Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. Bigred (A).

[FatR]

It's unfortunate that I lack time for regular report, because things are getting interesting lately.


China, early February of 1942

Japanese forces have left two significant Chinese armies marked as (1) and (2) on the map to rot in pockets and took Liuchow on February 10. Industry was completely obliterated, which is bad, as my Chinese supply tends to pool in Shanghai, instead of flowing to the front. But at least Chinese no longer can use it. I intend to pocket the Chinese army in Kweilin (that should have been defending Liuchow...) as well.

In addition, Southern Army detachment is about to leave the mountains and to arrive at the back of Chinese MRL. Forces detached to Bigred to stop it were defeated or failed to arrive (there is a six-unit group on the road to Chungking, but it failed to march the last hex it needed to march to bottle up my column).

Bigred tries to annoy me to death by regularly interdicting roads with remnant units, but this does not accomplish much.

Chinese also attempted to storm Sian with over 3000 AV in two groups. Both failed to scratch level 6 forts in river-crossing shock attacks. I don't have enough AV to counterattack in Sian or on the road to it, but without big Chinese reinforcements the region is pretty safe.

[FatR]

Allied Attempts to Save China

Besides airlifting a fair number of troops into China proper (although I believe I've demolished most of them in the battle for Kungming, Bigred goes for Burma again. I made a mistake not placing any forward guard, and a significant Allied force have crossed Irrawaddy between Magwe and Mandalay. I mistook their vanguard for a whole force, and three of my tank regiment were smashed as a result, while an Allied motorized brigade entered Magwe and got soundly defeated in return. The biggest problems are lack of supply and lack of air support for the expanded Japanese air force in Burma. I'm transporting more airfield units to Burma, but they are still on the way from Home Islands.

Still, preliminary count shows no more than 1400 Allied AV in Burma. This is most likely not enough to overrun my current force. Moreover, I have 5 elite divisions preparing for Little Andaman at Georgetown. As the Little Andaman operation is delayed. I'm going to sealift them into Burma and smash the Allied forces yet again.

Meanwhile, Allies are apparently attempting to land on Ramree Island, although this is suspicious, as recon does not report any troops on the ground and when one of Allied xAPs was damaged by Helens, there were no troop losses. Speaking of air attacks, they were quite costly, as landing was covered by Lightnings and Corsairs, and several of my groups were flying without cover. Besides the above-mentioned xAP, my aviators managed to mildly damage CLs Sent Loius (1 torp) and Hawkins (1 bomb). In case the landing is true, after all, tomorrow I'm hitting Ramree as hard as my LBA can. One of IJN battle squadrons is also on the way.

[FatR]

Suspicious Activity Around Perth

I'm not sending KB-1 to Andamans, as Allied activity along the western coast of Australia, as reported by my subs, remains ominous. Subs also reap their share of victims. I-15 had missed CL Cleveland, but I-166 hit CVE Prince William, causing an ammo explosion. She's still afloat (there were no plane losses on ground), but hopefully will sink before making Perth. I was inclined to write off these conspicous movements as as diversion, but CVE sighting indicates a serious effort on Allied part. They still don't have carrier air to spare at the moment, although by the end of the month they should have enough to make KB separation unwise. Although if Bigred knows what he's doing, he'll abandon it now.

Also, I find his lack of attention to Air ASW incomprehensible. My subs have free reign almost everywhere.

[FatR]

February 11th, 1942: LBA Battle and 7000th Plane Loss

Large air raids against Allied convoys took place across Arakan coast at Broome and at Cocos Island today. Only at Cocos Allied fighters (I hoped the airfield was still nonfunctional, it wasn't) managed to repel the attackers entirely, but everywhere the cost was heavy. At Broome the entire Allied convoy of 1 AM and 4 xAKs was sunk by Netties. Around Arakan, Allies left only a couple small ships at Ramree, with most of their TFs retreating to Akyab and Cox's Bazaar, so half of sweeps hit the air. Yet, a 60-plane Helen raid on Akyab got through without losses... and ran into thunderstorm weather. Only CL Caradoc (2 bombs) and one xAK were damaged. Later smaller Helen groups attacked Allied ships at Cox's Bazaar, and, at significant cost to themselves, sank a xAKL and damaged two large xAPs, one heavily, with troop losses.

Meanwhile Allied heavies tried to attack Magwe from high altitide, but there were only 22 of them, so Nicks and Tonies left on CAP managed to mostly repel the attack, shooting down between 5 and 8 of them. The bombing was mostly innacurate.

Losses for the day:



Can't say I'm happy (Allies have so many xAKs, that sinking a few won't make a difference, and alot of xAPs too), but could have been worse. My airgroups in Burma need rest, so I'm not sure if I should continue raids tomorrow.

[FatR]

Aftermath of Allied Landings at Arakan

Bad weather continued to foil my air operations against Allied landing fleets. Overall, I believe, combined air and sub action resulted in destruction of 3 xAPs, 2 xAKs and 1 xAKL, light-to-moderate damage to 3 CLs and some other ships, plus some troop losses on board. My SCTF based around Haruna tried to hunt for Allied ships on the night of February 14th, but only 2 xAKLs failed to retreat in time. Considering loss of about 60 planes in these operations, this result is rather underwhelming. Allies also succeeded of landing troops to Ramree.

On the bright side, Allies have failed to interfere with my major convoys to Rangoon during the same days. Only one bomber raid was successfully launched from Little Andaman, and only succeeded at lightly damaging a single AK. Allied fighters were busy at Arakan and I used this to partially suppress Little Andaman's airfield. Two divisions and an air flotilla are about to unload at Rangoon, and an Allied air attack on port was repelled with significant losses to both Liberator and sweeping Corsairs/Lightnings.

[FatR]

February 17, 1943: Attack of the Light Brigade(s) at Magwe

On 17th Allied attempted a shock attack supplemented by a paradrop at Magwe. But despite their sweeping efforts Japanese CAP remained up by the paradrop phase (maybe Bigred expected that my planes will be on attack, like in previous days, but on 17th I decided to give them a breather, particularly as my strike aviation was bled dry already), and you can see below how many AAA units I have there. Supple also apparently failed them. Almost 30 Skytrains went down, and the attack was absolutely shredded:

Ground combat at Magwe (57,47)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 19810 troops, 248 guns, 860 vehicles, Assault Value = 975
Defending force 27229 troops, 545 guns, 619 vehicles, Assault Value = 602
Allied adjusted assault: 140
Japanese adjusted defense: 805
Allied assault odds: 1 to 5 (fort level 5)

Combat modifiers
Defender: forts(+)
Attacker: shock(+), disruption(-), supply(-)

Japanese ground losses:
190 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 15 destroyed, 50 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled
Vehicles lost 36 (16 destroyed, 20 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
3019 casualties reported
Squads: 116 destroyed, 161 disabled
Non Combat: 171 destroyed, 158 disabled
Engineers: 16 destroyed, 26 disabled
Guns lost 53 (28 destroyed, 25 disabled)
Vehicles lost 288 (164 destroyed, 124 disabled)

Assaulting units:
73rd Motorised Brigade
19th Indian Division
50th Tank Brigade
84th Indian Brigade
254th Armoured Brigade
77th Chindit Bde /2
25th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
86th Coast AA Regiment
21st Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
14th Indian Light AA Regiment

Defending units:
8th Tank Regiment
4th Tank Regiment
14th Tank Regiment
78th Infantry Regiment
20th Recon Regiment
2nd RTA Division
7th Field AF Construction Battalion
60th JNAF AF Unit
9th Ind. Engineer Regiment
17th JAAF AF Bn
49th Field AA Battalion
36th JAAF AF Bn
16th Field AA Machinecannon Company
20th AA Regiment
31st Road Const Co
22nd Field AA Machinecannon Company
28th Field AA Machinecannon Company
31st Field AA Battalion
26th Fld AA Machinecannon Company
Southern Army
25th Air Defense AA Regiment
88th JAAF AF Bn
11th RF Gun Battalion
23rd Field AA Machinecannon Company
25th JAAF AF Bn
42nd Ind.AA Gun Co
26th Air Defense AA Regiment
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion
15th JAAF Base Force
26th Field Artillery Regiment
11th Air Defense AA Regiment
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
45th Road Const Co
44th Field AA Battalion
19th Field AA Machinecannon Company
22nd Air Defense AA Regiment
25th Field AA Machinecannon Company
11th JAAF AF Bn

Well, with that the commitment of my entire 5-division reserve to Burma seems like an overkill, but what's done is done, the last contingent is unloading already.


Air Slaughter

In air operations against Allied TFs still hanging around Arakan I wasn't so lucky, though. Weather repeatedly undermined my efforts, with lesser contingents from Mandalay flying and getting slaughtered, and my main air force at Magwe staying home. Two Helen sentai and much-suffering Saeki Kokutai (on Kates) were practically annihilated. And fighter battles over Cox's Bazaar also weren't in my favor. Moreover, Bigred has figured out my habit of trying to achieve local air superiority over a hex, rather than escorting bombers, and laid some traps using expendable TFs and LRCAP, which cost me not a few Betties, Emilies and Vals. Overall I might have lost over 200 planes in recent battles in this theatre. This resembles the operation I-Go - while I managed to sink some ships (although nothing valuable, just xAKs and slow xAPs), my losses are prohibitive...


Suspicious Moves Near the Perimeter and Japanese Reaction - Naval Battles of Townsville and Ndeni

Meanwhile Allied light forces moved into action in SWPac, transporting troops to Ndeni, and my subs detected what appeared to be a large troop convoy moving along the coast of Northern Australia. KB-1 moved into action from Soerabaja in hopes of intercepting the latter, and the convoy was destroyed, but not only it proved to be small (although indeed troop-loaded), KB planes refused to attack it. However, torpedo bombers from Timor and Waingapoe sank the large xAP Republic and xAK Marpeesa, that formed the convoy, sending a couple hundreds of squads under, and detached cruisers intercepted and sank PG Charleston and 2 Australian AMs, that escorted it.

Meanwhile, my cruiser squadron based on Marshalls moved to investigate what Allies are up to at Ndeni. The outcome of the two-part battle was satisfying.

Day Time Surface Combat, near Ndeni at 120,143, Range 25,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Aoba
CA Kinugasa, Shell hits 1
CL Natori, Shell hits 1
DD Shigure, Shell hits 2
DD Uranami
DD Amagiri
DD Ushio, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
APD Colhoun, Shell hits 14, and is sunk
APD McKean, Shell hits 16, and is sunk
APD Stringham, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
APD Waters, Shell hits 2
DD Humphreys, Shell hits 19, and is sunk
DD Rathburne, Shell hits 18, and is sunk

These APDs actually are pretty useful for Allies... I'm happy seeing them take their forward bases at cost like this. A number of empty LCTs and LCMs also was sunk by gunfire and Betties flying from Tulagi, but these are replenishable.

Unfortunately, commander of my SCTF was too engrossed with chasing down Allied ships to retreat by daytime. Fortunately, no Allied bombers apparently covered this operation, so it remained unharmed.

[FatR]

Although were not at end of a game month, I have some time right now, so, let's explore the current stare of Japanese production at the moment.

Industry Screen on February 18th

To my big surprise, pilot training requirements did not incease significantly in 1943, so I'm still slowly accumulating HI. This is a living in debth, though, as oil/fuel situation continues to deteriorate, with over 100k loss over the last month, due to increase in fleet operations. Bigred commits a big mistake by using his aviation for tactical ground support, instead of committing everything to attempt taking out Magwe oilfields. Even then, and even with perpective of taking 140 more oil production in Northern China in a few months, the economic situation fundamentally remains unsolvable at the current level of expenditure. I just hope I'll be able to keep things in a state of slow decline until late autumn of 1943, when most of my naval program will be completed and I'll be able to start shutting down naval shipyards and HI centers.

As about current availability to the industry, Home Islands have fuel for 59 days, oil for 81 days and resources for 105 days.

The resource situation is great, on the other hand. I already have enough excess to not expend fuel by transporting resources from Ocean/Nauru. I hope that eventual total conquest of China will greatly reduce the need to haul resources from DEI as well.

[FatR]

Aircraft Production

As you can see, I'm not strict about streamlining production to a single type of plane in each category. This is not only a way of reducing expenses related to factory conversions or to use engines that are already present in stockpiles or relatively readily avaiable (although these are relevant factors a well). IMO, Japanese can't cover all necessary combat roles with a single fighter at this stage. Looking at Army fighters, Shoki is the best overall, but Hien can fly over Spitfires and Corsairs and get the initial bounce, while Shoki can't. And both of them lack range for escort missions, unlike Ki-43. I also deploy Ki-43s in lower echelons of my layered air formations, so that they draw enemy low, while being relatively able to survive dives, due to their high maneurability.

Scen 70 adds a similar situation to IJN side as well. A6M4 has superior stats overall, but A6M5 can fly higher, escort to longer distances and is carrier-capable. I'm concentrating more on A6M5, because its factories will later upgrade to A6M8.

I'm not buiding that many Jills because the first model is not radically better than Kate. Once B6N2 reaches production in about two more months, I intend to build over a hundred per month. However, I'm putting effort into bringing Judies to the frontline earlier. A 500-kg bomb instead of a 250-kg one is a big deal.

[John 3rd]

Lew and I are in mid-January 1943 and I've already got my Judies producing. I'm using the first model of Jill but really look forward to the second model!

As for fighters:
Army--Tojo (180), Tony (just started 130), and Oscar IIa (52)
Navy--A6M5 (200) and A6M4 (130). George is not too far away...

[FatR]

Engine Production

I have a slight deficit of Mitsubishi Ha-33 engines, that will become huge once A6M8 hits the production lines, so I intend to add another 100 units or so right now. Nakajima Ha-45 also needs radical expanding, George is not far away now, and I intend to build it in large quantities. I still don't have enough Nakajima Ha-34 to build as many Helens as I need. Otherwise everything is fine. I'm allowing Mitsubishi Ha-32 to pile up because, as I mentioned before, it is carried by Jills, Francices, and Emily transports late in the war, and I will want more Betties too, once G4M2 becomes available.

[FatR]

Aircraft Research

Besides what you can see here, Helen transport also was accelerated by one month recently, and then I switched the research to Shiden. I decided to use Shidens way too late, but I still hope to accelerare the first model at least to 43/6. And then stick with it until N1K5-J at least. N1K1-J is the altitude king, at least among Japanese Navy aircraft, and practical tests seems to demonstrate that Service Rating 3 is tolerable on large bases with sufficient support.

I'm researching D4Y2 at the moment, but I think D4Y3 will be my definitive production model. It has the same cruse speed as B6N2, is far more reliable than D4Y1-2, and the loss of range does not matter for carrier use.

[FatR]

I don't think that producing that many Ki-61s is wise, John... They are fairly niche planes in early 1943, and will be relegated to pure bomber interceptors soon.

[John 3rd]

I am working to changeover my Sentai (4-5) to Mr. Tony and then shift roughly 50% over to Frank research while the rest keep on producing. Should give a decent point-defense fighter for the short term with Tojo's holding the air predominatly until Frank is here.

[FatR]

February 19, 1943

Two more Indian Divisions have rolled into Magwe today. Looks like I did right by committing the whole five-division force after all.

Meanwhile, super-Es made their entrance into war, with a hunter-killer group led by Etorofu-class Matsuwa finally finding and annihilating SS Porpoise, that was foolishly hanging in shallow water south of Singapore for the last week and avenging two Lima-class xAKs sunk near Nagasaki a few days ago. Power of pre-nerf Es is unfair to Allies, I must say, but this time Bigred brought this on himself.


The Big Question

I'm not missing the fact that I'm mostly fighting second-rate Allied naval and ground forces. With Pearl cut off more than half-year ago, Bigred should now have a very sizeable unrestricted US troop contingent outside of it. Similarly, fast USN battleships, modern USN cruisers and modern USN destroyers, as well as the remaining Allied carrier force, made almost no moves since the naval battle of Hawaii. Sub ightings of large number of ships, including CVEs, modern capital ships and fleet oilers around Perth might be an indication that Bigred was up to something there... But now the number of ships detected in local ports has dropped radically. If these ever were real invasion preparations, my overkill response to the latest convoys to Broome might have convinced Bigred to shift focus. Ideally I would have liked to see Allies committing on the other side of Australia at them moment, if only because I don't have free manpower to vigorously counterinvade possible beachheads.

Of course, I continue blockading Pearl. Mostly to keep troops there bottled up, so that they won't screw with support operations for my main move for 1943.

[FatR]

February 24, 1943 - Pocket in Burma

Bigred did not really try to retreat from Irawaddy valley after it became clear that Japanese reinforcements are arriving into the theatre. Big mistake. I've sent three divisions by rail to Magwe and two to Mandalay. The former launched several attacks, but, despite achieving greater than 2:1 odds on the last two, failed to dislodge Allied troops. Loss were about even, but Allies lost far more squads and vehicles destroyed. Meanwhile, 38th and 48th Divsions, supplemented by most of the garrizons from Meiktila and Mandalay, marched to the hex NE of Magwe, through which Allied troops first entered Magwe. They met a theoretically strong, but already battered in previous battles for Magwe and undersupplied force and routed it on the first try.

Ground combat at 58,46
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 45499 troops, 452 guns, 184 vehicles, Assault Value = 1748
Defending force 14066 troops, 273 guns, 844 vehicles, Assault Value = 612
Japanese adjusted assault: 802
Allied adjusted defense: 252
Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: supply(-)
Attacker: disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
1312 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 52 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 108 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled

Allied ground losses:
2553 casualties reported
Squads: 86 destroyed, 39 disabled
Non Combat: 176 destroyed, 167 disabled
Engineers: 7 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 39 (25 destroyed, 14 disabled)
Vehicles lost 365 (162 destroyed, 203 disabled)
Units retreated 8

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
1st RTA Division
56th/A Division
38th Division
40th Brigade
48th Division
56th/B Division
15th Army
9th RF Gun Battalion

Defending units:
50th Tank Brigade
254th Armoured Brigade
73rd Motorised Brigade
24th (Sep) Infantry Regiment
268th Motorised Brigade
XV Indian
4th Field Artillery Battalion
501st Coast AA Regiment

This is an absolute disaster for Allies, because this victory also cut the sole path of retreat available for the following exhausted units:

84th Indian Brigade
19th Indian Division
20th Indian Division
77th Chindit Bde /2
86th Coast AA Regiment
21st Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
25th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
14th Indian Light AA Regiment

Now they are going to be exterminated, and taking into account losses already inflicted on other units, the overall cost to Allies should exceeed that of the fall of Port Blair. While on tactical level Bigred's play had improved considerably and in the air he outplays me quite often, operationally he's still willing to stick his hands into the Japanese meatgrinder.




Air and Sea War On Western Flank

Speaking of air warfare, I don't even have free reign over Irawaddy valley anymore. On 23th in particular Allies have laid a huge ambush, full of Lightnings/Corsairs/Spitfires, taking down almost fifty planes, half of them Helens, in exchange for 28 of their own. On the next day my aviators managed to beat diminished Allied squadrons, but failed to interfere with Allied bombers, hitting my troops in the field (that's why you can see disruption modifier for Japanese in the combat report above). I still win air exchanges half the time, and I believe my figher losses remain lower, but when I lose, I now tend to lose badly, while Japanese victories are relatively narrow...

A stupid mistake also was made at sea. I've lost a couple of heavily escorted transports to resupply Port Blair, but failed to take into account their speed. So they ended up outside of Zero umbrella, but within Dauntless range from Little Andaman. Five Aden-class xAKs were sunk by divebombers. Subsequent air attacks during unloading were repelled, but one more xAK was lost to sub attacks on the way back. That's pretty painful losses, particulary because most of them were easily preventable.

[FatR]

February 27, 1943: LBA Revenge

For several months now I've attempted no daylight bomber attacks or sweeps farther than Chittagong. That apparently made Bigred complacent, and disregarding constant recon flights over his bases. Most of his fleet from Arakan landing operations had retreated to Calcutta... and seeing few fighters there, I've decided to punish Allies for their belief that they already own the skies by staging a combined day bomber attack by everything and kitchen sink from Burma and Andamans, including patrol Emilies. This worked magnificently, as nearly all of my squadrons took off and weather, for once, decided to be clear. Oscars and A6M2s were working on achieving air superiority, but Allied CAP was completely absent anyway. A couple of planes were taken down by flak, but the results were as follows:

CA Hawkins, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Devonshire, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL St. Louis, Bomb hits 4, on fire
CL Caradoc, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
DD Hughes, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Wilson, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
DD Arunta, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
AVD Mackinac, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAP Arawa, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAP Rangitiki, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAP Gogra, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAP Duntroon, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
xAP Chaksang, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAP Forafric, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAP Koolinda, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAP Egra, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAP Nirvana, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAP Clan Macfadyen, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAP Gandara, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAP Tai Sang, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Judging by sinking sounds, at least a couple of these ships went down. In a big port the great majority of them are going to survive... although they will be stuck in a port without shipyard. Either way, most of the Allied surface forces spotted in Indian Ocean just have been neutralized for the immediate future.

Some of my bombers also went for the airfield, but Allied losses there were minimal.

Meanwhile, in NG-Solomons theatre Betties have launched a few day raids against unprotected airfields in Northeastern Australia and a night port raid on Luganville, where Allied ships were spotted, but these achieved almost no results.

[FatR]

AA Units As Ground Defense

An interesting combat outcome was observed today NE of Magwe:

Ground combat at 58,46
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 36103 troops, 377 guns, 126 vehicles, Assault Value = 1657
Defending force 391 troops, 36 guns, 33 vehicles, Assault Value = 1
Japanese adjusted assault: 618
Allied adjusted defense: 1
Japanese assault odds: 618 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(+), disruption(-), fatigue(-), supply(-)
Attacker: disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
297 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 25 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 5 (1 destroyed, 4 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
Guns lost 39 (39 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 19 (19 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Assaulting units:
1st RTA Division
48th Division
56th/A Division
40th Brigade
38th Division
56th/B Division
15th Army
9th RF Gun Battalion

Defending units:
14th Indian Light AA Regiment

Well that expains the massacre of the Allied shock attack in Magwe. It is clear, that AA guns do fire at ground targets, and, moreover, are potent in that role. This might cause me to rethink Japanese AA units disposition and spread some of them across more valuable island bases.

[janh]

Think of the famous 88, "rasante 88".  The IJA fielded quite a few different calibers and types (though all inferior in muzzle velocity to german flak 38 and 43) that are probably the best platforms in their arsenal for AT use in later war.  Much more so than the dedicated AT guns at least.

[FatR]

February 28, 1943: Second Naval Battle of Ndeni

On the night of 28th my Mandate Islands cruiser detachment returned to Ndeni, where it sank a small Allied fast transport force a few days ago, as I noticed that size 1 airfield was heavily stacked with fighters and patrol planes and decided to slow down Allies a bit with a good naval bombardment.

What rear admiral Shimamoto had encountered at Ndeni was faaar beyond my expectations based on previous low-level Allied commitment or search data. After passing a few PT boats, my ships ran into a massive Allied force, unloading at the beaches. For yet-unknown reasons, American warships were at anchor, so the battle started at knife range and was both short and brutal:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Ndeni at 120,143, Range 1,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
CA Aoba, Shell hits 1
CA Kinugasa, Shell hits 24, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Natori
DD Shigure
DD Uranami, Shell hits 1
DD Amagiri
DD Ushio
DD Kuretake

Allied Ships
BB South Dakota, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 5, and is sunk
CA Wichita, Shell hits 1
CL Concord
CL Honolulu
CL Montpelier, Torpedo hits 1
DD Laffey
DD Woodworth
DD Caldwell
DD Downes, Shell hits 2, on fire
SC-741
LST-447
LST-448
LCI-62
LCI-63

Japanese Ships Reported to be Approaching!
Allied TF begins to get underway
Reduced sighting due to 25% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Overcast Conditions and 25% moonlight: 1,000 yards
Range closes to 26,000 yards...
Range closes to 23,000 yards...
Range closes to 20,000 yards...
Range closes to 17,000 yards...
Range closes to 14,000 yards...
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
Range closes to 9,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 9,000 yards
Range closes to 8,000 yards...
Range closes to 7,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 7,000 yards
Range closes to 6,000 yards...
CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 6,000 yards
Range closes to 5,000 yards...
Range closes to 4,000 yards...
Range closes to 3,000 yards...
Range closes to 2,000 yards...
Range closes to 1,000 yards...
CA Kinugasa engages BB South Dakota at 1,000 yards

Kinugasa drew the first real blood by putting a torpedo at Montpelier, but the latter responded with a furious hail of 6in fire, cripping Kinugasa immediately. Then Shigure, for a change, decided to engage enemy capital ships, and put three Long Lances at South Dakota from 1000-yards range. Before being completely smothered by fire from Allied cruisers, Kinugasa added two more, and SoDak succumbed to massive damage, managing only a couple of 20mm hits on the enemy in her extremely brief fighting career.

Allied TF, burdened with landing craft, beat a retreat after that. To my surprise, the main Japanese force proceeded to bombard Ndeni after that, torching a dozen of planes on the ground and sinking a lone xAK found on the way. Points to RADM Shimamoto for determination, but I would have preffered my TF switching to surface combat mode.

With the dawnbreak it became clear why Allied force was so careless - they relied on their covering force:

Day Time Surface Combat, near Ndeni at 119,142, Range 19,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Aoba, Shell hits 3
CL Natori, Shell hits 4
DD Shigure, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Uranami, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Amagiri
DD Ushio, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
CL Helena, Shell hits 1
DD Conway, Shell hits 1
DD Cony
DD Jenkins
DD LaVallette
DD Taylor

I can only guess, why their best ship were in close escort, tied by transports, unable even to hunt down my escaping ships and take their revenge. As Japanese exhausted their ammo already, this battle was rather one-sided, but thankfully Allied TF lacked punch and was unable to score any penetrating hits on cruisers.

Meanwhile, CA Kinugasa retreated only far enough to transfer surviving crew to Kuretake and be scuttled. Fires were at 99, so there wasn't any hope of saving her.

As you can see here

"heavy fires, heavy damage" in the report might mean very different things. Shigure will most likely survive, barring new attacks or freak accidents, Ushio is probably toast. Still, not a heavy price to pay for a battleships.

Only 3 B-26s sortied from Luganville to chase my escaping ships. LRCAP from Tulagi took them down, alongside with escorting Wildcats.

[FatR]

Meanwhile, take a look at

Air losses by March 1st

Allied air losses today are so massive also because of air attacks on the convoy that tried to resupply Great Nicobar. Allies lost almost 30 planes there on 26th and 28th, but managed to sink an APD and a fast AK, which is not an exchange I'm happy about.

Ki-49-IIa still die like flies to Allied fighters. Very disappointing, and I don't have anything radically better to look forward.