War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

[Molon Labe]

10 January 1943
Heavy B-24 losses in attempted port strike at Rangoon

Burma
We're still working on the minefield at Colombo. As per the headline, I tried to hit Rangoon port after seeing a lot of traffic there, hoping to get troop ships in port. But the CAP was quite strong, including Nicks and Tojos. We ended up losing 8 B-24s while shooting down 2 Tojos and an Oscar. We didn't damage the port or any ships at all.


Enemy airpower concentrated on Uttaradit, which was later attacked by enemy land forces. We significantly outnumbered the enemy, even so, I was surprised that we won that fight as bad as the supply situation is. Casualties 3500 to 130.



Babar
A Dutch sub got a torpedo hit on a destroyer that was hunting it--but it was a dud.


Solomons and New Britain

Rabaul's got 50 fighters now. No strikes this turn due to weather. I'm going to cancel bombing for a bit and just sweep these guys for now.

[Molon Labe]

Got 11 January done today but it was uneventful except for a huge furball over Rabaul. 15 Zeroes, 6 Oscars, and 3 P-38s went down. There are a lot of ships hanging out around Guadalcanal, I'm going to see if the Army can handle a naval strike with medium bombers now there there aren't any enemy fighters based there.

[Molon Labe]

12 January 1943

• The enemy carriers are finally moving off from Babar. And they're leaving a bunch of ships there unprotected. Going to sweep tomorrow to make sure it's not a feint. Day after the SBDs will be flying again if they have targets.
• Splashed two Zeroes over Mandalay, clearing the skies for B-25 raids on their armies in northern Burma.
• Another major air battle over Rabaul: 3 P-38s down vs 2 Oscars, 5 Zeroes, and 1 Tojo.
• We're struggling to move troops efficiently on and off the beach at Wake--enemy Betties tried to take advantage, slipping past the Wildcats flying CAP over them and making a bombing run. No hits.

[Molon Labe]

13 January 1943

• An enemy sub hit a mine at Wake. We finally finished emptying one of the phibs there and can use that boat to start taking the frontline Marines off to make room for the base forces.
• USS Sawfish torpedoed and sank a destroyer near Babar
• USS Albacore was severely damaged in a retaliatory depth charge attack after it attacked a cruiser-destroyer group off Legaspi (Philippines). We may lose her.
• Hurricane sweeps over Mandalay resulted in one Hurricane shot down with no enemy fighters (Tojos) shot down. The B-25s all got through to try to interdict ground forces.
• All enemy fighters appear to have vacated Rabaul.
• The KB is hanging out west of Babar. Not sure why.
• USS Amberjack scored two torpedo hits on a troop-carrying cargo ship south of Japan, almost certainly a kill.

[Molon Labe]

14 January 1943

• The Brits splashed one Tojo near Mandalay; this was a 12-to-3 sweep where we had an altitude advantage. The pool of well-trained British fighter pilots has been exhausted thanks to the Burma campaign, and it's showing in terms of poor results like these the last two days.
• It looks like our retreating armies in Burma are far along up the mountain trail that the lead units are back in supply. But there are a lot of units on empty not getting any of that yet.
• There was another attempted Betty raid on our ships at Wake; they missed again but this time the Wildcats got to them on the way out. 3 Betties down.
• Two ships reported as cruisers are approaching Wake from the southwest. I also have 2 cruisers, so unless the report is garbage (and they often are) I can at least go toe-to-toe with them. I'm also flying in some SBDs from Pearl via Midway, but it's going to take another day for them to get here.
• The KB was not spotted this turn.

[Ostfriese]

Good to see that the reports are finally back. I hope you are well

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

Good to see that the reports are finally back. I hope you are well

Thanks, I hope you're doing well too.


15 January 1943
Ghost ship Kako reappears, only to be sunk again


That pair of cruisers near Wake was actually just the heavy cruiser Kako, a ship that graced these pages after she tried to get through the Strait of Malacca, out of ammo and alone, eating a torpedo from bombers based out of Singapore around May 1942. Kako originally appeared to have been saved by Aoba and a few destroyers, but intel later reported she sank after all. Intel was wrong.

Kako approached Wake at night and ran into a blocking force consisting of the CA Indianapolis, CL Houston, and two destroyers. We fought two rounds; in round one Kako took a penetrating armor hit early, but otherwise we mostly exchanged shots that weren't getting through each other's armor. Houston eventually took a penetrating hit, nothing too serious. Kako realized she was outgunned eventually and ran off.

But the non-penetrating hits were still starting fires. Kako lost control of those and entered round 2 at a disadvantage. We closed range and got a lot of hits on her. The cost of closing was one of the destroyers took a devestating main battery hit, incapacitating her. And Houston ate enough rounds that she'll be at Pearl for a week or two for repairs. Kako disengaged again, severely damaged. Our ships lost track of her on radar and our scoutplanes never found her in the morning. Pretty sure she's gone this time.

A lot of the phibs that cleared out from Wake when I suspected there was a threat before are now back, hopefully we get the frontline Marines out and the base forces in efficiently now.


Rabaul now has Nicks on CAP. They were no match for the sweeping P-38s, we shot down 5 with no losses.


At Mandalay we got another Tojo, but their CAP stayed strong enough to claim a B-25 later in the day.


Not much else going on. Still no KB.