17th December 1941
NAVAL ACTIONS
- SS Saury successfully attacked off Kanoya - 2 hits reported - she'll head home I guess...
this is only one of the many ASW attacks my numerous SS had to endure for over 2 days now - if the situation in certain areas does not improve (more attacks by SS and less "ASW only" attacks, I will have to relocate almost all of them....I'd be content with "dud-torpedo" attacks - but not even those are happening any longer... [:(]
AIR COMBAT
- the continuing of sweeps over Changsha - my opponent has huge coordination issues - I guess he is launching his Zeroes from smallish airstrips, and he doesn't pay ANY attention to weather - this is good intel for me in the long run....
- my plan to ambush the daily sweeps over Singapore failed miserably...... - we lost a total of 10 Buffaloes (only 2 KIA) and 3 Blenheim Is to the loss of 2 reported Oscar Ics - terrible outcome - my fighters are low on morale now - they will have to rest and wait for another opportunity to sting the enemy.... - airframe reserves are just fine: 37 Buffaloes still in the pool - so we can actually continue to take losses, but not at this rate....
therefore I must conclude that offering to fight in bad weather (rain was the weather forecast) was a bad choice: why did I decide to try it? - because my experience when playing the Japs was that if the Allied planes fought on a great flying day, they would drop like flies - if it was bad weather my Zeroes and Oscars would take losses as well....therefore I concluded that as allies I might have a chance when fighting in bad weather - apparently I was wrong! - lesson learned!
nevertheless it's impressive that we actually got 33 Buffaloes and 4 Blenheim Is in the air before the first sweep reached Singapore - I like it!
- on the 4th day of continuous port attacks on Ternate (all attacks up to now were crushed with an average of 2 planes shot down by Zeroes per day) our bombers (3 Hudson Is, and 1 Fighter Escort [:D]) managed to score some nice hits on ships in ports: here the report in full: (the reason for our success is without doubt the bad weather, which made the enemy CAP miss our bombers [8D] - so at least in this context my plan with attacking at bad weather worked!)
Morning Air attack on Ternate , at 78,102
Weather in hex: Heavy rain
Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 7,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 2
Allied aircraft
B-339D x 1
Hudson I x 3
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
Hudson I: 1 destroyed
Japanese Ships
xAK Yamafuku Maru, Bomb hits 1
CS Mizuho, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AO Hayamoto, Bomb hits 1, on fire
Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Hudson I bombing from 5000 feet
Port Attack: 4 x 250 lb GP Bomb
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- my opponent continues to
wreck the port and airfield of Rangoon - that's bad for him and good for me - the only thing he is achieving with this is Japanese Ops losses, and a completely destroyed city, when he takes it!
GROUND COMBAT
-
the woods east of Ichang: - after having bombarded, and thus reconnoitred my positions there yesterday, the Japaese launched a deliberate attack today - 1 full Division and 2 Chinese Traitor Divs attacked what they believed to be 2 understrength Chinese Corps - fortunately for me (as I was trying to coordinate their arrival in the first place, but being lucky, failed to do so) one full Corps with about 5500 Infantry had arrived over the night to reinforce my position there (one day late to arrive with the other 2 at the same time)....
my position held (although my reinforcements were in "move" mode) and we held with slightly higher casualties:
Attacking force 17142 troops, 128 guns, 42 vehicles, Assault Value = 657
Defending force 18520 troops, 161 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 563
Japanese adjusted assault: 478
Allied adjusted defense: 491
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), morale(-), experience(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
834 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 44 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 58 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Allied ground losses:
918 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 25 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 35 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
our first draw in China - I am happy with the outcome of this first battle fought on ground we chose - it convinces me further that the Chinese do stand a chance if they choose the terrain carefully and are at least barely supplied (supply levels were in the red in this particular case, but only barely)
-
second successful defensive operation happened in northern China today, on the road to Sian... -about 15000 men supported by 147 guns made a stand in the high mountains there... - we successfully fended off the first deliberate assault by 2 full Divisions supported by 1 Artillery Regiment:
Ground combat at 88,41 (near Kaoping)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 23173 troops, 243 guns, 101 vehicles, Assault Value = 808
Defending force 15228 troops, 147 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 428
Japanese adjusted assault: 154
Allied adjusted defense: 238
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), morale(-), experience(-)
Attacker: fatigue(-)
Japanese ground losses:
956 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 30 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 78 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Allied ground losses:
872 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 76 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 65 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Assaulting units:
37th Division
41st Division
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
Defending units:
34th Chinese Corps
43rd Chinese Corps
33rd Chinese Corps
61st Chinese Corps
7th Group Army
8th Group Army
although not many Japanese squads have been destroyed, even disabled ones will take a long time to reach combat readiness again - they're a long way from the next base, and supplies must be running low already (own experience)
- our
rearguard action to the
south of Kota Bharu was successful but costly - we lost over 170 men today, but stalled the enemy advance for another day...
-
Japanese forces CAPTURE Kuching !!!
SUMMARY:
my hopes for fighting in bad weather have been both successful and devastating - much to my suprise my bombers hit something on a rainy day, when they couldn't even get close to hitting something on a nice day - I guess the pilots concentrated more when the hail was pouring down on their wings....
China: what a great day - I know it's only a tiny success - but I was able observe several interesting things for the future during these defensive battles today! and I am certain that this will have an outstanding impact on morale in these theatres!
Subwar is starting to turn bad for me - at least until I have come up with a plan to use my submarines properly again... - I am not particularly keen on using SS tactically, but I will have to, at least with the shortlegged S-Class boats and Dutch Submarines... - if the strategic employment of fleet boats doesn't improve - I will also have to change their doctrine as well! (at least with the Beta I am not facing those silly Sub-Bugs that came along with upgrading to 1106i)
R.
