Banana vs Uamaga - England vs Poland

[cantona2]

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

I broke out Fighting Steel for a laugh to see Indianapolis in action.

Got hit by a torpedo but did toast both CLs, not sure if thats better or worse!

EU where did you get those cool ship icons? Brilliant [8D]

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: cantona2
EU where did you get those cool ship icons? Brilliant [8D]

Its a screenshot from the SSI game, Fighting Steel. It has a scenario editor so I whipped up a scenario duplicating the battle in WITP and played it out.

Similar results. [:D]

[EUBanana]

6/2/1942

Been busy-ish. But not so furious as May.

BURMA/INDIA
Getting good results against Hanoi still. Chinese air units were placed on the border and swept the Oscars defending, 4 shot down for 1 P43, good exchange. The RAF/USAAF in the meantime have continued bombing, destroying several more Oscars on the ground. A total of 88 resources at Hanoi are trashed now, and todays sweep found the skies empty.
USS Tarpon was depth charged in the Java Sea and is being hounded every hex of the way up the straights, chance of her making it to Colombo is almost zero.
6th AIF Division is unloading at Perth.

Australia
FOr some reason my a/c never fly and hit his stack at Tennant Creek. He's been bombing TC still with no effect.
British CVTF is now halfway between Perth and Sydney, and the 14th NZ Bde has been dispatched from Brisbane to Wellington, we might have a Battle for New Zealand soon after all.

SOPAC
Nuclear bombardment hit Noumea a couple of days ago, which removes the last remaining strength the garrison had - a massive concentration of engineers. Something like 95 percent of all engineering vehicles were destroyed (not disabled, for those who defend bombardments - destroyed outright) in one night of pain - over sixty. Screenshot of a formerly at T&OE EAB unit follows as proof! The combat report had over 10,000 casualties, is that a record? [8|]
The AA units suffered too, 11 out of 12 of the big AA guns were trashed, the lighter AA units suffered about 90% casualties as well - however about half were disablements not destroyed. Nevertheless AA over Noumea has been pretty much nonexistent and now he's realised that fact - and the fact that the airfield runway is on 99% damage and all the engineers have been blown to pieces - his carrier air is bombing it around the clock with 120 Kates every day with zero resistance. 100 stranded Allied aircraft have been destroyed on the ground by them in two days.

[8|]

On the plus side USS Tambor torpedoed a loaded AP north of Koumac, and, well, I dunno if this is a plus but its a sort of defiant gesture - the apparently suicidal Dutch submarine KX attacked a Japanese light cruiser on the surface at La Foa. (KX did survive being hit by 5.5" shells but was later nailed by depth charges).

American carriers are massing, all of them bar Enterprise are either at Suva or are very near Suva now. Enterprise is at Pearl, stubbornly refusing to mend. The battleship Idaho is nearing Auckland, and several more battleships are also near SOPAC now, including HMS Warspite!

I'm pondering what the hell to do now though, Noumea looks utterly lost to me, all the fighter aircraft annihilated by a CAP trap, and all the engineers blown to pieces in a bombardment. Looks like the Americal division is going to be reduced to a submarine evacuated cadre in the process. New Zealand will be an easier target for him than Noumea was at the moment, and if he takes that its almost game over. I'm trying to mass all Allied carriers in theatre, including the British ones, for the Decisive Battle.

I Got Hit By Nuclear Battleships and All I Got Was This Damn Screenie

[Q-Ball]

Vettim, OK I guess I will comment.  You seem to be itchin' for a fight, but I would welcome a CV attack if I were Japan.  Without Enterprise, and with the Devastator rather than the soon-to-be available TBF, and within range of Japanese LBA.....you would be nuts to start something right here, right now, IMHO.  You might get lucky, but you might get 4 CV's sunk too, and regardless of the outcome it doesn't look like it's going to stop him from taking Noumea  at this point.  Nothing wrong with a decisive battle, I think you have to be stronger and/or have it within range of your own LBA, not his. 

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Vettim, OK I guess I will comment.  You seem to be itchin' for a fight, but I would welcome a CV attack if I were Japan.  Without Enterprise, and with the Devastator rather than the soon-to-be available TBF, and within range of Japanese LBA.....you would be nuts to start something right here, right now, IMHO.  You might get lucky, but you might get 4 CV's sunk too, and regardless of the outcome it doesn't look like it's going to stop him from taking Noumea  at this point.  Nothing wrong with a decisive battle, I think you have to be stronger and/or have it within range of your own LBA, not his. 

I'm not going to commit CVs at Noumea, that decision was taken a while back. Aside from that raid on Luganville. I quite agree, any CV battle should be within range of my bases.

But if he attacks New Zealand, well... there isn't really much of a choice. If NZ falls all of Australia will fall too, and then he has the map. By the time the US has force enough to start hitting him it'll be the end of 1943, and any sunk CVs will be near rebuilt anyway.

[EUBanana]

3rd June is quiet.

All Japanese ships at Noumea have vanished - curious given Catalinas are still there, and I assumed floatplanes did not have any regard for airstrip damage?
Cadre evacuation by submarine of Noumea has begun, anyway.

Preparations for the Battle of New Zealand are well underway now.  8th USMC CD detachment is on its way to Gisborne, which is the one undefended port on North Island, ETA 1 week.  An NZ Bde has been freed from Australia and will garrison Hamilton, SeaBees are en route to build Hamilton up, and a big 90 av support base force is en route with Hamilton in mind as well.  Combat units will be - the vast majority of the NZ Army itself, plus a US army division (already at Auckland), plus an RCT (en route, almost there), plus 1st USMC Division (en route, 2 weeks out).  More RCTs could be sent as well by stripping NORPAC but they are so far away that they will probably arrive late - in any case, one of these is en route too.

Enterprise has fixed enough to head out.  And Wasp arrives in six days.  So the Allied naval presence will be prodigious in a months time - all the USN carriers, plus Formidable and Indomitable of the RN (the RN are bringing Seafires and lots of competent torpedo bombers to the table so this is good). Idaho and Warspite will be around, and Prince of Wales too, as she's escorting the RN carriers atm.  TBF Avengers are rolling off the production lines now so at least some of the USN will be armed with these.

The lack of ship sightings is worrisome, KB raiding into the Pacific could be ugly.  I'm being a little cautious with the courses taken by my convoys but if he wants to do an extended raid SE of Noumea he will undoutably find something.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Beautiful AAR, and a hum-dinger of a war[:D]

Thanks for posting this, it is much appreciated

[cantona2]

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

ORIGINAL: cantona2
EU where did you get those cool ship icons? Brilliant [8D]

Its a screenshot from the SSI game, Fighting Steel. It has a scenario editor so I whipped up a scenario duplicating the battle in WITP and played it out.

Similar results. [:D]

Cool. Great idea

Good AAR as well, keep updating!

[EUBanana]

6/6/1942

Quieter in the air so not so much need for a day by day account, but stuff is still going on.

BURMA/INDIA
He bombarded Port Blair with a whole bunch of cruisers, this did not, however, interfere with the RN operation to relieve Rangoon Force, which is now mostly in Trimcomalee. A couple more trips and it'll be done.
CVL Hermes was sortied because an ASW group pursued the damaged USS Grouper as far as Sabang - if it went further I'd blow it away. His DDs melted away but I decided to keep Hermes on station NW of Sumatra.
The USAAF and RAF with heavy bombers (well, Wellingtons for the RAF) have maintained a bombing campaign against Hanoi, supported by ROCAF fighters at Nanning, and this has gone very well for the Allies so far. There have been no serious air losses (says Butcher Harris anyway) and Hanoi has lost 127 out of 400 resources now, on average 20 a raid, and on average a raid every three days. I plan on keeping this up until he does something about it or Hanoi has been bombed flat.
General Slim is headed into Burma to take command at Mandalay, given this SOPAC campaign I'm becoming more intent on holding Burma if he attacks.

CHINA
Action is in the southwest now around Nanning. ROCAF fighters have been sweeping Hanoi to assist the RAF/USAAF, but there has also been Japanese shipping spotted by the Catalinas at Pakhoi, and every so often Martins and SB2s sortie to try and hit them (they never succeed). However he's pressuring Nanning with 27 Zeroes, and even though the numbers are about even he has the upper hand so I may have to give up in a few days.

Australia
6th AIF at Perth moves to Sydney over the rail lines, an ANZAC Command division at Sydney moves to Perth. Gives me some greater freedom as I might wanna ship 6th AIF somewhere else (New Zealand?) in time.
Still all quiet at Tennant Creek. I've moved two Aussie divisions up, they are on the road between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek now, as this perpetual stalemate bothers me. I can always fall back to the (still garrissoned) Alice Springs if need be.
NZ units are being extricated from Australia and sent to New Zealand, given the threat to their country.

SOPAC

Screenie attached.
The air war has ended with the crushing of Noumea's airfield, but engineers there are fixing it fairly quickly. If he allows me to fix it entirely I may reopen the air war. But for now its mostly Allied submarines in action, who are finding targets, but not hitting them. Allied minelaying around Noumea has been quite heavy but utterly useless - it takes a month to lay them, and a day for him to sweep them.
A fast transport fleet is on its way from Auckland to Noumea to grab some aviation support - av support is New Zealands biggest lack at the moment and Noumea has 350, wasted on a shattered airfield. Dangerous but they are old cruisers, sucks to be them! I also had a CA force doing likewise from Fiji but thats been aborted because of a Japanese landing at Efate, which is out of effective bomber range from any Allied bases and is so unopposed. I've reordered the CAs to raid Efate but I may well get cold feet here, as I suspect KB is around to support the landings.

In the Coral Sea Indianapolis is roaming around looking for targets. There is a big AK convoy apparently without escort four hexes NE of her, and she is givign chase, but my abilities at high seas interception in this game are negligible so I doubt Indianapolis will find them. But you never know.

Heavy Japanese submarine activity around New Zealand, he knows I'm resupplying the place. Unfortunately for him there are quite a few Allied ASW assets there and they seem able to fend him off. So far one cargo ship has been sunk but several Japanese submarines damaged by heavy depth charging.

My position in SOPAC is generally strengthening. The battleship Idaho is safely disbanded at Wellington. Warspite is at Fiji, and two more Colorado class battleships are a few days out from Fiji. All the USN carriers bar Enterprise and Wasp are at Fiji (even Long Island is there). Enterprise is on her way, Wasp arrives at Panama in a couple of days. Indomitable and Formidable are just passing Melbourne. The new B24D Liberator is rolling off the production lines in vast numbers, I've already upgraded one squadron on Fiji to these paramount heavy bombers (they will allow me to move bomber units to New Zealand easily if nothing else).

He's still not engaged me at Noumea on the ground but recon suggests 20-25 Japanese units on New Caledonia, totalling 120,000 men, while Noumea has a defence of 50,000 men all told. I think when he hits, it will be quick - reinforcing Noumea is out of the question given KB.

[EUBanana]

Long delay in writing this up. Still going, just havn't been in the mood to write AARs. Also we had some computer issues, and Uamaga had a week off.

But progress is good, its now a month since the last update - 9th July, 1942.

So this will sum up a whole month.

...Fortunately its been generally quiet, though over a month of course stuff has been happening.

BURMA/INDIA
Air superiority has been gained over Tavoy in a month of fighting. The decisive factor here was the introduction of the B24D Liberator bomber, with its heavier bombload. The Wellingtons are a bit too vulnerable to enemy fighters and most of the bomber raids have been unescorted. One day early in mid June about 50 mixed Liberators/Fortresses hit the place and must have rolled well, as they really did a number on it, taking out about 25 Japs on the ground and wrecking the airfield for a week. He has since repaired the damage but declined to reinforce, he does have the odd Tojo or Zero there but in general he has given up fighting for Tavoy.
I am unable to capitalise on this however because Rangoon and Moulmein are both coastal hexes. Any effort to rebase the Allied airforces there, to bomb bases further behind enemy lines, comes to a swift end as a Japanese cruiser SAG is apparently based at Victoria Point and bombards the airfield repeatedly from the sea with usually devastatating effect. So the net result is kindof a stalemate.
Port Blair was unfortunately taken by the Japanese almost bloodlessly due to very unfortunate timing on my part. I rotated out Rangoon Force, and in the 3-4 day window he had before my Gurkha brigade would be dropped off there, he happened to invade it. [8|] He himself was surprised by how light the defences were. I guess I shoulda dropped off the reinforcements before removing the garrison... Oops. [8|]
A large convoy on the way to Australia carrying supplies and troops and containing an AS intended to be based at Perth was intercepted NW of Australia, well out of LBA range, by a lone Japanese carrier in mid June (just after the last update). Rapidly a nightmare journey for the convoy, the battles raged on for a whole week due to the convoy scattering. He was merciless in chasing down the convoy with everything he had, and with the carriers around it was completely defenceless (biggest defending ship was a PG). I t hink 40 out of 50 ships were lost, including the AS. However, the British merchant marine in the India area is humungous, far bigger than I need, so while a harrowing experience the loss of the convoy likely won't have much strategic impact.
Another convoy of equal size made it unscathed and continued on to Sydney, as its the Pacific in need of transports really.

And just yesterday (8th July) I made a very grave error. An Allied submarine spotted a Jap convoy just south of Port Blair headed north. I wanted to catch this if at all possible so the three R class battleships of the RN - who were on station not far from Port Blair - cruised on in, set to bombard (I figured, if the convoy is there they'll trash it, and if it isnt, I'd rather not waste the somewhat risky move by doing nothing at all). Unfortunately I didnt set them to retire! The Nells at Victoria Point were surprised to see three battleships anchored within easy range. One BB took 5 torpedoes, the others one each. The single hits are not really damaged at all, so I got off lightly. The 5 is on 37 sys and 80 flot, and limping home. May make it, may not. In either case - oops.

Plans for the future - basically I need land units to make any more hay than I've already done, specifically, I need to capture Tavoy. Recon tells me he has half a dozen units there, I suspect he's in divisional strength. I do, however, have about 500 AV of Chinese in Burma, and about 300 AV of Commonwealth. All the Chindit Brigades are on the trails to Burma, I think all this lot together might be adequate. I'm loathe to strip India Command of any units, though.


CHINA
Yet more disaster here! Wherever the supposedly large Chinese army goes, they are outnumbered and outgunned. Honan has been submerged beneath a wave of Japanese troops - he must have 20-30 units up here in total, and he's managed that apparently without stripping units from anywhere else (he's got 20 odd units in the Hong Kong area alone). Japanese armour was present as well and surprised me by blitzing the road behind Honan - the slow Chinese were unable to push them away before the infantry moved up. There is going to be a long and potentially disastrous siege for the Chinese at Honan (3000 AV of troops there), and Sian may well be threatened as well as he apparently outnumbers me hugely as already mentioned.
Units now reconstituted from the early year thrashing the Chinese took at Wenchow were ordered to reinforce the rather weak NE a while ago, but they are still on the trail between Chungking and Sian. Its pretty hefty reinforcements - about 1800 AV - so I really don't know what will happen here in the next few months. He has the whip hand though, as always the Chinese are the underdog.
The Dutch bombers are making their presence felt, the extra 50 Mitchells in China have helped noticeably, but given the total lack of decent fighters in China and the very bad experience of the Dutch pilots there havn't been any amazing success stories from here. Japanese bombing in the Yenen/Sian/Honan area is very heavy and forces the Chinese to base in the quiet SW.

AUSTRALIA
He may well be abandoning the continent. The Aussie airforce now based at Tennant Creek regularly raids Daly Waters, which is in fighter range and a fairly sizable Japanese airbase. a2a casualties are 2:1 in his favour with the Kittyhawk Is, but the bombers (Mitchells) often make up for that. It is an attritional struggle I'm happy to continue as the Kittyhawk pool is full (80 a/c). Recon of the north coast is spotty but the amount of Jap shipping at Darwin has reduced drastically (he maintains of the order of 15-20 ships there now) and it looks like the ground units committed have been reduced drastically too, making me think he's lifted them off elsewhere.
This makes me cagey. So I have not advanced beyond Tennant Creek, and indeed have ordered my main ANZAC units (2 divisions) back to Sydney again. The east coast of Aus is pretty bare now with NZ reinforced, makes me paranoid. (Ditto India, which is why my reinforcement of Burma mentioned above is very hesitant).
That said the east coast of Aus has been very quiet, aside from Catalinas at Cairns evacuating Port Moresby remnants now they made it to the beaches of PNG. The Anzac Brigade, in particular, has been evacuated by air almost in its entirety, which I consider quite a coup. Its in Sydney recovering.

Also in Sydney are three British CVs. I've kept these guys out of the way a bit because I dont' want him to know where the RN is. Also the ships are a bit ragged (PoW is on 8 sys) so I dont want to move them unduly.


SOPAC
He has moved up to Noumea finally though he has not assaulted. His force is /huge/. Of the order of 1800 AV at Noumea itself and he apparently has a lot of units elsewhere on New Caledonia as well. The defenders (Americal + RCT are the core) have only 600 AV, and fort level 6, so they are just a speedbump. Cadres have been evacuated to Sydney but given the reality of the replacement rate of US infantry squads, Americal Division is going to be out of the war until 1944 probably.
The KB is welded to Noumea like a limpet. Battleships bombard it every third day. This really is max effort on his part. Allied response has been by necessity limited to submarines and mining - the subs havn't hit a thing, the mines did claim a couple of patrol craft and cargo ships, which is better than nothing I guess.

Allied worries have moved on - after Noumea, what next? New Zealand has been heavily reinforced, there is about 1800 AV on North Island, and Hamilton has been built up to a level 5 airfield - important, as it is a) inland b) all ports are within Beaufort range of it. A USMC CD detachment is dug in at Gisborne which means all ports on North Island have CD defences. All the US carriers are based at Wellington, and there are three battleships at Auckland (every so often I shell Jap held Norfolk Island, to try and tempt KB away from Noumea so my ships at Fiji might be able to do something. He doesn't rise to the bait though). I may have over-reinforced, and for that reason there are plenty of APs at Wellington as well, so if Australia is the target, I can move around fairly quickly.
South Island has not been reinforced. I don't consider this to be a particularly desirable target for him. Allied heavy bombers could too easily trash it from North Island.

Fiji is his other big target. And I'm a bit more worried here as Fiji only has about the same defensive strength as Noumea, ie about 650 AV. It could turn into another speed bump. However,

a) Fiji has been the recipient of the entire Pacific mining effort, and is up to 5000 mines at Suva and 3000 at Nandi
b) Fiji and Nandi both have strong CD detachment
c) Nandi is being built to a level 4 airfield

ie, unlike New Caledonia, any Japanese landing will be quite heavily contested and there are 2 airfields, not 1, for him to shut down.

He has a long history of loving the envelop completely/destroy mode of combat (hence why he took Norfolk Island - so the US P-40s at Noumea were stuck, to be wiped out). To that end, Tonga is being reinforced by a US RCT and is my get out of Dodge clause. If he wants to isolate Fiji he'll have to try a little harder than last time.



CENTPAC/NORPAC havn't seen any action at all. Total backwaters. CENTPAC has not been stripped, a single RCT from NORPAC is goign to the South Pacific but its not even reached Pearl yet.





Allied prognosis - not good. I'm extremely concerned about where those units freed from Australia are going. If the answer is "New Zealand" I'm not happy. If the answer is "Eastern Australia" or "Fiji" i'm even less happy. If the answer is India, I say "Bring it!" but I doubt it will be.

Allied ground reinforcements are pathetic! I don't get another full size division for a whole year - and thats an ANZAC Command division. Basically what I got is It, and it seems woefully inadequate to deal with the Japanese Army. The exception is India, which has a pretty big army and reinforcements incoming. I become more certain as time goes on that any Allied offensives in 1943 will start there.

[EUBanana]

I almost forgot - I left this AAR on the cusp of a great battle. And while it is true that the last month has been quiet, the great battle did happen.

Unfortunately it was yet another Allied disaster.

The reason was - he split up his carriers again.  Even with Allied fleets right next to him he still did this.  He has cojones, more than me, which is why the Allies suffered.  If I had committed my carriers - all of them - it could have been a major Allied victory.

Indianapolis was raiding quite successfully NW of New Caledonia, and was even going to raid the Jap held ports, but ran into a carrier group NW of the island.  It took the amazingly inaccurate Jap bombing three days to sink Indy, but they chases her back towards Australia not letting her go, and they did get her in the end.
At Noumea itself the British cruiser force bumped into Japanese battleships, and did very well actually, torpedoing Fuso (British CLs are dangerous) and getting away by daybreak.  Unfortunately there were more Jap carriers south of Noumea, and only one DD made it back to New Zealand.

Meanwhile at Efate Minneapolis (I think) raided his landing there, finding none other than Yamato and a HUGE surface fleet.  Yet again the Allied ships did amazingly well in the surface engagement (Yamato didnt hit the broad side of a barn, though Minneapolis did get the "honour" of having 18" guns fired at her) but come daybreak - yup - carriers!  The Allied cruisers got slaughtered, though Minneapolis by some fluke did make it back to Fiji with many holes. If - if - I had committed all the USN carriers I had at Efate, given his CV deployment, not only would I have had a local superiority, but Yamato would have been around as an additional target to cherry pick. 

Woe.

However, there was an ugly coda to this which made me absolutely furious.  The US carriers were based at Nandi - only a day and a half from Efate, so they might still have intervened.  Here, some godawful flaw in the map or something totally ruined that.  If you have a fleet at Nandi and order it west, rather than simply moving west immediately as one might expect (the proverbial deep blue sea is immediately west of Nandi), the route-finding sends them /east/ four hexes, zigzagging through the reefs east of Fiji and eventually doubling back on themselves.  I didn't notice this little flaw until crunch time.  It basically adds a day and a half to any travel from Nandi to Efate, and that day and a half meant that the USN carriers could do squat as they saw their cruisers being pulverised by a couple of lone Jap CVs out on a flank.    I was not a happy bunny, needless to say.  And this has implications regarding my defence, too, as it means Fiji is pretty bad for raiding Japanese units at SOPAC - because whether at Suva or Nandi, it takes a day to get out into the open ocean because even from Nandi your commanders have the urge to play in the reefs.    No such problems for the Japs though, so your carriers have all the vulnerability of being close to the enemy lines, without the advantage of responsiveness.

This is why I ended up relocating all my US carriers to Wellington.

[EUBanana]

Brief comment deserved on the submarine war as well.

Japanese subs have been quiet this last month. I think he must have a lot of them tied up in dockyards, as while Allied ASW has proven very dismal at destroying submarines, they do get a lot of lone hits which doubtless forces them to retire. So his subs have been quite quiet. Those he does have seem busy around New Zealand, but there is a lot of Allied ASW activity there and I think in general he's been driven off. One exception - the battleship South Dakota, escorting Wasp to Wellington, was torpedoed once by an I boat which was sunk by the BB escorts. However, the torpedo did a mighty 2 sys and 17 flot damage, and the flot was fixed before SoDak even arrived at Wellington, so despite the torp hit I think that was a win. [:D]

Allied submarines are all over the place. There are a dozen in SOPAC but they have not scored anything at all. There are a couple off Formosa - nothing. Two south of Japan - they did encounter a Jap convoy repeatedly but no success. USS Tambor at Kwajalein emptied her torpedoes into Japanese ASW ships - she won that one, two PCs torpedoed and sunk and Tambor lived to tell the tale. USS Skipjack off Singapore attacked a convoy east of Malaya, hit an AK, and then followed her all the way to Singapore harbour attacking constantly, but without success (lot of dud hits). S-boats are covering Rangoon but his cruisers who like bombarding the place seem to be using a chronosphere or something - Rangoon is bombarded, no sub attacks, no nothing! Not even the Catalinas there spot him. Mysterious.

In any case, the submarine is not proving to be a decisive weapon in the summer of 1942, for either side.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Thanks for the update , most interesting.

[EUBanana]

19th July, 1942
I hope to keep the odd update, just not a daily one.

Since the beginning of June I've had bombers flying supply missions all over the map for training purposes.  Very cheap, I know. But I'm getting heartily sick of his ability to out-attrition the Allies for the sole reason that he can train pilots up to ace ability on-map (over China and DEI bases) and I cannot, so I figure on the training front anything goes.  The new pilot training system for AE is probably the improvement I lust after the most...  I mention it because there seems to be results, the Beauforts defending NZ, for example, have average experience in the high 70s now, purely by flying supplies from Hamilton to Auckland...  No more bombers missing incessantly hopefully, though my fighter pilots still get cut up by aces made by strafing a couple of unarmed and starving Chinese coolies every day for a month.

BURMA/INDIA
He chased my battleships all the way back to Colombo.  An IJN submarine was depth charged and sank by a DD force that was hastily scrambled to clear the way for my dinged up Mighty Rs.  And to my amazement a Jap CVL made an appearance just a couple of hexes away from Trimcomalees air defences, however the Ramillies dodged the (few) Kates who attacked.  I didn't expect that so was out of position - CVL Hermes scrambled next day but he pulled back immediately so Hermes found nothing.
So all the Brit BBs made it back to Ceylon.  Now all the flot has been fixed, they are off to Aden for a few months of patching up...  BB Valiant arrived though, so Repulse is not alone.
Main thing I took away from this was - wow.  He has a CVL here?
He's reinforced Tavoy so the air war is about to begin over Tavoy yet again.  This time he has a lot of Tojos and I have no doubt at all that he has 20 experience points over my pilots, minimum.

CHINA
Some Chinese corps moved to the outskirts of Canton, and pushed back his screening forces there.  He noticed, alright - 200 bombers promptly laid into them.  Hopefully this scares him some.
Around Honan I got the entire Dutch B25 force flying in supplies.  Not that I expect 50 Mitchells to supply 3000 AV, but every little helps, and the Mitchells have experience 25 and so are little use for anything else.

AUSTRALIA
A Mitchell+Kittyhawk raid on Daly Waters went very badly - 25 Allied a/c shot down for 2 Zeroes lost.  Fighter numbers are at about parity, so this is an experience issue - 1 on 1 my guys just can't hack it.  Faced with a choice of not even trying to kill Japanese pilots anymore or reinforcing, I chose to reinforce, so all the ANZAC Kittyhawks are now at Tennant Creek, giving me a numerical advantage in fighters.  We'll see how they do.

SOPAC
The busiest part of the map.  He's reinforced New Caledonia even more ([X(]), and now has 2000 AV of troops facing 650 AV at Noumea.  He has not yet attacked, oddly.  Allied bombardment kills 75 Japs a day - odd really, the Chinese bombardments do nothing despite much more even numbers - I guess this is down to US firepower.  KB remains around Noumea but the base is so trashed even Catalinas have been forced to vacate, so I am blind.
Nandi and Suva (Fiji) have both been mined up to 5000 mines each.  Tonga has an MLE and is being mined (2500 mines so far).  Tonga also has a naval base force and an RCT now, plus some Seabees, and an airstrip has been built, so my escape route is done.  Pago-Pago will be mined up next just in case.

[EUBanana]

20th July 1942 was a day of maximum effort for the Allies.  I don't normally go into statistics and combat reports but this is about as good as it gets for me.

Every airfield in Burma hit the reinforced Tavoy (fighter heavy wave from Rangoon, followed by unescorted heavies/Wellingtons from Magwe/Mandalay).  Daly Waters was hit by my reinforced Aussie airforce at Tennant Creek.  And near Canton a lucky encounter - three ROCAF squadrons found a huge unescorted bomber attack.

Day Air attack on Daly Waters , at 35,90

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 31
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 13

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 42
B-25C Mitchell x 23
B-26B Marauder x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 11 destroyed, 7 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 1 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 18 destroyed, 6 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
B-26B Marauder: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
16 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 2
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 3

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 14000 feet
4 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 14000 feet
5 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 14000 feet
2 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 14000 feet
4 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 14000 feet
3 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 14000 feet
3 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 14000 feet
3 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 14000 feet
3 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 14000 feet


Day Air attack on Tavoy , at 28,37

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 15
A6M3 Zero x 20
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 9
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 6

Allied aircraft
PBY Catalina x 3
Hurricane IIb x 48
P-40E Warhawk x 24
B-25C Mitchell x 9

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 7 destroyed, 1 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
PBY Catalina: 1 damaged
Hurricane IIb: 19 destroyed, 10 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 13 destroyed
B-25C Mitchell: 1 destroyed, 7 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
59 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 5

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 10000 feet
2 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 10000 feet


Day Air attack on Tavoy , at 28,37

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 8
A6M3 Zero x 17
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 8
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 6

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 24
B-24D Liberator x 29

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 4 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed, 6 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 2 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 destroyed
C5M Babs: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 11 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 11 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
155 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 4
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 44

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 10000 feet
4 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 10000 feet
4 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 10000 feet
6 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 10000 feet
3 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 15000 feet
4 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 10000 feet
3 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 10000 feet
3 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 10000 feet
4 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 15000 feet
3 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 10000 feet
3 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 10000 feet
2 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 10000 feet
3 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 15000 feet
2 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 15000 feet
3 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 10000 feet


Day Air attack on Tavoy , at 28,37

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 4
A6M3 Zero x 8
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 4
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 3

Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 57 (half bombload due to extended range)
Liberator III x 33

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed
A6M3 Zero: 3 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 8 damaged
Liberator III: 6 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
164 casualties reported

Airbase hits 9
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 65

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x Liberator III bombing at 12000 feet
4 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
8 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
4 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
9 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
4 x Liberator III bombing at 12000 feet
4 x Liberator III bombing at 12000 feet
4 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Liberator III bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
6 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Liberator III bombing at 12000 feet
4 x Liberator III bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
4 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Liberator III bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Liberator III bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet
3 x Wellington III bombing at 12000 feet

Day Air attack on 1st New Chinese Corps, at 44,40

Japanese aircraft
A5M4 Claude x 16
D3A2 Val x 18
B5N2 Kate x 9
Ki-27 Nate x 23
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 12
Ki-30 Ann x 12
Ki-21-II Sally x 21
Ki-49 Helen x 23
Ki-48-II Lily x 33

Allied aircraft
P-43A Lancer x 4
P-38F Lightning x 11
I-153c x 4

Japanese aircraft losses
A5M4 Claude: 2 damaged
D3A2 Val: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-27 Nate: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 1 damaged
Ki-30 Ann: 5 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 2 damaged
Ki-48-II Lily: 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-43A Lancer: 1 damaged
P-38F Lightning: 5 damaged
I-153c: 3 damaged


Allied ground losses:
172 casualties reported
Guns lost 5
Vehicles lost 1

Aircraft Attacking:
7 x Ki-30 Ann bombing at 2000 feet
24 x Ki-48-II Lily bombing at 6000 feet
15 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 6000 feet
11 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet
8 x A5M4 Claude bombing at 2000 feet
9 x D3A2 Val bombing at 2000 feet
8 x B5N2 Kate bombing at 6000 feet
10 x Ki-43-Ib Oscar bombing at 2000 feet
8 x A5M4 Claude bombing at 2000 feet
8 x D3A2 Val bombing at 2000 feet
9 x Ki-27 Nate bombing at 2000 feet
10 x Ki-27 Nate bombing at 2000 feet
12 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 6000 feet
9 x Ki-48-II Lily bombing at 6000 feet
6 x Ki-21-II Sally bombing at 6000 feet
2 x Ki-43-Ib Oscar bombing at 2000 feet
2 x Ki-27 Nate bombing at 2000 feet
1 x Ki-27 Nate bombing at 2000 feet



TOTAL LOSSES
Allied 58 (all air to air) - 22 Hurricanes, 19 Kittyhawks, 13 P40Es
Japanese 50 (31 air to air) - 31 Zeroes, 4 Tojos

Question is, is this sufficient to attritt him noticeably?  Given the fighting goes on over his airfields so only a fraction of those shot down mean dead Japanese pilots, I think the answer is - no. 

[EUBanana]

23rd July 1942

Noumea fell today finally - it fell on the first attack in fact!  Cadres of the important units were successfully evacuated but still - nothing other than a disaster for the Allies, losing an entire US division and an RCT and a lot of support units. 40,000 Americans are led into captivity.


Ground combat at Noumea
 
Japanese Shock attack
 
Attacking force 94884 troops, 483 guns, 86 vehicles, Assault Value = 2192
 
Defending force 35342 troops, 341 guns, 101 vehicles, Assault Value = 621
 
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 3
 
Japanese max assault: 4132 - adjusted assault: 6110
 
Allied max defense: 371 - adjusted defense: 1117
 
Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1 (fort level 3)
 
Japanese forces CAPTURE Noumea base !!!
 
 
 
Allied aircraft
no flights
 
 
Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 1 destroyed
A-24 Dauntless: 1 destroyed
 
Japanese ground losses:
3363 casualties reported
Guns lost 27
Vehicles lost 18
 
Allied ground losses:
42158 casualties reported
Guns lost 299
Vehicles lost 44


Meanwhile by Canton a Chinese attempt to divert the Japs with an attack by three full strength Chinese corps is held up by one Japanese brigade, which just about sums it up in China.  Doesn't seem to matter how many Chinese I have, they lose anyway.  That said I think the complete Japanese air superiority has something to do with it...



He has of the order of 5 divisions in New Caledonia, with a lot of support.  The war now hinges on where he goes next, if anywhere.  Given how well he's doing, I doubt very much he'll turn inward just yet.  I guess I have to hope New Zealand - if only because I have concentrated there to meet him.

[EUBanana]

26th July 1942

BURMA/INDIA
He's abandoned Tavoy again, I bomb it at my leisure.  However he sank USS Seawolf in Rangoon harbour with a Betty raid - Seawolf had been badly damaged by depth charges and forced to dock at Rangoon.  This is the one part of the map where I seem to be wielding a hammer capable of hurting him, but I can't really capitalise until more LCUs are in theatre so I can make better use of Rangoon.  A lot of engineering units and AA units are now over halfway through the trails on the Indian border.

CHINA
Not much to say here, the ROCAF is dancing around him still as if they do the same move twice, or stay at the same airbase for more than a couple of days, they get annihilated.  The ground situation is still developing.

AUSTRALIA
Might well have to call off the attritional struggle here, because the RAAF seems to be utterly, totally outclassed.  48 Kittyhawks and 50 Mitchells met a mix of 50 Zeroes/Tojos (mostly Zeroes) over Daly Waters, and were slaughtered - 24 Kittyhawks shot down for 2 Zeroes.  On the plus side the bombing did do something, so the overall score for the day - with most of the kills happening at Daly Waters - stands at 32 Allied losses for 24 Japanese. The problem with this reasoning is that his pilot quality must be going through the roof with all these turkey shoots while mine stays bumping along the floor.

I'm going to try some unescorted raids I think, as odd it may sound I think sending up swarms of lambs to the slaughter fighters may be even less smart than sending unescorted bombers. At least B25s are reasonably able to defend themselves.

SOPAC
Jap submarines are reconning New Zealand.  I move the carriers to Dunedin, so he doesn't immediately find them, and five DD taskforces sail out to find subs.  Even with half the USN after them, there is no luck, at least not yet.  I don't think he's even aware of how much force there is there - which is good.

First bombing raid ordered on Luganville - recon suggests he has 22 ships docked in port including a lot of submarines, so thats the target.  Jap CAP is not inconsiderable.  Four squadrons of Liberators are on their way, unescorted.  This will be an interesting test.

[EUBanana]

Some light at the end of the tunnel I see, 50 more heavy bombers in the reinforcement schedule due to arrive fairly soon.  With the prospect of hundred bomber raids being launched out of Fiji to his new perimeter at Luganville/Efate...

[EUBanana]

30th July 1942

More crunching noises from  both sides airforces.  This is the sort of air war Butcher Harris would approve of.

Bangkok was raided for the first time today.

1) Bangkok was raided by Liberators/Wellingtons from Rangoon and B17s/B25s from Magwe.  A P38F squadron did a sweep as well from Meiktila.  The P38s needn't have bothered, they were massacred (over 50% casualties) by a stiff defence including a lot of Tojos.  The B17s shot down more a/c than the Lightnings managed.  Aside from that 8 B24s and 8 B17s were shot down (Wimpey losses are irrelevant as the Wimpey pool is still hovering on 100 odd, and they can be downgraded to Blenheims again if need be).  Some good damage was done to Bangkok airfield though.

2) Daly Waters was hit again from Tennant Creek, this time the Kittyhawks did good and were not massacred in droves.  They achieved a 1:1 kill ratio in fact.  The bombers did OK-ish.

3) The AVG in China swept Hankow, and were greased by defending Tojos.

In summary, the Tojo is clearly a very badass machine and takes the Imperial Japanese air force to a new level.  Despite that the day stands in the Allies favour for a change, thanks to the heavy bomber.

44 Allied losses versus 53 Japanese, which all but 11 of those being on the ground.


Other developments ...

* a British TF based around CA Frobisher and CA Exeter are en route to Rangoon to try and defend it against naval bombardment, which has been his usual response when faced with bombers based there.  I don't like doing this as its in range of Jap torpedo bombers - but just before they arrive I'll reinforce with plenty of Hurricanes.

* In the last few days three RAAF Hudson squadrons have been relocated to New Zealand or Fiji and upgraded to Beaufort torpedo bombers, thus giving the defences there some valuable, if limited, anti shipping ability.  The Allied bombers may be good against airfields but they suck against ships.  I really do think that the fact that there is no Allied bomber which can realistically sink a ship bigger than a light cruiser with a range greater than 4 is a serious - /really/ serious - flaw in the Allied armoury.

* Heavy bombers hit Luganville a few days ago from Fiji, they did brush aside the CAP of ~35 fighters and bombed the hell out of the port.  Unfortunately the only targets hit were heavy cruisers, and damage was therefore light given they were dropping 500lb bombs.  They are still recovering but I'll switch to the airfield in future, the port is not a profitable target.

* The Allied CV force is sitting in the open ocean somewhere NE of New Zealand, with a replenishment TF.  Kinda half way between NZ and Fiji...

* Sub war is going badly for the Allies - I've lost three Salmon class submarines in the last five days, two off Australia, one off Singapore.  IJ ships have been attacked but no hits - no doubt duds are partly to blame.

* Jap CVs sighted at Luganville, there seems to be some AP activity there too.  Noumea is unfortunately out of patrol plane range so I got no idea what he's up there.

[EUBanana]

6th August 1942

Been a bit of a lull this last week.  Not much air action really.

BURMA/INDIA
A Royal Navy taskforce based around the heavy cruisers Exeter and Frobisher is now stationed at Rangoon, which will keep his cruisers from shelling the airfield there and utterly scragging my airforce.  They are defended, Rangoon is absolutely jammed with fighters (got an 80-100 strong CAP), so I figure any attack on them will surely be costly.  My reinforcements are working their way into Burma, not done yet.  Some are being airlifted, some are on the trails.  There are a lot of AA guns coming (six units, 300 flak value = ouch) and an aviation support unit which is on the rail net, the latter is important as it'll let me stack even more at Rangoon.  Plan is to force Rangoon open (at the moment he closes it at will with his cruisers) - once Rangoon is actually a usable airfield Wellingtons can raid Bangkok at will, and then he'll have real trouble keep Bangkok open.  That said there have been no daytime raids out of Burma for a while now, due to morale problems with the Wellingtons.  This will change soon, they've had a week off already.  Offshore there has been a fairly active but singularly unsuccessful submarine campaign being waged all along the coast down as far as Georgetown, the shallow water doesn't help.  Attacks are being made but as per usual the Allied commanders are apparently complete numpties and are leading incompetents, nobody can hit anything, Dutch, US, British, doesn't matter.   Jap ASW is not hugely effective though, there isn't much of it.  The IJN is in SOPAC.

He knows the RN is there, and the fighters.  He's not done anything yet about it but I expect him to.  It'll have to be within 4-5 days as by then my Wimpeys will be recovered and my engineers in position so the campaign against Bangkok will begin.  Situation developing.

CHINA
ROCAF is in its death throes as he starts bombing Chungking massively.  I got P66 Vanguards but they are swept away and hundred bomber raids cause the Chinese to fight in the shade.  The ROCAF has been evacuated to Chengtu because there is nowhere left.  Aviation support is being airlifted in from India to make Chengtu able to house it all.  I get about 70 new ROCAF fighters over the next month, I'm hoping they can turn the tide, but I fear not.
I won't agree to the house rule on China Command units in future.  It specified that we can station non China-HQd units in the coastal cities but have to switch to the China specific HQ if we want to deploy to the interior.  What this has meant in practice is that the entire IJ air force can deploy to the coastal towns and, using their long range, pound the ROCAF to dust.  While I have 100 fighters doing nothing in Calcutta because I don't have the PPs to switch commands to China Command (and can't forward base them in Burma due to lack of aviation support).  This means he can basically train at will, and he has been training at will, while I am absolutely powerless, which is entirely the reason for me getting results like 12-1 kill ratios with Kittyhawks vs Zeroes.

This is lame.

I'm not too worried though as the 4Es will still grind him to dust I'm sure.  [:D]

Australia
Stalemate in northern Aus.  He seems to have about 30 units still on the continent.  All the shipping in Darwin has gone - all of it.  Where is he going?  Could be anywhere.  He's going somewhere though.  Not much aggression from him here, no bombers - he maintains fighters at Daly Waters to burn me with his amazing aces trained in China but thats it.

SOPAC
Jap carriers remain at Luganville as far as can be told.  Jap battleships sighted loitering north of Norfolk Island
 Fiji is being reinforced by US units, we're up to over a little 1000 AV now.  Allied heavy bombers are ordered to hit the airfield at Efate but refuse to do so, I think the problem might be the level 4 airfield at Nandi but its almost up to level 5.  Allied submarines of all classes have been massacred around Noumea, there are Jap transports there but they can't hit the broad side of  a barn and Jap ASW is deadly.  Only a couple of subs lost but many are now sitting in Sydney being fixed.  The Silent Service is not covering itself with glory in 1942. 

My carriers are headed back to Gisborne meanwhile, I don't like Auckland, too exposed.  So I have a battleship force at Fiji and the rest of the USN in New Zealand essentially.  Gisborne is being mined, I think its the most exposed landing ground so its the first to get the MLE/DM treatment.  New Zealand is a bit short on air units, especially fighters unfortunately there aren't many to spare.  On the principle of "he who defends everywhere defends nowhere" some units in CENTPAC are being stripped for Fiji/NZ, hopefully in places he won't be likely to attack, but theres always a risk.

I have the feeling that if he makes another reach, for Fiji or NZ, he'll find it much harder going than New Caledonia, especially if I throw the kitchen sink at him in defence.  I suspect nefarious plans are being plotted though, against India maybe.  There seems to be a major Jap realignment going on but... the sheer strategic value of New Zealand forces my hand I feel.  I need to keep the US-Australia link open or the Aussies are toast.