Speedy vs Fabertong - time to smack back the Penguin

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Detection is the best preventative against successful sub attacks. The best is provided by plenty of patrol planes in areas where you expect subs. Planes for detection and then high experienced DDs in an ASW TF with a good patrol zone and reaction range set to three. By mid 44, I had pretty much eliminated any Japanese Sub threat. But I am willing to say over the course of the game they probably torpedoed 15 to 20 capital ships of mine, some on multiple occasions. I am lucky that he never sunk anything larger than a CA. Just got to be very careful in 42 and early 1943..

Everyone always mentiones reaction range three for ASW...why not anything over that? Do you not wanting them exhausting their opps during one phase so they may react multiple times during the turn if more subs are detected?

Personal preference. If set higher, sometimes they will react multiple times and just run around in circles if there are many subs working the same area. Plus if you set the react to six hexes, there is also a chance for them to react multiple times away from friendly air cover and end up the morning phase deep in enemy air space. I had this happen a couple of times when fighting in the Solomons and my ASW TF got creamed.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Mariana's:

Allied troops stormed the shore's of Tinian on the 21st. The heavy guns of BB's Mississippi, Idaho and Tennessee supported the landings. The men were ready for the operation and landed without too much mishap (all troops 95-99% ready).

It's pretty clear the enemy troops are heavily dug in as a over 200 bombers hit enemy positions causing minimal damage throughout the day.

There's certainly a few more enemy troops on the Island than I planned for:

Ground combat at Tinian (108,94)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 62996 troops, 1355 guns, 1214 vehicles, Assault Value = 2644

Defending force 39727 troops, 361 guns, 275 vehicles, Assault Value = 1235

Assaulting units:
110th Combat Engineer Battalion
4th Marine Division
4th USMC Tank Battalion
131st Combat Engineer Regiment
104th Combat Engineer Regiment
670th Tank Destroyer Battalion
33rd Infantry Division
1st Cavalry (Spec) Cavalry Division
6th Infantry Division
27th Infantry Division
7th Infantry Division
Sixth US Army
181st Field Artillery Regiment
249th Field Artillery Battalion
226th Field Artillery Battalion
82nd Mortar Battalion
III US Amphib Corps
3rd Eng Amph Bde

Defending units:
12th Ind.Mixed Regiment
3rd Tank Regiment
61st Ind.Mixed Brigade
66th Ind.Mixed Brigade
53rd Division
13th Ind.Mixed Regiment
48th Naval Guard Unit
66th Field AA Battalion
6th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
12th JNAF AF Unit
62nd Field AA Battalion
18th Army
67th Construction Battalion
1st Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
1st Air Army
44th JNAF AF Unit

The men have rested and the first deliberate attack will go in on the 23rd.

There's been no real further Japanese air threat over the past 4 days as small air raids petered out on the 19th and 20th. Still no threat from the Combined Fleet.

Japanese subs continue to be a PITA. MAJOR.

BB Indiana was heavily damaged by 2 torpedoes from I-181 on the 21st. I was amazed at the damage is caused (17/74(67)/0). She's limping back to Marcus Island but I'm not sure she'll make it.

I-181 was in action later in the day blowing up the fuel laden AO Ashtabula with a torpedo. Luckily the B*stard sub was caught and sank after that.

A further 2 other Jap subs were reported sunk as well.

-------------------------

Ambon:

Troops are all ashore and the first phase invasions down here are now in progress. Troops are loading up to invade Ternate and Morotai. Both should be relatively easy to take as recon indicates up to 2000 Jap troops on Ternate and none on Morotai.

-------------------------

Malaya:

Troops have also now loaded up at Oosthaven for the Malaya invasion. The first phase will involve invasions on the west coast of Malacca. I'll list the troop commitments soon. The fleets are leaving Oosthaven tomorrow. There's a heavy surface asset presence and a CV TF around 3 x Brit CV's and CVL Hermes. LBA will also cover and support the fleets as they move up the east coast of Sumatra.

-------------------------

Submarine Warfare:

1 x dud/missed attack.

SS Cobia damaged AP Gokoku Maru with a torpedo off Formosa.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

The first attack when in on Tinian and overall it's looking pretty promising:

Ground combat at Tinian (108,94)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 68821 troops, 1377 guns, 1413 vehicles, Assault Value = 2646

Defending force 39764 troops, 361 guns, 275 vehicles, Assault Value = 1236

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 7

Allied adjusted assault: 2638

Japanese adjusted defense: 4281

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 7)

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

Japanese ground losses:
4376 casualties reported
Squads: 33 destroyed, 281 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 30 disabled
Engineers: 5 destroyed, 30 disabled
Guns lost 40 (2 destroyed, 38 disabled)
Vehicles lost 29 (2 destroyed, 27 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
2481 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 318 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 56 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 124 disabled
Guns lost 58 (2 destroyed, 56 disabled)
Vehicles lost 52 (5 destroyed, 47 disabled)

My men will rest for at least a day (the Tubes are bombarding tomorrow) and then try again......looking promising though.

There was no other action of any type around the Mariana's today. The Fleets are moving to a position west of Tinian (NE of Guam) in preparation for landings at Guam soon.

------------------------

Submarine Warfare:

1 x dud/missed attack.

SS Templar heavily damaged AK Yamakaze Maru with a torpedo west of Luzon.

[JocMeister]

Thats looks really promising Speedy! [:)] Open the game as the Jap side and look at those BDEs he has in place. A lot of them coming online late war are pretty crappy with low EXP/MRL and is basically just a bunch of infantry with a few guns. Not much staying power in those.

PS. Congrats on passing the 1000 post mark! [:D]

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Thanks JocMeister - hadn't noticed I'd passed the 1000 post mark. Sheesh. It's been an effort to get here [;)]

It does seem promising at Tinian and if it wasn't for the extensive fortifications and defences the Japs have constructed I've no doubt I'd have taken Tinian by now!

My men rested on the 24th and attacked again on the 25th taking more ground with hard fought battles:

Ground combat at Tinian (108,94)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 66972 troops, 1387 guns, 1415 vehicles, Assault Value = 2349

Defending force 36914 troops, 357 guns, 275 vehicles, Assault Value = 964

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 6

Allied adjusted assault: 2215

Japanese adjusted defense: 7329

Allied assault odds: 1 to 3 (fort level 6)

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

Japanese ground losses:
2164 casualties reported
Squads: 44 destroyed, 140 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 27 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 9 disabled
Guns lost 56 (7 destroyed, 49 disabled)
Vehicles lost 43 (4 destroyed, 39 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
2086 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 181 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 32 disabled
Engineers: 22 destroyed, 82 disabled
Guns lost 41 (2 destroyed, 39 disabled)
Vehicles lost 66 (3 destroyed, 63 disabled)

The only concern I have here is my Combat ENG units are badly worn down already.

A minorly frustrating episode occurred on the 24th as a TF of Jap MTB's attacked my shipping off Tinian. They managed to zip past the SC TF (who didn't get a shot off at them), sank 2 x YMS, an LCI and damaged 2 x AP causing over 350 Allied casualties. They then bumped into one of my CV TF's west of Tinian and the escorts managed to sink 5 of the b*ggers.

Guam:

This looks promising. A lot of recon and ground attacks from my CV's have identified a lot of enemy units on Guam but many of them are Rgt's. The main unit appears to be the Guards Mixed Bde. The troops will go ashore tomorrow morning under the heavy guns of Nevada and California.

Faber routed a TF around 4 x PB and CM Tsugaru to near to the SW of Guam. They were attacked and all reported sunk on the 25th.

BB Indiana is still afloat (17/68(65)/0) and en route to Marcus Island. Don't let me down boys.

---------------------------

SRA:

Phase 1 troops are all aboard at both Ambon and Oosthaven. Shipping will depart tomorrow. Further details soon.

----------------------------

Submarine Warfare:

0 x dud/missed attacks.

SS Tautog was sunk by ASW vessels south of Tokyo on the 25th.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Well the 26th was a frustrating day!

Mariana's

Invasion went off fine with no Jap interference. The remaining gaggle of planes the Jap's have in the Mariana's pose no threat to my ships now.

Things look promising on land at Guam as well:

Ground combat at Guam (106,95)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 20136 troops, 166 guns, 62 vehicles, Assault Value = 946

Defending force 53702 troops, 1309 guns, 1418 vehicles, Assault Value = 2282

Japanese ground losses:
26 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
19 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 2 (2 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Assaulting units:
Guards Mixed Brigade
10th Ind.Mixed Regiment
2nd Mobile Infantry Regiment
64th Infantry Group
17th Ind.Mixed Regiment
38th JNAF AF Unit
8th Base Force
7th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
4th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
36th JNAF AF Unit
55th Construction Battalion
2nd JAAF AF Bn
4th Fleet
18th JAAF AF Bn
157th JAAF AF Bn

Defending units:
2nd USMC Amphb Tank Battalion
22nd Marine Regiment
77th Infantry Div /4
43rd Infantry Division
111th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
5th USMC Tank Battalion
671th Tank Destroyer Battalion
93rd Infantry Div /5
38th Infantry Division
31st Infantry Div /4
I Corps Artillery
11th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
10th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
XIV Corps Artillery

I'll wait another day or 1 before attacking as I want the rest of the men to come ashore and for disruption and fatigue to be a little lower.

I'm also waiting another day or 2 at Tinian before attacking again.

NOW THE FRUSTRATING PART!

If anyone moans about Allied use of PT's and them being overpowered I only hope they apply the same views to Jap MTB's. They're just silly strong. They managed to steam into my supply convoys off Tinian again. Right past 2 x SC TF's and my silly floatplanes just won't attack them despite being set on low naval attack.

They then proceeded to sink 16!!!!! Allied AK's, AM's, SC's off Tinian and caused the whole convoy to route back to PH. F'ing brilliant! I'm not amused to say the least. In return the sh*tty Allied escorts sank 1 of the &*%^^&%$^$%

Here's an example of the havoc:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Tinian at 108,94, Range 7,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
MTB G-539
MTB G-540
MTB G-542
MTB G-549
MTB G-550
MTB G-552
MTB G-842
MTB G-843
MGB G-231, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
AM Velocity
AM Gladiator, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
SC-701, Shell hits 1
SC-741
SC-1061
SC-1067, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
SC PC-790, Shell hits 1
SC PC-1077
SC PC-1078
SC PC-1083
xAK Prince L. Campbell, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
xAK R. C. Brennan, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
xAK R. P. Warner, Shell hits 1
xAK Ralph Barnes
xAK Ralph T. O'Neil, Shell hits 1
xAK Richard Moczkowski, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Robert C. Grier
xAK Robert H. Harrison, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Robert J. Walker
xAK Robert L. Hague
xAK Robert L. Stevenson
xAK Robert M. Lafollette
xAK Robert Morris
xAK Robert S. Bean
xAK Rufus King
xAK Russell A. Alger, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
xAK Russell Chittenden
xAK S. Hall Young
xAK Samuel Adams
xAK Samuel F. Miller
xAK Samuel Gompers
xAK Samuel K. Barlow
xAK Samuel W. Williston
xAK Seaman A. Knapp
xAK Sheldon Jackson
xAK Sherman O. Houghton
xAK Sidney Edgerton
xAK Sidney H. Short
xAK Silvestre Escalante
xAK Smith Thompson
xAK Stanford Newel
xAK Stanley Matthews
xAK Starr King
xAK Stephen Crane, Shell hits 1
xAK Stephen H. Long
xAK Stephen J. Field
xAK Stephen M. White
xAK Stephen T. Mather
xAK Stephen V. Benet
xAK Stephen W. Kearny
xAK Tecumseh
xAK William A. Coulter, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
xAK Wallace Farrington, Shell hits 3, heavy fires
xAK Thomas M. Cooley, and is sunk
xAK Thomas Crawford, Shell hits 1

Ridiculous. Of course it won't cost me the war but the damage and threat they're causing, plus the fact they seem to be immune to my SC TF's and air assets, is far outweighing their historical threat.

----------------------

SRA:

Invasion fleets have now left both Oosthaven (for Malaya) and Ambon.

I'll focus on the Ambon forces in this post. This series of invasions has 5 phases (invasions) which I've highlighted on the screenshot below.

The first of these is at Ternate which should go in tomorrow. I actually expect invasions 1-4 to be easy. Recon indicates a small Jap unit on Ternate, nothing on Morotai or Talaud and potentially a Bde worth of troops at Manado.

Allied Air, from Ambon, dominates both Kendari and Manado (the only major airbases in the area south of Mindanao.)

The aim is to quickly take Ternate and Morotai. Allied air will base off Ternate (level 2 AF at present) to then support the immediate invasion of Manado before quickly taking Talaud. I'll have to wait a bit here to build up the AF at Talaud (presently 0) to support fighters for the invasion of Mindanao.

I'm still recon-ing Mindanao but that will be tougher with at least 2-4 Jap divisions worth dotted around the Island. The present plan is to land the main force at Davao with a smaller force taking Dadjangas as my secondary supply base on the south of Mindanao if the Davao invasion proves complicated.

I do have naval assets in the region (which I'll list below) but LBA will be important for these invasions.

------------------------

OOB:

Here's the OOB for these invasions.

Ternate
-------------

53rd (Sep) Infantry Rgt
102nd Combat Eng. Rgt

Morotai
-------------

2/9 Cavalry Cdo Bn

Manado
-------------

41st Infantry Division
102nd (Sep) Infantry Rgt
2/4 Armoured Rgt

Talaud
-------------
2/7 Cavalry Cdo Bn

Dadjangas
---------------

1st Fiji Commando Bn
2nd Fiji Commando Bn

Davao
---------------

24th Infantry Division
Americal Infantry Division
3rd Australian Division
32nd Infantry Division
8th USMC Rgt
1st Aus. Bde
25th Aus. Bde
30th Aus. Bde
Fiji Bde
5 x ARM Rgt/Bn

Back up for Mindanao invasion (probably also used at Davao):

4th Australian Division
8th Australian Division
4th Armoured Bde

Here's the naval assets in region:

2 x CVE TF (13 x CVE)
2 x SC TF (2 x BB, 4 x CA, 7 x CL, 36 x DD)

-----------------------

Submarine Warfare:

No sub contacts.

[JocMeister]

I have exactly the same problems with the MTBs. They are almost impossible to kill. I´ve tried everything. Fighters on Strafe, DDs, PTs, Attack bombers, medium bombers, Divebombers...everything. Only thing that seem to work is Fighters on Strafing. Once every 3-10 days they take off and sink one or two.

PS. Beware the terrain at Davao and Dadjangas. But it sure does look like you brought "enough" for Davao! [:D]

[Kereguelen]

ORIGINAL: Speedy


NOW THE FRUSTRATING PART!

If anyone moans about Allied use of PT's and them being overpowered I only hope they apply the same views to Jap MTB's. They're just silly strong. They managed to steam into my supply convoys off Tinian again. Right past 2 x SC TF's and my silly floatplanes just won't attack them despite being set on low naval attack.

They then proceeded to sink 16!!!!! Allied AK's, AM's, SC's off Tinian and caused the whole convoy to route back to PH. F'ing brilliant! I'm not amused to say the least. In return the sh*tty Allied escorts sank 1 of the &*%^^&%$^$%


Ridiculous. Of course it won't cost me the war but the damage and threat they're causing, plus the fact they seem to be immune to my SC TF's and air assets, is far outweighing their historical threat.

Simply put 2-3 DD's with decent XP into each of your transport/amphibious TF's and they should take care of the little buggers. Works like a charm for me!

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Thanks guys. Good to know someone else experiences the same hatred for the things as I do JocMeister [;)]

Thanks Kereguelen. I'll be trying that from this invasion forth!

---------------------

Mariana's:

All quiet here today with troops continuing to unload at Guam. The MTB buggers bumped into some CVE TF's today but the escorts saw them off sinking 2 of them.

DA's will go in at both Tinian and Guam tomorrow.

Good news - BB Indiana has almost limped to Marcus Island! Good effort boys. Her damage is currently (19/66(66)/0)

---------------------------

SRA:

Troops landed at Ternate today virtually unopposed (it seems only a small Jap AF unit is here. Good). The Japs launched a small air raid comprising of 19 x Sallies but my CVE CAP did the job and shot down 12 of them.

The troops will attack tomorrow.

My CVE's detected a Jap Freighter convoy north of Manado and the TBM's exacted a good toll for the day - a reported 15 enemy freighters sunk. Nice work boys.

---------------------------

Malaya:

The cat is out of the bag now as a Jap sub spotted my fleets approaching the SE coast of Bangka Island.

I'm not overly concerned by this as a I have CV's present and LBA CAP from Sumatra.

The screenshot below shows the current position of the fleets.

This operation is quite simple: I aim to cut Malaya in 2 and to trap Jap units in the south for ultimate destruction.

As such they'll be landing in 2 phases. Phase 1 at Malacca followed up by landings at Mersing.

Here's the OOB:

Malacca
------------

5th Indian Division
18th British Division
26th Indian Bde
29th British Bde
111th Chindit Bde
4 x ARM Rgt's

Mersing
------------

2nd British Division
3rd (East African) Division
81st (West African) Division
14th British Bde
16th British Bde
22nd (East African) Bde
23rd Chindit Bde
28th (East African) Bde
1 x ARM Rgt
1 x Eng Rgt

-------------------

Here's the Naval assets:

CV Illustrious, Indomitable, Victorious, CVL Hermes
2 x SC TF (4 x BB, 1 x BC, 4 x CA, 4 x CL, 2 x CLAA)

There's also 210 x Corsair, Mustang, Thunderbolt and Lightning providing LRCAP.

Naturally, the oodles of LBA on Sumatra are ranging around to try and keep Jap AF's closed. On Malaya itself the major airbases are Singapore, Johore Bharu and Kota Bharu. Singapore and Johore are easy to close.

-------------

Submarine Warfare:

SS Pipefish sank AK Fukuura Maru with 2 torpedoes off Sangi.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Mariana's:

Attacks went in on both Tinian and Guam. Further progress was made on Tinian as we continue to push inland against stubborn Jap resistance:

Ground combat at Tinian (108,94)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 64415 troops, 1388 guns, 1376 vehicles, Assault Value = 2190

Defending force 35662 troops, 353 guns, 276 vehicles, Assault Value = 850

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 5

Allied adjusted assault: 2182

Japanese adjusted defense: 2559

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

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

Japanese ground losses:
2162 casualties reported
Squads: 20 destroyed, 193 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 70 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 23 disabled
Guns lost 55 (4 destroyed, 51 disabled)
Vehicles lost 92 (16 destroyed, 76 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
2418 casualties reported
Squads: 15 destroyed, 259 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 60 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 30 disabled
Guns lost 63 (3 destroyed, 60 disabled)
Vehicles lost 80 (8 destroyed, 72 disabled)

The troops are getting worn down but we should take the main areas of the Island within the next 7-10 days I predict.

At Guam it's a different matter as my oversight of not including any Combat Engineer Rgt's is felt:

Ground combat at Guam (106,95)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 61264 troops, 1331 guns, 1507 vehicles, Assault Value = 2354

Defending force 32700 troops, 261 guns, 231 vehicles, Assault Value = 937

Allied adjusted assault: 753

Japanese adjusted defense: 1425

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 8)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
2475 casualties reported
Squads: 59 destroyed, 120 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 18 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 18 disabled
Guns lost 57 (12 destroyed, 45 disabled)
Vehicles lost 18 (3 destroyed, 15 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
3156 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 351 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 25 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 17 disabled
Guns lost 89 (2 destroyed, 87 disabled)
Vehicles lost 47 (2 destroyed, 45 disabled)

I still expect to take the Island but it will be a little bloodier I feel.

The men will rest for a day or 2 before attacking again.

-----------------------

SRA:

Ternate fell easily:

Ground combat at Ternate (78,102)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 4009 troops, 39 guns, 71 vehicles, Assault Value = 172

Defending force 301 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 4

Allied adjusted assault: 76

Japanese adjusted defense: 4

Allied assault odds: 19 to 1 (fort level 4)

Allied forces CAPTURE Ternate !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), morale(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
160 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
13 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

Assaulting units:
102nd Combat Engineer Regiment
53rd (Sep) Infantry Regiment
191st USAAF Base Force

Defending units:
6th JNAF Coy

Fighters will land on the runways tomorrow and once up and running my fleet will head back to escort the Morotai invasion.

---------------------

Malaya:

My fleets have entered the Malacca Strait now and men should go ashore at Malacca tomorrow. No enemy interference thus far. I do have an additional 75 front line fighters on LRCAP from Sumatra to bolster the 90ish Corsair/Hellcat on my Brit CV's.

Recon indicates few enemy troops at Malacca. If I can get ashore and get a foothold I should be able to hold here until my fleets return and land the main and bigger force at Mersing. I'll then (hopefully) take Singers and move up the rest of Malaya. I'd love Faber to move out of Singers to contest the landings but I doubt he will. Recon indicates most Jap troops on the Peninsula are in Singers, Johore Bahru and Kota Bahru.

-------------------------

Submarine Warfare:

SS Cod was sunk by an enemy ASW TF off Balikpapan.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Mariana's:

No action for the day here. Will be attacking at both Tinian and Guam again tomorrow.

----------------------

SRA:

Fighters on the ground at Ternate. Waiting another day for them to be operational then my combat ships will head back to escort TF to Morotai.

----------------------

Malaya:

The Allies re-invade Malaya. Winston is happy! Mentioned the word Knighthood to me [:)]

About 1/3 of the Malacca force is ashore with 10-25% disabled/disruption (preparation range from 65-80%). The base should easily fall tomorrow as the only Japs there are 1st Raiding Rgt. I'm intrigued to see if Faber comes to meet me at Malacca or if he stays put in Singers/Johore and Kota Bharu.

The Japanese did react in the air though with many raids trying to attack both my combat and invasion ships. All attacks were beaten off (A6M/D3A/P1Y/Betty) and the enemy lost over 100 planes reported. 2 x Betty got through the cap but didn't hit BB Richelieu. In return I lost 1 x Hellcat which crash landed on deck!

If Faber massed a lot of planes he could get through as CAP is only about 100ish tops. He has admitted in a mail to me that the Japanese economy is nose diving now and he's hardly able to build anything so expects the war to be over by Christmas! Shame.

My CV based TBM's attacked an enemy convoy at Kota Bharu sinking a couple of AP's.

The below screenshot shows the current situation around Malaya. 2 interesting points to note:

1.) The TF at Kuching is reported as having 6 x DD. I wonder if it's a combat TF coming to interfere.

2.) Faber has decided to move his 100K troops stack SW out of Palembang! This could be interesting. I have purposefully left behind 600 AV to both the north and SW of Palembang. I wonder if he's marching with everything and if they'll shock attack across the river with success. He clearly sill has supply there as he's repairing the Refineries! Interesting.

----------------------------

Submarine Warfare:

No contacts.

[Speedysteve]

Hi loyal readers,

No updates as on holiday for a week from tomorrow.

[JocMeister]

Enjoy the holiday! [&o]

[Speedysteve]

Thanks[:)]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Hi loyal readers,

No updates as on holiday for a week from tomorrow.

What the Hey! I thought the purpose of holidays was to play WITP-AE full time!
What else is there?

[JocMeister]

Sooo, why are you online? Shouldn´t you be off to your vacation now? [;)]

[Speedysteve]

Just the final check in before we set off[;)]

[Walloc]

Have a good vacation Speedy!

Rasmus

[Speedysteve]

Thanks Rasmus! Walking holiday with the wife and family in the Lake District!

[BBfanboy]

Was lucky enough to do that once. Lake district is beautiful - never knew England had mountains until that trip. Walked all the way around one of the lakes [Buttermere?]. Fed the waterfowl in the lake next to Keswick. Hope to see it again some day!
May the weather gods be kind to you!