War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

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.

* * *
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:

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.

09-16-21, 12:01 PM	#25
Molon Labe Silent Hunter Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Along the Watchtower Posts: 3,810 Downloads: 27 Uploads: 5	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. * * * 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: 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. __________________ Last edited by Molon Labe; 09-16-21 at 05:55 PM.