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January 31st 1942
Tokyo, Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff

Newly installed radio surveillance station was working for only two hours, when it intercepted an important note. It was promptly delivered to Tokyo, and handed to Chief of Gunreibu, Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu, who was in meeting with Admiral Kuranosuke, head of the 1st Section, Operations Bureau of Gunreibu.

“It would appear that England is loosing the war in Europe. Churchill is requesting that a cruiser and two destroyers are sent home from India. At least some use from our allies in Germany.” Prince was well known for his objections to the Tripartite Pact, and used every opportunity to express it.


Kuranosuke couldn’t care less about British or Germans at that point. He had much bigger problems on his hands. He had just received report of great Yamaguchi’s victory at Samoa Islands, and damage report. Soryu must be repaired as soon as possible, the problem was where to put her. Japan’s repair yards were cramped. Fast pace of conquest impose heavy price on Imperial Navy, as 12 capital ships were in or en route to repair yards, along with three submarines, two patrol crafts and some 40 merchants.



As if this wasn’t enough, Mutsuki class destroyers, 11 of them, were scheduled to start their refit from tomorrow. Most of them were already in preparation, and the rest will be in yards by the end of the week.

And with destroyer Wakaba sunk yesterday south of Borneo, the total number of Japanese ships lost reached 36, which was still modest, compared to the damage inflicted to the enemy.



The problem was, Americans can replace their losses, Japan can’t. This fact was well known to Kuranosuke, which is why he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen every time he received a report of a sunk ship. At least, his ulcer is progressing nicely, he thought grimly.



Edit: Change the date, at Mynok's request. [;)]

January 31st 1941
Tokyo, Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff


Time shifting, are we? [:D]

[X(]

Oops...

Silly Martians, seeing everything....grumble, grumble...making a fool out of me...



[:D]

Sailing so close to international date line can make things confusing...[:D]

February 1st, 1942
Funafuti

Toafa spent another day at the beach, watching in awe big iron ships anchored at Funafuti lagoon. For three days now he didn’t go fishing, as the foreigners forbid any use of local fish boats, to prevent them with interfering with their traffic. But Toafa didn’t complain. There was enough fruits on the island, and this Gods (they must have been Gods, how else would they fly in their machines) have put up quite a spectacle. Toafa especially liked those four big flat ships. They looked like islands, and lots of foreigners were living on them, from time to time flying around from them. One of them was a bit leaned to one side and Toafe suspected it was damaged, probably in a fight with some unknown sea monster. What else could have damaged these huge boats? His wife was calling him again, to go out and find some food for the pigs. Reluctantly, Toafe stood up and went to the pigs, mad at his wife for interrupting him. But he forgave her soon, after all, one cannot expect form simple creatures like women to understand the importance of these events.

Japanese landed on the island several days ago, to establish a forward reckon base. Landing force was followed by two seaplane tenders and a squadron of Kawanishi H6K4 flying boats. Yesterday Admiral Jojima’s carriers and damaged Soryu arrived, escorted by two tankers, to use the large lagoon to refuel, before continuing to hunt for American ships. Lagoon was 8 km long and 14 km wide, providing enough protection from rough sea to allow refueling to go smoothly.

Yamaguchi with Hiryu and Zuikaku was expected to arrive in few days, as he expended all his fuel chasing huge convoy between Suva and Pago Pago, sinking at least 10 merchants. In the mean time, Jojima will refuel and sail out to continue harrasing enemy sea lines.

Kure
HQ of Combined Fleet

Yamamoto couldn’t help thinking that, besides loosing two carriers and some 20 other ships, Americans could have fared far worst. Only poor planning on Japanese side and lack of fuel prevent their disaster. Perhaps he was to quick to appoint Yamaguchi commander of 1st Air Fleet. With a shrug, he dismissed such thoughts. Nothing he can do about it now. Instead, he must concentrate on exploiting this huge success. He had a great opportunity to completely halt all traffic between US and Australia, and he intended to use it. But not before Operation Hitei is over.

Bataan
HQ of the 14th Army

For days now, General Homme war receiving threatening telegrams from General Terauchi, urging him to attack. And for days his respond was that his army wasn’t ready, and that it would be futile to attack well entrenched enemy so soon. He had under his command 4 divisions, two brigades, two armor regiments and various support units, in total of 150000 men, 250 tanks and 1400 guns. For two weeks he’s been bombarding enemy positions, but he wanted to wait until air force, which was finishing their preparations on newly captured Clark Field, is ready to support his attack. Now he received confirmation from 23rd Air Flotilla that they will commence their attck tomorrow, with more then 100 bombers. Homme could finally send the date of attack to Terauchi. It was to begin on February 7th.

Febryary 2nd, 1942
Operation Hitei

Japanese command has long seen North Australia as a threat to their resources and oil centres in Dutch East Indies, but not until force Z raided Amboin has any serious thought given to the elimination of that threat. The raid came as a shock to them, and made them realized how vulnerable the south border of SRA really was. So, Daihonei tasked Combined Fleet with the development of a plan to capture northern coast of Australia, mainly Darwin, Broom, Derby and Wyndham.

Yamamoto and his staff realized that, with forces at their disposal, initial idea of capturing all 4 ports simultaneously would be impossible, so they decided to eliminate the largest threat first. Invasion of Darwin was planned in three phases.
In Phase 1, airfield and port would be bombarded by sea and air for three weeks, to soften enemy coastal decencies and suppress any idea of challenging Japanese air supremacy over the theatre. Aerial bombardment was to be done from bases at Amboine (50 naval bombers and 51 fighters) and Koepang (57 naval bombers and 24 fighters). Naval bombardment was delegated to the 1st Battleship division consisting of Nagato and Ise, two heavy cruisers and escorts. Several days before the start of the Phase 2, another bombardment task forces of 4 heavy cruisers and escorting destroyers would also start making their runs from Amboine.

In Phase 2, planned for D day -1, 2nd Parachute regiment would airdrop on Katherine and take it. In the next few days, they would be reinforced with a base force and two companies of Sasebo 2nd SNLF, one battery of 37mm anti tank guns and a company of 81mm mortars. As soon the engineers would take the small airfield in Katherine, 11th Fighter squadron, with 36 Ki-43 fighters would transfer there, and provide air cover. All these units would be transferred and supply by 1001 Transport Daitai, with 35 L3Y planes and T4 Yokohama Chutai with 10 H6K2-L transports, only ones with sufficient range for this operation. When Darwin is captured, Catherine will be also supplied from there, with 12 L2D2 planes of T1/25th Chutai.

In Phase 3, actual invasion of Darwin will begin. Imperial Guard Brigade, supported with several SNLF and Naval Guard units, engineers, and two tank regiments will land and secure the town.

In the last minute, after the fall of Cagayan, 56th Brigade was added, but it will be some time before this unit can join the operations.

[center][/center]

Hi!
Welcome to Darwin! Enjoy your stay [:D]

Any intel on enemy forces present in the target area?

Some 14000, plus one unit just south of the town. I think he keeps it as a reserve.

You may want to change the title of your AAR or Carney will know your objective. Or does he already know...?

Oh, he does [:D]

This looks like fun! And a familiar theatre of action to me, so can I offer a couple of suggestions:

1. Take Lautem before you launch against Darwin. It denies him a forward base from which he can scout your task forces' approach. It's also a good base from which to mount LRCAP over those TF's; I concentrated nearly half the IJNAF's Zero daitai's there for this purpose. This will also make it unnecessary for Dai Ni Kido Butai to be hobbled to the invasion group. Finally, Lautem can also serve as an advanced base at which to re-ammunition your bombardment groups - get a loaded AE there for this purpose.

2. Can you substitute a pair of Kongos in the place of Nagato and Ise? Unlike the Kongos, these ships are probably too slow to get in and out on a bombardment run and stay clear of counter-attack by LBA. If such LBA includes torpedo bombers it could spoil your whole day. Also, consider putting a SC TF in ahead of the bombardment group to clear away any surface opposition.

Heya Yokel, nice to see you here.

Some great advices there, but too late, I'm afraid. Lautem is an excellent idea, never thought of that, as Zeros cannot LRCAP Darwin from Amboin or Koepang.Fortunatly, I made sure that he doesn't have any air or naval presence in the region. I bombed the crap out of Darwin form air and sea for a month now, as I was terrified of those coastal guns off Emery point. Invasion went without a glitch, with only three of my APs taking a shot each, without significant damage.

As for Kongo's, two are with 1st Air FLeet, while Kondo's two are in repair, having been in action for two months. They really need it.

Febryary 10th, 1941
South Pacific, 330 miles NW off Samoa

Three carriers under the command of Admiral Jojima were slowly limping towards Funafuti and awaiting tankers. In the last two days they have been harassing shipping north of Samo, sinking at least 12 tankers. Judging from the huge oil stains, they were full of fuel. Jojima was sure that fuel will be sorely missed somewhere. With two destroyers sunk by submarines, this raid was fairly successful. Except one fact. On one of the attack runs, his planes were intercepted by a new type of aircraft, one that could outmaneuver even an A6M2. Fortunately, the combat was brief, but his pilots manage to kill only two of these planes, while loosing 5 of their own. These were disturbing news.



He had received information that Soryu has started her long journey home to repair and Yamaguchi with Hiryu and Zuikaku is already at Funafuti, refueling. He will be ready in a few days.

The situation in South Pacific was very interesting. Several convoys were trapped in Pago Pago, with no where to run, as 1st Air Fleet roamed the sea unchecked. Now, 2nd Battleship Division with Hyuga and Yamashiro has joined them. On the other hand, Japanese didn’t have enough forces to launch an invasion, so a plan to attrition units in Pago Pago has been adopted. Also, an interesting idea was presented. If Imperial forces can capture Suva, this would completely cut off all traffic between Australia and USA. This plan was, however, still in works.

Saipan
HQ of the Southern Area Army

General Terauchi didn’t like when his orders are being ignored. And he especially didn’t like having to explain to his superiors in Tokyo why an attack on Bataan planned for February 7th didn’t happen, although it was now February 10th. This made him look bad. His subordinates were showing worrying amount of disrespect. And General Terauchi, Count and Peer of the Empire hated being treated with disrespect. So, he sent one last order to the 14th Army. “You will attack no later then February 15th.”
That, in case of failure, commandant of the 14th army will become commandant of a border post in Manzhuria went without saying, and General Homme knew that. So, reluctantly, he issued orders for attack on February 15th.

We have nice little mexican stand off at Samoa. He can't get out, and I can get in.Pago Pago is cramped with ships and planes, and I pressume, troops also.Supply spoliage may become issue for him.