.

The first raid targeted Yorktown, just 9 Betties escorted by 17 Zeroes. We managed 2 Dutch Buffalos, 1 Hurricane, and 10 P-40s to meet them, although the P-40s arrived piecemeal so that 10 isn't as good as it looks. And NOTHING from Lexington. The air battle resulted in 2 Zeroes and 1 Buffalo downed, all 9 Betties made it through unmolested and all targeted the Yorktown. They got one torpedo hit. Already seriously damaged on the 14th, the Yorktown was now fighting for its life.

The next to arrive were 7 more Betties without escorts. Our CAP was occupied with the first raid and these ****ers slipped in unopposed. We got lucky--they shot at the cruiser Exeter (damaged awhile ago, was going to report for repairs with Yorktown) and the Yorktown but they all missed.

Lexington was targeted next. You'd think that because it contributed no fighters to help Yorktown that it's own fighters would be available for defense. Just 6 Lexington fighters were on CAP, backed up by 2 land-based fighters. The raid was 3 Betties escorted by 17 Zeroes. Our fighters did pretty good, we lost a Wildcat and a Buffalo but shot down a Zero and two Betties. The Betty that got through missed. 4 more Betties arrived right after, 3 Buffalos tried to get to them but were intercepted by Zeroes. No one was shot down. The Betties failed to separate into elements for a multi-directional attack, and the Lexington was able to deny them a broadside shot, and they all missed.

9 Betties bypassed the carriers and took a run at our transports in Oosthaven. This would have been a great move a few days ago, but most of my ships had left by this point and those that were still there were only dropping off supplies, the troops were already ashore. A transport and a cargo ship were hit, the transport sank and the cargo ship remains on fire and will likely go down tomorrow.

Technically this belongs in under Malaya, but it's relevant to this battle--after all this happened, my bombers arrived at Johore Bahru, the likely source of the Betties. But why so late? They didn't need to wait for scouts to tell them where the target was. And they only had to fly about 40 miles to get there, compared to about 560 miles for the Betties. But they only just arrived now. I guess the Japanese are just that much better organized than us, or maybe a month of siege has exhausted the coffee supply and we just don't function in the morning. Japan had no CAP on their base, flak shot down a Blenheim and a Hudson, but we hit the base pretty good with 8 bombers causing moderate facility damage. But I'm sure by now the rest of the strikes were already in the air, so this was too little too late to disrupt the raids headed south. The main consequence of this raid will be some of those returning Betties will be destroyed hitting craters in the runways as they land.

By afternoon, the Yorktown had limped to the straits at Merak, within sight of the open sea and relative safety. But the second wave of strikes arrived. The first was a group of 6 Betties escorted by 9 Zeroes, they went after Yorktown opposed by a Buffalo, a Hurricane, and 6 P-40s--again, arriving piecemeal. We managed to get 3 Zeroes but could not reach the Betties. All 6 got through and performed a proper anvil attack, and the Yorktown was hit by 2 more torpedoes. The ship was already on its last legs, she rolled over and went down before the Betties were gone.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/de/e3/86/dee386d16796d4506619a7845db9c51f.jpg

With the Yorktown gone, the Lexington was the new priority target. 22 Betties escorted by 20 Zeroes went after her. Our CAP was just pitiful in comparrison, 3 P-40s, 2 Dutch Buffalos, 2 US Buffalos, 1 Sea Hurricane and 1 Wildcat. The air battle resulted in one Zero and one Betty downed, with our Sea Hurricane also lost. Flak got another Betty, but 19 made attacks. Fortunately they only managed a single hit on the heavy cruiser Salt Lake City, but it was a good one. The main battery magazine exploded and the ship was shattered.

12 Nells, 6 Betties and 6 Zeroes went to Batavia, where I had diverted transports under attack at Oosthaven. They hit a transport, seriously damaging it. Again, the troops were already offloaded.

Hawaii
The bombardments/strikes were especially effective today, finishing off a destroyer, 3 tenders, and tanker.

Malaya
No bombers today, just sweeps. And mostly Nates, since the Zeroes were needed elsewhere. 4 Nates were shot down with no allied losses.

Makassar Strait
We lost a Falcon flying out of Samarina (adjacent to the now-conquered Balikpapan) trying to attack a destroyer-transport. Their troops will be here any day now--I've ordered the rest of my planes here to evacuate. Thus, one of the main strategic consequences of losing Balikpapan will set in; I have far less capacity to observe ship movements in the Celebes Sea, South China Sea and Sulu Sea. It was this capacity that made my ambush on the 14th feasible as I was fairly sure the KB wasn't there even though I hadn't seen it in probably 2 weeks, now that's gone.

China
Those I-15s in the northern mountain regions finally shot down a Lily. I mention this only because it's the first time the Chinese Air Force shot down someone on their own rather than let the AVG do it for them. The squadron of Hawks didn't even get any kills before they lost all their planes. Congratulations, Wan R., you alone among your peers do not suck.

---------
In hindsight, I feel like turning the ships back East was probably the better play. I already knew my CAP was struggling, so even if the surface threat was still there that might not have been as bad as an airstrike. I still would have suffered a Betty raid, but all indications up until this point were that the eastern bases did not have torpedoes.

The loss of the Yorktown had a logistic side to it too. My failure to keep a decent CAP up might be because I never replaced the Lexington's Buffalos with Wildcats. And this was because I was slow reacting to events at Pearl Harbor--I needed to turn off replacements for the USMC squadrons there sooner. So I ended up sending Wildcats that the Lexington needed to Pearl, only for them to be destroyed on the ground. I failed to recognize that not only is the Wildcat a superior plane performance wise, but it also has a maintenance rating 2 points better than the Buffalo. That's a huge difference. So, the high-maintenance Buffalos soaked up my mechanics' time, and we ended up with fighters in the hangar that needed to be in the air.

Molon Labe

08-02-21, 07:30 AM

19 February 1942
US-Philippine armies at Bataan surrender

East Java Sea
It turns out that surface group hadn't left after all, my scouts just missed it. I found this out because I had tried to take advantage of its absence to have Force Y bombard Makassar, hopefully catching formerly carrier-based fighters on the ground. We were intercepted. Neither side's gunner was great, but overall his hits were better as he had mostly heavy cruisers and I had mostly light cruisers, so more of his hits penetrated armor. His torpedoes were the major difference maker though. We lost the light cruiser Colombo, which was hit by two torpedoes, and two destroyers, each hit with a long lance.

East Australia
An enemy submarine torpedoed and sank a PG on ASW duty off Brisbane We're in the process to dropping off damaged ships at Brisbane and Sydney, he's moved his subs south to try to finish a few off. The PG was trying to keep a corridor open.

Sumatra and West Java Sea
Betties raided Palembang in 4 waves, trying to get a small SAG I had in port there. Not sure what I was thinking. We got lucky, 2 Buffalo traded for 2 Betties, no hits on the ships. I ordered the ships to leave to the south, at least until our CAP is good enough to hold them off (which might never happen).

They also raided Merak, the air battle there claimed a Zero, 2 Nells, 2 Hurricanes, a Buffalo , and a P-40. The bombers got through and sank two destroyers.

Malaya
We attempted another raid on Johore Barhu and were met by a swarm of Nates. Good thing Nates suck. We shot one down and took no losses, our bombers inflicted moderate facility damage.

Philippines
So much for a last stand at Corregidor in Bataan. Our troops arrived from Clark tired and starving, and there were only enough supplies for the first to arrive. Despite having fresh fortifications to defend them, they'd had enough and weren't going to do this all over again. The Japanese attacked, and we broke. 18,368 troops are now on their way to POW camps.

Molon Labe

08-02-21, 07:47 AM

20 February 1942

Hawaii
The daily 4 BB bombardment of Pearl was down to 3 BB. Maintenance?
The Kates that are here aren't in sufficient numbers to convince me that the KB is actually here. Maybe a 1 CV detachment.

East Java Sea
Betty raid on Surabaya. Somewhat frustratingly because of how little help we got from land-based fighters during the carrier battles, our CAP was pretty good at 22 planes. With the cost of just a Hawk and a P040, we downed a Zero, four Oscars, 6 Betties, and 3 Nells. The first wave of bombers didn't even reach any ships. The second wave got through but missed.

The Lexington is in the southern Indian Ocean and is getting pretty desperate for fuel thanks to running at high speed. I'm sending out some transports to act as tankers. They are still potentially in range of Betties, but they'd be unescorted and armed with bombs this far out.

Sumatra and West Java Sea
Betties raided Batavia and scored a bomb hit on a minelayer and a submarine tender in port. Air losses were 1 Hurricane vs a Zero and 3 Betties.

Malaya
We hit JB again, which maybe wasn't a great idea after yesterday. We lost one Hurricane to the Nate swarm, and shot down one Nate. AAA took down a bomber. Most of our bombers were damaged so we're going to have to take time to repair. We inflicted light facility damage.

Borneo
Samarinda (the smaller base adjacent to Balikpapan) has been captured.

Molon Labe

08-03-21, 11:07 AM

21 February 1942

SouthPAC
Yesterday he landed a small force of marines on Funafuti, a small island north of Pago Pago. I had a convoy moving through the area, so I detached 2 DD to intervene, which arrived today and sank the APD that was unloading there. My destroyers are now rejoining their convoy.

Borneo
HMS Trusty attacked a troop-carrying cargo ship at Tarakan on the surface, hitting it with 3 torpedoes while taking a gun it.

Hawaii
3 BB bombarding today, plus airstrikes

Coral Sea and Eastern Australia
A pair of destroyer-minesweepers were snipers with their depth charges against a medium-sized sub, forcing it to surface with the damage inflicted with the first few patterns. The sub actually tried to fight on the surface, firing several torpedoes in vain before it succumbed to naval gunfire.

Wirraway light bombers scored a hit on a sub near Brisbane. I forgot to mention it, but they had a hit yesterday too. ASW training paying off.

At Port Moresby, I attacked for the 2nd consecutive day (I usually alternate to rest my troops). His armies appear to be on the ropes, out of supply and broken. We finished of the artillery unit, engineer unit, and a marine unit. I think it's just the army regiment left.

A major task force is approaching Milne. The Banshees are ready.

East Java Sea
We seem to be in an ongoing air campaign for Surabaya, Batavia, and Palembang. At Surabaya, army bombers targeted the port and city while Betties targeted ships. Our fighters had a little turkey shoot on the bombers, taking down 7 Sallies and 7 Betties with no losses. Where was that performance when my carriers were here? The raids caused no significant damage.

10 Betties went after a cargo ship at Denpasar, where the Yorktown's airwing diverted to after it was first hit. The cargo ship is picking up non-airworthy planes to try to reconstitute the squadrons at Darwin. Fortunately they missed.

China
He attacked at Wenchow, a coastal city a bit south of Shanghai. He's cutting off their supply so I think he'll eventually win here. For now, casualties were 2200 to 500 in my favor and my level 3 forts are holding.

Molon Labe

08-03-21, 02:58 PM

22 February 1942

Hawaii
3 BB bombarding, plus airstrikes

Borneo
He's making a concerted effort to clear the Makassar Strait of subs, the TBs with the deep-exploding depth charges are here and getting to work.

Singapore
Oscar sweeps resulted in a downed Oscar but nothing else. A good chunk of the Dutch and Asiatic fleet boats are now in position to interdict transports traveling from Manila to Johore.

Java
An Oscar sweep at Batavia claimed a P-40.

Betties raided Surabaya, sinking a 2-ship ASW group trying to keep the harbor open. It cost them a Zero and 6 Betties; we also lost a Hurricane and a Hawk.

Coral Sea and East Australia
Our forces at Port Moresby report that the enemy is completely surrounded. Too bad the Japanese don't like to surrender.

The objective of the task force approaching Milne is a small island near Milne rather than Milne itself. We had a small disaster trying to attack this group as my base ran too low on supply to provide the fighter escorts drop tanks, they were one hex short of being able to make the trip. 12 unescorted Banshees were shot down trying to bomb the task force, only 1 managed to turn around and escape.

We're now trying to track as many as 6 submarines near Brisbane.

Burma and Thailand
Operation Kinky Boots was launched yesterday with one team departing, today the second team departed. We should have our first battle in 7 days. Reinforcements have arrived in Rangoon just in case that army comes back or if there are more ready to move into Burma overland while my armies are moving south.

Molon Labe

08-04-21, 07:45 AM

23 February 1942

Japan
USS Grayling torpedoed a cargo ship off Kyushu. I think this one will make it back to port. 480 miles southeast of Japan, USS Thresher attacked another cargo ship on the surface, scoring 2 torpedo hits along with several gun hits for a confirmed kill. This one was on the likely supply route to Midway/Hawaii. South of Tokyo Bay, USS Trigger engaged the same cargo ship 3 times... the first was a relatively routine surface attack, except that Trigger must have fired 10 Mk14s, scoring multiple hits of which only 1 exploded. The sub got too close for comfort trying to get another to explode so it broke off and tried again. The second attack was a submerged torpedo attack, it hit with 1 out of 2 but it was another dud. She broke contact again and finally got another hit the 3rd time that finished the damaged ship off.

Hawaii
The battleships took today off. Air raids on port and airfield.

Malaya
Oscar sweeps repeated yesterday's result in Singapore, just one Oscar lost. I've reinforced Singapore with a Hurricane squadron that arrived in Java during the battle last week-it's not at full strength anymore but it should help. I raided Singkawang but it wasn't worth it, patrolling Oscars got 3 of my bombers and I can only confirm 1 plane destroyed on the ground, a Babs recon plane.

Java
My B-17s from Surabaya targeted Makasar. We pushed past the Oscars on patrol but lost a bomber to flak. Airfield damage was negligible. I need to lengthen the runways at Surabaya a bit to use B-17s at full efficiency, they're flying with a reduced bombload and it shows.

Thailand
Recon shows Raheng appears to have been reinforced, 2 RTA divisions there instead of 1. That could be a problem. I'm shifting some bombers over to there, let's see if I can wear them down before my troops get there. Maybe the JAAF will finally come out to play with Pappy Boyington.

China
A land attack on Wenchow knocked forts down to level 2, casualties 800 to 900 in his favor. Overall he outnumbers me 4 to 1 there, he'll have it in a few days.

Molon Labe

08-04-21, 08:08 PM

24 Feb 1942

Borneo
HMS Truant torpedoed a troop-carrying cargo ship off the northern coast. Headed for Singapore?

Ceram Sea
2 PBs hit mines in the narrow strait S of Kendari. Which is a little weird because I don't remember putting a minefield here. Did they mine it trying to get my subs but ended up hitting themselves?

Celebes Sea
A Dutch sub torpedoed and sank a small tanker, probably headed for Balikpapan.

Hawaii
No BB bombard today, just air raids., which finished off the USS Detroit light cruiser.

China
Forts at Wenchow are now down to level 1. Won't be long.

25 February 1942
Hawaii
The battleships are back, air raids continued. A tanker, tender, and minelayer were finished off.

Borneo
A fast transport group delivered troops to Bandjermesin, on the south side of Borneo, opposite Surabaya, and left before I could respond. At least the troops are still there for me to bomb tomorrow.

China
He's moved troops into Sinyang again. He probably brought enough to do the job this time. But this time, I have air support. I've been bombing the army as it advanced from Hangkow, and I'm moving more bombers into the area to keep the pressure on.

Carrier update
Lex and the HMS Hermes have moved all the flyable Yorktown aircraft to Darwin. I'm giving the ships a day or two to get some maintenance done in port for a bit. The damaged planes should arrive in the next day or two, and then I'll have operational squadrons to use for training or to supplement another carrier.

A squadron of Fulmars arrived in Java, these are earmarked for the Hermes. Indomitable made it to Colombo for repairs, she'll be there for over a month. Hornet is set to be transferred to my command in 9 more days but she'll still be on the east coast.

Molon Labe

08-05-21, 08:45 AM

26 February 1942
Subs turning the tables on ASW groups, enemy troops at Port Moresby wiped out

Java Sea and North Australia
A enemy sub sank a minesweeper at Banjoewangi, an entrance to the Java Sea east of Java. Another sub sank 2 minesweepers at Darwin that were both on ASW patrol.

I was wrong about the fast transport group being gone already. We found them at Bandjermasin and split out bombers between them and the troops ashore. They had Zeroes on LR CAP and we were beyond our own fighter range, so it did not go well. We crippled an APD with a rare hit from the level bombers and caused some damage to the troops, but lost 11 medium bombers.

Philippines
A subchaser hit a mine at Bataan, almost certainly a kill due to its small size. USS Shark shot up another AKL, likely sinking it at well.

Borneo
A light cargo ship it a mine at Tarakan.

Hawaii
3 BB bombarding today, plus airstrikes.
Pearl's minefield has decayed to zero thanks to the tenders being destroyed.

Malaya
Singapore's bombers made attempts on transports at Kuantan and Mersing but didn't hit anything.

Coral Sea
Combat at Port Moresby is finally over, the holdouts made their Banzai charge and were wiped out.

Molon Labe

08-05-21, 01:59 PM

27 February 1942
Submarine battles suddenly going his way, Borneo now under full Japanese control

Java Sea
Dutch sub KXI, fresh out of port in Surabaya, was intercepted by a group of 3 destroyers south of Makassar. They were armed with deep-reaching depth charges and scored a critical hit. The captain had the nerve to continue with his mission, I had to order him to RTB for repairs. USS Perch arrived in Surabaya for repairs from an earlier bomb hit. The S-36 tried to finish off the APD our bombers damaged yesterday as it retreated up the Makassar Strait, but missed.

On the south side of the Island at Tjilatjap, another sub took out a minesweeper. I've been using this port to move land units that were trying to land at Oosthaven, fortunately most of them are already on their way.

Bandjermasin was captured. Borneo is now entirely under Japanese control.

Philippines
S-37 was hit by an aircraft on ASW patrol near Bataan and has been ordered back to Surabaya for repairs. Another AKL hit a mine at Bataan.

China
Our bombers hitting Sinyang ran into a wall of 40 Nates. We shot down one of them and lost 1 I-16 fighter and 2 SBIII bombers. I'm going to sweep this area next turn and send the bombers somewhere else. The enemy outnumbers us 2 to 1 at Sinyang. Their attack reduced fortifications to nothing, so it doesn't look like we're going to stop them this time.

Malaya
We attempted to hit transports again, missed again, and lost 2 medium (one 1 AA) bombers and 2 light bombers in the attempt.

Yorktown airwing
It's not going to work. The "parent" units for these squadrons were destroyed with the ship, and even with all the fragments in one place, the parent unit isn't being recreated. The fragments can't receive replacement aircraft, so these squadrons are essentially dead. I've spent some political points to reform them but the delay is about 2 months. Hopefully they spawn on the west coast and not Pearl. The good news is that these units had planes "in reserve" that couldn't be made ready for whatever reason, they are now back in the replacement pool, which means I finally have enough Wildcats to replace the Lexington's Buffalos. I just need to get it to a port big enough to allow the replacement. They'll leave tomorrow, I need to allow one more day to try to get rid of that sub hanging out here.

Molon Labe

08-08-21, 08:45 AM

The last several turns have been relatively uneventful, so I'm going to combine a few.

28 February - 2 March 1942
War becomes routine until the reappearance of the KB in the Java Sea

Hawaii
Air raids only at Pearl on the 28th-March 1. 4 BB's joined in for March 2.

Makassar Strait
The S-36 was busy. On the 28th, she torpedoed and sank a a cargo ship in a convoy headed for Bandjermasin (probably picking up troops there). On the 1st, the she torpedoed and sank a light cargo ship further north, at the narrowest part of the strait. And on the 2nd, she sank a light cargo ship with her deck gun near Balikpapan.

An enemy cargo ship entering or leaving Balikpapan hit a sub-laid mine on the 2nd.

Malaya
My bombers continued to make attempts on ships at Mersing with no success. Then I remembered that I'd been training the Dutch pilots at naval attacks since the war began, but the Brits had been mostly attacking enemy troops--and sure enough, the naval attack stats of the bomber pilots was poor. I found a few British pilots to move in. The got their chance on March 2, but they still missed. The March 2 raid was countered by Nates and a single Oscar, 5 Nates and a Hurricane were shot down.

Philippines
I think 2 of my subs are glitched out to the point I'm going to lose them. Both the S-37 and USS Shark were on transport duty to Bataan when Bataan was captured. They are both now just sitting in that space. I've tried changing their mission, ordering them to new patrol areas, ordering them back to port, but they're still here. S-37s been hit by bombers once, Shark 3 times. They even shot down a bomber. They're in shallow water and being pursued by surface units. It's a miracle they've lasted this long.

Borneo
Apparently nothing good happens when you put non-minesweepers in minesweeping TFs; he lost a Kaibokan to a mine in Borneo just before clearing the last of the mines there.

China
My sweeps over Sinyang were a day late. We got three Nates on March 1, after it had already been captured. By March 2 the Nates were gone.

Wenchow was captured on 2 March.

Timor - 2 March
The Kongo's SAG appeared outside by base at Koepang without warning, immediately engaging the 2 DD on ASW patrol, sinking one and crippling the other. We fought back with aircraft after sunrise, attacking the enemy task force with Falcon light bombers, B-26s that had just arrived, and a squadron of P-39s set for strafing attacks with their 40mm cannon, all escorted by P-40s. Of course, they had Zeroes on long-range CAP. We ended up losing 2 P-40s, 4 Falcons, 2 B-26s and 3 P-39s. Most of the Falcon and P-39 losses were to flak. We shot down a Zero and scored some strafing hits on a cruiser that didn't appear to hurt very much--I would rather have seen the P-39s strafe transports than armored warships.

Large airstrikes (21 Vals, 27 Kates ) by the enemy followed, targeting 3 light cargo ships moving through the area and the crippled destroyer from earlier. The air strikes came from a task force east of Timor rather than any captured airbase nearby, and there were too many planes to be from the Shoho--the KB is here.

By the way, intelligence confirms the Shoho did not sink.

Here's the strategic map from the 28th:
https://i.ibb.co/sghCKXk/1942-Feb-28-strategicmap.png

Molon Labe

08-09-21, 11:57 AM

3 March 1942
"KB" in Java area is probably just a detachment

Philippines
Japan lost a subchaser at Bataan to the minefield, probably trying to attack my two stuck boats. But I think I managed to get them unstuck by putting them back on a transport mission and then cancelling unload (not that they could unload at what is now an enemy base anyway). As luck would have it, he lost a minesweeper to a mine too. Ironic, but it's dangerous work.

In the south, a large cruiser-destroyer group bombarded Davao, which is empty, but at least we know where he's going next.

Timor
A detachment of 1 CA and 6 DD bombarded my base at Koepang, deadling significant damage to the airfield and disabling at least 10 planes. We launched airstrikes anyway, but the enemy had enough Zeroes and Oscars on CAP to ruin my day. We got one Oscar but lost 2 P-39s (now on escort duty instead of strafing) and 2 Falcon bombers. No hits on the ships. The carriers didn't do anything, but I don't think there are more than 2. So not the KB proper, but quite possibly a carrier division from the KB.

Hawaii
Just airstrikes on Pearl today.

Malaya
I sent my bombers to Mersing again to try to sink transports, got similar results as last time. No hits on ships, but shot down an Oscar and 6 Nates.

China
As my armies that were victorious at Ichang were working their way southeast, we noticed enemy armies looking to cross the river into their space, so I've stopped my advance to try to catch them on the bridge.

Molon Labe

08-12-21, 10:10 AM

4 March 1942

Hawaii
4 BB bombarding Pearl, plus airstrikes

Malaya
HMS Trusty laid mines at Mersing, then surfaced to sink a cargo ship before slinking away.

Our airstrikes went to Kuantan instead of Mersing, which was bad news as there were more fighters there. We lost 5 Hudson bombers and a Hurricane with nothing to show for it. Naval attack orders have been cancelled.

Java Sea
The enemy carrier battle group is departing north through the Makassar strait.

5 March 1942
It's the Kido Butai after all!

Coral Sea area
Fresh out of upgrading its AA guns at Brisbane, the heavy cruiser USS Northampton was heading north to rejoin the Enterprise/Saratoga CVBG when it was torpedoed by a sub. It's only moderately damaged, but back to the shipyard it goes...

Philippines
A major operation to sweep my minefield out of Bataan is underway. It's dangerous work--one of the minesweepers hit a mine and was destroyed.

Sumatra
This had to be a mistake. 20 Betties attacked Palembang, unescorted, at 5000 feet. P-40 and Buffalo fighters cut down 9 of them. Flak probably added another 5. 12 bombers made it to their targets, bombing troops.

Malaya
Ida light bombers made an attempt on Singapore's ASW patrols. 6 were shot down by Hurricanes, flak added 1 more. The bombers didn't hit anything.

Java Sea
The retreating carrier division wasn't really retreating, it was just rejoining the KB. And the KB came right back into the Java Sea like it owned the place, but let's face it, it owns everyplace it goes. It launched an airstrike on ships at port in Surabaya, which included the HMS Hermes light carrier and the battleship Royal Sovereign. Our CAP shot down 6 Zeroes and 3 Vals with a loss of a P-40 and 2 Fulmars. They hit the Royal Sovereign with a torpedo and a bomb for moderate damage. 9 Kates split off and sank a minesweeper on ASW patrol outside of Surabaya's protective fighter bubble.

Using Surabaya as a bastion was working for this fleet when it was just CVLs or one fleet carrier, it's not going to hold out against 5 fleet carriers. I've ordered a retreat south.

Makassar Strait
Japan is deploying more ASW ships with deep-reaching depth charges, and this area is a priority for them right now. The KIX was hit in deep water and has been ordered to return for repairs.

Coral Sea
I had an idea I thought was clever; I deployed a pair of seaplane tenders to an empty atoll north of Luganville and sent some Catalinas there, giving myself a look into the blind spot I had north of the Solomons. The idea was to see if the KB was hiding there. But the KB just revealed itself in the Java Sea, so this was for nothing. Anyway, at least for the time being, carrier ops in this area can proceed.

Molon Labe

08-13-21, 09:02 AM

6 March 1942
Battle of the Java Sea in progress

East Coast
USS Hornet is now under my command. It will reach the Panama Canal in a week. Current airwing VF-8 (19 Wildcats), VS-8 (18 SBC-4 Helldivers), VB-8 (18 Helldivers), VT-8 (15 Devastators)

Hawaii
Air raids on Pearl transitioned to targeting troops. Sigint has also reported that 2 divisions currently on Molokai are being loaded into transports, so the targeting of Pearl's troops tells us where they're going next.

Philippines
USS Porpoise sank a cargo ship in the Luzon Straight in a gun/torpedo surface attack.

Java Sea
With some regret in hindsight, I had ordered the evacuation of most undamaged warships from Surabaya to Darwin when I spotted the KB. What I didn't spot until this turn were transports. They're going to land on Java. So there's actually something worth fighting over right now and I got my assets out of the way.

At least his attentions on Surabaya were mostly wasted. Two damaged light cruisers and a submarine (the Perch) were caught in harbor. The Perch took a hit from an 800kg monster and was destroyed. The cruisers were damaged badly enough that I'm pretty sure the war is over for them. Nells from Borneo also hit the port, but they were too high and carrying only 60kg bombs due to the distance they had to fly, and did no damage.

This was after an air battle of course, the score there was 6 Zeroes vs 3 P-40s, 2 P-39s, and 5 Fulmars.

The Hermes and Royal Sovereign managed to evade the KB's scouts.

Operation Kinky Boots
So far everything going smoothly. We've reached Tavoy airbase and will begin our attack tomorrow. At Raheng, we're crossing the river adjacent to enemy forces so we can attack overland properly. Our bombers have been softening up both targets' ground forces with no opposition by enemy fighters. No enemy bombers are targeting our troops either, but Boyington's 1st AVG and 3 squadrons of Hurricanes are ready if they're needed.

7 March 1942
We are the British army, and we're here to take your land!

Operation Kinky Boots
Here's where things are going
https://i.ibb.co/JKQtk03/1942-March-7-Thailand.png
We captured Tavoy easily, casualties 1500 to 150. Their troops were fatigued and broken, probably thanks to the bombing. They also had no fortifications, so this area was far from a priority for him. We'll see if he's still dismissive as we press east. My armor is going to run down the retreating troops while the infantry heads for the road to Bangkok overland. Once we're there we can cut off that rail line that they'd use to move troops out of Malaya to reinforce Bangkok. Same deal with Raheng, we need to go around and cut off that railroad to block reinforcements from the rest of Thailand.

If you were curious where the operation's name came from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kINLxNxTMJ0

Java Sea
The KB aggressively, perhaps recklessly, pushed south of the Java Sea. Perhaps trying to find the Hermes and Royal Sovereign, or expecting my US fleet carriers to be there to set up an ambush? I'll have to keep this in mind. He didn't find them, though, we was too far west. We had major air battles over Java as we tried to interdict the invasion force. First, Surabaya itself was still under attack, mostly from land bases. Those cost 5 Nells, a Betty, 2 Zeroes, 2 P-39s and a P-40. And it wore down my CAP, a lot of those bombers arrived unescorted but were still getting through in large numbers. They hit the light cruiser Dragon again, and sank another damaged sub (the
KXI). And they damaged a pair of valuable tenders, an AD and an AR. But most of what's here are just light cargo ships and some troop transports that are too slow to be useful, these soaked most of the hits. The operational combattants all moved southeast...

The landing site was Tjepoe, right in the middle of the northern coast. We attacked with bombers from both sides but didn't do much damage. It was mostly Oscars flying long-range CAP over the transports, but it was enough. We lost 3 P-40s, a Hawk, a P-39, 2 Falcon light bombers, 5 Swordfish torpedo bombers, and 5 139W medium bombers. It was only the Falcons that had any success, scoring 3 hits on two transports, causing 200 troop casualties. It looks like 2 regiments came ashore, which isn't that much for a target the size of Java. There are probably more on the way, but for now I'm going to try to box these guys in before they can isolate either Surabaya or Batavia.

B-17s went after the KB. We lost 5 and got no hits, but their gunners shot down 2 Zeroes.

East of the KB, I'm reorganizing my naval forces. I'm going to have the damaged Royal Sovereign continue to Darwin along with the Hermes, but I'm going to try to have the cruisers link up and form an offensive task force (including a shiny new anti-aircraft cruiser that just arrived). Hopefully with the KB off to the south they'll get through unmolested, if not, I moved a squadron of P-39s from Koepang to an airbase east of Surabaya to provide some air cover.

Further east, there's a small enemy landing force at Dobo, at the eastern end of the Banda Sea. I've had two cruisers headed that way for two days, they better arrive tomorrow. No destroyers in this group, they lost their destroyers when the carrier detachment attacked Timor.

Hawaii
Just bombers today hitting Pearl, mostly attacking troops. I have to assume the BB are getting ready to support a landing. I've moved 2 subs to try to intercept, but it's a short trip in shallow water.

Molon Labe

08-15-21, 11:31 AM

8 March 1942
Battle of Java Sea ends in decisive Japanese victory
Oahu invaded

Banda Sea
My two cruisers finally arrived at Dobo to interdict the transports. We sank 'em all, 4 troop-carrying cargo ships and 2 PBs. Estimated troop casualties were 1260, we finally hurt him a little bit.

Java Sea
I really should have just accepted that I screwed up by pulling the cruisers out too early. The KB was given the same orders as my cruiser fleet: return to the Java Sea. So they had no problem finding me. The evacuating AKLs also failed to provide a meaningful decoy. Yes, he did send strikes on them, but they were proportional to their priority.

Strikes on Surabaya were mostly from land-based air, we lost 2 P-40s and 4 P-39s there, while shooting down just 2 Zeroes and a Nell. Fortunately, the raids there were once again too high to do meaningful damage.

The KBs strike on Force Y was far more effective. We couldn't even get to the bombers as we traded 4 P-39s for 5 Zeroes. As for the ships:

Wave 1:
CL Boise
CL Tromp, Bomb hits 1
CL Capetown, Bomb hits 1
CL Enterprise
CLAA Van Heemskerck, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Sumatra, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Mauritius, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CL Durban, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CL Java
Wave 2:
DD Van Ghent, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Enterprise, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Tromp, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Java, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CL Mauritius, Bomb hits 3, on fire
CL Durban, Bomb hits 1
CL Capetown, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Sumatra, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CLAA Van Heemskerck, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Walke, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
CL Boise, Bomb hits 1
The anti-aircraft cruiser was the first hit, so that was a very disappointing performance from the unit that I thought was going to help make this task force a difficult target.

Some of our bombers tried to attack the KB, but our fighters were all playing defense so they were handled easily. We lost 2 B-17s, 2 139Ws, and 2 Swordfish.

Tjepoe, the space where the invasion force landed, has been captured.

A small bright spot in all this, the Dutch sub KXIII sank a cargo ship near Makassar.

Hawaii
As expected, the destination of the ships that were being loaded was Oahu. The subs I positioned to intercept were brushed aside by a robust ASW escort. The enemy invaded with two task forces, a main force and a smaller detachment. The smaller one hit the beaches first and took heavy losses--my coastal defenses ranged from 3" to 12" fixed batteries, 8" guns transported by rail, plus all the artillery that the Marines stationed there have, while this force had no major warships. It looks like we wasted 4 out of 6 transports in this group and killed about 1300 troops.

The main force had all 4 battleships we've become quite used to seeing here, plus cruisers and destroyers, so they were able to suppress our shore batteries a bit. We still damaged a few transports and a destroyer, with enemy casualties estimated around 800. Morning brought with it much better accuracy for our shore batteries and a massive ship-shore battle broke out. The enemy warships scrambled to draw fire away from the transports.
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 1
BB Fuso, Shell hits 14
BB Mutsu
BB Nagato, Shell hits 22, on fire
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 4, on fire
CL Kitakami, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Tama, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Abukuma, Shell hits 1
DD Namikaze
DD Yuzuki
AMC Bankok Maru, Shell hits 1, on fire
xAK Melbourne Maru, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Kinai Maru, Shell hits 12, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Manila Maru, Shell hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Seattle Maru, heavy fires
AMC Saigon Maru
DD Kasumi, on fire
DD Ariake

Most of those hits on the battleships are being resisted by the armor, but we have some big guns out there and some of those got through. We'd kill about 1800 more enemy troops while they were trying to establish a beachhead; our casualties were around 300. I'd estimate 4 divisions came ashore today.

USS Pompano, undeterred from being attacked in the morning, returned for more and ended up being spotted and depth charged before it could get in attack position. It took light damage before it escaped.

Operation Kinky Boots
With Tavoy secured, I ordered AVG-1 to sweep Bangkok, kind of a recon-in-force to see if it was dangerous to send bombers there. We encountered 8 Nates on patrol and splashed 7 of them with no losses. The bombers that aren't going to Bangkok yet hit the troops retreating from Tavoy--he had 10 Nates protecting them this time. Our 5 escorting Hurricanes shot down 1, but several got through and damaged some of the bombers. Good thing they only have .30 cal machine guns on those planes.

At Raheng, recon reports there are troops guarding Pisanouke, the smaller base at Raheng's flank. This means I'm going to have to cross a river under fire no matter which way I attack from. So, I've cancelled my order to cross downriver and ordered a frontal assault on Raheng. Raheng is now my priority bomber target, I'm going to work them over hard to help my troops cross.

Ostfriese

08-16-21, 02:54 AM

Molon Labe

08-17-21, 10:06 PM

Is invading Oahu a reasonable move in WiTP? Historically it would have been an extreme gamble with an awfully high chance of total defeat for Japan, as there was a strong garrison even on December 7th, 1941.
It's a high reward move if it succeeds, no doubt about that, but how likely is this to succeed, especially against a human opponent?

A defeat in this invasion will have wasted Japanese manpower and materiel your opponent should be unable to replace (or at least very unlikely to replace).

In general it sounds as if your opponent is playing a very aggressive campaign, even compared to the historical campaign undertaken by Imperial Japan. Historically seen this was something Japan could never have sustained for much more than a few months - does something similar eventually happen in WiTP (unless the Allied player surrenders, that is)?

It's a huge commitment of troops that could be doing something else. Singapore still being in my hands is a rather large failure that you can connect to that. He's also being invaded from Burma instead of invading Burma. As far as chance of success goes, it could go either way right now. He's established a beachhead with superior numbers but he has to overcome fortifications.

As for sustainability, the scale of his logistic operation was absolutely enormous, that he was able to keep his battleships constantly rearmed proved that. I don't know how long he can keep it up. Not capturing the southern resource area should be putting a strain on his fuel supply. At least for now, the OpTempo of his naval forces is quite high around Pearl and in the Java Sea, so he apparently has fuel for now.

Molon Labe

08-17-21, 10:24 PM

9 March 1942

Hawaii
The enemy ground forces made a major push and got nowhere, apparently too disorganized from their landings. Casualties were 1661 to 32, and critically, our fortifications held.

Makassar Strait
S-36 tried to attack a major troop convoy but ended up having to settle for sinking an escorting Kaibokan.

Java Sea
One of my transports and a minelayer evacuating Surabaya were intercepted by an enemy surface detachment and sunk.

An enemy destroyer hit a mine near their beachhead at Tjepoe. HMS Trusty and a US sub have been hard at work there. USS Pike was detected here and depth charged for moderate damage.

Air raids targeted Surabaya and ships at sea near there. Losses were 6 Zeroes, 3 Nells vs 1 P-39 and a Hurricane. Fleet damage was bad as they worked over the survivors from yesterday:
CL Enterprise, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Walke
CL Tromp, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
CL Capetown, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
CL Durban, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Vampire
CL Sumatra, Bomb hits 8, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Mauritius, Bomb hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Nizam
DD Van Ghent, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Boise, Bomb hits 8, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Barker, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Edsall

We also attempted a raid on Tjepoe that did not go well, 4 Dutch medium bombers went down with nothing to show for it.

Eastern Australlia
The Lexington CVBG was spotted by a sub outside of Sydney. We depth charged the sub and caused minor damage before it got away, but now he knows exactly where the Lex is.

New Hebrides
The timing of the spotting of the Lex was especially bad, because I also revealed the location of Enterprise's group so its USMC Wildcats could harass ships landing at Uputa (sinking 2 landing barges and damaging a PB). The SBDs would have gone if there was anything bigger there. But now he knows where they all are.

Molon Labe

08-17-21, 10:37 PM

10 March 1942

New Hebridies
I detached a destroyer from the Enterprise CVGB to get the remaining barges at Utupua, but came up empty.

Japan
USS Tarpon torpedoed and sank an AKL near Torishima island, about 280 miles southeast of the mainland.

Java
Our fighters started getting on the board in Surabaya as our CAPs are less spread out trying to cover ships at sea, but at a cost. We took out 4 Zeroes, 4 Oscars, 3 Betties, 8 Nells, 7 Kates, and 3 Vals with the cost of 3 P-40s, 7 P-39s, 2 Hurricanes, and a Hawk. Damage to the ships in port:
CL Durban, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
CL Enterprise, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
CL Caledon, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAP Van Rees, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Dragon, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
SS KXVII, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
AD Black Hawk, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
AVP Pollux, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
AS Zuiderkruis, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Bennevis, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Van Diemen, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage
xAP Siberg, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Capetown, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage
AMc Merbabo, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAP Rochussen, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Operation Kinky Boots
He has Nates defending Bangkok now, which the AVG tore into. 8 were shot down with no losses.

It appears 20,000 troops have left Singapore, so we may have had the desired effect. It should take them at least 4 days to pack up and head back north by rail.

Molon Labe

08-17-21, 10:52 PM

11 March 1942

Hawaii
Another attack by ground forces rebuffed, casualties 4363 to 1123, forts holding. Starting to look pretty bad for him.

Java
HMS Trusty was lightly damaged in a depth charge attack as it mined Tjepoe again. As far as I can tell they still don't have proper minesweepers there and are relying on destroyers and PBs to do the job.

The air battle tilted our way for the day. At Surabaya, for just one P-40 shot down, we managed 2 Zeroes, 7 Nells, 9 Betties, and 8 Sallies. But they made up for it a bit at Batavia shooting down 6 Fulmars, a P-400 (what's a P-400? A P-40 with a Zero on its tail! Or maybe just the export version of the P-39), a Buffalo (fortunately nearly completely phased out by arriving Hurricanes and P-40s) and got just 1 Val and 1 Kate. Still, the bombers got the job done. There's not much left to sink at Surabaya anymore.

At Batavia, they hit a transport group that was fortunately already disembarked. But they did find a transport loading on the south side of Java (relocated there after Batavia got too hot last week), the damage inflicted on that ship included 300 troop casualties.

Timor
A fleet of AKLs evacuating Surabaya was slowly massacred. One was picked off by a sub coming through the straits of the Java Sea. Another hit a mine at Koepang. Then a lurking sub wolfpack went to work on them. Had to be at least 6 ships, none survived.

Molon Labe

08-18-21, 10:50 AM

12 March 1942

Hawaii
USS Sealion took some hits trying to intercept battleships on their way to bombard Oahu.

Japan
USS Sturgeon torpedoed a cargo ship in the East China Sea.

Java
One of our coastal minesweepers was obliterated by a Japanese sub at Oosthaven. These little guys really have no success as ASW substitutes. In the air, Japan did a poor job protecting its bombers today. At Surabaya we shot down 15 Sallies, 5 Betties, and 4 Zeroes with no losses. At Oosthaven, for the price of 3 fighters we got 7 Vals and 5 Kates. About those...the KB is focusing on interdicting reinforcements right now. Last turn served as a warning to clear them out, but we still had some left at Oosthaven (Sumatra):
AMC Manoora, Bomb hits 4, on fire
xAP Poelau Bras, Bomb hits 2, on fire
xAK Catrine, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
AMc Lawoe, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
AMc MMS A
xAK Michael Livanos, Bomb hits 7, and is sunk
xAP Chilka, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAP Indora, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk
KV Nigella
xAK Anatina, Bomb hits 1, on fire.
Which were mostly empty, but we did lose some vehicles that were still aboard.

The IJA has captured Madioen, effectively cutting the island in half.

Timor
I've put a coastal minesweeper back to work here to deal with the minefield that took out an AKL yesterday. They had been sheltering due to the air threat. It swept a few mines and was then promptly sunk by a lurking enemy sub.

South of here, I'm trying to move the Hermes and Royal Sovereign off to the west, but a sub spotted the task force and fired 4 torps at the Hermes (missing). I wonder if the KB comes over here now.

Makassar Strait
S-36 attacked a convoy of a small number of cargo ships escorted by a ton of cruisers and destroyers, I have to assume this was once the Java invasion force. It missed and suffered depth charge damage for its trouble.

Molon Labe

08-18-21, 11:21 AM

13 March 1942

Java
A lone heavy cruiser bombarded Surabaya, but it was enough to disable 22 planes at the crowded airfield.

After his heavy losses yesterday, the bombers took a break and he focused on dealing with my fighters. The change in tactics was effective, especially in combination with the main airfield being shelled; at Surabaya he got 7 fighters for 2 Zeroes; and at Koepang (Timor) he got 6 with no losses (2 of which were Fulmars from the nearby Hermes, which tried to help).

We got a little lucky as one of his task forces ran out of fuel in the Java sea, my torpedo bombers scored a hit on the drifting cruiser Yubari (which was carrying troops) and probably sank it. In isolation, I wouldn't read too much into this, but it's possible that he's supporting ops in this area from fuel from Balikpapan and Tarakan, which aren't especially big. I'm fairly sure the production of these bases is insufficient to maintain the level of naval activity here, especially with the KB around, but I'm not sure about the stockpile status or how much fuel is being shipped in.

A third of an enemy battalion outpaced the rest of its force and attacked a far superior force in Semarang; we wiped it out.

Luzon Strait
USS Snapper sank a cargo ship in a surface attack. I'm surprised unescorted merchants still pass through here.

Malaya
It appearing that troops are abandoning the siege of Singapore to relieve Bangkok, I ordered my Singapore bombers to attack at Johore...it didn't go well, we lost at least 2 bombers to flak and didn't do much damage.

Molon Labe

08-18-21, 11:46 AM

14 March 1942
Stunning losses for AVG-1 in Thailand

Hawaii
It looks like they're done landing troops and the 4 BB have gone back to daily bombardments. Fortunately damage was very light today. If they're going to pull this off, it will probably be these 4 ships as the difference-makers.

Java
The battleships Kirishima and Hiei made and appearance bombarding Surabaya:
P-39D Airacobra: 7 damaged
P-39D Airacobra: 1 destroyed on ground
P-40E Warhawk: 6 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 3 destroyed on ground
B-17E Fortress: 23 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed on ground
PBY-5 Catalina: 2 damaged
PBY-4 Catalina: 7 damaged
Hurricane IIb Trop: 2 damaged
Hurricane IIb Trop: 1 destroyed on ground
B-17D Fortress: 1 damaged
L-212: 2 damaged
SOC-1 Seagull: 1 damaged
SOC-1 Seagull: 1 destroyed on ground

...which probably incapacitates the airfield for the next day or two. On the bright side, that limited the amount of damage his fighters could do because I had so few in the air to shoot down. (2 P-40s at Surabaya).

Operation Kinky Boots
Apparently he's realized that what's going on here is a problem. Major air forces--Oscars, probably piloted by veterans of the Phillipines/Malaya campaigns have reinforced Bangkok and were not only waiting for me, but they swept Tavoy airbase. We lost 5 AVG P-40s at Tavoy with no enemies shot down. At Bangkok we lost 4 AVG P-40s and a Hurricane, leaving our Hudson bombers vulnerable--we lost all 5 we sent. We only got 5 Nates in exchange, the Oscars seemed untouchable. The good news is there is no enemy bomber activity, so the adjustment is simple. My bombers stay north in the Raheng area. To the south, my fighters regroup and focus on defense. I'm calling in another Hurricane squadron from Columbo.

At Raheng, our river crossing was a smashing success. The enemy was suppressed by my bombers, the troops got across, and the enemy base was overwhelmed. Casualties were 1388 to 318 favoring me, a great result considering it was a river crossing.

Malaya
It looks like the enemy presence in Singapore is down to 6,000 from a previous high of probably 40,000. Kinky Boots is working. They'll probably save Bangkok, though, which is fine by me.

China
The massive offensive army I moved from Ichang to the central area has reached its objective of Nanchang. He apparently spotted me, as a large army that had been threatening my base at Changsha was spotted moving back to Nanchang on a major highway. They became my priority bomber target yesterday, hoping that by forcing them to scramble for cover they'd slow down. They're not here yet. We attack tomorrow, hopefully that army will be too late.

Molon Labe

08-19-21, 11:57 AM

15 March 1942
Oahu fortifications degraded, 2 divisions land in western Java

Hawaii
Major push by enemy land forces. The battleships are making a huge difference, my troops are badly disrupted and not fighting all that effectively. We're down to level 2 fortifications, which is pretty bad for a base this size. Casualties were 400 to 7000 favoring me but that's going to tip as the fortifications fail.

To the south, I've set up a temporary PBY case with seaplane tenders on a vacant atoll. They snooped Palmyra and Christmas Island, and it appears that they have only token forces remaining there, no aircraft. I wish I had though of this 2 weeks ago. I can take these back, and doing so would compel him to send carriers or his surface fleet to deal with me. I don't think Pearl will last long enough for this to work to pull the BBs away.

Java
The air battles went better today. At Batavia we traded 2 Fulmars for 3 Oscars (all our kills by P-400s). At Surabaya, 2 P-39s for 2 Zeroes and 8 Sallies. But there's always bad news it seems... 2 divisions (Imperial Guards and the 16th, previously in the Philippines) landed at Kalidjati, near Batavia on the west side of the island. That's probably more than what I can handle on the west side. So, the first landing of 2 regiments was meant to cut off reinforcements to the west, this is the main force. For now, I'm going to try to defeat the eastern forces in detail and see if I can establish something solid after that.

Thailand
He's now attacking Tavoy with naval bombers. Interesting choice, aren't those needed around Singapore and the Java Sea? We're still struggling to deal with the elite Oscars. We lost 2 Hurricanes and 2 P-40s while taking down 4 Oscars and 6 Nells. As has been a frequent pattern, the Nells bombed from too high to do significant damage to the Tavoy airbase.

China
Some of those armies did arrive in time to save Nanchang, at least for today. We knocked forts down from level 3 to 2, and casualties were 2000 to 10,000 favoring them, but we still have them outnumbered. I think we'll get it.

New Hebrides
I sent a small surface task force to Utupua to clear out any remaining landing barges, we found a PB and sank it with a torpedo.

Molon Labe

08-22-21, 02:25 PM

16 March 1942

Makassar Strait
He lost a PB on minesweeper duty off Balikpapan to one of the mines it was trying to clear. Kinda sucks that he sacrificed so many real minesweepers at Pearl.

New Hebrides
I sent the heavy cruiser Australia to Luganville to bombard them and sink any supply ships/barges. They found nothing and dealt some light port facility damage. It looks to me like there is only a token force here, based on PBY recon sweeps. It may be time to take it.

Thailand
Oscar sweeps at Tavoy weren't so bad this time, 1 Oscar shot down, no losses even though we were outnumbered 16 to 9. They made up for it at Raheng, shooting down 3 Hurricanes with no losses. My bombers are all getting through to the routed enemy troops from Raheng, though, and they're really effective.

Java
Oscar sweeps at Batavia got a P-40 and a Fulmar with no losses.
At Surabaya, the bombers returned and our forces did well, losing just one Hawk fighter and downing 2 Zeroes and 9 Sallies. The bombers blew up a P-40 on the ground and damaged 2 cruisers under repair.

We attempted an airstrike of our own on the 2nd enemy beachhead at Kalidjati with a force of 14 shiny new B-25s, 6 139WH-3s, and 3 DB-7B (the A-20 Havoc in Dutch service). The training in anti-surface warfare these pilots have been getting since the war started finally paid off, a little, with this group scoring one hit each on two transports. That had already disembarked their troops. Oh well. The air battle resulted in one downed Oscar and one 193WH.

Kalidjati was captured.

Sumatra
Enemy paratroops are landing on Banka, the large island adjacent to Palembang. The land here is suitable for airfield construction, so that might be his goal. I don't think he needs it, though, especially if he's able to take Batavia. Palembang is hard to reach with large-ish ships, maybe he wants to base a flotilla of landing barges here?

Malaya
We counterattacked the remaining enemy forces in Singapore and drove them out. Casualties 2400 to 700 favoring us.

China
We attacked Nanchang again, casualties 1200 to 5000 favoring them, fortifications held. We outnumber them more than 2 to 1, I think we can still get them. I'll keep working them over with bombers, regroup, and attack again when my troops are ready.

Further south, at Chusien, we expelled a smaller Japanese force from the small base there. Casualties 140 to 1300 favoring us.

Molon Labe

08-22-21, 02:43 PM

17 March 1942

Java
Raids at Surabaya cost him a lot of bombers today as my airbase is recovering from the earlier bombardments and we're getting more fighters up--we managed 24 fighters up at our peak. 1 P-39 lost vs 15 Sallies.

Our bombers returned to Kalidjati to bomb land forces, now that we know their ships are already empty. He reinforced his CAP so this was a tougher fight than yesterday. We lost 5 P-40s and 1 P-400 without shooting down any enemy fighters, but the bombers got through and hit their troops pretty hard.

That's really all that happened today, weather was bad over Thailand so no flights flew, all the ground "battles" were just artillery exchanges, subs fired at cargo ships and missed, etc.

18 March 1942

Java
A pair of our destroyers found 2 subs near Batavia and lightly damaged one with depth charges.

Day 3 of our strike at Kalidjati resulted in 2 P-40s, a P-400, and 3 139Ws shot down. But once again, we hurt their troops pretty badly.

Our 2 surviving Swordfish torpedo bombers flew a rare sortie and hit a cargo ship on the Borneo side of the Java Sea.

Timor
I've got a pair of minesweepers working on the minefield at Koepang. I'd rather have them on ASW duty but I have reinforcements to land and I'd rather not lose a portion of them to mines.

To the south, at Darwin, a pair of seaplane-tender-destroyers on ASW where those minesweepers would otherwise be found a sub and caused some light damage with depth charges.

Thailand
Strikes resumed on the retreating 7th Royal Thai Army and we caused significant troops casualties. Enemy fighter resistance was stiffer this time as they shot down 3 Hurricanes and 1 Blenhiem bomber at the cost of 1 Oscar.

Molon Labe

08-22-21, 03:15 PM

19 March 1942
Not much hope left for Oahu, failure of reconnaissance at Luganville

Java
With the KB apparently gone and few air strikes targeting ships, this seemed like a good time to evacuate some ships from Batavia. Specifically, 3 minelayers and a sub tender. I gave the tender a minesweeper as an ASW escort, and one of the CMs had ASW capability, so that was their escort. The same sub attacked both task forces, sinking the sub tender and one of the minelayers. It evaded ASW counterattack both times. It even made a 2rd attack on the stricken minelayer just to make sure it went down, and once again, slipped away.

Two light cruisers bombarded Batavia, causing moderate facility damage, destroying a P-400, and disabling at least 25 more planes.

At Surabaya, they switched back to sweeps instead of bomber raids. We held our ground, 2 P-40s down vs 4 Zeroes, and we actually outnumbered them 28 to 26. Signs they're getting stretched thin?

Our Surabaya-based bombers tried to hit their first landing force at the central base of Soerakarta. Thanks to the constant bombing of the base, we only managed to get 3 139Ws and 2 B-17s in the air for this. 2 Oscars went down trying to get to them. The terrain and our numbers hampered our effectiveness though, it doesn't appear our bombs did any real damage.

Celebes Sea
It's been awhile since my subs did anything, so I was happy that a Dutch sub scored a hit on a cargo ship here today. But it wasn't that badly damaged, the ship slipped away and will be repaired some day.

Thailand
Another ****ty day for AVG-1 with 3 P-40s shot down by Oscars over Tavoy and no kills by the Adam&Eves. Hurricanes retaliated and got 5 Oscars with just 1 Hurricane shot down. Come on, Pappy, show the boys how it's done before it's your ass shot down!

Near Rahang, 4 Oscars got themselves shot down to get 1 Blenheim. And once again, we hit their disorganized, retreating troops hard.
Our northern group of troops has captured Uttaradit, a small base adjacent to Raheng, through which their supply line to the northwest runs. This will cut off any supply to their westernmost base Chaing Mai, which is not being targeted by this operation. It's also going to cut off supply to any armies he might have advancing into Burma that I don't know about yet, which at this point is pretty unlikely but I never stopped worrying about it.

New Hebrides
We started landing troops at Luganville, and found 2 enemy marine groups waiting for us. So much for a token force. So even though I picked this fight, it looks like we're significantly outnumbered. As some consolation, these enemy marines are not at full strength, they're probably low on supply, and I've been bombing them daily for at least a week so their morale probably sucks. New rules: don't rely on PBY pilots that aren't trained in recon to give accurate reports, and always land with at least a regiment even if it doesn't look like there's a lot there. Not like I'm going to be doing a lot of amphibious ops this early anyway.

Hawaii
Enemy troops on Oahu made another push, dropping our fortifications down to level 1. That basically means we have a few sandbag-protected machine gun nests, the combat engineers have brought down anything bigger. This fight looks hopeless, they could overrun the base with one more push. Casualties were 3700 to 770 favoring us, but again, those numbers will get worse with each decrease in fortifications. And an overrun will mean a mass surrender.

Molon Labe

08-24-21, 08:12 AM

20 March 1942

Hawaii
The four battleships are back and pounding my troops again. I wish I could tell how many Betties they're holding in reserve in case ships approach.

Java
Zeroes swept Surabaya, shooting down 3 P-40s with no losses.

The Imperial Guards Division has moved against my local stronghold at Bandoeng. This makes me happy as the terrain is favorable and it's better fortified than Batavia. My bombers are now trying to hit them here instead of the beachhead. And their bombers are trying to get to my troops here too. An Oscar, a P-39, a Fulmar, and 2 139W bombers were lost in our competing raids. We caused only light casualties; our raids are back up to 15 planes but not as strong as before Batavia's airbase got shelled.

In the east, our forces began to clash in Soerakarta, a small base that had actually already fallen to the enemy, we're trying to retake it to degrade their local forces before they can reorganize. We lost 2 139WH bombers and a P-39 trying to support our troops here, without causing significant damage on the ground. Our troops attacked and demolished the enemy fortifications, so we'll probably get them soon.

Thailand
Oscars swept Tavoy airbase but only got four of their own shot down. The AVG only managed to get 1 plane up, that's how bad their losses have been.

Oscars also tried to intercept the bombers of the northern force, but ended up just getting one shot down as we continued to wear down the Thai armies.

Malaya
My lack of attention allowed my bombers to end up on AI-discretion for targeting, and they went all the way north to Kota Bahru. Fortunately there were no fighters there. I lost one Hudson to flak. But, that was helpful as a recon flight. It really looks like except for Johore Bahru, the whole peninsula has been vacated. I may have options to start retaking it.

Philippines
Cebu was captured today, this was the US's largest base in the central islands. It had been mostly evacuated. All that's left is the southernmost island now, we have a troop concentration at Cagayan, but they're already out of supplies and I have no hope of reaching them.

China
We attacked at Nanchang again, reducing the enemy fortifications to level 1, casualties 5600 to 1500 favoring them. We still outnumber them better than 2-to-1. We're going to take this base, and it's going to hurt them.

Molon Labe

08-24-21, 08:37 AM

21 March 1941
Oahu turns away a shock attack

Hawaii
4 BB bombarding again. He attempted a shock attack but we held on, casualties 5300 to 650 favoring us. Our numbers looked even this turn, 40k on each side. That can't be right, is he holding troops in reserve?

Java
He bombarded Batavia again, but it cost him this time. A destroyer hit a mine and the heavy cruiser Atago hit two. A battleship and two heavy cruisers proceeded, causing major facility damage and disabling at least 60 planes. I really need to look into other places for these planes for awhile.

Back at his main force's beachhead, a destroyer hit another mine.

With Batavia airbase essentially disabled, the strikes on Bandoeng were all his. We did manage to get 5 fighters up on CAP, losing 1 P-40 and shooting down 2 Lillies. Their strike was ineffective.

On the eastern side, our bombers continued to hit their ground forces but met stiff resistance by Zeroes. We took heavy losses, 1 P-40, 2 L212 bombers, and 5 139WH-3 bombers. We only got 1 Zero (by a B-17s defensive guns) and failed to do significant damage on the ground.

New Hebrides
His marines tried to counterattack my underwhelming force ashore at Luganville, but failed to push them off the beach. They had the numbers to do it, these troops must be really worn down.

Molon Labe

08-24-21, 07:37 PM

22 March 1942
Eastern group of IJA forces in Java defeated

Java
He took advantage of Batavia being disabled again and hit Bandoeng. I managed to get 2 Lillies but that left 22 getting through to bomb my troops. Fortunately the terrain is unfavorable to bombing and casualties were light. His troops attacked but were repulsed, casualties 120 to 350 favoring us.

At Soerakarta, we launched a shock attack on the 148th regiment and drove it out, casualties 750 to 270 favoring us. This effectively marks the defeat of their eastern group. I'm going to try to secure this half of the island and see if I can relieve the western half. As long as he's stalled in Bandoeng I have a chance.
---
Not much else to say about this turn. My bombers flew unopposed over Luganville and in northern Thailand. A sub spotted a tanker convoy in the Celebes sea but missed its torpedo shot.

23 March 1942
Nanchang liberated

Java
A task force of 2 cruisers and 12 destroyers intercepted a 2-DD ASW task force of mine near Batavia and sank both.

We attempted an attack on enemy task forces using light bombers and torpedo bombers. There were Oscars protecting their ships.. We lost 2 Vildebeests and 4 P-40s. We got only one Oscar. A few planes got through but no one got any hits.

Thailand
An enemy force met my southern team. It includes the 5th Division, last known to be in Singapore. They attacked and we held them off, suffering 550 casualties to their 950. But they're clearly the superior force here. I'm going to pull back to the mountains and switch my bombing target to these guys. I might not be able to take Bangkok from the 5th Division, but they can't take Singapore while they're busy up here, which was always the most important strategic objective.

-----
We also lost a B-17 near Surabaya attacking a small detatchment, and three 139WH bombers and a Hurricane at Johore Barhu, while attempting strikes.

Borneo
The enemy lost a TB to a mine at Tarakan. So sad he doesn't have enough minesweepers to keep up.

New Hebrides
We had a close call as 4 Betties from (I assume) Guadalcanal attacked my landing forces. But just 4. And they missed. Lesson learned, these ships will have a long-range CAP from Efate starting tomorrow. Our land forces are now equal strength as my reinforcements are landing. I'll order an attack for tomorrow.

China
Nanchang is ours! The enemy is down 10,800 troops. Sadly we were hurt rather badly to with 6100 casualties. But this is a big get for us. After mopping up some stray enemy units I might have to use this force to tip the balance further east at Chusein, where we both have thousands up troops locked up in a stalemate. At the very least, I should be able to move fighters in and splash the bombers have have been beating the hell out of my troops there.

Molon Labe

08-27-21, 10:15 AM

24 March 1942

Western Australia
For the first time since the war began, Japanese submarines are prowling the Indian Ocean shipping lanes. We lost a cargo ship to a sub attack near Perth. I've moved ASW aircraft to Perth and will be consolidating convoys in response.

South China Sea
USS Sailfish may be the unluckiest sub in the fleet. It pressed a surface attack against a light cargo ship, firing and reloading torpedoes over and over. It scored a total of 7 hits against it. All duds. The sub managed to set the ship on fire with its deck gun before it disengaged.

Java
Surabaya suffered another naval bombardment by two heavy cruisers, disabling at least 12 planes. We attempted an airstrike on part of their eastern prong, costing a P-40 and causing light enemy casualties on the ground.

In the west, an enemy air raid on Bandoeng resulted in 9 Lillies shot down with a loss of 1 Hurricane and 1 P-40. We also swept their beachhead with Hurricanes, finding a swarm of 50 enemy fighters there. We shot down 6 Zeroes at the cost of 3 Hurricanes. Unfortunately, the enemy forces at Bandoeng were able to break through my lines, and with it my best hope for turning this campaign into a quagmire for him. My troops retreated to Tilapjap.

I'm going to order my reinforcements landing in Koepang to pack up again and put them in eastern Java. With any luck I'll be able to consolidate them with my Surabaya forces before the enemy finishes the western half and turns east.

Solomons and New Hebrides
S-23 damaged a cargo ship with a torpedo hit in the eastern Solomons. 9 Betties attempted an attack on my naval forces near Luganville, P-39s tried to intercept but only shot 2 down. The Betties missed. My marines attacked the enemy land forces but were turned away. It looks like even with the supporting regiment I'm not going to have enough here, or at least, it's going to be air and naval supporting fires that earns my troops a breakthrough. At the moment I have a squadron of B-26s and Havoc bombers hitting them daily. I'll try to add some B-17s to that soon.

Thailand
Nates tried to sweep Tavoy. Nates! He must be getting stretched thin on Oscars. We shot down 1. Our bombers hit the 5th division hard, causing nearly 200 casualties on the ground; we lost 1 Hudson to flak. Maybe it make a difference: the 5th Division attacked our southern group, but failed to achieve a breakthrough despite having superior numbers. Casualties were 1150 to 640 favoring us.

Celebes Sea
The Dutch sub O-21 scored two hits on a cargo ship, almost certainly sinking it.

Molon Labe

08-27-21, 11:34 AM

25 March 1942

Ceram Sea
The Dutch sub KXII torpedoed a troop-carrying cargo ship, causing severe damage. The ship might sink before it makes ports. Troops moving through this area would probably be bound for smaller islands in the Banda Sea.

Java
A battleship and two heavy cruisers shelled Batavia, disabling over 60 aircraft and destroying a minelayer in port.

Our bombers attacked their eastern troops with a loss of 3 139-WH bomers, 2 P-40s, and a Hurricane. The bombers caused significant enemy troop casualties.

We lost a B-26 bombing Raheng as the enemy had established a CAP to protect its troops there.

New Hebrides
I've moved additional fighters to Efate to intercept the Betties trying to intervene in Luganville. A submarine attempted an attack on the cruiser Concord (also the target of the Betties yesterday) but was detected and depth charged.

Thailand
Nates swept Tavoy again. Why bother? 6 were shot down with no losses on our side. Our bombers hitting the 5th Division hit firm resistance from Nates, Oscars, and flak. Escorting Hurricanes shot down 3 Nates and an Oscar, two of our bombers were lost to flak. Our bombers' performance was lackluster when they got on target compared to previous raids. I really have to wonder if the bombers have been the difference makers here, because today the 5th Division attacked again and pushed our troops back towards Tavoy. We took over 1400 casualties, and my southern prong is now for all practical purposes combat ineffective. I'm going to try to form a defensive line in the mountains and let the northern prong work its way south to maintain a credible threat against Bangkok.

China
We're starting to get AVG P-40s over Chusien, but they don't have enough playtime that far out to reliably intercept anything. A group of two managed to move in on an enemy air raid: 52 Nates and 40 Ann/Sonia light bombers. They splashed a Nate and RTBd.

I had 3 Hudson bombers take a break from bombing troop concentrations and head south to Hong Kong. They found the battleship Hyuga under repair there and hit it with a 250-pounder.

Molon Labe

08-27-21, 01:18 PM

26 March 1942
Surge coming? CV aircraft over Java, no carriers detected. Possible CV in Solomons. Luganville Betties now escorted by Zeroes

Malaya
A cruiser and destroyer patrolled near Singapore and sank 2 small ASW craft. Curious move--he needs the cruisers to hit my Java airfields and he's risking attack by light bombers. Is he trying to get subs to Rangoon?

We attacked Johore Barhu with our Singapore bombers. It was a bit of a ___-show, Oscars got 5 Hurricanes total. We managed 3 kills of our own, but damage to the airbase was only light. Not worth it.

New Hebrides and Solomons
The Betties here are now being escorted by Zeroes. This is very concerning. We lost 3 P-39s to the escorts and shot down only 1 Zero, no Betties. They didn't score any hits but we definitely need to get the ships away from Luganville.

Scouts claim to have spotted a single carrier in the Solomons. I would have expected the whole KB to head here after he spotted all 3 of my (then) active carriers in this area. If it's not the KB it's expect this is actually just a seaplane carrier. In any case, if it is a carrier, this makes the situation in Luganville all the more urgent. I'm running out of time for my marines to win this fight.

My troops at Luganville attacked but were held off. Maybe if I tried a more aggressive shock attack instead of a deliberate attack?

Java
We failed to duplicate the success of yesterdays raids outside of Surabaya. The air battle claimed an Oscar, a P-40 and two of our medium bombers. Intel claims that some of the Zeroes here were from the Hiryu, and they came from the south rather than from the north or east where they have known airbases. Did he detach a carrier to try to pursue the Hermes? Well, it looks like he's coming back into the Java Sea if he did.

I forgot to cancel the bomber raids on Raheng, which cost me 2 B-26s and 3 Hudsons. One of the B-26s shot down a Zero.

Borneo
HMS Trusty laid more mines at Balikpapan and then tried to attack a replenishment task force. It missed and sustained light damage from the following depth charge attack.

China
The enemy army near Nanchang is a whole division. My attack with 2 Corps wasn't enough and I took 2000 casualties for trying. I can either send my main force or leave them. Hmmm.

Molon Labe

09-02-21, 08:19 AM

27 March 1942
Disaster at Timor--KB hits troop transports

Borneo
An enemy cargo ship hit a mine at Balikpapan. Because it's in a port space it will probably survive.

Celebes Sea
Dutch sub KXV torpedoed and likely sank a loaded medium tanker in the Celebes Sea. It's slightly north of where I expected the lane to be so I'll be adjusting my subs' patrol areas here.

Malaya
Apparently completely unafraid of my bombers, the cruiser and destroyer stuck around Singapore and sank another 2 ASW patrol boats.

New Hebrides
I'm still disembarking troops and supplies at Luganville. At least 2 enemy subs are there now but our destroyers are holding them off.

The scale of enemy air attacks increased, and it would cost us. Our fighters began causing enemy losses but the bombers were still getting through. 6 Zeroes and 4 Nells were shot down for a loss of 2 P-40s and a P-39. The bombers hit USS Concord twice and sank her (light cruiser), along with a troop transport (fortunately an empty one).

Sumatra
19 Oscars swept Palembang, shooting down 3 Buffalos and a P-40 with no losses. Yes, I still have a few squadrons flying Buffalos.

Thailand
Our bombers targeted the 5th Division in the south. We traded 3 Blenheims for 3 Oscars and 3 Nates and about 200 enemy soldiers.

Timor
I'm not sure if my decision to try to load the troops landing here back up made this happen because the disembarking was painfully slow, but it might have. But the KB showed up here and tore that task force to pieces. (2nd instance of each ship is the 2nd wave)
xAP Empress ' Asia, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires
xAP Empress ' Australia, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
xAP Empress ' Australia, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Aquitania, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
xAP Aquitania, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAP Wakefield, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAP Wakefield, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Tjerk Hiddes
DD Tjerk Hiddes, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAP West Point, Bomb hits 4, on fire
xAP West Point, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Thanet
xAP Duchess of Bedford, Bomb hits 2, on fire
xAP Duchess of Bedford, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAP Empress ' Scotland, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
xAP Empress ' Scotland, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

Troop casualties were probably around 3000 and was concentrated in one of the 2 brigades being transported. It will probably be a long time before that brigade can be made useful again. These transports were also high value. Large and fast, these would have been better used to land troops at a nearby port than for amphibious ops in a contested area.

Molon Labe

09-02-21, 01:29 PM

28 March 1942

Timor
The enemy detached 3 destroyers and sent them into port at Koepang to finish off the Duchess of Bedford, the only surviving transport. The loss of that ship resulted in another 1100 casualties to our ground forces. The damaged destroyer Tjerk Hiddes attempted to clear the area but was finished off by a submarine.

The battleship Kirishima and 3 destroyers followed up to shell Koepang, disabling at least 20 planes, and underscoring a serious problem at this base: when I ordered the re-embarking of the partially disembarked troops, the ships also started taking supply from the base. Between that and the damage being dealt to the base, the supply here is depleted, and my planes won't be flying, including the light bombers that should be performing low level attacks against these ships shelling the base.

Java
An enemy heavy cruiser and destroyer hit mines attempting to shell Surabaya. The destroyer aborted its mission, but the cruiser and two others pushed on and shelled the base, disabling over 50 planes and damaging a destroyer under repair in port.

The battleship Haruna and 3 heavy cruisers shelled Batavia, disabling at least 30 planes.

The damage to airbases reduced the size of our raids. We lost a P-40 and a B-25 near Surabaya without inflicting significant damage on the ground. An attempted light bomber run on enemy ships at Tjepoe resulted in 1 Oscar shot down but no hits on anything, despite a the mine-damaged destroyer being targeted.

In a case of my failing to range-limit my bombers, I lost 4 139W bombers attempting to attack a tanker at Singkawang, which had a CAP and was beyond the reach of my own fighters. 2 bombers made it to the tanker but missed.

Thailand
Oscars attempted to sweep Tavoy but we beat them back. 6 Oscars shot down for a loss of 1 Hurricane and 1 P-40.

New Hebrides
The enemy bombers pursued my retreating ships from Luganville to Efate. We got 2 Betties and 8 Kates.

I ordered my troops to perform a shock attack on Luganville, hoping I could overcome their defenses before this operation becomes unrecoverable. They were pushed back with 275 casualties, only inflicting 12 on the enemy.

Molon Labe

09-02-21, 06:13 PM

29 March 1942
Mines everywhere!

Thailand and Burma
Remember my theory that they were trying to open the Strait of Malacca to submarines? A sub just hit a mine at Rangoon, probably sank.

Air raids over Pisanuloke (adjacent to Raheng airbase) resulted in an Oscar and a Hurricane going down, with our bombers inflicting moderate casualties. Our bombers are suddenly less effective here, not sure why.

Java
The IJN is now shelling our troops trying to take their eastern beachhead. Not good. We have the numbers, but if we're constantly bombed and shelled we might fail to take the hex. An transport in an enemy task force landing reinforcements hit a mine, suffering troop casualties, but not enough to bring the ship down. A torpedo boat in another task force hit a mine here as well, almost certainly sinking.

On the west side of the island, we had a rare successful ASUW attack as 3 Fulmars hit an AKL at low level, scoring 4 gun burst hits and 3 bomb hits, sinking it. Then they rearmed and went back, badly damaging a large cargo ship with 3 bomb hits.

Japan
USS Tautog sank a cargo ship between Kyushu and Okinawa with 2 torpedo hits.
USS Triton hit a mine near Tokyo, it seems the sub was crossing through the shallow water hexes south of Tokyo bay. I set their patrol zones to avoid these areas so I'm not sure what happened here. The sub is crippled and making less than 5 knots towards home. I am not hopeful.

New Hebrides
The enemy continued their attacks on Efate, costing them 3 Nells and 4 Betties as they exceeded the ability of their escorting Zeroes to provide support. But they also had at least one carrier launch a raid, which was escorted and managed to avoid our fighters in any case:

xAP Macdhui, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAP Macdhui, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage (2nd wave)
CL Perth, Bomb hits 3, on fire
CL Perth, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage (2nd wave)
xAP Kota Gede, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DM Pruitt
xAP Kota Radja, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
xAP Kota Radja, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage (2nd wave)
xAK Red Jacket, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk (by Nells)
xAP Macdhui, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage

Our bombers got through and hit their troops pretty good without any fighters intercepting. They're landing supplies and reinforcements though, so it seems unlikely I can wear them down enough with bombers to pull a win out of this.

Timor
The KB bombed Koepang airbase, not that it matters much with the base out of supply. About 60 aircraft were disabled.

China
The LR CAP over Chusien is finally starting to pay off. AVG P-40s shot down 3 light bombers with no losses. These are just hit-and-run attacks really, this was 3 P-40s vs 46 nates and 27 light bombers. Superior airspeed is all that stops this from going badly for me.

Molon Labe

09-03-21, 01:06 PM

30 March 1942
Oahu on borrowed time

Java
At the eastern beachhead of Tjepoe, we had some success interdicting bombers, getting 3 Sallies and a Lily along with 5 Zeroes and 2 Oscars. We lost 3 fighters. The bombers are still getting through, though, and between the bombing raids and naval bombardment, I am concerned my armies here could become combat ineffective.

We attempted raids against the enemy ships attacking Tjepoe, costing us our last 2 Swordfish torpedo bombers on Java along with 3 Falcon light bombers and 4 fighters. We didn't score any hits as most of the bombers aborted due to the amount of resistance.

Enemy armies cleared by forces out of a hex adjacent to Surabaya, casualties 155 to 514 favoring them. We attacked in Tjepoe, and despite the enemy bombardments we managed to bring their forts down to 0. Casualties even at 375 each side.

Makassar Strait
KVIII torpedoed a cargo ship, likely sinking it.

Celebes Sea
S-36 performed surface attack in the "tanker lane" against a cargo ship, scoring gun hits and a torpedo hit and likely sinking it.

Thailand
Air battles near Raheng claimed 2 fighters on each side, we also lost a Hudson to flak. Again, damage to enemy ground forces done by our bombers was light compared to prior turns. Our troops below attacked and have taken Pisanuloke, inflicting 900 casualties to our 83 in the process. This concludes the northern prong of Operation Kinky Boots. My armies will rest for a day and then head south to threaten Bangkok, possibly surround it and cut it off.

New Hebrides
Remarkably little happened here, which after the last two turns is worth reporting on. We bombed Luganville with no resistance and didn't suffer any enemy raids. I still think the enemy CVBG is here. Oh, and intel reports one of the CVLs we thought was sunk is still in service--I think it was the Zuiho. I doubt it's here now, but maybe in another month or two.

Hawaii
The supply situation in Oahu is becoming critical. I have a couple plans to relieve the pressure, but I'm just not sure I have the time to make them work.

EDIT:
Japan: USS Triton was finished off by a Japanese ASW aircraft that caught the crippled boat on the surface. The Triton is the first sub I've lost at sea, the only other two to be sunk were in port.

Molon Labe

09-03-21, 01:35 PM

31 March 1942

New Hebrides
Enemy subs have taken position off Noumea, my largest active forward base with Pearl shut down. We got a few hits on one in the shallows but not enough to sink it. The same sub appeared later to torpedo a cargo ship and was depth charged again, I still don't think we got it. The cargo ship survived and is being repaired in port.

Our bombers attacked transports at Luganville but the escorting fighters took a beating, 7 P-40s when down along with an A-20 bomber. We had no kills of our own.

Sumatra
An enemy destroyer squadron made its way up the channel to Palembang. They ran into the KIX and KXII on coastal patrol duty and depth charged them both for moderate damage. They then proceeded to the port and shelled it, sinking a minesweeper which one DD hit a defensive mine.

Japan
Setting a new record for bad luck, USS Swordfish attacked a cargo ship on the surface, firing multiple torpedo salvoes, scoring 8 hits--none of which detonated. The cargo ship was left on fire from gun hits as Swordfish returns to base in shame and frustration.

Java
We lost 3 Hurricanes trying to protect our forces that retreated to Tjilapjap. Raids on enemy units near Surabaya cost us 3 fighters and 5 bombers without dealing much damage, we only took down 2 Zeroes with us.

Our ground forces at Tjepoe took an absolute beating by the Kirishima and her escorts, as well as waves of bombers that we just don't have enough fighters to stop. I had ordered by troops to attack today, and they did, but the disruption caused by the bombardments was too much and we failed to take the base, taking 1038 casualties in the attempt. We came so close to taking this beachhead, but our forces are now combat ineffective due to severe disruption, and it's going to stay that way if he can keep up the naval bombardments.

Bangkok
With the north secure, I refocused my bombers on the Bangkok area, which led to a small disaster as our fighters failed to link up with the bombers, many arriving unescorted. We lost 8 Hudsons and 4 Blenhiems with no enemy fighters shot down. This will degrade our offensive ability going forward as we just don't have a lot of replacements right now.

Hawaii
3 of the 4 BB were back, supporting what appears to have been a resupply landing, although it looks like some troops came ashore too--probably replacement combat engineers. We shot up 4 transports pretty good but I'm sure they served their purpose.

China
I threw more troops at the enemy army (the 104th Division) outside Nanchang and routed them. Casualties 4093 to 1400. I think I'll chase these guys for awhile.

Molon Labe

09-03-21, 02:45 PM

1 April 1942
CV Junyo likely operating near Luganviile

Borneo
The enemy lost a PB to a mine at Tarakan. I think mines are my new PT boats in terms of asymmetric losses.

Thailand and Burma
Tavoy airbase was bombarded from the sea; a heavy cruiser and a destroyer. They disabled 8 aircraft and destroyed 1, so that wasn't too bad, but it does mean I need to guard this sea lane. I'll be probing the area to figure out if the Betties aren't looking here.

We lost 7 more Blenheims trying to attack troops near Bangkok, our escorts did link up with the bombers this time, they just didn't do a very good job. Probably didn't help that we had 9 less planes from Tavoy available.

Java
Extensive air battles over Tjepoe resulted in 2 enemy fighters and 3 bombers shot down with a loss of 4 of our fighters. The bombers getting through are doing a good job keeping our troops disrupted--too much so to order an attack right now.

Sweeps over Tjilapjap went our way, 3 attacking Oscars down for a loss of 1 P-40.

South of Java, the KB went commerce raiding and found a tanker convoy returning to Colombo from Perth. They sank 3 of 4 tankers, damaging the other and its ASW escort.

New Hebrides
An attempted attack on the enemy CVBG was routed by the CAP, which ws 26 Zeroes strong. Our strike was 4 Hudsons and 3 Havocs escorted by 6 P-39s and 5 P-40s. We shot down only 1 Zero and lost 4 fighters and 6 bombers, the only surviving bomber aborted before reaching a target.

Intel reports the enemy carriers are the Kaga and Junyo. Apparently he accelerated production on the Junyo and got her early. Which probably also means the Hiyo will be showing up soon.
---------------------
Strategic picture:

The loss of the Australian troop convoy put an exclamation point on a really bad month for me. The Java campaign is going poorly, although if I'd succeeded in getting those Australians onto Java, or manged to seize the eastern beachhead, it could have become a quagmire for him. On the other hand, Operation Kinky Boots took the pressure off Singapore and it looks like the Malayan campaign will be on hold until Hawaii falls. I've also landed quite a bit of reinforcements on Sumatra, so that will be a harder nut to crack for him than Java is turning out to be.

My carriers have been quiet since Java Sea, partly because of the crazy distance they have to travel to get anywhere with CENTPAC in the enemy's hands. All of my US carriers are now due for upgrades, the Lexington class's being particularly significant in terms of upgraded AA. I considered docking the Lexington in Sydney for repairs and upgrades, but ruled it out due to the lack of sufficient airpower to protect it there. Also the repair yard just isn't that big. In any case, the Lex will probably put in for upgrades in early April and I'll try to cycle my other carriers through after. All my subs are now due to receive radars, so I'll be rolling through those on a steady basis. Indomitable will be repaired in 3 more weeks and the CV Formidable is in theatre and ready for action.

US Air force fighter production is not keeping pace with losses, but I think his are worse. So I can keep sending in replacements as long as I'm not losing them to naval bombardments, that needs to stop. Wildcat production is much higher than it used to be; short of any major losses I should be OK there. I'm not making SBDs fast enough though. If I lose dive bombers it will be difficult to get back to full strength. Torpedo bomber production is low, but they all suck anyways until the Avengers arrive in a month. Dutch production is still crappy, UK production is ticking up, we're starting to see Martlets (Wildcats) arriving for the carriers and Mohawks to outfit some badly needed training squadrons.

The fuel situation in Australia has stabilized thanks mostly to arrivals in Perth, but the loss of that tanker convoy is going to hurt there. My chain of bases in SouthPAC is doing OK, the airfields are built up enough to support bombers, supply is good, defenses are good, and fuel has been adequate. These bases are the reason I have as many fighters as I do in Java.

I'm still looking for signs that his fuel situation is deteriorating, but he's got the KB operating in the Indian Ocean south of Java, which sure doesn't look like he's afraid of running out of fuel. That, plus the various ships running riot all of the Java Sea right now and sustained operations in Hawaii--he seems to be doing OK. I'm disappointed my subs have only killed one tanker so far and that I don't even seem to be finding them. There are only 3 bases for him to pull fuel from right now and I'm constantly mining them and patrolling for tankers, it should pay off at some point, I hope.

Molon Labe

09-03-21, 04:21 PM

2 April 1942
CV Kaga VID by Catalina near Efate

Japan
USS Tautog torpedoed and sank an unescorted cargo ship off Kyushu. It actually attacked it twice, either missing or dud-ing the first time, breaking off, and setting up a 2nd attack. It still surprises me that ships coming through here often don't have escorts.

New Hebrides
A surface task force of 2 cruisers, 2 destroyers, and a torpedo boat shelled Efate air base, disabling 37 planes. It's aggravating that my bombers are just letting this happen. I had 3 Vindicator dive bombers attack a cargo ship and miss, and I've taken a P-39 squadron off orders to strafe and back to fighter duty because they just weren't finding anything. Shame, that 37mm cannon in the nose would probably shred anything up to light cruiser.

We shot down a Betty and a Nate trying to attack Luganville. Their army also tried to throw ours off the beach, but we held them off, just barely. Our bombers are disrupting them pretty badly, even if they have been reinforced.

A Catalina confirmed the Kaga was here and even claims to have hit it with a bomb. Sure you did, sparky.

I'm at a loss to understand why he's leaving two carriers here when he hasn't seen mine in weeks, and I can attack with as many as four of them for all he knows.

Thailand
I've assembled a CVBG around Formidable and a surface combat TF to try to catch anyone else that wants to bombard Tavoy. My Tavoy fighters swept Bangkok as I rested my decimated bombers--that didn't go well either--5 P-40s shot down by Oscars and only 2 Nate kills in exchange.

Java
An air battle over Tjilatjap cost us 2 Hurricanes and a P-400 with nothing to show for it. Our troops fought off an enemy land attack, forts level 3 and holding.

At Tjepoe, we traded 2 fighters for 2 Oscars. My land forces there were too disrupted to attack again. The bombers hit them hard as well as the BB Haruna with 3 heavy cruisers and 4 DDs.

The KB finished off the surviving tanker and escort from yesterday.

We attempted an attack on the BB Haruna with 5 Falcon light bombers, but they all missed.

https://i.ibb.co/0f0vwv8/1942-April-2-java.png

Molon Labe

09-04-21, 01:30 PM

3 April 1942
Tjilapjap falls

Java
The BB Haruna and 3 CA's bombarded my troops at Tjepoe. It looks like he's got a chainsaw system set up where one BB is heading back to port to rearm while the other is advancing. Presumably, that port is Balikpapan but I haven't confirmed that yet. But, my troops have recovered enough that I'm willing to attempt another attack. We'll see how that goes tomorrow.

Scouts report a convoy of 7 ships, mostly tankers, in the eastern Java Sea. I'm going to call those oilers instead of tankers--that's the KB's replenishment group. I've diverted a sub from it's patrol area to try to intercept them if they try to go south of Java to meet up with the KB.

Enemy air activity was relatively low, there were a few sweeps over Tjilatjap and my bombers hit Tjepoe mostly unopposed. We lost 2 fighters over Tjilatjap while splashing one Zero, and got three unescorted Sallies over Tjepoe while trading an Oscar for a P-40 in another sortie there. Falcon bombers flew two sorties against enemy ships but again failed to hit anything, one was shot down by AA.

In spite of the forts holding at Tjilapjap, the enemy armies broke through and took the base. We had two fighter squadrons and a recon squadron based there when it was taken.

Also captured was Merak, which is the base along the western channel into the Indian Ocean.

Hawaii/CENTPAC
He's actually laid off of Pearl/Hickam that I had 4 planes in the air on CAP today and splashed a few bombers. I'm also about to commence an operation against Christmas Island and Palmyra. I've been reconning both islands aggressively to try to find enemy forces there, but haven't. Not wanting a repeat of Luganville, I'm also sending a surface TF in to bombard as sort of a recon-in-force. Hopefully this will draw some heat off of Pearl, but if he allows me to take these unopposed, at least it opens up my sea lanes significantly.

New Hebrides
He's attacking our marines on the beach again, I'm a little surprised they haven't surrendered at this point. Apparently they want to fight to the last man. We lost two P-39s trying to stop their bombers from hitting our troops at Luganville. The carriers are still there, they're actually hanging out at the small atoll I've been flying Catalina's out of, supported by two tenders. I'm pulling the Catalinas back to Efate, the tenders will stay put for now, no sense putting them out at sea where they'll be spotted and sunk easily.

China
We fought and routed the 104th Division near Nanchang once again (5000 enemy casualties to 660 ROC). I'm going to chase it one more time, but it's more of a feint now, I just want to move this offensive army further east.

Most of my deployments in China have been to try to meet an offensive surge and stall it, but no such offensive ever really materialized. So it may be time to emulate the success of Kinky Boots and do something like that here. I've been training my bomber pilots to do recon long enough for them to have proficiency, so I'm going to lay off bombing raids for a few days and focus on figuring out his force levels in a few areas where I might have enough troops to go on the offensive.

Molon Labe

09-05-21, 11:47 AM

4 April 1942
Contact Lost with Kaga & Junyo just as Enterprise and Saratoga arrive

West Australia
A Wirraway on ASW patrol bombed an enemy sub off Perth.

New Hebrides
There is now a concentration of submarines off Noumea. I have 2 corvettes and 2 destroyers out looking for them, with a squadron of Wirraways supporting. The Wirraways claimed to hit 2 of them today, and one of the destroyers slightly damaged one with a depth charge attack.

Air losses over Luganville were 2 P-39s and 3 P-40s; SBDs left over from the Yorktown rebased to here and attempted to hit transports but missed.

I've moved the Enterprise and Saratoga back here after having them clear datum to avoid a chance of them being ambushed by the KB. But with the KB at Java and two carriers here--one of them 2nd rate--I was trying to ambush them. But my scouts failed to find them today. I know they're still here, their Zeroes are defending Luganville. My CVBG hasn't been detected yet, so I'm just going to be patient for another day, maybe they'll turn up.

Japan
USS Plunger torpedoed a cargo ship southeast of Tokyo.

Hawaii and CENTPAC
3 BB bombarding Pearl today.

I did some bombarding of my own with 2 cruisers at Christmas Island. This recon-in-force did not detect any enemy troops concentrations. Catalinas also still haven't found anything. The landing will be tomorrow.

Java
My attack on Tjepoe failed--it's a lot more than 2 regiments there now. Probably triple that. I'm going to try to pull these troops back. This means both my "draw him to a defensive bastion" strategy in the west and my "hit him where he's overextended" strategy in the east both failed. Java is pretty much doomed at this point, all I can do now is try to make him pay for every mile he seizes, Surabaya in particular. For what it's worth, our bombers are still getting through at Tjepoe and hitting their troops in open terrain, so this is costing them something. Air losses over Tjepoe were 2 P-39s and a Falcon for 3 Oscars. At Djokarta we traded a Sally for a P-39. The KB raided Batavia, shooting down 3 Buffalo and a Hurricane with no losses and inflicting significant facility damage with its bombers.

Molon Labe

09-05-21, 12:21 PM

5 April 1942
Another recon failure as a tank regiment greets our Christmas Island landing, carrier battle in New Hebrides fails to materialize

New Hebrides
https://i.ibb.co/ZMpB1mQ/1942-April-5-New-Hebrides.png
Wirraways reported two more hits on the subs in the area. I think we're up to 7.

The enemy carriers have fallen back to a defensive position closer to the Solomons. When they were near Luganville to attack Efate, they were beyond the torpedo-carrying range of Guadalcanal's Betties, and beyond the range of the land-based Zeroes to escort them. But picking a fight with that CVBG now would mean a fully-armed and escorted Betty counterattack along with whatever the carriers send out. No thank you.

I have S-boats all over the place here, so I'm going to try to surround the enemy CVBG and see if I get lucky.

Both sides bombed the other's troops on Luganville. The offsetting raids resulted with 7 US fighters down plus 3 Hudson bombers, and 3 Zeroes, 2 Betties, a Nell, and 3 Kates.

My troops at Luganville report they are surrounded, so tomorrow is probably going to be it for them. So that's an infantry regiment plus a base force and USMC aviation support group wasted.

Java
Enemy ground forces attacked mine at Tjepoe, routing my weakened forces. A tender that was ejected from Tjilatjap when it was captured was intercepted and sunk by an enemy submarine.

To the east, a small enemy sub hit two mines at Koepang and sank.

Air battles over Tjepoe throughout the day resulted in 5 Oscars, a Sally, and a Lily down for them, and 3 P-40s, a Hurricane, and 2 P-39s down for us. A Falcon was also shot down by Oscars trying to attack transports offshore. The KB raided Batavia again, shooting down a defending Buffalo and 2 Hurricanes without taking losses, and again hitting the base with its bombers--but that cost him 4+ Vals to AA. I've evacuated most of my planes from there at this point so I'm not too worried about it.

Hawaii and CENTPAC
We landed a marine regiment, an army battalion, plus base forces on what should have been a mostly empty base at Christmas Island, but ran into a regiment of tanks there. We took heavy casualties landing, but I think we can overcome this. We definitely came more prepared than last time, and supporting naval gunfire disrupted the enemy pretty badly. We'll need a day to secure the beachhead after a disruptive landing and then we can try to press and see what happens.

Bismark Sea
USS Grayback torpedoed an enemy cargo ship approaching Rabaul, probably a supply run.

Molon Labe

09-07-21, 09:50 AM

6 April 1942

CENTPAC
Christmas Island was a midget sub base. Don't ask me why. But he sortied a bunch of them from harbor. I destroyed one with depth charges after it scored a hit on one of my destroyers, detonating a magazine and breaking the ship apart. We damaged at least two others. He's also based 4 Nells there, presumably from Lahaina. They don't have access to torpedoes here and their level bombing attacks were ineffective.

3 BB bombarded Pearl again, so at least for now we haven't pulled them south. Maybe we'll get some cruisers.

Java
A slow turn here today. Air battles near Tjepoe took down an Ann bomber for the enemy and 3 fighters and 3 DB-7B bombers for us. We lost track of the KB but it can't be far.

Djokjakarta has been captured.

Thailand
Our bombers spotted and attacked the 38th Division between Raheng and Bangkok. The 38th was responsible for taking Hong Kong and was redeployed to Manila afterward. So, Kinky Boots isn't just pulling enemy troops out of Malaya, but it's taking up troops from the Philippines that should probably be going to Java or Sumatra right now.

This army looks about as strong as my northern prong that it's approaching, so air support is probably what's going to make the difference. So far I've been very successful with my bombers, but his Oscars have been getting the upper hand on my fighters too often. I'm writing these reports a little late, so this decision is being delayed a few days into the "future", but I think I need to pull this army back to Raheng. It's just not worth trying to face this army down--even if I win, it's doubtful a worn-down army is going to be able to take Bangkok or anything else of value. And if I lose, this operation is over. So, better to pull the 38th further north and dig in to freeze it there.

But for now, my army is chasing the defeated Raheng armies south towards the 38th. We attacked and routed them again, inflicting 1110 casualties to our 135.

Molon Labe

09-07-21, 10:47 AM

7 April 1942

SouthPAC
Wirraways from Noumea scored another bomb hit on the subs infesting these waters. Truk's going to have a backlog of repairs soon.

CENTPAC
Not just midget subs at Christmas Island, but landing barges too. I detached some cruisers and destroyers from a nearby task force to bombard the enemy here, and they found the barges and wiped them out. Probably a waste of ammunition. We bombarded them with what was left after that. Our troops attacked afterwards, enemy fortifications are down to level 1 and their troops/tanks seem at least a little disrupted. I'll rest up again and make another push in a day or two.

Java
The KB reappeared south of Java to the east side of the island, and launched a major strike on Surabaya. The air battle cost us 7 fighters, and him 4 Zeroes, 4 Kates, and 8 Vals. One of our pilots got 4 of those to himself. Damage to the base was relatively light, the Kates bombed from high altitude and weren't very accurate. They did score 3 bomb hits on 2 damaged cruisers in the shipyard, but it doesn't change much. They were already fated to be caught there when the base is overrun in a week or so.

I'm a little disappointed no one hit any mines today, but that's going to slow down--UK and US submarine-laid mine stocks are exhausted for the moment, and the Dutch have been empty for awhile, so we're not replenishing any minefields. It was mostly 2 UK subs that had been doing the mining recently because their late entry into the theatre allowed them to have a decent mine stockpile built up.

West Coast
The Lexington and all her escorts have reported for maintenance and upgrades. The Lex will have her 8" guns removed and replaced with 1.1" AA guns, and is getting an additional 28 20mm Oerlikons. Most of the escorts are also getting new 20mms installed, several destroyers are also getting radars and/or additional depth charge launchers. Lex's fighters have been "upgraded" to F4F-4 Wildcats--I consider the -3 version to be superior (the -4 adds 2 .50 cals, sacrificing speed, maneuverability, and range), but the -4 is far more numerous right now--it's probably the first aircraft model where we're really starting to see the Allies show off their industrial potential with a build rate of 45 per month. We're getting 25 P-39s and 35 P-40Es per month, for comparison. The -3s will now be available as replacements for the ships still flying them.

Thailand
My opponent decided it was a bad idea to let my bombers hit the 38th division in open terrain, so my bombers were greeted by a CAP over their troops today. They got through my escorting Hurricanes pretty easily, but were mostly ineffective against the bombers-probably due to their relatively poor armament. The Oscars are having trouble catching the B-17s and B-25s in Java but they should have adequate speed to deal with British bombers like the Blenheim. Anyway, we lost 1 Hurricane, and them 3 Oscars, no bomber losses.
https://i.ibb.co/NF3x2fs/1942-April-7-matchup.png

New Hebrides
He withdrew his CVBG further northwest towards the Solomons, leaving his Nells and Betties to attack Luganville unescorted. We got 5 of them. Our troops are still fighting, enough that my opponent is complaining about it over email--apparently fighting to the last man is only cool if you're Japanese. They're nearly wiped out, though, won't be much longer.

Ostfriese

09-08-21, 03:19 PM

Molon Labe

09-08-21, 09:16 PM

I'm still enjoying every new posting, even though the overall situation sounds a bit depressing (a tiny glimpse of what people on the Allied side must have felt during the first half of 1942). Please keep writing your reports. Thank you.

On a side note: I've found some guides to the Japanese industry in WiTP, which, to be honest, make it sound complex enough to be a hardcore sim of its own. There is, however, little information about the Allied industry.

How does the Allied industry work in WiTP?

The Allied economy mostly runs on autopilot. Unlike Japan, we aren't able to expand industrial facilities (supply production, aircraft production, shipyards and repair yards, etc) and we aren't able to tell the factories which aircraft to produce. The most we can do is order a facility to turn on/off production or repairs. We have supply, fuel, aircraft squadrons, and land units that are "delivered" off-map that we have to bring to our bases by ship, which is all subject to interdiction by subs or commerce raiders. But that's about as far as it goes.

Molon Labe

09-08-21, 09:50 PM

8 April 1942

Java
A heavy cruiser bombarded Batavia, causing heavy casualties to our land forces.

The KB hit Surabaya hard. We lost 2 fighters trying to hold them off with just 1 Zero shot down. Flak got 1 Val. Damage to the ships in port was significant:
1st wave: (A6M2 Zero x 38, B4Y1 Jean x 14, B5N1 Kate x 51, B5N2 Kate x 72)
D3A1 Val x 33
xAP Van Rees, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
CL Enterprise, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
CL Dragon, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Capetown, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
AVP Orion, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Rochussen, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Woolgar, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
DD Van Ghent, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
xAKL Luzon, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Ming Sang, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAKL Soerabaja, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
2nd wave (49 Vals):
xAK Ming Sang, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
CL Capetown, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Lepus, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage

Borneo
At least three minesweepers are now based at Miri to deal with my repeated submarine mining of this fuel base. He also had at least one destroyer-minesweeper--had--because HMS Truant put a torpedo into it today.

Solomons
My Catalinas had noticed some tankers idling at an atoll north of the Solomons. Don't ask me why they're there instead of someplace protected, like Rabaul or Truk. But I sent the S-35 over there to go hunting, and it sank one of them. It was a small one, sadly, so this wasn't that big of a deal.

New Hebrides
The CVBG seems to be gone.
Air raids against my troops in Luganville from Guadalcanal resulted in 2 P-39s and 1 Nell shot down.

Our troops are still holding out, well enough that I'm getting angry emails from my opponent. He is killing them, though. Just not all at once, and they aren't giving him the pleasure of a surrender.

Thailand
We're still trying to cause some damage to the 38th Division from the air. We managed to shoot down 3 of the Oscars that defended them, but the Oscars did better than they did yesterday, bringing down 1 Hudson and 3 Blenheims. The replacement pools of the UK bombers are depleted, so my losses in bomber strength here are somewhat permanent, so I am concerned about these losses.

China
We repelled an attack at Chusien, casualties 3700 to 1500 favoring us. There is a unit that is breaking off and approaching a base of ours that is unguarded with level 3 forts. I think he gets to keep those if he takes it, so I'm going to try to beat him there. My units have the better roads so we have a chance.

My plans for a counteroffensive aren't really materializing. Recon is a serious problem for the Chinese; I've tried to mitigate that by training bomber pilots in recon, but they aren't cutting it. I have a British recon squadron being trained in India that I plan to deploy to China when they're ready. Once I can confirm a weak point with some confidence I'll start exploiting it.

CENTPAC
Our Marines on Christmas Island weathered an enemy shock attack by a comfortable margin. The enemy tank regiment here has a glass jaw. I think I'll be able to capture it tomorrow. Still no sign of any reinforcements or naval deployments moving south from Hawaii.

Molon Labe

09-08-21, 10:22 PM

9 April 1942
Christmas Island liberated; Kido Butai retires from Java

Malaya
3 Destroyers came through the area outside Singapore and sank another pair of light ASW boats. These things are a dime a dozen and I keep getting more so I'm not concerned. I hope these guys are going to Tavoy, I have a welcoming party for the next surface group to do so. Also, I've deployed a 6-aircraft torpedo bomber squadron to Singapore, so by all means, keep sending ships here without fighter cover.

Hawaii and CENTPAC
3 BB bombarding Pearl today--but probably just 2 tomorrow, the Yamashiro took 4 hits from coastal artillery and I don't think the armor stopped it all.

I detached the heavy cruiser USS Vincennes from one of my task forces and bombarded Christmas Island with it in support of a push by my troops. It worked, we overran and wiped out all Japanese on the atoll. The 4th Tank Regiment, 45th Field AA Battalion, and 38th Road Construction Company are no more, and Christmas Island is back in our hands. By tomorrow it will be a fighter base.

My original plan was to take Palmyra at about the same time as Christmas, supported using some of the same forces, but my forces were worn down here by the unexpectedly presence of a whole damn regiment of tanks that managed to hide from my PBYs. So I'm going to hold off just a little. I should be able to get real recon planes here pretty soon to investigate Palmyra better than my PBYs did, and my land forces can use some time to recover.

Java
Surabaya suffered a bombardment from 2 BB and a CA, significantly degrading the airbase. The KB left the area, heading north up the Makassar Strait, but it gave Surabaya a strike as a kiss goodbye. Our meager CAP was only good for getting two fighters shot down, with no kills of our own. They damaged one transport and a destroyer tender, probably because that's all there is left to hit there.

4 Fulmar fighter-bombers attacked an enemy destroyer-transport off their western beachhead at Kalidjati and scored a bomb hit. 26 B-25s that had been rebased from Batavia to Palembang hit the port area at Kalidjati:
PB Heiei Maru #7, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Zenyo Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Okuni Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AV Sanyo Maru, Bomb hits 1
PB Tatsumiya Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Anzan Maru #2, Bomb hits 1, on fire
About friggin time my planes hit some ships.

Enemy troops have arrived in Batavia.

Thailand
We've now confirmed its two divisions moving north against my "northern prong." Definitely time to retreat to Raheng. My efforts to bomb his troops in the open went poorly this turn; we traded a Hurricane for an Oscar but a lot of Oscars got through and they brought down 5 more Blenheims. I'll be pausing my bombing raids for the time being. Also, a squadron of Wellingtons has arrived in Calcutta, they'll be in Rangoon and ready to join this party in probably 2 more days, so even if I can't give these squadrons more Blenheims to fly at least I'm restoring some strength.

This looks like it means he's ignoring my southern prong. They've rested up, and when he defeated them a week or so ago they didn't have their armor yet (it separated to chase enemy base forces down a coastal road while the infantry trekked through the mountains that armor can't cross efficiently; the armor doubled back and took roads the long way to meet up with the infantry.). I do have proper recon aircraft here, and they're reporting weak perimeter forces in 3 hexes outside Bangkok, and force levels in Bangkok itself consistent with 2 weakened RTA divisions. Also, no bombers in Bangkok. I probably can't beat them with the southern prong alone, but I probably can advance again while their main force is getting pulled away.

Ostfriese

09-09-21, 06:30 AM

The Allied economy mostly runs on autopilot. Unlike Japan, we aren't able to expand industrial facilities (supply production, aircraft production, shipyards and repair yards, etc) and we aren't able to tell the factories which aircraft to produce. The most we can do is order a facility to turn on/off production or repairs. We have supply, fuel, aircraft squadrons, and land units that are "delivered" off-map that we have to bring to our bases by ship, which is all subject to interdiction by subs or commerce raiders. But that's about as far as it goes.

But the Allies still massively outproduce the Japanese, especially in the long run, don't they?

Molon Labe

09-09-21, 07:31 AM

Yeah, our production rate is going to get really hard for them to deal with.

Threadfin

09-09-21, 08:51 AM

That's what I'm counting on!

The big blue fleet is like really big :)

Or, it will be....

Molon Labe

09-11-21, 11:59 AM

10 April 1942
Be careful what you wish for: surface task forces evade US and British carrier forces

Thailand and the Andaman Sea

A troop convoy headed for Rangoon was intercepted at night by the heavy cruiser Aoba and a destroyer:
xAP Talma, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Tilawa, Shell hits 4, on fire
xAP Rajula, Shell hits 3, heavy fires
xAK Somelsdijk, Shell hits 13, heavy fire
xAK Marpessa
xAK Gard
KV Jasmine, Shell hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Somelsdijk sinks....
KV Jasmine sinks....
xAP Tilawa sinks....
(spoiler alert: tomorrow-- xAP Rajula sinks....(lost control of flooding 2 hexes off Rangoon))

Allied ground losses:
1471 casualties reported
Squads: 81 destroyed, 28 disabled
Non Combat: 78 destroyed, 37 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 11 (11 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 43 (20 destroyed, 23 disabled)

I am appalled that an enemy task force was able to lie in ambush in an area surveilled by Catalinas from Rangoon and where I had a carrier and a surface task force waiting for exactly this to happen. But it's my own fault. That Catalina squadron in Rangoon--just 4 planes. And I'd made assumptions about how many ships in my task forces were carrying scout planes; the number is actually quite low. So it makes sense that a very small task force was able to avoid detection here.

Back on land, I switched to sweeping and let my bombers rest. The battle ended up being 13 Hurricanes vs 11 Oscars and an 8-on-4 followup, we shot down 9 and only lost 1.

Hawaii and CENTPAC
And it wasn't just the Brits. At Christmas Island, a light cruiser and 3 cruiser-minelayers blundered into my landing task forces at night. Neither side wanted to play, but that they were here meant they snuck past PBYs and scout bombers--yes, my carriers are here. The enemy CMs laid their mines and took off; my scouts searched for this task force all day and never found it. I've ordered the Hornet CVBG to move north to maybe get another shot at this guy and to try to make sure we see the next one. I've also ordered two destroyer-minesweepers to deal with the new problem.

I'm disappointed this is all they sent, I was really hoping to take some pressure off Pearl. They had some immediate success--one of my cargo ships delivering Christmas presents (in the form of USMC Wildcats) hit one of the freshly-laid mines, but sustained only moderate damage.

Java
Horrible turn for the Dutch air forces. My fighter bases are a mess and aren't generating many sorties. But the bombers I moved to Palembang still flew. And ended up with few to no fighters escorting them. We ran into a hive of Zeroes and Oscars--30+ each, at the western beachhead of Kalidjati. We ended up losing 13 (of 23) B-25s and 2 P-40s with no enemy losses. No bombers made it to their targets; a the survivors aborted and returned home.

Malaya
We lost 2 bombers to flak at Johore Bahru, despite bombing from relatively high altitude at 10,000 ft. I had been hoping to take advantage of recon reporting no fighters around. But these guys are dug in and have a lot of big flak guns, apparently. I'll look elsewhere. This probably means having my Singapore armies try to retake the Malayan peninsula is not an option for now, they'd take heavy losses crossing the channel to the mainland that would change the balance of forces here.

Molon Labe

09-12-21, 03:07 PM

11 April 1942
USS Hornet wipes out minelaying task force, USS Enterprise and USS Saratoga wipe out Palmyra reinforcements.

Hawaii and CENTPAC
3 BB bombarded Pearl again. These guys are focused. Plus the usual daily airstrike.

My two DMSs swept 11 mines at Christmas Island. Still more to go.

The Enterprise-Saratoga battle group spotted an enemy transport task force at Palmyra and hit it with 66 SBDs, sinking 6 cargo ships and damaging a 7th. 6 USMC Wildcats from the Saratoga followed up dropping their glorified hand grenades to finish off the last one. Reported ground casualties were light, so they probably offloaded troops under cover of night. One SBD was damaged by flak, but was repaired by day's end. A bit further east, the Hornet found that minelaying task force. We attacked with 31 SBC-4 Helldiver dive bomers and 9 TBD Devastators:

CL Tama, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk
CM Sarushima, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CM Tsugaru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CM Natsushima, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk

I'm pretty confident both the "damaged" CMs sank. Despite them having a light cruiser in the task force, none of our planes sustained substantial damage. So, all 3 carriers are still 100% combat ready for the next engagement.

Java
An unescorted airstrike targeted my troops in Soerakarta; the CAP from Surabaya diverted and took down 6 Sallies. 10 Oscars swept Batavia and took down a Hurricane and a Buffalo; we had no fighters up when the bombers arrived. Enemy troops have arrived at Batavia, they attacked and reduced our fortifications to rubble. This isn't going to last long.

New Hebrides
The Japanese marines on Luganville finally finished off the last of my troops there. I'm going to keep bombing them as long as I can, I'll treasure the death of every squad my bombers manage to take out.

Molon Labe

09-12-21, 03:36 PM

12 April 1942
Batavia falls, Kaga & Junyo reappear near Solomons

Hawaii and CENTPAC
My two DMSs swept 95 mines from Christmas Island. At a price--the USS Eliot hit one. They're trying to patch it up at harbor before it sinks, it could go either way. The operation was aborted when the Eliot hit the mine, so there's still work to be done. Hopefully not too much more, I only brought the two sweepers.

At Pearl, his armies attacked and brought my forts down to Level 1, casualties 2580 to 1096 favoring us. We're also down to the end in terms of supply. The siege is now in its final phase.

Java and Sumatra
He's figured out most of my fighters have rebased from Batavia to Oosthaven, across the strait in Sumatra. Oscars swept the base and shot down a Hurricane. We got the better of a Zero sweep over Surabaya, downing 4 Zeroes with 2 P-40s lost. Enemy bombers focused on Batavia and Soerakarta. We got one Mary light bomber over Soerakarta but were otherwise ineffective. With help from the bombers, both of these bases were captured. About 8100 were killed or surrendered at Batavia, another 5305 at Soerakarta.

We attempted raids of our own at Tjpoe but ended up losing 2 DB-7 and 1 139W bombers to Oscars, plus a B-25 to flak. We caused some damage to port facilities, but didn't get any ships.

Thailand and Andaman Sea
My surface task force has been detected by enemy scouts. Maybe for the better--deterring him from intercepting my troop convoys is almost as good as sinking those that attempt it.

I sent my bombers back after his troops chasing down my northern forces. We ended up trading one Blenhiem for 3 Oscars--much better than days prior--and did some damage to the troops below. But, it wasn't enough to disrupt his land attack. We took heavy casualties, including an artillery unit completely wiped out; overall casualties were 630 to 1070 favoring them. And we didn't even retreat, so he might attack again tomorrow.

Solomons and New Hebrides
The enemy CVBG has reappeared near the Solomons, heading towards Luganville probably. It has a transport task force with it. So, they're either going to land engineers to build up Luganville (Guadalcanal is now a Level 5 airbase--big enough to operate B-29s if he had them, so the engineering units that accomplished that could be redeployed), or, they're going to remove the massive number of marines there that are no longer needed. (He had either 2 or 3 partial-strength marine units when I landed, that had ballooned to 6 marine units and fragments of another 3 by the end of the battle.)

Molon Labe

09-13-21, 09:04 AM

13 April 1942
The operation to save Pearl Harbor

Hawaii and CENTPAC
Having failed to draw significant naval forces away from Pearl, I've decided to take the fight to him. Hornet, in company with a battleship task force, is the tip of the spear, with Enterprise and Saratoga forming up. The carrier task forces have all been detected, but the battleships have not. The goal of this operation is the sink the enemy battleships that have been the decisive factor titling the land battle on Oahu, and if possible, to cause enough damage to the airbase on Lahaina to allow Pearl to be resupplied.

Kingfishers and a single operational Bolo bomber have flown enough recon to give me a count of enemy aircraft at Lahaina that has been both consistent over several turns and corroborates with combat reports of what's been bombing Pearl. It looks like I'm only dealing with 30 fighters and 30 "Netties", plus various other bombers that would only be useful as decoys. I'm bringing 90 fighters to the party, which should be enough to deal with the problems those aircraft could cause. They can probably fly in more, but I intend to make them too late.

The plan is for my battleship fleet to hit the airbase to knock it out for this fight, while my carriers hit his battleships. His battleship fleet is resupplying from the port on the same island as the airbase, so there is a potential for an old fashioned BB vs BB fleet battle. If that happens, it should happen after I hit his fleet with an airstrike first, so I'll take those odds. But, he hasn't detected my battleships yet, so my expectation is that the BBs will try to evacuate to the north, which is fine by me it because gets them out of my way without getting them out of danger.

Clear skies forecasted, should have no problem finding them.
https://i.ibb.co/NNbBWDg/1942-April-14-Pearl.jpg

Back to today, the sub USS Pollack was depth charged after attempting to torpedo the enemy battleships (3 bombarding Pearl today), sustaining light damage.

At Christmas Island, we swept 30 more mines, still more to go. My USMC aircraft are coming online. We found another midget sub skulking around and destroyed it.

Thailand
We attacked the enemy armies chasing our nothern forces again. Just like yesterday, we shot down 3 of the Oscars trying to stop us, and lost 1 Blenheim.

SouthPAC
A Vincent light bomber reported bombing an enemy submarine near Suva, Fiji.

I've lost track of the enemy CVBG and the transports they're escorting. I still think they're here, just temporarily hidden by weather.

I've ordered a bunch of S-boats to block Luganville. Maybe I'll get a loaded troop ship on the way out.

Malaya
Wirraway light bombers attempted a low-level attack on the heavy cruiser Kako near Mersing, but missed. I'm a bit frustrated my torpedo bombers didn't fly too, this would have been an ideal opportunity for them--big target, no fighter cover.

Ostfriese

09-13-21, 09:41 AM

Good Luck and Godspeed for your Hawaiian operation.

Molon Labe

09-14-21, 09:22 AM

I don't have the replay yet, but I did get an angry message about his land-based bombers failing to score any hits. So, at least I know I didn't lose any CVs on 4/14.

Molon Labe

09-15-21, 12:31 PM

14 April 1942
Naval Battle of Oahu opens with enemy battleships avoiding airstrikes, troop transport convoy hit instead

Hawaii
USS Drum started the battle with an attempted torpedo attack on an enemy cruiser near Lahaina, which missed. Two destroyers went after her but their non-deep exploding depth charges weren't up the to task in deep water.

The Japanese attacked next, going after the Enterprise-Saratoga group, sending 9 Nells and 4 Betties (I expected a lot more!) escorted by probably the entire compliment of fighters at Lahaina, 26 Zeroes and 7 Oscars. We only managed 26 Wildcats getting into this fight despite having 2 CVs in this group and another close by enough to help--that includes scrambled alert fighters that didn't start in the air. A recurring theme with my carriers, apparently. The enemy fighters succeeded in keeping our Wildcats off their bombers, shooting down 1 Wildcat and losing 3 Zeroes. Fortunately, the small number of bombers meant our gunners didn't have to divide their fire all that much. One Betty was shot down and probably all the rest were shot up, no one hit their targets (they attacked both carriers and one destroyer).

Our airstrike failed to locate the enemy battleship fleet. We did find a troop convoy though, and it was loaded up, so that wasn't a bad consolation prize. With all enemy fighters flying in an offensive role, there was no resistance:

Japanese Ships
xAK Asuka Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Matsue Maru, Bomb hits 7, and is sunk
CM Shirakami
SC CHa-13, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
PB Kyo Maru #8, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
(late arriving Devastators: PB Kyo Maru #8, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk)
xAK Atlas Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Santo Maru, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
E Uji
SC CHa-1, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Alaska Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
Japanese ground losses:
1276 casualties reported
Squads: 9 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 95 destroyed, 61 disabled
Engineers: 14 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 7 (5 destroyed, 2 disabled)

The Japanese rearmed and refueled their surviving planes and attacked a second time, this time with just 3 Nells, escorted by 18 Zeroes and 5 Oscars. We intercepted with 19 Wildcats and once again failed to reach the bombers. 3 Wildcats were shot down trying, without scoring any kills against the enemy fighters. The 3 Nells targeted the Enterprise and missed again, one being shot down by AA and the other two badly shot up. A Wildcat finished one off as it tried to leave.

Our second wave also failed to find the enemy battleships, so they hit the convoy again:
Japanese Ships
CM Shirakami
xAK Alaska Maru, heavy fires
E Uji, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Atlas Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Dakar Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires

Japanese ground losses:
345 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 26 destroyed, 24 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 2 (2 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Two Saratoga SBDs were lost in landing accidents, and two Enterprise Wildcats are too badly damaged to be repaired.

https://i.ibb.co/g7ZQKM0/1942-April-14-Hawaii.png

* * *

At Christmas island, we swept 23 more mines.

Java
Dutch sub KVII suffered a very accurate depth charge attack in shallow water. She was saved by the fact that it was just a PB that wasn't carrying enough ammo to carry the attack to a conclusion. She's RTB for repairs. The S-40, near the entrance to the Makassar strait, also suffered damage in a shallow water depth charge attack when it tried to attack an escorted convoy. Damage was light and she's remaining on station for now.

An enemy air raid on Surabaya destroyed a B-17 on the ground and damaged airfield facilities; one Zero and a Sally were shot down by our CAP. Late in the day, a cruiser-destroyer force bombarded Surabaya, damaging the airbase and a lot of the planes in it. Our airbase here is mostly incapacitated.

5 of our DB-7B bombers attacked the port in Tjepoe, outrunning the enemy CAP and scoring hits on a cargo ship and two light cruisers. One bomber was shot down by flak.

Malaya
Our small ASW patrol craft made themselves useful, detecting an enemy sub passing by Singapore and getting a few depth charge hits.

We attempted 2 attacks on the heavy cruiser Kako, frustratingly, this did not include the torpedo bomber squadron that I moved here for this specific purpose--just Blenhiem I medium level bombers and Wirraway light bombers. We traded 6 Hurricanes for 3 Oscars trying to get to the ship, and the bombers missed. Oddly enough, a Catalina spotted it later during the day and took an opportunity attack against it, and reportedly hit it.

Thailand
We're flying against Zeroes in addition to Oscars today--they've reinforced Bangkok. Air battles to try to bomb the troops chasing our northern force resulted in 2 Blenheim and 2 Zeroes downed. Today was the Pacific-Theatre combat debut of the Wellington bomber, it performed well, clearly dealing more damage to the troops below than the Blenheim and suffering no losses.

The successful raids weren't enough to change the balance on the ground. The enemy attacked and routed by troops back to Pisanuloke, casualties 861 to 3730.

I think we've done all we can here. With 2 divisions plus present, we're not advancing any further. Which is fine, we've saved Singapore and taken two key airbases in Thailand. I'll take it.

SouthPAC
Troop transports arrived at Luganviile and my dive bombers attacked. We sent out 15 Vindicators and 4 Dauntlesses (Yorktown survivors) escorted by 21 P-40s and 6 P-39s. The Kaga and Junyo contributed 27 Zeroes to defending the convoy. We lost 4 P-40s, 2 P-39s, and 2 of each dive bomber type to the Zeroes while shooting down only 2. But we got through:
AMC Nosiro Maru, Bomb hits 1
AMC Saigon Maru, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
AMC Awata Maru
xAP Argentina Maru
These were empty, so it appears their mission is to remove IJN marines and take them elsewhere.

The plan for tomorrow is to try to shoot down fighters while the mechanics repair the dive bombers that made it back full of holes. Level bombers will try to work over the port to damage and delay the enemy convoy as it loads, and to draw the enemy CAP to lower altitudes. Then my high-altitude sweeps will pounce on them. I hope, anyway. But if it works, the next day my dive bombers should have less resistance to deal with, and might get a chance at the Kaga or Junyo.
* * *

An enemy submarine was spotted off Noumea and was attacked by a Canadian corvette, sustaining moderate damage or better. I expect this one will retire for repairs. A Wirrway bombed another, so that's probably 2 mission kills off Noumea today.

---------
Also, my first 2 radar-equipped subs put to sea after upgrading. I'll have a steady stream of these upgrades finishing, probably over the course of a month, until the entire fleet has radar.

Ostfriese

09-15-21, 02:11 PM

Well, not optimal, but not bad either. Hitting Japanese transports should always be painful in the long run. :Kaleun_Applaud:

Molon Labe

09-15-21, 02:42 PM

Well, not optimal, but not bad either. Hitting Japanese transports should always be painful in the long run. :Kaleun_Applaud:

As a strategic target, yes, but I have immediate tactical concerns. The transports can't rush my carrier fleets in the middle of the night, or gun down my battleships when they try to neutralize the airbase. Not hitting the battleships made this operation a whole lot more dangerous.

Molon Labe

09-16-21, 12:01 PM

15 April 1942
and then the Winged Hussars arrived!
(Naval Battle of Oahu, day 2)

Hawaii
After my failure to neutralize the battleships yesterday and the poor showing by the Netties, my top priority was preventing the battleships from getting to my carriers. But, I still needed to neturalize the airbase because he can fly reinforcements in at any time and completely change the threat profile. So the carriers stood off a bit, and I ordered my battleship fleet to go in. I'd rather have a mostly even surface fleet battle than either a BB vs CV situation or a reinforced airbase to deal with.

And a surface battle is exactly what I got; his fleet intercepted mine at night when it went in to try to bombard the base. His fleet was the battleships Mutsu, Fuso, and Yamashiro backed up by a light cruiser and 3 destroyers. I brought the Idaho, New Mexico, Mississippi, and HMS Warspite (which started the war docked in Seattle) escorted by 5 DD and 2 DMS. The Japanese got the drop on mine and scored early hits on the Mississippi, but fortunately they were mostly secondary battery hits. When we retaliated we got several 14" hits on the Mutsu, which ended up being the only ship critically damaged in round 1--we never saw her again. The damage to the Idaho and Mississippi was a concern:
Japanese Ships
BB Mutsu, Shell hits 14, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Fuso
BB Yamashiro
CL Abukuma
DD Samidare
DD Sanae
DD Kuri

Allied Ships
BB Idaho, Shell hits 2, on fire
BB New Mexico
BB Mississippi, Shell hits 11
BB Warspite
DD Clark, Shell hits 1
DD MacDonough
DD Lawrence
DD Kane
DD Rathburne
DMS Long
DMS Chandler, Shell hits 1

After we broke contact, we encountered another cargo ship on the way back towards the airbase and sank it. The enemy task force regroup and intercepted us again, this time during the day. This was going very well for us for most of it, but at the end they started scoring several penetrating main battery hits on the Mississippi:
Japanese Ships
BB Fuso, Shell hits 1
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 38, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Abukuma, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Samidare, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Sanae, Shell hits 2, on fire

Allied Ships
BB New Mexico, Shell hits 1
BB Mississippi, Shell hits 41, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Warspite, Shell hits 2
DD Clark, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD MacDonough, Shell hits 2
DD Lawrence
DD Kane
DMS Long
DMS Chandler, Shell hits 2, on fire
The Mississippi sank a few hours after the battle.

The enemy used their fighters to protect their battleships this turn, while sending their bombers out after mine unescorted. The first raid was 7 Betties and 3 Nells; we had 23 Wildcats respond but unfortunately we were slow getting to them. We shot down 2 Betties and a Nell; the rest got through. But, it was within the ability of the gunners to handle. One more Betty went down and they scored no hits (targeting New Mexico and Warspite).

5 Betties and 3 torpedo-armed Mavis scoutplanes went after Idaho, which had detached to try to repair at Pearl. Stupid AI commander doesn't realize Pearl's not repairing anything right now. No hits.

The air raid against the enemy BB fleet finally happened! Sadly I had prioritized fleet defense so much that I only had 1 F4F escorting this package, which was immediately shot down by the CAP. We lost 6 SBDs to the fighters after that. But we brought 61 of them, plus 30 TBDs:

CL Abukuma, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk
DD Sanae, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
BB Fuso, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
BB Yamashiro, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
DD Samidare, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk

The destruction was so thorough, that a late-arriving group of TBDs had nothing to attack. We ended up losing 4 Wildcats and one of the TBDs to enemy fighters despite the objective being gone at that point.

After that there was a second unescorted Betty attack on our battleship group, 14 Betties vs 18 Wildcats. We shot down 12 of them, only one managed an attack on the Warspite, and it missed. They also sent 4 after the Idaho--and this time, managed a hit. She's tough, though, the flooding is controlled.

SITREP: Sinking the BBs was the primary goal of this operation. With that achieved, the board appears to be clear of surface threats, the Netties' losses should effectively neutralize them unless they're reinforced, and the other land based bombers appear to be evacuating (probably to Midway via Johnston). Enemy submarines remain a threat, there are at least 4 being vectored towards my task forces with help from Lahaina's scoutplanes. It appears I've achieved sea control here, at least temporarily. I estimate the KB could arrive by April 19 at the earliest although April 23 is more realistic.

I lost one of my 4 battleships, another is damaged to the point it should probably retire, and the two others are low on ammunition. As such, any further attack attempt on the airbase will be at a fragment of the strength it should have been. Making matters worse, recon shows minelayers and mine tenders at harbor--we have to conclude there is a large defensive minefield here, which is going to make a bombardment more hazardous the closer they need to get. My carrier airwings remain at close to full strength, though. But I'm hesitant to use them against the airfield knowing that the Level 9 base will be resistant to damage and not knowing how much AA is there.

Is Pearl saved? I don't know yet. They're still outnumbered and low on supplies. Realistically, I can't stop the bombers--even if I hurt the airbase, they'll repair it and fly the bombers back in later. But I did remove the most important enemy asset supporting their siege. It's possible that alone turned the tide. My priorities now are to organize my forces, cover the retreat of the Idaho, sink as many tenders and supply ships as I can at Lahaina (probing enemy AA there at the same time), and to land supplies at Pearl while I have a window of opportunity. On that count, I wish the timing of this operation had been better--this really was a target of opportunity rather than something I'd been planning. That the KB had not only left, but had been sighted far, far away;that recon noticed their airpower had drawn down; and that my carriers were close enough to here to respond in time (because of the Christmas Island operation)--all this happening at the same time made this possible. But that this was rush job meant the supply convoys didn't have time to pre-position to take advantage of the window. IF those convoys get through, I think we've not only won the Naval Battle of Oahu, but turned the land battle into a quagmire.

https://i.ibb.co/QdCbgRM/1942-April-15-Hawaii.png
* * *
I think we finally finished off the mines at Christmas island.

Japan and Celebes Sea
We had multiple failed attacks against AOs and tankers today. I usually don't report failed sub attacks, but these failures hurt because we see the tankers so rarely and they're so valuable right now.

Java
Enemy task forces continued to bombard Surabaya in disregard of our defensive minefields:
DD Yomogi, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
TB Hiyodori, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Hayate, Mine hits 1, heavy damage

Air raids on Surabaya resulted in 1 Zero shot down with a loss of 3 Allied fighters.

USS Permit located and attacked the Hiryu in the Java Sea. It missed, but avoided enemy retaliation. With the Soryu sunk and the Kaga in the Solomons area, this means the KB is now just 3 carriers.

Malang has been captured.

Malaya
The Kako went after our ASW craft again, sinking 4. Our retaliatory airstrikes failed to connect; the air battle resulted in the losses of an Oscar, 5 Hurricanes, a Buffalo, and a Blenheim.

Thailand
AVG-1 attempted a sweep of Bangkok and got bounced. 3 P-40s went down with no victories. Hurricanes followed up and only managed to get one Oscar and one Nate.

Luganville and Solomons
I didn't get the timing I wanted here. The B-17s arrived first, hitting the port and damaging a transport loading troops; they avoided the CAP. The B-26s were next and suffered the worst; we had 5 shot down by Zeroes in exchange for minor port facility damage. The sweeps failed to capitalize on decreased Zero altitude and ended up with a lackluster result, just 2 Zeroes shot down with 1 P-40 joining them. The lowest-altitude attack by the fastest bombers (A-20 Havocs) arrived last although for the two reasons I just gave I expected them to arrive first. They attempted an attack on a cargo ship and missed. They managed to avoid and outrun the CAP, so at least that went as planned.

LB-30 Liberators from Noumea attacked Guadalcanal, dealing some light airfield damage and letting me know that at least for now he has no CAP there.

--------------
This seemed like a good time to update my kill-chart:
https://i.ibb.co/BrNGT4T/1942-April-15-weapon-chart.png

I'm not surprised that aerial bombs have moved to the top, but naval gunfire is surprising passing up sub torpedoes. It's actually this last battle making that happen, without 2 enemy BBs sunk by gunfire it would be in 3rd instead of 2nd.

Ostfriese

09-17-21, 03:24 AM

Sinking two BB for sure and likely a third (you sound quite confident that Mutsu has been sunk, too) is no small feat, so despite the uncertainty of the situation this has to be logged as a major victory for you, so congratulations.

Losing the Mississippi is painful, but with the South Dakotas coming up (historically they joined the US Navy over the summer of 1942) it's not the end of the world.

Two questions about the game:

a) Can the Japanese player rush both BB and CV production? You mentioned in an earlier post that your opponent must have rushed the Hiyo-class carriers because he used them earlier than historically. Can he rush the production of BB at the same time, or will this have the opposite effect (rushing the carriers results in slowing the production of BB and/or CA)?

b) Can the Japanese player produce ahistorical units, like Shinano as a BB, the fourth Yamato class (warship 111, in reality cancelled early in 1942 when about 30% completed) or even the completely hypothetical A-150 class battleships?
And does the Allied industry produce ahistorical units like the Montanas or the second group of the Midway-class (if the game lasts that long, of course)?

Losing two/three BBs should in any way be a real pain in the behind for your opponent, and if you manage to save Pearl Harbor he will have wasted a lot of (irreplaceable) resources for nothing.

I'm looking forward to your reports, please don't stop writing them :)

Molon Labe

09-17-21, 10:30 AM

Sinking two BB for sure and likely a third (you sound quite confident that Mutsu has been sunk, too) is no small feat, so despite the uncertainty of the situation this has to be logged as a major victory for you, so congratulations.

Losing the Mississippi is painful, but with the South Dakotas coming up (historically they joined the US Navy over the summer of 1942) it's not the end of the world.

Two questions about the game:

a) Can the Japanese player rush both BB and CV production? You mentioned in an earlier post that your opponent must have rushed the Hiyo-class carriers because he used them earlier than historically. Can he rush the production of BB at the same time, or will this have the opposite effect (rushing the carriers results in slowing the production of BB and/or CA)?
The Japanese economy is complicated enough to do both, but probably at the expense of something else. There are shipyards producing "naval points" that can be used to accelerate production. The shipyards can be expanded by expending heavy industry points and supply. Realistically, if Japan is going to accelerate something large, they have to halt something else. Putting enough HI and supply into expanded shipyards to be able to do both would probably involve major sacrifices to aircraft production and R&D.

b) Can the Japanese player produce ahistorical units, like Shinano as a BB, the fourth Yamato class (warship 111, in reality cancelled early in 1942 when about 30% completed) or even the completely hypothetical A-150 class battleships?
And does the Allied industry produce ahistorical units like the Montanas or the second group of the Midway-class (if the game lasts that long, of course)?

Everything that's produced is, I think, historical. But many ships have conversion options, so you can switch them to ahistoical versions of themselves after you get them. From my last campaign as Japan I recall I could covert some BB into carriers, just not very good ones.

Ostfriese

09-17-21, 11:18 AM

Molon Labe

09-17-21, 01:49 PM

So the loss of the two/three battleships means that his Hawaiian operation will be a pyrric victory even if he succeds.

Thank you for patient ly answering my questions. If you continue like this, I'll end up buying WiTP :03:

I don't think so, if he takes Pearl at the cost of 3 BB (I am fairly confident the Mustu went down) and change, I'd still call that a win for him. He's denying me my most important forward base and taking it for himself, complete with its extensive fuel reserves and repair facilities. I'm already stretched thin logistically trying to run supplies around all the islands he's occupied. If he starts raiding from Hawaii after controlling it, he has the potential to completely sever my supply lines over the entire Pacific. That's worth a few ships, even capital ships.
----------------------------

16 April 1942
Lahaina airbase reinforced with fighters; bombers start scoring hits...

Hawaii and the Line Islands
For this turn, I ordered my two healthy battleships New Mexico and Warspite to link up with 2 cruisers from the CVBGs to bombard Lahaina, standing off a bit to hopefully avoid any minefields. The Hornet broke off to escort the Idaho out of the area, while the Saratoga and Enterprise would launch airstrikes against Lahaina's port and airbase while waiting for the bombardment task force to link back up.

A submarine was spotted taking up an attack position against the Hornet CVBG. It was depth charged and driven away before it could fire.

The planned bombardment was highly successful, causing heavy facility damage to the airfield and destroying at least 6 planes... reportedly damaging well over 100, which is impossible, and reflects planes being damaged multiple times. We did not encounter any mines.

In spite of the success of the bombardment, the enemy managed its best air strikes of the battle, and it appears certain that additional fighters have arrived, and their naval bombers have either been reinforced or their mechanics are repairing their damage incredibly fast. There was a 4-wave attack against the Enterprise-Saratoga CVBG:
Wave 1: 6 Nells, 19 Zeroes, 4 Oscars vs 29 Wildcats; Losses: 2 Wildcats, 4 Zeroes, 4 Nells. 2 Nells got through, attacked Enterprise and missed.
Wave 2: 5 unescorted Nells vs 13 Wildcats: all 5 splashed
Wave 3: 4 Nells, 15 Zeroes vs 12 Wildcats: 1 Wildcat, 2 Nells lost. 2 Nells got through and attacked Enterprise, missed.
Wave 4: 6 Nells with 7 Zeroes vs 4 Wildcats: 1 Wildcat shot down. All 6 Nells attacked Saratoga--1 torpedo hit.

So that's 21 Nells total... yeah, he had to have reinforced.

Our carriers flew next but with only 2 squadrons of SBDs. I suppose we can say the Saratoga didn't attack because of battle damage. But this is now the 3rd day the Hornet's dive bombers have sat on the deck armed and ready but not attacking and I'm really, really angry about it. But anyway, the 2 squadrons hit the port:
BB Nagato, Bomb hits 3
AV Kimikawa Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
So there's the 4th battleship, down for repairs. And we just stretched out those repairs, hopefully by quite a bit. None of those hits penetrated its armor though, so it isn't badly hurt.

In the afternoon, Lahaina attacked the Hornet CVBG: 30 Zeroes and 4 Oscars escorting 6 Nells. For the first time in this battle they had subsantially superior fighter numbers, we only managed 10 Wildcats against them. But they did great! 1 Wildcat lost with 4 Zeroes shot down. All 6 Nells got through, AA took down one. They attacked the Hornet and CL Honolulu, scoring a hit on the Honolulu.

Hornet's Devastators got some retaliation, hitting Lahaina airbase, inflicting light damage and destroying a Nell on the ground.

The enemy's ground forces attempted a shock attack to bring the campaign to a sudden end, but our troops held them off. Casualties 4323 to 640 favoring us. A very good sign.

That the base is reinforced and that I have no high-caliber ammunition left to hit it with means this operation is essentially over. I no longer believe I can afford to cover the Idaho--it's decision to try to repair at Pearl has probably doomed it. It's ordered to retreat north at best speed. (EDIT: as I write this, I realized that's dumb. I've changed my orders to the Idaho to attack Lahaina alone, then retreat. It's actually more likely to survive if the airbase is damaged more, even if it doesn't get as far away. I hope it isn't too late to make the change!) The Hornet is ordered to form up with the other two CVs before it gets blown away by the enemy's increased airpower. The other battleship force is to retreat to the south. The three CVs together should be able to launch one more strike to try to wreck up the BB and tenders in port and hopefully damage some more planes as they link up, but once they're providing mutual support, they're gone. I'll consider using them as escorts for a supply convoy, but they have to survive first.

* * *
At Christmas island, an enemy sub repeatedly stalked and attacked one of my transports, eventually hitting it on its 3rd attempt--and getting 3 torpedo hits. It went down quickly. Fortunately it was empty. We hurt the sub a bit in return but probably not severely.

Java
He's still not getting out of the minefield.
DD Shinonome, Mine hits 1, heavy damage
DD Hatsukaze, Mine hits 1
TB Kamo, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

There were air raids just about everywhere we still have troops but we put up no significant resistance; our airbases are broken.

SouthPAC
There were failed submarine attacks at Pago Pago, which I believe is the first time he's sent subs out here. They're also at Suva; Noumea appears clear for now. But, it appears for the first time his subs are now tasked to interdict my supply lines instead of trying to interfere with specific military bases.

Solomons
S-42 found that fleet of small tankers again and sank one.
A Liberator raid inficted light airfield damage at Guadalcanal.

Luganville
B-17s attacked the port, evading the CAP, but missed.
A sweep by P-40s didn't work out, we lost 2 and only shot down 1 Zero.
Dive bombers tomorrow.

Thailand
We lost a Blenheim and a Wellington near Raheng. We're hurting them on the ground but our fighters are getting stretched thin and the Oscars are getting through to the bombers in large numbers.

Molon Labe

09-18-21, 11:11 AM

17 April 1942
IJN Nagato defeats USS Idaho in single combat; Kaga and Junyo prevail over dive bomber raid at Luganville

Hawaii and Line Islands
Repair efforts on the Nagato were apparently terminated early, and the damaged ship was on patrol outside Lahaina, ready to receive the Idaho. Nagato had a destroyer with it, but it did not get involved; Nagato and Idaho had a 1v1 duel. Nagato hit Idaho with its main batteries early, and Idaho never got back into the fight after that. Idaho failed to score even a single hit as the Nagato continuously pummeled the increasingly disabled ship.

All my other ships managed to get far enough away that they neither launched nor received any airstrikes. We received some help on that front from overcast skies and a few rain squalls. My task forces will now rendezvous with a replenishment group, and after that I'll reorganize them to send some in for repairs and possibly to escort a supply run.

At Christmas Island, my DMS is now on ASW duty with the mines taken care of; it found one of the enemy subs lurking and got some good hits on it. Not enough to sink it.

Thailand
USS Porpoise had been guarding the approach to Bangkok after I received SIGINT about troops being shipped there. It found the convoy--probably on the way out instead of in--and made an unsuccessful torpedo attack. It received light damage from depth charges in return.

On the other side of the Malayan peninsula, my surface task force that had been guarding the approach to Rangoon from enemy commerce raiders was attacked by a submarine, the battleship HMS Ramillies took a pretty bad torpedo hit and will need to report for repairs. I'm ordering the whole task force to leave station, I only have 3 DD here which already isn't enough, spitting it further just isn't an option.

My air raids on the enemy land forces moving north continued, resulting in one Zero downed and decent damage dealt to the armies below. I'm still very concerned about the number of enemy fighters compared to mine despite the result this turn.

Java and Sumatra
Enemy air activity shifted from Batavia to Oosthaven (in Sumatra). We lost a Buffalo to the sweep with no victories of our own. Air raids continued throughout Java without significant resistance from us.

Luganville
I only managed to get 3 B-17s in the air to bomb the port, but they all made it back. No damage inflicted on the port. We had a coordination SNAFU after that, the P-40s that were supposed to be escorting the dive bombers flew with the A-20s instead. And our P-39s trying to sweep the Zeroes just didn't do a very good job. So we ended up with our fighters getting pounced on by diving Zeroes, and still enough Zeroes getting back up to high altitude in time to splash the unprotected Vindicators. We got 2 Zeroes. They got 5 P-39s, 9 P-40s, 2 A-20s, 2 SBDs, and 6 Vindicators. A 7th Vindicator was lost to flak. 4 A-20s attempted attacks on the Kaga and missed; 7 Vindicators split themselves between Kaga and Junyo and all of them missed as well.

Solomons
The S-42 made repeated attacks on the unescorted tanker convoy, sinking one with a torpedo attack, surfacing to gun another and setting its cargo ablaze, then submerging and hitting another one with a torpedo. I believe all 3 sank.

Molon Labe

09-19-21, 10:22 AM

18 April 1942
Supply convoy "The Expendables" hit by Nells & Betties; KB spotted in Ceram Sea

Hawaii and Line Islands
One of my supply convoys (which I named "The Expendables") is arriving from the east, nowhere near my regrouping carriers. I had a lightly damaged destroyer that was headed for the west coast link up with it and proceed--I was hoping that the damage to the airbase's Mavis scoutplanes, combined with their high maintenance rating, would help them approach undetected. No such luck. They were hit repeatedly throughout the day. 4 were sunk, 2 damaged, and 2 undamaged cargo ships are proceeding. They sank the destroyer, too.

A second supply convoy is near my carriers. However, based on revised force estimates from today's raids, it now appears any fight between my weakened air wings and his reinforced airbase would be unacceptably risky. So they're going in without air cover, too. I've also got 2 APDs operating solo that might either slip in unnoticed or draw some attention away from the convoys.

The Saratoga was not only damaged in the fight but it due for an upgrade, so it's headed to the west coast. Enterprise and Hornet will remain in the Pacific for now but will be returning to Hawaii anytime soon.

To the south, I still have at least 4 enemy submarines off Christmas Island, which is deterring me from moving troops around there. The army regiment that was the main force there I would like to send to Palmyra, but they aren't getting back to full strength probably due to a lack of proper support units. So I should rotate them out with a fresh unit--but first, the subs.

Burma and Thailand
An enemy sub tried to approach Rangoon and hit a mine. Small patrol craft spotted her limping out of the area, but she was able to dive and disappear. She's got a long way to limp home, I doubt she'll make it.

I rested my bombers today. The only air-to-air combat anywhere this turn was still here, though, as Oscars swept my defensive patrols near Rahang. We lost one Hurricane with no enemies shot down.

Java
The O23 torpedoed and sank a sub chaser on patrol in the Java Sea. Enemy troops have entered Surabaya. Air raids continued without significant resistance, aside from two bombers shot down by flak.

Loemadjang (south of Surabaya) has been captured, along with 4 grounded bombers.

Luganville
My window has closed; the enemy carriers are now back between the Solomons and Luganville and the transports have dissappeared. My B-17s scored some hits on an empty port.

EDIT: The Kido Butai was briefly sighted in the Ceram Sea this turn.

Molon Labe

09-19-21, 03:43 PM

19 April 1942
More supply ships intercepted near Pearl

Hawaii and Line Islands
The Netties had no problem finishing off the two damaged cargo ships from The Expendables, but the other two actually made it to port. But, I hadn't considered that the port isn't the real finish line. They have to unload, and that takes time. Both ships were picked off in harbor before unloading any substantial amounts of supplies.

Some good news, though--the second, southern convoy got pretty close and looks like it's going to make it. They suffered some attacks but the Netties are targeting the DDs mostly, and they're nimble enough to dodge.

Sumatra
A cruiser-destroyer task force made it to Palembang undetected and shelled the airbase. They took out a light cargo ship trying to resupply a small island off the coast, too. They didn't even hit any mines. I think these guys are based in Sinkawang, Borneo, which is a problem because we're not seeing them when they approach at night and they have plenty of air cover when they're at their base in the day.

They swept Palembang with about 50 Zeroes during the day, taking advantage of the damage dealt overnight. We hardly got any planes up. 1 P-40 was shot down.

Borneo
A troop convoy approached Miri and was attacked by HMS Truant. It only managed to hit an escort (twice!), a cruiser-minelayer, which sank.

Truk
USS Seadragon picked off a light cargo ship approaching at night.

Solomons area
I moved the Aussie bombers that had been supporting my troops in Luganville back to Port Moresby, and hit Rabaul with them. The base was mostly empty, sadly, so we did no real damage. We attacked ground forces, but did detect some ships in port while we were there, so I'll try that tomorrow.

Molon Labe

09-19-21, 04:19 PM

20 April 1942
Some supply ships get through to Pearl, our bombers find a light cruiser left behind in Luganville

Hawaii and Line Islands
We found another pesky midget sub skulking around Christmas Island and depth charged it. I also decided that an amphibious task force I've had on station to invade Palmyra needed to land its troops on Christmas; they've been cooped up on the ship too long and have very high fatigue. I'm also focusing on getting the Xmas base forces recovered because I think the lack of support units is what's making it take forever to get my combat units back up to strength. If they're not recovered by the time we've solved the sub problem, I'll probably rotate them with someone, somewhere.

The 2 APDs dodged multiple torpedo bomber attacks on the way to Pearl (and one sub attack; it dropped one depth charge pattern on the sub and resumed its mission). But once they docked and started unloading they were easy targets. So that was a complete waste of two good ships, considering they don't carry much. But some ships from the southern convoy did make it. They benefited a great deal from the Netties prioritizing the DDs and missing a lot. They were all eventually sunk, while unloading or before, but this time we offloaded a substantial amount of supply. Enough to top off the stores of the ground units, build level 2 forts, and have enough in reserve to survive another 7 days--based on the amount of supply consumption when they were hitting me with 3-4 BBs a day. That's going to last much longer now. So, in the end I don't think my operation solved the problem, but I've at least delayed the capture of Oahu--possibly by quite a bit.

Air forces at Lahaina are now up to 60 fighters and 60 bombers--I probably wouldn't go back with less than 4 carriers with those odds. Good thing I still have 4, even if two are offline at the moment for refit/repairs.

Solomons Area
I detected an unidentified ship at harbor at Luganville, so I kept my B-17s assigned to port strikes and added my A-20s and Vindicators to the port strike. The B-17s and A-20sonly dealt facility damage, but the Vindicators found the ship and hit it. It's the light cruiser Kitakami and I had no idea it would be there. It must have been damaged awhile ago and is getting patched up there before moving off to Truk. Well, we hit it with 2 1000 lb bombs and set it ablaze, so if it wasn't in shape to leave before, it isn't now. I'll hit it in force tomorrow, I held back some Banshee dive bombers that were too late for the carriers and the B-26s today, but now that I know what's there I'm going to get it.

(I might have to ask my opponent why this ship is here. It's barely mentioned in any reports. It's in this thread for 8 March 1942 as part of a Hawaii invasion force that got shot up, but it doesn't appear that it was seriously damaged then--and if it was, it would have gone to Japan, not Luganville. It was spotted in a seaplane-tender-led task force on 12 April near the Solomons but not attacked. A collision at sea, maybe?)

I hit Rabaul again with the Aussie Hudsons and a few Liberators that just flew in from Efate, splitting them between the airbase and port after the useless attack on ground forces yesterday. We sank two mine tenders and damaged a sub tender and a general tender. As much as I like that result, I'm not going to get away with that 3 days in a row, two was a gift. Tomorrow they'll go back to hitting a small group of marines near Milne like they were before the Luganville debacle.

My PBYs are reporting anchored ships at Tulagi. I'm guessing this is the small tanker convoy my S-boats have been terrorizing. The Liberators at Port Moresby can make that trip, so hopefully tomorrow we'll start some fires.

Molon Labe

09-19-21, 05:29 PM

21 April 1942
Kitakami disappears, chance meeting results in destruction of enemy troop convoy

Hawaii and Line Islands
The two destroyers that were escorting the southern supply convoy were never hit. They did a splash-and-go refueling at Pearl and hauled ass south towards Christmas Island to try to get clear of the naval bombers. On the way, they ran into an enemy convoy carrying troops. I'm guessing this meeting occurred because they had the same destination and nearly the same point of origin; i.e., he meant to take back Christmas Island with these guys. Or at least reinforce Palmyra:

Japanese Ships
xAK Yamasimo Maru, Shell hits 10, heavy fires
xAK Teikoku Maru, Shell hits 15, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Yamazato Maru, Shell hits 9, on fire
AMC Bankok Maru, Shell hits 24, and is sunk
xAP Hikawa Maru, Shell hits 15, and is sunk
Allied Ships
DD Patterson, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Cassin
Japanese ground losses:
312 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 22 destroyed, 25 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 23 (19 destroyed, 4 disabled)

That one hit the Patterson took cut the engagement short, they decided to break off after that hit. We also fired probably the full complement of onboard torpedoes but didn't get any hits to show for it. I'm guessing the Yamazato Maru survives, but that's it.

Java
An enemy PB hit a mine at Batavia while assisting the real minesweepers trying to clear the formerly-Allied port.

We managed to get a few fighters in the air today over Surabaya and shot down an Oscar and two Lillies. Another Lily and an Ann were shot down by flak. But the overall picture is the same, our remaining troops are being bombed and surrounded by enemy armies.

Ceram Sea
More good luck today. Scoutplanes spotted a troop transport convoy and handed the report of to B-17s based in Darwin. 10 B-17s found them off Ambon and attacked, hitting two of the ships with 500lb bombs, setting one ablaze and causing troop casualties.

Japan
USS Sculpin torpedoed and sank an enemy PB travelling alone near Toyohara--probably an ASW patrol.

Thailand
The enemy nearly caught up with my troops before they crossed the river into Raheng. At least I'm assuming that--I've seen the replay but I don't have the save file yet--but they had just 1 more mile to travel as of yesterday. We clashed in the air on the east side of the river as my bombing missions resumed, and our Hurricanes did awesome--just one lost with 2 Oscars and 7 Zeroes shot down. Significant damage to enemy troops below by our bombers.

Solomons Area
We hit the port at Luganville hard but didn't find any ships there. Did a damaged, burning, Kitakami escape? Or maybe the fires claimed it?

No joy on the tanker convoy. My Liberators hit Tulagi but didn't see any ships to bomb.

Molon Labe

09-20-21, 12:34 PM

22 April 1942

Japan
USS Sculpin spotted a small tanker off Toyohara but missed its torpedo shot. More important, we've located a tanker lane.

Hawaii and Line Islands
A midget sub was spotted and depth charged. The destroyer attacking it got a solid hit with the last pattern it had ammo to fire, which forced it to the surface to be gunned down by the cruiser that was probably its target.

Marshall Islands
USS Narwhal shot up an unescorted troop-carrying cargo ship, likely sinking it.

Solomons
USS Gato torpedoed the heavy cruiser Nachi off the Shortlands. It's not in danger of sinking but I'm sure it will need extensive repairs.

Luganville
Carrier-based Zeroes appeared over Luganville again, but were met by a wave of my P-39s---4 Zeroes down with 1 P-39 lost. We continued to bomb the port trying to get the cruiser, but we can't even confirm it's there anymore. I'm sure he felt the same frustration trying to clear out all the ships at Singapore and Pearl. This situation will hopefully improve once most of my bomber crews are recon trained (they use the recon skill on the way off of target, kinda like BDA), but for now, no such luck.

Thailand
We got 2 Oscars trying to stop our bombers near Raheng. His troops are apparently tired of being bombed and don't have the appetite for an opposed river crossing; they're turning around. I expect the front lines to stabilize now until someone is able to reinforce in mass. Also, we spotted some enemy troops coming through the mountains towards Burma. I've got recon monitoring them but a least for now they don't look like they have enough troops to be a threat.

Java and Sumatra
We got one or two P-40s airborne--for nothing--one shot down with no victories. Enemy bombing continued.

A Kingfisher on ASW duty off Oosthaven spotted an enemy DMS and hit it with a small bomb.

My scouts found a small troop convoy between Borneo and Sumatra and referred it to my Fulmars for a low-altitude gun and bomb attack. A CM escorting the convoy took a bomb hit for moderate damage, and a light cargo ship took 4 bombs plus several strafing runs, likely sinking it.

Enemy troops attacked Surabaya, reducing fortifications to level 3. Casualties 937 to 664 favoring us.

Indian Ocean
Repairs for the Indomitable completed at Columbo as the surface task force, including the damaged BB Ramillies and the CVL Hermes, arrived. Hermes is going to be demoted to a training carrier now that the Brits have 2 real carriers in theatre. We got an estimate on the time to repair Ramillies, and it makes more sense to send it to South Africa for the bigger yard there, despite the distance and even at half speed.

Molon Labe

09-21-21, 01:02 PM

23 April 1942

Celebes Sea
The S-41 was trying to find tankers but found an unescorted troop-carrying cargo ship instead. They had a night surface gun battle, both ships sustained some damage before the sub broke off.

Hawaii and the Line Islands
The destroyer USS Selfridge was torpedoed by one of the subs it was hunting. The destroyer-minesweeper Southard retaliated and scored some depth charge hits--and then a second sub came in and hit the Selfridge again to make damn sure she went down. Selfridge had probably been my most effective ASW asset at Christmas Island.

SouthPAC
Noumea and Efate now have mine tenders and my DMs are getting to work building defensive minefields.

Java and Sumatra
Attacks against Oosthaven resulted in 8 Allied fighters shot down with no victories. My Fulmars & other bombers attempted to hit ships off Batavia. The Fulmars were routed, but some B-25s got through. 5 Fulmars were shot down along with 4 P-40s, a B-25, and an A-20. We got only one Zero. The B-25s got 2 hits on a troop-carrying cargo ship--probably lethal damage.

China
I paid Hong Kong a visit with bombers again to try to hit ships under repair, and bounced a bomb off the BB Hyuga's armor.

Thailand
We have a lot of bombers failing to link up with escorting fighters. It cost us 2 Blenheims and a Hudson. Heavy enemy casualties on the ground, though.

Solomons
S-34 found a damaged cruiser-minelayer approaching Tulagi and put 3 fish into her. Just a little overkill.

Molon Labe

09-21-21, 03:00 PM

24 April 1942

Japan
USS Sculpin torpedoed and sank a PB that was patrolling in the Shikuka-Toyhara area.

Borneo
USS Sargo laid mines at Singkawang (the base that's probably hosting the cruisers that made a run at Palembang a few days ago), then made a gun attack against a nearby unescorted cargo ship. Both the target and sub were hit before it broke off.

Thailand
Our fighter-to-bomber coordination issues persisted. This time it cost us 2 Wellingtons and 2 Blenheims; a Hurricane was shot down as well in a flight that was escorted. We blasted 4 Nates and an Oscar in exchange. Damage to enemy ground forces was, again, quite serious. I think the cause of the high damage, when it's been high, is that his armies are prioritizing movement speed over defense--the drop in effectiveness corresponded to when they had stopped moving, and now it's high again now that they're moving again. It's the highway of death in Iraq down there! Just with a lot more enemy fighters. I think they're up to 100 based in Bangkok now.

Malaya
There are enemy task forces in 3 ports along the east coast. We attacked the convoy at Mersing, and the enemy CAP had its way with our escorting fighters. 7 Hurricanes shot down vs. 1 Oscar. The Wirraways they were escorting failed to score any hits on the cargo ships.

Hawaii
So, I completely forgot I had ordered 4 supply convoys to Pearl instead of 3. 2 were wiped out, already mentioned in this thread. I turned the 3rd around--and forgot about the fourth. It arrived in Netty range today and got one of their ships blown away. They are actually relatively fast ships, relatively close, and the forecast is for heavy overcast skies. I could turn them around, but I remember choosing these guys for being relatively fast but with poor fuel efficiency. They're probably more expendable than The Expendables were. So I think they've got a good shot at getting a boat our two through, they'll proceed.

SouthPAC
My minelayers at Efate found a sub sneaking around and depth charged it for light damage. I hope the little bastage is boxed in by the new minefield.

Java
Enemy troops attacked Surabaya, taking the level 3 forts down all the way to 0. I don't think I've ever seen 3 levels taken down at once before. Casualties were even at ~1150. I have no doubt their next attack will capture the base, effectively ending the Java campaign.

Molon Labe

09-21-21, 11:03 PM

25 April 1942
The fall of Surabaya

SouthPAC
Oh, I boxed in that sub at Efate all right. One small and one large sub hit mines there; the little guy hit two. I'm sure the small one is gone, the larger one might be able to limp to Truk.

Thailand
The Kako showed up to shell Tavoy again. I'm a little steamed that we managed not to see it coming with my improved air search routes. But we still have a CVBG in position that we didn't last time, and we did spot the Kako retreating towards the Strait of Malacca. So maybe we get her tomorrow at sunrise.

I let my bomber rest and had a fighter squadron sweep the skies over the retreating armies. We got 8 Oscars and 3 Nates at the cost of 2 Hurricanes--and a bunch more shot up and grounded. As much as I'd like to send the bombers back tomorrow, my fighters need time to recuperate now.

China
We got another non-penetrating hit on the Hyuga at Hong Kong. You would think by now he'd have a CAP there.

I've moved a mostly trained-up squadron of British B-25 long-range recon planes to central China and have started taking notes on enemy force levels.

Java
Surabaya was captured today with the surrender/loss of 5800 men. A destroyer tender at harbor was scuttled to prevent capture, also destroyed were 8 grounded planes that couldn't evacuate.

We have a few units scattered elsewhere on Java, but we hold no territory of strategic importance--it's just a mop-up operation for him now.

https://i.ibb.co/ftcwr5K/1942-April-25-strategic.png

Molon Labe

09-22-21, 12:17 PM

26 April 1942

Solomons
An enemy cargo ship evaded an attack by the S-34 in The Slot only to be attacked and sunk by the S-42 a bit further west.

Hawaii and Line Islands
That supply convoy got through! There were casualties, but I got several ships through undamaged and a few that were hit at the docks but still managed to offload. It appears the weather (heavy rain in AM, light rain PM) significantly harmed enemy accuracy. Hopefully we offload everything we need overnight. This could be huge.

I shelled Palmyra with 4 cruisers, plus a raid of Devastators. I'm mostly trying to get a feel for how well defended it is. Intel suggests there is at least a fraction of a tank regiment here, and recon is confirming a large number of vehicles. But, this raid hit mostly non-combat squads, and no vehicles. Hmmm....

I think I'm going to pass for now. Even with my armies recovering, I don't want to have to maintain a carrier presence to provide air cover when the KB could be headed here for all I know. Better to build up the base on Christmas Island and put B-26s there to bomb Palmyra into submission. Also, Christmas Island had been the bigger threat; Palmyra's airbase is, at least for now, too small to support Betties/Nells that could potentially disrupt my sea lanes.

Also, I asked for outside help with the Hornet's bombers...and the theory is the problem is the drop tank setting. I've been playing with their settings, including turning drop tanks on/off, so they've declined missions while their drop tanks were on. But, the database shows that the drop tanks are centerline mounted--just like their 1000 lb bomb. So that probably is the problem. Maybe in the next few days we can get Hornet's dive bombers to attack again.

At Japan, we spotted a large convoy returning from the east, I have to assume that was a supply run to Lahaina returning to base. So, we know this supply run exists, I just haven't found a good place to interdict it.

Japan
USS Salmon got into a gunfight with a light cargo ship passing between Okinawa and Kyushu. Kind of embarrassing, but Salmon took a hit and disengaged without causing serious damage to the small enemy ship.

Sumatra
Enemy Sallies hit Palembang unescorted and paid the price as our Kittyhawks (P-40s) and Buffalos tore into them. 10 shot down by fighters, another by flak, no Allied losses. Light damage caused by the 14 bombers that got through.

Oosthaven was targeted for sweeps, costing us 2 Hurricanes with no victories. My prediction is that Oosthaven is where the invasion will come--it's a short trip from Batavia and they'll have local air superiority without much difficulty.

That drop tank issue with the Hornet is probably also the reason my Vildebeests at Singapore aren't flying, so if the invasion comes further north they may have an unpleasant surprise waiting for them.

Malaya
Wirraways attempted another attack at supply ships at Mersing and missed. 2 Oscars shot down by escorting Hurricanes and the Martlet (Wildcat) in its combat debut for the Brits. We lost a Hurricane and 2 Martlets.

Java
Banjoewangi has been captured

China
He's sending an army-probably a division strong, to cut off Chusien's supply lines. I've intercepted them with a bigger army (I hope). We fight tomorrow.

Thailand
A small army has cut off my southern group's supply route. I'm ordering my southern group to take them out before shortages become a problem. I'm ordering sweeps and recon to observe them as well to make sure it's as small as I think it is and to evaluate whether it would be efficient to task my bombers here.

Molon Labe

09-22-21, 06:54 PM

27 April 1942
Radio silence exists for a reason

West Coast
https://i.ibb.co/CznhTw6/1942-April-27-westcoast.png

I noticed this as I was finishing up my turn: SIGINT reporting radio transmissions just outside of my existing patrol zones. My best guess is this is a submarine looking to pick off damaged ships returning for repairs. So, I've taken a Catalina squadron off training duty and put it on ASW duty--just barely has the range in this mode to make it there. I've also steered the Saratoga and the battleship task force around it so they can hopefully make it back to San Fran without incident. Oh, and 3 destroyers from the Lexington's old battle group are headed there to investigate as well.

Japan
USS Pompano made a night surface attack against a rather large cargo ship 80 miles southeast of Kyoto. It bounced several dud Mk14s off it but did get one detonation, plus a few gun hits. The torpedo hit didn't appear lethal by itself, but maybe with the gun damage too she'll go down before she can get back to port.

Sumatra
Palembang got swept, costing us 7 Kittyhawks and 2 Buffalos. We got 4 Zeroes in exchange. The air campaign in Sumatra is going to be short.

Hawaii and Line Islands
The cargo ships unloaded but were hit on the way out. We have two survivors, one of which is damaged and is going to take its chances docking at Pearl. But Pearl is now fairly well-stocked. I'll have a projection in a few days for how long it can hold out. If the battleships were still there it might be as little as 1-2 weeks, but I suspect we can do much better now.

I estimate the KB could be at the Line Islands as early as 4/30 if they started heading this way the last time we spotted them. I have some troops that still need to move, but it's essentially time to go. Enemy sub activity has dropped off, so that's helpful.

China
The army trying to cut off Chusien was weak, we handled them easily.

Recon is giving me good news in the Keifeing area in the northwest. It looks like the balance of forces is favorable for an offensive.

Still no CAP at Hong Kong. We hit the Hyuga again with a single bomb.

Thailand
My bombers got back to work but I couldn't solve my escort problem. We ended up losing 4 Hurricanes, 1 Blenheim, and 3 Wellingtons. Losing the Wellingtons in particular hurts. We got 2 Zeroes and an Oscar. Damage on the ground was relatively light, it looks like they're going to hold Pisanuloke instead of retreating to Rangoon. That's fine, I need my bombers to hit that pesky unit that cut off my southern group's supply anyway, and at least for now my sweeps aren't running into fighters there.

Malaya
Another attempt at ships in Mersing, another 4 fighters down with no hits to show for it. I'm turning these raids off until my fighters can recuperate. We just got a delivery of Mohawks so we should be stronger in a few days.

Molon Labe

09-23-21, 08:47 AM

28 April 1942

Hawaii and Line Islands
The coup-de-grace against the damaged cargo ship headed back to Pearl was administered by an enemy submarine instead of a Betty or Nell. So just one survivor, plus the destroyer escorting it. Posthumous Silver Stars all around--the data for now shows Pearl can hold out about 40 days. Less if the bomber raids resume in full force or if a new battleship force shows up. Hmmm, where's the Yamato?

The Enterprise and Hornet launched a strike on Palmyra as a goodbye. One of Hornet's two dive bomber squadrons did fly the mission. Why not both? Who knows, but at least removing the drop tanks seems to be partially working.

Sumatra
Oosthaven was shelled by a cruiser-destroyer force, which also sank the minesweeper assigned to the port there. Damage was relatively light because there isn't much there.

Palembang was swept by Zeroes; 3 Kittyhawks went down without taking any Zeroes out.

We sent 3 Fulmars out for a low-level attack on an unescorted, damaged cargo ship. Their bombs missed, but they strafed it too. 4 DB-7Bs (A-20s) followed that up and scored a bomb hit. I think that's a kill.

Thailand and Burma
Our southern army moved just in time; a force of 10,000 troops sallied from Bangkok and is now in the hex my forces just vacated. We attack the small force cutting us off tomorrow. Our bombers hit that group for minimal damage thanks to the rough terrain.

Sweeps targeted Tavoy instead of Raheng today, and we embarrassed them- 8 Oscars shot down with no Allied losses.

It appears the bulk of the northern enemy forces have been moved by rail back to Bangkok. We both seem to be counting on the other not wanting to cross the river at Raheng while under fire.

Recon now indicates significant bomber forces are based in Bangkok. On a hopefully unrelated note, my surface task force guarding the approach to Tavoy was overflown by a scout plane.

A little further north in Burma, the small army I've been monitoring is heading south instead of west toward Moulmein, and a second small unit has appeared behind it. It appears their objective is to cut off supply lines to Raheng rather than a flank attack on my bases in Burma. The enemy appears to be small enough for my local forces--which have been gradually reinforced ever since Kinky Boots launched--to handle.

Java Sea
Off the southeast corner of Borneo, the O23 torpedoed and sank a PB that was part of an ASW task force. Subchasers retaliated and damaged the sub a bit before it got away.

Solomons Area
I sent bombers back to Rabaul, sinking a tender and damaging an apparently empty airbase.

Molon Labe

09-23-21, 10:36 AM

29 April 1942

Line Islands
I sent the 4 cruisers back to Palmyra to shoot it up, causing come casualties and moderate airfield/port facility damage, and also damaging a single Betty that's probably there as a scout.

Celebes Sea
USS Finback made a night torpedo/gun attack on an unescorted cargo ship and managed to get 2 Mk14s to detonate (and at least that many duds that hit). That's a kill.

Thailand
Sweeps targeted Tavoy. We lost 4 AVG P-40s and a Hurricane, he lost 3 Oscars and 3 Zeroes.

The unit cutting our southern forces off was just 1/3 of a battalion. We wiped them out; casualties 1161 to 83. The next issue is the force of 10,000 following us. Well, my force is 9072 strong, and we're now in the mountains with a terrain bonus to defense. So maybe I just camp here.

Ostfriese

09-23-21, 11:26 AM

Hmmm, where's the Yamato?

Be careful what you wish for ;)

Molon Labe

09-24-21, 06:34 PM

30 April 1942

Japan
USS Trout got into a gunfight with a light cargo ship in the Korea-Japan gap. The ship was set alight by multiple 3" and even .50cal hits, but getting close enough to use ma deuce meant it could hit back, so the Trout took some damage as well.

Sumatra
Oosthaven got shelled again, and then swept. We got 2 fighters up against the sweep and lost both.

Timor
In a rare sub v sub surface encounter, the O-24 torpedoed and sank a small Japanese sub. This is probably the 3rd such encounter of the war, but I believe it's the first to result in a torpedo hit.

Thailand
They attempted a sweep at Tavoy, we broke even at one fighter apiece. The force of 10,000 has caught up with my troops. I think I have the slightly stronger force; roughly even numbers of troops and artillery, but I have more tanks. I'm not going to order an attack, I'll let them try to hit me and hopefully get some kills thanks to the terrain defensive bonus.

Philippines
At long last, an enemy army is moving against my final base, Cagayan. These guys have been cut off since forever and have been getting bombed daily. They're going to fold like a cheap table when the enemy arrives.

Java
The enemy siezed several coastal islands with paratroops as mopup operations on the mainland continue.

--------------------
Strategic Outlook:

We're still in no shape to take on the KB directly, part of that is due to the numbers--effectively 5 on 2 right now thanks to the Lex and Saratoga both being down for repairs/upgrades. But as long as he feels compelled to make Alfred Mayhan roll in his grave by dividing his fleet carriers, I'll be looking for opportunities to defeat a smaller group in detail.

Setting aside Pearl, his campaigns in most areas are behind historical schedule (the Phillipines being the major exception):

Philippines: Historically, resistance ended April 9, with Corregidor mopped up by May 6. In this campaign, Bataan was taken on February 9 in this campaign.

Malaya: Singapore historically fell February 15. Here, we hold Singapore. We will be able to continue to hold Singapore until Sumatra falls.

Borneo: Historically, Balikpapan fell on January 24th. In this campaign, he got it on 15 February here.

Java: Historically fell March 8. In this campaign, April 25.

Sumatra: Historically 28 March. Here, the campaign is just beginning.

Burma: Historically, invaded December 1941; here I've invaded Thailand from Burma instead.

So, overall I think I'm doing OK. My biggest problem at the moment is that he's going to knock over most of Sumatra like it's nothing. Palembang itself will be a hard nut to crack, but once Palembang is isolated, it's going to become difficult to keep Singapore supplied and they're going to be in the same ticking-clock situation that Pearl is in. My best bet to change that situation is probably to re-invade Malaya from the north and start taking back airfields. But, with 2 enemy divisions deployed to Bangkok stalling my advance, and with my air forces suffering significant attrition, it's going to take a lot of reinforcements to get that moving again. Japan, on the other hand, seems to be suffering their losses with a smile and pressing on.

Of note, the Brits are now up to 3 carriers in theatre, which means if I had sufficient land and land-based air forces available, an amphibious operation bypassing Bangkok might just be possible. I might be able to scrounge up some armies in India, but fighters I just don't have right now. Without fighters to protect the supply ships I'd be bringing in to save Singapore (and sustain my armies), there's not much point.

I reviewed the Japan Economy Guide, and according to it, Japan starts with enough fuel to last 200 days--just for their economy, ship deployments are extra. They've also got a year's worth of oil to send to their own refineries, so after their stockpiles are depleted they can still produce fuel, just not nearly enough to sustain themselves. So that means they're probably going to be in dire straits before the end of June--but again, that doesn't account for ship deployments.

So far, he's seized small-ish oil/fuel centers in northern and eastern Borneo. (And soon, Surabaya will be producing for him as well, he just needs to clear out the defensive minefield.) I've been mining these ports pretty frequently, blockading them with subs, and even hitting convoys headed there with air attacks. That said, I know there are some tankers getting through. I can't really quantify it. He's also been refueling some of his fleets from these bases directly during high OPTEMPO, so a good chunk of his fuel costs aren't coming out of Japan's stores. And he'll be able to continue to operate in the Java Sea area using "my" fuel instead of Japan's.

Final conclusion on the fuel situation: He has to be under pressure. I don't know when it's going to become critical, but he's going to need to take Palembang and establish a safe convoy route at some point. Hopefully that pressure makes him take some bad gambles.

Ostfriese

09-25-21, 02:01 AM

But as long as he feels compelled to make Alfred Mayhan roll in his grave by dividing his fleet carriers, I'll be looking for opportunities to defeat a smaller group in detail.

Well, the Japanese made that mistake (Coral Sea, anyone?), so why shouldn't he be allowed to repeat the same mistake? ;)

To add to your strategic outlook: your opponent has also lost way more ships than Japan lost historically (they didn't lose anything larger than a destroyer before the battle of the Coral Sea). That may save him some fuel in the long run, but I'd say he'd rather have his battleships and less fuel.

Your losses are also somewhat higher than they were in reality (mostly thanks to the ships destroyed at Pearl - is anyone of the ships there salvagable in your game?), but to a lesser degree.

Molon Labe

09-25-21, 08:43 AM

Your losses are also somewhat higher than they were in reality (mostly thanks to the ships destroyed at Pearl - is anyone of the ships there salvagable in your game?), but to a lesser degree.

If it's "sunk", it's gone. But I suspect that the game has something in the code that resists ruling a ship in port "sunk" unless it's hit really, really badly so that you end up with ships hit in port that can get back into the war months down the line. If Pearl only had the original 12/7 attack, I'd have a bunch of disabled battleships back in service by now.

At Singapore, the HMS Repulse is still under repair after being bombed repeatedly in port, I might get her back someday... in about 3 years.

Molon Labe

09-25-21, 09:16 AM

1 May 1942

Ceram Sea
The KVIII put two of its small-ish torpedoes into a cargo ship that appears to have been carrying an artillery unit, sinking it.

Hawaii
USS Pollack observed tenders and cargo ships approaching Lahaina and took a 4-torpedo shot at a repair ship. It missed. It tried to approach again but the seaplane tender in the group apparently had ASW capability, spotted it, and drove it off.

Timor
IJN Hiei and 4 destroyers approached Koepang to shell it and were engaged by 5 of my last PT boats. The PTs were spotted early and never made it to torpedo range, all were sunk. Their sacrifice prevented a substantial bombardment of Koepang, though. We launched several airstrikes against transports on the east side of the island as well as the Hiei but all missed.

We should have had additional strikes come in from Darwin, Australia, but deploying heavy bombers there depleted their supply faster than the roads could replenish it. Cargo ships with supply had just arrived this turn to start restocking the base, but too late to take advantage of the convoys spotted near Timor.

Strait of Malacca
The IJN Kako blundered into a light cargo ship that was running resources to Singapore but decided not to engage--indicating it's Winchester after its last shelling of Tavoy. No escorts. Later in the day, it was attacked by my Wirraways and Vildebeests from Singapore--YES! my torpedo bombers finally flew a mission! One Vildebeest was shot down by AA before it got close enough to drop, but we did hit it once. So now we have a wounded, unescorted, out-of-ammo (except AA) heavy cruiser limping through the Strait. Two submarines just finished repair at Singapore, so I've ordered them to blockade the southeast exit. The Brits have two task forces at the other side. Enjoy your future career as a reef, Kako.

Japan
USS Salmon torpedoed and sank a light cargo ship that was part of a small convoy passing between Kyushu and Okinawa.

Thailand
We had air battles around our northern and southern groups. These groups need names--going forward, the north group is designated Peter and the southern Lauren. Over force Peter, we turned away a Zero sweep, shooting down 4 and losing a Hurricane. Force Lauren was targeted with a raid of recently-arrived Sallies escorted by Oscars. Our fighters mostly ignored the Oscars and tore into the Sallies, we got 2 Oscars and 12 Sallies. There were about 50 bombers, though, and they dealt some damage to force Lauren. The enemy army attacked and casualties were regretfully even. I'm not sure if that's because of the bombers or if it their troops are just better.

Sumatra
Oosthaven's being bombed regularly now. We didn't get any fighters up to resist but shot down one bomber with AA. 23 paratroops landed near Benkoelen, a rear area base on the southwest side, apparently hoping to find it undefended. We wiped them out.

Molon Labe

09-25-21, 01:38 PM

2 May 1942
IJN Kako links up with Aoba and others, survives for now

Marshall Islands
USS Haddock spotted a tanker and two oilers in a convoy here and made a failed attack attempt. Interesting that these would show up here, there doesn't need to be a whole lot of fuel here... just enough to support the occasional supply run, ASW operations, and possibly a sub base. Makes me wonder if a major fleet--maybe the KB--is hiding in here where my scoutplanes can't see it.

Timor
Hiei bombarded Koepang; moderate facility damage, 2 bombers destroyed on the ground, a few more disabled.

Strait of Malacca
An enemy submarine got too close to Singapore and hit 2 mines. Should be a kill.

We didn't spot the Kako today, but we found the Aoba instead, also unescorted. Our Vildebeests flew two sorties against it. In the first, our fighters bounced a bunch of Zeroes that tried to interfere--5 kills. But the Aoba turned into the torpedo attack, causing it to miss. In the second sortie the Zeroes got to the bombers and shot one down. The rest were pressured and missed again. Scouts now report a single task force of 4 ships in the area--behind my sub blockade. Subs aren't very good for holding choke points, sadly. A 3rd sub just completed repairs/upgrades, maybe its new radar will give it a better chance. I've also got a new squadron of Beaufort torpedo bombers that should be ready to fly tomorrow, if the enemy is still in range.

Sumatra
Apparently needing retribution for the paratroopers lost at Benkoelen, he sent his bombers there today. Escorting fighters shot down a Buffalo, and his bombers killed a very proportional 30 people on the ground. A sweep against Tavoy resulted in 3 Oscars down along with a P-40 and a Hurricane.

I said earlier he was suffering the attrition here with a smile but I'm starting to reconsider that. We seem to be settling into parity. Or maybe he got tired of me bombing Hong Kong and sent some fighters from here to there. Also, I took a closer look at my reinforcements over the next month, and I actually have an American air group that's going to be available around the end of the month, 60+ fighters. If I'm willing to spend all my political points, I can afford a full division from India now, possibly another by the end of the month. So maybe I will have what I need to either take or bypass Bangkok to threaten the rest of Malaya.

Thailand
More troops are sallying from Bangkok. This could be bad. Force Lauren has been ordered to start moving back up the road northwest through the mountains.

Reinforcements
I think this will be worth mentioning going forward.
762nd Tank Battalion arrives at Pearl Harbor (Full Strength--yes, it's annoying that they arrive in places under siege instead of off-map or close to it)
221st USN Base Force arrives at San Francisco (about half strength, restricted)
xAK Zachary Taylor arrives at Portland

Also, Avengers are now in production. 2 built so far.

Molon Labe

09-26-21, 11:06 AM

3 May 1942
Failed air raids everywhere...

Strait of Malacca
The "3rd sub" from yesterday was the Sargo; if found the Aoba and a destroyer and fired 4 fish at Aoba--and missed. The destroyer retaliated but fortunately wasn't able to capitalize on catching the Sargo in shallow water. It got away with minor damage.

Sumatra
7 DD shelled Oosthaven for light facility damage.

Enemy ships are all over the place right now, and our bombers tried to do something about it:
2 B-25s vs CA Kumano: missed
8 B-25s vs 2 DD: missed
5 Beaufort vs 2 DD: missed
3 Blenheim vs 1 DD: missed
4 Fulmar vs ?: Failed to find target due to weather/range
4 Fulmar vs 1 DD: missed, 1 Fulmar shot down by flak
5 B-25 vs CA Kumano & 1 DD: missed
3 B-25 vs 1 DD: missed
4 Beaufort vs cargo ship: 2 Beauforts shot down by Oscars, missed
3 Blenheim vs DD: missed

Ceram Sea
O19 hit a cargo ship with a torpedo, wasn't satisfied and fired a 2nd salvo--getting 3 hits. Pretty sure that ship is toast.

B-17s hit a convoy near Ambon, scoring one 500-lb bomb hit on an empty troop transport.

Thailand
No enemy bombers today, just a sweep on Tavoy. 2 Oscars and 1 Hurricane downed. I sent a sweep of my own over Force Lauren but no one came out to play with them. We had a few bombers hit the enemy forces chasing Lauren but didn't do much damage thanks to the rough terrain.

China
I moved the Wellingtons from Thailand to China to participate in the Hong Kong raids. Today there were Nates on CAP--and they did manage to take down a Wellington despite only being armed with .30cal machine guns. Sad! Weather hampered the strike, damage was mild.

Reinforcements
xAK Daisy Moller arrives at Aden
YMS-84 arrives at Stockton
174th Infantry Regiment arrives at Tacoma (full strength but restricted)
D Det USN Port Svc arrives at San Francisco (reconstituting a force lost when a Pacific island was invaded)

Intel reports the CL Yubari was sunk in the Java Sea some time ago--I think this was the one that ran out of fuel and got hit by a torpedo bomber.

Molon Labe

09-27-21, 08:27 AM

4 May 1942

Sumatra
A bombardment task force attacked Palembang, first sinking the lone PT sheltering there and an AKL I was using to run supplies to Singapore. And then driving into a minefield:
DD Kamikaze, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Kumano, Mine hits 1
The shelling mostly hit the airfield, only one Kittyhawk was destroyed, but facility damage was serious.

A little further northwest at Bengkalis, an enemy sub sank an AKL running resources to Singapore.

At the northern end of the Strait, my British CVBG has been overflown by a scoutplane.

Malaya
We tried to raid merchant traffic at Kuantan, Oscars shot down 2 Martlets, 2 Mohawks and a Wirraway; we got nothing.

SouthPAC
A sub was located and depth charged by the 2 Canadian corvettes at Noumea. They were very accurate, scoring multiple critical hits, which forced the sub to surface, where it was gunned down. The sub survived long enough on the surface to take a torpedo shot at us--the corvettes only had a single 4" gun each, plus machine guns.

The Enterprise-Hornet CVBG was detected by a scoutplane near Fiji--has to be from a sub.

Thailand
No enemy fighter sweeps, and no resistance to my bombing. Weird.
The enemy armies attacked Force Lauren instead, casualties 1278 to 514 in my favor. The enemy troops include elements of the 1st Division, which is a restricted unit--so he's spending political points to reinforce this area.

Timor
He's landing on some of the smaller islands near Timor; close enough to draw a strike from Koepang. Our Falcons hit a troop-carrying cargo ship, causing some troop casualties.

Ceram Sea
B-17s from Darwin hit Kendari, sinking a mine tender.

Japan
USS Pickerel was bombed by a patrol aircraft near Nagasaki. It's headed home for repairs.

Line Islands
A PBY spotted an enemy sub and bombed it. I expect it's at least headed home.

Reinforcements
VP-61 arrives at Alameda (2/12PBYs, restricted unit)
No.110 Sqn RAF arrives at Aden (16/16 Blenheim)
23rd FG/76th FS arrives at Aden (22/25 P-40s)
XV Indian Corps arrives at Madras (Corps HQ)

The aircraft arriving at Aden are already being packed up to ship to India, they'll end up on the frontlines in Thailand/Malaya. The Corps HQ will likely find its way there too.

Molon Labe

09-27-21, 10:45 PM

5 May 1942
Bogey approaching Pago from the North, evidence of sub activity in Pacific and Indian Ocean shipping lanes

Sumatra
Oosthaven was bombarded again. There's not much here and the airbase is already neutralized so this is almost a non-event.

Falcons and B-25s took a run at the mine-damaged Kumano but missed.

Malaya
The Oscars at Mersing took care of business today, shooting down one of my Buffalos, 2 Martlets, and 3 Wirraways with no losses.

Java Sea
Denpasar (small island across the Java Sea from the Makassar Strait) has been captured. This is a nice little seaplane base.

Ceram Sea
A pair of P-39s strafed and bombed a troop carrying cargo ship offloading troops at Pantar. A trio of Falcon bombers followed that up, hitting the ship with bombs, probably finishing it off.

Hawaii
Several AKLs approached the coast and got completely nuked by my artillery. I assume this was a supply run.

So much for 40 days--supply is becoming an issue again. The bombings have stepped up and it's burning through my stores.

Thailand
Status quo is holding. We lost one Hurricane to a sweep over Tavoy.

Troop and supply convoys are reporting being snooped by floatplanes between Calcutta and Rangoon. Subs.

Line Islands
The Japanese thought it would be a good idea to attack Christmas Island with Mavis patrol aircraft. The first wave of 4 was routed with all 4 shot full of holes by USMC Wildcats. The second wave was just 1, and it was shot down.

A PBY bombed a submarine near Christmas Island, the second such hit in recent days.

Further south, one of my tanker convoys was snooped by a floatplane--I'm sure it came from a sub.

SouthPAC
https://i.ibb.co/z2tQKtP/1942-May-6-Bogey.png
We have a single unidentified contact approaching Pago from the North. There's no reason to send a civilian convoy this way so I'm assuming this is a warship, which makes me wonder what it's doing here or where its friends are. The Hornet and Enterprise are nearby, but I'm not tasking them to this yet. I have a cruiser-destroyer group very close by, I'm going to station them at the edge of Pago's fighter's coverage range and see if the PBYs can get us better info. Pago hosts some Helldivers too, so if they get too close we'll hopefully soften whatever it/they are up before our skimmers get involved.

Reinforcements
Repairs completed on CA Northampton at Sydney, ship returned to service (repaired torpedo damage)
No.20 Sqn RAF arrives at Jamshedpur (bomber training squadron)
139th USA Base Force arrives at Fort Ord (full strength, unrestricted)
33rd Aviation Base Force arrives at Eastern USA (full strength, unrestricted)

I'm starting to reorganize my destroyers. I'm swapping old ones for modern ones whenever a convoy pulls in near a naval fleet so that the old guys hopefully don't face anything scarier than a submarine. Also, recently upgraded DDs are meeting up with task forces so that DDs in need of upgrades can rotate back to the shipyards.

Molon Labe

09-28-21, 10:28 PM

6 May 1942
British bombers massacred over Thailand after failing to link up with fighter escorts

Truk
USS Seawolf observed a massive troop transport convoy (8 AP, 6 AK, 1 CL, 1 E) arriving at Truk. It took a shot at a transport but missed.

Bay of Bengal
An AKL running supplies from India to Sri Lanka was torpedoed and sunk. The troop convoy from Calcutta arrived in Rangoon without incident, but the supply convoy behind it was snooped by a sub-based floatplane.

Thailand
The bombers supporting Force Lauren failed to link up with their Hurricane escorts and ran into a wall of Oscars. They pressed on anyway. The first wave, 17 Hudsons and 4 Blenheims, was wiped out completely. Another 3 Hudsons and 4 Blenheims that were straggling were shot down as well. Of the maybe 3-4 Blenheims that made it to the target, 1 was lost to AA. After all that, a few Hurricanes arrived and shot down a Nate.

The enemy troops, led by the 5th and 38th Divisions, attacked Force Lauren but were turned away, casualties 1743 to 145. I like holding the mountains.

Near Rangoon, the second army coming through the mountains appears to be much larger than the lead element. It still doesn't appear to be enough to take anything from me, so in a sense this is good news--he's sent a substantial number of troops through mountains without a supply line hoping to find a weak rear area. He's going to run into equal numbers of my troops who are well supplied and not fatigued from a long, rough march. I'd say we'd also be bombing the hell out of them too, but... yeah, we don't have many bombers left.

South China Sea
USS Sargo loaded up some mines after failing to track down the Kako and Aoba. It arrived in Miri today to drop off the mines. After that, it ran into the Atago and put a torpedo in her side. The Atago was damaged by a pair of mines a month ago, I suspect she just got out of the repair yard and was attempting to join a task force here. Well, now she gets to go right back.

Java Sea
An enemy land unit made a shock attack against the garrison of Mataram but failed to take the base. I think the small unit is vulnerable to a counterattack now, so I've given the order, plus I'll send some Hudsons to bomb here to help our push.

SouthPAC
The bogey--now bogeys--are holding position north of Pago. As they didn't approach, my surface task force did not engage. Current classification is 2 ships, 1 of which is a tanker. Which makes no sense. My best guess, these are cargo ships being sacrificed to test my reaction time, or to confirm the presence of my carriers before the KB begins an operation somewhere.

Reinforcements
VF-42 arrives at San Francisco (2/27 F4F-3. Yorktown's fighter squadron being reformed--they're going to be a training squadron for now; outfitted with a fresh batch of F4F-4s)
No.82 Sqn RAF arrives at Aden (2/16 Blenhiems. I'm designating this a training squadron as well, transitioned them to obsolete Lysander bombers with the 2 Blenheims going to the replacement pool for my other squadrons. There's no sense in trying to equip this unit when I don't have enough planes for the squadrons I already have)
13th Australian Hvy AA Regiment arrives at Sydney (fully equipped, restricted)
18th Canadian Brigade arrives at Victoria (41% strength, restricted)

DMS Dorsey beginning refit in shipyard at Los Angeles (AA upgrade, radar)
SS Grampus taken out of commission to begin refit at Brisbane (radar)

Molon Labe

09-29-21, 11:07 AM

7 May 1942

Timor
IJN Hiei bombarded Koepang overnight. It doesn't seem to have had a lot of ammunition for the task, and damage was surprisingly light: 1 bomber destroyed, a few more damaged, light facility damage. They might have succeeded in disrupting my planned bombing of Mataram, that strike never took off.

Java Sea
Our planned counterattack on Mataram amounted to nothing (not that we had anything to lose, though). He landed a bunch more troops so we were horribly outnumbered by the time the attack took place. Plus he bombed the snot out of the island, while our bombers never got there. Mataram is captured.

Hawaii
USS Flying Fish ran itself out of ammo attacking two cargo ships trying to resupply enemy armies at Pearl. It torpedoed and likely sank one and shot up another with its gun. Sadly, torpedo ammunition efficiency is pretty horrible when more than half of them are duds.

I'm going to set up a submarine operation to try to keep Pearl supplied. I have a bunch of subs patrolling places that aren't getting any traffic or that just aren't mission critical, so I can spare several boats.

SouthPAC
We engaged and sank the bogey, VIDing it as a single cargo ship. I wonder what happens next now that this sacrifice has taken place. If nothing else, he knows I have 4 cruisers operating in this area, but he should already know that from the Christmas Island op.

Solomons
A Liberator raid at the Guadalcanal port produced a hit on a seaplane tender. I'm very surprised I've been allowed to have my way with Guadalcanal and Rabaul. I'm guessing the increased Zero presence at Lahaina was at the expense of this area.

Sumatra
The enemy attacked Oosthaven with a lot of bombers from much lower altitude than usual, as low as 6,000 feet. He paid for it--7 Anns, 6 Lilies all shot down by flak.

We sent 9 B-25s after the heavy cruiser Kumano, escorted by 6 Australian Kittyhawks. The Kittyhawks proved no great barrier to the 31 Zeroes protecting the ship, 2 were shot down without enemy loss. But the B-25s themselves were a meat grinder. Most of the Zeroes were shot up. 1 was shot down. 2 B-25s were shot down, but the rest made it to the target---and missed.

Bay of Bengal
The supply convoy made it safely to Rangoon, no sub attack materialized.

West Coast
A floatplane was spotted spying on San Francisco. I've surged ASW assets again and assigned some USMC Buffalos to CAP.

Reinforcements
CLAA Atlanta has made it through the Canal and is approaching San Francisco just in time for the enemy sub to be snooping around. I'm giving it extra DDs to complete its journey. Its transit from the Canal took so long it's already due for an upgrade, which means I probably won't deploy it with the Lex, which finishes its upgrade in a few days.

CLAA San Diego arrives at Balboa (Panama Canal)--fortunately this one already has the upgrade.

SS S-31 arrives at San Francisco -- Assigned to Pearl supply run

xAK Samuel Adams arrives at Alameda

54th PG/42nd PS arrives at Eastern USA - (18/25 P-39, restricted) - training squadron. I wish I had obsolete airframes to give to this unit so I could send those P-39s to the front.

North Pacific arrives at Dutch Harbor (HQ unit, close to full strength)

A major troop convoy has arrived at Sydney from the US. It's delivering replacement base forces for Brisbane (the unit previously there was moved, I think, to Milne) along with a general buildup of Seabees, artillery, and AA. I took the opportunity to swap a couple destroyers--old ones with the convoy, newer ones with upgrades to join local combat task forces.

A squadron of B-25s from Aden arrived in India. Once they offload they'll be headed east--I originally intended them to deploy to Burma/Thailand, but now I think they'll do more good in China.

Molon Labe

09-30-21, 08:28 AM

8 May 1942

South China Sea
The S-37 torpedoed and sank a cargo ship off the northwest corner of Borneo in a night surface attack. She took minor damage from the ship's guns in exchange.

Philippines
The enemy armies--smaller than the US/Philippine garrison it opposed--attacked Cagayan and forced a retreat. I'm surprised they didn't just surrender.

SouthPAC
4 Mavis floatplanes tried to attack an amphibious group delivering troops to Pago. The local P-40 squadron responded, shooting down 2 and sending 2 more home full of holes before they could reach their targets.

Between the subs, the cargo ship, and the Mavises, I feel like this whole area is being probed. I haven't seen the KB in long enough that it could be anywhere, so maybe it's looking to make an appearance here soon.

Sumatra
I rested my B-25s, but Fulmars and DB7s still attempted raids on shipping, and ran into plenty of Zeroes. 3 of my 4 Fulmars were shot down, and the 4th had to be scrapped at base due to its damage. So that squadron is down for the foreseeable future. One DB7 was lost as well. No one scored any hits.

I had been sneaking the Brit CVBG to this area, but there's no point to it. They won't get through the Zeroes protecting the ships here either.

Reinforcements
Repairs completed on SS S-47 at Noumea, ship returned to service (radar)
AM Geelong arrives at Melbourne
TK Aristophanes arrives at Balboa
4th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme (restricted)

Ostfriese

09-30-21, 02:57 PM

Wehn a unit is restricted it means that you cannot use/move that unit unless you spend political points or wait a certain time, correct?

Molon Labe

09-30-21, 07:49 PM

Wehn a unit is restricted it means that you cannot use/move that unit unless you spend political points or wait a certain time, correct?

Yes, although I wasn't as specific as I could have been. Some units are fully restricted and can't be purchased with political points. Others can be purchased. The restriction prevents the unit from being loaded on ships, but they can still move across land. By house rule, you can't walk them over national boundaries until you've paid to make them unrestricted.

Molon Labe

10-01-21, 01:21 AM

9 May 1942

Luzon Strait
USS Snapper torpedoed and sank an Aden-class cargo ship.

SouthPAC
Near Pago, an enemy sub took a shot at minesweeper on ASW patrol and missed. The minesweeper's partner, a corvette, found the sub and scored a solid hit with depth charges. But we didn't sink her.

Celebes Sea
USS Finback fired at least 3 salvoes of torpedoes at an Aden class cargo ship, only scoring 2 hits, of which only one detonated. The two ships also traded a few gun hits, motivating Finback to back off. The cargo ship didn't immediately sink but the damage appears bad enough to be lethal.

Timor and Banda Sea
We lost a B-26 to Oscars while bombing troops in eastern Timor. But, our B-17s hit the airbase at Ambon--good chance that's where the Oscars are from--blowing up 2 Oscars on the ground and causing moderate facility damage.

China
We took Pucheng back after the enemy vacated it. No one loves this base, despite having significant forts already built.

We have troops on the march in the Keifeng area.

Sumatra
A surprisingly large amphibious force landed on Enggano, a small island south of Sumatra. South as in, in the Indian Ocean. This could be a vulnerable group if they stick around long enough. They can get Zeroes here, though. The question is whether they're protecting something else, or if their MPAs are searching somewhere else. At this time I don't know the number of ships there, but I think the troops are a full marine unit.

Bay of Bengal
There are sub-based floatplanes being sighted near Sri Lanka, Calcutta, and Rangoon.

Reinforcements
Repairs completed on AE Harpoon at Los Angeles, ship returned to service (converted)
Repairs completed on AE Royal T. Frank at Los Angeles, ship returned to service (converted)
Repairs completed on SS Tarpon at Dutch Harbor, ship returned to service (radar)
Repairs completed on DMS Boggs at Brisbane, ship returned to service (AA upgrade+radar)
3rd USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme (restricted)

Molon Labe

10-01-21, 05:23 PM

10 May 1942
Tavoy airbase threatened

Thailand
The enemy launched a massive air raid against Force Lauren, 24 Sallies back up by 25 Oscars. We opposed it with only 5 Hurricanes and a P-40, but we managed to shoot down 1 Oscar and 6 Sallies without loss. The bombers that made it through were ineffective thanks to the terrain.

Force Lauren has broken contact with the pursuing army, but that may be a mixed blessing. At least some of that army is leaving the road and crossing into the western mountains, headed for Tavoy. I can mirror his movement--and I will--but he may have a few days head start on me. I'm detaching my armor to take the roads the long way around, it'll be faster for them. I can't reinforce directly from Rangoon because of the armies that also crossed the mountains there. I have enough reserve there to protect one or the other, not both. So, in addition to Force Lauren going full defensive, I'm going to purchase that Indian division I was thinking about using for an offensive deeper into Malaya. That's my new Rangoon garrison, which will free up the current forces to reinforce Tavoy. I'm also recalling my British CVBG and covering force. The battleships in particular may be useful if they reach Tavoy through the mountains.

The silver lining in all of this is he's proceeding without supply lines by taking is armies off-roading through the mountains. My troops will be fully supplied at their bases and will have supply lines from Rangoon to sustain them during a battle. Raheng is at some risk of being severed, but even if that happens, I have supply there now, I have an airfield there, and I have several squadrons of transports on reserve in Calcutta just waiting for the word that they're needed. So, assuming he hasn't achieved strategic surprise with his move on Tavoy, there's a potential to cause some serious damage to major land forces here.

Sumatra
We lost 3 Australian Kittyhawks over Palembang to Oscar sweeps. These Aussie pilots aren't as well-trained as their counterparts, sadly. We've added some training squadrons in recent weeks, but the benefit of them hasn't fully kicked in.

Our CVBG and land-based searchplanes failed to locate the ARG landing on Enggano, so no attack took place. That mission will be aborted, as this task force is being recalled to the Bay of Bengal.

Ceram Sea
B-17s from Darwin flew all the way up to the western edge of Papua/New Guinea (with a reduced bomb load) to bomb some cargo ships, and we actually got a hit on one.

SouthPAC
Now a bogey has appeared north of Suva. Instead of sending ships, this time my response will only be airborne. I don't want to get too predictable, especially when I'm reacting to him. He'll be in for seaplanes carrying bombs, B-26s, A-24s, or even P-39s strafing, depending on how close he gets. The seaplane crews aren't trained for naval attacks, though, so I don't expect much from them.

Reinforcements
Repairs completed on CV Lexington at Alameda, ship returned to service (major AA upgrade)
CLAA Atlanta taken out of commission to begin refit at San Francisco (AA upgrade)
SS Pompano begins refit while under repair at Dutch Harbor (radar)
DD Woodworth arrives at San Francisco
SS Grunion arrives at Eastern USA (ugh, long way to go before I can deploy her)
148th Infantry Regiment arrives at San Francisco (full strength, unrestricted. Nice!)
108th RN Base Force arrives at Aden (6% strength, unrestricted)

Molon Labe

10-02-21, 10:33 AM

11 May 1942

So little happened this turn there's no need to break it down by region.

Our Beauforts in Singapore attempted a strike against shipping in Kuantan; Zeroes and Oscars intercepted and we ended up trading 2 of our fighters for 1 of theirs; the bombers missed their targets.

Some B-17s fought their way through Oscars to bomb Ambon airfield for light damage.

At Keifeng, China, our forces are in contact with the enemy and begin their attack tomorrow.

Our subs laid mines near Batavia and Balikpapan.

There were lots of air raids elsewhere, but nothing opposed and nothing that did significant damage.

Reinforcements/Refits
CL Adelaide taken out of commission to begin refit at Brisbane (AA upgrade)
SS S-34 taken out of commission to begin refit at Brisbane (radar)
Repairs completed on DD Craven at Brisbane, ship returned to service (K-guns for depth charges added)
Repairs completed on DD Perkins at Los Angeles, ship returned to service (1 5" gun replaced with K-guns, .50cals replaced with 20mms, depth charge capacity increased, radars added)
Repairs completed on AM Cromarty at Aden, ship returned to service (AA upgrade)
AGP Jamestown arrives at Balboa
ZP-32 arrives at Alameda (2/8 ZPK blimps with radar. ASW night duty)
3rd USMC Parachute Battalion arrives at San Diego (full strength, restricted)
5th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme (full strength, restricted)
15th NZ AA Bde arrives at Auckland (35% strength, restricted)

-Enterprise and Hornet have received 4 recently upgraded destroyers and are sending 4 back to port that need upgrades. Tomorrow they'll do the same with a cruiser.
-VS-6 on Enterprise transitioning from SBD-2 to SBD-3 (there are no longer enough SBD-2s to equip both her squadrons, VS-6's old aircraft will be VB-6's replacement pool)

Molon Labe

10-02-21, 10:58 PM

12 May 1942
Kido Butai tries to ambush a surface action group, gets a consolation prize

Java Sea
O21 attacked a surface combat task force that was mostly or all destroyers...maybe not the best choice. It missed, and fortunately got away with only slight depth charge damage.

Timor
The 48th Division (veterans of the Luzon campaign) is landing in Koepang. The landings were supported by a wave of 14 Sallies escorted by 35 Zeroes; we only managed 7 P-40s to oppose. One P-40 was shot down, the rest were driven off. We scored a hit on a cargo ship in the amphibious task force with a light bomber, but the damage was negligible (stupidly small 50kg bombs). That mission cost us another P-40.

I have a surface combat task force nearby, but the enemy formation is large and is centered around the battleship Hiei. This probably isn't the best target. Too bad I turned my Brit carriers around when I did, they'd be here for this otherwise.

Malaya
We lost 2 Beauforts, 2 Mohawks, and a Blenhieim trying to hit Kuantan's supply runs. Our Mohawks took down a Zero. A few Beauforts got through but missed their target.

SouthPAC
Not sending a surface group after the bogey north of Fiji ended up being a really good call...it was an ambush setup by the KB.

https://i.ibb.co/S33Xhy6/1942-May-12-south-PAC.png

In addition to the last bogey off Fiji, there was also one at Pago again, I just didn't spot it yet. The KB was hanging out between them in strike range of both. Even though I didn't send a task force to intercept the Pago bogey, I did have a transport convoy moving through that area on its way back to the US, so the KB did get a target. We also had 4 destroyers passing near the Fiji bogey but the enemy didn't spot it. The KB launched raids against the transport convoy as well as a nearby ASW task force.

In echoes of the real life Battle of the Coral Sea, it was the USS Sims escorting the transport convoy, which fared only slightly better than the real-life Neosho. One transport was hit by 4 torpedoes and sank immediately. Another took two hits and is going to try to make it to port in Pago. The Sims will try to leave the area with the single remaining undamaged transport. Vals followed up to attack the Sims but missed.

The ASW group to the west of Pago drew a strike and fared better. The first wave attacked the PC Taney and missed, but not before P-40s from Pago shot down a Zero and 8 Kates, while losing only 2 of their own. That was followed up by Vals, though, and by that point our fighters had been mostly routed. We lost 2 more P-40s with no kills. The Vals severely damaged the Taney, sank a minesweeper, and damaged a corvette. This would have been a wipe had the bombers not been flying at extended range and carrying only 60kg bombs.

The timing of this is fortunate...I don't have any carriers passing through here, only one of my tanker convoys is here, and the only troop convoys are on their return trips. Although part of the reason the carriers aren't near here is because the appearance of the second bogey really made it look like something was going to go down here, so I moved them away. I'm routing as much traffic as I can away for now, which is going to be a little chaotic but we'll manage. I'm also moving a bit more aircraft into Pago and Suva from nearby bases. It looks to me like the KB isn't going to be deployed aggressively here. He's already standing off and trying to use his bait ships to bring me to him. But just in case, I'll have more fighters protecting the bases and even a few A-20s in case he gets close enough. Both bases also have a compliment of dive bombers, and Suva has B-26s with naval-attack trained crews.

China
The battle for Kaifeng is going well. We took their forts down from level 3 to level 2 and it appears we have overwhelming numbers. Casualties were 2300 to 3300 favoring them--that will improve as the forts come down. Support from SB-III and B-25 bombers is getting through unmolested. It appears we achieved strategic surprise.

South China Sea
USS Porpoise got into a surface attack against a previously-damaged cargo ship off the coast of Vietnam. It failed to score any detonating torpedo hits, but dealt significant damage with its deck gun, starting major fires.

Thailand and Burma
As theorized, the enemy armies bypassing Raheng have moved onto the road that supplies Raheng from Rangoon. Per our contingency plans, our reserve armies are moving out to retake the road and airlift operations have begun to keep Rageng supplied. Our bombers, resting ever since taking heavy casualties, are getting back into the action and will commence bombing the road tomorrow. I've pulled our fighters out of Raheng to be closer to Rangoon, in hopes this will help our bombers link up with them better than before. I've also moved a few fighters from protecting Force Lauren to add to the bomber escorts.

I've paid for the Indian division in Calcutta. It's going to take a couple days to load them onto ships and a few more to get them here and disembark. Figure a week before they can truly enter the fighting if need be.

Reinforcements/Refits
-HMS Illustrious is about to finish its journey from South Africa to Sri Lanka. (13 Swordfish, 20 Martlets)
DD Dent beginning refit in shipyard at Los Angeles (bigger fuel tanks, AA, radar)
CVE Long Island arrives at Balboa (no aircraft)
1st USMC Air Wing Base Force arrives at San Francisco (0% strength; I think this is a unit destroyed on Luganville being reformed)

Molon Labe

10-03-21, 01:55 PM

13 May 1942
Pago Pago endured alpha strike from Kido Butai

Timor
As the enemy landings continued, 4 of my PT boats were arriving from Darwin that were meant to be stationed at Koepang. We never got them close enough to hit anything; they were spotted coming in and the escorts blocked their advance and forced them to retreat. But they did cause an alarm that caused the enemy to temporarily abort the landing and try to evade. A transport collided with an escort in the chaos. Later in the day, two destroyers hit mines, one of which probably sank.

Our resistance to the enemy's air raids was of little consequence, a few planes shot up but nothing shot down on either side. We sent out bombers to hit the enemy ships, losing 2 Falcons to AA and 2 B-26s to Oscars. B-17s from Darwin managed to hit a transport, but it was mostly empty by then.

Malaya
Our Wirraways managed to hit a cargo ship at Kuantan, but we lost a Hurricane and a Beaufort to enemy fighters in the attempt. The Beaufort squadron is essentially done at this point, I'm standing it down until it gets replacement aircraft. I have to say I had high hopes for these aircraft and I'm very disappointed in them...their accuracy was just horrible even with reasonably well-trained pilots.

SouthPAC
Defying my prediction, the KB aggressively charged south and launched a full-strength strike against Pago from rather close range. It was 54 Zeroes escorting 150 Vals and 153 Kates. All 6 fleet carriers are there, with the Junyo taking Soryu's place. Against that, we had 22 P-39s and 14 P-40s. They were excellent--so good that it makes me wonder if the Japanese have taken more pilot losses than I've realized: 2 P-39s were shot down, we got 10 Zeroes, 5 Kates, and 3 Vals. Another 4 Vals were taken out by AA.

Damage was lighter than you'd expect for over 300 attacking bombers:
xAK Minnesotan, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Admiral Day, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Fomalhaut, Bomb hits 2, on fire
xAK Admiral Senn, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Mormacmar, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires (SUNK)
AP Wharton, Bomb hits 2, on fire
xAK Challenger, Bomb hits 1, on fire
PC Taney, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
AKE City of Elwood, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP President Hayes, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AG Sirius, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP President Polk, Bomb hits 1
xAK Charles H Cramp, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
AP President Monroe, Bomb hits 2, on fire
xAK President Quezon, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Tambua, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK American, Bomb hits 1, on fire

I think I can be criticized for having that many ships in port, but I had been planning to return to Palmyra with these guys soon (hence why they were there in the first place) and moving them away from Pago would likely have gotten them attacked without fighters and base AA protecting them. So I think it was the right call.

I didn't attempt to use any of Pago's bombers this turn because I figured they'd just get torn to pieces. For next turn, the A-20s are in position and I've brought in another fighter squadron. So between wearing down their Zeroes and having more assets to bring, I'll attempt a strike next turn if he's in range. Dive bombers up high with escorts with the A-20s coming in low and fast. With a little luck one will draw the CAP and the other will get through and score some hits. The numbers still favor him, though.

Java Sea
USS Stringray attacked a transport convoy near Batavia and hit a troop-carrying cargo ship. It sustained light depth charge damage in exchange but got away.

Makassar Strait
The O16 found a convoy of 3 oilers and a destroyer. It put 3 of 6 fish into the side of one of the oilers for a confirmed kill. The destroyer was one of the few with deep-reaching depth charges, and it dealt the O16 a serious hit, but the sub eventually got away and will live long enough to be repaired--unless she's hit again.

Thailand
A sweep over Tavoy cost the enemy on Oscar. The enemy is apparently having second thoughts about his manuevers. The southern army that appeared to be headed for Tavoy through the mountains now looks more interested in Force Lauren. One of two groups of enemy land forces on the road to Raheng now appears to be moving off of it. This changes nothing, though, I'll proceed as before.

The troop convoy at Calcutta loaded faster than expected and will depart tomorrow. ASW is a huge concern. He clearly has multiple subs along the route waiting for me, and my ASW assets here are simply inadequate. I'm routing this convoy differently than the ones before to hopefully throw him off. The US fighter squadron has also arrived in Calcutta by rail and is assembling its aircraft, they'll be contributing in 3 days or so.

China
Day 2 at Kaifeng did not go well. Apparently we burned through a ton of supplies yesterday and should have used today to replenish. Casualties 1500 to 2700 favoring them, forts holding at level 2.

Reinforcements/refit
SS Herring arrives at Balboa
YMS-118 arrives at Los Angeles
No.99 Sqn RAF arrives at Aden (2/16 Wellington bombers--fees like a bad joke)
209th Field Artillery Battalion arrives at Seattle (full strength, unrestricted)
256th USAAF Base Force arrives at Santa Barbara (40% strength, fully restricted)
138th USA Base Force arrives at San Francisco (full strength, unrestricted)
6th Marine Regiment arrives at San Diego (43% strength, unrestricted--and the squads it needs to fill out are available so we can get this one ready pretty quickly)

Molon Labe

10-03-21, 10:34 PM

14 May 1942
A target of opportunity in this Pago mess

Timor and N. Australia
Enemy landings continued and our PTs harrassed them again and disrupted them. They're going to run out of fuel soon, but at least we're getting our money's worth before then.

We managed to bypass the enemy fighters escorting their airstrikes and shot down 3 Lillies. In our own strikes, we lost a P-40, 2 Hudsons, and a B-17.

South of Timor, near Darwin, two torpedo boats are getting disturbingly close to my ASW patrols. Patrol aircraft reported hitting both with bombs, but airstrikes from medium bombers didn't see any visible damages on the ships. Of course the medium bombers missed, and every bomber that went after them was a bomber not attacking the forces landing in Koepang. Tomorrow it'll be light bombers at low altitude, and possibly a surface combat task force if they really want to hunt our ASW ships.

CentPAC
There is a buildup of enemy fighters on Palmyra. Looks like he's expecting me to build up my airbase and hit him with level bombers. He's right.

SouthPAC
The battleships Kongo and Kirishima bombarded Pago Pago, nearly knocking out the airbase for the turn.

Airstrikes on Pago came in two waves, first a sweep and then a proper strike. The sweep mostly took care of what little resistance our wrecked airbase could send out. We took out 2 Zeroes but lost 5 fighters. For the strike, we got two more Zeroes but otherwise let about 200 bombers by:

AKE City of Elwood, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Anna Odland, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Admiral Day, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
AP President Polk, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK San Simeon, Bomb hits 1
AP President Hayes, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
--
xAK Minnesotan sinks in port
xAK Tambua sinks in port
PC Taney sinks in port
xAK Challenger sinks in port
AP President Monroe sinks in port

The KB is now off to the southeast of Pago and may be chasing a 12-knot maximum tanker group. A task force I suspect to be the battleships was spotted north of Fiji on a northwestern course, which I would read as headed for Truk.

Enterprise and Hornet are near the Coral Sea right now. I could send them to intervene in Timor or have them take a run at that suspected battleship group. But Timor's probably about 6 days--it might be over by then. Those battleships I might be able to intercept in 2 if I'm willing to sprint for a day and incur extra maintenance. A nice benefit of the 2nd option is that as far as I know, the airbases at Guadalcanal and Rabaul have been emptied. Although, I haven't been to Guad recently, my Liberators are down for maintenance. Still, I think I'll be able to position myself in a position that's relatively low-risk and that offers me a shot at an intercept. And it's also going to be easier to retreat and disappear from there than it would from Timor.

China
He's sending mass reinforcements to Kaifeng, including from neighboring bases on the front line. I'll be looking for another weak point to open up, meanwhile I'm matching his reinforcements. Our airstrikes are still getting through and they look like they're hurting him.

Thailand
His southern army is still headed to Tavoy. No sub attacks on the incoming convoy yet. The US fighter squadron is half-moved to Rangoon while the other fighters are being assembled.

Reinforcements
AK Electra arrives at Cristobal
TK Saidja arrives at Abadan
No.607 Sqn RAF arrives at Aden (2/16 Hurricanes--useless--I transitioned them to 3 Buffalos to free up the Hurricanes to be used as replacements for the frontlines)
38th BG/69th BS arrives at Eastern USA (B-26s, I think it was 5/13, unrestricted. They're on their way to a west coast port)

Molon Labe

10-04-21, 10:48 AM

15 May 1942
KB disappears, USS Shark on eternal patrol

Japan
USS Shark was bombed by maritime patrol aircraft near Nagasaki, taking two bomb hits. They failed to contain the flooding and the boat succumbed by evening. We're going to have to hang out a bit further away from this coast now that their pilots are apparently ASW-trained.

Timor and N. Australia
Two of our PTs collided and the others are out of fuel. We got one more turn of harassment/disruption out of it before they got to base on fumes. I'm disbanding them and sending them back to the pool.

Our fighters again managed to evade enemy fighter escorts and hit the bombers, we got 2 Lillies and a Sally with no losses. The enemy also lost an Oscar trying to shoot down B-17s; they don't call them Flying Fortresses for nothing.

The two TBs were intercepted by my surface group and sunk without hitting us back.
https://i.ibb.co/p2tNkZw/1942-May-15-Darwin.png

Thailand
An air raid targeted Tavoy airbase. We shot down two Oscars but didn't reach the bombers. As has been frequent in this campaign, though, the bombers were at too high an altitude to do any real damage, so we're fine.

SouthPAC and Solomons area
Our CVBG was snooped by scoutplanes enroute to its intercept point. Meanwhile, both the KB and the suspected battleship group dropped out of contact, possibly due to overcast skies interfering with our scouts. The risk calculus just changed substantially--I'm aborting the intercept.

I wasn't able to return to Guadalcanal, but I did hit Rabaul with 22 Hudsons. The airbase is still empty but I damaged it badly enough that he probably won't want to send aircraft here until it's repaired.

My best guess is the KB was going to Christmas Island next because that's where he has current detections on my ships. But with my CVBG spotted, he might just turn them around.

China
We attacked Kaifeng today and knocked their forts down to Level 1, casualties 2300 to 2900 favoring them. That's good news but there's no guarantee he won't reinforce before I overrun them. But I kind of want him to reinforce there because my bombers are dealing so much damage, the terrain isn't favorable, and his forts are reduced. It's a good place to kill Japanese troops.

Reinforcements/Refits
Just the Cachalot getting its radars installed.

Molon Labe

10-05-21, 09:51 AM

16 May 1942
Kido Butai reappears near Pago, invading forces at Koepang reinforced by Imperial Guards Division

Timor
At least one more amphibious group arrived at Koepang and started dropping off the Imperial Guards Division and more combat engineers. He was cutting it a bit close on troops before this but probably still would have won, this move assures he has enough to take the base. There is now a rather large collection of assets here, though, so a possible opportunity to cause some attrition.

That attrition isn't coming from our bombers today, though. We flew several sorties, mostly from Darwin, and came up empty except for a Zero shot down by a B-17 gunner. Our CAP continues to do well against the enemy air raids, today we got 3 enemy fighters and 9 bombers with just one P-40 shot down.

Hawaii
I had a thought about Pearl--his bombers don't seem to be causing a lot of damage but I'm still sucking supply, where's it all going? Maybe it's being spent to repair/replace the devices and squads of our land forces. So I turned replacements off for everyone at the base. Hopefully if we stay at our current force level we won't consume so much. Also, the first submarine assigned to transport duty arrived. They can't deliver much, but every little bit will help, especially if turning replacements off made a difference.

Sumatra
Our scouts found a vulnerable transport convoy transiting the west Java Sea and our bombers took advantage. A pair of Fulmars got two 250lb bomb hits on a cargo ship loaded with vehicles and artillery, and Falcon light bombers scored multiple 50kg hits on two more--also carrying vehicles.

China
Reinforcements have arrived at Kaifeng and we might be outnumbered for now, but I'm attacking as planned anyways. The enemy base is being displayed with multiple large fires in the bombing animation--I'm not sure exactly what that means (high facility damage? low supply? high % of squad disablements?) but I'm willing to bet it means he's weaker than his apparent numerical strength. Also, some of those numbers are probably troops shipped in by rail, and a land unit needs 1-3 days to "unpack" from that mode of transport. During that time they're not fighting and they're more vulnerable to taking damage.

I regretfully lost one of my Hudson bombers here to AA today, which is worth mentioning only because I have so few decent bombers in theatre. Most of the results are from one British Wellington squadron (formerly operating in Thailand) and one American B-25 squadron. I'm moving the altitude for the attacking bombers up a pinch to try to avoid further losses.

SouthPAC
We've reacquired the suspected battleship group near the Gilberts--further North than expected. The KB has also been spotted again on a western course north of Pago--so it does look like they're reacting to my CVBG being spotted.

Ships at Pago are continuing to succumb to fires and flooding...
AP President Hayes sinks in port
...hopefully that's the last of them.

Reinforcements/refits
Two Australian minesweepers collided while on ASW duty near Brisbane--both were due for an upgrade so now that they're going to be spending time under repair anyway, I've cued that up.

SS Grayling taken out of commission to begin refit at Dutch Harbor (radar)
xAK Robert Morris arrives at Alameda
23rd FG/74th FS arrives at Aden (23/25 P-40s -- already being loaded on a boat to India to get shipped by rail towards Thailand)
34th Infantry Regiment arrives at San Francisco (2% strength, restricted)

Also, I have enough Avengers in inventory to transition a VT squadron. Next carrier to stop at a large port gets them, not sure who that is yet.

Molon Labe

10-06-21, 09:35 AM

17 May 1942
Another shelling of Pago suggests larger operation underway

SouthPAC
A force of 5 heavy cruisers shelled Pago overnight, which made the day's air operations almost non-existent clearing the way for another airstrike by the KB (only 1 Zero shot down, 4 US fighters lost).:
AP Crescent City, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
xAKL White Wing, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Ohioan, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK San Simeon, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Dardanus, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Arkansan, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK American, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage
AK Fomalhaut, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Missourian, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires

The bombardment group appears to be leaving on the same northwesterly course as the last one with the battleships, so, it looks like he's set up an ammo tender somewhere in the Gilberts to rotate 2 or more bombardment groups to Pago and back.

Timor
The only aerial loss over Koepang today was one of our P-39s, as our squadrons are just getting worn down. I could send in more, but the enemy army hasn't attacked yet and I'm not sure how many turns the base can hold out, so I don't want to risk losing entire squadrons on the ground. Our bombers that were attacking his ships almost missed completely--we did get one non-penetrating hit on a battleship, which isn't a big deal. So for now I'm switching to bombing his land forces.

Sumatra
We sent a pair of Fulmars after a task force, only one came back thanks to an LRCAP of Oscars.

China
Our attack on Kaifeng knocked his forts down to 0, but casualties were pretty bad (1500 to 4000). Bad enough that I'm now depending on my own reinforcements to put me over the top.

Burma and Thailand
Giving that troop convoy an alternate route worked splendidly. It wasn't even detected by a floatplane.

Strait of Malacca
There's a large-ish task force making its way up the Strait, and there is a smaller group of cruisers already docked at Georgetown. We may be looking at an attempt to open up a new front in Thailand/Burma with an amphibious landing. This could get interesting.

The larger group drew an airstrike from Singapore as it entered the Strait; one cargo ship was hit with a torpedo from a Vildebeest. It did not appear to be carrying troops, which is curious. I don't know what a supply task force would be doing in the Bay of Bengal right now. Then a second strike by Wirraways from Singapore and Falcons from Palembang hit the convoy, scoring bomb hits on two cargo ships and setting one on fire--this one did result in troop casualties, so that's making a little more sense.

Reinforcement/Refits
CA Portland beginning refit while under repair in shipyard at Sydney
CA Astoria beginning refit in shipyard at Sydney
(these two were from Enterprise/Hornet CVBG, swapped with 2 others recently upgraded)
AM Bunbury begins refit while under repair at Sydney
AM Whyalla begins refit while under repair at Sydney
(I mentioned these the other day)
Repairs completed on SS Grampus at Brisbane, ship returned to service (radar installed)

xAK Rufus King arrives at Portland
214th Coast AA Regiment arrives at San Francisco (35%, restricted)
1st USMC Field Artillery Battalion arrives at Eastern USA (full strength, unrestricted)
637th Tank Destroyer Battalion arrives at San Francisco (full strength, unrestricted)
8th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme (full strength, restricted)
8th Medium (artillery) Regiment arrives at Aden (5% strength, unrestricted. There are enough to this unit's type of guns (4.5" field guns) in the pool to outfit this unit, so the strength should come up quickly).

Molon Labe

10-06-21, 11:53 AM

18 May 1942
Aerial defeat in Strait of Malacca attempting to strike ARG

Timor
We didn't do as well here as on previous days, 2 P-40s down in exchange for an Oscar and 2 Lilies. Our bombers made it through to the enemy troops without much complication.

Strait of Malacca
A flight of 8 Martlets escorting my remaining 3 Vildebeest torpedo bombers was bounced by 14 Zeroes and 16 Oscars. 5 Martlets were shot down, the rest routed, and the Vildebeests were wiped out. The Martlets didn't shoot down anyone. A follow on raid of Wirraways escorted by Mohawks was also routed, 1 Wirraway shot down as the mission was aborted due to too many opposing fighters. Both my torpedo bomber squadrons here are now effectively out of action and it could be months before I have enough replacements to bring them back to readiness.

SouthPAC
I scrapped together a few destroyers to go looking for the enemy tenders supporting their Pago op. I've lost track of the KB again, probably because so many aircraft at Pago have been disabled that scout routes don't have available aircraft to be assigned to them. Of course, he could always be going somewhere else.

Ships at Pago are succumbing to damage sustained yesterday:
xAK Arkansan sinks in port
AK Fomalhaut sinks in port
xAK Missourian sinks in port

Reinforcements and refits
SS Seadragon taken out of commission to begin refit at Brisbane
Repairs completed on BB Arizona at Seattle, ship returned to service (the last survivor of the initial Pearl Harbor attack requiring repair. She also got an AA upgrade while she was in the yard)
Repairs completed on DD Conyngham at Alameda, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on DD Shaw at Alameda, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on DD Farragut at Alameda, ship returned to service
Repairs completed on DD Dale at Alameda, ship returned to service
(DDs are all upgrades, mostly AA, some radars and K-guns)

23rd FG/HqS arrives at Aden (2/5 P-40s)
10th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme (full strength, restricted)

Molon Labe

10-07-21, 02:23 PM

19 May 1942
B-25 squadron decimated over Kaifeng

Timor
We're running out of planes to defend the island with. We lost one of the few P-40s that took off today and shot down nothing.

We planned on sending Liberators to Kendari and the B-17s to Ambon to try to reduce the enemy fighter threat. Weather hampered us; the B-17's mission was cancelled and the LB-30s didn't deal significant damage. One LB-30 was lost to flak.

Thailand
Each side lost a fighter over Tavoy. Our reserve armies are now in contact with some of the road blocking forces near Raheng and will engage tomorrow.

China
There are now Zeroes and Nates protecting Kaifeng. The B-25s were the first to find out and they arrived without their escorts thanks to Murphy. One was shot down by the Zeroes and another lost to flak... but the remaining aircraft were so badly damaged that many didn't make the return trip or had to be scrapped after they landed. I have one operational B-25 left in China, with 4-5 more expected to be repaired and returned to service.

The situation on the ground isn't looking so great anymore. We reinforced the north end of the frontline (Tsiaotso) as he was pulling troops out of there, but when we attacked we didn't make any progress and took heavy casualties for trying (3300 to 500). Further north, he's pulling troops away from a river/mountain pass he was guarding, and I'm going to fill that space, but I don't know if I'll turn that into something meaningful. Kaifeng itself is still up for grabs but it really depends on who can muster more reinforcements at this point.

Strait of Malacca
I've lost track of the ARG and its likely covering force. I'm deploying assets to try to pick them up before they arrive at Tavoy, if that is indeed where they're headed.

SouthPAC
Quiet today, but there are still enemy planes scouting Pago, so I don't think they've left yet.

Well, not that quiet I guess, the fires are still burning on a few ships...
xAK San Simeon sinks in port

Reinforcements/Refits
I had to withdraw 5 squadrons today to send to Europe, one group of Fulmars that was training on the Hermes, and 4 US training squadrons.

Radar installation:
SS Salmon begins refit while under repair at Dutch Harbor
SS Stingray taken out of commission to begin refit at Palembang
SS Seawolf taken out of commission to begin refit at Brisbane

AA upgrades:
Repairs completed on AM Bayfield at Seattle, ship returned to service

New Arrivals:
TK British Hope arrives at Abadan
VT-5 arrives at San Francisco (The Yorktown's old squadron being reformed. I'll use them for training.)
303rd BG/359th BS arrives at Mojave
23rd FG/75th FS arrives at Aden (23/25 P-40s--headed to Burma via India)
632nd Tank Destroyer Battalion arrives at San Francisco (full strength, unrestricted)
5th Marine Regiment arrives at Eastern USA (full strength, unrestricted)

Molon Labe

10-07-21, 09:29 PM

20 May 1942
KVII sunk off shore of Oosthaven

Timor
The S-38 and S-41 both sustained depth charge damage trying to get close to landing areas. We also lost another P-40 trying to get to their bombers. His local ARG with battleships attached is now on the east side of the island, I assume, to pick up the troops there and bring them back west to Koepang. Our B-26s scored a hit on one of the transports, but it was empty at the time.

I put all my heavy bombers in the area on Ambon this turn but we destroyed no planes on the ground--I think the base is empty and that Kendari is the only base supporting this operation. Well, that's good news for me, safer for my ships operating near Darwin. I'll hit it once more to be sure, the weather was T-storms so our accuracy might not have been that great.

We defeated the first group of road blockers at Raheng. One more to go.

Strait of Malacca
A destroyer and an armed merchant cruiser pulled into Medan, a base in northwestern Sumatra, and started offloading troops. Heavy machinegun fire made them change their minds, they got back in their boats and left. I'm guessing this was the "covering force" I detected earlier, it's too small to be the suspected ARG. For now I'm going to continue under the assumption there is still an ARG headed for the Tavoy area.

Sweeps targeted Singapore, which is a curious move because he's dealing with my bombers quite effectively without needing to open up the skies for a strike on my airbase. But I do thank him, because the RAF got some much needed payback. 9 Oscars shot down with a loss of a Mohawk, 2 Marlets, and 3 Hurricanes.

Sumatra
A series of several sweeps hit Palembang, costing him 3 Zeroes and us 2 Kittyhawks.

A strike by 5 DB-7Bs hit an ASW group, sinking a PB. A flight of 9 Falcons attacked a pair of subchasers but missed.

That same group of subchasers then detected and attacked the KVII, scoring several solid hits with depth charges. The boat suffered internal fires and sank--the first submarine kill by the Japanese not by an aircraft.

Thailand
I've made an interface error here that could cost me dearly. I had intended to split force Lauren between armor and everything else, sending the armor to Tavoy the long way on roads, with everything else hiking through the mountains. This is to stop the armor from slowing everyone else down with their extremely slow movement on rough ground. But one armor unit stayed with the main force. So they're suffering the movement penalty, and have been for over a week. Which means he probably gets to Tavoy ahead of me with time enough to take the base before my reinforcements arrive.

I'm going to try to slow his movement with airstrikes. I'm only ordering one strike to stop escorting fighters from being divided, and I'm hitting the skies with a sweep because I expect heavy fighter resistance. I'm expecting heavy air casualties but losing Tavoy would suck worse.

Today, an air battle over Tavoy resulted in 4 downed P-40s from the newly arrived squadron--not a great start for them--along with a Hurricane; we got just 2 Oscars with that loss.

China
Our troubles getting our fighters to link up with bombers continued, costing us 3 SB-IIIs and 6 Wellingtons. I'm grounding the bombers and switching to sweeps for a bit.

Hawaii
The enemies armies on Oahu decided to remind us they're still here. They attacked and were repelled easily, casualties 300 to 5000 favoring us, forts holding at level 3. Apparently they are suffering supply shortages. Speaking of which, I think what's sucking my supply is AA ammunition expenditures, which I can't turn off.

Reinforcements and refits
SS Silversides begins refit while under repair at Dutch Harbor (radar)
AM Horsham arrives at Sydney
301st BG/352nd BS arrives at Mojave (3/8 B-17E)

Molon Labe

10-08-21, 02:05 PM

21 May 1942

We've been going quick yesterday and today so these might be a little rushed as I try to get caught up.

Sumatra
A bombardment task force centered on the Haruna hit Benkoelen, on the Indian Ocean side of Sumatra. Wasn't expecting that. I'd consider deploying my Brit carriers to deal with this, but I don't know it will repeat and holding the Tavoy area is really important.

Paratroops captured Langsha, along the northeastern coast.

An attack by DB-7 bombers against his ASW group failed to avenge the KVII, we lost a Buffalo, a Kittyhawk, and a DB-7 for trying.

Line Islands
My surface task force from the Pago area has been in evasive mode thanks to the KB's appearance, but I decided to put it to use and bombarded Palmyra with it. We didn't get any airplanes but the airfield damage was serious. I think he spotted us and moved his fighters away.

Timor
2 more P-40s down over Koepang with no results to show for it. We raided Ambon again with the heavies and ran into significant fighter resistance. But again, the damage to the base didn't include damage or destroyed planes. Hmmm.

The enemy armies at Koepang attacked and knocked our fortifications down to level 1, casualties 540 to 170 favoring us.

China
We swept Kaifeng with AVG-2 while our bombers are being repaired, shooting down 2 Zeroes and 4 Nates with no losses.

Reinforcements/refits
Repairs completed on CL Honolulu at San Francisco, ship returned to service (repairing torpedo damage sustained near Oahu)
Repairs completed on DD Lawrence at San Francisco, ship returned to service (upgrade)
Repairs completed on DD Kane at San Francisco, ship returned to service (upgrade)
DD Chew beginning refit in shipyard at Los Angeles
DD Schley beginning refit in shipyard at Los Angeles
AM Cromer taken out of commission to begin refit at Aden (AA upgrade)
303rd BG/HqS arrives at Mojave (pretty sure these were B-26s)
1st USMC Tank Battalion arrives at Eastern USA (full strength, unrestricted)

Molon Labe

10-08-21, 02:25 PM

22 May 1942

Japan
USS Swordfish put a torpedo into a PB that was hunting it in the Kyushu-Okinawa gap, sinking it.

Sumatra
A small ARG attempted a landing at Sabang, on the northeast coast. One destroyer and the armed merchant acting as a transport were hit by coastal artillery and their rather small force of troops came under heavy attack. Their assault collapsed and their remaining troops are now on the defensive.

An attempt by our Falcon bombers to strike ships off the coast was aborted after Oscars brushed aside our escorting Kittyhawks like they were nothing. We lost one Kittyhawk and a Falcon during the intercept.

Malaya
Singapore suffered another sweep, but the RAF held their ground, shooting down 5 Zeroes and 6 Oscars with a loss of 3 Hurricanes and a Martlet.

Thailand
We shot an Oscar down over Tavoy. Still no sign of any amphibious op here.

Timor
Another day, another P-40 wasted over Koepang. Our heavy bombers switched to hitting their land forces. Hudson medium bombers went after ships near Kendari without result, we lost 1 to flak.

China
Another sweep on Kaifeng hit them hard--6 Zeroes down, no losses.
Our soldiers attacked and brought the forts down to zero (casualties 2400 to 3900 favoring them), but our forces now look evenly matched, and I think he has more reserves to bring in. I don't think we're going to pull this off.

Reinforcements/Refits
Repairs completed on SS Pompano at Dutch Harbor, ship returned to service (radar)
Repairs completed on AM Wollongong at Sydney, ship returned to service (AA upgrade)
Repairs completed on DD Rathburne at Alameda, ship returned to service (endurance upgrade)
Repairs completed on SS S-34 at Brisbane, ship returned to service (radar)

Molon Labe

10-08-21, 02:50 PM

23 May 1942
Ships assigned to Timor appear to have retreated, using Kendari as a bastion

Gilbert Islands
One of my recon-in-force destroyer task forces reached Ocean Island, near the Gilberts. Instead of finding tenders, it was attacked by a submarine. The torpedoes missed and we got some damage on it before it slipped away. I doubt the sub would have moved through this shallow-water hex routinely--this is a sub base, I just haven't found the tender. I'm going to leave some mines here for him and continue the recon.

Thailand
Tavoy was swept and we did not get many fighters up to oppose it. 2 Hurricanes went down along with 1 Oscar.

The enemy army has reached Tavoy and the bulk of Force Lauren is still days away. A small consolation is that they have such numbers that I think even if I had not screwed up maneuvering my forces, they'd still take it before I could respond. I'm going to hit them as hard as I can with bombers. Also, at sea, my Brit CVBG and covering force will change roles, instead of the heavies covering the carriers as the carriers look for ships to attack, the heavies will provide gunfire support to Tavoy while the carrier provides fighter cover in case of bomber attack.

China
Bomber attacks on Kaifeng have resumed and this time the fighters linked up as they should. No losses, except for enemy troops on the ground of course. The numbers keep looking even worse though, for the land battle. I'm doing an artillery attack tomorrow to probe them a bit, depending on the outcome I might start pulling back.

Timor
Not much happened in Timor itself, but we did spot a CVL/CVE hanging out with the naval forces idling at Kendari. I'm going to take advantage of them being away by sending a minelayer to Koepang to do its thing.

Sumatra
We counterattacked in Sabeng, causing 600 casualties without loss, nearly wiping out the enemy presence there.

Paratroopers hit Tandjoengbalai but are finding themselves outnumbered.

Reinforcements/refits
Repairs completed on DD Hatfield at Sydney, ship returned to service (endurance upgrade--this old clunker will head east to join supply convoys)
Repairs completed on CLAA Atlanta at San Francisco, ship returned to service (AA upgrade)
Repairs completed on DMS Long at San Francisco, ship returned to service (AA upgrade)
DD Preston beginning refit in shipyard at Los Angeles
DD Cassin beginning refit in shipyard at Los Angeles
SS Gar taken out of commission to begin refit at Dutch Harbor (radar)
VT-6 converting to TBF-1 Avenger
2th BG arrives at Stockton (ugh. These are B-25s, 4 squadrons worth, but it's a fully restricted unit. Which makes these excellent, modern airframes trainers, at least until I can find another aircraft to transition them to)

mapuc

10-08-21, 03:27 PM

Ostfriese

10-09-21, 01:28 AM

It's going to be interesting to see how close to the history you will be.
I'm thinking on 4-7 June 1942.

If I remember correctly you have with some delays followed the historical line of the battle in the Pacific.

Markus

One of the reasons that the Americans won the Battle of Midway was that at the point of attack they were -numerically speaking- more or less on par with the Japanese, because the Japanese had split the KB (Coral Sea), which in turn was down to four carriers at Midway (and the rest of the fleet was too far away to support the KB).

Molon Lobe's opponent now seems to keep the KB together, and -just as it was historically- Molon Lobe simply doesn't have the assets to counter the KB in a direct engagement (not yet, that is).

His opponent is indeed behind schedule in many of the land battles (even though he has taken Midway and Guadalcanal, if I remember correctly), but at sea the KB still dominates the seas wherever his opponent sends it.

mapuc

10-09-21, 08:29 AM

^ Thank you for the update. I must have mist it.

Markus

Ostfriese

10-10-21, 02:27 AM

I should add one thing, though. In his May 13 report Molon Lobe already mentioned that his fighters tore through the KB airgroups. Molon Lobe might not be able to attack the KB directly for now, but his opponent should already feel the effects of attrition.
Unless Molon Lobe loses any of his carriers for nothing he should be on par with the Japanese by the end of 1942 (with the additions of Essex, Independence and Princeton to his fleet), but by then his pilots should outclass the Japanese pilots.

Also bear in mind that the Japanese cannot afford the loss of a single fleet carrier. Even if his opponent can speed up the building time of ships I don't think this will result in miracles. Historically the only fleet carriers the Japanese would commission during the war were Taiho, Unryu and Amagi, none of them before 1944. Shinano was never completed (I don't know about Shinano in WiTP, but historically she wouldn't have added much strike power because of a small air group), but wouldn't have been ready before early 1945 anyway, and although Katsuragi was completed in late 1944 she never got an air group.

@Molon Lobe: Taiho should be under construction now. Historically she was laid down in July 1941, launched in 1943 and commissioned in March 1944. The first Unryus were laid down in August, October and December 1942, respectively.
From your experience with WiTP: how early can your opponent realistically get one of them (especially Taiho) into the fleet by speeding up the building process, and how hard will this hit other areas (like production of aircraft, escort ships, submarines, freighters and tankers)?

Molon Labe

10-11-21, 08:42 AM

@Molon Lobe: Taiho should be under construction now. Historically she was laid down in July 1941, launched in 1943 and commissioned in March 1944. The first Unryus were laid down in August, October and December 1942, respectively.
From your experience with WiTP: how early can your opponent realistically get one of them (especially Taiho) into the fleet by speeding up the building process, and how hard will this hit other areas (like production of aircraft, escort ships, submarines, freighters and tankers)?

They can cut the remaining time to complete production in half by accelerating production. Accelerated arrival dates and daily shipyard point costs for carriers up to the Shinano are:
Junyo: 2/20/42 (cost: 168)
Hiyo: 4/4/42 (cost: 168)
Taiho: 1/27/43 (cost: 206)
Unryu: 4/8/43 (cost: 122)
Amagi 4/10/43 (cost: 122)
Katsuragi: 5/14/43 (cost: 122)
Shinano: 5/31/43 (cost: 314)

This is all on a per day basis. So he can accelerate production for 1 day and take 2 days off the time to complete, and then resume normal pace, and be on track to get it 1 day earlier than scheduled.

I don't believe it's practical to accelerate all of these. On 12/7/41, Naval Shipyards are producing 1384 points per day, and the unaccelerated production schedule costs 1123, so they have a surplus of 261 per day. So accelerating more than 2 of these means you will need to expand your shipyards or halt production on something else. Adding, say, 100 to their shipyard production capacity would cost 1000 Heavy Industry and 10,000 supply. After that's built, it would cost 300 HI daily to run that additional capacity. To put that in perspective, building a Zero costs 36 Heavy Industry, so the opportunity cost of that expansion is 28 Zeroes to expand plus 8 Zeroes per day to operate it.

Looking only at the per day cost, getting the Unryu on 4/8/43 instead of 8/7/44 would use up an equivalent amount of industry as producing 4951 Zeroes (122 shipyard per day--> 366 HI per day --*487 days= 178,242 HI; /36 HI per Zero = 4951 Zeroes)

EDIT: In terms of direct tradeoffs with other ship types, Merchants and Warships use different production shipyards, so you can't just halt a few tankers to get a carrier sooner--you still need to produce enough Shipyard Points at your warship shipyards. But operating those merchant shipyards costs Heavy Industry, so there is an opportunity cost to that similar to the example I did using Zeroes. A large tanker, for example, costs 30 shipyard points per day while it's under construction, so if you wanted to pay of the HI cost of accelerating the Taiyo by halting tankers, you'd could halt 7 tankers. But other warships you can more or less trade directly. Here are some example costs of those:
Type A1 submarine: 33 SY points
Akisuki class destroyer: 13 SY points
Yamato: 233 SY points

So, if you don't want the Yamato, you can halt that and use that to pay for accelerating a carrier or two.

By the way, producing one point of HI requires the consumption of one point of Fuel, so that's the other tradeoff lurking behind all of this (EDIT 2: To put that in perspective, using the example of the Unryu acceleration above, the fuel needed to support that acceleration would require 16 deliveries from a large tanker).

Molon Labe

10-11-21, 09:47 AM

24 May 1942

Gilberts
My second recon-in-force destroyer group arrived in Tarawa, and like the group at Ocean Island, was attacked by a submarine. Our ships evaded and retaliated, scoring some near miss damage before it got away.

Again, I wouldn't expect to find a sub here passing through. Is every island here with a small port a sub base?

Thailand and Burma
His sweeps hit Tavoy while my battleships approached with the CVBG's air cover, so the navy's CAP participated in the fight. 4 Oscars were shot down along with 2 Martlets from the CVBG.

The battleships hit the invading armies at Tavoy hard, causing significant disruption.

China
Kaifeng isn't looking any better. We shot down a Nate trying to get to our bombers, but we don't have enough bombers to make up for their slowly building numerical advantage on the ground.

Refits and Reinforcements
Repairs completed on DMS Chandler at San Francisco, ship returned to service (AA upgrade)
Repairs completed on CL Phoenix at Alameda, ship returned to service (AA upgrade)
38th BG/70th BS arrives at Eastern USA (probably unrestricted B-26s--can't check right now as they are off the board while in transit to L.A.)
301st BG/419th BS arrives at Mojave (3/8 B-17, restricted)

Molon Labe

10-11-21, 10:15 AM

25 May 1942
Offsetting heavy air losses over Tavoy and Rabaul

Thailand and Burma
I had the battleship group attack one more time before departing, making sure they expended as much ammo as possible before pulling out. The CVBG will remain on station while they rearm.

For once, our bombing raids were well-coordinated; a single massed raid was made to support Tavoy, with a strong fighter escort. So it was 22 Oscars against 22 Hurricanes, escorting 34 bombers. We shot down 12 of the Oscars! At a cost of 2 Hurricanes and a Hudson bomber.

We're still going to lose. In addition to the 12,000+ in Tavoy now, there are 30,000 troops following that up. I'm ordering a retreat to the north to prevent these guys from getting cut off--I don't want to risk them retreating south, which would mean they'd be eliminated/captured in their entirety. The enemy attacked this turn, reducing fortifications to level 2. The fire they took from the battleships is probably the only thing that kept them from overrunning the base.

Timor
I don't even see the enemy fleets standing by in Kendari anymore. It just looks like they left. There are also at least 3 subs patrolling near Darwin, despite there not being a whole lot of merchant activity there--suggesting they're there for another reason. So, between that and the bastion behavior, it looks like he knows what I'm up to here. I should probably do something else.

Enemy armies attacked Koepang, reducing forts to 0 , casualties 300 to 700 favoring them. This is just about over anyway.

Our minelayer made the trip to Koepang safely, left its gifts, and is returning.

Gilberts
We bombarded Ocean island hoping a sub tender would turn up, but got nothing.

Coral Sea
He finally got tired of me bombing Rabaul. I thought I'd have wrecked it enough that a fighter deployment would be a problem, but a bunch of Zeroes managed to operate from the base just fine. 12 Hudsons went down.

Sumatra
Tandjoengbalai has been captured.
https://i.ibb.co/kBw79Cz/1942-May-25-Sumatra.png

Reinforcements/Refits
Repairs completed on SST Argonaut at Brisbane, ship returned to service (my first "transport" submarine)
Repairs completed on CA San Francisco at Alameda, ship returned to service (AA upgrade)
Repairs completed on CL Adelaide at Brisbane, ship returned to service (AA upgrade)
DD Aaron Ward arrives at Balboa (future Wasp escort)
301st BG/BS (Comp) arrives at Mojave (8/8 B-17, restricted--training squadron)

Molon Labe

10-11-21, 02:27 PM

26 May 1942
Fog of war--it's a bitch

Timor and N. Australia
One of my ASW groups found one of the subs patrolling the Darwin area, but the ship that made contact was a minesweeper that carries only enough depth charges to fire 4 patterns. It ran out of ammo without scoring a hit.

Our scouts made contact with 2 enemy task forces north of Timor, one of which was reported as 10 ships including heavy cruisers. So I was too quick to declare they'd run off last turn. If the KB is headed here, it would probably arrive around the 29th. So we're cutting it close, but I can give myself another day of playtime to maybe get these cruisers.

Thailand and Burma
An Oscar sweep over Tavoy took out one of my Hurricanes. We came in with a strike after that, but with far different results than last time--3 more Hurricanes down along with 3 bombers. No enemy kills. The enemy interceptors were Nick fighter-bombers--their combat debut--instead of Oscars.

https://i.ibb.co/5LNCN9w/1942-May-26-Nick.png

Looks like a good move on his part. The Nick can outrun the Hurricane so that's probably why its getting to our bombers without taking losses. It's only marginally less maneuverable than the Hurricane.

His armies attacked Tavoy again and did not make progress. They were hampered by a supply shortage, one of the nice things about him conceding the road to me and going through the mountains while being bombed.

On the road to Raheng in the north, we reached the second group of blocking forces and routed them easily, casualties 1100 to 400 favoring us. The road is now clear and the airlift operation is cancelled.

I'm still not convinced I can keep what I've taken. If Tavoy falls (and it almost certainly will), once he heads north he'll be able to cut off Raheng again with his main force. If that happens, force Peter is probably surrounded and done for. I may have to abandon both bases and consolidate a defensive front. Essentially, the Burma campaign has begun. It's just beginning mostly in Thailand because that's where my invasion moved the front line to.

China
The situation is becoming rapidly more fluid. Enemy troops are leaving Sinyang headed for my base at Nanyang. It also looks like troops are leaving Kuikang. I'm reinforcing Nanyang for now and keeping my eyes open in case something opens up.

Strategic picture
His supply shortages in Oahu are surprising. Before the Naval Battle of Oahu, coastwatchers consistently reported over 100 ships in Lahaina, now they report it empty. We sank one troop convoy of maybe 10 ships; what happened to the rest and why are they not resupplying his troops? I suppose it's possible that he's either crashed his economy trying to expand his production and has no supply to send, or, his fuel shortage is becoming critical and resupplying Oahu just isn't a priority right now.

Solomon Sea
A flotilla of landing barges was reported headed southwest from Rabaul. My best guess is these guys are going to try to pick up troops stranded on Normanby Island, right next to Milne. If I can track them I'll try to hit them with bombers, with fighters also set on orders to strafe, and a few surface assets available as well. I expect they'll be covered by the Zeroes that just moved into Rabaul and that Betties may be standing by in case I send surface forces, so I'm not rushing to respond.

Reinforcements and Refits
303rd BG/BS (Comp) arrives at Mojave (more restricted B-17s for training)
86th Coast AA Regiment arrives at March Field (restricted)
71st RAAF Wing arrives at Sydney (aviation engineers--we have a surplus of aviation support in AUS right now, what we really need are more squadrons and planes to train up competent pilots)