England vs Germany - #17

[xj900uk]

I've finally started getting my replacements through, which means I can hit Munda and Shortlands faster than you can repair them. If you want to do any operations in the southern Solomons chain, you will be without the assistance of either of those two airbases to provide you with any TARCAP

[bigbaba]

the last  turns saw more allied air attacks on munda and shortland and more air battles. the IJN pilots managed to get a 3:1 kill ratio against their USN and USAAF counterparts. beside that, chris had some success with his subs. they killed a already dead small maru at munda (attacked a week earlier and damaged by 2 SBD bombs in a costy attack with 15 lost SBDs) and also damaged 2 APs NE of buna which will make it back to port for sure.

the increased allied sub activity is a direct threat for japanese shipping around buna rabaul and shortland.

something must be done against the silent service..maybe a full ASW operation with 210 betty and nells? although i fear the possible japanese OP lose rate of such a large scale air operation.

[xj900uk]

I'm glad my subs are doing so well, and Pearl are sending loads through as opposed to surface warships. Perhaps they know something I don't...
On the debit side, the performacne of my F4F's and SBD's has been somewhat lacking over Munda. Squadrons with 70-80 experience have been decimated for very little return.
Case in point - had been resting an F4F ex-carrier squadron which had 95 morale and 72 overall experience, including 2 x 5-kill aces (there were 27 planes in the squadron). I moved it up to the front line and first sortie up to Munda against BB's Zero's they got completely decimated in the air-battles loosing 13 planes (only shooting down 5), + loosing another 5 operationally on the way back. They also competely failed to protect the SBD's which were likewise decimated, & to add insult to injury they completely missed the target

[bigbaba]

well, you are not fighting against green replacements..whatever the anglo-american propaganda tells to the poor USN pilots:[:D]



some stuff about the leader of the "F1/tainan fighter daitai" of the IJN:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroyoshi_Nishizawa

today, we had another 22-7 for the IJN over munda.

[xj900uk]

I know mine arn't as good as that - experience 70-80 but they had low fatigue and good morale. I would have thought they'd do better going after your Zero's (which should be concentrating on the bombers rather than deliberatly mixing it 1st with the fighter escort). However my non-combat attrition/operational losses are running over 10% which doesn't help much... [:(]

[bigbaba]

another bloody day over munda:

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/22/42

Air attack on Munda , at 31,37

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 52
A6M3 Zero x 34

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 21
PBY Catalina x 2
B-17E Fortress x 6

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 4 destroyed
A6M3 Zero x 3 destroyed
A6M3 Zero x 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat x 6 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat x 4 damaged
PBY Catalina x 1 damaged

1LT O.King of VMF-212 is credited with kill number 7

1LT O.King of VMF-212 bails out and is CAPTURED

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 55

Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 2

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Air attack on TF, near Munda at 31,37

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 49
A6M3 Zero x 30

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 7
SBD Dauntless x 33

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat x 3 destroyed
SBD Dauntless x 15 destroyed
SBD Dauntless x 16 damaged

LTJG U.Okura of F2/1st Daitai is credited with kill number 3

Japanese Ships
APD 2, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

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the air combat results for this turn:



the "Cleanup Trio" returns to munda airbase after another day of intense fighting against american navy pilots...

[xj900uk]

I think my marine pilots would object to you lumping them in with the 'Navy' deadbeats. Make them even more angry and determined to evict you from Munda than ever... [:-]
Incidentally, how's the APD? I've got 4 subs in the area...

[bigbaba]

this poor APD is gone..but it was only one of the "2 ASW ones".

oh and you are right...there is maybe no bigger insult for a marine fighter pilot then nameing him a "navy pilot"....or even a air force pilot.[:D]

amazeing how fast chris can replace his loses on pilots..i mean when 25 planes are shot down over munda, their pilots are lost! but he gets even bigger strikes into the air in the next turn...amazeing.

[xj900uk]

Like I said, I have a big pool of 160 SBD's & about 60 F4F's that is just sitting there, notwithstanding USM squadrons that are now arriving at Noumea. Also the destroyed carrier squadrons (excluding the survivors) are in the pipeline and due to arrive soon, the AI must be tryign to build something out of the available squadron names from the over-abundance of pilots, I think it does something like 60 days after the destruction/withdrawal/disbanding of the squadron. Just waiting for some Avengers to join in the party...

[bigbaba]

10/04/42:

japanese army and SNLF troops beginn landing operations at guadalcanal. 95.000 men combat troops (mainly INF, ENG, ART, ARM) troops and supply was brought to the island via 6 large transport convoys. the landing operation was coverd by the entire combined fleet and japanese land based AC from munda and shortland island. recon flights spotted alot of allied ENG units at lunga and it will be hard to destroy the big fortifications..hopefully the number of the troops is enough to garant a short fight. chris told something about 40.000 troops at lunga.

over 100 japanese fighters fly air cover over the beachheads. so far, loses were minimal. 5 AP, 4 DD, 2 CA and 2 CL were hit by allied mines and CD units and one CVL recived a bomb hit causing some system damage. for that hunderts of allied AC were shot down or destroyed on ground at irau and lunga in the last few days. the air superiority over lunga is vital for the operation and is still in the hand of the japanese navy pilots.

its pleasent that the increased ASW efforts (230 nells/bettys, over 100 float planes and the "10 ASW" hunter killer APD TF) finaly resulted into 4-5 sunken allied subs in the operation area. the only naval resistance comes from PT-forces around lunga which tried to attack the landing fleet in the last night and lost 13 of their numbers without causing any serious damage to the landing fleet or the covering forces.

here the situation around lunga:

[xj900uk]

To be honest he's under-reporting the allied losses! [:@] However we seem to have encountered a serious bug in that I keep on telling my troops on Lunga to attack his and they won't (and they following day they automatically reset to 'defend'!) More serious is that I have quite a few attack aircraft on Lunga (over 100) and I keep on setting them to 'Naval Attack' and yet nothing happens and when BB sends through the following turn they have all reset themselves to 'airfield attack'. Don't know if this is because of the pounding Lunga is taking or what but it's getting very infuriating that my airforce & army are being destroyed on the ground and won't fight back even though they can!

The other half of my airforce is on Irau, over 250 bombers but they won't fly because the runway is permamently out of action... [:(]

[bigbaba]

that seems realy to be a game destroying bug.[&:] i would say if noone has an answer we end the game. now i would get lunga anyway (one more CV arrived at truk) but without beeing to fight back, what should be an very expensive invasion for the japanese degenerates into a joke.

[RGIJN]

ORIGINAL: xj900uk

However we seem to have encountered a serious bug in that I keep on telling my troops on Lunga to attack his and they won't (and they following day they automatically reset to 'defend'!) More serious is that I have quite a few attack aircraft on Lunga (over 100) and I keep on setting them to 'Naval Attack' and yet nothing happens and when BB sends through the following turn they have all reset themselves to 'airfield attack'. Don't know if this is because of the pounding Lunga is taking or what but it's getting very infuriating that my airforce & army are being destroyed on the ground and won't fight back even though they can!

may be your troubles are caused by the lack of supplies due to BigBabas attacks? Though I never heard about A/C setting themselves back from naval to airfield attack.[&:]

[xj900uk]

I still have plenty of supplies at Lunga (still over 20k),  also a couple of fighting seabee's to keep the airfield open (it's level 9,  fortifications also 9).  Despite all his raids and bombardments the runway has only 10 damage + 26 on damage repair.  I basically though have two problems :
(1). My ground forces including the elite 1st Marine division couldn't attack him, I kept on putting them to attack whilst he was arriving on teh beaches & most vulnerable, but they wouldn't & kept on reverting back to defend the following day.  Plenty of supplies,  40k combat troops all stacked & supplied & raring to go,  but no attacks for 3 days in a row.  I've had ground forces reverting back to defend the following day in previous games but at least they bothered to attack or bombard for the day in question when I told them to
(2). My airforce I keep on putting it to naval attack but it keeps on reverting back to airfield attack & doesn't fly.
 
The rest of my airforce is at Irau & also won't fly (250 bombers +), but runway damage keeps on hovering around 50 despite the presence of the seabee's & 140k of supplies so I guess this one I can believe

[bigbaba]

its frustrating....we had such a intense game but i can not continue the game with all this problems für chris. after all, these are not small and unimportant bugs.

[xj900uk]

I've had two x PEM's in overnight.  Apparently this is not a bug [:o] & I've managed to be the architect of my own downfall.
Apparently with very large troop concentrations I need full 100% admin support (not just aviation support) and because I have so many combat troops on the island (almost 50,000, of which at least 40,000 are pure combat) and hardly any HQ's (also have managed to leave some of the regiments admin/support people behind on Irau) I am almost 300 admin support points under the minimum.  Apparently when the shortfall is so great & I have so many troops due to poor command control they actually won't do anything,  and also the airfield can't get organised enough to fly naval strike missions (which is why they are defaulting to airfield attack & some CAP for the fighters)
Two separate people have written to say the same thing happened to them, when they queried it with matrix games it is deliberatly built into the design to make sure large armies (not quite sure what the definition of 'large' is, but I guess 50k combat troops count) have proper command & admin support in order to function fully effectively. 
I don't because I left my HQ's and some admin troops behind deliberately to get more combat troops into the area & they therefore can't get organised neough to fight anyone!  [:@] A similar problem is affecting the airfield - they need more general/admin troops present & not just aviation support before they will do what they are supposed to do!

[bigbaba]

ok, when its intended my matrix to prevent "too huge pure combat troops armies" and not a bug, i will send you the turn back today, chris. 

[xj900uk]

Got it, thanks! Still frustrating and not a little unrealistic, though. There's no way my 1st Marine Corp would just sit around drinking coconut juice whilst all your troops unloaded on the beach a short distance away

[xj900uk]

Just an update on how the war is going. The Allies have been loosing hand-over-fist in the Southern Solomons, with a massive force on Lunga unable to fight back or attack the ground troops that are besieging it due to have insufficient admin or HQ troops present (see above threads) and the airforce refusing to attack his shipping (keeps going after his airbases! [:@]) .
The US mounted several PT boat raids and once managed to punch through to a carrier force only for the US torpedo's to fail at the critical moment, overall the US have lost 20+ PT boats and not managed to have a single torpedo success... [:(]
The rest of the airforce on Irau has been steadily pounded over the past week or so either by bombardment forces or carrier planes, something like 120 planes destroyed on the ground and many others damaged and usually unable to fly with runway damage constantly just abouve 50%...
To try and relieve the pressure on the runways at Irau, the Allies have started running decoy surface and carrier fleets (the Hornet, devoid of aircraft and escorts, sitting openly in harbour inviting attack) around the Solomons

However, having said that the Japanese are starting to show signs of fatigue and running out of steam, and having concentrated in the Southern Solomons every spare man and ship, are cast pretty thinly elsewhere. Minefields have also started to take their toll, and the US subs have been having the odd success (two fish into the Mutsu last turn) despite 7 having been sunk in the past few days (two through US mines! [:@])

Heres' the latest combat report with a few comments added :

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 10/11/42

Weather: Thunderstorms

Sub attack at 20,3

Japanese Ships
AP Kirishima Maru

Allied Ships
SS Trout

Bloody useless Americna torpedo's! Missed another sitting target!


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Night Time Surface Combat, near Irau at 42,43

Japanese Ships
BB Haruna, Shell hits 2
BB Hiei, Shell hits 4, on fire
BB Nagato, Shell hits 4
CL Kuma, Shell hits 6
CL Tama, Shell hits 1
DD Takanami, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Hayashio, Shell hits 1
DD Nowaki, Shell hits 1
DD Murasame, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Wakaba, Shell hits 3
DD Usugumo
DD Yunagi, Shell hits 7, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DD Wilkes
DD Gwin, Shell hits 13, on fire, heavy damage
DD Grayson
DD Aaron Ward
DD Laffey
DD Buchanan, Shell hits 1
DD Duncan
DD Lansdowne, Shell hits 1
DD McCalla
DD Farenholt, Shell hits 2
DD Stockton, Shell hits 2
DD Blue
DD Mugford
DD Fanning, Shell hits 1

Interesting one this, his battleship bombardment force attacked a destroyer flak-trap (trying to catch his next carrier born strike & protect the runway) and coming off second best. US destroyers are tough, only one suffered serious damage, the Gwin, hopefully repairable and in return most of his bombardment ships got hit. Had 5" destroyers mixing it with the might of his 14" battlewagons, a most spectacular internal explosion lighting up the midnight sky from the Hiei


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Night Time Surface Combat, near Irau at 42,43

Japanese Ships
BB Haruna, Shell hits 1
BB Hiei, on fire
BB Nagato, Shell hits 1
CL Kuma
CL Tama
DD Takanami, on fire
DD Hayashio, Shell hits 1
DD Nowaki
DD Murasame, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Wakaba, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Usugumo
DD Yunagi, Shell hits 32, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DD Wilkes
DD Gwin, on fire, heavy damage
DD Grayson
DD Aaron Ward
DD Laffey
DD Buchanan
DD Duncan
DD Lansdowne
DD McCalla
DD Farenholt
DD Stockton
DD Blue
DD Mugford
DD Fanning

The bombardment fleet came back for a second attempt to get through to Irau and, just to prove it was no fluke, again ran into the same AA-Destroyer flak-trap and again came of 2nd best. Frustratingly though with the Hiei burning like a beacon, most of the US fleet turned on the Yunagi and pummelled it mercilessly. Not a single Japanese ship got through to bombard Irau. However, just to rub it in the US DD's fired over 70 torpedo's and not a single one hit...


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Sub attack at 20,3

Japanese Ships
TK Kokuyo Maru

Allied Ships
SS Trout

Good old US torpedo's again!!! [:@]


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Air attack on TF, near Tassafaronga at 37,39


Allied aircraft
SBD Dauntless x 13
TBF Avenger x 3


no losses

Japanese Ships
MSW Wa 1, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Fumi Maru #2, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Toshi Maru #2

Irau airforce can finally get off teh ground. Ugh! Want to see the back of those sweepers as soon as possible, they are clearing my lovingly-laid minefields!


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Air attack on TF at 37,42


Allied aircraft
Beaufighter VIC x 3
P-39D Airacobra x 30
B-26B Marauder x 6


Allied aircraft losses
B-26B Marauder x 2 destroyed
B-26B Marauder x 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
DD Takanami, Shell hits 36, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Murasame, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Hayashio, Shell hits 4
BB Hiei

Attacking Level Bombers:
2 x B-26B Marauder at 100 feet
2 x B-26B Marauder at 100 feet

About the last three Aussie Beaufighters on Irau left found the Takanami and shredded it with their 20mm cannon

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Ground combat at Lunga

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 78158 troops, 835 guns, 116 vehicles

Defending force 40538 troops, 401 guns, 245 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 7)


Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 1216

Allied ground losses:
Men lost 355

Just wish the Marine Corp would fight back on Lunga. Had a chance to kick him off the beaches in the couple of days he took to land his forces there, when he was vulnerable and I had him badly outnumbered, but they wouldn't mount any kind of attack or fire a single shot... [:(]


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Ground combat at Salamaua

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 4315 troops, 39 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 34 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Salamaua base !!!

Like I said at the beginning, the Japanes forces are now spread pretty thin on the map, and the remainder of the New Guinea garrison has now marched north and finding very weak and light opposition

[bigbaba]

the results of the night action are a mystery for me. here we have a handfull US "AA-destroyers"..and there we have a powerfull japanese fleet with radar and very well trained crews (espacialy in night combat).

anyway, the last ground combat results at guadalcanal let me hope that the fight there will be a short one and i can give my fleet some needed R&R then.

Ground combat at Lunga
 
Japanese Deliberate attack
 
Attacking force 77278 troops, 835 guns, 116 vehicles
 
Defending force 40169 troops, 401 guns, 245 vehicles
 
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 7)
 
 
Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 660
Guns lost 2
 
Allied ground losses:
Men lost 477
Guns lost 1

the allied airfields at lunga and irau can not be supressed for a endless long time, although KB is doing a good job here:

Air attack on Irau , at 42,43
 
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 57
A6M3 Zero x 8
D3A Val x 88
B5N Kate x 35
 
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 15
P-40E Warhawk x 3
 
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 2 destroyed
A6M2 Zero x 1 damaged
D3A Val x 1 damaged
 
Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat x 2 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk x 2 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk x 1 damaged
Beaufighter VIC x 1 destroyed
Beaufighter VIC x 2 damaged
B-24D Liberator x 3 destroyed
B-24D Liberator x 2 damaged
B-26B Marauder x 4 destroyed
B-26B Marauder x 6 damaged
P-39D Airacobra x 8 destroyed
P-39D Airacobra x 6 damaged
B-17E Fortress x 3 destroyed
B-17E Fortress x 6 damaged
SBD Dauntless x 5 destroyed
SBD Dauntless x 11 damaged
 
LCDR U.Gallagher of VF-71 is credited with kill number 5
 
 
Allied ground losses:
Men lost 36
 
Airbase hits 15
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 107