See you in Tokyo Bay - Apbarog(A) vs Walker(J) DBB-B Scen28

[apbarog]

6 Jun 42 - The Solomons

[apbarog]

7 Jun 42

Ndeni - 5 Japanese cruisers bombard Ndeni, and do a good job at that. A few planes are destroyed, lots of P-40's damaged. Best I can tell, no mines were hit. Ground forces take 323 casualties, with the airbase and port taking some damage. Not bad for cruisers. No sign of the cruisers during the day. I think that they went to Tulagi after the bombardment. I will be more ready next time. One of the Allied carrier task forces is spotted. I send the carriers southwest, hoping to go unseen for a few turns and refuel west of Koumac, then maybe sneak north toward Shortlands. Japanese carriers spotted at Shortlands again, this time 2 carriers and one CVE.

Diamond Harbour - Another big air fight at DH, followed by some airfield damage by bombers. Not a lot though. Losses are 32 P40's, 9 P400's, 6 B17's, 4 P39's, 2 Blen's, and 2 SB-III's. Enemy losses are 12 Oscar's and 13 Zero's. I'm not convinced that I can shut down the base. An infantry division just reinforced Calcutta from Diamond Harbour, so the Japanese appear to still want to stay here. Now 3 divisions at Calcutta and 1+ at Diamond Harbour. So those 2 hexes will continue to be a contained invasion, but one that I cannot clear out.

In the jungle southwest of Ledo a few hexes, a Japanese regiment kicks a very weak Burmese remnant back. I have enough of a defense along the rail line to Ledo to hold against what looks like just an attack of infiltrators.

Port Moresby - I send 12 B17's to PM just to keep the enemy guessing. There are still 16 Zero's there, and I lose a couple of B17's.

Rossel Island - Base is invaded by a small enemy force.

[apbarog]

8 Jun 42

Diamond Harbour - The slaughter in the air continues at Diamond Harbour. With the lack of P40's available for sweeps, the Allied bombers are escorted by P-39's and Chinese fighters, and that isn't sufficient. Losses are very heavy, and I've called a halt to the air offensive here. Allied losses today are 22 Blen's, 10 B-26's, 6 SB-III's, 6 I-15's, 6 I-16's, 2 P-39's, 2 B-17's, and 1 LB-30. Japanese losses are 10 Oscar's and 5 Zero's, and 4 of those were bombed on the ground. This experiment is over and did little except keep the enemy's attention focused here. Some of my troops have now left Calcutta. Most head east to solidify the Indian border towns. 1 enemy regiments are on the loose. One is in Imphal, where I have an equal strength Indian unit. Another is south of the bases just west of Ledo. A Brit division and a strong armor unit will clear the area.

Solomons - The Allied carriers did disappear from the enemy's view today. As shown, I'm plotting a move northwest. If I am unobserved next turn, and that is a big if with partly cloudy weather predicted and good enemy search arcs, I will strike the shipping at Shortlands. I'm still seeing a carrier task force there, plus the cruiser force that bombarded Ndeni is about to arrive there. With his carriers at a base hex, his CAP will be halved, but he'll also have CAP from Shortlands itself. I have 5 US carriers and 1 Brit carrier.

I really hope that I'm not seen next turn. It could be a meaningful strike on the enemy carriers if I can just get into position.

[jwolf]

Good luck with the weather and the strike ... looking forward to some good news! If successful, you'll really make him pay for keeping the KB in the Bay of Bengal.

But the question naturally arises: if the weather is cloudy enough to keep him from spotting your strike force, won't it be so cloudy that your own strikes will be ineffective? [&:]

[apbarog]

Weather does vary by hex. I can have poor weather over my carriers and have clear weather over the target. I just hope not to be spotted, whether it be because of weather, or range of his search aircraft, or he's concentrating search arcs toward Ndeni. Whatever works. I think that the odds of not being spotted are less than 50% though.

[apbarog]

9 Jun 42

It's all about the Solomons this turn.

The Allied carriers are not spotted, as far as I know by detection levels.

The die is cast.

I move within 5 hexes of Shortlands. Showing 4 carriers there now. I'm seeing 3 CVE's and 1 CVL, but they could be of any size. I've set 4 squadrons of fighters on CAP and 2 on escort. All bombers will attack at 10k feet. Torpedo bombers will carry bombs, which is ok by me. All of the US ones are still TBD's, and they are just terrible (in my experience).

This is the first really big offensive turn for the Allies, surpassing the blind Palembang strike which netted just a few cargo ships.

[HansBolter]

Won't the TBDs be at extended range at 5 hexes? You need to get to 4 hex range for those short legged buggers.

Your target hex is 8 hexes away from current location. Can all your TFs move 9 hexes?

If so, you can get into normal range of the TBDs.

Do your carriers have normal allotmenst..ie...are they under capacity?

Many players advocate adding a Marine fighter squadron to them until the organic fighter squadrons expand to 36.

One extra 18 strong Marine fighter squad per American carrier can make a huge difference.

[apbarog]

Good thoughts HansBolter.

Yes, extended range for the TBD's. I chose not to set things up for closer, as I didn't expect much of a contribution from the TBD's. I could be wrong about this strategy. Regardless, all task forces are moving 8 hexes this turn, which is their maximum normal movement. All carriers are under their maximum capacity, and they are not loaded with extra squadrons. Hoping for the best.

[BBfanboy]

I think you are right to arm the Devastators with bombs, especially when no BBs are indicated present and you want to be at 5 hex range anyway.
The TBDs are lucky to get a torp to hit at the best of times, but exploding hits are exceedingly rare at this stage of the war, and duds always make you go

[apbarog]

10 Jun 42

Indian Ocean - After weeks and weeks of suspecting that there were carriers lurking in the middle of the Indian Ocean, waiting to ambush the Brit Navy, it is finally confirmed. US sub Pike takes a shot at CV Soryu, and misses. There is certainly one big carrier here. My guess is there are more...maybe 4 more.

Solomons - It's finally time for a carrier battle. The enemy carriers remain at Shortlands. A group of 4 enemy destroyers is one hex southwest of Shortlands, probably doing ASW. The Allied carriers react toward Shortlands, and fortunately all stay together, stopping 3 hexes away.

**************************************
First strike goes to the Japanese.

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 38
B5N1 Kate x 20
B5N2 Kate x 12
D3A1 Val x 6

Allied aircraft
Sea Hurricane Ib x 6
F4F-3A Wildcat x 27
F4F-4 Wildcat x 52

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 destroyed
B5N1 Kate: 8 destroyed, 3 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 6 destroyed, 2 damaged
D3A1 Val: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
CV Enterprise
CV Yorktown

NO HITS!
***************************************

The Allies respond.

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 61

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 27
SBD-2 Dauntless x 18
SBD-3 Dauntless x 72
TBD-1 Devastator x 15

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat: 7 destroyed
SBD-2 Dauntless: 4 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 10 destroyed, 8 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 2 destroyed by flak
TBD-1 Devastator: 3 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CV Kaga, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Hiei, Bomb hits 1
BB Kirishima, Torpedo hits 1
CVL Shoho, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
CVL Ryujo, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
CA Aoba
DD Ariake
CVL Zuiho, Bomb hits 2, on fire
TB Kasasagi
CS Chitose

Fuel storage explosion on CVL Shoho

Yes, even a working torpedo hit by the TBD's on a battleship!

******************************************

The Allied CAP had far more reaction time than the Japanese CAP did.

In the afternoon, weather moves in over Shortlands saves the Japanese from more damage. Instead, the 4 Japanese destroyers are hit by several raids, including a futile TBD attack. All 4 destroyers are damaged and left burning.

I now run full speed to the south to escape.

I have to be happy with this raid. No damage at all to my ships. Kaga will probably sink. My guess is that Shoho will also. Shortlands is just a 2 port. Buin is just a 1. Rabaul is a 5, and is the only place to run to. I rush every sub I can to block an escape. Argonaut will drop some mines by Rabaul, but that won't be for a couple of days, and will probably be too late to help.

I wonder what the enemy will do in the Indian Ocean now...

[HansBolter]

That's as perfect a strike as anyone could ever wish for.

A coordinated reaction over two hexes is a rare occurrence.

[Mike McCreery]

Congratulations!!

It is the beginning of the end for the Japanese!

[IdahoNYer]

Awesome!!!!

Outstanding one sided Allied victory CV battle in Jun '42!!! You don't see those often in WitPAE.

Gee, but that does kinda sounds a bit familiar....must have read about one like that from the history books.

[jwolf]

ORIGINAL: IdahoNYer

Gee, but that does kinda sounds a bit familiar....must have read about one like that from the history books.

Nah, he probably got the idea from a movie ... [:D]

That was quite a coup to sneak in through the clouds and enemy recon. Very well done, congratulations!

[apbarog]

11 Jun 42

Thanks! I was lucky to achieve surprise and not take any damage myself. If the target had turned out to be all of KB, there would have been problems. The enemy CAP didn't perform as well as I would have thought. I think that having the carrier task force in a base hex hurt. That supposedly halves the effective CAP. Of course, land-based CAP was probably there too. But for the numbers of CAP versus my escort, I was lucky to only lose the planes that I did.

It is true that most of my planes didn't fly. I put all of my bombers from all of my carriers at 10k, hoping for one big coordinated strike. Instead I got a coordinated strike, but with less than half of the squadrons flying at all. I wonder if it could have worked better if I had each task force's planes at different attack altitudes, with their own escorts. Maybe more would have flown. (I was using 3 task forces, each with 2 carriers in it.)


This turn is much quieter. The Allied carriers run full speed to the south and escape unseen. They are meeting up with some AO's, and will then head to port. Brit carrier Indomitable is about a month from being withdrawn.

Is there any reason not to keep the air units from a carrier being withdrawn, especially if the carrier does not return later?

Lots of task forces are spotted between Shortlands and Rabaul. I didn't see any carriers, but I'm sure that everything that can run for Rabaul is running for Rabaul. My subs attack a couple of xAK's in the area, but get no hits.

On Java, Thilatjap falls. The Japanese continue westward toward Batavia. I'm heavily defending the inland mountain base, and pulling in all of the supply I can there.

In the Indian Ocean, no enemy ships are spotted, or detection levels raised on any of my subs. But SigInt comes through big with a "Heavy Activity at 39, 59", which is 5 hexes west of Little Andaman Island. This is probably a carrier force containing Soryu, spotted earlier. It could be just more south patrolling, or this could be an exit of the Indian Ocean to the south.

[apbarog]

12 Jun 42

Solomons

US sub Seawolf engages a small xAKL near Rabaul, hitting it with guns.

Near the New Guinea coast west of Rabaul, US sub Silversides fires on huge xAP Brazil Maru, and misses. SigInt had alerted me to the 21th infantry division loaded and moving to various bases on the New Guinea coast, all apparently waypoints. Silversides got into the right position, and just missed.

Still no sightings of carriers at Shortlands, Rabaul, or in between. Lots of shipping went toward Rabaul, some went north toward Truk. I suspect that undamaged combat ships went toward Truk.


Indian Ocean

No sightings or detection levels this turn.

[apbarog]

13 Jun 42

Very quiet today.

A task force at Manus and another heading toward Truk. No sub action. The very long range Brit recon unit that was in India is now in northeast Australia and will recon Rabaul tomorrow. Interested to see if there are any carriers there.

Allied carrier task forces split up between going to Sydney and Auckland for repairs, mostly from the high speed sprint that they did escaping. Turned out that it was probably unnecessary, as I've seen no indication that any bombers were moved into Shortlands. Where are all the Betty's and Nell's?

In China, the enemy continues to bomb my Chinese corp just west of Canton. He has lots of air at Canton, which he has built to a size 8. I just switched my first Chinese air unit to P-43's. I may set up an ambush sometime soon. He's using very many bombers and about 10 Nates. He's brought 2 ground units here but that isn't enough to kick me out. Another unit is now on the way from the northeast.

[JohnDillworth]

I think he is going to lose 1 CV and 2 CVL's watch the aircraft losses over the next few turns to see what went down. Never saw a CV survive 7 bombs and the CVL's are made of bamboo. Yeah , you got lucky but your sure put yourself in a position to get lucky

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: JohnDillworth

I think he is going to lose 1 CV and 2 CVL's watch the aircraft losses over the next few turns to see what went down. Never saw a CV survive 7 bombs and the CVL's are made of bamboo. Yeah , you got lucky but your sure put yourself in a position to get lucky

The numbers can be deceptive. If several of those bomb hits were on the Kaga's belt armour, the damage would be almost nil from them and she might survive the other penetrating hits.

[JohnDillworth]

perhaps, but that Heavy Fires, Heavy Damage thing is never good