PAW 1941-45 larryfulkerson (Axis) vs warspite1 (Allies)

[warspite1]

Turn 6
11th January 1942

Burma

I have a number of urgent things to attend to. Firstly I move the 17th Indian Division to Myithynia to undertake a pincer attack in conjunction with three Chinese Corps to try and get rid of the Japanese parachute battalion there.

Malaya

In Malaya all units that are capable of movement are ordered to fall back to the south. I can't dislodge the paratrooper in Bohau - even mustering everything available - so I dig-in. North of Jerantut the 1st battalion, 8th Punjab Regt. is ordered to try and hold position between the town and Kuala Lipis, while the remaining units north of the river head west to try and escape.

China

Totally pointless - I've lost almost a dozen Chinese units just trying to retreat! I have dug-in with the Communists in the north. If that line is broken then I simply fail to understand what China can actually do in this game. We shall see but I have the same problem in the south - I can't retreat fast enough to form any sort of line. The Japanese have so many units that I'm notable to infiltrate behind their lines. Just seems totally unrealistic that the Japanese can mount such an offensive....

Philippines

Nothing to be done but dig-in and hope.

Australia

Ditto

Pacific

I want to try and get at the enemy units that failed to land in the Fijian Islands last turn. Trouble is I don't know what the Japanese have in their naval task force - but I do know they are 'heavy' naval unit.

I think the first thing to do is to send some aircraft from Hawaii to Ellis Island, Samoa, Johnston Island, Phoenix Island, Cook Island and Vanua Levu itself.

I decide to use USS Enterprise (it looks like there are two carriers per counter so I did lose a Lexington-class carrier after all) and she joins up with the reinforcements received at Hawaii this turn. The units from Hawaii head east then south to try and avoid the Japanese bombers - but as soon as Enterprise meets them Emily and Mavis come to pay a visit. The Japanese lose 10 bombers (2 destroyed) for no loss.

[warspite1]

Turn 6
11th January 1942

When south of Samoa the task force are attacked again by 24 bombers, escorted by 80 fighters. For some reason the Americans launch their Dauntless and Devastators as well as their fighters (no land based fighters fly) and 10 aircraft in total are shot down (2 destroyed) The Japanese lose 5 fighters (2 destroyed) and 4 bombers (0 destroyed).

The US Task Force presses on and is attacked again - this time by just the bombers. The Japanese lose 10 (2 destroyed) and there is no loss to the US Navy.

Meanwhile in Burma the Indian/Chinese attack against the paratroopers succeeds in forcing the Japanese to retreat - albeit at huge cost to the Chinese corps that attacked.The Indian units chase after the enemy and set up another attack that will possibly end the turn.

[warspite1]

Turn 6
11th January 1942

I can't risk it. I decide to launch the attack on the Japanese landing force at Vanua Levu at the same time. The cost is high - the US lose 2 Avengers, 13 Dauntless (2 destroyed), 14 Wildcats (3 destroyed) and 2 Kingsfishers (1 destroyed) and in return the Japanese lose 7 fighters (1 destroyed) and light damage to a destroyer. The only good news was that one of the transports was sunk as 66 rifle squads were destroyed (however two thirds of the troops remain so the island is not safe yet).

In Burma the Japanese unit survives a second attack by an entire division. Instead of evaporating it continues to retreat mustering 7 rifle squads and 5 machine gun squads.

As expected there are no rounds left and now my USN task force can't retreat.....

[MikeJ19]

Rob,

You are doing a great job of letting us follow the action from your point of view. Thanks for sharing.

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

The Japanese keep using fighters only to conduct airfield attacks for many of their airfield attacks. The Chinese came out slightly better over the two attack conducted. On the ground its simply the same story.

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

There was only one battle in the NEI - on Java the last remaining resistance ends. The Dutch initially retreated but have now disappeared so they must have been RBC'd later in the turn.

Meanwhile it looks like RBC has been employed against the Malay battalion at Medan as they have retreated some way from the supply point they were guarding but no battles have been conducted. Anyway I'm sure they are enjoying their swim.

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

In Australia the action was limited to a couple of airfield attacks this turn.

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

Nothing good to report in Malaya. The guns of Singapore have been silenced (combat 2) by a Japanese fleet which only took losses to two destroyer escorts in return. The heavier Japanese ships appear invulnerable.

In Malaya itself the CW forces can no longer even inflict losses on the Japanese - they are too weak now and so the end here will be pretty swift.

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

Well lets have a look at what happened. First up its clear that I took a risk in attacking when the turn was almost certain to end and I couldn't get my fleet away. So I have to chalk that up to a mistake on my part. Second mistake is that I had fair warning that this scenario lacks realism in terms of search capability - Japanese bombers flying more than 1,300 miles (much over airspace swarming with US fighter cover) to pinpoint US naval task forces twice in a turn is erm.... disappointing. Given that, I should have guessed there was absolutely no chance of not being found.

But I brought in plenty of fighter cover and additional naval air so I don't think it was unreasonable to have expected my fleet to have a fighting chance - and of course that assumed the Japanese had the required naval assets in the area to counter. I assumed there was land based air on the Japanese side, but they would not be as close to the action as my fighters.

So what happened?

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

Well its clear the first problem is the lack of control over aircraft. I knew this to be a problem so that is mistake number 3 in my thinking. The problem of course is what can one do about it? If I place my air on rest and remove range they won't make the dumb arse attacks I don't want them to, but they won't defend the areas I want them too either.

So it appears my aircraft were whittled away doing dumb things that I wouldn't want them to do and I have no control what so ever.

First off some of my aircraft attack a Japanese fleet. The Kingfishers on Vanua Levu are tasked with the attack and 6 Avengers and 13 Dauntless's fly along with 65 Wildcats. The Wildcats I assume came from the carriers while the bombers were probably from MAG 21. The combat chart shows only the Kingfishers attacking the enemy transports - which suffers no damage. 37 Nates fly in defence and lose 5 aircraft (1 destroyed) compared to the US loss of 1 Wildcat and 1 Kingfisher. Why the Avengers and Dauntless would have bothered flying (as fighters??) and not attacking the seemingly unescorted, vulnerable Japanese transports is not clear.

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

Now the problems really start. With no control over my precious aircraft, and a carrier fleet to protect, MAG 21 decides to fly to New Caledonia (where land based air will be massive) to attack a carrier group with just a few aircraft. Good choice....and the whittling down process is now underway.

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

What happens next is not so much about the lack of control of aircraft (but contributes - MAG 21 is effectively out of the game by combat 4....), but is also about the lack of realism.

Next up Task Force 4 orders an attack on the Japanese bombardment force at Vanua Levu. As said before I could have put the TF4 bombers on 'Rest' but then that would have been dumb if attacked by surface ships.....

But that is not the issue here....


Answers on a postcard

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

The whittling away of Task Force 4's ability to defend itself continues. Remember all 4 attacks are initiated by the Allies - or rather by the program on behalf of the Allied player.....and there is nothing the Allied player can do about it.

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

Next (Combat 9) comes a bombardment by 2 battleships and a heavy cruiser against the airfield at Vanua Levu. MAG 21 and REC 10 have 11 Dauntless, 16 Wildcats and 11 Kingfishers. The bombardment reduces the Wildcats by 3 and the Dauntless by a further 2. The aircraft don't seemingly attack the ships in defence....

And so we come to the destruction of Task Force 4.

For the attack Larry was able to bring in 6 aircraft carriers - 4 of which are fleet carriers of the 1st Air Fleet. I don't have any major issue with the result given the disparity of forces. But I do not understand why, throughout the combats mentioned, the Japanese always had aircraft they could bring to every battle, but the 18th Fighter Group on Vanua Levu (which was right next door to three of the battles and well within range of the carrier battle to come) never flew once. In fact, come to think of it, when the Japanese bombarded the airfield in Combat 9, why weren't the fighters targeted? Is this a bug?

The 54th Fighter Group on Samoa was well within range of this battle, didn't fly. So a fair summary would be, while out of my control aircraft I didn't want to fly - flew stupid missions, while the time I wanted aircraft to fly, they didn't. Sorry, this is the operational art of war. Having some control of operations is kind of implied in the title.... this just seems too random.

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

So the actual combats in the PI and Pacific were as follows.

[warspite1]

Turn 7
18th January 1942

Incredible. The Japanese parachute battalion that was attacked twice and reduced to a half dozen squads, has retreated three times and is out of supply is not applicable for an RBC.... of course.... Then when sizing up an attack with the entire Indian infantry division the predicted result is 'impossible to predict'. Erm.... okay.

Three newly arrived destroyer divisions appear in Calcutta (for some reason) and when I try and move them they are immediately attacked by Japanese land-based bombers - Nell and Betty. From where these originate I've no idea but the closest is likely to be Thailand or Sumatra. Fortunately the destroyers are undamaged and the Japanese lose three bombers.

USS New Mexico is almost a wreck and does not have the movement points to get to Pearl or the West Coast. I decide to get her away as far as she can make it - and to travel past Samoa in doing so. While just off Samoa the remains of TF4 are attacke by 38 bombers escorted by 60 fighters (half of which are Claudes). This time the Airacobra unit does fly and, at a cost of 1 fighter, the Japanese lose 5 bombers and 3 fighters.

Then when the fleet is to the east of Samoa (but still well within fighter range) it is found again in what must be hundreds of miles from any enemy aircraft. The US fighters don't fly (really?) and at a cost of just 4 Japanese bombers, two destroyers are sunk as is the New Mexico.

So the upshot of all that is that there really isn't much left for me to move. I have no idea if Larry can see my fleet on the West Coast. I have to hope not but given what I've seen so far I think that can't be taken for granted. But I have no fighters there anyway so I think its not a very safe place to be. With three aircraft carriers and two battleships sunk and the Japanese totally in control of the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans there is little point in just hiding away. I send what is left of the Pacific Fleet to Hawaii where, in theory at least, I have some aircraft to protect them. On the way there, one fleet is intercepted between Pearl and the US west coast. 4 bombers are lost for only light damage to a destroyer.

Despite what the predicted result is telling me I decide to attack what is after all just the remnants of an out of supply, beaten up, severely depleted paratroop battalion. I do this with an entire Indian division and two Chinese divisions. But sadly its getting late and I press the wrong button and end the turn instead! Whoops. Probably for the best - I suspect the Allies would have been wiped out....

[warspite1]

Turn 8
25th January 1942

So I have to make a decision re the playback. In this scenario watching the playback takes so much time and once I start I either continue to the end in that session or I end it early if I run out of time. That is so frustrating.

If I miss the replay I have to accept I am going to miss some key moves, however because using the playback is just impractical from a time point of view that is going to have to be the way forward.

China

Not sure why but it was a very quiet time in China. Even a Japanese air strike failed to score any hits. But regardless of the reason, that is welcome relief to the Chinese.

[warspite1]

Turn 8
25th January 1942

NEI

One attack in Sumatra this time around, and the Malay brigade battalion continue to get whittled down.

[warspite1]

Turn 8
25th January 1942

Australia

Not much to report here either. The Japanese naval ships appear to be able to travel around wherever they please. The RAAF lost 3 aircraft chasing after some destroyers and eventually, after three attacks, they managed to dish out light damage to one of them.....

Combat 17 was an airfield attack on Darwin that at least cost the Japanese more than it did the Allies. But thanks to the legendary AA of the IJN the RAAF still lost more aircraft that turn......

[warspite1]

Turn 8
25th January 1942

India

Again, not too much to say here. The turn opened with the Allies attacking and once again Japanese light forces are able to swan around the Indian Ocean without a care. The RAF lost half a dozen aircraft but couldn't hit the Japanese light cruiser that was on a pleasure cruise off southeastern India for toffee.

The Eastern Fleet's position is obviously known and not all ships are able to get into Karachi because of the stacking limit. A carrier borne attack whittles the fleet down further (Combat 34) and the CAP was not able to save the ships.

There were air attacks in Burma, on Singapore and more reduction of forces in Malaya.

The one bright spot was an air attack by my Beauforts that sunk a Japanese transport in the Gulf of Thailand (Combat 1). There were a goodly number of engineers aboard too.