March 14
One step forward two steps back
At sea my second attack on Truk proves to be very ill advised. He moved more zeroes in and managed to shoot great holes in my attacking waves with no commensurate success for me. I end up losing over 40 aircraft and sinking a minesweeper. Not good - I should have known better and left while I could. Around Fiji - Pago Pago he strikes two of my smaller TF's unloading at Savaii and Vava'u. Both were supposed to have left overnight but for some reason did not and pay the price. I lose the CA Indianapolis, a DD and 3 good merchant ships. This all leaves me feeling very frustrated as I should have avoided all three of these set backs. He also lands a force at Port Headland over in Australia. Broome and Port Headland now captured so the isolation of Darwin is under way.
On the ground he continues his assault in the far north of China.
He has deployed considerable strength up there now and I think I have to react. His force up there consists of the following
Assaulting units:
2nd Ind.Mixed Brigade
1st Cavalry Brigade
15th Tank Regiment
11th Indpt Infantry Regiment
Almost a full division of combat power.
My main issue now is what to do at Pago Pago. I could try and throw 2+ divisions into holding the place but I am worried the combination of KB and the 6 diivsion Fiji invasion force there will just overwhelm them and my losses will cripple me. I am at the moment putting in two supported regiments (which I figure I can afford to lose) and moving the rest to NZ and Oz to back stop the position. Until I can contest the ocean (still 2 months away at a minimum) I just can't meet him head on and survive. It really feels like a Japanese juggernaught.
Regards
Andrew
Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
Moderators: wdolson, MOD_War-in-the-Pacific-Admirals-Edition
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
What are your fort and supply levels like in Pago Pago? Do you think you can unload without having the GI's sunk prior to unloading (that would hurt much more than the losses you'd incur during an invasion- when at least you'd put some hurt on him).
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
ORIGINAL: Itdepends
What are your fort and supply levels like in Pago Pago? Do you think you can unload without having the GI's sunk prior to unloading (that would hurt much more than the losses you'd incur during an invasion- when at least you'd put some hurt on him).
Pretty poor. Pago Pago hasn't been built up much yet. Forts are at 2, airfield is at 3, supplies are about 3000. Port is also only 2 so unloading is slow. The only thing I have in my favour is almost 100 fighters at the field so I have good air cover to get the guys unloaded and so far he has avoided striking them. I need to get those aircraft out at some stage as the place will almost inevitably fall. Its really all about delay I think.
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
Not worth losing 1 or 2 divisions over if you think you'll be rumbled in the unloading IMO. Unless those 2 divs are right there- ready to unload now and you've got his attention elsewhwere. 100 fighters won't stand up to much if he has both carrier forces in the area- especially if he has any BB's nearby to pound your airfield into dust.
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
March 15-16
Is it June yet?
March 15
At sea. KB heads east threatening Pago Pago but continues looking for unprotected targets. They catch a TF leaving Savaii and punish it heavily sinking 2 DD's and another AP. The remaining TF's should be either at Pago Pago under air cover or out of harms way now. My subs are swarming around Suva, getting some attacks but mostly failed detonations. The Hornet arrives in New York and immediately sails for the Panama Canal. In 3 months I will have Lexington repaired and the Hornet and Wasp in theatre (6 USN CV's) with the 2 RN CV's, that gives me rough parity and the game changes.
In the air. Darwin, Chittagong and Batavia all receive big raids (40+ aircraft)
On the ground. The Japanese finally land in Java at Kalidjati, 2 hexes down from Batavia. Thought they had forgotten the place. In Oz, Port Headland falls and the Broome invasion force moves towards Derby. In China, The Japanese attack my cav corps at Ankang. They can only get 1-2 odds so the position holds. They also attack my troops that have reached the road 3 hexes southeast of Angkang but are again repulsed at 1-2. My forces (4 corps) arrive in the clear hex south east of there and find only 1 IJA unit. It maybe a division though so will bombard before attacking. Japanese land forces arrive in Suva. Damn that was fast.
March 16
At sea. KB and mini KB head back towards Fiji, so no losses this turn - they pound Vava'u though with the full KB air component. He loses another sub to mines at Pago Pago. Thats 2 now. Over at Rabaul, some torpedoes finally go off and we claim a PB. The 2 hits on an AK both failed to detonate
.
In the air. Darwin cops it yet again. He must be planning on attacking, although I have had no sigint. I am moving base forces out and have sent troops to Alice Springs. Darwin is very isolated though. If I can catch his troops on ships it would be nice. He now has LBA at Nandi and Betties start to operate.
On the ground. Kalidjati in Java falls. The IJA bombard Suva and a depressing OB is revealed again - he hasn't got any weaker. My forces are hunkering and preparing for the storm. I have set up Fortress Bandoeng in Java. Will be interested to see how long they can hold in the mountains with 4 forts and plenty of supply. In China they attack at Angkang again, this time getting 2-1 which is concerning. We still hold though. Our bombardment reveals the unit in the clear hex southeast of Angkang (hex 84,46 to be specific) is an infantry regiment. 4 Corps in clear terrain should be enough to handle that, shock attack orders are given for next turn.
Thought it was worth recapping naval losses over the last 10 days. Most of this has taken place in the Fiji AO. I have lost sunk 1 CA, 4 DD's, 1 SS, 2 TK, 8 AK/AP's 4 AM's. As far as I can make out, the Japanese have lost sunk 1 CA, 1 DMS, 1 or 2 SS, 6 Merchants ships, 1 ARD, 2 ACM's, they have also had a CVL damaged and another sub damaged (prob 2 sunk 1 damaged in total). Losses are in favour of the IJN but at least we have started the attrition process.
Regards
Andrew
Is it June yet?
March 15
At sea. KB heads east threatening Pago Pago but continues looking for unprotected targets. They catch a TF leaving Savaii and punish it heavily sinking 2 DD's and another AP. The remaining TF's should be either at Pago Pago under air cover or out of harms way now. My subs are swarming around Suva, getting some attacks but mostly failed detonations. The Hornet arrives in New York and immediately sails for the Panama Canal. In 3 months I will have Lexington repaired and the Hornet and Wasp in theatre (6 USN CV's) with the 2 RN CV's, that gives me rough parity and the game changes.
In the air. Darwin, Chittagong and Batavia all receive big raids (40+ aircraft)
On the ground. The Japanese finally land in Java at Kalidjati, 2 hexes down from Batavia. Thought they had forgotten the place. In Oz, Port Headland falls and the Broome invasion force moves towards Derby. In China, The Japanese attack my cav corps at Ankang. They can only get 1-2 odds so the position holds. They also attack my troops that have reached the road 3 hexes southeast of Angkang but are again repulsed at 1-2. My forces (4 corps) arrive in the clear hex south east of there and find only 1 IJA unit. It maybe a division though so will bombard before attacking. Japanese land forces arrive in Suva. Damn that was fast.
March 16
At sea. KB and mini KB head back towards Fiji, so no losses this turn - they pound Vava'u though with the full KB air component. He loses another sub to mines at Pago Pago. Thats 2 now. Over at Rabaul, some torpedoes finally go off and we claim a PB. The 2 hits on an AK both failed to detonate
.In the air. Darwin cops it yet again. He must be planning on attacking, although I have had no sigint. I am moving base forces out and have sent troops to Alice Springs. Darwin is very isolated though. If I can catch his troops on ships it would be nice. He now has LBA at Nandi and Betties start to operate.
On the ground. Kalidjati in Java falls. The IJA bombard Suva and a depressing OB is revealed again - he hasn't got any weaker. My forces are hunkering and preparing for the storm. I have set up Fortress Bandoeng in Java. Will be interested to see how long they can hold in the mountains with 4 forts and plenty of supply. In China they attack at Angkang again, this time getting 2-1 which is concerning. We still hold though. Our bombardment reveals the unit in the clear hex southeast of Angkang (hex 84,46 to be specific) is an infantry regiment. 4 Corps in clear terrain should be enough to handle that, shock attack orders are given for next turn.
Thought it was worth recapping naval losses over the last 10 days. Most of this has taken place in the Fiji AO. I have lost sunk 1 CA, 4 DD's, 1 SS, 2 TK, 8 AK/AP's 4 AM's. As far as I can make out, the Japanese have lost sunk 1 CA, 1 DMS, 1 or 2 SS, 6 Merchants ships, 1 ARD, 2 ACM's, they have also had a CVL damaged and another sub damaged (prob 2 sunk 1 damaged in total). Losses are in favour of the IJN but at least we have started the attrition process.
Regards
Andrew
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
A picture of the situation around Sian.
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RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
March 17 - 18
March 17
At sea both sides have some success with subs. I sink a TB off Fiji and a TK off Balikpapan. Both kills were made by Dutch subs. The IJN claimed an unescorted AK which was an auto convoy out of San Francisco. In the DEI a small group of PT boats have a go at his landing force without any success. I also have now positioned a secret British stealth cruiser TF between DEI and the north coast of west Australia. They deployed out of Colombo and are trying to catch something on the way to or from the Broome area. I also get a report that I-5 is sunk by 30cal machine gun fire over off the US West Coast. Might be a kill from my ASW patrol that sunk on the way home. My CV's hammer Wake on the way back to PH. Not much damage but gives the guys some experience I guess. Time to get back to PH for R&R - rest, repair, re-arm and prepare for revenge.
In the air this turn Port Blair cops a 50+ raid. I have a feeling he is preparing for an assault, so I am thinking through my options for interfering. Darwin and Bandoeng also receive big raids and there is a fair bit of activity in China with smaller raids hitting multiple Chinese units trying to increase disruption I guess.
On the ground, he assaults Suva. We do surprisingly well. He gets 1-1 reduces the fort from 4 to 3 but takes 3300 casualties with 50 squads killed. I lose a lot of engineers but not many combat troops. We might be able to hang on for a bit longer than I expected.
Ground combat at Suva (132,160)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 63682 troops, 555 guns, 423 vehicles, Assault Value = 2362
Defending force 21970 troops, 374 guns, 345 vehicles, Assault Value = 428
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 3
Japanese adjusted assault: 1402
Allied adjusted defense: 1101
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 3)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 3
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), experience(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
3310 casualties reported
Squads: 11 destroyed, 149 disabled
Non Combat: 27 destroyed, 88 disabled
Engineers: 11 destroyed, 62 disabled
Vehicles lost 51 (4 destroyed, 47 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
1714 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 49 disabled
Non Combat: 57 destroyed, 183 disabled
Engineers: 34 destroyed, 14 disabled
Vehicles lost 47 (3 destroyed, 44 disabled)
Assaulting units:
48th Engineer Regiment
4th Division
4th Tank Regiment
19th Division
2nd Tank Regiment
16th Engineer Regiment
38th Division
16th Recon Regiment
48th Recon Regiment
21st Division
47th Infantry Regiment
2nd Formosa Inf. Regiment
19th Ind. Engineer Regiment
1st Formosa Inf. Regiment
7th Tank Regiment
14th Army
16th Army
Defending units:
2nd USMC Engineer Regiment
8th Marine Regiment
2nd Marine Regiment
57th Coastal Artillery Regiment
8th NZ Brigade
111th USN Base Force
101st USN Base Force
119th USAAF Base Force
1st RNZAF Base Force
47th Construction Regiment
206th Coast AA Regiment
3rd Marine Defense Battalion
205th Coast AA Regiment
110th USA Base Force
804th Engineer Aviation Battalion
Nandi Base Force
In China we shock attack the brigade in hex 84,46 and achieve 4-1. Its a good result with 120 Japanese squads killed.
Ground combat at 84,46 (near Nanyang)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 35723 troops, 192 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1281
Defending force 5856 troops, 38 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 211
Allied adjusted assault: 1074
Japanese adjusted defense: 223
Allied assault odds: 4 to 1
Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(+)
Attacker: shock(+), disruption(-)
Japanese ground losses:
1766 casualties reported
Squads: 67 destroyed, 93 disabled
Non Combat: 55 destroyed, 73 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 5 disabled
Guns lost 3 (2 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Units retreated 1
Allied ground losses:
706 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 49 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 41 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!
Assaulting units:
53rd Chinese Corps
45th Chinese Corps
2nd Chinese Corps
94th Chinese Corps
20th Group Army
Defending units:
57th Infantry Brigade
He attacks me at Angkang again and gets 1-1. I am still holding and reinforcements are now on the way. Elsewhere he does some more mopping up in Sumatra.
March 18
At Sea. Not much action. KB has returned to Fiji. My CV's have linked up with the BB's out of PH and are headed home. Only concern is some troops convoys rediretced away from Pago Pago to Auckland are detected. By whom I am not sure but I have to send them further south.
In the air, some action over Suva. He bombs, I try and strafe (and fail) and we each lose a couple of planes. Most of my fighters are now back at Pago Pago. Pt Blair gets nailed again. Something is brewing. The usual at Darwin and Bandoeng.
On the ground the action is in China. He makes 3 attacks. Angkang where he gets 1-1 and not much happens. Hex 83,45 on the road south east of Angkang where he gets 1-2 but I lose more than him. Hex 84,47 where I perhaps foolishly advanced a single corps into a clear hex. Its gets nailed and retreats across the river with heavy losses - 100 squads killed.
Thats it. I just want the turns to roll by now. Have survived over 3 moths of this now, only a couple more months to go.
Regards
Andrew
March 17
At sea both sides have some success with subs. I sink a TB off Fiji and a TK off Balikpapan. Both kills were made by Dutch subs. The IJN claimed an unescorted AK which was an auto convoy out of San Francisco. In the DEI a small group of PT boats have a go at his landing force without any success. I also have now positioned a secret British stealth cruiser TF between DEI and the north coast of west Australia. They deployed out of Colombo and are trying to catch something on the way to or from the Broome area. I also get a report that I-5 is sunk by 30cal machine gun fire over off the US West Coast. Might be a kill from my ASW patrol that sunk on the way home. My CV's hammer Wake on the way back to PH. Not much damage but gives the guys some experience I guess. Time to get back to PH for R&R - rest, repair, re-arm and prepare for revenge.
In the air this turn Port Blair cops a 50+ raid. I have a feeling he is preparing for an assault, so I am thinking through my options for interfering. Darwin and Bandoeng also receive big raids and there is a fair bit of activity in China with smaller raids hitting multiple Chinese units trying to increase disruption I guess.
On the ground, he assaults Suva. We do surprisingly well. He gets 1-1 reduces the fort from 4 to 3 but takes 3300 casualties with 50 squads killed. I lose a lot of engineers but not many combat troops. We might be able to hang on for a bit longer than I expected.
Ground combat at Suva (132,160)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 63682 troops, 555 guns, 423 vehicles, Assault Value = 2362
Defending force 21970 troops, 374 guns, 345 vehicles, Assault Value = 428
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 3
Japanese adjusted assault: 1402
Allied adjusted defense: 1101
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 3)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 3
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), experience(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
3310 casualties reported
Squads: 11 destroyed, 149 disabled
Non Combat: 27 destroyed, 88 disabled
Engineers: 11 destroyed, 62 disabled
Vehicles lost 51 (4 destroyed, 47 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
1714 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 49 disabled
Non Combat: 57 destroyed, 183 disabled
Engineers: 34 destroyed, 14 disabled
Vehicles lost 47 (3 destroyed, 44 disabled)
Assaulting units:
48th Engineer Regiment
4th Division
4th Tank Regiment
19th Division
2nd Tank Regiment
16th Engineer Regiment
38th Division
16th Recon Regiment
48th Recon Regiment
21st Division
47th Infantry Regiment
2nd Formosa Inf. Regiment
19th Ind. Engineer Regiment
1st Formosa Inf. Regiment
7th Tank Regiment
14th Army
16th Army
Defending units:
2nd USMC Engineer Regiment
8th Marine Regiment
2nd Marine Regiment
57th Coastal Artillery Regiment
8th NZ Brigade
111th USN Base Force
101st USN Base Force
119th USAAF Base Force
1st RNZAF Base Force
47th Construction Regiment
206th Coast AA Regiment
3rd Marine Defense Battalion
205th Coast AA Regiment
110th USA Base Force
804th Engineer Aviation Battalion
Nandi Base Force
In China we shock attack the brigade in hex 84,46 and achieve 4-1. Its a good result with 120 Japanese squads killed.
Ground combat at 84,46 (near Nanyang)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 35723 troops, 192 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1281
Defending force 5856 troops, 38 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 211
Allied adjusted assault: 1074
Japanese adjusted defense: 223
Allied assault odds: 4 to 1
Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(+)
Attacker: shock(+), disruption(-)
Japanese ground losses:
1766 casualties reported
Squads: 67 destroyed, 93 disabled
Non Combat: 55 destroyed, 73 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 5 disabled
Guns lost 3 (2 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Units retreated 1
Allied ground losses:
706 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 49 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 41 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!
Assaulting units:
53rd Chinese Corps
45th Chinese Corps
2nd Chinese Corps
94th Chinese Corps
20th Group Army
Defending units:
57th Infantry Brigade
He attacks me at Angkang again and gets 1-1. I am still holding and reinforcements are now on the way. Elsewhere he does some more mopping up in Sumatra.
March 18
At Sea. Not much action. KB has returned to Fiji. My CV's have linked up with the BB's out of PH and are headed home. Only concern is some troops convoys rediretced away from Pago Pago to Auckland are detected. By whom I am not sure but I have to send them further south.
In the air, some action over Suva. He bombs, I try and strafe (and fail) and we each lose a couple of planes. Most of my fighters are now back at Pago Pago. Pt Blair gets nailed again. Something is brewing. The usual at Darwin and Bandoeng.
On the ground the action is in China. He makes 3 attacks. Angkang where he gets 1-1 and not much happens. Hex 83,45 on the road south east of Angkang where he gets 1-2 but I lose more than him. Hex 84,47 where I perhaps foolishly advanced a single corps into a clear hex. Its gets nailed and retreats across the river with heavy losses - 100 squads killed.
Thats it. I just want the turns to roll by now. Have survived over 3 moths of this now, only a couple more months to go.
Regards
Andrew
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
March 19 to March 31
Sorry for the prolonged silence. Have been away for the past week and a bit and pretty busy since I got back, so this will be a catch up summary.
At sea, most of the action has been down around the Fiji area. Initially KB ran back to Fiji to cover the invasion force. Once Suva fell (see below) he sent his carriers sortying into the south Pacific chasing my convoys. I had redirected several big convoys destined for Fiji and Pago Pago down to run along the far south map edge to New Zealand. Thought I was pretty safe down there, but when mini KB turned up it was like lifting the lid on a rat colony. My convoys scattered an ran in all directions and to make matters worse KB also turned up a few days later. Luckily I had HMS Warspite escorting one of the the big troop convoys and she absorbed most of the damage in the first wave. I scattered and, as is the way of my dear opponent, they were relentless in their pursuit. We played cat and mouse for a week along the southern map edge. The wash up was Warspite badly damaged (limped in to Auckland), 2 big troop ships sunk with the infantry components of 2 infantry regiments and 1 AK with a P-40 squadron on board. As painful as this was, I was lucky to get away with just these losses as prolonged stormy weather prevented a bigger disaster limiting a number of his raids. The equipment components of 4 US infantry regiments made it to NZ and the infantry components of 2 of them are still afloat and should be able to get there now as his carriers have finally pulled back.
During all of this carry on down south I had a couple of small successes. I ran HMS Indomitable with the PoW through their position north of Noumea and caught a big replen convoy near Guadalcanal. Sank at least 2 and maybe 3 oilers but didn't pursue as I was worried he would move land based air in if I hung around. That TF is on the way to join the rest of my CV's in Pearl Harbour. Hornet is also on the way so after a few weeks of repair rest and refit I will have 5 CV's (4 US and 1 Brit). In another 2 months Lexington will be repaired and Wasp will arrive to give me the full component. I also managed to nail a small supply convoy near Broome in WA. A heavy cruiser TF based out of Colombo caught and sank 3 AKL's and 2 PB's - unfortunately empty.
On the ground all is quiet in Burna and India. He has taken the foot off in that area and is focussing on the big invasion of Fiji, nuisance raids in northern Australia and a strong drive on Sian in China. The Fiji invasion ended up being irresistible with 8 IJA division equivalents deployed. Suva resisted for over a week and replelled two attacks before finally succumbing to the third assault on March 23rd. We lost heavily. The only good news is he took 6~8,000 casualties himself in the assaults and I was able to get sections of a couple of key units to Auckland where they are now rebuilding (2nd Mar Reg, 8th Mar Reg, 2nd Mar Cbt Eng). It will take a few months but I have a good reserve and flow of USMC squads so will be able to rebuild both units in a few months. The 8th NZ Bde is gone for good I think, but the other engineer forces I can rebuild over time too.
Ground combat at Suva (132,160)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 70648 troops, 929 guns, 641 vehicles, Assault Value = 2326
Defending force 19099 troops, 395 guns, 331 vehicles, Assault Value = 347
Japanese adjusted assault: 3211
Allied adjusted defense: 421
Japanese assault odds: 7 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Suva !!!
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)
Japanese ground losses:
2857 casualties reported
Squads: 40 destroyed, 177 disabled
Non Combat: 38 destroyed, 96 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 22 disabled
Guns lost 6 (5 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Vehicles lost 96 (39 destroyed, 57 disabled)
Units destroyed 1
Allied ground losses:
22373 casualties reported
Squads: 401 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1717 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 104 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 501 (501 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 308 (308 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 15
Assaulting units:
16th Recon Regiment
2nd Formosa Inf. Regiment
38th Division
4th Tank Regiment
47th Infantry Regiment
4th Division
21st Division
16th Engineer Regiment
2nd Tank Regiment
1st Formosa Inf. Regiment
19th Division
20th Infantry Regiment
19th Ind. Engineer Regiment
48th Recon Regiment
9th Infantry Regiment
7th Tank Regiment
15th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
16th Army
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
14th Army
2nd Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
8th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion
1st Medium Field Artillery Regiment
48th Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd Mortar Battalion
10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
2nd Field Artillery Regiment
Defending units:
8th Marine Regiment
57th Coastal Artillery Regiment
2nd Marine Regiment
8th NZ Brigade
101st USN Base Force
111th USN Base Force
47th Construction Regiment
205th Coast AA Regiment
804th Engineer Aviation Battalion
110th USA Base Force
1st RNZAF Base Force
119th USAAF Base Force
206th Coast AA Regiment
3rd Marine Defense Battalion
Nandi Base Force
Pago Pago is still mine. I have 2 infantry regiments there with numerous additional support forces and 100 aircraft, almost 400 AV in total. They are digging in nicely now and will be a tough nut to crack, but I am leaving the option open to pull some of the troops out. Losing 2 more regiments would really hurt.
He has finally invaded Java. I am holed up in Bandoeng and Sorebaja and he only seems to have 2 divisions, so its going to be a tough fight for him I think.
In China, the slow motion ballet around Sian continues but this is largely bogged down now. He has an armoured car unit over my supply lines which I am in the process of chasing down and is threatening Lanchow in the north which I am finally reacting too. I think I can stop him there.
As we kick off April its a mixed bag from our side. On the positive side naval losses have been acceptable and my carrier force is intact and building. My fighter units are filling out and approaching 70 air skill in many P-40 units so I am ready to start committing them more aggressively. On the negative he has kicked me pretty hard around Fiji and inflicted heavy US and USMC infantry losses. It will take me time to recover from this. He has also staked out a lot of territory in the South Pacific and finding a spot to deploy my short ranged land based fighters is going to be tough. Northern Australia seems to be one possibility if only because its closer to his bases. Burma is another although getting the forces there takes forever. Coming in from the Pacific side is also open but I am not sure I have enough amphib capability for that yet. Another month of absorbing the blows then we need to start thinking of counter attack.
Regards
Andrew
Sorry for the prolonged silence. Have been away for the past week and a bit and pretty busy since I got back, so this will be a catch up summary.
At sea, most of the action has been down around the Fiji area. Initially KB ran back to Fiji to cover the invasion force. Once Suva fell (see below) he sent his carriers sortying into the south Pacific chasing my convoys. I had redirected several big convoys destined for Fiji and Pago Pago down to run along the far south map edge to New Zealand. Thought I was pretty safe down there, but when mini KB turned up it was like lifting the lid on a rat colony. My convoys scattered an ran in all directions and to make matters worse KB also turned up a few days later. Luckily I had HMS Warspite escorting one of the the big troop convoys and she absorbed most of the damage in the first wave. I scattered and, as is the way of my dear opponent, they were relentless in their pursuit. We played cat and mouse for a week along the southern map edge. The wash up was Warspite badly damaged (limped in to Auckland), 2 big troop ships sunk with the infantry components of 2 infantry regiments and 1 AK with a P-40 squadron on board. As painful as this was, I was lucky to get away with just these losses as prolonged stormy weather prevented a bigger disaster limiting a number of his raids. The equipment components of 4 US infantry regiments made it to NZ and the infantry components of 2 of them are still afloat and should be able to get there now as his carriers have finally pulled back.
During all of this carry on down south I had a couple of small successes. I ran HMS Indomitable with the PoW through their position north of Noumea and caught a big replen convoy near Guadalcanal. Sank at least 2 and maybe 3 oilers but didn't pursue as I was worried he would move land based air in if I hung around. That TF is on the way to join the rest of my CV's in Pearl Harbour. Hornet is also on the way so after a few weeks of repair rest and refit I will have 5 CV's (4 US and 1 Brit). In another 2 months Lexington will be repaired and Wasp will arrive to give me the full component. I also managed to nail a small supply convoy near Broome in WA. A heavy cruiser TF based out of Colombo caught and sank 3 AKL's and 2 PB's - unfortunately empty.
On the ground all is quiet in Burna and India. He has taken the foot off in that area and is focussing on the big invasion of Fiji, nuisance raids in northern Australia and a strong drive on Sian in China. The Fiji invasion ended up being irresistible with 8 IJA division equivalents deployed. Suva resisted for over a week and replelled two attacks before finally succumbing to the third assault on March 23rd. We lost heavily. The only good news is he took 6~8,000 casualties himself in the assaults and I was able to get sections of a couple of key units to Auckland where they are now rebuilding (2nd Mar Reg, 8th Mar Reg, 2nd Mar Cbt Eng). It will take a few months but I have a good reserve and flow of USMC squads so will be able to rebuild both units in a few months. The 8th NZ Bde is gone for good I think, but the other engineer forces I can rebuild over time too.
Ground combat at Suva (132,160)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 70648 troops, 929 guns, 641 vehicles, Assault Value = 2326
Defending force 19099 troops, 395 guns, 331 vehicles, Assault Value = 347
Japanese adjusted assault: 3211
Allied adjusted defense: 421
Japanese assault odds: 7 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Suva !!!
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)
Japanese ground losses:
2857 casualties reported
Squads: 40 destroyed, 177 disabled
Non Combat: 38 destroyed, 96 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 22 disabled
Guns lost 6 (5 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Vehicles lost 96 (39 destroyed, 57 disabled)
Units destroyed 1
Allied ground losses:
22373 casualties reported
Squads: 401 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1717 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 104 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 501 (501 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 308 (308 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 15
Assaulting units:
16th Recon Regiment
2nd Formosa Inf. Regiment
38th Division
4th Tank Regiment
47th Infantry Regiment
4th Division
21st Division
16th Engineer Regiment
2nd Tank Regiment
1st Formosa Inf. Regiment
19th Division
20th Infantry Regiment
19th Ind. Engineer Regiment
48th Recon Regiment
9th Infantry Regiment
7th Tank Regiment
15th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
16th Army
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
14th Army
2nd Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
8th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion
1st Medium Field Artillery Regiment
48th Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd Mortar Battalion
10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
2nd Field Artillery Regiment
Defending units:
8th Marine Regiment
57th Coastal Artillery Regiment
2nd Marine Regiment
8th NZ Brigade
101st USN Base Force
111th USN Base Force
47th Construction Regiment
205th Coast AA Regiment
804th Engineer Aviation Battalion
110th USA Base Force
1st RNZAF Base Force
119th USAAF Base Force
206th Coast AA Regiment
3rd Marine Defense Battalion
Nandi Base Force
Pago Pago is still mine. I have 2 infantry regiments there with numerous additional support forces and 100 aircraft, almost 400 AV in total. They are digging in nicely now and will be a tough nut to crack, but I am leaving the option open to pull some of the troops out. Losing 2 more regiments would really hurt.
He has finally invaded Java. I am holed up in Bandoeng and Sorebaja and he only seems to have 2 divisions, so its going to be a tough fight for him I think.
In China, the slow motion ballet around Sian continues but this is largely bogged down now. He has an armoured car unit over my supply lines which I am in the process of chasing down and is threatening Lanchow in the north which I am finally reacting too. I think I can stop him there.
As we kick off April its a mixed bag from our side. On the positive side naval losses have been acceptable and my carrier force is intact and building. My fighter units are filling out and approaching 70 air skill in many P-40 units so I am ready to start committing them more aggressively. On the negative he has kicked me pretty hard around Fiji and inflicted heavy US and USMC infantry losses. It will take me time to recover from this. He has also staked out a lot of territory in the South Pacific and finding a spot to deploy my short ranged land based fighters is going to be tough. Northern Australia seems to be one possibility if only because its closer to his bases. Burma is another although getting the forces there takes forever. Coming in from the Pacific side is also open but I am not sure I have enough amphib capability for that yet. Another month of absorbing the blows then we need to start thinking of counter attack.
Regards
Andrew
-
CaptBeefheart
- Posts: 2623
- Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2003 2:42 am
- Location: Seoul, Korea
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
The good news is once you get the new patch you'll be able to rebuild all of those units (if you have the necessary devices in the pool, anyway). Also, he must be fairly weak elsewhere (such as you mention on Java). As Monty Python say: Always look at the bright side of life...
Cheers,
CC
Cheers,
CC
Beer, because barley makes lousy bread.
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
April 1-4
We got through 4 turns in the last 2 days so the game is outpacing my ability to blog.
At sea. April 1-3 saw some sub action. I am generating plenty of hits but few detonations so am largely ineffective until the torp reliability issue improves which is a way off yet. I hit I-24 off Perth 4 times and may have crippled it. I-4 hit a mine at Chittagong and was reported sunk the next turn so is probably gone. Slowly whittling these beasts away. On April 4th he invaded Pt Blair off the coast of Burma. I have been expecting this and for the last week had a light cruiser force poised to the west of the island unspotted and waiting for him to attack. On April 3rd my subs detected a TF headed towards Pt Blair so I ordered them in and caught him red handed. Unfortunately for me he had a heavy cruiser in the covering force
Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Blair at 46,58, Range 5,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
CA Mogami
CL Sendai, Shell hits 3
DD Oyashio
DD Akatsuki
DD Usugumo, Shell hits 1
DD Shirayuki
DD Hatsuyuki
DD Yugiri
Allied Ships
CL Durban
CL Dauntless
CL Ceres
CL Marblehead
CL Caledon, Shell hits 1
CL Colombo, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Decoy, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Express
DD Fortune, Shell hits 2, on fire
Colombo sank and the rest withdrew to the north. Heavier units are inbound but now he knows I am contesting, land based air will be a problem. To add insult to injury the following happened off Calcutta the same turn
ASW attack near Diamond Harbour at 50,39
Japanese Ships
SS I-154
Allied Ships
CL Capetown, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AMC Pansy
xAKL Sarpen
xAKL Elout
xAKL Tatung
xAKL Ipoh
xAKL Oklahoman
PG Lawrence
The Capetown also sank so 2 CL's lost in one turn.
Over on the Fiji front, KB or part thereof still lurks around Auckland but is still inhibited by storms. On of my troop convoys made it to Wellington and had discharged all the heavy equipment for 4 regiments. Just need the troops now.
I know his carriers are in the south so I am refitting a lot of units at Pearl while I can. Many DD's, CA's and CV's undergoing their April upgrades with radars and better ASW. Should all help.
In the air. On the Burma front we have reoccupied Chittagong air base and beat up a Japanese fighter sweep claiming 11 Oscars for the loss of 3. We also sent a strong fighter and bomber attack in on Cox's Bazar covering an infantry battalion that is conducting a recon there. Looks like he is pretty weak and is only holding it with a small force which we plaster and kill a few more Oscars but lose some Blenheims as well. In Fiji heavy Japanese air raids on Vava'u force us to evacuate the remnants of the fighter squadron we have there. Doesn't look good for the garrison if he decides to attack.
On the ground. In the DEI he assaults and captures Batavia. Our main force is at Bandoeng and so far he is content to just invest it and bombard. Its dug in to level 4 in the mountains so hopefully can hang on for a bit. Tilatjap also falls. In China he has withdrawn a large part of his force that attacked up the dirt road west of Sian and has moved them back to confront my flanking force. I have got myself in a difficult position here as I am surrounded on 5 sides by red hexsides and have enemy troops in the only hex with a green hexside. I am moving tropps to remedy this sitiation but it takes 12~14 days to move 1 hex. Meantime he is bombarding me and reducing my supplies. If I cant open up another hexside I will be surrounded in the hex and potentially surrender. A picture is below to explain the dilema.This is my inexperience at play here and I can only hope a unit from the hex to the SW can get into the empty hex to the north quickly enough to save the day. In Burma, my recon battalion assaults and recaptures Cox's Bazar against limited opposition. In Australia, 7th Div has unloaded at Perth and the CMF divisions are filling out and increasing in troop quaility. If I can get the US troops into NZ my rear position will be stronger now.
Quiet period at the moment as I try to recover from the Fiji campaign and avert problems in China. I am getting the sense they are close to declaring their opening campaign over but this may be wishful thinking. My mind is starting to turn to counter attack. I am still a few months away, but want to get a position set up where I can use land based air to grind him down and attrit his air forces.
Regards
Andrew
We got through 4 turns in the last 2 days so the game is outpacing my ability to blog.
At sea. April 1-3 saw some sub action. I am generating plenty of hits but few detonations so am largely ineffective until the torp reliability issue improves which is a way off yet. I hit I-24 off Perth 4 times and may have crippled it. I-4 hit a mine at Chittagong and was reported sunk the next turn so is probably gone. Slowly whittling these beasts away. On April 4th he invaded Pt Blair off the coast of Burma. I have been expecting this and for the last week had a light cruiser force poised to the west of the island unspotted and waiting for him to attack. On April 3rd my subs detected a TF headed towards Pt Blair so I ordered them in and caught him red handed. Unfortunately for me he had a heavy cruiser in the covering force
Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Blair at 46,58, Range 5,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
CA Mogami
CL Sendai, Shell hits 3
DD Oyashio
DD Akatsuki
DD Usugumo, Shell hits 1
DD Shirayuki
DD Hatsuyuki
DD Yugiri
Allied Ships
CL Durban
CL Dauntless
CL Ceres
CL Marblehead
CL Caledon, Shell hits 1
CL Colombo, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Decoy, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Express
DD Fortune, Shell hits 2, on fire
Colombo sank and the rest withdrew to the north. Heavier units are inbound but now he knows I am contesting, land based air will be a problem. To add insult to injury the following happened off Calcutta the same turn
ASW attack near Diamond Harbour at 50,39
Japanese Ships
SS I-154
Allied Ships
CL Capetown, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AMC Pansy
xAKL Sarpen
xAKL Elout
xAKL Tatung
xAKL Ipoh
xAKL Oklahoman
PG Lawrence
The Capetown also sank so 2 CL's lost in one turn.
Over on the Fiji front, KB or part thereof still lurks around Auckland but is still inhibited by storms. On of my troop convoys made it to Wellington and had discharged all the heavy equipment for 4 regiments. Just need the troops now.
I know his carriers are in the south so I am refitting a lot of units at Pearl while I can. Many DD's, CA's and CV's undergoing their April upgrades with radars and better ASW. Should all help.
In the air. On the Burma front we have reoccupied Chittagong air base and beat up a Japanese fighter sweep claiming 11 Oscars for the loss of 3. We also sent a strong fighter and bomber attack in on Cox's Bazar covering an infantry battalion that is conducting a recon there. Looks like he is pretty weak and is only holding it with a small force which we plaster and kill a few more Oscars but lose some Blenheims as well. In Fiji heavy Japanese air raids on Vava'u force us to evacuate the remnants of the fighter squadron we have there. Doesn't look good for the garrison if he decides to attack.
On the ground. In the DEI he assaults and captures Batavia. Our main force is at Bandoeng and so far he is content to just invest it and bombard. Its dug in to level 4 in the mountains so hopefully can hang on for a bit. Tilatjap also falls. In China he has withdrawn a large part of his force that attacked up the dirt road west of Sian and has moved them back to confront my flanking force. I have got myself in a difficult position here as I am surrounded on 5 sides by red hexsides and have enemy troops in the only hex with a green hexside. I am moving tropps to remedy this sitiation but it takes 12~14 days to move 1 hex. Meantime he is bombarding me and reducing my supplies. If I cant open up another hexside I will be surrounded in the hex and potentially surrender. A picture is below to explain the dilema.This is my inexperience at play here and I can only hope a unit from the hex to the SW can get into the empty hex to the north quickly enough to save the day. In Burma, my recon battalion assaults and recaptures Cox's Bazar against limited opposition. In Australia, 7th Div has unloaded at Perth and the CMF divisions are filling out and increasing in troop quaility. If I can get the US troops into NZ my rear position will be stronger now.
Quiet period at the moment as I try to recover from the Fiji campaign and avert problems in China. I am getting the sense they are close to declaring their opening campaign over but this may be wishful thinking. My mind is starting to turn to counter attack. I am still a few months away, but want to get a position set up where I can use land based air to grind him down and attrit his air forces.
Regards
Andrew
- Attachments
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RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
April 5-13
My apologies, the game is moving along at a good rate, but I am struggling to keep the AAR updated due to time competition from actual real life. I know, I know....I need to get my priorities sorted. So another summary entry. Quite a lot had happened so this may be a bit long.
At Sea
His carriers have split into 3 TF's now it seems. One group spent a week off Auckland pounding the port. The already damaged BB Warspite took another 30 bomb hits and has been reduced to a complete wreck although surprisingly it is still afloat. The break away group from KB snuck out to the east of Pago Pago and struck an empty TF I had positioned there looking for an opportunity to get one of the infantry regiments off Pago Pago. I lost 3 AK's and a DMS with another DMS's badly damaged. Mini KB snuck around into the Tasman sea and intercepted a supply convoy repositioning from NZ to Sydney. Over a couple of days they pursued and ended up sinking 8 small AK's and basically wiping the convoy out. His CV's have become merchant raiders it seems.
Elsewhere IJN cruiser TF's were active. He sent a CL/DD TF into Pago Pago and smashed the PT TF I had established there, sinking 10 out of 12. A heavy cruiser TF came out of nowhere past all my subs and search aircraft to bombard Perth. Fortunately the shore battery was alert and hit 2 of them for little loss to me. Another group of CA's appeared off the Queensland coast. I feared they were headed to bombard Townsville so I evacuated my big B-17 force there to Brisbane. They cruised the coast for 3 days and managed to interdict the single AKL stream I had set up to sneak supplies into Darwin. I only lost 1 to the CA's but the rest have fled (for the moment). They have bought Port Moresby some time though so will have to start again there.
I got one hit in myself. I sent a light cruiser and some DD"s deep into his rear around Marcus Island. They got lucky and found a small troop convoy north of Saipan sinking 2 fully loaded AK's and a PB. They are headed further west to see what they can find. I also managed to get the convoys that had been chased by his carriers around the southern map edge into NZ. Some fighters and more infantry are unloading, but the infantry regiments are a sad and sorry picture with low morale and heavy losses. They will take months to recover from the ordeal.
On the sub/ASW front honours were shared. I got an AKE off Noumea and a troop laden AK off Rangoon. He got a TK off Colombo and I-23 managed to sink 2 AKL's from the Darwin flotilla. I managed to lose a sub that was caught by aircraft refueling in Darwin.
In the air
Daily attacks on Darwin continue and there is plenty of harassing air activity in China. My campaign against Port Moresby is interrupted the the cruisers, but on the other side of the map we open up a campaign against Akyab. With Chittagong repaired, I have moved 60 fighters in and on April 7 they start sweeping. We encounter Oscars only on day 1 of the attack and kill 4 for the loss of 2. The next day the bombers start up with B-17's and Blenheims from Calcutta attacking the airfield. Day 2 we kill another 3 Oscars but lose 4 ourselves - mainly Blenheims as they go in unescorted before the sweeps. Day 3 is better, killing 5 Oscars for 3 losses and the campaign continues for the next few days witha another 8 Oscars destroyed for only 1 friendly loss. At the end of the 6 days we have likely destroyed 20~25 Oscars for about 15 friendly combat and ops losses and Akyab is closed down. Now there is at least air parity in this front I can consider my next steps. A move on Akyab is the most sensible but is a bit predictable.
On the ground
In India/Burma, Port Blair falls to a divisional level attack on April 5th, It was a good diversion, but cost us an Indian brigade destroyed.
In the south Pacific, the Japanese land on Vava'u and capture it pretty much immediately. I fear Pago Pago is next. He has the troop strength to take it and I would dearly love to get some of my guys out to save them. KB's interdiction is making that look unlikely
In the DEI he has moved up on Soerabaja but his first attack failed. Looks like he is waiting for follow up troops for the second assault.
In China, the ballet continues. In the south he seems to be bringing up fresh troops so I have diverted 3 corps from the central front down there. He tried to attack Nanning but looks like it was a mistaken mouse click as I easily threw him back with some just arrived reinforcements from a few hexes away. He tried to surround me north of Wuchow but I brought in reinforcements and stabilised the position there. In the centre My attack towards Wuchang looks like it has failed so I am pulling back into the forests and freeing troops up to reinforce the Kukong and Wuchow front. Around Sian, things are stable although I am still isolated in the forests south of Angkang. I am chasing his marauding armoured car unit down and now have it surrounded in Kungchang just south of Lanchow. Next turn the troops will arrive to kill it. His northern thrust has arrived to within a hex of Lanchow but reinforcemnets are flowing in. He may get into Lanchow yet but I have enough tropps heading there now to surround him if he does. I reacted too late to this threat and it will be a bigger nuisance than I should have allowed it to become.
Overall - The USA and USMC infantry losses are my most serious issue right now. I have lost 4 regiments worth of infantry and marines and another 2 infantry regiments are on Pago Pago facing a gloomy future. Thats about 6 months worth of replacements and another 3 months of training before these units will be back in the fight. My CV's CA's and DD's are all installing radar safe in the knowledge that KB is in the South Pacific. I now have several fighter groups trained up to 70 skill in air to air and fitted out fully with P-40's and Aircobra's. Over the next month things should start to turn around, but I need to free up ground troops if I am going to counter attack anytime soon.
Regards
Andrew
My apologies, the game is moving along at a good rate, but I am struggling to keep the AAR updated due to time competition from actual real life. I know, I know....I need to get my priorities sorted. So another summary entry. Quite a lot had happened so this may be a bit long.
At Sea
His carriers have split into 3 TF's now it seems. One group spent a week off Auckland pounding the port. The already damaged BB Warspite took another 30 bomb hits and has been reduced to a complete wreck although surprisingly it is still afloat. The break away group from KB snuck out to the east of Pago Pago and struck an empty TF I had positioned there looking for an opportunity to get one of the infantry regiments off Pago Pago. I lost 3 AK's and a DMS with another DMS's badly damaged. Mini KB snuck around into the Tasman sea and intercepted a supply convoy repositioning from NZ to Sydney. Over a couple of days they pursued and ended up sinking 8 small AK's and basically wiping the convoy out. His CV's have become merchant raiders it seems.
Elsewhere IJN cruiser TF's were active. He sent a CL/DD TF into Pago Pago and smashed the PT TF I had established there, sinking 10 out of 12. A heavy cruiser TF came out of nowhere past all my subs and search aircraft to bombard Perth. Fortunately the shore battery was alert and hit 2 of them for little loss to me. Another group of CA's appeared off the Queensland coast. I feared they were headed to bombard Townsville so I evacuated my big B-17 force there to Brisbane. They cruised the coast for 3 days and managed to interdict the single AKL stream I had set up to sneak supplies into Darwin. I only lost 1 to the CA's but the rest have fled (for the moment). They have bought Port Moresby some time though so will have to start again there.
I got one hit in myself. I sent a light cruiser and some DD"s deep into his rear around Marcus Island. They got lucky and found a small troop convoy north of Saipan sinking 2 fully loaded AK's and a PB. They are headed further west to see what they can find. I also managed to get the convoys that had been chased by his carriers around the southern map edge into NZ. Some fighters and more infantry are unloading, but the infantry regiments are a sad and sorry picture with low morale and heavy losses. They will take months to recover from the ordeal.
On the sub/ASW front honours were shared. I got an AKE off Noumea and a troop laden AK off Rangoon. He got a TK off Colombo and I-23 managed to sink 2 AKL's from the Darwin flotilla. I managed to lose a sub that was caught by aircraft refueling in Darwin.
In the air
Daily attacks on Darwin continue and there is plenty of harassing air activity in China. My campaign against Port Moresby is interrupted the the cruisers, but on the other side of the map we open up a campaign against Akyab. With Chittagong repaired, I have moved 60 fighters in and on April 7 they start sweeping. We encounter Oscars only on day 1 of the attack and kill 4 for the loss of 2. The next day the bombers start up with B-17's and Blenheims from Calcutta attacking the airfield. Day 2 we kill another 3 Oscars but lose 4 ourselves - mainly Blenheims as they go in unescorted before the sweeps. Day 3 is better, killing 5 Oscars for 3 losses and the campaign continues for the next few days witha another 8 Oscars destroyed for only 1 friendly loss. At the end of the 6 days we have likely destroyed 20~25 Oscars for about 15 friendly combat and ops losses and Akyab is closed down. Now there is at least air parity in this front I can consider my next steps. A move on Akyab is the most sensible but is a bit predictable.
On the ground
In India/Burma, Port Blair falls to a divisional level attack on April 5th, It was a good diversion, but cost us an Indian brigade destroyed.
In the south Pacific, the Japanese land on Vava'u and capture it pretty much immediately. I fear Pago Pago is next. He has the troop strength to take it and I would dearly love to get some of my guys out to save them. KB's interdiction is making that look unlikely
In the DEI he has moved up on Soerabaja but his first attack failed. Looks like he is waiting for follow up troops for the second assault.
In China, the ballet continues. In the south he seems to be bringing up fresh troops so I have diverted 3 corps from the central front down there. He tried to attack Nanning but looks like it was a mistaken mouse click as I easily threw him back with some just arrived reinforcements from a few hexes away. He tried to surround me north of Wuchow but I brought in reinforcements and stabilised the position there. In the centre My attack towards Wuchang looks like it has failed so I am pulling back into the forests and freeing troops up to reinforce the Kukong and Wuchow front. Around Sian, things are stable although I am still isolated in the forests south of Angkang. I am chasing his marauding armoured car unit down and now have it surrounded in Kungchang just south of Lanchow. Next turn the troops will arrive to kill it. His northern thrust has arrived to within a hex of Lanchow but reinforcemnets are flowing in. He may get into Lanchow yet but I have enough tropps heading there now to surround him if he does. I reacted too late to this threat and it will be a bigger nuisance than I should have allowed it to become.
Overall - The USA and USMC infantry losses are my most serious issue right now. I have lost 4 regiments worth of infantry and marines and another 2 infantry regiments are on Pago Pago facing a gloomy future. Thats about 6 months worth of replacements and another 3 months of training before these units will be back in the fight. My CV's CA's and DD's are all installing radar safe in the knowledge that KB is in the South Pacific. I now have several fighter groups trained up to 70 skill in air to air and fitted out fully with P-40's and Aircobra's. Over the next month things should start to turn around, but I need to free up ground troops if I am going to counter attack anytime soon.
Regards
Andrew
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
April 14 - 27
In the week since my last update, we have rocketed through 13 turns. Leaves me with very little time to do this AAR so will have to try and keep up with weekly summary style updates while we continue on at this blistering pace.
At Sea
SOPAC
The big action has been on the Fiji front. After my attempted evacuation of Pago Pago was stopped by KB, I basically resigned myself to the painful fact that I would lose those troops and the best thing I could do was make the best fight possible. I have 2 infantry regiments and numerous support troops there so their loss, together with what I lost at Fiji, will take my US land losses up to almost 2 divisions. Painful, but with the ability to buy destroyed units back and replacements of 60 USA infantry squads arriving a month (rising to 80 from July) and also 54 USMC squads a month, I decided that it was better to replace those losses over 6~9 months rather than risk losing my carriers trying to fight an evacuation force in. Instead, using the knowledge that his CV's were all down south I decided to raid Wake and occupy it if the opportunity arose. More on that later.
Meanwhile mini KB and parts of KB proper continued to raid up and down the NZ coast. My luck finally run out avoiding his CV raids and he caught a tanker force trying to sneak fuel into Auckland. Over 2 days I lost 6 tankers and some DMS's which were escorting them. He then also raided Wellington and sank 2 AP's and hit 2 heavy cruisers damaging them. While that happened though I snuck another TF into Christchurch loaded with P-40's and Aircobras. I was sweating bullets until they were ashore I tell you. When he came in to attack all the shipping that was hiding in Wellington harbour again I was able to put up 30 fighters which nailed 20~30 of his carrier aircraft for no loss. He came in again the next day with more escorts but I was able to get 50 fighters up and shot down another 20~30 for the loss of 3 this time. To be strictly accurate my pilots claimed a total of 80 kills but I suspect it was more like 50 or so. Anyway it was enough to send him packing and allow me to lick my wounds.
Over on the Fiji front. the predictable the assault came. Firstly they landed at Savaii NW of Pago Pago on April 20, with 2 infantry regiments, a tank regiment and an engineer regiment. My little airforce at Pago Pago gave him some stick, sinking 2 or 3 AP's and hammering the BB Fuso for the loss of about 20 aircraft. However my defence was a marine defence battalion, an infantry battalion and some engineers so once he was ashore it was over pretty quickly. By April 22 my garrison succumbed.
On April 26 the main assault came on Pago Pago. My garrison is pretty strong - 2 USA inf regiments, 2 marine defence units, 3 bases forces, an HQ and 2 AA regiments dug in to level 3.8. He arrived with the full suite of weaponry - KB raiding, BB's bombarding and 3 full infantry divisions landing. Air command Pago Pago was overwhelmed and eventually the remnants evacuated north. The CD guns in the marine defence units hit back hard hitting 4 AP's probably sinking 2 or 3 of them. He is now ashore though so it will be interesting to see how long we hold.
CENPAC
While his navy was pounding me senseless in the south I put together a force to raid Wake Island. My sub recon showed only 1 defender so I thought the 3 marine raiding battalions might be able to seize the place. At PH I gathered 18 APD's with a CA and a CL to escort and loaded the marine raiders. Supporting them were a bombardment force of 4 BB's with 6 DD's escorting, and covering the lot were 3 CV TF's with a single CV and escorts each. Follow up was a replen TF, an amphib TF with a base unit in case I was able to occupy the place. We arrived off Wake on April 24, bombarded and went straight in. Unfortunately for me, my recon was faulty. He had an SNLF, a coastal gun battalion and a JNAF force. Too strong for my raiders. We got ashore but ended up with heavy losses (mainly disabled rather than dead) and high disruption levels. It was obvious we wouldn't be able to capture the place without a bigger commitment so I quickly made the decision to pull them back before they took serious losses. The TF's are all on the way back to PH now.
Elsewhere
The NORPAC area has been quiet thus far. I have been too hard pressed in the south to send anything north. During the period we moved the 87th Mnt Reg to Dutch Harbour and a marine defence unit to Adak to protect those bases and give us the option to expand up there later as forces become available. Nothing much going on off India. Supplies moving and subs are stalking the Burma coast. Sub activity everywhere has been uneventful over the period
On the Ground
India/Burma
We have gathered a decent level of forces in India now and I know he can't have too much facing us due to the amount he has committed in SOPAC. With SOPAC being captured the opportunity, to get in close with air and ground forces are limited, so Burma is a good candidate to get to grips with the Japs. I am moving some US air units over to help fight the air war and some US engineer units as well. As a result have decided to mount a corps level attack on Akyab based around the 7th Aust Div. This will let me kill a regiment or even two of Japanese infantry and share the losses between the Australians, Indians and British. If we can capture the place it establishes a base for future offensive air operations and may be further advance down the coast. He probably expects this attack and is preparing, certainly reinforcements are moving in to Akyab, but we need to take the fight to him somewhere, so will see how we go. The troops moved out of Chittagong, initially for Cox's Bazar, then on to Akyab. I picked up intel he was planning a para raid on Ledo, so have moved an infantry brigade there as a safe guard.
China
He has started pulling back in the north. We finally committed the forces required to rebuff him in the far north at Lanchow (about 5 Corps) and squashed that armoured car unit that was in our rear. He is pulling back now. Around Sian he has also started pulling back from his flanking position to the west of Sian. I don't want to get a bloody nose so we are just following along behind. In the south however, activity is building and I suspect he is shifting forces south now to try and catch me before I can react. Made one big rookie error and left Tsuyung unoccupied (its on the road from Kunming to the Burma border). Anyway he dropped a para unit in and captured the place together with a whole bunch of supplies. Very annoying. I have moved fighters to Kunming and am LRCAP'ing it now so he can't reinforce but it will take a few weeks to get the forces in place to recapture the town. I have also started setting up an air supply bridge from Ledo to Kunming. I have 50 transport aircraft available so its getting to the stage where it is viable.
DEI
Soerabaja fell on April 19th. Malang in the hills and Bandoeng are out last mountain fortresses on Java.
Overall
I think Pago Pago may be his high water mark. I can feel the tide is starting to turn. My major unit naval losses are not too bad but I have lost too many escort vessels and my merchant losses are building too (see below). My land losses are the worst thing so far and that will set me back some time while I rebuild those units. My biggest challenge is working out where I can bring him to battle using my land based air. Burma is clearly one front, but I have to find another. Ranges in Centpac are too great, so northern Australia into New Guinea is the most likely candidate. My supply line to Australia are so long though it is going to be painful.
Regards
Andrew
PS : Naval losses to date (excl Dutch)
2 BB (USN)
1 BC (RN)
6 CA (4 USN, 2 RAN)
7 CL (1 USN. 4 RN, 1 RAN, 1 RNZN)
22 DD (16 USN, 5 RN, 1 RAN)
2 KV (RN)
7 PG (4USN, 3 RN)
4 SS (USN)
Merchant losses
18 TK
90 xAK
34 xAP
3 AP
In the week since my last update, we have rocketed through 13 turns. Leaves me with very little time to do this AAR so will have to try and keep up with weekly summary style updates while we continue on at this blistering pace.
At Sea
SOPAC
The big action has been on the Fiji front. After my attempted evacuation of Pago Pago was stopped by KB, I basically resigned myself to the painful fact that I would lose those troops and the best thing I could do was make the best fight possible. I have 2 infantry regiments and numerous support troops there so their loss, together with what I lost at Fiji, will take my US land losses up to almost 2 divisions. Painful, but with the ability to buy destroyed units back and replacements of 60 USA infantry squads arriving a month (rising to 80 from July) and also 54 USMC squads a month, I decided that it was better to replace those losses over 6~9 months rather than risk losing my carriers trying to fight an evacuation force in. Instead, using the knowledge that his CV's were all down south I decided to raid Wake and occupy it if the opportunity arose. More on that later.
Meanwhile mini KB and parts of KB proper continued to raid up and down the NZ coast. My luck finally run out avoiding his CV raids and he caught a tanker force trying to sneak fuel into Auckland. Over 2 days I lost 6 tankers and some DMS's which were escorting them. He then also raided Wellington and sank 2 AP's and hit 2 heavy cruisers damaging them. While that happened though I snuck another TF into Christchurch loaded with P-40's and Aircobras. I was sweating bullets until they were ashore I tell you. When he came in to attack all the shipping that was hiding in Wellington harbour again I was able to put up 30 fighters which nailed 20~30 of his carrier aircraft for no loss. He came in again the next day with more escorts but I was able to get 50 fighters up and shot down another 20~30 for the loss of 3 this time. To be strictly accurate my pilots claimed a total of 80 kills but I suspect it was more like 50 or so. Anyway it was enough to send him packing and allow me to lick my wounds.
Over on the Fiji front. the predictable the assault came. Firstly they landed at Savaii NW of Pago Pago on April 20, with 2 infantry regiments, a tank regiment and an engineer regiment. My little airforce at Pago Pago gave him some stick, sinking 2 or 3 AP's and hammering the BB Fuso for the loss of about 20 aircraft. However my defence was a marine defence battalion, an infantry battalion and some engineers so once he was ashore it was over pretty quickly. By April 22 my garrison succumbed.
On April 26 the main assault came on Pago Pago. My garrison is pretty strong - 2 USA inf regiments, 2 marine defence units, 3 bases forces, an HQ and 2 AA regiments dug in to level 3.8. He arrived with the full suite of weaponry - KB raiding, BB's bombarding and 3 full infantry divisions landing. Air command Pago Pago was overwhelmed and eventually the remnants evacuated north. The CD guns in the marine defence units hit back hard hitting 4 AP's probably sinking 2 or 3 of them. He is now ashore though so it will be interesting to see how long we hold.
CENPAC
While his navy was pounding me senseless in the south I put together a force to raid Wake Island. My sub recon showed only 1 defender so I thought the 3 marine raiding battalions might be able to seize the place. At PH I gathered 18 APD's with a CA and a CL to escort and loaded the marine raiders. Supporting them were a bombardment force of 4 BB's with 6 DD's escorting, and covering the lot were 3 CV TF's with a single CV and escorts each. Follow up was a replen TF, an amphib TF with a base unit in case I was able to occupy the place. We arrived off Wake on April 24, bombarded and went straight in. Unfortunately for me, my recon was faulty. He had an SNLF, a coastal gun battalion and a JNAF force. Too strong for my raiders. We got ashore but ended up with heavy losses (mainly disabled rather than dead) and high disruption levels. It was obvious we wouldn't be able to capture the place without a bigger commitment so I quickly made the decision to pull them back before they took serious losses. The TF's are all on the way back to PH now.
Elsewhere
The NORPAC area has been quiet thus far. I have been too hard pressed in the south to send anything north. During the period we moved the 87th Mnt Reg to Dutch Harbour and a marine defence unit to Adak to protect those bases and give us the option to expand up there later as forces become available. Nothing much going on off India. Supplies moving and subs are stalking the Burma coast. Sub activity everywhere has been uneventful over the period
On the Ground
India/Burma
We have gathered a decent level of forces in India now and I know he can't have too much facing us due to the amount he has committed in SOPAC. With SOPAC being captured the opportunity, to get in close with air and ground forces are limited, so Burma is a good candidate to get to grips with the Japs. I am moving some US air units over to help fight the air war and some US engineer units as well. As a result have decided to mount a corps level attack on Akyab based around the 7th Aust Div. This will let me kill a regiment or even two of Japanese infantry and share the losses between the Australians, Indians and British. If we can capture the place it establishes a base for future offensive air operations and may be further advance down the coast. He probably expects this attack and is preparing, certainly reinforcements are moving in to Akyab, but we need to take the fight to him somewhere, so will see how we go. The troops moved out of Chittagong, initially for Cox's Bazar, then on to Akyab. I picked up intel he was planning a para raid on Ledo, so have moved an infantry brigade there as a safe guard.
China
He has started pulling back in the north. We finally committed the forces required to rebuff him in the far north at Lanchow (about 5 Corps) and squashed that armoured car unit that was in our rear. He is pulling back now. Around Sian he has also started pulling back from his flanking position to the west of Sian. I don't want to get a bloody nose so we are just following along behind. In the south however, activity is building and I suspect he is shifting forces south now to try and catch me before I can react. Made one big rookie error and left Tsuyung unoccupied (its on the road from Kunming to the Burma border). Anyway he dropped a para unit in and captured the place together with a whole bunch of supplies. Very annoying. I have moved fighters to Kunming and am LRCAP'ing it now so he can't reinforce but it will take a few weeks to get the forces in place to recapture the town. I have also started setting up an air supply bridge from Ledo to Kunming. I have 50 transport aircraft available so its getting to the stage where it is viable.
DEI
Soerabaja fell on April 19th. Malang in the hills and Bandoeng are out last mountain fortresses on Java.
Overall
I think Pago Pago may be his high water mark. I can feel the tide is starting to turn. My major unit naval losses are not too bad but I have lost too many escort vessels and my merchant losses are building too (see below). My land losses are the worst thing so far and that will set me back some time while I rebuild those units. My biggest challenge is working out where I can bring him to battle using my land based air. Burma is clearly one front, but I have to find another. Ranges in Centpac are too great, so northern Australia into New Guinea is the most likely candidate. My supply line to Australia are so long though it is going to be painful.
Regards
Andrew
PS : Naval losses to date (excl Dutch)
2 BB (USN)
1 BC (RN)
6 CA (4 USN, 2 RAN)
7 CL (1 USN. 4 RN, 1 RAN, 1 RNZN)
22 DD (16 USN, 5 RN, 1 RAN)
2 KV (RN)
7 PG (4USN, 3 RN)
4 SS (USN)
Merchant losses
18 TK
90 xAK
34 xAP
3 AP
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
April 28 to May 8
Time for what has become the weekly round up of the action. The story by theatre
SOPAC
We left our story dear readers with the evil empire invading Pago Pago and our doomed garrison grimly hanging on. The good news is it held and held and only finally succumbed on May 7th after 3 major Japanese attacks and about 10,000 Japanese "casualties". The bad news is my guys all died, 2 infantry regiments, 2 marine defence units, an HQ and 3 good base units. Most can be bought back but it will take time to rebuild the units. KB was involved raiding Pago Pago several times and feinting towards Canton Island when he detected a small convoy of mine headed there. I managed to get away probably due to storms. I am also seeing a fair bit of shipping moving around Fiji , so I suspect he may be pulling some of the 8 divisions he deployed there back to either the DEI or Burma. Gives me a short window of opportunity in Burma that will close in a month or so.
In Australia we continue to hammer Port Moresby while he hammers Darwin. He tried to LRCAP Moresby but his Oscars and Rufes haven't had much effect on the B-17s so far. Maintenance is a bigger enemy. My land units have finally positioned themselves around his troops on the north west Australian frontier and hopefully that little incursion will be cleaned up over the next few weeks. On May 1st he had the temerity to bombard my home town Brisbane, not once but twice. A few holes in the runway were all that resulted but we managed to get a few hits on two of his cruisers and must have hit one of his destroyers pretty hard. I had moved most of my coastal arty to Townsville to protect the B-17 base. Hope he tries to hit me up there. It would be interesting to say the least.
CENPAC
The Wake raid force made it back to PH unmolested and total losses were only about 10 raider squads. The troops are resting and recovering. Land strength in PH has improved now to almost 3 division equivalents after I stripped the 2 divisions from the garrison to send to Fiji/Pago Pago and ultimately New Zealand. Those divisions are now both at about 40% strength after all the losses sustained and are slowly rebuilding in NZ. I now have 3 fighter groups at around 70 air training level so am moving more squadrons to the NZ/Oz theatre by very circuitous routing. I should ultimately get a dozen well trained US Ftr squadrons deployed by next month.
DEI
After one a costly rebuff at Bandoeng (3,200 casualties vs 180) he has gone quiet. He seems to have settled in to a long siege and may be waiting for reinforcements from Fiji to finish the Dutch off.
Burma/India
I have managed to organise a decent attack force to deploy against Akyab. I figure I have a month before the troops from Fiji can deploy in theatre so have sent 7th Aust Div, 7th Ind Div and the brigades of 70th Brit Div together with 2 armoured brigades arty and engineers on their way. He will be dug in by now and probably has 2 or maybe even 3 regiments there so I will have to assess his strength and make a call on whether I can take the place quickly or not. I don't want to be caught with all my good units forward and he lands in my rear with those Fiji divisions.
He certainly knows I am coming and is harassing me at every opportunity. He bombarded and mined Cox's Bazar on May 2nd so I moved a cruiser TF into Chittagong to contest. We had a daytime surface action off Cox's Bazar which he followed up with a major Nell strike on my survivors. I sent some Beauforts in as well but ended up coming off the worst for it. I lost another RN CL and DD and the rest of the fleet (a CA, a CL and 3 DD's) was damaged to various degrees. If I can get them all back to Colombo they will all fight again. He probably had a DD badly damaged and got away with light damage elsewhere, so it was a Japanese victory and a blow to Royal Navy pride. I am fast running out of British light cruisers. We should be in position by May 15th for our first attack on Akyab.
For the longer term in Burma I am sending considerable USA air reinforcements - 6 bomber and 2 fighter squadrons are already on their way, a P-40 group arrives at Aden over the next few weeks and I have another fighter group at New York ear marked for this theatre as airframes become available. As PP's allow I may also move a US infantry division over to help share the loss burden. The British infantry replacement rate is so low they basically don't come back once lost. The Indians, Australians and US army all need to take the lions share of the fight if we are to be aggressive.
China
In China he is pulling back. Initially he fell back from the salient he drove to the southwest of Sian and from the attack on Lanchow, but now he is also pulling back from what appeared initially to be a major attack in the south from Vietnam. A local Japanese assault on the edge of the Sian salient was rebuffed. I am short of supplies everywhere so am not in a position to do much but follow up, dig in and build. I now have an airbridge set up from Ledo to Kunming and have 60 transports operating daily. The air landing at Tsuyung hasn't been crushed yet but, LRCAP by fighters at Kunming have prevented him from reinforcing and the first land troops will be there in a few days. I am properly garrisoning my rear area bases now. No Chinese offensives just yet.
Other action at Sea
Sub action has been pretty hot. I got a torp into the CA Aoba at Pago Pago, sank at least 1 and maybe upto 3 tankers off Tarakan and got a torp into a fully laden AK off Rabaul. In return he put 2 into the CL HMS Emerald off Calcutta laying her up for several months, I lost 2 AKL's off the Australian coast trying to sneak supplies into Darwin and the Dutch sub O19 was sunk in the Tarakan battles. We both had another couple of subs damaged each. If my dud rate wasn't so high it would have been a much mor successful period for the US sub arm. I am now starting to get significant numbers of radar equipped subs deployed and have some operating around the home islands. I am trying to map out his convoy patterns but haven't had too much luck yet. I think he is hugging coast lines so I need to experiment with sub placement a little.
Strategy Comment
My position is consolidating and although he hurt me at Fiji and Pago Pago I have managed to avoid any fatal damage. I get the sense he is almost done with his initial offensive so if that is true, the challenge now is to take the fight to him and start to attrit his air and naval arm while my land forces lick their wounds. I am in the midst of planning some limited offensive options and plan to be in a position to execute by July. More on that next week maybe.....
Regards
Andrew
Time for what has become the weekly round up of the action. The story by theatre
SOPAC
We left our story dear readers with the evil empire invading Pago Pago and our doomed garrison grimly hanging on. The good news is it held and held and only finally succumbed on May 7th after 3 major Japanese attacks and about 10,000 Japanese "casualties". The bad news is my guys all died, 2 infantry regiments, 2 marine defence units, an HQ and 3 good base units. Most can be bought back but it will take time to rebuild the units. KB was involved raiding Pago Pago several times and feinting towards Canton Island when he detected a small convoy of mine headed there. I managed to get away probably due to storms. I am also seeing a fair bit of shipping moving around Fiji , so I suspect he may be pulling some of the 8 divisions he deployed there back to either the DEI or Burma. Gives me a short window of opportunity in Burma that will close in a month or so.
In Australia we continue to hammer Port Moresby while he hammers Darwin. He tried to LRCAP Moresby but his Oscars and Rufes haven't had much effect on the B-17s so far. Maintenance is a bigger enemy. My land units have finally positioned themselves around his troops on the north west Australian frontier and hopefully that little incursion will be cleaned up over the next few weeks. On May 1st he had the temerity to bombard my home town Brisbane, not once but twice. A few holes in the runway were all that resulted but we managed to get a few hits on two of his cruisers and must have hit one of his destroyers pretty hard. I had moved most of my coastal arty to Townsville to protect the B-17 base. Hope he tries to hit me up there. It would be interesting to say the least.
CENPAC
The Wake raid force made it back to PH unmolested and total losses were only about 10 raider squads. The troops are resting and recovering. Land strength in PH has improved now to almost 3 division equivalents after I stripped the 2 divisions from the garrison to send to Fiji/Pago Pago and ultimately New Zealand. Those divisions are now both at about 40% strength after all the losses sustained and are slowly rebuilding in NZ. I now have 3 fighter groups at around 70 air training level so am moving more squadrons to the NZ/Oz theatre by very circuitous routing. I should ultimately get a dozen well trained US Ftr squadrons deployed by next month.
DEI
After one a costly rebuff at Bandoeng (3,200 casualties vs 180) he has gone quiet. He seems to have settled in to a long siege and may be waiting for reinforcements from Fiji to finish the Dutch off.
Burma/India
I have managed to organise a decent attack force to deploy against Akyab. I figure I have a month before the troops from Fiji can deploy in theatre so have sent 7th Aust Div, 7th Ind Div and the brigades of 70th Brit Div together with 2 armoured brigades arty and engineers on their way. He will be dug in by now and probably has 2 or maybe even 3 regiments there so I will have to assess his strength and make a call on whether I can take the place quickly or not. I don't want to be caught with all my good units forward and he lands in my rear with those Fiji divisions.
He certainly knows I am coming and is harassing me at every opportunity. He bombarded and mined Cox's Bazar on May 2nd so I moved a cruiser TF into Chittagong to contest. We had a daytime surface action off Cox's Bazar which he followed up with a major Nell strike on my survivors. I sent some Beauforts in as well but ended up coming off the worst for it. I lost another RN CL and DD and the rest of the fleet (a CA, a CL and 3 DD's) was damaged to various degrees. If I can get them all back to Colombo they will all fight again. He probably had a DD badly damaged and got away with light damage elsewhere, so it was a Japanese victory and a blow to Royal Navy pride. I am fast running out of British light cruisers. We should be in position by May 15th for our first attack on Akyab.
For the longer term in Burma I am sending considerable USA air reinforcements - 6 bomber and 2 fighter squadrons are already on their way, a P-40 group arrives at Aden over the next few weeks and I have another fighter group at New York ear marked for this theatre as airframes become available. As PP's allow I may also move a US infantry division over to help share the loss burden. The British infantry replacement rate is so low they basically don't come back once lost. The Indians, Australians and US army all need to take the lions share of the fight if we are to be aggressive.
China
In China he is pulling back. Initially he fell back from the salient he drove to the southwest of Sian and from the attack on Lanchow, but now he is also pulling back from what appeared initially to be a major attack in the south from Vietnam. A local Japanese assault on the edge of the Sian salient was rebuffed. I am short of supplies everywhere so am not in a position to do much but follow up, dig in and build. I now have an airbridge set up from Ledo to Kunming and have 60 transports operating daily. The air landing at Tsuyung hasn't been crushed yet but, LRCAP by fighters at Kunming have prevented him from reinforcing and the first land troops will be there in a few days. I am properly garrisoning my rear area bases now. No Chinese offensives just yet.
Other action at Sea
Sub action has been pretty hot. I got a torp into the CA Aoba at Pago Pago, sank at least 1 and maybe upto 3 tankers off Tarakan and got a torp into a fully laden AK off Rabaul. In return he put 2 into the CL HMS Emerald off Calcutta laying her up for several months, I lost 2 AKL's off the Australian coast trying to sneak supplies into Darwin and the Dutch sub O19 was sunk in the Tarakan battles. We both had another couple of subs damaged each. If my dud rate wasn't so high it would have been a much mor successful period for the US sub arm. I am now starting to get significant numbers of radar equipped subs deployed and have some operating around the home islands. I am trying to map out his convoy patterns but haven't had too much luck yet. I think he is hugging coast lines so I need to experiment with sub placement a little.
Strategy Comment
My position is consolidating and although he hurt me at Fiji and Pago Pago I have managed to avoid any fatal damage. I get the sense he is almost done with his initial offensive so if that is true, the challenge now is to take the fight to him and start to attrit his air and naval arm while my land forces lick their wounds. I am in the midst of planning some limited offensive options and plan to be in a position to execute by July. More on that next week maybe.....
Regards
Andrew
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
May 9th to May 19th
Its been a busy 7 days with 10 turns played. The state of play is as follows.
SOPAC
After the fall of Pago Pago, activity levels in this theatre have fallen right back. My subs and sigint have detected significant shipping movement around Fiji, so I suspect he is re-deploying forces back to the DEI or Burma where I am putting him under pressure. I have started to move forces to Australia in preparation for a counter attack in a few months time but they are being forced to take the long route via Tahiti and south of New Zealand. In NZ the survivors of Fiji and Pago Pago are steadily rebuilding. One USMC regiment is rapidly approaching full strength again and the infantry replacements are now flowing to the two damaged infantry divisions. These troops are also starting to move across to Australia to position for a possible attack. Rebuilding is the name of the game here.
CENPAC
A quiet week. I am moving a USA Base force to Canton Island under cover of the CV's out of Pearl. He detected it and it looks like he sortied KB from Fiji to intercept. I didn't want to fight all of KB so the force withdrew north, refueled and have gone in again. Second time round he didn't react and they are currently discharging. If I hold Canton I can shuttle heavy bombers from Hawaii to NZ and Oz through the airfield. Fighters and Medium bombers have to go the long way by boat. Midway is building nicely now (A/F 3, Forts 4, Port 2 and building) so I should be able to deploy support ships there and turn it into a sub base soon.
DEI
Nil activity on this front. Bandoeng is being raided by bombers but he hasn't attacked at all. I got sigint saying the Imperial Guards Div are moving to Rangoon. They had led the attack at Bandoeng, so I suspect he is now just screening the Dutch to get reinforcements to Burma.
Burma / India
All the action was here this week. We arrived at Akyab but discovered 3 full IJA regiments dug in there. I was not very optimistic about the chances of success and was worried about the Guards and others from Fiji arriving to counter invade my rear. With so much of strength forward at Akyab, this would be a real problem. The first attack went in on schedule on May 15th and low and behold the result was as follows :
Ground combat at Akyab (54,45)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 39947 troops, 822 guns, 824 vehicles, Assault Value = 1491
Defending force 9796 troops, 105 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 358
Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 2
Allied adjusted assault: 1064
Japanese adjusted defense: 915
Allied assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 2)
Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 2
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), disruption(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
2325 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 57 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 72 disabled
Engineers: 22 destroyed, 38 disabled
Allied ground losses:
446 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 52 disabled
Non Combat: 14 destroyed, 146 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled
Vehicles lost 77 (8 destroyed, 69 disabled)
Assaulting units:
7th Hussars Regiment
6th Australian Division
70th British Division
2nd Royal Tank Regiment
14th British Brigade
7th Indian Division
16th British Brigade
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
23rd British Brigade
48th Gurkha Brigade
25th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
20th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
23rd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
2/13th Field Regiment
24th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
Defending units:
23rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
78th Infantry Regiment
41st Infantry Regiment
33rd/B Division
32nd Field AA Battalion
5th Field AF Construction Battalion
It looked like my tanks were tipping the balance in my favour so over the next week I kept the pressure up and on May 18th, the 3rd attack succeeded and the base fell. I had a blocking force behind so no-one escaped overland although it looks like he evacuated unit fragments from each regiment by fast transport so the units were not destroyed completely. Still 3 whole regiments were virtually wiped out for minimal Allied losses, so it was the first serious reversal for him. Huzzah!! The air battles were also intense. My Hurricanes sweeping and capping from Chittagong managed to really grind his Oscars down and we also nailed unescorted Betties and Nells on two occasions. My guys claimed around 60 kills over the week, friendly losses were about a dozen. I lost 3 minelayers in a misguide belief he had mined Akyab and I needed to clear it so my battleships could bombard him in support of my attacks. Ended up being no mines and no need to bombard, but the poor old AM's took the brunt of his fury. Small price to pay.
China
His withdrawal continues. I am only following up hesitantly. I want to stay in favourable terrain till I have built up. On May 14th my reaction forces arrived at Tsuyung. He had deployed Oscars over Kunming and forced my fighters to the ground allowing him to reinforce with more air lifted troops from 33rd division. It didn't help......
Ground combat at Tsuyung (68,46)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 12567 troops, 78 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 922
Defending force 2047 troops, 41 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 64
Allied adjusted assault: 402
Japanese adjusted defense: 112
Allied assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 1)
Allied forces CAPTURE Tsuyung !!!
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
831 casualties reported
Squads: 25 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 9 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 14 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 20 (20 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 2
Allied ground losses:
143 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 14 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!
Assaulting units:
39th New Chinese Division
71st Chinese Corps
38th New Chinese Division
54th Chinese/C Corps
Defending units:
33rd/A Div /1
2nd Raiding Rgt /1
That concluded an embarrassing and costly (in terms of lost supply) incident I would rather forget.
Other action
There was a fair bit of sub action during the period. I claimed an AK near Japan and another near Truk. One IJN sub hit a mine at Perth and 2 more were damaged by depth charge attacks. I lost 3 more AKL's in the vain attempt to sneak supplies into Darwin and had 2 subs damaged to Japanese ASW attacks. I am struggling to map out his convoy routes at the moment.
Overall
I think he has finished his initial offensive. KB hasn't come hunting and it is still around Fiji, so I suspect it may be covering the withdrawal of his divisions there. Where to I don't know. An invasion of Australia is a possibility but unlikely. Poor enemy commsec revealed a plan to deceive me into thinking they would go after Brisbane. It is either an elaborate double bluff or they want me to worry about that while they send forces to tidy up the DEI and maybe attack in India. That would also line up with the withdrawal in China to free up troops for an Indian offensive. The fall of Akyab will force him to reinforce Burma and I can see a nasty fight developing there. I have to be wary of deploying forward and exposing myself to a counter invasion. The pressure is on me now though. I need to keep the fight going and not let him rest too much.
Regards
Andrew
Its been a busy 7 days with 10 turns played. The state of play is as follows.
SOPAC
After the fall of Pago Pago, activity levels in this theatre have fallen right back. My subs and sigint have detected significant shipping movement around Fiji, so I suspect he is re-deploying forces back to the DEI or Burma where I am putting him under pressure. I have started to move forces to Australia in preparation for a counter attack in a few months time but they are being forced to take the long route via Tahiti and south of New Zealand. In NZ the survivors of Fiji and Pago Pago are steadily rebuilding. One USMC regiment is rapidly approaching full strength again and the infantry replacements are now flowing to the two damaged infantry divisions. These troops are also starting to move across to Australia to position for a possible attack. Rebuilding is the name of the game here.
CENPAC
A quiet week. I am moving a USA Base force to Canton Island under cover of the CV's out of Pearl. He detected it and it looks like he sortied KB from Fiji to intercept. I didn't want to fight all of KB so the force withdrew north, refueled and have gone in again. Second time round he didn't react and they are currently discharging. If I hold Canton I can shuttle heavy bombers from Hawaii to NZ and Oz through the airfield. Fighters and Medium bombers have to go the long way by boat. Midway is building nicely now (A/F 3, Forts 4, Port 2 and building) so I should be able to deploy support ships there and turn it into a sub base soon.
DEI
Nil activity on this front. Bandoeng is being raided by bombers but he hasn't attacked at all. I got sigint saying the Imperial Guards Div are moving to Rangoon. They had led the attack at Bandoeng, so I suspect he is now just screening the Dutch to get reinforcements to Burma.
Burma / India
All the action was here this week. We arrived at Akyab but discovered 3 full IJA regiments dug in there. I was not very optimistic about the chances of success and was worried about the Guards and others from Fiji arriving to counter invade my rear. With so much of strength forward at Akyab, this would be a real problem. The first attack went in on schedule on May 15th and low and behold the result was as follows :
Ground combat at Akyab (54,45)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 39947 troops, 822 guns, 824 vehicles, Assault Value = 1491
Defending force 9796 troops, 105 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 358
Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 2
Allied adjusted assault: 1064
Japanese adjusted defense: 915
Allied assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 2)
Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 2
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), disruption(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
2325 casualties reported
Squads: 6 destroyed, 57 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 72 disabled
Engineers: 22 destroyed, 38 disabled
Allied ground losses:
446 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 52 disabled
Non Combat: 14 destroyed, 146 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled
Vehicles lost 77 (8 destroyed, 69 disabled)
Assaulting units:
7th Hussars Regiment
6th Australian Division
70th British Division
2nd Royal Tank Regiment
14th British Brigade
7th Indian Division
16th British Brigade
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
23rd British Brigade
48th Gurkha Brigade
25th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
20th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
23rd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
2/13th Field Regiment
24th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
Defending units:
23rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
78th Infantry Regiment
41st Infantry Regiment
33rd/B Division
32nd Field AA Battalion
5th Field AF Construction Battalion
It looked like my tanks were tipping the balance in my favour so over the next week I kept the pressure up and on May 18th, the 3rd attack succeeded and the base fell. I had a blocking force behind so no-one escaped overland although it looks like he evacuated unit fragments from each regiment by fast transport so the units were not destroyed completely. Still 3 whole regiments were virtually wiped out for minimal Allied losses, so it was the first serious reversal for him. Huzzah!! The air battles were also intense. My Hurricanes sweeping and capping from Chittagong managed to really grind his Oscars down and we also nailed unescorted Betties and Nells on two occasions. My guys claimed around 60 kills over the week, friendly losses were about a dozen. I lost 3 minelayers in a misguide belief he had mined Akyab and I needed to clear it so my battleships could bombard him in support of my attacks. Ended up being no mines and no need to bombard, but the poor old AM's took the brunt of his fury. Small price to pay.
China
His withdrawal continues. I am only following up hesitantly. I want to stay in favourable terrain till I have built up. On May 14th my reaction forces arrived at Tsuyung. He had deployed Oscars over Kunming and forced my fighters to the ground allowing him to reinforce with more air lifted troops from 33rd division. It didn't help......
Ground combat at Tsuyung (68,46)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 12567 troops, 78 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 922
Defending force 2047 troops, 41 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 64
Allied adjusted assault: 402
Japanese adjusted defense: 112
Allied assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 1)
Allied forces CAPTURE Tsuyung !!!
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), preparation(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
831 casualties reported
Squads: 25 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 9 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 14 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 20 (20 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 2
Allied ground losses:
143 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 14 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!
Assaulting units:
39th New Chinese Division
71st Chinese Corps
38th New Chinese Division
54th Chinese/C Corps
Defending units:
33rd/A Div /1
2nd Raiding Rgt /1
That concluded an embarrassing and costly (in terms of lost supply) incident I would rather forget.
Other action
There was a fair bit of sub action during the period. I claimed an AK near Japan and another near Truk. One IJN sub hit a mine at Perth and 2 more were damaged by depth charge attacks. I lost 3 more AKL's in the vain attempt to sneak supplies into Darwin and had 2 subs damaged to Japanese ASW attacks. I am struggling to map out his convoy routes at the moment.
Overall
I think he has finished his initial offensive. KB hasn't come hunting and it is still around Fiji, so I suspect it may be covering the withdrawal of his divisions there. Where to I don't know. An invasion of Australia is a possibility but unlikely. Poor enemy commsec revealed a plan to deceive me into thinking they would go after Brisbane. It is either an elaborate double bluff or they want me to worry about that while they send forces to tidy up the DEI and maybe attack in India. That would also line up with the withdrawal in China to free up troops for an Indian offensive. The fall of Akyab will force him to reinforce Burma and I can see a nasty fight developing there. I have to be wary of deploying forward and exposing myself to a counter invasion. The pressure is on me now though. I need to keep the fight going and not let him rest too much.
Regards
Andrew
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
That you suspect the KB reamins in the vicinity of Fiji to cover the withdrawal of the recently victorious enemy troops, brings two things to my attention.
1. A quick counter invasion of the recently lost Pacific islands could have a significant psychological impact.
2. I wouldn't be so quick to assume the released enemy troops are going to India. I would be more inclined to think Australia is the target for these reasons.
(a) you haven't explained why you view the previous commsec regarding Brisbane to be poor intel. If that intel came via intercepted radio transmissions, then some effort to plan for a Brisbane operation must have been instituted.
(b) it is now the second half of May. The troops from Fiji would not arrive at the Indian invasion beaches until well into June. That is quite late to be launching an Indian sea invasion particularly when the Australian east coast, to wit Brisbane, is so much closer. Furthermore, if a second wave of Indian beach landings were to be necessary, they would have to be executed after the end of the bonus amphibious landing period.
(c) removing troops from Bandoeng to send them against India does not make much sense. I can understand that your victory at Akyab might have created a minor crisis and the closest unit which could have been sent in the short term to plug any hole created as a result of the Akyab victory, might come from the Bandoeng besiegers. Nevertheless, the most efficacious outcome for Japan is to destroy the remaining Dutch defenders at Bandoeng and thereby release all of the Japanese units.
(d) any thinning out of the Japanese line in China is more likely in order to release units for land operations rather than as part of a naval operation. The more likely scenarios are that they are earmarked for Burma, or elsewhere in China taking advantage of the interior lines.
(e) invading Fiji and Samoa is not a very efficient strategy if the overall idea was to always go for a sea invasion of India. Although it really isn't necessary, capturing both Fiji and Samoa does make a bit more sense if the true objective is Australia.
Alfred
1. A quick counter invasion of the recently lost Pacific islands could have a significant psychological impact.
2. I wouldn't be so quick to assume the released enemy troops are going to India. I would be more inclined to think Australia is the target for these reasons.
(a) you haven't explained why you view the previous commsec regarding Brisbane to be poor intel. If that intel came via intercepted radio transmissions, then some effort to plan for a Brisbane operation must have been instituted.
(b) it is now the second half of May. The troops from Fiji would not arrive at the Indian invasion beaches until well into June. That is quite late to be launching an Indian sea invasion particularly when the Australian east coast, to wit Brisbane, is so much closer. Furthermore, if a second wave of Indian beach landings were to be necessary, they would have to be executed after the end of the bonus amphibious landing period.
(c) removing troops from Bandoeng to send them against India does not make much sense. I can understand that your victory at Akyab might have created a minor crisis and the closest unit which could have been sent in the short term to plug any hole created as a result of the Akyab victory, might come from the Bandoeng besiegers. Nevertheless, the most efficacious outcome for Japan is to destroy the remaining Dutch defenders at Bandoeng and thereby release all of the Japanese units.
(d) any thinning out of the Japanese line in China is more likely in order to release units for land operations rather than as part of a naval operation. The more likely scenarios are that they are earmarked for Burma, or elsewhere in China taking advantage of the interior lines.
(e) invading Fiji and Samoa is not a very efficient strategy if the overall idea was to always go for a sea invasion of India. Although it really isn't necessary, capturing both Fiji and Samoa does make a bit more sense if the true objective is Australia.
Alfred
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
Alfred
Hi. Thanks for the thoughts. Two things lead me to believe they are shifting to Burma/India.
First I was mistakenly copied in on the following email between the two Japanese commanders
Quote
Mate here you go.
not much to do...
I started preping the Div's for Brisbane as deception.
Unquote
That combined with some other comments they have made in the back and forth reparte lead me to the conclusion they want me to think they are going to Australia but actually are not. Then again it could be a gigantic double bluff. jrcar is an ex army intel officer who did some psyche warfare training so a double bluff is certainly not out of the question.
Second is "in game" sigint and what my subs are seeing. I have had sigint reports of the Imperial Guards and also one of the divisions out of Fiji (forget which one right now) headed on ships for Rangoon. My subs are also seeing shipping moving out of Rabaul to the west.
I don't totally discount a move on Australia. I am moving forces there now to both protect Brisbane if I am wrong and also prepare for a July/August counter attack up through the top of Queensland to the southern New Guinea coast. Have earmarked 10 fighter squadrons, 6 medium bomber squadrons and 12 B-17/Liberator squadrons from the US, plus the 2 reduced US infantry divisions and 2 USMC regiments from Fiji/Pago Pago. Have also spent a bunch of PP's to create the 1 Aust Corps under SWPAC which gives me another 3 division equivalents of Australian troops including the 7th Division (it was the 6th Div in Akyab actually).
At the moment I am favouring a thrust into New Guinea over a counter invasion of the islands as it allows me to leverage my land based air power better out of Cairns, Cooktown, Portland Roads and Horn island. An attack on the Pacific islands has to rely on CV's mainly and I am not at all confident I will win a confrontation with KB plus mini KB if they all turn up. Be very interested if you have a view to the contrary though.
Cheers
Andrew
Hi. Thanks for the thoughts. Two things lead me to believe they are shifting to Burma/India.
First I was mistakenly copied in on the following email between the two Japanese commanders
Quote
Mate here you go.
not much to do...
I started preping the Div's for Brisbane as deception.
Unquote
That combined with some other comments they have made in the back and forth reparte lead me to the conclusion they want me to think they are going to Australia but actually are not. Then again it could be a gigantic double bluff. jrcar is an ex army intel officer who did some psyche warfare training so a double bluff is certainly not out of the question.
Second is "in game" sigint and what my subs are seeing. I have had sigint reports of the Imperial Guards and also one of the divisions out of Fiji (forget which one right now) headed on ships for Rangoon. My subs are also seeing shipping moving out of Rabaul to the west.
I don't totally discount a move on Australia. I am moving forces there now to both protect Brisbane if I am wrong and also prepare for a July/August counter attack up through the top of Queensland to the southern New Guinea coast. Have earmarked 10 fighter squadrons, 6 medium bomber squadrons and 12 B-17/Liberator squadrons from the US, plus the 2 reduced US infantry divisions and 2 USMC regiments from Fiji/Pago Pago. Have also spent a bunch of PP's to create the 1 Aust Corps under SWPAC which gives me another 3 division equivalents of Australian troops including the 7th Division (it was the 6th Div in Akyab actually).
At the moment I am favouring a thrust into New Guinea over a counter invasion of the islands as it allows me to leverage my land based air power better out of Cairns, Cooktown, Portland Roads and Horn island. An attack on the Pacific islands has to rely on CV's mainly and I am not at all confident I will win a confrontation with KB plus mini KB if they all turn up. Be very interested if you have a view to the contrary though.
Cheers
Andrew
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
aoffen,
Hmm, am not totally convinced but can't totally dismiss your concerns. This is my take.
1. That was quite an oopsie for your opponents to misdirect the email. I can't see how your name would get onto the same distribution list and therefore it wasn't just a case of a single misclick but of several misclicks plus error of judgement to deliberately choose your address as a valid and relevant address for the email's contents.
2. In the email the past tense was used to describe the Brisbane prepping. Furthermore the date of the email was not provided. It is possible that units were initially prepped as part of a maskirovka operation but the current strategic situation is quite different from what applied back then.
3. You have made several references to intel disclosing ships heading for Rangoon, but no reference to LCUs actually prepping for India. As part of a maskirovka operation, it is very easy to set ships to have Rangoon as their destination, travel part of the way to Rangoon and then at the last moment change direction to their true destination.
4. The amphibious landing bonus is a significant force multiplier. A Japanese player who lacks both (a) LCUs prepped for the target, and (b) the amphibious landing bonus, will find any sea borne invasion a much harder job to pull off. The more ambitious the operation is, the greater the difficulty is in the absence of both these elements.
5. Bearing in mind the preceding two points, keeping the KB to cover the evacuating Fiji convoys is a somewhat extravagant use of that valuable strategic asset. If you are correct regarding the KB's current mission, it would be much more logical for its next mission to be to spearhead an Australian east coast invasion rather than India.
6. I would draw your attention to the comments made in post #203 of the Rob Brennan/LoBaron AAR regarding maskirovka operations. Not only is jrcar an ex-intel officer, Nemo's name often appears as the latest poster in your opponent's AAR. Both jrcar and Nemo would be adept at misdirecting you and deliberate misdirection via email has been a regular tool employed by at least one of those gentlemen.
7. What kind of ships are moving west from Rabaul. If cargo ships, they could have delivered supplies to Rabaul as part of building up a pre invasion stockpile, then moved west to pick up resources from the DEI for the return leg back to Japan rather than heading straight back from Rabaul empty handed. That would be a much more efficient use of merchantmen. Alternatively they could be reinforcing the Bandoeng position, weakened by the removal of the IGD and the continued Dutch spoiling position.
Regarding your projected Australian operations, I think your thinking is sound. I certainly would not derail them just to recapture the lost islands. What I had in mind is that I suspect only token Japanese forces will be left behind on the islands and that you would have sufficient spare forces in Hawaii/West Coast to retake them on the cheap before they have an opportunity to dig in and whilst the KB is off on it's new mission.
Alfred
Hmm, am not totally convinced but can't totally dismiss your concerns. This is my take.
1. That was quite an oopsie for your opponents to misdirect the email. I can't see how your name would get onto the same distribution list and therefore it wasn't just a case of a single misclick but of several misclicks plus error of judgement to deliberately choose your address as a valid and relevant address for the email's contents.
2. In the email the past tense was used to describe the Brisbane prepping. Furthermore the date of the email was not provided. It is possible that units were initially prepped as part of a maskirovka operation but the current strategic situation is quite different from what applied back then.
3. You have made several references to intel disclosing ships heading for Rangoon, but no reference to LCUs actually prepping for India. As part of a maskirovka operation, it is very easy to set ships to have Rangoon as their destination, travel part of the way to Rangoon and then at the last moment change direction to their true destination.
4. The amphibious landing bonus is a significant force multiplier. A Japanese player who lacks both (a) LCUs prepped for the target, and (b) the amphibious landing bonus, will find any sea borne invasion a much harder job to pull off. The more ambitious the operation is, the greater the difficulty is in the absence of both these elements.
5. Bearing in mind the preceding two points, keeping the KB to cover the evacuating Fiji convoys is a somewhat extravagant use of that valuable strategic asset. If you are correct regarding the KB's current mission, it would be much more logical for its next mission to be to spearhead an Australian east coast invasion rather than India.
6. I would draw your attention to the comments made in post #203 of the Rob Brennan/LoBaron AAR regarding maskirovka operations. Not only is jrcar an ex-intel officer, Nemo's name often appears as the latest poster in your opponent's AAR. Both jrcar and Nemo would be adept at misdirecting you and deliberate misdirection via email has been a regular tool employed by at least one of those gentlemen.
7. What kind of ships are moving west from Rabaul. If cargo ships, they could have delivered supplies to Rabaul as part of building up a pre invasion stockpile, then moved west to pick up resources from the DEI for the return leg back to Japan rather than heading straight back from Rabaul empty handed. That would be a much more efficient use of merchantmen. Alternatively they could be reinforcing the Bandoeng position, weakened by the removal of the IGD and the continued Dutch spoiling position.
Regarding your projected Australian operations, I think your thinking is sound. I certainly would not derail them just to recapture the lost islands. What I had in mind is that I suspect only token Japanese forces will be left behind on the islands and that you would have sufficient spare forces in Hawaii/West Coast to retake them on the cheap before they have an opportunity to dig in and whilst the KB is off on it's new mission.
Alfred
-
CaptBeefheart
- Posts: 2623
- Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2003 2:42 am
- Location: Seoul, Korea
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
Alfred: Good points on the maskirovka. Either way, Jrcar is doing well to sow doubt and confustion using the tools available. An "accidental" e-mail is a good one.
Cheers,
CC
Cheers,
CC
Beer, because barley makes lousy bread.
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
May 20th to 30th
Weekly update time again.
SOPAC/Australia
Very quiet over the past few days. In Australia I am positioning forces for the north thrust. 5 fighter squadrons have landed now and a couple of aviation support units. I don't think I will be ready until August as it will take another 6~8 weeks to get all the remaining forces deployed from the US. On the NW coast I retook Derby but my troops have literally no supplies. I have an Australian cav brigade on the way to help push on Broome but I don't think I am going to be able to keep anyone in supply. Not sure how to solve the problem. The supplies don't seem to be coming overland and as I can't get into Darwin at this point. I may have to let sleeping dogs lie until I have the combat power to re-open sea supplies to Darwin.
CENPAC
I was bested in this theatre this week. After my Canton Island reinforcement convoy withdrew and refuelled after spotting KB, they ran in again after watching the Japanese ships withdrawing south. The convoy got to Canton, discharged and was about to retire when KB and mini KB suddenly appeared from the west outside of my search arcs. The tricky bastard had retired south and swung around to the north west and run in again. When I realized he had his entire CV force there my carriers turned and ran escaping with only minimal air losses. The convoy however was decimated, although thankfully it was empty. I lost the BB Prince of Wales, CL Hobart, 3 DD's and 2 good AP's. The only survivors were 2 DD's which managed to flee south east. Very disappointing but I have to give them credit for working out how to get around my search arcs and surprising me like that. Interestingly the casualties were mainly Royal Navy and Australian again so the the RN and RAN is really carrying the major part of the war at the moment. At least the dieing part anyway.
DEI
No activity at all
Burma/India
Lots of action. After Akyab fell I was pulling back the naval forces I had moved into position to support the attack, when on May 23rd he again suddenly appeared off the SE coast of Ceylon with a carrier TF. Luckily for me, he missed my battleship TF and ran into my carrier TF with 3 CV's (Illustrious, Formidable and Hermes). We exchanged strikes - I took a torp hit on the Hermes which did very little damage and put 1 into the Hiyo and another into the Junyo, but the real damage was in the air groups. I lost most of my Albacores after I mistakenly sent my fighters to a max range of 1 and the bombers went in unescorted. The fighters did a good job guarding my fleet however, and we knocked down 24 Vals and Kates and another 6 zeroes for the loss of 6 fighters. He withdrew south and I withdraw to Colombo to re stock my air groups. My forces are all repaired and back in action again now, including the Hermes.
Over at Akyab he seems to have started a major air and naval campaign to close the place down. Sweeps of 40+ Oscars are coming over as well as medium size bomber raids. It took me a few days to get a base force into Akyab but I have now moved fighters in and am contesting. Over 2 days of air fighting I lost 9 fighters but claimed 15. Last night however a BB TF hit the airport and closed it down. The bombers then arrived and plastered it and it looks like I have lost 15 aircraft on the ground. That tips the balance his way for the moment. I need to get supplies in as well. An AKL tried to sneak in but was hit by a sub. 2 DD's then took care of the sub getting 9 hits, but one was hit by Nells for its trouble. Action is pretty intense at the moment and am not sure if I can keep the airstrip open at this stage. Most of my land force is moving back to Chittagong leaving an Indian division and some armour behind. I am starting to think he may be planning on making this front a major area of action so my USA air reinforcements will be needed here. They are still a couple of weeks away from getting into action.
China
Quiet. He has pulled back and i suspect is repositioning. Not much I can do at this point. Will try and create a reserve on a rail line to move to the action point when it is obvious where he will attack.
Other action
There was quite a bit of sub action. I lost a PB, an AK and an AKL off the coast of India and 2 AK's off Melbourne but badly damaged or sank 2 of his subs. He lost a TK, an AK an AMC and a PB. My dud rate seem to be at 99% at the moment. Nothing much goes off despite numerous hits.
Overall
The action is moving to Burma it seems while we both pause for breath in the Pacific and China. KB is still in the Fiji-Rabaul area. I don't know where his land units out of Fiji/Pago Pago have gone. By the end of June I will have all 6 US CV's and the Indomitable over in the Pacific with some significant land based air in support and a reasonable ground force so I can start to push back. Until then we are building, probing and waiting.
Weekly update time again.
SOPAC/Australia
Very quiet over the past few days. In Australia I am positioning forces for the north thrust. 5 fighter squadrons have landed now and a couple of aviation support units. I don't think I will be ready until August as it will take another 6~8 weeks to get all the remaining forces deployed from the US. On the NW coast I retook Derby but my troops have literally no supplies. I have an Australian cav brigade on the way to help push on Broome but I don't think I am going to be able to keep anyone in supply. Not sure how to solve the problem. The supplies don't seem to be coming overland and as I can't get into Darwin at this point. I may have to let sleeping dogs lie until I have the combat power to re-open sea supplies to Darwin.
CENPAC
I was bested in this theatre this week. After my Canton Island reinforcement convoy withdrew and refuelled after spotting KB, they ran in again after watching the Japanese ships withdrawing south. The convoy got to Canton, discharged and was about to retire when KB and mini KB suddenly appeared from the west outside of my search arcs. The tricky bastard had retired south and swung around to the north west and run in again. When I realized he had his entire CV force there my carriers turned and ran escaping with only minimal air losses. The convoy however was decimated, although thankfully it was empty. I lost the BB Prince of Wales, CL Hobart, 3 DD's and 2 good AP's. The only survivors were 2 DD's which managed to flee south east. Very disappointing but I have to give them credit for working out how to get around my search arcs and surprising me like that. Interestingly the casualties were mainly Royal Navy and Australian again so the the RN and RAN is really carrying the major part of the war at the moment. At least the dieing part anyway.
DEI
No activity at all
Burma/India
Lots of action. After Akyab fell I was pulling back the naval forces I had moved into position to support the attack, when on May 23rd he again suddenly appeared off the SE coast of Ceylon with a carrier TF. Luckily for me, he missed my battleship TF and ran into my carrier TF with 3 CV's (Illustrious, Formidable and Hermes). We exchanged strikes - I took a torp hit on the Hermes which did very little damage and put 1 into the Hiyo and another into the Junyo, but the real damage was in the air groups. I lost most of my Albacores after I mistakenly sent my fighters to a max range of 1 and the bombers went in unescorted. The fighters did a good job guarding my fleet however, and we knocked down 24 Vals and Kates and another 6 zeroes for the loss of 6 fighters. He withdrew south and I withdraw to Colombo to re stock my air groups. My forces are all repaired and back in action again now, including the Hermes.
Over at Akyab he seems to have started a major air and naval campaign to close the place down. Sweeps of 40+ Oscars are coming over as well as medium size bomber raids. It took me a few days to get a base force into Akyab but I have now moved fighters in and am contesting. Over 2 days of air fighting I lost 9 fighters but claimed 15. Last night however a BB TF hit the airport and closed it down. The bombers then arrived and plastered it and it looks like I have lost 15 aircraft on the ground. That tips the balance his way for the moment. I need to get supplies in as well. An AKL tried to sneak in but was hit by a sub. 2 DD's then took care of the sub getting 9 hits, but one was hit by Nells for its trouble. Action is pretty intense at the moment and am not sure if I can keep the airstrip open at this stage. Most of my land force is moving back to Chittagong leaving an Indian division and some armour behind. I am starting to think he may be planning on making this front a major area of action so my USA air reinforcements will be needed here. They are still a couple of weeks away from getting into action.
China
Quiet. He has pulled back and i suspect is repositioning. Not much I can do at this point. Will try and create a reserve on a rail line to move to the action point when it is obvious where he will attack.
Other action
There was quite a bit of sub action. I lost a PB, an AK and an AKL off the coast of India and 2 AK's off Melbourne but badly damaged or sank 2 of his subs. He lost a TK, an AK an AMC and a PB. My dud rate seem to be at 99% at the moment. Nothing much goes off despite numerous hits.
Overall
The action is moving to Burma it seems while we both pause for breath in the Pacific and China. KB is still in the Fiji-Rabaul area. I don't know where his land units out of Fiji/Pago Pago have gone. By the end of June I will have all 6 US CV's and the Indomitable over in the Pacific with some significant land based air in support and a reasonable ground force so I can start to push back. Until then we are building, probing and waiting.
-
CaptBeefheart
- Posts: 2623
- Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2003 2:42 am
- Location: Seoul, Korea
RE: Aussies v Aussies - Being clubbed like a baby seal (No Jrcar or Tony)
I probably don't do things right, but I can't keep Darwin and those other north shore bases supplied by land. I treat them as I do island bases when it comes to supplying them and retaking them (if necessary). In other words, if I can't keep the sealanes open to Darwin, then I don't keep much stationed there.
Cheers,
CC
Cheers,
CC
Beer, because barley makes lousy bread.