EUB vs Sprior - see who gets his banana straightened

[EUBanana]

Oh, and I dumped a base force on Attu Island in NorPac. Cant hurt, can it. Building up the airfield there now. [:)]

[EUBanana]

Argh, another disaster of a turn, but this one was entirely my fault. Problem I have is I'm just too slapdash.

His carriers show up off Port Moresby - fine. They launch a massive raid and... my fighters were all resting! Sigh. Utter carnage is the result, of course. Not that I expected 2 squadrons of fighters (well, 1 + wirraways) to really blunt the KB, but damn, a bit of a fight would have been put up at least.

He's reconning Java in seriousness now. Must be an attack in the works, in the next few days. He has all of the east coast of Sumatra now pretty much so I'm losing my eyes around Singapore, I cant tell what he has planned.

The ground war goes my way. The Chinese at Myritkina throw back the Jap, clearing the Burma Road! They will pursue (see that jpg above of my plans for Burma). In China itself his attack at the east around Sian is halted on the railway - he tries a shock attack against my Chinese divisions, and fails to clear them from the rail line. Guerilla warfare is going on behind the lines, his supplies must have been cut. *evil*

[EUBanana]

New style today rather than my rambling, not sure if it'll be a permanent feature.

BURMA/INDIA

The Imperial Guard meets the welcome wagon at Jorhat. Damn, that unit is tough. He's got another division nearby, and with that as well... enh. I dunno if I'll be able to hold him even with my mass of troops. We shall see, level 9 forts mean it'll take him a while.

The battle may be being decided further south, the Chinese are pursuing his retreating INF unit to the west of Myritkina, but I can see yet another Jap unit approaching up the railway. It better not be another division but what else can it be? Bad news. On the plus side Myritkina will be yet further reinforced as the week drags on, more Chinese divisions on the trail, and Commonwealth refugees hot on their heels.

CHINA

He might be getting bogged down in his offensive at Sian. Not sure yet, I just launched a disastrous deliberate attack, but he launched a disastrous shock attack the day before, so who knows. I got armoured units in the countryside cutting supply lines anyway, a winner doesnt look clearcut yet. I imagine he has reinforcements planned so I'm launching a spoiling attack from Kweilin towards the Japanese railway centre with about 10 of Chinas best divisions (too many mouths to feed in Kweilin so I had to move some out anyway).

JAVA

I just noticed my Warhawks at Java are up to 70 experience - the AVG, due to attrition, is only on 73 average now, its legend has dimmed but in lending a helping hand to the USAF pilots they've given the USAF a leg up. He's unloading at Palembang again, a CA is spotted. I set the Warhawks to sweep the place, while Hawks hopefully escort some Swordfish and Beauforts to juicy Jap targets. I reinforced the place with Hurricanes (truly, a lot of fighters there) to bolster the defence while the Warhawks are busy at Palembang.
There are an incredible number of Allied subs operating in the Java Sea, the place is infested. A Jap AK catches two torpedoes today, breaks my heart.

AUSTRALIA/SOPAC

Port Moresby is a smoking ruin as the KB launches another volley. The fog of war lied real bad about the damage though, most of the damage was to the runway this time (its at 97 percent damage...).
Lexington and Enterprise snuck by to Townsville while this is going on. On to Brisbane, then to Sydney to be fixed. I figure it'll be quicker to fix them at Sydney than take them to Pearl and fix them there, despite the extra ARs.

CENTPAC/NORPAC/US

Attu Island is coming along, going to leave it quietly developing till it hits max, level 5. Then I'll do the same for its neighbour.
Elsewhere, quiet.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Port Moresby , at 53,91

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 15
D3A Val x 115
B5N Kate x 123

Allied aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
D3A Val: 20 damaged
B5N Kate: 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort V-IX: 24 destroyed, 34 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 14 destroyed, 3 damaged
TBD Devastator: 2 destroyed
Wirraway: 4 destroyed, 10 damaged


Allied ground losses:
28 casualties reported
Vehicles lost 1

Airbase hits 14
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 116

Aircraft Attacking:
22 x D3A Val bombing at 2000 feet
22 x B5N Kate bombing at 9000 feet
21 x D3A Val bombing at 2000 feet
22 x B5N Kate bombing at 9000 feet
18 x D3A Val bombing at 2000 feet
18 x B5N Kate bombing at 9000 feet
18 x D3A Val bombing at 2000 feet
18 x B5N Kate bombing at 9000 feet
19 x D3A Val bombing at 2000 feet
21 x B5N Kate bombing at 9000 feet
17 x D3A Val bombing at 2000 feet
22 x B5N Kate bombing at 9000 feet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Imphal

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 22214 troops, 237 guns, 13 vehicles

Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 413 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Imphal base !!!

(Left it empty. Another place for Stillwell to use as target practice.)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Jorhat

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 23492 troops, 267 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 33748 troops, 303 guns, 512 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 9)


Japanese ground losses:
971 casualties reported
Guns lost 28

Allied ground losses:
141 casualties reported
Guns lost 5
(Damn the Imperial Guard are scary. Hope the other Div isnt enough to tip the balance for the Jap. He's got to be supplied over a crappy little trail at least. Anyway, THEY SHALL NOT PASS!)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Homan

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 76224 troops, 614 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 135884 troops, 1476 guns, 291 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 0 to 1


Japanese ground losses:
759 casualties reported
Guns lost 19
Vehicles lost 1

Allied ground losses:
4330 casualties reported
Guns lost 149
(OW - and this after the Japs were repulse in a shock attack)

[EUBanana]

BURMA/INDIA

The Imperial Guard dont attack. Neither do I. Standoff. He must be getting his other Div up, I'm bringing up my other tank unit meanwhile. [:D]
He's doing a hell of a lot of recon around Dacca, Calcutta, Akyab... He's been doing recon on Akyab for ages and bombed me when I was there (I pulled back). I thought nothing of it at the time but my eyes at the northern tip of Sumatra noticed two large TFs headed into the Bay of Bengal. I am now worried. The Calcutta/Dacca/Diamond Harbour triangle is quite empty at the moment, all my units are holding the line at Jorhat. Got 1 UK div coming but its around Delhi at the moment, a way to go.
Planning on countering with heavies set on naval attack if he gets near enough. I got a tiny number of Beauforts but they are at Colombo and would be difficult to move in time, besides I think their range would be too short to intervene.
Not going to use Hermes. I dont want him to realise the UK carriers are elsewhere, I'd rather have him think they are holed up in Colombo afraid of Betties.

The situation at Myritkina gets more tense, definitely another ground unit of some sort. Might lose Myritkina after all. I delay today, but tomorrow may well begin to pull back to the town. Supply still good, he doesnt seem to have thought of LRCAPping the town.

JAVA/SUMATRA

He cleans up the northern bases in Sumatra, putting out my eyes in the Bay of Bengal. Recon is becoming very scarce on my side. For his part a massive recon effort on Java for the second day running, and he begins bombing Pontiniak. For my part I'm moving up 32 more Beauforts to Java, putting a total torpedo bomber force there of about 50 planes. When he lands its all over but I want to punish him first. He seems wary of my concentrated fighter power, I seem to be able to bomb Palembang's shipping with impunity despite the Zeroes there.

CHINA
All quiet. Nobody is attacking. Lots of resting and recovering.

SOPAC/AUSTRALIA

KB has gone. Betties now bomb PM daily out of Rabaul but they have almost no effect. Unfortunately it'll take forever to fix the damn runway after the mauling it received. All my high value a/c have been sent to Cairns anyway, which has 200 av support.

CENTPAC/NORPAC

Quiet.

Other Intentions...

Indian Bde at Dimapur set to move to Chandpur (currently empty bar base force)
Stillwells Heavies set to bomb Imphal airfield - he aint using it, but lets keep it that way. (Noted that I got a Fort unit at 70 experience, will try skip bombing maybe soon!)
45 engineers and 8 eng vehicles do nothing to fix PMs airfield, gah. I just gotta wait here.
Hell of a lot of transport traffic between Noumea and Brisbane, hope he doesnt raid down there! A lot of minelaying going on down there too, Noumea especially.

[EUBanana]

arrrr the weather is killing me. Thunderstorms everywhere again so not much to report.

Martins out of Soerabaja bomb an AK in the Java Sea, but Batavia's torpedo bombers are grounded. Calcutta is grounded. The ground war hasn't really changed, few attacks, a bombardment of the Imperial Guard was about it.

Myritkina is low on supplies so the heavies being grounded today dont bother me all that much, I'm setting them all on a supply run tomorrow.

[EUBanana]

The long promised pic of China...



He's got about 10-15 units coming at about 15-20 units of Chinese in the NE. He doesn't seem to be getting very far yet, I reinforced Sian with about 4 divisions just now. Got more units coming up from Yenen on the road.

Kweiyang is my forward recovery base, lots of divs there resting. I just moved out all the rested and fresh ones (anything with assault value >100) and they are the ones making the attack. Too many divs were concentrated there to supply anyway.

Supply is reasonable but not great. The NE has the most, luckily. The Burma Road is still open, but on the other hand, the 50 Dakotas in Burma/India are too busy supplying the effort to keep it open to supply China.

[EUBanana]

Monsoon storms ground everything in Java again. Most of the map is quiet, far as the air war is concerned anyway.

On the ground however bitter fighting continues. He clears his rear on his Sian thrust - I will be sending in my armoured unit next to bite his supplies again in a few days, keep him tied up. Burma/India has the most fighting though, spirited resistance from the Allies this time. The Desert Rats smash through the Imperial Guard, and the Guard end up sitting on a hilltop with malarial mosquitoes and no supplies, bwahahahaha. The British are the first to see a fleeing Japanese back after all. But he has a lot more units coming up on the Burma railroad, and only the Chinese can stop them. Skirmishing is already going on one hex west of Myritkina, and supply is an issue, always an issue, for me there. There is no way I can move them to cut his supply lines, instead my Chinese attack has become a delaying action.
The regrouped Commonwealth Burma units are almost at Myritkina, can the Chinese hold out another 10-14 days?

Going to be very touch and go.

[EUBanana]

BURMA/INDIA

Most of his units have been cast to the hills, literally. The bastion of Jorhat proved as impregnable as I had hoped. I am not, however, chasing him, I am sitting tight in Jorhat.

Deadlock outside Myritkina. Suits me.

JAVA

IT HAS BEGUN! A massive raid is launched on Batavia, with Zero and Oscar escort. The Batavia fighters sally forth and outdo the enemy, shooting down more than they suffer, perhaps the first aerial encounter of the war so far where this has been true. However, they numbers of bombers are too great and the airfield is heavily bombed regardless of their efforts.
Then one of these odd WITP things that irks me gets to me. The number of fighters that engaged over Batavia was quite low, much less than I had hoped. I got 40 Warhawks there and only 15 actually fight? Well, I assumed it was because they were escorting my naval bombers - the naval bombers did fly, but without any escort, so my Swordfish got cut to ribbons. Where were the fighters? guh.
Overall the air losses were 28 of mine and 25 of his, including my mauled torpedo bombers.
Several of my bombers were caught on the ground at Batavia as well, mind you, but the air to air was good.

Tomorrow, the other Java fighters - Brewsters at Soerabaja, Warhawks from Tjilatjap - will LRCAP over Batavia to give the place a chance to mend with some cover.

CHINA
Both sides resting, I think he must know he doesnt have enough force there to kick the Chinese out. WHich is why I'm attacking his centre, to keep him from amassing that force undisturbed. As the attack is over 200 miles of road it might be too late of course, but enh.

AUS/SOPAC

Betties bomb PM again but do nothing, again. When the place is reasonably fixed I'll park 24 Warhawks and 48 Airacobras there, all of a sudden, and try and pounce his regular bombing.

The east coast of Australia is rapidly becoming a major fortress, lots of US planes there almost done uncrating. Noumea is extremely heavily defended - 2 Divs, 2 Bdes, 2 AA, 1 CD,
300 aircraft (actually too many, I gotta transport some of those to Aus, but still!). It has nearing 400,000 supply as well.
He aint getting by that in a hurry.

CENTPAC/NORPAC

No change.

[EUBanana]

BURMA/INDIA

There must be 6 or 7 Jap units at or near the Imphal/Jorhat line. I've managed to defeat him in detail as he hasn't massed his forces, but if he does I'll be worried. Therefore, change of plan. 7th Armoured and one Indian tank brigade are moving out of the fortress of Jorhat and trying to take Kohima, I think its called, the base immediately to the SW. It is garrisoned with one unit, but lets push them out and inflict fatigue now, rather than when he has massed all his forces there.
The Chinese outside Myritkina are in good supply and high spirits so I am putting them on a deliberate attack, more to gauge the Jap strength (6000 vs 8000 Chinese, so they aint gonna win). If things get hairy at Jorhat I might need to try to force through to his supply line at all costs.

...this is like Slim and the 14th Army, but 2 years early. I hope his supply lines really are being stretched by that trail.

JAVA
The air offensive is stopped dead by monsoons. Gives Batavia a chance to fix the runway, all fixed now pretty much. I fly out the Swordfish, just leaving Beauforts there - Beauforts are tougher, and besides I need to cut down on the av support needed.

SOPAC/AUS
Port Moresby is now on 55 runway damage from a high of 97. Service damage is still very bad. He bombs it regularly with Betties but has yet to score a single runway hit with them. I'm going to wait until April (its March 28th), by which time the runway will likely be usable, and then plonk 48 Airacobras and 24 Warhawks there, see if I can establish some measure of air superiority. I need more av support there before I can turn it into a Fortress base and splatter Rabaul.
My massed DD forces at Noumea leave - half to Auckland, half to Pearl. Its AA upgrade time soon!


CENTPAC/NORPAC
Everybody is waiting for the 4/42 AA upgrades. Long Island arrived today. What to do with that piece of junk...

[EUBanana]

BURMA/INDIA
Good and bad news. The Chinese deliberate attack succeeds beyond my wildest dreams, hammering him hard and throwing one of his two units there, a mixed Bde, into retreat.
Retreating due to the Chinese? Dear me. A shock attack is scheduled for next turn, with orders to pursue. Maybe we can force through to his supply lines with a Chinese human wave! Supplies remain good despite the attack, though only just. The aerial Burma Road can -just- about keep these guys in the field it seems.
The bad news is suddenly the base near Jorhat fills with Japs, and kick out my tanks. Therefore cutting his supply is evidently very necessary here. It's up to the Chinese.

CHINA
Things look bad for Homan? now. His rear is well guarded with many divisions, he's cleared out my guerillas now. Reinforcements pour in. With the speed of the RR I cannot intervene, and am pondering falling back. Surely his ultimate objective is Sian anyway.
My own attack wont materialise for at least 10 more days, not quick enough.

JAVA
His air offensive continues but his Zeroes perform badly. I've put a lot of crack fighters at Batavia, as I said, the cream of the USAF and RDAF, and it shows. Air to air losses according to the intel screen are 16 of mine, 33 of his - including many Zeroes - and 8 of mine on the airfield. That includes an action over Gili Gili where my Warhawks performed less well, so I think thats not bad. Almost 2 to 1 in the air war at March 42 with Zeroes involved in the fight? I cannot ask for more.
Also, he is not cratering the runway there as fast as I am fixing it. Damage to it has restricted my Beauforts to bombs though so I figure he's done what he wants.

SOPAC/AUS
Massive amounts of Jap shipping around Rabaul, battleships according to the Catalinas. Clearly, he means business around here for some time yet. Port Moresby remains empty, he's turned his attentions to Gili Gili, where my Warhawks mix it up with Zeroes and Betties.
Approximately 8 are shot down for about 4 Betties nailed, but airfield damage is slight. I'm very happy he's switched to GG and let PM fix itself. I did ponder a massive fighter movement to PM today but on reflection, its the 29th of March, and I've decided to wait till 1st April to ensure his Zero bonus has dropped another point first.

CENTPAC/NORPAC
Quiet. USN in port, yadda yadda, you know how it is.
Next round of south pacific reinforcements - base force (very badly needed I might add, I want this at PM if possible), Marine raider squadron, more fuel, more supplies - just east of Canton Island now.
I reinforced Pearl Harbour of all places too, it had zero fighters for some time. [;)] Now its got 72 Mohawks. I have a tendency to rush forward too much and leave the rear empty, I've been resisting the urge in India to send in everybody, for example. Anyway, thats one hole plugged.

[EUBanana]

BURMA/INDIA
The Chinese human wave rolls over the hapless opponent and they press on. The two Japanese units there are seriously disrupted and fatigued, and the Chins have plenty more where that came from. (There are still two Chinese divisions at Myritkina i didnt commit, being cautious here and trying not to overplay my hand. Wobbly remains at the back of my mind all the time. [;)])
Mandalay airfield hasnt had attention for a while, unfortunately Stillwells Heavies are on 15 fatigue after a few days of supply runs, so it falls to the Blenheims to have a go at it. Heres hoping its still "out".

CHINA
Not much change, he's bombarding and softening Homan up.

JAVA
The RDAF had to take the brunt today, the Brewsters die like flies. He chalks up what I guess to be about 20 kills for I guess about 4 Zeroes. Batavia is plastered again but it remains operational, just. Unfortunately I cannot really replace my losses whereas the Japanese assault is undimmed. He is losing pilots but he has more to lose.
For now.
Tomorrow the Brewsters stand down and the Warhawks at Tjilatjap are on LRCAP, as I rotate the defence.

SOPAC/AUS
Snuck in a fast transport to PM today, it got away no worries, 2000 more supply in. That was a test run, I'm going to try and troop transport a base force to PM sometime soon - this week. PM has 80 av support, not enough. I want 80 fighters + bombers.

CENTPAC/NORPAC
Rearranging my broken ships. San Fran is cleared of old Pearl battleships to mend, and the place is opened up for a brace of DDs which need upgrading. Pearl Harbour is being cleared of some heavily damaged but not vital ships - TKs and such - for similar reasons.
No sign of enemy activity anywhere. He's busy at Java. In fact, an AK just arrived at Pearl having sailed straight through the middle of the Marshalls unmolested. I noticed it going through in error a while back, so I figured, lets leave it going, bit of recon conducted Russian style. [;)].

The Battle of the Burma Road rages on!



Note the Imperial Guard on that hill to the W of Jorhat. [:D]

[EUBanana]

Fairly quiet today.

BURMA/INDIA
No change at the Indian/Burma border. The medium bombers discover that Mandalay airfield is totally fixed, and put 22 bombs into the runway. Not enough, I'm going to thoroughly paste it again with heavies tomorrow, weather permitting. Dinahs are stationed there apparently.
The Chinese mass at the sweet spot where trail meets runway, and ready a deliberate attack to push him off it. Plan is to split up one Chinese unit and send it further west to intercept that trail, though those poor sods are going to die to the last man doing it probably.
Supply at Myritkina dips slightly into the pink, the mini-offensive is causing problems already.

CHINA
My offensive is developing. He's noticed it, he's bombing it daily now. Good, good. Hopefully he'll divert ground units when he gets slammed.
Homan holds, looks like he's going for an envelopment. 2 corps are directed to leave Sian to ensure that the rail escape route is clear.

JAVA
Batavia is down to 50 fighters, and most of those are unserviceable. Still, they shoot down at least as many Japs as they lose - info screen tells me air to air losses were 8 for 8 today. I leave the remnants in for another day, but am already moving Martins out of Soerabaja to make room for refugees, tomorrow I think I'm going to evac in earnest. He's got what he wanted, air superiority over Batavia, but it cost him ~30 Zeroes I would guess at a minimum. Japanese morale evidently sucks, today my outnumbered fighters got into his bombers despite a 20 Zero CAP, and there was plenty of "xxxx turning back!".

SOPAC/AUS
He hits Gili Gili again, and loses several Betties. The Warhawks there are depleted quite severely but seem to be inflicting at least as much hurt as they are taking. Not in vain either - today I shipped 50 Airacobras and 16 Kittyhawks to PM. Taking a risk - they are left on stand down for today, it'll only be pure bad luck if he bombs them tomorrow on the airfield. Plan is tomorrow they rest, and then the CAP starts - and it'll be April 1st, so one less Zero point. He's got 20 Zeroes as escort, I know Airacobras blow but they'll outnumber him 2 or 3 to 1 hopefully.

CENTPAC
Reinforcement ground unit fragments are dispatched from Pearl to SOPAC today in 3 APs escorted by 2 PGs and a PC.

[EUBanana]

BURMA/INDIA

The Chinese turf out the Japs again - somehow they have managed to repulse Japs who outnumbered them, the Japanese supply situation must suck on the Burma RR. I guess the nuking of Mandalay's resources early helped! They sit tight, not pursuing, and strangling his supply line. He has 2 divisions + paras + engineers now in effect behind the Chinese, potentially cut-offable.
The heavies bomb Mandalays airfield, scoring 50 hits - bah not enough. They'll have another go when fatigue pemits.
The mediums are going for the airfields near Jorhat meanwhile, on the far side of the Chinese. And today I set the Buffalos for some random LRCAPping over Imphal and the other forward Jap base (K something... SW of Jorhat) in the hope of catching Topsies trying to supply him.

CHINA
Still developing. Little actual combat.

JAVA
I've pulled out everything but the Hurricanes and AVG from Batavia, damage permitting of course. Warhawks from Tjilatjap are set to LRCAP, he might not realise that I've evacuated it yet. He has achieved air superiority for sure, I'd like to think I attritted him nicely, though.
Martins are being pulled from Soerabaja to Koepang meanwhile. I think that the air effort over Batavia is probably the Allied last gasp far as Javas defence is concerned.

SOPAC/AUS
KB shows up off Gili Gili, and nukes the place. Still got 10 Warhawks serviceable there somehow. He didnt strike at Port Moresby so my Airacobras got a days rest - I put the 80 fighters there now on 60% CAP, lets see what happens. Allied slaughter, I'm sure, but hopefully they can at least cause some attrition.
1st April, his Zeroes are almost mortal now.

CENTPAC/NORPAC
Sending out PT boats from Pearl to the south west. Luganville is the planned, very eventual, destination.

[EUBanana]

BURMA/INDIA
My Buffaloes fail to raise any Topsies over Imphal/Kohima, so I presume those units are totally cut off from supply. Marvellous. I'm going to give him a week to sweat in the malarial jungle - enough time to bring up a fresh, crack UK division to act as rearguard at Jorhat in case things go pear shaped.
Looks like the Allies have the upper hand in Burma now! I hope.

CHINA
Homan deadlock continues, I managed to get my tanks behind him again and cut his supply. Tanks are good on that open country around Homan.
My spoiling attack has just started to come into contact with the enemy. Recon suggests he is diverting divisions to counter. Maybe now is the time to commit my reserves at Sian and try and clear him from Homan? Supply seems fine there, so I guess it could be done.

JAVA
Batavia is stripped of fighters completely. This turn he's got a free reign to bomb as he pleases. I imagine he'll give it a couple of days and then the invasion will begin. He has forces massing at southern Borneo as well, I get the impression he migth just try and invade from north and south at the same time - if so I guess we have more time as he'll need to do the same to Soerabaja that he did to Batavia. If he doesnt soften, well, I still got a lot of bombers.

SOPAC/AUS
The KB nukes Port Moresby this time. The Airacobras are massed, but suffer. Badly. PM is pretty much wrecked, I think I got perhaps 10 Zeroes... if I'm lucky. Likely not even that. He just landed at Gili Gili too, he's not wasting any time. He doesnt quite have enough there to take the place, by my reckoning, but he's not yet off the ship. I imagine he wont be up for repeating his mistake at Rabaul, and is bringing overwhelming force this time.
Doesnt look good for Port Moresby - I dont think I can get the navy into position for a Coral Sea battle in time. But we'll see.

CENTPAC/NORPAC
Attu Island upgraded to level 2 on the combat report, so he might go sniffing around there now. Bah.
The USN has upgraded pretty much every ship. Most were at sys 0, so I got a lot of DDs on 15, CAs on about 5, and CLs on 8 or so now. Sydney has quite a large taskforce there, the Lex/Enterprise TF, to fix - I hope it can manage it, bit sceptical of the little tiny shipyard. Same goes for Auckland which has a lot of DDs to fix which were at Noumea, but at least Auckland has an AD.

[EUBanana]

BURMA/INDIA
Hyuk hyuk hyuk. My favourite theatre. Supplies at Myritkina and outside remain excellent, Dakotas, worth their weight in gold. We're talking Vietnam War here 20 years early, no Dien Bien Phu with US airlift!
He moved up a single unit to try and break the 3 Chinese Divs + Indian armour blocking his supply route on the Burma RR. Medium bombers are assigned to bomb, the chinese are assigned to human wave him again.

CHINA
My attack gathers around his centre, in contact with a single unit. Waiting for them to get together and then - pounce! Probably tomorrow or the day after.
Supply looks good.
Kweiyang has another crop of Chinese units from the rout at the south now rested and ready for some payback.

JAVA
Batavia is bombed again, the defences are broken. Remnants flee to Soerabaja.
My bombers which have been putting the odd 500lber into an AP now get troop casualty reports when they score hits. I guess the invasion happens tomorrow.
Worst case scenario is he lands in the middle of Java and cuts my forces in half, confounding evac. Best case is he lands in the north by Batavia.

SOPAC/AUS
Gili Gili gets attacked but the Aussies look stout yet. Might be another Rabaul in the making here... Evacuated everything that flies out of PM. The KB smites at will, to attempt to defend is pointless!

CENTPAC/NORPAC
Got an RCT headed for Diamond Harbour. 51 Tomahawks are released to Norpac as well and begin to make there way there.

[EUBanana]

Good and bad this turn... the good is in Burma, again. Stitched him up right good there. [:D]

BURMA/INDIA
Buffaloes over Imphal bag a Topsy! So he is trying air transport. He's got 20,000 mouths to feed at Kohima with his Topsies though, no way has he got that sort of airlift capacity. And now I know he's doing it my Buffaloes and even Blenheim nightfighters are going to play with him.
South, on the RR north of Mandalay, the Chinese human wave overpowers his mixed Bde and sends it scurrying back to Mandalay. I'm seriously pondering following it up. I have four more Chinese INF "divisions" at Myritkina, and the British Burma units are shortly going to arrive there. I figure I can use the British as a reserve while they recover, and send the Chinese in. He has overextended himself badly here, it would appear.

CHINA
And here is the bad news. My spoiling attack reaches the enemy - but has run out of supply! They used it all on the long march down the road. *%*^%"**$ is all I can say.
Pondering pulling them back to Chungking, or leaving them there to threaten him. He doesnt know theres no ammo in those rifles, after all...

JAVA
An AK sinks in the Java Sea, presumably one bombed/torpedoed by subs in previous days. Speaking of which Fortresses brave Zero CAP (I lose one, but about 30-40 Fort sorties so not bad - Fortresses are better at shooting Zeroes down than my fighters are! [;)]) and put a bomb or three into his APs and AKs. Slow attrition is taking its toll, I've been bombing him like this for weeks it seems.

SOPAC/AUS
A submarine puts two fish into an AK unloading at Gili Gili, it sinks immediately. However escorts put two depth charges into it leaving it on 58 flotation damage. Cairns is the nearest safe port, and thats a long way to go at 5 knots for an old S-boat taking on water.
The KB is at Gili Gili as well, and is pursuing ASW vigorously now. SS Thresher, also at GG, catches a bomb and must retire, leaving two other Gato class subs in the area.

CENTPAC/NORPAC
A while back my usual ML missions to Johnston Island almost got nailed by an IJN submarine lying in wait between Johnston and Pearl. An ASW hunter-killer group leaves Pearl for Johnston Island set to retire, and see if anything is marking the route still. In the same vein a hunter-killer group leaves Canton Island, headed for Palmyra, also set to retire, doing the same sort of thing.

The British carriers have almost arrived at Perth. I think they'll be in theatre (ie, SOPAC) long before the US warships are combat ready.

[EUBanana]

BURMA/INDIA
No more Topsies supplying his forward units. Given up or merely resting? Stillwells heavies flatten Mandalay airfield - nothing there but Dinahs, but still, it'll keep him from stationing Zeroes far forward. We hope.
Sending in an attack on Mandalay - 3 Chinese INF divisions + 1 Indian armour. Why not, eh? They've defeated everything thrown against them in the field. No further than Mandalay though - thats the limit of the range of my medium bombers back at Dacca and Calcutta.

JAVA
Dutch PT boats raid an island in the middle of Java Sea where he is massing (Toboali I think it is) and find 3 AKs, unescorted. 3 torpedoes go into one and the PTs retire.
As predicted he toasted Batavias airfield some more for fun. Only a half dozen damaged Hurricanes there, the rest have pulled out.
Koepang has 200 aircraft now, mostly Martins. As points and av support permits, I'm changing their commands to SWPAC and moving the Martins to Australia. They are all on very low morale and in most cases have no more than 5 bombers, which is bad given they are 12 bomber units mostly.
Tomorrow, another PT boat raid is planned, and thats it.

SOPAC/AUS
Gili Gili falls! after about 3 days. Not a defeat, but a disgrace, as Churchill said. Plenty of supply, they were not starving by any means. Looks like my plan of using Gili Gili to delay the advance was Pyrrhic at best, the cost has been 2 Aus Bdes now stuck on the malarial trails and in exchange for less than a week extra time.
The British carriers leave Perth, headed for Sydney.

CENTPAC/NORPAC
Quiet as the grave.


State of the fleet : Pearl Harbour has almost fixed up the first brace of DDs - its the only port where I have AR support and they really do make a big difference. Sydney is not doing very well at all, in comparison, barely a point has been fixed in all this time. Ditto for Auckland.
After the ships at Pearl are mostly fixed up I'm considering moving the ARs there to Sydney and use that for ship fixing until more AKs have been converted to ARs.

[EUBanana]

The silence is deafening this turn, so very quick report.

BURMA/INDIA
The Chinese forces advance towards Mandalay - 3 Chinese Inf with assault values around 60-70 each, and the Indian carabineers - and come up against a Japanese armoured unit. Blenheims have been bombing this for days, the Chinese will wait a bit and then shock attack and hopefully throw the Jap back.
Stillwells heavies are slated for night bombing of Taung Gyi - the CAP there is small but they keep failing the morale checks apparently so im switching reluctantly to night bombing.
16 Dakotas being uncrated at Colombo ready for the flight to Ledo. 32 more in AKs not so very far away.

JAVA
All is still. He has turned to strafing my PT boats at Batavia, which has almost no effect on them. I guess he's sucking Palembang dry of oil. Subs havnt seen any tankers though.
Clearly he's fighting this war by sitting on his ass. I slate some fortresses to night bomb the oil on the south coast of Borneo, give him some encouragement.
Still slowly moving medium range bombers out of Batavia, some Blenheims and Martins left today for Koepang. Serious lack of av support in Aus to take all these refugees though. Short range aircraft look like they might just have to be axed.

CHINA
Homan is bad now, the Japs have got a unit around behind them. I have a Chinese corps there covering the rear, looks like I'll need to move more out. A shame I dont want to give the place up, its got six levels of forts after all. I might have to though. [:(]. Not really sure how the ground combat engine works, but I get the impression that unit behind them will make them all surrender if they get hit hard. And there are a lot of divs there.

SOPAC/AUS
KB is gone. All is quiet. He's hoovering up little bases though, and even the beaches around there. Not much I can do about it.

CENTPAC/NORPAC
My ASW hunter-killer DD group I sent to Johnston Island ran over that submarine as calculated. Lots of depth charging but, for a change no hits. They are going to try again in the same spot, lets see if he moved em.
Otherwise all quiet.

State of the Fleet
The ships at Sydney refuse to be fixed. Auckland is doing a bit better. San Fran has a flotilla all in the high green now. Need more ARs real bad. Unfortunately due to a newbie blunder I didnt realise you could convert AKs to ARs for several months - if I converted them immediately I'd be getting about 10 badly needed ARs about now, as it is I wont be getting them till about September 42, gah.

[EUBanana]

There really is a whole lot of nothing going on. As an example here is the whole days combat report. Its mostly ASW and some harassing attacks on ground forces.

Only three real points of interest.

a) He's not invaded Java yet. And April wears on. Surely he's being a bit slow? Reinforcement is out of the question though, too many Betties. He is giving my fighters at Soerabaja time to recover though, he'll have as much fun reducing that as he did of reducing Batavia earlier.

b) Homan is in dire straits. Cut off from Sian, fortifications reducing, and suffering extreme casualties in the face of the enemy. I've unleashed the entire Sian garrison - several corps - to clear their rear, then I'm pulling out.

c) The USN is out of the picture for a month minimum, in effect, due to upgrades. I may have bungled by doing the entire navy at once, I didnt realise fixing the damage would take so long. Gah.


AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 04/08/42

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Taung Gyi , at 33,32

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 22
LB-30 Liberator x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 2 damaged
LB-30 Liberator: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
9 casualties reported

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 8

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 5000 feet
6 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 5000 feet
9 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 5000 feet
4 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 5000 feet
9 x LB-30 Liberator bombing at 5000 feet
6 x LB-30 Liberator bombing at 5000 feet
4 x LB-30 Liberator bombing at 5000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack at 22,54

Japanese Ships
DD Hagikaze
DD Arashi
DD Nowaki
DD Maikaze

Allied Ships
SS Pickerel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack at 22,54

Japanese Ships
DD Hagikaze
DD Arashi
DD Nowaki
DD Maikaze

Allied Ships
SS Pickerel

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 32nd Division, at 49,30


Allied aircraft
SB-2c x 3


No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
15 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x SB-2c bombing at 5000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 41st Division, at 49,30


Allied aircraft
I-153c x 5
SB-2c x 4


No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x SB-2c bombing at 5000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 41st Division, at 49,30


Allied aircraft
I-153c x 5
SB-2c x 4


No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x SB-2c bombing at 5000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 2nd Dutch Regiment, at 19,59

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 10
G4M1 Betty x 6
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 11
Ki-21 Sally x 12
Ki-48 Lily x 16

Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 1

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 2 damaged
Ki-21 Sally: 1 damaged
Ki-48 Lily: 1 damaged



Allied ground losses:
49 casualties reported
Guns lost 3

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 6000 feet
4 x Ki-48 Lily bombing at 6000 feet
6 x Ki-48 Lily bombing at 6000 feet
6 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 6000 feet
3 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 6000 feet
3 x Ki-48 Lily bombing at 6000 feet
3 x Ki-48 Lily bombing at 6000 feet
3 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 6000 feet
3 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 6000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Port Moresby Defense Brigade, at 53,91

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 18
G3M Nell x 7
G4M1 Betty x 21

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 2 damaged


Allied ground losses:
76 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Aircraft Attacking:
7 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 7000 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 7000 feet
10 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 7000 feet
7 x G3M Nell bombing at 7000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Fergusson Island at 57,94

Japanese Ships
AK Taketoyo Maru
DD Tachikaze
DD Yugure
DD Shigure
DD Shiratsuyu

Allied Ships
SS Tambor, hits 1, on fire

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack at 103,74

Japanese Ships
SS I-18

Allied Ships
DD Hammann
DD Rathburne
DD Talbot
DD Morris
DD O'Brien

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack at 99,98

Japanese Ships
SS I-20

Allied Ships
DMS Zane
DMS Hopkins
DD Downes
DD Preston

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack at 99,98

Japanese Ships
SS I-20, hits 3, on fire, heavy damage

Allied Ships
DD Downes
DMS Zane
DMS Hopkins
DD Preston

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TF 3 troops unloading over beach at Wasile, 41,69


Japanese ground losses:
69 casualties reported


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Homan

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 145102 troops, 1190 guns, 289 vehicles

Defending force 84262 troops, 389 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 5

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 5)


Japanese ground losses:
1433 casualties reported
Guns lost 81
Vehicles lost 3

Allied ground losses:
1757 casualties reported
Guns lost 38


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Samarinda

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 12739 troops, 162 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 5862 troops, 45 guns, 5 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 4)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 3


Japanese ground losses:
80 casualties reported
Guns lost 8

[EUBanana]

BURMA/INDIA
Alright. Things are happening here - Allied counteroffensives!
3 Chinese divs are now at Mandalay, which has been repeatedly bombed by Blenheims. He knows whats coming and as started putting up Zero CAP over the place, I lost 1 bomber to one, but not a big deal. Also far to the north on the India/Burmese border, the Desert Rats, 1 inf brigade, 1 Indian armoured unit and an artillery regiment move advance into that Jap pocket with the intention of pinching off his forward units.
Reserves are ample. There is a UK Div and and Indian Div at Asansol now whose sole purpose is to act as a reserve, also Myritkina holds five, albeit resting, divisions, so my attack on Mandalay is using only a fraction of my strength.

Bit worried about Colombo - no units there at all but engineers. I'll continue to remain edgy about the place until I see the KB again. There are lots of Beauforts there so he'd really need CVs to take the place.

CHINA
My spoiling attack I mentioned is pulling back to Chungking. He must be wondering wtf I'm doing. Still, it seemed to make him rearrange his units a bit so a bloodless demonstration isnt completely useless. Also, Chungking really did need reinforcement anyway - the Chinese Army is mostly in the south west, it needed spreading out.
Homan is in a bad way, but I now have 3 divisions vs his 1 which is blocking my retreat from the city. He tried a deliberate attack today and got hammered. A shock attack is ordered to push them out - then I will consider retreating from Homan.

JAVA
A Japanese cruiser force bombarded Batavia today. Damage was quite significant, not quite a nuclear barrage but 500 casualties. No aircraft because they've all been evacuated. The cruisers blew away a TK which was in harbour and sunk a PT boat as well. But a Jap CA hit a mine (on fire, not heavy damage sadly), and on the way back SS Pickerel put a torpedo into her to boot. Sadly the torpedo was a dud, but maybe he'll think again.
I'm pulling all the Martins out of Soerabaja slowly, and the plan is that I'll put Fortresses there in their stead. If he's letting me hold Java I wanna bomb his oil. I should have done this weeks ago. [:(] 16 Forts are at Darwin, and 16 are at Samarinda, waiting for transfer to Soerabaja tomorrow. Samarinda was a big mistake on my part, its under siege and may fall tomorrow! Gah. I hope not or thats 16 Forts lost.

SWPAC/AUS
Rearranging the navy. All DDs requiring refit are being sent to Melbourne so that Sydney just has the two US CVs all on their own. Maybe this will speed em up. I figure the DDs arent quite so necessary anyway, the DDs at Auckland are fixing nicely thanks to the AD there.
A lot of fighters are at Cairns ready to jump over to PM if possible, but I'm going to wait for the place to be fully fixed first. Its on 100 service damage and 50 runway damage at the moment.
I feel very limited in deploying my airfarce here because aviation support is so limited across Australia. Brisbane and Cairns are major airbases - Brisbane solely for uncrating purposes - aside from that only single Aussie base forces are available.
There is a lot of mining going on down here - two MLs and four DMs are hard at work, all along the Aussie coast from Cooktown to Brisbane, and Noumea. Four S-boats are mining Port Moresby.

CENTPAC/NORPAC
Attu Island is developing, there are two S-boats covering the approach to the place. A big fuel convoy arrived at Dutch Harbour and an RCT is close behind.
ASW efforts continue in the Central Pacific but without scoring a kill. Lots of depth charges used up though. Other than that, quiet.

A big convoy forms up at San Francisco - SeaBees, a SWPAC US division and more supplies, destined for Noumea. A single DD, two PGs and two MSWs provide escort.