Andy Mac v PZB ....The Allies Fight Back

[Andy Mac]

Admiral PZ "Yamamoto" B in a cruel twist of fate that just feels wrong send several sqns of Zeroes on a LR Suicide mission to intercept Admiral Nomad over Port Moresby 200 zeroes were sent and the sole Corsair on Escort managed to shoot down 199 of them...the last pilot seeing the futility of mixing it with the Marine F4U rammed admiral Nomads plane.

As a result the British Field Marshall Andy Mac is brought out of retirement from his beach house near Perth where he had been quietly drinking himself into oblivion wondering why Churchill had overlooked him for active command. (perhaps because he made Percival look competent but thats another story !!!)

In what is obviously a clerical error Andy Mac has been placed in command of all allied forces in the Pacific Theatre

(Curtin is reported to have said that drunken sot what the hell is Churchill playing at !!!)

General MacArthurs alleged response is unprintable.

No one knows why a British General has been appointed to take over a naval and air war after the British Army was so decisively defeated in India only time will tell what new screwups Andy mac can bring to the roll of dis honour of the British Army in this theatre.......

[Andy Mac]

OK on quick review Nomad has done a bloody fine job with damn all to do it with !!!

And my logisitic position is incredible a truly fine job

I am continuing the invasion of Sag Sag apart from that I will be taking time to review (but not long) before committing to to many operations .

The importance of keeping up the Skeer and force PZB back as much as I am able without over reaching.

My big flaw on attack is I dont always wait and sometimes jump the gun (as String will attest) I will need to watch very carefully to try and fight back slowly.

If Wobbly/ Adavidb or Nomad has any thoughts I would love to hear them (and everyone else of course !!!)

Andy

[Arstavidios]

Hi,

Good luckwith this new assignment. Go and crack the PanzerNut.[:D]

[pauk]

aahh! Finally, I can read your AAR [:D]

Good luck, you are really brave dude![;)]

[Andy Mac]

Brave/ Stupid it really is such a fine line !!!!!

[String]

I'll be watching this with interest. Good luck and be careful, PZB will bite you if you won't [;)]

[Andy Mac]

Wow lots of action the main event was an attack on his Cruiser and BB force at the Admiralties.

I shot down at 2:1 but I lost a few P38's not a bad start.

I suspect the damage to his Ships is minimal but all it needs to do is slow them a little add a few points of sys damage make them a little more visible at night.

My objective is to make Bombardments risky by slowing him down and to make him visible at night to my PT BOats by racking up a few sys points.

All in all a decent 1st turn in the long attrition battle to come.

p.s. the more I look around the more I realise that Nomad had hit the tactics for this position bang on the money given the lack of surface ships.


Andy

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 07/21/43

DE Edward C. Daly, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Day Air attack on TF, near Admiralty Islands at 58,84

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 11
A6M5 Zeke x 21
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 35
Ki-45 KAIb Nick x 15

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 68
B-25J Mitchell x 48

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 5 destroyed, 1 damaged
A6M5 Zeke: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 22 destroyed
Ki-45 KAIb Nick: 8 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 16 destroyed, 16 damaged
B-25J Mitchell: 4 destroyed, 10 damaged

Japanese Ships
CL Kitakami
CA Takao, Bomb hits 3
CA Furutaka
DD Yugure, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Chokai, Bomb hits 2
CA Atago

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Admiralty Islands at 58,84

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 3
A6M5 Zeke x 9
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 5

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 30
B-17E Fortress x 27
B-24D Liberator x 28

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 destroyed
A6M5 Zeke: 3 destroyed
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 4 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 6 destroyed, 5 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 4 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 7 damaged

Japanese Ships
CL Kitakami, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CA Furutaka
CA Takao, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CA Chokai, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Yugure, on fire, heavy damage
DD Natsushio, Bomb hits 1
CA Atago

Day Air attack on TF, near Admiralty Islands at 58,84

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 2
A6M5 Zeke x 15
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 7

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 15

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 5 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei, Bomb hits 1
BB Musashi

Day Air attack on TF, near Admiralty Islands at 58,84

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 2
A6M5 Zeke x 15
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 7

Allied aircraft
B-24D Liberator x 27

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-24D Liberator: 23 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo
BB Mutsu, Bomb hits 1
BB Hiei, Bomb hits 3

[String]

Hm, can you post a summary of major reinforcements coming in? How many battleships do you have and how many will you recieve ?

[Arstavidios]

I'm more concerned about the lack of ground troops.
You will soon have enough ships and aircraft to turn the IJN into artificial reefs but you only have the US and Australian armies which suffered some losses against the Japanese army. What's the situation like in China?

[Nomad]

I would guess some of you did not really digest my AAR. Andy Mac has enough ground troops and there are more coming in all the time, I think there are two Divisions at SF that just arrived and are waiting for APs to get them to the front. There were some ground forces lost earlier( noticablely lost was the 2nd Marine Division)

The biggest problem and AndyMac will see, there are not very many surface combat ships and not many will arrive in 1943. It is a big problem and only time will cure it and some very careful play. There are NO British BBs or CAs available and none will appear until Karachi is captured. There is only 1 British CV available. If I remember right, there are about 8 USN BBs available and 6 of those are in need of repair( some of them a lot of repair). There are barely enough CA, CL, CLAAs to support the 3 Air Combat TFs that can be made( going by memory, about 15-18 of these) I suggested that thes could be used for attacks in the Marshall Islands next month, along with an airborne invasion of Kai Island in the Banda Sea. It is time to strech PzBs defenses out some. I think a couple of islands in the Marshalls can be taken without too much problems and then staffed immediately with Corsairs and SBDs. Two or more of those islands have air bases size 4 so B-25Js and P-38s could also be supported. One thing that is good is that there is about 300 C-47s available so a lot of air transport can be used. Another huge strength is large numbers of EAB and SeaBee units. Building air bases and ports is fast for the Allies.

Good luck AndyMac.

[Speedysteve]

Yes good luck Andy. I'll be watching with interest.

Steven

[Andy Mac]

I dont have the combat replay with me at work but the highlights were the landing at Sag Sag, the landing at Aru and the destruction of the garrison at Sag Sag from the air.

OK I have a decision to make I will probably have unloaded most of the combat troops at Sag Sag (I havnt checked the turn yet) and if I was PZB I would attempt to sink a sizable chunk of the allied assault transports tonight by sending in either a very heavy surface action group or a light cruiser led DD sqn.

Therefore Allied C in C is going to order every PT boat in 4 hexes to concentrate tonight on Sag Sag and order every light medium and heavy to naval attack I will also withdraw the TF unloading with those valuable LST's as lets face it after my LBA is finished with him 2 men and a dog will take Sag Sag (I hope). I am hoping that PZB will try a night raid to "put me in my place" and meet a little surprise.

I have a few hours before I will be home to try it any thoughts ?

Re Aru island I recieved a detailed battle plan from Nomad as to his intentions but only after I had ordered the assault.

I prefer Nomads plan for the area to mine so I am going to take the island put a small Seabee bn on it and let it appear like it is withering on the vine I want PZB to ignore this little rock in the ocean.

Nomad had accumulated 3000 PP's and the tempatation to spend them is enormous but I am resisting. I have started all remaining Australian Divs to prep for various objectives Kavieng, Koepang, Amboina etc I will release them when the time is right and I know my objective !!!

Andy

[Andy Mac]

Re what Nomad said above he is 100% correct the allies just dont have the ships to compete in surface action to be honest I dont see a multi day invasion being possible in 43 or early 44 where a Japanese surface action gp can interfere.

I am going to need to be very canny not to lose any irreplaceable ships

Andy

[Nomad]

I was going to leave Acu for after taking Kai. I didn't want PzB to see any real activity in the area. I am sure you will get a big reception from him when you take Kai, he will not like you haveing a size 4 air base there. So that was why I was going to use a combination of para units, 300+ C-47s, FT TFs, and a few 4.5k AKs to take a lot of supplies. it is also possible to move troops via barge, they unload in one phase and leave. I wasn't sure where to start the prepping and there is lots of time yet. Check the INF div at SF, it might be prepped for somewhere interesting, I do not remember.

[Andy Mac]

OK will do. I think you are right Aru was premature he may let me keep it as its only level 0 in which case in a month it will be level 1 with F4U's on it to LRCAP any invasion.

I am not short on Inf or Armour or even engineers its all about lack of assault shipping and surface warships.

I am tempted to construct my Air Combat TF's and perhaps move them to Perth....if I can do that secretely and he does react when I eventually hit Kai that could get interesting........

I have 6 CV's (1 RN pure Fighter platform) and 6 CVL's at Pearl plus 1 CVE at Pearl and 3 more in Solomons.

Thats a fairly potent force although as Nomad said short of escorts.

Andy

[Andy Mac]

As requested

[Andy Mac]

And ground forces

[Andy Mac]

p.s. the trap is set my forces are withdrawing apart from about 40 PT Boats lying in wait I hope he attacks !!!!

[Nomad]

I would expect him to, he has been sensitive about air bases with SPS1 and above.

[Andy Mac]

p.p.s following on from what Nomad said earlier I have 2 US Divs and 2 Armoured Bns embarked on AP's leaving SF now c 70,000 fresh troopsprepped for srortoi and kwal.

I will provide a carrier escort for this convoy just in case.

It also gives my Aircombat TF's a chance to shake down. 2 Essex and an Independence I think to start off TF 38. (I would kill for 10 more CLevelend class CL's !!!)

Some good news actually I still have Spruance/ Halsey and Mitscher so I have enough good carrier admirals to keep my aircombat TF's solid.

In the next 5 months I get 5 more Essex class CV's and 3 CVL's but not the escorts to use them without overloading.

I will end up using a lot of DD's as carrier escorts.