Speedy vs Fabertong - time to smack back the Penguin

[Speedysteve]

Example 2 showing some overlapping zones.

The black rectangles also indicate patrol zones of the other 2 subs in the area:

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Faber has expressed, again, in an e-mail that the Japanese economy is in dire straits after he misjudged what resource levels were needed. Production has totally nosedived apparently. I hope not and the game lasts through to the end.

Usual stuff in Burma and Sumatra. Only news to note is Batavia's LI was smashed by 4E from Siberoet. Reinforcements landed at Benkoelen in the shape of 11st USA Airborne Division, 13th Canadian Bde, 1 US Corps HQ and 2 x ARM Bn. A nice little addition!

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SRA invasions:

The armada moved nearer Sorong today with no enemy interference. Men of 4th Australian Division will go ashore at Sorong tomorrow whilst CV's will loiter to the NW to provide cover.

Ambon's AF is now operational [:)]

I'm soon going to shuttle down from San Fran a CVE Division or 2. I've decided I can spare these boys and keep them in the SoPac/SRA area to facilitate further invasions and mopping up the various small bases that are still Jap held with the substantial LCU's I'll still have in the area. These can work with the Royal Navy as well.

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Submarine Warfare:

0 x dud/missed attacks.

SS Shark II blew up PB Shintohoku Maru in the Philippine Sea.

SS Ronquil did well today when she located a small local freighter TF west of Japan. She sank the lone PB escort (Banshu Maru #18) and then surfaced and sank one of the freighters AKL Fukuju Maru.

[crsutton]

Speedy,

Do you really need to be engaged in a extended land campaign around Palembang? I found that once the oil centers were bombed out there was no real need to take territory in this area. It no longer served any strategic purpose for me. As long as I have a few good airbases in B29 range of his other oil centers is is best to be satisfied and just leave Java and Sumatra to the enemy.

[BBfanboy]

Maybe he wants to liberate all those lonely imprisoned civilian Dutch women, and earn their eternal... gratitude. [;)]

[Speedysteve]

Crsutton you make a good point. I'm leaning towards this as is. Palembang has over 85,000 Jap troops now! I'm inclined to take Djambi and Oosthaven and leave Palembang as a prison camp. The 85k jap troops would get some nice points but other than that you're right. I'm actually in the process of moving the recent reinforcements from Benkoelen up to Djambi. My troops in the south will then likely take Oosthaven. If it goes to plan that is.....

[JocMeister]

Thanks for the screens! What I have been doing is not that far off from what you are doing. I think perhaps I lack you intuition on where to place the subs.

[RogerJNeilson]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Crsutton you make a good point. I'm leaning towards this as is. Palembang has over 85,000 Jap troops now! I'm inclined to take Djambi and Oosthaven and leave Palembang as a prison camp. The 85k jap troops would get some nice points but other than that you're right. I'm actually in the process of moving the recent reinforcements from Benkoelen up to Djambi. My troops in the south will then likely take Oosthaven. If it goes to plan that is.....

Whilst from a humanistic point of view you might want to liberate the areas, if they are not strategically important its a bit like the huge pincer movements of Barbarossa, you can leave the vast groups of Japanense fanatics to reflect upon their fate. Once the defence line is breached its very satisfying to render large amounts of Jap ground forces impotent.

Roger

[GreyJoy]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Example 2 showing some overlapping zones.

The black rectangles also indicate patrol zones of the other 2 subs in the area:

But doesn't he have, for example, hordes of Helens on ASW role at Tarakan and Jolo to suppress those subs in that area?

About the resources.... pretty strange Faber has found it out just now... Once estabilished the CS convoys, Hokkaido and Korea can easily provide enough resources to fullfill japanese needs for resources...IMHO

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Crsutton you make a good point. I'm leaning towards this as is. Palembang has over 85,000 Jap troops now! I'm inclined to take Djambi and Oosthaven and leave Palembang as a prison camp. The 85k jap troops would get some nice points but other than that you're right. I'm actually in the process of moving the recent reinforcements from Benkoelen up to Djambi. My troops in the south will then likely take Oosthaven. If it goes to plan that is.....

Yep, I think I would be eyeing Singapore. That naval repair base located there is an incredible asset for the Allies to hold

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Hi Roger - indeed. I'm thinking crsutton is right in that I'd become focussed on wiping out every last one of the Meatball lovers at Palembang where as really I should be content with them at Palembang and move on (once I've taken Djambi and Oosthaven).

Hi GreyJoy - Not sure hat exactly he has but he does have planes on ASW duty. HEre's my last Operations report for example:

SS Becuna reports having been sighted by the enemy at 107 , 64
SS Ronquil reports having been sighted by the enemy at 99 , 59
SS Sand Lance reports having been sighted by the enemy at 85 , 69
SS Trusty leaving patrol zone to replenish at Colombo
SS Nautilus reports having been sighted by the enemy at 122 , 55
SS Tang reports having been sighted by the enemy at 99 , 59
SS Icefish reports having been sighted by the enemy at 83 , 70
SS Drum reports having been sighted by the enemy at 105 , 64
SS Flasher reports having been sighted by the enemy at 103 , 64
SS Cero reports having been sighted by the enemy at 82 , 70
SS Corvina reports having been sighted by the enemy at 122 , 47
SS Albacore reports having been sighted by the enemy at 107 , 62
SS Silversides reports having been sighted by the enemy at 117 , 61
SS Grayling reports having been sighted by the enemy at 125 , 47

Hi crsutton - I've been contemplating last night/this AM about where I could move next. I've got about 2200AV in Sumatra (probably about 3000AV if all disablements were repaired). I'll need to keep a chunk of that on garrison duty in Sumatra and I can probably get another 500-800AV in to the theatre in about 2 months time.

Faber has over 40K troops at Singapore and the odd Bde/Rgt dotted around Malaya (need further recon to confirm just this). I guess a question is would around 700AV be enough to keep Palembang tied up? If so that would leave about 3000 AV (incl. reinforcements) be enough to take Malaya? I as also thinking of going for Borneo......there isn't a lot of Jap defence built up thee that know of.

[JocMeister]

What are your goals with a Borneo operation? Jump along northern Borneo towards the Philippines? If So Jesselton and Kudat can be built up to lvl 9 and should be a prime target!

[Speedysteve]

That would be my thinking. Starting at Singkawang and then moving east along the northern coast towards Luzon.
 
The recent Ceram/Sorong invasions would almost cut off anything west of their IF I took northern Borneo.
 
Lots to ponder! That route looks rewarding and the Malaya/Singapore gambit does as well as it could ultimately threaten Indochina and Faber's forces in Burma!

[RogerJNeilson]

Taking Singkawang is nice but is an area under a lot of big Jap bases, the soft underbelly approach can be an alternative.. if you hold the Celebes.

And being a touch obtuse, re sub patrols.

If I am driving and crossing a main road on a smaller road I can normally do so without being hit by traffic on the main road... If I drive on the mainroad, in the wrong direction it will not take long until I hit something coming towards me.

Roger

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

An action packed couple of days.

Firstly, Faber has confirmed the Japanese economy is officially toast. I'm sure my Sub campaign has had a small effect on this but he's admitted he took the eye off the ball and it's got to such a detrimental level it will never recover now This will logically end the game earlier than would otherwise be as he won't be able to produce planes or ships etc! A real shame. Faber has said he'll continue and I respect him for doing so.

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Burma/Sumatra:

I've definitely had enough of Burma now. From doing the basic maths I will never break through in Burma in the fashion I've been pursuing = smashing my head against Impregnable Jungle Defences. Simply put I'm losing too many troops that I'll never have enough to force the Japs to retreat. My stack SE of Toungoo has dropped from 6000 AV a month ago to 3600 now after the last failed attack. This officially ends my interest in Burma. I'm withdrawing the battered units to refit in Mandalay and if they recover in time I'll march them to the coast for use somewhere in the SRA come late 44/early 45.

As a note Faber looks to have a further 15-20 units in reserve in Rangoon and in the rear = many units he can rotate with frontline units.

I'll keep a token (strong) force in Burma but gradually move away and won't attack anymore. It's always cost prohibitive against silly modified odds in the Jungle. A note to AE's don't bother going through Burma if the Jap is contesting nit. You'll never break through the jungle!

The last silly Burmese attack:

Ground combat at 57,51 (near Toungoo)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 122898 troops, 2015 guns, 2443 vehicles, Assault Value = 4245

Defending force 66682 troops, 743 guns, 799 vehicles, Assault Value = 1932

Allied adjusted assault: 2620

Japanese adjusted defense: 5470

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
4017 casualties reported
Squads: 19 destroyed, 194 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 34 disabled
Engineers: 5 destroyed, 36 disabled
Guns lost 85 (2 destroyed, 83 disabled)
Vehicles lost 97 (10 destroyed, 87 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
2835 casualties reported
Squads: 156 destroyed, 520 disabled
Non Combat: 41 destroyed, 128 disabled
Engineers: 14 destroyed, 187 disabled
Guns lost 70 (12 destroyed, 58 disabled)
Vehicles lost 71 (3 destroyed, 68 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Waiting for final reinforcements on the current batch to arrive at Benkoelen. Should be there in 2/3 days time. We then move on Djambi and maybe Oosthaven.

I'm still debating whether to try landings in Malaya or Borneo. I'm 1/2 inclined to now go for Malaya as Singers offer good VP's and as the Jap economy is toast there not much oil they can get out of the SRA as is (other than around Borneo that is!)

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Ambon/Sorong:

Sorong was devoid of enemy troops and taken on the 4th! Surprising really but maybe Faber didn't anticipate me going for a deep strike around southern New Guinea?

It's now a matter of waiting for the oodles of material and supply to unload before heading back to Ceram to unload supply and then take a few empty bases on the way back to Australia.

It will take a week or 2 I would say. Then the CV's head back to CentPac.

As many ships have been strung out unloading material some Jap G4M's have snuck through various CAP gaps over the past 2 days sinking 5 x AK's (2 of which were carrying F4U's and Spit Vc's. Grrr). CAP did take it's toll though shooting down a reported 25 enemy planes over the past 2 days.

Due to this I've ordered my TF's to remain close to the CV's and they'll protect the convoys as they unload one base at a time. It will take longer but be more secure.

Ambon now has 72 x Fighters based there so has CAP which will help as well.

Recon's flew into Ambon today and will scout the Celebes and Sulwesi to determine what Japs are where and where we'll plan to invade next down here.

I'm sending 3 x CVE Div's down from San Fran (12 x CVE) to the area. They will form the future cover for the area's invasions.

As a side note 2 x Jap subs were detected and reported sunk near Sorong.

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Submarine Warfare:

0 x dud/missed attacks.

SS Corvina sank E No.11 near Ominato on the 3rd but was later hit by LBA and sank on the 4th.

SS Herring had a fun day on the 4th Heavily damaging the oil laden Whaler Class TK Tonan Maru #3 with 2 torpedoes in the Philippine Sea. Earlier in the day she reported sinking AKL Nissyo Maru in the same area. She was lightly damaged by ASW escorts in return and is returning to Wake Island.

[JocMeister]

I share your feeling for Burma. I just had a 2500 AV attack getting repelled by a 500 AV defensive force.

I hate Burma.

[Speedysteve]

Yup. I'll think very differently about approaching Burma again in the future....I'm even including Allied defence in Jungles in Burma here....

[RogerJNeilson]

My own view is its nearest 'cousin' is WW1 trench warfare, without the big artillery.

Roger

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Quiet day on the 5th but the 6th was different......

Burma/Sumatra:

Slowly pulling the most battered units back in Burma. I'll gradually begin withdrawing them from the theatre in due course.

B29's targeted Hong Kong today damaging 1/2 of it's LI for no loss [:)]

In Sumatra the last of the current batch of reinforcement convoys has reached Benkoelen. We'll then begin to march on Djambi and Oosthaven and leave Palembang as a Jap prison camp of 33 units and 100,000 troops [X(]

Recon is commencing of all bases across Malaya to try to ascertain whether to go for there or Borneo next. There seems to be 14 units and 40K of troops in Singapore and a Bde's and 2 other units in Johore Bharu. A few other smaller units in Central Malaya. Recon of northern Malaya over the next 2 days.

Faber interestingly snuck in an LB TF from Batavia to Oosthaven reportedly dropping off troops (Oosthaven up to 10K troops in 4 units). I have a SC TF near Benkoelen which will investigate Oosthaven. A sub in the area takes out 3 of the blighters on the way to Oosthaven.

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Ambon/Sorong:

Unloading continues at Sorong. All ships will be finished there in a day or 2.

Jap subs are swarming in the area and the sods sink a P38G Loaded AK (the 3 of 5 x AK's they've sunk down here have been plane carriers. Grrrrr) and more importantly hit CV Chimera with a torpedo leaving her 7/43/0. Provided she's not hit again she'll be safe but won't be available for CentPac Operations. Double grrrrrr.

Jap subs have been more of threat to my navy than any other weapon over the past year.

Ships will move to Boela and then take a few other empty bases south of Ceram on their way back to Townsville.

Ambon launched it's first raid against Jap AF's at Kendari. The Japs weren't expecting it as there was no CAP and 20ish enemy Nell, Betty and Kate were reported destroyed by my 40ish Mitchells.

I'm beginning to recon bases around Ceram to identify what the Japs have where as I plan units for future invasions like Ternate and Manado.

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Submarine Warfare:

0 x dud/missed attacks.

SS Tullibee reported sinking AK San Francisco Maru south of Tokyo.

SS Terrapin was the sub who sank 3 x LB's near Oosthaven (LB-135, LB-126 and LB-128).

[Mac Linehan]

Speedy -

Excellent Screen Shots - I now clearly understand. My approach was much more conservative; the bottom line is that you have 100's of hours of game time and experience to back it up. I will sandbox a scenario - just do the sub work and learn.

I, Sir, can but sit at the feet of the Master... <grin>

OK - got carried away - but am most grateful.

Cricket Mac

[Speedysteve]

[font="Times New Roman"]Hi all,

Thanks Mac for the kind words. Hardly a master but thanks [;)]

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A very good day for my subs today most likely sinking a CVE outright!

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Burma/Sumatra:

The final reinforcements of the current batch are ashore at Benkoelen. They'll move to the east to cover for any Jap movement from Palembang whilst 1200 AV moves southwards to take Oosthaven.

Concurrently forces will begin to advance towards Djambi further north.

Palembang will (hopefully) remain a 100K Jap. prison. I'll keep bombing the place (the refineries are mainly damaged to prevent supply creation) to take down the supply.

Further recon of the rest of Malaya indicates very few troops in the north. It seems there's about 50-60K Jap troops in total throughout Malaya mainly in Singapore and Johore Bharu.

I'll start to recon western Borneo as well now and then make a decision where to go for after Sumatra!

My SC TF scouted near Oosthaven and located the remaining Jap LB's sinking all 9 of them.

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Ambon/Sorong:

Virtually all material is ashore at Sorong now so the Armada (which moved to a position west of Sorong today) will head towards Ambon to unload the remaining material and planes there before heading south, covering a few more quick invasions on empty bases, back to Australia. CV Chimera is still at the same damage level today (43 FLT).

Interestingly a Jap. DD Sqn was detected by patrols 3 hexes ENE of Sorong during the day. CV air hit the enemy hard:

Morning Air attack on TF, near Manokwari at 86,106

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 34 minutes


Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 132
SB2C-1C Helldiver x 29
SB2C-3 Helldiver x 62
TBF-1 Avenger x 1
TBM-1C Avenger x 18


Allied aircraft losses
SB2C-1C Helldiver: 9 damaged
SB2C-3 Helldiver: 5 damaged
SB2C-3 Helldiver: 1 destroyed by flak
TBM-1C Avenger: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
DD Kiyonami, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
DD Matsu, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Kiyoshimo, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DD Michishio, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Hokaze, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
DD Samidare, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Wakazuki, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Okinami, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Akigumo, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DD Hayashimo, Bomb hits 8, and is sunk


and

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Manokwari at 86,106

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid detected at 61 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 26 minutes


Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 75
SB2C-3 Helldiver x 29
TBF-1 Avenger x 17


Allied aircraft losses
SB2C-3 Helldiver: 4 damaged

Japanese Ships
DD Michishio, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Kiyoshimo, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Akigumo, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Kiyonami, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Okinami, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
DD Wakazuki, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Samidare, heavy fires, heavy damage[/font]

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Submarine Warfare:

3 x dud/missed attacks.

First, the highlight of the day. SS Becuna located and hit CVE Chuyo with 3 torpedoes just south of Kobe. A fuel and ammo explosion were reported as well. I would hope she's sunk but she doesn't have far to go to a major port. The heavy escort gave Becuna a going over leaving her with 50ish SYS/FLT damage. She'll hopefully return to a heroes welcome at Wake!

SS Tang sank AKL Taikai Maru west of Japan.

SS Cod sank AKL Hanakawa Maru with 3 torpedoes SW of Borneo. Later in the day she heavily damaged the troop filled AK Saiho Maru with a torpedo east of Soerabaja.

SS Shark II sank TK Otowasan Maru with 2 torpedoes near Daito Shoto.