Oh my, I think I killed an albatross... (No Roy2008)

[terje439]

December 15th 1941

Sirs, today a decision was made, or actually a few decisions that all ammount to the same.
We cannot keep planes and ships at certain bases any longer. So the following orders have been given:
a) all planes at Singapore are redirected to Soerebaja.
b) all bombers in the Philliphines are redirected to Port Moresby.
c) all heavily damaged ships in Manilla are to be scuttled.
d) all undamaged ships in the Philliphines are to try to break out and head for Port Moresby and then Australia.
e) all ships currently at Darwin are to fall back towards Port Moresby untill air cover can be provided at Darwin.

When it comes to fighting, the Dutch sent out a few PT boats to engage a Japanese surface task force. While the PT boats launched several torpedoes, no hits were scored and 3 PT boats were sunk.
The good news is that the Japanese suffered heavy casualties at Wake and Johnston Island, a total of 2500 Japanese soldiers were killed, while our total losses were less than 100.
In the air we shot down 6 bombers and 2 fighters for the loss of 3 fighters, these are good numbers, but they would be better if more fighters were airborne at the same time. This is also one of the reasons why the bombers in the Philliphines are rebased, now the ground crews can focus on the fighter planes instead.

For some time we have been concerned about the possible impact on morale that the so called "Tokyo Rose" could have, however with todays announcements everyone can tell that she is lying. So far she has reported a loss of 6 battleships and 9 carriers, and most troops knows that we do not have that ammount of ships available in the Pacific. However all officers should mention every now and then what a big liar she is.

For your study I have enclosed a brief report on the situation in the Philliphines.

[terje439]

December 16th 1941

Good day to you all.
Some serious changes in the situation has occured since last night. First of all, somehere to the east of Malaya a strong Japanese surface force is steaming around. We counted atleast 2 battleships and 2 cruisers, this could be an attempt to kill of any merchant ships we have in the area, or it could be defending an invasion force we have not spotted.
And secondly, Singapore as well as the escape route north into Burma has been cut off by Japanese forces (see the attached map).

We continue to scuttle badly damaged ships in Manilla, as there is no escape for them now. While aerial combat still occurs in the Philliphines, the Japanese can bring so many more fighters to the fight that our boys hardly stand a chance. We still manage ratios of 1:2, so we cannot be too disappointed.
The moving of our bombers from the Philliphines to Port Moresby continue, and soon all of our bombers should have gotten away, hopefully these guys will be useful later on.

We have dispatched a raiding force consisting of 2 heavy cruisers and a few light cruisers to attack the invasion flotilla at Rabaul, this will be a hit and run operation as we fear Japanese bombers will interfere if we linger in the area.
At Pearl Harbour, the Lexington, Saratoga and Enterprise have formed up together with a screening force of several cruisers and destroyers. This task force have been given orders to sail out and try to engage the enemy, but to refrain from battle with the so called Kido Butai.

Our brave men at Johnston Island finally succombed after being bombarded by Japanese surface vessels including two battleships and a handful of cruisers. Now the Japanese empire needs to supply this island, so our submarines have been given orders to patrol the waters off the island.

[Mus]

ORIGINAL: terje439

For some time we have been concerned about the possible impact on morale that the so called "Tokyo Rose" could have, however with todays announcements everyone can tell that she is lying. So far she has reported a loss of 6 battleships and 9 carriers, and most troops knows that we do not have that ammount of ships available in the Pacific. However all officers should mention every now and then what a big liar she is.

LOL, nice AAR Terje. Thinking about getting into this game, so reading up some AARs and looking through the forums here.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: Mus

ORIGINAL: terje439

For some time we have been concerned about the possible impact on morale that the so called "Tokyo Rose" could have, however with todays announcements everyone can tell that she is lying. So far she has reported a loss of 6 battleships and 9 carriers, and most troops knows that we do not have that ammount of ships available in the Pacific. However all officers should mention every now and then what a big liar she is.

LOL, nice AAR Terje. Thinking about getting into this game, so reading up some AARs and looking through the forums here.

Well, Tokyo Rose IS in the game, and that is what she has reported lost. (One BB and one BC is lost, that is true but still she is a little off [:D])

[Mus]

ORIGINAL: terje439

Well, Tokyo Rose IS in the game, and that is what she has reported lost. (One BB and one BC is lost, that is true but still she is a little off [:D])

The part about the officers being encouraged to just occasionally mention what a liar she is in front of the enlisted men made me LOL.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: Mus

ORIGINAL: terje439

Well, Tokyo Rose IS in the game, and that is what she has reported lost. (One BB and one BC is lost, that is true but still she is a little off [:D])

The part about the officers being encouraged to just occasionally mention what a liar she is in front of the enlisted men made me LOL.

I'm gonna need every little bit of advantage I can get [:D]

[terje439]

December 17th 1941

Dear editors and journalist from all the biggest newspapers in the free world, I thank you for taking time to meet me. I, that means we, the free world need your help.
As you all know, aluminum is a vital component in aircraft manufactoring, and we are growing short. What we would like you to do, is press an article on how pots and pans can be transformed into the tools that will ensure our survival.

I realise that many of you do not believe that the situation is this dire, and that you have all seen the manufactoring plants for our aircrafts. However i do not believe you all know how few of these aircrafts are being made available for the Pacific. In the attached report, you can see how badly depleted our pools are, and how low the reinforcement numbers are. Look espesially at the numbers of Wildcats and P-40Bs we have available, these aircrafts are vital to the war effort, as these are our best fighters per today.
Again, the situation is dire!

Thank you all for your attention.

[terje439]

December 18th 1941

Sirs, it seems that the Japanese plan is unveiled. Unlike what we were guessing, their main advance is not South into the NEI although they are seizing cities and ports there as well. It seems the main aspect of the Japanese plan is to make a comeback as hard as possible for the Allies. They are invading in the Central Pacific.
Johnston Island has fallen, our garrison at Wake reports that they too will be forced to surrender quite soon, and now we have reports that the Japanese are about to invade Midway.
The question is wether we want to risk our carriers to try to come to the aid of Midway.
IF the Japanese carriers are low on torpedoes we should strike, as our carriers are within striking distance,
However if the Japanese carriers have restocked on torpedoes, we need to stay clear as that would likely result in the loss of our carriers.

The only orders that was confirmed today were these;
-Johnston Island is to be mined by our submarines. Soon the enemy will need to ship in supplies to the island, we will try to claim some kills by these mines.
-Our carriers will maintain their NW heading for the time being.

[aprezto]

I know you have your carriers in a reasonable location to interdict the Midway invasion, but if were you I'd let this one go. Reasoning:

* Midway is very isolated, like Johnson it is much closer to your line of supply than his, make the resupply efforts difficult.
* Unless he has plans to attack Pearl, Midway's only real use is as a sub base to attack your convoy lanes to Pearl or to SoPAC.
* It is too easy for him to shut down the only land based airfield: Midway. Doing so means it is all up to your carriers.
* Most importantly, even though you have your carriers there, you only appear to have one TF, so a strike could hit ALL carriers in the TF, you don't appear to have any support TFs - surface combat, ASW, anything like that - to act as they are intended, and just as importantly, to act as targets other than your carriers.

Midway is about to get bombarded, and ultimately, even if you win a carrier battle, any planes that land on the island are probably lost.

If anything, I would look to use your carriers to harrass his line of supply to the invasion. If you have time, try and get some subs there to give you some intel. What Roy might do is bombard and then retire the bombardment group. You may get the opportunity to come down from the North (going around Midway to the North with your carriers) and strike this retiring bombardment group while his carriers are still around Midway defending against a carrier attack upon the invasion.

This is very risky stuff. Ultimately, you have very little to gain by doing it. I would seriously just write off Midway for now.

[terje439]

Yea, I've been thinking about this a few days, and there is more to lose than to gain, so I will keep heading north and attack the forces he has at Attu, that should net me some merchant sinkings as well as some XP for my carrier planes.

Subs are allready racing towards Midway (apart from 8 or so that loaded all our Mk10 mines and are enroute to Johnston island). However so far my subs have been a disappointment compared to a vs AI game with no more than one AK sunk by subs (maybe an TK as well but not confirmed).

What is a slight concern however is that he will do as he did in our WitP game, and base alot of those long-legged Japanese gals on Johnston and Midway making the Mid-Pacific a no go sone for years to come.

Well, my CV TF consists of 25 ships, 3xCV, 4xCA, 8xCL, 10xDD so if the need arises I CAN split it up and reform, however I do not see the need on our little trip up north.

Another possible concern in a few turns is when Midway falls, I will nto have any good information were the KB is located and might head right back into an ambush...

Gotta love this game [:D]

[aprezto]

Sounds prudent. Just regarding the Betty. She is much more fragile now. Flights to Pearl without escort will be out of the question if he wants to keep them for any length of time. I'd almost look into making traps for them. Get good AAA DDs and CLAAs and poke them into range covered by carriers LRCAPing the TF from out of range.

Search isn't as 'all-seeing' as it used to be without heavily restricting the search arc, which of course makes it relatively easy to flank.

Basically, these outposts might be more painful to have than they used to be.

[terje439]

December 19th 1941

Gentlemen, as expected Midway has fallen to the Japanese. We do however have reports that their invading ships took quite a beating before they overcame our defences.
On the positive side, our forces at Wake and Rabaul are still holding out, and it seems the Japanese might need more troops to take these locations.
The troops in Singapore reports that more than 150 Japanese bombers were in action over the city today, an attack is likely imminent.

[terje439]

December 20th 1941

Sirs this will not do!
You need to go back to all your departments and issue orders that no ships, planes or troops are to be reported lost on hearsay alone! We need to boost the morale of our troops, not lower it. Surely adding ships to a list of ships lost is not a good thing if the ships in question are indeed not sunk!
Look at this report, the three marked ships were not sunk, nor did we have any ships near Midway, concentrate people!





However we continue to lose ships at an alarming rate. The good thing however is that the evacuation from endangered areas are now almost completed. Some more ships are expected to be lost as they try to flee Soerebaja, but hopefully atleast some of them will survive.

Today unfortunately saw the valiant troops at Wake surrender after a bombardment by Japanese surface forces.
The troops at Rabaul were deleighted to see B-17s operating from Port Moresby arriving to bomb the Japanese troops.
Our surface fleet operating off Rabaul have been ordered to head back to Brisbane since all Japanese ships in the area are reported to be heading away, and a Japanese carrier is reported to the North-East heading towards the area.

[terje439]

December 21st 1941

Sirs! An oppertunity has arisen, and orders have been issued to our carriers to take the oppertunity, and to strike hard. This will however be a hit and run operation as we per today have no idea as to the wereabouts of the Kido Butai.
Too see the plans of the attack, please view the attached files.

Today has been an acceptable day, we only lost one ship, a troop transport loading troops at Soerebaja. The loading there is now complete, and the rest of the task force will head out in a SW direction at flank speed. They will then head on to Brrome, Australia. The Dutch troops will then take up position there and help defend Northern Australia.

A slight concern has arisen in Malaya, it seems the Japanese are onto our plan, and that they are now trying to seal off the escape route north, so our troops trying to break out have been ordered to prepare for battle.
On the bright side however, is that our garrison in Chittagong now numbers more than 15.000 men, and that they are working hard to expand the fortifications in the area.

[aprezto]

Terje;

You are seriously courting coordination issues with strikes from this carrier TF. Too many ACs in an air combat TF for early war allies. Might be OK for a port raid, but if he has defending fighters there is a high likelihood you will be sending in piecemeal attacks.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: aprezto

Terje;

You are seriously courting coordination issues with strikes from this carrier TF. Too many ACs in an air combat TF for early war allies. Might be OK for a port raid, but if he has defending fighters there is a high likelihood you will be sending in piecemeal attacks.

I'm kinda gambling there is no fighters present, I do not think/hope so [:D]

[elpaco]

Terje, I have very much enjoyed reading your AAR so far and especially the tone of it. [:)]
Please carry on as you started and best of luck for your strikes !!! and be careful you might find some albatrosses in the aleutians[:D]

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: elpaco

Terje, I have very much enjoyed reading your AAR so far and especially the tone of it. [:)]
Please carry on as you started and best of luck for your strikes !!! and be careful you might find some albatrosses in the aleutians[:D]

Thank you for those kind words.
I just want to apologise for the slow speed of this AAR, but rest assured I update it as soon as I have a new turn done. Unfortunately Roy2008 is kinda busy these days, so he usually only manages to send in one turn per week.

Oh, and I expect to run into alot of Albatrosses still [:D]

[terje439]

Alas it seems this game is dead [:(]
No word from Riy for a forthnight. I will revive this one if I hear from Roy again, but right now it looks grim.
Thanks to those that read this thread! [&o]

Terje

[khyberbill]

I am sorry to hear that. I enjoyed your AAR's. Good luck.