Matrix Games Forums

Apr. 18-20

The targeting of industrial centers by Fascist aircraft seems to have progressed from accidental to intentional. Trichinopoly, Bangalore and Madurai have been attacked by Japanese bombers, though the damage has been negligible and each raid has cost 4-5 aircraft. I decided that sort of thing ought to have a response, so 75 B-17 hit the oil refineries at Rangoon today; reportedly 40% of them were destroyed. Meanwhile, a Japanese army has entered Lashio; faced off against them are 1000av in mixed Chinese and Burmese forces, supplemented by Indian artillery and several dozen RAF HAA guns.

In China we've moved from accidental absurdism to intentional absurdism; 10 tank regiments and an armoured car unit force a river crossing at Nanning, evict a dug-in infantry corps (400av), and take the city. I checked their OOBs, and the total force is...

1st Tank Rgt: 37 Med, 20 Light Tanks
2nd Tank Rgt: 37 Med, 20 Light Tanks
3rd Tank Rgt: 37 Med, 20 Light Tanks
4th Tank Rgt: 52 Light Tanks
5th Tank Rgt: 37 Med, 20 Light Tanks
6th Tank Rgt: 37 Med, 20 Light Tanks
7th Tank Rgt: 36 Med, 14 Light Tanks
8th Tank Rgt: 59 Med, 21 Light Tanks
9th Tank Rgt: 37 Med, 20 Light Tanks
10th Tank Rgt: 59 Med, 21 Light Tanks
11th Tank Rgt: 59 Med, 21 Light Tanks
23rd Tank Rgt: 59 Med, 21 Light Tanks
8th Armoured Car Co: 17 T93 A/C

So, 494 medium and 270 light tanks, plus those armoured cars. There isn't a single piece of equipment in this force that isn't a motorised support unit or an armoured vehicle. The fact that they were coming wasn't a surprise - that being the reason there was an infantry corps dug in behind a river at Nanning - but the scale of it is greater than I'd been able to assemble, not least because perhaps half a dozen more tanks regiments are moving on Guilin from the northeast. Just another particle in a long stream of bullshit, I suppose...

- A thought: is there a precedent for dragging out a game just so you can nuke Tokyo? The idea appeals to me at the moment.

Anyway; in the Pacific, I ran a test and you can in fact land non-parachute troops from SSTs; the 'catch' is that only parachute troops can board SSTs in combat mode. Still, it does work; I also checked and you can drop parachute units with Catalinas. Marine Raider landings at unoccupied islands are therefore scheduled to begin for whenever the USS Argonaut reaches Tongatapu; it'll leave Pearl Harbor tomorrow, Nautilus and Narwhal having already left.

The US battlefleet - Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma, Nevada, Idaho, Tennessee, Pennsylvania - along with Warspite and five destroyers - leaves San Francisco bound for Cape Town; New Mexico, Mississippi and the RN battlefleet are already there. California and West Virginia are still at Pearl Harbour; the former will be out in two weeks, the latter in about six months.

Elsewhere, some ships move between ports.

Apr. 21-22

The Ceylon situation:



About E200 are still en-route, probably to Trivandrum. Japanese raids and sweeps have continued, to no real result. So far I have been avoiding engaging them, but that's about to change - the USAAF 8th and 51st FGs (a rather eclectic mix of P-38, P-39 and P-40 squadrons) have joined RAF units at Madras and Trichinopoly, and further raids will be opposed as far as is possible. I expect aircraft losses to be slightly in the Japanese favour at best, but it seems reasonable to shoot some Japs while they feel the need to buzz India.

Happily, I was able to buy out the 98th Indian Bde, most of which has made it over to India; at that, actual troop losses on Ceylon amount to about 45av in combat troops and the fort units at Trincomalee and Colombo, which I unfortunately can't move. Better to have kept it, of course, but given the forces thrown at the island I think things have gone about as well as could have been hoped for.

Off to the west a bit, Diego Garcia's tiny garrison falls to several thousand SNLF troops; holding DG was always going to be precarious in the immediate term, so the only significant asset here was a Dutch Catalina group; that same group was destroyed on the ground with the island's fall (I continue to feel this is a slightly silly consequence of atoll invasions) but they did manage to insert bombs into four large Japanese freighters of the landing force; since they were all carrying fuel, expectation is that they will have gone down. I intend to return here fairly soon, however - an unrestricted USMC Div was going to be passing by in a few weeks anyway, so it will join support units already prepping for the place at Cape Town and land 1-3 regiments as necessary in perhaps 6-7 weeks. The advantage of fighting close to the map edge, eh?

SEAC aircraft have been getting a workout lately; the bomber force has closed the airfield at Akyab and turned a Japanese parachute regiment sitting outside it into paste. One Brit recon regiment is moving up the road from Chittagong and is currently east of Cox's Bazaar - its objective really is recon, although if I can use it to take Akyab on the cheap that'd be great.



Japanese 25th Army (5th Div, 18th Div, Imperial Guards) meets the Chinese 11th Army at Lashio; the first attack is about 2-1 in our favour. The forces are about equally sized, with the Japanese having slightly more artillery; the danger is of course supply exhaustion, though we'll be ok for a little while. There is at least one more Japanese LCU moving to join in; what it is is unknown. With their commitment to Lashio I have ordered the new and improved 3rd Indian Corps (18th Brit, 17th Indian, 7th Aus, 7th Armd Bde) back to Shwebo, the Japanese forces marching on upper Burma amounting to 3 Rgts at last indication; either they make it out onto the plain and retake Shwebo, or the Japanese have to pull back from Lashio - both good. 44th Indian Bde is airportable (well - in the sense that its trucks are in Burma already, at Myitkyina) and with the recent addition of some US transport aircraft can also be inserted into Burma on short notice. Wish I had some paras - could probably take Shwebo outright. Toungoo, between Pegu and Taung Gyi, is the main Japanese bomber base; the B-17 force will visit tonight, weather permitting.

Over in the Pacific, the usual logistic moves...also, a US submarine squadron (11 subs) has departed Brisbane for New Caledonia; once there, they'll split up and try to get some shots in on the battleships that have been on station at Noumea for the past few days.

Apr. 23

Newsflash - Russia enters the war!



Ok, not really - there are a couple of merchants you can rename, and having fake-Soviet ships floating around seems amusing.

e: well, maybe it's nothing. Anyway...east to west today:

US battlefleet is off-map and headed for Panama. Arrival there in about two weeks; Cape Town perhaps another two. I always forget just how far it is from San Diego to the Canal - 3000nm!

A returning convoy from Pearl Harbour will take troops out on its next trip - 32nd Div battle group, which has about everything it needs to be a self-sufficient combat force. Including these guys, for some reason:



Ultimate destination is Australia, but I don't have a specific job for them yet.

USN cruiser forces depart Pearl Harbor for Christmas Island; New Orleans, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Vincennes will head to Tahiti and then NZ after refuelling, while the CLs will hang around and pick up 32nd Div's convoy when it arrives. Forces available for operations in the South Pacific are looking like those 4*CA, 7*CL, 14*DD; if necessary I can pull a few ships off incoming Cape convoys to support. No assault shipping, but a lot of AKLs; Saros has been obsessive about keeping sub-based aircraft over Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth but everywhere else has been completely ignored, so I've just been using smaller ports to keep ships in. Anyway, everything's a few weeks out yet.

TF285 - the 11-sub raid force - should be in position off Noumea tomorrow. Whether they'll hit anything...

Panzerarmee Ost continues its drive into China, occupying Liuchow with no casualties.

The Dutch air forces are off for one last hurrah; Batavia's airfields have been undamaged for a while, so a couple of dozen bombers will attempt to hit shipping tomorrow, while fighters shoot for some cheap kills. They'll probably just get themselves shot down, but you never know!

III Indian Corps' movement in Burma seems to have had the desired effect; 25th Army is pulling back from Lashio. Nixes my ability to do anything in Burma safely, but it's not nothing. We had curiously timely Japanese sweeps over the three bases I highlighted yesterday, combined with a very strange e-mail message, but someone left everyone on 0% CAP so nothing came of it. Maybe tomorrow, eh?

Apr. 24

SEACAF finally condescends to fly at night; Toungoo receives the attention of 48 B-17 and 6 Wellington. Our score is "only" nine Sallies, but since we lost no aircraft in the process I'm content with that. No fighters, no AA, no dispersal...though a fighter unit has shown up on recon today. Can't imagine why. Japanese aircraft still hit Lashio, but today we had 30 rather than 100. The B-17 units really need a day off for maintenance, so the RAF lot will take a shot at Shwebo tonight.

Return night strikes are a concern, particularly as we're approaching full moon, so we have two Hurricane squadrons on night patrol at Calcutta, along with plenty of AA.

Colombo falls; tens of hundreds of support troops are captured, everyone else having left. This completes the occupation of Ceylon, which has been a pretty undramatic affair, really. I hope they try India next.

Dutch aircraft out of Batavia accomplish nothing much; several dozen aircraft attack shipping and manage a total of one 100lb bomb hit on an APD, while the IJAAF doesn't bomb the city for the first time in several weeks. We do learn that yet another IJA infantry brigade is being deposited on Java; the Dutch have done a pretty good job on the ground, at least. Fighters will stick around for a day to see what the IJAAF throws at them, while bombers will head back to the Cocos.

Pacific Fleet will depart Cape Town tomorrow, after CLAA Atlanta arrives; current intention is to send them in the direction of Australia, and possibly make some noise there, but ideally to avoid landfall - the fuel situation in Oz is still not great, and I'd prefer to keep stockpiling until I actually *need* to use the stuff. I may detach Hermes with some SBDs to go and pretend to be a CVTF off NZ, once everyone's ready. Happily, while the USN hasn't seen a lot of action so far, they've had plenty of time actually at sea - most ships can now find their backsides with both hands at night, though they'll never be great at it.

Recon aircraft have been buzzing Fiji for the past few days; the current assessment is a cool 55,000 Japanese on the island.

Panzerarmee Ost is headed north from Liuchow, into the Chinese interior; Guderian would be flabbergasted, never mind impressed. Western Chinese forces are in place to meet it, but whether they'll be enough...well, we'll see.

Apr. 25

So far I have been avoiding engaging them, but that's about to change - the USAAF 8th and 51st FGs (a rather eclectic mix of P-38, P-39 and P-40 squadrons) have joined RAF units at Madras and Trichinopoly, and further raids will be opposed as far as is possible. I expect aircraft losses to be slightly in the Japanese favour at best, but it seems reasonable to shoot some Japs while they feel the need to buzz India.

8th FG et amis engaged raids over Trichinopoly today. It went...well, it went ok. 75 P-39, 25 P-38 and 16 Hurricane met about 60 Zero and 85 Oscar. I say 'about' because Saros uses the LRCAP-Sweep method - meaning some aircraft participate in combat more than once, though it's impossible to tell which ones. Downside to it is that you get some pilots who are, uh...tired:



The reconstituted 223 and 224 Group HQs have arrived in the combat area, so our losses have been replaced already and I've been able to add more fighters to each airfield - they were operating at their admin limits today, which is to say that there were a lot of fighters hanging around behind the lines waiting for a spot at the front. We really do need something with a little more processing power than the RAF gun-laying radars, though - raid warning time was all of 15 minutes. 223 Group's new commander apparently eloped with Auchinleck's wife in 1944, so we'll have to keep an eye on him.

Dutch forces managed to get a couple of kills over Batavia, but failed to intercept local bombers. Will give'em another day in the frying pan - they're still fixing up the latest shipment of Buffalos.

We also hit Shwebo overnight, hence the two Oscars torched on the ground, and will return to Toungoo tonight to see if we can get some more Sallies.

The Japanese Pacific Fleet (2?BB, [2-4]CA, [?]DD) is off Norfolk Island at the moment with a bunch of freighters. Not sure what they're up to - might just be a supply run, but that hardly justifies dangling such a large force out like that. No fighters reported, and there haven't been any on NI in the past...might as well send the Catalina force to go say hello, I suppose. I doubt they'll fly, but it's an awful lot of torpedoes if they do...52 Catalinas (they've been training torpedo pilots for a while and were just about to graduate a batch), plus 15 heavy bombers. The 12 subs that were supposed to be hunting this force off Noumea have redirected south as well.

As an aside, this poor little thing has been sat off Auckland since the end of December:



I'm not sure what the point of it is. Hasn't moved an inch, doesn't appear to have an aircraft, and Auckland exits the other side of the peninsula...you'd think he'd know that, being a Kiwi. Maybe it's a psychological thing, trying to get me used to having it there?

Apr. 26

A disappointing day as not a single offensive mission flew. That happens more often than not, but it's never any less annoying for being the case...two major Japanese raids today see heavily escorted bombers over Batavia and fighter sweeps over Jessore, just east of Calcutta. The former goes well - the Dutch zapped half a dozen Oscars for no losses, though they didn't even take a shot at the bombers - while the latter doesn't; USAAF's 9th PS is extraordinarily hapless, losing 10 P-400s for one Oscar. This isn't even the first time that's happened - their pilots are ok (and their morale inexplicably high, heh), but their historical record is 23 losses to 2 kills. The other squadrons involved did fine, at least; I'd say it was an issue with the P-400s, but the regular P-39s do fine!

Japanese shipping has begun using Colombo as a port; that being the case, and given that we have some moonlight and a good weather forecast, SEACAF will (theoretically) visit tonight and see what damage can be done, particularly to the repair yards. I expect some opposition in the air and it does involve standing down most of the fighters for a day, so there is an element of risk in doing it, but I think it's worth taking as the Japanese bomber force on Ceylon is not huge and the bases do have reasonable AA setups.

Forces are getting into position for our attempt at an Arakan assault; India Command (Wavell) directs IV Corps HQ (Slim), 20th and 23rd Indian Divs, 254th Armoured Bde, 43rd Cavalry Rgt, US 87th Mountain Rgt and three field artillery regiments to make it as far as Akyab. They won't be jumping off for a week or so and may not be needed at all - 45th Recce Rgt is 2-3 days out with the total garrison of the place reported as 400 men - but they're not doing anything else and it'll be good practice even if we don't get anywhere. I have a Plan for Burma, which should get around the mess-up with bases in the North, but it's still germinating. I really should put together a little timetable for myself at some point soon...

Two Australian fighter squadrons are moving to Western Australia for embarcation; destination India, the ships for which will return with two Brit fighter squadrons. Can't see a job for the Spitfires in Aus that Hurricanes can't do just as well, considering the range issue, and Burma is liable to become Tojo Central in a few months, so we're going to do a little swap.

Preparations in the South Pacific continue...unfortunately the planned assault on Raoul Island will have to wait a little longer than expected as the para transports in question are one hex short on range, so the paras will have to catch a lift to New Zealand before going anywhere. O, to be able to shove 50 men on a destroyer...we'd be halfway to Tokyo by now.

Apr. 27

None of the night flights go off, as usual. One Blenheim squadron was left on daylight attack accidentally and...made it to Colombo and back completely unbothered by the dozen Oscars there, removing 13000t of repair shipyard. The mind boggles. Still - doesn't look like there's been any fighter reinforcement overnight, so I'm going to risk a daytime strike with the B-17s tomorrow; 8th FG will buzz Colombo, hopefully ahead of the bombers. They're flying at the end of their fuel rope from Madurai, so I expect losses to be uncomfortable, but that's war, right?

In the air over Madras and Batavia we trade fighters with the Japanese; 18 Oscars depart in return for 19 mixed fighters, mostly Buffalos. The cover the Dutch have gained has allowed the evacuation of a lot of disabled Dutch troopers; Cocos Island's garrison is now up to 150av, though there's essentially no heavy equipment at all. If they can hold out for a couple of months I can send some, but probably not before then.

Japanese interest in Dutch Harbor has suddenly increased; looks like several submarines in the area. Saros isn't much for 'lines of communication' or 'sanity' when it comes to attacks, so if the Japanese do decide they want the Aleutians DH will no doubt be the first place hit - if not Anchorage or Kodiak. Time will tell...

The unit at Akyab is hit by another Blenheim squadron and two USAAF divebomber groups; losses aren't too heavy, but it seems it's just an air-base maintenance unit. Absent any reverses provided by the JAAF 45th Recon should be able to kick'em out, I guess.

Oh, yeah - the Chinese have their first taste of success in the air, with P-43s flying from Yunnan incinerating a flight of Sallies over Lashio. Hadn't realised their range was so long until yesterday!

Apr. 28

8th FG gives Colombo forces a haircut; nine P-39s and one P-38 are exchanged for 11 Oscars and 9 Zeros. And yet...the B-17s completely fail to fly, making the whole business pointless. I seriously don't understand it - the weather's good, they've got a short flight from a large airfield, there isn't a single damaged or disabled aircraft among the entire force and their aerial opposition has been completely demolished, so of course not one of them takes off. I don't know why I bother...

Not much elsewhere. The 11-sub force raids Noumea; despite making their approach completely undetected, with Japanese forces at max DL, only three of them engage; all three are spotted before getting torpedoes off and are damaged. So much for radar!

Apr. 29

War cancelled due to rain. Japan manages to lose 11 aircraft despite no air-air combat and almost no flights period. Better them than me...45th Recon has entered Akyab and will probe tomorrow, with SEACAF theoretically giving the local Japanese a haircut to help things along. If we do take Akyab off the run, the question then becomes what to do with it - engineers are busy around Madras and local Japanese unlikely to allow airfield to reopen. Guess it'll just have to wait...

Assumption is that we'll begin to see A6M3 enter service in May vice June; I can't see it acheiving much that the A6M2 isn't already, but every improvement is something to dislike.

Carrier force, which I held back to pick up Illustrious, sails for Bombay minus Hermes, which is off to Australia to pretend to be a fleet.

Apr. 30

First Helens show up today, over Batavia. Seems like a step down from the Sally - more guns, but slower and shorter-ranged. I understand one of the later ones gets armour, which is the point, but why not just switch to that one later? Mind you, on the performance of the Sally - over 100 of them attempted to hit a light cavalry regiment outside Lashio today and did no damage whatsoever - I guess the new name is worth as much as anything.

Akyab was supposed to go off with a bang - I had the entire B-17 force, most of the fighters in Bengal and about 50 other bombers tasked to support 45th Rgt's attack and...none of them flew, as it turns out the Japanese left overnight - the airfield was occupied without a shot being fired. I say airfield - it's really more of a cratered swamp with a few smouldering husks settling into it at this point; I can't see it being opened up before June or so.

A large Japanese cruiser force - nine ships - is detected off northern New Caledonia today. I'm uncertain as to whether they're a new force or a splinter from the force that was at Noumea getting away from the submarines there; most unwelcome, in any case, though I suppose it's better that they're buzzing around burning fuel than sitting in port.

Not immediately relevant but interesting - at least half a dozen Air Defense AA Regiments have been signalled as headed for Singapore over the last couple of days. One might deign to think that someone's a little worried about being overexposed on Ceylon...

Apr. 30

First Helens show up today, over Batavia. Seems like a step down from the Sally - more guns, but slower and shorter-ranged. I understand one of the later ones gets armour, which is the point, but why not just switch to that one later? Mind you, on the performance of the Sally - over 100 of them attempted to hit a light cavalry regiment outside Lashio today and did no damage whatsoever - I guess the new name is worth as much as anything.

Akyab was supposed to go off with a bang - I had the entire B-17 force, most of the fighters in Bengal and about 50 other bombers tasked to support 45th Rgt's attack and...none of them flew, as it turns out the Japanese left overnight - the airfield was occupied without a shot being fired. I say airfield - it's really more of a cratered swamp with a few smouldering husks settling into it at this point; I can't see it being opened up before June or so.

A large Japanese cruiser force - nine ships - is detected off northern New Caledonia today. I'm uncertain as to whether they're a new force or a splinter from the force that was at Noumea getting away from the submarines there; most unwelcome, in any case, though I suppose it's better that they're buzzing around burning fuel than sitting in port.

Not immediately relevant but interesting - at least half a dozen Air Defense AA Regiments have been signalled as headed for Singapore over the last couple of days. One might deign to think that someone's a little worried about being overexposed on Ceylon...

Apr. 31-May. 3

Everything's gone a bit quiet. Japanese battleships bombarded Madras on the 31st, destroying a few fighters - for some reason the CD guns didn't fire. Is this an issue with bombardments? I hadn't noticed it before, but then there haven't really been any serious bombardments so far. In any case, they immediately scuttled off back towards Malaya, or at least the Andamans; seems Ceylon isn't considered a comfortable place to be for the IJN...

Beyond that, mostly just nuiscance raids by RAF bombers over Burma; even with full moonlight they don't hit anything, but then hitting stuff is secondary to getting the current batch of bomber pilots some live experience. The one exception to this is another raid on Rangoon's refinery by the B-17 wing; 74 bombers fly out in broad daylight and bomb the oil facilities completely unharrassed, though one aircraft is lost to a Zero (the Tainan group, apparently) on the way back. Current estimate is that the refinery is working at about 25% capacity, which is a good result. Electronic intelligence suggests 8 Japanese radar sets at Rangoon (I didn't think they'd quite worked radar out, but apparently these are actually US sets), along with unhappiness at IJHQ at their performance. Just gotta figure out what to do about Magwe...

TBFs are starting to roll off the production line; I have 100 F4F-4 and 75 SBD-3 sitting in warehouses at the moment; apparently off-map groups can't change aircraft types, so first order of business once the carriers hit a a base is dragging those into the mix. I am toying with the idea of taking the TB groups off some carriers entirely, given that the US aerial torpedoes have a 50% dud rate; one Marine DB group just arrived and two more are on the way, so it's an option.

Batavia is down to 400av of combat-effective troops; a full two divisions' worth of IJA reinforcements had to be dragged in here, and they're still taking 3x as many casualties as they're inflicting - unfortunately, since there's 3x as many of them, that's a losing proposition in the long term. Still - given that their assignment was simply to take as many Japanese with them as possible, it's been a stellar performance.

Everything's gone a bit quiet. Japanese battleships bombarded Madras on the 31st, destroying a few fighters - for some reason the CD guns didn't fire. Is this an issue with bombardments? I hadn't noticed it before, but then there haven't really been any serious bombardments so far. In any case, they immediately scuttled off back towards Malaya, or at least the Andamans; seems Ceylon isn't considered a comfortable place to be for the IJN...

Remember, in AE you can set the minimum range for your bombardment TFs. If his BB's outranged your CD guns, and he set the bombardment range accordingly, that would explain why your CD guns didn't shoot back.

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse

Everything's gone a bit quiet. Japanese battleships bombarded Madras on the 31st, destroying a few fighters - for some reason the CD guns didn't fire. Is this an issue with bombardments? I hadn't noticed it before, but then there haven't really been any serious bombardments so far. In any case, they immediately scuttled off back towards Malaya, or at least the Andamans; seems Ceylon isn't considered a comfortable place to be for the IJN...

Remember, in AE you can set the minimum range for your bombardment TFs. If his BB's outranged your CD guns, and he set the bombardment range accordingly, that would explain why your CD guns didn't shoot back.

I know that, but they certainly seemed to spend most of their time within range - the Brit 6in CD ranges 17kyds, at least in theory, and all the range reports I had were under that, from 15k down to about 8. Maybe range reports only show up if the ships are within range?

Maybe range reports only show up if the ships are within range?

I don't know.

There is always a chance each phase that CD guns won't fire . . . bad dice rolls, perhaps?

ORIGINAL: kfsgo

Apr. 31-May. 3



TBFs are starting to roll off the production line; I have 100 F4F-4 and 75 SBD-3 sitting in warehouses at the moment; apparently off-map groups can't change aircraft types, so first order of business once the carriers hit a a base is dragging those into the mix. I am toying with the idea of taking the TB groups off some carriers entirely, given that the US aerial torpedoes have a 50% dud rate; one Marine DB group just arrived and two more are on the way, so it's an option.

I have good experience with flying mixed air groups from carriers early in the war, with British TB flying from american carriers and Marine Fighter and DB squadrons flying from Royal Navy carriers. The British torpedoes work perfectly, and the Albacore and Swordfish are at least as good a bomber plattform as the Devestator, if not better.

Well, it's an option, but not really very practical - the fleets are operating together at the moment anyway, and replacement Albacores stop arriving in August, so it's not a long-term solution to anything. I'd rate the Albacore as preferable to the Devastator but not the Swordfish - durability is probably the key here, and the three aircraft go 31-27-20. Anyway, I can't do much juggling until the ships hit land.

May. 4-5

55 IJAAF bombers hit Calcutta overnight, which is something I've been expecting for a while. Unfortunately for them, between Hurricanes on night patrol and HAA they failed to hit anything - no doubt we'll see some more raids in an attempt to get at SEACAF. As a similar number of aircraft hit the bait Cav Rgt outside Lashio that would seem to put a number of about 125 on Jap bombers in Burma. I'm not sure about Ceylon; there may be some left - certainly there were a couple dozen a week or so ago - but they're doing a very good job of hiding if there are. A freighter that arrived at Colombo just before it fell was sunk by a submarine a few days ago, which prompted a smug e-mail that carried lots of guff about CAP traps; I don't like the idea and I'd certainly never use civilian shipping for that purpose even if I did, so it was a little off-base, but it does suggest a certain level of anxiety about the naval-air situation off Ceylon.

The airfield at Madurai is finally operational; this means we can move the remainder of the air forces at Madras inland. I'd been waiting for this for a while; a shame the recent bombardment didn't come a few days later as it'd have mostly hit air, though a minimal presence has to be maintained to keep aircraft off the industrial facilities.

The Chinese situation continues its inevitable deterioration; one half of Panzerarmee Ost has descended on Guilin, which is the last link apart from Changsha in the overland chain between Singapore and Korea; despite heavy fortifications and good terrain, casualties are 10:1 in favour of the Japanese - they'd be worse, but Saros has condescended to include some infantry for the first time in the campaign. The city holds, but probably not for more than one or two more days. The units in question are at about 3/10ths T.O.E strength as it is, so in the long term there's no loss of capability there, but of course they're rather needed in the line now, not in a month and a half! In theory we retain the strength to keep the Japanese out of inner China, but there again in theory 1500 tanks weren't coming up the road from Indochina without any infantry, so who knows.

I'm not going to pretend I'm happy with the situation or the behaviour, but as with the off-base landings, use of restricted troops in Burma etc it's not something that can be helped - by the time these things make an impact it's too late to do anything about them. I do wonder about the utility of the 'no industry bombing in China' rule; a couple of hundred Japanese aircraft hit Changsha every day, which seems to me to result in much the same situation but without any realistic prospect of doing it back. Still, it could be worse; at least Xi'an and the Northern Front are still going concerns.

In the South Pacific, preparations continue. The submarine force has retired from New Caledonia, 11 submarines having failed to hit anything at all over the course of a week. I should go and check up on how many ships the US submarine force has hit - I think we're up to about 4 or 5 at this point; several individual Dutch submarines have done better than that. Several important Lessons (with a capital L!) relevant to New Caledonia have been learned, however, so it's not a wasted trip even at that.

May. 6

Couple dozen Sallies hit Calcutta, again; and failed to hit anything, again, despite clear weather and moonlight. Preferable to having them doing anything useful, I suppose...Lashio put forts back up to 3 absent 150 bombers visiting it daily. Meanwhile, the B-17 force hit Katha; this was a high-altitude 'look what I can do' raid, so CAP was completely ineffective. We destroyed all of one aircraft on the ground; still, it's free experience.

USAAF 307th BG arrive Perth; tomorrow they'll fly on to the Cocos Islands, then to India. This is the real value of holding Cocos - it turns a 28 day trip (at least) into a 3 day trip, and unlike in the Pacific there are no alternatives. I don't expect to hold it forever, but getting squadrons through while it's easy is worth doing. I have another BG earmarked for India to depart in about a week; I anticipate starting to remove Ceylon's utility as a base for the Japanese in about 6-8 weeks, hopefully after provoking a reaction to the reoccupation of Diego Garcia; we'll see how that works out, given the scarcity of aircraft - I may have to drag the carrier aircraft pools in. If it works, either Ceylon gets abandoned or it becomes a prison camp; if it doesn't...well, I dunno, but it'll definitely be irritating. I'm still not sure what the point of taking it (beyond 'must do something') was, really - no ships have dared use the dockyards, nothing's strayed further north than Colombo...sure, it's something for me to beat up against that isn't critical to Japan, but it's not like I'd be doing that before the autumn anyway and the coastwatchers keep me informed as to what's up. Whatever the motivation, for the moment the air forces are just practicing, really - I've been avoiding sending them up against heavy opposition as I'd rather not depart a bunch of pilots.

The IJN TFs off New Caledonia have disappeared for the first time in several weeks; might be another raid down towards Antarctica. Guess we'll find out...

May. 7

Quiet everywhere but China, where the CAF trips over its own shoelaces trying to engage a Japanese sweep over Chungking. They're not bad pilots, but they don't have much flying experience - I've kept most of the force in China, on the basis that there's no way Chiang would've let go of it, and their flying has been curtailed in favour of actually feeding troops.

Gosh, if only the war were as simple as drawing lines on a map...



That is my strategic conceit (and I do mean conceit) for the next year, laid over Japanese effective sea control at present. The last few months have been very constructive, even if also very conservatively played; truth is I had no real idea what I was doing for the first few months, beyond "don't lose the war in an afternoon"; that's had its consequences, but we'll get by. The big change is psychological, I think - I am starting to think of everything in terms of HQs, not of units, and I think that's helpful when it comes to the big picture. Anyway, jobs list so I don't forget:

May - August:

SEAC: Return to Diego Garcia, along with Addu if necessary. I still hold the latter, but it might get a brigade dropped on it at any time. Resume construction activity on the Burmese border once the Ceylon-facing situation is sorted out.

Australia Command: Take Norfolk Island, assist around Tonga as required. Lots of infrastructure work to be done before we can do anything overland.

South Pacific: Occupy as much of Tonga as is practical to do in one stroke; the intention with these two is to complete the fighter air route from Hawaii to Australia and to threaten a direct assault on Fiji and New Caledonia. Shorter sea supply is nice, but most stuff is going by the Cape anyway.

North Pacific: Dig. No Japs so far...I'd like to keep hold of Adak and interior islands if possible.

China Command: Die of starvation.

September - November:

SEAC: Resume Ceylon. Force required will depend on air and sea campaign; anywhere from 3-9 Divs. Aus Corps, Ind Corps, US Corps can be available, 3 Divs each plus support. Reinforce Cocos Islands if still held; otherwise feign indifference.

AusCom: Resume as far as Port Hedland if not still held; if held, dig. Base supply will have to ship in but unit supply can be fudged overland if absolutely necessary - supply movement peters out one hex west of PH. Move on southern New Guinea and environs if possible; practicality will depend on situation around Ceylon, which is a bigger priority. NG is currently very lightly held and not being developed by Japanese; focus is on Rabaul, New Caledonia, Fiji, and we can go around the latter two albeit at some risk.

South Pacific: Pick low-hanging fruit.

North Pacific: Dig. Hold outer Aleutians if possible, don't lose sleep if not.

China Command: Die of starvation.

December - February:

SEAC: Resume Burma as far as possible. Ideally take the lot; if impractical shoot for Ramree, Shwebo, Meiktila, Lashio by monsoon break. 3 Indian Corps, Aus Corps, US Corps overland; sea delivery of one of them may be possible if we have a Midway. If we have two Midways consider just going straight to Malaya or Java. If we have a reverse Midway, hide in a corner and cry.

AusCom: Move up NG. Will depend on response; objective is to draw in troops, not take territory; don't care if I can't even keep hold of NG as long as troops are drawn in.

South Pacific: Toy with Marshalls if opportunity arises, which it's unlikely to.

North Pacific: Resume Aleutians if lost. Try to look threatening.

China Command: Die of starvation.

Everything's subject to alteration at any notice. SEAC is getting first pick of stuff; unrealistic, but keeps things interesting. China may completely collapse; most people seem to opt to hold northern Burma so some supply gets through; I chose to pull out. If that happens Burma ceases to be relevant, NEI becomes critical. Worst-case scenario I dump US Army onto Hokkaido and Kuriles in 1945; if that has to happen Tokyo's definitely getting nuked.

I will take a carrier battle at any point beyond next week if the stars align. Jap carriers lost a lot of aircraft over PH etc and have done a lot of escorting and not a lot of fighting since.

May. 8

Not a very eventful turn; the usual 250 bombers hit Chinese bases, 100 hit Batavia, 100 hit Lashio. Batavia is on the edge of surrender; one or at most two more attacks will do it. A shame since there's still supplies for 2-3 months. Still - they've done a grand job.

The fall of Java will free up at least two further Japanese divisions (a third, the 33rd, has been so badly mauled it'll be out for a while, and that's not counting the units already beaten up and since removed from the battle); point of concern has to be Western Australia, so a deterrent force will move into position once Java finally goes. I don't really expect an invasion here - though Port Hedland, Exmouth etc will probably get jumped on - but I've kept coastal infrastructure very basic just in case.

The air forces in India are going to lend SoPac a few aircraft for couple of weeks so Norfolk Island can be shut down - Japanese air complement is about 12-18 Zeros, so a couple dozen P-38s and B-17s should get plenty done when added to local forces. Hawaii will lend the container:



It sounds like a bad joke, but that's actually the most experienced squadron in the USAAF. Hell, you know they're good - they got kills flying P-26s! I need pilots who can get damaged aircraft home more than anything else since P-38s are rarer than unicorn shit at the moment.

May. 9

Shades of Wake Island in the Indian Ocean today. A small Japanese naval force arrived at Addu unannounced - I've not been using it, so didn't notice their approach, but the Japanese never even sent over so much as a recon aircraft so far as I'm aware - and dropped anchor off the atoll. One armed freighter, the Bangkok Maru, was blown out of the water by the coastal guns; a second, along with two destroyers, landed troops, but I guess conceptually they must have landed on the wrong atoll, because, well...



Bit embarrassing, that. I think someone doesn't quite "get" atolls. While the landing was getting taken to pieces, four Japanese battleships and four heavy cruisers were on the other side of the Bay of Bengal bombarding Chittagong, sinking a minesweeping trawler and destroying, er, neither of the two aircraft based there. CA Ashigara was set on fire by the CD guns, though I doubt the damage amounted to much. Wish I could deploy the 9.2in guns I have sitting in the equipment pool...

The funny thing is that the Dutch Marine Bn, which evacuated from Sumatra a while back, was literally about to start flying in to Addu today - after I went through my big strategic blubber I realised there was no real garrison - so I guess we'll make that move now. Expectation is that the ships that just hit Chittagong will move over to Ceylon and support another attempt; I don't think there's really anything tangible in it for Japan, since Diego Garcia does everything Addu does and better, but I expect Saros wants the illusion of security holding it creates. An appropriately-sized force to retake it has been in planning to do so for a couple of weeks now, just in case.

SoPac is about to see its first offensive naval operation for several weeks; three US destroyers managed to put themselves in range for a night sprint into Norfolk Island, where a couple of freighters seem to be unloading, undetected. They may leave overnight, but then again they may not...preparations continue for landings; everyone involved is still travelling at the moment. Raoul Island should be easy, at any rate:



It's been there...well, a while. Don't think the place is even garrisoned, but I'd rather go in late and big than early and overpowerable.

AA units continue their noisy stream into Singapore.