PzB vs Wobbly - Clash of Steel

[Nomad]

ORIGINAL: PzB


Mid 43 sneer - tried to invade an atoll and Ken flew in a full division in a few days.
I could no longer attack enemy land bases with the KB as enemy strike ac became more
numerous than locusts and the Corsair's ruled the skies and the Hellcats appeared on
lots of new Essex Class carriers.

As the Allies, C-47s are your friend. I had 2x64 Groups and 3x16 squadrons at Tarawa. From Tarawa I could airlift
additional support to a number of islands around. It made it very difficult for PzB to invade an island as long as I kept
some Liberaters on Naval Search so I could see the invasion. I was able to move a Bde+ per day.

[Fishbed]

Pzb
 
Are your ML busy? I believe so...
But I wondered if you had any plans for mining the open water hexs adjacent to the Marianas?
I know the attrition rate is very high in the open water hex, but a over-minelayed area has chances to get a big fish thanks to the number of ships that will transit. It will also slow his forces down (the MSN will need to sweep) and make them loose some expensive OP points on the very same day they will be storming your position.
This kind of mining may start a week or so before the invasion, or once you detect him coming something like 3 days away, if all your ML forces can get commited to it...
 
Maybe Im wrong, but wasn't Mutsu in Admiral Laurent's game sunk in open waters this way?
 
AJ

[PzB74]

Parts of the 21st UK Aviation Regiment was sunk with its transport today.
Lots of recon, enemy ships...but Andy's effort feels very half hearted. Encourages
me to re-deploy.

Two more days and 2 new Bde's arrive in Japan. One for Wake Island and one for Pagan.
That should finish the defensive upgrade of the region.

It's way too easy to air lift heavy equippment. Soldiers with their rifle perhaps, but
not artillery pieces and heavy support material.

My minelayers are very busy Fish - in the Marianas increasing mine count to 5k. Then
Palaus before going back to the PI. Not sure I can afford to loose anymore, kindas risky
to keep them close to an enemy invasion fleet. Canj easily get whacked [;)]

Good idea though, will consider mining a few deep water hexes if an invasion seems imminent.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/10/44

Air Combat

Little resistance over Tomini...airfield is at 46% damage.

Day Air attack on Tomini , at 34,65

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 29
Ki-21 Sally x 80
Ki-49 Helen x 13

Allied aircraft
Spitfire VIII x 2

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

Allied aircraft losses
Spitfire VIII: 3 destroyed

Airbase hits 2
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 15
Port supply hits 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 49th Division, at 32,69

Japanese aircraft
J1N1-S Irving x 9
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 17

Allied aircraft
PB4Y Liberator x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
J1N1-S Irving: 2 damaged
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
PB4Y Liberator: 5 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
14 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 40,72

Japanese aircraft
G4M2 Betty x 4

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M2 Betty: 1 damaged

Allied Ships
SC SC-640, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage - this issue still need a fix! [:'(]

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x G4M2 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 44,73

Japanese aircraft
Ki-45 KAIb Nick x 23

Allied aircraft
Beaufighter Mk 21 x 2

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-45 KAIb Nick: 1 damaged

Allied Ships
AK Alamosa, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AK Serpens, Bomb hits 1, on fire
SC SC-1062
AK Lyra
SC SC-743
SC SC-699

Allied ground losses:
21 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 43,72

Japanese aircraft
Ki-45 KAIb Nick x 3

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
AK Johanne Justesen, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage *sinks*

Allied ground losses:
21 casualties reported

Ground Combat

Ground combat at Tomini

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 1647 troops, 19 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 104

Defending force 813 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2

Japanese ground losses:
18 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2nd Naval Construction Battalion Wiped Out at Tomini by attrition!!! Yet another new message...

[pauk]

good work Defender!

His extravagant moves at Tomini and Makale are punished. Perhaps you have para units nearby to re-take Tomini? (i guess it should be possible to recapture them with couple of paras with strong air support from the air (bombing his ground units at Tomini)?

I especially like your last raids against his transports too... it shows that Empire still have a teeths![:)]

[PzB74]

Thx Pauk!
Unfortunately I don't have enough paras to retake a base with 3k enemy troops.
Most of my para units are in the Palaus and the 1st and 2nd Para Regiments are only at partial strength.
If our air strikes can close the AF at Makale we have a chance though.

The last few raids were good ones indeed, I just felt these successes came too easy...but I don't think
Andy would sacrifice aviation and base force units either. He got so many carriers that it's a bit strange
that he doesn't provide better escort for his convoys.

Andy's always conducting his operations with great skill and force. Perhaps his latest string of victories
have made him a bit lax? [:-] That's when we leap in and kick em in the nuts [:D]

DEI & PI

Here is an overview of the strategic situation around Sulawesi. A bit messy, but not critical - yet.
I'm stubbornly refusing to deploy the fleet, Navy Air Arm or strategic reserves. Need to cover more than 20-30
small dot islands in the area. Wish it was possible to divide a division into 10 combat groups. That would have
solved many problems. Going to release several smaller guard units from China and India.

[PzB74]

Jap intelligence ain't much to brag about...but if this info is correct, there's
not much doubt about why there are so few enemy warships around PNG/DEI [8|]

588! enemy ships reported at Kwajalein. Been keeping an eye on this place for a while
and a string of Glen equipped subs surrounds the area. Wake and Marcus Island have long
range Emily search planes that will make it difficult for Andy to come in un-anounced!

Marshalls

[PzB74]

Seems like Andy has disbandoned Nomad's elaborate sub patrols in the North Central Pacific!
Strike Force I has snuck past the Aleutians and Pearl Harbour and will conduct commerce raiding
and act as a ghost fleet. It's a risk with enemy fleets at Kwajalein and Pearl Harbour / West Coast, but
hopefully we can saw lots of confusion and tie down enemy resources for a while.

The carrier Hiyo is quite expendable, so are 2 cvl's and 4 slow destroyers and a few AO's.
Little to loose and much to gain in other words [8D]

Strike Force I

[ChezDaJez]

Strike Force I has snuck past the Aleutians and Pearl Harbour and will conduct commerce raiding
and act as a ghost fleet.

Sneaky! I like it! Hopefully they will have enough success to divert Andy's attention and possibly slow down his moves elsewhere. I just hpe they aren't detected before you are ready to do business in a big way.

Chez

[PzB74]

My plan for the defense of the Central Pacific is outlined in this map:

Defense of Central Pacific

The real challenge will be to successfully deploy the Air Force in combination
with the Combined Fleet and inflict enough causalties to defeat the enemy.

Would this be best achieved by:
1. A massive defensive effort by CAP fighters and subs followed up by heavy coordinated strike missions
against the invasion fleet? Is it possible to destroy enough Hellcats to make the fleet vulnerable enough
to be hit by Kido Butai and Naval Air Arm?

2. A defensive posture followed up by a strike by the KB on the enemy's supply van. This would force the
enemy carriers to intervene and make Option 1 more likeley to succeed.

[AmiralLaurent]

PzB, about your idea of dividing a division into ten parts, it is perfectly possible. Form a TF of 10 3000-ton APs and load them in a rather small port... In some days you will have aboard each AP a mix of INF, SUP and ART squads (for this the small port is mandatory, the troop loading should take several days), each having around 40 ASS points, and then you can scatter the TF and send each AP to any base you want to defend.

A side benefit of it is that even if you will see these units as 16th Div/1, 16th Div/2, etc... each will be described in the combat reports as 16th Div to your opponent, making it difficult for him to gain intelligence about your deploiement only by bombing troops.

Just thinking to that, I saw as a problem that the unit will be prepared to only one base and deployed on ten, but I wonder now if it possible to give preparation orders at a fragment...

I have never used it to defend 10 bases, but I prefer to do that than to divide the Div in thirds, so I can choose the repartition of my troops, for example 80% in a base and 20% in the nearby one.

In your current situation I think Andy is discovering he has overextended his advance. It is relatively easy for the Allied to advance like that and find easy spots in the Japanese-held areas, but to send convoys in the middle of Japanese bases, withoit nearby bases to provide CAP, is then a bad idea. A possibility is to cover them with CVEs, but small CVEs groups may be defeated and sunk by Japanese LBA at relative long range.
Speaking from experience in a long UV game, where I was able to stop Allied advance during 3 months after they had taken Gili Gili, Buna and Lae in some weeks (bypassing Port Moresby), but then needed 3 months to have enough supplies here for another step forward.

Another possibility will be to use surface forces to attack Allied convoys at night.... I'm personnaly fond of that, and most of the times it is easy to plot the path of Allied convoys. And this is usually less costly than air attacks. Using some CLs and DDs may be enough to disrupt Allied convoys for a while.

On the other hand, you are right to keep your Navy and reserves despite the fact that you have some success with limited forces here, and may have more with more forces. Andy may be willing to accept replaceable losses there just to keep your attention in the area.

[PzB74]

An alternative would be to take the Palaus, but there are more cons than
pro's here.

1. Too many heavily defended bases have to be captured.
2. Too time consuming.
3. Too costly.

These factors would have to be balanced against occupying a stable platform
from which the Marianas could be invaded - or PI/DEI for that sake. If Andy
had another year I would put my money on this one.

I'm uncertain about how I would react to such an attack though. The best approach
would probably be to let the enemy wear himself out and counter-attack when he's
weak - most likely after an invasion of Palay/Yap or wait until the Marianas proper
were targetted.

The Palau Alternative

[PzB74]

An overview of the Fleet Anchorage at Okinawa.
KB is slowly getting patched back together.

Combined Fleet Anchorage

[PzB74]

Sincerely hope so too Chez...depends on whether we 'step on' an enemy sub or not.
Hopefully the scout sub will prevent this. Not sure how much can be achieved by 50 strike ac...panic
at best [;)]

That's a really good idea Lauren! [8D] Thx - will seriously consider it. Have to find a division that can be divided.
Got one at Yap, but this would leave this base vulnerable... Perhapes a large Bde could be divided. Was
afraid that one fragment would end up with most of the supply train, but using large transports in a small base
should divide the unit evenly. Hm...this would prevent para and fast transport attacks. Andy's talking about
a full Para Division that will arrive soon. Wunderbar! [8|]

The only place were enemy TF's can be hit by surface groups is on the East coast of PNG. Have hit them with naval bombers
and carriers thus far. Will consider a strike by cl/dd squadrons the next time an enemy convoy is spotted though.

I also agree with you that Andy has pressed a paper knife into the cracks of my main defensive line. It will be a while
before he can consolidate and expand the beach heads.

[PzB74]

Air and Ground Reinforcements

The PI will receive massive ground reinforcements over the next 35 days.
That's how long we have to delay Andy in this area.

In the next screenie I will compare the Frank with the Hellcat. These will
become main contenders: LBA vs Carrier borne fighters.

[PzB74]

Frank vs Hellcat



1. The Frank is the second fastest Japanese fighter ac at 392 mph, 12 faster than the Hellcat.
An edge to the Frank.

2. Altitude: Hellcat 37000 feet vs 36000 feet for the Frank.
Not a decisive factor.

3. Climb: Hellcat 2980 feet pr minute vs 2780 feet for the Frank.
An edge to the Hellcat.

4. Manouverability: 36 for the Hellcat vs 35 for the Frank.
A small edge to the Hellcat.

5. Durability: 32 for the Hellcat vs 30 for the Frank.
A small edge to the Hellcat.

6. Both planes have an armor rating of 1.

7. Gun value: 18 for the Hellcat vs 14 for the Frank.
An edge to the Hellcat.

Load and endurance are not important factors in this comparison.

In total the Hellcat got an edge over the Frank, but this margine is
not big. More experienced pilots and the fact that the Frank will be able
to defend while the Hellcat have to obtain fatigue flying from an attacking
carrier makes me believe that a large force of Franks flown by 75-80 exp pilots
and covered by Oscars, Zekes, Jacks and George fighters will be able to shoot
down a large number of Hellcats.

[Arstavidios]

Hi, how strong are your defenses in the Marianas?

[String]

Interesting. When will the Ki-100 Tony and the Ki-102 Randy arrive?

The first ought to be a marked improvement over the Ki-61 and the second, while a rather shabby air superiority fighter, has a nice gunpower and all the obsolete Ki-48 Lily groups upgrade to it. Would be nice to use as rear area CAP fighters vs. heavy bombers. Those lily groups should be high exp too from the constant bombing in china.

[PzB74]

Defenses in the Marianas are undergoing an 'upgrade' to 1944 standards at the moment.
Currently there are 1300 AP at Guam, 1100 at Tinian, 1200 at Saipan, and 680 at Pagan.

The Imperial Division will add some 500 AP to Pagan while I'm thinking of dividing a crack
Bde and place it at Tinian and Saipan.

At 12-1300 AP each island will be defended by:
2 Divisions
1 Tank Regiment
1 Engineer Regiment
Base Force and Aviation units totalling at least 250 AS.
1 Coastal Defense Unit
1 Artillery Brigade.
1 AA unit
1 Army HQ
1 Air HQ

I would like to add another 200 AP to each base, have to see if it's possible to scrounge
another 4 regiments somewhere.

There are currently 2-3000 mines at each base, soon to reach 5000.

String, the Tony 100 will first arrive in February 45 and hasn't been researched. It will not become operational
in time for the decisive battles. The Randy will come in handy, got lots of experienced Lily formations. Definetly a
bomber intercepter or/and kamikaze attack ac.

[PzB74]

Business as usual: 685 enemy ships reported at Kwajalein today. The number is just
increasing.

Me thinks Andy is trying to sneak in troops with LCMs and barges on long range missions.
My strike planes refuse to attack the convoys. Promise them a surprise tomorrow [:-]

All Jill factories have upgraded to the Grace - some 180 produced pr month now. In a few
days I'll upgrade a 30 ac Daitai with this splendid ac.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/11/44

Air Combat

Tomini is in a bad shape, 14 Spits destroyed today - 13 on the ground.

Day Air attack on Tomini , at 34,65

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 59
Ki-21 Sally x 95
Ki-49 Helen x 20

Allied aircraft
Spitfire VIII x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Spitfire VIII: 7 destroyed

Airbase hits 7
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 50
Port hits 2
Port supply hits 5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 3rd NZ/A Division, at 34,65

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 17
Ki-21 Sally x 14

Allied aircraft
Spitfire VIII x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 2 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 2 damaged


Allied ground losses:
49 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another nice strike by my fighter bombers!

Day Air attack on TF at 43,72

Japanese aircraft
Ki-45 KAIb Nick x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-45 KAIb Nick: 1 damaged

Allied Ships
AK George H. Himes
AK George H. Powell, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AK Beltrami, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK George Vancouver, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Allied ground losses:
74 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 41,71

Japanese aircraft
Ki-45 KAIb Nick x 3

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
AK Seaman A. Knapp, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Allied ground losses:
22 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately the Nicks decided to head for defended territory next...

Day Air attack on TF, near Namlea at 38,73

Japanese aircraft
Ki-45 KAIb Nick x 3

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 4
F4U-1D Corsair x 4

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-45 KAIb Nick: 2 destroyed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enemy carrier TF off the Northern Coast of PNG - protecting the transports.
CV Was spotted.

Day Air attack on TF at 45,71

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 3

Allied aircraft
F6F Hellcat x 33
F6F-5N Hellcat x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 3 destroyed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Namlea at 38,73

Japanese aircraft
Ki-45 KAIb Nick x 18

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 4
F4U-1D Corsair x 4

Japanese aircraft losses - low morale got its advantages!
Ki-45 KAIb Nick: 1 destroyed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Monter_Trismegistos]

Well as I see Andy is doing nasty things to you in Pacific... Well do you have any timetable prepared of evacuation from India? How many Divs are you keeping there?