Pathos in the Pacific - Yubari`s Humiliation

[yubari]

Solomons.
This is most definitely a US invasion force, the picture below shows the arrangment of what has been spotted of the US fleet. What is highlighted on the map as a fleet of tankers I take to be an invasion fleet heading for either Deboyne Island, or for Normandy Island in the Louisiades. The two fleets spotted to the west of the Russell Islands I assume are heading for Munda. Munda has been well fortified, it is nearing level 7 fortifications, but only has 109AV of troops. Hopefully, they will be able to hold out for two or three crucial days. There are also nearly 700 mines at the base.

The Japanese forces have been positioned ready to attack this invasion force. Two hexes south of Rabaul is Tanaka and a force of three cruisers and six destroyers. They have been spotted by the allies but will move to Munda this turn. Green Island contains 60 fighters, 27 dive bombers and 55 torpedo bombers, and they should all be in range of Munda. Rabaul contains 60 Bettys plus fighter escort. Kavieng contains a further 100 Bettys plus A6M3a Zero escorts which should all be able to reach Munda. Three hexes further north are the Japanese carriers Kaga, Akagi, Taiho, plus CVLs Chiyoda, Chitose and Zuiho. They will more than likely be out of range for tomorrow. Four battleships are also in this task force, but I probably wont be able to use them in a surface battle; they can move at only four hexes per turn, and hence would have to stay in range of bombers based at the Russell Islands for two turns if they were to attack enemy ships at Munda.

This is a crucial battle, and in the event of an American victory will probably be the last in the South pacific. At this stage in the war, with the allies holding two large bases in range of Rabaul, they will probably be able to close it very quickly indeed. I expect it to be closed by mid-March at the very latest. I shall try to defend it only for as long as it takes to extract the key land units from Rabaul and Green Island, and then shall try for a final stand at Kavieng and the Admiralty Islands. Holding these bases will at least slow down the American march up the Solomons.

[yubari]

Solomons.
A look at the map at the bottom of this post will show the situation. What looks to be the main US carrier fleet is in the hex with the "Russell" of Russel Islands. 3 hexes to the west of them is what I think is a transport fleet. Just south of Woodlark Island is a transport fleet with support from three CVEs. Tanakas cruiser task force made a run into Munda but there were no enemy ships present, and his force is now two hexes south of Rabaul. The KB is so far undiscovered just to the north of Green Island.

The Japanese air force makes four attacks against the lone transport fleet, and all three of the US CVEs are hit multiple times. CVEs Anzio and Liscombe Bay are both reported sunk, and CVE Corregidor will also surely sink having taken two torpedoes and 8 bombs. At the end of the day, the total losses in terms of planes are 53 Wildcats and 15 Avengers for the allies (most forced to ditch after the CVEs are sunk) and 6 Zeroes and 2 Bettys for the Japanese.

Now assuming an allied landing location of Dobodura (just south of Buna), the KB are ordered to move to the hex just north of the "New" of New Britain to be ready to attack tomorrow.

China.
The Chinese bomber force has been steadily growing over time, and with escort from the P-47s of the AVG, they have clear aerial superiority over the Japanese in China. They attack Ichang airfield destroying 13 Tonys on the ground. Additionally, 13 Oscars and 5 Helens are shot down by P-47s on LRCAP over Ichang by the AVG. 1 P-47 is lost in return.
A deliberate attack at Ichang achieves a 2 to 1, but the Chinese troops there are not forced to retreat. Again, the land combat in this game fools me.

Burma.
In line with the previous Allied practice of launching invasion alternately in the Solomons then in the Burma and Sumatra theatre, I expect an invasion here in roughly ten days. Port Blair or Nicobar would be the logical choice, but will the allies try to force a landing at Tavoy or Victoria Point?

[Cathartes]

Burma.
With the British seemingly now basing three battleships permanently at Rangoon, and with the range 10 Grace carrier bombers increasingly coming into production, I am very strongly thinking about launching a massed carrier attack against the port. Recon suggests a large number of submarines and cruisers are in the port there as well. There would be a high risk of the allies striking back with an escorted 4E bomber raid.

Well, I would welcome an attack like that as Allies.  You would push the range of those planes, they would not carry very large bombs accordingly, and any hits would be cosmetic to a BB in port.  Also you would be up against some ugly port-based AA, and the Brits have the most effective AA in the game. What say you Yubari-san?

Great AAR!

[yubari]

You make a good point Admiral Cathartes, and seeing the performance of the Grace dive bombers from todays turn, I am inclined to agree with you. The original idea was the the 500kg bomb carrying dive bomber Graces would have enough penetration to damage the Battleships, and that the two 250kg torpedo planes Graces would have enough power to hit the cruisers and also the number of submarines spotted docked at port in Rangoon.

From todays turn, it seems that the accuracy of the 500kg bombs is rather low, very few hits were scored with them, and also a lot of planes and pilots were lost in todays battle. I dont want to lose too many more of the elite pilots before fighting the decisive battle. The main target is always the US carriers. Anyway, the range and bomb carrying potential of the Grace certainly gives the Japanese player a few more options in CHS in 1944 than is found in a stock game.


18th January
If yesterday went to the Japanese, then today was a good day for the allies as their carrier-based Hellcats took down a lot of attacking planes.

The day opens with the SS RO-38 torpedoing the already heavily damaged CVE Corregidor and sinking it. The US SS S-45 also manages to torpedo the popular DD Hibiki but does little damage. The sub is sunk for its impertinence by the DD Okinami.

The KB has manouevered into position to attack the most forward invasion fleet which is now revealed to have a destination of Woodlark Island. There are fighters from four enemy CVs are flying LRCAP over the fleet, and the Japanese come off distinctly second best. 50 Japanese planes are shot down and a further 50 or so are damaged from the roughly 200 plane strike package. Numerous LSTs are damaged and sunk, as well as the CLAA San Juan and a couple of escorting DEs. There are subsequent strikes from Rabaul, Kavieng, as well as an afternoon strike from the KB, but these do little damage.
Green Island launches a strike against the invasion force at Rossel Island, and bomb hits are scored against the CVEs Breton and Copahee. They are not enough however to stop flight operations.

The Japanese air force suffered heavily today. Total losses for the day are 62 Zeroes, 30 Jills, 22 Graces, 6 Bettys. US 33 Hellcats, 7 Avengers, 4 Wildcats (from the sunk CVE Corregidor).

I have two surface fleets heading to Woodlark Island to try to stop the invasion force, but again I think I will be too late. The US forces are already on both islands in large numbers. Tomorrow would be a perfect day for the US to force a carrier battle, they have moved one hex west from their position last turn. What will they do?

[yubari]

Overnight, two Japanese fleets arrive at Woodlark Island, and engage the large enemy fleet of landing ships. The task force containing the Fuso and Yamashiro arrives first and they sink or cripple five LSTs and damage four more. The cruiser force arrives second and attacks a fleet of 11 previously damage LSTs sinking nine of them. They then proceed to bombard Woodlark, causing some 270 casualties.

In the morning air phase, three separate attacks are launched against the KB from the allied base at the Russell Islands. The first attack has 6 unescorted Hudsons which are all shot down. The second attack of 14 P-38s and 13 Hudsons largely evades the CAP but the 12 surviving Hudsons all miss. 22 of the 24 Hudsons and Venturas from the third wave survive the CAP to attack the KB and they achieve some success. The Hyuga is set alight by a bomb hit, Kaga is left undamaged by a belt hit, but CVL Zuiho has its flight deck penetrated by a bomb and is left at 20 system damage.

Numerous air attacks are launched at the retreating LST transport force, and a large number are damaged and sunk, but the Americans are successfully landed on the islands, and will inevitably build up runways there. The battle is lost, although tremendous damage has been done again to the allied fleets. The KB will head north to refuel, and will then provide cover for the transport ships evacuating engineers and base forces from Green Island. The allies are already trying to close this base, 60 Hudsons attack in the afternoon phase, destroying 10 Jills on the ground.

[yubari]

Oh dear, I think that this game is over. After three or four days without a turn I received an email which expressed dissatisfaction with both the air to air results and the general lack of allied air attacks being launched. As the Japanese player in this game, I have to agree that the Zeroes and Oscars are significantly overpowered in this mod, maybe if their manouever ratings were reduced by three points or so then more realistic results would be seen. In other ways though (survivability of planes in general and bombers in particular) it is a great improvement over the original game, so thankyou to everyone who worked on it.
Thankyou also to Jim, a fair and honourable opponent.

It is a shame to end this war here I feel, with both sides still boasting powerful carrier fleets and the Decisive Battle being unfought. Not many AAR games get to 1944, never mind 1945. Maybe if anyone would like to take up the challenge of defeating a still mighty Imperial Japanese Navy?

[vaned74]

Hi Yubari - I'd definitely be interested in an Allied game to complement my late war Japanese game (Nik Mod CHS scenario 158) vs. Spruance, currently in Sept 1943.  It would be fun to see things from both sides of the table.  As we are the late war stage in the other game I find limited opportunities for Japan to attack so my turns are probably taking less time than Bill's.  Let me know if your interested, open to whatever house rules you may have or desire.

[yubari]

Hi vaned74, and thanks for the offer. I have emailed Jim telling him about your request, so hopefully he can send you his password so you can continue. Maybe you can PM me with your own email address, and then also PM Jim to get his password. I can then email you with the latest save game and we can continue from there.

It will be interesting to compare the two games from here on out. The house rules that we have played under so far are listed on the first page of the "Burns vs. Yubari" AAR, which is probably on about page three of the forum. I would be open to negotiation to change them if there are any that you dont particularly agree with.

Let the war continue!

[vaned74]

PM Sent.

[yubari]

After initially saying that he would be finishing the game, Jim then suggested that he would be willing to continue after a break. However, with over a month since the last turn has arrived, it is probably fair to say that the war has been ended. With that in mind, lets take a look at the final scores, and the results of the invasion of the Louisiades.

The following shows a list of the losses from the last five turns in the Solomons area. As you can see, the allied landings craft have suffered very heavily as a result of being within 6 hexes of Rabaul and within range of two other operational Japanese airfields at Kavieng and Green Island with almost no protection.

Allies 91 P-38s plus 33 Hudsons/Venturas. 33 Hellcats 57 Wildcats, 22 Avengers
CVE Anzio, Liscombe Bay, Corregidor sunk
SS S-45 sunk
DE Doneff, Griswold sunk
DMS Dorsey sunk
LST 31, 204, 229, 341, 26, 18, 24, 70, 166, 171, 179, 219, 350, 450, 457, 117, 449, 23, 69, 78 242, 22, 244, 245, 335, 340, 343, 446, 452, 454 sunk

CVE Breton, Copahee light damage
CLAA San Juan heavy damage
DE Crouter 1 bomb, medium damage
DMS Zane medium damage

Japanese; 122 Zeroes, 40 Jills, 24 Graces, 13 Lilys, 9 Tonys, 7 Tojos, 21 Betty/Nells 2 Emilys, 2 Judys, 6 Rufes
SS RO-42, RO-66, RO-103 sunk
SS RO-106 medium damage
DD Hibiki medium damage
CVL Zuiho medium damage

An invasion of Munda, which could have been protected by LRCAP from Rennel Island and Tassafaronga would surely have been a more prudent venture.

Here are the final scores.

[yubari]

And here is the list of ships sunk.

With the end of this war, lets hope that AE comes out soon to allow more brave electronic Japanese soldiers, sailors and pilots to their certain death (and lets hope the bug that allows less honest Japanese commanders to rerun turns has been removed).

[Cathartes]

Sorry this one ended.  No one new to take up the Allied fight? 

[yubari]

Hi Cathartes. Unfortunately, Jim said that he used the same password for WITP as he used for his bank and trading accounts, and so wasnt willing to pass it on to anyone else. There is another house rule for me before starting another PBEM game.