Fulkerson (J) vs Moore (A) ( no Moore )

[guytipton41]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson

I think maybe being out of supply is a very bad thing. I think that's why the results of the Allied ground bombardment(s) at Port Moresby
are so effective. I'm thinking of pulling my guys out of there rather than let them get killed this way. What do you guys think?

Hi Larry,

You want PM and whatever the Allied bombers are doing your bombardment TF should be able to over match. Can you march a unit from PM toward Buna to get the overland supply flowing? At this date you should be able to afford an attritional air battle over PM better than the allies. Time to double down.

Cheers,
Guy

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: guytipton41
Hi Larry,
You want PM and whatever the Allied bombers are doing your bombardment TF should be able to over match. Can you march a unit from PM toward Buna to get the overland supply flowing? At this date you should be able to afford an attritional air battle over PM better than the allies. Time to double down.

Um.......I tried to get one of my units ( orange box around it ) to move to the adjacent hex(s) toward Buna and the game engine wouldn't
take the change. I looked at the hex w/ hexsides on and it didn't seem to be blocked so I have no idea why I can't move there. Those
two hexes w/ an orange circle around them are the hexes I tried to move into and it wouldn't allow it. So I guess I'm stuck there at PM.

I guess I'll just hang in there and keep on doing the naval bombardment(s) and sooner or later those Allied units at PM will just run out of
steam.

[larryfulkerson]

Jim and I exchanged files and I watched the movie and here's some fresh combat results: It's always fun to get one of the sub chasers.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the combat I wanted to see the resuls of. I think maybe I won the contest of wills here. Jim lost a lot of good ships and his two
CA's aren't out of the woods yet.....I intent to give chase. It was a valiant effort but in the end it was a wasted effort to try to get some
Allied troops into PM. But hey, he had to try something.

[larryfulkerson]

There were several attempts by air to sink those two remaining Allied ships but no air raid touched them. D'oh.

[larryfulkerson]

There was a couple of Dutch attempts to sink my CVE by air but all failed. The CVE is carrying only bombers so there weren't any j
fighters to cover the carrier and still there were no hits. It's a durn miracle.

[larryfulkerson]

There were several air raids on Darwin and this one is typical.

[larryfulkerson]

I suspected that Tobolai was empty and sure enough there was nobody home when I got there. Tomorrow Tobolai will be mine. And all
the resources it has there.

[larryfulkerson]

And the Japs finally capture Manila:

[larryfulkerson]

The results from southern Java look encouraging. The fortification level in that base is now 0 and the rest of the Jap attacks should have
better odds. So tomorrow's attack will be better.

[larryfulkerson]

And then the Allies do their daily ground bombardment of Port Moresby and I lose some more troops.

[larryfulkerson]

And of course, here's the combat report:

[larryfulkerson]

TF 23 is the one that was involved in the night surface battle and they finally got the fires quenched and most of the ships can manage
at least 11 knots so all is not lost. I'm tempted to use the less damaged ships ( the BB for one ) to chase the Allied CA's. Or I can wait
and let the carrier(s) take care of them. What to do....what to do.

EDIT: I checked into the ammo situation and all the ships are out of ammo or are very low. So no chasing for now.

[larryfulkerson]

The 14th Division is inching ever closer to Port Arthur. I was going to use the 14th at Manila but that's over with so I guess the 14th will
go to Singapore instead. It would be really cool to wrap up Singapore too. That would free up a lot of men and equipment for other
places to go. With Manila down and Singapore going down and Java being on the back burner I can start doing the behind-the-scenes
things for the Darwin invasion. I want to get some level 3 airfields on the islands north of Darwin for one thing. And on the other hand
there's a lot to be said for capturing Midway. That would set back the Allied effort by about three months maybe. I'd really like to be able
to isolate Oz from it's supply base and soften it up for the final invasions to take place at Darwin and the west coast and the entire north
coast of Oz. I don't much want to get tangled up in the battles that would take place on the east coast of Oz 'cause that's where Jim's
main strength is.......I'm guessing. Maybe I need a bunch more recon before deciding anything right now. Recon......the commanders
eyes.

[larryfulkerson]

I did this cut & paste for me to see the comparative levels of port and airfield at various places and I'm thinking that my best bet is to do
simultaneous landings at Broome and Darwin since those are the best airfield-and-port combinations on the north coast. I'm thinking I
might even be able to keep my troops at those two places in supply w/ a little help from a friendly CV or two. Yeah, this is doable. I'm
wondering what Jim's reaction would be. I'll have to think about that some more.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the local market for resources close to the home islands. I've been going to these places since the beginning of the war and at
least one of them is slowly drying up. I'm hoping Singapore has lots of resources to take up the slack. Singers and Manila.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's where the CV's are right now. TF 250 is doing a survey of the Alaskan chain and just got started so the operation will go for
another day or two depending on existing conditions. TF 608 is babysitting Wake Island and is just there to hold the fort down.....just a
placeholder not to be thought of as serious defense. TF 379 is the Taiyo who is down to it's last 6 or 7 Kates and is moving toward a
group of Vals who would love to be out to sea again. So I'm going to do a swap and let the Kates stand down for a bit to rebuild again.
TF 420 is my main guns and I'm keeping them handy in the center so they can swerve either way north or south as the need arises.
They are headed back to Kwajalein to refit and refuel. The planes in TF 420 are some of the best I have and they are ready for anything
the Allies might have up their sleeve. TF 321 is the Kaga and she got separated from the rest of them somehow or other, I really don't
remember the details. Something about hanging around Baker Island to do clean up and back up the departing AO(s), go to a naval
search mission and watch the flank. Something like that. TF 335 is going to Tulagi to swap out her exhausted Kates, those that are left
of them, for some Vals and once the swap is done she's going to try to chase down those Allied CA's that just left Port Moresby. It may
already be too late for that but we'll see.

[larryfulkerson]

I just happened to mouse-over Balikpapan just now and noticed that it had an enormous amount of fuel piled up there and so I just had
to check the fuel stockpile limit and I'm just a hair under it so far. So I'm turning off the output of the refinery at Balik so as not to
exaserbate an already growing problem. I'm going to have to start hauling fuel out of Balik pretty soon now to avoid any spoilage.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's all the TF's headed for Balikpapan and most of them are tankers and I image most of them can carry fuel, so I'll get busy and
start hauling all that fuel out of there to avoid spoilage.

[larryfulkerson]

I flew the Kates from the Ryujo to Tulagi and the Vals from Tulagi to the Akagi and new we're directing the CV's to steam west to get a
shot or two at that Allied TF. And then I guess we can do a survey of the east coast of Oz again. Especially around Sydney.