War across the Atlantic - Smeulders (Allies) vs. SqzMyLemon (Japan)

[Smeulders]

2-3 January 1942

Malaya
One brigade reached Kuala Lumpur, but the second will be abandoned to the North. The danger of getting cut off again further to the South is too great if we stay any longer.

PI
On the 2nd Japanese forces entered Clark and shocked on the 3rd, just in time for the complete Manilla force to arrive. The attack came off as a 1-2, causing 6500 Japanese casualties to 1200. Around 300 AV of the Japanese became disabled, but the allies lost more squads. The troops will now retreat to Bataan were a further 750 AV and level 4 forts await for a siege.

DEI
The landings at Kuching went ahead against little opposition. 2 BB and 2 CA are too much for me to risk a cruiser force against. On the ground 2 SNLF and a naval guard unit had no problem taking the base on the 3rd.

China
Battles around Nanchang will be reaching their high point soon.

1) A sideshow, a recon regiment shock attacked two Chinese corps during a river crossing. Once the news of this folly reached the Chinese corps commanders they order an all out assault and the recce unit was promptly chased to the other bank again, but not without losing a large part of it's strength.
2) Here 2 Chinese corps numbering some 400 AV were ordered to tie up the Japanese, but were pushed back with heavy losses, painfull as this means the 750 AV worth of Japanese will be used to fight my main stack.
3) Some 1300 AV is trying to get out of the encirclement here. With 750 AV to the South and who know what else to the North they will have a hard time breaking through.

Sub wars
KXVII was the hero these two days. On the 2nd she hit DD Nowazaki and finished her of on the 3rd. For an encore, she went on to hit a large xAK in the Kuching invasion force.
O20 sank a PB south of Cam Ranh Bay
Proving that not only the Dutch can get a hit, Thresher put a torp in an xAP of Formosa.
Gudgeon runs into a SCTF consisiting of a CA and 5 or so DD South of Japan. No hits, but solid recon.
Honorable mention for Pickerel, who hit a DMS and TB at San Fernando, but was plagued by duds.

[Smeulders]

SoPac
In SoPac I'm getting the feeling that KB is out raiding. Reason one is that my opponent said as much. This may of course be intimidation, but it does make sense. Right now, KB needs to be out fighting and covering the rapid advance, however it hasn't shown up around PI/DEI and no advance around NG/SoPac has been made, even though KB was closeby in Truk. A last clue is this.


A TF, Southeast of Truk. It wasn't spotted by SigInt or nearby subs, one explanation for the visisbility (high detection level) is launching planes. Around the Gilberts, some s-boats (my only subs in the area) are making a picket line to see if they get spotted by air search. Air Search from Suva to points further West is pretty tight, but there is a huge hole around Noumea. Some AMc are sent out to these waters as advance warning. If it's a raid, I'm faily confident I can come trough without major convoys getting hit. The most high value targets are Lexington escorting a convoy and some TK convoys around NZ.

[Smeulders]

4 Jan 1942

SoPac
More indications that KB is on the move, the NZ detachment on Ocean Island spotted 4 aircraft in the skies over the Island, one of which was a dive bomber.  I'm already rerouting convoys that were heading to Suva and Pago. The one thing that I am fearing is that this isn't a raid, but rather an invasion of either Fiji or Pago. This would explain the long time KB stayed idle at Truk (waiting for the invasion force). Defences at both islands are pretty weak. Fiji only has the NZ brigade, a RNZAF and USAAF BF and 3 artillery units for a total of 150 AV. Pago is a bit better with elements of the 8th marine regiment, 7th defense and Samoan marine batallions. Still only about 150 AV, but better quality and CD guns. Part of the 8th was still on ships which have departed, leaving Pago short on support squads, but if it's a raid that doesn't matter, if it's an invasion I'd rather save part of the 8th.

China
In China two battles in the Kaifeng area result in heavy losses to the Chinese. It's time to bring the troops back in this area to defend Chengchow and Loyang.

Burma
An high altitude oscar sweeps catches the lower flying AVG for 5-0 casualties, not the sort of thing that's supposed to happen.

Subs
Near Hainan, SS Sailfish gets an AO in it's sights, but the torpedoes fail to go off.

[Smeulders]

5-7 Jan 1942

Malaya
The retreat in Malaya is getting bloody. On the 7th the troops in Kuala Lumpur where defeated and retreated towards Singapore with heavy casualties. The retreat direction was nice, they should now make it to Singapore, but in what state is hard tell, not a good one I fear.

Burma
Staying near the Commonwealth fronts, fighting is slowly starting up in Burma. Oscars swept Rangoon again, but higher CAP evened the losses at 1-1. While the fighters were playing over Rangoon, my opponent tried to sneak in bomber raids over ground units on the road from Pegu. Leaking CAP from the Tongou buffaloes did account for a couple of lilies.

DEI
Not much happening here, the mini-KB is entering the area again, it is sighted off the NE coast of Borneo.

PI
Bombing going on at Clark, but losses are low. I'm still retreating to Bataan though, most units have been prepping for that location.

Landings at smaller islands have begun, my PT flotillas are looking for targets, but aren't finding any.

Pacific
Nauru and Ocean Island were taken on the 8th against little to no opposition. One of the landings was protected with a BB and 2 CA, I just haven't the forces to compete with that. I still think KB is in the area somewhere, but no sightings yet though.

China
I'm stringing defeats together here. My stack breaking out South of Nanching has been blocked by 3 divisions. That's an AV parity against my inferior Chinese troops. Let's hope they at least retreat in the right direction. This has given me the opportunity to throw 600 AV at a now nearly empty Nanching (1 unit), I'll take the chance.

Irritating little detail here, apparently the garrison requirements aren't updated when patching, meaning my opponent has a lot more free units here than I thought. I know of at least 7 divisions conducting offensive operations, 3 around Nanchang, 3 around Loyan/Chengchow and one around Sinyang and that's after the mauling of division at Ichang. That's one hell of a challenge to stop that right there and I'm losing quite a number of troops needlessly because I'm too slow to retreat. (And now I'm even starting a counterattack at Nanchang, what am I thinking?)

Subs
A dutch sub damages an xAK at Kuching


POW
POW arrive in Colombo today. She'll stay here a couple of weeks, until raids on Ceylon become feasible, then she'll go on to CT for final repairs.

[Smeulders]

Disregard, double post.

Now that I'm making this post, I might as well ask for any questions.

[khyberbill]

Khyberbill's law for retreats is that if it is your own troops retreating, they will retreat to the least desirable hex. If it is the enemy that is retreating, they will retreat to the most beneficial hex to them. This is an immutable law. That being said, good luck! As for garrison requirements, your opponent may be just taking the VP hit in order to bag some more Chinese Corps'. Have you asked him?

[Smeulders]

Not quite sure, even though the game has been patched to 2, garrison requirements from patch 1 are in place (these don't get updated). Maybe it's possible to free up that number off combat troops under the old garrison values ? Anyone who knows what these were pre-patch ? In any case he'll have to send some units to garrison Wenchow that he took last turn, even though it's only 50 AV.

As far as I know, retreats are always towards the nearest allied base. As all bases to East are now taken, so the retreat should go to Chinese lines.

[Smeulders]

8 January 42'

Some computer trouble on my end stopped our game for a couple of days, but we should be back in action now.

Malaya
Grrrr ...., forgot to get my units in the peninsula moving again after the defeat at Kuala Lumpur. Many units are disorganized and constant air bombardment will make sure my units get caught anyway though. The situation here is bad now, I don't now how long Singapore will be able to hold when my opponent arrives there.

Burma
No ground action here yet, but the IJA keeps bombing troops at Pegu and Rangoon. In a couple of days I'll have 2 hurricane and an AVG squadron though.

PI
A Japanese shock assault at Clark Field is barely held with heavy casualties for the defenders

My opponent landed at Leyte today, just where a PT TF was hiding. Now the poor guys are caught in harbour with a BB, 2 CL and 4 DD lurking just outside. The base will probably fall tomorrow.

DEI
An air raid of the Dutch bombers from Singkawang put a 300kg bomb in an xAK docked in Kuching, keeps him honest.

China
In the morning 3 Chinese corps appeared at Nanchang from the West. They swarmed over the river and before the day was out the Kyuko Naval Guard defending the city were routed.

South of the city the city is more grim though. My units evacuating from the coastal region are checked by some 1700 AV, for some reason my opponent limits himself to bombardments though, I'm hoping my units manage to escape West before that changes.

Subs
A flurry of activity, but without much success.
- S-40 gets attacked by a DD, but doesn't take damage
- Spearfish gets a hit on a merchant, it's a dud.
- Saury keeps attacks a convoy in the Philippine sea, but no hits either side
- Argonaut finds a resupply convoy at Wake Island, but is depth charged for his troubles.

[Smeulders]

9 January 42'

As you can see, we've managed to get our game going again. All in all not a bad day for me, but the situation in the PI is getting dangerous.

Malaya
The RAF had a field day here. LRCAP was put up over my retreating troops and wave after wave of bombers were shot up by the buffaloes. Tracker puts it at 23 kills, the losses screen give me 15 nells, 7 betties and 3 sallies. Escorts, don't leave home without them.

PI
The Japanese keep throwing wave after wave of men at the allied lines, and it's crumbling. The second day of attacks again comes in as 1-1, but barely. I'd kill for the option to choose my withdrawal direction now, if they go to Manilla Luzon will fall soon.
Japanese troops also landed at Altimonan, no biggie if I get to Bataan.

DEI
Not much happened here, tomorrow an RN task force will pay a visit to Kuching were two small TF remain, but the heavy surface escorts seems to have left. Bombers from Singkawang will fly again in support of the action, while the Dutch fighters will give LRCAP in case of nells operating from Malaya/Indochina



In the Eastern DEI an 8 ship TF is seen off Manado, probably the Ternate invasion TF.

If anyone has any questions or suggestions (I'm sure there are few people out there who can't give me useful pointers), feel free.

[Smeulders]

10 January 42'

Most fronts have been pretty quit on the 10th, some bombing raids over Malaya and a small naval battle between PT-boats and cruisers that ended on double zero. Gives me some time to get into the China situation.
China


The map might be pretty chaotic, but it's a good overview of the China situation.
Around Nanchang the battle was finished by a shock attack of the Japanese. It was a complete slaughter, 750 Chinese squads destroyed with hardly any damage to the attackers. As a follow-up, my opponent is sending his forces to reconquer Nanchang. There is no way the forces there will hold, so they'll start a retreat next turn. (Should have done this already, now my opponent has a one day head-start.

In the North, the attack on the double cities of Chenghow and Loyang. I'll abandon Chengchow and will get about 2000 AV behind level 2 forts in Loyang. I'm hoping this will be enough for a while. Forces from Sinyang have also started on the road to Nanyang, here I can get another 2000 AV together.

There is another 1500 AV in this area around Sian and than the forces around Yenan another 1000 AV, but these are the only other troops I have in the area. This area seems pretty hard to get troops into for the Chinese.

DEI
Nothing happened here, but that's the strange thing. The raid on Kuching should have gone in, but the ships hardly moved. I've set the threat tolerance to absolute for next turn and will see if they go in now. This shouldn't have been the problem though, a surface force with the direct orders to move to a hostile port should go in, unless enemy opposition is very high and it simply isn't. All I'm seeing now is a small 2 ship TF and no enemy airports in range. Anyone else had this problem ?

PI
Disruption takes it's toll on attacking Japanese forces at Clark, today the attack comes in at 1-3, a nice respite.

Subs
A long list of attacks from both sides.
4 Japanese ASW attacks end in moderate damage to an S-37
2 dud attacks, one by Snapper and one by an S-37 on a CL, bad luck.
KX misses a shot on a DD
The dutch held the honour of the Allied Silent Service high, 020 sank an xAKL and KXVI takes down a DMS.

[Blackhorse]

PI
The Japanese keep throwing wave after wave of men at the allied lines, and it's crumbling. The second day of attacks again comes in as 1-1, but barely. I'd kill for the option to choose my withdrawal direction now, if they go to Manilla Luzon will fall soon.
Japanese troops also landed at Altimonan, no biggie if I get to Bataan.

If you have moved USAFFE HQs to Bataan, then your units are likely to retreat towards Bataan.

[Fishbed]

DEI
Nothing happened here, but that's the strange thing. The raid on Kuching should have gone in, but the ships hardly moved. I've set the threat tolerance to absolute for next turn and will see if they go in now. This shouldn't have been the problem though, a surface force with the direct orders to move to a hostile port should go in, unless enemy opposition is very high and it simply isn't. All I'm seeing now is a small 2 ship TF and no enemy airports in range. Anyone else had this problem ?

Yes, sometimes in my Guadalcanal game, ships with "retirement allowed" setting would just sit there several turns in a row if I didn't move them closer from their objective. setting waypoints instead may help (but it was just not possible for me, as they were in a bombardment mission, and I needed the last hex to be the enemy base.

Nearly ruined one of my plans, it's too bad this has not been addressed yet... [:(]

[Smeulders]

Blackhorse: So units are more likely to retreat in the direction of their HQ's, interesting information, thanks. Unfortunately only the Asiatic fleet HQ is in Bataan already, the others are with the troops. Shouldn't be a problem anymore though, the 11th only brought a bombardement and on the 12th or 13th the troops should reach the Bataan hex, so they're probably home safe.

Fishbed: The absolute threat tolerance does seem to have worked, the cruiser force went in today. I'll have to wait for the turn for results though, the fact that there even was a battle seems to have been lost in the FOW. (Got a message that 'TF XXX met an enemy TF at Kuching, but no combat replay or report)

[Smeulders]

11-12 January 42'

DEI
The attack on Kuching went in, but I doubt there was any combat. No ships are reported sunk and recon again indicates 2 ships in the hex, most likely ASW forces. The attack did lead to a rare sighting of a Japanese sub, of Singkawang I-165 launched torpedoes at an escorting DD, but missed and got 2 DC hits in return.

Banshees of the ABDA command made their presence known by attacking a DD/TB TF that for some reason raced through the Makassar straights. Rain prevented any hits. American cruisers sortied from Makassar into the straights to stop the retreat, but there was no combat on the 12th. Once I get the turn I'll see if I can still find the TF.

Of Ternate a battle between subs and DD started on the 11th, leading to a couple of ASW attacks. The invasion only started on the 12th.

Clean up of Northern Borneo is now complete with Beaufort falling on the 11th.

PI
Skirmishes between PT boats and hunting CL, but neither side manages to hit anything.

The evacuation of Clark into Bataan was completed on the 12th.

Burma
Skirmishes over Pegu between Oscars and AVG, 2 Oscars reported destroyed over the two days. I got a bit lucky here as both actions were leaky CAP with only 6 AVG fighters operating from either Tongou or Rangoon.

Pacific
An atoll in the Gillberts falls.

Subs
A large number of attacks around Ternate, the ASW screens seem to thick to breach. KX, KIX and Pike are hit.
019 is hit by ASW off Kuching
Spearfish ventures to close to ASW forces of Babeldaob and is attacked.
Snapper twice hits large xAK deep in the Philippine sea, but the torpedoes fail to detonate.
Finally, the most disappointing attack. South of Guam, Saury managed to hit BB Yamashiro, but faulty torpedoes again spoil the party.

[Smeulders]

13 January 42'

It took quite a search, but it seems this AAR was still alive somewhere down on the second page. To those who are following this, apologies for the delay, but computer problems over at Lemon's end have troubled the game a bit over the last week.

Burma
Some light air battles here, buffaloes capped our forces north of Malacca again and shot down another 2 betties that are still forced to fly here without escort. It was a nice reminder of what low morale can do to a unit, after the first hit half the bomber force turned back, one other downed betty later and the rest of the force was on it's way back to Indochina. Unfortunately, the buffaloes also leaked to Singapore, where 2 of them were shot down against sweeped oscars.

PI
After all mobile troops had left Clark, the Subic bay defenses were easily defeated by the Japanese forces, the siege of Bataan will probably start in 3 or 4 days. In the meantime, Manilla has been an open city for some time, someone forgto to tell the Japanese air commander though, zeroes are still sweeping the sky. The pilots have their fun and are delighting the Japanese symphatizers with air acrobatics, the rest of the city isn't that happy though.

DEI
Unsurprisingly, Ternate fell today, another case of overwhelming force.
We did strike back a bit here, 2 B-17 squadrons flew from Singapore against the oil fields at Miri and scored 2 hits on the oil fields there. At the very least that will cost him some supplies. A question for any of the Japan players reading this, does Miri usually get's maxed out on oil production or is it kept at the 150 level ?

Subs
Only one sub attack, KXIII had the Mutsu in it's croshairs a couple of hexes of Kuching, but missed, a bitter disapointment.

This does tell me that my opponent is moving his BB around a lot on rather routine missions, this one was escorting xAK. That's a lot of fuel he's burning and it's also getting his BB in the croshairs of my subs a lot, one of these days I must get lucky.

[Smeulders]

14 January 42'

Little action today on most fronts, mainly some  land battle

PI
Leyte is taken today, PT boats still hanging around the PI will try to get in a revenge strike against 2 AK sighted off the coast.

On Mindanao one part of the separated forces is attacked and destroyed. Two stack without much fight in them remain.

China
An abandoned Chengchow was taken by the Japanese, they held a victory parade as they entered the city. To the North, the citizens of Loyang help the Chinese forces dig trenches. 2000 AV behind level 3 forts will try to hold off the Japanese onslaught.

South of these city, the 89th corps already gave an example of Chinese stuborness. Reduced to but 2 working 75 mm guns, they refuse to surrender (I wish they would actually)

Burma
The forces encircled in the North of the peninsula are attacked, suffer heavy casualties, but remain standing for at least one more day.

B-17 again flew from Singapore airfields, this time against Saigon. Nates on CAP did manage to damage some of the bombers and no hits were registered on the repair yards.

Subs
Narwhal hit a DD just of Truk, but it was a dud.

Some good news on this front is that Trusty is being topped off at Colombo to start it's first patrol and 3 more O-class boats come online for the Dutch. These are all nice medium ranged boats with functioning torpedoes, let's see what they do.

[Smeulders]

15 January 42'

Wow, even though we're back on schedule it seems hard to keep the thread on the first page. Seems like a lot of interesting AAR out there, I do hope that you're all still following this one though [;)].

First a question to the readers, I've been thinking about sending the Hermes to patrol West of Sumatra/Java to hopefully surprise an invasion fleet. The Hermes of course isn't much of a weapon once any air opposition comes in, but my opponent seems a bit lax in utilizing his LBA (no CAP over Kuantan invasion and Miri) He also doesn't seem interested in using his carriers in the DEI. (Only one short sighting after the initial deployment of mini-KB). If kept well out of range untill it goes in for the strike, it may just do some damage and scare my opponent a bit. Any thoughts about this from you ?

Rounding up the lost boys
A sad tale is unfolding on many fronts at once, defeated and cut of forces are being eliminated on all fronts by the forces of Lemon.
- In Northern Borneo the 108th RN base force surrenders
- The surrounded 8th Bde surrenders in Malaya
- On Mindanao, the Japanese shock attack one of the two remaining outposts, it will fall tomorrow

Maybe the PT boats off the PI fall under this heading as well, 1 MTB and 2 PT boats escaped to Borneo, but the other PT boats are now stuck, the shortest distance between a PI base and Borneo is now 1 hex too far. They tried to attack some transports of Leyte, but even though I got a 'combat icon' on the map, no animation or report, no torpedoes fired either.

Subs take revenge
Well, at least they're trying very hard.
Seal and Cachelot got attacked by ASW screens when trying to attack, no damage to speak off.
Saury and Grayling both have a dud on an xAK, Seadragon on a DD.
The least valuable target of the day gets the best torpedo, Tambor sinks an xAKL between Truk and Guam.

What about SoPac ?
Well, this area has fallen from view a bit as no combat is taking place, but I'm hard at work here, even though I could have been better organized if I had started earlier.

Pago Pago: The main stronghold in SoPac. One USMC regiment is now nearly completely ashore, 3 squadrons off P-39 give overhead cover (a bit low on AV support though.) The 2nd USMC regiment fill follow once it has filled out on the West Coast.

Fiji: An independent regiment and one regiment of the Americals are on their way, the rest of the Americals will follow.

Noumea: Merely a recon base at the moment, AVPs will arrive soon, I won't garrison it untill I can do so in style (1 division)

Tahiti: Is being built up as a rear area base, I don't think it will ever be seriously threatened, my opponent seems a bit too cautious for such an adventure.

If anyone has question about my positions/plans somewhere, feel free to ask.

[Smeulders]

16 January 42'

Well, the deployment of Hermes was stopped due to some mismanagement by me. POW was on it's way to Cape Town, but I figured she would still be on the map today so I could detach the escorts and send them to the North for the arriving BB and CV. Unfortunately, POW was a bit faster than expected, she left the map, which means the escorts are now making a round trip of about 50 days. This means DD had to be dispatched from Colombo and now there aren't enough left to give Hermes a proper escort. The RN is seriously lacking in DD at the start of the war and this is with me leaving the DEI cruiser force with a bare bones minimum of them.

PI
Manilla falls, it had been an open city for over a week now, so no surprise.
On Mindanao the mopping up continues, one stack surrendered, the other will do so today.

China


This map should say it all, the main battle should be at Loyang, I know he has strong forces in the area, so he will attack. The spoiling attack at Kweiteh did draw away 2 units, so this delayed the assault somewhat. The Northern battle is nothing but mopping up the Chinese units that start exposed there.

Subs
The day starts of well, with what seemed like a veritable wolf-pack attack. The Gar puts a torpedo in xAK Italy Maru, this drew the ire of a PB escort, which chased Gar. While that was going on, Cachalot closed in for a surface attack and hit the Italy maru with a 3 inch shell and a second torpedo. As a happy side effect, several Italian divisions surrendered in the African desert, as they heard that Italy had gone down.

Worse news came from O16, it seemed to have gotten it's torpedoes from the Americans as it failed to explode against a CL.
Narwhal had bad luck as well, after getting a dud on a DD, she nearly got a direct hit from a DC, she's returning to Pearl for repairs.

[Smeulders]

17 January 42'

A pretty short update today, as there wasn't much happening

PI
Air bombardments commence over Bataan, enemy forces haven't reached the hex yet.
On Mindanao some troops retreat, lengthening the battle somewhat.
AVP Heron was spotted and sunk by betties when it tried to relocate.

China
An empty Nanchang is retaken by the Japanese, this probably concludes the fighting in that area for now.

Over Changsa the AVG wins 2-0 against sweeping Nates.

Subs & Recon
Spearfish gets hit by a DC Southeast of Formosa and has to retire.
Near Truk one of my subs spots a heavy SCTF. The ports at Babeldaob and Truk seem to be filling up, so I'm expecting invasions to start again in the DEI and the first forays into the Solomons.

 

[khyberbill]

You will find that Loyang can also be hard to hold and easy to be surrounded if Lemon wants it. After that, I suspect you will be able to hold the line.