Speedy vs Swift - Jap perspective. Fight to the death

[Rob Brennan UK]

Release mongolian divisions ??? never heard of that one before.

As allies i move those chinese down to save homan, usually works too, do i inadvertantly give the enemy 8 mongolian divs in return ?? eek !

Solomons was nice and easy i'm happy to see, cant wait till you spill the beans on the forces you are planning to use in truk[:D].China is a messy place and painfully slow, however you seem to have it in hand right now , cool ! [8D]

Hopefully noumea will be the bait for the allied Cv's , he really cant afford to lose the place, i'd bet its stuffed full with all the bits and pieces he's released from the aussie mainland, like the tazmanian CD unit. and the NZ kittyhawks.

I'm glued to this AAR now, learning japan for my next PBEM, reading this and Pzb's amazing story inspires me no end, thanks for taking the tiem to post it.

I plan on writing up my next Pbem on the forums, is there a spell checker in this interface? as my typing is abysmal.

as ever .. good luck

[Speedysteve]

Thanks again Rob [8D]

A few tidbits whilst I await Werner's response and then i'll post pics of what I mean at Truk.............

Mongolian cavalry divisions - there are 8 of them (I believe) scattered in NW Kuantung region. They are assigned to China though. They are GREAT for base garrison in China since they have a handy assault value of 80ish each.

Truk - It's in the region of 6000 Assault Value points at present. Once more maybe i'm misguided but with this concentration of power I can't see how Werner can resist at Noumea............

China - I could write an essay on this place. I have gone from moving everything forward in my early games to realising where BOTH the Allies and Japanese are strong and what needs moving where etc. Also i've got to the stage now in most games where if I see an enemy unit or more moving on a certain route I can act accordingly. Of course mistakes are made but i'm far better in China now than I was before.

Noumea - have no ideas to be sure but I plan to move in there with a lot of sea power initally and then within 1-2 days a lot of land power and then when Luganville is captured a lot of air power.

A quick update on phase 3 - The past 4 days have been typically quiet whilst I gather my forces at Truk and prepare for the invasion of Kweiyang in China. Almost all the important ships, men and planes arrrived at Truk on 4th June 1942.

I have set D-Day for launch of Phase 3 - the invasion of New Caledonia as 10th June unless an unexpected event occurs.......

More soon fellow readers [:)]

Steven

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

As mentioned here's a pic of the CV's and BB's present in Truk harbour. Resting and giving the men 'Geisha time' before their big off.............Noumea

Tomorrow will be the major troop concentrations at Truk.......

Also tomorrow the men will march the last 60 miles towards Kweiyang. Should be an epic battle. According to intel we are about even in units - 40 each!

Steven

[DuckofTindalos]

The Zuikaku and Kaga probably shouldn't be risked with that kind of damage. One bomb or torpedo could eliminate them for months...

[Speedysteve]

I know and understand Mr T but IF I this operation goes well they won't be needed for months. I'm already at 4:1 in points. I've decided i'm going to risk it.

I see this as THE big operation. Based on how Werner works and BASIC intel the area is full of Allied stuff at Noumea especially and Efate and Luganville secondary.

Maybe i'm getting victory disease here but how will he put that bomb on Kaga? He will have a maximum of 3 CV's (I would say 2 since I from his mails Wasp is now out yet). I will have c.625 aircraft on CV's. I plan to swarn the things with CAP. When I invade Luganville there is no way LBA, other than Mediums, can hit my CV's from Noumea.

Don't you think its worth risking using them and then give them a couple of months off for rest and upgrades?

[DuckofTindalos]

Maybe... If you're really overmatching him that much, then probably yeah. Just as long as you're certain that this is the Big Push(tm) that will decide the issue.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Mr T - Hard to say to be certain what he has down there but I know he has some stuff there.

I'm going for a maximum effort in this and in all honesty I see it that if Kaga has 16 SYS or 2 SYS 1 bomb will put her out of action for a time whatever. I want to ensure I have maximum force and strike him with the biggest hammer available.

Thanks for your thoughts though bud. They are appreciated [:)]

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Today saw a couple of events pass by.........

1. In 2 years time Allied forces will be landing in France! [X(][&o]

2. Akyab has now received all of the initially alloted forces for the push into Burma, except the 2 Tank regiments which are moving there through the jungle (have fun guys.....).

A quandry and your thoughts please - each day I wait he'll build up stronger. As mentioned a while ago I have found another Brigade to use in Burma. It is currently resting, repairing and training at Soerabaja (60/100 condition). Do you think I should wait for this formation to be complete and airlifted before moving off or should I move off now and move the 35th in later on? I'm verging on going for it now.

3. China - The Armada marching towards Kweiyang was attacked by LBA from all over China (even Brits which appear to have been flown in). Little damage was caused but accordingly i'm moved 2 of the A6M2 Daitai I had based in Northern Japan (when Werner was fishing around there I suspected an attack up there so left A6M's and G4M's up there). These boys will rest tomorrow after flying to China and will from now on provide LRCAP over my men.

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SS Seawolf had been lurking 120 miles away from Rabaul and was spotted a few days agao by an Emily. 5 DD's from Truk sailed to the suspected location, found her and hit her with 2 x Type91 DC's. She'll live but another sub is going back to port for a few months.

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Case Blue - more preparations/downtime and saki drinking.

Below is a screenie of the LCU's (or a 1/3 of them at Truk). I was mistaken there is a combined AV of 5200 points. Only about 2/3 of this will be directly involved in Case Blue. I still expect it to be an overwhelming force..............

[DuckofTindalos]

I'd get going from Akyab now if I were you. Like you said, time doesn't work for you, it works for him. Get that extra brigade moving as soon as you can get the sealift, but start moving up north anyway.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Today saw a LOT of orders being issues.

The men have been ordered to form up on their transports for 'Case Blue Phase 3. The real deal'! The number of units involved is probably the largest I have ever ordered:

7 Divisions
3 Brigades
8 large SNLF's
4 Tank Regiments
4 Engineer Regiments
3 ART Battalions
5 Base Forces
1 CD Unit

3/4 of the divisions are readying for Noumea itself where as almost all of the SNLF's are readying for Luganville.

I'm looking forward to 'getting the show on the road' for sure. Been a quite few months really. Not for much longer......

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Bad news on the sub front. I-124 was laying mine's at Noumea was detected and spanked to the watery depths....

Also I-160 patrolling inbetween Noumea and Luganville was detected by 4 DD's and also sank......

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Burma -

I agree with Mr T. Time to get moving there too....

IGD
4th Division
21st Mixed Brigade
4th Eng regiment
4 Artillery Battalions
15th Army................ have started there march up the trail. 120 miles of sloe laborious marching. Fingers crossed.

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Further good news. A batch of AR/AS/MLE/AE ships have finished being converted at Osaka and have been sent around the Empire:

Shanghai - 1 AR
Kendari - 1 AS/1 MLE/1 AE
Truk - 2 AS/2 AR
Kwajalein - 1 MLE/1 AE
Saipan - 1 MLE/1 AE
Maizuru - 1 AR
Tokyo - 1 AR

More AR and AS are being built too.

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Below is a pic of the air units at Trukl which will fly into Luganville once captured. Also due are a Sally/Helen Sentai + x A6M3 Daitai

[Rob Brennan UK]

T is right imo .. get going in burma asap, as you have done. Lets hope you don't get spotted. What with the invasion tf's coming down from truk he may be a 'little' distracted by that. and of course he seems to be rather lazy on the recon front too. All helps

Maybe getting luganville and "that place north of guadalcanal" built up port wise just in case a lucky torp gets through. as some where you can at least disband into.

also be careful of your own mines when bombarding Noumea .. i hate hitting my own mines [:@].

looking good fun though .. let the war continue ! [8D]

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Phase 3 of Case Blue is well underway now. The transports are nearing the Solomans..........

It's been the largest invasion fleet I have assembled as the Japanese. In total there are 235 ships in the invaion fleet across 3 TF's (one of these is full of supply and fuel)[X(]

The warships have been ordered to leave Truk harbour today. They should meet up with the Transports around the Guadalcanal area.

They are ordered as follows:

KB1 - Akagi, Kaga, Junyo, Hiyo, Shoho, Hosho

KB2 - Zuikaku, Shokaku, Hiryu, Soryu, Ryujo

BB1 - Yamato, Nagato, Mutsu

BB2 - Hiei, Kirishima

BB3 - Ise, Hyuga

This is gonna be huge.

-----------------

A couple of downers over the past few days.

Firstly, Werner has started reconning Burma but as yet hasn't spotted the troops moving from Akyab.

Secondly, Werner has said he's noticed from SigInt that some divisions are preparing for Noumea [:@]

The aim of this is to destroy and capture enemy stuff I hope he doesn't move out of New Caledonia.................

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Today also saw a sub success! They have been rare over the past month after the good first 5 months.

SS I-30 found a convoy 600 miles south west of San Francisco. 1 out of 6 fish detonated against the side of TK Victor H Kelly. She was empty but it is hoped she'll sink.

2 further subs have been vectored onto the convoys projected course.

--------------------------

Below is a screenshot of the main invasion TF bound for Luganville.

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

A mixed fortunes day..............

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One of the subs I had vectored onto the convoy that I-30 spotted yesterday found the convoy....or rather the escorts found her and sank her with the loss of all hands.

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Burma -

Werner reconned Akyab so now knows what is there [:@]

I'm still proceeding as planned. To sit there and do nothing is to invite defeat.

Anyhow............some good news that could have a future impact on Burma..........

---------------

At Kweiyang my men launched a ferocious bombardment of the City. Over 500 casualties were reported but even better news is that despite so many formation he only has over 110,000 men defending it! I have over 340,000 attacking. Excellent. If I can take this place and move on through China into Burma my men wilkl have additional division to throw at the Brits...........

The screenie below shows what I mean.

---------------

Phase 3 of Case Blue proceeding as planned.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Just because he sent a recon plane over akyab, and it was probably on 'commandes discretion' he may well not check every target every turn. fingers crossed.

also have a go in china, deliberate assault would be my choice, you could just use engineers but they will get broken and take weeks to recover, use everything imo. will hurt but it'll be spread out, allowing another attack in a few days, while the arty keeps the pressure on bombarding.

So what if intel picked up prepping for noumea. he's going to notice pretty soon anyway .. probably all a bit late for him to do much about it imo.

have fun . im looking forward to the next few days

[Roger Neilson]

I continue to watch your developments too in this. Surely, as Rob says, its too late for him to do much about the sigint now. As one who has taken all but Chungking and Chengtu be warned that it takes a very very very long time to march troops from China to anywhere useful - as it should do given the Burma road as it actually was.

On the other hand I was pleasantly surprised to find I had one or two units that were not actually China command in China so as it cooled down a bit there I have managed to send these to friendly ports and disembark them on my conquest of India. I'va also been able to move some air units across having paid PPs for them

I look forward to future news on this AAR.

Cheers

Roger

[Speedysteve]

Hi Rob/Roger.

My main fear of him knowing that I am coming for Noumea is that he could evacuate what he has there - ships/men/aircraft. My main aim of this operation is not to capture resources but to destroy the enemy on the field of battle. What with the slow movement of the transports it will be a week + before they are at Luganville. KB will be there 2/3 days ahead of them of course so I guess in effect he has 4 days to move stuff out if he wants to...........

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The 15th June 1942 was a good day overall.

Noumea invasion forces continue to sail nearer without being spotted............

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It was also a good day in the air with action in Burma and China. I bombed Kweiyang airfields again to keep the engineers busy and Werner launched 431 Blenheims to bomb my troops. Unfortunately for him I have been LRCAPing My division by Zero rotation from Wenchow. My pliots shot down 5 of the attackers....[:)]

I chuckled when a Wellington fklew reconnaisance over IGD at Akyab but was shot down by PO2 Inano of F1 Yamada Daitai. Saki for you son [:)]

All in all 9 Allies down for 1 Zero lost when an engine failed over China.

Werner is bugging out of Kweiyang with 4 of the 42 units moving out yesterday. The men havwe been given orders to attack at first light. Time to take the rat hole.

The same occurs in the north of China on the road to Kungchang. 3 Chinese Corps will hopefully be smacked tomorrow.

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Case Blue's progress...........

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

3 more days have come and gone. God I wish I could just warp down to Luganville. These transports are too slow. The suspense is killing. I just want to get down there wipe out his planes, land, capture the place, build it up and then invade either at Noumea or next to it. Simple and i'm not asking for a lot [;)]

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The battle was joined at Kweiyang 3 days ago! The inital assault was bloody but the first line of fortifications fell (2 left) and my men have taken most of the north east quarter of the city. Follow up attacks were ordered the following day with roughly 1000 casualties each but no further ground was gained. Whilst positions are reorganised and further plans are formed the artillery is pounded the Chinese frontline casuing 600 casualties yesterday.

Tomorrow we attack again!

---------------------------

As you'll see below the invasion TF's have all formed and are in the same 60 miles of sea. Would be an impressive sight to see. KB will either leave the transports and head for Luganville tomorrow or the day after....

Battle is nearing!

Steven

[DuckofTindalos]

Why have you made such huge transport TF's, Speed? Not enough escorts to protect a larger number of smaller ones?

[Speedysteve]

Hi T,

Combination of factors really.

Firstly, escorts. I had to form the TF's based upon available escorts at Truk and the surrounding environs. I am the sort of player who is aware of subs and their potential. As such I keep at least 5 ASW dedicated platforms at 3-4 points in the SRA alone. Coupled with that I have kept Kongo/Haruna in the SRA for local policing. They have escorts. A LOT of escorts I keep in Japan for use in convyong (once more the sub potential).

Secondly, why not? [;)] No in all seriousness with 2 large TF's its easier to keep them in the same hex. One following tother. With many smaller TF's its easy for 1 or 2 to not move at the same rate and for the invasioon fleet to become spread out. At least thats my thinking.

Thirdly, i'm not overly concerned of any risk to the transports. With KB in the area carrying c650 aircraft and 7 Battleships in close I can't see what should threaten them.

Thanks for the question bud [:)]

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19th June 1942 saw the 2 arms of KB stretch into the distance from the invasion ships. Making top speed to the south-east. Target Luganville. It is time to strike out!

All bombers have been alerted to be ready to bomb enemy ships. The Kates have also been told to potentially bomb Luganville's airfileds at 15,000 feet if no enemy ships are found.

Within 2 days the first heavy shells from the BB's will rain deatah on any men at Luganville.

Banzai!!

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On the other side of the theatre the I-153 found a large British convoy returning to Karachi. A firing position was attained on the empty TK Empire Airman. 1 hit was achieved which probably won't sink it (ports nearby). Unfortunately the DD Nestor hit I-153 with 2 DC's. She will probably not make it back to Singapore. .......

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China -

Attacks are to be put in at Kweiyang and on the road to Kungchang in the north tomorrow.

Werner foolishly tried to bomb my men at Kweiyang with 24 Blenheim IV's. Patrolling Zeros shot down 7 of the blighters [8D]

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

A glorious day for the Empire in China!

Kweiyang falls after tough fighting throughout the City. Upto 8000 Japanese casualties are reported vs 5000 Chinese but the City is mine and the defenders are routed onto the road to Kunming. The men have earned 1 days rest (which they'll get) and then onto Kunming, Yenan and victory in China!

Also the assault in the north on the road to Kungchang was successful in pushing back a couple of Chinese Corps. A further attack will go in tomorrow.

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Case Blue -

We are about there for the main event guys [:)]

KB will be in place to attack any shipping or Luganville tomorrow.

The transports have moved past Guadalcanal. The soldiers on deck salute Canal. The last friendly destination they are moving past before American held territory; Luganville! [8D]

Several Alf's and Jake's have spotted upto 5 enemy subs in the area.

As far as I now he hasn't spotted me coming yet! The float plane sightings of subs will surely warn him though

Ah well baring weather there will be attacks in the Luganville area tomorrow: 21st June 1942.

Steven

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Today will focus purely on Case Blue, 21st June 1942.

Battle is joined! As predicted KB's 2 divisions moved within striking range of Luganville. Scouts were sent out in the morning....the seas were quiet except for a lone DM that was spotted 60 miles south-west of Luganville.

Yamaguchi scheduled a couple of Daitai (D3A and B5N) who attacked and pummeled this lone DM with 11 bomb hits and 3 torpedo hits!

No strike appeared from Luganville even upto Midday! As such Nagumo conmsulted with Abe on Shokaku. It was decided...The Kates would bomb Luganville...........

At 3.30PM the armada appeared over Luganville 90 Kates escorted by 114 experienced Zero pilots. CAP was present...in the distance the Zero's could see several 'little specks'...

The battle was on. It was a slaughter in any imagination.

In the debriefing it was clear that the Allied fighter pilots flying P39's were not well trained as opposed to my boys.

The total raid was a success. One runway was put out of action. 24 P39's were destroyed on the ground by the Kates and a further 24 were shot down by my Zero's. Also 4 Bostons were left ablaze on the field. I lost 5 planes in the entire raid.

Total losses for the day:

Allied: 58
Japanese: 7

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Recon indfactes 4 units at Luganville. I think at least 3 divisions maybe. If so it's not a problem for the invasion forces. We'll see.

2 x BB divisions have been radioed to steam ahead at full speed to bombard the place on the night of 22nd..............