Hairy Yankee Reports: Q-Ball (A) v Greyjoy (J)

[JocMeister]

Strange that he put the KB to guard the Solomons when you are obviously very close to jumping in to the SRA?

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Strange that he put the KB to guard the Solomons when you are obviously very close to jumping in to the SRA?

Not sure....maybe he thinks I'll try a deeper thrust somewhere.

4-25 and 4-26-43:

On the 26th Kido Butai, after loitering around Green Island off Rabaul for a few days, is gone. This is important.

I planned a move in the SRA as well as the Solomons, so I have to accelerate my plans. I would like KB to not hang around the DEI, so I have maybe 5 days to get moving now. We are going to starting loading up the wagons and moving out.

Additionally, I am sortieing my 3 Operational CVs, YORKTOWN, HORNET and WASP, and they will join VICTORIOUS. I have a plan for this force, more on that later.

Much of the USN is now putting to sea. Stay tuned, we're going to see some naval action soon.....

Darwin:

Off Darwin, and IJN Naval force is now parked about 6 hexes north of Babar. It consists of at least 2 BBs as far as I can tell, plus some sort of light CV force. I know there are CV fighters about, they jumped one of my bombing runs on Dili, shooting down some 4E.

We bombarded Samlauki and Babar again, this time both bombardments were effective from the standpoint of supply hits. Not sure what the level is on these bases, but I know that they haven't had a proper convoy in months, other than Fast Transport, and I know that's been sporadic. Unless he shipped supplies under my nose, they must be at least a little low.

We also bombed Taberfane again, as well as Lautem, to keep these bases semi-closed

Stay tuned.....

[crsutton]

The LST is the Allies wonder weapon. Once you have them in numbers then you can support any number of large airbases at level 0 and 1 ports. Kira Kira is a good example. Something the Japanese just cannot do. This is truly one of the Allies hidden advantages in the game-the ability to take virtually any base and build it up to isolate major Japanese bases. God bless the LST and the seabees!

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

The LST is the Allies wonder weapon. Once you have them in numbers then you can support any number of large airbases at level 0 and 1 ports. Kira Kira is a good example. Something the Japanese just cannot do. This is truly one of the Allies hidden advantages in the game-the ability to take virtually any base and build it up to isolate major Japanese bases. God bless the LST and the seabees!

Amen! [:)]

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Strange that he put the KB to guard the Solomons when you are obviously very close to jumping in to the SRA?

It's not really strange.

The KB is being kept at arms length from Allied LBA. An Allied advance in the Timor/Arafura Sea can be covered by LBA out of northern Australia. An Allied advance in the Solomons currently cannot be supported by LBA.

Without knowing the extent of any Allied move and therefore whether the risk/reward ratio favours risking the KB to LBA exposure, GreyJoy is taking the conservative action of parking the KB where it faces little opposition and therefore intercepting even a small Allied advance is a good risk/reward exercise.

Alfred

[goran007]

Yeah but, once allies take a base that could be developed in level 9 af its a game over. Gj doesent really have the option not to commit KB for prot. of SRA. On the other hand central pacific is irrelevant until 1944

Its an option between strategic defeat and tactical victory...

[Q-Ball]

4-29-43:

Kido Butai is sighted again off Green Island. Given this, and the fact that we can't sustain this 4E bombing campaign indefinitely, means we are pushing the GO button. This is a 6-hex jump without CV support, so this one is going to be risky!

I will not reveal my final target yet, but it's one of the 3 islands of Selaroe, Babar, and Samlauki.

We are landing though, and bringing a bunch of guys to the party; the max I can stack, actually, on those islands:

2 US Infantry Divisions
1 Marine Regt
1 Aus Tank Regt
2 Art Bns
1 HQ
2 Boat & Shore Bns

This is the max stacking, and hopefully it's enough....something like 1000 av there, with Tank and Artillery support

Tactical Plan:

It's not going to be easy, though, getting ashore clean. The one thing in my favor is that there are 3 targets, so I can likely get to the target hex for a full day before surface IJN forces intervene.

Here is my approximate tactical plan:

Day 1:
1. Advance TFs of minesweepers will park in all 3 hexes; I will CAP at least one hex, and see what kind of LBA I face, and from where.
2. 4Es will strike any concentration of bombers I spot, which will likely be at Ambon or Boela. I can't escort out that far, so I anticipate losses, but I need him to CAP those bases to waste fighter coverage
3. I will use approx. 300 fighters at Bathurst to provide LRCAP over the target, which is 5-6 hexes out. This is very risky, as LRCAP that far is spotty, but it's what I got. I hope to compensate with numbers.
4. Invasion TF will hold 2 hexes from target, between all 3 islands. Greyjoy won't know the target at this point, unless he is a good guesser.

Day 2:
1. Landing. We should land unopposed at night, unless Greyjoy can guess one out of 3. During the day, I will withdraw my warships other than PTs, and the transports will be exposed to air attacks. I will use LRCAP, but I expect to lose some transports. C'est la guerre! We have packed the forces for quick unload. Most of the stuff will get ashore on Day 2. If I have to lose some APAs, oh well.

Day 3:
IJN Surface forces will attack the landing site. We will withdraw everything except PTs, and hope Greyjoy expends all his ammo on PTs and other mish-mash useless shipping. Alternatively, I may choose to engage with my BROOKLYN and CLEVELANDS.

Day 4:
We return, and unload what's left, while he is going back to re-load

I don't really have an answer for LRCAP the site, other than wait 6 months for CV support, which I am not willing to do. So we are taking some risks.

This is not optimal, but if I want optimal, I need to wait a year. I at least know I won't face KB, and his only operational airbases are 6+ hexes from the landing site.

Moa:

To additionally conceal the location, I landed a Marine Para Bn at Moa. I do plan to run some construction troops there with all the confusion going on; this is a secondary base, but I think I can get a base going in this hex, which will help alot. I can sweep Lautem/Dili with short-range fighters from here.

Thousand Ships Bay:

A Fiji Para Bn was dropped on Thousand SHips; I am airlifting in some engineers via flying boat to build a strip.

[JohnDillworth]

2 US Infantry Divisions
1 Marine Regt
1 Aus Tank Regt
2 Art Bns
1 HQ
2 Boat & Shore Bns

Lots of punch but a bit short on base forces and engineers no?

[goran007]

Just a reminder, dont forget base force with radar:-)

Good luck...

[Schlemiel]

Couldn't engineers (though not vehicles) be delivered pretty easily by flying boat once a base is secure?

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: Schlemiel

Couldn't engineers (though not vehicles) be delivered pretty easily by flying boat once a base is secure?

Yes, but not in enough quantities to make a big difference. The reason that force is all AV is simple: There are 14,000 plus Japanese at the target. You need 2-1 at least to get a breakthrough. The stacking limit is 35,000. I need to take the base, then worry about getting engineers in.

4-30-42 to 5-1-42:

Bad couple days for the Allies, and I am thinking of cancelling this operation around Darwin. I do have a follow-on plan though to take advantage of the para drop on Moa; establishing a base there could break things open.

Day's Action:

I noticed the day before that Greyjoy had stacked Lautem with over 300 fighters. Seeing this, I shifted my cruisers to BOMBARDMENT missions on the base. The results were mixed.

It started great, with the cruisers sinking a couple DDs, and torching the airbase. Over 60 fighters were destroyed, and enough damaged that likely those units are all out of commission in the near term.

The ops points expended, though, were a killer, as SUBS took down both CA DORSETSHIRE and CL HELENA! That is the 6th and 7th cruisers I have lost to submarine. DORSETSHIRE was at least damaged from a DD torp hit, but HELENA was untouched. OUCH!

Even worse, one of my best leaders, Adm. Callaghan, went down with Helena.

I also screwed-up CAP, and Betties sank 2 transports that had Australian Tanks on board. This hurts, though not fatally.

The cruiser losses are a problem!

What Next:

The Lautem bombardment took a huge chunk out of his fighter coverage. He still has plenty of Betties around Ambon, and lots of IJN surface ships. What next?

I think I may need to cancel; I haven't addressed the airpower enough, and my target is a bit far from base. I also can antiicpate a major surface action off the target once I start to land. Not sure on this one. I can bring CVEs to Darwin, but he'll see that move coming a mile away. Not sure.

I am parking transports a couple hexes from objective, with LRCAP on. Lots of it. That will help determine his CAP settings, and allow me to rearm the cruisers to support the landings.

I also am running low on Supplies at Darwin. I can solve that problem within a month with a couple huge convoys, but it's a problem still in the near term

I have a landing on Moa, and I think I can reinforce that and get an airbase going; that would be big.

Advice?

[Q-Ball]

5-2-43:

In the words of Admiral Akhbar "It's a trap!" Unfortunately, the force didn't bail me out of this one.

Kido Butai is not off Rabaul; that CV TF I kept spotting obviously included CVs, but not all of them. He must have split them off.

Instead, I ran into several CVs off Samlauki! The result, coupled with IJN surface ships, alot of them, is another defeat for me.

Night Phase:

I was very stupid, and left my TF's unescorted at night. I didn't think Greyjoy would attack toward Darwin, and I was totally unprepared for that. My mistake!

I was lucky in that he mostly sank barges. I also lost a few AKs loaded with supplies only, which is not as big a problem.

Day Phase:

Heavy air attacks; for the most part, I fended them off, shooting down something like 150 planes. Among them were planes from SORYU and SHOKAKU. This is bad.

I will summarize total losses later; so far it's transports and AMs and little stuff that isn't a huge deal. But that could change, I still need to get everyone back to port.

Summary:

Greyjoy totally outplayed me on this one, both strategically and tactically; I should have waited for more CV support or better planes, and I did neither. Greyjoy cleverly hid the IJN, showing me only smaller squadrons. To compound my error, I mishandled the TF tactically, and he made me pay. I didn't even have planes on Nav attack settings, and they could have easily hit his TF which spent the day 4 hexes off Bathurst Is.

I really screwed this one up........

Oh well. I still, despite all this, think I'm in good position, and I know I'll turn it around

[Cap Mandrake]

Watching a big fight is almost more fun than being in it. [:)]

[ny59giants]

The problem I see come out of the Darwin area is lack of enough bases for you and too many that GreyJoy can operate from.

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

The problem I see come out of the Darwin area is lack of enough bases for you and too many that GreyJoy can operate from.

And all the bases in Oz can be will scouted ... the worst of all worlds... but Greyjoy is down here and can be interdicted with 4E's at the very least but here is not where I would want to have a fight of attrition ... maybe a secondary attack .. but not the main thrust in 1943 . for those very reasons you cite ..

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

The problem I see come out of the Darwin area is lack of enough bases for you and too many that GreyJoy can operate from.

And all the bases in Oz can be will scouted ... the worst of all worlds... but Greyjoy is down here and can be interdicted with 4E's at the very least but here is not where I would want to have a fight of attrition ... maybe a secondary attack .. but not the main thrust in 1943 . for those very reasons you cite ..

No question, and it could be that my purpose is to serve as a cautionary tale to others....

But I think the bigger problem is my impatience to get moving, coupled with Greyjoy not having to fear a large concentration of Allied CVs.

What I am really looking for is an area to advance under LBA cover. This area is risky vs. an alert opponent and Greyjoy is an alert opponent. I probably was overconfident, because I have caught him with his forces away in a few moves.

But I will still commit to an advance out of Darwin, but probably in conjunction with something else.

I need to wait until I can launch two operations at once, or launch one with so much CV support he can't counter.

As it happens, I did salvage some Lemonade out of lemons, as Greyjoy went after the remaining transports and paid for it. I'll get a summary out later tonight.

[Q-Ball]

5-3-43:

Battle off Darwin, Day 2:

Day 1 clearly went to Japan. Day 2 tipped the Allies way, as Greyjoy pressed home his attacks, but ran into a bit of a buzzsaw. It could have been much better than me, but weather prevented alot of my aircraft from flying. He had the same problem the day before, so c'est la guerre.

I had to cover the withdrawing transports, so I flooded the area north of Bathurst with PTs. I hoped to cause enough chaos to have him get held up during daytime within LBA range of Darwin. This worked, as I had most of the Japanese surface fleet, without aircover, during the day within 3 hexes of approx. 100 torpedo bombers, 80 DBs, and 200 fighters.

But, best laid plans and all.....

Night Phase:

Greyjoy sent mutliple TFs toward Darwin, and did manage to destroy some barge TFs. I was hoping to catch a TF with some CAs in it or something really juicy; alas, we only caught a TF of older CLs. Here was the first combat:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Bathurst Island at 76,121, Range 5,000 Yards

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
E13A1 Jake: 2 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CL Agano, Shell hits 9, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CL Yura, Shell hits 6, heavy fires
CL Kinu
CL Oi, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Kiyonami
E Hato
E Sagi
E Kari
E Kiji, Shell hits 1
E Kamo
CL Teshio, Shell hits 2, on fire

Allied Ships
BB Colorado, Shell hits 2
BB Royal Sovereign
BB Ramillies, Shell hits 2
CL Java, Shell hits 2
DD Cony
DD Taylor
DD Bancroft
DD Hughes
DD Aylwin
DD Worden, Shell hits 1
DD Van Nes

We hit this TF again, and eventually sank all the CLs except TISHIO, and also sank 2 modern DDs in addition. Not really what I wanted, but something.

Day Phase:

I had a pile of bombers on Nav Attack/Torp Attack, but weather was terrible, and those bombers that did fly were very haphazard. All torpedo bombers that launched, missed. The DBs didn't hit anything, but most of them failed to find a target.

The only hits were scored by a lone unit of B-25 skip bombing; they put 2 bombs into RYUHO, getting past 75 Zeros without an escort. THAT was very interesting; if that's typical of highly trained skip bombers, I need to get more LOW-N training going pronto. I'm sure that little attack was noticed.

Damage so Far:

At this point, here is the butcher's bill:

USN:
1 CA (Dorsetshire)
1 CL (Helena)
1 DD
3 APA
1 AKA
4 xAKs

IJN:
4 CLs (Agano, Oi, Kinu, Yura)
4 DDs (2 Yugumo, 2 Wakatakes)

He also lost alot of aircraft, at least 300, but for japan that 's no big deal....he can replace them. He probably did lose alot of good CV pilots though, since he lost maybe 120 CV planes.

I hated to lose the cruisers, but the rest is no big deal. The bigger deal is that I didn't get ashore anywhere, so this was a repulse, and a Japanese victory.

Next Steps:

My ships are mostly back in port. He does have to run a gauntlett of Subs and PTs back to base, so I may get lucky and sink something else. I am overdue for some sub luck, because I've had none so far. I have 1 DD that needs to run past IJN subs to make port.

[Captain Cruft]

LowN bombing at 100ft can be devastating. With fast enough planes the majority of the bombers will always get through the CAP. Then it's just down to the shipboard flak to stop them. I think that whether they skip bomb or not is irrelevant. All my testing on this has been done with Japanese fighters who don't even have the option.

[Captain Cruft]

.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

At this point, here is the butcher's bill:

USN:
1 CA (Dorsetshire)
1 CL (Helena)
1 DD
3 APA
1 AKA
4 xAKs

IJN:
4 CLs (Agano, Oi, Kinu, Yura)
4 DDs (2 Yugumo, 2 Wakatakes)

...The bigger deal is that I didn't get ashore anywhere, so this was a repulse, and a Japanese victory.

Good assessment. I would largely agree. Tactically a draw at worst, prolly more like a slight victory for you. Your ships you can replace. The 4xCL's and 2xYugumo's are essentially irreplaceable for him. Strategically though, this was an IJ win; he stopped you cold. Ouch. [:(]

But looking again at the tactical side, these are not trades he cannot continue with. 2 or 3 more of these and he will really be short of SAG and CAG screening vessels. That would bode well for you with any SAG action (he will have to keep his KB well screened, so his SAG TF's will be short on screening.)

Something to think about ... and haven't even brought up the a/c