EAST WIND, RAIN...Sjohnson vs Spruance - CHS 158 NikMod

[sjohnson]

AAR; CHS 158 - Steve vs Admiral Spruance

Hi all, ok, well I’ll take a stab at an AAR. Do not expect combat reports pasted in here, and, yes, of course some things will be left out for “intelligence reasons”. I told the Admiral I would but things have been busy and I’d rather process turns then write…

This is a game recently started versus Admiral Spruance. For me, well, this is my first real experience with a PBEM started in 1941. I took over a game that Spence was playing, CHS in June/July timeframe of 1942.

This game is NikMod Scenario 158. I loaded his 1944 scenario and tried a few turns head to head to see how I liked the air to air, and suffice it to say, you can count on some bombers getting through, even as Japan in 1944. Good – so I am sold on trying it out from the start.

House rules:
-Some limits on island/atoll stacking.
-Limits on long range air transfers.
-Kwangtung army units have to have their command transferred to be used elsewhere (ie China).
-common sense
-ASW TFs to 6 ships limit
-AC stacking limit 50 A/C per point of airfield
-2 day turns
-common sense
-no naval attacks by B29; 4E city attacks by day at 15,000 feet or more
-no city bombing attacks from/into China

I like a slightly more historical start for Japan but like to be able to reposition assets for future invasions. So, I offered to make only one port attack, if at Pearl Harbor KB would return to Japan before any follow on operations. Also limited Pearl to two strikes to reflect the real life fuel restrictions. Furthermore, no invasions past Singapore, no invasions south of Kuching – Tarakan – Menado – Sorong – Rabual – Tarawa line on turn 1. Also allowed the Allied player to move up to 1/3 of his non-capital ships in any ports for turn 1.

Okay. So the rest of this thread will be dedicated to strategy, screenshots, and brief overviews of what has happened.

The picture below shows the phased plans for Japan’s early war effort. We do not intend to go all out and seize everything we can in the early period, just what we want. This will be a long term game and Japan has limited resources in supplies, ships, troops, and pilots. With NikMod – bombers can get through so we hope to be able to score a few hits in the later war which I am interested in seeing how the model holds up.

Resources in CHS are limited it appears versus stock.

[sjohnson]

Japan’s opening plan.

Central Pacific

Attack Pearl Harbor. I’m looking to disable his battle line as much as possible and limit his opportunities for attacking my island outposts for a good six months or so. The KB strike force consists of the following carriers:

-Kaga, Akagi, Soryu, Hiryu, Ryuho, Zuiho, Taiyo, and Hosho arriving in five task forces. The extra 15 D3A2 Vals from Japan were split into 3 groups of 5 and flown on the carriers as well as about 75 additional Kate bombers from the Home Islands. Additional Zeros from Formosa were flown onto Ryuho at Palau and the light carriers leaving from the Home Islands.

-Wake Island Force – no sense taking chances on this atoll; this is an early warning tripwire base for Japan to cover the Central Pacific raiding approaches. BB Fuso and Yamashiro are detailed to hammer the defenders in the morning hours of December 7. A minelaying force is ordered to stand off 120 miles west of the island. Wake’s defenses will be quite strong by the morning of December 9th with over 1,500 mines in place, two battery of 5.5” CD guns, 3.7” DP flak, aviation support for torpedo bombers and fighters and patrol planes, as well as 150 infantry squads for defense.

-Rabaul – engineers, aviation units, several strong NLF/SNLF, and flak all head for Rabaul with lots of supplies and fuel and sub tenders. Rabaul will be a forward refueling base and submarine base.

-Tarawa – engineers, CD guns, and infantry head for Tarawa with sufficient supplies. We intend to turn this into a strong airbase to protect the south side of the Marshalls.

-Marshalls – reinforcements are prepared for shipment to the islands.

[sjohnson]

Philippine Islands

GOAL: Isolate the Philippine Island garrisons. Spruance is skilled so no doubt these will fall back into Manila. We plan the landings as shown below.

I am hoping by making a weaker landing at Lingayen that I can tempt Spruance to try and buy time and fight me on the beaches. 21st Division will reinforce the small SNLF landing on Tsugeuro(sp?...) on the east coast of Luzon eventually to cut him off if he lingers in the north and seize Clark.

56th Division and 56th Brigade will hit south at Naga. Paratroopers will land in the morning hours of the 7th to seize the port.

Jolo island will be seized by an NLF, engineers, and a special base force to cut off shipping escape paths to the south while an SNLF and other forces will land at Davao and seize southern Mindanao.

Small surface combat forces will hit many of the islands on the first night with bombardments and block the exits from Manila and in general confuse the defenses of the region by implying a greater force commitment here than what we really intend.

It is hoped by the above strategy that by the end of December all the resource hexes in the PI will be controlled by Japan. Bombers will then be flown into Clark and the siege of Manila will begin. A division will be withdrawn for southern operations and a large brigade will be made available as a floating reserve for the region to counter any moves out of Manila. The small L1N1 Thora transports will be based at Lingayen with support elements able to rapidly reinforce any area of the Philippines as required.

[sjohnson]

Malaya

With 5th and 18th Divisions committed to the SRA; there is not much we can do here at start. Huge reinforcements of support troops will be landed in Singora and the airfield built up. Lots of flak will be brought in from the start to protect this base surveying the northern exits of the Straits of Malacca.

55th and the Imperial Guards will march around.

A Yok Para Bn from Indo China will seize Tavoy with Aviation support to follow to harass and survey Indian Ocean shipping.

We will not enter Malaya until late December so as to keep the whereabouts of the 5th and 18th Division secret until they hit land in Java. Then we will show our hand and seize the northern bases of Georgetown, Alor Star, and Khota Bharu. Two divisions and a brigade in reserve (121st) should be enough for the job as I do not think Spruance will want to risk coming too far north and endanger the final defense of Singapore.

Kuching will be seized to monitor the southern approaches to Singapore and a carrier division around CV Shokaku and Zuikaku will cover the landings and be prepared to sink BB Prince of Wales or Repulse if they try to interfere with either these landings or the build up in Malaya. CV Shokaku and Zuikaku are the stoutest Japanese carriers and with the Dutch submarines and air effectiveness of NikMod these are key for survivability in these waters.

[sjohnson]

China

CHS gives the Chinese a lot of firepower early on until the supply shortages catch up. With no strategic bombing in this region we’re going to have to hold on for dear life. 2 Divisions are committed to Hong Kong; other units will march NW out of Canton to hold the line outside of the city. Our garrison in Ichang will be pulled back eventually towards Hankow and we will try and hold Nanchang and mop up the guerillas as best we can.

31st Division in Shanghai will be the strategic reserve for Southern China while she rebuilds. A fistful of AKs are sent here just in case. As the situation develops, she may or may not become the reserve formation for the PI area and if so will be moved to Formosa or North Luzon for rapid reaction.

Once Hong Kong is tamed, maybe not conquered, not interested in wrecking my formations here, 38th Division will be pulled out to be the floating reserve for the SRA.

Dutch East Indies

Here is the plan as below.

48th Division, 5th Division, and 18th Division along with artillery, engineers, flak, aviation support and a fistful of supplies (about 100,000 tons) will meet up in the slot between Borneo and Celebes. An SNLF with heavy cruiser support will take out Tarakan and another will take out Menado. Another SNLF and Naval Guard unit is combat loaded for Balikpapan as well as Bandjermasin.

16th Division, tasked with taking Kendari, will sail to Menado but not unload.

Two Kongo class BCs will block the the straits and escort the troop convoys.

We intend to make landfall in Java at Kragen with 48th, 5th, and 18th Divisions, two tank regiments, artillery, flak, combat engineers from Hainan and aviation regiments from Formosa. This will happen sometime around December 17th if all goes according to plan. From there south to Soerbaja and then slowly back up the islands to Sumatra and Malaya in overwhelming force.

At Soerbaja we will keep our opponent guessing as to our assault destination and pause to rest and refit our forces by raiding Northern Australia, perhaps seizing Broome or Exmouth as a scouting base. Units will be prepped for Darwin and Perth early on as Allied sigint is pretty good.

I have seen in too many AARs the Allies retreat into about four or five places and bog the Japanese down. Java is one of them – Soerbaja in particular – with 500 supplies/day from the resources it can be very frustrating I’m sure. That will not happen here. Our goal is to unhinge the entire southern defense from the get go.

[sjohnson]

Logistics

Instead of blitzing to all corners of the map, we primarily use the first turn movement to do what I think fair and reasonable. Realign the support forces, reposition ships, tenders, fuel, supplies, and short legged aircraft to support the plans outlined above. To this end,

-Several large resupply convoys are assembled in various ports and ordered to load supplies and fuel and proceed to Truk, Palau, and Indo China.

-Destroyer tenders are ordered to move towards Celebes and Truk. Repair ships are ordered from the home islands to proceed to Borneo, Palau, and Truk for eventual forward deployment into the combat zones. We expect to take damage, but we’re going to save our ships as much as possible.

-Fleet HQs are sent south.

-High speed transports and freighters are sent to Osaka, Japan to load the 2nd Infantry Division ordered to march there; to Tientsin to pick up the 21st Infantry Division and to Shanghai to load up the 33rd Infantry Division.

-Extra cargo ships from the perimeter are sent home to Tokyo, Sasebo, and Osaka to load supplies.

-Minelayers are ordered to all the northern islands as well as reinforcements. Paramushiro Jima will be built up to a port level 3 so an AS can be homeported there to support sub operations in the North Pacific and against the US West Coast.

I believe by focusing on moving the assets and supplies forward on day one we can sustain our offensive power at the perimeter longer – using the outgoing transports to drop off supplies and load up the rested and refitted formations for the third and fourth phases while the initial transports haul some oil, resources back home and reload supplies and reinforcement troops.

Sub group deployments, etc. are on the screenshot below.

[sjohnson]

DECEMBER 7-8
The day opens with torpedo attacks by Dutch submarines. Imagine the gulp at the computer desk when O19 hits CV Shokaku with a 533mm torpedo 120 miles off Kuching!

Undaunted, Shokaku and Zuikaku launch an early morning strike on the BC Repulse and her escorts, having been spotted by floatplanes from CS Mizuho 180 miles away at dawn.

Repulse goes down with 6 torpedos and 9 250kg bomb hits.

Landings proceed across the board – Kuching, Davao, Tsuguero, Naga, Menado, Jolo, Wake, Rabaul, Tarawa, Nauru…Wake is pounded by BB Fuso and Yamashiro and resistance ends not long after the first troops hit the beach.

The remaining IJN carriers – all of them, hit Pearl Harbor with 190 Kates and 105 Vals escorted by 60 Zeros. They strike again in the morning of the 8th with a wave of 70 Vals and 100 Kates resulting in the 8 BBs of the US Pacific Fleet taking the following damage:

BB Maryland, Bomb hits 12, Torpedo hits 2
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 11, Torpedo hits 2
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 13, Torpedo hits 2
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 10, Torpedo hits 2
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 10, Torpedo hits 3
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 11, Torpedo hits 4
BB Nevada, Bomb hits 9
BB California, Bomb hits 8, Torpedo hits 3

Mostly 800 kg bombs in the mix there. No sunk ships in the mix there.

In the Makassar Strait – CL Boise was destroyed by 14 inch shells from the Kongo and Haruna.

Results of turn 1 are about 120 A/C lost for Japan to 240 for the Allies and 35 Allied ships sunk in various locations (mostly PT, PC, AK ships).

Sub contacts this turn include:
O19 putting one torp into CV Shokaku
K XVI put a torp into a Japanese AK north of Borneo
S36 put a torp into a PG off Lingayen

For the Japanese –
-I-157 fired 6 TT at DD Whipple off Balikpapan, missed, 12 DCs dropped on her for 2 hits with 2 SYS damage
-DD Edsall was hit by a Type 88 mine laid by I-121 off Java
-I-162 fired 4 TT at DD Kortenaer 120 miles off Soerbaja and missed, the four DDs failed to find her to attack with depth charges
-I-7 late in the day on December 8th was attacked by AVD Williamson about 200 miles off of Seattle