War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

[Molon Labe]

12 August 1942
Two tankers hugging coast of Borneo sunk by USS Snapper

South China Sea
Allowing my subs to venture into shallow waters is again bearing fruit. Snapper encountered two 2900 ton Std-C class tankers (which started the war as cargo ships, they're converted) carrying oil from Miri/Brunei east, presumably bound for Japan. It set up a submerged torpedo attack on the first and hit it with both torpedoes it fired--one detonated. The oil it was carrying ignited and doomed the ship. The Snapper then surfaced to engage the other tanker, firing a total of 10 torpedoes plus naval gunfire. Four torpedoes hit, two of which detonated (both in the final salvo), sinking this ship as well.

This raises a question of how long these tankers have been making these trips, hugging the coast, evading my submarine patrols. I'm not too worried, though, ships on this route would still probably be going through the Okinawa area chokepoints, and if it was just these two, they're too small to have been making a huge difference. I should be able to identify good places for minefields based on this information (and the Dutch sub O20--a minelaying specialist--just completed repairs), and I'll continue to adjust sub patrol areas to try to find coast-huggers and the areas where they have to cross deep water.

Sumatra
Our Palembang CAP took down 2 Zeroes and a Sally before enemy sweeps cleared the skies. An enemy Lily was downed by flak. The fires are getting nasty and are damaging facilities as well at stored oil. Love it.

Thailand
We lost another Blenheim near Pisanuloke---this one's on me, I should have canceled these strikes after we took the base.
At Tavoy we traded a Hurricane for a Zero and a Sally. My armies at Tavoy are starting to get organized enough that I'm willing to order an attack for tomorrow.

2 ships were detected offshore in the Bay of Bengal. Not sure what their deal is. My carriers are too far south to respond at the moment.

Hawaii
I'm still bombing Lahaina every day--today, we lost a B-17 to flak. I'm moving my bombing altitude up from 10k to 12k to try to mitigate this in the future.

Solomons
I attacked Guadalcanal's port with B-17s again, this time getting results: we destroyed a mine tender and damaged a sub. One B-17 was lost to flak.

Reinforcements and Refits
SC-700 arrives at Eastern USA
No.25 Sqn RAAF Det arrives at Perth - Buffalos--a badly needed fighter training squadron
1393rd Construction Regiment arrives at Corvallis
12th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme

[Molon Labe]

13 August 1942

Japan
USS Haddock engaged a pair of light cargo ships near Kyushu. It missed the first with torpedoes, then engaged the other on the surface. It probably scored enough gun hits on it to sink it, but fired torpedoes anyway and got one to detonate.

Thailand
The enemy started sending their fighters to the Raheng area instead of Tavoy. We traded a Mohawk for an Oscar there, while we were able to bomb Tavoy unmolested.

Our land forces attacked, despite the change in balance in the air it wasn't enough, casualties were about 200 to 100 favoring them. We might have to wait for reinforcements from our reserve force in Moulmein.

China
At Tsiaotso, slightly north of Chengchow, the enemy tried to bomb us with 22 Sonias. The Chengchow CAP diverted and splashed 7 of them. Damage on the ground was insignificant.

We hit Hong Kong again, and again the results were poor. One Wellington was shot down by the Nates guarding it.

Sumatra
The elite New Zealander squadron showed its appreciation for their brand new P-40s by shooting down 5 Zeroes with no losses.

Solomons
Our B-17s got another mine tender at Guadalcanal, no losses. It still looks like there's much more here to get. I'm going to take a bit of a chance here--recon flights over Guadalcanal and Rabaul say there aren't any bombers around, so I'm sending a few cruisers up there for a port call.

Reinforcements
CLAA Juneau arrives at Balboa
AM Wallaroo arrives at Sydney
SC-708 arrives at Eastern USA

[Molon Labe]

14 August 1942
Hong Kong reinforced with fighters, major bomber losses result

Luzon Strait
USS Skipjack encountered a transport and a cargo ship off Bataan Island. It fired 4 torpedoes at the transport, hitting it once, but it was a dud. It attempted a surface attack on the cargo ship, and to its credit, it persisted in the attack long enough to cause significant damage with its gun. But it also fired every last torpedo on board at it--20 total--scoring 4 hits, all of which were duds. So, it's headed back to base to rearm.

Bay of Bengal and Thailand
The bogeys spotted a few days ago was a surface combat task force of 3 CLs and 5 DDs. They bombarded Victoria Point and cleared datum to the south. Damage was minor.

Sweeps in Pisanuloke took out 3 of our Mohawks.

China
I raided Hong Kong one time too many. This time there were 43 Zeroes waiting for us. 4 Wellingtons were shot down. That's going to be the last raid here for awhile.

Hawaii and Line Islands
The Wasp delivered VF-8 to Hickam while a convoy delivered a squadron of P-39s. Another convoy delivered PBYs meant for Pearl to Palmyra--they'll fly the rest of the way in to avoid the sub blockade. The Kingfishers reported 3 hits on enemy subs--the first hits since I dropped the patrol range. Maybe this time we really hurt them. Local ASW surface forces are now in 3 groups (3 subchasers, 2 DDs, and a PG and an AM).

Reinforcements
SC-705 arrives at Balboa
YMS-114 arrives at San Diego
20th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme

Also, intel reported the IJN Kako sunk. This was a heavy cruiser hit by a torpedo bomber in the Strait of Malacca months ago that I thought had gotten away.

[Ostfriese]

Damn them Mk 14s, they are worse in your game than they were in reality.

[mapuc]

I recall that USA had some problems with their main torpedoes in the start of the war, but this was solved after some years or so.

In the end of -42 I thought they had solve to problems.

Well I may remember things wrong.

Markus

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by mapuc

I recall that USA had some problems with their main torpedoes in the start of the war, but this was solved after some years or so.

In the end of -42 I thought they had solve to problems.

Well I may remember things wrong.

Markus

You are quite right. Both the submarine launched Mark 14 as well as the surface launched Mark 15 had serious technical problems. They ran too deep (solved around September 1942), and both their detonators (contact and magnetic) were faulty. It took the Americans almost two years to correct the problems (until about November 1943).
After that the Mark 14 was a very reliable weapon and was the main reason the American submarine force obliterated the Japanese merchant marine. It was used by the US Navy until 1980.


Molon Lobe has already mentioned that at some point the torpedoes will become more reliable in WiTP as well. I don't know, however, how the earlier Mark 10 is modelled in the game, which -while outdated- was a more reliable weapon in the early stages of the war.

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

You are quite right. Both the submarine launched Mark 14 as well as the surface launched Mark 15 had serious technical problems. They ran to deep (solved around September 1942), and both their detonators (contact and magnetic) were faulty. It took the Americans almost two years to correct the problems (until about November 1943).
After that the Mark 14 was a very reliable weapon and was the main reason the American submarine force obliterated the Japanese merchant marine. It was used by the US Navy until 1980.


Molon Lobe has already mentioned that at some point the torpedoes will become more reliable in WiTP as well. I don't know, however, how the earlier Mark 10 is modelled in the game, which -while outdated- was a more reliable weapon in the early stages of the war.

I don't know the actual dud rates of any of the weapons, although I'm sure there's a database editor I could find and use that to find out. But by observation, the Mk14's dud rate is over 50% and the Mk10's is probably lower than 25%.

Per the manual, on January 1943 any torp with a dud rate over 49% will have its rate reduced BY 20%. In September 1943, any torps with a dud rate over 20% will have the rate reduced TO 10%.

[Molon Labe]

15 August 1942
Loose lips sink enemy troop ships

Marshall Islands

Three days ago, we received SIGINT indicating elements of the 4th Division were loaded on a ship headed to Kwajelein in the Marshalls. The 4th Division was previously known to be deployed to Lihue and Johnston, and we were monitoring an evacuation of Johnston at the time. So, assuming the report was accurate, I might have had both a point of origin and a destination for this ship. I already had subs in the Marshalls patrolling as a KB-early-warning network. Looking at the reefs and shallows and the likely direction of approach, I thought it likely the incoming transport would pass north of Wotje, so I placed 2 of 3 subs in that corridor, with the 3rd playing goalkeeper closer to Kwaj.

Today, a troop-carrying Aden class cargo ship was intercepted in that corridor by USS Saury. The cargo ship was unescorted, allowing Saury to attack on the surface. It hit the transport with 9 Mk14s (of 12 fired), 3 of which actually detonated, for a confirmed kill.

That looks like a rare intelligence success in this game. I don't actually know for a fact that the ship is the same one from the report, but the odds are pretty likely since it definitely came from the east.

Sumatra
Sweeps over Palembang eventually cleared the skies of my CAP, but enemy bombers didn't exploit that. 2 Oscars and 1 P-40 were lost.

Thailand
At Tavoy, our bombers hit the enemy troops in a thunderstorm, unmolested by fighters as they were sweeping Pisanoulke aggressively instead. The bombing was mostly ineffective due to the weather. We lost 2 bombers to flak. The enemy base forces shelled our troops, causing light casualties but enough to eliminate an infantry squad, which is discouraging.

The sweeps at Pisanoulke cost a Mohawk and a Zero.


Solomons
Our B-17s severely damaged an enemy sub in port at Guadalcanal.

Hawaii
Kingfishers reported another hit on an enemy submarine. We had a few engagements by surface ships as well, but no successful attacks. I thought I'd have taken care of this problem by now. We've detected 8 subs this turn, that's down from a peak of 10 a few days ago, but even without damage they have to return to port sometime.

Reinforcements and refits
The second Canadian squadron being deployed to Thailand has arrived in Calcutta, India, to have its planes assembled to fly to Rangoon.
SS Sturgeon taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor (yes, I still have subs that haven't completed their 4/1942 radar installation. 5 left after this one.)