The Solomons Campaign 2017

[paulr]

That's fairly typical of Roy's dice rolling 

Note, Roy didn't get to roll a single die in last weeks game. He was commanding the supply ships and their close escort that the Americans didn't get to see

[paulr]

Tomorrow night we are back in the Solomons, another carrier action

The American sighting report claims 3 CV, 2 BB, 4 CA, 8 DD
I suspect the spotter has got a little over excited or there has been some miscommunication 

If there really are 3 CV the US carriers could be in real trouble 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Oh heck!
Remember, every ship is a carrier, every ripple a periscope...

[Ace of Spades]

Hmmmm, any support from Henderson Field to be expected by now or a chance of landing/refuelling your Airgroups there if you need to pull the carriers out?
Or is this coaching again...?

Cheers,
Rob

[Ithoriel]

As mentioned, I played in a campaign with the same setting.

Having had an unfortunate encounter in Ironbottom Sound (Ooh! Titter ye not! Oooh Noo!) and lost my naval command I had taken over command of land based aircraft.

Scouting aircraft reported contact with an American force of 3 carriers, 2 battleships and 3 cruisers. Known American vessels in the area - Yorktown, Lexington, Wasp, South Dakota, Washington and a collection of cruisers and escorts.

OMG - I've found the main American Fleet! I scramble every land based aircraft that can make it to the position.

Catching the Americans unprepared, not even CAP aloft, my onslaught sinks every one of the enemy vessels! Where's your super crypto analysis now Yanks??

Meanwhile, lacking the expected air cover from land based aircraft the Tokyo Express is savaged by carrier and land based American planes.

The Japanese have lost a Battleship, a Battlecruiser and 2 Heavy Cruisers but the Americans have lost their only carriers and Battleships!! Yay me!

End of round summaries come in.

I have sunk an empty oiler, two empty transports, two destroyer escorts and 3 MTBs -  

The Emperor has sent me a razor sharp katana and a note that says "Honourable Death Is A Noble Thing"  

[Steve J]

Ouch! That must have come as a bit of a surprise...

[paulr]

0945 5 November 1942

A sighting report from an SBD of Scouting 7 is received by the Wasp and relayed to the Task Force commander on Hornet
3CV, 2 BB, 4 CA, 8 DD 130nm NW of carriers Course 090 speed 25

The SBD reported 6 tenths cloud at 8,000ft and appeared to have not been spotted by the Japanese CAP

No bogies on radar so the Americans may have the chance to strike first. An all-out strike to the North West is rapidly organised, "Pilots man your planes"

A flight of 10 Wildcats from Fighting 8 in company with 28 SBD Dauntless from Bombing and Scouting 8 approach the Japanese fleet from the South East. There look to be 2 carriers, 2 battleships, 4 cruisers and about 8 destroyers.

Fighting 8 is attacked by a dozen Zeros and manages to inflict some initial casualties. Eventually both sides break off out of ammunition. Fighting 8 has lost 6 Wildcats destroyed and 4 are damaged.

Another dozen Zeros attacked Bombing and Scouting 8 but their initial attacks are not pressed home (the Japanese rolled poorly). Unfortunately for the Dauntless the Zeros attacks improved and 10 were destroyed and 10 were badly damaged before they reached their targets. The leading flights approached the Japanese carriers at 20,000ft and managed to avoid the majority of the AA fire from the supporting ships. They couldn't avoid the fire from the carriers as they dived to the attack. Another 2 Dauntless were shot down and 2 badly damaged before they could release their bombs.

The 4 remaining Dauntless scored two hits on the rear carrier and one on the lead carrier.

As these attacks went in Fighting 7 (6 Wildcats), Bombing and Scouting 7 (22 Dauntless) arrived from the South East. With all the Zeros out of ammunition Fighting 7 was able to watch the efforts of Bombing and Scouting 7. Bombing 7 attacked the lead carrier diving from 20,000ft and scored 2 or 3 hits with only one Dauntless damaged (the Japanese rolled badly for their AA). Scouting 7 attacked the rear carrier which appeared to be slowing rapidly and putting up limited AA fire. They scored at least 2 hits leaving the carrier sinking with no Dauntless lost.

As Bombing and Scouting 7 withdrew Torpedo 7 (8 Avengers) arrived and linked up with Fighting 7. Torpedo 7 dived to wave top level and as they approached the leading carrier Fighting 7 strafed the supporting battleship. Fighting 7 had one Wildcat destroyed and one badly damaged but they were drawing fire away from the Avengers. Torpedo 7 still took some fire from the battleship as well as a cruiser and destroyer on their approach and then fire from the carrier. 4 Avengers were destroyed and 2 badly damaged before they could release their torpedoes and the remaining 2 were badly damaged as they withdrew. One of the torpedoes struck the lead Japanese carrier (the US player rolled the required 0 on a D10) which was seen to slow dramatically.

As the damaged survivors of Torpedo 7 withdrew Torpedo 8 (12 Avengers) arrived. As they approached the Japanese ships the squadron commander weighed his options. Both carriers looked to be badly damaged, one appeared to be sinking. The nearest battleship was protected by two cruisers and two destroyers. He led the squadron towards the front of the Japanese force and dived from 20,000ft down to wave top height.

His decision to attack one of the supporting cruisers was vindicated as all 12 Avengers launched their torpedoes and only two were damaged as they withdrew. One torpedo struck the cruiser causing what looked to be significant damage.

The Japanese had been caught unaware and in a one sided action had lost one carrier and another badly damaged. There was much debate among the returning crews over which carriers they were; Shōkaku and Zuikaku or the smaller Junyo and Ryujo. A heavy cruiser had also been damaged.

The Americans had 8 Wildcats, 12 Dauntless and 4 Avengers destroyed. The similar number of damaged aircraft were rapidly repaired.  

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

That's a major blow for the Japanese

[Ace of Spades]

Excellent results for the USN, congrats!

Cheers,
Rob

[paulr]

Getting first strike definitely helped

[bigjackmac]

Wow, things are looking up!  Did the Japanese get any aircraft (other than CAP) off?

V/R,
Jack

[paulr]

No, the whole attack only took about 30 minutes ...

I'm pretty sure the surviving CAP had nowhere to land, some of the pilots would have been picked up by the mostly untouched cruisers and destroyers

[Steve J]

Great result for the Americans.

[Norm]

Paul, thanks for the continuing narrative, the best ongoing topic posting that I have followed in a long time.

[pierre the shy]

Wow, things are looking up!  Did the Japanese get any aircraft (other than CAP) off?

V/R,
Jack

This time the Japanese did manage to fly off one additional flight of A6M's from each carrier as they sighted the incoming strike some distance away. However their assigned CAP patrols were not numerous enough to hold off the American strike.

As the Americans had strike advantage the Japanese did not get the chance launch a strike themselves. The Japanese decided to withdraw to Truk after their carriers were attacked and even if they wanted to launch a second attack the USN would not have found them again so the carrier action for turn 4 is completed.

The carriers were Junyo class.....but we used Shokaku class models since no Junyo class ones were available, hence the confusion.

The campaign supplement is written for use with GQ3 rules but we are using GQ2 which has a fundamentally different air and AA system to GQ3. The Japanese were understandably not happy with the result, though they choose to have a small initial CAP. While GQ1/2 is a very good set for surface actions last night showed that the air and AA systems have their limits shall we say  :-

There will be at least one more action in the October 1942 phase.....