O16 fires 4 torpedoes at DD Asagumo near Koumac but misses.
Haddock fires 2 torpedoes at xAK Kinugasa Maru near Kwajalein but misses.
O21 fires 4 torpedoes at DD Oshio near Noumea but misses.
Trout spots the same TF, but no engagement.
The same old enemy cruisers bombard Noumea. 360 casualties and a PT boat sunk in port. Moderate airfield damage.
24 Zeros sweep Changsha. Lots of bombers hit the airfield. 31 Oscars sweep.
42 Oscars sweep Meiktila, Burma. Sallys bomb troops.
42 Oscars sweep Magwe, Burma. Sallys bomb troops (just a base unit here)
Sallys and Sonias bomb Medan, Sumatra.
Sallys and Lilys bomb Bandoeng, Java.
Lilys bomb troops near Sibolga, Sumatra.
Sallys bomb troops at Taung Gyi, Burma.
Meiktila, Burma is lost to the enemy.
A small New Guinea unit is kicked out of Kokoda. The enemy 5th Indpt SNLF Coy wasn't able to do this months ago, but the 84th Naval Guard just reinforced and took the base easily.
No sign of KB today. Last seen NE of Ndeni headed N or NE.
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Sub Gudgeon fires 2 torpedoes at PB Kinsyo Maru #4 near Koumac but misses.
Light cruiser Dragon and a destroyer tries to bombard La Foa but doesn't hit anything. Not having a recon plane didn't help.
Similar sweeps and bombings as yesterday.
Medan is lost, as is Terapo on New Guinea, and Taung Gyi in Burma.
Allied carriers return to Pearl Harbor, with lots of invasion shipping also returning or about to. KB is spotted just west of Tarawa. Aurorus will have to wonder where all of that invasion shipping went.
My cruiser move into Noumea failed, as the enemy didn't show up. Seeing the Dutch ships south of Noumea must have spooked them. There may be a battleship group at Koumac now. Don't want to run into battleships at Noumea. The fast Dutch minelayer successfully dropped a load of mines at Noumea. Maybe a battleship can find those.
It's almost April 1942. KB is at Tarawa. Most of the US fleet is at or near Pearl Harbor. 3 US carriers are due for a 7 day upgrade. CV Indomitable has a 15 day upgrade. Some CAs and lots of CLs have upgrades up to 27 days long. And many DDs have upgrades from 14 to 18 days long.
The question is, do I risk upgrading at Pearl Harbor, with KB just a week's movement away?
Pearl Harbor is incredibly well defended. Lots of fighters and bombers. Not to mention that any upgraded carriers have their squadrons moved to land bases. 10 US battleships will be at Pearl, available to soak up bombs. I really don't think Aurorus would come here with a raid. But he is smart. He knows when my ships are due upgrade, and he knows that my strengths are in logistics and being efficient with things like upgrades. It would be tempting to go to Pearl. I don't think he will, but I have to consider the chances.
I want to upgrade, but don't want to have to move everything to the West Coast and lose a couple of weeks use of the ships. After the upgrade, I want to head back to the South Pacific.
What to do...
[edit: Part of my concern is that he sent KB to Tarawa to stop a possible invasion, and now that KB is there, he may want to find something to do with it. Maybe raid to the SE, maybe raid Pearl Harbor, maybe invade Midway or Johnston, who knows.]
Just move your carrier air groups onto PH and Lahaina airfields and load up the other islands with aircraft too. If KB comes he might get a few hits on ships in port but he will lose most of his best pilots and aircraft.
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
Noumea is bombarded by the same cruisers. The support units there are taking a pounding. The combat troops are barely touched. 384 casualties, and troops are being destroyed. The airbase is basically out of action. Allied TFs are moving into position for another attempted intercept. They've taken on fuel and are mostly rearmed.
Medan is heavily bombed and lost to the enemy. There were still Allied mines there from the very fast Dutch minelayer who's now working in the South Pacific. The enemy never brought ships here, landing to the south instead.
Magwe is lost.
B-26s in northern China bomb the 9th Armored Car Co north of Yenan. The enemy is flanking my line here, but I have a small Chinese unit on the way.
KB disappeared today. It was adjacent to Tarawa.
The Southern Army HQ, which was at Bangkok, is now at Moulmein.
Here's the morale boost for today:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Samah at 73,66
Weather in hex: Partial cloud
Raid spotted at 9 NM, estimated altitude 1,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes
Allied aircraft
PBY-5 Catalina x 12
Allied aircraft losses
PBY-5 Catalina: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
TK Nisshin Maru
SC Ch 26
TK Tonan Maru #3, Torpedo hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
12 x PBY-5 Catalina launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 2 x 22.4in Mk 13 Torp
There was also a dud hit. Sinking audio heard. The Cats go back to Australia. This surprise attack won't happen again. Aurorus will give the Philippines a wider berth with his shipping, and maybe even do some bombing of Luzon in retaliation.
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I'm considering starting to extract troops from Noumea by air instead of flying in supply. If I'm not committing the carriers to the region immediately, and the enemy continues to reinforce Koumac for a push on Noumea, it might be better to save some of the troops, particularly support troops like airbase support. The airfield is borderline operational right now, but is getting worse with each bombardment.
I wouldn't be able to extract enough troops to make the base fall much sooner, and the extraction may not even be noticed by the enemy. But it would help keep some units in the area, even if just as fragments.
I still hope to delay at Noumea as long as possible, and continue to commit the few cruisers and destroyers in the area.
Sub Trout spots the regular Noumea bombardment group leaving Koumac, and gets a torpedo hit on heavy cruiser Myoko. The replay shows Myoko smoking later in the turn, but the ship isn't too badly damaged, as it continued to Noumea to bombard.
PT-22, the only PT boat left at Noumea, and lacking torpedoes, engages the enemy at Noumea in 3 fights. No shells landed for anyone. Noumea is bombarded. Moderate damage.
Denpassar, near Java, is invaded. There are still Dutch troops here.
I will list all of the enemy air activity today, to highlight just how many fighters and bombers are being used.
27 Zeros sweep Changsha.
42 Oscars sweep Mandalay.
34 Oscars sweep Changsha.
29 Nells bomb troops at Sibolga.
42 Oscars sweep a hex near Magwe.
21 Sallys, 3 Sonias, and 6 Lilys bomb Changsha. 12 Oscar escorts.
25 Sallys and 29 Oscar escorts hit troops near Taung Gyi.
19 Sonias and 23 Lilys hit troops near Medan.
3 Lilys and 45 Sonias hit troops near Hengyang. 30 Nates escort.
15 Lilys and 10 Sonias hit troops near Changsha.
49 Sallys hit troops near Mandalay.
27 Sallys and 31 Oscars escorts hit troops near Magwe.
27 Lilys hit troops near Medan.
9 Sonias and 12 Nate escorts hit troops near Changsha.
9 Lilys and 12 Nate escorts hit troops near Hengyang.
9 Marys hit troops near Melak.
9 Sonias hit troops near Hengyang.
29 Sallys and 27 Lilys hit Bandoeng.
Mandalay in Burma is lost to the enemy.
Preliminary combat at Denpassar shows that the enemy hasn't brought enough troops.
No sign of KB for 2 days now, since it was seen near Tarawa.
Tonight Allied combat ships will run into Noumea again. They weren't spotted today, so I'm hoping that the enemy shows up. Fragments of Allied troops at Noumea are starting to be flown out by Catalina. This isn't a full-blown evacuation. Not yet, anyhow. Mainly getting the airbase support out. With the airfield too damaged to use, I might as well.
I just recently got SigInt about an enemy regiment planning for Townsville. Today I got that the 4th Infantry Regiment is planning for Cairns. Just regiments so far, and could be misinformation, but I have to consider it possible. With New Caledonia contested and possibly to be lost, I'm looking out for a smaller invasion in NE Australia, to draw me north, and a bigger invasion mid-coast, to cut off the north. But that's all speculation at this point.
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I'm surprised to see a mineclearing ship at Wake Island already. Aurorus is really focused on the mine threat. I guess that I've done enough to warrant that.
A lot of the same bombing as yesterday. I moved an AVG squadron back to Changsha to mix things up a bit.
The rest of the enemy Yokosuka 2nd SNLF has landed at Denspassar, and it looks like it may be enough now to defeat the Dutch defenders.
I got 2 messages of heavy activity at Kusaie Island, which is interesting, as it is near the Marshalls. I wonder what that is about, as it doesn't appear to be KB related.
Today is the last day of the "amphibious bonus". That is something to celebrate. Tomorrow is a big Allied ship upgrade day, and a lot of ships are scheduled to begin their refits. With KB now apparently back in the Ndeni area, my fear of a Pearl Harbor strike has gone away. Many ships start upgrades there tomorrow.
My goal is to be more open to a carrier battle in one month, after carrier, cruiser, and destroyer upgrades.
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Are those regiments from the same division or divided from 2 separate divisions? It is common to divide your division to take on reinforcements quicker. Also are those division/s restricted? If restricted it may be a little OPSEC misdirection.
The regiments are not a divided division, like xx Div/A. Could be restricted, I don't know. I don't look at the "other side" of the game to see things like that. Of course, after playing enough, you know what you know, and can't avoid knowing things that the Allies did not know at the time.
Troop loading or unloading can trigger the heavy sigint message, or at least I feel that it can. Since it is heavy I would guess more than one unit is loading/unloading. It is a popular base for some CD guns.
Been so hectic irl, I have fallen behind following you.[:(] How about a 10 cent recap....on your thoughts about the game. Done right, done wrong, your current position, Japanese tactics? I don't read your opposition AAR at all...because he is a fair bit like me.
No Pearl Harbor. I have all of the slow battleships, and more importantly (to me), all of those Catalinas. I've had excellent coverage of the South Pacific and southern Marshalls because of that. I've known where KB has been 80% of the time.
Mersing landing. Defenders did not flee to Singapore, but held out in the jungle as long as possible. Only a few fragments were flown out of Malaysia. Repulse sunk on day 1 by KB near Singapore. Prince of Wales escaped.
No Luzon landing, and none to date. Mindanao is enemy held except for the inland mountain base, which still holds, and still has supply. Several attacks by 2 enemy regiments have failed miserably over the months. Some shipping did escape the Philippines, notably a couple of AS and big transports. Slower ships generally did not.
Java was invaded very early, but still hasn't been conquered entirely. 3 enemy divisions were used. One division remains, along with about 15 heavy artillery units, pounding Bandoeng, the inland mountain base near Batavia. Supply is plentiful here, but the big guns are taking its toll on the defenders.
Darwin and nearby bases were taken. Tennant Creek was not.
There was no enemy move to Burma until about a month ago. I had already pulled what I could out of Burma, leaving it minimally manned. 3 enemy divisions, along with plenty of support, are rushing north in Burma now.
China has been fairly stable, with most of the time taken up by the enemy clearing out Chinese behind the lines in the south. Just recently the big enemy stack approached the lines south of Changsha. There have been lots of enemy recon and bombing to find my weak spots. It now looks like the push will be in the very south from Canton. My defense is weak north of there, relying on the poor transportation net of trails to give me time to react if needed. I still fear a breakthrough new Changsha or just south of there, as there is no reserve.
The big push so far for the enemy has been the South Pacific. Tulagi, Ndeni, and Luganville were taken quickly. When enemy ships were heading toward Luganville, I decided to send the 2 Marine regiments of the 2nd Marine Division to Noumea. They made it there in time, but being in Strat mode, I didn't have time to unload the guns and support. 4 US carriers tried to sneak around the flank, but were spotted east of Luganville. Yorktown was hit by a torpedo. I decided that 3 carriers with bad planes and terrible pilots weren't enough to do much, so all carriers retired to Pearl Harbor with Yorktown. The enemy landed at Koumac. KB hovered around Koumac for a long time. Prince of Wales sortied from Sydney and caught a big transport force SW of Milne Bay, sinking 2 of 3 huge transports. It appeared that 2/3 of an infantry division was destroyed. A flanking move by a big US TF of heavy cruisers failed in a big way, as it ran into a CL and DD TF, sinking most of those ships, but then ran into a heavy cruiser TF while having low ammo, and got hurt. Then, with daylight, KB appeared in range, and did a lot of damage. A bunch of CAs lost, along with a couple of CLs and 5 or 6 DDs. Painful, and my biggest error of the war so far. KB then made a series of moves to the north, toward Milne Bay, where it would rendezvous with more tranports forces heading to Koumac. Koumac was then being built up faster than Noumea was. KB has moved as far south as Norfolk Island, but did so twice in a sweeping movement, isolating Noumea. Then enemy bombardments started with ships running from Koumac to Noumea, at night. I countered with mines, which haven't worked, and running cruisers into Noumea at night, with limited success. Noumea's airfield is now out of action. I'm flying out base support units with Catalinas. The Marines will stay until it is hopeless, then I'll fly out what I can of those. The 3rd Marine regiment for that division is at Vavu, SE of Suva, where the division will rebuild if necessary.
3 enemy divisions were headed to New Caledonia, or already there, so Noumea won't hold forever. But it has been the speedbump to the enemy expansion. My thoughts are if I hadn't defended Noumea, the enemy would be at New Zealand or Suva or Australia already. I knew that it was too early to defend anywhere that the enemy really wanted, but it had to be done. Delay and defend is my motto.
I've recently gotten SigInt about an enemy regiment prepping for Townsville, and another for Cairns. Could be real, could be fake.
From December 8, I've been prepping regiments and combat engineers for Kwajalein, Roi Namur, Wotje, and Malelop Islands in the Marshalls. Given the right circumstances, I was going to do an early invasion. KB had to be far away. I gathered everything I needed at Pearl Harbor, and when KB was down by Norfolk Island last month, I pulled the trigger, and everything loaded up at Pearl. Over 30 TFs were involved. 5 US carriers and 1 Brit. All of the APs that become APAs. 10 US slow battleships. The gaggle went west, but just one day out of Pearl, they ran over a sub. A slow battleship took a torpedo, and many invasion TFs were spotted, with a slow battleship embedded in each. Pretty obvious what was going on. I changed course to the north for a day, then headed west, going north of Johnston Island. However, KB immediately went north for 3 days toward Tulagi, then turned NE by Ndeni. They were going to the Marshalls. I called off the invasion and everything returned safely to Pearl, where they remain. KB went all the way to Tarawa, then turned around, and went back to Ndeni, when nothing had materialized. Now KB is east of Koumac, and southbound. I will do this northern Marshalls invasion sometime, just not now. I hope to add armor to the landings next time.
April is a huge refit month. I decided to put everything into refit ASAP. Most of the US fleet is at Pearl now. 3 US carriers are in refit, as well as 1 Brit carrier, some heavy cruisers, lots of light cruisers, and many destroyers. It'll take over 3 weeks to have everything complete. I chose not to rush down to Noumea to intervene there. I will be more willing to fight a carrier battle in another month. Another Brit carrier is leaving Panama now, headed to Pearl.
Aurorus is a tough opponent. He was aggressive strategically, skipping Luzon and moving to Java and the South Pacific quickly, but he's careful tactically, usually protecting his assets. When I've surpised him with something, like the Prince of Wales ambush, he adjusts and doesn't allow a repeat performance. I have learned certain tendencies, like leading his carriers with combat ships, with the screening force in the direction that he perceives to be the greatest threat axis. This is a good move, but it tells me which direction he thinks is most threatening.
I've done enough minelaying that he is very careful now. Invasions have been preceded by minesweepers. And AMcs show up very quickly after bases are taken. I've had some success with the submarine war, even with US subs and their dud rate. One enemy carrier ate a torpedo, and several heavy cruiser have. I've flooded the zone near Koumac and Noumea, trying to interdict the nightly bombardment runs, with an occasional success. I haven't seen signs of any enemy ground based ASW aircraft, just carrier ASW. Aurorus uses his bombers heavily, and against units in clear terrain at every opportunity. But I'm just not seeing a commitment to ASW with aircraft yet. I'll have to check how many subs I've lost. Very few. Maybe one US sub, not sure.
I'm sure that I left a lot out, but that's what I've come up with off the top of my head.
Truant and Trusty are in this area, and both have gotten hits so far. It's worth noting that Hiryu was already smoking in the combat animation, before the torpedo hit. KB may be in need of repairing some damage, damage from heavy use.
No bombing in China, which is very unusual, but troops are on the move here. That big stack that moved to Canton in the south? I've had another thought here. If it doesn't move to attack to the north soon, it's possible that the units are moving to the coast to leave China. There are a number of unrestricted enemy units that start in China. Mostly artillery, I think.
Plenty of bombing in Burma.
KB moves south to a point east of Noumea, and launches a huge Kate strike on Noumea's airfield, but damage is light in the bad weather.
Afternoon Air attack on Noumea , at 115,160
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid detected at 111 NM, estimated altitude 20,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 47 minutes
45 Zeros from Koumac sweep Noumea. Koumac is a size 5 airfield now. Noumea is a size 3, but is heavily damaged. No CAP.
Bandoeng, Java is bombed, as usual. I see movement out of this hex, which is interesting. There's an infantry division and over a dozen heavy artillery units. Something must be slated to go elsewhere.
41 Oscars sweep a Burma infantry unit retreating near Akyab. Bombers follow up. A base force near Magwe is destroyed by the 18th Division.
Ketapang on Borneo is invaded. No defenders here.
KB moves ENE. (see below)
The big news today is that the enemy finally did an artillery attack at Noumea. Now we both know what is here. The enemy has twice the strength, but is it enough? I say no, but I say yes if the naval bombardments return, and/or KB helps.
Ground combat at Noumea (115,160)
Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 29099 troops, 314 guns, 97 vehicles, Assault Value = 899
Defending force 12162 troops, 192 guns, 168 vehicles, Assault Value = 380
Assaulting units:
4th Division
16th Division
8th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Medium Field Artillery Regiment
56th Field Artillery Regiment
Defending units:
2nd Marine Regiment
8th Marine Regiment
193rd Tank Battalion
70th Coast AA Regiment
45th Base Group [most of this unit has been airlifted out]
2nd Marine Defense Battalion
223 Group RAF
131st Field Artillery Battalion
Noumea Base Force
