Strategy in 'East of Suez'
Operational Scenario 2:
'Operation TRANSOM,' Part 2
By Doug McNair
July 2007

In today’s installment of my “Operation TRANSOM” replay, USS Saratoga makes a run for the American base at Manus, while the Japanese carrier reaction force tries to make the Allied navies pay for their attacks on the Java airbases. As Day 1 of the scenario drew to a close, Saratoga’s task force was making a night run eastward through the Sape Strait, while the French battleship Richelieu and the British battlecruiser Renown had just finished bombarding Djakarta airfield.

Both task forces must now hope that the stormy weather covering their aggressive movements holds long enough for them to escape the range of the Japanese air force on Java. Of course, worsening weather would slow Allied fleet movements, giving the Japanese carrier reaction force a better chance of catching Saratoga before she reaches port.

The game continues.

Day 2: May 16, 1944

Turns 7 – 12

The weather keeps getting worse, blowing up a Gale on the west half of the board on Turn 7 and Storm conditions on the east half by Turn 8. All forces are currently on the west half, where aircraft can’t take off or land and ship movement is badly reduced. Saratoga steams slowly east through the straits, the Japanese patrol force follows her while hugging the coast, and the bombardment group with Illustrious inches slowly southwest from Djakarta.

By Turn 9 the gale abates to Storm in the west, allowing everyone to increase speed to 2 but keeping the planes on the ground. Both Allied task forces head away from Java, but the Japanese patrol force stays by the Bali Strait in case Illustrious tries to make a night run through there.

Evening falls and the weather worsens again, slowing Saratoga’s move north through the straits south of Celebes to avoid any possible Japanese sub screen in the Flores Sea. Finally, the storms begin to break that night, and the Japanese Patrol Force moves into the port of Bali so it can wait under AA and CAP cover for the Japanese Air Force to disable one or more ships from Illustrious’ carrier group, then streak out and make torpedo runs on stragglers.

Then on Turn 12 the Japanese Reaction Force enters at the north end of the Java Sea, and one of the two task forces comprising it moves four zones southeast while the other moves three. Neither side runs afoul of any submarines, so Day 2 ends with no battle done but the Japanese Reaction Force much closer to the Allied fleets than they’d expected.

Day 3: May 17, 1944

Turn 13

The day dawns with Rain conditions on both halves of the board. The Japanese Air Force puts up every search plane it can, and even though take-off and landing are risky from a carrier in the rain the Allies have no choice but to put up CAP and ASW aircraft. All planes make it off the deck without incident.

Japanese search planes fail to locate either carrier group, but Saratoga slows her speed eastward since she’s heading into some of the most perfect hunting grounds for submarines (the straits north of the Banda Sea), and if she keeps moving at speed 2 her destroyer screen will run out of fuel before she makes it out into the open Pacific. But at Speed 1, the Japanese carrier force will catch her tomorrow unless the weather closes in again. Illustrious is going to have to burn all available fuel to close the gap between her and Saratoga so the two Allied carriers can smash the Japanese between them.

This means Illustrious will have to make a dangerous night run through the straits east of Java, so she hopes the weather closes in again soon. With no contact made and the Allies moving away from Java, Soerbaja transfers its dive-bombers east to Soembawa.

Turn 14

But the weather turns squally again in the west, covering Illustrious as she makes for the Sape Strait. Illustrious is lucky that she kept her distance from the Japanese airbases last turn, heading southeast rather than eastward for the Aias strait. She’s still nine zones from the Soembawa airbases, and that makes her impossible to spot from the air in a squall (not to mention the fact that the Japanese probably don’t want to risk failed takeoff and landing dierolls in this weather).

The squall also slows down the Japanese carriers, but they keep gaining on Saratoga. However, squally weather can’t protect her from sub contact, and her task force steams into the patrol zone of two Japanese I-boats southwest of Bali. Unfortunately for the Japanese, the subs act just as confused as their CAP did on Day 1, and both miss the carrier group completely.

Turn 15

The weather lets up on both halves of the board, turning to Rain in the west and Cloudy in the east. The Japanese air force on Java has a shot at spotting Illustrious, but they roll a 2 and miss her.

She keeps steaming due east through the sub patrol zone, and this time one of the subs rolls a 9, enough to spot the task force and report its composition, but not enough to torpedo anybody or vector in an airstrike before sunset.

All planes must land, and Saratoga’s have no problem since she has now crossed into the east half of the board where the Cloudy weather is not bad enough to cause landing problems. But Illustrious loses one step of Corsairs to a failed landing roll in the rain (6 Japanese VPs). The Japanese carriers were flying no planes, and the Japanese air force can’t fail landing rolls in the rain on land.

Turn 16

The weather turns to Clear in the east but stays Rainy in the west. Saratoga hopes very hard that changes before daybreak, because the Japanese carriers closing in on her from the west will be hard to find in the rain, she herself will be easy to spot in the Clear.

Illustrious had hoped to increase speed to 3 and shoot the straits under cover of darkness to get as close as possible to the Japanese carriers. But, that would force her to leave her destroyer screen behind (the DDs would run out of fuel if they kept up that pace) and she can’t afford to do that at night with subs confirmed in the area. So she keeps heading east at Speed 2, and again a sub rolls a 9 (not enough to get a firing solution).

Saratoga steams southeast to coax the Japanese closer to Illustrious, and the Japanese oblige, with the faster of their two task forces heading southeast toward Saratoga and the slower one heading due south toward Illustrious.

The hapless Japanese subs tailing Illustrious do their best to avoid being outrun before firing a shot.

Turn 17

There is no change in the weather, and the Japanese patrol force heads out of Bali to link up with the slower Japanese task force (the Japanese air and sub forces having failed to disable ships from Illustrious’ group so the Patrol Force could dash out and finish stragglers). True to form, the I-boats roll yet another 9 and watch forlornly as Illustrious steams away.

Saratoga steams east, and the faster Japanese task force puts into port at Makassar to refuel. They’ve been burning a lot — having moved three or four zones every turn since entering the board — and if they don’t put in now one of their destroyers will run out of fuel.

Turn 18

The weather worsens to Squall in the west but stays clear in the east. Saratoga keeps steaming due east while Illustrious zigs southeast to stay three zones away from the Japanese air base at Soembawa (whose planes will be able to search for her next turn if the weather lets up). The Japanese patrol force combines with the slower of the two incoming Reaction Force groups, and the faster group refuels in Makassar.

Day 4: May 18, 1944

Turn 19

The weather stays the same, and the Squall conditions in the west make putting up search planes unadvisable even from land bases. But Saratoga is in the Clear and puts up Search and CAP planes (though she has no chance of finding any Japanese task forces at this range back in the squall to the west). Illustrious zags back northeast into the Sape Strait while Saratoga keeps steaming southeast, and the Japanese task forces close range.

Turn 20

The weather stays squally in the west (keeping the faster Japanese task force from pursuing Saratoga at speed 4) but turns Cloudy in the east (giving Saratoga some needed cover). Illustrious zigs back southeast out of the Sape Strait and into the Savu Sea, not wanting to cross paths with the slower Japanese task force moving in from the northwest in case it contains a battleship or destroyers with Long Lance torpedoes. Saratoga steams east, and the Japanese give chase.

Turn 21

The weather stays cloudy in the east but slackens to Rain in the west. The Japanese put every available plane into the air to look for the Allied carriers. One Japanese dive-bomber step flying off a carrier is lost to a bad takeoff roll (6 Allied VPs), Illustrious safely puts up three steps of Barracudas to search for the Japanese task force following her, and two steps of Corsairs up on CAP. Saratoga already has four steps of SBDs up on Search, but there’s no way they can spot the Japanese at an eight-zone range behind a storm front. She keeps her two Hellcat steps up on CAP in case the Japanese have better luck.

The Japanese task force chasing Saratoga puts five steps up on Search while the one chasing Illustrious puts up CAP and holds the rest in the Ready box, relying on the Japanese air force to spot the carrier.

Illustrious makes an air search roll and gets a modified 2, just barely failing to spot the Japanese task force pursuing her. The Japanese air force also fails to spot Illustrious. But the search planes off carrier Zuikaku in the fast task force spots the fleeing Saratoga. Unfortunately, she won’t be able to get close enough to Saratoga this turn to let her Zeroes escort her attack planes in, so she’ll have to plan for a morning airstrike.

Saratoga steams east into the straits near Ambonia, and Zuikaku moves three zones east to break out of the storm front so she won’t have a chance of losing any more aircraft to bad landing dierolls. Illustrious heads southeast to try and keep pace with Zuikaku and keep away from her pursuers, and said pursuers move into the Sape Strait behind her.

The Japanese decide not to send long-range torpedo planes against Saratoga, since they’d have to lighten their torpedo load to get there and would have no fighter escort. They save themselves for Illustrious, planning to fly in after Zuiho’s fighters deal with Illustrious’ CAP in the morning.

All planes land safely on Saratoga, Zuikaku and Zhuiho, but Illustrious loses a step of Barracudas to a bad landing roll in the rain (6 Japanese VPs).

Turn 22

Night falls and the weather stays the same. With their airpower weakening due to bad-weather losses and their destroyers running low on fuel, the Allies can’t afford to wait and see whether Japanese planes will find them in the morning. They’ve got to take the fight to the enemy tonight.

Both Saratoga and Illustrious make the risky move of splitting several escorts into separate task forces to confuse the enemy, screen the carriers’ rear and hopefully find and sink the enemy carriers in nighttime surface combat. But they won’t stray far — the screening forces will reunite with the carriers by dawn if they don’t kill the enemy before then.

Saratoga steams northeast through the strait west of Ambonia, and her screening force (led by the battleship Queen Elizabeth) steams northwest of her to block the short route between Zuikaku and Saratoga. But Zuikaku zags right at Speed 4, taking the longer route to pursue Saratoga directly through the Ambonia strait.

Illustrious steams two zones east-southeast toward the Ombai Strait, and her screening force (led by Admiral Sommerville on the battle cruiser Renown) moves one zone due west to patrol the narrow strait behind Illustrious. But Zuiho is more cautious since she’s in restricted waters and vulnerable to any trap the Allies might spring, so she slows down to move just one zone southeast. That puts her task force adjacent to Sommerville’s screening force, but they haven’t crossed paths yet.

Turn 23

The weather stays Cloudy in the east but worsens to Squall in the west. Saratoga keeps steaming eastward, and her screening force reverses course and moves due south, right back into the Ambonia strait (they hedged their bets on where Zuikaku would go). But Zuikaku smells a rat and stays put, deciding not to be lured into a nighttime trap while casting a glance over her shoulder to see whether Illustrious moves within striking range.

Illustrious steams two zones due east (toward Zuikaku) into a small strait north of the Ombai, and Sommerville follows her while steaming a patrol pattern to cover all possible avenues of advance Zuiho might take. Zuiho, not wanting to let Illustrious get away, decides to trust that the weather will conceal her (a good bet in a squall at night) and steams southeast and east, and she and Sommerville end up in the same zone.

A contact roll ensues, with the British getting a +1 bonus for Leader Sommerville, +1 for their Intercept mission and +1 for radar, while the Japanese add a -1 penalty for exceptional spotters and -3 for squall weather. That makes a net penalty of -1, which means that at night contact will only happen on a 6. The Allied player rolls — and gets a 6, for contact and an automatic surprise sighting!

Play moves to the battle board . . .

Sommerville’s Attack

The Allied player rolls for initiative and gets a modified 5 (with a +1 for Leader Sommerville) and wins initiative. The Japanese player must setup Zuiho’s task force first, and puts the battleship Haruna in the lead hex along with the destroyers Samidare and Nowaki. Behind them (outside Allied spotting range at night in a squall) he puts Zuiho with the light cruiser Noshiro and the destroyer Yamagumo.

The Allied player then sets up the French battleship Richelieu, the British battlecruiser Renown (with Sommerville aboard), and the British heavy cruiser London in the lead, and the British cruiser Suffolk, the Australian destroyer Napier and the Dutch destroyer Van Galen ii behind them.

Round 1

Impulses 1 – 5: Because there was a surprise sighting and the Japanese lost the initiative roll, they can’t move on Impulse 2. The battleships and London stay in place to fire on the Japanese without giving any surviving Japanese destroyers point-blank torpedo fire.

The surprise sighting also lets the Allies fire first on Impulse 4, and Richelieu opens fire and destroys 3 Hull and 1 Primary on Haruna. Renown knocks out both of Nowaki’s guns (tertiaries, which can’t fire in a squall anyway), and London knocks out one of Samidare’s tertiaries.

Haruna returns fire, gunning for Renown, but she just destroys 1 Hull and 3 Tertiaries (the latter of which are useless as mentioned previously).

Then the Allies get to fire torpedoes first on Impulse 5, and Renown and London launch all theirs at Haruna. Only one hits, but it rolls an 11 for 5 Hull damage and a speed-loss penalty, knocking Haruna’s speed down to 1 due to that plus having done more than half her hull boxes in damage.

But then Nowaki and Samidare return the favor, firing eight Long Lance torpedo factors at Richelieu. They score three hits, doing 9 Hull, 1 Primary, 2 Secondaries, an AA factor and knocking her speed down to 2. And then they start reloading torpedoes. . . .

Impulses 6 – 9: On Impulse 6, Haruna and the two destroyers head northeast, getting outside the range of the slowed Richelieu (which is now Speed 2 and can’t move next impulse). Zuiho’s group can’t move this impulse because she’s also Speed 2.

Renown and London leave Richelieu behind on Impulse 7 (using the Crippled Ships rule) and head north to within spotting range of all the Japanese ships, and the other Allied group comes up behind them. Renown opens fire on Zuiho, while London fires at the destroyer Yamagumo to avoid another nasty Long Lance torpedo run. Renown scores two hits on Zuiho, destroying her Teritary gun and all of her AA guns (a useful thing if Zuiho escapes). But London just knocks out one of Yamagumo’s tertiaries.

Then Haruna fires at Renown, scoring four hits, one of which is a critical. Renown loses 4 Hull, 3 Primaries and a Tertiary, and her speed drops to 2. Then seven Long Lance torpedo factors come in from Noshiro and Yamagumo. Two hit Renown, and one rolls a modified 12 for damage. Renown takes 8 Hull and is struck dead in the water.

It’s all up to the cruisers and destroyers to catch Zuiho now . . .

Impulses 10 – 13: Only Zuiho’s group can move on Impulse 10, and they head northwest to escape from the Allies and reload torpedoes. Only Richelieu can move on Impulse 11, so she moves north and fires her 9 Primaries at Haruna. She destroys 2 Secondaries and 2 Tertiaries. Haruna fires at London instead of Richelieu, destroying 1 Secondary and 2 Hull. Nobody who has torpedoes available to fire is in range.

Impulses 14 – 17: Haruna and her escorting destroyers move northwest out of sighting range of Renown and Richelieu, and London, Suffolk, Napier and Van Galen chase Zuiho. Only London has a shot at Zuiho, and she scores two hits. One is a Torpedo Mount hit (which does no damage since Zuiho has no torpedo mount), but the other destroys 1 Hull. Haruna and the light crusier Noshiro fire back at London, scoring four hits and destroying 1 Hull, 1 Secondary, 1 Tertiary and 1 AA gun box. The Australian and Dutch destroyers are still just outside torpedo range.

Impulses 18 – 22: All ships are repositioned three spaces southeast to avoid moving off the edge of the battle board. Then all Japanese ships except the wounded, Speed 1 Haruna move northwest, and all Allied ships except the dead-in-the-water Renown give chase.

London fires her remaining three Secondaries at Zuiho but misses. Richelieu fires nine Primaries at Haruna for three hits, and rolls an 8, an 11 and a 12 (for a critical hit). She does 1 Secondary and 6 Hull, SINKING HARUNA (87 Allied VPs)!

Haruna gets one final shot, and she and Noshiro both fire at London, because if they sink her then no Allied ships will be in spotting range of any Japanese ships, and the combat will end. But all Japanese shots go wide.

The Australian and Dutch DDs are still out of torpedo range, so combat for the round ends, and the Japanese call for a disengagement roll. The allies roll a modified 7 (they get +1 for having initiative) and the Japanese roll a 5, so combat will continue for a second round.

Renown then attempts emergency repairs to get underway again, but she rolls a 3 which means she doesn’t but can keep trying in future.

Round 2

Impulses 1 – 5: The Allies roll a 1 + 1 = 2, and the Japanese get initiative. The Allies must move first and they damn the torpedoes (which are reloaded now) and keep chasing Zuiho. Zuiho keeps moving northwest, and the destroyers Nowaki and Samidare move west for a close-range torpedo run on London.

Noshiro fires on London but misses, and then London fires on Zuiho while Richelieu fires on Nowaki, hoping to sink her before she can fire torpedoes (Suffolk is in spotting range of the Japanese now, but can’t fire at them because London is in the way). London again misses Zuiho, but Richelieu scores two hits on Nowaki, destroying both her Hull boxes and sinking her (14 Allied VPs).

But then Samidare launches two Long Lance torpedo factors at London and scores one hit, doing 3 Hull and 2 Secondaries and sinking London (29 Japanese VPs).

Impulses 6 – 9: Only Suffolk, Napier and Van Galen can move, and they close range for the long-awaited torpedo run on Zuiho. But gunnery happens first: Noshiro fires two Secondaries at Napier and misses, and then Suffolk fires five Secondaries at Zuiho — and scores three hits!

One shot rolls a 2 for a dud, but the others take out 2 Hull, leaving Zuiho with just 1 Hull remaining and slowing her to Speed 1+. Noshiro and Yamagumo fire five Long Lance torpedo factors at Suffolk but all of them miss, and then Napier and Van Galen fire four torpedo factors at Zuiho — AND SCORE THREE HITS, DOING 10 HULL!

Zuiho disappears in a monster fireball that lights up the entire strait, for 47 + 30 (for the five aircraft steps in her hangar) = 77 Allied VPs!

Impulses 10 – 22: Richelieu is the only Speed 2 ship on the board, and she closes to sighting range on Zuiho’s former escorts. Noshiro tries to get revenge but misses, and then Suffolk knocks out Samidare’s last Tertiary while Richelieu knocks out both of Noshiro’s secondaries plus an AA gun.

The Japanese have no torpedoes left and no guns that can fire, so the Allies mop up for the rest of the round, with Suffolk scoring hits on Noshiro and Richelieu sinking Samidare (14 Allied VPs).

The Japanese try to disengage again but fail, and Renown makes another inconclusive emergency repairs roll.

Round 3

It’s not worth chasing down two gunless Japanese ships, so the Allies break off the pursuit and steam southeast to join Renown, who rolls a 6 and can finally get underway at Speed 1.

London is the only Allied casualty of the battle, and the Japanese scored 30 VPs for damage on Richelieu and 45 VPs for damage on Renown, but the Allies scored far more than that for sinking Zuiho and Haruna and most of their escorts.

The nighttime intercept mission by Illustrious’ escorts has worked to brilliant effect, but with Renown and Richelieu slowed, Illustrious has nearly outrun them. They may not have air cover in the morning if they can’t catch up with the carrier or Illustrious doesn’t reverse course to meet them.

And there’s another problem: The destroyers Napier and Van Galen exhausted the last of their fuel chasing Zuiho, and will now have to be towed unless Richelieu and Renown spend a turn sharing fuel with them. Towing isn’t an option — it would slow the lot of them down to moving one zone every two turns, giving the Japanese air force far too many chances to sink them. And whispered British comments about scuttling the destroyers don’t sit well with the Dutchmen and Aussies on Van Galen and Napier (the Brits themselves aren’t too keen anyway on losing most of their destroyer screen with Japanese subs still in the area).

Sommerville decides to stay put and refuel the destroyers next turn, hoping the weather stays bad so he can then make his slow way out to the Pacific and avoid the Japanese air force and Zuikaku’s planes.

Turn 24

The weather does not cooperate with Sommerville; it slackens to Rain in the west but stays Cloudy in the east. Saratoga keeps steaming eastward, and her rearguard steams a patrol route to cover the entire strait west of Ambonia, ending up two zones west of Saratoga.

Zuikaku, not wanting to get hit by a torpedo run from Saratoga’s rearguard nor hit from both sides by Saratoga and Illustrious in the morning, steams two zones north to put an island between her and Saratoga, but keeping the range to Saratoga and her rearguard at 5 and 3 (respectively).

The remnants of Zuiho’s escort Abort and head for Soembawa at Speed 4, and Sommerville refuels his destroyers while Illustrious reverses course and steams two zones west (where she’d hoped to rendezvous with Sommerville but can at least put him inside CAP range in the morning).

No task forces cross paths, but Saratoga steams into the patrol zone of three Japanese I boats northeast of Ceram. One of them rolls an 11, gets a spotting report on the fleet and can attack any ship in it except a carrier. She spots just one capital ship (the wounded battleship Valiant, which was hit by an airstrike on Day 1) and makes ready torpedoes.

Saratoga kept five destroyers in her escort when she dispatched her rearguard screening force, so she gets a +1 ASW bonus, but since the attack is at night there’s a -1 penalty. She rolls a 2, and the sub gets through and fires torpedoes at Valiant. They score a hit, destroying 3 Hull and 2 Tertiaries. That’s enough to exceed half of Valiant’s hull boxes, and she’s slowed to Speed 1+ (it also scores 9 Japanese VPs). It’s not a problem as long as Saratoga keeps steaming at one zone per turn, but if she has to speed up Valiant may be left behind.

So at the end of Day 4, the score is Japan 155 to Allies 300. The Allies have doubled their VP lead over the Japanese since Day 1, but Saratoga still has Zuikaku on her tail and has just found out the hard way that she’s steaming through a Japanese sub patrol zone.

Renown is at Speed 1 and down to two hull boxes, and she’s only seven zones away from the Japanese airbase at Soembawa. She can rejoin Illustrious before the Japanese can launch a morning airstrike, but she and the rest of Sommerville’s group have a long, slow journey ahead of them through hostile waters.

Can Renown and the carriers make it through to Manus and secure an Allied victory? Tune in next time and find out!

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