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This is the beautiful thing about being an AFB... You will get plenty more ;]

Very true Wargmr, but it still hurts, losing a ship with no gain, and not even close to accomplishing its mission.

This game has been unusual, with very few combat ship losses. No carriers lost. One battleship lost at Pearl Harbor, and now Warspite. Kitakami is the only cruiser lost. This is for both sides, and it's mid August 1942!

And disregard cruiser Haguro; it isn't sunk. It took just one torpedo very recently and had nearby ports.

Those losses -- or I should say lack of losses -- are amazing! [X(] Both of you have been astoundingly careful and conservative, at least with warships. I'm only in March 42 in my game and I've lost nearly that much just to subs!

Anyway, my condolences on the Warspite and it's too bad the whole op is called off but it's the right decision. I hope you'll get another shot soon with better prep and especially air protection.

It's even more amazing because I didn't do a "Sir Robin" at the beginning of the game. I moved surface groups aggressively a number of times early on, but the attempts were mostly aborted, and otherwise unsuccessful. My opponent is very careful. His early moves were always well covered. Several times I approached landing sites and the enemy was always prepared. That was ok, though. The enemy's caution meant that the advance was slowed. This resulted in things like Java just recently being conquered. And the furthest south advance in the Solomons by the enemy was Tulagi. Then the enemy's landing at Diamond Harbour, followed by a move into Calcutta, was stopped there. A lot of enemy has been stuck there for months.

In summary, it wasn't planned to have such low losses. I was willing to trade combat ships, as that is almost always an Allied advantage. It just didn't happen.

My opponent is careful. Risky moves have not been rewarded, for the most part. I will still try. My upcoming invasions of Nauru, Ocean, and Tabituea are risky. I'm not going to just sit back and wait. The biggest advantage for me to keep the initiative is that I still have the initiative. This keeps my cautious opponent cautious, and reacting to my moves.

ORIGINAL: apbarog

In other news, there was a strange encounter at Hollandia. I had SigInt of a division headed there, so I sent Sealion to check it out. It found xAK Keisho Maru in a task force by itself. Sealion proceeded to launch torpedo after torpedo, with all missing and one dud. I lost track of how many were launched. I've never seen what looked like individual torpedo launches launched repeatedly like this. Then the sub used its deck gun, and got 10 shell hits on the ship, setting it on fire.

The minimum number of torpedoes a sub is supposed to be able to fire is one set of tubes - usually (2). Even if enemy attacks damage torpedo tubes, I think the damage always applies to a set, so single TT launches should not happen. Still, a sub with 22 torps launching in a surface attack could get up to 11 attacks - that would seem interminable!
I have had subs empty their tubes in similar fashion, but usually at least one torp goes BOOM! Better check that skipper's naval skill if he only got one dud hit out of all those shots. [:-]

Since the xAK had no escort, I could tell that Sealion's attacks were "in that mode" that takes place when it does surface attacks. It fired all of its torpedoes. I think it carries 12, but I'm not sure of that. Then it went into deck gun mode. Was entertaining.

I've seen more than a few subs go full-house mouse on a target, but they usually acheive at least one torp hit! Given that Sealion got some good hits from her cheesy 3" gun, I'd not fault her captain in this case, he just got a series of really bad dice-rolls on his torps.

When I remember, I usually begin my turn w/ a review of float-damaged ships from the S screen, followed by a look at the T screen, filtered to 'Sub Ops' & 'Show Ammo'. Boats w/ <= 33% Gun/Torp Ammo are generally ordered to RTB.

It's another demonstration of the early-war superiority of USN S-boats over fleet-boats - an S-boat's 4" gun can bring serious damage, a fleet-boat's 3" isn't nearly as effective.

14 Aug 42

As my task forces withdraw at full speed from the Bay of Bengal, the task force missing HMS Warspite, now consisting of CL Capetown, DD Isaac Sweers, and DD Thanet is engaged by CA Takao and 4 destroyers. It would have been a good fight with Warspite, but without, the enemy does better. Destroyer Thanet is sunk by a torpedo. I think Thanet was the surviving destroyer from a 3 destroyer force that raided Diamond Harbour long ago. It escaped by hiding at Chittagong instead of running west, then running south, then west to home. But this time, it is lost. Cruiser Capetown is moderately damaged but will make it home if not attacked again. Japanese destroyer Mochizuki is hit a few times and has heavy fires.

11 B-17's bomb Munda, getting a couple of port hits. 2 Zero's are on LR CAP but do little. I'm just hitting here and there for now, keeping the enemy guessing a bit.

North of Suva, many task forces rendezvous and head north toward the invasion targets. Unfortunately, one of the three Allied carrier task forces is spotted. I hope to disappear for a couple of days now, on the way to target. The enemy could think that the carriers were headed Ndeni from Suva, based on the spotted position. Or KB could be about to sortie from Truk and get to the invasion targets before I do. We shall see.

In other news, I decide to buy out 2 US Army regiments at Pearl Harbor. The 3rd regiment has been at Kalgorie, Australia for most of the war. The newly purchased units will join it in Australia.

15 Aug 42

West of Truk, Silversides hits huge tanker Rikko Maru, setting its fuel on fire. Scratch one tanker. The tankers are headed to Truk.

As my armada heads north, Yorktown is attacked by I-168. Fortunately, all torpedoes miss. Every task force is spotted. I have no surprise now. And most alarming is the high detection levels that my subs get all of a sudden. These subs are northwest of Nauru. I don't "know" that KB is on the way, but I firmly believe that it is inbound. I had just confirmed that there were no carriers in the Bay of Bengal. No sign of big carriers for several weeks after seeing a few at Soerbaja. Yea, I know they are here and on the way.

Therefore I cancel the new landings. I was still several days from landing, and whatever is approaching Nauru is only a day or two away. I'm not landing in the face of KB, and certainly not landing on 3 islands at the same time.

Here's the new plan:

All 6 carriers go northeast and will strike Tabituea's port and airfield, assuming they don't find ships to hit first. This should make it look like this is the target, and hopefully KB will head this direction. My carriers will retire to the south.

All transports with men and supply head west southwest and will approach the Ndeni area. Troops originally set to land at Tabituea, Nauru, and Ocean will reinforce Ndeni, Vanik., and Rennell respectively. I will probably keep these troops prepping the original destinations, just in case.

16 Aug 42

Allied carriers strike the airfield and port at Tabiteuea, doing moderate damage. No air defense and no shipping seen in the immediate area. My carriers will retire to the southwest.

Lots of enemy activity to the west and northwest. At Nauru Island, Dolphin takes at shot at cruiser Tone, and misses. I spot 2 cruisers and 3 destroyers here. As I feared, the enemy rushed to Nauru as my invasion task forces were pointed this way, but still 3 days away. My cancellation of the invasions appears to be a good one. 6 hexes west northwest of Nauru, there is an unknown task force, with lots of detection level around it. I "know" that this is KB.

Near Kusaie Island, north of Nauru, Tambor takes a shot at an AO, and misses. I spot 4 AO's, 2 CL's 5 DD's, an E, and a SC. This is KB's refueling stop, no doubt. Truk isn't that far away, but there's AO's here anyhow. KB may go deeper than obvious or just want to linger longer here.

On Java at Bandoeng, an enemy infantry division moves in with 2 artillery units and bombards for intel. Rough AV is 462 to 361, but I have forts and I'm in the mountains and lots of supply. It will take much more than this to take the base.

In Burma, I spot 10 units now at Akyab, and see movement to the north towards Cox's Bazaar. I've move a Brit infantry division to Chittagong and will move it one hex south into the jungle on the road. The enemy sees this division.

Inland by Ledo, an enemy unit has moved adjacent to the enemy unit with isolated hex sides. I can't stop it from moving in and clearing a hex side.

16 Aug 42 - The Saga of Manila's ARD

ARD Dewey has 18,000 ton capacity. It started the war at Manila. In the first days of the war, I ran it out of Manila and hid it at Busuanga, a size 3 port southwest of Bataan. Since it can only move 1 hex a turn, and runs out of fuel after moving one hex, it takes damage every time it moves after the first hex. By the time it got to Busuanga, it had damage in the 20's. I left the ship there several months while it repaired. Then the enemy did a recon of the base, and spotted it. I left port just before the port got bombed, and then a cruiser came by and bombarded the base for good measure. But Dewey was on the run again, this time to Puerto Princesa. It stopped there briefly, before moving on the base to the west by the northeast tip of Borneo. Good thing too, because Puerto Princesa was reconned. There it has sat for some number of months.

Now the enemy is doing more cleanup in the Philippines, and it's just a matter of time till the ship is found, so it was time to run again.

It really has nowhere to go. Going south is problematic. Zamboanga is being actively reconned and I expect it to be invaded soon. The other choice is to run west toward Singapore, and that doesn't sound very hopeful either.

I decide to try to make it to Soebi-besar, north of Kuching. It's a dot base that is still Allied. The adjacent dot base already flipped to the enemy. I decided I take a chance that maybe it can hide there and maybe the island will be ignored.

I'm not seeing any search planes in this area, so things were looking good. SYS damage is only up to 5 so far. Then this happens:

**********
Day Time Surface Combat, near Brunei at 66,84, Range 16,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
SC Ch 16
SC Ch 18
SC Ch 22
TK Kyokuyo Maru
TK Nisshin Maru
TK Nisshin Maru #2
TK Tonan Maru #2

Allied Ships
ARD YFD-1 Dewey

Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions: 25,000 yards
Range closes to 14,000 yards...
Range closes to 13,000 yards...
Range closes to 12,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 12,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 12,000 yards
Both TF attempt to withdraw!
Range increases to 16,000 yards...
Both Task Forces evade combat
*********

No combat, but so much for not being seen. Poor Dewey is certain to be a goner soon. It won't get far, moving just one hex a turn.

But it was great fun trying to save the Dewey. It made it till mid August '42.

Heh, great story on the Dewey. Too bad about the op being called off in the SoPac but it's clear you did the right thing.

17 Aug 42

First the minor news. Enemy ground units have moved north from Akyab toward Cox's Bazar in Burma.

Now the big news.

Lots of enemy shipping spotted. KB is identified. The lead task force looks to have cruisers and battleships, and originated at Nauru Island, and moved southwest to the current position. The trailing task forces all moved southeast, including KB. Many big carriers seen.

The questions are what is the target and what are the intentions.

The southwestern move from Nauru may mean that this isn't an end around toward Suva. Surface groups are now in night bombardment range of both Ndeni and Vanikoro. I think this is what will happen. KB will move southwest to support. I have lots and lots of transport shipping in the Ndeni area, and about half of the task forces are spotted. Lots of juicy targets for the enemy. I think they are coming.

My transports are mostly the ones that were in the aborted invasions. I had hoped that my carrier strike on Tabituea would draw KB east, but that didn't happen. My tranports are all loaded, so it's time to run as fast as possible.

Some transports should stay out of range of KB as long as KB moves at normal speed. Others, from Ndeni, run to Luganville, and I've stacked Luganville with lots of fighters. All air excepts some Cats are evacuated from Ndeni.

I considered loading up Luganville with bombers, but I can't load up with both fighters and bombers, yet. I need massive numbers to stand up to KB, so it isn't time for that.

The enemy can bombard and bomb the bases. That doesn't bother me. I don't see any invasion task forces yet, but they could be out there. That is a worry.

The only way I'll use my carriers is if KB approaches Luganville. That would let me use my land based bombers and fighters to make the fight more even.

A small cruiser force, with Houston and Boise are at Ndeni now. I came up with 3 options for it. Stay here to fight a night bombardment, but be in trouble during the day. Go to Luganville to protect that. Run northwest and try to get around the enemy unseen, and run into Kusaie and/or Nauru to sink the replenishment force.

The third option was tempting, and I plotted that initially, but decided that I'd probably be seen and sunk. I will run them to Luganville for now.

Dodge and weave at this point. My counter will come. Just not ready for it yet. I like my ground positions in the Solomons. And time is on my side. It's still early. I'm reading in other AAR's where the Japanese are threatening Suva in mid 1943. I know that a strong counter could be coming. This may be it. We'll see.

18 Aug 42

Sinabang, an island west of Sumatra, is invaded by enemy fast transport.

The Japanese decide to sweep Lunga with all of the land-based fighters in the area. The early sweep combat is won by the Allies, with superior numbers. The fight favors the Japanese more with each progressing sweep, as the CAP is worn down. Overall losses are fairly even: 46 Zeros and 2 Oscars versus 21 P40Es and 15 P39s. Only 6 Allied pilots are KIA this day. I can't fight an attritional war, as I've seen at Diamond Harbour, but I will fight here while I can. I pull out the 3 air units and replace them with 4 fresh ones. They'll do ok unless KB sweeps.

Now for some brief area updates:

ARD Dewey is spotted by air search today. I didn't think it would escape, but it hadn't been spotted since the meeting with the enemy TK force a few days ago. The end is near. It made it about halfway to its intended hiding port.

18 Aug 42 - Burma

There are a few enemy units southwest of Ledo. The contested hex has all Allied hexsides, but an enemy unit is moving in from the southwest to open that direction up. As long as the enemy retreats, I'm fine with that. It's taking a lot of time to make happen.

Southwest of Imphal, I was moving a Brit infantry division southwest to try to take the enemy dot base on "my side" of the jungle. I changed my mind. I want this division to be in reserve for a possible enemy push north from Akyab and Cox's Bazar. It isn't shown today, but several units left Akyab northbound. Another Brit division is now at Chittagong and is moving southeast into the jungle.

We'll see if the slow evacuation of Diamond Harbour continues.

18 Aug 42 - China

The only recent activity in China has been the push to clear Kwangchowan and Pakhoi. The enemy has now done this, and has moved north to face my river line. No further movement seen so far. The enemy has been bombing Kukong a few days in a row, but to little effect.

18 Aug 42 - Java

The Dutch hold out at Bandoeng. The enemy had moved an infantry division and a couple of artillery to probe the base, but found a strong garrison. Now a big brigade has moved in. This still isn't nearly enough, with the forts and the mountain terrain. I'd be happy to see enemy attacks here, rather than just isolating the base. My supplies are down from about 40k to about 37k. The base is bombed daily.

18 Aug 42 - Solomons

I feared what I'd see this turn in the Solomons. I had many loaded transports near Ndeni. But KB barely moved. The multiple combat ship task forces spotted last turn are not seen today. With the heavy rain, I was lucky to see KB. Maybe all of the ships are in one hex now. Maybe not. I don't know. Regardless, my shipping fled south and southwest. The only transport task force spotted today is the easternmost one southwest of Kirakira.

I had reassigned my cancelled invasion troops to new destinations, but with KB threatening, Ndeni, Vanikoro, and Rennell Islands are too hot. So now the troops will go to Tanna, Efate, and Koumac. I'll decide later whether to move them back to where I had planned.

I'm already having to be careful where to move reinforcements due to the stacking limits. Units have to be spread around to stay under the limits. I like this limitation a lot.

So, what are the enemy's intentions? He didn't leave, he lingered. He didn't rush east to Tabituea. He didn't rush south after shipping. He did sweep Lunga with lots of land based aircraft. But he didn't do any ship bombardments. Yet.

I'm raising the odds of an enemy counter landing.

My carriers moved west this turn, and should be in the Efate/Tanna area. I want them to be close enough to Ndeni and Lunga to attack a landing, but I don't want a carrier battle unless it occurs on my terms, further south, where I have more airpower. It won't be too long until the Solomons are built up enough to satisfy this requirement, but he has big bases at Buna and Shortlands, and he had a head start with them.

I don't want to lose the carriers. Period.

A small sidenote: Not long ago, I listed all of the sunk combat ships for both sides. There weren't many. CL Kitakami was listed, but now it is reported to not be sunk. So the list is even shorter.

19 Aug 42

Yesterday, I chose to send my one cruiser task force full speed from Luganville to Ndeni at night, hoping for an enemy bombardment task force. I guessed correctly. The fight was primarily at short range:

Japanese Ships
CA Tone, Shell hits 3, on fire
CA Atago, Shell hits 1
CA Maya, Shell hits 8, on fire
CA Chokai, Shell hits 7, on fire
DD Hagikaze, Shell hits 1
DD Tanikaze
DD Nenohi, Shell hits 1
DD Hatsushima

Allied Ships
CA Houston
CA Australia, Shell hits 17, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CL Marblehead, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Boise, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Henley, Shell hits 2
DD Jarvis, Shell hits 7, heavy fires

Boise sank before the day was done. The rest of the Allied ships will survive. At this point, the enemy was not in danger of losing any ships.

Then 4 US PT boats fought the enemy:

Japanese Ships
CA Tone, on fire
CA Atago
CA Maya, on fire
CA Chokai, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Hagikaze, Shell hits 1
DD Tanikaze, Shell hits 1
DD Nenohi
DD Hatsushima

Allied Ships
PT-36
PT-37
PT-38
PT-39, Shell hits 1, and is sunk

It's very likely that Chokai sank, based on how far the ships moved after the fight. Still not an even trade, but better than nothing.

Atago and Tone then did attempt to bombard Ndeni, but hit nothing. The bombardment force headed northeast, toward Nauru. I'm moving subs into the projected path to Nauru. The enemy may go directly to Truk though.

Cruiser Canberra made a nuisance bombardment of Rossel Island, off the tip of New Guinea. I did this just to keep my opponent looking in that direction also.


And then off the north coast of Borneo, the end of ARD Dewey:

Japanese Ships
CL Yura

Allied Ships
ARD YFD-1 Dewey, Shell hits 26, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

I will remember the name "Yura" and hunt this ship down sometime in the future.

During the day, 24 Zeros sweep Lunga, finding 46 US fighters on CAP. The enemy lost more planes. However, I had an APD task force that was supposed to slip into Lunga at night and unload, and leave before daylight. I'd had good success with this up till now. They unloaded completely, but were still at Lunga when daylight came. First 15 Vals escorted by 123 Zeros(!!!) swept the skies of US fighters and then got bomb hits on 2 APD's. That was followed by 18 Kates escorted by only 66 Zeros, which handled the few fighters left on CAP, and then got 2 torpedo hits on one of the badly damaged APD's. APD Gilmer sank. APD Sands is damaged by bomb hits and will run full speed south. The undamaged APD's will run toward Luganville at full speed. At least the APD's delivered the troops that they had loaded.

Today's air losses were 26 Zeros and 2 Kates versus 15 P40Es, 11 P400s, and 5 F4F-3s.

My fighter groups are now depleted, so I send all undamaged planes elsewhere. I'm sure my opponent noticed how effective over 100 Zeros from KB can be. No point in leaving scraps at Lunga. I'll come back when the units are refilled.

Allied carriers now head to Noumea to refuel. I still don't see any invasion task forces. I'm wondering if this whole display is just something to draw my carriers out. No matter. I continue to build and dig in. Lunga became a level 4 airfield today.

Strange that he did not send KB after the detected Transport TF from the day before. He must be covering his own transports coming in or already unloading somewhere.