cap_and_gown(j) v witpqs(a) - no witpqs

[CapAndGown]

May 18, 1943

Gau Island was invaded by 112th Cavalry Regiment. My only unit there is an aviation battalion. Glad to see he is going to kill it, since I have a fragment back at Rabaul. The other fragments (which have now become the parent units) are rebuilding very, very quickly. Pretty soon I am going to be awash in aviation support in the Solomons/Bismark theater. [8D]

Milne Bay was attacked by P-38s and B-17Es. The fighter exchange went fairly well with slightly more P-38s (~19) shot down than Japanese planes (10 Tojo, 5 Nick). No real damage to the bombers, but they, in turn, did not cause that much damage to the airfield. 45 Lightnings were involved. With something like a 40% loss rate, I wonder if he will keep sweeping or switch to just relying on the bombers. I suppose the B-17F's will be back tomorrow, or perhaps some B-24s.

KB is now east of the Solomons heading south. But first I need to avoid a submarine operating in the area. I have had two CVs torpedoed so far. Although neither sank, I would like to avoid a repeat of that. I would also like the presence of the KB kept secret.

I don't know where the allied CVs are. They are probably upgrading their Wildcats to Hellcats right now. Perhaps a raid down around Fiji can draw them out. Another option I am considering is another surface raid in the northern Pacific. Last time I did that he sent out his carriers to look for the raiders and their replenishment source. If I could get him to do that again I could have the KB waiting in ambush.

[CapAndGown]

May 20, 1943

My attempt to avoid the allied subs around the Santa Cruz Islands was a failure. Witpqs now knows that I have something down there heading his way. He knows I have BBs and at least the mini-KB. The question is: how will he react? At least we scored two solid hits on the Peto, though not enough to sink it.

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ASW attack near Stewart Island at 119,137
Japanese Ships
DD Maikaze
BB Kirishima
BB Hiei
BB Haruna
DD Akatsuki
DD Wakaba
DD Shinonome
DD Inazuma
DD Ikazuchi
DD Hibiki

Allied Ships
SS Peto, hits 1

SS Peto launches 6 torpedoes at DD Maikaze

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Sub attack near Reef Islands at 120,139
Japanese Ships
CVE Taiyo
CS Mizuho
DD Natsugumo
DD Arashio
DD Oshio
DD Fumizuki
DD Minazuki
DD Satsuki
DD Asagumo

Allied Ships
SS Peto, hits 2

SS Peto launches 6 torpedoes at CVE Taiyo

No 4E bomber raids on Milne bay today. Yesterday the B-17F's gave it a shot. Supposedly 2 were shot down and 2 were ops losses. OTOH, the Forts shot down about 8 of my planes, though only 2 pilots were WIA.

Also yesterday, one of my picket boats out near Marcus Island hit the Plunger with a DC pretty hard. Plunger is reported sunk. I doubt that, but it is possible since that boat appeared to be limping home after being hit by my ASW planes around Kyushu.

[CapAndGown]

Thought I would provide an overview of the strategic map as of May 21, 1943.

[CapAndGown]

May 21, 1943

I have decided to recall the fleet. Instead of continuing towards Fiji, it is now going to Nauru while I look for a better opportunity to engage the allied fleet. I don't have enough intelligence about the composition of his forces; surprise is gone; and most importantly I would be fighting over his bases rather than mine, giving him the advantage of LBA support. I very much wish to engage the allied fleet when it is at some distance from its own bases and especially where I can bring to bear my own LBA.

The fleet ran across the Peto again. Apparently it was limping back to Samoa. It launched four torpedoes at a CL which missed. So it now seems to be out. Some more DCs hit home, but still did not sink it. I was tempted to detach an ASW group just to try to finish it off, but decided I want the escorts to deal with other subs in the area.

Our ships delivering troops to the eastern end of New Guinea were spotted and attacked by 6 B-25C's. Three were shot down and the remaining three failed to hit their target. Aviation support, engineers, AAA, and naval guards will be landed on Goodenough, Normanby, and Ferguson islands tomorrow. The Normanby airfield went to size one today. I had planned on having the aviation support in place before I let the airfield grow, but forgot to turn off construction in time. Just as well; I moved in a sentai of Tojo's to defend the ships offloading the aviation support.

B-17s hit Milne Bay again. 1 was destroyed by flak, while 2 more supposedly were ops losses.

[CapAndGown]

May 22, 1943

No attacks on Milne Bay or the shipping in the area today. One of our glen subs was sunk around Fiji by DE's. The sub was forced to surface and, amazingly, put a torp into one of the DE's, sinking it. Japanese subs are really just cannon fodder at this point. I am using them mostly for intelligence gathering. Their offensive capabilities are almost nil. I will admit that they are probably one of my best ASW weapons, though.

Airfields at Goodenough and Ferguson went active today and fighter sentais of Tojos were moved in. There are now seven fighter sentais on the eastern tip of New Guinea.



"Then the hearts of the Noldor grew hot, and their captains wished to assail their foes upon the plain; but Hurin spoke against it, and bade them beware the guile of Morgoth, whose strength was always greater than it seemed, and his purpose other than he revealed. . . . But the Captain of Morgoth in the west had been commanded to draw out Fingon swiftly from his hills by whatever means he could." - The Silmarillion

I am now in the position of the Captain of Morgoth; I must draw out the allied fleet onto favorable terrain by whatever means I can. To this end, I have set a division and a recon battalion to prep for Baker Island. Very soon that division, which is in the home islands, will be loaded up for transport to the battle front. Its initial destination will be set to Baker Island, although its final destination is actually Kendari. I will also start reconning Baker in a few days. I shall also send some BBs to bombard the island. Hopefully this maskirovka will convince witpqs that an invasion of Baker is in the works and bring the allied fleet into the vicinity of the Gilberts. Right now, the Combined Fleet is stationed at Nauru.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

May 22, 1943

...Japanese subs are really just cannon fodder at this point. I am using them mostly for intelligence gathering. Their offensive capabilities are almost nil. I will admit that they are probably one of my best ASW weapons, though.

...

Wow, didn't expect them to get so useless so early.

Curious (hopefully not a highjeck here, as not intended) if this was historical. I seem to remember them being effective into '44. But I freely admit, my background on the IN SS fleet is weak....

[bklooste]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

May 22, 1943

...Japanese subs are really just cannon fodder at this point. I am using them mostly for intelligence gathering. Their offensive capabilities are almost nil. I will admit that they are probably one of my best ASW weapons, though.

...

Wow, didn't expect them to get so useless so early.

Curious (hopefully not a highjeck here, as not intended) if this was historical. I seem to remember them being effective into '44. But I freely admit, my background on the IN SS fleet is weak....

Indianapolis was sunk in 45 .. Historically the Japanese Submarine fleet lost its effectiveness about mid 43 , this was partly due to the better ASW being developed for the Atlantic and partly due to poor morale due to loosing the war , the Japanese subs just didnt attack. In 44 with allied air they became useless but this was more to do with the effectiveness of air (eg air search , mad , air radar )

[CapAndGown]

May 25, 1943

A long range patrol plane from either Baker Island or from the Elice Islands spotted at least one of our carrier groups at Nauru. Quite a long distance. So much for keeping the location of the KB secret! [8|] Nevertheless, this could be good if it contributes to allied anxieties about an invasion of Baker and brings out their fleet. OTOH, it could be bad if his CVs are not in the Pacific, as I believe them to be, but are actually in the Indian Ocean. The Maylay barrier is well developed, but I still would not relish an invasion there, especially when the KB is on the other side of New Guinea.

[CapAndGown]

May 26, 1943

My opponent claims that my carriers at Nauru were spotted by a flying sub based on the SSN Seaview. Fortunately, Japanese scientists have been working on a counter measure.

[aprezto]

Where O where did you find that pic? What is going on?

[Q-Ball]

RE: Subs, Cuttlefish actually got good results against me with Subs into mid-1943, including the clean sinking of an undamaged USS WASP. I don't think they are worthless, though Allied ASW gets more dangerous.

Still as the Empire, I would hesitate to build alot of the subs in the queue, and there are ALOT. I tend to build the Glen Subs, and maybe a few attack boats, but that's it.

The best results I see are the KD/B types with 8 front tubes

[CapAndGown]

May 28, 1943

No combat or invasions to report. I did, however, get a nice surprise when I checked in on air production. I just got a boost of about 400 Mitsubishi Ha-32 engines and about 300 Nakajima Ha-35. In the last turn or two I converted the last of the Sally IIa models to Helen IIa's and the last of the Oscar Ic models to Tojo IIa's. Now that no groups are using these planes, their pool numbers were greatly reduced and their engines were added into the engine pool. Sweet.

ORIGINAL: aprezto

Where O where did you find that pic? What is going on?

Google.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

RE: Subs, Cuttlefish actually got good results against me with Subs into mid-1943, including the clean sinking of an undamaged USS WASP. I don't think they are worthless, though Allied ASW gets more dangerous.

Still as the Empire, I would hesitate to build alot of the subs in the queue, and there are ALOT. I tend to build the Glen Subs, and maybe a few attack boats, but that's it.

The best results I see are the KD/B types with 8 front tubes

Thanks for the info. I guess the KD/B are the way to go (plus the glens).

[CapAndGown]

Just wanted to note that allies are now reconning New Caledonia and the New Hebrides. So now he knows no-one is home. Let's see how fast it takes him to move into the vacuum.

[CapAndGown]

May 30, 1943

Kandavu Island was invaded by two infantry regiments. They are opposed by an SNLF and an aviation battalion. Supplies have been exhausted by air raids on the airfield, so the end should come pretty quick. Again, I have fragments of these units at Rabaul ready to rebuild. Hopefully, witpqs will invade Fiji itself soon and then I can start rebuilding those units as well.

[aprezto]

Well he does appear to be taking a 'clean sweep' approach. I would imagine he wants to secure this area for transport TFs and is following a strategy of denying you bases in the area. He should not stick to this approach forever though - too time consuming and wasteful. While it continues though, rub your hands together.

[CapAndGown]

June 1, 1943

So witpqs decided to up the tempo a bit and invaded Tanna today. Lets see now long it takes him to climb up the ladder of the New Hebrides and how cautious he is. After all, I do have a fleet in the vicinity.

As to that fleet: Yesterday I saw a sub icon heading to Nauru. Thing about this icon was that it said their were 10 ships. I thought at first this was just one of those goofy spotting reports. But then I decided he was probably going to go after my carriers despite the shallow water hex. So I put all the carriers and BBs into the port hoping that I was right and that my Destroyers could take a whack at his subs. I should have put the cruisers into the port as well, since the CLAA Tenryu ate a torp, (heavy damage, but she'll live) but on the whole it went OK for the empire's legions. One of his subs, the Halibut, was sunk. Numerous others were damaged, though the combat replay indicated only near misses, so the damage was probably not too great:

SS Shad, hits 10
SS Muskallunge, hits 10
SS Paddle, hits 4
SS Puffer, hits 3
SS Rasher
SS Halibut, hits 9, heavy damage (one caused a fire in the engine room, 2 caused severe damage, shows up on the sunk ships list, no sinking sound though)

Unfortunately, they didn't stick around. I would have loved to have another shot at them. For this turn, I put all the cruisers into port and all my TFs, which now just consist of DDs are going to sweep the immediate vicinity of Nauru hoping to find more ambushers and/or cripples.

Over at Milne Bay, we have had two turns of attacks by P-38s and B-17s, both E and F models. Last turn things went well and we shot down about 20 P-38s. This turn things did not go well and we lost a number of planes for no P-38s and only 1 B-17. About 8 B-27s have been lost in these two raids, 2 A2A and 6 ops. I am pretty sure he is sticking with the B-17 because of its higher durability (68 vs 60). The B-24 has shown itself to be more vulnerable than the B-17 when faced with heavy fighter opposition.

[aprezto]

Strange tactic - sticking 10 subs in one TF. Or was that 10 single sub TFs?

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: aprezto

Strange tactic - sticking 10 subs in one TF. Or was that 10 single sub TFs?

I don't know. Certainly by the time they got to Nauru they were in single sub TFs. I often move subs around in large TFs until they get to their destination. Makes it easier do handle a bunch of subs at once.

[CapAndGown]

June 2, 1943

Mare' was invaded. Quick moves. No preparation, so lots of disablements, but I don't think that should be a concern; disablements repair quickly enough and it is about time the allies started moving quicker.

The subs that were at Nauru yesterday laid mines there. I kind of thought that might be what they were up to. I should have been more cautious. I lost 3 DDs, one of them an Akitsuki. My opponent just loves mines.

An ASW TF operating in the shallows between Shanghai and Moppo caught the SS Herring and supposedly put 15 hits on her, at least one of which was serious. The AS mortar didn't seem to be that effective compared to the type 2 depth charges. It didn't seem to be any more accurate in obtaining hits.

Milne Bay was attacked again by B-17F's. One was lost to flak.

A cruiser TF will bombard Broome tonight. Supposedly we have not been spotted, and according to the recon reports, there are 200 fighters sitting on the field there, though that may change now that a TF that had been unloading supplies there has left and there is not as much need for CAP.

Losing those three DD and watching the wave after wave of 4E bombing runs has discouraged me somewhat. I have crappy planes, crappy subs, crappy infantry, crappy tanks, crappy radar, and crappy ASW. I have probably left off some of the crap from that list. Basically Japan is a piece of crap.