Did You Know I Used to Drive a Rollercoaster?: Apbarog(A) vs OPilot(J)

[apbarog]

9 Jan 44

BB New Mexico bombarded at Pescadores, as usual. 220 casualties and light base damage.

BBs Arizona, Oklahoma, Nevada and West Virginia bombarded Singapore, making their nightly run. 539 casualties and moderate base damage. The defenders will be vulnerable by the time the Allied troops make the river crossing. Johore Baru is found to have just 2 airbase support units. It will be taken today. Then we wait for all the troops to get there and kick off their coordinated movement into Singapore.

Gar spotted a big surface group east of Wenchow. 4 torpedoes missed CL Tama.

Japanese Ships
CL Tama
CA Mikuma
CA Mogami
CA Myoko
CA Chokai
CA Takao
CL Kiso
CL Kuma
CS Nisshin
DD Kazegumo
DD Susuzuki
DD Wakaba
DD Hatsushima
DD Nenohi
DD Hatsuharu

Haddock then spotted the same ships. It turned out to be a carrier task force. Takao got an extreme amount of enemy attention today. It was a maximum effort, using the best aircraft available. The fighter protection over Takao was strong, and it made for a monumental air fight. The CAP started out as 12 P-38Hs, 101 P-47D2s and 45 Hellcats. Some of the CAP was ranged from the adjacent base. The CAP got whittled down over time.

27 Georges swept, with slight more US planes downed.
27 Georges swept, with a similar result.
42 Franks swept. More Allied planes lost than Franks downed. All sweepers at 25k.
35 more Franks swept Taichu on Formosa, a couple hexes from Takao, finding just 17 P-38s, and they were massacred.
42 more Franks swept Takao, with more Franks lost than Thunderbolts.
The fighting was brutal, with heavy losses on both sides. The Georges and Franks are tough. I'm assuming that the enemy pilots were very good. The US pilots were.
Then 7 Vals arrived at Takao, unescorted, targeting shipping in severe storms. All Vals were shot down. The CAP was still about 80 planes, but most did not participate.

23 Helens with 25 Oscars hit Takao, attacking the port. The Japanese were shot down in droves. 14 Helens bombed at 6000 feet but missed everything in severe storms.

Back at Taichu, just 1 P-38 was up when 29 Sallys arrived. A few Allied transport aircraft were destroyed on the airfield. Minor base damage.

Now back at Takao, 24 Sallys with 36 Oscars went after the port. Many Japanese planes were shot down. APD Herbert was hit by a bomb. It is SYS 29/FLOT 4-4/ENG 4-1/FIRE 0. AKE Mormacmar was also hit by a bomb. It is SYS 37/FLOT 10-6/ENG 9-3/FIRE 23. There are 2 other undamaged AKEs at Takao. The port is size 4 and a very large naval base support unit is there. It has 400+ naval support in the unit. One of the big ones.

Then 35 Bettys attacked shipping at Takao. Every one was shot down before they could drop.
27 Frances with 27 Zeros attacked shipping at Takao. Again, the Japanese lost very many planes. 17 Frances dropped bombs. BB New Mexico was hit by a 60kg bomb, doing next to nothing. OPilot mentioned in his email that he expected the Frances to have torpedoes.

Then in the afternoon, the surprise. Enemy carriers near Wenchow launched a big strike on shipping at Takao. CAP had been depleted by this point.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Takao at 84,65

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 112 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 28 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5b Zero x 27
B6N2 Jill x 21
D4Y2 Judy x 84

Allied aircraft
P-38H Lightning x 7
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 35
F6F-3 Hellcat x 6

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5b Zero: 10 destroyed
B6N2 Jill: 4 destroyed, 4 damaged
B6N2 Jill: 1 destroyed by flak
D4Y2 Judy: 6 destroyed, 16 damaged
D4Y2 Judy: 3 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
P-38H Lightning: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
CL Richmond
DD Bradford
DD Black
YMS-276, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
CL Marblehead
DD Brown
YMS-138, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
YMS-273, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
CA San Francisco, Bomb hits 1 [SYS 19/FLOT 6-5/ENG 0/FIRE 0]
YMS-274, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
CA Minneapolis
DD Conway
DD Halford
DD Foote

OPilot had bad luck here. The Jills went after destroyers. The Judys went after small minesweepers, mostly. And weather affected the results.

The enemy carriers launched 2 more strikes. 18 Jills with 27 Zeros went after 4 US destroyers on ASW duty east of Formosa. All torpedoes missed. Then 18 more Jills went after AM Canso, which was investigating Amoy, looking for mines. Canso was sunk by a torpedo. More good luck for me. The Jills didn't go after the battleship at Takao.

It was a terrific fight. I depend on the P-47s. They stand up to the best the enemy can offer. But the pool is low. I had 34 in the pool before this fight. Now I have 5. I reinforced Takao with some non-carrier capable Corsairs today. I'll use Hellcats if I have to, but we know how that will go. Not good against Franks and Georges.

It was interesting that I had had a bunch of naval bombers ready to go at Takao. After nothing happening for awhile, I reassigned the SBDs to ASW, to go after the many enemy subs in the area, and sent the TBFs to Clark. Had the bombers still been ready at Takao, they would have been in range of the enemy carriers. However, the carriers are hugging Wenchow, so there would be extra CAP over them. Also, I had 2 fighter squadrons on escort for the naval bombers. I switched them to CAP when the bombers were reassigned. Good thing for the defense at Takao. I needed every fighter.

In China, US heavy bombers had staged at Chungking and hit Sian, following a couple of fighter sweeps. There was no CAP. Severe storms limited the damage to the oil facilities. Mouse-over later showed no oil damage at all. The bombers will go back to Burma. Not enough supply in China to stay. I'd been reluctant to go after the oil in China. The Chinese would have preferred to recapture Sian. I made a halfhearted attempt to do so a few months ago. But that isn't going to happen soon. And the war on oil is my primary strategy. It has to be having an effect, or will do so soon.

[apbarog]

9 Jan 44 - Aircraft Lost

[BBfanboy]

Would it work to have the Hellcats at Takao but set to 10% CAP so that there are not many of them in the air at first, when the Franks and Georges make their sweeps? After the rest of the CAP are worn down, the Hellcats would still have fresh aircraft on the ground and would start scrambling more as needed?

If I were OPilot, clenching my teeth at my naval strikes hitting all your YMS and AMs, I might think of sending minelayer subs into those bases now ...

[apbarog]

10 Jan 44

Haddock spotted the enemy carrier task force near Wenchow, but missed destroyer Yugumo with 2 torpedoes. Sub Balao spotted them later, and missed Zuikaku with 6 torpedoes. Balao then took moderately severe damage from a depth charge and near misses in the shallow water. The carrier is being escorted by destroyers that toss 4 depth charges at a time. Very dangerous in shallow water. The carriers were headed east and were not seen later in the day.

US battleships bombarded Singapore, again. Mines were swept there, and the minesweepers were not engaged by coastal guns.

B-24s from Tavoy bombed the airfield at Georgetown. A few Lilys were destroyed on the ground.

Baybay, in the Philippines, was captured. The enemy still holds Cebu and a nearby island, as well as Davao on Mindanao.

Allied troops captured Kuala Lumpur. The enemy had vacated it. Same for Johore Baru. The two base support units there fell back to Singapore. Troops are gathering at Johore Baru. Once they are all there, the movement into Singapore will begin. I think the daily battleship bombardments are going to make the capture of Singapore very easy.

[apbarog]

11 Jan 44

2 AMs swept mines at Singapore. Both were hit by coastal guns from the 10th Special Base Force. A DMS helped, and got hit by 2 shells. YMS-275 was sunk by 4 shell hits. Battleships bombarded, as usual. Taking the island next to Singapore, for use as a rearming base, is working out great.

Night Naval bombardment of Singapore at 50,84

Allied Ships
BB Arizona
BB Oklahoma
BB Nevada
BB West Virginia

Japanese ground losses:
350 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 12 destroyed, 29 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 10 (2 destroyed, 8 disabled)
Vehicles lost 12 (5 destroyed, 7 disabled)

Airbase hits 6
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 30
Port hits 4

The daily bombardment of Pescadores.

Night Naval bombardment of Pescadores at 84,63 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

9 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Allied Ships
BB New Mexico
CA Minneapolis
CL Marblehead
CL Richmond
CL Hobart
CL De Ruyter
CL Sumatra
CL Leander

Japanese ground losses:
426 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 31 destroyed, 24 disabled
Engineers: 6 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 14 (2 destroyed, 12 disabled)
Vehicles lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)

Repair Shipyard hits 1
Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 25
Port hits 10
Port fuel hits 3

The slow US battleships are useful with bombardments when the US comes storming back. Remember that the enemy did not strike Pearl Harbor in this game. I benefited from that with excellent naval search with all of the Catalinas that were not destroyed at Pearl, and now I benefit from the battleship use. OPilot hit Singapore on December 7th, 1941. He did sink some ships in port there, but nothing important. And it didn't really accelerate his taking of Singapore.

Another cleanup attack at San Fernando. Two tank battalions arrived and added to the fight. Still just a 2 to 1 attack, with 738 enemy casualties (mostly destroyed), and 303 US losses. An infantry divison will reinforce shortly and should tip the scales further.

US carriers have refueled at Balikpapan. They will move back towards Luzon and disappear for awhile. Lots of APAs are leaving Soerabaja to do the same. They will be needed for the China invasion but I want them to disappear. OPilot is doing recon of Soerabaja again and sees them. Where the good APAs go, the next big invasion occurs. Most of the time.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: apbarog

Remember that the enemy did not strike Pearl Harbor in this game. I benefited from that with excellent naval search with all of the Catalinas that were not destroyed at Pearl, and now I benefit from the battleship use. OPilot hit Singapore on December 7th, 1941. He did sink some ships in port there, but nothing important. And it didn't really accelerate his taking of Singapore.

How did your mass evacuation of troop fragments in the SRA work out? Did you have enough in the pools to form them up again?

[apbarog]

I don't remember evacuating Dutch troops. Might have taken a base unit out, not sure. I may have moved some units around by plane, from Dutch to Dutch bases. Of course, I did evacuate all the Dutch shipping, and pulled every bit of fuel and oil out that I could.

With KB sitting right by Singapore, I couldn't get whole units out of Singapore, generally. I did pull out fragments, and they did get rebuilt. I even purchased some destroyed units. I flew out some Brit unit fragments from Hong Kong before it fell. Those units were reconstituted and did contribute to the fight in Burma.

Once India was declared safe, I disbanded one or two restricted Indian infantry units to make use of their devices elsewhere.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: apbarog

I don't remember evacuating Dutch troops. Might have taken a base unit out, not sure. I may have moved some units around by plane, from Dutch to Dutch bases. Of course, I did evacuate all the Dutch shipping, and pulled every bit of fuel and oil out that I could.

With KB sitting right by Singapore, I couldn't get whole units out of Singapore, generally. I did pull out fragments, and they did get rebuilt. I even purchased some destroyed units. I flew out some Brit unit fragments from Hong Kong before it fell. Those units were reconstituted and did contribute to the fight in Burma.

Once India was declared safe, I disbanded one or two restricted Indian infantry units to make use of their devices elsewhere.

My bad, Singers and Hong Kong...I recall the Canadian unit that starts there in Hong Kong particularly.

Doesn't every AFB disband a restricted Indian/British unit or two for those reasons and if hard hit even Australian units?

[apbarog]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: apbarog

I don't remember evacuating Dutch troops. Might have taken a base unit out, not sure. I may have moved some units around by plane, from Dutch to Dutch bases. Of course, I did evacuate all the Dutch shipping, and pulled every bit of fuel and oil out that I could.

With KB sitting right by Singapore, I couldn't get whole units out of Singapore, generally. I did pull out fragments, and they did get rebuilt. I even purchased some destroyed units. I flew out some Brit unit fragments from Hong Kong before it fell. Those units were reconstituted and did contribute to the fight in Burma.

Once India was declared safe, I disbanded one or two restricted Indian infantry units to make use of their devices elsewhere.

My bad, Singers and Hong Kong...I recall the Canadian unit that starts there in Hong Kong particularly.

Doesn't every AFB disband a restricted Indian/British unit or two for those reasons and if hard hit even Australian units?

It may be a common action, I don't know. Seemed like a good idea to me at the time. Not an original idea, probably, but it was to me! Reminds me of a speech I gave for 8th grade graduation. I finished it with saying that it was "the end of the beginning". I can't discount the possibility that I had heard Churchill's speech somewhere before that, but I wasn't into history at the time, so it was an original thought, as far as I know. So, like most things in the game, it's been done before.

[apbarog]

12 Jan 44

Cabrilla spots battleships leaving Japan. They ended the day at Okinawa.

Sub attack near Tokara Retto at 99,63

Japanese Ships
CL Oyodo
BB Ise
BB Fuso
BB Mutsu
CL Natori
DD Murasame
DD Suzukaze
DD Kawakaze
DD Yamakaze

Allied Ships
SS Cabrilla

SS Cabrilla launches 4 torpedoes at CL Oyodo

US forces bombarded Amoy and Swatow today, instead of Pescadores. Amoy has a size 7 airfield, but no planes at the moment. Singapore was bombarded by US BBs again.

US troops captured Subic Bay. All Luzon bases are now Allied. The only enemy troops left is a large group of mostly support units at San Fernando.

[apbarog]

13 Jan 44

New Mexico bombarded Pescadores, as usual. 467 casualties, moderate base damage. Arizona, Oklahoma, Nevada and West Virginia bombarded Singapore, again, daily. 601 casualties.

The enemy shows up at Hengchun. Not expected. I can only guess at what their intention was.

Day Time Surface Combat, near Hengchun at 84,67, Range 5,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Oyodo
DD Tamanami
DD Suzunami
DD Onami
DD Fujinami
DD Kishinami
DD Okinami

Allied Ships
SC-706, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
xAP Rochussen, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

Allied ground losses:
Vehicles lost 12 (12 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Hengchun is rarely used. Everything goes from the Philippines to Takao. Rochussen had the vehicles for the engineer unit that was flown into the island east of Ishigaki. It stopped at Hengchun as I expected the enemy battleships at Okinawa to hit the island. Bad luck for the Rochussen.

In the afternoon, naval bombers from Formosa hit the enemy task force. Combinations of dive bombers, torpedo bombers and fighters. Here's the hits in each attack:

DD Suzunami, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Oyodo, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Fujinami
DD Onami
DD Kishinami
DD Tamanami

18 TBFs got one hit on Oyodo, but it was a dud.

DD Suzunami, heavy fires
DD Kishinami
DD Tamanami
CL Oyodo, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Onami, Bomb hits 1
DD Fujinami, Bomb hits 1, on fire

DD Tamanami
DD Onami, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Fujinami, heavy fires
DD Kishinami

DD Onami, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Kishinami, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Fujinami, heavy fires

In my graphic, I suspected a graphics bug with not seeing the enemy TF at the end of the day. I don't think that I hit, much less sank, all of the ships.

Cleanup at San Fernando starts to improve with another division helping. 9 to 1 attack with 1466 enemy casualties. Wearing them down.

Something happened to Essex on the way to Busuanga. SYS 4/FLOT 1-1/ENG 6-4/FIRE 0. Mostly engine damage. Nothing noted in any of the files.

[apbarog]

14 Jan 44

Enemy aircraft in China concentrated on Kweilin. Lots of Franks sweeping and then the bombers. Moderate damage to the base, but US engineers are here, after a long walk on the Burma road. The base damage is being repaired faster here than anywhere else in China. The engineers will move to the coast when possible, after the big China invasion.

One more day of rest is needed at Johore Baru. I split a British division to upgrade to 1944 squads, and the last 1/3 will upgrade tomorrow. Then the stack starts to march into Singapore.

[apbarog]

15 Jan 44

Enemy destroyers, damaged at Hengchun, moved towards Okinawa. US destroyers patrolling in the area did not engage. Flasher hit destroyer Fujinami with a torpedo, sinking the ship. Fujinami was smoking before the torpedo encounter.

The usual bombardment of Pescadores by New Mexico. 921 casualties, so, better than average. 379 casualties by the 4 BBs at Singapore.

Temoloh got the enemy's air attention today. OPilot moved the last 1/3 of a division into Temuloh from the west. US troops now occupy that western hex, so the enemy is now trapped at Temoloh. To escape, they have to win the fight there and kick out the Allies, which isn't going to happen, or open up a hexside from the north. That could happen, if enemy troops are walking down the eastern rail line from Kuantan. OPilot had seen that he could gain an advantage against the paras at Temuloh, but I was able to rail in reinforcements. Now the defense is too strong to crack.

More cleanup at San Fernando, north of Clark. 3922 casualties, and just a few units left there.

Beaufort was taken by the Australian 2/6th Armoured Regiment, which had walked through the jungle from Jesselton. The defense was weak, with just the 2nd Sasebo SNLF Coy and the 9th Port Unit. Northern Borneo is now a sideshow, with the big enemy stack at Miri practically isolated. There's no enemy shipping in this area bigger than a patrol boat.

[apbarog]

16 Jan 44

US subchasers are hunting enemy subs west of Luzon. The enemy is staying 3 to 4 hexes west of the coast, using Glens for spotting, instead of getting onto the route to Formosa. SBDs are doing their best to get the subs also.

British cruisers and US destroyers bombarded Taiping, on the west coast of Malaya.

Night Naval bombardment of Taiping at 49,75

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A2 Val: 3 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 27 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 1 destroyed on ground
Ki-51 Sonia: 14 damaged
Ki-51 Sonia: 1 destroyed on ground
Ki-49-II KAI Helen: 16 damaged
Ki-49-II KAI Helen: 1 destroyed on ground
B5N2 Kate: 5 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed on ground

Allied Ships
CA Cornwall
CA Suffolk
CA Sussex
DD Braine
DD Boyd
DD Bennett
DD Bache
DD Aulick

Japanese ground losses:
372 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 11 destroyed, 49 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 19 (2 destroyed, 17 disabled)
Vehicles lost 5 (1 destroyed, 4 disabled)

Airbase hits 25
Airbase supply hits 10
Runway hits 56
Port hits 37
Port supply hits 2

Submarine Shad missed heavily damaged destroyer Suzunami south of Naha. Grenadier missed big transport xAP Kachidoki Maru near Chichi-Jima. Big convoy there. Crevalle missed I-44 with 2 torpedoes near Daito Shoto. Cero hit I-184 with a torpedo near Kanoya, sinking the sub. Seawolf hit AMC Asaka Maru with a torpedo near Torishima. Another big convoy there.

Enemy air in China attacked Wuchow. Over 80 Franks swept the undefended base, which was hit hard by bombers.

30 Tojos swept Temuloh, finding 9 P-51As there. Not sure how that happened. The Mustangs are based on Sumatra and were ordered on CAP there, with a range of 0. Strange. 4 Mustangs were shot down. Bombers then hit the Allied troops there, doing little in the jungle terrain.

Enemy bombardment attack at Temuloh. Neither side can within at the moment, and the enemy is in danger of being isolated. Allied reinforcements are on the way.

Ground combat at Temuloh (50,78)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 15567 troops, 133 guns, 44 vehicles, Assault Value = 494

Defending force 7564 troops, 44 guns, 88 vehicles, Assault Value = 336

Assaulting units:
1st Division
80th Garrison Battalion

Defending units:
16th LRP Brigade
Guides Cavalry Regiment
111th LRP Brigade
5th RIAF Adv/Sqn Base Force

The last enemy units on Luzon were eliminated at San Fernando. Troops will now move to the Clark/Manila area to rest and prepare for the China coast landing.

[apbarog]

17 Jan 44

The Japanese defenders continue to take a beating from the four US battleships, which bombard every day. I'm very pleased with the decision to occupy the adjacent island from the beginning. It's a size 3 port and with the AKEs, the battleships get rearmed every day. It got me to thinking about what Guadalcanal could have been like, if the US had Lunga but the Japanese had Tulagi, and controlled the air, so that Japanese battleships could rearm at Tulagi every day. The Marines wouldn't have stood a chance. Lots of if's, I know. But I know that the enemy is suffering at Singapore. The advancing Allied troops have a couple of days to go before the crossing into Singapore. Here was today's bombardment:

Night Naval bombardment of Singapore at 50,84

Allied Ships
BB Arizona
BB Oklahoma
BB Nevada
BB West Virginia

Japanese ground losses:
676 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 25 destroyed, 53 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Guns lost 15 (7 destroyed, 8 disabled)
Vehicles lost 12 (7 destroyed, 5 disabled)

Heavy Industry hits 1
Airbase hits 3
Runway hits 18

And this has been a daily occurrence since the Mersing landing.

Tojos reappeared over Temuloh, but P-47s were stationed there this time. 10 Tojos were shot down for the cost of a single Thunderbolt. US bombers then bombed enemy troops at Temuloh for the first time. This was unfortunate for the enemy, as they chose to attack today. It was an attack that was going to fail anyway, as Allied reinforcements had arrived using rail movement, but the bombers didn't help.

Ground combat at Temuloh (50,78)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 16274 troops, 134 guns, 44 vehicles, Assault Value = 488

Defending force 7558 troops, 44 guns, 88 vehicles, Assault Value = 334

Japanese adjusted assault: 225

Allied adjusted defense: 1051

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 4 (fort level 1)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), fatigue(-)
Attacker: supply(-)

Japanese ground losses:
1524 casualties reported
Squads: 11 destroyed, 114 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 15 disabled
Guns lost 12 (2 destroyed, 10 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
72 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Assaulting units:
1st Division
80th Garrison Battalion

Defending units:
16th LRP Brigade
Guides Cavalry Regiment
111th LRP Brigade
5th RIAF Adv/Sqn Base Force

The enemy is now showing a retreat back to the west, from where they came from, but Allied troops have been there and have been moving towards the contested hex for days already. The hexside will be closed, sealing off the already out of supply 1st Division and the 80th Garrison Battalion. The enemy's only hope is to walk down some troops from Kuantan to open up a hexside for escape. If that isn't already in progress, it will be too late.

[Lowpe]

Having been on the receiving end of multiple daily battleship bombardments, for a year, you learn how they prioritize targeting and you adapt and figure out ways to still mount a credible defense.

In real life, the barrels on those bad girls would have worn out rather quickly from such use requiring replacement. I had this pinned:

Most battleships in general carried about 800-1000 rounds of big gun projectiles.
It had 8 big guns so assuming evenly firing salvos, each load of ammo would be about 100-125 rounds per gun, that would last for about an hour or 90 minutes at full fire rates.

And the number of shots a barrel could take depended on several factors, whether the full propellant load was used or just a partial charge for shorter and flatter ranges and how much wear you could withstand which would affect your accuracy.
So typical American 16?? guns had a life of about 300 shots per barrel on the average. Probably the Brits, similar, maybe a bit more for 15?? guns of the Warspite.

So three full loads of ammo would have been 300-375 rounds per gun. That seems quite reasonable given that we don?ft know the propellant % of full size and the actual capacity of the magazines and we?fre guessing at the rate of wear of the Warspite?fs guns.

To swap out the barrels takes a large crane; the USS Iowa guns the barrel alone weighed 270,000 pounds. - 135 US tons. It had to be done at a dock facility sporting very large overhead cranes and I?fm guessing wildly that it might take a half a day to a day to pull out the old, and install the new for each gun.

[apbarog]

Interesting Lowpe. Now I've gone from being pleased with executing my strategy to thinking that I may have done something unreasonable. There are lots of things that I house rule myself on, in the interest of what I think is reasonable and could have been done. But I don't go crazy with it. I don't worry about putting certain carrier aircraft on carriers that they really couldn't have operated well on. I know that limitations existed, but I don't know all the details.

I don't know if this is something that I should be concerned about.

It does have things that the enemy could counter with. My AKEs are right there, one hex from Singapore. I have to ship supply to them. And I have to brave minefields. My strategy worked only because I control the air in the immediate vicinity of Singapore, and that the enemy pulled all of the combat ships back towards Japan.

[Lowpe]

It is probably safe to assume that the bombarding ships were using very light powder charges and high explosive shells thus greatly reducing barrel wear and tear.[:)] Especially once minefields and counterfire threat was reduced.

The Mark 7 gun was originally intended to fire the relatively light 2,240-pound (1,020 kg) Mark 5 armor-piercing shell. However, the shell-handling system for these guns was redesigned to use the "super-heavy" 2,700-pound (1,200 kg) APCBC (Armor Piercing, Capped, Ballistic Capped) Mark 8 shell before any of the Iowa-class battleship's keels were laid down. The large-caliber guns were designed to fire two different 16 inch (406 mm) shells: an armor-piercing round for anti-ship and anti-structure work, and a high-explosive round designed for use against unarmored targets and shore bombardment.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Having been on the receiving end of multiple daily battleship bombardments, for a year, you learn how they prioritize targeting and you adapt and figure out ways to still mount a credible defense.

In real life, the barrels on those bad girls would have worn out rather quickly from such use requiring replacement. I had this pinned:

Most battleships in general carried about 800-1000 rounds of big gun projectiles.
It had 8 big guns so assuming evenly firing salvos, each load of ammo would be about 100-125 rounds per gun, that would last for about an hour or 90 minutes at full fire rates.

And the number of shots a barrel could take depended on several factors, whether the full propellant load was used or just a partial charge for shorter and flatter ranges and how much wear you could withstand which would affect your accuracy.
So typical American 16?? guns had a life of about 300 shots per barrel on the average. Probably the Brits, similar, maybe a bit more for 15?? guns of the Warspite.

So three full loads of ammo would have been 300-375 rounds per gun. That seems quite reasonable given that we don?ft know the propellant % of full size and the actual capacity of the magazines and we?fre guessing at the rate of wear of the Warspite?fs guns.

To swap out the barrels takes a large crane; the USS Iowa guns the barrel alone weighed 270,000 pounds. - 135 US tons. It had to be done at a dock facility sporting very large overhead cranes and I?fm guessing wildly that it might take a half a day to a day to pull out the old, and install the new for each gun.

Naval guns that big have a liner, which is where the wear happens. The liner could be pulled out of the gun and a new one put in. That obviates the need for removing the turret roof to lift out the entire gun barrel, and the liner would weigh much less than the gun.

https://eugeneleeslover.com/USNAVY/GUN- ... ION-1.html

[apbarog]

18 Jan 44

Pescadores and Singapore both bombarded, as usual. The casualties have been heavy at Singapore. Here's today's:

Japanese ground losses:
682 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 33 destroyed, 37 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 25 (16 destroyed, 9 disabled)
Vehicles lost 17 (12 destroyed, 5 disabled)

Manpower hits 1
Fires 2010
Airbase hits 9
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 13
Port hits 1

Troops will cross into Singapore.

SBDs from Taihoku, on range 8, sank subchaser Ch 36 near Wenchow. OPilot has been staying 8 or more hexes away. Normally the divebomber's upper limit is 7 hexes (and always 7 flying from an Allied carrier), but these have drop tanks. I've now changed their orders back to 7, in order to avoid any trap today.

25 Topsy's were shot down over Temuloh. Lt. L.N. Glazier became an "Ace in a Day", shooting down 5 of them himself. He was flying a P-47.

Invasion shipping is gathering at Busuanga for the upcoming invasion of coastal China. Over 300 ships in port there now. I don't want them seen, so they are not at Manila. The troops, however, are resting at Manila and Clark. It'll be about 2 weeks before everything is ready for that big show.