February 9, 1942 -
We only got in one turn today because I was busy until later in the evening.
The night phase started with the Occupation of Namlea, followed by a Japanese landing at Tulagi. Then USS Shark had a clean shot at a Japanese AO off of Tarakan but fired off a bunch of duds.
Daylight brought even more Japanese air attacks than usual. Japanese bombers attacked Malaybalay, Praboemoelih, Makassar, Koepang, Tjilatjap, Tadjoengsilor, Chengchow, Medan, and Batavia. Some Dutch fighters flew in to intercept the Nells that hit Tjilatjap and shot down a couple.
The Raids on Sumatra and Java weren't a surprise, but I was unhappy about seeing my opponent re-open the Can of Worms in China. So I've sent an AVG squadron back into China and I also ordered some Chinese planes to bomb some Japanese bases.
It was interesting to see Singapore left alone this turn. I suspect that the Bomber losses have been fairly painful against the massed Flak at the base. And even the Ground Combat was limited to a half-hearted Artillery attack that caused few casualties. The end result was that the Forts were rebuilt to Level 2 and the AV of my Defenders went up another 10%.
There was more late-turn action as Dutch Sub KXII was chased unsuccessfully off of Balikpapan, and there was a late Japanese landing at Boela.
And in Burma the slow Japanese advance continued with the capture of Meiktila. So I re-assigned my British Recon planes to photograph that base and gave the Calcutta B-17s orders to bomb it. I'm interested to see if my opponent puts any LR CAP over the base.
In other news, there have been lots of Radio Signals at Truk, but no other Intel. I suspect that the KB is back in the Central Pacific. I've got a couple of subs on the way to that region so we'll see what they can find out.
And finally, there still aren't any Japanese aircraft at Palembang, and my mouse-overs indicate that the general Facilities damage hasn't been repaired. There are a couple of Japanese ships in the Port of Palembang, so I moved the Dutch bombers back to Batavia and I've ordered them to bomb the Port at Palembang just to see what they can catch.
Last Stand at San Diego (no Richard please)
Moderators: wdolson, MOD_War-in-the-Pacific-Admirals-Edition
Navigator Follies
February 10, 1942 -
Japanese troops continued to land at Boela and Tulagi during the night phase. The only action during the night was USS Gar being chased unsuccessfully by some PBs off of Eniwetok.
Daylight brought some Zero Sweeps over Chengchow and Makassar. I guess that my opponent was hoping to catch me moving in some fighters after his bombing attacks last turn. I'm doing nothing to try to help Makassar, so I'm not reacting to any air attacks there. However, I moved an AVG Squadron into Chengchow and set it to 100% CAP at Max Altitude, so we'll see what happens next turn. Japanese bombers hit Malaybalay, Makassar and Medan this turn.
Singapore was left alone again this turn. My opponent confirmed to me that he is tired of taking heavy Flak losses over well-defended bases such as Singapore, so he is now sending his bombers out to hit Allied stragglers in the field.
Chinese bombers flew this turn and hit some Japanese troops near Chengchow. However, those troops weren't the actual target that I set. Perhaps I need to be training Navigators instead of Pilots.
The Dutch 139WH-3s did hit their target at Palembang. There was one Oscar on LR CAP, but it didn't matter as the Dutch bombers hit the Port, Port Fuel, and Port Troops. The bombers also put several bombs into an xAK that was in port.
The Calcutta B-17s didn't fly against Meiktika. I'm letting them try again next turn.
The end of the day brought an attack by S-38 on an xAKL off of Kendari. The sub put a torpedo into the small Japanese transport ship. At the same time some Japanese troops started to land at the undefended dot base of Sansapor.
Singapore only received an Artillery Bombardment again this turn. As before, the effects were minimal, and the Allied troops were able to increase the Fortification size a bit, as well as recover a bit more AV.
The invading Japanese troops captured undefended Boela and Tulagi this turn. It appears that Japanese troops are on their way towards Magwe in Burma and Nanyang in China. And Japanese troops finally arrived at Malaybalay.
Japanese troops continued to land at Boela and Tulagi during the night phase. The only action during the night was USS Gar being chased unsuccessfully by some PBs off of Eniwetok.
Daylight brought some Zero Sweeps over Chengchow and Makassar. I guess that my opponent was hoping to catch me moving in some fighters after his bombing attacks last turn. I'm doing nothing to try to help Makassar, so I'm not reacting to any air attacks there. However, I moved an AVG Squadron into Chengchow and set it to 100% CAP at Max Altitude, so we'll see what happens next turn. Japanese bombers hit Malaybalay, Makassar and Medan this turn.
Singapore was left alone again this turn. My opponent confirmed to me that he is tired of taking heavy Flak losses over well-defended bases such as Singapore, so he is now sending his bombers out to hit Allied stragglers in the field.
Chinese bombers flew this turn and hit some Japanese troops near Chengchow. However, those troops weren't the actual target that I set. Perhaps I need to be training Navigators instead of Pilots.
The Dutch 139WH-3s did hit their target at Palembang. There was one Oscar on LR CAP, but it didn't matter as the Dutch bombers hit the Port, Port Fuel, and Port Troops. The bombers also put several bombs into an xAK that was in port.
The Calcutta B-17s didn't fly against Meiktika. I'm letting them try again next turn.
The end of the day brought an attack by S-38 on an xAKL off of Kendari. The sub put a torpedo into the small Japanese transport ship. At the same time some Japanese troops started to land at the undefended dot base of Sansapor.
Singapore only received an Artillery Bombardment again this turn. As before, the effects were minimal, and the Allied troops were able to increase the Fortification size a bit, as well as recover a bit more AV.
The invading Japanese troops captured undefended Boela and Tulagi this turn. It appears that Japanese troops are on their way towards Magwe in Burma and Nanyang in China. And Japanese troops finally arrived at Malaybalay.
The KB Comes Back to the Java Sea
February 11, 1942 -
The night phase started out quietly with the occupation of someplace called Djailolo and the continued Japanese invasion of Sansapor, and then Narwhal was jumped by a couple of Japanese SCs off of Ominato. Narwhal took one serious hit from a depth charge and now on its way home.
The day phase started out in a very non-quiet manner as Madioen was hammered by a big Japanese Carrier Air attack. Yes, the KB appeared in the middle of the Java Sea again, much to my surprise. Right after this attack another big Carrier Air raid hit Bandoeng. This time there were some Dutch fighters on CAP, and some AA on the ground, so there were a few Carrier bomber losses. But all-in-all this doesn't bode well for the defense of Java. The only good news about this is that the KB won't be bothering my activities in the Central Pacific for the next little while.
After the KB laid down the law in Java there were some concentrated Japanese Army Air attacks on Medan and Makassar. Singapore was spared any air attacks again this turn.
My Calcutta B-17s didn't fly again this turn thanks to bad weather, but a Chinese bomber unit did attempt an attack on a Japanese Infantry column that is on the road between Chengchow and Sinyang. Unfortunately, some wandering Zeros showed up to shoot up the Chinese attack. At the same time my opponent out-guessed me and didn't send any bombers against Chengchow. This left the AVG pilots tired, but empty handed.
The Japanese besiegers of Singapore went back to a Deliberate attack this turn. They achieved a 2:1 result and lowered the fortifications back to Level 1. The Japanese took 1687 casualties while the Allies took 2434 casualties, many of which were Combat Troops. So the Allied AV is back down where it was after the last Japanese Deliberate attack. It appears that the Party is Over.
In other Combat news, Japanese troops captured undefended Sansapor, and then unexpectedly Japanese troops showed up at Iloilo and captured the base in a Shock attack. I didn't remember seeing any amphibious landing there, so it must have been a Paradrop.
There was some good news this turn as the CV TF with Saratoga and Yorktown popped out of the Twilight Zone no worse for the wear. There are no obvious Japanese targest in the Bay of Bengal at this time so I'll send the CVs to Bombay to join the RN. That will be a non-trivial force there.
The night phase started out quietly with the occupation of someplace called Djailolo and the continued Japanese invasion of Sansapor, and then Narwhal was jumped by a couple of Japanese SCs off of Ominato. Narwhal took one serious hit from a depth charge and now on its way home.
The day phase started out in a very non-quiet manner as Madioen was hammered by a big Japanese Carrier Air attack. Yes, the KB appeared in the middle of the Java Sea again, much to my surprise. Right after this attack another big Carrier Air raid hit Bandoeng. This time there were some Dutch fighters on CAP, and some AA on the ground, so there were a few Carrier bomber losses. But all-in-all this doesn't bode well for the defense of Java. The only good news about this is that the KB won't be bothering my activities in the Central Pacific for the next little while.
After the KB laid down the law in Java there were some concentrated Japanese Army Air attacks on Medan and Makassar. Singapore was spared any air attacks again this turn.
My Calcutta B-17s didn't fly again this turn thanks to bad weather, but a Chinese bomber unit did attempt an attack on a Japanese Infantry column that is on the road between Chengchow and Sinyang. Unfortunately, some wandering Zeros showed up to shoot up the Chinese attack. At the same time my opponent out-guessed me and didn't send any bombers against Chengchow. This left the AVG pilots tired, but empty handed.
The Japanese besiegers of Singapore went back to a Deliberate attack this turn. They achieved a 2:1 result and lowered the fortifications back to Level 1. The Japanese took 1687 casualties while the Allies took 2434 casualties, many of which were Combat Troops. So the Allied AV is back down where it was after the last Japanese Deliberate attack. It appears that the Party is Over.
In other Combat news, Japanese troops captured undefended Sansapor, and then unexpectedly Japanese troops showed up at Iloilo and captured the base in a Shock attack. I didn't remember seeing any amphibious landing there, so it must have been a Paradrop.
There was some good news this turn as the CV TF with Saratoga and Yorktown popped out of the Twilight Zone no worse for the wear. There are no obvious Japanese targest in the Bay of Bengal at this time so I'll send the CVs to Bombay to join the RN. That will be a non-trivial force there.
Singapore is Lost, But a Trap Springs Closed (Twice) Elsewhere
February 12, 1942 -
Well, this was a turn with ups and downs.
The night phase started out in a fairly ordinary manner with USS Thresher chasing and then being chased by the escorts of a Japanese TF to the west of Eniwetok, and then trying again (once more without luck) nearer to Ponape. It's too bad, because the TF had an AO in it along with a bunch of AKs.
Then the “nice” surprise of the night came. Nice for me, that is, but not so nice for my opponent. A Japanese TF with two CAs, a CL, and a bunch of DDs got into an exchange of fire with a Dutch CD unit at Merak. Long before I had moved the Batavia CD unit from Batavia to Merak because Merak tends to be an invasion point of choice for Japanese players. Well, this Japanese TF wasn't either invading or bombarding – instead it was simply trying to pass by.
The Dutch CD guns got in a number of hits on all three Japanese cruisers and also hit a couple of DDs, including one quite hard. The Japanese ships fired back but they didn't cause much damage. Then the TF showed up at Oosthaven and fired off a Naval Bombardment. I also have a CD unit at Oosthaven, but it didn't fire back because its 6 inch guns were outdistanced by the guns of the Japanese cruisers which stood off shore out of range range.
Then the Japanese TF had to pass by the Guns at Merak again, and once more the Dutch had a good time. They hit all of the cruisers again, as well as a number of the DDs, and essentially blew one of the DDs out of the water. I moved a number of Dutch bomber units to Batavia after the turn and set them to a limited range Naval attack setting in the hopes of catching a few damaged stragglers out of that TF. All-in-all, it was quite nice to see a trap get triggered so effectively. (I should now probably move that CD unit to the other end of the island in case I can spring it again there.)
In other night time news, Houston finally reached Perth, and its temporary flotation repairs gave out just as it got there. But I was able to dock it successfully and it ought to have time to get some level of repairs there before I need to move it again.
And in a bit of poor luck, the Dutch cruisers and destroyers ran over Japanese sub RO-34 just off of Wyndham. The DDs hit the sub with a depth charge, but that tells my opponent where the Dutch are at this time. Later in the turn my Air Patrols spotted a Japanese TF to the northeast of Koepang, but the Dutch ships need to refuel in Darwin before they can head over to Timor. And with the KB off of Java, I don't know if I have the time to get the Dutch over to Koepang. I'll have to decide what to do next turn after refuelling.
The Japanese Air onslaught was lighter than usual this turn as the only Allied bases that were hit were Malaybalay, Koepang, and Makassar. The my Calcutta B-17s finally flew and hit Meiktika. A few Oscars were on CAP, but the Forts blew past them and actually shot down a couple. Despite the encounter the bombers hit the air base nicely. Afterwards I decided to upgrade the two B-17D units. One is now a B-17E unit and the other is an LB-30 unit. I can use the B-17Ds elsewhere.
The major unhappy news this turn was that Singapore was finally captured by the Japanese. A Deliberate attack resulted in a 5:1 result. Now my opponent has a large number of combat units available to cause me headaches elsewhere. The Score at this point has finally turned over in favor of the Japanese with the Japanese having 9212 points and the Allies having 6406.
Well, this was a turn with ups and downs.
The night phase started out in a fairly ordinary manner with USS Thresher chasing and then being chased by the escorts of a Japanese TF to the west of Eniwetok, and then trying again (once more without luck) nearer to Ponape. It's too bad, because the TF had an AO in it along with a bunch of AKs.
Then the “nice” surprise of the night came. Nice for me, that is, but not so nice for my opponent. A Japanese TF with two CAs, a CL, and a bunch of DDs got into an exchange of fire with a Dutch CD unit at Merak. Long before I had moved the Batavia CD unit from Batavia to Merak because Merak tends to be an invasion point of choice for Japanese players. Well, this Japanese TF wasn't either invading or bombarding – instead it was simply trying to pass by.
The Dutch CD guns got in a number of hits on all three Japanese cruisers and also hit a couple of DDs, including one quite hard. The Japanese ships fired back but they didn't cause much damage. Then the TF showed up at Oosthaven and fired off a Naval Bombardment. I also have a CD unit at Oosthaven, but it didn't fire back because its 6 inch guns were outdistanced by the guns of the Japanese cruisers which stood off shore out of range range.
Then the Japanese TF had to pass by the Guns at Merak again, and once more the Dutch had a good time. They hit all of the cruisers again, as well as a number of the DDs, and essentially blew one of the DDs out of the water. I moved a number of Dutch bomber units to Batavia after the turn and set them to a limited range Naval attack setting in the hopes of catching a few damaged stragglers out of that TF. All-in-all, it was quite nice to see a trap get triggered so effectively. (I should now probably move that CD unit to the other end of the island in case I can spring it again there.)
In other night time news, Houston finally reached Perth, and its temporary flotation repairs gave out just as it got there. But I was able to dock it successfully and it ought to have time to get some level of repairs there before I need to move it again.
And in a bit of poor luck, the Dutch cruisers and destroyers ran over Japanese sub RO-34 just off of Wyndham. The DDs hit the sub with a depth charge, but that tells my opponent where the Dutch are at this time. Later in the turn my Air Patrols spotted a Japanese TF to the northeast of Koepang, but the Dutch ships need to refuel in Darwin before they can head over to Timor. And with the KB off of Java, I don't know if I have the time to get the Dutch over to Koepang. I'll have to decide what to do next turn after refuelling.
The Japanese Air onslaught was lighter than usual this turn as the only Allied bases that were hit were Malaybalay, Koepang, and Makassar. The my Calcutta B-17s finally flew and hit Meiktika. A few Oscars were on CAP, but the Forts blew past them and actually shot down a couple. Despite the encounter the bombers hit the air base nicely. Afterwards I decided to upgrade the two B-17D units. One is now a B-17E unit and the other is an LB-30 unit. I can use the B-17Ds elsewhere.
The major unhappy news this turn was that Singapore was finally captured by the Japanese. A Deliberate attack resulted in a 5:1 result. Now my opponent has a large number of combat units available to cause me headaches elsewhere. The Score at this point has finally turned over in favor of the Japanese with the Japanese having 9212 points and the Allies having 6406.
Send More CDs!
February 13, 1942 -
The night phase started out as if it would be totally quiet, then Japanese troops started to land on the island of Calayan, north of Luzon, and much more importantly, at Koepang on Timor. My opponent isn't fooling around this time; he has sent a number of invasion TFs and is obviously attempting to grab control of the Air in that region in one move. I had expected him to invade Lautem first because of its proximity to Ambon and the other already captured bases in the region, but Koepang makes the most sense because of its large air base.
And I was also caught with my naval forces out of position. The Dutch arrived at Darwin and were refueled, but it is a two day trip to Koepang, instead of a one day trip to Lautem for them. But I ordered the Dutch off anyway – I expect Koepang to fall as soon as it is attacked, but I'm hoping that the Japanese transports will stick around for one more day while they unload supplies. We'll see if I am lucky. In the meanwhile I set a lot of Air Recon on Koepang to improve the chances of my tardy counterattack.
BTW – The Japanese invasion TFs had an easy time because there were no Shore Guns to fire back at them. It's too bad that I didn't have an extra CD unit to drop off there.
BTW II – I'm not worried about the KB, because the KB is still sitting off of Java and sent out a massive attack on Soerabaja this turn. This was a Pearl Harbor-scale attack, but surprisingly few of the Dutch planes on the ground were destroyed. Maybe that's because my opponent didn't send any planes in to strafe. In any event, I moved out all of my bombers to other bases. I'm trying a surprise for the next turn and it will be interesting to see if it works.
There were other land-based Japanese air attacks this turn on Koepang, Medan and Makassar, but no where else. That surprised me. I wonder if my opponent is resting or upgrading his air units, or if he wants to try to mask his next moves.
The only land combat this turn was at Magwe where the Japanese captured the empty base. My opponent moved in an Infantry regiment, an AA unit and a Base Force, and sure enough there was an “aircraft” sign at the base next turn. My heavy bombers are still under repair after last turn's upgrade so I won't be bothering that base in the next little while.
In other news, I ordered the CD unit at Merak to move to the other end of the Island to Banjoewangi, just in case my opponent decides to send a TF around that end of the island. I'm unlikely to pull off the same surprise again, but it doesn't hurt to try.
The Allied stragglers from Temuloh made it to Kuantan this turn, but there are no supplies there for them, so they will either slowly starve or eventually be captured by the Japanese. But they are a distraction for my opponent.
And my opponent has a distraction for me too – more Japanese troops are moving on Nanyang. I guess that he wants to try to take it because it is in open terrain. But then, so was Chengchow. In any event, I am sending reinforcements to Nanyang. They will either join the defense, or if my opponent makes a mistake, they will cut the Japanese lines.
The night phase started out as if it would be totally quiet, then Japanese troops started to land on the island of Calayan, north of Luzon, and much more importantly, at Koepang on Timor. My opponent isn't fooling around this time; he has sent a number of invasion TFs and is obviously attempting to grab control of the Air in that region in one move. I had expected him to invade Lautem first because of its proximity to Ambon and the other already captured bases in the region, but Koepang makes the most sense because of its large air base.
And I was also caught with my naval forces out of position. The Dutch arrived at Darwin and were refueled, but it is a two day trip to Koepang, instead of a one day trip to Lautem for them. But I ordered the Dutch off anyway – I expect Koepang to fall as soon as it is attacked, but I'm hoping that the Japanese transports will stick around for one more day while they unload supplies. We'll see if I am lucky. In the meanwhile I set a lot of Air Recon on Koepang to improve the chances of my tardy counterattack.
BTW – The Japanese invasion TFs had an easy time because there were no Shore Guns to fire back at them. It's too bad that I didn't have an extra CD unit to drop off there.
BTW II – I'm not worried about the KB, because the KB is still sitting off of Java and sent out a massive attack on Soerabaja this turn. This was a Pearl Harbor-scale attack, but surprisingly few of the Dutch planes on the ground were destroyed. Maybe that's because my opponent didn't send any planes in to strafe. In any event, I moved out all of my bombers to other bases. I'm trying a surprise for the next turn and it will be interesting to see if it works.
There were other land-based Japanese air attacks this turn on Koepang, Medan and Makassar, but no where else. That surprised me. I wonder if my opponent is resting or upgrading his air units, or if he wants to try to mask his next moves.
The only land combat this turn was at Magwe where the Japanese captured the empty base. My opponent moved in an Infantry regiment, an AA unit and a Base Force, and sure enough there was an “aircraft” sign at the base next turn. My heavy bombers are still under repair after last turn's upgrade so I won't be bothering that base in the next little while.
In other news, I ordered the CD unit at Merak to move to the other end of the Island to Banjoewangi, just in case my opponent decides to send a TF around that end of the island. I'm unlikely to pull off the same surprise again, but it doesn't hurt to try.
The Allied stragglers from Temuloh made it to Kuantan this turn, but there are no supplies there for them, so they will either slowly starve or eventually be captured by the Japanese. But they are a distraction for my opponent.
And my opponent has a distraction for me too – more Japanese troops are moving on Nanyang. I guess that he wants to try to take it because it is in open terrain. But then, so was Chengchow. In any event, I am sending reinforcements to Nanyang. They will either join the defense, or if my opponent makes a mistake, they will cut the Japanese lines.
Valentine Duds
February 14, 1942 -
Valentines Day brought the Japanese occupation of some dot base called Auki, continued landings at Calayan and Koepang, and dud torpedoes for a couple of US submarines. First off USS Thresher hit an xAKL off of Ponape with some duds, then Nautilus hit an xAK off of Ominato with some duds. BTW – if you are wondering, I am running about half of my short range subs out of the Aleutians with the S-boats sailing picket lines and the miscellaneous subs harassing Hokkaido. So far my subs haven't had any luck up there, but they are contributing to keeping my opponent honest.
Daylight brought an interesting spotting about halfway between Java and Timor – the KB appears to be sailing to the southeast. The Dutch Combat TF is positioned to hit the landings at Koepang overnight, and they don't appear to have been spotted, so I am letting them go in despite the potential overnight arrival of the KB. With any luck the Dutch will hit, run, and be out of range by daylight. If not, well, then they did their Duty for their Country.
The day's aerial antics started out with Zero sweeps of Chengchow. I still have a couple of AVG fighters on the ground there being repaired, so I guess that fooled my opponent into hoping that he could cause me some pain. That AVG squadron is sitting back at Sian in anticipation of sooner or later “guessing right” as to where the Japanese bombers end up going.
My “surprise” for this turn didn't work out as the Dutch fighters that I moved to Medan found Oscars on Escort when Japanese bombers came in for their daily air raid. The Dutch were out-classed and one Dutch fighter was shot down, but they did do as best as they could and actually shot down a couple of Sonias. I expect my opponent to turn his attention on Medan in a serious manner next turn.
The other Japanese air attacks were against Koepang, Makassar and Praboemelith. My opponent is sending out a lot of Recon flights over Burma but he hasn't sent out any attacks yet. Intel says that there are now a lot of Japanese fighters at Magwe. Now, the question is – are they Japanese Army fighters, or Zeros? I'm getting tempted to try an AVG Sweep of Magwe. Maybe I will if the weather gets a bit better.
The invading Japanese troops attacked Koepang this turn. There are two Infantry Battalions and one Special Base Force in the attack. To my astonishment the Japanese Deliberate attack failed! The Japanese only got a 1:2 result, didn't reduce the Fortifications from the current Level 2, and suffered more casualties. It appears that my opponent once again underestimated the quantity of troops that he would need for a quick victory. However, the Japanese invasion of undefended Calayan was successful.
In other news, the Indian 17th Division was finally “rebuilt” at Karachi. It is now a surprisingly good looking unit, at least in comparison to the other Indian Divisions.
Finally, SIGINT for once actually gave me some info about Japanese intentions this turn. There is at least one Japanese Division that is planning to attack Chengchow. I was a bit surprised because from the movements on the Map, it appears that Nanyang is the main Japanese target now.
Valentines Day brought the Japanese occupation of some dot base called Auki, continued landings at Calayan and Koepang, and dud torpedoes for a couple of US submarines. First off USS Thresher hit an xAKL off of Ponape with some duds, then Nautilus hit an xAK off of Ominato with some duds. BTW – if you are wondering, I am running about half of my short range subs out of the Aleutians with the S-boats sailing picket lines and the miscellaneous subs harassing Hokkaido. So far my subs haven't had any luck up there, but they are contributing to keeping my opponent honest.
Daylight brought an interesting spotting about halfway between Java and Timor – the KB appears to be sailing to the southeast. The Dutch Combat TF is positioned to hit the landings at Koepang overnight, and they don't appear to have been spotted, so I am letting them go in despite the potential overnight arrival of the KB. With any luck the Dutch will hit, run, and be out of range by daylight. If not, well, then they did their Duty for their Country.
The day's aerial antics started out with Zero sweeps of Chengchow. I still have a couple of AVG fighters on the ground there being repaired, so I guess that fooled my opponent into hoping that he could cause me some pain. That AVG squadron is sitting back at Sian in anticipation of sooner or later “guessing right” as to where the Japanese bombers end up going.
My “surprise” for this turn didn't work out as the Dutch fighters that I moved to Medan found Oscars on Escort when Japanese bombers came in for their daily air raid. The Dutch were out-classed and one Dutch fighter was shot down, but they did do as best as they could and actually shot down a couple of Sonias. I expect my opponent to turn his attention on Medan in a serious manner next turn.
The other Japanese air attacks were against Koepang, Makassar and Praboemelith. My opponent is sending out a lot of Recon flights over Burma but he hasn't sent out any attacks yet. Intel says that there are now a lot of Japanese fighters at Magwe. Now, the question is – are they Japanese Army fighters, or Zeros? I'm getting tempted to try an AVG Sweep of Magwe. Maybe I will if the weather gets a bit better.
The invading Japanese troops attacked Koepang this turn. There are two Infantry Battalions and one Special Base Force in the attack. To my astonishment the Japanese Deliberate attack failed! The Japanese only got a 1:2 result, didn't reduce the Fortifications from the current Level 2, and suffered more casualties. It appears that my opponent once again underestimated the quantity of troops that he would need for a quick victory. However, the Japanese invasion of undefended Calayan was successful.
In other news, the Indian 17th Division was finally “rebuilt” at Karachi. It is now a surprisingly good looking unit, at least in comparison to the other Indian Divisions.
Finally, SIGINT for once actually gave me some info about Japanese intentions this turn. There is at least one Japanese Division that is planning to attack Chengchow. I was a bit surprised because from the movements on the Map, it appears that Nanyang is the main Japanese target now.
Dutch Down in the Dumps
February 15, 1942 -
The night phase started out with the Japanese occupation of Thousand Ship Bay, followed by continued Japanese landings at Koepang. Then the Dutch battle TF arrived at Koepang and attacked the Japanese invasion TF. The Dutch TF consisted of three light cruisers; Trump, De Ruyter and Java, along with 8 Dutch DDs. The Japanese invasion TF consisted of 5 DDs, 1 SC, and 5 xAPs.
The Japanese started to get underway once the Dutch were spotted. Both sides started to shoot at around 8000 yards, and continued to shoot as the range closed, but with poor aim on both sides. Only when the two TFs got within 2000 yards of each other did they start to get hits. But the Dutch aim continued to be comparatively poor while the Japanese DDs started to get the range on a couple of the Dutch DDs. Despite numerous torpedo launches by both sides there was only one hit, and that was on a Dutch DD.
The Dutch CLs stayed out of the fight for the most part and only started to use their main guns late in the battle. But by then it was too late and the Japanese TF escaped into the dark. The Japanese got away with two DDs and two xAPs hit and damaged. The Dutch suffered one DD sunk and another one seriously damaged.
Once this action finished Dutch sub O-19 shot at and hit a Japanese xAK off of Palembang, destroying several guns that were on board. But the Japanese escorts hit O-19 hard with depth charges, driving it off and eventually causing it to head back to Colombo for repairs. All-in-all, it was not a good night for the Dutch Navy.
Daylight brought aerial bombardments of Malaybalay and Koepang, but more ominously, it also brought Naval Air Search planes over the retiring Dutch TF that was a few hexes southwest of Timor. Then, out of the north came a strike from the KB. Luckily the bombers didn't carry torpedoes and the Dutch ships got away with only one hit on De Ruyter and two hits on Java. But later in the afternoon an even bigger Japanese carrier air attack arrived that carried torpedoes this time. De Ruyter was hit and sunk by torpedoes and Java was hit and seriously damaged. It turns out that the KB had moved to the island base just to the left of Koepang.
One last misadventure awaited the Dutch as some CW-22 bombers attempted a low level attack on Palembang but were jumped by Oscars and several Dutch bombers were shot down. This was followed by another Deliberate attack on Koepang which was much more successful for the Japanese this time as the invaders achieved a 3:1 result and reduced the Forts down to Level 1.
So it was quite a forgettable day for the Allies, with the only good news being the notification that the Fortifications at Midway had reached Level 4.
The night phase started out with the Japanese occupation of Thousand Ship Bay, followed by continued Japanese landings at Koepang. Then the Dutch battle TF arrived at Koepang and attacked the Japanese invasion TF. The Dutch TF consisted of three light cruisers; Trump, De Ruyter and Java, along with 8 Dutch DDs. The Japanese invasion TF consisted of 5 DDs, 1 SC, and 5 xAPs.
The Japanese started to get underway once the Dutch were spotted. Both sides started to shoot at around 8000 yards, and continued to shoot as the range closed, but with poor aim on both sides. Only when the two TFs got within 2000 yards of each other did they start to get hits. But the Dutch aim continued to be comparatively poor while the Japanese DDs started to get the range on a couple of the Dutch DDs. Despite numerous torpedo launches by both sides there was only one hit, and that was on a Dutch DD.
The Dutch CLs stayed out of the fight for the most part and only started to use their main guns late in the battle. But by then it was too late and the Japanese TF escaped into the dark. The Japanese got away with two DDs and two xAPs hit and damaged. The Dutch suffered one DD sunk and another one seriously damaged.
Once this action finished Dutch sub O-19 shot at and hit a Japanese xAK off of Palembang, destroying several guns that were on board. But the Japanese escorts hit O-19 hard with depth charges, driving it off and eventually causing it to head back to Colombo for repairs. All-in-all, it was not a good night for the Dutch Navy.
Daylight brought aerial bombardments of Malaybalay and Koepang, but more ominously, it also brought Naval Air Search planes over the retiring Dutch TF that was a few hexes southwest of Timor. Then, out of the north came a strike from the KB. Luckily the bombers didn't carry torpedoes and the Dutch ships got away with only one hit on De Ruyter and two hits on Java. But later in the afternoon an even bigger Japanese carrier air attack arrived that carried torpedoes this time. De Ruyter was hit and sunk by torpedoes and Java was hit and seriously damaged. It turns out that the KB had moved to the island base just to the left of Koepang.
One last misadventure awaited the Dutch as some CW-22 bombers attempted a low level attack on Palembang but were jumped by Oscars and several Dutch bombers were shot down. This was followed by another Deliberate attack on Koepang which was much more successful for the Japanese this time as the invaders achieved a 3:1 result and reduced the Forts down to Level 1.
So it was quite a forgettable day for the Allies, with the only good news being the notification that the Fortifications at Midway had reached Level 4.
The KB Cruises Northern Oz
February 16, 1942 -
The night phase brought the Japanese occupation of Camiguin, followed by an attack with dud torpedoes by USS Salmon on a PB near Jesselton. There were no more attempts by the Japanese to land at Koepang.
Daylight brought the unwelcome sight of the KB sitting a couple of hexes off of the nothern coast of Australia, almost due north of Wyndham. Scout planes from the KB spotted the two heavily damaged Dutch ships from the debacle of the 15th, Java and Van Ghent, which were still only a few hexes away from Koepang. The KB scouts reported hitting the CL with a bomb. The scoutplanes also flew over Darwin but all they found there were a few US PT boats on patrol.
Japanese bombing runs hit Koepang and Malaybalay repeatedly again, and San Jose in the Philippines was hit for the first time. Kuantan also received some bomber attention for the first time in several months. A KB attack went out after the Dutch cripples but somehow missed them. So the two ships were buzzed by Zeros but nothing more. Never-the-less, Van Ghent ended up sinking due to its damage from the day before.
Another of my plans went into action today and again things didn't work out very well. The AVG squadron at Lashio flew a high altitude Sweep against Magwe, and while there weren't any Zeros on CAP, the Oscars and Tojos there did quite well. Unfortunately, the AVG attack went in split, with the first attack consisting of only three H81-A3s. One AVG plane was lost while no Japanese planes were lost. Then the main attack flew in consisting of 24 more H81-A3s. The results weren't much better and despite having numerical superiority the AVG pilots could only shoot down one Tojo and lost one of their own planes. Other H81-A3 planes were written off upon return.
However, a number of Allied Recon missions did fly over Magwe, including missions from the newly upgraded Liberator and B-17E squadrons at Calcutta. So since none of the Heavies were damaged I ordered them to fly an Airfield attack for next turn. I'm hoping that the Japanese fighters are either on High Altitude CAP or are trying a return Sweep over Lashio, so that the Heavies can sneak in. Even if they can't, maybe they will do a better job of killing Japanese fighters.
As expected, the Japanese invaders easily captured Koepang with a Shock attack this turn. The Dutch troops retreated into the jungle and will attempt to reach Dili, but I'm pretty certain that they will never make it.
In other news, the Chinese Front is going to heat up again now that the first Japanese unit has arrived at Nanyang. I've now ordered units to converge on Nanyang from three directions, so with any luck I'll cut off the Japanese advance. I'm not keen on fighting a major war in China, but I won't run away from it either.
The night phase brought the Japanese occupation of Camiguin, followed by an attack with dud torpedoes by USS Salmon on a PB near Jesselton. There were no more attempts by the Japanese to land at Koepang.
Daylight brought the unwelcome sight of the KB sitting a couple of hexes off of the nothern coast of Australia, almost due north of Wyndham. Scout planes from the KB spotted the two heavily damaged Dutch ships from the debacle of the 15th, Java and Van Ghent, which were still only a few hexes away from Koepang. The KB scouts reported hitting the CL with a bomb. The scoutplanes also flew over Darwin but all they found there were a few US PT boats on patrol.
Japanese bombing runs hit Koepang and Malaybalay repeatedly again, and San Jose in the Philippines was hit for the first time. Kuantan also received some bomber attention for the first time in several months. A KB attack went out after the Dutch cripples but somehow missed them. So the two ships were buzzed by Zeros but nothing more. Never-the-less, Van Ghent ended up sinking due to its damage from the day before.
Another of my plans went into action today and again things didn't work out very well. The AVG squadron at Lashio flew a high altitude Sweep against Magwe, and while there weren't any Zeros on CAP, the Oscars and Tojos there did quite well. Unfortunately, the AVG attack went in split, with the first attack consisting of only three H81-A3s. One AVG plane was lost while no Japanese planes were lost. Then the main attack flew in consisting of 24 more H81-A3s. The results weren't much better and despite having numerical superiority the AVG pilots could only shoot down one Tojo and lost one of their own planes. Other H81-A3 planes were written off upon return.
However, a number of Allied Recon missions did fly over Magwe, including missions from the newly upgraded Liberator and B-17E squadrons at Calcutta. So since none of the Heavies were damaged I ordered them to fly an Airfield attack for next turn. I'm hoping that the Japanese fighters are either on High Altitude CAP or are trying a return Sweep over Lashio, so that the Heavies can sneak in. Even if they can't, maybe they will do a better job of killing Japanese fighters.
As expected, the Japanese invaders easily captured Koepang with a Shock attack this turn. The Dutch troops retreated into the jungle and will attempt to reach Dili, but I'm pretty certain that they will never make it.
In other news, the Chinese Front is going to heat up again now that the first Japanese unit has arrived at Nanyang. I've now ordered units to converge on Nanyang from three directions, so with any luck I'll cut off the Japanese advance. I'm not keen on fighting a major war in China, but I won't run away from it either.
More Dutch Futility
February 17, 1942 -
The night phase was fairly quiet, with the exception of multiple reports of ships in Rabaul Harbor and elsewhere in PNG and the Solomons, until a Japanese landing started at Makassar. The Dutch troops didn't do any damage to the incoming Japanese, but the Surf did.
Daylight brought multiple Japanese bomber attacks on Malaybalay and Makassar. Then a number of fairly large Japanese air attacks hit the Chinese troops at Nanyang. It's too bad that I didn't have any of the AVG on LR CAP over the base because the Japanese bombers flew in first and the Zero Sweep came in last. More Japanese troops joined the siege, while more Chinese troops marched along the way to join the battle. This is going to be a mess at best.
Next it was the turn of the Dutch Air Force to show what they could do. What they showed was rather like what the Dutch Navy showed at Koepang. Three bomber attacks, totalling 121 bombers, with escorts, flew in over Palembang and attacked a TF consisting of 8 mixed transport ships. A handful of Oscars flew CAP. The end result was one bomb hit on a Japanese AV. Surprisingly enough, only a couple of Dutch bombers were lost.
And this is after three months of intensive training. Oh well, at least the Dutch bombers didn't just take one look at the Oscars and run away. Instead they all took turns flying bombing runs at 6000 feet. It's just that their aim was terrible. This is an odd message to send to my opponent. On one hand he can see that I can send out large bomber attacks. On the other hand, he can also see that he has little to fear from those attacks.
Finally, my bombing raid from Calcutta to Magwe flew. But to my surprise (horror) I saw that I had mistakenly given orders to the Blenheims at Calcutta to fly along with the LB-30s and the B-17Es. A mixed CAP of Oscars and Tojos tried to stop the Allied bombers without success. The bombers hit their target and caused some Air Field damage, but unfortunately they didn't destroy any planes on the ground. The good news from this raid was that I didn't lose any bombers.
The KB flew Search Patrols this turn but didn't attack anything. One Kate spotted CL Java and might have dropped a bomb on it. In any event, Java sank of its own accord and the KB was left without targets. The funny thing is that the Fog of War announced the sinking of Achilles.
The Japanese besiegers attempted another assault on Malaybalay this turn. The Japanese forces consisted of 2 Infantry Regiments, 1 Field Artillery Regiment, 1 Engineering Company, and 1 SNLF unit. The defenders consisted of 3 Philippine Infantry Regiments, 1 Philippine Infantry Battalion, 1 Base Force and 1 HQ. The Japanese achieved a 3:1 result and reduced the Fortifications down from 2 to 1. The Japanese took 140 casualties against 342 casualties for the Allies. The base ought to fall at the next attack.
In other news, the Japanese landing at Makassar consists of two big SNLF units so far. They didn't attack this turn.
The Port at Bombay reached Level 7, which means that I can replenish battleships there. The Port at Prince Rupert reached Level 5. I intend to build Prince Rupert up to Level 7 also as part of my Northern Strategy.
SIGINT provided some interesting info this turn – a Japanese Paratroop unit is at Ambon. I wonder if they will parachute in and grab Dili prior to an invasion of Lautem.
And finally, I received a huge number of Air units this turn in San Francisco. Unfortunately, they are all empty, and I don't have enough planes in stock to fill them all, so I had to withdraw some of them again.
The night phase was fairly quiet, with the exception of multiple reports of ships in Rabaul Harbor and elsewhere in PNG and the Solomons, until a Japanese landing started at Makassar. The Dutch troops didn't do any damage to the incoming Japanese, but the Surf did.
Daylight brought multiple Japanese bomber attacks on Malaybalay and Makassar. Then a number of fairly large Japanese air attacks hit the Chinese troops at Nanyang. It's too bad that I didn't have any of the AVG on LR CAP over the base because the Japanese bombers flew in first and the Zero Sweep came in last. More Japanese troops joined the siege, while more Chinese troops marched along the way to join the battle. This is going to be a mess at best.
Next it was the turn of the Dutch Air Force to show what they could do. What they showed was rather like what the Dutch Navy showed at Koepang. Three bomber attacks, totalling 121 bombers, with escorts, flew in over Palembang and attacked a TF consisting of 8 mixed transport ships. A handful of Oscars flew CAP. The end result was one bomb hit on a Japanese AV. Surprisingly enough, only a couple of Dutch bombers were lost.
And this is after three months of intensive training. Oh well, at least the Dutch bombers didn't just take one look at the Oscars and run away. Instead they all took turns flying bombing runs at 6000 feet. It's just that their aim was terrible. This is an odd message to send to my opponent. On one hand he can see that I can send out large bomber attacks. On the other hand, he can also see that he has little to fear from those attacks.
Finally, my bombing raid from Calcutta to Magwe flew. But to my surprise (horror) I saw that I had mistakenly given orders to the Blenheims at Calcutta to fly along with the LB-30s and the B-17Es. A mixed CAP of Oscars and Tojos tried to stop the Allied bombers without success. The bombers hit their target and caused some Air Field damage, but unfortunately they didn't destroy any planes on the ground. The good news from this raid was that I didn't lose any bombers.
The KB flew Search Patrols this turn but didn't attack anything. One Kate spotted CL Java and might have dropped a bomb on it. In any event, Java sank of its own accord and the KB was left without targets. The funny thing is that the Fog of War announced the sinking of Achilles.
The Japanese besiegers attempted another assault on Malaybalay this turn. The Japanese forces consisted of 2 Infantry Regiments, 1 Field Artillery Regiment, 1 Engineering Company, and 1 SNLF unit. The defenders consisted of 3 Philippine Infantry Regiments, 1 Philippine Infantry Battalion, 1 Base Force and 1 HQ. The Japanese achieved a 3:1 result and reduced the Fortifications down from 2 to 1. The Japanese took 140 casualties against 342 casualties for the Allies. The base ought to fall at the next attack.
In other news, the Japanese landing at Makassar consists of two big SNLF units so far. They didn't attack this turn.
The Port at Bombay reached Level 7, which means that I can replenish battleships there. The Port at Prince Rupert reached Level 5. I intend to build Prince Rupert up to Level 7 also as part of my Northern Strategy.
SIGINT provided some interesting info this turn – a Japanese Paratroop unit is at Ambon. I wonder if they will parachute in and grab Dili prior to an invasion of Lautem.
And finally, I received a huge number of Air units this turn in San Francisco. Unfortunately, they are all empty, and I don't have enough planes in stock to fill them all, so I had to withdraw some of them again.
A Good Day for the Japanese
February 18, 1942 -
The night phase was quiet other than the continued landing of Japanese troops at Makassar.
Daylight brought out the Japanese Air Power again. For some reason that I can't fathom, my opponent sent some Zeros in to sweep the skies over Makassar. I certainly wasn't going to waste any fighters at that base in the vain hope of ambushing some bombers. Then plenty of Japanese bombers flew against Makassar, Malaybalay, Medan, San Jose, and for the first time, Benkoelen.
More interesting was the attack by the KB on the airfields at Darwin. I didn't have any fighters on CAP over the base and had pulled back all of the planes other than some Hudsons that were on Search Patrol. So one Hudson was lost, and there was a bit of damage to the airfields. But the good thing was that the KB had gone to the East and not to the West, so the remaining Dutch combat ships, along with the transport from which they had refueled, were able to continue their way towards the relative safety of Perth.
One thing I have to say for my opponent is that he mixes up his air attacks very well. I haven't been able to guess his intentions and trap his bombers very often. So, for example, this turn he sent bombers over Chengchow again even though his troops were moving in to attack Nanyang. A few AVG fighters wandered into the skies over Chengchow to chase the Japanese attackers a bit, but other than shooting down an Oscar, the AVG planes didn't do much.
So while the Japanese Air Force was attacking Chengchow, the Japanese Army assaulted Nanyang in a big way. Six Divisions, supported by other troops did a Deliberate attack. The assault achieved a 1:2 result and lowered the Fortifications from Level 4 to Level 3. But the Japanese only suffered 624 casualties against 2074 casualties for the Chinese. Fortunately, the Chinese casualties were mainly disabled squads, but this still was a concern. I have plenty of units on the way to releave the troops at Nanyang, but they still need a few days to reach the city.
So to help the situation I've sent all of the Chinese bombers to Sian and ordered them to attack the besiegers at Nanyang. I also ordered the AVG to fly LR CAP over the base to attempt to protect the bombers from enemy attacks. If I can buy three or four days I ought to stop this attack, but it will be close.
As an aside, I am currently starting two parallel pbems as the Japanese, and early in both games I am puzzled as to how to get enough troops to cover my garrison requirements, let alone put a half dozen big Japanese Divisions into an attack like this. I don't think that these are Manchuko troops, so I'm wondering if my opponent is just ignoring Garrison requirements and the potential loss of the odd point or two.
Elsewhere, Malaybalay was finally captured and the Philippine troops there surrendered. I've got one last, lonely Base Force wandering around Mindanao, but it isn't going to be able to do much.
Makassar was also captured, but in this case the Dutch troops retreated. It will be interesting to see if my opponent bothers to chase those retreating troops; in many places he hasn't bothered yet.
And finally, a small Japanese Infantry Regiment moved into and captured empty Mandalay, flying fishes and all. So next turn I'm sending out my B-17Es to give those Japanese troops some practice at ducking into fox holes.
The night phase was quiet other than the continued landing of Japanese troops at Makassar.
Daylight brought out the Japanese Air Power again. For some reason that I can't fathom, my opponent sent some Zeros in to sweep the skies over Makassar. I certainly wasn't going to waste any fighters at that base in the vain hope of ambushing some bombers. Then plenty of Japanese bombers flew against Makassar, Malaybalay, Medan, San Jose, and for the first time, Benkoelen.
More interesting was the attack by the KB on the airfields at Darwin. I didn't have any fighters on CAP over the base and had pulled back all of the planes other than some Hudsons that were on Search Patrol. So one Hudson was lost, and there was a bit of damage to the airfields. But the good thing was that the KB had gone to the East and not to the West, so the remaining Dutch combat ships, along with the transport from which they had refueled, were able to continue their way towards the relative safety of Perth.
One thing I have to say for my opponent is that he mixes up his air attacks very well. I haven't been able to guess his intentions and trap his bombers very often. So, for example, this turn he sent bombers over Chengchow again even though his troops were moving in to attack Nanyang. A few AVG fighters wandered into the skies over Chengchow to chase the Japanese attackers a bit, but other than shooting down an Oscar, the AVG planes didn't do much.
So while the Japanese Air Force was attacking Chengchow, the Japanese Army assaulted Nanyang in a big way. Six Divisions, supported by other troops did a Deliberate attack. The assault achieved a 1:2 result and lowered the Fortifications from Level 4 to Level 3. But the Japanese only suffered 624 casualties against 2074 casualties for the Chinese. Fortunately, the Chinese casualties were mainly disabled squads, but this still was a concern. I have plenty of units on the way to releave the troops at Nanyang, but they still need a few days to reach the city.
So to help the situation I've sent all of the Chinese bombers to Sian and ordered them to attack the besiegers at Nanyang. I also ordered the AVG to fly LR CAP over the base to attempt to protect the bombers from enemy attacks. If I can buy three or four days I ought to stop this attack, but it will be close.
As an aside, I am currently starting two parallel pbems as the Japanese, and early in both games I am puzzled as to how to get enough troops to cover my garrison requirements, let alone put a half dozen big Japanese Divisions into an attack like this. I don't think that these are Manchuko troops, so I'm wondering if my opponent is just ignoring Garrison requirements and the potential loss of the odd point or two.
Elsewhere, Malaybalay was finally captured and the Philippine troops there surrendered. I've got one last, lonely Base Force wandering around Mindanao, but it isn't going to be able to do much.
Makassar was also captured, but in this case the Dutch troops retreated. It will be interesting to see if my opponent bothers to chase those retreating troops; in many places he hasn't bothered yet.
And finally, a small Japanese Infantry Regiment moved into and captured empty Mandalay, flying fishes and all. So next turn I'm sending out my B-17Es to give those Japanese troops some practice at ducking into fox holes.
-
CapAndGown
- Posts: 3078
- Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2001 10:00 am
- Location: Virginia, USA
RE: A Good Day for the Japanese
There are plenty of small NPC units, Mongol troops, and a few SNLFs that you can use for garrisoning. Most places only need 20 to 40 assault points. If done right, you should be able to free up almost all your regular army troops for offensive action.
RE: A Good Day for the Japanese
ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown
There are plenty of small NPC units, Mongol troops, and a few SNLFs that you can use for garrisoning. Most places only need 20 to 40 assault points. If done right, you should be able to free up almost all your regular army troops for offensive action.
Ah, okay. My opponent has another game in which he is also playing the Japanese side, so I guess that he has already learned all that. One thing for certain, I now understand why he almost never has his Nates in action in this match... [;)]
Thanks
Subs on the Surface
February 19, 1942 -
My opponent sent me a little “teaser” with this turn in which he told me to watch out for his picket line. Immediately I started to think that he had caught and whacked one of the damaged BBs that was on the way back to the US West Coast. I've got three of them heading back to three different ports at this time, and though all of them are surrounded by a large number of ASW ships, one never knows when a sub will sneak through to ruin the day.
The turn started out with the usual Japanese occupation of an undefended base; this time Roxas in the Philippines. Then I breathed a sigh of relief as I found out where the Japanese sub picket line was situated – off of Exmouth on the far north-east corner of Australia. First off Japanese sub RO-33 shot four torpedoes at CL Trump but missed, and then the Dutch DDs missed at their attempt to hit the sub in return.
This didn't discourage the skipper of RO-33 because immediately afterwards the sub surfaced and attacked xAK Fairfield City. The crew on Fairfield City got off the first shot and hit RO-33 with a 4” shell, but the sub's skipper and crew remained agressive and fired back, hitting the Transport with two shells from the deck gun and eventually sinking the ship with three torpedoes. So my opponent's sub picket line worked as advertised, but this wasn't a big loss as the Fairfield City had done its job of bringing fuel to Port Hedland and so providing the fuel that the Dutch combat ships need to head back to Perth.
At this point it was the USN's turn to try a submarine surface attack as USS Nautilus attacked the unescorted Japanese transport xAK Sekiho just off of Ominato. Nautilus took advantage of its cruiser-like 6” guns to pound the Japanese Transport ship with 13 hits, leaving it burning and heavily damaged. But the skipper of the Nautilus left when he ran low on 6” shells, and never did finish off the Transport with a torpedo. So Nautilus is now on its way home to replenish its guns.
The night phase finished with a Japanese landing on the undefended island of Busuanga in the Philippines. I'm not certain why my opponent chose this particular base instead of any of the others, but it may be just a case of there being so many empty bases to capture that he has to start somewhere.
The day phase started out with a different tone as Hurricanes swept the sky over Mandalay and shot down an Oscar on LR CAP over the base. The Hurricanes had a 10 to 2 advantage in numbers. I didn't even order them to fly that attack, but I'll take the result happily. Later on in the day the B-17Es from Calcutta flew in and attacked the Japanese troops at Mandalay. This time five Oscars and two Tojos came in to defend but they were driven off by the Forts. The B-17s accomplished their mission with minor damage to themselves and returned home safely.
Japanese bombing continued at the usual places – San Jose, Makassar, and Medan – but in an interesting move a bunch of Bettys hit some of the troops at Darwin. I still had the British Buffalos back a couple of bases in case the KB did a Zero sweep of Darwin, but the KB had moved back beyond Timor and so the Bettys were unescorted. So for the next turn I've moved a British Buffalo squadron back into Darwin, just in case my opponent makes a slip and sends the bombers back in against Darwin again.
I had planned a number of air attacks in China for this turn in the hopes of slowing down the Japanese assault on Nanyang, but only one attack flew, a lone Chinese bomber squadron that attacked a small Sino-Japanese unit that is blocking the road south of Ichang. The AVG interferred with another attempted Japanese bomber attack on Chengchow, but the failure of the Chinese to attack the Japanese troops at Nanyang turned out to be very unfortuate later on.
And the Dutch flew against the transport TFs at Palembang again today. Once again large numbers of Dutch bombers and fighters flew against a handful of Oscars on CAP. Most of the Dutch bombers got through but they just couldn't hit the mark on the transport ships. Dutch losses were relatively light, but I am at a loss as to what to do with them, so I just re-set them for Search and ASW patrols.
In a somewhat surprising move the Japanese started to land at Dili late in the turn. I guess that this makes sense, because this way when my opponent invades Lautem there will be no retreat path for the Defenders and they will have to surrender.
Then the grim news continued in China as the Japanese besiegers of Nanyang did another Deliberate attack which achieved a 2:1 result and lowered the Fortifications down to Level 2. The Japanese took 955 casualties while the Chinese took 2181 casualties. I'm really kicking myself on this mess – I totally underestimated the Japanese capability to move large numbers of troops quickly. I have some relief columns that are almost at Nanyang, but I likely need two more days for them to reach it, and I don't know that I will get that time.
Stepping back to the Logistical War for a moment, a rather strange and unexpected thing occured this turn. I had noticed that a USMC VMF squadron was listed for some time as arriving on the Saratoga. The squadron was “greyed-out” for some reason. I have lots of withdrawn air groups coming back after their 60 day “vacation”, and I did withdraw all of the Marine fighter units so that I could use their planes on my CVs, but I withdrew those VMF squadrons from air bases, not from the CVs themselves.
Well, Saratoga was sitting in Bombay Harbor and this turn the VMF squadron suddenly appeared on the flight deck of the CV. The squadron was there with its pilots, but without any planes. The option to add planes was “greyed-out”, as was the option to move the squadron to the Base. So I formed the Sara into a single-ship TF and docked her. At that point I could move the VMF squadron to the Base, and once in the base I could now fill up the squadron with planes. The squadron was “expecting” Buffalos, and I have plenty of those in reserve, so I filled it up and set the unit to Training. At some point I'll bring that Fighter Unit up to the Front Lines, but I may wait until I have enough Wildcats to upgrade it first. So it was a strange occurance, but I can certainly use Fighter units in India, so I won't complain.
My opponent sent me a little “teaser” with this turn in which he told me to watch out for his picket line. Immediately I started to think that he had caught and whacked one of the damaged BBs that was on the way back to the US West Coast. I've got three of them heading back to three different ports at this time, and though all of them are surrounded by a large number of ASW ships, one never knows when a sub will sneak through to ruin the day.
The turn started out with the usual Japanese occupation of an undefended base; this time Roxas in the Philippines. Then I breathed a sigh of relief as I found out where the Japanese sub picket line was situated – off of Exmouth on the far north-east corner of Australia. First off Japanese sub RO-33 shot four torpedoes at CL Trump but missed, and then the Dutch DDs missed at their attempt to hit the sub in return.
This didn't discourage the skipper of RO-33 because immediately afterwards the sub surfaced and attacked xAK Fairfield City. The crew on Fairfield City got off the first shot and hit RO-33 with a 4” shell, but the sub's skipper and crew remained agressive and fired back, hitting the Transport with two shells from the deck gun and eventually sinking the ship with three torpedoes. So my opponent's sub picket line worked as advertised, but this wasn't a big loss as the Fairfield City had done its job of bringing fuel to Port Hedland and so providing the fuel that the Dutch combat ships need to head back to Perth.
At this point it was the USN's turn to try a submarine surface attack as USS Nautilus attacked the unescorted Japanese transport xAK Sekiho just off of Ominato. Nautilus took advantage of its cruiser-like 6” guns to pound the Japanese Transport ship with 13 hits, leaving it burning and heavily damaged. But the skipper of the Nautilus left when he ran low on 6” shells, and never did finish off the Transport with a torpedo. So Nautilus is now on its way home to replenish its guns.
The night phase finished with a Japanese landing on the undefended island of Busuanga in the Philippines. I'm not certain why my opponent chose this particular base instead of any of the others, but it may be just a case of there being so many empty bases to capture that he has to start somewhere.
The day phase started out with a different tone as Hurricanes swept the sky over Mandalay and shot down an Oscar on LR CAP over the base. The Hurricanes had a 10 to 2 advantage in numbers. I didn't even order them to fly that attack, but I'll take the result happily. Later on in the day the B-17Es from Calcutta flew in and attacked the Japanese troops at Mandalay. This time five Oscars and two Tojos came in to defend but they were driven off by the Forts. The B-17s accomplished their mission with minor damage to themselves and returned home safely.
Japanese bombing continued at the usual places – San Jose, Makassar, and Medan – but in an interesting move a bunch of Bettys hit some of the troops at Darwin. I still had the British Buffalos back a couple of bases in case the KB did a Zero sweep of Darwin, but the KB had moved back beyond Timor and so the Bettys were unescorted. So for the next turn I've moved a British Buffalo squadron back into Darwin, just in case my opponent makes a slip and sends the bombers back in against Darwin again.
I had planned a number of air attacks in China for this turn in the hopes of slowing down the Japanese assault on Nanyang, but only one attack flew, a lone Chinese bomber squadron that attacked a small Sino-Japanese unit that is blocking the road south of Ichang. The AVG interferred with another attempted Japanese bomber attack on Chengchow, but the failure of the Chinese to attack the Japanese troops at Nanyang turned out to be very unfortuate later on.
And the Dutch flew against the transport TFs at Palembang again today. Once again large numbers of Dutch bombers and fighters flew against a handful of Oscars on CAP. Most of the Dutch bombers got through but they just couldn't hit the mark on the transport ships. Dutch losses were relatively light, but I am at a loss as to what to do with them, so I just re-set them for Search and ASW patrols.
In a somewhat surprising move the Japanese started to land at Dili late in the turn. I guess that this makes sense, because this way when my opponent invades Lautem there will be no retreat path for the Defenders and they will have to surrender.
Then the grim news continued in China as the Japanese besiegers of Nanyang did another Deliberate attack which achieved a 2:1 result and lowered the Fortifications down to Level 2. The Japanese took 955 casualties while the Chinese took 2181 casualties. I'm really kicking myself on this mess – I totally underestimated the Japanese capability to move large numbers of troops quickly. I have some relief columns that are almost at Nanyang, but I likely need two more days for them to reach it, and I don't know that I will get that time.
Stepping back to the Logistical War for a moment, a rather strange and unexpected thing occured this turn. I had noticed that a USMC VMF squadron was listed for some time as arriving on the Saratoga. The squadron was “greyed-out” for some reason. I have lots of withdrawn air groups coming back after their 60 day “vacation”, and I did withdraw all of the Marine fighter units so that I could use their planes on my CVs, but I withdrew those VMF squadrons from air bases, not from the CVs themselves.
Well, Saratoga was sitting in Bombay Harbor and this turn the VMF squadron suddenly appeared on the flight deck of the CV. The squadron was there with its pilots, but without any planes. The option to add planes was “greyed-out”, as was the option to move the squadron to the Base. So I formed the Sara into a single-ship TF and docked her. At that point I could move the VMF squadron to the Base, and once in the base I could now fill up the squadron with planes. The squadron was “expecting” Buffalos, and I have plenty of those in reserve, so I filled it up and set the unit to Training. At some point I'll bring that Fighter Unit up to the Front Lines, but I may wait until I have enough Wildcats to upgrade it first. So it was a strange occurance, but I can certainly use Fighter units in India, so I won't complain.
The Battle for Nanyang - Day 2
February 20, 1942 –
The empty base of Tanjoenpinang was occupied by the Japanese over night. I had long ago pulled out the defenders into Sumatra to add to its defence. Japanese troops continued to land at Busuanga and Dili. In the far North a radio message was received from Narwhal reporting that the temporary flotation repairs were failing, so Narwhal was ordered to the nearest Aleutian Island for emergency repairs.
USS S-39 spotted a large Japanese TF full of big combat ships and DDs off of Koepang, but the sub couldn’t get into position to attempt an attack. Fortunately, the Japanese ASW wasn’t able to track down S-39 either. At first I thought that this was a strange place for a Japanese surface combat TF to show up, but later on it turned out to be the KB, again hovering off of Timor.
Just why did my opponent send the KB back to Timor? Does he really think that I would attempt another naval attack on the invasion TFs? As far as I’m concerned, Timor is a lost cause and I’m not going to waste any more ships in all-risk, no-gain attacks. But maybe, just maybe, the KB is going on a ship-hunting cruise down the west coast of Australia.
I don’t have a lot of ships in Perth, but I started them out to the south coast of Oz just in case. I have very limited forces along the west coast of Australia, and even more limited Air Search capability, so I don’t want to be surprised. My opponent can essentially do whatever he wants in northwest Oz for the next several months and I’m not going to thrown away forces in vain attempts to stop him. My main interest in Australia right now is to protect my rail lines from paratroop assaults and to build up forces in the south-east to allow me to counter-attack any region at my choosing later on.
The day phase started out with Zero sweeps over Nanyang and Oscar sweeps over Soerabaja. These were followed by bomber attacks on San Jose, Lautem, Soerabaja, Medan and Nanyang. Surprisingly enough, the Betty attack on Soerabaja didn’t do much damage.
Then it was the turn of the Chinese Air Force to get into action. First off a squadron of SB-IIIs attacked the Japanese picket-troops just south of Ichang. My opponent isn’t bother to fly CAP over those troops, so it is good and easy practice for the Chinese pilots. Then the main SB-III forces from Sian finally flew and hit the Chinese troops at Nanyang. There were two Zeros on LR CAP over the Chinese troops, but the Zeros were up high for their sweep while the Chinese bombers were down at 1000 feet for their attack, so the attack got through and hit one of the besieging Japanese Infantry Divisions. The attack didn’t cause a lot of casualties, but something is better than nothing. Then a second, smaller Chinese attack flew in and didn’t meet any CAP, but they missed their target.
Probably the most disappointing part of the effort was that the Chinese Transports that were supposed to fly supplies into Nanyang were intercepted and driven off by the Japanese LR CAP. But none of the Transport planes were shot down so I set them to fly supplies into Ichang instead for next turn.
Then the important battle came and the Japanese troops at Nanyang attempted another Deliberate attack. Fortunately, the two closest Chinese reinforcement units made it in time to join in the defence and the Japanese attack was blunted somewhat. The Japanese achieved another 2:1 assault and reduced the fortifications down to Level 1. The Japanese took 1367 casualties against 2097 casualties for the Chinese.
The extreme threat isn’t over, however, because all of my other Chinese relief units are several days’ march away from Nanyang, and the troops coming from Chengchow and Loyang are running into Japanese picket-troops along the way. I have decided to raise the ante by moving troops south from Ichang and Chengchow which will threaten the Japanese lines. This may be too late, however, to save the day for Nanyang.
In other ground combat news, Dili and Busuanga were captured by Japanese forces. Now it is just a matter of time for the troops at Lautem.
And in the strategic part of the Air War, my nuisance raids in Sumatra and Burma have evoked a response from my opponent. He has now significantly increased the numbers of fighters that he has in Palembang and Magwe. That’s good because it means that they aren’t other places. I’ll just rest my air units in Java and India and wait for good opportunities elsewhere.
The empty base of Tanjoenpinang was occupied by the Japanese over night. I had long ago pulled out the defenders into Sumatra to add to its defence. Japanese troops continued to land at Busuanga and Dili. In the far North a radio message was received from Narwhal reporting that the temporary flotation repairs were failing, so Narwhal was ordered to the nearest Aleutian Island for emergency repairs.
USS S-39 spotted a large Japanese TF full of big combat ships and DDs off of Koepang, but the sub couldn’t get into position to attempt an attack. Fortunately, the Japanese ASW wasn’t able to track down S-39 either. At first I thought that this was a strange place for a Japanese surface combat TF to show up, but later on it turned out to be the KB, again hovering off of Timor.
Just why did my opponent send the KB back to Timor? Does he really think that I would attempt another naval attack on the invasion TFs? As far as I’m concerned, Timor is a lost cause and I’m not going to waste any more ships in all-risk, no-gain attacks. But maybe, just maybe, the KB is going on a ship-hunting cruise down the west coast of Australia.
I don’t have a lot of ships in Perth, but I started them out to the south coast of Oz just in case. I have very limited forces along the west coast of Australia, and even more limited Air Search capability, so I don’t want to be surprised. My opponent can essentially do whatever he wants in northwest Oz for the next several months and I’m not going to thrown away forces in vain attempts to stop him. My main interest in Australia right now is to protect my rail lines from paratroop assaults and to build up forces in the south-east to allow me to counter-attack any region at my choosing later on.
The day phase started out with Zero sweeps over Nanyang and Oscar sweeps over Soerabaja. These were followed by bomber attacks on San Jose, Lautem, Soerabaja, Medan and Nanyang. Surprisingly enough, the Betty attack on Soerabaja didn’t do much damage.
Then it was the turn of the Chinese Air Force to get into action. First off a squadron of SB-IIIs attacked the Japanese picket-troops just south of Ichang. My opponent isn’t bother to fly CAP over those troops, so it is good and easy practice for the Chinese pilots. Then the main SB-III forces from Sian finally flew and hit the Chinese troops at Nanyang. There were two Zeros on LR CAP over the Chinese troops, but the Zeros were up high for their sweep while the Chinese bombers were down at 1000 feet for their attack, so the attack got through and hit one of the besieging Japanese Infantry Divisions. The attack didn’t cause a lot of casualties, but something is better than nothing. Then a second, smaller Chinese attack flew in and didn’t meet any CAP, but they missed their target.
Probably the most disappointing part of the effort was that the Chinese Transports that were supposed to fly supplies into Nanyang were intercepted and driven off by the Japanese LR CAP. But none of the Transport planes were shot down so I set them to fly supplies into Ichang instead for next turn.
Then the important battle came and the Japanese troops at Nanyang attempted another Deliberate attack. Fortunately, the two closest Chinese reinforcement units made it in time to join in the defence and the Japanese attack was blunted somewhat. The Japanese achieved another 2:1 assault and reduced the fortifications down to Level 1. The Japanese took 1367 casualties against 2097 casualties for the Chinese.
The extreme threat isn’t over, however, because all of my other Chinese relief units are several days’ march away from Nanyang, and the troops coming from Chengchow and Loyang are running into Japanese picket-troops along the way. I have decided to raise the ante by moving troops south from Ichang and Chengchow which will threaten the Japanese lines. This may be too late, however, to save the day for Nanyang.
In other ground combat news, Dili and Busuanga were captured by Japanese forces. Now it is just a matter of time for the troops at Lautem.
And in the strategic part of the Air War, my nuisance raids in Sumatra and Burma have evoked a response from my opponent. He has now significantly increased the numbers of fighters that he has in Palembang and Magwe. That’s good because it means that they aren’t other places. I’ll just rest my air units in Java and India and wait for good opportunities elsewhere.
A Bitter Lesson
February 21, 1942 -
This was a really quiet night turn as the only occurance was the Japanese occupation of Tassafaranga.
Daylight brough Zero sweeps over Nanyang. The first sweep pitted 9 Zeros against 4 H81As and it was a draw as both sides lost a plane. The next sweep had 8 Zeros against 1 AVG fighter which was shot down. Afterwards the Japanese had free run of the air over Nanyang as the rest of the AVG planes on LR CAP couldn't find the enemy.
Japanese planes bombed the usual locations – San Jose, Lautem and Medan – as well as stepping up their efforts in China. Bombers struck the Chinese units on the road from Chengchow to Nanyang as well as Nanyang itself. No Allied fighters contested the attacks.
The Chinese attacks were not as fortunate. Chinese bombers attacked the Japanese units south of Ichang but found Zeros on CAP. Some Chinese I-15-III fighters were along on escort and astonishingly, the Chinese and Japanese each lost a plane. But in the end the attacking bombers didn't hit their target.
Chinese bombers also hit the Japanese besiegers of Nanyang but they had to fight their way through Zero CAP. None of the LR CAP AVG fighters showed up to protect the Chinese bombers. Never-the-less the Chinese bombers did hit their target and caused a small amount of damage to the Japanese forces.
Once the air battles were over the Japanese ground forces at Nanyang attacked once again. This time the Deliberate attack resulted in a 1:1 result and knocked the Forts down to Level 0. The Japanese took 1474 casualties against 4393 for the Chinese. This looks to be it for the Chinese defenders of Nanyang – it will take days for any more reinforcements to arrive as most of the nearby reinforcements are being blocked by Japanese forces. This will be a frustratingly bitter defeat for me since I had the possibility of stopping this attack if I had only had the foresight to act sooner.
This was a really quiet night turn as the only occurance was the Japanese occupation of Tassafaranga.
Daylight brough Zero sweeps over Nanyang. The first sweep pitted 9 Zeros against 4 H81As and it was a draw as both sides lost a plane. The next sweep had 8 Zeros against 1 AVG fighter which was shot down. Afterwards the Japanese had free run of the air over Nanyang as the rest of the AVG planes on LR CAP couldn't find the enemy.
Japanese planes bombed the usual locations – San Jose, Lautem and Medan – as well as stepping up their efforts in China. Bombers struck the Chinese units on the road from Chengchow to Nanyang as well as Nanyang itself. No Allied fighters contested the attacks.
The Chinese attacks were not as fortunate. Chinese bombers attacked the Japanese units south of Ichang but found Zeros on CAP. Some Chinese I-15-III fighters were along on escort and astonishingly, the Chinese and Japanese each lost a plane. But in the end the attacking bombers didn't hit their target.
Chinese bombers also hit the Japanese besiegers of Nanyang but they had to fight their way through Zero CAP. None of the LR CAP AVG fighters showed up to protect the Chinese bombers. Never-the-less the Chinese bombers did hit their target and caused a small amount of damage to the Japanese forces.
Once the air battles were over the Japanese ground forces at Nanyang attacked once again. This time the Deliberate attack resulted in a 1:1 result and knocked the Forts down to Level 0. The Japanese took 1474 casualties against 4393 for the Chinese. This looks to be it for the Chinese defenders of Nanyang – it will take days for any more reinforcements to arrive as most of the nearby reinforcements are being blocked by Japanese forces. This will be a frustratingly bitter defeat for me since I had the possibility of stopping this attack if I had only had the foresight to act sooner.
Collapse in Central China
February 22, 1942 -
This was a black day for the Allies. The night turn started out with USS Porpoise firing off four torpedoes against a DD in a Japanese Transport TF near Timor, but the torpedoes were duds. Fortunately, the Porpoise got away safely.
Daylight brought Zero sweeps all around the map. Thirteen Zeros from Palembang flew a sweep over Batavia and ran into 22 B-339Ds. The Dutch, who have been training for three months, held their own and each side lost one plane. Then there was a Zero sweep over Nanyang where 9 Zeros encountered 4 H81As from the AVG. But this time the Zeros clearly held the edge and shot down an H81A without any losses to themselves.
Next the Japanese bombers started their attacks. Numerous bombers hit Medan, the Chinese troops on the road between Chengchow and Nanyang, Nanyang, and Batavia. The Sallys that hit Nanyang didn't find any AVG planes in the air. The Sallys that hit Batavia had some Oscars as escorts and the Oscars did a much better job against the B-339D CAP than the Zero sweep did earlier. The Sallys got through and hit their targets without any interference from the Dutch fighters.
The only Allied Air Attack was some SB-IIIs that hit the airfields at Wuchow. There was no CAP, but the Chinese light bombers only scored one hit on the runway at Wuchow.
Then the Main Event occured as the Japanese besiegers of Nanyang captured the base with a 2:1 result. The Japanese only took 961 casualties against 21452 casualties for the Chinese who retreated towards Sian. That was despite the fact that the Japanese supply lines were contested.
Then came an equally painful defeat as the three good Chinese Corps on the road from Chengchow to Nanyang were devestated by a combined attack of two Japanese Armoured units along with a Japanese Infantry Division, and the Chinese retreated into Chengchow. The Japanese only suffered 46 casualties compared to 8144 for the Chinese.
This was a case of pure stupidity on my part because I had set the Chinese units to “Move” to a non-contested hex. Of course, in the “Move” mode they were much more vulnerable to a Japanese attack. I had done the same thing to the two Chinese Corps in the contested hex just to the north along the road from Loyang to Nanyang, but this time the Japanese attack only had an Infantry Division and no Armoured units, so the result was only 1:1.
I've certainly made a mess of Central China and I've now allowed my opponent to drive a nice, big fat wedge right through the heart of the Country. I've also learned that my “good” Chinese units are pretty much garbage in comparison to the Japanese units in the Theater, so I ordered the rest of my Chinese units that had been moving towards Nanyang to return to their original bases. There won't be any counter-attacks in China in the near future.
This was a black day for the Allies. The night turn started out with USS Porpoise firing off four torpedoes against a DD in a Japanese Transport TF near Timor, but the torpedoes were duds. Fortunately, the Porpoise got away safely.
Daylight brought Zero sweeps all around the map. Thirteen Zeros from Palembang flew a sweep over Batavia and ran into 22 B-339Ds. The Dutch, who have been training for three months, held their own and each side lost one plane. Then there was a Zero sweep over Nanyang where 9 Zeros encountered 4 H81As from the AVG. But this time the Zeros clearly held the edge and shot down an H81A without any losses to themselves.
Next the Japanese bombers started their attacks. Numerous bombers hit Medan, the Chinese troops on the road between Chengchow and Nanyang, Nanyang, and Batavia. The Sallys that hit Nanyang didn't find any AVG planes in the air. The Sallys that hit Batavia had some Oscars as escorts and the Oscars did a much better job against the B-339D CAP than the Zero sweep did earlier. The Sallys got through and hit their targets without any interference from the Dutch fighters.
The only Allied Air Attack was some SB-IIIs that hit the airfields at Wuchow. There was no CAP, but the Chinese light bombers only scored one hit on the runway at Wuchow.
Then the Main Event occured as the Japanese besiegers of Nanyang captured the base with a 2:1 result. The Japanese only took 961 casualties against 21452 casualties for the Chinese who retreated towards Sian. That was despite the fact that the Japanese supply lines were contested.
Then came an equally painful defeat as the three good Chinese Corps on the road from Chengchow to Nanyang were devestated by a combined attack of two Japanese Armoured units along with a Japanese Infantry Division, and the Chinese retreated into Chengchow. The Japanese only suffered 46 casualties compared to 8144 for the Chinese.
This was a case of pure stupidity on my part because I had set the Chinese units to “Move” to a non-contested hex. Of course, in the “Move” mode they were much more vulnerable to a Japanese attack. I had done the same thing to the two Chinese Corps in the contested hex just to the north along the road from Loyang to Nanyang, but this time the Japanese attack only had an Infantry Division and no Armoured units, so the result was only 1:1.
I've certainly made a mess of Central China and I've now allowed my opponent to drive a nice, big fat wedge right through the heart of the Country. I've also learned that my “good” Chinese units are pretty much garbage in comparison to the Japanese units in the Theater, so I ordered the rest of my Chinese units that had been moving towards Nanyang to return to their original bases. There won't be any counter-attacks in China in the near future.
Lights Out in Malaya
February 23, 1942 -
This was another no-good-news day. The night phase started out with Bassien being occupied, and then a message came from BB Pennsylvania that the temporary floatation repairs were giving out. BB Penn is several days sailing from San Fran, so I hope that I don't get any additional messages like that. I made certain that the Systems damage was zero before I sent out the ship, which normally means that things will stay pretty much okay. But it looks like Luck isn't with me at this point in time.
Daylight brought Zero sweeps over Batavia again. This time the Zeros outnumbered the Dutch fighters 10:4 and one Dutch plane was shot down against no Japanese losses. This attack was then followed by Sallys and Oscars on a raid against the airfields, and no Dutch fighters contested the attack.
Next 40 Bettys hit troops at Soerabaja. Unlike Bataan or Singapore, the Dutch don't have a lot of AA capability, so the Bettys got in and out with minimal damage. Then Bacolod was hit for the first time, and Medan and San Jose were hit with multiple raids for the nth time each.
The fight for Kuantan was over almost as soon as it started. Three Japanese armoured regiments, along with a Japanese Infantry regiment easily overwhelmed the starving defenders and wiped them out. Thus ends all British resistance in Malaya. Japanese troops also continued their gradual spread in Burma as Taung Gyi was captured this turn.
The one bit of hopeful news for me was that USS Hornet reached Balboa this turn. I already have a CL and a couple of DDs waiting there for it, so they formed up into an Air Combat TF and headed for San Diego. I was able to upgrade the biplane Helldivers for Dauntlesses while the Hornet was still in the East Coast, but there is a severe shortage of Devestators, even though I haven't lost any in combat, so there are only eight torpedo bombers onboard the Hornet. In a certain sense, I'm not certain if that is bad news or good news. [;)]
BTW - I forgot to mention this, but the KB sent in an air strike against the airfields at Broome this turn. They shot up the place pretty good, but it doesn't matter because I haven't had any troops in Broome for months. I pulled out those little fragment Base Forces from north-western Oz because they were too small to be of any use for either supporting planes or even for defending the base against nuisance attacks. I expect my opponent to land in northern Oz sooner rather than later, so I am preparing my defense-in-depth far to the south where I can bring some reasonable forces into battle.
This was another no-good-news day. The night phase started out with Bassien being occupied, and then a message came from BB Pennsylvania that the temporary floatation repairs were giving out. BB Penn is several days sailing from San Fran, so I hope that I don't get any additional messages like that. I made certain that the Systems damage was zero before I sent out the ship, which normally means that things will stay pretty much okay. But it looks like Luck isn't with me at this point in time.
Daylight brought Zero sweeps over Batavia again. This time the Zeros outnumbered the Dutch fighters 10:4 and one Dutch plane was shot down against no Japanese losses. This attack was then followed by Sallys and Oscars on a raid against the airfields, and no Dutch fighters contested the attack.
Next 40 Bettys hit troops at Soerabaja. Unlike Bataan or Singapore, the Dutch don't have a lot of AA capability, so the Bettys got in and out with minimal damage. Then Bacolod was hit for the first time, and Medan and San Jose were hit with multiple raids for the nth time each.
The fight for Kuantan was over almost as soon as it started. Three Japanese armoured regiments, along with a Japanese Infantry regiment easily overwhelmed the starving defenders and wiped them out. Thus ends all British resistance in Malaya. Japanese troops also continued their gradual spread in Burma as Taung Gyi was captured this turn.
The one bit of hopeful news for me was that USS Hornet reached Balboa this turn. I already have a CL and a couple of DDs waiting there for it, so they formed up into an Air Combat TF and headed for San Diego. I was able to upgrade the biplane Helldivers for Dauntlesses while the Hornet was still in the East Coast, but there is a severe shortage of Devestators, even though I haven't lost any in combat, so there are only eight torpedo bombers onboard the Hornet. In a certain sense, I'm not certain if that is bad news or good news. [;)]
BTW - I forgot to mention this, but the KB sent in an air strike against the airfields at Broome this turn. They shot up the place pretty good, but it doesn't matter because I haven't had any troops in Broome for months. I pulled out those little fragment Base Forces from north-western Oz because they were too small to be of any use for either supporting planes or even for defending the base against nuisance attacks. I expect my opponent to land in northern Oz sooner rather than later, so I am preparing my defense-in-depth far to the south where I can bring some reasonable forces into battle.
A Brief Act of Defiance
February 24, 1942 -
The night phase saw two US subs being chased unsuccessfully by Japanese PBs – Seawolf off of Singapore and Grenadier off of Truk.
The day phase saw my opponent broaden the scope of his aerial attacks. Cairns was attacked first by some strafing Zeros and then by some Nells at more normal altitudes. The damage was minor but if it continues it will become a problem, so I started to move one of my British Buffalo units into the region.
Next Port Blair was bombed by more Nells. I've been wondering why my opponent has pretty much ignored this base up until now. Then the usual targets – Medan, Bacolad, and Batavia – were bombed. Batavia first received an Oscar sweep. Seven Oscars faced 5 B-339s and the result was one Oscar shot down.
Then came the big Allied move as 40+ 139WH-3 bombers flew from Batavia to attack the air fields at Palembang at 100 feet. They were met by 18 Zeros on CAP. The Zeros first took care of the 5 B-339s that came along as Escort, then they swept down upon the Dutch bombers. The Zeros shot down a number of bombers but most got through to face the Flak at Palembang. In the end the Dutch achieved a reasonable amount of damage against the airfields at Palembang, but at a cost of 13 bombers. One Oscar was destroyed on the ground. Afterwards I spread the remaining bombers across Java to minimize the effects of any counter-attacks.
In other news, the KB is still hanging around the Timor-Northern Oz region. Kates buzzed Darwin several times, but there was no attack.
China continued to stabilize, with the only combat being an attack by a Japanese Infantry Division, two Japanese armoured units, and three Japanese artillery units on the two Chinese Corps that were sitting on the road next to Nanyang. The Japanese achieved a 4:1 result and kicked the Chinese back towards Loyang. The Japanese suffered 268 casualties against 7523 casualties for the Chinese.
Then, in a Brief Moment of Defiance, a lone Philippine Base Force recaptured Dumanquilas in Mindanao. This was the one base on the island that my opponent left ungarrisoned.
The night phase saw two US subs being chased unsuccessfully by Japanese PBs – Seawolf off of Singapore and Grenadier off of Truk.
The day phase saw my opponent broaden the scope of his aerial attacks. Cairns was attacked first by some strafing Zeros and then by some Nells at more normal altitudes. The damage was minor but if it continues it will become a problem, so I started to move one of my British Buffalo units into the region.
Next Port Blair was bombed by more Nells. I've been wondering why my opponent has pretty much ignored this base up until now. Then the usual targets – Medan, Bacolad, and Batavia – were bombed. Batavia first received an Oscar sweep. Seven Oscars faced 5 B-339s and the result was one Oscar shot down.
Then came the big Allied move as 40+ 139WH-3 bombers flew from Batavia to attack the air fields at Palembang at 100 feet. They were met by 18 Zeros on CAP. The Zeros first took care of the 5 B-339s that came along as Escort, then they swept down upon the Dutch bombers. The Zeros shot down a number of bombers but most got through to face the Flak at Palembang. In the end the Dutch achieved a reasonable amount of damage against the airfields at Palembang, but at a cost of 13 bombers. One Oscar was destroyed on the ground. Afterwards I spread the remaining bombers across Java to minimize the effects of any counter-attacks.
In other news, the KB is still hanging around the Timor-Northern Oz region. Kates buzzed Darwin several times, but there was no attack.
China continued to stabilize, with the only combat being an attack by a Japanese Infantry Division, two Japanese armoured units, and three Japanese artillery units on the two Chinese Corps that were sitting on the road next to Nanyang. The Japanese achieved a 4:1 result and kicked the Chinese back towards Loyang. The Japanese suffered 268 casualties against 7523 casualties for the Chinese.
Then, in a Brief Moment of Defiance, a lone Philippine Base Force recaptured Dumanquilas in Mindanao. This was the one base on the island that my opponent left ungarrisoned.
A Day for the (War) Birds
February 25, 1942 -
There was no night time action this turn, but the daylight air action more than made up for that.
First off was a surprise as a squadron of 11 Hurricanes lost track of a bomber attack on Mandalay but went in and swept the skies anyway. Opposing them were 2 Tojos, 5 Oscars and 5 Zeros. The Hurris did very well and shot down 1 Zero and 1 Tojo for the loss of one Hurricane. Later on the bombers came in – 8 Liberators and 8 B-17Es and they happily blew past the Japanese CAP of 1 Tojo, 3 Oscars and 2 Zeros to hit the air base and air fields at Mandalay nicely. All of the heavies got home safely with no damage.
The Japanese then took over the Stage in the Sky in a big way with multiple air attacks all over the map. Zeros swept the empty skies over Batavia, followed by an Oscar sweep, and finally bombers escorted by Oscars. Bettys hit the Port at Soerabaja. Bacolod, Praboemoelih, San Jose and Bacolod all were hit. Bataan was hit for the first time in a long time, and with no supply, the AA wasn't able to do anywhere near as much damage to the incoming attacks as before. Port Blair and Medan were hit hard, and Japanese planes, including Kates from the KB scouted Broome and Darwin.
As usual, my opponent avoided hitting the same target twice in a row, except for those locations where he is certain that there will be no surprise CAP. This meant that Cairns was left alone for a second day in a row, which allowed me to move up some British Buffalos to Townsville to provide some long distance CAP just in case the Japanese bombers come back in a turn or so.
There was one naval encounter as Dutch sub KXII hit a Japanese tanker with a torpedo off of Makassar. The Dutch sub got away safely and it looks like that TK might have sunk.
March is almost here, and along with it the March 1942 USN upgrades. Lexington is sitting conveniently in Seattle, but Saratoga is in Bombay. The Shipyards at Bombay and Aden are too small to upgrade Saratoga, and I have no intention of making Sara a sitting duck in Colombo, so I am sending her back to Capetown. However, I didn't go through all that time and trouble to get Saratoga to India just to have her Air Units out of action for a couple of months again, so I flew off the planes from Saratoga and I will have them be part of the Indian air defence until Saratoga comes back from Refit. I'm expecting my opponent to make some sort of move in the Bay of Bengal within the next month or so, and it will be nice to surprise him with some USN planes.
There was no night time action this turn, but the daylight air action more than made up for that.
First off was a surprise as a squadron of 11 Hurricanes lost track of a bomber attack on Mandalay but went in and swept the skies anyway. Opposing them were 2 Tojos, 5 Oscars and 5 Zeros. The Hurris did very well and shot down 1 Zero and 1 Tojo for the loss of one Hurricane. Later on the bombers came in – 8 Liberators and 8 B-17Es and they happily blew past the Japanese CAP of 1 Tojo, 3 Oscars and 2 Zeros to hit the air base and air fields at Mandalay nicely. All of the heavies got home safely with no damage.
The Japanese then took over the Stage in the Sky in a big way with multiple air attacks all over the map. Zeros swept the empty skies over Batavia, followed by an Oscar sweep, and finally bombers escorted by Oscars. Bettys hit the Port at Soerabaja. Bacolod, Praboemoelih, San Jose and Bacolod all were hit. Bataan was hit for the first time in a long time, and with no supply, the AA wasn't able to do anywhere near as much damage to the incoming attacks as before. Port Blair and Medan were hit hard, and Japanese planes, including Kates from the KB scouted Broome and Darwin.
As usual, my opponent avoided hitting the same target twice in a row, except for those locations where he is certain that there will be no surprise CAP. This meant that Cairns was left alone for a second day in a row, which allowed me to move up some British Buffalos to Townsville to provide some long distance CAP just in case the Japanese bombers come back in a turn or so.
There was one naval encounter as Dutch sub KXII hit a Japanese tanker with a torpedo off of Makassar. The Dutch sub got away safely and it looks like that TK might have sunk.
March is almost here, and along with it the March 1942 USN upgrades. Lexington is sitting conveniently in Seattle, but Saratoga is in Bombay. The Shipyards at Bombay and Aden are too small to upgrade Saratoga, and I have no intention of making Sara a sitting duck in Colombo, so I am sending her back to Capetown. However, I didn't go through all that time and trouble to get Saratoga to India just to have her Air Units out of action for a couple of months again, so I flew off the planes from Saratoga and I will have them be part of the Indian air defence until Saratoga comes back from Refit. I'm expecting my opponent to make some sort of move in the Bay of Bengal within the next month or so, and it will be nice to surprise him with some USN planes.
Java Time
February 26, 1942 -
The night phase brought unsuccessful sub attacks from both sides. First off IJN I-4 attacked a DMS in a Transport TF that is half way from San Francisco to Hawaii, but the sub's torpedoes missed. The escort ships in the Transport TF then took turns attacking the sub and likely hit it at least twice. Next, USS Stingray attacked and missed a Japanese xAK off of Kuching, but Stringray got away from the subsequent ASW attack unscathed.
Then the BIG NEWS of the turn occurred as a Japanese Invasion TF started to land troops at the Javanese coastal base of Semarang. I had some mines at the base, but no troops and no CD unit, so the Japanese landing party's only adversary was the Surf, which took out a number of invading troops.
Daylight brought out the Japanese Air Power in a major way again. Bandjermasin, Bacolod, Praboemoelih, San Jose, Medan, and the Chinese troops on the road to Loyang were all bombed.
Then the Dutch took their best shot at the Japanese invasion of Semarang. I had set most of the Dutch bombers in Java to Naval Attack last turn in the hopes of getting a shot at a nearby TF. I didn't realize at the time that the Japanese TF was an Invasion TF that would end up at Semarang. So my Dutch pilots had a shorter route to fly, but a much harsher one because my opponent had large quantities of Zeros on CAP over the Invasion TF. My opponent even had CVL Ryuyo in the Semarang hex in order to maximize the CAP from the CV.
Multiple Dutch bombing raids went in. Most were escorted by the best and most skilled Dutch fighter pilots. I even had a freshly upgraded Dutch Hurricane squadron in the mix. Never-the-less, the Dutch were outflown and outfought. Over 20 Dutch planes were lost against only two Zeros, and no Japanese ships were hit.
So for this upcoming turn I ordered the remaining Dutch planes to attack the Japanese troops on the ground in low altitude attacks. We'll see how many of them get under the Japanese CAP. As the Dutch units are getting decimated I am withdrawing them instead of trying to rebuild them. Maybe they will come back in 60 days in Australia or someplace else where they can be trained up and given better planes.
In other news, the Temporary Floatation repairs on BB Nevada gave out this turn, but luckily, Nevada had just reached the safety of San Francisco. [&o] So I put the ship into the Shipyard and also set the January 42 upgrade on for it. Nevada is the third Pearl Harbor BB to reach the West Coast.
The night phase brought unsuccessful sub attacks from both sides. First off IJN I-4 attacked a DMS in a Transport TF that is half way from San Francisco to Hawaii, but the sub's torpedoes missed. The escort ships in the Transport TF then took turns attacking the sub and likely hit it at least twice. Next, USS Stingray attacked and missed a Japanese xAK off of Kuching, but Stringray got away from the subsequent ASW attack unscathed.
Then the BIG NEWS of the turn occurred as a Japanese Invasion TF started to land troops at the Javanese coastal base of Semarang. I had some mines at the base, but no troops and no CD unit, so the Japanese landing party's only adversary was the Surf, which took out a number of invading troops.
Daylight brought out the Japanese Air Power in a major way again. Bandjermasin, Bacolod, Praboemoelih, San Jose, Medan, and the Chinese troops on the road to Loyang were all bombed.
Then the Dutch took their best shot at the Japanese invasion of Semarang. I had set most of the Dutch bombers in Java to Naval Attack last turn in the hopes of getting a shot at a nearby TF. I didn't realize at the time that the Japanese TF was an Invasion TF that would end up at Semarang. So my Dutch pilots had a shorter route to fly, but a much harsher one because my opponent had large quantities of Zeros on CAP over the Invasion TF. My opponent even had CVL Ryuyo in the Semarang hex in order to maximize the CAP from the CV.
Multiple Dutch bombing raids went in. Most were escorted by the best and most skilled Dutch fighter pilots. I even had a freshly upgraded Dutch Hurricane squadron in the mix. Never-the-less, the Dutch were outflown and outfought. Over 20 Dutch planes were lost against only two Zeros, and no Japanese ships were hit.
So for this upcoming turn I ordered the remaining Dutch planes to attack the Japanese troops on the ground in low altitude attacks. We'll see how many of them get under the Japanese CAP. As the Dutch units are getting decimated I am withdrawing them instead of trying to rebuild them. Maybe they will come back in 60 days in Australia or someplace else where they can be trained up and given better planes.
In other news, the Temporary Floatation repairs on BB Nevada gave out this turn, but luckily, Nevada had just reached the safety of San Francisco. [&o] So I put the ship into the Shipyard and also set the January 42 upgrade on for it. Nevada is the third Pearl Harbor BB to reach the West Coast.