Burma 12 Nov 1943
We plan to try and hold Moulmein with its level 6 forts and the hex immediately game west of it it order to us to get out defence down south sorted. A long stream of support units are now heading south, south west and west. If we can hold here for a bit then our oil fields are still safe.
The main danger is an ambib movement to somewhere like Tavoy, we are bringing up a few troops to try to deal with that. Two more full divs and several Bdes are on their way from Japan.
The bulk of the land based air is in this region, but is facing the bulk of the allied air, a loosing proposition mostly
All we are hoing to do is slow hime down, once he breaks out into Thailand itself we will be in real trouble.
The lines here are largely static. We have some units arriving over the next month and that may give us enough to push somewhere. Our bomber strikes are noted in dashed lines. We have built up these bases so they are far enough away from Allied aircraft operatig out of Burma.
Moulmein, Changi Mai and Tavoy are all hit and trashed. The concentration of Allied air is unstoppable even with great pilots and planes 6 months ahead of their time
The enemy is advancing on four thrust lines in this area of operations. He has air dominance, and we are merely doing raids while we rebuild and reorganise and look for battles we can win. We have finally cleared the last of the Andaman island chains and our land and naval forces have just made it back to reconstitute in Singapore.
Coast Thrust
On the coast he has come up against our 3000 AV in the hex nth of Moulmein where he has about 4500. For a while he used his massive airforce and bombarded but then realised he doesn't have the force to break us here, so he has now shifted focus to the other thrusts...
Chiang Mai Thrust
There are 11 units advancing on Chiang Mai. One unit is out in front. We now have around 900 AV at Chiang Mai (including a complete Japanese division and a Independent bde that is half strength and rebuilding) behind level 5 forts. So I think we can hold there too.
North Thailand Thrust
He just routed the divsion and regt that was on this line, they had been hammered by air and were trying to march back. We should be able to break contact and fall back a few more hexes. By then we should have another div and about 3 mixed bdes that should easily hold on the shorter line.
China Thrust
We are pulling back one hex into the mountains and to bring a China restricted Japanese div into play. We will then easily hold.
Overall while there has been a bit of nervousness at times we have managed to just (I think) get enough to hold the various ground thrust. In doing so he has also spread his forces thin... hopefully he can't generate the mass needed to kick us out. The greatest fear is doing an "end run" around the Moulmein blocking force...
A really interesting defense in Burma. I really like that the whole front is based on maneuver and tactics, not a big stack slamming away at another big stack. Much more interesting and realistic. Yu've managed to make a fighting retreat work well so far. I'm learning a bit (I hope) from how you're preparing the next line of defense just as the first is being challenged by the Allies. It seems like if you can stall the dual advances on the Chang Mai area, which are both running through difficult supply paths, you can possibly really stall the Allied advance and give time for those next layers to build forts and prep.
How are the forts and bases father into the Chinese mountains? Have you built those extensively as well?
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
In China, I'm surprised you haven't moved into Sian. In other AARs, once the open terrain in front of Sian has been reached, Sian quickly fell afterwards, as the Chinese can't really defend well without good terrain supporting them.
Obvert we aim for a defence in depth and are trying to fall back stage to stage. That way if something falls, or we get outflaked we can hopefully recover. Yes in China we are slowly building all the bases facing the allied forces, most are at level 4 and slowly climbing, only so many engineers....
DTurtle there are over 220k Chinese troops in front of Sian, we actually aren't that strong, although I am trying to create an advantage... Having said that we are happy where we are, IF we lost a key battle though, and the Chinese hordes got out China would go bad.... so we can't make it much better, and can only really loose...
Well three game days have passed. Last turn Andrew hit our stack north of Moulmein with Bombardment forces, the entire Allied airforce and bombarded reveling that he had now 6000 Allied AV vs our 3000. In two turns we were loosing 50-100 aV a turn... not good.
Sensing that he was about to launch and attack we massed the airforce to do two things, protect the troops in a critical turn and try to disrupt his forces. In the resultant air battles we lost 250 planes to his 150, with around 100 pilots lost, mostly in our George units. We swept, we capped, we tried low and high level... Our 120 Oscar II with 50-60 low Naval though did not fly
The effect though appears to have been worth it, for your viewing pleasure...
Morning Air attack on Rangoon , at 54,53
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid detected at 20 NM, estimated altitude 35,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes
Japanese aircraft
N1K2-J George x 21
Allied aircraft
Spitfire VIII x 8
F6F-3 Hellcat x 70
Japanese aircraft losses N1K2-J George: 4 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses F6F-3 Hellcat: 2 destroyed
Morning Air attack on Rangoon , at 54,53
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid detected at 45 NM, estimated altitude 34,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes
Japanese aircraft
N1K2-J George x 21
Allied aircraft
Spitfire VIII x 8
F6F-3 Hellcat x 61
Japanese aircraft losses N1K2-J George: 3 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed
Aircraft Attacking:
1 x N1K2-J George sweeping at 31000 feet
Morning Air attack on Rangoon , at 54,53
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid detected at 34 NM, estimated altitude 31,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes
Japanese aircraft
N1K2-J George x 16
Allied aircraft
Spitfire VIII x 8
F6F-3 Hellcat x 55
Japanese aircraft losses N1K2-J George: 4 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed
Morning Air attack on 8th Medium Regiment, at 56,54 , near Moulmein
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid spotted at 14 NM, estimated altitude 7,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes
Japanese aircraft
N1K1-J George x 35
N1K2-J George x 64
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 20
Ki-84a Frank x 107
Allied aircraft
P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 48
F6F-3 Hellcat x 1
Morning Air attack on 15th Garrison Unit , at 56,54 , near Moulmein
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes
Japanese aircraft
N1K1-J George x 13
N1K2-J George x 46
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 16
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 19
Ki-84a Frank x 50
Allied aircraft
B-25D Mitchell x 9
Vengeance I x 47
Wellington B.X x 15
DB-7B x 12
B-25C Mitchell x 32
B-25D1 Mitchell x 62
F6F-3 Hellcat x 41
SBD-5 Dauntless x 2
Japanese aircraft losses Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 1 destroyed
Assaulting units:
3rd USMC Tank Battalion
1st USMC Tank Battalion
255th Armoured Brigade
209th Combat Engineer Battalion
762nd Tank Battalion
754th Tank Battalion 6th Australian Division
2/5th Armoured Regiment
50th Tank Brigade 1st Marine Division
1st USMC Corps Tank Battalion 2nd Marine Division
Guides Cavalry Regiment 7th Indian Division
131st Combat Engineer Regiment
2/7th Armoured Regiment 37th Infantry Division
102nd Combat Engineer Regiment
763rd Tank Battalion 40th Infantry Division
4th Armoured Brigade 24th Infantry Division
767th Tank Battalion
766th Tank Battalion 2nd British Division
27th Infantry Division
150th RAC Regiment
3rd Carabiniers Regiment 9th Australian Division
249th Field Artillery Battalion
XI US Corps
225th Field Artillery Battalion
IV Corps RIASC Base Force
8th Medium Regiment
I US Amphib Corps
I US Corps
209th Field Artillery Battalion
6th Medium Regiment
226th Field Artillery Battalion
1st RAA Jungle Regiment
223rd Field Artillery Battalion
33rd Medium Regiment
147th Field Artillery Regiment
205th Field Artillery Battalion
165th Field Artillery Battalion
29th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
6th Mixed A/T Mtr Regiment
181st Field Artillery Regiment
168th Field Artillery Regiment
14th Army
XV Corps RIASC Base Force
Defending units:
8th Division
52nd Division
9th Division
4th Division
74th Infantry Regiment
2nd Guards Division
77th Infantry Regiment
33rd Division
15th Garrison Unit
36th Field AA Battalion
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
1st RF Gun Battalion
23rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
14th RF Gun (Pack) Battalion
One of our divs is 50% damaged, but the rest are in good shape. We will march in another div from Moulmein. So we should be able to hold, he has committed everything he has...
We are about to have a fresh div (from the SWPAC) arrive in Singapore, and two mixed Bdes. A mixed bde is at Bangkok heading north to the North Thailand thrust... this is currently dicey. If he gets too far we will have to pull back from Chiang Mai. I am hoping he will rashly move a single unt into Chiang Mai thinking it is mainly service and Thai troops....
If we had of lost the battle north of Moulmein we would have been in a bit of bother....
Elsewhere during this time, Efate is invaded (against no opposition) and Nadi (on Fiji) is also invaded... this time the apperent opposition (there are only fragments here) is stopping the place from falling.
A large number of capital ships, including BB's and CV types are detected moving from Townsville north... we ready wverything around, and mini KB heads towards Darwin. Darwin is raided by LB-24, however a crack unit of Rufe manage to get a few. After a few days the Allied naval forces head SE (towards Noumea?). I expect him to slowly advance towards Tulagi (level 7 forts 160 AV) and Lunga (level 6 and 100 AV).
Apart for Rabaul (600 AV behind level 9 forts) we have little ground force in the SWPAC, enough to force the use of at least two divs to invade. Given the large numbers of US Divs in Burma we are not sure how much could be this way.
Our inner arc islands from Babeldoab through to Pagan are at about level 6 forts and all the big islands now have 300 AV. the smaller ones each have about 70. A numbers of garrison forces have recently arived and will head out soon to make the smaller islands about 160 AV.
Between Rabaul and the inner arc we have fortified a few outposts so that once he does commit he can't rush too quickly towards the inner arc.
Logistically oil is down under a month in Japan, however fuel is slowly growing. We continue to suck everything that is produced
As at 1 Dec 1943 we have:
1,241 k in Heavy industry (producing over 5000 a day)
2,322 k in Manpower
111k in Armaments
14k in Vehicles
We are producing:
320 KI-84a Frank a month
240 NIK2-J George a month
160 D4Y3Judy
130 B6N2a Jill
130 Tojo IIc
110 Oscar IIa
76 A6M5b Zero (148 not producing)
We are struggling to produce enough George and Frank to meet demands.
We have heaps of Army Pilots, but the Navy pools are dry and we are training pilots on board from almost scratch
Indicators and Warnings
The enemy Cv forces are again detected at Townsville.
Subs
3 PB escorting a heavily damaged PB... now we have two heavily damaged but they may yet survive.
Sub attack near Phuket at 48,68
Japanese Ships
PB Aso Maru #7, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
PB Kosin Maru #3
Allied Ships
SS Finback
Burma
We contest the airspace over our troops, loosing about 30 aircraft to 20 enemy. We don't get into the bomber stream though here is an example followed by the bomber stream:
Morning Air attack on 52nd Division, at 56,54 , near Moulmein
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid spotted at 23 NM, estimated altitude 41,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 9 minutes
Japanese aircraft
N1K1-J George x 8
N1K2-J George x 15
Ki-84a Frank x 41
Morning Air attack on 74th Infantry Regiment, at 56,54 , near Moulmein
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes
Allied aircraft
B-25D Mitchell x 9
Liberator B.III x 3
Wellington B.X x 12
DB-7B x 15
B-17E Fortress x 11
B-17F Fortress x 6
B-24D1 Liberator x 34
B-24J Liberator x 66
B-25C Mitchell x 28
B-25D1 Mitchell x 58
P-40N5 Warhawk x 48
F6F-3 Hellcat x 19
We hit some Mustangs strafing our ground troops pulling back into North Thailand, we are currently wining this race.
Morning Air attack on 15th Army, at 61,51 , near Taung Gyi
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid spotted at 32 NM, estimated altitude 5,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 8 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-84a Frank x 19
Allied aircraft
A-36 Mustang x 22
Japanese aircraft losses Ki-84a Frank: 2 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses A-36 Mustang: 4 destroyed
Jills flying from Tavoy hit a convoy departing Rangoon. There is another inbound...
Morning Air attack on TF, near Rangoon at 52,54
Weather in hex: Light rain
Raid spotted at 42 NM, estimated altitude 4,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M5b Zero x 24
B6N2 Jill x 22
Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 2
Japanese aircraft losses
B6N2 Jill: 1 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 1 destroyed
Allied Ships SC-634, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Karoa
xAK Rufus King
xAK Khandalla
xAK Demodocus xAK Samuel F. Miller, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
SC-983
Morning Air attack on TF, near Rangoon at 52,54
Weather in hex: Light rain
Raid spotted at 35 NM, estimated altitude 2,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes
Japanese aircraft
B6N2 Jill x 19
Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 2
Japanese aircraft losses
B6N2 Jill: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged
B6N2 Jill: 1 destroyed by flak
No Allied losses
Allied Ships
xAK Samuel Adams
xAK Rufus King
xAK Samuel F. Miller, on fire, heavy damage
xAK Hauraki xAK Robert Morris, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Rangoon at 52,54
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes
Allied Ships xAK Karoa, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Samuel F. Miller, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk
xAK Thomas Nelson, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Khandalla xAK Samuel Adams, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DEI
OZ
Pacific
China
In China I'm trying to find somewhere to hurt some Chines, Tony thinks I'm crazy... he is probably right. 180 Helen hit this stack then our attack goes in... next turn I will try with Armour only, otherwise I'll give up...
Ground combat at 77,47 (near Chungking)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 57504 troops, 465 guns, 925 vehicles, Assault Value = 2217
Defending force 35980 troops, 305 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1265
We have 120 Oscar IIa with low Naval attack in the 50-60 range which I'm trying to encourage to strike the shipping at Akyab, or the airbase (where most of his bombers are). Hoping that by flying low we can get in a wreck havoc... but they haven't flow for two turns.
The Jills have moved to Port Blair where they will use bombs (they have around 60 experiance with bombs) to try and hit the convoy.
In the far north we have pulled back into the mountains onto a Restricted Div, that makes two good divs in mountains and level one forts, plus a couple of bdes.
Near Chiang Mai he has decided to head towards the Thai div to the left, It will get reinforced by the Japanese div at Chiang Mai as more forces are on the rai from Singapore. Some armour and a regt is headed to the right, combined with the retreating forces and a Thai div that should be enough to hold.
A fresh div is marching north out of Moulmein to the blocking hex. The forces in the blocking hex now have about four of the combat formations in level 3 forts. Have a couple of units in reserve... not sure if I should rotate them though as they will then loose the fort bonus and have to start over.
Attachments
1943012_02_Burma.jpg (200.29 KiB) Viewed 267 times
Again being slack / busy and not keeping the AAR upto date, sorry
Burma
Every 3-4 days Andrew is attacking against our troops north of Moulmein, So far we are holding but each attack usually wrecks one of our divisions which we then pull back into Moulmein to recover. The upside is it is also hurting Andrew. See below for the latest attack.
In the air we are contesting every 3-5 days and resting in between. That way we are getting air losses of 1 to 1:1.5 against us, pretty good. Partially this is because Andrew is focusing all his air against our ground forces... he kills off about 50AV a turn that way... rather than hitting our airbases.
But all this delay is valuable, we have had about 3 divs worth of troops rail into central Thailand now, we have stabilised the front against all threats and will start to air transport more troops into Moulmein. Moulmein is at 6.4 forts and has plenty of supply.
Ground combat at 56,54 (near Pegu)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 132893 troops, 2429 guns, 4104 vehicles, Assault Value = 5192
Defending force 62620 troops, 716 guns, 221 vehicles, Assault Value = 1913
Assaulting units:
150th RAC Regiment
102nd Combat Engineer Regiment
209th Combat Engineer Battalion
1st USMC Corps Tank Battalion
131st Combat Engineer Regiment
255th Armoured Brigade
27th Infantry Division
2nd Marine Division
Guides Cavalry Regiment
44th Cavalry Regiment
2/5th Armoured Regiment
14th NZ Brigade
24th Infantry Division
1st USMC Tank Battalion
4th Armoured Brigade
36th Indian Brigade
7th Indian Division
3rd Carabiniers Regiment
37th Infantry Division
6th Australian Division
640th Tank Destroyer Battalion
Provisionl Tank Brigade
632nd Tank Destroyer Battalion
50th Tank Brigade
159th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
1st Marine Division
2/7th Armoured Regiment
20th Indian Division
9th Australian Division
IV Corps RIASC Base Force
14th Army
XI US Corps
1st RAA Jungle Regiment
29th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
6th Medium Regiment
205th Field Artillery Battalion
226th Field Artillery Battalion
I US Corps
181st Field Artillery Regiment
I US Amphib Corps
168th Field Artillery Regiment
165th Field Artillery Battalion
209th Field Artillery Battalion
6th Mixed A/T Mtr Regiment
147th Field Artillery Regiment
IV Indian Corps
249th Field Artillery Battalion
223rd Field Artillery Battalion
30th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
33rd Medium Regiment
225th Field Artillery Battalion
8th Medium Regiment
XV Corps RIASC Base Force
Otherwise the rest of teh place is going OK... we are digging digging digging.
In the Pacific we continue to slowly thin out combat and some engineer units leaving roughly regimental sized groups behind level 6-7 forts. We are now digging in forces back to Sorong, so have about 3-4 lines of resistance dug in now...
Andrew landed at Nadi in Suva, found the climate not to his liking and pulled out again. He has just relanded with a bit more force...
Ground combat at Nadi (131,160)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 3100 troops, 47 guns, 90 vehicles, Assault Value = 165
Defending force 3180 troops, 11 guns, 37 vehicles, Assault Value = 16
Defending units:
40th JAAF AF Bn
5th Air Div /2
4th JAAF AF Bn
31st Special Base Force /1
11th JAAF Base Force /2
Not quite enough but the place will fall very soon. He has a long way to get to the Marianas...
MKB has been reinforced with a recently arrived CV and is loitering in the DEI. KB at 8 CV's is looking for opportunities.
In the home islands oil is down to 20 days but fuel is slowly growing and is up to 50. We continue to suck evreything that is produced while minimising our use of ships. We still have good tactical reserves to support operations in the Pacific and DEI if we have to.
We have restarted armament product as it is down to about 107,000 and droping quickly due to all the recently arrived units and combat. Vehicle production has also been restarted as we are below 12,000 points. Naval shipyards are in surplus and are being turned off. We are still doing about 5,000 HI a day.
The Naval pilot pools remain empty, the Army airforce has lots. Overall our airgroups are in good shape, need even more FRANK though (300 a month at the moment being produced).
Here are the various Allied thrusts and our defensive locations.
Chiang Mai is a little exposed, building up force at Uttardit, however having Chiang Mai allows has the threat/oppourtunity to strike deep into Burma and into India... making Andrew deploy at least some fighters over rear area bases... if the weather is with us this turn it may be interesting
We are being worn down in front of Moulmein, about 300 AV every few days. However most are disablements and we are generally pulling back into Moulmein in time for them to recover.Moulmein is growing about 100 AV a day. It has the Soutern Army HQ and is inching towards level 7 forts.
On the 17th Dec the delaying forces north of Moulmein finally cave in under days of relentless air bombing and fall back into Moumein. Losses are moderate, divs are in the 50-150 AV range with about the same disabled. Moulmein has plenty of supply and Southern Army HQ and the units are recovering, about 50-80 AV a day. On the 18th we are back up to 1400 AV behind level 6 forts....
Andrew is sending in two CA bombardment TF a day from Rangoon and the airfield is closed. Overall more of an annoyance... it would be nice to hit them with air power but losses would almost certainly be higher than retrns... on the other hand have LOTS of IJAAF pilots....
Ground combat at 56,54 (near Pegu)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 127919 troops, 2463 guns, 3830 vehicles, Assault Value = 4529
Defending force 51435 troops, 692 guns, 215 vehicles, Assault Value = 1056
Assaulting units:
158th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
Guides Cavalry Regiment
24th Infantry Division
37th Infantry Division
2nd Marine Division
50th Tank Brigade
27th Infantry Division
Provisionl Tank Brigade
3rd Carabiniers Regiment
14th NZ Brigade
44th Cavalry Regiment
7th Indian Division
1st USMC Tank Battalion
20th Indian Division
131st Combat Engineer Regiment
2/5th Armoured Regiment
1st Marine Division
2/7th Armoured Regiment
6th Australian Division
4th Armoured Brigade
36th Indian Brigade
102nd Combat Engineer Regiment
632nd Tank Destroyer Battalion
255th Armoured Brigade
159th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
1st USMC Corps Tank Battalion
9th Australian Division
30th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
249th Field Artillery Battalion
223rd Field Artillery Battalion
14th Army
147th Field Artillery Regiment
IV Indian Corps
168th Field Artillery Regiment
33rd Medium Regiment
225th Field Artillery Battalion
226th Field Artillery Battalion
165th Field Artillery Battalion
I US Amphib Corps
29th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
209th Field Artillery Battalion
8th Medium Regiment
XI US Corps
IV Corps RIASC Base Force
1st RAA Jungle Regiment
6th Mixed A/T Mtr Regiment
181st Field Artillery Regiment
I US Corps
205th Field Artillery Battalion
6th Medium Regiment
XV Corps RIASC Base Force
CA Cornwall firing at Moulmein
CA Suffolk firing at Moulmein
CA Sussex firing at 1st Tank Division
CA Shropshire firing at Moulmein
DD Allen firing at Moulmein
DD Hobby firing at 8th/B Division
DD Nicholas firing at Moulmein
DD McKee firing at Moulmein
DD Chevalier firing at Moulmein
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Naval bombardment of Moulmein at 55,55
Allied Ships
CA Baltimore
CA Quincy
CA Minneapolis
CA Astoria
CA Northampton
DD Kalk
DD Stanly
DD Beale
DD Charles Ausburne
DD Abbot
On the 18th Andrew switched his bombers to Moulmein, and discovered the amount of FLAK that is there :)Only 4-6 bombers destroyed but lots hit, that will start to wear him down. We also got a lot of transport aircraft flying supply into China, we are shooting dowm 5-10 planes a day. Unfortuneatly a stack of Emily flying in troops to Moulmein were intercepted, we lost 19! So that will now have to stop.
Elsewhere we are doing OK agsint masses of subs, only loosing a few small xAK while getting the odd sub. Last turn this happened which was nice
Submarine attack near Tioman Island at 52,84
Japanese Ships
DD Teruzuki
DD Wakazuki
DD Hatsuzuki
DD Susuzuki
Allied Ships SS Sargo, hits 40, and is sunk
Sub attack near Bowen at 96,148
Japanese Ships
SS I-10, hits 2
Allied Ships LSI(L) Australia Star, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
LSI(L) Empire Star
DD Talbot
China the recently arrived bdes are moving into place.
Here is the status of troops at Moulmein, some of the really trashed units will move out to cover or even fall back further into Thailand to recover in the next defensive line.
Attachments
194301218_Moulmein.jpg (96.26 KiB) Viewed 267 times
Work keeps getting in the road we are churning through turns though, now up to:
28 Dec 1943
Burma
Andrew is now resting his forces in front of Moulmein and has shifted his bombers onto the right hand thrust line from Burma into Northern Thailand (Purple Circle). We are dug in to level 2 forts but are disrupted and in only average shape.
The following is the latest cbt report from the purple hex as Andrew tries his armour at killing our troops.
Ground combat at 60,53 (near Chiang Mai)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 21453 troops, 469 guns, 687 vehicles, Assault Value = 956
Defending force 21572 troops, 298 guns, 264 vehicles, Assault Value = 651
Assaulting units:
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
3rd Motor Brigade
193rd Tank Battalion
2nd USMC Tank Battalion
2/6th Armoured Regiment
41st Infantry Division
9th Indian Division
XXXIII Indian Corps
Defending units:
2nd RTA Division
14th Tank Regiment
12th Division
41st Infantry Regiment
5th/B Division
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
15th Army
34th Field AA Battalion
21st Medium Field Artillery Battalion
We are now encouraging him to commit all his fighters to sweep that hex (he is also now LRCAPing it as we were shooting down lots of transports he is using to supply it. This screen shows why
Thoughts
The other night while in Canberra Tony and I had a planning conference. Our main concern now in Thailand area is Andrew landing behind us. Places like Victoria point are well defended (400 AV level 5 forts) but as you can see the two places circled on the map above are a litle under done. So some of the trashed units are pulling back from Moulmein to recover and defend those locations.
We have also planned our defensive lines and triggers back to the Chinese border and we are now moving forces into position to prepare those lines.
We assess that Andrew has really narrowed his choices down.
He has run out of time to do a Pacific approach.
He has concentrated most of his force in Indian/Burma axis. Here he can either grind through us (although it will cost him time and casulties) or he can try a short / Medium hook. We are preparing for this now as we think it is now the most likely action he will take. He now has CV parity and within a month will probably hav superiority, although a lot of his are only CVE/CVL class vessels.
The Kurile approach is also viable for Andrew, but not until march. We are nicely dug in here however if Andrew concentrated his CV forces then wit will be difficult for us.
Java/DEI is possible as well.
Given that 3 of the four approaches are on the left side of the map we will continue to keep our CV forces there. We have begun to put out a more extensive sub screen though through the Aleutions to see if we can detect CV forces or a build up...
We are pulling more forces out of the SWPAC, in particular Rabaul. Andrew is currently trying to take Fiji, after about 2 weeks he took Nadi, now he is working on Suva... given we only have 10 AV here he is making a hard time of it.... All our island defences are at or near 6, some are 7
Ground combat at Suva (132,160)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 735 troops, 17 guns, 90 vehicles, Assault Value = 148
Defending force 1853 troops, 32 guns, 25 vehicles, Assault Value = 9
