Sub War
The I-18, starting the war with the mass of subs off the coast of Hawaii, was on its way to its new assignment and ran into 2 different TFs off Pearl Harbor:
DD MacDonough
DD Selfridge
DD Conyngham
DD Ralph Talbot
AD Dobbin
AR Medusa
AK Castor
DD Schley
DD Litchfield
DD Allen
DD Aylwin
AVD Hulbert
DM Pruitt
DM Montgomery
DMS Boggs
AM Vireo
PC Taney
PC Reliance
PC Tiger
DM Sicard
She launched a couple torpedoes at the AVD, but they missed. Wonder where they’re going?
There are still 3 subs hauling midget subs. One will drop its cargo at Johnston Island tomorrow and the other two will drop their midgets at Midway and Christmas Islands the day after. Let’s see if they do anything…
Finally, The I-124 had a field day, sort of. She dropped her mines at Lubang, 2 hexes SW of Manila and stayed there. Two single ships entered the hex and she sank them both with gunfire (they were xAKLs). Later in the day, a TF of 3 AMs entered the hex clearing a handful of mines. She torpedoed and sank one of them. Not much in the grand scheme of things, but every little bit helps. [8|]
5 Fleet
The Adak invasion TF will finish loading supplies tomorrow. Then it is a 7 day trek to Adak.
I did buy out 90 Regiment, spending most of my PPs. It’s broken down into its 3 battalions. They will liberate/garrison Adak, Unmak and Dutch Harbor. There are no fast xAPs available in the Home Islands right now, but they will get some Tohos, as soon as some are available after converting to the to troop carriers in the next few days.
4 Fleet
Nothing happened today. KB is headed toward Wake Island (2.5 days out) and is still spotted.
SE Fleet
Nothing happened here today either.
The Replenishment TF arrived at Truk and is refilling its AOs and will wait for KB to arrive.
SRA
There was lots of action here, which is a good thing. The Allied thundering herd let loose. There are Allied ships all over the place.
Luzon first. Vigan converted to Japanese control before the attack could happen. An AS battalion (24 AS) is on ground and a Base Force will land tomorrow, which will bring the AS to 72. I now have stationed there 31 Zeros, 31 Anns, 3 Vals and 9 recon. The Zeros are splitting their sorties between CAP and Escort. It’s much better than having to fly from Formosa.
Lingayen was liberated, as expected. About half the Allied division was destroyed and the rest has to be in pretty poor shape. I had less than a dozen disabled squad with little fatigue.
There was a large fighter duel over Clark Field. My 27 Zeros were drastically outnumbered by 53 enemy fighters. When it was all said and done, 10 P35s, 6 P-40Bs and 9 P-40Es were shot down for a loss of 6 Zeros (and their pilots). Later in the day, 42 Betties hit Clark field moderately damaging the airfield for a loss of 2 bombers. I don’t like using IJN bombers against land targets, but it’s a necessity early in the war.
I see troops moving in the south moving toward Manila. I also see troops in Iba and Manila moving toward Clark Field. There are also troops moving from Clark to Bataan! Is he withdrawing to Bataan already? I doubt it, but time will tell.
16 Division (-) is 4 days out from Mauban. The remainder of the division is Miura Kimura Dets. Miura Det is 2 days out from Legaspi and Kimura Det is 3 days out from Antimonan. Finally, 56 Division (-) is about a week out from Lingayan.
On Mindanao, Davao was easily taken, pushing the Philippine defenders south, where they will starve. I now have stationed there 9 Claudes and 6 Jakes, for naval search in the area.
My next invasion of Mindanao is two pronged. The 146 Regiment (remainder of 56 Division) is loading at Babeldaob and will land at Butuan. At Pescadores, 4 & 7 Tank Regiments are leaving and will arrive at Butuan (tentatively) in 6 days. This should be enough force to liberate Mindanao.
There was an interesting situation at Jolo. Yesterday, the two invasion fleets had arrived and dropped off their troops and a little supply, and the cover force of 2 CA, 1 CL and 5 DD were also there to cover the landings, in case Boise, Houston and the Marblehead TF got frisky. It turned out Boise was 1 hex away, Houston was 2 hexes away and the Marblehead TF was ~6 hexes away. I pulled the two invasion TFs out to protect them and left the CA TF there to hopefully ambush some of the US ships. Mike didn’t take my bait, unfortunately. I successfully liberated Jolo, but there is little supply there. My TFs are moving back tomorrow to unload more supply. The CA TF will remain there to cover them. All of the US warships have fled. I can no longer see them but that will change tomorrow. I now have stationed at Jolo 9 Zeros, 9 Nells, 3 Mabels(!) and 18 Mavis. The Mavis flying boats will now spot anything in the central SRA and the dozen bombers will bomb all the fleeing rats coming out of all the port in the area. I have 24 engineers there but have decided not to increase the airfield from level 3 to 4. By the time that happens, the war will have moved on. If Mike decides to try and intervene, he’ll have to contend with 2 CAs and a dozen bombers.
Until I get good intel on where the US warships are, I’m putting on hold my small invasions of Namlea and Ternate. They don’t have any warship support down there. I expect the flying boats to locate the ships tomorrow. If they’re far enough away, I’ll proceed with those invasions.
I had an invasion that had me scratch my head during the replay. I invaded Itbayat Island (a couple hexes south of Formosa). At first I thought it was some weird mistake, but finally realized it’s a Fast Transport TF dropping off an SNLF company to start cleaning up the dot hexes scattered all over. I have another such TF forming up and will probably employ 1 or 2 more to clean up.
My small invasion of Puerto Princesa was disrupted a bit. After they had landed their troops and some supply, 4 old US DDs showed up. I suspect Mike didn’t expect the invasion force to be escorted by CA Chokai. The US 4-stackers managed to sink an xAKL and damage a PB and TB in exchange for the loss of John D. Ford and damage to Pope. The base was easily liberated by the Naval Guard.
Singkawang posed another potential issue. I saw that Force Z, reinforced by the CL Danae, was only 2 hexes SW of Singkawang. I had no heavy warships there, and didn’t want to risk my two invasion fleets. The troops had landed, but little supply had landed with them. I was easily able to liberate the base. I detached an xAKL to stay and unload its supply, but the two invasion fleets fled N and NE, just in case. My concerns were realized when they showed up that night. xAKL Raizan Maru took 48(!) shell hits before sinking. Force Z had to have used a lot of ammo sinking that little ship. They are now 4 hexes to the SW, among a horde of other ships fleeing the area. I’m sending back a couple of cargo ships escorted by a PB to drop off 2k supply. I’m willing to risk them should Force Z come back. The rest of the invasion TFs will return to port for Phase II. Singkawang now has 18 Zeros and 27 Betties ready to hit the shipping in the area. I am also increasing the airfield there from level 3 to 4. Oh yeah, Mike left a little present in the form of mines there. I’m sending 3 DMS from Mersing to clear them. The potential loss of the DMS is the biggest risk I’m taking here should Force Z return.
Mersing was an outstanding success! The Aussie brigade was soundly trashed. My 2 tank regiments and 2 recon regiments successfully pursued the Aussies to Johore Bahru. They will shock attack tomorrow. The 5 and 18 Divisions are marching to the sound of the guns along with artillery, engineers (most of them) and AS. I’m keeping behind 3 independent engineer regiments and 24 AS at Mersing. Their mission is to build up the airfield to level 2 (currently at 0). I want fighters down there should the shock attack at Johore Bahru fail. I have a Naval Guard marching west to Malacca to keep the CW army in Northern Malaya from pushing south. In addition, there are a couple of infantry battalions in the north. One landed at Patani and is marching south and the second is going to land at Kota Bharu in 2 days. The 6 RTA division is marching south toward Alor Star and the IG Division and 14 Tank Regiment are railing to Singora where they will provide the muscle in the push south.
Kaga is still unspotted in the middle of the South China Sea. She is headed to the hex directly NW of Puerto Princesa. Ryujo is still trying to catch up with Kaga and was caught by 8 MTBs (British) in a night attack. Ryujo’s escorts successfully shielded the carrier, and one MTB and drove the others off. Later in the day, 4 Fubukis caught the 7 surviving MTBs and sank them.
Six US PT boats had a successful attack on the Lingayen invasion force sinking 2 and damaging 1 xAK. Unfortunately, the two ships that were sunk were Kyushus. The PT boats got away, but are still in the hex. I have a TF of a CL and 4 DDs that are going there to clean out the PT boats tomorrow.
Burma
Nothing going on here yet, but I did spot the AVG at Rangoon.
China
I mistakenly set my Hong Kong invasion force to march instead of having them follow the 38 Division. Just about everyone is in Hong Kong except the 38 Division. The division is only 1 mile out, but I can’t attack until they show up. I’m having the artillery (6 units) bombard. If Mike suspects something and attacks, the 38 Division will be in the hex in combat mode. I hope he does. That will hasten their departure. [:'(]
Mike used his bombers against Pescadores this time (3x A29A and 5x DB3M-1). Four Zeros and 7 Nates rose against them shooting down one of each flak getting another DB3M-1. It was a port attack and it was unsuccessful. Let’s see where he tries tomorrow.
Not much else happening there yet. Still maneuvering…
Other Stuff
Nothing much.
; Julia Child
