Burns vs. Yubari, CHS scenario 158 version 2.08c

[Jim D Burns]

21 – 23 Aug. 42

There is only a single sub attack on 21 August, SS Narwhal torpedoes a Japanese ML at Kwajalein.

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Sub attack near Kwajalein at 81,84

Japanese Ships
ML Tokiwa, Torpedo hits 1

Allied Ships
SS Narwhal
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66 Hudsons hit Daily Waters today and cause moderate damage to the base. Allied A-24s and Beauforts from Townsville fly two missions against Japanese fleets at Cairns today and 3 APs are hit.

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Day Air attack on TF, near Cairns at 48,102

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 17

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 19
Beaufort V-IX x 6
A-24 Dauntless x 26

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 1 destroyed, 7 damaged
Beaufort V-IX: 1 damaged
A-24 Dauntless: 4 damaged

Japanese Ships
DD Karukaya
DD Hasu
AP Tanba Maru
AP Ryujo Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AP Nitta Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on TF, near Cairns at 48,102

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 16

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 15
A-24 Dauntless x 6

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 3 destroyed, 6 damaged
A-24 Dauntless: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
AP Shanghai Maru, Bomb hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
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Both sides conduct land bombardments at Cairns today.

There are no sub ops for 22 August.

Japan conducts a naval bombardment at Cairns with a CA force and causes moderate damage to my troops.

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Naval bombardment of Cairns, at 48,102

Japanese Ships
CA Kako
CA Kumano
CA Suzuya
CA Mikuma
CA Takao


Allied ground losses:
327 casualties reported
Guns lost 8
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KB then flys a ground strike with 33 Kates against the 6th AIF Division at Cairns and causes light damage to the unit.

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Day Air attack on 6th Division AIF , at 48,102

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 8
B5N2 Kate x 33

No Japanese losses


Allied ground losses:
58 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Aircraft Attacking:
16 x B5N2 Kate bombing at 16000 feet
<snip>
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Allied bombers from Charter Towers and Townsville fly missions against the Japanese fleets at Cairns today and a total of 6 APs are hit by bombs. It appears some or possibly all the APs had troops aboard.

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Day Air attack on TF, near Cairns at 48,102

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22

Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 6
B-25C Mitchell x 16
B-26B Marauder x 19
P-38F Lightning x 17

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged
B-26B Marauder: 2 damaged
P-38F Lightning: 4 damaged

Japanese Ships
AP Kuraido Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Hasu
DD Kuri
AP Higashiyama Maru
DD Mikazuki
DD Minekaze
AP Teiun Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AP Sanura Maru
AP Genoa Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Yamakuni Maru, Bomb hits 1

Japanese ground losses:
115 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on TF, near Cairns at 48,102

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 21

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 17
Beaufort V-IX x 20
A-24 Dauntless x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 3 destroyed, 11 damaged
Beaufort V-IX: 2 damaged
A-24 Dauntless: 3 damaged

Japanese Ships
AP Kirishima Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Horai Maru
CL Jintsu
AP Muro Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Arashi

Japanese ground losses:
226 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
<snip>
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Today’s land bombardment at Cairns shows Japan has evacuated most of his three divisions from the base. I’ve ordered a deliberate attack for tomorrow to retake the base.

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Ground combat at Cairns

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 45378 troops, 403 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1194

Defending force 96 troops, 6 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1


Japanese ground losses:
74 casualties reported
Guns lost 4
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Sub ops for 23 August consist of 1 allied sub attack and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. All attacks fail to score any hits on their targets.

Allied air power in Northeastern Australia finally gets its act together and launches a total of 5 attacks against the fleets in KB’s hex. One of the attacks even goes after the CV’s, but the 108 Japanese zeroes flying CAP shred all my attacks and no hits are scored on any ships.

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Day Air attack on TF at 49,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 108

Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 3
B-26B Marauder x 12
P-38F Lightning x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 11 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-25C Mitchell: 2 destroyed
B-26B Marauder: 2 destroyed, 8 damaged
P-38F Lightning: 17 destroyed

Japanese Ships
BB Ise
CV Soryu
CV Junyo

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on TF at 49,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 106

Allied aircraft
Beaufort V-IX x 16

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 13 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort V-IX: 6 destroyed, 4 damaged
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Day Air attack on TF at 49,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 76

Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 20
B-26B Marauder x 12

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 13 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-25C Mitchell: 1 destroyed, 15 damaged
B-26B Marauder: 2 destroyed, 8 damaged

Japanese Ships
CL Kiso
CA Chikuma
CL Naka
CL Abukuma
CA Ashigara

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on TF at 49,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 60

Allied aircraft
Beaufort V-IX x 9

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort V-IX: 2 damaged
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Day Air attack on TF at 49,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 54

Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 5
B-26B Marauder x 8
P-38F Lightning x 2

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 8 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-25C Mitchell: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged
B-26B Marauder: 8 damaged
P-38F Lightning: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
CL Abukuma
CL Kiso
CL Naka
CA Kinugasa

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
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Two more attacks are launched against Japanese evacuation task forces. Another AP is hit and a CL and DD get hammered by 1000lb GP bombs.

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Day Air attack on TF at 49,98

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 19

Allied aircraft
B-26B Marauder x 6

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 damaged


Japanese Ships
AP Kiyoshima Maru
AP Ayaha Maru, Bomb hits 2

Japanese ground losses:
32 casualties reported

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet
4 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet
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Day Air attack on TF, near Cairns at 48,102

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 14

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 14
A-24 Dauntless x 14

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged
A-24 Dauntless: 3 damaged

Japanese Ships
CL Jintsu, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Arashi, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
8 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
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Allied troops assault the now empty base at Cairns, retaking it.

Even though I have no air support at Cairns, I rebased in my ready A-24s and Kittyhawks in an attempt to get some more hits in on the withdrawing Japanese fleets. The rest of my bombers and fighters are stood down as they are exhausted after all the missions flown recently and about 80% of their planes are disabled.

Here’s a strategic overview screenshot of Japans expansion. I doubt he’ll be expanding much more, so excepting for the loss of Cairns this turn, this would be his high water mark for the game. I suppose he can still make some headway in Burma if he wants to as well, but so far he appears content to hunker down and defend there.



I’ve therefore set some broad goals for myself over the next year. Given the fact I’ve lost one of my CVs, I don’t want to make any open ocean landings against level 4 airfields. So for the period starting now and ending Sept. 43, I want to do the following:

Retake all of the Aleutian Islands.
Retake all of Australia
Get a foothold in SE New Guinea
Start an offensive in Burma
Start an offensive in China

I’m not sure if China will be a northern offensive or an offensive into Indo China down south, but I want to do one of the two. The north is very dependent on the supply levels, and right now there are too few. But with 32 transport planes flying supplies north from Chungking every turn, I may be able to put together an offensive in about three months. If supplies do not build up fast enough, then I’ll focus on going into Indo China.

Burma is always a slugfest, so my main goal there is to simply increase Japanese supply needs. I doubt I’ll be able to force him out until 44, but if I start a large enough offensive I can cause him to use a lot of supplies, so the sooner I can get started the better.

Getting into SE New Guinea will depend largely on where KB is. I also doubt I can achieve this goal until after I have enough air power in Australia to make it suicidal for KB to sail within range of my LBA. As things are now, KB as been happily cruising along the east coast for over two weeks now and I haven’t been able to touch him. Were I to base enough shipping to invade SE New Guinea along the east coast of Australia right now, KB would come calling and conduct port attacks until it was all sunk, so this will be the hardest goal to achieve by Sept. 43.

Unless Japan brings more land forces to Darwin, I think I can force him out of Australia by mid 1943. If he brings two or more divisions to add to his forces already there, then I doubt I can achieve my goal of driving him out in 1943, and will have to make it a 1944 goal then.

The Aleutians is a side show theatre, but believe it or not I think the best chance of a CV battle in 1943 will occur here. To retake any islands I will have to bring up my CVs and I doubt he’ll simply let me take them back without a fight. With my land based air within range of any potential CV battles, this is the only area I would be willing to stand against KB toe to toe right now.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

24 – 26 Aug. 42

Sub ops for 24 August consist of 5 allied sub attacks and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. The star of the show today is US sub S-32 which made two attacks on Japanese APs scoring 3 torpedo hits on one (sinking it) and 2 torpedo hits on the other.



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Sub attack at 48,97

Japanese Ships
AP Kuraido Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Tanba Maru
PC Shonan Maru #1
DD Karukaya
DD Minekaze
DD Mikazuki

Allied Ships
SS S-32

Japanese ground losses:
20 casualties reported
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None of the other allied sub attacks or the Japanese ASW attacks managed to score any hits.

Japan conducts a naval bombardment attack with CAs and CLs on Cairns today and nukes the base causing 2300+ allied casualties.

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Naval bombardment of Cairns, at 48,102


Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
A-24 Dauntless: 2 destroyed
Kittyhawk I: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CL Kiso
CL Tama
CL Kuma
CL Abukuma
CL Naka
CA Kinugasa
CA Ashigara
CA Maya
CA Chikuma


Allied ground losses:
2362 casualties reported
Guns lost 17

Airbase hits 9
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 27
Port hits 16
Port fuel hits 3
Port supply hits 14
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120 Hudsons and 16 Beauforts hit Tennant Creek today causing moderate damage to the base. I also flew my first bombardment mission against Lunga today with A-29s flying out of Koumac. The mission is at long range, so the 89 bombers do light damage to the base, but several Japanese planes are destroyed on the ground.

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Day Air attack on Lunga , at 67,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 13

Allied aircraft
A-29 Hudson x 89

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed, 8 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed
G3M Nell: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
A-29 Hudson: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
7 casualties reported

Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 14

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x A-29 Hudson bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
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Fatigue from the mission is high, so I’ll only be able to fly one or two of these raids a week.

My A-24s from Cairns still flew a couple of tiny missions today even though the base was nuked by a naval bombardment. The one hit scored on the Yamashiro bounced off its deck armor even though it was a 1,000lb GP bomb.

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Day Air attack on TF at 49,99


Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 17
A-24 Dauntless x 5


Allied aircraft losses
A-24 Dauntless: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Yamashiro, Bomb hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
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Day Air attack on TF at 49,99


Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 13
A-24 Dauntless x 2


Allied aircraft losses
A-24 Dauntless: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x A-24 Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
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Sub ops for 25 August consist of 2 allied sub attacks and 3 Japanese ASW attacks. The net effect was one US sub took two hits by counter-attacking Japanese escorts.

Nothing else of note occurred today.

Sub ops for 26 August consist of 2 allied sub attacks, 1 Japanese sub attack and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. Results for the turn are one Japanese AP loaded with troops is hit by the Halibut, Japanese escorts damage the Narwhal at Kwajalein, one US AP is hit by the Japanese sub attack and the escorts sink the attacking Japanese sub in return.

Japan flies a large air raid over Mandalay and scores 1 hit on the oil resource there. I have to assume this means that my opponent does not plan to try and take Mandalay.

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Day Air attack on Mandalay , at 33,29

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 21
Ki-61-Ib Tony x 2
Ki-21-II Sally x 45
Ki-49 Helen x 37

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21-II Sally: 1 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 1 damaged

Oil hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 18000 feet
<snip>
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Allied troops launch a deliberate attack against the unoccupied base of Cooktown and retake it for the allied cause.

With both Cairns and Cooktown back in allied hands, I took the time to assign new objectives for my units along the east coast of Australia. I’m sending my ANZAC Command brigades south to garrison Melbourne and Adelaide to free up the Philippine Corps and Australia Command units at those two bases.

Those units will all go to Sydney to hasten their reconstruction efforts. Each east coast base from Cooktown south to Brisbane will have a division assigned for defense. I’m sending another ANZAC Command division to Alice Springs.

I’ll refrain from retaking the bases north of Cooktown until more of my SWPAC Command units are rebuilt and ready for action. I don’t want to get any units trapped off road north of Cooktown without sizable units defending their supply line, so I’ll have to wait a few months before I can finish mopping up the NE.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

27 – 29 Aug. 42

Sub ops for 27 August consist of 5 allied sub attacks and 1 Japanese ASW attack, resulting in one Japanese tanker hit by a torpedo at Balikpapan and 1 Japanese AP hit near Cooktown. Casualties were reported, so the AP had troops aboard.

After weeks of rest, I tried an air raid at Rangoon at 15,000 feet with my B-24’s and Liberator III’s from Calcutta today. Over 100 Japanese fighters were flying CAP over the base and they hammered my 59 attacking planes. Damage to the base was negligible, guess I’ll have to wait until I can put over 100 heavies into the air before I try and close Rangoon.

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Day Air attack on Rangoon , at 29,33

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12
A6M3 Zero x 12
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 41
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 21
Ki-61-Ib Tony x 21

Allied aircraft
Liberator III x 36
B-24D Liberator x 23

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 6 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 8 damaged
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 1 destroyed, 11 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged
Ki-61-Ib Tony: 1 destroyed, 15 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 1 destroyed
Ki-21-II Sally: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Liberator III: 2 destroyed, 32 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 9 destroyed, 5 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
249 casualties reported
Guns lost 5

Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 8

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 15000 feet
<snip>
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84 A-29s from Koumac hit Lunga again today, and damage caused wasn’t too bad considering this was an extended range unescorted mission. The fact only 12 zeros were flying CP probably helped.

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Day Air attack on Lunga , at 67,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 12

Allied aircraft
A-29 Hudson x 84

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 3 destroyed
H6K4 Mavis: 1 destroyed
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
A-29 Hudson: 2 destroyed, 15 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
52 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 6
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 22

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x A-29 Hudson bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
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Nothing else of note to report today.

Things are really slowing down now that Japan’s evacuation from northeastern Australia is pretty much finished. Given how slow things are for 28 and 29 August, I decided to post the combat report texts for both days in their entirety.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/28/42

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TF 1026 encounters mine field at Adak Island (97,38)

Allied Ships
PT PT-37, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
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Sub attack near Attu Island at 91,35

Japanese Ships
AP Kitsurin Maru
DD Hiyodori

Allied Ships
SS Silversides
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Sub attack near Kwajalein at 81,84

Japanese Ships
ML Okinoshima, Torpedo hits 1

Allied Ships
SS Grenadier
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Ground combat at Canton

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 4868 troops, 62 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1108

Defending force 75579 troops, 320 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2053
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The Japanese land bombardment at Canton is due to the fact 12 Chinese Guerilla units are one hex northwest of Canton now, and Japan must think I’m starting a large offensive there. The bombardment revealed just 2 Japanese divisions are defending Canton. I may try a deliberate attack once I train all the units above 50% with land bombardments.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/29/42

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Sub attack near Balikpapan at 31,64

Japanese Ships
DD Mochizuki, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Uzuki

Allied Ships
SS Sturgeon
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Day Air attack on Daly Waters , at 35,90


Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 51
F-4 Lightning x 2


Allied aircraft losses
Hudson I: 8 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
53 casualties reported

Airbase hits 5
Runway hits 9

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SigInt revealed to me today that Japan has the 38th Division aboard transports on route to Hong Kong. The last time I saw the 38th Division, it was at Townsville, so it’s a long way from Hong Kong. It’s also a major redeployment of the unit, looks like Japan’s offensive in Australia is over, since I doubt he’d send a division to China if he intended to attack Western Australia.



I’ve dispatched a few subs to Hong Kong to give me warning when the transport fleet arrives. I’ll try a few attacks at Canton in hopes I can cause some damage, but with urban terrain and probable level 9 forts, I doubt I can hurt Canton with just 12 guerilla units that combined total about 1,000AV and 7 Corps worth another 2,000 AV.

But with just 1100 AV defending, I may go ahead and attack Canton to see how things go.

Jim

[Gen.Hoepner]

Hi Jim,
&nbsp;
first note is that your subs are starting to do a really good job. every day they hit something...quite a good performance considering we're still in 42.
Secondly...do you really think he's going for HK!?!?! Sounds too stupid...my guess is that he simply gave the destination hex to give your de-crypter guys a bad time and the he'll switch to the real destination as soon as he passes the straight between Oz and NG...just a guess eh, but i know many players do this to counter the allied intel.
I'm quite curious...how's the flak at Rangoon? At 15k feet your liberators should still suffer a bit too much in this mod, right?

[Jim D Burns]

Hi G.H.,

The timing of the report coincides with my 12 units appearing one hex northwest of Canton last turn. He conducted a land bombardment last turn to get a look at what I had at Canton and then I get this report, so it all fits into a reaction move on his part. I think he probably believes this is a major attack and his Intel only says 12 units. Once he sees that they are all guerilla units, then perhaps he’ll divert the division.

Flak at Rangoon isn’t too bad right now, as my opponent hasn’t held the base for very long and I doubt he has decent flak units there yet. But with 100 fighters damaging almost every one of my attacking bombers and shooting down about 20% of the raid, who needs flak? Some of the squadron’s morale levels fell to 30% after this raid.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

30 Aug. 42 – 3 Sep. 42

Things have really slowed down in the game, so I’ll be doing 5 day updates until things get exciting again.

What can I say for 30 August, here is the entire combat reports text file:

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/30/42

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Sub attack at 28,66

Japanese Ships
PC Ch 2
PC Ch 1
APD Patrol Boat No. 2
APD Patrol Boat No. 1

Allied Ships
SS Sturgeon
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31 August consists of an allied sub attack at Attu Island which missed and 2 Japanese air strikes in China against my units NW of Canton. Nothing else of note occurred.

1 September arrives and the British high command demands a CV and 2 DD’s. I can’t get a break with these damn recalls, this is the 4th or 5th capital ship demanded in 1942. I won’t be sending the CV, but the two DD’s are sent. If I manage not to spend any political points at all this month, I’ll barley have 100 left after keeping the CV.

Sub ops consist of 1 allied sub attack and 1 Japanese ASW attack. No hits are scored in either attack.

130 allied bombers hit Tennant Creek today and cause heavy damage to the base. Chinese bombers conduct a port attack at Takao today but fail to hit any ships in port. The base suffers no damage, but some minor losses are caused to ground troops.

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Day Air attack on Takao , at 47,45


Allied aircraft
F-5A Lightning x 2
LB-30 Liberator x 9
IL-4c x 6


Allied aircraft losses
F-5A Lightning: 1 destroyed
IL-4c: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
14 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x LB-30 Liberator bombing at 15000 feet
3 x IL-4c bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Japan flies 1 raid against my Chinese troops NW of Canton. Japan flies a 100 foot raid against my PT boats at Adak Island and sinks one PT.

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Day Air attack on TF, near Adak Island at 97,38

Japanese aircraft
D3A2 Val x 20

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A2 Val: 2 damaged

Allied Ships
PT PT-78, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
PT PT-43, Shell hits 4
PT PT-77
PT PT-76

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x D3A2 Val attacking at 100 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Japan conducts a land bombardment at Nanchang.

Nothing else of note occurred today.

2 September is another very slow day. I conduct a ground attack on the Japanese Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit in the base north of Cooktown with P-39s, and Japan conducts an air raid on my units NW of Canton.

Nothing else of note occurred today.

Sub ops for 3 September consist of 2 allied sub attacks and 1 Japanese sub attack. All three sub attacks miss their targets. 3 allied ASW attacks are conducted against Japanese subs located at Trivandrum on the southern tip of India. One attack finds the depth and 6 hits are scored against the Japanese sub I-27.

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Sub attack near Trivandrum at 11,21

Japanese Ships
SS I-27, hits 6

Allied Ships
DD Tjerk Hiddes
DD Isaac Sweers
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89 Blenheim IVs hit Magwe today and cause moderate damage to the base. 128 allied bombers hit Tennant Creek today and cause heavy damage to the base. 38 P-39s hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the base north of Cooktown.

86 Japanese bombers hit Mandalay today and cause moderate damage to the base, destroying 2 recon planes on the ground as well.

Nothing else of note occurred today.

My Chinese units are arriving in Canton now, with all but 2 units now at the base. Once all the units are present, I’ll conduct some bombardment attacks to see how well my units do against the entrenched Japanese units. Intel reports 13 Japanese units at the base now, so it appears Japan has been flying in a unit with air transports, since he only had 12 units a few turns ago.

Jim

[Gen.Hoepner]

still following here....

[Jim D Burns]

4 – 8 Sep. 42

There are no sub ops to report for 4 September.

93 Blenheim IVs and 31 B-25Cs hit Meiktila today in two separate raids. Damage to the base was heavy. 86 A-29s conducted a port attack on Tulagi and scored 2 port hits on the base.

Japan conducts a large air raid on my units in China marching towards Canton.

Japan conducts three land bombardments in China, one in the forest hex east of Changsha, one at Nanchang and one at Ichang.

Sub ops for 5 September consist of two allied sub attacks and 1 Japanese ASW attack. Both allied sub attacks score hits on their targets, and the Japanese ASW attack misses. The AK hit at Hong Kong was loaded with troops.

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Sub attack at 26,66

Japanese Ships
APD Patrol Boat No. 33, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
APD Patrol Boat No. 35
APD Patrol Boat No. 34
APD Patrol Boat No. 32

Allied Ships
SS Snapper
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Sub attack near Hong Kong at 43,42

Japanese Ships
AK Aobasan Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AK Naniwa Maru
DD Satsuki

Allied Ships
SS Haddock

Japanese ground losses:
14 casualties reported
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85 A-29s hit Tulagi again today (I forgot to stand them down) and score 1 port hit and 2 port supply hits. 49 P-39Ds hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the inland base north of Cooktown.

Japan conducts the same three land bombardments in China this turn as he did last turn. I conduct a land bombardment at Canton this turn and find I still have a hefty advantage in AV over Japan. Given the fact I hit a loaded transport in port at Hong Kong this turn, I decide to go ahead and toggle a deliberate attack before he can bring in more troops.



6 September arrives and it’s time once again to look at air to air fighter losses. To date the allies have lost 761 fighters and Japan has lost just 183 fighters in air to air combats. That’s a kill ratio of 4.15 – 1 in Japan’s favor for the game.

Sub ops consist of 1 allied sub attack on the damaged APD from last turn. Allied sub Stingray finishes her off as she tried to head to port towards Soerabaja. Japan now only has 3 APDs with the uber ASW value of 10 left in game (my CV raid near Noumea when Japan tried to land sank 4).

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Sub attack at 24,67

Japanese Ships
APD Patrol Boat No. 33, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Stingray
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114 allied bombers hit Tennant Creek and cause moderate damage to the base. 54 P-39Ds hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the inland base north of Cooktown and are intercepted by 22 zeros flying LRCAP. The zeros only manage to shoot down a couple of my planes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Yokosuka 1st SNLF, at 47,96

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22

Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 54

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 2 destroyed, 18 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
29 casualties reported

Aircraft Attacking:
20 x P-39D Airacobra bombing at 2000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A large Japanese air raid from Rangoon hits Akyab and causes light damage to the base. Japan flies a large air raid and hits the 4th Chinese Corps at Canton.

Japan conducts a land bombardment at Nanchang today.

My land attack goes it at Canton and is an unmitigated disaster.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Canton

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 105985 troops, 465 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 3642

Defending force 89870 troops, 354 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1311

Allied max assault: 3391 - adjusted assault: 600

Japanese max defense: 1444 - adjusted defense: 16637

Allied assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 9)


Japanese ground losses:
389 casualties reported
Guns lost 5

Allied ground losses:
6664 casualties reported
Guns lost 68
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some of my units have over 90% of their equipment items disabled. This was a dumb move on my part, I hope Japan doesn’t counter-attack as he’ll push me out of the hex for sure.

There are no sub ops for 7 September to report.

My Chinese bombers conduct a port attack on Hong Kong hoping to hit the Aobasan Maru which was torpedoed there a couple of turns back. Instead they hit a different AK with 3 bombs finding their mark.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Hong Kong , at 43,42


Allied aircraft
F-5A Lightning x 3
LB-30 Liberator x 24
IL-4c x 12


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AK Alaska Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Port hits 2
Port fuel hits 1
Port supply hits 2

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x IL-4c bombing at 6000 feet
6 x LB-30 Liberator bombing at 15000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

41 P-39Ds hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit again this turn.

Nothing else of note occurred to report today.

Sub ops for 8 September consist of 1 allied sub attack and 1 Japanese ASW attack. Both attacks miss their targets.

25 B-25Cs hit Meiktila today and cause light damage to the base. 43 P-39Ds hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit again this turn.

Nothing else of note occurred to report today.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

8 -12 Sep. 42

Sub ops for 8 September consist of 1 allied sub attack and 1 Japanese ASW attack. Neither attack manages to hit its target.

25 B-25s hit Meiktila today and cause light damage to the base. 43 P-39s hit the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit north of Cooktown.

Nothing else of note occurred today.

Sub ops for 9 September consist of 1 allied sub attack which scores a hit on a Japanese AP at Amchitka Island. 3 Japanese ASW attacks today all fail to score any hits.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Amchitka Island at 94,37

Japanese Ships
AP Meizan Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Kisaragi
PG Takunan Maru #3
PG Shotoku Maru
PG Hakkaisan Maru
PG Fukui Maru

Allied Ships
SS Halibut

Japanese ground losses:
32 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I assume my repeated air strikes on the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the base north of Cooktown ticked off my opponent. He conducted a naval bombardment of Cooktown today with a CA force and hammered the base pretty good.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naval bombardment of Cooktown, at 48,100


Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 4 destroyed
PBY Catalina: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CA Kako
CA Kumano
CA Suzuya
CA Mikuma
CA Takao


Allied ground losses:
4412 casualties reported
Guns lost 39
Vehicles lost 16

Airbase hits 7
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 29
Port hits 4
Port fuel hits 6
Port supply hits 22
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Japan followed up the naval bombardment with an air sweep and an air strike. The sweep only managed to kill one of the 2 Kittyhawks flying CAP over the base. These must have been bleed over from the Kittyhawk group at Cairns.

The sweep is followed by 119 Betty’s, but damage isn’t too bad. These planes must have been flying long range missions as I expected far worse damage.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Cooktown , at 48,100

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 48
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 2

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 1 destroyed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Cooktown , at 48,100

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 119

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 3 destroyed

Airbase hits 3
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 13

Aircraft Attacking:
11 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 16000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Japan fly’s two other missions this turn, one hits a Chinese corps near Canton and the other is flown by 23 Vals at 100 feet against my PT boats at Adak Island. The PTs survived without damage.

Amazingly 23 of my P-39s still fly a mission to strike the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the base north of Cooktown.

Sub ops for 10 September consist of a single Japanese ASW attack that misses its target.

89 of my bombers hit Tennant Creek today.

Japan fly’s another sweep over Cooktown and manages to kill another bleed-over Kittyhawk today. Two missions are flown against Chinese corps near Canton.

11 September is even slower than yesterday. Only two events occurred today. A Japanese ML is torpedoed at Kwajalein and 27 P-39s fly a ground attack mission against the Yokosuka 1st SNLF unit at the base north of Cooktown.

There are no sub ops for 12 September.

My B-17s from Dacca fly a very high altitude mission against Rangoon today and did surprisingly well considering there were at 36,000 feet. This kind of damage won’t close the base or drive his airforce out of Burma, but at least the morale of my bombers isn’t shot for the next month like the last disastrous raid caused.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Rangoon , at 29,33

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12
A6M3 Zero x 12
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 35
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 21
Ki-61-Ib Tony x 15

Allied aircraft
B-17D Fortress x 24
B-17E Fortress x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 1 damaged
Ki-61-Ib Tony: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 1 destroyed


Japanese ground losses:
84 casualties reported

Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 5

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 36000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’ll continue these high altitude raids until I have escorts that can accompany my bombers.

95 Blenheim IVs hit Meiktila today causing moderate damage to the base.

Japan flew another raid against my PT boats from Adak Island and sunk one of the boats. These boats were returning to base after having failed to intercept a detected task force at Attu Island.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 92,35

Japanese aircraft
D3A2 Val x 23

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A2 Val: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged

Allied Ships
PT PT-77
PT PT-76, Shell hits 4
PT PT-43, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x D3A2 Val attacking at 100 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nothing else of note to report today.

Jim

[Gen.Hoepner]

Hi Jim.
War seems to be slowing down in this phase.
It could be the right time to review all you fronts and analyze them.
How's the overall situation in North and West Oz?

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner

Hi Jim.
War seems to be slowing down in this phase.
It could be the right time to review all you fronts and analyze them.
How's the overall situation in North and West Oz?

Hi G.H.,

We're actually about 20 days further along, I've just had no time to catch up on my writing lately. I'll try and get things up to date within the next week or two if I can find the time.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Well it’s almost 1 year in game since my last update, sorry about the inactivity in here, but things simply became too boring and routine to be of much interest. But now that a year has gone by and I’ve finally gotten some fighters that can stand up against the Japanese (well, sort of anyway), allied offensives have begun.

I made some grand pronouncements near the end of my updates last year, so I thought I’d rehash those goals as I again get the thread going. Here’s what I said:

I’ve therefore set some broad goals for myself over the next year. Given the fact I’ve lost one of my CVs, I don’t want to make any open ocean landings against level 4 airfields. So for the period starting now and ending Sept. 43, I want to do the following:

1. Retake all of the Aleutian Islands.
2. Retake all of Australia
3. Get a foothold in SE New Guinea
4. Start an offensive in Burma
5. Start an offensive in China

1. The operations to retake the Aleutians were halted in their tracks when Japan showed up with several divisions and took Adak from me destroying a full regimental combat team in the process. I had to shift to the defensive there and gave up all hope of retaking those islands with so much Japanese land power in the area.

I’ve slowly built up a huge 400 plane airforce at Umnak, which now dominates the sea around it. If North Pacific command ever gets enough land force to take on 2+ Japanese divisions, I’ll again entertain the notion of retaking the Aleutians. But for now I’d have to pull troops away from another theater to do it, so it simply isn’t worth it.

2. Retaking all of Australia is also a failure. But this has more to do with too few cargo ships than anything else. I’ve found that in CHS it takes two or three trips extra from the US to get the same amount of supplies to forward bases I used to count on in stock, due to the lower cargo capacities of the ships. So I had to delay my offensives until just recently as I slowly built up adequate supplies to support such huge land armies.

The NE was easily retaken just recently as Japan evacuated most of his troops, but my drive up the center was halted in its tracks when it found about 1500-2000 AV defending at Daily Waters. With only about 1800 allied AV, I pulled my troops back to Tennant Creek to rest up and await further reinforcements. I saw no benefit to having them sit there and get hammered by Japanese bombardments for nothing.

At this stage the option to continue the drive north vs. making an amphibious landing at Darwin or another northern base is up in the air. It will depend on how well current amphibious ops go and how many ships survive.

3. Getting into SE New Guinea is also delayed due to the supply problems in Australia. But everything is on track in the NE now, so I suspect I’ll be getting ashore there within a month or two. But with so many shipping losses currently occurring at Guadalcanal, I may have to put off this or any other amphibious landings indefinitely.

4. The Burma offensive was launched, but not in Burma. In a recent sortie with the British navy, I ran my CVs along the west coast of Sumatra in an attempt to bait any Japanese CVs at Singapore into showing themselves.

When nothing materialized, I headed back to Colombo, but conducted a port strike on a ship docked at Sabang on the way. After the strike, Intel reported only 4,000 troops defending Sabang. So I decided to scrub the Burma offensive and go for Northern Sumatra instead. I shifted all my troops to Colombo and had everything in place about 2 weeks ago or so.

Unfortunately my fleet was spotted 2 or 3 days out, which gave Japan plenty of time to react. By the time my lone division started unloading (house rules prevent amphibious landings off of non-amphib type ships), Japan had 2 units 1 hex away and about to enter the base. Search planes also spotted a Japanese fleet in the Malacca Strait.

With over half the South East Asia Commands land army sitting aboard AKs 2 hexes off shore, I had to make a decision. Intel reported only CAs in the force, but I simply had to assume it was a carrier force. So I made the decision to scrap the operation and fled, leaving behind the lion’s share of the British 18th Division.

Thankfully I was able to unload at Colombo and form a large evacuation task force that returned and pulled the division out. Unfortunately I lost two cruisers (1 CA and 1 CL) because I mistakenly thought my range 4 Seafires would fly LRCAP at range 4…

5. Amazingly this is my only fully completed goal, and it was done with the most inept forces I have. Initially I planned to attack Indo-China, but Japan landed sizable reinforcements at Hanoi just before the offensive got underway.

So I cancelled that op and started planning for a northern offensive instead. I gathered together about 5,000 AV of troops at Sian and had them prep for Yanku and other bases beyond. Slowly allied transport planes built up supplies in China, and after almost a year I felt I finally had enough to launch the attack.

My units moved one hex SE of Sian and then crossed the river onto the road to the east. I then marched straight to Yanku and was surprised to find only 2 Japanese units defending there. Just as I launched my attack, those units fled, so the base was taken without a fight.

I tried to continue my momentum, but the disruption and fatigue caused by the long march from Sian (took well over 1 month), meant my guys were barely making half the progress in a day that they normally would. I calculated it would take a week or more to get to the closest base and at least 2 weeks to get to the other.

Then my units would be so disrupted and fatigued they’d have to wait several weeks before they could attack. So instead I’ve halted my offensive and began to dig in, in the forest hexes east and northeast of Yanku. I’ve also left a sizable force at Yanku and begun building up the airfield there.

Japanese bombers have been making life difficult however, and the Chinese airforce is getting pushed around all over the place in air to air battles. So it looks like I’ll need to bring in some of the US baseforces and the US engineer unit to complete the job. They’ll be able to repair ground strike damage and keep the airfield building almost every day.

So all in all most of my goals were not reached and the allies are behind schedule quite a bit. But with the recent arrival of the F6F, I feel confident to finally go looking for a fight, so things are going to get busy from this point on.

I am currently in the process of landing troops on Guadalcanal. Based on the problems I ran into at Sabang due to our house rule about amphib landing ships, I’ve decided not to make a direct landing on Lunga and am instead offloading my huge force at the dot base on the north end of the island.

This is risky in the sense that I’ll need to build up the facilities ASAP, but I’ve got enough Seabees going ashore that I should be able to get the base built in a reasonable amount of time.

My only other option would have been a direct landing at Lunga, but with only enough amphib type landing ships to combat load 2 divisions, there was no guarantee they could take the base. This would have left me in the same dilemma I faced at Sabang, with a huge land army trapped at sea awaiting the fall of the base.

And unlike Sabang, I expected the full KB to show up relatively soon here, so getting my troops off the ships was the priority. And as expected KB has appeared and is reaping havoc among my ships.

Thus far the F6F has proven less than adequate to protect my ships, in their first contact with zeroes, they were swept from the skies without a single zero being downed. The next battle fought wasn’t as bad, but it did force me to return to port to draw new fighters as my carrier squadrons that participated in the fight were again wiped out.

The F6F needs to be a dominate airframe for me to have any chance of counter-attacking the Japanese. I’ll hold off final judgment until the first big carrier battle, but so far things look pretty grim. All I can say is that one year later, I still HATE nik mod.

And to top everything off, AAA is so ineffective I am beginning to fear I’ll be unable to sustain offensive ops period. In the past two days, Japan has probably launched 600+ sorties at my ships. I’ve only downed 36 airframes by flak and very few others were damaged, even though some of the battleship task forces Japan attacked were rated at 6,000 or 7,000 AAA value.

This next turn I have an 8,000+ AAA surface group in the hex, I suspect flak will again prove utterly worthless should they get attacked. Historically it wasn’t uncommon to see half or more of a raid downed by US flak at this stage of the war, and most of the rest of the attackers would have been damaged by it. Without effective Flak and with the crappy nik mod fighters, I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to force landings against heavily defended bases.

I’ll go into more detail about each theater in future posts.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

23 Aug 43

Sub ops today consist of four Japanese attacks on some of my ships that are retiring from the Guadalcanal area due to damage or the fact they’ve unloaded all their cargo.

Two of the attacks fail and my ASW counter attacks pound both the subs, RO-60 and RO-102 both go to the bottom. The third attack hits and sinks LST-465.

Later in the turn, Japanese sub RO-64 slams 3 torpedoes into the already damaged BB Tennessee, causing very heavy damage. With damage levels at 75/92/24, I doubt she’ll make it to port. Only US damage control efforts can hope to save her. Even though her odds are pretty slim, I decide to give her a fighting chance and resist the urge to scuttle her.

At Rangoon, 111 of my heavy bombers hit the airfield causing moderate damage. No Japanese fighter opposition appears, as I successfully ran them off the base in a huge multi-day air battle around the time I conducted the Sabang landings.

US medium bombers hammer Port Moresby and cause massive damage to the airbase. Again no Japanese air opposition is over the base, but at Port Moresby Japan left without a fight as soon as I retook NE Australia.

At Tassafaronga (the northern base on Guadalcanal), Japan conducts four relatively tiny raids compared to the huge raids that have hit my ships over the past few days. My newly arrived supply fleet has 3 CVEs in it and their fresh F6F squadrons easily deter the small raids.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M2-N Rufe x 7
N1K Rex x 3
D3A2 Val x 3

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 37

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2-N Rufe: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
N1K Rex: 2 destroyed
D3A2 Val: 1 damaged
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 19
A6M3 Zero x 27
B6N2 Jill x 5
G4M1 Betty x 4

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 37

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 6 destroyed, 2 damaged
B6N2 Jill: 4 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F6F Hellcat: 4 destroyed, 21 damaged

Allied Ships
CVE Altamaha

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x B6N2 Jill launching torpedoes at 200 feet
4 x B6N2 Jill launching torpedoes at 200 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101

Japanese aircraft
N1K Rex x 2
D3A2 Val x 4

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 25

Japanese aircraft losses
N1K Rex: 2 destroyed
D3A2 Val: 2 damaged
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 8
A6M3 Zero x 19
G4M1 Betty x 3

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 25

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
A6M3 Zero: 3 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F6F Hellcat: 4 damaged

Allied Ships
CVE Copahee

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Given that most of the action is occurring in the Solomon’s, I decided to do the detailed update for today for this area.

With both New Caledonia and Luganville maxed out quite a while back as far as base size and forts go, I then decided to land my idle engineers at all the surrounding dot bases in New Caledonia, New Hebrides and three of the four dot bases in the Santa Cruz Islands.

Of all these bases, only Ndeni can exceed our house rule (we agreed on a new rule around the time I started landing engineers) of no stacking more than 1 engineer, 1 battalion and 1 small baseforce on an atoll. So I’ve focused my efforts on trying to get Ndeni built up ASAP so I can base fighter air there.

Unfortunately, even with over 150 Engineers and 90 engineer vehicles on the island, progress has proceeded at a snail’s pace and I am still only 74% of the way to a level 2 airfield.

Given how slow progress was going, I figured it would take another month or two before I could base fighters there. Being so far behind schedule already, I decided I simply couldn’t afford to wait anymore, so I decided to launch my invasion without the 100 P-38s that I could have used to help protect my fleets once I had a level 2 airfield.

As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to land at Tassafaronga so I could unload all my troops without first needing to capture the Lunga base. Recon consistently reports over 47,000 Japanese at Lunga, so I think this was the right decision. My guess is he could have close to 600-800 AV at Lunga if most of those troops are combat troops.

I have about 800 AV at Tassafaronga now, so the battle will be decided by naval and air bombardments reducing the enemy’s combat power over time I think. If I have to, I can bring the 3rd Marine Division ashore as well to boost my combat power with it.

But I’d prefer to keep it as a reactionary reserve force to reinforce any bases Japan may try and attack. It will also be the tip of the spear for my next invasion, so I want to keep it in perfect fighting trim if possible.

Rennell Island, Irau and Stewart Island are all getting engineers and baseforces over the next few turns, along with some defensive troops. I plan to build up these bases to support Tassafaronga, as I expect Japan to heavily pound that base regularly from air and sea. These rear area bases will probably be able to support fighters long before Tassafaronga can, so they’ll get the lion’s share of engineering from now on.

So that’s the situation around the Solomon’s. Currently I have been on station and unloading troops at Tassafaronga for 3 or 4 days now. 95% of the troops are ashore now and my big supply fleet arrived this turn and has begun offloading the 200,000+ supplies it carries.

Here’s a screenshot of the current situation:



The main battle started out with a bit of a disaster on the first day of fighting. I was under the mistaken impression that my fighters could fly LRCAP at extended ranges. I had been burned at Sabang with the same mistaken impression, but I had attributed that to a bug and not to my own misinterpretation of the rule.

So I assumed my 150 P-38s from Luganville would cover my three CVEs out to a range of nine hexes while 2 of the 3 squadrons of F6Fs were then assigned to cover Tassafaronga. Disaster then followed.

Of course no P-38s were over the CVEs, but then the two F6F squadrons sent to Tassafaronga failed to appear. Net result was I had just 15 F6Fs over my CVEs when Japan struck. My F6Fs were blown away without causing a single enemy loss and at the end of the day just 1 CVE was still capable of flight ops.

The next day went a little better as I sent two full carrier squadrons to LRCAP over the fleet as it arrived at Tassafaronga. Combined with the F6Fs from the remaining CVE, the CAP was at least able to down a few incoming planes. But the cost was horrific. Two entire CV F6F squadrons were practically wiped out to a man, and over 30 of my best pilots in game were lost.

This of course forced my CVs to retire (they had been hovering four hexes SE of Tassafaronga) to Luganville to draw new planes and pilots. This of course opened the way to unopposed Japanese air strikes on my fleets at Tassafaronga.

The cost in lost shipping at this point has been horrific. Fully ¼ and possibly 1/3rd of the AP ships involved are sunk, or will sink. Several good surface vessels (the Boise being one of them) are lost and it now looks like at least 1 BB will go under as well.

And it isn’t over yet. This turn saw the Japanese carriers fail to launch a strike. They had been hovering 5 hexes NE of Tassafaronga, so I assume they retired to Munda or Shortlands (many fleets spotted there) to refuel and rest. I expect them to return this turn with a vengeance.

My 3 CVEs in hex are only putting up about 30 or so CAP, so KB will rip through it when they do return. I’ve gone ahead and cancelled the unload command for all my APs and ordered them to retire to try and preserve some lift ability for future ops.

That leaves 2 large AK fleets, my surface BB fleet and several soon to arrive PT boat fleets in the hex. I predict I’ll need at least 4 more days of unloading to get a decent amount of the 250,000 or so supplies left aboard ships unloaded. One of the AK fleets still has about 8000 troops loaded, but I expect them to finish unloading this turn.

I brought so much supply because I assume huge amounts will be lost to spoilage and Japanese bombardments. I want to give the troops time to get the base built up before I have to brave any further Japanese attacks by bringing in another fleet.

So all in all it’s a very tough fight for the allies. I’ve barley caused any damage to Japan, while he’s eviscerated me. And to top it all off, Tassafaronga is a damn 0(0), 0(0) base. Why in hell CHS made this an atoll base eludes me, but it’s going to take far longer to construct anything here than I thought it would.

I wish I could see a dot bases potential port and airfields with a mouse over, I’d have probably postponed my landings until I had Rennell Island built up had I known it was a blasted atoll base.

Jim

[Cathartes]

Nice to see your AAR return!&nbsp; My sympathies on your rough handling.&nbsp;

Tassafaronga may have poor base potential, but don't think it's technically an atoll based on what the map shows.&nbsp;

There are a lot of dot islands in that chain that are worthless as you are discovering the hard way. There are some glitches in the CHS map that will allow certain ports and airfields to build up more quickly than a zero potential rating is supposed to allow to happen. I found this out quite by accident, but I honestly don't know about the bases that you're in currently.&nbsp; In lieu of the situation, I recommend cutting your losses and getting the hell out of dodge.&nbsp; A zero-zero base in your current surroundings will get pummelled before you can ever make it into anything--you have no supporting bases nearby to offer meaningful LBA support.&nbsp;

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Cathartes

Nice to see your AAR return!  My sympathies on your rough handling. 

Tassafaronga may have poor base potential, but don't think it's technically an atoll based on what the map shows. 

There are a lot of dot islands in that chain that are worthless as you are discovering the hard way. There are some glitches in the CHS map that will allow certain ports and airfields to build up more quickly than a zero potential rating is supposed to allow to happen. I found this out quite by accident, but I honestly don't know about the bases that you're in currently.  In lieu of the situation, I recommend cutting your losses and getting the hell out of dodge.  A zero-zero base in your current surroundings will get pummelled before you can ever make it into anything--you have no supporting bases nearby to offer meaningful LBA support. 

Hi Cathartes,

Thanks, I’m glad to be back at it. The last year in game has been pretty mundane.

I’m worried Tassafaronga is treated like an atoll as far as construction goes not how combats are fought. It is taking months to get Ndeni built up even with lots of engineers there. Hopefully Tassafaronga will go up quicker than that, otherwise I’m in deep trouble there.

I simply can’t pull out to cut my losses. It’s almost September of 1943, if the allies can’t force a landing now, they’ll never have time to make any real inroads into Japan’s defensive perimeter. I’m already way behind schedule as it is.

Besides I’ve already paid a huge price, cutting and running would make the entire operation an utter disaster and it would be mid 44 before I could be in a position to launch another invasion. I’ve got to be able to succeed with the tools I have now, as they don’t get any better. So if I can’t succeed, then perhaps this just proves nik mod is simply unplayable for the allies.

It’s such a pro Japanese mod I should have never played it, but it’s my fault for not investigating it more before I asked for an opponent. I chose to play it because of the positive responses I saw it get on the forums. My guess now is that it was Japanese players who were making those remarks.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

24 August 43

As expected the BB Tennessee goes under along with several APs damaged earlier.

Sub ops today consist of 2 Japanese sub attacks, 1 Japanese ASW attack and 2 allied ASW attacks. One sub attack misses, but the other slams several torpedoes into a crippled AP. One of the allied ASW attacks scores 2 hits on a sub, but damage appears to be very minor.

The allies launch four air strikes today. Port Moresby, Munda and Lunga are hit. Lunga gets slammed twice. Only the attack on Munda is opposed, 24 zeroes defend against 88 A-29s and manage to shoot down 3 and damage 24 others. Damage to the base was light.

Japan launches 5 airstrikes against my fleets at Tassafaronga. Another tiny strike launches against the task forces at Rennell Island. No major damage was caused, though a few hits were scored. Only two of the strikes on Tassafaronga are large enough to merit attention, here’s their reports:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12
A6M3 Zero x 28
D3A2 Val x 18
A6M3a Zero x 14
G4M1 Betty x 5

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 28

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 3 destroyed, 3 damaged
D3A2 Val: 15 damaged
A6M3a Zero: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F6F Hellcat: 4 destroyed, 9 damaged

Allied Ships
CVE Nassau
CVE Copahee
AK De Klerk, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CVE Altamaha

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 24
A6M3 Zero x 16
D3A2 Val x 11
G4M1 Betty x 8

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 5 destroyed
D3A2 Val: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 4 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F6F Hellcat: 4 damaged

Allied Ships
CVE Copahee
CVE Nassau
AK Haurakii
CVE Altamaha

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
<snip>

My opponent complained to me that this is the second day in a row KB failed to find my invasion fleets. I watched the replay closely and saw no reports about his pilots getting lost or failing to locate a target. I suspect he may be trying to mislead me and has purposefully stood down his attacks.

Though the first of the above 2 listed Japanese air strikes was actually a coordinated strike between KB and Shortlands, so I may be wrong about that. In the afternoon phase there was a cloud over KB’s hex (it’s back where it was earlier), so perhaps they were socked in by weather.

I’m glad for the reprieve however, as it’s given my CVs time to get back into the area. This turn they’ll stop 5 hexes south of Tassafaronga. Next turn I’ll debate whether to fly LRCAP or to try and force a CV engagement.

With two turns in a row of no KB strikes, I’m sure his KB pilots are rested up, so I wouldn’t want to sally north against fresh pilots. But if he flies this turn, I may head north depending on how many of his planes are reported as damaged.

I’ve run into a bug however that is going to put a crimp on any possible offensive actions with my CVs. Enterprise’s F6F group is failing to repair any airframes. In fact they are becoming more damaged, as last turn 5 were ready and only 3 were ready this turn. So I’ve stood down all her squadrons and ordered her out of theater. I find nothing out of the ordinary, though her pilot experience level is down significantly due to all the new pilots she had to draw.

My task forces at Tassafaronga are unloading much slower than I thought they would, there are still slightly less than 4,000 troops aboard the one fleet that had about 8,000 last turn. I guess I’ll need a week or more to get a decent amount of supply ashore instead of the three or four days I first thought I’d need.

Jim

[Cathartes]

Tassafaronga is treated like a level 0 base, regardless of whether it's an atoll or not, it takes roughly 10x longer to build up to a level 1 airfiled compared to a level 1 base potential.&nbsp; This is why if you linger there, as a Japanese player, I would relish the time I have to strike you from land and sea as you spin your wheels at a level 0 base. Your carriers can't possibly patrol long enough, even with replenishment, to protect you before you reach a level 2 base (which finally allows you some offensive capability) because your CV CAP will grow weary, it takes you forever to unload at a 0 port hex, and your base is in construction purgatory with men and supplies exposed to naval bombardment.&nbsp; I have plenty of time to amass resources to strike while you spin your wheels.

I don't mean to be an armchair commander here, and I really have no experience with NikMod, so FWIW...&nbsp; If you think you're behind, it's all relative. In my PBEM, I don't even have Noumea back and its October 1943!

Good luck!

[Jim D Burns]

25 Aug 43

Sub ops today consist of 3 Japanese sub attacks, 1 Japanese ASW attack, 1 allied sub attack and 1 allied ASW attack. One of the Japanese sub attacks slams the DD Lardner which was damaged in a surface battle this turn and sends her to the bottom.

The next attack fails and escorts score 6 hits setting the sub I-37 afire. The allies then conduct an ASW attack on the same sub and score 9 more hits and causing heavy damage. I think the sub sunk but can’t remember for sure. Later the final Japanese sub attack slams an AK at Rennell Island.

The big news this turn is multiple surface engagements at Rennell Island. Two allied BB task forces detect and react to a CA force moving into the hex, and battle then ensues. As far as I’m concerned the results this turn are total bullshit.

First my ships detect and react to the Japanese fleet. Then they begin tracking it on radar. Then BOTH fleets are surprised in their first round of battle. WTF?

Surface battles in WitP are so ridiculous it’s laughable.

Each of my task forces fought 2 engagements with the Japanese. The fleet with 3 BBs fought two rounds and then the 2 BB fleet engaged. Here are the first fleet’s results:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Rennell Island at 65,103

Japanese Ships
CA Tone, Shell hits 2, on fire
CA Chikuma
CL Isuzu, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Tama, Shell hits 2
CL Kiso, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Michishio
DD Arashio
DD Yamagumo, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
DD Minegumo, Shell hits 4, on fire

Allied Ships
BB Maryland, Shell hits 6
BB Colorado, Shell hits 3
BB Idaho, Shell hits 1
CA Indianapolis, Shell hits 3
CA Salt Lake City, Shell hits 3
DD McCalla, Shell hits 2
DD Barton, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Woodworth, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Bancroft, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Rennell Island at 65,103

Japanese Ships
CA Tone, on fire
CA Chikuma, Shell hits 1
CL Isuzu, Shell hits 7, on fire
CL Tama
CL Kiso, Shell hits 11, on fire, heavy damage
DD Michishio, Shell hits 1
DD Arashio
DD Yamagumo, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
DD Minegumo, on fire

Allied Ships
BB Maryland, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Colorado, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1
BB Idaho, Shell hits 3
CA Indianapolis, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CA Salt Lake City
DD McCalla, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Woodworth, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Bancroft, Shell hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not only was the second fleet surprised in the first engagement, Japan launched an unanswerable long lance attack in the beginning of the second. So it was basically surprised twice.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Rennell Island at 65,103

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
E7K2 Alf: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CA Tone, on fire
CA Chikuma
CL Isuzu, Shell hits 1, on fire
CL Tama
CL Kiso, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Michishio, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Arashio
DD Minegumo, on fire

Allied Ships
BB New Mexico
BB Mississippi, Shell hits 7
CA Chicago, Shell hits 3
CA Pensacola
DD Lansdowne
DD Lardner, Shell hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Rennell Island at 65,103

Japanese Ships
CA Tone, on fire
CA Chikuma
CL Isuzu, on fire
CL Tama
DD Michishio, on fire
DD Arashio
DD Minegumo, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
BB New Mexico
BB Mississippi, Shell hits 1
CA Chicago
CA Pensacola
DD Lansdowne
DD Lardner, Shell hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The thing that makes these battles totally pathetic is that the allied fleet tracked the Japanese on radar before every single engagement… How in hell are you surprised when you are actively tracking them on radar? Obviously surface radar is not working properly in game, instead of preventing surprises, I think it guarantees them.



Net result is a small Japanese Cruiser force defeats the total allied surface force supporting the invasion and walks away practically unscathed.

I now have just two BBs, 2 CAs and 1 DD left from this force to face the as yet to appear Japanese BBs.

The allies fly 2 large air raids and smash the base at Daily Waters. This is my routine raid in northern Australia, Japan has conceded the air to me here.

Allied SBDs and TBMs from my CVEs at Tassafaronga launch several small strikes at two Japanese stragglers from the surface engagement, but fail to score any hits even though they have perfect morale and fatigue and no enemy CAP is present.

Then Japan’s fatigued airforce from Shortlands launches some small raids on my ships at Tassafaronga. Of course in keeping with the turn’s utter poor luck, not only do they penetrate my CAP, 2 of the three CVEs are hit.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 24
A6M3 Zero x 12
G4M1 Betty x 3

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 1 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F6F Hellcat: 6 damaged

Allied Ships
CVE Nassau, Torpedo hits 1, on fire

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 66,101

Japanese aircraft
D3A2 Val x 9

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 10

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A2 Val: 3 damaged


Allied Ships
CVE Altamaha, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x D3A2 Val bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Given result like these, I throw in the towel and order my supply fleet at Tassafaronga to withdraw. I’ve kept the other AK fleet there to try and finish offloading the rest of its troops.

My small surface group shall remain at Rennell Island to try and hold off the BBs that are sure to arrive any day now. With the base set to reach a level 1 airfield tomorrow, I’ll bring in some Corsairs to use as CAP. But for today, I’ve ordered the CVs south of Rennell Island 5 hexes with orders to fly 2 squadrons over the base as LRCAP.

Tassafaronga is on its own as far as air defense. The priority is to get Rennell Island up and running so I can cover future supply fleets.

Progress at Tassafaronga is also going unbelievably slow. I’ve got 300 or so engineers and about 80-90 vehicles, but I’m at less than 10% on the port. I want to get the port up first so I can offload quicker and also so I can get fuel into the base to resupply the hordes of PT boats I’ll be sending in.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Cathartes
I don't mean to be an armchair commander here,

No problem at all, that's why I post the AAR, to get others views. All comments and critiques are welcome. Had the past three days been like the first 2, I suspect I'd have regretted not leaving.

But as things are now decidedly going against me in the luck rolls, I'm outta there after next turn for sure. I expect I'll be gone within three days from Rennell as well.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

26 Aug 43

Sub ops today consist of 1 Japanese sub attack, 1 Japanese ASW attack and 2 allied sub attacks. Japan’s sub attack slams an AP that was leaving the battle area. One of the US sub attacks sinks an AG at Shortlands with its deck gun.

Japan flies two air raids on Yanku today causing moderate damage to the base. These attacks are causing too much damage for me to keep up with, so I’ve ordered all my troops back to the base to maximize my engineering capability.

It’ll be months before the US engineer unit can get there as it has to march overland since its vehicles can’t be airlifted. I don’t want the base to be a wreck when it arrives. Besides, with 5,000 or so AV in the base, there really is no need to defend the forest hexes, I can blow away any Japanese units that arrive, unless it’s a huge army. And I’d much rather see his big effort in the north than in the center, as I have far less to lose in the north.

Japan launches two small air raids on the task forces at Tassafaronga, scoring hits on two AKs.

With over 100,000 supplies ashore at Tassafaronga, I’ve pulled up anchor and ordered everything home. Only some PT boats squadrons and a crippled AK remain. I don’t expect the AK to survive, so it’ll stay and try and offload its supplies before it goes under.

Rennell Island is now a level 1 airfield and 22% of the way to level 2. I’ve rebased in two squadrons of Corsairs flying 50% CAP. I think only 10 airframes per squadron are allowed to fly from a level 1, but I’m not sure.

With the airbase about to be self sufficient, I’ve ordered my CVs to port for refueling. They’ll head back north if the Japanese venture south with their CVs.

Jim