Banzais Don't Make Victories - Anachro (A) vs John 3rd (J) BTS 5.7

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

The combat report would show 2 destroyed on ground then. It only said 1 if you look back up at image.

[&:] Not sure what you are looking at? In the aircraft losses you posted I see two Jakes as ground losses.

[Anachro]

No, the combat report.

[BBfanboy]

OK - on the same page now. Not sure what to think but I am not convinced Sendai went down without showing heavy damage or heavy fires. Qué sera, sera!

[Anachro]

March 3rd, 1943

Landings at Wake Island on the morrow, barring unanticipated action by John. He spotted my forces last turn and this turn we spot a heavy battlecruiser fleet (with a CS and CLAA) on the way to intercept from Saipan. The 3rd Marine division and other forces are involved; based on recon of Wake we should have enough to take the island with our initial landings and then will pull back to regroup and avoid anything coming for me. In the area, I have 3 British CVs, 4 CVEs, as well as 6 US CVs and 2 CVLs in the north coming down (as seen in photo). As soon as Wake is taken, a PBYs will fly in to give me better search of the surrounding area.

I suspect John has some carriers coming. His CVEs are at Darwin.

[Anachro]

March 4th, 1943

Wake Island falls, as expected, on the first day (though we take more casualties than we would have liked. Once we are sure the area is clear, we will begin loading back up some of our assault units, as well as offloading our coming base units. Unfortunately, a single Japanese submarine successfully torpedoes one of my good CVEs twice; and another Bristol-class DD is lost to a torpedo as well. The CVE is still afloat for now, but very heavily damaged with very little movement ability. I suppose I could put it in port at Wake to do some emergency repairs (bringing its float damage down from 80 to the major damage of 53 would definitely help), but Wake is in range of John's bombers and he has ships lost spotted moving east from Saipan; they could bombard the place (I will be placing a lot of mines down this turn, however).



What are your thoughts? I could, of course, provide cover with my CVs and such, but John will see them and they will be sitting ducks for any carriers of his I can't see moving this way, as well as subject to attacks from his very effective submarines. John should have forces not too far away to the west. I will, of course,be placing down some nav search this turn. We'll see what John plans; he seems to have spent a lot of time on this turn.

Wake is nice in that it makes him more cognizant of a threat through CenPac, even if I have no attacks planned there. He will be more focused on defending it. Moreover, it gives me greater recon capabilities into the Japanese controlled Central Pacific. The 3rd Marine Division took a bit of a beating, however. I am happy to report no AMC or AP losses (which will promptly be heading back to PH to become APAs).

[Anachro]

My battleships did a very nice job silencing Wake's coastal defensive batteries. They were pretty ineffective after the initial forays near the island's coast. So far, though damaged, no DMS ships have been lost; no combat ships other than a DD (though once CVE might be added soon. John probably has forces lurking nearby. Here's to hoping my combined carriers that he has spotted will persuade him to not get too close.

[Anachro]

Here is the damage of CVE Sangamon. You can see the major damage; 1 or two days at Wake might bring that down to where her rescue is more manageable.

[Uncivil Engineer]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

Here is the damage of CVE Sangamon. You can see the major damage; 1 or two days at Wake might bring that down to where her rescue is more manageable.

Even if you can repair 1 float point per day at Wake, which I think unlikely, the CVE will be there a month. But, at 83 flotation damage you really don't have much choice. IMO

[Bif1961]

You can offload the planes at least at Wake and save them and their pilots. The other problem is the over stacked wake which has a maximum of 6,000 troops and you have 12,000+ there. Did you bring enough supplies to have them over stacked if John prowls around fro a week or two looking for targets like your wounded CVE?

[Anachro]

@Bif I already plan to offload the planes, as well as fly in PBYs for recon. Overstacking really isn't as much of a problem as you might think. Supplies will be low for a little bit, but I am planning to extract the 3rd Marine Division (and others) ASAP. If John wants to linger around burning much-needed fuel for a week, all the better. Most of my forces will flee back today to safety, with my minelayers leaving 400 mines behind.

@UncivilEngineer Regarding damage, I'm am not 100 sure, but there is a big difference between major and non major damage (here CVE Sangamon has 83 flood damage, but only 55 is major). I have seen ships lose all of their non-major damage in a matter of days, even in dot hexes with no support. Major damage, of course, will need to go back to shipyards for repairs. I'm hoping I can do something similar here.

[Canoerebel]

I don't think you'll be able to move Sangamon for weeks or longer. Better be prepared to keep her in port - she's safer there, despite the risks, than hazarding enemy subs. John's good with his subs. If you can (eventually) bring in support ships and nav support, eventually she'll be good to go. But laying low until John is focused elsewhere might be your best shot at saving the ship.

Overstacking really doesn't seem to be an issue until you reach 3x.

[Anachro]

I am close to the 3x however. We will remove troops ASAP. I'm thankful I converted all I could to APDs for fast transport purposes, to supply and offload. Here is the Northern Australian situation. In the past week, we have taken both Tennant Creek and Normanton.

[Anachro]

VP Situation

[Anachro]

March 6th, 1943

I don't think CVE Sangamon is long for this world, because as expected John bombs Wake and gets two hits on her, bringing her float damage up to 88 and fires are now ~30. Unfortunately, I don't have the supplies or base units in place to get fighters in working order. I would have stuck around a bit to provide LRCAP with my carriers to Wake, but I was suspecting John would arrive with carriers or ships of some sort and he would have the advantage of surprise due to superior recon. I was correct and I spot two Japanese carrier task forces heading southeast currently just south of Eniwetok. They seem to be on a course where John might attempt to hit my units as they head back to Pearl. For now, my units will continue heading back to Pearl and will hopefully be out of recon range next turn or the turn after. Meanwhile, my carriers will move northeast of Wake to provide some LRCAP and will be refueled by two AO task forces.



We get a little bit of revenge for our most-likely dead CVE by torpedoing a Japanese CVE in the Dutch East Indies. Unfortunately, our one torpedo (this time a 21in Mk14 from a Gato-class SS) doesn't seem to do much damage. We can only hope the CVE suffers another sub attack over the coming turns.

[Anachro]

Mines at Wake sank a C1 class submarine, which is nice.

[Anachro]

Forgot to get pics, but John's carriers moved up as mine moved back towards Wake. Still too far away from each other (I think it was 12-13 hexes away). Sadly, I only managed a paltry CAP of 5 Wildcats thats nonetheless performed well against John's planes; he lost of a few crack pilots hopefully. CVE Sangamon took too much damage from John's port strikes, so I have scuttled her. Interestingly, John's carriers are still using Zeroes.

Afternoon Air attack on Wake Island , at 136,98

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 113 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 29 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Sen Baku x 18
A6M5 Zero x 66
A6M5a Zero x 7
B5N2 Kate x 42
B6N1 Jill x 24
D4Y1 Judy x 77

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5a Zero: 1 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 1 damaged
D4Y1 Judy: 5 damaged
D4Y1 Judy: 1 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 damaged

Allied Ships
CVE Sangamon, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage

Runway hits 1
Port hits 2

[Canoerebel]

You've managed to take Wake fairly early against an experienced and aggressive foe at low cost. Good job.

[Anachro]

Thanks. I have other operations happening "soon." With the Wake Island operation done (we are in the stages of providing cover with USN carriers while transports bring in supplies/base units and extract combat troops), our Illustrious-class British carriers go into port for much needed upgrades and refits. These ones are extensive (75 days or 2.5 months) and at first I thought it was simply because they were getting a significant AA upgrade and better radar, which seemed a bit costly for the days stuck in port. Then, I noticed that the upgrade increases a/c capacity from 33 to 54, which is nice...

[Bif1961]

Yes turns them from heavily armed and armored CVLs to Medium CVs.

[Anachro]

@Bif Yup, and we are happy to resize for many more fighters for CAP/Escort (can never have enough). The big bottleneck for this in game/in this mos is the very lackluster production of British carrier-capable planes at the moment.

March 13th, 1943

Perhaps you can guess a soon-to-be target for amphibious landings. For the past 2 months, we have continuously bombarded Ceylon and every single one of its airfields sits at ~100 airfield/runway damage, or they are close to it. This turn, we decide to hit Koggala, as we haven't in awhile and the results are good. John, perhaps seeing no attacks/recon there for a while and thinking he could slip them in without notice, put in some Jacks for future surprise cap trap use and didn't have them providing any sort of protection for the base. In a number of bombing runs, 36 J2M2 Jacks are destroyed on the ground.

Afternoon Air attack on Koggala , at 29,50

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 24 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 8 minutes

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
Liberator II x 3
B-17E Fortress x 3
B-17F Fortress x 13
B-24D Liberator x 17
B-24D1 Liberator x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
J2M2 Jack: 16 destroyed on ground
Ki-61-Ia Tony: 3 destroyed on ground

No Allied losses

Airbase hits 6
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 37

Meanwhile, supplies and base units have gotten to Wake Island, so it finally can field some independent CAP defense. Our carriers providing cover will move back to Pearl for rest and refit, not wanting to stick around detected for too long to be surprised by sudden Japanese carriers. We have a number of LST's and AKs there (as well as APDs), but we'll have to brave it and hope his carriers don't appear next turn. All we need is one more day to relieve the island of its overstacked forces. For now, we have working PBY's at Wake with a range of 17; none have detected nearby enemy naval ships.