In my allied game my opponent has covered his landings in DEI very well with KB, his initial thrust into Rabaul and Lae were meet with surface forces so he slowed down there. But no where else. I was constantly looking for an opening but he gave none as he covered with LBA and KB, and surface ships all his landings.
This left me with my 4 carriers so I decided to try a strike on Tokyo, it has been debated whether this was wise in AE due to units that are stuck there. Well I did it with a lets roll the dice, and the knowledge that in my gave vs Scott, I trained early not expecting this.
Thus the dice was rolled and on Jan 25th 1942 4 US carriers showed up on 160 miles SE of Tokyo with Naval attack as primary and Tokyo port as secondary. I had the CV groups split into two groups of two carriers, I was willing to take the cordination hit for the fact that I didn't have enough escorts.
Here are the results, 2 attacks AM/PM
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Yokohama/Yokosuka at 113,61
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A5M4 Claude x 11
Ki-27b Nate x 8
Allied aircraft
F2A-3 Buffalo x 8
SBD-3 Dauntless x 85
TBD-1 Devastator x 30
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-27b Nate: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
SBD-3 Dauntless: 5 damaged
TBD-1 Devastator: 1 destroyed, 8 damaged
Japanese Ships
xAK Atlantic Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Celebes Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Bengal Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Sinsei Maru, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK France Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Hiteru Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires
xAK Mantai Maru, Bomb hits 1
xAK Calcutta Maru, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk
xAK Denmark Maru
CM Sokuten
xAK Hohuku Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Naniwa Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Manzyu Maru
xAK Sinkoku Maru, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Brasil Maru, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk
AO Shiriya, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
CM Hoko
xAK Norway Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Sakito Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CM Naryu
TK Toa Maru
xAK Miyadono Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
17 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
17 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
17 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
13 x TBD-1 Devastator launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo
17 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
17 x SBD-3 Dauntless diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
15 x TBD-1 Devastator launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 22in Mk 13 Torpedo
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Tokyo at 114,60
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 18 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A5M4 Claude x 2
Ki-27b Nate x 1
Allied aircraft
SB2U-3 Vindicator x 17
SBD-2 Dauntless x 51
TBD-1 Devastator x 27
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
TBD-1 Devastator: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
xAK Sansei Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Kiyama Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Omi Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
xAK Kyokuzan Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Ryuyo Maru, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk
xAK Toko Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Eli Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Sansho Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Zinzan Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Kosei Maru
xAK Ryuko Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Toko Maru
xAK Heito Maru, Bomb hits 1
xAK Kinmo Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Tsukuba Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Shinkyo Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Monji Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
xAK Kuretake Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
Japanese ground losses:
234 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 16 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Aircraft Attacking:
17 x SBD-2 Dauntless diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
12 x TBD-1 Devastator bombing from 5000 feet *
Naval Attack: 2 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
17 x SBD-2 Dauntless diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
17 x SBD-2 Dauntless diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
15 x TBD-1 Devastator bombing from 5000 feet *
Naval Attack: 2 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
17 x SB2U-3 Vindicator diving from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
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Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Yokohama/Yokosuka at 113,61
Weather in hex: Partial cloud
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A5M4 Claude x 10
Ki-27b Nate x 7
Allied aircraft
F2A-3 Buffalo x 6
F4F-3A Wildcat x 14
SBD-3 Dauntless x 82
TBD-1 Devastator x 20
Japanese aircraft losses
A5M4 Claude: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
SBD-3 Dauntless: 3 damaged
TBD-1 Devastator: 3 damaged
Japanese Ships
xAK Denmark Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK France Maru, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Chicago Maru, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
CM Naryu, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk
xAK Italy Maru, Bomb hits 7, and is sunk
xAK Manzyu Maru, Bomb hits 7, and is sunk
xAK Erie Maru, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
AK Sakito Maru, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CM Hoko, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
CM Sokuten, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
CM Nasami, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
TK Toa Maru, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
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Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Tokyo at 114,60
Weather in hex: Partial cloud
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 18 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A5M4 Claude x 2
Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 16
SB2U-3 Vindicator x 16
SBD-2 Dauntless x 34
TBD-1 Devastator x 13
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
xAK Kizan Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Kosei Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
xAK Tsukuba Maru, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Sansho Maru, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Ryuko Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Shinkyo Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Heito Maru, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Zinzan Maru, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Toko Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Kinmo Maru, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Akasi Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Monji Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Taian Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
xAK Kyokuzan Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Ikoma Maru, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
Japanese ground losses:
125 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
My opponent sent this reply back
you have selected the best moment...
Radio Tokyo Rose: Our brave navy carries out extremely realistic excercise in Tokyo and Yokosuka....
Summary
It can happen, after this in my game as Japan I am now sending out picket boats, as a mavis was shot down by CAP, so he was scouting.
Probably most of his planes were training as the next day over 50 fighters were spotted at tokyo alone, in the second attack some units were pulled in from training. The other side of the coin, is the Japanese player should upgrade the home island forces, something I have also neglected and will remedy quickly. The KB is to far to interfere, I lost it about 3 days ago as it pulled away from Timor, probably Truk bound for an invasion or PM or Noumea. He also had no idea of where my CV's were prior to this strike.
What would I do different, the torpedo bombers carried 500lb bombs to Tokyo, it was 5 hexes, since it was my primary I would have moved within 4 hexes. I also set CAP to 40 and had been for 8 days so the fighters were a little fatigued. Might have waited till strike day to up the CAP, usually I fly 30 percent.
There are many what if's but I know if this was tried on me this early, probably close to same results.
Here is the 1st strike at Yokohama
