Grudge Match

[John B.]

C.H. No fooling! There is a lot going on. The first turn of bombing in Thailand went well but the B-25s decided not to show up. I went back for a seconde time (mistake) and lost 40 planes with only a few casualties for him. Again, the B-25s sat on the ground in Rangoon even though they were all part of AHQ Bengal which is also in Rangoon. Again, very frustrating. But, the resupply convoy is now docked and here's hoping in empties out fast.

In the meantime, Scott has decided to take everthing in the Aleutians. He has taken everything west of Dutch Harbor and is on the ground there as well. I now regret not putting a regiment there as I don't think that the battalion will hold. A few hits on his merchant ships that are landing the forces. Bullet dodged is that he landed on December 2. My sub stream was heading back for the 12/42 upgrade. Had he waited a week he would have caught 8-10 subs in port and sank them all.As it is, he's only getting one. He has every carrier in his fleet up there and has sent the KB far east but only (so far) caught the YPs that were fleeing. The support ships (AS, AR, AKE, AE) may get away depending on how far he wants to go.

My invasion fleet is just about to pass through the Horn Island straight. I had a good turn over Buna (recon showed with 100+ fighters and 100+ bombers there). My B-17s fought through to kill a reported 11 bombers on the ground for a loss of 3 of their own. And, the fighter sweeps from Morseby had a favorable kill ratio at the squadron of P-38Gs and the Australian Spitfires seem to have done well. I hope to have him distracted from mass attacks on my carriers as I pass nearby. Given that Scott has so much up in the arctic I'm going to expand my goals for these invasions to take all three islands north of Darwin. they appear to be lightly held so I should be able to take them. It depends on the land based air fight when that comes.

[BBfanboy]

Does Rangoon have lots of supply? Bombers won't fly if there is not enough supply for bombs and AVGAS. I think the criterion is 2X base minimum to operate aircraft.

[John B.]

BBFanboy,

Rangoon was at 99K supply at the time and the Wellington 1cs and Vincents were flying out of there without a problem. I don't know why the B-25s were balking (air commanders all had high air and high aggressive ratings morale was a 99 and fatigue at 0). Oh well.

More of the same this past turn. Scott is landing more troops at Dutch Harbor and my CD has probably taken three AKs with it. That should help with the VP losses. In the meantime, I'm reviewing my Dobo invasion plan on the fly and may go up north of Dobo if recon shows those ports to be lightly defended. That could save me a month or more of hard fighting and shut off the small oil production Scott gets from the area.

I've been keep track of the sub war and should have a full report for the end of '42. So far I"m rather pleased even with the crappy torpedoes. The Dutch have given a good account of themselves, even the O-boats.

In china we're bouncing back and forth. Up north, near urumqai (or out east as the case may be). I've managed to surround an IJA division because I think that Scott has forgotten to check there in a long time. I'll let it linger for awhile to use up its supply stockpiles and then start to attack it. It's up against the border and I've been through every other hexside around it so it should be unable to retreat.

[John B.]

Time for a quick update. It's now December 10th and our reciprocal invasions are continuing on. Scott has yet to take Dutch Harbor. He has pounded it with every BB in his fleet and launched numerous airstrikes. The KB is now gone but it's hanging on by its fingernails. I've started ferrying in troops from the 121st regiment at Kodiak on PBY's. But, Scott has a CVE on station that has shot down several planes. I'm trying to distract him with B-17Es out of Nome which have been hitting his ground forces. I also have a BB task force on the way with a marine defense battalion. I may catch his CVE in a surface attack and get reinforcements on the ground, but, Dutch may surrender before they arrive. If not, he's going to have to keep coming back and wasting fuel. The one 155mm shore gun that is left has been getting a series of hits on his AKs and may even been sinking a few. All the more VPs for me.

Meanwhile, my amphibious invasion of Boela is proving to be more ponderous that I anticipated. It's been almost 7 days but the entire 1st marine division has not yet unloaded entirely. Barring some catastrophe I will kick him out of there but it is proving to be annoying and keeping ships in harm's way. I've also just invaded Samaluki. That may prove easier just because it's in easy range of Darwin's land based air. Scott sank several support ships that went through the Horn Island gap and put two torpedoes into a pre-war BB. It will survive, but it's out of the war for awhile. Darwin is now a base for a huge fleet and needs fuel so I'm moving some up from Perth where the latest fuel run from the middle east just landed.

One bonus from the Boela run is that I sank two CAs that were hanging around when I ran north with my CVs. So far he sank a DD with some Vals, put a torpedo into a different pre-war BB and a mine hit an AP.

[John B.]

This is when the game becomes very frustrating. I have a CVE patrolling one hex off of Naru. I have an invasion fleet in Naru. For four combat phases the combat report has shown me having 20+ fighters intercept 18 of his Betty's. The Betty's are unescorted and carrying torpedos at 5,000 feet. My CAP altitude is at 9,000 feet. Each time the combat screen comes up and my fighters do not even shoot at the Betty's. As a consequence, he has had four rounds of un-intercepted torpedo runs at my fleet and has sank a BB and a very large AP. Any ideas?

[BBfanboy]

The combat replay animation should give a better idea what is going on.
I think the combat report shows how many planes you have assigned to cap total but you need to see how that number breaks down.
If you have the CAP set to a large radius of 3 or 4 hexes, most of the 20 will be too far away to intercept.
Some could be scrambling up from the carrier but never get to the Betties in time.
Weather can also be a factor - if there is overcast or light rain your CAP at 9000 feet might be in the cloud while the Betties are below it. Do a mouseover of the hex to see what the actual weather was last turn. The "forecast" ahead of the turn is nigh on useless - it covers the general area for a few thousand miles but cannot show what will happen in an individual hex.

[John B.]

BBFanboy, thanks for the response. It's still a mystery. I even brought the CAP in to 3 hexes, lowered it down to 3,000 feet and it fought the 3 fighter escorts but did nothing to the bettys which put a fish into another AP. So, I figured something was not working and I left. Neru fell (see next message) but I have no idea why my CAP let the bettys waltz in. I'm just glad it was not my CVs!

[John B.]

Time for a more extensive update.

1. The invasion of Neru was finally a success but at a huge cost. I lost a BB and an AP for a 10 point island. I hate Betties!

2. The invasion of Boela was also a success. I"ve managed to wipe out a brigade and support troops and capture a level 5 airfield. The only real loss was a DD and an AP. The AP went down because it hit a reef that did 89 flotation. I could not disband it as it had some support troops on board so it slowly sank into the lagoon. This is nice as it cuts Scott off from the 52 oil points near there. It's not much but it helps and it's got me on the road to strangling Balikpappan.

3. The invasion of Samaluki (sp? just north of Darwin) continues. I only have two battalions and he has a regiment, but I have lots of bombers pounding it and six BBs on shuttle bombardments. My one constraint is that Darwin ran out of fuel. This is poor planning on my part. Fortunately, I've been shuttling TKs from Colombo to Perth and it just so happened that there was a large convoy in Perth so I diverted sevearl TKs to Darwin which are now unloading 62K tons of fuel.

4. I've been lucky with my CVs so far. Scott has the whole area swarming with Subs. He's had two shots at CVs and both times missed! It's nerve wracking when you see one in the sites. In the meantime, I know I've sunk at least three subs and the carriers, with no ship targets have been concentrating on ASW. I get reports of hits and if some of these are true then Scott is taking at least some attrition in his sub arm.

5. China. Scott is pounding on Kukong and may take it sooner rather than later. he's causing 5 squads per turn casualties and I've been moving out low marale troops, which seems to suffer greater losses, but he has his entire artillery park there or so it seems. Not sure what I can do about it.

6. Rangoon. Turnabout is fairplay and I"m pounding Scott at Pegu causing 5+ casualties per turn. In the meantime, I've got about 75 transports flying supplies into China from Ledo.

7. Dutch Harbor. Ah, Dutch Harbor, saving the best for last. Because it was continuing to hold out I sent a marine defense battalion from Frisco and the BB Indiana from Pearl. I figured he only had two very small CVEs with no Kates so his 5 or so Vals could not do too much damage to the BB and it's unlikely he'd send the KB back up there. 1. In the first round the BB taskforce stopped one hex outside of Dutch while the AP taskforce went in, ran into a CA task force and lost a DD and an AP with one-half the marine battalion. But, I was lucky that the other two got away. 2. The next turn, the BB taskforce finally went in, sank two DDs, a DMS, and two PBs but did not find the CVE taskforce. The reduced AP task force did find the CVE but, since I had only one DD and he had 5 I was lucky to get away. My BB bombarded the land forces. 3. The next turn, the AP task force managed to dock and unload the reduced marine battalion and the BB task force found the CVE. I had shot off all of my 16 inch ammo (alas) but the BB and the CL did get five hits on the CVE, but, no fires.

So, with all that back and forth the regiment is now flying in from Kodiak unhindered in every PBY I can scare up. The B-17s at Nome are pounding the IJA units at Dutch and Scott is gone for awhile. It will take a major effort by Scott to take Dutch Harbor and I'm not sure he wants to spend fuel to send all the BBs and KB back up there. This I count as a win. Hes taken away a sub base but I sank several AKs with shore batteries and he has some good units marking time at Dutch. I don't have any real heavy weapons so I'm not sure I can push him out for awhile.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: John B.

Time for a more extensive update.

1. The invasion of Neru was finally a success but at a huge cost. I lost a BB and an AP for a 10 point island. I hate Betties!

There is a very large AFB club that agree with that sentiment!

2. The invasion of Boela was also a success. I"ve managed to wipe out a brigade and support troops and capture a level 5 airfield. The only real loss was a DD and an AP. The AP went down because it hit a reef that did 89 flotation. I could not disband it as it had some support troops on board so it slowly sank into the lagoon. This is nice as it cuts Scott off from the 52 oil points near there. It's not much but it helps and it's got me on the road to strangling Balikpappan.

3. The invasion of Samaluki (sp? just north of Darwin) continues. I only have two battalions and he has a regiment, but I have lots of bombers pounding it and six BBs on shuttle bombardments. My one constraint is that Darwin ran out of fuel. This is poor planning on my part. Fortunately, I've been shuttling TKs from Colombo to Perth and it just so happened that there was a large convoy in Perth so I diverted sevearl TKs to Darwin which are now unloading 62K tons of fuel.

I have a way to remember that spelling - break it into two words - Saum (some) and laki (lucky or lackey). So many strange place names on the map!

4. I've been lucky with my CVs so far. Scott has the whole area swarming with Subs. He's had two shots at CVs and both times missed! It's nerve wracking when you see one in the sites. In the meantime, I know I've sunk at least three subs and the carriers, with no ship targets have been concentrating on ASW. I get reports of hits and if some of these are true then Scott is taking at least some attrition in his sub arm.

Are you making use of the float planes on cruisers and BBs too? Nav search will help locate the subs for the ASW planes to attack.

5. China. Scott is pounding on Kukong and may take it sooner rather than later. he's causing 5 squads per turn casualties and I've been moving out low marale troops, which seems to suffer greater losses, but he has his entire artillery park there or so it seems. Not sure what I can do about it.

Troops in Move mode are walking ducks for artillery. Try putting them in Combat or Reserve mode to reduce casualties. It will not cancel any movement they have accumulated.

6. Rangoon. Turnabout is fairplay and I"m pounding Scott at Pegu causing 5+ casualties per turn. In the meantime, I've got about 75 transports flying supplies into China from Ledo.

7. Dutch Harbor. Ah, Dutch Harbor, saving the best for last. Because it was continuing to hold out I sent a marine defense battalion from Frisco and the BB Indiana from Pearl. I figured he only had two very small CVEs with no Kates so his 5 or so Vals could not do too much damage to the BB and it's unlikely he'd send the KB back up there. 1. In the first round the BB taskforce stopped one hex outside of Dutch while the AP taskforce went in, ran into a CA task force and lost a DD and an AP with one-half the marine battalion. But, I was lucky that the other two got away. 2. The next turn, the BB taskforce finally went in, sank two DDs, a DMS, and two PBs but did not find the CVE taskforce. The reduced AP task force did find the CVE but, since I had only one DD and he had 5 I was lucky to get away. My BB bombarded the land forces. 3. The next turn, the AP task force managed to dock and unload the reduced marine battalion and the BB task force found the CVE. I had shot off all of my 16 inch ammo (alas) but the BB and the CL did get five hits on the CVE, but, no fires.

So, with all that back and forth the regiment is now flying in from Kodiak unhindered in every PBY I can scare up. The B-17s at Nome are pounding the IJA units at Dutch and Scott is gone for awhile. It will take a major effort by Scott to take Dutch Harbor and I'm not sure he wants to spend fuel to send all the BBs and KB back up there. This I count as a win. Hes taken away a sub base but I sank several AKs with shore batteries and he has some good units marking time at Dutch. I don't have any real heavy weapons so I'm not sure I can push him out for awhile.

To ensure my bombardment TF goes in first I usually send it a day ahead or have both TFs movement target end one hex out of target. Next turn send them both in with the bombardment force set to full speed. If you are trying to surprise his TF there you would have to stop quite a ways out and run both TFs in at full speed or have the transports arrive a phase later with less time to unload. In this instance the potential prize of a CVE was worth delaying the landing a day to ensure your BBs got in first.

By now you should have enough AKEs and AEs to put some at Kodiak and Prince Rupert to rearm 16" guns. PR might even be big enough to do the job without an AKE. If you haven't converted them yet, look for the class of xAK that includes Red Jacket and Harpoon. The convert to 5400 ton capacity AEs which are the only Allied AEs big enough to reload the Iowa class 16"/50 guns.

[John B.]

BBFanboy,

Thanks for those tips. That is very helpful! I need to remember that troops move in combat mode, albeit just a little slower. That really helps for river crossings as well. I do have enough AKE's for Kodiak but I had to send the Indiana back to Pearl for repairs. She took quite a pounding in the blizzard conditions around Dutch Harbor. As for the subs, I think my torpedo bombers got one last turn as there was a report of a hit and then the sub breaking up sounds a couple of impluses later. For my money those are the most disturbing sounds that the game has. One quick question regarding TRACOM. Is it worth it to keep pulling the good pilots out of the line for the training command?

John

[John B.]

Time for another quick update since so much is happening. At Dutch Harbor Scott tried a deliberate attack and lost about 30 squads to a loss of about 5 of my own. His land force there is in a bit of trouble without sea or air support as it's getting pounded by B-17s out of Anchorage and he is at the end of a very long tether. In addition, since I scared away is CVE he has no fighters to stop the PBY transports from bringing in rest of the 121st regiment. He can salvage teh situation in the long run since I don't intend to put my own carriers up there, but I'm happy for it to be a major distraction for him if he wants to make it one.

At Samilucki I sent 7 BBs in on bombardment runs and none of them decided to show up for my assault so I, in turn, lost about 30 squads to no loss for Scott. I'm bombing them every day with B-25s and B-24s out of Darwin plus the SBDs but so far it is not enough. I may have to land more troops and that is annoying. On the plus side, I put the CVs between Samilucki and East Timor and destroyed two different flights of unescorted Helens. I also put my best squadrons onto Boela (in P38Gs and Fs) and stopped his Betty assaults there. Scott is clearly building new bases further out but I am not in a position to keep pushing past Boelea until I consolidate the rear areas.

The bombardment continues at Pegu. And, it continues at Kukong. I'm afraid that he'll be able to push his way up the railroad so I'm trying to hold him as long as possible there. He has a large number of bombers in China but I don't have the airfields near Kukong that can challenge him. Poor China.

[John B.]

Hello all,

Things are looming near Samiluki! As you can see from the picture below, the IJN has it's KB chugging just north of New Guinea. My carriers are just south of Samilucki. His BB task force is to the north. I have two different BB task forces coming up from Darwin to bombard Samilucki. The question is, what happens next. I actually don't want a carrier battle right now as I'm not in the position I would like to be. I would like to take Samilucki and be able to use that airbase. I figure next turn he may be near Boela but he'll be careful and won't come charging in at full speed. If I can get the additional turn then I can bombard Samilucki, attack next turn and my fleet can run back to Darwin. But, I have my carriers set for an air/sea battle at range 8 just in case he comes in. he does have a small carrier task force in front of the KB and he may be using that as a bait task force hoping to draw off any strike I put on him. I'll keep you posted!

John

[John B.]

Hello all,

Well, in the end there was no carrier battle. Scott ran a huge bombardment task force (including Yamato and Musahshi) down to Boela and pounded those poor chaps! The only bright spot was that I figured it out one turn early and was able to transfer out almost all of my elite squadrons that I had stationed there. He may be resetting for another go as there are heavy radio signals from Babeldoab. Not much I can really do about it now so I'm trying to mine Boela and get a little lucky. Saumalaki fell and now I have an invasion fleet headed for Babar.

Scott took Kukong in China. He just has too much artillery stacked up and I'm not a big fan of losing 7 squads per day to his bombardment. But, he only has three divisions stacked with all those guns. If I move my reserves down from Changsha perhaps I can catch him in a trap?

[John B.]

It is now January 1, 1943 and, as you can see, I've been charting each reported torpedo strike by my subs. All in all, I'd say that I'm pretty happy with 1942 given the awful torpedos. If you figure that the total reported AK, AKL, TK, AP, PB, and AO hits are reduced by 25% for FOW and ships that don't sink but are merely damaged and you assign an average tonnage to each ship of 3,000 then I figure for 1942 the subs took out about 350,000 of Japanese shipping. At the same time, I've lost a grand total of 4 submarines for the entire war. Better torpedoes and more subs promise an even more productive 1943. These totals also do not include the reported sinkings of the merchant fleet in support of the IJN amphibious operations and by surface actions. I'll include those in another post.

The number one sub ace is the captain of the Dutch sub KXIII with 8 reported hits. The Dutch seem to have contributed about 52 hits (or about 100,000 tons by my calculations) to the merchant war. In other words, almost 1/3 of the reported merchant hits came from the Dutch this year. That proportion is likely to go down, but I expect these boys to keep up their good work. The Americans have two subs (Traunt and S-27) with 5 reported hits each.

My basic deployment is to use the electric boats near the active battlefield and the fleet subs near Japan at the choke points. I'm not really using the fleet boats in any sort of campaign against his fleet since I figure the fastest way to defeat the Empire of Japan is to strangle its economy.

[BBfanboy]

Interesting report on subs.
One small item for accuracy: Truant is not American, she's British.

[John B.]

BBFanboy,

I'm just a typical Yank, taking credit for all the hard work the British put in. I knew there was a second British sub I just had Traunt in the US category. But, with her five hits and the 3 merchant ships for Trusty (not counting the CA) that puts the British contribution at 8 ships or about 18,000 tons using my formula. Every hull at the bottom of the ocean is one less hull hauling oil to the home islands.

In bigger news, there is a BB showdown brewing at Boela. My PBYs have spotted a large BB task force heading that way and I suspect Scott has gone back and reloaded. I had the three modern BBs plus the POW set to bombard Babar but they have been rerouted and should be off the coast of Boela at dawn. The american fleet carriers will be two hexes south of Boela and I have moved my elite land based squadrons back to the base at nearly maximum cap. If I can intercept him I figure an even up exchange works in my favor. and, I have a slight edge as any heavily damaged ships can disband into Boela port while Scott's ships have to make it back to Sarong. If he moves his KB down there will be a carrier battle as well. I also have two sub minelayers moving at full speed to Boela and they may make it there before dawn and they may not. The invasion of Babar will also take place at dawn, but, sadly, bereft of any preparatory bombardment. There is a second bombardment fleet on its way of older BBs but it might not make it until tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

John

[Capt. Harlock]

Stay tuned.

You got it!

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

Stay tuned.

You got it!

That makes at least two of us!

[John B.]

Alas there was no BB showdown this turn. The only surface action was my DMS beating feet into Boela that traded shots with an IJN CM. I'm glad the DMS went there as it swept up 43 mines from a freshly laid minefield. The KB seems to be heading back towards Truk but the IJN BB task force continues to hover in range of a quick dash to Boela. So, I've left my BB task force there with lots of CAP from Bolea AFB this turn to see what happens.

BUT, there was scads o' action in the air. First. my squadrons at Boela devastated his inbound airstrikes. Second, his sweep over Babar blew away my long range CAP from Darwin. Third, a wayward strike against ships at Ambon cost me 10 TBFs and a few wildcats from Scott's own CAP. Forth, Scott blasted Chungking's airbase and destroyed 16 Vanguards and Hudsons on the ground (sigh, I hate china). Last, but not least, my long range CAP over the incoming replenishment fleet heading to Rangoon really chewed up Oscars and even got a few of his Nells. The final total was I lost 47 planes in Air to Air and Scott was reported to lose 77. I counted 47 claimed kills by my guys in the Ops report so perhaps we were even in the air. I lost 16 on the ground, Scott lost 5 to flak. I'm going to give myself a very small edge in the day's action since this is my report. Seriously, I think Scott lost higher quality planes (sorry about the Vanguards but they are a bit crappy!) and since the action mainly was over or close to bases to me his pilot losses may be higher. But, no blowout by either side.

To round out the shipping report for 1942. For all other losses (surface action, air raids, mines, and shore batteries) Scott lost a total of 6 AKs, 45 xAKs, 5 TKs, 10 APs, 29 AKLs, 5 AOs, 7 AMCs, and 29 PBs. Applying my earlier formula this means an additional loss to the Japanese merchant marine (.75 x # of ships reported down (for FOW) x 3,000 for average tonnage) of another 300,000 tons of shipping for a total of about 650,000 tons for 1942. I expect the "other" causes to go down this year and onwards as Scott moves to the defensive so is much less likely to lose ships to my shore batteries or in surface combat when I intercept amphibious convoys.

[John B.]

We interrupt this program to bring you a special bulletin from Commander in Chief Pacific.

At 0330 naval forces of the Empire of Japan engaged in a significant bombardment of our new base at Boela. This force consisting of an estimated 5 BBs including the new superbattleship Mushashi inflicted significant damage on our facilities located there. Unfortunately, our intercepting force of BBs did not arrive in time to prevent this attack.

At dawn, however, search aircraft based on the USS Saratoga discovered a large fleet consisting of 5 CVs and a BB approximately 3 hexes north Boela. Our own task force of 5 CVs was just two hexes south east of Boela and had accompanied our BB task force to provide air cover. Our admiral reacted towards the enemy CV taskforce. Radar soon located a large inbound strike of IJN Kates and Vals with 60 escorts. American CAP accounted for nearly 40 of the attackers and no hits were scored on our ships.

At the same time, the American strike force bore down on the Japanese carrier task force. After brushing aside Japanese CAP the American SBDs continued their dominance of the Pacific Ocean. 4 IJN carriers are reported to be in flames with hits igniting at least one fuel storage explosion. One IJN destroyer suffered significant damage and the superbattleship Yamato also appears to have taken some damage although pilots reported that the bombs appeared to bounce off her armor.

American TBDs were part of the strike but were unable to claim any hits.

In the afternoon a second IJN carrier task force launched strikes on Boela airfield in an attempt to put the coup d' grace on our base there. F4Fs from our carriers intercepted this strike and, while some damage was inflicted on the airfield at least 20 of the incoming Vals were destroyed costing Japan a number of highly skilled pilots.

That is all.