Moses(AL)Jwilkerson(IJ)

[Kereguelen]

ORIGINAL: moses
resting part is that I sent the PT to Townsville for repair. After one day it was at 100 %!!

Map edge: Keep your TF's off the edge of the map. I sent a small transport group from Perth to India. It got too close to the edge and got stuck in the zero row. I can't access it at all. It's a small TF so no matter. But you'd be ticked if you're CV's fell into that hole.

Check the port of Karachi, you'll probably find the ships from the TF there (at least if they're British).

[moses]

You think????

Well I'll check that since I still have the old saves.[:D][:D]

But we've fixed the problem through other means. My transports are back safely in Perth.

[Kereguelen]

ORIGINAL: moses

You think????

Well I'll check that since I still have the old saves.[:D][:D]

But we've fixed the problem through other means. My transports are back safely in Perth.

At least this happened in one of my own PBEM games. Only British ships were involved, thus I don't know what will happen to ships with other nationalties.

[moses]

11 April:

PI: Manila's defence looks to be faultering as it AV dipped significantly due to supply for the first time. I'm sure Jwilkerson must have notice and now I will see if he wu=ill attack there with the two divisions hes had fighting there for almost 4 months. Whats more important urban terrain or supply level. We'll see if he has the guts to launch the shock attack. The troops at Clark are still fully supplyed bt there is only about 5000 base supply points in the whole area.

[moses]

19 April:

This war is still going on but not much is happening. He has still not tried to challange Clark Field and maybe he is content to maintain it as a bombing target. Port Moresby still has over 30,000 supplies and I have 60 transport aircraft supplying it from Austrailia.
My Air force trains in Burma, His in China.

My defense is now solid everywhere. My last weak link was Suva which has now been reinforced with a NZ BDE. Ive also not reinforced the island with Columbo off India. He can take this if he wishes but my airpower out of India is quite powerful and I don't see what benifit he would get from those islands.

With only 2 healthy carriers it will be a while before I can launch any significant offensive operations. I wonder if he plans on doing anything for the next six months or so????

[moses]

23 April:

Action on two fronts after a long lull in activity.

PI: The end has come. His troops moved into Clark Field and I launched the last desperate shock attack to try and save my last supply source. This time after three previous and glorious successes their luck ran out. My troops, fighting with little supply, could not drive out the Japanese for a fourth time. It can't last long now as there is no supply remaining. He may drive me out next turn but more likely Jwilkerson will take his time to minimize casualties.

East Pacific: 2 TF's are sighted moving east between Canton Island and Palmyra. The furthest is reported as a CA, AK. The second which is 500 miles further west shows 6 CA's. This is the first activity in this theater of the war apart from his taking Tarawa and that vicinity. I'm not sure what he's up to at this point.

I have search aircraft at both Canton and Palmyra, and will have another search group at Baker next turn when my AVD arrives. I also have sent 2 MSW's on patrols into the path of these TF's.

I have 5 DD's hiding northeast of Palmyra. 8 A-20's are at Palmyra with an Inf Bde, a USMC defence Bn, a coastal AA unit and base force . It has level 5 fortifications but my minefield degraded a bit more then I had realized and only has 650 mines. Christmas Island is empty. Canton Island is defended by 2 full divisions. PLEASE PLEASE attack here.[:D]

[moses]

24 April:

He has 3 CV's operating off Palmyra and these ships hit a stray TK and one of my oickit MSW's. One of his RO subs entered Palmyra and hit a mine and sunk!!! That was fotunate at this time as it must really give him pause if he is considering a landing. A don't see any AP's yet and nothing has come up on SIGINT indicating any prep for Palmyra.

I'm guessing this is a raid. I had moved some AV's to some of my forward airfields over the last couple weeks to keep an eye on the Tarawa area and I always have units prepping for that area. He probably noticed my recon aircraft shifting back and forth around those little bases and thought something was up. 3 CV's would put some hurt on me if they ran into a lightly escorted invasion fleet. Since I only have two healthy American CV's his 3 CV's would be the right number for a raid.

If it is an invasion its going to be bloody. But It would be a different Jwilkerson who would take that island. It would be a very isolated base.

[moses]

25 April:

Alutians: Japan lands unopposed at Kiska and Amchitka. I currently holad all the bases from Ankorage to Umnek Island with an RCT at each location and I have a head start at digging in at each of these locations. I am not at all unhappy at the prospect of a long term aiur battle in this area.

Palmyra: This still looks like a raid. His fleet is sitting 300 miles south of Palmyra and TK/AO's have been sighted. Looks like they will refuel and then head east for my shipping lanes.

PM: The battle continues here. My supplies have dropped to around 27,000 so I've begun running fast transport missions. The first one just dropped off supply without incident. I have 60 C-47's at Cooktown but these have stopped for the moment as Japan started flying LRC over PM. I've started using small air groups out of PM in offensive roles. Single groups of SBD's bombing Buna, alternating with small fighter groups flying sweeps. As long as I have only a few planes at the airfield my losses to air bombardment have been very small.

[moses]

27 April:

Ouch!!!! His carrier raid around Palmyra is no mere pinprick raid. He looks to have at least 6 carriers involved. By deft manuvers Jwilkerson managed to get a couple groups past my recon and hit a large convoy 24 hexes east!!!!!! of Palmyra. Luckily he hit a returning and empty convoy but there is going to be a slaughter. 5 ships were sunk today and maybe 15 damaged. I've scattered the convoy into small groups sorted by top speed and they will run for the coast.

My greatest fear is that a convoy with the CVE Long Island and the 32nd Infantry division is only 9 hexes south of his main body and could easily have been the victim. I am running at full speed and hope he doesn't see me. Fuel is probably an issue for him. He must have required at least one high speed move and he is 25 or so hexes from his tankers which are sitting south of Palmyra with at least one carrier. Too bad my carriers are at Sydney as this fueling point would be a great target.

I tranfered 48 B17E's to Palmyra and will try my luck tommorrow against this refueling force. I've also started my CV fleet (2 US and 2 British carriers) from Sydney east. Obviously they will not likely reach Palmyra in time but you never know. He may daly about or even refuel and try again. In any event it seems the locus of events is in the east and so I should send some force in that direction.

One bright spot is that I think I can declare India as completely safe and begin planning for offensive operations in Burma. There is no way he can invade India without heavy carrier support, and KB is on the other side of the world.

[moses]

29 April:

PI: Clark Field falls!! My troops are in shambles. No supply at all left. Maybe Manila will hold for a while but Batan will fall at the first nudge.

East Pacific: His carrier raid is strangly impotant. He killed a couple AK's with a surface attack but his air attacks went in at range 5 (even though closer targets were available) and just distributed bombs on 6 or 7 AK's all of which should survive. This is beginning to look like a waste of his carriers unless he gets a payoff soon.

Jwilkerson and I have agreed to change over to 2 day turns. This is apparently possible when you play a moderator. I'm not sure how I will like this as a lot of my WITP knowledge goes out the window. But we shall see.

[Mike Wood]

Hello...

It is possible when you play a programmer, with the code.

Good Luck...

Michael Wood

ORIGINAL: moses

29 April:

..Jwilkerson and I have agreed to change over to 2 day turns. This is apparently possible when you play a moderator...

[moses]

4 May:

Well on the first cycle of 2 day turns his carrier raid finds my CVE Long Island and wacks it good. It's seems impossible that it will survive as it has 99 sys damage and 94 flood, and its a long way from home. I set course back to San Diego. You never know with allied damage control.

My CV force is at Numea now and will head toward Suva. I assume his carriers are moving toward their refueling point and at some point will have to retire west to regain sortie points. But if he continues to operate in this area my carriers may get an opportunity.

PI: Battan falls and a large group of my forces surrender. I still have a small Army at Manila but they have no supply and will be quickly defeated.

Here's our status as of 5 May:

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: moses

4 May:

Well on the first cycle of 2 day turns his carrier raid finds my CVE Long Island and wacks it good. It's seems impossible that it will survive as it has 99 sys damage and 94 flood, and its a long way from home. I set course back to San Diego. You never know with allied damage control.

My CV force is at Numea now and will head toward Suva. I assume his carriers are moving toward their refueling point and at some point will have to retire west to regain sortie points. But if he continues to operate in this area my carriers may get an opportunity.

PI: Battan falls and a large group of my forces surrender. I still have a small Army at Manila but they have no supply and will be quickly defeated.

Here's our status as of 5 May:

jwilkerson took a LOT of flak and op losses it seems...

[moses]

6 May: General update:

China: This area has been quite for months except for heavy bombing by Japan which is focused mainly on training his pilots. Japan owns Yenan but I hold all other starting cities. My supply situation is very good, All of my units and cities are fully supplied and Chunking has 40,000 sp on hand.

My troops have been sitting in my cities for a while now regaining morale and right now are in very good shape. I am planning an offensive in which I will try and occupy (not take) his front line cities. My goal will be to cut off the supply contribution of Wuhan, Nanchang and Canton and to allow my troops to get into low casualty combat (bombardments of cities) which will allow me to raise their experience. My guys are at prep 30 now so the offensive will not start for at least a month.

Burma/India: With KB on the other side of the world I now consider India to be completely safe. I am now making preparations for an invasion of Akyab. I am transfering AP's from Austrailia which will take awhile. My two UK divisions and several armored formations are prepping for Akyab. The plan will be to send the army down the path and then to land the UK divisions by sea.

I am pounding all the airbases in Burma daily and have a bombardment group hitting Akyab. The Japanese 33rd Division at Akyab has recieved special attention and has been bombed almost daily by over 100 level bombers. Akyab is a small malarial base with 100% damage to all of its facilities. This cannot be a happy position for his troops and I would not be surprised if he left before I got there. In any event it will take until the end of June before I land so I have lots of time to reduce his forces.

PM: He bombs PM daily with 100-200 bombers and at low altitude now. This has finally closed the airfield but he is taking a lot of losses to flak and ops. Still I have over 20,000 supply so am fine for now. I have started airlifting engineers and supply to Thursday Island and will build this up in preparation for its use by P-38's later. He will not forever have air superiority. I see no indication that he intends to take PM.

Alaska: Jwilkerson has filled all the empty space by taking Adak and islands west of there. I hold Dutch Harbor/Umnak Island and everything east. So we're 4 hexes apart. I surely have the edge in getting my airfields up and running. Duuth Harbor is already maxed out at 4. Umnak island is size one now and building quickly with more engineers on the way. This may end up being a good place for a long battle of attrition.

Pacific Island Chain: Japan shows no interest in capturing any islands so far but I certainly need to get a handle on his maurading carriers. My carriers will reach Suva this turn and so are in position to cause Japan problems if he stays in the area. But I have to be very careful or I could lose my whole force. I would like to get a force to Chrismas island as that would give me better survailance or the gap between Canton Island and Palmyra.

I suppose I should be happy his carriers are where they are. While they are annoying what are they really accomplishing??? Sure he got the CVE Long Island but now the surprise is gone. If he heads back toward the west coast or deep into my shipping lanes then my force at Suva will be able to hit his tanker force from the rear and he may be in some hurt. In the meantime if he does make a push towards Port Moresby my carriers will still be able to get to the area fairly quickly. Everything seems to be under control.

[moses]

12 May:

East Pacific: His carriers appear to be headed west. There are 6 TF's North of Canton. 15 of my B17's from Palmyra attacked and were met by 88 zero's. 13 B17's went down for the loss of 7 zero's. Not that good an exchange but then those are good zero pilots for pretty low experience bomber crews of which I have many. My carriers are south of Pago Pago and deciding what to do. I sent 6 CL's from Pearl Harbor on a fast transport mission to get some base forces to the 3 little islands between Palmyra and Canton. Then I can base seaplanes there to prevent further surprises.

PI: Manila is a total wreak but Jwilkerson continues to take his time. I guess he sees no need to take losses when he can just wait for me to starve.

[moses]

14 May:

The last 4 days have featured several air battles pitting my heavy bombers vs his fighters over KB, Pagan in Burma, and Dobudura near Port Moresby. Over this period Japan lost 72 aircraft including 29 zero's and 11 Oscars in exchange for 48 allied aircraft including 6 LB-30's and 30 B17E's.

In addition to his fighters Japan is taking daily losses in his efforts to keep Port Moresby closed. Japan has noticed my buildup at Thursday Island (near PM). Some Bab's came to visit. We will see how he reacts to this.

[moses]

22 May:

PI: Manila falls on the first attack against a force of four Japanese divisions with heavy supporting forces. Not a single one of my units had a lick of supply so Jwilkerson got nothing but a shattered port. The DEI is now empty of my force with the exception of one PI division that he has yet to evict from its isolated island.

Asia: In China I'm beginning to position forces for my summer offensive. I will start my diversion toward Yenen next week. The forces for my main push in the center are now at prep level 50 or so and so in three weeks I can get those guys moving to the objectives.

In India I have started my Armor toward Akyab. My two UK divisions intend to land by sea. My AP's are around Perth and now headed north so it will be at least a month before things are ready. He has a single carrier operating in the Indian ocean. It's just a nuisance. It hit a lone destroyer this week but could only damage it but I don't want my AP's to get hurt. I've sortied 2 UK CV's into the area to deal with this enemy force.

Austrailia: He has sent a split portion of his 2nd division down the rail toward Perth and has cut the rail line connecting to the rest of the continant. I've sent a Division north from Perth to deal with this.

PM Area: He has started bombing Thursday Island. I sent some Kittyhawks there but they were destroyed by 81 zero's flying from Lea. He is also flying LRC over both T Island and PM to stop my C47's. This has impacted his efforts to keep PM closed and that base has started to recover. (runway fuly repaired and service dam. of about 50% right now.)

East Pacific: His carriers have pulled back into the Tarawa area and I don't know where they are headed. I have gotten base forces into the islands between Palmyra and Canton Island and have that area under survailance now. My CV force is now rounding Christmas Island and headed for PH.

CV Saratoga has reached San Fransico!!!! It was heavily damaged around Rabaul I believe in January or February. Lexington is also headed to SF but is still a couple weeks from safety.

[moses]

26 May:

PM: In a bold move Jwilkerson sends paras to Thursday Island and takes the base. This was surprising as I thought I had a while to get reinforcements there. So now PM is completely isolated. PM meanwhile was recovering while he dealt with Thursday Island. But this ended on the 25th, as 238 Betties hit the based followed by a similar raid on the 26th.

Other: Japan finally got around to taking Baker Island without opposition. Japan also landed at Iiolo in the PI and will soon destroy my last significant unit in the DEI.

[moses]

2 June:

The war moves slower in this phase. I've noted a Japanese unit prepping for Luganville but this could just be a ruse. My main worry is still that he will go after Port Moresby and destroy my Marine Division. I have three offensives about to go in which hopefully may blunt his offensive aspirations.

China: He can now clearly see my diversionary thrust in the area of Yenen. I am moving a large force up the road and will meet his blocking force in the woods west of Yenen in about 4 days. In addition I have blocked the rail lines around Homan and have a number of divisional sized units moving out into the countryside to annoy and distract him. Finnally I have moved in some dutch fighter units and have begun to step up air operations.

For my main operations emminating from Changsa my troops are completing their preparation. Most have between 50 and 60 prep points for their objectives and morale levels are very high. This will launch in about two weeks with the goal of occupying Nanchang and Wuhan. I seriously doubt that either location can be taken. But occupying them cuts off their supply production and I want to get into a long bombardment battle to raise my unit experience levels.

Burma: My armor units are adjacent to Akyab and have begun movement along the trail to Akyab. My two UK divisions are sitting at Diamond Harbor awainting transport which is on the way from Perth. I've been pounding his 33rd Division at Akyab for a very long time from the air and ocasionally from sea. It must be weakened and demoralized especially as it sits at a small base in a malarial area supplied only by trails.

My airbases in the area are well built up now and I have LOTS of squadrens. All the units which disbanded in Java months ago have been arriving and are retraining in India. It will be interesting to see if he tries to contest my air superiority in the area as he sees my attack coming.

It might be a tough call for him. I think he is still capable of winning the air battle if he fully commits. But it will not be a one sided affair and he will lose a lot of planes and pilots. On the other hand if he just lets me take Akyab then I will quickly build it up into a major airbase and be well on my way to reconquering Burma.

Alaska: I've sent my carrier fleet and a large surface fleet (4BB's and lots of CA/DD's) to Ankorage. I hold everything from east of Umnek Island and he hold everything west of Adak island. Atka island is in between and unoccupied. Japan took these island in the last month and brought several base forces per island but has not done much here in the last month. None of the airbases are above level one and the only air units I've encountered have been Rufa's. He has some AG's and other small resupply ships flitting about but nothing else that I see.

I, on the other hand have been building up my bases rapidly. Umnek Island is now at level four. All my islands are held with at least an RCT with artillery support and are well fortified.

My intent will be to take and build up Atka and while at it bombard all the Japanese held isands up to Kiska. As a bonus, perhaps a large force in this area may divert some of Japans carriers from whatever schemes they are up to.

I look to start this operation between 10-16 June.

[moses]

4June:

Alaska: A surface force with at least one BB and CA looks to be headed toward Dutch Island. In addition a zero squadren is around so he may have an unsighted CV or two. I considered sending in my CV force which can reach the area with a high speed run. But why rush and take unneeded risks.

He can hit Dutch Island all he wants. I have some Kittyhawks and Bolo's there but truth is I can replace these with ease. My force will assemble at ankorage and start the operation in 4 to 6 days. Right now I'm getting my screen of subs and patrol craft out into the sea lanes to try and prevent any nasty surprises.

Burma: He has split his 33rd Division at Akyab into 3 parts. Why???? I can only guess that its an attempt to speed damage repair to his unit. But I don't think its going to work. My bombers split up their attacks nicely and hit all three parts. Over two days my bombers inflicted 804 casualties and 15 guns to the 33rd Division.