Speedy vs Swift - Jap perspective. Fight to the death

[Speedysteve]

Thanks Rob [:)]

Today -

I received a surprise! Werner bombarded Paramushiro!!!! What a surprise. I was not expecting that. I have nothing of real value there (a BAse force + 2 x CD units. 9 x Mavis were stationed there for scouting but didn't see it coming). Werner caused 700 casualties and in his e-mail said "what have you got up there to cause so many casualties. Oh well we'll soon find out". If i'm honest i'm not overly worried about this. It means his focus is away from Wake and I have enough forces in Japan itself to IMO prevent Werner from doing anything of real harm. I have a lot of home defense LCU's and air units. I have moved
a Betty Daitai to Sapporo in case he tries anything too rash.

Wake -

Yes I have already set my BB divisions to NO escort bombardment.

I think I will still use 2 BB divisions for 2 days each. My reasoning is as such - My transports are about 5 days out from Wake. After tomorrow KB will leave the invasion fleet at full speed and reach within 240 miles of Wake. She will stay there and the Kates will attack the airfield. The next night 2 x BB divisions will bombard and stay on site. Then 2 more the following night. Then the transports will unload.

AFAIK Werner has not spotted the fleet as yet.

In his mail's he keeps asking where the heck KB is. I always just respond: "Where it needs to be" [;)]

[Speedysteve]

The suspense is apparent now.

I still don't believe that my invasion fleet has been spotted. 5 days out of Wake now.

Yamaguchi is ordered to steam ahead at Full speed to within 240 miles of the Island. The CAP is ordered to fly at 1/2 escort and 1/2 CAP, the Vals to anti-shipping and the Kates to bomb the airfield from 15,000 feet.

Werner bombards Paramushiro again and even sends in an MSW to clear away mines that are there. I wonder whether this is a serious invasion or a ruse. Either way Home Defense Betties and Zero's are now stationed at Onimato - 45 Betties and 54 Zero's in case he ventures too near.

SRA - Forces have now reached Batavia. Bombardments will begin tomorrow.........

This is WiTP is all about. Us both knowing we're doing stuff but not sure what. Even our e-mails have become more guarded with stuff like "next turn" only [;)]

Steven

[Speedysteve]

Well here we go guys.........

KB showed up and 111 Kates were escorted by 68 Zero's. The CAP over wake was made up of 10 F4F3's, 8 F2A's and 17 P40B's.

I ended up losing 14 Kates (5 to flak) and 10 Zero's against 34 Allied planes (including Bostons And SBD's).

According to my recon the airfield only holds upto 20 more fighters, 10 bombers and 10 auxillary.

My feeling is that it holds 3 x FG's - F4F, F2A and P40B. 1 x SBD Squad, 1 x Boston Squad and 1 x Catalina squad.

Worryingly it showed Wake as having 370000 men in 10 units!!!!

Also interestignly 3 TF's were present. I spotted 1 x PT so can assume 1 TF is PT's. 1 other TF showed 1 ship - my thoughts were maybe either an ML or AV. The other TF showd BB and AP. I think this may be a transport TF.

My feelings on this:

I will still proceed with this. KB is to move 240 miles in case any surface forces move out to intercept. CAP is increased to 60%. All bombers are put to Naval attack primary (Kates set to Airrfild attack secondary).

2 x BB divisions are to move to bombard - Tanaka commanding the Nagato and Mutsu group, K. Yamamoto commanding Hiei and Kirishima. They are to remain on site.

Woah. This is tense.

How will Werner react? What does Werner really have on Wake?!?

Steven

[DuckofTindalos]

Well, 37000 men is two+ divisions, so it's not unrealistic.

[Speedysteve]

I know for a FACT he has 2 x CD units, at least 3 base forces and 2 x AA so maybe 1 or 2 divisions too?

Just received this email from Werner: "holy shock - there is your KB !!! I need some Corsairs or P-38s ASAP !!!"

Lets hope he is genunely in shock [:D]

I am anxious on this. My loss of 2 divisions due to warping means I can't afford to lose more forces..........

For the Empire!

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Just wondered -

Am I right in thinking that the amount of men reported at a base by recon CAN BE INNACURATE?

Just thinking on those supposed 80,000 men at Wake...........

[Speedysteve]

Hi lal,

GHQ has been busy over the past 3 days dealing with the operational execution of the Wake Operation.

Things have not proceeded according to the best plan but overall things have not gone too bad.

The past 3 days have seen KB's Kates bombing the airfield twice and the port once. Flak has been very intense over the atoll with upto 15 Kates being shot down by flak (despite bombing at 15,000 feet!). The airfield has been fairly severely damaged though.

Limited reaction has been shown by the Allies. A few pitiful strikes have attacked my surface fleets with only Mutsu and Kirishima wearing a minor bomb hit.

On the 16th two of my BB divisions bombarded Wake but caused little damage (500 casualties between them). They also bombarded on the 17th but only caused (100 or so casualties between them).

On the 18th my other two BB divisions joined the fray (firstly despatching of 2 PT's boats). From receiving messages from Yamaguchi it appears that recon of the atoll for 5 days has led to an accurate picture to be formed by the commanders on the scene. This new information proved crucial when Fuso, Hyuga, Ise and Yamashiro turned up at 1.30pm 18th March. For over an hour the atoll was pounded again and again. Known strongpoints were subjected to intense 14" gunfire. The suspected results are shown below. Death to the defenders!

Naval bombardment of Wake Island, at 82,63


Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
A-20B Boston: 3 destroyed
PBY Catalina: 1 destroyed
F2A Buffalo: 8 destroyed
SBD Dauntless: 4 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat: 4 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CL Natori
CL Sendai
CA Maya
CA Takao
BB Yamashiro
BB Fuso


Allied ground losses:
3456 casualties reported
Guns lost 116
Vehicles lost 27

Airbase hits 16
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 40

AND

Naval bombardment of Wake Island, at 82,63 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!


Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
A-20B Boston: 2 destroyed
SBD Dauntless: 1 destroyed
F2A Buffalo: 3 destroyed
PBY Catalina: 1 destroyed

14 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
CL Kuma
CL Kinu
CL Yura
CA Ashigara
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 7
BB Ise


Allied ground losses:
1380 casualties reported
Guns lost 31
Vehicles lost 4

Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 36

The troops are 60 miles away and will begin unloading tomorrow. I am expecting and prepared to take a few transport losses to CD's and probably mines.

Recon - the past 3 days recon has nbow ascertained that 40,000 Allied troops are on the atoll. I'm much happier with this figure. Maybe a division and a half?!?

KB's Kat's are to bomb the troops tomorrow to aid my men. All four BB divisions are to help in bombarding the atoll too.

I hope I take this place.

Below is the toll for the day..........

[WhoCares]

I guess the Fusos and Ises are the best bombardment ships for Japan. 12x14" is 50% more BB shells than with the Kongos or Nagatos or 33% than the Yamatos. add some 10x8" CAs and you have a mighty steel rain.

More precise (though not affecting the actual percentages) the calculation would have to go 6 BB ammo spend per barrel => 6x12x14" =72x14" vs. 48x14"/16" or 54x18.1"; I don't think that the bigger calibre of Nagato and Yamato can make up for the inferior number of shells in bombardments vs. Fuso/Ise class.
How much ammo do spend CAs in bombardments? Would be interesting to compare them with the BBs as well.

[Speedysteve]

Curses, curses and triple curses!

There appear to have been SHED loads of mines at Wake. The MSW's did well but about 8 different ships took mine hits and the CD's guns appear to have taken a fair toll.

8 of the MSW's have sunk and every other one + PG's will probably sink within 2 days. 3/4 of the forces are ashore and despite the bombing and shelling the b*stards could not take Wake. I'm not confident of this now. I doubt they will take it [:(]

I will try again tomorrow by unloading the rest of the men and the whole of KB will bomb the Allied defenders. If I fail tomorrow i'm evac'ing the men. At least they can regroup and rebuild.

Here's some excerpts:

Coastal Guns at Wake Island, 82,63, firing at TF 17
1506 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
AP Tsuyama Maru, Shell hits 2, on fire
PG Chiyo Maru, Shell hits 4
PC Ch 17, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Hatsushima, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Nenohi
AP Kogane Maru, Shell hits 1, on fire
AP Yawata Maru
AP Tempei Maru, Shell hits 2, on fire
AP Taigen Maru, Shell hits 1, on fire
PG Okuyo Maru, Shell hits 9, on fire
AP Kikuryu Maru, Shell hits 6, on fire
AP Nichiryo Maru, Shell hits 2
AP Konzan Maru, Shell hits 4, on fire
MSW Keinan Maru, Shell hits 16, on fire, heavy damage
AP Saiho Maru, Shell hits 7, on fire
MSW W.16, Shell hits 2, on fire

Japanese ground losses:
3045 casualties reported
Guns lost 18
Vehicles lost 9

Coastal Guns at Wake Island, 82,63, firing at TF 17
1233 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
DD Nenohi, Shell hits 2
AP Tofuku Maru, Shell hits 2, on fire
AP Rakuto Maru, Shell hits 4, on fire
PG Chiyo Maru, Shell hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
AP Osaka Maru, Shell hits 31, on fire
AP Ronsan Maru, Shell hits 11, on fire
AP Seiwa Maru, Shell hits 17, on fire, heavy damage
PG Okuyo Maru, Shell hits 7, on fire
AP Tohuku Maru, Shell hits 2
AP Tensyo Maru, Shell hits 1
AP Tatuwa Maru, Shell hits 5, on fire

Japanese ground losses:
2203 casualties reported
Guns lost 6
Vehicles lost 9


Ground combat at Wake Island

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 56011 troops, 639 guns, 297 vehicles

Defending force 32997 troops, 441 guns, 21 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 5)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 4


Japanese ground losses:
3772 casualties reported
Guns lost 58
Vehicles lost 26

Allied ground losses:
1425 casualties reported
Guns lost 102
Vehicles lost 4

[Speedysteve]

Maybe there is hope!

Wake must have been like Verdun on the 20th March 1942. Almost all of my invasion men were put ashore. Fierce battles raged across the tiny piece of land. Further ground was gained my my divisions but at the cost of 3:! casualties.

We hold out with hope now though. We are breaking through the Allied defences and AK's are unloading more supplies as we speak.

A further ray of hope. None of my planned bomber attacks on the defenders took place today due to bad weather across the region.

I hope that with the help of KB and Betties fron Kwajalein we can break through the Americans and take the place tomorrow.

BANZAI!!!!

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 71250 troops, 552 guns, 257 vehicles

Defending force 29755 troops, 338 guns, 20 vehicles

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

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 3


Japanese ground losses:
3341 casualties reported
Guns lost 21
Vehicles lost 14

Allied ground losses:
1094 casualties reported
Guns lost 33
Vehicles lost 2

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

A big day for the men fighting on Wake Island. Almost all the men are ashore now. Supplies are also plentiful. This is good since Water is a priority on such a small space of land. By the end of 21st March 2/3 of the atoll were in my hands [:)]

The help of 4 BB divisions and bombing by Vals and Kates from KB and Betties from Kwajalein have proved invaluable. I expect ths place to fall tomorrow.

Ground combat at Wake Island

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 70702 troops, 517 guns, 242 vehicles

Defending force 27656 troops, 273 guns, 17 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 4 to 1 (fort level 3)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0


Japanese ground losses:
1795 casualties reported
Guns lost 28
Vehicles lost 6

Allied ground losses:
1083 casualties reported
Guns lost 42
Vehicles lost 2

Look at what I have spotted. Werner is generally aggressive and i'm not surprised he's responding. I have spotted 3 TF's closing in on Wake. I wonder what they consist of. Accordingly Mutsu, Nagato, Fuso and Yamashiro are to remain at Wake with orders to attack any shipping inbound.

KB is moving 60 miles SW with all aircraft ready for naval attack (CAP at 50%).

Could be an interesting day tomorrow...............

Steven

[Speedysteve]

Yamaguchi slumped in his Admirals chair at 7.38pm.....................

What a hectic day. Certianly the most important and biggest since Pearl Harbour. Oh how he envied Yammamoto for planning that. Today was his day.

Scouts from yesterday had spotted approcahing American ships. It was not unexpected but it meant the aircrew had to rearm from HE to AP bombs and the men had to be ready for attacking ships. They were........

At dawn further Jakes were sent on patrol. They confirmed the encroachment of 2 x American CV TF's!!!! Immediately Yamaguchi ordered the launch of aircraft for the targets and unfortunately furthest target. Even the Kate's carried bombs. He was certain of his decision though.

Approximately an hour after their take-off. Us planes were spotted on the horizon. It was a group of SBD's escprted by Wildcats. My elite Zeros handled them well but 5 SBD's broke through the CAP.........

1 targetted the Soryu. Screaming down through the flak she released her bomb and HIT on the bow flight deck!!!!


4 of her allies targetted the CVL Zuiho. Flak was intense with nearby DD's pumping up AA. 2 of the attackers were sent spinning into the ocean in flames. The other 2 carried on, 1 dropping his bomb 10 metres off port. The other planted his bomb amidships easily penetrating the flight deck. A mass of fire and flooding ocurred within minutes...........

Meanwhile Yamaguchi's men had found the larger American CV force. They attacked with abandon..........

By 4pm the CV's Lexington and Saratoga had been hit by a reported 74 bombs and 4 torpedoes!!!! Both were heavily listing and sinking.

The Americans had attacked in waves throughout the day. Apart from their inital succes (Soryu and Zuiho) they failed to get through.

Yamaguchi could be pleased. In the space of 24 hours he had sunk Lexington and Saratoga. Also the BB's at Wake had engaged 2 SC TF's in the night and mauled 4 x CA's and 8 DD's. All sinking wihtin hours of being sighted. Along with this 278 Allied planes had been lost, either sunk on the carriers or captured on Wake Island which fell today. 30,000 Allied me were captured. They fought well, very well but my men won a hard victory.

The sums for the day:

Allied losses:

2 CV
4 CA
8 DD
1 SS
278 Planes

Japanese:

30 odd aircraft
Heavy damage to CVL Zuiho (71/22/24 (retiring to Wake harbour)
Soryu (19/3/10)
CA Takao, CL Sendai, DD's Isonami and Fumuzuki.

KB is to move to the north-east to attemopt to engage the remaining American CV which should have few planes left...........

A stunning day and victory for the Empire!

[DuckofTindalos]

Damn, Speedmeister! Nice one...

[Ron Saueracker]

Nice...but I have to say that if the Uber CAP was fixed the mass slaughter of airstrikes to CAP would not be happening. The Japanese never got their CAP sorted to any degree and it was predominantly undirected throughout the war but all CAP get's more than what good CAP direction does/did historically because of the model. The uncoordination of strikes needs to go as modelled, perhaps the accuracy of attacks could go down to uncoordination but the CAP gauntlet is too severe.

What is needed is some differentation between fighter directed CAP and non fighter directed CAP and dealing with uncoordinated strikes in a less draconian manner.

[ADavidB]

Nice job Speedy. I was interested to see that your opponent lost a lot of F4F-3s and F2As in the fight. Were they coming off of his carriers or out of Midway?

With all those transports being damaged I guess you won't be repeating this elsewhere in the immediate future. BTW - how much damage did your combat troops take? Are you going to ship them back to HQ-equipped bases to recover or leave them at Wake?

Thanks -

Dave

[Speedysteve]

T - thankyou [:)]

David - All of those planes bar the ground losses came off his carriers. Seems that the carriers still had F4F3 and F4F4's.....

Midway seemed to house an F2A and P40B squadron + Bomber squadrons.

Ship loss wise i'm ok. As far as I remember its only 10 x MSW, 8 AP + the rest to come

I have hundreds of AP's around.

Ground losses were interesting. Some lost a lot (1st Kure SNLF has 0 out 72 active squads). Most of the divisons are about 1/2 to 2/3 strength. E.G. 16th divsion= 64/105. In short all units involved require rest and replacement. I am loading 2 x base force, 1 x CD and 2 x NGD unit in Tokyo to go to Wake. Once there the assaulters will move back to Japan to retrain.

Our of interest I still have a fair free troop group:

Units moving to Singapore from Johore:

IGD
4th Division
5th Division
21st Mixed Bde
4th Mixed Bde

+ units currently taking Java.

Once Java is taken. Next plan is Noumea etc.

[ADavidB]

David - All of those planes bar the ground losses came off his carriers. Seems that the carriers still had F4F3 and F4F4's.....

Midway seemed to house an F2A and P40B squadron + Bomber squadrons.

I forgot to check those ground loss numbers. Looking at them, it appears that he had an F4F3 squadron or two on the ground too. What I am trying to figure out from the air-to-air losses is whether or not the F4F4 losses are relatively low because they fought better, or because he just had more F4F3s around.

From looking at those ground losses again it appears that he overloaded the base at Midway badly too - that's a good way to not get good attacks.

Considering the lightness of your losses I'd have to say that you planned out and played the entire thing quite well, particularly your use of your SC TFs. This should be an example out there for all of the players, Japanese and Allied, on how a good combined attack can be done.

Good luck with your campaign and here's a virtual toast to your success:

Dave Baranyi

[witpqs]

I don't understand how the base at Midway could have been a factor - weren't the CV's too far away from there?

[Speedysteve]

witpqs - I'm sure Dave meant Wake. Minor typo.

Dave - Firstly. Thanks for your comments.

Yes you are right. I checked through my earlier notes and the following plane types were flying from Wake - F2A's, F4F3's, P40B's, SBD's and A20's. Based upon the numbers I was facing i'd say 1 group of each of them.

Now I know from the land combat Werner had 2 x USN Base force there. IIRC they have an aviation support of 90 potentially = 180. The airfield was size 4 so no problems there. I think what happened was this:

Few planes were left operational at Wake after days of air and sea bombardment so no threat from there. When I smashed Lexington and Saratoga into the sea I presume their airgroups flew to Wake and then my men stormed the airfield later in the day = lots of ground losses. Now as you say only 20 x F4F were lost in TOTAL. To me this means either: he had few of them (1 group maybe?) OR the other one's he had flew onto the remaining CV (which eluded me next day. Bad weather prevented any strikes from the KB).

Here's my thoughts on how the operation proceeded compared to how I planned it:

I knew that by applying maximum force I could take Wake no matter what Werner had there. KB and the BB divisions performed magnificently. They were CRUCIAL to this operation fof sure. The amount of shells flying from the BB's was tremendously important for surpressing the defenders sufficiently to allow the troops to disembark ok. Despite this 1/2 of the ships in the transport TF (40ish ships) were damaged to some extent or sunk all of the MSW were sunk for example - 10 of them. They were also crucial in navigating the minefields. God knows how many mines Werner had present but without them I expect I would have suffered a lot of mine hits (I suffered about 8 as is).

The part I was least happy with was the land forces I brought along. I had no real idea how much Werner had at Wake. If he had another division there I would NOT have taken it. It took 4 days of tough fighting and even then I only achieved 2:1 odds despite the defenders being subjected to a hell of a lot of air and sea bombardment.

I was very happy with the timing of my various elements and the co-operation of the CV's, Surface forces and Transports.

Steven

[ADavidB]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

I don't understand how the base at Midway could have been a factor - weren't the CV's too far away from there?

Dumb mistake on my part - I was too sleepy. Fortunately I decided to go to bed right afterwards instead of playing another turn in my game - gawd knows what kinds of mistakes I would have made there...[>:]

Sorry -

Dave