Introduction

03:42
A report comes in from one of the destroyers patrolling off Pearl Harbour that they have sighted what the Captain believes to be a periscope. This report is ignored, the Captain of the destroyer is new, and many other supposed periscopes have been spotted in the previous weeks.

06:53
Another report comes in, this time that something has snagged in the anti submarine nets off the harbour mouth. This is assumed to be debris and is once again ignored, beyond a note being sent to send a detail out later in the day to clear it.

07:02
The Operator of the newly installed radar station reports a large contact moving towards the island. This is the largest contact that the operators have ever seen. A report is sent to headquarters.

07:20
The commanding officer at headquarters receives the radar report, and thinks this is the 50 B-17's expected to arrive this day. He cannot tell the Radar operator this, as it is a secret. So tells them “Not to worry about it.”

7:33
A message is sent to Hawaii to inform Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, the commander of the base, that decrypted traffic from the Japanese Embassy has told the ambassadors that the will be breaking off the peace talks. This is seen by Washington as the first step to war. The Telegram warns Short of this so that he can be prepared for aggressive actions by the Japanese
Due to atmospheric conditions, the order is sent by commercial telegram, which is not marked urgent.

07:49

Over a hundred and fifty Japanese Planes begin their attack on Pearl Harbour. These have been launched from the Japanese Carrier fleet, which, sailing under complete radio blackout, has moved into range of the Harbour. The six carriers launch all buy 6 of their planes at the unsuspecting Americans enjoying their Sunday morning lie in.

Below the US planes have been parked wingtip to wingtip to prevent saboteurs getting access to them.

This turns them into perfect targets for the Japanese fighters and bomber, with no US aircraft in the air, the Japanese attack can only be defended against using hastily manned flack emplacements.

But the Planes were not their main targets; soon the torpedo bombers begin their attack on the US's Great White Fleet – parked in what was known as battleship row. Torpedo attacks had been thought impossible in the shallow waters of Pearl, but the Japanese pilots were about to prove the American analysts wrong.

The Arizona was the first, soon bombs and torpedoes were dropping from the air and into the moored battleships, cruisers, destroyers and other ships of the American fleet. Some were more effective than others, the smaller 250lb bombs that hit the battleships did little damage, but when they hit a destroyer, they inflicted crippling damage.

In what may be some small consolation, one of the Japanese pilots was a little over enthusiastic, and hit PT-22, a patrol boat, with a torpedo. This completely obliterated the vessel, but saved a larger ship from being hit.

The Battleships get the brunt of the damage however, as the attacking pilots have been told to target them and the airfields. A large number of planes are destroyed on the ground. The Runways also take many bomb hits, making it impossible for any of the planes to get off the ground.

13:00
The Japanese had exhausted their fuel and their ordinance, and turned back towards the carriers that they must have been launched from. Smoke covered Pearl Harbour, and the air was filled with the sounds of screams, shouts and explosions from the crippled ships and wounded men.

The Battleships Nevada and Maryland now lay sunk in their anchor. Six had suffered heavy damage. A Destroyer, a Minesweeper and a submarine had also been sunk, and there were many other ships that crews were desperately trying to save.

Only six confirmed Japanese bombers had been shot down.

15:00
General Short receives the Telegram warning him of a possible attack.

The Philippine Islands, contains the largest concentration of US troops outside of American owned lands. In the air above the numerous islands, Land based Betty bombers began raids on airfields all over the north of the Islands

The main US airfield, Clark Field was attacked by a combination of Nells and Betty class bombers, and the runway pounded by numerous high explosive bombs.

The south of the island chain was attacked by more carrier based aircraft. Although much smaller numbers of aircraft than at Pearl, but still demonstrating a much greater numbers of Carriers, giving the Japanese a greater ability to launch aircraft anywhere than the Americans could match.

Troops were also landed in Batan, and having no defending troops, the Island was quickly taken.

In Malaya, British forces also found themselves under attack, the small number of patrolling fighters were not able to stop the larger Japanese attack. The fact that these were older aircraft, now considered obsolete, did not help.

Although in some places they were able to inflict some damage on the attackers at least.

Later in the day a force was detected moving towards Singapore. It was detected by radar and every available fighter was scrambled to meet it.

Their target soon became clear.

The Battleship HMS Prince of Wales and Battlecruiser HMS Repulse had recently arrived in Singapore. The idea was to use their presence to deter a Japanese attack on British holdings in Asia.
While the Repulse was an older ship, dating from the First World War, the Prince of Wales was a brand new King George V class, and the newest battleship in the British Navy. A year before she had put to see with contractors aboard to help in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck, and had landed the crucial hit that damaged the ships fuel tank before being driven away.
Known of the presence of these two ships, the Japanese had launched an attack to try and sink them at anchor.

Moving through the fighter screen, the bombers move in low and strike hard. Repeating Pearl Harbour on a smaller scale, the Japanese bombers hit the British Capital ships hard.

The Prince of Wales takes two Torpedoes, and Repulse one, while only managing to shoot down one attacking bomber. Although upwards of 13 were thought to be damaged.

That Afternoon, a British counter attack was ordered after a Japanese fleet was detected coming in to land troops at Kota Baru. Although just south of their border, the Japanese had opted for a naval assault on the base, allowing them to use their naval ships to support the attack.

They attack two cargo ships and two Kongo class battleships, but their attacks are in vain, and no hits are made.

Later that night, one of the two destroyers escorting the Prince of Wales and Repulse detects a Japanese Submarine and attacks.

It is thought that the submarine took roughly 11 hits and it is hoped that she was sunk.

Wake Island is attacked by bombers. The fighters protecting it, warned by the morning’s attacks on Pearl are airborne and manage to shoot down two attacking bombers for no losses.

While China had long been at war with the Japanese, Hong Kong had always been ignored, until today, where it to fell under the shadow of attacking fighters and bombers. The destroyers Scout and Thracian were attacked, but no hits were scored.
Throughout the rest of the country there has been a lull in the fighting, the Japanese, who had not been advancing as before, had seemed to be waiting for something, seemingly today’s attack.

Dusk came to the Pacific, and shock spreads throughout the world. In America, the sudden and surprise attack has left people reeling.

Ladies and Gentlemen America is at War.

Welcome to my War in the Pacific – Admiral's Edition Lets Play.
As you may have guessed, this is a hex based wargame allowing you to control either the Allies or the Japanese in the Pacific war. It’s published by Matrix games, purveyors of many fine Grognard games.
What makes this game different is that you can control every ship, every plane and every land unit across the entire war, with a turn cycle running from 1 to 3 days at a time. Each hex on the map represent 40 miles of land or sea for you to fight over.
I will be running 1 day turns, posting one turn a day.

You’re mad! You'll never do it!
I'm not mad, I've spoken to Roosevelt and Churchill, and they both tell me they have absolute confidence in me.
In reality, I don't expect to get to the end of this, in fact, I'm going out of my way to say this will most likely never get finished, I'm going to try and do it for as long as it holds my interest, be it a week, a month, a year or five years. I’ll keep doing it as long as theirs interest and its fun for me, once the time taken do write this thing becomes prohibitive, I’ll end it.

One turn a day – that's not going to last.
This is going to be the tricky bit, as there will always be days where you just can’t get to the internet, so If I miss a day, I’ll have to post two the next. Hopefully that won’t happen much. I’ve got a week off in May or so (if this is still going) but I’m told the site has wifi, so I should be okay to post – or I’ll try and rope someone in to do my posting for me.
I’ll be trying to create a buffer, each turn after the first is taking me about an hour to an hour and a half to do, so I’ll be trying to get ahead to give myself some leeway. I’m going to try and get the buffer as high as I can, so when I burn out I have a chance to regain my interest before I run out of turns. As of this moment, my current buffer is 5 days. So I’m safe through to Friday.
This is not ideal, but it’s the best way I can think of doing it – several months of planning have gone into this, the only reason I don’t have a bigger buffer now is because the patch was only released last week.

but I don't understand everything that's going on!
This is a very complex game, one that I've only been playing for four months or so since it came out. So I'm still learning as we go – but I'm a firm believer that the chance of losing something makes it much more interesting.
On your half, I'll explain what I think you need to know, my next post will be the strategic orders for the turn, but as it will most likely be long, I'll not post it straight away to prevent a wall of text. Subsequent days should be a bit quieter than this, and I'll post both as one.
I will not be explaining everything however, to keep the workload manageable. Plus you don't want to hear about me setting up 20 convoys to Sidney. I'll keep it to an overview and detail on the combat side. I will explain key mechanisms, but the subtleties of the game will just get boring.
Think of this lets play as an overly ambitious failure that gives you the chance to follow the Second World War in (almost) real time. Let see how long it lasts and enjoy it while it does.

Thank You.

The Let's Play Archive

War in the Pacific

by Grey Hunter

Introduction

Table of Contents