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5/13/1942

Bloodbath!  As usual, for me.  [8|]  33 Allied losses for 5 Japanese.

* Did a daylight raid on Tavoy from Magwe, hoping to coordinate with a naval air attack launched from Rangoon.  Well, the attack on the shipping never materialised but 20 B17s and 30 Wellingtons hit Tavoy in daylight hours and were, again, shot up very badly, taking about eight casualties. Yet again, and even more galling for me, is the fact that forty bombers with pretty hefty bombloads compared to the Japs gets over the target and does precisely bugger all, 2 runway hits. 
Mines laid a hex from Colombo, he's trying to be sneaky but the minefield was picked up by a couple of DDs.  MSW has been dispatched.

* But in Luganville my earlier optimism has been replaced by worry.  24 P38s hit 40 Zeroes over Luganville as my Mitchells went to hit him, but the P38s were absolutely wiped out, not managing even one kill and losing 8 of their number (and a couple more in ops losses as they struggled to get home).  The Mitchells also suffered very badly, and yet again managed to score basically zero damage to the airfield.  There are not enough Allied P38s to challenge Luganville after all, it seems.

* To add insult to injury an Allied AP carrying engineers was torpedoed off Noumea.  Damage seems to be fairly light though so it'll make Noumea happily enough.

A picture speaks a thousand words.

Also, 20 Allied aircraft destroyed on the ground at Rangoon. It doesn't matter how many fighters are concentrated (5 squadrons at Rangoon!), they are simply helpless when the Jap hammer starts waving.

Oh - the B25s sortied twice and scored a single hit, a 500lb on a CA which did not penetrate.  3 were lost, given there were about 60 sorties I figure that is, sort of, acceptable. 

Its been a quiet few days but I'm getting edgy. Recon suggests there are of the order of 100 Japanese ships at Luganville. Including the entire KB as best I can tell.

My airforce at Noumea is recovered now, but I'm not getting too offensive with them, there are 50 Zeroes on CAP over Luganville and past experience suggests any attempt to pierce it will prove costly - and there may be a huge offensive soon.

Reinforcements on their way, 2 CVs, a BB, there is another division at Suva which I'm going to send to Noumea...

Question is - can Noumea hold?

Question is - can Noumea hold?

If I was your opponent, I would make an invasion at Koumac rather than any other base on the island. A small garrison with CD gun support at Koumac could make that kind of operation more difficult.

I don't see any mines at New Caledonia. Do you still have your minelayer subs?

ORIGINAL: pionkki

Question is - can Noumea hold?

If I was your opponent, I would make an invasion at Koumac rather than any other base on the island. A small garrison with CD gun support at Koumac could make that kind of operation more difficult.

I don't see any mines at New Caledonia. Do you still have your minelayer subs?

I've assumed he will land at Koumac as well. There are no CD units anywhere on New Caledonia though so theres nothing I can do about it. Koumac is a bad port and within Beaufort range of Noumea, so there'll still be an almighty air battle to decide the fate of New Caledonia.
There are CD units on their way but they are a ways out atm, when they land I may well change my defensive plans.

I'm pinning my hopes on a campaign more akin to conventional land combat, ie a straight clash of fort levels and assault points. A second division will be landing at Noumea by the weeks end, meaning there'll be 900 AV there pretty much, and I anticipate forts of level 4 at a minimum before the assault begins. I'm thinking/hoping/praying he will find that hard to dislodge. He has 30 units in Australia now, and he assaulted PM with 2 and a half divisions. I think he'd need four divisions at a minimum to take a reinforced Noumea without a long Singapore-like siege, and I dont think he has that many.

He'll have to do it quickly too, if Noumea is still up and runnnig when B24Ds arrive in large numbers, I think he'll have some major issues keeping an airbase at Luganville operational without serious loss.

And there are no mines as the Allied minelaying force was virtually wiped out in the opening month.  In particular I have only one ML on the whole map, and its in the Indian Ocean atm.  Ceylon is very heavily mined, but aside from a scattering in CENTPAC laid by DM there arent enough mines for them to really feature in the Allied defence.

Argonaut is in theatre but till now has been focused on offensive mining.   There are, however, some DMs en route, and an MLE too, but the MLE wont arrive for at least a month and a half.  Even when they do arrive the minefields will be very small, and far from decisive if past experience with them means anything. 5000 mines = slaughter, but 1000 mines - way more than I could realistically lay anyway - will just score a couple of kills.

Another mostly quiet day.

Akagi confirmed at Noumea, but thats pretty much assumed.  66 Zero CAP over Luganville but I would assume that includes his carriers, hard to tell how many land based fighters he has there.

A night raid by Allied bombers on Luganville scores the first kill by night bombing so far - one Dinah.  I should have left them on naval attack though as a Japanese convoy strays within five hexes of Noumea, on a southeasterly course, and is attacked by RAAF Beauforts escorted by P-40Es.  They are dropping bombs from 12k feet though so no hits - shame that this is the one day the Mitchells were not ready to pounce.

I've rejiggled Noumea slightly to adopt a more defensive pose.  The 16 B17Ds are out, moved to Fiji, and are replaced by 24 USMC Buffaloes, which upon arrival are promptly upgraded to F4F Wildcats - a bit of a risk as it'll be a couple of days to uncrate, but unless his timing is impeccable (he has a tendency to be admittedly) that shouldn't be too bad.  This will mean Noumea's defences are

Fighters
1 P40E squadron
1 P40B squadron
1 P38F squadron
1 F4F Wildcat squadron

Fighter-bombers
1 Airacobra squadron

Level bombers
1 Beaufort V-IX squadron
3 Mitchell squadrons

Recon
1 F5 squadron

All squadrons are at or very nearly at T&OE.

La Foe now has a small (L1) airfield which houses a Catalina squadron and a Dauntless squadron - this is to avoid running up against the 50 x airfield level limit our house rules set, Noumea has 200 aircraft and so is up against that limit.

I'm pondering swapping out the Airacobras for more Mitchells, but they may earn their keep strafing transports with the big gun.

In 26 days 48 B-24Ds arrive.  He will want to take Noumea long before this date...

5/22/1942

BURMA/INDIA
Night bombing of Tavoy continues, ineffective as ever. A fourth British aircraft carrier (if we count Hermes as one!) is now ready and waiting at Colombo. My shattered Dutch air units are being grouped at Ledo, as I've decided to fly them to China - in a months time they can upgrade to Mitchells and give the ROCAF much needed punch.
My units at Port Blair have now been sitting in the malaria zone for six months and are in need of rotation. A tricky operation indeed, but I'm gonna try it, some cruisers have been dispatched to pick up Rangoon Force, now suffering badly, and take it to Trimcomalee.

The precious convoy carrying 6th AIF Division is now somewhat past the half way point in the trip to Aus, with the two CVs in attendance still. This second attempt to break through without him seeing anything has so far gone without a hitch. An AK is serving as a picket ship near Exmouth so I'm confident that western Australia is safe for now.

CHINA
A bold move by me, the AVG and bombers have been moved up to Wuchow, within strike range of Japanese coastal shipping. Have to see what happens there.

SRA
Some Allied submarine activity. O16, off Palembang, torpedoes ML Hirashima for heavy damage - good hit! USS Finback, which is SE of Balikpapan, keeps getting a lot of traffic but has a fairly timid commander, there are no attacks.

Australia
Yesterday he moved his armour to Tennant Creek. It was promptly heavily bombed and he lost seven tanks in a day. He hastily pulled back - a glitch? There are about fifty bombers ordered to hit his stack outside T.C but for some reason they never fly, its been that way ever since he moved them there. [&:] Too many AA guns makes them scared?
8 Mohawks were shot down over Tennant Creek by a Zero sweep.
Recon over Darwin indicates a huge Japanese merchant fleet - shame its very safe there, tucked away between lots of level 4 Jap airfields and out of range of Allied bombers on Australia itself.

SOPAC
As usual lately this is the hot spot.
2 Jap AMCs, the ones I've been chasing from Perth, find a TK convoy escorted by two Benson class destroyers, Gwin and Meredith. One TK is badly damaged as the fuel cargo burns, and one slightly damaged, the badly damaged one is diverted to Auckland and will probably make it short of more intervention. DD Gwin was hit very hard and is also headed for Auckland but will probably not make it.
The USS Indianapolis, which has been hunting those AMCs, was one hex away! I'm more worried about a convoy carrying a US Division some way to the east, so I've ordered Indianapolis to head over there and join the escort.

There seems to be some sort of standoff at Noumea itself. A Japanese fleet is parked five hexes away, and refuses to move. A big fleet, with AKs, BBs and CVs all confirmed. USS Triton torpedoed an AK today, I have a tight rein on my aircraft at Noumea (range set to 4 so the Mitchells wont get ahead of the Dauntlesses/Beauforts) so there is, shall we say, a pregnant silence.
6 F4Fs are now uncrated, so I kinda like this delay it has to be said.

USS Hornet is now between Pago Pago and Suva. One CV isnt going to challenge this Japanese might, but I might profitably hunt down those AMCs with her. Two more CVs are on the way.

Been away for a whyle.
Hot battle here for new calédonia....it must be hard to make effort and to have so few results, but i find you act well. Good luck and good fun.

5/23/1942

Well, got the answer as to the likelihood of Noumea holding or not.

...the answer is... no.

He did the CAP trap thing, moving up with everything focused on defence, 160 Zeroes on CAP. Noumea sallied forth, with pretty much everything, max effort.

In the air, the woeful results which show just how utterly outclassed the Allies are even in May 1942 are...

Air Losses

25 Mitchells
18 P38Fs [X(]
15 P40Es
15 P40Bs
10 Airacobras
5 Wildcats
4 Beauforts

12 Zeroes


About 40-50 sorties worth of bombers (about 6 of which were Beauforts) made runs against his CVs, mostly Soryu, but as per usual no hits were scored.

[X(][X(][X(]

I'm more than a little bit miffed about the kill ratios approaching 10 to 1, or the almost 100% losses among the Allied fighter crews. I was kinda hoping CHS would help, but I guess not, it still seems more like the Earth-Minbari War than WW2 to me. But I'm even more miffed, if its possible, about how yet another 50 bombing runs against Japanese flat tops didnt score a single hit, that makes it about 200-250 odd sorties against Jap carriers and not a single hit so far in the war.


Noumea has gone from 200 to 62 aircraft in a day, and he's not even started bombing yet, so the pain has only just begun.
Still going to have to ponder what to do here, but for now, I'm pulling the BBs out of Noumea - theres not much point them staying now, its not like a Jap bombardment will do more than make the rubble bounce. They will remain on station and maybe return later on.



In other news USS Triton torpedoed an AK again with dud torpedoes but was then heavily attacked by every APD in the IJN, and is very badly damaged - a shame because Triton has quite a high experience crew now (65). She's headed for the dubious sanctuary of Noumea.
A bit further south the damaged TK was sure enough torpedoed en route to Auckland, and will almost certainly be lost.
In the Java Sea O16 takes on a Jap ASW TF and hits a DD for heavy damage, not bad.

In Burma new tactics are being tried out, as night bombing is proving less than effective, with zero damage inflicted in a month of trying. I've ordered my B17s, of which I have about 40, to do some high level (35k feet) bombing which should be higher than his CAP can reach. The Wimpeys unfortunately have a low ceiling and so are sticking to night bombing.

The two BBs legged it from Noumea given their CAP was gone, but were caught four hexes southwest, as he was clearly after them with his carriers. All sunk. For some reason the pre-dreadnought George Averoff was not attacked again - I do have more BBs almost at Suva but with four down its looking like hard times ahead as far as Allied BB availability goes.

Some scattered attacks on the rest of Noumea's shipping - mostly MSWs sunk, so not too bad aside from the BBs. No attacks on the airfield yet to my surprise, I imagine the bombardments will begin tomorrow.

Morale at Allied HQ was pretty low but has improved somewhat. Kills against KB aircraft were up today as his attacks on my MSWs were often unescorted - Airacobras proved quite adequate to the task of shooting down unescorted bombers. Thus far the kill ratio for fighter aircraft in air-to-air is also 5:1 - definitely not good but not beyond the bounds of reason I suppose. AA guns at Noumea will exact more toll should he press on.

Also I dont think I'll need to be quite so passive in the next few weeks. Allied carriers are forming up at Suva, I will have two there soon, three in a week or so. When I have three its time to start tail-tweaking. His supply line to Noumea is getting quite long, and not particularly well defended.

5/25/1942

Battles rage on around Noumea.

He has made his landing - at La Foa, one hex from Noumea itself. Size as yet unknown but as he took 2000 casualties just landing, there must be a lot of troops. The base force at La Foa has been ordered to Noumea, I dont want it going the other way...

To my own surprise the landing was contested. He bombarded Noumea with five battleships in the night - as expected. But damage was neglible and the airfield untouched. In the morning Allied bombers flew and despite the many targets on offer chose the right one - his landing, which had a light Zero CAP. The half dozen Allied fighters fixed in the night were slaughtered but did let the bombers get through, and the Beauforts earned their keep by torpedoing an AK twice. No casualties so I assume it was carrying supplies.

Norfolk Island has an AVD "garrison", and now I've added a smidgen of aviation support via C-47 to it. The P40Bs - down to 2 aircraft - are being evacuated to New Zealand via Norfolk. A useful little chunk of land, it should let me get my fighters out. I also evacuated a Mitchell squadron because their morale was down to 11. The rest have been ordered to fly, with no CAP over the island at all - he seems wary of AA fire.

At Suva Yorktown and Saratoga have been sortied, I want to raid Luganville. There is a lot of Jap shipping there, all his carriers are some distance away at Noumea, and its only a level 3 airfield so lacks its own punch.

Noumea itself has fortifications at 4, 66% to level 5, and 600 AV. ...I don't think it'll be enough. [:(] The other division earmarked for Noumea is currently unloading at Auckland, given it would be suicide to try and land on New Caledonia now.

We're still locked in battle at Noumea...

5/28/1942

Good day for the Allies all round. In fact across the whole Pacific theatre ass was kicked, makes a change.

BURMA/INDIA
50 Wellingtons from Mandalay and 50 B17 Fortresses from Magwe hit the resources at Hanoi in daylight raids. There is a single Oscar squadron there, it is brushed aside without loss. The Wimpeys dish out 10 resources hits and the B17s manage 13. 23 resources hits in a single days bombing, I rate that greatly. Maybe get him to start worrying about Allied control of Burma.

CHINA
Even the ROCAF did alright today. I moved the bulk of the aggressive arm of the ROCAF from Kwelin to Wuchow. He bombed the tar out of Kweilin today so, good move. At Wuchow they then hit airfields at Hong Kong, a single Oscar was hit on the ground without loss.

Australia
All quiet. Still 30 odd Japanese units on the Australian mainland, makes me suspicious as to plans here.

SOPAC
Most of the action was here, of course.
Bad news first. USS Gilmer was torpedoed between Norfolk Island and Auckland, she almost certainly won't make it. Thats about the only bad news, though.
Seeing the anchor symbol at Noumea he scrambled carrier air to hit the port - just a squadron each of Kates/Vals/Zeroes. AE Lassen was hit by an 800kg bomb - Lassen is stranded at Noumea anyway so this isnt really a worry. 3 Vals were shot down and 9 damaged, and 10 Kates damaged, by Noumea's AA defences, so I actually consider that tussle to be pretty much a draw.
There was no CAP over Noumea, I dont want to be trashed by his uberZeroes, so the fighters were all sent to escort. A rag bag of whatever Noumea could put up - 14 fighters, 3 Beauforts, 14 Dauntlesses, 21 Mitchells - hit the Jap landing at La Foa, another AK was bombed heavily and an AP hit a little. 4 army Zeroes were shot down in the air which is promising, only 2 Wildcats were lost in the tussle. I find that very promising.
Star of the show is USS Indianapolis though. To my great surprise he's invaded Norfolk Island, which is essentially unguarded. Indianapolis was dispatched a couple of days ago though soon as I saw trouble incoming - I expected only a raid but found a lot more. In any case, there was a daytime surface action at Norfolk Island in which Indianapolis surprised a Jap SAG of two light cruisers and two destroyers. In the light of day the Allied heavy cruiser had the cards, and Indianpolis emptied her magazines into the hapless Japs at 15,000 yards without being hit herself, though she did have to dodge a zillion torpedo salvoes so it wasnt risk free. The destroyer Kawakaze was sunk, light cruiser Kitakami was hit hard and left on heavy damage by repeated 8" hits. the DD Akebono was hit by a couple of 3" shells, and the CL Abukuma was hit by at least two 8" shells though not for heavy damage. All the Japs were left either sunk or burning and Indianapolis survived with only minimal damage, the runty Jap light cruiser armament being totally ineffective against Indianapolis' armour.

4-6 was the total air to air score across the entire theatre today, hence the slight mixup with the text and the image above.  Over La Foa my tired, low morale fighter pilots, equipped with the usual P40Es mostly, who have been on the receiving end of the Jap hammer for days now and seen half of their friends wiped out, actually came out on top of an equal number of Zeroes in fighter-fighter kills.  First time ever I think.

I broke out Fighting Steel for a laugh to see Indianapolis in action.

Got hit by a torpedo but did toast both CLs, not sure if thats better or worse!

Quiet across the map - except for the ongoing fight for New Caledonia of course.

Crap luck yet again, a good 50-75 Devastator sorties that penetrated CAP today didn't score a single torpedo hit. Dauntlesses did better but as the target was a battleship, Hiei, they didn't do much good. A few stray bombs hit a Jap heavy cruiser to better effect.

Surprisingly USS Phoenix and her four DD battlegroup (Grayson, Monssen, Selfridge, Phelps) dished out more hurting than the two Yorktown-class carriers. They found a destroyer, a minesweeper and an AK sitting at Luganville and in a night engagement torched the lot. Surprisingly Phoenix barely fired, the heavier-than-normal armament of the modern US destroyers did the deed.

The Noumea units were CAP trapped and a huge number of bombers shot down. This caused me to retire pretty much the entire bomber force to Suva, where they will R&R. Some bombers have trickled back in to Noumea, and fairly soon there'll be 24 fresh P38s ready to go as well.

The airstrip at Nandi, when its up to level 4 at least, will enable me to bomb Efate and Luganville with B24 Liberators, when they turn up. MmMMmMmmmmmm I want that. ENgineers have begun work.

Two old British light cruisers + DDs are caning it towards Norfolk Island from Sydney looking to do damage. Norfolk fell to him today, a single Japanese Bde was used. The very bad port though suggests his ships may linger to fully unload, and while the ancient Brit cruisers are not exactly the best hardware their crews are very good indeed, so I hope for some results regardless. ETA 2 days.

Forgot the pic!

Just take care of the japs subs near your CV (i had bad memories about CV Saratoga torpedoed...). May be a single Devastator squadron on ASW duty , as they are less usefull as the dauntless ??
And if i was you, i would send my CV north...so if KB show near luganville, it would not reach your CV in just one day, and give you a little warning time ? Just advice.

Fine AAR [:)]