Order of Battle: World War II, U.S. Pacific, Mission 1: Pearl Harbor, Part 3

 Now that I've disclosed that one battleship survived, what happened during the mission?

Turn 1 starts with the arrival of one D3A Kanbaku (Allied codename "Val") dive bomber and two B5N2 Kanko/T (Allied codename "Kate") in torpedo-bombing configuration. The D3A doesn't attack anything but the B5N2 attack the battleships at the edges of the Row causing 3 HP damage each. One of the B5N2 takes 1 HP damage in return, almost certainly from the BB's AA (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Battleship Row, JP attack begins

Battleship Row (BR) is at 7/10/7 HP. The core DD Gleaves (DD430 Eberle) moves into the port tile.

Turn 2 and the D3A from turn 1 bombs the Fuel Depot adjacent to Hickam Field. The damaged B5N2/T flies away and the other one bombs the center BB for no discernible damage and takes 1 HP damage (from DD430's AA ?!; the Japanese torpedo bombers are unique in the ability to bomb targets while they're reloading their torpedoes). Two more D3A arrive and bomb the undermanned New Orleans-class CA and the eastern BB causing 1 HP damage to each (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Turn 2

BR: 7/10/6 HP. DD430 is upgraded to the Gleaves '41 with a significant increase of AA ability. The Medical Jeep activates Ewa Bty (Figure 3) and Kalaeloa Sqdn (Figure 4).

Figure 3 - AA Gun activated (Ewa Bty)

Figure 4 - Fighter activated (Kalaeloa Sqdn)

Turn 3. The Fuel Depot, the center and eastern BBs (1 HP damage) are again bombed by the same aircraft as before and which take 1 HP damage each. The western BB is bombed by the D3A that attacked the CA, 1 HP damage on the BB, 2 HP damage on the D3A. A new B5N2/B (level bomber configuration) arrives and attacks the CA. Most of the damage inflicted on the JP aircraft is from supporting fire by DD430. (Figure 5)

Figure 5 - Turn 3

BR: 6/10/5 HP. Kalaeloa Sqdn was able to take station escorting the western New Orleans-class CA at the end of its movement in the previous turn and will now fly over to Ford Island into the middle of the JP aircraft swarm. It will be able to escort two of the three BBs and the CA. It won't engage any of the enemy aircraft to preserve its strength.

Turn 4. The Fuel Depot is bombed again. The B5N2/T once again torpedoes the western BB inflicting 5 HP damage. The remaining bombers concentrate their efforts on the eastern BB and sink it. Each bomber attacking a BB now shows an additional 2 HP damage (Figure 6).

Figure 6 - Turn 4, one battleship sunk

BR: 1/10/- HP. In case we weren't paying attention, Figure 7 informs us that we lost a battleship. Kalaeloa Sqdn overflies Ford Island airfield to escort the two remaining BBs. Figure 8 on the other hand relates the arrival of a B17 Flying Fortress Sqdn. They can't do anything to help other than scout but even that is useful: when you're seeing radar blips in the Fog of War someone who can provide a "firing solution" is a bonus.

Figure 7 - Battleship sunk

Figure 8 - B17 Flying Fortress arrives

Turn 5. We have lost the western BB and taken 2 HP damage on the center one. The B5N2/T moved North. The remaining bombers now sport a combined 35 HP, 7 HP down from the previous turn. A A6M2 Zero fighter arrives. (Figure 9, left).

Figure 9 - Turn 5, one more battleship sunk

BR: -/8/- HP. Wheeler Sqdn enters the fray along with the just activated Hickam AA Bty and Fighter Sqdn. Time to start offensive operations, an additional 11 HP of damage is inflicted across two of the JP bombers for 1 HP damage each on Kalaeloa and Wheeler Sqdns (Figure 9, right).

The six JP bombers that we encountered over Pearl Harbor so far now have a combined strength of 45 HP, down from the 98 they started with: the initial B5N2/T left with 12 HP; the second B5N2/T leaving now with 9 HP; the B5N2/B with 9 HP and the three D3A with 3, 5 and 7 HP still over Battleship Row. Just in case we're feeling cocky, there's (five) more JP aircraft showing up on radar on the northeastern corner of the map (Figure 10) and at least a sneaky one flying under the radar near Wheeler AF.

Figure 10 - Second JP wave arrives

Turn 6. B5N2/T (new) attacks top DD Gleaves for no damage. B5N2/B attacks BB, drops from 9 to 3 HP. Fuel Depot D3A ditto, 7 to 1 HP. Each causes 1 HP damage to the BB. A6M2 same, 13 to 9 HP. D3A with 3 and 5 HP move North (Figure 11, left).

Figure 11 - Turn 6

BR: -/6/- HP. The B17 Flying Fortress moves to scout the retreating D3As. Hickam Bty hits the B5N2/B and drops it to 1 HP. Lulled by the success of the escorting fighters I decide to start chasing the fleeing bombers with Hickam Sqdn and hit the 3 HP D3A leaving it with 1 HP. Hickam Sqdn spots a damaged D3A with 11 HP, it was hit by Ewa Bty the previous turn near Wheeler AF.

And I left it like that trusting the two P36 squadrons to protect the BB. Except that the newly arrived full strength B5N2/T attacks and leaves the surviving Colorado with a single Health Point. Oops. I already have some 440 screenshots at this point. If I lose the battleship secondary objective I'm going to toss the run, start again and call it a mulligan.

I don't remember if I pointed this out before: OoB creates a save file every time the player clicks the "Next turn" button and another right after the AI ends its turn. During the player's turn there's thus a save file for the beginning of his/her turn (in case of a mistake or a crash) and one for the end of the previous one (in case of an omission or a crash during the AI's turn).

So I guess I will still call it a mulligan and beg your indulgence. I reloaded the previous turn and attacked the B5N2/T with Kalaeloa (2 HP damage) and Wheeler (1 HP damage) Sqdns causing 7 HP damage in total (Figure 11, right).

Turn 7. The B5N2/B runs away, he's had enough. The A6M2 also leaves. The 1 HP D3A hits the BB for 1 HP and survives. The 11 HP D3A hits the CA (which is escorted by the two P36 Hawk sqdns) and takes 4 HP damage. The B5N2/T goes for the Colorado inflicting 3 HP damage and taking 1 HP in return (Figure 12, left).

Figure 12 - Turn 7

BR: -/2/- HP. So, what is left over Battleship Row? One B5N2/T (5 HP) and two D3A (1 and 7 HP) in the Red corner. Hickam (abandoning the chase, 10 HP), Kalaeloa (7 HP), Wheeler (8 HP) and the newly arrived (Figure 13) "X/VF 7" F4F3 Wildcat (10 HP) Sqdns and Hickam Bty in the Green corner. The 1 HP D3A and the B5N2/T are shot down (the first enemy kills of the scenario) and the remaining D3A drops to 4 HP.

Figure 13 - Fighting Seven arrives

And that's enough pictures for one post.

---

Comments on this post are disabled. That's just for ease of management. They will be enabled in the last post for each mission.