Banzais Don't Make Victories - Anachro (A) vs John 3rd (J) BTS 5.7

[adarbrauner]

In other news...

Remember that nasty little trick where we filled the narrow waterways leading to Palembang with a bunch of mines which caused havoc among like a bazillion Japanese tankers? Today, we get our first confirmed sinking from that event with the TK Meizan Maru listed as going down on June 12th. Perhaps some JFBs can correct me, but I think she's one of the better Japanese tankers.


Middle capacity/speed tanker;

the best are around 9000 tons for 18-19 knots/hour;

[Anachro]

@Adarbrauner/MindMessing Ah, yes you're right. I know of the existence of the 18/19 speed tankers but these ones are still one of their bigger ones. I havent had a chance yet to operate subs in the DEI area and on the path to Singers, but will in the medium-term future, so hopefully I can get some of these.

@MindMessing Nice, I 'll recon over a few more turns and see. As for the strikes, thunderstorms every turn. New thunderstorm training programs commence.

August 14 1942

I know this isn't the correct use of the phrase, but it feels appropriate to say my carriers seem to have "gotten out of the frying pan" but I left my destroyers "sitting in an oven." Wow. John had a decently strong (certainly stronger than my carrier TF) unit of carriers appear south of Ndeni only a turn from my own carriers being in range there. Lighting speed...and I can only be thankful that I pulled the carriers farther back as according to estimates this looks like anywhere between 5-7 carriers (what's your estimate based on the numbers above?). CV's Yorktown, Hornet, and Ranger sit undetected just north of Koumac and the Belep Islands.

Needless to say, my poor destroyers left behind get a rain of bombs but despite all that come off relatively unscathed. The Australian S-class Destroyer Tamworth is obliterated by torpedoes at Luganville, but Arunta, Javelin, and Jervis undergo two attack waves and 58 Vals and only Arunta comes away with a glancing blow from a 250lb SAP bomb (11 Sys/6 Flood/3 Engine). Meanwhile, my CAP from Luganville which I had set to its normal CAP of 50% is able to break into the bombers and takes down a decent number. John loses 43 planes for the day to my 15, which is nice. The worrying thing is he knows I have ships in a green dot hex next to Luganville, so I will move southwest.

In other news, one of my DDs damages at Canton is sunk by a Japanese sub, but the other two are undetected and making a slow, but decent speed towards Allied islands. Allied subs sink two more xAKs today, but they are minor Kasu-D Cargo class ships.

[DOCUP]

I don't know about your pilots. I would think they should be pretty good. Some bad die rolls maybe.

[jwolf]

IMHO it's the fault of the very bad weather in the hex that was attacked, as noted by GetAssista.

[Anachro]

August 15 1942

I lose two destroyers today to John's carriers and a shame because I seem to have made a mistake and sent them to the wrong hex, instead of Efate where I had placed my CAP. Oh well, I'll most likely lose 2 more. Look at those severe storms and the masterly efforts of the Japanese pilots. Oh, if we but had an ounce of their skill! We'll see on the next turn. John has reinforced Ndeni with what appears to be more ~7k troops which could be 200+ AV and no doubt he is also building forts. I am repositioning my subs to go north towards the carriers path of retreat where they will get no DL for now. They are getting DL around Ndeni. I suspect John will stick around for one more day with the carriers.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Erromango at 120,156

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid detected at 38 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 79
A6M5 Zero x 7
B5N2 Kate x 20
D3A1 Val x 21

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A1 Val: 3 damaged

Allied Ships
DD Arunta
DD Javelin, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
DD Hamillton , Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Jervis

Perhaps I'll keep poking around with my carriers and other targets up and down the SoPac, Baker and Canton Islands. Let's see if we can get John to keep moving his carriers around and burning fuel.

My ASW task forces are finally doing much needed work at Tahiti.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Aug 15, 42
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack near Tahiti at 172,178

Japanese Ships
SS I-6, hits 5

Allied Ships
KV Timmins

SS I-6 is located by KV Timmins
KV Timmins attacking submerged sub ....
KV Timmins fails to find sub, continues to search...
KV Timmins fails to find sub, continues to search...
KV Timmins fails to find sub, continues to search...
KV Timmins fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub

John bombards Luganville for middling results. It's time to send some minelayers there with an ACM.

Night Naval bombardment of Luganville at 120,150

Japanese Ships
BC Kirishima
BC Hiei
CB Fuji
CB Aino

Allied ground losses:
42 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

[Anachro]

August 16-19 1942

Sorry for the lack of postings but I've been a bit jaded with the game as John appears to be in the South pacific in force. First, a CV force with ~250 fighters and ~200 bombers appears near Ndeni and more seem to be on their way as a turn ago one of my plane-carrying French subs spotted another CV force north of Tabiteuea and heading south. John's other CVs moved south after and managed to sink two of my DDs. Miraculously (so far), two of my Australian DDs remain afloat if somewhat badly damaged and out of fuel. If they survive the next few turns, they'll be repaired and head to Sydney/Brisbane for repairs.




I get some recompense in that I saw last turn that John had something sitting in port at Ndeni (remember we had damaged a destroyer there) and, furthermore, he seemed to have removed the majority of his CAP in favor of stations a large number of bombers there. My 4Es launch a raid on Ndeni from Noumea and manage to destroy a small number of planes on the ground while also finishing off what appears to be the DD Minazuki. Would have liked to have sunk more and some of his CLs (Kitakami was at Ndeni during my carrier raid!). Intelligence estimates this was the DD Akizuki, but I think I'll believe the combat report. Those intelligence boys are always getting my hopes up.

Morning Air attack on Ndeni , at 120,143

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 5,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 2

Allied aircraft
LB-30 Liberator x 16
B-24D Liberator x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed on ground
G3M2 Kai Nell: 1 destroyed on ground
D3A2 Val: 3 destroyed on ground

Allied aircraft losses
LB-30 Liberator: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
DD Minazuki, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk

Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 10
Runway hits 19
Port hits 3

John's carriers seem to be heading back towards either Tabiteuea or Kwajalein and because I had earlier plans to station subs around here for my intended landings at Canton and Baker, they are in position to perhaps get a strike. Unfortunately, a number have some DL on them. SS Cuttlefish does apparently sink the xAK Kenan Maru though. We'll see if we can get something bigger. I suspect John's northern carriers I saw earlier are now at Tabiteuea or some other port or dot hex nearby. John also has 1-3 surface task forces around the area including CAs, CBs, BCs, and DDs. Fun stuff!



Future Plans
I have a feeling John is going to be here for awhile and it slows down my operations which have been building for the South Pacific. I need to draw his carriers away and while there are many porous areas in the Indian theater, it will take some time to get forces there. I do have troops at or near 100% preppred for Wake Island, Tulagi, Lunda, Ndeni, as well as various smaller islands around these where I can build air bases. My plan is to draw John north with what appears to be a serious attempt on Wake (well, it is as I plan to take it) and while he is up there, swoop in and land troops at Guadalcanal and Ndeni. I'll do some landings up in the Aleutians too, putting Battleships, etc. up there to do continuous bombardments to make it appear I'm softening up the area.



Meanwhile, in India, Ceylon is woefully undefended and I am prepping a few US Army regiments, a US Army division, and a British division for landings. Moreover, John seems to have left the road to Calcutta open through Howrah, so I am positions ~1500 AV through non-base hexes to sneak up on Howrah without DL. We will take it and quickly move down. Meanwhile small AFV units are moving south to cut the rail from Cocanada/Viza to Calcutta. John seems to be moving troops back from Bezwada, so we will mount on effort on Sambalpur to see if we can draw some of his troops to there. The offensive should begin in the next month. Fighters are being massed at Jamshedpur/Asanol/Ranchi, bombers at Patna and Benares. All have level 5 airfields or higher, except Jamshedpur which is quickly catching up. I have ~50 4Es in India at the moment with more on the way.

[Anachro]

Two of my destroyers damaged at Canton Island by mines are one hex from Penryhn Island for emergency repairs before making for Pearl Harbor. That's nice.

[Anachro]

August 20 1942

Nothing. John's carriers move towards Funafuti and I get one or two potential sub attacks on a CB task force that are chased off by DDs before attacking. I reposition my subs for the next turn. In other news, John launched a huge sweep raid on Asanol where I currently don't have any CAP, for his troubles he doesn't down anything and some bombers are destroyed by flak. Rather than take this, I begin my sweeps and bombing runs tomorrow. It seems John is moving back form Cocanada/Viz to reinforce around Calcutta. My troops are moving accordingly with reinforcements coming from the west.

ASW attack near Nanumea at 133,138

Japanese Ships
BC Ishitaka
CA Miyako
DD Makigumo
DD Takanami
DD Makinami

Allied Ships
SS Albacore

Morning Air attack on Asansol , at 53,34

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 35 NM, estimated altitude 25,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 9 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 20

No Japanese losses

Aircraft Attacking:
20 x Ki-44-IIa Tojo sweeping at 20000 feet



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on Asansol , at 53,34

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 39 NM, estimated altitude 21,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 92

No Japanese losses

Aircraft Attacking:
37 x Ki-44-IIa Tojo sweeping at 20000 feet
40 x Ki-44-IIa Tojo sweeping at 20000 feet
6 x Ki-44-IIa Tojo sweeping at 20000 feet

[Anachro]

Ops Report

Another Japanese tanker from my Palembang mining raid goes down. This time the San Pedro Maru. Another modern American fast BB arrives today.

TK San Pedro Maru is reported to have been sunk near Palembang on Jun 12, 1942
xAK Amagisan Maru is reported to have been sunk near Vizagapatnam on Jul 11, 1942
xAK Kumagawa Maru is reported to have been sunk near Adak Island on Jun 14, 1942
BB South Dakota arrives at Balboa

[Anachro]

August 21 1942

The previous turn, John had launched a series of ineffectual sweeps over Asanol and anticipating that he was about to start a bombing campaign, I set up a large amount of CAP defenses while also preparing massed sweeps to clear Calcutta for my 4Es. I figured he had seen my air-base building and massing fighters and wanted to start taking a chunk out of it. While the A2A is mostly even, I manage to seriously eat into his bombers, both in the air over Asanol and more devastatingly hitting his airfields in Calcutta. My bombers perform well and the result is a 2:1 result in my favor; it would have been better had I not made a mistake in setting 18 Dauntlesses to naval strike at a range of 8 (Japanese cruisers/DDs were trying a raid, should have kept them in my CAP escort range of 5).

Overall, I'm happy with the result, but recon worryingly shows John pulling troops back from Bezwada and reinforcing Howrah. He seems to anticipate me well and I don't think I'll be able to cut off his rails in time to prevent this. Nonetheless, I'll start some sort of offense somewhere soon. Air sweeps and bombing will continue in an effort to degrade his air power completely for this offensive.

The list below is not a complete list of the air actions, but representative.



An example of me getting some of his bombers over Asanol:

Afternoon Air attack on Asansol , at 53,34

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 36 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 30
G3M2 Nell x 15
G4M1 Betty x 30

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIa Trop x 19
Hurricane IIb Trop x 20
Hurricane IIc Trop x 31
P-39D Airacobra x 3
P-40E Warhawk x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed
G3M2 Nell: 4 destroyed, 2 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 3 destroyed, 5 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIc Trop: 1 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 2 damaged

Airbase hits 2
Runway hits 6

[Anachro]

South Pacific

John's carriers and surface units (mostly disappeared) and my subs didn't get any of them. Three or four subs manage to attack a Japanese oiler fleet (so either John is bringing oil to Tabiteuea or he plans to raid far south using them for replenishment), but they only manage to snag a TB. Hey, we are degrading his ASW a bit at least, right?

[Anachro]

August 22 1942 - Air Battles in India Cont.

I lost 33 planes today to ~57 or so for John in India. We attack Howrah, which has had 65 planes or there abouts for a few weeks and in a series of sweeps the number of planes is reduced from showing 65 to only 14 planes today. My 4Es will take a break tomorrow after one more raid on Calcutta behind a series of massed sweeps. A British division, a US 2 US regiments, a US cavalry regiment, etc. are planning for Ceylon and the smaller islands to the west and southwest of it. They will be joined by the British para brigades that arrive in Madras, the first of which arrives in ~40 days.

Oil is flowing to Australia through Capetown and New Zealand.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

August 13 1942

I'm getting very, very frustrated with the poor performance of my naval bombers. Can someone take a look at me and tell me if these guys are badly trained? They have high 50-60s in XP, ~70+ for naval bombing, and decent defense and yet they still can't hit the backside of a barnyard. This does not mesh at all with the performance of my bombers in previous PBEMs and games. What the heck is up? We find a decent number of DDs and CLs at Ndeni with some CAP, but that doesn't account for the paltry performance. I'd guess only the DD sinks. I'm disgusted. Really, the only difference is my adoption of the new 13k altitude setting for my naval strike package. I will go back to 10k where I've had much greater success in the past.

My three CVs had to self-replenish and thus cannot move far. I have ~100 LBA fighters at Luganville. WHAT THE HECKK!? we move to CAP cover and head south.



But hey, we sank another cargo ship? Small victories.

Submarine attack near Jaluit at 134,123

Japanese Ships
xAK Hoshi Maru, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS S-30

xAK Hoshi Maru is sighted by SS S-30
SS S-30 launches 2 torpedoes at xAK Hoshi Maru

Your aircraft were attacking in Thunderstorms - very bad joss.
Another thought, what was their actual altitude? If it was between 16 -18K (or above the other DB range which I can't recall), they will level bomb, and getting three hits from that altitude is actually pretty good!

EDIT: Just saw the subsequent posts which showed the attack was from 13K - a good DB altitude, and that others figured the Thunderstorms were part of the issue. Your pilots have good NavB skills but probably a lot less overall Experience than the IJN pilots that attacked your ships in Thunderstorm conditions.

Two other thoughts:
- DL is factored into the attack equations, and the IJN had a good DL on your DDs from previous attacks whereas you were attacking without good DL on his TFs at Ndeni
- CLs and DDs are fast and maneuverable. You need a good die roll to get hits on them.

[AcePylut]

I thought you had to be at 11k to divebomb, not 10k.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: AcePylut

I thought you had to be at 11k to divebomb, not 10k.

I use 10K quite often - it works for DB attacks.
When I don't want to DB because of heavy AA (usually against land targets) I use 9K to level bomb and still be above the worst of the flak.

I forget the other higher range for DB attacks- something like 18K to 22K. The higher altitude might help when the enemy has the Akizuki class DDs with the 8 X 3.9" long barreled guns. Flying that high would mean only the ineffective 5" IJN guns and modern guns like the 3.9 " can fire during the approach phase and once the dive starts, only the attacked vessel can effectively fire.

[Anachro]

@BBfanboy you are correct in your analysis

@AcePylut you can certainly divebomb from 10k, 10k being the lower limit. I've had great success in the past using 10k as my common altitude setting but was persuaded by perusing threads on the subject in these forums to switch to 13k for my entire strike package (fighters, DBs, TBs) for best coordination while also getting a slight altitude advantage for the escorts versus 10k.

[BBfanboy]

Never thought about the extra altitude helping the escorts - good idea, thanks!

[Anachro]

August 23-25 1942

Not much to report. Troops and supplied/fuel are all converging on New Zealand for future ops. Wake Island should happen in a 1 or 1.5 months, but first I'll see if I can distract his carriers down south.

Operations in the Indian Ocean will be belated and are in early stages of allocating ships/troops to ports at Capetown and Karachi. More 4Es are heading to the SoPac and India. Air battles in India continue though low key right now and Rajnashi will be hit next turn with sweeps and 2Es and 4Es. John seems to have `35 bombers there with no fighters. He might have some LRCAp, we'll see.

In Australia, John seems to be ladning troops at Port Hedland and the base next to it. I might need to send carriers up there if he makes another attempt for Carnarvon. I'd hit him with DBs at his current base, but he seems to have fighters operating in a base with a level 1 air base. I thought I remember reading somewhere that you need a level 2 airbased for offensive ops, but I guess that doesn't include CAP as I have seen several instances in this game where John has significant fighter coverage over a level 1 airbase.

[Lecivius]

Lvl 1 can do CAP [;)]

[Anachro]

August 26-29 1942

John lands at Port Hedland and takes it. Fortunately for me, I've been spending the last month or more drawing the garrison down using 5-6 SST's, so most of the garrison was successfully extracted to Geraldton. I'd guess John's next target is Carnarvon where I have difficulties with supply. If need be, I'll bring some carriers up and, for now, because John is sending bombers to Carnarvon, I'll put some CAP there.

In India, John's forces don't move at all and he seems to be pulling back and planning for building a defensive line to protect Calcutta. However, his western flank is weak, and his far eastern flank is undefended. ~110 AV is heading to Darjeeling to take it and perhaps draw some of his forces away. Meanwhile, I have ~3k AV around Asanol and while Howrah might or might not be heavily defended, Cuttack offers opportunity to split John's east and west. He has one division north of it and some tank or brigade size units in Cuttack itself. I think I will either push this way or towards Howrah. The other option is to bypass Calcutta completely and move heavily into the east towards Rangpur and Darjeeling and then move south towards Chittagong.

John is sending unescorted bombers against my cavalry and tank units cutting off the rail between Viza and Cuttack. John also seems to be chasing my AFV unit (humbers only no tanks) with a tank regiment of his own. I think I'll try to LRCAP these next turn. Meanwhile, last turn I sent bombers with escort against John's forces at Asanol where John had LRCAP, but I also had decent CAP. John's fighters take a 2:1 loss for their troubles, though a few of my bombers of taken down.

KB has not been seen for a few days and was last seen southwest of Tabiteuea.