23 Apr. 42
After several slow turns, things are beginning to pick up again.
Japan lands two SNLF units at Thursday Island to augment his stalled NLF unit that failed to take the base on its own, and my CD guns dish out some damage.
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Coastal Guns at Thursday Island, 49,91, firing at TF 149
TF 149 troops unloading over beach at Thursday Island, 49,91
64 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
DD Arashi, Shell hits 1
AP Heiyo Maru, Shell hits 3
Japanese ground losses:
242 casualties reported
Allied ground losses:
11 casualties reported
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Coastal Guns at Thursday Island, 49,91, firing at TF 149
TF 149 troops unloading over beach at Thursday Island, 49,91
55 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
AP Taizan Maru, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Sanae, Shell hits 2
Japanese ground losses:
45 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
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Later in the turn the allied land bombardment tells the tale. No way can my tiny garrison hold against this large a force. Hopefully one or more ships hit by the CD guns will sink (doubtful) and I’ll get at least a minor victory here.
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Ground combat at Thursday Island
Allied Bombardment attack
Attacking force 1842 troops, 6 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 23
Defending force 4849 troops, 21 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 140
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Japan hits Soerabaja and Manila from the air. Manila has been completely out of supplies for several days now, but still no Japanese land attack has materialized, just these daily routine air bombardments.
Allied bombers hit Cairns today. With the arrival of the B-26’s, I rebased all my Hudson bombers to Alice Springs today. They have the range to reach Daily Waters and I want to start exacting a price from Japan in central Australia. Besides they lack sufficient replacement rates to make up for any losses future Japanese naval bombardments of Townsville may cause, so I wanted to get them inland where their range can keep them safe from most threats.
Also with 2 Japanese units reported at Daily Waters now, I assume one is a baseforce unit, and I don’t want to let Japan build an airbase within fighter range of my units at Tenant Creek and Alice Springs. So regular raids on Daily Waters shall begin as soon as the Hudson’s recover from their fatigue.
All my pontificating about plans and strategies at Noumea are for naught. Japan has returned already and the allies simply do not have time to do anything other than hope the current force levels are sufficient to hold the island. With at least two transport fleets just a few hexes north of Koumac, I expect Japan to begin landing new forces next turn.
Allied bombers launch a single air strike this turn on the transport task force and only scored one hit. The thing that got my attention was no casualties were reported even though an AP was hit. Could this be an evacuation task force? Damage was light, so perhaps it was too light to even damage the unit aboard the ship if there is one. I’ll know for sure next turn if he is bringing more units to the island or not.
With KB so close, I’ve reduced the max mission range allowed for all my bombers to just 3 hexes. KB’s 90+ fighter CAP will slaughter my bombers, so I don’t want to launch any strikes at KB yet. First I want to hit the transport groups and cause as much pain to them as possible before going up against his KB CAP.
My 2 P-39 groups and 1 P-400 group have a max range of just 4 hexes, so I’ll not allow my bombers to fly unescorted raids. Also with his zeroes flying LRCAP over the transport task forces, my fighters should perform better vs. them due to their extra fatigue than vs. the low fatigue CAP directly over KB.
The Americal Division is still almost 1/3rd disabled, so I’ve decided to let the S.S.D. get away if he is bringing an evacuation task force. It’s simply too risky to leave Noumea virtually undefended to try and hammer the S.S.D. in a last ditch effort before it leaves the island.
I need as much AV as possible to defend Noumea with and if Japan is bringing another division or two, the Americal Division is in real danger of being destroyed in its current state, so I’ll leave it at Noumea to allow it to recover as many disablements as possible before any upcoming fight.
With several subs sighted at Noumea, I decided not to evacuate my shipping inside the port. I’ve already experienced what happens to damaged and unescorted ships by Japanese subs at Singapore when he sank almost 60 of my AK’s and TK’s shuttling supplies. Let KB launch port attacks if it wants to, my ships will have a better chance of survival in port than at sea getting picked off by his subs.
Also every turn Japan hits my port, is one less turn he hits my airfield, which will allow my bombers to keep hitting his transport groups.
Japan launches another deliberate attack on Soerabaja and achieves a 2-1 and reduces another fort level! Looks like the base will fall even before all the forts are reduced.
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Ground combat at Soerabaja
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 85735 troops, 292 guns, 165 vehicles, Assault Value = 1511
Defending force 39402 troops, 147 guns, 9 vehicles, Assault Value = 513
Japanese max assault: 1127 - adjusted assault: 775
Allied max defense: 474 - adjusted defense: 317
Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 3)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 2
Japanese ground losses:
1273 casualties reported
Guns lost 12
Vehicles lost 5
Allied ground losses:
2783 casualties reported
Guns lost 38
Vehicles lost 5
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I fully expect the next attack to capture the base. This will signify the end of any significant allied resistance left in the SRA.
With the historical surrender for the DEI occurring on 8 March 42, I’m happy with my DEI campaign overall. Though I had hoped Java could hold out a bit longer due to the addition of the US and Philippine troops on Java, I can’t complain about a defense that lasted over one and a half months longer than the historical defense did.
The question is was the expenditure of almost 900 political points worth the one month+ extension? With Japanese troops already ashore and well established in both northern and northeastern Australia, I’d have to say no.
I don’t think I slowed him down enough to justify leaving the Pacific so weak at this stage. Had I spent the points on 2 or 3 brigades from Panama, I’d have at least one additional brigade at Noumea right now, and Canton Island and Palmyra would also have more than just a marine defense battalion defending them.
While my opponent has shown little interest in striking into the Pacific yet, his delay doesn’t really matter due to my early expenditure of those political points. The above bases still won’t have any brigades for at least another 2-3 months, which leaves Japan plenty of time to redeploy his PI and DEI forces to take those bases before I can do much to stop him.
Had I gotten everything I paid to release onto Java instead of sending them to isolated bases like Tarakan and Manado, then perhaps Java could have held for another month or more. Had Java been able to hold until the end of May, in my opinion that would have justified the expenditure, since that would have allowed me time to make up for the delay in releasing troops for the Pacific theatre.
Of course the realistic feasibility of getting all the units I paid to release into Java at all is another story in itself and probably very doubtful. If I ever do contemplate spending so many political points on PI units again, getting them to Java and not worrying so much about the other SRA bases will be the intended goal.
Jim
