Hunting the Hibiki: Q-Ball (Allies) v Cuttlefish (Japan)

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Rainer79

Finding a decent repair yard for Enterprise will be tough though. The nearest (usable) ones would be Colombo, Bombay, Cape Town or Sydney neither of which are very close.

Cape Town is the safe one and plenty big and there are less likely to be any Japs in that direction. That is where I sent the POW. You can send it to Colombo but that really takes up all the shipyard capacity for that port. You need the yard there to repair subs, DDs, CLs and AKs.

I had to bug out of Bativia with the POW. She survived the day one suprise but took four torpedoes from bettys. Still I could not leave her in Bativia as I knew my opponent would be looking for her (actually via FOW, he thought she was sunk). She had about 40 sys and 45 flotation but had to go anyway. I sent her to Cape Town. The key is to get sys damage down. A ship with heavy flotation but no sys damage will almost always make it (almost). However high sys makes it very dangerous. But there are other factors. Enterprise like POW has a very high crew quality and a good captain. I found that under these condtions POW actually repaired some sys damage while enroute. You should be fine sending big E to Capetown as her damage is less than I had, but there are no longer any guarantees. Good luck.

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Cape Town is the safe one and plenty big and there are less likely to be any Japs in that direction. That is where I sent the POW. You can send it to Colombo but that really takes up all the shipyard capacity for that port. You need the yard there to repair subs, DDs, CLs and AKs.

Another reason is that Colombo isn't safe once Singapore falls. It's a piece of cake to port raid using KB, and there is bupkus the RN can do about it.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Cape Town is the safe one and plenty big and there are less likely to be any Japs in that direction. That is where I sent the POW. You can send it to Colombo but that really takes up all the shipyard capacity for that port. You need the yard there to repair subs, DDs, CLs and AKs.

Another reason is that Colombo isn't safe once Singapore falls. It's a piece of cake to port raid using KB, and there is bupkus the RN can do about it.

Right. See my post again. I added some remarks about my experience getting the crippled POW to Capetown.

[anarchyintheuk]

Just for water muddying purposes, it should take less than 2 months to repair Big E at Sydney excluding travel time.

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

Just for water muddying purposes, it should take less than 2 months to repair Big E at Sydney excluding travel time.

Yeah, thought of that.....but Sydney isn't safe either. You can sneak Port Raid it. Melbourne is the only truly safe port in Australia.

With the new NavSearch in AE, it's easier now to sneak up on a coastline.

In WITP, I had a PBEM where I did a sneak attack on Sydney, and it was carnage.

I might be paranoid with all these Sneak Attack scenarios, but I have done enough to know that they can really ruin your day.

[Canoerebel]

If Ent is repaired at Capetown, would it be faster to send her back to the Pacific via the Panama Canal?

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

If Ent is repaired at Capetown, would it be faster to send her back to the Pacific via the Panama Canal?

Maybe, but I dropped her airgroups off in Java. They will probably withdraw to Australia when the time comes. In which case, I need to either a) ship them to Capetown, or b) ship Ent to Australia first to pick up her planes. Not sure what I'll do, the airgroups could be handy for awhile in Oz.

It was the right thing to do, he has to account for those planes on Java.

I will have an update tonight, we just had a Battle of Java Sea, only off Balikpapan; basically the Dutch ran into a pile of IJN cruisers and came out on the losing end.

[Canoerebel]

At least your keeping him honest, which is important. Too, you pinpointed the location of the KB - always a great thing to know - and thus have had time to move stuff about in the KB-free Pacific. Well done.

[Q-Ball]

Combat Report, Jan 18,19 1942

Battle of Balikpapan
The last couple days saw a Battle of the Java Sea in the DEI, or this time it was off Balikpapan. I knew there were alot of Japanese Ships off Balikpapan, but felt it was time to send in the Dutch; they are there to defend the Queen's territory, not run to Australia, so going down swinging, just like Force Z, seems like the sporting thing to do.

At any rate, Doorman's TF ran smack into a TF of cruisers. Although round 1 wasn't a total wipeout, the day after Baby KB put torpedos into Java and Tromp, sending them to the bottom to join 3 DDs. DeRuyter and 4DDs live, and will flee to Soerbaya.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Time Surface Combat, near Balikpapan at 64,97, Range 24,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami, Shell hits 1
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 1
CA Suzuya, Shell hits 1
CA Kumano, Shell hits 1
DD Maikaze, Shell hits 1
DD Nowaki
DD Arashi
DD Hagikaze

Allied Ships
CL Java, Shell hits 5, heavy fires
CL De Ruyter
CL Tromp, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Banckert
DD Van Nes, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
DD Witte de With
DD Evertsen, Shell hits 1, heavy fires
DD Van Ghent, Shell hits 1

Burma
Rangoon falls, and my "defense" continues. Everyone is streaming north toward Mandalay. Pretty lousy generalship there on my part.

DEI
A sub spotted KB north of Ambon two days ago, then nothing. Not sure where it is. The Japanese Navy seems concentrated in the DEI now, which I suppose is what I wanted. I have pretty much evacuated most shipping now other than the Dutch, and I'll probably send them away as well. Kido Butai's threat served to clear the DEI of ships for now, though if I get a positive KB sighting, I may come back with CVs; Lexington lingers at Perth, and joined with HMS Indomitable would make a nice TF.

I have quite a bit of airpower. The Dutch Martins have been training a month on NavB, and are in the 30s now; not great, but maybe they can hit something. I haven't lost any Dutch fighters, they are all there, along with 16 RAF Buffalos, the Enterprise airgroups, 24 B-17s, and 16 Vildebeests, plus some Hudsons. All the troops are resting and training. The Japs will still take it, I just hope to continue to make the DEI expensive.

Elsewhere:
Building trenches, moving troops, usual stuff.
Enterprise is moving closeer to Cape Town. Thanks all for your comments!

[kaleun]

Good read. Looking forward to more

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

If Ent is repaired at Capetown, would it be faster to send her back to the Pacific via the Panama Canal?

Depends on where you want her in the Pacific, but the canal route is the safe route.

[Q-Ball]

Cuttlefish is off the grid for a couple days, so I'll take the opportunity to review current status and plans.

First, BURMA/INDIA. I've pretty much made a hash of Burma.

In INDIA, I am digging and prepping on the coast, primarily in NE India; I am worried about a "hook" toward Chittagong, etc, to isolate Burma.

In BURMA, I had too much forward, and we are fleeing northward. At this point I don't think I can hold Burma, we are already thinking about moving over the mountains to India.

[Chickenboy]

Are the air units in Mandalay and Lashio units of the AVG?

[Q-Ball]

In the Dutch East Indies, Ambon finally fell, we still hold Timor, Kendari, and all of Sumatra. Cuttlefish is moving primarily down the Makassar Strait. My surface ships are just about gone, we do have some airpower on Java. The objective here is mostly to cost the Japanese time and resources. If Java doesn't fall until early April, that will be a good thing.

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Are the air units in Mandalay and Lashio units of the AVG?

Chickenboy: I have one AVG unit in Mandalay; the Chinese HQ ones are in China. I may bring them back if they can't find anyone to fight there.

In the SW Pacific, my primary strategy is to quickly build the 2nd line of bases; I conceded Rabaul completely (in fact, Lark Bn is at Noumea), and I am building Noumea and Suva. Pago Pago is most important, and I feel reasonably secure there. 41st US Div. is prepping for Noumea, and almost ready to be purchased.

[Canoerebel]

Edited to omit my egregious security leak (details pertaining to my own strategy - duh, my opponent can read Q-Ball's AAR).

[Xxzard]

Pago Pago seems important, but what if they come around behind that line and take Canton or possibly the line islands?

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Xxzard

Pago Pago seems important, but what if they come around behind that line and take Canton or possibly the line islands?

Take it back.

I don't think the atolls are defensible.

You can put some long toms there though, and exact a heavy price if he invades.

[Xxzard]

Right, I suppose that is the real value of Pago Pago--> an unlimited troop capacity.

[Q-Ball]

Good comments guys on the bases. Xxzard, yes, one attraction of Pago Pago is the troops size. The port could be larger, but that's the best available down there. Noumea or Fiji are better platforms for offensives, but Pago Pago is safer, and the line in the sand so to speak; we need to hold it at all costs.

Combat Report, Jan 20,21 1942

Brief update, as this is a slow couple of turns.

China
Wenchow falls, and with it I have 4 Chinese units cut off in the Northeast of the country. Everyone else up there is pulling back to the MLR in the south. No big deal, I can lose some troops.

Burma
The rout continues, as my troops stream north toward Mandalay, with the Japs on their heels.

DEI:
Balikpapan is cracking, and should fall tommorow. That will start to make Soerbaya untenable, if he puts Bettys at Balikpapan. The fuel stockpile on Java is down below 100K total, so I've moved alot of it already to Australia, at some point I will have to shut that operation down.

The last surface combattants have left the DEI. I may return with Lexington if I don't see KB lurking there. KB has not been spotted in 3 days, and that was north of Ambon, so it's either heading toward Tarakan or Truk to pick up fuel, and commence some sort of operation.