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Frank (Fuelli) and me agreed upon a Sc17 campaign with him in charge of Allied Command and me dutifully run the Emperor´s forces. Commitment level is set 100% Allied / 180% IJN. Variable reinforcements to prevent too predictable arrival dates. Usual house rules applied. (no one-ship TFs, no corsairs, PT limit, 4E naval attack from 15000ft and so on).
Since we both share the same habitat (Germany) there should be no timezone vexations[8D]

First four days saw no action besides the usual deployment. While my troops were taking GG and Rossel Island, Frank made some probing attacks on dots and GG garrison with its a/c out of PM. Apart from that everything still looks pretty calm...[>:]

Pretty calm feels different...Hell broke loose in my office on 4th of May. Roosevelt himselfe called me on the phone(and you could determine from the way it was ringing)[:@]
"Why the hell do all theese little green dots on the map turn to red?" ...that was everything i could understand.
Well...it seems I have to investigate what´s going on there....

hey coo. finaly some germans take over and show all this yankees how to play the game.[;)]

coole sache von euch. bin schon sehr gespannt auf euer AAR.

Just landed in the Guadalcanal area, taking Lunga (where I intend to cunstruct some airstrips) and Tulagi with its splendid anchorage.

Navy minister and senior staff member ADM Yonai Mitsumasa -who is a friend of the family- told me about the perils of our Imperial rush that far south. He made me aware that the american industrial power will enable an overwhelming allied counteroffensive by all means later in the war.
Thus it´s imerative to hit hard early enough to break the back of them before they can even think about something aggressive...
To my utmost relief he assured to affect reinforcements for me, kicking them southwards ASAP and as many as possible.

More and more green dots desintegrate into the red hell...and I still haven´t found my green paint marker to undo this unpleasant development. Had to cut my telephone lines as I need a break to considder the situation. The reports coming from my scouting planes indicate that the japanese seem to have developed some kind of cloaking device. I really don´t know how to counter this....

this turn saw the first air combat over Port Moresby. Unfortunately my bombers missed their mark a bit - for six Nells and Betty´s each they just scored three fishes into Franks transports. 12 a/c lost merely in vain... The allied brought up a carrier force to cover the convoy and their Wildcats joined the army squadrons.

See the report...



AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/07/42

Weather: Partly Cloudy

Air attack on 85th Naval Garrison Unit, at 12,38


Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 24


no losses

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 10


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Air attack on 86th Naval Garrison Unit, at 17,42


Allied aircraft
P-40E Kittyhawk x 8
A-24 Dauntless x 12


no losses

Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 10


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Air attack on TF, near Port Moresby at 10,40

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 19
G3M Nell x 10
G4M1 Betty x 22

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 10
P-39D Airacobra x 13
P-40E Kittyhawk x 9

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 2 destroyed
G3M Nell x 2 destroyed
G3M Nell x 9 damaged
G4M1 Betty x 4 destroyed
G4M1 Betty x 6 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat x 1 damaged
P-39D Airacobra x 2 destroyed
P-39D Airacobra x 1 damaged
P-40E Kittyhawk x 2 damaged

1LT D.Evans of 36th FS is credited with kill number 2

Allied Ships
AP Orungal
MSW Ballarat
PG Swan
AP Wanganella, Torpedo hits 1
AP Ormiston, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AP Kanimbla


Allied ground losses:
Men lost 50

Attacking Level Bombers:
4 x G3M Nell at 200 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet
2 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet
4 x G3M Nell at 200 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Air attack on TF, near Port Moresby at 10,40

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 20
G3M Nell x 6

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 9
P-39D Airacobra x 10
P-40E Kittyhawk x 10

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero x 1 destroyed
G3M Nell x 1 destroyed
G3M Nell x 4 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat x 3 destroyed
P-40E Kittyhawk x 1 destroyed

LCDR G.Kasai of G2/Genzan Daitai bails out and is CAPTURED

Allied Ships
AK Mungana
AK Demodocus, Torpedo hits 1, on fire

Attacking Level Bombers:
2 x G3M Nell at 200 feet
3 x G3M Nell at 200 feet

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where are your carriers? it would be the perfect time to strike the US carrier-force with your rested KB-samurais.

early in my game with ike, i had a similar success with my CAP over PM against his rabaul raiders. but as soon, as his KB-fighter pilots were over PM, the fun was over for the aussie and us army pilots.

so dont worry. your time will come.[;)]

ORIGINAL: bigbaba

where are your carriers? it would be the perfect time to strike the US carrier-force with your rested KB-samurais.

Kido Butai isn´t complete yet and maybe my carriers are busy elsewhere...? Another possibility my guys are in desperate need of sake due to the battles to come. It seems Rabaul pilots were drunken on their mission anyway!

they better put the sake into the fuel tanks of their bettys and nells instead of drinking it.[:D]

ORIGINAL: bigbaba

they better put the sake into the fuel tanks of their bettys and nells instead of drinking it.[:D]

Ohh better not [:-], these aircraft are flammable enough even without the "hard stuff"... They were called "one shot lighters" in the war!

Welcome aboard Bigbaba!

My Intel told me that providing close air support at PM would be without any danger. And I believed in my Intel. I was right this time. Nevertheless I have to have a seriuous talk to the Commander of the Carrier TF according to the SC TF he missed. This one did a successfull bombardement on PM facilities which could render all my effort useless.
Maybe I should reastablish the telephonelone to the nervous man called Franklin...and tell him that we are winning (as usual and everywhere)
[:D]

You can tell the agitated FDR that Phase one of the Japs is finished yet...[:)]
I was able to secure Buna, GG, Rossel, Lunga and Tulagi against no opposition. Guess the US boys know all too well about their current weakness and try to put up some kind of resistance at PM only... Of course I´m gonna cope with that issue later on [:D]

I just asked our fellow friend Adm. Yonai Mitsumasa for his honest opinion about my strategy for Phase two. Got his approval with minor changes.

Lot of excitement these days. One U-Boat commander reported that he torpedoed a BB out of Lunga. Later the day the report was just slightly corrected: Barge 2030 has gone waporized by two(!) torpedoes. Yea great... I assume the torpedoes were of more value then the crappy pile of Sh**t called Barge...Back to ecomomics classes gentlemen.
My map looks more and more sick with every day that passes. Not sure if this is still the south pacific or if some exchanged the map....[&:]

dont worry frank. after the sunrise it comes the sunset....not only in the reality.[;)]

just dig in and hold out. and when you get the right tools to play with, japanese will only be spoken in the hell.[:)]

Today the first vitims of war hit the bottom. My sub skippers are barely two weeks at sea and demand for holidays already. Ridiculous! One SC escort was hit & sank off Townsville, but the commander of I-21 was to take the bun: he slammed no less than THREE fishes into such a tiny patrol cutter north of Noumea! No his boat is in desperate need of ammo... I guess this SC was part of a "hunter-killer" group [:D]
Furthermore a crawling AP (already hit in the PM area) met its fate just in sight of the safe Cairns harbour after another sub of mine had given the coup de grâce last turn...



AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/19/42

Weather: Thunderstorms

Sub attack at 10,48

Japanese Ships
SS I-27


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Sub attack at 54,65

Japanese Ships
SS I-21

Allied Ships
SC 639, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
SC 637


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Sub attack at 11,60

Japanese Ships
SS I-28

Allied Ships
SC 519, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BANZAI!! See what my bombardment flotilla found at PM... They were unloading base force units. But I denied them to finish the job, since I finished THEM!





AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 05/20/42

Weather: Rain

Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Moresby at 10,40

Japanese Ships
CA Kinugasa
CA Kako
CL Yubari, Shell hits 1
DD Mutsuki
DD Uzuki
DD Mochizuki
DD Yuzuki
DD Kikuzuki

Allied Ships
MSW Cairns, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
SC 520
AP Manunda, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
AP Katoomba, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
AP Westralia, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk


Allied ground losses:
Men lost 380


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Naval bombardment of Port Moresby, at 10,40


Allied aircraft


Allied aircraft losses
no losses

Airbase hits 3
Runway hits 7


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what a slaughter!

outch, that is hard.

i wonder that he didnt saw your bombard-TF coming.

in my game against "the commander[:)]" i try to avoid any surface-action early in the game because (like miller wrote very apt) the japs surface-TF are killers early in the game.

anyway...congratulation about the "fette beute", ralf.

thanks alot. I really need this kind of success early on. Later then Frank will get the hammer in his hand . Though I´m gonna try to prevent such a dark future...

ORIGINAL: bigbaba

i wonder that he didnt saw your bombard-TF coming.

Allies don't get Mavis and Emily spy satellites. Their recon generally blows until their xp has risen into the 80s.