Groundhog Day! - No NJP

[Mike McCreery]

Lae gets a surprise raid by cruisers.

[Mike McCreery]

The day after Port Moresby falls, troops unload at Buna attempting to cut off retreat.

[Mike McCreery]

NJP attacks Chungking for the 3rd time. The fortifications hold and he faces massive disablements.

[Mike McCreery]

I saw my counterpart's thread show up and it appears to be a good time for a status update.

It is the middle of June. Many ships are in upgrades or will be upgraded. I still have about 200 ships to get into the docks for this month. Next month is a bunch of destroyers for gun updates. The naval groups are getting hellcat and dauntless 5 upgrades.

Port Moresby is a level 6 airfield. It is supplying Buna which is level 2. I made a venture into the northern dot islands next to Finschafen but bombardments and airborne assaults took the islands back. I have put a significant foothold on Gasmata as well.

Troops will move into Torokina within a week or two and capture that base.

It is just a matter of building up enough bases close enough to shut down Rabaul and it's sister airfields.

Right now NJP is making a show of his carriers up near Kavieng. I have a surprise for him, lets see what happens.

[Mike McCreery]

Slide Right....

I need some time to build up airfields and also get supplies built up in the Solomon Sea area. Several islands are causing an inconvenience for me at this time in the pacific.

Ocean Island and Nauru need to be taken down to simplify supply transport. I am picking up a regiment at Tabituea for placement on Ocean Island. That base has one construction battalion that has had the piss knocked out of it for a while.

Nauru island is another matter. It has something in the order of 18 units with 240 guns and 120 tanks. It is also a level 3 airfield.

The plan is to move close to Nauru island and hopefully catch some dive bombers sleeping. Next turn bombardments go in to take down the airfield. If that is sucessful then I have the seas on equal terms with NJP. The essex is sailing west with a handful of smaller CV's to join the party. I am moving the bulk of my naval fighters to the theatre through Ndeni.

Lets see if I can catch NJP off center or possibly catch his carriers in a disadvantageous position.

[Mike McCreery]

The BB Mutsu was torpedoed once in a surface engagement. It appears that it is hit again off the coast of Kavieng.

[Mike McCreery]

Orphan Ann informed me that a bunch of my capital ships were destroyed off of Rabaul...

[Mike McCreery]

Late June 1943.

I managed to take Ocean Island but was rejected at Nauru. I have the airfield closed by bombers. Lae and Finschafen are also seriously damaged.

I have a large task force heading for Terapo and two medium task forces getting ready near Kira Kira. The task force for Terapo goes in tomorrow covered by the majority of my main CV's and a lot of LRCAP from Port Moresby and Buna.

Several destroyer raids were sucessful lately so a couple more are going in to Rabaul tonight with light cruiser task forces lining up for tomorrow night.

I want to make the whole Solomon Sea area dangerous for NJP. Then I need to shut down a few airfields and begin bombarding Rabaul.

[Mike McCreery]

Mid July 1943. Waiting for bases at Port Moresby and Buna to reach lvl 8/9 before I begin really pounding Rabaul and the vicinity.

Sent another attack to Nauru island. Hopefully this time will be less hazardous for my troops. 1 day out I was spotted by NJP's bombers. The port/airfield has been bombed daily for weeks. Dont see much flak but that doesnt mean he is out of supply.

This time we park the transports at the island and unload on the next morning phase which should be the turn after this next one. I am dropping a division plus 2 regiments plus a tank unit plus a tank destroyer unit plus a boat and shore unit. Most are not prepped for the attack but if I can manage to keep them on the island I should be ok.

The majority of my carriers and a good bit of surface forces are following along to bombard and provide naval support. The KB is in an unknown location and could be as close as Truk.

If and when this amphibious landing is sucessful the plan is to swing up and take out makin which has been bombed clear of troops. Once this is done the supply lines can shorten up considerably.

[Mike McCreery]

July 21, 1943

I am looking at the map 10 days ago and it is hard to accept the progress I have made. Seems more like 3 weeks.

Buna will go to lvl 8 tomorrow and then have 560 aircraft capacity. Port Moresby is 25% to lvl 9. The Lae and Finschafen airfields are in bad shape, I am not sure that anything could fly on them.

The current plan is to move up some AV onto Buin and further if necessary. NJP has 200 fighters at Rabaul. Once I get close enough I want to attack with 200-300 fighters, all my bombers and then come in under all that stuff with a couple hundred naval planes and see what a mess I can make of the place.

He has several large STF's at Rabaul which I would like to take a shot at.

The map with search off just seemed too quiet ;]

[Mike McCreery]

I smashed into Nauru island in the worst way. I lost a couple thousand troops, mishandled day 2 and was in poor shape. 9 days later I am nearing 400AV with my opponent at 150AV behind lvl 4 forts without supply. I can bombard and bomb the island for a while. He currently has 9380 troops based on the bombardment report.

In the Pacific I have found that Kusai island is unmanned by Japanese forces which makes me want to grab it quick and I was on the way but I have no idea where the KB is and Ponape has a lvl 4 airfield soooooo.....

I bent my forces up north. Stacking is a nightmare when you are the Allies and have more stuff than you know what to do with. But it makes the game more realistic and thus fun so I am dealing with too much stuff everywhere and not another place to put it.

Time to expand....

I grabbed Ebon and Namorik last turn. NJP has few fighters and bombers in this area and I think was either surprised by my move or has conceded this sector. Last game it fizzled out and was not really part of the war anyway. This game will be different.

Given that the KB is not on top of us and I have a bit of warning and NJP has no idea where I am going to go next turn I think I have 1-3 days before any serious opposition shows up. Tomorrow I will have boat and shore units unload on alinglaplap and I have a regiment of marines plus AA and a base force to follow up on this island as it stacks 10k

Another force is heading for Majuro and I want to capture at least one more dot base to the northern side of these islands.

[Mike McCreery]

This is how I know that I caught NJP flat footed. He never risks his transports unecessarily. This is one of the few strikes I have gotten on them all war.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

Another force is heading for Majuro and I want to capture at least one more dot base to the northern side of these islands.

I would pick Bikini just to see what all the fuss is about ...[:)]

[Mike McCreery]

The Battle For Rabaul

NJP had several large surface task forces under a 200 fighter cap at Rabaul. An allied plan was forming to perform a huge combined air and naval attack on the base to neutralize the task forces prior to any invasion planning. I needed to move them before moving forward was realistic.

Buna is lvl 8 and Port Moresby is on the cusp of going lvl 9.

On July 24, 2015 NJP sends out a cruiser surface task force. It encounters 2 anti-submarine ships and sinks one of them. I believe in a rare mistake on his part, NJP left the settings to 'Remain on Station' as the force was sitting just west of Buin in the morning.

Several air task forces were dispatched to attack the surface fleet.

The first one fails to do any damage.

The 2nd attack manages to drop 3 500# bombs on the CA Aoba which bounce off and hit the CL Jintsu with 2 bombs and set it on fire.

The 3rd attack gets 4 500# penetrating hits on the CL Jintsu and heavily damages it whila another 500# bomb bounces off the CA Furutaka.

The 4th attack of the day is from dauntless carrying 1000# bombs and gets 2 penetrating hits on both heavy cruisers the Aoba and the Furutaka.

At the end of the day we have 2 task forces of 7 ships which used to be 8 ships. At this distance the number of ships is usually accurate although I have never found the ship ID accurate at any range.

Given the ships hit I am guessing at this point the CL Jintsu has sunk.

[Mike McCreery]

July 25th sees naval sorties to attempt to intercept the heavy cruisers on their way back to base.

The first conflict involves combat with 4 heavy allied cruisers including the pensacola versus a Japanese surface task force fleet consisting of 3 light cruisers. The conflict is light with both sides trading some shells.

The 2nd conflict involves the Pensacola CA task force against NJP's 2 BB task force the Hiei and Kirishima. Again there were minor hits on both sides before the task forces withdrew.

The next conflict involves the CA Kako and the CA Chikuma against a CA task force lead by the Houston. The Kakao takes 5 shell hits and is set on fire along with minor other hits.

The next conflict sees the Pensacola TF attacking the light cruiser task force of the Japanese again. In this case the light cruiser Abukuma is hit 6 times and takes heavy damage while the other 2 light cruisers are hit as well and are on fire.

Again the Japanese BB's face off against the Pensacola task force and this time they hit the CA Louisville 3 times causing heavy fire and damage.

The next battle finds the CA Chikuma and 4 destroyers against the Houston cruiser force and the Chikuma takes another 5 shell hits.

After that battle the Houston CA force finds the CA Furutaka and puts 23 shells into her sinking her for good. During this combat 2 US Destroyers are sunk as well.

The Houston CA task force now stripped of any destroyers comes into contact with the light cruiser task force and puts 13 shells into the CL Noshiro and 6 shells into the CL Abukuma with both of them having heavy fire and damage.

The Japanese Battleship task force now locates the CA Hawkins that has taken a torpedo and several shells and is being escorted back to the base and sinks it along with it's DD escort.

An American light cruiser task force locates the CA Kakao and puts another 23 shells into her for heavy fires and heavy damage.


At this point, none of my 10 battleships were involved in the fracas... NJP sent several squadrons of unescorted bombers that got spanked over the course of the turn.

And the objective still stands to take a bite out of Rabaul so.... BOMBARDMENT TIME!!!!

[Mike McCreery]

On July 26, 1943 the Allied naval forces rush Rabaul to attempt to eliminate any wounded shipping and clear the port along with taking down the airfield.

The first assault includes 5 slow battleships heading in from Gasmata. They encounter a Japanese DD and get 2 minor hits on it. The Japanese destroyer manages to peg 3 indifidual battleships as it's part of the bargain. The task forces then break off.

The task forces re-engage and the Destroyer gets hit twice causing heavy fires and damage while getting another shell into a DD.

The next battle involved an allied fast battleship group including the North Carolina and the Washington. These encounter 2 mine sweepers and sink them.

At Rabaul the Destroyer yet again engages the slow battleship group and is sunk.

3 STF groups do manage to reach and bombard Rabaul and Namatani with satisfactory results.

[Mike McCreery]

Waves of heavy bombers come in and plaster the airfield and ports with more bombs and take out the support ships in the harbor.

[Mike McCreery]

Finally, at the end of all the festivities my CV's who just shot in from long range take a shot to make sure there isnt anything tasty left. Unfortunately, NJP had some heavy cap hanging out at Kavieng and Manus.

[Mike McCreery]

Air Losses on the day

It looks like I took out about 90 aircraft at Rabaul between bombardments and bombings.

[Mike McCreery]

Aftermath...

After a 3 day struggle I think that I ended up with the upper hand.

It appears that the Japanese lost 4-5 light cruisers and 4 heavy cruisers. I have one heavy cruiser sunk with others that have significant damage but will return at a later date. We both lost our share of destroyers although I think the better hand might have gone to me on that one too. Damage control will decide that later.

Losing 50 hellcats was painful but finishing off that heavy cruiser may have been worth it. That takes about 1/2 his heavy cruiser forces off the table I think.

His BB's got away but so did mine.

Here is a list of sunk ships. The Tone did not participate in the recent battles but is being tagged as one of the sunk ships. I am guessing the Aoba or the Kakao is being misidentified as the Tone or vice versa. That means it is likely he has lost one additional CA not on this list.