EHRENBUCH UNSERE ARMEE U. MARINE == Trollelite (J) vs. Hoepner(A)

[trollelite]

Our battleships made several more runs to singapore, unfortunately the result is disappointing, with only moderate damage to enemy and 6 of battleships damaged. Because the number of avaiable battleships down to 4, the minimal amount that should be used in  incoming campaign, so the bombardment of singapore has to be stopped. Our enemy has luck here, because every time the BB TF come to singapore, some of them (and at least 1 battleship, sometimes 2) hit mines, a rather unusual thing, considering this port has only 500 mines or so.
 
Now our focus is on Java. Enemy concentrate his force in the base south of Kragen, he want to avoid our naval bombardment there. Actually we have no plans to bombardment any place of Java, for fear damaging resource and oil unnecessarily. He chooses to defend this level 2 fort, not Soerabaja's level 5 fort, is not bad to us.
 
Otherwhere the war proceeds as planned. Rabaul, Lautern already falled, Koepang and Ambonia would follow in several days, so we could finish our operations in secondary theater.

[trollelite]

A-sight is now my greatest unpleasure. Our convoy have to spend over a week in India ocean, any info leak in a-sight could compromise our task, which is very annoying. To prevent this, we have to assaign every TF a new goal in every turn, to fool allied. It' so laborious and exhausting! And this damned a-sight already revealed some edge of our intention, not one time but two in a single day! What an outrageous thing!![:@]

[pauk]

regarding Japanese ASW, be patient. Try to get some experience for your PC an PGs with sending them against enemy merchant ships (and agressive commander). That will increase exp level and your asw force will be more successful. Also, do not forget to assign skilled (agressive) commanders.

Also, once when you train IJA bomber crew to the crack (80+ exp) try save them. Sally/Hellen airgroups are formidable ASW ac - they will be very useful in 1943/4...

good luck with India.

[trollelite]

No particular news these days. Davao and Koepang fall. So we get some more foothold in our flank. We now station about 260 bombers in Palemberg and 230 in Batavia, 4 more sentai Ki-21, about 120 machines, would come soon. If we cannot use battleships, then we would use bombers to deal with his malaya army.
 
Thank you Pauk-san, ASW is annoying, but what especially displeasing is a-sight, and that one is what we absolutely have no way to counter. Even the evil TIE-Corsair could be ambushed!![:D]

[trollelite]

Such result is rather disheartening,  it happened not only once, but 3 times in 3 turns:
 
ASW attack at 32,64
 
Japanese Ships
AK Ryotoku Maru
PC Takunan Maru #7
PC Takunan Maru #6
PC Shonon Maru #11
PC Shonon Maru #10
PC Shonon Maru #3
PC Kyo Maru #7
PC Kyo Maru #6
PC Fumi Maru #3
PG Toyotsu Maru
PG Chokai Maru
 
Allied Ships
SS KXI, hits 1
 
Needless to say, this so-called hit is no more than a scratch...
 
This president provides us a live target in Wenchow:
 
Day Air attack on Wenchow , at 50,41
 
Japanese aircraft
Ki-48-I Lily x 20
 
No Japanese losses
 
Allied Ships
AP President Harrison, Bomb hits 2,  on fire,  heavy damage
 
 
A small band of Japanese capture undefended Luganville today. This move is mainly for fun...[:D] The secondary objective is however to mislead allies.

[trollelite]

Hoepner deploys 15 units, about 40,000--50,000 men in the base south of Kragen. Tomorrow our main group of 130,000 soldier would arrive there with 2600+ AV. The KB is ordered to move to support, in addtion to 260 bombers in Batavia. We don't care about losses, Java must fall soon, or our entire operation plan is in jeopardy.

[Kereguelen]

ORIGINAL: trollelite

Such result is rather disheartening,  it happened not only once, but 3 times in 3 turns:

ASW attack at 32,64

Japanese Ships
AK Ryotoku Maru
PC Takunan Maru #7
PC Takunan Maru #6
PC Shonon Maru #11
PC Shonon Maru #10
PC Shonon Maru #3
PC Kyo Maru #7
PC Kyo Maru #6
PC Fumi Maru #3
PG Toyotsu Maru
PG Chokai Maru

Allied Ships
SS KXI, hits 1

Needless to say, this so-called hit is no more than a scratch...

How many of your ASW vessels attacked the sub? Did the sub attack the freighter with torps (and missed)? Which experience have your ASW levels? Was the sub spotted by a plane before? Did the encounter happen in shallow or deep water?

[trollelite]

Imperial Army continue its advance in Malaya. It seems allies pull all their units back to singapore. One of our tank regiment is landing in Mersing.

In Java, Dutch concentrate their defence around Madioen. It doesn't work. On 23, Dec, 1941, after a whole day's fierce battle, units from Imperial 14th and 16th Army literally run over Dutch line. The colonial army is totally routed and fleeing toward Malang. Imperial tanks already followed them into that airbase. More than 10,000 officers and men are killed or captured, Imperial loss is not heavy.

The backbone of KNIL is practically broken. We cannot hold our time table in Java, but the delay would not be more than several days.

In other place, "Operation Nymphenburg" is in progress. We use airborne troopers capturing Tavoy, Victoria Point and Port Blair.

In China, our trooper abandoned Nanchang to save strength. Chinese already move in.

Our bomber loss is rather heavy, about 10 level bombers every day. But we cannot stop. Instead, the bomb offensive against singapore must step up, after Java falls. Singapore must be taken, and quickly.

[racndoc]

trollelite....

I feel your pain at Singapore. Im at 12/25/41 in virtually the same scenario and the AA at Singapore is murderous. I've tried sending Sallys at every altitude from 15,000 ft to 25,000 ft and 17,000 seems the best bang for the buck with the fewest casualties.......although sending 100 Sallys to get 13-18 airfield hits will never close the airfield with the Allies having massed engineers there from all the base forces.

Try a strategy that a Japanese player used on me and that I will be trying in a couple turns in my game....once you capture Mersing, base 3 Kate groups from the HI there and send them over Singapore at max. altitude.....27,000 feet...they can achieve remarkable results with minimal casualties....a lot cheaper than decimating your BBs.

Look forward to seeing you invade India....I may try the same in my game.

Good luck!

[trollelite]

Today we see the final destruction of KNIL field army in Malang. And Soerabaja itself would fall in 3 days... The Dutch get a quick and decisive punishment after their terroism attack...[:D]

Benkelon also falls, so we don't need to worry search plane from there anymore.

In China, the situation is not so good. All kinds of terrorists from cowardly Chungking government AND communists roam roads and railroads. Punitive expeditions are organized. Our Ichang Detachment, a mixed brigade and a SNLF, are cut off, and now must fight for their lives...

In Indian Ocean, Operation "Tegetthoff" is in motion. Imperial Navy 17th Sentai, including 4 "Aikoku Maru" Class aux cruisers, is already there. They, each with 2 E-13A1 abord, form an advance scout line with about 600--700 seamiles distance from each other. Their missions are to locate possible enemy TF there so KB could avoid it all together. KB itself would send out NO scout plane, relying solely on her Zeros and escorts for self-defence. So these 4 ships performance is vital to our mission.

[trollelite]

These days saw the conclusion of Java Campaign.  After the surrender of KNIL field army, Imperial divisions marched into Soerabaja, they found this base only defended by some coast gun unit and aviation base force. So after a short fight this token resistance also collapsed. It yielded another 15,000 prisoners. The best thing is all resource, oil field and repair yard captured intact.
 
In the north sumantra, Imperial 35th Brigade make landing on Medan. All dutch units there cowardly flee to the northern tip of this island. However, their last asylum is soon to be overrun.
 
We know have 3 operation airfield to use against singapore. Palemberg, Johor Baru and Mersing. All together about 700 level bombers. Hopefully this business would end soon.

[trollelite]

As  Soerabaja falls and no port damage there, 5th Division and 18th Division plus 2 tank regiment immediately reembark...All transports are faster than 15 knots, we want them to follow KB's progress.
 
One bad news is, that we found 2 ships always stay in Ticomalee. We suspect this is 2 infamous ML. If so, we perhaps have to face about 10,000 mines there...[:@]
We send a submarine to investigate, but she is damaged by Martin-139 almost as soon as she entered the port...
 
In Malaya theater, we sent every available bomber there. Today about 350 machines bombed singapore. With a "moderate" loss of 13 bombers we managed to hit supply depot 18 times and airbase or runway 288 times. Now this airfield is permanantly shut down for allies, and their supply stock is quickly dwindling...  Our "800 bombers Campaign" would begin tomorrow....[&o]
 

[trollelite]

I made a mistake by not change some bomber unit's altitude from 6000 to 11000, and they get hit hard by singapore's 2 pound AA gun. We lost 29 bombers today, the only solace is most bombers not shot down right above that base but crashed later, so we manage to save a lot of pilots, at least.
 
Imperial 21st Division would arrive in Johro Baru by sea. 3 tank regiments are on their ways from Java. We have all together: 7 infantry divisions, 4 engineer regiments and 5 tank regiments for final assualt.
 
In Arabian Sea, we scored an important victory today. British minelayer Kung Wo , perhaps on her way to Bombay, was intercepted by Imperial submarine I-18 and quickly sent to bottom by 3 torpedos. It has a mine-capacity of 500. This means 15,000 mines/per month with the support of MLE. Now all history.
 
 

[trollelite]

We send allies 2 new year present. First, after a decent bombardment from 4 "Kako" class cruisers, Imperial naval infantry captured Bali Island without much resistance. Second, Singapore harbor is heavily bombed, and other bombers tortured allies land force.
 
The loss of today is acceptable, 17 bombers. More important is, now almost every aussie and indian brigade get bombed once. We plan to bomb them 2 to 3 times, before our army cross the strait. These Australian and Indian Brigades are backbone of defence. If they collapse, then enire defence disintegrate. 
 
A typical day of Singapore:
 
Day Air attack on Singapore , at 22,51
 
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 68
G4M1 Betty x 37
E13A1 Jake x 1
Ki-21-II Sally x 109
Ki-49 Helen x 3
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1
Ki-15 Babs x 1
 
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 22 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 3 destroyed, 28 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 1 destroyed
 
 
Allied ground losses:
570 casualties reported
Guns lost 9
Vehicles lost 1
 
Port hits 12
Port fuel hits 6
Port supply hits 3
 
 
Their supply now couldn't be much more than 10000, if we manage to hold it down to , let's say, 5,000, then singapore would fall in 3 days. We could mass about 4,000 AV, he at most 800-1,000.

[trollelite]

Another day of heavy bombing, we like to see the result like this...
 
Day Air attack on 27th Brigade AIF , at 22,51
 
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 60
G4M1 Betty x 26
Ki-21-II Sally x 76
Ki-49 Helen x 3
 
Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 4 destroyed, 20 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 2 destroyed, 19 damaged
 
 
Allied ground losses:
385 casualties reported
Guns lost 8
 
Don't think there is too much combat value left in that brigade. From now on we could simply write it off. Several more raids like this on 22nd and Indian Brigades then we could literally walk into Singapore....[;)]

[trollelite]

Another little pesky thing bombed to death... KXI after received 250Kg bomb from D3A and 30Kg from a E7A, finally sank today...We would not weep for her...[:D]

Our brave RO-34 sneaks back to Trincomalee harbor, allies seems not anticipating this WIEDERHOLUNGSBESUCH, so the Dutch Minelayer Rigel, solo survivior of once mighty DEI ML fleet, is happily drifting above wave and do her nasty business, unescorted.... suddenly a big, long, and hot thing thrust direct into...[&o][:'(]

Sub attack near Trincomalee  at 13,25

Japanese Ships
SS RO-34

Allied Ships
ML Rigel, Torpedo hits 1,  on fire,  heavy damage


BONSAI !!!!

[trollelite]

Another hard day for IJA and IJN bombers. All together 24 downed, but the result of their work cannot be ignored...


Day Air attack on 28th Indian Brigade, at 22,51

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 10
G4M1 Betty x 6
Ki-21-II Sally x 26

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 2 destroyed, 6 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 3 destroyed, 18 damaged


Allied ground losses:
93 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

=================================================

Day Air attack on 22nd Brigade AIF , at 22,51

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 26
G4M1 Betty x 23
Ki-21-II Sally x 48

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed, 16 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 2 destroyed, 15 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 3 destroyed, 23 damaged


Allied ground losses:
146 casualties reported
Guns lost 7

===========================================

Day Air attack on 27th Brigade AIF , at 22,51

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 41
G4M1 Betty x 6
Ki-21-II Sally x 22
Ki-49 Helen x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 2 destroyed, 24 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 6 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 2 destroyed, 12 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 1 damaged


Allied ground losses:
142 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

==========================================

Day Air attack on Singapore , at 22,51

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 80
G4M1 Betty x 28
Ki-21-II Sally x 80
Ki-49 Helen x 12
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1
Ki-15 Babs x 2

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 14 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 8 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 23 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 4 damaged


Allied ground losses:
446 casualties reported
Guns lost 7
Vehicles lost 1

Airbase hits 9
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 116

=============================================

Some of his best brigades are repeatedly hit, and, of course, airfield with its supply depot.


Now gentlemen, our operation " Altmark" and " Tegetthoff" are in full motion. Imperial 5th and 18th division, with corps armored and engineer units, are now on Indian Ocean east of Sumantra. The main force of combined fleet is at sea, with KB sails about 600 seamiles north of them and troop convoy.

The 17th Sentai of Aux cruiser and submarine force (all together 24 boats) complete their deployment to position. These 4 ships are followed by a second echelon, 2 more aux cruisers, and 2 AV,

Now you see the situation around Ceylon Island.

[trollelite]

As you probabaly already read in Hoepner's post, his situation in singapore get desperate.  Before the first assualt day ended the fort already down to 3.  And allies lost nearly 10,000 men.  Another shock attack and there should bring conclusion.  We now plan to let our troops rest one day, because it's not very wise to continue offensive on disruption level 60-70.  One day earlier fall of singapore or not doesn't justify excessive losses of our army.

The situation in indian ocean is more interesting, as the thunderstorm continues for nearly a week, we simply cannot wait anymore. The troop convoy is quickly approaching cyelon, so now KB must strike. Unfortunately the weather report for tomorrow is still infamouse T-storm. We have to send KB into strike position and hope for the best. Anyway, it doesn't seem there are too many valuable targets in both ports. There are significant number of aircrafts on Colombo Airfield, however. We know there are Blumheim and Hudson level bombers and Vildebeest torpedo bombers. There is no sign of carrier based Barracuda or Swordfishes.

[trollelite]

As expected, our attack on Ceylon doesn't go very well. I do make arrangement to minimize my loss, because Jap side cannot afford too heavy loss just to prove some fantasy thought. But I do pay enough price to prove some of my doubts. It seems opponent know exactly what would happen, even days of heavy t-storm prevent any effective air-recon.  Meager as allies resource is, they are deployed in critical location. Of course, anyone who read this aar would know exactly what happens.  Hoepner himself wouldn't read my aar that's for sure, but some too enthusiastic souls may make unwanted hints. Enemy deploys an effective defence, which could only base on accuracy knowledge of time and location of our movement. So I decide to suspend this aar for a while and see what happens later...[8|]

[tsimmonds]

Paranoid much? It's an important location as well as an obvious target, so it makes sense for him to have defended it.