Howlin' At The Moon - DBB Vettim(A) vs Greasylake (J)

[vettim89]

24-25 August 1942

Slow turns still. SS Sturgeon sinks an xAK. No troop casualties reported; so, either empty or hauling supply/resources.

The Tanna force will either arrive next turn or the turn after. Suddenly three I-Boats appear out of the mist as my TF traverse SE of Noumea. This area of ocean is under heavy surveilance by Hudsons out of both Noumea and Suva. Odd that they would all appear as my CVs and troops pass by. Could Larry have received a SigInt nugget? Corrected my error with my CVs covering the landing. They are all set to follow Enterprise's TF with Halsey in command. That TF is set to a two hex patrol zone East and NE of Tanna with reaction range of 3. At the big air battle near Noumea they were set to follow the TRANS TF with a stand off range of 1. A little nervous about this. Hopefully my troops will disembark quickly. I have them all on APs with a 150% margin of safety.

[witpqs]

This is just a guess, but maybe the concentration of float planes and carrier planes on search spotted the subs?

[vettim89]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

This is just a guess, but maybe the concentration of float planes and carrier planes on search spotted the subs?

That would be my guess but I really am learning some things about NavSearch of late. I think perhaps out at extreme ranges, say 400+ NM, it is not very effective.

26 August 1942.

TF arrives at Tanna but does not have enough ops points to unload. Will unload next turn. US CVs reveal themself by bombing Luganville's Port. Odd, I had everybody set to NavAttack/Rest. They literally did this on their own. Very odd.

Withdrew, CV Formidible this turn eight turns early. With only eight days left, I was not likely going to send the RN CVs raiding. I did drain the squadrons of all the decent pilots before sending her off.

[vettim89]

27-28 August 1942

Tanna operation went off without a hitch. I got all the troops and 13k of supply unloaded in two turns. The sole Japanese interference was that one sub penetrated Tanna harbor but was rebuffed by an ASW attack by DD Perkins (whose Torpedo/ASW officer is LT Greg Cummins!) I left about 3k of supplies loaded and ordered everybody back to Norfolk Island. I think three days in the combat zone is all I am up for right now. If I had lingered longer, the I-Boats of perhaps the IJN carriers might have become an issue.

Ramree Island AB was hit hard by Blenheims out of Comilla. I think Larry will have as much trouble keeping this base viable as I did when I held it.

Oh, and TADA! Plunger fired four duds. Then she fired her XT tubes which netted one dud and one hit. No Critical Hit message, and her close proximity to the HI pretty much assures she will make port. Still, this reduces the net Japanese CV advantage to +1 with Hiryu now offsetting Saratoga. Also, Larry's e-mail message was "back to the yard for her" implying she had just left the HI after upgrading. Perhaps she is not the only IJN CV upgrading which inclines me to push the Efate operation up. Perhaps I can run in and back out before his carrriers are back in theater. Have a few days to contemplate this.

ALso, I have been thinking about running the COY sized Commando units out to Christmas Island IO and the Cocos Islands. They would be merely a speed bump but would force Larry to commit a reasonable force to conquer those two bases. With the "buy back" feature, I can rebuild these units fairly quickly as they are quite small.

[vettim89]

29 August - 6 September 1942.

The buildup to the inevitable clash continues. Highlights of over a week by region

NoPac

Adak Island slowly being built up. I have an Inf RGT and a small BF here. Forts will be built to three before any facilities expansion on the off chance Larry comes in force and tries to take the base. No freebies on base building. The 4E from Unmak hit AMchitka twice a a week keep both AB and port damage above 50

CentPac

Very little going on here other than resupplying bases. USN subs mine Tarawa, Wake, and or Kwajalein constantly

SWPac

Exmouth continues to develop with Port maxed out at 4 and AB now at 3. I have two sq of A-24 that will move up here soon. Cooktown is also developing nicely with port at 4 and AB at 5. As more engineers arrive, I will move some overland to Coen.

DEI

Dutch continue to hold at Buitzenzorg where they have survived several Deliberate and one Shock attack. Three full IDs are tied down here. I also hold Merak. Larry used Paras to take Ternate and one base on Flores. Doesn't he have like two dozen small combat units for this duty? Don't get it

China

No movement in front lines here at all. I see daily bombings moving around the map to keep my meager CAF fighters from interfering too much. Still they have shot down over a dozen Sallys and Helens during this period.

Burma/India

Saw some units moving along the road from Shwebo toward Katha. They disappeared and have not yet reappeared. RAF is suppressing Ramree Island weekly. I ran a sweep over Shwebo a few days ago that caused the loss of 10 Ki-44IIa vs 9 Allied fighters. I only lost two pilots though. Will start pushing in this area more to try to whittle at the a/c pools a bit.

SoPac

I sent a small BF to Norfolk Island to act as an air bridge between NZ and NC. The second group of units for Tanna including AV is on its way to Norfolk Island. The US CVTF are 240 NM SSE of Norfolk Island. Oh, and the IJN is out and about. Wonder if this is a raid or more likely a drive by BOMB mission for Tanna. All units at Noumea taken off training in case the IJN wants to raid there. Don't trust the cursor intel here just yet. Hopefully will get better info next turn

[vettim89]

7 September 1942

So one CVTF morphed into three CVTF - which is exactly what I expected. Now to see what they are up to. Are they

1. On a general raid
2. Escorting an invasion TF hidden behind them or
3. Trying to intercept reinforcements to Tanna

Having done so myself, I am seriously wondering if Larry might have got a SigInt report regarding "such-and-such a units is loaded on an xAP bound for Norfolk Island". Perhaps he deduced that was a way point for units moving up the chain. Next turn will tell.

[vettim89]

8 September 1942

Getting interesting here. Cursor intel drifted again on me. This turn I get two CVTF, a SCTF, and a fourth TF that says "CA,PG,PG". That last one could be an invasion TF. I have to believe that the target is Tanna. Now whether that is an invasion or just a bombardment remains to be seen. Of note, the IJN CVs did not launch a single strike this turn. I decided I would chance an encounter here. Depending on where the IJN CVTF land, The may be in range of LBA out of Noumea. All strike a/c are set to max range of 6 so no one goes all "light brigade" on me like they did last time. I do not know if my carriers will react or not. The are set to move north with three CVTF following Enterprise's TF with Halsey as leader.

It will be an anxious nights sleep.

[vettim89]

9 September 1942

Well weather socked in my carriers which may not be a bad thing. The true nature of the IJN was three CVTF plus an invasion TF for Tanna. <y LBA out of Noumea impaled itself against the CAP. I had a few leakers but none of them scored hits. Definitely a "close but no cigar" moment. Seeing the true nature of the IJN force, I have to wonder if this was not necessarily a bad result for me. Larry failed to bring enough force to dislodge my defenders. Base AS is 113 to 61 for the good guys. I suspect the IJN units are highly disrupted. I have the 1st Marine Div 71% prepped for Tanna. I loaded up 1/3 of that division for a quick trip up. This is a long way for Larry's carriers to travel and I think they will likley have to withdraw soon to replenish. I hope to be able to time the counter move to avoid the "Death Star"

As a counter to this, I moved four CB units to LaFoy where there is a SPS 5 AB. That said, I have almost every trained air unit deployed in theater. My only option would be to strip Oz of some of its units to help out.

[vettim89]

OK so we had a monster carrier battle ESE of Norfolk Island.

Set Up

I had pulled all my units back while the IJN Death Star was hovering off Tanna. I thought they had retired to the NE last turn so I sortied the additional engineer support that was loitering at Norfolk Island plus 1/3 of 1st Marines from Auckland. I sent my CVTF back towards Tanna hoping I might catch some stragglers. So again the effectiveness of NavSearch at extreme ranges comes into question because Larry snuck two CVTF through the gap between Suva and Noumea without being detected. I am at work so I cannot post screenies. THe IJN is actually ESE of Norfolk Island with the USN 200 NM WNW of them.

We only had one set of attacks as weather seemed to come into play. I lost Hornet to 11 bomb hits and one TT. Enterprise is out of action but not in crtical condition. FOW has me confused as to which IJN ships are actually present. The Combat Report suggest Hiryu is present but there is no way she can have her TT damage repaired and make it this far South. So I discount that info. For sure I know Soryu, one or possible two Shokaku Class CVs, Junyo, Ryuho, and Shoho.

I had perfect coordination with only one strike. Larry came in one big strike and then two small unescorted Kate strikes which were anihilated. Smoke obscured Junyo, Ryuho, and Shoho after my planes departed. In addition Soryu took two 1000 lb hits both resulting in critical hits. Shokoku took one 1000 lb hit. Cursor intel suggests no carrier aircraft are flyable this turn, but I don't beleive that for a minute.

I initially rushed through the turn and was about to send it back. I rethought that and decided to finish it at lunch. Initially I moved Lex and Yorktown to a point between the IJN and Tanna. My thinking was that I could pick off some cripples. Now thinking about it, I have some concerns as Akagi and Kaga are unaccounted for at the moment. Perhaps I should slide to a point south of the IJN retreat path still hoping to get some cripples but not interposing myself into the potential path of the last of the IJN carriers that could be rushing South. I have a little over an hour to decide

[vettim89]

12 September 1942

Watched the replay twice and FOW is playing tricks on me. So when my TF was attacked I got notations for the following air groups: Junyo, Ryuho, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku, Zuikoku, Hiyo, and Hiryu. Thought occured to me that it may have been FOW a few weeks ago and either Akagi or Kaga was actually torpedoed. Here are the results of the IJN strike

CV Enterprise, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires
DD Patterson
CA Portland, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD McCall, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
CA Chester, Bomb hits 1
DD Craven, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CV Hornet, Bomb hits 11, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage (sunk)
CA San Francisco, Bomb hits 1
CA Vincennes
CA Indianapolis, Bomb hits 1
DD Gridley
CLAA Atlanta
DD Ralph Talbot
CLAA San Diego
DD Maury
CL Nashville, Bomb hits 2
DD Jarvis

Here is the results from my strike (with IJN airgroups included)

CVL Shoho, Bomb hits 1
CV Soryu, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CA Tone
BB Haruna, Bomb hits 6, on fire
CV Junyo, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
CVL Zuiho, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
CV Hiyo, Bomb hits 1
CV Shokaku, Bomb hits 1
CVL Ryujo, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVE Hosho
DD Satsuki
BB Nagato
CLAA Tatsuta

CAP engaged:
Hiryu-1 with A6M2 Zero (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(12 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 8 being recalled, 4 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 20000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 26 minutes
Zuikaku-1 with A6M2 Zero (4 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(14 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
4 plane(s) intercepting now.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 4 being recalled, 6 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 20000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 29 minutes
2 planes vectored on to bombers
Zuiho-1 with A6M2 Zero (2 airborne, 4 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(2 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 20000 , scrambling fighters between 11000 and 20000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 24 minutes
2 planes vectored on to bombers
Hiyo-1 with A6M2 Zero (0 airborne, 3 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(4 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 7 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 20000 , scrambling fighters between 17000 and 20000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 39 minutes
3 planes vectored on to bombers
5th Ku S-1 with A6M2-N Rufe (1 airborne, 4 on standby, 0 scrambling)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 16000 , scrambling fighters between 13000 and 15000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 21 minutes
2 planes vectored on to bombers
Tainan Ku S-1 Det A with A6M2 Zero (2 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 20000
Raid is overhead
Soryu-1 with A6M2 Zero (0 airborne, 7 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 3 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 20000 , scrambling fighters between 19000 and 20000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 4 minutes
Shokaku-1 with A6M2 Zero (0 airborne, 8 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 4 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 20000 , scrambling fighters between 17000 and 20000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 21 minutes
4 planes vectored on to bombers
Ryujo-1 with A6M2 Zero (0 airborne, 3 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 1 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 20000 , scrambling fighters between 13000 and 20000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 34 minutes
2 planes vectored on to bombers
Junyo-1 with A6M2 Zero (0 airborne, 7 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 3 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 20000 , scrambling fighters between 12000 and 20000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 26 minutes
4 planes vectored on to bombers
Shoho-1 with A6M2 Zero (2 airborne, 4 on standby, 0 scrambling)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 20000 , scrambling fighters between 15000 and 16000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 21 minutes
Hosho-1 with A6M2 Zero (0 airborne, 2 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 20000 , scrambling fighters between 12000 and 16000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 34 minutes
2 planes vectored on to bombers

The Three combined IJN strikes were 120 A6M2, 135 Kates, 137 Vals. Total CAP was 89 A6M2 with a few Rufe thrown in there.

Very hard to interpret who was really hear and who is wounded badly (although I think Ryuho is a goner)

[vettim89]

What to do. I initially thought about being aggressive and shoot at max speed toward Tanna to cut the IJN off, but thought better of it for fear a third CVTF might be heading south. I decided to just move a bit north where I could pick off stragglers/cripples (Hiyo came to the party and I don't know how fast that CVE can move). The question is does Larry cut and run at Full speed with his undamaged ships or does he take his chances against the weakened USN force. Both Lex and Yorktown have full complements made up of their own a/c plus fragments from Hornets groups that diverted to Norfolk Island. AN even larger group went to Noumea consiting of both Hornet and Enterprise air groups. That base is seriously overloaded.

So if the undamaged/low damaged IJN ships "get the Hell out of Dodge" I may have some easy pickings. If the try to retire as a unit, I may be in for it. Next turn should be very interesting

[vettim89]

Aircraft losses once again decidedly in the Allies favor

[vettim89]

My Damaged ships. Nobody seems to be at risk here

[witpqs]

I can't help with the decision itself, but I can add two additional considerations.

1) Could your carriers get caught by surface forces?

2) Calculated risk - would you have a better chance of inflicting damage upon the enemy or would you have a better chance of losing back the gains you just made?

Be careful, man!

[vettim89]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

I can't help with the decision itself, but I can add two additional considerations.

1) Could your carriers get caught by surface forces?

2) Calculated risk - would you have a better chance of inflicting damage upon the enemy or would you have a better chance of losing back the gains you just made?

Be careful, man!

I think I reset the move orders for the two US CVTF five times. I have my own SCTF now to offset any IJN force (the escorts of Hornet). I could have just sent everybody towards Noumea thinking I could get bonus CAP from there. In the end I decided a cautious approach to get at the cripples if they exist. My concern was how to deal with the IJN Death Star for the last month of game time. Considering Larry has got to be a bit stung right now, this may be my one and only chance. Nothing ventured, nothing gained so they say. My moving the fragments back onto my two remaining undamaged flight decks gives me a distinct advantage here. Its basically the effect of having a CVE-R in the neighborhood

Got an e-mail from Larry. Turn is in the oven cooking as we speak.

[vettim89]

Well, witpqs, I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The IJN was not nearly wounded as badly as I thought. I now have three damaged carriers and failed to score a single hit on the IJN. Yup, not one hit. No regrets, I rolled the dice and lost.

The only good news is TBFs out of Noumea wiped an invasion convoy at Efate - 900 troop losses.

Enterprise is heading to Sydney. I will get her back first. Saratoga made CT and will take 79 days to repair. Lexington is heading for Auckland then back to the WC. Yorktown is trying to make Noumea. She is the only one I am worried about. I am going to send the RN CV and CVL down. The CV witdraws in 113 days. Figure she can help out until all my USN CVs are repaired.

Now, the IJN only moved three hexes so, there are definitely some wounded ships there.

I have two choices now:

1. Strip PH of most of its defensive a/c for use in SoPac
2. Strip Oz of a/c for use in SoPac. Considering that PM is Japan's, perhaps this makes sense.

[witpqs]

You buys your ticket and you takes your chances. My hat is off to ya!

[vettim89]

14 August 1942

Yorktown is finished off by the IJN 160 nm short of Noumea. LaFoy AB is nearly level two. The IJN fleet is only moving three hexes a turn. Obviously there are some seriously damaged ships holding the speed down. I now have 17 subs layered across its retreat path which are about 50/50 S Boats and fleet boats. Moving every available 4E into theater. I am thinking that I might put together a 100+ 4E raid against the retreating Japanese. While not likely to get any hits, the damage it will do against the CAP might be helpful.

I tried to sweep Magwe from Chittagong this turn. They went in as single squadron units and got chewed up pretty badly. Very little to show for it. I have 8 units at Chittagong which is level 8 base with an air HQ and I get 0 coordination. Alas, such is the life of an AFB in late 1942. Lost 9 P-40E, 9 Hurricane IIc, and 6 P-38E offset by 9 Ki44IIa. Larry will take those odds all day.

I am really annoyed with myself. I am a much better player than my play has shown of late. Fortunately, I have only lost three CVs. I say fortuanately because it easily could have been five. My opponent has lost none. I realized a few weeks ago that the IJN Death Star was to be avoided. After coming out relatively on top after the first day of this last battle, I should have headed to the hills. The one thing I can take solace in is that I know once the IJN clears the New Hebrides, they will likely be gone for a week or more. I am getting everything set for a major move as soon as that happens.

[SqzMyLemon]

My hat is off to you for trying too. I play Japan, but kudos for fighting back with the forces at hand. It didn't go your way, but as you said...nothing ventured nothing gained. It's a fine line when to take the money and run. Payback will be that much sweeter for you when it happens.

[vettim89]

15 Sept 1942

About the time I am almost despondant about my prospects, the game gives me some encouragement. Picture is worth more than I can say. Of note, the three IJN TFs that had been sailing together have now separated into a Northern pair and a Southern singel. My guess is Junyo may have been left to the wolves.

Also, USAAF B-25C execute the first skip bombing attack of the War and rough up two xAK at Ramree Island.