Yava vs Dixie (Struggle Against Dixie...) Allied perspective

[Yava]

Gents,
the spotted earlier and wrongly identified ships were in fact 5 Japanese BBs which pounded Port Moresby during night. They are somewhere near the southern tip of New Guinea right now.
The enamy also captured Lae.

Java
After capturing Merak Dixie will probably advance South to capture Batavia. The AF in there has been attacked from air today and we have spotted some Japanese CAs steaming towards the place. One of our subs managed to hit a Japanese troop transport heading for Merak.
Aussies are moving to Batavia... I hope they will get there in time.

Malaya
Japanese troops tried to kick us out of Kuala Lumpur today but without success. Also Singapore AF was a target of enemy planes.

Honk Kong and China
Suprisingly the enemy started a small air offensive against Hong Kong port. Few ships have been hit and one PT sunk. After the air raid enemy troops tried to punch a hole in our defenses... Fortifications level down to 3.

Canton again was a target of enemy air strikes and bombardment attacks... I wonder how long we are going to distrupt Dixie over there. Nothing more happened in China today.

In the Central Pacific and not only...
We are strenghtening our defenses in Palmyra, Christmas Island, Johnston and Midway.
So it is quiet as hell...

[ny59giants]

the spotted earlier and wrongly identified ships were in fact 5 Japanese BBs which pounded Port Moresby during night. They are somewhere near the southern tip of New Guinea right now.
The enemy also captured Lae.

I hope you have plans in the works to place at least a small BF at the dot base (Portland Roads) before he captures PM. It will become a very important base once PM falls. If you can spare them, send some large American fleet subs there to start your evac over to PR from PM. At least get a frag out now before he takes PM and pushes those LCU into the interior and it takes 30 or more days to get them back to the coast for evac.

[Yava]

Thanks NY![:)]
A very good point... I was thinking
1) To start the evac and by the means of eveacuated BF do the installment on PR
2) Send the BF that is currently sailing to PM to PR
Suggestions[&:]

[ny59giants]

In my PBEM game (CHS 158c - Nik Mod) now near the end of 11/42, my opponent said that taking PM has been a problem as he can only afford to send barges to reinforce it with Cooktown basing my 4e bombers (he didn't like them getting by over 50 Zero's to drop bombs on KB even if they missed) along with the American A-29 Hudsons and PR having B-25 Mitchells and P-38F Lightnings flying at normal range to hit it whenever I want. [:D]  I eventually, built up Thursday Island and they have the potential to wreck havoc when the time comes on NG.
 
Portland Road can easily be overlooked by both sides if your not familar with Andrew's map (it is only a dot base afterall [;)]). Dixie will be well aware of it after this game is done. [:D]

[Yava]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

In my PBEM game (CHS 158c - Nik Mod) now near the end of 11/42, my opponent said that taking PM has been a problem as he can only afford to send barges to reinforce it with Cooktown basing my 4e bombers (he didn't like them getting by over 50 Zero's to drop bombs on KB even if they missed) along with the American A-29 Hudsons and PR having B-25 Mitchells and P-38F Lightnings flying at normal range to hit it whenever I want. [:D] I eventually, built up Thursday Island and they have the potential to wreck havoc when the time comes on NG.

Portland Road can easily be overlooked by both sides if your not familar with Andrew's map (it is only a dot base afterall [;)]). Dixie will be well aware of it after this game is done. [:D]

Some nice tips as usuall from you NY[:)]

It is obvious from my point of view that Dixie is trying to cut off OZ...
He has some places to consider:
1) Fiji can be a great target since it is quite far away...
2) He can try to make the attack a bit closer for example Canton or Palmyra... even Johnson but I doubt it since despite the closeness of his bases the mentioned bases are near PH...
I also think that Dixie is going to use KB to back up the landing... wherever and if he is going to land. I am not going to interfere much, well maybe if it's really near PH so that I can bring some LBs into action. I am not going to risk loosing CVs to defend Fiji for example... [:)]

[ny59giants]

From my limited persepctive, your defenses need to be first - the Line Islands (Palmyra, Christmas Island) and Johnson Island, and Midway (BF, CD, and 1 RCT max). Midway is nice, but not a strategic asset.
 
Second, make a play for Suva and Pago Pago island groups. These are nice to have, but not vital and worth the lose of any CVs to defend. I would send some large fleet subs (2 subs per LCU) there to evac a fragment back to USA, if needed for rebuilding, especially BFs. French Polynesia is a good fall back position and it enables you to keep a supply line to Nz/Oz open.
 
Operate all the American CVs in one large group (each in a single CV TF). Even if you don't use it, the potential is there and force him to use KB in the Central and South Pacific to support invasions. I've lost 5 American CVs to 1 Japanese, to date in various PBEMs. All because I have not followed my own advise (I didn't have it to start with, but do now). [:D]

[Yava]

From my limited persepctive, your defenses need to be first - the Line Islands (Palmyra, Christmas Island) and Johnson Island, and Midway (BF, CD, and 1 RCT max). Midway is nice, but not a strategic asset.

That's precisely what I am doing.[:)]

Second, make a play for Suva and Pago Pago island groups. These are nice to have, but not vital and worth the lose of any CVs to defend. I would send some large fleet subs (2 subs per LCU) there to evac a fragment back to USA, if needed for rebuilding, especially BFs. French Polynesia is a good fall back position and it enables you to keep a supply line to Nz/Oz open.

I agree. They are handy but not really worth loosing any ships. We shall see if Dixie is going to attack here. If he does as you said.. French Polynesia here I come [:D]

Operate all the American CVs in one large group (each in a single CV TF). Even if you don't use it, the potential is there and force him to use KB in the Central and South Pacific to support invasions. I've lost 5 American CVs to 1 Japanese, to date in various PBEMs. All because I have not followed my own advise (I didn't have it to start with, but do now).

[:D] Always keeping them together as a rule

[ny59giants]

Consider sending some of your TKs to Tongatapu (for the brave) or Rarotonga (for the more cautious) and unloading there. You will lose some in spoilage, but it is far enough away that he probably will not send subs down there to watch the place. [;)] Then, if, the Line Islands calm down and you feel secure, send your 4 CVs here, refuel and then move up towards Suva/Pago Pago and wait for an opportunity to strike at an invasion fleet that may come without KB. I put a PBY on each Suva and Pago Pago to watch
 
Many Japanese will use subs around Suva and Pago Pago area, but not this far south initially. A good place to wait in ambush. [:D]

[Yava]

Hi NY,
Indeed Pago Pago is a nice place for an ambush [:)] However in some PMs concerning the war Dixie was very upset with the lack of the Navy as he called it... I wouldn't be surprised if he's preparing a small trap somewhere with the Invasion fleet as a bait [:)]

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: Yava

Mike
here is the HK situation that you requested...

Yava, I'm 2 game weeks behind you, still at 12/23/41, and my supply total is down to about the same as yours. I guess Mynok has been bombarding a little more than Dixie. I think it also shows the value of pinning down some of the Alien.... er, Japanese... units in Canton. Your efforts there have bought Hong Kong at least 2 weeks of additional freedom. [8D]

[Yava]

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: Yava

Mike
here is the HK situation that you requested...

Yava, I'm 2 game weeks behind you, still at 12/23/41, and my supply total is down to about the same as yours. I guess Mynok has been bombarding a little more than Dixie. I think it also shows the value of pinning down some of the Alien.... er, Japanese... units in Canton. Your efforts there have bought Hong Kong at least 2 weeks of additional freedom. [8D]

We shall see about that [;)] Dixie is pushing with the offensive...

[Yava]

Gents,
well the war.. steady as she goes... nothing really important happens... we are still not making certain moves in order to make Dixie less focused on particular areas... anyways here are my thoughts on the situation and I think that everything is obvious...
1) Martin os going to invade PM soon, very soon... but he won't try it without some proper air cover. Conclusion KB is somewhere near. The good point of this situation is that I have a green light when it comes to Central Pacific... only his pesky little subs with these damn small planes are making me pull my hair out sometimes.
2) When it comes to SRA... Jap forces will probably take care of Sumatra and Java... here I mean the conquest of the bases that are still in Dutch hands.
3) In China Dixie will try to push me out of Canton and afterwards make quick and deadly blast North... that's my point of view on the situation here...
4) Mandalay or Akyab... as I have said before I would push for Mandalay... easier and faster access.

Ok, now back to the current situation... 1/12/1942
One of our destroyers had been attacked NE of Pago Pago by a Jap sub, torpedoes missed and we have another Jap sub position marked on ye ol' map.
Nothing else happened in the Central and North Pacific...

In China Dixie crossed the river S of Yenan. His forces had to shock attack and well here is the outcome...

I see another unit to the South, it will probably join the enemy forces... in a week or two... [:D] We have also sent some reinforcements to the place but it will take some time for them to get here.
More to the South in Canton Dixie is bombarding our positions but still cannot kick us out of the place.
Even more to the South [:D] an attempt to land at Hong Kong is going to take place probably tommorow... A small force tried to clear the minefield around the place today, sadly Dixie's ships managed to clear a few paths through the mines... but after that got a friendly welcome from the defenders...


Java...
Dixie is marching South to Batavia... we have to start attacking his land forces from the air... I hope my lack of activity in this region left his land units without air cover.

That would be all I guess...

[Yava]

Gents,
a relatively quiet day across the whole Pacific. One of the biggest events was S-38 SE of Makassar putting two cigars into AP Nissen Maru.

Anyways...
In China Dixie attacked most Canton from air and Hong Kong was a target of a small air attack. We managed to destroy 5 Nells during it. Peace and quiet in Yenan, Dixie's forces must be a bit distrupted after yesterday.

Burma/India
[>:]

Malaya
Dixie reduced fortifications in Mersing to 0 and conducted a few air attacks in the region. Our bombers from Singapore tried to hit a few Jap ships but without luck.

Not much happened in the Java Celebes line... apart from the mentioned sub attack.

[Yava]

Gents,
Taiping has been captured by enemy forces... 9000 of our troops have surrendered. I don't want to know what Japs are going to do with those poor chaps in their 'POW' camps.[:(]

Not much happened in the entire region of Malaya/DEI/Burma/India today apart from the mentioned Taiping accident... Two of fleeing Dutch APs got hit by Jap planes and sunk W of Sumatra.

In China Canton forces took the daily amount of steel on their heads and Dixie tried to punch a hole in HK's defenses but without luck... hard to do it without engineers thou...

And the last but not least information bit for today...
Kavieng was captured by the enemy after a month of fighting...

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: Yava

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: Yava

Mike
here is the HK situation that you requested...

Yava, I'm 2 game weeks behind you, still at 12/23/41, and my supply total is down to about the same as yours. I guess Mynok has been bombarding a little more than Dixie. I think it also shows the value of pinning down some of the Alien.... er, Japanese... units in Canton. Your efforts there have bought Hong Kong at least 2 weeks of additional freedom. [8D]

We shall see about that [;)] Dixie is pushing with the offensive...

Sad news to report from my parallel universe. Mynok captured Hong Kong on 12/26/41. Your defenders have already held out 20 days longer than mine, thanks to your Canton invaders. In the long run, it's not going to make much of a difference, but at least you are denying Dixie the HI and Resources of Hong Kong for a few weeks longer than me. Good work, Commander Yava. [&o]

[Yava]

ORIGINAL: USS America

ORIGINAL: Yava

ORIGINAL: USS America




Yava, I'm 2 game weeks behind you, still at 12/23/41, and my supply total is down to about the same as yours. I guess Mynok has been bombarding a little more than Dixie. I think it also shows the value of pinning down some of the Alien.... er, Japanese... units in Canton. Your efforts there have bought Hong Kong at least 2 weeks of additional freedom. [8D]

We shall see about that [;)] Dixie is pushing with the offensive...

Sad news to report from my parallel universe. Mynok captured Hong Kong on 12/26/41. Your defenders have already held out 20 days longer than mine, thanks to your Canton invaders. In the long run, it's not going to make much of a difference, but at least you are denying Dixie the HI and Resources of Hong Kong for a few weeks longer than me. Good work, Commander Yava. [&o]

Alas I am... Sorry for the delay Mike but I have been really busy at the University... Today's upcoming update should put some more light on the HK and not only situation...[:)]

[Yava]

Gents,
excuse me for the delay but some exams were keeping me busy.
Anyways we're back in business and we are getting our a$s kicked.
Dixie is transporting troops to HK by sea, this includes engineers. His MSWs cleared a few paths through our minefields but still some bigger ships tend to hit a mine or two. Our CD unit is keeping the landing force supressed and the remaining ships from HK will, despite being almost wrecks, try to damage some more jap transports. The supply is down to 1245.

TF 87 encounters mine field at Hong Kong (43,42) - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

83 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
MSW W.19, Shell hits 17, on fire, heavy damage
MSW W.16, Shell hits 32, on fire, heavy damage
MSW W.15, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
PC Ch 32
PC Ch 13
PC Takunan Maru #5
PC Shonan Maru #17
AK Matsukawa Maru, Mine hits 2, on fire
PC Ch 16
PC Ch 15

Japanese ground losses:
39 casualties reported

Allied ground losses:
9 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

TF 87 encounters mine field at Hong Kong (43,42) - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

TF 87 troops unloading over beach at Hong Kong, 43,42


56 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
MSW W.15, Shell hits 36, on fire, heavy damage
PC Ch 17
PC Shonan Maru #17
PC Ch 14
PC Takunan Maru #5
PC Ch 32
PC Ch 18
PC Ch 16
PC Ch 15
PC Ch 13, Mine hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Coastal Guns at Hong Kong, 43,42, firing at TF 87
524 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
PC Shonan Maru #17, Shell hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AK Matsukawa Maru
PC Ch 32, Shell hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
AK Anzan Maru, Shell hits 2, on fire
PC Ch 18, Shell hits 11
PC Takunan Maru #5

Japanese ground losses:
561 casualties reported

Allied ground losses:
14 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

This is how it looked today.

In other parts of China nothing happened... well as usuall my Canton force was bombed.

Some interesting SIG INT report came today... and I like these two entries..[:'(]

9th AF Construction Battalion is loaded on AK,Yubae Maru moving to Balikpapan.
3rd Hvy Field Artillery Regiment is loaded on AK,Yahiko Maru moving to Merak.
Would the latter suggest that Dixie is not going to march for Batavia without artillery units? [;)] We shall try to sink that ship...

Celebes...
Dixie now has total control over the island. He captured Makassar today. Our predictions when it comes to enemy cruisers were correct and this resulted in the slaughter of our PT's
However it seems that Jap's don't like some of them...
PT TM-15, Shell hits 27, on fire, heavy damage


From the OZ region... Zeroes were present in the air over Darwin...
Japs are preparing for the PM invasion...

That would be all... [:)]

[Yava]

Gents,
we're in the middle of January pot now. Many things melt inside but nothing really happens. [;)] Well at least it seems so... but any observer of this AAR should know what's really going on. So, let us begin.

China
In the North we are fighting in Yenan and Tatung...
In Yenan Dixie has gathered 73000 troops with 316 guns and three more units are possibly moving in the direction of the town. In Tatung were keeping busy some 20000+ Jap soldiers but not for long... I am thinking of a small withdrawal towards friendly bases.
In the southern part of the country the situation is a little bit more complicated as we can see in this picture.


Burma/India
Dixie is probably moving some engineer units to Rangoon and will soon continue his offensive.

Malaya
Ground combat at Mersing

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 19629 troops, 74 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 418

Defending force 5037 troops, 41 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 81

Japanese max assault: 403 - adjusted assault: 143

Allied max defense: 78 - adjusted defense: 131

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0


Japanese ground losses:
224 casualties reported
Guns lost 5

Allied ground losses:
207 casualties reported
Guns lost 4
DEI
Not much happened here today. Batavia got bombed from the air and one of our Dutch subs was attacked by Japanese APDs. We managed to hit one Jap transport in Palembang.

Koepang was attacked by Betties today. We have transferred a few Buffs to distrupt the unescorted bombers.

New Guinea
Buna was captured by the enemy and PM bombed as usual.

Central Pacific
[>:]

That would be all[:)]

[Yava]

Gents,
I shall start with the bad news... Situation in Malaya is tragic! Kuala Lumpur is in the hands of the enemy now. Our small detachment stried to slow the enemy down but had to retreat ... fast. More to the South almost 6000 troops surrendered to the enemy in Mersing.

Situation in Malaya.

In China Hengchow and Yenan were targets of enemy bombers. Apart from that Dixie sent more ships in order to unload troops there. One out of four AKs got pounded by our guns... it's burning...

Coming back to DEI
From the bad news Batavia was the target of enemy bombers. Lack of our air cover made it easy for the enemy to hit our forces and small ships docked in the port. Koepang's AF was also a target of enemy planes from Amboina. We managed to damage one Betty and distrupt the attack.

Pacific...
We have spotted some AKs near Baker Island and one of enemy recon planes from a sub took photos of Canton Island later that day. We shall see...

Again DEI but now the good news.

SS O20 put two torps and shelled Jap transport eventually sinking it... before the ship sunk troops have been spotted trying to save their lives...
More good news...
Our planes from Soerabaja hit the Japanese CVL Shoho...
1st wave of the attak put only 3 bombs into the belly of the Jap ship but a large explosion had been observed aboard the ship... probably ammo storage was hit. We have lost four Brewsters during the attack.
Day Air attack on TF at 27,67

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12

Allied aircraft
CW-21B Demon x 4
Brewster 339D x 12
T.IVa x 6
Blenheim I x 3
Martin 139 x 12

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Brewster 339D: 4 destroyed, 1 damaged
Martin 139: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
CVL Shoho, Bomb hits 3, on fire

2nd wave of our planes managed to put 10 bombs into the bastard... it was moving really slow and burning... really nice... Sadly we lost track of it later...
Day Air attack on TF at 27,67


Allied aircraft
CW-21B Demon x 4
Brewster 339D x 9
Buffalo I x 2
T.IVa x 5
Blenheim I x 3
Martin 139 x 15


Allied aircraft losses
Martin 139: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
CL Naka
CVL Shoho, Bomb hits 10, on fire, heavy damage

[Yava]

Gents,
for the second day our Dutch and RAF boys pound the hell out of Shoho. Today we put 8 bombs into the floating wreck and that gives us 21 bombs in total.[:D]

Allied aircraft
Brewster 339D x 6
Buffalo I x 2
T.IVa x 3
Blenheim I x 3
Martin 139 x 27


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
CVL Shoho, Bomb hits 8, on fire, heavy damage


A little more to the East Dixie captures Pinrang without a single shot. However S-41 shoots and scores one torpedo into Imuzo Maru a bit to the North.

Batavia is the target of Haruna and friends. 2000 souls and a few guns are the loses on the ground. Also the few small Dutch AKs that were left in the port sustain some damage.

In China Dixie attacks Hong Kong but still the assault odds are 0:1 [;)]

Ground combat at Hong Kong

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 25325 troops, 107 guns, 6 vehicles, Assault Value = 541

Defending force 17293 troops, 116 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 313

Japanese max assault: 512 - adjusted assault: 163

Allied max defense: 342 - adjusted defense: 952

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 3)


Japanese ground losses:
1549 casualties reported
Guns lost 28

Allied ground losses:
193 casualties reported
Guns lost 9


We have the normal amount of combat in Yenan and Tatung which means bombardment attacks and Japanese air superiority...

THat would be all gents... as always your comments and suggestions are welcome.[:)]