Divebombing "The Mark" (Marky keep out)

[Dive Bomber1]

December 17, 1941 – As planned, troops landed at Arawe, Jolo, San Marcelino and Lamon Bay. Laoag, Georgetown, Kuala Lampur, Sag Sag and Talasea were all captured unopposed except for at Georgetown, but the Fort unit there didn't put up much of a fight.

Malacca has been abandoned and will be captured next turn. It also appears that Mersing has been abandoned; therefore I am sending an NLF unit on a Fast Transport TF to grab it. It will take two days for the FT TF to make it to Mersing from Saigon, so if it looks like I am wrong I've got a chance to redirect the TF.

I was very surprised to see that it looks like Marky has abandoned Clark Field. So instead of dropping in some paras I am sending in the two armoured units that are currently in Lingayen. It's a river crossing, and I really don't like sending armour across rivers if there is a chance of opposition, but in this case I can't pass on the opportunity.

I moved all of my longer range transports to Taan this turn in anticipation of an airborne attack on Bataan, but now with Clark seemingly abandoned I may hold off. There may be no need to use that paras if I can capture an empty Clark and just send the armoured units in to defeat the CD unit at Bataan.

The only other land action of significance had Marky rushing his Chinese units back to the crossroads northeast of Yenen. I already had a Mongol unit there, and surprisingly, the shock attack by two Chinese units had no effect. The Mongol units don't tend to be that strong, so the Chinese units must already be tired and short on supplies.

But since the other Mongol units are a couple of hexes away, and I don't want to lose control of the crossroads, so I am sending a couple of the better-rested combat units from Yenen on the road towards that crossroads in the hopes of tying up the Chinese units. I am also sending a good infantry unit after the fleeing survivors from Yenen; if I catch any stragglers I will push them along the trail. Unfortunately, this will slow down my re-deployment of the victors of Yenen.

In the air war Marky sent his mixed-bag of bombers and fighters from Tarakan against Brunei again, but they didn't get any hits and did suffer some damage. The only other Allied air attacks were against transports at Vigan, and my CAP took care of the fighters very easily, shooting down a handful and damaging more. The end result was that no ships were hit. Marky should be running short of P-40s pretty soon.

Back in the South Pacific, my invasion plans for Rabaul are coming along nicely. The bombardment TF should hit Rabaul next turn, and the invasion TF is only a few days away. Since things are nice and quiet in that region I decided to load up the South Seas Detachment, which I brought to Truk immediately after it captured Guam, and send it down to capture Gasmata. I'll have the KB down there anyway, so it makes sense to occupy Gasmata before Marky decides to try to sneak a base force in ahead of me. My idea with Gasmata is the same as it was for Baker Island – to force Marky to stage an invasion instead of letting him "sneak" in forces.

BTW – If I don't use the paras to capture Bataan I will likely use them to cut off Marky's forces in Burma. It appears that Marky is planning to make a stand at the crossroads to the east of Rangoon because that hex is essentially protected by river crossings on all sides. I wonder just how big of a force he actually left in Rangoon, since there are something like 11 units showing up in that crossroads hex. [;)]

[Japanese_Spirit]

......I cannot believe that Marky has literally handed you over Luzon and Malaya! I don't know what he really hopes to achieve. Despite having a stack full of units, he will most certainly lose Manila and Singapore.....

Even if you lose both in the end, any Allied player should fight on and defend both points, it delays Japan's first intial advances greatly.

Anyway, looking forward to the next update. Let us see what happens near Burma.....

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: Japanese_Spirit

......I cannot believe that Marky has literally handed you over Luzon and Malaya! I don't know what he really hopes to achieve. Despite having a stack full of units, he will most certainly lose Manila and Singapore.....

Even if you lose both in the end, any Allied player should fight on and defend both points, it delays Japan's first intial advances greatly.

Anyway, looking forward to the next update. Let us see what happens near Burma.....

There biggest effect for me of Marky pulling back so fast is that I am able to bring my Army planes to the attack very early, giving them good, quick experience, while I keep my naval LBA rested and waiting for targets. The only thing that is slowing me down from a full aerial blitz of Singapore is the time that it is taking for me to land and position base forces and air support units in Malaya. Once they are fully loaded even the AVG can't stop multi-hundred plane raids.

One of my other pbem opponents left the AVG in Singapore too long due to early success against rain-scattered raids by my naval air. But after consecutive attacks by over a hundred Sallys at short range that were accompanied by both good Oscar Daitais and a good Zero Daitai, the AVG was broken and I started to destroy it on the ground. I was then fortuate enough to be able to tie-in a full attack by the KB which wiped out more of the AVG including 28 P-40Bs on the ground in one attack.

So if Marky leaves the AVG in place I plan a similar fate for his air forces, followed by a very early full-force seige of Singapore.

Thanks -

[Dive Bomber1]

December 18, 1941 - It's taking me a long time to do each turn against Marky. I find that the Front keeps on moving so fast that my plans have to change from turn to turn. I've got forces on the move everywhere, and I'm having to react to large stretches of bad weather as well as Marky's moves. And just don't ask about my supply lines…

Japanese bombardment TFs hit Rabaul, Menado and Singkawang this turn. The attack at Singkawang actually caught a number of planes on the ground for a change. But it wasn't enough to stop more planes from the same base from attacking the retiring TF. More planes were damaged, but one dropped a 100lb bomb on one of my thin-skinned DDs, causing a fair amount of damage. Marky's tactics are definitely causing me a lot of ship damage. For the most part this turn Allied air missions flew and Japanese air missions didn't. Fortunately, the Allied attacks didn't cause much damage overall.

So while my air units are watching the rain fall, my ground troops continue to make progress. Jolo, Clark Field, Malacca, Lamon Bay and San Marcelino all fell to my forces today. The nice thing about grabbing Clark was that my troops were able to destroy 2 more B-17Cs and 4 more P-40Es on the ground. It now looks as if there are at least two Allied units in Bataan, so I'm going to ignore it for now and keep it isolated while I focus my attention on Manila. Once Manila falls I'll send a couple of units to clean up Bataan.

One of my "gypsy" NLFs continued on its mission to capture empty bases along the north coast of New Guinea this turn by landing on Biak. This unit will probably be good for one more landing after this before I will have to send it back to a major non-malarial base for R&R. There are only a handful of north coast New Guinea bases left that are not under my control.

The naval bombardment of Rabaul signaled that my invasion is about to begin. Some Wirraways at Rabaul attempted to strafe the bombardment TF and suffered some well-deserved damage without causing any in return. Now that the KB is nearby I have set its dive bombers to air field attack as their alternate mission. So unless Marky sends some TFs up from the south the DBs ought to put the air field at Rabaul out of action.

In one little irritation I noticed that the NLF at Aware didn't attack this turn. I seem to be having occasional problems getting combat units to stay at the "deliberate attack" setting. I must be changing something without knowing it.

In China a third Chinese unit crossed the river at the crossroads northeast of Yenen, initiating another shock attack against the lone Mongol unit there. But once again the shock attack was ineffective, so it looks as if I may be able to reinforce that lone unit in time. Otherwise I still don't have much going on in China. I'm waiting to let my troops prepare while Marky isn't pushing me.

In Malaya it appears that Johore Bahru has been abandoned, so with any luck the siege of Singapore will begin by Christmas. I left the fast transport invasion of Mersing on track. My main challenge in Malaya now will be to bring enough base forces and air support units forward to allow me to definitively close the airfields at Singapore. And in one more bit of action in the region, I've set an invasion TF off for Sinkep. If nothing else it will give me a measure of how much anti-shipping air power Marky still has in the region.

[Dive Bomber1]

December 19, 1941 - Despite the fact that I am making constant progress I am still being frustrated by Marky's 100 ft strafing tactics. Again this turn Marky's fighters took off from the airfields at Manila and attacked ships all around Luzon. Japanese CAP responded only when the Allied planes attacked ships that were actually in the harbors at Vigan and Legaspi, and half of the time the Allied attack avoided the CAP and got through to pepper my transports with machinegun fire.

It's a good thing that Marky doesn't have any fighters that carry cannon yet, like the P-39, or else I would be in real trouble. The Allied fighters obviously have pretty lousy morale because as soon as the first one gets shot at the rest fly away. But this means that my CAP isn't shooting any down the attackers even if the attackers don't slip past the CAP. And the early-game lousy weather has kept my bombers grounded day-after-day, so I haven't been able to close the runways at Manila.

I could probably reduce the problem by sending in a couple of Zero Daitais at 100 ft on their own strafing attacks against the runways at Manila, but because Marky has almost all of his Philippine troops hunkered down in Manila he can put up a lot of flak, and I don't want to lose a pile of good pilots to AA. Since Marky has the same threat hanging over my forces in Malaya I can't pull out my Nates from there to use as AA fodder in Luzon. So I'm stuck until the weather gives me a break. In the meanwhile I keep on bringing more air units in to various bases on Luzon to await their chance.

As in past days, my ground troops continue to do well for the most part. Landings started at Rabaul and Mersing. The Allied troops at Rabaul counterattacked with shore guns, but the bulk of the Japanese troops got ashore and I've set them to a deliberate attack for next turn. We'll see if I get lucky. The KB also came into action against Rabaul as over 100 DBs hit the airfields. Only one Wirraway was caught on the ground, and the airfields suffered moderate damage. It looks as if Marky pulled his Wirraways out rather than try more strafing attacks.

I've decided to send the KB off to hit the airfields and port at Port Moresby. I am presuming that the Wirraways went there and there is also at least one ship in the harbor. After this raid I may well send the KB back to the east because it appears that Marky is reinforcing Canton Island and I may have an opportunity to catch some of his transports in the region if I move quickly enough.

The Mersing landing was unopposed as I expected. But it looks as if Marky is changing his strategy a bit concerning the defense of Singapore. My recon now tells me that there are around 16 units in Johore Bharu, where as it appeared empty the previous turn. I'm not certain if Marky is planning to try to interfere with my landing at Mersing or just try to stop my march on Singapore, but I've got my lead units ready to move into Johore Bharu within a turn or two, so we may well have a big confrontation there.

I re-set my ever-increasing air power in Malaya to attack Johore Bharu next turn. I'm just hoping that the weather cooperates for a change. My air efforts are still being hindered because the airfields at Khota Bharu are still unusable, although they are almost at the "under 50" combined level of air field and air support damage. I've got an engineering unit landing next turn too, which will help the situation.

To the north the 55th Division moved into a now abandoned Tavoy and will capture it next turn. In the other good news, my troops finally attacked and captured Aware, and Biak was also captured.

The one down side of the ground war was that the Chinese stragglers northeast of Yenen finally kicked the Mongol unit out of that crossroads. I've got more units on their way to the area so that I can block off any movement into my territory, but I don't intend to attack those Chinese units because I don't want to waste troops against a river crossing. My main objective is to continue to rest up the troops that captured Yenen and slowly move them to the southwest where my next offensives will be held.

The other news of note is that Marky is getting much more aggressive with his subs. Allied subs are showing up in Japanese ports all over the map. Four subs actually showed up at the same time in Saigon harbor! My air units on naval attack and ASW settings will get a lot of practice in the immediate future.

[Dive Bomber1]

December 20, 1941 - The rain finally cleared a bit and two out of my three Luzon air bases were able to send off their now very well rested bombers. The result was very satisfying - the airfields at Manila were hit hard and lots of planes were destroyed on the ground, including most importantly 7 P-40Es and 2 P-40Bs. The air field wasn't closed, but no strafing attacks flew, so it was "mission accomplished" as far as my troops were concerned.

Overall there was not much Allied air action this turn. Some bombers went after the bombardment TF that was leaving Sinkep Island after a nicely successful bombardment attack, but the bombers scored no hits and a number of planes were damaged by flak. There was also one feeble attack by Blenheims on one of the Japanese regiments in Malaya, but there was no damage to the troops. Maybe I've earned a bit of peace and quiet for now…

The invasion of Rabaul continued with my troops getting off a 2:1 attack that didn't capture the base but did reduce the fortifications to level 2. My troops gained negligible fatigue or disruption so I set them to attack again this turn. I've got a supply TF in place landing supplies, so that helps the overall situation. The KB is half-way to Port Moresby and should hit next turn, weather permitting.

In Malaya Marky moved an Australian unit into Mersing just in time to stop my NLF unit from capturing the base. Surprisingly enough the NLF unit did not suffer badly in its unsuccessful attack despite being outnumbered. But that Australian unit is now stuck in Mersing because my first land units reached Johore Bharu this turn too.

The airfields at Khota Bharu are still not useable despite the presence of a big special base force and a construction battalion. Maybe it will be ready next turn. I keep on moving more base forces into Malaya so that I can bring lots of air power to play, but it hurts to not have the big airfields at Khota Bharu available to me. I'm hoping that the weather clears a bit there too because I am sending attacks off against both Johore Bharu and for the first time in a while against Manila. I don't know if the AVG is still there, and if so if they are on CAP, but I should find out next turn.

Otherwise things were pretty quiet as I am busy repositioning units for my next major phase of expansion. My troops did capture Tavoy unopposed, and an NLF unit landed at Finschafen. It now looks as if Marky is planning a full-up defense of Rangoon. Maybe I'll be able to trap his units there…

[Dive Bomber1]

December 21, 1941 – The big news this turn was the successful capture of Rabaul. The Japanese forces there are in surprisingly good shape, and I'm starting to consider sending them directly on to grab Port Moresby before Marky has a chance to reinforce it. That's because the KB found very little there at PM. There were no ships left in the harbour and little in the way of air units – only a few Wirraways and Coronados. The KB's planes hammered the base quite well and since Marky is currently showing little in the way of response in the area, going after PM early is quite tempting. So since my invasion TF never got very far away I'm sending it back to Rabaul. The KB will refuel in Shortlands and I'll turn around the bombardment TF quickly too. My invasion plans for Gili Gili are still on track and the troops ought to land there in the next few days too.

This is probably a better use for the KB than to try to catch Marky's ships in port somewhere. I was considering sending the KB back to Pearl Harbor for one more attack in December to take advantage of the full Zero bonus, but I probably don't have enough days left to do that. The only problem will be to try to grab enough of the bases that are linked by road to PM to prevent Marky's troops from retreating into the mountains. One of my units captured Finschafen this turn so I'll get that unit busy landing, capturing and then moving on while the main invasion gets set up.

I also landed troops at Sandakan, Noemfoor and Buka this turn. I'll try to turn around the troops at Noemfoor and Buka quickly and send them along to the remaining northern NG bases. With a little luck I may just pull this off.

More of my troops moved up to Manila this turn so my bombardment attacks get stronger each turn. More of my planes also hit the air fields at Manila, destroying more planes and damaging the air fields more. Marky's remaining PTs are hiding at Bataan. If they come out I'll chase them down with CL/DD TFs.

Some of my bombers in Malaya finally hit the airfields at Singapore, destroying planes on the ground and causing damage. It doesn't appear that the AVG is at Singapore any longer since only British planes were destroyed on the ground. Instead, with 75 or so fighters showing up at Rangoon, I suspect that the AVG is back in Burma. I'll have to be careful not to let Marky catch my Nates in the region in an AVG sweep.

BTW – as far as air losses go, the numbers that I have been following most closely are the following:

P-40B – 86 lost
P-40E – 69 lost

Zero – 15 lost

Many of those P-40 losses have come after the initial December 7 air strikes, and I want to continue to hunt down those that Marky has left. The AVG is only a danger to me as long as it has planes available to fill its ranks. And since we are playing with PDU set to "on", Marky does have an option to move the AVG over to P-40Es early on if I leave enough of them around. With any luck Marky will be using P-36s as front line plane soon. [:D]

In the ground battle for the Malay Peninsula Marky's Australians drove my little NLF unit out of Mersing this turn in a successful shock attack. But my troops took few casualties and are being sent back for R&R. In the meanwhile more Japanese troops moved up to Johore Bharu and my bombardments there are getting stronger too. And the @#$%^ air fields at Khota Bharu are still not usable, but they ought to be by next turn. I'm shipping an air HQ there to help out once I bring in my Army bombers.

In Naval news, one of my subs attacked an already damaged DD at Broome but missed it. The same sub then attacked an AK and put a torpedo and some shells into it. So I have some idea where some of Marky's ships are hiding.

[princep01]

Divebomber, I really like the style of your AAR.  The summaries are detailed enough to convey interesting info, but avoid th e"clutter" of pasting the entire turn's detail for each day.  Excellent work.  Thanks for the effort.
 
You are advancing faster than I have heretofore experienced.  It will be interesting to see if your opponent's policy of retreat and hedgehog will slow your advance once he turns to fight.

[Dive Bomber1]

ORIGINAL: princep01

Divebomber, I really like the style of your AAR.  The summaries are detailed enough to convey interesting info, but avoid th e"clutter" of pasting the entire turn's detail for each day.  Excellent work.  Thanks for the effort.

You are advancing faster than I have heretofore experienced.  It will be interesting to see if your opponent's policy of retreat and hedgehog will slow your advance once he turns to fight.

I got the idea from Admiral Laurant's AAR - he does summaries instead of pasting the combat report - and I like his insight into what he is planning. So I am trying something similar here.

I am trying to take advantage of the December bonuses for Zeros and invasions. I believe that the invasion bonus only lasts a month and that the Zero bonus degrades until it goes away by May or something like that. So because of that I am trying to move more units faster, and I am also assuming that Marky really can't do much other than try some raids with his CVs if he likes.

I played in a similar manner against AuTiger and Aussem in my first pbem games, so I've already got some idea of what works fairly well for the first few months of the game and what doesn't. But Marky continues to surprise me and do things differently from either of my other opponents.

So right now I'm trying to avoid making any really big mistakes while trying to push Marky back from where he can be a bother. I am quite stretched right now and don't have much in the way of forces or supplies/fuel to spare, so I'm trying to make Marky think that I am "everywhere at once" so that he doesn't push back at anywhere that I am temporarily weak.

What I really want to do is find a pool of Marky's ships. He got his ships out of Manila surprisingly fast - I didn't detect them on the way out despite having lots of forces around right from the beginning. The question is - will he keep them near the Front or move them out of easy reach? But I don't want to vary too much from my current plans either.

Thanks for the comments and compliments!

[Dive Bomber1]

December 22, 1941 - Subs on both sides were busy this turn. One of Marky's subs in Saigon Harbor got a torpedo hit on an AP that was unloading, but the sub was sunk later on by the escorts of another TF in the harbor. Escorts also attacked a sub off of the northern tip of Luzon a couple of times and got a few hits on it.

In return one of my subs put a torpedo into an AP that was unloading at Pago Pago, and another of my subs put a torpedo into CL Adelaide at Darwin. It looks as if Marky is moving a lot of forces into the South Pacific.

I'm not bothering to send out dedicated ASW TFs in this game. I tried that a lot in my first pbems without much success so I'd rather save my ASW ships for escort duty in this game. Anyway, Japanese air ASW seems to be more effective than ship ASW.

The air war was much more one-sided, and in Marky's favor. Almost all of my air missions were rained out, but Marky's planes flew out of Manila and Singapore again, attacking ships all over the place. Fortunately some of those attacks were against a retiring bombardment TF that contained BBs so a number of Allied planes were flak-damaged. I'm hoping that my bombers fly next turn so that I stand a chance of slowing down the attrition from these nuisance attacks. BTW - those air fields at Khota Bharu continue to vex me - they still aren't repaired enough to move planes in yet!

My land efforts continued along well. Buka, Sandakan and Noemfoor were captured. My bombardments at Singapore and Johore Bharu continued to reap increasing numbers of enemy casualties. My Gili Gili invasion ought to land next turn.

I've put my "Port Moresby Panic" plan into motion as I started to fill the returned invasion TF with the division that just captured Rabaul. I also picked up two NLFs and am sending them towards enemy-held bases in NE PNG. I've sent other ships to pick up other NLFs so that they can grab bases quickly too. The KB is moving around leisurely in the region and the bombardment TF is heading back to Rabaul to replenish rather than to Truk. It will be a "close thing" if I can pull this off, but I feel that it is worth the try.

BTW - Lunga was "occupied" at the beginning of the turn, I guess by the troops that are sitting at Tulagi. That saves me a bit of trouble, but I'm still keeping the TF that I had on the way to Lunga on course so that the troops can occupy the base and start to secure it.

In my other risky move I've decided to send the two paratroop units in to Bataan after all. They will join an armored unit that is already there and going to attack this turn. If my recon is correct all that is at Bataan is the CD unit and a base force. It would be nice to capture it this turn. [&o]

In Burma a base force finally reached Tavoy so I immediately moved bombers, fighters and recon planes into place. I'm sending them to attack Moulmein next turn. Those 74 fighters are still showing up in Rangoon, so this attack ought to show if the AVG is there or not, by whether or not any CAP extends its presence over the otherwise CAP-less Moulmein. If I do find the AVG there I may well move up several well rested Zero Daitais to see if I can sweep the AVG.

[Dive Bomber1]

December 23, 1941 – My forces suffered a couple of set-backs this turn, but nothing fatal. First off the invaders of Sinkep failed to capture the base. Now I'm going to rest them up and let them bombard for a time while I send in reinforcements. I had this happen in one of my other pbems too so I guess that the Allied troops are Sinkep are tougher than I supposed.

The other set-back was a case of an Intel failure, as well as my failure to interpret the Intel correctly. It turns out that a Philippine Division is in Bataan along with the CD unit, not a base force as I had surmised from the presence of an "air" symbol at the base. I don't understand how the planes at Bataan can be in repair, and I didn't think that air symbols showed up if damaged planes were at the base, but it really doesn't matter at this point.

Unlike my misbegotten paratroop attack on Bataan in my pbem against Aussem where I lost the paratroops because they were trapped, I control the surrounding bases so the paras survived and are now besieging Bataan along with the armoured unit. Both sides sent off unsuccessful shock attacks, and now things ought to settle down a bit until I can finish off Manila and send some serious ground troops in to take care of Bataan.

My plans for air attacks on Manila also fizzled out in the rain this turn, so Marky's air units were again able to sortie out and attack nearby ships. I don't understand why the Allied planes keep on getting by the Japanese CAP. I now have my CAP down to 10,000 feet. That ought to be low enough. This is quite frustrating. So I've finally decided to set my Zeros to a 100 foot airfield attack along with the regular higher altitude bomber attacks to see if I can finally close the field at Manila. Of course, the weather has to cooperative.

The weather did cooperate a bit in Malaya where I got off several sizable bomber attacks on the airfields at Singapore, causing a nice bit of damage and destroying 25 planes on the ground including another 13 P-40Bs. Part of the AVG may well still be in Singapore – in any event my air attack at Moulmein went off without any CAP flying against it - so I'm guessing that Marky has all those fighters at Rangoon set to Naval Attack too. Good for him – I'm not sailing anything in that direction right now. [:D]

The other bit of long-awaited news in Malaya was that the airfields at Khota Bharu were finally repaired sufficiently for me to bring in some planes to join the air campaign against Singapore. Those planes will go out on a normal attack, but I've also set my good Oscars at Kuantan to do a 100 foot runway attack too. Once again, I just need a break in the weather.

BTW – it appears that Marky has pulled the Aussies back out of Mersing and into Johore Bharu again to join its defence, so I've ordered off another Fast Transport invasion of Mersing, this time with an SNLF unit. If I am right Marky shouldn't be able to send troops back into Mersing because of the zone-of-control rules, but zoc rules in this game seem very odd and I'm not betting on anything yet.

In other action, my troops landed at San Jose, Manokwari and Gili-Gili. My invasion TF for PM has also left port, and all of my mini-invasions of northeastern PNG are shaping up. It will be a close thing, and likely won't work, but I still feel that I ought to give it a chance. The big risk with this effort is that I don't have any local air patrols in place other than what my TFs can provide. The only base force around is in Rabaul, but the airfields there aren't yet ready to accept planes.

It will be interesting to see how Marky responds to this, particularly if I do capture PM. Sure, he can bomb PM from northeastern Australia, but that's better than having Rabaul bombed, and anyway – what's to stop me from invading the bases in northeastern Australia if I've captured Rabaul successfully? [;)]

[Dive Bomber1]

December 24, 1941 – Marky may not have played pbems before, but he obviously learned a great deal about this game by playing against the AI and reading posts in the Forum, because his strategy in this early part of our game is serving him quite well. Marky is causing an increasing level of casualties and damage among my forces while at the same time essentially risking none of his more valuable assets.

First off, Marky is using all of his planes, including fighters, as naval bombers to the exclusion of all other air missions. And he is using them like kamikazes with no regard for losses. This turn Marky lost another 28 planes including 13 more P-40Bs. He has now lost 120 P-40Bs in 17 days of battle and over 500 planes in total against just over 100 Japanese planes lost. But in exchange for his planes Marky has seriously damaged dozens and dozens of Japanese ships, including putting three torpedoes into BB Hyuga this turn.

Instead of letting his fighters be blown away by superior Japanese planes and pilots Marky is sending them out at 100 feet to strafe any naval targets they find – and most smaller Japanese ships have negligible AA and no armor. For whatever reason my CAP - despite being well rested, well lead and well positioned – catches only around 1 in six attacks and never wipes them out.

Marky is also using his positional advantage very well. Both Manila and Singapore are in the middle of my main movement routes, they have large air bases, plenty of supplies, plenty of air base support personnel, and also have Air HQs, all of which help Marky keep planes flying and attacking. In contrast, my forward air bases need to have everything shipped in to them, and Marky's planes take full advantage of the resulting overabundance of "soft" targets.

Marky also finds the weather situation funny. On any given turn the planes at only one out of three of my air bases actually fly their missions due to the continuously bad weather over the top three weather-regions of the map. This means that I haven't been able to close the air fields at Manila and Singapore, despite having any overwhelming level of air superiority in the region that is spread out over a number of bases. So while this past turn two out of six of my air fields launched attacks on Singapore and caused a lot of damage and lots of planes destroyed on the ground, it wasn't enough to keep Marky's bombers from flying off and hitting Hyuga in my bombardment TF that popped out of the rain at the wrong time.

But there is no point in trying to rush my plans for Manila and Singapore in an attempt to get rid of the air threat. I don't have enough troops yet at Manila, nor at Johore Bharu, to capture either base. And I don't want to waste my units in under-powered attacks that cost a lot of troops and result in huge fatigue and disruption levels. Marky found that out the hard way for himself at Bataan as he tried a Shock attack against my paratroops and the armoured unit there, only to be repulsed with heavy casualties to his side and negligible damage to my troops.

So for now I'll have to accept my higher-than-planned naval losses in the Philippines/Dutch East Indies as long as I want to continue with my relatively aggressive early plan. I just wish that I had a reliable answer to the 100ft fighters, and in the absence of one I'll have to hope for a break in the weather.

Despite the frustration in that part of the world, my other plans are continuing along fairly well. My PNG strategy is rolling along nicely, with Gili Gili captured and troops landing at Lae and Salamaua this turn. I'll capture those two bases next turn and I've also got troops closing in on Buna and Dobadura, which will close the trap on PM. One bombardment TF is replenished and on its way back to PM, as is the KB; and another bombardment TF is on its way to Rabaul before heading along to PM to join the rest. And the invasion TF is continuing along its way.

BTW - my troops also captured Manokwari and San Jose this turn, so my pacman approach to unoccupied bases continues along pretty much unabated.

There is no "sign of life" from Marky in the PNG/NE Australia region, although he has been moving a number of TFs between Pearl Harbor and Canton Island. I'm expecting him to try something against the Gilberts/Marshalls before too much time passes.

[Dive Bomber1]

December 25, 1941 - I don't know if it was the rain or if Marky's air units in Manila and Singapore are finally tiring out, but I wasn't bothered by planes from either air base this turn. The weather grounded two thirds of my flights, as usual, but those fragmentary missions that did fly hit both Manila and Singapore and destroyed more planes on the ground at both bases.

It appears that the runways at Singapore are now damaged enough to be closed to offensive missions - now all I have to do is keep them that way. The runways at Manila weren't damaged much, but every bit counts.

Marky sent his US PTs up to Vigan this turn but ran into a CL/DD TF there instead of the transport TF that is pulling out the combat division from the base. Marky must have had a pretty good admiral in charge of his PTs because they fought fairly well and damaged one of my DDs, but in the end my TF sank two PTs and sent the rest back to Bataan for replenishment.

My movement forward continued this turn with landings at Mersing, Roxas, Taytay and Singkawang. I don't believe that Marky will be able to move a ground unit into Mersing this time, but one never knows with this Game. I'm hoping to grab Singkawang on the first try because the planes there have been a bother to me. Fortunately they didn't score any serious hits on the combat TF that I had securing the harbor there and the AA of the bigger ships did shoot down or damage a number of Allied planes.

I didn't have that TF do a bombardment this turn because I was concerned about Marky's Dutch PTs that were heading towards Kuching the last I spotted them. But they have vanished, and since they are pretty short-ranged I'm betting that they don't get back to Singkawang in time so I've got the combat TF doing a bombardment this turn in the hopes of softening up the defensive force and hopefully allowing me a first-shot capture.

My troops captured Lae and Salamaua this turn. Troops landed at Buna and should land at Dobodura next turn, which ought to close the trap shut on PM. Marky moved some Hudsons into PM and they promptly wasted themselves against the incoming bombardment TF. My Intel tells me that the airfield and port at PM are both still heavily damaged, so to help keep them that way I'm sending some LBA to hit the air fields at PM this turn. Fortunately, the airfields at Rabaul were repaired quickly and I already have a patrol unit, Zeros and Nells in place.

The KB is also almost in position and I will use it again to hammer the air fields at PM. My second bombardment TF made port at Rabaul in time to use up some of the fuel that my tankers are already unloading there, and it is set to immediately head off to PM to assist in the attack. I need a bit of luck with all this, but I still feel that I've got a chance to pull it off.

In the only other significant land action, my SNLF unit at Cagayan tried a deliberate attack but only achieved 1:1 odds against the base force. However, the fortifications went down to level 1, so I'm hoping that a repeat attack captures the base this turn. I'm trying to get rid of the remaining small bases in the Philippines so that Marky can't continue with this nuisance attacks once Manila is captured.

And in naval news, Marky's Dutch and British subs were busy off of Saigon again, hitting one AK and sinking an AP. But my air units caught Trusty on the surface in Singapore and sank it, so there's one less British sub to bother me.

Finally, Hyuga is still afloat and crawling towards Saigon. The rain masked it from Allied air attacks and for the moment the Allied subs in the area haven't found it. But it is still badly damaged and has a ways to go yet, so I'm not counting upon it getting to safety.

[Dive Bomber1]

December 26, 1941 - The Dutch PTs did make it back to Singkawang, only to run into my bombardment TF which took care of the Dutch quite nicely, despite being set to bombardment orders. One Dutch PT was sunk and the rest were chased off, then the bombardment TF executed a very nice bombardment that caused all sorts of damage. That same bombardment TF then served as a bomber-magnet and a number of Dutch bombers from Java and southern Borneo flew in to be damaged or destroyed. To make the Singkawang story complete my troops easily captured the base on the first turn, destroying a number of aircraft on the ground.

Overall this was a good day for destroying Allied planes and 31 more were sent to the scrap yard - mainly bombers this turn. Two Daitais of Sallys hit Singapore hard, followed by three Daitais of Nells, so the runways there remain closed. Three more Daitais of Sallys hit the airfields at Manila hard, but not hard enough to close the runways and once more Marky's fighters took off to harass the Japanese ships in the region. Even with my CAP down at 5000ft most of the Allied fighters got through. Fortunately none did much damage, and my troop buildup at Manila continues slowly but surely.

My troop buildup at Johore Bharu is complete so I ordered the troops to do a deliberate attack next turn. I just realized that I ought to send a bombardment TF to hit that base. If it appears that Johore Bharu will be a tough nut to crack after next turn's attack I'll do just that.

In other ground action my SNLF force captured Cagayan this turn, eliminating it from being a potential nuisance air base. My troops also captured Buna, Taytay, Roxas and Mersing where fortunately Marky wasn't able to slip troop back in again.

In preparation for my upcoming invasion of Port Moresby Japanese troops landed at Dobodura and Goodenough Island this turn and will take both empty bases next turn. The Port Moresby invasion force ought to land in another two or three turns. The KB will be back in position to pummel the airfields at PM next turn and the first of two bombardment TFs ought to hit next turn too.

The only news of interest of Marky was a Glen's report of ships coming into Canton Harbor at 28 knots. A sub was spotted in the region last turn by a cruiser floatplane, so Marky is obviously up to something. I still have a fairly strong surface force resting in Kwajalein harbor and plenty of LBA in the region, so I'm not too worried about a nuisance strike by the USN into the Gilberts of Marshalls right now. But just in case I've also sent all the transports in Kwajalein harbor off towards Tokyo.

And of course, Marky may well not be clear on how fast the KB can travel when it needs to… [:D]

[Dive Bomber1]

December 27, 1941 - There was a fair amount of strangeness in this turn, but most of my important activities went as planned. Dobodura was captured, completing the entrapment of the Allies at Port Moresby. Goodenough Island was also captured, as was Nauru Island where I quietly landed a force while taking advantage of a lull in the Central Pacific.

One of the odd things was that I captured Homan against almost no resistance. Marky pulled back his troops but left an HQ unit there. It also looks like Marky may have abandoned Wuchow and Kweilin too. I'm sending some troops forward to see if this is true. It's an odd move by Marky since I haven't been aggressive in China. It does appear however, that Marky is building Changsha into a master fortress. That's okay with me because if he does then I'll just cut off his troops from supply and bomb them into oblivion at my leisure, all the while training my pilots. [:D]

The Port Moresby operation is going well. Both bombardment TFs arrived this turn and hit the base hard. I left one of the TFs on surface combat and set the other to do one more bombardment. Nells from Rabaul came in to add to the damage, and then the KB sent off a full strike against the air base at PM, destroying plenty of planes and closing the fields. The transports should arrive tomorrow or the day after and then the real fun will begin.

In other battles, I landed fresh troops at Sinkep and there now ought to be enough fire power there to capture the place. My initial attack on Johore Bharu failed, but the fortifications were reduced to level 4 and Marky's defenders suffered lots of casualties, so I'm satisfied. I'll leave my units on bombardment attack for the next couple of turns, then attack again. I've also gone ahead and sent a bombardment TF off to hit Johore Bharu.

My air units sent off some big attacks against both Manila and Singapore this turn. Surprisingly, the Manila attack didn't do that much damage. It has been very hard to try to close those airfields. Still and all, my attacks destroyed more Allied planes, so things are progressing. Never-the-less, Marky's fighters at Manila still managed to take off and harass my incoming transports. At least this turn one Allied fighter was shot down out of the numerous strafing attacks.

[Dive Bomber1]

December 28, 1941 - Port Moresby received yet another naval bombardment, followed by more devastating air attacks, after which the coastal guns were quiet as my troops landed. I'm letting the KB slip back to Gili Gili at mission speed for fuel and sending one of the bombardment TFs back to Rabaul for replenishment. I've ordered my troops to just do a bombardment attack next turn while the remainder of the force lands and gets established. So with any luck I might be able to capture PM before the end of the year.

Of course, I will need luck, and that has been in short supply for me recently. Hyuga finally sank this turn, just one hex out from Saigon. And my partial air attacks on Manila continued, causing a fair amount of damage but not coming close to closing the air fields. Marky must have a fair amount of supplies left to go along with his engineers there because the airfield damage is being repaired almost immediately. That's a reflection of what makes Manila a great choice for a last stand in Luzon - the absence of malaria means that troops can keep up their strength and draw out the fight.

The only major advance this turn was at Sinkep where my reinforced troops finally captured the base. My original decision to go in with insufficient forces turned out to be very costly and directly lead to the loss of Hyuga.

For some reason my troops didn't attack and capture Goodenough Island this turn. I was certain that I set the troops to attack last turn, and even checked it a couple of times, but they were just sitting there this turn. So I've reset them again. This happens enough that I am beginning to think that it isn't just because of errors on my part and something else that I'm doing is resetting the orders. I have found out that if I set the "target" of a unit after I've given orders, the orders are reset to "defend", but I'm suspicious that there is something yet involved that I haven't noticed.

Troops landed at Tawi Tawi and Puerto Princesa this turn. They ought to attack and capture those empty bases next turn. And it turns out that Wuchow is vacant, so my troops will attack and capture it next turn, unless one of Marky's units pops up to contest it. And troops finally crawled up to Moulmein from Tavoy. I'll do a bombardment next turn to check out the strength of the enemy and to allow more troops to advance.

[Dive Bomber1]

December 29, 1941 - Marky tried to catch me by surprise again by moving a bunch of planes into Johore Bharu this turn, but it was his turn to run out of luck as my bombardment TF hit the base hard, closing the air fields and wiping out 16 planes on the ground - 4 Blenheim IVs, 4 Vildebeast IVs, 4 T.IVa and 4 CW-21B Demons. Combined with lousy weather everywhere this meant that no Allied planes took off to bother my ships anywhere, other than a few Catalinas from Bataan that tried a night time torpedo attack but didn't find any targets.

Marky is wondering how I "knew" where he placed his planes. Of course, I had no idea that he would put them in Johore Bharu; I only sent that TF there to soften up Marky's ground troops. Never-the-less, it was still an odd and risky move on Marky's part since I am besieging the base. In Marky's shoes I would have put the planes in Medan or Palembang instead of risking them to a surprise Japanese ground attack. I've also been bombing the airfields at Johore Bharu regularly, and just because I haven't gotten off any really strong attacks yet doesn't mean that they can't happen. BTW - I've ordered my troops at Johore Bharu to try a deliberate attack this turn to see if the defenses have been weakened much.

Japanese troops landed at Dagua and Aitape this turn, and will capture those bases next turn, completing my control of the north coast of New Guinea, with the exception of a couple of "dot" bases. Puerto Princesa, Kiriwina Island and Wuchow were also captured this turn. Sure enough, Wuchow was empty.

It also appears that Kweilin only has one unit in it, so I'm sending troops in to capture that base also. I'm more than happy to grab any bases that Marky wants to abandon, particularly those Chinese bases that are closer to the coast. This just makes it easier for me to defend the coast against eventual Allied air attacks. Also, by letting me grab undefended or lightly defended bases in China, Marky is allowing me to build the experience of my troops without my units being bogged down in protracted siege warfare that drains my reserves.

In the Philippines the final two Divisions that are slated for the siege of Manila are now unloading at Naga. Once they move in position I'll start attacking the base seriously. For now I'm just continuing to do daily bombardment attacks. Fortunately, Marky is doing the same thing, which uses up his supplies and does no damage.

Another Philippine division arrived in Bataan this turn and contributed to an Allied counterattack against my three besieging units, but even with this additional help the attack did little damage. The remaining parts of my paratroop units that were left behind at Taan during the initial air drop arrived at San Marcelino by ship and are marching to join the rest of their cohorts in Bataan. That ought to make the siege secure enough until I've captured Manila and can send some big units in to Bataan for the kill.

It turns out that Marky only has a base force in Moulmein, so the besieging Japanese division will do a deliberate attack next turn and hopefully capture the base. Although Marky's main Burmese forces appear to be sticking to Rangoon, my air recon tells me that Marky has pulled out the fighter planes that had been sitting there. With that obstacle gone I've ordered some Army bombers to attack the air fields at Rangoon next turn.

Those Allied fighters may have moved into the thick of the battle, because air symbols showed up this turn at Cebu and Iloilo. Fortunately, those are only level 1 bases, so all I really have to worry about is fighter nuisance raids, and I don’t have many ships in that area right now. My bigger concern is Cotabato which is a level 2 base and where the escapees from Davao ended up. I found out to my surprise in one of my other pbem games that Allied 2-E bombers can launch anti-shipping strikes from level 2 bases. But I have ground troops marching towards Cotabato so hopefully I'll be able to capture the base before Marky can get up to more mischief.

I've given the orders for the 4th Division to try a deliberate attack on Port Moresby next turn. I'm hoping that I get lucky, but I'm not counting on it, so I've got the retiring transport TF heading to Gili Gili to pick up the big SNLF from there to help if needed. I've also got a supply transport TF on the way to PM, so that will help things a lot if I get stuck with an extended siege.

[Dive Bomber1]

December 30, 1941 – As I had feared my stretch into Port Moresby was a case of too little, too soon and the attack by the 4th Division failed, but not badly. The Allied forces are very weak and once I get some supplies and reinforcements in place I ought to be able to take the base easily. I doubt that Marky will try any sort of rescue mission other than the current presence of submarines, which I believe are there to harass my ships rather than to pull out fragments.

I have the KB quietly slipping off towards Shortlands where I have plenty of fuel. Once the KB has been replenished I am sending it to the East. Marky has another big TF heading towards Palmyra, so he is obviously building up those islands quite well. I want to check things out, as well as be in the vicinity if Marky does try a raid into the Gilberts or Marshalls.

The only Allied air attack was a night time raid by some Catalinas on Brunei. For once Marky had the planes up at 10,000 feet instead of his usual treetop level. The raid didn't accomplish anything other than to damage some of the Catalinas.

My air attacks were hindered by bad weather as usual, but enough attacks went off to keep the pressure on Marky's forces. The forecast is calling for lousy weather throughout the Far East so I have set most of my air units to rest or low level naval search for the next turn. If Marky wants to try to move more air units back into his isolated bases he is welcome.

My other important attack at Johore Bharu reduced the fortifications to level 3 but didn't take the base. I am resting my troops again and have set them back to bombardment attacks. I also have that bombardment TF heading in again this turn to keep the airfields closed and to add to the general damage of those units. It will obviously take me some time to drive the Allied troops out of Johore Bharu, but once I do they won't be doing much to contribute to the final defense of Singapore.

In Luzon my fourth division finished off-loading and is on their way to Manila. The fifth and final division should finish landing next turn and will join the rest of the forces. So the New Years will see the commencement of serious attacks on Manila. At the same time Marky wasted more supplies and troops at Bataan on another futile attack on my troops, so once I capture Manila Bataan ought to fall easily.

Despite the bad weather my recon planes in China were able to get me information about Marky's defensive plans. It does appear that Marky only has one unit at Kweilin, so my troops are marching forward and ought to be attacking the base within a couple of days. The important part of the Intel was that Marky has something like 26 units at Hengchow and 17 units at Changsha. It also doesn't look like he has bothered to protect his supply lines. So I started to manoeuvre my units to be in position to eventually cut off both bases. I intend to isolate and bypass them if possible rather than attack them.


In other news, my troops captured Aitape and Dagua, putting all of the northern coast of New Guinea under my control. Troops also landed at Zamboanga which will help me to further isolate the troops that I drove out of Davao and Cagayan.

Finally, in Burma my troops easily captured Moulmein, driving out the base force that was left there. I'm surprised that Marky is so cavalier about his base forces; he may well regret losing so many support troops as time goes on. Marky is obviously planning a last stand at Rangoon, but isn't contesting the air over the base, so I will start a serious air campaign once I've moved up more air support units.

The only other news of note was that Marky's subs continue to harass my transports quite effectively. That will only stop once I've captured those Allied bases that are internal to my lines and remove the local sources for fuel for those subs.

[Dive Bomber1]

December 31, 1941 - New Year's Eve fireworks came courtesy of Marky who sent some Catalinas and Do24K-2s to hit Tainan at night. The planes suffered a fair amount of damage but they didn't hit anything, so I'm not certain what they were after. Then some more Cats went after Brunei again, but also didn't hit anything. This time both attacks occurred at 1000 ft, which is more typical of what Marky likes to do with his level bombers. This was interesting because I've never seen plane-tops of either plane before.

Then in the daylight Marky sent a big attack of Hudsons, Martins and B-17Cs from Balikpapan to Brunei and got three hits on the oil. Several bombers were shot down. At least those planes aren't bothering my ships with naval attacks.

Some Betties and Zeros from Kuching flew in to Balikpapan to try to return the favor but were surprised by CAP. I haven't seen CAP from Marky for so long that I almost forgot what it was. Fortunately my losses were light and the bombers hit the target, albeit lightly.

My BBs hammered Johore Bharu again, causing lots of general purpose damage and casualties. I'll do that a few more times before I try again to take the base.

Other troops landed at Muntok and Sorong, and both Zamboanga and Cotabato were captured. The troops at Cotabato surrendered, leaving only the displaced base force from Cagayan left in Mindanao.

Supplies are getting over the mountains to my troops in Port Moresby even before the supply TF arrives, so things are looking better there already. The bombardment TF that I sent back to Rabaul for replenishment is full-up and going back to Rabaul for another couple of bombardments. So I won't have PM for New Year's Day, but it won't take me much longer.

One strange thing happened this turn; suddenly a dozen or so Allied subs showed up in a couple of clumps to the northeast and east of Luzon. I've had control of Manila for some time now, so they didn't come from there, so I have no idea where they came from or why I didn't notice them before this.

[Dive Bomber1]

January 1, 1942 - Marky did something that is too gamey for my tastes this turn - he landed a suicide squad from a submarine at Wake to check out my troops. I find that, like capturing empty bases with sub-borne forces, or using a sub to drop off a handful of troops behind the lines to cut off a retreat, to be too gamey for me. I've told Marky that if he wants to play that way then I will resign, because that's not how I want to play. I'll have to see what Marky says in reply - what happens from now on depends upon him.

More Do 24K-2s flew night missions this turn; this time all the way to Hong Kong. They didn't accomplish anything other than to get damaged. Marky did send a large daylight air attack against Brunei again and caused a little more oil damage at the cost of a half dozen of his planes.

I landed troops via fast transport at Toboali this turn, and the troops that I landed via fast transport last turn at Muntok captured that base. Sorong was also captured by a force that I also landed via fast transport.

I started to load the big SNLF force from Gili Gili to go to Port Moresby this turn. Marky now has three subs at PM and one put a couple of torpedoes into my light cruiser on patrol there, so I'm sending that SC TF back to Rabaul. It will be replaced by my replenished BB taskforce that will go in to bombard the defenders at PM again. I also landed troops at Woodlark Island.

The KB replenished almost fully at Shortlands, draining the base dry. I'm sending it along to Lunga where there is more fuel, and which is also closer to what appears to be a buildup of Allied forces in the south-central Pacific. One of my subs reported some ships at Nanomea and I am sending a cruiser TF down from Kwajalein to investigate. If they need back up I'll send the KB out there too.