There's a few ships in the Allied arsenal that are my favorites. I've
talked about the voyage of ARD Dewey, so that's become a favorite of
mine. Another is CM Abdiel, the ship just lost at Kusaie Island.
Abdiel can do 37 knots, and is one of the fastest ships on the seas. It
can move 11 hexes per phase a full speed, allowing it to go into areas
of enemy air coverage and get back out by daylight. It's a minelayer,
but can also carry troops. It's rather unique in the Allied navy.
Interesting real history and how it was lost. Here's the wiki link on
the ship:
More enemy troops on Luzon. Enemy artillery attacks show a division at Manila and 2 regiments with a tank regiment and artillery at Clark. SigInt says that the Botanko Heavy Gun Regiment is on a ship and headed to Batangas, just south of Manila. I have a US sub speeding there to lay some mines in a few days. This gun unit starts in Manchuria.
Adak airfield became a level 1 today. I'm sure that got OPilot's attention. When Umnak did so, enemy subs appeared.
Nauru's airfield is 27% of the way to level 1, gaining about 13% per day. Kusaie is at 5%, with 3040 supply there.
No, there was no carrier battle today either. And I'm perfectly happy about that. The Allied armada will continue south. I'll try to get the fragments, some substantial, to Kusaie and Nauru when I can, but getting supply there is more important.
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So you were fortunate since your carriers were divided and the battle didn't happen. You did take some losses to your fighters and hopefully you will have enough to fend off any attacks he might launch on the morrow as he has the range on you and may be able to strike from a distance that you can not counter-attack.
Welcome tolsdorff. Everyone likes to see a good carrier battle, but the feelings are different when they are your ships. I'd still accept a fight should the enemy pursue further, but I'm not looking for a fight. I'm looking to shepherding all of my other ships to safety. Many transports still have men loaded on them.
23 Jul 42
Same old enemy bombing in China and Luzon and at Bandoeng.
The enemy Australian base at Portland Roads is now a size 1 port and airfield.
20 Bettys from Truk hit troops on Kusaie Island. Once there is an airfield, that will be the target.
An enemy tank regiment shock attacks at Bayombang, north of Manila. Combat values are similar but the tanks do all of the damage and take no losses. No supply for the Philippine unit. Multiple enemy units are spotted south of Manila, having just landed. SigInt warned of this yesterday. My sub with mines is still a day away, so it will mine the base to the west that ships may go through on the way out.
We almost had that big carrier battle, again.
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The forum can be like a school yard when we hear there might be a carrier battle in the offing chants of fight, fight ring out and we gather in a circle to watch the carnage in which we actually have no part. it is like watching NASCAR for the crashes.
Although I would have loved to see a carrier clash, don't worry about those of us in the peanut gallery.
I'd suggest building the AF and port at Kusaie up to about .9 and not hit 1 until you are ready to defend the base from Betties. You could build forts in the meantime.
D/L on my carriers was fairly high. 6/9, 5/7, a range of levels on other task forces. Most task forces were spotted. There was overcast weather over Allied and enemy carriers.
It's possible that OPilot had his bombers limited to a range less than 8. It's also possible that he has them all in one task force, and because of issues with coordination, nothing flew. I know that it can happen. Long ago, I was the Japanese player and I was chasing a couple of US carriers near Timor very early in the war. KB was still intact from Pearl Harbor. For 3 days, I followed single US carriers and was within range, in good weather, and nothing flew. Finally my opponent told me what may be happening. I reformed into multiple task forces and finished off the fleeing US carriers. So it's not likely, but it is possible.
Dutch sub KX is patrolling the turn by Milne Bay. It spotted destroyers Yugure and Yukaze, which were involved in the recent cruiser run into Port Moresby. The sub fired 4 torpedoes at Yugure and one hit, causing heavy damage. Sinking audio was heard immediately after combat. KX is putting together a good career. It hit CVL Ryujo early in the war, and sank an xAK near Milne Bay 12 days ago.
Later in the night, S-47 spotted Yukaze moving alone and smoking, but missed it with 2 torpedoes near Gasmata.
Bettys from Roi Namur with Zeros hit troops on Kusaie Island.
Damaged carrier Hermes is leaving Noumea today, headed to Sydney for repairs. It was barely saved from its damage south of Shortlands. It is currently SYS 41/FLOT 47/ENG 9/FIRE 0. Much better than the damage in the 80's when it was headed towards Koumac.
The Allied carriers get a bit offensive today, and will leave the armada headed south. If OPilot is tempted by the shipping at Tabiteuea, thinking that the Allied carriers are far to the west, we may have a big battle today.
Thanks DOCUP. Hopefully we're putting OPilot on the defensive. The sooner that happens, the better. Even if Kusaie becomes an island too far, if it keeps his attention for months instead of Ndeni or Luganville or Tabiteuea, that's good.
I have plans for Ocean Island very soon. Preparations are ongoing for Lunga and Tulagi, as well as Milne Bay and nearby islands. These won't be soon but prepping takes time. My plan is to be continue flanking Kwajalein from the west. I may retake Wake Island to flank from the north. I'll let Portland Roads become a prisoner of war camp while I take Milne Bay and Horn Island. Port Moresby will probably not be attacked directly, but isolated with a move north from Milne Bay on the east coast of New Guinea. I'd like to take Ponape and threaten Truk. If Truk is taken, all the enemy south in the Solomons are irrelevant and isolated. A jump from Truk to the east coast of New Guinea seals the deal.
This is long term thinking though. Let's see if we have a carrier battle today.
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In the long war, there's usually only few times when all of the big carriers go up against each other. Today was one of those times.
First, Allied cruisers move north from Townsville and run over RO-64, which is hit by a depth charge. The task force stops near Cairns, in range of a bombardment of Portland Roads, should I choose to continue on without surprise. The ships were not attacked by air from Port Moresby. I've only watched the replay, not gone into the turn yet. OPilot is out of town until Saturday or Sunday, so I'll be taking my time doing this turn.
Hiei, Kirishima and Yamato and escorts go to Tarawa and sink the 2 PT boats there. It would have been beneficial for the enemy to have them stay with the carriers. Or steam right into Tabiteuea and engage the many transports unloading there. Either way, they may have absorbed some of the carrier strikes upcoming.
Instead, they then bombard Tarawa. It's a decent bombardment but not nuclear. The 3rd Marine Defense Battalion guns fired back at the battleships but were silenced before the cruisers engaged.
Night Naval bombardment of Tarawa at 136,128 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
Assaulting units:
2nd Engineer Regiment
21st Division
24th Infantry Regiment
2nd Tank Regiment
16th Infantry Regiment
1st Ind Engineer Regiment
23rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Field Artillery Regiment
Defending units:
4th Marine Regiment
57th PS Infantry Regiment
192nd Tank Battalion
26th PS Cavalry Regiment
194th Tank Battalion
301st Construction Battalion
1st Constabulary Regiment
Far East USAAF
86th PS Field Artillery Battalion
200th & 515th Coast AA Regiment
Clark Field AAF Base Force
II/Prov'nl SPM Grp
24th PS FA Regiment
I/Prov'nl SPM Grp
35th Avn Sup
!/23rd PS FA Battalion
88th PS Field Artillery Regiment
I Corps
III/Prov'nl SPM Grp
Enemy carriers moved south to a point 4 hexes north of Tabiteuea. Allied carriers moved to the hex just west of Tabiteuea. The massive fight takes place with carrier task forces 4 hexes apart, and there is no reaction.
No strikes in the morning. The enemy strikes first in the afternoon.
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Tabiteuea at 136,134
Weather in hex: Heavy rain
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 34 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 70
B5N2 Kate x 101
D3A1 Val x 133
D3A2 Val x 19
Allied aircraft
Martlet II x 14
P-39D Airacobra x 7
P-40E Warhawk x 9
F4F-3 Wildcat x 55
F4F-4 Wildcat x 120
Allied Ships
CV Wasp
CV Formidable, Bomb hits 1 (bounced)
CV Hornet
CV Illustrious
CV Saratoga, Bomb hits 3, on fire
BB North Carolina, Bomb hits 3 (bounced)
CV Lexington, Bomb hits 3
CL Phoenix
CL Mauritius
BB Prince of Wales
CL Honolulu
CL St. Louis
CA Indianapolis
CLAA San Juan
About half of the Zeros engaged before the Allied fighters tore into the bombers. 63 Kates drop torpedoes. All miss. 83 Vals bomb.
Then it was the US and British time to strike.
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Abemama at 137,130
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 31 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 76
Allied aircraft
Albacore I x 6
Martlet II x 9
Swordfish I x 12
SBD-3 Dauntless x 216
TBF-1 Avenger x 15
Japanese Ships
BB Haruna, Bomb hits 6, on fire
CV Hiyo, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires (fuel storage explosion)
CV Kaga, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CV Hiryu, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CV Soryu, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
CV Shokaku, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
CV Akagi, Bomb hits 3, on fire
DD Shiranui
DD Urakaze
DD Isokaze, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
DD Tanikaze
DD Kagero
DD Hamakaze
Yes, the big Allied strike went with just 9 Martlets escorting. Can't explain that one. Multiple US fighter squadrons were set for the same altitude but this is what happened. I will check the settings when I do the turn, but I triple-checked them before sending this turn. Lots of needless aircraft losses, and still the SBDs did well. 13 TBFs dropped torpdoes and all missed. 5 Swordfish and 5 Albacores dropped torpedoes and all missed. No torpedo hits for either side. 179 SBDs dropped bombs.
15 TBFs then went it alone and were all shot down by 64 Zeros. 6 Albacores then tried with similar results.
Wow. Watching the replay with a big battle like this is just awesome. How long will the defensive CAP engage before exposing the bombers? What? I only sent 9 fighters to escort over 200 bombers? Like I said, in a war that literally takes years to play, fights this big are rare and can be decisive. This one was not. The enemy carriers are certainly hurting more than the Allies', but all may survive. With heavy fires, though, it's possible that 3 could be lost. There's a range of outcomes still possible.
What I do know is that the Allied carriers are in good shape. Here's the status (SYS/FLOT/ENG/FIRE):
Lexington 11/0/3/0
Saratoga 17/9-6/8/1
Formidable 2/0/1/0
North Carolina 2/0/1-1/0
I took more damage from the high speed run to get into position. Light cruiser Phoenix is 11/0/4-3/0.
I'm happy with this result. I'd be more happy if more fighters had flown escort. I need to check the actual aircraft losses for the day to see just how bad it was, for both sides. The Allied carriers were in heavy rain. The enemy was in overcast. That may have helped too. The Allies also benefited from having some land based fighters helping cover, as planned.
The complication that I have is that fuel for my carrier task forces is low. Maybe critically low. I needed to run full speed to get to Tabiteuea, and knew that I was draining the fuel quickly. It is mandatory that the carriers take fuel from AOs to get to any safe base. I had 2 replenishment groups to the south of Tabiteuea. I'll have to figure out where to refuel, but I'm sure that it has to be done. The fuel situation could be so bad that I have to refuel in place. I'll know when I check the turn.
Quite a battle. If the enemy battleships that bombarded Tarawa had continued with the carriers, more bombs would have bounced off them, saving the carriers from some hits. I expect to hear that OPilot did not think my carriers would change direction and charge to Tabiteuea.
I'll detail the aircraft losses and probably do another region by region update in the next few days.
I'd say that was a victory just in terms of aircraft losses. Very well done on the CAP. If you don't mind my asking, what kind of CAP settings did you use (i.e. % on CAP and altitude)?
Interesting! I'm noting that the bigger boys receive more hits than the others, on the Allied side. It's impossible to say without seeing the actual replay how many times each ship was attacked, but it seems that the huge Lexington-class carriers and BB North Carolina were acting as bomb magnets. I wonder if ship's tonnage has anything to do with this.
And yeah, that CAP! And, probably, IJN pilot skills? Weather? 320 a/c alpha strike that deals so little damage... I don't know how to call that but it's definitely a huge luck.
I wonder if the Japanese will send their big BBs to try to hit your carriers. Their strike aircraft took so many losses that I don't think they could sensibly risk another day of a carrier battle.
My rule-of-thumb approximation is that half the damaged aircraft will become Ops losses, so the IJN lost about 25% of the Kates and 40% of the Vals.
But the most significant thing is that all those torpedo bombers whiffed! The Japanese rely heavily on torpedo hits to balance out the small bombs that the Vals carry. He has to be thinking "WTF happened?". Perhaps the flak losses by the Japanese indicate why they had no luck in spite of the weak CAP. You must have had some cracker jack ship captains too!
No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
Since you are low in fuel it looks like this carrier battle is over in your favor. You are right to suspect 0-3 of his carriers will go down but since the Hiyo is a converted vessel and not as strong as a keel up built carrier, I would say with the fuel storage explosion it is a goner, so more like 1-3 sunk. However, what this does do, it allows you, with some minor damage repair, to continue the next phase of your offensive while a major portion of his carriers will be in the yards. As carrier engagements go this was a clear victory on your part and even more so since it happened in mid-1942 when he has all the advantages except RADAR. The good news is you didn't sink the majority of his carriers and possibly make him want to surrender, that is always the risk of an early Allied massive carrier victory.
The good news is you didn't sink the majority of his carriers and possibly make him want to surrender, that is always the risk of an early Allied massive carrier victory.
Heh. I understand your point but that is an ironic aspect to the psychology of the game.
Yes it is the opposite side of entering or leaving a tunnel. The Japanese start near their zenith and so they are nearing entering a tunnel. If they lose many of their carriers early on, with few replacements then it is like he has been sent warp speed into the tunnel too soon. The Japanese player tries to avoid as long as possible, the eventual reversal of fortune and the Allied counter-offensive starts with an ever increasing death star staring him in the face. For the Allies they start in the tunnel looking at the small speck of light at the other end and if they lose a carrier battle early on the speck stays far away but if they win one they move closer to the end of the tunnel and the speck grows with each success or additional resources to his growing power. Psychology has always been a very important aspect of war, and many times the most critical.
All Allied fighters were set for CAP were set for 60% and range 1, covering the carriers and Tabiteuea. All strike bombers and escorts were set for 10k altitude. Only 9 Martlets flew escort.
Lexington 36 F4F-4 CAP 15k
Lexington 18 F4F-3A Escort 10k Did not fly
Saratoga 36 F4F-4 CAP 11k
Yorktown 36 F4F-4 CAP 16k
Yorktown 18 F4F-3 Escort 10k Did not fly
Enterprise 36 F4F-3 CAP 15k
Hornet 36 F4F-3 CAP 14k
Hornet 18 F4F-3 Escort 10k Did not fly
Wasp 36 F4F-4 CAP 12k
Illustrious 9 Martlets Escort 10k
Formidable 19 Martlets CAP 6k
From Tabiteuea:
25 P-40E CAP 15k
25 P-40E CAP 17k
25 P-39D CAP 11k
25 P-39D CAP 9k
Both the Allied strike and the Japanese strike were detected at 80nm.
If I could do things differently, I would not have assigned Martlets to escort. I'm speculating that the Martlets are too dissimilar to the US fighters, lowering the chances of a coordinated escort. Just a guess. I haven't analysed the aircraft details.
I checked the Allied carrier task forces. They are low on fuel, but not critically low. They can all go south to refuel around the Funafuti area. I will run them south along with the shipping at Tabiteuea. There's a decent chance that OPilot sends in battleships from the carrier task forces, looking for my carriers and/or transports.
