Matrix Games Forums

Its August 21st and the battle for Timor looks better for the allies as they score a major victory over Koepang.

As you remember the Japanese had sent KB on a cruise past Timor in the latter part of July. KB shot down the CAP over the allied bases at Dili, Lautem and Koepang and also raided Darwin where it beat up the airfields and stopped flight for a few days. Japanese troops then landed and took Dili in late July/early August.

The allies rested B17s that were already based in Darwin and diverted shipping that had been planned for Timor to Darwin as well. Finally they flew in more B17s from somewhere else (can't tell all, can we).

The Japanese had been launching daily strikes on Lautem from Kendari and on Koepang from Maumere. These large strikes had kept the airbases useless except for a few days when the Australians managed to get a single Hurricane into the air over Koepang. Recently bad weather stopped the attacks on Koepang for a day or two and then the bombers at Darwin launched this attack:
August 20 1942
Day Air attack on Maumere , at 28,73
Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 26
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 104
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 8 destroyed, 16 damaged
Ki-48 Lily: 19 destroyed, 38 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 6 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-27 Nate: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 2 destroyed, 49 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
199 casualties reported
Guns lost 6
Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 21

That kept the Japanese from hitting Koepang and brought the engineers a total of 3 days to repair the airfield and support. The allies flew in fighters and on the 21st the Japanese struck in a desperate attempt to keep the airfield closed.






Day Air attack on Koepang , at 28,77

Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 68
Ki-49 Helen x 24
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 1
F4F-4 Wildcat x 12
Hurricane II x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 45 destroyed, 7 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged
Hurricane II: 1 destroyed


Allied ground losses:
29 casualties reported
Vehicles lost 1

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 9

As you can see the bombers came in unescorted and the result was a massacre. Intelligence reports say that 20 Salllies went down and total air losses for the day were 17 for the Allies and 47 for Japan.

This represents a major reversal for the Japanese and its the first time since the Port Moresby battles in March and April that the Allies have successfully reopened an airbase in range of Japanese LBA. Of course KB could still come back and end the party very quickly but its a win none the less.


On other fronts the Japanese armies running away in China are getting ahead of the pursuing Chinese. We may have seen the end of the devastating shock attacks that have been hounding them so far. The Chinese general staff is making plans for the next move but knowing China that will take months to develop.

This is a look at major naval battles starting in January 42.

January is when the Enterprise went on a suicide mission against KB. I did not understand that a single CV would get taken over by the AI and run into strike range if it could so I let Enterprise get too close to KB and that is what she did. OOPs

In February Blackwatch got overly aggressive on a raid and I was able to sink all the CVE/CVLs in Baby KB near Noumea. That is his most serious naval defeat to date.

March saw 3 US BBs attempt to interfere with Blackwatch's offensive against Port Moresby. One was sunk during the battle and another was sunk by KB as is tried to escape. I lost a lot of surface ships with Enterprise and I had many more badly damaged and in repair during these months so the US Navy pretty much vanished from the seas until June.

But the Royal Navy was still strong and it intercepted and defeated a Japanese bombardment force off Akyab. No Japanese BBs went down but 3 were shot up and one was seen to retreat at less than 10 knots. That one may still be out of action in August.

In April the Royal Navy showed up with 3 BBs and supporting forces to contest the invasion of Bali. They gave Blackwatch a nasty shock and sunk a heavy cruiser but failed to attack the transports. Bali fell the next day, a tactical victory and strategic defeat.


May saw no naval battles at all.

June saw the USN re-appear with a CV raid on Saipan. They caught a big, loaded transport group and sunk some APs but the Japanese vanished into a rain storm and the US had to leave. Disruptive to Blackwatch but not the catastophy it could have been.

July saw two transport forces run into cruiser TFs on the same day. At Gaudalcanal the Japanese caught 5 DMSes running supplies and sunk 2, at Maumere near Timor the British caught a bunch of APs and sunk 3 or 4.

So far the Naval battles have followed the ground offensives or even ended them with the exception of the Siapan raid. Saipan is an oddity, I was not planning to catch a convoy, it just showed up. Akyab is the first naval battle to mark a Japanese high water mark. I don't think Blackwatch puts it high on his list of strategically important places and when the RN showed up the risk grew to great to be worth pursuing.

The end result is that the British have a powerful navy that can operate anywhere that LBA can cover. Since British fighters have a range of 2 hexes this means that the Royal Navy controls the sea between Columbo and Trimcomalee and not much else. Oh well, at least they are not all on the bottom.

Hi folks, its the post that makes you rush to open your intel screen and see how your doing.





Here are the comparisons going back to March 1942

March 26th

The planes losses so far are: 2384 allied vs 1942 japanese.

Land units losses are: 5984 allied vs 569 japanese

Ship losses: 290 (3583 pts) allied vs 76 1131 japanese

Alied capital ships losses: 1CV 4BBs 1BC 7CA 6 CLS
Japanese capital ships losses: 3CVLs 2CVEs 2CLs


April 22, 1942

Allied AC points lost: 3353 lost 969 since March 26th
Japanese: 2459 lost 517 since March 26th

Allied Army loss points: 7182 lost 1198 since March 26th
Japanese: 719 lost 250 since March 26th

Allied ships sunk: 329 lost 49 since March 26th
Points: 3901

Japanese ships sunk: 85 lost 9 since March 26th
Points: 1195


June 1 1942

Allied AC points lost: 3965 lost 612 since April 22
Japanese: 3076 lost 617 since April 22

Allied Army loss points: 9073 lost 1891 since April 22
Japanese: 966 lost 247 since April 22th

Allied ships sunk: 360 lost 31 since April 22
Points: 4218

Japanese ships sunk: 111 lost 26 since April 22
Points: 1424


August 21 1942

Allied AC points lost: 5380 lost 1451 since June 1
Japanese: 4994 lost: 1918 since June 1

Allied Army loss points: 10332 lost 1259 since June 1
Japanese: 1756 lost 790 since June 1

Allied ships sunk: 396 lost 36 since June 1
Points: 4471

Japanese ships sunk: 151 lost 40 since June 1
Points: 1693

We can see the tide beginning to turn. The aircraft losses have reversed themselves from their position in April 42 when the Japanese regularly out fought the Allies. Now the Allies win unless the elite pilots from KB show up. This started after the Port Moresby battles, battles which the Allies lost but which took a major price in Japanese pilots.

At sea the Japanese lost more shipping than the Allies for the first time ever. This is mostly because the Japanese invasions have to contend with much more powerful LBA than they used to meet in the first 6 months of the war. Its not powerful enough to stop the Japanese invasions but it is strong enough to sink a ship here and there. Capital ship losses have not changed since June because there have been no significant sea battles since then. Instead we have had air to air and air to sea battles that cause attrition but no catastrophic losses.

On land the Japanese army loss rate soared because of defeats in China. The Chinese loss rate is also up for the same reason, but not nearly as much as the Japanese. Japan also took out a number of small bases in the NEI and Philipines that caused a total of thousands of troops to surrender mostly in groups of 500 to 1000. Finally Japan won what I hope will be its last big land victory when it captured 8,000 men on Guadalcanal. Blackwatch is hoping for more big land victories in Timor but since Koepang has returned to serivce as a working air base that looks less likely than it did a week or two ago.

There is always the possibility of a Japanese victory in China (not defeating the country, but winning a major battle) but its not in the immediate future.

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter


Day Air attack on Koepang , at 28,77

Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 68
Ki-49 Helen x 24
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 1
F4F-4 Wildcat x 12
Hurricane II x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 45 destroyed, 7 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged
Hurricane II: 1 destroyed


Allied ground losses:
29 casualties reported
Vehicles lost 1

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 9

As you can see the bombers came in unescorted and the result was a massacre. Intelligence reports say that 20 Salllies went down and total air losses for the day were 17 for the Allies and 47 for Japan.

This represents a major reversal for the Japanese and its the first time since the Port Moresby battles in March and April that the Allies have successfully reopened an airbase in range of Japanese LBA. Of course KB could still come back and end the party very quickly but its a win none the less.

True it was a major reversal: actually I totally forgot to set the fighters escort for the mission.
Maybe that this is the first step and soon I'm beginning to plan impossible missions and vaste my forces over and over.....[:-]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

Blackwatch is hoping for more big land victories in Timor but since Koepang has returned to serivce as a working air base that looks less likely than it did a week or two ago.

Yes Koepang back in service is a bad surprise, anyway Timor is probably not a necessary conquest for the Japanese Empire.
Now it's time for the Allied to start their reconquest and I can just relax and wait for them.

August 24 was a very bad night to be in the merchant navy of either the Allies or Japan.

In the Moulacca straight a Japanese force of CLs and DDs raided Bankha and sunk 2 AKS and a PT. They hit the AKs first, the PTs completely failed in their efforts to screen the port.

Japanese Ships
CA Myoko
CL Oi
DD Natsushio
DD Maikaze
DD Usugumo
DD Amagiri
DD Sazanami
DD Sawakaze
DD Akikaze
DD Yakaze
DD Yukaze

Allied Ships
AK Kalani, Shell hits 11, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AK Empire Success, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

Round 2:
Allied Ships
PT PT-115
PT PT-122
PT PT-123
PT PT-124
PT PT-125, Shell hits 23, and is sunk
PT PT-126

At the other end of the Netherlands East Indies Allied search planes had noticed a large concentration of Japanese shipping at Dili but no heavy forces escorting. The British Cruiser force in the area took advantage of this to make one of thier signature raids:

Round one:
Japanese Ships
PC Hachijo, Shell hits 1, on fire
MSW Wa 2
AP Kozui Maru, Shell hits 2
AP Akashisan Maru, Shell hits 1, on fire
AP Kogi Maru
AP Rakuyo Maru, Shell hits 2, on fire
AP Toko Maru #2, Shell hits 3
AP Tenpei Maru

Allied Ships
CA Cornwall
CL Enterprise
CL Mauritius
DD Pillsbury
DD Express
DD Foxhound
DD Griffin
DD Hotspur

Then they found another TF (same British ships, they only thing they are losing is ammo.)
Japanese Ships
AK Amagisan Maru, Shell hits 36, and is sunk

Round 3
AK Tamon Maru, Shell hits 61, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

Round 4
Japanese Ships
AP Heiyo Maru
AP Kizan Maru, Shell hits 15, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
AP Manila Maru, Shell hits 13, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AP Shinyu Maru, Shell hits 17, on fire, heavy damage
AP Tacoma Maru, Shell hits 1, on fire
AP Tatsutake Maru, Shell hits 1
AP Nikki Maru

The Allies Bombed Kendari and the Japanese hit Keopang, both sides took losses but as usual nothing decisive. Dauntlesses based at Koepang attacked the survivors of the Biritsh Raid and put a few bomb hits on some APs but no sinkings are reported. The Japanese struck back with Kates and sunk an AK bringing badly needed supplies into Lautem.

The Japanese also reached out and touched Sumatra putting torpedos into an AK in the area.

At New Guinea Betties hit a pair of AKs at Thursday Island with torpedos, the P39s flying CAP failed to stop the attack, and the Allies bombed Port Moresby and Buna. There were air combats between CAP and Escorts in both places but the fighter pilots seem to have agreed to fly around without actually shooting anyone down over both bases. They must all be reading Catch-22 though I have no idea how the Japanese got hold of it.









On the 25th things got very bloody in the air and the merchant ships continued to get pounded as well. Intelligence reports 111 Japanese planes shot down across the areas marked on the map.

Off Sumatra Betty struck again putting torpedos into a pair of Alllied AKs in the port of Sabang. This time the Japanese met 16 Hurricanes and 5 Wirraways and several Betties were shot down.

The air battles over Timor remained intense. Koepang and Kendari both saw air raids aimed at shutting down the airfields. Judgeing by the fact that both sides are flying bombers out of their respective bases this seems to be a losers game, but we are both still playing it. The Allied fighter cover at Koepang takes a pound of flesh out of the Japanese every time they come over but Blackwatch seems to have an infinite supply of planes to throw at me as can be seen by this unescorted raid:

Day Air attack on Koepang , at 28,77

Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 57
Ki-49 Helen x 14
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 3
F4F-4 Wildcat x 8
Hurricane II x 1
P-40E Warhawk x 10

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 36 destroyed, 4 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 4 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 damaged
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged

Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 1
How much longer can he do this?

At the Japanese Kates at Dili struck the AKs at Lautem again and sunk another one. This time the Spitfires flying CAP over the port shot down a plane or two but they did not stop or even slow down the attack. At the same time the Dauntlesses at Koepang struck Japanese APs at Dili as well. The torpedos from the Kates tend to sink the ships right away, I am hoping the bombs from the Dauntlesses will start fires that eventually sink the Japanese.

The US CVs were cruising South of Gili Gili when they were discovered by PC Shonan Maru #6 which proceeded to prove that the US CV Dauntless pilots need more training.

Day Air attack on TF at 58,94


Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 26
SBD Dauntless x 32


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
PC Shonan Maru #6, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Then a big raid from Rabual came in to try and sink the CVs.

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 44
G3M Nell x 9
G4M1 Betty x 39

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 145

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 92 destroyed, 1 damaged
G3M Nell: 11 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 73 destroyed, 19 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 97 destroyed, 10 damaged

Allied Ships
CV Lexington
CA San Francisco, Torpedo hits 1, on fire

Fortunately they decide to hit the San Fransico not the Lexington. The amazing thing about this raid was the damage the Zero's did to my escorts. Out numbered 3 to 1 and they still inflicted 1 to 1 losses on the CAP over the CVs. Of course they were almost all shot down but its still pretty scary, if KB has pilots like these then it will be very difficult to win a battle with it even with full strength air groups.

China has calmed down a lot as the Chinese armies have gotten away from thier bases, run out of supply and slowed down. There are still some Japanese on the wrong side of the Yangtze river but they will be safe soon, at best the Chinese may get one more good attack in before the Kweiyang/Chungking battles are over and even that may not happen.

Rain and overcast stopped most air attacks on the 26th of August.

The Imperial Japanese Navy came to the rescue at Koepang:

Naval bombardment of Koepang, at 28,77


Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane II: 5 destroyed, 2 damaged
SBD Dauntless: 9 destroyed, 5 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 16 destroyed, 26 damaged
F4F-4 Wildcat: 19 destroyed, 22 damaged
F4F-3 Wildcat: 4 destroyed, 7 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso
DD Kuretake
CA Mikuma
DD Sagiri
DD Ayanami
DD Shikinami
DD Murakumo
DD Shirayuki
DD Fubuki
DD Michishio
DD Oshio
DD Makigumo
CL Kitakami
CA Atago

Ouch that hurt. And they are too strong for the British surface TF in the area to attack, especially since the Brits put many of their torpedos into the Japanese ships at Dili a few days before.

Elsewhere things were quiet except in China where a Chinese force of 75,000 crossed the Hwang Ho river and smacked a Japanese brigade of 15,000 troops forcing a retreat towards Chenting. Is it the start of a major offensive or just a raid? Stay tuned.

The Japanese bombard Koepang again but do a bit less damage, ammo must be running low.

Lautem gets back into action and Beuforts based there put torpedos into 2 or 3 transports based in Dili. B25s and Hudsons based in Oz attack the Japanese ships off Koepang but fail to do any damage in the face of a 17 plane Zero CAP.

For the first time in months no Japanese air raids fly against Timor's airfields. A group of Vals and Kates does hit shipping in Lautem harbor. The Spitfires there take a pound of flesh but the Japanese hit and sink an AK in return.

A force of 9 BBs is spotted in the Coral Sea where the US CVs were recently. Could KB have come out to play?

China, India, and the Central Pacific were all quiet.

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

A force of 9 BBs is spotted in the Coral Sea where the US CVs were recently. Could KB have come out to play?

Yes it could.

I am playing catch up with the AAR. As the headline says the CVs on both sides will appear at the end of August. Other events are afoot as well, the game is up to September 2nd and both sides are launching increasingly bloody offensive actions.

I am going to post 3 day intervals until I catch up, I will provide strategic commentary when possible, and Blackwatch and I invite your comments.

Most of the action takes place in a broad arc that runs from Sabang at the Northern end of Sumatra to Buna in New Guinea with hot spots at Medan, Timor and Port Moresby.


On the 27th the Japanese bombarded Koepang and then started landing troops! 3,700 men came ashore in the first wave taking casualties from the 100+ guns located at Koepang.

Allied planes struck Japanese transports at Dili and put Torpedos into 4 seperate merchant ships, mostly APs. The Japanese struck back at Lautem harbor, they must have better torpedos because they sunk one AK and badly damaged 2 others.

Both Port Moresby and Buna were attacked by allied aircarft and small attrition battles took place over both locations.

KB was spotted by Allied search planes. The US CV lost about 20% of their fighters in the battle with 44 Zeros from Raubal a couple of days before and this convinced me that I wanted to get away and replenish before engaging the mightiest force in the IJN. All allied ships were ordered in the direction of Noumea. Sadly the Cruiser force I had running with my CVs did not take the order very seriously or maybe I forgot to set them to Do Not Refuel. Still there was no major action this turn.

The 28th saw bomb hits on Japanese ships at Buna, and an attack by 33 Betties that shot up shipping at Thursday Island.

KB caught up with the cruisers I mentioned above and murdered them:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 45
D3A Val x 146
B5N Kate x 122

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val: 8 destroyed, 13 damaged
B5N Kate: 3 destroyed, 7 damaged

Allied Ships
CL Sumatra, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
CA Canberra, Bomb hits 9, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
DD Chew
CA Quincy, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
CL Nashville, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CL Boise, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
DD Whipple, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
DD Tucker, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
DD Allen

This is the 3rd cruiser force I have lost to airstrikes in this game, I seem to have a pretty serious problem with this.

Off Kuala in Sumatra some Betties and Nells hit a couple of merchant ships, the 12 Hurricanes on CAP shot down one or two but failed to stop the strike which makes me think this must be a pretty high quality unit.






On the 29th the Japanese finished off the Sumatra which had somehow survived the inital attacks the day before. Japanese troops continue to poor ashore at Koepang, and a deliberate attack launched on the 28th resulted in a repulse to the Aussies stationed there when they hit 12,000 defenders. Still the shore guns have hit numerous ships and infliced causualties in the thousands, Koepang will be a big fight.

Japanese bombers continue to pound the airfield at Koepang but Lautem is now open and hitting the Japanese shipping at Dili pretty hard. Personally I wish they would strike the invasion fleet but they seem to like hitting the closest target. 49 B17s hit Dili airfield and blow up a number of Japanese planes on the ground, this does not shut the place down, but it does increase the over all attrition.

Two Japanes transports are hit at Dili and the Takao takes a 500 lb GP bomb which probabley does very little. Meantime the Royal Navy Cruiser force operating from Darwin has noticed that there are no reports of surface warships in Dili Harbor....

Stay tuned for a gripping update soon.

I thought I would update China while I wait for the turn to come in. Though there have not been major battles in late August/Early September there is movement.





The Chinese troops moving towards Chenting did cause a thousand or two casualties to the Japanese brigade that tried to stop them. Other than that there are permanent bombardment battles at Yenen.

The Kwieyang army has lost steam and stopped on the Chinese side of the river to let fatigue go down some. The Japanese are if anything more exausted and went to Changsha for supplies. Blackwatch and I have discussed China and he thinks neither side can win a decisive victory. I tend to agree with him but I have started to enjoy looking for ways to slap the Japanese around. Both of us have nearly constant supply problems and niether of us can take the others cities so we fight this strange war running back and forth in slow motion.

I have also run small units around in the Japanese rear which further messed up Japanese supplies by breaking the rail routes. Blackwatch can't do this to me because my supplies are too messed up to begin with. Japanese raids on Chinese supply would be like mixing spagetti to make it less organized. You would not be able to tell before from after.

I have become a strong believer in constant action for China. If you move around you become very hard to destroy because it becomes very difficult for the Japanese to understand where your troops really are.

Also the Chinese have lots of replacements. I trade Chinese blood for Japanese supply on a regular basis. It leaves us both weak but that is ok because it keeps China in the war. As I have said many times before I want the Chinese tying up the Japanese army, I don't want all those troops free to go somewhere else.

At the end of August the US and Japanese CV fleets both came out to play and yet there was no battle.

I could attempt an explaination but instead I am asking you to try. You have the maps and you have a pretty good view of what went on during that time. Anyone care to risk thier reputation as a strategist?

Sadly the Cruiser force I had running with my CVs did not take the order very seriously or maybe I forgot to set them to Do Not Refuel.

"Do not refuel" will only keep a TF from refueling from a port. It has no effect on TFs at sea. If your DDs need fuel, they will take it from whomever happens to be in the hex with them. The only answer is to top them up manually every chance you get.

The battle continues to be hot from August 30 to September 1st.

Statistically the air battles are running close with between 15 and 40 planes destroyed each turn depending mostly on the weather and the results of bombing.

One thing I have noticed is that the B17s are dangerous but they are not ruling the sky. I am running 30-50 plane raids at 15,000 feet and getting runway hit results that range from 8 -25. Recently there was an exception when I hit Port Moresby with 51 planes and got 78 runway hits but that was an exception, a good die roll if you will.

For reasons of strategy and also base force availablitly I have had to split my heavy bomber forces into 3 groups, India, Darwin, and East Oz. This limits my ability to completely smash an airfield in one turn but its what I need to do.

The 300 plane flying fist of death that won the battles of Port Moresby and Raubaul for BLackwatch has not been seen for months. I am not sure he needs it any more, but it also may have been attritted away or broken up due to the more spread out conflict.

On August 30th thousands of Japanese troops came ashore at Koepang, costal guns inflicted 1,900 casualties and hit several ships though I doubt they did too much damage.
It was a clear day and the planes at Lautem all flew, they hit 4 AKs, 3 Aps and 2 MSWs and 1 PG. a good day for the bombers.

Still I have a problem, the Japanese are invading Koepang and the airforce is bombing Dili. A pretty sad state of affiars.


On the 31st another 1,300 casualties at Koepang due to costal gunfire. The USS Finback strikes again and puts another torpedo into an AP but this time the ship gets away. Allied airstrikes at Koepang and Dili put bombs on 3 Japanese transports and the USS Finback torpedoed and sunk a loaded Japanese AP in the same area. The viscous Kates at Dili put 2 torpedoes into yet another Allied AK at Lautem, its a dangerous harbor.

On August 30th the commander of the British cruiser force operating South of Timor noticed that there were no reports of surface warships at Dili. He spent the 31st moving into position and on September 1 the veteran force hit Dili harbor. The harbor had a lot of one ship TFs in it to reduce the effectiveness of allied bombing and the result was a murderous cruise by these ships:

CA Cornwall
CL Enterprise
CL Mauritius
DD Pillsbury
DD Express
DD Foxhound
DD Griffin
DD Hotspur

In one nights raid they sunk 4 APs, 6 AKs, 1 MSW and 2 PCs. They also damaged an AP. But more importantly they cleaned all the attractive targets out of Dili harbor so now the bombers in Lautem will turn thier attention to Koepang, I hope.

As the British were showing how to raid merchant shipping at Timore the Japanese tried for revenge at Sumatra sailing to Medan finding PT boats and a tanker:

CA Myoko
CL Oi
DD Natsushio
DD Maikaze
DD Usugumo, Shell hits 1
DD Amagiri, Shell hits 1
DD Sazanami
DD Sawakaze
DD Akikaze
DD Yakaze
DD Yukaze

They sunk the tanker and 3 or 4 PT boats taking no losses. But the British saw them coming and hit back as they sailed for Singapore:

CA Myoko, Bomb hits 1, +1
CL Oi
DD Natsushio
DD Yakaze, Bomb hits 1, on fire.

They were hit by a combination of 15 Dauntlesses, 8 Wirraways and 40+ Beauforts.

5 APs and an AK were struck by bombs near Koepang, the first big allied air raids on the invasion fleet. As usualy none of them sunk but at least we are hurting them.

So by September 1 we have continued major combat at Timor and things are heating in Sumatra.

The British come back into the war, hitting an apperently empty (ok mostly empty) Malay Pennisula.

On September 2 the British start a more vigerous bombing campaign hitting airfields at Kuantan, Mallacca ,where they destroy a number of Japanese bombers on the ground, and bombing Japanese ships at Singapore. They manage to set the CL Oi on fire, burn baby burn I hate that torpedo carrying monster.

There is heavy air sea combat at Timor as usual, 3 Japanese APs and and AK get hit, and hte Japanese put 3 torpedos into yet another Allied AK at Lautem sinking it. I wonder why his ships never sink when I hit them? Anyway his repair yards must be full of them.

Japanese troops continue to poor ashore at Koepang, there are over 30,000 now, and they continue to get hit by shore based artillery on the way in. Some APs have been hit 3 or 4 times but they just keep coming.





September 3rd is a day with suprises for both sides.

The engineers at Keopang get the airfield fixed up enough for a small amount of CAP to fly. They don't stop the Japanese attacks but it feels good to know they are back.

Allied bombers at Lautem and Derby hit Japanese shipping putting bombs into as many as 8 different Japanese ships. One is reported hit 5 times but not reported sunk, sigh.

The Japanese take Hansa and Wewak consolidating thier hold in the conquered areas.

America Marine Para's drop on Kuala Lumpur and sieze the empty base! The Allies are back in Malaya.

PM and Buna get bombed, as story that does not end or change much. In China a wayward Chinese infantry division wanders into 140,000 Japanese on a rail hex and loses 1,000 troops, there can be no learning without pain eh?

HQ Lautem spots a force that includes at least one BB coming there way. It would be very good for Blackwatch if he could pound this airfield into inactivity. The allied air commanders prepare a mission to try and stop the ships before they pound the airfield to a pulp.

September 4th dawns with even more suprises.

To my suprise the paratroops who took Kuala Lumpur have vanished from the game! They failed to load a few pack howitzers for thier drop and then fell victim to the split unit bug. Thank God there is other stuff coming in by air and sea. I wonder if this gets fixed in 1.5?

Th Blackwatches suprise British troops start pooring ashore at Georgetown. They are completely unopposed, just like the guys who landed on Kuala Lumpur. Blackwatche's defensive strategy is based on the innovative concept that the game will cause all my units to dissapear, that way he does not need any defensive garrison. Its been very successful so far but we will see if it works long term. Despite being unopposed over 500 clumsy British soldiers trip fall and become casualties, this is 40% of the troops who try to go ashore on the first day. I knew we should not have recruited infantry from the school for the blind.

In other news a Warrant officer who was recently relieved of command of the USS Lexington sneaked on board and pulled a pistol in the command center. He now has control of the ship again though a closer look at the vessel indactes that the assigned captain is on board her somewhere. Where is the marine security detail when you need it?

The Royal Navy bombards Malacca, there are no planes there or at least none are hit but the place is chewed up pretty good.

The air group sent after the Japanese bombardment force hits home:

DD Fubuki
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 8
BB Fuso, Bomb hits 2
DD Sagiri, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Shikinami
CA Chikuma, Shell hits 4
DD Kuretake, Shell hits 4

Interestingly I would swear that the combat replay showed 2 torpedo hits on Fuso, now that I read this I am a lot less excited. The other thing is that it showed them from Beuforts and its 4 hex range and this is the beaufort attack log:

3 x Beaufort V-IX launching torpedoes at 200 feet
3 x Beaufort V-IX launching torpedoes at 200 feet
3 x Beaufort V-IX launching torpedoes at 200 feet
3 x Beaufort V-IX launching torpedoes at 200 feet
2 x P-39D Airacobra attacking at 100 feet
3 x SBD Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
2 x Beaufort V-IX launching torpedoes at 200 feet
2 x Beaufort V-IX launching torpedoes at 200 feet
3 x Beaufort V-IX launching torpedoes at 200 feet
4 x P-39D Airacobra attacking at 100 feet
4 x P-39D Airacobra attacking at 100 feet
4 x P-39D Airacobra attacking at 100 feet
4 x P-39D Airacobra attacking at 100 feet
4 x SBD Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet

Anyway something happened to them which will hopefully mess up the bombardment.

There were also strong airstrikes against the Japanese ships off Koepang another 4-6 ships were hit by bombs, either that or lots of pilots are lying to me. (probably the latter).

The British invasion of Malaya is not interrupted by land or sea though I am sure that will change.

Thats it for now, we are all caught up. I will comment on the strategy behind all this in a month or two when it won't reveal anything important. Right now I still need a lot of things to go my way to win.

So you know of my secret weapon in Malaya....
Ok I admit: I'm using A9M7 Harry Potter against your troops.

At Lautem the Fuso's bombardment group catches 2 AKs in the harbor and wipes them out.

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso
CA Chikuma
CA Takao
CA Atago
CA Mikuma
CL Kitakami
DD Makigumo
DD Oshio
DD Michishio
DD Fubuki
DD Shirayuki
DD Murakumo
DD Shikinami
DD Ayanami
DD Sagiri
DD Kuretake

Allied Ships
AK Silindoeng, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
AK Sipirok, Shell hits 15, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk


Then they hit the airfield but they are either tired from air attack or used too much ammo on the merchant shipping because they don't do too much damange:

Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort V-IX: 8 destroyed, 13 damaged
Kittyhawk I: 5 destroyed, 5 damaged
P-39D Airacobra: 1 destroyed, 13 damaged
SBD Dauntless: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Spitfire Vb: 1 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

2217 casualties reported
Guns lost 39
Vehicles lost 17

Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 17
Port hits 8
Port supply hits 14

Note the low number of runway hits. This leaves the airforce good to go the next morning and quickly hit back at Fuso which is at Dili with 3 Zero's flying CAP:

Allied aircraft
SBD Dauntless x 7
Spitfire Vb x 6
Kittyhawk I x 7
Beaufort V-IX x 7
P-39D Airacobra x 10

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 3, on fire
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 4
DD Shirayuki, Shell hits 8
CA Atago, Shell hits 4

That should slow Fuso down some.


Vals and Kates from Dili hit back and:

Japanese aircraft
D3A Val x 21
B5N Kate x 24

Allied aircraft
Spitfire Vb x 7
P-40E Warhawk x 4

Allied Ships
AK Empire Dryden, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AK Empire Steelhead, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage


The Japanese put two big raids on Koepang which will probably shut the airfield again. 73 Helen's show up in one, that is a new airgroup I think so Blackwatch is still finding new resources for the battle.

Smaller formations of bombers hit an AK, 1 AP and 2 MSW in the waters around Timor and another group of Beauforts reports putting a 4th torpedo into Fuso.

At New Guinea there are air raids on Buna and Port Moresby and some Betties attempt an attack on the USS Mahan which is successfully defended by 16 Wildcats in the waters between the Island and Oz.

The other big fight is at Malaya. Kauntan has been flying a lot of planes so the Allied air forces hit the place hard: Day Air attack on Kuantan , at 24,47

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
Beaufort I x 14
Beaufort V-IX x 31
B-26B Marauder x 55

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-46-II Dinah: 5 destroyed, 2 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 2 destroyed, 4 damaged
L1N1 Thora: 4 destroyed, 8 damaged
Ki-54 Hickory: 5 destroyed, 5 damaged
G3M Nell: 5 destroyed, 4 damaged


Japanese ground losses:
124 casualties reported

Airbase hits 12
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 91

Hopefully that will shut it down for a while.

There have been reports of Japanese warships sheltering in Singapore harbor so a set of large airstrikes is launched there. I had planes set to Naval in range for the last 3 days and they did nothing but sit around and drink beer, on the 6th we told them to bomb the port and they hit something:

Allied aircraft
Swordfish x 12
Kittyhawk I x 2
Beaufort I x 10
Beaufort V-IX x 7
A-24 Dauntless x 12

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Bomb hits 2

Port hits 2

Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 9

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Bomb hits 1

Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 2
Catalina I x 2
LB-30 Liberator x 37

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Bomb hits 13, on fire
CL Oi, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CA Myoko, Bomb hits 2

Nagato is probabley still in pretty good shape because the bombs can't get past her deck armor. Oi may be seriously hurt because she does not have much deck armor. Either was Singapore harbor is a bad place to be.

Meanwhile the R Class BBs continue to be Torpedo magnets. These ships just can't save themselves:

apanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 4
G4M1 Betty x 3
Ki-27 Nate x 3

Allied aircraft
Fulmar x 11

Allied Ships
BB Royal Sovereign, Torpedo hits 1
CL Java

So far every R I have has eaten a fish in the last two days. CAP does not seem to stop the Japanese either so I am hoping that bombing the crap out of Blackwatches airbases will slow him down a little.

On the bright side British troop continue to poor ashore unmolested, Georgetown fell on the 5th so I am now unloading into ports at Georgetown and Kuala Lumpur instead of crossing beaches. The ports are damaged a bit but still at Level 3 or 4. I am very aware that I am in a race with Blackwatch to see who can get the most troops into Malaya fastest. I also must get large CAP groups over my ports or his air will eventually come and cut off my forces. So far its going pretty well, other than the dissapearing paratroops I have no real casualties.

On other fronts the Central Pacific remains quiet. There is movement in China in the same directions posted on the last map but no major combat yet. That may change in the next week or so as our slow motion swamp wrestling contest continues.

Suddenty there is a lot of action everywhere.
Japanese landing on Timor,Allied landing in Malaya, air combats naval bombardment, both sides BBs hit by planes... looks like this game is turning to an action movie.
Now it's interesting to see what's going to happen.
Tom is moving a big naval force with several TFs toward Timor.
Most of them are now passing Thursday Is, but a replenishment TF was following and KB took care of it nead Gili.

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 49
D3A Val x 146
B5N Kate x 109

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
DD Sands, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Humphreys, Bomb hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
AO Neches, Bomb hits 15, on fire, heavy damage

Maybe we are in the decisive days that will set the outcome of the war...

Stay tuned

Here is the situation near Port Moresby, Blackwatch already posted todays combat. I sent him the move 50 minutes ago so he has probabley run the combat animation. I am dying to know more, or maybe its my carriers that are dieing.



Elsewhere, Malaya continues to be an air sea battle. This turn the Japanese airforce took a break from torpedoing my old BBs, thank goodness!

Allied LBA hit the Japanese air at Kuantan again:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-27 Nate x 6

Allied aircraft
Beaufort I x 13
Beaufort V-IX x 16
B-26B Marauder x 47

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-27 Nate: 10 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-48 Lily: 7 destroyed, 14 damaged
G3M Nell: 6 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
L1N1 Thora: 4 destroyed
Ki-54 Hickory: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged


Japanese ground losses:
33 casualties reported

Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 19

And struck the port of Singapore again as well.
Attack #1
CA Myoko, Bomb hits 4, on fire
DD Maikaze, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
Attack number 2
DD Usugumo, Bomb hits 1
CA Myoko, Bomb hits 3, on fire
DD Sazanami, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Meigen Maru, Bomb hits 1

While the Japanese continue to pound Koepang. When I say the Japanese attack Koepang this is what it looks like:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-27 Nate x 15
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 28
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 4
Ki-48 Lily x 35

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 3
Hurricane II x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-27 Nate: 2 destroyed
Ki-48 Lily: 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 destroyed
Hurricane II: 1 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
Wirraway: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged

Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 33

They did that twice today, the bastards! (sob). I know the Japanese are supposed to be helpless in the face of huge allied forces but it sure does not look that way in Timor.

Fuso is still at Dili, she was attacked but not hit this turn. Nagato appears to have fled Singapore wouldn't you if you just ate over a dozen 500 lb bombs?

The Allied invasion forces linked up Georgetown and Kuala Lumpur, the base inbetween is empty and will fall this turn. Swarms of allied shipping are in the Malacca straight and so far there has been no serious response by the Empire of Japan.

As Blackwatch pointed out this is starting to look a lot more like an action game. Its very exciting but nerve wracking to know that I may lose important forces in the next turn or two and see the initiative go back to Japan until 1943. On the other hand if I win then I may be the first person to beat Blackwatch in WiTP (which will still take years). Its a calculated risk, we will soon know if I calculated correctly or not.

I sent the turn back to Blackwatch saying we might have a battle or our forces might dissapear into thunderstorms. Well we had both.





The USS Wasp did not react to the Japanese CVs and contined on her preset course to join the 4 CV TFs (1 CV per TF traveling in a group of 4 TFs) near Thursday Island. The 4 CVs at Thursday reacted South, waving hello to the Wasp as they steamed past each other.

KB found the Wasp and launched massive airstrikes from the 9 CVs in the task force:

Day Air attack on TF at 49,91

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 56
D3A Val x 160
B5N Kate x 120

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 25

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 28 destroyed
D3A Val: 5 destroyed, 28 damaged
B5N Kate: 4 destroyed, 9 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 24 destroyed, 3 damaged

Allied Ships
CV Wasp, Bomb hits 39, on fire, heavy damage
CL St. Louis, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Grayson
CA Indianapolis, Bomb hits 1
CL Raleigh
DD Sims, Bomb hits 1

Wasp was wiped out after inflicting minor losses on the attacking Japanese. She was too far away to launch a counter strike, Japanese losses were limited to a handful of planes. Cooktown launched 2 airstrikes at the Japanese CVs but these were small and failed to do any damage. Betties from either Buna or (more likely) Raubal also attacked and failed to score hits.

The other 4 US CVs are visible underneath the thunderstorm symbol near KB. KB could not see them and they could not launch. I am not sure if this hurt me or helped me but its what happened.

The Fuso was found by Beauforts and she tried to get away from Timor, they put 3 more torpedos into her and she finally sank.

Off Malaya a Swordfish squadron reported putting a total of 3 torpedos into the Nagato as she retreated from Singapore, maybe she will sink as well, though Cahm Ran Bay is pretty close and she might make it.

There were other hits reported on a Japanese Cruiser and at least one AK as well, and an AP was reported sinking near Maumere. Timor has become the bleeding ulcer of the Pacific.

In the air the Allied pounded Kuantan and the Japanese pounded Koepang. Buna was hit by a small group of B17s.

There was lots of action elsewhere as well. The Japanese are putting another division into Koepang, they have 55,000 men there now and thier losses due to coastal gunfire were high this turn.

A Marine Raider Battalion captured Taiping, connecting the two Allied ports of Georgetown and Kuala Lumpur. Allied troops moved into the Malacca area, this is the first place they have encountered Japanese troops we will see how that goes.


Though I did not like what happened to the Wasp I felt my position was pretty good. I now had 4 CVs with fully rested air groups sitting 2 hexes away from the Japanese carrier fleet. The Japanese had just completed their second day of action so they were likely to be tired and also running down thier ammunition stocks.

There is no question that the KB pilots are better than mine so to have a chance I need to fight them tired. Also KB is still in range of my LBA, this has not helped much but it may in the future and in 1942 the allies need all the help they can get. All of these are good reasons to give battle so I set a course that I thought would cause combat on day 3 of our encounter.