Hunting the Hibiki: Q-Ball (Allies) v Cuttlefish (Japan)

[Q-Ball]

ny59giants: Great minds think alike, I have had a Marine Regt. prepping for Nuku for awhile, (2 months), and have smaller Bns prepping for the other two islands. Wallis Is is a size-5 airfield now to support that. The garrison is a Nav Gd unit on Nuku, and the other two appear empty, so it should be an easy takedown. Famous last words.

Combat Report, Sept 7 to 14, 1942

There has only been a few pockets of action. Alot of the action is behind the lines, where the Allies are putting the final pieces in place for our massive fall offensive. Almost time to Mount up!

China: There seems to be some Japanese movement toward Kukong and the back of Changsha. I brought out the Chinese Airforce to contest some bombing, thinking the P-43 and P-66 would be an improvement. Nope, Chinese fighters still suck; Oscars had them for lunch.

Sub Wars: Some nice hits the last few days......a Dutch sub took down a small TK near Singapore. Tuna sank an AO off Taiwan. And S-36 went on a mini-rampage off Waingapu, sinking an xAK and a real AK in successive days.

The landing at Waingapu was a single SNLF that has been landing and taking empty Dutch bases. I don't think it will stay, though if it does, it will be swamped by a division in about 15 days.

FORAGER: A Japanese plane was sighted over some of our units traversing the jungle; Cuttlefish probably knows something is up, or at least units are crossing the Burmese border. I haven't see any air attacks yet, but probably tommorow we will start our aerial blitz, since the cat appears to be out of the perverbial bag.

SEARCHLIGHT: Our fake invasion of the Marshalls sailed on the 15th for a rendevous point off Johnston Island. A single infantry battalion is loaded on 25 transports, and I have a cruiser TF and an Air Combait TF centered around Long Island. I am going to ship a unit of Wildcats on Long Island to complete the effect; if CAP is spotted over our ships, he will likely assume there is more than 1 single little CVE. I am prepared to lose all of these ships; none of them are really critical to the war effort.

REPRISAL: The last reinforcements arrived in Perth. I have stood down all aircraft from training to recover all fatigue. The first convoy has left Perth, a support convoy that will land a 2nd wave at Port Hedland, then disband and wait.

At this point we are going to wait until the SEARCHLIGHT convoys reach Johnston. At that point we will start loading the troops at Perth. Other assault wave troops are loading at Carnarvon, Exmouth, and Port Hedland, and we will initiate those loads as the first convoy moves up the coast. We want to time it so that just as we are rounding Exmouth, the SEARCHLIGHT forces will be spotted off the Marshalls. That will give us 4 days steaming before REPRISAL is spotted; enough time for CF to start sending ships to the Marshalls, but not so much time he gets there, determines that it's a fake, and turns around. Timing is pretty key on these headfakes.

I still estimate D-Day on Timor as about the 1st of October. Recent recon shows a garrison of approx. 6500 troops in 4 units. I am guessing at least 2 base forces, an Infantry unit, maybe a tank unit. I have no SigInt on the garrison, other than a base force.

I beleive Flores and Soemba to be unoccupied, other than the aforementioned clean-up crew. My original assessment was that Koepang will be the only real resistance; that is still the case IMO. I am not sure that the Japanese have picked up on the buildup; I don't think so. Japanese aircraft buzz Darwin daily, but the unit count has not increased there. I haven't seen an aircraft over Port Hedland, which is good, because I now have in excess of 25 units and 100,000 troops there. That would probably raise an eyebrow, don't you think?

[ny59giants]

I wonder if setting one of those hopefully empty base around Timor as a Waypoint for your subs would provide any useful intel. [&:] Hopefully, CF would see it as a way into the SRA for your subs, nothing more.

I was just posting over on Dan's AAR. How are you dealing with ASW warfare with your LBA?? Are you specifically training up units for ASW?? I think some of those large 18 planes Kingfisher squadrons highly experienced in ASW and possibly naval bombing would be helpful on your new bases to suppress his subs that are sure to show up. 

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

I wonder if setting one of those hopefully empty base around Timor as a Waypoint for your subs would provide any useful intel. [&:] Hopefully, CF would see it as a way into the SRA for your subs, nothing more.

I was just posting over on Dan's AAR. How are you dealing with ASW warfare with your LBA?? Are you specifically training up units for ASW?? I think some of those large 18 planes Kingfisher squadrons highly experienced in ASW and possibly naval bombing would be helpful on your new bases to suppress his subs that are sure to show up. 

Honestly, I haven't given LBA ASW much thought. I have a couple Australian units training on it, but that's about it. The Kingfisher units are all still on the West Coast; other priorities I guess. Probably should have thought of that about 2 months ago. It's a long way from LA to Koepang. On the bright side, I am keeping the West Coast pretty much stripped bare of useable forces, and moving them forward.

As far as Sub activity to support Reprisal, I have pulled in alot of my subs just recently, to top off the tanks; I plan to send them out shortly to watch all the passage, particularly a line between Menado and Sorong, where warships from Truk would transit to the area. I plan to put enough there to make a string of subs so that we should have a shot at whatever comes through the strait. I don't expect this to alarm Cuttelfish; first, he doesn't have alot of aircraft patrolling that area, and second, I have consistently had a sub or two in that passage since February.

Combat Report, Sept 15-16, 1942

FORAGER: Cuttlefish via e-mail confirmed that he knows we are moving. Said something like "Surrender now and spare yourself the trouble of marching through the jungle", something like that. He knows I have a large force coming. FORAGER is on!

I will have ground forces on the rail line from Shwebo to Myiktinya in about 8 days. Until then, CF can send reinforcements up the line before I cut it. I am buzzing Myiktinya to see if he does. In the meantime, a bunch of FBs and Bombers hit the Tank Regt. at Katha, damaging several and destroying some. I had ordered a 200-plane attack on Mandalay, where intel reports 72 fighters are based, but weather cancelled it. Tommorow, perhaps. If there are that many fighters, I expect to lose some planes.

I hope this activity will encourage Cuttlefish to move IJA air assets to Burma. That will help clear the skies over REPRISAL, the more important offensive.

SEARCHLIGHT: We shall rendevous off Johnston Is. on the 17th, and sail toward the Marshalls. I posted a sub right off Wotje to make CF suspicious. That is my "fake" target. I plan a shore bombardment of Wotje with 4 Allied Cruisers in about 5 days; they should be able to get away back home. Then, the "Air Combat" TF and transports will very slowly make their way forward.

REPRISAL: Just a little more prep; I am loading up ships with supplies then disbanding them in Perth. They will be picked up and joined to the assault TFs just as we leave, to provide supplies for the first assault day. Otherwise, the troops on Reprisal are just awaiting events.

[Capt. Harlock]

SEARCHLIGHT: Our fake invasion of the Marshalls sailed on the 15th for a rendevous point off Johnston Island. A single infantry battalion is loaded on 25 transports, and I have a cruiser TF and an Air Combait TF centered around Long Island. I am going to ship a unit of Wildcats on Long Island to complete the effect; if CAP is spotted over our ships, he will likely assume there is more than 1 single little CVE.

Whew! I was afraid you'd forgotten about SEARCHLIGHT. Some clever load-outs there; let's hope they do the trick.

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock
Whew! I was afraid you'd forgotten about SEARCHLIGHT. Some clever load-outs there; let's hope they do the trick.

We'll see......it will work if screaming Vals and Kates plaster the force. Hopefully the deception works.

Combat Report, Sept 18,19 1942

Some action the last couple days, mostly in the air war over Burma.

FORAGER: My first attack on Mandalay did not go well; the weather over Burma is very poor, so the only planes that flew were unescorted Wellingtons, who were slaughtered. I lost about 20 aircraft on the 18th, to hardly any Japanese losses.

The 19th went alot better, as I managed to get about 120 fighters on Sweep over Mandalay. I lost 30 planes, mostly P-40s and Hurris, for an equal number of Oscars and Zeros, but mostly Zeros, over 2-dozen. I'll take that any day, particularly since I am still facing the IJN First Team, as his Zero pilot losses have been very light this game.

Troops continue to march through the jungle. Forces are seen marching north from Shwebo, though no reinforcements yet to Myiktinya. The RM Viper force is on the rail line north of Shwebo; they will get kicked off, but not before 2 divisions reach the rail line again. I think I have Myiktinya isolated, we'll see.

SEARCHLIGHT: I messed up on the Wildcats for Long Island; the Marine units at Pearl are all equipped with Buffalos, in which they were training. Seeing an F2A over my forces will NOT be very convincing; I upgraded a unit, and need to wait for it to repair to get out to Long Island. This pushes the timetable for this, and Reprisal back about 4 days. The new D-Day for Reprisal is probably the 4th of October.

REPRISAL: Not so good news.........a large convoy delivering the last of the troops to Port Hedland ran over a Japanese Sub off Exmouth. The sub sank a DD, but more importantly, spotted the convoy, including lots of APs. I hope that didn't tip Cuttlefish off that I am up to something; he has also spotted convoys around New Zealand heading West.

I am sending out my sub screen early to see what's up. I have been buzzing Rabaul as well, but not seeing activity there.

[Capt. Harlock]

This pushes the timetable for this, and Reprisal back about 4 days. The new D-Day for Reprisal is probably the 4th of October. REPRISAL: Not so good news.........a large convoy delivering the last of the troops to Port Hedland ran over a Japanese Sub off Exmouth. The sub sank a DD, but more importantly, spotted the convoy, including lots of APs. I hope that didn't tip Cuttlefish off that I am up to something;

Rats and other comments. That's the trouble with coordinated attacks: a delay in one means a delay in the other.

[Q-Ball]

Combat Report, Sept 19-20 1942

SEARCHLIGHT: Wildcats in hand, everyone is moving to a rendevous point about 6 hexes west of Johnston Is, just outside Japanese Air Search range. We should reach that tommorow. After that, we will start slowly sailing toward Wotje, with the intent to trip off some alarms. I also intend to start loading up all the forces for REPRISAL tommorow.

REPRISAL: Everyone is in place, and we are ready to go. Ready as we'll ever be, anyway.

Last intel indicates Timor is empty, except 5 units at Koepang, which look small enough to overcome. I have seen some IJN warship movements lately, I wonder if Cuttlefish thinks something is up over there. I may just be paranoid, but SS Trusty picked up a "BB,BB" etc. TF off Palembang, and SS Grayback reported a cruiser TF off Kaveing, on a NW heading, which would be approximately Palau or Home Islands, not Truk, which is more NE. I'm probably seeing shadows.

I sent Catalinas on overflight over Rabaul a couple days, and Cuttlefish promptly emptied the harbor. I probably alerted him that it's not a completely safe anchorage. I have built Coen to a size-4 airbase and run air recon over Port Moresby, Lae, and Rabaul, to drum up some activity over that area.

FORAGER: The Japanese air forces withdrew, and I control the skies over Burma. I have been dropping bombs on Mandalay, as well as that Tank Regt. at katha, which is taking a pounding. I haven't bombed Myiktinya yet. I have attached a screenie of this slowly developing campaign.

If this pattern holds, I will not accomplish the objective of drawing in Japanese airpower, because it looks like Cuttlefish is going to let me have the skies.

[Capt. Harlock]

If this pattern holds, I will not accomplish the objective of drawing in Japanese airpower, because it looks like Cuttlefish is going to let me have the skies.

Interesting, and a bit worrying. IIRC, you don't have anything to match his Zeroes in that theater. Perhaps he's got fish to fry elsewhere--or maybe he got spooked by the losses on the second day of combat, and decided he needs to preserve his pilot pool?

[Alikchi2]

I'm very much looking forward to the results here.. I like the plan, fingers crossed he gets caught off guard.

What's your CV set-up, TF wise? Are you going to be keeping all 7 in one hex?

[Q-Ball]

Capt. Harlock: He withdrew his fighters after my sweep over Mandalay resulted in 22 dead Zeros. I lost 30 planes, but I can pour in P-40s and Hurris all day, and I would be happy to at that loss exchange. He will probably try some hit and runs, but I don't think he will seriously contest the air, because he doesn't want his fighter pilots ground to dust.

This is also why I need to get ashore on Timor; I need to get to a place where he HAS to contest the air, so I can attrite his airforce.

Alikchi: The CV plan is for all 7 to be in one-hex, split into 3 TFs. In fact, I will approach Koepang with everyone in one hex.

I hope he is surprised. I will have a decision to make if he isn't, but I am going to go ahead regardless, because I have alot of Naval assets over there, and at this point a major naval battle wouldn't be a bad thing (particularly a surface action).

Combat Report, Sept 21, 1942

REPRISAL: We are beginning our first loads at Perth. Should be completed in a day or two.

I love the new feature of naming TF's, it's going to help me keep everything straight, as I have 4 landing points. So, I am naming TF's "Waingapu 1st Wave" and "Maumere 2nd Wave", so I know where and when to land them. The 2nd Wave is Base Troops; no sense having them go ashore in landing craft, but I will want them debarking D-Day+1

SERCHLIGHT: Attached is a screenshot of Searchlight; I am trying to make it as "big" as I can to Search. I probably won't run into any search for a couple days.

[Grollub]

It will be very interesting to see how this goes ...

[Canoerebel]

Good luck, Q-Ball. Watching you come up with, develop, and implement your plans is entertaining and instructive.

[Menser]

Glad to see the ball finally rolling ... got my fingers crossed he falls for searchlight hook, line and sinker

[Q-Ball]

Combat Report, Sept 22, 1942

SEARCHLIGHT: Cuttlefish found my ships at Maximum range; the only problem is that he found them kind of early. Here is the combat report:

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Ailuk at 144,111

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 25
G3M2 Nell x 18



Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 14


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
G3M2 Nell: 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
AM Vireo
xAK Trento, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Challenger
xAP St. Mihel, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
xAK Missourian, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Coast Trader, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk


Allied ground losses:
74 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 8 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)


Aircraft Attacking:
18 x G3M2 Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo

CAP engaged:
VMF-213 with F4F-4 Wildcat (2 airborne, 6 on standby, 6 scrambling)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 18000 , scrambling fighters between 8000 and 18000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 36 minutes


The good part is that Cuttlefish got a couple transports with troops, resulting in a convincing amount of troop death to add the illusion. The only problem here: The Wildcats are from a MARINE unit, not sure if he'll pick up on that or not. Otherwise, good first day.

In order to buy a little more time, I am vectoring toward Wake, to make it look like I screwed up the angle or got seen sooner. This will allow me to sail around convincingly for a few more days to buy me more time for this illusion. I will send in cruisers to bombard Wake in a couple days.

[ComradeP]

Good to see that Searchlight is working as intended thus far.

Now that CF has the big TF's on his radar, do you think splitting them up into several smaller but still substantial TF's, thus causing many smaller blips to appear, could extend the effect of the operation?

CF could now direct KB and the Combined Fleet at the single large group of TF's. When the first surface combat pops up, he'll see that the escorts are lacking and old. If KB appears and finds your single CVE with the CAP being gone after it's sunk, he might become suspicious. Splitting the large group of TF's up would more or less force him to play a mixture of whack a mole and Russian Roulette: he thinks you have carriers there, so he'll need to check every TF to see if there are carriers, and he'll be trying hard because he'll know that if you find him first with 7 carriers, he's probably in trouble. It'll be a while before he notices some of them don't really have any CAP (considering that there are many reasons why CAP might not appear, such as the weather as it seems to be raining according to the combat report).

Every nautical mile KB and the Combined Fleet are north of the DEI when you attack there could help. The extra fuel usage/system damage that KB and the Combined Fleet would get from trying to kill off those smaller TF's would also limit their effectiveness in the DEI, not to mention the possible lack of torpedo's.

[Q-Ball]

Comrade P: He'll know it's a fake the first major combat. By then it will be too late; if that happens tommorow, he is still 10 days steam to Timor. That MIGHT be JUST enough, if he reacts quickly. He sighted this "invasion" two days ago, it's highly probable he wasn't any closer than Truk, which is about 4 days sail. That would make the attack on the 25th or 26th. That would be fine, they are then out of position to interrupt REPRISAL.

Still, I wish I had been sighted about 2 days later than I was.

Combat Report, Sept 23 1942

SEARCHLIGHT: No attacks or air search today, but to keep Cuttlefish's attention a large cruiser force is going to bombard Wake tommorow; the remaining ships will creep closer, making Wake look like the real target. I need to drag this out for another 4 days or so for maximum effect; hopefully I can buy myself that much time.

REPRISAL: All the convoys at Perth are loaded, and heading toward a rendevous off Exmouth. Once they reach that, I start to load the Assault convoys at Port Hedland. Once that starts to happen, we are about 6-7 days from D-Day. I think that will still be around October 4th. That's why I need SEARCHLIGHT to last longer; unfortunately I revealed it about 2 days earlier than I would have liked. Timing on stuff like this is tricky.

FORAGER: This offensive is going fairly well so far. 2 IJA Divisions attacked yesterday south of Katha, what they thought was just RM Viper force; at that moment, the Indian IV Corps arrived, and stopped the attack. That was very lucky, I couldn't have planned that honestly.

At this point, the rail line to Myiktinya is closed. Unless he flies it in, there is no way to get reinforcements to Myiktinya. 4 Divisions are moving into position around Myiktinya, which is plenty to take it quickly. I hope to do this so that I shove the defenders north into the Jungle, which would effectively eliminate them.

Still no sign of Japanese aircraft over Burma.

[Q-Ball]

Combat Report, Sept 25, 1942

SEARCHLIGHT: Zeros and Bettys found the edge of my ships again; in a terrific break, they attacked CA Louisville and CL Achilles, but didn't get any hits. Our Wildcats even managed to shoot down a couple Bettys. That is a HUGE break because those are "real" ships, and Cuttlefish will likely conclude that this is a real invasion. In fact, by his comments in e-mail, he already has. I think this is working.

See below on intel......but the plan is now that the cruisers are going to bombard Wake Island tonight, and head back to Pearl Harbor. No sense getting them killed now. The transports will hang in view another couple days, then pull back. That should be long enough to let me get ashore on Timor.

REPRISAL: We received a huge intelligence break overnight. Kido Butai ran over one of our subs, and we spotted Carriers in our sights. In the morning, we observed them at Truk, and reportly on a Northeast heading, probably toward Wake Island. This is a big break; this means that they are several days away from Timor, and steaming in the wrong direction. I think this is going to work.

The invasion transports are approaching Exmouth, and loading up at Port Hedland. Given this intel on KB, I am not going to wait for all transports to get together, but send them as soon as I can; against resistance, I would keep everyone in one hex, but at this point, better to just get ashore as quick as possible before the IJN shows up.

Stay tuned!

[Grollub]

Wow ... when I went through the LtCol course at the Swedish National Defense College I wrote a thesis on deception. With this in mind it pleases me to no end to see one so well executed.

I bow to the master. [&o][&o][&o]

BTW, don't apologize for the lucky breaks - a good player earns those.

Cheers - Grollub

Edited - language.

[String]

Nice. I can't wait for the results

[ny59giants]