Mines in the Pacific

[EUBanana]

Quick addon as I just did the next turn - I've been trying to be as unpredictable as possible with my Indian air units, this turn I put a heavy CAP over Jamshedphur - and he chose to attack it with Sallies and an Oscar escort. End result, 7 Allied aircraft shot down, 25 Sallies shot down or crashed and a couple of Oscars shot down. Negligible damage to the base.

NICE. There are so few air battles that go my way so decisively I needed to add that to the record as a morale boost!

[EtV]

Well, moving around your air units like that is pretty gamey too, else you wouldn't be able to get results like that against Sallies and Oscars. Using the US subs at all is pretty gamey too considering how overrated they are in game, so I think you will just have to live with those paradrops.

[EUBanana]

Obvious trolling. [;)]

May 1st 1942

BURMA/INDIA
Situation on the ground in India hasn't changed much aside from my clearing away his paras with my armour, as anticipated.

In the air it's generally been very good. Max altitude P38 sweeps certainly work, its a shame their service ratings are so bad that half to 2/3rds of the squadron is always on the ground. I think I detect weakness in the Japanese position too, continuous casualties of the order of 5 or so planes a day is having a toll I think. The Allied fighter position on the other hand is very good, though pilot experience is a constant problem.

On May 1st a large convoy was sighted at Calcutta, so I brought up the torpedo bombers. It wasn't a good day, no leaky CAP for me, every torp bomber was shot down and the Swordfish at least are irreplaceable, though you can see that the Japanese air defence isn't anything like as powerful as it was when KB was in town, and that the Allied air force could, on a good day at least, pierce it. Oddly enough Oscars seem far superior to Zeroes right now.

I plan on having another go with Dauntlesses.

Morning Air attack on Calcutta , at 52,37

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 44 NM, estimated altitude 44,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 13



Allied aircraft
P-38E Lightning x 10


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-38E Lightning: 1 destroyed



CAP engaged:
Kanoya Ku S-1 with A6M2 Zero (0 airborne, 4 on standby, 0 scrambling)
4 plane(s) intercepting now.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 22810 , scrambling fighters to 22000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 2 minutes
3rd Ku S-1 with A6M2 Zero (0 airborne, 5 on standby, 0 scrambling)
5 plane(s) intercepting now.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 2 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 22810 , scrambling fighters to 32810.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 43 minutes
11th Sentai with Ki-43-Ic Oscar (0 airborne, 7 on standby, 0 scrambling)
7 plane(s) intercepting now.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 3 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 38500 , scrambling fighters between 38000 and 38500.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 2 minutes
77th Sentai Det A with Ki-43-Ic Oscar (0 airborne, 2 on standby, 0 scrambling)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 38500 , scrambling fighters to 38000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 1 minutes

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Calcutta at 52,37

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 26 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 10
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 4
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 19



Allied aircraft
Albacore I x 4
Mohawk IV x 10
Swordfish I x 5
P-40E Warhawk x 18


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Albacore I: 2 destroyed
Mohawk IV: 1 destroyed
Swordfish I: 4 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 4 destroyed



CAP engaged:
Kanoya Ku S-1 with A6M2 Zero (4 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(5 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
4 plane(s) intercepting now.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 1 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 22810
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 1 minutes
3rd Ku S-1 with A6M2 Zero (1 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(5 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 4 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 22810
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 6 minutes
1st Sentai with Ki-43-Ic Oscar (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(5 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 5 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 38500
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 5 minutes
4 planes vectored on to bombers
11th Sentai with Ki-43-Ic Oscar (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(9 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 9 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 38500
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 4 minutes
64th Sentai with Ki-43-Ib Oscar (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(4 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 4 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 38500
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 3 minutes
3 planes vectored on to bombers
64th Sentai Det with Ki-43-Ic Oscar (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(3 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 3 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 38500
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 29 minutes
3 planes vectored on to bombers
77th Sentai Det A with Ki-43-Ic Oscar (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(2 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 2 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 38500
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 23 minutes
2 planes vectored on to bombers


Almost all of Burma Corps is at Imphal where he has some major forces to bring about their surrender. Unfortunately for him my airlift to Howrah has continued without any attempt at interference on his part, so a good 50% of Burma Corps (in AV value) has been airlifted to the Indian frontlines. A major coup is that two Chinese divisions of about Bde strength have been airlifted lock stock and barrel. I'm working on the Burmese units now, a few Bns have been brought over. May is an important month too in that I'll get replacement transport aircraft so over the coming weeks my airlift capacity should actually be going up, so I may well rescue the majority of Burma Corps! One Aussie brigade moved to the rear after heavy fighting is almost ready to be sent back into the fray, and both Aussie Bdes sent up from Perth have now landed. I assume the Imperial Guard is on those ships so just in time. I've also had a couple of Indian units show up this last week and May 1942 is B25 and Blenheim IV month so some good news about my bomber shortage. His window of opportunity for Indian conquest is starting to run out I think given that in general the front lines are barely moving.

The Royal Navy is getting itchy feet with all these targets around, so I'm about to sortie my carriers (81 aircraft embarked in the TF). A single AK is en route to a point near Diamond Harbor to test the Japanese land based defences, if it survives the CVs are going in, if it gets Nettied to death (or KB'd) I will abort.

CHINA

6 divisions and 15 (!) artillery units pound the crap out of Sian, as he's finally reached it having cleared the roads. Casualties are of the order of 600 a day, so clearly Sian is going to fall eventually, and massed artillery is still extremely powerful. The rest of China is fairly quiet.
I've built up Ichang to an airfield 2 and plan on springing a cap trap on him as 50+ Anns and Maries bomb unescorted in the Sian area.

AUS/DEI
He's just invaded Koepang, not taken it yet but he will. Jap ships reported in the op report near Perth, possibly a SAG? Nothing on the map though. I have a small cruiser SAG at Perth so I round them up and let them stand ready.
CV Enterprise is down to 2 weeks fix time at Sydney, she could fight now in a pinch in fact. Her airgroups are back up to strength with the exception of Devastators, but I plan on having Enterprise get the first batch of Avengers which are due this month, so my CV strength in the Pacific will soon be up to 4.

SOPAC/CENTPAC
Heavy sub warfare this last week around SOPAC. DD Tucker was torpedoed between Noumea and Fiji and sank. However DD Ellet sank a submarine at Noumea with depth charges and APD Hatfield heavily damaged one at Luganville. The upgraded DDs are definitely making a difference, and I've suddenly realised what AGs are for as one is rushed to Noumea so the DDs can rearm their depth charges. Efate is now an airfield 5 and has all it needs to house B17s, the problem is there are no B17s. [:D] But there will be as American production starts to crank up. I've moved some EABs up to Luganville to develop that now.

The USN is almost in a fit state to sortie in force, not that i have any immediate plans to do that.

NORPAC/Home Islands
The initial happy time around Hokkaido seems to have ended, all I see now are ASW forces. S boats are staying around Hokkaido and Sakhalin due to range issues, but my longer legged fleet submarines are being moved elsewhere now, south and west of the Home Islands and into the straits north of Luzon. Maybe there'll be richer pickings there.

[EUBanana]

Bit of a WITP hiatus, busy busy, back at it now though.

May 7th 1942

BURMA/INDIA
Epic stuff, he came within a hairs breadth of taking Ranchi this week which would have unhinged the flank of the defence. An Indian division was rushed up and arrived literally to the day in time - I had 200 AV versus 600 of his, and the day before the Indians arrived the fort level was down to 1. As it is, he's still unable to break through my line.
One of my precious British brigades was mauled in the process at Ranchi but it's mostly disablements, so they've been put into the reserve and will remain at the front.

In the air things have been quite bloody. Basically whoever attacks gets slaughtered. One day he went for me and lost 25 aircraft to a couple of Allied, mostly due to high level CAP. Then I went for his shipping at Diamond Harbor and was slaughtered - basically lost almost all my irreplaceable torpedo bombers in one day of butchery. The plan was to attack with about 15-20 bombers (Beauforts, Vildebeest, Albacores) and with two full P40 squadrons escorting (50 P40s) - in the event almost only about half the fighters flew and the ones that managed to take off lost track of the bombers who went in piecemeal into the buzzsaw. Escort is sooooo unreliable in this game, you take your life in your hands whenever you order an attack.

15 Wimpeys have been night bombing every turn, every turn they destroy 1-3 aircraft. I think night bombing is too good in this game, for as far as the night air campaign is concerned "I have not yet begun to fight!".

Allied aircraft pools are showing the strain, down to about 20 P40s, forcing me to switch some squadrons to P39s. However the Airacobras have actually done better than I thought they would so I'm not too bothered yet.

1st Burma Bde is almost entirely in friendly territory now in India due to the airlift, 2nd Burma Brigade is 50% transported. Looks like my airlift is essentially successful. There will of course be serious casualties in Burma Corps regardless, plenty of defenders at Imphal holding the airfield who will collapse eventually. But it wasn't total annihilation.

Navally I sent in another expendable AK to probe for the presence of enemy CVs, it didn't make it though as a submarine torped it en route. Allied subs are very thick on the ground in the Bay of Bengal but there have been no successes yet. There is IJN traffic in the area though, guess it's just a matter of time. The RN is still holed up at

So, plenty going on, even though the front lines havn't moved. They've only not moved through herculean effort. [;)]

CHINA
Stalemated still, plenty of shelling at Sian,it's going to take a long time to wear it down though.

SOPAC/AUS
25 B17s have been trying to pressure Lunga frmo Efate but their performance is, frankly, poor. He has a dozen Zeroes there and they seem more than able to fend off the B17s, who score almost no hits and are always shot up very badly by the Zeroes. The mythic unstoppable heavy bomber has yet to arrive in this campaign.
I've been moving EABs up to Luganville to get medium bombers involved, and when the B17s are fixed (it'll take a while) I'll be using night bombing instead I think.
CV Enterprise will be available within 2 weeks at Sydney, and that includes being fitted out with Avengers. So we'll soon have 4 USN CVs ready and willing and able.

CENTPAC
USN is mostly upgraded. I'm not planning adventurism here though so things are dull still. 850 AV at Pearl Harbor and a lot of it is Pacific Ocean Areas HQ, I might distribute 200 ish of it to the various atolls, there are marine raiders and such who are for that sort of thing.

[witpqs]

What are the rough experience and skill levels of your fighters and bombers involved in these fracases? there's a lot of discussion of this in other AAR's.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

What are the rough experience and skill levels of your fighters and bombers involved in these fracases? there's a lot of discussion of this in other AAR's.

The air skill of the fighters is 60 average minimum, or they aren't at the front.

Experience is pretty bad, though, probably an average of about 50. Experience doesnt' go up all that fast anymore, so they are trained, but not veteran.

The bombers are a bit better off if anything.

[EUBanana]

Computer hard drive died, only just got back into gear enough to do another AAR post. But we're still at it!

May 17th 1942

INDIA
He's got six divisions now in Bengal - three at Ranchi, three at Howrah. The defenders are a motley bunch of Indian garrison units and the Burmese evacuees and are unable to hold - I've ordered a fall back to the next defensive town at Cuttack, but the terrain is poor for defence all the way back to Cocanada, which is where I intend to make the next death or glory type siege - it's a long way, should stretch him a bit.
His assaults at Ranchi have stopped, and given me time to reinforce - three more brigades are about to arrive, which secures the northern flank I think. Two divisions are at Jamshedphur as it is, so aside from Howrah the defences are solid.

Rough ground deployments in India atm is looking like...

Patna - one Indian brigade

Jamshedhur - Indian Bde and understrength Indian Div, 300 AV

Between Jam and Ranchi - full Indian Div, British Bde, Chinese Div (Bde strength)

Ranchi - understrength Indian Div and British Bde - 200 AV. Facing 3 Japanese divisions but fought them to a standstill. [;)]
Another 2 Aus and 1 Indian Bdes a few days out to the northeast.

Howrah - about 200 AV facing 1200 AV, mostly Burmese and Chinese shattered units

Cuttack - 230 AV of Indian bits and pieces

Strategically something of a reserve is available in India. I'm in the process of moving a full strength British division from Ceylon to the mainland - the Imperial Guard in Bengal means that his Java forces must be committed there, it's time to denude Ceylon a bit. I've also got an East African colonial unit, and a couple of brigades of Aussies in R&R, and a Chinese division at Madras recovering.

In the air things are going very well in kill ratio terms, but his bombers are punishing my troops at Howrah. His pilot quality has dropped precipitously, fighter kill ratios are at about 2:1 in my favour of late but I'm unable to rally enough of them to really smash his bombers. He's talking about his issues in managing pilot quality, I'm sure he'll get things straightened out, but in the meantime Bengal is an ace farm.

Activity at sea too, and disastrous activity at that - KB raided Ceylon and did major damage, sinking Formidable, Hermes and Warspite. My own stupidity putting my ships in such an exposed place. Indomitable was bombed but extricated and is now at Bombay with the rest of the fleet, laid up. Air recon is pretty useless, a full Catalina squadron at Ceylon didn't give any warning at all - at least until the bombs were dropping. This blindness caused me to be bold with convoys off northern Australia, naval recon is extremely iffy it seems.

CHINA
Supply situation is critical, I've essentially stopped all offensive moves and let him come to me. Sian is under siege, and fort levels are slowly dropping but despite having 20 supply (?) the Chinese seem to be holding for now.

SOPAC/AUS
Japanese subs tear into my convoys north of Darwin but the enemy air are nowhere to be found. More Jap subs near Efate, but there is a solid ASW effort down here which unfortunately bears no fruit. The buildup at Noumea continues apace, we got 520 AV at Noumea and more is coming. 2 battleships are at Noumea, the US CV force is at Fiji at the moment aside from Enterprise which is a week from being fully fixed at Sydney. Allied aircraft are based at Luganville and Efate but the only activity really is recon so far.

CENTPAC
Aerial recon has been picking up the odd ghostly Japanese fleet near Palmyra - I sortied some surface ships from Pearl just in csae but they found nothing. Could be subs. Could be just about anything. Allied activity is limited to mining and distributing ACMs around the atolls.

[EUBanana]

.

[EUBanana]

May 20th 1942

It's one of those big decision moments, as Howrah has fallen. The units defending - almost entirely BURCORPS and all in a bad way, the Allied Burmese troops have had a very bad war - were pushed back towards Jamshedphur.

The Japs have three divisions at Ranchi, three divisions at Howrah, and a division between Ranchi and Jamshedhpur. Far as I know this is pretty much the entirety of his mobile units. I feel I can actually kinda hold off this force in India though not go on the offensive perhaps, now I feel free to strip much of the rear.

My choices in India seem to be...

1) Not one step back. Hold Jamshedphur and Ranchi. With the fall of Howrah, fall back to Cuttack. Problem with this is that the coastal road is poor defensive terrain, and there is a danger of Jamshedphur being encircled which could be disastrous.

2) Let Jamshedphur fall, move the troops there to Ranchi or to Cuttack. Means there'll be a wedge between my forces and moving force between what will end up as a northern front and a coastal front will be harder, but there will be no risk of encirclement for a while. Jamshedphur is a big airfield, fortified and in tough terrain though so it's quite a loss.

I'm kinda waiting to see how much importance he attaches to the coastal road, when I see where he's headed - NW from Bengal towards Delhi, or SW towards Madras - I'll have a better idea. I'm kinda hoping he heads for Madras, as I think it's far more defensible than the open terrain around Cawnpore and Patna in the north of India.


I'm trying to accelerate a Guadalcanal, and there is quite a force in SOPAC now, but the lack of Allied bombers until August 1942 means that even if I did take it it would be toothless until about September. He knows very well that things are brewing in the South Pacific as well. I suppose I could shift emphasis to the Marianas quite quickly if I wanted - Tarawa, say - but the lack of bombers suggests that I should be more focused on delaying in India than attacking where he aint at least for another month.

[EUBanana]

24rd May 1942

I have a Cunning Plan, but OPSEC forbids me from talking about it. [;)]

BURMA/INDIA
Japanese attacks on the perimeter at Imphal fail but the garrison can only last a couple more days. Engineers are doing the fighting now, the combat stuff has been evacced.
Darjeeling falls to the Allies as some miniscule 50 AV units run around each other in the idle NE.
The main event is still the Ranchi - Jamshedphur - Howrah line. 3 Japanese divisions advance from Howrah to Jamshedphur over the road but the Allies retreat in good order and without loss - no Malaya collapse. The Allies have about 900-1000 AV in Jamshedphur and it is well fortified so I'm sure it can hold for a while at least.
In the air he's being handled roughly. Allied efforts have switched to bombing the resources at Asansol for the last 4 days or so, results are good, 100 out of 600 resources destroyed. One raid was with the IAF Lysanders, next day he put up a heavy Oscar CAP but the Lysanders stayed at home and instead 25 P38s and 10 Hurricanes showed up in the stratosphere - Japanese ass was kicked, 18 to 2. His own airforce is mostly concerned with reducing Imphal, where the AA is heavy (he lost 7 out of 25 Sallies today to AA fire for example [:)]). He has a disturbing interest in Cuttack as of today with a major Zero sweep over the place.

Half a dozen Allied subs are now solidly in position and with plenty of endurance in the Bay of Bengal, I've detailed Hudson LR bombers to run naval search over the entrances to Calcutta. Gotta start work on his supplies.

CHINA
Sian fell today, very bad news, the Chinese lose 10k troops and retreat up the road. I'm going to put them in a new defensive line in the rough area NW of Sian. Elsewhere China is mostly quiet and I like that, I like that very much. I've kinda given up on China, after the strategic bombing offensive in the early war and being cut off from India these guys are screwed, it's red ! in almost every city. Strategic bombing in China is just borked.

SOPAC/AUS
Efate/Luganville/Noumea are still being built up - got over 800 AV in Noumea now and a LOT of supplies, AA guns, and engineers of all descriptions. Fuel is a weakness, only got about 15k in the South Pacific, some more is en route but it'll be a while (it came the long way, from Abadan, and is currently S of Australia).
The USN made some raids, one sweep of Lunga by a SAG based around USS Northampton sinks two APs, and a SAG based around USS Salt Lake City raid Koepang and also sink two APs. They escape without being caught.

KB was sighted in the Makassar Strait by a submarine headed SE. Time for the RN to come out and play in the Bay of Bengal? There's no shortage of RN CLs to raid with, there are 7 of them twiddling thumbs in India atm, and with useless AAA armament raiding is what they are for.


Sub war
Half a dozen Allied attacks around the Strait of Tsushima, Formosa Strait, off Palembang and around Hokkaido, but every single time - Hit but no explosion. Even the Brits and S-boats. Jap subs have been quiet lately but ASW efforts have been intensified in the hot spots which are currently around Ceylon and in SOPAC - two subs off Ceylon were reported hit by bombs.

Reinforcements/Overview
Starting to slowly pick up a bit. First B25 raid in India should happen tomorrow, and in the length of time it takes for some AKs to get from Cape Town to India, there'll be another three squadrons of B25s. Just as well, almost all the Lysanders are shot down now and I'm using Blenheims and Wellingtons exclusively in the night bombing role now for lack of reinforcements. (They are doing very well at that though!). In India the front in Bengal appears to be being held adequately while still leaving me a significant reserve force for the first time so far. Almost all of I Australian Corps has been rebased there. Thing should improve too as Burma Corps units R&R - they are shattered but plenty of disabled squads to rest and use as garrison forces, freeing up Indians. Also two Chinese corps are in India now - with plentiful supply and no shortage of Chinese infantry squads I would hope that these are usable formations in a couple of months. There are even some Americans and Canadians diverted from garrison duties on the West Coast en route now.

[EUBanana]

29th May 1942

BURMA/INDIA
On the ground not too much has changed. American artillery units at Ranchi and Jamshedphur inflict some limited damage to his besieging troops.
Been trying to lean on his airfarce the last few days and continue work on bombing Asansol. Sweeps are effective and the kill ratio in fighters is in my favour.

The main story this week has been attempt to resupply Bengal. Hudson LR searchplanes pick up activity in the Bay of Bengal, and I'm expecting a resupply run. The Allied response is to sortie four DDs (Decoy, Arrow, Nizam, Tjerke Hiddes) into the Bay of Bengal - DDs as no air support is possible and I'm expecting the DDs to be hard to hit by bombers and effective enough to shoot up ill defended AKs. Two old Caledon class cruisers also sortie behind them.

Things go wrong immediately when HMS Decoy is torpedoed by a Jap sub off Colombo and sinks.

The DDs then bounce into a Japanese CVETF and take some bombs, as well as LBA bombs from Burma. All miss. I would press the attack with the DDs in the face of this - except a strong Jap surface TF, several BBs, is reported just a few hexes away. This, combined with the heavy air presence, compels me to order the old CLs and DDs back to base - I'm prepared to risk bombs but if they are going to get greased by BBs even if they live long enough to get into gun range, there aint no point. The old slow BBs of the RN aren't going to be able to run the gauntlet of Netties so reinforcement is out of the question.

So the Commonwealth navies aren't up to the task with their capital ships wrecked or hiding at Bombay.

It falls to the airfarce to hit the landings at Calcutta. Him being no fool the Jap airforce is more than ready and waiting. One Hurri and a P38 squadron are ordered to high altitude sweeps, P40s and the bombers - Albacores that have to withdraw this week and so are being used before being lost, Hudson LRs snagged from search duties mainly intended to provide some tougher targets for the IJ fighters, and the main punch, 18 Dauntlesses and 8 Albacores - are ordered to actually attack.
The sweeps go in and are successful-ish (10 Oscars and 5 Zeroes for 6 P38s and 7 Hurris) and do put the fighters out of the sky for the morning but the smegging bombers don't launch for whatever reason and so aside from attrition, the sweeps do not help much.

In the PM phase the bombers wake up and come in to face a reinvigorated and alert CAP. Of course, it absolutely goes without saying that plenty of bombers manage to lose their fighters en route, despite care being taken to ensure the presence of HQs, the best commanders, same HQ etc ([8|]) though in truth it didn't make much odds to the outcome. The 40 odd fresh CAP is enough to waste the dozen P40s escorting and get into the Dauntlesses inflicting heavy losses. A few bombs drop, none hit. The Albacores are the unfortunates who lose their escort and are massacred, 100% losses - the inevitable and apparently unstopaable price of the usual dire coordination.

38 Allied lost, mostly bombers, to 10 Japs. No bomb hits. A bad day - the only consolation really is that there are plenty of Dauntlesses, the Albacores were withdrawing this week anyway, and his supply convoy doesn't appear to be massively huge, looks like half a dozen AKs.

[EUBanana]

Some stuff going on elsewhere aside from the main event in India.

DEI/NORPAC/Home Islands
Jap CVs are sighted off of Timor bombing Dutch remnants, presumably due to careless settings rather than him intending to use KB to trash some KNIL guys dying in the jungles. Least I know where KB is. Headed south east, no doubt towards SOPAC where the signs of Allied buildup must be obvious.

CV Zuikaku the next day emerged from Singapore and was promptly torped by USS Tautog, three hits, two duds and a boom. Not heavy damage but still, yard time for her, my luck isn't all bad. HMS Truant is also working those waters and has bagged an AK, her torps work, while HMS Trusty was heavily depth charged and will almost certainly sink in the Strait of Malacca.

Lots of submarine action around the Home Islands, Strait of Formosa and Hokkaido, a dozen attacks at least since the last report but no exploding torpedoes, even S boats seem plagued by duds in the waters up by Hokkaido. One PB was sunk by Grayback off the Home Islands but there must be a lot of sub captains bitching up a storm about crap torpedoes there...

Attu Island has been reinforced into something more than a very far forward sub base. 58th Infantry Regiment is there, some Catalinas are there, and engineers are building the place. After the BB raid earlier in the year right up to Hokkaido it seems like Japan is spending time fortifying this part of the world, there's a lot of activity at Paramushimo Jima which has an airfield 4 and apparently 7 ground units according to my recon. While having BB Colorado sail right up to Japan put the wind up him a bit I think it has ruled out any Kuriles offensive in this game...


SOPAC
Big stand down here, only aircraft flying in Jap airspace are doing recon missions. Two reasons - 1 I wanna see whats out there as much as possible, and 2 the B17s just suck, I only got 30 odd and after bombing and hitting nothing the maintenance and supply requirement is extreme.

Unlike him he did a raid on Luganville with a SAG in which the hitters were Mutsu, Kongo, Haguro and Nachi - they bagged three AMs only, which is fortunate for me as there's been a lot of shipping carrying troops at Luganville. I kinda like that he's being aggressive - the Noumea/Efate bases are solid as solid can be at this point I think with lots of LBA, maybe later on he can be lured to a battle around here? I've ordered an Allied SAG to Luganville just in case he does it again as engineers are en route and will be unloading very soon.


CENTPAC
Yaaawn, so quiet!

[EUBanana]

8th June 1942

BURMA/INDIA
Been a very active time in India - this game is so different from the old WITP games I played in that it has a brisk bit of ground combat that is something of a vicious knife fight.

My cunning plan was a flanking movement aimed at Asansol (major supply centre) from the north, as you can see on the map attached. 18th British Division and 25th Australian Brigade are the core of the move with about 150 AV of armour as well. Things didn't go very well as the terrain there is open and he can use his bombers to full effect (50 Sally raids are the norm). Damage to my tanks was extreme to put it mildly, we're talking 75 Allied tanks (actually a lot of improv AFVs, I wasn't expecting much) destroyed outright. Part of those were in a clash with Japanese armour between Asansol and Darjeeling which chased one of my armoured units away until running into the division and being forced back.

His ground response has been to abandon the siege of Ranchi completely and redeploy southwards, which is still an ongoing move. I've started moving units from Ranchi northwards to the rail line for rapid redeployment as needed, and am trying to stay in contact with him in general to work out where he's redeploying to. Given holding Asansol with one division would be impossible and exposed I guess this has kinda worked in that he has basically given up trying to batter through my main line of defence. Now I guess he'll try to go around it.

There has been an unbelievably vicious air battle over those flanking Allied units as he tries to bomb them into the stone age. As my units are on LRCAP they are at a disadvantage, still, they put up a fight, especially the P38s. All combat is in the stratosphere, 35k' minimum ([8|]). After a punishing first few days for the troops the Jap bombers lost contact with their escort and were massacred in their dozens - the old unescorted raid thing is ridiculously harsh given what happens to unescorted bombers - and since then he's kept the bombers mostly grounded. The Allies now have 26 ace pilots on the scoreboard, about 50/50 US/British and mainly Hurricane/P38 drivers, of whom 6 are now KIA mostly in the last two weeks. Ouch. But they are doing heavy damage to the Japs. The P38E squadron which is the centrepiece of the defence has a tally of 81 kills for 30 losses, which I think is pretty damn good in summer 42.

At sea his convoy is done and gone, no joy. I'm not sure of his ability to bring supply over from Burma all the way from China? But I'm assuming he'll need more convoys. The RN light forces have rebased to Madras ready for the next run, and Jap ASW spars with submarines in the Bay of Bengal on a daily basis without result for either side.

CHINA
Complete rout in Sian, the Chinese army have mystically managed to find supplies but after taking what must be the best part of 100,000 casualties in the punishing retreat complete collapse is incipient, even in the mountain hexes the Japanese advance at their leisure. Chiang has ordered a fair wedge of his central reserve to the mountains between Chungking and Sian. Yenen, shorn of supplies a good half year ago has 0 supplies and the few divisions there are being slaughtered by Japs that they outnumber at least 3 to 1, I expect Yenen to fall this month.

Basically... if you don't houserule strategic bombing in China, this is what it looks like after a year - almost total collapse.

AUS
I'm trying to make a proper base out of Darwin, it's needed for sub operations if nothing else. This means AKLs from Perth shipping fuel up there - currently en route. Unfortunately Japanese interest in Darwin has really gone up lately with a lot of Oscar sweeps over the place. 25 P40s are the air defence but they've not engaged yet due to my cagey keep them grounded tactics.

SOPAC
KB and his battleships have been roaming around just beyond divebomber range around Luganville. Akagi was promptly torped by an S boat, yay! I expected him to fall back after that but instead he pressed on towards Luganville and sank four APs carrying SeaBees and CD guns at Luganville - not yay. Foolish I suppose but i really didn't see him sticking around. Defending Airacobras have done all right against the 60 Zero escort, downing several and getting a 1:1 ratio.

He's still using Mabels on those CVs... unfortunately my own CVs are at Auckland atm and waiting for Wasp, or I'd pounce.

[EUBanana]

Here's a screenie of India...

[EUBanana]

And here's the points... you can see that in the air I'm really clawing back after the early days in Bengal, but he's got a LOT of points from the absolute annihilation of China - which I blame primarily on borked strategic bombing and to an extent on the borked artillery code which has since been fixed - and my carelessness with warships.

[EUBanana]

This basically sums up China - these guys are those who survived the death march from Sian.

Elsewhere in China he's been fairly quiet but if he chose to push hard on all fronts I think China would be knocked out of the war in about six months. Supply 0 in almost every city outside of the Chungking central area.

The Chinese airforce has been essentially grounded for months due to lack of supply but CHungking is the one unbombed resource centre left, so when the P-43s show up in numbers some precious supply will be used to fly CAP over the place.

[EUBanana]

15th June 1942

It's been more or less a good week for the Allies!

BURMA/INDIA
Imphal falls, 6000 Allied casualties, the remnant of BURCORPS not airlifted. Bad - but coulda been worse.
The last week has seen a steady attritional air battle in which the Allies have been performing very well, 2 or 3 to 1 aerial kill ratios.
On the ground however it's been mostly going his way. 23rd Indian Brigade has been effectively destroyed near Cuttack as a Japanese division, with crushing air support, chases it all the way back to Cuttack. In the face of massed Japanese bombers inflicting vast damage in non-forest hexes my flank East of Asansol has been aborted, I'm pulling out, hopefully early and in good order back to Patna. However on the plus side my forces between Ranchi and Jamshedphur, with air support and American artillery, managed to force the Japs back and inflict brigade level casualties, so it's not gone entirely his way on the ground.

Tempo of action has been high in the last few days as he's attempting another resupply of Bengal. CL Capetown and DDs Arrow, Nizam and Napier raid the oceans near Calcutta. Day 1 sees them meet an ASW TF and sink DD Shirakumo. Day 2 has Capetown persist and bump into CVL Zuiho and CVE Hosho at night! Hosho is blown away by DD Arrow, two torp hits and an immediate sink with all aircraft aboard. During the day however Hiei and Yamashiro show up and sink Capetown before being bombed pointlessly by Dauntlesses. Still, a good exchange, an old WW1 CL for Hosho. The DDs retreat towards their forward base at Madras.

At the same time we see the first major daylight raid for some time by Allied bombers - the constant sweeps and heavy attrition to his fighters made me feel the time was ripe. And it was - no CAP and 78 resources hits on Asansol.

ight Time Surface Combat, near Diamond Harbour at 51,42, Range 1,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Shirakumo, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
SC Ch 15, Shell hits 1, heavy fires

Allied Ships
CL Capetown
DD Tjerk Hiddes
DD Arrow
DD Napier



Reduced visibility due to Thunderstorms with 0% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 0% moonlight: 2,000 yards
Range closes to 8,000 yards...
Range closes to 6,000 yards...
Range closes to 4,000 yards...
Range closes to 2,000 yards...
Range closes to 1,000 yards...
Collinson, A.C. crosses the 'T'
DD Shirakumo engages CL Capetown at 1,000 yards
DD Shirakumo sunk by DD Napier at 1,000 yards
Range increases to 2,000 yards
CL Capetown engages SC Ch 15 at 2,000 yards
Range increases to 3,000 yards
CL Capetown engages SC Ch 15 at 3,000 yards
Range increases to 4,000 yards
CL Capetown engages SC Ch 15 at 4,000 yards
Range increases to 5,000 yards
CL Capetown engages SC Ch 15 at 5,000 yards
Task forces break off...


Night Time Surface Combat, near Cox's Bazar at 50,43, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
No Japanese losses

Japanese Ships
CVL Zuiho
CVE Hosho, Shell hits 7, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CL Naka
CL Abukuma
DD Tanikaze, Shell hits 3
DD Umikaze
DD Minazuki

Allied Ships
CL Capetown, Shell hits 3
DD Tjerk Hiddes
DD Arrow
DD Napier



Reduced visibility due to Thunderstorms with 0% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 0% moonlight: 2,000 yards
Range closes to 11,000 yards...
Range closes to 10,000 yards...
Range closes to 9,000 yards...
Range closes to 8,000 yards...
Range closes to 7,000 yards...
Range closes to 6,000 yards...
Range closes to 5,000 yards...
Range closes to 4,000 yards...
Range closes to 3,000 yards...
Range closes to 2,000 yards...
CONTACT: Japanese lookouts spot Allied task force at 2,000 yards
CONTACT: Allied lookouts spot Japanese task force at 2,000 yards
Collinson, A.C. crosses the 'T'
CL Capetown engages CVL Zuiho at 2,000 yards
CL Capetown engages CVE Hosho at 2,000 yards
CL Capetown engages CL Abukuma at 2,000 yards
DD Tjerk Hiddes engages CVE Hosho at 2,000 yards
DD Tanikaze engages DD Tjerk Hiddes at 2,000 yards
CL Capetown engages CVE Hosho at 2,000 yards
CVE Hosho sunk by DD Arrow at 2,000 yards
DD Tjerk Hiddes engages DD Tanikaze at 2,000 yards
DD Arrow engages DD Minazuki at 2,000 yards
Range increases to 6,000 yards
CL Abukuma engages CL Capetown at 6,000 yards
CL Capetown engages CL Abukuma at 6,000 yards
DD Tjerk Hiddes engages DD Minazuki at 6,000 yards
Japanese Task Force Manages to Escape
Task forces break off...

Day Time Surface Combat, near Diamond Harbour at 49,41, Range 7,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei, Shell hits 1
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 8
CA Tone
CA Mikuma
DD Hamakaze, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Arashi
DD Hatsuharu
DD Ariake, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
DD Hibiki, Shell hits 2, on fire

Allied Ships
CL Capetown, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Tjerk Hiddes
DD Arrow, Shell hits 1
DD Napier, Shell hits 4, on fire

Morning Air attack on Asansol , at 53,34

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 31 NM, estimated altitude 7,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes


Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 21
Wellington Ic x 24
B-17E Fortress x 12


Allied aircraft losses
Blenheim IV: 3 damaged
Wellington Ic: 2 damaged



Resources hits 78

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Blenheim IV bombing from 6000 feet
City Attack: 4 x 250 lb GP Bomb
9 x Wellington Ic bombing from 6000 feet
City Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb
12 x Blenheim IV bombing from 6000 feet
City Attack: 4 x 250 lb GP Bomb
15 x Wellington Ic bombing from 6000 feet
City Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb
12 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
City Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb

[:)]

CV Illustrious is still about and in an Illustrious verus Zuiho matchup I think I might have a solid chance. It's very tempting, so I'm moving her up, just in case...

CHINA
Chinese forces move into the mountainous areas NW of Sian, 2500 AV of them - theres no more than 300 AV of Chinese in the entire western part of the country.
Still in the middle I seem to be doing better, I took Pingsian (S of Changhsa) and wiped out over a divisions worth of Japanese troops! He seemed to have supply issues of his own there, and I outnumbered him 2 to 1.

AUSTRALIA/SOPAC
He got a solid hit on me at Darwin, Miss Betty came knocking, in force, and did heavy damage. S-36 and AS Platypus were sunk at Darwin and a couple other subs damaged. I'm in the process of switching my main sub base to Port Hedland, which looks much safer.
SOPAC itself has been fairly quiet since KB was around. Buildups continue. The USN has pulled back to Sydney as there are CVs to upgrade, I'm not planning on a potential engagement with KB (minus Zuiho who is Bengal, minus Hosho who is sunk, minus Akagi who was torped last week, minus Zuikaku who was torped near Singapore a month or so ago) until Wasp turns up and all Devastators have been excised from my airgroups.

I'm eager to get a third front into action but I'm still not happy enough with the situation in SOPAC to take the plunge.


ELSEWHERE...

CV Indomitable, badly hit in his Indian Ocean KB raid, made it to Mombasa. Only a short trip now to Cape Town and then six months or so in drydock. BB Prince of Wales meanwhile has finally been released from yards in the UK and is en route to Panama, I think she'll be of more use in SOPAC where more fast BBs would be very welcome, the Bay of Bengal has too much Jap airpower to be a BB playground.
A couple of Canadian brigades have been earmarked for action in India, they are headed to Eastern USA now. I really think he's had it in India, the window has closed, unless something major happens.

[EUBanana]

Wow, been a while since I reported. Better update.

2nd July 1942

BURMA/INDIA
The air war has changed and changed again since the last post. The 40 B17s at Raipur have been making their presence felt (though in truth damage was quite minor in terms of operational impact) bombing Calcutta, his troops, and the Asansol resources.

He's tried several responses. Firstly he concentrated fighters, more than I've yet seen - 80 Oscars, 20 Zeroes on CAP over Calcutta.
This was ineffective, Oscars cannot stop B17s. Then he tried daylight bombing Raipur, with fighter sweeps. My Hurricane squadron there met 16 Zeroes one day and shot down 14 of them for one loss themselves - WTF? We had a chat over email about this, apparently his Zeroes were not piloted by numpties. I can only assume that the distance of Raipur from his airfields (about 10-12 hexes) means his fighter pilots are very fatigued by the time they arrive over target, and easy meat for my defenders. In any case, daylight raiding was obviously too costly for him.

So he switched to night bombing with about 75 or so Helens/Sallies, which is so far proving extremely effective. A damaged B17 is out for weeks sometimes. He doesn't actually kill many - 1 so far - but getting 3 or 4 damaged heavy bombers a night is rapidly making the B17 force ineffective. Right now about 40% are being fixed, and it's gonna get worse. Airacobras were detailed as night fighters - it hasn't helped. I'm going to shift some additional AA assets to Raipur and I guess I'll have to start work on a new airbase, perhaps near Cawnpore, in the north, to avoid 'all eggs in one basket' syndrome. Judging by his bitchin' on the main forum about Allied bombers I guess it's a case of him being focused on what I'm doing to him and not so aware of what he's doing to me.

Deadlock on the ground. I'm going to refer to the hex between Ranchi and Jamsedhpur as 'Passchendaele Ridge' from now on I think, he's at it again. Monsoon season, swapping barrages every day, attritional grinding - it really is like Passchendaele. I guess in attritional warfare he will win - the Japs don't have manpower shortages like Allies do in this game it seems, odd but there we go - but some heavy duty reinforcements will be arriving in India soon, another 2 or even 3 divisions worth in total over the next month and a half, so I plan on letting him grind away until I can really hit him hard in a flank - much harder than the abortive 1 and a half division flank attack I made earlier.

There has been heavy Japanese recon of Ceylon and at one point warships were sighted near Port Blair. As they ran over a Dutch sub I had good intell on what they were - CVL Ryujo in one runty CVTF, and his BB force. Due to the unhealthy interest in Ceylon I reinforced slightly with a Chinese division that was R&Ring in Madras - it's spot in Madras was taken by a reinforcing Indian brigade, and that Chinese unit needs a couple of months to get up to full strength so it being isolated on Ceylon was fine by me. I sent down CV Illustrious and sent the SBDs to Trimcomalee and I honestly expected a sort of Special Olympics CV clash between Illustrious and Ryujo (hopefully with me winning thanks to the LBA) but he backed away. Not sure why. He sent in a DD scout but the DD also pulled back. I guess he noticed the very heavy recon that I have in the area between Ceylon and Port Blair and got paranoid.

CHINA
Massive Chinese surrenders. Cities falling as he drives up from Sian. Yenen out of supply, besieged, the defenders being slowly massacred. Usual story. I'll need a screenie of China at some point but it's too depressing to talk China just now!

AUS/SOPAC
Heavy bombing of Darwin. He managed to nail two submarines there again, due to carelessness on my part (didnt re-home them to my new base of Port Hedland, they went to Darwin, autodisbanded, and were bombed). Lack of supply there (7000 ish) means I cant reinforce my P40 squadron so it's just a handful of planes. I've not attempted another convoy run, seems almost a suicide mission, he has a SAG somewhere around Timor and almost 100 Netties in range of Darwin, though his naval search seems spotty. Some AKLs will probably get the fun duty at some point.

In SOPAC the air is tense. He obviously knows I'm coming. Lunga airfield is out of action due to B17s at Luganville. Mitchells have proved deadly at 1000' with trained pilots, he's sent 3 AKs to Lunga now and all three have been bombed repeatedly and hopefully sunk. Lunga has been reinforced from 2 units to 5, and 5000 reported troops so probably in brigade strength.
I got three regiments slated for Lunga, and most of the USN in the area. 5 CVs. However this reeks of trap to me, KB is probably at Rabaul, and I don't like it. I'm kinda happy to leave KB pinned at Rabaul to be honest, it means the RN can threaten shipping in the Bay of Bengal, so waiting is fine by me. The invasion of Lunga is postponed. I'm sending SeaBees to Ndeni though, inching closer, that'll put Guadalcanal within easy P38 and B26 range, so I'll up the pressure but not actually commit, yet. If KB is sighted elsewhere, of course, then thunderbirds are go and Marines will be landing within the week.


CENTPAC
My dislike of the situation at Guadalcanal has made me take action here finally. I want to open up another potential axis of attack - the target this time being Tarawa. Right now CENTPAC is a sleepy backwater, USN subs around Kwajalein see almost no Japanese activity. No recon planes, no ships, nothing. Tarawa itself has 2 units only, looks like SNLF and a baseforce, maybe. No aircraft reported. The Allies have no real bases nearby, Canton Island and Pago Pago are the only ones and Canton Island is a backwater itself. Recon planes can get to Tarawa because I have a couple of AVDs and a Catalina squadron at Arorae, at the southern end of the Gilberts.

The only non-atoll in the Gilberts is Tabiteuea. I've ordered a Marine regiment, a Marine CD unit, a baseforce, port service guys and SeaBees from Pearl to land here. Hopefully he won't even know its happened until the airfield starts going up. I think Arorae and Nanumea will need to be built to level 1 airfields and have small baseforces present - this will let me fly fighters to the front line from Pago Pago. I think Baker Island -> Canton Island is too far for fighters to fly so it'll have to be the longer overall trip down the island chain to Pago Pago.

On the plus side there are plenty of Pacific Ocean units available as there isn't much going on in CENTPAC yet. I've ordered my CVs from SOPAC up to the Gilberts just in case but as he isn't expecting anything here I hope there won't be anything going on.

The strategic objective here is merely to open up a possible line of attack that I can sustain with minimal naval forces. If he sees bombers hitting Tarawa and Allied activity in the Gilberts, its somewhere else for him to worry about and divert force towards. I generally dislike CENTPAC as an Allied offensive target, as it's very difficult to bring LBA to bear, it's all way too dependent on CVs it seems to me. The Solomons lets the Allies use medium bombers to their full extent. Airbases everywhere. in CENTPAC the only airbases are in Japanese hands.

[EUBanana]

Heh, a long time has passed, but not much going on. There is, however, an extremely tense atmosphere! Stephen seems quite cagey in his emails, he knows trouble is brewing.

Somewhere, just out of sight, the unicorns are gathering.

28th July 1942

BURMA/INDIA
His attempt to break through the 'Passchendaele Ridge' hex failed again. The roads let me quickly shift defenders around and the terrain is too rough. He seems to have backed off for now.
In the air he's practically given up, we've had a couple of months breathing space, he's no doubt training pilots hurriedly. B17s raid Calcutta unopposed but there's nothing there. The Allies are doing a lot of sweeping over Asansol, Calcutta and Howrah but unopposed. He's been doing a lot of recon over Patna, no doubt looking for gaps in the line. He sent some armour up towards Patna but in a week of max effort the Allied bomber force wiped an armoured brigade entirely off the map (as in, gone, 100% destroyed) in a week of heavy bombing. He had no LRCAP to offer them. So he's been taught the lesson I had to learn, that sending armour without air cover through open country leads to their annihilation.

Seems we're at a lull, or maybe a turning point. In the hope of the latter I'm adopting a slightly more offensive stance in Bengal.

For starters I'm massing troops (2 British divisions, 1 US division, 2 Australian brigades, some Indians) at Cuttack in another attempt at a Big Push, this time from the south, and 2 or 3 times bigger than the abortive big push I made from the northwest a month or so back. To try and pin him down and hamper his response I'm advancing to contact across the frontline as he's backed off a hex.

SigInt and recon suggests that there are 30k Japs at Chittagong and that Chittagong is his new main port supplying his troops at India. So Cuttack is finally going to be used as an offensive, operational airfield. It's been heavily reinforced (98 fighters including my beloved P38E squadron, Hudsons for nav search, 13 B26s and 18 SBD-3s) with an eye to naval interdiction. Chittagong is in B26 range from Cuttack.

At sea we've had a couple of near misses. CV Illustrious and her battlegroup has been nosing around, at one point she was six hexes from Jap BBs but her a/c were set to a 5 hex range... almost, but not quite. My 5 raider DDs are nosing around too but have not found any targets. I think there's going to be an encounter soon though as I finally twigged whats going on re. Chittagong and am taking measures to interdict. I'm hoping/assuming KB is in the South Pacific, so I plan on bold moves. Today an S boat torpedoed an AKL west of Rangoon headed towards, I assume, Chittagong, so Illustrious is headed on in, and the raider DDs too.

One other bit of interest is that the lowly MGB is making quite an impact around Ceylon, where he has several submarines lurking. Looks like MGBs cannot be torpedoed easily (lots of 'cannot find firing solution') but with an ASW rating of 6 they can certainly hurt the subs! They can't make ASW TFs so are in SCTFs but seem effective enough anyway, a couple of IJN submarines have been heavily depth charged by them this last month.

[EUBanana]

Here's China, the disaster zone. Wherever he attacks the Chinese crumple as there's no supply anywhere really. Even mountain hexes dont' stop him.

He's got HUGE forces in this region, 3000 AV I would guess in total. Reinforcements from Chiang are about 1500 AV so there'll be quite a fight at the red line on the map if he presses into the interior, but everything beyond that red line is basically his if he wants it. He could probably advance all the way to Tibet if he really wanted to, there's basically nothing there but shattered and demoralised Chinese.

Yenen is besieged and out of supply and being beaten down slowly, I give em a couple of weeks before the Reds surrender.

There's marginally more success in the south in that Pingsiang has switched hands several times in the last month and is now mine. He's also besieging Kukong but I don't think he'll be able to take it. There are quite a few Chinese here, and some fighting, but the lack of supply makes offensive moves totally out of the question. All Chiang can do is hold on really, and around Sian and Yenen at least he can't even do that.