Matrix Games Forums

Nemo:I'm from the North of Belgium, quite near the Dutch border, for those who know Belgium it's somewhere halfway between Antwerp and Hasselt. I'm studying in Leuven, so that's where I am at the moment. As Bill says, a pretty little town and as it stands now nearly impossible to ride through on anything but a bicycle so if you ever come back that's the transport of choice (Or walking of course, it's that small).

Bill: Some good hints, I'm still shifting forces around in China and I'll certainly take a look at that.

On the battle of Java:

I haven't had the turn back yet, but I can already say it's a near complete disaster, which probably isn't that big of a surprise to most.

Some lessons learned
1) Don't expect you can catch KB with a SCTF (I didn't really/completely, I fully expected the Americans and Dutch wouldn't encounter KB. I did figure they would run into a couple of enemy TF wherever I sent them and sending them towards KB would give me a chance to engage that as well, I should have sent them where they could run away more easily and still be able to get into some fights first)
2) Auto-Disband doesn't, at least not during the turn.
3) TF's don't always end up where you want them
4) Fear KB, don't commit surface ships without significant top cover if KB is nearby 4b) A squadrons of Dutch fighters isn't top cover when carriers are around

Now for the battles
1) A harmless encounter of the Dutch and a sub, no hits were scored either side
2) In a pitch black night, PT-boats stumble on the invasion fleet, no damage either side in this short battle
3) The American cruiser engage a small transport convoy and wipe it out in 2 engagements. The top prize are 2 AK and the troops aboard
4) The Brits run over a sub and hit it 8 times, one was recorded as a direct hit in the replay.
4b) Same hex, the British massacre a Landing Barge TF, loaded with troops.
5) Maya and 2 DD confront the British, the CA severely damages Danea and holds off the other CLs, Stronghold and a Japanese DD report heavy fires.
5b) And MTB encounters the beat up British, but is easily destroyed
6) The Dutch engage a strong SCTF consisiting of 2 BB, 3 CA, 3 CL and 5 DD. The battle stays at very long range and is rather bloodless. Gunnery is bad on both sides, but CA Suzuya zeroes in on CL Tromp and damages it severely.
7) Here it all goes wrong, dawn comes and nearly all ships are now in Batavia. For some this was as ordered, but they were supposed to auto-disband, the British diverted here because of damage. Then KB begins striking the port and the few stragglers at sea, the only Cruiser to escape the bombs is Danea, possibly because it was already sunk. The DD get their fair share of attacks as well, damage reports under the image.


Dutch : Only CL De Ruyter remains in a reasonable condition, the other 3 CL are as good as dead. There are still 4 DD in a good condition, 3 are heavily damaged.
British : Only CL Durban might still be salvageable, all other Cruisers and DD are write-offs.
USA : All Cruisers are hit, damage should be light to moderate, but you never know. 2 DD get hit by torpedoes and are sunk, 3 others are unscathed.

This still leaves all the remaining ships in Batavia, with Kalidjati swarming with combat ships and KB guarding the Oosthaven straight. Question is where the other half of KB is going to go, if it closes down the other end of the Java sea I won't be getting any ships out alive.

The definite losses for the 18th are in, some of which were scuttled as they were too damaged to escape Java anyway. 5 Cl are lost: Java, Sumatra, Tromp (scuttled), Danea and Dragon (scuttled). 6 DD went down as well, Barker and Bulmer for the Americans, Evertsen and Van Ghent for the Dutch (both scuttled, the British Stronghold and finally Vedetta (Aus).

Orders for the 19th were mainly orders to break out, heavy air attacks on the Batavian port were expected and lounging around on the open sea wasn't an option either. Ships would mainly flee in the direction of Soerabaja and ports along the way for those with less fuel and speed, but Electra and Houston would be trying to use the Oosthaven straight. A night of extremely confused fighting followed, no surprise as there were about 10 Allied TF running around. It's all text format because a map would become unreadable. For those who need only the highlight, see the picture




CV Hiryu - KB is trying to make it's way back into the Java sea, but is spooked by a single DD, the HMS Electra. Twice KB meets her in the waters around Merak, and twice she retreats away from her. When she finally breaks through a gauntlet of subs has formed, and HMS Truant gets lucky.

HMS Electra - This lucky ship deserves her own entry, twice she was attacked by subs, twice she evaded the torpedoes. Twice she also ran into KB, the first time a long range encounter with KB turning away, the second time a close encounter in which some shells were exchanged.

CL Marblehead - Damage turned out to be moderate on the Marblehead and she tried to make her way to Batavia, which didn't happen without problems. She briefly met the invasion group, but combat was declined by both sides. A couple of hours later she met I-162 who put a first torp in her, I-158 finished her off with another 2.

CL Durban, DD Banckert, DD Witte de With - These ships made port in Semarang to refuel, but were attacked by bombers from KB. Durban was sunk, heavy damage was done to the 2 DD.

Porter and Stewart - These 2 undamaged destroyers tried to run away together, but stumbled on the invasion forces at Kalidjati, bravely they charged, but Porter got torpedoed and sank, Stewart, also damaged, fled into the night only to be picked off by a sub later.

Dutch PT-boats - These did the first attack of the night at Kalidjati (no rest for the Japanese here), they managed to sink an xAP, but one PT was shot apart by BB Nagato in return.

Air attacks - An air attack on the port of Batavia hit the two CM hidden there all along the Island air bases are swept, resulting in high losses to the Dutch fighters.

18-22 March 42'

There was quite a bit of action on other fronts as well these last few days, so let's get to that.

PI
Bataan finally fell on the 21st. Attacks had resumed on the 20th, immediately breaking through the last line of fortifications. The impressive defence of the men on Bataan seriously set back Japanese schedules.

Java
The landing beaches at Merak and Kalidjati both fell on the 19th, and the Japanese are moving to surround Batavia. Air battles over the island air pretty one-sided in favour of the Japanese. These mainly consist of the Japanese bombing ports, which is bad news for the CM still on the island. The Dutch make one large air strike at Billiton, where Hiryu might have gone to after she was hit. A 40 Oscar CAP defends the port admirably.

The only Allied naval forces still around is a PT boat group, which runs into a CL/DD force, losing one of their number.

Eastern DEI
In the margin of the Java battle the Japanese also advance towards Kendari. Forces aren't too big, but enough to take the base.

Subs
AP Barnett is sunk by I-20 near the Cook Islands
I-169 misses DD Van Ness, though the ship still succumbs to damage taken earlier.
Gato gets a dud on a TK near Bataan.
Argonaut surfaces to destroy a landing barge with it's large 6inch guns at Merak, she was in the area on a mining mission.

23-26 March 42'

Java
The Dutch PT-boats have been fighting hard the last couple of days, but had to do so against too great odds. They scored a victory attacking a landing barge TF at Merak, sinking about 5, but after this battle, their success ended. Over the next couple of days they were chased around the Java coast by CL and DD until they were wiped out on the 26th by a single DD.

The Dutch and ABDA airforces tried to do some damage again, but were repulsed most of the time. Vildebeests did manage to break through CAP and attacked two CA at Batavia, but failed to score hits.

On land the two prong attack surrounded Batavia, some 460 AV is here. Bandoeng is also reached by Japanese forces. A smaller 300 AV force is holding this base.

Other DEI
On Sumatra Sabang falls, all bases in Northern Sumatra are now in Japanese hands. On Celebes Makassar and Kendari are taken.

CM Krakatau is sunk while laying mines at Den Passer
Burma
All central Burmese bases are taken now, some small sweeps are undertaken against bases on the India/Burma border, but no British fighters are on CAP.

Australia
The survivors of the battle of the Java sea are now pulling into port in Australia. Luck saved the two best cruisers from the ABDA fleet, Houston and Boise have reached Perth and will start temporary repairs there. De Ruyter has also survived, she had to hide in Port Hedland as she was out of fuel, but a couple of 4-stackers have arrived to share their fuel and she is now around Exmouth. 4 DD have made it out as well, 3 Dutch and the HMS Electra. Total losses for the Allied side were 7 CL and 10 DD.

Subs
Seal does a good job frightening Lemon, she gets a hit on CVE Taiyo near Japan, but it was a dud. This CVE was likely on ASW duty.
The S-37 also attacks an xAK, but misses it's target. It's a recurring theme with the olders subs, they miss their target fairly often, KX shoots it's torpedoes past AMC Awata Maru.
Another theme is run-ins with SC without any consequence. Gato gets a dud on one, Truant gets depth charges thrown at her to no effect.
Two successes in the sub war though, Tarpon hits xAK Kosin Maru near Kyushu and Pike likely sinks xAK Nitiren Maru.

27-31 March 42'

Java campaign
At Bandoeng the first serious ground clashes on Java start. From the 27th to the 30th, the crack troops of the Imperial guards division charge the Dutch lines in the mountainous terrain. The Dutch forts are destroyed, but the line holds and the Japanese are forced to reorganize before a final attack.

DEI
Another land battle unfolds at Koepang, the defenders are seriously outnumbered, but the forts are a great equalizer. The absence of engineers will make sure the forts stay in play a little longer, but the higher losses for the Dutch mean the fall of Koepang is inevitable.

China
A small group of base forces has reached the Chinese lines around Changsha, but one unit was left behind and is now stuck behind Japanese lines. Some manoeuvring may indicate the Japanese will try to break through in the wilderness West of Changsha.

A small air battle unfolded around Changsha as well, as the AVG intercepted a bomber raid over the surrounded BF. As many as 17 sallies may have been shot down for no loss, 2 new pilots become aces in this action.

Subs
Japanese ASW is doing a good job in keeping allied subs down. 70% of sub encounters are either attacks by ASW groups or convoy escorts spotting the subs before an attack. These attacks are far from lethal however, there is hardly ever more than 1 or 2 hits resulting in hardly any damage.

There were 2 successful attacks however. KVII hit xAK Koyo Maru near Kendari and the old PG Moresby was sunk by RO-61 near Cairns, PG Swan may have moderately damaged the sub in return though.

The next update will be the end of the month summary for March

March Overview
And the end of march is reached already, the most important action was in the DEI, which saw the overland conquest of large parts of Sumatra and the landings on Java.



Theatre by Theatre

DEI
As said above, the main action was here. Coverage on the naval battle of Java has been extensive, but apart from the landings the Japanese forces have already moved to cut off Batavia from the rest of the island. It seems like he is waiting until Bandoeng is neutralized to commit forces for the attack on Batavia.

Sumatra has gotten woefully little coverage, but that is because nothing truly interesting is happening there. Decent forces have landed here, and once they reach my bases they usually have little problems routing the remaining base forces there. The only remaining bases are Padang and a dot base in the centre of the island and the major reason they haven't been captured yet is the long march that is needed to reach the bases.

Burma
No land battles, hardly any action in the air, this area has become nearly dormant. The Japanese forces have now captured all bases on the central plane and will not face opposition if they march towards the Northern bases.

China
The shooting war has ended here for a little while, some bases in the South have been abandoned and taken by Japanese forces

PI
After a long battle resistance on Luzon has finally ended, all that remains are some little island bases defended by starving troops.

SoPac
Baker island is taken

Naval losses

This Month
                     Japan         Allies
CL                     -1             5               The -1 is a FOW adjustment, the CL was said to have been sunk by a sub
DD                     0             10
SS                     1              0
PC/..                  1              1
AP/..                  1              1
AK/...                10             0

Obviously a really bad month for me, I'm trading DD for xAK and that's not even considering the CL. The losses were mainly due to the battle in the Java Sea.

Air losses


This Month
                  Japan             Allies
Total             239               215
Air                  39               108
Flak                27                 13
Ground             4                  26
Ops               169                 68

Losses are fairly even this month, but again thanks to the high Op Losses sustained by the IJA and IJN. The huge disparity in air losses is what you get once the Dutch air force goes into action.

Plane Pools



Fighters are in a very good shape, I haven't had much losses to replace anyway. Warhawk pools will drop significantly though, as I've got a number of units that will upgrade to P40 as they are reaching the front lines. This will use up about 100 planes at least. Very pleasant are the Australian Kittyhawks that start production this month. They aren't many, but early in the war the Allied player has to be happy with everything he gets. In total I'm building about 207 non-soviet fighters a month now, but only about 150 of these are useful besides as training planes.



Hardly any losses have been sustained by my bombers so far, but soon they will have to start flying offensive instead of training.



These pools are pretty nice, I'm leaving some units on the West Coast as training units with little planes though, so this helps.

Java
Ground battles at Bandoeng are taking longer than expected. The mountainous terrain is doing a lot for the forces here. Forts were reduced to zero on the 2nd, but engineers managed to rebuild them on the 3rd.

Other DEI
Koepang is taken by the Japanese, the airfield is immediately put to use to base enemy recon which is now flying over Darwin.

China
A small air battle over Changsha sees the AVG winning 1-3 against Oscars and Nates. The Nates never stood a chance, but the Oscars damage a lot of AVG planes for little loss, they don't quite manage to shoot them down though.

Subs
Only 1 casualty in the sub war, KXIII is hit for moderate damage when attacking a DD. She's moving off station for repairs in Australia, but should be in no danger of sinking.

 

Ground battles at Bandoeng are taking longer than expected. The mountainous terrain is doing a lot for the forces here. Forts were reduced to zero on the 2nd, but engineers managed to rebuild them on the 3rd.

Yes, it is a good place to make your stand in Java.

Khyberbill: Unfortunately I didn't make a real stand there, my forces are somewhat dispersed over Batavia, Bandoeng and Soerabaja. On the other hand, this may have paid off against Lemon as he is very careful and wanted to remove this base on his flank before attacking Batavia. If all forces had been either at Bandoeng or Batavia, he might have thrown the kitchen sink at it and taken either base by now.

4-7 April 42'

Hiryu
The Hiryu has finally succumbed to the damage done by HMS Truant. According to Lemon the Hiryu retreated towards Billiton after the hit, instead of nearby (and larger) Oosthaven. This sealed her fate as Billiton was too small a port to extinguish the fires on her. Apparently the ship sunk when Lemon tried to move her to a bigger port in a last effort to save her before the fires consumed her. Her whole air complement was still aboard as it couldn't be unloaded due to the flames, according to the loss report about 75 planes sank with the carrier.

Java
On Java Bandoeng falls on the 5th, 200 AV have held a crack IJA division plus supporting troops for more than a week, not too shabby. Now let's see what the forts at Batavia will do.

DEI
Some more cleaning work being done, Bandjermasin is attacked and taken, meaning all of Borneo is now in Japanese hands. The small islands East of Sumatra are also being picked off.

New Guinea
Will the attack at Port Moresby finally come ? At least the air raids have started again with daily zero sweeps and bombing attacks by Betties. No ground forces have reached the base yet though, they are still in the jungle in the middle of the Island.

China
AVG again, 4 planes encounter a 50 Sonia raid and attack, claiming 3 kills against the light bombers.

Subs
Seal puts a torpedo in xAKL Ina Maru in the East China sea.

8-10 April 42'

Although the three last days didn't see much actual combat, a couple of interesting sightings were made.

DEI
A CV force was spotted in Balikpapan harbour, it didn't look small enough for mini-KB, nor large enough for the full KB. During the battle for Java KB was already seen operating split, so this may still be the case.

Aleutian Islands
The first Japanese moves into the Northern waters. A TF snuck up to Attu Island on the Western end of the chain and dropped off a Naval Guard Unit. Defences here are still as they were on December 7, though a couple of independent regiments were earmarked to get shipped up North. I wonder if I'll have the time to get them to Dutch Harbour/Umnak Island before the Japanese come knocking.

Subs
S-38 torpedoes the old DD Tsuga in the Banda sea
Plunger achieves a similar feat close to Kwajalein Island, by hitting a modern DD, but her torpedoes malfunction.

11-13 April 42'

Java
The first troops have started besieging Batavia, but not attacks as of yet. The remnants of the KNIL airforce tried to counter a raid on their airfields, but a 40 plane Oscar escort easily swept aside the defenders. Only the P-40E squadron has a decent number of planes left, otherwise the fighter airforce is shattered. The bombers have been stood down or disbanded as attacks versus the heavily CAPed Japanese bases around Java would be suicide. Better to save the pilots for the Dutch RAAF squadrons then to give points to the Japanese for shooting them down in the old bombers.

Aleutians
Attu island fell, but no engineers have been observed on the island. In other parts of the map my opponent has been expanding bases as soon as he captures them, so I'm a bit surprised that there are only combat forces here. Makes me wonder how serious his commitment to NorPac is, of course, reinforcements will be sent in case he does have more ambitious plans.

SWPac
Ndeni (Between Guadalcanal and Luganville) was invaded, his first expansion in this area since the capture of Guadalcanal/Tulagi. No intel as to the composition of landing forces though. I'll be sending out small units like the raiders to islands North of Noumea so he at least can't do easy unopposed landings there.

Subs
The first upgraded subs have left the ports and will soon be making their way to their hunting grounds. I'm interested as to the effect the radar will have.

14-16 April 42'

The going has been slow the last couple of days, mainly because I have been fairly busy, but here is another update anyway.

North Australia
Yes, you read that correctly, the most interesting developments in our war have been near the Australian coast the last couple of days.

Just East of Timor, the island of Samlauki has been attacked and taken by the Japanese forces. Around the same time, an air raid on Darwin was launched by betties. The Allied forces tried to respond, but bad weather prevented DB attacks from Darwin against the Japanese invasion fleets and the fighters flown in to protect Darwin are now patrolling empty skies. I believe an invasion of Northern Australia is very likely in the near future, due to several clues.
1) High level of recon flights against Derby and Darwin
2) Intel reports heavy artillery units are being shipped to Makassar, since long taken. I believe these are units assembling there before being brought forward to invade Oz. These might also be meant for Java, but in that case being shipped directly to a port there would make more sense.

I haven't many LCUs to stop a move on Darwin, so it's unlikely that I'll hold the base for long. In a couple of weeks the Australian Armoured regiments will begin fitting out with Grant tanks and 2 Tank Bat are in Australia as well, so any move to Alice Springs or the Townsville area will result in a war of manoeuvre that I would welcome. Lots of fighters are being assembled to inflict maximum losses on air units supporting the invasion.

Java
Batavia is being attacked and will fall soon, I wish I had put these forces into Bandoeng as well.

Sumatra
Padang falls and with that the final non-dot base on Sumatra.

Subs
In the South China sea, Sargo torpedoes a medium PB escort. This allows O20 a surface attack on an xAK in the next hex, but strangely enough she declines to fire either torpedoes or her deck gun and is forced to submerge after some hits by the merchant, strange.

Sailfish puts a dud on a Sc near Georgetown. The subs here aren't exactly great scouts, they are supposed to report on traffic towards Rangoon (air recon reported ships here) and the Bay of Bengal, but the only ship she has run into until now are sub hunters.

Finally, the RN organized a sub hunt near Colombo. The forces consisted of Hermes with escorts for search, 2 4DD, 1 KV, 1 AM and 1 ML ASW groups, 2 Hudsons squadrons ran search from Colombo. One Japanese sub was encountered, but it escaped with minimum damage.

17-19 April 42'

Java
A strange sight, the Japanese do an opposed landing at Semarang (middle of Java). The opposition is only a BF though, and the landed regiment easily blows it away. Nice to see that unloading has slowed down though, it took him several days to get it ashore completely. I can't quite figure out why he didn't simply use an already captured base though.

Batavia fell on the 19th, with heavy damage to the base according to Lemon. I'm not sure if he means the runway/port or the industry as I haven't got the turn back.

North Australia
Even though the ships took 2 more days on the beaches of Saumlaki, my Vindicators didn't launch. I saw clouds over the base every day so was I just blocked by the weather or was there another reason ? Lots of engineering units in the first wave so it is clear that the island is supposed to become a major base.

Northeast Australia
An air raid by unescorted Betties on Townville comes in unopposed. They bomb the port, sinking an xAKL and damaging PG Swan, I'm lucky he didn't sight the AS stationed here. I hadn't put up any CAP here, a foolish mistake. If he thinks about finishing off the PG and maybe get to other ships, there will be a surprise waiting for him.

China
The same again, a lack of CAP lets Sonias bomb Changsha airfield were the AVG is still stationed. I had stood them down for some reason, and paid the price with some planes destroyed and damaged on the ground. I'm really annoyed at myself for being caught off guard like this.

Subs
Near New Britain Trout gets some mild damage from a SC.

20 April 42'

China
Some serious revenge is taken on the Japanese airforce over Changsha. Two small uncoordinated Nate sweeps come in first, with only 9 and 2 planes they stand no chance against a 25-30 plane CAP. Just 2 damaged planes make it out in these two raids. Later on a Sonia raid arrives, 11 bombers escorted by 27 Nates. The numbers are more even now, but the Nates are chained to the bombers and at a height disadvantage (CAP at 15 and 20k), the slaughter continues with another 15 or so Nates and 3 Sonias shot down.

This battle gives me the first double ace of the Allied airforces, MAJ Jones O. Another two pilots achieve ace status, medals all around and 2 pilots are sent stateside for TRACOM or training squadron duties.

PI
Cebu is invaded, one of the few remaining bases in the PI. 2 regiments with artillery and engineer units attached are thrown against the starving 81st PA Division and the base will not last long.

Timor area
Lomblen above Timor is invaded, no combat troops but 3 Naval Construction Bat and a JAAF Base Force, clearly this is another base that will be built up.

21-22 April 42'

DEI
Den passer is invaded and captured

Timor Area
Lomblen North of Timor falls

Vindicators from Darwin finally fly against Samlauki. The small group (8 planes) strike twice and hit two xAK twice, none are seen sinking, but the kills are as good as sure. A curious observation is that the even after such a successful day, only 1 pilot gained exp, 1 gained a skill point and two pilots even lost an exp point. I didn't even know this was possible. I'm going to take a closer look at bomber units in action, but if this is the norm, it's going to be pretty hard to train up bomber crews. (This unit is not very experienced yet, many pilots are around 50 exp.)

PI
The 81st Division does a  very good job holding off a first assault and doesn't even get a modifier for supply.

Subs
Pike hits a DD on ASW duty with a dud, this is around Sakhalin, I'm surprised there even are DD up there.

Lomblen North of Timor falls

Vindicators from Darwin finally fly against Samlauki. The small group (8 planes) strike twice and hit two xAK twice, none are seen sinking, but the kills are as good as sure. A curious observation is that the even after such a successful day, only 1 pilot gained exp, 1 gained a skill point and two pilots even lost an exp point. I didn't even know this was possible. I'm going to take a closer look at bomber units in action, but if this is the norm, it's going to be pretty hard to train up bomber crews. (This unit is not very experienced yet, many pilots are around 50 exp.)

I am up to 6/44 in one PBEM and bomber crews just dont seem to gain EXP! I think most are still in the 50s. I have stopped worrying about it and just try to keep a rotation of strikes and stand downs that is effective.