The Leader Bug strikes - BigB 1.5 Japanese version

[Rainer79]

March 5th, 1942:

Pretty quiet.

The British continued their bombardment of Mandalay and managed to destroy some Dinahs on the ground, killing their pilots as well. The atg attacks against Myitkynia were also intensified. The tank regiment is now 1 miles from the base...

In China the road to Changsha was finally opened as 4 Chinese corps were forced back into that city. The CEA currently does not plan to tackle the city itself (yet). For now the goals are to seize Kanshien and hopefully cut off a smaller stack on the railway between Hangkow and Changsha.

[Rainer79]

March 6th, 1942:

Near Truk an 6 PCs engaged SS Tambor and achieved one real hit which left the sub on fire.

CL Natori shelled Iloilo during the night in preparation of our ground assault there.

In Burma 28 Oscars flew LRCAP over Myitkyina to ambush the ground attack missions there. 30 Hurricanes came in first and were handled roughly. 6 of them were shot down while most of the rest was damaged. A second strike of 3 SB-2cs evaded our fighters but dropped its bombs into the jungle. An allied sweep over Mandalay (no bombing runs today) found nothing but empty air.

Near Wyndham a Naval Guard chased a base force deeper into the desert. Even with Katherine blocked it still can draw a supply path to Daily Waters. The IJN soldiers may rest a few days and will then pursue.

Finally in the PI the group of SNLFs that have cleared out the island garrisons there achieved another success. The PA division defending Iloilo and the resident base force surrendered during the first attack. Only Cagayan and Manila still hold out but both should (hopefully) fall in the not too distant future.

[Rainer79]

March 7th, 1942:

A very good day. [8D]

It began innocently enough with a group of US APDs encountering a minefield at Dutch Harbor. They destroyed a few mines but (sadly) only with gunfire.

In China a Sally Sentai decided to fly without their escorts and promptly ran into 23 I-153c. In the ensuing dogfight they proved to be superior fighters and forced the enemy to quickly disengage. [:D]

Burma saw the usual attack against Mandalay. The Brits also tried an unescorted raid against Rangoon and paid for it heavily. 60 Blenheim IVs and 14 B-17Ds ran into 48 Oscars and 5 Zeros. Even the Oscars' puny armament proved to be enough to down the British bombers and quite a few of them decided to head home early. In the end only a single Oscar was lost when a lone bomb hit the runway while 20 British crews and 1 American one would not return home. Most of the other planes were riddled by bullet holes as well and may not a few days worth of repairs.

On Sumatra Sabang fell to our victorious troops and 6 dutch units ceased to exist. 11 short-range Hawk fighters were destroyed on the tarmac.

After the tank regiment's arrival at Myitkyina another attack was ordered to push back the defenders towards Lashio. The two infantry divisions quickly overran the defensive positions supported by our advanced armored vehicles *cough, cough*.

Only Lashio remains in Allied hands for now and once the Imperial Guard division arrives in Rangoon the Burma Area Army will try to change that. It will hopefully prove beneficial in the future if all those units are pushed back into China where they will consume already scarce supplies.

[Rainer79]

March 7th, 1942 (cont.):

But that was not all. The 14th Army also attacked the weakened defenders of Manila. Composed mainly of rear-area troops the Americans and Phillipinos could not hold back our battle-hardened veterans and fell into disarray. More than 30 000 soldiers surrendered ending all resistance on Luzon.

Only Cagayan still holds out in the PI sector but there are now more than enough troops available to take that base as well.

[bigbaba]

it seems realy that bigb mod has the same teething problems like nikomd:

-ineffective japanese AA fire.
-too low allied OP loses.

on the other hand, your fighter daitais are doing a great job shooting down RAF pilots over burma.

[Rainer79]

Compared to castor's game it is not that bad. The Allies do suffer ops losses but mainly among fighter and transport types. It's the losses among bombers that are very low especially compared to Japanese planes. At least I can stop an unescorted raid with fighters.

I am trying to bring an AA regiment to Mandalay - if it ever bothers to move out of the trail hex - which should help.

Overall I am very fond of the mod though. IMO it is probably the best one currently out there.

[Rainer79]

March 8th, 1942:

A very boring turn.

An NLF was unloaded at Merak and should take the base thus cutting off the retreat path of the KNIL troops in Batavia.

A SNLF also disembarked at Benkolen mainly to prevent the troops which were evicted from Palembang from retreating there. It is not strong enough to take the base on its own.

The Mandalay attacks are currently escorted by 40 modern and 20 obsolete fighters. I could put about 150 fighters into the base which would probably mean that ~75 would engage the raid. Hmm....

The Chinese advanced troops are retreating towards Changsha so no encirclement will be possible there. I am slowly gathering enough troops to put a blocking force into Changsha. While I have no intention to take the city immediately and make the static troops mobile it will at least stop supply production.

Kangshien also has been abandoned by the enemy and should be taken by a tank regiment tomorrow. Quite a few troops are moving there over the trails.

On Sumatra an empty Djambi was seized. The number of Dutch bases continues to dwindle.

[Rainer79]

March 9th, 1942:

CAs Maya and Chokai tried to bombard Adak Island which had recently expanded its airfield to level 2 and is filled with 100 aircraft. They encountered a small group of 4 APs first. I should transfer the resident Mavis pilots to someplace else for not spotting them but what posting would be worse than the Aleutans? Anyway, instead of sinking 4 valuable ships there was only 1 surface combat round during which only half the ships fired. AP President Fillmore is the only ship in any danger of sinking after sustaining 19 5" hits. [:@]

The follow-up bombardment was also absolutely useless. [:@]

In the air the Allies proceeded to bomb Mandalay while the IJAAF returned the compliment at Batavia. A sweep over Lashio by 24 Zeroes found 3 Hurricanes on CAP. One fighter was shot down by either side.

Katherine fell after the allies had voluntarily retreated south. The 5th and 56th Divisions will pursue them while the 2nd Division will join them soon.

The number of dutch bases was further reduced when Teloekbetoeng and Merak surrendered. The clean-up operations in the region will continue.

Here is also a screenshot of China. Kanhsien was taken as expected and will soon see a lot of troops heading west. The Chinese seem to be concentrating at Changsha, Hengchow and Wuchow. Due to the nature of the map large scale encirclements will be difficult but in the short term the CEA can at least shut down some supply production by contesting bases. The Communists up north will be ignored. If the few mobile troops there venture out of their bases they'll be forced back but the focus of the IJA clearly lays with making the life of the Nationalists as hard as possible (and hopefully make troop transfers into India risky).

[Rainer79]

March 10th, 1942:

A good day for the allies...

O-23 found and hit a small AP with 3 torpedoes near Batavia. The (empty) Kembu Maru was scuttled during the day.

The Allies have begun to bomb Kiska from Adak. A strike of P-39s and B-25Cs escorted by 22 Lightnings destroyed 4 Kates on the ground and caused slight damage to the base facilities. A Zero Daitai will take up station there soon and I've upgraded a Home Defense Claude Daitai to act as reinforcements if necessary. I do not relish combat with the P-38E/Fs but the US cannot be allowed to rule the airspace over the Aleutans uncontested. Also an aviation regiment from the Kwantung army has been bought out and will head north.

In light of this new development more forceful measures will have to be taken. The Emperor thinks about diverting the Attu invasion force to Adak and bypass Attu for now. Additionally one of the divisions freed up by the conquest of Manila will head north in case that the Adak garrison is strong enough to survive the initial landing (2/3 of a infantry division).

The Allies promptly aborted their clockwork attacks against Mandalay after I moved 150 fighters into the base. The joys of allied instant intel.....

[Rainer79]

March 11th, 1942:

My APDs tried to exact some retribution for the poor sunk AP but only achieved a few near misses.

Over Burma the bombing of Mandalay has immediately resumed after withdrawing the fighters again. I'd rather not have my fighters exposed to a 70+ fighter sweep if I can help it. BTW bad weather was not the reason for the canceled strike, I checked. [8|]

Also the bombing of Kiska has continued. It is largely ineffectual so far.

A ground attack mission in Australia flown mainly by dutch pilots has received a rude welcome by 14 Zeroes. 11 planes (a mixture of Wirraways, Brewsters and Martins) won't be coming back to haunt us.

Dive bombers began to work over the allied ground units at Cagayan. This is pretty much the only safe assignment (except for possible China) for those death traps.

On Borneo a dutch base force surrendered in the jungle ending the allied occupation once and for all. [;)]

[Rainer79]

March 12th, 1942:

Several DDs unsuccessfully shelled Attu Island. There was no CD fire. The Allies are also moving even more troops into Adak. From 10 000 troops / 3 units they are up to 5 units. I assume two of them are base forces or aviation units as there are 100 planes stacked there. So I am guessing that the defense will have at least two RCTs. Forts should be low but the terrain is mountainous. All in all, it seems that a infantry division won't be enough.

Otherwise only the usual bombing runs happened.

Here is also a comparison of the Zero and the dreaded P-38E/F that makes life over the Aleutians so difficult.

[Rainer79]

March 13th, 1942:

A group of 6 PCs caught SS Salmon west of Kwajalein and sank the sub. [&o]

During the day we finally engaged the enemy bombing express over Mandalay (see screenshot). Fighter combat was bloody and the Oscars proved to be excellent bait while the Zeros did most of the work. The fight between the CAP and escorts took so long that the bombers could attack nearly unharmed. Only 5 of them were shot down though only 5 planes were lost on the ground either (the attack came in at 12k feet). In the air a total of 45 enemy fighters went down in exchange for 24 Oscars and 9 Zeroes. Thankfully pilot losses were not bad but due to a large number of damaged planes the fighters have been withdrawn to Rangoon again.

Fun fact: roughly 250 P-40Es have been destroyed since the start of the war.

[Rainer79]

March 14th, 1942:

A nighttime bombardment of Adak led by BB Ise proved effective and destroyed 20 planes on the ground. It is good to know that CD fire was non-existent as even the DDs participated (unintentionally).

A much reduced Allied strike was flown against Mandalay today. I'll try to ambush them tomorrow again.

During the day the US pilots got their revenge as they strike Kiska again. 26 P-38E/Fs escorted a group of P-39 on airfield attack and tangled with 13 Zeroes. The Americans shot down 5 friendly planes for no loss. [:(]

A new ground assault at Batavia achieved a 1:1 and reduced forts to 2. The ground losses look very good though as the KNIL troops suffered 4 times the losses of the IJA soldiers.

In Australia 8 enemy units are now holding at Daly Waters while another brigade was spotted defending Tennant Creek. With the imminent arrival of the 2nd Infantry Division and a tank regiment the commander on the ground is still optimistic.

[Rainer79]

March 15th, 1942:

The Allies sent in a force of 5 DMS to clear Adak. I hope that Daniel will continue to risk these precious ships where a SAG might catch them.

As expected the British and American pilots were back at Mandalay. They arrived stronger than expected but results are still acceptable. 15 Buffalos and 20 Warhawks escorted 60 British bombers and met 47 Oscars and 27 Zeroes (out of 150 fighters @ 90% CAP). In the end losses were about equal. The Allies lost 28 planes while we lost half of that number during AtA combat and the rest was torched on the ground. But as airframes are a lot easier to replace than pilots and more of our pilots will survive than their Allied counterparts I guess it could have been a lot worse.

Over Daly Waters our Zeroes also shot down some of the planes flying ground strikes against the troops there.

Off Batavia O-23 had another success and sank the medium AP Heiwa Maru with 3 torpedo hits. Half of a NLF drowned with the ship. At least the American AP President Fillmore also ended up on the sunk ship list this turn.

[Rainer79]

March 16th, 1942:

Japanese ASW groups continued their (largely ineffectual) efforts to hunt down spotted subs. Due to the number of resource convoys heading towards Japan quite a few hunter-killer groups had to be dissolved to act as convoy escorts instead.

The Blenheim IF nightfighters actually hit the runway during a night attack on Mandalay. So far they are more dangerous to their crews than to Japanese troops.

Over Kiska the P-38E/Fs continued to prove their worth. While they escorted a B-25C strike they shot down 3 Zeroes on CAP while loosing 1 Lightning and 1 bomber.

At least the IJA troops could report a victory today. The KNIL defenders at Batavia finally saw the error of their ways and gave up their futile struggle. After the combat engineers reduced forts to 1 the attacking infantry achieved a solid 3:1 result. 26 000 allied soldiers were taken prisoner. The resource and oil centers had been lightly damaged by the fighting though. The Emperor is not sure yet where these troops will head next.

On the screenshot you can also see 3 of the 4 remaining dutch bases (Padang being the missing one).

[Rainer79]

March 17th, 1942:

After reclaiming the sky over Mandalay the forces there shifted their focus on Lashio. 13 enemy units are spotted there with another 9 units south of Myitkyina. 19 Zeroes and 33 Oscars escorted 14 Lilys to that base and were met by 7 Hurricanes and 15 I-16cs. 1 Oscar was destroyed while 14 allied fighters went down. A group of LCUs will soon enter Lashio to determine if reinforcements are needed.

In the North the P-38E/F became even more hated. A group of Mitchells attacked CarDivs 1 and 2 and the Lightnings proceeded to shoot down 4 Zeroes and 2 Petes for no loss. It is certainly fun to be consistently bounced by fighters flying some 5k feet lower. The attacking bombers thankfully missed the carriers. Recon of Adak now shows 6 units and troop counts between 4 - 7k with few to no guns and few AFVs. Despite deep misgivings I've rerouted the invasion TF back to Adak as these P-38s simply cannot be allowed to rule the Aleutians just yet.

On the ground Benkolen was captured and two dutch units surrendered there. The end for the DEI is near...

[Rainer79]

March 18th, 1942:

A transport TF encountered a new minefield at Rangoon but escaped damage. There is not much I can do against sub-laid mines in the region though.

Near Palmyra I-25 found a convoy and promptly got attacked by the escorts. 1 real hit was scored so the boat will have to retire.

A new air attack near Adak finally saw a better exchange ratio. 5 Lightnings were destroyed while the IJN lost 2 Zeroes. The attacking Mitchells turned back due to poor morale. Also a few PBYs were intercepted flying to the island.

During the day the transports then began unloading over the beach and most of the 2 RCTs is ashore. The Americans have a RCT of the 27th US division and multiple engineer units to defend (~190 AV). The 1st MAW is also present. While the intial landing definitely will have to be reinforced to secure the island, it seems at least doable.

Also in the PI the last allied stronghold was wiped out. Seemingly out of supply the 15k defenders of Cagayan could not hold back a division equivalent of IJN and IJA troops.

[Rainer79]

March 19th, 1942:

East of Kwajalein 6 PCs found SS Permit and scored 3 direct Type 95 DC hits during two separate attacks. Amazingly enough the sub did not immediately sink though it is doubtful if it will survive for much longer.

Additionally the S-34 hit a mine at Kiska. It was certainly not a good day to be a submariner as later during the day a Hudson hit an I-boat with a bomb near Noumea.

Also CAs Ashigara and Chokai performed a bombardment of Adak together with 5 DDs. Their aim was true and they turned the runway into swiss cheese. Quite a few allied planes were destroyed on the ground (see screenshot) and the base was closed during the day.

This allowed the carriers to concentrate their efforts on hunting down a convoy trying to sneak a Canadian base force into Attu. The Vals and Kates performed flawlessly and caused more losses to the US Navy. DDs Mahan, Lamson, Flusser and Porter were sunk outright as was the AP President Polk. PG Charleston, APs Henderson and President Garfield were heavily damaged. [8D]

At Daly Waters a bombardment attack revealed the two Australian divisions, 2 brigades and some smaller units holding the town. AV is 1393 vs. 725 so that should be enough to force the Aussies back.

[Rainer79]

March 20th, 1942:

BB Hyuga and CA Maya bombarded Adak again but couldn't repeat yesterday's success. Only minor damage was scored. Later SS Finback was unsuccessfully chased by several DDs.

Also PG Charelston slipped beneath the waves. The rest of the Aleutian convoy was saved by bad weather today. The Allies did not fly a strike from Adak though the runway was surely open. They did however send in more PBYs although I am not sure what they are transporting. Enemy AV is slightly down so they could be evacuating cadres although that could also by a result of the bombardments.

On the ground the Australian BF in the desert near Wyndham finally surrendered. The troop stack at Daly Waters does not show any signs of wanting to retreat. Once the supply level of the lead units is a bit better (some of the units are slightly in the red) I'll attack.

The Dutch also suffered another setback with the surrender of Padang. Their only two remaining bases are now deep behind the lines.

A first bombardment attack at Lashio revealed lots of Chinese divisions, an AA regiment, three base forces and a British brigade holding the base. They do have a AV of 1050 but only 27 guns among them which is not exactly a sign of a supply surplus. 3 Divisions and assorted engineer, tank and artillery units (1577 AV) should therefore be enough. They'll probably bombard for a few days first though to see if they can cause even more gun losses.

[Rainer79]

March 21st, 1942:

Not much to report. The Allies have apparently pulled back their strike aircraft while bad weather all over the map forces keeps most of IJAAF grounded.

Near Adak SS Finback was attacked twice but the depth charges only did minor damage. The American convoy is back under Allied aircover but not before AP Henderson went down killing some more Canadian soldiers.

A bombardment attack at Lashio caused nearly 1000 casualties. I am not yet sure whether after the base is taken I will pursue the British and Chinese troops into the jungle or not.

Current naval losses:
Allies: BB Tennessee, 1 CA, 2 CL, 7 DD, 1 DMS, 5 AVD, 21 MSW, 4 ML, 1 PG, 1 PC, 8 SS, 18 PT, 1 AO, 13 AP, 34 AK, 3 TK, 1 AD
Japan: 1 DD, 3 MSW, 1 PC, 2 SS, 8 AP, 2 AK