IronMan Nasty!

[pws1225]

Me thinks Andy is enjoying himself.

[Cribtop]

Very cool. Love the Germans and the first person accounts!

[Lowpe]

HMAS Canberra in Sydney during better days:

[Lowpe]

Dec 28, 1941
RAN Cruisers, South of Lae, at sea

Captain Getting thought it was a suicide mission. His orders were to gather all available ships and stop the invasion of Lae. Surely, the Japanese knew he was in the area after his successful raid on Rabaul. Sometimes, he wished he was back in his submarine with less responsibility or perhaps chasing after the Lutzow in the Indian Ocean since his ship had experience chasing the Admiral Scheer back in February.

There were over 700 souls on Canberra now and he was responsible for them all plus the other ships in the task force. Le Trioumphant and Adelaide were making their way back to Sydney for repairs,but now his force comprised Canberra, flag, Australia, Perth, Leander and Achilles. No destroyers and that made Getting nervous. Very nervous.

However, Getting was wrong and those blokes in Intelligence were right for once. Information from scout planes, coastal watchers, radar and signal intelligence allowed Getting to catch the Japanese again this time at Finnschhafen near Lae.

During the night time encounters, seven transports sunk -- 4 caught while unloading troops. Seven small escorts, sub chasers and patrol boats sunk too. The Japanese would take Finnschafen and most probably Lae, but his ships made the Japanese pay a very high price.

Now, if he could escape back to the relative safety of the Australian coastline.

[Lowpe]

RAN strikes again! (repeat five more times)

[Lowpe]

Dec 29, 1941
Batavia

Brooke-Popham had fallen into the habit of having the latest dispatches read to him. His hands shook so much now, it was impossible for him to read a held dispatch and his nervous energy made him pace rather than sit at a desk. Bad news was best heard whilst pacing anyhow.

Houston Force, first tremendous victors, then terribly savaged by the Japanese and they weren’t done with the poor Houston yet. Somehow, she managed to limp back into Soerabaja, but only after her escort the light cruiser Dragon was torpedoed by planes flying from Manado. Luckily the Dutch managed to fly some sorties, or else it would have been much worse. But once Houston was in port she still wasn’t safe.

The fire tugs were dousing Houston, guiding her in the Harbor, when more air raids occurred and the poor Houston was hit by another bomb, but still she lived….barely. Her Captain refused to have her scuttled and was making grandiose plans to get her to Colombo or Perth. Yankee ingenuity, don’t you know. That Captain even talked the harbor master into reloading the 8” guns on her. What an optimist.

The Japanese carriers seem to have pulled back, now that Manado had fallen and so had Namlea near Ambon. Ambon might be safe, if anything could be safe these days, since Brooke-Popham had sent the Gull Battalion from Australia there.

In Malaya, the retreat to Singapore seemed to be going well. However air raids had been stepped up a notch. Where were his hurricanes and spitfires?

In Burma, things were looking up so something bad was going to happen. The railroad was clear and the Japanese hadn’t shown up in force except for those Dacoits. Too good to be true so something bad was surely on the horizon. Brooke-Popham would have all the Burma dispatches read to him just to be safe.

[Lowpe]

Dec 31, 1941
Batavia

Almost one month into this new war, Brooke-Popham could count his forces’ successes on one shaking hand, perhaps just one finger. His setbacks were too numerous to mention.

The latest addition, as he had feared earlier, was the Admiralty report on the first confirmed U-boat attacks in the Indian Ocean near Colombo. It seemed to Brook-Popham that the axis forces were working together to cut off India and Australia from England.

Ambon was invaded yesterday, but the Gull Battalion and Dutch forces there had thrown back several assaults. Subsequent air attacks on the Japanese resulted in the loss of several bombers to enemy fighters to no effect.

Well, the news wasn’t all bad as the Houston still survived at Soerabaja. Maybe she could make her way to Perth.

[Lowpe]

A few general game notes are in order.

This is Ironman Nasty played with 2 day turns on hard. PDU on. Historical start & dud torpedoes.

Thanks for reading & and thanks for developing this scenario. I really appreciate it.

[Lowpe]

I really don't want to write much on China, but a little overview is in order.

The Japanese have inflicted significant losses on the Chinese thru Dec 31, 1941:

Chinese Losses:
Squads: 1137 (3x the replacement rate)
Non-combat: 1251
Eng: 94
Guns: 91

While two or three counterattacks and defending Wenchow have cost the Japanese:

Japanese Losses
Squads: 554
Non-combat: 336
Eng: 20
Guns: 48
Vehicles: 8

The strategy in China, as with the entire game, is to make the Japanese fight for everything. Hence the defense of places like Wenchow, Ambon, Midway, etc... Wenchow has plentiful early supply and a relatively good infantry unit starts there.

[Lowpe]

McArthur has adopted the Iron Triangle defense and both Clark and Manila are invested as of Dec 31, 1941. Slightly more AV is in Manila than Clark. The airbases were savaged during the first two turns, but have come back nicely since then.

The first probing attack on Manila happened 12/31/1941. McArthur, being aggressive, will counter attack despite the cost in supplies.

And that is pretty much about it for game areas not mentioned in previous posts.

What happens in January? Do more Germans show up? Or perhaps an Italian submarine? Will Brooke-Popham break down and be blamed for the fall of Singers? Stay tuned...

[Andy Mac]

Have to say I am really enjoying this AAR

[pws1225]

It must be like being the mad scientist who created Frankenstien watching the creature terrorize the villagers. Nice work!

[Lowpe]

Jan 2, 1942

Pearl Harbor

Nimitz had been playing cribbage last night when the news arrived. The Midway Garrison had stopped another assault before the invading troops could land. Elements of the 34th Infantry Regiment had reinforced the Island a few days prior and the covering carriers had just pulled into Pearl for replenishment and to allow Halsey to testify to the Roberts Commission.

It could have been him. Nimitz had been offered Kimmel’s position earlier and luckily, for Nimitz, it didn’t happen. Now, Nimitz knew he was on borrowed time. He didn’t have the trust of King yet, and King was letting it known that he was disappointed with the use of the carrier force since the surprise attack.

King wanted aggressive retaliatory strikes against the Japanese. But what would it gain? Exposing the carriers to land based air was a losing proposition unless you had complete surprise. Halsey, the most experienced carrier admiral Nimitz had, would probably love to attack somewhere. But if the carriers were lost, then Pearl would itself be very vulnerable.

Not to mention the dangerous surface raiders -- a tactic Japan mastered. Another attack, this time on an Australian relief convoy that Kimmel put into action suffered. The headquarters squadron of an Army fighter group sunk at sea.

Another, larger convoy was also attacked, but there a light cruiser managed to fight off the raiders and was steaming for Sydney with no losses. Soon, search planes would be covering this area of the Pacific, but too late to help with these last two attacks.

Certainly, more events like this and Nimitz would be testifying in front of another Roberts Commission. A grim thought.

[Lowpe]

The brave Concord:

[Lowpe]

Japanese Raiders!

[Lowpe]

Jan 4, 1942
Batavia

On this date, Brooke-Popham learned to his chagrin that Kuching and Kendari had fallen to the ever expanding Japanese assault. Where would the Japanese strike next?

Surviving troops were being evacuated by floatplane since there were quite a few Japanese capital ships present in the area.


Jan 6, 1942
Ambon. The Japanese struck there, but the doughty defenders had fought off the first assault. Thank goodness the Gull Battalion reinforced there.

More Japanese capital ships were located at Ambon, now too. Events seemed to be picking up speed….


Jan 7, 1942
Batavia

The Japanese fleet was on the wrong side of Java now and he still didn’t know what it was doing!

Their fighters were shooting the hapless Dutch out of the air left and right. No scout plane survived long enough to send in a good report of the makeup of the enemy fleet. Transports? Battleships? Carriers, yes, oh my yes.

Their dive bombers had attacked Soerabaja – hitting the Houston once again. That ship just wouldn’t sink. The aerodrome was also hit. Brooke-Popham’s planes proved unable to stop the Japanese.

Bugger all, no one told Brooke-Popham that the Japanese would come from that direction. It was just plain nasty.

[Lowpe]

Jan 8, 1942
Batavia

Brooke-Popham dumped another armful of papers, signals, cyphers and folders onto the fire as the air raid sirens wailed. The Japanese task force was close to Batavia now and panic gripped him.

Brooke-Popham knew, just knew, that the Japanese were coming for him. The large enemy fleet was now just due west of Batavia threatening all of western Java and Borneo. Makassar, Kendari, Watambe had all fallen but Ambon was still in Allied hands putting up a valiant defense -- the first solid fight since the war started.

Brooke-Popham had tried to strike back, really he had, but those horribly ungainly Dutch bombers just weren't up to it.

Attempts to suppress the airfields at Makassar ended with horrible losses to Brooke-Popham’s bombers.

Carrier planes struck at Batavia’s and Oosthavan’s airfields as he burned the files. Luckily heavy rain seemed to reduce their effectiveness even as it grounded his fighters. However, the weather was clear west of Sumatra with terrible results.

The ABDA ships that fled Tjilatjap for Colombo strayed too close to Malaya and were ambushed under bright sunny skies. The light cruiser Enterprise torpedoed and sunk, the Hobart and Cornwall bombed but still steaming towards Colombo.

Only too late did Brooke-Popham realize he had been ambushed. What if the Admiral Lutow was lurking somewhere between Borneo and Colombo….

[Lowpe]

Jan 8, 1942

Pear Harbor

Nimitz stood, looking down at the tracing paper with blue crayon markings in the plot room. They showed another fleet approaching Midway. The only naval assets in the area were three destroyers protecting small supply convoys and a couple of submarine pickets.

Was this another invasion fleet? Midway had been reinforced on the ground, but still was low on supplies of ammunition and aircraft. Signal intelligence seemed to believe the enemy carriers were at Truk – should he commit his carriers to defend Midway?

Planning was now under way for a daring carrier raid against the Japanese, partly to satisfy King, and mostly to show the Japanese that the US Navy still had lots of fight in her. Should he delay that operation?

[Lowpe]

Jan 10, 1942
Batavia

Brooke-Popham accepted congratulations all night. Yes, technically it was his order although he couldn’t remember issuing it. Several weeks ago, a junior naval officer wanted to lay a minefield at Merak hoping to catch a Japanese submarine that was spotted lurking in the channel.

Of course, now, they couldn’t find the order authorizing it, since Brooke-Popham most likely burned it. But still, the facts were the facts and now Brooke-Popham found himself in an unlikely position as a hero.

The huge Japanese fleets, complete with battleships, carriers, cruisers and who knew what else was traversing the channel when several ships steamed into the minefield. My goodness, you could hear the explosions in Batavia.

On the following morning, Dutch bombers managed to actually hit one of the carriers on the very last of seven sorties and send it up in fire and smoke. A carrier sunk by planes, and cruisers and destroyers sunk by mines. Oh my.

It was odd, that the Admiralty never heard of the ships sunk before. That was their problem not his.

[Lowpe]

First the mine field: