Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[anarchyintheuk]

Not unless you get it back to Japan.

[John B.]

Thanks!

[John B.]

So there are two fronts now upon which the battle is raging! I've managed to keep my airforce going over Java and brought down a nice batch of Carrier planes. This has the added bonus of the fact that my carrier force is heading to Singapore to regroup and then to try to hold the line in Java for as long as possible.

[John B.]

In Burma, my two IJA divisions are about to make it out alive where they should be better able to recover in the Jungle. Scott is sending 10 more units into Prome (or that's what my recon says) so the Thai division there is not long for this world. Perhaps I should have pulled it back as well, but it's probably too late. I'll fight him in the jungle between Prome and Rangoon as long as possible trusting in the trees to give at least some relief from the bombing. If he wants to push into China I have all sorts of divisions that can slow him down that way.

I have two divisions in Moulmein to help prevent an end run and, given my plan to have the IJN work out of Singapore for the near future that should help prevent any serious RN incursions.

[John B.]

Java is going to be a dog fight. The CAP over Soerebaja has worked well for two days in a row. It's main problem is that it is very vulnerable to shore bombardment. I've got mine fields, midget subs and patrol boats in the way but at some point Scott is going to come in and blast it (fort level is only 4). The longer he takes, however, the closer the KB comes. Right now I'm rotating squadrons between Batavia and Soerebaja to give my really tired boys a rest and to repair some aircraft.

I don't have any real land strength in Java which is my fault. I'm moving a division to Singapore but it's likely to be two weeks before it could get ashore on Java. I'll have to see if the navy can delay him any.

[John B.]

Well, a couple more days have past. I put the CAP back over Soerebaja and his bombers came in before his sweeps and I got a few heavies which is always good to see. Unfortunately, when I moved the Tonys from Batavia I did not put drop tanks on them so my ground crews dutifully loaded them up onto flat cars and sent them by rail. So, now I have 0 tonys ready and I had to ship them back to Batavia where they will compete with the battle damaged squadrons for repair work. This part is not going in my memoirs.

Scott's landings on the southern coast of Java continued but a Dojkarta it looks like the troops got back on the transport as there is nothing left in the hex. I"m not sure what's going on there but I'm happy about that if it's true.

Meanwhile, the KB is slowly gathering in Singapore. It should be all there in two turns. Then, my plan may be fighter sweeps from Batavia over Tjilatjap to clear away some of his CV Cap for his KB off that base and see what my carrier planes can do to him. Soon my pets, very soon!

[John B.]

both of Scott's landings on the south west side of the Island were successful, which is not a great surprise. My fighter squadrons are all in Batavia refitting and the KB is dawdling on its way to Singapore. It should be there this next turn so it will be 2-3 days before we fight. I'm hoping that the IJN can keep the oil fields open as long as possible before Japan is forced to rely on its stockpiles.

[John B.]

Meanwhile, in Burma, Prome fell which is not any great surprise since there was only an RTA division left. That division, hammered from the air, surrendured. I have three IJA divisions in the jungle on the road to Rangoon, with a tank division and two infantry divisions nearby (and two inf. divisions in Moulmein). THe name of the game in Burma is delay delay delay. Until he gets Rangoon he should have some supply problems which will help. Given the road network I can't hold Rangoon for the long term.

[John B.]

There is a major carrier battle brewing at Java. The KB moved out from Singapore last night and is just a couple of hexes south of that base. All told in three CV TFs I have 12 CVs, CVLs and CVEs. There is a BB TF, a CA TF and an ASW TF as well so this is essentially the Japanese navy as we know it today.

[John B.]

As you can see, Scott is keeping the allied ships south Java and my target hex is north of Java so all strikes will be flying over the island. My hope is the my CVs (set to sprint in at full speed) can be at least within a hex or two of the destination. I have many land based fighters from Batavia set to sweep over Dojakarata to wear out his CAP which may well include CAP covering the CVs. That should make it easier for my anti ship strikes to make it through to the CVs. Or, at least, that's the plan.

News at it develops.

[John B.]

So, the results from the first day are in. The KB wound up going to a place I did not plan for which was much further away from Java than I had anticipated. It turned out to be 8 away from the US escort carriers and 9 away from the main US carrier force. As a result, my torpedo planes went after the Escorts and the dive bombers went after the merchant TF. The main US CV TF did not provide any direct participation. They may have had CAP involved, but I was too far away for any US dive bombers or torpedo planes to hit me. How did this work out? Let's see.

[John B.]

First, the bad news. As you can see, my torpedo squadrons took a very heavy blow. And, overall, I lost about 3-1 in the plane category because of this (my total loss for the turn is about 200 planes or so). The US did lose a lot of fighters but still, this was hard.

[John B.]

Was it worth it? Well, I sank a couple of AKs and maybe some AKLs and a DD or two in the dive bomber action. But, at least one of the torpedo attacks made it through. As you can see, this one action had a nice success rate and sank at least on CVE.

[John B.]

More than one CVE may have gone down. As you can see, bad things happened to three of them (I'm not sure if I had a kamikaze in there somewhere). The sinking reports showed two CVEs down but the loss of planes indicate maybe one went down. If his fighters were on CAP they would have landed at US bases. So, my best guess is probably two and maybe three. Killing 2 US CVEs for 100+ Japanese torpedo bombers in 1944? Not great, but I'll take it.

[John B.]

The plan for tomorrow? Given the decimation of my torpedo planes I don't think I have enough to make it through the main CV TF furball, soooo, I'm going to try to reciprocate on his own carrier planes. I'm moving the KB to the indicated patrol zone. While there, it will not only be flying it's own fighters on 80% CAP but I also have about 120 land based fighters providing long range CAP as well. I've set my dive bombers and torpedo planes on land attack so that they won't throw themselves at the US CV TF (or at least I hope that they won't). Let's see if Scott comes out to play.

In the meantime, my CA TF will go bombard the US base adjacent to Soerebaja and the BB TF is moving to Soerebaja. Here I'm also hope to set a CAP trap. I've moved about 120 land based fighters (really, this is an all out effort by Japan) onto the airfield. If he bombs those ships, he'll have another surprise waiting for him. The downside here is that the Soerebaja airfield is pretty beat up so my planes won't last too long there.

News as it develops!

[John B.]

Day two was pretty anti-climactic. I caught some of his medium bombers over Soerebaja which is always nice but that was all that really happened. It does not show on this chart but there were a couple of US carrier fighters and torpedo bombers that died on the ground. Since I did not show any hits for ground bombing I suspect that Scott lost another CVE. So, I may have taken out three of them which would make the first day of this campaign a good Japanese win (200 points for planes vs. 240 points for sunk CVEs).

[John B.]

Day three will see the KB just off of Batavia under a CAP umbrella. I did not see Scott's main carrier force this time and I wonder if it ran away for some supply reason. I've put more fighters into Soerebaja to protect the BB and CA TFs that are there. I'm going to have them bombard the US troops outside of Soerebaja and see if I can shock attack them to cause some US deaths. It looks like there may be a CVE TF that is crippled on the south coast of Java (no other explanation as to why it did not run away along with the other TFs that moved away) so two DDs are going to see if they can get rid of them.

[Bif1961]

It may be 3 CVEs sunk for you 100+ TBs, I guess considering how late in the war it is, early 1944 that is a rather good exchange not counting the other ash and trash you sank or damaged. Considering what Kurita did with the bulk of the Japanese fleet off of Leyte Gulf, you came out farther head.

[John B.]

Bif, I think you're right. It puts me further ahead on VP making it tougher for Scott to win in 1945 but I can build more planes and he can't build more CVEs. Looking at the squadrons there are several on my ships that have no planes but at least some pilots so the nucleus is still there. Now to hold on to Java and the Sumatran oil fields as long as possible!

[John B.]

Wow, turnabout appears to be fair play. Check out the allied plane losses for day three. Scott lost over 100 torpedo bombers and 50 fighters plus lots of dive bombers for almost no loss at all by the Japanese! [X(] I think what happened is that I had a BB and CA TF in Soerebaja and Scott may have thought they would run away. But, they stayed and bombarded the regiments besieging Soerebaja and did not leave. The BB/CA triggered an attack from the main US CV TF and I had a LOT of land based air in Soerebaja that did not get swept away at all. This should help to prolong the battle of Java as his main offensive air arm is going to take awhile to restock.