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

[Smeulders]

25-26 February 42'

DEI

The Western DEI has gone silent once again after the fall of Palembang, Japanese troops are advancing both in Northern and Southern Sumatra to regain contact.

Ambon is subjected to some good sized air strikes that will soon knock out the airfield, SigInt reports TF approaching from the direction of Babeldaob, an invasion in this area seems imminent. The American cruiser force is nearby and may engage when opportunities arise.

PI
Bataan is subjected to a deliberate attack by the Japanese on the 25th. Again the forts hold, with heavy losses for the Japanese, but I wonder how much longer Bataan will hold. Luckily, the end of the fighting on the 26th lowered the supply required for my units, meaning supplies in the base have risen again to around 1000. I'm not sure what would have happened exactly if another attack had been launched on the 26th (or even if the Japanese forces were in any state to do so), but my back was against the wall after the two assaults. Now I'll probably get some time to breathe as the Japanese forces reorganize.

Looking through the thread I see that on the 14th (game date) I posted I had less than a week's worth of supplies left, showing how variable supply use can be in situations such as these. At the time I was losing about 1000 supplies a day, but over the past 2 weeks the average was about 500 and it's even lower the past few days. A good part of this is the fact that losses to LCUs have lowered supply needed and that losses also mean that the LCUs will return some of the supply they have to the base.

China
Here the situation is calming down rapidly. The experiences at Bataan have made Lemon reconsider sieging Chinese cities and he has retreated from the areas around Sian and Changsha. In the North Yenan fell, but my troops forced open the escape route towards Sian by routing a tank regiment.

Burma
Little contact, I keep retreating in front of his units. By taking Taung Gyi he did enter the range of my Blenheims who will be paying his spearhead the occasional visit from now on.

Subs
KXII is attacked by ASW near Palembang, no direct hits though and later in the day she attacks and hits xAK Zyuyo Maru in retaliation.

[Smeulders]

27-28 February 42'

DEI
The intensity of air attacks has gone up all around the DEI. Aerial attacks have been carried out from Medan in the West, over Batavia, to Makassar and Kendari and finally Ambon in the East. As mentioned during the last post Ambon gets special attention, the invasion fleets are seen approaching under the cover of KB. A good sized bunch of subs is ordered to intercept.

SW off Palembang the ex-defenders are caught by a shock attack of pursuing Japanese crossing the river. This decimates the formations, there is basically no combat power left in Souther Sumatra except for a small garrison at Oosthaven.

Subs
Sargo puts a dud in a SC operating SW of Formosa.

[Smeulders]

February Overview

It seems I didn't post a map last time around, so here it is, the situation at the start of 42' and Japanese advances since then. The main highlights of the month have been the advances in the DEI and Burma, but also the relative calm that is falling over China.



Theatre by Theatre

Burma
Not much battles have happened on this front, but the Japanese are advancing here. There have been some small air battles, mainly in favour of the Allies.

China
At the start of the month it seemed like the Japanese would be investing Sian and Changsha, but these forces have pulled back as the cities were reinforced. Some minor bases did fall into Japanese hands though.

PI
Bataan still holds, but for how long ? The assaults on the stronghold have been costly for the Japanese though.

Malaya
This campaign has been finished with the swift fall of Singapore on the 13th.

DEI
The Japanese have strengthened their hold on Borneo and are closing in on Java. Landings on Sumatra easily sweep aside opposition, but it will take some time to take all the bases. A small battle around Balikpapan costs the Japanese some shipping

SWPAC
More landings on New Guinea, the Japanese position around New Britain and the Solomons is strengthened

SOPAC
Further clean up in the Gilberts

[Smeulders]

Shipping losses




This Month[blockquote][blockquote]Japan          Allies
[/blockquote][/blockquote]CL               1                0
DMS            2                0
CM              0                1
AK/...          7                0
PB/E/ML       5               10 (Mainly ML in Singapore)

Ship losses weren't too bad this month on both sides, although the toll in merchants is probably higher for the Japanese due to non-confirmed sub kills.
[blockquote][blockquote]
[/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Smeulders]

Air Losses


This Month
[blockquote][blockquote][blockquote]Japan               Allies
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]Total                   185                  69
Air                        29                  30
Flak                      30                    0
Ground                   0                    4
Ops                     126                  35

Ops Losses stay the true killer in the air war, A2A consisted of some small skirmishes. Interesting fact, the 15 planes with the most operational losses are all in the Japanese camp, but the Buffalo remains the most often destroyed plane even though it hardly saw action this month.

[Smeulders]

1 March 42'

Burma
Again little action, but the Japanese have arrived in Meiktila, it's only held by a Burmese battalion to get a one day delay.

DEI
The landing at Ambon has begone and it doesn't look like the battle will last long. One heavily escorted (BB + 4 CA) and a second lightly escorted convoy dropped off around 400 AV worth of naval guard units. To top this off, full KB is providing cover from the North. The only positive not is some damage done by the CD guns, but even they were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of firepower brought forward by all the escorting ships.

On the other side of Celebes another TF is sighted, it's said to contain 5 BB and 3 CA. It's goals are rather unclear to me, a badly reconned mini-KB hoping to catch a cruiser force transferring to or from Java ? Or a SCTF escorting an invasion for Makassar ?

Finally, Medan falls to a shock attack, meaning I've got little strength left in Northern Sumatra.

Subs
The invasion at Ambon today wasn't exactly a surprise, so many subs were in a position to intercept the inbound Japanese.

First attack (Dutch sub) was caught by the escort screen, little damage to the sub
KIX gets off a shot at CL Kiso, but misses
Gudgeon hits DMS W-17, likely sunk, the Japanese DMS do seem to be cursed.
KVIII fails to penetrate the escort screen, the DCs do little damage.

[Smeulders]

2 March 42'

DEI
A bunch of invasions these days in the Eastern DEI


Both of the front line landings are covered with strong surface forces, the retreat of the KB is surprising, but opposing either of the landings with surface forces remains dangerous. I don't have the surface ships to oppose his groups head on and KB can return at any moment.

At Ambon the BB and CA were detached from the invasion fleets, which gave the CD guns a couple of good shots at escorting AMC, 2 of which my opponent claims are sunk. The inclusion of large surface combatants in invasion fleets does do a lot to suppress CD guns, good to know for later. The base did fall however.

Burma
Meiktila falls to the Japanese spearhead, a Burmese battalion surrenders. The main force is still retreating in good order.

[Smeulders]

3-5 March 42'

DEI
A cruiser force was dispatched to strike against shipping in port at recently captured Madjene, but the TF commander thought shelling the troops ashore was a better plan. Some 200 casualties were inflicted.

Burma
The retreat continues, but in the air the British are starting to strike back a bit. Meiktila is bombed by some 50 Blenheims for some light damage to the IAJ forces, but more importantly, this slows down the pursuit.

New Guinea
As there was lots of shipping in the Port Moresby area, a Marine vindicator squadron is brought in. On the 4th they strike successfully at shipping around Buna, heavily damaging about 4 xAK of which some will probably sink, a zero on leaking CAP is also shot down by escorting P-40E.  The cost is 4 vindicators. On the 5th a SCTF is attacked, but the vindicators fail to score any hits and the combination of CAP and flak take down 6 of them, in return for another zero.

Subs
- In the wake of the Ambon landings Gudgeon launches a dud at a heavily damaged xAK Lyons Maru. It are busy days for this ship, as she also misses when attacking a DD and is attacked the next day by a SC.
- Sargo attacks the small xAKL Ayaha Maru on the surface in the South Chinese sea, but fails to do serious damage before running out of shells.
- The Dutch don't fare any better O19 misses a small PB off Tarakan
- Only the British get lucky these days, Trusty hits xAK Shinsei Maru, the kill is confirmed by my opponent and marks the first successful encounter for a British sub.
- xAK Lullworth Hill is torpedoed just off Colombo,but she manages to return to port for repairs.

[Smeulders]

6-8 March 42'

DEI
As a follow up to the failed bombardment attack at Madjene Dutch bombers flew to bomb the port, but the squadron was nearly completely destroyed by zeroes on CAP.

Bataan
Bataan was the scene of the bloodiest battles these last 3 days. Bombardements resumed on the 6th and back to back deliberate attacks were launched on the 7th and 8th. The first attack managed to reduce the fortifications to 3, but the second attack failed at 1-3 odds and caused heavy losses to the Japanese.

Invasion forces are again spotted on the 8th, they are coming from the direction of Palembang, Java goes into red alert.

Burma
Mandalay fell on the 8th, it was only defended by a small battalion. His spearhead has been reduced to but a regiment, he probably knows I'm not too keen on fighting him in Burma.

Subs
KX misses a PB in the Makassar straight
KXIV tries to engage a convoy containing tankers East of Borneo, but is spotted by the escort screen
A SC engages Gudgeon near Ambon
O19 misses a SC near Tarakan
S-34 ends the string of failures of allied subs by torpedoing PB Nagata Maru near New Britain, when the rest of the convoy moves off she finishes the cripple with another two torpedoes.
O24 is spotted by DDs, they are in a TF containing at least a BB. Later in the day the O24 engages the same TF again, but this time she misses.

[Smeulders]

9-12 March 42'

DEI
A invasion fleet was seen sailing on the 8th, but even though I was expecting the Java invasion, it turned out to be headed for Billiton. The base fell easily on the 10th.

Java did get it's share of attention though, large IJA formations keep bombing Batavia, on the 9th I sent in 2 squadrons of buffaloes to try and put an end to that. This also happened to be the day that zeroes swept before the raid, resulting in a slaughter. The 2 squadrons had only 1 functional plane between them at the end of the day, 7 were shot down for 1 zero killed.

The most impressive attack on Java was a bombardment with 2 BB and 2 CA against Kalidjati though, the PT in port there didn't come out to play and so were blasted at their anchorages, together with heavy damage to a squadron of recon and bombers stationed there. The ground forces counted about 500 casualties, all for no hits on the BB, the hex will be mined. To add insult to injury 6 swordfish and 12 vildebeest made their way through the CAP escorted by dutch fighters, but failed to score any hits.

On Palembang Oosthaven falls, only 1 base left in the South, the battle in the North is a rout.

China
China brings some good news, the AVG wins some skirmishes against Tojo's, downing about 5 for 1 lost.

SWPac
PM is bombed by some DD again, subs in the way aren't very effective.

[Nemo121]

What's your general plan? Are you planning counter-thrusts or building up significant bases with a view to holding them in the face of Japanese assault or is it just a case of waiting until he outruns his logistical preparations?

[Smeulders]

Hey Nemo,

Having read some parts of you AAR, I think I will have to disappoint there are no risky manoeuvres planned at the moment. This is my first PBEM in either AE or WITP, so I'm playing a very conservative game to get to know it. I also like to play rather historical so I will not risk large formations on very dangerous missions, so that pretty much rules out any strategical counter-attacks for the moment, everything you land on a forward Island is likely going to end up in a POW camp.



This map is a rough outline of what I will be trying to defend. It's not a very ambitious line, but it is a line that I can defend properly and will take a very large effort to break. You will also note that there are several areas just before my chosen line that will be very dangerous for my opponent to take, as it would bring him in a very exposed position. (N Oz, Luganville area, Midway, ..). Once I am firmly entrenched in my position and have some reserves ready, I should be able to move forward into those areas quite easily.

[Nemo121]

*chuckle* It might surprise you to know Smeulders that I don't generally think I do things which are gambles. Risk, yes but gamble no.


It is a good line but I suggest that if you don't hold the islands to the north-east of Noumea then there's no point holding Noumea. I think that they are so close together that you either have to hold them all or it isn't worth holding any of them.

[khyberbill]

It is a good plan Bart. One of the keys is the end of the line in China. You produce some fuel there that will allow some of your cities to make some supply. Even though you lost Yenan (sp?) try and hold the rest there, drawing from Sian or even Changsa. I would rather lose Changsa then the fuel.

[Smeulders]

Nemo: That only depends on how you define "a gamble", I'm not saying you are trying bad moves on the off chance that they work and win you the game, but you certainly make a lot more risky moves than the average player. I don't totally agree with your stance on the islands there, I will of course take them with small garrisons as those become available, but they are within 4E range from both Noumea and Fiji. Even if the Japanese take them I should be able to neutralize them, the other way around with them neutralizing Noumea seems a bit harder.

Bill: The siege at Bataan is making my opponent very wary of further sieges, especially against the large stacks the Chinese can have. He has retreated from my major centres in China, so Sian shouldn't be in any danger. It should also have enough troops to hold the city against anything but the most massive attacks.

[Smeulders]

13-17 March 42'

DEI
A lot more action to suppress the airfields on Java. Attention has shifted from Batavia to Bandoeng, from where my TB were operating, but with bombardments of some other bases thrown in.

On the 15th Betties launched a strike against a British Cruiser TF (3 CL, 3 DD) South of Java, but no hits were scored.

The 17th saw the beginning of the Java invasion, strong SCTF and a part of KB were seen approaching the Island and transports won't be far behind. Some Dutch bombers sortied, but failed to get any hits and it's escorts lost a number of planes to a small zero CAP. A maximum effort to disrupt the landings has been ordered for the 18th (this will get a separate post). Interesting is that KB has been split into two almost equal groups, one is moving in the area around Ambon, the other is near Billiton. This second group may be covering an invasion of Kendari, which has been bombed over the past few days as well.

China
A small group of mainly BF has been encircled South of Changsha and will probably be lost. I'm abandoning some bases in the Southwest.

PI
The fall of Bataan is now imminent, attacks starting on the 15th knocked the forts down to 1 and inflicted heavy casualties on the defenders. They do appear to be running out of steam as no headway was made on the 17th, though casualties are still favouring the Japanese.

Subs
Starting to get pitiful, the fleet subs have duds and the other subs can't seem to hit. The number of contacts around Japan is down as well.

[Smeulders]

The following map shows the movements of the 3 Cruiser forces I have around Java. It seems unlikely that they will be able to stand up to the enemies SCTF in a normal fight, so that not what I'm trying to do. The Brits will sortie to enter the path from Palembang to Kalidjati (which seems to be the likely target), hopefully the SCTF will have moved on and the Brits can get to a convoy. The Dutch and Americans will speed to the last known location of KB, hopefully engaging it in a night action, who knows what the outcome of that can be.



In the meantime all planes on Java are ordered to sortie. 2 Squadrons of Dutch buffaloes will give some top cover to the Dutch and American TF. The Dutch Hurricanes and P-40E will sweep over Kalidjati to try and engage any LRCAP. Then the remaining TB and Dutch bombers will come in on naval attack, escorted by the remaining Dutch fighters and the Buffaloes.

In the landing hex not many ground troops are present, but (if it is Kalidjati that is) the Batavia CD gun unit and a lot of mines are there, it also has some PT boats, who knows if they'll do any good ?

[Nemo121]

Smeulders,
I'm with Rommel... He used to say that a risk is something from which you can recover if it fails while a gamble is irredeemable should it fail.

BTW, whereabouts in Belgium are you from? I was born in Leuven.

[khyberbill]

The siege at Bataan is making my opponent very wary of further sieges, especially against the large stacks the Chinese can have. He has retreated from my major centres in China, so Sian shouldn't be in any danger. It should also have enough troops to hold the city against anything but the most massive attacks.

He might get over that experience. Sian is the front door. Yenan is the side door. The two key cities are Lanchow (where your fuel comes from and with some light industry as well) and Tienshui which sits on the road from Lanchow to Chungking. I would put some troops behind the river between Yenan and Tienshui to act as a blocking force and a trip wire. Good luck

[khyberbill]

BTW, whereabouts in Belgium are you from? I was born in Leuven.

A pretty little town. I rode through on a bicycle in 1965.