A dough nut to crack - Arstavidios (allies) vs Toast (Japan)- Scenario 13 - Allies only AAR

[Arstavidios]

Here comes my AAR of the game I'm playing against Toast.
This is scenario 13 that starts on 05/01/1942, patched to 1.4. We play with sub doctrines off. Size of ASW task forces limited, night missions limited to city bombing, and units must pay PPs to come into or out off China.


This is an allies only thread so from now on that's not for you anymore Toast, sorry . Comments suggestions questions and critics are welcome.

Here's the starting situation:
Japan has conquered the SRA. The Allies have started to move some reinforcements but are not yet in condition to launch any large scale offensive.

Here's the situation theatre by theatre:
-Soviet Union: Not much to say. The soviets are on their border nothing happened.

-China: Still the starting situation. The Chinese units don't have any prep points in this scenario. The AVG start in Kunming. Hopefully the Japanese units haven't moved.

-India: The Japanese control Burma except for Ledo where there is a Chinese HQ commanded by a staff officer. The forces from Burma have retreated safely to Imphal. There quite a few troops scattered all over India. An Australian division and an understrength Indian division are in Colombo. The RN is concentrated in Colombo with 5 old BBs a CV and a mix of cruisers and destroyers. The air forces consists of about 15 squadrons of Hurricane II (a couple of them are not yet upgraded) a group of P40E, a group of LB30, 3 transport squadrons a mix of British bombers and a few Catalinas.

- Australia and NG: Australia and SWPAC HQs are in Brisbane. Australian units are scattered in the different australian cities. 2 American divisions are in Brisbane with a few support units. Quite a lot of aircraft are scattered arround the Coast. Serviceable fighters include 3 Kittyhawk squadrons 1 group of P40E one group of P39. There's also a number of Wirraway squadrons. Bombers include a few models of just about everything. Most American groups are only half strength or less. Australia starts with small stocks of supplies an fuel. PM in particular only has 3000 supplies. There are a few ships in every port. Including 13 empty AKs[:@] in PM. The Garrison of PM consists of 2 Australian Brigades and 3 base forces.

-New Caledonia: A carrier Task force is there with Lexington and Yorktown. The Americal division, a few engineers and SouthPac HQ. Only 6700 supplies; An American RCT is in Efate with an unsupported PBY squadron. The air support present is a single base force in Noumea. There are only a few PBY's for the moment.

-Central Pacific: Pearl Harbour is defended by 3 divisions and various support units. The air Force count 1 group of P40E and 2 units of B17, all of which arevery much understrength. A few marine squadrons and a bunch of PBYs are scattered about everywhere. A few ground units are also in the islands. Palmyra has an army HQ a field artillery regiment a CD unit and base force. In PH there are 2CVs 4BBs 15 cruisers around 50 destroyers of various ships 30subs and a mix of tansport and other support vessels.

-West Coast : The 7000t AK do not start in San Francisco so it's not possible to make any conversion outright. There's one CV and one CVE 6BBs one of the damaged.
a few destroyers subs and a several hundred transports. The air force consists of 3 transport squadrons 4 PBY squadrons and a B25 group. Ground units count one marine divisions, a few battalions and regiments and a lot of Artillery of all types. There are no Engineer units ready for shipping.

-Canada: A few units in garrison. 2 kittyhawk squadrons and a few naval patrol squadronsthat can de useful.

-North Pacific: Dutch Harbour has been turned into a Sub base. Quite a few RCT and base forces. 6 RCT are assigned to the North Pacific. A fex air units. A P39 group and a P40E squadron. Some B26 and bolos as well as a few PBYs.

Overall the air forces count 2800 LBA, around 2000 of which are not Russian and 526 ship based aircraft.

Many groups are understrength so the total number of aircraft should grow fast.

The forces defending Malaya the DEI and the Philipines have been destroyed and there are no survivors except for a few ships.

A number of air units present in the Grand Campaign have disapeared from this scenario. Same thing with several HQ units, which comes in addition to the destruction of all the initial HQs fron the invaded areas.

A dozen subs are on patrol. The man sub bases are Perth, PH and Dutch Harbour. A few other subs are in various bases.

[Arstavidios]

Initial strategy:
The defenses are getting set up but are not yet sufficient. The supply situation in particular is not good and does not allow for any large sacale operation. The Japanese still have superior forces.

Taking that into account it is clear that the next couple of months will be devoted to building up and organising my starting positions.

First of all I am going to organize my air forces on the following lines:
kittyhawks will be devoted to the defense of PM exclusively. I start with 3 Australian squadrons and 2 Canadians. I am soon going to recieve some extra squadrons. I recieve 50 aircraft a month that's quite a lot as there are not many units that fly them. So whatever flies Kittyhawks is going to be sent to the front line ASAP. This will use most of the pilots from the Australian Canadian and New Zealander Pools. So the other squadrons from those countries will be used less extensively. Wirraway units for exemple will remain in second line so as not to draw the pilots from the pools.


Marine squadrons will be based in Noumea and will support south Pacific Operations.

P40s will be assigned to India. I'll try to smuggle some additional units there if I can. The various groups I have at start will meanwhile remain in their second line stations and won't see action so that the replacements to the units operating in India. The AVG are the only unit flying P40B and thay will keep them.

P39 will be assigned to Noth West Australia. I'll try to launch an offensive from Darwin and once those units will have upgrade to P38 their range will be useful there.

In India, the Hurricanes will be rebased to cover the border. The P40's will remain in reserve behind until their numbers start increasing.

Ledo will become an air ressuply for China so my transport squadrons will be based there. I'll also try to fly some units out off China as Ledo is defended ony by a base force and a Chinese HQ.

In the Pacific I must get my supply network going before I can eve start thinking about attacking. I will also send reinforcements to noumea. Base Forces especially arelacking. I'll have to collect some in North Pacific and in the Central Pacific.

Pearl Harbour will be stripped from a few troops too.

The US navy will be concentrated in Noumea.

Australia and New Guinea will be reserved to Anzac troops except for a few US support units. It is believed that the contact between US troops and local womanfolk can have negative effects on the morale ans discipline of the troops and may strain relations with Australian forces[:D]

So the American forces already in Australia will be moved to New Caledonia, while PM will de defended by Australian units. Australian infantry brigades will move to Perth and I'll try to ship them to to India.

The air transport units will ship supplies to PM while I'll try to smuggle in some 1 AK TF to ressupply the place.

Otherwise I will wait for the Japanese plan to develop before I commit my own forces to offensive operations.

[:'(]

[Arstavidios]

The First 3 weeks have been rather quiet.
The Japanese have landed troops in Guadalcanal and Gilli Gilli. They are moving some troops in China and India but are not attacking yet. In the Pacific there's also some movement.

There's been some ASW activity. Each of my submarine that is spotted is attacked by ASW task forces. 3 of my subs have been sunk and 2 damaged so far. I've sunk a PG and damaged a few other ships. One of my subs put a torpedo in a Japanese carrier.... that failed to explode

I had sent a single AK to reinforce PM but my unfortunate Lycaon was sunk by a sub so I've given ip the idea of sending single ships. The air bridge brings barely enough supply.
The Ships that tarted in PM were safely evacuated to Australia.

In the air the Japanese have launched a few raids. They have been met by my defenses and suffered significant losses. For the moment I've lost 81 aircraft to 155 Japanese.
Most of the raids have been over PM and the Kittyhawks have been doing well. There have been a few raids over various bases in India and a couple in China. So far the flying Tigers have seen little action, but over PM the "flying Kittens" definitely showed some paws.
I have three other squadrons of "kittenhawks" on their way.

I launched a few night attacks on Rangoon. Those attacks have destroyed 3 oil points so far.

In the rear areas, the first supply convoys are reaching their destinations. I now have 4CVs in Noumea. More units and supplies are on their way.

The build up is well under way. The Japanese are doing the same. For the moment they haven't launched any serious attack yet. The air raids are more like probes to evaluate my defenses, not a real sustained offensive. Meanwhile my forces are getting into position. I now have around 3500 LBA.

[Arstavidios]

A busy but uneventful week.
Most of the activity on both sides has been sub hunting. My subs did little damage so far. Only a few transports were damaged and an escort sunk. Bad torpedoes are a major reason for that.

Japanese subs prove more deadly and they sunk a few of my escorts. It looks like Jap subs are lurking on my shipping lanes in the South Pacific. My convoys are heavily escorted and their attacks were repulsed. Two subs got sunk. One attacked a carrier task force, the other a heavily protected troop convoy. One escort DD was sunk though.

Some sub pickets are also active near the Australian coast. I've created two ASW TFs led by aggressive leaders to hunt them down. I managed to sink a glenn carrying sub against the loss of two MSWs.

In the air nothing happened. The Japanese stopped their raids evreywhere. My LB30 keep on bombing Rangoon at night but they achieve nothing. A lot of Japanese recon is going on in China.

Japanese forces are on the move in Southern China. A Japanese attack by four divisions forced a chinese army to withdraw. The Japanese lost 1822 men the Chinese 165. I'm sending some reinforcements in the area.

Behind the scenes a lot is going on. I do not now what the Japanese is up to. So far he has occupied the Solomons and is moving some troops and supplies around.

In India my forces have been deployed to cover the border. the 55th chinese division has been airlifted to Ledo and I'm starting to move on the 49th. There is no Japanese activity in the area so far. My engineers are busy building forts and airfields.

In PM and Australia nothing to report. My overworked air transport squadrons barely manage to to fly enough supplies to PM. A Kiwi Kittyhawk squadron will reach Brisbane in a couple of days. The Two Canadian squadrons are still two weeks away. I will soon have a powerfull fighter force in PM.

In Australia, the last American troops are embarking for New Caledonia. Some supplies from Brisbane have reached Noumea. They should last until the first supply convoys from the West coast arrive in a about a couple of weeks. I now have strong land forces in Noumea but no land based air forces yet . Some marine squadrons will arive in a few days. I only have 1 base force there with 90 air suport for the moment. I have Two base forces currently embarking on the West Coast. The only other air support units availabe are in Pearl Harbour and in the North PAcific, and I currently lack ships to bring them.

It will take several weeks before I can switch to the offensive. I'm planning to launch a major operation to bring supplies and reinforcement to PM. I should be ready by mid June.

In the Centraland South Pacific, I'm moving a few PBY squadrons around. My aim is to make a chain of bases that will first cover my shipping lanes, then serve as staging areas for an offensive against the Marshalls. So far I've only sent a few supply ships but I need to move quite a few things around.

On the West coast Trops and supplies are moving regularly to the Pacific. For the moment I'm keeping the two marine divisions there. I have not decided yet where to commit them.

I now have 4 American divisions in Noumea two in Pearl Harbour and the Two marine divisions on the West coast. There's also a lot of American Regiments available but those are on duty in the North Pacific or scattered on the South Pacific bases.

[Arstavidios]

An other three weeks of build up and preparation - Air operations have stepped up - The Japanese attack Wuchow.

My transports have left the West Coast and are sailing towards Noumea with large quantities of troops, aircraft, suplies and fuel. All my transports are now busy. My first convoys are on their way back to San Francisco while the last ones are now now approching the Fijis.

Noumea has recieved enough troops to be safe and has now a little over 20,000 supplies. Most of the supplies came from Australia. They allowed me to upgrade my VMF to F4F4.
I don't have enough supplies to consider launching offensive operations yet but I should recieve 300,000 supplies over the next two weeks. I am still short of base forces. I have a couple of them on their way but that is not enough.

My AVDs have arrived and they will allow me to operate a few PBY squadrons in forward bases.

In the North Pacific, I have the mustered all the units that were not absolutely necessary in Anchorage and I have started to send them to Pearl Harbour. Mainly base forces and a couple of RCT. Pearl Harbour will be my main staging area. Reinforcements and supplies will be concentrated there and the dispatched to their destinations. My main priority is to send some aviation support to the South Pacific. I now have earmarked 8 units for transfer but they won't reach their destination before the begining of August.

On the West Coast I am also filling a few transports with oil that I will send to Australia. this should help producing more supplies.

My submarines proved rather ineffective and very vulnerable. After losing 4 of them sunk and an other 4 damaged mainly outside Japan for no result, I've decided to withdraw them. I will use them to support my operations until they get somewhat better.

The Japanese lost a couple of subs that got too curious in the last few days making a total of 5 Japanese subs sunk.

I China the Japanese are now besieging Wuchow with 4 divisions and numerous support troops. I have sent some reinforcements but I am not sure it will be enough. I now have 8 Chinese corps there.

In the air the Japanese was rather quiet, so I sent a few sweeps over Japanese airfields in New Guinea. Those proved quite succesful. The Japanese have sent some heavy raids over PM in response but with little success so far. I have 4 kittyhawk squadrons operating in PM. They now count quite a lot f experienced pilots. I have 4 more Kittyhawk squadrons on their way but I need to send other aviation units to PM.

The Japanese have started launching some air raids on Darwin. I'm bringing bac the P40E group I had sent to Perth. The Japanese are Building up Tenimbar, so I send a few additional units to Darwin, just in case.

In India nothing's moving so far. Ly troops are digging in. I now have 2 full chinese divisions in Ledo. I've put my bombers on supply trasport mission. This month I have to withdraw a CL and a couple of DDs.

For the moment I don't consider going to he offensive any time soon. I will keep harassing Jaanese air force whenever I can. I am also starting an operation to bring some supplies and reinforcements to PM. This is opration "white" and is the first one of series of operations I am planning in New Guinea.

If "white" works well I will then launch "purple" then "crimson".

[Arstavidios]

Here's the list of my top pilots. As you can see they are mainly Australians. Does it have something to do with Australian beer?[&:]

[Arstavidios]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 06/14/42

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Day Air attack on Wuhan , at 48,35

Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 18

No Allied losses

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Day Air attack on Mandalay , at 33,30

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12

Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 6

No Japanese losses

No Allied losses

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Day Air attack on Jorhat , at 35,24

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 15
Ki-48 Lily x 11

Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-48 Lily: 2 destroyed, 4 damaged


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Day Air attack on Jorhat , at 35,24

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 35

Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 9 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane II: 1 damaged

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Day Air attack on Port Moresby , at 53,91

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 18
G3M Nell x 29
G4M1 Betty x 43

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 24

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 destroyed
G3M Nell: 5 destroyed, 4 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 18 destroyed, 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 11 destroyed, 4 damaged


Allied ground losses:
34 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 5
Runway hits 8

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Day Air attack on Darwin , at 36,84

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 7
D3A Val x 4

Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val: 4 destroyed


Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 1


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Ground combat at Wuchow

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 2112 troops, 84 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 91168 troops, 459 guns, 0 vehicles



Allied ground losses:
41 casualties reported

As you can see there is little going on for the moment except for air operations.
It looks like Japanese are bigger braggards than mine[:D]
Actual losses today were 21 Japanese aircraft lost against 4 Kittyhawks.

[Arstavidios]

Here are the aircraft losses. So far I've lost a total of 208 planes against 273 Japanese.
My Kittyhawks have been heavilly engaged.

[Arstavidios]

American build up continues - KB shuts PM airfields - Japanese subs get too curious for their own health.

Some large supply TFs have reached Noumea which is now generously stockpiled both in fuel an supply. I'm starting to organize my troops properly. I'm grouping my forces in army corps. Each corp will have 3 divisions or regimental equivalents.

The American forces will have 1 corp in PH 2 corps in Noumea. 1 marine corp stays in reserve on the West Coast. 1 army corps made of RCT and other units will cover the island bases from Midway to New Caledonia. An army corps will be organised in Alaska.

The Australian forces will be organised in 4 army corps.
1 for PM 1 for Darwin 1 for SE Asia and a reserve corp in Brisbane with the cavalry divisions.

In SE Asia I'm planning to leave 1 Indian corps in Colombo with understrength divisions. I have the Burma corps in Imphal made of Brigades. The other Commonwealth troops troops have not been properly organised and are scattered on the vrious bases.

I have a Chinese corps in Ledo. I have a full 9 division Chinese army ready for operations in SE Asia. I keep 6 divisions in China for the moment.

In China I merely move corps around to defend the most threatened positions.

I still have a lot of troops to move around. Especially construction units and base forces which are sorely needed in the SW Pacific. Order is slowly emerging from the initial chaos.
Some Fragments of units have mistakenly reached Noumea so I have to take them all the way back to PM and SF.

My task forces also recieve some proper organization. First of all my transport task forces are getting consolidated.

3 large 100 ship Transport TFs will operate between PH and Noumea.
One transport TF will operate between SF and PH. This makes my main shipping line.
Smaller transport forces will operate from SF, PH and in the Coral Sea. I also have a large transport fleet lying in anchor in Karachi.

APs are concentrated into two main invasion fleets. One based in Noumea the other in SF.
So far I'm using them to shuttle troops but they are the structure of my future amphibious invasion fleets. I have a small AP TF that I use to move units fron North Pacific to PH and then to the various island bases an a few APs in Karachi.
All my transport TFs are heavily escorted. I'm assigning some CLs as escorts to have some spotter aircraft. CVEs will go to the invasion fleets.

I have several ASW task forces each with an agressive commander that are stationed in my main bases.

So far I have concentrated my carriers into one Air combat task force. Most of my other available SCS are in Noumea. They are not yet organised in TFs.

Operations have been almost exclusively in the air. The Japanese have launched a number of raids over my bases in India. A few IJA raids have been badly beaten over Imphal were my top pilot now has 13 victories.

In China the Japanese are happy bomdarding Wuchow, and I am happy prepping my troops and digging up.

Over PM a few Japanese raids were repulsed by my CAP of 4 ANZAC Kyttyhawk squadrons which took a heavy toll on the attackers. An american P40E squadrons joined the fray while an other 2 kittyhawk squadrons were uncrating and a full Airacobra group was waiting in reserve.

My first operation to ressupply and reinforce PM "White" left Australia covered by a carrier force on the 25th . However on the 28th PM was struck by a heavy IJN carrier strike. Over 400 Japanese aircraft attacked the airbase. Losses were 45 Kittyhawk and 10 P40E destroyed while the Japanese lost over 50 Carrier planes including 33 Zeroes.
With PM closed and my top Australian pilots butchered I had to withdraw the remnants of my fighter squadrons. One Kittyhawk squadron is still stuck on the ground an it sucked up some reinforcement planes before I turned reinforcements off. An other heavy raid struck on the 29th with almost 300 vals and Kates and only 7 Zeroes. But my base was already offline. 10 Japanese planes were shot down by the Flak though. 7 Japanese combat task forces were detected off Buna but it looks like they only covered landings in Buna. I now have lost contact with the Japanese naval forces. I hope they are not headed towards PM for an Amphibious attack. So far it looks like the attack on PM was done merely to cover the Landings in Buna but there is no certainty and I only have two operational PBY left in PM.

Some Land based IJN aircraft have done a couple of follow up raids to keep the airfield closed. The airstrip has been repaired though my transports in Australia should be able to bring in some supplies. The "White" forces are waiting for the situation to clear. The troops and supplies are loaded but I won't send ships to PM until the airfield reopens there.

Some Japanese subs have come lurking around my bases. Each contact within range of my bases is attacked by the local ASW TF with great success. So far a total of 10 Japanese subs have been sunk in two months. Contact with my transport convoys or transit TF also proved lethal for a couple of them. Only one attack was succesful against an escorted convoy, but it managed to sink a Canadian Kittyhawk squadron.

The waters off Australia and New Caledonial have been made relatively clear of Japanese subs. I have got some contacts around PM but I have nothing to send there for the moment. I'm also starting to get some contacts around PM and Midway. One sub was sunk off PH the 30th of June and I have spotted one off Midway

My own subs have been withdrawn from Japanese waters since mid May. I lost 5 of them within a few days, so I decided to pull them out. The S boats are operating off PM while the other subs are making practice cruises off PH.

[Arstavidios]

In China the Japanese concentrate massive forces against Wuchow. The assault begins around the 20th after more than a month of daily bombardment. The Japanese have concentrated 7 divisions and about 20 other units. The garrison is made of nine Chinese corps digged to level 6 with several HQs in support.

The Japanese assault is supported by massive air strikes by Sonias escorted by Nates. I have to squadrons of the AVG engaged. They are causing severe losses to the Japanese at little cost to themseves.

The Japanese deliberate assaults slowly reduce the fort level to 3 but my engineers have just managed to bring it back to 4. The Chinese are doing a good defense though Japanese numbers are starting to tell.

I've sent some reinforcements from Kweiyang bu it wil take some time before they reach their destination.

Meanwhile the Japanese fank is lightly held. Only two Japanese brigades defend the rail hex west of Wuchow. A strong army is mustered. The best Chinese generals are put at its head and ond the 30th 5 chinese corps force the Japanese flank guard to withdraw. An other two corps are on their way. After this victory the Chinese forces resume their advance and are now about to hit the rail south of Wuchow, sitting squarely on the Japanese lines of communication. I hope to force the Japanese to stop his offensive giving some time for the engineers to rebuid the forts and for the reinforcements to arrive.

Over PM the Japanese ran small daily raids of about 40 aicraft each. My fighters were recovring in Australia. After a few days, I decided to stage an ambush. I moved back around 150 figthers to PM and put them on LRCAP. The next raid of 22 nells and 11 zeroes was anihilated with only two Nells surviving.

The next day saw an energetic reaction of the Japanese. In a ferocious battle I lost over 50 fighters against more than 40 Japanese aircraft. After that I decided to send back my fighters to Australia to rest.

Meanwhile my carriers went to Sidney for their July upgrades while a lone Australian DD ferried a base force from Darwin to Merauke. This allows me to shuttle aircraft between Darwin and Cooktown. A P40E group of 28 aircraft was brought back to join the fray over PM.

After its upgrade the Hornet made a run towards Noumea to ferry 3 wildcat squadrons to Australia. After about 10 days rest, my fighters wend back in strength to PM. 7 kittyhawk squadrons, 3 wildcat squadron, 1 P39D squadron, 1P40E group and 1 P40E squadron.

I also sent a dauntless squadrons to make some attacks on Japanese shipping off Buna. During the next three days there was some heavy fighting over Buna. one a6m3 and a couple of a6m2 daitai were butchered but my fighters also suffered heavily. I'm now 150 P40 short.

At the same time Cairns is coming online as a large Bomber base. Some constuction engineers eventualy followed by an air regiment arrived there. I have 4 full B17 groups
ready.

My carriers are now repairing in Sidney. Some have had fighter group upgrades. The Wasp is on its way to join them. For the moment PM is supplied exclusivey by air. I have 8 Dakota squadrons assigned to this duty.

In India the Japanese aunched a few raids to test my defenses bu those suffered heavy losses.

In 3 months the Japanese ost 1060 aircraft. So far I lost only 697. My fighters over PM suffered heavily but the Japanese had several Zeroe groups anihiated. He has stopped offensive raids so far. I'm quite happy with the air war. The Japanese air force has been seriously blunted. Howewer I know several crack groups of zeroes and Betties are held in reserve and his carrier force hascnot been heavily engaged yet.

There has been no action on the sea yet. Only 22 ships have been sunk so far. Mainly submarines.

In PH my forces are getting concentrated for shipment to the front line.

With the Japanese carrier force at its peak I have to be careful but my power is increasing fast. I am gaining the edge in the air and I have the possiblity to throw the Japanese offensive off track in Southern China.

[Arstavidios]

A few quiet days.
Most of the action now occurs in Southern China.
My forces attacked the Japanese forces South of Wuchow but were hotly recieved. My troops are getting low on supplies and some Japanese troops are moving cross country from Canton to get into their rear. So I'm going to withdraw a few corps back East.
In Wuchow the Japanese launched an other deliberate attack that failed, losing over 7000 men and several hundred guns to only over 1000 chinese troops The forts were not reduced and my engineers are busy rebuiding them.

Two fresh corps should reach Wuchow in a couple of days. Heavy reinforcements are heading towards Kweiyang where Stilwell is now based.

The Japanese are not flying any more they had several of their zeroe groups completely anihilated, and they keep the others in reserve. The Betties have not been heavilly envaged ang suffered little losses. The Japanese carrier force is also intact.

I'm bombing Mandalay with a squadron of Wellingtons but with little result.

In Australia I'm starting to move my bomber squadrons to front line bases. I will recieve an Australian spitfire squadron in about ten days. I have also recieved a Hurricane squadron. Those will help a lot as I have many repacement aicrafts ready in the pool for them. I'm slowly rebuilding my P40 squadron but I'm 150 aircraft short and my replacement pools are empty. The ability to change upgrade paths would really help there as I could turn a couple of depleted kittyhawk squadrons into sptifires.

3 squadrons of Widcats and a group of mohawks have left the West coast. They won't be ready for operations before at least two months. I now have about 1000 first line combat aircraft ready in Australia and NG.

I keep a full P40E group in reserve in Noumea and a P39D group in reserve in PH.
For the moment most of my air units are busy training.

The Wasp has reached Noumea to refuel and left towards Sydney after picking additional escorts. In Sidney the other American carriers are refitting after their upgrades. Damage level is between 11 and 5. One carrier has expanded its air group to 36. The others have not yet. I don't know why.

In the Pacific I'm gradually supplying and reinforcing my chain of fortress islands. Each of them will eventually be garrisoned by 1 RCT 1 marine defense battalion, 1 base force, 1 AA batallion and one construction engineer units. The units are ready for shipment in PH and Noumea.

This chain of 9 island fortresses will cover the sea lane between PH and Australia. I still have a lot of units to move but shipping is scarce.

I expect to be ready to launch my offensive by late October. My Land forces, air forces and navy will all get ready by that time.

For my land forces by late October I will have moved my units into position, built up and supplied my forward bases.

For my air forces, reinforcments squadrons from the West Coast will have arrived and uncrated. My P40 squadrons will have recovered, my frontline P39D will have been upgraded to P38, and my pilots will have got some time to train.

For my navy, a lots of ships will upgrade in October, I will have recieved some useful reinforcements and I'll have much more shipping available for offensive operations as my troops will be in place and a lot of transports will be freed and new transports will have arrived.

So it looks like all the pieces of the puzzle will come together by late October.

Meanwhile, I won't remian inactive and will launch a few minor operations especialy against the Japanese air forces to kill a few hundred experienced japanese pilots. I can't afford to let the Japanese air force catch its breath and train its new pilots.

[BLurking]

Nice summary, it's a refreshing change from scrolling through pasted combat result files. I'm currently fighting the same scenario as the Allies in a PBEM, so it's good to see someone else achieving better results than I am [;)].

[Arstavidios]

Here come the aircraft losses

[Arstavidios]

Here come the top pilots

[Arstavidios]

Here's the situation in China

[Arstavidios]

ORIGINAL: BLurking

Nice summary, it's a refreshing change from scrolling through pasted combat result files. I'm currently fighting the same scenario as the Allies in a PBEM, so it's good to see someone else achieving better results than I am [;)].

Thanks for your comment. I'm trying to give a general picture of what is going on.

[Arstavidios]

250,000 Japanese troops isolated in Wuchow - KB shuts PM - Troops concentrate in PH


South of Wuchow the Chinese troops shock attack the Two Japanese brigades and send them retreating back to Canton. One Chinese Corp follows them and drops a few shells in the city. Some additional troops are sent in the country to finish the isolation of the Japanese main battle corp.

Over 250,000 troops are now isolated in Wuchow. They are bombarded daily by the troops from Wuchow and whatever bombers decide to fly. Bombardment have little effect on the Japanese. I hope hunger will take its toll.

Meanwhile my engineers are busy and the fortifications in Wuchow are rebuilt, reaching level 6 by the end of the month.

The Japanese are not inactive and they bring in reinforcements to Canton. My corps there got eventually attacked and overwhelmed. The Japanese then advanced a few units towards Wuchow. A gallant couterattack by the Chinese troops was repulsed by the Japanese who then mounted their own attack to open the road to their starving comrades and failed badly.

Some exhausted Chinese corps where then sent to Changsha to recover and were replaced by fresh ones. Some Japanese reiforcements have arrived but they are not strong enough to open the road to Wuchow on their own yet.

At the same time I'm sending reinforcements to Changsha. With the Japanese Busy sending troops towards Canton, an offensive might add to the current confusion. I hope to keep the Japanese troops in Wuchow isolated at least an other couple of weeks.

In New Guinea, a large scale air offensive started as 4 squadrons of A20B showed up over Gilli Gilli in the early morning closey followed up by over 200 B17E much to the Japanese's dismay. The airfield was closed and in the following days a number of Japanese aircraft were destroyed on the ground.

3 days later, Lae recieved the same treatment. The next day, the bombers took off to drop a few bombs on the Japanese airfields. However, massive Japanese naval forces were spotted heading towards New Guinea, and later in the day, 3 waves of carrier aircraft attacked Port Moresby. The main strike was made of over 300 carrier bombers. Two over carrier task forces sent an other 100 bombers. The CAP over PM was overwhelmed by the Japanese numbers and the base suffered heavily.

Though few planes were caught on the ground in this first raid, my squadrons could not be rearmed and were just sitting ducks. All what coud still fly was evacuated to Australia, but the others were destroyed. In all the Japanese destroyed about 150 aircraft on the ground.

For about Two weeks the Japanese carriers pounded Port Moresby, supported by land based aircraft. The Flak at PM proved more than a nuisance dropping over 50 Japanese carrier planes, which somewhat compensated for my own losses.

Overall, my losses were about 200 aircraft, against 100 Japanese. However, most of my planes were destroyed on the ground so the pilots survived. A lot of the losses were bombers for which I have hundreds of replacement aircraft waiting in the pool. The Japanese lost quite a few carrier pilots against a land target. Though they will be replaced, the new pilots will not have their level of experience.

Moreover, the Japanese had to commit the bulk of their carriers to stop my offensive and prevent me from closing the airbases, and my airpower is growing regularly. My carriers are Lurking on the Australian coast. I decided not to commit them as the Japanese had too much air power available, with a reiforced KB and massive land based air power available.

The Japanese carriers left a few days before the end of month and PM is getting repaired. A F4F4 squadron has already been sent back and more will soon follow while the C47 have brought new stocks of supplies. Kittyhawk and P40E units are still much understrength but the situation is improving.

I have several F4F4 squadrons ready but I do not want to engage them too heavily as I want too keep a large reserve of replacement aircraft for the carriers.

An attempt to get at the Japanese carriers with subs ended in disaster. As my Wolfpack tried to attack a carrier task force they were just slaughtered, with 3 subs sunk and an other Two damaged within a few hours in the same hex. The Subs were then recalled.

So far my subs have been sitting in port recieving fresh coats of paint and repairing whatever damage they still have. Japanese subs are more active and so are my ASW task forces. On average a Japanese sub gets sunk every week.

In the Pacific, the troops are concentrating in PH. The last units are getting loaded in San Francisco. The troops are gradually dispatched to their bases. the island fortresses are slowly recieving their garrisons and supplies. I expect to finish my deployment in the second half of October.

The Japanese carrier fleet is intact and concentrated with a heavy land based air support. They stay on the defensive and set up their defenses except in China where their offensive against Wuchow has turned sour. Their destruction of my air force at PM shows me that I have to be careful in my offensives as an early defeat may stop me for several months.

For the moment I'm still short of first line fighters but I managed to inflict heavy losses reducing average level of experience of the Japanese pilots.

[Arstavidios]

In Wuchow the daily bombardment of the isolated Japanese army continues. They have been isoated for more than a month now. I hope lack of supply is taking its toll. There are a little over 250,000 men and 2000 guns with several tank units trapped there.
I ony have a little over 100,000 men.

South of Wuchow, the Japanese relief forces are growing thicker and thicker 3 divisions and several smaller units are concentrated. I have 6 Chinese corps facing them.

Meanwhile I'm launching an offensive in Central China. The army defending Changsha advanced en-masse and shock attacked the Japanese 3rd division which retreated on Wuhan.

After this victory several corps were detached to support a corp threatening Nanchang which is defending by a single division.

With the bulk of the Japanese forces committed in Southern China I hope stirr trouble in the central provinces.

I have some troube with the movement of my units though. Some Chinese corps near the border with Indochina have been stuck by a singe Japanese brigade for months and are slowly losing their strength. They move 59 miles but can't leave their hex. I have tried several times with various destinations bu they won't leave their. I moved a corp adjacent to them and even that is not enough.

I've also just had a problem in Wuchow. My troops won't move there now. I get message telling me I can't move from zoc to zoc[&:] this is annoying.

Several Chinese figther squadrons have been sent to India for some training. This will save some Chinese supply. For the moment the american P40's are sufficient and trained Chinese piots will be useful in 43 when the groups will upgrade.

In New Guinea PM is operational again. My air force has moved back there. I sent my F4F4 on Buna but they were slaughtered. The kittyhawks are recovering. I am using my carriers to ferry some Australian Spitfires and Hurricanes to PM.

Some fighter squadrons are on the move from PH to Noumea. Hopping from island to island.

I've started to reorganize my destroyers. The Flushdecks are reserved to escort duty whie the other destroyers are hoarded for fleet operations. DMS, APD, MSW and SC take charge of escort and ASW duty.

Japanese subs are stil very active but they now avoid my main bases. Their are used as a picket line to give advance warning of an offensive.

In San Francisco I'm loading the last batch of Engineers and base forces but there has been some delay and confusion.

I'm about to recieve a large batch of air and nava reiforcements, including 2 fast BB's 8ss 10DDs and a number of over ships.

An aviation regiment will reach Midway in a couple of days. Midway has a level 6 airfield, a squadron of B17 will be deployed there soon to make to reconnaissance on Wake.
I will turnMidway into a major sub base. AS and SS are hoarded in PH at the moment.

[Arstavidios]

The Japanese reopen the road to Wuchow - Heavy air battles over New Guinea.

In China the Japanese relief army resumes its offensive toward Wuchow. The Chinese have 7 corps and a couple HQ. The Japanese have 4 divisions and 8 pther units. After severa bloody assaults the Japanese eventually overwhelm the defenders who retreat towards the East. While the Japanese land attack goes on, their army air force keeps bombin the chinese units daily in the face of a heavy CAP. Hundreds of Japanese planes - Sonias ans Oscars - are Shot down.

The CAP was initially made of the AVG. They were replaced by a couple of spitfire squadrons which did a lot of damage while suffering no loss themselves.

After the chinese forces were cleared from the road to Wuchon, the garrison from Wuchow was ordered to attack the Japanese main army hoping they woud have been weakened By their long starvation. This was not the case and the chinese were savagely repulsed losing 10,000 men and infincting litte loss on the Japanese. Encouraged by this success the Japanese launched several attacks which were argely unsuccessful. Reducing the forts only one level from 8 to 7 while suffering over 10,000 casualties.

After this rebuke the Japanese have sent a unit to the West. This covers their flank but coud also be a movement to cut off my forces in Wuchow so I will send some units to guard against this threat. However it looks like the units I ordered to move had their orders reset by a Japanese Bombardment attack. This would be annoying as it would mean my units in Wuchow are stuck by flypaper[8|]

In Central China my forces from Changsha continued their demonstrations. Even though the Japanese cities are too strongly defended Many Japanese units are coming as reinforcements to this area. Meanwhie I'm starting to pul back my most exposed units towards Changsha where they will be abe to refit.

In India/Burma The Japanese are not moving. a squadron of British wellingtons escorted by P40Es was making some airfield attack which were quite succesful, destroying a few planes each time. CAP was made of Oscars and some Lilis and recco aircraft were regularly destroyed on the ground. The arrical of a Zero daitai changed things, so I decided to bring the AVG there, Only P40s hae enough range, while transferring two spitfire and one mohawk squadron to China.

The result was rather disappointing and the AVG was sent to Calcutta to recieve a fex replacement aircraft as their numbers were getting low with only a little over 50 P40B left.

4 Chinese fighter squadrons are undergoing training in India. I'm short of Air support in China and have ony enough for a few british or american squadrons. I'll bring the Chinese fihters back in a few months after they upgrade to P40N. By that time I wille have reasonably trained pilots in good aircraft and this will not use Chinese supply.

In the Southwest Pacific my 6 carriers approached PM in a ferry mission things went with Clockwise precision One Sqadron of spitfires and one of Hurricane took off for PM while the CV squadrons that had been grounded flew back to the Saratoga.

At this time it appeared that Several Japanese transport task forces ware approching New Guinea. As my carriers were so far undetected it was decided to launch a major attach including the Carriers the Port Moresby air and the B17s from Australia. All in all about 800 aircraft.

This Attack completey miscarried due a mix of bad settings, bad weather, and probably bad luck. Only two TBF squadrons attacked without escort and were shot down to the last plane. The B17 attacked, some fighters on LRCAP did not get into the fight letting the heavies on their own. At least a Japanese sub was overrun by 3 full carrier task forces. Well this guy had been patrolling around PM since the begining of the war without seeing a single ship, and then he just had the whole american fleet over his head, bad day[:D]

After this attack, with no surprise effect left the carriers were orders to run away at full steam to safer waters. The performance of the carriers had not been convincing and with a few hiundred Japanese navy aircraft in the vicinity I prefered not to take any chances.

Meanwhile The Beauforts which are concentrated in PM started pouring torpedoes into the Japanese tansports. A B17 raid closed the airfied at Gilli Gilli leaving two transport task forces defenseless in the port. Around 20 Japanese ships were sunk and many other damaged, transports and small escorts.

After 3 days the bombers were sent back to Australia and all the fighters from PM put on CAP. A couple of raids from Rabaul were anihilated with only 3 or 4 betties escaping out of over 110 planes. Those were the squadrons that had already been slaughtered a couple of months. Here again the spitfires gave a remarkable performance, shooting down many zeroes to no loss.

The Japanese air is badly shaken in the area. Ony the 2 units fron Buna are giving me headaches saughtering whatever I throw at them. The first p38s are arriving and I have several fighter groups in reserve. 2 P40E groups one at full strength one at haf stregth en a P39d group are at hand so I can feed the batte here.

In the sentral and South Pacific, my units are steadily moving into position. In Midway I have 25 gato class subs with picked captains, a ASW TF, 2 VMF 1PBY squadron and a B24 group. The B17 did not have enough range for wake.

On the West Coast the embarkation messed up and I lost about ten days. The garrison troops are getting to their intended positions while offensive units are geting together.


I still need to buid up my forward bases in the South an SW Pacific. The buk of my engineers is in PH now. I'm also rather short of AP. I only have about 40 for the whole Pacific.

The Japanese are getting nervous as they suddenly see a lot of activity all over the Pacific. So far I'm having good results in the air war. The front line Japanese air units are worn off and the quality of their pilots is declining regularly. I'm paying a heavy price in fighters though so I have to use all the aircraft models available so that I can get the maximum use of my repacement aircraft.

My air force is clearly getting the upper hand in New Guinea and only the intervention of the Japanese carrier air can stop my attacks there.

[Arstavidios]

Hi,

My Japanese opponent eventually gave up due to RL trouble so I'm looking for an other player.
It is mid October and the Japanese situation is sound with the fleet intact and an unbreached perimeter. The airforce has suffered but there are many trained groups left. Allied pressure is increasing but there is still some time left before the offensive starts.

Please let me know if you're interested.