Excel Empire - F Krieg vs Great Went - DBB-C 28

[FeurerKrieg]

May 13th, 1942

India/Burma
We launch another attack at Rangoon today. We lose about 6 Ki-21's to flak over the base. The attack again only gets 1:2 results, although casualties are bit better with 2100 versus 1350. Unfortunately forts are not dropped.

Nearby, the 124th Regiment attacks and captures Taung Gyi. This unit will double back to Mandalay while a Paratroop Yokosuka unit moves into to prevent a counterattack at Taung Gyi.

The Hudson's follow our retreating troops near Cox's Bazar, but since it is one hex closer to Akyab, our CAP is more effective. 2x Buffalos and 3x Hudsons attack, but only 1 Hudson makes it home. We take no loses, although if John is observant he'll notice that his Hudsons were targeting the 18th Division so he may know there is at least one full division in that area.

[center]
Air skirmish near Cox's Bazar[/center]

DEI
The dot base of Timoeka is occupied as our troops are landing at the base. It is on the south coast of Dutch New Guinea.

Near Palembang, the 16th Naval Guard unit finally gets a 1:1 result against some Dutch remnants. Hopefully that means they will be destroyed soon.

Pacific
We get an aerial sub hit near Port Moresby today.

China
The Chinese west of Liuchow have returned to Liuchow. This means that our units can move to the northeast and then southeast and enter Liuchow without having to shock attack. It also means we will own the northwest hex side and can attack Tuyun if we can spare the troops. If not, at least no enemy supplies will come in through that road from Tuyun.

The bad news is that the Chinese have extra units to try and counterattack us at Liuchow. They do this today and thankfully we hold steady. They get a 1:2 result and lose about 2100 troops to our 1000 troops and 47 tanks. Our 51st Recon Regiment is wiped out and will have to be rebuilt in Tokyo. Thankfully they are showing a supply negative on the attack so I think we will be able to hold here indefinitely now.

Other
Not sure where it was destroyed, but the 4th Tank re-arrives at Tokyo today. We have plenty of vehicle points so it should take more than a couple weeks to get filled out. We'll probably ship it to Burma.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 14th, 1942

India/Burma
Bombay goes up to airfield size 7 and two more sub hits near Colombo, otherwise it is quiet.

Pacific
Luganville goes to airfield size 4, so we will stop airbase expansion there and build some forts.

We sent three destroyers in to investigate the area off shore from Pago Pago and we find a pair of PT boats. They get away for now.

KB brings down a couple Cats on naval search, but otherwise pretty quiet at 8th Division continues to load.

China
The Chinese appear to be leaving Shaoyang. Since there was a movement indicator from Changsha west, we bombed Changsha to see if we could break up any coordinated movement plans. This could also be a feint designed to make me move everything to Siangtan, and then the Chinese could move northwest from Hengyang and take back Shaoyang. Therefore we won't move much just yet. If a big force comes over from Changsha, we have units ready to move into Changsha and take advantage of that.

No attack from Liuchow today. The 104th Division should arrive there tomorrow so we should be safe there now. We don't own the base, but I don't think we can be dislodged given the enemy's supply situation.

Other
I forgot I had some of these destroyers set to upgrade. Hopefully they are done before any big bombing raids on Colombo.
DD Kagero beginning refit in shipyard at Colombo
DD Maikaze beginning refit in shipyard at Colombo
DD Nowaki beginning refit in shipyard at Colombo
DD Arare beginning refit in shipyard at Colombo
DD Kasumi beginning refit in shipyard at Colombo

Device Aichi Ha-60 advances R&D

[FeurerKrieg]

May 15th, 1942

India/Burma
Our 41st Infantry Regiment does a deliberate attack at Mandalay today and gets 1:2 odds against fort level 1. While they could probably wear the base down, they will wait a couple days for the other regiment that was at Tuang Gyi to return to Mandalay and they will attack together at that point. No sense wrecking a regiment just to save a couple days.

DEI
Off the coast of Sumatra, the small island of Batoe-eilanden is occupied.

Philippines
We start the unloading at Cebu today. We have several SNLF and Naval Guard units unloading here. I'm expecting this to be a slightly tough base to take. We have Sallys on hand to help out, but the landing is still rough. Hopefully a counterattack doesn't take us out. We lose 800 troops during the landing (of about 6,000), but only 1 is actually a destroyed squad. Disruption is high of course. I'm not looking forward to Pago Pago after seeing these numbers.

Pacific
Our destroyers try to get the PTs at Pago again but are unable to stay with them long enough.

China
Nice air attacks on Siangtan gets over 500 casualties today.

Our infantry attacks at Kiuchuan (far north China) and easily take the base. The 35th/C will stay on hand, while the armor runs north to see how far they can get without help. The 110th Division and 12th Indpt Regiment will head back south where the real war rages.

[center]
Desert fighting[/center]

Other
Hopefully these are true -
SS Pickerel is reported to have been sunk near Pagan on Jan 09, 1942
SS Spearfish is reported to have been sunk near Bataan on Apr 07, 1942
xAKL Don Jose is reported to have been sunk near Manila on Dec 08, 1941

[FeurerKrieg]

May 16th, 1942

India/Burma
Three air hits on enemy subs today around Ceylon.

Our main force arrives southeast of Chittagong and launches a deliberate attack. We get 1:1 odds with favorable casualties. It appears the enemy armor took it on the chin as there are 73 vehicles reported lost. I would assume this was the 254th Armoured Brigade since it's displayed AV dropped to zero during the exchange. Also, the 1st Somerset LI Battalion was destroyed. Casualty details below.

The enemy is showing a move area from Chittagong, so reinforcements are on the way. However, we will risk a follow up attack tomorrow. We do have 2 more divisions heading over from Ceylong so at worst we will need to take it slow and wait a week or two. I'd rather do that than wreck these divisions. Once we get the retreat, there isn't much in the backfield to stop us from just constantly chasing the shattered troops all the way to Calcutta.

[center]
First round of the real fighting near Chittagong[/center]

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 41273 troops, 339 guns, 283 vehicles, Assault Value = 1402

Defending force 16469 troops, 208 guns, 170 vehicles, Assault Value = 596

Japanese adjusted assault: 989

Allied adjusted defense: 571

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
690 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 80 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Vehicles lost 49 (6 destroyed, 43 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
1725 casualties reported
Squads: 19 destroyed, 70 disabled
Non Combat: 66 destroyed, 14 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 24 (10 destroyed, 14 disabled)
Vehicles lost 73 (26 destroyed, 47 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

DEI
Our NG unit outside of Palembang gets 4:1 against the Dutch remnants, so we will start with constant attacks now.

Philippines
No counterattack at Cebu so we will at least be able to unload and rest. Two more units are on the way from Tokyo and we will wait until they arrive before launching any attacks.

Pacific
Two air hits on enemy subs near Port Moresby.

As our forces close in on Pago Pago the enemy submarines are thick. ASW Vals on KB keep most of them lit up. SS Plunger shoots and misses DD Hayashio, but a bit farther east, SS S-45 manages to hit DMS W-14 sinking the ship. That leaves only one minesweeper embedded with our invasion force. We do at least get a depth charge hit reported on S-45.

I think we'll hit the beaches of Pago Pago tomorrow. I expect it to be the worst resistance yet faced. We have two battleships in the amphib group so hopefully that is enough.

China
Everything has left Shaoyang except an HQ unit so we will attack there tomorrow and then move one unit over to Siangtang.

One unit does cross the river into Siangtang and gets nearly annihilated. Of 3900 troops attacking, 2700 are reported as casualties. Additionally, they are showing disruption, fatigue and supply modifiers. Hopefully things are getting dire in this area since the only supply is coming from Hengyang and Changsha, and they have a lot of troops here to try and keep fed.

[FeurerKrieg]

Here's a cool propaganda poster. If only Lucas had done his thing in the 30's.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 17th, 1942

India/Burma
We score one aerial sub hit today near Ceylon.

Buffalos sweep over the fighting near Chittagong. We have some Zeros and Oscars there and take down 5 Buffalos for the loss of 2 Oscars.

The fighting on the ground doesn't go as well as we only score a 1:2 (665:909) result. The IV Indian Corp arrived which may have helped the defenders somewhat. We have an element of the 56th Division on the way so we'll wait for that to attack again.

We also attack at Rangoon, losing some more Sally's to air attack. We get a 1:2 (590:671) result against fort level 2. Unfortunately forts don't drop, but at least casualties are slightly in our favor. We will again rest a bit before the next attack.

DEI
Just south of Babo, on the south coast of Dutch New Guinea, we occupy the base of Kaimana.

Six B-17D's hit Keopang but do no damage.

Pacific
Most of the action is at Pago Pago today as we start a rough landing process against a lot of Allied shore guns.

First three of our destroyers attempt to chase off two PT boats. The PTs get away and eventually approach our landing TF, but they don't get within 12,000 yards before turning around. We also chase off SS Plunger, Triton and Halibut.

During the nighttime unloading phase, things don't go too badly given there are 315 coastal gun shots fired. xAP Kamakura takes 7 shell hits from 155mm, 6in and 5inch guns, later sinking. xAP Hakone takes one hit. CL Yubari is hit once as well, but takes just minor damage. BB's Yamashiro and Mutsu shell the beaches during the landing and destroy 1 gun and disable a dozen others along with 7 non-combat squads. We lose about 1,200 men on the unloading phase, of which 5 squads are destroyed, the rest are disablements.

The first day phase is a bit better with only 138 gun shots fired. xAP Kamakura takes another hit, and xAP Hakone takes 3 more. CL Yubari takes 5 hits, and is damaged enough that we will send her back to Suva. Yamashiro takes a hit as well, but it does no damage thanks to the battleship's armor. 71 more men are disabled on the way in.

The last phase has 83 defensive shots fired. xAP Hakone takes four more hits and xAP Haruna takes one. Both ships should get a chance to continue unloading tomorrow. Damage isn't terrible on them, but they do have a fair amount of fires. 5 more squads are disabled for us, and 1 is knocked out for the defenders.

At the end of the day, the enemy bombards us and apparently there are a lot of guns here. We are facing the 57th Coastal Artillery, as well as the 7th and 8th Marine Defense Battalions, plus a USN Base Force as well as the 1st Marine Raider Battalion. Not a lot of troops, but plenty of firepower. The bombardment shows they have 2355 troops versus our 4500 that have unloaded so far. I suspect we'll need two more days to fully unload, but at least I don't think we are at risk of a counter attack pushing us off the island. Clearly I should have used more transports for this one. We'll launch some air attacks tomorrow to see if we can soften them up a bit.

I made a comment about all those guns and John replied, "I hate to admit it but it was one of my staging areas for artillery units. In the voice of Gollum, Poor precious Pago, gullum, stupid japs ruins itsssss....." That gave me a chuckle.

[center]
Pago Pago situation[/center]

About midway between Pago and Suva, our Vals get a sub hit.

China
Air attacks are directed at Kweilin to slow down any enemy units moving to help Liuchow.

After what looks like the retreat of Chinese forces from Shoayang to Hengyang, we attack at Shaoyang and find a lone HQ units, the 7th War Area. We inflict about 80% casualties on the unit and it of course retreats.

We also attack at Siangtan and get a 25:1 result against the 79th Chinese Corps and two pars of he 4th Chinese Corp. These units all retreat to Changsha, losing 4500 men in the process.

The Chinese try an attack on us at Liuchow and we manage to hold with a 1:2 result. We lose about 3,000 troops to only 800 Chinese, but they are showing low supply already and sith 23,000 troops attacking I'm sure they used up a decent amount more on the attack.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 18th, 1942

India/Burma
A group of 7 enemy mine layers hits our sub laid minefield at Trivandrum and one ML hits a mine. I suspect it sunk.

Several Wellingtons and Blen IV's hit Colombo on night attacks but no damage is reported.

Pacific
Another rough night (and day) at Pago Pago. Our ships continue to unload. xAP Haruna Maru, xAP Hakone Maru and xAP Suwa Maru all take about a 10-15 hits each hits form the 155mm, 6inch and 5 inch guns. Although they all sink, they do manage to get most of the 8th Division unloaded. One more day should see the last of the division unloaded although we still might have some supply that needs unloaded. xAP Rakuyo Maru also takes 8 hits and probably won't last much longer.

Along with the unloading operations at Pago Pago, a couple subs are chased away and DMS W-8 is hit by a couple shots while sweeping some mines. The DMS should be able to make it back to Suva.

In the air, we launch a decent size attack. First 37 Zeros sweep and fight it out with 32 P-39D Airacobras. The Zeros deal more damage than they receive. 25 Nells from Suva do light damage to the air base. Then we hit the enemy troops with 39 Kates, and 76 Vals but do no appreciable damage. The jungles are thick I guess. We take a few losses due to AA so we probably won't be trying that again with our carrier planes. The Nells may continue to attack for a bit if the 8th does well.

The enemy planes strike back, as 16 P-40E Warhawks attack our ships. Zeros on CAP bring down some. One enemy plane makes a run at DD Mochizuki but it misses.

The enemy troops bombard us, but no damage is taken.

[center]
Sweep at Pago Pago ahead of ineffectual bomber attacks[/center]

China
On the road from Chungking to Kieko, the 26th Recon Regiment crosses the river to scout the enemy strength ahead of the 22nd Division. The single unit there is the 3rd Chinese Cavalry Corps. The 22nd can probably handle this unit, so we will continue with the crossing. Transports have been flow into Sian and are in the process of dropping supplies on the 22nd Division to help keep it in supply.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 19th, 1942

India/Burma
A few more Blen IV's hit Colombo at night, and again there is no effect.

Time for another DA at Chittagong. We get 1 to 1 odds this time as the enemy brings in another unit. We take a lot of disabled casualties, but only 8 squads destroyed. The enemy loses 74 vehicles. We will rest again and wait for the 56th/C coming from Cox's Bazaar.

We also attack a Rangoon and get 2:1 against fort level 1 (dropped from 2). Causalities are about even so we may rest a day, but I think this base is getting closer to going down.

Philippines
More troops are unloaded at Cebu.

Pacific
While we continue to work on Pago Pago, we also have an SNLF Coy on barges grabbing the small bases in the area. Today Savusavu (east of Suva) is secured.

BB Yamato refuels and leaves Truk headed towards Suva. I figure we may need a good bombardment at some point to take Pago Pago.

At Pago Pago itself, several transports are shot up today. Some sink, the rest will likely sink tomorrow. xAP Kongo Maru, xAP Kamo Maru, xAP Teikyo Maru, and xAP Palau Maru are hit several times. Kamo and Teikyo have the best chance to survive.

Nells from Suva return and some Zeros come with from our carriers. A half dozen P-39D's are on CAP but we get through them. The Nells do okay with light hits, destroying a P-40E on the ground.

We also have BB's Haruna and Kongo and CA's Maya and Takao shell Pago Pago. We manage to get a daylight bombardment and here is the damage report -

Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 20 damaged
P-39D Airacobra: 1 destroyed on ground
P-40E Warhawk: 11 damaged

Allied ground losses:
164 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 7 destroyed, 19 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled

Airbase hits 15
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 28
Port hits 2

- the damage should help stop fort building.

From Port Moresby, recon had shown activity at Cairns so we rolled the dice and sent Nells to attack there. They had A6M2 escorts but the enemy put up no CAP. We get 26 runway hits and the following plane damage. I'm sure CAP will be there tomorrow so we won't attack there again for a while.

SBD-1 Dauntless: 11 damaged
SBD-1 Dauntless: 2 destroyed on ground
PBY-5 Catalina: 13 damaged
F4F-3A Wildcat: 6 damaged
F4F-3A Wildcat: 3 destroyed on ground

Actual total aircraft destroyed for the day was 12 for Japan and 12 for the Allies. 10 of those were planes destroyed on the ground for the Allies.

China
A nice attack as the 22nd Division crosses the river into the Chungking valley and routes the single Chinese unit there. Our units will moves ASAP to try and make it to Chengtu and capture that base before the Chinese can shift. There is a lot of supply generation there and even if we can't use due to damage, at least the Chinese don't have it either. We trade 300 casualties for 4,100 in the battle and get 170:1 results.

Another nice win at Chihkiang as we capture the empty base. We now have full strength brigade sitting behind a river, blocking two roads that go to the Changsha area.

[center]
A couple forward moves in China. [/center]

Other
Ki-45 KAIc Nick advances R&D

DD Benham is reported to have been sunk near Anatom on Apr 06, 1942

[FeurerKrieg]

May 20th, 1942

India/Burma
On Ceylon, Jaffna goes to size 2. Given the proximity of Jaffna to the mainland, this is all the larger this base will be made. Koggala and the interior base will be brought to size 4. Koggala because it is a bit farther away, and the interior base since it can't be bombarded by surface ships, and it can receive the best benefit of overlapping CAP from the other four bases.

A dozen Wellingtons attack Colombo at night but miss. During the day however, 34 Blen IV's attack Colombo and are met by a CAP of 70 Oscars. 22 Blens are shot down. The rest drop their bombs but don't hit anything. We lose one Oscar in the process.

[center]
Lots of Blenheims shot down over Colombo[/center]

We launch some air attacks at Mandalay in support of the ground attack there. With two regiments in place we launch an attack today and it is successful with 6:1 against level 1 forts. The enemy troops retreat east towards Lashio. One regiment will pursue them, while the other heads to Myitkina. We will move in some AV support ASAP. Once Rangoon falls, we'll probably drop some paratroopers into some crossroad positions in India to possibly cut off the force near Chittagong.

[center]
Mandalay is captured[/center]

Pacific
Milne Bay goes to airfield size 3. We'll stop it at size 4.

We again fly sweeps of Pago Pago, but only a single Warhawk and Airacobra come up. They are both shot down. Our Nells hit the airbase and only do a couple points of damage, but manage to destroy a P-40E Warhawk.

19x B-17E's attack Port Moresby. They are met by a CAP of most A6M2's, but 5 Rufe's and 4 Nicks join in as well. We manage to bring own one of the B-17's, and lose 1 A6M2. Damage on the ground is very light.

No more losses as the ships at Pago Pago are finished unloading. Supplies are light for the 8th but we have enough for one attack at least. Meanwhile, three cargo ships at Suva are starting to load supplies. They are cheap ships since they probably won't survive after the initial unloading.

China
All of our artillery from the Philippines is now in place at Siangtan. Today, we inflict about 800 causalities from the air and another 760 from the bombardment attack. Siangtan is looking secure, but I am leaving the artillery prepped for Hengyang since I need to capture that base soon.

An odd occurrence at Liuchow. Apparently the 104th Division and a tank regiment cross the river east right into the base although I had given them move orders to the NE to avoid a river cross. The enemy showed low supply and even though the results were 1:18, we only lost a 1000 troops (none destroyed). So while it wasn't planned, it could have gone worse. Plus, we now own the western hexside of Luichow.

Submarines
At Christmas Island, I-10 takes a shot at an Allied AP. It misses and evades enemy ASW efforts.

At Pearl Harbor, midge sub Ha-5 moves into the Pearl Harbor hex and strikes a mine. It was worth a shot, but I'm sure most of the ports here are mined. The midgets will focus on Christmas and Canton for now. We have about 6 subs about 5-6 hexes northeast of Pearl Harbor to try and intercept some traffic. One of these, I-168, takes a shot at DMS Trevor and misses.

Other
Fusan port goes to size 7. We have a lot of small ships and a large convoy of Aden's running out of this port in an attempt to get resources to flow here instead of Port Arthur. So far it still had about 500,000 resources, but Port Arthur has close to a million. Hopefully when Fusan gets to size 8 and then 9 it will help draw the resources here instead.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 21st, 1942

India/Burma
A small group of Oscar's sweeps Madras. Only a couple are lost, but they see 4x Hurricane IIa, 16x Mohawk IV and 14x P-40E Warhawks on CAP. One Mohawk is shot down.

Our Bettys attack some small ships at Trivandrum, but miss. Thankfully they have Oscar and Zero escort as there are a half dozen Hurricane I's on CAP. Five of the Hurricanes go down with no losses of our own.

A second attack on Trivandrum, consisting of 3 Mabels and 6 Kates hit the xAK Ozarda with 3 torpedoes, sinking the ship.

We launch several air attacks on Rangoon, followed with a Deliberate attack that does well. We get 1:1 results and the enemy is showing a negative supply modifier.

DEI
Nias is occupied by the SNLF unit that is island hopping. One more to go and the west side of Sumatra will be secured.

Near Palembang, the 16th Nav Guard unit finally forces the surrender of a Dutch pocket there. 1830 enemy troops are captured. The only refugees left on the map are on Timor (Dutch) and north of Port Moresby (Australians).

Philippines
At Cebu we launch our first assault and surprisingly it succeeds. We capture the base with a 6:1 outcome, even in the face of level 3 forts. The enemy had about every negative modifier I think there is, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised. 6,000 enemy troops are captured. These units will now load up and head for the big island to the south - Mindanao.

Pacific
The 28th Division passes Luganville as it heads northwest for an eventual landing at Broome.

No enemy planes over Pago Pago today. Our Nells do little damage to the airfield.

12 B-17E's are back over Port Moresby. Our CAP is a little stronger than yesterday. The Nicks get their first outright kill, so that is nice to see. In total, 5 of the B-17's go down.

[center]
First kill for the Ki-45[/center]

China
Sian goes to airfield size four and we will move some Sally units here to assist with our rush to capture Chengtu.

In the far north, our two tank units attack at Ansi and capture the base with 3:1 results. The 34th Separate Brigade is sent retreating.

Submarines
Some ships flee from Pago Pago, and the I-6 manages to put three torpedoes into AV Tangier, sinking the support ship.

[center]
I-6 gets a kill[/center]

Closer to Pearl Harbor, I-168 takes a shot at AVD McFarland but misses. It takes a fair amount of damage from depth charges, but it will try to make the slow crawl back to Kwajelein.

At Christmas Island, the Ha-20 is attacked by PC Reliance and takes some damage. I think we can pick it up and take it back to Truk for repairs.

Other
AMc Medusa is reported to have been sunk near Chittagong on Feb 13, 1942

[temagic]

Great AAR. Keep it up:)

[FeurerKrieg]

A little observation about this game. Last night I realized I had forget to check my notes for ship conversions for April, May and June. I looked and sure enough there were some AR's I was supposed to convert in April and May. Thankfully the three big AG's that convert to AKEs aren't until the fall/winter.

In any case, I mention this because when I realized that I felt that sinking feeling like I had missed an important deadline at work. However, I haven't actually felt that feeling at work for some time. Funny that a game can cause me more anxiety at times than real life.

I just had to chuckle about it today.

[temagic]

Well it's almost as big an investment as real life, so no wonder there. How is your fleet doing? Can we get a summary of sunk ships, both enemy and ours?

[FeurerKrieg]

I'll have an update coming soon as May comes to an end. Not much happened on the seas in May though, so this April report is pretty close.

Capital Ships lost (entire war):
Allies
CV Enterprise
CV Indomitable
CV Lexington
CV Saratoga
CV Yorktown
BB Prince of Wales
BB Resolution
BB Ramillies
BB Revenge
BB Royal Sovereign
BC Repulse
CA Australia
CA Canberra
CA Chester
CA Chicago
CA Cornwall
CA Dorsetshire
CA Exeter
CA Indianapolis
CA Northampton
CA Pensacola
CA San Francisco
CL Achilles
CL Adelaide
CL Caledon
CL Ceres
CL Colombo
CL Danae
CL De Ruyter
CL Dragon
CL Enterprise
CL Hobart
CL Java
CL Leander
CL Marblehead
CL Mauritius
CL Perth

Japan
CV Shokaku
CVL Zuiho
CA Mogami
CL Sendai
CL Kashii
CL Kashima

[temagic]

Thanks for that update. Looking good

[FeurerKrieg]

May 22nd, 1942

India/Burma
We score two hits on a sub with Sallys and Helens near Ceylon.

Near Diego Garcia, I-159 spots the xAK Clan Macilwraith and put three torpedoes into the ship, sinking it. We have an unbroken line of subs Diego Garcia over to the map edge. If enemy ships come farther east of Diego, they risk getting attacked by Bettys from Ceylon bases.

[center]
Sub attack[/center]

We try attacking near Chittagong again, and again it is close with a 1:1 (1177:725) result.

Finally, having seen some units coming in by rail to Chittagong, we drop some paras on Tezpur to cut the rail line. We will also drop another unit on Comilla soon so that we can march southwest and trap the troops at Chittagong. And just for good measure we will drop into Jorhat as well, which is currently unoccupied. Tezpur was unoccupied and it is captured. Comilla is the base just SE of Dacca in the map below.

[center]
Paradrop in India[/center]

DEI
Makassar goes to airfield 4. We will switch to forts here.

Pacific
East of Suva, Taveuni Island is occupied.

Several KB planes attack the enemy units at Pago Pago, but don't seem to get very good results. A ton of Vals are damaged, so I think I'll really save this for when the attacks seem stuck at 1:1. The attack on the ground fairs poorly as well. We get a 1:2 (99:141) result against fort level 3, with no fort drop. Clearly we will need to bring in the 21st Division. It is loading up now. Supply ships are already en route since the 8th is already low on supply and will need some to recover. These Marines are tough!

8x B-17Es try at Port Moresby again. We manage to shoot down one of them. They score 1 runway hit.

China
Siangtan goes to fort 3, so it will take a lot of Chinese to dislodge us from here now.

We have the exits from Changsha to the east covered, and several units are on their way to Shaoyang using the route west around Hengyang. Once they get there, the artillery at Siangtan and the infantry at Shaoyang will try to make a quick capture of Hengyang.

Submarines


Other
TK Gertrude Kellogg is reported to have been sunk near Manila on Dec 09, 1941

[FeurerKrieg]

May 23rd, 1942

India/Burma
We get another aerial hit on an Allied sub near Ceylon.

We try a deliberate high altitude sweep with 27x A6M2's and 32x Oscars of Madras today. It does pretty well. For the loss of 4 Zeros and 1 Oscar, we kill 13 Mohawk IVs, 11 P-40E Warhawks, and 3 Hurricane IIa. I'm not planning an attacking here at the moment, but hopefully he'll fly a heavier CAP and maybe take a few more ops losses from doing so. Additionally we have many units, several divisions, set to prep for Madras. I'm hoping he thinks I'll attack here and hold troops back for as long as possible giving more more time to work on Calcutta.

Some Oscars also sweep Trivandrum and we take out 3 Hurricane Is there.

Another attack near Chittagong goes less well with only 1:2 (599:603) results. We'll need to rest a couple days before attacking again.

On the plus side, however, we attack Rangoon and get a 3:1 result and capture the base! Results below. Both the 48th and 55th are in excellent shape and as soon as we sweep for mines, they will load up on transports waiting at Moulmein and head up to join the fight at Chittagong. Unfortunately, all the industry in Rangoon was trashed. So this means we'll be hauling oil out of here for as long as we are able instead of fuel. Plus we won't be getting any supply help from this city. I can't complain too much given how good the facilities in Palembang were left for us.

[center]
Victory at Rangoon![/center]

Philippines
We start unloading small units at Oroquieta. There is a small enemy unit there, but it doesn't do any damage to our ships during the unloading.

Pacific
We get an aerial hit on a sub near Pago Pago today.

Our supply ships close in on Pago Pago and get about half their supplies offloaded before being either sunk or lit up like the 4th of July by the enemy shore gun. These were cheap little xAK's so no big loss, and more importantly the 8th Division is repairing squads. I won't attack with them until the 21st is unloaded and recovered, so the 8th should be in pretty decent shape by then as well. BB Yamato and two other battleships are en route as well, and should be nearby if needed for some additional support by the time the 21st and 8th divisions are ready for their attack on Pago Pago. I'm guessing at least a week, maybe more, before that attack happens.

Also, I should mention that one of our supply ships was hit by SS Growler with working torpedo.

Finally, our Nells from Suva hit the airfields at Pago and destroy one P-40E on the ground.

China
We continue to bomb Chinese units that are likely chasing our 22nd Division to Chengtu. If we can get there before Chinese reinforcements, we should be able to take the base. They will likely besiege us there, so we might not produce supplies, but at least the Chinese aren't getting any either. Plus, with the light urban terrain I think we'd be hard to dig out given their supply situation.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 24th, 1942
A bit quiet today.

India/Burma
Rahaeng goes to airfield size 4. While not critical yet, in my experience, Rahaeng can become invaluable during the British counteroffensive in Burma.

Four of our AMc move into Rangoon and sweep 53 mines. That appears to be all of them, so our transports will move in tomorrow. Loading might still be slow since the port is 100% damaged, but we have a lot of engineers there working to get everything repaired.

Philippines
More of our units continue to arrive at Oroquieta.

Pacific
Just south of Suva, we occupy Kandavu Island.

The 21st Division sets sail from Suva. Four battleships are in the group, but they are lacking main gun armament. Hopefully they can soak up some hits with their armor. I don't have AKE's present yet at Suva to load up the larger guns. One AKE will arrive in another week or so.

China
The Chinese smartly ambush our bombers in the Chunkgking valley today. 4 I-15, 5 H81-A3 and 7 Lancers hit our Sallies. We lose 11 in the attack, but still inflict some casualties on the enemy, and hopefully drop them out of move mode.

Other
A new submarine today! SS I-28 arrives at Tokyo.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 25th, 1942

India/Burma
Near North Male, I-158 attacks xAK Clan Macquarrie on the surface, hitting with one deck gun round and four torpedoes. The ship sinks quickly.

Philippines
As additional troops are still unloading at Oroquieta, the troops that are there go ahead and attack. Some Sallys join in as well and the base is easily captured from the 4th PI Base Force. Our troops will wait until everyone is unloaded and then march southeast. The enemy is largely concentrated at Cagayan. We have another Nav Guard unit on the way via ship to Dadjangas on the south end, which should help accelerate the taking of the bases before our forces converge on Cagayan.

[center]
Plans at Mindanao[/center]

Pacific
East of Suva, SS Tautog attacks our AOs twice and dud torpedoes save us both times. Close call as these AO are full and about to replenish our carriers.

Our Nells hit Pago Pago, but the Allies manage to get 4x Airacobras and 1x Warhawk airborne. Those fighters bring down four of our Nells and we do little damage to the port or guns there. We'll hold off on further attack until the 21st and 8th are ready.

Submarines
I-20 takes a shot at an AVD near Pearl Harbor but misses. It evades the ASW counterattack.

Other
No major surprise here- Previous report of sinking of SS Finback incorrect. Intelligence reports ship is still in service.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 26th, 1942

India/Burma
Another aerial sub hit near Ceylon today.

DEI/N Australia
CVE Chuyo arrives at Sasebo today. It is a 27 planes CVE. Hiryu, Soryu and Chuyo will all head to Koepang where I am gathering some Zero units. Once the 28th and 8th tank are ready, we will LRCAP the task force with Zeros from these three carriers. We only need to fend off one days worth of attacks to get the bulk of our troops unloaded at Broome and recon shows a very small unit defending the place. Day 2 may see some bombers rebase, but I may just let the transports fend for themselves rather than risk 4E attacks on my carriers. We'll see. I expect to be landing at Broom around June 5-7ish.

The last island off the west coast of Sumatra is captured today as the 1st Sasebo SNLF Coy captures Sinabang. It will load up and head to the dot bases in the South China Sea east of Singapore.

Balikpapan goes to airfield size 5 and we will switch to fort construction.

Near Darwin, the little island of Saumlaki hits airfield size 1. Perfect for recon planes to take a look farther south of Darwin.

Pacific
Our barge force plods along eastware from Suva. Today they occupy the Hoorn Islands.

The stranded units at Terapo shock attack us today, getting a 1:17 result.

Chichi-Jima forts hit 3 and we'll stop there. Paramushiro-Jima hit 3 and I think we'll go one more to level 4.

China
I neglected to mention over the past few days, that I had sent a pair of tank regiments up to Tuyun because the base appeared to be held with only a base force. There were two Chinese units moving to cross the river and reinforce the base, so it was a race to see if I could get there and attack before the reinforcements arrived. Today we attacked and unfortunately we lost the race as two enemy units arrive to help defend the base. However, even with level 3 forts, and a 1:4 result, our tanks took no casualties while we did 224. We'll try another attack tomorrow to see if we can keep up these one sided casualties.

[center]
A day late at Tuyun[/center]

Other
This might be accurate since it was from mines.

SS Cuttlefish is reported to have been sunk near Bataan on Apr 08, 1942