February 14, 1942 -
While the Japanese Giant smashed its way along in the DEI, the little Allied gnats got in a few Valentine's Day bites. First off, more Japanese MSWs swept mines out of Kragen Harbor. However, for some unknown reason, Treespider also sent some minesweepers to Soerabaja. Now, although the airfields at Soerabaja have been attacked frequently, there hasn't been much damage done to them, the supply level in Soerabaja is still quite high, and there haven't been any port attacks. So the following happened:
TF 12 encounters mine field at Soerabaja (22, 65) - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
51 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
MSW W.18
MSW W.12, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
MSW W.11, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
MSW W.6
One of those MSWs sank immediately afterwards. Did Treespider forget about the Big Guns at Soerabaja? What's particularly ironic is that there were only a few mines at Soerabaja anyway. I'm guessing that Treespider sent in those MSWs because he was planning to send in a bombardment TF; I wonder if he is still planning to do so. [:D]
Then, off Finschafen, USS Perch ran into an AG:
Sub attack at 56, 87
Japanese Ships
AG AG-369, Shell hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
Allied Ships
SS Perch
That AG also sank soon afterwards.
Then, off of Kendari, KXIV got lucky:
Sub attack at 26, 65
Japanese Ships
ML Ikitsushima, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
Allied Ships
SS KXIV
The sub was actually looking for the Japanese CVs that had been around, but "beggars can't be choosers". [;)]
And off of Australia, I had spotted a Japanese sub the previous turn and so, figuring that it was out to do more nuisance sub-minelaying, I sent out some minesweepers. Well, look what they found:
ASW attack at 47,114
Japanese Ships
SS I-24, hits 1
Allied Ships
MSW Rampur
MSW Cochin
MSW Baroda
I'm now sending a DD on ASW duty out to see if I can find the damaged sub.
And finally, the Hudsons of Northern Australia went off for another couple of attacks on Japanese shipping at Lautem:
Day Air attack on TF, near Lautem at 33, 78
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 4
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 8
P-40B Tomahawk x 4
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Otori Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
And again:
Day Air attack on TF, near Lautem at 33, 78
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 4
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 5
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Otori Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
That ship ought to go under soon.
There was also a satisfying ground combat result in China as a number of Japanese LCUs tried unsuccessfully to knock a couple of Chinese units out of a hex to the north of Changsha:
Ground combat at 46, 34
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 36553 troops, 421 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 758
Defending force 16289 troops, 90 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 519
Japanese max assault: 729 - adjusted assault: 284
Allied max defense: 540 - adjusted defense: 97
Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1
Japanese ground losses:
1085 casualties reported
Guns lost 26
Allied ground losses:
56 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
I have no idea why things will work out like this sometimes in China, when in parallel situations a handful of Japanese troops will drive away a huge horde of Chinese troops. Never-the-less, I'll take it! [:D]
In other action, a Zero squadron tried a sweep over Akyab but missed the target. I've got a squadron of Hurricanes there, so I upped the CAP level and set their altitude higher for the next time. I also set the Hudsons at Akyab to bomb Luang Prabang, just in case I can catch a few of those Zeros on the ground.
And in ground action, Pomala was captured against no opposition. Changsha, Wuchow and Manila received artillery attacks. To-date, Japanese forces have captured 71 Allied bases and occupied 22 others. (It's a good thing that I keep track on a spreadsheet or I wouldn't realize how much Treespider has done so far.)
Dave Baranyi
A Canuck in the Pacific - ADavidB vs Treespider
Moderators: wdolson, Don Bowen, mogami
Now Sumatra...
February 15, 1942 -
The Battle of Java continued, with the Japanese landing some significant ground forces at Kragen and eventually capturing the base. A bombardment TF also went around the south end of the island and bombarded Malang. Treespider will want to capture Malang in order to cut off my troops in Soerabaja. He also has another paratroop unit preparing to drop in on Soerabaja. I don't currently have any fighters there, but I have one last Dutch fighter unit resting and rebuilding in Batavia and I'll fly them in once it appears that the Paras are coming.
Treespider also started the invasion of Sumatra this turn. For a while I thought that he was going to invade one of the bases on the north end of the island, or even go around the north end to invade one of the bases on the west side, because a transport TF had gone that direction. But as I chased that TF with my subs, it turned around and went back south. So I have no idea what it was doing or why. Maybe it was supposed to be a lure in case I came in with CVs.
In any event, the result was that the bulk of my subs are out of position to attack the ships at Palembang. I'm now sending them south, but it will take them a couple of days. In other DEI action, the Hudsons from Darwin flew against Lautem again today and once again put a number of bombs into the same ship as yesterday. That ship must be carrying cement - it just doesn't want to sink.
Things have quieted a bit in Burma and China. My Hudsons from Akyab hit the air base at Luang Prabang and caught one Zero on the ground. There were still air attacks in China, but neither side was doing a lot. And the only land attacks were artillery bombardments at Changsha and Wuchow again. And in the Philippines, Manila received another artillery attack.
Dave Baranyi
The Battle of Java continued, with the Japanese landing some significant ground forces at Kragen and eventually capturing the base. A bombardment TF also went around the south end of the island and bombarded Malang. Treespider will want to capture Malang in order to cut off my troops in Soerabaja. He also has another paratroop unit preparing to drop in on Soerabaja. I don't currently have any fighters there, but I have one last Dutch fighter unit resting and rebuilding in Batavia and I'll fly them in once it appears that the Paras are coming.
Treespider also started the invasion of Sumatra this turn. For a while I thought that he was going to invade one of the bases on the north end of the island, or even go around the north end to invade one of the bases on the west side, because a transport TF had gone that direction. But as I chased that TF with my subs, it turned around and went back south. So I have no idea what it was doing or why. Maybe it was supposed to be a lure in case I came in with CVs.
In any event, the result was that the bulk of my subs are out of position to attack the ships at Palembang. I'm now sending them south, but it will take them a couple of days. In other DEI action, the Hudsons from Darwin flew against Lautem again today and once again put a number of bombs into the same ship as yesterday. That ship must be carrying cement - it just doesn't want to sink.
Things have quieted a bit in Burma and China. My Hudsons from Akyab hit the air base at Luang Prabang and caught one Zero on the ground. There were still air attacks in China, but neither side was doing a lot. And the only land attacks were artillery bombardments at Changsha and Wuchow again. And in the Philippines, Manila received another artillery attack.
Dave Baranyi
Japan on a roll...
February 16, 1942 -
The "daydream" is over for now as the Japanese forces got down to the business of cleaning up the last pockets of resistance in the Far East. Troops first started to wade ashore at Palembang. The coastal guns there did get a few hits on a couple of Japanese DDs but there was nothing that could stop the incoming attack. Troops also started to land at Balikpapan. And there is a Japanese surface combat or bombardment TF sailing around the west side of Java. Treespider can do pretty much what he likes at this time and there isn't a lot I can do about it.
There were a couple of minor air attacks on Koepang this turn by the Hudsons in northern Oz, but it's just not the same watching a handful of light bombers hit an airfield versus hundreds of bombers absolutely crush a base, as is happening at Soerabaja, Manila and now Port Moresby.
There wasn't much in the way of land action this turn, just a few artillery attacks at the usual places. A Japanese LCU has moved into contact with three Japanese LCUs to the north of Changsha, so I've ordered those units to try a shock attack in an attempt to drive that Japanese unit back. If things go as usual, this will backfire badly, but I've got to try something.
Dave Baranyi
The "daydream" is over for now as the Japanese forces got down to the business of cleaning up the last pockets of resistance in the Far East. Troops first started to wade ashore at Palembang. The coastal guns there did get a few hits on a couple of Japanese DDs but there was nothing that could stop the incoming attack. Troops also started to land at Balikpapan. And there is a Japanese surface combat or bombardment TF sailing around the west side of Java. Treespider can do pretty much what he likes at this time and there isn't a lot I can do about it.
There were a couple of minor air attacks on Koepang this turn by the Hudsons in northern Oz, but it's just not the same watching a handful of light bombers hit an airfield versus hundreds of bombers absolutely crush a base, as is happening at Soerabaja, Manila and now Port Moresby.
There wasn't much in the way of land action this turn, just a few artillery attacks at the usual places. A Japanese LCU has moved into contact with three Japanese LCUs to the north of Changsha, so I've ordered those units to try a shock attack in an attempt to drive that Japanese unit back. If things go as usual, this will backfire badly, but I've got to try something.
Dave Baranyi
Coastal Guns...
February 17, 1942 -
This was a turn of a few small, surprising Allied victories that were more than balanced by a number of expected losses and the reoccurrence of a large and seemingly endless frustration. The Japanese advances progressed unabated in the Far East while the US build-up in the Eastern Pacific maintained its momentum in the absence of any interference.
The invasion of Balikpapan continued, with more Japanese troops landing in the face of shore fire. However, a fairly rare occurrence happened; a Japanese PC on escort duty with the transport ships actually hit a Dutch mine and sank. Then, when a bombardment TF came in to hit the Dutch defenders, the shore guns found the range on DD Hatsukari and sank her.
The defences of Palembang were already too badly damaged for the shore guns to be able to reply to the continued landings or the naval bombardment, but Dutch sub O16 arrived at the base in time to torpedo and sink a Japanese MSW. Never-the-less, at the end of the day the overwhelming Japanese forces that had landed were easily able to defeat the Dutch troops and capture the base.
Then, in an odd move, another Japanese bombardment TF went around Java and hit Tjilitjap for no apparently good reason. Treespider has been bombing Malang constantly for the past while, making it appear like he would land troops there. But Tjilitjap had so far been spared any air attacks. In any event, the results demonstrated why one should prepare a target for naval bombardment with air attacks ahead of time:
Naval bombardment of Tjilitjap, at 19, 62 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
59 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
DD Kuri
DD Shiokaze
DD Ariake
DD Yugure
DD Amatsukaze
DD Hayashio, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Yukikaze, Shell hits 3
DD Natsushio
DD Kuroshio
DD Yugumo
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 1
BB Ise, Shell hits 2
Allied ground losses:
169 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Runway hits 2
Port supply hits 1
This also shows why it's important to stand off your DDs during initial naval bombardments. Those two DDs weren't reported sunk, but they won't be doing much for a while even if they make it back to port.
But those actions were pretty much all the "good news" that the Allies got this turn. Japanese air units ranged far and wide in great numbers and hit bases at will. At this point I have no Allied air units other than the AVG that can stand up to dozens of Zeros and hundreds of Japanese bombers, so I'm not trying to stop the airborne carnage. And since Treespider is attacking a dozen different targets each turn, I couldn't cover them even if I did commit the AVG. In addition, Japanese troops picked up another "loose" base in the Philippines, Dadjangas.
The truly frustrating news came from China as usual. I find that the problems of trying to play the Game in China drive me to the point of irrationality. In my mind, all the other things done in the Game for the benefit of "play balance" pale to total insignificance compared to the twin issues of movement and land combat in China.
So while the steadily increasing air attacks on Hengchow and the slow depletion of the Chinese air assets are directly due to a conscious decision on my part not to bring other Allied air units into China, the incomprehensible nature of the design decisions for movement and land combat leaves me with a feeling of hopelessness. Nothing seems to work, nothing makes sense, and the placement of Land Combat at the end of a Turn just leaves a foul taste in my mouth with every turn where something occurs in China.
So this turn, one of the Japanese "God Units" got to attack three Chinese LCUs and kick two of them out of the hex north of Changsha before the Chinese units could attack. The units on both sides seemed evenly matched; who knows what factors made the results come out the way that they did. The strangest part was that one of the Chinese units didn't retreat and so was in position to attack the Japanese unit at poor odds. Never-the-less, the results weren't that bad, and suggest that if all three Chinese units had stayed in that hex they might have had a reasonable chance on the attack against that Japanese unit. So why were they defeated in the first place? Of course, one could also ask why the Japanese unit got to attack first.
So with my field defenses of Changsha falling apart with each Japanese attack, I've decided that I will try to abandon Changsha and pull my troops back. In theory, there is an open rail line leading away from Changsha, so my troops ought to be able to retreat. But with the horribly mindless design of the Land Movement, I won't be surprised at all if the Chinese troops will be trapped.
In any event, with the bulk of Treespider's efforts in China focussed in the Changsha-to-Wuchow region, I've decided to send some of my well-rested and nearly full strength Chinese LCUs south from Homan to see if they can get to and capture the Japanese-controlled base on the rail line that is south of Homan. There is only one Japanese unit in the way; can it be defeated or will it be another "God Unit"? One can't tell without trying, so I've got to try something. I'd so much rather ignore China, but since the current Game Design lets a Japanese player feel like Genghis Khan in China, the temptation is always too great for Japanese players to not play historically in that region.
Dave Baranyi
This was a turn of a few small, surprising Allied victories that were more than balanced by a number of expected losses and the reoccurrence of a large and seemingly endless frustration. The Japanese advances progressed unabated in the Far East while the US build-up in the Eastern Pacific maintained its momentum in the absence of any interference.
The invasion of Balikpapan continued, with more Japanese troops landing in the face of shore fire. However, a fairly rare occurrence happened; a Japanese PC on escort duty with the transport ships actually hit a Dutch mine and sank. Then, when a bombardment TF came in to hit the Dutch defenders, the shore guns found the range on DD Hatsukari and sank her.
The defences of Palembang were already too badly damaged for the shore guns to be able to reply to the continued landings or the naval bombardment, but Dutch sub O16 arrived at the base in time to torpedo and sink a Japanese MSW. Never-the-less, at the end of the day the overwhelming Japanese forces that had landed were easily able to defeat the Dutch troops and capture the base.
Then, in an odd move, another Japanese bombardment TF went around Java and hit Tjilitjap for no apparently good reason. Treespider has been bombing Malang constantly for the past while, making it appear like he would land troops there. But Tjilitjap had so far been spared any air attacks. In any event, the results demonstrated why one should prepare a target for naval bombardment with air attacks ahead of time:
Naval bombardment of Tjilitjap, at 19, 62 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
59 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
DD Kuri
DD Shiokaze
DD Ariake
DD Yugure
DD Amatsukaze
DD Hayashio, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Yukikaze, Shell hits 3
DD Natsushio
DD Kuroshio
DD Yugumo
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 1
BB Ise, Shell hits 2
Allied ground losses:
169 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Runway hits 2
Port supply hits 1
This also shows why it's important to stand off your DDs during initial naval bombardments. Those two DDs weren't reported sunk, but they won't be doing much for a while even if they make it back to port.
But those actions were pretty much all the "good news" that the Allies got this turn. Japanese air units ranged far and wide in great numbers and hit bases at will. At this point I have no Allied air units other than the AVG that can stand up to dozens of Zeros and hundreds of Japanese bombers, so I'm not trying to stop the airborne carnage. And since Treespider is attacking a dozen different targets each turn, I couldn't cover them even if I did commit the AVG. In addition, Japanese troops picked up another "loose" base in the Philippines, Dadjangas.
The truly frustrating news came from China as usual. I find that the problems of trying to play the Game in China drive me to the point of irrationality. In my mind, all the other things done in the Game for the benefit of "play balance" pale to total insignificance compared to the twin issues of movement and land combat in China.
So while the steadily increasing air attacks on Hengchow and the slow depletion of the Chinese air assets are directly due to a conscious decision on my part not to bring other Allied air units into China, the incomprehensible nature of the design decisions for movement and land combat leaves me with a feeling of hopelessness. Nothing seems to work, nothing makes sense, and the placement of Land Combat at the end of a Turn just leaves a foul taste in my mouth with every turn where something occurs in China.
So this turn, one of the Japanese "God Units" got to attack three Chinese LCUs and kick two of them out of the hex north of Changsha before the Chinese units could attack. The units on both sides seemed evenly matched; who knows what factors made the results come out the way that they did. The strangest part was that one of the Chinese units didn't retreat and so was in position to attack the Japanese unit at poor odds. Never-the-less, the results weren't that bad, and suggest that if all three Chinese units had stayed in that hex they might have had a reasonable chance on the attack against that Japanese unit. So why were they defeated in the first place? Of course, one could also ask why the Japanese unit got to attack first.
So with my field defenses of Changsha falling apart with each Japanese attack, I've decided that I will try to abandon Changsha and pull my troops back. In theory, there is an open rail line leading away from Changsha, so my troops ought to be able to retreat. But with the horribly mindless design of the Land Movement, I won't be surprised at all if the Chinese troops will be trapped.
In any event, with the bulk of Treespider's efforts in China focussed in the Changsha-to-Wuchow region, I've decided to send some of my well-rested and nearly full strength Chinese LCUs south from Homan to see if they can get to and capture the Japanese-controlled base on the rail line that is south of Homan. There is only one Japanese unit in the way; can it be defeated or will it be another "God Unit"? One can't tell without trying, so I've got to try something. I'd so much rather ignore China, but since the current Game Design lets a Japanese player feel like Genghis Khan in China, the temptation is always too great for Japanese players to not play historically in that region.
Dave Baranyi
Movement reset...
February 18, 1942 -
As I had feared, the troops at Changsha didn't move to the uncontested hex to the west, despite it being a rail hex and there being a clear pathway to further uncontested bases. Not only the troops didn't move, their orders were cleared. So I am trying again, only this time setting their destination to an uncontested base nearby. In theory they ought to move, but given the immense flaws in the ground movement system, there's an equally good chance that they won't do a thing.
In many ways, the ground movement system is totally incomprehensible. For example, my troops at Homan were given orders to move to the enemy occupied base that is several hexes to the south on the rail line. There are two movement options: go along the rail line and run into a Japanese unit that is blocking the rail line, or go along the open, unblocked roadway. Any other time I've tried this, the Chinese units have taken the rail line and come into conflict with the blocking unit. This time they've taken the "sensible" approach and moved along the uncontested route. Go figure…
The next time I start a game it will only be under the condition that China is "frozen" and neither side runs any offensive operations out of it. I would really prefer to play "War in the Pacific" instead of "War in a Badly Programmed China".
Elsewhere the current Japanese onslaught continued with dozens of Japanese air attacks everywhere in the Far East. I'm not bothering to try to fly combat missions because almost all Allied bases everywhere on the map are covered with thunderstorms. I did fly some recon flights into Burma just to keep Treespider wondering.
None of my subs, minefields or remaining LBA interfered with any Japanese TFs. A Japanese bombardment TF hit Malang, but this time the DDs were held back and only the BBs fired. What's particularly funny is that the Dutch base force at Malang doesn't have any shore guns. <LOL> Afterwards Japanese troops started to land unmolested at Malang. There was also a naval bombardment of Tarakan where Treespider didn't hold back the DDs and sure enough, one of them was hit by a shore gun, but it doesn't appear to have been a serious hit.
Treespider was in the mood for ground combat, so after all the air and naval preparation his forces attacked almost everything, everywhere. Results weren't as good as he had hoped:
- A deliberate attack at Manila failed. But there are no more supplies there, so the troops there can't last much longer.
- A deliberate attack at 46,34 failed, when two good Japanese units took on two ordinary Chinese units in the Field and achieved a draw.
- A deliberate attack at 45,35 succeeded, and the Chinese unit that didn't retreat last turn retreated this turn.
- There was a deliberate attack at Hengchow that was surprising because there were only 4 Japanese units there. As should be the case, it failed badly.
- There was a deliberate attack at Balikpapan that failed, which was a surprise, considering that two of the four Dutch units had retreated from another Dutch base only a couple of game-weeks before.
There are also Japanese troops moving from Kragen to Soerabaja so the siege there will start soon.
As far as the Allied actions go, I am still busily building up my forces in nice, well-supplied backwater bases. I now have 5 US divisions in Pearl Harbor and a 6th will land within a couple of days. All of the non-dot Hawaiian bases have base forces, RCT, CD, and AA units in them. The port in Hilo just grew to level 3, so I'm sending a TF containing an AD, AS & AV to it. I like keeping AD and AS ships in the level 3 ports in the Hawaiian Islands so that if an attack occurs I have alternate bases to Pearl where I can re-arm my DDs and CLs. If there is no threat this also allows me to repair subs and smaller ships more quickly and leave Pearl to repair the big ships.
In the absence of PDU my air upgrade plans are going ever so slowly. This turn I was finally able to upgrade one of the Pearl Harbor P-26 squadrons to P-39s. This also allowed the final P-26 squadron to fill out with planes. I had already upgraded the former Philippines P-26 squadron in Australia. I haven't upgraded the former Philippines P-35 squadron with P-40Es yet because I am still trying to recover from the losses that I incurred during the defense of Broome.
In ship news, the last of the Northampton CAs upgraded and received their first radar sets. This means that they will actually be somewhat useful in surface combat now. I still have a number of cruisers and battleships under repair in various ports. The Indianapolis is taking forever to recover from its mine and torpedo damage in Brisbane harbor. Sys Damage is still at 88 and speed only at 2, so there is no way that I am moving it. Sys Damage in the Pennsylvania is also still sitting in the 80s, so it's also still stuck in port, in this case Pearl. I've got five other 20-knot BBs sitting in West Coast ports with damage levels ranging from low twenties to mid fifties, so they won't be seeing upgrades or combat for a number of months.
And India is still frighteningly weak, despite the presence of a nice RN contingent. I have been able to put base forces into all Indian bases, and have spread out the British combat troops as best as possible, but there is nothing there that can stop a multi-division Japanese invasion at this time. It will be a couple of months before I get any decent ground troops in India, so if a Japanese invasion occurs in the next little while everything will rest with the RN, the RAF bombers, and the AVG.
Dave Baranyi
As I had feared, the troops at Changsha didn't move to the uncontested hex to the west, despite it being a rail hex and there being a clear pathway to further uncontested bases. Not only the troops didn't move, their orders were cleared. So I am trying again, only this time setting their destination to an uncontested base nearby. In theory they ought to move, but given the immense flaws in the ground movement system, there's an equally good chance that they won't do a thing.
In many ways, the ground movement system is totally incomprehensible. For example, my troops at Homan were given orders to move to the enemy occupied base that is several hexes to the south on the rail line. There are two movement options: go along the rail line and run into a Japanese unit that is blocking the rail line, or go along the open, unblocked roadway. Any other time I've tried this, the Chinese units have taken the rail line and come into conflict with the blocking unit. This time they've taken the "sensible" approach and moved along the uncontested route. Go figure…
The next time I start a game it will only be under the condition that China is "frozen" and neither side runs any offensive operations out of it. I would really prefer to play "War in the Pacific" instead of "War in a Badly Programmed China".
Elsewhere the current Japanese onslaught continued with dozens of Japanese air attacks everywhere in the Far East. I'm not bothering to try to fly combat missions because almost all Allied bases everywhere on the map are covered with thunderstorms. I did fly some recon flights into Burma just to keep Treespider wondering.
None of my subs, minefields or remaining LBA interfered with any Japanese TFs. A Japanese bombardment TF hit Malang, but this time the DDs were held back and only the BBs fired. What's particularly funny is that the Dutch base force at Malang doesn't have any shore guns. <LOL> Afterwards Japanese troops started to land unmolested at Malang. There was also a naval bombardment of Tarakan where Treespider didn't hold back the DDs and sure enough, one of them was hit by a shore gun, but it doesn't appear to have been a serious hit.
Treespider was in the mood for ground combat, so after all the air and naval preparation his forces attacked almost everything, everywhere. Results weren't as good as he had hoped:
- A deliberate attack at Manila failed. But there are no more supplies there, so the troops there can't last much longer.
- A deliberate attack at 46,34 failed, when two good Japanese units took on two ordinary Chinese units in the Field and achieved a draw.
- A deliberate attack at 45,35 succeeded, and the Chinese unit that didn't retreat last turn retreated this turn.
- There was a deliberate attack at Hengchow that was surprising because there were only 4 Japanese units there. As should be the case, it failed badly.
- There was a deliberate attack at Balikpapan that failed, which was a surprise, considering that two of the four Dutch units had retreated from another Dutch base only a couple of game-weeks before.
There are also Japanese troops moving from Kragen to Soerabaja so the siege there will start soon.
As far as the Allied actions go, I am still busily building up my forces in nice, well-supplied backwater bases. I now have 5 US divisions in Pearl Harbor and a 6th will land within a couple of days. All of the non-dot Hawaiian bases have base forces, RCT, CD, and AA units in them. The port in Hilo just grew to level 3, so I'm sending a TF containing an AD, AS & AV to it. I like keeping AD and AS ships in the level 3 ports in the Hawaiian Islands so that if an attack occurs I have alternate bases to Pearl where I can re-arm my DDs and CLs. If there is no threat this also allows me to repair subs and smaller ships more quickly and leave Pearl to repair the big ships.
In the absence of PDU my air upgrade plans are going ever so slowly. This turn I was finally able to upgrade one of the Pearl Harbor P-26 squadrons to P-39s. This also allowed the final P-26 squadron to fill out with planes. I had already upgraded the former Philippines P-26 squadron in Australia. I haven't upgraded the former Philippines P-35 squadron with P-40Es yet because I am still trying to recover from the losses that I incurred during the defense of Broome.
In ship news, the last of the Northampton CAs upgraded and received their first radar sets. This means that they will actually be somewhat useful in surface combat now. I still have a number of cruisers and battleships under repair in various ports. The Indianapolis is taking forever to recover from its mine and torpedo damage in Brisbane harbor. Sys Damage is still at 88 and speed only at 2, so there is no way that I am moving it. Sys Damage in the Pennsylvania is also still sitting in the 80s, so it's also still stuck in port, in this case Pearl. I've got five other 20-knot BBs sitting in West Coast ports with damage levels ranging from low twenties to mid fifties, so they won't be seeing upgrades or combat for a number of months.
And India is still frighteningly weak, despite the presence of a nice RN contingent. I have been able to put base forces into all Indian bases, and have spread out the British combat troops as best as possible, but there is nothing there that can stop a multi-division Japanese invasion at this time. It will be a couple of months before I get any decent ground troops in India, so if a Japanese invasion occurs in the next little while everything will rest with the RN, the RAF bombers, and the AVG.
Dave Baranyi
Strategic Assessment...
Treespider is off on a PC-free long weekend, so since I'm "turnless" for a few days I'll take a bit of time to go over the status of this game as of February 18, 1942. The big picture is that Treespider is coming close to achieving the Japanese "historic" expansion several game-months early thanks to his aggressive and effective non-historic start. I expect the remaining main Allied bases in the Far East - Manila and Soerabaja - to fall within the next game month at the most, with Manila's fall being very imminent. Then it is Treespider's decision as to when he bothers to pick up the remaining isolated Allied bases in the Philippines and DEI. In the PNG/Solomons region Treespider controls all the key bases except for Gili-Gili and Port Moresby, both of which are lightly defended.
The question then is; where will he go next? India, Northern Australia and the South Pacific are all weakly defended and there will be few good Allied combat units available over the next couple of months to make a difference in those Theaters. The Hawaiian Islands and South-eastern Australia are well defended and would be difficult for Treespider to assault even now. The Aleutians are lightly defended but Anchorage is well defended and is an unlikely target in any event. The West Coast is well defended and unlikely to be threatened by an invasion. China remains a mess and my strategy there rests upon the whims of the Game's capricious movement rules. Siberia is an unlikely target while the Japanese have other weaker targets within easy reach. Therefore, I am conserving and building up my strength in order to be able to defend India, South-eastern Australia and the Hawaiian Islands for the immediate future.
I am depending upon the Royal Navy and in particular the six RM BBs that I have in India to interfere with any Japanese invasion of India. I am preserving the AVG to provide LR CAP over my RN ships and I am building up a network of inland air bases to support LBA attack against invasion. A concerted attack by the KB, the Combined Fleet and three or more crack Japanese Divisions would undoubtedly be able to break through and take one of the coastal bases, but I am hoping that my inner network of mutually-supporting bases can project enough force to keep a breakout for occurring. The longer Treespider waits to move, the better my defences will be prepared.
I have a number of cruisers and two US CVs in South-eastern Australia to provide a strike force against any Japanese incursions into that region. If a serious Japanese assault occurs in Northern Australia I will pull back my forces in a fighting retreat. I have the formerly Philippine-based USAAF fighter units based in Australia and am attempting to rebuild them. This is being hampered by the slow rate of replacement of P-40s, but they do provide my best counter to Japanese air attacks so I have to persevere. I have not brought US LR bombers to Australia but I will if useful and vulnerable targets develop. I have no intention of trying to engage in an air war of attrition at this stage of the game.
I continue to move all CENPAC, SOPAC and SWPAC land units to the Hawaiian Islands while sending all NORPAC units to Anchorage and leaving all West Coast units in the West Coast. All but one of the battleships that survived the Pearl Harbor attack are in West Coast ports. Naval forces at Pearl consist of two US CVs and their associated escorts, along with some support and auxiliary ships. Transport ships are being based on the West Coast when they are not in use. The original Hawaiian air units have been rebuilt and upgraded as much as possible, and some of the CENPAC, SOPAC and SWPAC air units have been moved from the West Coast to the Hawaiian Islands, but not all. If a Japanese attack commences upon the Hawaiian Islands I will pull the US CV forces out to attempt to attack behind the incoming enemy TFs, and allow the Land and Air units in the Hawaiian Islands to engage the incoming enemy. All non-dot bases in the Hawaiian Islands have combat forces in place and have defences being built up.
So I will continue with this plan until the situation in the Far East is finally resolved and the Japanese plans become more visible. If opportunities present themselves to attack isolated Japanese forces I will attempt to engage, but I do not intend to do raids just for the sake of raiding. It is too important at this time to build up my forces so that I have a hope of obtaining local superiority.
Allied losses have been reasonable so far, all things considered, and Japanese losses have been small but significant. Below are comparisons of the losses in ships and planes between the two sides.
Ship Losses: Allied 82, Japan 42
Allied ship losses:
1 BB (Nevada, at Pearl Harbor)
1 CA (Louisville, in the KB ambush at Rabaul)
5 CL (most in the KB ambush at Rabaul)
5 DD
1 DMS (in San Fran due to a sub attack)
9 MSW
2 PG, 3 AS, 1 AVD, 1 AV, 2 AO, 5 TK, 4AP, 23 AK (most in the failed retreat from the Philippines)
1 SS
18 PT
The Philippine retreat failed badly because I attempted to group the fleeing ships into TFs of matching speeds. This provided a few large targets onto which Treespider focussed his attacks. When I attempted the escape under similar non-historical conditions against Yank I sent the ships out in dozens of individual or two-ship TFs and lost only a handful of the escaping ships in comparison.
Japanese ship losses:
5 DD
7 APD (all from the aborted early invasion attempt on Palembang)
1 ML
7 MSW
4 PG
2 PC
10 AP
2 AK
1 TK
3 SS
My forces have only been able to damage and not sink the major Japanese ships that have been hit by Allied forces.
Air Losses: Allied 1011, Japanese 783
Top 10 Allied air losses, with major contributors:
P-40B: 122, 81 on ground
P-40E: 102, 84 air-to-air
Buffalo I: 70, 51 air-to-air
Brewster: 68, 49 air-to-air
I-16c: 66, 44 air-to-air
PBY Catalina: 58, 54 on ground
Martin 139: 53, 30 air-to-air
CW-21B: 53, 43 air-to-air
Hudson I: 43, spread out
SBD Dauntless: 36, 20 air-to-air
Top 10 Japanese air losses, with major contributors:
Ki-21 Sally: 102, flak 39, ops 37
A6M2 Zero: air-to-air 36, ops 45
G3M Nell: 65, spread out
Ki-48 Lily: 58, flak 37, ops 18
Ki-27 Nate: 58, 26 air-to-air
Ki-51 Sonia: 50, 31 flak
Ki-30 Ann: 45, 33 flak
G4M1 Betty: 45, flak 19, ops 19
K5N Kate: 42, flak 27
Ki-43 1B Oscar: 37, 14 air-to-air, 16 ops
Air summary:
Most air-to-air losses: P-40E
Most flak losses: Ki-21 Sally
Most ground losses: P-40B
Most ops losses: A6M2 Zero
Dave Baranyi
The question then is; where will he go next? India, Northern Australia and the South Pacific are all weakly defended and there will be few good Allied combat units available over the next couple of months to make a difference in those Theaters. The Hawaiian Islands and South-eastern Australia are well defended and would be difficult for Treespider to assault even now. The Aleutians are lightly defended but Anchorage is well defended and is an unlikely target in any event. The West Coast is well defended and unlikely to be threatened by an invasion. China remains a mess and my strategy there rests upon the whims of the Game's capricious movement rules. Siberia is an unlikely target while the Japanese have other weaker targets within easy reach. Therefore, I am conserving and building up my strength in order to be able to defend India, South-eastern Australia and the Hawaiian Islands for the immediate future.
I am depending upon the Royal Navy and in particular the six RM BBs that I have in India to interfere with any Japanese invasion of India. I am preserving the AVG to provide LR CAP over my RN ships and I am building up a network of inland air bases to support LBA attack against invasion. A concerted attack by the KB, the Combined Fleet and three or more crack Japanese Divisions would undoubtedly be able to break through and take one of the coastal bases, but I am hoping that my inner network of mutually-supporting bases can project enough force to keep a breakout for occurring. The longer Treespider waits to move, the better my defences will be prepared.
I have a number of cruisers and two US CVs in South-eastern Australia to provide a strike force against any Japanese incursions into that region. If a serious Japanese assault occurs in Northern Australia I will pull back my forces in a fighting retreat. I have the formerly Philippine-based USAAF fighter units based in Australia and am attempting to rebuild them. This is being hampered by the slow rate of replacement of P-40s, but they do provide my best counter to Japanese air attacks so I have to persevere. I have not brought US LR bombers to Australia but I will if useful and vulnerable targets develop. I have no intention of trying to engage in an air war of attrition at this stage of the game.
I continue to move all CENPAC, SOPAC and SWPAC land units to the Hawaiian Islands while sending all NORPAC units to Anchorage and leaving all West Coast units in the West Coast. All but one of the battleships that survived the Pearl Harbor attack are in West Coast ports. Naval forces at Pearl consist of two US CVs and their associated escorts, along with some support and auxiliary ships. Transport ships are being based on the West Coast when they are not in use. The original Hawaiian air units have been rebuilt and upgraded as much as possible, and some of the CENPAC, SOPAC and SWPAC air units have been moved from the West Coast to the Hawaiian Islands, but not all. If a Japanese attack commences upon the Hawaiian Islands I will pull the US CV forces out to attempt to attack behind the incoming enemy TFs, and allow the Land and Air units in the Hawaiian Islands to engage the incoming enemy. All non-dot bases in the Hawaiian Islands have combat forces in place and have defences being built up.
So I will continue with this plan until the situation in the Far East is finally resolved and the Japanese plans become more visible. If opportunities present themselves to attack isolated Japanese forces I will attempt to engage, but I do not intend to do raids just for the sake of raiding. It is too important at this time to build up my forces so that I have a hope of obtaining local superiority.
Allied losses have been reasonable so far, all things considered, and Japanese losses have been small but significant. Below are comparisons of the losses in ships and planes between the two sides.
Ship Losses: Allied 82, Japan 42
Allied ship losses:
1 BB (Nevada, at Pearl Harbor)
1 CA (Louisville, in the KB ambush at Rabaul)
5 CL (most in the KB ambush at Rabaul)
5 DD
1 DMS (in San Fran due to a sub attack)
9 MSW
2 PG, 3 AS, 1 AVD, 1 AV, 2 AO, 5 TK, 4AP, 23 AK (most in the failed retreat from the Philippines)
1 SS
18 PT
The Philippine retreat failed badly because I attempted to group the fleeing ships into TFs of matching speeds. This provided a few large targets onto which Treespider focussed his attacks. When I attempted the escape under similar non-historical conditions against Yank I sent the ships out in dozens of individual or two-ship TFs and lost only a handful of the escaping ships in comparison.
Japanese ship losses:
5 DD
7 APD (all from the aborted early invasion attempt on Palembang)
1 ML
7 MSW
4 PG
2 PC
10 AP
2 AK
1 TK
3 SS
My forces have only been able to damage and not sink the major Japanese ships that have been hit by Allied forces.
Air Losses: Allied 1011, Japanese 783
Top 10 Allied air losses, with major contributors:
P-40B: 122, 81 on ground
P-40E: 102, 84 air-to-air
Buffalo I: 70, 51 air-to-air
Brewster: 68, 49 air-to-air
I-16c: 66, 44 air-to-air
PBY Catalina: 58, 54 on ground
Martin 139: 53, 30 air-to-air
CW-21B: 53, 43 air-to-air
Hudson I: 43, spread out
SBD Dauntless: 36, 20 air-to-air
Top 10 Japanese air losses, with major contributors:
Ki-21 Sally: 102, flak 39, ops 37
A6M2 Zero: air-to-air 36, ops 45
G3M Nell: 65, spread out
Ki-48 Lily: 58, flak 37, ops 18
Ki-27 Nate: 58, 26 air-to-air
Ki-51 Sonia: 50, 31 flak
Ki-30 Ann: 45, 33 flak
G4M1 Betty: 45, flak 19, ops 19
K5N Kate: 42, flak 27
Ki-43 1B Oscar: 37, 14 air-to-air, 16 ops
Air summary:
Most air-to-air losses: P-40E
Most flak losses: Ki-21 Sally
Most ground losses: P-40B
Most ops losses: A6M2 Zero
Dave Baranyi
Fateful Decisions...
February 19, 1942 -
The big news this turn came out of SIGINT with this intercept:
South Seas Det. is loaded on AP, Tenran Maru moving to Port Moresby
So what do I do? Do I send my CVs up north to challenge the invasion and take a risk against the Japanese CVs that are undoubtedly in the region? I do know that part of the KB is off of Java, but I would still expect that there ought to be two or three Japanese CVs in the region. Do I just fly out my troops, let the Japanese have the malarial base, and bomb it at my leisure in the future? Ah, decisions, decisions…
When Treespider sent this turn after being away on real-life family business for four days he wrote that he was "everywhere" in the game and this was certainly true this turn. In addition sending troops to PM, he continued with his multiple invasions in the DEI, his manoeuvring in China, and he also sent a transport TF to Rangoon.
The entire map is again covered by storms, which is very advantageous to Treespider at this time because the weather is hiding most of his naval moves and preventing my LBA from attacking those Japanese TFs that are spotted, such as the one at Rangoon. I'm not sure what that transport TF is doing at Rangoon. Is it bringing in supplies, bringing in troops, or preparing to take troops towards India? I can't believe that Treespider will send more combat troops into Burma; he holds the Burma Road bases quite securely and I'd be very surprised if he tried overland assaults on any of my remaining Burmese bases. Maybe he is brining in more base forces and AA units so that he can attempt a sustained air campaign out of Rangoon and the Burmese bases that he already holds. In any event, unless the weather clears up a bit he will be able to do whatever he wants without any Allied intervention.
Back in the DEI, Japanese troops started to land at Jambi and Tarakan and continued to land at Malang. Ruteng was automatically occupied while Pinrang and Malang were eventually captured in attacks. The Japanese division that landed at Malang took the base so easily it was as if the Dutch base force wasn't even there. The only surprise during the turn was that a Japanese deliberate attack on Balikpapan actually failed, although the fortifications were reduced to level one.
In the PI, Manila received another bombardment attack. Treespider is likely unaware that I'm out of supply and that the troops ought to fold under the next attack. There are other little bases left around with small allied units or fragments that were washed ashore during the debacle of the initial attack. I wonder if Treespider will eventually go to the effort of capturing those bases or if instead he will use them to train his air units?
In China, the bombardment attack on Changsha revealed that the majority of my troops did pull back this turn. So Treespider can take the base next turn if he remembers to set his troops to "attack" instead of "bombard". In light of the fact that Treespider likes to fight in China, I'm not going to try to defend the remaining southern Chinese bases because I will just get my troops trapped in them. So starting next turn I will abandon all of the southern bases and pull back from the rail road system. This will eliminate Treespider's rail line advantage and force him to fight along lousy roads at a slow pace. I'm also hoping to distract him a bit in the East where my Homan forces have now stirred up a hornet's nest by their move southwards. It's incredible how many Japanese LCUs there are in Japan.
Things remain fairly quiet in the Central and Eastern Pacific. DMs that were returning to Canton Island found I-175 waiting and dropped a number of depth charges on it. Intel says that there were four hits, but I'll believe that once I see the sub leave or sink.
Dave Baranyi
The big news this turn came out of SIGINT with this intercept:
South Seas Det. is loaded on AP, Tenran Maru moving to Port Moresby
So what do I do? Do I send my CVs up north to challenge the invasion and take a risk against the Japanese CVs that are undoubtedly in the region? I do know that part of the KB is off of Java, but I would still expect that there ought to be two or three Japanese CVs in the region. Do I just fly out my troops, let the Japanese have the malarial base, and bomb it at my leisure in the future? Ah, decisions, decisions…
When Treespider sent this turn after being away on real-life family business for four days he wrote that he was "everywhere" in the game and this was certainly true this turn. In addition sending troops to PM, he continued with his multiple invasions in the DEI, his manoeuvring in China, and he also sent a transport TF to Rangoon.
The entire map is again covered by storms, which is very advantageous to Treespider at this time because the weather is hiding most of his naval moves and preventing my LBA from attacking those Japanese TFs that are spotted, such as the one at Rangoon. I'm not sure what that transport TF is doing at Rangoon. Is it bringing in supplies, bringing in troops, or preparing to take troops towards India? I can't believe that Treespider will send more combat troops into Burma; he holds the Burma Road bases quite securely and I'd be very surprised if he tried overland assaults on any of my remaining Burmese bases. Maybe he is brining in more base forces and AA units so that he can attempt a sustained air campaign out of Rangoon and the Burmese bases that he already holds. In any event, unless the weather clears up a bit he will be able to do whatever he wants without any Allied intervention.
Back in the DEI, Japanese troops started to land at Jambi and Tarakan and continued to land at Malang. Ruteng was automatically occupied while Pinrang and Malang were eventually captured in attacks. The Japanese division that landed at Malang took the base so easily it was as if the Dutch base force wasn't even there. The only surprise during the turn was that a Japanese deliberate attack on Balikpapan actually failed, although the fortifications were reduced to level one.
In the PI, Manila received another bombardment attack. Treespider is likely unaware that I'm out of supply and that the troops ought to fold under the next attack. There are other little bases left around with small allied units or fragments that were washed ashore during the debacle of the initial attack. I wonder if Treespider will eventually go to the effort of capturing those bases or if instead he will use them to train his air units?
In China, the bombardment attack on Changsha revealed that the majority of my troops did pull back this turn. So Treespider can take the base next turn if he remembers to set his troops to "attack" instead of "bombard". In light of the fact that Treespider likes to fight in China, I'm not going to try to defend the remaining southern Chinese bases because I will just get my troops trapped in them. So starting next turn I will abandon all of the southern bases and pull back from the rail road system. This will eliminate Treespider's rail line advantage and force him to fight along lousy roads at a slow pace. I'm also hoping to distract him a bit in the East where my Homan forces have now stirred up a hornet's nest by their move southwards. It's incredible how many Japanese LCUs there are in Japan.
Things remain fairly quiet in the Central and Eastern Pacific. DMs that were returning to Canton Island found I-175 waiting and dropped a number of depth charges on it. Intel says that there were four hits, but I'll believe that once I see the sub leave or sink.
Dave Baranyi
Maya Meets a Torpedo...
February 20, 1942 -
Treespider didn't goof up and his troops did capture Changsha this turn. He was surprised that I pulled back and asked why. So I told him that I had no interest in letting him trap my troops in Changsha. I can always recapture bases but I can't get back LCU points, and the Japanese side already gets way too many LCU points handed to them on a silver platter with the current Game Design.
But even before my troops executed their successful withdrawal I got a rare piece of good news right at the beginning of the turn; O16 put a torpedo into CA Maya off of Sumatra. It sure looked nice seeing the hit and the flames go up on the cruiser. There probably wasn't as much damage as the animation suggested, but it still felt good to get a blow in for a change.
USS Perch also had a chance for heroics in the Bismarcks as it had a shot at CS Chiyoda but the torpedoes missed. Chiyoda is in one of two Japanese TFs that are steaming towards the south shore of PNG. They are already so close to PM that it's just as well that I decided not to bother sending my CVs up to try to intercept. Instead I've sent a bunch of additional subs along the likely route, and I've started to air evacuate troops from both PM and Gili Gili. I'd rather have those troops in Oz than rotting away in the jungles of PNG.
There were lots of Japanese air attacks everywhere throughout the Far East, despite heavy rain everywhere. The heavy rain did prevent my LBA in India from attacking the Japanese transports in Rangoon again. Nowadays I expect to see this sort of result in the Game, so I no longer get all worked up about it. This way, if some of my planes actually fly I treat it as a "bonus". BTW - Treespider has put planes back into Mandalay. I'm not going to bother trying to bomb the air base at this time; the constant thunderstorms over my bases will cause most sorties to be cancelled and those that do leave will sustain large operational losses. I'll let Treespider try to attack my bases instead and see if I can get him to hold the short end of the stick in an attrition battle for once.
In other action, Japanese troops captured Jambi unopposed and bombarded Manila. Deliberate attacks by the Japanese at Balikpapan and Tarakan failed again, for no particularly obvious reasons. (Treespider must be as frustrated with the ground combat as I am with the weather. [;)] )
Dave Baranyi
Treespider didn't goof up and his troops did capture Changsha this turn. He was surprised that I pulled back and asked why. So I told him that I had no interest in letting him trap my troops in Changsha. I can always recapture bases but I can't get back LCU points, and the Japanese side already gets way too many LCU points handed to them on a silver platter with the current Game Design.
But even before my troops executed their successful withdrawal I got a rare piece of good news right at the beginning of the turn; O16 put a torpedo into CA Maya off of Sumatra. It sure looked nice seeing the hit and the flames go up on the cruiser. There probably wasn't as much damage as the animation suggested, but it still felt good to get a blow in for a change.
USS Perch also had a chance for heroics in the Bismarcks as it had a shot at CS Chiyoda but the torpedoes missed. Chiyoda is in one of two Japanese TFs that are steaming towards the south shore of PNG. They are already so close to PM that it's just as well that I decided not to bother sending my CVs up to try to intercept. Instead I've sent a bunch of additional subs along the likely route, and I've started to air evacuate troops from both PM and Gili Gili. I'd rather have those troops in Oz than rotting away in the jungles of PNG.
There were lots of Japanese air attacks everywhere throughout the Far East, despite heavy rain everywhere. The heavy rain did prevent my LBA in India from attacking the Japanese transports in Rangoon again. Nowadays I expect to see this sort of result in the Game, so I no longer get all worked up about it. This way, if some of my planes actually fly I treat it as a "bonus". BTW - Treespider has put planes back into Mandalay. I'm not going to bother trying to bomb the air base at this time; the constant thunderstorms over my bases will cause most sorties to be cancelled and those that do leave will sustain large operational losses. I'll let Treespider try to attack my bases instead and see if I can get him to hold the short end of the stick in an attrition battle for once.
In other action, Japanese troops captured Jambi unopposed and bombarded Manila. Deliberate attacks by the Japanese at Balikpapan and Tarakan failed again, for no particularly obvious reasons. (Treespider must be as frustrated with the ground combat as I am with the weather. [;)] )
Dave Baranyi
RE: Maya Meets a Torpedo...
February 21, 1942 -
The Chiyoda is a lucky ship. This turn Pickerel got a shot at it and missed. Maybe the third time will be lucky for some US sub. There are now 4 large Japanese TFs steaming slowly towards the southwest off of the northeast corner of PNG. I'm guessing that Treespider is planning simultaneous invasions of both Port Moresby and Gili Gili. What appears to be a bombardment TF has also shown up along with the transport TFs, but there is still no signs of any carriers. I've got to believe that a couple of Japanese CVs are sitting nearby, but we'll see. If Treespider doesn't send any CVs then I may well send up my carriers later on to hit the departing TFs. Since I'm not trying to prevent the capture of PNG I don’t really care when I sink ships, as long as I do.
Treespider's subs got back into the "groove" of sinking Allied ships as a number of subs appeared off of various parts of Australia this turn. Sub I-22 snuck past the escorts and torpedoed and sank ML Prins van Oranje just one hex off of Sydney this turn! I'm sending a flurry of ASW ships out after it; we'll see if we can get revenge. Sub I-155 also torpedoed an AK just to the west of Broome, but the AK is still sailing. And finally some of my air patrol units noticed a Japanese sub heading down towards Perth, so I've sent out some DDs on ASW duty to "greet" it. I haven't seen any subs in the Eastern or South Pacific recently, so I've been able to move a lot of shipping around there without interference and without being watched.
In addition to the PNG operation and the sub action, Treespider continued to be active throughout the Far East. A lot of Japanese air attacks flew, despite generally lousy weather. My bombers in India didn't fly again against the transports at Rangoon. There was clear weather over Rangoon but thunderstorms over the Indian bases. However, I also suspect that there is likely a fair-sized CAP over Rangoon which will discourage the Brit 2E bombers from flying in without escort. So I'm just accepting the status quo for now and allowing Treespider to get his daily 10:1 ratio of operational and flak losses.
Some Allied planes did fly. Treespider hasn't put any CAP over Changsha yet, so I sent the Chinese IL-4cs in to hit the airfield:
Day Air attack on Changsha, at 47, 36
Allied aircraft
IL-4c x 12
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
109 casualties reported
Guns lost 3
Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 12
That's such a pleasant little result that I'm sending the IL-4cs back again next turn to see if they can do more of the same. [;)] The Aussie Hudsons at Darwin also found an unescorted transport TF at Kai Island:
Day Air attack on TF, near Kai Island at 39, 78
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 11
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Shikano Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
Japanese ground losses:
15 casualties reported
Unfortunately, this didn't stop the landing of some Japanese troops. There are other Japanese TFs in the same area so I suspect that they are going to invade the other small islands nearby.
Instead of flying LR CAP over the invasion TFs, Treespider's Zeros at Lautem were trying to "play bomber", which is somewhat of a silly thing to do with such a valuable type of plane:
Day Air attack on A-II-Ld AA Battalion, at 31, 77
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 23
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Aircraft Attacking:
17 x A6M2 Zero bombing at 2000 feet
I'll take those sorts of results any day! [:D]
In the ground war, Sawu Island was automatically occupied and Japanese troops easily captured Madioen. A deliberate attack at Tarakan failed again, and much to my surprise and amusement, the Japanese troops at Balikpapan attacked with artillery this turn instead of assaulting the base:
Ground combat at Balikpapan
Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 6034 troops, 35 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 42
Defending force 2789 troops, 25 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 22
Japanese ground losses:
7 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Allied ground losses:
60 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
The Japanese usually don't lose their own troops in artillery duels even when they attack huge stacks of Chinese LCUs that have hundreds of artillery pieces! [;)]
Speaking of China, my pullback from Changsha seems to have flustered Treespider a bit. He pulled back his own troops from Hengchow this turn. I guess he thinks that I am sending the former Changsha garrison to Hengchow. He is also building up forces at Hsinyang like crazy. I'm obviously not going to attack 11 or more Japanese LCUs at Hsinyang, but it's fun to threaten the Japanese supply lines and make Treespider react for a change. He has even pulled back his forward unit that was on the road to Homan, so I've ordered yet another unit from Homan to move down the road one hex. I've also ordered another Chinese LCU from Homan to move one hex to the northeast, which will appear that I am trying to outflank the Japanese unit that is to the east of Homan. I'm hoping that all this movement throws Treespider's plans out of whack for a bit. <g>
Dave Baranyi
The Chiyoda is a lucky ship. This turn Pickerel got a shot at it and missed. Maybe the third time will be lucky for some US sub. There are now 4 large Japanese TFs steaming slowly towards the southwest off of the northeast corner of PNG. I'm guessing that Treespider is planning simultaneous invasions of both Port Moresby and Gili Gili. What appears to be a bombardment TF has also shown up along with the transport TFs, but there is still no signs of any carriers. I've got to believe that a couple of Japanese CVs are sitting nearby, but we'll see. If Treespider doesn't send any CVs then I may well send up my carriers later on to hit the departing TFs. Since I'm not trying to prevent the capture of PNG I don’t really care when I sink ships, as long as I do.
Treespider's subs got back into the "groove" of sinking Allied ships as a number of subs appeared off of various parts of Australia this turn. Sub I-22 snuck past the escorts and torpedoed and sank ML Prins van Oranje just one hex off of Sydney this turn! I'm sending a flurry of ASW ships out after it; we'll see if we can get revenge. Sub I-155 also torpedoed an AK just to the west of Broome, but the AK is still sailing. And finally some of my air patrol units noticed a Japanese sub heading down towards Perth, so I've sent out some DDs on ASW duty to "greet" it. I haven't seen any subs in the Eastern or South Pacific recently, so I've been able to move a lot of shipping around there without interference and without being watched.
In addition to the PNG operation and the sub action, Treespider continued to be active throughout the Far East. A lot of Japanese air attacks flew, despite generally lousy weather. My bombers in India didn't fly again against the transports at Rangoon. There was clear weather over Rangoon but thunderstorms over the Indian bases. However, I also suspect that there is likely a fair-sized CAP over Rangoon which will discourage the Brit 2E bombers from flying in without escort. So I'm just accepting the status quo for now and allowing Treespider to get his daily 10:1 ratio of operational and flak losses.
Some Allied planes did fly. Treespider hasn't put any CAP over Changsha yet, so I sent the Chinese IL-4cs in to hit the airfield:
Day Air attack on Changsha, at 47, 36
Allied aircraft
IL-4c x 12
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
109 casualties reported
Guns lost 3
Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 12
That's such a pleasant little result that I'm sending the IL-4cs back again next turn to see if they can do more of the same. [;)] The Aussie Hudsons at Darwin also found an unescorted transport TF at Kai Island:
Day Air attack on TF, near Kai Island at 39, 78
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 11
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Shikano Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
Japanese ground losses:
15 casualties reported
Unfortunately, this didn't stop the landing of some Japanese troops. There are other Japanese TFs in the same area so I suspect that they are going to invade the other small islands nearby.
Instead of flying LR CAP over the invasion TFs, Treespider's Zeros at Lautem were trying to "play bomber", which is somewhat of a silly thing to do with such a valuable type of plane:
Day Air attack on A-II-Ld AA Battalion, at 31, 77
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 23
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Aircraft Attacking:
17 x A6M2 Zero bombing at 2000 feet
I'll take those sorts of results any day! [:D]
In the ground war, Sawu Island was automatically occupied and Japanese troops easily captured Madioen. A deliberate attack at Tarakan failed again, and much to my surprise and amusement, the Japanese troops at Balikpapan attacked with artillery this turn instead of assaulting the base:
Ground combat at Balikpapan
Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 6034 troops, 35 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 42
Defending force 2789 troops, 25 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 22
Japanese ground losses:
7 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Allied ground losses:
60 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
The Japanese usually don't lose their own troops in artillery duels even when they attack huge stacks of Chinese LCUs that have hundreds of artillery pieces! [;)]
Speaking of China, my pullback from Changsha seems to have flustered Treespider a bit. He pulled back his own troops from Hengchow this turn. I guess he thinks that I am sending the former Changsha garrison to Hengchow. He is also building up forces at Hsinyang like crazy. I'm obviously not going to attack 11 or more Japanese LCUs at Hsinyang, but it's fun to threaten the Japanese supply lines and make Treespider react for a change. He has even pulled back his forward unit that was on the road to Homan, so I've ordered yet another unit from Homan to move down the road one hex. I've also ordered another Chinese LCU from Homan to move one hex to the northeast, which will appear that I am trying to outflank the Japanese unit that is to the east of Homan. I'm hoping that all this movement throws Treespider's plans out of whack for a bit. <g>
Dave Baranyi
Vanishing TFs...
February 22, 1942 -
Hmmm - those Japanese TFs off of the eastern tip of PNG "disappeared" this turn, despite the presence of plenty of subs in the region and Allied air patrols. Intel now reports that there are a couple of Japanese subs there instead. I'm assuming that Intel is wrong and that those TFs are still steaming along. I've also put the air patrol unit in Cookstown back on Naval Search instead of using it to pull troops out of Gili Gili.
Those TFs aren't the only Japanese forces that seem to have disappeared. The three Japanese subs that appeared off of Australia last turn have vanished, and a new Japanese sub has appeared off of Townsville. I'm sending out ASW TFs anyway, just in case they can "run over" any subs that are lurking around. The only good news this turn in Oz was that some Australian MSWs finally swept Brisbane Harbor free of sub-laid mines.
The last bits of Borneo under Allied control are giving Treespider nice little headaches. He sent two bombardment TFs against Balikpapan, and then tried a deliberate attack, but the attack failed again, as did the deliberate attack against Tarakan. Other Japanese ground operations were more successful as Tassafaronga was occupied automatically and Kai Island was captured by the survivors of the air attack on their invasion ship.
The Australian Hudsons didn't have any luck today and missed the transports that they attacked near Lautem. Treespider had Zeros on CAP at Lautem, and in a particularly nasty and effective move, sent a squadron of Zeros to sweep Darwin. The Zeros caught and shot down a flight of Wirraways, but were eventually stopped by P-40Bs. I may have to bring some long-range bombers to Oz after all if Treespider continues with this.
In other air news, Treespider intensified his aerial bombardment of Manila, and then followed it up with another artillery bombardment. Soerabaja also received an air attack, but there was no damage.
Air operations in China have essentially stopped. I don't know if Treespider is being hampered by thunderstorms, but all of my bases in China and India are suffering from continuous thunderstorms. Even my usually reliable IL-4cs didn't fly this turn.
In the ground war in China, Treespider's outlying troops kicked a couple of weak Chinese units off of the lower stretch of the road between Changsha and Chungking, but I have plenty of other troops along the northern stretch of that road, so I'm not concerned. Treespider has also not yet moved any masses of troops northwards. Instead he appears to be moving them back to more southern Japanese-controlled bases as well as to the east.
In light of the Japanese hesitation, I have not yet started to evacuate the other three southern Chinese bases. Instead I am blocking the road network to the north of Hengchow. If Treespider moves west, I'll move back. If he doesn't, I'll stay put. I'm also going to eventually move the troops that I pulled out of Changsha up to the northwest Chinese bases to replace the troops that I have been sending to Chungking. That's why it is so important to me to keep my Chinese units free from traps; if the Chinese LCUs can move they can threaten Japanese supply lines.
Oh, BTW - in Allied sub news, KXVIII snuck past multiple escorts and put a torpedo into a Japanese AP off of Java, causing lots of damage to the ship. KXVIII then missed a shot at an AK in a second transport TF. Truant wasn't so lucky and it was hit repeatedly by aerial ASW in Singapore Harbor, so Truant is now being sent home for some well-needed repairs.
Dave Baranyi
Hmmm - those Japanese TFs off of the eastern tip of PNG "disappeared" this turn, despite the presence of plenty of subs in the region and Allied air patrols. Intel now reports that there are a couple of Japanese subs there instead. I'm assuming that Intel is wrong and that those TFs are still steaming along. I've also put the air patrol unit in Cookstown back on Naval Search instead of using it to pull troops out of Gili Gili.
Those TFs aren't the only Japanese forces that seem to have disappeared. The three Japanese subs that appeared off of Australia last turn have vanished, and a new Japanese sub has appeared off of Townsville. I'm sending out ASW TFs anyway, just in case they can "run over" any subs that are lurking around. The only good news this turn in Oz was that some Australian MSWs finally swept Brisbane Harbor free of sub-laid mines.
The last bits of Borneo under Allied control are giving Treespider nice little headaches. He sent two bombardment TFs against Balikpapan, and then tried a deliberate attack, but the attack failed again, as did the deliberate attack against Tarakan. Other Japanese ground operations were more successful as Tassafaronga was occupied automatically and Kai Island was captured by the survivors of the air attack on their invasion ship.
The Australian Hudsons didn't have any luck today and missed the transports that they attacked near Lautem. Treespider had Zeros on CAP at Lautem, and in a particularly nasty and effective move, sent a squadron of Zeros to sweep Darwin. The Zeros caught and shot down a flight of Wirraways, but were eventually stopped by P-40Bs. I may have to bring some long-range bombers to Oz after all if Treespider continues with this.
In other air news, Treespider intensified his aerial bombardment of Manila, and then followed it up with another artillery bombardment. Soerabaja also received an air attack, but there was no damage.
Air operations in China have essentially stopped. I don't know if Treespider is being hampered by thunderstorms, but all of my bases in China and India are suffering from continuous thunderstorms. Even my usually reliable IL-4cs didn't fly this turn.
In the ground war in China, Treespider's outlying troops kicked a couple of weak Chinese units off of the lower stretch of the road between Changsha and Chungking, but I have plenty of other troops along the northern stretch of that road, so I'm not concerned. Treespider has also not yet moved any masses of troops northwards. Instead he appears to be moving them back to more southern Japanese-controlled bases as well as to the east.
In light of the Japanese hesitation, I have not yet started to evacuate the other three southern Chinese bases. Instead I am blocking the road network to the north of Hengchow. If Treespider moves west, I'll move back. If he doesn't, I'll stay put. I'm also going to eventually move the troops that I pulled out of Changsha up to the northwest Chinese bases to replace the troops that I have been sending to Chungking. That's why it is so important to me to keep my Chinese units free from traps; if the Chinese LCUs can move they can threaten Japanese supply lines.
Oh, BTW - in Allied sub news, KXVIII snuck past multiple escorts and put a torpedo into a Japanese AP off of Java, causing lots of damage to the ship. KXVIII then missed a shot at an AK in a second transport TF. Truant wasn't so lucky and it was hit repeatedly by aerial ASW in Singapore Harbor, so Truant is now being sent home for some well-needed repairs.
Dave Baranyi
Mystery TFs...
February 23, 1942 -
This was certainly a turn for "mystery TFs" and strange Intel. Those TFs that were off of the eastern tip of PNG totally disappeared this turn. Neither my patrol planes nor my subs spotted anything in the region. Were they just subs that were misreported? If they are truly transport TFs, have they headed south or southeast instead of west, and if so, are they heading to either Australia or New Caledonia? Just in case I've sent a carrier TF cruising up the Eastern coast of Oz and another carrier TF cruising westbound in the South Pacific.
But those aren't the only "phantom" TFs. Intel shows me that there are a couple of cruisers at 97,79 which is southwest of Johnston Island. If they really are cruisers how did they get there past my sub picket line to the west, and why are they sailing west? On the other hand, my Ops Report says that there is only one ship there, sailing west at 17 knots. Seventeen knots is at the upper end of the sailing speed of Japanese subs, so it could just be a sub sailing back to port for refuelling. Never-the-less, I've put my forces in the Eastern Pacific on alert just in case this is something more serious.
This move to "Red Alert" status has made me realize that I'm actually a bit "light" in fighters in the Hawaiian Islands, so I am moving a group of P-40s from the West Coast. These planes were always assigned to SOPAC, but I had them sitting on the West Coast in reserve. I also moved a squadron of B-25s to Johnston Island just in case they can "assist" the Catalinas that are already there in finding out what is going on.
In other news, an Australian DD chased a Japanese sub off of Townsville, but couldn't get any hits on it. The other Japanese subs that were off Australia a couple of turns ago continue to operate in "stealth mode" and haven't been seen recently.
Most of the Allied air forces were sitting out thunderstorms or on patrol this turn, but Allied bombers in China and Northern Australia were busy. First off, Treespider still hasn't put any CAP into Changsha, so when my Chinese bombers flew today they had a nice, easy and successful time:
Day Air attack on Changsha, at 47, 36
Allied aircraft
IL-4c x 9
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
64 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Airbase hits 3
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 10
The Australian Hudsons in Northern Australia then proceeded to drive Treespider to distraction by repeatedly attacking transports in Koepang and Lautem despite the presence of Zeros on CAP:
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 3
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 3
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Kyuma Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
Japanese ground losses:
36 casualties reported
And:
Day Air attack on TF, near Lautem at 33, 78
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 12
P-40B Tomahawk x 5
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Hudson I: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Koyo Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Kofuku Maru
MSW W.3
AP Kuretake Maru, Bomb hits 1
BTW - those Zeros weren't damaged by the Tomahawks; they were damaged by the Hudsons! [X(] I reminded Treespider of the universal change to the "survivability" of 2E bombers that occurred back in either v1.5 or v1.6 - previously Hudsons were worthless for anything other than patrol; now they are the Allied equivalent to Nells. [:D]
Never-the-less, there is no need to "feel sorry" for Treespider at this point. He was busy flying huge, destructive missions over Java and the Philippines. He also has what seem to be "countless" TFs sailing throughout the area. Tarakan finally fell to a Japanese deliberate attack and Japanese troops continue to be positioned for further advances. Manila, Wuchow and Balikpapan all received artillery attacks. (I still can't get over Balikpapan turning into a "mini-fortress". [;)])
Dave Baranyi
This was certainly a turn for "mystery TFs" and strange Intel. Those TFs that were off of the eastern tip of PNG totally disappeared this turn. Neither my patrol planes nor my subs spotted anything in the region. Were they just subs that were misreported? If they are truly transport TFs, have they headed south or southeast instead of west, and if so, are they heading to either Australia or New Caledonia? Just in case I've sent a carrier TF cruising up the Eastern coast of Oz and another carrier TF cruising westbound in the South Pacific.
But those aren't the only "phantom" TFs. Intel shows me that there are a couple of cruisers at 97,79 which is southwest of Johnston Island. If they really are cruisers how did they get there past my sub picket line to the west, and why are they sailing west? On the other hand, my Ops Report says that there is only one ship there, sailing west at 17 knots. Seventeen knots is at the upper end of the sailing speed of Japanese subs, so it could just be a sub sailing back to port for refuelling. Never-the-less, I've put my forces in the Eastern Pacific on alert just in case this is something more serious.
This move to "Red Alert" status has made me realize that I'm actually a bit "light" in fighters in the Hawaiian Islands, so I am moving a group of P-40s from the West Coast. These planes were always assigned to SOPAC, but I had them sitting on the West Coast in reserve. I also moved a squadron of B-25s to Johnston Island just in case they can "assist" the Catalinas that are already there in finding out what is going on.
In other news, an Australian DD chased a Japanese sub off of Townsville, but couldn't get any hits on it. The other Japanese subs that were off Australia a couple of turns ago continue to operate in "stealth mode" and haven't been seen recently.
Most of the Allied air forces were sitting out thunderstorms or on patrol this turn, but Allied bombers in China and Northern Australia were busy. First off, Treespider still hasn't put any CAP into Changsha, so when my Chinese bombers flew today they had a nice, easy and successful time:
Day Air attack on Changsha, at 47, 36
Allied aircraft
IL-4c x 9
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
64 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Airbase hits 3
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 10
The Australian Hudsons in Northern Australia then proceeded to drive Treespider to distraction by repeatedly attacking transports in Koepang and Lautem despite the presence of Zeros on CAP:
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 3
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 3
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Kyuma Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
Japanese ground losses:
36 casualties reported
And:
Day Air attack on TF, near Lautem at 33, 78
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 12
P-40B Tomahawk x 5
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Hudson I: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Koyo Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Kofuku Maru
MSW W.3
AP Kuretake Maru, Bomb hits 1
BTW - those Zeros weren't damaged by the Tomahawks; they were damaged by the Hudsons! [X(] I reminded Treespider of the universal change to the "survivability" of 2E bombers that occurred back in either v1.5 or v1.6 - previously Hudsons were worthless for anything other than patrol; now they are the Allied equivalent to Nells. [:D]
Never-the-less, there is no need to "feel sorry" for Treespider at this point. He was busy flying huge, destructive missions over Java and the Philippines. He also has what seem to be "countless" TFs sailing throughout the area. Tarakan finally fell to a Japanese deliberate attack and Japanese troops continue to be positioned for further advances. Manila, Wuchow and Balikpapan all received artillery attacks. (I still can't get over Balikpapan turning into a "mini-fortress". [;)])
Dave Baranyi
Phantom TFs...
February 24, 1942 -
The "Phantom Fleets" showed up this turn at Russell Island. That's an interesting location and one where I like to drop off a base force whenever I can. An air patrol unit at Russell can see into the "blank zone" in the Coral Sea and give advanced warning of movement towards the Solomons. And since Russell is a (1),(1) base it can be readily built up to support bombers.
But at the moment Treespider isn't dropping any troops off at Russell for some reason. I wonder if he is waiting to move some carriers into position; maybe he didn't have any readily available? There is a Japanese carrier group that is traversing the Banda Sea from West to East; it could get to the Solomons in a few days if Treespider pushes it. A Dauntless from one of my carriers in the south east of Australia did give itself away a few game-days ago by spotting a sub - Treespider may well believe that I am rushing an attack squadron to the north.
Well, I've got a couple of carrier TFs moving towards the general region, but at cruising speeds so that they minimize system damage and allow me to adjust to whatever goal Treespider's forces finally attack. In the meanwhile I am continuing to send subs throughout the region to keep an eye on things and to see if they can get "lucky".
There was plenty of action elsewhere in addition to this "shadow game" in the Coral Sea. Treespider finally sent some LR CAP over Changsha, but the Chinese bombers got through for another nice strike:
Day Air attack on Changsha, at 47, 36
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 5
Allied aircraft
IL-4c x 10
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
73 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Runway hits 9
Next turn I am sending the IL-4cs to hit a different Japanese base. I don't want to be too predictable or eventually Treespider will get the right combination of CAP in place and I'll lose the experienced pilots that I've worked so hard to train under real combat conditions.
Treespider has raised the ante in the Timor/Northern Australia Front by sending an escorted bomber attack from Lautem against Darwin:
Day Air attack on Darwin, at 36, 84
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22
Ki-21 Sally x 12
Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 8
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 3 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Tomahawk: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
Hudson I: 1 destroyed
Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported
Runway hits 2
That former Philippines Tomahawk squadron is too small to be able to handle such attacks and there aren't any more P-40Bs in reserve, so I pulled the squadron out and replaced it with a full squadron of Warhawks that is also composed of veterans from the Philippines. I do have P-40Es in reserve, albeit not that many, however, this squadron has been successful against Zeros in the past and will get a chance to try again.
What I don't know is if that Japanese CV TF will actually go to the Coral Sea or if Treespider is intending to send it to hit Darwin. Therefore, I've pulled back my less useful planes such as Wirraways from Darwin and will keep a close eye on things. In the meanwhile, my "response" has started the week-long journey from the Hawaiian Islands to Australia. Yes, American 4E bombers will soon answer the call.
The action in the rest of the DEI and Philippines doesn't interest me as much because there is little I can do to influence the outcome in the remaining bases there. Treespider continues to send out hundreds of bombers all over the map in the Far East and as well has TFs sailing and troops marching most everywhere. I currently don't have many subs in the region because they've either run out of torpedoes or they need to have some repair to get Sysdam below 10 so that they aren't as detectable.
In land war news, Japanese troops continued their march along Java and captured Djokjakarta today. It appears that Treespider is leaving Soerabaja for last and no Japanese troops have approached it yet. Japanese troops also conducted artillery attacks at Wuchow, Manila and Balikpapan.
The big news this turn was that the Chinese finally started to dish out some punishment on the Japanese. First off, the troops from Homan that had moved a couple of hexes south to 49,32 drove out a Japanese LCU with a deliberate attack. Then the Chinese troops in Yenen sent the four besieging Japanese Mongolian Cavalry units packing after another deliberate attack. In both cases the Chinese units actually took a few more casualties than the defeated Japanese units, but it was the Japanese troops who retreated so I'm more than happy. [&o]
Dave Baranyi
The "Phantom Fleets" showed up this turn at Russell Island. That's an interesting location and one where I like to drop off a base force whenever I can. An air patrol unit at Russell can see into the "blank zone" in the Coral Sea and give advanced warning of movement towards the Solomons. And since Russell is a (1),(1) base it can be readily built up to support bombers.
But at the moment Treespider isn't dropping any troops off at Russell for some reason. I wonder if he is waiting to move some carriers into position; maybe he didn't have any readily available? There is a Japanese carrier group that is traversing the Banda Sea from West to East; it could get to the Solomons in a few days if Treespider pushes it. A Dauntless from one of my carriers in the south east of Australia did give itself away a few game-days ago by spotting a sub - Treespider may well believe that I am rushing an attack squadron to the north.
Well, I've got a couple of carrier TFs moving towards the general region, but at cruising speeds so that they minimize system damage and allow me to adjust to whatever goal Treespider's forces finally attack. In the meanwhile I am continuing to send subs throughout the region to keep an eye on things and to see if they can get "lucky".
There was plenty of action elsewhere in addition to this "shadow game" in the Coral Sea. Treespider finally sent some LR CAP over Changsha, but the Chinese bombers got through for another nice strike:
Day Air attack on Changsha, at 47, 36
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 5
Allied aircraft
IL-4c x 10
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
73 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Runway hits 9
Next turn I am sending the IL-4cs to hit a different Japanese base. I don't want to be too predictable or eventually Treespider will get the right combination of CAP in place and I'll lose the experienced pilots that I've worked so hard to train under real combat conditions.
Treespider has raised the ante in the Timor/Northern Australia Front by sending an escorted bomber attack from Lautem against Darwin:
Day Air attack on Darwin, at 36, 84
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22
Ki-21 Sally x 12
Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 8
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 3 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Tomahawk: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
Hudson I: 1 destroyed
Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported
Runway hits 2
That former Philippines Tomahawk squadron is too small to be able to handle such attacks and there aren't any more P-40Bs in reserve, so I pulled the squadron out and replaced it with a full squadron of Warhawks that is also composed of veterans from the Philippines. I do have P-40Es in reserve, albeit not that many, however, this squadron has been successful against Zeros in the past and will get a chance to try again.
What I don't know is if that Japanese CV TF will actually go to the Coral Sea or if Treespider is intending to send it to hit Darwin. Therefore, I've pulled back my less useful planes such as Wirraways from Darwin and will keep a close eye on things. In the meanwhile, my "response" has started the week-long journey from the Hawaiian Islands to Australia. Yes, American 4E bombers will soon answer the call.
The action in the rest of the DEI and Philippines doesn't interest me as much because there is little I can do to influence the outcome in the remaining bases there. Treespider continues to send out hundreds of bombers all over the map in the Far East and as well has TFs sailing and troops marching most everywhere. I currently don't have many subs in the region because they've either run out of torpedoes or they need to have some repair to get Sysdam below 10 so that they aren't as detectable.
In land war news, Japanese troops continued their march along Java and captured Djokjakarta today. It appears that Treespider is leaving Soerabaja for last and no Japanese troops have approached it yet. Japanese troops also conducted artillery attacks at Wuchow, Manila and Balikpapan.
The big news this turn was that the Chinese finally started to dish out some punishment on the Japanese. First off, the troops from Homan that had moved a couple of hexes south to 49,32 drove out a Japanese LCU with a deliberate attack. Then the Chinese troops in Yenen sent the four besieging Japanese Mongolian Cavalry units packing after another deliberate attack. In both cases the Chinese units actually took a few more casualties than the defeated Japanese units, but it was the Japanese troops who retreated so I'm more than happy. [&o]
Dave Baranyi
An AV at Rossel...
February 25, 1942 -
Well, it turns out that Treespider decided to put an AV at Rossel Island instead of a base force. I've done that in past games too, with similar results as what happened to Treespider's AV… [:D]
Sub attack near Rossel Island at 58, 97
Japanese Ships
AV Kimikawa Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
Allied Ships
SS Seadragon
That's also why I prefer to use US AVDs instead of AVs; you can set an AVD as an ASW TF and it will still support float planes while it also attacks subs.
The rest of the TFs around Rossel Island disappeared again, however, a TF showed up along the south shore of the eastern tip of PNG, traveling westbound at around 14 knots. That's undoubtedly an invasion TF. My patrols also spotted another Japanese TF almost due east of Townsville. The Ops Report says that it is a single ship traveling at 17 knots (likely a Japanese sub), but my map report suggests that it is a CA. Certainly, if I were planning to intercept any Allied response I'd put at least a sub, and more likely some carriers at that location. So I ramped up my alert along the East Coast of Australia and will see what shows up.
Treespider is also still sailing that CV TF into the straights between New Guinea and Northeastern Australia. It is due south of Babo right now, and just about hugging the south coast of New Guinea. I guess he is still antsy about my Hudsons. [;)] BTW - I moved the patrol planes that I had in PM to Gasmata, where the troops from Rabaul ended up. This will irritate Treespider; he will either have to take the time to invade Gasmata or allow me to spy upon his day-to-day activities in the region.
Otherwise, there was a continuation of the mass sailing of huge numbers of ships around Java. Japanese troops are finally moving on Soerabaja. The siege ought to begin in a day or two. I've got a nice supply level there and the Japanese aerial bombardments haven't been doing much damage. Treespider did try something different last turn; he sent a few Mavises on a night attack on Broome. But he did it at 11,000 feet (!) and of course they accomplished nothing. I can live with that. [>:]
In the ground war, Treespider tried another shock attack at Balikpapan which failed again, but did reduce the fortifications to zero. So if his troops aren't too tired they ought to be able to capture the base on the next attack. Treespider is also starting to move into position to wage a large campaign in the Homan region of China. I think that this is just great, because it relieves the pressure on the southwest and moves the Japanese efforts further away from my main areas of interest. Since he isn't pressuring me in the north east I will be able to bring lots of troops into the "mess" in the southeast.
Dave Baranyi
Well, it turns out that Treespider decided to put an AV at Rossel Island instead of a base force. I've done that in past games too, with similar results as what happened to Treespider's AV… [:D]
Sub attack near Rossel Island at 58, 97
Japanese Ships
AV Kimikawa Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
Allied Ships
SS Seadragon
That's also why I prefer to use US AVDs instead of AVs; you can set an AVD as an ASW TF and it will still support float planes while it also attacks subs.
The rest of the TFs around Rossel Island disappeared again, however, a TF showed up along the south shore of the eastern tip of PNG, traveling westbound at around 14 knots. That's undoubtedly an invasion TF. My patrols also spotted another Japanese TF almost due east of Townsville. The Ops Report says that it is a single ship traveling at 17 knots (likely a Japanese sub), but my map report suggests that it is a CA. Certainly, if I were planning to intercept any Allied response I'd put at least a sub, and more likely some carriers at that location. So I ramped up my alert along the East Coast of Australia and will see what shows up.
Treespider is also still sailing that CV TF into the straights between New Guinea and Northeastern Australia. It is due south of Babo right now, and just about hugging the south coast of New Guinea. I guess he is still antsy about my Hudsons. [;)] BTW - I moved the patrol planes that I had in PM to Gasmata, where the troops from Rabaul ended up. This will irritate Treespider; he will either have to take the time to invade Gasmata or allow me to spy upon his day-to-day activities in the region.
Otherwise, there was a continuation of the mass sailing of huge numbers of ships around Java. Japanese troops are finally moving on Soerabaja. The siege ought to begin in a day or two. I've got a nice supply level there and the Japanese aerial bombardments haven't been doing much damage. Treespider did try something different last turn; he sent a few Mavises on a night attack on Broome. But he did it at 11,000 feet (!) and of course they accomplished nothing. I can live with that. [>:]
In the ground war, Treespider tried another shock attack at Balikpapan which failed again, but did reduce the fortifications to zero. So if his troops aren't too tired they ought to be able to capture the base on the next attack. Treespider is also starting to move into position to wage a large campaign in the Homan region of China. I think that this is just great, because it relieves the pressure on the southwest and moves the Japanese efforts further away from my main areas of interest. Since he isn't pressuring me in the north east I will be able to bring lots of troops into the "mess" in the southeast.
Dave Baranyi
Enemy TFs at Port Moresby...
February 26, 1942 -
Treespider has a lot of things going on around PNG this turn. USS Swordfish ran into a Japanese Bombardment TF that was on its way to PM and had a shot at BB Fuso but missed. The Japanese escort ships then had their chance at Swordfish but also missed. The TF then went into PM harbor and hit the base fairly hard. Treespider is keeping the Bombardment TF around PM for another turn; I'm hoping to make him regret that decision in a couple of turns. [;)]
A number of escorts from another TF had a shot at USS Perch off of Gili Gili but also missed. Afterwards a transport TF showed up about halfway between GG and PM, so I guess that is the main attack. The "mystery" TF that showed up off of Townsville last turn moved in closer and turned out to be yet another Japanese sub, so I'm sending a DD after it.
Now with Treespider's intentions made clear and with the Japanese spy ship moved out of Rossel Island (taking one set of "eyes" away from Treespider) I've decided to make my move, but not the "obvious" one. I am not going to interfere with the invasion of PM. The bombardment was actually "helpful" in that it reduced the political points necessary to change the Australian combat LCU at PM to SWPAC, so now I'll start to fly that unit out to Oz. Treespider will land his troops, and my bombers in Oz may or may not fly to attack them.
But more importantly, I am sending the first of two US CV TFs to cover the straights at Gili Gili. I am intending to intercept the Bombardment TF on its way home and try to nail some of its ships. If Japanese carriers show up, I'll send the first CV TF racing south for safety, and when the Japanese CVs give chase, I'll have the second US CV TF come up from the southeast, get behind the Japanese carriers and attack the Japanese TFs at PNG. And if Treespider doesn't have any CVs in the region, I'll have both TFs stick around for the "feast".
BTW - that Japanese CV TF that was moving into the straights between New Guinea and Australia turned to the southeast and is now sailing north of Darwin. It appears that Treespider intends to try to deplete my Hudsons and did a fairly good job of it this turn. First off, the air strike that I sent against Koepang in retaliation for the Mavis strike on Broome turned into a real mess as a good squadron of Zeros jumped the Hudsons and shot down half of them. Then a flight of Hudsons tried to attack the Japanese CV TF without any escorts and were turned back with several planes destroyed and no hits.
Treespider next sent another escorted LBA attack on Darwin, but they ran into full-strength and rested P-40E squadron and things went much more to my liking:
Day Air attack on Darwin, at 36, 84
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 30
Ki-21 Sally x 10
Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 16
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 10 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
P-40E Warhawk: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported
Runway hits 3
It's so nice to see the "Zero Bonus" slowly go away. [:D]
Elsewhere in the Far East, the Japanese air campaigns continued pretty much unabated against the remaining Allied bases. A couple of Japanese LCUs have now moved into Soerabaja so I'm trying an artillery attack next turn and we'll see how it goes. Wuchow and Manila were bombarded as usual. Balikpapan finally succumbed to a shock attack, so Treespider is only one base away from capturing all of Borneo. In the oddest move, Treespider is actually marching a couple of Japanese LCUs overland from Lautem to Dili. He may receive a very unpleasant surprise once those troops finally arrive and try to attack while burdened with movement fatigue. Timor is malarial after all.
In China, Treespider continues to move his forces to the southeast. Fortunately for me, he has been moving his forces piecemeal against the Chinese forces that are south of Homan, so once again this turn Chinese troops were able to attack a Japanese Division and force it to retreat. It's nice to see Japanese LCUs with bad morale and fatigue for a change. [&o] I'm also sending recon flights over various Japanese-held Chinese bases in the region just to keep Treespider guessing where my troops may march next.
Dave Baranyi
Treespider has a lot of things going on around PNG this turn. USS Swordfish ran into a Japanese Bombardment TF that was on its way to PM and had a shot at BB Fuso but missed. The Japanese escort ships then had their chance at Swordfish but also missed. The TF then went into PM harbor and hit the base fairly hard. Treespider is keeping the Bombardment TF around PM for another turn; I'm hoping to make him regret that decision in a couple of turns. [;)]
A number of escorts from another TF had a shot at USS Perch off of Gili Gili but also missed. Afterwards a transport TF showed up about halfway between GG and PM, so I guess that is the main attack. The "mystery" TF that showed up off of Townsville last turn moved in closer and turned out to be yet another Japanese sub, so I'm sending a DD after it.
Now with Treespider's intentions made clear and with the Japanese spy ship moved out of Rossel Island (taking one set of "eyes" away from Treespider) I've decided to make my move, but not the "obvious" one. I am not going to interfere with the invasion of PM. The bombardment was actually "helpful" in that it reduced the political points necessary to change the Australian combat LCU at PM to SWPAC, so now I'll start to fly that unit out to Oz. Treespider will land his troops, and my bombers in Oz may or may not fly to attack them.
But more importantly, I am sending the first of two US CV TFs to cover the straights at Gili Gili. I am intending to intercept the Bombardment TF on its way home and try to nail some of its ships. If Japanese carriers show up, I'll send the first CV TF racing south for safety, and when the Japanese CVs give chase, I'll have the second US CV TF come up from the southeast, get behind the Japanese carriers and attack the Japanese TFs at PNG. And if Treespider doesn't have any CVs in the region, I'll have both TFs stick around for the "feast".
BTW - that Japanese CV TF that was moving into the straights between New Guinea and Australia turned to the southeast and is now sailing north of Darwin. It appears that Treespider intends to try to deplete my Hudsons and did a fairly good job of it this turn. First off, the air strike that I sent against Koepang in retaliation for the Mavis strike on Broome turned into a real mess as a good squadron of Zeros jumped the Hudsons and shot down half of them. Then a flight of Hudsons tried to attack the Japanese CV TF without any escorts and were turned back with several planes destroyed and no hits.
Treespider next sent another escorted LBA attack on Darwin, but they ran into full-strength and rested P-40E squadron and things went much more to my liking:
Day Air attack on Darwin, at 36, 84
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 30
Ki-21 Sally x 10
Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 16
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 10 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
P-40E Warhawk: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported
Runway hits 3
It's so nice to see the "Zero Bonus" slowly go away. [:D]
Elsewhere in the Far East, the Japanese air campaigns continued pretty much unabated against the remaining Allied bases. A couple of Japanese LCUs have now moved into Soerabaja so I'm trying an artillery attack next turn and we'll see how it goes. Wuchow and Manila were bombarded as usual. Balikpapan finally succumbed to a shock attack, so Treespider is only one base away from capturing all of Borneo. In the oddest move, Treespider is actually marching a couple of Japanese LCUs overland from Lautem to Dili. He may receive a very unpleasant surprise once those troops finally arrive and try to attack while burdened with movement fatigue. Timor is malarial after all.
In China, Treespider continues to move his forces to the southeast. Fortunately for me, he has been moving his forces piecemeal against the Chinese forces that are south of Homan, so once again this turn Chinese troops were able to attack a Japanese Division and force it to retreat. It's nice to see Japanese LCUs with bad morale and fatigue for a change. [&o] I'm also sending recon flights over various Japanese-held Chinese bases in the region just to keep Treespider guessing where my troops may march next.
Dave Baranyi
Ducking the Sucker Punch...
February 27, 1942 -
My hopes of possibly launching a "nasty surprise" on Treespider at PNG were dashed during my review of the Combat Replay for this turn as I found out that there is at least one, and probably two, Japanese CV TFs a few hexes south of Port Moresby. They were trying to hide in the ever-present storms, but one of my patrol planes spotted the Hiryu, and Kates gave themselves away by spotting some of my subs in the region. The TF north of Darwin that drew my Hudsons last turn was likely either a single CV or a SC TF with LR CAP over it. In either case, that TF was probably supposed to "lull" me into thinking that the main Japanese CV force was still far to the west.
Fortunately, Treespider didn't spot either of my CV TFs and so I put the "brakes on" the western TF and sent it racing back down to the southwest. I also slowed down the other CV TF to "cruise" speed and directed it to stop in Noumea. In addition, I sent the Australian CA and DD that I had in Townsville down south at full speed. I'm betting that Treespider will send his CVs on a "fishing trip" down the east coast of Oz once he finishes with his invasion of Port Moresby.
Treespider put a sub into Brisbane Harbor, probably in the hope of spotting my CVs, or even getting a lucky shot in, but the only things that sub will see instead will be a number of ASW TFs. That will only be "fair", as my subs had a tough day with a half dozen of them running into aggressive Japanese ASW. None of my subs were damaged badly, but they all need to head back to port for repairs.
So while the invasion of PM hasn't quite started yet, despite a second naval bombardment, Treespider was busy with other invasions in the Region. Japanese troops landed at Green Island and captured it in a shock attack the same turn. I didn't think that Green Island was categorized as an "atoll" in the Game, and if it isn't, why did those troops get to attack the same turn as they landed? Japanese troops also started to land at Buna, closing off one of the possible three escape routes for my troops at PM.
Elsewhere, Japanese bombers continued to hit the remaining Allied bases in the DEI and Philippines, although not very effectively, probably due to the ongoing rain that continued most everywhere. My troops in Soerabaja attempted an artillery bombardment on the three Japanese LCUs that are already in the hex, but it didn't accomplish much, partially because of the Combat Resolution rule which allowed the Japanese troops to do their own bombardment first.
The same "first kick at the cat" effect helped the Japanese troops in the road hex south of Homan where three recently arrived Japanese LCUs were able to kick out the already-present Chinese LCU before the Chinese LCU could do a bombardment. I've got three more Chinese units moving simultaneously into that hex next turn. Hopefully they will be able to get in place and withstand the three Japanese units.
Treespider is continuing to pull back Japanese units from south central China and move them into south eastern China. Ichang now only has a couple of units in it, so I'm moving one Chinese LCU back into the road hex just to the north of the base. I'm going with an approach of "give where it pushes, push where it gives" in China.
I am also pulling my SEAC Chinese LCUs back from the road hex due east of Lashio. Treespider now has four units in Lashio and might be getting some ideas of trying to break out onto the Burma Road itself. The next hex to the East is a fork, and as well it puts a river between the Chinese and any advancing Japanese. I am actually quite pleased to see so many Japanese troops in Burma - there are three more LCUs in Myitkyina, at least five in Mandalay, four or five in Rangoon and others in places like Tavoy. As long as they are there they aren't bothering me in India, and that's what I want.
I should be in a position to "bother" Treespider in a different way within the next few days - my first group of B-17Es reached Australia today. I'll let them rest up and rebuild for a couple of days, then I'm going to send them to Darwin to change the balance of power in the air over Timor. I've got a second group of B-17Es also on its way to Oz. Once they get there they will start to practice against Port Moresby. BTW - I have actually built up a nice store or replacement B-17Es, thanks to my policy of not sending them off on low-value bombing runs. Now I'll be able to attack Timor, PNG and Burma simultaneously.
Dave Baranyi
My hopes of possibly launching a "nasty surprise" on Treespider at PNG were dashed during my review of the Combat Replay for this turn as I found out that there is at least one, and probably two, Japanese CV TFs a few hexes south of Port Moresby. They were trying to hide in the ever-present storms, but one of my patrol planes spotted the Hiryu, and Kates gave themselves away by spotting some of my subs in the region. The TF north of Darwin that drew my Hudsons last turn was likely either a single CV or a SC TF with LR CAP over it. In either case, that TF was probably supposed to "lull" me into thinking that the main Japanese CV force was still far to the west.
Fortunately, Treespider didn't spot either of my CV TFs and so I put the "brakes on" the western TF and sent it racing back down to the southwest. I also slowed down the other CV TF to "cruise" speed and directed it to stop in Noumea. In addition, I sent the Australian CA and DD that I had in Townsville down south at full speed. I'm betting that Treespider will send his CVs on a "fishing trip" down the east coast of Oz once he finishes with his invasion of Port Moresby.
Treespider put a sub into Brisbane Harbor, probably in the hope of spotting my CVs, or even getting a lucky shot in, but the only things that sub will see instead will be a number of ASW TFs. That will only be "fair", as my subs had a tough day with a half dozen of them running into aggressive Japanese ASW. None of my subs were damaged badly, but they all need to head back to port for repairs.
So while the invasion of PM hasn't quite started yet, despite a second naval bombardment, Treespider was busy with other invasions in the Region. Japanese troops landed at Green Island and captured it in a shock attack the same turn. I didn't think that Green Island was categorized as an "atoll" in the Game, and if it isn't, why did those troops get to attack the same turn as they landed? Japanese troops also started to land at Buna, closing off one of the possible three escape routes for my troops at PM.
Elsewhere, Japanese bombers continued to hit the remaining Allied bases in the DEI and Philippines, although not very effectively, probably due to the ongoing rain that continued most everywhere. My troops in Soerabaja attempted an artillery bombardment on the three Japanese LCUs that are already in the hex, but it didn't accomplish much, partially because of the Combat Resolution rule which allowed the Japanese troops to do their own bombardment first.
The same "first kick at the cat" effect helped the Japanese troops in the road hex south of Homan where three recently arrived Japanese LCUs were able to kick out the already-present Chinese LCU before the Chinese LCU could do a bombardment. I've got three more Chinese units moving simultaneously into that hex next turn. Hopefully they will be able to get in place and withstand the three Japanese units.
Treespider is continuing to pull back Japanese units from south central China and move them into south eastern China. Ichang now only has a couple of units in it, so I'm moving one Chinese LCU back into the road hex just to the north of the base. I'm going with an approach of "give where it pushes, push where it gives" in China.
I am also pulling my SEAC Chinese LCUs back from the road hex due east of Lashio. Treespider now has four units in Lashio and might be getting some ideas of trying to break out onto the Burma Road itself. The next hex to the East is a fork, and as well it puts a river between the Chinese and any advancing Japanese. I am actually quite pleased to see so many Japanese troops in Burma - there are three more LCUs in Myitkyina, at least five in Mandalay, four or five in Rangoon and others in places like Tavoy. As long as they are there they aren't bothering me in India, and that's what I want.
I should be in a position to "bother" Treespider in a different way within the next few days - my first group of B-17Es reached Australia today. I'll let them rest up and rebuild for a couple of days, then I'm going to send them to Darwin to change the balance of power in the air over Timor. I've got a second group of B-17Es also on its way to Oz. Once they get there they will start to practice against Port Moresby. BTW - I have actually built up a nice store or replacement B-17Es, thanks to my policy of not sending them off on low-value bombing runs. Now I'll be able to attack Timor, PNG and Burma simultaneously.
Dave Baranyi
Enemy Troops at PM...
February 28, 1942 -
The invasion of Port Moresby continued this turn with yet another naval bombardment. The effect of this bombardment was quite minor; I suspect that the TF is running out of ammo. Troops started to unload at PM and despite the aerial and naval bombardments the Aussie troops were able to get some shore guns working and hit an AP and a PC during the daytime. Never-the-less, nearly a full Japanese division got ashore and they ought to be able to capture PM on their first attack. Offshore, the Allied subs didn't find any targets this turn, although Porpoise was chased by a small ASW TF about halfway between PM and Gili Gili. The Japanese CVs moved a little from their position on the previous day but still remained in a blocking position.
Japanese sub I-1 was found off of Brisbane by all of the searching Allied ASW TFs and hit repeatedly. It is still showing up in the Brisbane hex this turn, but that's likely because it isn't moving quickly enough to get away. I'm sending more ASW TFs this turn to try to finish it off and to make certain that other Japanese subs aren't trying to sneak in. Two more Japanese subs were spotted a few hexes to the east of Rockhampton, so I'm sending a DD along to try to find them too. Of course, given the track record of my INTEL and Patrol forces, that "double sub" sighting could equally well turn out to be a Japanese carrier TF on a "fishing trip", but if it is then that Aussie DD will have a chance to be a Real Hero. [;)]
Elsewhere in the region, USS Pike torpedoed an AK at Buna. There are so many targets around that my subs are running out of torpedoes and building up Sys Damage into the teens, so I'm being forced to send a number of them back to major ports for R&O. BTW, although troops continued to land at Buna, there was no attack there this turn. And finally, a small bombardment TF sailed into Gasmata and caused a few casualties.
There was still plenty of action in the rest of the Far East. Treespider has been sending Zero sweeps over Darwin to try to deplete my P-40Es. I'll start to "dissuade" him from this within a couple of turns. [:D] Soerabaja and Manila were hit with plenty of aerial bombardments again, and Soerabaja also received an artillery attack. But Manila received and threw back a Shock Attack without losing any fortification levels. I can't understand why the troops in Manila can continue to hold up so well when they have no supplies, but I'll take this bit of good luck as long as it continues.
And in China, Treespider continues to pull troops back from the south central region. There is now only one unit in Ichang, for example, so I may well attempt to retake it in a while. And once the troops from Changsha have rested a bit I may well send them to the far southwestern portion of China to see if they can cause some mischief down there.
Dave Baranyi
The invasion of Port Moresby continued this turn with yet another naval bombardment. The effect of this bombardment was quite minor; I suspect that the TF is running out of ammo. Troops started to unload at PM and despite the aerial and naval bombardments the Aussie troops were able to get some shore guns working and hit an AP and a PC during the daytime. Never-the-less, nearly a full Japanese division got ashore and they ought to be able to capture PM on their first attack. Offshore, the Allied subs didn't find any targets this turn, although Porpoise was chased by a small ASW TF about halfway between PM and Gili Gili. The Japanese CVs moved a little from their position on the previous day but still remained in a blocking position.
Japanese sub I-1 was found off of Brisbane by all of the searching Allied ASW TFs and hit repeatedly. It is still showing up in the Brisbane hex this turn, but that's likely because it isn't moving quickly enough to get away. I'm sending more ASW TFs this turn to try to finish it off and to make certain that other Japanese subs aren't trying to sneak in. Two more Japanese subs were spotted a few hexes to the east of Rockhampton, so I'm sending a DD along to try to find them too. Of course, given the track record of my INTEL and Patrol forces, that "double sub" sighting could equally well turn out to be a Japanese carrier TF on a "fishing trip", but if it is then that Aussie DD will have a chance to be a Real Hero. [;)]
Elsewhere in the region, USS Pike torpedoed an AK at Buna. There are so many targets around that my subs are running out of torpedoes and building up Sys Damage into the teens, so I'm being forced to send a number of them back to major ports for R&O. BTW, although troops continued to land at Buna, there was no attack there this turn. And finally, a small bombardment TF sailed into Gasmata and caused a few casualties.
There was still plenty of action in the rest of the Far East. Treespider has been sending Zero sweeps over Darwin to try to deplete my P-40Es. I'll start to "dissuade" him from this within a couple of turns. [:D] Soerabaja and Manila were hit with plenty of aerial bombardments again, and Soerabaja also received an artillery attack. But Manila received and threw back a Shock Attack without losing any fortification levels. I can't understand why the troops in Manila can continue to hold up so well when they have no supplies, but I'll take this bit of good luck as long as it continues.
And in China, Treespider continues to pull troops back from the south central region. There is now only one unit in Ichang, for example, so I may well attempt to retake it in a while. And once the troops from Changsha have rested a bit I may well send them to the far southwestern portion of China to see if they can cause some mischief down there.
Dave Baranyi
Port Moresby Falls...
March 1, 1942 -
This was a busy turn for the Japanese with attacks and invasions all over the Eastern Pacific. More troops landed at Port Moresby, which suffered another naval bombardment. USS S-41, already on its way to port for R&O stopped by PM to try its luck. At first S-41 was chased by a Japanese surface combat TF, then it found the transports and put a torpedo into an AP, setting it on fire. But the escorts found S-41 and damaged it heavily; S-41 will now try to limp to safety with lots of Japanese airborne ASW chasing it.
There weren't a lot of other highlights for the Allies today other than S-41's exploits. The shore guns did hit CL Kinu hard during the final Japanese bombardment, but in the end the large number of Japanese troops that landed at PM captured the base easily in their first shock attack. There is already a base force in place, so it won't be long before the airfields at PM are repaired and hosting "headaches" for northern Australia.
In other Japanese action, Samarinda received a naval bombardment, and Japanese troops started to land at Gasmata, Tomini and Munda. Manila and Wuchow received artillery bombardments. In Java, Bandoeng was attacked and captured first, so when Tjilitjap was attacked and captured the troops there surrendered. Buna was captured, and it had a base force with the invading troops, so the Japanese defenses of PNG are already being set up well.
Patrol craft spotted a tanker in the fleet that is sailing along with the KB, so that means that the KB is able to replenish at sea and won't be in any hurry to return to port. Since the KB's air units didn't participate in the attack on Port Moresby they are also fully ready to respond to any opportunity. The KB is now a handful of hexes due south of Gili Gili. I'm still trying to send subs after the KB as well as keep a few around to harass the PM invasion fleet, but most of my subs in the region are on their way to port right now.
Japanese sub I-1 disappeared from Brisbane this turn, but the other two Japanese subs that were east of Rockhampton are still there. An Australian DD tried an ASW attack on one of the subs but missed. I'm sending out another DD to keep the subs "honest". The rest of my ships in the region are safely back in port.
In other news, Japanese long range patrol planes fly recon missions over Pago Pago today. Treespider "loves" grabbing advanced bases then taking the bypassed bases at his leisure, so it wouldn't surprise me if he decided to try something similar in the South Pacific. I'm spreading out my forces throughout the region, but if the Japanese come in with overwhelming force in a manner like they did at PM then I realistically won't be able to do anything.
In Australia, Treespider attempted another escorted bombing attack on Darwin, with very satisfying results for the Allied forces:
Day Air attack on Darwin, at 36, 84
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 29
H6K4 Mavis x 3
Ki-21 Sally x 10
Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 10
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed
H6K4 Mavis: 2 damaged
Ki-21 Sally: 2 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
P-40E Warhawk: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
All the Sallys turned back without dropping their bombs. Treespider sent his Zero sweep force against Wyndham instead, with surprising results:
Day Air attack on Wyndham, at 30, 86
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22
Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 13
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Wirraway: 4 destroyed, 1 damaged
Those Wirraway pilots definitely deserve medals for doing so well! [;)] I'm now in a position to change the air balance in the region, so things will be different for Treespider soon, Weather permitting.
BTW - below is the Intel screen for March 2. Things aren't too bad, but of course once Treespider captures Manila and Soerabaja the points balance will change dramatically. The good news is that for the second month in a row there were no RN ships recalled.
Dave Baranyi
This was a busy turn for the Japanese with attacks and invasions all over the Eastern Pacific. More troops landed at Port Moresby, which suffered another naval bombardment. USS S-41, already on its way to port for R&O stopped by PM to try its luck. At first S-41 was chased by a Japanese surface combat TF, then it found the transports and put a torpedo into an AP, setting it on fire. But the escorts found S-41 and damaged it heavily; S-41 will now try to limp to safety with lots of Japanese airborne ASW chasing it.
There weren't a lot of other highlights for the Allies today other than S-41's exploits. The shore guns did hit CL Kinu hard during the final Japanese bombardment, but in the end the large number of Japanese troops that landed at PM captured the base easily in their first shock attack. There is already a base force in place, so it won't be long before the airfields at PM are repaired and hosting "headaches" for northern Australia.
In other Japanese action, Samarinda received a naval bombardment, and Japanese troops started to land at Gasmata, Tomini and Munda. Manila and Wuchow received artillery bombardments. In Java, Bandoeng was attacked and captured first, so when Tjilitjap was attacked and captured the troops there surrendered. Buna was captured, and it had a base force with the invading troops, so the Japanese defenses of PNG are already being set up well.
Patrol craft spotted a tanker in the fleet that is sailing along with the KB, so that means that the KB is able to replenish at sea and won't be in any hurry to return to port. Since the KB's air units didn't participate in the attack on Port Moresby they are also fully ready to respond to any opportunity. The KB is now a handful of hexes due south of Gili Gili. I'm still trying to send subs after the KB as well as keep a few around to harass the PM invasion fleet, but most of my subs in the region are on their way to port right now.
Japanese sub I-1 disappeared from Brisbane this turn, but the other two Japanese subs that were east of Rockhampton are still there. An Australian DD tried an ASW attack on one of the subs but missed. I'm sending out another DD to keep the subs "honest". The rest of my ships in the region are safely back in port.
In other news, Japanese long range patrol planes fly recon missions over Pago Pago today. Treespider "loves" grabbing advanced bases then taking the bypassed bases at his leisure, so it wouldn't surprise me if he decided to try something similar in the South Pacific. I'm spreading out my forces throughout the region, but if the Japanese come in with overwhelming force in a manner like they did at PM then I realistically won't be able to do anything.
In Australia, Treespider attempted another escorted bombing attack on Darwin, with very satisfying results for the Allied forces:
Day Air attack on Darwin, at 36, 84
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 29
H6K4 Mavis x 3
Ki-21 Sally x 10
Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 10
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed
H6K4 Mavis: 2 damaged
Ki-21 Sally: 2 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
P-40E Warhawk: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
All the Sallys turned back without dropping their bombs. Treespider sent his Zero sweep force against Wyndham instead, with surprising results:
Day Air attack on Wyndham, at 30, 86
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22
Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 13
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Wirraway: 4 destroyed, 1 damaged
Those Wirraway pilots definitely deserve medals for doing so well! [;)] I'm now in a position to change the air balance in the region, so things will be different for Treespider soon, Weather permitting.
BTW - below is the Intel screen for March 2. Things aren't too bad, but of course once Treespider captures Manila and Soerabaja the points balance will change dramatically. The good news is that for the second month in a row there were no RN ships recalled.
Dave Baranyi
- Attachments
-
- March2Intel.jpg (41.97 KiB) Viewed 323 times
B-17s Over Mandalay
March 2, 1942 -
Things started to quiet down a bit this turn as the Japanese fleets began their departures from the PNG region. There were still Japanese landings going on at Talasea and Toboali, and Manila, Wuchow and Soerabaja received their usual artillery bombardments. Buka was occupied automatically. A shock attempt at Gasmata failed badly because too few Japanese troops had been landed to capture the base. (Those Aussies are no pushovers!)
There was a reasonable amount of air action, although rain covered a lot of the Eastern Pacific. Nells attempted a bombing attack on Baker Island for no particular reason that I can fathom; it would have been more useful to fly a recon mission. If Treespider wants to go after Baker I'll likely let him unless he lets his guard down too much and gives me a "freebie".
I started a new page in the Allied strategy today as a B-17 group hit Mandalay:
Day Air attack on Mandalay, at 33, 30
Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 1
P-40B Tomahawk x 57
B-17E Fortress x 31
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 5 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
66 casualties reported
Guns lost 4
Airbase hits 2
Runway hits 6
Treespider isn't even trying to keep CAP in Mandalay, so I'm sending the Brit bombers out next turn to get some practice. There are Japanese recon planes in Mandalay so damaging the airfield will eventually make them useless too. I have no interest in piling my 4E bombers in India; the escapees from the Philippines and the Brit bombers will suffice quite nicely.
What I intend to do is run simultaneous air campaigns in several different fronts, and the next front, Timor, gets its first taste next turn, once again - Advanced Weather willing. I've now got another B-17 group in Darwin and they will go after the airfield at Lautem. And a third B-17 group is sitting on the East Coast of Oz, waiting to start to hit Port Moresby.
Dave Baranyi
Things started to quiet down a bit this turn as the Japanese fleets began their departures from the PNG region. There were still Japanese landings going on at Talasea and Toboali, and Manila, Wuchow and Soerabaja received their usual artillery bombardments. Buka was occupied automatically. A shock attempt at Gasmata failed badly because too few Japanese troops had been landed to capture the base. (Those Aussies are no pushovers!)
There was a reasonable amount of air action, although rain covered a lot of the Eastern Pacific. Nells attempted a bombing attack on Baker Island for no particular reason that I can fathom; it would have been more useful to fly a recon mission. If Treespider wants to go after Baker I'll likely let him unless he lets his guard down too much and gives me a "freebie".
I started a new page in the Allied strategy today as a B-17 group hit Mandalay:
Day Air attack on Mandalay, at 33, 30
Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 1
P-40B Tomahawk x 57
B-17E Fortress x 31
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 5 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
66 casualties reported
Guns lost 4
Airbase hits 2
Runway hits 6
Treespider isn't even trying to keep CAP in Mandalay, so I'm sending the Brit bombers out next turn to get some practice. There are Japanese recon planes in Mandalay so damaging the airfield will eventually make them useless too. I have no interest in piling my 4E bombers in India; the escapees from the Philippines and the Brit bombers will suffice quite nicely.
What I intend to do is run simultaneous air campaigns in several different fronts, and the next front, Timor, gets its first taste next turn, once again - Advanced Weather willing. I've now got another B-17 group in Darwin and they will go after the airfield at Lautem. And a third B-17 group is sitting on the East Coast of Oz, waiting to start to hit Port Moresby.
Dave Baranyi
Desperate Moves...
March 3, 1942 -
This turn started out very strangely as a handful of Emilys tried a night attack on Pago Pago at 10,000 feet. Huh? Is Treespider confusing his Emilys with B-29s? As one would expect, the Emilys accomplished nothing other than to gain some operational damage. I presume that Treespider is hoping to catch some combat ships in port. He has also had a sub sitting in the hex for the past couple of days. So far my naval ASW has been unable to find it.
There are more Japanese subs off the east coast of Australia again, so I've got ASW TFs hunting for them too. The sub that appeared in the Perth hex disappeared this turn so I refueled and disbanded the ASW TFs that were hunting it. Treespider has returned to moving his subs every turn like he did at the beginning of the game.
All of my Brit bombers flew against Mandalay this turn. I had a single squadron flying out of three different bases. This increase my odds of getting flights out compared to having all of my planes in one big base. There was no CAP over Mandalay, and although the Brit bombers took some damage from flak, none were shot down and they all caused some damage. I have a suspicion that Treespider has put a couple of AA units into Mandalay to try to attrite my attacks, but it hasn't been working so far.
There was a lot of Japanese ground action. Japanese troops started to land at Thursday Island. It’s a smart move and I'm surprised that more Japanese players don't grab those two bases on the south shore of New Guinea. I don't use the North Channel to move ships, so it doesn't affect me and the troops in those malarial bases will find it really hard to keep in decent condition.
In other ground combat, Toboali and Tomini were captured without opposition. Treespider tried a shock attack on Soerabaja which lowered the fortifications by one, but didn't capture the base. He also tried a shock attack on Manila which failed again badly. Treespider is getting quite frustrated about Manila and was whining a bit, but I told him not to whine about ground combat because I wasn't whining about Nells blasting through without any losses or damage Hurricanes with good pilots, and then sinking an AK and an MSW at Akyab. [;)] Seriously, the ground game is still mucked up awfully badly, and the last across-the-board "improvement" to the durability, survivability and dogfight effectiveness of twin-engined bombers has turned into an unmitigated disaster. Anyone who thinks that unescorted Nells and Bettys should be able to consistently fight their way past strong CAP is living in a fantasy world.
Okay, on to the "Main Event" - the battle for Northern Australia. What, I didn't mention it? Well, I thought that I was being sneaky and would knock out the Japanese bases in Timor before Treespider knew what hit him. Unfortunately for me, Treespider had a similar idea at the same time regarding the Allied bases in Northern Oz. So we started into a "brawl" that neither of us was really expecting.
I got the first blow in as my B-17 group from Darwin hit the Lautem air fields and found only four Zeros on CAP. The bombing attack was fairly effective and caused a good amount of damage, although it fell far short of closing the base. But it was still surprising that I didn't catch more planes on the ground.
The "missing" Zeros showed up right afterwards on a sweep of Darwin. There were 44 Zeros against 15 P-40Es, and the result was 9 P-40s shot down against 1 Zero. An unescorted raid of 15 Bettys from Amboina then arrived to be greeted by 6 P-40s. Five Bettys were shot down and a couple more were damaged, against only two P-40s being damaged and a very minimal amount of airfield damage.
Then the main attack arrived; 67 Nells and 35 Bettys flew all the way from Kendari unescorted. The six P-40s did their best but they were only able to shot down one Betty and damage a handful of other attacking bombers. The attack caused a fair amount of damage and destroyed several planes on the ground.
I was then faced with having to decide to abandon the fight or throw everything into the battle. I decided to fight. So I've moved my other P-40Es to Darwin and kept my remaining B-17s set to attack Lautem once again. I also moved some Wirraways back into Darwin to bolster the air defense. I've also moved my other B-17 group to Wyndham and set them to also hit Lautem. Finally, I've moved all my Hudsons to attack the airfield at Koepang just in case Treespider tries to do a sweep or bombing run from there. This is desperate stuff, but I can't let Treespider gain air control of northern Oz this early.
Dave Baranyi
This turn started out very strangely as a handful of Emilys tried a night attack on Pago Pago at 10,000 feet. Huh? Is Treespider confusing his Emilys with B-29s? As one would expect, the Emilys accomplished nothing other than to gain some operational damage. I presume that Treespider is hoping to catch some combat ships in port. He has also had a sub sitting in the hex for the past couple of days. So far my naval ASW has been unable to find it.
There are more Japanese subs off the east coast of Australia again, so I've got ASW TFs hunting for them too. The sub that appeared in the Perth hex disappeared this turn so I refueled and disbanded the ASW TFs that were hunting it. Treespider has returned to moving his subs every turn like he did at the beginning of the game.
All of my Brit bombers flew against Mandalay this turn. I had a single squadron flying out of three different bases. This increase my odds of getting flights out compared to having all of my planes in one big base. There was no CAP over Mandalay, and although the Brit bombers took some damage from flak, none were shot down and they all caused some damage. I have a suspicion that Treespider has put a couple of AA units into Mandalay to try to attrite my attacks, but it hasn't been working so far.
There was a lot of Japanese ground action. Japanese troops started to land at Thursday Island. It’s a smart move and I'm surprised that more Japanese players don't grab those two bases on the south shore of New Guinea. I don't use the North Channel to move ships, so it doesn't affect me and the troops in those malarial bases will find it really hard to keep in decent condition.
In other ground combat, Toboali and Tomini were captured without opposition. Treespider tried a shock attack on Soerabaja which lowered the fortifications by one, but didn't capture the base. He also tried a shock attack on Manila which failed again badly. Treespider is getting quite frustrated about Manila and was whining a bit, but I told him not to whine about ground combat because I wasn't whining about Nells blasting through without any losses or damage Hurricanes with good pilots, and then sinking an AK and an MSW at Akyab. [;)] Seriously, the ground game is still mucked up awfully badly, and the last across-the-board "improvement" to the durability, survivability and dogfight effectiveness of twin-engined bombers has turned into an unmitigated disaster. Anyone who thinks that unescorted Nells and Bettys should be able to consistently fight their way past strong CAP is living in a fantasy world.
Okay, on to the "Main Event" - the battle for Northern Australia. What, I didn't mention it? Well, I thought that I was being sneaky and would knock out the Japanese bases in Timor before Treespider knew what hit him. Unfortunately for me, Treespider had a similar idea at the same time regarding the Allied bases in Northern Oz. So we started into a "brawl" that neither of us was really expecting.
I got the first blow in as my B-17 group from Darwin hit the Lautem air fields and found only four Zeros on CAP. The bombing attack was fairly effective and caused a good amount of damage, although it fell far short of closing the base. But it was still surprising that I didn't catch more planes on the ground.
The "missing" Zeros showed up right afterwards on a sweep of Darwin. There were 44 Zeros against 15 P-40Es, and the result was 9 P-40s shot down against 1 Zero. An unescorted raid of 15 Bettys from Amboina then arrived to be greeted by 6 P-40s. Five Bettys were shot down and a couple more were damaged, against only two P-40s being damaged and a very minimal amount of airfield damage.
Then the main attack arrived; 67 Nells and 35 Bettys flew all the way from Kendari unescorted. The six P-40s did their best but they were only able to shot down one Betty and damage a handful of other attacking bombers. The attack caused a fair amount of damage and destroyed several planes on the ground.
I was then faced with having to decide to abandon the fight or throw everything into the battle. I decided to fight. So I've moved my other P-40Es to Darwin and kept my remaining B-17s set to attack Lautem once again. I also moved some Wirraways back into Darwin to bolster the air defense. I've also moved my other B-17 group to Wyndham and set them to also hit Lautem. Finally, I've moved all my Hudsons to attack the airfield at Koepang just in case Treespider tries to do a sweep or bombing run from there. This is desperate stuff, but I can't let Treespider gain air control of northern Oz this early.
Dave Baranyi
Desperate Reality...
March 4, 1942 -
The ugly reality of trying to stop the Japanese in early March 1942 in a non-historic start showed up today as the "brawl" in Northern Australia continued with both sides making mistakes and fumbling opportunities. The big difference is that while Treespider is unhappy with his air losses, I am stopped cold by mine.
My new, fresh B-17 group took off from Wyndham for Lautem and totally fizzled in their attack. There were 19 Zeros on CAP and they stopped the 34 B-17s from hitting anything on the ground. The B-17s shot down one Zero and damaged a few others, but ended up with three losses of their own and half of their planes damaged.
There was then an unescorted attack of 8 Bettys from Amboina on Darwin which ran into 18 P-40s and 11 Wirraways. Three Bettys were shot down, several more damaged and the rest broke off the attack before they dropped their bombs. Next came the big attack from Kendari again:
Day Air attack on Darwin, at 36, 84
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 56
G4M1 Betty x 24
Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 11
P-40E Warhawk x 18
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 14 destroyed, 9 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 3 destroyed, 7 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Wirraway: 2 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 1 destroyed, 13 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed
Allied ground losses:
56 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Vehicles lost 1
Airbase hits 5
Runway hits 12
Again, that wasn't a bad job by the Americans and Aussies, and with all of the ground support that I have in Darwin the damage didn't accumulate, but it still wasn't decisive. The problems then started to mount for the Allies as a Zero sweep from Koepang hit Wyndham, shooting down a Wirraway and revealing the weakness of my CAP there.
Even worse was the next attack on Derby by 36 Sallys. I had no CAP left and the Sallys had an easy time of it and caused a fair amount of damage and losses to the Hudsons on the ground. For whatever reason, the Hudsons at Derby didn't fly, leaving Koepang alone and leaving the Hudsons as sitting ducks.
The final straw was a late sweep of Darwin by 25 Zeros from Lautem. Although the fight turned out a draw, with three fighters lost on each side, the message became very clear for me - I can't keep up this battle. I have no P-40s of either model in stock and only 10 B-17Es in stock. The forces that I have can't shut down Lautem and Koepang, therefore I have no way to stop Zero sweeps from wiping out my air defenses and subsequently Japanese bombers from closing my air bases. Treespider still has hundreds of bombers and fighters getting practice in the Philippines and Java; he can easily send some of them into the Region and wipe out my units. And this doesn't even consider Treespider's options to bring in his surface fleet, the KB or both.
So I've decided to pull back from Northern Australia. I'm hoping that Treespider stays a bit "gun shy" due to his losses from this turn, but I figure that sooner or later he will realize what is going on and hammer my bases at will. Until I can build up some reserves and be in a position to put 50 or more good fighters in the air at the same time over a base my forces won't be competitive, and I won't reach that goal by waging a losing war of attrition.
In other news, Dobodura was occupied automatically, Thursday Island was captured, Japanese paratroops landed at Teloebetoeng, and Japanese troops landed at Sag Sag. Soerabaja withstood a deliberate attack but the fortification level was reduced to three.
The only good news for the Allies was that a DMS hit I-18 hard off of Pago Pago, and things remain relatively quiet in China.
Dave Baranyi
The ugly reality of trying to stop the Japanese in early March 1942 in a non-historic start showed up today as the "brawl" in Northern Australia continued with both sides making mistakes and fumbling opportunities. The big difference is that while Treespider is unhappy with his air losses, I am stopped cold by mine.
My new, fresh B-17 group took off from Wyndham for Lautem and totally fizzled in their attack. There were 19 Zeros on CAP and they stopped the 34 B-17s from hitting anything on the ground. The B-17s shot down one Zero and damaged a few others, but ended up with three losses of their own and half of their planes damaged.
There was then an unescorted attack of 8 Bettys from Amboina on Darwin which ran into 18 P-40s and 11 Wirraways. Three Bettys were shot down, several more damaged and the rest broke off the attack before they dropped their bombs. Next came the big attack from Kendari again:
Day Air attack on Darwin, at 36, 84
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 56
G4M1 Betty x 24
Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 11
P-40E Warhawk x 18
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 14 destroyed, 9 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 3 destroyed, 7 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Wirraway: 2 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 1 destroyed, 13 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed
Allied ground losses:
56 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Vehicles lost 1
Airbase hits 5
Runway hits 12
Again, that wasn't a bad job by the Americans and Aussies, and with all of the ground support that I have in Darwin the damage didn't accumulate, but it still wasn't decisive. The problems then started to mount for the Allies as a Zero sweep from Koepang hit Wyndham, shooting down a Wirraway and revealing the weakness of my CAP there.
Even worse was the next attack on Derby by 36 Sallys. I had no CAP left and the Sallys had an easy time of it and caused a fair amount of damage and losses to the Hudsons on the ground. For whatever reason, the Hudsons at Derby didn't fly, leaving Koepang alone and leaving the Hudsons as sitting ducks.
The final straw was a late sweep of Darwin by 25 Zeros from Lautem. Although the fight turned out a draw, with three fighters lost on each side, the message became very clear for me - I can't keep up this battle. I have no P-40s of either model in stock and only 10 B-17Es in stock. The forces that I have can't shut down Lautem and Koepang, therefore I have no way to stop Zero sweeps from wiping out my air defenses and subsequently Japanese bombers from closing my air bases. Treespider still has hundreds of bombers and fighters getting practice in the Philippines and Java; he can easily send some of them into the Region and wipe out my units. And this doesn't even consider Treespider's options to bring in his surface fleet, the KB or both.
So I've decided to pull back from Northern Australia. I'm hoping that Treespider stays a bit "gun shy" due to his losses from this turn, but I figure that sooner or later he will realize what is going on and hammer my bases at will. Until I can build up some reserves and be in a position to put 50 or more good fighters in the air at the same time over a base my forces won't be competitive, and I won't reach that goal by waging a losing war of attrition.
In other news, Dobodura was occupied automatically, Thursday Island was captured, Japanese paratroops landed at Teloebetoeng, and Japanese troops landed at Sag Sag. Soerabaja withstood a deliberate attack but the fortification level was reduced to three.
The only good news for the Allies was that a DMS hit I-18 hard off of Pago Pago, and things remain relatively quiet in China.
Dave Baranyi