AEHGP2 Traskott (A) vs. Seydlitz (J) Japanese side AAR

[seydlitz_slith]

Meanwhile, half a world away, the Kido Butai arrived off the coast of California, where they began the process of disrupting his outbound convoys.

[seydlitz_slith]

This caught a couple of convoys at sea, including one that had transports laden with troops.
The kates did their work along with the vals, and one entire convoy was sent to the bottom.
With the exception of one freighter, none of the ships stayed afloat long enough to launch any liferafts. There were several hundred soldiers seen treading water among the burning oil where they ships went down.

The next morning's recon flights revealled the seas to be littered with bodies with very few signs of life among them. In several low passes, it was observed that sharks were feeding upon the living and the dead in large numbers.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Eureka at 208,78

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22
B5N2 Kate x 36
D3A1 Val x 8



Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 4 damaged
D3A1 Val: 2 damaged

Allied Ships
xAK West Portal, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
DD Walke, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Makiki, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK San Anselmo, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk


Allied ground losses:
248 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 14 destroyed, 35 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)


Aircraft Attacking:
8 x D3A1 Val bombing from 5000 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb
18 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
18 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo

Heavy smoke from fires obscuring xAK West Portal


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near San Francisco at 213,74

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 31 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 11
D3A1 Val x 8



No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
AMC Prince Robert, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires



Aircraft Attacking:
8 x D3A1 Val bombing from 2000 feet *
Naval Attack: 2 x 60 kg GP Bomb

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 40 15 January, 1942

Off of Port Moresby, the Kaga and Akagi continued air operations in support of the landings taking place.

Around mid-day, eight American Fortresses appeared over the fleet at 11,000 feet and dropped bombs on the Akagi. The ship was able to dodge all of the salvos by maneuvering at 24 knots and placing the helm hard over as soon as the bombs were seen leaving the bomb bay of the attacking aircraft. The only Japanese casualties in the raid came when one of the near misses showered the port side of the vessel with water and shrapnel. This wounded 12 brave sailors and blew a deck tractor with two empty bomb dollies overboard. The driver of the deck tractor went overboard at his post behind the steering wheel of the unit, which landed upside down in the water and quickly sank. The driver never came to the surface, likely killed by the impact.

Meanwhile, in the overcast, the zeroes had been harrowing the four engine bombers, pressing in even through the flak bursts from the ships below. All of the bombers were heavily damaged, and one blew up directly over the carrier when a zero hit it just as it was about to release it's bombs. Evidently the 20mm cannon shells struck one of the bombs, detonating both it and the fortress, killing all aboard. Unfortunately, the zero was forced to fly through the flaming debris. Unlike the movies, the debris cloud contained several large objects which struck the zero, crippling it. Observers on the deck of the Akagi say that it appears that one of the bombers engines hit the port wing of the zero, destroying the outboard eight feet of the wing and also clipping off the port horizontal stabilizer as well as the aircraft's rudder. The zero, burning heavily, cartwheeled into the ocean where it sank beneath a pool of burning avgas. The pilot was most likely dead from the impact with the debris from the bomber as no attempt to exit the plane was observed.

[seydlitz_slith]

Off the California coast, the Kido Butait edged in a little closer, but poor weather prevented the scout planes from spotting any ships at sea and a strong weather front with towering thunderstorms just off the coast prevented our planned recon of the ports and airfields around the San Francisco area.
This weather also prevented the Americans from spotting or attacking the task force during the turn.

[seydlitz_slith]

In the Makassar Strait, the tanker Ravnaas, down by the head after being torpedoed by the I-157 the previous day, stumbled into the path of the I-154. The submarine quickly dispatched the tanker with two well placed torpedo shots. Despite the fact that she sank in less than 15 minutes, two lifeboats were launched and it looks like most of her crew will be able to make landfall or be rescued.

[seydlitz_slith]

Off Yokohama, sub chaser 23 reported that she sank an American submarine during a three hour engagement. Early in the battle, one string of depth charges evidently caused an oil leak and damaged a propellor shaft on the American sub. After that point it was easy for the sub chaser to track the sub by both the bearing squeal caused by the damaged shaft as well as by the ribbon of oil that was floating to the surface marking where the submarine had been.

After making several more passes over the submarine, a large quantity of oil and debris came to the surface including several sections of slatted wood decking. The sound of the injured propellor was not heard after the waters calmed from the pass, and the trail of oil stayed at the same spot.

This marks the first victory by a Japanese sub chaser over an American submarine and demonstrates the effectiveness of our valiant ASW forces.

[seydlitz_slith]

As a matter of fact, the Admiralty issued a press release stating that three American submarines had been sunk in Japanese waters that day by the combined air and sea forces of the Empire of Japan.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 41 16 January, 1942

Just after 2 am local time, the I-10 torpedoed and sank the cruiser Achilles 110 miles south southwest of Sydney. The cruiser was unescorted and was relying on the cover of the moonless night to protect her.

[seydlitz_slith]

Off the California coast the weather had improved somewhat.
No ships were found at sea, and a small raid was mounted to bomb the Golden Gate Bridge using 7 Vals escorted by 7 Zeroes. While still 20 miles off the coast, this raid was intercepted by several fighters operating in an uncoordinated fashion. The mix included P-400 Aircobras, P-40B Warhawks, P-36 Mohawks, P-38 Lightnings, and P-43 Lancers.

The zero escort fought valiantly, shooting down 2 P-400s, 1 P-40B, and 1 P-43 while losing 1 zero. However, the number of fighters was ovewhelming and they were able to penetrate to the bombers and five Vals were lost. The remaining two aircraft pressed on to their pushover point but neither scored hits on the bridge. The bridge, even though it is long, is actually a hard target to hit under fire as it is very narrow.

Both of the surviving Vals escaped into the scattered cloud and eventually arrived back at their carrier, where they arrived just as the the American's were attacking with a group of twin engine B-18 bombers. Circling well away from the action to avoid friendly flak, the Vals returned home with nearly empty tanks and several bullet holes attesting to their bravery under fire.

[seydlitz_slith]

As mentioned in the prior post, American bombers attacked the carriers in three uncoordinated waves. Since I had taken care to keep the KB out of range of the American fighters, the bombers were unescorted.

The scattered overcast hampered the effectiveness of the zero cap, and all three raids (one by B-17s, one by B-18s, and one by B-26s) made it to their drop points. We did manage to shoot down some of the bombers including at least one B-17 and none of the carriers were hit.

[seydlitz_slith]

Here are the aircraft losses for the turn. Most losses were the results of the actions off the California coast.

[seydlitz_slith]

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the much anticipated battle for Clark Airfield occurred and the defenders, consisting of primarily Philippine Army troops were sent packing. The 4 to 1 odds were good enough that one Philippine intranty division surrendered outright, the third time this has happened in the campaign.
It seems that the local troops are not thrilled to fight for the westerners, and there appears to be very good chances for us to bring the entire island over to our side as we liberate them from the clutches of yankee colonial oppression.

The deal is almost done on Luzon, with only Bataan left to subdue.

[seydlitz_slith]

On Mindanao, the issue is rapidly coming to a close. After landing at multiple points around the island, we are forcing his forces into a last stand position in the mountains near the village of Malaybaybay.

[Rob Brennan UK]

WC .. what do i win ? [;)]


I love this AAR , great style and attention to detail in the narrative (without it being overly verbose) .. TYVM

Looks like the South pacific will be missing one unit of defenders too, so well worth the fuel to get KB there imo. going to swing south and hopefully catch up with more ? or does fuel mean its home time ?

[seydlitz_slith]

Winner, Winner, you get the chicken Dinner!
Of course you will have to fly to America to claim it of course.[:D]

I brought tankers with the KB so I can hang out for quite a bit. I haven't decided if I want to vist the south pacific or not. I think that I am going to loiter off the west coast a bit just to make him paranoid. I am considering pulling back to about 15 hexes out (nothing gets spotted more than 12 hexes out anyways), letting my aircrews rest, and then move in to 11 hexes and do a massive fighter sweep of the Frisco area. After a couple of turns of this, I should be able to thin his fighter cap down enough to recon the ports and decide whether or not I want to go bombing.

Here he was the whole time worrying about training and hunting my subs, but now I have disrupted his convoy flows and made him stop training as well as stop flying ASW. I had also felt that he was deploying all of his best airframes overseas as quickly as possible, so if I make it clear that he needs to also defend the west coast, he may have to retain some at home. If you note, I only encountered P-40B and not P-40E models in the skies over California so far.

I really want him to be paranoid about sending his convoys to sea for a long time. Most of my actions will be with the KB between Hawaii and the west coast for now. I am moving tanker support down to Truk from Japan. I am considering sending Kaga and Akagi on a sweep down towards Melbourne to keep him honest.

I sense that he has been pulling units out of Singapore and other locations as fast as he can. I do not know whether he is gathering them at Palembang or on Java. He could be moving them to Australia or India but I doubt that. I actually expect to run into heavy resistance when I go for Java.

BTW, thanks for the positive comments on the AAR. I am making a conscious effort to avoid cut and pasted combat reports as much as possible unless they are needed to explain what went on. I realized on the thread that someone else had posted the other day that I had been drifting back towards posting more and more combat report snips. I resolved to get back on track with the AAR and write it like I would want to read it. Less pasting and more flavor.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: seydlitz

These flower class corvettes are the best ASW platform that the allies have at this point in the war. I must destroy them before they destroy my subs.

Actually as the Allied player, I find the corvettes just eat torpedoes. I have lost too many in both of my games. I think it is the lack of radar. Historically corvette were well nigh impossible to torpedo due to their small size and incredible turning speed. That does not happen in the game. They get radar about 1/43 and might be more effective then.

After 4/43 the best ASW ships are in order British DDs, American DEs and American DDs.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 42 17 January, 1942

This was a very slow turn. The KB continued to pull away from the California coast as yet another massive storm front moved through. No enemy shipping was spotted, and three search aircraft were lost due to weather related mishaps.

I believe that an American sub hit one of my minefields somewhere off Japan. Although I did not get any message to this effect, I did hear the mine explosion sound byte followed by the submarine flooding and sinking sound effect. Maybe I got lucky.

Later in the turn, I-121 struck an Australian mine as she attempted to enter Perth to leave a minefield of her own. The damage is extensive, and I seriously doubt that the sub will make it back.

[seydlitz_slith]

On the land front, we captured Wenchow, Chaochow, and Davao. My forces at Clark are resting for a few days to remove fatigue and disruption after the battle there. Meanwhile, my bombers continue to pound Bataan each and every day. Dugout Doug is getting his teeth rattled daily by around 100 bombers releasing their bombs over Bataan and Corregidor.

[seydlitz_slith]

Turn 43 18 January, 1942

Things were quiet again this turn. The KB continued to lurk off the California coast out of spotting range of the land based aircraft.

[bklooste]

Interesting..
 
If he hasnt moved them is it worth going after the training squadrons on the ground  ? Going after US airframes is the best thing you can do IMHO in early 42.