Turnaround? Lowpe (J) vs Tiemanj (A) Stock

[Lowpe]

Not so great at Wake! Every armored car destroyed; but their sacrifice hopefully won't be in vain!

[Lowpe]

The CVE Taiyo puts out her fires, and should make it back to Tokyo for repairs, but there goes my great Judy-C platform for enhanced search. The ship was in the middle of nowhere, darn Allied intel.

At least the escorts report the lousy sub sunk! The destroyers did good work here for once.[:)]

Meanwhile, an Iboat is ganged up northeast of Pearl, I don't see how she can make it back but we will try!

[Lowpe]

Talk about fun and exciting turns...the next one should be a doozy!

The super heavies go for a stroll and will fire those huge guns, if they can dodge the submarine threat....

Low level bombing runs galore...

Sweeps, LRCAPs, CAP Traps, a very bloody day in the offering....

Surface groups speeding to locations to counter the Allied threat...

Fast transport dropping off troops...right into combat

The KB is out, but hopefully in a very protected manor....

Mini subs get put to use...

Can Trinkat and Car Nicobar (expected fast transport invasion or air drop) survive?

Can Wake Island hold for another day?

Allies massing massive amounts of troops at Tuang Gyi for a breakthru...22 units and counting. Supply hard to get with the monsoons...

Some of these questions will be answered on the morrow. Stay tuned!

[Lowpe]

Lots, and lots of action here in Trinkat and area.

I expect at the least heavy Jugs sweeps from Port Blair over Trinkat and Car Nicobar, plus bombing. I will not oppose this. Perhaps he will fly more troops in, or perhaps he will use floats to try and evacuate. There is two destroyer forces west of Port Blair that might be fast transports.

Whatever he does, I set up a low level air raid on Port Blair with escorts and sweeps. Lilly IIb and others are on naval attack with escorts.

Yamoto and Musashi are bombarding Trinkat. Fast transports are bringing in more infantry from both Sabang and Georgetown. 4th Division, elite, is loading at Singers for possible use. A heavy cruiser squadron is moving into position to bombard Port Blair. All of these forces are LRCAPed.

On the west side of Sumatra is a cruiser/CS force coming up and will provide either long range naval search (more) for the Bay of Bengal or the Norms will be used as a naval strike. They are trained in both.

Leaving Singers is the Fuso with a bunch of Es for further bombardments.

The Yamoto and Mushashi will return to Singers for reloading, and perhaps for upgrading too, they will get radar in 21 days. From there they may move east to join the KB in the expected battles for the Marianas depending upon events.





Moved several squadrons of dedicated ASW with very narrow search arcs to try and minimize his sub screen.

[Lowpe]

I don't understand why he didn't go for Car Nicobar, with a whopping 7 AV or Great Nicobar, empty.

I don't understand why he didn't pound the bases for days ahead of time first.

I have a long shot plan to help at Wake...maybe it will work, maybe it won't.

[Lowpe]

Egads! I almost got sent to page 2! The horror![:D]

Not much to report, the Allies have stitches and the pain medicine probably kicked so no turn.[:(]

Plus his two failed attacks, for now, probably wasn't the medicine he wanted to get.

I have scored some pretty good victory point gains recently, The ratio is back up to 1.473 pro Japan. Happy with that.

I have so many actions scheduled for the next day, kind of anxious to get the turn back...

[njp72]

I know that it has been stated before, but overall you have done an amazing effort to remain highly competitive given what you inherited.

Hats off to your Sir

[Lowpe]

September 13, 1943

No night bombing.

Both Wake and Trinkat hold, in fact no allied attacks at either. More troops and supplies landed at Wake.

Decent day in the air, with 54 losses to both sides, 35 of the Japanese losses are Oscar IVs, most coming around Trinkat and Port Blair. Oscars sweep Port Blair, high, into a strong CAP, while Betties fly very low with Oscar escorts and bomb the airfields. The bombers manage to destroy many planes and plant some good hits on the airfield.

Lightnings sweep Trinkat and catch some Oscars doing LRCAP over a fast transport fleet.

In China, Japanese fighters sweep and down many Chinese fighters which are now based at Chungking. Will work on the bombing the airfield and sweeping heavily there this turn.

Minisubs, in 4 2-ship task forces get one attack, miss on a destroyer, and one mini-sub is sunk. Only the fast minisubs attack. Since they all have 10 detection, I will disband them back to the pools and make some more...this time I will try single ship taskforces.

The Super heavy BBs bombard Trinkat, despite sighting plane, only inflict 100 casualties.

What to do at Wake? I can send the KB for a strike, his forces are hovering 1 hex to the west of Wake and try for a 8 hex strike. I would have done this, except I have several carriers in drydock repairing torpedo damage...my strike would only be 400 planes. If I had 700 planes I would have attacked this turn.



My other tactic is to have a small task force go forward with a heavy LRCAP over it and try to ambush the Allies strike planes.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: njp72

I know that it has been stated before, but overall you have done an amazing effort to remain highly competitive given what you inherited.

Hats off to your Sir

Many thanks, but I am going to get so trashed here!

I have sunk a lot of ships, but I don't think that matters as much as the damage I inflicted to his ground troops at Java and Oz I think that might have slowed him down the most.

[Lowpe]

Deliberate attack at Tuang Gyi. Allies got a 1-2 and didn't drop the forts. I need to get supply there, but the lousy monsoon and constant bombing doesn't help.[:D]

[Lowpe]

Allies pick up Great Nicobar...the paratroops at Trinkat are pretty heavily damaged.

I am moving CA force up to shell Port Blair.

Fuso and E's up to shell Trinkat or Great Nicobar.

4th ID broken into thirds and will repulse these attacks and reinforce.

Flew 20 AV of troops into Car Nicobar. Trinkat got two deliveries of emergency reinforcements via Fast Transport (good use for those COY sized units). I know lots of JFBs put the INA units on these islands, but they cost so much to respawn I am using them as base defense in Indochina instead.

My goal here is to finish off those Chindits on Trinkat and engage the Allies where I only have to worry about one airbase, otherwise he will need to use Lightnings and I can handle them now, kind of.

[Lowpe]

Turn is away, and I am pretty sure I screwed up at least one thing![X(]

[obvert]

Hopefully that was loading a transport somewhere in Manchuria! [;)]

[Lowpe]

Now I can think of at least three things I neglected to do. Oh, and I forgot to load that transport at Rashin, too.[:D]

[Lowpe]

Sept 14, 1943

No night bombing.

Allies fly more troops into Trinkat, but the defenders hold.

Wake Island holds. Should fall tomorrow.

Allies keep moving more troops into Tuang Gyi, this attack after prolonged bombing, nets a 1-1, forts reduced 1, and I simply can't kill enough tanks. Supply is also tough to get there, the repeated bombing eats it up faster than I can get it there. It seems supply flows better into the jungle road positions than it does in the towns.

Almost a carrier clash. [X(] Allies push the deathstar north west of Wake...luckily I have a very timid leader and they put the brakes on their movement I guess. With tail firmly between my legs I will retreat, I tried for an 8 hex attack, failed, and now I will make steam and get out of there.

A couple of Iboats make attacks on destroyers near Wake, all miss, and no real damage suffered in the counterattacks.

[Lowpe]

Bikini:

I sent 18 Betties in at treetop levels to hit the port here; unfortunately they flew right into a strong Jugs and Hellcat CAP and burst into flames.

Jugs! They are everywhere![:(]

[Lowpe]

I have been sending my mini-sub carrying subs back to port: 2 at Singers and one at Truk. The other two were sunk prior to me taking over the game.[:(]

First operations will be Bikini in the CentPac, and Colombo in the Bay of Bengal. I don't expect them to work, but you never know. I think Bikini might get a wolf pack of subs to attack prior, and I will pick another port in the CentPac to hit. Perhaps Midway.

I have two left of the large minelayer subs left -- the others sunk before I took over. So far they have been dropping minefields all over the Bay of Bengal, in ports, shallow hexes just outside of ports, and they haven't gotten anything. I sent them to drop some mines at Perth or the two ports southeast of Perth.

These efforts are probably doomed to failure, but I will keep trying.[:)]

[Lowpe]

A look at my damaged subs trying to make it back to port.[:D]

Four are in the CentPac; the rest from my failed surge at Ramree.

I have noticed that Yank destroyers (ASW hunter killer squadrons) are much more aggressive following the crippled subs. They are like rabid dogs and once they bite, they don't let go until the Iboat is destroyed.

I am starting to send the cripples in opposite directions to try foil their searches. Worked once last turn.

[Lowpe]

Continuing my submarine posts here is a wolfpack out and about.

Do you think I should have the Glens search at night or during the day?

[Lowpe]

Perth

Not sure where to drop the mines.[&:] I have such poor luck with my minefields, but I keep trying.

I have been holding them, awaiting a spotted convoy, but all ships have disappeared since my very successful raid on Perth harbor with the Tone. I have since sent the Glens out spotting the other two ports (which are built up), but I can't find anything, and detection levels on my subs remain at 0.

I am trying to keep a pretty good watch on Perth, since a strike at the southern SRA would likely come from here. There are 4 more subs that have returned to Java for refueling and rearming.