Malay Barrier campaign - December 1941 – March 1942

[paulr]

Turn 5 15-28 February 1942

The Dutch sortied from Batavia with all their ships; 3 light cruisers and 7 destroyers. They were supported by a British light cruiser and 3 destroyers and 2 US destroyers. They were intercepted by 16 Nell and 7 Betty bombers supported by 6 Zeros. The Dutch light cruiser Java managed to shoot down 2 strafing Zeros and damage 2 more while the remainder of the force managed to damage one of the high flying Nells. The Japanese failed to even straddle any of the ships.

The force then intercepted a Japanese convoy heading for Batavia! As more and more Japanese ships appeared Rear Admiral Doorman's dilemma became more acute. Did he attack the convoy or let them pass and capture the capital of the Dutch East Indies and his home port. As more lookout reports came in it became clear that the Japanese had 7 heavy cruisers! supported by 15 destroyers! To attack would be suicidal so reluctantly Doorman gave the order to withdraw east to Surabaya. [This was handled by a couple of brief discussions between the umpire and the players, no ships were placed on the table. We had time for a DBMM game instead.]

On capturing Batavia the Japanese found the following warships that had been unable to escape scuttled in the harbour. The light cruiser HMS Danae and the destroyers USS Barker, HMS Encounter, HMS Stronghold.

In the east things had been strangely quiet. Japanese land based aircraft and a Carrier Division had searched in vain for targets. The carrier aircraft instead attacked Darwin disrupting repairs to Allied ships there. Three convoys reached their targets unopposed.

[toxicpixie]

Really good stuff. Cracking read!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Ominous...

[Steve J]

Good stuff there!

[paulr]

Turn 6 1-15 March 1942

And so we come to the last turn of the campaign...

The Japanese Western Attack Force had already captured all of their objectives and were moving to consolidate their hold on Malaya, Sumatra and western Java. They had even transferred 3 Destroyer Divisions to the Eastern Attack Force.

The Japanese Eastern Attack Force continued their advance south opposed by the Dutch and ANZAC squadrons, with a few British and American survivors, based at Surabaya, eastern Java. The Dutch, reinforced with an additional light cruiser and destroyer, and the ANZACs sortied again to try and stem the Japanese advance.

The Dutch were again intercepted by Japanese land based aircraft. The Japanese focused on the Dutch light cruiser Java, seeking revenge for the Zeros she had shot down in their last encounter. The first wave of 5 Betty bombers failed to score any hits but lost 2 shot down and one damaged to AA fire from the supporting Dutch destroyers. Java's own AA was preoccupied fighting off the strafing Zeros and failed to shoot any down.

The second wave of 6 Nell bombers lost 1 shot down by the supporting destroyers while the strafing Zeros again escaped loss. One Nell managed to straddle the Java and a 500lb bomb exploded just above the engine room. This took out about half her guns and combined with damage to her steam lines slowed her to 16 knots.

As Java slowed the light cruiser Tromp had to swing to starboard to avoid her. It was at this moment that the third wave of 12 Nells attacked, 8 aiming for Java and 4 at Tromp. Both cruisers failed to shoot down any of the strafing Zeros. The supporting destroyers managed to shoot down two Nells and damage another. The Java was straddle again but fortunately all the bombs missed.

The damaged Java was sent back to Surabaya escorted by a division of Dutch destroyers. The remainder of the squadron continued north towards Borneo. At 0800 the next morning they sighted a Japanese force of 3 heavy and 3 light cruisers and 12 destroyers. Rear Admiral Doorman again decided that he had to withdraw rather than attempt to engage with his much weaker force of 4 light cruisers and 8 destroyers.

And so the campaign ended.

[paulr]

Results

I think it is fair to say the results of the campaign were a bit of a surprise to Pierre the Shy. He had spent weeks desperately avoiding Japanese air attacks and withdrawing from superior Japanese forces. His main British force had been crippled in a drawn action. All his American cruisers had been sunk in a disastrous night action. The ANZAC squadron had a couple of significant successes but in one of these they had not been able to engage the out numbered Japanese warships.

The victory conditions required the Japanese to have successfully land 25 convoys to win. The Western Attach Force had completed all of theirs but the Eastern Attack Force ran out of time and failed to capture Dili, Timor and Surabaya, Java. This was due in part to the two successful intercepts by the ANZAC squadron. The Japanese Eastern Attack Force had also made what turned out to be a fateful decision early in the campaign. They attempted to gain dominance using strong patrols rather than dispatching 3 convoys.

The degree of victory was determined by the ratio victory points, based on ships damaged and crippled. The expectation being that the Japanese would sink and cripple up to 3 times more than the Allies. The Allies ended up with 54 victory points to the Japanese 39.75 giving Pierre the Shy a Strategic Victory, the best possible result.

His focus on destroying Japanese transports (half his victory points) and willingness to withdraw when the odds were against him had served him very well. He had been fortunate that a lot of the engagements had been during the day which allowed him to see what he was up against before engaging.

[pierre the shy]

ABDA did a bit better than I expected, though we still lost Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies to the Japanese. I won't say much more as I think Paul has summed it up really well just above.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Congratulations to ADABA and looking forward to the next campaign reports,

[toxicpixie]

Well done ABDA, for dancing round a much superior force and getting its punches in where it matters!

[Ithoriel]

A fascinating and delightful campaign and well reported! Much enjoyed, thanks for this.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Wow! Great results and wonderful write ups. Thank you.

[fred.]

This has been a very enjoyable campaign to read about. 

Hope it was fun to play - sounds like Pierre may have felt he was loosing, even though he managed to disrupt Japanese plans and maintain a good damage ratio.

[paulr]

I think both sides felt they were losing  

That made umpiring interesting

[toxicpixie]

I think both sides felt they were losing  

That made umpiring interesting

Yes, real world actions are often so unbalanced that even doing better than history, and actually doing something that affects the greater war outcome, still feels very unsatisfying!

[fred.]

Interesting that both sides seemed to think they were loosing - and I suppose correct assessment for the Japanese who knew they were behind schedule. 

I suppose it comes down to if this high level fog of war made it interesting for the players or not. The only similiar experience I had was with the Close Combat Market Garden computer game - where a lot of the battles as the British Paras where just about clinging on to a map - basically aiming for a draw due to time running out. Which gave more time for the XXX corps advance or reinforcement drops. 

Kind of worked playing against a computer, not sure how great it would have been with two human players. 

[toxicpixie]

I wrote a large post, and the phone decided it wasn't connected when it posted.

So I'll just say aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Edit - oh THAT bloody posted fine.