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

[FeurerKrieg]

April 24th, 1942
Jakes, Nells and Zeros attack Dutch Harbor but only destroy one P-39D.

Some barges are enroute to Akyab carrying elements of a Bge. The barges will make several trips, taking the Bge to Akyab and bring our paratroopers back to Rangoon.

Some Allied air launch a strike on Akyab.
[center]
Air attack on Akyab.[/center]

Guam and Tongatapu both expand their airfields. (sz 4 and 2)

[FeurerKrieg]

April 25th, 1942
Multiple heavy airstrikes against our ground forces in Burma as our units close in on Myitkina.

Otherwise, quiet.

[center]
Blenheim IV, a plane seen in high numbers over Burma.[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

April 26th, 1942
I-16's appear over Sian, but our bombers have been escorted by Oscars for a long while now. The Oscar's knock down an I-16 and the rest of the I-16's don't cause any problems.
[center]
Chinese fighters attempt resistance.[/center]

A barge is sunk near Akyab by a Blenheim IV.

The TK Hokki Maru, which I thought would be okay, sunk as it reached Kwajalein today.

Babo opened up an airbase (sz1)

[FeurerKrieg]

April 27th, 1942
Gunboats attack our barges at Akyab! The troops are unloaded but four barges are sunk. We will replace these at Rangoon and continue the troop ferry. Army bombers at Rangoon and Moulemein have been put on naval attack to try and catch these enemy ships.
[center]
Barges attacked at Akyab.[/center]

At Myitkina, the Burmese campaign was officially complete as our troops easily captured the base. Future plans involve small units taking up guarding positions on the trails from India and AA, ART and Infantry units will dig in at the major bases. Soon over lapping LRCAP bases will be set up also to stop those large Allied bombing raids.
[center]
Burma is firmly part of the Empire now.[/center]

In China, with the assistance of Lilys and Sallys rebased to Canton after Yenan was captured, the IJA troops at Nanning made progress in their offensive.

Bases across the South Pacific continue to get larger and more capable. Papaete, Penhryn Island and Tarawa all expanded today. (AF sizes 2, 3, and 4 respectively)

At Noumea and Suva, all units are present and tomorrow they will start loading up for Operation Sakura. The loading will probably take 2-4 days, in order to get organized and such, but by May 1st-2nd, the fleet should be setting sail for New Zealand.

[FeurerKrieg]

April 28th, 1942
The offensive at Sian moves forward. (1 to 1, forts 5 -> 4) Reinforcments are at the river northeast of the city, but the troops present seem to be able to handle Sian, so we will wait until the city falls for our units to cross the river.

An LB-30 hit another barge at Akyab.

Zero from Lautem (Timor) flew sweep over Darwin. Liz and Nell bombers were supposed to follow from Koepang, but the airbase there was socked in.

Boela, Kiska and Noumea all expanded airfields today. (sz 1, 1, and 5)

[center]
Noumea.[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

April 29th, 1942
Jakes and Zeros hit Dutch Harbor again, 2 P-39Ds are shot down.

At Nanning, the troops surged forward, the base may fall tomorrow. (3 to 1, forts 3 -> 2)

At Darwin, after the bad weather yesterday, internal commands caused problems today. Our bombers and fighter both flew, but the bombers reached target before the fighers. They still messed up the Darwin airfields pretty good, but the price was too high. 4 Nells and 6 Liz bombers lost compared to 5 Hudson I, 5 Martin 139, 3 Wirraways and 2 P-40E.
[center]
The bombers arrive too soon.[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

April 30th, 1942
The last day of April ends well. Almost all of our troops are loaded up at Noumea and Suva and the fleets will organize tomorrow and head to sea on the 2nd of May.

In China, Nanning is captured along with the complete surrender of a Chinese Corp. 12,000 POWs are taken.
[center]
Nanning is captured.[/center]

Port Blair and Maumere both expand airfields (sz 2 and sz 1) and the port facilities at Luganville expanded. (sz 3)

[FeurerKrieg]

Well, April stats certainly show one thing - April was a quiet month! More recon planes lost than army fighters! Only a few ships sunk, too. That will probably not be the case with May, so once OSO gets his PC up and running again things should start to heat up. I'll be posting Burma and Chinese theater updates soon as well.
[center]













[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

We are about finished offensively here. Several NLF units will be placed in the jungles and mountain areas just outside of Allied bases so we can see what is coming if and when the British attack.

Plenty of ART and AA will be placed in all the other bases, and mutually supporting LRCAP will be used to try and keep the Allied bombers from closing all our airbases. Akyab will only be held to prevent usage by the British, we won't be using it as an airbase or building up the port/airbase there.

[center][/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

Sian should fall in the next week or two and then those forces will push northwest to capture the resource and oil areas up there. Some small units may march far to the northwest to see if there are lightly defended bases near Mongolia.

In the south, a brigade is enroute from Saigon to Nanning, and then we may try to push into Lashio again. A very large push will hit Changsha in a day or two, and that will be the main focus for a while. The units near Ichang are mainly there to prevent a 'free' river crossing by the Chinese. The 40th Div is in Ichang to counterattack any crossing from the north or south of Ichang.

[center][/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

OSO's computer is back in business and so are we!

May 1st, 1942
A Dutch unit (10th NEIAF BF) was destroyed near Benjarmasin today. 200 starving POWs were captured.

Various Hurricane ground attacks in Burma, nothing significant though. At Chittagong, 31 Two-Engined bombers and 20 Zeros attack the three ships that had hit our barges several days ago. Hurricanes defending and we lost 2 A6M3's to 1 Hurricane. The bomber made the attack good though, putting three 250kg AP bombs into the PG Indus.
[center]
May starts with a bomb in an enemy ship.[/center]

Transports will set sail from Noumea tonight and head east. In two more days, transports will leave from Suva and head west. Once the fleets meet up they will head to New Zealand. Glen submarines are en route to areas south of the Society Islands, and our combat fleets will sail a couple days after the transports leave Suva. They will be able to catch up to the other ships due to their greater speed.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 2nd, 1942
Air attacks began at Changsha to support the ground offensive there. P-43A Lancers were on CAP duty. Our Oscars mostly took care of them , although one P-43A made to the Lily bombers and shot one down. The Oscars killed 2 P-43As. At Sian, air raids continue, but our dive bombers have been redirected to the airport along with the level bombers which had already been hitting the airfields. Today, the I-16c's on CAP there dodge our Oscars and shot down three Ki-30 Ann bombers. One I-16c wsa destroyed on the ground, however.
[center]
The siege at Changsha begins.[/center]

[center]
Supporting air strikes.[/center]

Another Dutch remant was rounded up at Sawahloento. The unit was ID'd as the So Sumatra Garrison Bn. Approx 400 POW's were taken.

Upolo airbase expanded today.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 3rd, 1942
Zeros attacking Dutch Harbor today encoutered P-40Es instead of the P-39s they had been seeing. Our pilots have learned well quickly, and today shot down three of the Warhawks while taking no damage at all.
[center]
Zeros over Dutch Harbor.[/center]

Air raids at Changsha continued, today destroying four P-43As (2 in the air, 2 on the ground). The army again pushed on Sian, and continued to move towards capturing the base. (1 to 1, forts 5 -> 4)

Majuro airport expanded today. (sz 2)

[FeurerKrieg]

May 4th, 1942
Air attacks on Sian and Changsha continue. I-16c's try to defend Sian and P-43A Lancers attempt the same at Changsha.

Allied air hit Mandalay hard. We have lots of engineers in place there, and the airfield should be fixed up fairly soon.
[center]
An enemy bomber is shot down.[/center]

Liz and Nell bombers hit Darwin after another sweep by Zeros. Several Hudson, Martin 139 and P-40E aircraft were destroyed. Overall today, the Allies lost 26 airplanes to our 10.

Bora Bora completed an airfield today.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 5th, 1942
After receiving minor attacks from Chinese bombers in past days, our bombers counterattacked at Hengchow today, destroying 3 I-16c and 1 SB-2c on the ground.

At Changsha, the Army attacked but achieved little results.
[center]
Large scale assault at Changsha[/center]

Liz and Nell bombers attacked the ports at Darwin but missed most of their targets. The AK Palawan was hit with a 800kg bomb.

Attacks from enemy bombers continue in Burma. Our AA brings down 2-4 planes each day.

The fleets of Operation Sakura continue their trek southward. D-day will probably fall around the 14th or 15th.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 6th, 1942
The army faired better at Sian today, pushing forward and inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. The fall of Sian is growing closer every day. (1 to 1, forts 4->3)

Also in China, part of the 18th Mixed Bge attack in the forest east of Chungking and pushed back several Chinese units and two HQ units. This will help keep our flank at Ichang secure as any attack on Ichang could easily be cut off by this unit.
[center]
Extending the flank in China[/center]

Dobodura airfield expanded today. (sz 3)

[FeurerKrieg]

May 7th, 1942
A quiet day as the only air action was 8 Hurricanes in Burma attacking our ground troops and 9 SB-2c's attacking our troops at Changsha.

Ont heg round, our troops again pushed forward at Sian. (1 to 1, fort 3 -> 2) The troops will rest for a day and then resume the offensive again.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 8th, 1942
After basing some Oscars in Mandalay, the enemy flew a sweep mission over the base today. We lost six Oscar's (thankfully two pilots were rescued) and destroyed 3 P-40E and 1 Hurricane. A unit of A6M3 Navy fighters will fly in tomorrow in case they attack again.
[center]
Air combat over Mandalay[/center]

Nell and Liz bombers at Timor attack the unguarded base at Wyndham today, but only destroyed one Hudson bomber on the ground.

The airfields at Efate were completed today and can now support our two engined torpedo bombers. Construction will now turn to fortifying the island against enemy assault.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 9th, 1942
The Dutch sub KXVI found a small group of transports heading to Rangoon and attacked on the surface at night, hitting with several torpedos and AA gun fire. One AP was sunk and 70 men of the 4th SNLF lost their lives.
[center]
Sub victim.[/center]

Changsha and Sian were both attacked again, resulting in shot down P-43As and I-16c. The ground fight at Sian should end soon as today's attack again made progress. (1 to 1, forts 2->1) An attack at Changsha did not budge the line.

In Burma, enemy fighters came to call at Mandalay, but today our Oscars were reinforced with some A6M3. 7 Hurricanes and 4 P-40E's were shot down for the loss of 2 Zeros and 4 Oscars. After that attack, level bombers came in and many were damaged by our CAP.
[center]
A bomber goes down.[/center]

In the Society Islands, an airfield was opened on Rarotonga (sz 1). At Wau on New Guinea, the airfield there was expanded. (sz 3)

[FeurerKrieg]

May 10th, 1942
Air attacks on Sian in China and umnak in the north Pacific.

Allied bomber hit Mandalay hard, but our fighter had left in the morning and no planes were lost in the bombing.

The 21st Mixed/A attacked British forces near Imphal, but failed to push the enemy back. The a portion of the 55th Division will cross the river and lend a hand.

Operation Sakura is near its target. You can see the positions of the KB and the invasion fleets below. KB is sailing down a slot that is equidistant from Aukland and the coast of Australia to minimize the change of being seen. So far, not a single ship has been seen of either the invasion groups or the KB. Our luck will not hold much longer.
[center]
Operation Sakura Status[/center]