Tom & Blackwatch Lessons from War

[String]

Well if you think you are having a tough time.. this is from my PBEM vs Andy mac. Date is late september 1942

Day Air attack on Dacca , at 31,24

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 75
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 74
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 67
Ki-21 Sally x 104
Ki-48 Lily x 133
Ki-49 Helen x 62
Ki-46-II Dinah x 11

Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 3
Spitfire Vb x 20
P-40E Warhawk x 13
I-16c x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 30 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony: 12 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-21 Sally: 2 destroyed, 12 damaged
Ki-48 Lily: 13 destroyed, 17 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane II: 17 destroyed, 26 damaged
Spitfire Vb: 63 destroyed, 27 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 22 destroyed, 3 damaged
I-16c: 14 destroyed, 1 damaged
Wellington III: 7 destroyed, 11 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 44 destroyed, 158 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 22 destroyed, 55 damaged
B-26B Marauder: 7 destroyed, 4 damaged
Blenheim IV: 17 destroyed, 14 damaged


Allied ground losses:
78 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Vehicles lost 1

Airbase hits 30
Airbase supply hits 12
Runway hits 294


Andy did take over the PBEM from a very tough situation though, so you can't blame him [:)]

[Tom Hunter]

Actually I am not really unhappy with my over all situation. I was hoping to hurt the Japanese more on Sept 8th, but the battle continued into the 9th with worlds of hurt on both sides. I will post more on that later today.

Just for comparison though Blackwatch has plenty of strength he could not launch an attack like the one you just posted without stripping the Pacific of air assets, and if he tried he would run into a much larger CAP then you posted. Hitting Dacca is completely out of the question too, since the Brits now have an army back in Malaya.

September 10th will be interesting to see as well, the battle may run 4 days depending on which direction Blackwatch chooses to move.

[String]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

Actually I am not really unhappy with my over all situation. I was hoping to hurt the Japanese more on Sept 8th, but the battle continued into the 9th with worlds of hurt on both sides. I will post more on that later today.

Just for comparison though Blackwatch has plenty of strength he could not launch an attack like the one you just posted without stripping the Pacific of air assets, and if he tried he would run into a much larger CAP then you posted. Hitting Dacca is completely out of the question too, since the Brits now have an army back in Malaya.

September 10th will be interesting to see as well, the battle may run 4 days depending on which direction Blackwatch chooses to move.

Hm... seems like you've reduced his strength quite well. In late 42 the IJAAF has about 600 level bombers. I've got about 200 in the pacific, the rest are in burma as he started an air offensive there a week ago or so. Flying in unescorted his heavies were massacred by tonies and tojos, and then i returned the favor.

The thing is that in the pacific the IJA bombers are quite useless, imho there are enough betties and zeroes to cover all of it anyway. DEI is another matter though. To be honest the allied heavy bomber force is only effective up to 5 hexes before the P-38's arrive in numbers. With P-40B's you can increase that to 7 but as you only get 10 per month you can't keep up the offensive for long. By september the japs should hve 4-5 sentais of both tojos and tonies, which shoot down heavy bombers quite well. The japanese bomber force however has a range of 8, sallies and helens escorted by zeroes, and even bigger punch at range 6 where tonies and lilies can be included. This means that in Burma, the allied airfields are in range of japanese escorts while the japanese aren't. The japs also have the advantage of very good recon planes.

Andy did catch me napping about a week or two ago when he launched a heavy bomber attack on mandalay after a month of quiet. He managed to destroy approx 40 fighters on the ground but lost 40-60 bombers in return. one third of the bombers launched. And i had only 50 fighters on cap.

[AmiralLaurent]

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but this message is for String. I recognized your style above. A raid of 200 fighters and 300 bombers over Dacca, that is what I call concentration of forces !

[String]

ORIGINAL: AmiralLaurent

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but this message is for String. I recognized your style above. A raid of 200 fighters and 300 bombers over Dacca, that is what I call concentration of forces !

Teehee.. thanks [:D]

I'm a great fan of force concentration doctrine [;)]

[Tom Hunter]

String you must have been able to maintain high pilot quality to shoot down that many bombers.

I have fought back hard from the beginning and one of the effects of that is that Blackwatch does not have many squadrons left that have really good 85+ quality pilots.

During September Blackwatch lost over 130 very high quality Zero pilots. Even though he is hurting me a lot his long term ability to do so is fading away.

[Tom Hunter]

The clounds clear over the American CVs and the battle begins in ernest.

Both side launch some small and some very large airstrikes. Th Zeros over KB do an amazing job of chewing up the American planes, 70 Zeros kill about 150 American Wildcats, Dauntlesses and Avengers over the course of the morning air battle.

However the Americans get through the CAP and the flak and score some hits. Here is the consolidated list of Japanese CVs and the amount of damage each one took over the course of the days battle:

CV Akagi
CV Hiryu, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
CV Hiyo
CV Junyo
CV Kaga, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CVL Ryuho
CV Soryu, Bomb hits 1
CV Shokaku, Bomb hits 1, Bomb hits 1 on fire
CVE Unyo, Torpedo hits 1 Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CV Zuikaku


All the bomb hits are 1,000 LB GP bombs, the two TFs were seperated by less than 120 miles. As usual nothing sinks on the Japanese side even though I did manage to hit some. I am hopeing Hiryu will go down soon and with luck one of the burning CVs may not make it home either.


The Japanese counter strike focus on 3 ships, the Hornet, the Yorktown and the North Carolina. North Carolina takes 5 torpedoes and 3 bomb, rolls over, and sinks. Yorktown takes 5 bombs and 6 torpedos, for her sister takes six bombs and five torpedos in a result so symmetrical you would think its planned and they both roll over and sink.

The Japanese try to hit Saratoga but they only have 4 escorts and they are repulsed with a bloody nose.

Over 100 Wildcats are shot down in the battles along with 70 dauntlesses and over 20 Avengers.

I have to admit that I was looking forward to a better result than this. The Allied CVs were fresh and seem to have struck first, the Japanese attacks came in the afternoon, most of the Allied attacks came in the morning phase but they did not seem to stop the Japanese. Also the Japanese had been in action for 3 days including both offensive strikes and some CAP Vs LBA fighting the day before.

On the other hand the Japanese took a lot of attrition. Its still possible that more than one of their CVs will sink in the next few days. They lost 78 zeros in the air and almost all of them were shot down over the American CVs so those pilots are gone. They also lost 50 Vals and 40 Kates. If the combat report is accurate then KB lost some teeth today.

That is important because Blackwatch cannot get air superiority over my LBA with his airforce any more. He was able to turn the tide at Timor for a while by throwing in a big raid by KB but the allies actually reactivated their airbases over time and the losses at Timor continue to be horrendous.

Total plane losses today were 291 Allied and 248 Japanese. The Japanese lost 89 planes the day before to 137 Allied but the day before that it was something closeer to 40 Japanese and 30 Allied. The only time the air losses run in Blackwatch's favor is when the CV air groups come into action. While there are several that will never come into action the same way again and that is a damn good thing for me.

Outside the Coral Sea action remains hot in a number of places.

Timor saw the usual air battles and bombing efforts on both sides. Plenty of attrition here. Blackwatch brought a second big bomber group to Kendari and the Japanese have used the two big bomber formations to shut Koepang again. Lautem is a little beat up after a big raid but its still fighting. We just spotted a Japanese bombardment force coming towards Lautem Blackwatch may try again to shut it down.

In China I had troops shock attack a Japanese divison at the Homan rail junction. My combat replay showed a Japanese defeat but the Combat Report Blackwatch sends me shows a Japanese victory. Which ever it is there is fighting going on there.

The Chinese have put an army on the rail line between Kaifeng and Changsha, and have also put an army on the rail line between Yenen and Chengting. That means the 170,000 Japanese in Yenen are cut off from supply at the moment.

In Malaya the British capture Alor Star and they also bomb Kuantan again:

Allied aircraft
Beaufort I x 15
Beaufort V-IX x 27
B-26B Marauder x 41

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 11 destroyed, 8 damaged
Ki-27 Nate: 25 destroyed, 25 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged
G3M Nell: 2 destroyed, 4 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 7 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-48 Lily: 4 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-54 Hickory: 1 destroyed


Japanese ground losses:
75 casualties reported

Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 49

The British presence in Malaya continues its rapid expansion and there is still no serious effort by Japan to stop the invasion.

[Tom Hunter]

The Japanese head East while the US heads West. Except for one group of cruisers that head East with the Japanese and get sunk in spite of orders to the contrary.

There is one Japanese CV limping along alone and then two large groups moving at different speeds. I suspect Hiryu is doing the limping but it might be the CVL Unyo. I am doing some serious hoping that some Japanese CVs will show up on the sunk list in the next few days, otherwise I just lost some important ships without much to show for it.

At Timor the Japanese have momentarily closed both airfields. This is cause for some concern but I don't think he can keep them shut. 37,000 Japanese just launched a deliberate attack on Koepang taking the fort down one level but only getting 0 to 1 odds on the 17,000 defenders. Allied casualties were 261, Japanese were 137.

In Malaya the British sent two bombardment groups to hit Malacca and then assaulted the place, it fell quickly:

Ground combat at Malacca

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 13252 troops, 119 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 5119 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 36 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Malacca base !!!


Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-51 Sonia: 4 destroyed

Japanese ground losses:
89 casualties reported

Allied ground losses: 8

The British are pushing towards Singapore as fast as they can travel. Large Japanese convoys have been seen heading to Kuantan, and a force of BBs was spotted coming towards Singapore from the direction of Borneo.

[Blackwatch_it]

On September 4 scouting Emilies report a strong naval group composed of several TFs with CVs, BBs, CAs etc is organizing SW of Gili. With the combat TFs there are also some transport groups.
It seems that Tom is going for some kind of attack.
KB is refitting after the good work in Timor area and not yet at full strenght again. It's big risk, but I can't allow this force to reach its target indisputed.
The CVs and escorts form in two TFs under Admirals Yamaguchi and Abe. A surface combat follows.
On September 5 most of the American ships are SW of Gili probably unaware of KB located SW of Rabaul.
On September 6 the Allied TFs are west of Gili. Kb is SE of Gili still unspotted.
On September 7 KB is west of Louisiade Arch. Most of the Aliied TFs are NW of Gili. One TF is a little back of the others, about west of KB. It shows to be a replenishment TF and is a good target for the Japanese planes:

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

All of the three ships sank after the attack.

Now it's plain that Gili is not Tom target. Maybe he is going for PM.

[Blackwatch_it]

September 8, KB is Sw of Gili while the American TFs are scattered from PM to Thursday. The main force is quite close, but under heavy clouds.
So Tom is not thinking about an invasion at PM, but is going to counterattack at Timor...
The first attack is form Cooktown, but is not a problem for KB:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 82

Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 3
B-17E Fortress x 6

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 14 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Tomahawk: 5 destroyed, 1 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 8 destroyed, 6 damaged

Japanese Ships
CV Junyo

same for the second:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 72

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 7

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Hudson I: 12 destroyed, 2 damaged

Time to launch the strike now. It flies to a TF near Thursday, since the main force is still under clouds cover:

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

No much to do for a single CV CAP. The Wasp goes down. And no attack from the US naval planes.
Some more hits scored on Wasp escort with further attacks. Wasp goes down.
It seems too easy. Tomorrow will be a dangerous day if the weather won't keep the planes down.

[Tristanjohn]

Those 1000-pounders ought to be doing grievous damage. One of those should just about be enough to put a CVL away, or close to it. Two will absolutely cripple a CV, and with three hits it's all but lights out.

Good job! [:)]

[Tom Hunter]

Tristanjohn,

Unyo went down after B17 from Cooktown put 3 more bombs into her, Hiryu also took 3 bombs from the B17s.

Either fog of war exaggerated the effectiveness of my attacks or Blackwatch got lucky I am not sure which. Hiyru and Unyo were the only ships retreating slowly from the battle, all the others moved off at a good clip. So it looks as if I traded 3 US CVs for the Unyo. I had expected to do a bit better than that but so it goes some times.

Malaya continues to go well, the British just pounded a couple of Japanese relief convoys sailing into Kuantan and they are on thier way to Johore Baru, Songkahia in Thailand also fell to the Brits today.

China is getting interesting again, I will post a map and update on it tomorrow.

[Tom Hunter]

Timor continues to maintain its role as the bleeding ulcer of the Pacific. Japanese bombing of Koepang was prevented by bad weather on the 12th and the Allied engineers fixed up the base enough to justify flying in some fighters.

Japanese aircraft
Ki-27 Nate x 11
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 38
Ki-48 Lily x 34

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 9
P-39D Airacobra x 7
P-40E Warhawk x 12

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-27 Nate: 2 destroyed
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 19 destroyed
Ki-48 Lily: 7 destroyed, 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 5 destroyed, 1 damaged
P-39D Airacobra: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 2 damaged
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed

Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 35

There was a 3 round naval battle between a force of PT boats and a Japanese force of Cruisers and DDs. 5 PTs went down and one DD was set on fire but the main effect was that the Japanese shore bombardment mission failed to damage the airfield at all.

A Japanese deliberate attack reduced the fortifications to level 2 but only got 0 to 1 odds. So the Garrison continues to hold out.





In Malaya Allied forces reach Kuantan, the Japanese got some reinforcements in so there may be a significant battle there. Japanese troops retreated to Johore Baru and British troops are following up fast.

Off the coast Allied forces launched major airstrikes at the Japanese shipping that has been trying to reach Malaya. Here are the hits that came in from various strikes, none of these TFs had any CAP or warships so losses were minimal on the Allied side:

Japanese Ships
AP Sunten Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
Japanese Ships
AP Sunten Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage (you think it would sink by now)
AP Surabaya Maru, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
Japanese Ships
AP Sakido Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
Japanese Ships
AP Kaedesan Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AP Tatsuta Maru
AP Hie Maru, Torpedo hits 1
AP Keizan Maru
AP Syoryu Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Yamakuni Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
Japanese Ships
AP Hie Maru, Bomb hits 1
AP Yamakuni Maru, on fire
AP Yamakuni Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Hakuyo Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Buyo Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Katori Maru, Torpedo hits 3, on fire
Japanese Ships
AP Yamakuni Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Hakuyo Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Buyo Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Katori Maru, Torpedo hits 3, on fire (but no heavy damage?)

Hopefully this will intterupt Blackwatch's efforts to get a big Japanese army into Malaya in time to save the day.

[String]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

String you must have been able to maintain high pilot quality to shoot down that many bombers.

I have fought back hard from the beginning and one of the effects of that is that Blackwatch does not have many squadrons left that have really good 85+ quality pilots.

During September Blackwatch lost over 130 very high quality Zero pilots. Even though he is hurting me a lot his long term ability to do so is fading away.

I don't have any 80+ fighter squadrons (except on carriers) left either, most are diluted with 30-40exp replacements.

[Tom Hunter]

So relatively low quality Tojo pilots massacred the B24s? Did you have altitude on them? It just seems like a harsh result if there is not some factor, be it pilot quality, superior altitude or something else that made the high B24 loss rate happen.

I find it hard to believe that bad pilots coming from lower altitude could get those results but maybe you just got lucky.

[String]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

So relatively low quality Tojo pilots massacred the B24s? Did you have altitude on them? It just seems like a harsh result if there is not some factor, be it pilot quality, superior altitude or something else that made the high B24 loss rate happen.

I find it hard to believe that bad pilots coming from lower altitude could get those results but maybe you just got lucky.

The altitude was approx right, and remember that the tojo has the best climb rate of all japanese planes. Average pilot quality was 70 or so..

[Tom Hunter]

The Swamp remains an active theater with moves on both sides.





A Chinese army that started at Homan has established a position blocking Japanese supply to Yenen. The Japanese moved an army to the rail Junction to cut this force off from Homan and the Chinese moved a smaller army in to contest. The Japanese defeated some early Chinese shock attacks and are now winning a bombardment battle in the hex.

A small Chinese army has gone on a deep raid into Anking. On the 14th they inflicted 300 casualties on the Japanese with a deliberate attack at 4 to 1 odds, one the 15th the odds dropped to 1 to 1 and casualties to 73 for Japane and a few more for China.

The Japanese army that fled interior China is resting at Changsha, and the Chinese army that followed it is sitting on the rail hex just West of the city.

So its a war of movement with both sides looking to discomfort the other. Casualties have been much more equal recently but I have no complaints the Japanese are still bleeding and there are always more Chinese.


Elsewhere on the 15th PT boats returned to Koepang and sunk a MSW my first PT victory of the entire war.

The Japanese hit Koepang with the big airgroup in Kendari that flies 150 plans and probabley shut it down again, on the other hand they did not bomb Lautem so maybe it will start to recover. They also attacked from Maumere, that group is smaller and allied CAP took a chunk out of it and limited the effectiveness of its attack.

There was a series of air to air battles over an Allied convoy near Port Moresby with the Japanese getting the worst of it from long range CAP flying out of Cooktown and Thursday Island:

Japanese aircraft
D3A Val x 8
B5N Kate x 7

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 10
P-39D Airacobra x 35
P-40B Tomahawk x 11
P-40E Warhawk x 13

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val: 1 damaged
B5N Kate: 8 destroyed

Japanese aircraft
D3A Val x 8
B5N Kate x 3
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 18

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 6
P-39D Airacobra x 34
P-40B Tomahawk x 7
P-40E Warhawk x 9

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val: 2 damaged
B5N Kate: 4 destroyed


Allied Ships
CVE Long Island

Not very many casualties on either side and the Japanese did not score any hits at all. On the downside this means that Port Moresby is back open for business after I worked very hard to shut it down before the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Malaya continues to be a British playground. The Japanese merchant shipping that was heading West to reinforce Kuantan is now running East to escape the Royal Navy and the massive airstrikes that LBA was launching on them. Hits on Japanese merchants went down on the 15 but that is mostly because the Japanese have been retreating, either horzontally (thier preffered method) or vertically (mine).

On the 14th the British bombarded Kuantan and sunk an AK that had not run fast enough, on the 15th Warspite and Valiant bombarded Johore Baru, then it was hit by airstrikes and then the infantry went in:

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 14660 troops, 168 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 3242 troops, 10 guns, 0 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 14 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Johore Bahru base !!!


Japanese ground losses:
111 casualties reported
Guns lost 3

Allied ground losses:
25 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Can Singapore be next? The Royal Navy, RAF and various American and Dutch air units are all working very hard to make sure that nothing gets into or out of the city so it may fall quickly we will see.

Back at Koepang the Japanese launched a second turn of shock attacks.
Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 54641 troops, 489 guns, 260 vehicles

Defending force 15947 troops, 84 guns, 3 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)


Japanese ground losses:
212 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Vehicles lost 3

Allied ground losses:
181 casualties reported
Guns lost 3

They seem to be running out of steam, this is the first turn the Australians have inflicted more casualties than they have taken. Japan badly needs the troops at Koepang in other places and I am sure Blackwatch would like to see it fall soon.

[Grotius]

Interesting that the Brits have invaded Malaya in late 1942. I take it Blackwatch had not yet taken Sumatra and thus didn't have search planes there to give early warning of the British invasion?

This game could have some of the same effect as the PzB-Wobbly game: just as every Allied player now worries about India, now every Japanese player will worry about Sumatra and Malaya.

[Tom Hunter]

Its true that Blackwatch had not taken Bankha, Medan, Kuala or Sabang. He has been gradually knocking off the small garissons in the NEI, in the month before the British invaded he took South Sumatra and Benjamasin, and just a couple of days ago he took Wewak on the North Coast of New Guinea.

I am sure those 4 were on his list but he did not get them soon enough.

I am waiting for people to start posting about the incredible power of the British army in India and the ass kicking Royal Navy that have unbalanced the game. That would be too funny.

Beware the fearsome Stringbag

[Tom Hunter]

oops, that was my lunch





This is the last thing a Japanese captain sees before his ship sinks.

These are the key weapon in the most powerful offensive I have ever launched, I don't know if I should laugh or cry.