They were attackong just not the spearhead there is spme randomness especially in arty .
Key lesson is preparation preparation preparation - you must have 50% prep for an invasion against any kind of defence
(On atoll invasions I insist on >75% prep)
Yeah, those numbers seem right...with the higher the better for those evil atolls. Upcoming Baker Island invasion units are all at 100, so I'm ok for that invasion.
This AAR Covers the Period September 28th - October 4th
General Observations
Quiet. No battles at all. Three US CV's are upgrading and will be out of action for a month or so. No loss...as I don't have the aircraft to flush out their air wings. The US Enteprise has 10 Dauntless dive bombers and 3 F4's!! So, it's out of action for a while. Three US CV's remain in the South Pacific, and right now are being used to provide air cover for the invasion of Munda.
The invasion of Munda has gone off well enough. Now unloading all the support elements. Munda will be the "first stepping stone" in isolating Rabaul. Once Munda has an airfield, Shortland Islands will be isolated...making it easier to take. And so it will go (see map below for expected progression of attacks).
The Allied submarine force is back in business. The "fuel bug" before the patch was annihilating Allied submarines, but the patch has solved the problem. At least half my submarines had sat in port for a month repairing the damage from running out of fuel. Now that they are all repaired and out on patrol (and the patch prevents them from running out of fuel again!), Allied submarines are once again taking a toll on the Japanese Navy. One or two Japanese ships die each turn due to Allied sub patrols.
The Allies finally have some good ASW assets. SC's are arriving seemingly every day. I'm spreading them out all over the place. Some are on patrol along the West Coast. A few have been exiled to Alaska. Others are now heading down to the Suva/Pago Pago/Noumea/Brisbane areas. Once fully established in a month or two, the SC's should provide for ASW patrols for much of the Allied supply route between Noumea and the West Coast. With some luck, these ASW patrols will sink a few submarines...something the Allies have had little luck doing. So far, only 6 Japanese subs have been sunk...and half of those were from sub vs. sub combat!!
Bizaare Japanese "Raid"
Very strange. I noticed a Japanese task force approaching, of all places, Hawaii. Since the Japanese carrier force has been decimated, I wasn't worried about "Pearl Harbor 2." Reconaissance showed the force didn't even have any BB's....just CA's and CL's. So, I hastily formed a task force around the BB Washington. The BB made mince-meat of this strange Japanese surface task force...2 CA's and 2 DD's were sunk, every other ship heavily damaged. Why the AI was "attacking" Pearl Harbor with a weak surface force in October of 1942 is a total mystery!
China and India/Burma
Other than daily air raids on Imphal and Chittagong that are beaten back with high Japanese losses, there is nothing going on. I have no plans here except to enjoy the "sitzkreig" that has developed.
South Pacific Campaign
As you can see from the map below, I've developed the "attack progression" for taking key bases in the South Pacific. The Allies will not be taking Buna, Salamua or Lae. These three bases will end up isolated once Finschaven and Cape Gloucester are in Allied control. The same holds true for Rabaul...once Buka Island is in Allied hands and a large airfield developed, Rabaul will essentially be isolated and ineffective. I "might" have to take Green Island, too (a dot hex one hex from Buka) in order to truly isolate Rabaul (a second airfield might be needed).
Attachments
southpacificplans.jpg (128.71 KiB) Viewed 435 times
Nothing is happening. The Japanese made a few attempts to land troops on Lunga. Two of the TF's were wiped out by land based air. The third ran into my BB TF. None of the forces had escorts beyond PB's.
Beyond that and the daily air war over Chittagong/Imphal/Diamond Harbor...no battles whatsoever.
Allied submarines continue to sink 1-3 ships a day now that they are back on patrol.
It will be another 2-3 months before US carriers have full strength fighter squadrons...and probably 4 or more months before there is enough Dauntlesses to flush out their air groups. All the action these past 5 months combined with having six carriers and pokey replacements all combine to make for some very depleted air wings. Happily, with the decimation of the Japanese Navy, it really doesn't matter.
Three US carriers are in port at Hawaii, having finished their upgrades. Two more on their way, leaving the US Wasp as the sole carrier in the South Pacific. It's very likely that the only combat naval forces that will remain in the South Pacific following the Baker Island invasion will be a BB surface TF and a smaller surface TF composed of CA's (they will be stationed at Lunga, under very strong CAP). Other than some transports needed to shuttle troops and supplies and such, most other ships will be based out of Pearl Harbor. The carriers will only come back to the South Pacific to finish off the invasion of Shortland Islands and Buka early in 1943, then later in the summer of 1943 for the invasions of Finschaven and Cape Gloucester. The much shorter supply lines, repair yard and simplicity of organization all combine to make Pearl Harbor the logical place to "base the fleet" now that the South pacific is safe from any sort of major attack.
Troop Shuffle
Beginning the first stages of moving stuff from the South pacific back toward Pearl Harbor. An Army Regiment and Two Marine Regiments are being moved, where they'll form up with their parent regiments at Pearl (allowing them to become full-strength divisions). Also being moved is a New Zealand armor regiment from Auckland. At some point in the not-so-distant future, will also move the Australian 7th division and the 32nd Division from Sydney back to Pearl as well, too. Both of these divisions, along with the 27th division in Noumea (also due to be moved back to Pearl), are slated to be used in the Marianas.
Within the next two weeks, a huge flotilla of ships will be on their way back to Pearl, as they'll be the ships used for the Baker Island invasion, still scheduled for sometime in mid to late November or early December.
Why the Allies are avoiding attacking up New Guinea
As can be seen by the big shuffle of ships and troops back toward Pearl Harbor, the Allies will be launching their major offensive through the Central Pacific...not the South Pacific. I prefered to do this in WiTP stock, and I prefer to do it in this game too. Here's a few reasons why.
1. Supply Lines. It's far, far easier to keep everything supplied when launching offensives out of Pearl than Noumea/Australia.
2. Naval Concentration. I always strive for naval concentration in all games I play. Naval dispersion, as the Japanese did with their naval forces in this game, is inviting a "kiss of death" by a superior force. By basing all offensives out of one base...not three (Noumea, Sydney and PH), the Allies can achieve massive concentrations of power.
3. Safety. It's far safer to island hop in the central pacific than to invite problems that can develop around Rabaul/Truk. This is doubly true now that the Japanese carriers are basically gone. Out in the Central Pacific, the only thing that can hurt the Allies are submarines and a few lone Betty's that CAP can easily handle. Around Rabaul/Truk, the Allies are always at risk of mass Betty and Zero attacks from multiple, large airfields.
4. Speed. It's a lot faster to island hop...starting from baker, then to Tarawa and moving North...than it is to fiddle around in the South Pacific. If you base attacks out of Noumea and start moving up New Guinea, it's a long sail back down to Noumea to pick up forces and start again. And obviously, you don't have to move the forces all the way from the West coast to Noumea to begin with, either. Moreover, by concentrating your forces on the Central Pacific you can improve on the Allied time line...allowing for an earlier invasion of the Marianas. And the Marianas are one hell of a lot more important than some of those useless bases in New Guinea.
5. No Purpose. Exactly what is really gained by hopping up the Eastern Coast of New Guinea? I've never seen any advantage whatsoever to doing it. Iv'e done it a few times in stock, and never once was glad I did. Keeping those bases you take over in New Guinea supplied is a PITA, especially since ships transiting the coast of New Guinea are very vulnerable to Betty's from Truk. And all the support forces needed to garrison those New Guinea bases are MUCH handier in other places of the war.
6. Easier to take New Guinea from the North. Instead of slogging up the New ?Guinea coast, I find it MUCH simpler to hop down it if the desire occurs. You have larger ports much closer to where the action is, and those ports (in this case, the Marianas) are far easier to keep supplied than Noumea is.
7. Organization. I simply find it easier to keep "everything organized" basing as much as possible out of Pearl. You never "forget something" and you don't have to worry about trying to coordinate invasions where the land units are coming from multiple bases. Moreover, by basing stuff out of Pearl (and later the Marianas, btw), you also don't have to worry about suddenly not having the right ships in the right port.
8. You Need to Take the Atolls...New Guinea is "Optional". Those atolls have to be taken, one way or another...as they stand between Pearl Harbor and the Marianas (and beyond). A campaign in New Guinea is an "optional campaign." Conquering those bases gives the Allied virtually nothing...except divert resources from the campaign in the Central Pacific, Marianas and beyond.
Are you going straight for the Marianas or going via Gilberts and Marshalls ?
Gilberts and Marshalls first. Even if the Allies wanted to bypass them in favor of going direct, the US doesn't have nearly enough AP's or AK's or CV's or carrier aircraft to mount an invasion of the Marianas anytime soon.
Additionally, I don't like having a mass of enemy controlled islands sitting astride the main supply line between the Marianas and Pearl Harbor. While you don't have to capture all of the little atolls, it is important to capture the important ones. Enwietok/Kwajalein/Maleowap islands (and vicinity) are especially important to capture...as the airfields there reduce the submarine threat.
As for the Gilberts, I really don't "need them" per se. And with the upcoming shift in focus from the South Pacific to the Central Pacific, there won't be many convoys heading toward Australia or Noumea, either (which removes one of the reasons to take the Gilbrts). However, Tarawa has a size 2 airfield, and Betty's have been flying from there. The best way to remove that threat is to capture the island. Taking the Gilberts also provides a good training ground for future atolls (sort of like real-life), and, well...they're kind of fun to take, too!!
If I had to take a "guess," I'd say an invasion of the Marianas will happen in late 1943 (no sooner than October '43...probably a few months later). In stock WiTP, I often had the Marianas taken by mid-1943. But the changes in AE slow things down, which is good. The changes in shipping and how invasions happen (particularly the need to use AP's/APA's/AK's/AKA's), combined with the mass of ships/materials/aircraft I drag to the Marianas (5 divisions and all the other stuff, usually), all slow things down a bit.
Just wanted to follow-up on the previous post...where AndyMac asked if I was going straight to the Marianas for going via the Gilberts and Marshall Islands. As the previous post stated, I'll take the Gilberts...and in particular the Marshall Islands...first. I listed some reasons, but was kind of vague. Here's a few more detailed reasons. Perhaps some newbies will find it helpful.
1. Reconnaissance. The Allies really need a base in the Marshall Islands to properly reconnoiter what the Japanese have in the Marianas. This is especially so in AE...given the importance of planning. The Allies need to know what is at Guam, Tinian, and Saipan in order to get the right amount of forces planning for each.
2. Reduce Submarine Threat. If the Allies bypass the Marshall Islands, Japanese submarines can really "close the net" on the thin allied shipping lane between the Marianas and Guam. By taking the Marshall islands (and eventually Wake), it is much more difficult for Japanese submarines to find the shipping lanes between the Marianas and Pearl Harbor/West Coast...especially if the Allied player makes use of waypoints to change each TF's routing.
Additionally, by controlling the bases in the Marshalls (and Wake Island), the Allies can much better blanket the sea lanes with ASW air. While you won't sink many (if any) submarines in AE through air power alone, you DO detect them. And a detected submarine loses much of it's usefulness.
3. Keep an Eye on Truk and Vicinity. While less of an issue in my current game, normally the Japanese fleet won't be "so shattered" as it is now. As such, it is always good policy to keep a watch on what's going on around Truk. By having some bases in the Marshall Islands, you reduce the probability of the Japanese launching a surprise attack somewhere.
4. Make It More Difficult for the Japanese to Evacuate Truk. If, and this is always a big if, the Japanese are slow to evacuate most of their forces from Truk before and following the invasion of the Marianas, by having control of key bases in the Marshall Islands, the Allies make it much more difficult/time consuming for the evacuation of Truk to occur. Typically, once I take the Marianas, Ulithi/Yap/Paleau fall within two months. Once that happens, the Allies have essentially cut-off Truk and whatever is in New Guinea from the rest of the Japanese Empire. If the Allies don't control the Marshall Islands, the Japanese can be a "bit sneaky" and still run transports into Truk to pull stuff out. If the Allies have airbases at Enwietok and Kwajalein, this becomes impossible for the Japanese to do.
5. Emergency Port. It's a long way between the Marianas and Pearl Harbor. Common sense says it's a good idea to have a base or two in-between...allowing for damaged ships to have an emergency port to return to if needed.
6. Simplifies Air Reinforcements. If the Allied player controls bases in the Marshall Islands, you can run air reinforcements to Enwietok/Kwajalein using AKV's...then fly the aircraft direct to the Marianas (unless they have very short range). This saves a lot of time.
The Japanese invaded Attu. I have 50 AV on Kiska and am bringing up a base force and construction unit from the West coast in order to build a base so as to be able to keep an eye on and reconnoiter Kiska. But it will be quite some time before I actually get around to booting them off Attu, as this part of the world is the lowest of the lowest priorities the Allies have.
Other than that, not one thing interesting is happening. This suits the Allies fine. October and probably a good chunk of November will be spent simply rebuilding airgroups and moving stuff around (mainly moving stuff back to Pearl Harbor). Baker Island invasion is still on track for a late November or early December kick-off.
Three divisions from Australia/Noumea are at sea, being returned to Pearl Harbor. Only the 32nd division in Sydney remains. Eventually, once some more militias in Australia become available, I'll likely move the 1st Marines off of Lunga, too. However, I do want to keep one high quality division on Lunga, as it's the primary airbase I'll be using for the Shortlaned Islands, Buka, Cape Gloucester, Woodlark Island and Finschaven invasions in spring/summer of 1943.
I have too much fuel now in Noumea...over 400K worth. Supplies also are over 400K. With the departure of most naval units, fuel stocks will hold up for months and months. I'll still need to move some more fuel to Australia (sydney is at 180k), but beyond that, supply needs for the South Pacific will remain quite low for the foreseeable future.
Four replenishment CVE's have arrived and are now in or moving to Pearl Harbor. Happily, they arrived nearly "fully stocked" with replacement F4's and Dauntless's and Avengers. Thus, to fill up the CVE's doesn't require drawing many planes from the non-existent Allied pools. This is happy news, as it will allow me to refill all my carriers with Dauntlesses and F4's prior to the invasion of Baker Island and Tarawa.
Organizing Pearl Harbor for Invasions
Pearl Harbor is overflowing with ships, supplies, troops and planes. 999,999k worth of fuel and supplies are now at Pearl Harbor. Other Hawaiian Islands are pushing 200K worth of supplies. A whole armada of various ships are now in transit from Australia/Nouma back to Pearl Harbor.
To keep everything organized, I'll be using specific Hawaiian Islands for specific invasions. As an example, Hilo will "host" the invasion and follow-on forces for specific Japanese held islands. Once everything is gathered up and deposited on Oahu, I'll start spreading stuff out. While not really needed for the smaller invasions of the Gilberts and Marshalls, for the Marianas invasion this should make organization much simpler. I've decided that Hilo will host the invasion/follow-on forces for Tinian and Kwajalein. Lahaina will host the invasion/follow-on forces for Saipan, Maleolap and Wotje. And the forces headed to Guam and most other islands in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands will be based in Oahu.
While the Marianas invasion is 9+ months away, I've come up with a good way of being able to take (hopefully...depending on Japanese resistance) all the islands within a month or so. It will require a massive fleet to accomplish this, but it looks like the Allies will have the massive fleet needed to do it. Previously in stock, I always took Guam first...then had to sail back to Pearl Harbor to load up the forces for Tinian, then repeat everything again for the invasion of Saipan. This new way I'm going to try (I'll elaborate on this in a later post, as the date draws closer to the actual invasion) will allow me to take everything needed for the invasion of all three islands without having to run back to Pearl Harbor to get more. It will add some complexity to the task of organizing the assault forces as well as the actual invasion itself (hence the reason for each Hawaiian base hosting specific forces), but the time saved will be far worth it.
PDU (Player Defined Upgrades) turned on
I've been playing with PDU turned off since the beginning of the war. However, I had to switch it on. By and large I'll continue to follow the upgrade path for virtually all air units. P40's and P39's are no longer "training fodder" for the Zeros, thus making these planes useful. Additiionally, since the Allied player doesn't get nearly as many P-38G's in this game as in stock WiTP, there won't be the "race" to convert garbage planes to P-38G's like there was in stock WiTP.
Instead, the reason I had to activate PDU was because of the uneven losses sustained by a handful of specific fighter units. In order to replenish those groups, due to the pokey nature of replacements, I needed to "downgrade" some inactive units...mainly those units on the West coast that are scheduled to be withdrawn. Since you can't downgrade with PDU off, I had to switch it on. By downgrading those units, the planes originally in it are thus released to the pools...allowing the Allies to rebuild these specific units. So far I've only done this for two P-39 squadrons. I have enough P40's to go around. There's no point in doing it for Dauntless dive bombers since I only have one land-based Dauntless squadron...and what few losses that unit sustains is well worth it, as it continues to make life miserable for the Japanese whenever the Japanese try to bring in supplies/troops to Finschaven. I also haven't messed around with any of the bomber upgrade paths, and unless the Allies sustain "uneven losses" for a particular unit in the months ahead, I doubt I'll fiddle any with their upgrade paths, either.
There was also one more reason I had to switch PDU on. One air unit, I forget which one, must have a "bug" in it's upgrade path. The unit originally was a P-39D squadron...it's how it starts the game. The UPGRADE path leads to the P-43 Lancers! And once you upgrade to the Lancer (which I did), guess what...the next upgrade leads to a P-39D squadron! Talk about going full-circle. So to help that unit out, I needed to break this endless loop by switching on PDU. This lucky unit will be the first unit to fly the P38G's...which are now just beginning to arrive in the game.
F4 aircraft for the carrier units are still in short supply, but it is growing. Using the replenishment carriers to fill them out will do the job, but in two more months enough replacements will arrive to fill everything out regardless. The Allies get a BIG help in this regard because of the introduction of the Corsair in January 1943. The Allies receive a lot of Corsair aircraft. As such, land-based F4's will quickly be converted over to Corsair fighters...allowing those land-based F4's to quickly find their way into the pool. So I just need to survive 2.5 months or so of "thin to slightly thin airgroups" on US Carriers.
Yep, it's a boring AAR. Sorry! Don't expect any battles either for another month, either, unless the Japanese pull a major surprise.
On the wacky raids theme. It is currently Dec 31, 41 in my game and the IJN has done the following. It spent 5 days pounding Pearl Harbour then withdrew the KB. Just a few days ago the following showed up. Off Rabaul (still held by the Australians) intel reports 3 CVs and a BB. Looks to be half the KB. In the straight south of Baikaphan was spotted a CV and 2 CVLs (looks to be the other half the KB). The CV appears to be the Akagi and she was torpedoed 3 times, shows up in the sunk ship list and then torpedoed a 4th time. I'm not sure as the ship being torpedoed the 4th time didn't appear to be as damaged as I would have thought the Akagi would be and so might be a mis-identified CVL or who knows. I'll be sure ticked if the Akegi suvives 4 torpedoe hits especially after the "explosion under the waterline" message.
Now this seems risky but well it gave me the whilies so its not plain stupid. What is, is what is going on off the west coast of Borneo. A lone CVL and a tin can are there. Now perhaps the idea was to link up with the CV group but I know it is just the two ships as a PG+2 xAKL bumped into it and they both decided discression was the better part of getting the heck out of here. I have 24 torpedoe planes in range at Singapore and around 40 medium bombers from DEI and a RN SAG (2 CL and 1 DD) is vectoring in from the south hopefully along it's projected path if it doesn't run north.
On the wacky raids theme. It is currently Dec 31, 41 in my game and the IJN has done the following. It spent 5 days pounding Pearl Harbour then withdrew the KB. Just a few days ago the following showed up. Off Rabaul (still held by the Australians) intel reports 3 CVs and a BB. Looks to be half the KB. In the straight south of Baikaphan was spotted a CV and 2 CVLs (looks to be the other half the KB). The CV appears to be the Akagi and she was torpedoed 3 times, shows up in the sunk ship list and then torpedoed a 4th time. I'm not sure as the ship being torpedoed the 4th time didn't appear to be as damaged as I would have thought the Akagi would be and so might be a mis-identified CVL or who knows. I'll be sure ticked if the Akegi suvives 4 torpedoe hits especially after the "explosion under the waterline" message.
Now this seems risky but well it gave me the whilies so its not plain stupid. What is, is what is going on off the west coast of Borneo. A lone CVL and a tin can are there. Now perhaps the idea was to link up with the CV group but I know it is just the two ships as a PG+2 xAKL bumped into it and they both decided discression was the better part of getting the heck out of here. I have 24 torpedoe planes in range at Singapore and around 40 medium bombers from DEI and a RN SAG (2 CL and 1 DD) is vectoring in from the south hopefully along it's projected path if it doesn't run north.
Talk about suidical wishes...
Yeah, that CVL does seem suicidal.
In my game a CV force parked itself in the strait near Balikipan, too. It was a good move by the AI...as it prevented my surface forces from doing any sort of raids around the PI's and also sealed off any potential escape attempt by ships based in the PI (although by the time the CV's sealed off the strait, my ships were already gone). Seems the AI just got unlucky in having the Akagi get torpedoed.
The Japanese never showed the fleet around Port Moresby in my game until April...and when they did it was a "bit late." If the entire KB had showed up, what eventually happened might have happened differently. But "half the KB" isn't a match for five US carriers...especially when those carriers also have some support from land-based air.
Well unlucky is relative. The entrance to that straight was mined. I had a sub on station in the deep water there (for some days now), and 2 or 3 subs patrolling the area. It is critical to me to keep that area free of IJN ships. But had the Akagi not been sunk...well that is a nightmare of epic proportions. It would have gutted my land based air and smashed loads of shipping.
I will be right unhappy if it didn't sink though after 3 torpedoes. The damage reports were such that I was really surprised when I got that 4th hit on her. I hope that was one of the CVLs mis-identified since it was not even burning and I was pretty sure that it was "heavy fires" "heavy damage" after the torpedoes hit her.
I agree that it isn't a bad plan but I would not send a carrier group into such restricted waters without a lot more escorts. Of course clearly the problem the IJN has is it doesn't have near enough escorts and when I manage to get in on one of its groups the carnage is atrocious. The Houston SAG and the Australia SAG both have caught cargo and transport taskforces and in the case of the Austalia's raid on Fin(something) (can I remember the names...no) in New Guinea I got the glorious message of "fuel cargo burning" as 8" shell landed in the ships. On the other hand I would have sent the entire KB via Singapore and down the java coastline smashing one port at a time. I have also just finished re-activating the PoW...it still has 55 float damage but for a week it sat in the singapore yards without getting anything fixed so its time to get out of town I think. I'll rest it in Osthaven for a few days before sending it on. I'm just not sure if I should send it Bombay first and then to Aden or Ceylon then Cape Town or direct to Cape Town.
Unfortunately in week 2 I lost the Lexington BG (well 4 DDs managed to return to Pearl) due to Fog of War. I thought the KB was headed west so dodged north but they headed NW and the Lex was in a storm cell so didn't even get a good launch on the KB before taking 3 torpedoes and sinking. I also didn't see a marker for the carriers and only spotted the CAs in the other taskforce and thought they had split. The Lexington's escorting CAs were sunk, scuttled and the last one lost to pump failure. So at the momement I'm very short of warships. The Yorktown is sitting in San Diego as I lack escorts for her. 5 days of bombing Pearl has cost me a lot.
This AAR covers the period October 27th - December 4th, 1942
General Observations
As can be seen by the dates, this AAR covers a lengthy period. Reason for the lack of posts during this time is because this period was, as expected, the definition of the word "boring"...at least if you need action in your game. From late October until mid-November, the Allies did nothing more than finish up the transfer of ships/troops/supplies to Pearl from various places (Sydney, Noumea, West Coast).
Playing Cat and Mouse Around Pearl Harbor
Then in mid-November a little bit of excitement visited the Central Pacific. In yet another raid (which was a bug in the AI script...I sent the save file to AndyMac), a Japanese surface task force consisting to 2 BB's and other vessels paid Pearl Harbor a visit. Beyond the bizaare of just having a lone surface TF pay Pearl harbor a visit in mid-November of 1942, the results of the engagement were even stranger.
The Allies had several days notice of the Japanese raid due to search planes on Johnston Island. As all my BB's were upgrading in Pearl I couldn't put up much of a fight with surface forces alone. Happily, I had five CV's sitting disbanded in port. So I formed three CV TF's and headed out to meet the Japanese Raider. I picked my spot carefully...be a bummer to run into the BB's at night with my carriers. The next day, Allied carriers were positioned one hex away from this surface TF. I thought...perfect. Slaughter!
Nope. Two massive attacks by the vaunted Allied carrier pilots from five carriers produced a grand total of three bomb hits that didn't even scratch the paint. Part of the problem was that many planes didn't launch due to "overstacking" of carriers in the TF. The following day I moved my carriers to the Northwest. This was on the logical premise that since the Japanese raider force had "been busted" that it would attempt to retreat.
Wrong. The Japanese force moved to the Northeast and ended up parked in the same hex the KB always uses to bomb Pearl Harbor! Oops. In another "oops", I forgot to take the 100's of aircraft I had in Pearl Harbor off of their training missions. So these helpless BB's were sitting in range of all these aircraft and not a single plane attacked them.
The following night, the Japanese BB's then, amazingly, moved into Pearl Harbor. No doubt they were searching for some juicy targets. And you know what...any other day they would have had them. A huge tanker TF and another huge amphib task force carrying two full divisions had just left. And another massive transport TF from the West Coast was one day out. Instead of finding a juicy target, the Jap BB's found my PT boat squadron (hastily assemmbled the day before!), and got tangled up with it...one torpedo hit the Kongo. Two PT boats were lost. I held my breath after the surface combat was over...hoping like hell that the Japanese wouldn't bombard Pearl! I had 100's of ships in the Harbor, and a bombardment would NOT have been pretty to watch.
Thankfully, they didn't bombard. Instead, they turned around and headed back toward Midway. During the day phase of that turn (3rd day of the raid), Allied CV's were once again in range of this bold TF. But, of course, the weather nixed the morning bombing run. And the afternoon bombing was, once again, totally useless. A few more bombs bounced off the BB's, but no torpedos found their mark.
Getting frustrated, on the fourth day I had to "make a guess" where this Japanese BB TF was going to go. Back toward Midway? Or back toward where they came from in the Central Pacific. Since they had been heading toward Midway, I retrated my carriers in that direction. Of course, the damn BB's changed course and headed to the Southwest! Thankfully, I had finally wised up and started operating my three CV task forces out of different hexes. One of the TF's was still in Dauntless range...barely...and it make an attack. The 15 bombers (yes, I had only 15 bombers in total on the Enteprise, that's how depleted the Dauntless formations are) in the raid from the USS Enterprise caused more damage than the previous 200 plane bombing attacks from five carriers did! Both BB's sustained heavy damage. Then, on the fifth day, the rest of the Allied Carriers finally found the BB's and finished them off with multiple torpedo strikes.
Overall, it was a peculiar but fun game of cat and mouse.
Baker Island Invasion
This whole thing was going on right smack dab in the middle of when I wanted to load up everything for the Baker Island invasion. Due to this cat and mouse game, the invasion essentially got delayed by about two weeks...as I needed time to pull the carriers back toward Pearl (the Saratoga and Yorktown ended up way the hell out by Wake Island, chasing after the remanants of the task force).
After reading other AAR's about disasterous attacks on Atolls, I truly was braced for the worse...despite all the planning I did for this attack and the strategy I was going to try to "soften things up" a bit.
The Invasion forces consisted of the following : 1 Marine Regiment, 1 combat engineer regiment, two tank batallions, 1 Army Regiment, 1 Field Artillery Regiment. All said and done, around 14K troops. All units EXCEPT the Army Regiment had 100 days planning for Baker Island. The Army Regiment had only 36 days.
Intelligence...which proved deadly accurate as it turned out...said there were 9K troops on the island scattered among 3 or 4 different land units. Due to the less than 2-1 odds, this also gave me concern. But there wasn't time to find more units and wait 50+ days for the planning to take place. So, in late NOvember I loaded up everything at Pearl Harbor using 2/3 of all the AP's and AK's in the Allied fleet and set-off for Baker Island.
The forces congregated two hexes outside of Baker on December 1st, and also met two surface TF's (with four BB's between them) and the CV Wasp that had been patrolling the South Pacific. Due to the lack of fighters and bombers on the Enteprrise, I decided to leave that carrier back in Pearl (it had a total of 30 aircraft on board, and only two fighters, making it rather useless!).
The Attack Strategy
I tried a new tactic for taking an atoll during the Baker invasion and it worked splendidly. Here's the process i used over the course of the three day battle for Baker Island.
I had three bombardment TF's (6 battleships between them) and three CV's task forces (with five CV's between them).
On the first day (December 2nd), I moved ONE bombardment TF (BB's New Mexico and Mississippi) into Baker. During the air turn, I then bombed Baker Island with Dauntlesses, Avengers AND Wildcats. The bombardment attack was solid and very disruptive, but the air attack really hurt the Japanese.
On the second day, I reset the first bombardment TF to bombard Baker Island again. As I expected, this bombardment didn't cause much damage. But I sent in a second bombardment TF (BB Warspite and BB New Mexico) which caused significant damage again. And during the air phases, Baker Island was then bombed by a strong air attack...leading to quite a few "destroyed" squadrons and, in particular, destroyed guns. This gave me hope that I was loosening things up somewhat, as the bombardment the previous day led to only lots of "disabled units."
On the third day I reset the first two bombardment TF's to bombard Baker Island again. As expected, these two bombardment TF's did little damage. But I sent in the third and final bombardment TF (BB Washington and BB South Dakota). That bombardment was deadly...virtually all losses by the Japanese were "destroyed," including virtually all of their guns.
Troops landed that night. I was incredibly happy to see the low troops losses. I had lots of disabled troops and vehicles, but only three squads and a handful of guns were destroyed. Since the troops were loaded purely on AK's and AP's, they unloaded fully (well, almost) during the day.
Then the land combat phase happened. I was bracing for the worse...really nasty casualties. Instead, the Allied shock attack annihilated the Japanese. Here's the surpising results:
Assaulting units:
21st Infantry Regiment
34th Combat Engineer Regiment
762nd Tank Battalion
763rd Tank Battalion
22nd Marine Rgt /5
226th Field Artillery Battalion
Defending units:
4th Garrison Unit
26th JAAF AF Bn
4th RF Gun Battalion
35th JAAF AF Bn
Allied Losses and the Absolute Necessity of Planning
Allied losses were incredibly light in this invasion. Moreover, the ONLY land unit to sustain any meaningful losses was the Army Regiment...which was basically wiped out! Not coincidentally, the Army Regiment was the only unit that didn't have 100 days of planning.
What this says that for taking the Atolls, it is crucial that you have 70 or more days of planning if you don't want your land units to be wiped out!
The Next Stop...Tarawa and Makin
For the next week or so, Allied forces will re-load the combat forces and drag them back to Pearl while unloading the support forces that will garrison Baker Island. Since the Japanese were nice and built a size 1 airfield for me, I brought a base force down with 16 air support. This will allow for the f4 reconnaissance squadron I have on Canton Island to be repositioned and have the "legs" to reconnoiter Tarawa and vicinity now. I figure it will be another month before Tarawa kicks off...if only due to the vast travel times needed to return to Pearl and head back out. So, early 1943 would be my guess.
Supply and Tankers
How things change. Four months ago I was running my tankers non-stop and just barely had enough fuel to be able to keep up the tempo of operations. Now I have 500K fuel in Noumea, 300K in Sydney, all minor bases have enough fuel, and Pearl harbor is pushing a 1,000,000 fuel points. As such, I have 40 tankers now "just sitting" in Los Angeles with nothing to do. I'm running a few smaller CS's tanker TF's between the West Coast and Pearl Harbor/Hilo/Lahaina...but that's it. I also have one tanker TF that will be based at Canton. It won't unload fuel at Canton, though. Instead, that tanker TF will be used to "refuel" the two replenishment task forces. As more bases are conquered in the Central Pacific, this tanker TF will be moved and more or less follow the replenishment TF's around (thus always keeping them fully stocked with fuel).
ORIGINAL: jimh009
It won't unload fuel at Canton, though. Instead, that tanker TF will be used to "refuel" the two replenishment task forces. As more bases are conquered in the Central Pacific, this tanker TF will be moved and more or less follow the replenishment TF's around (thus always keeping them fully stocked with fuel).
A question here, how do you transfer the fuel from the TKs to the replenishers without unload at a port?[&:]
BTW thanks for the big AAR[&o], I enjoy (and learn quit a lot) from your detailed explanations of "why" you do things.
