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McHartur just made my day.

Mar 4, 5 1943
 
The day didn't go as planned but neither it went bad.
We closed Thousands S.B. AF but the other bombardment TF (composed of CAs) found a couple of PBs at Russell and, after having sunk them, simply retired to Lunga[:o]
However we avoided a HUGE sweep mission composed of 500 planes over Tulagi[X(]...as predicted he called his Tojos in this time...
 
Some of his Vals and Kates tried to attack our TFs at Lunga...but got slaughtered by my fierce CAp and not a single plane got through[8D]
 
We lost some Wildcats due to the damned leaky CAP...those idiots went to cover Tulagi in groups of 2/3 planes and got outnumbered by something like 20 to 1 [:@]
 
Anyway, we gained another day... waiting for the turn to come to see the results...
 
Another day is gai

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

If you can afford it, I would set aside two Navy and/or Marine groups that will get the Hellcat. Pull out and replace with your best pilots. Make these two groups 'the best of the best' for you to throw in at a critical point. Again, only if you can afford to do so.

mmm...hard to say if i can efford. Considering how many fighters he's throwing at me i wonder if i can spare those "reserve" groups right now... however i'll do my best to collect my best pilots on those wildcats that are based at ndeni. If ever i'll use the CV groups which are already crack ones

ORIGINAL: House Stark

Congrats on the naval victory. How many of his CL/DD have you sunk now? He's got to be sort of hurting in that regard. He can't have too many of those old expendable ships left to throw at you; he's going to have to risk his modern ones sooner or later.

Not sure at 100% because of the FOW...but i think by now i should have sunk 5/6 CLs of his own and possibly 1 CA

ORIGINAL: FatR

I hate Allied mines. Lost 8 destroyers to them so far in my longest-running game, not counting ships damaged and stuck in Allied aviation range as the result. Send SCTFs - escorts get mined. Send minesweepers - CD guns wipe them out (lost five that way). Mix minesweepers and surface combatants in a minesweeping TF - eligible surface combatants won't be able suppress CD guns fire. Add minesweepers to a surface combat or amphibious TF - they will eat CD fire, and the rest of the TF won't protect them.

Really hope so mate... when his BBs will arrive i'll need everything to stop them...including mines!
I'm doing my best to make those waters as dangerous as possible for his ships

Anyway...pretty strange that the SCTF we spotted yesterday didn't come in today...it retired back to Shortland...[&:]

32 vs 200...another good day i'd say. In the air the count is 22 vs 124...not bad. His LBA Vals and Kates suffered terribly once they decided to attack my CLs at Lunga...my CAP performed wonderfully...

Tomorrow we'll wait another big offensive...we decided to stay at Lunga for one more day...let's see if i can throw in some confusion to him about my intentions...

...another SCTF is steaming south...will he look for an engagement? We're sending 3 TFs out. The CA TF which will bombard Russell, the Boise TF, which will try to intercept the enemy TF at Russell and will also cover the CAs, and a old-school 2CLs TF that will move to Tulagi from Ndeni in substitution of the Cleveland TF that, after the bombing at Thousands Ships Bay, is retiring to Ndeni

Again our Corsair, even at 20k (i always used them at 31) didn't performed well...while the P-38 is clearly superior in the role of sweeper...

too tired to comment more deeply...i'll leave you the a/c losses report screen...

ok, ok, McArthur...you know i have problems with names...

Right, but this is not Doug McArther, but his lesser know brother Eddie. Not much leadership, but he got along really well with everyone else, despite his chronic shyness and low self-esteem.

This McHartur of which he speaks: I've seen his statue in Incheon, Korea (and no, that is not a GreyJoyism--it's how they spell it nowadays).

GreyJoy: That evil cluster of dark forces that's been gathering in Rabaul--any chance that could head to NE Oz if he gets tired of Guadalcanal redux? Is it something you're worried about? Also, has sigint been giving you any good hints recently, such as X unit prepping for Y or A unit on board ship B heading for C?

Cheers,
CC

As dar as i can tell he's not prepping for anything (i know it sounds strange but i've never seen any of his units prepping for one of the Solomons...nor Oz fwiw)
If he's coming for Oz...well the better. I can exchange space for time and i can efford to lose anything north of Brisbane...and i have lots of forts down there so it will be not a good choice me think for him at this stage of the war.

However guys, last turn was pretty messed up...my TFs did perform strangely but i got lucky and onlyCA Australia ate a torp but she's ok. He swept Karakira and 40 wildcats and some beaufighters did get a 1-1 ratio against his Tojos...not bad i'd say.

I'm out for a funeral today so i won't be able to update till tonight...

See u soon

Ok, here we go.

Mar 6, 7 1943

Japan has decided to strike Karakira. Probably Rader is understanding the importance of this 4th base close to the Solomons and wanna shut it down. 200 Tojos swept the base today and engaged a furious battle against 50 Wildcats and 16 Beaufighters Vc. We did well, losing 24 planes against the 25 japanese. Only 3 pilots killed and 5 WIA...not bad considering how the Tojo outperforms the Wildcat.

As said, my Bomb TF which was supposed to bomb Russell, did bomb Tulagi beaches instead[&:] (my mistake probably)....and stayed there...without any CAP (my CAP was based at Lunga with range 0). Luckly the defeats of the last 3 days forced Rader to stay down most of his bombers and only a handfull of betties took off. Only one torp hit and the CA Australia is not in a bad shape (20 flt but nothing more).

He's refraining from sending any more SCTF...

Tomorrow we'll send 2 more Bombardment TFs against Russell Island, followed by a P-38 sweep and 70 4Es from Ndani...i wanna that bloody base closed! Already 100 fighters are based there...they need to be grounded!

2 Combat Eng regiments have been shipped to Tassa and Tulagi. Now we have 300 AVs at Tassa, with 60k supplies. Probably we'll reach 400 within the week.
At Tulagi 30k supplies and 850 AVs.

Feeling confident.

SOPAC HQ is unloading at Ndeni in these hours..., while SWPAC is unloading at Lungaville. the 6th Army HQ is being shipped from Suva today.

Only 25 days away from my first Hellcat...can't wait to get rid of the Wildcats!!!

My subs are finally achieving something. Today we sunk 1 AK near Rangoon, 1 TK near Menado and 1 APD and 1 DD south of Truk (where 4 enemy ASW TFs are trying to chase down my brave submariners[8D]

Still thanks to NY59Giants for his suggestions about sub war...they're working!!!![:D]

Our Eastern Army left Karachi and now it's getting close to Hyderabad. Till now not a single enemy plane has bombed us...recon keeps telling us about those 1200 a/c based at Jodpur...[&:]


My last day at work today...THANK GOD!!! now 3 weeks of vacation[&o][&o][&o]

It has helped that I have played and am playing PBEM games from both sides. As Mr Nemo stated long ago, this is a game of logistics. He has a huge number of ships in the Solomons area and he needs to get fuel there. The best place for it to go through is Truk with Rabaul as the secondary port. Placing subs on the edge or just out of Helen range will limit their ASW effectiveness. I like to place subs into 'Patrol Zones' that may or may not use the third leg. Best to keep them moving. At this point in the war, his "E" Class escorts are his best non-warship for this work, but I assign mine to escorting TKs and AOs. SC/PB have poor depth charges and most crews have poor experience levels. If he is using DDs in the ASW roll, then that means less to run up and down 'The Slot.' A win for Mr GreyJoy. [:)]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

It has helped that I have played and am playing PBEM games from both sides. As Mr Nemo stated long ago, this is a game of logistics. He has a huge number of ships in the Solomons area and he needs to get fuel there. The best place for it to go through is Truk with Rabaul as the secondary port. Placing subs on the edge or just out of Helen range will limit their ASW effectiveness. I like to place subs into 'Patrol Zones' that may or may not use the third leg. Best to keep them moving. At this point in the war, his "E" Class escorts are his best non-warship for this work, but I assign mine to escorting TKs and AOs. SC/PB have poor depth charges and most crews have poor experience levels. If he is using DDs in the ASW roll, then that means less to run up and down 'The Slot.' A win for Mr GreyJoy. [:)]

He's using DDs, APDs, Es, PBs and even the CSs...he's dedicating a lot to Naval ASW but his results (and it's a big difference from air ASW) have been close to zero so far [:)]

We'll intensify the sub war in the next months. We're still using lot of them in a defensive role...soon we'll start to more of them up to an offensive duty

Another bloody turn...mar 8,9 1943 he sent all his modern CAs escorted by 8 DDs to sweep Lunga. He took the southern route,passinh south of Tassafaronga, while my 3TFs that Bombed Russell Island took the northern route...so we missed each other...oppss . However, we sunk 3 large PBs and one AMC full of troops, while he got only Òne LST that was transporting half of a tank Bn to Tassafaronga...
We closed Russell Island AF, but weather was horrible and our 4Es flew only 1 day out of 2...
Then he came with the aerial sweeps...250 Tojos and 350 zeros swept Lunga and Tulagi. Our 200 fighters at Lunga did well. We lost 34 planes against his 90...but the odds are shifting again on his side...
His Vals sunk 3AKs and 1xAP transporting the 220 USN base force...my CAP at Karakira simply didn't catch 40 unescorted Vals...bad luck!

Oh, forgot to say...2 of his CAs got 2 mines at Lunga...better than nothing

While talking the sub war.

Are small wolf packs of 2-3-4 SS better at countering escorts and hitting convoys than single SS TF?

Or do they just provide more targets and increase the (seemingly 100% chance) detection levels.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Mar 08,09 43

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Thousand Ships Bay at 114,136, Range 1,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
APD Mikazuki
AMC Gokoku Maru, Shell hits 15, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Boise
DD Fletcher
DD Cony
DD DeHaven
DD Radford
DD Saufley
DD Waller

Japanese ground losses:
Guns lost 44 (38 destroyed, 6 disabled)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Thousand Ships Bay at 114,136, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
PB Fukui Maru, Shell hits 11, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Boise
DD Fletcher
DD Cony
DD DeHaven
DD Radford
DD Saufley
DD Waller


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Thousand Ships Bay at 114,136, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CMc Kyo Maru #5, Shell hits 1, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Boise
DD Fletcher
DD Cony
DD DeHaven
DD Radford
DD Saufley
DD Waller

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Russell Islands at 113,136, Range 1,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
PB Tokati Maru, Shell hits 25, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Boise
DD Fletcher
DD Cony
DD DeHaven
DD Radford
DD Saufley
DD Waller



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Russell Islands at 113,136, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
AMc Wa 7, Shell hits 1, and is sunk

Allied Ships
CL Leander
CL Richmond
DD Lardner
DD Bailey
DD Anderson
DD Hammann
DD McCall



2,000 yards
Combat ends with last Japanese ship sunk...



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TF 219 encounters mine field at Lunga (114,138)[:D]

Japanese Ships
CA Kumano, Mine hits 1
CA Chokai, Mine hits 1



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Naval bombardment of Russell Islands at 113,136

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 17 damaged
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 1 destroyed on ground
D3A1 Val: 10 damaged
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 8 damaged
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 destroyed on ground
E13A1 Jake: 1 destroyed on ground

Allied Ships
CL Richmond
CL Leander
DD McCall
DD Hammann
DD Anderson
DD Bailey
DD Lardner

Japanese ground losses:
119 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled



Airbase hits 3
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 31
Port hits 4
Port supply hits 4



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Naval bombardment of Russell Islands at 113,136

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 27 damaged
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 2 destroyed on ground
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 8 damaged
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 destroyed on ground
D3A1 Val: 11 damaged
D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed on ground
E13A1 Jake: 1 destroyed on ground

Allied Ships
CA Vincennes
CA Salt Lake City
DD Dale
DD Sterett
DD Lang
DD Benham

Japanese ground losses:
134 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 9 disabled



Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 8
Port hits 20
Port supply hits 5



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Time Surface Combat, near Lunga at 114,139, Range 19,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Takao
CA Atago
CA Maya
CA Chokai
CA Suzuya
CA Kumano
DD Takanami
DD Onami
DD Asashio
DD Michishio
DD Natsugumo
DD Kasumi
DD Yamakaze
DD Tadeshiwa

Allied Ships
SC-642, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
SC-744, Shell hits 3, and is sunk
LST-449, Shell hits 28, and is sunk


Allied ground losses:
Guns lost 8 (6 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Vehicles lost 120 (94 destroyed, 26 disabled)
[:@]

A good day in the air...

how many of these Spitfire VIII do you have left?

I will step out now and state that the quality of his pilots, especially fighters, is getting worse as his losses mount. Right now you are fighting a numbers game, IMO. Tojo and M3a are still very good planes, but the losses show it may now be about pilot skills.

KUDOS!! [&o]

Does anyone think that Rader might attempt a massive evacuation or withdrawal in late March-early April if he still hasn't attained air superiority? He's got to know that once the Hellcats will get involved he won't be able to win with numbers alone.