From the Jaws of Victory: Wake (long)

[themattcurtis]

Choosing to play the Wake Scenario (Historic) as the USN, I began the morning of Dec 21st, 1941, along the following lines:

Saratoga and the remainder of TG 14.1 were on South Westerly course so as to arrive approximately 200nm from Wake by 1700 (dusk) that day. The weather north and to the west of the island was clear, and with planes launched from Midway covering my northern flank, I was confident I wouldn’t stumble into anything ugly….or at least I’d soon be under the cover of night if I was detected.

Halsey and Enterprise were taking TG 8 to a point maybe 150 nm south of the island, where heavy weather promised to screen our movements from the IJN. Again, things were timed so that the US ships would arrive right as the sun dropped below the horizon. Brown (commanding TG 11 from aboard the Lexington) was slated to rendezvous with Halsey. I was betting the other side would be parked in that general area. The only reason Saratoga and her escorts weren’t part of the main effort was I wanted to provide some sort of cover for the Tangiers and her cargo.

At first, things proceeded as I expected. I tweaked my search rosettes, and churned up the water at flank speed. The boys at Wake – all four fighters – were getting hammered by Japanese air strikes, but at least they were making the enemy bleed. The first report, arriving at 1315, had them intercepting an inbound formation of 37 planes and knocking two of the bad guys from the sky (at a cost of two of their own). Things went downhill for them after that.

But my suspicions about the enemy’s location seemed to be confirmed when, at 1645, a spotter plane was seen circling TG 11 moments before dusk fell and the US force slipped under a big ole patch of cloud cover. The two carriers had now linked up and, by reducing their speed and establishing some waypoints, were able to stay in concealment while closing to within striking distance of Wake.

Before dawn, our planes were armed and fueled. For about an hour, both Enterprise and Lexington would be operating under clear skies – which made me nervous as I knew SOMETHING was out there. Almost immediately, search planes launched from Lexington reported several surface ships to the South, moving SE at 35 knots. The speed ruled out transports and carriers seemed doubtful. I didn’t need to wait to have my theory confirmed through a second report, however, for the enemy force was literally on top of us. Within minutes of the first sighting three Japanese cruisers, including Furutaka and a handful of destroyers were within visual range.

TG 11 broke off from the encounter and launched a strike of 23 dive bombers and 12 Devastators. No fighters were sent from Lexington’s deck, except to beef up the Task Group’s CAP umbrella, as I knew they wouldn’t have to deal with any defending Zeros.

Enterprise added its weight to the attack, and soon no fewer than 70 US naval aircraft were dropping all sorts of ordinance on Furutaka and its accompanying ships.

Sadly, American marksmanship was lacking. Three bomb hits on Furutaka were apparently enough to “sink” the cruiser…which I didn’t buy for a second. So when a subsequent strike landed yet another blow to the ship’s armored deck, I wasn’t surprised to seer her chugging along, her crew battling to put out a series of fires. A few destroyers were dinged up, but no other vessel was seriously damaged, and the Devastators proved themselves to be all but useless. The one bright spot was that there was no CAP to threaten my pilots, nor did Japanese AA land any hits. At least in theory, my two strikes had landed me first blood by 730 that morning.

While this was occurring, our pilots were reporting a Japanese convoy (Baker) to the west, heading NE towards Wake at a speed approaching 15 knots. Dive bombers from Enterprise raised a few geysers of water around the lumbering Marus, but didn’t manage a single hit. Frustrated, I waited for my two carriers to wrap up recovery operations.

And they needed to pick up the pace. For to the north, Saratoga had spotted a carrier force perched above Wake. It became clear the two flattops hadn’t seen Fletcher’s command, as their attention was directed solely on Task Groups 8 and 11.

A hurried strike at TG 14.1’s maximum range saw our divebombers reach Hiryu and Soryu …only to be decimated by enemy AA. As many as half of our crews were blasted from the sky. Revenge, however, came in the pair of bombs that plunged through Hiryu’s wooden deck, and the lone hit that managed to reduce Soryu’s offensive capabilities. Fletcher no longer packed much of a punch, but his ship was undamaged and in one swoop he had reduced the danger posed by the the IJN carriers by as much as 66%. Note: Afterwards, Hiryu only had half her hull boxes remaining and was still struggling to extinguish the fires raging throughout her hull. Siryu lost four boxes herself.

The Japanese managed to hurt me in return. Wave after wave found Lexington and Enterprise. But here the results weren’t nearly as bad as I might have feared. Lexington was fully covered by severe weather, and her CAP was inflicting horrid losses on the inbound planes. On a few separate occasions, I watched our fighters down four of the enemy, with additional kills going to our AA guns. Lexington would go through the battle without taking a single hit, and when I finally quit was heading north in an attempt to get closer to Hiryu.

Enterprise wasn’t quite so lucky. Bombs started fires on her deck that would eventually take the carrier out of the fight, although damage control efforts were sufficient to keep the big ship afloat.

No, the darkest moment came at 12:13 last night, when CiC Matt (that’s me) saw that TG 11 had bumped into the good old Furutaka once more. What the hell, I thought. I’m gonna turn the PC off anyway, I might as well see what happens.

BIG mistake. I had all of my destroyers against 3 Japanese tin cans. And while I was outnumbered in terms of cruisers by a margin of 4-3, Furutaka was on fire. I thought I stood a chance.

The first turn that saw the cruisers come within gun range ended up with one of my CAs settling to the bottom.

“HOLY SHIT,” said I. Time to bail. Only to see Japanese 8” shells tear through my remaining line formation before I could retreat. While Lexington managed to escape, my destroyers were also doomed.

The little guys had blown the hell out of their Japanese counterparts at point blank range…..but, y’know, you hear accounts of the Long Lance torpedoes. What they can accomplish in CAW puts them in a whole new perspective. On their own, the Japanese cruisers managed to wipe out the entire TG except for Lexington. At which point I resigned. Time for bed.

The worst part is that up until that point, I was doing fine. I had crippled one Japanese CV and damaged another. I had bloodied several other Japanese vessels. My CAP and AA had downed a total of 20 enemy planes and damaged almost as many more. I just should have run from that surface engagement.

Observations:
The AI does NOT cheat. Their carriers were obviously searching to the South because of previous sightings. Which is why they missed Saratoga.

Weather plays a HUGE factor in protecting your carriers.

American CAP can be deadly, even early in the war. So I have no complaints on that end.

And the false sighting reports are FANTASTIC in how they add to the fog of war. I may have lost the battle, but I think I did several things right (along with some things wrong). And I’ve never had as much fun in losing a game to the AI.

Last note. Wake is a great little scenario for players to learn the game. I love this thing. Thanks again for your work in putting it together J

Matt

[themattcurtis]

Got a measure of revenge last night....

Soryu sunk....Hiryu sunk (none of which I was able to confirm until the scenario ended!!) in exchange for Saratoga.

Tangiers docked and unloaded all of her supplies.

Lexington and Enterprise then pounded the Japanese cruiser force to pieces (lot of dive bombers were whittled away due to AA -- but I'm sleeping soundly). Sank the Kako, Furutaka, Aoba and a trio of destroyers!

So, two CVs, three cruisers, three destroyers and a couple of troop ships for the price of a U.S. flattop.

Love the game[:)]