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

[witpqs]

Java Sea.

[witpqs]

Philippines.

[witpqs]

Okinawa.

[witpqs]

Air losses.

[witpqs]

1944 December 02

The Empire captured:


The Allies captured:
Batu Pahat is occupied by the Allies

There were Imperial amphibious or airborne operations at:


There were Allied amphibious or airborne operations at:
Christmas Island IO

Imperial Naval Bombardments


Allied Naval Bombardments:
Allied Ships Bombarding Amami Oshima


Our subs had a quiet day.

Zombie eradication continues in China.

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Ground combat at 69,51 (near Lao Cai)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 4616 troops, 21 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 84

Defending force 2098 troops, 9 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 11

Allied adjusted assault: 40

Japanese adjusted defense: 1

Allied assault odds: 40 to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
83 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

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

Assaulting units:
3rd Chinese Corps

Defending units:
104th/B Division


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The sweeps over Hengyang went fine, but the B-24 strikes did not fly due to weather. Try again tomorrow. Near Kweilin the Empire has virtually given up the surrounding territory and units are railing out of Kweilin. There is one small unit SE of Kweilin blocking the road, but an armoured Rgt and TD Bn will arrive there along both directions of travel on the road (from Liuchow and from Wuchow) to clear the pathway. Base forces and engineers are already starting along the road from Liuchow to Wuchow.

More attacks tomorrow on Malaya and Sumatra preparing for the final shows. Christmas Island will be ours tomorrow.

The landing craft in the San Jose invasion need frequent refueling and will only make the rendezvous tomorrow - maybe. The invasion will be a day or two after that.

The troops on Amami Oshima recover well, but we took another beating in the air attacking a nothing convoy near Nagasaki/Sasebo. See air losses below. We are pulling back the carriers a hex, and one TF is heading back to Guam for replenishment.

Over on Okinawa the two infantry divisions will arrive at Nago tomorrow, the armor and artillery the day after. Three divisions have loaded aboard ship, with one leaving behind some motorized support that will be picked up by another convoy (which is currently bringing in a base force).

China.

[witpqs]

Malay Peninsula & Sumatra.

[witpqs]

Java Sea.

[witpqs]

Philippines.

[witpqs]

Okinawa. IJN subs are moving on our carriers. Today an ASW TF punished one of them, but there are at least two more sub TF coming in.

[witpqs]

Air losses.

[RogerJNeilson]

Once China starts to topple it can become like a house of cards....

Roger

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Roger Neilson 3

Once China starts to topple it can become like a house of cards....

Roger

Looking forward to that! We should have Singapore under siege within 10 days, maybe less. Against >70,000 troops we will have 9x divisions, ~1,000 AV of armour (some with varying amounts of squads), and heavy artillery. Kuching will be a size 8 airfield (doubling air support) in about 4 days, so those B-24 groups that are flying long distance to hit Singapore will switch to normal range. The point is I expect a short siege at Singapore. Not sure how many units it will shatter, but then all units not required for garrison will be available for action against the Empire in China, Korea, and Japan. The British carriers and battleships will be available (plus the amazing Richelieu!). I'm thinking of a landing at the open terrain base just south of Shanghai to help short circuit any defense against our forces movement after Canton/Hong Kong.

I've also begun thinking about whether to land in SW Korea after Hokkaido.

I have bought out one Australian division in Sydney, and a second there will be bought out before the end of the month. Those are preparing for Hokkaido, giving us even more force to secure that island.

[RogerJNeilson]

My read on China and also the Philippines is there are just too many places to defend and the Empire doesn't have the resources or the engineering capacity to build them all up - and if they sink their efforts into defending the islands its even worse. So once you penetrate the line they have made its a very brittle one. You might find one or two places well fortified, but a lot of the bases will turn out to be open to your advances. Certainly that's my experience.

Roger

[Lowpe]

How about a victory point picture again?

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

How about a victory point picture again?

We will get some nice base points in the near future with big troop totals attached.

[witpqs]

1944 December 03

The Empire captured:


The Allies captured:
Christmas Island IO is occupied by the Allies
Allied forces CAPTURE Praboemoelih !!!
Allied forces CAPTURE Kluong !!!

There were Imperial amphibious or airborne operations at:


There were Allied amphibious or airborne operations at:


Imperial Naval Bombardments


Allied Naval Bombardments:
Allied Ships Bombarding Amami Oshima
Allied Ships Bombarding Amami Oshima
Allied Ships Bombarding Amami Oshima


Our subs had another day of scouting waters the enemy is too frightened to sail.

Good day on the ground in China.

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Ground combat at 69,51 (near Lao Cai)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 4600 troops, 21 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 84

Defending force 1970 troops, 6 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2

Allied adjusted assault: 87

Japanese adjusted defense: 1

Allied assault odds: 87 to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
2245 casualties reported
Squads: 107 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 127 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 6 (6 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Assaulting units:
3rd Chinese Corps

Defending units:
104th/B Division


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Ground combat at 75,54 (near Kweilin)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 17942 troops, 74 guns, 14 vehicles, Assault Value = 810

Defending force 416 troops, 11 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 9

Allied adjusted assault: 229

Japanese adjusted defense: 1

Allied assault odds: 229 to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
615 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 58 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 12 (12 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

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

Assaulting units:
3rd New Chinese Corps
9th Australian Division (Did not attack to recover disruption/fatigue.)
II Australian Corps
517th Field Artillery Battalion

Defending units:
61st Infantry Brigade


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There are now about 51,000 troops in Kweilin, but how many are intent on moving out? I believe all but a rear guard. We will use modest forces to assault Kweilin, coupled with air support.

In the mountains, though, the Imperials are having more success withdrawing in an orderly fashion. That is partly their own skillful doing, but owes more to the limitations of moving supply in the mountains. Our troops find recovery somewhat slow but resupply for the next attack even more time consuming.

DAW HQ managed to slip the 10th Division into Canton, now sporting >66,000 troops, 478 guns, and 359 AFV in 24 units. The 10th was still moving in today, from the east, in-hex with much of our armor. We had no Intel on the unit (now known as the 10th) so P-51B and P-38L dedicated to low ground strikes were sent in to catch flying banners and such. Clearly the Empire's bomber raids were meant to protect the 10th's passage but that proved unnecessary as it outran our tanks. Our Mustangs and Thunderbolts savaged the death gliders all the same. See air losses below. Meanwhile, the B-24 groups found the weather good enough and our sweeps made certain there was no interference with their aim. Hengyang airfield shows as 77% damaged but is surely even worse off! The 4EB will begin hitting troops in Canton (the airfield is still 35% damaged from long ago) and our infantry and armor will begin entering the city as soon as tomorrow. Seven divisions and ten armored units will have the city invested within a few days, with another infantry division and two more armored units still traveling. The artillery is a week or 8 days away, the AA a little closer. The 2EB and F (for ground strikes) will continue training until the first ground assault.

Closer to Singapore and Palembang.

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Ground combat at Praboemoelih (48,92)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 3457 troops, 48 guns, 16 vehicles, Assault Value = 113

Defending force 689 troops, 9 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 12

Allied adjusted assault: 50

Japanese adjusted defense: 1

Allied assault odds: 50 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Praboemoelih !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
792 casualties reported
Squads: 45 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 47 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 9 (9 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 2 (2 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

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

Assaulting units:
147th(Sep) Infantry Regiment

Defending units:
Yokosuka 4th SNLF


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Ground combat at Kluong (50,82)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 28678 troops, 363 guns, 1632 vehicles, Assault Value = 2114

Defending force 4790 troops, 32 guns, 6 vehicles, Assault Value = 25

Allied adjusted assault: 1024

Japanese adjusted defense: 25

Allied assault odds: 40 to 1 (fort level 0)

Allied forces CAPTURE Kluong !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), fatigue(-), experience(-)
supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
2643 casualties reported
Squads: 11 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 113 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 27 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 22 (16 destroyed, 6 disabled)
Vehicles lost 7 (7 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 4

Allied ground losses:
139 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 8 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
Gardner's Horse Regiment
3rd Carabiniers Regiment
254th Armoured Brigade
26th Indian Division
150th RAC Regiment
255th Indian Tank Brigade
20th Indian Division
50th Tank Brigade
18th Cavalry Regiment
268th Motorised Brigade
16th Light Cavalry Regiment
5th Indian Division

Defending units:
C/50th JNAF Coy
21st Air Flotilla
43rd JNAF AF Unit
42nd JNAF AF Unit
11th JAAF AF Bn


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The spearhead is moving on to Jahore Bahru while an armoured car unit (16th Light Cavalry Regiment) races to take Mersing. Call it 3 or possibly 4 days before Jahore Bahru is taken, then the remaining divisions, artillery, and HQ rail in and prepare for movement into Singapore. Mines are being cleared at Batu Pahat, seemingly the last mined port before Singapore itself.

The 147th will wait for reinforcements before crossing the river into Palembang. Tonight/tomorrow a commando Bn will land on Cocos Islands while Valiant and Queen Elizabeth bombard. The British carriers will patrol nearby to attack any escapees, then make a port strike in the afternoon.

The San Jose invasion will also land tomorrow, but only the portion of the NZ 14th Bde in the APD convoy will start unloading as the landing craft convoy is too slow. No shock attack is required and it's important to get assault troops off of APD as soon as possible because of the high disruption those ships cause. Fighters around the Sulu Sea will add LRCAP to the carrier's own fighter cover. B-24 groups at long range and a P-38L group at Taytay will hit Manila airfield, where bombers and auxiliaries are located. Clark field has fighters but it's not clear how many. The massive draw down in Imperial fighter strength in the Philippines is pretty well confirmed by the massive build up in the Home Islands. It seems they don't want us hitting those factories.

The troops at Amami Oshima are not yet ready to attack again but likely will be ready tomorrow. The infantry has arrived at Nago and tomorrow the armor and artillery will follow suit, meaning that we will be ready for the first attack at Nago the following day. A small CVE TF is returning to Guam to replenish, and while they are there they will add CVE Long Island to their ranks.

China.

[witpqs]

Malay Peninsula & Sumatra.

[witpqs]

Java Sea.

[witpqs]

Philippines.

[witpqs]

Okinawa.