AE Tourney II/Chickenboy PROHIBITED!!!/If you are Penelope Cruz my number is 714 287-4297

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

This reminds me of a good tumbleweed story...which I dont have time to tell right now.

[Cap Mandrake]

OK..we had a delay because I screwed up and somehow set the Japanese mirror game to random arrival. We solved this by a house rule to allow the Jap reinforcements to go to Iwo where they will voluntarilly stay inactive unit the arrival of the Jap carriers in the mirror game (turn 25)


*************June 4/5****************

After the first attack on Truk (and the Jap counterattack which damaged Hornet). The Southern Carrier Group remained on station with Hornet attached and was set to attack the airfield again on the morning of the 5th. Because intel showed 60-80 planes still at Truk, I detached the 4 fast BB's with the Strike Group and set them to bombard Truk during the night. This they did, suffering moderate damage to one DD from a mine and 10% system damage to one BB from shore fire. In the event, Chicken wisely bugged out his air groups and the morning air attack mostly hit empty runways.

Meanwhile, off Pagan, a sub found USS Formalhaut (AKA) which had been badly damaged in a collision earlier. Baah, I should have left her off Pagan, in retrospect. That was 24 pts lost. Another jap sub penetrated an ASW screen of 2 dozen DD's and put a torp into an Essex class (Wasp I think). She can still conduct flight ops and make 24 kts but she will have to go back to Pearl. An LST inbound to Pagan was also sunk by a sub.

Several Jap subs were roughed up or sunk.

The really good news is Pagan fell on the 5th. The airfield has 43% damage and the Port 72%. I have 50K supply half unloaded and 150 aviation support points and an air HQ and plenty of engineers. Bingo...unsinkable carrier in the Marianas.

I moved in 4 squadrons of B-24's, 4 of P-47's and Marine F4U's, plus some SBD's and TBF's and search/recon and ASW aircraft.

[Cap Mandrake]

*************June 5/6************

The Northern Strike group and CVE group began to withdraw to the SE as Pagan can defend herself for now. B-24's from Pagan struck the port at Guam and Saipan, sinking a few cripples and and damanged subs and beginning to attrit the shore defences a bit. The carriers Strike Group hit Tinian and Saipan airfields to keep the runway damage high before they move out of range. A massive stream of ships is headed for Eniwetok. Only Wasp, Hornet and the APA's and AKA's are headed back to Pearl. The transports will pick up the Saipan invasion force, D-Day in about 12-13 days. This will be after the arrival of the Jap CV's and BB's but that should just make it more fun. [:)]

One more CV will convert to Navy Corsairs. Two of the big CV dive bomber squadrons are upgrading because the VRF dive bomber squadron has the newest models and they otherwise could not draw replacements underway. Hornet and Wasp are headed back to Pearl . Hornet left her complement at Eniwetok to upgrade. In a pleasant discovery, I found the latest P-47 variant and the F4U's can reach Pagan from Eniwetok. 24 Coronados transported all the 7th Air Force HQ unit to Pagan in one day in spacious comfort. The in flight movie was a special preview showing of Sands of Iwo Jima. The projectionist was thrown out of the plane at 23,000 feet.

I had to send 2 squadrons of B-24's back to the Marshalls as I had overstacked th airfield at Pagan. The remaing two squadrons attacked the airfield at Guam and one plane was lost to flak. New attacks will go in at 12,000 ft.

[Cap Mandrake]

**********June 6/7***********


No USN losses today. Barnacle removal has begun on the ships at Eniwetok. I am flying in another Air HQ (11th Bombardment Group) to Pagan.

In the mirror game, Chicken raided Palau, sinking and AD and an AS (about 50 pts between them). I alos lost some zeroes trying to defend the place. It is useless to try to defend with these zero pilots against the Death Star. I moved the Bettys to Truk and some Judys to Saipan. As planned, they attacked his follow-on forces moving in the gap between Guam and Truk. The attacks were discoordinated...and failed with heavy losses. One raid penetrated the weak CAP over Wasp but failed to get any hits.....gaak.

I suspect Chiken may be trying a landing at Beazelbob or Yap. I had previously moved a regiment to Yap but Beazelbob is poorly defended.

[Cap Mandrake]

Brilliant analysis to follow:

[Cap Mandrake]

By my estimation, the big Jap carrier TF's have arrived and could have attacked Pagan on the 9th. Ditto the possibility of a bombardment by Yamato and friends. I therefore moved out the B-24's and sent in TBF's and dive bombers and a "shedload" of Marine Corsairs. I had hoped he would take the opportunity to attack Pagan while my carriers were away and thusly impale himself on the Corsairs and P-47's. The surface forces at Pagan are reduced to 4 DD's and 2 DE's which are just speed bumps to slow down a bombardment force. In the event, there is no such attack and he will likely know about the fighter trap over Pagan.

This brings up the obvious question of where his attack punch is. They could be at Iwo, having snuck past the sub screen there...I doubt it. They could be lingering in the Philippine Sea or they might have sortied South of Palau. Some vague contact was reported near Nauru Is., which is S of Eniwetok a good bit. This could be an attack on the Marshall airfields or an attempt to get past the Marshalls and get into my imagined transport stream. Similarly, they could try to run the Midway/Pagan gap or even sneak past Midway to the North.

It's a bit like the hunt for Bismark without the icebergs and crappy weather.

[rtrapasso]

[>:] [>:]

[Cap Mandrake]

Oh yeah..I forgot.

*************June 11-12********************

You know CL on a suicide mission....well...it wasn't on a suicide mission. Instead it was a CA a CL and 2 DD's. They raided Pagan on the night of the 10/11. The USN Destroyer group bugged out, leaving 4 DE's to defend the base. They were all sunk as well as a few LCI's loitering around in harbor. Somehow the Jap crusiers made it past at least 4 subs during their ingress and egress. As planned, some F6F night fighters made an attack, but nothing slowed them down. They sprinted toward Iwo, and were 11 hexes from Pagan at daybreak. The SBD-5's and TBF's at Pagan tried an attack at extreme range, but got separated from the Corsairs and it didn't go well. 13 or 14 SBD's were lost. 2 of the TBF's hit the CA with bombs but I doubt the damage was heavy. The Jap TF had about 50 Zeroes on LRCAP from Iwo. Losses were in favor of Japan 1.2:1. Bad day for the USMC and USN.

On the 12th I spotted an AO SE of Palau about 400 miles. I suspect the Jap carriers and heavies are holed up near there. The serviceable USN carriers (including CVE's) will assemble between Papan and Eniwetok to be able to respond to threats. I plan to send the four old BB's to Pagan to guard the harbor.

The two damaged CV's and the APD to pick up the Saipan invasion force are almost at Pearl.

[witpqs]

Didn't that happen like a week ago?

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Didn't that happen like a week ago?

Well, I had to work Friday night and Saturday....and Stalker Girl has been like a wolf in heat. I have to sneak into the man cave at 0' dark 30 to get anything done..

This scenario is at a tense spot. Both games have huge carrier forces that are potentially one to two turns away from a cataclysm. There is an amazing amount of detail, for example, some of the replacement squadrons dont match the match the main airframe types on the carriers (TBF vs TBM for eg.).

In the mirror game, USS Bunker Hill was hit be two torps from a sub. My intel guys claimed a sinking but I doubt it. Chicken has pulled his carriers back toward Eniwetok. I lost one sub trying to get to the damaged Bunker Hill. He has annoyingly left some ASW assets behind to beat up my minisubs at Guam. I am moving in some air assets to Guam to try to ruin their day. The amount of attention to Guam and Tinian suggests Guam might be the first target..but who knows. I am trying to run two regiments from Palau into Saipan from the North.

[rtrapasso]

We need an update!! [:'(]

[Cap Mandrake]

************June 13*************

Damged Wasp safely reached Pearl. She will need 76 days in the drydock, effectively taking her out of the fight. That is quite a stroke by one Betty pilot...uggh. Lightly damaged Yorktown will reach Pearl next turn and should be able to return to the fight with only 19% flooding from a sub hit. The first group of APA's reached Pearl, the last group will return in 2 d, then the embarkation of the Saipan landing group will begin. Some of the armor from the Pagan landing will be added to the Saipan attack. The airfield damage at Saipan, Guam and Tinian has been largely repaired. I can't keep them all shut down just with the air power on Pagan AND protect Pagan at the same time. This means the carriers will be needed again.

All the undamged USN carriers (including the CVE's have united about 200 m NW of Eniwetok and will accompany some LST's and the slow BB's to Pagan. The LST's are too slow to be used from Pearl but they will be perfect to bring the armor from Pagan to Saipan. I plan to send the slow BB's (4), augmented by perhaps two fast BB's to Pagan to guard against a night BB raid on Pagan. The carriers will lay off to the East to threaten any surface forces and to protect the BB's from the Jap carriers. Naturally, if there is to be a big carrier fight, it will be very helpful to be close to Pagan with her level 5 airfield and 7 squadrons of Marine Corsairs.

The spotting of the oiler SE of Palau yields nothing...even after I flooded the area with subs. I moved some B-24 recon aircraft to Pagan to scout Palau better. I need to find Nagumo.

[Cap Mandrake]

Something shows up on the radar screen

[Cap Mandrake]

Not really...I'm just trying to induce Chickenboy to attack [:)]

[Cap Mandrake]

Everyone is ganging up on me and giving Chickenboy advice. [:D]


************June 14************

Given the discovery of the Jap carriers, the escort mission to Pagan is off. I took these measures:

1) Two rested Marine Corsair squadrons moved back to Eniwetok from Pagan. This brings fighter strength at Eniwetok to a respectable operational strength of 31 Corsairs, 40 F6F and 25 P-47's. There are 32 dive bombers and some PBM's for recon. The fighters at Eniwetok are on 90% CAP except for the F6F's.

2) All the carriers will head back toward Eniwetok to a rendezvous point 80 m NW of Eniwetok. Most fighters squadrons on 70% CAP

3) 4 BB's also head for rendezvous point. Pennslyvania is hurt pretty badly and will go to Pearl.

4) LST's currently with the carriers will head North. The AO's will head East.

5) I had quite a few hundred points of ship value left at Eniwetok (AO, TK's, AS's, AE's etc). These will also head to the rendezvous point. Some may get picked off by subs, but...war is hell. There are 4 DD's stood down at Eniwetok. They will be involuntary bait.

6) there are also 3 squadrons of SBD and some TBM's and P-47's at Roi-Namur that might get in a fight if the Jap carriers moved far enought East.


Expectatons: This raid on the Marshalls might have worked 4 or 5 days earlier when the carriers were reassembling but it could go badly if tried now. Eniwetok is like a CV and CVL combined..and is unsinkable. This could jsut be bait to get me to pursue Westward. There is quite a reception waiting at Truk (65 fighters and 40 bombers). Even at the chosen rendezvous spot, Bettys and Judys (with drop tanks) could get in the fight. This would be offset from the advantage of the bleedover CAP from Eniwetok (2 hexes) and the extra strike power from Eniwetok.

[rtrapasso]

Everyone is ganging up on me and giving Chickenboy advice.

Nah... mostly it was devoted to discussing your "wolf" problems...

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

Everyone is ganging up on me and giving Chickenboy advice.

Nah... mostly it was devoted to discussing your "wolf" problems...

Ah...yes. It is a burden I must bear.

This is from Seneca (not the applesauce manufacturer)

"We must use Nature as our guide; she it is that Reason heeds, it is of her that it takes counsel. Therefore to live happily is the same thing as to live according to Nature. What this is, I shall proceed to make clear. If we shall guard the endowments of the body and the needs of Nature with care and fearlessness, in the thought that they have been given but for a day and are fleeting, if we shall not be their slaves, nor allow these alien things to become our masters, if we shall count that the gratifications of the body, unessential as they are, have a place like to that of the auxiliaries and light-armed troops in camp - if we let them serve, not command - thus and thus only will these things be profitable to the mind. "

[Cap Mandrake]

By ra way...I am not exactly sure but I think the above passage can also be used to justify drinking heavily as most alcoholic beverages are purifed yeast excrement...and therefore part of Nature.

Seneca could not have known of the pinnacle, Ambrosia of Juniper Berry and a splash of dry Vermouth, shaken over crushed ice, then decanted into a chilled glass....but he likely would have "gone with the flow"

[Cap Mandrake]

The file is back. I had sent Chicken a message complaining about "herding cats" with my task forces. This is partly true but I was really trying to convince things were in complete array. [:)]

I don't think he bought it. Time to go home and run the file before Stalker Girl gets home and makes her demands.

[Cap Mandrake]

The June 15 turn is back. There is no climactic carrier battle. Takao was attacked by a US sub (the torpedoes missed) South of Truk. She was probably an escort for the carriers. If so, they have pulled back to the West.

Just as well as my carriers got separated. The ASW screen NW of Eniwetok badly damaged a Jap sub.

The loading of the Saipan landing forces starts today. There is not enough dockspace at Pearl to load the huge force simultaneously so about half will have to load and the other APA's can line up. It looks like there will not be enough LSD's. I will have to leave one armored Bn behind or bring them on LCT's.

I am going to thin out the support vessels at Eniwetok, leaving just one AS and one AE. Two AE's will go to Pagan. This is a dangerous place but it will be a much faster turn around for BB rearming.