Speedy vs Fabertong - time to smack back the Penguin

[Mynok]

Ships:

Allies: +16 (+155 points). Mainly from the supply TF sunk by Yamato TF at Carnarvon.
Japanese: +27 (+179 points)

I'm quite impressed that you get points for the Yamato sinking your ships. Deep cover agent placed in charge of the big girl? [:'(]

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: Mynok

Ships:

Allies: +16 (+155 points). Mainly from the supply TF sunk by Yamato TF at Carnarvon.
Japanese: +27 (+179 points)

I'm quite impressed that you get points for the Yamato sinking your ships. Deep cover agent placed in charge of the big girl? [:'(]

lol

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

I've hardly used my Fleet or S-Boats for minelaying missions. Must have 100's left in the pools....

VSWG - Changing commanders could help.....all the factors add up. You say you have limited PP's? I have over 2500! How come you have so few?

Only problem with the inland base is getting enough supplies to it. I preferred the coastal route as ships can physically bring supply to the base. Exmouth is currently being built up and will have a runway built within a week or so.

Mynok - tut tut Mynok[;)] You've clearly mis-read the format [:'(]

Question - PB4Y's: I assume these are meant to be used as long range naval attack planes?

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Australia -

22nd East African Bde has arrived at Perth. They'll disembark and enjoy Perth for a bit whilst awaiting the arrival of other forces.

My 4E's at Carnarvon and Geraldton are almost all ready for action. Probably another 3 or so days before all machines are ready to go.

BB Prince of Wales has finally repaired all battle damage sustained at the start of the war and is leaving Cape Town for Australia.

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CentPac -

The San Fran ships and men will be at PH in 4 days time. BB Indiana is also scheduled to arrive at the same time from Balboa.

Forces will then disembark and rest for a couple of days before re-embarking in assault formation for upcoming offensives.......

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Submarine Warfare -

4 dud/misses.

SS S-23 had an eventful day on the 1st. She damaged troop laden AK Tateisi Maru with a torpedo east of Toyohara and then later in the day obliterated the 99 tonne SC CHa-19 near Shikuka.

SS S-35 also attacked the troop carrying freighters and left AK Mantai Maru listing and heavily damaged.

SS Shad reported sinking the Gozan Maru class freighter Shinkoku Maru off Donggala on the 3rd.

SS Sculpin also reported sinking a Gozan Maru class freighter on the 4th - Bisan Maru off Sendai, Japan.

[castor troy]

I have had good results with the PB4Y on nav attack (USN heavy bombers are excluded from our no 4E nav attack below 10000ft rule). These bombers are my equivalent to the enemy´s Betties and Nells, while I´ve got only 6 or 7 squadrons (means 84 bombers) employed and the enemy probably fields a couple of hundred torp bombers. I´m using them with 70 lownav skill crews and they usually chew up freighters if they get in range, but I haven´t seen a freighter in range for months.

If these bombers aren´t restricted by a house rule then I would reserve them for nav attack only, just too precious for attacks on bases and that´s what the USAAF heavies are for. At some point you will find out though that the heavies are far too few and without any USAAF medium bombers that can be used you really are lacking bombers (or space to put them onto as each of the heavies accounts for two medium bombers in regards of ac stacking).

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Mynok

Ships:

Allies: +16 (+155 points). Mainly from the supply TF sunk by Yamato TF at Carnarvon.
Japanese: +27 (+179 points)

I'm quite impressed that you get points for the Yamato sinking your ships. Deep cover agent placed in charge of the big girl? [:'(]

Speedy, you must be slipping in your old age. I would have expected a "dumbass" from you over this one. [:-]

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Hi Castor - Thanks. Results sound interesting. I don't use 4E on Nav Attack but thinking that PB4Y should be exempt since that's the role they had.

Mike - What can I say? Must be getting sloppy in my older age [;)]

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CBI -

Main point of note here is the arrival of 26,000 tonnes of supply by convoy at Akyab. This makes Akyab fully open for action. Still be a while before we move in strength here as the Japanese have a mass of force throughout Burma.

3rd Tank Division on the move in China. Wonder where she'll end up.......not much else happening here at the mo.

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Australia -

The gates of hell opened against the Japanese at Port Hedland on the 9th December. The day started off with 72 x P38F/G sweeping over the Port Hedaland area. Over 70 x Tojo and 20 x Nick were reported in the skies. Battles were intense with the butchers bill including 12 x P38 and a reported 16 enemy fighters.

81 x B17 then appeared on the scene and deposited hell on the Japanese controlled airfields. A reported 35 enemy fighters were destroyed on the ground. Then over 30 x B24's added to the carnage. 2 bombers were lost due to mechanical failures.

The following 2 days saw the battle continue....battle only in name as no enemy fighters could take off from the battered runways. A further 40 fighters were destroyed and the base is now closed. A a Submarine and Mine Tender were reported sunk in the small port.

Estimates indicate 120 enemy planes have been destroyed for about 20 friendly over the past 3 days. The 12th will be a rest day before we keep this up.

This has gone about as well as I could expect.

The British 2nd Division will arrive at Perth on the 12th.

We now have to await remaining transports and supply freighters from Cape Topwn (ETA 2 weeks) and the Australian 4th Division from Adelaide then we begin operations.

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CentPac -

All CV's and invasion forces are now at PH. The troops have disembarked and we're waiting for 8 Cruisers to install 40mm mounts (ETA 12 days). We'll begin loading up in 10 days time (destination secret for now).

I will be 2 x BB down as I forgot to turn off the modification for 2 x Wee Vee class ETA for completion 210 days....grrr.

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Submarine Warfare -

8 x Dud/misses [:@]

The only success is reported by SS S-44 sinking AK Unkai Maru #3 with 2 torpedoes near Wake Island.

On the other side we've had a lot of cat and mouse games around PH. At least 3 enemy subs have been engaged by ASW forces. Many misses by Japanese subs but DD Craven broke in 2 with heavy loss of life on the 8th December. No reported sinkings of Japanese.

SS I-29 was reported sunk by ASW forces near Columbo on the 11th.

[VSWG]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

VSWG - Changing commanders could help.....all the factors add up. You say you have limited PP's? I have over 2500! How come you have so few?

It's only April 1942 in my PBEM. So far I've used every PP to buy restricted "stuff" (planes, base forces, LCUs, ...) so that I can plug the holes in my feeble early war defenses.

Only problem with the inland base is getting enough supplies to it. I preferred the coastal route as ships can physically bring supply to the base. Exmouth is currently being built up and will have a runway built within a week or so.

I never had a problem with setting the "get supply" arrow to max in an inland base. After a couple of turns (not always the next turn) the requested amount of supplies (and often more) did arrive.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Hi VSWG - thanks. With my coastal bases built up now though there'd be little point in developing the inland base. Thanks for the input though with regard to supply pulling!

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Australia -

The subjugation of Port Hedland continues daily with B24's from Geraldton on 1 day and B17's from Carnarvon on the next. 54th/A Division was also targetted one day and the port facilities on another (claiming an SS and an ACM). Port Hedland is totally surpressed and can remain so. About 30 abandoned and damaged enemy planes have been destroyed on the ground.

The final forces are heading to Perth including many empty transports and freighters along with the fully repaired BB Prince of Wales (3 days out).

Engineers have constructed a small runway at Exmouth. Need a small harbour built then freighters can dock and bring in vital supplies and engineering vehicles.

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CentPac -

4 more days and all repairs and upgrades will have been completed on much needed Cruisers at PH.

Troops will begin embarkation in 2 days time. The next post will break down what is heading to where....ooooh the suspense[;)]

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Submarine Warfare -

A bad run of duds/misses - 10 (including 4 against Tankers and 2 more (4 in total now!) against TK Gen'yo Maru. Grrr.)

The 17th was a good day though as 2 subs hunted a TK convoy east of Cam Ranh Bay. Furst to attack was SS Truant heavily damaging the empty AO Tsurumi with 2 torpedoes. No confirmed sinking but I suspect she'll go.

Later on in the morning SS KXV fired 4 torpedoes at TK Manei Maru. 1 hit leaving her dead in the water. She followed up with 2 more fish 1 of which hit and put her down.

Interesting tidbit. ACM Chimo blew up at Los Angeles during as mine accident!

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Speedy,

Just a reminder that the fleet subs when they go for their radar upgrades will change over from using Mk-10 mines to Mk-12 mines. You might want to use up any remaining Mk-10 mine stockpile before the upgrade. The Mk-10 ceases production at the end of December 1942.

Alfred

Not all of them upgrade to the MK 12 in 42-only a little more than half. Many (including fleet boats) will still carry the Mk 10 until later upgrades in 1943 so you do not have to worry so much. Besides the Mk 12 has about twice the killing power of the Mk 10. It is almost as powerful as a long lance. Deadliest Allied mine.

Speedy, you sould be using some subs to mine. Say about 5% of your force. Best use is to lay a few mines in places where you expect Japanese subs to transit or other important ships like tankers or warships. I don't mine harbors much as they always have an AM on hand. Your small minefields will degenerate fairly fast but you will get some kills. I have gotten about half a dozen Japanese subs this way (as has my opponent with my subs). Move your fields around as once he loses a ship he will just sweep the hex. And as said, the MK 12 mine which come on line late 42-early 43 is a wonderful thing to have. One hit will put a carrier in the yard for four months.

You get MK 13 air dropped mines in big numbers starting January 1. They are a lot of fun but can only be dropped at enemy ports

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Thanks crsutton - interesting. Didn't know that the Mk-12 was that powerful! I will have to keep an eye on this and maybe start doing the odd Mk-12 minelaying run. How do the air minelaying missions work. It's only for 4E right?

-------------------------

Australia -

The buildup continues at Perth. We're now just awaiting 40 ships (AK/AP/AM) to arrive in 2 TF's. They're about 4/5 days away.

In the meantime B24's and B17's bomb Port Hedland daily keeping the airfields closed and spreading the love to the defending troops as well.

For those wondering still status quo in the center at Katherine. Both have roughly 1500AV there.

I'm starting to buildup bases in NE Aus (Cooktown/Portland Roads) for future potential operations and support on New Guinea.

-------------------------

CentPac -

Troops are staring to board AP's and AK's in preparation for the first offensive in CentPac. Thanks to Alfred and his earlier calculations I have divided the troops amongst the optimum number of ships to ensure maximum disembarkaton on day 1.

Here's the roster for Operation Swift:

1st USMC Division
2nd USMC Eng Rgt
1st USMC ARM Bn
1st USMC Para Bn

Now.....as I keep you in suspense.....where do you think I'm going to invade?[;)]

ETA for set off is over the next 3-4 days.

---------------------------

Submarine Warfare -

7 Dud/misses.

SS Silversides sank PB Lushan Maru off Wakkanai on the 21st.

SS Truant heavily damaged AK Nitiyo Maru east of Quinhon on the 21st.

SS KXVI blew up AK Tatumiya Maru off Groot Natoena on the 23rd.

On the 24th SS Trusty achieved my first sub vs sub kill of the war whilst traversing the Malacca Strait to Columbo to refuel. She spotted the already damaged SS I-29 (damaged by ASW forces off Columbo recently) and a torpedo sent I-29 to the bottom. Well done.

2 of my subs have been damaged by ASW forces operating near Singapore. Both are returning to Columbo for repairs. SS Swordfish is touch and go if she'll make it.

[castor troy]

re the MK13 mine, big numbers is 150 per month in this case [:D]

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

CentPac -

Troops are staring to board AP's and AK's in preparation for the first offensive in CentPac. Thanks to Alfred and his earlier calculations I have divided the troops amongst the optimum number of ships to ensure maximum disembarkaton on day 1.

Here's the roster for Operation Swift:

1st USMC Division
2nd USMC Eng Rgt
1st USMC ARM Bn
1st USMC Para Bn

Now.....as I keep you in suspense.....where do you think I'm going to invade?[;)]

ETA for set off is over the next 3-4 days.

---------------------------

Speedy,

You have been rather parsimonious in giving out hints. The only substantial one I think you have given was in post #437 in commenting about my suggested axis of advance outlined in post #434 and subsequently elaborated further in posts #440 and #450.

Accordingly I would venture that you are going to adopt some variation of the plan outlined in those posts.[;)] What I think is quite obvious, based on the indicated units, is that you are moving to invade an atoll, destroy the defenders in a one, at most two day, battle and then immediately reembark the division, leaving the regt and 2 bns as garrisons.

Alfred

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Firstly - I have an issue with WiTP Tracker. I always get the error message shown on the screenshot below and it won't load up anymore. Anyone else had this before?

--------------------------------

Wow. The response has been overwhelming (thanks Alfred [:)]) [:'(]

You are most correct....I am invading an Atoll. My old favourite Wake Island. It's very isolated and totally undefendable (except for Japanese Subs) for the Japanese. A massive hammer blow will smash the atoll and it's defenders (Intel indicates at least an Infantry Group) for 4-6 days before the troops go ashore. ETA for attack commencements is a week or so.

I have 4 x CV TF:

Saratoga/Lexington
Enterprise/Yorktown
Hornet/Wasp
3 x CVE

And 3 x BB TF.

I won't be keeping any of the invasion forces on the Atoll though. A Marine Def Bn and Aviation support will suffice after it's capture.

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CBI -

Quiet as a mouse no air/land attacks in Burma.

Only action in China is the daily bombing runs by Japanese LBA.

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Australia -

By 2nd January all Port Hedland invasion shipping will be present at Perth. We'll then begin loading and move north to Carnarvon before heading onto Port Hedland.

In the meantime B17/B24 have been keeping the airfields closed and spreading love on the troops.

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Submarine Warfare -

A quiet few days with only 3 dud attacks.

[witpqs]

Tracker runs fine for me for many, many turns, then it won't load up. I never bother with trying to sort out the error message any more, I just whack the database and start it with a new one.

[Speedysteve]

witpqs - Whack the DB and start a new one?

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

witpqs - Whack the DB and start a new one?

Sorry for the vernacular - delete all the db files and then start Tracker so it creates a new database just like when you started using it for this PBM. See screenshot below. Of course, what you might do for a bit of safety is, instead of deleting them, move them to a sub-folder in case you need to go back to them or you in case you grab the wrong files. You can delete them later.

[witpqs]

Oh yeah, and if Tracker crashed (terminated without shutting down properly), there will be one or two more but they will have the same naming convention (*db.*).

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

The end of 1942 sees the final buildup at PH and Perth before attacks are launched to recapture lost territory. January should see both Wake and Port Hedland back in Allied hands. As such December was a fairly quiet month except for the smashing of Japanese fighters that tried to regain air control over Port Hedland and the occasional sub attack.

January 1943 sees Corsair 1's arriving [8D] as well as Kittyhawk III's being produced in both Aus and NZ. The first Coronado's also roll off the production line this month. On the seas the highlights include CLAA Oakland, CL Montpelier/Denver, 2 x Gato SS and a decent batch of LST and LCI's.

Of course another highlight is the dud rate on Mk14's is reduced from 80% to 50% [:)]

------------------------------------

Points:

Allies: +547 points
Japanese: +405 points


Bases:

Allies: +1 (+148 points)
Japanese: 0 (+205 points)


Planes:

Allies: +171 lost
Japanese: +282 lost


Troops:

Allies: +19 lost
Japanese: +4 lost


Ships:

Allies: +2 ships lost (+10 points)
Japanese: +23 ships lost (+185 points. All from subs or previous sinking confirmed by SigInt)

------------------------------

Sub Kills:

Similar success rate to last month - 12 out of 44 attacks were successful. Be interesting to see if January yields a better result with part of the dud problem being sorted out. Having said that quite a few of my subs are in port upgrading to better radar sets so overall there's a slightly fewer out on patrol at the moment.

Dutch Boats:

PB - 3 (1 mine)
AK - 25 (+1)
TK - 4 (+1)
CM - 3
DD - 4
TB - 1
DMS - 3
E - 1
APD - 1
ACM - 1

--------------------------------

British Boats:

DD - 1 (mine)
AK - 3 (1 mine) (+2)
SC - 1
PB - 1
TK - 1

---------------------------------

Fleet Boats:

AK - 54 (+4)
SC - 3
AP - 2
PB - 8 (+1)
TK - 3
CM - 1
ACM - 1
E - 1
APD - 1
DD - 2
CL - 1 (Kashima)

-----------------------------------

S-Boats:

AK - 12
AP - 1
CM - 1
PB - 3
DMS - 1
SC - 2 (+1)
TK - 1

Total = 151 ships = 45.21% of reported sunk ships total.

[Speedysteve]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Oh yeah, and if Tracker crashed (terminated without shutting down properly), there will be one or two more but they will have the same naming convention (*db.*).

Hmm. Did all of this and get even more errors?[&:]

[witpqs]

Speedy, can you take a screenshot of whatever is in that Tracker folder? I am not an expert on whatever errors might happen inside of Tracker, but if you just want to start over (the way I described that I do from time to time) then I can most likely help you sort out that process.

Bear in mind though, if something has happened on your system that stops Tracker from running for external reasons (bad Java or something), then you will need the help of the Tracker guys.

Edit to add: If you don't want to take up space in your AAR then feel free to PM me.