Burns vs. Yubari, CHS scenario 158 version 2.08c

[Jim D Burns]

27 Aug 43

Sub ops today consist of 1 Japanese sub attack, 1 Japanese ASW attack, 3 allied sub attacks and 1 allied ASW attack. The Japanese sub attack slams an AK at Irau Island, but the escorts pound the sub 6 times causing heavy damage.

One of the allied sub attacks puts two into the side of a tanker loaded with fuel mid ocean about 6-8 hexes south of Japan.

Finally an allied ASW attack at Rennell Island sinks RO-67.

As suspected, the battleships Ise and Hyuga leading 2 CAs, 1 CL and 8 DDs shows up at Tassafaronga and sinks the crippled AK I left behind.

Allied PT boats then launch 3 attacks, and even though one of them surprises the battleship fleet, no hits are scored. Several PTs are sunk.

Japan then bombards the troops ashore and causes heavy damage. No base damage is caused as this is a night bombardment. My brand new shiny port doesn’t get finished until daylight, so the base is untouched… [8|]

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Naval bombardment of Tassafaronga, at 66,101

Japanese Ships
CL Noshiro
CA Kako
CA Aoba
BB Hyuga
BB Ise


Allied ground losses:
1234 casualties reported
Guns lost 16
Vehicles lost 11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Japan conducts two more attacks at Yanku. Damage is going up pretty quickly. Hopefully my other units will arrive back at the base soon and I can make a dent in the repairs.

Japan then launches several air strikes at my task forces unloading at Rennell Island. The Corsairs take to the skies and I’m happy to see more than the 10 per squadron I thought a level 1 base would limit me to.

Even though I scored my first 3-1 air to air victory of the game today, Japan still manages to push through most of his bombers and the BB New Mexico gets hammered.



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Day Air attack on TF, near Rennell Island at 65,103

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 10
A6M3 Zero x 8
G3M Nell x 5

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 26

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 2 damaged
G3M Nell: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1 Corsair: 4 damaged

Allied Ships
DMS Zane

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x G3M Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
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Day Air attack on TF, near Rennell Island at 65,103

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 17
A6M3 Zero x 12
D4Y Judy x 33
A6M3a Zero x 15
B6N2 Jill x 43

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 31

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
D4Y Judy: 4 destroyed, 25 damaged
A6M3a Zero: 6 destroyed, 3 damaged
B6N2 Jill: 3 destroyed, 37 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1 Corsair: 3 destroyed, 15 damaged

Allied Ships
BB New Mexico, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
BB Mississippi, Bomb hits 1
CA Pensacola

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x D4Y Judy bombing at 2000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on TF, near Rennell Island at 65,103

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 9
A6M3 Zero x 6
G3M Nell x 3

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 28

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 1 damaged
G3M Nell: 3 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1 Corsair: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged

Allied Ships
AP Empire Chivalry

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x G3M Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
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I launch a huge air strike of almost 200 bombers in the Aleutians against the port at Adak and score 5 port hits and 5 port supply hits. This is another one of my routine raids. I switch between the port and the airfield each time I fly, which allows me to keep the base almost 100% damaged for both its port and airfield.

With the crippling of one of my two remaining battleships, and the appearance of the Japanese battleships, I throw in the towel at Rennell Island and order my fleets south. I’ll have to wait until my airfield is large enough to dominate the local area before I can safely operate in the Solomon Islands without sufficient surface assets to protect my fleets anymore.

Of the 7 battleships I took into the op, 1 is sunk, 1 may yet sink and 4 will need significant yard time. Only 1 BB remains for surface duty, as the other 4 I have in theater are operating in CV fleets as flak platforms and torpedo magnets.

I’m very pleased with the corsairs today, as they did go up against carrier zeroes and held their own shooting down quite a few of those good pilots. But I suspect it was the fatigue of the Japanese pilots that allowed me to do so well, the next few turns will tell the tale for sure.

The total air to air tally today was 5 corsairs lost (only 1 pilot) to I think (can’t remember for sure now) 16 Japanese fighters and 4 bombers. But the Japanese numbers may be a bit lower, I’m not sure.

Jim

[Cathartes]

Corsairs are gold from here on out.&nbsp; At their worst they trade 1-1 in A2A.&nbsp; You can generally expect between 2-1 to 3-1 A2A victory ratio on defensive CAP if they are not outnumbered.&nbsp; If you have a number advantage on sweep they can be devastating.&nbsp; I can't wait until I can put them on carriers myself.&nbsp;&nbsp;

[Jim D Burns]

28 Aug 43

Sub ops today consist of 2 allied sub attacks, one of which scores a hit on an AK, and 1 allied ASW attack which gets two minor hits on the sub.

The Kongo and Haruna leading 2 CAs and 4 DDs then shows up at Rennell Island and sinks a single AK left there that was trying to finish unloading the troops it had aboard. My PT boats then attack but all 3 attacks fail to score.

Then this:

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Naval bombardment of Rennell Island, at 65,103


Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1 Corsair: 4 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CA Suzuya
CA Kumano
BB Kongo
BB Haruna


Allied ground losses:
5091 casualties reported
Guns lost 73
Vehicles lost 62

Airbase hits 7
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 27
Port hits 12
Port supply hits 18
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Man how I hate the stupid nuke effect of bombardments in this game. The irony is I don’t even have a port, so I don’t know if the port damage is even repairable until I build one… The base is a mess.

A cruiser group then bombards Tassafaronga and gets more reasonable results. No airfield built yet, no airfield hits scored as you'd expect. And troop damage is more reasonable as well, no nukes going off here.

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Naval bombardment of Tassafaronga, at 66,101

Japanese Ships
CL Yubari
CL Agano
CA Furutaka
CA Kinugasa


Allied ground losses:
711 casualties reported
Guns lost 9
Vehicles lost 5

Port hits 1
Port supply hits 3
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Japan conducts a large air strike on Yanku, and does heavy damage to the base. Two small air raids on my fleet unloading at Irau Island score 1 torpedo and 2 bomb hits on an AP.

The allies launch another air strike at Adak (oops forgot to turn it off) Islands port, this time 3 port hits and 10 port supply hits are scored.

With most of my BBs in bad shape, I’m going to have a tough time keeping Rennell Island in decent shape given the nuke effects it is going to suffer. Guess I’ll have to try and catch him with my CVs and send a few of his ships to the bottom.

Unfortunately the Enterprise is still having major problems repairing the F6Fs. Over half the planes are still damaged even though I have them stood down. I have no idea what the hell the trouble is.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

29 Aug 43

Sub ops today consist of 2 allied sub attacks and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. One of the allied sub attacks puts two torpedoes into a Japanese AK at Kwajalein. All three of the other attacks result in minor damage to the allied subs.

Allied bombers hit Meiktila in Burma today causing moderate damage to the base. This is another routine raid I conduct with my Medium bombers in India. The intent is to burn Japanese supplies in Burma and to keep the airbase from becoming operational again.

Adak Island’s port is hit yet again… causing 3 port hits and 2 port supply hits. I’ve been so focused on operations in the Solomon Islands, I have forgotten to turn this mission off for the past two turns. I make sure I do turn it off at the start of this turn.

I send 126 medium bombers from Luganville to hit the port at Lunga (Intel shows the airfield at max damage), 6 port hits and 2 port supply hits are scored.

Japan hits Yanku and causes minor damage. Japan flies two small air raids against the ships unloading at Irau and scores a torpedo hit on a DD. Another raid of Kates hits Tassafaronga at 16,000 feet causing no damage.

The fact China was the most recent area to see action outside of the Solomon Islands, I decided to do a recap of what’s going on there today.



Right at the game start, I rushed units into Canton and established a strong position in the urban terrain. This multiplier of force has allowed me to keep Japan bottled up in the South of China for the entire game. Japan has made no effort to break out since the early battles we fought showed it was a stalemate there.

Early on in the game I established some roadblock positions east of Changsha in the closest two forest hexes along each road. I did this after abandoning my holdings east of Nanchang due to supply problems. Both Japan and I have tried at different stages of the game to push beyond these roadblock positions, and we have both failed.

I made an early game attempt to take Ichang, but Japan easily reinforced. So it has become a stalemate hex along with the three other positions I have mentioned south of it. So basically all of central and southern China have been in a state of Stalemate most of the game.

Of course Japan could usually easily overwhelm any one of the 4 positions if he made a concerted effort. What has allowed me to stop him in our game is my liberal use of reserves. I keep large reserve forces at Wuchow and Changsha.

These forces can rapidly react to moves Japan makes, and have allowed me to stop him whenever he moves in large forces to try and break through. As soon as the fighting dies down, I again withdraw my reserve army to the city.

The other added benefit of this setup is that these armies sitting in the cities have slowly gained a lot of morale. Many Chinese corps now have 70-90+ morale levels. I’ve swapped out the high morale troops with the lower troops in the roadblock positions so now most of China’s army is well above 70 morale with 59+ experience levels. I doubt Japan can conquer China now because of this.

I went over the recent northern operations to take Yanku in an early post a few turns back, so I won’t go over that ground again. Currently the battle is an air battle in the north. I’m trying to get the airfield built up, and Japan is trying to prevent it.

So far he’s won by keeping my base damaged too much for me to continue building it up (level 3 now). I’ve recently redeployed my entire 5,000 AV army back into the city to try and up my engineering capabilities, and it seems to be working.

On turns when Japan does not damage the base, I actually can make some progress. But on turns he does hit the base, total damage goes up by about 3-10 points from the previous damage levels. So it looks like it’s a stalemate here too, as long as Japan keeps pounding the airfield.

Chinese fighters have been decimated and are stood down doing nothing trying to slowly raise their morale. The good news is a Chinese Command P-38 squadron recently arrived in Aden and should be ready for action in a few weeks. It has low morale too, so it’ll need time before I can send it in with the rest of the garbage planes.

Supply wise China is in great shape, especially now that about 60-80 of the 100+ transports shuttling supplies in are now Commando’s. I’m bringing in about 2,000 points a turn to Chengtu now. Yanku doesn’t have high levels of supply, but it is drawing sufficient supplies to sustain itself in the orange/red border zone.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

30 Aug 43

Sub ops today consist of 3 allied sub attacks and 1 Japanese sub attack. Looks like a snake eyes was rolled or something, as all 4 attacks score hits. All three allied subs hit AKs, one at Guam (carrying fuel), one at Kwajalein and one at Tinian (carrying fuel). The Japanese attack hits an AP at Irau and the escorts counter attacks hit the sub twice, damage appeared minor.

The allies fly two routine raids on Daily Waters, damage is very heavy. 157 heavy bombers hit Rangoon, damage there is also heavy.

Japan flies two raids against Yanku, combined they cause heavy damage. Japanese Vals fly two raids against PT boats at Rennell Island. Even though I have a few Corsairs in the air, no Vals are shot down. The raids are broken up though, and no PT boats are hit.

Two small raids hit the ships at Irau again today, and an AK is hit by a torpedo. Another Val raid hits the PT boats at Tassafaronga and 2 PT boats are hit. Finally a small raid hits a tanker convoy of small 2000 ton tankers on route to Tassafaronga to offload fuel for the PT boats. One tanker eats a torpedo.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

31 Aug 43

Sub ops today consist of 2 allied sub attacks, 1 Japanese sub attack and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. The only successful attack was the USS Argonaut which torpedoed and sunk a Japanese MSW in the Aleutians at Attu Island. It then planted a minefield and withdrew.

At Tassafaronga, my tanker fleet arrives at night and DD Dunlap hits a mine. Then a Japanese BB fleet shows up and engages my one remaining PT boat squadron at the base. No torpedo hits are scored and I lose a PT boat.

Next it’s the tanker fleets turn. Luckily I’m not surprised, and the screen prevents most tankers from being detected. I manage to withdraw before any major damage can be dealt out, though the lone tanker that was hit will probably go under.

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Tassafaronga at 66,101

Japanese Ships
BB Ise, Shell hits 1
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 1
CA Aoba
CA Kako, Shell hits 1
CL Noshiro, Shell hits 1
DD Akizuki
DD Teruzuki
DD Susuzuki
DD Hatsuzuki
DD Niizuki
DD Suzunami
DD Hayanami
DD Asashio

Allied Ships
DD Dunlap, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
DD Fanning, Shell hits 2
TK B. C. J. Grootes, Shell hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
TK Colina, Shell hits 1
TK D. L. Kruithof
TK J. D. Schreijers
TK P. J. Duinker
TK P. P. Buisman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Japan’s BBs then bombard the base, but damage is minor and no base damage at all occurs.

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Naval bombardment of Tassafaronga, at 66,101

Japanese Ships
CL Noshiro
CA Kako
CA Aoba
BB Hyuga
BB Ise


Allied ground losses:
306 casualties reported
Guns lost 3
Vehicles lost 3
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Japan hits Yanku today and damage is heavy. The 9 Vals from yesterday return to Tassafaronga and sink another PT boat. Then a small raid locates the lone tanker Grootes (damaged by the BB fleet) and scores a bomb hit and some strafe hits at 100 feet. This must be the same squadron that is shredding my PT boats.

With several of the tankers as yet undamaged, I order the survivors and 1 remaining undamaged DD back to Tassafaronga. Hopefully Japan won’t revisit the base with a surface fleet this turn and I can offload some fuel for the PTs. I have about 20 or so on the way in from Luganville, they’ll be bone dry when they arrive.

I’ve run into a bug with one of my CVEs. The CVE Chenango made it to Luganville and is repairing flood damage before returning to a major port for long term repair. As I looked over its damage status this turn, I noted the AC capacity was 31/37 and red.



Upon inspection I noted that both air squadrons had increased their max capacities. It now has 27 fighters and 10 torpedo bombers, far too many planes for the CVE to ever be able to launch planes again.

Does anyone know a way to fix this? Am I going to have to permanently offload the torpedo bomber group in order to use this CVE?

I hate bugs.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

1 Sep 43

The allies pay 2600 PP for not withdrawing a CV and 2 DDs yet again this month and are required to withdraw a CA next month. I send a damaged CA and 2 damaged DDs from the Sabang fiasco to Bombay for the requirement.

As usual I’m well into negative territory PP wise, so things like changing commanders and stuff can usually only be done rarely near the end of the month, if at all. I have had a capital ship withdraw requirement almost every turn except for perhaps 4 or 5 turns all game. Of those 4 or 5 turns, only two of them had no withdraw requirements at all. Needless to say PP’s are a rare commodity if/when they ever do go into positive territory.

Sub ops this turn consist of 3 allied sub attacks, 2 Japanese sub attacks and 3 Japanese ASW attacks. Two of the allied sub attacks score hits. At Kwajalein an AK takes two torpedoes and the escorts hit the sub twice causing minor damage. In the Solomon Islands, the Soryu’s task is spotted by sub S-28 and the battleship Mutsu is hit with a torpedo. Damage is light.

Japanese sub RO-65 makes its presence felt today and slams 2 of the small tankers trying to get fuel to Tassafaronga. Both tankers are hit twice.

At Tassafaronga a Japanese surface fleet enters the hex and one of its DDs hits an allied mine. Then my tanker fleet enters the hex and a tanker hits a Japanese mine.

Next comes the surface action and I pay for last turns hubris. Thankfully my two remaining PT boats help ease the pain by finishing off the mine victim from earlier. Though it would have been nice if the one PT torpedo hit I’ve gotten thus far in this area hit a fresh ship instead…

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Tassafaronga at 66,101

Japanese Ships
CA Kinugasa
CA Furutaka
CL Agano
CL Yubari
DD Murakumo, on fire, heavy damage
DD Shikinami
DD Ayanami
DD Sagiri

Allied Ships
DD Fanning, Shell hits 21, and is sunk
TK D. L. Kruithof, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
TK J. D. Schreijers
TK P. J. Duinker
TK P. P. Buisman, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Tassafaronga at 66,101

Japanese Ships
CA Kinugasa
CA Furutaka
CL Agano
CL Yubari
DD Murakumo, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Shikinami
DD Ayanami
DD Sagiri, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
PT PT-238
PT PT-239
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The allies launch only one air attack today, but it is a big one. Ever since Portland Roads recently finished its level 7 airfield, I’ve been flying recon flights over Lae every day. After watching Japan pull out of several major bases like Rangoon, Port Moresby, etc. without a real fight for the air, I fully expected Lae to soon be empty of airframes as well. But with huge numbers of planes still spotted there last turn, I launched the attack today.

My rested P-38s did ok, scoring a 3:4 kill ratio (21 of mine to 28 of his) in air to air. Not great, but better than the 1:2 or 1:3 they’ve been getting. The heavy recon of the base and my bombers high experience pays off and massive damage is done to the base and the aircraft based there. If I had to guess, my opponent will be abandoning all bases within range 14 of Portland Roads soon.

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Day Air attack on Lae , at 56,90

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 15
N1K Rex x 6
A6M3a Zero x 67

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 116
B-24D Liberator x 180
F-4 Lightning x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 11 destroyed
N1K Rex: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged
A6M3a Zero: 39 destroyed
Ki-21-II Sally: 3 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 6 destroyed
G4M2 Betty: 5 destroyed
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 18 destroyed, 57 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 30 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
147 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Airbase hits 25
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 215

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 15000 feet
<snip>
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Japan’s air attack on Yanku causes minor damage to the base today, and my engineers manage to fix all damage and add a small amount to airfield construction.

The Solomon Islands see a lot of small Japanese air strikes today. A fast transport task force of mine arrived in Rennell Island and Japan launches 3 strikes at it. The 15 Corsairs on CAP get no kills, but they manage to prevent any damage.

A small strike on one of the surviving tankers fails to score any hits. Then two strikes of 6 Vals each, one of 5 Vals and one of 21 Vals all go after my PT boats today. None score a hit. Japan’s pilots must be getting fatigued from all the recent activity.

As I watched the replay, I was planning to order my carriers north to patrol near Rennell Island in an attempt to hit some of these surface groups that he’s been sending south as they tried to return to base. But then I saw this when I entered the turn:



With what looks to be the entire KB is now 5 hexes north of Rennell Island, I assume he could be doing three possible things. First he may just be trying to launch an air strike on one of my bases, but this isn’t likely.

Next he may just be fishing for ships, as he’s seen the tankers in the area recently and may think I have more convoys inbound.

Finally he may be getting ready to head south 4-5 hexes or so in an attempt to get my CVs to reaction move to within range of his land based air.

So with the Enterprise missing as it is still trying to repair its F6F compliment, I decide to pull my CVs south a bit to prevent a lopsided battle. If he ventures south of Tassafaronga or Rennell Island, I’ll head out to fight, but no way am I venturing into an engagement under his land based air until Rennell Island is a level 4 airfield with at least 100 corsairs to spare that can LRCAP my CV fleet.

Jim

[Monter_Trismegistos]

Goood! One of many now-dead AARs I was reading was resurrected. Could you put a strategic map and outline in red Japanese possesions to remind us what is happening in this game?

[String]

CV capacity decreases with system damage afaik. Should go up again when it's repaired.

[Jim D Burns]

2 Sep 43

Sub ops today consist of 2 allied sub attacks, 1 allied ASW attack, 1 Japanese sub attack and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. Both allied sub attacks are conducted by the SS Amberjack at Amchitka Island. The sub surfaces and sinks two AGs with its deck guns. The Japanese sub attack occurs at Irau Island in the Solomons and sub RO-107 slams one of my best British minelayers with a torpedo causing heavy damage. It’s questionable if she’ll make port. As payback the escorts hammer Ro-107 with 14 hits setting it on fire.

Japan hits Yanku again today and causes minor damage. I’ve caught up on repairs and am now repairing most of the damage caused each day and building up the airbase slightly as well. Unless Japan can find a way to cause more damage, I’ll eventually be able to reach level 7, so I can then begin strategic bombardments of Kyushu.

At Stewart Island, Japanese Nells show up and put 2 torpedoes into the side of APD Fox, sinking her. Fox was part of a fast transport task force that delivered more engineers to the base. For some reason the task force changed from fast transport to transport, so it was still at the base when day arrived allowing it to be attacked. I’ll keep an eye on it for future deliveries, as this was an unnecessary loss.

Japanese Vals also conduct four missions against my PT boats today.

In China I sent 37 heavy bombers to bomb the unidentified unit NE of Yanku and found it to be the 13th tank regiment. This unit is far too small to threaten Yanku, I guess he is simply reconnoitering the road net up to the base.

Looks like all three of my guesses were wrong about KB. Looks like it moved forward to react to any possible moves by my CVs to hit a cargo task force that appeared at Lunga this turn. Unfortunately I hadn’t spotted this task force before today, otherwise I’d have set up a welcoming committee.

As it is, my medium bombers from Luganville attack the fleet, and I’m thankful KB didn’t set any LRCAP, as I had no escorts. The mediums launch two strikes today, and my heavies from Koumac launch one. Damage to the fleet is depressingly light.

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Day Air attack on TF, near Lunga at 67,101


Allied aircraft
A-29 Hudson x 61


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
DD Shinonome
AK Manila Maru
AP Murasaki Maru
AP Hasuna Maru
AP Ryofu Maru
AP Monji Maru
PC Takunan Maru #2
DD Hatsuyuki
AK Kaga Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Kokoku Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Arabia Maru
DD Shirakumo
AK Taihoku Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Sumire Maru
AP Kogane Maru

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x A-29 Hudson bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on TF, near Lunga at 67,101


Allied aircraft
PV-1 Ventura x 19
A-29 Hudson x 31


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
DD Hatsuyuki
AP Nachi Maru
AK Taihoku Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AP Daifuku Maru, Bomb hits 1
AP Ryofu Maru
DD Shinonome
PC Takunan Maru #2, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Shirakumo
AP Herbil Maru
AP Murasaki Maru

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x A-29 Hudson bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
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Day Air attack on TF, near Lunga at 67,101


Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 9
PB4Y Liberator x 15


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
DD Shinonome
DD Hatsuyuki
AP Monji Maru

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 15000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Action in the South Pacific has been all but non-existent, so most of these bombers still have 1942 experience levels. Hopefully I can get them trained up to decent levels now that I have some targets in range that my fighters from Rennell can fly escort over for them.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

3 Sep 43

Sub ops today consist of 1 allied sub attack and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. One of the Japanese ASW attacks scores 2 hits on SS Perch at Shortlands, damage is light but I’ve ordered her to port for repairs.

Surface combats today occur at both Rennell Island and Tassafaronga. Five PT boat attacks occur at Rennell against a battleship fleet and Four PT boat attacks occur at Tassafaronga against a cruiser fleet. A few small shell hits are scored, but no torpedoes hit and no real damage is done. Several PT boats are sunk.

Japan then bombards both bases. While damage at Rennell is heavy, the base is fully repaired at the start of my turn, so construction on the level 2 airfield continues. Though at a much slower pace than the level 1 airfield went up.

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Naval bombardment of Rennell Island, at 65,103 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

45 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
CA Kumano
CA Suzuya, Shell hits 2
BB Haruna, Shell hits 1
BB Kongo


Allied ground losses:
1110 casualties reported
Guns lost 18
Vehicles lost 10
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Naval bombardment of Tassafaronga, at 66,101

Japanese Ships
CL Yubari
CL Agano
CA Furutaka
CA Kinugasa


Allied ground losses:
59 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
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Allied medium bombers hit Meiktila today causing heavy damage to the base.

Four Val strikes hit my PT boats today and several PTs are damaged or sunk. Japan attacks Yanku today and is met by 26 Chinese Lancer’s. The 24 escorting Oscars shoot down 2 Lancers at a cost of 1 Oscar. Damage to the base is light and is again fully repaired at the start of my turn.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

4 – 5 Sep 43

4 Sep is so quiet, I’ll post the entire Combat reports text file instead of summarizing the turn.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/04/43

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TF 27 encounters mine field at Tulagi (67,100)

Japanese Ships
MSW Wa 14
MSW Wa 10


Sub ops for 5 Sep consist of Japanese sub RO-106 slamming LCT-148 with a torpedo and a single shell hit at Irau Island. This barge is part of a barge supply fleet that arrived at the base to deliver supplies today.

Allied bombers hit Daily Waters today and cause heavy damage to the base. I launch another big air strike on Lae today, as I still spot large numbers of Japanese planes at the base. This time only 84 P-38s manage to escort the raid, and Japan gets a respectable number of fighters into the air even though the base was hammered hard just a few days ago.

It’s a bloodbath, but my fighters manage to hold their own scoring a 1:1 kill ratio with slightly more Japanese fighters going down in air to air than allied (can’t remember exact count). Damage to the base is again very heavy and overall I think Japan lost close to 100 planes total today. This has got to be hurting him, though I’m sure his production can easily keep up, as combats have been relatively light in game up till recent events.

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Day Air attack on Lae , at 56,90

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 8
N1K Rex x 3
A6M3a Zero x 67
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 11
Ki-61-Ib Tony x 13

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 84
B-24D Liberator x 179
F-4 Lightning x 4

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 4 destroyed
N1K Rex: 4 destroyed
A6M3a Zero: 40 destroyed
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 16 destroyed
Ki-61-Ib Tony: 13 destroyed
Ki-21-II Sally: 4 destroyed
G4M2 Betty: 7 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 4 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 22 destroyed, 40 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 38 damaged
F-4 Lightning: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
110 casualties reported
Guns lost 4

Airbase hits 20
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 130

Aircraft Attacking:
12 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 15000 feet
<snip>
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Japanese Vals conduct two raids on my PTs today, one of which has 3 Corsairs on CAP. I guess this is spill over CAP, as I didn’t assign any. The good news is 2 Vals go down (1 to CAP 1 to flak) and only 1 PT is hit.

Soon these PT raids will be too costly for him to continue and I can then keep a decent number on station to help break up his bombardment attacks. Right now however, I’ve been losing several boats each day, so it is nice to see more Vals down than PTs finally.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Hi Monter-Trismegistos,

I did a whole batch of updates before coming to the forums today. I'll get a strat map and overview up with my next batch of updates.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: String

CV capacity decreases with system damage afaik. Should go up again when it's repaired.

Hi String,

The ship aircraft capacity hasn't changed, the squadron sizes changed, so the plane counts then exceeded ship capacity when the squadrons filled up. I had to remove the torpedo planes so I can get below operable abilities again.

Jim

[bigbaba]

great AAR. i am sitting at work with a cup of tea and just went through the last pages of this AAR. keep em comming jim!

[Jim D Burns]

6 Sep 43

Sub ops today consist of 3 Allied sub attacks, 1 allied ASW attack and 1 Japanese ASW attack. All three allied sub attacks find their mark, but two are by the same sub vs. the same target.

The SS Gunnel in the South China Sea torpedoes AK Glasgow Maru and hits twice in the morning and once in the afternoon, sinking her. SS Tunny hits a loaded AP with a single torpedo in hex 61, 48 causing 22 casualties.

The allied ASW attack scores a single hit on RO-66 southeast of Guadalcanal.

The Ise and Hyuga return to Rennell Island and are engaged by two PT boat groups. One of the PTs scores a torpedo hit on DD Akizuki, damage appeared heavy. 3 PT boats are sunk in the two battles. But then for some odd reason the BBs do not bombard the island. I wonder if my opponent forgot to rearm them, or perhaps created a surface taskforce by mistake.

I’m glad for the reprieve at Rennell. I’m well above half way to a level 2 airfield now.

147 allied heavy bombers hit Rangoon today and are met by 25 Oscars. 34 bombers are damaged and none are shot down. Damage to the base is heavy.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

7 Sep 43

Sub ops for 7 Sep consist of a single allied ASW attack on Japanese sub RO-65 by my fast transport APD taskforce south of Rennell Island. 2 minor hits are scored on the sub.

Allied medium bombers hit Daily Waters today causing major damage to the base.

Japan conducts two raids on Yanku today, damage to the base is heavy.

Sub ops for 8 Sep consist of a single allied sub attack. SS Gar hits AK Goyo Maru with a single torpedo in hex 35, 63.

Allied medium bombers hit Meiktila today causing heavy damage to the base. Medium bombers also hit Lunga today, causing moderate damage to the airbase. Allied heavy bombers launch another big raid on Rangoon today. Only 40 P-38s manage to make the escort, but it is enough to see my bombers through the small CAP defense. Damage to the base is massive.

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Day Air attack on Lae , at 56,90

Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 7
A6M3a Zero x 21

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 40
B-24D Liberator x 180
F-4 Lightning x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged
A6M3a Zero: 11 destroyed
Ki-46-III Dinah: 1 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 6 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 19 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
128 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Airbase hits 20
Airbase supply hits 8
Runway hits 198

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 15000 feet
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6 B-17s from Chungking launch a raid on a Japanese cargo fleet at Taichu on Formosa, the high experience levels of the pilots pay off as a single bomb hit is scored from 15,000 feet. Damage didn’t appear to be very heavy.

As requested here’s a current strategic map of the situation on 8 Sep. Not a lot has changed from the map I posted last year, but I hope to significantly change this border within the next few months.



For those unfamiliar with the situation about 1 year ago, I’ll list the few changes. NE Australia is now mine except for Thursday Island (awaiting arrival of para regiment). Yanku in northern China is now mine, and I’ve recently landed at Guadalcanal and some of the small surrounding islands.

Not a lot to show for a whole game year, but I am now deployed forward in strength and poised to start pushing hard against the Japanese perimeter.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: bigbaba
great AAR. i am sitting at work with a cup of tea and just went through the last pages of this AAR. keep em comming jim!

Hi Bigbaba,

Welcome, it's always nice to get a new reader, glad you're enjoying it. With my turns taking a lot longer now, it's hard to find time to do the updates right away, but I'll try and catch up soon.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

9 Sep 43

Sub ops today consist of 1 allied sub attack, 1 allied ASW attack and 1 Japanese ASW attack. Only the allied ASW attack scores any hits, RO-62 is hit twice, damage appeared minor.

At Rennell Island, Japanese DD Sagiri runs into a mine as its bombardments fleet arrives in hex. Damage to the DD was heavy. Allied PT boats then conduct three attacks on the CA fleet, but no torpedo hits are scored. 4 PT boats are sunk in the fighting.

The CAs move in and bombard the island, but fail to damage the base at all. Damage to the troops is pretty light, and the CD guns manage to score a few hits on my opponent’s namesake ship, though no real damage is reported, so they probably bounced.

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Naval bombardment of Rennell Island, at 65,103 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

47 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
CL Yubari, Shell hits 2
CL Agano
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 6
CA Kinugasa


Allied ground losses:
247 casualties reported
Guns lost 5
Vehicles lost 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later in the turn Japanese minelayer Hatsutaka runs into a mine at Johore Bahru and suffers heavy damage.

In the Aleutians, I sent a PC fleet to Atka Island to sweep for mines. One of the small ships drifts into a mine while clearing the harbor. These ships are clearing the way for a barge fleet heading in with an engineer aboard. I plan to bring in several engineers and other troops to get this island into the fight over the next couple of months.

With only a potential airfield of 3, it will act as a forward base for my fighters, so they don’t suffer so much fatigue while escorting my heavy bombers against his rear area airfields. About half my medium bombers at Umnak will be upgrading to B-24Js over the next few months, so my ability to dominate the air in the Aleutians will significantly increase.

Japan hits Yanku today and causes heavy damage to the base. Yanku is now a level 4 AF, but Japan’s ability to keep my engineers from building up further has gotten worse. I’m, now only making progress on construction perhaps one turn out of 3 or 4 turns. But with the P-47D (Thud) entering production this month, I’ll be able to upgrade some Chinese fighters to this airframe probably next month, so I can then begin to win air dominance in China.

I made a boneheaded move today. I was on my way out the door and rushed the turn, so I forgot to turn off my mission over Lae. While damage to the base was heavy, this crashed the morale of most of my heavy bomber squadrons.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Lae , at 56,90

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 9

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 23
B-24D Liberator x 132
F-4 Lightning x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3a Zero: 4 destroyed, 1 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed
Ki-46-II Dinah: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-24D Liberator: 12 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
46 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 13
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 62

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 15000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had been very carefully husbanding the morale of these squadrons by only flying a mission once every 2-4 days. Now they’ll need a week or two R&R to get back up into the 90s morale wise.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

10 Sep 43

Sub ops today consist of 2 allied sub attacks and 2 Japanese ASW attacks. Both allied sub attacks score hits. SS Gurnard finds a Japanese minelayer and puts two torpedoes into her in hex 88, 37. SS Tautog arrives at Kai Island to investigate some recent activity spotted by recon planes and slams APD No. 35 with two torpedoes sending her to the bottom.

I had set my recon planes in NE Australia to automatic, and they had kept flying over Kai Island, so I sent in the sub. The sub has spotted 3 or 4 task forces in the hex. It makes no sense that Japan would be launching an attack from here, so perhaps he’s preparing a reactionary force to head down to Port Moresby when/if I attack there.

At Rennell Island another Japanese battleship bombardment force arrives in hex, and DD Asashio runs into a mine. With so few PT boats left, I had merged them all into one task force and it engaged the battleship fleet.

What follows is one of the most bizarre surface engagements I have ever seen. It starts out normally enough as my PT boats opens fire at range 1,000 and PT-295 slams a torpedo into a Japanese DD. But then it goes all wrong.

DD Niizuki begins pounding PT-295 with round after round of 3.9 shells and AAA shells. A grand total of 182 hits are scored before the PT boat goes down.

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

Japanese Ships
BB Ise
BB Hyuga
CA Aoba
CA Kako
CL Noshiro
DD Teruzuki, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Susuzuki, Shell hits 1
DD Hatsuzuki, Shell hits 2
DD Niizuki
DD Asashio, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
PT PT-106
PT PT-120
PT PT-189
PT PT-225
PT PT-243
PT PT-295, Shell hits 182, and is sunk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



The only thing I can think of is all/most of the hits were tower hits, so no real float damage was being caused. I watched perhaps 30 hits, and a very small percentage of them were not tower hits. But I simply didn’t have the stamina to sit through 182 shell hits…

The battleship fleet then bombards Rennell Island and again fails to score any base damage. Damage to the troops ashore is very light considering it is a battleship fleet. I can’t explain the last two Japanese bombardments. After the nuke effects of his early runs, he’s had a very difficult time hitting my base recently.

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Naval bombardment of Rennell Island, at 65,103 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

33 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
CL Noshiro
CA Kako
CA Aoba
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 1
BB Ise


Allied ground losses:
373 casualties reported
Guns lost 8
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whatever the cause, this puts me over the top and I finish my level 2 airfield this turn. I rebase in a torpedo and a dive bomber squadron, along with a float plane search squadron. This gives me the equivalent of an unsinkable carrier in the southern Solomon Islands. I am truly on the way to breaching his outer perimeter now.

The only air attack today occurs at Atka Island in the Aleutians. A large Betty raid attacks my PC fleet and the 5 Thunderbolts on LRCAP fail to down any planes. Two ships are hit and 1 Betty goes down to flak.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Atka Island at 98,38

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 16
G4M1 Betty x 29

Allied aircraft
P-47C Thunderbolt x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged


Allied Ships
PC Ute, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
PC Apache
PC Navajo, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PC Chickasaw

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

With this attack on the PCs instead of the barge fleet, my engineers are ashore. I estimate it will take several months to build up this base, so this will be a slow speed campaign in the Aleutians.

Jim