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IJNAF elite A6M2 Zero unit Chitose Ku S-1 or its detachments or division(s)

3 (42.9%)

a IJAAF Ki-43 unit in Indochina, to be used in China/East Indies(mostly)

1 (14.3%)

a IJAAF Ki-43 unit in Burma(at least initially)

3 (42.9%)

Total Members Voted: 7

Voting closed: May 04, 2014, 08:49:03 am

[Erkki]

Also B-17s hit a small base on the Northern coast of New Guinea. No garrison or planes there, basically a useless strike. Allies also use B-17s in naval search role: several were sighted near the KB.


The naval maneuvers for tomorrow are intended to throw off enemy submarines that will for sure go after the transports and surface combatants, while KB will position itself between the enemy(most likely position) and the amphibious force. Submarines(about 25 are in 4 days sail from Luganville) and float plane scout cruisers screen.

A 3/4 of a Group of G4M1s was flown to Tulagi. The size of the airfield means only 1/2 to 3/4 will sortie against any target and OPS losses are increased, but they can still add a lot of punch. Torpedo delivery range is easily to Southern end of New Caledonia, although they're unlikely to sortie let alone find the targets quite that far.

[Anvilfolk]

Whatever happens next might or might not be the highlight of my next few days

[Erkki]

 

[Anvilfolk]

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS ERKKI

WHY!

[10ebbor10]

Should have made a gif.

Another question about Japan's prototypes of questionable use. Is the Ki-200 in?

[Erkki]

Should have made a gif.

Another question about Japan's prototypes of questionable use. Is the Ki-200 in?

Yeah I should have.

J8M1 and Ki-202 Shusei point defense rocket interceptors are both in. They come available very late though, months later than historical surrender date. I dont think I will be building them, not even for the fun factor.



February 22, 1942

China: bad weather grounds most attack sorties. KMT near China has started to bombard the IJ troops.

Burma: a disaster happens when Army and Navy bombers strike British troops near Prome. AVG's Hawks shoot down almost 20 bombers, and most are lost with their crews. Again an unexpected move by an enemy who is known to have little fighter airframes to spare. They should have expected another sweep, and had that happened they'd have lost more planes and pilots at a bad ratio. Blenheims hit Rangoon(little damage) and Taung Gyi(why?), one bomber shot down by Ki-43s. IJAAF fighters will sweep tomorrow.

DEI: Zeros sweep Soerabaja again and shoot down 7 fighters to no loss.

Submarines: one xAK is lost to a USN sub on the coast of Hokkaido while the CM near Woodlark cant control fires and flooding from the yesterday's hit and needs to be scuttled. Lots of enemy subs sighted near Palembang: they're looking for tankers...

South Pacific:

Amphibious force: advances unopposed and reaches the coast of Espiritu Santo!

Surface units: advance unopposed as planned

Enemy forces: the enemy TF at Luganville flees. Air search finds 1 TF at Efate, another between Efate and New Caledonia and a 3rd between Luganville and Fiji.

Land based air: G4Ms from Tulagi launch both AM and PM but find target(enemy TF at Efate) only once. Only 8 planes attack and miss the target, a transport TF, due to bad weather and target priority(they attacked escorting DDs).

Kido Butai: advances to ordered coordinates. KB's fighters shoot down 2 Catalinas and anti-aircraft fire a patrolling B-17E(!!). In PM phase KB launches a strike to Efate:

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Efate at 120,154
 
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
 
Raid detected at 110 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 41 minutes
 
Japanese aircraft
      A6M2 Zero x 80
      B5N2 Kate x 48
      D3A1 Val x 48
 
No Japanese losses
 
Allied Ships
      xAP D'Artagnan, Bomb hits 5,  heavy fires,  heavy damage
      DD O'Brien
      DD Fanning, Bomb hits 1,  on fire
      xAP Cap Padaran, Bomb hits 7,  heavy fires,  heavy damage
      xAP Cap Tourane, Bomb hits 5,  heavy fires,  heavy damage
      xAK Orne, Bomb hits 3,  heavy fires,  heavy damage
 
Allied ground losses:
      Vehicles lost 8 (5 destroyed, 3 disabled)

This was an extreme-range 8-hex strike so B5Ns only used bombs, and missed all but 2. The enemy merchants probably all sunk and seemed to take some vehicles with them. Probably engineering vehicles, and probably supplies. Those were some big transports!

IJN submarines: sight plenty of float planes and lots of carrier aircraft to the South West, between Efate and Fiji. This has not happened for the past 5 days so thats most probably an enemy CVBG there.

Thoughts: for tomorrow I need to make sure the troops will get ashore. If enough get ashore to not get repelled by defending troops, I can always bring more until the place falls, while KB makes sure the Allies wont bombard or reinforce. KB did not attack with all planes which was a disappointment as there were more targets(a big xAK TF) well in range. Crap weather. No planes were lost today and torpedo storages are full.



I was following the World Cup, sorry.  I'll give you the operational map soon.

[Erkki]

Kido Butai will dash SOUTH, Chioyda will move towards Brisbane and Mizuho towards Fiji. Hyuga will bombard and then stay off the shore to protect the amphibious force. The amphibious TF is now given orders to not change course or retreat for any reason. CA Aoba Sqdn is trailing BB Hyuga and will reach the area tomorrow - it was sighted today near Ndeni. Its behind the others in a pure surface action role from tomorrow onwards.

[Erkki]

Meanwhile, somewhere else...



Looks like no turn today. I hope we'll catch up today's pause during the weekend!

[Anvilfolk]

Aw man aw man aw man, please do. I bet he's scared!

I like the idea that there might be enemy carriers around. Why would he have withdrawn them and drawn them back? If I remember correctly from the Battle of the Coral Sea scenario, the Australian ports aren't far enough to justify using full-speed at this point, so presumably they haven't lost too much fuel moving around?

KB looks awfully vulnerable. Seems like they come could from just about any direction except for North-East.

Are you planning on pushing further down the New Hebrides later?

[Sheb]

But then, as long as the Kido Butai stays together, it can probably beat the crap out of anything the allies sends at it at this stage of the war. I really hope you have at least a sunk CV or CVE in 10 turns.

[Erkki]

An update with screenshots and more details coming later today. Overall a huge disappointment to me.



Good news:

First, my opponent is a total idiot when it comes to using his fleet. Way too aggressive. That cant be emphasized too much. IMHO. I hope I can abuse that later. He risked 2 or 3, maybe even 4, carriers for basically nothing(he could not know there were to be targets within range unless he was going for the oilers that may not have been there), and got away with it this time. It was a conscious move at least if he bothered to take a look at the map. The carriers were within H8K search range from Ndeni and/or Makin yesterday AND possibly CS Cioyda, but they just werent sighted. KB got sighted every time it even peeked within 20 hex. Bah. It also turned out that he is using B-17Es for flying naval search: from Luganville, only size 1 field...

Secondly, Luganville seems to have a convenient number of soft enemy units: a USAAF base force, an artillery regiment, a NZ rifle battalion(not easy to replace, although of low-ish value too) and a US naval support unit. IJ troops are all ashore with almost no losses: just 1 infantry squad, 2 support and an anti-aircraft heavy machine gun were lost.

Thirdly, KB finished off 2 destroyers, 2 large AMCs, some small warships and merchies. Nothing big other than the AMCs and nothing carrying troops.

Also Zeros shot down some fighters over Noumea but the trade was pretty much even. Not good.


Bad news:

KB lost 16 planes with most crews to all reasons. There was a massive CAP of P-40s and Wildcats over Noumea and KB's strikes and thus also fighter escorts were spread because of all the tiny targets around.

USN CVs 400 nm East of Luganville attacked and sunk CA Aoba, CL Yubari and a DD. 2 more DDs are hurt. IJN's worst CA and not a very powerful CL but still. They only took a couple of bombs to go down. I've mentioned this before, but in this game everything, everything Japanese is so impossibly fragile... Probably because they lost the war...


I have no idea what the CVs were doing there other than playing with fire they cant handle yet, barring some incredible luck that the Allies have, granted, enjoyed plenty of so far. They were too far to attack the amphibious TF, or actually anything else but Aoba squadron. This was the 3rd missed opportunity to sink a carrier because I thought the enemy would play smart and keep at a distancem run away or attempt to strike somewhere else. Not half a days sail from KB. Moving directly East at cruising speed instead of SE would have brought KB within striking distance.

[Anvilfolk]

Maybe that's his strategy! Perhaps he is smart enough to assume you think he is smart, but not smart enough to realise how smart you think he is! Or something!

So presumably they know were KB is now, and they are pretty far east of it (about 20 hexes or so?). Do you think you'll be able to intercept them somehow? They'll likely have to cruise South somehow, around KB?

How easily can you replace airplanes in KB? I know that in land airbases you can just request more planes and it's pretty much instant. I guess it wouldn't be the same for KB, and it would need to move to port and resupply?

Still, 16 places out of 500+ that KB has isn't TOO horrible.

As far as IJN ships being fragile, I get the feeling that it was actually like that. There are many stories of Allied ships taking a pounding and making it out alive or holding out for a really long time, whereas you can't really find those stories for Japanese ships. The USS Franklin, the Yorktown (before it was once again torpedoed), the Malta convoys and the Guadalcanal campaign come to mind for examples of this. It could just be that there's a rift in getting the Japanese stories into "western" hands, but a lot of books I've read do mention the lesser damage control capabilities of japanese ships.

[Erkki]

Maybe that's his strategy! Perhaps he is smart enough to assume you think he is smart, but not smart enough to realise how smart you think he is! Or something!

No. Everything he had in the area could have been saved(except maybe the xAKs at Noumea and the other DD). I think he put everything in one hand, that I would do what I did before and use the KB to sweep well into Coral Sea and towards Brisbane and Sydney.

He also used B-17s for naval search from a size 1 airfield. Allies may be short on patrol planes early but Aussies have long range Hudsons that could do exactly the same thing and not waste a strategic asset in operational losses. Or he could use Bolos, or B-17Ds. But B-17Es, most powerful Allied air weapon until the arrival of B-29? Really?

So presumably they know were KB is now, and they are pretty far east of it (about 20 hexes or so?). Do you think you'll be able to intercept them somehow? They'll likely have to cruise South somehow, around KB?

How easily can you replace airplanes in KB? I know that in land airbases you can just request more planes and it's pretty much instant. I guess it wouldn't be the same for KB, and it would need to move to port and resupply?

Still, 16 places out of 500+ that KB has isn't TOO horrible.

Hes tracked KB for 2 days already. 16 planes out of 560 isnt terrible but thats 16 elite crews I cant replace ever again traded for some crap fighters. Basically strike capability traded for almost nothing.

Also 2 of the few ships that can actually compete with Allied navies(discounting Dutch) lost for good. No replacements for Japan. Thats years of upcoming war in real life without them just because I assume my opponent to play smart and safe, the way I would do.

As far as IJN ships being fragile, I get the feeling that it was actually like that. There are many stories of Allied ships taking a pounding and making it out alive or holding out for a really long time, whereas you can't really find those stories for Japanese ships. The USS Franklin, the Yorktown (before it was once again torpedoed), the Malta convoys and the Guadalcanal campaign come to mind for examples of this. It could just be that there's a rift in getting the Japanese stories into "western" hands, but a lot of books I've read do mention the lesser damage control capabilities of japanese ships.

IMHO one shouldnt make assumptions or model decisions based on individual cases. Japanese had worse damage control(modeled in the game) but quantitatively... How much precisely? On every ship or only some? Or did only the Allies have advantage only on some ships? Crew XP and captain already play a role in damage control. There were also some of examples of Allied ships receiving only one or two torpedo or shell hits and suffering catastrophic damage. Thing is, the loser gets shafted and theres lots of examples of Japanese ships sunk because they ultimately lost almost them all.

Theres even plenty of gun camera footage on Youtube. In this one probably P-38s or cannon-armed Corsairs(judging by how the last one loses half of its wing) shoot at the famous flying cigar Japanese bombers, G4Ms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5_61SetiD8 Everybody knows they are flying Zippos that catch fire in an instant(and in the game, you can lose half a hundred of them in an afternoon when a squadron of peashooter-armed fighters gets through the escorts), but in the video none of them, out of a dozen hit, catch fire, and only the last one seems to lose any parts. One in the middle of the vid may have caught fire in the fuselage or the root of the port wing, but that could also be an incendiary round or 2 burning, or sun glare. I think its dangerous to make assumptions on performance based on singular cases or general knowledge, however that is defined, that is not backed by studies.

The Japanese destroyed nearly all of their war records and photographs in the end of the war. Out of IJN ships that took pounding and survived, both Zuikaku and Shokaku took a lot of damage. One of the IJN cruisers however was hit by 3 or 4 torpedoes and several bombs and had its hull cut rear of the last boilers. It was towed to Saigon for hundreds of nautical miles in a tropical storm. It took weeks, and no, it did not sink, even being Japanese.


Unless my opponent makes another silly move, KB wont be able to catch his carriers. Too far, he'll simply egress directly East and party at Pearl.

edit: his carriers were within G4M range from Tulagi and lots of Wildcats seemed to escort strikes. But no bombers flew, again.

[Erkki]

Actually it gets better. There was another USN CVBG to the SW within or near striking range from Kido Butai - part of its, diverted to help, CAP was met over Noumea. Two different VMF squadrons flying different models of Wildcat. Apparently bad weather the enemy TF from being sighted through the day. Submarines didnt see or get to attack anything either, and it must have sailed through the sub picket line. I'd love to see a turn when any of my TFs within 16 hex from an allied base does not get sighted by the magic catalinas.

[Anvilfolk]

Aw man, you need to be able to catch one of those CVBGs... it really is a bummer if he gets away with all this!


I still think most of the Pacific air combat footage that I've seen definitely ends up with IJN planes on fire. This particular one doesn't, but I feel like it might be the exception. This is corroborated by lots of the accounts that I've read, that mention airplanes catching fire, fireballs falling from the sky, and other similar expressions - and by most airplanes not really having self-sealing fuel tanks.

I really need to read one of the all-encompassing PTO histories. I feel like those would better be able to provide some statistics on this kind of stuff, rather than specific personal accounts (which are bound to miss lots of details).