SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - War in the Pacific AAR Thread

Molon Labe · 12-03-22, 01:30 PM

25 August 1943
N1K1-J George as the answer to Japan's P-38 problem?
Land reinforcements arrive just in time in China and Burma
Refocusing on strategy: Time to close the Celebes Sea

SouthPAC
USS Gudgeon attempted to sneak into Truk and lay a minefield, only to hit a mine herself. She aborted her mission and is returning to Brisbane for repairs, thankfully not too seriously damaged.

USS Scorpion gave Gudgeon an assist by destroying a subchaser along its escape route.

We hold no contacts on any enemy carriers today, and it appears the garrison on Ponape is significantly reduced.

Japan
Southeast of Okinawa, USS Trout turned the tables on a Kaibokan trying to sanitize the area, sinking it with a Mk14.

DEI
For the first time in a long time, the P-38 lost an engagement. This was a sweep of Kendari, but instead of Tojos, the enemy CAP was the N1K1-J George. Even though the numbers were 13 to 7 favoring me, I lost 2 airplanes and we shot down nothing. I don't know how many of these planes he can produce, but if he can produce them in large numbers we'll be fighting on pretty even terms again. However, this aircraft has a terrible service rating, which means they're going to be spending a lot more time in the hangars than in the air. The best place to kill them is probably on the ground.

With that in mind, my main objective in sweeping Kendari was just to reduce the number of fighters that might be protecting enemy shipping moving through the area. It can wait. I'm going to focus on making sure the Celebes Sea gets closed, which should force all his tanker traffic into the Luzon Strait where they'll find a wall of submarines, and possibly Beaufighters from China. I'm surging base forces and construction battalions, recently having arrived in Australia, into the Banda Sea area to start taking even more bases and building more airfields. I hope to have bases soon at Dili, Namlea, and Ternate. The first two should lock down enemy troops at Koepang and Ambon, while the third should close the Celebes Sea, or at least the passage through it south of the Philippines.

A repair tender has arrived at Saumlaki to try to make two badly damaged subs sheltering there seaworthy again. It doesn't look like the tender will make that much of a difference.

China
The Beaufighers on the coast are assigned to naval strikes intending to hit targets in the Luzon Strait, but when some small cargo ships were spotted going upriver to Wuchang, they were in range too. One cargo ship was sunk, two more damaged. I think the implication of these ships being here is that even in the central industrial section of China, the enemy's supply situation is poor.

We endured a shock attack in Kiukiang, and just as with the attack in Burma below, our reinforcement arrived just before the attack, causing the enemy to have insufficient numbers. Casualties were 1800 to 250 favoring us. However, the enemy seems to be sending yet more troops here from Wuchang, and I'm not sure I can afford to send more. Might just hold out and let them take disproportionately high casualties due to defensive terrain bonuses.

We made our own attack in Chengting in the northeast. The attack eliminated their rebuild level-1 fortifications, casualties were even at about 650 per side. We only have a slight manpower advantage here, but it appears the enemy troops here are inexperienced. Going to try a shock attack tomorrow and see if that gets us an overrun. If it doesn't, no big deal, I'll just fall back one hex and defend.

Reinforcements for Hong Kong have arrived in the nearby rail-station base of Kukong; they'll now proceed by road to approach the enemy from their eastern flank. The Hong Kong area forces are currently the only front my bombers are hitting. I could move in more bombers from India, but we're already struggling to keep supply levels high enough to keep the bombers we have in the air.

Burma
My main force waiting outside Rangoon moved into Pegu to reinforce the imperiled detachment there. Just in time; we suffered a shock attack from enemy soldiers of division strength. The assault failed thanks to the extra troops, casualties 950 to 730 favoring us, with far more enemy squads "destroyed" instead of "disabled" relative to us. We outnumber them more than 2 to 1 now and we have another division about to arrive, so probably a good time to counterattack. He has yet more troops now sallying from Rangoon, which just seems like throwing them away. We will have a much easier time killing them in open terrain and with lower fortification levels vs if they stayed in Rangoon.

Reinforcements and Intel
Intel confirms the sinking of IJN Kirishima on 6/27/43
DE Wileman arrives at Mare Island
---------
EDIT: Wayback machine!
26 June 1943
Sinking of Kirishima when I wasn't doing mission reports!
USS Narwhal found the Kirishima in a task force in the Makassar Strait and attacked with 6 torpedoes, scoring 3 detonating hits. The Kirishima was apparently abandoned the next day. Narwhal was lightly damaged in retaliatory depth charge attacks, but escaped.

12-03-22, 01:30 PM	#649
Molon Labe Silent Hunter Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Along the Watchtower Posts: 3,810 Downloads: 27 Uploads: 5	25 August 1943 N1K1-J George as the answer to Japan's P-38 problem? Land reinforcements arrive just in time in China and Burma Refocusing on strategy: Time to close the Celebes Sea SouthPAC USS Gudgeon attempted to sneak into Truk and lay a minefield, only to hit a mine herself. She aborted her mission and is returning to Brisbane for repairs, thankfully not too seriously damaged. USS Scorpion gave Gudgeon an assist by destroying a subchaser along its escape route. We hold no contacts on any enemy carriers today, and it appears the garrison on Ponape is significantly reduced. Japan Southeast of Okinawa, USS Trout turned the tables on a Kaibokan trying to sanitize the area, sinking it with a Mk14. DEI For the first time in a long time, the P-38 lost an engagement. This was a sweep of Kendari, but instead of Tojos, the enemy CAP was the N1K1-J George. Even though the numbers were 13 to 7 favoring me, I lost 2 airplanes and we shot down nothing. I don't know how many of these planes he can produce, but if he can produce them in large numbers we'll be fighting on pretty even terms again. However, this aircraft has a terrible service rating, which means they're going to be spending a lot more time in the hangars than in the air. The best place to kill them is probably on the ground. With that in mind, my main objective in sweeping Kendari was just to reduce the number of fighters that might be protecting enemy shipping moving through the area. It can wait. I'm going to focus on making sure the Celebes Sea gets closed, which should force all his tanker traffic into the Luzon Strait where they'll find a wall of submarines, and possibly Beaufighters from China. I'm surging base forces and construction battalions, recently having arrived in Australia, into the Banda Sea area to start taking even more bases and building more airfields. I hope to have bases soon at Dili, Namlea, and Ternate. The first two should lock down enemy troops at Koepang and Ambon, while the third should close the Celebes Sea, or at least the passage through it south of the Philippines. A repair tender has arrived at Saumlaki to try to make two badly damaged subs sheltering there seaworthy again. It doesn't look like the tender will make that much of a difference. China The Beaufighers on the coast are assigned to naval strikes intending to hit targets in the Luzon Strait, but when some small cargo ships were spotted going upriver to Wuchang, they were in range too. One cargo ship was sunk, two more damaged. I think the implication of these ships being here is that even in the central industrial section of China, the enemy's supply situation is poor. We endured a shock attack in Kiukiang, and just as with the attack in Burma below, our reinforcement arrived just before the attack, causing the enemy to have insufficient numbers. Casualties were 1800 to 250 favoring us. However, the enemy seems to be sending yet more troops here from Wuchang, and I'm not sure I can afford to send more. Might just hold out and let them take disproportionately high casualties due to defensive terrain bonuses. We made our own attack in Chengting in the northeast. The attack eliminated their rebuild level-1 fortifications, casualties were even at about 650 per side. We only have a slight manpower advantage here, but it appears the enemy troops here are inexperienced. Going to try a shock attack tomorrow and see if that gets us an overrun. If it doesn't, no big deal, I'll just fall back one hex and defend. Reinforcements for Hong Kong have arrived in the nearby rail-station base of Kukong; they'll now proceed by road to approach the enemy from their eastern flank. The Hong Kong area forces are currently the only front my bombers are hitting. I could move in more bombers from India, but we're already struggling to keep supply levels high enough to keep the bombers we have in the air. Burma My main force waiting outside Rangoon moved into Pegu to reinforce the imperiled detachment there. Just in time; we suffered a shock attack from enemy soldiers of division strength. The assault failed thanks to the extra troops, casualties 950 to 730 favoring us, with far more enemy squads "destroyed" instead of "disabled" relative to us. We outnumber them more than 2 to 1 now and we have another division about to arrive, so probably a good time to counterattack. He has yet more troops now sallying from Rangoon, which just seems like throwing them away. We will have a much easier time killing them in open terrain and with lower fortification levels vs if they stayed in Rangoon. Reinforcements and Intel Intel confirms the sinking of IJN Kirishima on 6/27/43 DE Wileman arrives at Mare Island --------- EDIT: Wayback machine! 26 June 1943 Sinking of Kirishima when I wasn't doing mission reports! USS Narwhal found the Kirishima in a task force in the Makassar Strait and attacked with 6 torpedoes, scoring 3 detonating hits. The Kirishima was apparently abandoned the next day. Narwhal was lightly damaged in retaliatory depth charge attacks, but escaped. __________________ Last edited by Molon Labe; 12-03-22 at 01:39 PM.