War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

[Molon Labe]

Here's my current carrier OOB and two screens worth of future arrivals:

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

As the Allies cannot rush anything in the game the carriers should arrive on their historical arrival dates, which means that right now Molon Lobe should have some of the Bogues and the Sangamons (probably not all of them, as they were also used in the Atlantic historically).
The biggest addition will be USS Essex in December 1942, and during the first half of 1943 there should be a surge of CVL and CVE arriving along with a couple of Essexes, so by July 1st, 1943 Molon Lobe should easily outnumber anything the Japanese can muster even if they don't lose any of their carriers until then.

I need to mention that we are playing with variable arrival dates, so arrivals might be +/- 30 days from their actual historical arrivals. This helps prevent the opposing player from knowing exactly when something is going to show up.

It's going to be a bit rough until mid-1943 thanks to losing all of the Yorktown class. And all 3 of my active US fleet carriers are due for lengthy refits in October, so I'm going to have to rotate those 3 out of service for that. Probably one at a time, but I might see if I can get away with a twofer. Wasp vs Japan!

[Molon Labe]

23 September 1942
Parrying

Solomons and Espiritu Santo Islands
With a little help from the CL Leander and a few destroyers, the Marines on Ndeni finished off the enemy garrison.

Meanwhile, the last two damaged ships from the western amphibious task force succumbed to the damage they took yesterday, and a B-17 was lost to flak over Guadalcanal.

I've cleared my base forces to land on Roussel--this task force has a DMS and a DM in addition to the pair of AMs that proved inadequate yesterday. Not exactly robust, but enough to turn away their ace destroyer if it comes back.

Partly because Ndeni seems to have been a bit too far for the P-38s to patrol efficiently, I'm going to head back to Luganville, and quickly. The engineers and base forces intended to land on Ndeni immediately after the Marine's success are being unloaded instead of transported. Those ships are going to load up more Marines... and tanks. Lots of tanks. Hopefully between better air support, better recon, and the results of several months of near-continuous bombing, the result will be better than our first attempt. The Kates are going to have a much tougher time getting through my fighters around Luganville than they did around Ndeni.

Also, the squadron of A-20s based in Efate has upgraded to the A-20A1. These aircraft are armed with 4 forward firing 50-cals and are considered "attack bombers". They're coded to aggressively strafe and skip bomb at low altitude--I'm actually assigning fighter pilots to fly them since bomber pilots don't train the strafing skill. This should be the most effective low-altitude unit on the board, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they can do.

Burma
The enemy attacked our armies at Tavoy with Betties, we shot down 4 Zeroes and lost 1 Hurricane trying to get to them. I've converted a 2nd squadron of Rangoon's Blenheims to Vengeances--but we don't have qualified pilots for them yet. Both dive bomber squadrons will be sitting in the rear getting replenished and trained, for now.

Bay of Bengal
The enemy swept Trincomalee with Zeroes then followed up with a Val raid; Colombo's Martlets were there to greet them. We got 2 Zeroes and lost a Martlet--the Vals sank the port's minesweeper. They also sent some Kates after a pair of destroyers that had just returned to Colombo after escorting a pair of cruisers to Bombay for upgrades. We traded 2 Marlets for 2 Zeroes here, and the Kates all missed.

China
Another shock attack at Chengchow--probably triggered by reinforcements arriving while crossing the river. Our forts are now down to Level 2, which is concerning. Casualties were 14875 to 7819 favoring us. Even though I might ultimately lose here, I really think this ongoing battle is to my benefit. He's taking such heavy losses, and his troops are much more valuable and also needed elsewhere. On my end, if there's one thing I have in abundant supply, it's Chinese soldiers, so I really don't mind losing them if they're taking enemies with them. He's also burning a ton of supply, and I can tell his supply needs in China are going unmet because of how low the stockpiles were at the coastal bases I seized.

Reinforcements
One of the B-24 squadrons that departed from the east coast has arrived in Capetown, South Africa. Next step for them will be slow boats to India.

AM Vireo taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor

[mapuc]

So far we have been discussing material and when it will arrive
What about the Men Here I'm thinking Soldiers for offensive operations such as Marines, Green Barets etc

If I have been following your AAR correctly you have mostly received men for defencing measure of your airport and harbour.

Sorry if I should be wrong.

Markus

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by mapuc

So far we have been discussing material and when it will arrive
What about the Men Here I'm thinking Soldiers for offensive operations such as Marines, Green Barets etc

If I have been following your AAR correctly you have mostly received men for defencing measure of your airport and harbour.

Sorry if I should be wrong.

Markus

I was shipping a lot of troops out to Australia and my southern island bases (Noumea, Fiji, Pago Pago) early in the war, then I got a bit distracted when I started retaking Hawaii. I'm actually in the middle of a troop surge right now, to try to make sure I have enough offensive power in an around Australia to enable future offensive operations. Here's a rough breakdown of the major U.S. infantry units on the board right now:

Port Moresby: 8th Marine reg
Noumea: 6th Marine reg, 24th Army reg, 58th Army reg
Pago: 148th Army reg, 161 Army reg, 7th Marine reg
Hawaii: 5th Marine reg, 21st Marine reg, Americal Inf Division, 147th Army Reg, 19th Army reg, 21 Army reg, 27th army reg, 35th army reg

In transit to Australia: 1st Marine reg, 5th Marine reg, 32nd army Division, 145th army regiment, 129th army reg

Unrestricted units on West Coast awaiting transport: 22nd Marine reg, 3rd Marine Reg

----
Looking at my reinforcement schedule, I'm not going to get another unrestricted regiment-sized or larger US infantry until until January. Looks like I'm going to have to make do with this for awhile.

[Ostfriese]

Your pictures of arrivals answer another question I had planned to ask. You don't get ships when they are commissioned, but only once they have done their shakedown cruises, transfers and whatever other time they need to get ready.

[Molon Labe]

24 September 1942
The Great Ceylon Turkey Shoot



Bay of Bengal
An outright shocking defeat for the IJN air forces today.

The morning began with a detachment of heavies hitting Madras, led by the battleship Hiei. They managed to destroy 3 aircraft on the ground there and damage 2 cargo ships in port. Shore batteries scored a hit on an enemy heavy cruiser.

The carriers sprinted from their position near Madras to the western side of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), taking position off Colombo, the main British naval base in theatre. At daybreak, our CVBG was just about to arrive at Colombo, and the enemy launched airstrikes at close range.

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 53
B5N2 Kate x 23
D3A2 Val x 27

Allied aircraft
Sea Hurricane Ib x 20
Martlet II x 16

So I'm outnumbered rather badly here. We shot down 17 Zeroes, 4 Kates, and 4 Vals. No losses. 53 Zeroes couldn't even shoot down one of my fighters. Lots of bombers got through, though, but that didn't lead to any serious damage. Flak took down 7 of the Vals. Of the Kates, only 8 were armed with torpedoes, the others dropped bombs from 12,000ft, which is really too high to be effective, although I think the Kates did get one hit. In total, the Royal Sovereign took 1 bomb hit, and the Ramillies took 2. These are relatively small 250kg bombs hitting heavily armored targets. The bombs didn't penetrate the armor and caused only minor damage. They really needed torpedoes. But these are mostly second-rate carriers--and remember when we shot down 29 Kates a few days ago? Looks like most of their torpedo stores went down with those planes.

I'm completely shocked by this result. Even mediocre Zero pilots should be able to shoot down a few planes when they outnumber us like this. And the Martlet is simply an inferior plane to the Zero. There's no sign that there was any sort of major tactical advantage for my forces. I have to conclude that these pilots were completely incompetent--total rookies with little to no training. And that includes pilots from the Kaga, who should be part of the elite.

Burma
Across the Bay, we engaged a raid on our armies at Tavoy, shooting down another 3 Zeroes and 5 Betties with no losses.

Bismark Sea
A convoy of small tankers was spotted approaching Rabaul; Hudson bombers from Port Moresby took a run at them and hit one of them. It was loaded with fuel and burst into flames. We believe it sank later in the day.

Refits and Reinforcements
DD Flusser beginning refit in shipyard at Pearl Harbor
DD Cassin taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor
DD Hull beginning refit in shipyard at Pearl Harbor
DD Nicholas arrives at Eastern USA
SS Gunnel arrives at Eastern USA

[Molon Labe]

25 September 1942
HMS Repulse finally goes down; Japan's experienced pilots show the rookies how it's done

Bay of Bengal
The submarine I-5 entered Colombo's hex and attempted an attack against a pair of destroyers. It missed, and then ran into a minefield. It didn't make it out.

The carrier force launched an attack on Colombo's port with 21 Zeroes and 16 Kates. Our carriers did not participate in the defense, so it was just 17 Martlets from the base itself on defense. It was quite a change from yesterday... we got only 1 Zero, while losing 5 Martlets. The Kates were savaged by anti-aircraft fire, costing 8 aircraft. They scored a hit on the AO Trinity, which was loaded at the time and is presently on fire (edit: No, it's not. Fires out, it's going to survive)

Burma
Our raids on Tavoy were intercepted by Oscars. Again, a very different result from yesterday--5 Hurricanes, 2 Blenheims, and a B-25 fell to them, while we only shot down 1 Oscar.

The last of the enemy paratroopers in the Rangoon area have been eliminated. That leaves the troops and marines near the Indian border.

South China Sea
The KXI found an unescorted cargo ship near Borneo and Sumatra (for my reference: 58,84) and made a successful torpedo attack, we're fairly confident this was a kill.

Philippine Sea
The KXIV attacked an escorted cargo ship convoy near Leyte. It scored a hit on one of the cargo ships. The convoy abandoned the wounded ship, allowing a second sub, the KXV, to finish off the ship from the surface.

Malaya
Lots of bombers hitting Singapore again, which is insignificant so I don't mention it most days. If he puts his troops in there, it will fall if they breathe hard on it. But one of today's bombs--an 800kg AP bomb carried by a Betty instead of a 250kg GP/SAP from a Sally--actually penetrated Repulse's armor and exploded inside, and that made all the difference. After sitting in drydock since probably the first or second week of the war, she's finally gone.

Refits and Reinforcements
DD Drayton taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor
DD Preston taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor
SC-640 arrives at San Diego
SC PC-580 arrives at Portland

[Molon Labe]

26 September 1942
Hawaii nearly mopped up

CENTPAC
We started landing the Americal Infantry Division on Lahaina. Resistance is light.

Our Marines have finished off the last enemy troops on Lihue, and we are now in contact with the enemy troops at Hilo (Kona Island).

Malaya
Betty raids on Singapore sank a pair of ASW patrol craft, which were the last ships/boats remaining at Singapore.

China
We lost a P-40 and 2 SB-III bombers over Chengchow (1 SB-III to flak); no victories.

The enemy army made another shock attack, bringing our forts down to Level 1, casualties 13000 to 6500 favoring us. The next attack could overrun us. The bombers operating near the coast are retasking to here, and I'm even going to use the B-24s that I had been keeping a secret. There's a force of troops I used to intercept an enemy unit coming around our flanks to the southeast--they've routed that enemy unit, so I'll have them reinforce Chengchow to try to hold on a bit longer. Unfortunately, I have a ton of disabled fighters here that I'd like to evacuate, but can't. The sustained enemy attacks have overtaxed our supplies, which is impacting the repair rate.

Burma
We raided Tavoy; shooting down 9 Oscars and losing only 1 Hurricane and inflicting moderate casualties on the ground.

Bay of Bengal
Land-based air forces from Colombo decided to finally try to attack the enemy CVBG, but didn't coordinate with our carriers or even their own Martlet fighters. 2 Swordfish went in alone and got splashed easily. Then 12 Fulmars attempted a low-altitude attack; 6 were shot down by the CAP while we took 1 Zero down with them. Only 2 aircraft reached the enemy fleet, they got cold feet and did not actually attack any of the enemy ships.

Makassar Strait
The O16 was spotted by an ASW patrol near Balikpapan and was depth charged, causing serious damage. It's headed to Darwin for emergency repairs.

SouthPAC
A Wirraway bomber from Noumea bombed an enemy sub lurking between Noumea and Efate.

We've landed a base force on Rousel Island without being raided by a lone destroyer, or anything else.

Reinforcements
SC-738 arrives at Balboa
112th RN Base Force arrives at Aden

[Molon Labe]

27 September 1942
Player error leads to sinking of CL Natori

China
Our raids on Chengchow got us 5 Oscars at the cost of a pair of P-40s. We got one plane repaired and pulled out. Enemy casualties were relatively light, but the B-24s did okay.

Bay of Bengal
My opponent pulled his task forces out from the Colombo area, but accidentally left a replenishment group behind. My CVBG hit it with 2 waves of Albacores, hitting the light cruiser Natori with 3 torpedoes for a confirmed kill. My opponent has asked for safe passage for this group, and I've agreed not to pursue for 1 turn. Chasing them would be crazy anyway, I'd just be walking into their land-based air range. The raid cost us 2 Albacores; one to flak and another pushed over the side due to unrepairable damage.

CentPAC
We've begun our assault at Hilo, the enemy had level 3 forts that we took down to 2, they don't have enough troops here--less than 1000--to capitalize on the forts regardless.

Reinforcements
DD Gillespie arrives at San Francisco
347th FG/339th FS arrives at Noumea
111th Chindit Brigade arrives at Madras
--------
As I'm bringing more fighter squadrons online, I'm reviewing my aircraft deployments from Australia all the way back to Pearl and I'm not happy with how disorganized it is. It started off pretty well when I first moved them, but I've moved so much around in response to KB raids on Pago and Noumea that it's just an ad hoc mess right now. So I've taken some time to reorganize my forces on paper, and over the next month or so I'll be moving squadrons and AirHQs around so that I end up with a well-balanced group of fighters, bombers and patrol aircraft at each base, all under the same local command and hopefully able to coordinate well.

[mapuc]

Edit
I have withdrawn my question. It was about your planes.
End edit

Markus

[Molon Labe]

28 September 1942
A calm day

CENTPAC
USS Kingfish torpedoed and sank an enemy cargo ship near Marcus Island. It took 5 hits to get a single Mk14 to detonate.

Enemy forts at Hilo are down to Level 1.

China
We lost a P-40 over Chengchow with no victories. Our bombers still hit the enemy troops without losses. We got 3 fighters out of Chengchow.

SouthPAC
Noumea's Wirraways bombed another sub.

There's a lot of naval activity around Guadalcanal. Going to send some recon planes to check it out. And I'll bomb the port with B-17s and B-24s for good measure.

Ships are being loaded at Noumea for another attempt on Luganville. Wasp is nearby to support, and I'll have a CVE for this operation for air cover too. Enemy Kates are keeping a close eye on things from Ndeni to Efate.

Intel
Intel now reports the battleship Ise didn't sink after all.

Refits, Repairs, Reinforcements
HMS Revenge has begun repairs at Capetown. It's going to take 3 months.
343rd FG/344th FS arrives at Anchorage (2/25 P-40s - training for now, Alaska's not a high priority)
131st Combat Engineer Regiment arrives at San Francisco (full strength, unrestricted)

[Molon Labe]

29 September 1942
USS Gato lost, Guadalcanal air force buildup

Luzon Strait
An enemy cargo ship hit a sub-laid mine at Bataan Island.

Solomons Area
USS Gato was torpedoed and sunk by an enemy submarine near Roussel Island.

Recon flights over Guadalcanal detected over 100 fighters, 40 bombers and 3 submarines at base there. The port attack was scrubbed due to weather.

They flexed their muscles a little bit, sending 11 Netties and 18 Kates to Ndeni with 26 Zeroes and causing a few troop casualties.

We lost a Hudson bomber to flak trying to attack a heavy cruiser at the Shortlands.

I'm holding off on the Luganville op for at least a day to get my aircraft and ships some maintenance and to confirm the enemy numbers on Guadalcanal. 100 fighters will be enough to get bombers through to just about any task force I might operate here.

China
We lost a P-40 and got an SB-III shot up badly enough that it crashed on the way home. Intel says we got 2 Oscars today but I'm not sure where. We've evacuated enough fighters from Chengchow that if we got overrun it won't be so bad anymore.

CENTPAC
Lahania's forts are down to Level 2. The enemy is resisting enough to cause light casualties, unlike at Hilo, where we're just slowly killing them with impunity. The base at Hilo has been captured, but enemy troops remain in the area.

[Molon Labe]

30 September 1942
Luganville operation underway, a plan to take Hainan Island

China
2 P-40s down over Chengchow with one Oscar shot down. One Wellington bomber lost to flak. Forts are back to Level 2-enough that I might move fighters back.

Reinforcements arriving in Madras, India included a regiment-strength paratrooper unit, and there was one already there. I see an opportunity here. There are two bases on Heinan Island, one of which is completely undefended and actually reverted to my control due to proximity to my garrisons on the mainland. The other base is a major naval base, mostly used for merchant ships. Having a large number of paratroops available should mean I can ferry troops into the base I control undetected--then it's just a short march to the other side of the island to take the naval base.

Solomons, Espiritu Santo Islands, New Hebrides
A raid on the Shortlands amounted to nothing, just a few hits on an empty port. Recon flights have spotted 4 subs at Guadalcanal and 1 sub at Rabaul--but they say Rabaul only has 4 fighters compared to the ~100 at Guadalcanal. So Rabaul is getting bombed hard tomorrow.

I have two task forces headed to Luganville, phibs and a heavy cover/bombardment group. I've got another group of phibs standing by to drop seabees off once the Marines succeed. The primary phib group includes a CVE with 28 Wildcats providing cover. We'll also have cover from fighters from Efate and the USS Wasp if need be.

Meanwhile, raids on Ndeni continue and I'm unable to get a CAP that far north right now. All the more reason to take Luganville quickly. I kind of hope this task force gets their attention so we can splash some of them. I suppose I should be careful what I wish for.

USS Seawolf was depth charged for moderate damage near Ontong Java (the atoll north of the Solomons where we've previously seen tanker traffic).

A bit to the south, Noumea's Wirraways hit another sub. Would be nice if my surface forces would finish off one of these wounded boats.

Burma
The isolation of Rangoon is starting to have an impact in China, as I've noticed decreasing supply amounts in key areas. I think I may have to attempt to get a convoy in. I have a large, building force of medium and heavy bombers in India and Burma, so maybe what I can do is start a bombing campaign against Port Blair, and if I can bomb them into ineffectiveness, I'll slip a convoy through.

Some destroyers are patrolling the Tavoy coast--I'm activating my partially-trained Vengeances for this. Maybe they'll have a nice confidence-building success.

The enemy armies guarding the road to Bangkok decided to pursue my withdrawing main force, so I just had them turn around and go after the enemy. We engage tomorrow. Our units moving south from Raheng met an army large enough to hold them up, so our bombers are helping them break that stalemate--so far no interference from enemy fighters.

CENTPAC
Lahaina forts are down to Level 1.

Intel
The intel weenies can't make of their mind about Ise. They're reporting it sank again--today--not far from Manila. Which would have been a reasonable place to go for repairs if they thought they could get it seaworthy enough to leave the harbor it was torpedoed near.

Reinforcements and Refits
VT-8 has been reformed at San Fransciso. I immediately transitioned them to Avengers, they'll head to Pear tomorrow.
I'm going to upgrade the Sara and Lex together. They start tomorrow. They'll be getting both radars upgraded, the Chicago Pianos replaced with 40mm Bofors, and in the case of the Lex, she's getting her 5" guns upgraded from Mk10s to Mk12s and the last of her .50cals replaced with 20mms since we skipped her June 1942 upgrade.
374th TCG/33rd TCS arrives at Eastern USA
77th Chindit Brigade arrives at Madras
11th Construction Regiment arrives at Kukong

[Molon Labe]

1 October 1942
Bay of Bengal airstrikes preempted by coastal airbase shelling

Bay of Bengal and Burma
The destroyers off the coast turned out to be a task force of 3 CLs and 4 DDs, which shelled our troops at Tavoy--mostly ineffectively. But another task force of 1 CA 3 CL 9DD also shelled our airbase at Moulmein, disabling most of the aircraft there and destroying two. Thanks to that, the airbase did not launch the two squadrons of dive bombers and the task forces got away.

In the mountains between Tavoy and Bangkok, we fought the enemy army pursuing our main force and routed it, 3129 casualties to 298.

China
We got two Oscars trying to get to our bombers hitting Chengchow. It looks like the enemy armies are withdrawing, so for now I'm retasking our Liberators and Wellingtons to interdicting the armies approaching our newly-acquired coastal bases.

Solomons, etc.
Our heavy bomber raid on Rabaul didn't amount to anything. 12 Oscars defended the base but failed to take any bombers down. And we scored some base hits but didn't get the submarine we though was there, or anything else.

We bombed another sub off Noumea. Apparently they're not getting the message. The departing task forces avoided contact with the subs.

CENTPAC
The enemy base on Lahaina has been captured. We're still hunting down the enemy troops.

Reinforcements and Refits
CA Portland beginning refit in shipyard at Alameda
CA Chester beginning refit in shipyard at Alameda
CA San Francisco beginning refit in shipyard at Pearl Harbor
--The CA upgrades are mostly Chicago Pianos being replaced with Bofors 40mms.
DD Lang beginning refit in shipyard at Pearl Harbor
DD Conyngham taken out of commission to begin refit at Alameda
DD Shaw taken out of commission to begin refit at Alameda
DD Perkins taken out of commission to begin refit at Alameda
DD Downes taken out of commission to begin refit at Alameda
APD Stringham taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor
AGP Niagara taken out of commission to begin refit at Milne Bay
SS S-45 begins refit while under repair at Brisbane
VMF-441 arrives at Pago Pago (2/18 F4F-3 - going to see if I can transition them to -4s to save the -3s for carriers, but either way I can bring these guys up to full strength soon)
23rd Indian Engineer Battalion arrives at Madras (full strength, restricted)

[Ostfriese]

Sounds as if the Battle for Hawaii is about to end, and while it has been a pain in the behind for you while it lasted it's a terrible disaster for your opponent in the end. He lost insane amounts of troops, ships, planes and supplies, and in the end has nothing to show for, because he couldn't capitalize on you not being able to fully utilize Pearl Harbor.