Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[ny59giants]

I've woken up to t-storms that last two morning here in NE Tennessee. There was an article I read the other day ranking the annual rainfall for all 50 states. I was mildly surprise to see Tenn as #6 for annual amounts. I feel sorry for those who live in SE USA as your water issues don't seem to be getting any better and shortage are going to get worse in future.

[Mike Solli]

Didn't realize you were in Tennessee, Michael. I'm keeping an eye on you up here in Ohio. We've been getting more than our fair share of rain. You guys can keep it.

[Mike Solli]

9 Sep 43

Sub War

I keep a couple subs moving around in the pond between Merauke and Australia. The I-157 caught an xAKL a few hexes west of Merauke (what was she doing there?) and sank her.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

[>:]

SE Fleet

In the middle of the night, my Ansyu class PB was peacefully unloading supply at the wrecked port at Manus when 4x US DEs arrived to try and shoot her up with 3" guns. [:D] She took 10x 3" shells with very little noticeable damage. She's on her way home now but successfully unloaded 600 supply.

The US CV TF vanished. I suspect it went south again. It gave me an idea. Anyone read the old Clancy novel Red Storm Rising? There was a part in there where the Soviets planted a noisemaker in the middle of a mine field and sank a British sub that way. I'm going to do the WWII version of that. I'm sending a CM with 150 mines to drop them off there and then will send another fast transport TF down there to unload supply. Hopefully, those DEs will come back and find some presents. [:D]

A total of 171 Allied bomber sorties mainly hit Manus' port (already was trashed) and a few hit Talasea's runway. Overall, it was a waste.

SRA
Burma

Nothing to report.

China

Another deliberate assault reduced the fort to level 4. Yay! Three Chinese units were destroyed.

Ground combat at Chungking (76,45)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 174325 troops, 1961 guns, 1573 vehicles, Assault Value = 5192

Defending force 380196 troops, 1053 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 14118

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 4

Japanese adjusted assault: 1531

Allied adjusted defense: 32805

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 21 (fort level 4)

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

Japanese ground losses:
25399 casualties reported
Squads: 35 destroyed, 1979 disabled
Non Combat: 9 destroyed, 220 disabled
Engineers: 16 destroyed, 371 disabled
Guns lost 155 (6 destroyed, 149 disabled)
Vehicles lost 122 (4 destroyed, 118 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
10579 casualties reported
Squads: 80 destroyed, 737 disabled
Non Combat: 50 destroyed, 224 disabled
Engineers: 5 destroyed, 16 disabled
Guns lost 71 (4 destroyed, 67 disabled)
Units destroyed 3

Time to recover then do it all over again.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: TK Anjo Maru, Type-1 TM (8150 capacity)

Yamato, Musashi and the 6 Hatsuharus entered refit at Kobe.

[Chickenboy]

Hey Mike, just a placeholder from 'well wishers': [8D]

"Let's Win the East Asia War"

[ny59giants]

Anyone read the old Clancy novel Red Storm Rising?

So you are going to bet with just a pair of fives?

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants_MatrixForum

Anyone read the old Clancy novel Red Storm Rising?

So you are going to bet with just a pair of fives?

That's about all the Japanese have... [8|]

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Hey Mike, just a placeholder from 'well wishers': [8D]

"Let's Win the East Asia War"

Now that's pretty cool. Where'd you. find that?

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Hey Mike, just a placeholder from 'well wishers': [8D]

"Let's Win the East Asia War"

Now that's pretty cool. Where'd you. find that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_ ... ish_Borneo

There's a couple other interesting pieces of propaganda there too. Including this (below). Want to tame your own currency inflation? OK. Print promissory notes in dollars! Brilliant! [:D]

[Zorch]

Did you hear about the Chinese printer who made the Japanese 'scrip' in occupied China? He designed it with the central figure having an upraised middle finger. He was executed when someone noticed.
I can't remember where I read this.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Zorch

Did you hear about the Chinese printer who made the Japanese 'scrip' in occupied China? He designed it with the central figure having an upraised middle finger. He was executed when someone noticed.
I can't remember where I read this.

So you mean the occupying Imperial Japanese would have no sense of humor about their man-diety central figure in a profane gesture? Who'd a thunk it?

[Bif1961]

I live in Phenix City, AL notice we are so poor here we couldn't afford the O in Phenix.

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

I live in Phenix City, AL notice we are so poor here we couldn't afford the O in Phenix.

O no!!

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Pax, where the heck to you live?! I'll gladly send some of this rain your way. Been trying to fill in an old pond that we didn't want any more. Damn thing keeps filling up with water.

Valley of the Sun - Phoenix area

I am in over watch in the high country, to keep Pax on the straight and narrow! [:D]

Thankfully the rim country did better than we did … hopefully cut down on the fires this summer. And there were a few squalls in the valley, but my house? zilch. Nathan. Nada. [:o]

[RangerJoe]

Just to let you know that I have been reading this AAR. If I ever try the Japanese side in a grand campaign, what you have explained will help alot.

Here is a picture of the offending bank note:

https://www.banknotes.com/cnj61.htm

Another picture on page 23 and its replacement with an explanation on page 25:

http://thecurrencycollector.com/pdfs/Ja ... _China.pdf

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo



Valley of the Sun - Phoenix area

I am in over watch in the high country, to keep Pax on the straight and narrow! [:D]

Thankfully the rim country did better than we did … hopefully cut down on the fires this summer. And there were a few squalls in the valley, but my house? zilch. Nathan. Nada. [:o]

That "Viewpoint" fire a few weeks ago was nearby. A DC-10 supertanker dropped a little over a mile from my house. With no competition from other fires they had almost everything in the air you could imagine that day: the DC-10, some big 4E prop, 2E, 1E, 1 rotor helicopters, 2 rotor helicopter. Really not sure how many of each so I just guess 1 each of the bigger boys.

A friend in the hills called when he saw smoke. Terrain prevented him from seeing how close it was to me. During the few minutes I was on the phone with him I saw the smoke of the flame front (it's different from the areas already going) go from SW of me to NE of me. Later I heard the firefighters clocked it at 25 mph. I sure can't run 25 mph! [X(]

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: witpqs



I am in over watch in the high country, to keep Pax on the straight and narrow! [:D]

Thankfully the rim country did better than we did … hopefully cut down on the fires this summer. And there were a few squalls in the valley, but my house? zilch. Nathan. Nada. [:o]

That "Viewpoint" fire a few weeks ago was nearby. A DC-10 supertanker dropped a little over a mile from my house. With no competition from other fires they had almost everything in the air you could imagine that day: the DC-10, some big 4E prop, 2E, 1E, 1 rotor helicopters, 2 rotor helicopter. Really not sure how many of each so I just guess 1 each of the bigger boys.

A friend in the hills called when he saw smoke. Terrain prevented him from seeing how close it was to me. During the few minutes I was on the phone with him I saw the smoke of the flame front (it's different from the areas already going) go from SW of me to NE of me. Later I heard the firefighters clocked it at 25 mph. I sure can't run 25 mph! [X(]

For reference, the fastest sprinters in MLB are just about 20-21 mph.

[witpqs]

Here is a link to a video of the super-tanker drop I caught with my cell phone. It's a few minutes long while the plane turns around to make its run.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=199lEfmtFWv_x3UG2-YQWbIiKjv0fLBD8

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Here is a link to a video of the super-tanker drop I caught with my cell phone. It's a few minutes long while the plane turns around to make its run.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=199lEfmtFWv_x3UG2-YQWbIiKjv0fLBD8

Balls of steel, that guy. [X(]

The glints off of the front of the aircraft at 4:15-firing central mount 12.7mm MGs?

[anarchyintheuk]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Here is a link to a video of the super-tanker drop I caught with my cell phone. It's a few minutes long while the plane turns around to make its run.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=199lEfmtFWv_x3UG2-YQWbIiKjv0fLBD8

Balls of steel, that guy. [X(]

The glints off of the front of the aircraft at 4:15-firing central mount 12.7mm MGs?

Just what I was thinking . . . why do they need forward firing hard points on a tanker?

[Mike Solli]

That's crazy stuff, guys. By the way, it's raining here again today. We got over an inch yesterday and so far today (as of 5am) another half inch. We've gotten 6.5" this month which is 3" more than the average. Definitely a damp month. 27" for the year so far, some of it snow.

Anyway, back to the war....

10 Sep 43

Sub War

An Allied sub finally hit something off Truk. The Grayback hit an xAK entering Truk, but the damage was surprisingly light. She’ll repair for a few days and then head out full of resources.

5 Fleet
4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Well, Ted finally broke this area wide open. He invaded Manus one day too early. My CM was 6 hexes out and was caught by SBDs and sunk after being hit by 12x 1000 lb bombs. Too bad. Those mines would have caused some disruption of the invasion fleet. His bombers went after the troops, which will not be able to hold off the attackers. There’s a Naval Guard, a SNLF company and a couple of AS units, each with a company of troops. That versus the 37 and 43 IDs, a combat engineer regiment and the XIV HQ. Note that the 37 ID is the Ohio National Guard. I spend many years in the 37 Separate Infantry Brigade (an extreme cold weather unit destined to guard the Aleutian Islands back in the cold war era, then the 37 Armored Brigade, the current version). I spent a LOT of years practicing freezing. And that was before we had decent cold weather gear. Anyone remember Mickey Mouse boots? We had ‘em but weren’t allowed to use them. How’s that for good leadership?

Manus Island is a shrewd choice. Its airfield is currently 2(5) so he’ll be able to stage 4E bombers there with a little expansion. It is 16 hexes from Truk, so that base will eventually be targeted. I’ve been pulling resources from Nauru and Ocean Islands. That is over. I’ll pull my main fleet back to Saipan, which has been building up for such an eventuality.

I am going to try and make it difficult for him though. The airbase and port are both trashed, so he won’t be able to base fighters there for a little while after he takes it. I have level 3 forts so I hope to hold out a day or two. I figure a week before he can base his fighters there.

I’m not going to post the replays. Too many of them. He had separate TFs for each of the 4 ground units, a bombardment TF, the CV TF and a (maybe) covering surface TF. It looks like the raw AV is 834:87 in his favor. I’ve got level 3 forts and jungle so maybe I can hold out a few days.

I’ve moved KB (Shokaku, Zuikaku & Soryu) to 10 hexes NE of Manus and MKB (Ryujo, Shoho and Hosho) 12 hexes NE, 2 hexes north of KB. I have a lot of planes flying naval search so I should be able to keep an eye on anything going on in the area. The idea is that my Jills with KB can hit any Allied shipping at Manus with torpedoes and MKBs Jills can hit ships at Manus with bombs. The Judys with KB are doing some naval search out 7 hexes and will hit anything in that 7 hex range should he stray north (but I doubt he will). Here’s what they have available:

KB:
72 A6M5
27 A6M5c
54 Judy
54 Jill

MKB:
69 A6M5
27 Jill

In addition, I have 45 Betties and 27 Nells on night naval attack. 21 flew against the US carriers but missed last night. They mistakenly carried bombs because I forgot to replenish the HQ with torpedoes. They’ll be carrying torpedoes tonight.

I know he has at least 36 SBD-5s, which have an 11 hex range with drop tanks. I suspect he won’t do that because of the inability to escort them at that range. I’m pretty sure that, unless the US carriers move north of Manus, my carriers will be out of range. We’ll see.

I can see what appears to be a surface TF sitting at Manas. It may be the carriers (but I doubt it). We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Soon he’ll have Manus and Kavieng, making a ring around Rabaul, Gasmata and Talasea, and rendering them useless.

I’m curious what bombers have a 16 hex range. Gotta check that out. I also need to see if there are any fighters that have that kind of range to escort them.

SRA
Burma
China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

A third convoy left Singapore for the Home Islands today hauling 163k resources. That makes a total of 365k that left since yesterday. More is loading.