To Young to Die, To Old to Rock and Roll

[zuluhour]

View of the map at HQ India. III Corp is in contact with building IJA units on the road to Ledo. Burma Corp is fortified at Katha and Myitkyina. IV Corps is in the jungles entering Burma proper. I am contemplating some Tom Foolery to exert some discomfort on the Emperor here.

[zuluhour]

monkey business..

[zuluhour]

I have to react to so much IJN power projected in the north Pacific. AV is definitely a high concern as well. SO......

[zuluhour]

Watching it unfold, committed now.

[zuluhour]

The base at Adak falls, it is time to round up the stragglers.

Ground combat at Adak Island (162,52)

Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 7837 troops, 106 guns, 83 vehicles, Assault Value = 175

Defending force 2738 troops, 23 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 13

Allied adjusted assault: 48

Japanese adjusted defense: 17

Allied assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Adak Island !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
     905 casualties reported
        Squads: 34 destroyed, 1 disabled
        Non Combat: 18 destroyed, 9 disabled
        Engineers: 10 destroyed, 0 disabled
     Guns lost 13 (7 destroyed, 6 disabled)
     Vehicles lost 2 (2 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
     35 casualties reported
        Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
        Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
        Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Assaulting units:
   58th (Sep) Infantry Regiment
   138th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
   110th Cmbt Engineer Battalion
   49th Base Group
   209th Field Artillery Battalion
   1st US Naval Construction Battalion

Defending units:
   48th Naval Guard Unit
   25th Ind Engineer Regiment
   306th Ship Eng Coy
   5th JNAF AF Unit
25th Ind Engineer Regiment Wiped Out at Adak Island by attrition!!!
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306th Ship Eng Coy  Wiped Out at Adak Island by attrition!!!
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48th Naval Guard Unit Wiped Out at Adak Island by attrition!!!

IJN search planes locate multiple TFs off Australia and New Guinea. I am coming.

[zuluhour]

More monkey business:

TFs spotted moving to "       " clearly spotted and attacked. The Imperial fliers correctly pick out Yorktown. Her CAP puts up a great scrap but is overwhelmed
by 70+ Zekes escorting well over 40 Kates. Only three fish find steel, two in Yorktown. Advance TFs also spotted due east of Norfolk Island. I see no choice with
so many of the emperors ships engaged in the north Pacific, I allow the assault to proceed. If it was January 1st, I would be close to AV and done. The next days will be bloody for me.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Koumac at 109,160

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 39 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 16 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 74
B5N2 Kate x 51

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 18
F4F-4 Wildcat x 27

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 6 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 17 destroyed, 15 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 3 destroyed by flak

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
CV Yorktown, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage
CA Indianapolis, Torpedo hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
38 x B5N2 Kate launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 45cm Type 91 Torp

CAP engaged:
VF-42 with F4F-4 Wildcat (2 airborne, 6 on standby, 19 scrambling)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 17000 , scrambling fighters between 3000 and 30100.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 43 minutes
VMF-121 with F4F-3 Wildcat (1 airborne, 4 on standby, 13 scrambling)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 11000 , scrambling fighters between 1000 and 11000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 31 minutes

On Adak, the last of the defenders are eliminated.

Wasp closes on SoPac

***Operational losses today are heavy for the US Navy air arm***

small revenge

Morning Air attack on TF, near Koumac at 113,156

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 24 NM, estimated altitude 19,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 9 minutes

Allied aircraft
SBD-3 Dauntless x 34

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
TB Hatsukari, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Kohoku Maru, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
AKE Kuretake Maru, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
8 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
8 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
5 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb
9 x SBD-3 Dauntless releasing from 10000'
Naval Attack: 1 x 1000 lb SAP Bomb

Heavy smoke from fires obscuring TB Hatsukari
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring xAK Kohoku Maru
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AKE Kuretake Maru

[zuluhour]

The big Hurt

[zuluhour]

The battles about New Caledonia were.....painful. I decide to plug Intel Monkey as I reveal how dire the situation really is. I now stand at 1:4, AV territory, with less than 90 days to recover.

[zuluhour]

continued..

[zuluhour]

Aside from retaking the Aleutians, the only real progress has been in Burma.

[zuluhour]

further Intel Monkey data quickly sorted:
at Nadi: 3rd IND ENG Rgt, 11th RF gun Bn, 4th Tank Rgt
at Suva: 14th Army HQ, 21st IND ENG Rgt, 21st med Arty Bn, 10th Special BF, 48th Division, 22nd AA Rgt, Wake coastal gun Bn, 13th Air flotilla
 
 

[zuluhour]

Cripes, I try to retake Norfolk and am again crushed by KB. I had really, really, hoped it had withdrawn to refit.

[zuluhour]

whoops

[zuluhour]

attached

[zuluhour]

A response:
 
 
In Tokyo the war cabinet is split in two factions.
 
One faction advocates to spurn any contacts from the allied side for a negotiated end to hostilities. They believe that Japan cannot be defeated and points at the last years conquest of vast territories
with an abundance of vital resources. With Chinas back broken, what is now to stop the advance into India?
Why give up anything with a settlement.
 
The other faction is aware of the first years victories have been made against an enemy only now swinging into gear. So far battle has only been made against poorly trained and inadequate armed troops.
And where is the decisive victory at sea they ask. There is none.
 
The enemy naval forces are in general intact, and they point at the meagre building program undertaken in the Japanese naval yards.
Only few new carriers can be expected inside the next year. As a stop gap measure a conversion program has been undertaken. All the cruiser seaplane carriers will be converted to true carriers, but   
Work is progressing disappointing slow.
 
The navy also point out that too many of their new pilots do not have the skills to even land proper on the carriers let alone fight the enemy.
They have seen the shipyards in the United States during tours as naval attaches. They have travelled across the vastness of America and seen the factories.
They pray that American resolve has been shaken. If not the path ahead will be much harder.
 
The enemy has lately shown great enterprise in trying to start a push back, but the forces available to the enemy has so far been too few, and the Japanese defensive strategy has paid off.
Let the enemy come to us, let him be exposed at sea and quick and hard counterstrikes will defeat him.  – but Japan cannot afford to lose any large naval engagement.  There is no reserves
Every battle I all or nothing. But the enemy still keeps coming.
 
The Emperor listen and stay silent. What can he do? What should he do?
 
 
 
 

[zuluhour]

Fort those that have never seen it.

[zuluhour]

Southeast Asia

[zuluhour]

The response:
Much time and effort is put into this game when playing against a dedicated opponent like yourself, so we owe to try match that effort also when things start  to go against oneself on the battlefield
I feel I can muster the same dedication to this game as I have done so far -  also when the going starts to get though and from there go to worse. I think there could be so much to get out of this great game after 1942.
So my choice is to fight on
 
I also know that it can be hard to keep a same level of dedication to a game, if ones thinks that something fundamental has gone wrong from the start and you now have no chance to remedy this.
One will end up always looking at the flaw and not the whole and the whole damn thing will fell wrong and eventually will peter out some way or another.
If that is the case, I would rather stop while it has been a great ride all the way. There is always a new game ahead if one chooses to do so – a clean slate.
 

[zuluhour]

Any comments??

[zuluhour]

general position in the Pacific