Allies vs. Japan (but AI this time) - campaign notes, no AAR

[Alpha77]

UPDATE for NOV / DEC 42:



Burma/Thailand/Malaysia

The advance continued and it has reached the border regions of Malaya - please see the

screenshots for the current situation and towns that were retaken. All Jap presense at Rangoon

was eliminated finally. The Jap AirF bombs most of the cities and some troops there, but

except some heavier raids on Rangoon werent able to not hinder our advance. We also could

establish 2 forward airfields now, but they are still too weak to combat the masses of escorts

the Jap uses. We decided to only defend Pegu and Rangoon seriously otherwise the RAF could

lose some important pilots and Hurries which are still not in good supply for the British

(while the US has now much better manpower and much more planes available). Still Rangood can

not be defended and suffers regulary damage to the airfields. The engs are quite numerous now

however and repair the craters and damaged buildings quite fast. Guess it could take 1-2 more

weeks untill suffiecient air defense in this area is established. But the Tommy Flak is quite

good if the enemy dares to fly lower altitudes. Most gunes are now Bofors and 3.7 inch MKII so

good weapons and not much complaints can be heard among the troops. Also the 25pdr guns seem

to do good job plus the MBT types Valentine III and Lee - they are not enough vs. the Germans

but the Japs fear them cause they rarely manage to destroy one of these - this also means

there are plenty of Lee/Grants in the pool as well Mathildas - but the British in Burma don´t

seem to use them - only the Australians (?). The IJN also showed up at Akyab again with 2 BBs

(Kirishima/Yamato) +CAs+DDs. This time our recon is much better than in the middle of 42 and

we detected them. The RAF flew literally everything they had there, but still they sucked

completly to score any hit. Instead some Blenheims were shot down by AA. However the few RN

planes did better - 1 Cat and 1 Beaufort scored 1 bomb + 1 torp at Yamato - which means she

should be in repair for some days. Some old British battleships which already did good work in

the past happened to stumble across another fleet which was probably suporting the BBs - they

shredded 1 cruiser (CL or CA?) and 1 or 2 DDs and suffered minor damage (could be repaired in

port size 3 at Akyab), but Dutch DD Van Galen was more heavily hit and was sent back to

Colombo along with a CL which was hit by torpedo some days before. All in all the RN in this

area is force to be reconed with - but mostly in surface combat - Jap torpedo planes still

pose a major thread so they cannot be moved further down the coast outside landbased fighter

cover (I find the British carrier air a bit too weak to risk them providing this cover, as you

can do with the much bigger US CVs). We lost 4-5 AKls which were send a bit out to far to

Moulmein (no aircover + in perfect Betty range), but the lone asw escort could escape.

Update End of Dec: The Jap still sends wave after wave vs Rangoon. Our fighters were

reeinforced but the Jap numbers are still higher. The AA was also strenghtend. Maybe we should

pull back the RAF again to recover losses. And leave it to the AA for a while. Noticed the new

model from the "Sally" seem to be the best bomber the Jap has.


China:

At some places the Jap has concentrated his forces and stopped the Chinese. But he cannot

cover the whole front so some more cities fell in our hands. Jap straggler units were hunted

down, the Chinese also lost to some shock attacks on bad defensive terrain.


NG:

Lae fell and is now being build up while the victorious Australian troops already target Finschhafen

and Madang. Airfields in 2 of the captured bases are already operating. On New Britain the US

landing at Gasmata worked well, the garrison was pushed out after ca. 4-5 of fighting days.

They retreated to Rabaul but suddenly seem to make another stand in the jungle. Our troops are

fighting more the terrain at the moment than the enemy and we expect that it will take a

"little" while untill the troops reach Rabaul. At sea we sunk some smaller ships at Rabaul

with subs. The sea-airbattle cost the Jap 1 or 2 CV(l)s, also a BB was heavily damaged and

then sunk by 2 Dutch sub torpedoes. We also sent a surface fleet which really encountered the left

over CV fleet, they sank 1 CVL and some escorts. Interestingly CV Wasp found a Jap invasion

fleet while on the way home to Luganville for replenishment. I had no idea what their task

could be, but it turned out they wanted to invade the tiny Deboyne Islands. Strange move by

the Jap, to say the least. Well we sank 4-5 troop ships (or more?) and now Intel reports ca.

100 troops that really reached this island, but they do nothing (probably shocked by their

losses at sea and out of supply). Our losses were quite light considering the importance of

the operation in the area. The most prominent victim was North Carolina - she suffered 2

torpedo hits by Jap carrier and landbased air from Rabaul. See is now at Sidney to repair the

minor damage but needs to go to a bigger yard of course (51 major flood damage).


Tarawa: A mistake to try 2 mayor operations at the same time. The landing troops suffered

heavily and 1 army regiment was virtually wiped out by the shock attack. The Marine troops

fared somewhat better, but could not make a difference. The Jap was determined to deny this

island to the Allies and send also a surface raider CA+ fleet, which managed to sink some most

APs/AKs which tried to extract the stranded troops at Tarawa. The Jap had no fighter cover left for

this raider fleet so the already weakened US fighters had not so much a problem. The somewhat stronger

bombers however hit the raider fleet while they retired to the north (sunk numbers not clear

as this whole operation was quite confusing). Also the IJN navy send in troop reeinforcements

- a portion of these troops reached Tarawa, but some others had to drown in the ocean. However

this brought the Jap strength to a number we cannot hope to beat with the poor men left on the

island. So we sent another evacuation fleet this time with heavier aircover - CV Wasp was

diverted to the area after the New Britain op was concluded - As well the 2 other left US CVs

where send. The other 3 are back in PH since upgrading is imminent as well the air sections

need rest+replenishment. ALso 2 more CVEs are still in the area. But even this cover could not

prevent all Betty attacks and they hit again with torps. This time CA San Franscisco and CL

Honolulu were hit by 1 torp each. Means back to repair asap !

This brought the total Allied losses of this ill fated operation to:

1 BB, 1 CA... sunk Chester, Tennesee
1 CA, 1 CL, 1 CVE... heavily damaged
1 BB, 1 DD... lightly damaged
+ severall APs+AKs lost

Most of these were hit by 18in Betty torpedoes.

Enemy fleet losses were 1 CA+ 1 CL (probably only more or less damaged as sunk ship list shows

no major sunk IJN warship in the Tarawa area) + severall Es/DDs sunk. I cannot count the Aux

ships the Jap lost. Well still I supose that the few Jap ships hurts him more then the heavy

losses me, considering a major portion of the Jap battle fleet is already sunk. The major

threat still remains of course, as the Jap has more than enough supplies of planes (now mostly

only landbased)

[Alpha77]

...

[Alpha77]

China 30 th Dec 42

[Alpha77]

NG Dec 30 42

[Alpha77]

Poor CA Chester

[Alpha77]

INTEL at new years eve

[Alpha77]

SUNK SHIPS 1

[Alpha77]

SUNK 2

[Alpha77]

Just a BUMP for this one... any comments of the results ? [;)]

Just for the info:

Im going to continue playing this one of course - weekend or so should be an update.

[CaptBeefheart]

I read some of your interesting AAR. As for comments, unfortunately it's pretty easy to sink the AI's fleet as you've demonstrated.

To make things more exciting, I started an Ironman scenario and let the two AIs duke it out with each other until Oct. 42. The USN and IJN CV fleets were still pretty well intact (one or two losses each), although clearly the RN had gotten the worst of battles near Ceylon. I also must have lost Guadalcanal since 1st Marine Div and a couple of tank bns were in the dead pile. I also found a number of restricted allied units on islands all over, so the AI cheats on that. Of course, I couldn't move the permanently restricted units and eventually they withdrew.

Anyway, it's been an interesting game and Ironman is fairly tough, although the AI can be beat. It's Oct. 44 now and I've taken all of Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaya, as well as Canton and Hong Kong is next for SE Asia forces (as well as a Sumatra invasion soon). Also, Luzon is pretty well secure, and so are the oilfields of Borneo. I bypassed the Gilberts and the Marianas. Still, the AI has a lot of CVs left, but unfortunately hasn't hit me in a concentrated way when I've been vulnerable (in the last few months I've gotten perhaps overconfident and split my carriers to attack more places at once).

Cheers,
CC

[Alpha77]

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

I read some of your interesting AAR. As for comments, unfortunately it's pretty easy to sink the AI's fleet as you've demonstrated.

To make things more exciting, I started an Ironman scenario and let the two AIs duke it out with each other until Oct. 42. The USN and IJN CV fleets were still pretty well intact (one or two losses each), although clearly the RN had gotten the worst of battles near Ceylon. I also must have lost Guadalcanal since 1st Marine Div and a couple of tank bns were in the dead pile. I also found a number of restricted allied units on islands all over, so the AI cheats on that. Of course, I couldn't move the permanently restricted units and eventually they withdrew.

Anyway, it's been an interesting game and Ironman is fairly tough, although the AI can be beat. It's Oct. 44 now and I've taken all of Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaya, as well as Canton and Hong Kong is next for SE Asia forces (as well as a Sumatra invasion soon). Also, Luzon is pretty well secure, and so are the oilfields of Borneo. I bypassed the Gilberts and the Marianas. Still, the AI has a lot of CVs left, but unfortunately hasn't hit me in a concentrated way when I've been vulnerable (in the last few months I've gotten perhaps overconfident and split my carriers to attack more places at once).

Cheers,
CC

Hey, sounds interesting. As soon I have more time I´ll try this one.
Or I try to play the Jap also vs. Allied AI (if I somehow can manage the industry).

Well first this one must be completed, clearly demonstrating that I would be a lousy PBM player judging from my "speed" (or lack thereof) of play [:D]

I wish this game had a few interface improvements and some timesaving meassures. A bit less micromanagement would be welcomed, but on the other hand most (including me) enjoy parts of this....

I suffered from a few bugs here in this game (which is an old version), so I lost a complete US divison which dissapeared, also 2 APDs in repair yard somehow went missing (although they still appear in the ship list and they are placed in the reeinforcement que but never arrive) [;)] So this is a bit of handicap. Also I discovered that when I dissolve restricted land units like on the west coast, Australia or some in India I got a VP hit. I just wanted to clear up the troops mass a bit and safe some supplies [:(]
Chinese units even when almost completly destroyed cannot dissolved at all (!?). I even don´t want to have the assets back, they just shall dissapear so that I do not need to bother with them anymore.

BTW: The AI can be pretty agressive which is good, however the LAND Ai clearly suffers in the retreat and defense department. It does not know when it better should pull back or how to form effective defensive lines. Well I guess most AIs in other games suffer from that, too.

[Alpha77]

Well it is already early march 43 now.....

I was quite confused after reviewing my game not played for almost ca. 2 months I think. What had I done there ? What was panned here ? Etc.... So I cannot advise to pause this game for longer than 2 weeks. Well it is a time problem and you cannot play at every location.

Another thing is with all the units now crowding the map it is more and more difficult to keep an oversight and a certain organisation to all this stuff. Well I guess most players of this game know this feeling (or if you DON`T know it, please advise on your methods to avoid!). We have 3 major build ups, New Guinea, Salomons and also Aleutians. The latter are of course mostly a theater which gets older units as Omaha class cruisers and S class subs. But as we get much more stuff now we will send them 2-3 older BBs as well a Northhampton CA, as well 2-3 CVEs. Maybe we can put pressure on the northern most Japanese islands ? He has Attu island still, but seems there is nothing or only a weak garrison there. Not very important as Adak island will be build up to the max anyway. Kiska is the secondary outermost base.

Well I plan to organise things now, after the main combat has been done it seems. Combat mostly involves chaos and disorganisation and improvisation.

Another thing is I guess I cheated a bit, cause I dissolved quite a huge number of units (mostly restricted ones in USA, but also some Australian and Indian ones), as well found a JAP sub that was able twice to attack a British fleet under DD and air protection. It hit a BB with 6 torpedoes altogether. I thought this might be a bug and wanted to replay but with noticing the massive VP hit I got with the dissolved units I must have used an older save (in this save the Brit fleet was underway and not hit by the sub and only a few units disbanded). I did not know that if I disband units that the Japese side get´s victory points for them as he had destroyed them.....This added to the confusion.

Well back in game now.

BURMA/MalayaThe British/Indian advance with a little a bit US and Australian help in Burma and Malaya continued. Usually some smaller oppositon by Jap landunits was swept away or left behind to rot. The British now have a fine army there even with some special forces and lots of armor and arty. Can not imagine they could be stopped short before reaching Singapore. It takes time of course, also I need to stop (probably near the Khota Bura line) to reorganise and form a temporary defense and to resupply etc. Also we need to pound Port Blair a bit - I have a feeling since the Jap has a strong presence there. His airforce still interferes with our matters in the area. Seems most of this airforce is based in Port Bliar and Saigon. But this operation needs to wait, 2 RN CVs are in update process. Only using the landbased air could be an option cause we have severall strong bombers in form of Wellingtons, B25s and even B24s (but the latter need to train, as their exp is lousy). Fighters however are mainly still Hurries and P40Ks which might have not have the range to fight it out over distant airspace.... Beaufighters have the range but should not fare good vs. Zeros or Tojos.

Our strongest army reached Bangkok (sp?) and the Japs there made a stand. However this was a large portion of support troops so after some sieging, bombing and starving the old historic city finally fell in our hands. A nice day this was. Here is a photo taken 1 week after the capture by Indian elite infantry:

Bangkok, Ratchadamnoen Avenue towards Democracy Monument:





In CHINA and Vietnam the Jap started a counter offensive and took an important city back (name?). However he also did not care much about his flanks so we marched every unit available in this direction and threatened to surround this city inlcuding the enemy. But this time it seems he was more aware of the threat and moved out - only leaving 2 units (type, strenght??) back in the city. The main army marched with to the east back to the still Japanese controlled large industrial and rural terrain. He pushed back one of our corps with shock attack shattering it. But another or our corps arrived in time taking over the defensive position in woodland terrain adding a bit to the defense... Untill that day this Chinese corps could hold the position. It should take 2-3 days after more friends arrive, so maybe they can contain the Japs. This would be a good opportunity to encircle again some of his units. On another note, the Chinese still pinned down the Japs at severall locations - but leaving enough of our guys to re-start the offensive... this worked quite well as NANKING was liberated as well Peiping in the east. The Peiping battle might be the largest in numbers fought to this date I supose (maybe except the Singapore capture by the imperial empire in 42)........

Well the US is not involved in this fight only some lone pilots helping out the dismal Chinese airforce (which is mostly destroyed btw. 8-10 I 16, 3 A29 and 3 DB3 are left in combat). The also have some Vanguards and old P40 Warhawks now in training squadrons but those should pose no problem to Japanese newest Oscar models he uses mostly in China...... he often bombs the cities we had just taken and don´t plan to build up anyway, so there is not much loss [;)] The bombings of our troops are sometimes effective but the Chinese have enough men, they even get some more supplies it seems. Now that we have taken some cities with industry facilities which can produce supplies.

Well here are some US officers and airforce men training to train the Chinese:

[Alpha77]

New Guinea/Salomones/New Britain area

With most of the Japanese carriers sunk and also some large warships Australia is save now and we transported quite some troops over to NG. These ones have good exp and fighting spirit. There is not much the Japanese can bring in or dug in to stop them. Finschhafen was taken; Lae fell to us some weeks ago already. We are now marching near the coastline northwards. This is a slow process of cause, as well we need to see if the army can be supplied in this terrain. Seems it still works tracing supply from Lea/Finschhafen, we still need to make some kind of landing on the coast there I am sure... however the assets for this landing need reorganisation. Rabaul also fell, with all Jap presence on New Britain now eliminated. Shortlands in our hands and Kavieng fell yesterday. The Jap still sits in Guadalcanal (Lunga) but we regulary bomb the airfield and try to seal it off. Seems it works as almost no plane there interferes with our plans. The Jap troops there are now effectively stranded.The IJN made on of their few offensive moves suprinsingly showing up and destrying a convoi which was diverted from the Rabaul operation (seeing that Rabaul might fell without these reeinforcements). But this chamnge of plan also meant that no proper protection for the troop convoi was present, 9-10 ships together with some troops drowned [:(] The Japs escaped unpunished at night. 2 of these units could get on beach before the sinkings (forgot the name of this island it is located north of Gasmata/New Britain). The enemy regiment there shock attacked the lone tank and HQ units and were in the process destroying them. But I could muster some Amphibian forces which managed to extract those troops before they fell. More than the half of the tanks were saved also. The Jap airforce has some fighters around Hollandia / Arawe and in the same locations also some quite strong land units. He also maintained presence on Woodlark island, but this one is also sealed off the same way like Guadalcanal. There are also some smaller units on New Guinea rotting in the jungle, which were left by our forces to themselves.....This is what intelligence and recon tells me about the enemy left in this area.

REST OF THE WORLD

We cancelled an operation to take Wake isl. as the recon showed more Zeros there than expected. We now realized that the Wildcats can not contain every Japanese intruder (especially armed with torps) in our screens. This should be also a kind of maskirowska to divert the enemy from our main focus (NG/Salomones). But the risk to lose another BB or even CV to some Bettys for the goal to invade tiny Wake island made me rethink. The Tarawa operation showed that these small islands are not easy to get. The invasion fleet was send back to PH. Still we wanted to do some damage and send 2 old BBs + escorts to bombard the island. They did and destroyed even some planes. But again the Jap recon detected our retiring fleet , Bettys apeared and put 2 torps in an old BB. Well not sunk, but almost [;)] Otherwise there is not much going on just building up and reorganising.

We lost a brand new Gato sub to a Jap surface ASW DD, as well 3 (!) old Dutch subs were all heavily damaged by freighter guns at the surface. Another Gato was almost sunk near the home islands, it is limping back to Dutch harbou but the flooding gets worse. This shows clearly the boost the Japanese gets in 1943 in ASW combat. Before this date they weren´t able to do much to Gar/Gato class subs very seldom even detecting them. Of course we also sunk some ships mostly AKs with the now somewhat better torpedoes. The older subs seem to find targets very seldom now....

Sunk was an IJN fleet sub by Canadian corvettes ......otherwise the Jap does not do much in sub warfare. Maybe his losses now shows and our ASW has gotten also better (esp. more patrol planes that might distract enemy subs from attacking)....

More in a few days.

[Alpha77]

Malaya/Thai/Vietnam/China:

We took Bankgok as told above and it seems a nice base in this part of the country. The defenders retreated to a hex east which is woodland and they still hold there amazingly. Of course we diverted some of the original forces from the Bankog battle to Malaya so there are ca. 3 Brit/Ind divs left which need to deal with the survivers. Only a question of time, but once again proves how long the Japs can hold out in good terrain even if completly isolated. The Chinese clear Thailand + Vientam while building some force for the advance on SAIGON. Jap sends bombers regulary to attack the taken cities but does not much damage and if they do we don´t care cause we plan only to build up 2-3 major places. These will be defended by parts of Allied airforces cause the Chinese are unable to do this. Even if they tried to make a stand at Canton (which we captured long ago, but still 4-5 Jap Div are besieging the place).... well 2 fighter sq. weren´t enough (one P40, one Lancers taken from the training reserve), the first 1-2 weak attacks could be beaten and even some Oscars shot down but then the IJA sent some massive sweeps (all newest Oscar model) and the Chinese needed to retreat back to the hinterland (which means somewhere out of reach). The Lancer sqdr. was shot up pretty badly so out of action also. We still have 1 P40 and 1 I16 (6 planes) in reserve except 1 more I16 (9 planes) and 7 bombers in the far east trying to "support" the actions there [;)]

Btw. the citys name which was taken back by IJA was Ichang (reported above already but name forgotten). It turned out the Jap moved out leaving 2 units back, we beat these 2 meanwhile - city retaken. The other ones could also strike our 2nd unit out of the way and made there way back to the clear hexes - stupidly they stopped there a while (probably to lick their wounds) and we brought a the whole force + reserve in the area to bear - after 3-4 days of fighting on the good offensive terrain the Jap were finally utterly annihalted - means short of some lone survivors which got to Sinkiang. To this place we sent a 2nd weak force to contain the city but these ones were in turn beaten back by attacks out of the city from ca. 3 regiments. One of these regiments pursued our troops to the hex north of Sinkiang, but we finally made a stand there (woods).

Otherwise it is still containing and trying to grind down some more pockets all over China. At Peiping the survivers from the fallen city still hold out (but now are very weak). The Jap holds 3 major places: Hongkong, Shanghai and the complete industrial center + some cities around it in central China. These can produce their own supplies and also might get some over the large river. We think about marching further east if these problems are solved (or better pause a bit to concentrate on other more important operations). Also it might be that the JAP gets emergency reeinforcements if we cross this border (?). It is to confusing and difficult for me to plan and act in 2-3 major ops to the same time.... others might be just better in multitasking.... [;)]

Wellingtons, B25s and Vengeances happily bomb the Jap survivors in Thailand and Burma meanwhile the don´t have much losses cause enemy AA is weak and CAP is not in range to these places (only at Port Blair the JAP has enough air presence still in the area).

In Malaya the Brits race southwards reaching Geaorgetown + Kota Bura (all weakly guarded). Only at Alor the Japs have some 3 regiments + support that still hold but are encircled also. Same saying goes by the Depeche Mode song, "only a question of time" here.....

NG/Salomones: A small town named Madang was takes as well a village north of this place (name?). There the road ends and wilderness begins, we still cross the river. Just let´s see how we can get supply there, if nothing goes through we need to pull back and land at Aitape or so instead. The Jap failed to put up serious resistance at the rivers and swamps there so it seems he has given up this territory already (?).

This were the main land actions - about navy and fleet air action I will write later (tired). But it was quite interesting and some more action....[:)] Esp. sub warfare heats up.

I wonder is interest there in reading battle reports ?

[Alpha77]

Well, the JAP woke up again and sent severall surface raiders into the Aleutians and the Salomones.

He also tried to supply and/or extract troops from the isolated Woodlark islands...

The Aleutians operation of him was half succesful, as he managed to sink severall small ships (5-6 TBs, 2-3 AMc or so). However this was the first time I saw a defensive PT boat force even score a torpedo hit. This was some kind of CL, they also hit him with much .50 bullets. Well in the 2nd engament the PTs were all sunk without scoring We had warning of the approach of this fleet and quickly disbanded the unloading AK fleet. So minor damage, due to early warning. This weren´t search planes, cause I don´t have any there, the cats are still at Kodiak....there are some scrap B18s on asw patrol. On Adak some Avengers and fighters. I have a feeling that our outpost patrol ships (AMc,YP etc) at Attu (=still japanese) and some other small islands somehow got wind of the enemy. Good to know that the Allied recon+intel is now really better and the Jap cannot surprise us anymore as still in 42. However the Avengers quickly set to a high naval attack level did not get any shot or find a trace of the enemy. Guess they retired at night time.

2nd raids were near Kavieng/Shortlands (=ours).... here also some AK fleets are unloading which the Jap wanted to get I guess. This time search assets detected the enemy but gave no info on the type of ships. Well we assumed cruisers and set our still weak anti shipping forces to naval, as well 1 Dauntless sq on some CVE lingering at Shortlands harbour. The Dauntlesses, 2 Marauder sqs and 1 Hudson tried their luck, but not a single hit. I also tried low alt bombing with the Hudsons, but it did not work. 3 or 4 fell prey to AA instead, while the other level bombers at 5 or 6k were not shot down but also didn´t score. Our CVs are still in Suva and Wasp in Aukland (update). The CV air is mainly out of action due to veryyyyy slow repair of plane fatigue. I had to transfer some CV air to landbases to finally get them back to working order. Still no problem, the CVE Dauntlesses next day got 3 1000lb hits on a CA. We then sent out a cruiser force to counter them, ( Dorsetshire + 2 CL + 2 DD) - whow they find the enemy ! Well, San Diego suffered some 15cm hits, also a DD (this one was quite damaged). But we hit the CL with 3x8in and 1x6in. The DD with 1x8in 1x6in. The CA was gone probably rerouted back to Truk by the enemy due to bomb damage.  Battle ends, we are satisfied threat gone. But in the next phase our fleet had chased the enemy (even if ordered to patrol a certain area) right up to 4 hexes near TRUK [X(] Well the cpt of Dorsetshire is quite agressive......they were detected by Jap search also. But I ordered them back on full speed and no enemy airstrike reached them....nice. San Diego got only 3 or 4 points damage to the 15cm hits....

Our other SF force this time the Dutch navy (short legged ships ordered to bombard Woodlark) encountered the enemy AKs trying to move in supplies or move out troops (?) and sunk 1 AK 1 PB. Enemy dissapeared then.
We now have loaded some ships with a weak invasion force to finish off Woodlark (seems only a base force is there). The enemy air there was rendered unoperable by constant navy/air bombardements from PM and Buna.

The SUB WAR heats up, as the enemy ASW forces - now stronger - make their presence felt. We lose 2 brandnew Gato subs to Es (one of these was pnly damged heavily by the DCs, but while limping back to Dutch harbour it was torpedoed on the surface by another JAP sub!), as well heavy damage to 1 old sub by mine hit (it was ordered from Dutch harbour to Jap northernmost ports to mine them, but hit defensive mines instead)....other 4 or 5 subs damaged by air and DCs badly enough to go back to port. 1 other Gato (damaged) encountered a heavily defended convoi on the surface in daylight still tried to give it a go, hit a tanker heavily with guns, but in turn was plastered by merchant guns and finally slipped beneath the waves. Other JAP sailors did the same to 2 old Dutch subs, but these ones lived to tell the tale of the heavy hitting power of Jap merchant gunners and weapons.

Well we found 1 or 2 sub near Finschhafen, these one(s) "should" be dead right now, but NO. They did not care about all the air flying ASW there (even if 1 Beaufort reported a "hit") and sunk 3 light asw and mine ships. Our asw did not get a fix on them [>:]Well maybe they retired now cause of the hit and to replenish.

In other places (Australian east cost) we were more succesful guess 1 or 2 subs sunk there by SF asw. Near Victoria also 1 sub damaged or sunk by canadians. Near Kodiak the enemy sub force sunk 1 patrol ship of ours, but could not get a hit on the AKs. Meanwhile we have quite much asw capable ships there even if small ones only.-

But our subs seem to think that they wanted to pay back a bit and instead taking the pounding: they sunk 1 PB and 1 E (cool). However this time they also did not get the merchants (seems even 2 AOs were there). At other places as usual we sunk some AKs but nothing special. Weakly or even unescorted convois are scarce now, so the fight will be harder for our submarine men. We try to avoid big bases, but with the result we also don´t encounter so much ships. However the British + Dutch did some hunting near Malaya and Borneo (also to prevent supply of Port Blair), also 1 or 2 Aks sunk. I sent out also some mining subs to bigger ports as long our stocks of mines last. Then switch again to patrol, maybe the mining operations will yield the loss of some Jap asw assets (? - no reports of mine hits so far).....

The Jap tried to bomb also some targets in Burma and Darwin but he mostly gets a bloody nose, as our air is much better now (especially experience - even the old P39s can get some potshots now on Bettys etc) But the Beaufighters are the ace bomber killers - hands down.

[Alpha77]

MALAYA / Thai / Vietnam

Well the advance has not been stopped as planned before, cause there is not much resistance. But we NEED to stop to reorganize atm. it is only a bunch of vehicles and soldiers running towards Singapore only stopping shortly to overhelm some weak JAP garrisons. Not nice, but effective. The last big Jap pocket at Alor Star also was taken, quite big battle even. The rest of the defenders sit in the jungle but already left behind by their comrades more south. Bankok is build up as well Kota Bura. The Jap now also hits regulary with air from Singapore which we cannot fight (no dedicated AA no air still in this area). So we need to bring in air support and planes and AA, will take a while.
 
 
The Chinese (with some small Indian help in for of 1 brigade and 2 AC regiments) managed to clear most of Thailand/Vietnam now. Onyl one major city left: Saigon. Vientiane and Luang Prabang taken, the latter battle was more difficult cause of the terrain there. Also the Jap (or Thai) commander there seems to be a good one, his losses are minimal compared to the 1000s in other places. Still he had to give up the city to the Chinese and Indians. In Burma a left over Thai division was also destroyed (north of Bankok).

In China we made a major step in taking the rail hex south of Canton going to Hongkong (meaning the 4 or so Jap divs at Canton should be cut off now). Otherwise the Jap started another small small scale offensive from Shanghai, he took 2 places back and threw out some weak Chinese garrisons. But this will bite his a... I guess since Shanghai should now be weakened. 3-4 corpse are marching to start the siege of this place. Sinkiang is also cut off by major forces (which threw out the Jap of Ichang before). In the east still the Peiping survivors live, but not long I guess. Otherwise we rest and plan a offensive posture of a massive boarder crossing later that year.
 
The AIR in China heats up, we again send our planes to the front, this time we also send the last 6 I16 from the reserve and 1 British Hurry squdr. means, Canton should be defended by a mixture from 4 plane types (Hurri, I16, P40e, Vanguard). Of course the Brithish one has by far the best exp, let´s see if they make the difference.

We also sent the other reserve to the front (1xVanguard, 1xP40) based at Changsha, there also 4 left bombers (2xSB2, 2xA20). Will be interesting to see, if all the training of the Chinese will have an impact even if the planes are out of date by April 43 of cause).
 
 
NG/Salomones:

Aussies still marching direction Aitape. The steps there should be meassured in weeks, so takes a while. Good news is that Arawe (I believe the name of this port at eastern NG?) will draw supplies form the Finschahfen/Lae area over Madang and Hansa Bay. Nice news - even if no road is there. Still we send some more with small amphib TFs. The Jap send over another small CL force to harrass our operations, but not a good move, we establisjed ourselfs to good meanwhile. They were detected and hunted down, only 1 of them sunk other one damaged and fled with destroyers. Hope the Jap tries to concentrate the rest of his battle fleet a bit more in the future (he still should have 2-3 BBs including Yamato!). Interestingly he has not given up Guadalcanal, he send supply convois there. This time it seems the freighters were succesfully in unlopading before we get chase them away/sunk them. On a rare occasion B26 landbombers with low naval skill scored 2 bomb hits (this time we used alt 100!).

The result of the supply the JAP got: He promply came to life again, send some Betties out and has a CAP in place again [X(] So we need to repeat the pounding of airfields and port, also send in bombardemnt fleets. This time we will better guard the area with more planes at naval and more surface forces there (Tulagi is now a usable base!).
Places like Shortlands, Rabaul and even Kavieng look good and reach port 4-5. Our CV planes still to  a portion in maintenance (due to a bug in my version) so operations against better defended targets (Truk?) need to wait. Also at Ponape the Jap has a bad ass coastal fortress, a Brit BB got 34 hits while trying to bombardement and recon the place. She managed to hit 1 (!) enemy gun. But the damage she got was light, only 4-5 points (?). Seems BBs have fine use in soaking up the hits from lighter guns (these were mostly 8cm, some 12cm and even 14cm). Good to know that a small commando raid at Ponape would be torn apart.

SUBS

Our subs recovered from the losses and first shock of better JAP asw and still are sinking mostly AKs. Jap subs don not do much, they only seem to be sighted and don´t get much oportunity to shoot, as our air asw is tightened.

 
 

[Alpha77]

MALAYA / Thai / Vietnam

No change since the Brits/Indians/Aussies have now outrun their supply line it seems, first baseforces were railed however. Wonder if we can do air ops there at all if the supply is not enough for the groundforces. Need to somehow ship some stuff, but still to dangerous perhaps cause of Port Blair. But the later was tested now in earnest, with the first serious night bombings of the war. 4 Wellington sq. were twice bombing the base from ca. 10000 at first (later we may lower the height), seems the results are ok. Not unrealistic like some others reported here. But the occasional hit on supply, as well severall runway hits. Even some planes seems to be damaged maybe destroyed. We send also as another experiment Beaufighters at 100ft at night, nice they strafe bomb a bit and return! At the 2nd night the Jap reacted (see the AI does fine here) and set some NICKs at night Cap. They could not do much to the Wellingtons, but distracted them at least. The Beaufighters even fought some low alt dogfights with them which were not conclusive however. But interesting results. I expected higher ops losses and FAT at night but seems not to be the case (at least not the bombers). Guess we could send in also some B24 + W´s at day at higher alt to probe their CAP ? The Nicks could be dangerous for the heavies though let´s see.
 Meanwhile we gather the RN together with freighters to do some mayjor supply operation and/or air attacks of PB. We have only 1 CV + Hermes, the others are in yard updating. Not much but perhaps if the airfields are damaged from the LBA it might work ? Otherwise we have most of the cruisers still intact and a number of good DDs which are still weak mostly in AA (compared to their US cousins at least). Therefore better in ASW. Our subs there also tried to do some damage to some supply convois guess for PB and in the area of Medan, which partly worked. The water isn´t very deep so 2 subs were damaged but none sunk !

CHINA:
Well no news other than gathering forces for the far east and maybe destryoing some encircled Japs which is not easy but reported before. The CAF got a bit of beating at Changsha cause only some planes flew at all there and these were P40e so the Jap shot some down even killing 2 higher officers. At Canton the Jap avoids direct attacks (this is the place with the Brit Hurry sqdr.) instead bombs all the nearby places with bad results (most airfields done) but we don´t care cause we don´t have anything in these cities or plan to use them in any way. Also 4 Chinese units are waiting at Saigon for some Brits/Ind reeinforcements (mostly ACs Humber1 etc). Near Shanghai the Japs that made a counterattack direction Nanking (they took 2 cities back) were beaten back, 1 city retaken survivors could NOT retreat to Shanghai which is good.
 
NG:
Aussies march now direction Aitape which takes some weeks, but supply arrived so land offensive can continue. Maybe even take Aitape per land way. Hollandia is another matter this is one is heavily garrisoned says recon.
A small raider unit took also Nauro isl. which was empty. Brought in per APDs. Worked ok, the amazing thing is the APDs returning to Efate got cought by Bettys in huge numbers but these ones did not score a single hit [&o] Normally at leat 3-4 should be sunk considering how painful the Netties were before. Luck or the Jap pilots get weaker ? We then use 3 SSTs to send supply for the small unit and will bring in engs to build the base up a bit more. But this time with fighter cover (Wasp + 1 CVE should provide it) Wasp was outfitted at Aukland and her planes rested, so she should be battle ready now again. At the fleet US CVs we finally could update 2 Wildcat units to Hellcats will be interesting to see how they do (location of CVs Suva + PH).
 
Aleutians
Adak reched a nice level of port and now the airfields will be build up. Also made a small recon run to the Kuriles (northern most island Parishima or so). 1 CVE flew recon and a small air attack, not much damage but we see not a heavy garrison.- later 2 old Omaha cruisers bombarded the place, got hit by 8cm coastal guns, but nothing bigger. So seems doable.
 
Subs
Jap subs had a field day in sinking 2 good US DDs one of them the type ship "Fletcher" [:(] the other a good and new Bristol class. Guess I go back to forming ASW fleets with AMs, KVs etc. even we have enough DDs but losing these new ships is not nice. Also a small freighter which we sned alone to try out an unescorted speedy run to Dutch Harbour with supplies was sunk, well poor guys, but shows escort still needed. Even if the AKs are on higher speed setting. It seems (if FOW is correct) our mines at Dili sunk a Jap TANKER, even a big one. Another TK sunk by subs..... + 2 or 3 AKs.....

[Alpha77]

Yup game still going but slowwwww [:D]

I am typing a report at work atm. so I have now just some battle reports from Jan 43 - March 43 (examples) and a sunk ship list from 26.04.43 till 13.05.43

Better then nothing, eh [8|]


Example ground combat in China: Encirlced Manchuko troops which the Jap send over from the east only to be destroyed by massive chinese concentration
----------------

Ground combat at Anyang (89,43)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 103373 troops, 686 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2842

Defending force 20670 troops, 284 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 282

Allied adjusted assault: 952

Japanese adjusted defense: 9

Allied assault odds: 105 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), fatigue(-), experience(-)
supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
15766 casualties reported
Squads: 258 destroyed, 339 disabled
Non Combat: 546 destroyed, 437 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 142 (89 destroyed, 53 disabled)
Units destroyed 4


Allied ground losses:
674 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 52 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 54 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled


Assaulting units:...
38th Chinese Corps...
80th Chinese Corps...
9th Chinese Corps...
48th Chinese Corps...
4th Chinese Cavalry Corps...
93rd Chinese Corps...
16th Chinese Corps...
30th Chinese Corps...
43rd Chinese Corps...
55th Chinese Corps...
7th Chinese Corps...
42nd Chinese Corps...
29th Chinese Corps...
96th Chinese Corps...
40th Chinese Corps...
77th Chinese Corps...
82nd Chinese Corps...
5th New Chinese Corps...
1st War Area ...
10th Chinese Base Force...
14th Group Army...
3rd Construction Regiment...
...
Defending units:...
2nd Manchukuo Distr Division...
3rd Manchukuo Distr Division...
8th Garrison Unit ...
1st Manchukuo Division...
5th Manchukuo Distr Division...
1st Manchukuo Distr Division...
1st Manchukuo Cavalry Division...

-------------------------------------------------------------
Example of Rabaul air attack:


Morning Air attack on Rabaul , at 106,125

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-27b Nate x 2
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 43
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 4



Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 15
Beaufighter Ic x 13
B-24D Liberator x 18
P-40K Warhawk x 15


Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-27b Nate: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-27b Nate: 1 destroyed on ground
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 3 destroyed, 19 damaged
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 2 destroyed on ground
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 damaged
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 destroyed on ground

Allied aircraft losses
B-25C Mitchell: 5 damaged
Beaufighter Ic: 2 destroyed
B-24D Liberator: 4 damaged
P-40K Warhawk: 2 destroyed

Japanese ground losses:
3 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled



Airbase hits 18
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 47

----------------------
Sunfish sunk SS I3 ? But was later sunk, too
Sub vs Sub: SS Sunfish attacking SS I-3 at 128,52 - near Etorofu

Japanese Ships
SS I-3, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Sunfish



SS Sunfish launches 4 torpedoes at 3,000 yards...
-----------------------------
6 Torps miss Lex

Sub attack near Ocean Island at 128,131

Japanese Ships
SS I-19

Allied Ships
CV Lexington
CA Vincennes
CLAA Atlanta
DD Conyngham
DD Dunlap



SS I-19 launches 6 torpedoes at CV Lexington...
I-19 diving deep .......
DD Conyngham attacking submerged sub .......
DD Dunlap fails to find sub and abandons search...
DD Conyngham fails to find sub, continues to search......
DD Conyngham fails to find sub, continues to search......
Escort abandons search for sub...
-----------------------------------------------------
Jap strikes back with surface night raider at Manus:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Manus at 101,119, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Chokai
CA Ashigara
DD Kasumi
DD Wakatake

Allied Ships
DD Lamson, Shell hits 17, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
SC-700, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
xAP President Fillmore, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAP President Tyler, Shell hits 13, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
AK Crater, Shell hits 21, and is sunk
AK Alchiba, Shell hits 11, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Carolinian, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
xAK Dorothy Philips, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAP Allara, Shell hits 20, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk


Allied ground losses:
219 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 11 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 4 (1 destroyed, 3 disabled)
Vehicles lost 12 (4 destroyed, 8 disabled)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Outcome of "Not so good" raid on Wake:
Morning Air attack on TF, near Wake Island at 141,101

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 42 minutes

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 11



Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 2 destroyed, 8 damaged

Allied Ships
BB Idaho, Torpedo hits 2
BB New Mexico



Aircraft Attacking:
11 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
-----------------------------------------------------------

[Alpha77]

Whow, this one is still going (I was away from gaming for some weeks)

I can tell the Jap is now suffering, the Brits have overrun whole of Malaya (incl. Singapore) - not sure if this was already mentioned.

Also the US-Aussie forces are closing in on Hollandia (huge garrison there). The US fleet landed own + NZ troops there while the whole Aussie army is moving from Aitape to Hollandia inland. [;)] Brits landed also at Sabang (Borneo). This is also a though nut, as the IJA has built lv. 6 forts at most important places. .

More to come [;)]

[Alpha77]

WE re in Feb 44 now. Yes guess this monster "game" is quite challenging and also time consuming. But somehow I managed it.

Well we now got a little SHOCK of own sunk ships as the Jap is cryzy now and every bomber of him seems now be to be a KAMIKAZE. They also don´t turn back anymore. It´s like in the beginning with the deadly Betty torpedoes. Well you need a LOT OF CAP now that for sure.

The Brits/Indians took: Sumatra, Malaya completly [;)]

The Aussies took: Saumlaki, Hollandia, Lautem


The Chinese/Indians (I sent them some Indian armor) took: Well all of China meanwhile only some little spots are still in Jap hands, but the main points have Chinese flags and even British ones.


The USA took: Biak, the Kuriles, MIli, Babeldaop




Next some pics + reports without much words.[:)]



Example ground combat in China: Encirlced Manchuko troops which the Jap send over from the east only to be destroyed by massive chinese concentration
----------------

Ground combat at Anyang (89,43)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 103373 troops, 686 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2842

Defending force 20670 troops, 284 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 282

Allied adjusted assault: 952

Japanese adjusted defense: 9

Allied assault odds: 105 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), fatigue(-), experience(-)
supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
15766 casualties reported
Squads: 258 destroyed, 339 disabled
Non Combat: 546 destroyed, 437 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 142 (89 destroyed, 53 disabled)
Units destroyed 4


Allied ground losses:
674 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 52 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 54 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled


Assaulting units:...
38th Chinese Corps...
80th Chinese Corps...
9th Chinese Corps...
48th Chinese Corps...
4th Chinese Cavalry Corps...
93rd Chinese Corps...
16th Chinese Corps...
30th Chinese Corps...
43rd Chinese Corps...
55th Chinese Corps...
7th Chinese Corps...
42nd Chinese Corps...
29th Chinese Corps...
96th Chinese Corps...
40th Chinese Corps...
77th Chinese Corps...
82nd Chinese Corps...
5th New Chinese Corps...
1st War Area ...
10th Chinese Base Force...
14th Group Army...
3rd Construction Regiment...
...
Defending units:...
2nd Manchukuo Distr Division...
3rd Manchukuo Distr Division...
8th Garrison Unit ...
1st Manchukuo Division...
5th Manchukuo Distr Division...
1st Manchukuo Distr Division...
1st Manchukuo Cavalry Division...

-------------------------------------------------------------
Example of Rabaul air attack:


Morning Air attack on Rabaul , at 106,125

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-27b Nate x 2
Ki-43-IIa Oscar x 43
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 4



Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 15
Beaufighter Ic x 13
B-24D Liberator x 18
P-40K Warhawk x 15


Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-27b Nate: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-27b Nate: 1 destroyed on ground
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 3 destroyed, 19 damaged
Ki-43-IIa Oscar: 2 destroyed on ground
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 damaged
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 destroyed on ground

Allied aircraft losses
B-25C Mitchell: 5 damaged
Beaufighter Ic: 2 destroyed
B-24D Liberator: 4 damaged
P-40K Warhawk: 2 destroyed

Japanese ground losses:
3 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled



Airbase hits 18
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 47

----------------------
Sunfish sunk SS i3 ? But was later sunk, too

Sub vs Sub: SS Sunfish attacking SS I-3 at 128,52 - near Etorofu

Japanese Ships
SS I-3, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
SS Sunfish



SS Sunfish launches 4 torpedoes at 3,000 yards...
-----------------------------
6 Torps miss Lex

Sub attack near Ocean Island at 128,131

Japanese Ships
SS I-19

Allied Ships
CV Lexington
CA Vincennes
CLAA Atlanta
DD Conyngham
DD Dunlap



SS I-19 launches 6 torpedoes at CV Lexington...
I-19 diving deep .......
DD Conyngham attacking submerged sub .......
DD Dunlap fails to find sub and abandons search...
DD Conyngham fails to find sub, continues to search......
DD Conyngham fails to find sub, continues to search......
Escort abandons search for sub...
-----------------------------------------------------
Jap strikes back with surface night raider at Manus:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Manus at 101,119, Range 2,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Chokai
CA Ashigara
DD Kasumi
DD Wakatake

Allied Ships
DD Lamson, Shell hits 17, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
SC-700, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
xAP President Fillmore, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAP President Tyler, Shell hits 13, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
AK Crater, Shell hits 21, and is sunk
AK Alchiba, Shell hits 11, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Carolinian, Shell hits 7, and is sunk
xAK Dorothy Philips, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAP Allara, Shell hits 20, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk


Allied ground losses:
219 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 11 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 4 (1 destroyed, 3 disabled)
Vehicles lost 12 (4 destroyed, 8 disabled)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Outcome of "Not so good" raid on Wake:

Morning Air attack on TF, near Wake Island at 141,101

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 42 minutes

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 11



Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 2 destroyed, 8 damaged

Allied Ships
BB Idaho, Torpedo hits 2
BB New Mexico



Aircraft Attacking:
11 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo
-----------------------------------------------------------