Lambs to the slaughter (Lowpe (J) vs Jocke; BillBrown (A)) Finished

[Lowpe]

Turn is away, Jocke will wake up and probably be happy.[:)] He landed a bombardment, suffered no losses.

He spotted the Kongo and company at Akyab. I think they are going to stick around here under a heavy CAP and see what happens. I boosted the escort on the Nells to 140 planes so perhaps we will get lucky.

I think this kind of move by Jocke augurs well for me for the rest of 1942. I am relieved to find his carriers, and even more to have good shots at them.

[Lowpe]

June 1942

Zeroes sweep by the large cities on the West Coast and shoot down 13 Airacobras for no losses.

[Lowpe]

Meanwhile the Kates and Vals go sub hunting. Lots of targets, lots of sightings, lots of hits, reportedly.


Time to leave.

[Lowpe]

Allied fleets disappear, some sub skirmish but nothing notable.

Lots of ground movement...

[Lowpe]

I think I caught him...the 16th Division, a Rgt and a few support troops. He is trying to escape across a secondary road with one day of movement which should be 15 miles of movement.

He will have to switch into combat mode now, and that should reduce his movement rate even further...I may have two days of attacks here.[:)]

His relief column is now heading south somewhere...

[Olorin]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

... My biggest worry is figuring out how to counter SigInt that Allies get. Both on ship destinations, and infantry prep for the landing sites...

1. You can use waypoints to disguise your task force destinations.

For example a task force could start from Pearl Harbor with destination of Pago Pago but waypoint #1 is set to be a few hexes short of the actual landing site on the West Coast. To avoid the TF resuming it's course towards Pago after reaching the waypoint, set a loitering delay for waypoint #1. Also take into account the range and location of Allied air search assets as it would be rather inconvenient for the TF to be discovered en route to it's waypoint. Notwithstanding the increased risk, travelling silent ie no active search planes or defensive CAP from the accompanying CVs and BBs/cruisers would also have to be employed.

2. You should also employ decoy invasion TFs.

The destination of the decoys should be well away from the real landing site. Include some heavy LCUs with the decoy destination as their objective even though they are intended to be second wave follow up forces for the real invasion. You can subsequently reset their objective whilst at sea. Make certain the decoys are spotted. Ideally the enemy takes the bait and moves reserves to cover a landing in Canada/Oregon which will give you a few days breathing space at the real landing site in California. You can race the decoys to the real landing site probably quicker than the enemy can recall the troops sent up north.

3. As part of the invasion maskirovka for a few days before "landing", switch your aircraft to port attack missions to hit coastal guns first and defending LCUs second at the decoy invasion site. Surrounding airfields would be targeted with airfield attack.

4. There is nothing you can do about hiding the LCU objective except for one very dangerous gamble. Very highly experienced LCUs can now retain a part of their previous objective level when switched to a new objective. Not recommended as far too risky for the sort of operation you have in mind but an option. Obviously best employed with any decoy LCUs.

5. In deciding what will be the decoy invasion site, pay close attention to the transportation network.

Remember USMC and USN LCUs cannot employ strategic road movement but can employ strategic railway movement. Also take into account the static coastal gun locations. Choosing a poorly defended static coastal gun position for the decoy site lends greater credibility to the maskirovka. Especially if some LCUs have an adjacent non base hex as their objective; the "intention" being to cut off enemy reinforcing LCUs from employing strategic movement into the decoy site.

Alfred

Regarding 1:
Waypoints will indeed fool allied SigInt. I did that early in this game with the PH transports having Rabaul as a final destination (and as Jocke later confirmed, his SigInt reported Rabaul as a destination for two IJ divisions). There is however a downside. The journey is too long and that messes up fuel calculations. TFs refuel at sea every day losing operational points, even if there are orders for no refueling. I found that for the PH trip, transports that could normally make 4 hexes per phase, only made 3 hexes.

[Lowpe]

Hoping this is my last attack on Kodiak, so I can turn my full attention to the Pacific Northwest.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Olorin

Regarding 1:
Waypoints will indeed fool allied SigInt. I did that early in this game with the PH transports having Rabaul as a final destination (and as Jocke later confirmed, his SigInt reported Rabaul as a destination for two IJ divisions). There is however a downside. The journey is too long and that messes up fuel calculations. TFs refuel at sea every day losing operational points, even if there are orders for no refueling. I found that for the PH trip, transports that could normally make 4 hexes per phase, only made 3 hexes.

Nice point, and good to see you posting.[&o]

KB is back on their way to Pearl safely away from the horde of Allied submarines. I was thinking one more punch on the west coast for them, but the carrier upgrades are starting to roll in.[&:]

Surface raiders are heading to isolate Oz, they are fairly deep (especially western Oz) and not spotted.

Plane research keeps cranking along...more and more factories shifting to the Oscar IIb which should start production next month. The first splinter of a Tojo IIa squadron is 1 plane away from being deployed for high CAP over Coal Harbor. The Tojo IIa here will allow all the Zeroes to fly lower at bomb intercepting distance.

[Lowpe]

June 13, 1942

Caught the Allies plucky little Blenheims.

[Lowpe]

Kodiak falls...

[Lowpe]

Pretty pickings at Kodiak.

[Lowpe]

I knew the Allies were strong here, and 30 Blenheims got thru down way low disrupting my attack. Still, not complaining.

Ground combat at 52,30 (near Ranchi)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 28507 troops, 434 guns, 187 vehicles, Assault Value = 817

Defending force 21138 troops, 250 guns, 299 vehicles, Assault Value = 810

Japanese adjusted assault: 479

Allied adjusted defense: 309

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1403 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 139 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 13 disabled

Allied ground losses:
1082 casualties reported
Squads: 19 destroyed, 99 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 4 destroyed, 11 disabled
Guns lost 33 (1 destroyed, 32 disabled)

Assaulting units:
38th Division
4th Guards Division
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
3rd Mortar Battalion
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Bn /5
2nd Mortar Battalion
1st RF Gun Bn /1

Defending units:
9th Indian Division
19th Indian Division
26th Indian Brigade
2/1 AIF Pioneer Battalion
85th British AT Gun Regiment

[Lowpe]

Mid June 1942

Clearing mines and damaging Dutch subs...the AMc hard at work. Here two of them do great work.

[Lowpe]

First tangle with P38E in India. A good day....

[Lowpe]

Another attack today, and one of the Allied divisions is combat ineffective. Allies suffering from poor experience and disruption...unfortunately I think he will move out of the hex today.

A side effect of the Allies massive fleet raid on Chitt, is the care I need to take resupplying my Indian offensive. I have several fleets massing at Ramree for the run to Chitt. Unfortunate to be low on supplies right now.

[Lowpe]

The IJA will be shocking across the river into the mountains today against 1 Corp and 1 HQ. The Chinese have been bombed heavily for five days, and we will continue again tomorrow.

Japanese forces are 3 divisions, 1 tank, several artillery....

I don't think he is heavily dug in as the troops haven't been there long. What a difference it would make if the Chinese would have put a corp or two here once my attack on the Ankang road was very evident. 3 Months of digging in by a Chinese Corp would be forts 4 most likely and added with the mountain terrain and river could be a very daunting river crossing.

[Lowpe]

Surface raiders...steaming south. Follow on refuel ships are lagging, but the CS is a huge fuel reserve for the destroyers.

Nothing spotted so far, and I have had subs off Perth for the game with nothing spotted, so further south we shall go.

[Lowpe]

Mid June 1942

The brave IJA troopers cross the river, up into the mountains and route the disrupted, out of supply, & inexperienced Chinese troopers.

Forward!

[Lowpe]

Phase one of my Chinese strategy is almost complete, a scant 45 miles from the destination.

All the Chinese troops to the east will be left to wither on the vine; while we start phase two which has actually been going on, just on the backburner, for quite a while.

[Lowpe]

India:

Jocke correctly pushing forward with his super stack.

I simply don't have enough troops here in India...but I did maul two divisions and a regiment. If I can get one more attack they will be forced to retreat with heavy losses.

The 9th Indian is down to 9 AV; while the 19 is under 200 and a regiment is at 60.

I am probably going to fall back now, and work on destroying Ledo, which now of all sudden has 4 fighter planes...need to wipe out those 12 units.