Can it Be? Herbie and Wobbly ride again?

[wobbly]

Wham! Herb is not phased at all by my smoke and mirrors and has attacked the invasion in Irau strongly. Two powerful Japanese surface TFs stream into Irau harbour and upon finding the invasion screening forces, they unleash torpedos and gunfire.
My two surface TFs are not powerless in the face of the threat though...

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 02/12/43

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Night Time Surface Combat, near Irau at 42,43

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami, Shell hits 7
CA Kako, Shell hits 5
DD Kazegumo, Shell hits 16, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Oshio, Shell hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
DD Ariake, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
DD Hatsuyuki, Shell hits 2
DD Murakumo, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Sazanami, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Matsukaze, Shell hits 2

Allied Ships
BB Colorado, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
BB Tennessee, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CL Cleveland
CL Columbia
DD Jenkins, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Laffey, Shell hits 1
DD Farenholt
DD Helm
DD Ralph Talbot, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Henley
DD Drayton, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Preston
DD Dunlap
DMS Southard

Opening stanzas and it is obvious that the American torpedo problems have been sorted out, Tanaka and Feschteler have at each other. Japanese torps are still very capable and the inclusion of BBs in my TF once again proves pointless as they are just big targets - not firing (or at least hitting) with their main armaments at all. Despite this - two Jap DDs disappear beneath the waves and 3 more being heavily damaged.
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Irau at 42,43

Japanese Ships
BB Kirishima, Shell hits 2
CL Sendai, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Umikaze, Shell hits 11, on fire, heavy damage
DD Usugumo, Shell hits 1
DD Yuzuki, Shell hits 1
DD Kikuzuki, Shell hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
DD Oite, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Akikaze, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
BB Colorado, Shell hits 13, on fire, heavy damage
BB Tennessee, Shell hits 7, on fire
CL Cleveland
CL Columbia
DD Jenkins, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Laffey
DD Farenholt
DD Helm
DD Ralph Talbot, on fire
DD Henley
DD Drayton, on fire
DD Preston, Shell hits 1
DD Dunlap, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DMS Southard

Kirishima then joins the fray and it immediately hits the Colorado with 14inch hell. The two Ironclads continue to struggle with fighting at night. On the other side of the ledger, the two new Cleveland type CLs - Cleveland and Columbia - use their radars well and manage to hit 3 more priceless DDs causing heavy damage again.
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Irau at 42,43

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
CA Kako, Shell hits 1
DD Oshio, Shell hits 12, on fire, heavy damage
DD Ariake, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Hatsuyuki, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Murakumo, and is sunk
DD Matsukaze, Shell hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
CA Chicago, Shell hits 1
CL Hobart, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Nicholson
DD Aaron Ward
DD McCalla, Shell hits 1
DD Craven
DD Porter
DD Selfridge

Back comes Tanaka this time and he meets Callaghan - my other Surface Fleet's Admiral. Callaghan does well and the Chicago especially lands some well placed 8 inch shells on the Mogami and Matzukaze, Hobart has 8 inch pain inflicted on her in retrun. 2 More Jap DDs slip beneath the waves due to their wounds.
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Irau at 42,43

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami, Shell hits 11, on fire, heavy damage
CA Kako, Shell hits 7
DD Oshio, and is sunk
DD Hatsuyuki, Shell hits 12, on fire, heavy damage
DD Matsukaze, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
CA Chicago, Shell hits 7, on fire, heavy damage
CL Hobart, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Nicholson
DD Aaron Ward
DD McCalla
DD Craven
DD Porter
DD Selfridge

Tanaka is still not finished, the battle starts with a long lance attack and the hapless target is Hobart, which is suffering from damage in the earlier engagement. Again Callaghan meets out more pain on the escort DDs - the Mogami shrugs off the 11 shell hits recorded here: all 5 inch shells.
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Irau at 42,43

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami, Shell hits 17, on fire, heavy damage
CA Kako, Shell hits 1
DD Hatsuyuki, Shell hits 13, and is sunk
DD Matsukaze, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
CA Chicago, on fire, heavy damage
CL Hobart, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Nicholson
DD Aaron Ward
DD McCalla
DD Craven, Shell hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Porter
DD Selfridge

My, Tanaka is a tenacious fellow! Back again and putting more torpedoes into the Allied ships. The Hobart is unable to continue serving under this punishment and expires. A further jap DD sinks though and Mogami is in an awful way.
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Sub attack at 19,42

Japanese Ships
DD Shikinami, Torpedo hits 1, on fire

Allied Ships
SS S-47

Over in the straits by GG one of my subs find another DD and puts a torp into her. It appears at least a small effort has been put into going to PM even if Herbie-san has not fallen for the full trap.
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Air attack on TF at 41,44


Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 8
F4U-1 Corsair x 3
TBF Avenger x 4


Allied aircraft losses
TBF Avenger x 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
DD Oite, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

The first ride of the Corsair! Escorting Avengers against the badly damaged Oite - she is despatched by this attack.
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Air attack on TF at 10,45

Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 9

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 10

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally x 2 damaged


Allied Ships
AK Diomed
AP Orungal
AP Ormiston

Attacking Level Bombers:
4 x Ki-21 Sally at 5000 feet
4 x Ki-21 Sally at 5000 feet
1 x Ki-21 Sally at 5000 feet

Sallies attempt a very long intercept from Lae against my retreating PM ruse. Thankfully none manage to find their marks.
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All in all a very busy day (or should I say night?).

After the smoke clears it is obvious that the Colorado is unlikely to survive its maiden combat foray. She has 82 Sys damage and 81 float with a size 15 fire still raging. She is 15 or so hexes from the closest decent port at Luganville. I am contemplating scuttling her.

Tennessee is also done for in this battle. She sports 35 Sys damage and about 17 float. It is unlikely she will be repaired in time to be released to the fight again.

Chicago is also badly damaged with sys damge of 66 and float of 50. She should make Luganville baring more attacks and since Luganville is a size 9 port should make it the next step to Pearl.

Many DDs are sporting injuries but no more should sink.

During the landings at Irau themselves many transports took shell damage from the guns on shore. There were masses of mines laid as well but the MSWs cleaned these up very well - only a SC was hit (and subsequently sunk).

The invasion forces themselves have come ashore in great numbers and have alsso been supplied. A shock attack against the relatively small numbers of defenders that are in Irau will go ahead this turn.

There are no surface units defending the landings now as the surface ships have pulled away and retreated towards Luganville. I have been lulled into the false sense of game play that WitP uses where a 'do not retire' order is actually followed. Fortunately I had moved the 4 BBs 3 CAs, 3 CLs and 12 DDs at Luganville up to Gavigmana in case of problems. These guys will move into Irau in the next turn.

I imagine the KB bogey man is about to appear as well. As previously stated I have NO FLEET CV assets at hand. To try and augment the fighters I have on the CVEs I am going to LRCAP with P-38s from Nevea. I have 4 sqds there so I will do a 2 sqd rotation system. Fighters based at gavigmana will start LRCAping the cripples retreating from Irau.

The heavy bombers at Luganville will attack the ground troops at Irau again but the weather is thunderstorms so they may not go. If this weather strikes him as much as it strikes me I will still be on the positive side of the ledger for me.

[wobbly]

Sorry folks - very busy days at work and then I went on holiday for Anzac weekend. 4 days worth of progress for the allies.

On the first day the Japs send more surface forces into Irau and this time I do take it on the chin far more than I have previously.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 02/14/43

Weather: Thunderstorms

Night Time Surface Combat, near Irau at 42,43

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso, Shell hits 4
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 5
CA Ashigara
DD Oboro, Shell hits 1
DD Satsuki, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Harukaze, Shell hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
DD Tachikaze, Shell hits 12, on fire, heavy damage
DD Namikaze, Shell hits 3

Allied Ships
BB Maryland, Shell hits 4
CA Chester
CA Vincennes
CA Wichita, Shell hits 7, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Mullany, Shell hits 2
DD Hutchins
DD Brownson
DD Lansdowne
DD O'Brien

Wichita, my brand new Heavy Cruiser, is down at the bow, stern and centre. Some more of his DDs take heavy hits though.
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Irau at 42,43

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso, Shell hits 7
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 10
CA Ashigara, Shell hits 6, on fire
DD Oboro, Shell hits 14, and is sunk
DD Satsuki, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Harukaze, Shell hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
DD Tachikaze, Shell hits 5, and is sunk
DD Namikaze, Shell hits 4

Allied Ships
BB Maryland, Shell hits 11, on fire, heavy damage
CA Chester, Shell hits 2, on fire
CA Vincennes, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
CA Wichita, Shell hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Mullany, on fire
DD Hutchins
DD Brownson
DD Lansdowne
DD O'Brien

Back come the BBs and this time they manage to put 4 or so 14 inch shells into Maryland, she cannot return the favour. Vincennes is the recipient of some hurt this round as well - who would be a sailor on board my CAs?
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Naval bombardment of Irau, at 42,43

Allied Ships
BB South Dakota, Shell hits 2
BB Indiana, Shell hits 3
CL Nashville, Shell hits 2
DD Radford, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Chevalier, Shell hits 1
DD Waller, Shell hits 2, on fire

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 106

Airbase hits 2
Runway hits 2
Port hits 2
Port supply hits 5

I actually had a whole other Surface force here, but as luck would have it they were on bombardment duty so do not take part in the surface contact - another team of warships would have added their weight nicely. In the end I have a very sick Wichita, which ends up having to be scuttled, and Maryland in great doubt as to whether she can make it to Luganville.
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Sub attack at 40,42

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Sculpin

It ends up being the sub forces job to exact some vengence. Herb can't make his surface forces retreat without going past my subs and they start well by putting two fish into the Fuso.
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Sub attack at 39,42

Japanese Ships
BB Yamashiro, Torpedo hits 1

Allied Ships
SS S-39

Then SS-39 puts another into Yamashiro
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Sub attack at 36,41

Japanese Ships
BB Yamashiro, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS S-38

later in the day the SS-38 cathces up with Yamashiro again and puts two torps into her!
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Ground combat at Irau

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 28569 troops, 317 guns, 137 vehicles

Defending force 12151 troops, 227 guns, 8 vehicles

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 4

Allied assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 4)

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 0


Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 518

Allied ground losses:
Men lost 1084
Vehicles lost 1

The second shock attack takes place and there are now no forts at Irau.
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Day two has air activity and these two interesting occurences:

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Sub attack at 35,40

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS S-39

SS-39 finds Fuso limping along again and puts 3 torps into her and she sinks. No sign of Yamashiro so she may have been scuttled or escaped - I don't know which.
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Ground combat at Irau

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 28330 troops, 317 guns, 164 vehicles

Defending force 11696 troops, 226 guns, 8 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Irau base !!!


Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 2458
Guns lost 79

Allied ground losses:
Men lost 368
Vehicles lost 2

Irau is taken! What a bloody offensive. I lost 1 BB, 1 CA, 1 CL and 3 DDs - I am likely to loose another BB. I also lost 14 assorted transport ships - Herbs' stationing of 3 CD units at Irau doing massive damage here.
I think the Japs lost 1 BB and maybe another, possibly the CA Mogami (unknown) about 10 DDs, plus damage to a further BB and CA.
He must be hurting in small escort ships (DDs and CLs) and in BB numbers now - I think only the Kirishima is in fighting trim.
Where were the carriers???? I now have the all important Solomons Airbase and the carriers didn't try to stop me...
Maybe the threat of my own carriers (which you may remember are not actually in the vacinity - still at Pearl) caused him to tread cautiously??
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There have been two more days of fighting since then.

The highlights have been the appearence of some of his carriers just North of Tulagi. He pre-empted the appearence with a large sweep of fighters from Munda to Irau. I had little on defense: just a sqd of P-38s on LRCAP from Nevea. They do very well but by the time the attack from his carriers comes in - about 20 kates, there are only 4 P-38s left on duty. His bombers choose to hit my AKs and do so against 2 of them both are likely to sink (but as of this writing are still struggling along).
My Irau air then reached out and hit a TF he has at Tassafaronga. The hits they accomplished produced losses in men. I don't know if this means he is loading or unloading.

The next day is a strange one. I attack Lunga with the heavy bomber fleet and the smash the place up - but yet again I loose 6 Heavies - they are coming from Luganville still. His carriers are still in the same place they were but I don't strike them or the TF of transports he still has on station at tassafaronga. I think he is using his carriers to LRCAP the transport TF.

I therefore setup a sqd of P-38s to sweep tassafaronga and keep the plethora of fighterbombers I have here on naval attack at low level.

With Irau now owned and my forces pretty badly beaten up, I will now look to consolidate for a bit. Build up the defenses of Irau and try and make it very difficult for him to pick up the men which retreated to the dot hex NE of Irau. Damaged ships stream away towards Luganville and Noumea. Ships that took part in the action in Oz have also started to return to Noumea. Hopefully, in about a week, I can get my commitment up to high again and get some replacement shipping back to the South Pacific - plenty in Pearl, including 4 fleet carriers.