Revenge of the Enterprise

[DesertWolf101]

December 18

Submarines

I-157 launches two torpedoes at AK Whangpu near Batavia but misses. I-154 to the north of I-157 does not miss however and sends AVP Poolster to the bottom.

S-36 attempted to hit AK Yoneyama Maru that was likely part of a resupply convoy at Laoag but missed, receiving moderate damage in return from 9 depth charge hits from the escorts.

Philippines

Japanese Fast Transports continued to bring Japanese reinforcements into Iba. I needed to throw the Japanese here into the sea before they regained their strength or were reinforced from other landing sites.

Japanese naval bombers struck Cebu airfield in the morning, followed up later there by another Japanese landing in the Philippines as well as yet another at San Jose just to the northwest of Cebu.

Thinking that he may have pulled the CAP of his ships by now, I brought back some Catalinas and Seagulls to Manila and sent them after the Iba landings. They were met by still robust CAP however and were smacked around silly. I ultimately lost more than ten US Navy planes with this attempt.

I followed up this loss with a badly judged attack on Japanese troops arriving in Manila. At little cost to his two infantry and single engineer regiments there, I lost 1,422 casualties in the attack. This hurt as it significantly weakened my defense of the city.

Another shock attack went in at Iba were I destroyed yet another Japanese artillery unit.

Malaya

I had previously attempted to have some of my shipping escape via the Malacca Strait to the north. I thought I might have gotten away with it but the vessels were detected as they arrived just west of Georgetown and a series of torpedo carrying Nettie ways devastated them, sending 5 valuable AKs and an escorting destroyer to a watery grave.

Georgetown falls to the Japanese

Java

My opponent made a mistake here by allowing 12 of his Kates to go after shpping in the Soerabaja hex where I had strong CAP. 9 of his Kates were lost to the CAP and flak. Unfortunately, I did not have any CAP up at Batavia where Kates put two 250kg bombs into the fleeing AP Dominion Monarch that had thought it had finally made it to safety, leaving her with heavy fires.

The slower and much smaller CMc Pro Patria was caught further out to sea in the north by other Kates and quickly went down with three torpedo hits.

I attempted to strike back at his light carriers with an escorted strike of 139WH-3 aircraft but the Dutch bombers once again failed to hit the nimble carrier.

China

With the battle of Ichang over, my opponent shifted the brunt of his still heavily escorted bombers towards pummeling Chengchow, which was now clearly the focus of a large Japanese offensive crossing the river just to the south.

Likely feeling the pressure of my advancing armies to the north of the river and desiring to end things quickly here, the Japanese launched another shock attack on my blocking troops just east of Changsha. Despite his slightly superior AV, my troops held their ground and gave a bloody nose to my opponent. For the cost of 1,627 casualties, 4,780 were inflicted on the Japanese, including the destruction of an armored car company.

A probing attack at Sinyang by my advanced guard finds only the lagging 52nd Road Construction Company there. The town is already evacuated by the Japanese!

------

A mixed bag this turn, with some exhilarating successes in China tempered by some heavy losses and debacles elsewhere. With Sinyang already under control, I made the decision to follow the Japanese into Hankow.....

[DesertWolf101]

The situation in China

[DesertWolf101]

December 19

Submarines

North of Kuching, O19 sinks AKL Raizan Maru with a torpedo hit.

Java Sea

My opponent had been running naval task forces all over the Java Sea like it was a pond in his backyard. I had excellent search capabilities covering the area however, and a very good picture of where his forces were. An opening emerged when his heavy battleship and cruiser task forces pulled farther north leaving the CVL Ryujo group isolated further to the southeast. I quickly assembled a very large cruiser task force with a few destroyers for protection against submarines, gave the cruiser squadron an excellent commander, and set them at full speed towards the Ryujo force. They connected during the day and focused their extensive firepower on the light carrier. Despite the best efforts of the Ryujo’s escort of a heavy cruiser and four destroyers, she was left a complete wreck with 52 hits, heavy fires, and heavy damage. None of my vessels suffered significant damage. My first ever carrier victim of the game slid beneath the waves a short while later, taking her complement of aircraft with her.

Philippines

Japanese naval bombers pounded the isolated 51st PA Infantry Division at Lucena.

A few Kingfisher floatplanes flew in from Puerto Princessa to hit his landing force at San Jose, delivering a single 250lb bomb into the AMC Saigon Maru. I set the B-17Ds still at Cagayan on naval attack duty hoping they would go after the ongoing landings at either Cebu or San Jose. They instead went for the heavy cruisers all the way north off the coast of Iba. I scored no hits, and lost a couple of the bombers to battle damage from flak and the Zeros on CAP.

It turns out my foolish attack in Manila was a blessing in disguise. Thinking that my forces there were now spent, my opponent launched a shock attack to take the city without waiting for the Japanese reinforcements I could see were on their way. Luckily for me, some much-needed reinforcements arrived from Clark just in time to bolster the defense. It was the Japanese turn to take heavy losses here, with 1,300 casualties for less than 200 of mine. This should buy me some more time to keep pushing at Iba, where I weakened the Japanese further with another attack.

Japanese forces storm Cebu and San Jose and capture them.

Malaya

Japanese mobile regiments take Taiping, pursuing the fleeing rearguard detachments further south.

China

Japanese IJA bombers, as always with heavy Zero escort, struck my troops emerging from Ichang, inflicting casualties and slowing them down. My own Chinese bombers hit the 37th Division north of Loyang in an attempt to slow it down.

The Japanese, with a brigade and a regiment, shock attacked the 52nd Chinese Corps just across the border from Vietnam near Lang Son. The Chinese corps was well dug in however and held its own, inflicting almost 2,000 casualties for only a couple hundred losses sustained.

South West Pacific

The Japanese in this area had concentrated on landing troops on the north coast of New Guinea and the islands north of Rabaul such as at Kavieng and Manus. Tonight the Japanese advanced further with a landing coming ashore at Lae. I had placed numerous Australian and American Catalinas on naval attack duty and they repeatedly went in to disrupt the landings but missed.

---------

My opponent sent me a statement with the turn, congratulating me on doing well, but also warning me that things will change

I was happy with how things were developing, but was a bit frustrated that I could not replicate the success achieved by my Catalinas in the Philippines with the strikes in New Guinea. My intelligence also detected an incoming invasion of Rabaul, which my recon had already begun to sight. I had however moved the Enterprise strike force into the Coral Sea, and made plans to send a squadron of dive bombers of its decks to Rabaul to more effectively hit the incoming transports. The Enterprise group itself was reinforced with a large detachment of Australian cruisers and went close to Milne Bay.

[BBfanboy]

Nice job on that intercept of Ryujo! IIRC, that is the biggest of Japan's CVLs.
You may be a newbie at this PBEM GC game, but you seem to have a clear idea of what is important. Naval search to identify enemy weaknesses or threats is one of them. Well played!

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Nice job on that intercept of Ryujo! IIRC, that is the biggest of Japan's CVLs.
You may be a newbie at this PBEM GC game, but you seem to have a clear idea of what is important. Naval search to identify enemy weaknesses or threats is one of them. Well played!

Thank you!

Speaking of naval search, I did often wonder whether night time naval search suffers reduced effectiveness relative to daytime search. Do you or anyone else happen to know the answer to that?

[DesertWolf101]

December 20

Submarines

Nothing of note.

SW Pacific

The Japanese landing force arrived at Rabaul, where my 6inch guns went into action shredding AKL Eiwa Maru. A Japanese Patrol Boat also took heavy damage due to a hit from a minefield I had previously placed in the hex.

The SBD-2 squadron I dispatched to Rabaul from the Enterprise joined in on the action, inflicting 437 casualties by wrecking two AKs and moderately damaging two others. They came in again later in the afternoon finishing off the damaged ships and knocking out another 938 casualties.

In the meantime, I sent a second SBD-2 squadron from the Enterprise to Port Moresby, from where it took off and struck the Lae landing force, heavily damaging and likely sinking 4 or 5 AKs. 14 Catalinas coming in the afternoon to add to the destruction at Lae once again failed to score any hits however. The Japanese landed enough forces at Lae to take the base during the turn.

Philippines

Another shock attack at Iba – my troops were starting to get very tired, forcing me to cycle through the units as some continue attacking while the others rest.

Malaya

An Oscar sweep came over Singapore finding no opposition. My Buffalo fighters were instead LRCAPing Mersing but they missed the incoming bombers there due to the weather and flying too high.

Java Sea

My opponent rushed naval forces to where I had sunk his light carrier but my cruisers were long gone. The Japanese however did find four AKLs, an AK, and an AVP that they quickly put under.

China

Air recon must have shown my opponent that I had some aircraft at Changsha as he sent in the heavily escorted IJA bombers to pound the airfield. 6 Chinese I-15III fighters rose up to meet him and despite their inferior planes and numbers traded even kills with the Zeros.

------

My SBDs did a solid job but I had hoped my Catalinas would do better. I decided to move the Enterprise group closer next to Port Moresby to within range of my TBD squadron still on board to pack a final heavy punch. I did note that the Enterprise task force had been sighted this turn, but I had relatively good search over the area and was not too bothered by it.

[DanielAClark]

...and here comes the Kido Butai...

[DesertWolf101]

You guessed it!

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: DesertWolf101

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Nice job on that intercept of Ryujo! IIRC, that is the biggest of Japan's CVLs.
You may be a newbie at this PBEM GC game, but you seem to have a clear idea of what is important. Naval search to identify enemy weaknesses or threats is one of them. Well played!

Thank you!

Speaking of naval search, I did often wonder whether night time naval search suffers reduced effectiveness relative to daytime search. Do you or anyone else happen to know the answer to that?

Mechanics wise there are a lot of differences, and there is different types of detection levels. Night search only flies once, while day search flies twice. Night time search is super important, imho.

[DesertWolf101]

December 21

Submarines

S-39 attempted to hit a Japanese convoy landing reinforcements at Laoag but was sighted by the escorts and heavily pounded with depth charges. The poor submarine was eventually forced to the surface and finished off with gunfire.

SW Pacific

Disaster. Out of nowhere, the KB showed up next to Gasmata, just within range of the Enterprise group next to Port Moresby. A massive Japanese raid came in the morning to be met by the single defending Wildcat squadron of 23 fighters. Despite a valiant defense by my Wildcats that managed to push through the 44 escorting Zeros and down eight bombers, exactly 50 Vals and 100 Kates were left to dive in on my ships.

CV Enterprise was hit with two 250kg bombs and a torpedo, leaving her with heavy fires. Heavy cruisers Northampton and Chester were sunk outright with three torpedo hits each, while heavy cruiser Salt Lake City, and Canberra suffered extensive damage. Light cruiser Perth took a torpedo hit, and DD Ellet was sunk with three bomb hits.

My SBD squadrons, who started the turn back aboard the Enterprise, now went in for his carriers. They had no escort however, and 35 defending Zeros massacred the 18 dive-bombers of the first wave and the 16 dive-bombers of the second wave.

I also had a supply/troop convoy unloading at Port Moresby, and this convoy now faced the wrath of a smaller force of about 50 Kates and Vals, I would eventually lose a dozen AKs here, an AP, a tanker, and a few small escorts.

The action packed morning phase of the battle ended with the late arrival of 20 unescorted Vals to hit the Enterprise. 14 Wildcats were still in the air and shot 19 of them down. The sole surviving Val missed.

In the afternoon, the KB sent another large strike package against me. Due to the Enterprise’s damaged state, the Wildcats had diverted to Port Moresby so the KB’s planes were met with no opposition. The already heavily damaged Salt Lake City and Canberra were finished off, light cruiser Perth was left a wreck, the last heavy cruiser Louisville was put in a sinking state, destroyer Gridley ate a torpedo, and worst of all, the Enterprise was finished off under a barrage of bombs and torpedoes.

The Japanese take Rabaul with a shock attack.

Philippines

My last two PT boats went out again from Manila towards Iba where they encountered a Japanese surface force that included three cruisers. Completely outmatched, the PT boats nevertheless charged in and put a torpedo into the CA Maya.

Malaya

24 Ki-43-Ic fighters swept Singapore today and mauled the 33 Buffalos that were there to meet them. I lost about 10 fighters for only a few Oscars.

Borneo

Over the last few turns I have been trying to get my Bleheim bombers at Singapore to conduct night bombing raids on Sinkawang. Some of them finally got through this turn destroying two Zeros on the ground.

China

My opponent went again for Changsha, where 9 I-15III fighters faced him. For only a couple of I-15s lost, we knocked out several escorting Zeros.

Yet another Japanese attack goes in against my steadfast Chinese army in the Changsha sector. A 1:2 result in my favor leads to 4,555 Japanese casualties for 1,657 Chinese.

------

This was a very tough turn for me. I thought I was doing well only to quickly suffer a severe defeat. Clearly this newbie had a lot to learn.

[Lowpe]

KB showing up there is very common...

Did Japan have DL on Enterprise a day before?

[Jorge_Stanbury]

question is what is the status of Enterprise? that is the only ship that really matters

can it still run away? you should at least try

early war it is better to hide the USN carriers, as they are the primary targets

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

KB showing up there is very common...

Did Japan have DL on Enterprise a day before?

Yes it did. I foolishly went brought it forward anyways.

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

question is what is the status of Enterprise? that is the only ship that really matters

can it still run away? you should at least try

early war it is better to hide the USN carriers, as they are the primary targets

The Enterprise was finished off - it sank.

[DesertWolf101]

Battle Assessment

I wish I could place all the blame of this heavy defeat on my inexperience. In my opinion however, I think the bulk of the reasons behind it were due to intelligence failure, very flawed decision making, and my opponent’s relative competence in comparison.

I did not know where the KB was. That in itself implied that it could very well be in the sector. In fact, it made perfect sense that it would be here to support the massive Japanese landing forces at Lae and Rabaul. This operational intelligence failure was compounded by some gaps in my tactical intelligence picture. I did not know that a carrier could move as far as the KB did in a single turn, and having failed to detect the KB in the area immediately around Rabaul, I thought that the Enterprise would be perfectly safe near Port Morseby. Finally, I should have taken the detection level on the Enterprise group a lot more seriously.

There were a lot of terrible decisions taken on my part. First, I further weakened my intelligence picture. Given the presence of my valuable warships in the area, I should have kept the Catalinas focused on search over the previous turns instead of deviating a large number of them to naval attack. Second, I decided to risk important warships for very questionable gains. I already was doing well pounding the convoys from Port Moresby, adding in marginal extra firepower to the event with the TBD squadron was absolutely not worth even a relatively small amount of risk. Third, I packed too many cruisers with the Enterprise when there was really no need to have that many in the same task force.

Finally, I think my opponent did an admirable job keeping his KB out of sight to draw me in. He only committed it at full speed when he knew my carrier force was present even with the added threat to his transports.

[Jorge_Stanbury]

you live and learn [:)]

unless he makes a mistake or there is a lucky torpedo leveling the field, he has now pushed serious Allied offensives to 1943

EDIT: you should had posted, beforehand, your plan of using Big E on Pt Moresby... I mean it took 36 min from your SW Pacific post for DanielAClark to notice that the KB was suspiciously missing

[Jorge_Stanbury]

your AAR should be renamed "Avenging the Enterprise"

[DesertWolf101]

ORIGINAL: Jorge_Stanbury

your AAR should be renamed "Avenging the Enterprise"

Remember this is an AAR of an already completed campaign. The title will make more sense with later events. [:)]

[Jorge_Stanbury]

oh I didn't know, I will read the beginning

did you take notes? I can barely remember the last couple weeks ago (both PBEM and personal life), definitively not something I could do [;)]

[DesertWolf101]

December 22

Submarines

Nothing of note.

SW Pacific

My opponent charged in the KB, rounding the corner around Milne Bay and arriving three hexes away from Port Moresby. His carrier aircraft proceeded to sink the few remaining stragglers from the Enterprise group and the supply convoy, the most notable of which was the light cruiser Perth. His carrier aircraft also targeted Port Moresby airfield, knocking out a few aircraft there and cratering the runaway. Luckily, only the TBD squadron was completely destroyed, as the remnants of the Wildcat and the SBD squadrons managed to land at this very airfield now under attack.

Philippines

Another one of our shock attacks destroys a Japanese artillery unit at Iba. Not much left here now.

A Japanese shock attack takes Iloilo.

Malaya

Another Oscar sweep knocks out a few of my Buffalos over Singapore.

Borneo

Since the start of the campaign I had been moving my B-17Es over the Pacific towards the fighting. They recently arrived in Java, and after a little bit of rest, went in to pound Sinkawang. 17 B-17Es were met by 29 Ki-43-1a fighters who couldn’t do much to stop them from hitting the airfield and destroying two Nell bombers on the ground.

China

Following the capture of Hong Kong, my opponent was pushing a significant army towards Kukong. 78 Sally bombers came to bomb the defenses there but were met by 8 I-16 fighters that helped disrupt their bombing runs.

My troops advancing from Ichang were a hex away from Hankow, where even more Japanese bombers hit them. China was being saturated with Japanese airpower.

-----

As all these momentous events were happening in the Coral Sea, I was busy bringing in Australian, British, and Indian Brigades into Burma. I snuck in a number of units directly into Rangoon, but as the risk mounted I shifted to bringing the rest the long way around overland from Akyab and Chittagong