War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

Ostfriese · 03-08-23, 12:17 AM

1943 is in the books, and 1944 should bring you masses of material. What's the overall strategic situation and outlook?

Molon Labe · 03-08-23, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

1943 is in the books, and 1944 should bring you masses of material. What's the overall strategic situation and outlook?

Taking the Philippines from him is going to be a knife at his throat in terms of supplies and oil. It's already been hazardous to get tankers through for a long time and he's lost a lot of tankers trying.

The KB is becoming strategically irrelevant, and it's appearance in the Andaman Sea really highlights that. Port Blair is done for and whether we press on to Bangkok isn't all that important if the Philippines fall. The Philippines are strategically vital, but the KB isn't there...because my opponent doesn't think they're strong enough to make a difference.

After the Philippines, I'll gradually roll through Java and Sumatra but there won't be any rush because no traffic will be getting through from there to Japan. So I'll make a second attempt on the Marianas and push on to the Chinese Pacific coast to bring the home islands under heavy bomber threat.

Molon Labe · 03-08-23, 11:53 PM

1 January 1944
Kamikaze and torpedo bomber attacks hit British CVBG; HMS Battler sunk, Hermes and Royal Sovereign left burning hulks.

Philippines and surrounding seas
A B-24 raid on Peleliu destroyed a pair of Judies on the ground

26 Georges and 4 Tonies swept our landing site at Cotabo, opposed by 14 P-40s and 30 Hellcats. We splashed 10 Georges while losing 4 P-40s and 4 Hellcats.

DEI
Air raids:
Koepang (ground forces): 0 casualties
Kendari (ground forces and airbase): 9 base hits, 5 casualties

Andaman Sea and Burma
The first raid was an attempted strike by the British CVBG against the KB, but this was not a good matchup... 9 Swordfish escorted by 2 Seafires and 2 Wildcats up against a CAP of 49 fighters. 8 of the Swordfish were splashed along with 1 Wildcat and 1 enemy George. The one Swordfish that got through launched a torpedo at IJN Chuyo (CVE) and missed.

Up next was a flight of dive bombers headed out of Tavoy; 14 Vengeances escorted by 10 Hurricnes and 20 Spitfires, up against a CAP of 42 enemy fighters. All 14 bombers were shot down along with 1 Hurricane, 10 Zeroes, 2 Rufes, and an Irving. One bomber made it to the enemy ships before it was shot down, attacking IJN Kaiyo (CVE) and missing.

Then it was the enemy's turn to attack our ships. They put 76 Judies, 6 Jills, and 15 Kates with 37 Zero escorts up against a hodgepodge of sea-based and land-based fighters, totalling 65. Nearly outnumbering their fighters 2-to-1 was good enough to make the losses pitched, but not enough to keep the bombers off our ships. One P-47 was lost on our side, compared to 9 Zeroes, 17 Judies, 1 Jill, and 3 Kates. The Kates in particular were deadly... the only bomb hit was one on the cruiser Sussex, but Battler was hit by 3 torpedoes, causing onboard ammo to cook off and sinking her before the enemy planes had even left. Hermes also took a hit, while the battleship Royal Sovereign took 5.

In the afternoon, what was left of our land-based bombers squadrons tried again, getting 4 more Swordfish, 2 Vengeances, 2 Spitfires, and 3 Hurricanes shot down. They took 2 Georges, a Zero, and a Rufe with them.

The enemy's afternoon followup raids first targeting the retreating transports with 9 unescorted Kates. We failed to intercept them with any of our numerous fighters somehow. Fortunately they were flying at long range, or maybe just from a CVE that didn't carry torpedoes, because they just delivered bombs; 1 hit on an LST and 1 hit on an LSI(L). I also saw a message in the reports I've never seen before: "Banzai! - Takagi L. in a B5N2 Kate is willing to die for the Emperor" The enemy ended up losing 2 of these planes to flak and two more to fighters on the way out. I'm assuming one of the flak kills was this war's first attempted kamikaze attack.

12 more Kates attacked the CVBG, and they too evaded most of the fighters... just 2 shot down before they reached the ships. 2 more were brought down by flak. And another new message: "Chiyoshima A. gives his life for the Emperor by ramming CVL Hermes" Hermes also took 6 bomb hits, and like Battler, suffered an ammunition explosion.

Hermes and Royal Sovereign finished the day burning with little hope of survival. They're too big to get up the river delta to Rangoon, and the nearest available port isn't going to be able to put out those fires.

Other raids:
Pisanouke (ground forces): 29 casualties

China
Another ill-advised enemy shock attack at Sinyang. Casualties 4932 to 737 favoring us, forts holding at Level 2.

Reinforcements
VP-202 arrives at Eastern USA
No.20 Sqn RNZAF arrives at Auckland
3rd Eng Amph Bde arrives at San Francisco

Molon Labe · 03-09-23, 12:24 AM

2 January 1944
USS Skipjack lost in attack on enemy convoy; HMS Hermes succumbs to yesterday's attack to become first ship sunk by a kamikaze

Philippines and surrounding seas
USS Skipjack successfully engaged a convoy west of Luzon, striking a 4875-ton cargo ship and likely sinking it. Afterwards it was prosecuted by a pair of PBs and a kaibokan. The kaibokan had deep reaching depth charges and of course she was the one that found the Skipjack, and proceeded to hit our boat with at least 3 solid pattern hits along with several damaging near misses. Skipjack was forced to surface and was summarily gunned down.

Skipjack recorded a kill on a mine tender (830 tons) in addition to the suspected kill in the attack she was lost in.

B-24s hit the main enemy base on Mindanao, Cagayan, causing 91 casualties.

Our advancing troops caught up with the retreating forces and dealt them another 248 casualties as they ran towards Cagayan.

Andaman Sea and Burma
Hermes went down overnight.

The enemy opened the day's festivities with 23 Georges from Bangkok sweeping Rangoon. We mustered 36 fighters to oppose them; losses were 10 Georges and 1 P-51. Not bad at all. And proof the altitude isn't everything... the George was the highest flying fighter in the fight.

That was followed up by 11 Betties escorted by 15 Zeroes attacking the transport convoy. They lost 3 Zeroes and 10 of the Betties. The surviving Betty launched a torpedo at a cargo ship but missed.

Next was a single Judy with 8 Zeroes escorting; the Judy was splashed. Then three Zeroes with 1 Jill; we got all 4 of them. And yet another raid of 1 Kate and 4 Zeroes, the Kate was shot down with 1 of the Zeroes. And finally, a less-piecemeal raid of 7 Frances torpedo bombers escorted by 4 Zeroes and 7 Georges. We got 2 of the Frances; the rest attacked minesweepers near Rangoon and missed.

3 B-25Gs then attacked the KB... that went exactly how you'd expect.

Other raids:
Pisanouke (ground forces): 43 casualties

China
Air Raids:
Sinyang (ground forces): 10 casualties

DEI
Air raids:
Koepang (ground forces): 9 casualties
Kendari (ground forces and airbase): 5 base hits, 4 casualties

Molon Labe · 03-09-23, 09:27 AM

3 January 1944
HMS Royal Sovereign sinks, KB fights off land based air attacks

Strait of Malacca
I'm pulling a rather risky move with my subs. The KB has to come back to the Pacific at some time, right? And I've avoided shallow water so far, like the Strait and the area around Singapore. So, if I tried to use subs to blockade the Strait, he might not see it coming.

I have 3 British subs already there or at the doorstep and a bunch of US subs relocating there from the Borneo coast. One of those subs, HMS Tally Ho, was spotted near Singapore and depth charged for moderate damage. At the northwest end of the Strait, HMS Clyde was spotted by a replenishment group and depth charged for minor damage. So... not bad, but 2 sightings may be enough of a pattern that he'll start to sanitize the area.

DEI
I switched New Mexico and Arizona's target to Kendari for this run. 167 casualties and an Irving destroyed on the ground.

Air raids:
Koepang (ground forces): 0 casualties
Kendari (airbase and ground forces): 1 hit, 0 casualties

We captured Bima (west of Timor) with an airborne assault, no resistance.

Andaman Sea and Burma
A frustrating day for us as many attack aircraft raided the KB but many fighter squadrons assigned to escort duty took the day off. First was 10 Beaufort torpedo bombers and 11 Avengers flying out of Rangoon with just 12 Hurricanes on escort. The KB's CAP was 61 fighters, and we got slaughtered. 5 Hurricanes, 10 Avengers, and 4 Beauforts shot down. Amazingly we did get 6 Beauforts and 1 Avenger to the task force, attacking the CVE Shinyo and CV Zuikaku... but the enemy dodged all the torpedoes.

That was followed up by 16 Beaufighters with 14 P-51s flying out of Pegu. The enemy CAP was down to 48 thanks to the earlier raid, but still enough to deal with us. We shot down only 1 Zero, while 5 P-51s and 11 Beaufighters bit it. Another Beaufighter was lost to flak. 3 Beaufighters managed to make attack runs on the CVE Chuyo and BB Kongo but missed.

Next up was an entire squadron of 16 Vengeance dive bombers with no escort. They suffered 11 losses; the surviving aircraft withdrew. A second squadron with 14 aircraft came in next, also with no escort. They also lost 11 aircraft, but managed to attack with three. One of those was shot down by flak. They attacked CVE Kaiyo and CV Hiyo... and missed. These two attacks would likely have been devastating if they had fighter escorts!

The enemy raids were next, oddly targeting ASW patrols near Rangoon instead of the limping Royal Sovereign. 34 Zeroes escorted 3 Kates and 6 Judies while we put up a CAP of 12 Hurricanes, 7 P-40s, and 6 P-47s. We splashed 12 Zeroes with no losses, but the bombers got through and sank a minesweeper. Pappy Boyington (who I tried to retire from the Army and move to the Marines to command VMF-214) finally got his 5th kill in this fight.

We had some piecemeal raids after that, costing us 2 Hurricanes, 4 Vengeances, and 3 Beauforts with nothing to show for it. The KB made a followup raid on Rangoon with 18 Kates and 20 Zeroes; we got 10 Zeroes and 3 Kates without loss, but lost another minesweeper and our airbase took a pair of bomb hits.

Other air raids:
Pisanuloke (ground forces) 72 casualties

China
Air raids:
Sinyang (ground forces): 27 casualties

Philippines
Air raids:
Cagayan (ground forces): 188 casualties

In the Strait of Luzon, Beaufighters attacked a tanker convoy, but did so with just 2 aircraft. "Due to range or weather" the full flight of 12 failed to find the target, so they apparently split up and these 2 got lucky. We managed to get 2 bomb hits on a large tanker, setting it on fire. It did not appear to be oil/fuel cargo burning, so this is an outbound convoy.

Reinforcements
BB Iowa arrives at Eastern USA
SS Guitarro arrives at Balboa
265th Coastal Artillery Regiment arrives at Pearl Harbor
Seventh USAAF Engineer Aviation Battalion arrives at San Francisco
5th USMC Tank Battalion arrives at San Diego
31st Indian Mountain Gun Regiment arrives at Karachi

Molon Labe · 03-10-23, 12:38 PM

4 January 1944
CVE Kaiyo damaged as enemy CVBG's air cover degraded

DEI
An enemy submarine fired 6 torpedoes at USS Barnes, a CVE in an amphibious task force headed back to Darwin from Mindanao. All 6 torpedoes missed, and 3 destroyers then took turns depth charging the sub.. one of them to the point it ran out of depth charges. The sub took heavy damage but survived.

Another enemy sub found one of my minesweepers tranferring bases near Ambon and hit it with a torpedo for a kill.

Air raids:
Kendari (ground forces and airbase): 3 hits, 0 casualties
Koepang (ground forces): 15 casualties

Burma and Andaman Sea
The destroyer HMS Rotheram got caught between Rangoon and an enemy bombardment task force in the river deltas. She eventually slipped out (a storm was hampering visibility), but not before taking several shell hits, leaving her badly damaged. She managed to hit the Mogami twice in the exchanges. The bombardment task force eventually made it to Rangoon where it hit an LST in port, caused 94 casualties, and caused light airbase damage.

We raided Mergui (coastal base south of Tavoy) as it appeared enemy ships might have been docking there to reinforce/evacuate enemy troops. We didn't find any transports there, but the enemy CVBG (I'm not sure it's actually the KB anymore due to how many new CVEs are in it) was nearby trying to get extra air cover from Bangkok. So we ended up with 30 B-24s against 46 Zeroes and 2 Rufes. Zeroes suck against heavy bombers... We lost 2 B-24s but the enemy lost 6 Zeroes and both Rufes. The bombers hit nothing of value on the ground. But it did weaken the CAP significantly for raids to come.

6 Beauforts attacked the task force unescorted, and the enemy mustered only 3 Zeroes to intercept, and none of them made it down in time. They attacked the Kongo, losing one to flak before they fired their torpedoes, and the Kongo was then able to evade the 5 torps fired at it.

Finally the enemy's good fortune ran out, a little. 21 Vengeances attacked escorted by 18 Spitfires. The enemy intercepted with just 25 Zeroes. The Spitfires seemed nearly invincible, shooting down 6 Zeroes while only losing 1, but they failed to keep the Zeroes off the dive bombers, resulting in a loss of 12. 9 of the bombers made attack attempts, split between theh CVEs Kaiyo, Chuyo, and Shinyo. Kaiyo was hit twice and Shinyo once (and that one bomb was just a little 250-pounder). Both ships were set on fire, Kaiyo rather badly. One additional bomber was shot down by flak.

At the end of the day, our ground forces had captured Mergui, the only enemy forces there being a fragment of a paratrooper unit.

Other raids:
Pisanoulke (ground forces): 47 casualties

Japan Home Waters
USS Redfin torpedoed and sank a PB near Iwo Jima.
USS Blackfish and USS Dragonet both attacked a cargo ship convoy near Torishima, but both missed. And both took light damage from a kaibokan afterwards.

China
Air raids:
Sinyang (ground forces) 28 casualties

Philippines
Air raids:
Cagayan (ground forces) 229 casualties

Reinforcements
DE Reynolds arrives at Seattle
VMF-322 arrives at Eastern USA
VP-61 arrives at Oak Harbor

Molon Labe · 03-10-23, 02:27 PM

5 January 1944
Enemy air strike targeting amphibious task force at Cotabo wiped out

Japanese Home Waters
USS Blackfish torpedoed and sank a Lima class cargo ship (6475 tons) near Torishima.

Strait of Malacca and Singapore area
USS Salmon, patrolling slightly east of Singapore, attempted to attack a large cargo ship convoy but missed. We got lucky and got away from the destroyers afterwards--this is a shallow water area and we have nowhere to hide from the depth charges.

We now have 3 British subs in the Strait itself plus at least a half dozen US boats waiting on the east side. Yesterday's semi-successful airstrike off Mergui probably means the enemy CVBG will be coming through here in another day or two.

Burma and Thailand
I ordered a sweep of Bangkok; 15 P-47s vs 13 Irvings, 34 Georges, and 16 Tonies. Shot down 8 Georges, 2 Irvings, 1 Tony, with a loss of just 2 P-47s.

other raids:
Pisanuloke (ground forces) 64 casualties

Philippines
Our B-24 raids on Cagayan caused 375 enemy casualties.

The enemy sent a raid of 28 Betties escorted by 19 Zeroes to Cotabo, where an amphibious task force is delivering engineers needed to build up Cagayan into a suitable heavy bomber base. We had 57 Hellcats and 8 P-40N5s on patrol. Presumably they're from Manila/Clark. The Betties were completely wiped out along with 17 of the Zeroes, with only 1 P-40 shot down. Of the Betties, 4 did make it to our ships. One of those was shot down by flak before it could attack, the remaining 3 made attacks on the CVE Santee and CL Adelaide (missing), then got splashed by fighters before they could get away.

At Cagayan, we attacked the weak enemy forces there with a tank battalion and an artillery battalion. It wasn't enough to capture the base, but we did cause another 102 casualties without taking losses of our own. And we have an infantry division about to arrive.

Our landing site at Dadjangas, Mindanao, now has a small functioning airstrip. Enough for a local CAP.

Scout/ASW patrols claimed a lot of hits today.
Subs:8
minesweepers: 3

China
Air raids:
Sinyang (ground forces) 31 casualties.

Land combat:
Near Wuchang, allied deliberate attack, casualties 368 (J) to 121 (A)

Allied reinforcements have arrived at Sinyang, let's see if I can break the enemy line.

DEI
Air Raids:
Koepang (ground forces): 0 casualties
Kendari (ground forces and airbase): 1 base hit, 19 casualties

Reinforcements and repairs
USS Yorktown II is now under repair & refit in Alameda. It's going to take 50 days... better than the 75 days it was going to take at Pearl but still a long time.
DD Remey arrives at Eastern USA
LSV Catskill arrives at Eastern USA
364th(Sep) Infantry Regiment arrives at Seattle
9th RAN Base Force arrives at Sydney
36th Div Engineer Battalion arrives at Madras

03-08-23, 11:53 PM	#3
Molon Labe Silent Hunter Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Along the Watchtower Posts: 3,810 Downloads: 27 Uploads: 5	1 January 1944 Kamikaze and torpedo bomber attacks hit British CVBG; HMS Battler sunk, Hermes and Royal Sovereign left burning hulks. Philippines and surrounding seas A B-24 raid on Peleliu destroyed a pair of Judies on the ground 26 Georges and 4 Tonies swept our landing site at Cotabo, opposed by 14 P-40s and 30 Hellcats. We splashed 10 Georges while losing 4 P-40s and 4 Hellcats. DEI Air raids: Koepang (ground forces): 0 casualties Kendari (ground forces and airbase): 9 base hits, 5 casualties Andaman Sea and Burma The first raid was an attempted strike by the British CVBG against the KB, but this was not a good matchup... 9 Swordfish escorted by 2 Seafires and 2 Wildcats up against a CAP of 49 fighters. 8 of the Swordfish were splashed along with 1 Wildcat and 1 enemy George. The one Swordfish that got through launched a torpedo at IJN Chuyo (CVE) and missed. Up next was a flight of dive bombers headed out of Tavoy; 14 Vengeances escorted by 10 Hurricnes and 20 Spitfires, up against a CAP of 42 enemy fighters. All 14 bombers were shot down along with 1 Hurricane, 10 Zeroes, 2 Rufes, and an Irving. One bomber made it to the enemy ships before it was shot down, attacking IJN Kaiyo (CVE) and missing. Then it was the enemy's turn to attack our ships. They put 76 Judies, 6 Jills, and 15 Kates with 37 Zero escorts up against a hodgepodge of sea-based and land-based fighters, totalling 65. Nearly outnumbering their fighters 2-to-1 was good enough to make the losses pitched, but not enough to keep the bombers off our ships. One P-47 was lost on our side, compared to 9 Zeroes, 17 Judies, 1 Jill, and 3 Kates. The Kates in particular were deadly... the only bomb hit was one on the cruiser Sussex, but Battler was hit by 3 torpedoes, causing onboard ammo to cook off and sinking her before the enemy planes had even left. Hermes also took a hit, while the battleship Royal Sovereign took 5. In the afternoon, what was left of our land-based bombers squadrons tried again, getting 4 more Swordfish, 2 Vengeances, 2 Spitfires, and 3 Hurricanes shot down. They took 2 Georges, a Zero, and a Rufe with them. The enemy's afternoon followup raids first targeting the retreating transports with 9 unescorted Kates. We failed to intercept them with any of our numerous fighters somehow. Fortunately they were flying at long range, or maybe just from a CVE that didn't carry torpedoes, because they just delivered bombs; 1 hit on an LST and 1 hit on an LSI(L). I also saw a message in the reports I've never seen before: "Banzai! - Takagi L. in a B5N2 Kate is willing to die for the Emperor" The enemy ended up losing 2 of these planes to flak and two more to fighters on the way out. I'm assuming one of the flak kills was this war's first attempted kamikaze attack. 12 more Kates attacked the CVBG, and they too evaded most of the fighters... just 2 shot down before they reached the ships. 2 more were brought down by flak. And another new message: "Chiyoshima A. gives his life for the Emperor by ramming CVL Hermes" Hermes also took 6 bomb hits, and like Battler, suffered an ammunition explosion. Hermes and Royal Sovereign finished the day burning with little hope of survival. They're too big to get up the river delta to Rangoon, and the nearest available port isn't going to be able to put out those fires. Other raids: Pisanouke (ground forces): 29 casualties China Another ill-advised enemy shock attack at Sinyang. Casualties 4932 to 737 favoring us, forts holding at Level 2. Reinforcements VP-202 arrives at Eastern USA No.20 Sqn RNZAF arrives at Auckland 3rd Eng Amph Bde arrives at San Francisco __________________

03-09-23, 12:24 AM	#4
Molon Labe Silent Hunter Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Along the Watchtower Posts: 3,810 Downloads: 27 Uploads: 5	2 January 1944 USS Skipjack lost in attack on enemy convoy; HMS Hermes succumbs to yesterday's attack to become first ship sunk by a kamikaze Philippines and surrounding seas USS Skipjack successfully engaged a convoy west of Luzon, striking a 4875-ton cargo ship and likely sinking it. Afterwards it was prosecuted by a pair of PBs and a kaibokan. The kaibokan had deep reaching depth charges and of course she was the one that found the Skipjack, and proceeded to hit our boat with at least 3 solid pattern hits along with several damaging near misses. Skipjack was forced to surface and was summarily gunned down. Skipjack recorded a kill on a mine tender (830 tons) in addition to the suspected kill in the attack she was lost in. B-24s hit the main enemy base on Mindanao, Cagayan, causing 91 casualties. Our advancing troops caught up with the retreating forces and dealt them another 248 casualties as they ran towards Cagayan. Andaman Sea and Burma Hermes went down overnight. The enemy opened the day's festivities with 23 Georges from Bangkok sweeping Rangoon. We mustered 36 fighters to oppose them; losses were 10 Georges and 1 P-51. Not bad at all. And proof the altitude isn't everything... the George was the highest flying fighter in the fight. That was followed up by 11 Betties escorted by 15 Zeroes attacking the transport convoy. They lost 3 Zeroes and 10 of the Betties. The surviving Betty launched a torpedo at a cargo ship but missed. Next was a single Judy with 8 Zeroes escorting; the Judy was splashed. Then three Zeroes with 1 Jill; we got all 4 of them. And yet another raid of 1 Kate and 4 Zeroes, the Kate was shot down with 1 of the Zeroes. And finally, a less-piecemeal raid of 7 Frances torpedo bombers escorted by 4 Zeroes and 7 Georges. We got 2 of the Frances; the rest attacked minesweepers near Rangoon and missed. 3 B-25Gs then attacked the KB... that went exactly how you'd expect. Other raids: Pisanouke (ground forces): 43 casualties China Air Raids: Sinyang (ground forces): 10 casualties DEI Air raids: Koepang (ground forces): 9 casualties Kendari (ground forces and airbase): 5 base hits, 4 casualties __________________

03-09-23, 09:27 AM	#5
Molon Labe Silent Hunter Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Along the Watchtower Posts: 3,810 Downloads: 27 Uploads: 5	3 January 1944 HMS Royal Sovereign sinks, KB fights off land based air attacks Strait of Malacca I'm pulling a rather risky move with my subs. The KB has to come back to the Pacific at some time, right? And I've avoided shallow water so far, like the Strait and the area around Singapore. So, if I tried to use subs to blockade the Strait, he might not see it coming. I have 3 British subs already there or at the doorstep and a bunch of US subs relocating there from the Borneo coast. One of those subs, HMS Tally Ho, was spotted near Singapore and depth charged for moderate damage. At the northwest end of the Strait, HMS Clyde was spotted by a replenishment group and depth charged for minor damage. So... not bad, but 2 sightings may be enough of a pattern that he'll start to sanitize the area. DEI I switched New Mexico and Arizona's target to Kendari for this run. 167 casualties and an Irving destroyed on the ground. Air raids: Koepang (ground forces): 0 casualties Kendari (airbase and ground forces): 1 hit, 0 casualties We captured Bima (west of Timor) with an airborne assault, no resistance. Andaman Sea and Burma A frustrating day for us as many attack aircraft raided the KB but many fighter squadrons assigned to escort duty took the day off. First was 10 Beaufort torpedo bombers and 11 Avengers flying out of Rangoon with just 12 Hurricanes on escort. The KB's CAP was 61 fighters, and we got slaughtered. 5 Hurricanes, 10 Avengers, and 4 Beauforts shot down. Amazingly we did get 6 Beauforts and 1 Avenger to the task force, attacking the CVE Shinyo and CV Zuikaku... but the enemy dodged all the torpedoes. That was followed up by 16 Beaufighters with 14 P-51s flying out of Pegu. The enemy CAP was down to 48 thanks to the earlier raid, but still enough to deal with us. We shot down only 1 Zero, while 5 P-51s and 11 Beaufighters bit it. Another Beaufighter was lost to flak. 3 Beaufighters managed to make attack runs on the CVE Chuyo and BB Kongo but missed. Next up was an entire squadron of 16 Vengeance dive bombers with no escort. They suffered 11 losses; the surviving aircraft withdrew. A second squadron with 14 aircraft came in next, also with no escort. They also lost 11 aircraft, but managed to attack with three. One of those was shot down by flak. They attacked CVE Kaiyo and CV Hiyo... and missed. These two attacks would likely have been devastating if they had fighter escorts! The enemy raids were next, oddly targeting ASW patrols near Rangoon instead of the limping Royal Sovereign. 34 Zeroes escorted 3 Kates and 6 Judies while we put up a CAP of 12 Hurricanes, 7 P-40s, and 6 P-47s. We splashed 12 Zeroes with no losses, but the bombers got through and sank a minesweeper. Pappy Boyington (who I tried to retire from the Army and move to the Marines to command VMF-214) finally got his 5th kill in this fight. We had some piecemeal raids after that, costing us 2 Hurricanes, 4 Vengeances, and 3 Beauforts with nothing to show for it. The KB made a followup raid on Rangoon with 18 Kates and 20 Zeroes; we got 10 Zeroes and 3 Kates without loss, but lost another minesweeper and our airbase took a pair of bomb hits. Other air raids: Pisanuloke (ground forces) 72 casualties China Air raids: Sinyang (ground forces): 27 casualties Philippines Air raids: Cagayan (ground forces): 188 casualties In the Strait of Luzon, Beaufighters attacked a tanker convoy, but did so with just 2 aircraft. "Due to range or weather" the full flight of 12 failed to find the target, so they apparently split up and these 2 got lucky. We managed to get 2 bomb hits on a large tanker, setting it on fire. It did not appear to be oil/fuel cargo burning, so this is an outbound convoy. Reinforcements BB Iowa arrives at Eastern USA SS Guitarro arrives at Balboa 265th Coastal Artillery Regiment arrives at Pearl Harbor Seventh USAAF Engineer Aviation Battalion arrives at San Francisco 5th USMC Tank Battalion arrives at San Diego 31st Indian Mountain Gun Regiment arrives at Karachi __________________

03-10-23, 12:38 PM	#6
Molon Labe Silent Hunter Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Along the Watchtower Posts: 3,810 Downloads: 27 Uploads: 5	4 January 1944 CVE Kaiyo damaged as enemy CVBG's air cover degraded DEI An enemy submarine fired 6 torpedoes at USS Barnes, a CVE in an amphibious task force headed back to Darwin from Mindanao. All 6 torpedoes missed, and 3 destroyers then took turns depth charging the sub.. one of them to the point it ran out of depth charges. The sub took heavy damage but survived. Another enemy sub found one of my minesweepers tranferring bases near Ambon and hit it with a torpedo for a kill. Air raids: Kendari (ground forces and airbase): 3 hits, 0 casualties Koepang (ground forces): 15 casualties Burma and Andaman Sea The destroyer HMS Rotheram got caught between Rangoon and an enemy bombardment task force in the river deltas. She eventually slipped out (a storm was hampering visibility), but not before taking several shell hits, leaving her badly damaged. She managed to hit the Mogami twice in the exchanges. The bombardment task force eventually made it to Rangoon where it hit an LST in port, caused 94 casualties, and caused light airbase damage. We raided Mergui (coastal base south of Tavoy) as it appeared enemy ships might have been docking there to reinforce/evacuate enemy troops. We didn't find any transports there, but the enemy CVBG (I'm not sure it's actually the KB anymore due to how many new CVEs are in it) was nearby trying to get extra air cover from Bangkok. So we ended up with 30 B-24s against 46 Zeroes and 2 Rufes. Zeroes suck against heavy bombers... We lost 2 B-24s but the enemy lost 6 Zeroes and both Rufes. The bombers hit nothing of value on the ground. But it did weaken the CAP significantly for raids to come. 6 Beauforts attacked the task force unescorted, and the enemy mustered only 3 Zeroes to intercept, and none of them made it down in time. They attacked the Kongo, losing one to flak before they fired their torpedoes, and the Kongo was then able to evade the 5 torps fired at it. Finally the enemy's good fortune ran out, a little. 21 Vengeances attacked escorted by 18 Spitfires. The enemy intercepted with just 25 Zeroes. The Spitfires seemed nearly invincible, shooting down 6 Zeroes while only losing 1, but they failed to keep the Zeroes off the dive bombers, resulting in a loss of 12. 9 of the bombers made attack attempts, split between theh CVEs Kaiyo, Chuyo, and Shinyo. Kaiyo was hit twice and Shinyo once (and that one bomb was just a little 250-pounder). Both ships were set on fire, Kaiyo rather badly. One additional bomber was shot down by flak. At the end of the day, our ground forces had captured Mergui, the only enemy forces there being a fragment of a paratrooper unit. Other raids: Pisanoulke (ground forces): 47 casualties Japan Home Waters USS Redfin torpedoed and sank a PB near Iwo Jima. USS Blackfish and USS Dragonet both attacked a cargo ship convoy near Torishima, but both missed. And both took light damage from a kaibokan afterwards. China Air raids: Sinyang (ground forces) 28 casualties Philippines Air raids: Cagayan (ground forces) 229 casualties Reinforcements DE Reynolds arrives at Seattle VMF-322 arrives at Eastern USA VP-61 arrives at Oak Harbor __________________

03-10-23, 02:27 PM	#7
Molon Labe Silent Hunter Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Along the Watchtower Posts: 3,810 Downloads: 27 Uploads: 5	5 January 1944 Enemy air strike targeting amphibious task force at Cotabo wiped out Japanese Home Waters USS Blackfish torpedoed and sank a Lima class cargo ship (6475 tons) near Torishima. Strait of Malacca and Singapore area USS Salmon, patrolling slightly east of Singapore, attempted to attack a large cargo ship convoy but missed. We got lucky and got away from the destroyers afterwards--this is a shallow water area and we have nowhere to hide from the depth charges. We now have 3 British subs in the Strait itself plus at least a half dozen US boats waiting on the east side. Yesterday's semi-successful airstrike off Mergui probably means the enemy CVBG will be coming through here in another day or two. Burma and Thailand I ordered a sweep of Bangkok; 15 P-47s vs 13 Irvings, 34 Georges, and 16 Tonies. Shot down 8 Georges, 2 Irvings, 1 Tony, with a loss of just 2 P-47s. other raids: Pisanuloke (ground forces) 64 casualties Philippines Our B-24 raids on Cagayan caused 375 enemy casualties. The enemy sent a raid of 28 Betties escorted by 19 Zeroes to Cotabo, where an amphibious task force is delivering engineers needed to build up Cagayan into a suitable heavy bomber base. We had 57 Hellcats and 8 P-40N5s on patrol. Presumably they're from Manila/Clark. The Betties were completely wiped out along with 17 of the Zeroes, with only 1 P-40 shot down. Of the Betties, 4 did make it to our ships. One of those was shot down by flak before it could attack, the remaining 3 made attacks on the CVE Santee and CL Adelaide (missing), then got splashed by fighters before they could get away. At Cagayan, we attacked the weak enemy forces there with a tank battalion and an artillery battalion. It wasn't enough to capture the base, but we did cause another 102 casualties without taking losses of our own. And we have an infantry division about to arrive. Our landing site at Dadjangas, Mindanao, now has a small functioning airstrip. Enough for a local CAP. Scout/ASW patrols claimed a lot of hits today. Subs:8 minesweepers: 3 China Air raids: Sinyang (ground forces) 31 casualties. Land combat: Near Wuchang, allied deliberate attack, casualties 368 (J) to 121 (A) Allied reinforcements have arrived at Sinyang, let's see if I can break the enemy line. DEI Air Raids: Koepang (ground forces): 0 casualties Kendari (ground forces and airbase): 1 base hit, 19 casualties Reinforcements and repairs USS Yorktown II is now under repair & refit in Alameda. It's going to take 50 days... better than the 75 days it was going to take at Pearl but still a long time. DD Remey arrives at Eastern USA LSV Catskill arrives at Eastern USA 364th(Sep) Infantry Regiment arrives at Seattle 9th RAN Base Force arrives at Sydney 36th Div Engineer Battalion arrives at Madras __________________

03-08-23, 12:17 AM	#1
Ostfriese Ace of the Deep Join Date: May 2004 Location: Northern Germany Posts: 1,178 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	1943 is in the books, and 1944 should bring you masses of material. What's the overall strategic situation and outlook?