Carriers at War – Japan Swipes South

We return for the fourth time to SSG’s Carriers at War. After having covered the Pacific War from the Coral Sea and Midway to the ultimate destruction of the Japanese Navy in the Phillippines Sea, I am going to backtrack in time and move from the Pacific Theatre to the South-East Asian Theatre.

Not counting the Pearl Harbor tutorial, Carriers at War starts with the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942 and so it does not include the conquest of Malaysia and the Philippines by the Japanese forces. Granted, it shipped with a comprehensive scenario designer and a guide to create a “Raid on Ceylan” scenario. However, after having created this scenario, you would have been on your own if you wanted to create a new theatre as you would have to create the map, the ship and plane stats, the fleets, the air groups and even the weather pattern. I daresay few did more than modify existing scenarios to add or remove a carrier here and there.

This changed in January 1986, when SSG launched the Run5 magazine, whose main purpose was to disseminate scenarios and other aids for the various SSG games – at that time Carriers at War and Europe Ablaze. The first issue included a what-if battle of Wake Island (historically, the American carriers arrived too late to be of any help). I found the content of the second issue more interesting: a set of three scenarios covering the Japanese conquest of South-East Asia where they crushed the desperate resistance of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM). Still, I would not have had the patience to type the scenario myself: a huge, complex map, which used a new scale that also meant means re-entering the data of all the plane types.

Luckily, one of the Commodore 64 versions circulating on Internet already includes these scenarios, which has the added interest that a few surprises may have been hidden inside. (Run5 proposes variants, which may be what I will be facing, but I won’t know until I play them). So now, let’s conquer South-East Asia on my emulated Commodore 64!

Part 1: Japan Swipes South (8-11 December 1941)

The first battle of the Japan Swipes South campaign, called, well, “Japan Swipes South”, starts with a surprise invasion of Malaya and of Northern Phillippines the same day as Pearl Harbor. For these purposes, I have two “commands”:

• In the East, Nobutake Kondō’s force is divided in two large groups: a transport fleet coming from China must land in the North (Vigan, Aparri) while another transport fleet coming from the East (specifically from Palau) must land in the middle (Legaspi) and South (Davao) of the Philippines,
• In the West, Ozawa must land on the Southern tip of Thailand (Pattani) and the top of Malaysia,
• Finally, the computer will handle air support from bases in China and Vietnam, the French having been kind enough to lend Vietnamese airfields to the Japanese.

Most of my transport fleets are escorted by a handful of cruisers or destroyers, and the only powerful asset under my control is the light carrier Ryūjō in the East. Technically, I also have two seaplane tenders, but they are attached to transport ships, so I can’t order them to anchor somewhere and be useful until their transports drop their human cargo. In theory the largest allied naval threat should be the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, but even the heaviest gun of a battleship loses against a torpedo bomber so the Ryūjō should be enough. As for the enemy airfields, their planes are typically obsolete. I review the “default” orders and don’t change any of them. This should play in auto-mode, I just hope the default orders make me detect the British battleships.

The operation went smoothly in Malaya. The transports unloaded their troops on the 8th without any opposition, as the enemy airfields were suppressed by planes coming from Saigon. In Phillippines, the operation went smoothly as well – or at least they did until the B-17s attacked.

Now, B-17 are terrible naval bombers. I am new to the Pacific War, but I don’t think a B-17 sunk any significant Japanese warship in WWII. However, they technically could, as they did occasionally sink destroyers (the Mutsuki and possibly the Asashio), but given how much they were used their odds of hitting anything in any individual attack was very low…

…but well, that single attack did hit the Ryūjō.

The Ryūjō is crippled. She stays afloat for a few hours – enough for a few transports to unload in the North of the Phillippines, and then she sinks. Losing 100% of my carrier force automatically triggers a “General withdrawal”, with all remaining transport missions cancelled.

I order all my ships back to their starting position. Meanwhile, my computer ally carries on running missions from the Vietnamese and Chinese airfields, mostly against enemy airfields but occasionally hitting allied fleets. The game ends on the evening of the 10th, with an allied victory despite a Japanese advantage in points, which makes sense given the loss of the Ryūjō.

My computer partner saved our collective honour, as operating from Saigon it managed to sink the Prince of Wales (BB 53) and cripple the Repulse (BC 34), in addition to a good number of lighter ships. On my side, I only lost the Ryūjō and received some minor damage to a destroyer and several transports.

I feel my key mistake on the way I played – or did not play – the scenario is that I believed there would be no opposition whatsover. What I feared the most was missing the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, I went with the default order assuming that it gave me the best shot at finding them, not realizing it put me within range of enemy long-range bombers…

… but then again, sunk by B-17s? What were the odds? Not impossible, but what were the odds?

I may be a bit salty.

Part 2: Closing the ring (20-23 January 1942)

By the middle of January 1942, the Americans and Filipinos are fighting their last stand in Bataan and the British are manning at Muar their last defence before Singapore. However, while the British part of Borneo had been fully conquered, Dutch Indonesia had been left relatively whole. This was about to change.

I start the battle with ships all over the place, but my main objective is to escort transports landing troops on the oil fields in Balikpapan and the airfields of Kendari. For this purpose, I have a fleet of 3 aircraft carriers: two large ones (the Sōryū and the Hiryū) and a light one (the Zuihō). I should have had the Ryūjō on top, but I removed her from the line-up as she was sunk in December.

I did not know it at the time, but the allied don’t have any carriers in this mission. Hence, this time went swimmingly instead of divingly. Learning from my previous mistakes, I neutralized the Kendari and Balikpapan’s airfields from a distance, and never let the Dutch showcase the capabilities of their Martin 139, a plane you rarely see in video games.

The only moment of doubt was when, on the morning of the 22nd, an allied fleet appeared at some distance from my transports as they were about to unload their troops at Balikpapan.

My transports received some moderate damage, but the allied fleet turned out to be a bunch of light cruisers and destroyers. I scrambled all my Kate, Val and Zeroes from my carriers and sank them all; even the Zeroes were ordered to strafe rather than escort.

By the 23rd, I had landed in Balipapan and Kendari. I won, but I can’t say I dealt crippling damage to the allied navy.

Part 3: The Last Bastion (27 February – 4 March 1942)

The last scenario of the campaign is about the conquest of the island of Java, the last significant holding of the Dutch in the Pacific – Timor would hold out for a lot longer, but mostly thanks to the Australians who defended the Portuguese half in one of the weirdest moments of WW2.

My objective is to land at the same time in the West (Merak, Bantam Bay) and the East (Kragan) of Timor. For this purpose, I have the overwhelming power of four fleet carriers (the Kaga, the Akagi, the Sōryū and the Hiryū. The Ryūjō should have been there, but well, currently she is underwater. While removing the Ryūjō from my line-up, I also made sure that the British received their carriers and their battleships, so the allied have a fighting chance.

They have a fighting chance, but they still don’t have much of a chance. The Japanese have more than 600 airplanes (including 363 bombers), against a bit more than 200 (including 84 bombers) for the Allies.

My carriers and the Japanese airfields soon pummel the Allied airfields to make sure none of the land bombers can take-off in the future to hit my transports. A few ships still hanging around in the general area are hit as well. The British Carrier Fleet, which started in the South-West, is detected as it pointlessly launches its planes against a Japanese airfield.

The British Carrier Fleet wisely decides not to hang around and flees South-East. Meanwhile, given I have some time to complete my mission, I give my ally and myself one more day of air attacks to make sure all the airports are neutralized. On the 2nd of March, I order my transports to initiate the final approach. Meanwhile, I want my carriers to go after the British carriers, so I order my Strike Fleet to pass North of Java, which I consider neutralized.

Then, in the middle of the night from the 2nd to the 3rd, this happens:

The British carriers, which I thought were in the South-West of the map, had decided to pass between Java and Bali and encountered my transports’ escorts. The British carriers don’t send any planes – I surmise they don’t launch planes if those would return during the night. I don’t have those misgivings, and I scramble everything I have. Before the sun rises, the lightly-escorted British carriers are no more.

However, when the sun does rise, I discover the British Battleship fleet North of Java, steaming toward the former location of its carriers. This immediately attracts the attention of the Japanese land bombers, in addition to my own bombers. Long story short, the HMS Ramillies, the HMS Royal Sovereign, the HMS Resolution and the HMS Revenge soon get to preserve their low-background steel for future calibration and medical instruments.

There is nothing left to do except wait for the end of the battle. The Allies lost almost all their planes (they have 23 left, including 12 in Darwin), all their carriers, and more than half of their cruisers and destroyers.

This is the end of my AARs of Carriers at War – I feel those three battles were three battles too many for my enjoyment of the game, and possibly for you as readers of my blog. I don’t think the scenarios are good, due to the massive imbalance of forces between the two factions but also due to the cluttered map. Still, I am satisfied to have played for the first in my gaming career (retro or not), the naval aspect of the South-East campaign, and doing this I solidified my knowledge of local geography and went into a Wikipedia binge on the history of the Dutch East Indies and Dutch New Guinea, so it was probably worth it!