September 14, 1943
Night bombing
Night bombing at Darwin again. We upgraded the Tojo unit to Tonys today, and 1 is lost on the ground before being ready. I still can't decide what to shift the 2 Tojo-IIc factories to. Do I move them to Ki-83 and try to get that beasty going sooner? It will still be some months before the R&D factories repair reliably...
Night firebombing at Chungking and Lanchow. A few more fires than days past, but still nothing major. He loses a couple bombers to flak/ops.
Burma/Western China
Helens bomb Akyab some more. The airfield is 51% damaged (OK, airfield service is) when the new turn loads.
He sends B-25s to bomb at Ramree and the stack outside Ramree. I have Jacks/Franks on LRCAP over the stack, and I shoot down 5 of the bombers for no loss.
His forces try another attack at Myitkyina:
Ground combat at Myitkyina (64,42)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 30479 troops, 395 guns, 363 vehicles, Assault Value = 743
Defending force 14479 troops, 114 guns, 102 vehicles, Assault Value = 402
Allied adjusted assault: 747
Japanese adjusted defense: 1141
Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 2)
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), fatigue(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
381 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 20 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 31 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
568 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 76 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 18 disabled
Assaulting units:
6th Australian Division
88th Indian Brigade
11th Indian Division
9th Indian/A Division
9th Indian/B Division
IV Indian Corps
Defending units:
39th Division
4th Army
We'll take it. Continued stalemate, and my forts held this time.
New Invasions
Shortlands - not detected until they landed. Fun! I have basically evacuated this place as he has Munda and below already. I'll fly out even more of the units. It looks like he has no CV or CVE support here, so I flew 44 Jills and 25 Frances to Rabaul. Hopefully they will join the 40ish Bettys there and 53 A6M3a's for escort and sink some ships. I dedicated a Jake unit to search with 60% of its planes in just 2 arcs covering Shortlands and Treasury Islands. Here's what he brought:
Ground combat at Shortlands (109,131)
Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 1446 troops, 6 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 53
Defending force 4259 troops, 183 guns, 69 vehicles, Assault Value = 311
Japanese ground losses:
8 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Assaulting units:
87th Naval Guard Unit
11th Air Fleet /1
28th JNAF AF Unit /1
Defending units:
3rd NZ Armoured Sqn /4
37th Infantry Div /17
30th Field Artillery Regiment
The bigger invasion - he comes to Cocos in the IO. I had recently rested my Emily unit at Benkoelen (within the past few days) so that I could run them for several more weeks without rest, thinking he would come for Sumatra soon if the Burma/Andamans operations were really a feint (they strike me as something of a feint). Go figure... at least 3 TFs unload at Cocos, and there are CVEs/CVs present. If I had to guess, it's 2 Essexes and maybe some CVEs from CONUS. So maybe he is going to try to thrust up through the DEI. If he's been getting lots of SIGINT on the area, he'll know that there are weak points. Unsure how I feel about this in general.
Landings begin in the evening, after the air phases:
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Pre-Invasion action off Cocos Islands (33,101)
199 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Allied Ships
BB Resolution
CA Sussex
CL Cleveland
DD Racehorse
DD Case
DD Sterett
APA Custer
Japanese ground losses:
104 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 15 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 26 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 6 (1 destroyed, 5 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
67 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 17 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 10 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
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Amphibious Assault at Cocos Islands (33,101)
TF 130 troops unloading over beach at Cocos Islands, 33,101
Allied ground losses:
35 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 16 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Vehicles lost 10 (0 destroyed, 10 disabled)
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Pre-Invasion action off Cocos Islands (33,101)
127 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Allied Ships
BB Ramillies
CA Louisville
CL Newcastle
DD Quadrant
AKA Aquarius
DD Rotherham
Japanese ground losses:
179 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 20 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 40 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Allied ground losses:
60 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
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Amphibious Assault at Cocos Islands (33,101)
TF 180 troops unloading over beach at Cocos Islands, 33,101
Allied ground losses:
286 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 118 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 60 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 174 (0 destroyed, 174 disabled) [X(] I hope this is for real!
Vehicles lost 21 (1 destroyed, 20 disabled)
Motorized Support lost from landing craft during unload of 11th (East African) Div /9
12 troops of a African Rifle Sqd lost from landing craft during unload of 11th (East African) Div /14
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Pre-Invasion action off Cocos Islands (33,101)
136 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Allied Ships
CA Suffolk
DD Craven
LST-23
LST-24
LST-21
Japanese ground losses:
50 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 10 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Allied ground losses:
87 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
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Amphibious Assault at Cocos Islands (33,101)
TF 190 troops unloading over beach at Cocos Islands, 33,101
Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
10 troops of a Brit Inf Section 43 lost in surf during unload of 29th British Bde /2
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Ground combat at Cocos Islands (33,101)
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 11145 troops, 378 guns, 131 vehicles, Assault Value = 551
Defending force 14920 troops, 132 guns, 75 vehicles, Assault Value = 454
Allied adjusted assault: 10
Japanese adjusted defense: 187
Allied assault odds: 1 to 18 (fort level 4)
Combat modifiers
Defender: forts(+), leaders(-), disruption(-), preparation(-)
fatigue(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), disruption(-), supply(-)
Japanese ground losses:
225 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 34 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 10 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Vehicles lost 8 (2 destroyed, 6 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
3931 casualties reported
Squads: 97 destroyed, 290 disabled
Non Combat: 48 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 15 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 73 (32 destroyed, 41 disabled)
Vehicles lost 4 (1 destroyed, 3 disabled)
Assaulting units:
4th Australian Div /7
11th (East African) Div /1
29th British Bde /5
3rd USN Naval Const Rgt /1
4th USN Naval Const Rgt /2
147th USA Base Force /4
Defending units:
53rd Division
II/81st Naval Guard Unit
17th JAAF Base Force
I did not order an attack by the division on the 15th. Forts are at 4+90%. I want to see how trashed his units are tomorrow. I have 18K supplies on the island. This is a fairly substantial investment on his part - lots of ships here. Nells and Zeroes are now at Benkoelen, but we won't try a strike yet. My Nells would just be flying without escorts. They are set to range 15 so that the A6M3a's can escort them with DTs, in case any ships come closer... I am moving the 4th Division (74 Exp) from Soerabaja to Benkoelen.
MKB (Junyo, Hiyo, Zuiho) is moving down from Medan, and BBs are moving to Batavia from Soerabaja.
Since he has some USN CVs over here and is therefore split east/west (roughly evenly), I am bringing "KB2" over this way: Amagi, Unryu, Taiho, and Ryuho (to join MKB). Katsuragi will probably come down here also when she finishes repairs at Sasebo in 4 days.
KB1 will remain based at Truk (Akagi, Hiryu, Soryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Chitose, Chiyoda).
Other
Musashi and Yamashiro have turned for Guam, where I may let them repair for a little bit longer, or I may not.
I moved the 1x30 Frank-a factory to Frank-r. The Frank-a is kind of disappointing. I have the George, which is a better sweeper, and the Jack/Tony are doing just fine on defense. I've kept the 1x60 Frank-a factory on production. Yeah, it has speed, but the altitude is only 34K and the maneuver is only comparable to George. The Ki-100 actually has a better armament, too. I'll keep some Franks mixed in for now, but am going to go light on upgrading units to them until I have the -r model.
I noticed on loading up the combatreport.txt:
TF 75 encounters mine field at Car Nicobar (44,62)
Allied Ships
DD Napier
1 mine cleared
I laid sub mines here a few days back. Wonder what he's doing with the DD.
Somewhat frustrating is the fact that I have Jake units, with well-trained pilots, searching from Rabaul and Cocos. They should have picked up his forces approaching Cocos - they are set to search at range 10, with 24 planes doing 70% search on a 340' coverage (from 010 to 020, counter-clockwise). The longer arc is the reactivated Emily unit at Benkoelen. Am wondering if his units suffered a LOT of attrition deaths after that attack... 180 troops, 4 guns, 9 AFVs? But I only have +20 Allied LCU VPs this turn.
If he takes this place... I will need to invest in keeping it shut down. It is within B-24 range of Palembang. I can't have that happening this early.
