Kinugasa, Jintsu, and Kako disbanded at Noumea. The damage to Kinugasa and Jintsu is not nearly as severe as I feared. The fires on both ships seem to be under control Kako is more damaged that I thought. They may be able to escape.
I think the damaged CAs will try to flee to the NW toward Moresby and Rabaul. I am undecided as to whether the AV should flee with them or not. The AG and AGP will start unloading some supply in the event of a bombardment that sinks them.
Yes... I have an AGP (1 in the whole empire) and yes... the 6 Japanese MTBs are 1 hex away from Koumac defending the airfield
He is the situation in SoPac, and I will work out the plan for tomorrow. Search planes did report at least 1 allied BB. That changes things somewhat. I have 3 fast BBs, Maya, and the CL Oi (with Tanaka in command) in an SCTF 16 hexes from Noumea, and they could reach Noumea in the AM phase at full speed tomorrow. I do not want to put 3 fast BBs against the entire U.S. and British BB force, however. Could he possibly have enough fuel in SoPac already to sortie the entire British and U.S. BB fleet? I suppose that he could if he drained Pearl substantially.
Whatever the case, there are approximately 60 or so damaged allied fighters that will probably not be flying tomorrow, and I have to take advantage of that if I want to have a Kentai Kessen here and now. I am outnumbered 5 CVs to 4, and the U.S. has radar. He probably knows that Japanese CVs are close, because Vals attacked and hit several allied subs near the Solomons. I am going to move into position for a fleet battle. That much I do know. I will sleep on the exact plan. What will APbarog do? Will he fight tomorrow with many damaged planes in his CV hangars, or will he run?
On Noumea, 31 A6M2s were repaired today, and there are now 139 serviceable A6M2s on Noumea that can fly tomorrow. Many of the pilots are fatigued, however. There is also a sqadron of Oscars in transfer range that can fight tomorrow as well as 30 LBA VAls, and 52 LBA Netties. Akagi and Shokaku grp are bringing 155 more A6M2s, with fresh pilots, along with their Kates and Vals and 9 A6M2-Rufes flying off the CS Nisshin. The empire will try to put 330 fighters and 330 bombers in the air tomorrow around New Caledonia.
Again, however, the major question is will he bombard Koumac and put many of those A6M2s on the ground? Kongo grp is 12 hexes away from Koumac and probably cannot prevent a night-time bombardment run. The other question is: does he have a commander in charge of his BBs aggressive enough to perform the mission in a region in which Japan may have air superiority?
Judging from the damaged and downed planes from yesterday this looks like a pretty even fight. The IJN experience usually has a slight advantage in this era with even numbers, but weather and other factors like reaction can change outcomes dramatically. You are flirting with a great success and with a disastrous defeat! This is what the game is all about.[:)]
I'd use those LBA A6M to LR CAP your surface ships moving with the CVs to add more CAP to your forces. If then his strikes fragment at all you could do very well in defence.
Good luck!!
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
Judging from the damaged and downed planes from yesterday this looks like a pretty even fight. The IJN experience usually has a slight advantage in this era with even numbers, but weather and other factors like reaction can change outcomes dramatically. You are flirting with a great success and with a disastrous defeat! This is what the game is all about.[:)]
I'd use those LBA A6M to LR CAP your surface ships moving with the CVs to add more CAP to your forces. If then his strikes fragment at all you could do very well in defence.
Good luck!!
Damaged planes cannot be transferred or replaced (even by the CVE Long Island). They return to base and to the CVs and occupy space and flight crews. I do not see how he has enough fighters to cover the transports, provide adequate CAP for his CVs, and escort a strike. He may go into full CAP mode tomorrow and wait 1 day for most of the damaged F4Fs to repair. Also morale and fatigue on many of his groups must be an issue. He has had 3 F4F groups, 2 P-39 groups, and 2 P-400 groups with high casualties. (Of course several of my groups are fatigued as well). He also may withdraw the entire Armada, but this I doubt, because in 1 day, the transports would have offloaded some troops but little supply. Noumea would be a mess with more troops and no more supply. Also, one of his TFs carrying only supplies was decimated by Betties and finished off by a submarine yesterday.
(Edit) I looked through the allied early-war OOB. It appears that the allies can remove 2 TBD squadrons and replace these with 2 F4F-3 squadrons, size 18, and this appears to be what Apbarog did. This gives him an additional 36 fighters. The damaged planes are mostly F4F-3s... his escort fighters (because of range 7). Therefore, he could CAP and launch, but he would want to set a reaction range for his CVs to avoid being hit by a torpedo attack 7 hexes away or even a Kate bomb attack from 8 or 9 hexes away. Halsey would certainly react.... would the other CV TF commander.. and would they react away from the BB escorts?
To further complicate matters, the weather forecast for tomorrow for the region is: thunderstorms, and there are severe thunderstoms over Koumac now. Where were those storms when he was bombing my CAs in the morning?
Judging from the damaged and downed planes from yesterday this looks like a pretty even fight. The IJN experience usually has a slight advantage in this era with even numbers, but weather and other factors like reaction can change outcomes dramatically. You are flirting with a great success and with a disastrous defeat! This is what the game is all about.[:)]
I'd use those LBA A6M to LR CAP your surface ships moving with the CVs to add more CAP to your forces. If then his strikes fragment at all you could do very well in defence.
Good luck!!
The turn is off. I followed your advice a little. I covered the CAs in Koumac with the exhausted A6M2 group (which transferred to La Foa). There is probably a better chance of my strikes splintering than his, because of the enormous number of targets available to my planes. The weather is a major concern. If there are few air ops tommorrow, his squadrons will recover many planes, and I may be the one withdrawing without a fight. Of course, Soryu and Hiryu are closing in.
So many doubts and questions. Will the Oscars, who flew a long distance to arrive in the theater perform their mission tomorrow? The weather? Where will the allied CVs be? Will he make a strange and unpredictable move? Can I get off a range 8 strike? Will the LBA at Koumac perform their missions? Will the Zero rule the sky tomorrow, will it be allied radar, or will it be the weather?
The safest bet is that the weather will be the deciding factor.
The night begins with Jintsu hitting a mine at the small base 1 hex NW of Koumac. (I put Jintsu and the 2 damaged CAs into an escort TF with this port as their base and set to auto-disband, expecting a bomardment of Koumac). The remarkable Jintsu survived and is still afloat with 54% sys. damage and 49% flood damage after suffering 2 1000 pound bomb hits and a mine hit.
Then reports come in from submarines south of Noumea.
I-26 scores a hit on an ASW APD.
ASW attack near Norfolk Island at 116,168
Japanese Ships
SS I-26
Allied Ships
APD Humphreys, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
APD Barker
APD Rathburne
SS I-26 launches 2 torpedoes at APD Humphreys
I-26 diving deep ....
I-22 scores a hit on the BB Revenge
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Sub attack near Noumea at 115,160
Japanese Ships
SS I-22
Allied Ships
BB Revenge, Torpedo hits 1
DD Norman
RO-62 scores a hit on an AK.
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Submarine attack near Isle of Pines at 115,161
Japanese Ships
SS RO-62
Allied Ships
xAK Don Isidro, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Don Isidro is sighted by SS RO-62
SS RO-62 launches 2 torpedoes
The reports of the submarine fleet south of New Caledonia in the night are clear: numerous allied TFs moving south. The allies are withdrawing. Several U.S. BBs bombard the Japanese forces at Noumea before retiring. The bombardments are not very effective. There will be no Kentai Kessen on this day. The sailors and airmen cheer the early morning reports, believing the allies have fled the field and are cowards. Yamamoto on the bridge of the Akagi and in command of the Akagi group knows better. This was the empire's opportunity to win the war, and it has slipped away. There probably will never be another. The U.S. will only grow stronger. 4 days later, and the allied armada would have been ambushed by the entire imperial navy.
Yamamoto looks over the navigation charts glumly, as the first search plane reports come in. The reports confirm his fears. All the major allied assets are withdrawn out of range. However, scouts report large TFs of allied merchants at Noumea and a light cover TF: nothing else. Without visible emotion, Yamamoto gives the order to signal Kaga and Zuikaku to turn into the wind. The radioman signals Yamaguchi on Shokaku to launch on the allied merchant ships. Then Yamamoto turns back to his navigation charts, staring blankly at the drawing instruments. The empire has missed its opportunity. Yamamoto was 1 day late.
It was well-played by Apbarog to withdraw. The day would have belonged to Japan, I suspect, if he had stayed for a CV battle. The CVs and the heavy cover moved down 3 hexes SW of Luganville, 7 hexes from Noumea. 41 A6M2s with crack pilots and low fatigue were flying LRCAP over the CVs in addition to their own CAP. The strikes, which would have been against the U.S. CVs came off very well.
Oscars began by sweeping Noumea at 8K. They encountered 44 allied fighters and performed as Oscar Ics do... losing 2-1 to the allied fighters.
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Morning Air attack on Noumea , at 115,160
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 41 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 34
Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 15
P-40E Warhawk x 29
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 8 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
P-40E Warhawk: 3 destroyed
Aircraft Attacking:
4 x Ki-43-Ic Oscar sweeping at 8000 feet
Next, however, came the surprise that would have gone in on the U.S. CVs had they remained. 68 A6M2s escorting 13 Betties at 4,000 feet. The A6M2s were sweeping ahead. I was hoping for this result, and I achieved it. I have given away many trade secrets in this AAR, and I will not reveal how I induced the Zeros to sweep ahead. Had his CVs been there, they would have been swept by Zeros at 4K before the main CV strike arrived and their CAP would have been drawn down.
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Noumea at 115,160
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 7,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 31 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 68
G3M2 Nell x 13
Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 11
P-40E Warhawk x 15
Aircraft Attacking:
13 x G3M2 Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 45cm Type 91 Torp 8 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 4000 feet
6 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 4000 feet
7 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 4000 feet
The first CV strike then came in at 12K far above the allied fighters. The attack splintered, and appeared to attack multiple TFs. A follow-up strike was launched in the PM phase consisting only of Kates. Here are the results of the strikes.
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Noumea at 115,160
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 119 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 44 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 54
B5N1 Kate x 18
B5N2 Kate x 51
D3A1 Val x 35
Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 2
P-40E Warhawk x 2
Japanese aircraft losses
B5N1 Kate: 1 destroyed by flak
B5N2 Kate: 1 damaged
D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed by flak
Allied Ships
PC Pulaski, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
xAKL Sinabang, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Witte de With
AM Kalgoorlie, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CL Durban, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1
CL St. Louis, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1
xAK Era, Bomb hits 1
xAKL Sipirok
xAKL Luzon, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Dunlap
CL Dragon
xAKL Meroendoeng, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Van Ghent
xAK Diamond head, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Cardross, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAKL Mulubinda, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Tuscaloosa City, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Preston
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Noumea at 115,160
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 105 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 39 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 27
B5N1 Kate x 6
B5N2 Kate x 26
D3A1 Val x 13
Allied Ships
xAK Mormacrey, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CL Durban, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
KV Dundas, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL St. Louis
CL Dragon
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Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Noumea at 115,160
Weather in hex: Partial cloud
Raid detected at 115 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 49 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 81
B5N1 Kate x 33
B5N2 Kate x 89
Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 8
P-40E Warhawk x 15
Allied Ships
xAK Goulburn, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Boelongan, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CL Dragon, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Witte de With
CL St. Louis, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage
xAK Tuscaloosa City, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Ulooloo, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Elisavet, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAKL Corrimal
xAKL Silindoeng, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Evertsen
DD Van Ghent
DD Drayton
xAKL Escalante, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Preston
xAK Aroona, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAKL Siberoet
xAKL Lepus, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Crown City
DMS Chandler, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
xAKL James Cook
DD Cummings
xAKL Soerabaja, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Fanning
The bomb hits were all 60Kg bombs, so that were not very effective. While it was pleasant to sink some CLs and some cargo ships, this was very well-played by Apbarog. This day would have gone poorly for him if he had stayed, I suspect. What is more, he gained valuable information as to how I arrange a CV battle, and he will be wiser for it, I believe. The low-strike, with escorts sweeping ahead, is a nasty surprise to those who are unprepared for it. In this case, the low strike came into a hex that had already been swept by the Oscars, so he had good detection time. At 4K altitude the detection time for a raid, even with radar, is usually bad, 10 minutes or less. So the sweeping Zeros may have been able to engage F4Fs scrambling off the deck.
You got a few good ships there, especially the St Louis, for nothing. I'm guessing this will not be the final day of combat around here either. He may decide to still roll the dice and move in after his groups have repaired for a day, so you might still get your shot. Looks like though you have quite a few more ships to hit. Surprised he kept those CLs and DDs there if he was indeed withdrawing. Leave a few small escort and run with the important stuff if you don't want to fight. I'm guessing he didn't know you had a KB that close.
Its a good tactic with your bettys and A6Ms escort/sweeping. Try it next time at 25k and those sweeps will do much better!
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
You got a few good ships there, especially the St Louis, for nothing. I'm guessing this will not be the final day of combat around here either. He may decide to still roll the dice and move in after his groups have repaired for a day, so you might still get your shot. Looks like though you have quite a few more ships to hit. Surprised he kept those CLs and DDs there if he was indeed withdrawing. Leave a few small escort and run with the important stuff if you don't want to fight. I'm guessing he didn't know you had a KB that close.
Its a good tactic with your bettys and A6Ms escort/sweeping. Try it next time at 25k and those sweeps will do much better!
In my experience (which is a limited sample size, I admit), It is easier to induce the fighters to sweep ahead on low altitude attacks. I agree, however, this is very effective, if it can be performed, if the group bounces the enemy. Later in the war, with A6M5s and A6M8s, I will probably try this from higher altitudes. I like to try to keep my A6M2s in their best manuever bands. For example, the CV strikes all came in at 12K. Of course, this was to allow the DBs to dive bomb, but also to give the Zeros some space to climb and dogfight and remain in their best manuever band. Allied fighters can rely on armor and durability. The Zero relies on manueverability, especially as an escort fighter.
In this case, I decided to go very low to avoid radar detection and reduce the detection time on the raid, so that they would have numbers on the F4Fs, while giving away altitude advantage. I also want a large difference in altitudes between my two raids, to draw his CAP down below my CV raid and scatter the CAP across the altitude bands. In this case, every asset was expendable to preserve the CV strike package intact and give the Kates clean torpedo runs at CVs. Unfortunately, instead of clean torpedo runs at CVs, they had runs at merchants and CLs.
The entire plan for the attack on the U.S. CVs depended upon the LBA arriving first, which it did in this case. This is why I think it would have been a very bad day for his CVs if they had remained in range. I think, even against 80-90 F4Fs, the Kates would have had clean runs, assuming the intitial strike did not splinter. I do not think that it would have splintered against CVs, however.
You got a few good ships there, especially the St Louis, for nothing. I'm guessing this will not be the final day of combat around here either. He may decide to still roll the dice and move in after his groups have repaired for a day, so you might still get your shot. Looks like though you have quite a few more ships to hit. Surprised he kept those CLs and DDs there if he was indeed withdrawing. Leave a few small escort and run with the important stuff if you don't want to fight. I'm guessing he didn't know you had a KB that close.
Its a good tactic with your bettys and A6Ms escort/sweeping. Try it next time at 25k and those sweeps will do much better!
Yes. He may decide to turn around and give chase with his CVs now that they have had an opportunity to repair some Wildcats and my CVs have used all of their torpedo sorties (every last 1). This would be bold, however, because there is a large SCTF in the area with 3 fast BBs, and one of his subs spotted this TF and correctly identified all the ships in it.
It appears that his BBs expended much of their ammo bombarding Noumea. Flying his DBs into a CAP trap over BBs would be bad for him, and having his CVs encounter BBs in surface action would be very bad for him.
Apbarog performed this operation masterfully. He was able to land, what appears to be 2 divisions at Noumea in 1 day, and escape with most of his valuable assets, including his CVs, BBs, and APs.
Here is his problem. He landed troops, but his supply TFs were ransacked terribly. Also, my recon indicates that he may be overstacked silghtly at Noumea, which will increase his supply use. There is little hope that Japan will take Noumea. However, that is not a bad thing. An overstacked, undersupplied Noumea is now a candle that will attract all manner of crawling and flying creatures. This will be a point of conention for months to come, and there will be other opportunities here to destroy allied assets. Also, he has now committed, it seems, much of the unrestricted U.S. units to SoPac. If I have to fight through 1942 and 1943 anywhere, I would much rather fight in SoPac than in the DEI.
I need to explore my options to sink the rest of those AKs and limit the amount of supply landing at Noumea to ensure that the allies return and maintain a constant fighter presence here.
Here is the current situation in SoPac. It appears that he may have another supply TF steaming toward Noumea. He will have to cover it with his CVs if he intends to land more supplies. Of course, this could be a group of APs retiring.
I cannot fight a CV engagement today. My CVs have no torpedo sorties, and most of his F4Fs probably were repaired yesterday. I do not want to put 4 Japanese CVs against 5 allied CVs using Kates as level bombers and not torpedo planes. Hiryu and Soryu are still 2 days away. Another difficult situation if I intend to prevent more supply from reaching Noumea.
Furutaka and Aoba may have sufficient fuel to make a full-speed run at Noumea in the night, and return to fighter cover at Noumea. After this, however, they will need to immediately return to Tulagi to refuel. I have 4 fast AOs loaded with fuel at Rabaul, and Tulagi is now a size 3 port with 150 naval support and 30K fuel. The fast BBs also may have enough fuel to make a full-speed night-time move to Noumea and retreat to fighter cover at Koumac, but they also would have to return immediately to Tulagi afterwards.
One of the major problems for the allies in the early-war period is the lack of a torpedo bomber. This makes CAP traps over Japanese BBs very nasty for the allied player. With my CVs without torpedos, that was my plan for today in case Apbarog returned. The CVs withdrew and Tanaka moved his Fast BBs at full speed to Noumea to prevent any further off-loading of supplies. They were set with a home port of Koumac and "retirement allowed." So they would move into Noumea quickly at night and then retire to Koumac in the morning hours. The exhausted Zero pilots of Hiryu's A6M2 squadron, Soryu's A6M2 squadron, Tainan Ku Sentai 1, and 3rd Ku Sentai 1 along with the rookie pilots of Chitose (who are completely exhausted and who are not rookies any longer) were asked to fly one more time: CAP over Tanaka's BBs.
Apbarog moved his supply groups off to the west, avoiding Tanaka's BB sweep of Noumea. He also moved his CVs west of New Caledonia to cover what remained of his retiring AK groups. His scout planes spotted Tanaka's group arriving in Koumac in the morning, and Halsey (the Japanese player can always depend upon Halsey to launch his aircraft) sortied his dive bombers after BBs into 109 A6M2s. The heroic IJN pilots fought for a 5th consecutive day. Though their faces were bearded and their eyes bloodshot, the morale of these men (except for Chitose squadron) was undiminished (still in the 90s). Despite the fatigue, they fought well. 30 F4Fs downed and 32 Dauntless for 18 Zeros (and only 3 pilots lost). The DBs scored no hits on the BBs.
How much more can the allies take? Have they not seen enough of these Zeros? The four squadrons of crack pilots still have a morale of 90+, but the fatigue is growing severe. 1 squadron is above 50 fatigue and the other three are above 35. I hope Apbarog retires so that I can rotate some of these squadrons out and replace them with IJA Oscars for a few days. In this 5-day battle that began with the fighter sweeps of Koumac, the 2 primary sentais: Tainan and 3rd have shot down approximately 155 allied aircraft for a loss of 25 Zeros and 9 pilots: 12 B-17s, 30 P-400s, 25 P-39s, 10 P-40Es, 40 F4Fs, and 30 Dauntless Dive Bombers. Here are the air losses for the day.
The allies have radar, and the Japanese have the A6M2. I prefer the A6M2 to radar, but only for the first 9 months of the war. After that, I would much rather have radar.
That was a risk for him to stay i range, and he paid the price. Nice work!
You have some more opportunities now if you want to chase, as the transports are much slower than your KB and he can't stay to fight with so many wildcat and DB losses from the past few days. It's still a fair way to LBA cover in OZ.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
That was a risk for him to stay i range, and he paid the price. Nice work!
You have some more opportunities now if you want to chase, as the transports are much slower than your KB and he can't stay to fight with so many wildcat and DB losses from the past few days. It's still a fair way to LBA cover in OZ.
My CVs moved off to the NE near Ndeni and a squadron of Oscars, were set to maximum CAP and the kates stood down yesterday. I did not want to fight a CV battle with his F4Fs repaired and my CVs without any torpedo sorties. So my CVs are far off. I fired all my arrows in one day, and it will be several days before the IJN is ready for offensive operations.
I accidently left 1 CV group on "full speed," so they burned 3x the amount of fuel that they should have. The DDs are low on fuel, so they need to refuel, replenish their sorties and link up with Hiryu and Soryu. Then the question is: what next?
Tanaka's BB group is also low on fuel and the BBs will have to siphon off their tanks to fill the DDs enough to return to Rabaul or Tulagi. Moving BBs at full speed is a luxury that Japan cannot use often. Furutaka grp is down to 2 CAs and 50% fuel, so they will also need to replenish, and I will need to find another CA for them. I have 4 damaged CAs now. I still need to clear the minefield at Belep Island and extract my damages CAs and Jintsu from that port.
Chokai grp is the only operational SCTF in SoPac at this point.
Time to rethink my overall strategy again. Noumea now has 35K allied troops in a x3 hex with a 35k stacking limit. I could bash against his for months and probably eventually starve the base of supply and take it. But this will take months, by which point, the allies will have achieved parity in force with me, and no further advance will be possible. What is more, I would require another division on New Caledonia in order to rotate 2 divisions into and out of battle. New Caledonia is not worth an investment of 4 divisions for months.
The allies are contained in Noumea and cannot advance. The situation is a stalemate. In order to retain the stalemate, however, I must leave 3 divisions on New Caledonia to contain the allies at Noumea and to guard against amphibious assaults at La Foa and Koumac. Garrisoning New Caledonia and prolonging a stalemate on the island is not worth 3 divisions. I need to withdraw 2 full divisions, maybe more, from New Caledonia.
If I withdraw from Noumea, however, I will lose control of the hexside between Noumea and La Foa. He can advance his 2 divisions, bring in an additional 2 division to Noumea to begin a slow advance up the island. This is OK. New Caledonia is difficult terrain with low stacking limits. With good forts at La Foa and Koumac and ocassional naval support, 2 Japanese regiments and some SNLFs can hold off allied divisions for months.
I have forced him to use many U.S. ground assets to keep his route to Australia open. My strategic objective now is to open a new front. I want troops at sea, moving on transports, mine and his. I want his CVs to cover additional landings and transports: either at Noumea or elsewhere. I almost caught his CVs at Noumea and it may be possible to do so again. Opening a new front doubles the possibility. Where?
Two possibilities present themselves. Fiji is one possibility, but New Caledonia is not tenable in the long-term and therefore neither is Fiji. I will try to recon Fiji, but I suspect that he has reinforced it heavily as well. The other option is NE Australia. Townsville is a very good port, and a fighting withdrawal from Australia is possible. On Fiji, my forces are likely to be destroyed in total eventually. It seems that the invasion of Australia is back on. My next move is to destroy the sub pens at Townsville as a prelude to a possible invasion of NE Australia: Normantown, Cairns, and Cooktown. I have 1 division in northern Australia, and 2 divisions at Truk, Rabaul, and Moresby. I will withdraw 2 divisions from New Caledonia. That is 5 divisions to begin in Australia (most likely) or for Fiji (much less likely). Meanwhile, I am assembling some forces for Luzon.
While all of the action was unfolding at New Caledonia. I quietly took Christmas Island (Indian Ocean), the Cocos Islands, Broome, and Port Hedland (in NW Australia). I have engineers at Broome and Port Hedland to expand the airfields. With the 2nd generation Nell, I can port strike Perth from Port Hedland. One such port strike will be all that is needed to stretch allied fighter cover over the whole of Australia and New Caledonia, gain a numbers advantage in the location of my choose, and destroy more allied planes.
Australia does indeed appear to be the best option. It also opens the possibility of strat bombing next year to keep additional allied assets pinned down in 1943 and away from the DEI, CentPac, and Burma (where I do not want to fight for as long as possible).
Here are the current ship losses. The IJN has lost 3 CLs against 6 allied CLs, 6 allied CAs, and the BC Repulse. The allies have lost 13 DDs. Japan has lost 6 DDs. The allies have lost 12 TKs and AOs of significance to Japan's 3. 40 allied xAKLs and approximately 20 allied xAKs have been sunk to 2 xAKLs for Japan and 7 xAKs. AP losses are heavier for Japan: 8 for Japan and 4 (of any importance) for the allies.
Unless I am able to sink some CVs or some additional TKs or AOs, allied losses are acceptable and will not hinder allied activities later in the war in any way.
Here is the current scoresheet with the current air loss totals. The allied pools for P-40Es, P-400s, F4Fs, and B-17Es are probably low. Other allied pools should be healthy. The F4F pool will recover quickly now that the allies are producing 45 F4F-4s per month. However, a large number of F4F-3s were destroyed, and that may leave him short a few escort fighters capable of escorting range 7 strikes. My fighter pools are mostly full, and I may shut off Oscar Ic production soon to preserve heavy industry and Nakajima 35 engines. The Tojo IIa is in production and the pool is at 4 planes with 1 added per day. The Nick is also in production with 4 in the pool and 1 plane added per day.
Of the 127 army points that I have lost, approximately 75 were at sea, so as usual, I have lost more troops at sea than in combat in the first 6 months of the war.
New Caledonia has become quiet in recent days, and Yokoyama and Siburo's Zero squadrons have recovered fatigue and received replacement planes. Chitose squadron (which escorted the Betties) is still recovering morale and will need such additional pilots (direct from training). 2 Oscar Ic squadrons are also in the region.
The CVs withdrew to Ndeni and replenished their torpedos from an AKE, then met the fast AOs just north of the Solomon's to refuel. They then moved to the central Coral Sea and approached Townsville undetected. On the 8th, planes from Akagi, Shoho, Zuiho, and Zuikako struck the port at Townsville in the PM phase. Ryujo's A6Ms swept the airfield in the morning. Ryujo's group was able to damage a number of P-40s, and the afternoon CAP was minimal. Only 10 P-40s sortied against the bombers, and again the A6M escorts swept ahead of the raid, inflicting more losses than they received. Air losses for the day show 7 P-40Es lost in air-to-air and another 8 to ops. 7 A6M2s and 4 pilots were lost. The Zero continues to dominate the skies.
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Morning Air attack on Townsville , at 92,144
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 110 NM, estimated altitude 22,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 36 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 28
Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 25
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
P-40E Warhawk: 2 destroyed
Aircraft Attacking:
22 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 20000 feet
The weather over Townsville was poor with thunderstorms and the raid came off badly. Nevertheless, the objective was accomplished and the AS was sunk. Townsville will no longer be a sub-base, at least for the moment.
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Afternoon Air attack on Townsville , at 92,144
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 63 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 26 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 63
B5N1 Kate x 11
B5N2 Kate x 50
Allied Ships
AVP Reiger, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
AG Bonwin, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk AS Janssens, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Anshun, Bomb hits 1, on fire
Aircraft Attacking:
25 x B5N2 Kate bombing from 12000 feet
Port Attack: 1 x 800 kg AP Bomb
16 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 12000 feet
25 x B5N2 Kate bombing from 12000 feet
Port Attack: 1 x 800 kg AP Bomb
17 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 12000 feet
11 x B5N1 Kate bombing from 12000 feet
Port Attack: 1 x 800 kg AP Bomb
9 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 12000 feet
13 x A6M2 Zero sweeping at 12000 feet
