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The Struggle For Freedom - USA Kaiserreich AAR

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I'm worried about how this war will turn out. I doubt that Japan can do much to the US itself but given the size of the two navies I don't think there's a chance of much success for now unless that Japanese do something award-winningly stupid with their navy.
 
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On October 20th, an impressive US Fleet left the port of San Diego.
Destination: Wake Island.
The island was near to the Japanese territory and would serve as an excellent base for future operations against the Japanese Empire.

Admiral Nimitz had been given command of the newly formed 'Saratoga Carrier Fleet' which included the three new carriers, three heavy cruisers and six destroyers.
This fleet would serve as an escort for the transport fleet and would arrive two days before the main fleet at Wake.

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The 'North Carolina Fleet' was commanded by Admiral King and was truly impressive. The 'North Carolina' and the 'Independence' would serve as additional escort, along with three heavy cruisers and five light cruisers.
An enormous amount of transport ships had literally thousands and thousands of soldieder aboard.

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People were nervous in Washington when Nimitz announced that he had reached Wake Island early in the morning of October 27th. King was about to follow in two days.
Then ... 0931 o'clock ... alarm.
Japanese carrier planes were spotted and lots of them. Nimitz ordered his own planes to intercept them.
Without success. There were simply too many of them.
The sheer number of the Japanese planes suggested that there were no less than a dozen Japanese Carriers.
The USS Ranger and the USS Saratoga took severe beating and a counterattack saw only two bombs on the IJN Junyo.

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After receiving the distress-signal, Admiral King immediately turned his fleet towards Pearl Harbor. He wouldn't risk letting his fleet get caught by the Japanese Navy.

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Nimitz managed to pull out early in the afternoon and fled eastwards.
But it was too late for the USS Salt Lake City (CA). She had to be abandoned and was therefore the first victim in this war.

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There was fear and certainty that the Japanese would follow.
And they did.
On October 28th, their carrier planes were again within reach of Nimitz's fleet.

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A catastrophe was looming. Out of the three new Carriers, it was only the USS Ranger which managed to save itself, but the USS Saratoga and the USS Yorktown were torn apart by Japanese torpedoes and bombs.

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Nimitz fled desperately eastwards, to Pearl Harbor.
But the Japanese caught up on October 30th.
By the time, the number of Japanese ships had almost doubled.

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The USS Ranger was sunk within a few minutes and the other american ships were easy prey without proper cap.

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On November 3rd, two deplorable US Destroyers reached the safe haven of Pearl Harbor.
The 'Saratoga CV Fleet' was no more.
Losses:
3x CV
3x CA
4x DD
A sad day for the United States of America.

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The United States Navy was once more teethless and the heads of the military were forced to change their plans. A single old US Carrier wouldn't help mucht against the hell that the Empire of Japan was able to unleash.

Under the impression of this first crushing defeat in the American-Japanese War, the American citizens casted their votes for the midterm elections ...
 
Oh God, absolute disaster for the USN...and for the second time in less than ten years ! :mad:
 
Karaiskandar said:
Oh God, absolute disaster for the USN...and for the second time in less than ten years ! :mad:
Click to expand...

Yep. I had a bad feeling when they left San Diego ... turned out to be reasonable.

history dude said:
:eek: Wow that is a lot of ships to lose this early in the war.:eek:
Click to expand...

Basically the part of the navy which I could have used as an offensive force.
It'll take until 1944 to get a decent navy.

I doubt that Germany will hold it's feet quite for that long. :wacko:
 
It's obvious that an offensive strategy against Japan is almost impossible for the next year. You would need something like a dozen of CV's.
Btw how many IC do you have ?
 
Karaiskandar said:
It's obvious that an offensive strategy against Japan is almost impossible for the next year. You would need something like a dozen of CV's.
Btw how many IC do you have ?
Click to expand...

More than a dozen.
Japan has 28 right now with several more coming.

But Germany's the really troubling me. 20 Carriers right now and I glanced at their production plan ... 15 more under construction.

I have 307 effective IC right now.
 
Ouch it won't be easy, you'll need superior technology, doctrines and quality officers...and somethig like 150 or 200 more IC ! :D
Seriously Good Luck !
 
Karaiskandar said:
Ouch it won't be easy, you'll need superior technology, doctrines and quality officers...and somethig like 150 or 200 more IC ! :D
Seriously Good Luck !
Click to expand...

Germany has only 377 ... Japan has something over 200, so I'm not doing that bad.

The key to survival will be my TacBombers at the moment.
 
Any chance of luring the Japanese Navy close to your coast then bombing them to death? I don't know if that'd be considered gamey or not but I can't see any other way of fighting back for the next 2 years of so.
 
What the hell were you thinking, sailing your small fleet to Wake island into the teeth of the IJN?? Did you think they would have their fleet elsewhere? :eek:o

Lay down some keels and get those shipyards working on a new fleet !!! And scout ahead of your force next time you send your poor Admirals out to sea...
 
Zhuge Liang said:
Any chance of luring the Japanese Navy close to your coast then bombing them to death? I don't know if that'd be considered gamey or not but I can't see any other way of fighting back for the next 2 years of so.
Click to expand...

They launched several carrier attacks on Pearl Harbor and I pouned them with my Tac Bombs. Didn't hurt them too much and I don't think that it was gamey. :)

Leviathan07 said:
What the hell were you thinking, sailing your small fleet to Wake island into the teeth of the IJN?? Did you think they would have their fleet elsewhere? :eek:o
Click to expand...

I was hoping so ...

Leviathan07 said:
Lay down some keels and get those shipyards working on a new fleet !!! And scout ahead of your force next time you send your poor Admirals out to sea...
Click to expand...

Yep. I'm now sending a Destroyer scouting wherever I intend to send my main fleet.
Shipyards are working hard. But it will take some tim.
Until then ... low-level naval warfare, sneak-in things and air force. LOTS of air force.
 
​

The 1942 midterm elections were in many ways exceptional.

The war against the Empire of Japan was only three weeks old, but the offensive forces of the United States Navy had already been wiped out.

A majority of the American people supported a war against Japan ... before the actual war had started.
Now, emotions were mixed.
Some were fearing that United States had taken on an almost invincible enemy too soon.

People on the west coast were scared to deat by potential Japanese Carrier Attacks on the cities, despite the USAAF covering the coasts day and night.

So as a result, a record turnout low was registered on November 4th 1942.
Neither party had been able to use the war to it's advantage and neither party even tried so. Numbers didn't change much.

Democrats managed to gain a few seats in the Senate and very few seats in the House, thanks to the popularity of President Garner.
The war had taken it's toll on his approval numbers, but 64% still said that they approved/strongly approved the way Garner was doing his job.

House of Representatives
Dem: 229 (+6)
GOP: 207 (-7)

Senate
GOP: 55 (-3)
Dem: 41 (+3)
 
It was always going to be hard for the two parties to campaign against each other seeing as they're both responsible for running the country and the war effort. Will they come to some sort of agreement again if the war's still going on in two years time?
 
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On November 7th, the alarm was sounded in Pearl Harbor:
Japanese carrier planes were attacking the installations of Pearl Harbor.
The USAAF intercepted the attacker and a scout flight showed, that those planes were coming from the oldest carriers of the Japanese Navy.
Many of those had been serving in the IJN since 1937 or earlier.

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But just a few days later, another Japanese Carrier Fleet was spotted northern of Hawaii. The USAAF managed to deal the fleet several blows, but was not able to sink any ships.

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A day later, an old fleet of Battleships was spotted western of Hawaii.
The USAAF once more took of to attack the fleet and managed to sink several Japanese ships.

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It was the same day with Admiral Ozawa's fleet later that day.
Two Japanese Carrier were sunk.

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On November 14th, it was all over. The Japanese Fleet were heading westwards. But this Hawaii expedition came at a prize for the Empire:
Two Carriers, four Battleships, one Battlecruiser and five Destroyers had been lost. They were all older ships, but nevertheless ... this expedition was hardly a success for the Empire of Japan.

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November 17th: The newest CVL was launched, the USS Princeton.

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The United States military was unanimous in that, that the island of Wake and Midway had to be secured and so they decided to risk a second transport.
But this time, a fast US Destroyer would scout the target days before the main fleet.
The fleet arrived at Midway on November 27th.

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It was on it's way back, the the huge American fleet encounterd a small Japanese flotilla. All japanese ships were sunk.

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On December 12th, the whole thing was repeated at Wake Island.
The Japanese Carriers still seemed to be in docks for repairing.

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At the end of the year, almost 1,400 Interceptors and Bombers with escorts were sent to Wake Island.
They would serve as a wall against Japanese operations in the eastwards of Wake Island.

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The year of 1942 came to a close and the United States were once more at war with a nation.
The Empire of Japanese did not seem invincible, especially after their Hawaii disaster, but it was clear to everyone that this war would take an awful lot of time.
And on the other side of the ocean, the German Empire was growing more hostile towards the United States by the day ...
 
At least some victories for the US Forces, airpower will play a crucial role in the Pacific.
Let's hope that the Germans will wait for another year...
 
Good to see at least some losses inflicted on the Japanese. Wake and Midway certainly look secure- the AIs awful enough at amphibious assaults normally, they'll probably have a meltdown against 9/10 division stacks.
 
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