The Hive - Cruft PBEM (Japan, Scen 2 Beta + Stacking Limits)

[Cribtop]

There are never enough DDs in any Navy. Sounds like a good place to attack.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

Note to the above ...

Stripping his destroyers away from other more important ships is probably my number one tactical goal, so despite the expense I am quite pleased with the results.

We are going in again tomorrow, and then the day after we will send in the Fubukis for another go.

Still no airfield suppression on Mindanao, which makes it all possible.

Looks good. Like the kamis getting hits on DDs. Well done. The Mobile is hurting as well I'm sure.

[Captain Cruft]

15 Feb 1944

Nothing flew today. He still has ships at Manado but my search/recon did not spot them until well into the latter stages of the PM Air Phase.

4 destroyer TFs are going in overnight, each with 5 ships.

[Captain Cruft]

16 Feb 1944

Saigon falls. I managed to evacuate and the 3rd Air Division and 1st JAAF Base Force by sea just in the nick of time.




The Fubukis did quite well at Manado. None were sunk and light damage was inflicted on a good number of enemy destroyers.

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Manado at 75,99, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Usugumo, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Akebono
DD Kikuzuki
DD Myojinami
DD Tadeyame, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
DD Trathen
DD Case
DD Shaw
DD Cushing
DD Perkins, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Smith

Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 46% moonlight: 12,000 yards

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Manado at 75,99, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Ikazuchi, Shell hits 1
DD Inazuma
DD Ayanami, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Yugiri
DD Oboro

Allied Ships
DD Radford
DD Strong
DD Taylor
DD Thatcher
DD Satterlee, Shell hits 1
DD Harding, Shell hits 1
DD Morris
DD Patterson
DD Flusser
DD Edsall

Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 46% moonlight: 12,000 yards

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Manado at 75,99, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Fubuki
DD Shirayuki
DD Murakumo
DD Yayoi
DD Uzuki

Allied Ships
DD Trathen
DD Case, Shell hits 1
DD Shaw
DD Cushing
DD Perkins, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Smith

Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 46% moonlight: 12,000 yards

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Manado at 75,99, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Minazuki
DD Nagatsuki
DD Suresushio
DD Suruyame
DD Yamanagiri, Shell hits 2, on fire

Allied Ships
DD Radford
DD Strong
DD Taylor, Shell hits 1
DD Thatcher, Shell hits 1
DD Satterlee
DD Harding
DD Morris
DD Patterson
DD Flusser
DD Edsall, Shell hits 1

Maximum visibility in Clear Conditions and 46% moonlight: 12,000 yards

[Captain Cruft]

19 Feb 1944

There have been more surface battles at Manado. I have lost two DDs to one of his with several damaged on both sides.

Next turn I am going to try for a combined night naval bombardment and daytime Kamikaze operation. Let's see how much hurt I can put on a base using what are essentially just skirmishing forces.

Japan now has 5,816 aircraft on the map.

[Captain Cruft]

20 Feb 1944

Not a bad result. We sank one DD, two SCs and two PTs in exchange for one DD which hit a mine. The bombardment damaged a lot of planes and a single kamikaze hit was achieved on CL Richmond. Most of the kami planes didn't fly for some reason. Over-stacked airfields perhaps? Once again losses among the escorting fighters were high. That is just the price you have to pay though.

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Manado at 75,99, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Shirayuki
DD Murakumo, Shell hits 1
DD Yugiri
DD Yayoi, Shell hits 1
DD Uzuki

Allied Ships
CL Richmond, Shell hits 2
DD Fullam, Shell hits 16, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Heermann
DD Hoel, Shell hits 2
DD McKee

Reduced sighting due to 10% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions and 10% moonlight: 2,000 yards

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Manado at 75,99, Range 7,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Shirayuki
DD Murakumo, on fire
DD Yugiri
DD Yayoi
DD Uzuki

Allied Ships
SC-639, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
SC-641
SC-645, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
SC-646, Shell hits 2, on fire

Reduced sighting due to 10% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions and 10% moonlight: 7,000 yards

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Manado at 75,99, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Ikazuchi
DD Inazuma
DD Isonami
DD Oboro
DD Akebono

Allied Ships
PT-186
PT-187, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
PT-188
PT-189
PT-190
PT-191, Shell hits 1, and is sunk

Reduced sighting due to 10% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions and 10% moonlight: 2,000 yards

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TF 117 encounters mine field at Manado (75,99)

Japanese Ships
DD Kikuzuki, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

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Night Naval bombardment of Manado at 75,99 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 11 damaged
F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed on ground
P-38H Lightning: 13 damaged
P-38H Lightning: 1 destroyed on ground
F4U-1 Corsair: 7 damaged
F4U-1 Corsair: 1 destroyed on ground
F-5A Lightning: 11 damaged
SBD-5 Dauntless: 1 damaged

9 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
DD Suruyame
DD Suresushio
DD Nagatsuki

Airbase hits 2
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 27

DD Suruyame firing at Manado
54th Coastal Artillery Regiment firing at DD Suresushio
DD Suresushio firing at 54th Coastal Artillery Regiment
DD Nagatsuki firing at 54th Coastal Artillery Regiment
54th Coastal Artillery Regiment firing at DD Nagatsuki

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Morning Air attack on TF, near Manado at 75,99

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 123 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 30 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 12
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 122

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk IV x 4
P-38H Lightning x 5
F4U-1 Corsair x 18
F6F-3 Hellcat x 22

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 6 destroyed
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 1 destroyed by flak
Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 3 destroyed

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
CL Richmond, Kamikaze hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Ki-43-IIa Oscar flying as kamikaze
Kamikaze: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb

[Captain Cruft]

Damaged Allied Ships

One thing to bear in mind is that all the Allied ships with non-trivial damage have to trek back to the Australian shipyards to get repaired. That is a long trip ...

Therefore he really needs to take Soerabaja ASAP. I have a single quality division there with size 6 forts. This is nothing more than a road block but will require him to deploy serious assets to take it, which are thereby diverted away from the central thrust into the Philippines.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

Damaged Allied Ships

One thing to bear in mind is that all the Allied ships with non-trivial damage have to trek back to the Australian shipyards to get repaired. That is a long trip ...

Therefore he really needs to take Soerabaja ASAP. I have a single quality division there with size 6 forts. This is nothing more than a road block but will require him to deploy serious assets to take it, which are thereby diverted away from the central thrust into the Philippines.

I know the Nicks have high durability which I assume is why you're using them as escorts, but this seems a high price to pay (two engines) when the same number of Oscars might do as well. The Nicks might get through better as kamis themselves, I would imagine, with that durability, also.

Very interested as I could be making similar decisions soon if my game gets going again.

[Captain Cruft]

It's an airgroup thing. As I am keeping the 20 odd groups of the 1st Air Army together as a big stick to only be used in particular places this leaves the front line a bit short of fighter groups.

[Captain Cruft]

22 Feb 1944

Two more turns of not much happening. Except that today I lost 11 (count 'em) naval search planes to CAP, all in the DEI. That is not sustainable. Not really sure what to do about it though. Without eyes I am toast.

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

22 Feb 1944

Two more turns of not much happening. Except that today I lost 11 (count 'em) naval search planes to CAP, all in the DEI. That is not sustainable. Not really sure what to do about it though. Without eyes I am toast.

Pretty normal to lose those numbers of search planes at this stage. In Jan 44 i'm losing from 4 to 10 search planes every single day due to CAP. Nells, Emilies, Mavis, Jakes... they are all dead meat. Too slow... but,. as you say, you cannot efford not to have eyes on the enemy, so i think it's a price you have to accept

[obvert]

Use more night search with only a smaller day search, maybe. I don't know, as I lose a lot regardless. The flip side is that he does as well once he gets close to any big base. In the Marianas he must have lost 15 one day just to DB/TB flying into CAP, and those are not search plane pilots, they are trained strike pilots.

[Captain Cruft]

I think what I will have to do is reduce the ranges a bit so as to only run search over the actual threat zones rather than as much ocean as possible.

Or a radical solution would be to turn it off completely, in front line areas. After all, when he lands I always get to see it.

[Captain Cruft]

23 Feb 1944

He has landed a sizable force on Java, unopposed.

Overnight skirmishing at Manado exchanges 3 Japanese DDs for CL Nashville, which succumbed to a Long Lance. Main engagement below.

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Night Time Surface Combat, near Manado at 75,99, Range 2,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
SOC-1 Seagull: 2 destroyed

Japanese Ships
DD Nagatsuki
DD Suresushio
DD Myojinami, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Suruyame
DD Tadeyame, Shell hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
CL Nashville, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CL Biloxi, Shell hits 3
DD Benham, Shell hits 1
DD Lang, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Stack, Shell hits 1
DD Sterett
DD Cassin, Shell hits 5, heavy fires
DD Clark, Shell hits 1, on fire

Reduced sighting due to 0% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions and 0% moonlight: 2,000 yards

[Captain Cruft]

Notes

I now have 5,916 aircraft on the map.

He will shortly be in convenient 4E range of Manila, from Indochina. Therefore it occurred to me that I ought to perhaps have some fighters on Luzon. That could have been an oops, there is oodles of shipping at Manila ...

Four high-grade Frank groups have been moved over from Takao. Since he cannot Sweep I do not fear for their safety. In fact I would relish a visit by the bomber beasties.

[Captain Cruft]

24 Feb 1944

A Tonan whaler goes down on its way back from Ulithi to Hong Kong. SS Grampus delivers 3 fish and escapes with moderate damage.

It's a good job I am not going to be moving fuel around for much longer. This is the fourth or fifth TK or AO I have lost this month to subs.

Otherwise quiet. He has landed a huge amount of stuff on Java, which is nice

[Captain Cruft]

25 Feb 1944

I have deployed my few Ki-67a Peggy bombers to Mindanao, where they delivered 12 aerial mines overnight at Ternate. Perhaps we can sink a PT boat or something. Production of these lovely planes has had to be stopped due to the lack of Nakajima Ha-45 engines, which problem is only slowly resolving itself.

It surprises me that he has not used aerial mines himself. There are numerous important ports within 4E range now, and little risk to the bombers if they fly at night. I have lots of AMCs deployed in Local Minesweeping TFs but there are some gaps in the coverage.

[Captain Cruft]

26 Feb 1944

Not a good day for the Fubuki Squadron. Five DDs lost for a single American one. I suspect an overly aggressive commander was to blame, plus a few Dauntless dive bombers at Manado who tagged the only ship which escaped the surface battles.

Nevertheless we are going in again tomorrow.

[Captain Cruft]

Recent Ship Losses

I am definitely losing this battle in terms of numbers. However I believe the side benefits outweigh this.

The Mobile and Fletcher sinkings are doubtful, but the rest are certain.

[Captain Cruft]

Malaya Sitrep

Georgetown will fall next turn.

The only place which will hold him up is Singapore.

No sign of any Allied shipping in the area, yet.