Aussies v Aussies - Clubbing baby seals (no AOFFEN or Mark)

[jrcar]

Here is the situation in China as at 1 Jul 1944.

We have broken through into the central plain, forcing him into the open where our aircraft can bomb him... but we don't have enough force to push any further at the moment.

We are slowly crushing him on our right as well.

Mainly keeping the pressure on so he doesn't do anything to cute if we give him a breather... but really not trying to achieve anything in particular at the moment.

[jrcar]

1 Jul 1944 Indochina
Our fallback to the defences at Vinh has gone really well, most forces have been extracted, he is yet to take Bangkok. Saigon is about to be entered however the bulk of the forces have already fallen back. The biggest fear was Para landings on the rail line which would have been annoying.

The line at Vinh is building well and supply is flowing from Korea through China to the front nicely.

Out strike aircraft are harrying his units when they are in the open.

The lines of defence behind Vinh are also in place, this will be a long hard slog until he can get shipping into the south China sea.

[jrcar]

1-2 Jul 1944
Mostly quiet. On the second Bangkok fell, this annoyed my opponent as he expected it to hold and not all his blocking force was in position, so we managed to reterat into Malaya... which is mildly useful.

In the DEI B-24 tried some long rang unescorted attacks at KB and TK at Balikpapan, he lost 16-20 B-24 for no result.

We have an invasion TF (only a Bde) that will land next turn at Namlea next to Ambon, so far we are undetected. Fighters have been moved in to cover the invasion, and mini KB is also in support. We think there are just engineers here...

[jrcar]

3-6 Jul 1944
Most of the action is in the DEI around Namela.

On the 5th our bde landed on Namela. The allies responded with airstrikes and weather impacted our CAP over the TF resulting in the loss of a DD and 3 APD's with a CA lightly damaged... we did manage to shoot down a few aircraft. The troops got ashore ok but supply was low. He hit Ambon with 4E bombeds closing the base and getting some Tojo on the ground, but most of the rest of the fighters were able to fly out.

The Shock attack on the 5th failed even with support from Mini KB, we did manage to get some of his strike aircraft. We now need to get supply here ASAP (on the way). KB moved up closer to Kendari to be able to intervene, an enemy CVB, CVL, CVE Tf was detected and KB was sent in closer, with mini KB retiring to rearm at Babeldoab.

On the 6th our CAP managed to get a decent lick at his strikes, we managed a 2:1 kill ratio in our favour getting around 40 for 20, and loosing 10 pilots.

Happy to keep playing this game as we are "winning" in the air, better than can be expected.

We are air evacuating Darwin and Port Hedland nicely.


In Indochina he is now at Saigon and has cut the coastal railway, only a few static or minor forces are south of Vinh so no longer an issue.

In China we continue the pressure inching forward.

In the SWPAC we are in full evacuation swing.

In Java we have stopped him cold at Batavia.

[jrcar]

07 Jul 1944
The key action today was the sack of Singapore from the air...

Around 500-600 Allied fighters swept the base against about 140 Japanese (Zero and George). Losses were 60-70 Japanese to around 50 Allied.

Then 200-300 mostly 4E bombers struck... The base is now closed. Real bummber as it was two days away from making level 4. Most of the surviving aircraft were able to fly out, the others are railing out to other Malaya destinations.



In the DEI KB provided CAP and support over Namlea to light effect. An airstrike of P-38L and and a few Mitchells were butchered when they tried a long range attack on KB. It looks like a new unit has begun to be air transported in, need to consider sending in another brigade now

[jrcar]

8-9 Jul 1944
Subs
We sink an AE and a AK.


Malaya
Singapore is hit from the air, the port in particular this time.

He is now advancing down the peninsula using a carpet of airdrops to speed the process. Will soon be time to pull right back to Singapore.

Indochina
Saigon falls. the last of the troops are almost save into Vinh.

DEI
Batavia is hit hard over the two days, enemy forces are building, now about 3000 av vs 1000 in level 6 forts in the city...

Around Namlea our attempt to get supplies in by sea is turned back by enemy DD's.

Supplies are also unloaded at Sorong, under air cover, however unescorted strikes come anyway and most of our ships (PB's) are sunk... we do get 20 odd aircraft though.


Ground combat at Batavia (49,98)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 2766 troops, 195 guns, 214 vehicles, Assault Value = 3625

Defending force 38119 troops, 422 guns, 116 vehicles, Assault Value = 1119

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

Allied ground losses:
Guns lost 6 (2 destroyed, 4 disabled)

Assaulting units:
32nd Infantry Division
II Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
754th Tank Battalion
763rd Tank Battalion
158th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
2nd USMC Amphb Tank Battalion
7th Australian Division
1st Marine Division
40th Infantry Division
11th (East African) Division
11th PAVO Regiment
766th Tank Battalion
IV Corps Engineer Battalion
50th Tank Brigade
255th Indian Tank Brigade
767th Tank Battalion
762nd Tank Battalion
3rd USMC Tank Battalion
17th Indian Division
2nd Medium Regiment
223rd Field Artillery Battalion
249th Field Artillery Battalion
205th Field Artillery Battalion
I US Corps
134th Field Artillery Battalion
7th USN Naval Construction Regiment
97th Field Artillery Battalion
2/9th Field Regiment
226th Field Artillery Battalion
88th Medium Regiment

Defending units:
Yokosuka 2nd SNLF
47th Ind.Mixed Brigade
45th Ind.Mixed Brigade
4th Infantry Regiment
32nd Nav Gsn Unit
109th Division
14th Ind.Mixed Regiment
56th Engineer Regiment
5th/A Division
27th JAAF AF Bn
20th JNAF AF Unit
14th Army
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
8th Field AF Construction Battalion
2nd Mortar Battalion
8th JAAF AF Coy /2
40th Field AA Battalion
20th AA Regiment
1st Air Army /1

China
We continue to creep further into the central plains.

Supply is begining to be a problem as I had slowed down shipments from Japan... to many shattered units rebuilding in Indochina.




The recent arrival of multiple bdes and divs has run our vehicle pool down to nothing.

Supply in the home islands is a problem as these troops rebuild and supply is sent out... keeping it about 650,000.

Have turned off some more Frank production, have around 500 in the pool.

About 1/3rd of our Naval aviation fightergroups have disbanded... their replacements filter in over the next few days. We have lots of great pilots!

About 40k in oil about to leave the Philipines.

[jrcar]

10 Jul 1944
Our strategy at the moment is to try and get credible numbers of troops in front of his advance, slow it down, then try to pick on areas where he is weaker to try to force him to commit to 1-3 thrust lines, rather than everywhere...

Today we LRCAP from central Java some of our last troops in Sumatra which Andrew had been bombing without escorts....

Morning Air attack on 56th JNAF AF Unit , at 47,91 , near Palembang

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid spotted at 9 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-84r Frank x 24

Allied aircraft
TBM-1C Avenger x 8

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
TBM-1C Avenger: 6 destroyed

Morning Air attack on 32nd Port Unit , at 47,91 , near Palembang

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid spotted at 25 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-84r Frank x 24

Allied aircraft
TBM-1C Avenger x 24

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
TBM-1C Avenger: 17 destroyed

Morning Air attack on 32nd Port Unit , at 47,91 , near Palembang

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid spotted at 33 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-84r Frank x 14

Allied aircraft
Beaufort VIII x 31

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort VIII: 8 destroyed, 5 damaged

Aircraft Attacking:
13 x Beaufort VIII bombing from 10000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 500 lb GP Bomb
10 x Beaufort VIII bombing from 10000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 500 lb GP Bomb

Another couple of Aces created

Elsewhere things are quiet. He continues to build up force in Java... won't be long now before he attacks. Over 200 4E hit the troops.

He hits the port at Singapore, destroying 14 points of shipyards... that is nice of him We no longer need them.


The image below shows the points over the last month or so, as you can see we are doing good in the air overal. We do this by generally avoiding combat unless on our terms... the consequence is he continues to advance. Our pilot quality is quiet good, although not much depth in the pools.

[Cribtop]

Where do you think the front will be in 6 months? A year? Do these estimates give you confidence you can run out the clock or are you concerned?

[jrcar]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

Where do you think the front will be in 6 months? A year? Do these estimates give you confidence you can run out the clock or are you concerned?

Good question... I go between optimisum and pessimisum every turn!

He still has 12 months to go. If I can keep him south of Manila by the start of 45 I'll be fairly happy. I want to keep him out of fighter escort range until March 45...

The main problem at the moment is supply, caused by a lack of fuel too keep the HI going at full power, and be the recent arrival of a lot of units, and the rebuilding of other shattered units... having said that the positives are:

Airforce in great shape. Even the TB units are again full of reasonable to good pilots.
Land forces intact (still have not lost a major combat unit, although have about 3-4 divs at 50% combat power).
Navy still a threat (8 CV's still).

Robust economy with China almost completely in our hands.

He is now into the real grind part of the land campaign, from now on in we fight hard. Commiting the airforce more, and the navy in support to... although we can't stop him...we can cause -12 months delay every 8-10 hexes forward he moves...and he is around 60 hexes from the Home islands... so maybe we have done enough...

It is making the game really interesting, really on the edge of the seat at every turn...

Cheers

Rob

[jrcar]

10-12 Jul 1944
Mostly quiet.

Only real action is seeing Andrew hop from south Sumatra out onto the islands south of Singapore.

B-29 hit the lightly defended airfields at Samarinda.

We hit the heavy industry at Saigon.

A lot of airgroups have gone, moving pilots are remaining units around. Building up Clark and Manila as the main hubs for Torp strike aircraft, from there they can easily reach all the launch points on thr slowly shrinking perimeter.

Continuing to push in China... but supply is getting scarce again...

Cheers

Rob

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: jrcar

10-12 Jul 1944
Mostly quiet.

Only real action is seeing Andrew hop from south Sumatra out onto the islands south of Singapore.

B-29 hit the lightly defended airfields at Samarinda.

We hit the heavy industry at Saigon.

A lot of airgroups have gone, moving pilots are remaining units around. Building up Clark and Manila as the main hubs for Torp strike aircraft, from there they can easily reach all the launch points on thr slowly shrinking perimeter.

Continuing to push in China... but supply is getting scarce again...

Cheers

Rob

I saw this July 10 date for air group withdrawal. There seem to be a LOT leaving right then, and some others arriving. Is it a big drain on your abilities to field enough planes, or are these made up using the groups arriving?

[jrcar]

You keep the planes and pilots, but the loss of so many airgroups all at once, who then dribble back in over the next month or so, really impacts the ability to attack and defend... not enough airgroups to go round Focussing on the defence at the moment.

Cheers
Rob

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: jrcar

10-12 Jul 1944
Mostly quiet.

Only real action is seeing Andrew hop from south Sumatra out onto the islands south of Singapore.

B-29 hit the lightly defended airfields at Samarinda.

We hit the heavy industry at Saigon.

A lot of airgroups have gone, moving pilots are remaining units around. Building up Clark and Manila as the main hubs for Torp strike aircraft, from there they can easily reach all the launch points on thr slowly shrinking perimeter.

Continuing to push in China... but supply is getting scarce again...

Cheers

Rob

I saw this July 10 date for air group withdrawal. There seem to be a LOT leaving right then, and some others arriving. Is it a big drain on your abilities to field enough planes, or are these made up using the groups arriving?

[jrcar]

13-14 Jul 1944

Indochina
Our air has been attacking a lone small armoured unit in the open of central Thailand. It is almost dead.

He has closed up on Vinh and is probing the flanks. It will take him a while to bring up enough force.

Sumatra / Malaya
On the 14th planes launched from near Singapore to attack Siberoet. We sink 2 LST at sea and hit an xAP and an AV in port, however we loose around 40 aircraft. About half our Nells try attacking some PT's on the Sumatra coast, don't hit anything and we loose about 30 Nells Overall not succesful except to make Andrew guard his rear areas.

The northern strip of Malaya is now in his hands to Singora which is an important choke point I want to force him to deliberately attack and spend time.

Java
Massive air attacks by over 200 B-24 on the troops is doing litle damage. He has about 4000AV against our 1500 in a City with level 6 forts. Seeing troop movements so he may have decided to pull back...

East DEI
Another raid by B-29 on Samarinda sees upto 10 B-29 lost for little damage to the Oil. The Tojo did good.

Our forces in Nth Oz have just about all been evacuated by air and so the defences here are starting to thicken up more.

China
We hold the central plain largely isolating the three remaining Chinese cities. A Lack of supply though is impacting further actions.

Have begun shifting units to the coast in preparation for the final stages of the war.



Overall managing to maintain the fuel stockpiles, however supply is a concern as lots of arriving forces chewing supply as they fill out. Still producing a good HI surplus a turn of about 2500. Vehicle points have bottomed out with the recent arival of some "heavy" divs. Next time I'd try to build a stockpile of 20k vehicle points by end 1943.

We have concentrated a large strike force at Clark and Manila. These are really useful locations at this stage of the war as you are a single leap to just about anywhere on the perimeter.

The first of the Army TB units is almost operational, this eases some presure on the IJNAF TB units.

Cheers

Rob

[jrcar]

15 Jul 1944
Only significant news is the first attack at Batavia, which we fought off quite well. We lost a couple of small units completely, a garrison force and an engineer regt. Having the forts dropped wasn't nice though

Ground combat at Batavia (49,98)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 126367 troops, 2370 guns, 3362 vehicles, Assault Value = 5480

Defending force 50842 troops, 533 guns, 116 vehicles, Assault Value = 1575

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 5

Allied adjusted assault: 3632

Japanese adjusted defense: 4409

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 5)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(+)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
3382 casualties reported
Squads: 19 destroyed, 161 disabled
Non Combat: 79 destroyed, 41 disabled
Engineers: 34 destroyed, 33 disabled
Guns lost 136 (16 destroyed, 120 disabled)
Vehicles lost 12 (1 destroyed, 11 disabled)
Units destroyed 3

Allied ground losses:
7225 casualties reported
Squads: 40 destroyed, 653 disabled
Non Combat: 10 destroyed, 243 disabled
Engineers: 11 destroyed, 171 disabled
Guns lost 141 (7 destroyed, 134 disabled)
Vehicles lost 294 (18 destroyed, 276 disabled)

Assaulting units:
2nd USMC Amphb Tank Battalion
11th PAVO Regiment
40th Infantry Division
4th Armoured Brigade
82nd (West African) Division
754th Tank Battalion
IV Corps Engineer Battalion
14th Army Engineer Battalion
38th Infantry Division
364th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
11th (East African) Division
767th Tank Battalion
3rd USMC Tank Battalion
763rd Tank Battalion
158th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
II Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
255th Indian Tank Brigade
17th Indian Division
32nd Infantry Division
50th Tank Brigade
1st Marine Division
31st Infantry Division
7th Australian Division
7th Infantry Division
I US Corps
226th Field Artillery Battalion
32nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
205th Field Artillery Battalion
97th Field Artillery Battalion
2/9th Field Regiment
31st Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
249th Field Artillery Battalion
134th Field Artillery Battalion
88th Medium Regiment
2nd Medium Regiment
223rd Field Artillery Battalion
33rd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment

Defending units:
32nd Nav Gsn Unit
56th Engineer Regiment
Yokosuka 2nd SNLF
4th Infantry Regiment
47th Ind.Mixed Brigade
45th Ind.Mixed Brigade
109th Division
14th Ind.Mixed Regiment
93rd Division
5th/A Division
27th JAAF AF Bn
8th Field AF Construction Battalion
40th Field AA Battalion
20th AA Regiment
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
14th Army
20th JNAF AF Unit
2nd Mortar Battalion
8th JAAF AF Coy /2
1st Air Army /1

Several CV fleets are detected moving SE from the southern tip of Sumatra...

40k of oil is about to arrive in the home islands which will be nice. So far in the last month our fuel stock have remained about the same, need to do that for another 3-4 months!

The Grace factories are almost all fully repaired, should get the Grace in Sept, about 2 months early. Have a Shinden factory 2 points away from fully repaired, with another 6 from 4-6 points in each to repair.

Anyone have ideas on what burns supply the most? Trying to work out how I can reduce demand on the home islands... lots of aircraft training there of course, and units rebuilding, not much construction...

Cheers

Rob

[jrcar]

Sorry for the long lack of posts, the game is going at a slowish rate... but that is about all I can manage at the moment.

16-26 Jul 1944
Strategic
We are on the strategical and operational defence, looking for the occasional tactical win.

Very little change, after several weeks of combat and massive force from the Allies Batavia has just fallen, the rest of Java will be wrapped up within a couple of weeks. No other significant movements anywhere on the map. The Indochina / China border is now very secure. In china we have broken through and are slowly grinding in towards the last four Chinese cities.

We have managed to get about a months grace so far of fuel and oil... very nice.

We have tried a couple of CAP traps, but not much result. His bombers have focussed on Java, although a large B-29 raids on Babeldoab Manila badly damaged the repair yards and sank and damaged a lot of shipping, none of which of any great significance though at this stage of the war.

Supply and fuel are an issue. Fuel continues to hover around 95-100 days... Supply is being shipped out as quickly as it is produced... more would be nice

Aircraft production continues to go well, Grace should be here in late August or early September. Have around 600 Frank and climbing in the pools.

Have had a lot of air groups withdrawn this month so have large pools of excellent pilots which are being horded.

Round up by theatre to follow.

[jrcar]

26 Jul 1944 Indochina
Our withdrawel has gone very well, still a few odds and sods around however we have about 5000AV in Indochina and another 2000AV over the boarder in this area.

We are bombing the allied troops from our network of bases... he really hasn't contested here yet as he is focussed on Java.

We have recently raided deep (red circles) to annoy him and force the deployment of troops to protect his rear areas... more of an annoyance factor though.

Overall we are pretty secure, about to hit level 6 forts and have a good redundant array of bases with lots of support.

We have started to occupy the Chinese coastal cities as well.

Suspect he may try to launch on to Hainan island... but needs some shipping first.

He is building up Hue.

[jrcar]

26 Jul 1944 - Malaya
The bulk of our forces are back around Singapore, a bde in good defensive location is in the north and a string of small garrisons to stop air assault...

He is bombing the troops in Singapore, about to try a CAP trap...

[jrcar]

26 Jul 1944 Java
The bulk of the forces were at Batavia and held for around 3 weeks. He has a 4000AV stack so it is just a mater of time, maybe two weeks...

We have in place decent defences closer in. The key is to protect the oil at Balikpapan as long as possible.

Once Java falls it will take a month or two before he is ready for the next move. From now on we fight hard...

[jrcar]

26 Jul 1944 East DEI
We have a series of mutually supporting bases each with aroun a div of strength and level 6 forts, except for ternate which is only recently occupied.

A lot of float transports have been pulling troops out of Darwin (which we still own)and from East Timor area (we still have Koepang in West Timor).

Supply is OK, but not great, would be good to have more. Most of the fightesr are back defending the oil fields and make only brief forays.

KB is in loc leading support to Kendari which was recently trashed by the enemy... another day should see it up an operating again.

[jrcar]

26 Jul 1944 Pacific Philippines
No enemy action in the Pacific.

Port Moresby is almost empty, forces are being air transported back to Rabaul and Manus Is.

Our forces still have Tarawa back to Truk all lightly held with scouting aircraft keying an eye on shipping movements around Wake.

The line Babeldoab through the Marianas is well occupied and dug in to 6-9 level forts. Major bases have over 400AV, usually 600. More units are fleshing out in Japan and will be sent out soon. Only small numbers of planes, but plenty of air support.

Philippines now has concentrations at Mindano (Davao) and on Luzon (Manila and Clark). The later have large concentrations of TB aircraft training... including two units of "Peggy". Supply is good and there are good concentrations of fresh combat troops in reserve.