6 replies to this topic

[W. Clark]

Beans and Bullets

 

It is mid-August 1942 and both the Allies and the Japanese are trying to run supplies to their troops on Guadalcanal. Both sides are also trying to attrite the other with bombardments and stopping the other side’s supply efforts.

 

It was a dark and stormy night somewhere behind Rear Admiral Lee, but it seemed clear weather ahead. The moon was in a quarter state. RAdm Lee’s Task Group consisted of the new battleships North Carolina and Washington with Lee’s flag in the former. RAdm Lee had DesRon 4 with him as well.

 

Lee’s TG was on a heading of 225 degrees in three columns. USS Selfridge leading with her 1^st division (USS Jarvis, Mugford, Patterson & Ralph Talbot) were in the starboard column while her other division (USS Henley, Helm, Blue & Bagley) were in the port column. The bats were in the central column and echeloned back.

 

RAdm Lee’s TG established radar contact at 20,000 yards from what appeared to be a slow-moving column of ships inshore on a heading of 275 degrees. RAdm Lee increased the speed of his starboard column and bats while slowing his port column as he turned about two points to starboard to make it possible to get into a line ahead. His radar could count 10 ships but they all appeared to be of a similar size.

 

USS Selfridge after about 12 minutes could see a Japanese destroyer at 8,000 yards and they opened on one another. The exchange was one sided as the Selfridge hit (what turned out to be) Mochizuki twice for nothing in return.

 

DesRon 4’s 1^st division now fired star shell illuminating the front of the Japanese column and revealing I(JN cruisers Tenryu, Tatsuta and Yubari as well at four Musuki class destroyers and three Minekaze class destroyers. Some of the Japanese destroyers also fired star shell illuminating Selfridge and her 1^st division.

 

Selfridge and Mugford opened on the second and third IJN cruisers with Mugford scoring a hit on the third cruiser. Mugford firing rapidly hit Yuzuki three times lighting small fires that illuminated her along with the star shell. Other American destroyer fire as well the Japanese return fire was ineffective. North Carolina now chimed in and hit Yunagi (second IJN destroyer division) twice. All other fire was ineffective and the second American destroyer division had not yet fired at all, leaving the Japanese ignorant to its existence.

 

Three minutes later Selfridge and her first division all launched torpedoes at the Japanese line. At this point the Japanese trailing destroyer division turned to starboard and closed rapidly on Selfridge and company laying smoke in an obvious attempt to cover something behind them. A torpedo spread from Selfridge hit the Asanagi and slowed her perceptively as well as damping her fire from her forward mounts. The entire Japanese line erupted with gun fire and hitting nothing at all. Return fire from the American destroyers inflicted hits the Japanese cruisers for no effect, but their fire at the leading destroyers inflicted two hits on Akitsuki. But it was the North Carolina and Washington that each hit Yuzuki and Asanagi respectively ten times each. This sank the Asanagi.

 

The trailing Japanese destroyers now launched all their remaining torpedoes but missed. Selfridge and company continued to pound the Japanese cruisers and lead destroyers with little or no damage in return. The trailing Japanese destroyers turned away under cover of smoke. The bats now turned their attention to the Japanese cruisers (they could finally see them) and North Carolina hit Yubari eight times.

 

At this point with American torpedoes were closing on the anchored Japanese transports and the second American destroyer division doing likewise; we called it a very convincing American victory. It was getting late and Rear Admiral Mastsuyama (yours truly) had to get home to his long suffering JRT (Hey, I brought her a slice of pizza).

 

IMNSHO Japanese 5.5” suck and could not keep up with the 5”L38.

 [WC1]

 

[simanton]

A very interesting night action!  Particularly when it has the Japanese getting stomped this early in the campaign!

[W. Clark]

Radar when it works poses a problem for the Japanese.

[healey36]

"When it works" is key. My understanding is that the American radar was not the best early on. There were numerous examples in The Slot of the Japanese spotting the Americans via night optics before or concurrent with USN contact using the early sets. 

[W. Clark]

Part of that is how they were used it. I use a three column formation with 3,000-yard separation, DesDivs on the flanks with the heavies in the center column. That gives me three die rolls to get a 6 or better with - SW radar and allows me to detect out to 20,000 yards . That means no ambushes. I can speed up, turn and most importantly fire star shell. The 5"L38 has a 2,000 yard range advantage over the Japanese 5". That normally means that I can light them up before they can illuminate me in return. But in the other AAR case the Dutch could acquire 2,000 yards more than the 6,000 yards my 4" secondaries could shoot. No radar puts the night blindness back into the mix and gives me a game that the USN habitually avoids.

[healey36]

In your three-column formation, are the DDs in echelon ahead or behind the center column? I've tried something similar on occasion, and I often run into LoS issues (likely the result of my lousy division management).

Interesting, as my recollection was that the IJN's standard 5in/50 had a max range of around 20000 yards, while the USN's 5in/38 was a bit less at around 18000 yards (could certainly be the product of my lousy memory, lol). Muzzle velocity was 3000ft/sec and 2600ft/sec respectively. The big advantage for the Americans, however, was the gun's rate-of-fire, which was three to four times greater than that of the Japanese piece. The 5in/50 twin-mounts were known to have dispersion problems when used in surface actions, and the gun had poor dual-purpose capabilities. This proved crippling later when the IJN's DDs found themselves increasingly under air-attack. OTOH, the 5in/38 was arguably the best dual-purpose piece employed during the war IMHO.

[W. Clark]

That depends on whether I have a clue where the enemy base is that they are sortieing from. In the Solomons the Japanese are almost always going to be coming at you from the north. Now they can try to be tricky and enter the sound from the right of Savo. But because their goal (resupply or bombardment of Henderson Field) will always take them towards Guadalcanal you can almost always get away with an echelon left.  What they are not going to do is enter from the south because that exposes them to your air cover too much. I'm using TSC as an example of what knowing an opponent's basing and objectives gives you. In the case of DTMB the Japanese are also coming from a generally north orientation also. In the case of a one-off scenario if it is historical then the location of each side's base tends to dictate where they are generally coming from. So, IMHO you should have a general idea of which cardinal compass direction you can expect to be engaged from. I know that some will argue that a side could try and get cute and loop around but that means more exposure to your enemy's air cover. And no one's AA is so good that they want to court air attack any more than they have too.