PzB vs Wobbly - Clash of Steel

[PzB74]

Interesting options...but I'm afraid I got bad news! The KB moved past Midway and the carrier
Unryu was spotted by a Liberator [:(] It could have come from the Aleutians - only 12 hexes from the
nearest base (14 from Midway). Guess I should have kept one hex further south as the replenishment group
managed to a squeeze through without being spotted.

So I had to make a difficult decision: continue the mission despite of the sighting or abort.

I don't think it'll be possible to take Andy by surprise, so I ordered to abort. Perhaps the operation can be
repeated in a month or so!? Anyway, the spy subs will carry out the operation and try to convince Andy that my
carriers are still coming [;)]

I really can't afford to loose that many of my carriers, so any port strike against a large base is almost out of
the question. Send in a search plane and Andy can move 500 ac into the place in no time.

There will be more opportunities - we have to be patient!

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/08/43

Air Combat

The Chinese AF refuse to lie down and die...another attack on Chungking destroyed some
20 odd planes on the ground including 5 Hudsons.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Chungking , at 43,32

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 37
Ki-21 Sally x 68
Ki-48 Lily x 33
Ki-49 Helen x 26
Ki-46-III Dinah x 5

Allied aircraft
I-153c x 1
I-16c x 1

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
I-153c: 3 destroyed
I-16c: 1 destroyed
Hudson I: 3 destroyed
SB-2c: 6 destroyed
IL-4c: 1 destroyed


Allied ground losses:
91 casualties reported

Airbase hits 17
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 68
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emirau is getting more heat....not trying to intercept the sweeps and raids for the time being!

Day Air attack on Emirau Island , at 60,84

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 45

No Allied losses
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Emirau Island , at 60,84

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
B-25J Mitchell x 44
B-17E Fortress x 21

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-61 KAIc Tony: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-25J Mitchell: 6 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 4 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
206 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 7
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 38
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Tom Hunter]

The Allies had a much larger fleet in that game.

[Arstavidios]

Well with the KB sighted there won't be many targets left. Attacing a port is likely to cost you a lot of aircraft for little gain. However the presence of the KB will disrupt his shipping in the area for a while.

[Nomad]

You didn't really thk I would leave that door open did you John? I had lots of B-24 flying Naval Search up there and a number of subs. [:D] Knowing how tricky you can be, I tried to make it expensive if you tried.

[PzB74]

My large tanker replenishment fleet got through,...with 13 hexes of ocean on each side of a TF there is always a good chance of punching through.
Didn't expect it to be easy, but it was worth a try. May I'll come back with a smaller TF to throw Andy of guard a bit later [;)]

Still a bit uncertain about hitting enemy ports - will continue to wait for openings.

[PzB74]

Lots of air attacks in the South Pacific, otherwise quiet!

I've begun to move some ships from Truk to Ulithi - our backup fleet port. With some AR, AD and AS ships the size 8 port
should be quite useful. The plan is to have light fleet units, subs and transports at Truk for as long as possible while the KB
and battlefleet is stationed at Ulithi.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/09/43

Sub/ASW Attacks

A sub was spotted by the carrier escort! This was west of yesterdays spotting.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack at 95,48

Japanese Ships
DD Naganami
DD Teruzuki
DD Akizuki
CL Noshiro

Allied Ships
SS Barb

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Air Combat

These are the kind of attacks that will pave the way for Andy's 8 man broom stick squads [8|]

Day Air attack on Emirau Island , at 60,84

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 70
B-24D Liberator x 177

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-46-III Dinah: 2 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 16 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 2 destroyed, 21 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
492 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 23
Airbase supply hits 14
Runway hits 324
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A dozen barges were sunk today, only 2 carried troops. Evacuees from
New Britain.

Day Air attack on TF at 59,86

Allied aircraft
P-47C Thunderbolt x 12

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AG AG-368, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AG AG-2064, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

Japanese ground losses:
177 casualties reported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8 bombers were lost in this attack for little gain!

Day Air attack on TF, near Makin at 85,89

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 13

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 17

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 6 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 3 damaged

Allied Ships
AK Ephraim W. Baughman

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Rainerle]

HI,
are you going to recon at the WC anyway ?
pro: he might think you're still advancing and it satisfies our curiosity [:D]

contra: it might disrupt any future plans to do so [:(]

[PzB74]

Yep, 3 boats will scout the West Coast while another one checks out PH! Will keep Andy on his toes
and provide usefull intel I hope.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/10/43

Another 8 barges sunk by fighter bombers and PT boats... Emirau and Kavieng
still under heavy air attack, otherwise quiet.

I've been trying to decide whether Truk can be defended - and I think it can! 6 hexes to the nearest base means
that his heavy bombers have to come in unescorted. Even when the Admirality and Emirau islands fall only P-38s can
reach it. So I'm going to place 400 fighters here together with ample amounts of supplies, AA and engineers. Any raid by
his cv's will have to face a heavy complement of naval bombers - and possibly the KB! [8D]

My escort carriers now have close to 150 ac and provides the nucleus of the South Western Fleet. More and more trained Zeke
and Betty bombers are being deployed in the area as well. So I'm feeling pretty safe for the time being. Another week and I can
release the 2nd Armoured Division for the Philippines. This will be the first of many major reinforcements to this theatre. Time to
get ready for McArthurs return!?-)

The heavy cruiser Chikuma on speed trials!

[Fishbed]

She is absolutely georgous... Where did you pick the photo PzB please?

[PzB74]

Think I found her doing a picture search in google... http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIJMS_Chikuma
Fishbed - from China, Mig fan? [;)]

[Fishbed]

[:)] xiexie PzB

About China, not exactly, Im rather an exiled Frenchman teaching oral french in Nanchang Faculty, while doing my memoir of contemporary history too. Due to the events of the past times in the area, Id rather be a People's Liberation Army Fanboy, as it looks like Nanchang would be even more boring without Mao and Zhou's first headquarters 60km from here [;)]

Always funny to see everywhere in the University 1940 as the date of foundation - seeing in Witp the Japanese and the Chinese starting in the same hex, i really wonder about the effectiveness in its 5 first years of activity... [8|][;)]

I follow you for 6 months already, keep up the good work chief [:D]

[PzB74]

Nice to have you with us - and thanx for reading [:)]
So how is life in the only great remaining Red Empire?

Oops...pasted a WPO report in here - forgot which forum I was in [8|]
(Started a WPO pbem game not long ago!)

[bwheatley]

jesus john i subscribe to this thread so i got emailed and i was thinking wtf is this....and once i realized wtf you were talking about i deleted it. I guess its not much of a shock your plan to take midway and then PH lol.

Just be careful i love this thread so don't mispost lol. because i'm watching.

Long live the usa.

[Fishbed]

Nice to have you with us - and thanx for reading

Completely my pleasure [:)]

About the life, not bad at all (especially now, as Ive been told that 4 years ago Nanchang still looked like a city just out from the middle-age...)
And plenty things to watch at the TV: everyday, at every moment of the day or the night, switch on the TV, you can bet you'll watch some valiant united chinese soldiers hitting hard filtyhy Japanese scum (poor japanese actors in China, they must be overbooked for the next 10 years).

BTW also found there a movie I didn't know of about at all. I don't know if you heard about it already, it is named "Aah Kaigun" and is (from what I have understand watching the movie) about several Naval airmen from the Academy to their very last moments aside Yamamoto's Betty. Too bad the planes are so badly rendered - all of them are awful scale-models very badly handled - but the atmosphere is really there [:D]

Here is what Ive found on Internet so far...
http://cdjapan.jp/detailview.html?KEY=DABY-13

Too bad also it is only in Japanese in my DVD, no english subtitle, but I believe it would easily fit in any Nihon Kaigun or Kido Butai Fanboy's videotheque [;)]

[PzB74]

I'm getting used to that my opponents are aware of all my plans [:'(]
This forum has been painfully slow over the last 24 hours or so...frantically pressed the 'cancel' button after posting the report but it didn't work!

[PzB74]

China must be a nice place to study history...! As long as you got Internet and satelite tv that is [;)]
Sounds like there's a still lot of bad feelings between Japs and Chinese - these movies can't be making things better <G>

Hm, would have liked to see the movie but without english subtitles it would be a pain!
Waiting for the 'Men Yamatos' to be released - sure they will include english subs there.

[Fishbed]

Nice place to study history... As long as you're able to understand what you read [;)]
I give myself two years before getting my hands in the mud for good - then I'll move to Beijing probably, as you can't expect to access any serious and deep contemporary history work somewhere else than in the capital city itself...

Internet will not be an issue anymore soon (well btw you still can't access one third of the foreing sites here due to the "contenue control"), but for the sattelite TV, I still can dream about this, better go on with buying DVDs (let's say their prices are quite attractive anyway, to say the least [;)] )

May I risk a question? It's a long time since you talked about the Northern Approachs - what's new there, no intention of popping some new seaplane base in the area to improve search capability, or to raid the bases there with some big guns?

[PzB74]

Learning Chinese...now there's a challenge [:'(]

Nothing to talk about in the Northern approaches [;)] Not a single spotting for many months. I've placed
as many ac and troops into my bases there as I can spare. Still building forts. A bombardment run will most
likely not achieve much. I can order some Dinah's to recon the bases there. Can always pop a few battleships
by if they find anything of interest.

Right now Andy is on guard and preparing further advances. So I'll wait until he again becomes vulnerable, then
we'll smack him in the flanks! Need 2-3 more weeks to get my upgraded and repaired cruisers and destroyers back
from Singapore and Hong Kong. Kaga down to 34 sys damage. She needs 2 upgrades as well, but she should be ready
by the end of the year.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/11/43

Surface Combat

Not sure it's such a good idea to waste torpedoes on barges..as far as I know
Andy can't rearm his PT boats unless he retire them to a size 9 port. (I've not had much
success using torpedo tender - ADs).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Talasea at 59,88

Japanese Ships
AG AG-2093, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

Allied Ships
PT PT-334
PT PT-335
PT PT-336
PT PT-339
PT PT-340
PT PT-342
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Air Combat

Kavieng and Rabaul hit today, but relatively quiet. Managed to loose 2 out of 9 Bettys with 75 exp
when I transfered them from Manila to Palau in cloudy weather...0 fatigue [:(]

Upgraded my first 27 ac unit of Vals to Judys today! Another 7 weeks and Jills will be available as well.

[Martti]

ORIGINAL: PzB

Not sure it's such a good idea to waste torpedoes on barges..as far as I know
Andy can't rearm his PT boats unless he retire them to a size 9 port. (I've not had much
success using torpedo tender - ADs).

PT boats can reload torpedoes from any size 3+ port with 3000+ supplies (other ships require port 8+). AD' help only destroyers - AGP's are PT tenders.

[PzB74]

Thx for the info Martti [:)] I meant AGPs and torpedo tenders in general. Was unaware of the port size 3 + 3000 supplies
demand for rearming PT boats in port though!

Another quiet turn...

Here is the disposition of the Escort Carrier Division:

CVE Hosho 9 Zeke
CVE Taiyp 20 Zero, 9 Kate
CVE unyo 27 Val
CVE Chuyo 18 Zeke, 9 Kate
CVE Kaiyo 9 Zero, 18 Kate
CVE Shinyo 27 Zeke, 9 Jill

CS Muzuho 19 float planes
CS Nisshin 19 float planes

6 escort carriers + 2 seaplen tenders carrying 155 ac + 38 float planes
(83 fighters, 27 dive bombers, 45 torpedo bombers)

It's a bit problematic to upgrade the unit containing 20 A6M2 Zeros as this would increase the
number of ac to 27 and force me to remove the Kates. Too bad there isn't an option that allows you to
upgrade an air units existing number of ac.

The Escort Division is a potent force that can challenge any invasion from Australia unless covered by a full
enemy carrier division.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/12/43

Sub/ASW Attacks

Sighted a sub south of Kendari and dispatched an asw groups..they found
the sub but failed to destroy it!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack at 34,74

Japanese Ships
DD Karukaya
PC Sonan Maru #6
PC Seki Maru #2
PC Kyo Maru #6
PG Shinko Maru #2
PG Muro Maru

Allied Ships
SS Sealion
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