Howlin' At The Moon - DBB Vettim(A) vs Greasylake (J)

[vettim89]

26-27 November 1942

Both sides pull back to lick their wounds. BB Ise tries to make good her escape and eats two TT for her efforts. BB Ramilles take a TT of her own to offset this. Game has a habit of doing that to me. When I hit Hiryu a while back, Saratoga was hit within two days.

Last troops are almost unloaded at Carnarvon. Will run back to pick up the 7th Aus ID and then push on Exmouth. The heavies will attack the AB which has A6M2, Ki-44 and Nicks at it for now. They tried to bomb my TF at Carv but were rebuffed. I have two Spit V sq moving to Geraldton then Carv to help in CAP. Once Carv grows to level 3 or 4 I will move the A-24 sq back.

Exmouth has turned into Larry's Guadalcanal. He is winning some SCTF battles but ultimately he is on the wrong end of a long logistical tail.

Epi is almost to level 3 forts. AV support and ENG inbound. I will build this base and a few others to level three for fighter strips before moving on Luganville. After that I move North to Ndeni.

My Cvs are all under 17 days to availability. The CVE-R are pulled from Tacoma to help rebuild Enterprise's CAG. Three CVE arrive in the next few weeks (the ones fro the Torch landings). They will move to Perth for possible use off Exmouth.

Odd thing is FOW is trying to tell me Hiyo is once again sunk on 19 November. She was not invlolved in any action. Could she possibly have sunk trying to get out of the Palaus?

[vettim89]

28-29 November

IJA moving a lot more troops to Myitkiyina. I'm flying in some small Arty units.

Exmouth hit for the first time with no losses. AB is at 20% damage according to recon. My heavies still have single digit fatigue; so I sent them for an additional turn. Carvarnon is almost to Level 2 AB. Spits waiting for that to happen

IJNAF tried again to hit shipping at Cox Bazaar and were rebuffed.

Aircraft losses for the day were decidely in Allies favor

[vettim89]

30 November 1942

The Heavies hit Magwe and win a hard fought battle. Only one Tojo destroyed. Very hard to kill those suckers. One Wellington sq lost coordination. There are now only 6 planes left in that sq. Larry seem to pull the non-damed a/c and moved them to Mandaaly's heavily damaged field. I will hit Magwe one more time then switch back to Mandalay. It is costing me a lot of airframes but the IJAAF is slowly being driven from Central Burma

Two RN BBs hit Exmouth on the way home. Only 13 fighters left there now with AB damage at 58. If my Heavies would fly, this base will be shut down. Carnarvon reaches level 2 AB and is alreayd 21% to Level 3. Now one P-38G and one Spitfire V sq there. I willl move the A-24 back soon. IJN dropping a unit off at Port Hedland. Larry should be pulling out not investing further here.

I ran out of SeaBees in the SoPac. Sending my APs back to Auckland to get some more. ALso going to start pulling them from Tanna as it is almost maxed out on both Port(4) and AB (8)

My carriers are all in the single digits. CAGs are all filled up except for Lexington's which will draw from the four CVE-R that just arrived from Tacoma.

[vettim89]

1-8 December

Game slows way down as both sides regroup after vicious fighting around Exmouth. Still there are a few highlights

Burma

Magwe AB is shut down. Unfortunately, Larry was able to marshall his forces before my heavies could shake off their fatigue and repair damaged airframes. Now there are 100 fighers at Mandalay which I assume are all Tojos. IJA is still moving more combat power to Myitkyina. No attack has broken 1 to 2 but my troops are being worn down. I am moving an unrestricted Indian BGD that hopefully can be air lifted in. I previously noted that I was trying to lift in some Arty but the guns must be too big because nothing is moving. I am hitting the IJA with everything I have now including the heavies. Cox Bazaar is fully developed and unrestricted units will soon be moving to Akyab. I need PP to free up the restricted units so I can start an offensive here soon.

China

IJA shifted from Kweilen to Liuchow. The KMT has even more AS strength there with current odds 2200 to 900 in Chinese favor. Supplies are critical down here and every transport that can be spared is being used to try to build up the stockpiles

SoPac

Convoy inbound to Epi to deposit CBs and AV support. Some AV support being pulled from Suva which has more than it needs. More CBs about to arrive at Auckland. No IJN activity other than subs in weeks. I wonder if this is due to fuel issues or my opponent realizing he has gotten lucky more than once when challenging the massed LBA down here. The 37th ID is at Auckland prepping for Ndeni. Need to retake Luganville and develop quite a few additional bases.

NoPac

IJA is at Amchitka and has been loitering there for a week. My 4Es have been harassing them but have only scored one hit. The port is severly damaged there, I suspect that is the delay. Adak AB just went to level two. I moved a single B-26 sq there to see if it will fly.

Oz

Ryuho and Shoho showed up a few days ago. They sank two xAKL and lost quite a few airframes. My A-24 could not score any hits. USAAF has roughed up a lot of shipping at Exmouth including what was either a reinforcement convoy or an evacuation convoy. The AB at Exmouth is shut down and the port is now empty. The reason for that would be these results on two consecutive days

Afternoon Air attack on Exmouth , at 50,129

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 39 NM, estimated altitude 21,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes

Japanese aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 27
B-24D Liberator x 16


Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 2 destroyed on ground
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 destroyed on ground
Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 2 destroyed on ground

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
DD Kagero, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CA Maya, Bomb hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
DD Urakaze, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DMS W-7, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Namikaze, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damageMorning Air attack on Exmouth , at 50,129

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes


Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 32
B-24D Liberator x 17

then

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 32
B-24D Liberator x 17


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
CA Maya, Bomb hits 4, heavy damage
DD Urakaze, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage

Kagero was attacked by a USN Fleet boat with dud torpedos heading NW on the 7th. I suspect the two CAs are toast

FOW is hiding the exact losses from me at this point but I suspect the Butcher's Bill for this operation has to be quite high for the IJN. The 3rd Aust ID has arrived at Carnavon. The 4th and 5th are one and two hexes behind respectively. The 7th will arrive next turn by sea. The 6th is half way from Port Hedland to Carnarvon. That will give me four ID, four ARM RGTs, four USA Tank Destroyer BTN, and about half a dozen ARTY units to take to Exmouth. Larry also landed a portion of the 48th ID at Port Hedland and took it a few turns ago. On the other side of the continent, Coen goes to level 2 AB with AV support inbound. I will probably just take this base to level 4 before moving on to Portland Roads.

Shipping

Lexington is out of the yard and heading south as of this turn. Enterprise will be fully repaired next turn. Saratoga seems to be hung up and still has eleven days before being ready. Six USN BBs are heading to the SoPac. I think I will need them for Luganville if Yamato shows up. Still feeling a DD crunch but as new hulls arrive along with ever increasing number of SCs to take over escort duties, I am finally getting there. Two CVE arrive in two turns with a third coming in 11 days. PoW and Repulse are heading for Oz right now. Oh, and the first LST arrived a few turns ago.

22 turns before the first drop in torpedo dud rate!!!!!

[vettim89]

9-11 December 1942

IJN CVs appear off Carnarvon. They sink 4 xAP and an AMC. The A6M3a esort was able to keep my fighters off the bombers but over two days losses were 31 Zeroes offset but 2 Spit V and 1 P-38G (only one ATA kill on my fighters). At least in fighters, the IJN seems weakened.

The 7th Aus ID was slightly roughed up in the troop ships losses, but is still at 90% combat effectiveness. The 4th Aus ID has made 38 miles over the last hex to Carnarvon. I don't plan to lift any more troops by sea any time soon; so while the losses sting, they did not affect my plans.

IJA tried another Deliberate Attack at Myikyina which again came off at 1 to 2. The Japanese losses were much worse this time with over 20 rifle squads, guns and AFVs outright destroyed. This gives my air force a chance to stand day for a couple of days. They were getting a bit worn down.

EPi AB goes to level 2. I reoccupied the two closest bases to Epi. There are only three Marine Para BTN there. That should tell you the state of Larry's troops at Luganville.

Only 20 turns before the USN Mk 14 TT improve!

[vettim89]

12 -15 December 1942

Larry invaded and took Tagula near Rossel island. he also landed a Nav Guard units at Milne Bay. Doubt my single commando BTN can hold. The situation got more interesting this turn as Kaga took a single TT hit. Question is will larry pull back as this was by far not the only submarine in the area.

Then the IJN showed up off Carnavon on the 15th. It was not a happy day for the IJNAF. Only five A6M3a escorted the bombers. The two SpitV and one P-38G sq rip them to pieces. The raid was a wipe for the Japanese. I think Larry Tempted fate one time too many. Richard Bong got kils 2-3-4 in this raid alone

[vettim89]

This will leave a mark

[vettim89]

This wsa about the only significant action of the 16 December turn

[vettim89]

17-31 December 1942

The Allies go into a bit of rest mode as I put a lot of my DDs into upgrades after putting them off. During this time some notable things happened

* My troops are about to enter Exmouth. Supplies are an issue but an AK is loaded at perth to help out

* Heavy battles at Myitkyina where the beleaguered Commonwealth trops are holding out. I finally have been able to lift two Indian BGDs in to help out. A full Indian ID is on the way. This is shaping up as a meeting engagement. As long as my transports keep flying, I will pour more units into the battle

* Epi is built up and will now be able to provide CAP for as I further isolate Luganville.

* CV Lexington has arrived at Auckland

* CV Enterprise is at Sydney Fully repaired

* CV Saratoga is in the sea lanes from Capetown heading to oz

* The first three combat capable CVE are almost to Hiva Oa

0 days until the first Mk14 improvement.

[vettim89]

1 January 1943

SS Sturgeon seems to have been anticipating the message from ComSubPac. That was a big one. Larry confirmed it went down. As an added bonus, not one but two I-Boats were sunk this turn: one by SCs escorting a convoy off LA and another by RN DDs escorting supplies to Exmouth.

Speaking of Exmouth, nearly all the troops have arrived. Supplies should arrive by sea next turn. Then we do some bombardments for good measure.

IJN CVTF spotted at Tulagi. SigInt say BB Yamato is with them. Troops for Ambrym will started loading in a few turns. looks like we may see some action.

Portland Roads now has three Eng units there. I decided to try and sneak some supplies in and so far my opponent is ignoring them.

First F4U-1 is in the pool. Will be able to upgrade about 1.5 sq per month.

[vettim89]

2 January 1943

My troops are comfortably well set at Exmouth. A single TD BTN and a small fragment of the 7th Aus ID are trailing. My supply convoy arrived and to my surpise the embedded cruisers built up the IJA pretty badly causing 600+ casuaties. Was a bit surprised by that.

[House Stark]

What a way to kick off the era of working torps!

[vettim89]

ORIGINAL: House Stark

What a way to kick off the era of working torps!

I am hoping for some good things here. I have not done a bad job positioning my subs. I have had as many as four or five attacks in a single turn. Even with 30% duds, the damage should be significant

[vettim89]

3 January 1943

IJN carriers appear off Exmouth. I will defnitely lose a CL over this and possible one more. POW was also torpedoed but not significantly. She will have to make the long crawl back to CT. USAAF flies only one sortie but manages to put a 500 lb bomb into CVE Hosho. Probably not enough to sink her but I predict yard time. SS Shark fired dud TTs at her too (Damn it Mr. Haskins, I thought we hard that fixed!) My bombardment attack reveals base AS of 1800 for Allies vs 900 for Japan. Supplies were burnt up pretty quickly in the attack. I formed some LC at Carnarvon. The lack the range for a round trip. I will send them up then send out an AVD to bring them home.

My airlift is working at Myitkiyina with base AS approach parity around 300. I have one Indian ID that is coming out of Strat mode and a second one that will arrive next turn. This is becoming just like Exmouth: an unintended battle that I am more than willing to keep pouring units into because I know I have the advantage.


IJA is trying to force the door open at Chansha but my blocking force refuses to be moved despite 3:1 attacks by the Japanese. Larry had moved an IND Inf RGT to block the Nanning-Liuchow rod. I pushed him out with a 6 to 1 attack. Suddenly my opponent is very active in China. Perhaps he realizes my transport a/c are likely occupied in Burma?

[vettim89]

Oh in case any of you were wondering about DaBabes AA fixes, behold:

[vettim89]

4 January 1943

IJN brings four BBs (including Musashi) and pounds my troops at Exmouth. Disruptions are in the 70s (ouch). BC Repulse took a TT from an I-Boat. She will join POW on her trip back to CT.

USAAF responds with B-25s that bounce four 500 lb bombs off each of the BBs. One hit a DD. Wish there was a way to convice my fly boys to go after the escorts. If they had killed the DDs, the school of subs in the area may have had a chance to do some damage. I traded out the B-25s at Carnarvon for A-24s. At least they drop 1000 lb bombs. Meanwhile my two remaining undamage R-class BBs will head back up North. Assuming the IJN withdraws next turn, they will pay their own visit to Exmouth. I sent an air HQ over to Perth to allow some TB to fly from Carnavon. I have one Beaufort I sq with NavT skills in the 40s at Wagga Wagga. I may need to pull some TBFs out of SoPac if this pattern continues. I have an RAF sq with NavT skills in teh 70s up at Aden. As it is unlikely they will find targets out of India/Burma, perhaps they should be transfered to Oz.

Also I plan to mine Exmouth some more.

The IJA push the KMT troops NE of Changsha out this turn.

Pic: flies trying to kill the horse. Only good news is all four BBs had some of their light AAA hit

[Captain Cruft]

Amazing to see Japanese BBs off Australia. I would never do that. What's the point? More precisely, what are the risk/reward parameters?

I will trade you one battleship which cost me 3 years of my economy's entire output for 12 airplanes and an unproductive Australian port in the back end of beyond. No ...

Nice AAR BTW. More piccies and less combat report spam is good

[vettim89]

Try to keep the AAR clean. That is why I only post when there is action. If you see me post, it usually means something happened

5 January 1943

IJN CVTF jog West and hit shipping off Carnavon. Amazingly, the heavily damaged CL Caledon which is creeping down the coast at 2 kt/hr is missed. I lose a TK and have a DD heavily damaged. Larry loses a lot of planes. Dutch sub takes two shots at Zuikaku but misses both times[:@]. Still a lot of subs up here.

My troops are recovering amazingly well at Exmouth with disruption now below 50. Supplies are still an issue.

I think I may have the base AS advantage at Myitkyina as the first part of the 19th Indian Div is lifted in.

FastTran lift the 112th Cav Rgt into Amrym.

CV Saratoga is nearly 1/2 of the way from map edge to Albany

[vettim89]

6-12 January 1943

Each side has been reinforcing Myikiyina. Raw AS is about 500 for IJA vs 400 for the Commonwelath. The 18th UK has arrived and will be lifted in as soon as the 19th Indian has completed it's lift. Larry has moved some Sallys into Mandalay and is hitting the AB to keep fort building down. I am reapairing and resting my LBA to hit Mandalay again. With over 100 Tojos in North Central Burma, that will be bloody.

Larry has invested Changsha and at present traisl in raw AS; however, cursor intel indicates possibly as many as six or seven additional units moving in this direction. There is a lot of movement own near Nanning also

I hit Exmouth with two SCTF and then did a deliberate attack on the 10th. To my surprise the base fell. My opponent promptly hit it with a SCTF of his own on the 11th. The picture TF had been ordered to cease unloading and return to Perth. For some reason those orders failed to be heeded. Just more ships to be added to the Butcher's Bill. Of note, CL Caledon with float damage in the 70s and a speed of 2 kts made it to Carnarvon.

SInce TT dud rate went down, I have sunk one of more ship every turn. Last turn it was an AO off the SUnda Strait. Larry has pulled most of his surface forces back from the southern Solomons. I think my heavy sub presence if the reason why.

[vettim89]

13-29 January

The game falls into a lull. Highlights of two weeks of action

* IJA forces at Exmouth have been eliminated. Two full IDs were destroyed plus a Tank RGT and a BF

* Stalemate continues at Myitkiyina with both sides pouring more troops into the battle

* There are now 25 IJA units at Chansha. Only Bombardments. Larry is putting a lot of Air Resources here

* IJA Trying to interdict the Nanning-Liuchow Highway. Last attack came off at 1 to 2

* Allies continue to creep up through the New Hebrides. Now seeing Nellies from GC in action. CAP has been leaky with the Allies losing three AMs ad an AP.

* IJN comes out to play on the 29th. Before they can get into the action Akagi takes a single TT hit

* USN Fleet Boats doing great with nearly one IJN ship every turn. Besides the carrier, an xAK was sunk off Iwo Jima last turn