ENLIST TODAY (Docup (A) vs Koniu (J) No Koniu

[DOCUP]

29th Mar 44
 
I am not happy with this turn.
 
Most of the action was in the Timor AO.
 
Timor AO
Japs sweep Damar.  Just happens my CVEs were 2 hex's away.  So a lot of my CAP got caught up in it.  Also a 2 ship CAP Trap showed up.  I lose 29 Hellcats, 30 Wildcats, 21 DBs, and 9 TBs. I also lose 34 pilots.  Japs lose 9 Franks, 10 Georgers, and 2 Nicks.  My DDs sink 2 Es, an AMc, and a several LBs.  No CAs or anything.  My DDs are still in Ambons hex.  I am going to have them bombard Ambon and get the hell out of dodge.  None of my LBA flew.  None of it.  Not a good day for me. 

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: DOCUP

Ok.  Maybe I am reading to much into this.  If I send in my PT boats and DDs.  Then the Jap SAG I am after just might retreat out of my range.  Then my planes will attack the LBs and other crap that's patrolling Ambon's harbor.  Maybe I should just have my DDs go in during the day light hours.  Hope that my planes get there first and the DDs clean up what's left.

Or

I should stop thinking about it and go with my original plan.

It does look like you are worrying too much because you want more certainty than you can get. A good commander never
worries about the possibility that his plan might not be exactly right in hindsight. He just makes the best plan he can
from the info available at the time and lets the cards fall where they may. Hindsight is for learning things, not for
beating yourself up.

I forget which forum member has it, but his tag line is from Winston Churchill "Success is the ability to go from failure
to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."
The important thing is that you try something.

[DOCUP]

BB:  True
 
30th Mar 44
 
Action is in the Timor AO
 
Timor AO
I let the sweeps and bombers have another go at Ambon.  They went in today.  Allied loses are 17 Spits III's, 12 P 47s, 10 Corsairs, and 23 4 Es.  Jap loses are 85 Georges, 38 Franks and 15 Nicks are shot down or destroyed on the ground.  My DDs run into his CAs.  I lose 1 and leave 3 of his on fire. We do mod damage to the AF and little damage to the port.  We do put a single bomb into an AKE and AK.  I try to sneak in some troops at Kaimana.  Planes from Biak come in and sink 5 LSTs, 4 LCIs, and 1 APA.  Several other APAs and AKAs are damaged before they could unload there troops.  I am bringing in some CVEs into the hex to protect these ships.  I am also sweeping the base and bombing the AF tomorrow.  I did get a large US Navy Seabee unit unloaded.  Tomorrow a naval BF and an air BF should be unloaded.  Then I will have to get the damaged APAs and AKAs back to safety.
 
Koniu was not happy with this turn.   
 
"So, You want to play big boy style. I will bring big boy toys."

koniu
 
So I take it the KB is coming and he's going to start plastering my bases in the area with Naval bombardments.    Its not easy to type this with a baby screaming in my arms.
 

[DOCUP]

31st Mar 44
 
Burma
Troops are resting.  I'm trying to get supply to a lot of them.  I am following Jap LCUs down the yellow road to Chang Mai.
 
Timor AO
A sub sinks an AK with some Georges on board.[:D]  We bomb Biak and catch some of his planes on the ground.  Koni lost 117 planes for the day.  We also sink an AMc at biak.

[DOCUP]

2nd Apr 44
 
Burma
Rebuilding units and moving supply around.
 
Timor AO
I sweep Hollandia and find some Franks and Georges.  My bombers go in before my sweeps they get cut to pieces.  Loses for the last 2 days.  42 Georges, 15 Franks, 6 Nicks and some Helens destroyed on the ground.   I lose 20 4Es, 12 A20s, 10 Beauforts, 8 P 47s, 6 P 38s, and 5 P 40s.   We also sink 3 SSXs on the 31st.   Kaimana's AF has went to LV 1.  Koni tried to bomb the port with 2 damaged ships.  He missed this time.  Port is a 0 so the damage crews aren't working.  I m going to have to chance it.  The worst is an APA.  I don't think it will make it.
 
Rest of the map is quiet.  I am moving stuff around.  Getting stuff ready for when my CVs are ready to go back into combat.
 

[JocMeister]

How are your bomber pools looking? There is a resize coming in late 44/early 45 where most squadrons resize from 16 to 24. Due to lack of planes I was never able to fill the squads out. You will probably need at least 2-300 4Es in the pool to fill every squadron out!

[DOCUP]

Joc:  I have about 350 B 24 Js and Ds, another hundred plus of older models in the pools.
 
3rd Apr 44
 
Burma
Jap CL SAG runs into Ramree Island.  It finds my Fletchers sleeping.  I lose 2 DDs to TTs and leave one of his DDs with heavy fires.  Chittagong is swept by some Franks.  I lose 20 P40s, 7 Hurris, 4 Seafires, and 2 P 47s for 16 Franks[:@]
 
Timor AO
We put a TT into CA Tone.[:D]
 
Tarawa
We sink 2 AKLs
 
NorPac
I have sighted 4 subs.  I'm going after them.

[DOCUP]

5th Apr 44
 
Burma
We both do some ground bombing.
 
Timor
TFs are in motion.  His Air ASW is starting to rack up some hits and one kill. I see a small CV TF up by Peleliu.
 
NorPac
Long Island has been on ASW patrol and doing a good job of it.  Jap CVE's sneak in and sink her. I think their are 2 CVEs in this Jap TFs, but 7 ships in total.  I have 5 DEs looking for this TF they have it surrounded.  I lost 6 navy Liberators attacking it.  Only got a DL on the Shinyo.  I hope the DEs can dish out some damage for the Long Island.

[DOCUP]

7th Apr 44
 
I don't remember the 6th.
 
Burma
Bombings troop movements.  Moulmein has 11 units with 30k worth of men.  I don't like this.  The Burma, Thailand border crossing is guarded by 7 Jap units numbering around 28k worth of men. My troops are massing at the border.
 
Timor AO
I land a small inf unit on a Jap island.  I thought it was unoccupied but found out it has 2200 men on it.  I will have to get them off the island before he attacks. I lose 14 Hellcats over Kaimana for a couple  of Franks.
 
Tabiteuea
Invaded.  We sneak in and drop off an ID, Combat Eng, Tank unit, and a NBF.  We got a 1 to 2 attack roll on the attack today.  Japs lost almost 1k worth of men.  They have 4 naval guard units plus supporting units behind LV 6 forts.  I ordered another shock attack for tomorrow.  All ships will run away now. SAGs will bombard before they run. 
 
NorPac
Jap CVEs are still hanging around.  They are 11 hex away.  My DEs didn't run into them.  Koniu has spotted a large troop TF moving into the area.  I wonder if he will send his CVEs after this TF.  I also have another TF with troops inbound.  Navy Libs are making low nav attacks.  The can't seem to get past the CAP about 30 fighters.  There is a second TF with this Jap CVE TF.  might be a SAG, I don't know.

[DOCUP]

8th Apr 44
 
China
I have 2 Chinese LCUs behind a stack of Jap LCUs.  My 2 LCUs are up against a inf rgt.  I shock attack tomorrow.
 
Burma
I bombed the Thailand border guards.  I have found C part of the 2nd ID and the 6th RTA Div.  I think the RTAs are weak units.  I will have to look.  My troops are moving to cross the border.
 
Timor
Japs attack my LBs and a small amphib TF dropping off some engs at Lautem.  I lose 3 xAPs 2 AKs and a bunch of barges.  Franks sweep Saumlaki.  As always they kill everything.  I lose 34 C 19s, 20 Hellcats, 12 corsairs, 11 Kittys, and 8 P 39s, the Japs lose 52 Franks.
 
Solomons
2DDs come by and attack my AMc's at Finschhafen.  They find my PT boats sinking 2 of them and sinking 1 AMc.  They also tangle with a sub and put a hurten on my sub.  My bombers attack during the night but score no hits.  They get out before the day phase.
 
Tabiteuea
We shock and get a 1:1 and reduce forts to 5.  We kill 1600 Japs for 200 of our own.  We also destroyed one of the Nav Guard units.  I am pretty sure that the rest are wrecked.  So I should have the island tomorrow.  We bombard and only take out 61 on Tabiteuea.  We also bombard Tarawa and burn around 20 bombers on the runway.  I have fighters and bombers ready to fly in.  I also have support units on the move.  I expect some bombers to fly tomorrow.
 
NorPac
CVEs are moving away.  Jap subs are still patrolling around Adak.  My TFs are moving closer to Adak. 

[JocMeister]

RTAs are very weak. They also withdraw sometime in 44 if I remember correctly!

[DOCUP]

Joc: Thanks  I am hoping that the units guarding the border are scrubs.  So a BDE and a weak RTA, that leaves 6 units to be discovered.  He has a lot of IDs in Burma and China.  Dosen't look like he has any armor in this stack.  I am also trying to outflank him.  Koniu has great Nav Search in the area, all my ships have good DLs on them.  Ok going to eat be back later.  Trying to send the wife to my mother in laws and I will stay home.[8|]  I will have the baby but that's ok.

[DOCUP]

9th Apr 44
 
NorPac
We find a Jap sub and give it a good working over.
 
China
My shock attack goes off badly.  As I expected Jap bombers pays a visit and hurts my 2 Corps. I lose 1800 men to his 80.
 
Burma
Quiet.  I have to find a way around his Nav Search.  I won't be able to do any type of amphib ops in the area with his nav search.  His AFs all have 170 fighters plus. I have TF getting spotted at Ceylon.  Air ASW in one turn damaged 3 subs and probably sank one.
 
Timor AO
CA SAG bombards Lautem for no gains.  We sink a TK off of North Celebes. Allied row boat core captures Babo.  It has 20k worth of oil.
 
Tabiteuea
We shock and get a 1:2.  Forts are not touched either.  We do kill 1350 Japs for only 30 of our own.
 
My thoughts
 
Burma
I am thinking that I might be able to break the backdoor down.  I will find out when my troops get into the hex with his.  I had pretty good ground bombing results last turn.  I might do it again this turn. Actually I am.  I am sweeping and sending in the 2Es.  I have 4 IDs moving down the road with several BDEs, 4 Tank units, art and a combat eng unit.  I don't see any tanks with him in this area and I don't know how long he has been sitting in this hex, so fort level is unknown. 
 
Timor
Will work on capturing more bases. Might try to ambush his SAG.  I just need to get a plan together for it.
 
Gilberts
Once Tabiteuea is mine I will start to silence Tarawa.  I might invade but not for sure I do know their is a tank unit there.
 
NorPac
Going after his subs.  Building up bases.
 
Right now I need to get my better bomber pilots into my new B29s

[zuluhour]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the B29[&o]

[DOCUP]

I can't wait to see what she can do Kurt.

Burma

[DOCUP]

10th Apr 44

China
Did another attack, I caused a few more Jap casualties.

Burma
We attack several AFs.  Chang Mai which had a heavy CAP.  Most of the sweeps arrive before the bombers.  We also attack the border guard again.  Which had some LRCAP from Chang Mai.  We lose 42 4Es, 6 P 47s, 5 P 38s, 3 Corsairs and Spits.  Jap loses are 54 Franks, 38 Georges, and 15 Tojos.  We do little damage to the AF.  I wan't this AF closed because its close to the border stack.  I want to bomb this stack. I have found out that their is another RTA unit here also.  So that's 4 units I know of.  I see by recon that there is now 10 units with 47k worth of troops.  That's a lot of troops added in a day.  Maybe my recon is wrong.  Still not many tanks.  I will find out.  We hit Tavoy's AF also.  I wanted to get in a shot at his Air ASW.  They are killing me.  Koniu thinks that I am up to something in the area by the sea.  Hmm is this a guess is he fishing for info? I forgot to add that I lost 3 subs this turn. One was up at the HIs due to the Es.

Tabiteuea
We capture it.  There is still a few Jap units left on the island.  I will deal with them.  Jap bombers attack and sink an xAK.  I have flown in some fighters.  I have support units on the way to fix the island's bases.

Sig net is giving some good info now.

[DOCUP]

12 Apr 44
 
China
Troops moving
 
Burma
Went after Chang Mai again.  We lose 18 Corsairs, 10 Spits, 8 P 47s for 38 Franks, and 21 Tojos.  Now the Thai border guard has 8 units with 44K worth of troops.  We will find out in a few more days what he has here.
 
Timor AO
Quiet for now
 
Terepo
Japs sweep and find nothing, then the bombers hit and take out a few 2Es on the ground.
 

[JocMeister]

Why are you sweeping Chang Mai so relentlessly?

[DOCUP]

Joc: I think this area is lightly guarded.  If I can break through in this area, he will have to pull units out of Burma to stop me from taking most of Indo China. Chang Mai is his major AF in the area.  If its closed I can bomb his troops relentlessly.   this area also opens up another front in the area.  How many units can he have in this AO? 
 
I know he has a bunch of IDs in China, 3 or 4 in DEI, a couple in the Solomons and in the HIs.   I have also trashed a few. 

[JocMeister]

Ah, missed that! [:D]