10 Mar 42
The night attack on Tavoy was light this date, only one flight of Blenheims.
The Battle of the Coral Sea continues. The latest engagement was a group of minesweepers depth charging a contact a few hundred miles ESE of Townsville. They are not certain but think they scored a hit.
The Pickerel fired torpedoes at a freighter near Camranh Bay but missed. Along the western coast of Borneo the KXI got a shot at one of the enemy carriers but wasn't able to hit. She managed to avoid the destroyer escorts. Just north of Butuan the S-39 sank a freighter with a spread of torpedoes.
The Japanese again attacked Yenen, providing more training for the Chinese pilots. Sinkep Island was bombed again, which seems like overkill. Surely the enemy is aware that we have little there? Cagayan was heavily bombed. About fifty enemy Sally and Lily bombers hit the airfield. Twenty Betty bombers attacked Hengchow. I am beginning to consider having the Chinese move one of the fighter squadrons at Yenen back to Hengchow. A raid by Betty bombers bombed Chinese troops at Haiphong.
Our bombing of Singapore went well. Damage assessment estimates ten enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground and a like number damaged. Chinese bombers attacked outside Wuhan and Haiphong. British and Aussie Hurricanes continued bombing enemy forces near Rangoon.
Anti-shipping strikes around Malaya resumed. Martins hit a freighter in Singapore port. Also, several of the Dutch patrol planes are reporting successful drops of their bombs on various ships in the Malacca Strait.
RADM Spruance finally deceided that Apamama has had enough, launching today's attack on Makin.
The enemy attacked the retreating RN task force with two raids. The first was one flight of Bettys, the second a flight of Bettys and a dozen Sallys. Neither group pressed their attack very hard and none of the ships were hit.
Light fighting outside Rangoon continued. South of Luang Prabang the VM division tried to launch a pre-emptive attack on two Chinese corps moving against it but folded quickly. The Philippinos at Butuan tried to launch an attack against the enemy bridgehead but quickly ran out of steam. The loss of Luzon may be affecting their morale more than I had expected. Japanese forces continued to slowly gain ground at Bankha. The 102nd RCT hit the beach at Nauru Island during the night and quickly took control of the unoccupied facility.
The tanker that was damaged while leaving Brunei sank. She had just arrived at Tarakan for emergency repairs but the flooding was too extensive.
More reports to follow.
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11 Mar 42
The sub KX was hit by an enemy Val in the Java Sea. She was already at the end of her patrol and headed for Soerabaja, so she should make despite the damage.
Rangoon's night fighters launched a full strike against Tavoy. Looks like they caught a couple of enemy fighters on the ground.
The enemy carriers continue to retreat towards the South China Sea. In the strait between Belitung and Borneo the O21 fired on them. She missed but was able to avoid the escort destroyers. Then another group of Dutch torpedo boats made a surprise sunset attack. While they fired their fish and got out before the enemy could react it doesn't look like they managed to hit any of the ships. The combination apparently did concern the enemy commander as the task force turned back south for at least a little while afterwards.
The Japanese sent ten Nates to escort only three Sonias against Yenen. The Chinese took out one of the Nates in passing and then downed two of the three bombers.
Foul weather over Singapore caused some of our bombers to miss the target, but enough got thru to keep up the pressure on the airfields.
The enemy continued to bomb Cagayan. The airfield there is not usable but fortunately all we were basing there were some PBYs. But it is time to pull them back to Davao. Betty bombers tried to attack ships unloading supplies at Batavia but were apparently not ready for any kind of defense. Demon fighters drove off some, downed one or two and broke up the formation of the rest enough that they couldn't hit the freighters. The PA 101st at Butuan was bombed by Nells. Some of the P-35s at Davao tried to intercept but could not reach them in time. More Bettys bombed the Dutch at Bankha.
Hurricanes continued flying against IJA troops at Rangoon. The Chinese continued to bomb the enemy outside Haiphong.
Apparently I spoke too soon about the threat that Apamama represents. Under the guise of a "recon" flight, Spruance launched every Dauntless he had against the island. We will have to have a serious talk when he gets back.
The Martin pilots at some of the Borneo bases are trying some new tactics. Today they launched a very low level strafe and bomb attack against an IJN cruiser in the South China Sea. They weren't able to hit it with any bombs and the AAA fire at that level was intense but they apparently feel that this tactic has potential. Search planes found those enemy tankers that we lost in the Celebes Sea a few days ago. They are now at the northwestern end of the Makassar Strait. A flight of Martins attacked them but were not able to hit.
The enemy got another bloody nose when they attacked outside Rangoon. Once again the Commonwealth forces didn't give up any ground and inflicted heavy losses. The Chinese attacked the VM unit south of Luang Prabang and drove them back towards Pisanuloke. Unfortunately we did not do as well on Mindanao. The Philippine 101st Division retreated from Butuan when the Japanese attacked, so once again the enemy has a foothold on the island. The Dutch at Bankha, however, did manage to stop the enemy advance there.
VMF-111 arrived in Los Angeles. They flew in in Buffalo fighters but the British experience with those has not been good. Fortunately we have a stockpile of F4Fs to re-equip them with. I'm ordering a freighter down from San Francisco to pick them up and head for the New Guinea area where we desperately need fighters.
With the enemy establishing a foothold on Mindanao I think it is time to consolidate our remaining forces in the Philippines better. A group of Australian Dakotas have been diverted to Davao and along with the PBYs pulled back from Cagayan are now trying to evacuate as many personnel as they can from Iloilo. They probably won't be able to airlift the entire Philippine division and US engineer force out but those that they can will help in Mindanao's defense and they can't hold Iloilo on their own anyways.
More reports to follow.
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12 Mar 42
Near Legaspi the Gato missed a transport. Off Honshu the Grampus was forced to evade some small ASW ships. Near Formosa the Pollack set ablaze an escorted transport with a torpedo hit. A second attack on another transport was foiled by that ship's escort gunboats. Near the southwest corner of Borneo, the O23 hit another tanker with three torpedoes and several rounds from her deck gun. The O21 took a shot at one of the enemy carriers' escorts but wasn't able to hit.
US destroyers had another encounter with an I-boat in the Coral Sea. They managed to avoid the torpedoes fired and made DC runs against the sub. Oil and some debris were found afterwards.
Blenheims continued their nocturnal attacks on Tavoy. This time they hit some bombers and transports on the field.
Allied bombers continued to hammer away at Singapore and damage assessment is reporting an increasing number of enemy aircraft destroyed in the raids. Today's toll was over two dozen destroyed plus more damaged. The toll in the harbor was likewise good. Five troop transports were hit, most by multiple bombs.
Hurricanes continued their attacks on the four enemy divisions outside Rangoon.
The 4 AACU hit another Nip tanker near NW Borneo, putting a torpedo in her side and leaving her in flames.
This isn't to say that the enemy isn't fighting back. I hadn't ordered Batavia evacuated because I believed that the enemy carriers would be low on fuel and ordinance and would not want to use any of their low stocks if they could avoid it. I was wrong and many men paid for my mistake. A strike from the carriers hit six of the freighters unloading supplies in the port at Batavia.
Some thirty Bettys bombed Hengchow. More than a dozen divebombers attacked Cagayan again. Another group of Bettys bombed the Dutch at Bankha. The enemy also reminded us of his range advantage. The cruiser Marblehead, making temporary repairs at Amboina, was attack by Nell bombers. And a flight of Bettys attacked Diamond Harbor. Fortunately no ships were hit by either of those attacks.
Enemy troops tried and failed again to push back the Commonwealth forces near Rangoon. And once again the defenders inflicted heavy casualties for the attempt. The Japanese did, however, gain more ground in their attack on Bankha.
More reports to follow.
Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
Moderators: wdolson, Don Bowen, mogami
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
13 Mar 42
The Tjisaroea sank at Derby. If I haven't lost count, that means that twenty out of the twenty-two ships in Convoy 1169 were lost.
Night attack by Blenheims on Tavoy.
The Dutch torpedo boats tried to head back to Palembang but ran into the Japanese carriers during the night. The one boat that still had torpedoes fired them before she was sunk by a single shot from an enemy destroyer but failed to hit anything. The rest of the unit broke off and escaped.
Australian minesweepers had a sonar contact in the Coral Sea but weren't able to narrow it down enough to attack.
In the Malacca Strait the Truant had a run in with a Jap destroyer but got away unscathed.
Another raid on Yenen. A dozen Nates escorted only three Sonias. The Chinese shot down one of the fighters and damaged another of the bombers.
We continue to bomb Singapore. Intelligence says we got almost ten enemy aircraft today.
The airfield at Cagayan was hit again. The enemy also bombed the airfield at Cebu. A dozen Bettys attacked our shipping at Batavia, hitting one of the already damaged freighters again.
Chinese bombers continued their campaign against Japanese troops outside Wuhan. Rangoon's Hurricanes also bombed the enemy again.
Another three transports were hit at Singapore, although it appears that they was damaged in earlier attacks as well. Martins and Blenheims missed a tanker just south of Belitung. To the north of Singkawang a flight of Martins and 4AACU attacked another tanker, but this one was close enough to the enemy carriers to have some Zero protection. Almost half the Swordfish were lost getting to the target, but once they did the bombers scored a pair of bomb hits and a torpedo strike.
There was skirmishing outside Rangoon and the enemy attack on Bankha appears to, at least temporarily, lost momenteum. It appears that the enemy hasn't put ashore many troops in the first place and almost half are out of combat now.
I have to admit to being surprised at how effective the evacuation of Iloilo is. In only two days over a thousand personell and several artillery pieces have been airlifted to Davao. At that rate we can pull all the troops out in only another week, much better than I had expected.
More reports to follow.
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14 Mar 42
Another successful attack on Tavoy during the night, catching some more enemy bombers and transports.
The Pike was damaged by an ASW group outside Camranh Bay. It isn't enough to threaten to sink her but is enough to cause her to abort her patrol. Along the Japanese coast near Hamamatsu the Triton torpedoed a gunboat. Her followup on a freighter shortly afterwards was spoiled by dud warheads on her torpedoes.
On a more general note, submarine operations have definitely been slowing down. While the enemy carriers sailing around Borneo had a little to do with it, threatening the sub bases at Balikpapen and Soerabaja, it is more the result of simple wear-n-tear. There are a good dozen subs at Darwin, Wake, Balikpapen and Soerabaja in port repairing damage, either from enemy depth charges or simple breakdowns during their patrols. Considering their successes during the maximum effort push right after the war began, Sub Command is doing very well.
A destroyer group on ASW patrol south of Woodlark Island pursued a sonar contact. They made a depth charge run but were not able to find any evidence of damage to a sub.
The Nips attacked Yenen again, this time with sixteen fighters escorting the three divebombers. Not that it did them any good. After several were shot down the survivors broke and ran, leaving the Sonias unprotected. Only one of the enemy survived to drop his bomb and the Chinese pilots even got the photo recon plane that was flying with the raid.
We bombed Singapore again, doing serious damage to the airfield as well as destroying more enemy aircraft on the ground. The responded with another heavy attack on Sinkep. I am beginning to suspect that my intelligence staff hasn't informed me of a disinformation campaign intended to make the enemy believe that Sinkep Island is an important air base.
Cagayan was bombed as was Hengchow. The Rangoon defenders' rest is over. Half-a-dozen Zeroes and half that number of Oscars escorted a decade of Sallys in an attack on the freighter unloading in Rangoon's port. Several of the AVG P-40s were shot down before they broke thru the escorts to attack the bombers. Once they did though, they were able to take down several of them and prevent any hits on the ship. Unescorted Bettys also attacked Haiphong. The Chinese I-16 fighters managed to claim one or two before they reached their target.
Chinese bombers hit enemy troops outside Wuhan and near Haiphong while the Hurricanes continued their attacks near Rangoon.
In addition to the anti-shipping strikes on Singapore port, search planes spotted two convoys closing on Kuching which were attacked. The first convoy had one transport hit by a low flying Martin. The second had a transport hit by Swordfish dropped bombs. And at least four more transports were hit at Singapore, all of them by multiple bombs.
To the south, some forty Bettys attacked Gili Gili. They went after the battleships Mississippi and New Mexico, which along with their surviving destroyer escorts, were patching damage before retiring to Sydney for further work. They luckily avoided any further damage but it does serve as a wakeup call to have them pull back now. Of equal concern are the destroyer tenders and repair ship that were also there to assist.
We had similar good luck at Batavia. A flight of Betty bombers was turned back by the Demon fighters flying CAP there.
Light fighting continued near Rangoon. The Japanese are continueing to push their attack on Bankha but the Dutch continued to hold them.
The two convoys carrying the 2nd Marine and 27th divisions finally reached Baker. They are now enroute to Tarawa, following about a day behind the battleships Maryland and Colorado. Spruance is still patrolling just north of the target with three carriers and the other two are in the vicinity of Nauru covering the final unloadings of the 102nd RCT's supplies. The 144th Field Artillery Reg will follow a day behind the infantry to give them a chance to establish a beachhead to unload the artillery in and the rest of the support units will sail from Baker as soon as the port facilities are captured. The 45th Fighter is already unloaded at Baker and can fly to Tarawa as soon as there are facilities for them. The Marine divebombers of VMSB-241 are still on board ship, which has just passed Johnston Island, so they should be able to unload at Baker soon and can relocate from there to Tarawa when ready.
We have also gotten a seaplane tender and a dozen PBYs to Nauru and they have begun to fly search and recon over the Marshall Islands. Considering the number of recon flights we have already flown over Tarawa, Makin and Apamama and the weak response from enemy so far, I don't expect any major problems capturing Tarawa. Once that is done the Marines can bomb Makin and Apamama for some time, neutralizing them until we are ready to take those well.
A number of units became available in theatre. The UK 2nd Division arrived in Karachi. The British are boarding ship for Diamond Harbor and movement to the front. Two Australian units were raised in Sydney, the 101st AT Regiment and the 7th Division. This is fortitous as I have been trying to find troops to defend bases along the east coast of southern New Guinea. The AT guns will go to Port Moresby and we'll divide the infantry among Gili Gili, Buna and Dobodura. The 31st Navy Base Force and the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion arrived in San Francisco. The Navy engineers will ship out for Shortlands, but I'm not sure where the Raiders can be put to good use yet. For now they'll head for Luganville where SOUPAC HQ is.
More reports to follow.
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15 Mar 42
Outside Singapore the O16 put a pair of torpedoes into a freighter before evading the escorting destroyer. In the Philippines the Sealion attacked a freighter. She had several dud torpedoes but managed to get one to detonate as well as shelling the ship with her deck gun, scoring many hits.
The entire squadron of night Blenheims hit Tavoy again.
As we feared the enemy began landing at Kuching. The CD unit based there hit three of the transports and caused heavy casualties among the landing troops. However, there are enough enemy troops for there to be heavy losses among them. The bombers assigned to anti-shipping concentrated their efforts among the invasion convoys. |||||| strikes managed to hit ||||| troop transports, causing serious damage and adding to the enemy's casualties.
A flight of Martins attacked a transport outside Singapore but got jumped by Zeroes from the carriers. Only one of the bombers survived but they managed to hit their target.
The Singapore airfields got hammered again. Somewhere between fifteen and twenty enemy aircraft were destroyed. However, we see an opportunity arriving. Intelligence is reporting that one of those tankers the Swordfish hit over the last few days sank in the South China Sea. We have been able to track the enemy carriers and it looks like a severe lack of fuel is forcing them to put in at Singapore to refuel. They should arrive there sometime tomorrow. I am sending orders for the bombers to concentrate on the port in the hope that we can catch the carriers at dock.
Some thirty bombers attacked Iloilo, concentrating on the airfield there. A dozen Sally bombers attacked Rangoon escorted by only four Zeroes. The AVG pilots quickly slipped around the fighters and took a heavy toll of the bombers. The remaining aircraft attacked the Dutch minelayer that was improving the port's minefields but the small ship was able to avoid all the bombs. Two raids were launched against Hengchow but no casualties are reported among the Chinese forces there. Bettys attacked Chinese troops at Haiphong and once again caught the CAP by surprise, getting thru with only one bomber shot down.
The Chinese continued to bomb the enemy division outside Wuhan. Hurricanes bombed outside Rangoon.
Two flights of Bettys tried to attack the battleship Maryland at Tarawa but were not able to hit the ship. Spruance's carriers will have to move back closer to the island to provide air cover. The Maryland and Colorado continued their mission to shell the Japanese troops.
The fighting outside Rangoon remained at the skirmish level. Kuching's defenders shelled the enemy troops landing there, but they are already estimating 12,000 enemy troops ashore. The garrison is only around 3,000 between the engineers and the coastal guns. The hundred or so enemy troops at Bankha continued to try to attack the Dutch engineers, but were held back without losses.
The situation in Burma is improving. The Irrawaddy Line is firming up with many units arriving at Mandalay. A Corp HQ and an artillery regiment are moving forward from there to reinforce Pagan. Also, the Indian 23rd Division has been split for the last several weeks. The bulk of it has been fighting outside Rangoon but not all of the unit was able to unload there before it became untenable to ship troops in. The rest of the unit unloaded at Akyab before it was realized how poor the land connections to the port were. As a result much of the division has been slowly working their way towards Rangoon along poor condition trails. They have crossed the Irrawaddy and reached the rail line and should be able to rejoin the rest of the unit in the next couple of days.
Also the airfield at Mandalay recently finished the first stage of its expansion. It is now large enough for Blenheim bombers to operate from and one squadron has already moved in. This places them within range of Tavoy and they will be tasked with continueing to supress the enemy airfield there. Part of the AVG at Rangoon is assigned to provide escort.
Reinforcements continue to pour into theatre. The Royal Navy had several more ships arrive in Karachi, the carrier Formidable, battleship Warspite and a pair of destroyers. They will head for Trimcomalee where they will meet up with the surface group currently at Diamond Harbor.
India also saw the arrival of several aircraft squadrons. Hurricanes at Trimcomalee, Blenheims at Madras, Mohawks at Bombay and another squadron of Hurricanes at Calcutta.
More forces also arrived on the West Coast. Two fighter groups, one of P-40Es and one of P-39Ds, became available in Seattle. We also got another sub, the Grouper, in San Francisco.
More reports to follow.
The Tjisaroea sank at Derby. If I haven't lost count, that means that twenty out of the twenty-two ships in Convoy 1169 were lost.
Night attack by Blenheims on Tavoy.
The Dutch torpedo boats tried to head back to Palembang but ran into the Japanese carriers during the night. The one boat that still had torpedoes fired them before she was sunk by a single shot from an enemy destroyer but failed to hit anything. The rest of the unit broke off and escaped.
Australian minesweepers had a sonar contact in the Coral Sea but weren't able to narrow it down enough to attack.
In the Malacca Strait the Truant had a run in with a Jap destroyer but got away unscathed.
Another raid on Yenen. A dozen Nates escorted only three Sonias. The Chinese shot down one of the fighters and damaged another of the bombers.
We continue to bomb Singapore. Intelligence says we got almost ten enemy aircraft today.
The airfield at Cagayan was hit again. The enemy also bombed the airfield at Cebu. A dozen Bettys attacked our shipping at Batavia, hitting one of the already damaged freighters again.
Chinese bombers continued their campaign against Japanese troops outside Wuhan. Rangoon's Hurricanes also bombed the enemy again.
Another three transports were hit at Singapore, although it appears that they was damaged in earlier attacks as well. Martins and Blenheims missed a tanker just south of Belitung. To the north of Singkawang a flight of Martins and 4AACU attacked another tanker, but this one was close enough to the enemy carriers to have some Zero protection. Almost half the Swordfish were lost getting to the target, but once they did the bombers scored a pair of bomb hits and a torpedo strike.
There was skirmishing outside Rangoon and the enemy attack on Bankha appears to, at least temporarily, lost momenteum. It appears that the enemy hasn't put ashore many troops in the first place and almost half are out of combat now.
I have to admit to being surprised at how effective the evacuation of Iloilo is. In only two days over a thousand personell and several artillery pieces have been airlifted to Davao. At that rate we can pull all the troops out in only another week, much better than I had expected.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
14 Mar 42
Another successful attack on Tavoy during the night, catching some more enemy bombers and transports.
The Pike was damaged by an ASW group outside Camranh Bay. It isn't enough to threaten to sink her but is enough to cause her to abort her patrol. Along the Japanese coast near Hamamatsu the Triton torpedoed a gunboat. Her followup on a freighter shortly afterwards was spoiled by dud warheads on her torpedoes.
On a more general note, submarine operations have definitely been slowing down. While the enemy carriers sailing around Borneo had a little to do with it, threatening the sub bases at Balikpapen and Soerabaja, it is more the result of simple wear-n-tear. There are a good dozen subs at Darwin, Wake, Balikpapen and Soerabaja in port repairing damage, either from enemy depth charges or simple breakdowns during their patrols. Considering their successes during the maximum effort push right after the war began, Sub Command is doing very well.
A destroyer group on ASW patrol south of Woodlark Island pursued a sonar contact. They made a depth charge run but were not able to find any evidence of damage to a sub.
The Nips attacked Yenen again, this time with sixteen fighters escorting the three divebombers. Not that it did them any good. After several were shot down the survivors broke and ran, leaving the Sonias unprotected. Only one of the enemy survived to drop his bomb and the Chinese pilots even got the photo recon plane that was flying with the raid.
We bombed Singapore again, doing serious damage to the airfield as well as destroying more enemy aircraft on the ground. The responded with another heavy attack on Sinkep. I am beginning to suspect that my intelligence staff hasn't informed me of a disinformation campaign intended to make the enemy believe that Sinkep Island is an important air base.
Cagayan was bombed as was Hengchow. The Rangoon defenders' rest is over. Half-a-dozen Zeroes and half that number of Oscars escorted a decade of Sallys in an attack on the freighter unloading in Rangoon's port. Several of the AVG P-40s were shot down before they broke thru the escorts to attack the bombers. Once they did though, they were able to take down several of them and prevent any hits on the ship. Unescorted Bettys also attacked Haiphong. The Chinese I-16 fighters managed to claim one or two before they reached their target.
Chinese bombers hit enemy troops outside Wuhan and near Haiphong while the Hurricanes continued their attacks near Rangoon.
In addition to the anti-shipping strikes on Singapore port, search planes spotted two convoys closing on Kuching which were attacked. The first convoy had one transport hit by a low flying Martin. The second had a transport hit by Swordfish dropped bombs. And at least four more transports were hit at Singapore, all of them by multiple bombs.
To the south, some forty Bettys attacked Gili Gili. They went after the battleships Mississippi and New Mexico, which along with their surviving destroyer escorts, were patching damage before retiring to Sydney for further work. They luckily avoided any further damage but it does serve as a wakeup call to have them pull back now. Of equal concern are the destroyer tenders and repair ship that were also there to assist.
We had similar good luck at Batavia. A flight of Betty bombers was turned back by the Demon fighters flying CAP there.
Light fighting continued near Rangoon. The Japanese are continueing to push their attack on Bankha but the Dutch continued to hold them.
The two convoys carrying the 2nd Marine and 27th divisions finally reached Baker. They are now enroute to Tarawa, following about a day behind the battleships Maryland and Colorado. Spruance is still patrolling just north of the target with three carriers and the other two are in the vicinity of Nauru covering the final unloadings of the 102nd RCT's supplies. The 144th Field Artillery Reg will follow a day behind the infantry to give them a chance to establish a beachhead to unload the artillery in and the rest of the support units will sail from Baker as soon as the port facilities are captured. The 45th Fighter is already unloaded at Baker and can fly to Tarawa as soon as there are facilities for them. The Marine divebombers of VMSB-241 are still on board ship, which has just passed Johnston Island, so they should be able to unload at Baker soon and can relocate from there to Tarawa when ready.
We have also gotten a seaplane tender and a dozen PBYs to Nauru and they have begun to fly search and recon over the Marshall Islands. Considering the number of recon flights we have already flown over Tarawa, Makin and Apamama and the weak response from enemy so far, I don't expect any major problems capturing Tarawa. Once that is done the Marines can bomb Makin and Apamama for some time, neutralizing them until we are ready to take those well.
A number of units became available in theatre. The UK 2nd Division arrived in Karachi. The British are boarding ship for Diamond Harbor and movement to the front. Two Australian units were raised in Sydney, the 101st AT Regiment and the 7th Division. This is fortitous as I have been trying to find troops to defend bases along the east coast of southern New Guinea. The AT guns will go to Port Moresby and we'll divide the infantry among Gili Gili, Buna and Dobodura. The 31st Navy Base Force and the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion arrived in San Francisco. The Navy engineers will ship out for Shortlands, but I'm not sure where the Raiders can be put to good use yet. For now they'll head for Luganville where SOUPAC HQ is.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15 Mar 42
Outside Singapore the O16 put a pair of torpedoes into a freighter before evading the escorting destroyer. In the Philippines the Sealion attacked a freighter. She had several dud torpedoes but managed to get one to detonate as well as shelling the ship with her deck gun, scoring many hits.
The entire squadron of night Blenheims hit Tavoy again.
As we feared the enemy began landing at Kuching. The CD unit based there hit three of the transports and caused heavy casualties among the landing troops. However, there are enough enemy troops for there to be heavy losses among them. The bombers assigned to anti-shipping concentrated their efforts among the invasion convoys. |||||| strikes managed to hit ||||| troop transports, causing serious damage and adding to the enemy's casualties.
A flight of Martins attacked a transport outside Singapore but got jumped by Zeroes from the carriers. Only one of the bombers survived but they managed to hit their target.
The Singapore airfields got hammered again. Somewhere between fifteen and twenty enemy aircraft were destroyed. However, we see an opportunity arriving. Intelligence is reporting that one of those tankers the Swordfish hit over the last few days sank in the South China Sea. We have been able to track the enemy carriers and it looks like a severe lack of fuel is forcing them to put in at Singapore to refuel. They should arrive there sometime tomorrow. I am sending orders for the bombers to concentrate on the port in the hope that we can catch the carriers at dock.
Some thirty bombers attacked Iloilo, concentrating on the airfield there. A dozen Sally bombers attacked Rangoon escorted by only four Zeroes. The AVG pilots quickly slipped around the fighters and took a heavy toll of the bombers. The remaining aircraft attacked the Dutch minelayer that was improving the port's minefields but the small ship was able to avoid all the bombs. Two raids were launched against Hengchow but no casualties are reported among the Chinese forces there. Bettys attacked Chinese troops at Haiphong and once again caught the CAP by surprise, getting thru with only one bomber shot down.
The Chinese continued to bomb the enemy division outside Wuhan. Hurricanes bombed outside Rangoon.
Two flights of Bettys tried to attack the battleship Maryland at Tarawa but were not able to hit the ship. Spruance's carriers will have to move back closer to the island to provide air cover. The Maryland and Colorado continued their mission to shell the Japanese troops.
The fighting outside Rangoon remained at the skirmish level. Kuching's defenders shelled the enemy troops landing there, but they are already estimating 12,000 enemy troops ashore. The garrison is only around 3,000 between the engineers and the coastal guns. The hundred or so enemy troops at Bankha continued to try to attack the Dutch engineers, but were held back without losses.
The situation in Burma is improving. The Irrawaddy Line is firming up with many units arriving at Mandalay. A Corp HQ and an artillery regiment are moving forward from there to reinforce Pagan. Also, the Indian 23rd Division has been split for the last several weeks. The bulk of it has been fighting outside Rangoon but not all of the unit was able to unload there before it became untenable to ship troops in. The rest of the unit unloaded at Akyab before it was realized how poor the land connections to the port were. As a result much of the division has been slowly working their way towards Rangoon along poor condition trails. They have crossed the Irrawaddy and reached the rail line and should be able to rejoin the rest of the unit in the next couple of days.
Also the airfield at Mandalay recently finished the first stage of its expansion. It is now large enough for Blenheim bombers to operate from and one squadron has already moved in. This places them within range of Tavoy and they will be tasked with continueing to supress the enemy airfield there. Part of the AVG at Rangoon is assigned to provide escort.
Reinforcements continue to pour into theatre. The Royal Navy had several more ships arrive in Karachi, the carrier Formidable, battleship Warspite and a pair of destroyers. They will head for Trimcomalee where they will meet up with the surface group currently at Diamond Harbor.
India also saw the arrival of several aircraft squadrons. Hurricanes at Trimcomalee, Blenheims at Madras, Mohawks at Bombay and another squadron of Hurricanes at Calcutta.
More forces also arrived on the West Coast. Two fighter groups, one of P-40Es and one of P-39Ds, became available in Seattle. We also got another sub, the Grouper, in San Francisco.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
16 Mar 42
The good results we are getting in the Philippines with the aerial evacuation of Iloilo and the apparent beginning of the next wave of enemy attacks have finally convinced the Dutch to allow similar movements in the DEI to concentrate their forces. We are starting with Sinkep Island, pulling the engineers and infantry there out to Batavia using the two transport plane squadrons the Dutch have on Java.
The Greenling fired on but missed a transport off the north coast of Luzon. At the southern end of the island the Saury did not have a good day. First she was damaged by a patrolling plane, then chased around by a subchaser. Her captain believes they've lost the enemy ship and is heading for Balikpapen for repairs.
The Australian minesweepers had another sonar contact but apparently didn't have any success with their DC runs. A minesweeper/gunboat pair off the south tip of New Guinea also had an inconclusive sonar contact.
We bombed Tavoy in the night again.
The battleships continued to shell Tarawa in preparation for the amphibious landings.
We have some confusing reports coming out of the Solomons. The Australians at Shortlands reported, and fired on, an enemy landing on their island and have some bodies to support the claim. But they are now saying that they cannot find any enemy troops. There are at least three groups of enemy ships in the islands vicinity spotted by PBY patrols. What is going on there?
Enemy Lily bombers attacked the airfield at Bankha. Zeroes and Bettys continued to bomb Hengchow. Two flights of Bettys attacked Haiphong, but half of them aborted when confronted by the Chinese CAP.
The Chinese continued their efforts against Japanese troops near Wuhan and Haiphong. The Rangoon Hurricanes continued to fly against the Japanese forces there.
The Martin and Swordfish pilots did not do as well as I have come to expect of them. The enemy ships unloading at Kuching almost immediately began heading back north. Several strikes were launched against them but only one transport was hit.
Japanese forces attacked the Rangoon perimeter again. They still did not make any progress, unless you consider somewhat less casualties than on previous attempts progress. The Chinese cavalry continued to chase Japanese engineers around the countryside. Chinese infantry attacked an enemy unit east of Hanoi that had been cut off by the fall of Hanoi and Haiphong. The Japanese fell back, which will probably start another wild goose chase all the way across China. The invasion force at Kuching overran the base. The Coastal Defense guns had to be spiked in place and the surviving engineers are falling back towards Singkawang. It will take them some time as the route is poorly developed along much of its length. The Martins and Brewsters that were based there flew out shortly after the enemy's numbers became clear, so we didn't lose any of them. The Japanese continued their attempts at attack at Bankha but their numbers are just so few that I don't know what they expect to accomplish without reinforcement.
We also lost the freighter Benkalis. She had finished unloading at Kuala and was trying to make it back to Ceylon but her damage was too severe.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
17 Mar 42
The crew of the sub Greenling had an exciting day. First the spotted and fired on an IJN heavy cruiser. The torpedoes missed and they had to evade the destroyer escort. Next, the fired on an enemy oiler just to have their torpedoes fail to detonate. Then, after trying to fix the detonators, they fired on the same oiler again. Dud torpedoes again. It may be time for a personal visit to the Ordinance Dept.
The Pollack was briefly spotted by two ASW ships in the seas south of Japan. In the Malacca Strait just off of Bankha the Truant put two torpedoes into a freighter.
In the Coral Sea fighting continued hot and heavy. The DD-minesweepers on ASW patrol had a sub contact but couldn't make an attack. The destroyer Ellet was hit by a torpedo but the rest of the group quickly sank the enemy sub. The Ellet suffered heavy damage and is heading for Rockhampton. Another enemy sub was detected trying to approach the battleships heading for Sydney from Gili Gili but was apparently driven off by their escorts.
Another raid in the dark on Tavoy. The Mandalay Blenheims launched their first attack on Tavoy during the day. They reported seeing only two Zeroes in the distance and dropped their payloads without interference.
Bad weather over Singapore hampered our attacks on the port and all that was hit were two freighters. It looks like we missed our chance at the carriers as we have a spotting report placing them south of Saigon heading east.
Enemy bombers attacked Cagayan again. Two raids hit the airfield and destroyed one of the damaged Catalinas left behind. Bettys caused some losses among the Dutch at Bankha.
The Chinese continue to bomb enemy troops near Haiphong while they move forces into position to cut off their retreat. They plan on attacking the Jap forces once that is done.
Hurricanes continued their operations outside the Rangoon perimeter.
Enemy aircraft tried to bomb the freighter Selma City in Rangoon's port. The ship has just finished unloading supplies and is beginning to load some of the raw materials that have been accumulating in the city. A dozen Sallys were escorted by half-a-dozen Zeroes and a pair of Oscars. The AVG quickly removed the Oscars from the contest and shot down one of the Zeroes before hitting the bombers. Several of the Sallys also went down before the rest missed the ship. Only one P-40 was lost in return.
Another group of enemy convoys has been spotted in the South China Sea moving east not too far from the north coast of Borneo. It seems unlikely these are the same ships that unloaded at Kuching but it is possible. Either way, they were the center of attention for the Martins on anti-shipping duty. Unfortunately they seem to be suffering from a slump as only one transport was hit.
Enemy troops began unloading at Taytay in the Philippines. They will quickly take control of that end of the island as we have no forces on it at all.
The Army and Marines went ashore at Tarawa. They quickly captured the island with most of the Japanese garrison committing suicide rather than be captured. Our troops suffered no casualties in the fighting itself but problems at the beachhead pointed out some areas where we need to improve our amphibious assault doctrines. The facilities are almost completely smashed, either by the battleships' shelling or enemy demolition charges. The rest of Baker's Dozen's ground forces are now setting sail for the island and we should be able to get it back up and running before too long. The Lexington, Saratoga and Hornet will remain on station to provide air cover for a while but the other two carriers as well as the surface group need to retire. All the ships need some time back in port. The Enterprise and Yorktown will put in at Brisbane while the rest return to Pearl.
The Indian 23rd Division finally got itself together again. They were fortunate that the fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter was light today. VM troops tried to shell Chinese forces south of Luang Prabang in an attempt to forestall an attack. Despite the losses to enemy bombers, the Dutch engineers continue to hold off the weak Japanese attack at Bankha.
More reports to follow.
The good results we are getting in the Philippines with the aerial evacuation of Iloilo and the apparent beginning of the next wave of enemy attacks have finally convinced the Dutch to allow similar movements in the DEI to concentrate their forces. We are starting with Sinkep Island, pulling the engineers and infantry there out to Batavia using the two transport plane squadrons the Dutch have on Java.
The Greenling fired on but missed a transport off the north coast of Luzon. At the southern end of the island the Saury did not have a good day. First she was damaged by a patrolling plane, then chased around by a subchaser. Her captain believes they've lost the enemy ship and is heading for Balikpapen for repairs.
The Australian minesweepers had another sonar contact but apparently didn't have any success with their DC runs. A minesweeper/gunboat pair off the south tip of New Guinea also had an inconclusive sonar contact.
We bombed Tavoy in the night again.
The battleships continued to shell Tarawa in preparation for the amphibious landings.
We have some confusing reports coming out of the Solomons. The Australians at Shortlands reported, and fired on, an enemy landing on their island and have some bodies to support the claim. But they are now saying that they cannot find any enemy troops. There are at least three groups of enemy ships in the islands vicinity spotted by PBY patrols. What is going on there?
Enemy Lily bombers attacked the airfield at Bankha. Zeroes and Bettys continued to bomb Hengchow. Two flights of Bettys attacked Haiphong, but half of them aborted when confronted by the Chinese CAP.
The Chinese continued their efforts against Japanese troops near Wuhan and Haiphong. The Rangoon Hurricanes continued to fly against the Japanese forces there.
The Martin and Swordfish pilots did not do as well as I have come to expect of them. The enemy ships unloading at Kuching almost immediately began heading back north. Several strikes were launched against them but only one transport was hit.
Japanese forces attacked the Rangoon perimeter again. They still did not make any progress, unless you consider somewhat less casualties than on previous attempts progress. The Chinese cavalry continued to chase Japanese engineers around the countryside. Chinese infantry attacked an enemy unit east of Hanoi that had been cut off by the fall of Hanoi and Haiphong. The Japanese fell back, which will probably start another wild goose chase all the way across China. The invasion force at Kuching overran the base. The Coastal Defense guns had to be spiked in place and the surviving engineers are falling back towards Singkawang. It will take them some time as the route is poorly developed along much of its length. The Martins and Brewsters that were based there flew out shortly after the enemy's numbers became clear, so we didn't lose any of them. The Japanese continued their attempts at attack at Bankha but their numbers are just so few that I don't know what they expect to accomplish without reinforcement.
We also lost the freighter Benkalis. She had finished unloading at Kuala and was trying to make it back to Ceylon but her damage was too severe.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
17 Mar 42
The crew of the sub Greenling had an exciting day. First the spotted and fired on an IJN heavy cruiser. The torpedoes missed and they had to evade the destroyer escort. Next, the fired on an enemy oiler just to have their torpedoes fail to detonate. Then, after trying to fix the detonators, they fired on the same oiler again. Dud torpedoes again. It may be time for a personal visit to the Ordinance Dept.
The Pollack was briefly spotted by two ASW ships in the seas south of Japan. In the Malacca Strait just off of Bankha the Truant put two torpedoes into a freighter.
In the Coral Sea fighting continued hot and heavy. The DD-minesweepers on ASW patrol had a sub contact but couldn't make an attack. The destroyer Ellet was hit by a torpedo but the rest of the group quickly sank the enemy sub. The Ellet suffered heavy damage and is heading for Rockhampton. Another enemy sub was detected trying to approach the battleships heading for Sydney from Gili Gili but was apparently driven off by their escorts.
Another raid in the dark on Tavoy. The Mandalay Blenheims launched their first attack on Tavoy during the day. They reported seeing only two Zeroes in the distance and dropped their payloads without interference.
Bad weather over Singapore hampered our attacks on the port and all that was hit were two freighters. It looks like we missed our chance at the carriers as we have a spotting report placing them south of Saigon heading east.
Enemy bombers attacked Cagayan again. Two raids hit the airfield and destroyed one of the damaged Catalinas left behind. Bettys caused some losses among the Dutch at Bankha.
The Chinese continue to bomb enemy troops near Haiphong while they move forces into position to cut off their retreat. They plan on attacking the Jap forces once that is done.
Hurricanes continued their operations outside the Rangoon perimeter.
Enemy aircraft tried to bomb the freighter Selma City in Rangoon's port. The ship has just finished unloading supplies and is beginning to load some of the raw materials that have been accumulating in the city. A dozen Sallys were escorted by half-a-dozen Zeroes and a pair of Oscars. The AVG quickly removed the Oscars from the contest and shot down one of the Zeroes before hitting the bombers. Several of the Sallys also went down before the rest missed the ship. Only one P-40 was lost in return.
Another group of enemy convoys has been spotted in the South China Sea moving east not too far from the north coast of Borneo. It seems unlikely these are the same ships that unloaded at Kuching but it is possible. Either way, they were the center of attention for the Martins on anti-shipping duty. Unfortunately they seem to be suffering from a slump as only one transport was hit.
Enemy troops began unloading at Taytay in the Philippines. They will quickly take control of that end of the island as we have no forces on it at all.
The Army and Marines went ashore at Tarawa. They quickly captured the island with most of the Japanese garrison committing suicide rather than be captured. Our troops suffered no casualties in the fighting itself but problems at the beachhead pointed out some areas where we need to improve our amphibious assault doctrines. The facilities are almost completely smashed, either by the battleships' shelling or enemy demolition charges. The rest of Baker's Dozen's ground forces are now setting sail for the island and we should be able to get it back up and running before too long. The Lexington, Saratoga and Hornet will remain on station to provide air cover for a while but the other two carriers as well as the surface group need to retire. All the ships need some time back in port. The Enterprise and Yorktown will put in at Brisbane while the rest return to Pearl.
The Indian 23rd Division finally got itself together again. They were fortunate that the fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter was light today. VM troops tried to shell Chinese forces south of Luang Prabang in an attempt to forestall an attack. Despite the losses to enemy bombers, the Dutch engineers continue to hold off the weak Japanese attack at Bankha.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
Uh, I think I broke Tarawa. [:D]
- Attachments
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This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
18 Mar 42
The Greenling used her deck gun against a freighter northwest of Luzon. Near Singapore the O16 left a freighter burning low in the water after hitting it with two torpedoes and several deck gun rounds. The Haddock had her attack on a freighter in the South China Sea foiled by dud torpedoes.
US destroyers found and attacked another enemy sub in the Coral Sea. They believe they scored more than one hit on it. The second destroyer group made runs on another sonar contact and think they hit it but cannot confirm.
Operations against Tavoy continued. Blenheim IFs attacked the airfield during the night. Blenheim IVs again avoided a single pair of Zeroes to hit the field again during the day.
We continued to bomb Singapore's port, hitting five to eight more freighters and transports.
Cagayan was bombed again. The enemy attacks here have been heavy, with today's raid made up of forty bombers and thirty fighters. Two P-40s from Davao tried to intercept but there were simply too many enemy aircraft for them to do any significant damage.
Chinese bombers continued to soften up enemy troops near Haiphong.
It turns out I was wrong about those enemy transports north of Borneo. Intelligence has identified them as the convoys that unloaded at Kuching. They base this in part on the reports of the ships rescueing troops from sinking transports. In either event Martins continued to attack the convoys.
The enemy took advantage of the departure of the Enterprise and Yorktown to launch an attack on the transports still unloading supplies at Nauru. Fortunately the Bettys were few in number and unable to score any hits with their torpedoes. But it does force the two carriers to turn back and provide cover until they finish unloading.
The Jap Bettys continued their raids against Hengchow. And several flights of divebombers attacked Changsha. Three flights of Bettys also attacked Bankha again.
At least one enemy carrier has moved into the Java Sea. Vals and Kates attacked Jolo's airbase.
Palembang was attacked by twenty Sallys and Lilys escorted by a similar number of Oscars. The Hawks and Brewsters defending the base attacked the enemy aircraft in small uncoordinated packets and got chewed up by the escorts as a result. The destroyer Thanet managed some impressive moves and avoided all the bombs dropped.
A dozen Sallys with four Zeroes went after the Selma City at Rangoon again. Twenty AVG P-40s took out half the enemy planes and the freighter was again untouched.
There was more light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese troops continued to move into positions around Haiphong and against the Vietnamese Militia south of Luang Prabang. The Chinese should be launching attacks in both locations tomorrow. The air raids were too much for them to handle and the Dutch engineers fell back from Bankha, ceding control of the base to the enemy.
100 RAAF squadron formed up in Canberra. Between the Australian bombers and the American fighters enroute we now have sufficient aircraft to fight in the Solomons/New Guinea area. We just need to get some bases built for them to operate from.
More reports to follow.
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19 Mar 42
The Greenling was attacked north of Luzon on her way back to Wake. They are reporting some flooding on board but are continueing back. Northwest of Saipan the Silversides missed a tanker being escorted by a pair of minesweepers.
The night equipped Blenheims continued to deny the Tavoy garrison sleep.
Our raids on Singapore continue to be extremely fruitful. At least seven and possibly ten more ships were hit in the port, including a subchaser. The Flying Forts switched back to hitting the airfields, destroying more enemy aircraft on the ground.
Enemy bombers hit Palembang again. And again the defending fighters suffered heavily at the hands of the escort Oscars. Cagayan was hit again as well, further cratering the runways. Hengchow was bombed again as was Cebu Island. Some fifteen Bettys tried to attack the Chinese troops at Haiphong. I-16 fighters claimed several of them and the rest aborted and returned to their base.
Chinese bombers attacked outside Wuhan and near Haiphong. The Rangoon Hurricanes continued their attacks. Port Moresby B-17s attacked Rabaul and ran into a hornet's nest of Zeroes. Estimates are that over fifty enemy fighters attacked the fourteen bombers in a long running fight. Several of the bombers were lost running the gauntlet.
Two Martin strikes were launched against the transports north of Borneo. But the Japanese carrier that was in the Sulu Sea apparently doubled back and both attacks were almost completely destroyed by Zeroes. Production of the Martin 139 just is not up to dealing with the losses.
A dozen Lily bombers attacked the destroyers Thanet and Isaac Sweers near Bangka but the ships were able to avoid any hits. The Americal division began unloading at Gili Gili and a flight of Bettys dropped on the transports. No damage was reported.
The fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter continued at a low level. The promised Chinese attacks went off on schedule. South of Luang Prabang the Vietnamese Militia were driven back towards Pisanuloke with heavy losses. At Haiphong the Chinese overran a Japanese engineer unit, completely destroying it. The Chinese cavalry continued their pursuit of the remanents of a Japanese force southeast of Kweiyang. And east of Hanoi another Vietnamese division was driven away from the city.
The Australians commissioned a squadron of Kittyhawk fighters. They are moving towards southern New Guinea and will probably end up at Gili Gili if we can get some aviation support there.
More reports to follow.
The Greenling used her deck gun against a freighter northwest of Luzon. Near Singapore the O16 left a freighter burning low in the water after hitting it with two torpedoes and several deck gun rounds. The Haddock had her attack on a freighter in the South China Sea foiled by dud torpedoes.
US destroyers found and attacked another enemy sub in the Coral Sea. They believe they scored more than one hit on it. The second destroyer group made runs on another sonar contact and think they hit it but cannot confirm.
Operations against Tavoy continued. Blenheim IFs attacked the airfield during the night. Blenheim IVs again avoided a single pair of Zeroes to hit the field again during the day.
We continued to bomb Singapore's port, hitting five to eight more freighters and transports.
Cagayan was bombed again. The enemy attacks here have been heavy, with today's raid made up of forty bombers and thirty fighters. Two P-40s from Davao tried to intercept but there were simply too many enemy aircraft for them to do any significant damage.
Chinese bombers continued to soften up enemy troops near Haiphong.
It turns out I was wrong about those enemy transports north of Borneo. Intelligence has identified them as the convoys that unloaded at Kuching. They base this in part on the reports of the ships rescueing troops from sinking transports. In either event Martins continued to attack the convoys.
The enemy took advantage of the departure of the Enterprise and Yorktown to launch an attack on the transports still unloading supplies at Nauru. Fortunately the Bettys were few in number and unable to score any hits with their torpedoes. But it does force the two carriers to turn back and provide cover until they finish unloading.
The Jap Bettys continued their raids against Hengchow. And several flights of divebombers attacked Changsha. Three flights of Bettys also attacked Bankha again.
At least one enemy carrier has moved into the Java Sea. Vals and Kates attacked Jolo's airbase.
Palembang was attacked by twenty Sallys and Lilys escorted by a similar number of Oscars. The Hawks and Brewsters defending the base attacked the enemy aircraft in small uncoordinated packets and got chewed up by the escorts as a result. The destroyer Thanet managed some impressive moves and avoided all the bombs dropped.
A dozen Sallys with four Zeroes went after the Selma City at Rangoon again. Twenty AVG P-40s took out half the enemy planes and the freighter was again untouched.
There was more light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese troops continued to move into positions around Haiphong and against the Vietnamese Militia south of Luang Prabang. The Chinese should be launching attacks in both locations tomorrow. The air raids were too much for them to handle and the Dutch engineers fell back from Bankha, ceding control of the base to the enemy.
100 RAAF squadron formed up in Canberra. Between the Australian bombers and the American fighters enroute we now have sufficient aircraft to fight in the Solomons/New Guinea area. We just need to get some bases built for them to operate from.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
19 Mar 42
The Greenling was attacked north of Luzon on her way back to Wake. They are reporting some flooding on board but are continueing back. Northwest of Saipan the Silversides missed a tanker being escorted by a pair of minesweepers.
The night equipped Blenheims continued to deny the Tavoy garrison sleep.
Our raids on Singapore continue to be extremely fruitful. At least seven and possibly ten more ships were hit in the port, including a subchaser. The Flying Forts switched back to hitting the airfields, destroying more enemy aircraft on the ground.
Enemy bombers hit Palembang again. And again the defending fighters suffered heavily at the hands of the escort Oscars. Cagayan was hit again as well, further cratering the runways. Hengchow was bombed again as was Cebu Island. Some fifteen Bettys tried to attack the Chinese troops at Haiphong. I-16 fighters claimed several of them and the rest aborted and returned to their base.
Chinese bombers attacked outside Wuhan and near Haiphong. The Rangoon Hurricanes continued their attacks. Port Moresby B-17s attacked Rabaul and ran into a hornet's nest of Zeroes. Estimates are that over fifty enemy fighters attacked the fourteen bombers in a long running fight. Several of the bombers were lost running the gauntlet.
Two Martin strikes were launched against the transports north of Borneo. But the Japanese carrier that was in the Sulu Sea apparently doubled back and both attacks were almost completely destroyed by Zeroes. Production of the Martin 139 just is not up to dealing with the losses.
A dozen Lily bombers attacked the destroyers Thanet and Isaac Sweers near Bangka but the ships were able to avoid any hits. The Americal division began unloading at Gili Gili and a flight of Bettys dropped on the transports. No damage was reported.
The fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter continued at a low level. The promised Chinese attacks went off on schedule. South of Luang Prabang the Vietnamese Militia were driven back towards Pisanuloke with heavy losses. At Haiphong the Chinese overran a Japanese engineer unit, completely destroying it. The Chinese cavalry continued their pursuit of the remanents of a Japanese force southeast of Kweiyang. And east of Hanoi another Vietnamese division was driven away from the city.
The Australians commissioned a squadron of Kittyhawk fighters. They are moving towards southern New Guinea and will probably end up at Gili Gili if we can get some aviation support there.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
20 Mar 42
Blenheims attacked Tavoy during the night.
US destroyers continued to pursue and attack sonar contacts in the Coral Sea but can't claim any kills.
We continue to hammer at Nip shipping at Singapore. At least eight ships were hit today and one of those was sunk. B-17s accounted for over a dozen aircraft at the airfields.
We also have a report of a transport sinking in the South China Sea.
The Japanese responded with another attack on Palembang. Again a number of the Hawk fighters were lost to the Oscar escort. Flak claimed a few of the bombers as they unloaded over the airbase.
Cagayan continued to suffer, although today's attack was light with only a dozen bombers. Enemy carrier planes attacked the unused airfield at Cotabato. We also have enemy troops unloading at Jolo.
Wuhan, Haiphong and Rangoon all saw continued Allied air attacks on enemy troops.
Bettys tried again to hit the ships unloading the Americal division at Gili Gili. The Aussie Kittyhawk fighters staged in to the base shortly afterwards. Hopefully they will be able to claim some of the unescorted bombers if the enemy returns. A seaplane tender is steaming for the base to handle support for some of the PBYs based there. In the meantime they RAN mechanics will just have to work harder.
A dozen Bettys with a two Zero escort attacked Haiphong. They were intercepted by twenty Chinese I-16c fighters who traded one of their own for one of the Zeroes before getting in among the bombers and shooting them up.
Light fighting continued along the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese attacks at Haiphong overran another Japanese engineering unit.
More reports to follow.
Blenheims attacked Tavoy during the night.
US destroyers continued to pursue and attack sonar contacts in the Coral Sea but can't claim any kills.
We continue to hammer at Nip shipping at Singapore. At least eight ships were hit today and one of those was sunk. B-17s accounted for over a dozen aircraft at the airfields.
We also have a report of a transport sinking in the South China Sea.
The Japanese responded with another attack on Palembang. Again a number of the Hawk fighters were lost to the Oscar escort. Flak claimed a few of the bombers as they unloaded over the airbase.
Cagayan continued to suffer, although today's attack was light with only a dozen bombers. Enemy carrier planes attacked the unused airfield at Cotabato. We also have enemy troops unloading at Jolo.
Wuhan, Haiphong and Rangoon all saw continued Allied air attacks on enemy troops.
Bettys tried again to hit the ships unloading the Americal division at Gili Gili. The Aussie Kittyhawk fighters staged in to the base shortly afterwards. Hopefully they will be able to claim some of the unescorted bombers if the enemy returns. A seaplane tender is steaming for the base to handle support for some of the PBYs based there. In the meantime they RAN mechanics will just have to work harder.
A dozen Bettys with a two Zero escort attacked Haiphong. They were intercepted by twenty Chinese I-16c fighters who traded one of their own for one of the Zeroes before getting in among the bombers and shooting them up.
Light fighting continued along the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese attacks at Haiphong overran another Japanese engineering unit.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
21 Mar 42
The submarine Sealion conducted a night surface attack on a Jap freighter in the Philippines. After a torpedo hit and a round from her deck gun she left the ship low in the water and on fire. In the Malacca Strait the Truant carried out a similar attack, scoring more torpedo and shell hits to sink her target freighter. West of Leyte the S-36 missed a freighter. We also have a report of an enemy transport sinking in the Sulu Sea.
The Australian minesweepers were fired upon by a Japanese sub on the surface but were not able to locate it in the dark despite one of the Aussie ships being hit.
The Blenheims continued their round-the-clock bombing of Tavoy.
The campaign against Singapore continued. At least seven, possibly eight, enemy ships were hit.
Sinkep Island was bombed again but the remaining troops on the island report only light damage. Cagayan was also attacked. A flight of P-35s from Davao intercepted the first raid and managed to take down a couple of the bombers and drive off many of the others. However a second raid in the afternoon was unopposed.
Hurricanes out of Rangoon continued their runs against Japanese troops along the Perimeter.
Martin 139s attacked the enemy transports unloading at Jolo and managed to hit one of them with several bombs.
The Kittyhawks at Gili Gili proved to be singuarly useless. An attack by Betty bombers hit two of the freighters finishing their unloading of the Americal division. We were lucky that those two particular ships had already disembarked all the troops on board them.
Betty bombers attacked Haiphong but lost around half-a-dozen of their number to the Chinese fighters.
The B-17s went after a Japanese battleship docked at Rabaul. We lost two of the bombers but they accounted for at least twice that number of Zeroes after a good third of the enemy fighters refused to continue attacking the Flying Forts. For all the massive air battle it looks like only one bomb hit the enemy ship.
It looks like either the same group of enemy carriers or another is starting on another tour around Borneo. Strikes from them sank a tanker and two freighters loading at Tarakan. The enemy carrier pilots are becoming far too good at that. The loss of the freighters is bad enough but we are coming up against a critical shortage of tankers, so losing another hurts all the more.
The Selma City, heading for India after loading at Rangoon, was attacked. A dozen Sallys tried to bomb her but the ship managed to avoid being hit.
Another enemy invasion force began unloading at San Jose in the western Philippines. The IJA launched another attack on the Rangoon Perimeter. Fighting was heavy but the defenders held. Intelligence is estimating the enemy lost some two thousand dead and wounded. Chinese forces continued to clear enemy forces from around Haiphong. I'm not sure if I believe their claims of seven thousand enemy losses or not, but they appear to be making great gains. The US engineering unit at Jolo managed to hold against the Jap's first assault but there is no hope of holding the island.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
22 Mar 42
There are more enemy landings. An amphibious force began unloading at Medan in northern Sumatra. The Australians at Shortlands in the Solomons hit a gunboat escorting another amphibious landing on their island.
Chinese fighters at Yenen shredded an enemy air attack. They shot down almost twenty Nates and Sonias without losing a single plane of their own.
Six to nine freighters were hit at Singapore and half-a-dozen aircraft were destroyed on the ground.
Sinkep Island was bombed again.
Chinese bombers attacked outside Wuhan and at Haiphong. Hurricanes continued to support the Rangoon Perimeter. Martins made more runs at Jolo but didn't make any hits.
South of Gili Gili Betty bombers attacked some destroyers on ASW patrol. The DDs managed to evade all the bombs. Gili Gili itself was attacked again. The Kittyhawks did better, actually intercepting the bombers this time. They managed to shot down one Betty and disrupted the rest enough that none of the freighters were hit.
Hengchow was subject to a heavy bombing raid, with over fifty enemy bombers attacking the city.
The enemy carriers appear to not be circling Borneo after all. They remained in the Celebes Sea and launched an attack on the airfield at Menado. Brewster 339D fighters tried to stop the attack but lost several of their own to the escort Zeroes.
PBY patrols had spotted an enemy task force heading south in the Marshalls. Fearing that this was a counter-attack against Tarawa, Spruance remained in the area. Today his carrier pilots attacked an enemy force at Mili. Dauntlesses hit a troop transport, a subchaser and three patrol boats, leaving all of them in flames and severely damaged.
The empty base at San Jose fell. Fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter subsided. Chinese troops continued to secure the countryside around Haiphong. The Australians at Shortlands shelled the enemy beachhead and the Jolo was lost when a Japanese charge overran the defending engineers. The survivors had no choice but to surrender.
More reports to follow.
The submarine Sealion conducted a night surface attack on a Jap freighter in the Philippines. After a torpedo hit and a round from her deck gun she left the ship low in the water and on fire. In the Malacca Strait the Truant carried out a similar attack, scoring more torpedo and shell hits to sink her target freighter. West of Leyte the S-36 missed a freighter. We also have a report of an enemy transport sinking in the Sulu Sea.
The Australian minesweepers were fired upon by a Japanese sub on the surface but were not able to locate it in the dark despite one of the Aussie ships being hit.
The Blenheims continued their round-the-clock bombing of Tavoy.
The campaign against Singapore continued. At least seven, possibly eight, enemy ships were hit.
Sinkep Island was bombed again but the remaining troops on the island report only light damage. Cagayan was also attacked. A flight of P-35s from Davao intercepted the first raid and managed to take down a couple of the bombers and drive off many of the others. However a second raid in the afternoon was unopposed.
Hurricanes out of Rangoon continued their runs against Japanese troops along the Perimeter.
Martin 139s attacked the enemy transports unloading at Jolo and managed to hit one of them with several bombs.
The Kittyhawks at Gili Gili proved to be singuarly useless. An attack by Betty bombers hit two of the freighters finishing their unloading of the Americal division. We were lucky that those two particular ships had already disembarked all the troops on board them.
Betty bombers attacked Haiphong but lost around half-a-dozen of their number to the Chinese fighters.
The B-17s went after a Japanese battleship docked at Rabaul. We lost two of the bombers but they accounted for at least twice that number of Zeroes after a good third of the enemy fighters refused to continue attacking the Flying Forts. For all the massive air battle it looks like only one bomb hit the enemy ship.
It looks like either the same group of enemy carriers or another is starting on another tour around Borneo. Strikes from them sank a tanker and two freighters loading at Tarakan. The enemy carrier pilots are becoming far too good at that. The loss of the freighters is bad enough but we are coming up against a critical shortage of tankers, so losing another hurts all the more.
The Selma City, heading for India after loading at Rangoon, was attacked. A dozen Sallys tried to bomb her but the ship managed to avoid being hit.
Another enemy invasion force began unloading at San Jose in the western Philippines. The IJA launched another attack on the Rangoon Perimeter. Fighting was heavy but the defenders held. Intelligence is estimating the enemy lost some two thousand dead and wounded. Chinese forces continued to clear enemy forces from around Haiphong. I'm not sure if I believe their claims of seven thousand enemy losses or not, but they appear to be making great gains. The US engineering unit at Jolo managed to hold against the Jap's first assault but there is no hope of holding the island.
More reports to follow.
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22 Mar 42
There are more enemy landings. An amphibious force began unloading at Medan in northern Sumatra. The Australians at Shortlands in the Solomons hit a gunboat escorting another amphibious landing on their island.
Chinese fighters at Yenen shredded an enemy air attack. They shot down almost twenty Nates and Sonias without losing a single plane of their own.
Six to nine freighters were hit at Singapore and half-a-dozen aircraft were destroyed on the ground.
Sinkep Island was bombed again.
Chinese bombers attacked outside Wuhan and at Haiphong. Hurricanes continued to support the Rangoon Perimeter. Martins made more runs at Jolo but didn't make any hits.
South of Gili Gili Betty bombers attacked some destroyers on ASW patrol. The DDs managed to evade all the bombs. Gili Gili itself was attacked again. The Kittyhawks did better, actually intercepting the bombers this time. They managed to shot down one Betty and disrupted the rest enough that none of the freighters were hit.
Hengchow was subject to a heavy bombing raid, with over fifty enemy bombers attacking the city.
The enemy carriers appear to not be circling Borneo after all. They remained in the Celebes Sea and launched an attack on the airfield at Menado. Brewster 339D fighters tried to stop the attack but lost several of their own to the escort Zeroes.
PBY patrols had spotted an enemy task force heading south in the Marshalls. Fearing that this was a counter-attack against Tarawa, Spruance remained in the area. Today his carrier pilots attacked an enemy force at Mili. Dauntlesses hit a troop transport, a subchaser and three patrol boats, leaving all of them in flames and severely damaged.
The empty base at San Jose fell. Fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter subsided. Chinese troops continued to secure the countryside around Haiphong. The Australians at Shortlands shelled the enemy beachhead and the Jolo was lost when a Japanese charge overran the defending engineers. The survivors had no choice but to surrender.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
23 Mar 42
The O16 was briefly tracked by a minesweeper ASW group near Singapore.
US destroyers in the Coral Sea depth charged an I-boat. They are certain they hit but are unable to claim a kill.
Rangoon continued its nighttime attacks on Tavoy. We continued to heavily bomb Singapore. In addition to the seven or more ships hit today, Intelligence reports two ships sinking in the harbor recently.
Sinkep's airfield was bombed again. Despite this the evacuation of the garrison continues. Cagayan's airbase was also bombed.
The Hurricanes continued their runs along the Perimeter.
Two flights of Lilys attacked a tanker as it was approaching Palembang. No damage was reported. Betty bombers attacked the garrison at Medan.
Enemy troops began unloading at Tawi Tawi. They also continued unloading at Medan. Fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter was limited. Chinese forces continue to destroy the IJA formations trapped near Haiphong, reporting another thousand enemy troops killed and wounded. The Australians at Shortlands launched a successful assault on the enemy bridgehead, completely overrunning it and destroying the enemy forces there.
Another squadron of Kittyhawks became available in southern Australia. They are now on a train for Townsville and from there they will fly into Dobodura to cover the unloading of elements of the Americal division and later the Australian 7th division.
More reports to follow.
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24 Mar 42
Near Saigon the Swordfish torpedoed a tanker. The O16 had a busy day. First the captain deceided to be pro-active about enemy ASW, putting two torpedoes into a subchaser east of Singapore. He then had his approach to a fleet oiler interrupted by an escorting patrol boat.
In the Coral Sea one of our own tankers was hit by a sub. The ship is diverting to Rockhampton but it is hard to say if she will make it or not. However, the attack took place not far from the Aussie minesweepers patrolling the region and they quickly responded. They claim hits on the enemy sub responsible. The US destroyers continue to claim enemy subs, getting a large oil slick after dropping depth charges on a sonar contact. Near Gili Gili another DD group was fired on by another sub. No damage is reported either way in that encounter.
We also lost another freighter. One of the ships damaged at Batavia some time ago sank enroute to Melbourne, this despite the engineers having patched her hull up before she sailed.
Twenty Nates escorted a single flight of Sonias against Yenen. They were met by twenty each of I-16s and I-153s. The escorts stayed around just long enough to give the bombers time to reach the airfield, then broke off and ran. The Chinese still managed to down one of each of the enemy planes.
At least half-a-dozen more enemy ships were hit in raids on Singapore. The lack of any defensive fighters is just becoming more and more puzzling.
Lilys bombed Sinkep.
Chinese bombers attacked outside Wuhan. Hurricanes kept up their continuous attacks along the Rangoon Perimeter. Borneo based Martins launched three strikes against enemy transports around Jolo and Tawi Tawi. The last of these was jumped by carrier based Zeroes but managed to get thru to hit a transport. The enemy CVs are obviously staying in the Celebes Sea to cover this new wave of landings in the Philippines. In addition to covering the transports the carriers attacked Cagayan, further damaging the airbase.
Seventeen Bettys attacked ships unloading at Tarawa. I don't think the survivors were happy about running into the P-40s defending the island. At least seven of the bombers were shot down and one freighter was hit by a torpedo.
It rained overnight at Rangoon, grounding the night fighters. But the Mandalay based Blenheims rejoined the campaign, bombing Tavoy during the day.
Another wave of enemy troops began landing at Shortlands. More light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter, with the Commonwealth forces claiming the upper hand. It is beginning to look like the enemy attack here is losing steam but it may be too soon to say that. The Chinese claimed to have destroyed the last enemy force around Haiphong, an IJA infantry division. The Australians shelled the new beachhead at Shortlands but this landing may be too strong for them to throw back in the same manner they did the last one. And the undefended base at Tawi Tawi was occupied by enemy troops.
More reports to follow.
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25 Mar 42
Intel reports a Nip tanker sinking in the South China Sea. This was probably the ship hit by the Swordfish the previous day.
Outside Saigon the Haddock carried out two attacks on Japanese freighters, neither one of them successful. But she finished the day by shelling a barge, starting fires on board the target.
Night Blenheims attacked Tavoy again.
Enemy aircraft returned to Rangoon after a long break. Two flights of Sally bombers were escorted by almost forty fighters of various types. The escorts kept the AVG away from the bombers but only by weight of numbers. The P-40s shot down almost half the enemy fighters without loss.
The destruction of enemy shipping at Singapore continues. We are still having difficulty getting an accurate assessment because of the number of separate raids and the number of reported hits, but the number seems to be holding steady at six to ten ships hit each day. Of course, some of those hit each day have been hit on previous days but this still represents an incredible toll on enemy shipping.
The enemy continued to bomb Sinkep. Lily and Sally bombers kept the pressure on Cagayan with another attack.
The Hurricanes continued to support the Rangoon Perimeter. The depleted Martin squadrons continued to attack enemy transports but didn't score any hits.
The Nip carriers attacked Tarakan. A dozen Kates with some escort Zeroes did minor damage to the airfield.
Bettys bombed Medan in support of their landing there.
Enemy landings took place at Cagayan and Roxas. The Cagayan landing especially is a large, well supported one and it seems unlikely the reduced 101st Philippine division will be able to hold them off for too long. The fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter stayed at a low level. The attack on the enemy beachhead at Shortlands was pre-empted by an enemy all-out attack out. The Australians stopped the attack but it was enough to stall their own assault.
More reports to follow.
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26 Mar 42
Additional enemy forces continued to unload at Cagayan, Roxas and Medan.
The Haddock fired on a destroyer escorting an enemy battleship but had her torpedoes dud near Saigon. In the Malacca Strait the KXIV made a surface attack on a troop transport, hitting with multiple torpedoes and deck gun rounds. The S-36 missed a transport near Cebu Island. The O16 had an inconclusive encounter with a pair of persistent ASW ships near Singapore. Near Saigon the Swordfish put a torpedo into an escorted troop transport.
US destroyers in the Coral Sea made an attack on a sub and report a hit. Elsewhere in the Coral Sea the transport Katoomba was torpedoed and sank shortly afterwards.
We recently got an unexpected and somewhat strange message. It appears that the Japanese failed to leave a garrison at the facilties at Moulmein, so the local workers have revolted. They declared that they were loyal subjects of the British crown. The Japanese response was to send an air raid. AVG pilots intercepted the aircraft, shooting down several Oscars and Sallys as well as dispersing the attacking bombers. The British can't send any ground forces to protect the workers since they are behind enemy lines. The convoy carrying the UK 2nd Division has almost reached Diamond Harbor. If the Rangoon Perimeter can hold until they can march to Mandalay or Pagan, maybe they can attempt to break the seige. After that some forces may be able to move to Moulmein.
Allied bombers continued to bomb the harbor at Singapore. More shipping was hit and a dozen or so aircraft were destroyed in the bombing of the airfield. In addition to the usual freighters and transports we hit a fast transport. Chinese bombers hit Japanese troops outside Wuhan and Hurricanes attacked outside Rangoon. More Chinese aircraft attacked a Vietnamese Militia division stranded by the fall of Hanoi and Haiphong.
In addition to the attacks on Singapore, Blenheims attacked shipping at Johore Bahru hitting a freighter.
Enemy bombers attacked Sinkep and Iloilo. Betty bombers attacked the Dutch garrison at Medan.
The Japanese suckered us. No, they suckered me. Those carriers in the Celebes Sea moved west and then proceeded to blow apart the tanker Empire Jet at Balikpapen. A second attack damaged the airfield. It looks like we are in for another Borneo Tour. The subs and their tenders at Balikpapen and Soerabaja are evacuating to Darwin again. The freighters and tankers loading at Palembang have been ordered to make for Derby instead of Darwin. And we can't touch the carriers because we don't have any fighters in the region that can hope to survive against their Zeroes which means all the bomber crews are refusing to even attempt an attack.
Enemy forces moved into unoccupied Roxas. Cagayan fell. The Philippine 101st was just too worn down from earlier fighting and no replacements do be able to hold against the strong enemy attack. Enemy forces also launched an attack on the Rangoon Perimeter. Once again the British and Commonwealth forces held and inflicted heavy losses on the IJA. The Australians launched their delayed attack on the Shortlands beachhead. The Japanese troops held but we estimate up to a quarter of the landing force were casualties.
More reports to follow.
The O16 was briefly tracked by a minesweeper ASW group near Singapore.
US destroyers in the Coral Sea depth charged an I-boat. They are certain they hit but are unable to claim a kill.
Rangoon continued its nighttime attacks on Tavoy. We continued to heavily bomb Singapore. In addition to the seven or more ships hit today, Intelligence reports two ships sinking in the harbor recently.
Sinkep's airfield was bombed again. Despite this the evacuation of the garrison continues. Cagayan's airbase was also bombed.
The Hurricanes continued their runs along the Perimeter.
Two flights of Lilys attacked a tanker as it was approaching Palembang. No damage was reported. Betty bombers attacked the garrison at Medan.
Enemy troops began unloading at Tawi Tawi. They also continued unloading at Medan. Fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter was limited. Chinese forces continue to destroy the IJA formations trapped near Haiphong, reporting another thousand enemy troops killed and wounded. The Australians at Shortlands launched a successful assault on the enemy bridgehead, completely overrunning it and destroying the enemy forces there.
Another squadron of Kittyhawks became available in southern Australia. They are now on a train for Townsville and from there they will fly into Dobodura to cover the unloading of elements of the Americal division and later the Australian 7th division.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
24 Mar 42
Near Saigon the Swordfish torpedoed a tanker. The O16 had a busy day. First the captain deceided to be pro-active about enemy ASW, putting two torpedoes into a subchaser east of Singapore. He then had his approach to a fleet oiler interrupted by an escorting patrol boat.
In the Coral Sea one of our own tankers was hit by a sub. The ship is diverting to Rockhampton but it is hard to say if she will make it or not. However, the attack took place not far from the Aussie minesweepers patrolling the region and they quickly responded. They claim hits on the enemy sub responsible. The US destroyers continue to claim enemy subs, getting a large oil slick after dropping depth charges on a sonar contact. Near Gili Gili another DD group was fired on by another sub. No damage is reported either way in that encounter.
We also lost another freighter. One of the ships damaged at Batavia some time ago sank enroute to Melbourne, this despite the engineers having patched her hull up before she sailed.
Twenty Nates escorted a single flight of Sonias against Yenen. They were met by twenty each of I-16s and I-153s. The escorts stayed around just long enough to give the bombers time to reach the airfield, then broke off and ran. The Chinese still managed to down one of each of the enemy planes.
At least half-a-dozen more enemy ships were hit in raids on Singapore. The lack of any defensive fighters is just becoming more and more puzzling.
Lilys bombed Sinkep.
Chinese bombers attacked outside Wuhan. Hurricanes kept up their continuous attacks along the Rangoon Perimeter. Borneo based Martins launched three strikes against enemy transports around Jolo and Tawi Tawi. The last of these was jumped by carrier based Zeroes but managed to get thru to hit a transport. The enemy CVs are obviously staying in the Celebes Sea to cover this new wave of landings in the Philippines. In addition to covering the transports the carriers attacked Cagayan, further damaging the airbase.
Seventeen Bettys attacked ships unloading at Tarawa. I don't think the survivors were happy about running into the P-40s defending the island. At least seven of the bombers were shot down and one freighter was hit by a torpedo.
It rained overnight at Rangoon, grounding the night fighters. But the Mandalay based Blenheims rejoined the campaign, bombing Tavoy during the day.
Another wave of enemy troops began landing at Shortlands. More light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter, with the Commonwealth forces claiming the upper hand. It is beginning to look like the enemy attack here is losing steam but it may be too soon to say that. The Chinese claimed to have destroyed the last enemy force around Haiphong, an IJA infantry division. The Australians shelled the new beachhead at Shortlands but this landing may be too strong for them to throw back in the same manner they did the last one. And the undefended base at Tawi Tawi was occupied by enemy troops.
More reports to follow.
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25 Mar 42
Intel reports a Nip tanker sinking in the South China Sea. This was probably the ship hit by the Swordfish the previous day.
Outside Saigon the Haddock carried out two attacks on Japanese freighters, neither one of them successful. But she finished the day by shelling a barge, starting fires on board the target.
Night Blenheims attacked Tavoy again.
Enemy aircraft returned to Rangoon after a long break. Two flights of Sally bombers were escorted by almost forty fighters of various types. The escorts kept the AVG away from the bombers but only by weight of numbers. The P-40s shot down almost half the enemy fighters without loss.
The destruction of enemy shipping at Singapore continues. We are still having difficulty getting an accurate assessment because of the number of separate raids and the number of reported hits, but the number seems to be holding steady at six to ten ships hit each day. Of course, some of those hit each day have been hit on previous days but this still represents an incredible toll on enemy shipping.
The enemy continued to bomb Sinkep. Lily and Sally bombers kept the pressure on Cagayan with another attack.
The Hurricanes continued to support the Rangoon Perimeter. The depleted Martin squadrons continued to attack enemy transports but didn't score any hits.
The Nip carriers attacked Tarakan. A dozen Kates with some escort Zeroes did minor damage to the airfield.
Bettys bombed Medan in support of their landing there.
Enemy landings took place at Cagayan and Roxas. The Cagayan landing especially is a large, well supported one and it seems unlikely the reduced 101st Philippine division will be able to hold them off for too long. The fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter stayed at a low level. The attack on the enemy beachhead at Shortlands was pre-empted by an enemy all-out attack out. The Australians stopped the attack but it was enough to stall their own assault.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
26 Mar 42
Additional enemy forces continued to unload at Cagayan, Roxas and Medan.
The Haddock fired on a destroyer escorting an enemy battleship but had her torpedoes dud near Saigon. In the Malacca Strait the KXIV made a surface attack on a troop transport, hitting with multiple torpedoes and deck gun rounds. The S-36 missed a transport near Cebu Island. The O16 had an inconclusive encounter with a pair of persistent ASW ships near Singapore. Near Saigon the Swordfish put a torpedo into an escorted troop transport.
US destroyers in the Coral Sea made an attack on a sub and report a hit. Elsewhere in the Coral Sea the transport Katoomba was torpedoed and sank shortly afterwards.
We recently got an unexpected and somewhat strange message. It appears that the Japanese failed to leave a garrison at the facilties at Moulmein, so the local workers have revolted. They declared that they were loyal subjects of the British crown. The Japanese response was to send an air raid. AVG pilots intercepted the aircraft, shooting down several Oscars and Sallys as well as dispersing the attacking bombers. The British can't send any ground forces to protect the workers since they are behind enemy lines. The convoy carrying the UK 2nd Division has almost reached Diamond Harbor. If the Rangoon Perimeter can hold until they can march to Mandalay or Pagan, maybe they can attempt to break the seige. After that some forces may be able to move to Moulmein.
Allied bombers continued to bomb the harbor at Singapore. More shipping was hit and a dozen or so aircraft were destroyed in the bombing of the airfield. In addition to the usual freighters and transports we hit a fast transport. Chinese bombers hit Japanese troops outside Wuhan and Hurricanes attacked outside Rangoon. More Chinese aircraft attacked a Vietnamese Militia division stranded by the fall of Hanoi and Haiphong.
In addition to the attacks on Singapore, Blenheims attacked shipping at Johore Bahru hitting a freighter.
Enemy bombers attacked Sinkep and Iloilo. Betty bombers attacked the Dutch garrison at Medan.
The Japanese suckered us. No, they suckered me. Those carriers in the Celebes Sea moved west and then proceeded to blow apart the tanker Empire Jet at Balikpapen. A second attack damaged the airfield. It looks like we are in for another Borneo Tour. The subs and their tenders at Balikpapen and Soerabaja are evacuating to Darwin again. The freighters and tankers loading at Palembang have been ordered to make for Derby instead of Darwin. And we can't touch the carriers because we don't have any fighters in the region that can hope to survive against their Zeroes which means all the bomber crews are refusing to even attempt an attack.
Enemy forces moved into unoccupied Roxas. Cagayan fell. The Philippine 101st was just too worn down from earlier fighting and no replacements do be able to hold against the strong enemy attack. Enemy forces also launched an attack on the Rangoon Perimeter. Once again the British and Commonwealth forces held and inflicted heavy losses on the IJA. The Australians launched their delayed attack on the Shortlands beachhead. The Japanese troops held but we estimate up to a quarter of the landing force were casualties.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
27 Mar 42
It was a busy day for Sub Command. In the Malacca Strait the KXIV hit a magazine on board an IJN destroyer. When the destroyer's escort of minesweepers refused to leave, she put a torpedo into one of them. Unfortunately that gave away her position and she was damaged in a depth charge attack. She's heading for Palembang for quick repairs. Between Luzon and Batan the Salmon had to evade an ASW group. Later she attacked a lone tanker on the surface. Her torpedoes failed to go off but she managed a number of hits with her deck gun as well as her .50 caliber machineguns before taking a hit from the Jap's own gun. The damage is relatively minor but she is now also out of torpedoes and heading back for Wake. The Perch missed a transport south of Mindanao, part of a convoy probably heading for Davao. In the Sulu Sea the KXVII put a pair of torpedoes and several deck gun rounds into a transport.
The gunboat Warrego was sunk near Gili Gili after being torpedoed by a sub. The Australian minesweepers in the Coral Sea pursued a sonar contact but were not able to confirm a sub.
Another night bombing of Tavoy. More Blenheims attacked during the day but it looks like the enemy is recovering from the earlier losses as they were intercepted by eight Zeroes.
Enemy bombers continued to attack the garrison at Medan.
Chinese bombers attacked a Vietnamese unit east of Hanoi.
The Japs have apparently deceided to pay a lot of attention to the area around Gili Gili. Two raids were launched on ships unloading supplies in the port, damaging two freighters. And a destroyer ASW group to the southeast was twice attacked by a large number of Bettys but were able to evade the bombs.
Our attack on Singapore was light today. Only two ships were hit. The pace of operations over the three and a half months of the war in the Dutch East Indies is taking its toll and we are having to stand down a number of bomber squadrons for rest and replenishment.
The Marines at Tarawa launched their first air attack today, bombing the port facilities at nearby Apamama. Flak was heavier than expected and two planes were lost and a number of others damaged.
Enemy forces continued to unload at Shortlands. The defenders managed to hit a destroyer escorting the convoy. They also launched another attack on the beachhead but didn't get very far. There was no major fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter. Japanese forces at Medan shelled the garrison but haven't begun serious movements from their beachhead yet. East of Hanoi Chinese troops continued to try to run down that stranded VM division. The Chinese cavalry continued their pursuit of the Pakhoi engineers, now east of Kweiyang.
More reports to follow.
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28 Mar 42
Near Singapore the O16 tried to attack a tanker but her attack was interrupted by a subchaser. The O16 suffered some damage from the resulting depth charge attack. In the Malacca Strait the KXVI hit an enemy fleet oiler with a torpedo before having to avoid an escorting patrol boat. South of Saigon the Swordfish made a surface attack on a lone freighter, hitting with two torpedoes and several rounds from her deck gun. Near Cagayan the S-39 sank a barge with her deck gun. Outside Saigon the Haddock shot up two barges, mostly with her machineguns.
PBY patrols have spotted a number of barges in both locations. Some on my staff believe this is our first concrete evidence of the effects of the losses we have inflicted on enemy shipping around Malaya. They argue that the enemy is pressing these flimsy vessels into service like this because they don't have the regular shipping available to handle their needs. I would like to believe them but I just don't know.
The Aussie minesweepers had another sonar contact but once again were not able to get enough of a fix to attack.
Blenheims attacked Tavoy during the night.
The workers at Moulmein have radioed that Japanese troops have begun unloading at the port. SEASIA HQ has told them to flee, giving them the option to head north and try to make their way thru the Japanese lines around the Rangoon Perimeter.
The Japanese finally got an invasion force thru to Davao. The Australian and Philippine gun batteries hit several of the transports and caused heavy casualties among the disembarking enemy troops. We also think that at least one more transport struck a mine.
Brewsters and Blenheims attacked Singapore's port, hitting a half-dozen ships including a converted destroyer transport. The B-17s hit the airfields and it looks like they got fifteen to twenty enemy planes on the ground.
In support of their landing at Davao the Japanese air forces launched a raid on Davao. A dozen Sallys attacked, escorted by three times that number of Nate fighters. About ten P-35s and P-40s were able to fly against them and shot down several Nates and one or two of the bombers without loss.
Hurricanes attacked along the Rangoon Perimeter. The Chinese bombed enemy troops outside Wuhan and the VM division east of Hanoi. Marine Dauntlesses went after Apamama again.
The Dutch garrison at Medan was hit by multiple raids throughout the day and suffered a couple hundred losses.
It appears that the carriers from the Celebes Sea are not going on a tour around Borneo after all. They have been sighted moving north along the east coast of the island. But at least one other IJN carrier announced its presence south of Admiralty Island by launching an attack on the troops making their way to Gasmata from Rabaul. The Enterprise and Yorktown are due to dock at Cairns in the next day or two to refuel. If it turns out to be only one enemy carrier in the Bismarks they might have a brief local advantage.
Enemy troops also began unloading at Cebu Island. At Medan the enemy shelled the garrison. There was only light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter. Japanese and Australian troops traded artillery fire at Shortlands. The Davao defenders shelled the organizing Japanese forces there and IJA troops pursueing the retreating Cagayan garrison launched a hasty attack which the Philippinoes beat back.
More reports to follow.
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29 Mar 42
Blenheim IFs continued nighttime attacks on Tavoy. The Blenheim IVs that attacked during the day were intercepted by a dozen Zeroes. Two of the bombers were lost before they got to their target.
The sub S-44 was attacked near Truk while she was enroute to Australia from Pearl Harbor, but escaped without damage.
The AVD Williamson dropped depth charges on a sonar contact between the Solomons and New Guinea but there was no indications of damage to a sub. The Australian minesweepers continued their hunt for the same elusive sub they have been tracking for some days now.
Japanese aircraft attacked Rangoon. Twenty-five fighters escorting fifteen Sally bombers got ripped to shreds by the AVG pilots. A dozen of the fighters and half that number of bombers and recon were shot down while only one P-40 was damaged.
Five more ships were hit in Singapore.
Palembang was attacked by thirty Oscars and two dozen Lilys. The Hawks and Brewsters fought hard and took down a couple of the fighters but lost almost a dozen of their own in the process.
There were more bombing runs by Hurricanes along the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese SB-2cs attacked the Vietnamese division east of Hanoi.
The Medan garrison was bombed again and the Philippine 81st Division on Cebu was attacked by two raids.
It looks like the IJN carriers are docked at Rabaul, from which they launched another attack on the troops retreating from there.
Enemy troops continue to disembark at Davao under fire. The enemy landing force at Cebu shelled the Philippine troops slowly being air evacuated. There was more artillery fire at Shortlands. Another charge by enemy troops against the troops retreating from Cagayan forced them to divert to Cotabato. There was little to report along the Rangoon Perimeter. Japanese troops shelled Medan. Moulmein went silent after reporting enemy tanks, so we are assuming that the Japanese have retaken control of the facilities.
More reports to follow.
It was a busy day for Sub Command. In the Malacca Strait the KXIV hit a magazine on board an IJN destroyer. When the destroyer's escort of minesweepers refused to leave, she put a torpedo into one of them. Unfortunately that gave away her position and she was damaged in a depth charge attack. She's heading for Palembang for quick repairs. Between Luzon and Batan the Salmon had to evade an ASW group. Later she attacked a lone tanker on the surface. Her torpedoes failed to go off but she managed a number of hits with her deck gun as well as her .50 caliber machineguns before taking a hit from the Jap's own gun. The damage is relatively minor but she is now also out of torpedoes and heading back for Wake. The Perch missed a transport south of Mindanao, part of a convoy probably heading for Davao. In the Sulu Sea the KXVII put a pair of torpedoes and several deck gun rounds into a transport.
The gunboat Warrego was sunk near Gili Gili after being torpedoed by a sub. The Australian minesweepers in the Coral Sea pursued a sonar contact but were not able to confirm a sub.
Another night bombing of Tavoy. More Blenheims attacked during the day but it looks like the enemy is recovering from the earlier losses as they were intercepted by eight Zeroes.
Enemy bombers continued to attack the garrison at Medan.
Chinese bombers attacked a Vietnamese unit east of Hanoi.
The Japs have apparently deceided to pay a lot of attention to the area around Gili Gili. Two raids were launched on ships unloading supplies in the port, damaging two freighters. And a destroyer ASW group to the southeast was twice attacked by a large number of Bettys but were able to evade the bombs.
Our attack on Singapore was light today. Only two ships were hit. The pace of operations over the three and a half months of the war in the Dutch East Indies is taking its toll and we are having to stand down a number of bomber squadrons for rest and replenishment.
The Marines at Tarawa launched their first air attack today, bombing the port facilities at nearby Apamama. Flak was heavier than expected and two planes were lost and a number of others damaged.
Enemy forces continued to unload at Shortlands. The defenders managed to hit a destroyer escorting the convoy. They also launched another attack on the beachhead but didn't get very far. There was no major fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter. Japanese forces at Medan shelled the garrison but haven't begun serious movements from their beachhead yet. East of Hanoi Chinese troops continued to try to run down that stranded VM division. The Chinese cavalry continued their pursuit of the Pakhoi engineers, now east of Kweiyang.
More reports to follow.
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28 Mar 42
Near Singapore the O16 tried to attack a tanker but her attack was interrupted by a subchaser. The O16 suffered some damage from the resulting depth charge attack. In the Malacca Strait the KXVI hit an enemy fleet oiler with a torpedo before having to avoid an escorting patrol boat. South of Saigon the Swordfish made a surface attack on a lone freighter, hitting with two torpedoes and several rounds from her deck gun. Near Cagayan the S-39 sank a barge with her deck gun. Outside Saigon the Haddock shot up two barges, mostly with her machineguns.
PBY patrols have spotted a number of barges in both locations. Some on my staff believe this is our first concrete evidence of the effects of the losses we have inflicted on enemy shipping around Malaya. They argue that the enemy is pressing these flimsy vessels into service like this because they don't have the regular shipping available to handle their needs. I would like to believe them but I just don't know.
The Aussie minesweepers had another sonar contact but once again were not able to get enough of a fix to attack.
Blenheims attacked Tavoy during the night.
The workers at Moulmein have radioed that Japanese troops have begun unloading at the port. SEASIA HQ has told them to flee, giving them the option to head north and try to make their way thru the Japanese lines around the Rangoon Perimeter.
The Japanese finally got an invasion force thru to Davao. The Australian and Philippine gun batteries hit several of the transports and caused heavy casualties among the disembarking enemy troops. We also think that at least one more transport struck a mine.
Brewsters and Blenheims attacked Singapore's port, hitting a half-dozen ships including a converted destroyer transport. The B-17s hit the airfields and it looks like they got fifteen to twenty enemy planes on the ground.
In support of their landing at Davao the Japanese air forces launched a raid on Davao. A dozen Sallys attacked, escorted by three times that number of Nate fighters. About ten P-35s and P-40s were able to fly against them and shot down several Nates and one or two of the bombers without loss.
Hurricanes attacked along the Rangoon Perimeter. The Chinese bombed enemy troops outside Wuhan and the VM division east of Hanoi. Marine Dauntlesses went after Apamama again.
The Dutch garrison at Medan was hit by multiple raids throughout the day and suffered a couple hundred losses.
It appears that the carriers from the Celebes Sea are not going on a tour around Borneo after all. They have been sighted moving north along the east coast of the island. But at least one other IJN carrier announced its presence south of Admiralty Island by launching an attack on the troops making their way to Gasmata from Rabaul. The Enterprise and Yorktown are due to dock at Cairns in the next day or two to refuel. If it turns out to be only one enemy carrier in the Bismarks they might have a brief local advantage.
Enemy troops also began unloading at Cebu Island. At Medan the enemy shelled the garrison. There was only light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter. Japanese and Australian troops traded artillery fire at Shortlands. The Davao defenders shelled the organizing Japanese forces there and IJA troops pursueing the retreating Cagayan garrison launched a hasty attack which the Philippinoes beat back.
More reports to follow.
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29 Mar 42
Blenheim IFs continued nighttime attacks on Tavoy. The Blenheim IVs that attacked during the day were intercepted by a dozen Zeroes. Two of the bombers were lost before they got to their target.
The sub S-44 was attacked near Truk while she was enroute to Australia from Pearl Harbor, but escaped without damage.
The AVD Williamson dropped depth charges on a sonar contact between the Solomons and New Guinea but there was no indications of damage to a sub. The Australian minesweepers continued their hunt for the same elusive sub they have been tracking for some days now.
Japanese aircraft attacked Rangoon. Twenty-five fighters escorting fifteen Sally bombers got ripped to shreds by the AVG pilots. A dozen of the fighters and half that number of bombers and recon were shot down while only one P-40 was damaged.
Five more ships were hit in Singapore.
Palembang was attacked by thirty Oscars and two dozen Lilys. The Hawks and Brewsters fought hard and took down a couple of the fighters but lost almost a dozen of their own in the process.
There were more bombing runs by Hurricanes along the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese SB-2cs attacked the Vietnamese division east of Hanoi.
The Medan garrison was bombed again and the Philippine 81st Division on Cebu was attacked by two raids.
It looks like the IJN carriers are docked at Rabaul, from which they launched another attack on the troops retreating from there.
Enemy troops continue to disembark at Davao under fire. The enemy landing force at Cebu shelled the Philippine troops slowly being air evacuated. There was more artillery fire at Shortlands. Another charge by enemy troops against the troops retreating from Cagayan forced them to divert to Cotabato. There was little to report along the Rangoon Perimeter. Japanese troops shelled Medan. Moulmein went silent after reporting enemy tanks, so we are assuming that the Japanese have retaken control of the facilities.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
30 Mar 42
In the Sulu Sea the KXVII made a surface attack on a troop transport. Two torpedoes and several shells hit and it looks like the ship sank later today. South of Davao the Perch failed to hit a transport.
US destroyers had another inconclusive sonar contact in the Coral Sea.
Tavoy was bombed overnight again. Two flights of Blenheims attacked during the day but ran into a decade of Zeroes, losing one of the bombers on the run in. I am loathe to risk more of them until we can get better coordination with the AVG planes that are supposed to be covering them.
Enemy planes attacked Yenen again. Of the thirty aircraft only three of the Sonias made it thru. The rest were either shot down or broke and ran.
The attacks on Singapore continued but in lesser strength. A freighter and a fast transport were hit in the port. Half-a-dozen aircraft were destroyed or damaged in the strike on the airfield.
Chinese bombers continued to attack enemy troops outside Wuhan and Hanoi. Hurricanes continued to take a toll of enemy forces outside the Rangoon Perimeter.
It was a brutal day in the air over the Solomons. The Port Moresby based B-17s made a maximum effort against enemy ships. They spent the morning bombing the ships unloading at Shortlands. A dozen Zeroes were flying CAP over the invasion forces. Four transports were hit, multiple B-17s were damaged to various degrees and somewhere around half the Zeroes were shot down by the bomber gunners. In the afternoon the bombers attacked Rabaul. Enemy fighter cover was heavier, somewhere around thirty Zeroes. By the end of the day five B-17s, two Hudson I's and one Zero had been shot down and a gunboat had been hit by a pair of bombs.
Beauforts from Tarakan tried to bomb another invasion force at Brunei but weren't able to hit any of the enemy ships.
Betty bombers bombed Allied troops at Medan and Shortlands. Around 150 enemy carrier planes attacked the troops retreating to Gasmata, half of them Kates. It looks like the enemy has more than one carrier at Rabaul. The troops suffered serious casualties but managed to shot down or hit at least a dozen of the bombers with flak.
Enemy reinforcements unloaded at Shortlands, with an escorting gunboat hit by Australian artillery. At Medan another convoy of enemy troops had one of their ships hit a mine in the minefield. Minesweepers cleared a channel for the enemy ships to begin unloading at Brunei. On Cebu the Philippinoes fought off a shock attack. The Rangoon Perimeter was quiet. Japanese artillery continued to shell Medan. There was long range fighting at Davao. At Shortlands the Australians suffered heavily when their attack ran into a greatly reinforced enemy beachhead.
More reports to follow.
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31 Mar 42
The S-39 missed a freighters between Leyte and Mindanao. Her sister ship the S-36 shelled and torpedoed a freighter near Cebu. The KXVI made a pair of torpedo hits on a tanker in the Malacca Strait, leaving the ship burning.
South of Gili Gili US destroyers hit a Japanese sub. Another enemy sub took a shot at a convoy of fast transports in the Coral Sea, but missed all the converted destroyers.
Another night attack on Tavoy. Intel says a couple of those annoying photo recon planes the enemy keeps flying everywhere were destroyed.
Yenen came under attack again. Of the fifteen Nates and three Sonias, most of the Nates broke and ran. Only one of the divebombers survived.
The count in Singapore's harbor was two freighters, a transport and a converted destroyer transport hit; half-a-dozen aircraft destroyed.
Lilys and Oscars attacked Sinkep again.
The Rangoon Hurricanes took a day of rest but Blenheims from Mandalay flew in support of the Perimeter. Chinese bombers attacked the Vietnamese northeast of Hanoi.
The B-17s continued to attack enemy ships at Shortlands and Rabaul. There were no enemy fighters over Shortlands today but the CAP over Rabaul was still heavy. One Zero and one Fort went down over Rabaul and one freighter was hit at Shortlands.
Beauforts and Martins flew against the ships invading Brunei, hitting a second minelayer.
Bettys bombed the Medan garrison.
More enemy troops unloaded at Shortlands, Medan, Davao and Brunei. In a touch of irony the Dutch at Brunei report that an enemy minelayer hit a mine. The Cebu Island rearguard held off another charge by enemy troops. The heavily reinforced enemy landing at Shortlands succeeded in overrunning the Australian brigade and captured the island. We continue to hold at Davao. The Japanese invasion of Brunei made headway against the weak defenses. There was increased skirmishing along the Rangoon Perimeter. Japanese troops continued shelling Medan. The Chinese cavalry launched another attack on the Japanese Pakhoi garrison, chasing it around the countryside some more.
Additional troops arrived in San Francisco. The 32nd Division, 72nd Field Artillery and 153rd RCT are all ready for deployment.
More reports to follow.
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01 Apr 42
Night equipped Blenheims caught some more enemy planes on the ground at Tavoy.
The S-42, passing north of Luzon enroute to her patrol area, had an encounter with an enemy ASW group.
Rangoon was socked in. Japanese aircraft attacked instead the base at Pagan. The defending Mohawk and Buffalo fighters claimed one of the escorting fighters and several of the Sally bombers while only losing one of their own.
We hit Singapore again, mostly transports this time. One freighter, one fast transport and three troop transports caught bombs. B-17s cratered the runways and destroyed a couple of enemy planes.
Enemy Lilys bombed Sinkep again. More Lilys and Sallys attacked Iloilo. Bettys launched a couple of attacks on the Medan garrison.
The Chinese continued to hit the enemy division west of Wuhan. Blenheims continued to bomb along the Rangoon Perimeter.
The Dutch Martins made more strikes against the invasion convoy at Brunei but no hits were scored.
Port Moresby's bombers attacked Rabaul again. It looks like we've finally found a way to shoot down Zeroes, we just throw heavy bombers at them. Only problem with that plan is that we lose almost as many Flying Forts as the enemy does fighters. They did manage to hit a transport also.
The enemy overran the rearguard at Cebu, capturing the island. They also attacked at Davao, inflicting serious casualties on the defenders. The engineers at Brunei retreated to Miri, giving up the base and over one hundred thousand tons of crude oil to the enemy. We'll shift the transports from Davao to Balikpapen and try to evac as many of them as we can. The shelling at Medan continued. The Japanese launched another attempt to break the Rangoon Perimeter. In addition to the four divisions we already knew about it looks like they have gotten reinforcements in the form of a tank regiment. But once again they were stopped with heavy losses.
The CVE Long Island and a fleet oiler arrived in San Francisco and the submarine Drum arrived at Pearl. The Canadians committed another squadron of fighters to protecting their west coast and another squadron of PBYs became available in the Kodiak.
More reports to follow.
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02 Apr 42
The Haddock missed a freighter near Saigon. The S-42 was again attacked by an ASW group and again escaped.
The Blenheim IF crews are becoming quite good at their job, destroying more enemy aircraft at Tavoy.
In the Coral Sea an enemy sub took a shot at an ASW group of destroyer minesweepers. The ships spent the rest of the day tracking the sub and finally believe they scored a hit on it.
Rangoon was again socked in during the day. Enemy bombers attacked Pagan again. The defending fighters were not as successful today, losing a couple of planes without effect.
The attack on Singapore was intercepted today. A decade of Zeroes shot down one of the Blenheims and forced many others to abort. The Hudsons and remaining Blenheims scored bomb hits on three ships in the harbor.
The Japs proved they have the airfield at Jolo up and running by bombing Tarakan with two raids. The first did minor damage to the airbase. The second was aimed at a freighter that had just docked. The ship was fortunate to avoid the torpedoes from a flight of Bettys. The ship will relocate to Balikpapen and load there. In both raids the defending Brewsters were quickly swept from the sky by escorting Zeroes.
Sinkep Island was attacked again.
Chinese bombers attacked west of Wuhan and Mandalay based bombers dropped outside the Rangoon Perimeter.
The Marine divebombers at Tarawa went directly after the enemy's AAA guns on Apamama. The 161st RCT is on Baker Island, prepareing to land on Apamama after the Tarawa planes have spent some time softening up the defenders.
The Dutch Martins, forced to relocate to the southern part of Borneo by the losses of Kuching and Brunei, continued to fly attacks against the ships leaving Brunei, hitting a damaged minelayer and sinking it.
Two flights of unescorted Bettys bombed Hengchow. Over thirty more attacked Medan.
The B-17s at Port Moresby stood down for repairs today, but a flight of Hudsons attacked a transport north of Rabaul. Too bad they missed.
The Japanese continued their attack on Davao but the defenders got their act together again and stopped the enemy with heavy casualties. The attack on the Rangoon Perimeter was called off and that area has gone back to patrols and artillery duels. More shelling at Medan.
We have an intelligence report of a transport sinking in the Marshall Islands. This is confusing as there have been no attacks on any enemy ships there for some time. It could be that this is just a very delayed message from then.
More reports to follow.
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03 Apr 42
The Gato stalked a freighter east of Legaspi but wasn't able to make an attack because of two gunboats escorting it. North of Kuching the O23 put two torpedoes into and sank a transport. Near Tagbalarin the KXV sank a freighter with a pair of torpedoes.
Several more enemy aircraft were destroyed overnight at Tavoy.
The enemy launched another attack on Yenen. And again got shredded by the veteran Chinese pilots stationed there. About half the fifteen fighters and two of the three divebombers were shot down.
The enemy attacked Rangoon as well. Three flights of Sallys escorted by a mixed force of about thirty Zeroes, Nates and Oscars were intercepted by the AVG. Two P-40s were lost in the process of taking down around twenty or more of the Nip planes.
Singapore's defensive fighters were nowhere to be seen today, allowing eight freighters and transports to be hit. The B-17s hit twenty-five to forty enemy planes when they bombed the airfield. Imagine what they could do if we could get more than a dozen of them to fly at once.
The Japanese troops outside Wuhan got bombed again. The Rangoon Hurricanes started flying again in support of the Perimeter. The Marines on Tarawa bombed Apamama. The Haiphong based SB-2 bombers attacked the VM division running around the countryside east of Hanoi.
Betty bombers attacked the Medan garrison three times during the day. A fourth attack was made up of Lilys. Two flights attacked at Davao. Two of them got shot down by the defending P-35s.
Enemy forces began unloading at Iloilo. The enemy troops at Davao broke off their attack to revert to shelling the defenders. There was skirmishing along the Rangoon Perimeter and more shelling of the Medan garrison. The Chinese attacked the Indochina militia near Hanoi, continueing yet another wild goose chase.
The Australians commissioned another squadron of Kittyhawks. They are being shipped via rail to Townsville.
More reports to follow.
In the Sulu Sea the KXVII made a surface attack on a troop transport. Two torpedoes and several shells hit and it looks like the ship sank later today. South of Davao the Perch failed to hit a transport.
US destroyers had another inconclusive sonar contact in the Coral Sea.
Tavoy was bombed overnight again. Two flights of Blenheims attacked during the day but ran into a decade of Zeroes, losing one of the bombers on the run in. I am loathe to risk more of them until we can get better coordination with the AVG planes that are supposed to be covering them.
Enemy planes attacked Yenen again. Of the thirty aircraft only three of the Sonias made it thru. The rest were either shot down or broke and ran.
The attacks on Singapore continued but in lesser strength. A freighter and a fast transport were hit in the port. Half-a-dozen aircraft were destroyed or damaged in the strike on the airfield.
Chinese bombers continued to attack enemy troops outside Wuhan and Hanoi. Hurricanes continued to take a toll of enemy forces outside the Rangoon Perimeter.
It was a brutal day in the air over the Solomons. The Port Moresby based B-17s made a maximum effort against enemy ships. They spent the morning bombing the ships unloading at Shortlands. A dozen Zeroes were flying CAP over the invasion forces. Four transports were hit, multiple B-17s were damaged to various degrees and somewhere around half the Zeroes were shot down by the bomber gunners. In the afternoon the bombers attacked Rabaul. Enemy fighter cover was heavier, somewhere around thirty Zeroes. By the end of the day five B-17s, two Hudson I's and one Zero had been shot down and a gunboat had been hit by a pair of bombs.
Beauforts from Tarakan tried to bomb another invasion force at Brunei but weren't able to hit any of the enemy ships.
Betty bombers bombed Allied troops at Medan and Shortlands. Around 150 enemy carrier planes attacked the troops retreating to Gasmata, half of them Kates. It looks like the enemy has more than one carrier at Rabaul. The troops suffered serious casualties but managed to shot down or hit at least a dozen of the bombers with flak.
Enemy reinforcements unloaded at Shortlands, with an escorting gunboat hit by Australian artillery. At Medan another convoy of enemy troops had one of their ships hit a mine in the minefield. Minesweepers cleared a channel for the enemy ships to begin unloading at Brunei. On Cebu the Philippinoes fought off a shock attack. The Rangoon Perimeter was quiet. Japanese artillery continued to shell Medan. There was long range fighting at Davao. At Shortlands the Australians suffered heavily when their attack ran into a greatly reinforced enemy beachhead.
More reports to follow.
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31 Mar 42
The S-39 missed a freighters between Leyte and Mindanao. Her sister ship the S-36 shelled and torpedoed a freighter near Cebu. The KXVI made a pair of torpedo hits on a tanker in the Malacca Strait, leaving the ship burning.
South of Gili Gili US destroyers hit a Japanese sub. Another enemy sub took a shot at a convoy of fast transports in the Coral Sea, but missed all the converted destroyers.
Another night attack on Tavoy. Intel says a couple of those annoying photo recon planes the enemy keeps flying everywhere were destroyed.
Yenen came under attack again. Of the fifteen Nates and three Sonias, most of the Nates broke and ran. Only one of the divebombers survived.
The count in Singapore's harbor was two freighters, a transport and a converted destroyer transport hit; half-a-dozen aircraft destroyed.
Lilys and Oscars attacked Sinkep again.
The Rangoon Hurricanes took a day of rest but Blenheims from Mandalay flew in support of the Perimeter. Chinese bombers attacked the Vietnamese northeast of Hanoi.
The B-17s continued to attack enemy ships at Shortlands and Rabaul. There were no enemy fighters over Shortlands today but the CAP over Rabaul was still heavy. One Zero and one Fort went down over Rabaul and one freighter was hit at Shortlands.
Beauforts and Martins flew against the ships invading Brunei, hitting a second minelayer.
Bettys bombed the Medan garrison.
More enemy troops unloaded at Shortlands, Medan, Davao and Brunei. In a touch of irony the Dutch at Brunei report that an enemy minelayer hit a mine. The Cebu Island rearguard held off another charge by enemy troops. The heavily reinforced enemy landing at Shortlands succeeded in overrunning the Australian brigade and captured the island. We continue to hold at Davao. The Japanese invasion of Brunei made headway against the weak defenses. There was increased skirmishing along the Rangoon Perimeter. Japanese troops continued shelling Medan. The Chinese cavalry launched another attack on the Japanese Pakhoi garrison, chasing it around the countryside some more.
Additional troops arrived in San Francisco. The 32nd Division, 72nd Field Artillery and 153rd RCT are all ready for deployment.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
01 Apr 42
Night equipped Blenheims caught some more enemy planes on the ground at Tavoy.
The S-42, passing north of Luzon enroute to her patrol area, had an encounter with an enemy ASW group.
Rangoon was socked in. Japanese aircraft attacked instead the base at Pagan. The defending Mohawk and Buffalo fighters claimed one of the escorting fighters and several of the Sally bombers while only losing one of their own.
We hit Singapore again, mostly transports this time. One freighter, one fast transport and three troop transports caught bombs. B-17s cratered the runways and destroyed a couple of enemy planes.
Enemy Lilys bombed Sinkep again. More Lilys and Sallys attacked Iloilo. Bettys launched a couple of attacks on the Medan garrison.
The Chinese continued to hit the enemy division west of Wuhan. Blenheims continued to bomb along the Rangoon Perimeter.
The Dutch Martins made more strikes against the invasion convoy at Brunei but no hits were scored.
Port Moresby's bombers attacked Rabaul again. It looks like we've finally found a way to shoot down Zeroes, we just throw heavy bombers at them. Only problem with that plan is that we lose almost as many Flying Forts as the enemy does fighters. They did manage to hit a transport also.
The enemy overran the rearguard at Cebu, capturing the island. They also attacked at Davao, inflicting serious casualties on the defenders. The engineers at Brunei retreated to Miri, giving up the base and over one hundred thousand tons of crude oil to the enemy. We'll shift the transports from Davao to Balikpapen and try to evac as many of them as we can. The shelling at Medan continued. The Japanese launched another attempt to break the Rangoon Perimeter. In addition to the four divisions we already knew about it looks like they have gotten reinforcements in the form of a tank regiment. But once again they were stopped with heavy losses.
The CVE Long Island and a fleet oiler arrived in San Francisco and the submarine Drum arrived at Pearl. The Canadians committed another squadron of fighters to protecting their west coast and another squadron of PBYs became available in the Kodiak.
More reports to follow.
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02 Apr 42
The Haddock missed a freighter near Saigon. The S-42 was again attacked by an ASW group and again escaped.
The Blenheim IF crews are becoming quite good at their job, destroying more enemy aircraft at Tavoy.
In the Coral Sea an enemy sub took a shot at an ASW group of destroyer minesweepers. The ships spent the rest of the day tracking the sub and finally believe they scored a hit on it.
Rangoon was again socked in during the day. Enemy bombers attacked Pagan again. The defending fighters were not as successful today, losing a couple of planes without effect.
The attack on Singapore was intercepted today. A decade of Zeroes shot down one of the Blenheims and forced many others to abort. The Hudsons and remaining Blenheims scored bomb hits on three ships in the harbor.
The Japs proved they have the airfield at Jolo up and running by bombing Tarakan with two raids. The first did minor damage to the airbase. The second was aimed at a freighter that had just docked. The ship was fortunate to avoid the torpedoes from a flight of Bettys. The ship will relocate to Balikpapen and load there. In both raids the defending Brewsters were quickly swept from the sky by escorting Zeroes.
Sinkep Island was attacked again.
Chinese bombers attacked west of Wuhan and Mandalay based bombers dropped outside the Rangoon Perimeter.
The Marine divebombers at Tarawa went directly after the enemy's AAA guns on Apamama. The 161st RCT is on Baker Island, prepareing to land on Apamama after the Tarawa planes have spent some time softening up the defenders.
The Dutch Martins, forced to relocate to the southern part of Borneo by the losses of Kuching and Brunei, continued to fly attacks against the ships leaving Brunei, hitting a damaged minelayer and sinking it.
Two flights of unescorted Bettys bombed Hengchow. Over thirty more attacked Medan.
The B-17s at Port Moresby stood down for repairs today, but a flight of Hudsons attacked a transport north of Rabaul. Too bad they missed.
The Japanese continued their attack on Davao but the defenders got their act together again and stopped the enemy with heavy casualties. The attack on the Rangoon Perimeter was called off and that area has gone back to patrols and artillery duels. More shelling at Medan.
We have an intelligence report of a transport sinking in the Marshall Islands. This is confusing as there have been no attacks on any enemy ships there for some time. It could be that this is just a very delayed message from then.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
03 Apr 42
The Gato stalked a freighter east of Legaspi but wasn't able to make an attack because of two gunboats escorting it. North of Kuching the O23 put two torpedoes into and sank a transport. Near Tagbalarin the KXV sank a freighter with a pair of torpedoes.
Several more enemy aircraft were destroyed overnight at Tavoy.
The enemy launched another attack on Yenen. And again got shredded by the veteran Chinese pilots stationed there. About half the fifteen fighters and two of the three divebombers were shot down.
The enemy attacked Rangoon as well. Three flights of Sallys escorted by a mixed force of about thirty Zeroes, Nates and Oscars were intercepted by the AVG. Two P-40s were lost in the process of taking down around twenty or more of the Nip planes.
Singapore's defensive fighters were nowhere to be seen today, allowing eight freighters and transports to be hit. The B-17s hit twenty-five to forty enemy planes when they bombed the airfield. Imagine what they could do if we could get more than a dozen of them to fly at once.
The Japanese troops outside Wuhan got bombed again. The Rangoon Hurricanes started flying again in support of the Perimeter. The Marines on Tarawa bombed Apamama. The Haiphong based SB-2 bombers attacked the VM division running around the countryside east of Hanoi.
Betty bombers attacked the Medan garrison three times during the day. A fourth attack was made up of Lilys. Two flights attacked at Davao. Two of them got shot down by the defending P-35s.
Enemy forces began unloading at Iloilo. The enemy troops at Davao broke off their attack to revert to shelling the defenders. There was skirmishing along the Rangoon Perimeter and more shelling of the Medan garrison. The Chinese attacked the Indochina militia near Hanoi, continueing yet another wild goose chase.
The Australians commissioned another squadron of Kittyhawks. They are being shipped via rail to Townsville.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
04 Apr 42
It looks like the minefield at Medan claimed a freighter.
In the Malacca Strait the KXVI torpedoed a freighter. She tried for a second ship in the convoy but was driven off by an escorting destroyer. South of Rabaul the S-45 put two torpedoes into a Nip destroyer. Near Legaspi the Gato had her torpedoes fail to go off when she attacked a transport but still hit with her deck gun and machineguns. North of Kuching the O23 took advantage of the confusion caused by the Swordfish attack (see below) to hit a freighter with two torpedoes.
The DMS group in the Coral Sea claimed a Jap sub. They can't confirm a sinking but report multiple DC hits.
More night attacks on Tavoy.
The Japanese attacked Rangoon again. Twenty fighters and a dozen Sallys were intercepted by twenty-two AVG P-40s. One of the P-40s was shot down and several more were caught on the ground, but ten or more enemy planes were also shot down.
Five more ships were hit at Singapore and another half-dozen aircraft destroyed.
The enemy continued bombing the empty Sinkep Island base.
Chinese bombers kept up the pressure on IJA troops near Wuhan and the VM unit near Hanoi. Blenheims and Hurricanes kept up attacks all day long around the Rangoon Perimeter.
Swordfish went after a convoy just north of Kuching. They made runs on two small cruisers escorting the convoy as well as the merchants themselves but only got a torpedo hit on one transport.
Betty bombers attacked Hengchow. The Medan garrison was subjected to a number of strong raids throughout the day, including one from at least two carriers in the north end of the Malacca Strait.
Japanese forces at Davao launched another attack, pushing the defenders back some. Medan was shelled some more. Iloilo base was occupied by the enemy.
Another attack on the Rangoon Perimeter was hammered hard with enemy losses estimated at over 1,200 dead and wounded. BGEN Savory, the senior commander along the Perimeter, feels that they can continue to hold for as long as required. Their successful defense of Rangoon has bought much needed time in Burma. Mandalay airfield has been expanded to be able to handle heavy bombers and the defense works along the Irrawaddy river have been substantially built up. The 7th and 12th Bomber Groups, equipped with LB-30 Liberators and B-25s respectively, have unloaded at Diamond Harbor and are uncrating their aircraft. They should be ready to stage forward to Mandalay just about the time 222 RAF Aviation arrives there to support them. And the UK 2nd Division is just now crossing the Chindwin river on their way to the Irrawaddy Line.
The Australians continue to massively expand their airforce with the deployment of a squadron of B-25s to Darwin. As they answer to SWPAC we can move them up if we can find a base to handle them somewhere along the line of Morotai-Menado-Balikpapan. From there they might be able to support the defense on Mindanao.
More reports to follow.
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05 Apr 42
We received information that the destroyer attacked by the S-45 sank overnight. In the Malacca Strait the KXVI spotted but was out of position to attack a freighter. She then had to avoid a pair of escorts sweeping the area. The O20 was forced to evade some minesweepers on ASW patrol near Singapore. Offshore of Kagoshima the S-42 put two torpedoes into a freighter before surfacing to destroy the ship's bridge with her deck gun. The O16 was forced to dive to escape an ASW patrol east of Singapore.
The Blenheims continued to hit Tavoy. They may not do much damage each night but it adds up and every bit helps bleed the enemy.
Chinese bombers attacked the enemy airfield at Chengting. This is the base that has been launching the attacks on Yenen. While the Chinese bombers didn't encounter any fighters their raid may have shaken up the enemy's commander. The attack on Yenen was completely unescorted and all seven of the Sonias were shot down.
There was another attack on Rangoon. The AVG faced nearly thirty fighters and a dozen bombers. Somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen enemy planes were shot down for minimal losses among the P-40s.
Two more ships were hit at Singapore and the Forts took out at least a dozen more enemy aircraft.
Chinese bombers continued their campaign against enemy troops, bombing near Wuhan and Hanoi again. Hurricanes and Blenheims continued to attack enemy forces threatening the Rangoon Perimeter.
Swordfish put two torpedoes into a minesweeper near Kuching. Martins hit a transport in the harbor and Beauforts made attacks on the ships at Miri but were too high to be accurate.
Balikpapan was attacked. Over thirty Zeroes quickly brushed aside the half-dozen Brewsters that were flying, clearing the way for two flights of Bettys. Fortunately the bombers were not accurate and no substantial damage was done.
The Medan garrison was hit again by a large number of Bettys throughout the day. All told we estimate that fifty or more planes made bombing runs.
The situation with the enemy carriers has been confused. We positively identified the Kaga in the Malacca Strait over a hundred miles south of the spotting yesterday. So the enemy either has two carrier groups heading into the Indian Ocean or one group has turned back and is heading south again. We don't know which.
We didn't have as long to evacuate Miri as we had hoped. Enemy troops have been spotted unloading at a beach nearby. Japanese troops shelled the defenders at Davao. In addition a British freighter has managed to slip in to port there with a load of supplies. If the ship can survive to unload we will try to evacuate one of the smaller engineering units. If possible. There was only light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter and the shelling of Medan continued.
More reports to follow.
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06 Apr 42
We got a report of an enemy tanker hitting a mine at Bankha. We also have word of a minelayer sinking in the South China Sea. Intelligence believes that was the other minelayer from the Brunei landings.
The Finback was briefly attacked by an enemy destroyer near Cebu. North of Rabaul the S-44 escaped an attack by an ASW group. The Seal pounded a freighter off Johore Bahru with her deck gun, walking shells the length of the ship before putting a torpedo into it. A ways to the south the O16 had her attack on another freighter interrupted by an enemy destroyer.
A destroyer group in the Coral Sea sank an enemy sub. They were then attacked by a second I-boat. The DD Blue was lost when one of the torpedoes that hit her set off a magazine. The other three destroyers hit and either sank or crippled this second sub.
The Blenheims continued bombing Tavoy.
Seven ships, a mix of freighters and troop transports, were hit in the attack on Singapore today by unopposed Blenheims and Hudsons. But the B-17s that followed were briefly attacked by some enemy Zeroes. They got thru without loss to bomb the airfield.
Another raid on Sinkep. Nell bombers attacked Morotai but their bombs dropped so far from anything that we're not sure what exactly they were attacking.
Enemy troops were bombed outside Wuhan, northeast of Hanoi and along the Rangoon Perimeter.
Hudsons out of Port Moresby attacked and missed a transport near Torokina. Beauforts and Martins made a number of attacks along the north coast of Borneo, mostly around Miri. At least three, possibly four, transports were hit.
The enemy is apparently very unhappy with the idea of Davao being resupplied. They sent a dozen Bettys escorted by around forty Zeroes to attack the freighter unloading there. The defending fighters spent most of the day "dancing" with the enemy planes in a long drawn out dogfight. At the end of it two P-35s and one P-40 were lost, one Zero was shot down, and the freighter was untouched. A later attack by two flights of Bettys was aimed at the troops and lost two of the bombers to the CAP.
At least one, probably two, of the IJN carriers continued south thru the Malacca Strait. South of Singapore they launched an attack on Palembang. They lost two Zeroes and a Val but blew away most of the thirty Hawk and Brewster fighters trying to defend the harbor. They then proceeded to blow apart one tanker and heavily damaged two more that were loading crude oil. The two surviving ships are unlikely to make it thru the night.
The enemy reinforced his troops at Davao with another beach landing. They continued to shell the defenders during the day. Light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter is reported. Medan continued to be shelled. The engineers at Miri were driven off the base by attacking Japanese troops. They were forced back into the jungle interior of Borneo. We are arranging for airdrops of supplies to the survivors while they try to make it overland to Tarakan. And the last of the forces retreating from Rabaul finally arrived at Gasmata.
More reports to follow.
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07 Apr 42
Another night attack on Tavoy.
The KXVI had to evade an enemy ASW patrol in the Malacca Strait. Elsewhere in the strait the O21 hit an oiler with a torpedo before diving to avoid the escorts.
Another destroyer was hit by an enemy sub launched torpedo. The Benham was critically damaged and it is unlikely to make it back to port. This was actually the second attack on this group. The first completely missed but the ships didn't stay to pursue the contact more because they were enroute to reinforce another ASW group.
Chinese bombers attacked Chengting airfield again. Still no sign of the enemy fighters based there.
Zeroes were flying defense over Singapore and intercepted both raids on the city. An escort Brewster and a pair of Blenheims were lost and many other Blenheims turned back. The rest of the Blenheims and Hudsons hit three ships in the harbor. The B-17s had it a little easier, running into fewer fighters and driving them off with their heavier guns before hitting the airfields.
More craters were added to the empty airfield at Sinkep. More random sections of jungle in the area of Morotai were blown apart by Japanese Nells. We're still trying to figure out what they think they're hitting.
Rangoon and Mandalay planes continued to hit enemy troops outside the Perimeter. Tarawa's Marines bombed Apamama. A number of strikes were launched against enemy shipping along the north coast of Borneo but none of the ships were hit.
I have to wonder what the IJN Admiral in command of their carriers near Singapore is thinking. They appear to have turned north again because they attacked the Medan garrison.
The enemy attack on Davao continued to be reinforced by ship. Their attack gained some ground with heavy casualties on both sides. Its apparent that we are not going to be able to hold Mindanao and it is now a matter of evacuating what we can. The Japs continued to shell Medan. The Japanese forces outside Rangoon were unusually quiet and appeared to be avoiding contact.
The Enterprise and Yorktown are moving cautiously into range to attack the concentration of enemy shipping around Shortlands. We haven't seen any enemy CVs in the region for some time and there doesn't appear to be great concentration of enemy LBA at either Rabaul or Shortlands yet, so they should be able to pull off at least one day of attacks.
More reports to follow.
It looks like the minefield at Medan claimed a freighter.
In the Malacca Strait the KXVI torpedoed a freighter. She tried for a second ship in the convoy but was driven off by an escorting destroyer. South of Rabaul the S-45 put two torpedoes into a Nip destroyer. Near Legaspi the Gato had her torpedoes fail to go off when she attacked a transport but still hit with her deck gun and machineguns. North of Kuching the O23 took advantage of the confusion caused by the Swordfish attack (see below) to hit a freighter with two torpedoes.
The DMS group in the Coral Sea claimed a Jap sub. They can't confirm a sinking but report multiple DC hits.
More night attacks on Tavoy.
The Japanese attacked Rangoon again. Twenty fighters and a dozen Sallys were intercepted by twenty-two AVG P-40s. One of the P-40s was shot down and several more were caught on the ground, but ten or more enemy planes were also shot down.
Five more ships were hit at Singapore and another half-dozen aircraft destroyed.
The enemy continued bombing the empty Sinkep Island base.
Chinese bombers kept up the pressure on IJA troops near Wuhan and the VM unit near Hanoi. Blenheims and Hurricanes kept up attacks all day long around the Rangoon Perimeter.
Swordfish went after a convoy just north of Kuching. They made runs on two small cruisers escorting the convoy as well as the merchants themselves but only got a torpedo hit on one transport.
Betty bombers attacked Hengchow. The Medan garrison was subjected to a number of strong raids throughout the day, including one from at least two carriers in the north end of the Malacca Strait.
Japanese forces at Davao launched another attack, pushing the defenders back some. Medan was shelled some more. Iloilo base was occupied by the enemy.
Another attack on the Rangoon Perimeter was hammered hard with enemy losses estimated at over 1,200 dead and wounded. BGEN Savory, the senior commander along the Perimeter, feels that they can continue to hold for as long as required. Their successful defense of Rangoon has bought much needed time in Burma. Mandalay airfield has been expanded to be able to handle heavy bombers and the defense works along the Irrawaddy river have been substantially built up. The 7th and 12th Bomber Groups, equipped with LB-30 Liberators and B-25s respectively, have unloaded at Diamond Harbor and are uncrating their aircraft. They should be ready to stage forward to Mandalay just about the time 222 RAF Aviation arrives there to support them. And the UK 2nd Division is just now crossing the Chindwin river on their way to the Irrawaddy Line.
The Australians continue to massively expand their airforce with the deployment of a squadron of B-25s to Darwin. As they answer to SWPAC we can move them up if we can find a base to handle them somewhere along the line of Morotai-Menado-Balikpapan. From there they might be able to support the defense on Mindanao.
More reports to follow.
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05 Apr 42
We received information that the destroyer attacked by the S-45 sank overnight. In the Malacca Strait the KXVI spotted but was out of position to attack a freighter. She then had to avoid a pair of escorts sweeping the area. The O20 was forced to evade some minesweepers on ASW patrol near Singapore. Offshore of Kagoshima the S-42 put two torpedoes into a freighter before surfacing to destroy the ship's bridge with her deck gun. The O16 was forced to dive to escape an ASW patrol east of Singapore.
The Blenheims continued to hit Tavoy. They may not do much damage each night but it adds up and every bit helps bleed the enemy.
Chinese bombers attacked the enemy airfield at Chengting. This is the base that has been launching the attacks on Yenen. While the Chinese bombers didn't encounter any fighters their raid may have shaken up the enemy's commander. The attack on Yenen was completely unescorted and all seven of the Sonias were shot down.
There was another attack on Rangoon. The AVG faced nearly thirty fighters and a dozen bombers. Somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen enemy planes were shot down for minimal losses among the P-40s.
Two more ships were hit at Singapore and the Forts took out at least a dozen more enemy aircraft.
Chinese bombers continued their campaign against enemy troops, bombing near Wuhan and Hanoi again. Hurricanes and Blenheims continued to attack enemy forces threatening the Rangoon Perimeter.
Swordfish put two torpedoes into a minesweeper near Kuching. Martins hit a transport in the harbor and Beauforts made attacks on the ships at Miri but were too high to be accurate.
Balikpapan was attacked. Over thirty Zeroes quickly brushed aside the half-dozen Brewsters that were flying, clearing the way for two flights of Bettys. Fortunately the bombers were not accurate and no substantial damage was done.
The Medan garrison was hit again by a large number of Bettys throughout the day. All told we estimate that fifty or more planes made bombing runs.
The situation with the enemy carriers has been confused. We positively identified the Kaga in the Malacca Strait over a hundred miles south of the spotting yesterday. So the enemy either has two carrier groups heading into the Indian Ocean or one group has turned back and is heading south again. We don't know which.
We didn't have as long to evacuate Miri as we had hoped. Enemy troops have been spotted unloading at a beach nearby. Japanese troops shelled the defenders at Davao. In addition a British freighter has managed to slip in to port there with a load of supplies. If the ship can survive to unload we will try to evacuate one of the smaller engineering units. If possible. There was only light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter and the shelling of Medan continued.
More reports to follow.
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06 Apr 42
We got a report of an enemy tanker hitting a mine at Bankha. We also have word of a minelayer sinking in the South China Sea. Intelligence believes that was the other minelayer from the Brunei landings.
The Finback was briefly attacked by an enemy destroyer near Cebu. North of Rabaul the S-44 escaped an attack by an ASW group. The Seal pounded a freighter off Johore Bahru with her deck gun, walking shells the length of the ship before putting a torpedo into it. A ways to the south the O16 had her attack on another freighter interrupted by an enemy destroyer.
A destroyer group in the Coral Sea sank an enemy sub. They were then attacked by a second I-boat. The DD Blue was lost when one of the torpedoes that hit her set off a magazine. The other three destroyers hit and either sank or crippled this second sub.
The Blenheims continued bombing Tavoy.
Seven ships, a mix of freighters and troop transports, were hit in the attack on Singapore today by unopposed Blenheims and Hudsons. But the B-17s that followed were briefly attacked by some enemy Zeroes. They got thru without loss to bomb the airfield.
Another raid on Sinkep. Nell bombers attacked Morotai but their bombs dropped so far from anything that we're not sure what exactly they were attacking.
Enemy troops were bombed outside Wuhan, northeast of Hanoi and along the Rangoon Perimeter.
Hudsons out of Port Moresby attacked and missed a transport near Torokina. Beauforts and Martins made a number of attacks along the north coast of Borneo, mostly around Miri. At least three, possibly four, transports were hit.
The enemy is apparently very unhappy with the idea of Davao being resupplied. They sent a dozen Bettys escorted by around forty Zeroes to attack the freighter unloading there. The defending fighters spent most of the day "dancing" with the enemy planes in a long drawn out dogfight. At the end of it two P-35s and one P-40 were lost, one Zero was shot down, and the freighter was untouched. A later attack by two flights of Bettys was aimed at the troops and lost two of the bombers to the CAP.
At least one, probably two, of the IJN carriers continued south thru the Malacca Strait. South of Singapore they launched an attack on Palembang. They lost two Zeroes and a Val but blew away most of the thirty Hawk and Brewster fighters trying to defend the harbor. They then proceeded to blow apart one tanker and heavily damaged two more that were loading crude oil. The two surviving ships are unlikely to make it thru the night.
The enemy reinforced his troops at Davao with another beach landing. They continued to shell the defenders during the day. Light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter is reported. Medan continued to be shelled. The engineers at Miri were driven off the base by attacking Japanese troops. They were forced back into the jungle interior of Borneo. We are arranging for airdrops of supplies to the survivors while they try to make it overland to Tarakan. And the last of the forces retreating from Rabaul finally arrived at Gasmata.
More reports to follow.
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07 Apr 42
Another night attack on Tavoy.
The KXVI had to evade an enemy ASW patrol in the Malacca Strait. Elsewhere in the strait the O21 hit an oiler with a torpedo before diving to avoid the escorts.
Another destroyer was hit by an enemy sub launched torpedo. The Benham was critically damaged and it is unlikely to make it back to port. This was actually the second attack on this group. The first completely missed but the ships didn't stay to pursue the contact more because they were enroute to reinforce another ASW group.
Chinese bombers attacked Chengting airfield again. Still no sign of the enemy fighters based there.
Zeroes were flying defense over Singapore and intercepted both raids on the city. An escort Brewster and a pair of Blenheims were lost and many other Blenheims turned back. The rest of the Blenheims and Hudsons hit three ships in the harbor. The B-17s had it a little easier, running into fewer fighters and driving them off with their heavier guns before hitting the airfields.
More craters were added to the empty airfield at Sinkep. More random sections of jungle in the area of Morotai were blown apart by Japanese Nells. We're still trying to figure out what they think they're hitting.
Rangoon and Mandalay planes continued to hit enemy troops outside the Perimeter. Tarawa's Marines bombed Apamama. A number of strikes were launched against enemy shipping along the north coast of Borneo but none of the ships were hit.
I have to wonder what the IJN Admiral in command of their carriers near Singapore is thinking. They appear to have turned north again because they attacked the Medan garrison.
The enemy attack on Davao continued to be reinforced by ship. Their attack gained some ground with heavy casualties on both sides. Its apparent that we are not going to be able to hold Mindanao and it is now a matter of evacuating what we can. The Japs continued to shell Medan. The Japanese forces outside Rangoon were unusually quiet and appeared to be avoiding contact.
The Enterprise and Yorktown are moving cautiously into range to attack the concentration of enemy shipping around Shortlands. We haven't seen any enemy CVs in the region for some time and there doesn't appear to be great concentration of enemy LBA at either Rabaul or Shortlands yet, so they should be able to pull off at least one day of attacks.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
08 Apr 42
The O21 spotted a freighter in the Malacca Strait. The KXI fired on but missed a light cruiser off the northwest tip of Borneo. Northeast of Singapore the Seal fired on a battleship. The torpedoes missed and the sub was seriously damaged by the escorts' resulting depth charge attack.
The destroyer Benham sank trying to reach an Australian port and the Craven was hit by a torpedo in the same area the Benham was hit. Not having had a magazine explode the Craven has a better chance of making it to Rockhampton.
Blenheims bombed the Tavoy airfield during the night.
The enemy's defense of Singapore was hit-n-miss. The first raid on the harbor went in unopposed, hitting a transport. The B-17s of the second raid ran into Zeroes. About half of the dozen Flying Forts were damaged and a couple of Zeroes were shot down by the gunners. Another twenty or so planes were destroyed on the ground by bombs. Heavy damage was also done to both the port and the air base.
Sinkep was bombed again. Apparently the bulldozers we had to abandon on the island are a serious threat to enemy plans. As are the trees around Morotai, more Nells dropped bombs there. The Medan garrison was subject to more accurate bombing by two raids of Bettys.
SB-2c bombers attacked outside Wuhan. Hurricanes and Blenheims supported the Rangoon Perimeter. Marine SBDs bombed Apamama and more SB-2cs hit the Vietnamese north of Hanoi.
Heavy weather kept the carriers from launching in the Solomons but a flight of Port Moresby Hudsons did try to bomb a transport north of Shortlands. A number of strikes were launched on enemy ships in the area of Brunei but only one transport was hit, albeit multiple times. Swordfish managed to torpedo a transport and a gunboat not too far from the northwest part of Borneo.
A single flight of Bettys slipped past the twenty or so Allied fighters over Davao and torpedoed the freighter unloading there. The damage was light for a torpedo hit and the ship is continued to unload. At Rangoon the AVG lost one plane defending a just arrived freighter. They managed to shot down a good two-thirds of the twenty escort fighters and one of the two dozen Bettys before the ship was hit by one torpedo. The damage is serious but the ship should survive if it can avoid being hit again. One of the tankers damaged a couple of days ago at Palembang sank today and the fate of the other remains to be seen. In the meantime more tankers have arrived to load and one has just set sail for Australia.
The defenders at Davao continue to lose ground. The Japanese are still shelling Medan. The IJA artillery was heard from on the Rangoon Perimeter.
More reports to follow.
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09 Apr 42
The night bombing of Tavoy continued.
The attack on Singapore's port didn't hit any shipping today but they did hit a cruiser. Only two flights of Fortresses flew but took out an equal number of enemy planes on the ground.
Davao was attacked by some fifty bombers and thirty fighters in the morning. Most of the half-dozen fighters that tried to intercept were shot down and the airfield was heavily hit. In the afternoon Bettys and Zeroes attacked and some more defending fighters were lost.
The Chinese continued to bomb Japanese troops around Hanoi and Wuhan. The Marines bombed Apamama.
Beauforts carried most of the weight of the attacks around Borneo today. They didn't hit any ships but at least they aren't losing any more planes in the process. Swordfish hit a transport with a torpedo between Borneo and Singapore. On their way back they spotted a gunboat sinking, almost certainly the same one they hit yesterday.
TF 1006, the Enterprise and Yorktown carrier group, launched an attack on Japanese ships around Shortlands in the morning. None of the torpedo bombers made any hits but the dive bombers planted 1000 lb bombs on a destroyer and a light cruiser. Pilots report two seperate large secondary explosions onboard the cruiser. In the afternoon they attacked the port on the island. It looks like they scored a number of hits on a supply dump.
Bettys attacked Tarakan escorted by Zeroes. A flight of Brewsters made the mistake of intercepting and lost two of their three planes. Fortunately no real damage was done by the bombers. More trees were killed by Nells near Morotai. Bettys attacked the garrison at Medan.
Allied forces at Davao managed to stop the enemy advance but lost heavily in the process. Skirmishing resumed along the Rangoon Perimeter and there was more shelling of Medan.
More reports to follow.
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10 Apr 42
Near Brunei the KXI hit a freighter. The O16 failed in its attack on a tanker in the Malacca Strait. North of Rabaul the S-44 put a torpedo into a tanker. At Tagbalarin the KXV shot up a barge with her deck gun.
A large raid was launched against the airbase at Wuchow. Some seventy Sally bombers were involved, escorted by two dozen Zeroes. This was followed by a smaller attack in the afternoon. The enemy also continued to bomb Sinkep with a pair of raids, the second one coming from an enemy carrier near Johore Bahru.
The raids on Singapore yielded interesting results today. Only a single flight of B-17s attacked the airfield getting correspondingly minor results. But the Hudsons and Blenheims attacking the port score one or two bomb hits each on three cruisers and six bomb hits on a battleship docked there. Hopefully this will delay whatever plans they may have had for those ships.
The Chinese continued to bomb the IJA 3rd Division, holding positions west of Wuhan. Marine divebombers kept attacking the garrison on Apamama.
Port Moresby based Hudsons attacked and missed a transport and destroyer pair north of Shortlands. Borneo Martins and Beauforts continued to attack enemy shipping along the island's north coast. They managed to hit a destroyer with multiple bombs.
TF1006 hit the enemy's supply stores at Shortlands again. This raid has been successful enough for now, its time to pull the carriers back before we overreach ourselves.
The defenders at Davao held their ground, suffering heavy casualties in the process. Transport planes out of Balikpapan are continueing to evac small numbers of troops. The Japanese shelled Medan some more. The Allied defenders at Rangoon pulled off a successful ambush on an enemy company but otherwise there was little to report along the Perimeter. The Chinese cavalry caught up again with the Japanese troops they've been chasing. They are holding off attacking until additional units can move in to cut off some of the enemy's escape routes.
More reports to follow.
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11 Apr 42
Reports have come in of an enemy gunboat and a tanker hitting mines at northern Borneo ports.
The O16 had an encounter with some gunboats and a destroyer east of Singapore. The KXI hit a tanker north of Brunei with a torpedo. The KXVI avoided a pair of destroyers in the Malacca Strait.
Australian minesweepers on ASW patrol in the Coral Sea tried to track down a sonar contact but couldn't resolve it.
Chinese bombers attacking Chengting had a number of aircraft damaged when they were intercepted by Nate fighters. Meanwhile the Chinese fighters at Yenen shot down almost every enemy plane attacking there, fifteen Nates and three Sonias.
The B-17s stood down but the Hudsons and Blenheims continued attacking Singapore. They extracted a heavy toll of the enemy. Damage assessment puts the damages at one transport, one freighter, three cruisers and the battleship Hyuga all hit, with most of the bombs striking the Hyuga.
Sinkep Island was attacked again.
The Chinese continued bombing the IJA 3rd Division. Blenheims made more bombing runs outside the Rangoon Perimeter. Marine Dauntlesses hit Apamama again. Also the battleships Maryland and Colorado, with an escort of two cruisers and a destroyer, are heading for Apamama from Pearl to bombard the Jap garrison.
Swordfish attacked enemy ships west of northern Borneo. They hit a transport that looks like it is heading south, which would indicate the Japs are planning another invasion. They also hit a tanker near Kuching with a full spread of four torpedoes.
The freighter Bhima at Davao was hit by two more torpedoes from Bettys. The defending fighters were not able to get thru the thirty escorting Zeroes to prevent the Bettys from making their attack despite one pilot, MAJ Kraemer, managing to shoot down seven enemy fighters on his own.
Enemy forces also attacked Rangoon. The AVG shot down all fourteen Nates and a couple of the Zeroes escorting the flight of Bettys, but still couldn't get to the bombers. The Selma City unloading in the port was hit by two torpedoes and sank.
There appears to still be an enemy carrier somewhere in the Malacca Strait as one of the three raids on Medan was made up of Kates. The other two were Betty bombers.
More enemy forces began unloading at Medan, covered by more artillery fire. We lost more ground at Davao. The situation was relatively quiet along the Rangoon Perimeter. The Chinese cavalry shelled the remains of the Pakhoi garrison while they waited for the other Chinese forces to get into position.
More reports to follow.
The O21 spotted a freighter in the Malacca Strait. The KXI fired on but missed a light cruiser off the northwest tip of Borneo. Northeast of Singapore the Seal fired on a battleship. The torpedoes missed and the sub was seriously damaged by the escorts' resulting depth charge attack.
The destroyer Benham sank trying to reach an Australian port and the Craven was hit by a torpedo in the same area the Benham was hit. Not having had a magazine explode the Craven has a better chance of making it to Rockhampton.
Blenheims bombed the Tavoy airfield during the night.
The enemy's defense of Singapore was hit-n-miss. The first raid on the harbor went in unopposed, hitting a transport. The B-17s of the second raid ran into Zeroes. About half of the dozen Flying Forts were damaged and a couple of Zeroes were shot down by the gunners. Another twenty or so planes were destroyed on the ground by bombs. Heavy damage was also done to both the port and the air base.
Sinkep was bombed again. Apparently the bulldozers we had to abandon on the island are a serious threat to enemy plans. As are the trees around Morotai, more Nells dropped bombs there. The Medan garrison was subject to more accurate bombing by two raids of Bettys.
SB-2c bombers attacked outside Wuhan. Hurricanes and Blenheims supported the Rangoon Perimeter. Marine SBDs bombed Apamama and more SB-2cs hit the Vietnamese north of Hanoi.
Heavy weather kept the carriers from launching in the Solomons but a flight of Port Moresby Hudsons did try to bomb a transport north of Shortlands. A number of strikes were launched on enemy ships in the area of Brunei but only one transport was hit, albeit multiple times. Swordfish managed to torpedo a transport and a gunboat not too far from the northwest part of Borneo.
A single flight of Bettys slipped past the twenty or so Allied fighters over Davao and torpedoed the freighter unloading there. The damage was light for a torpedo hit and the ship is continued to unload. At Rangoon the AVG lost one plane defending a just arrived freighter. They managed to shot down a good two-thirds of the twenty escort fighters and one of the two dozen Bettys before the ship was hit by one torpedo. The damage is serious but the ship should survive if it can avoid being hit again. One of the tankers damaged a couple of days ago at Palembang sank today and the fate of the other remains to be seen. In the meantime more tankers have arrived to load and one has just set sail for Australia.
The defenders at Davao continue to lose ground. The Japanese are still shelling Medan. The IJA artillery was heard from on the Rangoon Perimeter.
More reports to follow.
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09 Apr 42
The night bombing of Tavoy continued.
The attack on Singapore's port didn't hit any shipping today but they did hit a cruiser. Only two flights of Fortresses flew but took out an equal number of enemy planes on the ground.
Davao was attacked by some fifty bombers and thirty fighters in the morning. Most of the half-dozen fighters that tried to intercept were shot down and the airfield was heavily hit. In the afternoon Bettys and Zeroes attacked and some more defending fighters were lost.
The Chinese continued to bomb Japanese troops around Hanoi and Wuhan. The Marines bombed Apamama.
Beauforts carried most of the weight of the attacks around Borneo today. They didn't hit any ships but at least they aren't losing any more planes in the process. Swordfish hit a transport with a torpedo between Borneo and Singapore. On their way back they spotted a gunboat sinking, almost certainly the same one they hit yesterday.
TF 1006, the Enterprise and Yorktown carrier group, launched an attack on Japanese ships around Shortlands in the morning. None of the torpedo bombers made any hits but the dive bombers planted 1000 lb bombs on a destroyer and a light cruiser. Pilots report two seperate large secondary explosions onboard the cruiser. In the afternoon they attacked the port on the island. It looks like they scored a number of hits on a supply dump.
Bettys attacked Tarakan escorted by Zeroes. A flight of Brewsters made the mistake of intercepting and lost two of their three planes. Fortunately no real damage was done by the bombers. More trees were killed by Nells near Morotai. Bettys attacked the garrison at Medan.
Allied forces at Davao managed to stop the enemy advance but lost heavily in the process. Skirmishing resumed along the Rangoon Perimeter and there was more shelling of Medan.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10 Apr 42
Near Brunei the KXI hit a freighter. The O16 failed in its attack on a tanker in the Malacca Strait. North of Rabaul the S-44 put a torpedo into a tanker. At Tagbalarin the KXV shot up a barge with her deck gun.
A large raid was launched against the airbase at Wuchow. Some seventy Sally bombers were involved, escorted by two dozen Zeroes. This was followed by a smaller attack in the afternoon. The enemy also continued to bomb Sinkep with a pair of raids, the second one coming from an enemy carrier near Johore Bahru.
The raids on Singapore yielded interesting results today. Only a single flight of B-17s attacked the airfield getting correspondingly minor results. But the Hudsons and Blenheims attacking the port score one or two bomb hits each on three cruisers and six bomb hits on a battleship docked there. Hopefully this will delay whatever plans they may have had for those ships.
The Chinese continued to bomb the IJA 3rd Division, holding positions west of Wuhan. Marine divebombers kept attacking the garrison on Apamama.
Port Moresby based Hudsons attacked and missed a transport and destroyer pair north of Shortlands. Borneo Martins and Beauforts continued to attack enemy shipping along the island's north coast. They managed to hit a destroyer with multiple bombs.
TF1006 hit the enemy's supply stores at Shortlands again. This raid has been successful enough for now, its time to pull the carriers back before we overreach ourselves.
The defenders at Davao held their ground, suffering heavy casualties in the process. Transport planes out of Balikpapan are continueing to evac small numbers of troops. The Japanese shelled Medan some more. The Allied defenders at Rangoon pulled off a successful ambush on an enemy company but otherwise there was little to report along the Perimeter. The Chinese cavalry caught up again with the Japanese troops they've been chasing. They are holding off attacking until additional units can move in to cut off some of the enemy's escape routes.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
11 Apr 42
Reports have come in of an enemy gunboat and a tanker hitting mines at northern Borneo ports.
The O16 had an encounter with some gunboats and a destroyer east of Singapore. The KXI hit a tanker north of Brunei with a torpedo. The KXVI avoided a pair of destroyers in the Malacca Strait.
Australian minesweepers on ASW patrol in the Coral Sea tried to track down a sonar contact but couldn't resolve it.
Chinese bombers attacking Chengting had a number of aircraft damaged when they were intercepted by Nate fighters. Meanwhile the Chinese fighters at Yenen shot down almost every enemy plane attacking there, fifteen Nates and three Sonias.
The B-17s stood down but the Hudsons and Blenheims continued attacking Singapore. They extracted a heavy toll of the enemy. Damage assessment puts the damages at one transport, one freighter, three cruisers and the battleship Hyuga all hit, with most of the bombs striking the Hyuga.
Sinkep Island was attacked again.
The Chinese continued bombing the IJA 3rd Division. Blenheims made more bombing runs outside the Rangoon Perimeter. Marine Dauntlesses hit Apamama again. Also the battleships Maryland and Colorado, with an escort of two cruisers and a destroyer, are heading for Apamama from Pearl to bombard the Jap garrison.
Swordfish attacked enemy ships west of northern Borneo. They hit a transport that looks like it is heading south, which would indicate the Japs are planning another invasion. They also hit a tanker near Kuching with a full spread of four torpedoes.
The freighter Bhima at Davao was hit by two more torpedoes from Bettys. The defending fighters were not able to get thru the thirty escorting Zeroes to prevent the Bettys from making their attack despite one pilot, MAJ Kraemer, managing to shoot down seven enemy fighters on his own.
Enemy forces also attacked Rangoon. The AVG shot down all fourteen Nates and a couple of the Zeroes escorting the flight of Bettys, but still couldn't get to the bombers. The Selma City unloading in the port was hit by two torpedoes and sank.
There appears to still be an enemy carrier somewhere in the Malacca Strait as one of the three raids on Medan was made up of Kates. The other two were Betty bombers.
More enemy forces began unloading at Medan, covered by more artillery fire. We lost more ground at Davao. The situation was relatively quiet along the Rangoon Perimeter. The Chinese cavalry shelled the remains of the Pakhoi garrison while they waited for the other Chinese forces to get into position.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
hm... a very nice AAR 
but.. a bit lengthy to start reading from the beginning with the time available to me . Could you write a short summary of where you are now and especially where you were in late march, as that is where i'm currently at with my campaign, and i'd like to compare the alternate realities
but.. a bit lengthy to start reading from the beginning with the time available to me . Could you write a short summary of where you are now and especially where you were in late march, as that is where i'm currently at with my campaign, and i'd like to compare the alternate realities
Surface combat TF fanboy
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
ORIGINAL: String
hm... a very nice AAR
but.. a bit lengthy to start reading from the beginning with the time available to me . Could you write a short summary of where you are now and especially where you were in late march, as that is where i'm currently at with my campaign, and i'd like to compare the alternate realities
[:'(]
You're not that far from current. I've only reached mid-April.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
I wish to thank you for the interesting AAR.
Reading your style of reporting is much easier for me than the cut-and-paste method of the combat reports from the game, which can be eye crossingly tedious.
Your AAR motivated me to buy the game last Friday. Just playing the tutorial, however, shows me what a monster game the grand campaign must be. I am somewhat intimidated by the sheer size.
Please keep up the good work.
Reading your style of reporting is much easier for me than the cut-and-paste method of the combat reports from the game, which can be eye crossingly tedious.
Your AAR motivated me to buy the game last Friday. Just playing the tutorial, however, shows me what a monster game the grand campaign must be. I am somewhat intimidated by the sheer size.
Please keep up the good work.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
Thank you, I'm glad you like it. More reports are coming, I've just been busy with personal business and needed to take a break for a few days.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
12 Apr 42
The sub KXI put two torpedoes into an already damaged gunboat north of Brunei.
Enemy forces began landing at Singkawang.
Rangoon was subject to heavy weather most of the day. Enemy planes attacked Pagan. The defending Mohawks and Buffaloes managed to shot down a few of the escort fighters without losing anyone and damage to the airfield was minor. Sinkep Island was bombed again.
There were a number of attacks on Davao. The first targeted the airfield, the second attacked the freighter Bhima but was prevented from hitting. The final attack hit the just arrived transport Wanganella. With the situation deteriorating quickly here both ships are going to have to simply load what personell they can and try to make it to Menado.
Chinese bombers continued attacked Japanese troops near Wuhan. Blenheims bombed outside the Rangoon Perimeter. Tarawa Marines continued attacking the garrison at Apamama.
The ABDA bombers continued to go after enemy shipping but didn't have any luck today.
Enemy forces had more luck, with a Betty bomber hitting a freighter loading at Toboali. Another attack targeted Balikpapan but did no significant damage.
More Bettys bombed Medan again.
The Japanese continued to attack at Davao, driving the defenders back farther. The base cannot hold much longer. There was more skirmishing along the Rangoon Perimeter. The Jap artillery continued to shell Medan and the Chinese cavalry did likewise against the enemy forces they have been chasing around.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
13 Apr 42
The O16 missed a freighter near Singapore. North of Rabaul the S-44 hit a freighter with two torpedoes and at least two deck gun rounds. The Grampus missed a freighter south of Shimizu. The Dolphin put a torpedo into a transport south of Dadjangas.
DD-Minesweepers in the Coral Sea report depth charging a sonar contact.
Tavoy was bombed again during the night.
A pair of Dutch destroyers intercepted a large enemy convoy near Singkawang/Pontianak escorted by only two small ships. They managed to sink one of the escorts, probably a subchaser type ship, and damage the other along with two of the transports or freighters.
Chinese bombers attacked Chengting. The Japanese fighters based there are so demoralized that they broke and ran as soon as the bombers fired back at them. The first of the LB-30 bombers at Mandalay attacked Tavoy. Twenty-one Liberators destroyed a couple of enemy aircraft on the ground and did some damage to the runways.
The airfield at Rangoon was attacked again. Thirty Sally bombers were escorted by about forty fighters of various types. Two of the AVG's P-40s were shot down in return for five of the bombers and around fifteen of the fighters.
I think it is time the Royal Navy visited Tavoy again. Despite supplements flown in by Dakotas out of Imphal, Rangoon's stockpiles of supplies are starting to drop again. While they still have plenty the timing for another resupply attempt is good. The RN has ships ready at Trimcomalee, there are two freighters fully loaded just arrived at Diamond Harbor and heavy bombers are in place and have begun to suppress Tavoy's aircraft. An attack on the base might cover the freighters and damage the enemy's capabilities enough to let them unload.
Our attack on Singapore went well. Two transports and a freighter were hit, as well as half-a-dozen more bombs dropped on the battleship Hyuga.
Sinkep Island was bombed.
Chinese bombers continued to attack the IJA 3rd Division near Wuhan. They also attacked the Indochina Militia in the jungles north of Hanoi. With better weather of Rangoon, the Hurricanes were able to join the Blenheims again in bombing outside the Perimeter. The Marines kept up the pressure of Apamama.
Attacks on enemy shipping near Brunei and Miri were again unsuccessful. But Java based Blenheims did hit two ships near Singkawang/Pontianak, probably part of the same convoy the Dutch destroyers attacked. A second, unsuccessful, attack on the same convoy was almost intercepted by Japanese Zeroes, almost certainly carrier based. We think there is one to the north heading south towards the Java Sea.
A flight of Bettys attacked shipping loading at Toboali but missed their target. The Medan garrison was hit by about thirty more Bettys. Another attack by Bettys was made against the two Dutch destroyers near Belitung but the DDs were able to evade the bombs.
Davao, surprisingly, held out another day. Both the ships got out, evacuating some of the engineers. The fighters also evacuated, flying to Balikpapan and Menado. We'll see how many more the transport planes at Balikpapan can bring out. Skirmishing continued along the Rangoon Perimeter and there was more shelling of Medan.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
14 Apr 42
The O16 had to avoid a large ASW group east of Singapore.
The Aussie minesweepers spent all day tracking and attacking an intermittant sonar contact. They got some oil but cannot confirm a kill.
Round the clock operations continue against Tavoy. Blenheim IF bombers attacked during the night, followed by LB-30s during the day.
Chinese bombers attacked Chengting. Again, all it took to drive off the defending Nates was a few bursts of machinegun fire from the gunners.
Rangoon was attacked again. Only one P-40 was lost and somewhere around ten enemy planes were shot down.
Enemy Zeroes tried to defend their shipping at Singapore. They shot down two Blenheims and two Hudsons from the first strike but the following groups managed to avoid the fighters. The Hyuga was hit multiple times again. A transport and two cruisers were also struck by bombs.
Multiple attacks were launched against Palembang. In the first the air-to-air losses were about equal, about half-a-dozen planes on each side, and the airfield suffered some damage. The second came from the Akagi, spotted just south of Singapore. That attack shot down most of the Hawk/Brewster CAP, then proceeded to blow apart the tanker Merula with two torpedo hits and at least a dozen bombs.
The airfield at Tarakan was also hit. The CAP Brewsters managed to avoid the escort Zeroes to get one of the dozen Sally bombers. They did not fair as well against the second attack, losing one plane. But the Bettys missed the freighter they were targeting. A third attack was just a single trio of Bettys and a photo recon Babs. The C5M was shot down and the Bettys missed the shipping in port.
Chinese bombers continued to attack the IJA outside Wuhan and the Vietnamese north of Hanoi. Hurricanes and Blenheims supported the Rangoon Perimeter.
The bombers at Batavia were busy today. First two flights of B-17s hammered an enemy minesweeper near Kuching. Then a mixed force of Forts, Blenheims and Martins severly damaged a pair of transports at Singkawang. A second strike later in the day by the same groups hit a minelayer and at least five more transports in the same convoy.
Two flights of Bettys tried to sink the Dutch destroyers near Pontianak again but missed. Enemy divebombers hit the AK Bhima several times, causing the ship to sink a short time later. Another group of Bettys attacked ships loading at Toboali but missed.
Other Betty squadrons attacked troops at Hengchow and Medan.
A flight of Martins hit an oiler at Brunei. A pair of Martins from the same unit struck a transport south of Jolo after dodging some enemy fighters.
The forces at Davao continued to hold, stopping an enemy charge intended to throw them off the base. Enemy reinforcements arrived outside the Rangoon Perimeter, stiffening an attack there. We are now identifing four divisions, two tank regiments and two engineer regiments among the attackers. The defenders held, inflicting severe losses on the enemy. The Japs continue to shell Medan and the Chinese cavalry launched their attack. The few remaining Nip troops slipped away, again.
A number of engineer units were called up in India. They're not at full strength but most of them can remain in Diamond Harbor for a while to build up once they are shipped in. A couple of RAF engineer units also arrived in Karachi. The Australian 6th Division reported in at Sydney. In San Francisco, the 1st Construction Battalion (SeaBees) and the Marine 8th Defense Bn arrived.
The British and Indian units will move to Diamond Harbor. The Australian division will get shipped to Darwin for now. Once there we will try to determine where they can best be used in the DEI. The Sea Bees will go to Luganville to build up the facilities there while the Marine CD guns will go to Baker.
More reports to follow.
The sub KXI put two torpedoes into an already damaged gunboat north of Brunei.
Enemy forces began landing at Singkawang.
Rangoon was subject to heavy weather most of the day. Enemy planes attacked Pagan. The defending Mohawks and Buffaloes managed to shot down a few of the escort fighters without losing anyone and damage to the airfield was minor. Sinkep Island was bombed again.
There were a number of attacks on Davao. The first targeted the airfield, the second attacked the freighter Bhima but was prevented from hitting. The final attack hit the just arrived transport Wanganella. With the situation deteriorating quickly here both ships are going to have to simply load what personell they can and try to make it to Menado.
Chinese bombers continued attacked Japanese troops near Wuhan. Blenheims bombed outside the Rangoon Perimeter. Tarawa Marines continued attacking the garrison at Apamama.
The ABDA bombers continued to go after enemy shipping but didn't have any luck today.
Enemy forces had more luck, with a Betty bomber hitting a freighter loading at Toboali. Another attack targeted Balikpapan but did no significant damage.
More Bettys bombed Medan again.
The Japanese continued to attack at Davao, driving the defenders back farther. The base cannot hold much longer. There was more skirmishing along the Rangoon Perimeter. The Jap artillery continued to shell Medan and the Chinese cavalry did likewise against the enemy forces they have been chasing around.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
13 Apr 42
The O16 missed a freighter near Singapore. North of Rabaul the S-44 hit a freighter with two torpedoes and at least two deck gun rounds. The Grampus missed a freighter south of Shimizu. The Dolphin put a torpedo into a transport south of Dadjangas.
DD-Minesweepers in the Coral Sea report depth charging a sonar contact.
Tavoy was bombed again during the night.
A pair of Dutch destroyers intercepted a large enemy convoy near Singkawang/Pontianak escorted by only two small ships. They managed to sink one of the escorts, probably a subchaser type ship, and damage the other along with two of the transports or freighters.
Chinese bombers attacked Chengting. The Japanese fighters based there are so demoralized that they broke and ran as soon as the bombers fired back at them. The first of the LB-30 bombers at Mandalay attacked Tavoy. Twenty-one Liberators destroyed a couple of enemy aircraft on the ground and did some damage to the runways.
The airfield at Rangoon was attacked again. Thirty Sally bombers were escorted by about forty fighters of various types. Two of the AVG's P-40s were shot down in return for five of the bombers and around fifteen of the fighters.
I think it is time the Royal Navy visited Tavoy again. Despite supplements flown in by Dakotas out of Imphal, Rangoon's stockpiles of supplies are starting to drop again. While they still have plenty the timing for another resupply attempt is good. The RN has ships ready at Trimcomalee, there are two freighters fully loaded just arrived at Diamond Harbor and heavy bombers are in place and have begun to suppress Tavoy's aircraft. An attack on the base might cover the freighters and damage the enemy's capabilities enough to let them unload.
Our attack on Singapore went well. Two transports and a freighter were hit, as well as half-a-dozen more bombs dropped on the battleship Hyuga.
Sinkep Island was bombed.
Chinese bombers continued to attack the IJA 3rd Division near Wuhan. They also attacked the Indochina Militia in the jungles north of Hanoi. With better weather of Rangoon, the Hurricanes were able to join the Blenheims again in bombing outside the Perimeter. The Marines kept up the pressure of Apamama.
Attacks on enemy shipping near Brunei and Miri were again unsuccessful. But Java based Blenheims did hit two ships near Singkawang/Pontianak, probably part of the same convoy the Dutch destroyers attacked. A second, unsuccessful, attack on the same convoy was almost intercepted by Japanese Zeroes, almost certainly carrier based. We think there is one to the north heading south towards the Java Sea.
A flight of Bettys attacked shipping loading at Toboali but missed their target. The Medan garrison was hit by about thirty more Bettys. Another attack by Bettys was made against the two Dutch destroyers near Belitung but the DDs were able to evade the bombs.
Davao, surprisingly, held out another day. Both the ships got out, evacuating some of the engineers. The fighters also evacuated, flying to Balikpapan and Menado. We'll see how many more the transport planes at Balikpapan can bring out. Skirmishing continued along the Rangoon Perimeter and there was more shelling of Medan.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
14 Apr 42
The O16 had to avoid a large ASW group east of Singapore.
The Aussie minesweepers spent all day tracking and attacking an intermittant sonar contact. They got some oil but cannot confirm a kill.
Round the clock operations continue against Tavoy. Blenheim IF bombers attacked during the night, followed by LB-30s during the day.
Chinese bombers attacked Chengting. Again, all it took to drive off the defending Nates was a few bursts of machinegun fire from the gunners.
Rangoon was attacked again. Only one P-40 was lost and somewhere around ten enemy planes were shot down.
Enemy Zeroes tried to defend their shipping at Singapore. They shot down two Blenheims and two Hudsons from the first strike but the following groups managed to avoid the fighters. The Hyuga was hit multiple times again. A transport and two cruisers were also struck by bombs.
Multiple attacks were launched against Palembang. In the first the air-to-air losses were about equal, about half-a-dozen planes on each side, and the airfield suffered some damage. The second came from the Akagi, spotted just south of Singapore. That attack shot down most of the Hawk/Brewster CAP, then proceeded to blow apart the tanker Merula with two torpedo hits and at least a dozen bombs.
The airfield at Tarakan was also hit. The CAP Brewsters managed to avoid the escort Zeroes to get one of the dozen Sally bombers. They did not fair as well against the second attack, losing one plane. But the Bettys missed the freighter they were targeting. A third attack was just a single trio of Bettys and a photo recon Babs. The C5M was shot down and the Bettys missed the shipping in port.
Chinese bombers continued to attack the IJA outside Wuhan and the Vietnamese north of Hanoi. Hurricanes and Blenheims supported the Rangoon Perimeter.
The bombers at Batavia were busy today. First two flights of B-17s hammered an enemy minesweeper near Kuching. Then a mixed force of Forts, Blenheims and Martins severly damaged a pair of transports at Singkawang. A second strike later in the day by the same groups hit a minelayer and at least five more transports in the same convoy.
Two flights of Bettys tried to sink the Dutch destroyers near Pontianak again but missed. Enemy divebombers hit the AK Bhima several times, causing the ship to sink a short time later. Another group of Bettys attacked ships loading at Toboali but missed.
Other Betty squadrons attacked troops at Hengchow and Medan.
A flight of Martins hit an oiler at Brunei. A pair of Martins from the same unit struck a transport south of Jolo after dodging some enemy fighters.
The forces at Davao continued to hold, stopping an enemy charge intended to throw them off the base. Enemy reinforcements arrived outside the Rangoon Perimeter, stiffening an attack there. We are now identifing four divisions, two tank regiments and two engineer regiments among the attackers. The defenders held, inflicting severe losses on the enemy. The Japs continue to shell Medan and the Chinese cavalry launched their attack. The few remaining Nip troops slipped away, again.
A number of engineer units were called up in India. They're not at full strength but most of them can remain in Diamond Harbor for a while to build up once they are shipped in. A couple of RAF engineer units also arrived in Karachi. The Australian 6th Division reported in at Sydney. In San Francisco, the 1st Construction Battalion (SeaBees) and the Marine 8th Defense Bn arrived.
The British and Indian units will move to Diamond Harbor. The Australian division will get shipped to Darwin for now. Once there we will try to determine where they can best be used in the DEI. The Sea Bees will go to Luganville to build up the facilities there while the Marine CD guns will go to Baker.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
15 Apr 42
Tavoy was bombed. Blenheims bombed during the night and Liberators during the day.
We have lost contact with the submarine KXVI and intelligence is reporting that the enemy is claiming to have sunk a sub in her patrol zone in the Malacca Strait.
The Dutch destroyers Isaac Sweers and Thanet engaged in a confused night action at Singkawang. We think that they did serious damage to two enemy ships and hit several others. But at least some of the freighters and transports fired back and the Isaac Sweers was hit by a number of shots. These did enough damage that, while not threatening to sink it, she will have to pull back to Soerabaja for repairs.
The Chinese bombed Chengting, the unescorted bombers again scaring off the defending Japanese fighters before bombing the airfield.
The enemy attack on Rangoon was weak. Only a dozen fighters escorted fifteen Sally bombers. The AVG shot down or drove off all the escorts and shot down a third of the bombers without loss.
On the other hand our attack on Singapore was also weak. A flight each of Blenheims and Hudsons bombed the harbor, hitting a light cruiser in the process.
Enemy attacks were launched on Jambi, Sinkep and Palembang. Jambi and Sinkep are empty and the damage there was minimal. Hawk and Brewster fighters defended Palembang. Two Hawks were lost to the escort Oscars before the CAP broke thru. Enemy losses were one fighter and half-a-dozen Lilys.
Blenheims and Hurricanes continued supporting the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese SB-2c bombers bombed the militia division north of Hanoi.
Martins and Beauforts hit two tankers at Brunei. B-17s and Blenheims attacked ships near Johore Bahru. They were briefly intercepted by some Zeroes but neither side lost any planes and none of the ships were hit.
Betty bombers attacked and missed the DD Thanet outside Singkawang. Another attack hit a freighter loading at Toboali, doing serious damage. The garrisons at Medan and Singkawang were also bombed.
The defenders at Davao held off a heavy enemy attack. There were more skirmishes along the Rangoon Perimeter. The enemy finally launched an attack at Medan, but the Dutch retained control of the base. Enemy artillery fired on the garrison at Singkawang.
A number of new ships and a few air units arrived in theatre. The Royal Navy had a heavy cruiser and two light cruiser arrive in Karachi. A squadron of Dakotas also became available on Ceylon. Three new minesweepers were finished in Sydney. But the largest contingent was additional US Navy ships. Four transports were completed on the West Coast. The 43rd BG of B-17s arrived in San Francisco. The battleship Idaho, three cruisers (one each heavy, light and AAA), five destroyers and destroyer escorts and a pair of subs became available in San Francisco.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
16 Apr 42
The O20 torpedoed a freighter in the South China Sea. She then hit a second ship with a pair of torpedoes. The S-42 hit another freighter off the coast of Shikoku. The KXI missed a tanker north of Brunei.
The night flying Blenheims had an especially good night against Tavoy. The Liberators didn't do as well.
Chinese bombers continued to attack Chengting, still having no problems with the apparently demoralized Nip fighters.
Rangoon's airbase was damaged by the enemy's raid there, despite the AVG's shooting down a dozen of the Japanese planes.
Hurricanes and Blenheims bombed enemy troops along the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese bombers continued to drop against the militia division north of Hanoi.
None of the strikes around northern Borneo scored any hits. Blenheims did hit a minesweeper near Johore Bahru. A mixed force of Blenheims, Martins and Fortresses hit the enemy convoy outside Singkawang, damaging a minelayer and three transports with bomb strikes.
The Japanese launched two strikes against the Royal Navy ships approaching Tavoy. The first was forty Bettys escorted by only three Oscars. The Formidable's Fulmar fighters quickly removed the Oscars from the equation and proceeded to shot down or drive off a good third of the bombers. Heavy AAA fire from the ships damaged almost every remaining plane. Despite this heavy defense the Resolution and Prince of Wales were each hit by a torpedo. Fortunately the damage is relatively light and both ships should survive barring further hits. A second attack was better escorted, with some two dozen fighters guarding a dozen Bettys. One of the Fulmars was lost getting thru the screen but between them and the AAA fire half-a-dozen more enemy planes went in the drink. The Formidable herself was able to evade all the torpedoes fired.
However, these attacks do show that we haven't been able to suppress Tavoy as much as we had hoped. The British are turning back for Ceylon.
Heavily escorted Bettys bombed Hengchow. Two flights of Bettys bombed Singkawang. Another flight of Bettys flew past the Brewster CAP at Tarakan but missed the freighter they were aiming for. Toboali was also attacked by Bettys with one freighter getting hit there. Again damage was relatively minor and the ship is continueing to load.
Japanese troops shelled Singkawang. The attack on Davao continued, although the enemy was less forceful in pressing the attack today. Skirmishes along the Rangoon Perimeter and more shelling at Medan.
More reports to follow.
Tavoy was bombed. Blenheims bombed during the night and Liberators during the day.
We have lost contact with the submarine KXVI and intelligence is reporting that the enemy is claiming to have sunk a sub in her patrol zone in the Malacca Strait.
The Dutch destroyers Isaac Sweers and Thanet engaged in a confused night action at Singkawang. We think that they did serious damage to two enemy ships and hit several others. But at least some of the freighters and transports fired back and the Isaac Sweers was hit by a number of shots. These did enough damage that, while not threatening to sink it, she will have to pull back to Soerabaja for repairs.
The Chinese bombed Chengting, the unescorted bombers again scaring off the defending Japanese fighters before bombing the airfield.
The enemy attack on Rangoon was weak. Only a dozen fighters escorted fifteen Sally bombers. The AVG shot down or drove off all the escorts and shot down a third of the bombers without loss.
On the other hand our attack on Singapore was also weak. A flight each of Blenheims and Hudsons bombed the harbor, hitting a light cruiser in the process.
Enemy attacks were launched on Jambi, Sinkep and Palembang. Jambi and Sinkep are empty and the damage there was minimal. Hawk and Brewster fighters defended Palembang. Two Hawks were lost to the escort Oscars before the CAP broke thru. Enemy losses were one fighter and half-a-dozen Lilys.
Blenheims and Hurricanes continued supporting the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese SB-2c bombers bombed the militia division north of Hanoi.
Martins and Beauforts hit two tankers at Brunei. B-17s and Blenheims attacked ships near Johore Bahru. They were briefly intercepted by some Zeroes but neither side lost any planes and none of the ships were hit.
Betty bombers attacked and missed the DD Thanet outside Singkawang. Another attack hit a freighter loading at Toboali, doing serious damage. The garrisons at Medan and Singkawang were also bombed.
The defenders at Davao held off a heavy enemy attack. There were more skirmishes along the Rangoon Perimeter. The enemy finally launched an attack at Medan, but the Dutch retained control of the base. Enemy artillery fired on the garrison at Singkawang.
A number of new ships and a few air units arrived in theatre. The Royal Navy had a heavy cruiser and two light cruiser arrive in Karachi. A squadron of Dakotas also became available on Ceylon. Three new minesweepers were finished in Sydney. But the largest contingent was additional US Navy ships. Four transports were completed on the West Coast. The 43rd BG of B-17s arrived in San Francisco. The battleship Idaho, three cruisers (one each heavy, light and AAA), five destroyers and destroyer escorts and a pair of subs became available in San Francisco.
More reports to follow.
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16 Apr 42
The O20 torpedoed a freighter in the South China Sea. She then hit a second ship with a pair of torpedoes. The S-42 hit another freighter off the coast of Shikoku. The KXI missed a tanker north of Brunei.
The night flying Blenheims had an especially good night against Tavoy. The Liberators didn't do as well.
Chinese bombers continued to attack Chengting, still having no problems with the apparently demoralized Nip fighters.
Rangoon's airbase was damaged by the enemy's raid there, despite the AVG's shooting down a dozen of the Japanese planes.
Hurricanes and Blenheims bombed enemy troops along the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese bombers continued to drop against the militia division north of Hanoi.
None of the strikes around northern Borneo scored any hits. Blenheims did hit a minesweeper near Johore Bahru. A mixed force of Blenheims, Martins and Fortresses hit the enemy convoy outside Singkawang, damaging a minelayer and three transports with bomb strikes.
The Japanese launched two strikes against the Royal Navy ships approaching Tavoy. The first was forty Bettys escorted by only three Oscars. The Formidable's Fulmar fighters quickly removed the Oscars from the equation and proceeded to shot down or drive off a good third of the bombers. Heavy AAA fire from the ships damaged almost every remaining plane. Despite this heavy defense the Resolution and Prince of Wales were each hit by a torpedo. Fortunately the damage is relatively light and both ships should survive barring further hits. A second attack was better escorted, with some two dozen fighters guarding a dozen Bettys. One of the Fulmars was lost getting thru the screen but between them and the AAA fire half-a-dozen more enemy planes went in the drink. The Formidable herself was able to evade all the torpedoes fired.
However, these attacks do show that we haven't been able to suppress Tavoy as much as we had hoped. The British are turning back for Ceylon.
Heavily escorted Bettys bombed Hengchow. Two flights of Bettys bombed Singkawang. Another flight of Bettys flew past the Brewster CAP at Tarakan but missed the freighter they were aiming for. Toboali was also attacked by Bettys with one freighter getting hit there. Again damage was relatively minor and the ship is continueing to load.
Japanese troops shelled Singkawang. The attack on Davao continued, although the enemy was less forceful in pressing the attack today. Skirmishes along the Rangoon Perimeter and more shelling at Medan.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
17 Apr 42
The submarine Searaven missed a damaged freighter near Singkawang. The Greenling missed a tanker north of Luzon. The Tambor encountered an escorted transport in the ocean between the Mariana Islands and Wake. But she lost the convoy before she could determine its heading or set up an attack.
This is mildly worrying. If they are heading for Wake we still have a full division on the island as well as AAA, CD and engineering units. We still have a full squadron each of Wildcats and Dauntlesses plus a unit of Catalinas for search duties. If it is just a single transport, we shouldn't have any problem holding the island this time. But if there were more transports that the Tambor did not see.... I am going to order the three carriers at Pearl out to Wake, just in case.
The British night bombers hit Tavoy again.
Like the swallows to San Juan Capastrano, the Japanese Nates and Sonias returned to Yenen. Half the fifteen fighters were shot down with the rest retreating. Nine out of the ten Sonias were also shot down.
Our attack on Singapore ran into half-a-dozen Zeroes on defense. One of the Hudsons was lost but five more bomb hits were made on the battleship Hyuga.
The Hurricanes continued their attacks along the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese bombers attacked the Indochina militia again.
Singkawang. First, we received word that the garrison there observed two enemy transports sink. Then Java based bombers attacked, expecting to find enemy landing forces. Instead they found three of the IJN carriers protected by a CAP of a dozen Zeroes. Two of the four escorting CW-21B fighters were blown away by the enemy planes in passing as they went after the bombers. Three B-17s and a Martin were shot down. A Blenheim was lost to enemy flak and one bomb hit was scored on one of the escorting battleships. A number of Dutch C-60A Lodestar transports were also shot down by these same Zeroes as they were trying to evacuate some of the garrison. The final act came when a group of five Dutch torpedo boats reached the area. They were also expecting to be dealing with enemy transports unloading troops but instead spotted the enemy carrier group sailing close in to shore. Hugging the shoreline they were able to get within attack range before they were spotted. Two of them were sunk by fire from the escorting cruisers but two of them got their torpedoes off. One of which hit an enemy carrier. Observers on shore identify the ship hit as the Kaga and also report a very large secondary explosion. From the description it appears that a fuel tank of one sort or another was hit.
A flight of Bettys missed one of our converted destroyer transports near Toboali. The ship is part of a group of fast transports enroute to try to evacuate the forces retreating from Kuching. A decade of Bettys tried to attack the battleships Colorado and Maryland as they approached Apamama but lost two of them to AAA fire and had most of the rest damaged as they tried to make torpedo runs. None of the ships were hit and the P-40s at Tarawa have been ordered to cover them as the shell the Japanese troops.
About twenty more bombers attacked the garrison at Medan.
A flight of Hudsons out of Port Moresby discovered that the enemy has pulled back his fighters from Rabaul. They attacked but missed a freighter in the harbor.
The enemy troops ashore at Singkawang shelled the defenders. The Allied forces defending Davao were finally forced to retreat back towards Cotabato. Medan was shelled again and skirmishes continued along the Rangoon Perimeter.
More reports to follow.
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18 Apr 42
We lost the O19. She was on patrol in the South China Sea near Singapore.
Destroyers in the Coral Sea pursued a sonar contact but couldn't resolve it.
Another night attack on Tavoy.
The Colorado and Maryland shelled Apamama.
Chinese bombers attacked Chengting. The enemy fighters refused to press an attack.
Japanese planes attacked Rangoon. The defending P-40s hammered the incoming raid, shooting down at least ten enemy fighters and a couple of bombers without loss.
Our first attack on Singapore successfully avoided the enemy CAP. The Hyuga was hit by several more bombs and a transport was also hit. The second attack was intercepted and several bombers were damaged. One Zero was shot down by a B-17 gunner. This raid targeted the light carrier in port but were not able to hit it.
The facility at Sinkep Island was hit by a very strong raid. The sixty enemy bombers heavily damaged the empty airfield.
Hurricanes attacked enemy forces around the Rangoon Perimeter. Marine Dauntlesses continued attacking enemy troops on Apamama.
South Borneo bombers hit two enemy tankers at Brunei.
There were several enemy attacks on shipping at Tarakan. Several of the defending Brewsters were lost to escorting Zeroes. One freighter was hit by a torpedo as she was leaving port. That ship should make it to Balikpapan for temporary repairs.
There was also an attack on the fast transports at Pontianak. The ships had docked here, expecting a brief stay until the enemy carriers moved away from Singkawang. None of the ships were hit.
Enemy bombers attacked Pagan. One of the defending Buffaloes was lost but along with the Mohawks managed to shoot down several of the escort Zeroes and Oscars. More enemy planes attacked the airfield at Cotabato.
The enemy also attacked Palembang. The Hawk and Brewster fighters managed to shoot down a couple of Oscars and Kates from Singapore, but one of the tankers loading in port was hit by a torpedo and two bombs.
With intelligence that enemy fighters had been withdrawn from Rabaul, the Port Moresby based bombers attacked. Forty B-17s attacked the port. The light cruiser Kinu and a submarine were sunk, a minelayer and a second sub were damaged by the bombs.
The enemy carriers have remained at Singkawang. The Dutch transport pilots, thinking they would have pulled away, tried to continue the aerial evacuation but again the carrier Zeroes shot many of them down. Bombers from Batavia attacked. Two of them were shot down and many others were forced to turn back by the carrier's CAP. But the carrier Akagi was hit by one bomb in the attack.
Enemy forces attacked Singkawang but the defenders held. There was more light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter. But there are indications that still more enemy forces are taking position to attack. Japanese artillery continued to shell Medan.
More reports to follow.
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19 Apr 42
The Chinese are continueing to shift forces from the Indochina front. The new garrisons of SEASIA troops have arrived and the last of the infantry to be moved to Wuchow have received their marching orders. They should arrive in a week or two and preparations for an attack on Canton and Hong Kong can begin.
Near San Marcelino the Greenling was forced to avoid an enemy ASW group. Near Brunei the KXI had her attack on a tanker aborted by an enemy destroyer, but was able to get away. While enroute to lay mines at Shanghai, the Argonaut spotted and fired on a freighter west of Marcus Island.
The Rangoon Blenheims attacked Tavoy again, catching one enemy plane with their bombs. Twenty Liberators attacked during the day, hitting half-a-dozen more enemy aircraft.
The battleships continued to attack Apamama.
Rangoon was attacked by a number of raids, apparently the enemy has noticed the freighters unloading in the harbor. The AVG extracted a heavy toll of the enemy in these attacks. The first attack targeted the airfield and lost a dozen fighters, doing no real damage. The remaining three attacks were going after the port we think. They lost almost twenty more fighters and several Bettys before turning away.
In Singapore harbor our bombers hit a destroyer as well as hitting the Hyuga twice more. Bombers also went after the port at Johore Bahru but weren't able to hit any ships there.
Enemy bombers attacked the airfield at Cotabato in three raids. A few very heavily escorted Bettys also attacked the airbase at Tarakan. Two defending Brewsters were lost to the escort Zeroes but the damage to the base was light.
Chinese bombers continued to attack Japanese troops outside Wuhan. They also began bombing enemy forces in Canton. Hurricanes and Blenheims continued to hit the enemy outside Rangoon. And Marine Dauntless divebombers dropped on the enemy garrison of Apamama.
A flight of Betty bombers tried to attack Trimcomalee but were turned back by the Fulmars off the Formidable.
About thirty Bettys bombed the Medan garrison.
Dutch T.IVa torpedo bombers attacked the enemy carrier group just south of Belitung. The Zeroes shot down six of the seven planes but the survivor did manage a bomb hit on the battleship Kirishima.
Of the several strikes launched on the enemy shipping around Brunei, only one scored a hit on an oiler.
Forts and Hudsons attacked Rabaul. Half-a-dozen Zeroes tried to intercept them but failed. The bombers hit two freighters, sinking one of them. A second strike by a smaller group of Flying Forts also got past the CAP and hit a transport.
An escorted flight of Bettys attacked our APDs loading retreating troops north of Singkawang but missed.
Singkawang was lost to an enemy attack. The garrison has retreated to Pontianak. The was more skirmishing along the Rangoon Perimeter and shelling of Medan.
More reports to follow.
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20 Apr 42
One of the tankers in the Java Sea, hit earlier in port, succumbed to her damage.
The Searaven made a number of attacks on enemy ships near Singkawang but wasn't able to hit any of them. Near Saigon the O24 took a shot at an enemy destroyer but missed. She was able to avoid the ship's counter-attack.
Today's attacks on Tavoy were unusually productive. The night attack destroyed or damaged half-a-dozen enemy aircraft. The daytime attack by two dozen LB-30s destroyed almost as many planes and damaged around thirty-five more.
The US battleships fired on Apamama again before retiring towards Baker to reload.
The attack on Singapore by Blenheims and Hudsons scored more hits on the battleship Hyuga as well as two transports.
The enemy launched a strong attack against Palembang of thirty-five Lily bombers escorted by twenty Oscars. The defending Hawks and Brewsters did well, losing only five of their own while costing the enemy half-a-dozen fighters and bombers. But they were not able to prevent damage to their base.
Chinese aircraft attacked Japanese troops at Canton. Haiphong based SB-2c's bombed the Vietnamese militia stuck in the jungle north of Hanoi.
The Hurricanes and Blenheims attacked the growing number of enemy troops outside the Rangoon Perimeter. Additional bombers are being moved up to Mandalay, now that some more AV support is in position and the airfield has been expanded some more. They will be tasked to attacking Tavoy and supporting the Rangoon Perimeter.
An enemy landing force arrived at Pontianak. As Singkawang has only just fallen this is much faster than we had expected. The bombers at Batavia launched an attack on the amphibious convoy, hitting a destroyer and two freighters.
The Martins and Beauforts on southern Borneo flew again. In two separate strikes, two flights of Beauforts hit a transport north of Brunei. One pair of Martins hit a freighter near Kuching. Another pair attacking a destroyer north of Jolo were intercepted by Nate fighters, who shot down one of the bombers. North of Singkawang a flight of Martins hit a transport.
Trimcomalee came under attack again. First by a single flight of Bettys, next by some fifteen more Bettys. The final wave was another single flight of Bettys. Many of the enemy planes were turned back by the Fulmars. Those that pressed home their attacks all went after the Formidable, losing one to flak but missing the carrier.
Enemy aircraft also attacked the freighter Lematang. She had finished unloading supplies at Rangoon and had just put to sea when she was hit by a Betty launched torpedo. Hopefully she can make it to Akyab to pump out before moving on to Diamond Harbor. Another freighter in Rangoon itself was also attacked. We lost two of the AVG planes but they shot down over a dozen enemy planes. Unfortunately the remaining Sally bombers hit the freighter with a pair of bombs.
Enemy Bettys tried a high level bombing attack against the freighter unloading at Gasmata but missed it. Balikpapan was also attacked. One of the Brewsters was shot down by the escorts but stiffened by the P-40s evacuated from Mindanao the defenders shot down several Zeroes and Bettys.
The airfield at Cotabato was hit by Bettys and Anns. Enemy aircraft also attacked Port Moresby, I assume because they were not happy about losing a cruiser to the bombers from the base. Two of the Bettys were shot down by flak but the attack points out that we have overlooked moving fighters in to protect the base. We will remedy this for now with a squadron of Kittyhawks from Australia but a Marine Wildcat unit is currently unloading at Gili Gili. Once they are ready we'll probably move them to Moresby.
While their base was under attack, the B-17s were bombing Rabaul. They fought off the defending Zeroes and managed to hit a transport.
Tarakan was attacked by three Bettys escorted by almost thirty Zeroes. One of the CAP Brewsters was shot down but the enemy missed the freighter loading in port.
One flight of Bettys slipped past the Batavia CAP to make a run against one of the APDs unloading but missed.
Medan was shelled. The Japanese launched another attack against the Rangoon Perimeter. The defenders suffered the heaviest casualties here to date, almost six hundred reported. The enemy lost roughly the same number and the line didn't significantly change. But the attack did allow us to identify more of the enemy forces here. The IJA is up to four divisions, three tank regiments, two engineer regiments and two mortar battalions committed to the attack on Rangoon. Four brigades, an artillery regiment and a division are holding the Perimeter against them.
More reports to follow.
The submarine Searaven missed a damaged freighter near Singkawang. The Greenling missed a tanker north of Luzon. The Tambor encountered an escorted transport in the ocean between the Mariana Islands and Wake. But she lost the convoy before she could determine its heading or set up an attack.
This is mildly worrying. If they are heading for Wake we still have a full division on the island as well as AAA, CD and engineering units. We still have a full squadron each of Wildcats and Dauntlesses plus a unit of Catalinas for search duties. If it is just a single transport, we shouldn't have any problem holding the island this time. But if there were more transports that the Tambor did not see.... I am going to order the three carriers at Pearl out to Wake, just in case.
The British night bombers hit Tavoy again.
Like the swallows to San Juan Capastrano, the Japanese Nates and Sonias returned to Yenen. Half the fifteen fighters were shot down with the rest retreating. Nine out of the ten Sonias were also shot down.
Our attack on Singapore ran into half-a-dozen Zeroes on defense. One of the Hudsons was lost but five more bomb hits were made on the battleship Hyuga.
The Hurricanes continued their attacks along the Rangoon Perimeter. Chinese bombers attacked the Indochina militia again.
Singkawang. First, we received word that the garrison there observed two enemy transports sink. Then Java based bombers attacked, expecting to find enemy landing forces. Instead they found three of the IJN carriers protected by a CAP of a dozen Zeroes. Two of the four escorting CW-21B fighters were blown away by the enemy planes in passing as they went after the bombers. Three B-17s and a Martin were shot down. A Blenheim was lost to enemy flak and one bomb hit was scored on one of the escorting battleships. A number of Dutch C-60A Lodestar transports were also shot down by these same Zeroes as they were trying to evacuate some of the garrison. The final act came when a group of five Dutch torpedo boats reached the area. They were also expecting to be dealing with enemy transports unloading troops but instead spotted the enemy carrier group sailing close in to shore. Hugging the shoreline they were able to get within attack range before they were spotted. Two of them were sunk by fire from the escorting cruisers but two of them got their torpedoes off. One of which hit an enemy carrier. Observers on shore identify the ship hit as the Kaga and also report a very large secondary explosion. From the description it appears that a fuel tank of one sort or another was hit.
A flight of Bettys missed one of our converted destroyer transports near Toboali. The ship is part of a group of fast transports enroute to try to evacuate the forces retreating from Kuching. A decade of Bettys tried to attack the battleships Colorado and Maryland as they approached Apamama but lost two of them to AAA fire and had most of the rest damaged as they tried to make torpedo runs. None of the ships were hit and the P-40s at Tarawa have been ordered to cover them as the shell the Japanese troops.
About twenty more bombers attacked the garrison at Medan.
A flight of Hudsons out of Port Moresby discovered that the enemy has pulled back his fighters from Rabaul. They attacked but missed a freighter in the harbor.
The enemy troops ashore at Singkawang shelled the defenders. The Allied forces defending Davao were finally forced to retreat back towards Cotabato. Medan was shelled again and skirmishes continued along the Rangoon Perimeter.
More reports to follow.
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18 Apr 42
We lost the O19. She was on patrol in the South China Sea near Singapore.
Destroyers in the Coral Sea pursued a sonar contact but couldn't resolve it.
Another night attack on Tavoy.
The Colorado and Maryland shelled Apamama.
Chinese bombers attacked Chengting. The enemy fighters refused to press an attack.
Japanese planes attacked Rangoon. The defending P-40s hammered the incoming raid, shooting down at least ten enemy fighters and a couple of bombers without loss.
Our first attack on Singapore successfully avoided the enemy CAP. The Hyuga was hit by several more bombs and a transport was also hit. The second attack was intercepted and several bombers were damaged. One Zero was shot down by a B-17 gunner. This raid targeted the light carrier in port but were not able to hit it.
The facility at Sinkep Island was hit by a very strong raid. The sixty enemy bombers heavily damaged the empty airfield.
Hurricanes attacked enemy forces around the Rangoon Perimeter. Marine Dauntlesses continued attacking enemy troops on Apamama.
South Borneo bombers hit two enemy tankers at Brunei.
There were several enemy attacks on shipping at Tarakan. Several of the defending Brewsters were lost to escorting Zeroes. One freighter was hit by a torpedo as she was leaving port. That ship should make it to Balikpapan for temporary repairs.
There was also an attack on the fast transports at Pontianak. The ships had docked here, expecting a brief stay until the enemy carriers moved away from Singkawang. None of the ships were hit.
Enemy bombers attacked Pagan. One of the defending Buffaloes was lost but along with the Mohawks managed to shoot down several of the escort Zeroes and Oscars. More enemy planes attacked the airfield at Cotabato.
The enemy also attacked Palembang. The Hawk and Brewster fighters managed to shoot down a couple of Oscars and Kates from Singapore, but one of the tankers loading in port was hit by a torpedo and two bombs.
With intelligence that enemy fighters had been withdrawn from Rabaul, the Port Moresby based bombers attacked. Forty B-17s attacked the port. The light cruiser Kinu and a submarine were sunk, a minelayer and a second sub were damaged by the bombs.
The enemy carriers have remained at Singkawang. The Dutch transport pilots, thinking they would have pulled away, tried to continue the aerial evacuation but again the carrier Zeroes shot many of them down. Bombers from Batavia attacked. Two of them were shot down and many others were forced to turn back by the carrier's CAP. But the carrier Akagi was hit by one bomb in the attack.
Enemy forces attacked Singkawang but the defenders held. There was more light fighting along the Rangoon Perimeter. But there are indications that still more enemy forces are taking position to attack. Japanese artillery continued to shell Medan.
More reports to follow.
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19 Apr 42
The Chinese are continueing to shift forces from the Indochina front. The new garrisons of SEASIA troops have arrived and the last of the infantry to be moved to Wuchow have received their marching orders. They should arrive in a week or two and preparations for an attack on Canton and Hong Kong can begin.
Near San Marcelino the Greenling was forced to avoid an enemy ASW group. Near Brunei the KXI had her attack on a tanker aborted by an enemy destroyer, but was able to get away. While enroute to lay mines at Shanghai, the Argonaut spotted and fired on a freighter west of Marcus Island.
The Rangoon Blenheims attacked Tavoy again, catching one enemy plane with their bombs. Twenty Liberators attacked during the day, hitting half-a-dozen more enemy aircraft.
The battleships continued to attack Apamama.
Rangoon was attacked by a number of raids, apparently the enemy has noticed the freighters unloading in the harbor. The AVG extracted a heavy toll of the enemy in these attacks. The first attack targeted the airfield and lost a dozen fighters, doing no real damage. The remaining three attacks were going after the port we think. They lost almost twenty more fighters and several Bettys before turning away.
In Singapore harbor our bombers hit a destroyer as well as hitting the Hyuga twice more. Bombers also went after the port at Johore Bahru but weren't able to hit any ships there.
Enemy bombers attacked the airfield at Cotabato in three raids. A few very heavily escorted Bettys also attacked the airbase at Tarakan. Two defending Brewsters were lost to the escort Zeroes but the damage to the base was light.
Chinese bombers continued to attack Japanese troops outside Wuhan. They also began bombing enemy forces in Canton. Hurricanes and Blenheims continued to hit the enemy outside Rangoon. And Marine Dauntless divebombers dropped on the enemy garrison of Apamama.
A flight of Betty bombers tried to attack Trimcomalee but were turned back by the Fulmars off the Formidable.
About thirty Bettys bombed the Medan garrison.
Dutch T.IVa torpedo bombers attacked the enemy carrier group just south of Belitung. The Zeroes shot down six of the seven planes but the survivor did manage a bomb hit on the battleship Kirishima.
Of the several strikes launched on the enemy shipping around Brunei, only one scored a hit on an oiler.
Forts and Hudsons attacked Rabaul. Half-a-dozen Zeroes tried to intercept them but failed. The bombers hit two freighters, sinking one of them. A second strike by a smaller group of Flying Forts also got past the CAP and hit a transport.
An escorted flight of Bettys attacked our APDs loading retreating troops north of Singkawang but missed.
Singkawang was lost to an enemy attack. The garrison has retreated to Pontianak. The was more skirmishing along the Rangoon Perimeter and shelling of Medan.
More reports to follow.
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20 Apr 42
One of the tankers in the Java Sea, hit earlier in port, succumbed to her damage.
The Searaven made a number of attacks on enemy ships near Singkawang but wasn't able to hit any of them. Near Saigon the O24 took a shot at an enemy destroyer but missed. She was able to avoid the ship's counter-attack.
Today's attacks on Tavoy were unusually productive. The night attack destroyed or damaged half-a-dozen enemy aircraft. The daytime attack by two dozen LB-30s destroyed almost as many planes and damaged around thirty-five more.
The US battleships fired on Apamama again before retiring towards Baker to reload.
The attack on Singapore by Blenheims and Hudsons scored more hits on the battleship Hyuga as well as two transports.
The enemy launched a strong attack against Palembang of thirty-five Lily bombers escorted by twenty Oscars. The defending Hawks and Brewsters did well, losing only five of their own while costing the enemy half-a-dozen fighters and bombers. But they were not able to prevent damage to their base.
Chinese aircraft attacked Japanese troops at Canton. Haiphong based SB-2c's bombed the Vietnamese militia stuck in the jungle north of Hanoi.
The Hurricanes and Blenheims attacked the growing number of enemy troops outside the Rangoon Perimeter. Additional bombers are being moved up to Mandalay, now that some more AV support is in position and the airfield has been expanded some more. They will be tasked to attacking Tavoy and supporting the Rangoon Perimeter.
An enemy landing force arrived at Pontianak. As Singkawang has only just fallen this is much faster than we had expected. The bombers at Batavia launched an attack on the amphibious convoy, hitting a destroyer and two freighters.
The Martins and Beauforts on southern Borneo flew again. In two separate strikes, two flights of Beauforts hit a transport north of Brunei. One pair of Martins hit a freighter near Kuching. Another pair attacking a destroyer north of Jolo were intercepted by Nate fighters, who shot down one of the bombers. North of Singkawang a flight of Martins hit a transport.
Trimcomalee came under attack again. First by a single flight of Bettys, next by some fifteen more Bettys. The final wave was another single flight of Bettys. Many of the enemy planes were turned back by the Fulmars. Those that pressed home their attacks all went after the Formidable, losing one to flak but missing the carrier.
Enemy aircraft also attacked the freighter Lematang. She had finished unloading supplies at Rangoon and had just put to sea when she was hit by a Betty launched torpedo. Hopefully she can make it to Akyab to pump out before moving on to Diamond Harbor. Another freighter in Rangoon itself was also attacked. We lost two of the AVG planes but they shot down over a dozen enemy planes. Unfortunately the remaining Sally bombers hit the freighter with a pair of bombs.
Enemy Bettys tried a high level bombing attack against the freighter unloading at Gasmata but missed it. Balikpapan was also attacked. One of the Brewsters was shot down by the escorts but stiffened by the P-40s evacuated from Mindanao the defenders shot down several Zeroes and Bettys.
The airfield at Cotabato was hit by Bettys and Anns. Enemy aircraft also attacked Port Moresby, I assume because they were not happy about losing a cruiser to the bombers from the base. Two of the Bettys were shot down by flak but the attack points out that we have overlooked moving fighters in to protect the base. We will remedy this for now with a squadron of Kittyhawks from Australia but a Marine Wildcat unit is currently unloading at Gili Gili. Once they are ready we'll probably move them to Moresby.
While their base was under attack, the B-17s were bombing Rabaul. They fought off the defending Zeroes and managed to hit a transport.
Tarakan was attacked by three Bettys escorted by almost thirty Zeroes. One of the CAP Brewsters was shot down but the enemy missed the freighter loading in port.
One flight of Bettys slipped past the Batavia CAP to make a run against one of the APDs unloading but missed.
Medan was shelled. The Japanese launched another attack against the Rangoon Perimeter. The defenders suffered the heaviest casualties here to date, almost six hundred reported. The enemy lost roughly the same number and the line didn't significantly change. But the attack did allow us to identify more of the enemy forces here. The IJA is up to four divisions, three tank regiments, two engineer regiments and two mortar battalions committed to the attack on Rangoon. Four brigades, an artillery regiment and a division are holding the Perimeter against them.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
RE: Reports From the Front (AAR from a first time player.)
21 Apr 42
North of Brunei the Swordfish torpedoed a freighter. She also carried out two unsuccessful attacks on other freighters in the same area.
The enemy continued to unload at Pontianak. The defender's artillery managed to score hits on two of the light escorts, a minesweeper and a subchaser.
We continued bombing Tavoy around the clock. The full dozen Blenheim IFs hit the airbase during the night. Thirty two Liberators and sixteen Blenheim IVs bombed during the day, losing one LB-30 to a flight of Zeroes. In return they destroyed about twenty enemy planes on the ground.
The enemy responded with an attack on Pagan. Two defending Mohawk IVs were shot down by the escorts in return for one of the Sallys. The rest of the twenty bombers did little damage to the airfield.
Japanese bombers also attacked Jambi.
The Chinese bombing of enemy troops near Wuhan, Canton and Hanoi continued. While Rangoon was socked in, preventing the Hurricanes from flying, two dozen B-25s just arrived at Mandalay bombed enemy armor outside the Perimeter.
A flight of T.IVa torpedo bombers, escorted by five Demons, tried to attack the enemy carriers south of Belitung. They ran into about thirty enemy Zeroes, who bypassed the escorts. Only one bomber survived the fighters to be shot down by enemy AAA fire.
We had better luck attacking the invasion fleet at Pontianak. The heavy bombers at Batavia scored hits on seven freighters of the amphibious landing force. Martins from south Borneo hit a transport in the same group.
The enemy carriers were not idle. One strike sank a tanker in the Java Sea heading south with oil for Australia. A second attack was aimed at the fast transports that had just finished unloading at Batavia. The Brewsters and Demons of the CAP shot down almost ten of the unescorted Kates. But the remaining fifty bombers sank two of the APDs and damaged two more. A followup attack by two flights of land-based Bettys missed. One last flight of Bettys was turned back after losing one of their planes.
Betty bombers tried to hit the freighter unloading supplies at Gasmata. More enemy bombers bombed the defenders at Cotabato and Medan. A flight of Sonias hit the freighter Empire Snipe unloading at Kuala. Two dozen Bettys attacked and missed an ASW group operating near Gili Gili.
B-17s attacking Rabaul ran into a beehive of Zeroes. We lost eight of the twenty-four bombers without hitting any enemy ships.
Enemy troops attacked at Pontianak and Cotabato, gaining ground against the defenders. The attack on the Rangoon Perimeter continued. Seven hundred casualties were reported among the defenders and we estimate about twice that among the enemy. But stress is becoming apparent along the Perimeter. And there was more shelling at Medan.
More reports to follow.
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22 Apr 42
The Drum missed a heavily escorted freighter near Batan Island. Later that same night she shelled and torpedoed a lone freigher north of Luzon. East of Singapore the O20 put a torpedo into a freighter. In the eastern South China Sea the Grayling hit a tanker. Northwest of Luzon the Greenling missed an escorted freighter. North of Brunei the KXVII hit a tanker with two torpedoes.
Our destroyers southeast of Gili Gili found and sank an enemy sub.
Bombers continued to hit Tavoy. The daytime raid ran into two flights of Zeroes, costing us three of the Blenheims. The remaining dozen and the thirty Liberators did good damage to the airfield.
Yenen was attacked by a dozen enemy planes. Only one or two of the enemy fighters that ran away survived, all the other planes getting shot down by the veteran Chinese pilots.
At Singapore we hit a minesweeper with a pair of bombs and hammered the Hyuga with ten more bomb hits.
Enemy planes attacked Palembang. About twenty Hawks and Brewsters were able to intercept, shooting down half-a-dozen enemy Oscars and forcing about half the twenty bombers to abort. The remaining Lilys did relatively minor damage to the airfield.
Chinese bombers continued attacking IJA troops west of Wuhan and in Canton. The weather cleared over Rangoon, allowing the Hurricanes to fly again. They and the B-25s hit the enemy forces along the Perimeter.
The bombers at Batavia suffered heavy casualties today. First they attacked the enemy carriers south of Belitung. They ran into a CAP of thirty Zeroes and lost most of their eight escort Demons and Brewsters. Half-a-dozen of the bombers got shot down and many others aborted in the face of the fighter resistance. The survivors, on the other hand, managed to score two bomb hits on the carrier Kaga. Then they hit two freighters at Pontianak. A second raid on Pontianak was intercepted by a dozen Zeroes, costing us another eight bombers. The rest hit two more freighters.
About twenty Bettys attacked the ASW group south of Gili Gili but missed all the destroyers. A flight of Bettys also missed the freighter unloading at Gasmata. One flight of massively escorted Bettys missed a freighter leaving Tarakan.
Tojo escorted Sonias attacked Changsha, doing some damage to the airfield. Port Morseby was attacked by ten Bettys escorted by a flight of Zeroes. One of the defending Kittyhawks was lost and AAA claimed one of the Bettys. No real damage was done to the airfield.
Our forces at Cotabato were bombed in raids by Nells, then Bettys and Anns. More Bettys attacked Medan.
The Martins and Beauforts in south Borneo were only able to hit a minesweeper in the SCS north of Brunei.
The IJN carriers attacked Batavia. They sank one freighter and damaged two more that had just arrived.
Dutch torpedo boats enroute to Pontianak ran into a freighter escorted by a subchaser and a gunboat. They managed to hit the freighter with a torpedo. One of the boats suffered a near miss from a parting shot by the freighter's deck gun but otherwise they managed to escape unscathed.
The artillery at Pontianak continued to shell the enemy forces unloading at the beaches, hitting one transport. The enemy troops already onshore succeeded in pushing the defenders back further. The Chinese have gotten fed up with chasing the remains of the enemy's Pakhoi garrison across the countryside. It is now between Kweilin and Hengchow north of the rail line and the Chinese are moving four more corps to support the cavalry and finally trap and destroy the unit. Two tank regiments launched an attack on our forces at Cotabato, driving the weakened units into retreat and taking the base. The survivors are trying to make it to Dadjangas. The enemy broke off his attack on the Rangoon Perimeter. The enemy forces at Medan launched an attack, but their numbers are so low that even the weak garrison was able to hold them off.
More reports to follow.
North of Brunei the Swordfish torpedoed a freighter. She also carried out two unsuccessful attacks on other freighters in the same area.
The enemy continued to unload at Pontianak. The defender's artillery managed to score hits on two of the light escorts, a minesweeper and a subchaser.
We continued bombing Tavoy around the clock. The full dozen Blenheim IFs hit the airbase during the night. Thirty two Liberators and sixteen Blenheim IVs bombed during the day, losing one LB-30 to a flight of Zeroes. In return they destroyed about twenty enemy planes on the ground.
The enemy responded with an attack on Pagan. Two defending Mohawk IVs were shot down by the escorts in return for one of the Sallys. The rest of the twenty bombers did little damage to the airfield.
Japanese bombers also attacked Jambi.
The Chinese bombing of enemy troops near Wuhan, Canton and Hanoi continued. While Rangoon was socked in, preventing the Hurricanes from flying, two dozen B-25s just arrived at Mandalay bombed enemy armor outside the Perimeter.
A flight of T.IVa torpedo bombers, escorted by five Demons, tried to attack the enemy carriers south of Belitung. They ran into about thirty enemy Zeroes, who bypassed the escorts. Only one bomber survived the fighters to be shot down by enemy AAA fire.
We had better luck attacking the invasion fleet at Pontianak. The heavy bombers at Batavia scored hits on seven freighters of the amphibious landing force. Martins from south Borneo hit a transport in the same group.
The enemy carriers were not idle. One strike sank a tanker in the Java Sea heading south with oil for Australia. A second attack was aimed at the fast transports that had just finished unloading at Batavia. The Brewsters and Demons of the CAP shot down almost ten of the unescorted Kates. But the remaining fifty bombers sank two of the APDs and damaged two more. A followup attack by two flights of land-based Bettys missed. One last flight of Bettys was turned back after losing one of their planes.
Betty bombers tried to hit the freighter unloading supplies at Gasmata. More enemy bombers bombed the defenders at Cotabato and Medan. A flight of Sonias hit the freighter Empire Snipe unloading at Kuala. Two dozen Bettys attacked and missed an ASW group operating near Gili Gili.
B-17s attacking Rabaul ran into a beehive of Zeroes. We lost eight of the twenty-four bombers without hitting any enemy ships.
Enemy troops attacked at Pontianak and Cotabato, gaining ground against the defenders. The attack on the Rangoon Perimeter continued. Seven hundred casualties were reported among the defenders and we estimate about twice that among the enemy. But stress is becoming apparent along the Perimeter. And there was more shelling at Medan.
More reports to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
22 Apr 42
The Drum missed a heavily escorted freighter near Batan Island. Later that same night she shelled and torpedoed a lone freigher north of Luzon. East of Singapore the O20 put a torpedo into a freighter. In the eastern South China Sea the Grayling hit a tanker. Northwest of Luzon the Greenling missed an escorted freighter. North of Brunei the KXVII hit a tanker with two torpedoes.
Our destroyers southeast of Gili Gili found and sank an enemy sub.
Bombers continued to hit Tavoy. The daytime raid ran into two flights of Zeroes, costing us three of the Blenheims. The remaining dozen and the thirty Liberators did good damage to the airfield.
Yenen was attacked by a dozen enemy planes. Only one or two of the enemy fighters that ran away survived, all the other planes getting shot down by the veteran Chinese pilots.
At Singapore we hit a minesweeper with a pair of bombs and hammered the Hyuga with ten more bomb hits.
Enemy planes attacked Palembang. About twenty Hawks and Brewsters were able to intercept, shooting down half-a-dozen enemy Oscars and forcing about half the twenty bombers to abort. The remaining Lilys did relatively minor damage to the airfield.
Chinese bombers continued attacking IJA troops west of Wuhan and in Canton. The weather cleared over Rangoon, allowing the Hurricanes to fly again. They and the B-25s hit the enemy forces along the Perimeter.
The bombers at Batavia suffered heavy casualties today. First they attacked the enemy carriers south of Belitung. They ran into a CAP of thirty Zeroes and lost most of their eight escort Demons and Brewsters. Half-a-dozen of the bombers got shot down and many others aborted in the face of the fighter resistance. The survivors, on the other hand, managed to score two bomb hits on the carrier Kaga. Then they hit two freighters at Pontianak. A second raid on Pontianak was intercepted by a dozen Zeroes, costing us another eight bombers. The rest hit two more freighters.
About twenty Bettys attacked the ASW group south of Gili Gili but missed all the destroyers. A flight of Bettys also missed the freighter unloading at Gasmata. One flight of massively escorted Bettys missed a freighter leaving Tarakan.
Tojo escorted Sonias attacked Changsha, doing some damage to the airfield. Port Morseby was attacked by ten Bettys escorted by a flight of Zeroes. One of the defending Kittyhawks was lost and AAA claimed one of the Bettys. No real damage was done to the airfield.
Our forces at Cotabato were bombed in raids by Nells, then Bettys and Anns. More Bettys attacked Medan.
The Martins and Beauforts in south Borneo were only able to hit a minesweeper in the SCS north of Brunei.
The IJN carriers attacked Batavia. They sank one freighter and damaged two more that had just arrived.
Dutch torpedo boats enroute to Pontianak ran into a freighter escorted by a subchaser and a gunboat. They managed to hit the freighter with a torpedo. One of the boats suffered a near miss from a parting shot by the freighter's deck gun but otherwise they managed to escape unscathed.
The artillery at Pontianak continued to shell the enemy forces unloading at the beaches, hitting one transport. The enemy troops already onshore succeeded in pushing the defenders back further. The Chinese have gotten fed up with chasing the remains of the enemy's Pakhoi garrison across the countryside. It is now between Kweilin and Hengchow north of the rail line and the Chinese are moving four more corps to support the cavalry and finally trap and destroy the unit. Two tank regiments launched an attack on our forces at Cotabato, driving the weakened units into retreat and taking the base. The survivors are trying to make it to Dadjangas. The enemy broke off his attack on the Rangoon Perimeter. The enemy forces at Medan launched an attack, but their numbers are so low that even the weak garrison was able to hold them off.
More reports to follow.
This game does not have a learning curve. It has a learning cliff.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.
"Bomb early, bomb often, bomb everything." - Niceguy
Any bugs I report are always straight stock games.