Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. Bigred (A).

[FatR]

The Training Puzzle Solved?

It seems, that being in a base with a HQ (not necessarily an air HQ, but it seems that not all HQs have the same effect, as units in Ominato, where 5th Fleet was, were gaining skills slowly) was the factor that affected the rate of skill/EXP gain for my pilots. The difference after 1 1/3 months of training can reach 10 points in skill on average. A massive reshuffling of squadrons will be undertaken to optimize my training program.

Also, I've started transferring Army bomber pilots with EXP in 50s and GrdB in 60s to reserve. Practically all IJAAF bomber squadrons are understrength and will need to be rebuilt after Singapore finally falls and the severe drain on my LBA caused by concentration of flak there will be over (as the Dutch airforce is weak, I don't except much more losses in DEI), so that they'll be ready to pound Oahu. Better to place slightly undertrained pilots in squadrons, than completely green ones. Enough of the latter already were forced in the frontline squadrons. I also drained some Ki-51 units in China of expert pilots. They don't do much damage anyway, so they better should serve as training units that happen to also kill some Chinese in the process.


New Naval Bombardment

Allows you to set the minimal range of fire. As main guns on both Nagatos and Yamatos outrange the CD guns at Oahu, this might prove a solution for knocking out the latter, assuming we'll build up a port at Lahain and place a lot of naval support plus some AKEs there.

[FatR]

Burma Defense Plans

As swift capture of Burma is now almost a foregone conclusion, time to think about its defense. As shown in many AARs, defending Burma is a total pain for Japanese. British-Indian forces are stronger than in RL (doubly so in this game, as 18th British Division did not reach Singapore), while easy logistics prevent jungle from being Burma's shield.

On strategic level, if we manage to vanquish China the problem of defending in Burma will be resolved as an extra bonus. But, even if my plan is to succeed, mopping up is not likely to be over before the second half of 1943, while Burma might be easily overrun in 1942. If we manage to finish Hawaian operation before about second half of July of 1942, turning west and attacking Ceilon as well, with the purpose of destroying troops there can be another strategic solution, but such success in Hawaii is far from a given.

Therefore, Japan needs a solid operational plan for defending Burma.

First of all, passively defending far-flung outposts, like Akyab, Myitkyna and, to a lesser extent, Lashio, is not possible. Akyab, in particular, is a deathtrap for the defender. But others also easily can be cut off and encirled. I plan to take at least the former two, but they will be occupied only by token forces, to, hopefully, serve as a tripwire. They won't be significantly built up, nothing beyond Level 3 forts. As a side note, I start to dig in immediately after taking a new base, wherever I have engineers without better things to do, even if fortifications won't be useful in near future. Who knows if these forts at Lingayen or Chiang Mai might come handy later?

But anyway, in Burma my MRL will be built around bases marked on the map below. These will get decent (level 3-4) airfields, if they don't have such already, and as many forts as it will be possible to build before Allies make their move. Mandalay-Magwe-Meiktila triangle will receive most air support and at least 3 Flak units per base. Japanese Divisions (ImpGuards, 55th and 33rd, for starters) also will be posted there initially, to bolster construction capabilities with their organic engineers. Later they'll be positioned a bit to the rear, say, in Toungoo and placed in strategic mode, to quickly counter any Allied incursion. There are no key bases that cannot be bypassed or encircled in Burma, and therefore the only hope for success is active, dynamic defense, using the advantage of superior mobility by rail and good roads, with eventual counterattack.


Secondly, it should be noted, that the key for successful active defense is local air superiority. We just agreed on a houserule against strategic bombing until 1944, so oil in Magwe should be safe from direct destruction from the air, but it still will be lost if British bombers are allowed to interdict my troop movements and blast whole units into oblivion. That's why I'll undertake the above-outlined measures for providing Japanese airpower with solid ground foundation. Hopefully, with well-prepared, mutually supporting bases in Irrawaddy valley IJAAF will be able to both achieve favorable rates of exchange in future battles of attrition and provide tactical air support to ground troops.

[bklooste]

Its far to early to think of defence , keep the initiative make him think of defence... then he isnt concentrating his forces. Even if it is a reticent flank you dont want to think like that  
 
Once you can take Burma you can hold it for 6 months with 2 divisions..Though you need to be prepared to reinforce it after that ... 

[FatR]

Going for Hawaii requires an obvious and massive commitment, and British/Commonwealth get 3 good unrestricted divisions early. On the other hand, I might not be able to release 33rd for Burma, because 18th is half-disabled already in the process of storming Singapore. And DEI needs some garrizon too.

[bklooste]

ORIGINAL: FatR

The Training Puzzle Solved?

It seems, that being in a base with a HQ (not necessarily an air HQ, but it seems that not all HQs have the same effect, as units in Ominato, where 5th Fleet was, were gaining skills slowly) was the factor that affected the rate of skill/EXP gain for my pilots. The difference after 1 1/3 months of training can reach 10 points in skill on average. A massive reshuffling of squadrons will be undertaken to optimize my training program.

Also, I've started transferring Army bomber pilots with EXP in 50s and GrdB in 60s to reserve. Practically all IJAAF bomber squadrons are understrength and will need to be rebuilt after Singapore finally falls and the severe drain on my LBA caused by concentration of flak there will be over (as the Dutch airforce is weak, I don't except much more losses in DEI), so that they'll be ready to pound Oahu. Better to place slightly undertrained pilots in squadrons, than completely green ones. Enough of the latter already were forced in the frontline squadrons. I also drained some Ki-51 units in China of expert pilots. They don't do much damage anyway, so they better should serve as training units that happen to also kill some Chinese in the process.


New Naval Bombardment

Allows you to set the minimal range of fire. As main guns on both Nagatos and Yamatos outrange the CD guns at Oahu, this might prove a solution for knocking out the latter, assuming we'll build up a port at Lahain and place a lot of naval support plus some AKEs there.

re training program i know the commander of the HQ has a major effect on the training do the results agree with that ?


with Navel bombardment you may out range the CDs but your not going to hit anything at those distance...

[FatR]

Effects of HQ commanders are harder to measure. There was a great thread somewhere on the forum, with descriptions of what effects commanders' stats have, but I cannot find it now.

Meanwhile:

Sub Victory!

On January 27 Japanese subs made up for their lack of success since 9th of the same month, sinking 2 xAKs, a small Dutch xAP and DD Tjerk Hiddes in one day. More importantly, a whole unit of P-400s became fish housing alongside with one of xAKs sunk near San Francisco. I wonder if pilots perished with the planes. Either way, the unit should be gone either permanently or for a very long time.


Ready to Pounce

KB-2 now is close enough to Suva to rush in at full speed and attack on the next turn, but I decided not to. I don't know how strong CAP is, but probably it is fairly beefy as Suva seems to be the base Geoff decided to build up. Also, Kaga is in danger of major engine trouble again. Nagumo's fleet will move between Suva and Pago Pago, in hope to intercept some shipping outside of the range of Allied air cover. I'm not sure whether to recon Suva or not. Allied airsearch might miss KB-2, if we don't, but this is fair from sure.

The South Seas cruiser force also moves south, considerably behind KB-2 (there was a temporary fuel crisis at Rabaul). If Allied CAP is strong and considerable amount of shipping will be seen hiding under it, it'll try a surface bombardment.

[FatR]

The Sword Doesn't Strike True

On January 28-29 both parts of Kido Butai launched air and surface attacks against Allied fleet assets across the map. Unfortunately, while Japanese forces achieved surprise at both points of attack, results happened to be relatively disappointing, due to both lack of worthy targets and bad luck.


January 28

Nagumo's air search detected CLs Achilles and Leander near Taveuni Island, apparently moving from Suva in northeastern detection, thus crossing the path of KB-2. This is where the "bad luck" part came in. Cruisers were spotted near the dusk and only 24 Vals were on the carrier decks and ready to strike. Even though weather wasn't particularly bad, their attack was uncharacteristically inaccurate (probably due to moisture condensating on bomb sights in tropical condition or something) and only one bomb hit Leander, not causing appreciable damage. Both cruisers got away under the cover of night.

One day earlier, Japanese recon planes spotted a large Allied convoy in Sabang on the northermost tip of Sumatra. Admiral Yamaguchi, upon receiving these news, decided to detach his cruiser escorts, with 3 DDs, to attempt a surface intercept. On 28th the Allied convoy was spotted again, by ramped up airsearch from Rangoon, and the Japanese SCTF turned right into its path.


January 29

In the middle of the night, Japanese hunters found what proved to be an Allied evacuation convoy.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Great Nicobar at 37,65, Range 2,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
CA Tone
CA Chikuma
DD Shikinami
DD Akebono
DD Ushio

Allied Ships
xAP Khandalla, Shell hits 1
xAP Takliwa, Shell hits 1
xAP Santhia, Shell hits 5, on fire
xAK Catrine, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Changte, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Silverteak, Shell hits 10, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Silverwillow, Shell hits 6, on fire
xAP Singu, Shell hits 15, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAP Australia Star, Shell hits 10, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
KV Jasmine, Shell hits 14, and is sunk

Allied ground losses:
208 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 12 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 6 (2 destroyed, 4 disabled)

Poor visibility due to Thunderstorms with 92% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 92% moonlight: 2,000 yards

Unfortunately, their lack of numbers and, most of all, bad weather prevented them from catching everything. In the morning the remnants of convoy weren't found, probably because my warships were in "Retirement allowed" mode, so the commander decided to search a safe haven in the storm. Should have ordered them into an one-hex patrol zone instead.


In the day phase hundreds of planes took off to attack Colombo, Suva and Allied ships spotted nearby. A sweep at Suva, although understrenght, because only Akagi squadron decided to sweep, for some reason, took out enough defending Airacobras to avoid any damage to the raid, while at Colombo the skies were empty of Allied planes. Very lucky, cause most of my Zero escorts decided to not fly. But accuracy of port-bombing Kates proved to be abysmal. 192 planes scored only 9 bomb hits. I don't know if this because of poor recon or weather. I really expected better at Suva, where the port was already reconned.

Also, nothing more valuable than a tanker was found in either port, and none of the attacked ships were sunk.

Meanwhile, Vals struck targets of opportunity around ports. At Colombo they sank or left in sinking condition 4 KVs, 2 AMs, 1 PG and 1 xAK. At Suva AP U.S Grant and xAK Henry S Grove were hit hard enough to almost certainly sink, and the former seemed to be loaded with vehicles. Old DD Kilty was moderately damaged.

US aviation launched counterstrikes at Nagumo's fleet, but the coordination between Army and Marines was appaling. Airacobras arrived separately from Vindicators and Dauntlesses, but were mauled anyway. Of the latter, those who turned back after not meeting their escorts lived to fight another day. Brave souls who pressed on all were torn apart by the swarm of Zeros before reaching a release point. Overall, 46 Allied planes are reported to be lost today, about half of them Airacobras.

Japanese losses over the day are 9 Kates due to flak and ops. 8 Zeros were lost too (5 A2A, 3 ops), but as we had some air combar against Dutch over Soerabaja, some of them might belong to 3rd Ku. 12 pilots were KIA and MIA, probably not all, but most of them carrier pilots.

[FatR]

Advances on the Ground and Short-Term Plans

On 29th a deliberate attack dropped the forts at Singpore to zero. We'll wait one-two days to drop disruption and draw supplies and then order a shock attack, to hopefully force a surrender. If this doesn't work, 40th Brigade, although preparing for Midway, is released from Korea and moves towards Malaya on transports.

As the Empire doesn't really have a force to invade Java proper and we don't really need any more bridgeheads, in the last week I have redirected our forces to clean up Allied holdouts in our rear. 4th Regiment went from Ambon to Tarakan and landed on 29th as well. Coastal guns inflicted significant damage to the covering cruisers and destroyers, but no ship is in direct danger. 4-battleship bombardment a turn earlier went in during the night and did little damage. This is for the better, though, as under the new beta patch naval bombardment can damage facilities!

Meanwhile, Imperial Guards Mixed brigade is unloading at Cotabato to finally crack Allied defenses at Cagayan. I should say again, that the early invasion of Mindanao in force really backfired on me and turned this island into a sponge for Japanese troops. But once we take Cagayan, we should be able to muster enough troops for an initial assault on Java, even if Singapore/Bataan still hold. If they fall by this time, and this seems possible, the forces there will be used to invade northern Sumatra.

Japanese forces are behind their operational schedule so far. This partly can be blamed on overtly strong Allied defenses past the artillery nerf. However, slow advance from Mersing was my fault. We need to start loading forces for Hawaii at the beginning of March at the latest. But looks like we'll have only three week to crush Java. If Yubari decided to run for one of the mountain bases, I will opt for a siege, instead of an assault. But so far Dutch seems to be concentrated at Soerabaja and Batavia. On the other hand, I can try to quickly defeat their seemingly evenly divided forces piecemeal.



EDIT:

P.S.: And here is that thread about leaders I mentioned above:
tm.asp?m=2350193&mpage=1&key=%EF%BF%BD
Thanks to Central Blue for finding it!

[bklooste]

ORIGINAL: FatR



EDIT:

P.S.: And here is that thread about leaders I mentioned above:
tm.asp?m=2350193&mpage=1&key=%EF%BF%BD
Thanks to Central Blue for finding it!

Looks like HQ units in range affect disruption and recovery which can lead to faster training .. Strange that it sometimes seems to be land HQs or is that a furfy and there is a Air HQ with command radius nearby

[FatR]

January 30: Cleanup

I-155 and KB planes hunted down the remnants of the Allied evacuation convoy south of Ceilon today. Two xAPs were sunk for sure and the third took at least one hit. I hope it'll burn out on the way to port. I also hope we destroyed some ground unit fragments, probably air support and engineers from Singapore, for good.

Looks like Yubari evacuated Colombo just recently, as the convoy we eliminated yesterday looked like a xAK attached to a bunch of short-ranged ships to refuel them on the way. Still, I decided not to pursue. Warships might be pretty far away. And Allies can hide them in off-map ports. However irritating it is to see your forces shooting sparrows with a cannon, it's time to retreat and regroup. One strategic benefit certainly obtained from the Indian Ocean voyage is the confirmation that RN decided to play Sir Robin. Therefore, we can move pretty much at will in DEI. Allied aviation on Java seems to consist only of Dutch planes. No dreaded stringbags were reported on the attacked airfields.

Similarly Nagumo retreats from Fiji, but some more attacks were launched in the process. Kongo and Haruna visited Suva during the night and discovered that the night naval bombardement is completely nerfed, even if you have 9/10 detection on the target base and floatplanes flying as spotters. They sank DD Kilty, though. In the day phase we also found that if bombers aren't explicitly ordered to rest as their secondary mission, they might decide to do something stupid, like dive-bombing a heavy-flak target, anyway. We lost three brave but stupid pilots from Akagi. One Zero pilot also perished in the air combat during the raid proper (that thankfully went in before the Akagi divebombers and cleared the skies). TK Gulfdawn, DD Crane and AP Henry T. Allen were left heavily burning, and in a port without a shipyard this well might be the end of them.


Overall, while we bagged a number of ships, both raids are a strategic disappointment. None of the major Allied surface combatants were eliminated despite the loss of about 15 elite pilots. At best, Allies are now short 2 large tankers and 2 large APs, the rest of the victims aren't worth much.

But on the other hand, save for fuel expenditures, Japan hadn't really paid much for these results. Hopefully, the Suva raid will force Yubari to be more cautious with the reinforcement of South Pacific and convince him that I'm interesred in this region. Meanwhile, Nagumo will retreat to Home Islands, to repair his ships, and Yamaguchi hopefully will be able to do the same at Singapore.


Yamashita Is Short on Ammunition!

Meanwhile, 25th Army at Singapore wasn't able to pull enough supply for the next attack. We had loads of supplies at Cam Rahn, but almost nothing flows to the west of it. Thankfully, one convoy already is on the way. A note should be taken - Malaya and Burma campaigns require a dedicated resupply effort, unless they are won really fast.


But Otherwise IJA Does Fine

Magwe and and Tarakan were taken on 30th with practically no damage. Yay! This also pushed the Japanese victory score above the Allied one. I'll post detailed reports on various theaters as February begins.

[FatR]

First, the hot news: I-173 put a single torp into Saratoga southwest of Pearl. No fires or significant damage were observed. So, none of the many sinking sounds heard during the replay are the least bit likely to belong to her. But at least now we know where one of the Allied CV is. Course of Saratoga suggested either South Pacific or Marshalls as her destination. Kwajalein fighter complement will be temporarily boosted.


Anyway, the promised:


Strategic Situation At The End Of January

Overall, Japanese advanced steadily and with pretty much zero interupption from Allied fleets during January. However, while all of their land campaigns achieved considerable progress, a number of sieges deadlocked most of their available LCUs either for the most of the month or until now, so the only radical breakthough was achieved in Burma. This also means, that the imperial forces fall behind my ambitious schedule.

Allied airforce was mostly rendered impotent by attrition and Japanese numerical superiority by the middle of the month. Allies briefly tried to contest the skies over Burma, but withdrew after their fighters proved unable to achieve a favorable rate of exchange. In China the Allied airforce withdrew from the frontlines as well. Dutch fighters once again proved themselves hopeless and Japanese bombers now strike almost at will at targets across Java.

Japanese carrier taskforces prowled both oceans with little opposition, while Allies successfully raided Sea of Okhotsk, so ship losses on both sides remained high. However, no major combatants were lost on either side. Japanese also avoided losing any valuable transports or freighters, while Allies lost a number of them and some decent escort ships as well.


The intelligence screen as of the end of January:



Note, that Allied ship losses might be undestated by as much as 20-30 hulls now. For example, none of the ships sunk at Chittagong showed up in the intel yet.

[FatR]

Development of Operations: Philippines

As you can see below, remaining Allied forces are cornered at Bataan and Cagayan. A deliberate attack at Bataan on 31th ended with modified AV 968:821 in Japanese favor and dropped the forts to 1. I'm inclined to try shock attacking immediately, despite disruption and fatigue around 40-50 in my divisions. Allies are out of supply, just lost more AV than I did (190 combat squads vs. 142) and hopefully are disrupted too. Attrition just works too slowly. The first two assaults reduced Allied unmodified AV from 1124 to only 911 (Japanese lost around 50-55 AV, hard to tell exactly as I reinforced with two armor regiments since then).

At Cagayan we'll attack in four days, after it is totally encircled. Japanese forces should have approximately 630 AV against about 200.

[FatR]

Development of Operations: Malaya and Western DEI

The siege of Singapore drags on since January 8. Unmodified Allied AV was reduced from 1105 to 862 before the last deliberate attack that reduced the forts to 0. Unmodified Japanese AV dropped from 2261 to 1800. 312 AV were lost in the initial shock attack during crossing, since then and until the last assault Allies lost 164 AV and Japanese around 180 AV (a Recon Rgt was added to the assaulting forces since). So, the rate of attrition doesn't seem favorable. If not for the engineers, that did most of the key work of reducing fortifications, the city likely would have been impossible to take at all with the present forces (4th, 5th, 18th and 33rd Divisions, 56th Division elements save for one regiment, 3 independent artillery regiments, Southern Army and 25th HQ). Terauchi was sacked from the position of the Southern Army commander as a result of these bloody failures and replaced by Shimomura Sadamu. Hopefully superior Land skill and inspiration of the latter will help us to buff AV in the incoming shock attack and force a capitulation.

Meanwhile, most of Southern Sumatra was occupied with very light losses and almost no damage to oil in Djambi, where the Dutch attempted to make a stand. Oosthafen now is a mighty airbase, and Palembang is up to level 6 (this also eliminated any fuel spoilage there). Merak on Java was temporarily occupied by a small Japanese party that crossed the strait from Oosthafen on whatever boats they found there and established a contact with local Indonesian nationalists. A Dutch landstorm batalion soon arrived from Batavia to restore control of the city and so it did. However, Japanese aviation from Oosthafen used is as target practice thereafter - withot any flak to protect them Dutch soldiers soon found themselves in a very unenviable situation.

[FatR]

Development of Operations: Eastern DEI and Northern OZ

The Eastern DEI theatre is pretty much closed. All that's left is to take Balikpapan, which is hopelessly isolated by the torpedo-carrying Netties at Makassar and Kendari, and pick off various small bases. Ambon and Timor are taken and Allies no longer have any bases with air support between Denpasar and Australia. I plan to land at Port Hedland and Exmouth pretty soon, but, as Kido Butai heads towards Java anyway (I don't want to hold it in place hoping that Singapore falls within a few turns), the next operation will be the landing on the eastern tip of Java anyway. It is not really a critical operation, and I wouldn't have launched it if not for continuing resistance at Singapore, which prevents my ships from moving through Malacca Strait, but getting an operational airfield on Java itself under carrier cover will help to minimize casualties. I plan to use 146th Regiment, two tank regiments and two artillery units to establish a bridgehead. They'll concentrate at Makassar and sail to the point that will be chosen based on the results of recon during the next few turns.

[FatR]

Development of Operations: Burma

Burma is where IJA achieved its fastest success, perhaps due to timely replacement of commanders of 15th Army and Imperial Guards with more competent ones. Allies are on the run, but several of their units were caught and routed, including a base force at Magwe a turn ago. After abandoning Moulmein British left Rangoon withot a fight and tried to make a stand at Toungoo, but their force was both insufficient and outflanked by two tank regiments that advances from Rangoon to Prome and Magwe. 112th Regiment moved to Prome by rail after its capture and now marches to reinforce Magwe, while tank units will move to the right bank of Irrawaddy and try to cut off the path of retreat of Allied units. Hopefully, sustained air raids will force most of them into combat mode and prevent organized retreat. I had a IJAAF airbase batallion already in strat mode and ready to move to Magwe as soon as it captured, so the airfield will become operational from the next turn. Unfortunately, bad weather regularly prevents our bombers from flying, so Allied forces still stand a chance of escaping their predicament.

Japanese losses in the Burma campaign are very light so far. No units are severely disabled and once-mediocre Imperial Guards gained a nice amount of experience. Air losses are quite light as well. There were no successful ambushes on Japanese bombers over Burma.

[FatR]

Development of Operations and Plans for Stage 2: China

As you can see from the map below (by the way, edits made by Paint don't look pretty, what authors of other AARs are using to edit their maps?), in China we're preparing simultaneous offensives towards Sian and at the south. AV listed is only those units that actually will participate in the assaults. I'm leaving about 500 AV in both Nanchang and Nanyang. Both also have level 3 forts and growing. And of course, aviation will be directed to repel any assault on either. In Nanyang we already have around 80 air support and the airfield will rise to level 3 on the next turn. 4th Air Division also has been released for use in North-Central China. Chinese planes were spotted over Nanyang this turn, so Yubari will probably know what's coming, but I believe that this mass of troops should just overwhelm remaining Chinese resistance by sheer AV.

In the south, Japanese temporarily retreated from Swatow and Foochow without accepting a fight. This probably saved quite a number of troops. Now the punishment expeditions are about to start converging on scattered Chinese positions, with the strongest stack of Chinese troops being constantly pounded by aviation around Foochow. By the way, as results of air attack are determined just by quality and number of bombs, Navy's Kates routinely score better against Chinese troops than Army's one-engined planes. I think the game needs a special "ground support plane" designation, so that Wellingtons no longer will be the bestest planes for ground attack there is.

Anyway, Japanese troops are about to cut the second road connecting Southern China with the mainland. Not sure if this matters though, as the supply situation on the whole should be dire for the Chinese. Pucheng, where my attack force #2 is heading is held by about 2 Chinese corps. Japanese are moving in with two divisions and an Army HQ. This and concentrated aviation should be enough to take the objective. The attack force #3 will march on Chuhsien as soon as troops recently arrived in Shanghai move into their places. These new brigades seven of which just arrived in Shanghai and Peiping really suck - all infantry, very little guns, no vehicles - much inferior to the old independent mixed brigades. So, they'll just replace some Japanese units currently on garrizon duty. Japanese units that were defeated at Sinyang are mostly recovered by now, so they will take part in the Chuhsien offensive as well.

[FatR]

Other theaters

In Southern Pacific we've captured everything there was to capture, except for Ocean and Nauru. These, as well as southern Gilberts, will be seized when the Combined Fleet moves to Central Pacific during the Hawaian operation.


Sub warfare

Despite occasional successes, overall results are fairly disappointing, as you can see below. I believe CL Dauntless was sunk too, as well as DD Tjerk Hiddes and another Allied TK, but Humphreys likely survived. I'll probably try moving more subs to Western Coast, where the contacts occur most often so far, in the near future. Also, major sub operations in Indian Ocean are called off now, because Colombo is almost abandoned by British. Most of DEI subs will move to Pacific through Kendari and will be used to flood the seas during the Hawaian operation.

Allied ASW seems to be distressingly competent even this early. So far I've lost one sub and got two more damaged heavily enough to abandon their patrols by depthcharging in deep water hexes.




Heroes of the Empire

This month I wish to mention 16th Engineer Regiment, which did a splending job of reducing forts at Clark and Bataan, but at terrible cost. Its pioneer squads are all but wiped out, with almost every soldier formerly on combat strength killed or wounded and the whole regiment is reduced to about a company (4/52 remaining strength).

[FatR]

Detailed air losses

Still very brutal, although during January we actually took down more planes in A2A that we lost. But crippling losses from flak over Singapore did not allow Japan to eliminate the gap in overall losses. Curiously, Allied ops losses are quite close Japanese this month (171 vs. 214), even though Allied aviation was far less active. Maybe flying from damaged airfields accounted for some of this.

[FatR]

Victory Points Chart

The major dropoffs in Allied VPs correspond to the fall of Hong Kong, "IJA Day" (fall of Manila and the victory on Central Plains in China) and the fall of Rangoon.

[FatR]

Japanese Industry

While we have enough HI points for steady surplus, the Empire still lives on pre-war stockpiles of resources, which keep dwindling fast. About 460 resource centers more must be captured just to make production catch up to consumption, not accounting for the needs of the industry centers we're about to take.

Naval SY expansion allowed to restart building CB Kawachi, but Ikoma remains halted. Should have expanded them more vigorously. Two major armament centers are turned off at the moment, and a small factory is converted to vehicles, but we still have a steady surplus. Vehicle production, on the other hand, proved to be insufficient. After some base units arrived at quarter strength, it was urgently expanded to 165.