Splashing the Divebomber

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

India is getting so tiresome. This turn Dive landed paras at…um…let me look again…oh yeah, Benares. Sigh…. Apparently he is trying to distract me from defending southern India from those fragments moving up the trails, or something like that. Anyway, two fragments of that Guards Div are still moving on me, and I suspect he is supplying them from the air. Enter LR CAP next turn on one of the frags. Lets see what we catch. Anyway, two turns ago I started another tank unit south, and am re-routing towards the latest landing. Dive apparently is intent on throwing away his experienced paras on nuisance attacks but who am I to complain? My priority right now is moving strength to the southwest pacific because that is where I can cause him problems in the coming months, and I want to protect Noumea at all cost, not to mention keeping his attention away from the Aleutians where my first counterattack are planned to come from.

Operation Dangling Worm is continuing.

My air attack on Moulmein did not occur, so I am trying again next turn, speaking of which, I have had B-17’s at Darwin, AF 6 set to resource bomb Babo for several turns now, but no attacks have occurred. I have no idea why.

A couple of turns ago I mentioned no more bombardment attacks would hit Yanam, well, I changed my mind, and it should hit next turn. As to Yanam, my troops seemed to move backwards a bit because they seem ten miles farther away than last time, but now are moving in conjunction. At least they will attack together whenever that happens.

[ny59giants]

I have had B-17’s at Darwin, AF 6 set to resource bomb Babo for several turns now, but no attacks have occurred. I have no idea why.

Did you check your range on your B-17's?? Sometimes they get changed to a lower value than is needed. [:(]

[princep01]

ORIGINAL: AU Tiger

India is getting so tiresome. This turn Dive landed paras at…um…let me look again…oh yeah, Benares. Sigh…. Apparently he is trying to distract me from defending southern India from those fragments moving up the trails, or something like that. Anyway, two fragments of that Guards Div are still moving on me, and I suspect he is supplying them from the air. Enter LR CAP next turn on one of the frags. Lets see what we catch. Anyway, two turns ago I started another tank unit south, and am re-routing towards the latest landing. Dive apparently is intent on throwing away his experienced paras on nuisance attacks but who am I to complain? My priority right now is moving strength to the southwest pacific because that is where I can cause him problems in the coming months, and I want to protect Noumea at all cost, not to mention keeping his attention away from the Aleutians where my first counterattack are planned to come from.

Operation Dangling Worm is continuing.

My air attack on Moulmein did not occur, so I am trying again next turn, speaking of which, I have had B-17’s at Darwin, AF 6 set to resource bomb Babo for several turns now, but no attacks have occurred. I have no idea why.

A couple of turns ago I mentioned no more bombardment attacks would hit Yanam, well, I changed my mind, and it should hit next turn. As to Yanam, my troops seemed to move backwards a bit because they seem ten miles farther away than last time, but now are moving in conjunction. At least they will attack together whenever that happens.

Benares...aka The Middle of Nowhere, seems to have little strategic impact and seemingly is a waste of elite soldiers. But, I am new at this game and perhaps there is a value in this that I am not seeing. Of course, you cannot allow him to build a hige airhead there, but stuffing these "sky bandits" will be easy enough and not something too terribly urgent.

Am I missing something important here? This seems to be even more misbegotten than the entire Indian operation. The troops that you are fighting him with in Indian weren't going anywhere else immediately, were they? I just don't see the value in this whole operation....mass, not dribblets.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

I don’t know what is up with the B-17’s in Darwin. Maybe the range circles are wrong.
Princep: My thoughts exactly. I don’t know what Dive is up to in India. Heck, I didn’t even try to cover the new landings in India with LR CAP. He can bring all the troops he wants to in, they are all just going to die.
This turn I changed targets for my Darwin B-17’s to another base on airfield attack. They flew. Whoopee. Now I hope they do something worth doing and blast some resources.
Dive is trying to flank me through Northern China, but I have been building forts for a while up there, and I have the interior lines so I can reinforce faster than he can shift troops.
Palembang unexpectedly held out this turn although I expect it to go down shortly.
Basically everything mentioned in above posts is still in progress, and I am tired, so until tomorrow….





You could knock me down with a feather.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

I have had B-17’s at Darwin, AF 6 set to resource bomb Babo for several turns now, but no attacks have occurred. I have no idea why.

Did you check your range on your B-17's?? Sometimes they get changed to a lower value than is needed. [:(]

I just now figured out what you were talking about. The range was set to 10, and I will fix it next turn. They need to rest anyway. Thanks!

[ny59giants]

I usually set my Beauforts to normal range to ensure that they carry only torpedoes and occassional I wanted them to go out to extended range and had forgot to reset them. [:(]
It happens!![:D]

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

Yanam falls! A Jap horde of 400 odd paras killed and captured. Other Japanese forces are on the run in India!

I have several turns of mopping operations left in India, and the colony will be safe once again.

Palembang isn’t long for freedom as the forces of darkness descend upon it. Alas alas. If Japan had only converted to “green” power then the war need not have happened. I think I will nuke Kyoto out of spite.

Frankly, I am at a place in the war where I have little to say without detailing every air strike, sub strike, and bird strike. The operations I have detailed before are continuing but they simply take time because of the distances involved.

[princep01]

Any Japanese supply captured at Yanam?  That seemingly was his main "base" after the seaborne landing.  I doubt that he could have much supply left anywhere else in his Indian adventure.
 
Personally, this seems an awful way to use really good paras.
 
Good work eliminating that invasion/raid.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

Princep: Thanks for asking about that, I meant to mention it last post. Surprisingly I found 4437 supplies in Yanam. I expected far less after all of my bombardments. Also remember all the supplies that are feeding shrimp at the bottom of the Bay.

Speaking of bombardments, I sent the TF home to Colombo however a Jap sub spotted along the way prompted me to split off some DD’s as an ASW TF. This TF struck pay dirt (15 times) and another reef was added to the Bay. Dive’s Indian troops are in trouble. His para unit on the trail east of Yanam is getting hammered each turn, I just discovered some Japs trying to sneak towards Madras, a Jap unit northeast of Yanam is trapped, and I have no idea where the latest Jap para unit is skulking off to, not do I care. I will get him eventually. My 4E bombers in Dacca hit Moulmein’s resources moderately. The planes will rest a turn or two before heading out again. I am thinking about being a real stinker and running a low level bombing attack on Hanoi to hit its 600 resources or maybe its 240 heavy industry points. I figure I will get just one surprise attack, and want to do it right. Now that I think a little more about it I think I will wait on this. Hanoi is at the limit of the LB-30’s range, so the bomb load would be halved. I believe I will wait on this until the weather is clear and the pilots have higher experience so it would do more than a slightly annoying level of damage.

The China stalemate continues (good!) Something of note did happen today: Dive launched a large, for the theater anyway, airstrike on Ichang and got smacked by the Nationalist Chinese Air Force. Here I will break my rule against CR’s to post the results of this battle because of its amusement value:

Day Air attack on Ichang , at 47,33

Japanese aircraft
Ki-27 Nate x 35
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 7
Ki-30 Ann x 39
Ki-51 Sonia x 12
Ki-48 Lily x 26
Ki-15 Babs x 4

Allied aircraft
I-16c x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-27 Nate: 3 destroyed
Ki-30 Ann: 5 destroyed
Ki-51 Sonia: 2 destroyed
Ki-48 Lily: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
I-16c: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged

Airbase hits 7
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 51

Aircraft Attacking:
20 x Ki-48 Lily bombing at 10000 feet
21 x Ki-30 Ann bombing at 2000 feet
9 x Ki-30 Ann bombing at 2000 feet
8 x Ki-51 Sonia bombing at 2000 feet
2 x Ki-30 Ann bombing at 2000 feet
3 x Ki-48 Lily bombing at 10000 feet
2 x Ki-30 Ann bombing at 2000 feet
2 x Ki-51 Sonia bombing at 2000 feet
3 x Ki-48 Lily bombing at 10000 feet

1st Lt. Lee, R. has three kills against the interlopers. Flying an I-16c, will he make ace? Finally my P-39’s are landing at Trivandrum this turn, so soon the Japs will have some state-of-the-art American fighters to deal with in China.

The India situation:

[ny59giants]

It looks like his forces in India are without hope to survive. [:D][:D] It will allow you to build up the experience level of your troops and then preceded on your counteroffensive in '43. Any adventure into India without a large part of the Japanese fleet and significant land forces is doomed for failure.

Good Job!!![&o][&o]

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

It looks like his forces in India are without hope to survive. [:D][:D] It will allow you to build up the experience level of your troops and then preceded on your counteroffensive in '43. Any adventure into India without a large part of the Japanese fleet and significant land forces is doomed for failure.

Go Job!!![&o][&o]

Thanks!

I agree with you on what it would take to successfully invade India, and I don't see Dive doing that while the U.S. Carrier Fleet still survives. In two turns reinforcements in India begin to arrive periodically but it will be a while before I can garrison every city within range of his transports so he will probably continue his nuisance attacks. But like you say, it only gives my troops experience.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

An early start to Rolling Thunder:
When I was reviewing last turn for the AAR, I selected my LB-30’s at Dacca to city target Hanoi so I could check the resource and industry totals, and left it on a manpower attack. Sheesh! The strike wasn’t so bad though, it achieved 7 hits, and cursor intel says Fires: 450. Maybe some good stuff will burn down this turn.

I have to go through this quickly because I have to run. Dive has landed on Nanomea Atoll and appears to have either a Surface Combat TF or Air Combat TF two hexes away. All five of my CV’s are two turns away at full speed, and that is where they are heading. A possible chance at hitting an abbreviated KB is too good to pass up, so here I go.

In India the southernmost Jap unit, approximately 600 paras was wiped out this turn. My boys are going after others in continuance of mopping up operations.

My P-39’s are now in Dacca, transferred by rail and are being uncrated. My Chinese fighters had another good day in the air – I can’t wait to get those Aircobras into action.

Look at the top five aces:

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

There was little action this turn. Fuel is unloading in Oz, more oil is near NZ on the way to Oz. My two big supply TF's to Sydney are pretty far down in the South Pacific and running to Sydney also. My submarines are all mostly in repair ports now, so the belated sub war will be beginning before too terribly long.

In China Dive has a lot of troops heading along the northern road, so I am going to do a few limited counterattacks outside on Yenen just to give some heartburn.

The suspected CV TF near Nanomea has disappeared from sight, somaybe it was just a transport TF reported as otherwise by over-enthusiastic scout plane pilots. I still have my carriers heading that way, but at mission speed now. I need to conserve fuel although I do have four AO's following the carriers.

Palembang will be falling soon.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

An uneventful turn this time, but the next should prove different. One way or another some ships are going to sink.



I had the luxury of lots of spare time for this turn so I did a lot of 'housekeeping'. I changed some leaders here and tweaked some things there.

I did notice this turn that Dive is losing Topsy's to Ops therefor I have set LR CAP over all the troops I could reach in India, and perhaps I can catch some transports.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

Addendum post:
I have counted 7 Jap units on the northern China road, two of which have been ID's as armor units. I have 574 AV's sitting in Lanchow with another 500 or so heading there. Also, I have dispatched some Chinese bomber units to Lancho and Hangchow to start hitting the Japs when they come into range. I don't expect to do much damage with them but they will cause the Japs to burn supplies which can only help because they are at the end of a long logistical chain. Additionally, I have sent the War Area command to Sian to help draw supplies closer to the fighting. Fort levels are 4 and 24% in Lanchow. I still have time to send more assistance to the front and am considering doing that.
In Burma, my B-17's will hit Tavoy's 22 resource points. The LB-30's will continue to rest in order to raise moral levels back into the 90's.

[USSAmerica]

Hi Tiger, I just wanted to let you know that someone is still reading and enjoying your AAR. 
 
Of course, I'm reading Dive's AAR as well, so I am getting the view from both sides.  [;)]

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: USS America

Hi Tiger, I just wanted to let you know that someone is still reading and enjoying your AAR.

Of course, I'm reading Dive's AAR as well, so I am getting the view from both sides. [;)]

[:D]

Nice tag line! And thanks for the nice words.

My attack on the TF did not come off because it moved too far away from my CV's. I had been uncertain what the TF was, I didn't know whether it was CV's, a SCTF, or possibly an amphibious TF, but now I am certain it is the rest of the KB (look at the posted screenshot). I received this turn about four hours ago and have done some soul searching about what to do. If my CV TF's weren't so low on fuel I would have attacked without hesitation. In the end I decided to go for it. I have four AO's shadowing the carriers with about 33% fuel left (fuel of 27000), and have two others heading for the vicinity, but they are a long way off. The nearest re-fueling points are Pearl and Noumea. But then again if I meet up with the Jap carriers, I won't need as much fuel after next turn. [X(] According to WitP Utility, the Jap TF has been spotted four times roughly within the triangle formed between Canton Island, Nanomea Atoll, and Wallis Island so I have sent my CV's at high speed to roughly the center of the triangle.



In India, I have caught up with one of Dive's tank units and attacked with 16:1 odds, but of course the Japs won't surrender. Next turn I am doing a shock attack.

My resource attack in Burma resulted in a goose egg. The 4E's are standing down for a turn, and I am thinking of instituting the old Roman punishment of decimation for their lack of performance.

There is a lot of shipping activity around Palembang so all of my Dutch LBA has moved to Batavia for some fun and games, along with what remains of the fearsome Dutch fighter elite.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Cero. Blank.

The Jap carriers disappeared. I don't know if he zigged when I zagged, whether he got wind of my CV's coming, or I just plain guessed wrong. Anyway, fuel levels are low so the carriers are heading south to link up with the replenishment TF and then head to Noumea. It is a lot closer than Pearl, and I might have a shot at the nearly daily bombardment runs on PM Dive has been doing for a couple of weeks now. I am very disappointed.

In India, Dive's trapped armor TF withstood a Shock attack at odds of about 130:1. Next turn will be a deliberate attack again. An armor unit is about 4 hexes away from the inland city Dive has occupied, and troops are closing in on the Jap unit next to Madras.

China is unchanged.

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

India:

A Jap unit should go away next turn. I did a deliberate attack on an isolated tank and achieved 147:1 odds. The unit wasn’t eliminated but I anticipate doing it in next turn. Another Jap unit found itself occupying the same hex with an Indian Div. and an Arty unit this turn next to Madras. I will attack next turn along with all of the level bombers in Madras. Another Indian tank brigade is 4 hexes from Benares, and I have dispatched some arty units from Karachi to help out in the event they are needed. I feel my warships in Colombo are a little vulnerable, so all theater combat capable ships are going to Bombay. Besides, Colombo’s repair port is stacked up with repairing subs.

DEI:

Bad things are afoot. Dive’s freed up troops from Singers and the PI are obviously on the move here. After unsuccessfully bombing ships near Palembang last turn, all the LB’s in Batavia are recovering in Soerabaja. Tarakan fell in one turn after invasion, and I see a bunch of ships there so PT’s that have been hiding in Balikpapan are running there on a suicide mission.

SWPAC/OZ:

Beaucoup transport TF’s are going to arrive in OZ/Noumea/NZ in the next few turns including a much needed BF for Brisbane. I have quite a few squadrons in Sydney that need a training base, but Aviation support is thin on the ground, except for Darwin.

CENTPAC/SOPAC:

I learned a groovy trick today. Finally disgusted with the “Refuel at Sea” logic I decided to experiment a bit with game saves. I now know how to refuel the ships I WANT refueled as opposed to the ships the game decides to refuel. First I separated out all my CV’s into one TF and refueled it. The AO’s had OPS points left so I then created a new TF with a few CA’s and CL’s that were the lowest on fuel, and refueled them. After this the AO’s were on fumes and had 1000 OPS points each. Next I put the CV’s, CA’s, and CL’s back into their original TF’s, and then hit refuel again for each TF. None of the TF’s will move much the first phase of next turn, but by god they have fuel now.
I have sent the AO’s towards Noumea to fill up “just in case”. The CV’s are running west. My big hope is to ambush one of Dive’s bombardment TF’s on the way to or from PM. I have to be very careful though because Rabaul is loaded with ship-killing LBA. I know this because they have been blasting PM with regularity. Future plans for the CV’s are fluid, but in the fairly near future they will head back to PH for repairs/upgrades.
Finally AP’s are accumulating in PH and the West Coast, so I am staging nearly everything to PH for future operations.

NORTHPAC:

Dutch Harbor continues to build up as a possible jumping off point into Dive’s northern flank.

[princep01]

Wow, cool that you still have PM at this point in the game.  In the PBEM game I am involved in (March 26, '42), PM is long gone.  In fact, other than running two single supply ships to it, I basically abandoned it.  It looked remarkably like a death trap.  But, you have held it and are starting to think about bedeviling offensive actions against DB from it.  Did you reinforce it or is it the same lot that start there?  I know you were able to thwart DB's little KB assault, but all those bombardment TFs must be taking a toll.