Dutch AVP Arend: Scenario 1 Exploits

[BBfanboy]

Training a secondary skill does promote Experience faster than continuing to increase the main skill. Alfred told us in a post that selecting "general training" is the fastest way to get Experience up to about 50. After that I presume operational experience, including combat, (like flying CAP or any other mission) is the best way to raise experience.

[WEXF]

A report came in that the Japanese Patrol Boat Syozui that had been hit by a torpedo previously was hit again by SS-KVIII. Damage was reported as critical and sounds of a ship sinking were included in the combat animation.

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PB Syozui is actually a pretty important ship within the middle tier of vessels. An Ansyu PB Class ship worth 10 VP. These ships are well armed, reasonably fast, long range and much more useful than other Japanese PB of Kiso and To'su Classes.

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[WEXF]

The report on the progress made in repairing O23, DD Evertsen and Arend were excellent although a bit puzzling.
Arend received 28 of the possible 30 repair points available from the Perth SY and now stands at 0-45-0 29(70%)=41.4. The only thing that does not make sense to command is why the estimate of the number of days needed for repair of Arend if she remains in the yard is only 29. There must be a part of the process that I do not yet fully understand. The Perth SY just does not generate the number of repair points needed to do the repairs in 29 days!

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Results on O23 were exceptional but also puzzling. O23 used the AR to work on the 5 major engine damage. Engine damage was reduced from 5>3 with 17(30%)=56.7. O23 therefore received about 55 repair points (the amount that roughly has been needed) to go from 5>4 and another 55 to go from 4>3. That is 110. O23 is also 17 repair points toward going from 3>2 so the total received this turn is 127. In Ship Repair 101 the number of repair points generated by a repair ship is said to be 83. Since the only place O23 could have received repair points is from the AR there must be more to the equation than I currently understand! Notice the "X" by Readiness and Pierside indicating that no additional repairs can be done on O23 using those repair methods.

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DD Evertsen took full advantage of repairing at Pier Side and eliminated the 2 systems damage. If I did the numbers right Evertsen received 94 repair points. The only remaining damage are 2 points of major engine damage and they can only be addressed in the SY or by the AR. That is why there is no progress shown toward the next repair.

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Going forward the decision has been made to leave O23 with the AR to address the remaining engine damage, leave Arend in the SY and move Evertsen into the yard to address the final 2 points of major engine damage. The estimate is that it will only take 1 day but I am skeptical. We will see.

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[WEXF]

LCDR Gorek and the other officers at Perth were given some more details on the plan to bolster the defenses in northern and western Australia. In addition to the transfer of command of Cunderdin to ABDA, the entire Australian 8th Division had also been transferred to ABDA. This unit is quite fragmented with two brigades just starting the rebuilding process after the loss of Singapore. These brigades, the 22nd and 27th currently have less than 5AV so the process will take some time. The Lark BN is also likely to take time to join the division in a meaningful way, but the process has started. The objective is not to reform the 8th Division quickly, but rather position its components throughout western Australia to assist in building defenses. When the decision is made to go on the offensive, the 8th Division will be reformed.

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Details were provided on the status of the 22nd Brigade. Based at Sydney the only "devices" they currently have are an AIF Infantry Section, an AIF Combat Engineer, a Vickers Section, several small guns and some support troops. Reinforcements and upgrades are pending and have been authorized.

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It was stressed that the 22nd Brigade was actually a very strong unit with an impressive TOE with over 120 AV and supporting weaponry. The key is time and the availability of the needed "devices". The process has started!
The = sign by AIF Inf indicates that an upgrade is available. Looking at the details of what is available for Australian units it shows that AIF Inf Sections 42 are available now. The improvement is marginal as no increase in their ability against armor is indicated. There is some improvement of their ability to engage soft targets. Notice also that there are no improvements in the engineers until 1943. At that time the ability of the engineers to fight against armor increases 3x. The 43 infantry increases its ability to fight armor by 5x. Things will get better!

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[WEXF]

As orders were about to be written for 5May42 LCDR Gorek stopped by the communications office and checked on the progress of TF236 and the training of the pilots that were headed to his command. The xAK now only had 200 tons of supplies remaining to be unloaded. That would be completed in only a single day. When that is done the TF will be converted to "air transport" and load the float plane headed to Perth.
Training of the pilots on "ASW" has resulted in PO Caruthers improving that skill from 14>16. Progress but nowhere near where he needs to be to be effective. With some luck he will reach 18 before the TF leaves for Perth. Further training will have to wait while he is in transit. That should not be a problem as Arend will need some more time in the SY before being ready for assignment.

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There was lots of excitement in the officer's mess as news of some very interesting air activity by the Brits and Dutch was the current scuttlebutt.

[WEXF]

The briefing on the air activity was called for in late afternoon so LCDR Gorek checked on the progress of the ship repairs that were ongoing.
DD Evertsen had shared the SY with Arend, both at "normal". Evertsen had only 2 major engine damage and it was somewhat of a surprise that all of the damage had been repaired. DD Evertsen had been returned to service. The surprise was that previously Evertsen had required 47 repair points to remove a single point of damage. As she entered the SY no progress had been made on the remaining engine damage. If Gorek's (mine) understanding of the repair process was correct it would have taken roughly 94 repair points to do the job. Since the SY at Perth is only able to deliver 30 repair points a day, something just doesn't add up! That is especially true as Arend was also in the SY.

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AVP Arend had previously been at 0-45-0 29(70%)=41.4. Today's report has her at 0-44-0 6(14%)=42.8. That calculates to Arend having received 18.4 repair points from the SY. Previously Arend had been receiving around 27 repair points from the yard when she was the only ship being worked on. It makes sense that the other repair points went to Evertsen but the totals do not add up. Either the SY delivered more than the maximum of 30 repair points it was considered capable of (not likely), or Evertsen received repair points from a source other than the SY (not clear how that could happen given "Ship Repair 101", or the number of repair points needed to finish the job was much lower than 47/point.
Also notice that the screen shows that Arend needs only 28 more days to complete the repairs on the 44 remaining flotation damage. That also does not make the numbers work. If Arend needs roughly 42 RP to repair a point of damage the SY can not do the job in 28 days by delivering only a max of 30 points/day. 28x30=840. 44x42=1848. There has to be more to the equation?

Work on O23 progressed as expected with the AR delivering 61.7 repair points and reducing damage on O23 from 0-16-3 17(30%)=56.7 to 0-16-2 22(40%)=55. It looks like it will take another few days to complete the work capable of being done by the AR. O23 will then need the SY.

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[WEXF]

In the above screens you may have noticed that a new ship has appeared in Perth. DD Fortune, an F Class British destroyer just arrived with 8-0-1 damage. As her damage is not very heavy she will be set to repair at pier side until the system damage is taken care of. By that time the AR should be available to deal with the single point of major engine damage if the port of Perth can't do the job alone.
DD Fortune is scheduled to be withdrawn in about 10 months but she will remain at Perth for now to perform ASW patrols.

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Going forward the repairs at Perth will have DD Fortune at Pier Side, O23 alone using the AR and Arend alone in the SY.

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[WEXF]

The anticipated briefing on recent air activity was due to start but was only going to cover activity by the Dutch. Details on the missions of the British were still sketchy and a briefing on them would be delayed. LCDR Gorek was OK with that as his main interest was what was happening to those he just might have served with.
He knew that the Dutch had always been flying the 139WH-3 Medium bomber. That was a decent plane but it was lightly armed, carried a relatively small bomb load and was not very fast. All in all it was really inferior. It was no match for the Japanese fighters, but it was all the Dutch had. Recently, some B-25C Mitchell bombers had been made available and a number of them were now being flown by Dutch pilots in an Australian Squadron. More of the Dutch Mitchell bombers were actually used to fill out an American squadron. The scuttlebutt about the meeting was that this was the first time that Mitchell bombers flown by Dutch pilots and assigned to Dutch Squadrons were in combat.
The Mitchells were better than the 139WH in many ways. Gorek took some time to look over the specs for the two planes. Wow! A much larger bomb load, a much more durable plane with armor, 3x the defensive firepower, 50 MPH faster, almost 50% greater range and all that was traded off was a bit of maneuverability and about a maximum altitude of a 1000 feet less.

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Details were shown of the attack. 8 Mitchell bombers from 2 squadrons dropped 48 500# bombs on the city and resource center of Bandjermasin across the Java Sea from Soerabaja. No enemy fighter CAP was encountered and no Mitchells were destroyed. Weather was terrible but despite thunderstorms in the target area 2 hits were reported on the resource center from an altitude of only 3000 feet (coal production).

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Some recon after the mission showed that the coal fields had been hit 3 times. The actual numbers are unclear but the crews had a lot to be proud of. The raid would not make a difference in the overall picture but morale would be much higher at the local watering holes!

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[WEXF]

The recon report also showed that there was likely only a single enemy unit at Bandjermasin and that it contained 2560 troops, 20 guns and 2 AFVs.

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Gorek did some further checking and found out that the enemy had invaded there on 25 April and taken the base on 27 April. In that ground battle the enemy was thought to have had 1538 troops, 19 guns and 2 vehicles. The enemy unit that took the base was identified as the Sasebo 8th SNLF.
That unit fits perfectly with all of the data. There are 11 AAMG in the unit with 7 being 7.7mm T99 and 4 of the heavier 13.2mm T93.

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Goerk dug a bit deeper and found that the 7.7mm T99 had a ceiling of only 2100 feet but the 13.2mm T93 had a ceiling of 3200 feet. It looked to Gorek that the attacking bombers decided to fly above the lighter gun's range but were willing to be at the top of the heavier guns ceiling in order to improve the chances of hitting their target. Clearly flying at 3000 feet was a decision made with intel in mind!

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[WEXF]

It was known that there were 3 squadrons of bombers at Soerabaja and Gorek had a pretty good sense of which units took part in the raid but he was interested in digging a bit deeper.

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Was there a way to know which pilots had flown on the mission? In WITP-AE there is a way!
Checking the pilot screens for the squadrons before and after the raid shows the five pilots in 3-VIGIII and the 3 in 2-VIGII that increased the number of missions flown by 1. There are also related increases in pilot fatigue for these pilots. A drop in pilot fatigue for pilots that did not fly the mission can also be seen (blue). Why the third squadron (WH-1 Pat) did not fly is not known but there are numerous die rolls that have to be passed for the planes to take off. One bad roll is enough to keep the planes on the ground.

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[WEXF]

Gorek couldn't help thinking about the future when his ship would be fully repaired and the floatplane had arrived. He wondered where he would be sent and what his mission would be. Sure he would likely be providing sea plane support to some air units at some unknown location but where was a mystery. Gorek had never had a plane on his ship. He wondered what types of planes he would be required to service and how he would determine when they needed servicing? Would he be the one to make that decision or would it be made by the squadron commanders or an even higher authority? He came to the conclusion that regardless of who was going to make the decision, he had better understand the details behind "aircraft fatigue". He decided to dig even deeper into the information on the recent bomber raid.
He was able to find the records that detailed the airframe fatigue on the Mitchell bombers before and after the raid. He knew that the planes had flown 7 hexes (280 miles) each way and had encountered some severe weather along the way. The records showed that the amount of fatigue each airframe had suffered varied somewhat within a range of 0-10 and he knew that an airframe that reached a fatigue of 50 would stand a good chance of being grounded for maintenance.
In looking at the records he also noticed that one of the planes had received 1 point of "damage" from the mission. He couldn't tell if it was from enemy AA or just operational.

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It was also clear that if the mission was to be repeated there was a very good chance that additional planes would make the trip.

[WEXF]

The briefing on the airstrikes by British Squadrons in Burma revealed that in two days of multiple low level missions by a variety of twin engine bombers from three different bases, significant damage was done to the oil fields and refinery at Magwe. Some details will be provided but security concerns will prevent the identification of the actual units and bases taking part in the missions.
Since the Japanese had been advancing deeper into Burma it was thought that attacking these facilities needed to be a priority. Although it is not likely that these attacks will stop the enemy advance, it will make it more difficult to fully supply troops in the region.

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[WEXF]

The officers at Perth were not told that the attacks on Magwe had caused some concern at India Command. The attack was made at the very low altitude of 1000 feet exposing the aircraft to all enemy AA and requiring the planes to carry a reduced bomb load. The details available in the combat report were fairly accurate but subject to FOG.
There were two squadrons of Wellington 1c bombers in the raid, one flying from Chittagong (No. 60 Sq) and the other from Imphal (No. 215 Sq).

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A close look at No. 215 squadron's pilot screen shows the degree of FOW in the combat report and some very interesting details on the mission.
There were actually 15 planes from 215 Squadron in the raid. The pilots of those planes are shown marked with purple and red. The info was obtained by checking the number of missions flown by all of the pilots before and after the raid. The two pilots marked in red (Bell and Mackridge) are not listed in the pilot roster after the raid and are assumed to be shot down and likely KIA. The pilots marked in blue did not show an increase in "missions flown".
Notice that the squadron has pretty OK experience in "Ground Bombing" but terrible skill in "LowG". Also notice that the unit had been training for "Naval Search". This was WO Bell's first mission and Mackridge's second. Almost all of the pilots had no actual combat missions under their belts.
It is interesting that several of the pilots that did not fly the mission still gained some skill in "LowG".
Details on the other squadrons taking part in the raid were similar, indicating that the attack was ordered knowing that there would likely be a high risk to the pilots.
India command was evaluating the data and deciding whether an additional attack should be ordered.

[BBfanboy]

Also consider the replacement pool available. You get very few Wellingtons early on. Their bomb load and range are like the B-17 but they are much more fragile against flak and fighters. They should be used against very soft targets. Magwe would have been a good target if the Wellies flew high enough to avoid the machine cannon flak. I favour the 7K-9K range.

[WEXF]

Also consider the replacement pool available. You get very few Wellingtons early on. Their bomb load and range are like the B-17 but they are much more fragile against flak and fighters. They should be used against very soft targets. Magwe would have been a good target if the Wellies flew high enough to avoid the machine cannon flak. I favour the 7K-9K range.

Very good advice. I had already made the decisions on the next missions and did adjust the altitude. I set it at 4000 as I decided that I wanted to get above all of the AAMG that I knew was in the region. I also sent in some recon aircraft to really get the detection as high as I could. I also placed the weakest pilots in each squadron on "group reserve" trying to get the most experienced and least fatigued pilots in the air.
Time will tell how it comes out.
Thanks for the advice.

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[WEXF]

Reports of a second successful bombing raid on Bandjermasin had everyone excited. Scuttlebutt had 13 Mitchells from 2 squadrons dropping 39000 pounds of bombs on the coal fields. Intel was that the coal production had been reduced by about 60%. Weather was more favorable for this raid.

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[WEXF]

LCDR Gorek (me) was a bit confused by some of the data he collected on the raid. He knew that there were 3 squadrons of Mitchell bombers at Soerabaja. Strangly only 2 had taken part in the raids. For some reason none of the planes from WH-1 Patrouille has flown. All 3 squadrons had recently converted to Mitchells and WH-1 had fewer than the other squadrons. What was also a bit confusing was that the morale of the pilots that took part in the raids had dropped as a result of the missions but the morale in WH-1 has remained extremely high. Gorek thought that was strange. He thought that the pilots who had finally had the opportunity to strike back at the enemy would have high morale while those that did not make the raid would be disappointed. Perhaps the increased fatigue had something to do with the morale ratings? Following the second strike all three squadrons were at full strength and wondering if there would be a 3rd strike and if there was one who would fly the mission?

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[BBfanboy]

There are two big hits on morale - loss of pilots in action or taking on new pilots with poor morale numbers. The increase in your number of bombers suggests the latter.

[WEXF]

There are two big hits on morale - loss of pilots in action or taking on new pilots with poor morale numbers. The increase in your number of bombers suggests the latter.

The number of pilots in the squadrons that show decreased morale did not change, so there must be another reason. None were lost and none were added. There are 13 and 11 pilots in the two squadrons in each screen.

[WEXF]

It was time to check in on the progress of the repair work at Perth.
All had gone as expected with Arend receiving 27 repair points from the shipyard. She had been at 6(14%)=42.8 and was now at 33(80%)=41.3. Very consistent data but still unclear how all repairs could be done in the forecast 27 days. Time will tell!
O23 received 55 repair points from the AR. She was 0-16-2 22(40%)=55 and is now at 0-16-1 22(40%)=55. [Not an error-the numbers are the same].

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It looks like it will only take another day of work from the AR to repair the remaining engine damage.
DD Fortune received 263 repair points at Pier Side. She was at 8-0-1 30(61%)=49.2. She is now at 3-0-1 48(97%)=49.5. It appears that another day at PS will take care of the remaining system damage. At that point she will be transferred to work with the AR to deal with the major engine problem before returning to duty.
Excellent news was received about the movement of the TF bringing the float plane to Arend.
TF236 had completed unloading, was converted to an "Air Transport" mission and loaded No. 700 squadron for the trip to Perth.

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Progress on training of the pilots had continued with PO Caruthers reaching 18 skill level for ASW, up from 16.

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