The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Cribtop]

He's coming. Not much more you can do except sound General Quarters. I still predict you win.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
Medan should fall quickly.

Clear terrain should make a very big difference in the outcome of this battle.

[Canoerebel]

Yeah, the Allies should take Medan in good order, but the terrain will work both ways. John will be able to use bombardment to very good effect. Figuring out how to defend Medan - once I take it - has been one of my chief tasks over the past four or five days.

[Cribtop]

My thoughts:

1) Take Tandjoen, that will help defend Medan.

2) Turn Medan into a nest of mines, PT boats, and Fletcher DDs.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Yeah, the Allies should take Medan in good order, but the terrain will work both ways. John will be able to use bombardment to very good effect. Figuring out how to defend Medan - once I take it - has been one of my chief tasks over the past four or five days.

You could also move most of your LCUs OUT of the Medan hex into the adjoining non-coastal hex, so his bombardments will not mess them up. If he messes up the troops remaining in hex, rotate them out for one of the undisrupted LCUs. All good when he does not have any troops of his own in hex. The only drawback is not being able to use the outlying LCU engineers to build the base.

[Canoerebel]

I want Tandjoen, but I think John will reinforce so strongly that trying may end up being counterproduction - IE, I'm going to give it a hard look, but I don't want to deplete my divisions if the effort will be vain. My main plan is basically what BBFanboy lays out.

[Canoerebel]

11/27/42 - D+17, Operation Des Wallace

The kettle is boiling - the lid's about to come off - quiet possible the penultimate moment of the game. Zoiks! [:)]

Bottom Line: To win, Japan must win a decisive naval engagement and thus interdict the Allied LOC. The Allies, in contrast, need only avoid losing a decisive naval engagement. As I read it, the Allies therefore don't need to press matters and aren't forced to give battle on terms and grounds of Japan's choosing.

Malacca Straits: Violent activity here - both sides have mines and subs and lots of combat ships, with airfields in close proximity. John sends a big CA TF (four including Mogami) to bombard Langsa to little effect. On retiring, this TF encounters the CA Quincy TF. Neither side delivers decisive blows, but I think the Allies come out the better. Quincy has 18 SYS damage, but the entire TF will remain at Sabang since the decisive moment is here. But this was a promising encounter - if the Allies can hold their own in a major clash like this, Japan is in for a dark time. So John has at least four CAs and the Yamato TF in the Straits. He also landed a FT TF at Phuket (part of 48th Div) which failed in it's attack. Out in the Nicobars, another para assault against a second Allied base fails. SigInt that more enemy troops are inbound to Victoria Point. I'd like to interdict, but I think I need to keep all my combat ships close to Sabang for the next few turns.

Sumatra and the Seas: The Allies have arrived at Medan in force. Unless John has a surprise reinforcement planned, the base should fall tomorrow. I'm a bit surprised he hasn't moved yet in force on Nias or Sinabang. Out in the IO to the NW of Sabang, enemy subs picked off a few more xAK. The Allied carriers are out here and I think relatively remote. I don't see how John could push the KB far enough in one day to obtain battle. I'm pondering moving some of my carrier fighter air to Sabang, whose airfield went to 5.91. I don't think John's ships can penetrate the mass of Allied combat ships at Sabang. I think he may try, though, hoping that massed sweeps can overcome my own CAP so that his bombers can wreak havoc on the shipping there. So sending in additional fighters sounds like a good idea.

Malaya: 18th UK Div. has to basically stand on its own at Alor Star for now. If John wins the looming battle for the seas, Alor Star is neutered anyway. But if the Allies win, they should be able to strongly reinforce and supply Alor Star.

Foaming and Frothing? Judging Johnny OpSec's email comments, he's coming now. At a minimum, Japan is about to unleash some deviltry. I wish I was absolutely certain of winning the clash, of course, but at least I feel that the Allied position is configured about as strongly as it can be. The Allies certainly have a decent shot at winning.

Burma: 12th IJA Div. pushes back to Indian brigades from the road near Schwebo. The Allied forces have flooded to the lower end of the plains, but I'm not sure John is withdrawing. Well, he has certainly withdrawn most or all of three divisions, but that still leaves him with plenty to fight with.

Colombo: The yards are filled with attrition's flotsam. I have ten DDs in various stages of repair (all will be ready in less than 10 days) plus two cruisers: New Orleans (ready in 25 days) and Pensacola (60 days). Mauritius and Boise will be ready in 15 and 60 days, respectively. Several CAs including Frosbisher, Hawkins, Dorsetshire and Vincennes are inbound from Capetown.

[BBfanboy]

Seems likely he will send several SCTFs to Sabang via the Malacca Straits while throwing his LBA and KB at the area. Concentrating all your SCTFs like that should hold him from bombarding or hitting shipping at Sabang. You seem to have your bases covered and should do as well as random die rolls will allow ...

[Canoerebel]

I'm still wrestling with a tough decision - do I move one or two carrier fighter squadrons to Sabang to beef up fighters to roughly 275? If so, I have to pull the carrier back to Ceylon to keep them safely away from the front lines. Or, do I keep the carriers intact and relatively close to Sabang (about 15 hexes)?

Judging by John's email comments, he's coming with something big next turn. Major air attack; major sea attack; KB; or combination thereof. I don't need my carriers in proxmity to deal with any of those contingenies, I suppose, and would actually prefer to keep them further away. So I think the answer is to divert a couple of fighter squadrons to Sabang.

Now, let's see if I've convinced myself.

[Nemo121]

To win he needs to sink your CVs. To win strategically you need not to lose the CVs since your SLOCs will be secure due to his need to re provision his CVs from time to time.

It simply doesn't make sense to me for the Allied CVs to risk fighting when fighting risks all but gains so little. I'd beach all the CV planes and invite the naval clashes as he tries to bombard + the attrition of KB when he grows frustrated and commits it vs land bases ( a major strategic error in this situation).

[paullus99]

I agree with Nemo - John wants to hit your carriers & will do so to the detriment of all us. If you can fade and move, fade and move, it will frustrate him to the point where he will continue to make strategic mistakes.....

[Canoerebel]

Okay, that makes sense. So I did it. Two of the best carrier F4F-4 squadrons move to Sabang, beefing up CAP there to 325 fighters. The bulk of these are 4-Model Wildcats and P40-K piloted by my best. If they can't do the job, nobody can. Tomorrow, the field goes to level six, which will allow me to base even more fighters there. As it is, I'm probably pushing the envelope a bit.

The carriers will move further north, towards Ceylon, taking station 22 hexes from Sabang - a distance sufficient to recover the F4F-4s at Sabang or to contribute more tomorrow.'

If John sends in a major part of his combat fleet, I'm pretty confident that the Allies can hold their own, though it could be a very bloody night. My major concern is getting overwhelmed by a combination of land-based and carrier-based air. But the fleet will stay in place since there's really no other option. Gotta fight for Sabang.

[Nemo121]

What is your actual situation re: CVs, CVLs etc? I've forgotten what you have available.

[JohnDillworth]

the field goes to level six

Any other airfields underway? If so what level?

[Canoerebel]

The main Allied carrier group consists of the six big USN CVs and the RN's Illustrious and Hermes.

At Sibang are CVEs Long Island and Copahee, each carrying relatively small Marine Buffalo squadrons.

The other Allied CVEs are gainfully employed elsewhere (far, far away).

[Canoerebel]

The only two airbases currently operational are Sabang (which goes to level 6 tomorrow) and Langsa (level 2). Lots of dot hexes are supporting PBY squadrons, so the Allies have great patrol coverage. If the Allies win the pending battle/battles/campaign, I plan to build up the fields at Sinabang, Medan and Phuket, plus also Nias and the island south of Phuket.

The Allies also have Alor Star, currently a level 4 field but without supply or base forces. Whether it becomes a major field depends on what happens over the next few days.

[Canoerebel]

Speaking of which....I concentrated all my fighters at Sabang for reasons that should be obvious to folks patient enough to have read ths far. Just in case there's a major sea battle with damaged IJ ships left without CAP, I've posted a Marine AVG squadron and roughly 16 SBDs at Langsa. Langsa does have torps.

[princep01]

Smack those LYBs with the jawbone of a jackass (I'm sure the righteous form of jackass will not be allowed).  Smite them on their heads with thy club of cedar.  Fell them with smooth flat river rocks between their eyes with thy slings.  Slag the poisonous vipers with thou chariots of fire.  Skurrer their ships with thy arrows of fire.  Free the lamenting peoples of Sumatra with thy pure and mighty legions.
 
Perhaps the culmination moment has arrived.  While luck always has its fickle role, good planning is a nice trump card to hold.
 
And now a word from our sponsor......Have you had your bowl of rice today?......   

[Cap Mandrake]

AMEN! TELL IT BROTHER, TELL IT!

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

AMEN! TELL IT BROTHER, TELL IT!

Yeah. And watch out for Mavis carrying torpedoes. [:'(]