From: Ron Albright Subject: War in the Pacific AAR I started the May 1942 scenario as the Allies. I left India and China to the computer and haven't really paid much attention to what's happening there. So to start the game I knew I had 2 major objectives. Port Moresby and Midway are critical. The game opens with the southwest Pacific poorly defended. The only naval forces are the Yorktown and Lexington and a few cruisers. Air power consists of the Australians, a squadron of B-17's and a couple squadrons of US fighters and medium bombers. Medium bombers have very limited anti-ship capabilities. The Australians have 3 squadrons of Beaufort torpedo bombers as the only land based anti-shipping aircraft in the South/Southwest. Not much to stop a determined Nippon attack. The Central Pacific is a little better off. Along with several squadrons of fighters and medium bombers there's several squadrons of dive bombers. Naval forces include the Enterprise and Hornet at Pearl and the Saratoga in San Francisco. There also a strong surface contingent including 2 BB's at Pearl and 7 more due in SanFran on day one. Now historically the Nips were morons in splitting their forces all over with separate attacks at Coral sea Midway and Alaska. Rather then concentrating the forces they were split with separate forces involved in all three attacks which allowed the USN to rapidly shift forces and defeat each in detail (accept Alaska which was a pointless attack). Now knowing the game opens at the Tulagi/Port Moresby the limited forces in the Southwest somewhat limit your options. The obvious coarse would be to ignore Midway and try to rush everything south in time to meet the Moresby attack. But with most of my forces already in the Central Pacific I figured I'd use them to support a major operation to reinforce Midway while using my weak forces in the southwest to attempt to stave off the attack on Moresby and try to slip in some reinforcements there. Historically there was only one Nip Carrier Division committed there since the rest were preparing for the Midway operation to take place in June. For the Midway operation I start gathering shipping. I'm sending the 24th Inf Division + misc. combat troops and major aviation and Eng. support. Also I planned on 100 fighters, 50 dive bombers and 2 squadrons of PBYs. I also set up Johnson and Laysan as seaplane bases with AVs and AVDs. For naval support going in I gather the 3 carriers and a surface combat fleet of the 9 battleships. This operation goes through without encountering any enemy forces. The Moresby operation turns out much more interesting. I need to get some combat and aviation and eng. support in there. The 41st Inf Division is the only major land unit available. I also pull together some aviation and eng. units. I gather the scattered cruisers in the area together to form at least some kind of a surface combat fleet. I start gathering 2 major convoys, one with the land forces and the other loaded with supplies from Sydney. I transfer 3 fighter squadrons 2 medium bombers and the B17s to Moresby and start a bombing campaign on Lae. I started with the surface fleet based in Moresby but pull them back to Cairns after a small supply convoy got slammed by the damn Bettys flying out of Rabaul. They were going to be a problem for my reinforcement convoys going into Moresby. Between them and the Nip Army Oscars, Helens and Sallys out of Lae the Moresby air contingent is being effectively suppressed. Over a couple of weeks several small convoys get hit by the Bettys and Nells from Rabaul. One is nearly wiped out. I pull all the bombers out of Moresby and throw in 4 more squadrons of fighters and shift them all to CAP. This has the desired effect of neutralizing the bombing attacks from both Lae and Rabaul and covers the first 2 major reinforcement convoys. While those convoys are offloading I have my 2 carriers hanging around a hundred miles south of Rossel and the cruiser surface fleet hanging southeast of Morseby. While all this is happening I send an AVD and a couple of DDs to Rossel Island along with a squadron of PBYs. These get blasted by the damn Bettys out of Rabaul just as the second of the major reinforcement convoys are leaving. About this time spotter aircraft report 3 fleets heading south through the Solomon Sea with at least one CV and several BBs being spotted. I'm thinking whew, the reinforcement convoys were timed perfect because here comes the Moresby invasion force. I leave the surface fleet halfway between Moresby and Milne Bay and set them to a 2 reaction range. Fortunately I left the carriers 100 miles south of Rossel with a 2 reaction range. I was thinking I would let the Nip carriers hit Moresby and hope my fighters do some damage and then slip my carriers up behind for a strike. Next thing I know there's a swarm of 100 Zeros and 150 Kates and Vals slamming my surface combat fleet. 1 CarDiv my ass. Those carriers would have to be bigger then the Nimitz. One cruiser and one can survived. The same size strike hits Moresby. The fighter CAP was overwhelmed. Realizing I was facing somewhat more then a couple carriers I order mine to turn and run not walk back to Noumea fulling expecting to lose Moresby. I was already thinking about contingencies for a Nip New Guinea. The Nips weren't making the mistakes they made in the real war. I was facing at least 6 maybe 8 carriers and it was only luck that my carriers weren't spotted and turned into coral reefs. Surprisingly they landed troops at Milne Bay and then went home. My Midway operations were just winding down and I hoped Midway was reasonable secure. So I pulled back in the southwest to await the arrival of the naval units supporting those operations. I figured preserving my naval forces was more important so I decided not to commit any more major naval forces until I could concentrate everything. I did try to slip a convoy with the 7th Australian Inf into Moresby along with significant supplies. The convoy got hit from at least 4 carriers that were hanging around up by Buna. I lost about half the division as the convoy went scampering back to Cairns. I figured here comes the Moresby invasion but once again they pulled back. This did seem to tell me they were staying focused on the southeast. About this time Guadalcanal and Tulagi fell. The beginning of July the Midway operation naval units arrived in Noumea. I now had 5 carriers and 11 battleships to play with. Moresby was running low on supplies. I sent the full fleet in to support a large supply convoy also with the remnants 7th Australian heading into Moresby. I put the carriers into Moresby to take advantage of the land based fighter cover. The carrier air hit several convoys around Buna and Lae. The airfields at Moresby had been significantly expanded by this time so I put 3 squadrons of Beauforts in there to start hitting the Nip convoys going into Buna and Lae. The damn Nip subs are tearing me up in the Coral Sea. They've hit the Enterprise (only one torpedo but it did pretty heavy damage) a BB several CAs and numerous smaller and aux. ships. I put swarms of medium bombers on ASW operations. They won't do much damage but hopefully will at least suppress the sub attacks somewhat. The Wasp was arriving the second week of July so after the Moresby reinforcement operation I decided to await her arrival and allow the Enterprise to heal up some before I started any counter attacks. It's the end of July. The Wasp is here and the Enterprise is at 12 system damage. I have three carrier fleets with a pair of carriers in each, a surface combat fleet with 7 BBs and half a dozen CAs with a fair amount of CLs and DDs, a bombardment fleet with 4 BBs and some CAs. The 1st Marine and 2nd Marine are in Noumea along with several Seabee and eng. units and enough aviation support for 600 aircraft. There's half a dozen squadrons of fighters and more aviation and eng. support on the way on convoys from San Fran. It's time for some offensive operations. I have to do something. Moresby is still mine and has been built up to where it's staying ahead of any damage from bombing and the Beauforts are taking a toll of naval forces bring stuff into New Guinea. If I attack, I should be taking the initiative away from the Nips thus ending the threat to both Moresby and Midway. I see three objectives at this point. A large air base at Milne Bay would element any possible threat to Moresby and start challenging Nippon control of the Solomon Sea. It would also threaten Buna directly and Lae indirectly. On the minus side it would be playing in range of Nip airbases from Rabaul, Lae and Buna. Taking Guadalcanal would pose a bigger challenge to Nippon control of the Solomon sea. It would pull the focus of operations away from New Guinea until I can build up the land forces for major offensive operations there. It would also threaten a march up the Solomons as a direct threat to Rabaul. The third is the Gilberts. They haven't been built up yet and taking them would clear a direct route for shipping from the US West Coast to New Caladona and the Solomons. But I'm not sure if the Nips would commit major forces to defend them leaving them with some initiative as to where to commit their forces. I decide on Guadalcanal as a first step. As soon as that's secure and the airbase is somewhat built up I'll slip a small contingent over to take Tarawa thus neutralizing Nip control of the rest of the Gilberts. Then depending on the situation I'll look at hitting Milne Bay followed by Dobodura. Ok, It's Guadalcanal. I'm not going to spend 6 months in an expensive battle of attrition for the place. I'm going to commit the entire fleet in a decisive battle. Both Marine divisions, three Seabees and an engineering unit along with aviation support for 300 aircraft in a massive invasion fleet. It's going to take every AP and a large number of AKs . An Army division and aircraft will go in as followup as soon as the airfields built up some. August 1 the massive operation starts. Man talk about overkill. There was one SNLF unit and a base force defending. The Marines brushed them aside. The first reinforcement convoys sent down by the Nips were inadequately supported as I left the entire fleet sitting in Guadalcanal. They were decimated. By the 8th the airfield is up to size 3 and 5 squadrons consisting of 150 fighters arrive. I send 2 carrier fleets headed to Tarawa to support an invasion force from Noumea. But upon checking sigint reports on the 9th it shows intercepts about a Nip infantry division heading for Guadalcanal. I order the carriers back to Guadalcanal. On the 10th several fleets are headed down the slot. The PBYs and coast watchers have them peg early and swarms of Wildcats and SBDs head out. It's a total victory. Hits are reported on 4 separate carriers. The return strike is small and is easily turned back by the combined carrier CAP and the fighters that have been put together on Guadalcanal since the 8th. The only downside is a daylight surface battle in which my boys get there butts handed to them. One battleship is converted to a coral reef and three are badly damaged. One limps into Guadalcanal with 98 floatation damage. Several airstrikes hit the APs and AKs causing heavy damage. So the second Nip operation aimed at Guadalcanal is turned back with heavy losses although I receive no reports of carriers being sunk. I decide to shift the forces headed to Tarawa to Guadalcanal and build it up before I try offensive operations elsewhere. By 9/10 the airfield is up to level 5 and I'm waiting for 3 SBD reinforcement squadrons before I pull the fleet out for operations elsewhere. On 9/14 the Nips send a second major operation down the slot. Once again it's identified early and my carriers get off several huge strikes against one carrier fleet. A CV and three CVLs are hit with a dozen bombs in each. They all go down. It's now the 15th and I'm looking at pulling together the Tarawa operation again. Ron Albright moron(at)KILLSPAM.pobox.com