Lunacy In The Pacific Mogami Vs. Tom Hunter

[Tom Hunter]

I'm not sure about this but I think Oz might actually have more AP than India in the early game. Not more than India in this game at this time, but India starts with something less than 2000 AP, and the Australian home army is pretty big.

Unlike India it has a lot of big CD units at the main ports too.

I don't know what the cities would be worth but that is likely key to the victory point numbers. The other thing that makes Oz unattractive is that if Japan does take it they lose a lot of the advantage of interior lines of communication, making the Allied counter attack that much easier.

[Ron Saueracker]

From now on training will be with Lysanders and Wirraways, recovery should be faster now, and the next fight will move closer to 1 to 1 losses.

Great AAR Tom and great play. I am not a big fan of the PDU because of its' potential for abuse but it definitely has some good points. The ability now exists to train pilots in the rear using old airframes, something which was lacking aside from Mogami's ingenious old workaround. Also, the Japanese player can now utilize the hoards of old airframes as kamikaze aircraft as was historically the case can he not?

Enjoying your AAR immensely. Good luck and spank those monkeys.[:)][&o]

[Tom Hunter]

Two days without much action.

In Burma the RAF Hurricane groups continue to recover. My pilot pool was low so I have some guys with terrible stats. On the other hand they recover to 50 after about 3 raids so it will be back to work training again soon.

The number of Japanese planes at Moulmein and Tavoy is way up, I think there are more fighters capping Moulmein than there are in the RAF. This may be preperation for an eventual offensive, or it may just be a huge pile of fighters in Moulmein.

In the longer run Spitfires are about 40 days away (27 days in May + 13 to build up the numbers) and I am starting to conserve my best fighter groups for that upgrade. So training and occasional bloodshed will continue but there should be 3-4 70XP Spitfire groups flying by the end of June.

China is quiet, the Japanese don't even bomb there any more. The Chinese are still well enough supplied to build up, the one army the Japanese are bombarding is actually larger now than it was when the battle started.

Rabaul is flattening Port Moresby airfield, but is not intercepting shipping. So supplies are high and the airfield gets repaired pretty fast. If there are two days of bad weather in a row I am going to fly in 100 Kittyhawks and P40s. Mogami usually flies 50 Zeros as escort so that ought to wreck the show.

In the South Pacific the Allies have switched the main effort to ASW, sinking two Japanese subs on May 3rd. The B26s attacked Luganville, 100 bombers met about 70 fighters, 10 B26s and 5 Oscars were shot down but no bombs hit the airbase.

The American BBs are steaming North to Noumea from Aukland, if the weather cooperates they will try to bombard Luganville.

On New Caledonia a US CD unit with 36 155s has deployed at Noumea. A marine CD will arrive in 2 days and go to Koumac, another unit is on ships somewhere and will go to La Foa. I need to move in more AA, and I am considering sending one more infantry division, that would bring the island to 3 divisions, a New Zealand Brigade and various smaller units. A large force with 3 airfields behind big forts should be very difficult for Mogami to take down, and the longer things go the bigger the chance for me to jump his fleet when it is tired. Right now Noumea is L7 forts the other two bases are far behind but I am moving engineers to speed them up. My impression is that big forts survive bombardment better, and that would be a big help. Koumac will soon be an L3 airbase which will also be a huge improvement. AV is also rising as my base forces fill out, if I have enough time there will be 120 at Koumac, 60 at La Foa and 280 at Noumea.

The US CV fleet is passing Christmas Island.

Of course Mogami will probabley hit Hawaii instead, but things are in pretty good shape up there too.

[jrlans]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter


Of course Mogami will probabley hit Hawaii instead, but things are in pretty good shape up there too.

You still control both Wake and Midway right Tom?

With PBYs stationed at both wake and midway and also in the alutieans a small sub screening force could detect Mog coming from a long way out if he decided to try it, i would think it would be enough time to get the heavies and fighters back to pearl if needed.

I would think it would be a mistake for mog to even try for Pearl this late in the game with the AFs built up around it and the fort lvls in the surrounding bases high i dont think he could effectivly sortie against that strong a position with-out first giving strategic surprise away (ie: invasion of Midway as a fuel and supply staging base)

[Tom Hunter]

I'm really not sure where he will go. I do have early warning out for Hawaii, I own Wake, Midway and Johnston plus I have some tripwire forces out here and there.

He is still very powerful but Manila took a long time to fall.

One strategy that might work is grab South Pac as soon as possible, then invade Russia. There is nothing I can do to make the Russians stronger, so unlike everywhere else they are still pretty vunerable to defeat in 1943.

[Tom Hunter]

China is still quiet, and Burma is also, just a few minor Allied air raids.

Now that the British can upgrade the strategy in the CBI area is going to change. China has plenty of supply and is not under attack. The British need to train aircrews by bombing but there are only a few targets and they are either well defended or easy targets for ambush. So the British are going to send single engine air groups to China to bomb airbases and ground troops. Some of these will be short range planes, but this is also a great use for the Buffalos. Over the next few weeks the lower XP RAF and RAAF air units will rotate through China. As their XP level reaches 70 they will come back to India for R&R and to wait for the next big Jap offensive.

US Submarines are strating patrols off Manila to watch for moves by Japanese shipping.

Frantic preperations for the defense of New Caledonia continue. A USMC Defense battalion will finish unloading at Noumea today and move to La Foa when done. This puts CD units into Noumea and La Foa. Another Marine CD unit is East of Pago Pago on its way in and there are a pair of US RCTs in roughly the same place. The Australians are going to send a division too, this will bring the Island garrison to 3 divisions, 2 RCTs, 1 Brigade plus base forces, CD units, HQs and some other stuff. Supply is at 150,000 and climbing, but much more is needed.

This mapo shows operations that will shut down the Japanese airbases near New Caledonia. Luganville is full of Japanese fighters, so a shore bombardment mission will precede attack by about 150 four engine bombers. The cruisers are fast enough to get back under LR CAP after bombarding.

After the search plane base gets set up in the Santa Cruz Islands the 3 old US BBs will also start bombardment runs. Between the BBs, the 4 engine bombers and the return of the B26s it should be possible to render the two Japanese bases harmless. This will put the Japanese in a dillemma because they will need to use KB to fight New Caledonia which exposes their CVs to the danger of counter attack by the Allied CV fleets.

[Tom Hunter]

We are on Thanksgiving break until Sunday when I am sure Mogami will have a pile of turns to do.

Two TFs are heading for Luganville, the USS Marblehead is leading 5 DDs to sweep out any ships that might be in the harbor, and then a mixed force of US, Australian and New Zealand warships is coming with bombardment orders.

The next day 160 heavy bombers will launch against the airfield at Lugaville. If the bombardment goes well they will catch a lot of Japanese fighters on the ground.

This is my first serious offensive operation of the Pacific war so I am pretty excited. If it is successful and shuts the airfield then I will be able to follow up with more bombardment using both the cruisers and some older US BBs.

Strategically a lot rides on this operation. If Luganville and Efate are shut down then the corelation of forces at Noumea moves a lot in favor of the Allies.

With Luganville and Efate the Japanese can bring 200-300 (or more) LBA plus 500 CV based planes to bear against 300-400 Allied LBA and 500+ CV based planes.

But without those two bases the Japanese CVs have 500 or so planes against 400 LBA and 500+ CV based planes. The LBA can attrit the Japanese CV based groups and then the Allied CVs can move in for round 2.

The next few days are very important for the Allies in the South Pacific.

Update coming Sunday

[Ron Saueracker]

That AVD being sent to Santa Crus is a dead puppy. Poor bastartds have no idea the head honchos are lunatics![:D]

[Tom Hunter]

It will almost certainly get sunk, but the ability to search the sea between Guadalcanal and Espiritu Santo is critical. I don't want my surface ships half way between Noumea and Lugaville when KB shows up. I want them in Noumea (now a level 8 port) where they can absorb a lot of attacks by Japanese planes.

Also Mogami has already lost close to 100 Vals and Kates hitting Noumea unescorted. So haveing a couple of BBs under heavy CAP can really burn up his CV airgroups. If those groups get shot up for a day or two then a carrier battle makes sense, otherwise it is just too dangerous.

When everything comes together there will be:
5 single CV TFs with 4 Cruisers and 10 DDs each
A Royal Navy CV TF with 2 CVs and a collection of cruisers and DDs
An escort carrier TF with Hermes and Long Island, though this group may not go into harms way, or may operate seperatly from the main Allied CV forces.

Surface forces:
RN slow BB TF with 3 BBs + cruisers and DDs
RN fast TF with Prince of Wales + cruisers and DDs
Allied TF of CAs, CLs and DDs
US BB TF with 3 old BBs, DDs and cruisers
USS Marblehead and 5 DDs as a small force for either fast reaction or covering secondary bases

The RN fast TF is going to be entirely Royal Navy with night combat XP in the high 60s and higher, I may be able to construct a TF with XP in the 70s to 80s if I am careful. All the captains are picked.

The RN slow TF will be slightly lower quality but still in the 60s or higher.

The Allied TF has night fighting stats in the 50s from steaming around and from a couple of night actions in the early part of the game.

The US BB TF will not have very good night fighting XP

The Marblehead TF is only slightly better than the BB TF

The BB TF and Marblehead group will be used to defend Noumea, the other TFs will be used to ambush or counter attack the Japanese as appropriate.

[Tom Hunter]

A look at the rear area of India.

F is the fort size, AP is the assault points based there, AF is the airfield size. Assume plenty of AV, India is full of support units now.

So Karachi is a L7 fort with 809 Assault points (2 UK divisions, + a bunch of stuff) with an L4 airfield.

I am not improving airfields on the coast except at Panji. I want Mogami to have to fight from inferior airfields if he does grab a coastal city. I will improve Karachi airfield after the firt hits L9 since if Karachi goes I am messed up anyway. The 354 AP at Malir are the British 18th division. I am building Karachi up a lot incase Mogami tries a smash and grab for India. I am also sending an RTC to the USA base, because I am paranoid.

Ahamabad is a cut and paste error, the real numbers are F6 AP64 AF6. Still a pretty strong base.

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

It will almost certainly get sunk, but the ability to search the sea between Guadalcanal and Espiritu Santo is critical. I don't want my surface ships half way between Noumea and Lugaville when KB shows up. I want them in Noumea (now a level 8 port) where they can absorb a lot of attacks by Japanese planes.

Also Mogami has already lost close to 100 Vals and Kates hitting Noumea unescorted. So haveing a couple of BBs under heavy CAP can really burn up his CV airgroups. If those groups get shot up for a day or two then a carrier battle makes sense, otherwise it is just too dangerous.

When everything comes together there will be:
5 single CV TFs with 4 Cruisers and 10 DDs each
A Royal Navy CV TF with 2 CVs and a collection of cruisers and DDs
An escort carrier TF with Hermes and Long Island, though this group may not go into harms way, or may operate seperatly from the main Allied CV forces.

Surface forces:
RN slow BB TF with 3 BBs + cruisers and DDs
RN fast TF with Prince of Wales + cruisers and DDs
Allied TF of CAs, CLs and DDs
US BB TF with 3 old BBs, DDs and cruisers
USS Marblehead and 5 DDs as a small force for either fast reaction or covering secondary bases

The RN fast TF is going to be entirely Royal Navy with night combat XP in the high 60s and higher, I may be able to construct a TF with XP in the 70s to 80s if I am careful. All the captains are picked.

The RN slow TF will be slightly lower quality but still in the 60s or higher.

The Allied TF has night fighting stats in the 50s from steaming around and from a couple of night actions in the early part of the game.

The US BB TF will not have very good night fighting XP

The Marblehead TF is only slightly better than the BB TF

The BB TF and Marblehead group will be used to defend Noumea, the other TFs will be used to ambush or counter attack the Japanese as appropriate.

Too bad the airfield icon pops up automatically when aircraft are based anywhere, eh? Otherwise the AVD might have a smattering of a chance.

[Ron Saueracker]

I can't wait to see what happens in SoPac. Wow, what a titanic clash you guys are having.[8D]

[Tom Hunter]

China:

The supply situation stays the same, which is pretty good. The Chinese are not using replacements as fast as they generate them but they are still building stronger units, several Chinese corps are over 300 AP now. Next turn I am going to start gathering the last remaining low XP units into an attack force and eventualy go after either Canton or Nanchang.

The air battle is now a bit strange, the Chinese airforce is in India resting, and China is full of RAF and RAAF Buffalos and Wirraways flying airfeild and ground attacks. I never group more than 2 units at a base, and prefer only one, and the attacks are scattered and move about a lot to reduce the chance of ambush. This is slowly building the XP level, and it is beginning to work. In ten or 15 days another group or two will hit XP 70, fly back to India and convert to Hurricanes and a Hurricane group in the 60s will convert and go to China. The best plane for this is Buffalos because of the range but I don't have enough of them yet so I am also flying Wirraways and Lysanders.

In Burma the 38th Chinese division has flown out of Mandalay and the 96th will fly out soon. They will be replaced by the 55th division which is now 156 AP, almost equal to the strenght of the two divisions flying out.

India has not changed except for more fort expansion and air unit upgrades.

Port Moresby is getting a daily pasting from the Japanese airforce but the engineers fix it up pretty quick too. Still I am concerned because if Mogami hits there instead of New Caledonia I lose, the area is just not strong enough.

The main effort for the Allies is the South Pacific, at the expense of PM among other places.

The counter attack on Luganville has been moderately successful. On the 8th the shore bombardment attack went in with no opposition from enemy warships:

Naval bombardment of Luganville, at 72,107 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
H6K4 Mavis: 3 destroyed
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 9 destroyed
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed

60 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Allied Ships
CL Hobart
CL Perth, Shell hits 29
CL De Ruyter
CL Achilles
CL Leander
CA Canberra
CA Australia
CA Louisville

Japanese ground losses:
1664 casualties reported
Guns lost 71

Airbase hits 13
Airbase supply hits 7
Runway hits 41

I have no idea what the Perth was doing, but she came home with 7 sys and 4 fires, all the other ships are in even better condition.

Unfortuneatly the B17s chose not to fly that day, so the chance for a 1 2 punch that really knocks the place out was missed.

A day later the 4 engine bombers did hit, but there was no naval bombardment:
Day Air attack on Luganville , at 72,107

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 11
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 48

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 1
B-17E Fortress x 138
LB-30 Liberator x 16

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 5 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 12 destroyed, 25 damaged
H6K4 Mavis: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 9 destroyed, 43 damaged
LB-30 Liberator: 2 destroyed, 12 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
256 casualties reported
Guns lost 7

Airbase hits 6
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 68

Allied losses were higher than I wanted because the attacks were no coordinated. Japanese losses are still pretty high over 50 aircraft in two days and my bombers have good moral so the over all operation is a success but not that great.

On the Island of New Caledonia Koumac is now an L3 airbase and the 9th USMC defense battalion has started setting up its guns at La Foa.

At sea 3 US BBs and the Marblehead are going to bombard Luganville tonight. 2 B17 groups and a 16 plane LB30 group are planning to hit the airfield again in the morning. A group of B26s has moved to Koumac and is also under orders to visit the Japanese. One B26 group and a B17 group are resting in Nandi. Hopefully the ships will hit, the planes will fly and Lugaville will be suppresses.

There is a long chain of units heading for Noumea now, closest is a marine defense battalion for Koumac, then 2 RCTs, another BF, and finally a division each from the West Coast and Sydney Australia. Some of this stuff will arrive in the next two weeks, others will take a month at least.

The US CV fleet is now East of Pago Pago and the Royal Navy is repairing in Aukland.

KBs wearabouts are unknown but there are reports of 231 ships in the harbor at Manila and 47 ground units waiting on land.

It is a race to see if the Allies can get the land base of Noumea and the airforce of India ready before the huge Japanese army and airforce show up at one or the other.

[Tom Hunter]

Two battles off Luganville as a pair of US TFs crash into Japanese cruisers sent to stop bombardment.

The first group was a set of DDs lead by the USS Marblehead:

Allied Ships
CL Marblehead, Shell hits 19, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Alden, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
DD Barker
DD Paul Jones
DD Peary, Shell hits 10, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Kennison, Shell hits 9, and is sunk

They did not do very well [:(]

However they did set the Japanese on fire which allowed this second group to get suprise:





There was a 4 round battle during which the USS Idaho took 5 topedos and sank and two of the escorts were shot up pretty badly.

On the Japanese side things were not so good either. Atago took a 14" hit on a turret, Chokai took 3 14" the last of which caused a massive explosion, Myoko took two 14" one went into tower armor the other throught the belt, the CL Nagara took a 14" belt hit and after combat was over the USS Drum put a torpedo into the Ashigira. There were numerous smaller caliber hits as well and some small hits on the Japanese DDs.

Needless to say there was no shore bombardment.

Tactically this was an Allied defeat, we lost a BB, a CL and several DDs the Japanese have yet to lose a ship. Strategically it is probabley a draw. This is the second cruiser TF of its size to get shot up pretty badly in the South Pacific, both groups represented about 1/3 of the total cruisers in the IJN. So 2/3 are damaged now which means that the Allies have more cruisers available than the Japanese. This will make it harder for Mogami to cover invasion fleets should he send any this way.

Later in the day 70 4 engine bombers fought their way through 22 Oscars to bomb Luganville. The B26s were kept on the ground by cloud cover, the B17s destroyed 31 Japanese planes on the ground.

As the next map shows Mogami does not like being bombarded at all and has sent numerous TFs down to stop it. US PBYs took up residence in Upatu for a day and gave a good report of incoming enemy. An APD was sunk after unloading supplies there, the PBYs pulled out after a day, leaving 4 damaged airframes behind.

US CVs will be at Tongapatu on May 12th, the cruiser TF that started the operations is heading South to Aukland, I don't want Mogami to have too many targets. The 2 undamaged BBs and some DDs are heading into Noumea with LR CAP, we will see if they make it, they only steam 3 at full speed.

[Tom Hunter]

The Angry Japanese Navy (AJN) comes South to stop my impertenant counter attack:

[Tom Hunter]

China is more of the same.

India and Burma are also quiet. I am waiting for Spitfires once I have a decent number of them India will get a bit more aggressive. In the mean time it's train, train, train the planes.

South Pacific sees KB arrive and put LR CAP over Luganville. 70 Zeros hit the 38 bombers I send and shoot down 14 for a loss of 5. Allied BBs get back to Noumea and disband. Then heavy weather comes in and we lose track of eachothers TFs.

US CVs top off fuel at Tongapatu and start steaming to a postion SE of New Caledonia. Mogami's carriers were last seen NE of Espiritu Santo, it seems we are both inclined to keep our CV TFs behind the shield of LBA.

I will try shore bombardment again later when the B17s are ready. In the mean time LCUs and supply are arriving and the forts at Koumac and La Foa are expanding. Over in Australia the 6th Australian division boards ship for Noumea.

No movement by the big Japanese TFs in Manalia though a tanker did get torpedoed off Luzon.

[Oleg Mastruko]

I don't know whether any of you is aware of the gamble you're doing.... If CVs exchange blows and you lose, he will take Noumea by hook or by crook (if he's smart) and have well above 4:1. It will be interesting...

In fact, knowing that he must take Noumea by hook or by crook anyway, you force him into "do or die" situation.

Personally, if I were you I would keep my CVs as far away from Noumea as humanely possible (better use them to hit and run where you know for certain KB is not), but by all means - don't listen to me and continue! That is what makes this AAR so much more interesting than mine [:D]

Oleg

[mc3744]

Hey Tom [:)]

Could you post the date every now and then?

Thanks [:)]

[Gen.Hoepner]

Could you post the date every now and then?

Agree. I find hard to understand the date many times.
Thx

[Tom Hunter]

I post the date as the subject line every time I update the AAR

Look up, it says May 13th


Oleg,

I am not going to bring my CVs into action unless his CVs are exausted from fighting my LBA in Noumea. For example there was a day in February when his CVs would not fly large strikes any more, if mine had been in the area I might have jumped him.

We are both trying to cause a battle of CVs on one side and CVs and LBA on the other side. I suspect Mogami is assuming (correctly) that my CVs are in the South Pacific lurking somewhere. If not then I may get a critical edge.

The LBA thing is why he responded so strongly to my bombardment attack on Luganville. If I permanently shut down the airfields on Luganville and Efate then he has to fight a CV vs LBA battle or stop his advance. Likewise he would like to shore bombard my airbases in New Caledonia but now he has to deal with BBs in order to do it and his cruiser forces are chewed up a bit at the moment.

Even as targets the BBs on both sides present a problem because they can pull airstrikes into ambushes by large forces of CAP. There is nothing I would like more than 70 Vals and 50 Kates to come over Noumea escorted by 50 Zeros. I have 84 F4Fs, 70 P40s 70 P39s and some Kittyhawks waiting, the battle would gut the airgroups of KB. Likewise Mogami would love to have 30-60 bombers go after the Ise if it had 100 Zeros flying over it.

I cannot afford to have Mogami sail up with 300,000 men on APs to attack Noumea, I have to sink them before they get to unload. Later when I have 5 or 6 divisions worth of stuff behind bigger forts I might be able to, since I might hold the landing force outside a good fort. So for the moment we are dancing around eachother looking for an opening.

Mogami got to beat me up in March, April was closer to a draw and we just saw an Allied win in the air Vs. a Japanese win at sea in the last few days.

Just for information Noumea is a 5 airfield, 7 port and 7 fort but rising fast. Koumac is a 3 airfield, 2 fort 1 port, La Foa is a 2 airfield, 2 fort 1 port.

The big combat formations are 1 USMC Division, Americal Division and a NZ Brigade. There is a Marine raider battalion, a Marine defense battalion and a 36 gun 6" CD unit.

Rear area units include SouthPac HQ, 11 Airforce HQ and a number of base forces.

As noted elsewhere another Marine CD unit is arriving in a few days, 2 RCTs and 3 divisions are on ships, the RCTs are close the divisions are not and there is at least one more base force coming as well.

The Island has about 390 AV at the moment with 250 at Noumea and the rest at other bases. This number is increasing due to arrival of additional units and to replacements filing out some of the BFs that came from the Phillipines.

There is about 170,000 supply on the island which is not really enough. More is coming on a regular basis and ships are unloading pretty much all the time.