Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

[Mike Solli]

By the way, I lied when I said that Burma had nothing to report. There was a LOT going on there. I just forgot about it while focusing on the events in SE Fleet AO in the replay. I'll catch you guys up on Burma next installment.

[Mike Solli]

3 Oct 42

Sub War

See the text below.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report - yet.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

From what I pieced together, here's the probable composition of the BB TF:

BB Colorado
BB New Mexico
BB Idaho
BB Maryland
BB South Dakota
BB Pennsylvania
BB Nevada
CA Portland
CLAA Juneau
DD Shaw
DD Conyngham - I think this DD escorted Colorado to safety. I never saw her again.
DMS Warmth
DMS Chandler
DMS Southard
DM Montgomery

Looking at the map now I see where Colorado and an escort went. They headed due west and were just south of Roussel Island 9 hexes from Tulagi. I never realized it was Colorado. My "intel" said it was 2 DDs. I had 3 subs to the west of her, but they never connected.

The action started with the BB TF entering Tulagi harbor. I heard a mine hit and saw later that it was New Mexico. The 3 DMS cleared 8 mines.

Somewhere around this time, I-121 laid her mines in Tulagi, but decided to stick around.

The 6 BBs and 2 cruisers bombarded Tulagi doing massive damage to the base: 84-74-97. In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter. I have no planes there. The troops there are an independent SNLF company (who got away scot free with no damage), a construction battalion (that took a lot of hits in the bombardment) and an AS battalion that took 12% losses and about 10% disabled. In all, I was lucky.

Then the 3 DMS cleared another 58 mines. This was when New Mexico cleared a mine by herself.

Next, in the mayhem of the mine clearing, I-121 launched 4 torpedoes at CLAA Juneau and connected with one, leaving her burning.

In the morning, two flights totaling 23 B-17s bombed Tulagi's harbor. I suspect there wasn't anything left to hit.

Now, the first flight from KB2 arrived. This is where I began to wonder about a mistake I possibly made. After the replay was done, I checked and yep, the Soryu and Shokaku's TBs were set to use bombs. Only Zuikaku launched torpedoes.

Here's the composition:
26 A6M2 - no losses
11 A6M3a - no losses
33 B5N2 - 1 flak loss
25 D3A1 - 4 flak losses

And the results:
BB New Mexico - 5 bombs
BB Idaho - 1 bomb
CLAA Juneau - 2 torpedoes, fD (my code: f=fire, F=heavy fires, d=damage, D=heavy damage)

Afternoon attack:

26 M2 Zeros
11 M3a Zeros
48 Kates
48 Vals - 1 flak loss

Results:

DD Shaw - 1 bomb - f
BB South Dakota - 2 bombs
BB Nevada - 2 bombs
BB Maryland - 6 bombs
BB Idaho - 1 bomb, 2 torpedoes (Yay, Zuikaku!)
BB New Mexico - 10, yes 10 bombs, f

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Here's what's going on in Burma. I have a big army on the front line a hex east of Cox's Bazaar, including and area army HQ, army HQ, 6 divisions and about a dozen artillery units. The problem is that I can't keep them supplied. The only ports that are supporting them are Cox's Bazaar and Akyab, both level 1 ports. There's a constant stream of small cargo and fast transport TF (all under 6k tonnage) trying to support them, but it's not working. I'm pulling about half of the army back to Cox's Bazaar because I'm getting messages that certain units are isolated with no supply. Anyway, about a week or more ago, I loaded up multiple convoys from areas that have lots of supply and shipping to send there. The total was 90k supply. Naval support is enroute to both bases to support offloading. Engineers are headed to Akyab to build up that port once supply begins to arrive, in a couple weeks. So, that is my problem but Ted has been making it worse. He occasionally sends 2 British BBs, the Royal Sovereign and Valiant to bombard Cox's Bazaar and clean out any shipping I have there. I've been on the hunt for them for a long time. I thought they were hiding in Madras, but I found out about a week ago that they were hiding in Diamond Harbor. So, I sent MKB up to give them a warm welcome. The problem with MKB is that it really doesn't have much staying power. The tiny carriers carry few torpedoes and some have few sorties, especially Ryujo. So, guess when they arrived (undetected, I might add)? Yep, today. So, there were two major operations on opposite sides of the globe at the same time.

Here's MKB's carriers (all the Kates are the B5N1 variety):

CV Junyo - 27 Zeros, 18 Vals, 9 Kates, 18 torpedoes
CV Hiyo - 27 Zeros, 18 Vals, 9 Kates, 18 torpedoes
CVL Ryujo - 36 Zeros, 12 Kates, 27 torpedoes
CVL Shoho - 21 Zeros, 9 Kates, 18 torpedoes
CVL Zuiho - 21 Zeros, 9 Kates, 18 torpedoes
CVE Hosho - 14 Zeros, 6 Kates, 6 torpedoes

Their launch point was 5 hexes SW of Diamond Harbor. That was a mistake that will make itself clear later. At least I had them launch torpedoes.

Morning Diamond Harbor attack:

51 Zeros
25 Kates - 1 flak loss
9 Vals - 2 flak losses

Result:

BB Royal Sovereign - 2 torpedoes
BB Valiant - 1 bomb

Here's the mistake. I was 5 hexes from Diamond Harbor but everything had a 6 hex range. This next attack launched against Calcutta.

Morning Calcutta Attack:

7 Zeros
9 Vals

Results:

xAKL Agnes - 3 bombs - FD, she later sank
xAKL Bust (great name ) - 2 bombs and sunk

Afternoon Diamond Harbor attack:

47 Zeros
51 Kates - 3 flak losses
16 Vals - 1 flak loss

Results:

BB Royal Sovereign - 3 bombs, 4 torpedoes - D
BB Valiant - 3 bombs, 1 torpedo - f
CL Caradoc - 2 torpedoes - sunk - never heard of this CL before.
CA Cornwall - 1 bomb

Afternoon Calcutta attack:

11 Zeros
18 Vals

Results:

xAKL Hermelin - 6 bombs - sunk
xAKL Ardent - 6 bombs - sunk
xAKL Chaksang - 1 bomb - F

China

The Zero sweep over Chungking shot down 3 of 4 P-66s. Bombing later destroyed another on the ground. (The fighters can't have all the fun.)

The 2 Chinese units on the road south of Kweiyang were attacked by 116 Division supported by two artillery regiments and trashed and pushed out of the hex to the east. 116 Division will follow them and the arty will move to the main army at Kweiyang.

Other Stuff

So, that was my day. Let's see what tomorrow brings!