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[Zrk2]

Bullets didged: 1! Now let's get in way...

[inteuniso]

Shoho's fine! I can't wait to be the captain! Also put all the players on my ship

[Anvilfolk]

A glorious day for the Imperial Navy! My pilot is anxious to prove his worth in the service of the Emperor!

[Erkki]

A glorious day for the Imperial Navy! My pilot is anxious to prove his worth in the service of the Emperor!

Glorious day indeed! No turn back this morning so we'll have to wait at least to the evening. Our CA squadron is now effectively disabled(3 CAs out of torpedoes and nearly out of main gun ammo as are 2 of the DDs plus Tone and one of the DDs are lightly damaged) so CA Chikuma gets attached to another squadron while the others head to rearm at Singapore. 2 heavy cruiser squadrons, 3 light cruiser squadrons and a DD squadron remain on station to engage any follow-up enemy raids.

Those USN DDs were that took part to the battle were the same that were escorting CL Boise in the Southern Philippinean Sea 2½ months ago. Enemy capital ships sighted before in the East Indies include

CA Houston, USN
CL Tromp, Dutch
CL Boise, USN
CL Sumatra, Dutch (not sighted yet but I know shes somewhere out there...)
CL De Ruyter, Dutch (3 bomb hits through deck 1½ months ago)
CL Durban, RN (3 bomb hits through deck 1½ months ago)
CL Dragon, RN (Type 95 torpedo hit 1½ months ago, 50-50% sunk)
CL Java, Dutch (Type 93 Long Lance hit 3 months ago, 80-20% sunk)
BB Royal Sovereign RN, SUNK
CL Marblehead USN, SUNK
CL Danae RN, SUNK
CL Enterprise RN, SUNK
CL Mauritius RN, SUNK

I went through old reports and we have at least 12 uncounted-for DDs possibly still in the area. After what happened to Royal Sovereign I dont think the Allies have more BBs in the area as relative to their firepower they're just too vulnerable to cruisers and destroyers in night battles and too vulnerable to aircraft in daylight plus need lots of escort ships to keep them safe from submarines, but more than likely they have at least 1 more cruiser squadron which will remain a serious threat. Remaining Allied surface units are probably based at Darwin or Timor. Japanese air search has been monitoring Ambon for some time now and there has been no naval activity for 2 weeks. The Allies no longer have a proper port in the area so any major battle damage will be impossible to repair. Closest Allied drydock is at Perth, Australia.

Dragon and Java, if they are still afloat, are probably so heavily damaged that they have been evacuated long ago after emergency repairs at Koepang or Darwin. I don't think they are in the area any more or if they are, they are of no or little threat. That leaves us with potentially up to 5 cruisers and their escorts to deal with. De Ruyter, Sumatra or Tromp I'm not worried about but Boise, Durban and especially CA Houston are dangerous.

Combined Fleet Headquarters prepares to meet another Allied night raid against the IJN amphibious units unloading at Makassar by placing 3 reaction squadrons blocking the routes in, keeping submarines in position as well as placing CL Sendai TF and a separate squadron of 3 DDs at Makassar nearby the transports. Air search, fighters and a 36-plane G4M1 squadron now placed at Makassar so we are likely to sight on all of the Allied surface fleet still in the East Indies tomorrow unless weather prevents planes from taking off - but weather forecast says it should be clear for tomorrow! Also any attackers will be within G4M1 range from Makassar by daybreak and possibly even in range of Japanese carrier strike aircraft depending on which direction they will retire.

[Erkki]

March 19th


East Indies:

Next attack at Bandoeng planned in 4 days, when we should have built the AV back + received another 62 of reinforcements in the form of an SNLF infantry unit.

Samarinda invaded! One of the transports takes some 75mm CD gun hits but probably wont sink. We have landed 60 AV worth of infantry that has very low fatigue and disruption. Enemy raw AV is reported 28 so the place should fall tomorrow. Transports will return to pick up more troops from Tandjoengselor.

Bandjermasin falls! 2 reconnaissance air units are flown in, the Marine infantry pursues the fleeing enemy towards Balikpapan.

No enemy surface units sighted by search aircraft, just around 20 submarines mostly near Makassar... The Allies either pulled them back or they werent there in the first place. Sweeps fly to Soerebaja(no Allied fighters in the air) but the airfield strikes themselves fail to fly. Bah. Tomorrow we'll fly lots of recon to bases including Ambon, Christmas Island and Kendari in the Celebes in order to find where the Allied ships and air units are lurking...

Australia: SE14Y from submarine I-29 sights a 4-ship TF with at least a destroyer and a transport ship leaving Perth to Northwest. Japanese submarines move to intercept(not holding my breath...).

New Guinea: Manokwari invaded by a force of 4 ships and a 15-AV SNLF company., the base has no garrison and will be secured tomorrow.

[Fishbreath]

Could I claim a cruiser of some description?

[Erkki]

Could I claim a cruiser of some description?

Sure. You'll probably want one that hasn't seen action yet, right?

Not counting the 3 Katori class training CLs, we'd have:

At Rabaul in Tanaka Squadron: Furutaka class CAs Furutaka and Kako and Aoba class Aoba and Kinugasa - with 6 20cm main guns they aren't quite as powerful as the other 14 CAs(that are, as we just saw, real killers, especially the Tone and Myoko classes). These ships have so far just given cover to the Port Moresby invasion(no resistance) and then sat at Rabaul...

At Singapore, CA Atago. A Tone class CA and one of the 8 best surface combat ships on the face of Earth(for now at least). It is now in reserve, and has so far managed to almost miss action by having mostly been just sitting at port and been in distant cover squadron in Java invasion, shooting a PT boat.

At Rabaul escorting BB Mutsu: Japan's 2nd worst light cruisers, Tenryu class cruisers Tenryu and Tatsuta, they too took part to Port Moresby operation.

At Singapore, Japan's most modern light cruiser CL Yubari now in reserve. Shes the only one in her class, 2nd lightest of Japanese cruisers after Tenryus, and has fairly light main guns but retains the standard Long Lance torpedo armament with other Japanese capital ships. Yubari has so far just taken part to Rabaul invasion and escorted some transports to Java.

[Erkki]

My bad, its of course actually the Maya class (Maya, 1-ship class) and Myoko class (Myoko, Haguro, Nachi and Ashigara) that are the 2 best by most accounts. Tone class ships are still very good and have the best range, tower and deck armor and of Japanese CAs and they are also the fastest, 2 knots ahead of the Mogamis. As long as a task force doesnt have slower ships in it the faster speed is a very good advantage as it allows the ships to better choose the engagement range and to close in and pursue or keep distance, and so should not be disregarded. High speed for a cruiser is especially useful when fighting battleships and PT boats, and in night engagements.

[Fishbreath]

Atago it is, then.

[Erkki]

March 20th

East Indies: Samarinda falls easily to the Japanese. Some Dutch bombers were apparently moved to Balikpapan(adjacent hex) but as the invasion fleet was moved away overnight there were no attacks. Near Makassar, 3 Dutch 139Ws attacked Japanese cruiser TF but Zero-CAP shot them all down.

Home Islands: Preparations for the Timor invasion are begun. Multiple troop transports and escort ships are being moved to Kobe, while the troops being used are railed there. Troops will start boarding ships by March 28th or 29th, D-Day at Koepang, Timor, is planned for March 15th-ish. Naval and air support will be provided by the units already in the East Indies.

SOPAC: A convoy with a construction regiment, an air HQ and an aviation support regiment arrives tomorrow at Buna, New Guinea. They will immediately begin construction of the airbase. Also more engineers in form of a construction regiment arrive at Tassafaronga, Guadalcanal in the Solomons, to help with the airfield and port construction. Tulagi and Lunga are soon level 2 fields, Lunga will be size 2 probably not tomorrow but the day after.

Atago it is, then.

OK then, CA Atago and Captain Ijuin, Matsuji: leadership 66, insp 68, naval 64, aggr 50. Not a particularly impressive captain unlike some other CA, CL and DD captains, but at least both naval and general leadership are fairly high, and his crew is very experienced at 74 day / 66 night, lower night exp than other CAs but day exp is very good.

CA Atago is currently at Singapore. She will probably get attached to one of the Carrier Divisions as an escort ship, and will take part to the Timor operation in a month or so. Until that she probably wont be seeing much action.

Atago is a Tone class ship:



Once the immediate need for the surface units helps a little in 2 or 3 months or to Atago in minimum 1½ months, most of the cruisers will start going through upgrades. Atago has one available already but I'm not doing it yet as it will take at least full 30 days... The upgrade will get her depth charges upgraded to the much improved Type 95 Mod-2 depth charges and the side secondary batteries of 12cm/45 10YT guns will get changed to dual purpose 12,7cm/40 T89 AA guns.

[Erkki]

Now here is a nice little problem we have. I chose to build some of the Japanese CVEs, a CVL and most of the CVs as fast as possible, aborting or halting many projects: about 10 submarines and CV Shinano.

First of the new carriers, CVE Unyo, is to arrive in 14 days accelerated or 28 days normal rate. Shes a Taiyo-class CVE with capacity of 27, 90 ordnance, no armor, crap speed and only few AA guns. She doesnt come with air group of her own.

Second in the line is a modified ocean liner, CV Junyo. 25 knots, 8800nm endurance, capacity of 53, 450 ordnance and 18 torpedoes, ready in 46 days, arrives with fully equipped and trained air compliments.

During 1942 we'll also get CVE Chuyo(another cap 27 Taiyo), CVE Shinyo(cap 33), CVE Kaiyo (cap 24) and CVL Ryuho(cap 31 and 18 torpedoes). However we have no air groups, at all, to use aboard these ships! Junyo's sister Hiyo however will have them.

If you have suggestions let me hear. What I was thinking about doing was to introduce a "buddy carrier" system where a CVE or CVL operates a Zero or dive bomber unit from a larger CV, allowing more planes at the cost of fewer available offensive sorties. We have one extra carrier trained D3A1 unit that is now aboard CVE Hosho. The unit may be expanded to size 27(same size as Taiyo CVEs) so that unit will use one of the 3 Taiyos. So we'd have a CVL and 4 CVEs with no groups. Heres what I was thinking about doing with them:

CVE Hosho(cap 20(or later 18 with more AA guns) ordnance 90 + 6 torpedoes) will keep operating her torpedo bomber unit, 2/3 of planes will use bombs..)
CVE Taiyo(capacity 27 ordnance 90): that D3A unit (Taiyo now has Hosho's Zero unit)
CVE Unyo(27 ord. 90): operates D3A or Zero group of CV Junyo - would allow that 27 extra planes
CVE Chuyo(28 ord. 90): same as above but with CV Hiyo, Junyo's sister
CVE Shinyo(33 ord. 90): Hosho's Zero unit?
CVE Kaiyo(24 ord. 90): CVL Shoho or CVL Zuiho's Zero unit, anyone?
CVL Ryuho(31 ord. 280 + 18 torpedoes): has torpedoes so, how about a torpedo bomber unit from Shoho, Zuiho or Hosho? Probably not Hosho's as that would leave her empty.

Last one of the above units will be ready by December 11th 1942.

Or as a really fancy idea, even operate one or 2 of the CVEs in each of the fleet-CV Divisions, hosting a dedicated fleet-defense Zero unit and/or acting as emergency landing deck. The drawback is that the top speed of a CV Division would fall from 30(speed of Kongo class BBs), 25(speed of Junyo CVs) or 28(speed of Kaga) to as low as 21! However cruise/economy speed would remain at 15 knots. I need to consider if losing some of the mobility is worth the extra deck or 2 and having more planes. The lack of ordnance capacity on the CVEs is a problem if they are to operate dive bombers or drop tank equipped escort Zeros.

[Anvilfolk]

Hm, I think I'd be reluctant to actually decrease the speed of the carrier task forces. It seems like they can be used to pursue damaged enemy TF and engage them from a range when/if they retreat. This might turn a minor victory into a major one.

Perhaps all these CVE's could become a task force of their own, mainly supplied with bombers (taken from the bigger carrier's supplies), and attack out-of-the-way targets just for annoyance - kind of like guerilla tactics, to keep the enemy guessing?

[Erkki]

Hm, I think I'd be reluctant to actually decrease the speed of the carrier task forces. It seems like they can be used to pursue damaged enemy TF and engage them from a range when/if they retreat. This might turn a minor victory into a major one.

Perhaps all these CVE's could become a task force of their own, mainly supplied with bombers (taken from the bigger carrier's supplies), and attack out-of-the-way targets just for annoyance - kind of like guerilla tactics, to keep the enemy guessing?

Thats indeed one possibility, grouping the CVs with the slowest CV/CVLs, which are CVs Junyo and Hiyo at 25 knots and Zuiho-class CVLs Zuiho and Shoho together with CV Kaga at 28 knots.

The problem there is I'm even more reluctant to strip the fleet CVs of their dive bomber units. Torpedo bombers are considerably more effective against big targets such as other CVs, BBs, CAs and CLs but dive bombers hit the smaller vessels better and even the big CVs dont have torpedoes for more than 2 full strength attacks, after which they also use bombs and arent as accurate naval bombers as the dive bombers.

I also like to use the DBs for naval search while the torpedo bombers are used for nothing but attacking to not miss the chance to torpedo something big and to not lose a pilot trained in more skills to enemy CAP or as an ops loss, and to keep their fatigue down.

I have been thinking about putting the fast and slow CVs into different Divisions - the Big Six minus Kaga separated between 2 Divisions with some fast CVL, while Junyos and slow CVEs are in Divisions 3 and 4. That would allow maximum operational versatility, staying power with lots of torpedoes and ordnance when needed and mobility while still allowing the use of CVs as stand-off striking platforms and deterrent together with land-based air under combined protection of carrier and land-based fighters. When keeping CVs together, theres the risk of slow and fast Divisions getting separated out of each other's immediate cover and some CVs leaving out of strike range to enemy but with good planning the slower ones could still provide LRCAP over the pursuing fleet that launches the offensive strikes.

[Erkki]

Carrier Division 1 under the command of Rear Admiral Yamon Tamaguchi arrives at Singapore tomorrow. Division 2 is already there. CVEs Hosho and Taiyo will arrive in 7 days. After the ships are refit, I'll probably form the divisions as follows for the Timor operation:


Division 1, Rear Admiral Yamon Tamaguchi, top speed 30 knots (limiting ships are BBs Kongo and Kirishima, then Akagi at 31 knots)

CV Akagi
CV Shokaku
CV Zuikaku
CV Soryu
BB Kirishima
BB Hiei
1 x CA
+13 destroyers


Division 2, Vice Admiral Nagumo Chuichi, top speed 21 knots(limiting ships CVE Taiyo at 21 knots, next is BB Ise at 25 knots)

CV Kaga
CV Hiryu
CVL Ryujo
CVL Zuiho
CVE Hosho
CVE Taiyo
BB Kongo
BB Ise
1 x CA
+11 destroyers

+ Dedicated ASW TF leading the force: 4 destroyers, speed 33-35 knots

+ Dedicated surface action cruiser squadron with reaction allowed following ASW destroyers before the carriers: CA Maya, CA Atago and 4+ destroyers, speed 31-33 knots

If the Divisions are going to look like that, we'd have the fast CVs in one Division and slow ones in the other. As Taiyo is in we might as well put in some slow battleship such as Ise to act as a bomb sponge as she wont be slowing the Division this time...

[Zrk2]

More battleships are never a bad idea.

Overkill is underrated.