Wait, I can't read Cuttlefish's new AAR? - Cribtop (J) vs CF (A)

[Erkki]

BTW, which CLs did he have in that TF? Not those that gets withdrawn by mid July or early 43 I hope...

[nashvillen]

[Canoerebel]

If I'm an Allied player in that postion, I'd be scared to sortie my battleships and other slower stuff with the KB on the loose. My first hope would be to put together as strong a CAP as possible, drawing from every base in India within range. If I could put up 100 or 150 fighters, I might just ride things out, hoping for the best. Even so, I might also form up my DDs into three or four destroyer TFs and sortie them in all directions hoping to inflict a little mayhem and perhaps cause some of the carriers to use up Ops points.

If I were the Japanese player, I think I'd set all my strike aircraft to naval first and port strike second. But you've probably given this alot more thought and have worked out a better plan.

Good luck.

[Cribtop]

Canoe, fortunately for me and unfortunately for CF, unless he moved a lot of planes from the Assam bases to southern India in the last week, he doesn't have any more fighters available for CAP tomorrow. Plus, if he leave fast bait TFs available, my planes will focus on them as they did today, leaving the juicy targets safe in port with no port attack launching. I therefore think a goodly number of Kates have to be on port attack to handle this eventuality, and the bomb equipped ones won't hit many moving targets anyway, so they at least should be port attack only.

[ny59giants]

I would move my torpedo equipped CVs 7 hexes NW of Colombo with the bombs only CVs slightly closer. Those with torpedoes go with Naval Attack/Port and the bombs only set for Port/Rest. Only his fastest ships should get away.

[Mike Solli]

Colombo is a level 9 port. It's going to be hard to sink a BB there. They'll just be bomb magnets and save a lot of other ships. If CF is smart, he'll leave the stuff in port and hope your bombing of the port is diluted by the vast number of ships he can afford to lose. I'd focus on naval attacks. The Kates can cause damage with the 250kg bombs against slower targets. The port isn't going anywhere. The TFs are.

[Cribtop]

True, but what if he just hunkers down with a few fast DDs to draw nav attacks? After another day or two, he WILL have more fighters there, closing the port attack window. Plus, in my experience Kates on port attack will drop 800kg bombs, which easily penetrate BBs. We won't sink them, but could cripple them and get some tankers on the side (CF has a LOT of TKs present).

A tough choice. The more he runs, the more nav attack I want. The more he sits, the more port attack I want. Argghh.

[princep01]

Crib, I'd be inclined to go much more naval and much less Port (if any) this time. If he is going to run, tis now. If he doesn't run this time, then I'd do the port thing next time on the assumption that he isn't going to run at all. If his Hurricanes and other fighters are in Burma/ NE India, I doubt they can get to Colombo by next turn in numbers that will give him a chance to protect the port.

Sink, burn, pillage.

[Cribtop]

Thanks for the advice, all. One problem is that the numbers of DDs are many, the numbers of DDs capable of a speed run to Colombo that can still make the RV with the Fleet Oilers are fewer. Decisions, decisions. Princep, I do agree that he either runs now or hunkers down for the duration. The way I see it, I'll have all Vals on Nav; all torpedo enabled Kates (approx 60%) on nav/port; and all bomb only Kates on port only. I think I can send one SCTF with 5 long legged DDs into the fray. MKB will pull WNW and stay within 6 hexes of Colombo. It will be very interesting, no matter what happens. I am (for once) holding out a lot of hope for my subs. There are so many in the way that contacts would seem inevitable, especially with the good moon tonight.

Thanks to you all again for the advice. I'm off to enter orders. Banzai!

[Cribtop]

The die is cast. We await the verdict of Heaven.

[Cribtop]

The verdict of Heaven was rain screwing up our port attack and our brilliant admirals deciding to re-fuel DDs that didn't need re-fueling. @#$#@#%#$!!!! [:@]

[Cribtop]

May 27, 1942

Program note: This is the full report on the first day of "attacks" on Colombo.

Subs

No contacts, but Glens from 3 subs fly over Colombo to recon and improve DL there.

4th Fleet

No change.

SE Fleet

No change.

14th Army

No change.

16th Army

6 B-17s hit our flanking tank regiment near Daly with minimal effects.

CV Hiyo and BB Yamato arrive at Babeldoab. They will linger here as MKB is planning to move East in a big way after the Colombo raids to deal with any aggressive action CF may envision now that he knows our carriers are on the western map edge.

Endeh occupied.

25th Army

Re-organizing and preparing to ship combat troops out of Java and support troops in.

As reported above, MKB launches desultory raids on the CL/DD TF at Colombo. Final score shores CLs Marblehead and Durban heavily damaged, CL Newcastle less so (lots of non-penetrating hits by Val 60 kg bombs at long range, got her radar though). 3 DDs are also damage. Yippee! At least we don't lose any planes. [:@]

15th Army

A new tranche of base forces has arrived overland and will move out to improve airfields in the basin. This is the last overland march, future troops are coming by sea now that Sabang has fallen. In fact, several AA units are about to land at Rangoon.

China

Still moving to encircle the Wuchang stack. CF had sortied an HQ unit from Changsha to try to open a hexside, but now that we have a brigade to the west of the 2 isolated corps he will need more. More and more troops are gathering to march into the southern theater.

Other

Big Oil convoys are unloading in the Home Islands and the pipeline looks to be primed for continuous deliveries. Enemy subs seems to have abandoned the area north of Mindanao and even have become scarce in the Makassar Strait.

[Cribtop]

May 28, 1942

A truly craptacular day.

Subs

We knew we were hosed when a Glen reported it couldn't recon Colombo due to bad weather over the target.

A Jake from MKB reports a hit on a sub nearby, while a newly operational ASW group with high skills reports a hit on a sub near Sabang.

4th Fleet

No change, but we expect CF to do something nearby now that he knows MKB is elsewhere.

SE Fleet

Lae makes level 4 forts.

14th Army

No change.

16th Army

Dobo and Taliaboe invaded by DBCL warriors. FYI, it's hard to be an unprepped DBCL unit post invasion bonus.

CF continues to try to hit our tanks with B-17s. The pattern is rest for a few days, attack 1 day with 6 B-17s, come back the next with 1-3 planes, then rest again. Perhaps he is flying them from too small an airfield as so far they are ineffective. Unfortunately, he's likely to figure it out soon enough.

25th Army

Fail at Colombo. CF stayed put and disbanded the CL TF, leaving us wishing for the second day in a row we had launched all Kates on Port Attack only. Weather over MKB prevents all AM Phase launches other than search planes.

In the PM Phase, weather improves over the carriers. CF sent 3 DDs near Male to draw air attacks and they do. We sink DD Kortenaer and damage DD Piet Hein. This is fine as it goes, and we await our big port attack with baited breath. Unfortunately, only Junyo launches due to weather and no sweeps go in. We lose 4 Kates for nothing to a CAP of 16 Hurricanes, about what we expected. Our escort does a great job for a while but eventually about 6 get through. No bombs are dropped and thus ends today's glorious action. Ugh.

Worse yet, after the replay we have the dreaded small circles around both CarDivs and Tanaka Force. The accursed DD re-fueling strikes again. We had plenty of gas not only to reach the nearby Oilers but also to get home to Port Blair, which we set as home port to try to avoid this. Now MKB is going to move 1 hex tomorrow and air Ops will be limited. Yuck. This is turning into a debacle.

We have no choice but to juke 1 hex, probably SE, and pull down all attacks on Colombo tomorrow. Assuming we survive, MKB will begin to return home but set everything for one big attack on Colombo as we pass by.

This has been an effective "rope a dope" by CF. The CL/DD TF played off the frustrating lack of control on Nav Attacks to abort our Port Attacks. It forces the attacker to commit to Port Attack exclusively, which of course opens the possibility of getting "Midwayed" by unexpected enemy CVs or even SCTFs. Hmmm.

15th Army

We had extended the range of our Netties at Rangoon in hopes that CF's large concentrations of merchies at Diamond Harbor and Calcutta ran for it, but no joy.

China

No change.

[Erkki]

Ouch! Though better to have that happen with a port strike than CV battle... For tomorrow, are you going to set some squads to sweep to perhaps go in before the strikes?

[Cribtop]

I had some today but they didn't fly. One CarDiv did, one didn't due to weather even though both were in the same hex.

[Canoerebel]

Don't you just hate it when well planned missions turn into debacles? They're sort of like tar babies - you want to get rid of them, wash your hands clean, and move on, but you can't quite work your hands free. One small thing goes wrong, leading to another, leading to another, and suddenly it's Midway or Market Garden or Dieppe. I think author Michael Crichton called such a sequence as "a cascade." I hope you'll be able to withdraw without something of that nature happening (I bet you will).

[Cribtop]

You caught my feeling exactly. Had we gone all in on port attack we hammer CF on the first day, probably crippling most capital ships. Instead, nothing good happens. We are in grave danger tomorrow if CF were to sortie his SCTFs or even his Brit CVs. Fortunately, he doesn't know we are in trouble and will probably sit tight tomorrow. I'm going to gather some good ships with Ops points remaining under Tanaka to deal with surface threats and post DD TFs along likely approaches. Finally, we still have our subs. Still, quite annoying as the net result is likely to be giving away KB's position on a far map edge for little to no gain.

Worse, I have to go to a conference for the rest of the week so no new turns until probably Saturday. I for one plan to have a few beers tonight and try to think about the Rangers instead of the game.

One more comment. This DD re-fueling thing effectively shortens the legs of TFs too much, IMHO. IRL, the DD skippers know there's a huge gas station a day's sail away and don't need to gas up. Such is life.

[Mike Solli]

Look on the bright side. Even if you don't end up doing much damage, you really didn't lose much of anything. Sure, it was a great plan. CF didn't cooperate, nor did the weather. Fire your weather man and start working another plan. I'd keep the subs there. I'll bet the moment you withdraw, CF starts a mass exodus. The subs should get in a few shots. Also, I'll bet he stations some fighters there. He doesn't know if you're planning on coming back or not. That's should help the Burma front.

[Cribtop]

That's the spirit, Mike.

Here's what I'm working on. First, the subs stay as I fully agree he runs once I leave. Next, I'm toying with re-fueling from the Oilers and launching a combined MKB/LBA port attack on Diamond Harbor and Calcutta. He has 30ish ships in each with minimal fighter cover and probably less now. They can't get away with MKB at the base of the Bay of Bengal. The targets are mostly xAKs, so not as sexy, but it would be a quick hit followed by a hasty move to the East in case he tries something.

[Insano]

arrgh, a frustrating few days. This JFB had delusions of grandeur about your well planned raid. I think you have the right idea - go all in for one last try at a big port strike. In this situation I would set my dive bombers for level bombing altitude and accept the reduced accuracy. I would definately smack Diamond Harbor or Calcutta on the way out. At least it might reduce frustration. I would like to point out how huge your earlier destruction of the AVG has been in this operation - far reaching consequences that one. They probably would have been in reach had they still been in play.