Matrix Games Forums

Feb 1, 1944

Lots of work to do.

Swatow harbor got a visiting E....there were several sightings, but no engagements...and in the morning the two patrolling destroyers from Swatow caught the E. The Converse patrolling west of Swatow (in the same hex as the fight) didn't find her. These single ship tactics are darn hard to counter.

Mines, PT Boats, Small counter Destroyers....planes, night search, day search, attacks...just not spotting them.


Can't buy a hit.


Day Time Surface Combat, near Swatow at 80,62, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
E Yugao

Allied Ships
DD Thompson, Shell hits 2
DD Porter

Reduced visibility due to Thunderstorms
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms: 3,000 yards
Range closes to 24,000 yards...
Range closes to 18,000 yards...
Range closes to 12,000 yards...
Range closes to 8,000 yards...
Range closes to 6,000 yards...
Range closes to 4,000 yards...
Range closes to 2,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 2,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 2,000 yards
Roberts, D. crosses the 'T'
DD Thompson engages E Yugao at 2,000 yards
DD Porter engages E Yugao at 2,000 yards
DD Thompson engages E Yugao at 2,000 yards
Range increases to 6,000 yards
DD Porter engages E Yugao at 6,000 yards
Range increases to 8,000 yards
DD Porter engages E Yugao at 8,000 yards
DD Thompson engages E Yugao at 8,000 yards
Task forces break off...

Going to pull the trigger I think on the Kagi Invasion...will land one div at 100 prep, plus some shore squads, while the 2nd Division at 100 prep is enroute to Amoy. Will pound the clear beaches and see what happens. Have more troops and support for Kagi to add to the beachead, and this will be the first time I use a HQc on an AGC. I wish our landing craft rocket gun ships were here....

The bombardments so far don't really show quality troops defending...but there are 30k of them. No tanks though.

Night Naval bombardment of Kagi at 85,64

Allied Ships
CA Frobisher
CA Cornwall
CA Houston
DD Dewey
DD Frankford
DD Bancroft
DD Wickes

Japanese ground losses:
351 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 16 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 21 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Manpower hits 1
Fires 76
Airbase hits 8
Runway hits 8

CA Frobisher firing at 32nd Ind.Mixed Brigade
CA Cornwall firing at 64th Inf Group Brigade
OS2U-3 Kingfisher acting as spotter for CA Houston
CA Houston firing at 32nd Ind.Mixed Brigade
DD Dewey firing at Kagi
DD Frankford firing at 64th Inf Group Brigade
DD Bancroft firing at Kagi
DD Wickes firing at 32nd Ind.Mixed Brigade

I broke down to watch the replay to see the sad ending of Langley....incredible super kamikazes.

But on the night bombing, our HB hitting Nagasaki strayed, but did fly.

Of 20 HB tasked with hitting Okayama, 18 hit the base not scoring any hits.

You can see the recon reset to 0. So we are going to experiment with no recon manpower bombing at night. There is a vague memory of something known as a MDL I think....but we will rely upon concentrated strikes slowly increasing the dl thru attacks. Not sure that will work....but hey, gotta try everything.

The J1N1-S Irving has very weak guns, and runs out of ammo quickly. It can handle twin engine bombers, but heavily gunned USA HB will shred them. So we need to delay the Japanese from getting better Night Fighters...

Weather forecast back to thunderstorms.

The sad end:


Major flooding aboard CVL Langley
Damage Control parties trapped in flooded compartment aboard CVL Langley ...
Major flooding aboard CVL Langley
Temporary flotation repairs failing aboard CVL Langley

As a JFB, noticed that often times it is the last wave of heavy bombers that do the most damage....which makes sense to me as they have worn the CAP down, and have the highest DL for their run.

There are only a few bombers with radars....British, and USN notably for heavies. For twin engines, British have some, New Zealand uses the Ventura as does the USN and the USM have a nice plane too with the absolute most effective radar...but the twin engines have shorter ranges.

New Zealand has Beaufighters but range is even shorter.

SBDs and Avengers also have radars for the very close targets.

So my thought is to conserve the radar planes and use them as pathfinders for the regular heavies. Perhaps fly them at higher altitudes....

Lots of tactics to try out....not sure any of this really works....it seems the best overall tactic is large numbers flying as low as you can justify.

Hitting Nagoya's manpower and Nagasaki today at night. Osaka will could be our main early target since it has great manpower and three identified NF factories. Ningpo to Osaka is 19 hexes, which is a long way.

Feb 2, 1944

Finally, it took Avengers, PT Boat squadrons (3), a small hunting Desron, naval search planes, and a wolfpack to finally bring her down. 5 float planes were destroyed on the ground today, 3 Jakes and 2 Petes, and of our numerous shore bombardments only Petes were damaged. Chikuma took 5 torpedoes....they are tough ships.

Submarine attack near Makassar at 65,107

Japanese Ships
CA Chikuma, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Tally Ho

CA Chikuma is sighted by SS Tally Ho
SS Tally Ho launches 4 torpedoes


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Sub attack near Makassar at 65,107

Japanese Ships
CA Chikuma, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Truant

CA Chikuma is sighted by SS Truant
SS Truant launches 4 torpedoes

China theater...

Feb 2, 1944

Corsairs sweep high (4 squadrons coordinated), and Spitfires medium, to good results against the Frank R high and Oscar IV medium over Chushien in China. Some of our ABs blunder into a cap trap over Canton...plane losses 55 IJ to 27 Allied.

Weather forecast is lousy over Honshu again, and I stood down our small bomber force that can actually reach. However, perhaps a small window opened up at Nagoya as it is merely extreme overcast today but the forecast is of course thunderstorms. Will give it another shot tonight.

First use of AGC ships shortly. Unfortunately, they are short a bit of cargo space for the entire Amphib Command HQ... a problem they don't have in stock.

Japan pulled back from their attempted encirclement at Chushien...

Feb 4th and 5th, 1944

Formosa invaded! Kagi was the first landing with the 27th Division and some combat some combat shore parties first on. 100% prep, HQc Amphib in another TF (with 99% of the HQc and the 14 support that didn't load back at Tsinkiang, and go figure the fractional unit is the one on the AGC so I don't know if I got any bonus for the HQc & AGC). Also in the invasion fleet was another AGC. But the invasion a great success....10% disruption on the troops, only a handful disabled. Our beachhead is established, and we have AV parity roughly, but of course twice as many guns and better TOE. This op was led by Howling Mad....who was left at Tsinkiang pretty upset.

I pulled the trigger on this invasion earlier than I want to....primarily because of the threat that is the recon kamikaze. I would have preferred getting another full division to Ningpo. Well, it is war. I have set up and restructured CAP, set up traps to lure the kamikazes in, but the threat is still great....

900 Naval dockworkers are swarming over the damaged ships at Amoy, along with a passel of support ships and sailors doing emergency repairs...and of course we almost lost the first three ARDs despite being shepherded by two different Destroyer task forces.

Pre-Invasion action off Kagi (85,64)

91 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Allied Ships
BB Alabama
BB Arizona
CA Astoria
DD William Porter
DD Healy
DD Halford
DD Foote
APA Du Page
DD Roebuck

Japanese ground losses:
779 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 41 disabled
Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 48 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
35 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Amphibious Assault at Kagi (85,64)

TF 161 troops unloading over beach at Kagi, 85,64

Allied ground losses:
59 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 17 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 4 (0 destroyed, 4 disabled)
Vehicles lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)

12 troops of a M1917 MMG Section lost in surf during unload of 27th Infantry Div
15 Support troops accidentally lost during unload of 27th Infantry Div /12
Motorized Support lost from landing craft during unload of 27th Infantry Div /17

No unloading reports in the afternoon....


Ground combat at Kagi (85,64)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 7917 troops, 55 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 475

Defending force 12881 troops, 211 guns, 124 vehicles, Assault Value = 389

Japanese ground losses:
35 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Assaulting units:
32nd Ind.Mixed Brigade
64th Inf Group Brigade
88th Naval Guard Unit
17th JNAF AF Unit
18th JAAF AF Bn

Defending units:
27th Infantry Division
3/543rd Boat&Shore Engineer Battalion

Our sweeps at Nanning....is this showing a weakness in Japanese fighter pools? Kind of hard to figure our why only 1 plane is responding...I have noticed this elsewhere to in China.

Morning Air attack on Nanning , at 72,55

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 45 NM, estimated altitude 40,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 16 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M8 Zero x 1
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 1
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 53
Ki-84r Frank x 1

Allied aircraft
F4U-1A Corsair x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 5 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1A Corsair: 1 destroyed

CAP engaged:
Hosho-1 with A6M8 Zero (1 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 8000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 8000.
Raid is overhead
13th Sentai with Ki-84r Frank (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 38000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 38000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 3 minutes
63rd Sentai with Ki-43-IIb Oscar (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
1 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 8000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 8000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 25 minutes
54th Sentai with Ki-43-IV Oscar (0 airborne, 17 on standby, 3 scrambling)
8 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 7000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 27 minutes
204th Sentai with Ki-43-IV Oscar (0 airborne, 17 on standby, 0 scrambling)
8 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 9000
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 28 minutes



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Morning Air attack on Nanning , at 72,55

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 13 NM, estimated altitude 50,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 2 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M8 Zero x 1
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 1
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 40
Ki-84r Frank x 1

Allied aircraft
P-38J Lightning x 21

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 5 destroyed
Ki-84r Frank: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-38J Lightning: 2 destroyed

CAP engaged:
Hosho-1 with A6M8 Zero (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 1 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 8000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 8000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 32 minutes
13th Sentai with Ki-84r Frank (1 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 38000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 38000.
Raid is overhead
63rd Sentai with Ki-43-IIb Oscar (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 8000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 8000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 1 minutes
54th Sentai with Ki-43-IV Oscar (3 airborne, 3 on standby, 0 scrambling)
3 plane(s) intercepting now.
13 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 2 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 7000 , scrambling fighters between 7000 and 39900.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 35 minutes
204th Sentai with Ki-43-IV Oscar (0 airborne, 3 on standby, 0 scrambling)
14 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 9000 , scrambling fighters between 6000 and 37900.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 24 minutes

Morning Air attack on Nanning , at 72,55

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 53 NM, estimated altitude 43,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M8 Zero x 1
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 18

Allied aircraft
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 23

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M8 Zero: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 7 destroyed

No Allied losses

Escort carriers provide local CAP and bomb enemy strong points. Even the British Battler is there using a biplane. I do have one squadron of Barracudas....but they just upgraded and are doing flight training at Haiphong.

Afternoon Air attack on 88th Naval Guard Unit, at 85,64 (Kagi)

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid spotted at 32 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes

Allied aircraft
Swordfish II x 8
Seafire IIC x 8
Wildcat V x 4
FM-1 Wildcat x 31
F4U-1A Corsair x 13
F6F-3 Hellcat x 8
TBF-1 Avenger x 49

Allied aircraft losses
TBF-1 Avenger: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
28 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Aircraft Attacking:
7 x TBF-1 Avenger bombing from 7000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 500 lb GP Bomb
15 x TBF-1 Avenger bombing from 7000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 500 lb GP Bomb
20 x TBF-1 Avenger bombing from 7000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 500 lb GP Bomb
7 x TBF-1 Avenger bombing from 7000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 500 lb GP Bomb
8 x Swordfish II bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 500 lb GP Bomb

Also attacking 17th JNAF AF Unit ...
Also attacking 64th Inf Group Brigade ...
Also attacking 88th Naval Guard Unit ...
Also attacking 17th JNAF AF Unit ...
Also attacking 88th Naval Guard Unit ...
Also attacking 17th JNAF AF Unit ...
Also attacking 64th Inf Group Brigade ...
Also attacking 88th Naval Guard Unit ...
Also attacking 17th JNAF AF Unit ...

Congratulations on your invasion of Formosa. With the naval and land bombardments, you should have the upper hand pretty soon. With reinforcements, you should be able to clear the island.

I also notice your yellow arrows for movement in China. Are your trying to open a supply path to Chungking to supply and free your large Chinese infantry units? Is your Allied "Magic Highway" working for moving your supplies into Indochina and Southern China? That is, unloading supplies along the Thai and Malaysian Indian Ocean coast getting to places like Haiphong where they could be loaded and shipped further into coastal China? That could help move even more supplies to the needed theater, especially if you get more Chinese units operating in the area.

Formosa....this is our first invasion with overwhelming force and complete prep. The followup Kagi wave will include the 25th Division, but I am going to ferry as much as I can with barges and landing craft, freeing up our attack troop transports to land the 2nd British Division next door at Taichu and get men and material to Ningpo. I also have a Wenchow invasion to think about.

I am unloading Howling Smith unto the beaches today...and I have some AAA, and CD guns that I will get around to unloading too. I will hold off attacking for a day or two or maybe even until I land the 25th Div depending upon what Japan does. I at least want to get Howling Smith ashore. The British 2nd Division faces much less resistance next door....and I want to avoid disablements. I notice some movement ticks on the IJA defenders.

The Arsenal of Democracy is really putting out the forces right now....since I don't watch the replay, I don't get operations or sig intel reports (not that I ever really bothered with the sigint before), so I have to scan the likely bases for reinforcements, and every now and then look at arrivals.

I have knocked Pescadores down to 1 resource and 1 shipyard....I guess I need to destroy Shanghai's industry and Manila too. Canton and Hong Kong are going to fall fairly quickly I feel.

Japan is in so much trouble....I can't believe he hasn't started a wholesale evacuation back in China...I guess he feels he can't make it fast enough.

These things are pretty dangerous....

RangerJoe wrote: Tue Jul 02, 2024 12:17 pm Congratulations on your invasion of Formosa. With the naval and land bombardments, you should have the upper hand pretty soon. With reinforcements, you should be able to clear the island.

I also notice your yellow arrows for movement in China. Are your trying to open a supply path to Chungking to supply and free your large Chinese infantry units? Is your Allied "Magic Highway" working for moving your supplies into Indochina and Southern China? That is, unloading supplies along the Thai and Malaysian Indian Ocean coast getting to places like Haiphong where they could be loaded and shipped further into coastal China? That could help move even more supplies to the needed theater, especially if you get more Chinese units operating in the area.

It is too early to tell...certainly a lot goes to Singers, which still has a big concentration of forces.

I am not currently hurting for supplies, 50-80k in the Chinese bases, except Ningpo that has 10k. Of course not enough for a large scale bombing campaign, but we are still building runways up for that.

I turned Australian HI back on....not sure I am shipping them enough fuel....so I will increase that a bit...probably could have turned the HI a year ago.

If Singapore has enough supplies now, you can get supplies going elsewhere by stockpiling the supplies at Jahore Bahru one hex away. That way, the supplies should move elsewhere like Saigon or Cam Ranh Bay but the supplies would transfer to Haiphong if you were to load supplies there.

I take it the AGC has been reduced in capacity? If so, the Amphib Force HQ should also have been reduced in size so it will still fit. Shaving a few Support squads should not make much difference to the HQ performance.

BBfanboy wrote: Tue Jul 02, 2024 4:23 pm I take it the AGC has been reduced in capacity? If so, the Amphib Force HQ should also have been reduced in size so it will still fit. Shaving a few Support squads should not make much difference to the HQ performance.

I guess....

It was Colonel Angwen's big day, as Howling Mad Smith was left back at the harbor.

Maybe I can lose some in the surf as they unload today and then they will all fit for future ops.

Thinking ahead. Night bombing is a numbers game....you need mass. Good weather, DL, adequate support squads and supplies all help. Hard to really start the campaign until Ningpo is a level 9 runway. Half way there now.

And then, for each 500 plane raid, we will consume a Liberty ship worth of supplies.

So we have a lot of work to do yet....to get ready for the campaign.

Unfortunately, Osaka is just outside of normal range, but within extended range for the B24J. I believe you use the same amount of supplies...just drop less bombs. Osaka is home to three night fighter factories....and it needs to burn.

In April the B29s start to arrive at Aden. I have all my AKVs assembling there....once at Karachi, they can fly to Ningpo or Foochow for strikes against Honshu in one day (but of course then they need servicing.....I am pretty sure they can reach out and touch Ominato at normal range from Ningpo.