Well its been a while since I last posted - 2 months and basically 2 months have passed in game. It is Feb 8th, 1943 now and the turns are either slow or exciting...
Burma:
MrKane is moving in the open now heading for Shwebo. I have been trying to bomb the stack of troops but between the weather and 4E bomber closing airfields its not easy to find somewhere to base my Helens out of. He has caught them twice on the ground, decimating them both times (although once they were only Sallies).
Defenders at Shwebo are 3 Inf Divs behind lvl 4 forts with 5 AA units. They have not been heavily bombed recently so are in good shape. I'm not sure if I will hold here or resist and then fall back to Manadalay behind the river - where I'm building more defenses. It will depend on what his incoming force actually is. He has a habit of splitting all of his units up into their component pieces to make the unit count higher than it actually is, so we will see. My guess is 2-3 divisions with heavy artillery and possible a Tank Division if he has one in theater.
Shwebo Prong: 24 allied units: 62,940 men, 723 guns and 1660 AFVs
He has 2 Inf Divisions at Lashio (been there several weeks now) along with a couple Arty units doing a daily bombardment. My troops opposing him take little to no loses and inflict a few to him each turn. I think the force here may just be a holding force to tie down my men while he moves in the open.
South and East of Lashio are small 1 unit allied forces - with the one to the SE recently mauled by a Guards Tank Division. It was 2 hexes to the west holding the fork in the trail so I pushed him off.
Weather has been a real pain for me here limiting my strikes, while seemingly not doing anything to diminish his attacks. I think he recently either pulled fighter units out or had to withdraw them, as a lot of P-40s haven't been seen for a while -- at least 5 groups (roughly 125 - 200 fighters).
In the air I am finally beginning to have some successes, as long as I can keep away from those damn P-38s. Although the P-38s have not run into any of my A6M5c zeros yet - so I'm not sure if they will be an improvement or not.
Magwe has been bombed several times, but only he air fields. He hasn't made any effort to hit the oil there - not any air raids on Rangoon yet.
