Rising Sun over the Rockies - F.K. vs OSO - Wake captured by US

[FeurerKrieg]

Feb 21, 1942
In Burma, the 21st Mixed Bge(A), is being flown in from Tavoy to Magwe to hold the base against counterattack while the 1st Para runs east to try and cut off the enemy troops that retreated from Moulmein some days ago. Not sure they will make it, but worth the attempt. The 21st at Magwe and the Para's at Akyab got hammered by enemy 4E's today, but they are doing okay.

On Java, the 35th Bge captured Kragen and will now split with half staying in Kragen and half moving to Djakarta. Another PT boat was sunk near Soerabaja by Mary dive bombers.
[center]
TM-5, similar to TM-14 which was sunk today.[/center]

The last Dutch unit in Medan (Sumatra) surrendered today and ships are already present to load up the 2nd Yokosuka for paradrop duty in Burma. It is prepping for Myitkina, but it has not be set where the unit will drop for sure.

At Sian our air unit attacked the Chinese on the supply road, but our units were not able to force the enemy back due to the arrival of additional chinese units. We will have to wait for our reinforcements to arrive to push them back. In the meantime, we have done a through review of garrision requirements and are shifting some units around to put more assault forces on the front lines. Also, an Aviation regiment is being moved north as we have halted the offensive at Luichow, so those air units can be put to use around Sian and Yenan, or even Ichang if we try something clever there. There are Chinese everywhere it seems!!
[center]
More Chinese cut our primary SLOC to Sian.[/center]

Other bases captured: Galeia, Savaii, and Funafuti.

[FeurerKrieg]

Feb 22, 1942
It seems that Allied submarines are becoming more active. We will begin sending at least a couple ASW ships to each port that sees subs hanging around. Today our MSW's at Johnston attacked S-46. Also at Johnston, 2 of our AK's were hit by B-17Es from Pearl Harbor.

In Burma, another attack was launched by the 3 Yokosuka SNLF at Akyab, but it also failed. We will let the unit rest a few days and then try assisting with some heavy air attacks. Rangoon falls and apparently the SLOC was not entirely cut! Three enemy units retreated north. The 21st Mixed unit at Magwe will move southwest to try and cut them off. We must destroy any units we can since we are doing this offensive on the cheap. The 1st Yokosuka SNLF landed at Tuang Gyi today and captured the base which was unoccupied. This unit will now march north towards Lashio to prevent the units at Lashio from moving to Mandalay.
[center]
Rangoon forces flee... can they be cut off?[/center]

In the DEI five (!) of our transports were hit by Martins and Hudsons. We got some revenge when our Vals at Batavia found the AK Modjekerto and hit the ship with several 250kg AP bombs. The 56th Bge at Malang attacked but was held up by a KNIL unit there. The 4th Reg is at Balikpapan and will load up shortly to assist there.
[center]
A transport is caught.[/center]

[center]
Slow progress on land.[/center]

In China, a Bge entered Yenan and was stunned to be thrown back by a small but extremely effective group of Communist Chinese units. These unit fought much better than anything we have encountered in China this far. Thankfully there are only three units of them there. Our next attempt at the base will include a full division and another brigade.
[center]
Powerful enemy units at Yenan.[/center]

Other bases captured: Rekata Bay, Maumere and Pomala.

[FeurerKrieg]

Feb 23, 1942
We depth charged the SS Finback at Tarawa with little success. At Kwajalein it was even worse as the SS Barracuda put a torpedo into a loaded tanker costing us some fuel. The ship will be okay though.
[center]
US Subs are becoming more of a danger.[/center]

In Burma there were heavy air attacks on the 3rd Yokosuka at Akyab but casualties were light.
[center]
Burma air attacks.[/center]

At Java, there are still four airfield open and Allied bombers stay on the move to avoid getting caught on the ground. This will end soon though as our ground troops are moving along fairly rapidly. 3 more transports and one gun ship were hit today. Also two transports damaged in past days sunk in the area today. Three PT boats attacked our convoy at Malang, but our Destroyers kept them away from the transports. One PT was sunk and the other two departed before firing torpedoes.

Other bases captured: Talasea, Kai Island, Hansa and La Foa.

[FeurerKrieg]

Feb 24, 1942
We caught some 4E's today over Rangoon. 17 of them attacked the base and met a CAP of about a hundred fighters. We manange to shoot down 7 of the big planes and damaged most of the rest.
[center]
Some 4Es are caught by the new CAP over Rangoon.[/center]

At Java, Sally's sunk a PC near Tjilitjap while Kates caught two ships trying to escape, the AVD Mercel and PC Albatros. One torp hit the AVD and three hit the PC, which sunk. The Sallys also hit a tanker near Soerabaja that will likely sink. Another attack was launched at Malang but was again repulsed. We'll wait until the 4th Rgt arrives to try again.
[center]
More blockade runners are hit.[/center]

Some Dutch survivors came out and attacked our Nav Gd unit at Pontianak and were wiped themselves out in the process.

In the PI, we are making progress at Cagayan. Today's attack succeeded in reducing some of the fortifications of the enemy. (1 to 1, fort 2 -> 1)
[center]
Progress is slow but certain.[/center]

In China, we launched aerial attacks on the army blocking the road to Sian, and tried another attack but we were repulsed.

Other bases captured: Upolu and Weda.

[FeurerKrieg]

Feb 25, 1942
In China our bombers attacking the troops blocking the road to Sian were met by P-40E's of the AVG today. Our Oscars suffered the loss of three aircraft, but downed one AVG pilot. Two bombers also were shot down, but the rest made it through.

Near Java, one of our transports was hit along with the DD Tomozuru. The DD damage was thankfully light and the ship should make it back to Singapore or Kendari with little trouble.

In the Philippines the 16th division took Iloilo and will move towards Roxas to clear the remaining Allied resistance. Once this small island is clear, the division will split into three parts and clear the remaining resistance from the last three islands the Allies hold in the PI.

In Burma, B-17Es and LB-30s on ground support attacks hampered our attack against Meiktila and the defenders were able to hold out. Also, the 2nd Para Reg was dropped on Myitkyina and apparently just a day too late as one of the ground units that escaped from Moulemein showed up just in time to reinforce the base force present and hold the base. Our unit is still largely intact however, and is exerting some control on the LOCs out of the base. Now we will see if we can clear Lashio and open a supply line to the Para troops at Myitkyina - or if the Allies will move from Mandalay to clear our unit.
[center]
Situation in Burma.[/center]

87 B-17E's from Pearl attacked Johnston Island today and we were better prepared this time. 38 Zeros on CAP met the attack and shot down 3 bombers before they reached the target. 2 More B-17's were downed by our heavy flak (2 AA units are now present on the island). The Zero's recorded damaging 73 separate B-17's in the air battle, and float planes tailing the retreating bombers reported that another 8 B-17's didn't make it back home. Assuming a couple planes in op losses, intel says that 17 B-17E's were destroyed today. Against that we lost 2 Zeros and 4 Nells. The B-17's were attacking at various altitudes of 9K, 10K, 20K and 31K feet. At 31K our Zeros cannot hurt them. But we have adjusted out CAP altitudes to match the range of 9K to 20K. Damage to our airbase was moderate, but should be repair in 1-2 days.
[center]
B-17 goes down.[/center]

Other bases captured: Arawe, Stewart Island, Wallis Island, and Atka Island

[FeurerKrieg]

Feb 26th, 1942
Fairly quiet day today.

In Java, our forces are about ready to attack Tjilitjap. Soerabaja continues to be pounded daily. No transports were hit today, although one AK previously damaged did sink.

Our offensive at Cagayan has stalled as the forces there are low on supplies. Some are being shipped down from Manila via fast AKs.

The I-165 dodged some sub chasers off the southern tip of India.
[center]
ASW action near India.[/center]

And some not good news - the Yugure, which reached port yesterday, was unable to be saved and sunk in port. So our action at Umnak cost us two destroyers. Hopefully things will go better next time around.
[center]
Destroyer Yugure[/center]

Captured bases: Aru Island, Dagua

[FeurerKrieg]

Feb 27th, 1942
The I-165 was attacked, but suffered only light damage, after it fired torpedoes at a sub chaser south of India.

At Kwajalein, the SS Finback was believed hit by our ASW forces.

At Java, our forces captured Tjilitjap and force four Dutch units present to surrender. 6000 POWs were captured and the march down the island continues. Another AK was hit near Merak and an AP at Amboina was hit by Hudsons out of Darwin.
[center]
Dutch surrender at Tjilitjap.[/center]

In Burma, three Chinese units charged across the river to try and open a retreat path for the 2nd Burma rifles trapped in Meiktila. They were not fast enough, as our army in Meiktila attacked and force the 2nd Burma to surrender. The Chinese did however force our para unit back towards Meiktila. Our army will rush northeast to see if we can catch these units and force them to retreat across the river. If so, they will be weakened which will help when we finally attack Mandalay.
[center]
A unit is captured in Burma.[/center]

Ogliuga Island was secure by forces at Adak Island in the Aleutians.

[FeurerKrieg]

Feb 28th, 1942
The end of February is here! All of our Minekaze destroyers are in port in the Home Islands and will be receiving ASW and AA upgrades in the next couple weeks.

The SS Silversides was it by DC by our PC's at Kwajalein.
[center]
Allied sub gets hit.[/center]

Hudsons from Java again his a transport and a destroyer today.

At Gasmata, (New Britain) we finally took some time to clear the jungle of the remnants of the Lark Battalion and the No. 113 RAN Base Force.

Other bases captured: Namlea, Aitape, Labao

[FeurerKrieg]

March 1, 1942
SS Silversides was again damaged at Kwajalein and SS S-34 was attacked but missed at Johnston Island.

Our force made some progress at Cagayan and should do better as more supplies are delivered.

The Mobiele Enheid unit attempted to slow us down at Kragen, but was repulsed and push back to Madieon. With Tjilitajap captured, our bombers are able to focus on Madioen and Soerabaja and enemy air attacks seem to finally be slowing down, hopefully for good.
[center]
Desperate armor rush by the Dutch is defeated.[/center]
[center]

Seven Marmom Harrington CTLS-4TA light tanks being delivered to the KNIL.[/center]

Reef Island was also secured today.

[FeurerKrieg]

March 2, 1942
Quiet day.

Soerabaja and Madieon pounded by air attacks. Green Island captured.

[center]
Air attacks on the main port of Java.[/center]

[blam0]

Very nice AAR.

I've got a PBEM of scen. 158 going as the Japs, and I'm finding the flak to be terrible.  How is it in 160?  Can you post your and allied AC losses?

Keep up the good work!

[FeurerKrieg]

Thanks!

I think 158 is the NIKmod version of CHS. 160 does not have NikMod changes, but flak is upped from stock. I'd say the flak is about right from what I've seen. I've heard it is murder in NikMod which is why I didn't want to do scen 158.

If you can keep reading for a couple more weeks, I'll be posted up some detailed month stats like I used to in my other AAR and that will show air losses in good detail. I'm trying to catch up to the game first though - I'm still a few days behind.

[FeurerKrieg]

March 3rd, 1942
A Dutch submarine, KXVII, did a number on the ASW group sent to kill it, hitting both Patrol Boat No. 46 and PC Ch 8, sinking the latter.
[center]
This Dutch captain deserves a medal.[/center]

More Dutch troops came out from the jungle and were rounded up at Pontianak. RN Base Force No.107 was the ID of the unit destroyed there.

2 PT boats were spotted fleeing to Australia and Nate's from Timor attacked, sinking one.
[center]
Another PT boat sunk.[/center]

THe 4th Regiment, having arrived at Malang two days ago, reinforced the 56th Bge there already and together they were able to take the base and force the Dutch units to Soerabaja. The units, after resting may move on the city if there are still significant force in Madieon, but I suspect the Dutch will retreat back to Soerabaja for their final stand.
[center]
Malang finally captured.[/center]

Also captured today was Timoeka.

[FeurerKrieg]

Finally got around to setting up my stats sheets. I'll put up January and February in a couple more days. In Dec the monthly and entire war numbers are obviously the same, but normally you will see number for both (full war and current month).

If you have any other info or questions you'd like to see just let me know!

[center]
Scoreboard - Dec 31, 1941.[/center]

[center]
Ship Losses[/center]

[center]
Submarine Leaders[/center]

[center]
Submarine Ratio[/center]

[center]
Air Losses[/center]

[center]
Pilot Leaders[/center]

[center]
Production[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

Here's some more stats - I'm going to update another week or so of the war, and then I'll post February stats.

[center]


Ship Losses


Sub Scoreboard


Sub Ratio


Air Losses


Top Pilots


Production[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

March 4th, 1942
Probing air attacks were made against Lashio by a few Sally bombers. More significant, was the destruction of the 13th and 16th Indian Brigades north of Rangoon. Also captured was the 103rd RN Base Force. Three less units to worry about fighting at Mandalay.
[center]
Over 6000 enemy troops captured![/center]


In Java, Djokjakarta was captured. This attack was a bit too soon, and because our forces were not yet in Madieon, the Dutch retreated into the mountains south of the base. An SNLF unit will follow and attempt to wear them down. The defenders are largely out of supplies and should not provide much resistance.
[center]
Onward to Soerabaja.[/center]

In the Phillippines, our units at Cagayan have rested and stocked up on supplies. Tomorrow a massive assault will take place, hopefully strong enough to break through the defenses there and clear the area for good.

Other bases captured: Bura Island, Hollandia, Ndeni, and Sawu Island

[FeurerKrieg]

March 5th, 1942
MSW Jan van Amshel attempted to escape Java today and was sunk by our dive bombers at Bali. Approximately 50 Mary and Ann dive bombers attacked the ports at Soerabaja today and damaged many ships - 1 AGP, 1 AP, 9 AKs, and 2 TK. Hopefully this damage will slow these ships if they try to run our blockade, giving our dive bombers time to find and sink them.
[center]
Another blockade runner sunk.[/center]

In the Philippines, we have finally cleared Cagayan. Over 4500 POW's taken there today. All that remains is clearing some small island and the Philippines will be completely secure. The units at Cagayan will be shipped to Truk as soon as possible.

In Burma, in order to ensure no supplies are making it to the enemy garrison at Akyab, the 2nd Yokosuka SNLF did an airborne assault on Cox's Bazar after recon indicated the base had no garrison force to speak of. The unit was able to secure the base, and will begin to move to Akyab to assist the SNLF unit already there fighting the British garrison. Hopefully this action also keeps our enemy off balance about our intentions in India (which there are none).
[center]
Deep paradrop isolates Akyab.[/center]

Also captured Samo today.

[FeurerKrieg]

March 6th, 1942
Kongo, Haruna and heavy cruisers, Atako and Takao shelled Soerabaja in the night. Several enemy ships were hit in port and damaged. Enemy casualties were also inflicted. DD Hiyodori struck a VH2 mine while escorting the bigger ships and sunk rapidly. After this action, Atako and Takao will return to the home islands for regular maintenance as well as upgrades to AA firepower.

A transport was hit by bombers from Darwin, but it had already unloaded its troops on Tenimbar Island. The transport should make it back to port as the damage was manageable.
[center]
Transport attacked.[/center]

Zeros at Timor, while looking for the PT Boat, TM-7, found an unexpected cargo ship in the area and strafed and bombed it, causing heavy damage. Betty bombers at Koepang will be sent out to finish the ship tomorrow. Three Zeros did manage to find the PT boat, and although no bombs hit, the 20mm cannon set the small boat on fire.
[center]
A nice surprise.[/center]

In China, we were again repulsed from Yenan, although with a few more troops the ground commanders insist they could have held. Two more brigades are being sent as a result of a reshuffle of garrison duties, and we will again attempt to occupy the city in another 2-3 weeks.
[center]
Repulsed again from Yenan.[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

March 7th 1942
Vals attack the Dutch that have retreated into the mountains to keep them from organizing. As expected, all enemy forces retreated from Madioen and our forces have seized the base. Soerabaja now stands alone as the only significant resistance on Java. LBA from Palembang, Timor, Kendari and Batavia are all pounding the airfield regularly. Several smaller naval atack groups are coming in from Bandjarmasin, and the 65th Bge is enroute from Cagayan to assist with the seige of Soerabaja. Our timetable calls for it to fall by March 15, but I think we will miss that by a few days.

Not much news from Burma other than many AA and ART units have now been unloaded and are taking positions in Magwe, Meitikina and Rangoon. Our ground forces continue to march to Lashio, under constant air attack by enemy LBA. We may soon attempt to do a massed LRCAP from Rangoon and Moulmein to catch these bombers without their escorts.
[center]
Daily air attacks in Burma.[/center]

Bettys at Timor found the AK that our Zeros hit yesterday and sunk the ship.
[center]
Yesterday's surprise find is sunk.[/center]

Other bases captured: Taliabu, Utupua

[FeurerKrieg]

March 8th, 1942
The assault on Pago Pago begins with 144 Vals from the KB pounding the port facilities of the island. Recon shows 4 units present, but not many troops, so we will take a calculated risk and attack this atoll without bombarding it with our battleships. The plan is to save our battleship ammo for the attack on Suva. If we bombard Pago Pago, the battleships will have to sail all the way to the Tarawa to rearm. Today was to try and disable coastal guns, tomorrow the ground units will be attacked directly as the landing forces go in soon. This could go very badly if our recon is wrong about the strength of the enemy there. Our Suva forces are holding north of Suva in case they are needed to finish the job at Pago. Once the landing is ashore, and the enemy strength determined, we'll know which way to send that battle group.

At Johnston, 120 B-17E's attacked, but they flew in at 35,000 or higher, so our Zero fighters could not reach them. Accuracy was low at such an altitude though, and most bombs missed the atoll completely. There was some light damage, and one Nell was hit by a bomb, but the airfield has already been repaired by the engineers present.

In the PI, Roxas was captured and the 61st Reserve Div and a base force surrendered providing 2800 POWs. The IJ Division there will split into 3 parts and each part will assault one of the three remaining islands to finish up the campaign in the PI.

A few days ago, Chinese units blocked our supply routes to both Honan and Ichang. Today both roads were reopened as IJA units pushed back the under supplied Chinese. Our units are now moving ont he flanks of Ichang to prevent this from happening again. We may bring additional units from the Nanchang area and build this into a larger offensive to force the enemy to retreat from Changsha or be cut off.
[center]
Pushing back the Chinese.[/center]

Other bases captured: Buka, Tenimbar Island, and Sarmi

Pictured below is the current state of the Osaka and Manchukuo (the 4 Kwangtung units) combat flight training units. Older planes are used in these units and they are generally trained to 50 experience and then sent out to join experienced units that need just a few replacements. Then the unit is filled with 25-35 xp pilots, and the cycle begins again. By using older planes, the op losses incurred by these new pilots are not affecting the pools of our first rate aircraft. Also, by spreading the replacements over several units, the new pilots go from 50ish xp up to 70 or 8- quite quickly once they are in combat.
[center]
Training units.[/center]