War in the Pacific AAR Thread: ML (Japan) vs. Leo (Allies)

Molon Labe · 10-23-23, 10:36 AM

Well, I gave you Youtube AAR thing a try. It was too time consuming. It seems doing AARs in forum was the way to go all along. So here we go again... my third WITP campaign (and hopefully the first complete one as the Japanese), picking up in February 1942.

Jochen Heiden's discord server: discord.gg/v4A9STzW7R
The thread for campaign #1 is here:
https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=249520
Campaign #2 (incomplete due to opponent ragequit): [

And the video AARs for this campaign through 29 December 1941: [

Which obviously leaves a bit of a gap in January 1942. So, a quick summary of the road so far.

China

My focus has been on moving into the north central area, taking bases such as Sian and Lanchow. I think this is generally called "the Northern Strategy". Most of December 1941 was about cleaning up stray Chinese units that started behind our lines while consolidating our control over the coastline, including capturing Hong Kong. We are currently focused on defeating a 100,000-strong "stack" of troops that we recently pushed out of Nanyang. They are now camped along the forest hex on the road between Nanyang and Sian. We've outflanked them with a mostly-armored advance through the roads to the north and we expect supply shortages will start hitting them pretty hard. In the east, we're closing in on Wenchow after chasing some consolidated enemy armies west across the Xiang river. It isn't clear at this time that we have enough troops to actually take Wenchow.

Philippines

We've had a very successful campaign in Luzon. We principally landed at Vigan and moved mostly directly towards Clark. We were briefly delayed by a pocket of enemy troops and armor that took refuge in the mountains on our east flank that proved difficult to dislodge. We also landed about a division of troops south of Manila which eventually became the primary force taking Manila, which fell 13 January. Our force in the Philippines was reinforced by a division coming from Japan that I originally wanted to sent to Burma, but it became available around the same time as Hong Kong fell, so sending these two divisions I had hoped would end the Luzon campaign quickly. It was probably the right move... Clark was a hard nut to crack (it fell 30 January) and I wouldn't have been able to do it without those two divisions. At this time, all the US still controls is the Bataan penninsula and a few other scattered garrisons throughout the central and southern islands.

Malaya

We had a mostly successful campaign here, including pulling off the Mersing Gambit. Rapidly setting up airbases at Kota Bharu, Kuantan, and Kuching prevented any naval reinforcement of Singapore and Sumatra. We ended up fighting a major battle at Johore Bahru before moving onto Singapore. My opponent apparently neglected to build fortifications at Singapore, resulting in an anticlimactic seizing of Singapore itself in 17 January in the initial shock attack over the channel with minimal losses.

As recon showed Palembang was mostly undefended, after two days rest we immediately began an invasion of Sumatra, with Palembang invaded on 29 January and falling on 1 February. Resistance on land was token; air resistance limited to medium bombers, with a total loss of about 30 bombers with no result. There are at least 3 enemy submarines trying to stalk our forces, including light and escort carriers, but so far with no success. Landings on Java are being staged with transports currently arriving at Singapore as of 2 February and beginning to load.

A very likely hot spot for CV vs CV conflict as we are pushing southward aggressively. We've taken Luganville resulting is some pushback from the Americans, with a small force delivering support units being wiped out by American cruisers on 1 January. And on 27-28 January, there was a raid on Luganville by Force Z and a CVBG including Lexington and Enterprise.

Carrier Status
Carrier Division 2 (Hiryu, Soryu) was originally tasked to support the opening attacks on Manila, then mostly patrolled the Sulu Sea picking off enemy ships trying to evacuate the area. It then made a series of raids in the Dutch East Indies and Darwin. Currently, CARDIV2 has been recombined with the KB and is deployed in the Solomons theatre.

The main KB was deployed to Pearl for the opening attacks, and has stayed in the Solomons area ever since, including making raids on the northeastern Australian coast and Noumea. The raid on Noumea resulting in an S-boat scoring a MK10 hit on the Kaga around 8 January, causing a secondary ammunition explosion. Kaga is currently in Japan for repairs which are expected to take 3-4 months. The remaining 5 carriers of the KB are remaining in the Solomons area to support a planned invasion of New Caledonia and further raids on Australia.

Our light and escort carriers ("the mini KB") have mostly been operating in the eastern DEI, intercepting evacuating Allied shipping. They are currently deployed in support of the Palembang invasion. Shoho joined the fleet around 31 January and is currently still in Japan, resizing some training squadrons.

* * *

On 6 January, USS Saratoga was hit by two torpedoes fired by I-9 west of Hawaii. The damage didn't appear critical but I think we probably put her away for at least 2 months.

Attrition

We're doing well as far as managing losses goes. The Allies haven't really been pushing back very hard so far, so we are mostly picking off weaker areas without paying very much for them. In the above chart, I find it remarkable that the Zero is only #4 in losses--I expect it to be #1 because unlike the Allies, my fighter losses aren't spread out over many airframe types, the Zero carries the majority of the load. The AVG in particular has been beaten down to a shadow of its former self trying to defend Rangoon from Oscar sweeps. MAJ Boyington has already been killed.

For ships, the attrition is nearly all in my favor. Based on Tracker data, here are the numbers:

Japan
CL: 1 (Jintsu)
DD: 1
PB: 6
SS: 1
SSX:5
DMS: 2
AK: 14
AKL: 4

Allies
BB: 2 (Tennessee, Arizona)
CA: 2
CL: 3
DD:12
PG: 3
PC: 3
PT/MTB: 27
ML/HDML: 24
SS: 21
CM/CMc: 3
AM: 17
AMc: 12
AS: 1
AV: 1
AVD: 2
AVP: 7
AGP: 4
AG: 3
AO: 3
YP: 1
AP: 22
AK: 35
AKL: 49

10-23-23, 10:36 AM	#1
Molon Labe Silent Hunter Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Along the Watchtower Posts: 3,810 Downloads: 27 Uploads: 5	War in the Pacific AAR Thread: ML (Japan) vs. Leo (Allies) Well, I gave you Youtube AAR thing a try. It was too time consuming. It seems doing AARs in forum was the way to go all along. So here we go again... my third WITP campaign (and hopefully the first complete one as the Japanese), picking up in February 1942. Jochen Heiden's discord server: discord.gg/v4A9STzW7R The thread for campaign #1 is here: https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=249520 Campaign #2 (incomplete due to opponent ragequit): [ And the video AARs for this campaign through 29 December 1941: [ Which obviously leaves a bit of a gap in January 1942. So, a quick summary of the road so far. China My focus has been on moving into the north central area, taking bases such as Sian and Lanchow. I think this is generally called "the Northern Strategy". Most of December 1941 was about cleaning up stray Chinese units that started behind our lines while consolidating our control over the coastline, including capturing Hong Kong. We are currently focused on defeating a 100,000-strong "stack" of troops that we recently pushed out of Nanyang. They are now camped along the forest hex on the road between Nanyang and Sian. We've outflanked them with a mostly-armored advance through the roads to the north and we expect supply shortages will start hitting them pretty hard. In the east, we're closing in on Wenchow after chasing some consolidated enemy armies west across the Xiang river. It isn't clear at this time that we have enough troops to actually take Wenchow. Philippines We've had a very successful campaign in Luzon. We principally landed at Vigan and moved mostly directly towards Clark. We were briefly delayed by a pocket of enemy troops and armor that took refuge in the mountains on our east flank that proved difficult to dislodge. We also landed about a division of troops south of Manila which eventually became the primary force taking Manila, which fell 13 January. Our force in the Philippines was reinforced by a division coming from Japan that I originally wanted to sent to Burma, but it became available around the same time as Hong Kong fell, so sending these two divisions I had hoped would end the Luzon campaign quickly. It was probably the right move... Clark was a hard nut to crack (it fell 30 January) and I wouldn't have been able to do it without those two divisions. At this time, all the US still controls is the Bataan penninsula and a few other scattered garrisons throughout the central and southern islands. Malaya We had a mostly successful campaign here, including pulling off the Mersing Gambit. Rapidly setting up airbases at Kota Bharu, Kuantan, and Kuching prevented any naval reinforcement of Singapore and Sumatra. We ended up fighting a major battle at Johore Bahru before moving onto Singapore. My opponent apparently neglected to build fortifications at Singapore, resulting in an anticlimactic seizing of Singapore itself in 17 January in the initial shock attack over the channel with minimal losses. As recon showed Palembang was mostly undefended, after two days rest we immediately began an invasion of Sumatra, with Palembang invaded on 29 January and falling on 1 February. Resistance on land was token; air resistance limited to medium bombers, with a total loss of about 30 bombers with no result. There are at least 3 enemy submarines trying to stalk our forces, including light and escort carriers, but so far with no success. Landings on Java are being staged with transports currently arriving at Singapore as of 2 February and beginning to load. A very likely hot spot for CV vs CV conflict as we are pushing southward aggressively. We've taken Luganville resulting is some pushback from the Americans, with a small force delivering support units being wiped out by American cruisers on 1 January. And on 27-28 January, there was a raid on Luganville by Force Z and a CVBG including Lexington and Enterprise. Carrier Status Carrier Division 2 (Hiryu, Soryu) was originally tasked to support the opening attacks on Manila, then mostly patrolled the Sulu Sea picking off enemy ships trying to evacuate the area. It then made a series of raids in the Dutch East Indies and Darwin. Currently, CARDIV2 has been recombined with the KB and is deployed in the Solomons theatre. The main KB was deployed to Pearl for the opening attacks, and has stayed in the Solomons area ever since, including making raids on the northeastern Australian coast and Noumea. The raid on Noumea resulting in an S-boat scoring a MK10 hit on the Kaga around 8 January, causing a secondary ammunition explosion. Kaga is currently in Japan for repairs which are expected to take 3-4 months. The remaining 5 carriers of the KB are remaining in the Solomons area to support a planned invasion of New Caledonia and further raids on Australia. Our light and escort carriers ("the mini KB") have mostly been operating in the eastern DEI, intercepting evacuating Allied shipping. They are currently deployed in support of the Palembang invasion. Shoho joined the fleet around 31 January and is currently still in Japan, resizing some training squadrons. * * * On 6 January, USS Saratoga was hit by two torpedoes fired by I-9 west of Hawaii. The damage didn't appear critical but I think we probably put her away for at least 2 months. Attrition We're doing well as far as managing losses goes. The Allies haven't really been pushing back very hard so far, so we are mostly picking off weaker areas without paying very much for them. In the above chart, I find it remarkable that the Zero is only #4 in losses--I expect it to be #1 because unlike the Allies, my fighter losses aren't spread out over many airframe types, the Zero carries the majority of the load. The AVG in particular has been beaten down to a shadow of its former self trying to defend Rangoon from Oscar sweeps. MAJ Boyington has already been killed. For ships, the attrition is nearly all in my favor. Based on Tracker data, here are the numbers: Japan CL: 1 (Jintsu) DD: 1 PB: 6 SS: 1 SSX:5 DMS: 2 AK: 14 AKL: 4 Allies BB: 2 (Tennessee, Arizona) CA: 2 CL: 3 DD:12 PG: 3 PC: 3 PT/MTB: 27 ML/HDML: 24 SS: 21 CM/CMc: 3 AM: 17 AMc: 12 AS: 1 AV: 1 AVD: 2 AVP: 7 AGP: 4 AG: 3 AO: 3 YP: 1 AP: 22 AK: 35 AKL: 49 __________________ Last edited by Molon Labe; 10-25-23 at 08:10 PM.