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

[Lowpe]

Banzai!

Oh, where, where are the rest of the strikes?

[Sangeli]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Banzai!

Oh, where, where are the rest of the strikes?

Better question is where is the CAP?

[Lowpe]

But the severe storms save the POW, as no more sorties are flown against her.

In a strange screw up Allied air coverage, Oscars escorting Lilly IIc attack 2 Allied destroyers at sea 90 miles from Tavoy and the two destroyers have over 20 fighters including Spitfires protecting them....The Oscars die protecting the Lillies who miss.

The George sweeps of Port Blair were quite good, and the POW's flak exacted a heavy price, but what dedication and skill to put three fish into the POW in severe storms.

Disappointed the Jills and other Betties didn't fly...

In the late afternoon, an Iboat is caught trying to sneak up on a British Cruiser, and is subsequently sunk. I wonder if she finished rescuing all the downed Betty pilots first? At Tavoy of course.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Sangeli

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Banzai!

Oh, where, where are the rest of the strikes?

Better question is where is the CAP?

She doesn't need CAP, this is the third time I have put three torpedoes into her. Her crew knows exactly what to do![:D]

[Lowpe]

Elsewhere, no attacks only bombardments. The British Division, the 2nd, at Mergui (yes, Mergui, not Tavoy) is a little chewed up showing only 229 AV on the bombardment replay. And so is Gardner's Horse.

Now, to get fly some Mtn Guns in and hold for even longer I hope.

A nice little setback for the Allies here I think.

Strange leadership in the troops I have flown in to help Mergui...the experienced, well respected leader stays with his cooks on Medan, while his junior officer has to potentially face British tanks at Mergui. [&:]

[Lowpe]

Thailand is ready to break...the Allies in Tavoy are marching east to cut the road in force. I have 1,000 AV there, but it is light on artillery can it be enough? The Allies seem to be moving a force of 1/2 the size of the troops at Bangkok/Moulmein, but I will only have x2 terrain, but then he will have to get supplies thru a jungle hex? Will that be difficult?

Three Divisons (33rd, 8th, and 1st RTA) are resting in Bangkok along with 2 Tank Regiments. 6th RTA is resting in Bangkok, and the 2nd Amphibious arrives tomorrow. Desperately needed artillery is on ships headed this way, as is more troops.

The fresh 21st division is getting on trains from Uttaradit to Bangkok as we speak.

I am running out of room to maneuver...the pressure to retreat is intense. One mistake here and it is disaster.

And I just re-read Obvert's Tavoy disaster, Joc moved east out of Tavoy faster and with more than Obvert thought, and then Obvert lost the footrace by one day.

Intense!



Is the yellow line I put in at all feasible do defend? Or is it all the way back to the Vinh line.

[Rio Bravo]

*keeping a sharp eye on Loweps AAR*

[koniu]

Congrats on PoW. You will no see her for Year+ and big chance that she sunk.

As for Thailand. I look like You are in similar situation like me.
I will look closely what is he moving toward You from Tavoy. If somehow he manage to force Your troops to retreat You will end up with 1000AV cut off from Bangkok. I will seriously start to consider retreat to Bangkok line.

Big risk for You is also that open hex between Your positions and Bangkok. Those are 2-3 days without defense bonus and only LCAP defense. Few hundred 2/4E can disable hundreds of squads. Well coordinated air strike will crash Your boys. When they will move trough that hex You can transfer there ENG unit or two with radar that should give some help to LCAP in that hex

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: koniu
Big risk for You is also that open hex between Your positions and Bangkok. Those are 2-3 days without defense bonus and only LCAP defense. Few hundred 2/4E can disable hundreds of squads. Well coordinated air strike will crash Your boys. When they will move trough that hex You can transfer there ENG unit or two with radar that should give some help to LCAP in that hex

I am just not happy with the Bangkok line...too much clear terrain behind it.[:(]

I am taking extra long to do my turn as I ponder what to do here. Retreating out of the exposed, and pretty much bypassed position north of Uttaradit. That is a given. Moving some forces back from the Rahaeng/Moulmein road position (some AT guns, some Mortars). But overall the north looks like it could for a good long time.

I will move more AA out of the Pisanuloke/Rahaeng/Uttaradit area to prepare for the retreat.

Bangkok/Moulmein road. Ah, here is the danger point with two pressure points and the southern one at only x2 terrain. It will take 7-8 days for him slog thru the jungle from Tavoy, and if I can hold here for what? another 3 weeks serious help would be on its way.

In fact almost 1,000 fresh AV of troops are headed in, but it is almost all infantry and I worry about his tanks! The best AT weapons I have are up at the siege of Chungking. Then there is the worry that he opens up another pressure point.

I think I will try to hold for a little longer, get some good intel on what is marching from Tavoy...I need to buy time. If I can hold here for a while, then I will have Franks helping to cover the retreat thru the open hexes.

[koniu]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: koniu
Big risk for You is also that open hex between Your positions and Bangkok. Those are 2-3 days without defense bonus and only LCAP defense. Few hundred 2/4E can disable hundreds of squads. Well coordinated air strike will crash Your boys. When they will move trough that hex You can transfer there ENG unit or two with radar that should give some help to LCAP in that hex

I am just not happy with the Bangkok line...too much clear terrain behind it.[:(]

I am taking extra long to do my turn as I ponder what to do here. Retreating out of the exposed, and pretty much bypassed position north of Uttaradit. That is a given. Moving some forces back from the Rahaeng/Moulmein road position (some AT guns, some Mortars). But overall the north looks like it could for a good long time.

I will move more AA out of the Pisanuloke/Rahaeng/Uttaradit area to prepare for the retreat.

Bangkok/Moulmein road. Ah, here is the danger point with two pressure points and the southern one at only x2 terrain. It will take 7-8 days for him slog thru the jungle from Tavoy, and if I can hold here for what? another 3 weeks serious help would be on its way.

In fact almost 1,000 fresh AV of troops are headed in, but it is almost all infantry and I worry about his tanks! The best AT weapons I have are up at the siege of Chungking. Then there is the worry that he opens up another pressure point.

I think I will try to hold for a little longer, get some good intel on what is marching from Tavoy...I need to buy time. If I can hold here for a while, then I will have Franks helping to cover the retreat thru the open hexes.

Looks solid. Good luck

[Lowpe]

More thoughts on Thailand...

Commit my reserves to Tavoy. All reinforcements to this front are coming from SRA or China.

My units resting and replenishing will form up the temporary reserves, (which might mean the battered 33rd Division gets thrown back into the fray) until:

Close to 1,000 AV moving to Singers now, it should all be in Bangkok within 2 weeks. Unfortunately mostly infantry.

China: In 7 Days, 23 garrison Chinese Units basically double in strength thru a TOE upgrade. This will let me juggle garrisons freeing up more troops. They are adding c30 AV, so c600 new AV in China. Sweet.

Chungking, once it falls needs only 160 AV garrison. There is 6800 AV there now, plus 4 Armor units and 21 mostly heavy artillery. Yum! Even better, most of the artillery is already bought out.

Just have to hold on! Plus the Frank will make its appearance, hopefully weakening the effect of sweeping Jugs just a little.

All fresh reinforcements are going to the Japanese Islands plus whatever I strip from Manchuko. Feeling better here now.

[ny59giants]

What is happening outside of mainland (Thailand and China)?? It would seem he is waiting for some LCUs prep levels to get high enough before another major operation. I would be heading for eastern Philippine Archipelago, if I was Allies.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

What is happening outside of mainland (Thailand and China)?? It would seem he is waiting for some LCUs prep levels to get high enough before another major operation. I would be heading for eastern Philippine Archipelago, if I was Allies.

I think you are absolutely correct, he has recon on the Bonins, Samar, and Leyte and occasionally the northern tip of Luzon.

I am retreating all troops forward (Solomons, New Guinea, etc.) back to the Mindanao/Luzon. I have managed to get some forces in the Samar area.

[Lowpe]

Chirp, chirp. (that is crickets chirping).

[Lowpe]

I guess the Allies like doing big invasions, but he had me seriously out of position right after the Tinian invasion, and with no carriers, well not enough, he could really have stopped the flow of my retreat.

The Allies could have gone anywhere, accomplished anything. Iwo, Daito, Samar, Leyte, Luzon, Mindanao, Hokkaido. Most likely I would not be able to beat him off with so many troops forward.

Instead, he let me be. Only subs really bothered me, the few Fletchers that tried to penetrate to the shipping lanes were beaten off with Lilly IIbs and IIcs.

I have already gotten one size 18 squadron of Tabby, and more on the way which really speed up the retreat in the Pacific.

Plus all of the Nov/Dec/Jan land reinforcements have come in, and gone out. Now the Bonins are fully stocked to SL. Daito and Naha are turning into festungs; Hokkaido and the islands around them (juicy) significantly boosted. All the islands around Japan built up.

Not complaining, just stating.

[ny59giants]

Defending Philippines - As Allies, I would prioritize any AF that can be built to size 9 first, size 8 second. With the amount of construction engineers and engineer vehicles he has, building something up quickly isn't a problem. [:D] I'm with you on him following MacArthur on potential landing sites.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Defending Philippines - As Allies, I would prioritize any AF that can be built to size 9 first, size 8 second. With the amount of construction engineers and engineer vehicles he has, building something up quickly isn't a problem. [:D] I'm with you on him following MacArthur on potential landing sites.

Several juicy lvl 9 potentials in the Samar/Leyte area and that will give him nasty strike capability out, combined with his bases in Thailand, the noose is closing on shipping from the SRA.

I have no clue how to defend it...I have almost all my destroyers in the area, and good pools now of MTBs, was thinking of having hordes of 3-4 ships squadrons attacking the convoys, backed up by as much LBA in this format (2 escorts, 1 strike squadron) per base. The plane losses will be horrendous.

Oh well, that is what I am working towards right now...

[Lowpe]

My goal is get almost everything out...here. Almost no recon, some near Tulagi, but that is it.

[Lowpe]

A complete list of Army Night Fighters that I know of:


4th Sentai Tokyo restricted 36 planes
5th Sentai 42 planes
(they both go to 49 in March 44)

81st IF Chutai 12 planes Kai Dinah
82nd IF Chutai 9 planes KAI Dinah converts to 28th Sentai at some point (may 1944 upgrades to 27)

14th Sentai Peggy 27 planes

53rd reinforcement 49; 4/44
107th reinforcement 27 10/44
106th reinforcement 49; 10/44
16th IF Chutai reinforcement 9; 11/44

[Lowpe]

Ground reinforcements rushed to stop the Tavoy thrust. Flying out a battered Naval Guard unit from Mergui.

I decided to pull back planes from Tavoy area with my planes except for:

Swamped the area with Jakes and Norms for night time search. Upped daytime search, too. They can fly from the trashed runways.

Sent every available Iboat.

Have 2 torpedo squadrons and 3 Betty squadrons on night attacks with torpedoes. Moonlight is in the 90%, and hopefully the POW is moving slowly.

One Helen squadron will night bomb Tavoy's port on the off chance he disbands Prince of Wales there..

Sent a CL/DD forward to stage for a raid, or whatever. I wonder what a night time fight would be like against ships escorting the POW if it was moving say under 9 knots? Lots, and lots of torpedoes in the strike force.

Lots of plans for tomorrow.