War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

[Molon Labe]

You ever play realtime strategy games where the first thing your opponent does is build defensive towers near your base and resource areas?

I think that's what's going on with Johnston. For two consecutive days, SigInt has reported troop movements to Johnston--first the 144th Inf Regiment, then a construction unit. The 144th? That's usually one of the Guam assaulters. And that's in the direction the KB is moving out of the area through, so the landing would have air cover. If they have torpedo bombers operating out of there this early, it would be a problem. Seems chancy though, I can carpet bomb the hell out of it with B-17s from Pearl, even if they put fighters there, they won't be up to the challenge of stopping the Flying Fortress. And the air HQs that equip planes torpedoes are very valuable. It's entirely possible he has his units "prepping" for Johnston to send false intel to me so that they can show up somewhere else by surprise.

[HunterICX]

Great write up


Looks like you had to endure quite some punches and slaps in the face in the wake of his opening turns but still manage to lash out which hopefully makes him sweat a little.



Keep it up commander.

[Threadfin]

Originally Posted by Molon Labe

For two consecutive days, SigInt has reported troop movements to Johnston--first the 144th Inf Regiment, then a construction unit. The 144th?

That's very bold, if it isn't deception. If that construction battalion builds an airfield there Pearl is in peril. How can the Japanese supply it? Seems easy to cut that move off, but I haven't played WitP so not sure how that works. In WitE such a lunge would be punished, unsustainable.

I'm curious if you had any opportunity to redeploy forces prior to hostilities? For example did you have the option to disperse the B-17 fleet in the Philippines before bombs rained down?

Looking forward to more.

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Threadfin

That's very bold, if it isn't deception. If that construction battalion builds an airfield there Pearl is in peril. How can the Japanese supply it? Seems easy to cut that move off, but I haven't played WitP so not sure how that works. In WitE such a lunge would be punished, unsustainable.

I'm curious if you had any opportunity to redeploy forces prior to hostilities? For example did you have the option to disperse the B-17 fleet in the Philippines before bombs rained down?

Looking forward to more.

Great question! The way "December 7th Surprise" mode is set up, the Japanese have several task forces that get a huge movement boost on the first day, effectively allowing them to show up just about anywhere. This lets the Japanese player experiment with different openings. As for the Allies though, the AI throttles CAP and airstrikes on 12/7 way down. We're otherwise free to issue normal orders to our forces, so we could in theory move squadrons around.

But there are two other considerations. First, many units are "restricted", meaning they aren't allowed to-rebase outside of certain commands. The Philippine Islands B-17s are partially restricted, meaning I'm allowed to "buy" them with Political Points and then rebase them at will. This system allows commanders some flexibility to move units to ahistorical areas but limits how much you can do it. The other consideration is my own play style. In the spirit of the December 7 surprise, I voluntarily chose not to issue orders to Allied units on the first turn, with the exception of China (they were already at war), the Lexington and Enterprise (it would suck if the KB blew them away in the first week-they need to get far away from Pearl) and ordering rear-area squadrons to start training pilots.

I'm fairly sure Johnston is a feint. The only way it makes any sense is if he bases torpedo bombers there, that takes an AirHQ. Japan starts with too few AirHQs to cover the space they want, losing one here just means he has to pick some other critical area where the Betties are only carrying bombs and can't do their jobs properly.

[Threadfin]

If that is indeed a feint using deceptive sigint I'm impressed. That's a neat thing that adds gobs to a campaign like this, as you sift through it all and try to divine which is legit and which is intended to deceive.

I have not played WitP as I said, but I'd be looking to minimize losses during the retreat. I assume you have no real shot at holding anything north of Java, and even Java must be too much with your measly forces. But that's the beauty of this sort of alternate history. Maybe you will hold Java, and kick of the counterattack from there.

Good luck commander. Give 'em hell!

[Molon Labe]

He might be doing it again. Check this out.



That's a whole lot less crazy than Johnston. Committing a regiment plus to that is questionable when he's trying to take Singapore and Manila and push quickly into Sumatra and Java, and is apparently going hard into the Bismark Sea area with more forces than was done historically. EDIT: In addition to the 16th Regiment, the inclusion of elements of the 4th Regiment imply he's ordered the bulk of the 2nd Division to plan for Midway.

As for holding Java, I don't think it's a realistic goal. The balance of forces is too extreme, I'd have to wipe out entire divisions in their boats while getting my own troop convoys across a sub-infested ocean unmolested. When I sink transports, I'm not saving Java or Sumatra, I'm saving some little island that he might otherwise take after he secures the oil-rich areas.

[Threadfin]

I had briefly forgotten this is a head to head, and that a crafty human player could indeed use deception in this way. Yeah, Midway is more realistic, but it's still a huge gamble. Having a human opponent makes it all much more interesting.

How many flattops do you still have afloat, and in ready status? It would seem that is a huge key to your early game, putting these limited assets in the right place to do the most good. No "AF is low on fresh water" type stuff to sniff out Japanese intentions. Or is there?

[Molon Labe]

I have the Lexington, Saratoga, and Enterprise in theatre now, and all more or less operational. Saratoga's escorts are a little busy for now, so she's not deploying yet. Lexington and Saratoga still have Buffalos on board instead of Wildcats, that will need to change before I send them out. Yorktown should arrive around 30 December. 3 months for Hornet.

Beyond doing what he's going and telling units to plan for places they have no intention of going to, I don't think I can send fake intel to him.

[Molon Labe]

War Record of USS Porpoise

8 December 1942 - deployed to Luzon Strait
12 December 1942 - Sinks xAKL Kumakawa Maru with gunfire (Miyati class - 2050 tons)

6 January 1942 - Patrolling Japanese home waters. Sinks xAK Nasusan Maru (Gozan class - 2375 tons) with Mk14 torpedo

6 March 1942 - Patrolling Luzon Strait. Sinks xAK Ryuyo Maru in night gun/torpedo attack (Ehime class - 3425 tons).

April 1942 - Patrolling near Bangkok in support of Operation Kinky Boots (UK invasion of Thailand)

12 May 1942 - Patrolling off Cam Rahn Bay. Sinks xAK Calcutta Maru (Aden class - 4875 tons) with gunfire.

August 1942 - Patrolling Sulu Sea

December 1942 - Patrol area diverted from Sulu Sea to Banda Sea to interdict invasion or naval forces headed to Babar.

21 December 1942 - Sights Kido Butai accompanying heavy surface task force, heading west towards Koepang after bombarding Babar. Engages IJN Shokaku with 4 Mk14 torpedoes, scoring one hit and inflicting serious damage. Engaged by multiple escorting destroyers.

21 December 1942 - On eternal patrol.
Total credited tonnage: 12725

[Ostfriese]

This should put Shokaku out of action for quite some time.

[Molon Labe]

19 December 1942
ASW superstar Stuart back on the job, China receiving reinforcements


East Australian Coast
An ASW task force including the Luganville operation veterans Stuart and Nizam engaged and seriously damaged an enemy sub off Sydney. Maybe not an actual kill, but should at least be a mission kill.


Burma
Contesting the skies over Magwe was just about the only air combat this turn, aside from relatively routine bombing missions. Our bombers rested as we focused on making the skies safer for them in the future. Enemy losses were 4 Oscars, 8 Zeroes, and 4 Sallies; that cost us 3 Hurricanes.

I'm ordering some troops to fall back to Mandalay, we can't hold more than one base on this front---we probably can't even hold one.


China
This could be a first of the war--Wenchow, China, has received reinforcements from the sea. Troop levels shot up from 6500 to 38,000 per recon patrols. I tried to hit the port where they were disembarking but only caused light facility damage.

Banda and Timor Seas
The O24 was hit by a 250kg bomb from either a Val or a Kate and is critically damaged. The Spearfish was also bombed, but probably just by a floatplane as it was hit with a 60kg glorified hand grenade and is able to remain on station. The KB is detecting most of our subs in the area; I'm rotating the spotted ones away and bringing in undetected ones to throw the enemy off.


Reinforcements
317th TCG/41st TCS arrives at Eastern USA (transports - training)
78th Light AA Regiment arrives at Aden (close to full strength - to Colombo)
-------------------------------
20 December 1942
Mandalay standing by to be overrun, aircraft evacuated, O24 scuttled


Banda and Timor Seas
The KXII attempted to engage a heavy bombardment task force as it approached Babar, but was spotted by escorts. It fired its torpedoes at one of the approaching destroyers--this is usually just to force them to zigzag and isn't expected to hit anything. But this time it did, IJN Shikinami is gone. The KXII got away undamaged.

The task force shelled Babar quite effectively, with 4 P-38s and 2 P-39s destroyed on the ground, and the rest of the aircraft mostly damaged. Facility damage is heavy, and we lost quite a bit of our supply stockpiles, which are low to begin with.

The KB pretty much moved into Babar this turn. A transport plane run went ahead as scheduled, as much as AI commanders are able to scrub plans you'd think they'd scrub this, but they didn't--13 planes shot down by the CAP. We also lost a B-25 that was part of our daily bombing of the enemy encampment there, along with a P-40, but the escorting fighters took down 3 Zeroes.

The O24 lost control of its flooding. There's no hope she can make it to Darwin; I ordered the boat scuttled. The O19 and KXII were also hit by bombs. O19's damage is moderate; she's returning to port; KXII's relatively light and is sticking around for now.

Burma and Thailand
Unescorted bombers appeared over Mandalay, we got 5 Helens and 3 Sallies. The ones that got through caused moderate troop casualties. At Magwe our sweeps ended up trading 2 Hurricanes for 2 Oscars.

The beaten-up enemy division has arrived at Mandalay and there will be more to come. The planes will be evacuated for tomorrow--if they can fly, anyway. Some of the troops falling back here will arrive in time if they attack tomorrow, but I doubt that will buy us more than 2 days.

At Uttaradit, we suffered an enemy attack and held them off. Casualties 3012 to 299. But no way I can manage a counterattack with my supply shortage. This seems to be to my benefit, I get to inflict disproportionate casualties playing defense while the large army that could actually defeat me outright is chasing from behind. They can catch me eventually thanks to the bombing slowing us down, so the attacks at the front of the procession seem unnecessary. But I'll take it. 1st Burma Auxiliary AA Regiment deserted due to the supply shortage.


Solomons
I ordered a sweep of Guadalcanal; 3 P-38s got separated from the group and actually arrived early. We lost 2 of those. The rest of the squadron arrived and shot down 2 Tojos and a Zero without further loss.


Refits and Reinforcements
SS Narwhal beginning refit while under repair in shipyard at Brisbane
SS Grenadier begins refit while under repair at Adak Island
SS Gunnel begins refit while under repair at Adak Island
1st Middlesex Battalion arrives at Aden (reforming unit, empty command)

[Molon Labe]

21 December 1942
KB covers heavy surface task forces back to Koepang, Shokaku hit in sacrifice by USS Porpoise, Babar supplies nearly exhausted

Burma, India, Thailand
Yesterday I noticed that there was a task force near Rangoon along the coast, my guess was they were going to bombard Chittagong, where most of my medium bombers are based. So I pulled them back to Calcutta. My read was correct, they bombarded Chittagong with a force including Hiei and Haruna. They still caused significant troop casualties and some facility damage, but we didn't lose any planes. One of their destroyers also took a pretty bad hit from a coastal defense battery.

A second task force landed a small number of troops at Cox's Bazaar, but I don't know if they're done landing. The rebased medium bombers tried to attack these ships but failed completely--at least 33 bombers participated. The troops are the 65th Brigade, or at least part of it. They were last seen in Tavoy, which probably means they were the garrison we kicked out, so they might only be at partial strength.

I suppose they might be looking into continuing into India after they finish off Burma. But I think it's more likely bait for the British fleet to head into the Bay of Bengal and get trapped between the coast and the KB-West.

In Thailand, we suffered another attack at Uttaradit, which went even worse for the enemy than the last one as they are now also suffering supply shortages. Casualties 149 to 2019.

Babar and surrounding seas
The Yamato and Kongo's task force shelled Babar, disabling about 10 planes, damaging runways, and once again hitting our very limited supply stores. On their way out, we had plenty of subs waiting. Greenling made a run on the Yamato's group but was spotted and driven off. Next was the Porpoise, with the result I reported early: it managed 4 torpedo shots at the Shokaku, getting one hit which appeared to cause serious damage. Three escorts broke off to pursue the Porpoise, at least one of which was armed with the deep-reaching depth charges that Japanese ships often don't have, and it was quite accurate. Porpoise took at least 3 solid pattern hits, plus several damaging near misses, and was forced to surface, where all three prosecuting destroyers opened fire on it. Spearfish and Finback were next, both were spotted and prosecuted by the same 3 destroyers that killed Porpoise. Fortunately they were not as accurate this time, Finback was lightly damaged and Spearfish got away clean.

IJN Hiyo is reported to be with the KB now, so that's a transfer from the Indian Ocean fleet.


Solomons and New Britain
We did P-38 sweeps on Rabaul and Guadalcanal. No one came out to play at Rabaul; at Guadalcanal we shot down 5 Zeroes and 1 Tojo without loss. B-17s followed up the Rabaul sweep and inflicted heavy damage on the airbase.


China
We'd been bombing a unit near the river crossing south of Keifeng daily for probably the last 3 months. For the first time since then, he put a CAP up to defend them, which cost us 3 SB-III bombers and a P-40 escorting them. It'll just be sweeps for awhile.

There's also a convoy in Hong Kong now, not yet sure if he's reinforcing or if he's dropping off supplies and/or loading resources to take back to Japan.

In response to the reinforcement of Wenchow, I'm making a move to engage the army sitting outside Chusein. I'm going to defeat them before they have an opportunity to form a larger force with them. I started making this move 2 days ago I think; today we noticed troop movements from Shanghai headed west towards this location. So probably a good thing I ordered this right away.

Refits and Reinforcements
SS Plunger begins refit while under repair at Brisbane
SS S-23 taken out of commission to begin refit at Brisbane
40th Coast AA Regiment arrives at Anchorage (restricted)
2/9th Field Regiment arrives at Sydney (empty unit, no guns in pool)
1st Indian Heavy AA Regiment arrives at Karachi (empty unit, few guns in pool)
111th RAF Base Force arrives at Aden (empty unit, needs to get in line)

[Molon Labe]

10 Decebmer 1941

Allies roll the dice on risky counter attacks and hit the INJ where it hurts!

Celebes Sea

I don't usually start here but I don't want to bury the lede. My most aggressive move was an interdiction of the forces about to land in Manado. A surface task force of 5DD led by the light cruiser Marblehead sprinted south from Jolo, arriving in Manado right before sunrise and catching the phibs by surprise. They were defended only by the 2 Japanese seaplane carriers and a bunch of PBs. My skimmers sank the CS Chitose outright, along with 2PBs. The CS Mizuho was shelled and hit with a torpedo, and 2 more PBs were damaged. The transports, though, weren't hit that hard. An AP was left a burning wreck along with 2 tankers badly damaged. But the enemy turned east to run, and my boys called it a day at that point and got the hell out of there before they could get hit with an air strike.

Those CVLs apparently switched planes--the Vals did fly, but from the direction of the Ryujo, and as hoped they went after some evacuating AKs instead of my SCTF. Manado is still in my hands for now, but I'm not under any delusion that I can hold it, I've just made him pay a little bit for sending his CVL deep.

The B-17 strike I ordered three days ago finally happened: the port in Babeldoab was hit, destroying a minesweeper. Looks like everyone already left!

The destroyers Hatsuharu and Wakaba were spotted moving north up the Makasar Strait. These were the ships left undamaged from the first Java Sea engagement and attacked the second day. I presume he is reorganizing his CVL task forces and these are becoming escorts. That I've spotted these two again but not other two probably means the other two sank.

Malaya and West Java Sea

My gambit here was to throw Force Z into the mix for the first time. The plan was to go East, out of range of the Vietnam-based Betties, and try to get in position to smash the ARG in Kuching overnight. This didn't go so well. The enemy ARG was very efficient and had left before Force Z arrived. My ships have been detected, and most concerning, it appears a massive number of bombers have been rebased from Vietnam to Kota Baru. It's a safe bet that if they don't have an AirHQ there yet, they will within a day or two. I expect they will attempt an air strike tomorrow as they return to Singapore. I'll have Buffalos protecting them, but I have a lot more aircraft down for repairs right now than I have flying. The ground forces in Kuching seized the base there as Force Z turned around.

As expected, my destroyer group didn't arrive yet in the Batavia area, so the submarine turkey shoot continued. 4 Merchies were hit, 3 are already on the bottom. Just outside Singapore, another Japanese sub captain took the sage advice "be more aggressive" to heart and put a heavyweight torpedo into a little motor launch patrolling outside the harbor. Maybe some day we'll recover that wreck from orbit. Another Japanese sub attempted to penetrate Singapore harbor and hit a defensive mine--potentially the first first submarine loss of the war (excluding midgets). I'm not sure if the presence of 2 subs at Singapore means he's trying to break out into the Indian Ocean or if he just got tired of seeing Force Z sitting there under air cover.

Predictably, the follow-up troop/supply convoys off the Indochina coast turned south to avoid the Dutch subs they detected yesterday. I had ordered the subs to move south, anticipating this reaction. The KXVII hit 2 troop-carrying ships in rapid succession, one of which was hit 3 times so we can safety assume it sank. Wouldn't it be nice if THAT was the AirHQ for Kota Baru?

The air war over Malaya took an interesting turn as Zero-escorted Betties started attacking ground forces just south of Georgetown. This is actually a really good sign--these are probably the guys the rebased to Kota Baru, and we know that Force Z was spotted and in range. They probably didn't have their torpedoes yet. The fight in the skies was otherwise remarkable for the lack of casualties. I lost 4 Buffalo to a sweep over Singapore, but our fighters otherwise stalemated today. My medium bombers attempted attacks on phibs in Kota Baru and the Mersing covering force but missed. My torpedo bombers sortied but failed to locate their targets.


Luzon
My third aggressive play of the day was a PT boat raid on the phibs in San Fernando. The PTs were escapees from Hong Kong that slipped past their surface fleet and refueled on the Philippine coast. The fleet they met was massive--32 merchies and 8 small escorts (PC, TB, CM, PB). The results were poor; they torpedoed one AK while getting 2 of the PTs blown away. There were at least two collisions as the gators tried to get underway in the chaos. That was followed up with a 10x B-17 raid on the landing area, which caused significant disruption but not enough to tip the scales on the ground. By day's end their soldiers had pushed mine out, resulting in the first mass-casualty ground action--over 2600 Philippine soldiers were lost.

In the air, the raids against Clark/Manila paused. My read on it is they're giving their mechanics time to catch up--partly because a lot of the Zeroes flew north instead...

China
The American Volunteer Group made their debut defending against a sweep of Zeroes in Changsha, and boy did they blow it. We lost 5 AVG P-40s with nothing to show for it. Compounding this, the same squadron had been ordered to escort medium bombers to raid Ichang, but failed to link up. Fortunately, the Nates waiting for the bombers couldn't bring any down with their pitiful .30-cals. Another AVG squadron swept Canton (where they are bombing Hong Kong from), downing three Nates.

Ground forces began their assault on Hong Kong. Japanese engineers immediately demolished fortifications--Hong Kong isn't going to last long, could fall as early as tomorrow.

Elsewhere
-The Enterprise CVBG encountered an armed merchant cruiser at night near Christmas Island. It was a little hairy for a moment as the surprised warships traded shots, but the Big E disengaged and let Lexington send 9 SBDs after it in the daytime. 4 of them hit, I assume the burning ship won't survive the 3,000 mile trip to Truk.
-IJN Marines finally assaulted Wake. Wake's coastal batteries hit two of the merchant cruisers unloading troops. They made a hasty assault on my Marines, but it was a disorganized mess. We took out half their force--about 700 men--without taking a casualty.
-That minesweeper that left Guam ran into another convoy, just 4 AKs this time. It's a safe bet that this means at least 3 IJN task forces are either in or near the Bismark Sea.
-US fleet boats continue to suck. My subs attempted a total of 6 torpedo attacks around Luzon, Marcus, and near French Frigate Shoal (western Hawaii, targeting KB's replenishment group)
-Japanese marines landed in Brunei and Miri. We don't have enough troops to offer meaningful resistance.

[Molon Labe]

11 December 1941

A good day for British air forces

Malaya and West Java Sea
My ASW group arrived off Batavia but failed to find the subs, which happily attacked more shipping in the area. A group of HDMLs that had moved to Kuantan from Georgetown drew a Nell airstrike--one was blown away, but while the Nells were playing in Kuantan, Force Z returned to Singapore unmolested. IJAAF light bombers pounded Georgetown. I have far more damaged, grounded planes there than airworthy, and the facilities are taking a beating. I'm worried those planes are going to be trapped there when their armies come.

Then came the good part--the torpedo bombers at Kuala Lumpur finally got into the fight with three airstrikes. In one of them, the Japanese merchants were able to maneuver away from the attack. But the other raid of 16 Vildebeests hit four troop-carrying ships, sinking two. Thousands of Japanese soldiers and hundreds of vehicles went down, their worst tactical defeat in the war so far. The third was a bomb-carrying raid against ships too far out to reach with heavy torpedoes; those Swordfish hit a troop-carrying AKL, likely sinking it.

To the north, Japanese soldiers seized Victoria Point.

Celebes Sea and East Java Sea
The Ryujo didn't swap planes with CVL#2 (likely actually the CVE Taiyo) after all. The reason I thought the Vals came from the Ryujo is because the Taiyo followed the Ryujo into the Makassar strait, and the Ryujo, went south towards the Java Sea. This seems absolutely insane to me. I thought it was a mistake for him to push so far, and that yesterday's routing of his Manado force would have made that point to him as well. But instead of protecting his forces, he doubled down on the advance. The Ryujo's Kates bombed some tankers that I had trying to bring fuel to the eastern island bases. They'll probably get more. But as far as I can tell, all those heavy cruisers are still with the Ryujo. So, that SCTF that had hit Manado and had been leaving the area is turning back for another round. My 2nd SCTF, this one at full strength (the first lost a cruiser in the opening days), is now retracing the path of the first. He has landings in progress near Manado and at Ternate--I'm going to lose Ternate--but with any luck I'm going to shatter the fleets that delivered them. Speaking of Ternate, Dutch medium bombers took a crack at the landing ships there, and managed to bomb one of them. Won't make a difference.

The thing I said the other day about not being intimidated into keeping my ships in port... well, I don't have a choice anymore, not with two carriers approaching Surabaya.

Luzon
I had my B-17s shift focus. My southern-based bombers, instead of hitting the empty Babeldoab again, hit a captured airfield in San Fernando that I know for sure he moved aviation support into. But once again, there were no planes there. The bombers did moderate damage to the airfield facilities. As for my Clark-based B-17s, they went all the way to Cam Rahn Bay and bombed the port facilities, hitting a heavy cruiser. Maybe this will force him to pull some fighters away from somewhere else.

My British PT boats tried to get back to San Fernando but were driven off by subchasers. Northeast of Taiwan, the USS Swordfish made a successful night surface attack against an unescorted AO, scoring 2 torpedo hits.

Japan pretty much hit Clark with everything they had today-70 Zeroes, 30 Nells, 60 Betties. I had maybe 40 fighters defending. The raid resulted in 7 Zeroes and a Betty shot down, for 6 of my P-40s. That may look like a good result, but it's not--going close to 1-for-1 with them only means I'm going to be even more outnumbered next time. I credit the superior durability of the P-40 for the even numbers. Fortunately for me, the bombers bombed from very high altitude and caused almost no damage. With my P-40s all defending Clark, 40 Sally and Lily bombers hit my troops hard at Lingayen, the last stop on the enemy's march toward Clark.

Everywhere else
-My armies in Ichang probed the enemy there and found the defenders appear to be weak. I may be able to take Ichang soon.
-I attempted a land attack in Paotow, China, but there the enemy there appears to be stronger (we outnumber them, but the terrain favors Japan and my conscript troops are pretty ****ty). They'll be backing off for now.
-The enemy in Hong Kong took the day mostly off to recuperate from yesterday's attack. They'll probably attack in force tomorrow.
-The KB is still near Pearl. They sank a patrol craft and supply ship bound for Midway, then launched a series of sweeps over Pearl. Disgustingly, they achieved air superiority over the base. Kills were in their favor with at least 15 of mine shot down to 5 of his.
-The extended presence of KB west of Pearl gives credence to the SigInt about an early attack on Midway.
-I lost a transport to a submarine attack in port at Canton Island. Fortunately, the transport had already dropped off nearly all its cargo--USMC AA and coastal defense artillery.
-Japanese marines landed in Rabaul. I had been trying to reinforce it, but that now looks like a mistake. Coastal defense batteries managed to hit some of the phibs, but probably not enough to endanger the operation. At least, it won't be enough if there are more to come, and there probably are.
-Japanese marines landed on Ocean Island. I had already evacuated.
-My marines counter-attacked the desperate IJN marines on Wake, killing about a third of the remaining troops while taking only light casualties.
-Miri and Brunei were captured; more troops landed in Jesselton.
-10 paratroopers (not a typo) attempted to seize a hex west of Hong Kong only to be wiped out. I can only assume he thought that space was empty.

-----
I find it interesting that despite constant sub attacks by my side, mostly against escorted targets, the only ASW hit Japan has scored was by the gunners on that cargo ship the crazy Dutch captain tried to get into a surface duel with.

[Molon Labe]

12 December 1941

Force Z goes down fighting, and Japan captures Hong Kong.

Malaya
After its failed hit-and-run attempt on Kuching on the 10th, Force Z was ready for another attempt on the forces landing in Kuantan. They hit two of the damaged transports that survived the Vildebeest raid yesterday, causing a similar mass-casualty defeat. But the covering force spotted Force Z and engaged:

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo, Shell hits 1
BB Haruna, Shell hits 18, on fire
CA Takao, Shell hits 2, on fire
CA Atago, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Jintsu
DD Asashio, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
DD Oshio
DD Michishio, Shell hits 1
DD Arashio, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Akatsuki, Shell hits 3, heavy fires
DD Hibiki
DD Shikinami
DD Ayanami
DD Asagiri, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 33, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
BC Repulse, Shell hits 1
CL Danae, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
CL Mauritius, Shell hits 2
DD Vampire, Shell hits 1
DD Vendetta
DD Tenedos
DD Electra, Shell hits 11, on fire, heavy damage
DD Express, Shell hits 16, heavy fires, heavy damage

It had been a pretty even fight until that torpedo hit the Prince of Wales. The PoW wasn't nearly as accurate after that and the shelling became mostly one-sided. She sank shortly after this engagement. An enemy submarine intercepted the damaged Electra and Express, but they still had some fight left in them and managed to damage the sub with depth charges and drive it off. Both wounded ships sank before reaching Singapore. The rest actually made it back to Singapore, but the airstrike we've been dreading finally caught up with them. The defending Buffalos were overwhelmed by Zeroes and Oscars. 34 Nell and Betty bombers got through, scoring 5 torpedo hits on Repulse. Even if it doesn't sink, repairs will take months--and Singapore isn't going to be in my hands for months.

My air forces attempted a few raids today, but didn't get great results. I lost 2 Hudsons and a Blenheim bombing Kota Baru in exchange for some light facility damage. My torpedo bombers made another attempt on ships near Kuantan, but got separated into two groups, one with escorting Buffalos, the other without. We lost 6 Vildebeests and didn't manage to get any hits. The Japanese finally made landfall at Kuantan.

A little bit to the south, my ASW force finally caught up with those damn subs and damaged one of them with depth charges. One of the braggart captains is claiming he sunk it--I call BS.

Luzon
USS Tarpon intercepted a troop convoy south of Taiwan and sank a minelayer, while on the other side of the Strait, USS Sculpin put 3 fish into a troop-carrying cargo ship. I tried to get the British PTs back into the fight, but it looks like they're just too well prepared at this point. They were driven off again. Likewise, a PT squadron made a run at an ARG landing on the east side of Luzon, but was cut off by a pair of destroyers. But, with those destroyers occupied, the S-41 snuck by and torpedoed an AKL, and the Porpoise shelled another on the surface.

In the Sulu sea, the Japanese landed troops at Puerto Princesa, which I've been using as a seaplane base.

Japan focused on Lingayen this turn, pounding it with medium bombers before a decisive ground assault. We lost about 4,000 soldiers there, with survivors retreating to Clark. A smaller force took the abandoned base at Iba, and a few Betties made a naval attack in Manila harbor, destroying one of the minesweepers on ASW duty. Aerial losses on both sides were light: 3 P-26s for us and a Betty for them.

Celebes and Java Seas
"CVL #2" wasn't the Taiyo. It was the Soryu!
The second of the surface forces (CA, CL, 4DD) I sent in to interdict enemy ARGs around Manado and Ternate intercepted the Soryu and its pitiful escort of 4 DDs. Or maybe not so pitiful, those damn IJN destroyers got the job done! Soryu was only hit 3 times, and only one of those 3 hits did major damage. After shaking my task force off, Soryu launched airstrikes, their Zeroes laughing at the few Dutch Buffalos trying to play defense, and scoring a torpedo hit on USS Boise; Boise's gunners shot down one Kate.

Apparently bored of Luzon, they sent 27 Nell bombers all the way down here to bomb Cagayan airbase, which was staging P-35s that were trying to protect my surface forces here. The P-35s were not up to the task of defending their own base and the airfield took moderate damage.

I bombed the troops landing in Ternate with B-17s from the north and Dutch 139WH-3s from the south. It wasn't enough--Ternate is now in enemy hands.

Further south, the Ryujo CVBG turned east and sank a seaplane tender near Bima. Just as well, if they went towards Surabaya I'm sure my untrained attack pilots would have embarrassed themselves trying to hit it.

In Tarakan, one of my cargo ships hit a mine. Gotta give him credit, this was a good place for a sub-laid minefield. There's significant traffic here during the general retreat, it doesn't start with a minesweeper, and his sending carriers through the Makassar Strait delayed the arrival of minesweepers from the south.

China
Hong Kong has fallen. This appears to be a major success for my opponent as the historical capture date was 25 December. I hope this means he committed substantially more ground forces; but I suspect it was the concentration of light bombers that made the difference.

There were other scattered raids in China, but the one that probably matters was in the Chengdu area, because I had also noticed ground forces advancing there. This may signal an offensive.

I made a land attack on Ichang but failed to capture it. The city has significant fortifications. I outnumber the defenders by about 3-to-1, but I lack engineers to bring down the forts and my supply situation isn't great. It might be better if I just let this go.

Everywhere else
-The Soryu-less KB humiliated the USAAF over Pearl some more with another series of Sweeps that saw the Zeroes again controlling the skies. It cost them 6 Zeroes; we lost 4 P-40s, a P-36, and 2 USMC F4Fs. While embarrassing, I suspect this is to my benefit. His shot down pilots aren't making it back, and they're probably the best he has. At least some of mine are bailing out and getting another plane.
-Midway isn't a feint. One of my subs headed for Japan came across an invasion fleet. There isn't much I can do about this.
-Japanese destroyers raided the harbor at Suva, Fiji, and sank a minesweeper.
-My Marines on Wake finished off their Japanese counterparts.

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Missing my chance at the Soryu was both frustrating and relieving. If he had burned himself that badly this early in the war I'd feel bad. But my forces in the area are in disarray after those strikes. Everything he has is pulling out to the east while the Ryujo looks like its ready to come through the island chain from the south. So, him going that deep wasn't as crazy as I thought it was (at least if you don't think a 4DD escort for a fleet carrier isn't crazy).