Unescorted convoy in 1945??

[Bubblehead1980]

TMO 2.0
RSRD

100 realism

Left Mios Woendi on January 5, 1945 for a special mission(instertion of Australian commands at Pare-Pare Bay and peninsula on Celebes Island) Upon completion of oporder began patrol in the Makassar Strait.Around 1800 hours on January 14, 1945 off coast of Borneo, contacted a convoy at 11 miles on SJ radar hugging the coast of Borneo, apparently heading for Balikpapan.Moved in for night surface attack, although it would be risky since had full load of Mark 18 torpedos with their short range and in extremely shallow waters, moved in for the attack.Much to my surprise, this convoy of 9 ships, including several mid sized and small tankers was UNESCORTED(!)

After a 31 hour(game time) ah well it was a do nothing day) running battle along the coast of Borneo in which all 24 torpedos were fired and one deck gun attack(from 4200 yards, sunk an Akita Maru this way) was made while torpedos being reloaded, 6 of 9 ships, including 2 medium tankers and one small were sunk.The convoy was too close to Balikpapan by this time and was out of torpedos, so I headed for Darwin to refit.

Although unescorted, the convoy was a challenge due to the speed they maintained and wild zigging they did after first attack, even after lost contact and regained, they rarely stayed on a course for long, which made plotting an attack difficult and thus why out of 24 fired, a few missed.

I was surprised this convoy was not escorted in 1945.Error or is this accurate? I know Lurker used a convoy history or whatever but surprised they were unescorted.I looked this convoy up in the ME a minute ago, it was from Surabaya, Java so a short run but surprised it had no escort.

Also shocking was the lack of air cover, no air contacts during the entire battle.Think the campaign needs some work in the Borneo, Java Sea area.Add some air cover and some patrols.

Fun battle though.


Update:Refitted at Darwin and went to patrol Api Passage on other side of Borneo for almost 2 weeks, no contacts.Then went to Area D4 just south of Gulf of Siam(Thailand), sank an Akita Maru en route.Then, after a long high speed chase, sank a Nippon Maru tanker traveling at 16 knots alone and zigging often heading for Singapore in area D4.

Encountered a 3 ship, 3 escort convoy on Feb 10 1945, surface attack foiled, forced me to run away.Attacked in deeper water submerged next morning, sank one ship and the lead escort, was hiding well but the flank found me after attack, Type D escort...lucky charged damaged engine room bulkhead, stern torpedo bulkhead, floodined, destroyed diesel engines, stern tubes etc.I sat on bottom at all stop(didnt take hull damage) and was depth charged relentlessly then they lost me, falling for decoys and guessing the bottom helped.Flooding was controlled, hull damage from sitting on bottom and moving when depth charged was now 35 but not bad considering.

Escorts lost me eventually, I survived sitting on bottom but badly damaged, if only had diesels I could make it home.Had to give up on an outstanding patrol.....9 ships sank.This game really needs some work when it comes to the long standing issue of being stranded.

[Davy_Jones]

Odd 1945 you say must have been very fun because you don't need to worry of depth charges

[Bubblehead1980]

Was fun but def not going call it easy because they could lay down some fire with all the deck guns if needed.I had to back away at emergency speed after the torpedos hit the first tanker, the ships put me in their spotlight and opened up, several rounds came close to hitting me.Their speed and zig patterns made attacks difficult also.

Reminded of the USS Wahoo's attack in January 1943 when they caught a convoy off New Guinea unescorted, sank the entire convoy in 24 hour running battle.43 can be explaind though, just found it really odd to catch a convoy unescorted in 45, so wondering if it was an error/oversight by lurker or if convoy really was unescorted due to the short distance and shallow waters they traveled.Plus in RL prob had air cover if not surface escorts.

[Davy_Jones]

how shallow was the water

[Armistead]

They certainly would've lack escorts, DD's for sure. Since lurker put it in be nice to know the historical accurancy of it or not. I know many thought the battle of Balikpapan should'nt have taken place, around April to July 45. Fought mostly my the Australians and they lost many. I do recall it was reinforced early war, had a large oil pipeline and a few airfields.

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by Davy_Jones

how shallow was the water

Less than 60 feet under keel in some places.Like most late war convoys, was hugging the coast.

[Bubblehead1980]

Originally Posted by Armistead

They certainly would've lack escorts, DD's for sure. Since lurker put it in be nice to know the historical accurancy of it or not. I know many thought the battle of Balikpapan should'nt have taken place, around April to July 45. Fought mostly my the Australians and they lost many. I do recall it was reinforced early war, had a large oil pipeline and a few airfields.

Turns out it was historically accurate...mostly....found this in the Japanese Convoy History, which is in the RSRD readme.That is the convoy, says it was unescorted until the 17th.Guess the short trip and coastal route in shallows made them comfortable enough to run without escort.

1300.
14th. January, 1945.
From: Surabaya, north-east Java.
To: Makassar, south-west Celebes Island, Bandjarmasin - southern Borneo - Balikpapan, south-east Borneo.
TAI MARU convoy.
Tai Maru, Shoyu Maru, No. 11 Sanko Maru, Kako Maru, Nanmei Maru (Makassar bound.)
Hosei Maru, ****sushi Maru (Balikpapan bound.)
Nittei Maru (Bandjarmasin bound) (8).
No escorts.
On the day of departure the convoy at 1930 anchored at Kanbin Island, it left there at 0700 on the 15th. The same
day at 1540 the convoy anchored at the south corner of Tanjun, at 0700 on the 16th. it left.
At 1350 on the 17th. Submarine-chaser No. 56 joined the convoy, at 2300 Nittei Maru left the formation bound for
Bandjarmasin.
At 0400 on the 18th. the convoy moved into squalls, consequently Nanmei Maru's where-abouts became unknown,
three hours later a search was begun but the ship was not found. At 1430 that day the convoy anchored in the area
north-north-west of Dato Island, at 2330 Patrol-boat No. 36 joined the escort.
At 0600 on the 19th. the convoy left the Dato Island area, at 0800 the next day Auxiliary minesweeper No. 3 joined
the escort. At 1740 on the 21st. the convoy arrived at Makassar. Here at 1500 on the 22nd. Hosei Maru and
****sushi Maru left together with Patrol-boat's No. 108 and
No. 36. At 2210 on the 23rd. they were joined by the auxiliary submarine-chaser No. 2 Shonan Maru, at 0900 on the

26th. they arrived safely at Balikpapan.

[Armistead]

Great info Bubble, lurker still keeps the faith....