Hi all,
CBI -
Little happening in Burma (neither side has conducted an air raid for over a month or so!) but my forces are about 60 miles away from Akyab. May stimulate activity in Burma! In many ways the air lull has helped me here. I have a buffer of over 100 x Hurri B and 60 Hurri C's.
China has seen a frenetic few days focused around the area of Wuchang and to the east of Changsha.
On the 26th the Japanese launched an all out attack against my forces near Wuchang. It failed again:
Ground combat at Wuchang (84,51)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 67034 troops, 734 guns, 228 vehicles, Assault Value = 2102
Defending force 57915 troops, 324 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2004
Japanese adjusted assault: 2762
Allied adjusted defense: 2367
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)
Japanese ground losses:
8808 casualties reported
Squads: 16 destroyed, 336 disabled
Non Combat: 14 destroyed, 450 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 77 disabled
Allied ground losses:
1512 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 204 disabled
Non Combat: 14 destroyed, 209 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
On the 28th the Chinese launched an all out attack on Japanese positions east of Changsha. It was a disaster:
Ground combat at 84,54
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 59176 troops, 535 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2418
Defending force 35302 troops, 240 guns, 29 vehicles, Assault Value = 1266
Allied adjusted assault: 2189
Japanese adjusted defense: 1228
Allied assault odds: 1 to 1
Combat modifiers
Defender: experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), supply(-)
Japanese ground losses:
3046 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 325 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 196 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 12 disabled
Allied ground losses:
14444 casualties reported
Squads: 151 destroyed, 374 disabled
Non Combat: 298 destroyed, 172 disabled
Engineers: 27 destroyed, 41 disabled
This convinced the Japanese to counter-attack on the 29th. This also failed (5300 Jap casualties vs 3400 Chinese). A mass of Japanese air attacks were also reported on the 29th.
This led the Chinese leadership to decide to launch a large scale air response for a day after husbanding, building up and training my fighter force for months.
On the 30th the Japanese were amazed to see Chinese fighters in the air over my forces! A series of vicious air battles ensued. 3 aces now exist in the Chinese ranks and celebrations were held in Chungking! By days end it was reckoned that 31 enemy bombers, and 5 Oscars were shot down for the loss of 6 friendlies (5 x Vanguard, 1 x Lancer).
For now though my air units have retired to train more and ready for the next surprise strike. On the ground my forces are slowly marching westwards to better defensive ground.
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Australia -
SigInt has also confirmed 21st Division is embarked and on the way to Derby. There's a lot of force heading here! As such my advance westward is being called off.
We're about 20 miles away from Katherine now.
It's going to be tough this as I'm unable to build up Daly Waters due to supply constraints. As such Japanese airpower will always dominate up here.
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Submarine Warfare -
The poor month of duds and misses continue..........6 duds (3 against TK's [:@]) and 2 misses. Sheesh.
[:-]
