Matrix Games Forums

22nd June 1942.....

Hi all,

All fleets move closer to Luganville. KB's men were today ordered at rest for the bombers with high alert for the CAP. I was expecting Werner to mass his LBA at Luganville. That didn't happen.....

However the 2 BB divisions bound for Luganville had not co-ordinated and as such were 120 miles short of their target come daybreak. They were attacked repeatedly through the day by Bostons, P39's and Forts from Luganville and Noumea. 20 x A6M from KB were flying CAP and managed to shoot down 13 of these attackers throughout the day.

No damage was received .

Tomorrow 2 x BB divisions should bombard and the invasion fleets should be within 1-2 days of unloading. KB remains on station with the Kates set to bomb Luganville airfields if no ships are found.

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I meant mention yesterday a hero was born!

PO2 J. Nomura of Bi-I Daitai aboard Soryu shot down 8 x P39 [X(] yesterday to become the leading ace in the Japanese Empire on 14 kills.

Steven

Bah, the Airacoffins should only count for half a kill each...[8D]

OOH its getting really exciting !


lets hope the can capture luganville fast, many more a/c on the runways would be great !

Good luck marshall Speedy !!

Hi all,

Thanks Rob [8D]

At 1.30 the first Japanese made shells fell on the base of Luganville. The shelling was relentless for nearly 2 hours made by 5 Battleships and 9 Cruisers. Due to it being night time and with no spotter planes out the fire was not very accurate. Approximately 15 enemy aircraft were destroyed on the ground over this 2 hour period.

The ever present mines took their toll in lightly damaging the CA Aoba and leaving a 20 metre hole in the DD Akebono who wheeled away to port listing heavily and on fire (she may not make safety).

Daylight came and brought no respite for the Americans on Luganville. Sitting well off shore the soldiers could clearly see the Japanese heavy ships patrolling the waters....waiting.......

Then on the stroke of Midday with float planes spotting overhead the dull thud of guns firing could be heard in the distance...within seconds the whistle of passing shells was heard all over the island. It seemed an eternity with explosion after explosion all around the US soldiers. Only 45 minutes had passed though........

Carnage lay all around the place. The 2nd daylight bombardment had been terrifying. 60 planes had been wrecked on the airbase and over 2000 US Soldiers were casualties......

The day was not over for Luganville. At 2.30 over 200 hundred bomb armed Kates appeared overhead escorted by 30 Zero's. Only 8 US planes rose to meet them but did succeed in shooting down 4 Zero's. The Kates however rained more death on the defenders and destroyed another 8 planes on the ground........

It was a day of hell for the US men. The first of a few to come until there eventual surrender it is hoped..........

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In total 99 Allied planes were lost today. A good haul.

All being well the first Japanese soldiers will be disembarking tomorrow. With further bombardments scheduled by Ise and Hyuga + cruisers.

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Werner appeared in his e-mail to be despondent at the sheer scale of the number of ships involved. Good good. No time for complacency though. KB will remain on alert for enemy ships.

[8D]

Hi all,

The men have started to land! [:)]

More intense action around Luganville. A couple of PT's tried to interfere but were blown out of the water by Yamato and Co.

A scary moment for Soryu when SS Pollack fired fish at here. They missed and the sub was hit by a DC [X(]

During the day there were repeated air attacks from Noumea. In total probably around about 300 enemy sorties were flown - B17's, B26's, LB30's, P40's, A20's. The Zero's did well though and a further 91 enemy planes were destroyed today (68 in the air, the rest at Luganville). No major damage was sustained by my forces - 6 AP's were hit by bombs but thats it.

The landings at Luganville were rough. A lot of mines and some CD fire have damaged 4 ships (3 AP, 1 MSW) heavily and 5000 casualties were sustained during the initial landings.

Good news though. I'm facing the following at Luganville:

Americal Division
2nd USMC Division
1 ART Rgt
1 Base Force

They will be no match to the mass of men that will be ashore within 4 days time [:)]

Scouts have detected AP's at Noumea. I think Werner is probably loading troops OUT of Noumea to save stuff. I think he realises that it's a lost cause due to the scale of forces I have bought in. I'm not moving KB down there though since the main aim is to protect the transports and I don't want to risk getting too near Noumea for now.

Hi all,

The landings progress. About 1/2 of the men are ashore now. A few more AP's and MSW's have taken CD or bomb hits which caused 1 AP and 1 MSW to sink. Casualties from landing are high though with about 16,000 reported yestreday (mainly disablements though). At least all of the mines have been swept away.

A couple of minor scares in the night. SS Pollack fired 4 more fish at CV Soryu. All missed. The DD's annoyed at this outrage located Pollack and pummled here to death.

Then 3 PT's boats attacked KB1! The escorts did their job and blew one of the scum up and the other 2 fled into the night...........

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LBA attacks have decreased since yesterday. In total only about 150 planes attacked my fleets. 26 of these were shot down but the weary Zero's lost 7 of their ranks.

Interestingly an AP TF is apparently heading NE from Noumea. Interesting. KB is moving 120 miles to a position 60 miles SW of Luganville. If the TF continues up there it will be potentially pummeled by 400 bombers.

Below showes the current land situation on Luganville...........

Now this is going to be fun.........especially if the allies decide to reinforce..........

Nice going , the casualties are high but a chance of killing a USMC div cant be missed ! .. lets hope he's coming up with more but i think that would be suicide unless very bad weather appears, even then the surface forces at luganville should eat them for brekkie

Have you and subs with planes to scout out south and west of noumea just incase he's evacuating ? if so then maybe do a high speed dash with KB and kill them at sea ! .. great way to kill troops <evil grin>..[:D]

GO SPEEDY GO >>rah rah rah ..

Hi all,

A setback today! The first of the Case Blue operation!

SS Seal snuck through the escorts and hit Akagi with a torpedo! An enormous ammo explosion soon followed. The destroyers flailed port and starboard but did not find the git. They did find SS Narwhal though trying tio repeat the feat and quickly enjoyed blowing her to bits.

Akagi is not good. 40/27/21! I have ordered her with 4 DD's to Tulagi for now. 2 AR's are moving from Truk to hopefully meet her there. I'm not sure she'll make it personally but have to try. The only other option is to hope Luganville falls and the size 2 port would help a little. Accordingly I have ordered a deliberate attack on Luganville tomorrow (about 90% of the men have landed).

[:@]

The rest of the day was routine with a couple of interfering PT's boats getting blown up and 46 Allied aircraft being destroyed for 14 Japanese.

It goes to show the strain and toll a sustained operation can have on KB. Despite having c.560 aircraft over time the wear and tear of battle have their effect. Most of the Zero Daitai are at 75-80% strength. They have performed magnificently and have prevented any serious damage from being delivered from the air but even aces can die.

Steve out.

So not only did his Mk 14's work for once, he got a hit on one of your carriers? Damn...

I know $£^%*^*^

She upto 53/34/13 and is 460 miles from Tulagi (8 hexes). Come on baby!

The first attack at Luganville went ok. Forts down to level 3. 18000 of mine vs 800 of his casualties but I outnumber him something like 5 or 6:1.

B*llocks.

Akagi is still 360 miles from Tulagi (6 hexes) nd is upto 60/48/6.

All due to 1 fatal torp hit. If anyone ever says that Japanese Damage Control is too good they'll have me to answer to [;)]

I have always considered myself to be fairly good at ASW and am now determined to wipe the scourge known as Allied submarines from the planet.

So far I have sunk 18 in this game. SS O16 joined them today and SS Stingray was hit and may also join them.

Upto 28th June 1942 now and almost all of the men are ashore. A further deliberate attack has been ordered for tomorrow.

It appears Werner is not silly enough to bring any shipping east of Noumea (other than PT's). It seems Noumea is crawling with aircraft (to be expected). If and wqhen I take Luganville I will bombard the place to dust for over a month I think. KB will be used south/west of Noumea to scout and hunt. LBA on Luganville will cover that side.

We'll see how things pan out......

Oh yeah in China and at Akyab the armies are about to move 60 miles from (Kweiyang to Chungking and from Akyab towards Dacca) tomorrow.

Akagi should make Tulagi speed 12 and only 6 hexes away.....how far away are the ARs?......

Agaki ! .. now thats what i call unlucky [:(]

Other than that .. way to go.. you will probably have to rest for quite a bit after luganville. shame its a stinky malarial swamp.

Have you got plenty of sallies and helens to fly in ?

Good luck on the sub hunt and i have fingers crossed for the agaki

Hi all,

Fabertong - They are there in port ready and waiting for Akagi. I think she'll make it to port but once there wioll she be saved?!?

She is upto 60/54/1. 4 hexes out. Come on baby just keep below 60 FLT.

Rob - Unlucky in some ways but thats war [8D]. Yes I have several Sentai and Daitai ready in Truk. Once the airfields are repaired they will fly in and KB can re-stock.

Thanks for the comments guys [:)]

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Onto the good news. Today was a very good day for the Empire. Very good.

My enhanced ASW efforts spanked 2 more of the gits. S-23 and Sealion were both sunk by DD's near Luganville. Bon voyage.......

A lot of LBA flew from Noumea today against my ships. Not 1 hit was sustained and the boys did a good job shooting down 47 enemy planes for 10 Zero's lost. PO2 Nomura (Japans leading ace) aboard Soryu scored his 17th and 18th kills today.

AND THEN................

Luganville is captured [8D]

The mass of men stormed the American positions. Fighting was bloody and very intsense. Espeically in the Marine encampment.

4000 of my men were casualties of some type but over 35,000 Americans have been rounded up. If Akagi sinks they will join her in Tulagi. If she makes it they will be buiilding a new road which I will call the 'Great New Guinea Highway' [;)]

Excellent. Excellent. Well done men.

The invasion has been tough very tough. It's taken a harder toll on men and machine than I imagined. Several of the units are between 50-65 readiness! It will take time for them to be ready for Noumea. In some ways though that works out well since I need to smash the place about a bit before invading.

The next few days are going to be focussed on repairing the port and airfields.

There are already over 250 Aviation Support on land and 100,000 tonnes of supply is to be unloaded along with 150,000 tonnes of fuel.

To keep operation sustained another 150,000 tonnes of fuel is being moved from Truk (along with 2 more HQ's to organise the chaos at Luganville). Also another 120,000 tonnes of fuel and 60,000 tonnes of supply are about to leave Japan.

The other good news is that 79 US aircraft littered the airfield.

All in all a good days work [8D]

What size is luganville ? be careful you dont waste supplies due to spoilage. cant remember the actual amount but it may well be worth checking out.

One less USMC div too .. lets hope there arent any fragments anywhere and its dead for good i think even any bits left over will take a year to rebuild and i belive that the exp will be well down on the original amount.

Hopefully the allied bombers in noumea have appaling morale right now .. also the replacements will be very poor. I'd put money on the fact that his fighter contingent in noumea is going to be pretty poor unless he's managed to sail/fly in a large p40 unit he'll probaly only have the NZ kittyhawks.. and while good planes the pilots are awful mid 50's i think.

are you thinking of rotating a few of the divs back to truk to rebuild ? will be a lot faster and you have the transports there right now too. He'd be mad to try and re-invade any time soon so long as you can get air superiority ove the area.




NICE !

Speedy -

Can you post the current stats from the Information panel? I'd like to see how your losses are comparing on both sides.

BTW - nice invasion of L'ville.

Thanks -

Dave Baranyi

Speedy -

One additional question - how high was the fortification level at L'ville?

Thanks again -

Dave Baranyi

Hi all,

Rob -

Good point on spoilage. I never really think of it [;)] In this case though it's a matter of necessity. I need as much fuel and supply as possiblre down there to maintain the offensive. There will be a lot of fleet movements (bombardments/KB sorties) and a lot of supply will be needed to maintain the troops and an air offensive.

As for air losses. From memory phase 3 of Case Blue has so far cost Werner nearing on 650 aircraft to my 140 [8D]

Recon indicates a shed load of planes at Noumea but I hope to crop these down with bombardments in the near future.

Yes good pints on the LCU's too. I am loading up about 40% of the forces landed on Luganville for restocking/training at Truk. It astill elaves about 4 divisions worth of LCU's at Luganville (all in good enough condition >80% operational).

Dave -

Luganville was at level 4 fortification when I landed. It dropped to level 3 and then fell on the next attack at 5:1 odds.

Below is the Intel screen for you. I'll also post the air losses and ship losses screen for further info.

Thanks for the comments guys [8D]

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Akagi is in Tulagi and is at 60/61/0. Come on guys save her [8D]

Luganville airfields are operational and thousands of tonnes of supply anf uel are being unloaded. Phase 1 of redeployment in underway - 4 x experienced Zero Daitai's have moved into Luganville. As such KB is to move into dock and take supply, new planes and pilots.

Air losses.......