the pacific in flames - me against marky

[dennishe]

Apparently Marky (or fleet admiral markiei) started a tread about our war! Well, here is mine. He hit me pretty bad at Pearl Harbor. Mainly, because KB stayed in the area for a few days, during which it launched several attacks. Many of my battleships are badly damaged and will be in docks for several months/years. Anyway, it gave me the time to safely retreat my carriers. They will fight another day. The Fillipins and Malaya are pretty much the typical story. I got a lot of ships out of Manila though and also the Repulse and Prince of Wales are safe for now......

[marky]

heyy have fun writing, or not writing [:D]

am i to understand this is a thread to stay out of ?

[dennishe]

Yes, stay out of this tread please. It gives me the opportunity to discuss my strategy with my chiefs of staff (everybody else who visits this tread). I will stay out of yours.

[dennishe]

One of my catalinas spotted KB today near Midway going west. It was going south initially, but is now probably going for Wake, which didn't fall. I probably should call back the reinforcements that are on the way. Anyway, my carriers are safe now. Hong Kong and Khota Baru did fall, but that was inevitable. At least I got the british destroyers out of HK. One was badly damaged though.

[dennishe]

Well here is the big plan. All completely dependent on what Marky is going to do off coarse.
In the first months bases at Dutch Harbor, Pearl Harbor, Palmeya, Canton Isl., Suva, Noumea, Port Moresby, Darwin and Ceylon will be built up and fortified. This will be the main line of defense. In Burma I will try to keep the Burma road open, but not to all costs.
In China I will try to hold on. The Filipins, Malaya and DIE will fall. I will try to stall the Japanese forces as long as possible and try to hit him, where he is volatile.

[modrow]

ORIGINAL: dennishe

Yes, stay out of this tread please. It gives me the opportunity to discuss my strategy with my chiefs of staff (everybody else who visits this tread). I will stay out of yours.

I guess unless you raise the level of qualification needed to become your chief of staff, you will be in big trouble soon [:D]. In any case, don't listen to me...

[dennishe]

I made some changes in my OOB. MacArthur is now in command of the southwest pacific, Brett commands the Fhilipins, Nimitz commands central pacific, kimmel commands the south pacific, ghormley commands the north pacific and hartwig.modrow has been sacked as chief of staff[:D]

[dennishe]

It is the 16th now. The Tenessee (at PH) and the Indianapolis (lucky shot by a submarine) sank and many ships are crippled. Wake is still holding on, but with a invasion fleet in the area and KB lauching attacks, it will fall soon. The invasion of Malaya and the Philipins is ongoing. I got most of my ships out, managed successfully to resupply Georgetown and got the Australian Brigades out of Malaya. Some AK and APs were sunk by a Japanese CVL. The Thracien was hit as well and will flee to Puerto Prince. A minelayer was hit as well. If the CVL will stay at this place, it will be difficult to get ships in and out of the Philipins. I moved the Dutch torpedo planes to Tarakan. Hopefully they will put a torpedo in the CVL. I'm pulling the Philipin air force back to Kendari and the Australian brigades to Port Moresby. Here I will build up a new line of defense.

[dennishe]

The few weeks playing the allies is so frustrating! Planes are massively destroyed on the ground and the ones that make it into the air pretty much suck. Everything is outdated and needs to be upgraded desperately. The Philipins Air Force is more or less destroyed. Only the Catalina's are still patrolling. Planes from Malaya have been withdrawn to Rangoon or Palembang, where also the Dutch torpedoplanes are located. They didn't attack the CVL where I was hoping for. The 24FG and 5BG (or some other number, anyway it is the bombergroup from clark field) I got out and drew back to Kendari. I will transfer them to Port Moresby later on if the Japanese start operations in New Guinea. So far it has been pretty quiet there. Also the Gilberts have not been invaded yet. Actually, besides the initial invasions in the Philipins and Malaya, Marky hasn't lauched a single invasion. Things have been pretty quiet. I'm wondering what he is up to.
Anyway, I'm shipping my original reinforcements to PH and Suva. No need  to reinforce the rest of the islands in the east pacific yet. I'll better wait until i know what Marky is up to before I ship my troops to some remote place. Wake did fall. It didn't have a change to the 2nd invasion wave. Some of his ships got badly damaged though and KB must also still be in that area. I have all three carriers at Pearl now. They can quickly respond to any tread in the central pacific. Perhaps i send one south to Suva. I'm not sure yet. The Australian cruisers have set sail to PortMoresby/Rabaul to intercept a possible Japanese invasion. I guess it is waiting now, what is going to happen.
 

[dennishe]

I have him running already! [:D] His invasion fleet probably spotted the suprise that I have waiting for him at Rabaul (i.e. the Australian surface fleet). He'll probably be back soon, with a backup. Anyway, for now I bought some more time to reinforce Port Moresby and to set up an Air Force base, before he can install one at Rabaul and pounds the crap out of PM.

[dennishe]

Marky is going for Midway! Thank god I have catalina's spotting. No trace of KB, but it must be close. He wouldn't send in an invasion fleet so close to PH, knowing that my carriers are there (He has been spotting PH with his submarines, equipped with recon planes), without any airsupport. A miniKB with 4 CVLs is spotted near Tarakan.
I send my carriers north. I will leave him in the dark a bit. To the south he has his submarines and reconplanes/bombers from Kwajalein. I expect KB to be following the invasion fleet, perhaps a little in the north as well. As long as the catalina's are still flying I dare to get my carriers closer to Midway, perhaps sink some ships. Without the spotters and KB floating around somewhere, I will retreat. No need to loose my carriers here. Holding Midway is important, but not to all costs. It's going to be interesting.....

[dennishe]

KB cought up with the Midway invasion fleet. No way to lauch an attack without opening pandora's box. I redirected a Task Force, which was assigned to reinforce Palmeyra Island with a infantery Regiment. I redirected it to Johnston Island. I use the carriers now to cover the reinforcement of JI. I guess that JI is the next step, if Marky is going for an invasion of Hawaii.
Nothing going on further. [>:] Invasions of the Philipins and Malaya are ongoing. In China, Marky is stuck in Yemen for several weeks now. Yenen still holds and many Japanese troops are slaughtered in shock attacks. Hopefully, I can hold some more. MiniKB is sailing trough the Java Sea. I withdrew all Task Forces from the region. No free kills for Marky. He will have to fight for it....

[dennishe]

Despite that fact that the coastal guns did a great job and damaged several Japanese ships, Midway was overrun the same day. Nothing to do about it. If KB moves on to JI, it will be difficult to get the infantery regiment there on time. Perhaps I should transfer the regiment to Lahaina or some other Hawaiian base instead. First waiting what KB is going to do. I have 2 catalina squandrons at JI and several more at PH. It will be difficult for him to sneak in....

[Fishbed]

I see your defense perimeter implies that you're not ready to give up a single inch of ground. Any plan to wait for the Rabaul invasion backup with your own CVs, knowing the KB is operating in Midway waters?

[dennishe]

Everything depends on what Marky is going to do. If he attacks these places (Palmyra, Suva, Canton, Noumea) early in the war with a large part of his fleet and a large fighter cover, there is little that I can do. It this point I simply not have the troops to defend these places. If he waits with invasions at these places, i will have regiments or divisions waiting for him with fighter cover. Under these conditions i will put up a heck of a fight and I will buy myself time enough to bring in my fleet. At this point I simply can't defend all these places. Before my fleet is there, these will already be overrun.
No i will not use my carriers for Rabaul. I think they will/might be to late. Further I have 2 fighter squadrons at PM and soon a BG as well. All from the USAFFE. In combinatiom with the Australian cruisers and perhaps by moving a FS to Rabaul, I think I can make it Marky quite difficult for the first few weeks. I rather keep the carriers in the north. Out of range of KB, but close enough to prevent him from putting up invasions everywhere.
If the supply-line to OZ is broken early in the war, I probably have to change my plans. Resupply OZ via India perhaps. This supply line is very vonerable to attacks though.

[dennishe]

KB has launched an attack on 2 ASW task forces that were patrolling near Johnston Island. All ships sank or will sink. Is he after JI as well? My spotters haven't found an invasion fleet yet. Perhaps he is after my carriers. After all battleships and cruisers that are out of action I really can't afford losing them, whithout inflicting damage to his carriers. I called them back to PH. Not to a coastal hex though (the yellow route is of the cargo task force). If KB attacks, he will have to face bombers and fighters of PH as well. And if he attacks, my carriers are close to port, while his carriers have to sail back to Japan. I'm extually looking forward to a carrier fight.

[dennishe]

KB hasn't moved for days. It is either waiting for an invasion fleet, or it is waiting to destroy anything that comes out of PH. Especially my warships. It launched several attacks on JI. As soon as one Japanese soldier setts foot on JI, it will be bombed by several BG groups that were sceduled to go the all over the pacific, but are for obvious reasons still at PH. Since KB doesn't move, all submarines in the area are now hunting for it. They probably won't hit anything, with there ridiculous torpedo's, but perhaps they can scare Marky. Perhaps I can set a trap for him. Have a surface combat Task Force sail around KB and try to find and kill his AOs. That will get rid of him.
For the rest in the Pacific Marky hasn't done much. His troops are still launching shock attacks in Yenen, where he still leads massive losses every day. Hong Kong, Wake, Midway and Guam fell. Invasions of Luzon and Malaya are ongoing. He did not launch any other invasion yet. In addition I noticed that I can freely move AKs around the Philipins without being attacked. His naval search is not doing a good job. Several fully loaded AKs have delivered there goods in Bataan and Manilla. As soon as he sends a invasion fleet south in the Philipins I will send him a suprise! Since I can move my ships freely, I'm supplying OZ with oil from DEI. This will keep the OZ factories going, before my first shipments of oil from SF arrive.

[dennishe]

Changsha fell very suddenly (a while ago, forgot to mention it in earlier posts) and since Marky also captured Yenen after another shock attack, I'm going to withdraw my troops to a series of strongholds. Japan has a major advantage over the Chinese troops, since it can move troops around over railway tracks, while the Chinese troops have to take dirt tracks. As a result I can never send reinforcements on time to the location where Marky is going to attack. He can one by one kill of my fortifications. This time I choose to defend China at only a few well fortified positions with lots of divisions at full strength (yellow). These are Sian, Ichang, Chungking, Chengtu, Yunan, Kunming and Kweiyang. Ichang is a weak spot in the defense. I already send reinforcements there. If it does fall, I will withdraw also the troops from Sian to Chungking and Chengtu. In addition a fortress will be build at the crossing between Chungking and Kweiyang. Hopefully, this will make me able to get some divisions free to help the British to keep the Burma road open. I already send the SAEC divisions south to Mandalay. At Ledo I plan to build up a large air force base, from which China will be resupplied via transport planes. SAEC has a shortage of these planes. I will therefore also use the Dutch planes for this. At Ledo, also my SAEC 4E bombers will be located, to attack positions all over China.

[dennishe]

It is 1/9/1942 now. Malaya is about to fall. I have resupplied Georgetown by various convoys, but there are just not enough troops to hold the Japanese attacks. Also in Singapore my assault strenght is just too low. In additions, Marky installed a Betty-nest in Davao. As a result all my shipping in the DEI is at risk. Resupplying my bases in the Philipins and transferring oil and supplies from DEI to OZ will be a lot more difficult. Also attacking the Japanese invasion force with my surface fleet will be much more risky.

[dennishe]

It is halfway januari. Things are not going too well on the Chinese and Burmese fronts.
Malaya fell and the Japanese just occupied Moulmein. I surrendered Rangoon, since it is a deadtrap. I pull back all my forces to Mandalay, where my troops are already digging in. Hopefully the reinforcements from China are going to be there on time. There is no way that I can quickly transfer fresh troops to Mandalay. In addition I need the reinforcements on the Indian coast in case Marky is launching an invasion there. If he does, I don't want all my troops stuck in Burma.
In China, Marky launched an attack at Ichang, which is the weakest point of my defense. I send reinforcements from Chungking and Sian, but I don't know if they will be on time. The Japanese can tranfer troops much faster via the railway system. If Ichang falls, I will have to withdraw my troops from Sian and Ichang back to Chungking.
Nothing is happening in the South and Southwest pacific. Things have been awfully quiet. Still no Japanese troops in Brunei or DEI. USAFFE is still holding Clark field and the main force is digging in at Bataan, sitting on a large amount of supply. I have still running convoys to Bataan, but it is doubtfull if they still will come through.
Port Moresby is defended pretty well. I have three divisions and the IIIrd Australian corps there, with a fourth brigade on the way. I'm thinking of reinforcing Rabaul as well. I'm saving political points, which enables me to send in an Australian division as well as soon Marky is showing interest in southwest pacific. Palmyra is defenced by a regiment. 2nd USMC is located at Canton. Suva will be defended by the New Zealand brigades. Noumea is not defended yet. I will bring in the Americal division there. This will do it for now. In case of emergency I have 4 US divisions at PH as backup. When I'm absolutely sure that Marky is not launching an attack on PH, I will send more troops south. All squadrons that are not attached to the central pacific are currently island hopping south. I hope to get a few B17 squadrons in SEA, before the route is cut off.