Dutch AVP Arend: Scenario 1 Exploits

[WEXF]

I looked at Wikipedia for info on the RL S-38 and S-39. It gives a good insight into the mechanical and crew problems of these boats that limited their usefulness. For example, an S-38 crewman removing a valve cover while in port resulted in flooding of the motor room on S-38. Later improperly vented battery caused an explosion that sent the boat to shipyard repairs.
The war started badly for S-38 too - it sank Norwegian freighter Hydra II around the Philippines on Dec.11, 1941. I suppose coordination between Allies was not really a thing yet!
S-38's major accomplishments were the sinking of IJN transports Hayo Maru in Lingayen Gulf and Meiyo Maru off Cape St. George. And did you know there is a whirlpool and rapids in Lombok Strait (SE end of Java I think) that makes navigating there tricky?

S-39 had worse luck, only succeeding in sinking medium sized tanker Erimo near Timor in March 1942. The rest was a series of mechanical problems, crew illnesses and dodging depth charges until she grounded on rocks off Rossel Island in August 1942. Efforts to get her off failed and she was abandoned there to break up. One has to marvel at the men manning these boats for their perseverance and effort amid little reward.

Very interesting background. Hopefully, S-38 and S-39 will do a lot better in my AAR. AVP Arend has done a lot better than she did in RL.

[RangerJoe]

I looked at Wikipedia for info on the RL S-38 and S-39. It gives a good insight into the mechanical and crew problems of these boats that limited their usefulness. For example, an S-38 crewman removing a valve cover while in port resulted in flooding of the motor room on S-38. Later improperly vented battery caused an explosion that sent the boat to shipyard repairs.
The war started badly for S-38 too - it sank Norwegian freighter Hydra II around the Philippines on Dec.11, 1941. I suppose coordination between Allies was not really a thing yet!
S-38's major accomplishments were the sinking of IJN transports Hayo Maru in Lingayen Gulf and Meiyo Maru off Cape St. George. And did you know there is a whirlpool and rapids in Lombok Strait (SE end of Java I think) that makes navigating there tricky?

S-39 had worse luck, only succeeding in sinking medium sized tanker Erimo near Timor in March 1942. The rest was a series of mechanical problems, crew illnesses and dodging depth charges until she grounded on rocks off Rossel Island in August 1942. Efforts to get her off failed and she was abandoned there to break up. One has to marvel at the men manning these boats for their perseverance and effort amid little reward.

When a Japanese task force was moving south along the Indochinese coast, they a Norwegian freighter stumbled across the task force. The Norwegian ship was stopped, boarded, and then the radio was smashed. I forget the name of the Norwegian vessel but that may have been the one mentioned here so radio coordination may not have been that effective.

[WEXF]

As soon as LCDR Gorek woke up on 1May42 he went to the communication center to get any new messages. He was really pleased the way the day was starting out. The pilots assigned to him were making more progress in their training with PO Caruthers improving his "Naval Search" from 49>52 in just one day!
The xAK was also making good progress with another 500 tons unloaded.

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[WEXF]

The commanders of Arend, O23 and S-39 met for lunch and reviewed the progress their ships had made last turn.
Arend was now at 0-47-0 4(9%)=44.4. She had received 26.3 RP from the SY at Perth, just as she had the day before. It remains unclear on how the rest of the 47 major damage could be repaired in only 27 days?

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S-39 was now at 0-1-0 4(8%)=50 with just a single major flotation damage remaining. The AR had done its work providing 47 RP. It looks like another day of repairs will complete the work and S-39 should then be ready to join S-38 on Radar Picket.

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O23 made significant progress going from 24-16-6 to 18-16-6 54(98%)=55.1. With the AS now assisting O23 along with the other support from pier side, O23 received a total of 348.2 RP. It appears that the remaining system damage will be repaired in the 3 days remaining as shown. The screen shot shows that O23 could spend 4 days as "repair ship" so maybe the single non-major engine damage could be repaired. It is unclear whether the AR can do that as there are a total of 6 engine damage? Time will tell.

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Unknown to all three navy men, a TF had just arrived at Perth with a Dutch DD that was in need of some repairs. How, or if, that would actually take place was being discussed at Headquarters.

[WEXF]

This is the screen of newly arriving TF 387 as it was on 29April just before arriving at Perth. Just 4 ships transporting 3000 tons of resources that had been loaded at Port Hedland. Since the war started efforts were made to utilize the vast amount of resources in North Australia to use in the war effort while denying their use by the Japanese should they decide to invade the area.
Many players of WITP-AE suggest that there is no need to follow this strategy as Japan will have more than enough resources available elsewhere. I tend to play trying to do what I think would have happened IRL.

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Port Hedland is a very interesting base in WITP-AE. It starts as a Port 2(3). Is it worth building up? In my game the decision was not to build the port up. At the start there is no airfield at the base. The decision was to build it up to at least a level 2 to allow some bombers to operate and depending on how the war progressed consider building the airfield to level 5. The airfield is currently 1(6) and is 98% toward being 2(6). The base has very good levels of supply and fuel and currently has 163,316 tons of resources. Moving those resources south is not easy. There is only a single road and railway line out of the base. Both go to Corunna Downs, the mining center that produces all of the resources. In the game there is a network of small roads and trails that are not shown but can accommodate some movement of resources and troops. Movement in this system is very slow.

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Corunna Downs is a "dot base" but has a great deal of resource centers (100) that produce 2000 tons of resources a day. Since the start of the war roughly 285,000 tons have been produced and shipped to Port Hedland. Looking at the numbers more closely after deducting the 163,316 in Port Hedland and the 2084 currently at Corunna Downs the amount of resources removed comes to about 120,000. The majority of those removed have been by ship in TF like the one now arriving at Perth. Corunna Downs is an interesting target for Japan. Is it worth bombing the resource centers to get victory points? Is it worth invading to get the resources? Is it worth defending by Allied troops?

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[BBfanboy]

I too like to haul resources from Port Hedland because IRL the Australians would have done so. I have at least 9 small cargo vessels (1000 & 1750 tonners) doing CS in 3 TFs. When a ship gets more than a couple of points system damage I disband that ship in Perth for repairs and add it to the next CS convoy with the same sized ships when it arrives a Perth. Even with running all those ships continuously I cannot clean out the resources at Pt. Hedland - I half suspect the AI is detecting the demand for resources to load onto ships at PH and drawing the resources back from Perth! But I can say for sure that other Aussie cities are not lacking for resources for their industries.

[RangerJoe]

I too like to haul resources from Port Hedland because IRL the Australians would have done so. I have at least 9 small cargo vessels (1000 & 1750 tonners) doing CS in 3 TFs. When a ship gets more than a couple of points system damage I disband that ship in Perth for repairs and add it to the next CS convoy with the same sized ships when it arrives a Perth. Even with running all those ships continuously I cannot clean out the resources at Pt. Hedland - I half suspect the AI is detecting the demand for resources to load onto ships at PH and drawing the resources back from Perth! But I can say for sure that other Aussie cities are not lacking for resources for their industries.

I haul so many resources out that sometimes my ships have to wait for more resources to show up.

Methinks that this is actually an iron mining area . . .

But yes, build it up if you can spare the defenders but you might want to wait and see just what your opponent is going to do plus what you have to strongly defend it. But it can have an airfield up to level 9 so it can have a lot of aircraft stationed there to play in the DEI.

As far as Japan running out of resources, one player playing Japan actually did so. If you were to move across the Norther Pacific and bomb Hokkaido's resources, that is a lot of Japan's surplus. Combine that with hitting the DEI's resources if you can't hit the oil or if the defenses for the oil are too strong, then hit the resources.

[WEXF]

[/quote]
Methinks that this is actually an iron mining area . . .
[/quote]

From what I was able to find out, the region after the war became one of the largest iron ore mining areas in Australia and remains that today. However, before the war the area was big in mining gold, tin and copper.
Does anyone have a sense of how much of the resources at Corunna Downs would make it out just by using the dirt roads and trails?

[RangerJoe]

Methinks that this is actually an iron mining area . . .
[/quote]

From what I was able to find out, the region after the war became one of the largest iron ore mining areas in Australia and remains that today. However, before the war the area was big in mining gold, tin and copper.
Does anyone have a sense of how much of the resources at Corunna Downs would make it out just by using the dirt roads and trails?
[/quote]

Believe me, if it is raw ore, not much at all. It would have to be processed. The yellow road is probably a dirt trail for people in automobiles, buses, and some trucks while the rail line would mostly then be hopper cars for the ore with possibly some freight cars to haul any beer and spirits in if it is not locally made.

This picture is a bridge over a natural iron ore pit which had hematite which was 2/3s iron. That bridge is 200 feet or about 60 meters tall. Could you imagine hauling that much ore 80 or so miles which would be about 130 kilometers in 2 ton dump trucks? I am using that distance because of the map hexes. The Edmund Fitzgerald was hauling 29,000 tons of taconite pellets when she went down, that would be 14,500 2 ton truck loads . . .

[WEXF]

The TF bringing resources to Perth from Port Hedland contained 4 ships. Three Coastal Cargo Class transports and the Dutch DD Evertsen. The Evertsen has some damage (3-0-2) but was not in really bad shape. Unfortunately the engine damage was "major" so some thinking had to be done to make the repairs.

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The commander of DD Evertsen is LCDR de Vries, W. M. and if you check the ship in the Editor you will see that he is specified to command the ship with specified "Leader Stats". That is likely because IRL he did command DD Evertsen. The Editor does not specify the Day/Night experience for the crew so the table presented before in this thread will apply.

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The decision by headquarters was to have DD Evertsen repair in "Readiness" at a "low" priority. Reasoning was to be consistent with putting the top priority on O23 when it came to use of the RP generated by the base and naval support. Evertsen should get at least the 7.6 RP generated by its crew based on their experience level of 61. (61/8=7.6). Thinking was that the 3 system damage could be worked on at readiness and that the AR assisting S-39 would be free soon to use its ability to repair the major engine damage on Evertsen.
How it all plays out remains to be seen.

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[RangerJoe]

I would still put the Evertsen on Pier Side repairs so it will repair faster. The AR will help other ships as needed at Pierside unless you specifically have another ship being repair as "Repair" as you already have done.

Also, if you have any spare units with Naval Support, concentrate them at your repair bases although right now, Pearl Harbor probably needs them the most.

[WEXF]

I would still put the Evertsen on Pier Side repairs so it will repair faster. The AR will help other ships as needed at Pierside unless you specifically have another ship being repair as "Repair" as you already have done.

My thinking is to have the AR concentrate totally on S-29. Last turn S-29 got 47RP of the possible 83 from the AR. It needs 50 get the final major engine damage repaired. It already has 4 so if S-29 get the same RP as last turn the final major damage will be repaired. If there are any RP left after the S-29 is completely repaired I want them to go to O-23 not Evertsen.
Lots of possibilities. Thanks for all the advice.

[RangerJoe]

I would still put the Evertsen on Pier Side repairs so it will repair faster. The AR will help other ships as needed at Pierside unless you specifically have another ship being repair as "Repair" as you already have done.

My thinking is to have the AR concentrate totally on S-29. Last turn S-29 got 47RP of the possible 83 from the AR. It needs 50 get the final major engine damage repaired. It already has 4 so if S-29 get the same RP as last turn the final major damage will be repaired. If there are any RP left after the S-29 is completely repaired I want them to go to O-23 not Evertsen.
Lots of possibilities. Thanks for all the advice.

I understand your reasoning but you can also use the "low" to "critical" priority choices as well to emphasis your needs. Even with no AR help, the other damage will repair quicker and the Evertsen is a good fighting ship. For your convoy escorts, use your lower quality Australian and Dutch AMs as long as they have depth charges and larger guns. Two Dutch DDs with working torpedoes going to play with enemy merchant shipping is a good job for them. They just love to find transport, cargo, tanker, and amphibious task forces with minimal escorts. With the threat tolerance set to "Low" when engaging enemy combat vessels, they will tend to disengage. If there is low moonlight and/or bad weather, they might even surprise the enemy and get a free first round of combat firing their guns and launching torpedoes at 2,000 feet is not something that your enemy wants to see. Especially if there are aircraft carriers in his task force since those ship's crews want to run home to their Mother, they love her so much!

[WEXF]

The crew of Arend was very interested in what was happening at Port Hedland as they had been wondering if they would be heading to the north coast of Australia after repairs were completed. Their interest grew when they heard the scuttlebutt that the entire Dutch PT Squadron had just safely arrived at Exmouth after a long and dangerous trip in the Indian Ocean.
Exmouth was an isolated coastal base with no real road or rail transport possible. It starts the was as a "dot base" P0(1), AF 0(5) with supply and fuel limits of 5000/1000 respectively. However, there is a lot of potential at Exmouth. It can be built up to a P4 and have an AF8 and it has an extremely strategic location that can provide long range naval searches and bombing missions deep into enemy territory. There are no troop limits at Exmouth.
Changes already have been made at Exmouth. It is now P1(1), AF1(5) and is 54% of the way to AF2. The limits on supply and fuel have increased to 9000/17000. Command at Exmouth has been transferred to ABDA and fort levels have been increased to 2(9).

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The scuttlebutt about the Dutch PT Squadron was in fact true. At the start of the war they were 12 PT boats in the DEI Squadron (TM-4 through TM15). If you look at the Editor you see that all 12 have random commanders but interesting they all have specified Day/Night crew experience of 35/25.

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Once the decision was made by HQ (me) to try and save the Dutch PT squadron, I originally thought I would just send them back to the pool. I looked a bit closer at the crews and decided that would be a mistake. Although all of the crews started with day/night experience levels of 35/25, quite a lot of improvement had happened. All 12 of the boat crews now have day experience of 50 and the night experience varies from 35 to 58. I don't recall what actions occurred between the boats and the enemy but since the day/night experience is based on "enemy contact" it is clear that these boats served well during the 4 months before they were evacuated. The trip to Exmouth was a long one through deep parts of the Indian Ocean via Christmas Island (IO). All of the boats suffered some damage on the trip but they all made it relying on some additional shipping that had been providing refueling along the way. All of the boats were set to repair at Pier Side and all had already accrued some repair points. As the boats were only 18 tons the number of RP needed to repair a point of damage calculate out to only 25.

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[RangerJoe]

Now that Exmouth is ABDA, you can send your restricted Dutch air units there. You can also try to fly in parts of restricted unbuyable ground units to save the cadre, then march them to a larger Aussie base to fill out with common devices like support and any engineers to help build the base plus provide support for units rebuilding after combat. Not to mention increasing the unit and manpower count at a base in case the enemy does recon the base.

[WEXF]

Now that Exmouth is ABDA, you can send your restricted Dutch air units there. You can also try to fly in parts of restricted unbuyable ground units to save the cadre, then march them to a larger Aussie base to fill out with common devices like support and any engineers to help build the base plus provide support for units rebuilding after combat. Not to mention increasing the unit and manpower count at a base in case the enemy does recon the base.

Thanks Ranger- That was the plan all along. Most of what you said has already been done. Not sure if you can air transport restricted Dutch units to an ABDA base. Whenever I try to do it I get a quick screen message: "cannot transport restricted units". Am I missing something?

[BBfanboy]

The Dutch units (except KNIL command) do not report directly to ABDA command, so they probably cannot be flown out without being bought out to ABDA. The good news is that you only pay 25% of the full buyout cost. With many of these depleted units the buyout cost is less than 10 PP, and small BF or Engineer units are very handy for starting to get dot bases built.

[WEXF]

Understood. There is no problem with buying out units that can be bought out. My reference was to the units that cannot be bought out. For those units, I do not see any way to get parts of them out of the DEI.

[RangerJoe]

Understood. There is no problem with buying out units that can be bought out. My reference was to the units that cannot be bought out. For those units, I do not see any way to get parts of them out of the DEI.

You might try sending some flying boats to Exmouth as long as there is some form of Air Support there, then pick up the troops. Or use flying boats in the DEI to airlift troops to Exmouth. If there is at least a level 1 airfield at Exmouth, some of those restricted air units may also be able to fly there as long as they have one non-disabled aircraft.

[BBfanboy]

Understood. There is no problem with buying out units that can be bought out. My reference was to the units that cannot be bought out. For those units, I do not see any way to get parts of them out of the DEI.

Try the "Pick Up Troops" option with patrol aircraft. But you might need to start it from an Aussie base that has been bought out the the KNIL command instead of the ABDA.