The Italian Job (2) - Comments from the Allies

[String]

ORIGINAL: mc3744

Because there are - at least - 2-300 fighters in the nearby bases! [;)]

So?.. What's he gonna do, LRCAP? You can escort your bombers from Ledo with P-38's

Fighters on LRCAP have their effectiveness reduced from my experience, so another good place to attrit the japanese pilot pool. with 200-300 fighters he can put a max of 100 fighters on LRCAP, and that's on a good day, most likely it will be around 50. Easy fodder for your P-38's.

[mc3744]

Yes, LRCAP is not as effective as escort.
Still I'd be at maximum range (9) and that affects performance and ops losses too.

However I think you are right, [;)] it's worth a try.
Next turn I'll issue the orders to my bomber commanders.

If I get spanked I'll come looking for you [:D]

[Kereguelen]

ORIGINAL: mc3744

Next turn I'll issue the orders to my bomber commanders.

It's well worth the try. Let's only hope that GH will not become too frustrated if your attack is successful!

[mc3744]

I don't think GH will get too frustrated anytime soon [;)]

[mc3744]

November 28th, 1942

IBC
Chungking has fallen. A sad day for the Allies. [:(]
On the bright side: in (30) days I’ll have countless Chinese units in Karachi.
They’ll come handy once recovered.
A few Wellington III eventually decided to take off from Ledo and bomb the Japanese troops in Chungking. P-38’s felt like sleeping late and did not follow suit. [:o]
They had fatigue (0), morale (90+), range (9), escort with CAP 0%. [&:]
Jap planes appeared in Kunming, I’m flying some recon. I think we will soon start fighting over IBC skies … I hope.
I really hope he won’t keep playing at ‘hundreds vs. hundreds’. It’s really boring and unrealistic. At least now I also have the ‘hundreds’ to play with.
“Operation Toilet Paper” goes on. Bad weather is a constant, only few combat flights every day. [:@]

AUSTRALIA
A few Sally’s from Daly are attacking my troops in Central Australia. I may strike back, we’ll see.

PACIFIC
Despite the good progress I’m annoyed. [:o]
P-38’s on training mission over Wallis do not take off. It’s range (8) and they’ve been sitting for (5) days now. The weather is, of course, bad. [:-]
Over Luganville (6) Betty’s came to torpedo some AKs, (9) F4F-4 met them. Not one Betty shot down, two AKs lightly damaged. [:@]

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

Japanese’s atrocities after the fall of Chunking

[mc3744]

It looks like we found yet another bug. [:@]
I really hope we'll be able to solve it. Too many hours of my life spent on WitP to trash them on bugs [:-]

I'm also worried by the disappearing of Matrix guys around the forum.
Nobody replied on the Intel screen information accuracy (I tried twice) and I hope we won't be alone on this one too.

Support was terrific up to a few months ago, but I'm now getting a bad feeling [:(]

[mc3744]

I just found out something new (at least to me).

With Chungking gone, all the lost China Command HQ units return to Karachi, not only those reassigned to Southeast Asia HQ! [X(] [:D]

This has a very important impact on the Chinese strategy for the Japs.
If China is falling, you probably want to leave Chungking as the last city. Otherwise you send the Chinese units to Karachi with no PP expenditure on the Allies.

I've always thought that this game is not able to handle China. As Japan I easily conquer it and as Allies I loose it vs. experienced players.
Hence this Karachi thing is a partial amend. It is however weird per se, I mean why should I get all the units back in Karachi and with the full pool if China is lost?
Chinese troops should be lost too as well as most of the infantry pool.

[jwilkerson]

Yup my opponent found that out when Chungking was captured in our game.

[mc3744]

December 1st, 1942

IBC
Churchill is once again depriving me of important assets. This time he wants a BB and (2) DDs back. [:-]
Bad weather plagues my airfields. What a pain! [:@]
GH is not willing to have some fun in the skies [;)], he is now concentrating on Sining, Lanchow, Ichang and Changsha.
I may convince him otherwise in the next future. We’ll probably have a hot Christmas in Burma.

AUSTRALIA
Yesterday a heavy air strike over Daly, 40:30 in his favor. Today I should have stroke the killing blow on the damaged planes, but the weather kept the bombers down.

PACIFIC
As you can see in the picture lots of progress has been made in the last month.
By the first quarter of ’43 Tarawa and the Solomon’s should be under siege.
I’m expecting some real battles once I get closer. He’ll eventually have to engage on equal terms, the times of his total predominance are slowing passing away.

[mc3744]

December 2nd, 1942

IBC
Awful weather as usual. [:@]
However “Operation Toilet Paper” continues. Phase I is almost complete, one more week to go. So far it appears that GH has not noticed anything.

AUSTRALIA
Alice’s bombers today took off and destroyed (35) grounded Japanese planes (at least according to the Intel screen). The total of the attack on Daly is now 40:65 in my favor.

PACIFIC
Building, and moving forward.
Soon the Essex will be at SF, I can’t wait!!

[Andy Mac]

thats weird I lost Chungking to String and didnt get those units back so I am surprised by that

Andy

[mc3744]

Weird. Did you have a mox of Southeast HQ and Chinese or were they all assigned to Chinese?

I double checked and, as far as I can tell, all the unit I had in Chungking are coming back to Karachi.

[mc3744]

December 5th, 1942

IBC
Phase I of “Operation Toilet Paper” is almost complete. Most units are now in position, as you can see from the picture. Phase II will commence in two, three days from now.
There will be a Phase III and – maybe – IV, depending on the events.
The last two phases will see a heavy engagement of planes and ships.
In the next week the composition of the two land attacks will be specified in more detail.
F4F's have started training, they should be close to (80) exp once the Corsair’s arrive.
Carrier air groups could be upgraded from Seafire’s to Wildcat V. I have no idea which one is better. The Seafire seems the best one, despite being ‘older’. Anybody can help me out on this?

AUSTRALIA
Coen has reached airfield size (1), I need to wait for size (2) to start training the fighters.
So far I had to airlift all the supplies, not one got there on its own, I hope that now that it is ‘officially’ a base supplies will be drawn from Cooktown.

PACIFIC
Clearly GH will try to hold Tarawa but not Nanumea. Reports suggest (23) LCU’s in Tarawa. [X(]
Samoa Islands will become the training area for the Pacific planes.
Right now the two Jap units escaped NW of Suva are doing just fine. [:D]
CVE Chenango is at harbor in SF. [8D] I noticed that her F4F's can be upgraded only to FM-2 or F6F.
Anybody on the FM-2?

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

IBC situation

[Andy Mac]

The only thing I can think of is if you had set China Command to SEAC it would send all subordinate units there.

If thats the case its an un intentional problem but I would be pissed if I was Hoepner.

If you hadnt changed Chicomm all those units would return at any other Chinese base still under your control.

Andy

[String]

FM-2 is an upgraded version of the wildcat, F6F is clearly better but couldn't be operated from CVE's afaik. So upgrading to F6F's would be unhistorical.

Seafires are better than wildcats, but you can upgrade wildcats V's to the british Corsairs which are .. well .. corsairs [:D]

[mc3744]

Yes, that may be the case!

I had already reassigned most units to Southeast Asia HQ, including China Command HQ. I sorted the unit by AP value and started from the bottom, to reassign the biggest possible number.

It's nice to have GH pissed once in a while [:'(] [;)] Anyway I already told him (that I'm getting my units back), he said I'm a pig [:D] [:D] I love it when he gets nasty!
Maybe I can consider the Northern Australia Lockdown even now. [8|]

[mc3744]

December 7th, 1942

IBC
Breaking news!! Potential breakthrough in Burma!!
Myitkyina has been vacated. Probably on a rotation movement.
Whatever the reason Phase IV is kicking into action!
The paratroopers have been ordered into immediate action. Tomorrow morning at dawn the 1st Para Marine Bn will be launched by RAF Dakota’s I over the enemy base.
Every available bomber has been directed to attack the Japanese unit SW of the base to weaken the first counter-attack. Bombers will strike from (6) different bases – see picture -, hopefully at least a couple of bases will have weather good enough.
I’m hoping the unit SW will not enter the base during the paradrop.
Should I manage to get the base, it will mean that I have at least one more turn to fly in men of the infantry and engineer units I’ve been prepping since long, they are already at 100 prep points for Myitkyina.
The chances for success are not many, but I haven’t much to loose anyway (they can retreat to Ledo) and if I get the base …

[mc3744]

December 8th, 1942

The Allies are back in Burma!
It’s only a tiny bridgehead, but the morale is very high.
The Marines paratroopers conquered Myitkyina virtually unopposed. The base’s airfield is badly damaged by the previous bombings, but there are enough supplies and I can LRCAP from the nearby Indian airports.
The entire air transport fleet will airlift the 45th Indian Bde. I should have at least two days uncontested (see picture).
Several P-38’s (now I’m glad I used lots of P-38 for this area) and P-40’s squadrons are LRCAPping over the base to protect the Dakota’s. All the bombers are ordered to hit the closest Japanese unit: the 65th Brigade. Yesterday it has been heavily pounded.

Despite the good news I’m worried. Has GH eventually made a mistake or is this part of a plan? [&:]
I don’t entirely understand. He has moved no plane forward and Magwe has been vacated too. He is giving up Burma without fighting?!? Impossible. [:-]
What is he up to? He can’t cut those units out, what is he gaining by letting me capture the base? If he hopes to find India exposed he is going to have a nasty surprise, especially after the Chinese units arrive in another 20+ days.

I’m satisfied, but worried. We’ll soon know (you do already [;)]) what’s going on.

[String]

LRCAP doesn't intercept enemy LRCAP. Sweep does.

[mc3744]

December 9th, 1942

Thanks String [:)], actually I’m not trying to intercept any LRCAP, I just want to escort the Dakota’s.

GH threatened me in the last email! [:o] [;)] He said I’ll soon stop laughing! [:-] I must admit the he managed to get me worried. [:(]
I’m trying to understand where he could strike.
India is one of the two areas where my ground forces may not be strong enough. However I don’t see how he could get past my air force.
Just in case I’m redeploying some TB’s and fighters westbound. I’m also sending some AK’s as decoys on the potential approach routes.
PH is the other ‘weak’ spot. But once again he’d have to get past battleships, countless PT boats I could create and hundreds of fighters and bombers. Anyway, just in case, a couple of fighter squadrons in PH have been upgraded to P-38 and P-40E.
Then there’s Attu in NOPAC. It’s strong but not invincible. Still I basically don’t give a damn about it. If he wants it badly he can have it.

IBC
How stupid am I? [:@] I forgot to set the destination for the Dakota’s. The 45th Indian Bde has been sitting idle.
However he is not moving back to recapture Myitkyina!?! [X(] And I see no relevant troop movement to intercept my two advancing echelons nearby Mandalay and Magwe. I feel there’s something terribly wrong. Does he really want to go for India? Get past the RN and the RAF?!?
The closest unit to Myitkyina is now a Base Force, it has been pounded by my bombers.

AUSTRALIA
Heavies are hitting hard the Daly garrison.

PACIFIC
Since two small AP (2.000 ones) have been sunk by Betty's at Nukufetau – after they had unloaded - I’m sending more Seabees, this time with some air escort. As soon as the base will have its airfield the problem will be over.
One Dutch TB squadron has been upgraded to the new Avenger I and they are carrier capable! Which is good because with their small size (8), they could fit nicely on some CVE. I’ll have to check.
Training in Fiji goes real fast, most squadron have reached (70) exp, which is probably good enough to avoid a slaughter.

I’m worried. I can’t think of any really weak spot and this worries me even more! What’s going on?!? [&:]