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ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

14 hexes distant? Maybe, but more likely not.

I count 11 if he moves to the point that is shown by the path. Pretty sure he said he was moving the CV's.

Falling behind in the AAR again. I'm up to the 24 Oct turn so we've still be pumping out turns...

16 Oct 43

Sub War

The I-27 torpedoed an xAK on the route heading SW into Pearl. I heard sinking sounds but no confirmation.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

The only excitement (if you want to call it that) was 123x 2E sorties over Wewak. He’s targeting the troops there. With little to no supply, they’ll eventually die off.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Sweeps over Akyab and Ledo today. Akyab netted 7 Hurricanes for 1 Tojo and Ledo cost 2 Franks for 5 various enemy fighters.

China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

The Ki-84r Frank R&D advanced to 1/45 (will become operational 2/44).

Ryujo’s refit completed today.

17 Oct 43

Sub War
5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Wewak’s troops received about 120x 2E sorties.

Still a waiting game here. His carriers are tooling around near Manus successfully avoiding my subs and my carriers are moving around so his subs don’t catch me. I see APAs here and there. I think he’s loading the 1 Marine Division out of Kavieng as the invasion force. I’m forming a line of subs to the west of Kavieng and another to the east of Wewak to intercept them, but he has ASW TFs all over the place hunting my subs constantly.

I had a bombardment fleet of 2 BB and a couple CLs that moved into position to hit Manus tomorrow. I didn’t know he had SBD-5s at Manus and that they have a long range. Kitakami took a thousand pounder. She’s a tough old bird and will head back to Truk for repairs. The remainder of the TF will bombard tomorrow.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Sweeps of Cox’s Bazaar today netting 8 fighters at a cost of 2 Tojos.

A sweep of Ledo cleared out the enemy fighters paving the way for two bombing runs totaling 60 Helens. They destroyed a couple of planes on the ground, damaged about 2 dozen more and caused moderate damage to the airfield.

China

I have a total (right now) of 21 infantry and 1 tank divisions available for the Chungking assault. I’m resting most of them but leave at least 6 in Chungking at all times. I figure I can attack with 11 divisions at a time (about 5k AV) and just keep cycling the two armies for more frequent attacks.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: Junyo-3 returned, 9 Jills, will be assigned to Nisshin.

I got confirmation that the xAP Moreton Bay was sunk off Rangiroa by sub on 12/21/42.

18 Oct 43

Sub War

The I-16 torpedoed and damaged an AK SW of Pearl. Later in the day, she put her down for good.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Same ole thing. Bunches of 2E bombers hit Wewak’s garrison and both carrier groups wandered around tempting the other to move in range.

The BB bombardment group hit Manus today and did basically nothing. No damage to infrastructure at all. Sheesh. [8|]

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Four more Allied fighters were taken out at Cox’s Bazaar. No sweep of Ledo, due to weather I suspect.

China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

The AKA Formalhaut was confirmed sunk by IJN gunfire at Namatanai on 8/19/43.

19 Oct 43

Sub War

Good day for the IJN ASW fleet (but not so much for other parts of the IJN – see below).

The E Hirado sank the Amberjack a couple hexes south of Tokyo. Finally. She was causing all kinds of problems there lately.

The E Hado hit Growler twice with depth charges off Babeldaob. That’s my hub for stuff from the southern SRA as well as where I’m keeping a good chunk of the Imperial Fleet including KB2 (KB1 is under repair at Truk and KB3 is stationed at Saipan).

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Those nasty Allied subs finally caught up with KB (2 and 3) to the NE of Hollandia. Not sure if it was one or two different subs but one after another Bowfin put 2 torpedoes into Soryu and Balo put 3 torpedoes into Zuikaku. Of course that happened early in the turn so I had to sit through the rest of the turn hoping I didn’t hear any sinking sounds (I didn’t). Anyway, I had some decisions to make. My first thought was to send them to Babeldaob, but I figured Ted would think that’s where I sent them (and I was right, he did, and flooded the area with subs). The second thought was to send them to Saipan, but that was pretty far away. Finally, I settled on Ulithi. The port is only level 3, but it was only 12 hexes away. Soryu isn’t in too bad a shape and can travel at 6/2 but Zuikaku is hurting and can only move at 2/1. Here’s their damage:

Soryu: 26-40(28)-1-0
Zuikaku: 32-64(51)-33(19)-1

I put them into separate TFs and sent Soryu at full speed toward Ulithi. She was 1 hex away on 20 Oct and safely made port the next day and was never spotted.

Zuikaku, on the other hand, was a dilemma. Four days to port. I could reduce that to 3 by moving at full speed, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk. I set her at cruise speed with a 2 DD escort and a 4 DD ASW TF following her and hoped for the best. On 20 Oct, she was spotted with a DL of 1/1 and never seen again after that. She made port on 23 Oct. I sent 2 ARs and a naval HQ to assist in the repairs. They made it the same time as Soryu.

KB2 (Shokaku) and KB3 (Katsuragi, Amagi and Unryu) headed at full speed to the NE into open waters. On 20 Oct they were next to an Allied sub but not spotted. After that, they zig zagged to the NW and eventually made Babeldaob unseen.

Yeah, that was stupid. But I can’t let him invade with impunity. It looked like he was going to invade. He didn’t though. Not sure why, but I suspect there’s a good reason. I think he’s worried about my subs (there are over a dozen in the area).

Anyway, at this point my carriers are running north screaming like little girls.

On a “good” note, Kaga’s repairs are top priority (set at critical) and will be complete in a week. Akagi’s are set at normal and will be done in 55 days (actually half that once Kaga is repaired and Akagi is set to critical. They both are currently at Truk.

Akagi: 39-7(7)-8-0
Kaga: 5-1(1)-2(2)-0

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

At Akyab, I exchanged 6 Hurricanes for 3 Tojos.

Ledo was hit by the Helens again. I had planned on resting them and just sweeping but forgot to do it. Ted had reinforced the fighters there. It ended up costing me 18 Helens and a Frank for 3 P-40N5s shot down along with another destroyed on the ground and 4 damaged, and 3 transports destroyed on the ground. More moderate damage to the airfield too.

China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Nothing to report.

close call!

[X(][X(][X(]

Oh yeah. Now I'm down to 4 CVs (with 4 more damaged to one extent or another). Here's the damage report as of 24 Oct 43:

Akagi: 36-7(7)-8-0, Truk, 48 days to repair, will be around half that once Kaga is repaired and the focus is centered on her.
Kaga: 4-0-0-0, Truk, 2 days to repair.
Soryu: 11-28(28)-0-0, Ulithi, 11 days for temporary repairs then will steam to the Home Islands for complete repairs. Focus is on her right now.
Zuikaku: 32-51(51)-31(19)-0, Ulithi, 43 days for temporary repairs, will probably be cut in half when Soryu leaves and focus is on her.

I have a host of little carriers split among Saipan, Babeldaob and Ambon. Little op going on at Ambon AO that I'll get to. It may amount to a little bit of harassment down there. Ted started it though. You'll hear about that in a bit.

I've been looking at my ship production schedule. I'll post it in a little while (probably after I catch up on the AAR). I just sent the 24 Oct turn to Ted so I still have a bit of catching up to do.

20 Oct 43

Sub War

The I-36 caught a supply convoy just off Vava’u and sank two xAKs.

I’ve had RO-33 sitting off Perth for a long time looking for a convoy to attack. I’ve been wondering if it was worth it when the DD Arunta showed up in her periscope today. A couple torpedoes later, down went the Arunta. [:D]

Not a bad day for my subs today!

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

The bombing of Wewak continues.

Nothing else going on other than my carriers running north screaming like little girls. [:D] Ted’s carriers are happy to tool around a few hexes to the NW of Manus. One of my subs intersected with the carriers but didn’t take a shot and was not seen by the US TF. Figures. [8|]

SRA

Now I know what some of Ted’s 4E bombers are doing. 31x B-24D1s went after the oil at Babo and destroyed all 20. [:(] So it begins. I moved some A6M5s to Boela (25 oil and some resources). I need something better there but there just isn’t anything available in this area. I need to scrounge some good IJA fighters to shoot those bombers full of holes. I’m pretty sure they’re coming from Merauke, by the way. If that’s true, then nothing other than Babo and Boela are in range.

Burma

Guess what I forgot to do? Yep, the Helens went into Ledo again, this time without fighter support. [8|] A couple dozen didn’t go home. They did destroy a few planes on the ground and damaged half a dozen, while causing more airfield damage. That airfield is out of commission, but probably not for long given all the Allied engineers all over the place.

China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

The B6N2a R&D advanced to 2/44 (will become operational 12/43).

The DMS Trevor was confirmed sunk at Adak on 5/6/43 by a carrier based Judy.

21 Oct 43

Sub War

The Oboro allegedly hit the Skate with a DC off Truk. Truk is swamped with Allied subs right now. I suspect Ted knows Akagi and Kaga are there. Just more targets for me!

Overall though, it wasn’t a good day for the IJN ASW forces. W-17 (off Truk), E Maeshima (off Adak), and CHa-48 (off Nagoya) were torpedoed and sunk by US subs.

Ouch.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Nothing to report other than the daily bombing of the Wewak garrison.

SRA

39x B-24s bombed the utterly destroyed oil fields at Babo. Heh, heh, heh…

Burma
China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: 34 Road Construction Company rebuilt.

Zuikaku, on the other hand, was a dilemma. Four days to port. I could reduce that to 3 by moving at full speed, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk. I set her at cruise speed with a 2 DD escort and a 4 DD ASW TF following her and hoped for the best. On 20 Oct, she was spotted with a DL of 1/1 and never seen again after that. She made port on 23 Oct. I sent 2 ARs and a naval HQ to assist in the repairs. They made it the same time as Soryu.

I think you did this backwards. I would have the ASW TF being "followed" by your Escort TF. Then, I would have made sure the ASW TF was the lower numbered TF. Hopefully, if any action does occur, the lower ID is attacked first. If you had a CL available, I would have put it with your damaged CV and set its FP group on 100% ASW or NavS (with patrol arcs) to increase the DL on any lurking subs.

Yeah, that's what I've always heard, Michael. I'm always afraid that the ASW TF will leave the carrier behind.

Here's my remaining ship construction (as of 24 Oct 43):

CVs: Kasagi, Aso & Ikoma, 30 Aug 44, accelerated, will arrive mid-March 44
Taiho 8 Dec 44, normal, will be accelerated eventually. Well, maybe.

CVL: None

CVE: Kaiyo, arriving 29 days, 24 air capacity
Shinyo, arriving 51 days, 33 air capacity

CL: Sakawa, arriving 1 Dec 44
Yahagi, arriving 65 days

DD: 6x Yugumos accelerated, (first ones arriving in 3, 8, 12 days), 6 more normal
2x Akitsukis acclelerated, 8 more normal
76x small DDs, all normal
I accelerate DDs as they become available.

APD: 28 (T-1 through T-28)

xAP: one left, arriving in 87 days

xAK: 10 building, with 451 stopped, future TKs

AO: 4 more, 2 small and 2x 8k capacity

TK: 36 building and 97 stopped

SS: 44 building (30 Glen, 4x short ranged RO, 10 long ranged RO) and 72 (transport types) stopped

Patrol: 473 various ASW and MTB/MGB basically

LST/D: 1 LSD and 50 small LST

Well, that’s it for the rest of the IJN. I’ll eventually accelerate the Taiho and will accelerate all DDs when they can accelerate. I’ll accelerate the E patrol craft soon too. You can never have too many ASW vessels.

22 Oct 43

Sub War

A Dutch sub ate a depth charge off Balikpapan. That was in retaliation for something she did that will be discussed below.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

More bombing of Wewak’s “troops”. Not much left.

The US carriers are hanging out at Manus now.

SRA

That rotten Dutch sub had dropped off a handful of mines at Balikpapan yesterday (forgot to mention it), probably hoping to hit a TK. One was hit by a PB, which will survive. Today, an AMc started clearing the mines, and promptly hit one and went down. The report said that 8 mines were cleared. I wonder if that included the one she hit? [:D]

Burma
China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

958 Ku T-8, 6 floatplanes, rebuilt.
45 Independent AA Gun Company, rebuilt.
TK Munakata Maru, Type-1 TM (8150 capacity).

Pretty boring turn, actually.

23 Oct 43

Sub War

The Scorpion hit and sank the Ayanami (Fubuki class) off Truk. I’m down to 11 (of 19) of this class remaining. This has been my workhorse for surface and ASW action throughout the war in the SE Fleet AO.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Wewak bombed again.

Manus’ airfield reached level 6. [:(]

SRA

Yesterday, I decided to bombard Merauke to try and smack around some of his 4E bombers (and long range recon planes) on the ground. I sent two different bombardment TFs, one of 3 CAs and the other of 2 BBs. They were both 9 hexes from Merauke, and neither was spotted. Were his recon planes looking in the wrong direction? If so, they were looking north, for my carriers.

At any rate, the plan was to send in the CAs and move the BBs to 7 hexes out so they could hit Merauke again the next day, hopefully killing some of those damaged bombers and recon planes.

But, I can see a small invasion TF (maybe) with an AP and a few escorts a couple hexes NE of Darwin headed NW. I couldn’t pass that up. I sent the CAs to Merauke (per the plan) but sent the BBs to try and intercept the little TF. In addition, I sortied MKB2 (4 CVLs) composed of 30 Zeros, 30 Jills, 27 Judies and 27 Vals (the last remaining carrier based Vals). They were sent to a point 8 hexes from Darwin (known to have fighters) with all planes set at a 7 hex range (6 for Vals).

I’m hoping to sink me a loaded transport and break me some Allied bombers and recon planes. Here’s why:

28 B-24s hit Boela’s oil field damaging 18 of the 25 oil fields.

Burma
China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Zuikaku safely made Ulithi today.

24 Oct 43

Sub War

I still have over a dozen subs around Manus and Wewak constantly moving to remain alive so they can take out some carriers or loaded transports. The I-184 took a depth charge sending her back to Truk for repairs.

Edit: I missed one. A (rare) unescorted xAK near Soerabaja was attacked on the surface by the Dutch O23. My little cargo ship pumped a 12 cm shell into the sub, and she submerged and vacated the area. [:D]

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

The Allied 2E bombers took out the remnants of the Wewak garrison, the 4 South Seas Garrison and 58 JNAF AF Unit. They’ll be rebuilt.

SRA

The Nachi, Haguro and Myoko bombarded Merauke overnight. It was a very nice bombardment:

Night Naval bombardment of Merauke at 89,124 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
B-24D1 Liberator: 46 damaged
B-24J Liberator: 17 damaged
PB2Y-3 Coronado: 19 damaged
PB2Y-3 Coronado: 1 destroyed on ground
B-24D Liberator: 4 damaged

3 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
CA Nachi
CA Haguro
CA Myoko

Allied ground losses:
57 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 21 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled

Airbase hits 20
Runway hits 40

E15K1 Norm acting as spotter for CA Nachi
3rd Marine Defense Battalion firing at CA Nachi
CA Nachi firing at 3rd Marine Defense Battalion
F1M2 Pete acting as spotter for CA Haguro
CA Haguro firing at Merauke
CA Myoko firing at Merauke

The BB TF missed the little amph TF it was targeting. The US TF is now in Darwin. The BBs will bombard Darwin hoping to get the ships too.

The Nachi has 22 engine damage, I think from a CD gun. Only a few shell were fired, but maybe they got lucky. Nachi is going back to Ambon (and eventually to Soerabaja for complete repairs). The rest of the TF will hit Merauke again to try and kill some of those damaged bombers.

Burma

Nothing to report.

China

I now have 11 fully rested and 100% strength divisions for my next attack. Some of them are still headed to Chungking. The attack will commence in a few days. By then, the other 11 divisions should be ready to go for the next attack.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: 33 Road Construction Company rebuilt.

The Ki-43-IV Oscar R&D advanced to 10/44 (will become operational 2/44).
The Ki-84r Frank R&D advanced to 12/44 (will become operational 2/44).

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Here's my remaining ship construction (as of 24 Oct 43):

CVs: Kasagi, Aso & Ikoma, 30 Aug 44, accelerated, will arrive mid-March 44
Taiho 8 Dec 44, normal, will be accelerated eventually. Well, maybe.

CVL: None

CVE: Kaiyo, arriving 29 days, 24 air capacity
Shinyo, arriving 51 days, 33 air capacity

CL: Sakawa, arriving 1 Dec 44
Yahagi, arriving 65 days

DD: 6x Yugumos accelerated, (first ones arriving in 3, 8, 12 days), 6 more normal
2x Akitsukis acclelerated, 8 more normal
76x small DDs, all normal
I accelerate DDs as they become available.

APD: 28 (T-1 through T-28)

xAP: one left, arriving in 87 days

xAK: 10 building, with 451 stopped, future TKs

AO: 4 more, 2 small and 2x 8k capacity

TK: 36 building and 97 stopped

SS: 44 building (30 Glen, 4x short ranged RO, 10 long ranged RO) and 72 (transport types) stopped

Patrol: 473 various ASW and MTB/MGB basically

LST/D: 1 LSD and 50 small LST

Well, that’s it for the rest of the IJN. I’ll eventually accelerate the Taiho and will accelerate all DDs when they can accelerate. I’ll accelerate the E patrol craft soon too. You can never have too many ASW vessels.

Some thoughts:


SST: generally useless, but I rekcon building ten or so is well worthwhile. Using them en masse to pump supply into frontline bases can be pretty nifty at prolonging island battles. If the DEI gets cut off you can base them out of your fuel centers and have them sustain frontline islands with minimal Allied interdiction. Just don't overdo them beyond their niche worth...

E-class: These ships I've developed a love for - if the IJN had stuck Long Lances on them they'd be outstanding platforms. They're not fast, nor exceptionally well armed, but you've lots of them. Get a critical mass of them and send them at an Allied invasion and you're assured to get some decent return on the investment. Sure, for every hundred that you send, 90 will die to Fletchers or other Allied surface combatants, but if 10 of them get in amongst an invasion force...

China: Don't be afraid to get divisions trashed in big multi-division attacks. The more combat your units see, the better. Avoid outright destroyed squads, naturally, but disablements make a unit cheaper to buy out, and you can drive experience through the roof by kerb-stomping the Chinese.

Burning all that fuel to use 10 SSTs to drop 180 supply...

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Burning all that fuel to use 10 SSTs to drop 180 supply...

...makes sense when it's sitting pooled in the DEI unable to get back to Japan.

I'd take 180 supply on a frontline island that 20k sitting useless in Pbang.

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Oh yeah. Now I'm down to 4 CVs (with 4 more damaged to one extent or another). Here's the damage report as of 24 Oct 43:

Akagi: 36-7(7)-8-0, Truk, 48 days to repair, will be around half that once Kaga is repaired and the focus is centered on her.
Kaga: 4-0-0-0, Truk, 2 days to repair.
Soryu: 11-28(28)-0-0, Ulithi, 11 days for temporary repairs then will steam to the Home Islands for complete repairs. Focus is on her right now.
Zuikaku: 32-51(51)-31(19)-0, Ulithi, 43 days for temporary repairs, will probably be cut in half when Soryu leaves and focus is on her.

When did Japanese damage control get so good?

ORIGINAL: Zorch

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Oh yeah. Now I'm down to 4 CVs (with 4 more damaged to one extent or another). Here's the damage report as of 24 Oct 43:

Akagi: 36-7(7)-8-0, Truk, 48 days to repair, will be around half that once Kaga is repaired and the focus is centered on her.
Kaga: 4-0-0-0, Truk, 2 days to repair.
Soryu: 11-28(28)-0-0, Ulithi, 11 days for temporary repairs then will steam to the Home Islands for complete repairs. Focus is on her right now.
Zuikaku: 32-51(51)-31(19)-0, Ulithi, 43 days for temporary repairs, will probably be cut in half when Soryu leaves and focus is on her.

When did Japanese damage control get so good?

It isn't bad when you micromanage the repairs. I have only 1 ship set to critical and everything else is normal or low. One at a time, especially when we're talking CVs.

Edit: ARs and naval support help a lot too.