IronMan Nasty!

[Lowpe]

Dutch bombers strike:

[Lowpe]

Jan 10, 1942

Pearl Harbor

Once again, Nimitz stood in the plotting room looking at crayon markings. This time at Midway Island was added: Guards Mixed Battalion. That was the identified enemy forces landing at Midway.

The three destroyers present, put up a valiant, but losing fight against the invasion troops, but they did damage the troop transports before being driven off.

The Marine coastal defenses managed to hole the Japanese transport once or twice and did set it on fire, but not before most of the troops, about equal in number to the defenders, landed.

Despite an artillery bombardment, the Japanese stormed forward in a bayonet charge only to be cut down by the defenders.

Midway had stymied the Japanese.

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The doomed bayonet charge:

[Lowpe]

Jan 14, 1942

Batavia

Not a time to rest on your laurels thought Brooke-Popham. The heady hours after the mine attacks and the successful air strike had devolved into trying to rescue Dutch troops out of the jungles and worrying about Singapore, Ambon, and the Germans.

Brooke-Popham had ordered almost all of the float planes into rescuing the beaten Dutch troops, pulling them back to another line of resistance. However, the cost came at the lack of intelligence these planes could have provided. Since most of Brooke-Popham's navy had retreated for points west and south, this was a price he was willing to pay.

Ambon had beat off another attack, but Intelligence warned that more enemy troops were on en route. Brooke-Popham simply had nothing he could get there as reinforcements since the Japanese controlled the seas.

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The lack of long range search planes, tasked with troop transport instead, hurt ABDA's intelligence gathering. Where are the Japanese fleets now?

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Jan 14, 1942

Singapore

The men cheered, and then cheered some more. The first elements of the Japanese had attempted to storm into Singapore, and had been destroyed.

Under new leadership, the soldiers of the 18th British Division, and the 9th & 11th Indian Divisions (and assorted support untits) held their defensive lines with elan giving the Prime Minister something to crow about back home.

"Fortress Singapore, the Gilbralter of the East, will never fall" he proclaimed loudly before calling for a vote of confidence in his government. The PM won the vote, with but one dissenting ballot, such was the power of his oratory.

However, many more Japanese troops were heading south down Malaya and Singapore was effectively under siege now.

[Lowpe]

Jan 15, 1942

Batavia

With plentiful supplies, for now, the Malaya Army at Singapore, the single strongest concentration of allied forces in theater, repulsed a Japanese shock attack and then counter attacked throwing the Japanese back out of Singapore.

That was the good news. The bad news included a significant attrition of air assets, no chance of resupply and the relentless Japanese juggernaut invading Samarinda. At Samarinda, reinforced by the Australian Sparrow battalion, the defenders held.

Meanwhile, over at Ambon, the defenders beat off two more attacks while the heavy coastal guns continue to inflict damages on ships that resupply and reinforce the Japanese attackers.

At ABDA headquarters, Brooke-Popham felt justified. His transfer had finally come, back to England to run a training school. Brooke-Popham had weathered the initial Japanese storm, held Rangoon and Singapore, and dealt the Japanese a few naval reversals while avoiding a nervous breakdown.

His replacement, Archibald Wavell, had already started changes. The most significant, was the relocating of ABDA HQ to Palembang. Could Wavell halt the Japanese offensive?

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The counter attack!

[Lowpe]

January 17, 1942

Pearl Harbor

Nimitz, taking a page from the Australians, ordered a night raid on Baker Island where search patrols had detected several enemy ships.

The cruisers Chicago and Salt Lake accompanied by two destroyers arrived at Baker Island at midnight and gain complete surprise. In the ensuing actions, seven enemy transports are sunk while another eight are heavily damaged.

Despite the success, Nimitz could only ponder where were the Japanese carriers and battleships where?

Meanwhile, Nimitz’s first carrier offensive, a fast raid into Sakhalin with the Lady Lex and Enterprise commanded by Rear Admiral Bellinger had started. Talked into the raid by King, Nimitz had his misgivings about this raid. It seemed too aggressive, too early...

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From the plot room, Pearl Harbor, intelligence that prompted the cruiser raid.

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January 18, 1942

Pearl Harbor

A Japanese cruiser force shows up unexpectedly at Midway Island. These ships evaded the air search and land based bombers proved ineffective at stopping them as they fled. Nimitz was right to worry about the Japanese capital ships.

The Japanese seemed intent on capturing Midway, and perhaps this cruiser force was clearing the area for another, larger invasion of the island.

[Lowpe]

Jan 20, 1942

Palembang

Wavell definitely was in the hot seat at ABDA. Rommel wasn’t here, but it seemed as if the Japanese Generals’ were even more aggressive perhaps even reckless. Both Ambon and Samarinda still held out after daily attacks thanks to Australian units there, but the Japanese were aggressively reinforcing both areas. In Singapore, the fortress defeated another bloody attack with very high casualties inflicted. There had to be a limit to the number of soldiers Japan could throw at ABDA.

While on the ground, Wavell was holding, in the air the Japanese had almost entirely won. A few Buffalo fighters still flew from Singapore, but not for much longer. Air raids were day and night here at Palembung, Rangoon was shut down, but Batavia and Soerabaja still held a few good squadrons.

Yesterday, in the Java Sea, ABDA’s air force managed to hit Japanese troop transports, in what had to be an invasion force for Java itself. Japan was taking a fearsome loss on troop ships across the Pacific, but it was difficult to tell if the losses were slowing them down at all.

Wavell had been promised Hurricanes, but they probably wouldn’t show up until February. Well, the good news was that reinforcements were starting to pour into ABDA. Somehow, the PM managed to get the Yanks to give elements of the Americal division to ABDA and Wavell needed to decide where to commit it: Burma, Sumatra, Java, Timor or as a reserve. They would be here shortly, since they were travelling first class aboard the Queen Elizabeth.

Wavell’s naval forces were strengthening too. Royal Sovereign and Warspite would soon be in theater along with the carrier Indomitable. Perhaps these ships would be able to hunt down the Admiral Lutzow if she was still in the Indian Ocean as Wavell could not risk them too close to Japanese land based bombers.

The supply situation was troubling, too. Burma and Singapore needed large convoys to sustain the troops there. Unfortunately, Wavell didn’t know how to safely get those convoys there. It was going to be another late night.

[ny59giants]

Your AAR got me to start a slow paced game using this scenario. I will not be reading it any more as I want to see what surprises Andy Mac has for me. I will be doing 2 day turns to give the AI a chance.

[Lowpe]

Another bloody fight at Singapore.

[Lowpe]

Jan 21, 1942

South of Port Moresby

Complacency doomed the freighter Wollongbar. Unloading had taken longer than forecast, and she missed her chance to steam south with the larger convoy guarded by the famous Canberra by eight hours. Wollongbar, running supplies to Port Moresby since the beginning of the war, had her escort Asheville and the run had gotten to be quite routine despite Japanese presence at Lae.

The Japanese however had other plans. Stung by Getting’s cruisers once too often, they had obviously sent cruiser forces of their own to hunt down and destroy the RAN raiders.

It was just bad luck that they found the Wollongbar steaming at a stately 8 knots for Townsville.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Your AAR got me to start a slow paced game using this scenario. I will not be reading it any more as I want to see what surprises Andy Mac has for me. I will be doing 2 day turns to give the AI a chance.

I am supposed to attract readers and not lose them! Oh well, I understand, as your logic is impeccable.

[Lowpe]

Jan 21, 1942

Pearl Harbor

Nimitz sat down at his desk to compose another message to King in Washington to detail the latest engagement at Baker Island. King was of the opinion that the Japanese were going to strike from that base. Nimitz just didn't see it, since there were no capital ships in the area. If it was a feint, the Japanese were paying a high price for it.

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Jan 23, 1942

East of Toyohara, at sea

The planes had returned to Lexington and Enterprise, although the pilot's weren’t happy but satisfied. This raid, the first offensive use of carriers in the war, resulted in bombings of Shimushiri-juri, Paramushiro-jima, Onnekotan-jima, and Toyohara however no enemy convoys had been targeted much to the pilots disappointment.

Hopefully, the raid would convince the Japanese high command to reorganize their forces and delay some of their offensive moves to protect the Japanese Islands.

John Ford, the famous movie director, filmed the planes taking off and landing from a perch high on the island of Lexington. It was hoped that soon the footage would be played in theaters all across the country to restore American morale and sell a few more war bonds.

The Japanese were caught entirely by surprise. No enemy fighters and AA had been very light. However, now the task force had been sighted and she was in danger. With the last of the planes landed, the task force steamed full speed to the east and safety. Darkness was their only shield now. Could they race far enough, fast enough, to avoid the long legged land base air of the Japanese and make good their escape.

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Jan 23, 1942

Palembang

Wavell looked, with his one good eye, at the burnt out planes on the holed runway; stark testimony to the Japanese effectiveness at night bombing. It had been an exceptionally bad night and this bouncing betty attack, as the lads called it, was the least of Wavell’s worries.

After a valiant defense Ambon had finally fallen. The Japanese had reinforced with the 9th Tank Regiment, and there had been no survivors able to flee into the jungle. Brooke-Popham’s decision to reinforce Ambon with the Gull battalion bought ABDA time, but with hindsight it was easy to see that reinforcing an island defense without air and naval superiority was a death sentence.

And then, at Samarinda, the 90th Infantry Regiment deliberately attacked and forced the Allied forces back to Balikpapan with heavy losses.

And finally, perhaps the worst news, the Japanese landed in force at Port Moresby. The Australians were threatening to recall several divisions if Wavell couldn’t help them immediately as they feared invasion.

The only favorable outcome was that Singapore beat off two more assaults, but these attacks caused the garrison to consume supplies at a prodigious rate.

Perhaps Brooke-Popham had left right during the lull before the storm.

[Lowpe]

Oops, posted the wrong picture in the last post. A little foreshadowing....