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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]

February 24, 1942


China: Chinese bombers strike again. I think I will LRCAP over the troops tomorrow, maybe Allies think IJ fighters cant defend there...

Burma: -

DEI: G4Ms strike Soerabaja's port and destroy 2 small ships and a harbor defense motor launch.

Submarines: lots of USN subs off the Northern coast of Formosa. IJN sub finally gets to attack the convoy it had been shadowing for 2 days approx 1000 nm East of Hawaii and sinks an xAK.

South Pacific: Allies vanish, as expected. The enemy TF between New Caledonia and Australia had several light cruisers and was sighted heading back to Brisbane or Sydney. Allied shipping fled Noumea towards Sydney too. Despite the area having now over 30 Japanese submarines, none make contact with the enemy.

B-17s hit Port Moresby's port and manage to lose one of their number somehow. 2 B-17s fly ground attack sortie from Noumea to Luganville but dont hit anything. Luganville flooded by Allied submarines... And Luganville falls!!! 4 B-17Es are torched on the ground together with 2 Catalinas. One more B-17E flying naval search gets shot down by KB's Zeros.

Ground combat at Luganville (120,150)
 
Japanese Shock attack
 
Attacking force 7917 troops, 118 guns, 15 vehicles, Assault Value = 264
 
Defending force 4201 troops, 42 guns, 77 vehicles, Assault Value = 62
 
Japanese adjusted assault: 198
 
Allied adjusted defense: 25
 
Japanese assault odds: 7 to 1 (fort level 2)
 
Japanese forces CAPTURE Luganville !!!
 
Allied aircraft
      no flights
 
Allied aircraft losses
      B-17E Fortress: 4 destroyed
      PBY-5A Catalina: 2 destroyed
 
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), fatigue(-)
 
Japanese ground losses:
      175 casualties reported
         Squads: 2 destroyed, 10 disabled
         Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
         Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
 
Allied ground losses:
      4312 casualties reported
         Squads: 78 destroyed, 0 disabled
         Non Combat: 362 destroyed, 0 disabled
         Engineers: 16 destroyed, 0 disabled
      Guns lost 44 (44 destroyed, 0 disabled)
      Vehicles lost 98 (98 destroyed, 0 disabled)
      Units destroyed 4
 
Assaulting units:
    1st Sasebo Assault Division
    84th Naval Guard Unit
    10th JNAF AF Unit
 
Defending units:
    30th NZ Battalion
    114th USAAF Base Force
    148th Field Artillery Battalion
    A Det USN Port Svc


I guess the naval bombardment helped getting that disruption. Any way, air losses are now evened out! Pics coming later.

[Anvilfolk]

Sweet! Even if you didn't manage to force a carrier battle, at least you have achieved the secondary objective of moving further down!

[Sheb]

6 B-17 in a day, not bad. I wonder if he'll keep using the B-17E to fly naval search or if he'll learn. On the other hand, the sheer number of planes he can dedicate to naval search by using those B-17 in addition to Catalinas may play a role in the fact that he was able to keep ID the KB and get around it, ensuring his recent naval victory at the Battle of Efate (Yeah, I've been referring to your recent naval engagement by this name).

[Erkki]

I dont buy that completely. E13A has good range and Mizuho had 24 of them. Air search from Makin was directed to that area too, and there were plenty of subs to the South so I dont think the Americans used flank speed to dash North from West of Fiji either(or the subs again failed). I think it was at least mostly just bad luck with the weather. Yeah he kept track on the KB but he had no way of knowing what orders I had given to it. KB could have caught either one of their carrier TFs even using just cruising speed had I guessed right. Fighters almost never get diverted to defend another place over more than 2 hex, so KB may have even been within strike range from the southern one but either luck or luck and weather once again helped the Allies.

Heres the "AMC" TF, or part of it, that was probably either looking to bounce on my shipping at Tulagi(they'd have hit just ASW patrol boats) or the amphibious fleet from the Coral Sea:

Sub attack near Fraser Island  at 102,156
 
Japanese Ships
      SS RO-67
 
Allied Ships
      DD Sands
      CA Pensacola
      CL De Ruyter
      CL Java
      DD King
      DD John D. Ford
 
SS RO-67 launches 2 torpedoes at DD Sands
RO-67 diving deep ....

[Erkki]

Theres one last Marine Assault Division that has not been used. Its currently on board an amphibious TF near Marcus Island(NW of Wake). I dont think they have quite enough punch to take Efate alone and for most reinforcements I'd need to load troops under enemy eyes or sub threat at least... Suggestions? One possible target is Horn Island in the Torres Strait.

[Mephansteras]

Theres one last Marine Assault Division that has not been used. Its currently on board an amphibious TF near Marcus Island(NW of Wake). I dont think they have quite enough punch to take Efate alone and for most reinforcements I'd need to load troops under enemy eyes or sub threat at least... Suggestions? One possible target is Horn Island in the Torres Strait.

Surprise the hell out of your opponent by having them take out a base in the Aleutian islands.   (Ok, that's a bad idea, but it'd be funny)

[10ebbor10]

Attack Los Angeles. They'll never see it coming,

[Anvilfolk]

Would you be able to get KB to significantly reduce the defenses at Efate and THEN land? That could potentially draw the enemy CV's back in again?

[Erkki]

Would you be able to get KB to significantly reduce the defenses at Efate and THEN land? That could potentially draw the enemy CV's back in again?

I'd kinda want to not get Midway'ed and have enemy carriers or other juicy targets pop up when I'm busy wasting my precious CV attack aircraft for attacking troops.

Other than that, yeah, it'd work. KB has easily the firepower the suppress the defenders, Efate seems to be garrisoned by roughly similar size force as Luganville was, for the assault to work. But I'm not sure if its worth the risk, fuel and showing the KB. Efate is pretty far already, basically impossible to defend. Luganville will be difficult to defend too and I wont commit too many troops there. Luganville and Ndeni will become forward air search bastions and speed bumps while the Solomons chain, New Guinea and Marshalls are built up.

[Mephansteras]

As a more serious train of thought, what is your main goal right now? Curtailing allied activities? Expanding territory?

Oil is obviously a concern for you, are there any more oil fields that you can look at as objectives to build towards capturing?

[Erkki]

As a more serious train of thought, what is your main goal right now? Curtailing allied activities? Expanding territory?

Oil is obviously a concern for you, are there any more oil fields that you can look at as objectives to build towards capturing?

Yeah. See the map on the previous page - Java is still in Dutch hands and needs to be taken.

Japan will continue to seek for The Decisive Battle and expand its perimeter as long as possible.

[Mephansteras]

Hmm. Yeah, ok.

Efate is probably not worth trying to hold, from the looks of it. Could maybe do a hit and run on it, destroy what is there and back off, but I'm not sure that's worth it.

What are the downsides to keeping this particular unit held in reserve? You might be better off holding off and waiting for a bit until you can do a proper attack towards Java.

[Erkki]

Hmm. Yeah, ok.

Efate is probably not worth trying to hold, from the looks of it. Could maybe do a hit and run on it, destroy what is there and back off, but I'm not sure that's worth it.

What are the downsides to keeping this particular unit held in reserve? You might be better off holding off and waiting for a bit until you can do a proper attack towards Java.

No need to allocate new units - the troops that took Singapore, about 5 divisions' worth of combat power, are now resting and will start the operation to take Java within a week. The fleet will be ready in a couple of days. If absolutely needed to, theres 1½ divisions on Timor that can be used too... But I'd prefer to save them for Northern Australia. Theres no real hurry to take Java as the Allies are very unlikely to defend it seriously or reinforce it. The poor island will stand alone.

Port Moresby has now a full division of infantry + a Marine assault division, or the 68% that is left of it. Most casualties drowned when a transport was sunk. That infantry division should be enough to defend it, so in the near future I will need to either bring that Marine unit back to rest, or I could just attack Horn Island together with it and the other, intact, Marine unit. That one is still 6-7 days from the area so theres time to think.

Efate would be tempting as it probably has more at least somewhat valuable ground units that could be destroyed... If I do that, it'll be a hit & run attack covered by the KB. I can "borrow" the needed infantry, or smaller Marine units, to support the Marine assault division in taking Efate from somewhere. 2 Guards regiments just became available on Honshu, although they arent in full strength yet.

Theres an aviation support battalion on its way to the area too. I'll probably send them to Buna(near port moresby) to create a fighter airfield that cant be bombarded from sea. In Korea, a crack 458-AV 80-experience will be bought out and moved under Southern Army in 5 days. I havent decided on a target.

One thing I've forgot to mention: Japan currently enjoys of the so called amphibious bonus. Amphibious task force unloading speed is quadrupled and casualties for unpreparedness reduced. The bonus will last until the end of March, so theres a good 40 days to do any ad hoc invasions.

[Anvilfolk]

Huh, that sounds a little gamey. What is is supposed to represent?

[Mephansteras]

Ah, that's handy.

Yeah, I'd probably do a hit-and-run on Efate. Try to do some damage where you can while you gear up for more serious invasions.