Battle Report - WT: Battle for Takwoo

Intro: The island of Takwoo, some 500 miles SSW of Okinawa has been targeted
as the next stepping stone of the Island hopping campaign. Located near enough
to Okinawa to allow Dive bombers to attack, Takwoo is considered vital to the
American plan of bombing the Japanese homeland. To this end several
battleships as well as a carrier task force have been dispatched to anniliate
any shore defenses and knock out the airfield. However, since there are no
other strategic targets in the area, the Japanese were able to discern the
American intentions and began a rapid, but hasty reinforcement of the island.

American Forces:

Task Force 61
        Carrier Yorktown - 72 aircraft embarked
Cruiser Cleveland
        3 Fletcher Class Destroyers - DD 473, DD 480, DD 479

Task Force 62 Battleship Iowa Battleship South Dakota Cruiser Louisville
Cruiser Indianapolis
        3 Fletcher Class Destroyers - DD 539, DD 536, DD 534

Japanese Forces

Takwoo garrison
        Shinmen Airfield -      6 squadrons of fighters
6 squadrons of DB 6 squadrons of TB
                                4 4-arc AA C batts
                                3 PDAF
                                3 Launch/recovery facilities
Airfield has 3 rows of damage, 8 boxes per row

Shore Batteries
                        8, 1-arc A batteries, two per side
                        8, 1-arc B batteries, two per side
Fortified positions, ten points per row, two damage rows

Task Force Takezo Battleship Yamoto Battleship Nagato
        6 Japanese Destroyers - DD Ushio, Akebono, Wakaba, Sazanmi,
Hatsuharu, Hatsushimo

Early Turns: The American task forces arrived from the NE side of the island
with the carrier Yorktown completing flight operations 10 miles to the west.
American radar detected a large flight of aircraft forming over the island.
Yorktown dispatched its three fighter squadrons to fly CAP. As the Iowa and S.
Dakota approached the island, they opened up with A and B turrets, raining 16
inch shells on the island's northern fortifications. A Japanese task force was
detected approaching from the SE at top speed.

Middle turns: As the American battlships turned to port heading due S, the
cruisers took up AA positions two miles to their W, shielding them from the
growing cloud of Japanese planes. The American destroyers raced ahead in an
attempt to engage the rapidly approaching Japanese Task Force. The Yorktown
continued to Launch planes, finally getting all the dive bombers into the air.
The cruiser Cleveland, approaching the island too closely came under fire from
heavy bore shore batteries and was damaged.

Late Turns: Continual fire from the American Battleships annililate the
Islands East fortifications, but the airfield remained unscathed and the full
complement of bombers swarmed outward. The battleship Yamato had pulled ahead
of the slower Kongo and cleared the Northern edge of the island and began long
range shelling of the S. Dakota. American fire was diverted from the island
towards the lagging Kongo. Meanwhile destroyers and cruisers were being
crippled on both sides by a combination of 6" fire and the occasional salvo
from a battlship. The Yorktown, attempting to flee, was hit by an 18" shell
from the Yamoto, knocking out the rear half of the flight deck. Torpedo
bombers were still being launched from the forward catapults even as another
shell struck home, damaging the turbines. A final salvo breached the hull and
the Yorktown sank soon after.

End Turns: While the Americans concentrated their fire on the Kongo the
Japanese swarmed them with over sixty aircraft. The Iowa took a dozen bomb
hits with only 4 causing significant damage, however the engines were damaged
and many of the secondary batteries were put out of action. A salvo from the
Yamoto soon crippled the Iowa which was motionless in the water. Now within
range of the island's Southern batteries, the Iowa traded shots with the shore
batteries while the S. Dakota attempted to finish off the Kongo. In a high
speed flanking maneuver the Yamoto sailed to the North and finally East of the
American battlships while the Kongo tried to cut the corner of the island and
close the range to the American battleships. Several minutes after the Iowa
finally succumbed to combined attacks from the Kongo and shore batteries, the
South Dakota was reduced to a burning hulk as the Yamoto closed to medium
range and at at range of less than 15,000 yards the Yamoto sent salvo after
salvo of 18" shells ripping into the S. Dakota. The Kongo was eventually sunk
as a dying gesture of the S. Dakota but already the Japanese bombers had
refuled and
re-armed and were preparing another strike...

The results:
        Total loss for the Americans - two battleships, a carrier, three
cruisers and half a dozen destroyers were all sunk. Japanese losses were 2
dozen planes, three destroyers and the battleship Kongo with 2 of the 4 sides
of the island being knocked out. The airfield was still operational and the
Yamoto suffered minor damage (only the armor row was knocked out)

Comments: This game was played with three players took 20 turns and was
completed in 3 hours. Some of the tactics were odd since morale rules were not
in effect (DD's and CA's were invariably targeted first, although their
contribution to the long range gun battles was nil) Aircraft are powerful in
that they are difficult to stop but this is counter balanced by their low hit
ratio (60 attacks, 12 hits, only 4 doing damage on a battleship) Aircraft died
quickly in the presence of fighters
and refueling/reloading played a significant role since the bombers
basically only had one opportunity to attack in 20 turns. The scenario
probably would have turned out differently had the full forces been used. Due
to player constraints I dropped the Wisconsin, 3 more cruisers and 6 DD's and
for the japanese a cruiser squadron. As a tactical note, the Yorktown was
deployed too close to the island and when confronted with the Yamoto, was
destroyed very quickly. Improvements to the scenario will include better
starting positioning, full deployment of all the forces, implementation of
morale rules (at 2 threshold checks, capital ships must begin to retreat) and
a reduction in the number of Japanese planes.

Any comments or interest in the Wet Thrust rules conversion is welcome.

--Binhan