Facing the Iron Rain - Mad66(A) vs. Rainer79(J) Big B 1.5

[Mad66]

January 6, 1942

Clark Field was the target of a heavy Japanese shock attack, I think it will only take one, maybe two more before the defenders get pushed back into Bataan, and the Philippines defense perimeter is cut in two.

Ground combat at Clark Field
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 89766 troops, 690 guns, 299 vehicles, Assault Value = 1448
Defending force 45989 troops, 221 guns, 242 vehicles, Assault Value = 1213
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 1
Japanese max assault: 2814 - adjusted assault: 949
Allied max defense: 1249 - adjusted defense: 524
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 1)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1
Japanese ground losses:
2984 casualties reported
Guns lost 38
Vehicles lost 20
Allied ground losses:
2074 casualties reported
Guns lost 36
Vehicles lost 5

Otherwise, routine air attacks on Palembang, Singapore, Clark, and Sabang.

Japanese forces are now at Rangoon, but the city is still in British hands. The defenses around the horseshoe (Mandalay, Myitkyina, Lashio) are starting to firm up, and Stillwell and his nine divisions of Chinese troops are on the way, though with great deliberation. (I'd say glacial slowness, but it'd be repetitive.)

The siege at Singapore continues, with a another day of air and artillery bombardment by the Japanese. I suspect it will only be another week, perhaps ten days, before the city falls.

USS Colorado, USS Arizona, three heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and a gaggle of destroyers are heading to Kiska island to bombard the Japanese building a base there. Once I see the results of that, I can make a better plan to proceed in that arena.

[Mad66]

January 7, 1942

Rangoon was attacked today. The attack was stopped, but only after the Japanese attackers broke through all defensive lines. (Forts were reduced to 0.) The city is likely to fall tomorrow.

Buna was occupied after two local boys were arrested by the native constable after throwing rocks at the attackers, ending all resistance.

Makassar has been invaded, but remains in Allied hands.

Some air action, but nothing extremely noteworthy.

[Mad66]

January 8, 1942

As expected, Rangoon falls. The city was largely abandoned, with just a coastal defense unit and a few bits of a base force left there.

Clark Field is due to fall in the near future, I'd say no more then three days. I'm considering withdrawing troops tomorrow into Bataan, and hunkering down for the siege phase of this fight. Manila won't last long, and Bataan will fall not much after. Or become a prison camp, one of the two.

Singapore's days are also numbered, the Japanese got a 1 to 1, and caused more casualties then they took, the last deliberate attack.

I've been foolishly sending subs into port hexes to try for shots, and I've been paying in battered submarines. I just sent a dozen subs out from Pearl, I'll try to keep them a bit further out, and use them more for recon then for interdiction, till the whole torpedo problem starts to resolve itself.

I think the air battle over CBI is going to get underway soon. Its earlier then I'd really wanted, but its time to start chewing on his pilot pool.

One thing I haven't seen since Pearl Harbor is the KB, or any part of it. The Mini-KB seems to be involved in Solomons/New Guinea, but we haven't seen the big decks for awhile.

[Mad66]

January 9, 1942

The Japanese make landings at Pontiniak, and a surface force and invasion task force are heading for Port Moresby. I'd dearly love to sortie the Australian fleet, with a few American and British friends, but air cover from Rabaul would kill me, and my planes don't have the legs yet to return the favor.

The air war over Burma began in earnest today, when a routine harassment mission over Mandalay found two squadrons of P-40E Warhawks waiting. Ten of forty Oscars went down in flames, for the loss of three of twenty-eight Warhawks. The four Sallys they were escorting dropped their bombs in a panic, and all four bombers were damaged.

More oil and supplies were dispatched towards Australia and New Zealand, by way of Panama City. Though I'm hoping to keep the southern route open, the KB has yet to show itself, and given his swift movements into the Solomons and New Guinea, I'd expect to see hits on Noumea, and Suva, in the very near future.

In China, Wuchow fell, with over 10,000 Chinese troops going into captivity. I would expect Pucheng to be next.

[Mad66]

January 10, 1942

Apparently the Japanese didn't like having their Oscars chopped up over Burma, because they didn't return for a second dose. A sad thing, because I had over 120 Warhawks plus 40 odd Buffalos waiting for them. Instead, they took out their frustration on the badly outnumbered and outgunned Dutch East Indies air force.

The good news is, this gives me more time to get Mandalay's AF to level 4, which will make everything better. I plan to base 150 bombers in Mandalay, and use them to pound on Rangoon and Moulmein, with Buffalo escorts. While the Buffalos will die in droves, enough of the bombers should get through to do enough damage to force him to shut down Mandalay, where the Warhawks will be waiting, on Long Range CAP from the mountain airfields. Once I get a couple of squadrons of Lightnings into CBI to provide real escorts, his problems should prove more acute.

Port Moresby is invaded, and Darwin is bombarded by mysterious stealth battleships. They literally appeared, bombarded, and vanished. Alas for the state of aerial recon in 1942. In any case, I am working to evacuate the dirt road bases in Northern Oz (Broome, Derby, Wyndham) so I can use those base forces on the long road south from Darwin.

In the frozen north, I shifted the planes from Attu Island to a friendly Russian airfield, thus helping with the supply shortage on Attu. The planes will sit there until the hardworking and underfed engineers get an actual airstrip and hangars built, and we get the supply issues sorted.

Colorado and Arizona near Kiska, and should bombard it day after tomorrow.

[stldiver]

Moving to a Russian airfield, does that mean the Japanese can attack Russia?
You might verify with your opponent this tactic is allowed. Most don't.

[Mad66]

ORIGINAL: stldiver

Moving to a Russian airfield, does that mean the Japanese can attack Russia?
You might verify with your opponent this tactic is allowed. Most don't.

Hmmm...didn't think about that. I'll move them back, this turn. It was interesting though that the only mission I could fly with them from that field was training.

[Mad66]

ORIGINAL: Mad66

ORIGINAL: stldiver

Moving to a Russian airfield, does that mean the Japanese can attack Russia?
You might verify with your opponent this tactic is allowed. Most don't.

Hmmm...didn't think about that. I'll move them back, this turn. It was interesting though that the only mission I could fly with them from that field was training.

Actually, apparently there was no risk of Rainer getting the shaft. Apparently I can't move the fighter squadron out of Russian territory. Evil communists don't want to give the fighters back.

[Mad66]

January 11, 1942

Interesting times indeed for the allies.

Palembang - A raiding force led by CA Kumano makes a night raid, sinking several hapless minesweepers, and evading the torpedo boats guarding the harbor. The also sink the tanker Iris, who was making a last attempt to draw oil from the Palembang stores.

Zamboanga, Philippines - The odd tale continues. The riflemen of a Philippine regiment have been holding this little port town for weeks, seeing off a Japanese landing force, and wiping out an entire NLF unit. Now more bombardments, and more landings incoming, to reinforce the first Japanese landing, which was quite bogged down.

Rangoon - A moderate allied bombing raid does a little damage, killing a Dinah on the ground, against no fighter cover.

Mandalay - 50 Zeros show up to avenge the losses of 9 January, and for reasons unknown, of the 70 odd P40E's assigned to CAP, only 9 fly. So 14 P40E's are destroyed, either in the air or on the ground, as the Zeros strafe and bomb the field, against the loss of 1 Zero.

Clark Field - Clark receives its usual aerial and artillery pounding, but the men are still there, and still holding.

Singapore - The Japanese try a deliberate attack, which is repelled, though at great loss. Supply is at 31k and falling, under steady air and artillery attack. I sincerely doubt the place will hold till 1 February, let alone 15 February.

Bandjermasin, Lautem, - both are attacked, but hold. They'll both be taken in the next couple of days, certainly.

Port Moresby - Japanese troops are ashore, but haven't attacked yet. The base force here is being flown out to the east coast of Australia. Lae also is invested, but not yet under attack.

The Kiska bombardment force inches closer to its target. Maybe in a week they might manage to take a shot.

[Mad66]

January 12, 1942

One of those days that make you wonder why you try [:D]

Palembang - Now its CL Jintsu's turn for a night raid, it and some destroyers sail into harbor, sink four torpedo boats, and blithely sail out, almost entirely unscathed. To add insult to injury, the KB, or a large chunk of it, are sighted to the southeast. Four CVs, and two CVLs, were spotted, with other ships. An air raid from the CV group savages Batavia's air defenders in passing, and sinks a minelayer.

Attu Island - Two Japanese battleships (Ise and Hyugu) show up and pound the island's already hungry defenders, before vanishing into the snow and wind. Maybe we'll have that battleship encounter in the frozen north after all. Ships carrying supply and base forces and lots of air are on their way north, so this may turn into fairly major operation before all is said and done.

Rangoon - A small raid by B-17Ds runs into 50 Oscars, 3 bombers are lost. I'm suspending bombing of Rangoon and Moulmein till I can get the closer airfields into shape. No point in just feeding bombers to massed CAP till I can start chopping some of that CAP down.

Port Moresby - In an odd occurrence, the 30th Australian brigade appeared just in time to help bombard the Japanese landing force. I may try and rescue a few, just so the brigade regrows on the mainland.

Logistics - 96 new AKs, and the same number of tankers appeared. So did lots of new support formations. Most are on their way to Pearl, where they will be deployed from. The 11th Air Force, 111th Aviation Regiment, are on their way to Kodiak, with the 111th Base Force headed to Cold Bay.

[Mad66]

January 13-14th, 1942

Lautem, Timor, DEI - A sad day for the Dutch, first the defenders of Lautem are pounded by two battleships, then bombed by Betties, then finally overrun by a heavy Japanese ground assault, and forced to surrender.

Kiska Island - This time it is the Japanese turn to be pounded from the icy seas, as battleships Colorado and Arizona pound the defenders, then withdraw towards Dutch harbor. Fuel seems to be a problem, but tankers and an underway replenishment force are underway. Unfortunately, to get ammo for the big guns, I think they are going to have to end up back all the way to Prince Rupert,or even Vancouver or Seattle.

Mandalay, Burma - More aerial fun, as 49 Zeroes come in for a sweep, to be met by 31 P-40E Warhawks. The Japanese tactics are still hard to counter, and 15 Warhawks are lost for only 5 Zeroes.

Singkawang, DEI - Aircraft from Palembang seek to strike at Japanese transports in the area of Pontiniak, but its costly. Four torpedo bombers, two level bombers, and a half dozen fighters are lost for only three transports hit, one seriously.

In China, a few bombing runs, and Japanese forces mopping up guerilla groups.

[Mad66]

Rainer was kind enough to explain to me how to include screen shots, so:

January 15, 1942

Batavia, DEI - The Japanese are coming, from all appearances, heading towards either Batavia or Soerabaja.

[Mad66]

The remnants of the ABDA air forces are waiting to meet it. I doubt it will do much good, but if we can put some bombs or torpedoes into carrier decks, I'm willing to lose the whole force to do it.

[Mad66]

Three days since I posted here. When I started this AAR, my goal was to do weekly (in game time, so every few days, at the pace Rainer and I have been doing turns) situation reports, with other posts when things got particularly interesting. So, in keeping with that:

24 January, 1942 Situation Report

North Pacific - Largely quiet over the last week. Reinforcements and base forces enroute to Anchorage, Dutch Harbor, and Kodiak. An engineer regiment is enroute to Adak to begin work on airfields and other facilities there, with strong destroyer escort. Battleships Colorado and Arizona are fully refueled and restocked at Anchorage, and as soon the replenishment task force arrives on station, they will rebase forward to Dutch Harbor, along with their cruiser and destroyer consorts. Two Japanese battleships have been sighted at Kiska Island, and there are four Japanese LCUs there now. Japanese carrier planes have been flying recon around Amchitka island, so there may be some part of the KB in the area. Two full fighter groups are in Anchorage, awaiting basing to be developed further west, and securing a reasonably safe anchorage for the "Alaskan Navy." About 80 2E bombers are also in the vicinity, or ready to transfer up.

My general strategy in this area is build up the nearer bases, and keep edging my air cover forward, while trying to hold onto Attu and Amchitka islands, if possible. At the same time, I don't want to serve up about a third of my functional surface fleet, including half of my battleships and heavy cruisers, to the KB by running them out uncovered.