Lots of sub activity today, and the sync bug is gone.
Along the east coast of Australia, Japanese sub I-173 torpedoes one of my two sailboats from Townsville that was heading south to safer waters.
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Sub attack at 48,109
Japanese Ships
SS I-173
Allied Ships
AK Gnair, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
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At Palmyra Japanese sub I8 has a busy day as it puts two torpedoes into an AO and another two later in the day into an AK. Both ships sustained very heavy damage, I doubt they’ll make it to Pearl. Pearl is the closest port that they can disband into, all other ports in the area are level 2 or less.
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Sub attack near Palmyra at 110,90
Japanese Ships
SS I-8
Allied Ships
AO Ramapo, Torpedo hits 2, on fire
AK Morazan
AVD Swan
AVD Avocet
AVD Thornton
MSW Penguin
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Sub attack near Palmyra at 110,90
Japanese Ships
SS I-8, hits 1
Allied Ships
AK Si Kiang, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP President Harrison
AVD Swan
AVD Avocet
AVD Thornton
MSW Penguin
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Japan isn’t the only one to enjoy some sub success today, at Saigon, Dutch sub SS KXIV puts a torpedo into an AK.
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Sub attack near Saigon at 31,45
Japanese Ships
AK Yahiko Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PC Ch 14
Allied Ships
SS KXIV
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Singapore, Madioen and Manila all get hit from the air today. Later Japan’s troops must have finished their R&R at Clark Field, because they launch a shock attack at Manila and get bloodily repulsed, taking 4 times as many casualties as my troops.
I was surprised my opponent didn’t try a few deliberate attacks to use up the last of my supplies before he went with a shock attack. Either he misread my declining AV as no supplies or he’s getting impatient.
There is about 1500 supplies left at Manila, but most of the troops now have little or no supply on hand. The end is very near.
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Ground combat at Manila
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 133540 troops, 648 guns, 193 vehicles, Assault Value = 2483
Defending force 45575 troops, 46 guns, 215 vehicles, Assault Value = 1074
Japanese max assault: 4736 - adjusted assault: 2110
Allied max defense: 897 - adjusted defense: 1745
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 0)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0
Japanese ground losses:
8296 casualties reported
Guns lost 50
Vehicles lost 7
Allied ground losses:
1947 casualties reported
Guns lost 5
Vehicles lost 14
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At Cooktown my Hudson’s and their escorting Kittyhawks launch a coordinated strike with the Kittyhawks from Charter Towers. One zero is shot down in air to air and another destroyed on the ground.
My Hudson’s just can’t seem to do enough damage to close the airfield. Damage is about 30-40 now and seems to drop each turn by about 10 points, so the field will be fully repaired in less than a week at this rate. I have some B-26 Marauder’s from the Southwest Pacific command on the way to Australia, but they’re still a month or more away.
This is the second turn in a row my heavies at Charter Towers haven’t flown. Morale is fine and fatigue is minimal, so I have no idea why they aren’t flying.
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Day Air attack on Cooktown , at 48,100
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12
Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 10
Hudson I x 34
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 6 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 3 damaged
Hudson I: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged
Runway hits 14
Aircraft Attacking:
5 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
<snip>
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SigInt reports 103,401 men at Truck. I can’t imagine they are all base force and rear area units, so it looks like he’s got quite a force gathered for his offensive into the Pacific. That or they are destined to reinforce Cooktown.
Here’s a screenshot of the strategic map showing the extent of Japan’s area of control.
Japan’s South Seas det. arrived at Noumea this turn. Talk about a horse race, I just finished unloading a US armor battalion at the base last turn, and the Americal Division’s task force arrived at the base this turn, but nothing is yet unloaded. Some of the Division may unload before Japan attacks, if so I may hold onto the base. If not I might lose the base and the three small units currently defending it.
Combined the three small units have about 120 AV. If memory serves, the South Seas Det. Had about 400AV when it attacked Port Moresby, so the three units may be able to hold the base for a turn or two. There is only 1 fort at the base, but it is wooded terrain, so I’m hopeful.
I’ve gone ahead and diverted the bulk of the Southwest Pacific commands convoy that was heading to Australia with troops and aircraft to Noumea. I think it is far more important to defend Noumea now and keep my shipping lanes to Australia open than it is to get a large US airforce contingent operational in Australia right now.
Of the 200 aircraft all will eventually go to Noumea except 4 squadrons of B-26 Marauders. They lack the range to hit Luganville, so they’ll be better served flying in Australia. The 72 P-39’s will go to Noumea right away to operate out of the level 2 airfield there.
A squadron of A-24’s, one of A-20’s and 2 squadron’s of B-25’s will go to Auckland to await a level 4 airfield at Noumea. The B-25’s can hit Luganville, and the A-24’s and A-20’s will act as naval attack and search aircraft.
The land units diverted include a 90 air support baseforce unit, a 270 air support aviation unit and an engineer unit. Combined with the engineer units unloading now with the Americal Division, Noumea should be a level 4 airfield within a few weeks of the arrival of the diverted convoy. I’m guessing it is two to three weeks out.
Jim
