See you in Tokyo Bay - Apbarog(A) vs Walker(J) DBB-B Scen28

[apbarog]

23 Mar 43 (continued)

My bomber losses at Hansa Bay were heavy. Lost 17 B-24s and 4 B-17s. But the airfield was hit hard, and the enemy lost 32 Zeros, 14 Oscars, 5 Kates (on the ground), and 3 Tojos. So for the purpose of helping the upcoming Lae invasion, it's a success.

Ships for Lae and Salamaua go to Buna today. Invasions are the next day. Combat ships also go for support. Empty ships also go to Buna, to start loading the Marines for helping Salamaua.

Terapo invasion shipping heads adjacent to Port Moresby, escorted by the US fleet carriers and 2 CVEs. SBDs are reset for range 7 instead of 6. TBFs keep range 6 for torpedoes. F4F-4s are set to escort with drop tanks at range 7. If the enemy carriers reappear (not visible today) near Hansa Bay, or south toward Umboi Island, we'll have a carrier battle. With Lae and Hansa Bay's airfields damaged, I'll take a battle now. But I doubt it will occur. The enemy doesn't hug friendly airfields that aren't operational.

Terapo, Lae, and Salamaua will be invaded in 2 days.
Loading for Darwin continues at Normanton. Other ships pass Horn Island for Darwin. This invasion may have to pause en route if the US carriers can't escort immediately.

I'm happy(if one can be happy) to report that I didn't drop nearly as many paras as I had expected at Saumlaki. A few hundred troops. They will be lost very soon, as all are disrupted and have no supply. But the unit will rebuild at Gove.

A new infantry division at San Francisco will be bought out tomorrow. It has been prepping for Taberfane.

All damaged CVEs have left Milne Bay now. 2 are on the way to Australia. One is at Rockhampton heading south. Another is at Sydney with the CVL. There are far fewer subs now
between Milne Bay and Australia. I don't know why, but about 4 days ago there was a mass exodus of enemy subs headed northeast to Rabaul. All at once. I did my best with ASW and hit one or two, but they aren't in an interdiction position anymore. At least there aren't as many of them.

Another round of big invasions about to happen! Remember that the enemy still has an infantry division at Port Moresby, getting more and more isolated. Another division is at Kokodo, walking slowly northeast. It was hurt at Buna. Besides supporting units, that's 2 divisions that aren't going to make it out whole.

Taking the huge airfield at Lae will be another huge step to clearing part of New Guinea, and threatening Rabaul.

And it is almost April 1st. 130 F6F-3 Hellcats per month. I've been happy with trying to be aggressive, but with those reinforcements, I will be able to be even more aggressive.

[apbarog]

26 Mar 43

Enemy cruiser and 2 destroyers bombarded my isolated paras at Saumlaki.

I unload more troops at Port Moresby. Unloading the rest of the units that are already there, mostly support. 2 CVEs will stay and cover.

Near Wewak, sub Trigger spots a cruiser task force. I think it is the one that was damaged at Lae, and is headed north.

Sallys bomb US troops isolated in the jungle near Taberfane. Enemy troops moved into the hex today.

Navy Liberators bomb Katherine's airfield, doing almost no damage.

2 B-17F squadrons bomb Salamaua's airfield, next to Lae.

A squadron of P-38Gs sweep Lae, finding some Zeros and Tojos on ranged CAP. No losses.

Today I start artillery attacks at Port Moresby.

And I invade Lae, Salamaua, and Terapo. Lae and Salamaua will be bombarded by small cruiser task forces. A battleship task force will guard Lae. Lae will be capped from Buna. US carriers move next to Terapo and put CAP at range 2, helping Terapo, Salamaua, and Port Moresby.

No sign of enemy carriers for 2 days now. Recon of Rabaul was unfortunately poor today.

[apbarog]

27 Mar 43

Near Manus, sub Pogy spots destroyer Samidare and 2 subchasers. Samidare shows heavy damage, but Pogy misses with 2 torpedoes.

Heavy cruiser Hawkins and light cruisers Phoenix and Marblehead and destroyer Monaghan bombard Salamaua. Good results. On the way home, Marblehead was attacked by I-180, and torpedoed twice. The ship didn't sink immediately, but it was then reattacked by I-180, taking 4 more torpedoes, easily sinking the old ship. I took the opportunity to learn the real-life history of this ship. It was launched in 1923, so certainly an old ship.

A few cruisers bombarded Lae, doing good work.

Lae and Salamaua were then invaded. Unfortunately, I neglected to set the destination for the Terapo invasion convoy, so they stayed in place by Port Moresby. A pure supply convoy did try to unload on the unfriendly beaches of Terapo. Hopefully we didn't resupply the enemy!

More troops unload at Port Moresby.

Sallys bomb the troops near Taberfane. The enemy moved an infantry division from Taberfane into the jungle to eliminate my troops. They attack at 13 to 1. My regiment will be lost soon, along with a light AA regiment and a CB battalion.

9 Helens bomb my PT boats at Vangunu, which was an interesting change. They were at 1000 feet. No hits.

A couple of fighter squadrons swept Lae and found no CAP.

I got a single message at Port Moresby that a Tina was shot down. I have 2 CVEs at Port Moresby providing CAP to my ships unloading there. When I checked the actual plane losses for the day, I was pleasantly surprised to see that 30 Tinas were shot down! Wow! The Tinas were either flying supply into Port Moresby, or flying troops out. That's the most transports I've ever seen shot down in one encounter.

Then the enemy started sweeping Buna.

13 Zeros, 25 Zeros, 37 Oscars, 32 Oscars, and 10 Tojos sweep in separate missions. This was an ideal day for the enemy to sweep Buna, as I had to protect Lae and Salamaua from Buna, and I did so with about half of my fighters. By the time the second Oscar group showed up, all of my CAP was depleted.

This would have been disasterous if the enemy had been bombing the airfield or doing naval strikes. I'm afraid that my opponent may be emboldened by this result, and be more aggressive here. I do have some concerns about the next turn. I'm very vulnerable right now, with so much invasion shipping still unloading. I really do hope that my opponent doesn't get any aggressive ideas today. Relying on hope doesn't usually work out so well though.

On the bright side, I've unloaded lots of men and material at Lae and Salamaua. I decided not to attack today, but will tomorrow. I should have enough unloaded then, and will burn off some disruption.

I have 7 fighter squadrons at Buna on CAP of just Buna. I have 3 squadrons there, all Corsairs, doing LR CAP of Lae.

US carriers stay in place near Terapo. They now set their CAP to range 3, hoping to help Lae a little bit.

This is a very vulnerable day. With so much shipping at Rabaul, and maybe even KB there, things could be very ugly with the next turn. Combat ships could storm out of Rabaul and hit Lae, Salamaua, Buna, or even Milne Bay. Anything could happen.

It's more likely that the enemy carriers would appear somewhere north of New Britain, in range of Lae but out of range of everything else.

I decided to just hope that I have one more day of quiet unloading...

Invasion shipping for Darwin has passed Horn Island, and others leave Normanton. They will move slowly, waiting for the US carriers that haven't finished their work by Terapo.

Fletchers loiter west of Merauke, unseen. More Fletchers gather in Australian ports and shuttle up to Merauke. I'll use them to help screen the Darwin invasion, or to pounce on what might appear at northern enemy ports. Or Timoeka.

I'll bomb Port Moresby's airfield with medium bombers today. Australian heavies continue to rest and recover. 2 B-17F squadrons bases on the islands near Milne Bay will hit Finschhafen's airfield.

[Crackaces]

Not sure .. but have you built up Alice Springs? If so you can fly supplies to Tennent Creek and eventually Daily Waters .. on to Darwin ..the supplies will move if you build up airfields
The other plan might be to simply move supply by sea ...but flowing supplies gives you a safe supply once you take Darwin ..

[BBfanboy]

+1 with Crackaces advice. Building up the intervening bases enables supply to flow on its own and is much safer than using ships in 1942.

[apbarog]

I will definitely attempt to pull supply through Tennant Creek. In '42, I went defensive there, and couldn't support enough engineers to build it and keep enough combat strength there just in case. Now that we're in '43, and I'm about to (hopefully) retake Darwin, I can pull out the combat troops and just try to build up the base.

[BBfanboy]

Two other things that might help:

- I once tried sending convoys to Port Augusta, start of the rail branch line to Alice Springs to unload supply. When I did the supplies at Alice Springs did increase somewhat - not as much as the whole convoy load because of dispersal along the coast rail line, but better than letting it flow on its own from Sydney and Melbourne. It may have just been coincidence that the numbers went up. I did not have to monitor central Oz very much so I did not repeat the experiment.

- some posters reported that building up Normanton helps get supply over to Tennant Creek. I presume they also built up the other bases on the road back toward the rail line.

[apbarog]

All good ideas. Also, there's a dot base on the rail line south of Alice Springs. It's probably just my imagination, since Alice Springs is on the rail line, but when I expanded the dot base, I had no problems with supplying Alice Springs any longer.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: apbarog

All good ideas. Also, there's a dot base on the rail line south of Alice Springs. It's probably just my imagination, since Alice Springs is on the rail line, but when I expanded the dot base, I had no problems with supplying Alice Springs any longer.

IME dot bases act as a choke point on any transportation link, and building a couple of levels there greatly helps the supply flow. I am not saying that is how the engine is designed to work, just what seems to be happening.

Keep in mind that base size affects frequency of supply delivery too, so when you see a sudden increase at a small base it may just be the weekly supply hitting the place. Check several times over the next few days to see if it is ongoing.

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Two other things that might help:

- I once tried sending convoys to Port Augusta, start of the rail branch line to Alice Springs to unload supply. When I did the supplies at Alice Springs did increase somewhat - not as much as the whole convoy load because of dispersal along the coast rail line, but better than letting it flow on its own from Sydney and Melbourne. It may have just been coincidence that the numbers went up. I did not have to monitor central Oz very much so I did not repeat the experiment.

- some posters reported that building up Normanton helps get supply over to Tennant Creek. I presume they also built up the other bases on the road back toward the rail line.

In my first game, (when it was still "impossible" to supply Darwin from Alice Springs) I built up Alice Springs
then stationed transports to fly supplies to Tennant Creek. Once Tennant Creek was built up transports were stationed
there and flew supplies down the line plus the supply flow from Alice Springs. I also built up Normanton. What was inter4esting to me was a sudden flow
that I think depended on many factors including a random die roll because it was all of a sudden my units went from sustaining one attack and then
starvation until the next supply pulse - to maintaining supplies over the offense driving the IJ from Northern Oz ..

I am thinking the extra supplies from Normanton helped?

[apbarog]

I am building up Gove and Wessel Islands, on the Australian coast southeast of Darwin. That should help in getting ships into and out of Darwin. I'm not overly worried about supply for Darwin. Once I take Darwin, I plan on moving to Timor as quickly as possible. Koepang is heavily defended, but the other bases are not. The strategy for everything north of Darwin will be to avoid the big bases and isolate them, much like what I'm doing at Rabaul. There are just too many places for the enemy to defend. It just cannot be done.

No turn today. Maybe a turn tomorrow, but then none until Monday. My opponent is traveling so the war won't be back on a regular schedule until next week.

So much anxiety for me for this next turn! If my invasion task forces aren't messed with today, they won't be, as I'm pulling up anchor and heading for home. Even though many ships will not be completely unloaded. I will have unloaded enough to take both Lae and Salamaua, so it will be time to go home. But I'm still anxious waiting for the next turn.

[apbarog]

28 Mar 43

Today I'm summarizing the combat replay only. I have the turn, but with my opponent out of town until Monday, I have through the weekend to plot my turn. I plan on looking at all the little details: pilots, leaders, upgrades, etc.

I was extremely worried about what could happen today. I felt vulnerable with so much invasion shipping at Lae and Salamaua. I'm happy to report that there was no enemy activity on New Guinea, at all.

My unloading continued at Lae, Salamaua, Terapo, and Port Moresby. During the night phase, I got an interesting message that my invasion troops at Terapo surrendered! I think this message appeared because my supply task force arrived a day before my troops, which arrived today. I think that my "supply" surrendered, or something like that. Regardless, there was no loss.

During the night sub Runner spotted cruiser Takao north of Manua, already smoking from the earlier Lae fight. It had a single subchaser escorting. Runner launched 2 torpedoes, and got one good hit. Takao now reports heavy damage.

A bunch of my APD's, loaded with Marines, ran over I-156 near Buna, got one good ASW hit and many minor damage hits.

Cruisers Hawkins and Phoenix bombarded Gasmata, west of Rabaul. I'm not invading here, but I wanted to give that impression. Might keep the enemy a bit further away. Bombardment damage was light to moderate. Some airbase, port, and troop damage.

My Indian para fragment at Saumlaki was the target of 29 Bettys and 45 Sallys. They lost a couple of squads in combat, then all were eliminated by attrition.

2 B-17F squadrons hit Finschhafen's airfield. No CAP. Damage to the airfield was moderate.

More than several medium bomber squadrons hit Port Moresby's airfield, doing excellent damage.

15 B-25s bomb the 32nd Naval Garrison Unit and II/66th Naval Guard Unit at Terapo.

Near Arorae, south of Tabiteuea, APD Pope is leading troop transports into Arorae, but finds I-28, and gets 2 solid depth charge hits. Damage must be severe, but the sub is not spotted sinking.

In the jungle near Taberfane, the Japanese 8th Division eliminated my troops that had taken Taberfane. Lost are the 147th(Sep) Infantry Regiment, 53rd Aus Lt AA Regiment, and the 8th USN Special Construction Battalion. Painful to see, but it was inevitable, when full enemy divisions landed at Taberfane and Dobo. A costly but successful distraction. A good trade for all that I've taken in New Guinea.

Here's the combat stats at the current points of interest:

Port Moresby:
Japanese force: 15373 troops, 133 guns, 44 vehicles, Assault Value = 481
Allied force: 28179 troops, 482 guns, 509 vehicles,Assault Value = 917

Lae:
Japanese force: 6308 troops, 104 guns, 17 vehicles, Assault Value = 271
Allied force: 11845 troops, 230 guns, 251 vehicles,Assault Value = 782

Salamaua:
Japanese force: 1919 troops, 19 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 64
Allied force: 5715 troops, 25 guns, 208 vehicles, Assault Value = 299

Terapo:
Japanese force: 2347 troops, 22 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 76
Allied force: 1561 troops, 6 guns, 16 vehicles, Assault Value = 85

I am probably done unloading at Lae and Salamaua, wanting to get my valuable transports out of danger. Not much unloading was done at Terapo so far, so the combat values are deceiving. I'll be ready to attack after another day of unloading there.

I haven't loaded the turn yet, but I didn't see anything lurking north of New Britain. I did get Kate contacts on subs by Sorong.

My tentative plan is to move my fleet carriers west now, leaving Terapo and heading past Horn Island for the Darwin invasion.

Lae and Salamaua should fall very quickly. Port Moresby is isolated. Terapo should fall in a couple of days.

[jwolf]

My tentative plan is to move my fleet carriers west now, leaving Terapo and heading past Horn Island for the Darwin invasion.

Lae and Salamaua should fall very quickly. Port Moresby is isolated. Terapo should fall in a couple of days.

Could the Japanese interfere at Lae and/or Salamaua? It's relatively close to some major Japanese bases. Bombardment? Bombing? Counter-invasion? I'm wondering if there is a big rush to move your carriers to Darwin, or if you could afford to hold where you are a couple more days.

[apbarog]

Yes, they could interfere at Lae and/or Salamaua. That's why I was so worried about today's turn. It's hard to LR CAP multiple landing simultaneously. Against KB, or massed land-based sweeps and bombers, I could have been in real trouble. But nothing came.

The enemy still could interfere, but I'm withdrawing my invasion shipping. I think I have enough troops to take the bases. All they could interfere with is bombing the troops after my ships leave. That's far less to worry about than all those transports I've had there.

It could be argued that my carriers should hang around longer. I feel that enemy carriers would use a safe standoff distance from Lae, and my carriers would be out of range. I haven't seen the enemy act aggressively in a long time. I'm not sure that I will see it again. Not south of New Britain, anyhow. The Japanese countered at Taberfane and Dobo aggressively and retook those bases. There could be more of that activity over there. Doing so south of New Britain, though, means dealing with my huge bases at Milne Bay and Buna, and soon Lae also.

Today was a very important day for me, in my opinion. The battle for Lae and Salamaua is about to be won. The enemy at Port Moresby and the inland bases of Kokoda and Dobadura are cut off.

So, I think I can gain more using the carriers at Darwin than I can lose in eastern New Guinea without them.

[jwolf]

So, I think I can gain more using the carriers at Darwin than I can lose in eastern New Guinea without them.

Sounds like a fair analysis. Good luck!

[apbarog]

Spent 5 or 6 hours on the turn today, doing all the little things that are only done occasionally. Pilots, upgrade planning, etc. Was finishing up the turn, went to the Intel screen, selected the destroyed ground units, and clicked on an AA unit just destroyed near Taberfane, attempting to buy it back. Game froze. I've never had this happen before.

And I wish I had saved my work in progress...

I'll redo my work tomorrow or Sunday. My opponent won't be back home until Monday, so there's plenty of time.

Frustrating.

[jwolf]

Walker planted a Japanese saboteur in your PC! [X(] [:D]

[apbarog]

I just reloaded the turn and picked that destroyed unit off the list right away, and it locked up again. So this bug is repeatable. I will post it in the Tech Thread. Note that we are still playing an old Beta version, 1.7.11.23x10 - Aug 23 2014. We didn't update to the latest official release since then, nor the following betas.

[apbarog]

28 Mar 43 (continued)

Did the turn once again today. I'm sure that something was missed today that I did yesterday, before I lost my work. It's just how it goes.

My Fletchers were spotted north of Wessel Island. They will go to Gove today. Darwin invasion shipping and fleet carriers are inbound.

Lae and Salamaua shipping all leave today, and both bases will be attacked. Terapo is a day behind, and will be attacked tomorrow.

I have strong indications that enemy carriers are near the northern tip of New Guinea. Lots of 10/10 DLs on my subs from Boela to the north. I think they are coming, I just don't know the reason yet. My guess is that Timoeka will be counter-invaded, just as Dobo and Taberfane were.

Things could get very interesting as I approach Darwin.

[apbarog]

29 Mar 43

More Allied troops land at Terapo. Troop ships leave Lae and Salamaua.

P-70 Havoc nightfighters sweep Taberfane during the day. We have a houserule against night bombing, so I might as well put these guys to use. Results are ok, around 4 Oscars shot down for the loss of 1 P-70. The combat replay was interesting to watch. On the bounce, the Havocs did well, but when the Oscar got on the Havocs tail, it couldn't shake it. Just as it should be.

Bettys then bombed my troops at Timoeka. Since I built the airfield to size 1 today, I'm sure that the airfield will be hit next. I declined to put fighters there, figuring that is what is expected.

B-17Fs bomb Umboi's port, but don't hit the ACM(s) that I'm sure are there.

B-17Es and B-24s hit Taberfane's airfield. Some Oscars remain on CAP. Damage is light to moderate.

B-25s bomb enemy troops at Salamaua.

P-38's sweep Taberfane, downing more Oscars.


Sallys bomb my isolated troops near Taberfane. The enemy 8th Division then attacks and destroys the 147th(Sep) Infantry Regiment. The enemy has now cleared the island with Taberfane and Dobo. One infantry division is at Taberfane, the other is in the jungle adjacent.

I deliberate attack at Lae, and it doesn't go well. I wasn't able to unload many supporting troops in just 2 days of unloading. They are needed, and more than that is needed. Lae will be more of a campaign and will not fall quickly. The attack at Salamaua goes better, with heavy tank support. It will fall in a few attacks, but I need to rest a few days first. The nice thing is that there's a land link between Salamaua and Lae, so I will be able to move troops from one to the other eventually.

Ground combat at Lae (99,126)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 10964 troops, 230 guns, 237 vehicles, Assault Value = 783

Defending force 13991 troops, 139 guns, 160 vehicles, Assault Value = 270

Allied adjusted assault: 314

Japanese adjusted defense: 610

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 4)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
487 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 42 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 18 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 15 disabled
Guns lost 10 (1 destroyed, 9 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1269 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 111 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 6 disabled
Vehicles lost 16 (2 destroyed, 14 disabled)

Assaulting units:
37th Infantry Division
Americal Infantry Division
632nd Tank Destroyer Battalion
762nd Tank Battalion
145th Field Artillery Battalion
11th USN Special Construction Battalion

Defending units:
Maizuru 1st SNLF
24th Ind Engineer Regiment
4th Div /7
27th Fld AA Gun Co
305th Ship Eng Coy
59th JNAF AF Unit
51st JNAF AF Unit
18th JAAF AF Bn
6th Air Division
2nd Area Army
C/50th JNAF Coy
2nd RF Gun Battalion
205th JAAF AF Bn


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground combat at Salamaua (98,127)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 3629 troops, 25 guns, 178 vehicles, Assault Value = 302

Defending force 2861 troops, 19 guns, 7 vehicles, Assault Value = 64

Allied adjusted assault: 130

Japanese adjusted defense: 169

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 3)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), disruption(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
348 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 45 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Guns lost 13 (7 destroyed, 6 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
66 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)

Assaulting units:
754th Tank Battalion
763rd Tank Battalion
2nd Marine Div /22
Aus I Corps

Defending units:
Sasebo 6th SNLF
58th Construction Battalion