Lorks-a-lordy, my Empire is on fire! GBL vs 1EyedJacks - Nemo's mod

[goodboyladdie]

23/02/42

S-42, S-45 and Plunger all reported attacks by carrier based aircraft, S-42 suffering 5 attacks. No hits were reported. The amount of subs seems to have panicked Mike as both task forces are reported to be heading West. Christmas was hit by the larger raid and is now 58/57/52. Palmyra was bombed by about 45 Kates with escorts but is undamaged. 1 Kate fell over Palmyra.

27th Infantry Division arrived at Los Angeles. It is moving to San Francisco and provisionally planning for Nandi, although it will be a few days before I can afford to change HQ. 72nd BS at Pearl Harbor has upgraded to the B-19A from the A-20B. I have resisted the temptation to allow the B-19s to go hunting on their own - I am sure this is what Mike wants. I can see no other reason for him to keep trailing his coat in the Central Pacific when there are plenty of other targets for invasion...

2000 tons of supplies arrived at Hilo. On Noumea, the Vindicator equipped VMSB-131 upgraded to the TBM-1. Geraldton, near Perth, expanded it's airfield to size 2.

[goodboyladdie]

A patrolling Do-24 hit Hasu. I do not know what type of ship Hasu is, but I was happy anyway...

Delhi and Diamond Harbour airfields increased to size 5 and size 3 respectively.

My bombers hit Rangoon and Brunei airfields ans caused 7/2 casualties amongst the Japs at Singapore. Mike lost a Lily over Singapore from today's enormous raid. Mike is really trying hard to wear Singapore down, but I still have over 100,000 tons of supplies on hand. He lost 2 Vals and a Lily over Manila. 45 Kates with a Zeke escort bombed Pp 101st Division at Davao.

A Jap deliberate attack at Manila reduced my forts to 2, but at a cost of 5206/122 casualties to my 611/46. Manila has 44157 tons of supplies.

[goodboyladdie]

Over Xuwen, 2 Nates fell to AVG/3, 1 Lt Dobbs becoming the latest Ace of my best unit (see screenie). A Mary fell to a Chinese Lancer over Pucheng. There are Zekes at Taan, so I pulled AVG/3 back to prevent a counter-ambush.

I am launching a bombardment attack at Sinyang to find out what the opposition is there. All but one of my planned units are now present. Recon shows 11 Jap units present.

[goodboyladdie]

I have solved the "Hasu" mystery (see screenie). She has low durability, so hopefully she'll sink if Mike missed the fact she got hit. I am wondering whether my opponent is a bit scared of my 4E and is waiting on the imminent arrival of the Mike before he gets more aggressive?

[goodboyladdie]

24/02/42

Auckland port is now size 7. Nandi Airfield is now size 2. A base force for Nandi should arrive shortly.

Off the Line Islands S-42, S-45, S-46 and S-47 were all attacked by carrier planes, with no hits. PBYs positively identified Ise, Hyuga and Ryujo in the task force pulling away to the West. This main force was in a storm most of the day, so the Zuikaku/Shokaku/Hiryu/Soryu/Warabite force following in their wake split their force to attack Christmas and Palmyra. Christmas was visited by 18 Zekes, 4 Rufes, 20 Vals and 53 Kates, losing 2 Vals. Damage now amounts 58/58/51. Palmyra was hit by 9 Zekes and 18 Kates, but damage is still 0/0/0. A small AK at Johnston was spotted so is running North for Midway with the remains of her cargo. VP-22, the second squadron at Johnston, flew to Palmyra Island. I am hoping that the higher I can make the detection level of the second, weaker carrier group the more chance I have of the heavy bombers at Pearl Harbor launching an air strike.

24th PS at Colon upgraded to the P-40B. I wanted to use these reserves in an out of the way theatre because they came from the AVG and using them elsewhere would be gamey. 51st PS, at Panama used the 12 P-36s thus released to come up to full strength. 8th photo recon loaded onto an unescorted 20 kt AK at San Francisco for a run to Brisbane.

SS Seadragon is fully repaired at Auckland and has been given orders to proced to Manila to assist the ongoing evacuation.

The position and make-up of the mini KB (see next post) has caused me to rush units from Australia to Kendari (RAAF 13 Sqn - Hudsons; FAA 733 sqn - Beauforts) and Balikpapan (RAAF 32 sqn - Hudsons). RAAF 7 sqn has flown their Beauforts into Port Moresby to replace the FAA.

[goodboyladdie]

SS Triton, with evacuated troops on board, attempted an attack on a DD screening CVE Unyo SW of Davao. The torpedoes failed to detonate and she was hit by a depth charge, killing 13 of the evacuated troops. She has damage of 35/33/0. Radio chatter translated by a cobbled together signal intelligence troop at Davao revealed that the units attacking Pp 101st Div were from from Unyo and Chuyo. This small force is very vulnerable so 28th BS (B-25Ds) flew from Soerabaya to Kendari to join the attack force there, whilst RAAF No 2 sqn (Beauforts) flew to Balikpapan. Force Z is on it's way over, but I spotted the opportunity too late for their participation I am afraid. The Japs have established an air presence at Cotabato.

[goodboyladdie]

My bombers hit Rangoon airfield again. There was a Zeke CAP over Singapore and a B-339 and a Martin 139 were downed. They will not attack tomorrow and the B-17s from Batavia will come in at 20,000 ft. I scored 2 more oil hits at Brunei, but as happened the day before, no additional centres were damaged. All my Soerabaya B-17s are on Naval Attack, in the hope of taking advantage of the weakness of Mike's CVE force.

The Japs raided Singapore, losing at least a Lily and 2 Sallys. These massive raids do a lot of damage. Singapore has 0/100/96 damage and 100,550 tons of supplies. Manila was hit 3 times at the cost of at least a Val, a Lily, a Nell and a Betty. Manila has no damage and 46,643 tons of supplies. Here are the units present at both locations...

[goodboyladdie]

A patrolling SB-2 hit MSW W.20 off Taan. I have been sending raids over a Jap bridgehead at 48,36 and the units forced out of Xuwen at 40,40. Both raids are causing daily Jap casualties. AVG/3 will be over Xuwen again tomorrow, while 2 Chinese Lancer units try to get in amongst the Marys at Pucheng.

Jap reinforcements have arrived at Kiungshan, but as both my units have travelled 55 miles, I am hoping they will have retreated before Mike launches an attack. I will make a shock attack at Sinyang: The balance of forces is the subject of the screenie.

A USN AO will sail to Okha from Petropavlovsk to discharge her remaining cargo as there is no fuel at Okha.

[goodboyladdie]

25/02/42

The Japs increased the size of Palau airfield to size 4.

Over on the Eastern map edge I-169 attacked a convoy of 6 tankers carrying fuel to Brisbane. Dilworth took 2 torpedoes and has damage 60/79/49. Chilbar took one and has damage of 29/36/49. TK Chilbar may make Hilo. I save my escorts for convoys carrying troops, but will have to rethink this.

Palmyra was hit by 93 Kates escorted by 9 Zekes. 2 Kates were destroyed and Palmyra is still undamaged. Christmas Island is now 58/58/49. I have not changed the HQ for 27th Div as I still can't decide what to do with it. I need another Brigade on Midway, one on Lahaina and one on Johnston, but also need to turn the South Pacific into a bastion...

CA Houston is finally ready at Sydney and is sailing to Townsville escorted by 2 DMS. 7th, 8th, 9th, 16th and 54th FS flew into Brisbane from CVL Kittyhawk. Kittyhawk will swing by Noumea to refuel on her way back to CONUS.

[goodboyladdie]

My raid on Rangoon did no real damage and my Singapore raid did not happen. The Japs lost 2 Sallys over Singapore and 6 Vals and a Lily over Manila. A Jap deliberate attack at Singapore reduced forts to 4 and caused 854/34 casualties to the Jap's 1809/54. I think Singapore is going to fall sooner rather than later, despite the fact that I have 98384 tons of supplies. None of my transport planes will pick up troops anymore...

Davao was hit by 45 Kates again. BB Resolution arrived at Batavia and sailed immediately with the other BBs to bombard Japanese troops on Singapore Island. It's a risk without cover from Force Z's CVs, but the RN has to do something to help the besieged trrops at Singapore.

Manila has 45,770 tons of supplies.

[goodboyladdie]

SigInt revealed that IJA China Expeditionary Army HQ is planning for an attack on Changsha.

Changkufeng airfield is now size 6 - I do not know why Mike is wasting his time up there unless he is eventually planning to attack the Soviets. The Soviets will not be attacking before 1945 as long as he keeps his garrison at a reasonable level after mid 1943.

The Japs are bombing Yenan, I have pulled my inexperienced Chinese fighter unit out. He also bombed Wuchow. AVG/3 lost a P-40 to a Nate over Xuwen. They'll have another go tomorrow. 5 SB-2s from a bombing raid over the Jap bridghead at 48,36 were shot down by a Zeke CAP. I will try a shock attack here tomorrow.

The shock attack at Sinyang was a failure. Mike has level 6 forts and I lost 3505/176 to his 472/21. I will pull 3 Field Armies out of this hex, one to protect my rear and two into reserve.

The one bright spot was the escape of my forces from Kiungshan. Mike cursed his slow moving armour!

[goodboyladdie]

26/02/42

Brisbane airfield is now size 7.

S-18 was attacked at Kwajalein twice by patrolling Mavis flying boats with no result. Later in the day she was attacked by 7 DDs and 6 hits or near misses resulted in damage of 29/35/0.

Palmyra was hit by 90 Kates (2 shot down), but has again repaired the damage already. Christmas Island is now 58/58/47. 20,000 tons of supplies for both bases is loading at San Francisco. About 7000 tons of supplies are unloading at Hilo. The damaged TK Dilworth sank.

51st Aviation Rgt is about to unload at Brisbane. Next turn I will send 7th, 8th and 9th FS North as I reckon will shortly be needing them at Batavia. Pp 8th base force is establishing itself at the Dutch airfield at Merauke.

[goodboyladdie]

AK Toradja was hit by shellfire from I-122 just off Singapore and has damage 63/37/16.

My raid at Rangoon achieved nothing and I traded a B-17 for a Zeke over Singapore. Today's massive Jap raid at Singapore cost Mike 2 Sallys and a Helen but has run down my supplies to 99450 tons. With Singapore likely to fall faster than expected I have had to order Manxman South from Bombay before she is completely repaired (sys 4). I will need her to mine Palembang.

The Japs are moving forward again in Burma. All my medium and light bombers should attempt to bomb this turn.

[goodboyladdie]

The Jap raids on Manila cost 2 Vals and 3 Bettys. A deliberate attack reduced forts to 1 but cost the Japs 5180/97/16 casualties to my 456/32/1. My supply level is now 42628 tons.

45 Kates hit Davao again, but the mini KB is moving away again. Force Z will never get there in time, so they have orders to sail to Soerabaya. From there they should be able to react better in either direction.

[goodboyladdie]

FO Gray of AVG/3 got his 9th kill (a Nate) over Xuwen. Tomorrow AVG/3 will escort the raids on the Jap troops at 40,40, after todays raid lost an SB-2 to Oscars.

Nanchang took a huge raid from 130 Marys and 82 Lilys. 3 squadrons will try to intercept tomorrow. Only some Pp P-35s were present today, but they did shoot down a Mary.

Wuchow was attacked and I lost 2 P-39s and FK-51s on the ground. The P-39s will LRCAP Wuchow from Kweilin tomorrow.

Homan also experienced a raid, so I have flown in what will hopefully be a nasty surprise (see screenie).

PC Ch 8 was left on fire after a bomb hit from an SB-2 off Taan. Tomorrow 2 squadrons from Chungking will try a sneaky bomb attack on all the ships docked there.

My shock attack at 48,36 failed with 436/14 casualties to 264/10 on the Jap side.

[goodboyladdie]

27/02/42

Darwin increased it's port to size 4, While Adelaide increased to size 6.

A C3N1 attacked S-18 as she limped away from Kwajalein, but missed. ML Oglala, escorted by 4 DDs, is sailing to lay more mines at Christmas Island. The damage there is still severe: 58/58/45. 6000 tons of supplies are unloading at Lahaina and many small AKs are loading supplies at PH for the various garrisons.

27th Div is now under SOPAC and is loading onto my fastest APs for Nandi. 754th Tank Bn is loading for Suva, while 810th EAB is on it's way to start buikding an Allied base at Efate. 2 10,000 ton, 12kt TKs are loading fuel at SF for Petropavlovsk. 116th USN BF is unloading at Nandi.

Various small AKs from the DEI are now distributing supplies to bases around Australia. 7th, 8th and 9th FS have moved from Brisbane to Alice Springs on ther way to the DEI. They are all low on experience. 198th US Artillery Bn is unloading at Cairns. 5/2nd Ind SOF Coy is moving from Sydney to Coen to provide an anti-para watch until more units are available. 3,500 tons of supplies from Brisbane are unloading at Port Moresby, while 1,000 tons from Kendari unload at Thursday Island. There is a general shortage of fuel in Australia, but TKs should arrive at Capetown and the South Atlantic soon, so I'll be able to do something about it.

[goodboyladdie]

The Naval bombardment of Singapore only caused 112/4/2 casualties. The task force will bombard again tonight. They seemed to replenish in Singapore. Hopefully they will not do so tonight as I would rather they got clear of any Japanese retribution. The bombardment force consists of Resolution, Ramillies, Royal Sovereign, Georges Averoff, Mauritius and Enterprise with supporting destroyers.

My bombers did no damage at Rangoon, caused slight damage to the airbase at Brunei and shot down a Zeke, damaging 8 others at Singapore. Mike lost 3 Sallys in another huge raid on Singapore. He lost a Betty from the normal 3 raids on Manila. Singapore has 99347 tons of supplies, while Manila has 44947.

IJA 33rd Div was identified as the heading West from Rangoon. It is now at Prome. It was by three raids: 36 Vildebeest caused 49/1/1 casualties; 22 Blenheims caused 10/1 casualties; 17 Blenheims caused 5/1 casualties.

7th Armd Brig, 28th and 43rd LAA, 56th and 95th HAA and finally 221 RAF BF are unloading at Bombay. IA 71st Brigade arrived at Calcutta. 45th Brigade then headed forward to Cox's Bazaar on the frontier, which is currently only covered by a base force and a bn. The highlghted IA Brigade is heading for Akyab.

[ny59giants]

Darwin increased it's port to size 4

Why are you using engineers to do this?? I can see getting the AF to level 4 to support Beauforts using torpedoes, but mainly building up the fort level.

What are your force dispositions from Darwin south to Alice Springs?? A screen shot might help.

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Darwin increased it's port to size 4

Why are you using engineers to do this?? I can see getting the AF to level 4 to support Beauforts using torpedoes, but mainly building up the fort level.

What are your force dispositions from Darwin south to Alice Springs?? A screen shot might help.

Hi Michael

Darwin (and it's supply lines Southwards) is going to be the only place I seriously defend if Mike invades Northern Australia. It may be that I will have a CV with float damage needing as large a port as possible in the area at some point. I am planning today for tomorrow's battles. While I have time, I do not intend to waste it...

I'll add a screenie next turn.

[goodboyladdie]

44 Kates hit Davao. As the mini KB is making off and I am tempted to rush in to bombard Cotabato...