A Day in the Life of CinC, SoPac - A Mini AAR

[dgaad]

As the grand campaign covers a year and a half of historical time (May 1, 1942 to December, 1943), its highly unlikely that I or anyone else will have a completed AAR of the grand campaign (that's scenario 17 in game terms) anytime soon.

However, I did start another game after my first dive in, which I reported in this thread :

showthread.php?s=&threadid=19439

It was June 29, 1942. I remember the day well. And the days just before that.

It had been typically South Pacific weather for days running. Overcast, rainy, thunderstorms of the near monsoon type which are prevalent in the area. The pilots of the airgroups in Port Moresby welcomed the break, along with most other pilots in the northeastern part of Australia, where General MacArthur was doing his best to keep Port Moresby in the hands of the allies.

Port Moresby was not a nice place to be, not for the last month. Not since May 25th. That was the day the japs sank two of our carriers, the Lexington and the Yorktown. Ever since that day, the japs would send their battleships and cruisers and what not through the Gili Gap, and blow the bejeezus out of anything and everything near PM. There wasn't much we could do about it. Add jap bombers coming in from Rabaul whenever the weather held up, and you have a picture of a bunch of scraggly pilots running to their planes all to frequently, avoiding the gigantic craters in the runway both on the jog to their plane and in the attempt to take off. Get in the air, then the real fun started.

To the surprise of alot of people, though, those **** Aussie and American pilots at PM, in their P-39s and P-40s did a **** good job if they managed to get off the ground. It wasn't easy back in May, but slowly some outstanding pilots began to rise to the occasion, and it was no longer an "easy run to PM" for Jap bombers. No, quite a few of them got shot down, even the Zeros.

Dugout Doug, as we liked to call him, could at least not be accused of being a terrible general. He rotated fresh squadrons into PM, or rotated out the ones that just couldn't hack it, but left the top pilots and their craft there. The kind of guys he left there were the ones you wouldn't want to meet in some half-standing jungle bar.

Then there was that thing that happened sometime in early June. It was Nimitz's idea. Mac went along, figuring he could keep PM supplied by air if things went south. Or if the Japs went south. Which they were trying to.

Two fleets surface craft went up and pounded both Gili and Guadalcanal with the big guns. At Lunda (Guadalcanal) they even sank a bunch of hapless Jap transports. But what happened the next day was bad, really bad. The Jap bombers from Rabaul attacked in waves, and sank a couple of cruisers and light cruisers along with some destroyers. I guess someone predicted the weather wrong or something, and it was a clear day for the Jap bombers. We never tried anything like that again.

So, after the Gili debacle, really there wasn't anything to stop the Japs except those **** pilots in PM. The Japs figured that out too. Thats when they started sending battleships and cruisers around the Gili Gap, with pretty predictable frequency, to blow PM sky high. All the fleet could do was wish for some carriers.

And, our wish was granted. The Hornet and the Enterprise finally showed up from Pearl, and CinC SoPac was real careful to put the best destroyers and cruisers in the fleet so that there were many many AAA gunmounts. And he also made sure he stayed out of range of those pesky, and deadly, Jap bombers in Rabaul.

Just in the nick of time too. Because it was getting almost impossible to fly out of PM. We put subs at the Gili Gap, mines, even little rubber boats just to confuse 'em. But those big battleships didn't care. They ploughed through to PM about every 3 days, especially if there was bad weather. Like the stretch of bad weather we had prior to June 30.

June 26th rolled around and found our big carrier group only 180 miles south of the Gili Gap. I would pay good money to hear what was spoken on the bridge of the Heii Jap battleship when they saw the 60+ Dauntlesses coming down on em that day. We were just out of range of Rabaul, and they were coming back from PM having just emptied their magazines in the general vicinity of the PM airbase.

They still had plenty of AA. A lot of our pilots got shot down, but the Jap bombardment fleet was sent reeling. They would think twice about coming through Gili the next time. Hardly a ship in their stupid fleet wasn't burning when the sun set on June 26th. Even the commander of PM sent a radio telegram of congrats to Spruance, the carrier commander.

Then, the weather went bad. And one other thing happened, a coastwatcher near Shortland reported an enemy carrier. That meant he was a couple of days away.

Well, now was the time to head south and rendevous up with the replenishment group, and then head over to Guadalcanal and sink some transports and merchants. With the Marines arriving soon, we wanted to make sure the enemy started to have problems supplying that island.

The linkup went fine and everyone got topped off. We started heading back east again, making sure to stay out of Rabaul range.

Shortly after dawn on June 29th, the mood on the carrier ships went from jubilant to anxious. Even downright scared. Even though the weather was very bad, thunderstorms and the like, We started getting reports from Seagull catapult aircraft that 3 enemy carrier groups were bearing down on our position, putting them just east of the Gili Gap just north of Misina Island. This was ominous.

Here are the combat reports for that day, I'll let them tell the story.

Sub attackat 47,65

Japanese Ships
SS I-27, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DD Patterson


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF at 22,41

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 42
A6M3 Zero x 11

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 13
SBD Dauntless x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero x 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat x 3 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat x 3 damaged
SBD Dauntless x 4 destroyed
SBD Dauntless x 15 damaged

WO H.Shibata of DI-1 Daitai is credited with kill number 2

Japanese Ships
CV Zuikaku, Bomb hits 2, on fire


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF at 22,41

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 23
A6M3 Zero x 11

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 15
SBD Dauntless x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 1 destroyed
A6M2 Zero x 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat x 2 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat x 2 damaged
SBD Dauntless x 6 destroyed
SBD Dauntless x 11 damaged

CPO J.Kawasaki of DI-1 Daitai is credited with kill number 2

Japanese Ships
CV Zuikaku, on fire
CV Junyo, Bomb hits 1, on fire


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF at 27,46

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 14
D3A Val x 40
B5N Kate x 57

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 31

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val x 6 destroyed
D3A Val x 9 damaged
B5N Kate x 11 destroyed
B5N Kate x 21 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat x 2 destroyed

PO2 T.Oda of BI-1 Daitai is credited with kill number 2

Allied Ships
CV Enterprise, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
CV Hornet, Bomb hits 2, on fire
DD Arunta
CA Vincennes


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF at 27,46

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 5
D3A Val x 14
B5N Kate x 17

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 25

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val x 2 destroyed
D3A Val x 3 damaged
B5N Kate x 4 destroyed
B5N Kate x 8 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat x 1 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat x 1 damaged

Allied Ships
CV Hornet, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Balch
CL Honolulu
CL Nashville


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF at 27,46

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 18
A6M3 Zero x 3
D3A Val x 21
B5N Kate x 31



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF at 27,46

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 7
D3A Val x 12



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Enterprise went down.

The Hornet is still afloat (float dam 42), and will probably make it back to Noumea unless the Japs pursue. The last two Jap strikes didn't do anything probably because it was too late in the day. We don't know for sure how many enemy carriers there were, but our best guess is two.

The big mistake here was not going south to get away from them after the coastwatcher report.

The other big mistake was setting the Devastator air groups on the carriers to "training" in anticpation of bad weather. Same for the PM, Cairns, and Cooktown airgroups, all of which had some aircraft that could have hit the Jap carriers.

[Ron Saueracker]

Micromanagement strikes again! Combat zone ac should never be put on training. Why train Devastator crews anyway...they are dead men standing until the Avengers arrive. I always wondered how apt the Avenger name was. I know it was chosen much earlier than Midway, but a good name for a plane post Midway torpedo squadron pilots would fly. Avenge the slaughter of Torpedo 5, 6, and 8.

[dgaad]

Originally posted by Ron Saueracker
Micromanagement strikes again! Combat zone ac should never be put on training. Why train Devastator crews anyway...they are dead men standing until the Avengers arrive. I always wondered how apt the Avenger name was. I know it was chosen much earlier than Midway, but a good name for a plane post Midway torpedo squadron pilots would fly. Avenge the slaughter of Torpedo 5, 6, and 8.

Well, mainly, I didn't want to waste the short life of the devastator pilots on hitting non carrier groups. I didn't put them on "training" in order to train them, it was so not to lose them to flak against non-carrier groups where their unbelievably paltry contribution would at least have the potential of doing some good all out of proportion to expectation. Prior to the carrier engagement, the only report I had of carriers was the coastwatcher report which had reported only a single CV.

By the way, I did look at the head to head version of this save. The Japs had 6 carriers, not 3. One of their carrier groups apparently didn't engage due to the weather.

[siRkid]

Great post! I enjoyed reading it.

[Bosun]

It seems from all reports that a competent AI has been created. Just the thing needed to sharpen the edge enough to duel with a live foe. I'm gratified and honored to be in this group of history buffs who obviously know the value of the sacrifices made by those brave and gallant souls who lived, and died, in securing freedom from tyranny for the rest of us. God grant them rest and a place of honor. I can't help but remember every time I play a war game or study a text. It's clear to me that their efforts were not in vain.

[Hartmann]

dgaad, you´re a real master of story telling, you know that? That post read like a novel!

Hartmann

[Marc von Martial]

We really appreciate all those AAR´s keep´m coming, it´s very satisfying to see you guys like the game

[sbond]

Hi Dgaad,

As always your stories are great.


On another note, I rarely see that Japanese with less then 2 large CV's and a CVL. It seems they love the 2 CV 1 CVL task force. Which in most attacks give them 50+ bombers, almost never win against those odds.