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[Erkki]

Am I still on station at Makassar?

Yes, however that will change in in 2 in-game days as Timor invasion D-day is getting close.

[Erkki]

April 7th


East Indies:

Timor invasion fleet and CarDiv 5 are sighted by the enemy naval air search. Aerial reconnaissance reports the enemy to have moved bombers to Kendari. Other CVs advance unsighted by the enemy.

Tomorrow:

5 DMS minesweeper destroyers will dash to Kendari ahead of a bombardment squadron with 4 light cruisers and 10 destroyers. They will hit the airfield in hopes of getting some bombers and damaging the runway to prevent the enemy from flying.

DD Yugumo (Zrk2): CL Sendai TF and a powerful heavy squadron of 3 CAs and their escorts will sail ahead to cover the bombardment squadron's retirement. The famous "blue-stripers", Tainan Ku S-1's Zeros, will provide LRCAP protection from Makassar. G4M1s are ordered to increase aerial naval search sorties.

Simultaneously, 3 more surface action units arrive to Makassar from Singapore. A transport convoy is unloading fuel to support this operation at the moment and will finish that in 2 days.


Submarines:

We lose another xAK to a USN submarine... Thats 7 days and 7 ships.

West Coast lurker I-26 ends IJN sub fleet's almost 2 month long period of no kills by boldly attacking a force of 5 APD assault destroyers near Los Angeles, hitting APD Gregory, and escaping Gregory's 4 sisters. In the evening, I-26 makes another attack run on the crippled and amazingly still floating Gregory, sinking it, and again escaping unscathed.

SigInt:  Jap spies report 246 ships at Los Angeles' port(20 more than week ago), 6 of them are DDs and/or APD or other small warships, the rest apparently just xAKs and the like.


EDIT: oops, Jerick if of course DD Makigumo, still at Lunga, Guadalcanal.

DD Yugumo is Zrk2. 

[Erkki]

BTW I have recently got good intel + E14Y search from Pearl, LA and SF, LA twice within a week and PH twice in 2 weeks. None of these bases have enemy BBs reported. Where did they go? I'm pretty sure that none of them sunk during the PH attacks but 2 or 3 were pretty heavily damaged. Is there any reason for the Allies to move them to East Coast? Both damaged and intact BBs, that?

I frankly really dont know where they are. Even if those 4 CVs lately reported at PH were BBs and not CVs, that still makes 4+4 + British ones missing.

[BishopX]

My immidiate guess is India, since your opponent seems to be building up there. That doesn't seem to make strategic sense though, so maybe their hiding in southern Australia?

[Erkki]

My immidiate guess is India, since your opponent seems to be building up there. That doesn't seem to make strategic sense though, so maybe their hiding in southern Australia?

Its possible and there arent many places left for them outside west coast, pearl, australia and india... But I'm 100% sure that 3½ months is not enough to have them all repaired, and what would they do there any way? There isnt one shipyard in Australia that is large enough for any BB, and India has just 1. They're fuel hogs etc. there IMHO isnt anything for the Allied BBs to do at the moment other than escorting important convoys or carriers, or sitting at LA waiting for the need.

Apparently my opponent thinks the opposite... However, I'm not afraid of them(yet) and would actually love to see them try some bold operation where we could take another shot at them far, far away from Pearl's shipyards.

I believe had I-153 and I-160 not sunk BB Royal Sovereign near Java we might have seen the Allies put more more resistance in the East Indies, probably with more BBs. Using too much force there in hindsight might have been a minor mistake as it looks like it scared the Allies away from a battle we would have easily won.

[Sheb]

Well, how many BBs did you damage. If those PH BBs are the damaged ones, the others ones may be somewhere in Australia, bidding their time. What odes your intel says of the Australian ports?

P.S. And your submarine sure was lucky. Those APD carry 8 ASW mortar and 2 depth charge rack each.

[Erkki]

Well, how many BBs did you damage. If those PH BBs are the damaged ones, the others ones may be somewhere in Australia, bidding their time. What odes your intel says of the Australian ports?

Sydney has lots of shipping, but very little to no traffic along the coast and I have no idea what kinds of ships there actually are. Brisbane is either empty or still has that 4-ship minesweeper/ASW squadron. No idea about Melbourne... Perth has some motor launches and thats it, lol.

However this time I'm relying on my intel and naval search and believe that the CVs are at Pearl. Before they arrived there, there were just 2 light cruisers and loads of destroyers reported. By the time the CVs arrived, a TF with at least 2 cruisers set sail from Pearl to West Coast, and only 4 CVs + DDs were reported. SF and LA have had capital ships for long, long time so I doubt those ships that were reported "CVs" arrived form that direction nor did those "CLs", and the reported heading of that CL+DD task force was actually correct. I-16 might see some bigger combat ships in 3-4 days arriving to LA...

BTW that sunk APD was carrying troops. Wonder why, the Allies should have more than enough cargo ships and liners to carry their men, supplies and fuel around...

EDIT: that particular APD was identified as a converted Wickes DD, Wickes APD class, and yeah those do carry a lot of ASW weapons! However the only APD that managed to find and attack the I-26 only used 1 pattern of 2 charges per attack. I wonder if they had no ammo... But I havent had submarines engaged recently, so perhaps when they were converted DD-APD they forgot to load the mortars? 

[Sheb]

Well, APD are troop transport after all. I wonder what they're doing in LA, I'd expect them to be messing with your rearguard by landing Marine raiders here and there.

[Erkki]

Well, APD are troop transport after all. I wonder what they're doing in LA, I'd expect them to be messing with your rearguard by landing Marine raiders here and there.

Thats what I thought... Its a long way from LA to any Japanese-held place so they surely cant be invading anything, lol, but why use warships as troop transports?!? Liners are much more fuel efficient and many of them have longer range and have faster cruising speeds than some small, old converted destroyers...

[Sheb]

Mmmmh, Wikipedia list a speed of 25 knot. I do not know how fast do liners go, but I'd still think the APD would be faster. Maybe he just forgot about those troops.

[Erkki]

Mmmmh, Wikipedia list a speed of 25 knot. I do not know how fast do liners go, but I'd still think the APD would be faster. Maybe he just forgot about those troops.

Flank speed yep but cruising speed is optimized for just 15 for most warships. I know the USN has multiple military liners with top speed above 20 and cruising speed of 16 or more, West Point class(2 or 3 ships I guess)has cruising speed of 20 knots and can sail from LA to Sydney and back without refueling.

[Sheb]

Well, then I don't know. Was he training a ground unit in amphibious assault?

[Erkki]

Well, then I don't know. Was he training a ground unit in amphibious assault?

Maybe he had them converting at LA or SF and when they became ready he thought if they were to be redeployed to Pearl or South Pacific they might as well take some troops with them... 5 of them can carry 700 men(and no supplies or heavy hardware) so they might have carried a small engineer or infantry company, or something.

[Sheb]

Anyway, will your sub come back for more?

[Erkki]

Anyway, will your sub come back for more?

I'm expecting the Americans to put some ASW assets into work now... I-26 will initially relocate 40nm to the SW.

Next 5 days should be interesting with the action in in East Indies and the CV raid near Perth.