Did You Know I Used to Drive a Rollercoaster?: Apbarog(A) vs OPilot(J)

[apbarog]

21 Jun 42 - Gilberts

[apbarog]

21 Jun 42 - Java

[apbarog]

21 Jun 42 - Northern Australia

[apbarog]

21 Jun 42 - Northern China

[apbarog]

21 Jun 42 - Philippines

[apbarog]

21 Jun 42 - Solomons

[apbarog]

21 Jun 42 - South Pacific

[apbarog]

21 Jun 42 - Planning

Assuming that the Tarawa invasion goes without loss, the next question is what to do next. Major units are prepping for Nauru Island, Kusaie Island, Lunga and Tulagi, but it's too early to do any of those, and too risky with KB in the Coral Sea.

Unless I want a big carrier battle now.

Allied carrier power is at a peak in terms of numbers. 5 US carriers and 3 British carriers are in the Tarawa invasion armada. Indomitable has to withdraw in 29 days, so it's gone after this operation unless we charge KB immediately. Formidable withdraws in 74 days.

Upgrades are a concern too, but they can be managed. Lexington and Saratoga are overdue for their June 42 refit. It's a 42 day long upgrade, and actually lowers the AA value while improving the radar. It can wait. Yorktown and Enterprise have 10 day upgrades in July, which is just 10 days away. This upgrade is minor but improves AA some.

While carrier numbers won't be higher until the Essex class starts to arrive in May 1943, we'll still be improving in lots of areas as time goes on. Better trained pilots, continued upgrade from TBDs to TBFs and F4F-3s to F4F-4s, and upgrades for supporting ships. Battleship North Carolina is on the way from Panama. Battleships in carrier task forces help soak up bombs, as do the armored decks on the British carriers.

So the question is, do I want a carrier battle sooner or later?

An alternate plan is to send the carriers to Pearl Harbor after the Tarawa operation and ignore KB in the Coral Sea. Carriers that can upgrade could do so. The ones with the 10 day upgrades could go to the Aleutians to lie in wait for enemy invasions up there. We have SigInt of enemy troops prepping for Aleutian islands, but that could happen very soon or not, or not at all. But it would be a great ambush if it could occur, as most if not all of the enemy big carriers are in the Coral Sea, and most if not all of the smaller ones are, or recently were, in the Indian Ocean. But the Aleutians would be a fishing expedition.

If what is in the Coral Sea right now is not all of the big enemy carriers, due to upgrades or whatever, 8 Allied carriers could do some damage. We'd take losses, but we'd cause losses also.

Let's see if KB comes running towards Tarawa when the operation kicks off.

[BBfanboy]

The AA value may drop on an upgrade, but like the AV in ground combat that is raw value, which gets modified by evaluation of rate of fire, range, accuracy, effect, and reliability. The June 42 upgrades may cause your carriers to end up with lower AA value, but effectiveness is improved.

[apbarog]

22 Jun 42

Dutch sub O16 spotted an xAK with 3 destroyers near Kavieng. 2 torpedoes were fired at DD Maikaze but missed. Ships continued south towards Rabaul.

Cooktown gets pounded again. The usual from Port Moresby: A6M3s sweep and Bettys with A6M2s bomb. In addition, carrier planes attack. 81 Vals and 90 Kates with 36 Zeros hit the airfield also. OPilot really wants Cooktown's airfield out of action, which it is. There's lots of shipping at Port Moresby, including a big transport task force, but I'm not seeing the number of troops on the ground change, so I can't tell if they are coming or going. Cooktown could be suppressed just to protect the shipping at Port Moresby, or it could be a beginning to an Australian invasion. My guess is still a longshot, but it is that the enemy is picking up the 4th Infantry Division at Port Moresby and Horn Island and going to Darwin to invade.

The enemy does a probing artillery attack southeast of Imphal. A British armored unit had just arrived there in the jungle. Should be another stalemate.

Ground combat at 60,41 (near Imphal)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 8821 troops, 78 guns, 17 vehicles, Assault Value = 287

Defending force 4791 troops, 25 guns, 94 vehicles, Assault Value = 215

Assaulting units:
146th Infantry Regiment
148th Infantry Regiment
56th Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
16th Light Cavalry Regiment
6th Chinese/C Corps

The ships approaching Tarawa have not been seen. Invasion in 3 days.

[apbarog]

23 Jun 42

Christmas Island IO (by Java) was invaded by the enemy. It and nearby Cocos Island are both unoccupied.

Cooktown gets the same treatment, and the airfield is still completely damaged. KB (or what I'm calling KB) moved back closer to Port Moresby today. I still don't know what all the activity here is about.

But I'm glad the activity is there. B-26s hit enemy troops on Tarawa for the first time. I see 2 units there, and one of them is the 53rd Naval Guard Unit. Decent recon is showing a weak defense there. The Allied armada was 13 hexes from Tarawa today and nothing was spotted. It will be 7 hexes to the east southeast of the island tomorrow, then just 1 hex away the next day.

The enemy CVLs in the middle of the Indian Ocean disappeared today. Weather was bad over most of my subs, so I can't be sure, but I think that the enemy moved back east towards Akyab.

[apbarog]

24 Jun 42

I-23 is spotted near Suva by a US cruiser task force leaving the base. The sub is hit twice by depth charges and forced to surface. It fired torpedoes 8 times at destroyers during the combat but all missed. Multiple gun hits on the subs certainly finished it off. This cruiser task force, along with another with Repulse, have been at Suva and were spotted by a Glen. They will move to Norfolk Island to await a mission. I'm not sending them up near the enemy carriers, and I don't need them near Luganville or Ndeni right now.

3 British MTBs (yes, the ones that started at Hong Kong) were moving from Portland Roads in Australia up to Horn Island to investigate enemy shipping there. On the way, they ran into an enemy cruiser task force headed in the other direction. In a series of 4 naval battles, during the night and the day, all of the MTBs were sunk. The enemy moved to Portland Roads and stopped there.

At Tabiteuea, I-33 fired 4 torpedoes at xAK Fairland and got one hit, sinking the cargo ship. It was unloading supply along with 2 other xAKs. Destroyer Helm was escorting and hit the sub with one depth charge.

Near Koggala Ceylon, I-11 hit HDML 1097 with a torpedo and sank the ship while it was looking for subs.

The PT boats at Luganville discovered a new enemy minefield at Luganville and didn't hit any of the mines. A fast minesweeper is ordered there from Noumea to clean up, and a slow local minesweeper from Suva is sent to patrol Luganville.

A few concentrated enemy air attacks in China. Always sweepers, always sizable escort forces. Only a major air commitment to China can oppose these attacks, and I choose not to do so.

B-26s do minor damage to the 53rd Naval Guard Unit on Tarawa. The invasion task force east of Tarawa was spotted today, but with just 2/2 DL. None of the carrier task forces, bombardment task force, ASW task force, or cruiser task force were spotted. All will move next to Tarawa today.

[apbarog]

24 Jun 42 - Tarawa

[apbarog]

25 Jun 42

Stuff happening.

A US minesweeper was rushed to Luganville to clear mines, and find them there and to the southwest of the base.

Just north of Rabaul, S-40 spots 2 AO's with escorts. 4 torpedoes are fired at AO Ken'yo Maru but all missed. The sub takes minor damage from destroyers and will retire to Townsville.

I rushed 2 Dutch destroyers to Tabiteuea when I lost a cargo ship there. They arrived and pounded RO-67 after the sub missed destroyer Tjerk Hiddes with 6 torpedoes.

Near Phuket, sub Permit spots 2 huge transports. 4 torpedoes were fired at xAP Tatsuta Maru, and one hit, but it was a dud. Huge ship. Huge dud. The ship is undoubtedly loaded and headed north.

Sian gets another big Oscar sweep and then lots of bombers, with escorts. The airfield is pretty much shut down. I switch things up and move 4 P-40 squadrons from Burma to a base northwest of Sian, and will LRCAP them all over Sian at range 4.

16 Bettys with 30 A6M2 Zeros spot shipping at Luganville and go after them in the morning. P-400s and P-40Es defend. The defenders do very well, shooting down many Zeros, but there are too many of them to get to the bombers. All 16 Bettys get through, but find just PT boats. All torpedoes missed.

In the afternoon, all Bettys return for another shot. But this time, only 6 Zeros are escorting. The defenders do very well, and only 3 Bettys get through, and again miss PT boats with torpedoes.

Total losses for the day were 24 A6M2 Zeros and 14 Bettys, for the loss of 3 P-40Es and 2 P-400s. I was lucky. I had 3 small task forces northwest of Luganville heading for Ndeni, but none were spotted. None had fighter protection. They'll all get to Ndeni today, and I moved a fighter squadron there.

Allied carrier aircraft hit Mili's airfield, doing minor damage and finding no planes there. Others hit Jaluit's port, and did minor damage there. A third bigger strike hit the 53rd Naval Guard Unit at Tarawa, and did significant damage, causing 191 casualties.

ARD Dewey arrived at Vava'u and got to work on repairing xAP Republic, which is SYS 0/FLOT 44/ENG 15/FIRE 0.

Today will be the Tarawa invasion, the first Allied invasion of the war.

The graphic displays what I'm seeing in northeastern Australia. It's an invasion. Size unknown, intentions unknown. I will be content to bomb everything north of Cairns.

[apbarog]

26 Jun 42

Sub Sargo spotted battleship Haruna and escorts northeast of Kusaie Island. 2 torpdoes are fired at destroyer Yunagi but missed. This is an important sighting, as it happened at night, and the enemy could be headed to Tarawa. There's an outside chance that it could hit Tarawa tonight, which would be bad, with so much transport shipping there. I have a cruiser force guarding Tarawa, but you never know which task force will be attacked.

At Sian, the enemy swept with 32 Oscars and my 4 P-40E squadrons only put up 24 planes on LRCAP, and took the worst of it. 9 P-40s lost with 8 Oscars downed. All Warhawks head back to Burma, minus a bunch of damaged planes that will take some time to repair.

The enemy continues to unload troops at Portland Roads. 2 units there now. One is part of the 4th Infantry Division. S-39 fired 4 torpedoes at cruiser Haguro there but all missed.

Tarawa is invaded. Battleships West Virginia and Maryland bombard the base and do good work against the defenders. Unfortunately, while retiring to the southeast, I-17 fired 6 torpedoes at Maryland and one hit. SYS 15/FLOT 39-32/ENG 13-12/FIRE 0. They will now retire due east and hope that the direction change avoids subs.

Portland Roads did autoflip to the enemy. 21 P-38s swept the base and found 7 A6M3 Zeros on LRCAP from Horn Island. 5 of the enemy were downed but 3 P-38s were lost (2 to ops). But that allowed 2 divebomber squadrons to attack.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Portland Roads at 91,132

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 15 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Allied aircraft
SB2U-3 Vindicator x 19

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
APD Fuji
AMC Kinryu Maru, Bomb hits 2
AMC Kiyosumi Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAP Tsingtao Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire

and

Morning Air attack on TF, near Portland Roads at 91,132

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 13 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Allied aircraft
SB2U-3 Vindicator x 14

Allied aircraft losses
SB2U-3 Vindicator: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
DD Oyashio
CL Jintsu
CA Myoko
CA Haguro

All misses on the combat ships but good hits on some transports. One AMC is suspected to be sunk. 11 B-25Cs then attacked the transports but all bombs missed from 6000 feet.



At Tarawa, 17 Bettys with 18 A6M2 Zeros went after the landing ships. Allied CAP was ranged CAP at range 1 from the carriers to the northeast.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Tarawa at 136,128

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid detected at 78 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 27 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 18
G4M1 Betty x 17

Allied aircraft
Martlet II x 12
F4F-3A Wildcat x 7
F4F-3 Wildcat x 15
F4F-4 Wildcat x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 9 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3A Wildcat: 1 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

In the afternoon, the same units tried again, with just 4 Bettys and 9 Zeros, and again the bombers did not get through.

In the afternoon, 69 SBDs and 15 TBFs bombed Mili's airfield again, doing minor damage. Another 72 SBDs and 29 TBFs hit enemy troops on Tarawa and did good work.

Total air losses for the day were 20 Bettys, 13 A6M2s, 8 Oscars and 5 A6M3s versus 9 P-40Es, 6 F4F-3s, 3 P-38s, 2 SBDs and 2 F4F-3As.

12 B-17s hit Horn Island's airfield doing minor damage. The A6M3s based there were LRCAP at Portland Roads, as expected.

Finally, Tarawa was shock attacked from the landing.

Ground combat at Tarawa (136,128)

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 12339 troops, 189 guns, 186 vehicles, Assault Value = 411

Defending force 2049 troops, 14 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 35

Allied adjusted assault: 594

Japanese adjusted defense: 1

Allied assault odds: 594 to 1 (fort level 2)

Allied forces CAPTURE Tarawa !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender:
Attacker: shock(+), fatigue(-)

Japanese ground losses:
2069 casualties reported
Squads: 56 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 123 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 13 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 17 (17 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 2

Allied ground losses:
193 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 21 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled

Assaulting units:
24th Infantry Division
763rd Tank Battalion

Defending units:
53rd Naval Guard Unit
3rd Naval Construction Battalion

It was a textbook one day operation. The first Allied invasion was a success. It turned out to be overkill landing a division, but that wasn't known ahead of time, and Tarawa can hold 20,000 troops. I plan on staying, so I'm ok with that. It helped that the island wasn't strongly held, and that I know where the enemy carriers are. Followup troops will start to land tonight, so let's hope that Haruna isn't coming this way.

Near Burma, the enemy CVLs are now just southwest of Akyab, along with what looks like a battleship task force. The only reason to have a BB TF there is to bombard, so Chittagong is probably about to be hit again. I can't rule out an enemy landing there. I keep worrying about the possibility, but it hasn't happened yet. I think I'm ready for it.

The graphic shows the risky plan for today. Note that the 2 carriers moving southwest of Tarawa are Lexington and Saratoga, not as shown.

[apbarog]

27 Jun 42

All mines are swept at Luganville and nearby.

Near Tarawa, there are plenty of enemy subs. I-26 and I-20 spots carrier task forces moving from north to southwest of Tarawa, but doesn't see the carriers. Torpedoes were launched at destroyers and missed.

Near Port Moresby, sub Perch fired 2 torpedoes at PB Ichiyu Maru. One hit but was a dud.

At Tarawa, I-20 is spotted by APDs unloading troops. The sub is hit by 2 depth charges and forced to surface. A long gun battle raged on. The sub hit APD Sands with a shell, causing 6 casualties. Many 3 inch shells hit the sub. Audio of a sub sinking was heard later, and it is undoubtedly this sub, with so many shell hits observed.

Sub Searaven fired 2 torpedoes at PB Okuyo Maru near Port Blair. One hit but was a dud. This patrol boat is leading a charmed life. It was hit by a dud torpedo a month ago in the same area.

Near Deboyne Islands, S-40 fired 2 torpedoes at xAK Tsukuba Maru. Both hit and worked. At least we have "S" subs and the Dutch to get some kills. This cargo ship almost surely sank, with audio heard later. S-40 got a kill in February, sinking another xAK near Kolaka.

Chttagong was bombed, doing moderate damage that was all repaired by the end of the day. Enemy CVLs moved west a few hexes, moving away from Akyab a bit.

So what happened to the carrier strike at Kwajalein. Let me explain.

I had a leading ASW task force with 4 destroyers. A carrier TF was set to follow the ASW TF, and the other 2 carrier TFs were to follow the first carrier TF. This setup has worked well for me in the past, giving me some ASW protection and (generally) keeping the carriers together even when they react. Well, my intention was for the ASW TF to move north, which it did, and have 2 carrier TFs follow, which they did not. The reason was I screwed up the settings. The first carrier TF, which previously was following the ASW TF, was correctly set to move south. I forgot that the other 2 carrier TFs were set to follow the first one, which they did. I should have set them to follow the ASW force.

The bottom line is that all carriers went southwest of Tarawa and are spotted. The ASW destroyers went north and were not spotted. As it turned out, a good recon of Kwajalein shows no worthwhile targets there anyhow, so this blunder didn't result in anything good or bad.

All carriers will now retire south to Suva. One British carrier will then go to Sydney to withdraw. I don't expect any enemy air attacks on Tarawa today, as my carriers were still in the area and probably expected to stay there. The airfield is fast approaching level 1, and most shipping will be leaving Tarawa after tomorrow.

My ships are vulnerable at Tarawa today. They are still protected by a strong cruiser force, but battleship Haruna could reappear in the area and cause issues with all of my transports still unloading support troops on Tarawa.

[BBfanboy]

I have been bitten several times by the daisy-chained TF "follow" command. If anything at all goes awry with one of the TFs the chain gets broken and plans fall apart. e.g., if that ASW TF detected a strong enemy TF or air presence, the leader could balk at going on and RTB. Sometimes this will happen even when the routing for the first TF is Direct and Absolute. If possible, I try to just set all the TFs to arrive in the same destination hex, but if I want to have any following I set ALL the TFs to follow the one lead TF.

I am not positive, but the TF#s seem to play into the success with a daisy-chained follow - the game engine conducts movement of TFs in sequence by TF#, and any intervening TF#s not part of the exact chain sequence cause the game to lose track of the follow order. Multiple TFs following one lead TF are handled OK because they are individual, one-link chains instead of multi-links in the same chain.

[apbarog]

Thanks BBfanboy, that makes sense.

In my case, the fault was all mine. The game did what I ordered. I had my carriers following each other, but forgot that when I wanted just one task force to split off. It was the leader of the chain, so they all followed, as ordered.

I don't know what the success rate is for preventing carrier TFs from splitting up when a reaction occurs if all are following an ASW TF. My experience has been good keeping them together when following each other though, with the lead carrier TF following the ASW. From what you've said, though, that can go awry if the ASW TF has a mind of its own doesn't move as ordered. Maybe it would be better to just have the lead carrier TF move to the same destination as the ASW TF, with the other carriers following the first carrier TF. They may get separated from the ASW TF, but that's better than separating from the other carriers.

[apbarog]

OPilot is without power, as are many people in North Carolina. Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida coast, but it still packed a punch all the way up through the Carolinas. The game will wait until power is restored for him.

[apbarog]

Maybe a turn tonight. OPilot reports that he has electricity now, but no internet. He was dedicated enough to go out and find an internet connection somewhere to get the turn, so if he does the same later, I could have a turn tonight.

His area was spared the worst of Hurricane Florence that hit North Carolina, as he lives well inland. He reports that his area got a lot more damage from Hurricane Michael, which landed in Florida.