Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

Yes it is the opposite side of entering or leaving a tunnel. The Japanese start near their zenith and so they are nearing entering a tunnel. If they lose many of their carriers early on, with few replacements then it is like he has been sent warp speed into the tunnel too soon. The Japanese player tries to avoid as long as possible, the eventual reversal of fortune and the Allied counter-offensive starts with an ever increasing death star staring him in the face. For the Allies they start in the tunnel looking at the small speck of light at the other end and if they lose a carrier battle early on the speck stays far away but if they win one they move closer to the end of the tunnel and the speck grows with each success or additional resources to his growing power. Psychology has always been a very important aspect of war, and many times the most critical.

I try to spend as much time in the tunnel as possible .... oh, wait - wrong tunnel. [8D]

Yeah, I was thinking how you could pursue cripples (if fuel permitted) and one of the constraints was him sending strong SCTFs to try to get your carriers at night and prevent them from catching Soryu and Shokaku. Even if they didn't find your carriers they would likely draw strikes that would weaken your shot at the cripples. In the event pursuit was feasible, I would have sent the Allied carriers NW on the assumption his SCTFs were coming directly south.

All moot now. [:(]

Not moot. I'm still working on the turn, and will be through Saturday. OPilot is out of town till Sunday so I'm taking my time with the turn. I'll be looking at pilot training and more long range planning. I'll do a region by region update also.

My thoughts on pursuing north. If he has carriers damaged badly enough to be slowed, he'll move north adjacent to Mili, which is a size 2 airfield. No other options unless he goes further north. Jaluit has no airfield. He could move something there and move his lesser damaged carriers adjacent to protect.

Or he could just send everything towards Kwajalein.

The enemy is not lacking Zeros. He didn't lose that many. His losses were heavy in Vals, and in Kates to a lesser extent. I lost 43 SBD-3s.

I'll be thinking more about my options over the next few days.

Here's the total air losses for the battle (Total-A2A-Flak-Ground-Ops)

D3A1 Val 70-60-6-3-1
Kate 37-22-12-2-1
A6M2 Zero 22-17-0-0-5
D3A2 Val 13-12-0-0-1

SBD-3 43-37-2-0-4
TBF 14-12-0-0-2
Swordfish 7-7-0-0-0
Martlet 7-6-0-0-0
Albacore 7-7-0-0-0
F4F-4 5-4-0-0-1
P-39D 2-1-0-0-1
F4F-3 1-1-0-0-0

Current Situation

[edit: Note that all of those task forces in the bottom left of the map are withdrawing from Kusaie and headed to Luganville or Suva. None were spotted today.]

25 Jul 42 - Aleutians

25 Jul 42 - Burma and Western China

25 Jul 42 - Java

25 Jul 42 - Marshalls and Gilberts

25 Jul 42 - Northern China

25 Jul 42 - Philippines

25 Jul 42 - Solomons

25 Jul 42 - Intel Screen

Absolutely no worries about AV. For once I would like to be in that position in summer '42. KUDOs!
I have to add I wish I had your skill with land war. China looks great as well as Burma.

Seems like a good victory in the Carrier altercation. Keep it up!

Thanks zuluhour and tolsdorff.

Burma looks good with a stalemate. China feels like a disaster in slow motion though. Supply is becoming critical. The enemy is moving in the north and using hundreds of bombers. I think I can hold in the mountains and in the woods, but not elsewhere. I will make a new line just west of Sian. But I want to keep Sian, and that will be difficult with the bombing. If OPilot gets Sian, he'll no longer have any supply issues at his front. Sian is on the rail system. Right now, his units moving north of Sian have to pull supply from a decent distance.

I'm happy with the carrier battle. My next priority is tidying things up at Kusaie and Nauru. Getting supply into Kusaie will be difficult but must be accomplished. Nauru will build up to support.

I could go for Lunga and Tulagi soon if I wanted to. All of the troops are prepped, and all are in the area except for an armored unit at Pearl Harbor prepping for Tulagi. It may or may not be needed. I may push quickly here with enemy carriers damaged and probably leaving the area. Even damaged Saratoga is operational, but slowed.

I don't know what I'll invade or when, but my list of targets being prepared for include Lunga, Tassafronga, Tulagi, Milne Bay, Port Moresby, Tagula, Horn Island, Kirakira, Kwajalein, Ponape, and Wake in the Pacific. In the Indian Ocean, and obviously not happening any time soon, are Rangoon, Pegu and Ramree Island.

Turns resuming tomorrow when OPilot returns.

I would agree with pressing forward as soon as possible with his carriers leaving for repairs or going under. Concentrate on paces that aren't Atolls since they trigger an automatic shock attack and you need to be highly prepped to handle that. Get to his bases before he can building them and as you can do that much better than he can and hopefully he won't be able to base much naval land base air there yet making your carriers less vulnerable. You have the advantage now so press him make him strip he IO of the mini-KB and face you now so your limited RN will be free to affect things in that theater.

Text book battle. I think you just wrote a new chapter for early carrier battles.

Well, having just 9 Martlets for an escort of over 200 bombers wasn't the plan. I theorized that maybe the Martlets were too dissimilar to the USN fighters. Well, I've learned something. The Martlet was an F4F of some kind. I didn't know that.

26 Jul 42

North of Palmyra, I-175 fired 2 torpedoes at PC Tiger. They missed. This is north of my usual convoy route. Tiger is escorting an AD, and AG, and a valuable AR from Pearl Harbor to Funafuti.

Allied ships bombard Portland Roads.

Night Naval bombardment of Portland Roads at 91,132

Allied Ships
CA Canberra
CA Australia
CL Hobart
CL Perth
CL Tromp
CL Sumatra
CL Java
DD Maury
DD McCall
DD Gridley
DD Craven
DD Jarvis
DD Ralph Talbot
DD Bancroft

Japanese ground losses:
348 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 38 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 20 disabled

Airbase hits 6
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 25
Port hits 9
Port supply hits 8

The result is decent. Confirms that the main enemy unit there is still 1/3 of the 4th Infantry Division. The other parts are at Horn Island and Port Moresby. Not an offensive arrangement, definitely defensive.

I-24 fired 2 torpedoes at APD Litchfield and missed. 8 APDs are spotted. They are returning to Luganville after the Kusaie invasion.

Kusaie Island troops are bombed from both Truk and Roi Namur with Bettys.

18 P-38Es from Normanton sweep Portland Roads and find no CAP. B-17s follow.

Morning Air attack on Portland Roads , at 91,132

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Allied aircraft
B-17D Fortress x 7
B-17E Fortress x 34

No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
12 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Airbase hits 15
Airbase supply hits 22
Runway hits 55

Good result. The airfield isn't shut down but OPilot probably won't put fighters there right now. Lots of supply hits. I'll rest half of the bombers and start cycling them, hitting the base regularly. OPilot will LRCAP from Horn Island.

Neither the Allied carriers or KB were spotted today. We went south. The Japanese probably went north towards Kwajalein. One carrier task force refueled today. The others will do so down by Funafuti. I should have waited with the first one, as I want to keep the carriers together, and now they won't move much today.

Saratoga, with 6 FLOT damage, will need a shipyard to repair. That means a trip to Pearl Harbor. I think that all other carriers will remain in the South Pacific. Meaningful repair work will take place at Sydney. Most others will go to Noumea eventually.

[edit: Actually Lexington will probably go with Saratoga to Pearl. Both are overdue a lengthy upgrade, over 40 days long. I'll probably send both.]

I'm liking the idea of going for the Guadalcanal area sooner rather than later.

27 Jul 42

Near Kirakira in the Solomons, sub Pickerel fired 2 torpedoes at I-173. One hit but it was a dud. I-173 is reporting heavy damage.

Bad news north of Funafuti.

Sub attack near Nanumea at 138,142

Japanese Ships
SS I-33

Allied Ships
CV Yorktown, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage
CA Salt Lake City
CL Boise
CL Helena
CLAA San Diego
DD Monaghan
DD Dewey
DD MacDonough
DD Dale

SS I-33 launches 6 torpedoes at CV Yorktown

Yorktown is SYS 12/FLOT 58-47/ENG 1/FIRE 0. A CLAA broke off to escort Yorktown, and they are one hex northeast of Funafuti. They will go there and disband in the size 1 port. By coincidence, the base was just getting a lot of attention this week, with the first troops landing on it along with supply. Base building has begun. I mentioned yesterday that a task force north of Palmyra was heading here with an AD, AG and an AR. The AR might get some work. Yorktown will stay there and repair the FLOT damage down to 47-47. Then it will head south to Vava'u, where ARD Dewey will be waiting. Yorktown is slightly less than 20,000 tons and will just fit into Dewey. At some point, Yorktown will probably go to Sydney to finish off repairs. That's the plan anyhow. Let's get it disbanded into Funafuti today.

The other carriers will also go to Funafuti, providing lots of SBDs flying ASW missions, something I should have had more of yesterday. Also, the task forces will reorganize and sort out what ships will go where.

KB was spotted one hex northeast of Kwajalein. A benefit of having Kusaie Island and Catalinas there. Of course, Bettys have no problem hitting Kusaie, and do so again today.

Nauru Island is now a size 1 airfield, and P-40s arrive immediately.

British bombers hit an enemy regiment near Imphal. Just mixing up the attacks.

I planned a big air day at Myitkyina. Of course the bombers flew first. 14 B-17s did very minor damage to the airfield in moderate rain after tangling with 42 Oscars. 1 B-17 was lost. 22 P-40s then swept, finding just 13 Oscars. Then 6 B-26s with 23 P-39s escorting went up against 10 Oscars. Another 22 P-40 sweep finished the attacks, up against just 4 Oscars. Total air losses were 11 Oscars (4 on the ground), for the cost of 2 P-39s, a P-40 and a B-17.

The US 3rd Marine Division is now unloading at Sydney. It is in early preparations for Horn Island.

SigInt reports that the 10th RF Gun unit is planning to attack Darwin. This is the first indication of any interest at the almost evacuated Darwin.

P-38s again swept Portland Roads and found no CAP. Some B-17s then hit the base.