July 27th-28th 1944
The Great "Annoying" Battle
After destroying yet another Japanese cruiser and shooting down 300 planes for 75 losses (not shown in above post), Rev Rico sent me the following message saying he can't even slow me down, just "annoy". In an almost prophetic way, things immediately turned against me the next two days. One day of horribly inaccurate bombing, one day of no bombing because of weather. But at sea it was far far worse. My attempt to bombard Hokkodate has completely backfired:
Night Time Surface Combat, near Hakodate at 119,53, Range 8,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
DD Suzunami
DD Kuroshio, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Arare
DD Samidare, Shell hits 1
DD Umikaze, Shell hits 3, on fire
Allied Ships
BB Nevada, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1
BB Oklahoma, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
BB Arizona
BB California, Shell hits 4
CL Adelaide, Shell hits 4
DD Halford, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Hall, Shell hits 1
DD McCord
DD John Rodgers, Shell hits 1
DD Wadleigh
DD Hobby
DD John D. Ford
DD Peary
Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions and 39% moonlight: 11,000 yards
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Sub attack near Hakodate at 120,53
Japanese Ships
SS I-19, hits 1
Allied Ships
BB New Mexico, Torpedo hits 1
BB Valiant
BB Mississippi
DD O'Bannon
DD Cushing II
DD Allen
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Sub attack near Hakodate at 120,53
Japanese Ships
SS I-23, hits 1
Allied Ships
BB New Mexico, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
BB Valiant
BB Mississippi
DD O'Bannon
DD Cushing II
DD Allen
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Night Naval bombardment of Hakodate at 119,53 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
72 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Allied Ships
BB California, Shell hits 27, on fire
BB Arizona
Japanese ground losses:
68 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
OS2U-3 Kingfisher acting as spotter for BB California
BB California firing at Hakodate Fortress
Hakodate Fortress firing at BB California
BB Arizona firing at 36th Division
The strait south of Hokkaido has turned into a hotbed of MTBs, subs, mines, destroyers. All of the most "annoying" things that can still harm me. Clearly, this bombardment was a terrible idea and I am in the process of trying to clear subs and ships before pulling back. Two BBs heavily damaged and one lightly damaged by torpedoes. But sending in CVs to aid in the ASW was a bad idea:
Sub attack near Kushiro at 123,54
Japanese Ships
SS I-19, hits 1
Allied Ships
CV Enterprise, Torpedo hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Alabama
BC Repulse
DD Frazier
DD Chauncey
DD Warrington
DD McCook
DD Endicott
DD Satterlee
The fleet was well protected by Fletchers but that didn't stop the
CV Enterprise from going down! I did get sink or heavily damage a number of subs but that's hardly a consolation prize against losing the
CV Enterprise.
And the attack on the ground did NOT go well:
Ground combat at Hakodate (119,53)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 71484 troops, 1502 guns, 1242 vehicles, Assault Value = 2163
Defending force 67663 troops, 766 guns, 348 vehicles, Assault Value = 1912
Allied adjusted assault: 1773
Japanese adjusted defense: 9021
Allied assault odds: 1 to 5 (fort level 6)
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(+), experience(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
1179 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 140 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 35 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 30 disabled
Guns lost 45 (7 destroyed, 38 disabled)
Vehicles lost 11 (2 destroyed, 9 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
6685 casualties reported
Squads: 25 destroyed, 693 disabled
Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 102 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 45 disabled
Guns lost 140 (3 destroyed, 137 disabled)
Vehicles lost 71 (4 destroyed, 67 disabled)
Assaulting units:
93rd Infantry Division
38th Infantry Division
4th Marine Division
2nd Marine Division
767th Tank Battalion
41st Infantry Division
18th Canadian Brigade
11th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
2/16th Field Regiment
XIV Corps Artillery
XI US Corps
XI Corps Artillery
148th Field Artillery Battalion
Sixth US Army
225th Field Artillery Battalion
33rd Medium Regiment
Defending units:
7th Division
IJA Edo Brigade
71st Division
77th Division
36th Division
53rd Ind.Mixed Brigade
Hakodate Fortress
141st AA Regiment
55th JAAF AF Bn
1st Air Division
21st Field AF Construction Battalion
1st JAAF AF Bn
134th AA Regiment
5th Area Army
53rd Const Co
73rd Field AA Battalion
31st Air Defense AA Regiment
49th JAAF AF Bn
12th Field AF Construction Battalion
27th Army
77th JAAF AF Bn
I think my strategy needs to be changed. I won't be able to take Hokadate unless I can cut off the supply by taking the landing on the other side of the strait in Honshu. I made the mistake of not allocating enough troops to plan for my planned invasion spot initially so I am still at least a month away from that landing.
Therefore, I think it would be wise for me to concentrate on defeating Japan strategically instead of tactically supporting Hokadate with firepower which proved too costly. I will attempt to use my CVs to cover BB bombardments of coastal bases in conjunction with my strategic bombing campaign. This delay in operations could actually be a good thing in that the Japanese fighter factories to be too heavily destroyed to replace losses that will inevitably occur.
