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Greetings. Scenario 17 Mogami Japan Silkworm Allied.
I opened the game with the "Bums Rush" This is where the Japanese player sends the whole shebang at Port Moresby as fast as possible. This game was PBEM attempt number two for this opening gambit. It failed miserably. I was resigned to the 6-8 week build up for the mid June-July try.
I placed the carriers in port Rabaul where B-17's found them.
All 3 were seriously damaged. I moved them to Kavieng (except Shoho who's speed was only 2 knots and flooding very severe.)
On the way one of those S-boats put a torpedo into Zuikaku.
Of course the B-17s then bombed Kavieng hitting both CV again.
(it became the struggle to keep floatation damage down and put out fires. Enemy subs were at both Rabaul and Kavieng and none of the carriers were in condition to head to open water.
My surface forces had been damaged/lost in the BR period.
From now on for the rest of this post I will merely copy my e-mail
message sent to silkworm. (I won't post his replies-he can add them if he wants)


Subj: Re: Fw: 24May files
Date: 7/5/02 3:39:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Farawayelf
To: silkworm
File: save017.zip (556604 bytes) DL Time (115200 bps): < 1 minute


amusing


Subj: Re: Fw: 24May files
Date: 7/6/02 1:11:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Farawayelf
To: silkworm
File: save017.zip (557951 bytes) DL Time (115200 bps): < 1 minute


Not sure I understand. What were all the SC and MSW doing at Rabaul? Rabual is well garrisoned (****added for AAR I was bluffing)



Subj: Re: Fw: 1June files
Date: 7/6/02 2:13:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Farawayelf
To: silkworm
File: save017.zip (559920 bytes) DL Time (115200 bps): < 1 minute


I'm lost, was that an invasion of Rabaul gone awry?
(****added for AAR it was indeed an invasion of Rabaul in late May 1942)


Subj: Re: Fw: 1June files
Date: 7/8/02 10:27:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Farawayelf
To: silkworm
File: save017.zip (280759 bytes) DL Time (115200 bps): < 1 minute


Back, you never know until you try, send in the transports
(****added for AAR, more bluff-he did!!!!)



Subj: Re: Fw: 1June files
Date: 7/9/02 12:18:35 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Farawayelf
To: silkworm
File: save007.zip (686185 bytes) DL Time (115200 bps): < 2 minutes


Sorry I don't think anything happened. (***added for AAR-I had forgotten to add replay file-no combat occurred but...read on) This turn is a different case. One of us is insane. I am actually getting a little worried. This will be interesting. Shoho was sank but my pilots report hits on 2 USN CV. Allied bombardment TF hit Rabaul hard but did so after Rabaul airstrikes hit Transport TF (they should have stayed back)
We will have to see what tomorrow brings. (I was only kidding when I said bring on the transports)



Subj: Re: Fw: 4June files
Date: 7/9/02 2:15:32 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Farawayelf
To: silkworm
File: save017.zip (567983 bytes) DL Time (115200 bps): < 1 minute


Hello
The moment of truth approaches. Allied ground forces have landed.



Subj: Re: Fw: 4June files
Date: 7/9/02 4:27:14 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Farawayelf
To: silkworm
File: save017.zip (572846 bytes) DL Time (115200 bps): < 1 minute


Egads IJN CV arrive and do much damage. USN CV not involved. First land attack repulsed. Japanese reinforcements coming, will they be in time? Can the allies hold the base if they capture it? (a catastrophe for Japan in any event if Rabaul falls much needed support is gone for a long time. You have so demolished the airfield that it will not be of use to you should you capture the base during the critical period before Japanese assault troops arrive. I sat on my transport TF's for a few days to avoid their encountering your CV's and hoping the surface TF's would depart. I can't wait for the next turn. Why don't you start a AAR thread it would amuse the public to see how scared you have me.


I posted it myself. I hope he inserts his thoughts, I can't wait to see how this turns out.

The lesson, relearned for the 10,000th time. Never believe that you know the enemies next move (try to guess what he will do) Instead always prepare for what he CAN!!!!! do (no matter how impossible or silly you might think it to be)

After my failed operation I just assumed Silkworm would be happy to supply/reinforce/train and allow me to do the same.
I considered the subs to be the main threat and placed my floatplanes on ASW. The fighters and bombers basically went on ASW/rest missions and I sent everything back to Truk/Japan that could make it. Only the three crippled CV/L stayed behind and that only because I could not get their floatation damage low enough to send them home. The first hint I had that Silkworm had cast a covetous eye upon Rabaul was when a surface TF appeared and sank the Rabaul harbor patrol.
I then of course decided maybe I should put a group on search.
OMG the sea south of Rabaul is covered with allied TF.
Strikes from Kavieng and Rabaul go to work. I figure Silkworm has learned his lesson. Only a madman would continue to send transports now (Duh read the AAR above between U2 and myself where I morph into Ambrose Burnside and refuse to cancel an operation that is so clearly blown a blind village idiot would have realized it.)
Meanwhile up at Truk "conserving" fuel and system damage the IJN swings idlly at their moorings. Sailors fishing or swimming not a care in the world.
Massive surface force bombards Rabaul, OK that very soft alarm that has been going off for several game days suddenly becomes the horn of an express train about to meet another train at 120mph.
IJN CV TF sails at full speed south. Everything that can float and carries a gun sails south. The Troop laden TF that has been lounging around due to possible enemy CV threats is told
"**** the potatoes full speed ahead"
The TF unloading at Kavieng decides it can help get a few combat troops to the nearly empty main base of Rabaul (Every unit that existed on 1 May with a combat rating had died at PM)
All the airgroups are grounded. But the CV show up and sink as much as they can. ........... I can hardly wait for the next turn.
This game is pregnant with possibilities. The Japanese had suffered a major reverse in the opening weeks. If they win now all can be regained with advantage. Or the early disaster can snowball into unimagined defeat.

Greetings. Unable to sleep I freted away the night. U2 occupied me for the last few hours but I could not stop thinking of what the next turn in this game would bring.

5 June 1942

Ground combat at Rabaul

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 10577 troops, 111 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 32800 troops, 348 guns, 0 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 8)


Japanese ground losses:
Men lost 138
Guns lost 1

Allied ground losses:
Men lost 368
Guns lost 1


The TF carrying elements of the 65th Bde and 21st Mixed Bde
had arrived. Able to use the damaged port they unloaded just in
time. (I had placed the 2 units on many transports to allow them to debark as quickly as possible.)
After I go out and buy some Grecian formula to disguise my now snow white hair I will try to get some sleep....(aye, theres the rub.
For in that sleep.......what dreams may come...)

finally found this thread.

Feined retreat:

anyway it was worth a try.
----- Original Message -----
From: Farawayelf@aol.com
To: pandageneral@hotmail.com
Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 10:11 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: 24May files


Not sure I understand. What were all the SC and MSW doing at Rabaul? Rabual is well garrisoned

The lesson, relearned for the 10,000th time. Never believe that you know the enemies next move (try to guess what he will do) Instead always prepare for what he CAN!!!!! do (no matter how impossible or silly you might think it to be)

OK I DID botch it, but I have to say it was more daring than a silly idea. I lost maybe a week's worth of time due to indecision and fumbling with refueling mishaps. With that week and with engineers it should have worked.

As allies I believe in always keeping the threat of the offensive alive, which means if the threat of invasion is not taken seriously, I ACTUALLY invade.

The first hint I had that Silkworm had cast a covetous eye upon Rabaul was when a surface TF appeared and sank the Rabaul harbor patrol.

...which was simply pointless. The INTENDED point was to drop in an entire brigade overnight. My recon had not picked up your infantry regiment (not to mention my mental lapse about Rabaul's level 9 fortifications). So the plan would have failed anyway.

Only a madman would continue to send transports now

that was no stubborn insistence on my part. I seriously forgot completely about the fortifications, and I was willing to sacrifice my fleet (less so my carriers) to take Rabaul. I did not believe you could take it back. (a belief that I now doubt, given Japan's surface fleet superiority for many months to come)

Meanwhile up at Truk "conserving" fuel and system damage the IJN swings idlly at their moorings. Sailors fishing or swimming not a care in the world.

As I had thought Mogami would do...

Massive surface force bombards Rabaul, OK that very soft alarm that has been going off for several game days suddenly becomes the horn of an express train about to meet another train at 120mph.

awesome mental picture right here LOL

After I go out and buy some Grecian formula to disguise my now snow white hair I will try to get some sleep....(aye, theres the rub.
For in that sleep.......what dreams may come...)

great stuff Mogami. I'm sorry I've been so preoccupied with extra-gaming things I've been missing out on this most interesting side of UV -- AAR's with Mogami!

I'm licking my wounds now and looking for some way to make my 7th divisions coming sacrifice meaningful somehow..

Greetings, My use of words like silly or madman were not directed personally, rather I used them to illustrate the inflexable thinking I was engaged in for the period when this battle was developing.
I dismissed what proved to be a very real threat with "thats insane" Since I did not consider a mad dash as fesable I did not recognize the pattern. (Like hearing your scout planes report enemy TF is changing course and not seeing they are turning into the wind-thus giving you the knowledge it is a carrier force)

This is remarkable in that I my self had only a few weeks prior commited my forces to a mad dash. At no point before the arrival of your transports would I allow myself to even consider you were making an all out effort for Rabaull, There in lies the silly behaviour.


"The enemy can not be doing what their actions suggest they are doing"

"Why is that sir?"

?Why? Its not part of my plan thats why?

it became the struggle to keep floatation damage down and put out fires. Enemy subs were at both Rabaul and Kavieng and none of the carriers were in condition to head to open water.
My surface forces had been damaged/lost in the BR period

A note on what was going through my mind while this was happening. I did not believe I could sink the carriers with port attacks alone. (in retrospect had I known the extent of the damage I inflicted, I'd have persisted with my B-17-assisted-by-submarines attacks to try to sink them) On the other hand, I thought the best way to take advantage of the situation was that, with your fighters forced on CAP, I could maneuver my carriers to the extended range of your carrier bombers, and slaughter them with a full complement of 72 fighter CAP (a naive view, it now seems. I lost a week's time or more sending my carriers back to brisbane to get their F4F-4 upgrade) With your bombers so-decimated and your surface fleet presumably regrouping/hiding out in Truk, I had hoped, I could fast transport in a regiment sized force and capture Rabaul with little to no loss of transports.

Due to bad weather the unescorted bomber attack never materialized. Having decided to send in my fast transports anyway, I messed up my mission setting and made a pointless surface run. I had to spend 2-3 more crucial days waiting for my oilers. Then my recon picked up a previously undiscovered infantry regiment (freshly landed?). As it was, I had my 7th division fully loaded in transports, plus bases forces following my combat fleet, ready to garrison the base after the aerial threat is eliminated. Still lapsingly mentally on the strength of Rabaul's fortifications, I decided to commit the 7th division for the invasion, while turning my fast transports to bombardment to suppress the airfield.

To my relief, then amazement, then despair, my men landed with little loss from air attacks, only to find themselves butting up against level 9 fortifications, and in two day's time a fresh regiment of reinforcements. The rest will be future history..

A simply fascinating look into the chaos of battle from the opposing commander's standpoint. The whole idea that what we see occuring can't possible be the truth so we disbeleive it has happened to me more then once in this game...

Greetings
Eternal vigilance is the price of safety. I know this, And yet there I was asleep on watch while the events approached CBDR (constant bearing decreasing range)
Doing what the enemy does not expect is the primary objective of a commander.
Preventing EVERYTHING possible the required duty. It cannot be I considered it unimportant. I believe I owe my opponent my good efforts in making this vast commitment of time worth while. So I am at a loss to explain why it was this required a near catastrophic disaster before I awoke to the danger. It is not required for a commander to believe one avenue or another are what the enemy will discard or attempt. It is his responsibility to insure no harm is possible beyond that risk that is inherent in the task of combat. I am glad I have been provided the opportunity to learn I amnot immune to such lapses. Now I can take measures to insure it is not repeated.

which means I will never beat you in a game

Originally posted by Rob Roberson
which means I will never beat you in a game

Now thats crazy talk Rob:)
Dan

Hi, Whatever happened to Silkworm and Rob Roberson? I have not seen or heard for them in months.

Hey Mogami, this thread reminds me of a question I have about CVs in port. When Silkworm bombed your CVs in Rabaul and Kavieng, were the CVs formed up in a TF, or simply anchored "in port" for repairs? If the latter, can that CV's aircraft perform any missions (e.g, CAP) if the CV itself is not in a TF?

For that matter, can a CA's floatplanes fly missions if the CA itself is in port (i.e., not in a TF)? I *think* the answer is yes, but I'm not sure.