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No WIPPL in this thread please.

This will be an AAR from the allied side. Scenario 2, 1-day turns. My opponent is WIPPL and we have agreed to play this one to the finish, no matter what.

HOUSE RULES
a) Sub invasions are ok. (after all...why not? The loading capacity of Subs is very small anyway.)
b) No PT boats in ocean hexes PT reaction range at 1
c) No allied 4E LBs in China, US or RAF 2E LBs may only base in China If there is also a US or RAF base force present.
d) One have to pay PPs to leave
- Kwantung Army area
- China (unless China is conquered. China is considered conquered when allies controls less than 5 Chinese cities)
-Thailand
-OZ and New Zealand
e) No allied 4Es below 3000/6000 (TBD) on Naval till the end of 42
f) No allied 4Es below 1000 on naval till summer of 43
g) No skip-bombing before July 1943 except single engine planes which are allowed from the start.
h) No strategic attacks on oil/resources before July 1943

Settings: Standard. Reinforcemets +/-60




Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods...



And with that...we start.

Pearl Harbor

Battleship row is hit hard.

BB Nevada, Bomb hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
BB California, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 8, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 9, Torpedo hits 4, on fire
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Other notable losses are

DMS Wasmuth, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DM Gamble, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD MacDonough, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA San Francisco, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Raleigh, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage

Airfields are not hit as bad though, we lose about a dozen planes.

PI
For some reason, the Nells and Bettys fail to make an appearance over the Phillipines. The Jap airstrike on Clark is badly coordinated and the Sallys arrive before the Zeros. Unfortunately we only have 4 P-26's airborne to meet the Sallys and while they damage 18 Sallys, no bombers are reported shot down. After that, the Zeros arrive and clear the skies above Clark.

Japs land at Bataan island and a failed portstrike hits Davao, other than that its quiet.

China
Nothing in particular here today.

Malaya
Airstrikes hit Alor Star, Kota Bharu and Georgetown.

The main Jap landing seems to take place at Mersing. Also several Japanese TFs end up just off Singapore. Im not sure, but probably a misscalculation of the first-turn-warp movement. These taskforces are hit hard by the Singapore bombers, and 3 AKs (not xAKs, but AKs) are hit by torpedos from Vildebeests. Lots of causualties among the transported units aswell.



Force Z are hit by Nells and Bettys from Saigon. No surprise there. Prince of Wales escape the torpedos though. Moments later she is hit by a torpedo from SS I-154 however, and she will not be able to make a run south out of harms way.

At Singapore CL Danae is hit by a torpedo from SS I-121. An eerie start to the submarine war...two hits on a Cruiser and a Battleship.

Other than the landing at Mersing and the airattacks up north, Malaya is quiet. No landing at Kota Bharu it seems.

Allied HQ
Force Z will attack the Mersing landings. They are beyond salvage anyway with heavy damage and long way home.

I suspect his invasion fleet of Singapore is/was heading to Malacca to cut off the northern units from Singapore. I really do not want to allow this to happen. Minelayers are ordered to put up a defensive minefield at Malacca, surface combat TF ordered from Singapore to Malacca. If he manages to get ashore here aswell as at Mersing, it would put a quick end to the Malaya defences.

Carriers Lexington and Enterprise are to move towards Wake in case he tries an invasion there.

Otherwise, dig in.

Central Pacific
Hm, the KB decided to stay around for a second day of attacks on Pearl. Im not sure what I think about that, it cost him alot. We managed to put up a CAP of 50-odd fighters, and many of them leaked through to the KB-bombers. He only had 30 Zeros on escort, and while they shot down 5 of our fighters, we claimed 10 Kates, 20 Vals and a Zero. Another 60 bombers were damaged. On the other hand, this is what happened to battleship row...

BB Nevada, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
BB West Virginia, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage

Something is weird in the central pacific though. We spotted several small taskforces northwest of Johnston Island. Im going to send the Lexington into that area to check out what is going on. Is he really going to invade in the central pacific?

Malaya
The situation around Singapore quickly became very heated.

Prince of Wales managed to break through to the Mersing landing site. For some reason the Jap heavy escorts were gone. The close escorts, consisting of two CLs and a handful of PBs managed to prevent an outright slaughter though, and only one xAK and a PB were sunk. Still, Force Z managed to reach the main Japanese landings and break them up...the Jap TF withdrew from the beaches to escape destruction.

One hex south of Singapore, CL Mauritius together with DDs Isis and Jupiter intercepted one of the Japanese invasion TFs heading up the straits of Malacca. The Royal Navy made short work of the Japanese, sinking one of the DMS escorts and damaging two destroyers. Three of the four transports were hit, two of which should be in sinking condition. Over 400 ground losses reported.

Then CL Danae and DD Vendetta stumbled upon a single, damaged and unescorted xAK which was sunk in no time, taking a hundred ground troops with it.

And then, the truly heroic efforts of the Royal Navy, managed to save Malacca. In a desperate move, PG Herald, AMs Ballarat and Toowomba, together with AMCs Manoora and Kanimbla intercepted the Japanese invasion fleet heading towards Malacca. In a night engagement west of Singapore against two DDs and four AKs, the Royal Navy ships managed to inflict heavy damage on three of the Japanese transports. AMC Kanimbla was sunk, but the Japanese invasion fleet was forced to retreat, leaving 250 soldiers behind. And with that, Malacca was safe for now, the last of the invasion taskforces were heading back towards Singapore.

CL Mauritius together with Isis and Jupiter followed the taskforce they engaged earlier and caught up with them. In the following engagemnet, one DD one DMS and two xAKs were sunk, with 700 Japanese casualties reported. All the Royal Navy ships were hit though and withdrew to Singapore.

CL Danae and DD Vendetta then caugh up with the ships that were turned back by the AMC's. Three of the AKs were left in sinking condition, with 320 casualties reported.

After that, the luck of the Royal Navy ran out, in daylight, Kongo and Haruna caught up with Prince of Wales, and in a surface engagement PoW was sunk together with DD Tenedos, while Electra and Express withdrew with heavy damage. One Japanese DD was also lost.

A huge Nell/Betty-strike went in unescorted against Singapore. 47 Buffalos on CAP took a heavy toll of the bombers. 16 Nells and 12 Bettys were claimed by the defenders. Then the Zeros came in and cleared the air. Still, we only lost a handful of Buffalos, and the Japs paid a heavy price for it.

A handful of small strikes by RAF bombers sunk a couple of xAKs limping home from the night engagements with the RN.
The most notable one was AK Sagami Maru that was hit by three Vildebeest torpedos and went down, taking almost 1500 ground troops with her.

Then Mersing fell to the Japanese shock attack.

Phillipines
The retreating DDs from Hong Kong were intercepted by CAs Maya and Ashigara. Amazingly the RN destroyers sunk DDs Harukaza and Hatakaze with torpedo hits and managed to escape without damage.

The Japanese pursued the fleeing DDs however, and in the next engagement Thracian was heavily damaged.

Japanese Zeros cleared the skies above Clark, and then the airfield was hit by Nells and Betties.

Wow, your opponent pushed hard and paid the price for it, POW seems like a small price to pay for that kind of carnage. Any idea on the total number of transports sunk during all these engagements ?

ORIGINAL: Smeulders

Wow, your opponent pushed hard and paid the price for it, POW seems like a small price to pay for that kind of carnage. Any idea on the total number of transports sunk during all these engagements ?

and only one xAK and a PB were sunk.

Prince of Wales managed to break through to the Mersing landing site. For some reason the Jap heavy escorts were gone. The close escorts, consisting of two CLs and a handful of PBs managed to prevent an outright slaughter though, and only one xAK and a PB were sunk. Still, Force Z managed to reach the main Japanese landings and break them up...the Jap TF withdrew from the beaches to escape destruction. One hex south of Singapore, CL Mauritius together with DDs Isis and Jupiter intercepted one of the Japanese invasion TFs heading up the straits of Malacca. The Royal Navy made short work of the Japanese, sinking one of the DMS escorts and damaging two destroyers. Three of the four transports were hit, two of which should be in sinking condition. Over 400 ground losses reported. Then CL Danae and DD Vendetta stumbled upon a single, damaged and unescorted xAK which was sunk in no time, taking a hundred ground troops with it. And then, the truly heroic efforts of the Royal Navy, managed to save Malacca. In a desperate move, PG Herald, AMs Ballarat and Toowomba, together with AMCs Manoora and Kanimbla intercepted the Japanese invasion fleet heading towards Malacca. In a night engagement west of Singapore against two DDs and four AKs, the Royal Navy ships managed to inflict heavy damage on three of the Japanese transports. AMC Kanimbla was sunk, but the Japanese invasion fleet was forced to retreat, leaving 250 soldiers behind. And with that, Malacca was safe for now, the last of the invasion taskforces were heading back towards Singapore. CL Mauritius together with Isis and Jupiter followed the taskforce they engaged earlier and caught up with them. In the following engagemnet, one DD one DMS and two xAKs were sunk, with 700 Japanese casualties reported. All the Royal Navy ships were hit though and withdrew to Singapore. CL Danae and DD Vendetta then caugh up with the ships that were turned back by the AMC's. Three of the AKs were left in sinking condition, with 320 casualties reported.

Finest hour indeed! And it looks like several more AK's will succumb to their injuries...

ORIGINAL: Smeulders

Wow, your opponent pushed hard and paid the price for it, POW seems like a small price to pay for that kind of carnage. Any idea on the total number of transports sunk during all these engagements ?

The sunk ship-screen shows 5 xAK and one AK sunk during the 7th and 8th. Two of the xAKs (and one E) is reported sunk by 14in/45 BL Mk VII "near Mersing".

Central Pacific
Something is going on. Im starting to wonder whether I will be defending against a Pearl Harbor invasion soon.

Two Japanese DDs shelled Midway this turn. In itself, that doesnt say anything, but the KB stuck around for a third day of attacks on Pearl. My fighters are starting to wear down, and we managed to scramble less than 30 fighters to meet the bombers. Our fighters claimed 10 Japanese bombers and 1 Zero for 6 own losses. The damage done to battleship row was marginal however, BBs Pennsylvania and Maryland was hit by 4 bombs and they are listed as heavy damage. Tennessee was hit by an 800 pounder and is on fire with heavy damage. CA New Orleans and CL Honolulu was also hit and damaged. All should survive though.

Then, Lexington stumbled upon several small surface combat TFs between Johnston Island and French Frigate Shoal.
CLs Naka, Natori were sunk, together with escorting DDs Ikazuchi, Inazuma and Minazuki. I have never seen anyone put two small surface combat TFs in this area right after Pearl before, and I must say Im somewhat confused. Lexington and Enterprise will move towards Wake to stay clear of the KB, but I still want to have them in the area to check things out.


Phillipines
A Japanese surface combat TF with two CAs intercepted a couple of fleeing ships from Naga and made short work of them. Japs land at Aparri. Manilla is hit by Japanese bombers.

Malaya
A relatively quiet turn this time. Air attacks on Kota Bharu and Singapore. Again, unescorted Bettys and Nells face the Singapore CAP, this time we claim 8 shot down and 78 damaged from the 109 bombers that attacked. He is sending them in at 1000 feet... My AAA has a field day. 121 Sallys hit Kuantan escorted by 32 Oscars and close the field down. Why is he not escorting or sweeping Singapore?

Burma
Rangoon is hit by an Oscar sweep, otherwise quiet.

December 10th 1941

Central Pacific
Pearl Harbor is spared today as the Japanese carriers move off somewhere. I suspect he has split up the KB. Catalinas from Pearl spotted the Japanese oilers 10-15 hexes north of Pearl and at the same time Kates from Hiryu hit CA Indianapolis at Johnston Island. One DMS sinks and the CA sustains heavy damage.

NEI
Boise and Houston intercept the Japanese invasion TF at Miri. That invasion is pretty easy to read, and the two US ships usually prove to be more than a match for that invasion (which rarely is escorted by anything heavier than a DD). Unfortunately, the ships fail to do any serious damage. An xAK is hit twice, and an APD limps away on fire. The good thing is that his invasion is aborted though, and we manage to buy some time for Miri.

Malaya
SS I-155 hits a mine at Singapore.

At Singkawang, CL Tromp together with DD Van Ghent and PG Soerabaja slug it out with CL Jintsu and DDs Shinonome and Shirakumo. The engagement ends with a draw, Shinome limps away with heavy fires, while Tromp is hit four times and is on fire.

Nells and Bettys bombard our positions at Johore Bharu. The bombers come in at 3000 and suffer accordingly. Of 39 Nells, 1 is lost and 29 damaged, out of 30 Bettys, 24 are damaged.

Zeros sweep Singapore, but meet no opposition.

Phillipines
Large airstrikes put an end to organized resistance on Luzon from the USAAF. 80 Zeros and 60 bombers hit Clark, 36 Zeros and 60 Bettys hit Manila. Most of my P-40s are hiding on Mindanao anyway, so they mostly hit empty fields.

Japs capture Aparri. A rather odd invasion force. One infantry regiment, two engineer regiments, 4 construction batallions and two airfield units land together with 14th Army HQ and an artillery unit.

December 11th 1941

Central Pacific
Lexington and Enterprise, operating in two separate TFs in the same hex were caught by the Japanese carriers 8-10 hexes northwest of Johnston Island. I thought I had ordered my carriers to move a safe distance away from the theoretical movement range of where I thought the KB was lurking. Unfortunately, he had split up the KB not into two, but three taskforces, and one of those were much closer than I expected.

The day started with a Japanese strike from the northeast of 21 Zeros escorting 42 Kates and 31 Vals attacking the 11 Buffalos and 11 Wildcats on CAP. Our CAP and AAA took down 6 bombers and one zero, and damaged another 40 bombers. Amazingly not a single hit was achieved by the japanese, despite more than 40 bombers clearing through the CAP.The attack pattern was more than weird though. Vals came in at 2k, 6k, 3k and 4k, Kates at 15k.

Next strike came from the east, 20 Zeros escorting 18 kates and 26 Vals. The CAP was reduced to 5 Buffalos and 5 Wildcats, and most of the bombers cleared through. Flak and CAP claimed 2 Kates and 2 Vals, and another 30 bombers damaged. This time Lexington was hit by two torpedos and Enterprise was reported hit by one bomb and one torpedo.

The first US counterstrike aimed at Kaga and Shokaku, 10 Buffalos escorting 9 Dauntless. 4 Buffalos and 5 Dauntlesses were shot down for no effect, only three DBs cleared through and they all missed.

The second US counterstrike aimed at Soryu, Akagi and Hiryu. 11 Wildcats escorted 44 Dauntlesses and 12 Devastators. They were met by 25 Zeros who took a heavy toll of the attackers. Still around 30 divebombers and 7 Devastators made it through. And in the mother of all failed attacks, they failed to score a single hit on the three Japanese fleet carriers.

Not...a..single...hit...

Much to my dismay, I realized that the SBDs were still set on 6k altitude (I use that altitude for search and ASW) which of cource meant that my divebombers were not divebombing at all... A very very costly mistake.


In the afternoon, the Japanese carrier planes came again. First 13 unescorted Kates were met by 4 Wildcats on CAP, the Kates lost three of their kind and failed to score any hit.

Then 12 of my Devastators returned the favour and impaled themselves on the 20 Zero CAP covering the Akagi-group. Not to be outdone by their torpedo-laden brethren, 13 Vindicators committed suicide against the Hiryu CAP of 17 Zeros. One actually made it through, only to drop his 1000 pounder a safe distance away from Hiryu.

And with that, the first carrier battle of the war was over. Lexington is severely damaged and will probably not last for long. I have scattered her taskforce and sent them all towards Johnston Island.

Enterprise is also damaged, but she is in the 20 sys -20 float-area. Her airwing is completely in shatters though, with only three planes left. I have ordered her taskforce to set a cource due west...that is towards the Japanese bases around Kawejelein. She will never make it if I try to head directly for Pearl, through all those Japanese carriers. But perhaps she can slip off the screen if she goes west, into Japanese waters.

Malaya
Georgetown, Alor Star and Singapore are hit hard by Japanese airunits.

Ive seen some ships in port at Mersing for a couple of days, so I decided to try a port strike. 8 Blenheim IVs failed to score any hits but then 4 Wirraways managed to put a single bomb each in xAK Tamaki Maru and LSD Shinshu Maru. Both were listed as on fire with heavy damage...usually that spells doom for a Japanese vessel. If true, these brave Wirraways will have dealt a heavy blow on the Japanese...they have what...two LSDs during the entire war?

NEI
4 Vildebeests operating out of Miri (I flew them in when I realized the invasion had been thwarted) put two bombs into xAK Josho Maru, three hexes off Miri, causing about 50 ground casualties.

Mini KB operating north of Manado sunk another handful of transports fleeing south from Manila. Mostly empty xAKLs though.

Japs hit the beaches of Singkawang.

Some snapshots.

Reinforcements are heading for Pearl. One infantry regiment, one Cst Art unit, one FA unit and some engineers.

Im going to take the conservative route and build up Pago-Pago as my main base in the south pacific. Ive sent the marines over there to start digging in. They are escorted by the Saratoga.

In China I think he has done something foolish. He is advancing out of Canton, and that leaves him vunerable to a flanking move to take the pressure off Hong Kong (unless it falls before that). Im moving two Chinese corps in that direction.

Otherwise, pretty self-explainatory images.

Instead of catching up with the game at this pace, I will jump ahead to the current date, and then do some history in each theater. That way you can see what is going on at Pearl Harbor etc in real time.

Situation on the last day of 1941.

All is quiet in the Solomons...

Pago-Pago, the place I will defend in the Central and South Pacific.

Phillipines.

Short recap of what has happened here. Initial landing was at Aparri. Lots of armor and small infantry units were landed but kept rather passive. They advanced towards Bayombong. I moved four infantry divisions and coast artillery to Vigan to protect against a second landing. Then I moved the Marines and some armor to Bayombong to stop the advance south.

Eventually I reinforced Bayombong to roughly 600 AV, and the four infantry divisions at Vigan moved to the open area between Tuguarego and Bayombong, which was held by a single unit. After defeating the Japanese forces there, the four divisions advanced on Tuguarego. By then, I think my opponent panicked and landed at Legaspi with roughly a divisions worth of troops, as well as another infantry regiment or two at Laoag.

My units at Bayombong turned over on the offensive and decimated the enemy units there. I think 4 or 5 Japanese Recon regiments and artillery units were wiped out by attrition in that pocket. I could not eliminate the pocket however, since the Japanese landings at Laoag and Legaspi threatened to encircle the forces at Bayombong, and I therefore began to withdraw towards Manila to make the final stand in the PI there.

Right now, the four divisions are withdrawing towards Bataan, and all the other units will head to Manila.

All this action in the PI has led to Manila being able to build up to lvl 3 fortifications. He has been very very active with his airforce in this theater, and it is the Sallys and his other ground attack aircraft that prevented him from losing all his units.

Mindanao

Lower NEI

The circled bases are the ones I want to defend.

The longer I can hold one or more of these, the less likely an invasion of Northern Australia is. He is also so heavily committed in the central pacific that holding one or more of these bases into late 42 is a real possibility.

Circled bases have at least 100 AV and one CD-unit. I am also reinforcing this area with Indian and Australian units. I think the threat to India or Ceylon in this game is very small considering that he only has something like 1500 AV total avaliable in the southern resource area.

USS Saratoga and HMS Indomitable are at Ambon right now, they will soon depart on a probe into the south china sea to see if I can catch some shipping of his. With his lack of bases in the lower NEI and on the PI, I believe I can actually move the carriers unspotted through the celebes sea and then the sulu sea into south china sea.

I know he is moving his fuel in very large TK convoys escorted only by SC and PBs, to catch one of those would be very nice. A dutch sub put a torpedo in one of those TKs just off Kendari yesterday, perhaps I can catch that convoy if we sprint north now...

Java

Initial landing came at Semarang. I tried to oppose them from the air, with a force of 60-something Divebombers, 20-something Torpedo bombers, and 40-something Level bombers. In addition to this I had 3-4 CAs, 3-4 CLs and 10 DDs. Japs came with one BB, a handful of CAs and several hundred transports.

For some reason, my airunits failed to inflict too much damage on the Japs. Sunk-ship screen shows 3 DDs and 4 xAKs sunk.

We will only defend Soerebaja and the mountain hex south of the city. But since he has so few forces in this theater, I decided to use the 18th UK division here together with some Indian units. He is still unaware of their presence. He has the Imperial guards and some additional regiments on Java, but thats it. I dont think he will be able to take Java with those forces. The battle for Java will probably save valuable time for the NEI and Australia.