A Wench in the Logistics Machine: Mike Solli (J) vs. USS Mike (A)

[USSAmerica]

JAN 4, 1942
It is my sad duty to report that the valiant defenders of Guam have been overwhelmed after holding off a Japanese SNLF and a Naval Guard Unit for 4 weeks. The addition of an Inf Rgt finally became too much for the 8 squads of US Marines. Allied High Command is confident that this relative level of fighting spirit and determination will quickly roll back the Japanese invaders from the territory they have taken possession of, as soon as we can get some soldiers into the fight. Guam has been nothing more than a distraction but fodder for some fun smack talk with Mike in our emails.

Not a lot of other fireworks today. CA's Mikuma and Mogami bombarded Batavia with a few of their DD friends and Mikuma ended up eating a pair of 150mm CD rounds. It only amounted to a little system damage, but something that will accumulate slightly faster than otherwise. Oh, and another 300kg bomb from a 139 found a home on a PB at Oosthaven. If that doesn't sink the PB, it will leave a mark.

Up in the PI, off Iba, two of my subs hit xAK's with Mk-14 torpedoes that actually exploded. One small advantage of Mike not advancing beyond his occasional bombardments of Manila and Clark so far is that I still have a handful of naval search planes operating from Bataan. I really feel that their ability to raise the detection level of Mike's shipping in the area gives a boost to my subs in the region. Once Mike removes my naval search ability in the area I'll redeploy most of the subs from here, leaving just a few behind to keep Mike honest. After the April radar upgrades for my subs, I may sent a few more to this area to see if they can be effective without naval search assisting them.

The Japanese troops didn't make it across into Singapore yet, so they will likely arrive tomorrow.

[USSAmerica]

JAN 5, 1942
Only one item of note for today. Mike's troops crossed into Singapore and launched the auto-Shock attack. 4 divisions, 2 tank regiments, lots of engineers and lots of artillery all in a well timed crossing met my British, Aussie, and Indian defenders. My boys folded up like a cheap tent! It was never in doubt that Singapore would fall relatively quickly when Mike's Mersing landing cut off roughly half of the troops in Malaya from reaching Singapore. Supply was down to around 10k and the available resources to feed the industry and generate more supply were all consumed. I did expect my guys to at least deal out a bloody nose to the Japanese invaders before giving up the ghost, but it wasn't meant to be. Hats off to Mike for getting his troops ashore at Mersing so early and eventually juggling a lot of units into a well coordinated crossing of the causeway. He did get delayed by a week or so while units were changing Ops Mode from Strategic to Combat after landing, or he might have owned Singapore by Christmas. I've already spotted movement arrows for some units heading back north toward George Town and Burma.

Here's the combat report:
Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 56830 troops, 602 guns, 444 vehicles, Assault Value = 1994

Defending force 26796 troops, 327 guns, 222 vehicles, Assault Value = 416

Japanese adjusted assault: 2085

Allied adjusted defense: 417

Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Singapore !!!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
S.19 Singapore III: 1 destroyed
Blenheim I: 2 destroyed
Buffalo I: 1 destroyed

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

Japanese ground losses:
2120 casualties reported
Squads: 9 destroyed, 143 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 24 disabled
Engineers: 8 destroyed, 107 disabled
Guns lost 7 (1 destroyed, 6 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
31780 casualties reported
Squads: 540 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1607 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 94 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 311 (311 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 114 (114 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 31

Assaulting units:
15th Ind. Engineer Regiment
18th Division
4th Ind. Engineer Regiment
5th Division
23rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
Imperial Guards Division
1st Tank Regiment
33rd Division
6th Tank Regiment
5th Mortar Battalion
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
25th Army
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
3rd Mortar Battalion
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion

Defending units:
2/17 Dogra Battalion
2nd Malay Battalion
2nd Gordons Battalion
SSVF Brigade
22nd Australian Brigade
3rd Cavalry Regiment
27th Australian Brigade
2nd Loyal Battalion
1st Malay Battalion
1st Manchester Battalion
12th Indian Brigade
Singapore Fortress
Malayan Air Wing
Singapore Base Force
224 Group RAF
2nd ISF Base Force
3rd Heavy AA Regiment
AHQ Far East
109th RN Base Force
III Indian Corps
1st HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
Malaya Army
24th NZ Pioneer Coy
112th RAF Base Force
272/273rd Bty 80th AT Gun Regiment
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
223 Group RAF
2nd HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
111th RAF Base Force
1st Indian Heavy AA Regiment
5th Field Regiment

[godefroycz]

It hurts on January 5th
I will watch to know what awaits me. The opponent also landed at Mersing.

[USSAmerica]

JAN 6-7, 1942
Mike and I have played two more turns since the capitulation of Singapore without many events of note. I have troops continuing to load on transports at SF. A rather large convoy will be departing in the next day or two with troops for Pago Pago, Suva, Noumea, and even some for Brisbane and Townsville.

At Rangoon, the last of my supply shipments have been unloaded and the remaining ships are clearing out. Once they are clear I'll move out most if not all of the planes that have been flying CAP here. I have one Brit squadron and all 3 squadrons of the AVG here. When the planes bug out, most of the BF units I have here supporting them will also make their way toward Mandalay and India so they don't get cut off and destroyed by the encroaching Japanese forces. Rangoon is only useful to me this early to get supply into China and to keep the Burma Road open. I'm not yet sure where I want to send the AVG. I had been considering Darwin, but may keep them near the front lines in India. They withdraw in 6 months, and it's possible they could be wasted at Darwin if they get no chance to fight before withdrawal. Then again, they are a pretty good deterrent to air attacks at Darwin before I can start to get larger numbers of US fighters to Oz.

Speaking of that supply pump into Burma and China, I noticed in Tracker last turn that the oil stocks in India increased. I didn't turn off the refinery at Ledo so the oil had to flow into India from somewhere. Burma is the only place. I've long since turned off the refineries in Burma, so oil is accumulating there. At the same time, the overall supply levels in Burma dropped by about 7k, while China's supply only increased by a few hundred and India's supply increased by several thousand. I'm convinced that a decent chunk of the supply that I've managed to pack into Burma has been leaking back to India through the jungle. A good bit has made it to China, so I'm glad I made the effort, but it's a bit frustrating too.

The only other event of not was Mike landing at Amchitka Island. My reinforcements for Dutch Harbor are still 4-5 days away along with their escort of 3 CV's. Mike mentioned in his email that Halsey's earlier escapades around Adak have made him a bit paranoid about my carriers. He spotted them a few turns ago as they headed into Seattle to replenish, but hasn't seen them since. I can take some small satisfaction that the Japanese player is paranoid about where the US carriers are in January of '42. It's supposed to be the other way around. I am cautious about where his KB is as I haven't seen them since Port Moresby a couple of weeks ago. It's quite possible that they are providing cover for the landing at Amchitka, but my PBY's at Dutch Harbor have not picked up any signs of them. I hope they are cleared out before my Dutch Harbor reinforcements arrive on the scene. It's way too early for a large scale CV battle for me!

[madflava13]

My vote for the AVG would be Darwin - you know he's going to take the islands off the coast there eventually, and Darwin is an obvious target for Betty/Nell raids. Being able to cull the herd of some experienced pilots there would be more worthwhile than shooting down the occasional Oscar here and there in the CBI area. The other decent option would perhaps be the Chittagong area.

[USSAmerica]

Thanks, madflava. I'm leaning toward Darwin myself, especially for additional LRCAP capability there.

[USSAmerica]

JAN 8, 1942
Mike and I are both slow turning around turns right now as life goes on. We did get one in and I've sent the turn back to him today. The theme of today is Minecraft. Mike managed to find several of the eggs I've left laying around the SRA. BB led bombardment TF's hit Batavia and Balikpapan but they each found 1 or 2 mines. DD Kawakaze hit one on the run into Balikpapan, and both DD Ayanami and CL Sendai each found one at Batavia. Just to rub some salt into the wound, DMS W-4 swept a mine the hard way at Singapore. Sendai and Kawakaze both showed up on the Sunk Ships list.

The only other item of note for today is that the Bombardment TF never actually made it to fire on Balikpapan. I had 6 Dutch PT's stationed there and they kept the enemy tied up long enough to put off the bombardment. 3 of 6 PT's were lost, but the other 3 still caused the following Amphibious TF to retreat and dump their troops on the beach 1 hex outside Balikpapan. Since they can't prep for that hex, I'm sure there were a decent number of disablements to go along with the half dozen squads that were lost over the side. Now, Mike get's to either reload them and then land again at the base or march over to Balikpapan. I've ordered the 3 remaining PT's to try to hit the Amphibious TF either way.
It's only a nice, frustrating delay for him, but that's the name of the game for the Allies right now.

[btd64]

My grandsons love minecraft ....GP

[USSAmerica]

JAN 9 – 11, 1942
A couple of turns have passed with little of note to mention. Mike continues to land troops at various small bases around the DEI. He has Batavia surrounded with troops in the base hex, but I'm making my final stand there with a good number of troops and around 35k supply. He has moved the first troops into Sorebaja but hasn't make any noise there yet. I'm hoping he holds off for 3 more days as I'll get 3 Dutch subs there if I still hold the base. One highlight was scoring a 300kg bomb hit on CA Atago. Just big enough to penetrate her armor and require some shipyard time.

In Burma, Mike is working to flank the base at Pegu and cut the rail line inland. The Burma Road remains open for now as the major road around Toungoo remains open despite Mike's airborne troops capturing that base. A large number of the base forces I had at Rangoon are currently making their way around Toungoo to Mandalay via Strategic Road movement. There is still around 48k of supply sitting at Rangoon, that I hope to be able to draw inland toward China before it's cut off.

The initial defensive troops continue to arrive at various South Pacific bases while the first larger wave is a few days out of SF. A large convoy of empty transports reached SF yesterday. A few days to clean up minor wear and tear will be just enough time to get a handful of APD's out of the shipyard there for escort duty. More troops, supply, and fuel will be southbound then.

Up north is where some potential excitement could happen next turn. Halsey and his 3 CV TF escorted a troop convoy, including the 87th Mountain Rgt, to Dutch Harbor. They arrived safely and seemingly undetected today and the troops are already all ashore. While the supplies continue to unload, Halsey is going to hunt for some transports and PB's spotted at Adak and Atka Islands. I hope they are not bait for a trap by the KB, but I don't think so.

[USSAmerica]

Communications have been re-established with the enemy. Mike emailed me today and he is back from a long trip. He hopes to have the turn back to me tonight.

[btd64]

Yeah....GP

[USSAmerica]

JAN 12, 1942
After having to wait a month to see what might happen my CV's up near Adak had a good day. The SBD's on search duty had almost as much success as those on actual strikes. They reported hits on transports or PB's at 4 different locations in the area, including 2 hits on a PB and one xAK. Strikes on TF's at Amchitka and Atka Islands scored multiple hits on 3 different xAK's with troops reported in the water at both locations. Still no hint of enemy CV's in the area and none of the captured bases have operational airfields yet so Halsey is going to shift 2 hexes to the West and stick around for another day of fun before heading back to Dutch Harbor and escorting the transports there back toward Seattle.

In the DEI, a couple more small bases fell along with the big oil producing base at Balikpapan. It's the first major oil/refinery base Mike has captured since the first days of the war. I wonder if he noticed I turned the refinery off a long time ago. Just another little nuisance for him to deal with. The Dutch 139WH-3's scored two more 300kg hits today. One was an xAK off Oosthaven, and the other was CL Kashii south of Kendari. I am starting to run low on Dutch bombers and am almost out of Dutch fighter planes. There are probably 2 dozen bombers remaining, but I'm also running out of bases to fly them from, so it's all good. I have to remember to start off with them flying Naval Attack at 1000 feet from the beginning next game.

Mike had more troops arrive at Sorebaja last turn and they tested the waters with a bombardment attack. I hope he holds off 2 more days before he assaults the base so I can get those last 3 Dutch subs that are due to arrive. He is much stronger than me here, so one deliberate attack might capture the base. My bastion on Java is at Batavia, where most of the Dutch ground forces are digging in with about 35k supply.

GI's and Jarheads are unloading at Noumea and Suva in the South Pacific. Lots more are following, but it looks like I'll be able to get a decent defensive position here before Mike might try to push beyond the historical Japanese advance. The first US engineers are moving from Noumea to Brisbane to get the buildup of the NE Oz coast rolling.

[USSAmerica]

JAN 13, 1942
Sadly, Mike captured Soerabaja today so I won't get 3 more Dutch subs to play with. I guess it's one of the trade offs for making my stand at Batavia, but I could have hoped Mike would be 2 days slower here. LOL

Up in the Aleutians, almost all of the remaining Japanese ships scattered out of the area. A port attack from my CV's on Adak sunk an ACM that Mike had there. Hopefully, it means some mines were in place that will now deteriorate. The transports will complete unloading supply at Dutch Harbor next turn and the CV's will escort them at least part way back to Seattle before setting course for Pearl Harbor. I think I've made enough of a nuisance up here over the last couple of game weeks that Mike will have to allocate some decent naval power, if not CV's, to escort any more troops and supplies to this area. Halsey will disappear for a while until I identify a good target for another nuisance raid.

[USSAmerica]

JAN 14, 1942
Today was a relatively uneventful turn. The biggest excitement was a Japanese MTB TF stumbling into Halsey's CV TF in the middle of a 3 AM thunderstorm up near Adak. The DD's did a nice job screening the CV's and both parties went their separate ways. All the transports have finished unloading at Dutch Harbor, so they are heading back to Seattle. Halsey will cover them for a day or so and then set a course for Pearl.

Troops and engineers continue to unload at Noumea and Suva, with more about half way there from SF. I also started loading the next big troop/fuel/supply convoy at SF, bound for the South Pacific and Brisbane. Mike commented that he has not had much luck finding my shipping lanes with his subs so far. Perhaps it's because I am operating with a small number of large convoys, so most of the ocean is empty.

Also preparing to load in a couple of days is the 6th Aus Div at Aden. I think the last element arrives in about 3 days, then they will reform the division and switch to Strategic mode for shipping to Darwin. All but a few stragglers of the AVG have made it to Colombo. They will also board ships and join the 6th's convoy to Darwin. By the time they all arrive at Darwin, another 2 supply convoys will hopefully have unloaded there and departed safely. That will bring the supply stockpile in northern Oz up to around 300k. I won't stop before I have at least 500k supply in the region unless Mike forces me to stop with lots of naval power. Once he does cut off the shipping into the Darwin area, I want to be able to hold out way longer than Mike can afford to besiege me.

[USSAmerica]

I have the next turn back from Mike and I'm working through my orders. I'll post an update after I've finished.

Btw, does anyone know the required supply at a base to use drop tanks? Asking for a friend....

[BBfanboy]

I could not find anything about the supply cost in the manual, but I think all that was required is the usual 3X the base's weekly need. Of course the historic date for availability of DTs for that aircraft model must be passed too ...

[USSAmerica]

Thanks, BB! I'm pretty sure it's only 2x the required supply at the base, but "my friend" doesn't have that much on hand at Palmyra.

[USSAmerica]

JAN 15, 1942
I received 2 reminders today of things I knew but need to pay more attention to going forward. The first was only an inconvenience. I started island hopping a squadron of P-40E's from Pearl to Oz. With drop tanks they can make each of the hops from Palmyra to Canton Island, to Pago, to Suva, to Noumea, and finally to Brisbane. Unless, of course, the base at Palmyra doesn't have more than twice it's needed supply on hand. No drop tanks available. Fortunately, I have a cargo ship with supply already on the way there and it should begin unloading in a few days. In the mean time, I'll make sure all the other bases in the chain have sufficient supply.

The other reminder stung just a bit more. Pago is still only a level 2 port and the big TK Alfred Clegg was unloading fuel there. It takes a level 3 port to provide protection from enemy sub attacks. Sadly, I-21 was patrolling near there and spotted the TK. One torpedo and down she went. It's good incentive to focus on getting all of these ports up to level 3 sooner rather than later.

The one bit of payback came later in the day when the Dutch bombers scored another 300kg hit on an xAK unloading troops/supply at a small base on Celebs. No reports of sinking, but that big bomb will leave a mark. My only remaining Dutch bomber squadrons are at Batavia, where they will go down fighting, and at Kendari, where today's hit was launched. There are already Japanese troops marching toward Kendari, so those planes will soon transfer to Koepang to make their last stand.

Mike landed some engineers and base force troops at Saumlaki today, which is only 7 hexes from Darwin. A lightly escorted small amphib TF this far forward might normally be a tempting target for a hit and run mission, if not for the handful of CA's I spotted trailing 4 hexes behind them. It's a trap! If I had some CV air power in the region I could likely hit the transports, and possibly the CA's, before Mike could react. He doesn't have any significant air power at his newly captured bases in this area yet. Something to consider after Halsey gets back to Pearl Harbor to replenish and link up with Yorktown, who is waiting there. I haven't spotted the KB in a couple of weeks now, so I need to tread carefully but maybe I can pull off a few of the nagging stings in the southern DEI that I managed up in the Aleutians. Hmmm...

[BBfanboy]

If it's January 1942 and you don't know where KB is, the advice for your carrier ops is:

Admiral Ackbar- Its a trap.gif (546.77 KiB) Viewed 904 times

[USSAmerica]

Admiral Ackbar is Admiral Halsey's Chief of Staff!