June 24, 1942
Holy smokes! We’ve got trouble in paradise! Or at least as close to paradise as an underdeveloped, hot, humid, fetid malaria pit of a South Pacific island can get.
Today is actually pretty uneventful in terms of actual combat. The only action is a sweep over Port Moresby by the Rufes from Dobadura, who, amazingly, don’t do any damage (since there’s nothing for them to hit). But the sighting reports indicate that there’s plenty of action on tap for tomorrow.
First, I-1 is still hanging around at Townsville. My hunter killer group is now on station, but doesn’t get any action today. They’ll have a full day tomorrow to try to draw an attack.
A coastwatcher reports sighting a couple of IJN carriers at Shortland Island. That makes sense given their last known position. It’s also a key piece of intelligence I need to keep in the back of my head, because….
…one of my PBYs spots an IJN surface task force about 180 miles north of Luganville. The initial report indicated a battleship and at least three destroyers, however, on the map it’s showing as 5 CAs, 1 CL, and 3 DDs.
Given the focus of the Lunga air force’s recent attentions, I’m guessing that what I’m seeing is a bombardment task force en route to Luganville. This prompts a flurry of reactions on my part.
First, the oilers in port at Luganville are ordered to haul anchor, and then haul a$$ for Efate. I don’t need IJN cruisers lobbing shells at a port filled with giant floating bombs. The destroyer squadron heading for Luganville from Noumea is ordered to follow the oilers to Efate. I briefly thought about sending them in to Luganville to oppose the bombardment, but they’d just get maimed, and all I could hope for would be a couple of lucky torpedo hits. So I’ll get them out of harm’s way, instead. My smaller escorts are already heading for Noumea because when I split them out of the replenishment task force, I stupidly forgot to set them to Patrol/Do Not React. However, their impromptu retirement at least gets them out of the combat zone.
Next, every airplane at Luganville except the P-39s is relocated to Efate, which is also reinforced by an A-20 squadron flown up from Noumea. The PBYs are set on 100% Naval Search, the Marauders and Havocs are set to Naval Attack at 3,000 feet, and the Wildcats are ordered to stand down (several planes were damaged during the transfer). The P-39s are set to Naval Attack at 100 feet. I’m hoping that the airfield will still be operable tomorrow and the P-39s can strafe any ships attempting to leave the area.
As it happens, I also have two S-boats parked at Luganville repairing system damage. This is convenient. They’re both ordered to put to sea. One will stay in the Luganville port hex, the other will move one hex west. This should get the boat into position to intercept the raiders as they come in, and at the very least it’ll be able to take a parting shot at them as they go.
Finally, my self-imposed vow to keep my carriers out of harm’s way lasts all of one crisis. Hornet and Enterprise are formed into an air combat task force, covered by every available cruiser and destroyer (thank goodness that surface group showed up today—I needed those ships badly!), and sent screaming north from Noumea. Raymond Spruance is at the controls, and I throw caution completely to the wind and turn react on for the task force. All Dauntlesses and Devastators are set to naval attack, and the Dauntlesses are ordered to high altitude—I want to inflict maximum damage on the ships my boys target. I’ll be holding a very heavy CAP over the carriers, so if there’s a flattop in that group that I didn’t spot, my bombers are going to get it in the neck.
Now, I’m willing to be a little stupid, but not totally so. This is a one-day foray only. Whatever damage my pilots inflict tomorrow will have to do. If the Japanese retreat, realizing they’ve been spotted, I’m not going to chase them. And I’m going to repeat this 500 times just in case it doesn’t sink in the first time. It’s a pity the Japanese couldn’t have waited two days longer—I could’ve used Saratoga along for the ride—and for a little added peace of mind.
Routine life does go on today. My seaplane tenders make it back to Noumea and are sent back to Pearl Harbor. Lexington’s floatation damage is now under 20 for the first time since the Coral Sea engagement, and dropping fast. In one or two days, tops, her float damage should be completely gone.
Keeping my fingers crossed while waiting for the next turn……
June 25, 1942
Well, I’m not sure what to think now. The Japanese task force I sighted north of Luganville yesterday has disappeared without a trace. Maybe they realized they’d been spotted and feared sailing into a trap, or maybe my PBY pilot spotted a ghost.
I’m not sending my CVs north to look for them. They’re ordered to fall back on Noumea, and the replenishment task force (now escorted by the destroyers at Efate) will head back to Luganville. I’ll keep up a heavy air search for a couple more days until I’m sure the threat has passed.
The Japanese are still flying fighter sweeps over Port Moresby and Marilinan. Few square yards of these abandoned bases are now free of bullet holes from these relentless hawks. Small animal life throughout New Guinea trembles at the sound of their approach. My troops, however, don’t, as they’re all sunning themselves in Australia.
My sub hunters at Townsville succeed in drawing an attack from I-1. It launches a torpedo spread at subchaser 517. The torpedoes miss, but my hunters are unable to locate the sub, so it escapes from harm….
…until a couple of hours later, when a patrolling Dauntless drops a 500-pound bomb directly onto its conning tower as her captain frantically orders a crash dive! It’s too late, and the I-1, bane of my existence for more than two weeks, finally sleeps with the fishes. That’s the second sub I’ve killed in the last week, and the first one to have fallen victim to air attack.
I-1’s timely demise frees up my warships for other tasks. The destroyers and PGs are ordered to Cairns, where they’ll be escorting Lexington (whose floatation damage is now down into single digits—yes!) when she leaves port in a couple of days. The subchasers are directed to return to Brisbane via Rockhampton for convoy escort duties.
That’s it for today—just trying to unwind after yesterday’s panic. I’m still curious to see whether those Japanese ships I (perhaps) spotted yesterday decide to turn around and head south again. This is why PBEM is so much more fun than playing the AI…the computer just can’t replicate the unpredictability of a human opponent.
The Battle of Ohio--Buckeye5 (Allies) vs. Marcgto (IJN) - Scen 17
June 26-27, 1942
June 26, 1942
The return of the replenishment task force to Luganville brings another IJN submarine attack. This time the victim is the oiler Cimarron, forced to go into port with heavy damage after taking a single torpedo strike. The destroyers screening the oilers search vigorously—the Dale and the Mugford each fire depth charges, in fact—but no hits on the I-28 are reported. I again order the oilers into port to finish offloading, while the destroyers are formed into a surface combat task force and ordered to hunt subs in and around Luganville. They’re going to be busy—a patrolling PBY drops depth charges on a sub identified as the I-22, so it appears there may in fact be a pair of Japanese boats in the area. Is the second one there to lay a minefield, perhaps?
The Japanese high command must not yet recognize that Port Moresby is empty, as the Rufes from Dobadura launch yet another sweep mission. His pilots may be gaining experience, but don’t you think sooner or later one of the pilots might point out to his commander that they haven’t spotted a single person on the ground during any of these raids?
Near the end of the day, the Japanese air force makes yet another raid upon Luganville. A strike of 12 Nells and 19 Betties, with 20 Zeroes flying cover, scores two hits on the airbase, one on the airbase supplies, and four hits on the runway from 10,000 feet. A single Betty is hit by flak, but manages to make it home. This is easily the biggest raid on Luganville yet, but as long as they’re staying high to avoid flak, the damage should continue to be minimal.
Saratoga and her escorts have arrived in the theater, along with a new S-boat, which is promptly ordered north. The Sara will remain in Noumea harbor, awaiting the return of Hornet and Enterprise (about 60 miles to the north).
In Australia, Lexington’s floatation damage has finally been repaired, and escorts have reached her location. The destroyer Anderson is ordered to accompany her as she begins to move south for Rockhampton. It’ll be a long trip, but I’m confident she’ll make it. Once she’s had a chance to rest in Rockhampton for a bit, I’ll send her on the run to Noumea.
About the only other thing I do this turn is order some of the aircraft that had relocated to Efate to return to Luganville. I quickly put a stop to this, though, as the first squadron to make the transfer (one of my PBY patrol squadrons) loses an aircraft in bad weather during transit, and I don’t want to risk losing more planes by ordering additional squadrons to make the move.
June 27, 1942
Goodness! Just when you think the situation’s stabilizing, something happens to upset the apple cart again.
Today opens with another raid by the Lunga air force—but today’s target is Efate Port Vila, not Luganville. Nine Nells and 19 Betties drop bombs on the base from 10,000 feet. Again my grounded Marauders are the target—one is destroyed and another damaged. The airbase and runway are also hit three times each, although this damage is quickly repaired. At least today the Japanese pay the price for flying in thunderstorms, as three of the strike’s bombers (1 Nell, 2 Betties) fail to return to Lunga
Of far more interest, however, is a pair of sightings made by my spotter planes to the north of Australia. Another IJN submarine is heading for the coast of Australia. This is a bit annoying, but to be expected. However, hot on the heels of the submarine is a surface task force of IJN destroyers! My spotter planes count at least ten DDs in this group. This may be an attempt to finish off Lexington before she can get too far south. However, to do that, the Japanese have to enter LBA range of Australia, and strikes from Cooktown and Cairns go out to meet them.
The first strike, 15 Beauforts and 14 A-24 Dauntlesses escorted by 13 P-39s, flies from Cooktown. They absorb a severe beating from IJN flak—six Beauforts and an A-24 are shot down, with most of the survivors damaged. The Dauntlesses are a disappointment, scoring no hits. The Beauforts do better. In their first combat sortie of the war, they score torpedo hits on the destroyers Shiokaze and Asakaze. Both ships are reportedly left on fire, with the Asakaze reportedly heavily damaged as well.
Now the naval aviators stationed at Cairns take their turn. Twenty-seven Dauntlesses, orphans from Lexington, fly out to attack, covered by 10 Wildcats and 20 P-40s. Again, the Japanese flak proves distressingly effective, knocking three Dauntlesses from the sky and damaging several others. Not all of the bombers are stopped, however. The destroyer Shikinami takes a single 1,000-pound bomb hit, and her consort Ariake is hit twice. Both ships are spotted burning as the Navy fliers turn around to return to Cairns.
Alright…that was an expensive day. I lost seventeen aircraft today, about 2/3 to flak from the destroyers and the rest operational losses incurred flying in lousy weather. I also have a lot of damaged aircraft in the squadrons that flew yesterday’s missions, so those groups are ordered to stand down for tomorrow.
Fortunately, there’s a lot more left where those came from. The Beauforts and A-24s at Cooktown can’t fly tomorrow, so I’ll give the Mitchells and Hudsons a shot. I also order the P-39 squadron onto Naval Attack orders at 100 feet. They don’t carry heavy bombs, but against ships as thin-skinned as destroyers, that shouldn’t matter.
The TBDs at Cairns didn’t fly, probably because they weren’t in range—man, these porkers have short legs. However, Cairns is reinforced with a second TBD squadron and a fresh squadron of Dauntlesses from Townsville. If the Japanese get any closer, I’ll be able to send two fresh TBD squadrons, another squadron of Dauntlesses, and a squadron of P-39s (again at 100 feet) against them. I also order the B-17s onto naval attack at 10,000 feet. Now I know they stink at hitting ships, but the thinking is that if my other strikes can cripple a few of the Japs enough to slow them down, the Forts can deliver the knockout punch.
In a bit of bad timing, Lexington forayed from Cairns yesterday. She didn’t get very far, but there’s no way she can outrun IJN destroyers, and she’s only got a single DD of mine along for an escort, so I order her to turn around and run back toward Cairns. I had a trio of S-boats repairing system damage at Cairns, so they’re all sent out with orders to sit on the three hexes leading into Cairns through the gap in the barrier reef. Finally, I order my few remaining surface vessels in the west (Australia, Hobart, and a trio of Sims-class destroyers) to put to sea from Brisbane and steam north for Townsville. They’ll rendezvous with the destroyer Walke on the way north, and then I’ll station them as a quick-reaction force at Townsville. Brisbane, while safer, is too far from the action to be really useful.
To the east, the Hornet/Enterprise task force has returned to Noumea. Several submarines are approaching Luganville to rearm before heading back to the Solomons. Finally, I order my air squadrons at Efate Port Vila to return to Luganville. This time, I set both the P-39 and F4F squadrons to higher CAP percentages. If the Japanese return to Luganville, I plan to be ready. If they want to keep bombing Efate, that’s fine, too. There’s nothing of real value there, and the added flight distance increases the likelihood of more operations losses for Marc’s bomber force.
The return of the replenishment task force to Luganville brings another IJN submarine attack. This time the victim is the oiler Cimarron, forced to go into port with heavy damage after taking a single torpedo strike. The destroyers screening the oilers search vigorously—the Dale and the Mugford each fire depth charges, in fact—but no hits on the I-28 are reported. I again order the oilers into port to finish offloading, while the destroyers are formed into a surface combat task force and ordered to hunt subs in and around Luganville. They’re going to be busy—a patrolling PBY drops depth charges on a sub identified as the I-22, so it appears there may in fact be a pair of Japanese boats in the area. Is the second one there to lay a minefield, perhaps?
The Japanese high command must not yet recognize that Port Moresby is empty, as the Rufes from Dobadura launch yet another sweep mission. His pilots may be gaining experience, but don’t you think sooner or later one of the pilots might point out to his commander that they haven’t spotted a single person on the ground during any of these raids?
Near the end of the day, the Japanese air force makes yet another raid upon Luganville. A strike of 12 Nells and 19 Betties, with 20 Zeroes flying cover, scores two hits on the airbase, one on the airbase supplies, and four hits on the runway from 10,000 feet. A single Betty is hit by flak, but manages to make it home. This is easily the biggest raid on Luganville yet, but as long as they’re staying high to avoid flak, the damage should continue to be minimal.
Saratoga and her escorts have arrived in the theater, along with a new S-boat, which is promptly ordered north. The Sara will remain in Noumea harbor, awaiting the return of Hornet and Enterprise (about 60 miles to the north).
In Australia, Lexington’s floatation damage has finally been repaired, and escorts have reached her location. The destroyer Anderson is ordered to accompany her as she begins to move south for Rockhampton. It’ll be a long trip, but I’m confident she’ll make it. Once she’s had a chance to rest in Rockhampton for a bit, I’ll send her on the run to Noumea.
About the only other thing I do this turn is order some of the aircraft that had relocated to Efate to return to Luganville. I quickly put a stop to this, though, as the first squadron to make the transfer (one of my PBY patrol squadrons) loses an aircraft in bad weather during transit, and I don’t want to risk losing more planes by ordering additional squadrons to make the move.
June 27, 1942
Goodness! Just when you think the situation’s stabilizing, something happens to upset the apple cart again.
Today opens with another raid by the Lunga air force—but today’s target is Efate Port Vila, not Luganville. Nine Nells and 19 Betties drop bombs on the base from 10,000 feet. Again my grounded Marauders are the target—one is destroyed and another damaged. The airbase and runway are also hit three times each, although this damage is quickly repaired. At least today the Japanese pay the price for flying in thunderstorms, as three of the strike’s bombers (1 Nell, 2 Betties) fail to return to Lunga
Of far more interest, however, is a pair of sightings made by my spotter planes to the north of Australia. Another IJN submarine is heading for the coast of Australia. This is a bit annoying, but to be expected. However, hot on the heels of the submarine is a surface task force of IJN destroyers! My spotter planes count at least ten DDs in this group. This may be an attempt to finish off Lexington before she can get too far south. However, to do that, the Japanese have to enter LBA range of Australia, and strikes from Cooktown and Cairns go out to meet them.
The first strike, 15 Beauforts and 14 A-24 Dauntlesses escorted by 13 P-39s, flies from Cooktown. They absorb a severe beating from IJN flak—six Beauforts and an A-24 are shot down, with most of the survivors damaged. The Dauntlesses are a disappointment, scoring no hits. The Beauforts do better. In their first combat sortie of the war, they score torpedo hits on the destroyers Shiokaze and Asakaze. Both ships are reportedly left on fire, with the Asakaze reportedly heavily damaged as well.
Now the naval aviators stationed at Cairns take their turn. Twenty-seven Dauntlesses, orphans from Lexington, fly out to attack, covered by 10 Wildcats and 20 P-40s. Again, the Japanese flak proves distressingly effective, knocking three Dauntlesses from the sky and damaging several others. Not all of the bombers are stopped, however. The destroyer Shikinami takes a single 1,000-pound bomb hit, and her consort Ariake is hit twice. Both ships are spotted burning as the Navy fliers turn around to return to Cairns.
Alright…that was an expensive day. I lost seventeen aircraft today, about 2/3 to flak from the destroyers and the rest operational losses incurred flying in lousy weather. I also have a lot of damaged aircraft in the squadrons that flew yesterday’s missions, so those groups are ordered to stand down for tomorrow.
Fortunately, there’s a lot more left where those came from. The Beauforts and A-24s at Cooktown can’t fly tomorrow, so I’ll give the Mitchells and Hudsons a shot. I also order the P-39 squadron onto Naval Attack orders at 100 feet. They don’t carry heavy bombs, but against ships as thin-skinned as destroyers, that shouldn’t matter.
The TBDs at Cairns didn’t fly, probably because they weren’t in range—man, these porkers have short legs. However, Cairns is reinforced with a second TBD squadron and a fresh squadron of Dauntlesses from Townsville. If the Japanese get any closer, I’ll be able to send two fresh TBD squadrons, another squadron of Dauntlesses, and a squadron of P-39s (again at 100 feet) against them. I also order the B-17s onto naval attack at 10,000 feet. Now I know they stink at hitting ships, but the thinking is that if my other strikes can cripple a few of the Japs enough to slow them down, the Forts can deliver the knockout punch.
In a bit of bad timing, Lexington forayed from Cairns yesterday. She didn’t get very far, but there’s no way she can outrun IJN destroyers, and she’s only got a single DD of mine along for an escort, so I order her to turn around and run back toward Cairns. I had a trio of S-boats repairing system damage at Cairns, so they’re all sent out with orders to sit on the three hexes leading into Cairns through the gap in the barrier reef. Finally, I order my few remaining surface vessels in the west (Australia, Hobart, and a trio of Sims-class destroyers) to put to sea from Brisbane and steam north for Townsville. They’ll rendezvous with the destroyer Walke on the way north, and then I’ll station them as a quick-reaction force at Townsville. Brisbane, while safer, is too far from the action to be really useful.
To the east, the Hornet/Enterprise task force has returned to Noumea. Several submarines are approaching Luganville to rearm before heading back to the Solomons. Finally, I order my air squadrons at Efate Port Vila to return to Luganville. This time, I set both the P-39 and F4F squadrons to higher CAP percentages. If the Japanese return to Luganville, I plan to be ready. If they want to keep bombing Efate, that’s fine, too. There’s nothing of real value there, and the added flight distance increases the likelihood of more operations losses for Marc’s bomber force.
June 28-30, 1942
June 28, 1942
As it turns out, those destroyers coming down from the north weren’t chasing Lexington—they were a bombardment task force headed for Cairns! This was also the destination for the sub I spotted—which means my orders for Lexington to reverse course placed her squarely in harm’s way!
Fortunately, she wasn’t alone. S-38 tried to take a shot at the raiders as they sailed into the Cairns port hex, but was driven off before she could fire torpedoes. The IJN destroyers then launched a bombardment of the airbase at Cairns, scoring 12 hits on the airbase, 2 on the airbase supplies, and 9 on the runways. However, this was far from the amount of harm that would’ve been necessary to shut down the base—Cairns is a size 9 airfield, and the planes were safely dispersed and avoided the shellfire. The base engineers quickly repaired the damage, and all planes would be up and flying during the following day. Better still, as the raiders attempted to flee the scene of the crime, the IJN Ayanami hit a mine. This evidently inflicted enough damage to slow the ship significantly—with unfortunate consequences for her crew.
In the midst of this chaos, Lexington and her escort sail back into Cairns and straight into the sights of the I-21. This is the same boat that was staking out Port Moresby several weeks ago, and was responsible for several hits on merchant ships there. I-21 looses a full spread of torpedoes at Lexington, but the big ship’s luck holds…the torpedoes miss. I-21 vanishes under the water to look for another victim.
Daybreak brings another air raid on Efate from Lunga. Eleven Nells and 15 Betties, fly over and drop a few bombs. I’ve moved the planes off the base at Efate, so there’s really nothing for them to hit. They manage to crater the runway once, and then head for home, losing a Betty to operational causes on the return flight.
The bulk of the IJN raider task force has escaped the effective range of my airpower. They’re spotted by a patrolling bomber, already most of the way back to New Guinea—wow, that’s fast! A couple of small groups of medium- and long-range bombers attempt to intercept them, but all fail to locate the destroyers in the expanse of the Coral Sea. However, Ayanami, slowed by the mine hit, is not so fortunate, and a PBY from Cairns spots her struggling north early in the afternoon.
In short order, a strike of 14 B-17s, 24 P-39 Airacobras, and 16 Navy Dauntlesses descends on the lone raider. The Fortresses, bombing from 10,000 feet, can’t find the range, even with their target slowed by the mine damage. It doesn’t matter. An entire squadron of Airacobras riddles the tin can’s superstructure with machine gun and 37mm cannon rounds. Three of the Airacobras also manage to plant 250-pound bombs on the ship. The Dauntlesses finish the job with a quintet of 1,000-pound bombs. The last of the attack planes to depart the scene reports the Ayanami going down by the bow in deep water 150 miles off the coast of Australia.
Well, the day could’ve certainly been worse. At least my aircraft managed to survive the bombardment of Cairns and were able to hit back, although it would’ve been nicer if I could’ve gotten more than one ship. Lexington is ordered back into port at Cairns—she’ll be safe there until I’ve dealt with the sub. My surface combat group is now north of Rockhampton and has rendezvoused with the destroyer Walke, which is added to the task force. They’ll proceed north to Townsville this turn, and I’ve ordered Anderson (Lexington’s escort) to meet them there. This will give me a decent sized task force to use for sub-hunting at Cairns—I can use the cruisers as bait for sub attacks, then hope the destroyers can finish the job.
I’m also reorganizing a lot of my Australian air groups. Several of the 2-engine level bomber squadrons are put on ASW patrol, the B-17s are put on Naval Search, and my more fatigued groups stand down.
My aircraft at Luganville are similarly reorganized. The PBYs will continue their naval searches (they’re better than the Marauders at ASW work, but the Marauders just don’t have the range to be really effective naval search planes, at least not here, where everything is more spread out). My carriers are formed into a task force and ordered to escort a troop convoy to Luganville. I’m moving a New Zealand coast defense unit into position in case the Japanese decide to actually attempt a bombardment run on the place. I also form a surface combat task force of five light cruisers and five destroyers at Noumea. I’m going to wait a day or two to assess the relative threats facing my eastern and western bases. Then I’ll either send them to Australia to reinforce my small surface combat TF there, or stay in the east to help provide an additional screen for my carrier task force.
June 29, 1942
After lots of action during the past couple of days, today is completely quite—not a shot fired anywhere. My coastwatchers and aerial spotters are very active, though. Reports from both sources indicate that there’s a LOT of Japanese shipping building up at Lunga, including a task force reported to contain several battleships. Man, I’d be happy just to have one right now…what do they need a bunch of them for?
Still, I can’t let that mess up my plans. After all, those things are fuel hogs, and if he wants to come south to play, that means there’ll be vulnerable tankers somewhere in the neighborhood.
My troop transport TF is nearing Luganville, and I order the covering carrier task force to divert to Efate. This is an attempt at sneakiness on my part. The Japanese didn’t hit Efate today, which means they might well do so tomorrow—their squadrons may have been standing down for a day to recover fatigue. If they return, they’ll encounter three squadrons of carrier F4Fs set to high altitude…maybe I can ruin their day. If the target is Luganville, and not Efate, my fighter CAP will be weaker, but still substantial—a squadron of Marine F4Fs and the Army P-39 squadron.
To the west, my Australian surface combat task force has now arrived at Townsville, where the destroyer Anderson reinforced it. The whole group (Australia, Hobart, and now 5 DDs) is ordered to steam to Cairns. I’m going to try to use them as cover while I once again attempt to get Lexington out of the area.
I also spot ships in port at Gili Gili. I can’t tell exactly what they are, but I’m guessing it’s some of the destroyers I damaged in the air strike a couple of days ago. It would be nice to be able to add to their problems, so I order my Mitchell and Hudson squadrons at Cooktown to fly a port attack mission. If they find targets worth hitting, I may have the Fortresses make a similar attack tomorrow.
Another squadron of P-39s has arrived at Brisbane. They’ll stand down until they’ve filled out their numbers (plenty of P-39s in the replacement pool, I just need to wait a couple of days), then head up to Townsville to supplement the defenses there.
June 30, 1942
Today is a day of mixed results. It starts off on a bad note—the submarine Grenadier, patrolling the Solomons west of Lunga, spots a surface combat task force and fires torpedoes at one of the destroyers. They miss, and two IJN destroyers find the mark with depth charges. Grenadier may live, but she’s badly crippled. I order her to head for Tassafaronga in an attempt to keep the boat from sinking.
My port strike on Gili Gili comes off a little better. 24 Hudsons and 28 Mitchells make the flight from Cooktown and drop bombs from 15,000 feet. They manage a pair of port hits, kill off about a hundred of the Japanese manning the base, and manage to plant a single bomb on the destroyer Asakaze—this was the more seriously damaged of the two Beaufort victims from the other day. The ship’s already in port, so it won’t likely sink, but I suspect at a minimum it is very badly crippled by now.
My carriers at Efate don’t get any business from the Japanese air force at Lunga, so I order them to head home to Noumea to get them out of harm’s way. The surface combat group I formed at Noumea two days ago is ordered to head for Cairns. They’ll serve as reinforcements for the group built around Australia and Hobart.
My two crippled oilers continue to languish in port—Kankakee is recuperating nicely at Efate, but Cimarron’s floatation damage has continued to get worse, and I may need to consider scuttling her. Even if she’s saved, she’ll need a trip to Pearl Harbor for repairs.
Finally, Lexington again departs from Cairns, headed for Noumea. She’s being escorted by the destroyer Hammann, and the surface group built around Australia is given orders to follow the Lexington task force—hopefully they’ll be able to attract any hostile attention the Japanese care to turn toward the area.
As it turns out, those destroyers coming down from the north weren’t chasing Lexington—they were a bombardment task force headed for Cairns! This was also the destination for the sub I spotted—which means my orders for Lexington to reverse course placed her squarely in harm’s way!
Fortunately, she wasn’t alone. S-38 tried to take a shot at the raiders as they sailed into the Cairns port hex, but was driven off before she could fire torpedoes. The IJN destroyers then launched a bombardment of the airbase at Cairns, scoring 12 hits on the airbase, 2 on the airbase supplies, and 9 on the runways. However, this was far from the amount of harm that would’ve been necessary to shut down the base—Cairns is a size 9 airfield, and the planes were safely dispersed and avoided the shellfire. The base engineers quickly repaired the damage, and all planes would be up and flying during the following day. Better still, as the raiders attempted to flee the scene of the crime, the IJN Ayanami hit a mine. This evidently inflicted enough damage to slow the ship significantly—with unfortunate consequences for her crew.
In the midst of this chaos, Lexington and her escort sail back into Cairns and straight into the sights of the I-21. This is the same boat that was staking out Port Moresby several weeks ago, and was responsible for several hits on merchant ships there. I-21 looses a full spread of torpedoes at Lexington, but the big ship’s luck holds…the torpedoes miss. I-21 vanishes under the water to look for another victim.
Daybreak brings another air raid on Efate from Lunga. Eleven Nells and 15 Betties, fly over and drop a few bombs. I’ve moved the planes off the base at Efate, so there’s really nothing for them to hit. They manage to crater the runway once, and then head for home, losing a Betty to operational causes on the return flight.
The bulk of the IJN raider task force has escaped the effective range of my airpower. They’re spotted by a patrolling bomber, already most of the way back to New Guinea—wow, that’s fast! A couple of small groups of medium- and long-range bombers attempt to intercept them, but all fail to locate the destroyers in the expanse of the Coral Sea. However, Ayanami, slowed by the mine hit, is not so fortunate, and a PBY from Cairns spots her struggling north early in the afternoon.
In short order, a strike of 14 B-17s, 24 P-39 Airacobras, and 16 Navy Dauntlesses descends on the lone raider. The Fortresses, bombing from 10,000 feet, can’t find the range, even with their target slowed by the mine damage. It doesn’t matter. An entire squadron of Airacobras riddles the tin can’s superstructure with machine gun and 37mm cannon rounds. Three of the Airacobras also manage to plant 250-pound bombs on the ship. The Dauntlesses finish the job with a quintet of 1,000-pound bombs. The last of the attack planes to depart the scene reports the Ayanami going down by the bow in deep water 150 miles off the coast of Australia.
Well, the day could’ve certainly been worse. At least my aircraft managed to survive the bombardment of Cairns and were able to hit back, although it would’ve been nicer if I could’ve gotten more than one ship. Lexington is ordered back into port at Cairns—she’ll be safe there until I’ve dealt with the sub. My surface combat group is now north of Rockhampton and has rendezvoused with the destroyer Walke, which is added to the task force. They’ll proceed north to Townsville this turn, and I’ve ordered Anderson (Lexington’s escort) to meet them there. This will give me a decent sized task force to use for sub-hunting at Cairns—I can use the cruisers as bait for sub attacks, then hope the destroyers can finish the job.
I’m also reorganizing a lot of my Australian air groups. Several of the 2-engine level bomber squadrons are put on ASW patrol, the B-17s are put on Naval Search, and my more fatigued groups stand down.
My aircraft at Luganville are similarly reorganized. The PBYs will continue their naval searches (they’re better than the Marauders at ASW work, but the Marauders just don’t have the range to be really effective naval search planes, at least not here, where everything is more spread out). My carriers are formed into a task force and ordered to escort a troop convoy to Luganville. I’m moving a New Zealand coast defense unit into position in case the Japanese decide to actually attempt a bombardment run on the place. I also form a surface combat task force of five light cruisers and five destroyers at Noumea. I’m going to wait a day or two to assess the relative threats facing my eastern and western bases. Then I’ll either send them to Australia to reinforce my small surface combat TF there, or stay in the east to help provide an additional screen for my carrier task force.
June 29, 1942
After lots of action during the past couple of days, today is completely quite—not a shot fired anywhere. My coastwatchers and aerial spotters are very active, though. Reports from both sources indicate that there’s a LOT of Japanese shipping building up at Lunga, including a task force reported to contain several battleships. Man, I’d be happy just to have one right now…what do they need a bunch of them for?
Still, I can’t let that mess up my plans. After all, those things are fuel hogs, and if he wants to come south to play, that means there’ll be vulnerable tankers somewhere in the neighborhood.
My troop transport TF is nearing Luganville, and I order the covering carrier task force to divert to Efate. This is an attempt at sneakiness on my part. The Japanese didn’t hit Efate today, which means they might well do so tomorrow—their squadrons may have been standing down for a day to recover fatigue. If they return, they’ll encounter three squadrons of carrier F4Fs set to high altitude…maybe I can ruin their day. If the target is Luganville, and not Efate, my fighter CAP will be weaker, but still substantial—a squadron of Marine F4Fs and the Army P-39 squadron.
To the west, my Australian surface combat task force has now arrived at Townsville, where the destroyer Anderson reinforced it. The whole group (Australia, Hobart, and now 5 DDs) is ordered to steam to Cairns. I’m going to try to use them as cover while I once again attempt to get Lexington out of the area.
I also spot ships in port at Gili Gili. I can’t tell exactly what they are, but I’m guessing it’s some of the destroyers I damaged in the air strike a couple of days ago. It would be nice to be able to add to their problems, so I order my Mitchell and Hudson squadrons at Cooktown to fly a port attack mission. If they find targets worth hitting, I may have the Fortresses make a similar attack tomorrow.
Another squadron of P-39s has arrived at Brisbane. They’ll stand down until they’ve filled out their numbers (plenty of P-39s in the replacement pool, I just need to wait a couple of days), then head up to Townsville to supplement the defenses there.
June 30, 1942
Today is a day of mixed results. It starts off on a bad note—the submarine Grenadier, patrolling the Solomons west of Lunga, spots a surface combat task force and fires torpedoes at one of the destroyers. They miss, and two IJN destroyers find the mark with depth charges. Grenadier may live, but she’s badly crippled. I order her to head for Tassafaronga in an attempt to keep the boat from sinking.
My port strike on Gili Gili comes off a little better. 24 Hudsons and 28 Mitchells make the flight from Cooktown and drop bombs from 15,000 feet. They manage a pair of port hits, kill off about a hundred of the Japanese manning the base, and manage to plant a single bomb on the destroyer Asakaze—this was the more seriously damaged of the two Beaufort victims from the other day. The ship’s already in port, so it won’t likely sink, but I suspect at a minimum it is very badly crippled by now.
My carriers at Efate don’t get any business from the Japanese air force at Lunga, so I order them to head home to Noumea to get them out of harm’s way. The surface combat group I formed at Noumea two days ago is ordered to head for Cairns. They’ll serve as reinforcements for the group built around Australia and Hobart.
My two crippled oilers continue to languish in port—Kankakee is recuperating nicely at Efate, but Cimarron’s floatation damage has continued to get worse, and I may need to consider scuttling her. Even if she’s saved, she’ll need a trip to Pearl Harbor for repairs.
Finally, Lexington again departs from Cairns, headed for Noumea. She’s being escorted by the destroyer Hammann, and the surface group built around Australia is given orders to follow the Lexington task force—hopefully they’ll be able to attract any hostile attention the Japanese care to turn toward the area.
July 1-3, 1942 -- NEW STUFF HERE
O.K., I think this is where I start posting stuff that I hadn't put up on the forum before in crashed. Please feel free to let me know if I was wrong. My memory isn't what it used to be.
***
July 1, 1942
Thunderstorms descend on the South Pacific again, dropping a wet blanket over all attempts at hostilities. I don’t even get a lot of spotting reports. The one interesting one, however, is a report of a Jake spotting my cruiser/destroyer group bound for Townsville. This is interesting, as that’s a LONG way south of the Solomons for a small plane like a Jake. Is there a task force out there somewhere in the empty middle of the ocean? Are the Japanese attempting a raid on Noumea?
If they are, there’s not much I can do about it except try to ambush them as they come in. My own carriers had nearly made it back to Noumea, and they’re ordered to move through Noumea and station themselves about 60 miles to the west. If there’s a raid coming in, maybe they can intercept it. I also order my land-based aircraft in the east Pacific to increase naval search activities in the hope of getting a sniff of the enemy. The CL/DD group is diverted toward Rockhampton to get them further south in case there are enemy carriers in the vicinity—I still want them to head to Australia, but I’d like them to get there in one piece, if possible.
My only other order in the east is given to my patrol boats and subchasers. They’re all formed into a surface combat task force and ordered north to Luganville, their new home. I want them to stake out the harbor just in case that annoying IJN sub is still parked there. If it is, they’ll hopefully be able to do something about it—preferably something fatal.
Lexington has departed Cairns, but the sighting report prompts me to give her a new destination. Instead of heading directly for Noumea, I order her to Rockhampton—it’s the closest Australian port to Noumea, and appears to be one of the safer bases I have at the moment.
It’s not often that I’m disappointed to see that I’ll be getting reinforcements, but I am just that today. CINCPAC has ordered a surface group of two heavy cruisers (refitted vessels I’d sent home to Pearl Harbor a few weeks back), one light cruiser, and ten destroyers to sail to Noumea. What’s the problem? They’re leaving too soon! If they’d waited two more days, North Carolina would’ve been available, and probably would’ve been released—if they’d waited five more days, Wasp likely would’ve come along as well. Now I’ll probably have to wait for more escorts to arrive at Pearl before they’ll authorize the departure of the two heavies. Rats!!!
My ground forces situation is not good at present—Australia is fairly secure, but I’m stretched quite thin in the east—but will be improving shortly. Combat engineer and coast defense units will arrive at Noumea within the next four days, and the first elements of the 1st Marine Division are a week out. The bulk of the division is slated to arrive within the next 15 days. Once they’re in place, I’ll feel quite confident about my ability to protect Noumea against a quick land-grab attempt by the Japanese.
July 2, 1942
As was the case yesterday, rain puts a damper on most activity throughout the region. One noteworthy development does occur, however—Japanese ships are finally unloading troops at Port Moresby. I’m surprised it’s taken this long. At least one minesweeper is present, and is engaged in clearing the fields laid by my subs earlier in the game.
Intelligence reports at least one enemy infantry unit ashore, and I expect Port Moresby will fall tomorrow—possibly the day after, if the IJA launches a bombardment attack tomorrow to confirm they’re unopposed. In an attempt to give them a little something to think about, I set my Mitchells and Hudsons at Cooktown to Naval Attack orders at 3,000 feet. They won’t stop the landing, but might at least be able to put a bomb or two into a transport. My lone submarine at sea near New Guinea, the Tautog, is ordered southwest to lurk along the convoy’s likely retirement route, and I order one of the Cairns-based S-boats north to stake out PM itself.
A review of the intelligence reports notes that yet another IJN transport has been added to the sunk ships list, although I can’t really tell which one (I don’t track the names of all the transports I’ve sunk—I probably should). This was the 22nd IJN ship sunk thus far in the campaign.
The heavily damaged Grenadier has reached Tassafaronga without sinking, and is ordered to retire on Luganville. It’ll be a long, slow journey, but the boat should make it, which means I’ll be able to send it back to Pearl Harbor for repairs. The damaged AK Barwon reaches Noumea today after a long trip from Australia, and is also ordered back to PH. Additionally, a new S-boat (S-43) arrives in Noumea and is sent to join the cordon of subs picketing the Solomons.
I don’t get any additional reports of Japanese activity in the South Pacific today, which leads me to think that if yesterday’s Jake spotting did represent a probe south, they’ve backed off. On this assumption, my carriers are ordered to return to Noumea, where they’ll be stood down, and my cruiser/destroyer group bound for Australia is redirected to Townsville, its original destination.
Lexington has cleared the barrier reef and is now headed south along the Australian coast. She hasn’t been spotted, and her covering force, the Australia/Hobart group, is cut loose and sent home to Townsville. Lexington’s best defense at this point is probably anonymity—a two-ship task force is a hard target to find, let alone attack, so I’ll let her sail on her way and hope she can hide in the vastness of the open ocean.
July 3, 1942
Port Moresby has fallen! A Japanese Naval Garrison Unit storms ashore from its transports, launches itself against the fortifications….and discovers that no one’s home, since my entire garrison has long since been evacuated to Australia.
My bombers fly from Cooktown in an attempt to disrupt the transports unloading in the harbor, but meet with minimal success. Two strikes flown during the day result in three damaged bombers, and only a single 250-pound bomb hit on a transport. This isn’t a very encouraging return, and fatigue levels in the bomber squadrons will prohibit a follow-up strike tomorrow. In an attempt to do something about the situation, I order the three B-17 squadrons at Cairns to Naval Attack at 10,000 feet. Maybe they’ll get lucky. Probably not, but maybe.
The only other action on the day is an aborted attempt by S-46 to attack a Japanese vessel near the Solomons. Three IJN APDs search for the sub, but fail to find it.
There aren’t a lot of other orders to give today. My cruiser/destroyer task force continues to sail toward Townsville—they should arrive in about two days. I also create a carrier task force built around the Saratoga at Noumea. Her group will have the responsibility of escorting Lexington as it covers the long stretch from Australia to New Caledonia. Since this will likely take some time, I also form a replenishment task force consisting of a single oiler and a destroyer, and order it to follow the Saratoga group. This will allow the escorting ships to top off their tanks and remain at sea for the necessary period of time, and leave them enough fuel to maneuver if they need to do so.
***
July 1, 1942
Thunderstorms descend on the South Pacific again, dropping a wet blanket over all attempts at hostilities. I don’t even get a lot of spotting reports. The one interesting one, however, is a report of a Jake spotting my cruiser/destroyer group bound for Townsville. This is interesting, as that’s a LONG way south of the Solomons for a small plane like a Jake. Is there a task force out there somewhere in the empty middle of the ocean? Are the Japanese attempting a raid on Noumea?
If they are, there’s not much I can do about it except try to ambush them as they come in. My own carriers had nearly made it back to Noumea, and they’re ordered to move through Noumea and station themselves about 60 miles to the west. If there’s a raid coming in, maybe they can intercept it. I also order my land-based aircraft in the east Pacific to increase naval search activities in the hope of getting a sniff of the enemy. The CL/DD group is diverted toward Rockhampton to get them further south in case there are enemy carriers in the vicinity—I still want them to head to Australia, but I’d like them to get there in one piece, if possible.
My only other order in the east is given to my patrol boats and subchasers. They’re all formed into a surface combat task force and ordered north to Luganville, their new home. I want them to stake out the harbor just in case that annoying IJN sub is still parked there. If it is, they’ll hopefully be able to do something about it—preferably something fatal.
Lexington has departed Cairns, but the sighting report prompts me to give her a new destination. Instead of heading directly for Noumea, I order her to Rockhampton—it’s the closest Australian port to Noumea, and appears to be one of the safer bases I have at the moment.
It’s not often that I’m disappointed to see that I’ll be getting reinforcements, but I am just that today. CINCPAC has ordered a surface group of two heavy cruisers (refitted vessels I’d sent home to Pearl Harbor a few weeks back), one light cruiser, and ten destroyers to sail to Noumea. What’s the problem? They’re leaving too soon! If they’d waited two more days, North Carolina would’ve been available, and probably would’ve been released—if they’d waited five more days, Wasp likely would’ve come along as well. Now I’ll probably have to wait for more escorts to arrive at Pearl before they’ll authorize the departure of the two heavies. Rats!!!
My ground forces situation is not good at present—Australia is fairly secure, but I’m stretched quite thin in the east—but will be improving shortly. Combat engineer and coast defense units will arrive at Noumea within the next four days, and the first elements of the 1st Marine Division are a week out. The bulk of the division is slated to arrive within the next 15 days. Once they’re in place, I’ll feel quite confident about my ability to protect Noumea against a quick land-grab attempt by the Japanese.
July 2, 1942
As was the case yesterday, rain puts a damper on most activity throughout the region. One noteworthy development does occur, however—Japanese ships are finally unloading troops at Port Moresby. I’m surprised it’s taken this long. At least one minesweeper is present, and is engaged in clearing the fields laid by my subs earlier in the game.
Intelligence reports at least one enemy infantry unit ashore, and I expect Port Moresby will fall tomorrow—possibly the day after, if the IJA launches a bombardment attack tomorrow to confirm they’re unopposed. In an attempt to give them a little something to think about, I set my Mitchells and Hudsons at Cooktown to Naval Attack orders at 3,000 feet. They won’t stop the landing, but might at least be able to put a bomb or two into a transport. My lone submarine at sea near New Guinea, the Tautog, is ordered southwest to lurk along the convoy’s likely retirement route, and I order one of the Cairns-based S-boats north to stake out PM itself.
A review of the intelligence reports notes that yet another IJN transport has been added to the sunk ships list, although I can’t really tell which one (I don’t track the names of all the transports I’ve sunk—I probably should). This was the 22nd IJN ship sunk thus far in the campaign.
The heavily damaged Grenadier has reached Tassafaronga without sinking, and is ordered to retire on Luganville. It’ll be a long, slow journey, but the boat should make it, which means I’ll be able to send it back to Pearl Harbor for repairs. The damaged AK Barwon reaches Noumea today after a long trip from Australia, and is also ordered back to PH. Additionally, a new S-boat (S-43) arrives in Noumea and is sent to join the cordon of subs picketing the Solomons.
I don’t get any additional reports of Japanese activity in the South Pacific today, which leads me to think that if yesterday’s Jake spotting did represent a probe south, they’ve backed off. On this assumption, my carriers are ordered to return to Noumea, where they’ll be stood down, and my cruiser/destroyer group bound for Australia is redirected to Townsville, its original destination.
Lexington has cleared the barrier reef and is now headed south along the Australian coast. She hasn’t been spotted, and her covering force, the Australia/Hobart group, is cut loose and sent home to Townsville. Lexington’s best defense at this point is probably anonymity—a two-ship task force is a hard target to find, let alone attack, so I’ll let her sail on her way and hope she can hide in the vastness of the open ocean.
July 3, 1942
Port Moresby has fallen! A Japanese Naval Garrison Unit storms ashore from its transports, launches itself against the fortifications….and discovers that no one’s home, since my entire garrison has long since been evacuated to Australia.
My bombers fly from Cooktown in an attempt to disrupt the transports unloading in the harbor, but meet with minimal success. Two strikes flown during the day result in three damaged bombers, and only a single 250-pound bomb hit on a transport. This isn’t a very encouraging return, and fatigue levels in the bomber squadrons will prohibit a follow-up strike tomorrow. In an attempt to do something about the situation, I order the three B-17 squadrons at Cairns to Naval Attack at 10,000 feet. Maybe they’ll get lucky. Probably not, but maybe.
The only other action on the day is an aborted attempt by S-46 to attack a Japanese vessel near the Solomons. Three IJN APDs search for the sub, but fail to find it.
There aren’t a lot of other orders to give today. My cruiser/destroyer task force continues to sail toward Townsville—they should arrive in about two days. I also create a carrier task force built around the Saratoga at Noumea. Her group will have the responsibility of escorting Lexington as it covers the long stretch from Australia to New Caledonia. Since this will likely take some time, I also form a replenishment task force consisting of a single oiler and a destroyer, and order it to follow the Saratoga group. This will allow the escorting ships to top off their tanks and remain at sea for the necessary period of time, and leave them enough fuel to maneuver if they need to do so.
July 4-6, 1942
July 4, 1942
The Independence Day holiday sees very little in the way of combat, the only incident being an attack by Tautog upon a Japanese transport departing Port Moresby. Unfortunately, it’s one of the little ones, and Tautog’s skipper misjudges the range—all the torpedoes miss, and the transport sails blithely on its way.
Despite the calm, my spotter planes report some disturbing news—sightings of not one, but two IJN subs parked in the Cairns port hex. This is disturbing because a supply convoy from Brisbane will pull into Cairns at about daybreak tomorrow. Its escort is fairly hefty—2 PGs and six subchasers—but I’m not confident in the experience levels of the ASW vessels. In an attempt to make their job easier, I assign seven of the air squadrons at Cooktown and Cairns to ASW patrol work—2 SBD, 2 TBD, 2 Hudson, and 1 Beaufort. If we can’t sink the subs, perhaps I can at least drive them down.
If the little ASW escorts can’t hit subs, perhaps destroyers can. My cruiser/destroyer squadron from Noumea should reach Townsville tomorrow. Once they arrive, I’ll have 8 DDs at Townsville, and they’d make a very nice ASW squadron. If those subs start causing problems, the destroyers will be going hunting.
I also consider the possibility that those subs are laying mines at Cairns. To counteract this potential threat, I order four of the coastal minesweepers from Brisbane to relocate north to Townville. I don’t want to send them all the way to Cairns—too much danger from air attack to risk them unnecessarily. But this way, if I do detect mines, they’ll be near enough to the problem to respond quickly.
I also take steps to attempt to protect the supply convoy against a repeat of what happened the last time I brought merchant shipping this far north. Both of the Kittyhawk squadrons, Yorktown’s F4Fs, and a single squadron of Airacobras are put on CAP over Cairns. I can’t stop the Betties and Nells from flying south from Rabaul to attack my convoys, but I can make sure that if they do, the experience will be a very unpleasant one.
July 5, 1942
The process of turning up the heat on Port Moresby has begun. The first turn of the screw is applied by 25 B-17s flying from Cairns. There is a CAP of 8 Rufes over PM—flying from Dobadura, no doubt—but the Japanese flyers are understandably reluctant to challenge the Forts’ guns, and the bombers are allowed to drop their payloads unmolested. The port strikes isn’t bad—2 hits on the port itself, three on the port fuel stocks, and two on the port supplies. The B-17s also score one direct hit on a transport docked at the port—the same ship damaged by the Hudson strike two days ago. Ryotako Maru survives the hit, but it is burning and badly damaged as the strike departs for home. One B-17 is lost operationally during the raid.
Saratoga and her squadron are sailing west. They should rendezvous with Lexington in about three days. The replenishment oiler who will be following her is still loading fuel at Noumea and won’t be able to sail for another day or two, but should be able to catch up. Lexington isn’t moving very fast, so once Saratoga arrives on station, she’s going to be marking time.
I’ve also ordered a resupply effort for Efate, where I’m trying to build up a large supply stockpile. Every available cargo ship has been packed to capacity and is steaming toward Efate from Noumea. Once they’re offloaded, I should have well over 60,000 tons of supplies at Efate, and I’ll then have to repeat the process for Luganville.
My little minesweeper squadron is about two days out of Townsville. The Japanese subs at Cairns don’t attack anything today, although one of them is forced to crash dive by a patrolling B-25. The air patrols give my supply convoy an opportunity to begin offloading cargo in peace.
My own subs in the Solomons are reporting a LOT of aircraft attacks. None of them have been hit, but I may be forced to order all of them out into deep water hexes to give them a better shot at avoiding the search planes. Coastwatchers have reported at least one seaplane cruiser and a pair of Japanese seaplane tenders at Lunga, so this probably explains where all those patrol aircraft are coming from.
Finally, my cruiser/destroyer group didn’t quite make it to Townville as I’d thought they would—they’re still two hexes out, and will make port overnight. It took longer than I wanted, but at least they made the run from New Caledonia unmolested.
July 6, 1942
The 6th of July is pretty uneventful. No combat occurs today, although again I get lots of ship sighting reports from scout planes and (mostly) coastwatchers. There appears to still be a massive concentration of IJN shipping at Shortland Island—carriers, battleships, cruisers, transports, the works. This could be a concern later, but as long as they stay parked there, they can’t hurt me.
Word is received from CINCPAC that the USS Wasp, along with a screen of one CLAA and eight destroyers, has been released with orders to sail to Noumea. She will arrive in 19 days, which should be just about the same time Lexington arrives at Noumea to begin the voyage back to Pearl Harbor. Getting Wasp will be most welcome, and I shouldn’t chafe at the prospect of getting more ships to play with, but I was very much hoping North Carolina would be released as well.
My supply convoys at Efate and Cairns have nearly finished offloading, and both should run for the open ocean early tonight. The oiler Kankakee, damaged in a submarine attack several days ago, has also sailed from Efate, and should reach Noumea tomorrow. She’ll need a trip back to Pearl Harbor, but at least the ship survived.
It appears that the Japanese transport damaged in the attacks on Port Moresby is still parked in the harbor, so I decide to try to finish her off. One squadron of Mitchells and one of Hudsons are ordered to launch a port attack on Port Moresby from Cooktown. If I can hit that ship one or two more times, Marc will likely scuttle her, as there’s no way a crippled transport could hope to run my submarine gauntlet all the way home to Rabaul.
The coastal minesweepers heading north from Brisbane have nearly reached Townsville—they should arrive tomorrow. I plan to send them on a quick run up to Cairns on Patrol/Do Not Retire orders to attempt to determine whether or not there’s a minefield present. If there is, then they’ll stay there to clear it, if not they’ll run home to Townsville. I’m a bit worried about their exposure to air attack, but they won’t be there that long, and I can CAP them heavily with the fighter squadrons from the base, so they shouldn’t be in too much danger.
The Independence Day holiday sees very little in the way of combat, the only incident being an attack by Tautog upon a Japanese transport departing Port Moresby. Unfortunately, it’s one of the little ones, and Tautog’s skipper misjudges the range—all the torpedoes miss, and the transport sails blithely on its way.
Despite the calm, my spotter planes report some disturbing news—sightings of not one, but two IJN subs parked in the Cairns port hex. This is disturbing because a supply convoy from Brisbane will pull into Cairns at about daybreak tomorrow. Its escort is fairly hefty—2 PGs and six subchasers—but I’m not confident in the experience levels of the ASW vessels. In an attempt to make their job easier, I assign seven of the air squadrons at Cooktown and Cairns to ASW patrol work—2 SBD, 2 TBD, 2 Hudson, and 1 Beaufort. If we can’t sink the subs, perhaps I can at least drive them down.
If the little ASW escorts can’t hit subs, perhaps destroyers can. My cruiser/destroyer squadron from Noumea should reach Townsville tomorrow. Once they arrive, I’ll have 8 DDs at Townsville, and they’d make a very nice ASW squadron. If those subs start causing problems, the destroyers will be going hunting.
I also consider the possibility that those subs are laying mines at Cairns. To counteract this potential threat, I order four of the coastal minesweepers from Brisbane to relocate north to Townville. I don’t want to send them all the way to Cairns—too much danger from air attack to risk them unnecessarily. But this way, if I do detect mines, they’ll be near enough to the problem to respond quickly.
I also take steps to attempt to protect the supply convoy against a repeat of what happened the last time I brought merchant shipping this far north. Both of the Kittyhawk squadrons, Yorktown’s F4Fs, and a single squadron of Airacobras are put on CAP over Cairns. I can’t stop the Betties and Nells from flying south from Rabaul to attack my convoys, but I can make sure that if they do, the experience will be a very unpleasant one.
July 5, 1942
The process of turning up the heat on Port Moresby has begun. The first turn of the screw is applied by 25 B-17s flying from Cairns. There is a CAP of 8 Rufes over PM—flying from Dobadura, no doubt—but the Japanese flyers are understandably reluctant to challenge the Forts’ guns, and the bombers are allowed to drop their payloads unmolested. The port strikes isn’t bad—2 hits on the port itself, three on the port fuel stocks, and two on the port supplies. The B-17s also score one direct hit on a transport docked at the port—the same ship damaged by the Hudson strike two days ago. Ryotako Maru survives the hit, but it is burning and badly damaged as the strike departs for home. One B-17 is lost operationally during the raid.
Saratoga and her squadron are sailing west. They should rendezvous with Lexington in about three days. The replenishment oiler who will be following her is still loading fuel at Noumea and won’t be able to sail for another day or two, but should be able to catch up. Lexington isn’t moving very fast, so once Saratoga arrives on station, she’s going to be marking time.
I’ve also ordered a resupply effort for Efate, where I’m trying to build up a large supply stockpile. Every available cargo ship has been packed to capacity and is steaming toward Efate from Noumea. Once they’re offloaded, I should have well over 60,000 tons of supplies at Efate, and I’ll then have to repeat the process for Luganville.
My little minesweeper squadron is about two days out of Townsville. The Japanese subs at Cairns don’t attack anything today, although one of them is forced to crash dive by a patrolling B-25. The air patrols give my supply convoy an opportunity to begin offloading cargo in peace.
My own subs in the Solomons are reporting a LOT of aircraft attacks. None of them have been hit, but I may be forced to order all of them out into deep water hexes to give them a better shot at avoiding the search planes. Coastwatchers have reported at least one seaplane cruiser and a pair of Japanese seaplane tenders at Lunga, so this probably explains where all those patrol aircraft are coming from.
Finally, my cruiser/destroyer group didn’t quite make it to Townville as I’d thought they would—they’re still two hexes out, and will make port overnight. It took longer than I wanted, but at least they made the run from New Caledonia unmolested.
July 6, 1942
The 6th of July is pretty uneventful. No combat occurs today, although again I get lots of ship sighting reports from scout planes and (mostly) coastwatchers. There appears to still be a massive concentration of IJN shipping at Shortland Island—carriers, battleships, cruisers, transports, the works. This could be a concern later, but as long as they stay parked there, they can’t hurt me.
Word is received from CINCPAC that the USS Wasp, along with a screen of one CLAA and eight destroyers, has been released with orders to sail to Noumea. She will arrive in 19 days, which should be just about the same time Lexington arrives at Noumea to begin the voyage back to Pearl Harbor. Getting Wasp will be most welcome, and I shouldn’t chafe at the prospect of getting more ships to play with, but I was very much hoping North Carolina would be released as well.
My supply convoys at Efate and Cairns have nearly finished offloading, and both should run for the open ocean early tonight. The oiler Kankakee, damaged in a submarine attack several days ago, has also sailed from Efate, and should reach Noumea tomorrow. She’ll need a trip back to Pearl Harbor, but at least the ship survived.
It appears that the Japanese transport damaged in the attacks on Port Moresby is still parked in the harbor, so I decide to try to finish her off. One squadron of Mitchells and one of Hudsons are ordered to launch a port attack on Port Moresby from Cooktown. If I can hit that ship one or two more times, Marc will likely scuttle her, as there’s no way a crippled transport could hope to run my submarine gauntlet all the way home to Rabaul.
The coastal minesweepers heading north from Brisbane have nearly reached Townsville—they should arrive tomorrow. I plan to send them on a quick run up to Cairns on Patrol/Do Not Retire orders to attempt to determine whether or not there’s a minefield present. If there is, then they’ll stay there to clear it, if not they’ll run home to Townsville. I’m a bit worried about their exposure to air attack, but they won’t be there that long, and I can CAP them heavily with the fighter squadrons from the base, so they shouldn’t be in too much danger.
July 7-9, 1942
July 7, 1942
The relative lull in combat continues. Only a couple of minor incidents occur today, the first being an attempted attack by S-42 on a Japanese convoy north of Lunga that is foiled by an alert escort vessel.
The Mitchells and Hudsons hit Port Moresby, but the strike isn’t terribly effective. Eight Rufes are flying CAP, but they refuse to engage, allowing the bombers to attack. However, the bomb strikes go wide, inflicting only a single port fuel hit. All of the attacking aircraft return safely to Cooktown.
My supply runs to Efate and Cairns have been carried out successfully, and both convoys are retiring to their home bases. The damaged Kankakee has returned to Noumea, and is sent on to Pearl Harbor for repairs. Her sister ship Cimarron appears to have turned the corner as well—she’s still parked in Luganville harbor, but her floatation damage is dropping steadily now. The base expansion has helped out a lot, I think—Luganville is now a level six port, and level six ports seem able to repair even seemingly catastrophic flood damage.
My many task forces throughout the South Pacific continue to carry out their missions. The Engineer brigade attached to the Aussie 7th Division has finally arrived at Brisbane, so I order them to board a transport and join the rest of the 7th at Townsville. Another engineer unit is due at Brisbane tomorrow, and I’ll be sending them in a transport to Townville, picking up escort vessels there, and then heading north to Cooktown, which is lagging well behind the other Australian bases in construction activity, the base force being the only engineer unit currently stationed there.
North Carolina has still not been released, but I have high hopes. Several of the cruisers I sent back to Pearl Harbor will become available again within the next week, and when there are enough of them to escort the battlewagon, I hope to see her sailing my way.
July 8, 1942
Today is another tranquil day in the South Pacific—clear weather, but no combat. In fact, very little of anything happens today—I think I issued about six orders for the whole turn. The convoy carrying the Aussie 7th Division engineers is en route to Townsville, and the engineer battalion that arrived at Brisbane is being loaded on its own transport, and will head north later today.
Saratoga’s group is approaching Rockhampton and should arrive tomorrow, while the replenishment oiler is about two days to the east. Lexington continues its slow passage down the Australian coast, with the watchful Hamann in close company. My search planes and submarines continue to stake out the Solomons and New Guinea, but no reports or attacks take place today. Even my ASW air patrols come up empty—the submarines I’ve been spotting at Cairns are nowhere to be seen today. This doesn’t concern me too much—I can really use the respite, and it’s giving me a chance to build up bases and get some more experience for my airgroups.
Wasp’s task group is now about 17 days from Noumea. Her arrival will give me four fleet carriers in theater—not enough to openly challenge the Japanese fleet, but certainly enough to pose a major threat to any exposed base or supply convoy.
July 9, 1942
Thunderstorms return to the South Pacific region today, closing down most air missions. Patrolling SBDs take a couple of shots at a Japanese submarine (identified as I-162) at Cairns, but they miss.
Saratoga’s task force is now parked in the harbor at Rockhampton. They’ll refuel and rest there for a couple of days, then set sail to escort Lexington on the run from Australia to New Caledonia. The replenishment oiler sent to follow Saratoga keeps trying to turn around and run back to Noumea (it’s not reacting to a threat, it’s just turning around). Maybe a Patrol/Do Not Retire order will straighten things out.
The Engineer battalion and one RCT of the 1st Marine Division have arrived at Noumea. The bulk of the 1st Marines will arrive within the next ten days, and the next three weeks will see the arrival of the 32nd and 41st U.S. Army divisions at Brisbane. The arrival of these three powerful ground formations should give me sufficient combat power to prevent any Japanese attempt at an auto-victory, if I can support them intelligently with naval and air assets.
CINCPAC has decided to release some additional ships to me—the refitted Long Island, some destroyers, and some APDs. That’s great. Evidently the powers that be think that I have more use for a slow, undersized, under-gunned aircraft ferry than I do for a state-of-the-art fast battleship. Sure, makes perfect sense to me. Thanks, Chet. No, really….thanks.
The relative lull in combat continues. Only a couple of minor incidents occur today, the first being an attempted attack by S-42 on a Japanese convoy north of Lunga that is foiled by an alert escort vessel.
The Mitchells and Hudsons hit Port Moresby, but the strike isn’t terribly effective. Eight Rufes are flying CAP, but they refuse to engage, allowing the bombers to attack. However, the bomb strikes go wide, inflicting only a single port fuel hit. All of the attacking aircraft return safely to Cooktown.
My supply runs to Efate and Cairns have been carried out successfully, and both convoys are retiring to their home bases. The damaged Kankakee has returned to Noumea, and is sent on to Pearl Harbor for repairs. Her sister ship Cimarron appears to have turned the corner as well—she’s still parked in Luganville harbor, but her floatation damage is dropping steadily now. The base expansion has helped out a lot, I think—Luganville is now a level six port, and level six ports seem able to repair even seemingly catastrophic flood damage.
My many task forces throughout the South Pacific continue to carry out their missions. The Engineer brigade attached to the Aussie 7th Division has finally arrived at Brisbane, so I order them to board a transport and join the rest of the 7th at Townsville. Another engineer unit is due at Brisbane tomorrow, and I’ll be sending them in a transport to Townville, picking up escort vessels there, and then heading north to Cooktown, which is lagging well behind the other Australian bases in construction activity, the base force being the only engineer unit currently stationed there.
North Carolina has still not been released, but I have high hopes. Several of the cruisers I sent back to Pearl Harbor will become available again within the next week, and when there are enough of them to escort the battlewagon, I hope to see her sailing my way.
July 8, 1942
Today is another tranquil day in the South Pacific—clear weather, but no combat. In fact, very little of anything happens today—I think I issued about six orders for the whole turn. The convoy carrying the Aussie 7th Division engineers is en route to Townsville, and the engineer battalion that arrived at Brisbane is being loaded on its own transport, and will head north later today.
Saratoga’s group is approaching Rockhampton and should arrive tomorrow, while the replenishment oiler is about two days to the east. Lexington continues its slow passage down the Australian coast, with the watchful Hamann in close company. My search planes and submarines continue to stake out the Solomons and New Guinea, but no reports or attacks take place today. Even my ASW air patrols come up empty—the submarines I’ve been spotting at Cairns are nowhere to be seen today. This doesn’t concern me too much—I can really use the respite, and it’s giving me a chance to build up bases and get some more experience for my airgroups.
Wasp’s task group is now about 17 days from Noumea. Her arrival will give me four fleet carriers in theater—not enough to openly challenge the Japanese fleet, but certainly enough to pose a major threat to any exposed base or supply convoy.
July 9, 1942
Thunderstorms return to the South Pacific region today, closing down most air missions. Patrolling SBDs take a couple of shots at a Japanese submarine (identified as I-162) at Cairns, but they miss.
Saratoga’s task force is now parked in the harbor at Rockhampton. They’ll refuel and rest there for a couple of days, then set sail to escort Lexington on the run from Australia to New Caledonia. The replenishment oiler sent to follow Saratoga keeps trying to turn around and run back to Noumea (it’s not reacting to a threat, it’s just turning around). Maybe a Patrol/Do Not Retire order will straighten things out.
The Engineer battalion and one RCT of the 1st Marine Division have arrived at Noumea. The bulk of the 1st Marines will arrive within the next ten days, and the next three weeks will see the arrival of the 32nd and 41st U.S. Army divisions at Brisbane. The arrival of these three powerful ground formations should give me sufficient combat power to prevent any Japanese attempt at an auto-victory, if I can support them intelligently with naval and air assets.
CINCPAC has decided to release some additional ships to me—the refitted Long Island, some destroyers, and some APDs. That’s great. Evidently the powers that be think that I have more use for a slow, undersized, under-gunned aircraft ferry than I do for a state-of-the-art fast battleship. Sure, makes perfect sense to me. Thanks, Chet. No, really….thanks.
July 10-11, 1942
July 10, 1942
The bad weather doesn’t appear to be deterring Japanese ground operations—IJN units are spotted today at both Wau and Marilinan. I assume they’ll launch attacks tomorrow and take both bases, which will eliminate the last Allied bases on New Guinea. Losing Marilinan will also cost me a pair of crippled C-47s, which have been sitting there for the last month (they were left behind when the last of the aviation support squads were flown to Buna to save the planes from Lexington and Yorktown). Since the effort succeeded in saving 30+ carrier planes, I guess I can’t complain too much about losing a pair of Dakotas.
Tomorrow Lexington will complete the crawl south down the Australian coast, and will be poised to run east for Noumea. She should require about two weeks to make the trip. Saratoga’s squadron will be providing close support, and when the convoy gets closer to Noumea, Enterprise and Hornet (and Wasp, if she’s arrived) will also sortie to provide additional cover. I really want to save the points for Lexington, and it’d be a real shame to lose her after she’s come this far.
I receive some welcome reinforcements at Noumea in the form of three destroyer-minelayers. They’re immediately ordered to set sail for Luganville to lay down a defensive field. When that’s done, they’ll be repeating the process at Efate, Wunpuko, Koumac, and Basse-Poya. This is one more key component of turning these bases into impregnable staging bases for my planned counterattack against the hated IJN.
July 11, 1942
Wau and Marilinan fall to Japanese ground assaults today—naval garrison units, evidently sent overland from Salamua, fall upon and take both bases. Additionally, a single Japanese infantry unit—probably the one that hiked over the Kokoda trail in pursuit of my retreating engineers—has arrived at Lea Lea. Evidently the Japanese are bent on leaving not even a single beach hex in allied hands.
I-162 hasn’t left Cairns yet, either. A patrolling B-25 takes a shot at it, but misses. In an attempt to deal with this unwanted visitor, I form a surface combat task force of light cruisers and destroyers from the ships at Townsville and order them to Cairns on Patrol/Do Not React orders. The light cruisers are the bait—hopefully, the sub will take a shot at one of them, allowing the destroyers to pounce for the kill.
My F-5A recon planes are still reporting a number of destroyers parked in the harbor at Gili Gili—there are four of them, and I assume these are the four that were damaged during the foray down to Cairns. They’re probably getting rid of floatation damage. In an attempt to compound their misery, I order the three B-17 squadrons at Cairns to launch a port attack tomorrow. If I can drop a couple of 500-pounders onto those destroyers, I might be able to force them to scuttle.
I also get a very welcome intelligence report. The Okinoshima, the minelayer bombed off Dobadura over a month ago, has been added to the sunk ships list. This is my 25th confirmed ship kill, and a very welcome one—I hate those minelayers!
To the east, I’ve been accumulating a number of base force units at Noumea—far more than I need, given that most of the planes in SOPAC have been sent to the northern bases. I need to bulk up the aviation support capabilities at Luganville and Efate, so I create another transport to haul one of the base force units to Efate. I’ll take another force to Luganville as soon as I get one that is equipped with radar.
The bad weather doesn’t appear to be deterring Japanese ground operations—IJN units are spotted today at both Wau and Marilinan. I assume they’ll launch attacks tomorrow and take both bases, which will eliminate the last Allied bases on New Guinea. Losing Marilinan will also cost me a pair of crippled C-47s, which have been sitting there for the last month (they were left behind when the last of the aviation support squads were flown to Buna to save the planes from Lexington and Yorktown). Since the effort succeeded in saving 30+ carrier planes, I guess I can’t complain too much about losing a pair of Dakotas.
Tomorrow Lexington will complete the crawl south down the Australian coast, and will be poised to run east for Noumea. She should require about two weeks to make the trip. Saratoga’s squadron will be providing close support, and when the convoy gets closer to Noumea, Enterprise and Hornet (and Wasp, if she’s arrived) will also sortie to provide additional cover. I really want to save the points for Lexington, and it’d be a real shame to lose her after she’s come this far.
I receive some welcome reinforcements at Noumea in the form of three destroyer-minelayers. They’re immediately ordered to set sail for Luganville to lay down a defensive field. When that’s done, they’ll be repeating the process at Efate, Wunpuko, Koumac, and Basse-Poya. This is one more key component of turning these bases into impregnable staging bases for my planned counterattack against the hated IJN.
July 11, 1942
Wau and Marilinan fall to Japanese ground assaults today—naval garrison units, evidently sent overland from Salamua, fall upon and take both bases. Additionally, a single Japanese infantry unit—probably the one that hiked over the Kokoda trail in pursuit of my retreating engineers—has arrived at Lea Lea. Evidently the Japanese are bent on leaving not even a single beach hex in allied hands.
I-162 hasn’t left Cairns yet, either. A patrolling B-25 takes a shot at it, but misses. In an attempt to deal with this unwanted visitor, I form a surface combat task force of light cruisers and destroyers from the ships at Townsville and order them to Cairns on Patrol/Do Not React orders. The light cruisers are the bait—hopefully, the sub will take a shot at one of them, allowing the destroyers to pounce for the kill.
My F-5A recon planes are still reporting a number of destroyers parked in the harbor at Gili Gili—there are four of them, and I assume these are the four that were damaged during the foray down to Cairns. They’re probably getting rid of floatation damage. In an attempt to compound their misery, I order the three B-17 squadrons at Cairns to launch a port attack tomorrow. If I can drop a couple of 500-pounders onto those destroyers, I might be able to force them to scuttle.
I also get a very welcome intelligence report. The Okinoshima, the minelayer bombed off Dobadura over a month ago, has been added to the sunk ships list. This is my 25th confirmed ship kill, and a very welcome one—I hate those minelayers!
To the east, I’ve been accumulating a number of base force units at Noumea—far more than I need, given that most of the planes in SOPAC have been sent to the northern bases. I need to bulk up the aviation support capabilities at Luganville and Efate, so I create another transport to haul one of the base force units to Efate. I’ll take another force to Luganville as soon as I get one that is equipped with radar.
July 12-13, 1942
July 12, 1942
On the morning of the 12th, a Japanese Naval Garrison Unit storms Lea Lea beach. Every tropical bird, hermit crab, and sea turtle on the beach is rounded up and marched into captivity by the implacable enemy. Few are ever seen again.
More seriously, I-162 is still parked at Cairns—it dodges another B-25 attack successfully. Additionally, an A-20 flying from Noumea spots another Japanese sub about 150 miles to the west of Noumea harbor. I may have taught the Japanese to keep out of Noumea itself, but staking out the sea routes from Australia is just as dangerous to me, and potentially harder to counter. Nevertheless, I’m going to try. An eight-destroyer task force is sent on a run toward the last reported location of the sub.
The engineer unit headed for Cooktown from Brisbane is about one day out of Townsville now. I’ll order it to rendezvous with some escort vessels there, then steam to Cooktown. They’re badly needed—the one base force unit there is totally unsuited to the task of base expansion.
The B-17s tasked to hit Gili Gili didn’t fly yesterday, so I leave them on port attack orders for tomorrow. I also notice that the Japanese have moved aircraft into Port Moresby (recon flights indicate a small squadron of fighters and a squadron of auxiliaries—probably Topsys or float planes like Emilys). I can’t just let them sit there in peace, so the Hudson and Mitchell squadrons are ordered to mount an airfield attack. There still appears to be just one unit on the ground, so I don’t think I need to worry about AA fire, and if he hasn’t got aviation support, any planes I damage will be stuck on the ground.
To the west, Saratoga’s squadron has rendezvoused with Lexington, and both carriers are now heading east for Noumea. Their replenishment task force should reach their position in another 1-2 days.
July 13, 1942
I should’ve known that the quiet of the past two weeks was too good to last. All hell has broken loose today, and it looks like the IJN is making a serious play for Luganville.
The day’s action begins in the west. My sub hunter task force fulfills its role as designated target a little too well. I-162 slams a pair of torpedoes into the Ralph Talbot, breaking the destroyer’s back. The sub’s triumph is short-lived, however, as the Talbot’s consorts Morris and Balch pound their submerged foe with no less than four depth charges. The shattered hull of I-162 quickly joins its victim on the bottom of the harbor.
My Australia-based bombers launch a pair of strikes at New Guinea today. In the first, 29 Hudsons and 28 Mitchells hit the airfield at Port Moresby. The six Rufes on CAP manage to down one Hudson, but the surviving bombers hit the airfield hard—9 hits on the airbase, one on the airbase supplies, and 35 hits on the runway.
Twenty B-17s from Cairns fly north to hit the port at Gili Gili, targeting the four IJN destroyers still laid up there. This strike is very successful—the badly damaged Shikinami is hit twice more, her consort Asakaze takes a hit (both DDs are reported on fire with heavy damage), and the raid also scores twice on the port itself and once on the port supplies. Inevitably, one Fortress is lost to operational causes on the flight home to Cairns.
Unfortunately for me, today the Japanese decide to counterpunch, and do so with authority. The first blow comes from Lunga—a powerful anti-shipping strike of 36 Zeroes, 6 Nells, and 21 Betties raiding a collection of shipping clustered at Luganville. They are engaged by a CAP of 6 Marine Wildcats and 15 Army Airacobras. A vicious dogfight over the harbor results in Japanese losses of one Zero and five Betties in exchange for a single Wildcat, with two more F4Fs and a pair of Airacobras damaged. The surviving bombers streak in to attack a resupply convoy unloading in the harbor. The AK Mercury takes a pair of torpedo strikes and is badly damaged, but the other ships in her convoy escape unscathed—for the moment. Two Nells and a dozen Betties take damage from flak during their low-level torpedo runs.
Unfortunately, just moments after the last aircraft from the first strike vanishes from sight, a massive wave of IJN carrier planes swarms over Luganville—50 A6M2 and 21 A6M3 Zeroes, 59 Vals, and 67 Kates. Again, my CAP engages them—this time 5 Wildcats and 15 Airacobras. The dogfighting is brutal—seven Zeroes, three Wildcats, six Airacobras and a Kate are shot out of the sky. The surviving bombers ignore the merchant convoy in favor of my ASW surface combat group, and the results speak for themselves:
Allied Ships
SC 644, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SC 640, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
PG Kiwi, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
SC 648, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
SC 639, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SC 645, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SC 642, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
SC 641, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SC 646, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SC 637, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
SC 643, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
It goes without saying that every one of these ships sinks. OUCH! The only silver lining is that while I lost a lot of ships, these are all 1- or 2-point ASW escorts, and it’s probably costing Marc more points in aircraft to sink them than they’re worth. And, of course, while he’s plinking subchasers, he’s not blasting merchant ships.
But the day is still young. The carrier planes refuel, rearm, and take another shot at my merchant ships—this time it’s 40 A6M2s, 20 A6M3s, 24 Vals and 26 Kates. Six Wildcats and 13 Airacobras rise to meet them, but their fatigue is starting to show. The covering Zeroes down three F4Fs and three P-39s in exchange for one Zero and a Kate. The bombers don’t perform all that well this time, though. The cargo ships Almaack and Formalhaut each take single bomb hits, and the AK Titania is hit by a torpedo, but that’s it. It certainly could’ve been a lot worse.
The medium bombers from Luganville take one more crack at my ships as well. This time it’s 31 Zeroes covering 4 Nells and 6 Betties (evidently a lot of the planes damaged in the morning couldn’t fly in the afternoon). Only 3 Wildcats and 9 Airacobras are left on CAP. They’re clearly a spent force now, as they manage to down only a single Zero and a Betty, while all 3 Wildcats and two of the Airacobras are gunned down by the Zeroes. The bombers again dive on the transports, scoring a single torpedo hit on the damaged Almaack.
Reconnaissance flights reveal a grim picture. There are at least six IJN task forces within 200 miles of Luganville. One is a huge carrier task force, reportedly including no less than five CVs and one CVL. Two others are heavy surface combat groups, each including multiple battleships. Two of them appear to be auxiliary support task forces (oilers and tankers, with escorts), and the last may be an invasion task force (at least a couple of transports are reported).
Well, this is a fine kettle of fish! Great job by my naval search boys—the entire Combined Fleet is sailing down from the Solomons, and I don’t spot them until they’re 150 miles out. Note to self—next time PBY squadron leader assures me that his spotter, Hugo the Wonder Dog, is the best in the business, treat the report with skepticism.
My options for dealing with this crisis are really pretty limited. Even if Saratoga were present at Noumea, ordering my carriers to go out and take on that armada would be suicide. Besides, my destroyers are currently stalking a sub off to the west of Noumea. So all I can really do is order Hornet and Enterprise to get out of harm’s way. They and their cruisers are formed into an air combat task force and orders south from Noumea. The destroyers, in turn, are ordered to rendezvous with the carriers. Saratoga and her task force are ordered to steam east at full speed to reinforce Enterprise and Hornet.
My merchant shipping in and around Luganville is ordered to cut and run. Most of them are ordered to Efate, which they may be able to make in a day—two at most. Many of them won’t make it if the Japanese choose to press their attacks, but I’ve got to save what I can. One subchaser that somehow avoided notice (the decorated SC 647) is ordered to run straight for Noumea. Every sub in port at Luganville is put to sea to sit on likely approach hexes. The silver lining here is that my destroyer minelayers ran in and out of Luganville overnight without being noticed, so there’s now a nice, big minefield sitting there waiting for any bombardment task force that chooses to come calling.
I order every functional aircraft at Luganville to leave—the PBYs and Wildcats go to Noumea, the Marauders and Airacobras fly to Efate. The latter are all placed on naval attack orders, the B-26s at 2,000 feet, the P-39s at 100. I’m hoping that they’ll go after soft-skinned targets, as if they go after warships they’re going to get slaughtered by flak. But I’m not seeing very many transports out there, and if I can inflict damage on a couple of them my ground forces at Luganville may be strong enough to beat off an attack. We’ll see how it goes.
I also decide to take advantage of the absence of his carriers (and almost all of his airpower) in the west. Australia and four light cruisers form a bombardment task force and head north. Tomorrow they’ll rendezvous with the sub-hunter group from Cairns, and then the united force will run up to pound on Port Moresby. It looks like Marc is flying in an engineer unit to begin repairing the base, but it doesn’t look he’s got many of them there yet, and I think I can inflict a lot more damage on the base than he’s going to be able to repair. In fact, if it looks like he’s not serious about reinforcing the base, I might even toy with the idea of sending a couple of RCTs from the 3rd Aussie Division up there to see if I can grab the base back. It looks like he’s still got just a single SNLF at Port Moresby (he hasn’t sent in more reinforcements by ship—I’d have spotted the convoys, at least), plus a small piece of an engineer unit. Two RCTs ought to be able to roll over that if they can get unloaded cleanly. I probably won’t do it, but if he doesn’t reinforce, I’m definitely keeping that operation on the back burner.
There’s not a lot else I can do right now except duck, and see how back this hurts when it’s all over.
On the morning of the 12th, a Japanese Naval Garrison Unit storms Lea Lea beach. Every tropical bird, hermit crab, and sea turtle on the beach is rounded up and marched into captivity by the implacable enemy. Few are ever seen again.
More seriously, I-162 is still parked at Cairns—it dodges another B-25 attack successfully. Additionally, an A-20 flying from Noumea spots another Japanese sub about 150 miles to the west of Noumea harbor. I may have taught the Japanese to keep out of Noumea itself, but staking out the sea routes from Australia is just as dangerous to me, and potentially harder to counter. Nevertheless, I’m going to try. An eight-destroyer task force is sent on a run toward the last reported location of the sub.
The engineer unit headed for Cooktown from Brisbane is about one day out of Townsville now. I’ll order it to rendezvous with some escort vessels there, then steam to Cooktown. They’re badly needed—the one base force unit there is totally unsuited to the task of base expansion.
The B-17s tasked to hit Gili Gili didn’t fly yesterday, so I leave them on port attack orders for tomorrow. I also notice that the Japanese have moved aircraft into Port Moresby (recon flights indicate a small squadron of fighters and a squadron of auxiliaries—probably Topsys or float planes like Emilys). I can’t just let them sit there in peace, so the Hudson and Mitchell squadrons are ordered to mount an airfield attack. There still appears to be just one unit on the ground, so I don’t think I need to worry about AA fire, and if he hasn’t got aviation support, any planes I damage will be stuck on the ground.
To the west, Saratoga’s squadron has rendezvoused with Lexington, and both carriers are now heading east for Noumea. Their replenishment task force should reach their position in another 1-2 days.
July 13, 1942
I should’ve known that the quiet of the past two weeks was too good to last. All hell has broken loose today, and it looks like the IJN is making a serious play for Luganville.
The day’s action begins in the west. My sub hunter task force fulfills its role as designated target a little too well. I-162 slams a pair of torpedoes into the Ralph Talbot, breaking the destroyer’s back. The sub’s triumph is short-lived, however, as the Talbot’s consorts Morris and Balch pound their submerged foe with no less than four depth charges. The shattered hull of I-162 quickly joins its victim on the bottom of the harbor.
My Australia-based bombers launch a pair of strikes at New Guinea today. In the first, 29 Hudsons and 28 Mitchells hit the airfield at Port Moresby. The six Rufes on CAP manage to down one Hudson, but the surviving bombers hit the airfield hard—9 hits on the airbase, one on the airbase supplies, and 35 hits on the runway.
Twenty B-17s from Cairns fly north to hit the port at Gili Gili, targeting the four IJN destroyers still laid up there. This strike is very successful—the badly damaged Shikinami is hit twice more, her consort Asakaze takes a hit (both DDs are reported on fire with heavy damage), and the raid also scores twice on the port itself and once on the port supplies. Inevitably, one Fortress is lost to operational causes on the flight home to Cairns.
Unfortunately for me, today the Japanese decide to counterpunch, and do so with authority. The first blow comes from Lunga—a powerful anti-shipping strike of 36 Zeroes, 6 Nells, and 21 Betties raiding a collection of shipping clustered at Luganville. They are engaged by a CAP of 6 Marine Wildcats and 15 Army Airacobras. A vicious dogfight over the harbor results in Japanese losses of one Zero and five Betties in exchange for a single Wildcat, with two more F4Fs and a pair of Airacobras damaged. The surviving bombers streak in to attack a resupply convoy unloading in the harbor. The AK Mercury takes a pair of torpedo strikes and is badly damaged, but the other ships in her convoy escape unscathed—for the moment. Two Nells and a dozen Betties take damage from flak during their low-level torpedo runs.
Unfortunately, just moments after the last aircraft from the first strike vanishes from sight, a massive wave of IJN carrier planes swarms over Luganville—50 A6M2 and 21 A6M3 Zeroes, 59 Vals, and 67 Kates. Again, my CAP engages them—this time 5 Wildcats and 15 Airacobras. The dogfighting is brutal—seven Zeroes, three Wildcats, six Airacobras and a Kate are shot out of the sky. The surviving bombers ignore the merchant convoy in favor of my ASW surface combat group, and the results speak for themselves:
Allied Ships
SC 644, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SC 640, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
PG Kiwi, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
SC 648, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
SC 639, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SC 645, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SC 642, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
SC 641, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SC 646, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SC 637, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
SC 643, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
It goes without saying that every one of these ships sinks. OUCH! The only silver lining is that while I lost a lot of ships, these are all 1- or 2-point ASW escorts, and it’s probably costing Marc more points in aircraft to sink them than they’re worth. And, of course, while he’s plinking subchasers, he’s not blasting merchant ships.
But the day is still young. The carrier planes refuel, rearm, and take another shot at my merchant ships—this time it’s 40 A6M2s, 20 A6M3s, 24 Vals and 26 Kates. Six Wildcats and 13 Airacobras rise to meet them, but their fatigue is starting to show. The covering Zeroes down three F4Fs and three P-39s in exchange for one Zero and a Kate. The bombers don’t perform all that well this time, though. The cargo ships Almaack and Formalhaut each take single bomb hits, and the AK Titania is hit by a torpedo, but that’s it. It certainly could’ve been a lot worse.
The medium bombers from Luganville take one more crack at my ships as well. This time it’s 31 Zeroes covering 4 Nells and 6 Betties (evidently a lot of the planes damaged in the morning couldn’t fly in the afternoon). Only 3 Wildcats and 9 Airacobras are left on CAP. They’re clearly a spent force now, as they manage to down only a single Zero and a Betty, while all 3 Wildcats and two of the Airacobras are gunned down by the Zeroes. The bombers again dive on the transports, scoring a single torpedo hit on the damaged Almaack.
Reconnaissance flights reveal a grim picture. There are at least six IJN task forces within 200 miles of Luganville. One is a huge carrier task force, reportedly including no less than five CVs and one CVL. Two others are heavy surface combat groups, each including multiple battleships. Two of them appear to be auxiliary support task forces (oilers and tankers, with escorts), and the last may be an invasion task force (at least a couple of transports are reported).
Well, this is a fine kettle of fish! Great job by my naval search boys—the entire Combined Fleet is sailing down from the Solomons, and I don’t spot them until they’re 150 miles out. Note to self—next time PBY squadron leader assures me that his spotter, Hugo the Wonder Dog, is the best in the business, treat the report with skepticism.
My options for dealing with this crisis are really pretty limited. Even if Saratoga were present at Noumea, ordering my carriers to go out and take on that armada would be suicide. Besides, my destroyers are currently stalking a sub off to the west of Noumea. So all I can really do is order Hornet and Enterprise to get out of harm’s way. They and their cruisers are formed into an air combat task force and orders south from Noumea. The destroyers, in turn, are ordered to rendezvous with the carriers. Saratoga and her task force are ordered to steam east at full speed to reinforce Enterprise and Hornet.
My merchant shipping in and around Luganville is ordered to cut and run. Most of them are ordered to Efate, which they may be able to make in a day—two at most. Many of them won’t make it if the Japanese choose to press their attacks, but I’ve got to save what I can. One subchaser that somehow avoided notice (the decorated SC 647) is ordered to run straight for Noumea. Every sub in port at Luganville is put to sea to sit on likely approach hexes. The silver lining here is that my destroyer minelayers ran in and out of Luganville overnight without being noticed, so there’s now a nice, big minefield sitting there waiting for any bombardment task force that chooses to come calling.
I order every functional aircraft at Luganville to leave—the PBYs and Wildcats go to Noumea, the Marauders and Airacobras fly to Efate. The latter are all placed on naval attack orders, the B-26s at 2,000 feet, the P-39s at 100. I’m hoping that they’ll go after soft-skinned targets, as if they go after warships they’re going to get slaughtered by flak. But I’m not seeing very many transports out there, and if I can inflict damage on a couple of them my ground forces at Luganville may be strong enough to beat off an attack. We’ll see how it goes.
I also decide to take advantage of the absence of his carriers (and almost all of his airpower) in the west. Australia and four light cruisers form a bombardment task force and head north. Tomorrow they’ll rendezvous with the sub-hunter group from Cairns, and then the united force will run up to pound on Port Moresby. It looks like Marc is flying in an engineer unit to begin repairing the base, but it doesn’t look he’s got many of them there yet, and I think I can inflict a lot more damage on the base than he’s going to be able to repair. In fact, if it looks like he’s not serious about reinforcing the base, I might even toy with the idea of sending a couple of RCTs from the 3rd Aussie Division up there to see if I can grab the base back. It looks like he’s still got just a single SNLF at Port Moresby (he hasn’t sent in more reinforcements by ship—I’d have spotted the convoys, at least), plus a small piece of an engineer unit. Two RCTs ought to be able to roll over that if they can get unloaded cleanly. I probably won’t do it, but if he doesn’t reinforce, I’m definitely keeping that operation on the back burner.
There’s not a lot else I can do right now except duck, and see how back this hurts when it’s all over.
July 14-15, 1942
July 14, 1942
Well, it’s not all over yet, but it still hurts. Air raids from Lunga and from the IJN carriers continue to hit home throughout SOPAC. The Zeroes from Lunga fly a pair of low-level sweeps over Luganville. This, at least, is a mistake. There are no planes left for them to destroy on the ground, and all this does is give my AA gunners a chance to shoot up the Zeroes. They kill one and damage over a dozen others, several of whom crash on the flight home.
My Marauders and Airacobras launch several strikes on the wall of Japanese shipping approaching Efate, but my luck is poor, and they target surface combat task forces and not merchant ships. The first couple of strikes result in nothing but a bunch of shot-up Marauders, but the third does a little better. Airacobras strafe the light cruisers Tenryu and Abukuma, scoring multiple shell hits on both, although likely doing little damage. This time, the Marauders also plant bombs on the heavy cruiser Aoba and the destroyer Ushio. A final strike, on a task force containing the battleships Hiei and Kirishima, puts a single bomb into the heavy cruiser Ashigara. All told, ten Marauders are lost during these strikes, with many others damaged.
Then it’s the IJN’s turn. A Nell/Betty strike from Lunga at shipping near Efate puts two torpedoes into the AP President Adams, leaving the ship badly damaged. One Betty is lost to flak, with two more Betties and three Nells succumbing to battle damage later in the day.
The big blow comes from the carriers, though. A massive strike of 58 Zeroes, 94 Vals and 91 Kates descends on my big cargo convoy near Efate. The damaged President Adams is blown out of the water, and many other ships are heavily damaged. The combat report indicated that the destroyer Gwin and the APD Colhoun were also sunk, but it turned out that the Japanese flyers were exaggerating their claims. Gwin had only moderate damage (Sys and Flt in the low 30s), and Colhoun had hardly been scratched (Sys 6).
Still and all, that was bad enough. I’ve got a ton of cripples to shepherd home now, and precious few escorts to do it. I order all of the damaged vessels to run for Noumea, except for a pair who are so horribly shot up they’d never make it—these two go into port at Efate. I know there’s a bombardment task force on the way, but they’re dead anyhow, so I may as well hope they can ride out the bombardment in the port. I also break some of my bigger convoys into multiple smaller task forces—this should increase the odds of at least some of them making it out alive.
Enterprise and Hornet will continue to steam west to rendezvous with Saratoga. I order them to angle their course to the southwest to steer them out of harm’s way in the event the IJN carrier task force decides to head south. I’d briefly considered trying to sneak Saratoga behind the IJN to hit the supply/tanker convoys, which had been well behind the combatant ships yesterday. I’m glad I didn’t, as they’re now tucked safely away in the same hex as his uber-carrier task force.
To the west, my bombardment task force has now formed up, and is one sprint south of Port Moresby. They should hit the place tonight. There won’t be any ships in port for them to hit, as intelligence reveals that the damaged Ryutako Maru has succumbed to her wounds. Maybe they can at least perforate some of the Japanese troops on the ground.
July 15, 1942
I’ve read that during World War II, Admiral Ernest King never truly trusted Chester Nimitz, despite the latter’s demonstrated competence. King, in true paranoid CNO form, viewed Nimitz as the man who could “lose the war in an afternoon.” Well, I’m beginning to understand King’s fear, as I may well have just lost the war in an afternoon.
To make a long and disgusting story short, I appear to have made a critical error in my task force assignments yesterday—that is to say, I accidentally left the Enterprise/Hornet task force with React ON (and Saratoga’s group, of course, was following them). On top of this, I had stood down their aircraft, as the course I intended for them to sail would’ve taken them 300 miles to the southwest and well out of harm’s way.
With React ON, however, they went charging off toward the IJN carriers, who were, in fact, heading south on react orders of their own. The end result of this little adventure was that the two CV forces wound up one hex away from one another, with my ships at Koumac, and the IJN ships one hex to the northeast. The difference, of course, is that in addition to having a massive numerical superiority, the Japanese also had planes that actually flew.
The bloody aftermath of this is that Enterprise and Hornet, and their entire complements, have been blown to bits, along with the Aussie CA Canberra and the destroyer Meredith. Another CA and a DD are heavily damaged. Saratoga, by virtue of having been in a different task force, escaped unscathed, but I know the IJN carriers know she’s there, so she’s going to be dog meat tomorrow. I will be accepting my crown as King Dweebo, Lord High Overseer of the Dumba***s later this evening in a special (in the short bus sense of the word “special”) ceremony.
[Side note: Absolutely, positively, under no circumstances DO NOT make critical PBEM turns while tired. Don’t rush the turn—it really is important, as I’m finding out. Screw up, and a human player will make you pay in ways the computer probably won’t].
To make matters worse, a huge IJN bombardment task force sailed into Efate Port Vila and proceeded to blast the bejeezus out of a whole bunch of merchant shipping. Again, I’m a bit perplexed, as at least one of the task forces they hit shouldn’t have been there, but this is a relatively minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things.
O.K. I am now well and truly screwed. But I try to beat back the feelings of despair—I’ve seen other Allied players recover from situations worse than this. Since Saratoga is doomed anyway, I decide to try to make her death count for something. She’s left mother-naked in a task force with only two other ships—the crippled CA and DD mentioned above. All of her strike planes are set to Naval Attack, and her fighters are assigned to 100% escort duty. Maybe a few of her attack planes can get through that way. Besides, once she’s sunk, they can easily divert to Koumac, Basse-Poya, or Noumea, so I should at least save her squadrons. She’s ordered to head along the north coast of New Caledonia.
Every surviving escort vessel capable of making 32 knots or more is grouped into a surface combat task force and ordered to rush the IJN carriers. It’s a very long shot, of course, but the IJN CVs are only one hex away, and if my spotting reports are accurate, their screen isn’t that impressive. If my cruisers can succeed in closing the range, I might—MIGHT—be able to salvage something from this mess. This is probably throwing good ships after bad, but I’m so close to the Japanese fleet that even if my ships run, I can’t get far enough away to keep from getting wasted by air strikes tomorrow. So I order them to sail what I believe will be the most likely IJN course—back toward the surface flotillas—and cross my fingers that I’ll be able to overtake them. React is on, and Frank Fletcher is at the controls. Hey, he made his name as a cruiser skipper, didn’t he?
My bombardment task force has cratered Port Moresby and is now heading south. I’m still seeing those IJN destroyers at Gili Gili, and his main fleet and air power seems to be concentrated far away, so I redirect the task force to bombard Gili Gili before heading for home. I’d like to at least finish off those lousy DDs if I can.
Well, it’s not all over yet, but it still hurts. Air raids from Lunga and from the IJN carriers continue to hit home throughout SOPAC. The Zeroes from Lunga fly a pair of low-level sweeps over Luganville. This, at least, is a mistake. There are no planes left for them to destroy on the ground, and all this does is give my AA gunners a chance to shoot up the Zeroes. They kill one and damage over a dozen others, several of whom crash on the flight home.
My Marauders and Airacobras launch several strikes on the wall of Japanese shipping approaching Efate, but my luck is poor, and they target surface combat task forces and not merchant ships. The first couple of strikes result in nothing but a bunch of shot-up Marauders, but the third does a little better. Airacobras strafe the light cruisers Tenryu and Abukuma, scoring multiple shell hits on both, although likely doing little damage. This time, the Marauders also plant bombs on the heavy cruiser Aoba and the destroyer Ushio. A final strike, on a task force containing the battleships Hiei and Kirishima, puts a single bomb into the heavy cruiser Ashigara. All told, ten Marauders are lost during these strikes, with many others damaged.
Then it’s the IJN’s turn. A Nell/Betty strike from Lunga at shipping near Efate puts two torpedoes into the AP President Adams, leaving the ship badly damaged. One Betty is lost to flak, with two more Betties and three Nells succumbing to battle damage later in the day.
The big blow comes from the carriers, though. A massive strike of 58 Zeroes, 94 Vals and 91 Kates descends on my big cargo convoy near Efate. The damaged President Adams is blown out of the water, and many other ships are heavily damaged. The combat report indicated that the destroyer Gwin and the APD Colhoun were also sunk, but it turned out that the Japanese flyers were exaggerating their claims. Gwin had only moderate damage (Sys and Flt in the low 30s), and Colhoun had hardly been scratched (Sys 6).
Still and all, that was bad enough. I’ve got a ton of cripples to shepherd home now, and precious few escorts to do it. I order all of the damaged vessels to run for Noumea, except for a pair who are so horribly shot up they’d never make it—these two go into port at Efate. I know there’s a bombardment task force on the way, but they’re dead anyhow, so I may as well hope they can ride out the bombardment in the port. I also break some of my bigger convoys into multiple smaller task forces—this should increase the odds of at least some of them making it out alive.
Enterprise and Hornet will continue to steam west to rendezvous with Saratoga. I order them to angle their course to the southwest to steer them out of harm’s way in the event the IJN carrier task force decides to head south. I’d briefly considered trying to sneak Saratoga behind the IJN to hit the supply/tanker convoys, which had been well behind the combatant ships yesterday. I’m glad I didn’t, as they’re now tucked safely away in the same hex as his uber-carrier task force.
To the west, my bombardment task force has now formed up, and is one sprint south of Port Moresby. They should hit the place tonight. There won’t be any ships in port for them to hit, as intelligence reveals that the damaged Ryutako Maru has succumbed to her wounds. Maybe they can at least perforate some of the Japanese troops on the ground.
July 15, 1942
I’ve read that during World War II, Admiral Ernest King never truly trusted Chester Nimitz, despite the latter’s demonstrated competence. King, in true paranoid CNO form, viewed Nimitz as the man who could “lose the war in an afternoon.” Well, I’m beginning to understand King’s fear, as I may well have just lost the war in an afternoon.
To make a long and disgusting story short, I appear to have made a critical error in my task force assignments yesterday—that is to say, I accidentally left the Enterprise/Hornet task force with React ON (and Saratoga’s group, of course, was following them). On top of this, I had stood down their aircraft, as the course I intended for them to sail would’ve taken them 300 miles to the southwest and well out of harm’s way.
With React ON, however, they went charging off toward the IJN carriers, who were, in fact, heading south on react orders of their own. The end result of this little adventure was that the two CV forces wound up one hex away from one another, with my ships at Koumac, and the IJN ships one hex to the northeast. The difference, of course, is that in addition to having a massive numerical superiority, the Japanese also had planes that actually flew.
The bloody aftermath of this is that Enterprise and Hornet, and their entire complements, have been blown to bits, along with the Aussie CA Canberra and the destroyer Meredith. Another CA and a DD are heavily damaged. Saratoga, by virtue of having been in a different task force, escaped unscathed, but I know the IJN carriers know she’s there, so she’s going to be dog meat tomorrow. I will be accepting my crown as King Dweebo, Lord High Overseer of the Dumba***s later this evening in a special (in the short bus sense of the word “special”) ceremony.
[Side note: Absolutely, positively, under no circumstances DO NOT make critical PBEM turns while tired. Don’t rush the turn—it really is important, as I’m finding out. Screw up, and a human player will make you pay in ways the computer probably won’t].
To make matters worse, a huge IJN bombardment task force sailed into Efate Port Vila and proceeded to blast the bejeezus out of a whole bunch of merchant shipping. Again, I’m a bit perplexed, as at least one of the task forces they hit shouldn’t have been there, but this is a relatively minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things.
O.K. I am now well and truly screwed. But I try to beat back the feelings of despair—I’ve seen other Allied players recover from situations worse than this. Since Saratoga is doomed anyway, I decide to try to make her death count for something. She’s left mother-naked in a task force with only two other ships—the crippled CA and DD mentioned above. All of her strike planes are set to Naval Attack, and her fighters are assigned to 100% escort duty. Maybe a few of her attack planes can get through that way. Besides, once she’s sunk, they can easily divert to Koumac, Basse-Poya, or Noumea, so I should at least save her squadrons. She’s ordered to head along the north coast of New Caledonia.
Every surviving escort vessel capable of making 32 knots or more is grouped into a surface combat task force and ordered to rush the IJN carriers. It’s a very long shot, of course, but the IJN CVs are only one hex away, and if my spotting reports are accurate, their screen isn’t that impressive. If my cruisers can succeed in closing the range, I might—MIGHT—be able to salvage something from this mess. This is probably throwing good ships after bad, but I’m so close to the Japanese fleet that even if my ships run, I can’t get far enough away to keep from getting wasted by air strikes tomorrow. So I order them to sail what I believe will be the most likely IJN course—back toward the surface flotillas—and cross my fingers that I’ll be able to overtake them. React is on, and Frank Fletcher is at the controls. Hey, he made his name as a cruiser skipper, didn’t he?
My bombardment task force has cratered Port Moresby and is now heading south. I’m still seeing those IJN destroyers at Gili Gili, and his main fleet and air power seems to be concentrated far away, so I redirect the task force to bombard Gili Gili before heading for home. I’d like to at least finish off those lousy DDs if I can.
July 16-17, 1942
July 16, 1942
Well, that’s a bit more like it. I still get it in the neck today, but at least I manage to hand out some abuse in return.
My cruiser/destroyer screen, unsurprisingly, fails to catch the IJN carriers (they went west, I imagine because they thought I’d be retreating that way), but when they do, they steam all the way to Efate, and smack into a huge IJN supply/transport task force. The two forces fight a pair of savage short-range night actions. Though hideously outgunned, the Japanese escort vessels put up fierce resistance. The heavy cruiser Indianapolis takes a pair of Long Lance hits, and the CLAA Atlanta takes one. The Indianapolis is also peppered with nearly a dozen 5- and 3-inch gun hits, although her armor belt stops most of these. The heavy cruisers Northampton and Vincennes and the destroyer Swanson also take hits, although none are serious.
The IJN escorts, in turn, pay a very heavy price for their gallantry. The destroyers Shigure and Inazuma are blown out of the water by 8-inch rounds from the American cruisers in the initial encounters, and the Yugure, the last destroyer in the convoy, takes 60 shell hits (!) and is reduced to a burning, sinking hulk. During the two battles, the minesweeper Fumi Maru #2 and about a half-dozen smaller escort vessels (PGs and PCs) are also sunk. However, they do succeed in keeping Fletcher’s ships off of their charges, as only a single tanker is sunk, and another damaged. While I’m pleased with the damage inflicted, this is still a missed opportunity, as there were at least ten tankers in that task force. Getting a few more of them could’ve put a real crimp in the IJN’s fleet operations, since the IJN capital ships are such gas hogs. But Fletcher can’t stick around to finish the job—his ships are out of ammunition and need to retire toward Noumea.
My Australian LBA is working today, too. The B-17s from Cairns hit Gili Gili, scoring another hit on the damaged DD Shiokaze, three hits on the port, and three on the port supplies. Meanwhile, the Hudsons and Mitchells from Cooktown hit the 4th Naval Garrison Unit at Port Moresby. They reportedly kill 81 men, but I’m guessing these figures are a tad inflated. It’ll probably build up their disruption a bit, though.
Finally, Saratoga and the planes based at Noumea take their shots at a number of Japanese surface combat task forces around Noumea. In a series of raids, Airacobras and Dauntlesses score bomb hits on several Japanese vessels:
DD Minekaze – 2 1,000-pound bombs (on fire, heavy damage)
CA Takao – 4 shell hits (bounced off the armor)
CA Nachi – 1 500-pound bomb (no serious damage reported)
CA Haguro – 2 1,000-pound bombs (on fire, heavy damage)
CA Suzuya – 2 1,000-pound bombs (on fire, heavy damage)
BB Kirishima – 2 1,000-pound bombs (no serious damage reported)
BB Haruna – 4 1,000-pound bombs (on fire)
BB Kongo – 1 1,000-pound bomb (on fire)
I doubt any of these monsters is hit bad enough to be in danger of sinking, except possibly Minekaze, but at a minimum they’re likely to need some extensive yard time, and a couple will probably need to go back to Tokyo. Haruna reportedly lost one of her main turrets, so that’s a nice hit.
All things considered, Saratoga’s fliers dished out quite a bit of punishment, but now she pays the price. I’d assigned her fighters entirely to escort duty, assuming I’d be attacking carriers (I wanted to try to get a few of the bombers through, and I figured the IJN carriers could throw more than enough attack planes to swamp any CAP she could put up). As it happens, the escorts were unnecessary, as I was attacking un-CAPed targets. Two waves of Vals and Kates from the IJN carriers lash Saratoga, but because the IJN CVs had sailed so far west, they’re flying at extreme range, so the Kates are carrying bombs, not torpedoes. This alone saves Saratoga—at least for now. She’s badly damaged, and incapable of operating aircraft, but she’s still alive, and still capable of a decent turn of speed—it should be enough to get her to Noumea in one day if she’s unmolested by the Japanese.
To close out the day’s action, nine Betties from Lunga launch a nuisance raid on Luganville. They score two runway hits, but don’t hit anything vital.
All right—here’s the situation at the end of the day. Both the IJN and USN have shipping scattered across a thousand square miles of ocean. The IJN carriers are about 350 miles west of Noumea (which prompts me to order Lexington to turn south—she’s getting a bit too close to them for my liking). There are two IJN cruiser groups northwest of New Caledonia, a battleship task force about 90 miles northeast of Noumea, a single (presumably damaged) heavy cruiser about 30 miles northeast of them. Finally, a pair of minesweepers are parked at Luganville, and three replenishment/fast transport/transport task forces are at Efate (these are the ships Fletcher hit last night), which have just deposited five IJN ground units (four infantry, one engineer).
I have the damaged Saratoga about 120 miles northwest of Noumea, heading home, Fletcher’s cruisers just out of Noumea, with their cripples straggling home in their wake, hoping to avoid the IJN heavies. There are also a half-dozen task forces of single or paired merchies trying hard not to be noticed. Three USN subs are boring in toward Luganville and Efate, trying to pick off targets of opportunity. Saratoga’s air wing, unable to return to her, diverted to Noumea (which is the best thing they could have done). Most of her planes are damaged, but the ones that aren’t are ordered to fly again tomorrow—maybe I can pick off a cripple or two.
I consider ordering the troops at Efate Port Vila to launch a shock attack, hoping to wipe out the Japanese troops on the beach, but I think better of it. Instead, the two PBY squadrons at Noumea are ordered to start lifting the last of the Americal Division RCTs to Efate. With two RCTs in place, I’m pretty sure I can hold off the units already landed. If there turn out to be more en route, then I may have to consider trying to evacuate what I can.
July 17, 1942
Well, today is another really, really unpleasant day, as massive Japanese surface forces continue to pick off isolated cripples as they try to struggle into port.
The day opens with a pair of sub attacks. The IJN sub I-172 misses a shot at the oiler Platte north of Noumea. S-41 takes a shot at a Japanese transport at Efate, but its luck is no better.
The night sees a massive IJN bombardment task force including no less than SIX battleships (Kongo, Haruna, Hiei, Kirishima, Mutsu, and Yamato) engage in six separate surface battles against damaged USN ships in and around Noumea. These engagements cost me the DDs Swanson and Mahan, the AKs Betelgeuse and Alchiba, the heavy cruiser Salt Lake City, and the CLAA Atlanta. The only saving grace is that the IJN ships expend so much ammunition wiping out my cripples that the ensuing bombardment of Noumea is pretty half-hearted, and doesn’t do much damage (1 airbase hit, 11 runway hits, 1 port hit—the base is completely repaired by morning).
It’s then my turn to bombard, as my cruiser/destroyer squadron in the west hits Gili Gili. They manage to plant two more hits on the damaged Shiokaze (still parked in port), and do a pretty good job of shooting up the airfield and port. Japanese coast defense guns inflict a pair of hits on the destroyer Russell, which is moderately damaged (SYS damage in the low teens).
The morning begins with a successful attack by S-38 upon a Japanese transport in the Gili straits. The Keizan Maru takes a pair of hits, and S-38 avoids her escorts. The transport appears to be loaded with men, so this might mean a reinforcement convoy headed for Port Moresby (more on this later).
My B-26s from Noumea fly a series of strikes against the Japanese transports unloading at Efate, but they’re both inexperienced and tired, and they fail to score any hits. The flier of the Kido Butai are far more successful. A massive wave of Vals and Kates finds the crippled Saratoga 60 miles short of Noumea and administers the coup de grace.
Another massive wave of carrier planes (48 A6M2 and 18 A6M3 Zeroes, 16 Vals, and 72 Kates) finds my main surface combat squadron at Noumea. At least this time there’s a heavy CAP waiting—39 Wildcats and 7 Airacobras. The ensuing attack costs me the destroyer Bagley, 14 Wildcats, 2 Airacobras, and bomb or torpedo hits on four other destroyers and the cruiser San Francisco. The Japanese lose 5 Zeroes, 3 Vals, and 21 Kates, with damage to most of the surviving bombers.
To close out the day’s activity, my troops on Efate Port Vila launch a shock attack on the newly-landed Japanese units—crap! I thought I’d ordered them back onto the defensive. The attack doesn’t fare well (0 to 1 odds, with the Allies losing 230 men to around 130 Japanese killed), but the information I gain is useful. If the numbers are accurate, the Japanese don’t yet have the 2:1 odds they’ll need to beat me, even if they can reduce the fortifications to level 0.
This prompts a flurry of activity on my part. The two PBY squadrons at Noumea have lifted about 400 load points worth of the 164th RCT of the Americal Division to Efate to reinforce the 132nd RCT. A third PBY squadron has arrived at Noumea today, and will assist the other two in moving troops. I also form a three-ship fast transport task force (one APD, one DD, one DMS) to move more men.
My main surface combat squadron is disbanded at Noumea. The most heavily-damaged ships (five destroyers and about an equal number of transports) are sent back to Pearl Harbor. The remaining combat-effective ships—four heavy cruisers and about nine destroyers—are formed into a surface combat task force and sent on a run to Efate. There is still a heavy concentration of Japanese merchant ships there, and I’d like to score some more kills if I can—maybe I can even disrupt the landings a bit. The medium-range bombers at Noumea are put on Ground Attack orders and told to target the Japanese troops on Efate—from the combat reports, it looks like he’s got about a reinforced division on the ground. My submarines are ordered to continue to patrol the area in search of cripples.
Far to the west, I’ve also launched an aggressive—perhaps foolhardy—counterattack. Since the IJN’s attention seems to be firmly riveted to the east, I’m going to attack in the west—at Port Moresby! The entire Australian 3rd Division has loaded onto transports and is sailing north from Brisbane. A separate transport convoy is also headed north, loaded with thousands of tons of supplies to restock the base. I’m quite sure a full division will be able to roll right over the forces present at PM, even if that small convoy spotted off Gili Gili is carrying reinforcements. With most of his transports and available troops attacking in the east, I’m not sure he’ll be able to respond effectively. If I take the base, I’ll fly in aviation support troops, then fighters and bombers.
Hey, I may have screwed up very badly a few days ago, and I may be going down hard—but if I am, I’m going down swinging.
Well, that’s a bit more like it. I still get it in the neck today, but at least I manage to hand out some abuse in return.
My cruiser/destroyer screen, unsurprisingly, fails to catch the IJN carriers (they went west, I imagine because they thought I’d be retreating that way), but when they do, they steam all the way to Efate, and smack into a huge IJN supply/transport task force. The two forces fight a pair of savage short-range night actions. Though hideously outgunned, the Japanese escort vessels put up fierce resistance. The heavy cruiser Indianapolis takes a pair of Long Lance hits, and the CLAA Atlanta takes one. The Indianapolis is also peppered with nearly a dozen 5- and 3-inch gun hits, although her armor belt stops most of these. The heavy cruisers Northampton and Vincennes and the destroyer Swanson also take hits, although none are serious.
The IJN escorts, in turn, pay a very heavy price for their gallantry. The destroyers Shigure and Inazuma are blown out of the water by 8-inch rounds from the American cruisers in the initial encounters, and the Yugure, the last destroyer in the convoy, takes 60 shell hits (!) and is reduced to a burning, sinking hulk. During the two battles, the minesweeper Fumi Maru #2 and about a half-dozen smaller escort vessels (PGs and PCs) are also sunk. However, they do succeed in keeping Fletcher’s ships off of their charges, as only a single tanker is sunk, and another damaged. While I’m pleased with the damage inflicted, this is still a missed opportunity, as there were at least ten tankers in that task force. Getting a few more of them could’ve put a real crimp in the IJN’s fleet operations, since the IJN capital ships are such gas hogs. But Fletcher can’t stick around to finish the job—his ships are out of ammunition and need to retire toward Noumea.
My Australian LBA is working today, too. The B-17s from Cairns hit Gili Gili, scoring another hit on the damaged DD Shiokaze, three hits on the port, and three on the port supplies. Meanwhile, the Hudsons and Mitchells from Cooktown hit the 4th Naval Garrison Unit at Port Moresby. They reportedly kill 81 men, but I’m guessing these figures are a tad inflated. It’ll probably build up their disruption a bit, though.
Finally, Saratoga and the planes based at Noumea take their shots at a number of Japanese surface combat task forces around Noumea. In a series of raids, Airacobras and Dauntlesses score bomb hits on several Japanese vessels:
DD Minekaze – 2 1,000-pound bombs (on fire, heavy damage)
CA Takao – 4 shell hits (bounced off the armor)
CA Nachi – 1 500-pound bomb (no serious damage reported)
CA Haguro – 2 1,000-pound bombs (on fire, heavy damage)
CA Suzuya – 2 1,000-pound bombs (on fire, heavy damage)
BB Kirishima – 2 1,000-pound bombs (no serious damage reported)
BB Haruna – 4 1,000-pound bombs (on fire)
BB Kongo – 1 1,000-pound bomb (on fire)
I doubt any of these monsters is hit bad enough to be in danger of sinking, except possibly Minekaze, but at a minimum they’re likely to need some extensive yard time, and a couple will probably need to go back to Tokyo. Haruna reportedly lost one of her main turrets, so that’s a nice hit.
All things considered, Saratoga’s fliers dished out quite a bit of punishment, but now she pays the price. I’d assigned her fighters entirely to escort duty, assuming I’d be attacking carriers (I wanted to try to get a few of the bombers through, and I figured the IJN carriers could throw more than enough attack planes to swamp any CAP she could put up). As it happens, the escorts were unnecessary, as I was attacking un-CAPed targets. Two waves of Vals and Kates from the IJN carriers lash Saratoga, but because the IJN CVs had sailed so far west, they’re flying at extreme range, so the Kates are carrying bombs, not torpedoes. This alone saves Saratoga—at least for now. She’s badly damaged, and incapable of operating aircraft, but she’s still alive, and still capable of a decent turn of speed—it should be enough to get her to Noumea in one day if she’s unmolested by the Japanese.
To close out the day’s action, nine Betties from Lunga launch a nuisance raid on Luganville. They score two runway hits, but don’t hit anything vital.
All right—here’s the situation at the end of the day. Both the IJN and USN have shipping scattered across a thousand square miles of ocean. The IJN carriers are about 350 miles west of Noumea (which prompts me to order Lexington to turn south—she’s getting a bit too close to them for my liking). There are two IJN cruiser groups northwest of New Caledonia, a battleship task force about 90 miles northeast of Noumea, a single (presumably damaged) heavy cruiser about 30 miles northeast of them. Finally, a pair of minesweepers are parked at Luganville, and three replenishment/fast transport/transport task forces are at Efate (these are the ships Fletcher hit last night), which have just deposited five IJN ground units (four infantry, one engineer).
I have the damaged Saratoga about 120 miles northwest of Noumea, heading home, Fletcher’s cruisers just out of Noumea, with their cripples straggling home in their wake, hoping to avoid the IJN heavies. There are also a half-dozen task forces of single or paired merchies trying hard not to be noticed. Three USN subs are boring in toward Luganville and Efate, trying to pick off targets of opportunity. Saratoga’s air wing, unable to return to her, diverted to Noumea (which is the best thing they could have done). Most of her planes are damaged, but the ones that aren’t are ordered to fly again tomorrow—maybe I can pick off a cripple or two.
I consider ordering the troops at Efate Port Vila to launch a shock attack, hoping to wipe out the Japanese troops on the beach, but I think better of it. Instead, the two PBY squadrons at Noumea are ordered to start lifting the last of the Americal Division RCTs to Efate. With two RCTs in place, I’m pretty sure I can hold off the units already landed. If there turn out to be more en route, then I may have to consider trying to evacuate what I can.
July 17, 1942
Well, today is another really, really unpleasant day, as massive Japanese surface forces continue to pick off isolated cripples as they try to struggle into port.
The day opens with a pair of sub attacks. The IJN sub I-172 misses a shot at the oiler Platte north of Noumea. S-41 takes a shot at a Japanese transport at Efate, but its luck is no better.
The night sees a massive IJN bombardment task force including no less than SIX battleships (Kongo, Haruna, Hiei, Kirishima, Mutsu, and Yamato) engage in six separate surface battles against damaged USN ships in and around Noumea. These engagements cost me the DDs Swanson and Mahan, the AKs Betelgeuse and Alchiba, the heavy cruiser Salt Lake City, and the CLAA Atlanta. The only saving grace is that the IJN ships expend so much ammunition wiping out my cripples that the ensuing bombardment of Noumea is pretty half-hearted, and doesn’t do much damage (1 airbase hit, 11 runway hits, 1 port hit—the base is completely repaired by morning).
It’s then my turn to bombard, as my cruiser/destroyer squadron in the west hits Gili Gili. They manage to plant two more hits on the damaged Shiokaze (still parked in port), and do a pretty good job of shooting up the airfield and port. Japanese coast defense guns inflict a pair of hits on the destroyer Russell, which is moderately damaged (SYS damage in the low teens).
The morning begins with a successful attack by S-38 upon a Japanese transport in the Gili straits. The Keizan Maru takes a pair of hits, and S-38 avoids her escorts. The transport appears to be loaded with men, so this might mean a reinforcement convoy headed for Port Moresby (more on this later).
My B-26s from Noumea fly a series of strikes against the Japanese transports unloading at Efate, but they’re both inexperienced and tired, and they fail to score any hits. The flier of the Kido Butai are far more successful. A massive wave of Vals and Kates finds the crippled Saratoga 60 miles short of Noumea and administers the coup de grace.
Another massive wave of carrier planes (48 A6M2 and 18 A6M3 Zeroes, 16 Vals, and 72 Kates) finds my main surface combat squadron at Noumea. At least this time there’s a heavy CAP waiting—39 Wildcats and 7 Airacobras. The ensuing attack costs me the destroyer Bagley, 14 Wildcats, 2 Airacobras, and bomb or torpedo hits on four other destroyers and the cruiser San Francisco. The Japanese lose 5 Zeroes, 3 Vals, and 21 Kates, with damage to most of the surviving bombers.
To close out the day’s activity, my troops on Efate Port Vila launch a shock attack on the newly-landed Japanese units—crap! I thought I’d ordered them back onto the defensive. The attack doesn’t fare well (0 to 1 odds, with the Allies losing 230 men to around 130 Japanese killed), but the information I gain is useful. If the numbers are accurate, the Japanese don’t yet have the 2:1 odds they’ll need to beat me, even if they can reduce the fortifications to level 0.
This prompts a flurry of activity on my part. The two PBY squadrons at Noumea have lifted about 400 load points worth of the 164th RCT of the Americal Division to Efate to reinforce the 132nd RCT. A third PBY squadron has arrived at Noumea today, and will assist the other two in moving troops. I also form a three-ship fast transport task force (one APD, one DD, one DMS) to move more men.
My main surface combat squadron is disbanded at Noumea. The most heavily-damaged ships (five destroyers and about an equal number of transports) are sent back to Pearl Harbor. The remaining combat-effective ships—four heavy cruisers and about nine destroyers—are formed into a surface combat task force and sent on a run to Efate. There is still a heavy concentration of Japanese merchant ships there, and I’d like to score some more kills if I can—maybe I can even disrupt the landings a bit. The medium-range bombers at Noumea are put on Ground Attack orders and told to target the Japanese troops on Efate—from the combat reports, it looks like he’s got about a reinforced division on the ground. My submarines are ordered to continue to patrol the area in search of cripples.
Far to the west, I’ve also launched an aggressive—perhaps foolhardy—counterattack. Since the IJN’s attention seems to be firmly riveted to the east, I’m going to attack in the west—at Port Moresby! The entire Australian 3rd Division has loaded onto transports and is sailing north from Brisbane. A separate transport convoy is also headed north, loaded with thousands of tons of supplies to restock the base. I’m quite sure a full division will be able to roll right over the forces present at PM, even if that small convoy spotted off Gili Gili is carrying reinforcements. With most of his transports and available troops attacking in the east, I’m not sure he’ll be able to respond effectively. If I take the base, I’ll fly in aviation support troops, then fighters and bombers.
Hey, I may have screwed up very badly a few days ago, and I may be going down hard—but if I am, I’m going down swinging.
July 18-19, 1942
July 18, 1942
Today’s action takes place in two distinct phases. The first phase belongs to the IJN, with a heavy cruiser/destroyer squadron sailing into Efate and repeating what happened at Noumea yesterday. In a series of night actions, the Japanese sink several crippled vessels trying to duck into port—4 cargo ships and an oiler (the luckless Cimarron).
My submarine force gets a measure of revenge. In a deep-ocean intercept south of the Solomons, S-43 slams two torpedoes into the Tokai Maru, then deftly evades the squadron of destroyers accompanying her.
My Marauders and Havocs hit the Japanese 16th Regiment at Efate, but cause relatively few casualties. All I’m really trying to do here is build up their disruption levels and stall their attack for a couple of days, until I can get the 164th RCT from Noumea in to reinforce the base.
As my cruisers and destroyers reach Efate later in the day, they are found and attacked by Japanese land-based air. Two strikes from Lunga result in 3 torpedo hits on the destroyer Helm (who, incredibly, survives, at least for now) and one hit on the CA Pensacola. The Japanese pay for these hits with one Nell and 11 Betties lost, with several more Nells damaged. There just can’t be many of these guys left in the theater—I’m killing them off faster than they can be replaced from the pools, so the only new planes he’ll be getting are when new squadrons arrive.
Having weathered the aerial attacks, my surface squadron falls upon a task force of IJN transports offloading at Efate. This convoy is screened only by light patrol vessels (if quite a few of them), and the resulting combat is extremely one-sided. The few 3-inch shells the Japanese are able to fire bounce off the armor of the cruisers, who respond with high explosive 8-inch shells. A pair of daylight battles cost the IJN a minesweeper, four transports, and at least four patrol craft. Unfortunately, this is just a dent in the massive IJN merchant armada present at Efate, but it’s a good start.
At the end of the day, yet another IJN transport task force pulls into one of my harbors—this time at Luganville. My coast defense guns are reported firing away at both the unloading troops and their transports, but I am unable to gain any accurate damage assessment. In any event, five more IJN ground units unload at Luganville (three infantry and two AA units). This gives me yet another problem to think about.
At the end of the day, I’ve got lots of threats to react to, and not a lot available to react with. However, at long last I’m getting a bit smarter. When I sent my cruisers and destroyers to Efate, I assigned it as their home port, so they didn’t leave when they finished shooting up the IJN convoy. I disband the task force, and then reform them, so their ammunition is now reloaded. They’ll put to sea again to try and add to their tally from yesterday. The damaged Helm and Pensacola are left in port to lick their wounds. I fly the Marine F4F squadron up from Noumea to Efate to provide some CAP cover tomorrow. They won’t help much if the IJN CVs come calling, but they should be able to drive off the Nells and Betties from Lunga.
Saratoga’s SBD and TBD squadrons are ordered to Luganville and put on Naval Attack orders. Perhaps they can pick off some of the transports unloading there, especially if my coast defense guns succeeding in doing some real damage.
I’m not terribly worried about Luganville falling to a ground assault, at least not quickly. If the counts I’m getting on the IJN land units are at all accurate, I don’t think they’ll be able to get 2:1 against what I’ve got there right now. Luganville currently is manned by 7 Allied units: the base force, the engineer battalion from Koumac, the Americal Division HQ, one of its RCTs, and its combat engineer battalion, plus one AA and one CD unit. At a minimum, these guys should be able to hold out for several days—long enough for me to do something about the situation.
Efate is a bit dicier, but my odds improve every day as the PBYs fly in more men from the 164th RCT. To speed up the process, two C-47 squadrons are flown to Noumea from Charter Towers. My fast transport TF has made it to Efate, but hasn’t yet unloaded, so the first phase of today’s turn will see 700 additional points’ worth of the 164th reinforcing Efate.
I’ve also got almost the entire 1st Marine Division available at Noumea, but I’m a bit leery about sending them north. It’s not that I really fear an attack on Noumea—the Efate/Luganville attacks have to have used up most of the IJN’s readily-deployable troops. Also, the first elements of the 2nd Marine Division are just a couple of weeks out. However, until I pinpoint the location of the IJN carriers (they must be heading north by now—otherwise they’re sucking fumes, with all the maneuvering they’ve been doing), I can’t put a transport task force to sea, and I’m actually running a bit low on ships capable of FT duty. For a couple of days, this shouldn’t matter, but if the fighting at Efate and Luganville drags on, I may have to risk sending some of them in slow-movers just to finish the job.
The bombardment task force that hit Port Moresby and Gili Gili has returned to Cairns. Three damaged ships are detached and ordered to Townsville for repairs, the others are refueled, rearmed, and reassigned as a surface combat task force. They’ll head back to Port Moresby on Patrol/Do Not Retire orders to clear the harbor for the transport task forces that are about a week behind them. The transports only have light ASW escorts—nothing that can take on a real warship, even a destroyer. So the surface warships will be needed to keep the harbor clear of IJN shipping while my merchies are unloading the 3rd Division. If I’m really lucky, I might be able to catch up to that small transport task force attacked by my sub in the Gili straits a couple of days ago. That convoy was taking troops somewhere, and I think “somewhere” was PM. If that’s true, I just might be able to catch them in harbor—PM’s port is still only Level 3, and it’s really shot up, so unloading should take them a couple of days, even if he’s only using small transports.
July 19, 1942
This is another of those really bad days that I’ve been having altogether too many of lately. The night begins with at botched attack by S-46 on an IJN transport, and things go south from there.
Another IJN sub has taken up residence at Townsville, evidently undeterred by the fate of I-1. I-22 takes a shot at Hobart as the damaged CL steams back into its home port, but mercifully the torpedo spread is off the mark. Hobart’s escorting DDs can’t find the sub, though.
Then it starts to get ugly. My fast transport task force at Efate runs smack into an IJN cruiser/destroyer squadron and gets shot to pieces. The destroyer Ellet, APD Colhoun, and DMS Trevor are all lost in a vicious night engagement against overwhelming IJN numbers.
The only bright spots on the day come from a series of air attacks by my land-based aircraft. The Cooktown gang hits the 4th Naval Garrison Unit at Port Moresby again. They inflict very few casualties, but all I really want to do is disrupt the unit a bit to reduce their efficiency for when the 3rd Aussie Division hits the beaches (in about 4 days).
Saratoga’s orphans put in another good showing today, as well. In the morning, they hit the same battleship task force they tagged a couple of days ago. If the combat report is to be believed, Hiei takes two more bombs, Kongo 3, Mutsu 1, and the CA Huguro 2. In the afternoon they return to work, trying to hit a seaplane tender and a CS, but their aim is off.
Airacobras from Noumea strafe another IJN surface group, hitting the CA Mikuma and the CL Natori with 500-lb bombs and strafing Mikuma as well (like throwing popcorn at a battleship, but hey, every little bit helps). Later in the day they shoot up the CS Nisshin, as well, although I doubt a bunch of shell hits will do much to her.
Then the other shoe drops—in the form of the IJN carriers. Somehow they worked their way back up near Efate and Luganville, and their planes pound the daylights out of my surface group. The Wildcats of VMF-212 are in the air, but they’re overwhelmed by massive Zero cover, and the strikes go in almost unopposed. When it’s over, I’ve got two surviving heavy cruisers, both damaged, and a handful of destroyers to cover them, most of them damaged as well. So much for my Navy….
The day ends with the Japanese troops at Luganville launching a shock attack in an effort to overcome the defenders. They manage to reduce the fortifications from level 2 to level 1 (yes, I’ve been neglecting the fortifications horribly), but they pay for it with the better part of a thousand casualties, to a little over a hundred Allied dead. Additionally, my GIs appear to still have the advantage in numbers, meaning he’s going to need to reinforce his troops if he wants Luganville.
Still, it’s better to be safe than sorry, so I order one of the newly-arrived C-47 squadrons to start lifting the 112th Cavalry Regiment to Luganville. Between the 112th, the Americal RCT already there, and the support troops, I believe I can hold out.
My airlift and fast transport run has lifted most of the 164th RCT of the Americal Division to Efate. Only the support squads and the regimental howitzers (which can’t be airlifted) remain at Noumea. I may opt to commit the 1st Parachute Regiment to the defense as well, since they’re small enough that they can be moved quickly, and they still pack a nice punch. I really want to hold Efate, as the port there is the only sanctuary remaining for my battered surface ships.
My naval reinforcements are taking their sweet time arriving in theater. My cruiser/destroyer surface group is still two days from Noumea, Wasp is still a week out, and Long Island, bless her useless little heart, is ten days out. To make matters worse, headquarters is refusing to release any additional ships to me, even though my ships are hitting the bottom of the sea at an alarming rate—maybe they figure if they release them, I’ll just get them sunk?
Today’s action takes place in two distinct phases. The first phase belongs to the IJN, with a heavy cruiser/destroyer squadron sailing into Efate and repeating what happened at Noumea yesterday. In a series of night actions, the Japanese sink several crippled vessels trying to duck into port—4 cargo ships and an oiler (the luckless Cimarron).
My submarine force gets a measure of revenge. In a deep-ocean intercept south of the Solomons, S-43 slams two torpedoes into the Tokai Maru, then deftly evades the squadron of destroyers accompanying her.
My Marauders and Havocs hit the Japanese 16th Regiment at Efate, but cause relatively few casualties. All I’m really trying to do here is build up their disruption levels and stall their attack for a couple of days, until I can get the 164th RCT from Noumea in to reinforce the base.
As my cruisers and destroyers reach Efate later in the day, they are found and attacked by Japanese land-based air. Two strikes from Lunga result in 3 torpedo hits on the destroyer Helm (who, incredibly, survives, at least for now) and one hit on the CA Pensacola. The Japanese pay for these hits with one Nell and 11 Betties lost, with several more Nells damaged. There just can’t be many of these guys left in the theater—I’m killing them off faster than they can be replaced from the pools, so the only new planes he’ll be getting are when new squadrons arrive.
Having weathered the aerial attacks, my surface squadron falls upon a task force of IJN transports offloading at Efate. This convoy is screened only by light patrol vessels (if quite a few of them), and the resulting combat is extremely one-sided. The few 3-inch shells the Japanese are able to fire bounce off the armor of the cruisers, who respond with high explosive 8-inch shells. A pair of daylight battles cost the IJN a minesweeper, four transports, and at least four patrol craft. Unfortunately, this is just a dent in the massive IJN merchant armada present at Efate, but it’s a good start.
At the end of the day, yet another IJN transport task force pulls into one of my harbors—this time at Luganville. My coast defense guns are reported firing away at both the unloading troops and their transports, but I am unable to gain any accurate damage assessment. In any event, five more IJN ground units unload at Luganville (three infantry and two AA units). This gives me yet another problem to think about.
At the end of the day, I’ve got lots of threats to react to, and not a lot available to react with. However, at long last I’m getting a bit smarter. When I sent my cruisers and destroyers to Efate, I assigned it as their home port, so they didn’t leave when they finished shooting up the IJN convoy. I disband the task force, and then reform them, so their ammunition is now reloaded. They’ll put to sea again to try and add to their tally from yesterday. The damaged Helm and Pensacola are left in port to lick their wounds. I fly the Marine F4F squadron up from Noumea to Efate to provide some CAP cover tomorrow. They won’t help much if the IJN CVs come calling, but they should be able to drive off the Nells and Betties from Lunga.
Saratoga’s SBD and TBD squadrons are ordered to Luganville and put on Naval Attack orders. Perhaps they can pick off some of the transports unloading there, especially if my coast defense guns succeeding in doing some real damage.
I’m not terribly worried about Luganville falling to a ground assault, at least not quickly. If the counts I’m getting on the IJN land units are at all accurate, I don’t think they’ll be able to get 2:1 against what I’ve got there right now. Luganville currently is manned by 7 Allied units: the base force, the engineer battalion from Koumac, the Americal Division HQ, one of its RCTs, and its combat engineer battalion, plus one AA and one CD unit. At a minimum, these guys should be able to hold out for several days—long enough for me to do something about the situation.
Efate is a bit dicier, but my odds improve every day as the PBYs fly in more men from the 164th RCT. To speed up the process, two C-47 squadrons are flown to Noumea from Charter Towers. My fast transport TF has made it to Efate, but hasn’t yet unloaded, so the first phase of today’s turn will see 700 additional points’ worth of the 164th reinforcing Efate.
I’ve also got almost the entire 1st Marine Division available at Noumea, but I’m a bit leery about sending them north. It’s not that I really fear an attack on Noumea—the Efate/Luganville attacks have to have used up most of the IJN’s readily-deployable troops. Also, the first elements of the 2nd Marine Division are just a couple of weeks out. However, until I pinpoint the location of the IJN carriers (they must be heading north by now—otherwise they’re sucking fumes, with all the maneuvering they’ve been doing), I can’t put a transport task force to sea, and I’m actually running a bit low on ships capable of FT duty. For a couple of days, this shouldn’t matter, but if the fighting at Efate and Luganville drags on, I may have to risk sending some of them in slow-movers just to finish the job.
The bombardment task force that hit Port Moresby and Gili Gili has returned to Cairns. Three damaged ships are detached and ordered to Townsville for repairs, the others are refueled, rearmed, and reassigned as a surface combat task force. They’ll head back to Port Moresby on Patrol/Do Not Retire orders to clear the harbor for the transport task forces that are about a week behind them. The transports only have light ASW escorts—nothing that can take on a real warship, even a destroyer. So the surface warships will be needed to keep the harbor clear of IJN shipping while my merchies are unloading the 3rd Division. If I’m really lucky, I might be able to catch up to that small transport task force attacked by my sub in the Gili straits a couple of days ago. That convoy was taking troops somewhere, and I think “somewhere” was PM. If that’s true, I just might be able to catch them in harbor—PM’s port is still only Level 3, and it’s really shot up, so unloading should take them a couple of days, even if he’s only using small transports.
July 19, 1942
This is another of those really bad days that I’ve been having altogether too many of lately. The night begins with at botched attack by S-46 on an IJN transport, and things go south from there.
Another IJN sub has taken up residence at Townsville, evidently undeterred by the fate of I-1. I-22 takes a shot at Hobart as the damaged CL steams back into its home port, but mercifully the torpedo spread is off the mark. Hobart’s escorting DDs can’t find the sub, though.
Then it starts to get ugly. My fast transport task force at Efate runs smack into an IJN cruiser/destroyer squadron and gets shot to pieces. The destroyer Ellet, APD Colhoun, and DMS Trevor are all lost in a vicious night engagement against overwhelming IJN numbers.
The only bright spots on the day come from a series of air attacks by my land-based aircraft. The Cooktown gang hits the 4th Naval Garrison Unit at Port Moresby again. They inflict very few casualties, but all I really want to do is disrupt the unit a bit to reduce their efficiency for when the 3rd Aussie Division hits the beaches (in about 4 days).
Saratoga’s orphans put in another good showing today, as well. In the morning, they hit the same battleship task force they tagged a couple of days ago. If the combat report is to be believed, Hiei takes two more bombs, Kongo 3, Mutsu 1, and the CA Huguro 2. In the afternoon they return to work, trying to hit a seaplane tender and a CS, but their aim is off.
Airacobras from Noumea strafe another IJN surface group, hitting the CA Mikuma and the CL Natori with 500-lb bombs and strafing Mikuma as well (like throwing popcorn at a battleship, but hey, every little bit helps). Later in the day they shoot up the CS Nisshin, as well, although I doubt a bunch of shell hits will do much to her.
Then the other shoe drops—in the form of the IJN carriers. Somehow they worked their way back up near Efate and Luganville, and their planes pound the daylights out of my surface group. The Wildcats of VMF-212 are in the air, but they’re overwhelmed by massive Zero cover, and the strikes go in almost unopposed. When it’s over, I’ve got two surviving heavy cruisers, both damaged, and a handful of destroyers to cover them, most of them damaged as well. So much for my Navy….
The day ends with the Japanese troops at Luganville launching a shock attack in an effort to overcome the defenders. They manage to reduce the fortifications from level 2 to level 1 (yes, I’ve been neglecting the fortifications horribly), but they pay for it with the better part of a thousand casualties, to a little over a hundred Allied dead. Additionally, my GIs appear to still have the advantage in numbers, meaning he’s going to need to reinforce his troops if he wants Luganville.
Still, it’s better to be safe than sorry, so I order one of the newly-arrived C-47 squadrons to start lifting the 112th Cavalry Regiment to Luganville. Between the 112th, the Americal RCT already there, and the support troops, I believe I can hold out.
My airlift and fast transport run has lifted most of the 164th RCT of the Americal Division to Efate. Only the support squads and the regimental howitzers (which can’t be airlifted) remain at Noumea. I may opt to commit the 1st Parachute Regiment to the defense as well, since they’re small enough that they can be moved quickly, and they still pack a nice punch. I really want to hold Efate, as the port there is the only sanctuary remaining for my battered surface ships.
My naval reinforcements are taking their sweet time arriving in theater. My cruiser/destroyer surface group is still two days from Noumea, Wasp is still a week out, and Long Island, bless her useless little heart, is ten days out. To make matters worse, headquarters is refusing to release any additional ships to me, even though my ships are hitting the bottom of the sea at an alarming rate—maybe they figure if they release them, I’ll just get them sunk?
RE: July 20-22, 1942
July 20, 1942
Wow…for the first time in forever, I don’t lose any shipping today. In fact, I catch up a bit…a very little bit. S-39 begins the day’s combat by picking off a damaged patrol gunboat trying to withdraw from Efate. It’s a little victory, but at the very least the IJN’s foray to the southeast Pacific has cost them quite a few of their smaller escort vessels.
The IJN carriers are still there, and they launch their bombers against my ground troops at Luganville. The AA is ineffective, but so, for the most part, is the bombing—saturation bombing isn’t what Vals and Kates were built for. I’m sure my disruption levels are getting unhealthy, but my casualties are pretty low.
Saratoga’s fliers are still in action. Today they actually find a transport task force to attack, which is a nice change from hitting heavily-armored battleships and cruisers. There aren’t enough combat-effective Dauntlesses left in the squadrons to make the strike decisive, but the AP Manju Maru takes two bomb hits, and two of her fellow transports take single hits. The Marauders from Noumea try to add to the tally, but they’re really lousy at naval attack—even bombing from 2,000 feet, they can’t hit anything. I’ve really got to stop using them for missions like this—it’s just wasting planes.
The day’s action ends with a bombardment attack by the IJN troops at Efate. There are a LOT of them there—at least nine or ten ground units, including six infantry, one combat engineer, and even an armored unit. My RCTs stand their ground, but the bombardment reduced their combat effectiveness a little too much for my liking. It looks like I may have to fly in the Marine paratroopers, and maybe the Raider battalion, too, just to be able to hold the place—and that’s if the Japanese don’t reinforce.
It appears that the small IJN transport task force bound for south New Guinea pulled up one hex short of Port Moresby and started unloading a unit of engineers on the beach (I didn’t realize you could do that!). This means that my patrolling cruisers and DDs at PM don’t find them, and they elude my subs as well. But they’re still parked there at the end of the day (my spotters report one MSW and 3 transports). With the IJN carriers still busy mauling me on the other side of the map, I decide to get a bit aggressive with my western squadron. They’re ordered to sail along the south coast of New Guinea with React turned on in the hope they’ll be able to find targets. The only real threats to them are IJN subs and land-based air, and I’m not real worried about either right now. I doubt any subs will be operating in the open ocean, given Marc’s predilection for using them to stake out my ports, and unless he’s gotten a lot of reinforcements he hasn’t been using, his Betties and Nells are pretty much spent.
The harassment of PM will continue. This time, my 3 B-17 squadrons from Cairns will be performing the duty. The medium bombers at Cooktown are put on Naval Attack orders with the hope they can put a couple of bombs into that transport convoy. My own transports are getting closer—they’re about 3 days’ sailing south of Port Moresby—they should pull into port on the night of the 24th and begin unloading. The supply task force carrying stocks for the troops is accompanying them. My low-level recon of Port Moresby appears to show that it’s still garrisoned only by a single SNLF and a small engineer unit, so the 3rd Division shouldn’t have too much trouble evicting them. There’s another SNLF at Lea Lea, and the engineer unit one hex SE of Port Moresby, and if I can get a chance to beat on them, too, that would be an added bonus.
The IJN sub at Townsville warrants a bit of a response from me—several squadrons of displaced carrier bombers are put on ASW patrol, as are the Beauforts at Cooktown. I also form a mine warfare task force consisting of Hobart, a couple of destroyers, and three coastal minesweepers. Again, I’ll try to use them to draw and attack, then kill the sub once it reveals its position. This tactic has worked well before, but I’ve been using bigger hunter/killer groups. I’m not sure I’ve got enough ASW ships present to give me good odds of a kill. I guess I’ll find out.
July 21, 1942
Well, I got the answer I was looking for at Townsville—I didn’t have enough ASW escorts in the task force. I-28 put a torpedo into the CL Phoenix and got away with it. Phoenix isn’t in terrible shape, but will definitely need a few weeks in a large port to bring down her damage levels.
I missed the surface intercept I was trying for with my surface task force near Port Moresby—my ships sailed too far to the east and missed the IJN task force in the night. But this doesn’t mean the Japanese got off entirely. S-38 is patrolling the same patch of ocean, and she puts two torpedoes into the AP Tarushima Maru. This is one of the 1,000-ton capacity Marus, and she goes under quite quickly, taking a few men from the IJN base force with her to the bottom.
My surface ships do see some action today, however—they draw an attack from Vals based at Dobadura. These are either Shokaku’s orphans or a new land-based squadron—I’m not sure which. Fifteen Vals attack my ships, scoring a single hit on the CL Achilles (the combat report said it was the St. Louis). For a single hit, her damage levels are depressingly high, but it’s an expensive bomb hit for the Japanese as well, as flak splashes no fewer than 8 of the 15 attackers. I’m not thrilled that the CL took a hit, but in retrospect it could’ve been worse. Those Vals probably could’ve inflicted more damage if they’d hit my transport task force, and after this attack that squadron should be pretty much neutered.
My level bombers from Noumea again hit the IJN troops at Efate, but there’s a new complication—they’re being LRCAPed by fighters from the IJN carriers. I lose a Marauder and a pair of Havocs, with several other bombers damaged, although one Zero is destroyed by return fire from the bombers. Again, the damage to the IJN troops appears to be minimal—I’m not doing much more than keeping their heads down.
The same is true at Port Moresby, where 10 Fortresses from Cairns pay a visit to the 4th Naval Garrison Unit. I’m only doing pinprick damage, but the disruption should add up. This is becoming more important, as my transports have put on a burst of speed, and actually appear to be only one day out of Port Moresby.
The Dauntlesses and Airacobras from Luganville fly again today. Again their target is the massed IJN transports offshore, but they don’t actually hit that much. The Gosei Maru is hit by one bomb and multiple shells, but the other Japanese ships escape unscathed. The IJN carriers respond with another mass Val/Kate raid on Luganville, targeting the ground troops there. My personnel casualties are higher than I’d like them to be, but probably not decisive.
The day ends with a Japanese bombardment attack at Efate Port Vila, which reveals a depressing situation. There are a LOT of IJN combat units on the ground there—it looks like almost twenty, with at least 10 infantry units. In the face of odds like that, I’m not sure how long my troops can hold out. This stinks, as I really wanted to deny the Japanese a forward base so close to Noumea, although it will probably cause some problems in terms of keeping the place in supply. There’s very little left there for them to use if and when the base falls.
The impending fall of Efate prompts me to take a rather rash action. Several of my surviving surface warships are parked in the harbor there shedding floatation damage, and I don’t want to lose them. So I order the heavy cruisers Pensacola and Northampton and three destroyers to form a fast transport task force and run for Noumea. These ships are all in good enough shape that they can make decent speed—if they sprint, they should reach Noumea in one day. They’ll have to go to Pearl Harbor, but if they don’t hit a Japanese surface group on the way out, I may be able to extract them. Five other ships, including the heavy cruiser Louisville, are too badly damaged to accompany this group. They’ll have to try to ride out the storm for a day or two and then evacuate to the south.
My wayward surface ships south of New Guinea are ordered to steam west in another attempt to hit that elusive transport task force southeast of Port Moresby. I’d really like to kill these guys off, preferably before they finish unloading.
A surface squadron of 2 CAs, 1 CL, and 10 destroyers has arrived at Noumea. I don’t want to throw them into the fire in the east, as they’d likely share the fate of my last squadron. So they’re formed into a surface combat task force and ordered to sail for Townsville by way of Rockhampton. That should get them out of harm’s way for the moment, and I may be able to use them to support the landings at Port Moresby.
The powers that be have finally come to the realization that I’m in trouble out here, and decided to release North Carolina and a powerful escort squadron (3 AA-refitted CAs and about 9 destroyers). It’s too little, too late, but I appreciate the gesture. At the very least I can probably use this squadron to screen Noumea, making a repeat of the earlier bombardment run unlikely. By the time North Carolina arrives at Noumea, its fighters will have been reinforced by the Wasp’s contingent and three VMF squadrons, so I should be able to put up a solid fighter defense even if the entire Japanese carrier fleet comes calling.
My attempts to transport more men into Efate are now being thwarted by IJN LRCAP—several Dakotas and PBYs are downed by patrolling Zeroes, so I shift tack and order the Dakotas to focus on moving the 112th Cavalry Regiment to Luganville. I’ve got better odds of holding there then at Efate, anyway, so I might as well roll the dice appropriately.
Wasp is now five days out from Noumea. I’ll probably just order her to drop off her planes and run for Pearl Harbor, as a solo carrier is going to be pretty useless, but the aircraft reinforcements will be most welcome, as will the ships of her screen.
July 22, 1942
This is another in a string of brutal slugging matches, although at least today is more even than some of the other days have been. The night opens with another naval bombardment of Efate Port Vila, this time by a Japanese cruiser squadron. The five ships in port are all hit, most of them seriously, and the airbase and runway both get severely cratered.
My subs strike back quickly. S-46 puts a pair of fish into the IJN destroyer Michishio, breaking her back. But S-46’s life only lasts a couple of minutes longer, as a swarm of other destroyers converge on her position, and the IJN Urakaze finds the range with depth charges, sending the old S-boat to the bottom. I rather suspect that Marc has quite a few more destroyers than I have submarines, so I don’t much like this exchange.
S-42 tries to add to the night’s bag with an attack on the destroyer Arashi, but her spread misses. Fortunately, S-42 is able to dodge the destroyer’s counterattack.
As my convoy of damaged warships from Efate nears Noumea, Northampton becomes the target of the I-19, which scores with a single Long Lance. The big cruiser is a tough ship, however, and sails on undeterred.
As dawn breaks, my bombers from Cooktown pay a visit to Dobadura. Although recon shows a large number of fighters at the base, none of them are on CAP, so the bombers are opposed by flak alone. One Hudson and two Mitchells are damaged, but the airbase takes a beating—there were more than 50 bombers in the strike, and they made their runs count. I don’t think Dobadura is closed down, but it’s certainly a significant portion of the way there.
Now my boys at Luganville get their turn. Dauntlesses, Devastators, and Airacobras target a Japanese transport task force withdrawing to the northwest. There’s a HUGE discrepancy in the combat reports received—if my report is to be believed, than four of the Marus in the convoy probably won’t be making it home, but if the Japanese report is more accurate, that number is probably more like one. I’ll have to check the ships sunk list to see how this turns out.
Near New Guinea, the Vals from Dobadura are flying again, and today they target my transport task force—fortunately, only seven of them are able to fly today. The combat report indicates hits on the transport Ormiston and the PG Swan, but neither appears to have taken any damage (no fires, and neither ship has SYS damage higher than 5).
The day’s air action concludes with a succession of IJN carrier strikes against my shipping at Noumea, but for once I’m well-position to receive the attacks. The carriers are launching at very long range, so the strikes that come in are relatively small and somewhat spread out, and Saratoga’s fighters are in the air waiting for them. Vals and bomb-carrying Kates manage a couple of hits on the already-damaged Pensacola, the destroyer O’Brien, and the destroyer-minelayer Montgomery (this is very annoying, as she’ll have to go back to Pearl Harbor, and she was one of only 3 mine-laying ships in my fleet), while their escorting Zeroes kill 3 of the patrolling Wildcats. But fighters, flak, and operational losses account for ten Zeroes, fourteen Vals, and seven Kates—it really helped me that the IJN carriers were launching from up near Luganville, as lots of cripples evidently crashed on the flight home.
The day ends with Japanese ground assaults at Luganville and Efate. The Luganville attack is a perfunctory shock attack, apparently by only one unit, and it is easily repulsed by my defenders.
The fight at Efate is a strong bombardment attack by what looks like half the IJN army. If he’s trying to probe my defenses, he should have a very good idea just how badly I’m outnumbered here.
While my crippled surface warships took some nasty knocks making the dash from Efate to Noumea, they made it, and the Pensacola and Northampton, along with several destroyers and the luckless Montgomery, are sent on to Pearl Harbor for repairs. They won’t be available for a long time, but at least they survived. The success of their escape attempt prompts me to try again with three of the five ships remaining at Efate. Two damaged transports are ordered to haul anchor and run for Noumea, and the badly-damaged Louisville will also be making the run. I think they’ve got a good chance at avoiding IJN surface forces, as the cruisers appear to have departed. However, I don’t think either task force has the speed to make Noumea (and fighter CAP) in one day, so if they’re spotted, they’re going to be air strike bait. Still, I’m going to try to save them.
A perusal of the sunk ships list reveals a nice surprise—I-22 has joined the four IJN subs previously sunk! The cause is listed as “500 lb. GP bomb”, so evidently one of my much-maligned Mitchells actually hit the thing during the attacks a few days back. This is nice, but it hasn’t solved the problem, as I-28 has been staking out Townsville since at least yesterday in place of the not-exactly-dearly-departed I-22. There’s another IJN sub parked in Noumea harbor, so I assign several squadrons of aircraft at both bases to ASW patrol. Maybe lightning can strike twice.
In other news, a PBY Catalina spots a powerful IJN surface force about 350 miles east of Port Moresby. Reportedly this group contains at least two battleships—far more firepower than I can easily confront. Given this information, the Port Moresby invasion has been scrubbed. My transport task force didn’t actually reach PM—they were parked about 90 miles south, waiting to dash in tonight—so they’re ordered to divert to Cairns, taking a roundabout course to avoid the IJN surface force. I’ll use the 3rd Division to reinforce the New Guinea Force units garrisoning Cairns. This is moderately frustrating, as a successful re-invasion of Port Moresby would’ve been a neat trick if I could’ve pulled it off, but in this case discretion is definitely the better part of valor. I don’t need to lose a bunch more transports while they’re trying to offload troops and supplies. They’ve got enough of a head start that I should be able to comfortably avoid the Japanese vessels, although if I’d spotted them a day later I could’ve had real problems.
My surface squadron, which AGAIN missed the intercept on that IJN transport convoy (now seen safely running east—grrrr…) is ordered to drop by Port Moresby to lob in a few more shells, then head home to Cairns. We’ll be back another day.
I lose several more Dakotas trying to fly troops into Luganville, so evidently the IJN carriers are LRCAPing both there and Efate. However, the weakness of the IJN probing attack prompts me to order a deliberate attack by my troops at Luganville—if the IJN forces are truly weak (perhaps from a lack of supplies?), I’ll follow up with a shock attack tomorrow and try to throw them into the sea. If they repulse the attack, it’ll be time to hunker down behind my underdeveloped fortress walls and hope for the best.
Wow…for the first time in forever, I don’t lose any shipping today. In fact, I catch up a bit…a very little bit. S-39 begins the day’s combat by picking off a damaged patrol gunboat trying to withdraw from Efate. It’s a little victory, but at the very least the IJN’s foray to the southeast Pacific has cost them quite a few of their smaller escort vessels.
The IJN carriers are still there, and they launch their bombers against my ground troops at Luganville. The AA is ineffective, but so, for the most part, is the bombing—saturation bombing isn’t what Vals and Kates were built for. I’m sure my disruption levels are getting unhealthy, but my casualties are pretty low.
Saratoga’s fliers are still in action. Today they actually find a transport task force to attack, which is a nice change from hitting heavily-armored battleships and cruisers. There aren’t enough combat-effective Dauntlesses left in the squadrons to make the strike decisive, but the AP Manju Maru takes two bomb hits, and two of her fellow transports take single hits. The Marauders from Noumea try to add to the tally, but they’re really lousy at naval attack—even bombing from 2,000 feet, they can’t hit anything. I’ve really got to stop using them for missions like this—it’s just wasting planes.
The day’s action ends with a bombardment attack by the IJN troops at Efate. There are a LOT of them there—at least nine or ten ground units, including six infantry, one combat engineer, and even an armored unit. My RCTs stand their ground, but the bombardment reduced their combat effectiveness a little too much for my liking. It looks like I may have to fly in the Marine paratroopers, and maybe the Raider battalion, too, just to be able to hold the place—and that’s if the Japanese don’t reinforce.
It appears that the small IJN transport task force bound for south New Guinea pulled up one hex short of Port Moresby and started unloading a unit of engineers on the beach (I didn’t realize you could do that!). This means that my patrolling cruisers and DDs at PM don’t find them, and they elude my subs as well. But they’re still parked there at the end of the day (my spotters report one MSW and 3 transports). With the IJN carriers still busy mauling me on the other side of the map, I decide to get a bit aggressive with my western squadron. They’re ordered to sail along the south coast of New Guinea with React turned on in the hope they’ll be able to find targets. The only real threats to them are IJN subs and land-based air, and I’m not real worried about either right now. I doubt any subs will be operating in the open ocean, given Marc’s predilection for using them to stake out my ports, and unless he’s gotten a lot of reinforcements he hasn’t been using, his Betties and Nells are pretty much spent.
The harassment of PM will continue. This time, my 3 B-17 squadrons from Cairns will be performing the duty. The medium bombers at Cooktown are put on Naval Attack orders with the hope they can put a couple of bombs into that transport convoy. My own transports are getting closer—they’re about 3 days’ sailing south of Port Moresby—they should pull into port on the night of the 24th and begin unloading. The supply task force carrying stocks for the troops is accompanying them. My low-level recon of Port Moresby appears to show that it’s still garrisoned only by a single SNLF and a small engineer unit, so the 3rd Division shouldn’t have too much trouble evicting them. There’s another SNLF at Lea Lea, and the engineer unit one hex SE of Port Moresby, and if I can get a chance to beat on them, too, that would be an added bonus.
The IJN sub at Townsville warrants a bit of a response from me—several squadrons of displaced carrier bombers are put on ASW patrol, as are the Beauforts at Cooktown. I also form a mine warfare task force consisting of Hobart, a couple of destroyers, and three coastal minesweepers. Again, I’ll try to use them to draw and attack, then kill the sub once it reveals its position. This tactic has worked well before, but I’ve been using bigger hunter/killer groups. I’m not sure I’ve got enough ASW ships present to give me good odds of a kill. I guess I’ll find out.
July 21, 1942
Well, I got the answer I was looking for at Townsville—I didn’t have enough ASW escorts in the task force. I-28 put a torpedo into the CL Phoenix and got away with it. Phoenix isn’t in terrible shape, but will definitely need a few weeks in a large port to bring down her damage levels.
I missed the surface intercept I was trying for with my surface task force near Port Moresby—my ships sailed too far to the east and missed the IJN task force in the night. But this doesn’t mean the Japanese got off entirely. S-38 is patrolling the same patch of ocean, and she puts two torpedoes into the AP Tarushima Maru. This is one of the 1,000-ton capacity Marus, and she goes under quite quickly, taking a few men from the IJN base force with her to the bottom.
My surface ships do see some action today, however—they draw an attack from Vals based at Dobadura. These are either Shokaku’s orphans or a new land-based squadron—I’m not sure which. Fifteen Vals attack my ships, scoring a single hit on the CL Achilles (the combat report said it was the St. Louis). For a single hit, her damage levels are depressingly high, but it’s an expensive bomb hit for the Japanese as well, as flak splashes no fewer than 8 of the 15 attackers. I’m not thrilled that the CL took a hit, but in retrospect it could’ve been worse. Those Vals probably could’ve inflicted more damage if they’d hit my transport task force, and after this attack that squadron should be pretty much neutered.
My level bombers from Noumea again hit the IJN troops at Efate, but there’s a new complication—they’re being LRCAPed by fighters from the IJN carriers. I lose a Marauder and a pair of Havocs, with several other bombers damaged, although one Zero is destroyed by return fire from the bombers. Again, the damage to the IJN troops appears to be minimal—I’m not doing much more than keeping their heads down.
The same is true at Port Moresby, where 10 Fortresses from Cairns pay a visit to the 4th Naval Garrison Unit. I’m only doing pinprick damage, but the disruption should add up. This is becoming more important, as my transports have put on a burst of speed, and actually appear to be only one day out of Port Moresby.
The Dauntlesses and Airacobras from Luganville fly again today. Again their target is the massed IJN transports offshore, but they don’t actually hit that much. The Gosei Maru is hit by one bomb and multiple shells, but the other Japanese ships escape unscathed. The IJN carriers respond with another mass Val/Kate raid on Luganville, targeting the ground troops there. My personnel casualties are higher than I’d like them to be, but probably not decisive.
The day ends with a Japanese bombardment attack at Efate Port Vila, which reveals a depressing situation. There are a LOT of IJN combat units on the ground there—it looks like almost twenty, with at least 10 infantry units. In the face of odds like that, I’m not sure how long my troops can hold out. This stinks, as I really wanted to deny the Japanese a forward base so close to Noumea, although it will probably cause some problems in terms of keeping the place in supply. There’s very little left there for them to use if and when the base falls.
The impending fall of Efate prompts me to take a rather rash action. Several of my surviving surface warships are parked in the harbor there shedding floatation damage, and I don’t want to lose them. So I order the heavy cruisers Pensacola and Northampton and three destroyers to form a fast transport task force and run for Noumea. These ships are all in good enough shape that they can make decent speed—if they sprint, they should reach Noumea in one day. They’ll have to go to Pearl Harbor, but if they don’t hit a Japanese surface group on the way out, I may be able to extract them. Five other ships, including the heavy cruiser Louisville, are too badly damaged to accompany this group. They’ll have to try to ride out the storm for a day or two and then evacuate to the south.
My wayward surface ships south of New Guinea are ordered to steam west in another attempt to hit that elusive transport task force southeast of Port Moresby. I’d really like to kill these guys off, preferably before they finish unloading.
A surface squadron of 2 CAs, 1 CL, and 10 destroyers has arrived at Noumea. I don’t want to throw them into the fire in the east, as they’d likely share the fate of my last squadron. So they’re formed into a surface combat task force and ordered to sail for Townsville by way of Rockhampton. That should get them out of harm’s way for the moment, and I may be able to use them to support the landings at Port Moresby.
The powers that be have finally come to the realization that I’m in trouble out here, and decided to release North Carolina and a powerful escort squadron (3 AA-refitted CAs and about 9 destroyers). It’s too little, too late, but I appreciate the gesture. At the very least I can probably use this squadron to screen Noumea, making a repeat of the earlier bombardment run unlikely. By the time North Carolina arrives at Noumea, its fighters will have been reinforced by the Wasp’s contingent and three VMF squadrons, so I should be able to put up a solid fighter defense even if the entire Japanese carrier fleet comes calling.
My attempts to transport more men into Efate are now being thwarted by IJN LRCAP—several Dakotas and PBYs are downed by patrolling Zeroes, so I shift tack and order the Dakotas to focus on moving the 112th Cavalry Regiment to Luganville. I’ve got better odds of holding there then at Efate, anyway, so I might as well roll the dice appropriately.
Wasp is now five days out from Noumea. I’ll probably just order her to drop off her planes and run for Pearl Harbor, as a solo carrier is going to be pretty useless, but the aircraft reinforcements will be most welcome, as will the ships of her screen.
July 22, 1942
This is another in a string of brutal slugging matches, although at least today is more even than some of the other days have been. The night opens with another naval bombardment of Efate Port Vila, this time by a Japanese cruiser squadron. The five ships in port are all hit, most of them seriously, and the airbase and runway both get severely cratered.
My subs strike back quickly. S-46 puts a pair of fish into the IJN destroyer Michishio, breaking her back. But S-46’s life only lasts a couple of minutes longer, as a swarm of other destroyers converge on her position, and the IJN Urakaze finds the range with depth charges, sending the old S-boat to the bottom. I rather suspect that Marc has quite a few more destroyers than I have submarines, so I don’t much like this exchange.
S-42 tries to add to the night’s bag with an attack on the destroyer Arashi, but her spread misses. Fortunately, S-42 is able to dodge the destroyer’s counterattack.
As my convoy of damaged warships from Efate nears Noumea, Northampton becomes the target of the I-19, which scores with a single Long Lance. The big cruiser is a tough ship, however, and sails on undeterred.
As dawn breaks, my bombers from Cooktown pay a visit to Dobadura. Although recon shows a large number of fighters at the base, none of them are on CAP, so the bombers are opposed by flak alone. One Hudson and two Mitchells are damaged, but the airbase takes a beating—there were more than 50 bombers in the strike, and they made their runs count. I don’t think Dobadura is closed down, but it’s certainly a significant portion of the way there.
Now my boys at Luganville get their turn. Dauntlesses, Devastators, and Airacobras target a Japanese transport task force withdrawing to the northwest. There’s a HUGE discrepancy in the combat reports received—if my report is to be believed, than four of the Marus in the convoy probably won’t be making it home, but if the Japanese report is more accurate, that number is probably more like one. I’ll have to check the ships sunk list to see how this turns out.
Near New Guinea, the Vals from Dobadura are flying again, and today they target my transport task force—fortunately, only seven of them are able to fly today. The combat report indicates hits on the transport Ormiston and the PG Swan, but neither appears to have taken any damage (no fires, and neither ship has SYS damage higher than 5).
The day’s air action concludes with a succession of IJN carrier strikes against my shipping at Noumea, but for once I’m well-position to receive the attacks. The carriers are launching at very long range, so the strikes that come in are relatively small and somewhat spread out, and Saratoga’s fighters are in the air waiting for them. Vals and bomb-carrying Kates manage a couple of hits on the already-damaged Pensacola, the destroyer O’Brien, and the destroyer-minelayer Montgomery (this is very annoying, as she’ll have to go back to Pearl Harbor, and she was one of only 3 mine-laying ships in my fleet), while their escorting Zeroes kill 3 of the patrolling Wildcats. But fighters, flak, and operational losses account for ten Zeroes, fourteen Vals, and seven Kates—it really helped me that the IJN carriers were launching from up near Luganville, as lots of cripples evidently crashed on the flight home.
The day ends with Japanese ground assaults at Luganville and Efate. The Luganville attack is a perfunctory shock attack, apparently by only one unit, and it is easily repulsed by my defenders.
The fight at Efate is a strong bombardment attack by what looks like half the IJN army. If he’s trying to probe my defenses, he should have a very good idea just how badly I’m outnumbered here.
While my crippled surface warships took some nasty knocks making the dash from Efate to Noumea, they made it, and the Pensacola and Northampton, along with several destroyers and the luckless Montgomery, are sent on to Pearl Harbor for repairs. They won’t be available for a long time, but at least they survived. The success of their escape attempt prompts me to try again with three of the five ships remaining at Efate. Two damaged transports are ordered to haul anchor and run for Noumea, and the badly-damaged Louisville will also be making the run. I think they’ve got a good chance at avoiding IJN surface forces, as the cruisers appear to have departed. However, I don’t think either task force has the speed to make Noumea (and fighter CAP) in one day, so if they’re spotted, they’re going to be air strike bait. Still, I’m going to try to save them.
A perusal of the sunk ships list reveals a nice surprise—I-22 has joined the four IJN subs previously sunk! The cause is listed as “500 lb. GP bomb”, so evidently one of my much-maligned Mitchells actually hit the thing during the attacks a few days back. This is nice, but it hasn’t solved the problem, as I-28 has been staking out Townsville since at least yesterday in place of the not-exactly-dearly-departed I-22. There’s another IJN sub parked in Noumea harbor, so I assign several squadrons of aircraft at both bases to ASW patrol. Maybe lightning can strike twice.
In other news, a PBY Catalina spots a powerful IJN surface force about 350 miles east of Port Moresby. Reportedly this group contains at least two battleships—far more firepower than I can easily confront. Given this information, the Port Moresby invasion has been scrubbed. My transport task force didn’t actually reach PM—they were parked about 90 miles south, waiting to dash in tonight—so they’re ordered to divert to Cairns, taking a roundabout course to avoid the IJN surface force. I’ll use the 3rd Division to reinforce the New Guinea Force units garrisoning Cairns. This is moderately frustrating, as a successful re-invasion of Port Moresby would’ve been a neat trick if I could’ve pulled it off, but in this case discretion is definitely the better part of valor. I don’t need to lose a bunch more transports while they’re trying to offload troops and supplies. They’ve got enough of a head start that I should be able to comfortably avoid the Japanese vessels, although if I’d spotted them a day later I could’ve had real problems.
My surface squadron, which AGAIN missed the intercept on that IJN transport convoy (now seen safely running east—grrrr…) is ordered to drop by Port Moresby to lob in a few more shells, then head home to Cairns. We’ll be back another day.
I lose several more Dakotas trying to fly troops into Luganville, so evidently the IJN carriers are LRCAPing both there and Efate. However, the weakness of the IJN probing attack prompts me to order a deliberate attack by my troops at Luganville—if the IJN forces are truly weak (perhaps from a lack of supplies?), I’ll follow up with a shock attack tomorrow and try to throw them into the sea. If they repulse the attack, it’ll be time to hunker down behind my underdeveloped fortress walls and hope for the best.
Update
I haven't updated this AAR in a long time...apologies to those who were following it. Unfortunately, I've been a bit distracted by the newborn in the house and some other activities, and I haven't been able to keep up with the writing. The game goes on, however....
A few quickies--Efate and Luganville have both fallen to the IJN, and the Japanese have moved LARGE numbers of aircraft to Efate. My Efate garrison surrendered en masse, but most of my troops at Luganville retreated to the dot hex to the northwest. They're still screwed, though, because while I have plenty of transports to bring them home, I don't dare go anywhere near the place. The IJN carrier uber-force is still basing out of Efate, as is at least one large surface group built around Yamato. Noumea has been repeatedly battered by bombardments and mass airstrikes, but the massive numbers of engineers at the base patch damage up as fast as it can be inflicted.
I've managed to pick off a few more IJN ships, including a couple of AVs, the heavy cruiser Takao, and one of his seaplane cruisers, which went down with its full load of planes, but my pilots are paying through the nose for the damage they inflict. I've lost the Long Island, but that didn't hurt that much, as she's not that useful anyway. My air squadrons at Noumea have taken losses that can only be described as murderous (lost 37 F4F-4s in a single day a couple of turns ago--OUCH!!!!!). My 2- and 4-engine bomber squadrons could be a real threat if I could just get all of their planes repaired, but Marc is wisely keeping the pressure on to prevent me from doing this--more than half of my B-17 force is unusable at the moment, and my Havocs, Mitchells, and Hudsons aren't in much better shape.
Still, it's only August, and while I'm hurt bad, I'm still plugging away. I've managed to run a surface group built around North Carolina up to Efate twice in the last week. The first run was only somewhat successful, plastering the airfield but not doing much else. The second run ran into a huge transport convoy, but the IJN destroyer screen was large and aggressive. I sank a half-dozen destroyers (mostly those crappy little 6-pointers), and inflicted minor to very severe damage to four others, but the transports got off scot free--rats! Two of my destroyers were slowed by battle damage sufficiently that Betties from Efate finished them off over the next two days. North Carolina ate a torpedo during the night battle, and took a second one from a Betty before I could disband her task force at Noumea. The ship wasn't in any danger of sinking, but the system damage was bad enough that I had to order her home to Pearl Harbor--alas, great battleship, we hardly knew ye!
The only good thing about having the uber carrier task force parked on my doorstep at Efate is that I think they're too far from Truk to get replacement aircraft, so the losses I've been inflicting, while small on any given day, may be starting to add up. He's also had to start porting his carriers at Efate (probably to reduce system damage--they've been at sea for a LOOOOONNNNNG time), which I have taken as an invitation to commence night bombing runs with every level bomber at Noumea. I think I've knocked Soryu out of commision (she was reported as on fire with heavy damage after the last strike), and Hiryu has taken a couple of hits as well. I doubt either will sink, but I'll bet they're both damaged at least badly enough that they can't maneuver with the rest of his fleet. Hey, every little bit helps.
Lastly, since he's got so much stuff concentrated around Luganville/Efate, I'm getting ready to make a grab at retaking New Guinea. Between New Guinea Force and the Aussie 7th Division, I should easily be able to overwhelm the troops he has on New Guinea (lots of support units, but I don't see much infantry, which makes perfect sense, given how much I know he's got at Luganville and Efate). There appears to be a fairly large cruiser/destroyer squadron operating in the area that I'll need to deal with, but I _think_ I can drive them off. He doesn't appear to have much in the way of air assets on the western half of the board (1 squadron of Betties and some Vals at Dobadura appears to be about it, and they've taken some pretty heavy losses). A grab at Port Moresby will force him to either concede it to me, in which case I can move fighters and level bombers up from Australia to threaten the rest of New Guinea, or bring his carriers west, which will relieve the pressure on Noumea.
I have at least been archiving the daily combat reports, and I'll try to post them when I find some more time.
A few quickies--Efate and Luganville have both fallen to the IJN, and the Japanese have moved LARGE numbers of aircraft to Efate. My Efate garrison surrendered en masse, but most of my troops at Luganville retreated to the dot hex to the northwest. They're still screwed, though, because while I have plenty of transports to bring them home, I don't dare go anywhere near the place. The IJN carrier uber-force is still basing out of Efate, as is at least one large surface group built around Yamato. Noumea has been repeatedly battered by bombardments and mass airstrikes, but the massive numbers of engineers at the base patch damage up as fast as it can be inflicted.
I've managed to pick off a few more IJN ships, including a couple of AVs, the heavy cruiser Takao, and one of his seaplane cruisers, which went down with its full load of planes, but my pilots are paying through the nose for the damage they inflict. I've lost the Long Island, but that didn't hurt that much, as she's not that useful anyway. My air squadrons at Noumea have taken losses that can only be described as murderous (lost 37 F4F-4s in a single day a couple of turns ago--OUCH!!!!!). My 2- and 4-engine bomber squadrons could be a real threat if I could just get all of their planes repaired, but Marc is wisely keeping the pressure on to prevent me from doing this--more than half of my B-17 force is unusable at the moment, and my Havocs, Mitchells, and Hudsons aren't in much better shape.
Still, it's only August, and while I'm hurt bad, I'm still plugging away. I've managed to run a surface group built around North Carolina up to Efate twice in the last week. The first run was only somewhat successful, plastering the airfield but not doing much else. The second run ran into a huge transport convoy, but the IJN destroyer screen was large and aggressive. I sank a half-dozen destroyers (mostly those crappy little 6-pointers), and inflicted minor to very severe damage to four others, but the transports got off scot free--rats! Two of my destroyers were slowed by battle damage sufficiently that Betties from Efate finished them off over the next two days. North Carolina ate a torpedo during the night battle, and took a second one from a Betty before I could disband her task force at Noumea. The ship wasn't in any danger of sinking, but the system damage was bad enough that I had to order her home to Pearl Harbor--alas, great battleship, we hardly knew ye!
The only good thing about having the uber carrier task force parked on my doorstep at Efate is that I think they're too far from Truk to get replacement aircraft, so the losses I've been inflicting, while small on any given day, may be starting to add up. He's also had to start porting his carriers at Efate (probably to reduce system damage--they've been at sea for a LOOOOONNNNNG time), which I have taken as an invitation to commence night bombing runs with every level bomber at Noumea. I think I've knocked Soryu out of commision (she was reported as on fire with heavy damage after the last strike), and Hiryu has taken a couple of hits as well. I doubt either will sink, but I'll bet they're both damaged at least badly enough that they can't maneuver with the rest of his fleet. Hey, every little bit helps.
Lastly, since he's got so much stuff concentrated around Luganville/Efate, I'm getting ready to make a grab at retaking New Guinea. Between New Guinea Force and the Aussie 7th Division, I should easily be able to overwhelm the troops he has on New Guinea (lots of support units, but I don't see much infantry, which makes perfect sense, given how much I know he's got at Luganville and Efate). There appears to be a fairly large cruiser/destroyer squadron operating in the area that I'll need to deal with, but I _think_ I can drive them off. He doesn't appear to have much in the way of air assets on the western half of the board (1 squadron of Betties and some Vals at Dobadura appears to be about it, and they've taken some pretty heavy losses). A grab at Port Moresby will force him to either concede it to me, in which case I can move fighters and level bombers up from Australia to threaten the rest of New Guinea, or bring his carriers west, which will relieve the pressure on Noumea.
I have at least been archiving the daily combat reports, and I'll try to post them when I find some more time.