Rumble in the Southwest witpqs-A vs Andav-J 2011-11-29 to 2017-02-08

[Drakanel]

Are you committing anything significant to the reconquest of Java? Or is it all small units?

Really looking forward to okinawa XD

[Lowpe]

Can I see the report on the P51b sweep of Hong Kong, please?

[witpqs]

Here is the whole magilla. Notice that there are no P-47D25 losses. In-game showed a couple of ops losses, but tracker showed the air-to-air losses that you see above.

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Morning Air attack on Hong Kong , at 77,61

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 49 NM, estimated altitude 35,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-84a Frank x 49

Allied aircraft
P-51B Mustang x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-84a Frank: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-51B Mustang: 2 destroyed

CAP engaged:
50th Sentai with Ki-84a Frank (0 airborne, 22 on standby, 17 scrambling)
10 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 19000 , scrambling fighters between 19000 and 31514.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 40 minutes



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Morning Air attack on Hong Kong , at 77,61

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 39,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-84a Frank x 35

Allied aircraft
P-47D25 Thunderbolt x 22

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-84a Frank: 11 destroyed

No Allied losses

CAP engaged:
50th Sentai with Ki-84a Frank (1 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
18 plane(s) not yet engaged, 11 being recalled, 5 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 19000 , scrambling fighters between 25000 and 37000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 37 minutes



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Morning Air attack on Hong Kong , at 77,61

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 45 NM, estimated altitude 39,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-84a Frank x 8

Allied aircraft
P-47D25 Thunderbolt x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-84a Frank: 3 destroyed

No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
15 x P-47D25 Thunderbolt sweeping at 37000 feet

CAP engaged:
50th Sentai with Ki-84a Frank (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
8 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 19000 , scrambling fighters between 29424 and 35424.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 27 minutes



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Morning Air attack on Hong Kong , at 77,61

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 22 NM, estimated altitude 35,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Allied aircraft
P-51B Mustang x 22

No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
22 x P-51B Mustang sweeping at 31000 feet



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Morning Air attack on Hong Kong , at 77,61

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 69 NM, estimated altitude 35,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 19 minutes

Allied aircraft
P-51B Mustang x 47

No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
24 x P-51B Mustang sweeping at 31000 feet *
20 x P-51B Mustang sweeping at 31000 feet *
3 x P-51B Mustang sweeping at 31000 feet



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Morning Air attack on Hong Kong , at 77,61

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 43 NM, estimated altitude 41,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes

Allied aircraft
P-47D25 Thunderbolt x 6

No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x P-47D25 Thunderbolt sweeping at 37000 feet
3 x P-47D25 Thunderbolt sweeping at 37000 feet



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Morning Air attack on Hong Kong , at 77,61

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 77 NM, estimated altitude 36,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 21 minutes

Allied aircraft
P-51B Mustang x 3

No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x P-51B Mustang sweeping at 31000 feet



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Morning Air attack on Hong Kong , at 77,61

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 78 NM, estimated altitude 39,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 23 minutes

Allied aircraft
P-47D25 Thunderbolt x 2

No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x P-47D25 Thunderbolt sweeping at 37000 feet



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Morning Air attack on Hong Kong , at 77,61

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 18 NM, estimated altitude 39,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Allied aircraft
P-47D25 Thunderbolt x 20

No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
20 x P-47D25 Thunderbolt sweeping at 37000 feet



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[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Drakanel

Are you committing anything significant to the reconquest of Java? Or is it all small units?

Really looking forward to okinawa XD

Small units. That Para unit which made the initial assault was in Sampit. A Cdo Bn landing this turn was on Salajar for a long time (one of those two little thorn in the side bases south of Celebes that the Allies grabbed). The two units (Rgt and basically assault gun unit) from Dili. The Rgt and the artillery (all 75 mm IIRC) from Ternate. The Rgt at Bandjermasin. Likewise the support units are all just being pushed forward from bases they are finished with such as Madjene, Balikpapan, Kendari, and others. Mostly the modest combat power will be enhanced by air support and aided by what I believe is the poor supply situation of the enemy. If they had any supply to spare they could have been running naval search and sent in a bunch aircraft to hit our convoys that are running without CAP.

There is also a Cdo Bn about to land Ketapang, the last built base on Borneo, via APD that you see in the Java Sea pic. They are undetected AFAIK and so should be safe from cruisers. That dot base inland will either flip or be ignored.

All of that stuff is small, and with the push down the Malay Peninsula and the forces pushing down Sumatra should result in some type of IJN and IJ merchant marine blockade run before the year is up. Probably sooner. I'm wondering what DAW HQ will pull the trigger on when it is apparent that the USN is busy with Okinawa.

[Lowpe]

Andav needs to get those Franks down low, where they can do some good![&:]

Is there any acceleration on late war fighters like the 94 or 83 or the Shinden? I can't recall, is the Frank R out and about?

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Andav needs to get those Franks down low, where they can do some good![&:]

Is there any acceleration on late war fighters like the 94 or 83 or the Shinden? I can't recall, is the Frank R out and about?

No idea on either one of those. He did just mention that he needs to do better accelerating late war fighters. He did do well with early war fighters.

Not sure about down low, that's where the P-51 gets better. BTW in our discussion I sent this.

[witpqs]

And this.

[Lowpe]

The Frank A will always give up the dive bonus, but the maneuver advantage is greatest down low for the Frank A.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

The Frank A will always give up the dive bonus, but the maneuver advantage is greatest down low for the Frank A.

OK, I see that. It's pretty much as I figure for Allied (especially US) fighters versus the Empire's.

[zuluhour]

damn it will not load

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: zuluhour

damn it will not load

???

[witpqs]

Don't have a turn yet, but I've taken a look at attack transport types and (fast enough) beaching craft that are closing in on the front.

First off, we have mega tons of equipment load space. No need to even count it. There are still lots of AK remaining (unload rate = 600, so use enough of them for a small enough load to land it all in one day), plus well over a hundred LST. In addition to some AKA, here are 6 attack transport types (APA, LSD, whatever) totaling 9,250 troop capacity. That's not quite enough for a division but it's close. There are 75x LCI and 15x LSM for a combined total of 14,810 troop capacity. So adding together the attack transports and the beaching types we can easily haul both divisions. Either one division or only part of both divisions would suffer the increased disruption during transit. That's not too bad.

And, within two weeks we might be able to get all or almost all of both divisions on attack transports plus AK or even AKA.

So, when the turn comes I am going to take a deep look at that again, and might change the decision I made last turn. Comments are welcome. Obviously any delay just means more fighters upgraded from Hellcat 3 to Hellcat 5 or Corsair 1D. There are only two or three Hellcat model 3 squadrons left on the CV. A bunch of CVL can still upgrade their birds. The CVE will stay with the model 3 until the pool is run dry.

[Drakanel]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Don't have a turn yet, but I've taken a look at attack transport types and (fast enough) beaching craft that are closing in on the front.

First off, we have mega tons of equipment load space. No need to even count it. There are still lots of AK remaining (unload rate = 600, so use enough of them for a small enough load to land it all in one day), plus well over a hundred LST. In addition to some AKA, here are 6 attack transport types (APA, LSD, whatever) totaling 9,250 troop capacity. That's not quite enough for a division but it's close. There are 75x LCI and 15x LSM for a combined total of 14,810 troop capacity. So adding together the attack transports and the beaching types we can easily haul both divisions. Either one division or only part of both divisions would suffer the increased disruption during transit. That's not too bad.

And, within two weeks we might be able to get all or almost all of both divisions on attack transports plus AK or even AKA.

So, when the turn comes I am going to take a deep look at that again, and might change the decision I made last turn. Comments are welcome. Obviously any delay just means more fighters upgraded from Hellcat 3 to Hellcat 5 or Corsair 1D. There are only two or three Hellcat model 3 squadrons left on the CV. A bunch of CVL can still upgrade their birds. The CVE will stay with the model 3 until the pool is run dry.

This would be for the two divisions for Naha that would be otherwise left behind, right?

Looking at this post fb.asp?m=3979398 you have a total of 2873 AV prepped for Naha. I don't know which divisions you're planning to leave behind, but 2 divisions are a bit more than 700AV so that's about a quarter of your raw AV. Sure, that does not take into account tanks and such, but it's still a rather significant amount.

On the other hand, a two weeks delay is a long one. However from your post I understand you can do it much faster if you just take the ships you have readily available, even though it's not ideal.

I'm no expert but my vote would be to surely take those two divisions along, even under non optimal loading and unloading conditions, IF it does not require too much of a wait. Two weeks more is a long time, he could get SigInts, he could move more troops and planes there or all sorts of other things. So probably not worth it if you have to wait that much. In that case, I'd just send those two in a second wave.

This has nothing to do with me being impatient for the invasion [:D] Seriously, I think you can just accept some disruption for 2 divisions as a fair price to have them all there in a timely fashion. But this whole operation is probably best started as soon as feasible, to avoid giving him time to dig in even more...

[witpqs]

Yes, those are the two that I mean. With the figures I mentioned I think we are talking about only up to a week delay if I push things. For even more attack transports it will be certainly two weeks or more.

As a side point, APA are starting to arrive in practically a stream. I don't want to wait, but the point is that amphibious ops from now on will not be short of them at all. Maybe not until a large invasion of the HI will we be wishing for more APA all at once.

[witpqs]

1944 September 28

The Empire captured:


The Allies captured:
Loemadjang

There were Imperial amphibious or airborne operations at:


There were Allied amphibious or airborne operations at:
Ketapang

Imperial Naval Bombardments


Allied Naval Bombardments:



Our subs got an E.

Quiet in China.

Big results toward eliminating the Imperial units near Chiang Mai.

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Ground combat at 60,51 (near Chiang Mai)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 21788 troops, 393 guns, 242 vehicles, Assault Value = 473

Defending force 6214 troops, 20 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 6

Allied adjusted assault: 223

Japanese adjusted defense: 4

Allied assault odds: 55 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), fatigue(-), morale(-), supply(-)
Attacker: fatigue(-)

Japanese ground losses:
1125 casualties reported
Squads: 80 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 27 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Assaulting units:
23rd Indian Division
17th Indian Division

Defending units:
29th Division


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Ground combat at 59,53 (near Chiang Mai)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 9372 troops, 110 guns, 49 vehicles, Assault Value = 302

Defending force 6627 troops, 3 guns, 3 vehicles, Assault Value = 4

Allied adjusted assault: 156

Japanese adjusted defense: 4

Allied assault odds: 39 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), disruption(-), fatigue(-)
morale(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
832 casualties reported
Squads: 109 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
24 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Assaulting units:
1st Burma Brigade
22nd (East African) Brigade
2/15 Punjab Battalion
2/17 Dogra Battalion
2nd Burma Brigade
14th LRP Brigade

Defending units:
53rd Division


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Our armour has reached Nakhon Si Thammarat and will attack tomorrow. The infantry will take a few more days.

NW of Lang Son is cleared.

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Ground combat at 61,65 (near Pakse)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 6086 troops, 92 guns, 36 vehicles, Assault Value = 186

Defending force 2572 troops, 12 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 63

Assaulting units:
11th Airborne/A Division
11th Airborne/B Division

Defending units:
17th Ind.Mixed Brigade


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Ground combat at 62,66 (near Pakse)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 3033 troops, 46 guns, 18 vehicles, Assault Value = 93

Defending force 1749 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 16

Assaulting units:
11th Airborne/C Division

Defending units:
2nd Ind.Mixed Brigade
33rd Division


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Ground combat at 69,55 (near Lang Son)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 6060 troops, 24 guns, 1060 vehicles, Assault Value = 589

Defending force 5965 troops, 34 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 167

Allied adjusted assault: 251

Japanese adjusted defense: 33

Allied assault odds: 7 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), disruption(-), fatigue(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
3440 casualties reported
Squads: 61 destroyed, 110 disabled
Non Combat: 58 destroyed, 21 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 21 (7 destroyed, 14 disabled)
Units retreated 1

Allied ground losses:
6 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
706th Tank Battalion
640th Tank Destroyer Battalion
2/4th Armoured Regiment
637th Tank Destroyer Battalion
192nd Tank Battalion
775th Tank Battalion
632nd Tank Destroyer Battalion
671th Tank Destroyer Battalion
711th Tank Battalion
2/6th Armoured Regiment

Defending units:
61st Infantry Brigade


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The Aus 4th Armoured Bde is east of Lao Cai, trying to get in there and seize the base in time to trap the two IJA units still trying to get there from the south. Sweeps in the skies overhead preceded large 2EB strikes that slowed their progress.

Our landing at Ketapang succeeded, now to get away! Our destroyers are trying to catch the remnants of that wayward enemy convoy. Civil authorities at Loemadjang on Java have sent the Imperial administrators running into the jungle.

Many units for the invasion of Daito Shoto are already in the Marianas or on Yap, their final loading ports. Three divisions and one armored unit are around the Bismarck Sea, and we are dispatching transport convoys to bring them to the Marianas, where they will unload as the current occupants shove off for Okinawa. It looks like we can load the Okinawa invasion in one week with the final two divisions accommodated as I noted earlier. A batch of 9x CVE just pulled in to Pearl Harbor for their AA upgrade.

Indochina.

[witpqs]

Malay Peninsula & Sumatra.

[witpqs]

Java Sea.

[witpqs]

Intel screen. We finally got Imperial ground losses above 12,000. But our air losses are catching up to theirs.

[Lowpe]

Looking forward to see how China develops.

I am curious about Andav's remarks about doing better on plane r&d?[&:] Isn't it basically too late.

Why do you have so many subs in the straits of Malacca?

[Drakanel]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Looking forward to see how China develops.

I am curious about Andav's remarks about doing better on plane r&d?[&:] Isn't it basically too late.

Why do you have so many subs in the straits of Malacca?

Because earlier the japanese CAs sortied from Singapore and severely damaged the british CV, I'd say