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

[witpqs]

1945 February 19

The Empire captured:


The Allies captured:
Allied forces CAPTURE Ebon !!!

There were Imperial amphibious or airborne operations at:


There were Allied amphibious or airborne operations at:
Ebon
Taliaboe

Imperial Naval Bombardments


Allied Naval Bombardments:
Allied Ships Bombarding Shanghai


Our subs are conducting secret activities.

No ground attacks in China today, but two tomorrow: Sinyang and Luchow. Much movement otherwise, including two divisions that reached Anking and are turning right (east) to move on Nanking. Hong Kong still has well over 300k supply, and now >96k is unloading at Wenchow and >55k unloading at Foochow. Formosa reports adequate supply with more on the way so the air offensive is also not hamstrung. After dispatching 2x SC, the bombardment of Shanghai went well.

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Night Naval bombardment of Shanghai at 92,55

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-46-III Dinah: 7 damaged
Ki-46-III Dinah: 1 destroyed on ground
H8K2-L Emily: 43 damaged
H8K2-L Emily: 2 destroyed on ground

Japanese Ships
xAP Kachidoki Maru, Shell hits 2, on fire
CS Chitose, Shell hits 1
xAP Ural Maru, Shell hits 1
SS RO-114, hits 1, heavy fires

Allied Ships
BB Richelieu
BB King George V
BB Howe
BB Prince of Wales
BC Renown

Japanese ground losses:
950 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 11 disabled
Non Combat: 23 destroyed, 43 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 21 (4 destroyed, 17 disabled)
Vehicles lost 17 (9 destroyed, 8 disabled)

Airbase hits 26
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 71
Port hits 2

BB Richelieu firing at Shanghai
BB King George V firing at Shanghai
BB Howe firing at Shanghai
BB Prince of Wales firing at Shanghai
Walrus II acting as spotter for BC Renown
BC Renown firing at 62nd Infantry Brigade


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Tomorrow some B-24 groups will hit the Betty factories at Nagasaki/Sasebo, others will hit the Armament Assembly plants, still others plus the B-29-1 and B-29-25 will strikes at Manpower centers. Sweeps today went well and will continue tomorrow in support of the raids, which themselves will (maybe) have P-38 escorts.

There were numerous nighttime bomber raids on the fleet at Hakodate but flak warded off all of them. And an RO type sub hit one of our mines! The runways and airfield services are repaired completely and the port is down to 79% damage (still with Fires 1!). 72 land aviation support is ashore, so we have brought in three night fighter squadrons.

Sweeps of Hirosaki/Aomori from Kushiro were successful. The armor has reached Bihoro. The Muroran invasion convoys are leaving the Marianas for a point far SE of Kushiro.

China west.

[witpqs]

China east.

[witpqs]

Philippines.

[witpqs]

Home Islands west.

[witpqs]

Home Islands east.

[witpqs]

Air losses.

[RangerJoe]

Both sides are losing lots of aircraft, are you going to run out of planes or pilots?

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Both sides are losing lots of aircraft, are you going to run out of planes or pilots?

Is that a joke?

It is 1945 for the Allies.

He will never run out. Perhaps his pilot quality won't be great for some things, but run out? Never.

[RangerJoe]

Nope, not a joke. I just will not comment any more.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

Nope, not a joke. I just will not comment any more.

Nonsense - you better keep commenting! [8D]

Yes, I absolutely have shortages of both planes and pilots. It's not across the board and the breakdown is extensive so I'll be a bit general. When I use the term 'trained' below I mean a pilot(crew) trained up to the front line standards I am using.

US Navy: The trained fighter pilot pool is exhausted, and I mean completely. There are fighter pilots in the reserve but they have experience and Air skill in the 50's. DB and TB pilots are in good shape but would be wiped out quickly with any big losses. Recon pilots are trained in operating squadrons as the pool is dry. Naval search pool (I know it's not a formal pool name) is nice and deep. Lots of planes available now of all types. The expansion in squadron sizes is accommodated by the aircraft pools. The constant arrival of aircraft carriers (of various types) has been wonderful but a while ago drained the fighter pilot pools. A long time ago I stopped giving fully trained fighter pilots to CVE squadrons and let them train their own so the pool could be used for the CV/CVL. That helped but the pool still has run dry. The latest fleet carriers to arrive are training their own.

USMC: The planes are Navy (see above). Plenty of trained fighter pilots and other types.

US Army: I ran the fighter pilot pool dry a few turns ago and luckily had a number of well trained pilots in rear area (impromptu 'training') squadrons that I was able to move to the pool. I still have between 100 and 200 of them. Not exactly deep but I was able to avoid sending P-47 squadrons into combat with newbies. B-24J pool is OK, but only because I have not filled out the squadrons after the expansion. As far as pilots go, part of the problem is the best B-24 pilots get taken for B-29 groups when needed, so many of the B-24 groups are always training pilots. When we have enough room at bases close to the Home Islands for more B-24 groups there will be lots of green pilots over Japan! The B-29 groups are nowhere close to being filled out with planes and never will be. At least that does reduce the demand for pilots.

The 2EB (both regular and attack variants) are way, way under strength and will be for the duration. They are also constantly training pilots.

Recon pools are good except for the 4 engine types. Recon pilots pools are adequate but not great. Only trained 'fighter' recon pilots are available now, so they suffer a penalty when moved to a formal Recon plane type group.

For the Allies, the plane pools are in good shape now, finally having caught up. The British trained fighter pilot pool continues to be thin but has not touched bottom for a while. The Chinese are the exception, of course, as they have very low replacement rates and are short of bombers and the best fighters.

One comment about the US pilots. This might have been to make the mod tougher, I don't know. Supposedly the pilot quality (for new pilots just out of basic training) goes up for the US each year and is pretty good by '44. But whenever I pull new pilots into a group to start training them, they are really awful, often with experience in the 30's or worse. Maybe they were left over or something and the better new pilots are making their way through the pipeline or something.

[witpqs]

1945 February 20

The Empire captured:


The Allies captured:
Taliaboe is occupied by the Allies
Allied forces CAPTURE Luchow !!!

There were Imperial amphibious or airborne operations at:


There were Allied amphibious or airborne operations at:
Trinkat

Imperial Naval Bombardments


Allied Naval Bombardments:
Allied Ships Bombarding Hirosaki/Aomori
Allied Ships Bombarding Hirosaki/Aomori
Allied Ships Bombarding Ominato
Allied Ships Bombarding Ominato
Allied Ships Bombarding Hirosaki/Aomori


Our subs are conducting secret activities.

Rolling along in China.

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Ground combat at Luchow (88,51)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 5556 troops, 21 guns, 946 vehicles, Assault Value = 662

Defending force 1438 troops, 19 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 21

Allied adjusted assault: 405

Japanese adjusted defense: 1

Allied assault odds: 405 to 1 (fort level 3)

Allied forces CAPTURE Luchow !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: disruption(-), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1652 casualties reported
Squads: 89 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 78 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 4 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 15 (15 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Assaulting units:
775th Tank Battalion
2/4th Armoured Regiment
Provisionl Tank Brigade
2/6th Armoured Regiment
632nd Tank Destroyer Battalion
706th Tank Battalion
711th Tank Battalion
637th Tank Destroyer Battalion
640th Tank Destroyer Battalion
192nd Tank Battalion
1st Army Tank Regiment

Defending units:
2nd RGC Division
6th RGC Division


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Ground combat at Sinyang (86,48)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 10538 troops, 95 guns, 919 vehicles, Assault Value = 664

Defending force 7316 troops, 26 guns, 132 vehicles, Assault Value = 127

Allied adjusted assault: 451

Japanese adjusted defense: 121

Allied assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 3)

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 2

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

Japanese ground losses:
129 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 17 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 26 (9 destroyed, 17 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
188 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 10 (1 destroyed, 9 disabled)

Assaulting units:
50th Tank Brigade
3rd Carabiniers Regiment
254th Armoured Brigade
150th RAC Regiment
268th Motorised Brigade

Defending units:
12th Tank Regiment
87th Infantry Brigade
6th Area Army
27th Fld AA Gun Co


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From Luchow the armor (minus temp garrison) will race to Hwainan. Sinyang is obviously about to fall and the troops are in good shape. Alas, supply is low as it has to flow to them around the back roads and through Ichang. We'll risk that supply is good for another deliberate attack.

Hirosaki/Aomori and Ominato bombardments all went in as planned, including wrecking some fleeing shipping, but were very different in character. The airfield at Hirosaki/Aomori was very badly damaged with numerous aircraft damaged or destroyed. Ominato airbase seemed to be spared with most of the gunfire being exchanged with the fortress complex. The battleships are almost back to Kushiro where they will reload, so turn around will be about 3 days (bombardment, +3 days another, and so on).

There were again many night air attacks on our fleet at Hakodate and our night fighters made no appearances at all. Enemy altitude varied greatly and certainly our interceptors could have intercepted some or all of them. Perhaps warning time was too short, our LB radars not yet unpacked? We have a huge number of air search radars afloat of course. I've adjusted the altitude assignments somewhat on the night fighters.

With so many additional support units coming ashore at Hakodate plus a large batch of combat units straight from the West Coast I have ordered the two divisions to begin their pursuit of the retreated defenders.

At Nagasaki/Sasebo as has become the standard our 4EB ran cover for the fighters so they could zoom around the enemy airbase in the early evening. The Betty factories are now wiped out, as are the Armament Assembly plants. Some decent fires were started, now >22,000 but were a peak of >44,000. Tomorrow all the same bombers will go again and target Light Industry.

China west.

[witpqs]

China east.

[witpqs]

Philippines.

[witpqs]

Home Islands west.

[witpqs]

Home Islands east.

[witpqs]

Air losses.

[witpqs]

Nagasaki/Sasebo.

[witpqs]

1945 February 21

The Empire captured:


The Allies captured:
Trinkat is occupied by the Allies

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 Hachinohe


Our subs are conducting secret activities.

Sinyang is now really, really, really ready to fall!

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Ground combat at Sinyang (86,48)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 10410 troops, 95 guns, 919 vehicles, Assault Value = 643

Defending force 7133 troops, 26 guns, 122 vehicles, Assault Value = 95

Allied adjusted assault: 481

Japanese adjusted defense: 135

Allied assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 2)

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 1

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

Japanese ground losses:
305 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 37 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Guns lost 8 (3 destroyed, 5 disabled)
Vehicles lost 24 (21 destroyed, 3 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
36 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 11 (1 destroyed, 10 disabled)

Assaulting units:
150th RAC Regiment
3rd Carabiniers Regiment
254th Armoured Brigade
50th Tank Brigade
268th Motorised Brigade

Defending units:
12th Tank Regiment
87th Infantry Brigade
6th Area Army
27th Fld AA Gun Co


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Our troops are now well supplied and continue tomorrow. Today's enemy casualties indicate a blowout tomorrow.

Something went haywire with movement from Luchow to Hwainan, 1 hex away. The first armored unit ordered to move has dutifully accumulated 30 miles on the secondary road and should arrive tomorrow. All of those ordered with "Set All to March" have instead opted for the primary road, which runs NW-NE-SE and into Hwainan after that 3 hex journey. I'll submit a save to Michael, although it might be some type of road race. Boys will be boys, after all. I've individually ordered each of them to set the '(Direct)' flag and they kept their 13 or so miles accumulated. Figure them to arrive in 2 days. The enemy forces present at Hwainan might be able to hold for a bit against a single Sherman/Chaffee Bn but they will attack as soon as they arrive so we will see.

We are beginning to accumulate enough Bde and similar sized forces in the Hangchow/Shaohing/Ningpo area to assault the latter two bases. Recon shows them to be much more lightly held than Hangchow, so as long as we can put adequate blocking forces in place we can push through that area in the next 2 to 4 weeks. Hangchow would be looked at after that.

There were 13 night air attacks on our fleet, but this time the shipboard defenses were aided by vigorous night fighter intercepts. A number of aircraft were destroyed or damaged but all attacking groups still made it to their attack runs. No hits.

One of our subs in the Sea of Japan attacked a task force of fleeing patrol ships and a badly damaged destroyer. The ASW capable ships were too numerous and too vigilant to allow a close approach. The bombardment of Hachinohe damaged a number of aircraft and the airfield but we have no current recon to show the results.

Hakodate base facilities are completely repaired. Work continues on the repair shipyard and the airbase is 39% toward size 3.

Beginning recon of Sadogashima for misdirection.

China west.

[witpqs]

China east.

[witpqs]

Philippines.