Best Two Out of Three

[John B.]

Of the reported sinkings there, I don't believe that the Soryu went down. It was the CV a sub hit three days before the battle that prompted a withdrawal of part of his carriers. There was one reported torpedo hit with engine damage but no sinking sounds and no loss of planes. The Kaga may be true, it took three bombs and two torpedoes. Shokaku I doubt since it only took one bomb and was never reported to be on fire or even damaged. Ryuho took two torpedoes and a bomb and had an ammo storage explosion so that's another one I believe. I do think he lost three carriers but I suspect that one of them was the Hiyo that took 5 bombs, a torpedo and a fuel storage explosion.

@GetAssista, You're right, you really don't appreciate how much knowing where the carriers means until they have been off the scope for a long time. It's one advantage the allies can have in the early war, the IJN carriers are usually on the offensive so you usually know where they are.

In the past turn, I did sink a CS near Tokyo. I figured out the TF was coming back from Wake and moved subs into the path. Also, continued recon out of Wake shows IJN carrier forces limping home to the Northeast towards Marcus. They seem to be moving slowly so I've moving subs into their path (it's a long path but seems to be headed to Tokyo) at flank speed to see if I can catch them. Also, the Repulse battle might be able to pull off an interception near Marcus. It will depend if he sees me tomorrow or not.

My invasion of Nadeni (sp?) south east of Tulagi started yesterday. On the ground it should not be a problem as there are only 4 small IJA units, but Scott may be able to sneak in a surface TF or large land based air effort. I'd like to seize it quickly and get out of the hex with my ships, but these are XAPs (the good landing craft were up at Wake) so the unloading is slower and more costly. Trying to keep the pressure on at every location. I'm also going to put the 3rd marine division into Port Moresby to go after Buna in an overland attack.

China is china and pushing in Burma.

[BBfanboy]

Your two combat reports show no bombs hit Shokaku and Akagi took two bombs for "Heavy Fires" in the first combat but had them down to just "On Fire" in the second combat, so both of those carriers are probably able to operate aircraft. If he kept them in the area to protect the cripples, BC Repulse will have a hard time pulling off a night intercept and withdrawal out of range afterward. Might not be worth it.

You covered the air combat in your analysis but what prompted my question about which carriers sank was SS Snapper's success in torpedoing two carriers afterward. Those torpedo hits and extra secondary damage reported are important to analysing what is on the Intel Screen. Can you post those reports or just tell us which CVs and what extra damage messages there were?

I would not rule out the "Soryu" sinking in the Intel Screen - the Hiryu (Soryu class) had heavy fires/heavy damage in one of your combat reports. A sub torpedo would seal the deal.

[BBfanboy]

Forgot to mention - I doubt he will send SCTFs to your invasion of Ndeni unless he knows where your carriers are. He knows you still have at least three that are operational.

And congrats on ambushing that CS - the float planes they carry were good ASW aircraft, so maybe your subs will have an easier time approaching the carriers now.

[John B.]

Here is the first sub combat report.

[John B.]

and the second one.

[John B.]

BBFanboy, as you can see, the Ryuho is likely to be gone (it took 2 torps and a bomb in the air attack with an ammo storage explosion). Then three more torpedoes and two fuel storage explosions leave me feeling pretty confident it's one of the dead ones. Hiyo and the 2 torpedoes goes with the 5 bombs and torpedo it took in the air attack, so, if these are correct then the only remaining one would be most likely the Kaga, it's a tough ship but twook two torpedoes and e bombs and was left with fires and heavy damage. I'm 99% certain that there are three carriers as there were dead naval planes in the ground losses (and sinking sounds) before either the Hiyo or the Ryuho were torpedoed.

I don't think that the Soryu went down. You'll note that it was torpedoed two days before the carrier battle. Also, the Soryu would have had its full air component it it went down and the planes losses on the day of the carrier battle were only 35-40. It's hard to say what that points to as the IJN took massive air to air losses that day so any plane component would have been significantly reduced.

[BBfanboy]

Yeah, I did note that Soryu was not involved in the air attacks - I was pointing to her sister ship Hiryu. I doubted the Kaga because in the second CR it showed "heavy damage" and no fires at all. In my games Kaga normally can handle a couple of torpedoes with less than 50% float damage, but then, bad die rolls can change any assessment! Any way you cut it, Hiyo, another CV and a CVL is a nice result. [:)]

[John B.]

Meanwhile, back in Burma,

We've all done it, scheduled an attack against a weak force only to have those units in the adjacent hex move in overnight and turn a great attack into a bad one. This is an extreme example. When Scott planned this attack in the last turn there were just three battalion sized tank units in there. When the attack went off there were seven six infantry divisions and three tank battalions defending. In the counter attack, the 236 support squads that were disabled got killed! The IJA division managed to retreat, but there can't be much left of it. I've got Katha under siege and now my coastal strike force will head towards Prome (sp?).

I'm doing this to open up a supply line to China from ramree island (sp?) and to keep the pressure on Scott on all fronts. To that end, I'm reactivating the turtle in central Australia and hitting buna. I'm also going to keep going up the Solomans. Guadalcanal looks tough with at least an infantry division that I'm sure has been digging in for a long long time. But, Tulagi does not have nearly as many troops and it has a larger airfield. So, I may bypass Guadalcanal and just hit Tulagi. But, that is at least a month away or more.

Wake has calmed down. My carriers made it to Pearl and are now under repair. Marcus Island is nice as a seaplane base and lets' me get close to Guam and Tinian without being spotted early so that may be the next target for the central pacific. But he has been reinforcing it.

In China things have managed to calm down a bit. Scott is stuck at the river for now at chikiang. I've managed some local counter attacks in the south and have whittled down a division but I"m not sure I'll be able to make it retreat before reinforcements show up.

[John B.]

Here is the latest situation in Burma. As you can see, the allies are in a pretty good position given that it is April 1943. A. This is my push to Myitkyna. I have 6 allied divisions and 3 tank units. Scott's troops are in trouble as I've been beating part of them for about three weeks and they have never been able to retreat fast enough to get away. They have also been subjected to relentless air bombardment. Now, they are at the gates of Myitkyna and have joined up with other forces there. I dropped the Chindits into the empty base hex south of the river. So, for right now, Scott is out of supply there with 2-3 divisions and lots of support troops. This turn I may be able to seal up the river if the Chindits can push the construction battalioin out of the way before Scott's troops make it across the river. Once I'm across, the plan is to loop back around towards Mandalay (red line) and flank his river position.

B. This has three divisions and a very powerful armored brigade. Their job is to take Swebo. He has a lot of troops there as well and I'm dancing around to keep them there so that the left hook can proceed apace from Myitikana. But, if Scott let's the garrison drop too much I'll run in and take swebo.

C. This is actually my main force. It has 8 divisions and lots of tanks. It's first goal was Ramree Island to get the supply to China going from there. And, it can build up an airbase for close in fighter support. I thought about trying to take Prome on the bounce but I pulled back. I realize that he's entrenching but I'm not sure I want to force a river crossing there. I have two more divisions and an HQ coming up so I'm resting and training for the big push.

All in all a pretty satisfactory state of affairs. I do have a couple of divisions in India in case he tries a Hail Mary end run.

There as a naval combat last night outside of Ramree. I lost a CA and sank a DD. Looks like the IJN is still masters of the night but I do think he's lost three subs at Ramree. That has a side benefit of reducing the number of subs that he'll have to try to stop my BB dash out of chittagong that is going to happen very soon.

LSTs are on the way to the Indian ocean to really crank up supply deliveries to ramree.

Oh, and the lasted intel refloated the Kaga from the Wake carrier battle. Looks like two fleet carriers (shokaku and soryu and a CVL). But, that beats nothing!

[John B.]

Merry Christmas everyone!

What better way to spend a day off than to play WITPAE! [:)]

As you can see, we're now in the middle of May 1943. In China Scott continues his anaconda operations to squeeze china. But, in the south he made a minor error. I've been heading up the little valley north west of Wuchow. I have about 12 corps making it out of the corridor and I may just get them out. This is very important as not only are these troops, these are really good troops. As in one of the corps has a 79 (!) experience level. [&o]

And, the race to open a road from burma continues. My left hook force has headed down from Mitykantna (sp?) to Lashio is about to run into a new blocking force. I'm also engaged in a siege at Swebo. Alas, my P-38Gs seems to have lost their dominance in a one day fight. They were inflicting more than 2-1 losses but that flipped and took 3-1. Ugh. I'm keeping the fight up at Swebo to wear down the fort level there but, more importantly, to tie down divisions that would be headed to Lashio. At Prome I had 7 divisions sitting there afraid to cross the river so they're headed away from the town and will cross further upstream where Scott will not have high level forts sitting and waiting.

Sub war is going ok. A few more AKs hit but more dud torpedos than earlier in the year have kept his losses down. I think it's in September of this year that the final decrease in the dud rate takes place.

Gathering forces to push into Buna. My plan is to move into the hex and then saturate the harbor with air dropped mines do prevent him from bombarding me while I take the base. We'll see how well that works. [:)]

[John B.]

In June 1943 the IJN rules the night!

[John B.]

Ah, but the USN rules the day!

There have been several naval fights around ramree island. For some reason my guys never seen to turn on their radar sets (possible there is something that makes these less effective near land) and I keep discovering IJN ships when my ships start blowing up. I admit that I was worried to see the two CLs take on the 6 DDs shorn of my own DD escort but it looks like I may have taken all six DDs in the day time.

[John B.]

As for a general situation update, Burma has turned into a real disaster for scott. I've liberated all the clear terrain cities including the oil wells and opened up a road to China. Scott has lost two complete divisions and had 6 others badly damaaged. Right now I'm heading for Prome and clearing out Tyun gi (sp?). I read somewhere that supplies will flow from Ramree to China and I think it's happend once but I have about 18K supply points on Ramree and I have not seen a supply push in awhile. It may just happen once per week. However, depending on reinforcements Scott has been able to send it, I may be in Rangoon by July. In addition, there is another US division on the way as well as three squadrons of P-47s.

In China, Scott is making a real play to get to chungking. He has taken huge casualties crossing the major river near Chikiang (easily more than 1,000 squads and devices) and he is pounding me day after day with 100+ bomber air raids. Forts and rough terrain are keep my casualties down but I do need the supplies to flow into China. There are hints that it is getting better but so far no tidal wave.

My testudo did not work in Australia. I got to Daily Waters and discovered that he had a level 6 fort there. So, now I'm heading south again.

In New Guinea a marine division and an Australian division are about to take Buna and at some point I'll get off my duff and to the invasion of Tulagi. There are not a lot of points in the So. Pac so I'm just fighting there to keep forces tied down and to make Scott use up supply.

I'm gearing up much more in the Central Pacific. A large invasion force is headed for Marcus Island. I did a carrier raid there about three weeks ago and he has 6,000 or so troops heavily fortified, I'm sure. I'm coming in with a marine regiment, three regiments of combat engineers, and two tank battalions. These are accompanied by six CVS and a host of other ships. The airfield on Marcus is not a threat and I should be able to stay out of any dangerous range of land based air on Saipan etc... I like having Marcus because it blinds Scott for approaches to the Gilberts and the Bonins and let's me see into his shipping lanes. I don't expect to hear from his carriers but you never know.

[BBfanboy]

Nice work on those DDs. Japan can ill afford to lose six in a single battle. The nice part is that they were all well-armed fleet DDs, not the little 3-point DDs that are really DEs in armament.

[John B.]

BBFanboy, I think he paid the price of aggressive commanders. They should have skedaddled home after the night action but hung around. I don't use Halsey nearly as much as I used to just because sometimes he'll head off when I don't want him too. It's always an interesting trade off. Let's just hope all the supplies that are piling up at Ramree make it to China!

[Capt. Harlock]

I admit that I was worried to see the two CLs take on the 6 DDs shorn of my own DD escort but it looks like I may have taken all six DDs in the day time.

Courtesy of Helena and her 6-inch machine guns!

[John B.]

It's now mid-June 1943 and things are going well, except for a few miscues on my part. Here is a picture of Burma in April 43.

[John B.]

And here is Burma today. As you can see, the IJA has been chased out of most of the country. I may have a pocket former near Tuangoo since I managed to put an armor brigade between it and Rangoon. Here's an interesting queary, Scott and I entered that hex at the same time (he retreated and I exploit moved in after combat in an adjacent hex). It looks like there are some hexsides that no one controls. Is that true?

In any event, I'm pushing onto Rangoon and I don't expect it to be too tough to take. He has lost two divisions outright and the others in the theater have been pushed around. Rangoon is too easy to isolate so I expect he'll pull out and the indications are that he is doing so. Of course, then it's more slog through more river lines and more jungle but this should help to save China. Ramree island does not seem to be pumping much in the way of supply to China but the supply situation there does seem better.

I did lose an entire convoy at Ramree about four days ago. He sent in a CA TF that sank 11 AKs, a DE, and PB. In fact, it came back to finish the job and then even managed to bombard the airfield. [:(]

If I can get to Rangoon and open up the Burma road I don't think China will fall. He is stuck on the river line as it is and his massive bombardments each turn are only killing a few squads. As long as it's less than my replacement rate I don't mind.

[John B.]

And here is the situation in the So. Pac. It's a war of attrition over Lunga. I've sent in a couple of bombardment TFs and done damage to his airfields. I've had two DDs hit mines (still afloat but badly damaged) and lost a CA to a submarine. One of his CAs took a torpedo but I don't think it sank. I have another BB TF heading in to hit Lunga again and he may have a surface TF heading my way so there may be combat tonight! My real target is Tulagi with its smaller garrison since if I have that I can shut down Lunga and let those troops starve (they'll make a good practice bombing range).

I managed to take Buna and trap some units with an airdrop into one of the small bases near there. My main goal in the So. Pac. is to keep Scott fighting there burning up fuel, troops, and supply. The only VP hex worth anything is Rabaul and I'm not near taking that.

I did take Marcus Island and lost a lot of combat engineers in the initial assault. It was pretty ugly but they did reduce the fort level from 6 to 0 in one turn. [&o] No serious naval losses there. He put a torpedo into the Yorktown but it's not on fire and just at 33% flotation so it should make it back to Pearl safely. The next target will be Tinian Saipan group but I'll need to gather forces for that. One plus of Marcus is that is serves as a close in refuge for badly damaged subs. I have one headed there now so it can drain out the flooding and make it home.

[BBfanboy]

John B.: It looks like there are some hexsides that no one controls. Is that true?

Yes - if enemy and friendly units move into an empty hex at the same time, no one owns it so all passable hex sides are available to both.

O/T 1. Nearly 4 million supply at PH! Are you trying to bury it?? Time to stop dumping there and move most of that forward.

O/T 2. 25 ships in port at Chittagong? That is within striking distance of Rangoon and maybe Bangkok. Do you have complete control of the air over Chittagong? What about his SCTFs - I see some red ships near Rangoon,