The War Effort

[Steven Utley]

Mid-Summer 1944: In just two weeks, the Allies had inflicted more damage on Combined Fleet than in all previous months together. Harried from port to port, Japanese warships and merchantmen alike enjoyed no respite as summer wore on into July. U.S. planes set upon five enemy battleships, two heavy cruisers, and 25 destroyers at Bataan; following the attack, the IJN inventory was shorter by two Kongo-class BBs, an Aoba- and a Takao-class cruiser, and many destroyers. Other attacks on Manila and Lingayen harvested patrol craft and cargo ships. Off Formosa, Combined Fleet's few remaining carriers made a final effort. Admiral Ozawa scraped together 37 planes and sent them against the pursuing Americans, who swatted them out of the sky and then repaid the visit. Kaga and Hiryu went down. Admiral Takenaka, with Zuikaku and a Chitose-class flattop -- both barely more than derelicts -- could put up no combat air patrol but managed, somehow, to survive Task Force 50's attentions.

Zuikaku and its smaller companion did not, however, get much farther. Like many another vessel on the long retreat from Lingayan to Batan Island, from Takao to the Ryukyus, Zuikaku dodged Allied airstrikes only to fall afoul of an Allied submarine. The Chitose-class ship, badly hurt in June, simply foundered and sank off Batan Island without further Allied assistance. During the first week of July, 39 Japanese ships were lost, during the following week, another 33. The waters between the Philippines and the Home Islands had become a killing field.

While the fast carriers smashed Japanese warships and grabbed headlines in the Far East, the unglamorous baby flattops proved their worth in connection with landings at Chichi Jima. (Iwo Jima was packed with tough Japanese units, Chichi with a token force. The choice of objective was a no-brainer.) Stump's Task Force 63 consisted of a Sangamon- and 12 Casablanca-class escort carriers, three light cruisers, and eleven destroyers. Although the CVEs were supposed to provide direct support at beachheads and not go looking for trouble, boys will be boys. Stump and his TBM pilots, finding little to shoot at or bomb, made an unauthorized preemptive strike on Tokyo itself, destroying 22 planes on the ground, then returned to their assigned station in time to deal handily with four planes from Iwo and ten bombers from Osaka. Ainsworth's old battlewagons blasted a path onto the beach for Marine Raider battalions. Chichi Jima quickly fell, leaving the Allies in possession of a base fewer than 750 miles from Tokyo.

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Utley ]</p>

[Blackhorse]

After the June report I was going to say that you've reduced the Japanese to "Stairmaster" status: they're making you work enough to build up a sweat, but can't actually stop you.

But after reading the mid-summer report I'd have to say that you've broken the Stairmaster. On to the Kanto (sp?) Plain!

[stretch]

In my latest game I went back to something Steve had done ealier, I grouped more than 3 carriers at once.

I sent 4 US CV's to attack rabaul led by Halsey, my CAP was 110 fighters and nothing got through as over 90 bombers went down in two raids. I even got off 2 full strikes against shipping and sank 40+ MCS.

This might be a good way to defend against the kamikaze attacks.. bunch more CV's together for larger CAP. Who cares if strikes are halved if it means nothing gets through?

[Steven Utley]

At this point in my campaign, I would of course be interested in knowing just what remains in the enemy arsenal. Too often when I've underestimated the Japanese AI, it's uncorked some unpleasant surprise. Except over Sasebo (where Nates keep trying to intercept B-29s), there doesn't seem to be much left in the way of land-based aircraft, and if the fleet air arm hasn't ceased to exist, it must at least be on its last legs -- but, then, the June '44 carrier battles demonstrated that the AI is smart enough to hold aircraft in reserve. God knows how many are socked away in the Ryukyus and the Home Islands, hoarded against the day when they can float down like TNT cherry blossoms onto my ships and soldiers. The surface fleet has taken its licks, but Mutsu, Nagato, two of the Kongos, the four unmodernized battlewagons, and those monsters, Yamato and Musashi, are still afloat, as are most of the heavy cruisers. Still strong potential for mischief there.

Undoubtedly, the time is approaching, and rapidly, when I shall have to abandon my policy of seizing undefended or lightly held enemy positions, and go jump right into a meat-grinder. I have my own, interior set of victory conditions. I'll consider myself in firm possession of the moral high ground if I can win without (1) turning in a huge butcher's bill and (2) dropping Fat Man and Little Boy. But how does one compel the Japanese to sue for peace in this game?

Oh, and why am I having so much trouble keeping my Indian Ocean bases supplied? Granted, I've large (hell, enormous) concentrations of troops at Rangoon and Palembang, which makes those locations black holes for supplies -- but India, Dacca, the Ceylonese bases, and Port Blair receive only dribs and dabs (if they receive anything at all) even before I pass munitions and munchies along to Burma and Sumatra.

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Utley ]</p>

[chanman]

Hi Steven,

Rangoon is a notably tough place to stay supplied. There are many comments to this effect on older threads. I usually keep Port Blair in supply by making it the home of Eastern Fleet, with occasional manual supply runs from India. Same goes for Medan. Palembang is harder, check to see if the IJN is maintaining a patrol squadron on Banka I which could interfere with your supplies. Others may have more advice, but that is what I do.

To those who questioned my, ahem, aggressive style when three of my carriers were underwater, Nuts. Right after my last post, I retook Rangoon with an amphibious assault from Port Blair. Willis' surface task force assisted admirably and then was reassigned to convoy duty in the Med, leaving me with only some DD's. Yes, I know I shouldn't have let those task forces return home that week.

Medan is still holding out, despite hosting three IJA divisions and one regiment. The IJN attempts to resupply the divisions have cost them just about every CS they have, in addition to over a hundred MCS, several CL's and a bunch of DD's. I have learned to depend on the local air groups to intercept the supply runs. Willis' task force has tried to interdict the convoys, at the cost of an R class BB and a Fiji class CL. Damn Long Lances.

Java fell, but it took just about the entire IJN to make it happen. The Dutch airforce retreated to Kendari, more on that in a moment. The Australian air groups based at Surubaya and Batavia pretty much wiped out the IJN air component and sunk Soryu, in addition to putting bombs into three BBs. One of the Kongo BB's tried to evacuate past Kendari and was sunk, the first IJN capital ship to sink in this conflict.

While the IJN was occupied off of Batavia, the USN retook Tarawa. An invasion force is heading for Kwajalein, but is taking an unusual route to the objective, so that effort might have to be aborted. Halsey is leading TF50 which has the three surviving CVs, all with highly trained air groups due to the Christmas Island bombing range. Lee has the SAG with four older BBs including Colorado, New Mexico and Idaho. Callahan is softening up the beachead with Arizona and pals.

P40E production has been discontinued in favor of P38Fs. The P36 groups I have been training in anticipation of this event have started to reequip with the P38F and training has started using the Christmas Island bombing range.

When the war was halted due to the long awaited release of 2.3. As soon as I edit some of the obvious bugs out of the OBC, I will be starting a new game with max help for Japanese. My initial test shows that this setting is pretty aggressive (9 BBs and 1 BC sunk before I get to move).

Until next time,

Chanman

[Steven Utley]

Mid-Summer 1944 (cont.): Even after the rout in early July, quite enough Japanese ships remained in Philippine waters to justify further raids by the fast carriers. These operations served the additional purpose of sparing Halsey and his colleagues the trouble of seeking out such enemy air groups as remained in the region: the Japanese flyers obligingly attacked, and combat air patrols duly annihilated them. TBMs and SB2Cs, as well as land-based aircraft, ranged at will over the islands, pounding a number of battleships and heavy cruisers and sinking, among other vessels, the escort carrier Kaiyo -- as far as could be determined, the IJN's last operational flattop. Kaiyo appeared to be undamaged but not to have an air group embarked when U.S. carrier planes fell upon it.

In another development that portended no good for the Japanese, P-51 fighters began escorting long-range bombers on missions against the Home Islands.

The Allies had problems of their own, however, and mostly of their own making. The opportunistic strategy of exploiting every weak spot in the Japanese defense perimeter had paid enormous dividends, of course, but too much makeshift, too many impromptu and jury-rigged operations, left logistics in disarray from Ceylon to San Francisco. (It eludes me how a Bogue-class baby flattop and Fletcher-class destroyers ended up at Trincomalee.) It would have helped had the Allies throughout the Pacific theater of operations been able to stand down for a month to unsnarl their supply lines. Yet pressure on the crumbling Co-Prosperity Sphere had to be maintained -- and increased, if possible.

Nevertheless, the mood in the Allied camp remained upbeat, as witnessed by the catch-phrase, "Home alive in '45!"

[ January 28, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Utley ]</p>

[Steven Utley]

Miscalculations, one of them quite costly, marred Allied successes during early August 1944. As Japan's maritime fortunes had declined, U.S., British, and Dutch submarines kept pace by moving ever closer to the Home Islands, until Marus plying the waters between Hong Kong and Paramushio found themselves running a deadly gantlet. With the majority of surviving Japanese ships now temporarily out of reach at Tsingtao, the decision was made to re-base British, Dutch, and older American boats at Cagayan and newer Gato-class vessels at Chichi Jima, and to consolidate these by type into fewer but larger hunting packs. Moreover, the reorganization would be done all at once. This afforded the enemy a brief but no doubt welcome respite. Ninety-five Japanese ships were lost from all causes during the first week of August, fewer than a dozen and a half during the second. The 103 submarines at Chichi Jima also attracted bombers from the Home Islands. Fortunately, only one Gato was lost to air attack, but it was a lesson in caution.

The U.S. Navy received a bitterer lesson later in the week. Admiral Bogan's Task Force 82, consisting of the brand-new Essex-class carriers Lexington and Wasp escorted by 12 destroyers, steamed from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor in late July, thence, to Japanese waters to participate in the fast carriers' first mission against the Home Islands themselves. All went well at the beginning. The carriers swept up scraps of shipping and wiped out the small, mixed groups of enemy planes that contested the skies over Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo. Few of the air battles involved as many as a dozen Japanese planes at a time, and patroling F6Fs dealt with them summarily. Then came the largest formation of land-based enemy aircraft in recent memory -- 194 fighters, conventional bombers, and kamikazes. Bogan's Hellcat pilots and anti-aircraft gunners downed or discouraged 169 of the attackers, but 25 that got through to the flattops tore them to pieces. For the second time in the war, U.S. ships named Lexington and Wasp fought and died together.

The carrier groups' successes and those of Allied forces in the one-time Southern Resource Area, where Bangka Island and Oosthaven had been captured by U.S. Marines, provided meagre consolation.

[ January 24, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Utley ]</p>

[Steven Utley]

The Allies are on the move again in late August 1944; ironically, the increasing pace of the war seems about to reduce operations by highly mobile forces to a series of slogging advances against an immobilized, entrenched enemy.

For large, perhaps inordinate, numbers of Allied air groups based in New Guinea and the Solomons, the war has been one long training mission consisting of repetitious attacks on isolated enemy garrisons. A dearth of troop transports isolated New Zealand ground forces as well. At last, Anzac HQ pulled together enough ships to move the 3rd Infantry Division and 1st Infantry Brigade from Auckland to Milne Bay, thence, to Kiriwina Island. Australian troops, meanwhile, invaded the other long-bypassed islands of Noemfoar and Biak. At Cagayan, the Allies launched an ambitious three-pronged assault against the islands lying immediately north of Mindanao. Backed by a formidable assemblage of land-based aircraft and three carrier groups, the U.S. 182nd Infantry Regiment landed at Negros, the 1st Marine Division at Cebu, and the Australian 7th Infantry Brigade at Leyte. All save this last soon fell, but Japanese troops remain to be cleared out on each island, and at Palembang and Bangka Island as well.

Throughout, the Japanese air arms reacted feebly or not at all, and the IJN battlefleet contented itself with hovering menacefully off Sasebo.

Don't these people realize they've been defeated?

[ January 28, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Utley ]</p>

[sw30]

If you are far behind (you need 2:1 in points to win, and in your casualty points are doubled in '44 and tripled in '45) you can try just sending your main fleets to the home islands and bombarding. Guaranteed to attract all remaining air, and gets you some points as well. if all else fails, invade the homeland. those cities are worth 10x, and if you nail a factory or two, that cuts down on their points too.

Jeff

[Steven Utley]

Fall 1944: Between late August and November, ever-growing numbers of long-range bombers pounded Japanese cities, the fast carriers ranged as far as Amoy and Hong Kong, sinking scores of cargo vessels and the occasional warship, and Allied ground forces added Palembang, Tenimbar Island, Negros, Cebu, Leyte, and Iwo Jima to the list of bases wrested from the enemy.

Japanese submarines and "special attack" units continued to be irritants. Steaming under escort to join the U.S. battlefleet at Ulithi, the brand-new Massachusetts was torpedoed and sunk in the Carolines. Concerns about kamikaze aircraft flocking behind Allied lines had predicated the decision to invade heavily garrisoned but isolated enemy bases -- a concern justified when 76 assorted suicide bombers appeared as if by magic at Shortland and sank eight of ten ships bringing supplies to Anzac troops engaged on the island. Compounding Allied annoyance at this development, for the past year F6Fs, F4Us, and SBDs had regularly worked over Japanese bases in the Solomons and Bismarcks without scaring up so much as a scout floatplane.

[Blackhorse]

August-November 1944 In the United States, Republican Presidential nominee Thomas Dewey asks voters what has become of the Roosevelt administration's slogan, "Home Alive [by] '45."

Roosevelt's running mate, Harry S Truman, reminded the press that the slogan was, "Home Alive in '45."

But as kamikaze attacks take a mounting toll, and newspapers project as many as one million American casualties in an invasion of Japan, Republican Governor Earl Warren of California accused the administration of, "bickering over prepositions, while forgetting the proposition that our boys need to come home -- alive."

One national poll suggests that Dewey and Roosevelt are running neck-and-neck with the election due the first week in November. Voters are skepitical of surveys, however, remembering that the Literary Digest poll predicted that Landon would beat Roosevelt in 1936. In the event, Roosevelt carried 46 of the 48 states.

[Steven Utley]

During the week before the November 1944 presidential election, Allied ground forces secured Bangka Island and captured Shortland, while the U.S. Navy raided Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka. The fast carriers, assigned to Task Forces 50, 55, and 69 (commanded by Mitscher, Sherman, and Halsey, respectively) attacked from positions south of the Home Islands, and Ainsworth's eight old battleships, accompanied by 16 escort carriers, steamed right into Tokyo Bay and let fly at everything in sight. Halsey's flyers destroyed Fuso in port -- that old battlewagon proved amazingly tough, though, sustaining 30 bomb and torpedo hits before succumbing. Hellcats mixed it up with superior numbers of Irvings one night over Takematsu and downed ten of them without loss. By week's end, the Japanese had lost 648 aircraft to the Allies' 255.

That, however, these results justified the price paid is arguable. Kamikazes damaged six flattops -- Hornet and San Jacinto heavily enough to put them out of action until well into 1945, and Enterprise, Hancock, Belleau Wood, and Cabot, at least for the rest of 1944. (During this week, a suicide bomber also claimed the light cruiser Leander off Negros, in the Philippines.)

***

Is it just my imagination, or have Japanese battleships and aircraft carriers in this campaign consistently required more killin' than my own? Two torpedoes each sufficed to put Indomitable, Formidable, and Massachusetts under. If 30 500-/1000-lb-bomb and torpedo hits are required to put paid to the obsolete Fuso as it sits in port, what are Yamato and Musashi going to require? Fat Man and Little Boy?

Having six carriers laid up is going to pinch a bit, but not as much or for as long as the Japanese AI might hope in its artificially intelligent way. From the beginning, I've returned ships to friendly ports as soon as they suffered the most minor damage because I didn't want to risk overloading repair facilities later on during periods of intense activity. Prodigies of production in the U.S. of A. help, too, of course. Bennington and Randolph are already working up at San Francisco.

Moreover, the baby flattops have won their spurs as far as I'm concerned. Using them to escort slow battleships into danger zones may invert the supposed proper relationship of flattop to battlewagon, but it certainly worked in the Tokyo raid -- the purpose of which was not so much to lob 15-inch shells into the Imperial Guard Division's mess as to lure Japanese air groups to destruction. The CVEs put up more than 200 F6Fs at a time while the BBs ploughed the sacred soil of Honshu; none Ainsworth's ships suffered even a scratch.

[ January 29, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Utley ]</p>

[Steven Utley]

As of December 4, 1944, totals of ships lost since the outbreak of hostilities three years before were:

Japan
7 x CV, 10 x CVL, 5 x CVE
5 x BB, 5 x CA, 23 x CL
10 x CS, 120 x DD, 36 x DE, 132 x PC
14 x AO, 235 x AP
1384 x MCS, 109 x TK
33 x SS

Allies
7 x CV, 3 x CVL, 5 x CVE
5 x BB, 1 x BC, 2 x CA, 7 x CL, 1 x CLAA
26 x DD, 16 x DE, 20 x PC
2 x APD, 10 x AO, 13 x AP, 7 x LST
102 x MCS, 4 x TK
51 x SS

In other news, Allied forces secured Tenimbar Island, Negros, and Shortland, and defeated presidential contender Thomas E. Dewey vowed to lead the Republican Party to victory in 1948.

[ January 30, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Utley ]</p>

[CynicAl]

Originally posted by Steven Utley:
Is it just my imagination, or have Japanese battleships and aircraft carriers in this campaign consistently required more killin' than my own? Two torpedoes each sufficed to put Indomitable, Formidable, and Massachusetts under. If 30 500-/1000-lb-bomb and torpedo hits are required to put paid to the obsolete Fuso as it sits in port, what are Yamato and Musashi going to require? Fat Man and Little Boy?

---

Losing MASSACHUSETTS to only two torpedos would be a bit of a surprise, but the rest sounds about right. 500-lb bombs, even 1000-lb bombs, aren't the most effective weapons for sinking battleships. For that, you really want torpedos. And of course aerial torpedos tend to be on the lightweight side, so more of them will be required than if you were using surface- or sub-launched fish.

Also, many times your (or your opponent's) aviators will become fixated on a ship which is sinking, but not quite sunk, and will keep beating that dead horse while other targets escape unscathed. This is also true to history. IRL, MUSASHI took ~17 bomb and 20 torpedo hits before going under, but it's certain that less would have sufficed: sister ship YAMATO succumbed to just 10 bomb and 12 torpedo hits, two of which hit on the "wrong" side and actually served to help correct her developing list to port.

[Steven Utley]

The Allies kept busy throughout December 1944. Only the enemy's 21st Engineers garrisoned Batan Island, north of Luzon, and no sooner had the U.S. 2nd Marine Division wiped them out than P-51s and long-range bombers flew in to set about compounding the miseries of a Japanese merchant marine already squeezed between submarines and China-based aircraft. With Leyte finally secured, too, the Allies began to size up Panay, Samar, Mindoro, and even Formosa. In the Carolines, Lee's three old battleships, Sherman's dozen escort carriers, and hundreds of land-based planes opened the way for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions, who made quick work of Guam's defenders, 2220 officers and men of the 72nd Infantry Division.

More distant support was provided by Halsey's, Mitscher's, and Hoover's carrier groups and Glassford's fast battleships, which blasted airfields, picked off the few enemy ships encountered, and generally occupied the attention of Japanese forces from Luzon to Hong Kong to the Home Islands. Only Glassford and Hoover got into trouble. A dozen kamikazes from Takao attacked Glassford, ten were shot down, and two crashed into a battleship, whose skipper later quipped, "We scarcely noticed."

Hoover's trouble was more serious. Thirty-seven kamikazes attacked Task Force 78 off Hong Kong; despite the best efforts of Hellcat pilots and anti-aircraft gunners, enough enemy planes got through to damage Bunker Hill (lightly), Intrepid (badly), and Langley (very badly indeed). Intrepid limped home to the southern Philippines at a top speed of four knots. Bunker Hill stayed with Langley, which could make only two knots, and fought off more enemy planes seeking to finish the job.

Meanwhile, His Majesty's battleships, Queen Elizabeth, Warspite, Royal Sovereign, and Resolution, and carriers, Indefatigable, Illustrious, Ruler, and (after the 18th) Victorious, did the honors at Saigon. The British 2nd and 7th Infantry Divisions and the Australian 9th Infantry Division, all crack units, crossed the South China Sea from Kuching without incident and soon fastened a bulldog grip on the defending 32nd, 35th, and 36th Infantry Divisions and 9th and 11th Special Base Forces. Vian's carriers roughed up and chased off a few enemy transports and escort vessels attempting to make port, but an overland march put the Japanese 15th Infantry Division in Saigon on Christmas Day.

Christmas Day also saw the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division storm ashore at Panay. While supporting this operation, the unlucky Hoover's remaining operational flattop, Bunker Hill, survived another two kamikaze hits -- bringing to nine the number of U.S. carriers laid up for repairs on New Year's Day, 1945.

[ February 01, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Utley ]</p>

[Steven Utley]

Headlines for the week of January 1-7, 1945:

MARINES TAKE SAIPAN

BOMBERS BLAST JAP CITIES BY NIGHT

JAP NAVY HIDES IN CHINA PORTS

BRITS, AUSSIES INFLICT HEAVY LOSSES AT SAIGON

STIX NIX HIX PIX

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

"Tin cans on the garbage pile
Are just a way of saying 'Heil.'"

-- Flash Comics (1944)

[ February 01, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Utley ]</p>

[Steven Utley]

Nineteen forty-five is just five game-weeks old, and already there have been several exciting and bloody battles on the Asian mainland and various islands. I shall post an after-action report in due course, but for now I'm just going to lodge a complaint, or at least voice a suspicion. It is this: despite what CynicAl says above, something is distinctly screwy, not right, off about the ease with which the Japanese sink major Allied ships and possibly, as well, the difficulty the Allies experience when trying to sink major Japanese ships.

Bear in mind that I've been playing Pacific War version 2.2's Rising Sun campaign, using the even-steven setting. Recall that two submarine torpedoes sufficed to sink the new U.S. battleship Massachusetts, while 30 bomb and torpedo hits were required to sink the old Japanese battleship Fuso as it lay at anchor in the Inland Sea. More recently, one (1) kamikaze B5N2 has, all by its lonesome, sunk an Iowa-class battleship, and two (2) Japanese battleships -- neither of them Yamato or Musashi -- have shrugged off direct 2000lb-bomb hits.

Most of the ship losses suffered by both sides in this campaign have not offended my sense of historicity. Those described above do. Especially the one inflicted by that evidently atomic B5N2.

[ February 02, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Utley ]</p>

[henhute6]

date: 12 / 1944
War went quite boring after I halted allied offensive in Tarawa and Ellice in early 1944.
For some reason my Battleship fleet hasn't seen much action in the war, although cruiser fleets made some reaction moves. With 10 battleships I thought to test allied defences on Palmyra. Heavy armour and flak rating of 4000 was to protect them.
I should have guessed this. 4 air combat fleets made immediate reaction move as my fleet took a little move towards Palmyra. Waves of avengers, helldivers and hellcats swarmed into attack.
Battleships had about 1500 25 mm guns ready for visitors. 8 strikes came with usually over 100 aircrafts. Over 50 % of the aircraft were destroyed and battleships took also hits which decreased flak slightly.

casualties:
US: 550 carrier planes
Japan: 3 severely damaged battleships (no ships sunk)
conclusion:
Operation had some success in plane killing even if I didn't have a chance to bombard Palmyra. What would have happened if my bombers and carriers have been in the area supporting battleships?

[henhute6]

7 / 1945

VICTORY IN MADRAS!

8 divisions were enough for japanese to conquer India. In yesterdays attack japanese forces lost only 200 men and 8 tanks in assault on Madras. Combined forces of americans, british, indians and chinese surrendered with a loss of 28000 men, 180 tanks, 490 guns and 230 aircraft.

[Steven Utley]

But for their having more important things to do than listen to Axis propaganda, American and Commonwealth fighting men likely would derive considerable amusement from the recent claims of overwhelming Japanese victories at Madras, Tarawa, Ellice Island, Palmyra. Not only are those places held by Allied forces, most of them are hundreds, even thousands, of miles behind Allied lines.

In truth, as of late February 1945, Imperial Japan has been drawn and quartered. Twitching fragments lie strewn from the Indian Ocean to the central Pacific -- cut off not only from the Home Islands but from one another as well. The destruction in detail of its merchant marine is almost complete. Under the direction of the implacable LeMay, long-range U.S. bombers flatten its cities. Its air forces are outnumbered, outclassed, outfought; the remnants of its once-formidable navy hide out in northern Chinese ports. With General Alexander's capture of Saigon and General Scoones' of Bangkok, both Malaya and the interior of French Indo-China have become, in effect, vast prisoner-of-war camps, newest additions to a list that already includes Sumatra, Luzon, the Bismarcks, Kwajalein, Eniwetok. Japanese troops on some of those islands have seen plenty of airplanes since 1942, but no friendly ones. U.S. Marines captured Takao, on the western shore of Formosa, and now bit fair to capture Keelung, on the eastern. In China, at Nanning, the most protracted and least eventful siege of the entire war has suddenly culminated in the rout of the Japanese 22nd Army before unpromising (and for all practical purposes leaderless -- Chiang Kai-shek can hardly be said to qualify) KMT units supplemented by only a few experienced U.S. and British troops.

If ever a nation has been defeated, it is Japan in early 1945.

So there. <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

[ February 05, 2002: Message edited by: Steven Utley ]</p>