War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

[Threadfin]

When I was posting yesterday I thought about the Mark 10s and wondered if your S-boats had them or if other fleet boats might be sailing with them or mixed loads.


And good to see your S-boats aren't just running aground all over the place haha. Two sinkings is good, and that's the place I'd be sending them too. I hope one of your boats can pick off a CV. We need more good news from the war front

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Threadfin

When I was posting yesterday I thought about the Mark 10s and wondered if your S-boats had them or if other fleet boats might be sailing with them or mixed loads.


And good to see your S-boats aren't just running aground all over the place haha. Two sinkings is good, and that's the place I'd be sending them too. I hope one of your boats can pick off a CV. We need more good news from the war front

I gave the S-boats the high-priority tasks in the expected Luzon landing areas right from the beginning because of this.

I can't control loadouts except for torpedo bombers, so the rest of the fleet is stuck with the Mk14.

[Molon Labe]

2 January 1942
And you thought he was dangerous in a Buffalo...

Dutch East Indies
One of the PT squadrons trying to get out of Kendari got trapped between land and an approaching landing force, including a heavy cruiser. This squadron was already down to 3 boats, now it's just one. Kendari withstood the enemy's assault, but with reduced fortifications.

I have yet to reacquire the CVLBG.

Malaya
He sent over 100 bombers to hit my army units on the Johore Road. His army would later attack and turn their withdrawal into rout. They're trying to recover at Malacca now.

My first ace, G.L. Hesketh of the New Zealand No. 488 Squadron, had the honor of being the first to fly the Hurricane into combat in the Pacific theatre. The enemy showed up to bomb the airfield and port facilities at Singapore. Hesketh claimed two zeroes and two Sally bombers before his plane was damaged too badly to continue fighting. The only other victory was a Sally brought down by AA. Hesketh is now a double-ace with 11 kills. The raid bounced a few more bombs off the Repulse, which is apparently destined to live in drydock for the rest of the war.

Philippines
A sweep over Clark cost me a pair each of P-40s and P-35s. My B-17s went to Takao this time to bomb the port and once again were ineffective.

CENTPAC
A change in tactics for the enemy today--they sent in 2 minesweepers to try to clear a path to Pearl, and then bombarded the base with a battleship at long range. The minesweepers were shot to hell by coastal defense guns. But the battleship hurt, sending shrapnel into about two dozen planes all over Hickam Field and causing significant human casualties.

No sign yet of the maybe-Taiyo near my shipping lanes.


Burma
A sub-battalion sized unit took over Mergui, an empty base on the Thai-Burma border and the top of the Malayan peninsula.

[Molon Labe]

3 January 1942
Joint Defense of Kendari, and an Ace in a Day

CENTPAC
The morning started with a PT raid on Lihue. This has to be something like 3 in 5 days, but he was unprepared. My PTs found 9 transports loaded with troops (loading to move somewhere else?) defended by only 4 PBs (militarized cargo ships). The PTs found themselves not outgunned at all, so not only did they get close enough for torpedoes, they stuck around to rake the ships with .50cal gunfire. 4 transports were hit with torpedoes, 2 sank while the PTs were still there. The other two will probably sink as well. Enemy casualties were reported as 2854. One PT was lightly damaged by return fire.

For some reason, his Kates flew to Pearl today without fighter cover. My CAP probably can't withstand the KBs full force, but it can handle unescorted torpedo bombers. 20 Kates showed up, none went home. P-40 pilot D. Billings got 5 of them by himself, the campaign's first Ace-in-a-day.



The weather was supposed to be bad, so I used the opportunity to get some more ships out of Pearl. This time is was seaplane tenders and tankers. The tenders ran into a sub, but the sub missed. They managed to get far enough away by dawn that an airstrike never came.

Dutch East Indies
I really tried to exploit the fact that my enemy is trying to fight from inside a minefield at Kendari. PT attacks will continue, but today it was time for subs and light bombers to take a crack at the invaders. The sub O19 entered the landing area and found a destroyer already crippled from hitting a mine. She torpedoed and sank it. Another destroyer detected the O19 and tried to get some revenge, but the sub escaped with minor damage. After sunrise, two Falcon bomber squadrons attacked, one dropping from 5000 feet and the other coming in low for strafing and bombing. Just wanted to see if it made a difference. Both squadrons managed two hits each. Sadly their bombs were only 50kg, basically oversized hand grenades, so damage was minor. But they got to watch an AKL sink from damage sustained from hitting a mine earlier in the day. One Falcon was shot down by AA.

Near Surabaya, a minesweeper and a pair of destroyers went after the sub that sank the cargo ship two days ago. We actually found two. The minesweeper tracked one down and caused minor damage with depth charges.

The light cruiser Ceres got within 1 hex of Batavia, but her luck ran out. Efforts to control the flooding failed, and she went down.

A portion of the Cebu base force that was on a different transport convoy than the one that got sunk last week has made it to Surabaya.

Philippines
I was wondering when he'd actually start bombing Clark--not the hex, the actual airbase. He hit it today, with about 110 bombers. The airfield is now damaged to 33% and almost nothing is flyable anyway. I did manage to get some B-17s off the ground first, they hit an overstacked enemy airfield at San Fernando, destroying at least two bombers on the ground. But flak downed one B-17 and two more had to be scrapped after the lander.

Burma
The army that I sent into Thailand and got surrounded has surrendered.

SouthPAC
I believe I've reacquired the small SAG that was sitting outside of Suva, they've merged with a troop convoy on an atoll north of the Solomons.


EDIT: Japan
USS Cachalot was bombed by an ASW aircraft and is returning for repairs.

[Molon Labe]

4 January 1941
New activity in the Santa Cruz Islands, Kido Butai detaches a carrier.

CENTPAC
He sent another minesweeper into Pearl, along with a few barges and PTs. The minesweeper was shot up by coastal defenses, the barges and PTs hit mines. He also had a battleship and cruiser bombard the base again, but this time it was ineffective. He got close enough for coastal defense to return fire, and the battleship took a hit--but not more than its armor could handle.

Probably because that sub spotted the seaplane tenders evacuating yesterday, he sent part of the KB north to intercept, and found the evacuating tankers. My scouts still report "6 CV" near Lahaina, so I'm guessing he only sent one (the reports are never 100% accurate as to number and ship type). He bombed both with kates (just 13, tending to confirm only one carrier detached), sinking one and damaging the other. What sucks is they both had fuel onboard. I didn't offload it because based on my experience from when I tried to load troops to evacuate, I expected that moving them into the docks to unload would have triggered an attack. So now that fuel is helping the fires along.

One of my Catalinas is claiming that it bombed a CV as a target of opportunity. I have no way to verify this or determine the amount of damage.

I decided to do PT attacks on consecutive days instead of giving them a day to rest and repair, hoping to hit that damaged ARG some more. They were ready this time, 3 destroyers screened Lihue and drove the PTs off before they could approach.

A task force to the west of Pearl instead of the east is now reported to include a CVE. I still don't know if the Taiyo is really here. So far there's been no sign of enemy ships near the shipping lanes, including scout plane sightings.



Philippines
While the PTs in Hawaii failed, those in the Philippines succeeded. While he invades central islands in full view of my scoutplanes, I sent a PT squadron in to ruin their day. I found 6 transports escorted by only one PB. Again, the PTs were able to make a sustained attack instead of a hit-and-run. Two transports were on the bottom before the PTs left, two more crippled and likely to sink. Another was set on fire by .50cal hits. These ships had already offloaded their troops, though.

The IJA made a proper attack on Clark. We fought back well and gave far worse casualties than we took--5246 to 681, but lost a fortification level. It would probably be a pretty even fight, with favorable terrain balancing out their superior numbers. But factor in air support, and that we're running low on supplies while they can ship in more anytime... it's looking bad.



Dutch East Indies

More PTs arrived to harass the landing forces at Kendari, but they arrived in broad daylight and met the task force outside of the base rather than onshore. The task force, which included a cruiser and a destroyer, was able to disengage. Bad weather is obscuring the location of the task forces from scout planes.


Malaya

I had two AKLs trying to get badly needed supplies to Malacca. They were detected and sunk by Nells.

Other airstrikes targeted my retreating ground forces in Malacca. Enemy bombers caused significant damage to the severely disrupted units. But bad weather caused their escorts to do a **** job of protecting their bombers. Five Nells and a Val were shot down, they managed one Buffalo. Vals? What are they doing here? I'm not sure. There were only 3, my guess it it's a small unit from Taiwan.

I sent bombers to Malacca as well. Oscars on CAP managed to slip past my Hurricanes and shot down a Wirraway. But my bombers hit the enemy tanks chasing my troops and did pretty OK damage.


China
I've been bombing Ichang pretty much daily, and he's been letting me. Apparently he got tired of that. Nates and Tojos were on CAP there today, shooting down one medium bomber and turning the rest around. Those Tojos have been getting the better of the AVG so far, so I have to take them seriously. Fortunately, he only has a squadron of them.


SouthPAC



Lots of activity here all of a sudden.

A fast transport group (reported as 4 ships, including 1 CL and 2 DD) landed troops on Ndeni in the Santa Cruz islands. That I didn't see them until they arrived highlights a blind spot in my search capacity in the eastern solomons. If he thinks Luganville might have been a bridge too far, Ndeni can help give it air cover. Which reminds me, he's already completed a small airstrip at Guadalcanal.

We also spotted a 4-ship task force closing on Efate from the east, and a three ship force approaching Guadalcanal (reportedly with 2 CLs).

It's now been long enough since we've last seen the Soryu or the CVLBG that it wouldn't be surprising if they showed up here. But there's no sign of enemy scoutplanes this far south, yet.

[Molon Labe]

5 January 1942
Missed Opportunities at Santa Cruz and Pearl Harbor

Hawaii

I launched a major attack against the Kido Butai. It was a somewhat complicated plan, which worked against me. I was trying to capitalize on three mistakes by my opponent: first, the KB has been here too long, been flying too many missions, and is low on aircraft, fighters in particular. Second, he just detached one of his carriers to chase after escaping tankers. And third, he's keeping his fleet in a base hex, which reduces the amount of aircraft it can put on CAP. I expected to have an equal number of fighters on the board as him. The strike package had three components: A sweep by 26 P-40Bs, an attack on Lahaina's port and airfield by 11 B-17s and 8 LB-30 Liberators, and an attack against the Kido Butai by 35 SBDs.The heavies would be unescorted so that the SBDs would have maximum protection by 10 Wildcats, 2 P-36s, 15 P-39s and 9 P-40Es. I made sure my not-so-great pilots rode the bench for this one.

Murphy showed up right away... the heavies went first, and the escort fighters went with them. The zeroes had them outnumbered and pounced. A rather one-sided battle saw my fighters take heavy losses. The bombers got through, but didn't do a whole lot of damage.

My sweep arrived next, and they in turn jumped the Zeroes which had come down below 15,000ft to attack the strike package. We kicked their asses. The enemy CAP over the KB ended up looking like my CAP over Clark.

The SBDs got there late and without escort. They only managed to scrape four Zeroes together to attack. They shot a few down, and some chickened out. In the end, 13 SBDs were able to make an attack, targeting the Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, and... a heavy cruiser. They got only one hit. On the cruiser. There was no sign of any damage to any of the ships from that Catalina's report a few days ago. Also, there was no sign of the Shokaku or Zuikaku. So he either detached both to chase the tankers, or one or both is getting replacement aircraft in Japan.

Total losses in this battle:
19 Zeroes
4 F4F, 5 P-39, 1 P-36, 5 P-40, 2 B-17, 6 SBD

Also occurring at Pearl, he's sending more barges and a bunch of midget subs into the base hex. They're all hitting mines---which is probably the point. Apparently these are sweeping mines more cheaply than minesweepers that get sunk by my coastal guns.

SouthPAC
The task force approaching Efate was a priority target, and I got there just in time. It was two troop transport ships escorted by a light cruiser. I brought 4 heavy cruisers and 3 light cruisers to the party. You'd think I slaughtered them with those numbers, but no. All fire was concentrated on the CL while the transports got away. And that CL fought hard, firing multiple torpedo salvoes as shell hits slowly wrecked her. One torpedo from the last salvo hit the HMAS Canberra, causing serious damage. This is a serious missed opportunity--he knows I have troops on Efate so he wasn't going to bring a small unit. And those were proper troop ships, not cargo ships being used to transport troops. I can't even say with any confidence that the CL is fatally damaged.

My scouts failed to find this task force after it disengaged.


East China Sea
USS Saury found and torpedoed a cargo ship, probably sinking it (I had just adjusted its patrol area this turn, too. Glad it didn't take long!)

China
Looking for some payback against the Tojo squadron, I stopped bombing Ichang for a day and just sent the AVG there. The Tojos didn't show, but 17 Nates did. Nates have no business in a fight against P-40s. 12 of them didn't make it back.


The army I'd used to defeat enemy forces in the open near Singyang easily defeated a force that was guarding the supply road to Ichang. Ichang is now cut off from supplies. Probably still has redonkulous forts though.

Near the coast, an enemy force moved into Chusien. I don't know his strength yet, but I am not weak here, so this is a possible opportunity to counterattack.


Philippines
Another day of Clark AF being absolutely pummelled by over 100 bomber sorties. The airfield is now damaged over 60%. There's essentially nothing airworthy there anymore. But, I did manage to get a few fighters up with very experienced pilots. We got two Zeroes... but that's meaningless right now.

The Soryu showed up in the Celebes sea, narrowly avoiding a sub guarding the eastern chokepoint. If found a small task force of mine that was going to try to evac the base forces on Jolo island. They sank a small escort, one transport and badly damaged the other transport. Mission aborted!

Malaya
Another 100+ sorties targeted my forces trying to regroup in Malacca. They're taking a beating. I also sent my own bombers, which ran into Oscars on CAP. I lost 5 Hudsons and a Blenhiem. Time to stand those guys down again.

Raids also targeted Singapore. We lost three Hurricanes but took down 5 Zeroes, 8 medium bombers, and 4 light bombers. They damaged the Repulse again, along with the transport Mount Vernon.


Burma
I'm embarrassed to say I didn't notice that the unit that took an empty southern base a few days ago moved north to Tavoy, which wasn't empty. They easily defeated my meager defenders (that I should have evacuated).

At least those soldiers are now close enough for my bombers to hit them while having a fighter escort. It's close to Saigon, I'm expecting fighters to be defending them.


-------
Today marked the greatest one-day loss for Japanese aircraft with 80 planes lost.

[Molon Labe]

6 January 1942
The return of the Silent Service

Hawaii
Operation "any ship can be a minesweeper once" continued. Looks like four barges and a midget sub were sacrificed.


Dutch East Indies
A Dutch sub finished off a damaged Aden-class cargo passing through the Mollucas. This should be one of the damaged ships from Ternate.


Japan
USS Porpoise torpedoed a Gozan class cargo off Kobe. It tried to finish it off with guns, but broke off to save ammo. It's only a 2000-tonner, 1 torp should be enough.


Philippines
The Soryu didn't press any further into the Celebes Sea. The only undamaged escort from the Jolo evac sprinted through the Makassar Strait and is safely off Surabaya now. At Clark, he shifted from bombing the airbase to ground forces again. Between the forts and the terrain, it's not very effective.


Malaya
He's really got it in for that army that tried to push him off the Johore road. More bombing sorties in Malacca. He hit Singapore too, with Nells going after a pair of AKLs making a brief stop under fighter cover. Defending Hurricanes snuck past enemy escort fighters and bagged two Nells. He missed the AKLs.


China
The unit entering Chusien is the 15th Division. I have more than a division there, so I'll be the one attacking tomorrow.


West Coast
For the first time, we have a sub contact off Seattle. I don't have too much surface traffic here (just a mine tender headed to the Aleutians), but plenty of ASW assets. We'll give him a warm welcome.