The Imperialism, the war against Blackwatch

[Tom Hunter]

Spotlight on Sumatra

This area is about to become a backwater, as the Japanese have been cleaning up the bases in both the North and the South of the Island. The Brits are preparing a little suprise for the Japanese who go for Sabang, but otherwise its a pretty easy campaign for Japan as they send infantry supported by 6 battleships and over 100 aircraft to crush the Dutch bases one by one.

[String]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

Spotlight on Sumatra

*snip*

Seems like he isn't planning to repeat the mistakes he made in his last game, but i bet he's going to make a whole lot of new ones [:D]

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next turn, hopefully you'll get some big fish

[Tom Hunter]

This occured when KB raided Noumea, but I did not have time to put it in until now:

[Tom Hunter]

Lets try that again

[Tom Hunter]

Ok it will not display this time, here are the combat results:

Day 1, Feb 4th the Seagulls lead the way:

Japanese Ships
AO Ondo, Bomb hits 1

Then the real stuff arrives and hits the harbor

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 8
SBD Dauntless x 14
TBD Devastator x 11
Allied aircraft losses
SBD Dauntless: 2 damaged
TBD Devastator: 1 destroyed
Japanese Ships
ML Tsugaru
DD Asanagi, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
ML Okinoshima, Bomb hits 1, on fire
ML Tokiwa, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

And finds some ships just 60 miles out:
Allied aircraft
SBD Dauntless x 67
TBD Devastator x 12
Allied aircraft losses
SBD Dauntless: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
AK Canton Maru, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
AK Usa Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Yayoi, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Mochizuki, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
AK Tenposan Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

Later in the day they found some Mine Layers:
Japanese Ships
ML Tsugaru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
ML Tokiwa, on fire, heavy damage
ML Okinoshima, Shell hits 4, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
DD Yunagi, Bomb hits 7, on fire, heavy damage
DD Asanagi, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

And an AP that was lonely:
Japanese Ships
AP Kuretake Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage


Day 2 Feb 5th saw air strikes on many of the islands that accomplished very little, but a group of SDBs found some shipping:

Allied aircraft
SBD Dauntless x 24
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Sangetsu Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire
AP Nissho Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AP Miyadono Maru, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
AP Sasago Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

This was the day I remembered to add pilots to all my air groups. That helped some on the 6th.

Day 3 Feb 6th the CVs got into Devastator range, and
Allied aircraft
TBD Devastator x 31
Allied aircraft losses
TBD Devastator: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Sangetsu Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Nissho Maru, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Sasago Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Miyadono Maru, on fire, heavy damage

They also found another convoy:
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 9
SBD Dauntless x 55
Allied aircraft losses
SBD Dauntless: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
AP Nichiran Maru
PG Nagata Maru, Bomb hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
AP Uji Maru, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
PG Santos Maru
PG Kantori Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AK Kongo Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AK Hirokawa Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Then 74 Dauntless Pilots saw a Mavis at the mooring and made a bad target prioritization decision:
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 11
SBD Dauntless x 74

Japanese aircraft losses
H6K2-L Mavis: 1 destroyed

Woo hoo! We got a Mavis. 50 pilots took credit for the kill.

The Japanese got some planes organized at Kwajelin, but they were not well enough organized to get fighter escort:

Japanese aircraft
D3A Val x 8
G3M Nell x 32
E13A1 Jake x 5
E7K2 Alf x 4

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 35
F4F-4 Wildcat x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val: 8 destroyed
G3M Nell: 23 destroyed
E13A1 Jake: 4 destroyed
E7K2 Alf: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 damaged

Allied Ships
CV Yorktown
CA New Orleans
CA Chicago

At this point I was running out of sorties on some of my CVs and I had already done some serious damage. I even improved the quality of my fighter groups, always a bit difficult on these raids because of the need to keep a strong CAP over the CVs.

I went back and counted, this raid actually sank more ships than Blackwatch’s raid on Noumea, but he killed more aircraft. My CVs are on the way back to Pearl and will spend March upgrading. All in all a nice way to point out that Japan does not own the Pacific. Right now I have sunk 140+ of his ships and he has sunk 160+ of mine, which is about 5 ships a day, every day since the start of the war. Anyone know when we will run out?

[Tom Hunter]

Java continues to be the center of land, air and air sea battles as the Japanese invasion moves forward, then stalls.






One of the things I have discovered in this defense is that Wiraways don’t hit much. Every day they fly by the dozens and are lucky if they score a bomb hit.

But I am still flying them because they can take off from the level 2 airfields that Blackwatch was kind enough to abstain from bombing. They don’t do much on any given day, but we are almost a month into the fight for the island and they have scored a large number of hits in total. They have also taken more losses than any other Allied aircraft type except P40Bs. Not a great aircraft but so far they are holding the line.

Blackwatch did come up with a good tactic in the Java Sea. As regular readers know I have been flying all sorts of junk on naval strikes, this is a typical one:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 11
Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 20
CW-21B Demon x 3
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
Wirraway: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged
CW-21B Demon: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Teikei Maru
AS Chogei
AP Niitaka Maru
AP Hinko Maru

And another:
Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 8
CW-21B Demon x 3
Brewster 339D x 4
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Fukko Maru
PG Muro Maru

Notice the massive fish kills, at this rate I am going to starve Java of protein before I stop the Japanese.

The clever tactic involved moving baby KB in range of my more powerful air groups and capping it with lots of Zeros:

Day Air attack on TF at 21,62
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 44

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 8
Wirraway x 3
Beaufort V-IX x 10
P-39D Airacobra x 9

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
Wirraway: 2 destroyed
Beaufort V-IX: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged
P-39D Airacobra: 2 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CVL Zuiho
CVL Shoho

This attack was on Feb 9th. And was the last of 3-4 days of similar wasted efforts. The net effect was a sever moral problem among the Beauforts which I have sent back to Koepang for rest. So my trash continues to fly around bombing and the really good stuff is off having a drink in Timor.

On the bright side I now have 50 good fighters in Soerbaja waiting for the next un-escorted bombing raid, I may be able to get the upper hand in the air for a day or two. I was careful to get the F4Fs into action because they have a very large pool of replacement aircraft, so I can fight them starting early while I wait for the Kittyhawks to arrive and the P40Es and P39s to build up.

On the ground I gave up the Northern part of the island because of the Japanese invasion on my flank. Also one of my regiments covering the escape route from Batavia had 100% prep for Tjilijpa. So far this has worked well for me, here is the first Japanese attack against organized Dutch forces:

Ground combat at Tjilitjap
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 31794 troops, 258 guns, 14 vehicles
Defending force 11803 troops, 152 guns, 14 vehicles
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 1
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 1)

Japanese ground losses:
1143 casualties reported
Guns lost 38
Vehicles lost 3

Allied ground losses:
175 casualties reported
Guns lost 22
Vehicles lost 1

Not good that the fort went down, but the losses should buy me some days. I still have the position at Kragen as well, so maybe this Island will hold for longer than I expected.

More Beauforts are now in Bali, they will be in Soerbaja taking a pound of flesh next turn.

My big problem now is that I don’t have enough planes to bomb the Japanese hard in the Philipines, in Java and to rest the units. I am thinking of bringing the B17s at Darwin up to either Davao or maybe fly them in and out of Clark and try to smash a Jap airstrip. We will see about that.

This brings things up-to-date to Feb12th 1942. I may discuss Japanese strategy in my next post, or maybe wait a while for more action to unfold.

[Tom Hunter]

And at the moment I am really happy.

Its true that Blackwatch is in Java in February. But at the moment it looks like he may be there a long time. [:D] The Philipines is not just holding out, its doing considerable damage. Maybe his strategy of bypassing it is failing?

We have intense combat going on in 4 places:

China which is a swamp, I consider that a win. Certainly nothing Japanese is going to be withdrawn from China anytime soon. On the other hand 6 Chinese divisions are fighting in Burma or training in India right now.

Burma where the air combat is slowly heating up and there is battle at Mandalay. No decisive results but more Japanese troops are coming. I am not sure he has enough stuff to win here especially if I can keep pounding him from the air.

Java where things are scary for the Allies but so far they are doing pretty well. Kragen and Tijiljiap are unexpected setbacks for Blackwatch and the Allied airforce is a constant nusiance throwing off his schedule and sinking and damaging shipping.

Philipines where the tables have turned on the Japanese. They are unable to advance and bombers are flying from the airbases and hitting Japanese shipping every turn. Allied supply ships have kept the Islands in business there is supply on land to last well into March and supply on ship which, if it all gets delivered, will take the islands well into April.

Then we have raiding areas. Blackwatch likes the South Pacific, I prefer the CenPac zone. These raids are tit-for-tat we both sink some merchant shipping & DDs with little real result. There is a small risk to our CVs from LBA but so far not much effect.

So with all this true why am I happy?

Because its beginning to look like the Japanese are to spread out to win quickly in any one of the 4 major combat areas. Instead they are winning slowly and that gives the Allies more time to move in ships, planes and ground units. In another 2 weeks 150 new fighters will be located in Australia and a US Regimental Combat Team will unload in Timor. Every day there is fighting in Java is a day that more aircraft can be flown in, and more preparations made elsewhere.

Even after Java falls the Philipines are going to take a serious effort, and there is some evidence that the Japanese are diverting assets to the Philipines. But now they are fighting full strength units with supply in bigger forts so its taking longer, which also plays into Allied hands.

The key is KB. If it went to the Java Sea the obsolete aircraft that are making the Japanese invasion miserable woudl be shot out of the sky. In the Philipines it could also smash up some bombers and improve the situation for Japan. But as long as its raiding into areas that we are not fighting for the Allied situation will improve.

[Tom Hunter]

We have reached February 17th 1942 and the Japanese are attacking Sabang, which is empty except for a minefield;

TF 18 encounters mine field at Sabang (19,41)

Japanese Ships
DD Sagi
DD Kuretake
DD Yugumo, Mine hits 1, on fire
BB Fuso, Mine hits 1

and a Royal Navy Air combat TF lurking to the South West:

Day Air attack on TF, near Sabang at 19,41


Allied aircraft
Fulmar x 18
Swordfish x 24


Allied aircraft losses
Fulmar: 2 damaged
Swordfish: 2 destroyed, 12 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Fuso
BB Nagato
DD Ariake
BB Yamashiro, Torpedo hits 1
BB Mutsu

Not huge damage but a high price to pay for an empty port in North Sumatra.

The real action is at Java where fierce fighting continues on land and at sea.

The Japanese have been pounding on Tjilitjap-February 15th
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 55559 troops, 534 guns, 8 vehicles
Defending force 11524 troops, 134 guns, 11 vehicles
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 1
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 1)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1
Japanese ground losses:
1035 casualties reported
Guns lost 40
Vehicles lost 2
Allied ground losses:
517 casualties reported
and again on the 16th
Japanese ground losses:
293 casualties reported
Guns lost 10
Allied ground losses:
277 casualties reported
Guns lost 5
Vehicles lost 1

On the 17th they switched to bombardment attack and inflicted 7 casualties. 2 battalions of additional troops are coming in from Soerbaja, that is all the reserve I feel safe committing.

The Japanese are also unloading ships at Kragen where they now have 40,000 troops. But I think those troops are fatigued since they have been fighting in the jungle for a month. I pulled back one of my best Dutch regiments to Soerbaja for a rest period and rotated in a different one, hopefully that will help too.

Japanese air attacks have become less intense and they have ignored Soerbaja for the last 5 or 6 days. I have been able to build the airbase up, and I now have a collection of P39s, F4Fs and P40Es flying CAP and also shooting down Oscars over Kragen. Its a small battle but it has been going my way.

More importantly there are now over 40 Beauforts based in Soerbaja and Bali, these are marvelous planes and they are taking a chunk out of the Japanese shipping in the area.

Feb 15
At Kragen:
Japanese Ships
PG Kamitsu Maru, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PG Saga, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Sagara Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire

Feb 16 more planes arrive in Soerbaja, and Marine Wildcats sweep Kragen

Day Air attack on Kragen , at 22,63

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 12

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 4 destroyed

The Beauforts go into action against a Japanese bombardment group in the Java Sea

Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 14
CW-21B Demon x 3
Buffalo I x 3
Beaufort V-IX x 29
P-39D Airacobra x 5
P-40E Warhawk x 13


Allied aircraft losses
Wirraway: 2 damaged
CW-21B Demon: 1 destroyed
Beaufort V-IX: 9 damaged

Japanese Ships
CA Takao
BB Kongo, Torpedo hits 1
CA Suzuya, Torpedo hits 1
CA Nachi

Notice the Wirraways still can't hit anything [:@]


PT boats go into action at the West end of Java

Night Time Surface Combat, near Teloekbetoeng at 19,58

Japanese Ships
MSW Wa 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
MSW Choun Maru #21, Shell hits 58, and is sunk

Allied Ships
PT PT-31
PT PT-33
PT PT-34
PT PT-35
PT PT-41

On the 17th the air forces hit Kragen again:

Japanese Ships
AK Kenyo Maru, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
PC Ch 7, heavy damage
AK Hokko Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy damage

and 8 Beauforts find the crippled Suzya
Japanese Ships
CA Suzuya, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
Which sinks an hour after the attack.

In Burma the Allies abandon Mandalay and start the retreat to Myitkiyna where 4 divisions of Chinese are already entrenching. This will give the Allied 50,000 to 60,000 troops with ample air support against about 90,000 Japanese, it could be a long fight.


B17s flew into the Philippines in the hopes of launching a surprise raid on Japanese airfields, and instead the Japanese surprised them on the ground at Clark Field:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 35
Ki-49 Helen x 36
Allied aircraft
no flights
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 1 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 3 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 5 destroyed
Hudson I: 7 destroyed
Allied ground losses:
42 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Airbase hits 12
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 72

Needless to say this stopped the raid cold and there are now 30 damaged B17s being repaired at Clark.

Though the Japanese have been winning the air battle of the Philippines at sea the bombers have been taking a toll, here are the damage results for the last 3 days in Philippine waters:

Feb 15:
AP Kakyu Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
PC Kyo Maru #12, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage I am convinced that PCs are bomb magnets
AK Sasako Maru, Bomb hits 1
AK Awazisan Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire
PG Tosho Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Feb 16 bad weather, no hits

Feb 17 bad bombing, no hits

But another day like the 15th will come along soon.

In retaliation the Japanese have started sending planes that were hitting Java after Davao in the Philipines:

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 49
G4M1 Betty x 9

But they have not shut the place down, they are also bombing Banjarmasin in Borneo which has no LBA at all:
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 27
G4M1 Betty x 54
So it does not matter what he hits.

Finally in a move that I can’t explain the Japanese have been blasting Thursday Island on a regular basis:

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 24
G4M1 Betty x 65

This force is also suppressing Port Moresby, and I understand Blackwatch’s desire to have the place fall without the brutal attrition battle we fought there in the last game. However he is paying a substantial price, Allied strategy has caused him to spread his assets out and his advance is slowing, allowing reinforcements to reach the battle area in greater numbers.

In particular the box defined by Noumea, Koumac, Luganville and Efate is building up fast, and the Australian 22nd brigade is landing at Lautem in a few days. The US 161 RTC is also on its way to Timor, and a Marine defense battalion is waiting to give the Japanese a nasty surprise when they hit Aru Island.

If Java can hold into March then Timor can be ready for a very bloody fight in April. Meantime the Americans will build up in the South Pacific and strike North and West in the end of 1942.

[CapAndGown]

What's happening with this AAR? Your fan base wants more. [:D]

[Alikchi2]

I really love how you're keeping the fight up in the Philippines! Kudos!

And yes, we demand more [:D]

[Tom Hunter]

More is coming but I won't have time to do much until this evening.

We are up to the 22nd but we had some bad weather so the pace of action slowed.

Details at 11

[Tom Hunter]

Bad weather and heavy casualties have slowed the pace of operations a bit, not much changed in the week since our last report.

In Burma the Japanese are closing in on Myitkyina where 47,000 British and Chinese troops wait under a strong air umbrella. The only event of note in the Burma campaign was a big air attack on Rangoon on February 22:
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 47
LB-30 Liberator x 45

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 2 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 3 destroyed
Ki-46-II Dinah: 2 destroyed
Ki-49 Helen: 5 destroyed
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed

Most of these planes were recent arrivals, and after flying B17s into a similar raid in the Philipines all I can say is HOW DOES IT FEEL YOU JAP BASTARD!!![:D] Its likely there are a lot of damaged planes on the ground there now, that should slow the offensive a bit.

On Java the Japanese have stopped running ships to Kragen, instead they are sending convoys to Batavia which has at least one group of Zeros flying CAP. Dutch forces abandoned Tjiljiap on Feb 22nd pulling back to Djokarta. Djokarta is a level 3 fort, Tjijiliap was holding but it was level zero and the Japanese have moved more troops in so the Dutch abandoned it with their forces still intact. A fresh regiment with fatigue of 7 is moving in from Soerbaja, with luck Djokarta will hold for a long time.

In the air over Java American fighters have been hitting back at the Japanese

Day Air attack on Soerabaja , at 22,65

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 11

Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 7
P-39D Airacobra x 10
P-40E Warhawk x 16

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 8 destroyed

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 68

Allied aircraft
Brewster 339D x 5
P-40E Warhawk x 10

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 17 destroyed, 8 damaged

Just as examples so the loss rate is moving in favor of the Allies. So far this is turning into the attrition battle that the Allies want. The biggest frustration in recent days was the Marine F4F squadron magically returning to Noumea on Feb 20th. I think its a fragment problem, anyway it will take until March to get them back to the front line.

The Japanese have put a lot more attention into the Philippines lately, bombing Davao, Manila and Clark into the stone age. This leave Cagayan active and I can open Legaspi but that might draw Japanese attention to the transports unloading in the harbor so its really only a last reasort. The 4 ships from Pearl arrived safetly and are about 1/3rd unloaded, the Philipines is in its best supply situation ever with over 26,000 at Clark and a bit more here and there. Clark is a level 7 fort working on level 8 and there is a long bombardment battle going on that is attritting both sides.

The Japanese air group that is bombing Davao is also responsible for bombing Timor, which is not getting bombed at all. Supplies are rushing in and the first American units have come ashore. It will be a while before the place is really ready for action, but it is getting stronger. At one point in Janauary it looked as if the Japanese would be in Timor by now, but that threat seems to be negated by operations in the Philippines which means the efforts there have been a success.

The Noumea-Luganville-Efate area continues to build up, in a few months when the Seabees arrive the Americans will invade one of the undeveloped islands that is 4 hexes from Luganville, that will be the start of the advance. In 1942 the Alllies can't move forward without LBA cover, so that is where the invasion will be.

A Cruiser TF is forming at Brisbane, it will be ready in about a week and then go looking for trouble.

The 4 US CVs are at Pearl waiting for the March upgrade. Maybe they will raid after that, or maybe hang around until the April upgrade comes along. Either way it will be good to get the ships in better shape, they are very vunerable in the early war.

The Chinese attempted a big shock attack on the rail Junction near Homan and were repulsed with 8,000 casualties. Japan lost 1,000 so it was not a win for China. The Japanese are manuevering and new Chinese armies are being built up at various locations, things are quiet now but they might start to move in another week or two.

That is all for now

[Tom Hunter]

Java continues to hold, Djokarta is proving a tough nut to crack:

Ground combat at Djokjakarta Feb 25, 42

Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 29498 troops, 291 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 16823 troops, 136 guns, 13 vehicles
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese ground losses:
644 casualties reported
Guns lost 21
Allied ground losses:
234 casualties reported
Guns lost 15
Vehicles lost 1

Followed by 2 turn of bombardment attacks that caused 36 casualties in total. The Dutch 6 regiment with fatigue of 7 is taking the place of the 4th which is going back to Soerbaja for rest. I hope the Dutch can hold this position for a while, then fall back to another level 3 fort at Madeoin. Soerbaja itself is up to level 5 and slowly climbing.

The airfields in Java are full of Beauforts, bad weather has kept them from hitting the Japanese fleet on the wrong side of Java but I am hopeing it will clear up and give me a chance to sink some cruisers.





The TFs at Soerbaja are subs, all the important ships are long gone, and the PT boats are on their way to a raid of Balikpapan.

My biggest problem in Java has been my air units suddely transfering to Noumea to join up with Fragments. I lost a VMF unit a week ago, and 25 B18 Bolos just vanished on the 27th. Its starting to cause me serious problems with the defense, the air situtaion would be much better with an additional 25 bombers and 20 good fighters.

The Philippines have pretty much been neutralized by Japan boming the Northern air bases and re-routing away from the Southern ones. There is still a group of 50 B25s there but they have no targets. On the 26th they tried to catch the Japanese on the ground, but got nothing:

Day Air attack on Lingayen , at 44,50

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
Wirraway x 6
B-25C Mitchell x 41

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-15 Babs: 1 destroyed


Runway hits 1

Aircraft Attacking:
30 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 3000 feet
11 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 3000 feet

Of course there were no Wirraways there at all.

Miyitkyna continues to hold inspite of repeated attacks:

Feb 26th Attacking force 90416 troops, 970 guns, 172 vehicles
Defending force 43693 troops, 380 guns, 13 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1
Japanese ground losses:
2469 casualties reported
Guns lost 79
Vehicles lost 9
Allied ground losses:
777 casualties reported
Guns lost 32
Vehicles lost 2

and again the next day:

Japanese ground losses:
559 casualties reported
Guns lost 25
Vehicles lost 7

Allied ground losses:
301 casualties reported
Guns lost 13

The other important news is the Japanese switched back to pounding Timor, this time with 2 surface groups sweeping up the small amount of Merchant shipping in the area. More Allied troops are on the way there, including 161 Regimental combat team, and the place is well supplied but still not ready for prime time.

[Tom Hunter]

As this picture will make perfectly clear, China is a mess:





The Japanese sent 60,000 men to besiege Kaifeng and they had the city surrounded for a while, but now its back in contact. The Homan Kaifeng rail juntion continues its now 3 month old bombardment battle.

In the South the Japanese have started moving small units into the Chinese rear, and a couple of larger formations onto the rail line near Wuchow. The Chinese were training and building up an 11 corp army at Kweiyang in the hopes of eventually bringing the units to full strength but they are on the move to Wuchow now to mess up the Japanese. Its to bad they were not able to get up to 330 assualt points but the 250 odd they have is still a pretty solid punch and should give the Japanese in the South a rough handling.

Strategically what does this mean? Not very much, and it likely never will mean much. But hey that is China in the 40s.

[Tom Hunter]

Here are the stats, they show Japan still winning on the ground especially, and in the air to a large degree, but not at sea.

These are the losses since Feb 2 1942

Ships
Allied: 39
Japan: 47

Planes
Allied: 800
Japan: 556

Army
Allied: 623
Japan: 89

The army losses will likely jump a lot in March if Java falls, and again when the Philipines goes which might be April if things go well.

The main thing is to get the big attrition battles going in the air. The 35 planes shot down this turn seems to happen every day or two now and the Allies certainly win it from time to time. Its going to be a while before the Japanese really start to hurt, but they will start hurting more and more.

At sea most of the losses are smaller vessels, AKs, APs, PTs and so on. The Japanese have done some raiding and bashed the Allied transport fleets and the Allies have done the same to Japan. It is difficult to be certain what the over all impact of this is on the Japanese but slightly more than 10% of Japans starting APs have been sunk, and many more damaged.

More detail as I catch up with the various combat areas.

[CapAndGown]

Your picture does not match the statistics in your text.

[Bradley7735]

His statistics in his writing are losses from Feb 2nd. The picture is in total. (since Dec 7th)

[CapAndGown]

Oh. I missed that. [:o]

[Tom Hunter]

The Philipines continue to do well. The Japanese have enough planes in the Islands to shut down one airfield and have chosen Clark. The Allies have over 50 planes based at 3 of the 4 avialable level 4 airfields and these planes regularly strike Japanese shipping in the area:

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 17


Allied aircraft losses
Hudson I: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
PG Myoken Maru
ML Shirataka
AK Asahisan Maru
AK Maebasi Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 4


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AK Kashii Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

This is keeping the pressure on Japanese shipping and forcing some re-routing as well. It also periodically pulls Japanese attention away from places like Timor and Soerbaja which allows them to recover.

AKs continue to unload at Legaspi, there are 4 there now unloading the last 5,000 supplies of a 28k load. 4 more are on the way with 20,000 more. Clark Feild has 20,000 supply and a level 7 fort, Manila has 10,000 and a much weaker fort.

There is a long bombardment battle going on at Clark, this turn was good for the Allies, but its not always this way:

Attacking force 123448 troops, 1160 guns, 140 vehicles

Defending force 80655 troops, 830 guns, 277 vehicles



Allied ground losses:
196 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 64118 troops, 777 guns, 6 vehicles

Defending force 140366 troops, 1160 guns, 329 vehicles


Japanese ground losses:
1109 casualties reported
Guns lost 17
Vehicles lost 3

take that! Moral is in the 40s and 50s, I am not sure how long these guys can hold but I hope its for a long time. The longer the Philipines holds and keeps bombing Japanese shipping the more time to prepare additional defenses and the eventual counter attack.

[Tom Hunter]

Cap_

Just saving you the trouble of flipping back to the February stats post and doing the math yourself.

Since I am trying to use attrition to destroy the Japanese the statistics are important to watch over time. The shipping numbers are good already they make me wonder if it will be possible to cause a shipping crisis for Japan at some point in late 42 or early 43.

Air is not as good as I want it to be, but its getting better. I had a problem in Java caused by fragments, I moved some F4Fs in but they redeployed to Noumea due to a fragment that was left behind. It took me about 10 days to get them back but now they are fighting air battles and killing various Japanese planes. There are still a lot of useless Dutch planes flying in the area but I hope to start pulling them out of action soon.

Land kills are still very much in Japans favor and will be for a while.