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.

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.

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.

But the Allies still massively outproduce the Japanese, especially in the long run, don't they?

Yeah, our production rate is going to get really hard for them to deal with.

That's what I'm counting on!

The big blue fleet is like really big :)


Or, it will be....

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.

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.

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.)

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.

Good Luck and Godspeed for your Hawaiian operation.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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.

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.