The First Team: Take Two!

[Q-Ball]

Ceylon is a deathtrap for both sides; whoever controls the air over it, will eventually control the ground under it. For this reason, we can land on it simultaneously with an invasion at Viz, and it won't take more than a Brigade to take it. If it does, that's just a bonus because those Allied troops will end up in our POW camp.

I favor a landing in force at VIZ, with a simulataneous Brigade landing at Trincomalee. This will give us a base in the area, and guard against the RN while we build up Viz. We could prep a small unit plus base force for a landing on at Triv at D+10 or so; once they see a large force landing at Viz, all those cities in Southern India figure to empty out, which means a small force can easily clear it all out without diverting further from our main effort.

If we are fast, we won't ever need KB. We can use Baby KB + Car Div 2. 4 IJN CV's are enough to keep the USN honest until March 1942, at which point we are hopefully ashore at India, and Car Div 2 is moving back to Truk. This is a key advantage of an early landing. After March, we will need to keep Bettys in India, but that should be enough to keep the RN honest.

Finally, RE: Mandalay, the town itself isn't important, but it is important to take Myitkina if we can. That will keep the Chinese in Norther Burma, where they will still be a threat, but will also be constantly low on supplies.

[Mike Solli]

What's the state of the RN?

[Q-Ball]

State of the RN? Good question Mike. It's intact, save for the Hong Kong DDs. We can count on it all being there when we advance.

I haven't sighted a single RN surface ship other than those DDs. Methinks Force Z ran back to India, probably not unwise given the presence of CVs in the DEI, plus Nells.

The other surface fleets in the SRA are more or less accounted for. We put a TT into Tromp Dec 7th, and haven't seen her since. We lost 3 DD's at Balikpapan, but they did pepper the other two CLs, and sank/disabled 2 DDs. The US Asiatic Fleet's surface units are all basically sunk.

[2ndACR]

Land at Viz, have all your armor units in one group head up the rail line to Hyberbad followed by aviation reg and Infantry Reg.......that gives you a level for air base, it has resources so you get supply........have one div move north, 2-3 move towards Calcutta, with 2-3 heading for Madras.
 
Once the aviation reg and Infantry reg arrive Hyberbad, well your armor and scoot just about anywhere. Real quick.
 
If going for Ceylon, well I would use 2 Div for total conquest........but main force would still land at Viz.......the faster to cut off Burma from supply.

[Canoerebel]

There are probably many options, but I wouldn't commit large units elsewhere until I had achieved my primary objectives of isolated the British Army in Burma and establishing a landine of supply back to Rangoon.  IE, I'd throw almost everything I had into that effort (but could probably spare some smaller units to gobble up some territory and obtain some other air bases. IF (big IF) you succceed in isolating and destroying the British army in Burma/NE India and open a road to Rangoon, then you should be in a great position to take the war to the rest of the Sub-continent or turn your attention elsewhere.  Everything depends on defeating the British in that neck and opening the road - if you don't, you're divided and things will go badly.

[2ndACR]

Well, I have tried to march out of Burma when someone hit India.........might as well just surrender your units.........you are talking months on trails etc.

Plenty of time to get to Calcutta, isolate with 2 div, use the other one to finish cutting off Burma. Place the IJA Burma force right across the river from Mandalay and that will hold his attention.

I would not trust 1 brigade to take Ceylon against any fort level and not landing right on the base with the added disruption etc.

Against 2 div, there is basically nothing in the Allied force in India that can break thru, or destroy........I would even stay north of the rivers of Calcutta and force the Allied player to shock attack across to break my lines for supply. Once the armor is in the back field, well any Allied response is subject to being cutoff from supply at any time. It is basically impossible to defend India against a determined IJN player if they use the kitchen sink approach. Not in this time frame. You need alot of Chinese in India to have a hope.

There is more than enough supply/resources/industry in southern India to make any army self sustaining. Once you have just cutoff Burma from supply, well then you can destroy it at your leisure and China also starves. So taking India/just cutting off Burma makes 2 (Burma and China) basically easy to take.

I would not take on any forces in Burma until I had cut the supply lines.......my 2 cents. You will need more than 2 Div to destroy the Burma forces.

[John 3rd]

I've been so wrapped up with the Forlorn Hopes AAR that I hadn't caught this discussion.  Great thoughts from you guys.  I agree that we should land at Viza and "drive like Hell" (to quote General Horrocks) in all directions with the armor while isolating the Burmese Army ASAP.

If we can stick to our envisioned timetable of a February landing, we should be able to deal with the Royal Navy.  I still put out hope that we can find and destroy some of it prior to the landing.  This is why CarDiv2 is off prowling looking for trouble. 

Brad and I have been emailing back-and-forth over how our opponents are fighting in Malaya and the Philippines.  We are somewhat perplexed by their fighting choices to this point.  Think I'll leave it to Brad for the commentary but we decided to (probably) add 38th Inf Div to the Luzon Force in hopes of pushing an early victory there.

The Japanese should be at Johore Bharu by January 1st.

[John 3rd]

Here is this region:

[John 3rd]

Region 2:

[John 3rd]

Region 3:

[John 3rd]

Note the Southern and Central Burma bases being empty. There are 3 recon Chutai at Raheang checking out each of these bases every other day...

[John 3rd]

This completes the Japanese Operational picture. Multi-Phase Landings occurring throughout area.

Goals:
1. Immediate (1 week or less): Capture Lae, Lunga, and Milne Bay.
2. Near (within 2 weeks): Port Moresby
3. Medium (2 weeks): Luganville and Efate (loading at Kwajalein now)
4. Distant (1 Month): New Caledonia

[ny59giants]

We can discuss your choice of colors and how they relate to your "diagnosis" later. [:D]

[John 3rd]

STOP THAT!  Evil...pure Evil...you are strong with the Dark Side of the Force...

Master Mace Windu liked that color!  Don't mess with the solitary Jedi who defeated the Emperor in a one-on-one fight!

[John 3rd]

Combat Report
December 22, 1941
Tulagi, Solomons

On December 20th a small Japanese TF of 3 AP and 2 PG began unloading at Tulagi.  This group was escorted by the Training Cruiser Katori.  On the 21st the Island officially became Japanese and the TF Commander began picking up the troops so Lunga could be occupied on the following day.  Little did these ships and their men know that they were serving as bait.

For the first two weeks of the war, a small group of Light and Heavy Cruisers have been mixing it up with the Japanese.  The fall of Rabaul prompted them to move south until they heard about the Tulagi Force.  Setting Full Speed the 4 Cruisers (CA Canberra, CL Perth, CL Achilles, and CL Leander) arrive during the early morning of December 22 and sink the Katori.  It should be noted that the Katori put up such a spirited fight the Cruisers had to spend valuable time moving into dawn searching the the Invasion Force.

The Australian and New Zealand crews have no idea of what is about to hit them.

CarDiv1
Admiral Nagumo, fresh off his success with Pearl Harbor, spends 4-5 days at Kwajalein before departing the base for the Coral Sea.  Due to all the Naval Activity he elects to split his CVs: CarDiv5 to come in on the northern end of the Solomons and his CarDiv1 to swing through the southern edge of the islands. 

When Katori's distress calls ring out at 0330 hours, Nagumo is perfectly positioned to the west of Tulagi.  At dawn he turns his two CVs into the wind and launches the full complement of both carriers at the hapless cruisers.  These pilots are the best of an elite best.  Commandeer Fuchida commands the strike and he watches with satisfaction as 16 Zero escort his 48 Val and 48 Kate to their target.

The warships are trying to exit the Tulagi area when they massed Japanese strike bores in on them.  Though they ring up Flank Speed there is little they can do to avoid the disaster that is coming.  While the Kates get into position, elegant strings of Val Chutai dive from the sun and score numerous hits on the ships.  Perth suffers massive explosion and quickly staggers to a halt.  Achilles sees her aft magazine explode blowing off her stern.  All this occurs before the Kates make their drops.  Perth and Leander take most of the hits (5 and 6) while Achilles takes 2 Torpedoes, and Canberra gets another pair. 

Leander and Achilles sink immediately after the assault. 

An afternoon strike of 15 Zero, 37 Val, and 29 Kate comes in and finishes wracking up more damage on Canberra and Perth leaving them in a sinking condition.

In one fell stroke two carriers manage to clear the entire region of danger with the launching of 96 Strike Aircraft.  Only 2 Kates fail to make it home and one of their crews is rescued later in the day.

Operations can now go ahead with little fear of interdiction whatsoever.  Almost on cue, anchors drop at Lunga and Milne Bay for their occupation to begin.

Now the hunt for shipping fleeing the area can begin...

[Q-Ball]

December 23rd Update from the SRA

That was a brilliant move by John! They will likely think twice now before attacking seemingly helpless shipping. Didn't see the other cruisers sink, but I bet they were scuttled.

Phillipines

This theater is very confusing to me; maybe John can post a screenshot. I welcome your comments.

There are 6 Allied units at Baguio, apparently some of their best troops. Shuzan Nav Gd. is in the hex to screen; they could probably push that aside anytime, though they haven't bombarded or otherwise scouted that unit, so they may not know it's only 100AV Gd unit.

Yesterday, 48th Division and support tanks/Art reached Clark in their rear, and took the forts down to 2. Engineers arrive tommorow, at which point we will attack again after a brief rest. 65th Bde guards Lingayen.

The Southern Luzon Force easily took Naga, with those 2 PA divisions fleeing to Manila. We should be able to invest Manila tommorow.

Maybe they know something we don't, or maybe they screwed up the defense. Why would they split their troops like this? Those troops at Bagiuo could break out and threaten the base at Appari, but is a supply-sucking offensive really wise for the Allies? I don't get it.

We are going to bring in 38th Div from Hong Kong for a couple weeks to help take Clark, and eliminate the pockets on Luzon. I will probably bring 4th division from Naga around as well, 1 division is plenty to invest Manila with the forces there, but 2 aren't enough to take it. Very strange.

We have a chance now to really close out the Phillipines, or at least eliminate most of the combat troops outside of Manila in isolated pockets.

Can anyone out there guess why they are aligning troops this way, or do you think it's a mistake?

Malaya

The steamroller down the West Coast continues. Those 2 Bdes had a combined adjusted Defense of 7 last turn; pretty sure they are spent. Otherwise, units are gathering at Johore, save for a Brigade at Khota Bharu that wants to be cut off for whatever reason. We should be investing Singapore around Jan 10th.

DEI

Landings occur tommorow at Dili, Koepang, Lautem. All should fall quickly. We will land at Makassar in 3 days, which will complete the conquest of the southern DEI, and cut off any transfers from Australia save long-range bombers.

We land at Samarinda Christmas day, and Balikpapan two days later. The Java invasion force is gathering at Saigon, and should sail about New Year's Day. Singkawang fell today. Overall I am pleased with the pace here, though I always think we can go faster.

[ny59giants]

Can anyone out there guess why they are aligning troops this way, or do you think it's a mistake?

I think they messed up, which is good news for you. I don't think you can move from a hex with mixed ZOC to another with the same situation. Thus, get your troops from Naga to Manila ASAP. Then attack in Clark to force them to retreat to Bataan. The less in Manila, the better. Those at Baguio can only go to a hex without troops. It might include hexes that are under your control, but I'm not sure.

1) Get troops from Naga to Manila
2) Attack in Clark to force retreat into Bataan.
3) Send in enough troops to Bataan to pin them there
4) March troop along west coast into Clark and then up to Baguio (any other way from the west is by trail vs roads).
5) Wipe out Baguio
6) Wipe out Bataan
7) Lay siege to Manila

[John 3rd]

As my partner requests:

[John 3rd]

I truly think we could END the Luzon Campaign by Jan 31st.  Considering that Singapore will be done at that point we could seriously be looking at our ENTIRE army available for operations Feb 1st.

Think about that.

Timeline Thought:
A.  Singapore Falls about January 10th:  we let the troops rest for say two weeks and fling them at India.  We, with units moved down from Manchuria, could launch an Invasion of Viza with 4 Inf Div (Malaya), 4-5 Tk Brigade, several Engineering Reg, and a large Base Force or two.  Target Landing:  Feb 15, 1942.

B.  Allied Resistance collapses in Luzon by January 31st.  Two weeks again to rest and we could send an EQUAL-Sized force for a second invasion within India.  Target Landing:  March 10, 1942 

If we stick to a friendly port these troops can land without any form of disruption.

Fleet Adjustments:
1.  We will have 4 BB (Nagato is 18 Sys and needs to be sent to Singapore immediately upon its surrender OR send it to Hong Kong NOW) and numerous support ships to bombard with in the Initial Attack.
2.  3 CV TF: 
   a.  CV TF1--CarDiv2
   b.  CV TF2---Ryuho, Zuiho, Hosho
   c.  CV TF3---Taiyo
3.  CV Reinforcements
  a.  CVL Shoho complete Jan 1st.
  b.  CV Junyo Feb 19th.
  c.  CVE Unyo March 7th
  d.  CV Hiyo April 4th

Carrier Re-organization
a.  Add Shoho to CV TF1 to form a Strike Force, CV TF 2 and 3 Covering the Landing Force to hit Viza
b.  2nd Landing would be able to include Junyo.

When Junyo enters into your service, I think CV TF1 needs to be pulled back to the Pacific to help handle US CV.  This withdrawal could be done in early-March.

Thoughts...

[John 3rd]

Combat Report
Dec 23, 1941
SE Pacific

Lunga and Milne Bay Fall.  They will be immediately expanded.

At Rabaul the South Seas Force and 56th ID finish loading and put to sea for Port Moresby.

The KB--working as separate Divisions--will move across the Coral Sea looking for stragglers and fleeing shipping.  After 2-3 days they will return to Tulagi for fuel and then cover the Luganville/Efate Landing.  Once these landings are clear they will either:

1.  move far south and try to interdict Allied shipping

or

2.  Move due east and catch any Convoy/TF moving troops into Suva, Pago Pago, etc...

Submarine Action
I was about to complain that after a great start our SS haven't done much.  That changed this turn with I-8 sinking an AK west of Pearl Harbor and I-4 sinking another AK, while on the surface, at Papeate in the Society Islands.

Another SS was attacked unsuccessfully NE of PH in hex 128,66.