New AAR - but not as good as Snigbert's

[IChristie]

23 Oct - The Washington and South Dakota demonstrate why they are called "fast" battleships. They beat the Yamato and co. to the corner and sweep southward and eastward.

IN Luganville roads, as the grey dawn rises lookouts on board the Japanese Cruisers of the heavy covering force raise the alarm:

"Enemy ships in harbour".

Chin Lee has arrived in Luganville roads. Before him he sees a bay littered with 3000 ton transports madly ferrying supplies to the beach. Steaming full speed toward him the cruisers of the heavy covering force, turrets already swinging to bear. Off to to port, light cruisers and destroyers, madly closing the range and readying their long lances.

Far away to the north the largest battleship in the world and the two twins are burning all available fuel as they steam to the rescue. OVer the horizon to the south, bomber crews in Port Vila rush to their Bettys and Kates ready to take to the air in a desperate attempt to even the odds.

Behind him the pride of the once proud Pacific Fleet. Two shiny new battleships, three heavy cruisers and a pack of hungry destroyers...

The battle of Luganville roads is about to begin

(am I dragging this out enough for ya?)

[Ron Saueracker]

Grrr...don't toy with me, the Sens just screwed the pooch with another example why you should never give chicken bones to your dog. Played great for three periods then play badminton on skates in overtime. Here we go again. Well, at least my Canucks kicked some Motown butt!:)

[IChristie]

Grrr...don't toy with me,

This from the guy who started the "UV RELEASED" thread. The rest of the guys on this board all got together just now and begged me to send the next installment out by e-mail... to everyone except you.

[mogami]

Hi, Are you sure it is Washington and N Carolina, Where is the South Dakoda?

'Intercepted this message from US radio transmissions

"Stand aside, I'm coming through. This is Ching Lee."




Mogami's cyrstal ball reveals

"Veil lifted on Victor in Luganville Battle"
U.S. Identifies "Battleship X"
Washington, Oct. 2 (1943)-(U.P.)

The Navy today identified its famous battleship "X" as the 35,000-ton South Dakota. This was the ship, commanded by Capt. Thomas L. Gatch, which sent three Japanese cruisers to the bottom within a matter of minutes during the battle of Luganvulle last November. The South Dakota previously had slugged safely through the heaviest air attack yet made on a battleship, sending 32 Japanese planes down in flames. The Navy in revealing the name explained that the vessel's identity was withheld because it was of a new class of battleships bearing new armament and possessing increased fire power. The idea was that the Navy did not want to give the enemy confirmed information

[Ron Saueracker]

Boy, that's a bummer. Can I help it if people have fallen for that same April Fools gag (albeit it about a month early)? Where's that arty spirit and loyalty. UBIQUE means everywhere, not everywhere but here.:p

[IChristie]

UBIQUE means everywhere, not everywhere but here

Unless your talking about engineers in which case it means all over the effing place.

Mogami, Oooops! you are correct it was South Dakota

[Ron Saueracker]

I wonder if this forum crashes at 10,000 views? Doesn't look like the field can handle 5 digits. You're a star Iain!:D

[mogami]

Hi, Capt Gatch is an intersting story, The South Dakoda crew was rarly allowed off the pier in ports since he did not require them to get haircuts or even wear uniforms. So port commanders had the SP's haul them back to the ship whenever they tried to leave. Capt Gatch solved the problem not by cleaning up his crew but by having massive parties right on the pier. (Beerblasts and cookouts) The SD was a rust bucket (a new rust bucket?) because he believed coats of paint would burn in battle so he did not paint the ship. He concentrated on damage control and gunfire. S.E. Morrison does not bother to mention his name since the other commanding officers all disliked his methods of command. (they called his crew 'the bums') To this day it is a mistake to mention him or his command practices as examples to be copied.
The SD carried it's float plane into it's first battle and it caught fire from a Japanese hit. The ship had a few bad minutes while they jettisoned the burning craft and put the fire out. Then they went to work. Both Capt and crew balled their eyes out when he was relieved and a new CO took over. He cleaned them up and put them back into the regular navy and painted the ship.

That was the real reason the Navy with held the story till after a change of command and paint job. since they did not want to publish pictures of this ship and crew as victors.

[IChristie]

Well, I was thinking of waiting until it hit 10K before posting the next bit, but I'm just not THAT sadistic.

Our story continues:

As the range between the heavy covering force and the BB's closes. The PV bombers put in an appearance. Fighting through the flak they manage to put a bomb into the CA Minneapolis.

As the bombers disappear back over the horizon the naval battle begins. Badly outnumbered the cruisers of the heavy covering force start by concentrating on their opposite numbers - the US heavy cruisers. They score immediate hits and both US cruisers start to burn. The elation is short lived, however, as first Washington and then South Dakota find the range. In a separate action the Japanese destroyers give the US screen everything they can handle.

Just as disaster seems to be overwhelming the heavies and the convoy seems in reach, the Washington turns hard a port and pulls away. The light cruisers and destroyers of the light covering force, threatening from the flank open fire as they close to torpedo range. Suddenly the surface of the bay is alive with torpedo tracks. Caught between the hammer and the anvil the Washington is torpedoed once. The South Dakota manages to avoid the torpedo attack and turn its guns on the light cruisers, the flag ship Nagara is all but cut in half be two direct hits.

But the chaos caused by the torpedo attack eventually decides the contest. The US task force is in disarray. Sharp actions continue amongst the destroyer screens. The badly damaged US cruisers are easy targets and they are hit repeatedly. The San Francisco also takes a torpedo hit.

As the battlewagons withdraw to regroup wireless reports indicate that PBY's have spotted the Yamato task force steaming south at full speed. Knowing this and the fact that the bombers from PV must be refuelling a waiting for a chance to pounce on his battered command Admiral Lee turns his back on the columns of smoke rising from Luganville sound and starts the dash for safe haven at Noumea

The heavily damaged cruisers and one of the destroyers drop quickly astern.

On the morning of 24 October they are only 100 miles off Port Vila when they are spotted by land based patrols. Within the hour the ominous black dots begin to fill the eastern horizon. Wave after wave of twin engine torpedo bombers attack across the water. Dive bombers fill the sky. Like black flies on a Muskoka spring day they swarm the wounded ships. They do not miss. The San Francisco alone is torpedoed 5 times. By nightfall a spreading oil slick is all that is left of all three ships...

The two battleships and the remaining destroyer screen make port at Noumea. As they near the port flight after flight of F4F fighters join the Combat Air Patrol over the ships. Exhausted sailors slump against the AA mounts and breathe a sigh of relief

Back in Luganville harbour the Yamato task force steams into to a scene of wreckage and bedlam. Smoking and listing ships litter the outer roads but the unloading continues apace in the bay.

The overall cost is 1 CL completely disabled, 3 CA's and a 2 CL's badly damaged several DD's damaged and one DD sunk. Overall a heavy toll but also a great victory as not one transport was touched...

[mogami]

Whew? A near run thing. If I was the US player and this happened to me I would be using Kleenex galore.
You don't often get chances like that.

[Ron Saueracker]

Surely, the USN is down and out now. There can't be much left.

[ftwarrior]

How is it that the Wash and SD got past the Yamato a SECOND time while exiting L'ville?????

It's certainly plausible that they got by Yamato's group the first time on the way in to L'ville, but I'm a little surprised that Yamato's group was unable to close while the US ships were in the middle of the engagement there.

Not only that, but once slipping by them again, they outraced them all the way back to Noumea (or did Yamato give up)?

Iain, what were the distances and speeds involved here? If Yamoto is THAT lethargic, I can see why Yamamoto basically used it as his floating office building only!!!

[IChristie]

In the first case the Yamato was not moving to Luganville but patrolling South of the US TF location. Although they were to react to the enemy the US TF managed to avoid detections as the first time it was located was when it showed up in Luganville at the end of the day.

I immediately sent the Yamato to Luganville, but they were at max range and probably did not arrive until the next morning by which time the US BB's were long gone.

At this time, the Yamato TF group is down to around 23-25 kts because of a variety of minor system damage (including a couple of non-critical bomb hits). The US BB's are probably steaming at 30-32 as they are (were) fresh.

[ftwarrior]

Okay, I guess the Yamoto's skipper shouldn't be beheaded just yet....man I was really hoping for a knock down drag out between those two surface groups.

Not saying you should do this, but consider the following? Those big dogs running around (quickly!) scare me for L'ville. How about planting Yamato very close by on station to screen? 3 reasons:

1) I think the Gods smiled on L'ville last time....need to prevent that in the future.....if it does operation Total Victory may not be toast, but it'll be pretty crunchy.

2) You have plenty of other naval assets relative to US, so Yamato's group (or part of it) won't be THAT sorely missed

3) Stationing Yamato's group will give it a productive task, yet keep its fuel consumption to a minimum.

Thoughts?

[IChristie]

I was also thinking of doing this:

- Rewind the tape to the night of 22 Oct (I've been saving every turn).
- Order Yamato & co. to Luganville instead of patrol.
- See what happens!

[mogami]

Hi, Yes do it, we can always pick back up here but all of us starving viewers will have a massive surface battle feast. Then post the battle report blow by blow

[ftwarrior]

Concur, but if the AI is stochastic (is it?) I don't think it will guarantee that they'll go into L'ville again.

Wonder if Ymto TF was sighted, and that's how they knew to go southeast around you and then decided to stop off and pound L'ville while "in the neighborhood"?

They always seemed just one step ahead of your big boys throughout the episode.

[madflava13]

Quick Q-
Do you ever get any warning that you've been spotted? (ie "Enemy PBY sighted, etc.)

[ftwarrior]

I don't know how it is in the game, but IMHO you should NOT be notified that you were observed.

However, if that PBY can see you, then you should have a least a chance of observing him as well.

Also, that PBY must report what he saw....unless he flies all the way home with the news (thereby delaying it an additional X hours), he has to call it in. Such signals (even if coded) should be able to be detected (though not understood if encoded) by anyone who happens to be listening.

I posted a couple of questions about Radio Transmissions and SIGINT on anther thread, but haven't seen answers to them.

[ratster]

Being informed on whether or not a friendly task force has been sighted by the enemy isn't really that usefull given the scale of the game.

12 hour phases where you can only enter orders every 24 hours(2 phases), doesn't really allow you to react to that type of intelligence. If a freindly TF is sighted it'll most likely be attacked (if it can be) before you could react to the news (change its orders).