An Aussie Affair: Luskan vs Raverdave

[Raverdave]

I find it astonishing that Luskan claims that the Santa Cruz chain of Islands will be "His". For that to happen he has to actually engage his forces with mine....something that he has so far shown a great reluctance to do (Tokyo Rose even named him "Luskan the Coward"....a title that fits him well). In the meantime, night bombing missions to Cairns and Cooktown have payed-off with 2 CA's being reported as hit.
My pilots are still reporting that Cairns is lit up like a christmas tree at night, making navigation easy. One wonders how serious these Aussie "Ganjin" take the war.:rolleyes:

[Raverdave]

Shock Horror!:eek:

Luskan the coward has sortied a bombardment group to the Santa Cruz chain !:eek: I think that he has finally discovered why they are called warships :rolleyes:

[Luskan]

Poor Raver - can't whinge about my lack of offensive ops anymore. Your APDs were brave (but dumb) since they say well within night-raiding distance of Luganville and have been there for the last few turns. Once sank with just 4 shell hits IIRC. North Carolina and her little group of escorts had a nice training run, sinking some APDs and marooning the hapless jap infantry on empty islands.

Maybe to keep an eye out on my ships you should park some float planes and an AV there?

However Raver's island stealing tactic has me a little worried. If he establishes fighter strips up there, or even at Irau, his land based Zeros will have the range to escort his cvs or bombers almost as far as Noumea. That is a troubling thought, but I'm not sure it is his objective (why would he be sending Minelayers into the area before he deposits engineers and base forces and supplies etc.??) We will now probably hear the groans of horror when Raver's minelayer group (spotted) arrives at Nevea - or any of the island chain to find my surface combat ships ready and waiting.

Or of course hemight have done the cowardly (read wise) thing and withdrawn them before North Carolina obliterrates them.

Raver's CVs are at Shortlands. I am content for them to be there for the moment - although I prefer that he commits them to one side of the theatre so I exploit the lack of mobile air power on the other side etc. Might have to send a few subs to shortlands.

Oh - and one of his subs torpedoed a CA in townsville, and then my destroyers sank the sub.

[Raverdave]

Originally posted by Luskan


Oh - and one of his subs torpedoed a CA in townsville, and then my destroyers sank the sub.

Ah the joys of FOW. And the I boat number was?

[Luskan]

Unrealistic as it is to think that I should know the I Boat number (I depth charged it to death, I didn't wait for it to surface to read the number off the side first) it was 121 or 122 IIRC. If wrong, then you just have another sub out there lurking around the reef - lying in wait for all the damaged ships that are going to need to limp back to Noumea.

Unfortunately my warships patrolling the Santa Cruz didn't catch any minelayers, although the Chester and her escorts did blast half a dozen 8 inch shells and twenty or so 5 inchers through another lone, unescorted IJN APD at Nevea. IIRC Raver should be running short of these by now and will have to send in regular transports or warships on fast transport missions to supply/rescue the estimated 3.5k infantry he has scattered around the islands.

On a depressing note, Ravers unescorted night bombers are outnumbered - yet still outfighting my fighter bombers on CAP in the air to proceed to bomb two or three spots up and down the Aussie coast every night with impugnity. I'm lucky if I score a damage in each engagement (although typically the nells damage 2 or 3 p-39s or wirraways in the air per raid). I'm hoping his operational losses are making up for whatever reason my fighters are performing so badly.

In addition to this, every day his fighters fly sweeps at Cooktown where zeroes and p-40s and more p-39s engage in desperate dogfights (and so far his air crews are coming up trumps) as well as his naval fighters escorting large groups of bombers from Lunga.

I'll post some scores/results etc. soon.

[Raverdave]

Well here is a question........what does one do with the young and as yet untried pilots? They are high on moral as all young bucks are, but the experiance points leaves a lot to be desired........and the answer is....send them on fighter sweeps over Cooktown ! At this outstanding training establishment my young flyers are getting some valuble experiance thanks to the allied P-39s and P-40s.

[Raverdave]

Hello GI Joes....Tokyo Rose here, playing for you the top bands of 1942! But before we start, let me extend to the US Navy my sympathys for the boys who died on the USS Mahan. Such a waste of life.....would not you GIs be happier at home with your sweethearts?

We welcome the new members of the great Nippon Empire, those Islanders of Nauru ! No longer will you have to wear the yoke of white slavetraders ! You have been saved by the brave troops of the great Nippon Army!

And now something from Glen Miller........................

[Luskan]

The fearsome and deadly IJN troops have invaded Nauru displaying great courage in the face of . . . absolutely no opposition at all.

Mahan went down with all hands, Southard hit one of the mines she was clearing and is crippled, while Mugford was torpedoed last turn and for some crazy reason decided to try for Brisbane instead of staying in port and sank. Raver's subs are a real problem in all the Australian ports and when I send large tfs of destroyers to knock them off, the ijn skippers just have more targets.

[Raverdave]

Originally posted by Luskan
.........and when I send large tfs of destroyers to knock them off, the ijn skippers just have more targets.

Banzi ! Banzi ! Banzi !

[Luskan]

Surprised Raver hasn't already posted it, but in the last few turns things have really swung his way. For starters he's shooting down twice as many p-39s over northern Australia as he is loosing zeroes, sometimes even more. p-40s seem to be breaking even - just. Second his subs are really putting in some excellent performances, sinking another DD outright and blasting a subchaser last turn. Allied ASW just isn't cutting it atm.
However the saddest part of this report is the "battle" of the Santa Cruz, where my surface patrols have sunk several of his APDs - temporarily marooning several units of IJN troops scattered about the islands up there.

Raver sent in his CVs, which sighter the Long Island and escorts as they were on their way to deliver fighter bombers to Gavigamana. Unfortunately my fleet CVs were elsewhere so McCain ordered the Long Island to turn tail and run for it. She was 1 hex out of Luganville the next day (when I'd assumed she'd make it back and had all the fighters on 90% CAP instead of LRCAP over her) and 3 huge waves of enemy aircraft attacked.
In spite of the fact that the first 2 torpedoes in the water both hit her, the enemy planes took another hundred or so attempts to land the 3rd hit that was to eventually sink her later that day. McCain transferred his flag aboard a nearby destroyer and has retired with the much faster escorts to the safety of the allied LBA stronghold of Noumea/Luganville.

Fairly poor performance by the IJN however. About 200 attacking planes maybe? 3 torpedo hits on the Long Island, 1 torpedo hit on a destroyer (which didn't do that much damage) and a single bomb hit on the Hobart, which knocked out her radar but that was all.

[ADavidB]

Originally posted by Luskan
The fearsome and deadly IJN troops have invaded Nauru displaying great courage in the face of . . . absolutely no opposition at all.

Mahan went down with all hands, Southard hit one of the mines she was clearing and is crippled, while Mugford was torpedoed last turn and for some crazy reason decided to try for Brisbane instead of staying in port and sank. Raver's subs are a real problem in all the Australian ports and when I send large tfs of destroyers to knock them off, the ijn skippers just have more targets.

How big are your destroyer groups and who is leading them? Also, how many groups do you send out at the same time?

I find that sending out multiple groups of 7 or 8 DDs, each lead by one of the top Allied admirals, tends to knock out most of the Japanese subs in one or two turns. I also keep several air squadrens in the sub-plagued base on ASW mixed with search to keep an eye on the subs.

The SC squadrens are also useful, because I send them to the same location as the DDs, the SCs draw out the subs and the DDs finish them off. So I lose a couple of SCs - the Japanese lose a lot of subs and those who aren't finished off have a long crawl home.

As far as my own subs go - I've stopped putting them into shallow or coastal hexes - they were getting creamed way too fast. So much for Japanese ASW being toned down...

Dave Baranyi

[Luskan]

I'm very careful as the allies not to get my top admirals killed too early - because for the allies they are few and far between. Carpendar, Spruance, Sherman, Fechteler and Lee are really too valuable to risk in ASW. My groups are 6 or 7 dds and usually a few SCs for bait. Scs are great for escorting transports in rear areas (Away from enemy air power). You save your DDs for more important roles, and if subs attack they usually hit the SCs instead of the APs/AKs.

[Raverdave]

Logistics snafus are still holding back any major operations, so until THAT is all fixed up, things will be limited to raids. I think that my night air raids have done the job and forced Luskan the coward to have at least one squadron of fighters set for night CAP and most if not all bases. Anything I can do to spread his already thin forces, the better!

Luskan commented before that he was expecting an attack on Australia itself....I have wargamed this against the AI and each time have had my balls handed to me on a plate:rolleyes: I don't see the need for Japan to go any further south than PM. I have a great big mote between me at PM and him.......safe as houses ! And I have lots of warning if he does try something silly towards PM. No I think that the South-west Pacific is where the thrust should be......LOTS of support is close by (the Santa Cruz chain is all mine) with the fleet able to dash in and out under effective fighter cover.

[Raverdave]

Ohmygawd !:eek: Luskan-the-coward has made a move to some coral speck just north of wampadangolango. For that he shall receive a bitch-slapping !

[Raverdave]

Hello GIs, Tokyo Rose here.

And how are you boys at Gavigamana? Oh dear, see all that smoke on the horizon? Well sorry to inform you, but that is your supply fleet. What? Your Generals didn't tell you? Oh you poor boys ! What shall you do for food? What shall you do when your bullets run out? Never fear, as there are some troops on the way now, just wave a white flag and they will be more than happy to share their food with you.
And to cheer you up even more, here is Glen Miller with "In the mood".

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/20/42

Night Time Surface Combat, near Gavigamana at 51,47

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Shell hits 1
BB Yamato
CA Kumano
CL Jintsu, Shell hits 1
CL Tenryu
CL Yubari
DD Maikaze
DD Amatsukaze
DD Tanikaze
DD Asagumo

Allied Ships
APD Manley, Shell hits 1
APD Colhoun, Shell hits 1
APD Gregory, Shell hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
APD Little, Shell hits 23, and is sunk
APD McKean


Allied ground losses:
Men lost 364


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Naval bombardment of Gavigamana, at 51,47


Allied aircraft


Allied aircraft losses
no losses

Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 41


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Air attack on Gavigamana , at 51,47

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22
G4M1 Betty x 56

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 15

no losses

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat x 4 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat x 4 damaged

WO K.Matsuyama of AII-1 Daitai is credited with kill number 3


Allied ground losses:
Men lost 45

Runway hits 3

Attacking Level Bombers:
3 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet
3 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet
3 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet
8 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet
8 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet
5 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet
6 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet
3 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet
3 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet
3 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet
5 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet
6 x G4M1 Betty at 6000 feet

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Air attack on 86th Naval Garrison Unit, at 51,47


Allied aircraft
SBD Dauntless x 28


no losses

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 114


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Sub attack at 40,43

Japanese Ships
CS Nisshin

Allied Ships
SS Amberjack


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Ground combat at Gavigamana

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 449 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 6813 troops, 35 guns, 21 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)


Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 74


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Ground combat at Gavigamana

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 1085 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 394 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 28 to 1 (fort level 0)


Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 531


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[Luskan]

What a disaster, oh no, my poor disheartened troops!
I lost one APD sunk and another smashed up which cost the lives of 400 paratroops.
However what Raver has missed is the massacre of about 700, maybe 800 of his troops in a foolhardy assault by the remnants of the paratroops and the marine raiders at Gavigamana - who have a supply base in the many tens of thousands (not a lot of room for anything except supplies on that island - must be what is holding up the progress building the airfield - which raver failed to close).

The real problem is that I figure I've lost about 50 of my planes in the air against his zeros over Australia, and probably 25 or so on the ground around the place, which has cost him 6 or 7 zeros at best. Some of his pilots have probably reached double figures by now.

Another down side is that my CVs are at sea - yet they recieved entirely new squadrons of f4f-4s to replace their f4f-3's while sailing around. I thought that wasn't supposed to happen.

Raver has his sights set on Luganville and the islands - he is welcome to have a go.

[Raverdave]

Originally posted by Luskan
However what Raver has missed is the massacre of about 700, maybe 800 of his troops in a foolhardy assault by the remnants of the paratroops and the marine raiders at Gavigamana -

Once again, Luskan-the-coward tries to write history as he sees it. In point of fact only 400 troops died, and they died doing what they were supposed to do........armed recon.

Cooktown is proving to be one of the best training ground that I could hope for ! It allows my green pilots to gain valuble exp points !:D

[Luskan]

Raver-the-blinkered only sees the 531 troops killed in the attack by my troops and says " there were only 400 of them anyway!" For some reason he doesn't count the 128 my dauntlesses nailed (118 by his combat report), or the 87 (70 something in his report)that he lost in his attack. You do the math and decide if Raver lost 400 troops, or somewhere between 600 and 800! Sure, the combat reports for each of us are a little different, FOW and all that, but still! Ever heard of recon flights? They cost less.

As for Cooktown, as long as there are kitty hawks in the replacement pool, I'll persist with the fighting - my guys are dying more experienced. :rolleyes:

[Luskan]

In broad strokes, the battle between Raver and I looks like this.

Phase 1: Japanese fast expansion out of the solomons, invasion of Wupenko.

Phase 2: Japanese advance halted at Wupenko. Japanese troops massacred, and Allies go over to the offensive.

Phase 3: Allies set up shop on Gavigamana and repel Raver's counter attack (armed recon - whatever).

As should be clear to all of you, Raver is on the back foot and I am the one advancing here!!!

Forgot to report these two tidbits a while ago. Yamato hit a mine at some stage, and Raver's Betties scored a bomb hit on the Lady Lex while in Noumea one night. The 9 wildcat pilots that the 13 betties overcame have been executed. Lady Lex is damaged but not enough to send her back to Pearl, although the AA upgrade would probably be worth it. Can't afford to let her go until after I cull Raver's fleet arm a bit. Have some plans in motion to do just that.

[Raverdave]

Originally posted by Luskan
Have some plans in motion to do just that.

You couldn't plan a trip to the milkbar, and as for motion.......the ONLY thing the allies seem comfortable with is moving SOUTH.