Dutch AVP Arend: Scenario 1 Exploits

[WEXF]

17Jul42 might have been a decent day at Geraldton. The AF was now 75%>L4, the docks were almost in the final stages of unloading cargo ships and on Arend PO Caruthers saw his LN skill go from 47>49 and his defensive skill go from 57>58. The Walrus II now had 32 fatigue so the decision was made to offload the plane for needed maintenance.

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The reason there was a feeling of sadness over all the troops at Geraldton was that news was received that Palembang had fallen to the enemy. 5 units had been destroyed and another 12 retreated to the NE but were not likely to be able to hold out for long. They had decent supplies for the moment but there was only one base barely held by the Allies on Sumatra, the "dot" base of Pakanbaroe.

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[WEXF]

18Jul42 was a decent day at Geraldton. The AF was now 81%>L4, the docks were almost half empty and on Arend PO Caruthers saw his LN skill go from 49>50 and WO Hazzard's LN skill improved from 29>30. The Walrus II had been repaired and was ready to move to Arend.
On the downside there was a report of of a Japanese sub sinking the small xAKL Kindur on the north coast so, once again anxiety levels started to rise.

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There was an initial report of the status of Palembang after it had been captured. The oil fields and refinery were reported to only be slightly damaged. Everyone hoped that the real numbers would be higher.

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[BBfanboy]

With 6000+ troops including 33 Eng squads at Palembang, one would expect the oil/refinery infrastructure to be more damaged. Bad die roll for you I guess.

[WEXF]

Thanks for the comment. The damage at Palembang that is showing in the mouse-over is actually really below what I would have expected. Some time ago the Japanese did a bombardment attack against Palembang that I reported in this thread. Here is what the damage looked like then. I never repaired any of the damage so this was the starting point when the Japanese took the base. My hope is that this early intel is not the real story. Time will tell.

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[WEXF]

19Jul started like some other days at Geraldton. The AF was now 88%>L4 and no air skill improvements were recorded for the pilots on Arend. The docks were now just 50% full and no enemy activity had been reported in the region other than the continued recon by the enemy of the north coast.

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The morning intel meeting provided an update on the damage caused to the oil fields and refinery at Palembang. Although better than had been reported yesterday the current numbers indicate sadly that the facilities at Palembang are in pretty good shape.

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The final segment of the intel meeting raised the morale of everyone, especially all of the Dutch troops on the base. There was a report of a significant naval battle between 2 large fleets just north of Sabang. No details on how the battle went were available but details on the ships involved was provided and was cause of great excitement.

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[BBfanboy]

Love naval gun battles - that's one Combat Report I would love to see!

[WEXF]

Love naval gun battles - that's one Combat Report I would love to see!

Working on it.

[WEXF]

Here is the combat report for the battle near Sabang. The detailed damage reports will be posted a bit later but from this listing it is clear that the Allies were fortunate to get a daytime action with maximum visibility. The battle was at long rang with all of the action taking place between 14-29,000 yards. Unfortunately for the Allies there were two collisions. One early in the action between CA Devonshire and DD Arrow and the other near the end of the battle between BB Royal Sovereign and CL Danae. One interesting thing is that DD Tjerk Hiddes engaged the enemy 5 times but 4 of the engagements were at 18-20,000 yds which is beyond the 17,000 yd range listed for the armament of the DD.

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[WEXF]

More details on the naval action of 18Jul were reported. Prior the the meeting of the TF there was a bombardment of Sabang by 5 Allied cruisers. Sabang had been considered an important enemy base as it provided excellent coverage of large expanses of ocean to the north. The base only had a AF2 so air activity would be somewhat limited but a decision was made to send in the cruisers.

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Results of the bombardment were interesting in several ways.
Part of the 18th Division was located at the base.
5 Nell bombers were damaged. The Nells could carry torpedoes, despite the AF2, provided a HQa was present, but the ability to fly level bombers from a AF2 was not without its drawbacks. A decision was made to plan for a second bombardment of Sabang to further degrade the airfield.

[WEXF]

The detailed results of the naval action at Sabang were shared at a special intel meeting. It was clearly a battle of the big ships! On the Allied side while some light damage was inflicted on BB Revenge, CA Devonshire and DD Tjerk Hiddes, BC Repulse took the brunt of the enemy action. Unfortunately, DD Arrow was hit hard and the combination of the battle damage and the collision with CA Devonshire was enough to sink her.
The Japanese saw BB Hyuga as the focus of Allied fire. She received 25 hits. According to the combat animation 14 of the hits were from 15 inch or 15 cm guns. Only 1 was reported as "penetrating" the tower armor and causing "severe damage". There were reports of "superstructure fires", "explosion in superstructure", "casualties to damage control parties", upper works carried away" and "36" gun mount hit". It appears that Hyuga was badly damaged but not in a way that might cause her to sink immediately. Her system damage would likely be very high but flotation and engine damage might not be too bad. Being shown with "heavy fires, heavy damage" is never a good thing!
Two of the Japanese destroyers were also hit and are showing that they are "on fire". Neither is likely to be lost from this action.

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The final part of the intel meeting caused a great amount of cheering. It seems that following the naval action, BB Hyuga and DD Ikazuchi must have been split off from the rest of the Japanese TF. Allied carrier based aircraft caught up with the two heavily damaged ships and attacked. The results of the air attack was that Hyuga was hit with 10 1000 pound SAP bombs and a torpedo. DD Ikazuchi was also hit with a 1000 pound SAP bomb. In the combat animations none of the bomb hit on Hyuga were reported as "penetrating". One bomb was reported as "destroying a gun mount". The bomb that hit the DD did "penetrate" and caused "severe flooding".
The torpedo that hit Hyuga and exploded showed "belt armor penetration" and "severe flooding". At the conclusion of the battle there were a number of "sinking sounds".

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Interestingly, in the Allied Intel Report there is no mention that Hyuga or Ikazuchi were sunk. There is a listing of 2 Dave float planes as being destroyed "on the ground", which would be consistent with BB Hyuga sinking. Also interesting is that not a single Allied aircraft was destroyed or damaged in the attack, suggesting that Hyuga and Ikazuchi were in really bad shape and could not muster any kind of AA defense to the attack.
Everyone is looking forward to more intelligence.

[BBfanboy]

Is that the first major IJN warship (CA and larger) you have sunk?

[WEXF]

Is that the first major IJN warship (CA and larger) you have sunk?

According to my intel report I have sunk BB Mutsu. My report has her sinking near Kobe on 28Jan42. It has been almost 6 months since that report but I have always wondered if it was true that Mutsu actually sank. She was hit by 3 22 inch MK13 torpedoes from PBYs near Monado and was reported to have HD, HF. In the combat animation there was a "Explosion below waterline, severe flooding" comment. The fact that the report has her sinking near Kobe tells me that she did not sink quickly and was heading for a SY for repairs. If she made it to a SY for repairs she could still be undergoing extensive repairs. I don't recall if I ever got a message confirming the sinking.
I have not sunk any other ships larger than a CL.

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[WEXF]

20Jul found the AF at Geraldton 95%>L4 and the docks empty. On Arend PO Caruthers saw his Defense skill reach 59.

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The big news however was the arrival by train of the 93rd Coast AA Regiment, a US Army unit. Its arrival brought the AA rating of Geraldton up from 13>21. The unit was equipped with 45 AA guns of various sizes but that was only part of the story. The unit was only at 48% of TOE. When fully equipped there would be almost 100 AA guns ranging in size up to 90mm. Most importantly, having this unit assigned to Geraldton was another sign to all at the base that Command was serious about defending the region.

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[WEXF]

21Jul was not going to be a quiet day at Geraldton. Lots of activity was obvious from the very early hours. Some things were pretty normal. The AF had completed construction to L4, the docks were empty and on Arend PO Caruthers was pleased that his Experience level had reached 54, his low naval skill had gone from 50>51 and his defense skill from 59>61.

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Some things had changed overnight. The number of level bombers had increased to 20 and there was a large increase in the number of vehicles on the base. Although everyone expected the morning briefing to deal with these topics it turned out that a much more important topic was to dominate the agenda.
There was a report of an enemy attack near Darwin that sank AMc Tjerimai. Although enemy level bombers had been noticed in the region for some time this attack was different. The attacking aircraft had been identified as B5N2 Kates from Shoho-2.

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The morning meeting ended but an update was promised for later that would provide some more details on the assessment of the situation. This was the first time that an enemy carrier had been within 250 miles of the Australian coast.

[BBfanboy]

That CVL just used up 12 of its precious torps to sink an AMc - that's a good thing. As for the assessment of the raid, it seems somewhat timorous to launch from that far away and not even reach Darwin. The IJN must have low DL on shipping there and did not order an AF attack. Perhaps they are testing out CAP? Perhaps they mean the CVL TF to attract your bombers unescorted so their Zeros can massacre them? In the latter situation, KB or other CVLs/CVEs would be behind Shoho providing CAP. Subs would be helpful to sniff out the situation here. Also look at where Patrol aircraft are being shot down.

[WEXF]

I agree completely with what you are saying. Shoho only carries 18 torpedoes so not many remain available for other attacks. Clearly Japan has filled out the Kate squadron and upgraded the fighters on Shoho.

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Large scale search patterns have been ordered along with a number of escorted naval attacks as there has been a sighting of a TF with 7 DD in the area from which the carrier strike came.

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Hard to image there are no additional assets in the region.
Thanks for the comment.

[WEXF]

Later in the day a special briefing was held to update everyone on the recent arrivals at Geraldton. To take advantage of the larger airfield a squadron of 14 B-25c Mitchell medium bombers will now be based at Geraldton. With a normal range of 11 these planes can deliver 6x500# bombs to as far as Carnarvon and at their extended range of 14 they can reach Exmouth, Port Hedland and Corunna Downs.

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At the train station the halftracks of Provisional GMC Grp. were being unloaded. This US Army artillery unit started the war at Bataan and has been rebuilt so far to 51% of its TOE. When fully rebuilt it will have 48 75mm GMC Halftracks, which are significant defenses against enemy armor. Currently there are only 17 of these AFVs in the pool.
One question on game mechanics is whether these vehicles move like an armored unit or is the fact that the unit is an artillery unit dictate the movement rate?

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[BBfanboy]

The Prov. GMC will move at the rate of an artillery unit, not armour. I think that is an oversight, but there may have been some restrictions on speed of movement of that gun on that (experimental) chassis. The gun would give it a high center of mass, making it tippy.

[BBfanboy]

Forgot to mention - those B-25C pilots should be trained in low Naval attack. Not just because their aircraft will upgrade to low level attack bombers, but because sinking enemy ships loaded with troops is much more efficient than trying to wipe out the troops once they land.

[WEXF]

Forgot to mention - those B-25C pilots should be trained in low Naval attack. Not just because their aircraft will upgrade to low level attack bombers, but because sinking enemy ships loaded with troops is much more efficient than trying to wipe out the troops once they land.

Thanks again for the comments. The B-25 pilots are currently training for low naval attack but have quite a long way to go before they will be ready. In the past they had been trained for ASW and ground attack. It won't be long before this squadron should be stocked with very good pilots.

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