RHS TEST 6A: RAO V OSO (back in play)

[el cid again]

After over a year developing EOS family scenarios I had some trouble adjusting to CVO family requirements: I am a detail player and tend to attempt to optimize every setting - but what that means is different in the "strictly historical" scenarios. Even so - the main problem discovered in the first turn run up was a device problem affecting some Allied aircraft and air units. This problem exists in 4 of 22 RHS scenarios and has been fixed by the issue of a device file for them. Otherwise we are finding only minor eratta - things like a unit planned for the wrong location - which I will simply collect for some future update.

I have studied this general scenario since 1965 - when I found myself confused by naval matters and decided that WWII PTO "is modern enough to teach the relationship between things but old enough to be declassified." I unexpectedly became interested in the politics of how it began and ended - both subjects being tragic wholly apart from the tragedy of combat operations - and since then I have become both a researcher and a simulation gamer (which is not quite the same as a recreational wargamer). I also learned computer science, and spent years promoting the once radical idea we could some day have small, powerful computers (when everyone knew that was nuts) - just so we could get here (but not expecting nearly as much power as we have got). I am very familiar with the map and order of battle, and of course I know the details of RHS in the most intimate sense (except for art - thanks to a couple of man years donated by Cobra).

I served on the last APA ever built (USS Francis Marion) and the last of the Adams class DDGs built for USN (six modified versions followed for Australia and Germany) - the USS Waddell. I got exposed to naval infantry (Landing Party School and actual missions), anti-air warfare (the air war in Viet Nam went badly for a time - and we also faced anti ship missiles for the first time), what may be the last line of battle in history in an action attempting to close the SLOC between Malaya and Cambodia (and failing to do that) - and lots of gunfire support (I hear 4/10 of what you do) - even taking Waddell up the Mekong (3000 tons and 26 foot draft or not). I witness problems like USN and USAF cannot talk to each other - they do not use common radios or data protocols - and they even shoot at each other. I became an advocate of joint which is fashionable today but was very radical then: to say "the Air Force is on our side" was to be considered nearly insane.

In the years since I went into electronics - and computers - and sometimes got very interesting jobs in the defense industry - or to participate as a member of a professional association that gives free technical advice to the Pentagon. In particular I was an advocate of missile defenses - and the shoot down of a rogue satellite by a US Navy ship a few days ago is something I wanted to be able to do long ago - and with more than a handful of prototype missiles or ships fitted to fire them. Since the Clinton era I have been a student, analyst and writer on the PLA - which is remarkably like the Imperial Japanese forces of WWII (right down to being overspecialized, thin in specialist units,
and having "mace weapons" supposedly giving an advantage in battle which - mostly - won't do that - but sometimes some of them will. Like the Japanese, the Chinese are generally not respected as competent - and like the Japanese - this is a very big mistake.


My game playing focus is first of all shaped by the political point of the contest: this war is fought over China policy - and to pretend it is a naval war unrelated to China is a grave misunderstanding of the subject IMHO. Inside that, my focus is logistical: Japan needs to obtain, utilize and protect the resources and industry needed to support its forces. This first of all requires taking a good deal more oil - second more resources and factories - and third moving the resources, oil, supplies and fuel where they are required operationally. I spend most of my time on unglamourous analysis and setting of economic matters: production, construction, movement, location of HQ with respect to what will draw supply, etc. And operations are gearned not only to take these things - but to protect them as long as possible.' There are dimensions beyond what we can consider here - why Japan produced a successful economy in Manchukuo during the Great Depression (growing at a robust pace, attracting millions plural from each of several nations: China, Russia, Korea and Japan) - and the measures adopted near the end of the war in China and former Western colonies which turned out to be lasting changes (like return of institutions to Chinese administration, release of all pressed laborers, return of much confisgated proterties, and prosecution of military officers who were more interested in getting rich than serving the nation. But I believe that Japan MIGHT have rewritten the map of Asia more fundamentally if it had adopted these measures sooner, more consistently, and more openly. Anti-colonial sentiment in Asia was genuine - and if the good will Japan enjoyed were harnessed the manpower (at least) to man merchant ships, armies, factories would have been available. The concept of autarky - self reliance locally - was viable at its heart - and sooner or later - if the cost of retaking the empires is too high - the West will give up.

[el cid again]

The problem with the strictly historical CVO family is that players are pretty much forced to adopt the basic strategy of their side at the start. There are insufficient political points to change major focus - except gradually over time. So here we will adopt a fundamentally standard
approach - because we must. But INSIDE each operational area we can be operationally more flexable and cooperative than was actually the case (with rare exceptions - Malaya being the clearest of these).

Operationally I believe in operational air power. That is, the opposite of strategic air power - something I know about (both my parents served with B-17s in USAAF). Instead of strategic bombers for city bombing, I believe in

tactical air support
air transport
operational counter air strikes on enemy air bases
operational anti naval strikes on enemy ports
operational air combat vs surface ships
operational air patrol vs enemy submarines
operational air reconnaissance and search

to such an extent I have no room for strategic bombing as such.

There is this exception however: I have an experimental biological warfare capabilithy in RHS - modeled on Unit 731 - including its own private air force of light planes. That ONE unit will engage in strategic air warfare - to see if the 25 kg Uji BW bomb works? While a couple of other units use that weapon - I will upgrade them so they no longer fly the Ki-36 which has it. [RHS Ki-36 comes in several flavors - ground suport - naval patrol - and BW - so not all units with the plane get the same weapons].

[el cid again]

I see the attack on Hawaii (when the commitment has not been made to take over the place) as an attempt to neutralize the US Pacific Fleet.
That mainly means the battleships - but also the carriers (few as they are) if possible. The carriers are not a big threat - their air groups are too awful and they are not together like KB is. But they will get better planes soon enough - and so killing them is a good idea if possible. But like Nagumo - I fear losing Japanese carriers - they are more or less irreplaceable - and their value will be small enough even if all survive against the big carrier fleets that will show up later.

The historical KB had no fewer than eight contingency plans for 8 Dec 1941 (the day the war starts Tokyo time). The surprise option was considered improbable - and lucky. I set my forces to engage ships at sea - if there are any - and only strike the base if there are not.

That turned out to be a bit of a problem: AI has no brains - and unlike a tactical game I could not say "don't go after DMs" - so my morning strikes went for ships - which did NOT include carriers or battleships - and only the afternoon went into the base. This did not have surprise - some of the 5 radars in RHS repaired up - and there was CAP - which did some damage. AA did more - and it is more effective in the afternoon than in the morning. But I am not dismayed - I dare not assume Halsey won't be in range - nor that the entire battle force did not sortee against me. It was smart to leave them in port - they will repair back up - eventually.

In RHS there is no uber cap - so in spite of 50 per cent cap settings at four altitude levels (3 with zeros, one with seaplane fighters) a tiny bomber group was able to penetrate KB on second day strikes - and put one 500 pound bomb in both Shokaku and Zuikaku - starting a fire in both. Lots of damage was done by 800 kg bombs and torpedoes on enemy battleships - but a third of the bombers were lost - and 4 out of 6 carrier groups bomber morale is too low to be combat effective. On fire - in mid ocean far from fuel or home - no idea where the enemy CVs are - they probably joined together now - I will retire and rebuild the air groups.

I think the KB should base at Truk - and take advantage of interior lines. I also like retiring where I have long range recon and land based bomber support. I sent the tankers toward Kwajaleing - and will not retire by the Northern Route as in history: he might be up there (some SBD spotted a sub - but it might have been operating out of the island itself). I am not fit to fight just now - I have more fuel in the area and more tankers than he does - he won't follow me far to the West - and if he does I have long range land based air support - which HE has near PH. I have done the job - Pacific Fleet won't steam West under War Plan Orange - and we need to exploit the almost empty SW Pacific before it isn't empty any more. If we get a shot at his carriers - fine - but the goal is to take bases - not just for direct use - but to deny them to the enemy - and to use them to cut his vital SLOC between USA and AUS.

[el cid again]

The KB spent two days raiding near Oahu, and now one day of withdrawall. Both Shokaku and Zuikaku put out their fies - and show not even one point of system damage - something I have never seen before. All the damaged aircraft were also repaird. But 7 of 12 bomber squadrons are combat ineffective - and the other 5 only marginally so. It is not safe to engage in combat in this condition - so the withdrawall continues.

The Nee Guinea Volunteer Regiment ran into a spot of trouble. A tiny airborne force landed on Lae on the first day - intended to trigger a shock attack by the entire South Seas Detachment. This failed - because the convoy vailed to arrive. Properly the Allies set the Regiment to shock attack the few paras that survived. But by the time that attack came in - there were four Japanese units on the island - so the regiment got badly burned. A Japanese attack the third day combined with other airlandings to force withdrrawall NOrth - into the jungle - with no path to retreat anywhere the unit can be picked up. Ireloaded the South Seas Deatchment and directed its convoy to land it at Dobradura. The idea is to get to Portr Moresby before it can be properly defended. But not taking Rabaul seems to have been a mistake. The problem is - not many ships or land units - or air units - are in this area to work with. This is an experimental method: units at Rabaul are not going anywhere and lack the supply to be a threat. Heavy units (Nagato, Mutsu and an entire cruiser squadron under Tanaka) en route to the area should make mincemeat of them

The strange probe into Canton will be used as an object lesson: its retreat is now cut off - and lots of bomber power will be used to beat it up. It probably will retreat on the trail to Kan Hasien - meaning it will not be able to resupply - and we will persue - hopefully wiping it out.

Air units were moved forward to Legaspi and Cayagan. Small carrier, surfa and sb teams will try to sink the fleeing ships from the Philippines - together with Bettys at Cayagan a.

The main landing for Luzon was put at San Fernando - avoiding the defensive divisions at Linguyan Gulf. Now asore - the 48th Division with strong support will move up the NaguiliaRoad to Baguio City - and decend on Clark from above. Gen Homma is already ashore - and his support units will make the combat forces more effective. Recon shows 5 units at Naga/Pili and Daet - next to Legaspi - so the enemy has sucked strong forces away from Manila to the SE. THis is a mistake - the threat is from the North - and not down the central plain from Linguyan - but rather from the high ground - which will isolate strong forces in the North and put the big airfield at Clark into hands for air support work. Meanwhile a major mine force will attempt to lay mines at Olongapo.

The battle for Sarawak was bitter - and so it is being subjected to bombing - while its six assaulting units (all small) rest up. Same at Wuhan - victories in Central CHina permit moving in troops and supplies - but the forward units are too disrupted to attack. Air units are instead bombing the enemy at Canton. Other troops are chasing guerillas - to clear out the supply lines. ROCAF unwisely has moved air units into range - so two forward bases will b e creamed.


Mongol cavalry - who don't even understand the idea of a border if it is marked - are crossing the unmarked border into Mongolia. This is mainly an experiment - to see what supplies are like in the desert far from base? Also a political experiment - Russia cannot treat invasion of Mongolia by Mongols as an invasion of itself.

Forward air bases were established at Singora and Bangkok - and major landings occurred both at these ports and over the beach at Kota Baru. Troops are marching on Alor Star (which is really Alor Setar) - as much ss 60 miles march is shown - so there will be a battle there tomorrow. Fifth Division is having the usual problems at Kota - and I have decided that in future we will be "more Japanese than the Japanese" - landing elsewhere and not in the teeth of brigades - not because we don't win - but to minimize losses.

[el cid again]

The idea that a whole corps might expel a Chinese formation from Canton by shock attack - backed up by bomber and strafing raids from all points on the compass - did not work out. In WITP the first time a unit is in battle it does not have a strong position - and a shock attack is aleays risky. Well over 2600 Japanese soldiers became casualties - for nothing that can be observed. But this force is isolated - and cannot be in good shape after all those raids. I left em in place - more raids - and I will try to force it to retreat into Hong Kong - whiere it will be doomed. I need tthe respect of the enemy - he should not be contesting a foregone conclusion - and he shoult not be thinking he can walk away if he does.

Curiously the same sort of thing on a smaller scale is happening at Kuching. The troops are not recovering fast -- nor even unloading well and bomber raids must continue another day - with no meaningful attack. But the two weak units there are doomed - and it is better to wait to attack than to take excessive casualties.

Kota Bahru finally fell - before all the units assigned had moved down the rail lines from Singora or landed by ship - so the 5th Division and 3rd Tank Brigade - reinforced by engineers and artillery - are in percuit down the center of Malaya. Meanwhile a separate tank regiment entered Alor Star - the infantry cannot keep up - but should arrive today. Forward air bases were established at Kota and Pisenaluk Thailand - while the Burma force - three divisions - is about to break like a storm on that country - starting at Tavoy - bur on a broad front. Air raids will go in today at Rangoon instead of forward fields - for the first time. He is not running - but defending everything up here. I have used ships to move designated units forward far sooner than history - so he is too weak to stand before the storm about to break.

In the Philippines a lot of single ships were hit by aircraft - from light carriers - and Cayagan. I moved up Ki-21s to Legaspi - and have no less than five surface action groups hunting - helping several subs - to prevent the run for NEI from succeeding. But I think Houston may have got through the lines. The first unit into Baguio was artillery - but everything else is on its heels.

Many subs are within a hex of KB - in central ocean - so being predictable is not working out. All the air units came back up - so we will become unrpedictable - and also put out his eyes at Johnston Island (meaning take down the airfield). The theory of fleet subs - in this case mostly with aircraft - will be tested - to see if they can find his carriers - since we are not in range of land based air. This is the weakness of the historical opening - KB is operating alone - in range of enemy land based air - and there are no forces to capture islets and put recon on them.

We will see what we will see down South. Hollendia fell - Biak came up as a forward recon station - and Dobradura is heavily invested by the South Seas Detachment. Lae will come up as a recon field in a day or two - and we must come up with some plan to take Rabaul while we build up Dobradura into the advance close support sir station. We took Shortland and Tulagi - mainy for recon - and to deny them to the enemy. I finally got minelayers to work - and Tahiti is now mined.

Subs are starting to score to my standards - I am a bit of a sub theorist - and I put them where he pretty much has to go. The first victory of the day came at the Sunda Strait where Evertson took a fish. Many other ships followed - all the way to Hawaii.

But the First Battle of Manila was a total bust. A large force of fast minelayers attempted a night minelaying run - they really did succeed in going in at night - but the coast batteries ate them. None were nominally sunk outright - but I scuttled two - and one more may not make it even to San Fernando. Half a dozen others were damaged - for no mines delivered. The RHS Seacoast defenses of Bataan hex are robust indeed - even at night - when perhaps they shold not be. It looks like obsolescent 12 inch mortars scored several times.

[Buck Beach]

What or who is OSO? Are you playing this game against a breathing opponent, Head to Head against yourself with a sript or what?

It is interesting and I will be following.

[el cid again]

The turn execution began with a long series of 8 or 9 "surface battles" between one heavy and three medium surface action groups in the Celebes Sea - sinking six PG and almost as many transports. Houston seems to have escaped the net - aircraft were too tired to be effective - subs were mostly out of position - yet the sea was almost swept clean- by surface warships.

KB escaped the subs - by doing a 180 degree reversal - and hit Johnston Island (again). No sign of the carriers - but many subs are looking - with planes on most. The USN is hunting subs - scoring the first immediate sinkings of the war - and I have ordered all to leave Hawiian waters. But the subs everywhere continued to attack - and sometimes deliver torpedoes. This - and the above - is naval warfare by Sid's book: hunt transports and minor vessels. It matters - and you don't get hurt. Sink em - don't just damage em. If I cannot find his carriers I will contentedly hunt transports with KB.

Dobradura and Hollandia fell - this is a real shoestring offensive with almost no forces - but I moved construction engineers into LAE. Rabaul came up as an air base - good - and failed to score in 3 raids on trnasports - also good. Rabaul will die as an air base when a heavy SAG hits it - and I want planes there when it does.

Except we can attack Baguio in force, this is a day of movement and bombing points to be attacked. The 18th division didn't quite reach Alor Star - so that assault must wait for tomorrow to be ordered - and the next day to go home. Many bomber units are tired and given missions that will allow them to recover.

[el cid again]

ORIGINAL: Buck Beach

What or who is OSO? Are you playing this game against a breathing opponent, Head to Head against yourself with a sript or what?

It is interesting and I will be following.

I am playing five or six games at this time - vs real opponents - world wide - only two of which are reporting with AARs. OSO wanted to do an AAR - and started one - so I did a complimentary one. The other one is vs an old friend who has played many games of this title over half a century - and whom I visit during years I don't actually live near Seattle. I have two standard scenarios - available to all- start turns for RAO and EEO - but it is very slow getting first turns back - so I am not sure how many games are in progress? I had three days off - and I find I still need more incoming turns to keep me occupied - so I took to making a bomber utility for the Allies - and making a plan that will reissue the installer with both technical improvements and slightly better scenario files (less eratta) - which fortunately playing helps to identify. If the rate of turn generation does not increase - I may start even more games. I can turn out several turns a day - and if players take several days to respond - I need a lot of games to get several coming in.

OSO is apparently in the USA several time zones East of Alaska - an experienced WITP player - and one who does not run with everything. See his AAR for more. I believe he will show you the map and other things. I may post updated economic data - which I know how to capture - from time to time.

[el cid again]

In the latest turn, the KB successfully made contact with the Replenishment TF - by turning sharply South - and it detached the heavy units to bombard Johnston Island - hoping to combine that with air raids to take it down. This seemed to work spectacularly well- the bombardment got huge numbers of hits - and two air raids each scored dozens more - but intel says only 47 per cent of the airfield is down (although I doubt any planes are fit to fly - and it appears only to have been a recon base - I didn't want it reporting my position to his subs - which are out in force).

The smaller carriers and SAGs in the Celebes Sea met a replenishment TF as well - and meanwhile I spotted some ships trying to run around the area - closer to New Guinea - which I hope to box in with long range air out of Palau and Mindinao - and carrier air - and the heavy SAG. I reduced the number of surface groups to two - and combined the replenishment ships, a transport group and a cruiser SAG for a run into Cayagan with some AA and supplies.


On Luzon Baguio fell - defended only by a battalion and a small base support element. This is key to my strategy - take the high mountains - and their air base - and decend on Clark - by passing the many uints defending Linguyan Gulf. Meanwhile I have begun recon and air raids of Linguyan - and not of Clark - to preserve the illusion that I will go there next. The 16th division is assembled ashore and moving overland with support to engage a major defensive position at Naga (which also is historical) - because I failed to take Naga as I should have done on the first day - and he ran there by railroad. Legaspi is an airbase with Ki-21s, recon and fighters. I sent fighters and recon to Baguio - and of course we are already had a base farther North. But 65 brigade has failed to move on Iligan - and the battalion which retreated there failed to move to Baguio as I expected - so I don't yet have proper LOC in the North. But in a few days - I will. I am sending the rest of 48 division and supporting units to Baguio - and will march on Clark in a day or so.


Canton is a mess: I cannot move from Hong Kong back to my base - the presence of his single unit means it is an illegal move. I tried to go by sea - I did take out one load already - but his PT boats sank an LCM company - a big deal in VP terms - and I must clean them out. The units blocking his retreat back to China are also out of supplies - so I must send more landing craft up the Pearl River to feed them. It is a mess that will take some days to clear out - but should mean he loses a field army mroe than he should have lost had he not been so adventuresome.

China South of Shanghai is being cleared slowly - and so is much of Central China North of Nanking. This gives me better rail/road LOC - but Wuhan is something else. It can be a bear - there are way too many Chinese troops near it - and attacking them disrupts Japanese units badly. I must cut their LOC - and so I am going to figure out how to do that. He seems to have a bad habit of not defending his LOC- but even if intel is bad and he is - I can still cut it. By clearing out the LOC to the East - I will have less problems in Central China. Right now I am able to function because I send lots of ships up the Yangtze. Making a fight at Wuhan may be an error - even large ships can go that far - if need be - to break the back of the defenses. [Above Yangtze large ships cannot pass- but even Queen Mary can get under the Great Bridge at Nanking - which was designed with that in mind]

Engineers are working up the airfield at Lae - and we have invested Dobradura with a view to using the airfield there. I do not favor marching over the Owen Stanley range - too much supply loss and malaria in route - but he can not know that - and a naval move is better done with forward air cover from land bases. This is CVO family - so there are too few political points to permit major land defenses moving in - this is the time to take Port Moresby. I have two naval infantry units planning up to take Rabaul - when transport is available.

In Malaya Kota Bahru fell to the first assault - a surprise - in spite of several brigades present. A combination of 18 division, armor, engineers, artillery and air strikes sent them all packing - even the fortress did not hold. But the main drive will be down the center of the Penninsula. The 5th Division recovered in a single day - and it is backed up by an armor brigade and artillery. The units in front of it cannot be in good shape.

[el cid again]

Sending transports to Hong Kong to remove troops which could not evacuate back to Canton by land (slightly redicoulous mechanics) turned into a disaster - with PT boats sinking about 4 ships (counting scuttling). This is a real mess.

The ROC has not moved troops from the salient near Shanghai - but a Japanese drive down the RR is withing one hex of isolating them - and it will be a disaster if they do. In the Noth - another pocket will develop near the point the Yelllow River marches begin - he seems not to understand the impact of losing his rail LOC and he did not defend it - a division is withing a hex of cutting it. Both his forward air bases were devistated yesterday - and today we are attacking ground units again - but not at Wuhan - where we have to recover from disruption - one attack per two days is all we can muster - and we really must isolate them there to kill them. A junk group has sailed all the way to Wuhan from the sea - in spite of air attacks and a naval battle with about 8 river gunboats - both of which caused horrible damage. This action caused me to find a pwhex problem - and I fixed it so he can try to sail on past Wuhan to the West - as he seems to want to do. This group probably will burn out - but it is not being abandoned. I have sent a small surface group after it - and set more air attacks to add insult to injury.

Mostly units are staging forward - for mroe attacks tomorrow - but we will airland at Kappa Kappa by Port Moresby - and the battleships hit Rabaul a day early. Other battleships will try to clean out those pesky PT boats at Hong Kong - and if we get the last of the troops out - we will try to force his unit at Canton to retreat into the Hong kong pocket - at last. Where we will kill it in dure course.


KB rejoined its organic surface action group - refueled again - and will hit Johnston Island one more time - as itt turns Southwest. It is in good shape and could go back to Hawaii - but his airfields must be coming back up - and we do not see the carriers - so we likely will just mess with whatever is in the South Pacific - and go back and replace aircraft - then cover the invasion of Port Moresby to insure it succeeds.

Only a few days into the war - he is already outflying me. In spite of intensive air operations - I am conservative - and do not run a big air sortee count - to conserve fuel (supply points) planes and pilots. One surprise - Fak Fak has come up as a airfield - for recon. It is not able to be offensive - so I am not worried about it.

The 6 series test game start does not have second and third echelon units moving on the first day - but I am catching up with the 8 series - and moving engineers forward so we can move supplies to places like Raeing Thailand efficiently. The rail net does not work as well as it might - but the combination of rail and port string shold work fine.

[el cid again]

Recon says Timika on Southern New Guinea is an air base - not sure it is good for anything - but we will air assault it to kill whatever is there - following up with a heavy raid by an SNLY supported by a Surface action group

Submarine air recon failed to find Halsey - who must be up North of Hawaii somewhere - and unless we find him soon KB will retire all the way to Kwajalein to rebuild air groups.

The enemy is falling back on the Malay penninsula faster than expected - and Kota is a better airfield than Singora - so we will use it as soon as ground support can get there - tomorrow I guess. We are assaulting Georgetown - and cannot catch the enemy in the center of the pennensula - he is running as fast as we can go.

On Luzon I launched a major move on Clark from above - by passing his main defenses at Linguyan - with 48th Division heavily reinforced by a tank rageiment, a "heavy" artillery "regiment" - engineers - other things. If we are lucky we will take Clark and split his force (as we are on the rail line). The 16th division recombined and started to move on Naga - mainly to hold his attention so far from Manila - our objective. I am not a big fan of malarial Bataan - and he can go there with anything he wants - to debliitate. We are attacking Wuhan again - but finally I have a plan to kill his units there - and need about two days to do it. I will cut his LOC - and they will starve - one of my favorite tactics. He seems bound to pocket huge forces near Shanghai - he lost another hex of the rail line today - and that is fine by me too. Me- I would run rather than get trapped.

I might have evacuated Hong Kong - there is some problem telling this - but I am trying to drive his ROC army out of Canton in that direction - so I hope so. [A remnant shows on the display - yet it is not there - whatever that means). His PT boats ran out of torpedoes - I did not know that was possible - and my planes refuse to engage them - which is a feature of all games in this seeries since UV. Units sent to Burma are about to emerge from the jungle.

In China I am attacking at Canton and Wuhan - and moved to trap units near Shanghai and the Yellow River Kaifeng area - neither trap seems to be obvoius to him. I jump on the LOC and then the units can be reduced. At Hong Kong we seem to have evacuated the force on the island - and if so he may retreat into that pocket - having lost his rail LOC. The rail lines are delivering supplies all the way to Wuhan - for the first time.

[el cid again]

The Allies are in headlong retreat in Malaya - there is only one brigade in front of each of the two prongs of the advance down the rail lines - but I expect them to stand at Kuala Lumpur. I am finding it impossible for the 18th Division to catch up and engage - but it no doubt will be useful re the supply sink at Kuala Lumpur. Enemy aircraft retreated South - and are all within a hex of Singapore - except one air base at the Northern tip of Sumatra is running a lot of recon (and due to lack of development - probably nothing else).

The air forces which went into Malaya historically are divided because we are already waging air war on Burma - and the first prong of the land invasion will pop out of the jungle any day now. The problem is logistics - we cannot run in a lot of supplies over trails - losing 90 per cent per hex - so we will need to take out Singapore to get convoys going. Unless we can capture valuable supply sources in Malaya itself - the first one of significance beign Moulmein. Still - dividends are likely to be high for moving before the enemy has moved in a lot of reinforcements and built up a lot of defenses. Enemy air seems to have evacuated Southern Burma altogether - and there is no resistence in the air over Rangoon. There seem to be no ships entering or leaving the area either.

Luzon is in a consolidation phase - we have a serious air base up at San Fernando - and troops are decending on Clark from the high ground of Baguio - while the first attack at what seems to be a strong position (5 units) at Naga will go in tomorrow. [This is a feint - the real attack is on Clark - by passing Linguyan Gulf ] Otherwise there are two major air strikes going in on Cebu - which has a lot of fighters running anti naval strikes. B-17s hit Cagayan in force - and took out 2 Nells - but did little damage to the base - but hurt a ship. A lot of supplies are unloading now - and we moved in more fighters to cover the area. A recon base came up on Zamboanga - with the ground support that used to be at Jolo reinforced by some other unit. We are ignoring that for now. Air units are too demoralized to do much tomorrow - and surface groups are not in position to deal with this threat - but are running to refuel.

The airborne raid on Timika (NG) worked out fine - a company drop took out two flying boats (Dorniers) - and we sent off a bigger expedition - covered by a medium sized task group - to go down the back side of New Guinea - pick up these raiders - and continue on to take Thursday Island - exiting by Port Moresby which by then should be under major pressure.

We got Hollandia up as an air base - it is still building up - and engineers are expanding Lae - while the ground consolidation of the trail system near Port Moresby continues - along with a logistic build up. Air and ship transportation is being used to build up Kavieng - to which units are being sent to assault Rabaul (the South Seas Detachment being at Dobradura to insure it is able to build up into a forward air base fairly soon - but Lae is ahead of it - already having a primitive airfield - and getting construction engineers first - the only ones available in the area).

Units near Kwajalein have launched the first bombardment of Nauru Island and two invasion groups are en route there. Tarawa is secure and many islands are having mines planted to mess with enemy attempts to build airstrips on them. No action in this area - except KB attacks on Johnston atol.

The big fights - and problems - are in China - which is not a sideshow in this game. The attack at Canton went in - and was effective for once - but too soon. The units evacuating Hong Kong failed to entirely get out - so the enemy corps retreated up country instead of into the pocket. It is almost as good - it loses 9 supply points for every one delivered - and there are too many units drawing supplies in SE China - so it cannot draw what it needs. But the PT boat force remains in tact and effective at Hong Kong - and they struck again - sinking another ship. We have lost more ships in this fight than the rest of the theater - and a whole division of battleships has been diverted from the Philippines to deal with them. We will return to reducing Hong Kong - after a day of moving back into position.

A small offensive has begun out of Indochina- a guerilla unit has been forced to retreat - but it is taking too much time to get things forward - and I should have sent more in the first turn.

The big surprise is the investment of Kaifeng - a salient and air field. This is combined with a failure to withdraw major forces from SE China - where they must be starved for supplies. If he means to fight over the LOC to central China - then we will do that - with focus on the LOC.
I withdrew most units from the contested part of Wuhan - and am focused on linking up the drive West from Shanghai with Kaifeng - hoping to trap a number of corps - and after they are reduced we will return to the battle for Wuhan. To confuse things more - I sent a naval force down the interior river system to mess with his LOC to central China. Other forces are cleaning out guerillas in Northern China - and moving on his base complex there. But most air power is shifing to the Shanghai - Nanking bases to support the reduction of the many units SOuth of the Yangtze (which are not running).

[el cid again]

I am one day out of Maleolap with Kiddo Butai - which may permit some rebuilding of air groups - and that is one day out of Kwajalein. Two bomber squadrons remain marginal for morale - nothing is critical for numbers - and no ships are significantly damaged. On the other hand, we seem to have failed to sink anything major - although you never know about Pearl Harbor - in the game or IRL. {one battleship did not actually sink until 1946 - but she was lost on Dec 7, 1941)

The campaign in Malaya seems to be in an alternating phase - one attack per day - East or West finger - with all the air power backing it up. Both thrusts are slowly building power at the point. Kota Bahru is now fully operational - as is Alor Star - so therei s plenty of airpower.

Burma is going to be tough until after Malaya falls - he is defending Moulmein - and I cannot move supplies by land in any quantity. But I can create major air bases up the Thai river corredor - supplied by both rail and water - so the land units crawling across the trail systems will have plenty of air support and air supply.


For some reason an AP showed up at Kuching - there is a minor carrier force one hex away at Miri - and we will try to sink it. I got one naval
bomber unit operational at Camrahn Bay - another on Cagayan - another on Pulau - another on Formosa - so we should be able to do some hunting with planes again. He has moved his planes to the other end of the Singapore causeway - and we willl hit that base tomorrow - using Ki-21s escorted by the one big Zero unit in the area. The attack at Naga failed miserably - all the armor in PI is there - but at least it is not where it would be a problem - we will arrive at Clark tomorrow in force - and there won't be much of a defense for it. His forces are at Linguyan - which we are bombing to day - and at Naga - so our deceptive move through the mountains seems to have worked. A sub waits at Linguyan for the invasion that is not coming there - the invasion already happened - and the army is ashore in force.


Building up Hollandia and Lae and Kavieng to support operations against Rabaul, Port Moresby and Thursday Island. This is a very limited forces area. But we already have a heavy surface action group - it bombarded Rabaul today - and a cruiser one - it bombards tomorrow - and KB is approaching from the east. We should dominate it for the time being.

Canton is still sorting out - and a big battle between battleships and PT boats failed to damage anything. Neither did air power do anything - for the third day in a row - the PT boats are not scratched. I have neve seen them do this before - they usually die. Not here. The ships got hurt inj bombarding Hong Kong too - coast defense guns. But battleships are tough. He got in an air srike out of China - so we need to cover with fighters better. He did get into trouble in his LOC attack on my airbase - we somehow managed 84 to 1 odds and threw the rascals out - which should discuourage more of that. His units in the East are too far from supplies to be effective in the attack. Too many units have died or retreated - so the road/rail net is coming up. We also are attacking tomorrow near the end of the Yellow River - with armor.


He is generating 33 per cent more sortees - this is my style - operate with minimum air power focused where it is needed. Our operatoinal loss rates are too high - so we don't just fly everything all the time. We say - you guys fly here - as required - to keep losses down. He is losing on the ground big time - and somewhat in air combat - but he is doing much better attrition wise - which is normal.

[el cid again]

This was a day of small bettles and small victories for both sides.

Two Japanese submarines hit ships - I-16 at Pearl Harbor managed to torpedo one of her destroyer tormentors - but was forced to
berak off operations when other destroyers in the ASW group scored about five hits. I-160 also put two fish into a tanker in the Philippines area. A minor carrier force composed of 2 CVEs managed to put a fish into a tanker at Bruniei. A heavily supported (by air) attack on guerillas in China managed to clear some of the rail net.

The very same force of two small CVEs (one of them Hosho) that hit the tanker at Brunei was hit by two bomber attacks out of bases on Borneo - and one of these managed to put a 260 pound bomb into the first of the true Japanese CVEs - causing a whoppoing 23 per cent system damage - so this force is retiring on Saigon to repair- detaching a CL and two DD to raid Brunei and sink the tanker.

Kiddo Butai came within sufficient range of a HQ it could replace piloots - and in a couple of days it will be able to rebuild the missing planes.

The battle for Malaya saw two brigades retreating into Kuantan - and a strongly reinforced 5th Division ordered to by pass it and move on to the main rail junction South of Kuala Lumpur. The central drive will reach Singapore first - but the Western drive will take the port south of Alor Star (Alor Setar in Malay) tomorrow.

48th Division, three regiments of artillery, an armor regiment, and Homma's HQ started the move onto Clark via Balinta Pass - which should be a surprise - by passing the forces waiting for an attack in Linguyan Gulf.

A daring raid down the backside of New Guinea to Thursday Island has the small invasion force near the NW tip of the island - in colose company with a surface action group - followed by a small CVL group.

A cruiser bombardment went in at Manado - and a SNLF jumped off from Pulao to invade it in a few days.

Nauru Island fell prematurely - after a bomber raid - and two bombardment TF and a reinforcement TF were aborted back to Kwajalein - while an air support element was diverted en route to Kwajalein to go directly to Nauru instead. This is an importan island for resources - only New Caledonia matters more in the South Pacific (North of New Zealand anyway).

An SNLF ran into unexpected (unreported) units in Central China and reboarded landing craft for the long voyage back to Wuhan - if they are not sunk by enemy planes en route.

Units moved to close the gap and trap about six armies/corps near Shanghai - and the gap may close tomorrow - leaving them without supplies. A battle today indicates they are weak - two of them took about equal casualties as am attaclomg twp divisions - which is a sign their supply state is poor.


Mongolian cavalry is creeping into the Gobi - unnoticed - and will occupy Mongolian towns soon.

[el cid again]

The game continues and involves several fronts. This game was not as thoroughly planned - and I find it hard to regain opportunities lost by not moving early. But the basic operations are proceeding fairly well.

Kiddo Butai reached Kwajalein - drew many replacement aircraft - and almost all available pilots. It refueled and sailed for Truk - to repair minor damage and buy time for more pilots to appear.

Nanyo (South Seas) units proceed with construction, reinforcement and movement to secure newly taken points. Kavieng is building up to support an attack on Rabaul in a few days. Buna and Lae will build up to support a drive on Port Moresby. Two forces will bombard Rabaul in the nest two days - and bombers will hit PM - prepratory to lembarking an invasion from Kavieng bound for Rabaul. A triple minor task group force - transport - surface action - air operations - is moving on Timika down the backside of New Guinea - with an embarked SNLF planning for Thursday Island. This is the one high risk op which might get into trouble. To minimize the risk of that - a strong air strike will go in on Jolo today from Palau.

An attack on Taiping (Malaya) goes in tomorrow. A major air attack will go in on Singapore aimed at airfields and damaging many ships in port. The airfield NE of Singapore will also be hit.

In China we will attempt to trap four armies tomorrow - and are moving in the direction of trapping another 5 units to their west - all this in SE area. His only salvation was to run - and he did not - so we will eat them - a hex at a time - East to West. Hong Kong fell today.

USN DD out of Balikpapan hit one sub at the chokepoint between Borneo and Celebes - and since there are two others - it will go home to fix moderate damage. A different sub sank a tanker. His surface ships seem to be hiding - probably from the surface action groups as well as the bombers - so we are using air power vs airfields for now. We are hitting Cebu - and Manila - again vs ships in port as well as airfields. A major force will come out at Clark tomorrow. And Iligan fell - all the Nortehrn Luzon is occupied.

[el cid again]

All quiet on the Central Pacific Front - where Nauru Island has fallen and invasion and bombardment forces are falling back to Kwajalein from there and Tarawa - to reassemble for the next round. A US submarine has appeared to the East - so air groups in this area are hunting submarines. Kiddo Butai is retiring from Kwajalein to Truck - while carrier planes build up - to continue to build up air groups - and to be used as a trump card. No trouble is expected in the Solomans/New Guinea area - and we should know since we are well forward - but if any shows up - Truck is close. We will repair back down to zero damage too.

Things are pretty quiet in the Rabaul area - and I have decided that instead of building up as planned at Kavieng an invasion of Rabaul will go in at once - using a cruiser group as transports - while battleships Nagato and Mutsu group will bombard again. Heavy bombardment should permit an SNLF to take the place. I should have landed South Seas Detachment here - it is at Buna - doning nothing - and it won't do anything without air cover or ships. Lae will be up as an air base with some offensive capability in a day or maybe two - and if we capture Rabaul - we can drive on Port Moresby. We own the approaches - taken by airborne. I no longer think moving in January is a good idea- but December - no matter the cost - it is far cheaper than waiting.

Related to this is the raid on Thursday Island down the underside of New Guinea by a tiny task force of three groups - surface - air combat and transport. It hit Jolo - supported by bombers out of Pulau - and found little there. Planes did raid the force from somewhere - but to no avail. This force will retire toward Port Moresby - and it should flush out any surface vessels that air recon does not spot. Recon is operating out of Hollendia, Palau and Truk - and soon can operate out of Kavieng, Lae and Rabaul. Enemy air is attacking out of Port Moresby - but almost without effect. A crioser force - back from surface action in the Celebes Sea - is going into maintenance at Palau - and an SNLF will hit Manado unsupported - there being nothing around to oppose it - in a day or two.

The really hot naval theater is the South China Sea. Two dozen enemy air attacks came in - for one bomb hit on a transport - and a submarine insulted my only ASW group by torpedoing a destroyer at Kuching. [HIS ASW groups are more effective - up in the Aleutians a sub was so badly mauled in two attacks it is almost certain to sink before it can make it back to a base big enough to matter] Invasion of Brunei overland is underway - and support elements are being routed in toward Mili. Hosho there will move over to Kuching - which is heavily contested - we have a heavy and a medium surface group - another invasion group - with a whole brigade this time. This is the one failed major landing operation of the war for us: we had to break off - with heavy losses - and have half a dozen small units without supplies stranded (without supplies because we used them to bombard). Tomorrow we will have supplies and a lot more troops - and the place should fall - it not having much supply and being unable to produce any and in constant combat for a week. We also are starting to send support units here - so we can turn it into a forward air base.

He is not fighting for Malaya - Taiping fell with NO defense whatever. The enemy ran away from 5 Division in the central area - and four units - armor - engineers - artillery - made it to the rail junction. 5 Division advance elements are 5 miles away - but not in the hex. We MUST wait for the troops to catch up. A unit from Taiping is retreating on Kuala Lumput. So we sent the engineers and tanks there from the SE - to cut off their retreat - and we have a truly major force moving into the LOC hex North of KL - and we hope our presence in KL means this unit must die rather than retreat when - in two days - we attack it. We sent a lot of bombers to weaken it today - and will tomorrow as well. Otherwise - we are sending a major raid into Singapore - which has 54 fighters - dozens of bombers - and if it lost the air battle today - it launched many air raids we did not like - one delivering a bomb. We hit many ships there - but will focus on taking down the air base instead. Two naval bomber units got demoralized - so we will go in with three Ki-21 units - covered by zeros - not just the land gorup - but a naval one landed from a CVE returning to Saigon for repairs (he bombed it a couple of days ago). Singapore is almost isolated from KL - except for a road - and he may be intending to bastion defend it and Mersing. The air power and ships imply some sort of concentration. There are also several units at KL - so there should be a contest there - aside from the fact it has a supply sink. I don't want more units moving into it - which is why the dangerous move of sending engineers and armor into the hex.

Four guerilla regiments from East China retreated today - and now five of them are in a pocket in Central China beside his units on the North South rail line. We have supply problems - and are pretty much standing down - and moving units and supplies - but we are establishing great control of the LOC and supply generating hexes - and we have managed to trap many units in SE China. We are moving to eat them - one hex at a time - at a deliberate pace - waiting to be high in morale and supply. We damaged the forward air power in the area at Changsha - and will send in another raid hoping to finish it off tomowwow - but for the first time many air units other than recon are standing down - so limit supply consumption. North China is moving units out of areas where guerillas were driven from - and otherwise trying to get units to where there can be supplies. We have to wait to attack again at the critical rail junction just West of Kaifeng - there are now only two hexes left to link the rail line from Wuhan to Peking and Tsingtao - and we mean to have them - but we don't believe in attacks when weak in supplies or air support (as supplies decline air sortee rates also decline).

[el cid again]

Not too much happening - KB is about two days out of Truk - lots of things are moving to position for the next round of engagements -
but there was a bloody air battle over Singapore - in which Zeros prevailed but only 3 runway hits were scored by three squadrons of Ki-21s at 5000 feet - the vigorous defense disrupted the attacks. The battle between Taiping and Kuala Lumpur did not go quite as intended - but the enemy surrendered anyway - even though not even the armor managed to get into the city to block retreat. Thai Army units appear - while ships and planes are a day out - the game is out of sync - and I will report that.

For some days there have been a large number of air ASW attacks. He sent subs forward to lay mines or patrol in places like Bangkok, Bako and Kwajalein. I assign vast numbers of aircraft to hunt such things - and surface ships if available. [A majority of sortees re probably ASW]
This resulted in a complaint (which is true) that air ASW is too effective - but even if it was not - this tactic really works - and would work IRL. Aggressively hunt, localize and engage subs - and you won't have them taking valuable targets by surprise at their convenience. Drive them away or sink them - that is my motto.

[el cid again]

This turn disclosed that RTAF has problems when it appears: some units cannot appear until planes for them are in the pools - another unit comes in with the replacement Ki-21 instead of the B-10 - and this led to changes - the purpose of this game.

The turn began with Tanaka's cruisers pounding Rabaul - and a battleship division pounding Naga - both with effect.

Next I-16s at Honan won a rare victory when Ki-48s and Kates came in from Peking - unescorted. 5 were lose (possibly some to AA) - for no Allied aircraft killed - and very marginal impact on the airfield (2 hits)- not a good strike. This was followed by a Ki-21 strike out of Port Arthur - losing one plane for one air base hit - again not a good thing. Hitting Chinese unescorted was not smart - a conclusion contained in a book Zero when it describes Japanese experience in China before Dec 1941.

A Ki-30 strike - escorted by Ki-41s - at Johore Bahru did better - 45 runway hits among other things - but the air exchange was even - one fighter for one bomber - not bad performance for Buffalos - indeed impressive that outnumbered they stood up to the Oscars. But after one of their number was lost they gave up - and probably the bomber was lost to FLAK.

B-17s have taken to bombing Miri - this is the second day - to kill oil. Not sure why? They got one hit today. I would not expect raids by 3 planes to achieve much - nor is there a great oil capacity at Miri to kill in the first place.

Bettys raided Ambon scoring moderate airfield damage for the loss of one plane.

Sweeps of Manila and Cebu - by small numbers of Zeros - resulted in 1 lost for each side in both cases. Not sure why the attackers came in so few from Formosa? But there were not many to send from Mindinao.

In Malaya a fairly strong raid went in on 5th Division by Allied bombers - but I sent an AA unit with it - and this hurt the bombers remarkably well - 1 destroyed and 6 damaged - for 25 ground casualties.

On Luzon, the Allies returned the compliment - killing 1 Ki-48 and damaging 5 - in an attack on Philippine 71st Reserve Division - for 36 casualties plus 3 guns. Here the many small bombs of Ki-48 probably helped.

B-10s escorted by Dutch Buffalos managed to score a bomb hit on Haruna at Miri - not that Haruna noticed. Still - impressive for B-10s - who usually splash water on the sides. 3 Ansons - normally unarmed but armed in RAAF service - bombed a transport at Buna - and that was more effective - since a transport has no deck armor.

Many other anti naval air attacks by both sides - across the SRA - were combat ineffective - except a lot of Allied aircraft were lost or damaged (in cumulative total).

The first attack at Rabaul was conducted by a naval battalion - and if it didn't take the place - it was not intended to. Rabaul takes some reducing - and another attack - by two units next time - will come in about two days. We will also pound the place with cruiser guns and bombers. It was probably a mistake not to send South Seas Detachmente here - but it at least will not have any problems getting ashore on New Guinea - since it is already there.

Three divisions (70,000 men) tried to attack three field armies West of Shanghai - but 2 had already left the hex - and the one remaining one retreated - so all are now out of the totally isolated box - two others are wholly trapped - and one more is still on the E-W rail line - and may "escape" - although the area has only one supply source (Pakhoi) - and the six or seven units feeding off it must be starving. We worry about them AFTER we open the rail line - and kill the two trapped field armies. SE China is a trap - and OSO was right to run from the hexes near Shanghai. He is the only player to do so in this test series - but he is wise.

The first attack went in on Clark - 750 to 250 casualties - but I am pleased - it is not bad for a first attack - and Clark can not generate supplies any more. This means the Philippine army will start eating its stocks and - if we are lucky - they may counterattack - which will kill them sooner (probably). We will attack at Naga tomorrow - but I am not optimistic the 7 units there will run. Still - hit by battleships today - they might. You never know about Philippine army - it is like the British in Malaya - not very effective.

Tulagi - defended by 3 platoons of the 2nd Special Operations Company - fell to the first assault - as expected.

A general allied attack at Wuhan failed. Another at Honan drove out a Japanese division sitting on a critical LOC - cutting off an entire Chinese force from supply - good move by OSO.

Another Allied general attack in China - not at a location but probably on a LOC - failed miserably with horrible losses - 46 Japanese lives vs 504 allied - and 1 Japanese gun vs 43 allied

Given the horrible state of affairs for the Allies in 1941 - this is a remarkably even contest on this day - anyway.

[el cid again]

The turn began with Japanese landings at Pakhoi near Hainan Island and at Rabaul.

Next a Japanese LCM unit was damaged in a minefield at Taan (Hainan Island).

Next I-4 at Dutch Harbor encountered what may have been a poor man's ASW group - and torpedoed PG Haida.

Next Mutsu and Nagato bombarded Rabaul - with considerable but not total effect.

In the morning, Kates and Lilys (unescorted) encountered 8 I-16s at Honan (China) - and did modest damage at a cost of
3 damaged aircraft. Sally repeated the process except only 1 was damaged.

A port attack on Bassien (Burma) failed to catch ships intel said was there - but did damage the port. Later in the day a
naval air strike found the ships were river tankers - and they had left the port - and one of the two was hit and damaged.

A flight of 4 P-40E made a daring daylight raid on Cagayan - and encountered elements of three different squadrons flying three
different kinds of fighters. They escaped having shot down 1 Nate - without any damage to themselves or the target.

A strange composite bomber attack on a Japanese land force in Malaya involving three different kinds of bombers (and apparently recon planes) lost 3 killed and 1 damaged - mainly because AI had them target a Machine Cannon unit - a dedicated AAA formation - which only works vs low altitude targets - but is effective vs them. One of the planes lost was a PBY - which I do not think actually attacks land units -
so presumably it was taking pictures at the time.

A score of Zeros hit Manila - and bagged only a single P-40E for their trouble - taking no damage.

Several air strikes went in on ROC field armies and on a Philippine Scouts unit on Luzon - all with effect. Similarly- the daily raid on Guam went in - again with modest effect.

3 B-10s went in on Miri - and actually hit a turret on IJN Kongo. 3 Hudsons did the same thing to Hosho at Kuching. This is unusual - both cases involved penetration of fighter defenses and some AAA.

Many other naval air strikes on both sides failed to deliver weapons.

I-2 at Noumea torpedoed AK Mildura - the first time any ship was damaged there in any game I have seen.

A ground attack at Guam killed 3 times as many Allies - indicating it may fall in a day or two.

16th Division (reinforced) attacked 7 units at Naga - and was ineffective and demoralized.

Many bombardment attacks by both sides were either ineffective or marginally effective.

[el cid again]

A reinforcement TF reached Kuching. This is a place where we had to abandon troops on the beach because of strong naval and air opposition. This TF promply ran into a minefield - although it was combat ineffective - it should have mattered. Fresh troops and supplies are landing and an attack will go in tomorrow by a combined arms force of about 8 units - which should be decisive given the place has not been producing supplies for the enemy - who must have been expending them in bombardment and defensive combat.

Adm Tanaka's four old 6 gun CAs bombarded Rabaul, and fell back to Kuching to refuel. They will try to return tomorrow - and a heavy bombardment group should join the fray tomorrow - and a strong air strike from the undamaged half of KB should also join the fray - so there is some hope that an attack by two naval infantry units and a tank company may take the place. Even seaplane bombers landed from AVs based at Kuching will fly recon and ground support.

Meanwhile we transferred 12 Zeros to Lae - who will cover the arrival of ground support ships - the first time we have forward fighter cover. Bombers (all 12 of them) will shift attention from Rabaul (KB will deal with that) to Port Moresby - to begin the process of taking down its field and damaging its bombers.

I forgot about the Thursday Island raiders - who were still at Timika - entirely landed (and no doubt chasing girls). I picked up the element of airborne that took the place and the entire SNLF and sent them on their way - complete with a micro carrier and surface action force covering.
This is a very tiny force - and it may well get into trouble - but half the KB is approaching from the other direction - and then there are two surface action groups near Rabaul - it may be bait for a trap if anything responds.

An SNLF landed at Manado - and ran into serious difficulties - first with mines (2 hits on the same ship) and then with bombers (ditto). I took most of the healthy transports - all the troops were ashore - and sent them to Jolo to offload - while a single large AK at Jolo picked up a naval landing party (and it has supplies still aboard) - headed the other way - to Manado - to both supply the place and provide reinforcements if needed - otherwise to relieve the SNLF with a naval security team. The two damaged transports, the escort and two other transports with a few supplies remained - to insure the SNLF ashore gets something to eat - it has zero supplies and is ordered to attack.

Modest air strikes at Honan China and Rangoon Burma yielded moderate damage to the airfields - but got no enemy aircraft.

P-40s out of Cebu (a whole 4 of them) hit Cagayan - reminding me this is an enemy airfield that is attacking (albiet without much impact) every day. Since there are no naval targets - the high morale Nells at Cagayan will hit it - escorted - supported by a sweep and recon out of Legaspi. Low morale bombers there will continue to hunt submarines - 2 of which remain active in that hex - preventing me from landing (not that we need to land - it is the principle - sooner or later we want to use the port).

45 Zeros sweept Manila - finding 2 P-40s - killing only one of them - more or less as usual.

7 Claudes swept Cebu - encountering only 3 P-40s - but 3 Claudes were shot down - these P-40s are good - and that is another reason to take down that base.

In Malaya the enemy has fallen back on Singapore - more or less abandoning everything more than one hex North of it. Bombers out of there hit our advance force (again) - but the heavy AA unit killed one of the bombers and damaged 3 more. Kuantan fell - it had NO defense whatever. We broke up the division assaulting it to leave a RCT behind - and check out another possible undefended point (Mersing) - and to send the third to reinforce the siege of Kuala Lumpur. [This is the old Kuala Lumpur with the big supply sink no longer present in current files]

We had a strange attack somewhere in the area - 6 Hawk 75s attacked a Japanese naval landing party - but were defended - effectively - by 2 RTAF O-2 observation bombers. Never heard of such a thing in WITP - why the RTAF flew - or why they drove away fighters - is a bit of a mystery. No losses on either side.

Several Japanese ground attacks were effective. Several Allied naval air strikes (attacks on ships ) were not effective. Japanese naval air strikes at Rangoon and Bassein (mouth of Irrawaddy) were effective vs river craft. A Nell attack at Singapore on PG Scorpion failed to hit her - but reveals she has heavy damage.

Hosho - hit by a bomb yesterday - remains at Kuching - is combat effective and almost undamaged - and continues to provide fighter cover and ASW bomber support for the several inbound or already present convoys bringing in both a large infantry force and (in later echelons) support elements.

A naval landing force landed at and captured Shortland.

A strong attack by almost 42,000 troops on the Rail LOC near Puching drove out the 11,000 survivors of the East China pocket - leaving two other "field armies" now wholly isolated. One of these was attacked by a division in the mountains and revealed itself to be very weak - but since it could not retreat it did not - and since it did not surrender - we must continue to reduce it until it does. We will both engage the two isolated corps and send our strongest division into Puching - not to attack - but to shut it down as a supply source - so the many units there will be starving. Already weak (there are too many for the supplies available) we should bag most of them - it is a long march to the West - we have a regiment in the way - and there is no indication anyone is trying to escape. Otherwise we are consolodating in China - building up air units depleted in the offensive - moving in supplies - and changing HQ so we will focus on this SE area basing out of Shanghai (we were basing out of Nanking). We have done well in the LOC sense and the process of gaining a vast area free of enemy units that produces significantly is continuing. We can take the time to load and export resources (instead of sending ships back as fast as possible to bring in more supplies). Strangely we seem to have a fuel shortage at many points - so I am running in fuel tankers too. There are always 10 to 20 TFs somewhere on the Yangtze - between Wuhan and Shanghai - only one is a combat one - the rest are running supplies. These mainly come from Nagasaki and Sasebo, but some from Genzan, Fusan, Keijo, Moppo and even Port Arthur and Tientsin. About 6-8 other TFs run supplies to ports in East China - rail heads that like to suck supplies for forces in the interior. These are barges and junk groups mainly. On the Yangtze we have some junk groups and landing craft - but mainly small AKs.

There is a pocket of 5 units - all or mostly guerillas driven out of East China plains - which we will hit with uji biological bombs - while troops slowly move in via trails. We will see if they have any effect? I transferred in from Kwangtun area the 731 unit of Gen Ichii at Pingfan (Mukden).

A general attack (10,000 vs 6000) at Packhoi (South China) failed miserably - more than 10:1 losses - 640 vs 64 or something like that. But we are sitting on their supply source - so we are sending in engineers and attacking from all points by air - and even a tiny bombardment group. Sooner or later the units there - probably a field army, a guerilla regiment and maybe something else - will retreat to the last possible point in China - right next to Hainan - where we will wipe them out.

Now Thai forces are present - the center of the country is being "converted" to Axis - and Khorat fell today to Thai troops.

An Allied bombardment attack at Naga revealed 10,000 men there - but it seems to be only 5 units - previously reported as 7 - and it may be he does not intend to hold the position. We are too demoralized to attack tomorrow.