Climb Mt. Niitaka - Xargun vs Mr Kane

[Xargun]

China:



The China front is fairly stable due to my lack of attention here. I should have cleared the rail to the west months ago, but forgot about it due to the activity in Burma and Solomons.

I have fresh troops moving along the rail bombarding the 5 Chinese Corps there daily with an attack every 4-5 days. Four of the Corps are trashed but one is in good shape. Once I get him beatup the units should retreat to the west making the fall of that position easier.

I have move divisions than I can stack in one hex at a time so I am keeping them a hex away and moving them in to replace beat up units after each attack - trying to keep up the pressure.

Bombers from Hengyang and Changsha bomb them almost daily as well.

[Xargun]

SW Pacific:



This front is fairly stable as well. The 49th Aus Battalion at Wewak is trapped and I am strafing them daily with Nicks.

The 3rd US Marine Raiders are moving up towards Kavieng, and I have had little successful strafing them due to LR CAP . The Marine Battalion will face off against a SNLF at Kavieng and I don't think they have the firepower to beat them.

Other than that not much is happening here. I am continuously moving supply from Rabaul to Manus and then north and have so far moved over 20k supply from Rabaul. I want to get Rabaul down to around 30k supply before I leave it alone. Units at Rabaul are going to probably die there unless I end up airlifting more of them out when the time comes.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun


The Burmese front has basically collapsed from initial plans and I am planning to hold NE of Moulmein and in the Jungle and rough terrain there.

Just remember that you need to withdraw EAST, not South ...

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun
SW Pacific

I feel this is mostly a sideshow. Your danger is that you get leapfrogged and then isolated. YOu can afford to lose land here, what you cannot afford to happen is getting units cut off and isolated for the balance of the war. POW's are a bad thing for you. Be sure you have exit plans for all of your units, and where you cannot make a good plan, then consider getting them out. Leave a small fragment behind, sure, but you do not want to the ability to control your units.

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
Just remember that you need to withdraw EAST, not South ...

Yep. Once I abandon Moulmein it will be eastward, with a few small units heading south to reinforce Bangkok. I have roughly 2 million units of fuel / oil in Singapore I want to haul home and don't want to lose it any earlier than I have too. Another couple months and I should have enough fuel / oil in Japan to last through 45 - that's all I care about.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo
Just remember that you need to withdraw EAST, not South ...

Yep. Once I abandon Moulmein it will be eastward, with a few small units heading south to reinforce Bangkok. I have roughly 2 million units of fuel / oil in Singapore I want to haul home and don't want to lose it any earlier than I have too. Another couple months and I should have enough fuel / oil in Japan to last through 45 - that's all I care about.

+1

I hate giving up Singers due to the port/RSY, but you can't really hold it. Always tough to decide what units I leave there ...

[Xargun]

ORIGINAL: Xargun

Yep. Once I abandon Moulmein it will be eastward, with a few small units heading south to reinforce Bangkok. I have roughly 2 million units of fuel / oil in Singapore I want to haul home and don't want to lose it any earlier than I have too. Another couple months and I should have enough fuel / oil in Japan to last through 45 - that's all I care about.

I checked last night and I have enough Oil / Fuel in Japan to last until Aug 44 right now providing I don't use any for ships - which we all know will happen. But I have a nice cushion of fuel in Japan. I'm sure it has helped that the KB hasn't seen any action in many months - simply sitting in port - although she is moving right now to repair yards for the 4/43 upgrade -- which I wonder if Mr Kane is waiting for a week or so to hope I'm in repair yards and unable to respond to any moves he makes.

[Xargun]

Its April now and the push in Burma is continuing, the air war in SW Pacific is picking up again and no signs of the North Pacific being built up at all although I stayed in the area 1 turn too long trying to bag some merchies (most likely bait) and the Allied Death Star caught my CVEs and sunk them [:@] I was part way home and turned around to try to bag the merchies when I shouldn't have been greedy and just went home.



Burma:


My units West of Lashio are dwindling fast and probably next turn will be destroyed completely. Thats fine as I either have bits of them air lifted out or are small enough they will rebuild quickly when I buy them back.

Lashio is still holding although the allies are only bombing from the air and bombarding from land. Not sure he has enough land forces here to push me out without a long bombardment / air campaign.

My roadblock SW of Toungoo was destroyed last turn (a small 20mm AA unit) opening the road for the allies to march down to Pegu and cut off Rangoon. I figure he wants Rangoon's airfield as he has not bombed it once yet. Or maybe he wants the LI for supplies ?

He Deliberate Attacked Rangoon this turn and was rebuked, but lowered the forts by 1.

Ground combat at Rangoon (54,53)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 82209 troops, 1307 guns, 2060 vehicles, Assault Value = 2957

Defending force 28927 troops, 390 guns, 463 vehicles, Assault Value = 919

Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 3

Allied adjusted assault: 3038

Japanese adjusted defense: 2313

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

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 3

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

Japanese ground losses:
2194 casualties reported
Squads: 14 destroyed, 101 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 49 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Guns lost 91 (2 destroyed, 89 disabled)
Vehicles lost 12 (1 destroyed, 11 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1658 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 161 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 52 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 47 disabled
Guns lost 17 (3 destroyed, 14 disabled)
Vehicles lost 130 (32 destroyed, 98 disabled)

Assaulting units:
2/6th Armoured Regiment
40th Infantry Division
I Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
159th(Sep) Infantry Regiment
255th Armoured Brigade
6th Australian Division
254th Armoured Brigade
27th Infantry Division
2/10th Armoured Regiment
50th Tank Brigade
2/5th Armoured Regiment
150th RAC Regiment
7th Australian Division
41st Infantry Division
2/11th Armoured Car Regiment
46th Indian Brigade
2/11th Field Regiment
214th Coast AA Regiment
69th Coast AA Regiment
188th Field Artillery Battalion
2/2nd Heavy AA Regiment
2/16th Field Regiment
30th Field Artillery Regiment
2/1 AIF Pioneer Battalion
217th Coast AA Regiment
2/2 AIF Pioneer Battalion
168th Field Artillery Battalion
183rd Field Artillery Battalion
181st Field Artillery Battalion
86th Coast AA Regiment
2/9th Field Regiment
2/1st Med Regiment
63rd Coast AA Regiment
II Australian Corps
24th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
163rd Light AA Regiment

Defending units:
4th Guards Division
143rd Infantry Regiment
Guards Tank Division
22nd Air Flotilla
2nd RF Gun Battalion
8th RF Gun Battalion
35th Field AA Battalion
19th Field AA Machinecannon Company
34th Field AA Battalion
21st Fld AA Gun Co
20th AA Regiment
12th Base Force

Hoping alot of those disabled vehicles are tanks so it may be a couple turns before he attacks again. With the road to Pegu open I am abandoning Rangoon. All units there have been ordered to march to Moulmein along the road. I am leaving the Divisions in Combat mode in case he attacks again, but everyone else is in movement mode for speed.

[Xargun]

Burma Continued:

The allies finally bombed my new line of resistance 1 hex north of Moulmein. 48 B-25s flew in fast and low and were greeted by a wall of flak [:D]

Morning Air attack on 7th Ind.Tank Brigade, at 56,54 , near Moulmein

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 37 NM, estimated altitude 1,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes

Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 16
B-25D1 Mitchell x 32

Allied aircraft losses
B-25C Mitchell: 5 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 1 destroyed by flak
B-25D1 Mitchell: 32 damaged
B-25D1 Mitchell: 3 destroyed by flak

Japanese ground losses:
81 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 14 (1 destroyed, 13 disabled)

Aircraft Attacking:
14 x B-25D1 Mitchell bombing and strafing from low level *
Ground Attack: 3 x 500 lb GP Bomb
14 x B-25D1 Mitchell bombing and strafing from low level *
Ground Attack: 3 x 500 lb GP Bomb
15 x B-25C Mitchell bombing from 1000 feet *
Ground Attack: 1 x 500 lb GP Bomb

Losses were much higher than reported in the combat report so many of the B-25s must have crashed on the way home.

[Xargun]

My Naval Construction is still going full speed and by the end of May I should have 2 new CVEs and 3 new CVs joining the IJN. Once these carriers arrive I will either begin accelerating DDs or cut naval production to save HI.

[Xargun]

My fighters still cannot compete in the air versus the allies, but in early May I will get the N1K1-J George and Ki-110-I Tony for what should be a massive upgrade for both IJA and IJN fighters. I am planning on letting 2 of the 5 George factories turn into production (and then be increased to 60 each) and the other 3 will rollover to the N1K2-J George.

As I replace my land-based IJN fighter units with Georges, I will be moving in some higher skilled pilots and see what they can do with the much better air frame. I do plan on keeping 2 units of A6M2 Zeros (as long as I have replacements for them) for deep penetrating escorts or sweeps.