Grudge Match

[John B.]

I am so proud of these guys!!!

[John B.]

The IJA bites the bullet and heads into Singapore guns blazing. But, not as many of them as there was awhile ago.

[Capt. Harlock]

The IJA bites the bullet and heads into Singapore guns blazing. But, not as many of them as there was awhile ago.

So far, so good! What's the supply situation there?

[John B.]

C.H. Singapore has 88,805 supply points. I've flown out three battalions, one brigade and three base forces. I'm concentrating on base forces right now since they don't help fight, they eat supplies, and they count as VPs when the white flag goes up. He is now in the city so the factories will stop producing so I need to remember to turn the repair function off.

[John B.]

It's Jan. 15th 1942 and nothing major to report. The KB has disappeared from my view in the vicinity of Truk. As noted before, I hope he's not steaming south! My 4 carriers are south of Pago Pago and heading towards Sydney. I've sent them the long way and it has been about three weeks since Scott last saw them. I'm counting on the fact that he is subject to normal fears of the unknown to be pulling in his horns just a little.

He is leaving Rabaul alone for now as he builds up airbases near there. In Darwin my land convoy of infantry/armor units are starting to complete their long marches from Melborne and Sidney and I've stocked it with supplies. As for the DEI, he took Balikpapen and lost a copule of ships to mines (mine sweepers alas). He is bombing and shelling clark to use up my supplies. NOt much I can do about it. I wish I could set my artillery and flak to not fire back but he's in the hex so I'm doomed to shoot up shells for little effect.

Singapore is fine. I've got a night evacuation set to get troops out of Sebang. build ups in Burma. In China he has cut off Yenan. I'm trying to get HQ etc.. out so the battered ground troops need to hold out just a little while longer. Near Changsha I've got a large force that has been beating up three IJA units and may get the retreat this turn.

My ploy with the Hermes worked (see below). It missed it's morning torpedo attack on a CA taskforce [:@]. But, in the afternoon it put two 500 lb bombs into a CL. [:D] Now it's steaming back to Colombo but, again, never giving Scott any rest.

Not much in the sub war hit a couple of AKLs two days ago and nothing since then. I have put some hits on his subs.

[John B.]

Ah, the sweet sound of "massive explosion"

[John B.]

He sank my minelayer outside of luganville but it looks like it got sweet revenge when the sub ran into the brand new minefiled. [8D]

[Capt. Harlock]

It's Jan. 15th 1942 and nothing major to report.

Let me see if I have this straight -- there has been house-to-house fighting in Singapore for over two weeks now?[X(]

Nice work with the Hermes, BTW.

[John B.]

CH, In Singapore he came across the straits with two armored regiments about 10 days ago or so. They got knocked about by the shock attack and then the next day his main force came across and got knocked about again by the second shock attack. Since then, he's been bombing me and shelling me but there has been no more combat. He's too strong for me to counter attack and I don't want to use up the supply. He is doing the same thing at Clark AFB.

[John B.]

Drape the heavens in black, Singapore fell, and way too early. It's only January 26, 1942 and the defenses seem to have collapsed. Scott had a lot of stuff there but I really thought it would hang out for quite a bit longer. This bodes ill for Burma. [:(] And, at the other end of the map he has just landed at Rabaul. I thought that I would have enough forces there to hold for awhile, but he has put ashore an infantry division and two regiments. He has been bombing me with the KB nearly every turn and just sent in a BB task force for a shore bombardment the turn of the invasion. I'm flying in some ground support this turn and hope to catch him without too much cap (I have a weak fighter force doing a sweep that may give the bomber boys a better chance of making it in). He has also been cleaning up Dutch islands north of Darwin and launched a CVL raid on Darwin sinking several AKs.

On the sliver of good news front, Wake continues to hold and I just dropped a mine field there to see if I can catch the IJN bombardment fleet napping. The fact that PBYs from midway can fly in supplies has been a real boon. Scott took Osthaven but thus far all it has been is a target range for teh Dutch bomber force which appears to be killing 10 squads a day. I even had a massed 32 plane dutch bomber raid the day before.

In Burma, I launched a counter offensive that retook Moulmein but that won't get far with the Singapore troops now freed up. Things are ok right now in China. He has let me get lots of my troops out of Yenan and I have a counter offensive taking place near Changhsha that has roughed up the 38th division and a regiment. I'm also in the rough terrain hexes near Sian and hope to hold those for awhile. But, right now we're in the Japan is strong everywhere phase of the game.

Last and least is the subs. Not much at all to report since the last time. In the last two weeks I've sunk a CM and an APD with only a couple of other shots (which have missed or been duds). I have been swarming the Rabaul area with subs all for naught, not even a sighting. In the meantime, one of his RO's got off two open ocean shots at CAs I had steaming towards Wake sinking one and damaging the other. [:@] The Sub boys need to step it up!

[John B.]

30 dutch bombers at once and killing squads! A small ray of sunshine on a dark turn.

[John B.]

Three days later and the shock of Singapore has not yet worn off. He has launched his assault an Rabaul and I held off the first attack but I think it's going down on the next one unless he holds off for a few days. He has a division and two regiments there and all I really have is a NZ regiment. On the good news front the BB Mutsui hit a mine there and my aircraft saw that it was on fire. Today there was a report that it had sunk and, if so, that itself would be very good news! I flew a squadron of Banshees into Rabaul and they have given a good account of themselves getting several hits on IJN APs and an AMC. I'm sure at least two of those will go down as will the AKs who have taken a pounding from the Rabaul artillery. But, still, it looks grim since he put a division ashore. Perhaps he is low on supply? One can only hope!

The dutch continue to bomb osthaven and fortify soerebaja and Palembang. I have two tanker task forces there sucking out all the fuel and iol that I can. No sense in leaving it for Japan. I am trying to catch up with the troops from moulmien and have been interdicting them so that I can get into their hex and bash them again before the Singapore army shows up. Things have calmed down in China and my "Ever Victorious Army" is about to destroy a Japanese division. Of course, one of these days he'll break through to Sian but the longer I can hold him off, the better. My subs stink and he took out an AP (empty) near San Fran. Sigh.

[John B.]

Here are the banshees for the morning strike. They returned that afternoon and the next day. with more hits each time!

[John B.]

The current situation around Rabaul. Note the KB is southwest of Gasmata. He's been at sea for awhile and launched at least three raids on Rabaul without rearming. He may have refueled but he can't have full bomb lockers. I'm not sure what he's doing. My best guess is a raid on Moresby.

[John B.]

Sorry for the delay, I hate it when work gets in the way. In any event, it's now early February 1942. In the Western Pacific not much of note happened except that, alas, Wake finally feel. Scott put in a heavy bombardment mission and the gallant defenders finally gave up the ghost. No more Japanese pushes south of Rabaul thus far the bigger news is that he has invaded Wyndam near Darwin. I'm not sure what he has put ashore there. I have an armored battalion and the base force. I had banshees out of Darwin put a 1,000 pound bomb into a CA (which was reported to have deck penetration and on fire). I have several armor brigades in the neighborhood that have spent the past two months marching overland so there are aussie forces in the area. I have also sent in two Dutch CLs and 4 DDs for an attack this evening. I'm hoping to catch the IJN having expended its ammo on bombardment, or, even better, the transports.

Just to make it more interesting, the USN KB is northbound from Perth. If the KB is still at Truk then I'll have local superiority. But, the KB has not been heard from in more than 7 turns. Has it headed to the DEI? I don't know and I'm a bit leery of sending in the US without knowing where he is.

On Sumatra fortress Palembang feel after just one attack which was disappointing. It also appears that there was no damage to the oil facilities which I'm not quite sure I understand.

I'm also not sure that I'm doing the fast evacuations correctly. I send in the ships to pick up troops from Sebang and then they seem to hang around (and get sunk). Am I supposed to direct them back to their home port or do they do it automatically?

In China, he is making his major push for Sian. My troops have hung on by their fingernails. A few more turns and they might just hold out but it's really touch and go right now. I did have a nice counterattack at Ichang where I pushed back a Mixed Regiment but otherwise not much news there or in Burma (but I'm sure that at least some of the singapore force is headed that way).

The subs are awful. No hits at all on freighters in more than a week (not duds, just very few contacts and then clean misses when they do shoot). I did put a fish into the Taiyo. Good, but, alas no fires and no dead aircraft.

[John B.]

One spot of good news!

[John B.]

I'm not sure how much force he has landed. I know one unit is engineers and reports speak of only a few thousand troops. I would like to push him back and not let him get an airfield on the mainland. You can see the Dutch surface TF in Darwin getting set for death or glory and the whole nest of IJN ships in Timor and its environs.

[Capt. Harlock]

It also appears that there was no damage to the oil facilities which I'm not quite sure I understand.

From my admittedly imperfect knowledge, damage to the oil facilities depends to a certain degree on chance, but also on whether or not there were engineers present. (Strong to build, and strong to destroy.)

[John B.]

Capt Harlock, I think you're right about the engineers. There was some damage but I guess my engineer total was not that high.

But, on the good news front, there was a measure of dutch revenge since the last report. Coming out of Batavia were the dutch bomber force and B-17s out of soerebaja for a city strike on Palembang. the months of bombing practice paid off with about 23 oil hits leaving Palembang with 56 total. I won't be able to do that again since I'm sure cap will be vicious but a nice little plink to reduce overall oil production for the Japanese.

As an overall round up. Nothing from the Western pacific. In the Bismark sea area a reinforcement convoy arrived in Port Morseby bringing an Australian Brigade with it and more supply. But, I really need additional air support squads. In the DEI he is now in the mopping up stage on Sumatra and I was not able to evacuate as many brits as I had hoped mainly because I could not seem to get the emergency transport to work as I would have hoped. In Burma I'm pulling back across the river from Moulmein and the good British fighters are in Rangoon. I've also been pumping supply into there so we'll see how that goes.

seems like a bullet was dodged in China for now. One more push and I think Scott would have opened up the road to Sian and generated a massive chinese retreat. But, I must have messed with his troops more than I thought as I was able to put in reinforcements and the men already there have been able to catch their breath. Just pinpricks around the rest of China.

The big news is in Australia! First, the battle of Wyndam continues. He is stuck there as I'm seeing the benefit of the big cross country migration that started on Dec. 7 when I sent several brigades on a long trek to Darwin. I have an armored battalion in Wyndam and a brigade is on the way. The Dutch (see below) caught a task force of his and sank two AVDs and an AP (like to reduce his lift capacity) and then bombarded him the next turn. Meanwhile, air out of Darwin has been attacking his land forces there so he may not be able to wrest it from me before reinforcements show up.

The even bigger news is the ambush I have planned. In the second image below you will see the American carrier task force (all four CVs) to the west of Wyndam. I don't think he's spotted me yet. So, I'm moving up closer and, if he does not spot me next turn I will sprint towards Dili where the mini-KB has been holed up. One potential fly in this ointment? The KB has disappeared from our radar and has not been seen in about 14 days, so, it could be there as well and the mini KB could be bait to lure me in. Stay tuned and fined out! And, let's hope his air recon does not extend to my new patrol zone where my carriers are!

[John B.]

Anything destroyed by the Dutch is a bonus in my book!