Parry and Spar, or is it... Reluctant Admiral 4.2 Fulkerson(J) vs Moore (A)

[larryfulkerson]

I had a CA to bombard Kuantan again but there wasn't much damage inflicted so the raid constitutes little more than harrassment.
I have a little bit bigger bombard mission going to Kuantan which should arrive tomorrow that has several CA's in it and I'm hoping
that even more damage will result. Every little bit helps I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

Jim has already begun to move troops out to the outlaying islands to draw his line in the sand. I got a lucky hit on a ship near
Palmyra ( spelling?) and I'm afraid I'm going to have to move the KB out to east of Truk to begin a serious contest there. I've got plans
for Tulagi and there's troops on the way so the character of the game is going to change in the near future. I forsee more combats and
less of me overrunning empty spots. I'm going to have to plan better and I'm not really good at long term planning so this will be good
practice for me. Jim is going to move some planes to his outlaying spots and I'm going to have to move my subs to other spots I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

I've got some enthustiastic Betty's that are still doing their part of the war effort but compared to the number of men at Manila the small
amount of damage they inflict is almost worth the effort involved. I'm guessing they do some kind of disruption in addition to the
physical damage they inflict though so I'll keep up the effort. It worked at Clark Field so I'm hoping for similar results at Manila and
Bataan. I'm already planning on where else to employ these guys when Manila falls. Maybe I shouldn't do that so early.

[moore4807]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Jan 21, 42
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Larry noted, a lot of ASW encounters with little damage, AK's each hit by torp's at Midway and Palmyra and my PG took 3 "up the chuff" as the Brit's say it!

Sub attack near Sydney at 92,168
Japanese Ships
SS I-1

Allied Ships
PG Moresby, Torpedo hits 3, heavy damage
PC Swan

I keep wondering if I should go after him before he reinforces, con side it will burn up the available supplies quicker...opinions?

Ground combat at Cebu (80,86)
Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 3318 troops, 60 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 145

Defending force 1750 troops, 13 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 63

[larryfulkerson]

While the Manila bombing is going on there's a different squadron of Betty's busy reducing Bataan. I'd rather reduce Manila first before
Bataan because of the amount of Allied supplies that are stockpiled in Manila. Reducing Bataan seems to be a rather long drawn out
kind of thing. I hope not because I need those guys at Singapore and points southwest. I've got the 53rd/B headed to Bataan but lately
I've been thinking of sending them to Manila instead.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a typical Jap air strike near Singapore now-a-days. I had planned to do a ship-to-shore bombardment on Jahore Bharu but the
TF commander insisted on traversing through Singapore so I have to do it via air instead. There's no hope of clearing out all the mines
from Singapore by DMS's and it's too bad I can't bomb the minefield from the air so this Singapore adventure is going to take a lot of
time it seems. Which is just as good since I don't have all the ground troops there that I'm going to need to reduce Singers. I figure it'll
take some of the Manila / Bataan troops to do a sufficient reduction of Singers.

[larryfulkerson]

You're probably wondering why I'm still bombing the Kendari defense force with my Lilly's. I figure that there aren't any other nearby
ground targets and that my Lilly's need the practice. I'm hoping they get more experienced with each mission successful or not.

[larryfulkerson]

I have no idea where these Allied planes are coming from in China. I guess I'll have to do a better job of recon to find out.

[larryfulkerson]

There's a small air war going on over the skies of Java, still. I'm hoping the Dutch will run out of planes pretty soon. I still lose a ship or
two to planes every now and then in that area so it's still rather dangerous.

[larryfulkerson]

The air war near Buna is still going on. I'm using a CMc as bait to get the Alllies to fly so my Zero's can shine. Maybe I should use a less
useful ship instead.

[larryfulkerson]

This makes several days in a row where the Allies have raided Hanoi......with the same SB-3's it seems. And I keep damaging the same
SB-3's. Maybe my Nate's will get lucky and actually shoot one down one of these times.

[larryfulkerson]

Jim has at least one of his subs venturing uncomfortably close to Truk and he's going to get lucky with those torps one of these days.
I have some major shipping going in and out of Truk so I have to do something about it pretty quickly.

[larryfulkerson]

One of my subs got lucky near Sydney and got a PG ship. It's showing up on the sunk ships lest and I'd think that three torps would
almost certaintly do in a little PG ship so I guess it's not FOW, it really is sunk. My sub is almost out of torps now though.

[larryfulkerson]

I don't know how well you can see this but Jim has a sub in the port at Makassar and I've got all kinds of DD's and PB's and so on
patrolling the port and he's STILL there. I have to escort anything that comes in or out of the port and it's a PITA so far. I'm going to
have to fly in some ASW planes to help out I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what happened on the ground at Kuantan. The forts are reduced to 0 now so I figure that one more good push ought to do the
trick. So I have a DA set for tomorrow and we'll see what happens. I'm going to have to move some more troops into the AO to help with
reducing Singers so there's no big hurry crisis.

[larryfulkerson]

In my bombardment on the ground at Manila I lost more than Jim did so I've turned off the bombarding for now. I'll wait for more
backup to arrive and try it again.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm just on the verge of wipping out a smallish Allied unit near Bangkok. Small victories come in small packages I guess.

[larryfulkerson]

Jim is still shooting back at Cebu. I hope my guys can hold out until the cavalry gets there. I have some troops loading even as we speak
so it's almost like help is on the way. Jim is burning his supplies at an excellerated rate when he bombards so I'm not all that alarmed.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the strategic map of the situation as of 22Jan42:

[larryfulkerson]

I'm moving an AO to the SE of Tulagi to support operations aimed at the search and destroy ops of an Allied TF I've sighted in that
area. I don't know how fast I can get some surface ships there but hopefully it's doable and I'm getting on the stick to make it happen.