Payback - jzanes (A) vs. Rader (J). A Rader-free zone.

[Jzanes]

December 27-December 30, 1941

Most of the action happens in the Borneo area. Doorman runs down the Makassar strait and shoots up 20 some transports at Tarakan and on the way to Balikpapan. He runs into a BB TF near Balikpapan and CL Tromp is badly shot up (she later sinks). He has now refueled at Soerabaja and on the way to Batavia.

[Jzanes]

Meanwhile the British old CL squadron hits Miri and finds a couple ASW squadrons. The Brits can’t seem to hit anything and sink only a DD and a SC for the loss of a DD. They return on the 29th and are severely mauled by a large TF headed up by a CA. They are then totally wiped out by another CA TF they run into on the way back to Pontianak.
Not the finest hour for the RN.

[Jzanes]

The Japanese land at Kuantan and capture the empty base. Recognizing that this bodes ill for the survival of Singapore as a viable base, I mass my british bombers and American B17s and raid the Kuantan airfield. The raid is preceded by the flying tigers on a sweep mission. Coincidentally, the Japanese airforce is set to do just the same thing. They sweep Singapore and then bomb the airfield. Neither field is closed and we both lose a heap of planes on the field. Most painful for me is 20 some B17s destroyed. I decide to bug out and send the B17s to India and the rest back to Palembang/Java. The flying tigers move to Johore Bahru and will LR cap Singapore for a few days while BC Repulse, CA Houston, and CL Boise finish leaving the shipyards and make their run to safety.

In the South Seas, the two Japanese carriers TFs raid Auckland and Suva. They sink a couple small transports but don’t do too much damage. The American carriers and several supply and fuel TFs are now East of Pago Pago waiting for the carriers to go away.

[Jzanes]

December 31, 1941-January 1, 1942

Wave after wave of Japanese bombers hit Singapore’s airfield. They are rudely welcomed by the flying tigers. They shoot down an estimated 60 enemy planes (including 30 zeroes) for the cost of 11 H81s. They are now heading to Burma to rest up and get ready for round two. Between Singapore and Johore Bahru, I still have 80 some damaged planes stuck on the ground. I anticipate they will get blasted over the next few days. I’ll get out what I can but I’m not expecting much else will get away.

Luckily, my opponent didn’t hit the port and Repulse, Houston, and Boise are now heading out to sea and safety in Perth or Ceylon. Soon the only surface ships left in the DEI will be the remaining dutch ships led by CL De Ruyter.

[Jzanes]

Another couple weeks have passed and in reviewing the score sheet, I see that my naval losses continue to pile up while the air score is about even. The pace of operations is truly manic with my opponent landing just about everywhere. I’ve tried to slow him down but he just keeps coming.

A little word on each theatre.

China - Loyang and Chengchow have fallen. I’m trying to organize a defensive line in the forests SE of Sian. I’ll try to buy a few days by making a stand at Nanyang. In the South, I’ve moved my reserves to Kukong and am trying to harass the smallish Japanese force around Canton.

Phillipines – The main Japanese force has arrived at Clark. Only about 1000 AV vs. my 1300. I’m pulling back to Bataan but doing so in good order (all troops with combat op mode and following my best infantry unit). The airforce is about trashed and the rest of the islands are gone or will be soon.

India/Burma – Quiet. Building up Ceylon and Calcutta area. Reinforced Port Blair and Rangoon with one brigade each. I’ll eventually start sending some troops to Akyab and Cox’s bazaar but that’s about it. I paid the PP to release them to SEAC and transport planes have moved 4 or 5 of the small Chinese divisions to India. They have replacements on and will sit and build up for a couple months.

Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur about to fall and Singapore is about to get trashed. Time to wait to die here.

DEI – He’s landing all over the place. My only consolation is that I achieved my goal of keeping the Singapore-Palembang-Kuching area safe as long as possible. I anticipate it’ll be all over in the DEI by February.

ANZAC - Darwin being bombed daily. He’ll probably land soon. I’m building up Perth. I Aus Corps is being sent to Perth as they slowly arrive at Aden. With the KB lurking around Noumea-Suva-Auckland, my shipping has retreated to Melbourne and I’ve tried to setup my airsearch to give some warning if he heads towards SE Australia.

South Seas - He’s landed at Luganville/Efate and I imagine Noumea is next. Since it’s so early, I predict he will do the same to Fiji and Samoa soon enough. I’ve decided to send my reinforcements to Christmas Island/Palmyra and build that up first. I’ll move on to build up Pago Pago and Fiji if my prediction is wrong and he doesn’t take those areas. The American carriers will cover the build up at Christmas/Palmyra and protect shipping coming from Pearl and SanFran. He’s been using his subs and AMCs to raid the 1 zillion little TFs moving to the West Coast.

[Jzanes]

January 2-7, 1942

Things have quieted down considerably. I successfully withdrew most of the Singapore airforce. The B17s are regrouping in India and most of the Flying Tigers are hitting the night spots of Rangoon as the rest of the group arrives after making the Singapore-Sabang-Port Blair-Rangoon transit. The Japanese have not yet landed at Noumea but I think I see the invasion fleet coming.

The American carriers are doing good work finding and attacking the various subs and merchant raiders haunting the shipping lanes to and from the west coast. SBDs sunk a Japanese AV on the 7th. Massive loads of supply and fuel are unloading at Christmas Island and several large troop/aircraft convoys are approaching the island. It should be a fortress within a couple weeks.

My subs and PT boats have been harassing the enemy in the DEI but I don’t have much else left to fight with in this theatre. Doorman has set sail to make a run at the Japanese landing of Bandjermasin. This may be do or die for the Dutch. The Dutch TF has only one CL with a couple DDs. They are being covered by a couple of Dutch fighter squadrons.

[Jzanes]

January 8-13, 1842

Doorman met nothing on his run and has returned to Batavia safely. Meanwhile, Soerabaja harbor was raided. Not much was home and I lost only 2 DDs and a SS repairing in the shipyard. When the Japanese returned for a shot at the airfields, they ran into all my Dutch and commonwealth fighters flying LR cap over Soerabaja. I lost 40-some fighters but did manage to shoot down around 15 japanese planes (mostly bombers). Not too bad for such an obsolete force. The remaining planes have retreated to regroup at Batavia. Commonwealth airforces will probably make the run for Burma while they still can.

Noumea is about to fall. He landed at La Foa and marched in. I’ve managed to fly out a scrap of each unit for rebuilding in Australia. KB has disappeared and I’m starting to sweat the possibility that he’ll find and raid my huge mass of transports slowly unloading at Christmas Island. My carriers are to the NE of Christmas Island flying ASW missions in support of the arriving amphibious TFs.

In China, Nanyang has fallen. I will try to make my stand in the forest SE of Sian. Meanwhile, I’ve got an isolated Japanese division on the run between Kukong and Kanhsien. I’ve set up blocking forces keeping it from Canton and am trying to chase it down.

The Kuching-Singkawang corner has been captured and Singapore is being bombed daily by 100+ bombers. I am pretty much down to Palembang and Java in the DEI. Dutch forces are on high alert.

[Jzanes]

Here’s the latest air losses report. “Today’s” losses show the allied and Japanese losses over Soerabaja on the 13th.

[Jzanes]

Here’s a shot of the Christmas Island area.

[Jzanes]

January 14-15, 1942

Several weeks have passed and time to check the score and sitrep.

China - It appears as though the japanese are moving most of their northern army south towards Changsha. I anticipate a major push for this strategic city in the coming months. This works for me as I've been moving most of my stuff that way myself.

Phillipines - Looks as though he's just gonna besiege Clark and keep me bottled in Bataan. The rest of the phillipines is held by the japanese now.

DEI/Malaya - He's closing in on Johore Bahru. The two Australian brigades at Johore will try to retire to Singapore just before the japanese main force arrives. I'm picking up base forces and other scraps and moving them to Palembang via transport planes. No attacks on Palembang yet but with the recent fall of Kuching, it won't be long....
I continue to hold back my Dutch bombers (and remaining fighters) for a shot at uncapped ships. It shouldn't be much longer to wait.

ANZAC/South Seas - very quiet. The big question is where the japanese are gonna hit next. The USN is concentrated around Hawaii and the line islands. These bases are steadily growing and lots of ground forces should start arriving in the next week or two.

[Jzanes]

January 16-23, 1942

The big event is the arrival of the KB in the Line Islands area. On the 21st, the KB sunk 3 AKLs sailing towards Pearl. At that point the KB was about equidistant between Johnston and Palmyra. I moved my carriers north behind the Hawaiian islands and sent all my transport shipping running east and towards the west coast or panama. On the 22nd-23rd, the KB split into two groups and slowly moved SE past Palmyra before ending up NW of Christmas Island.

[Jzanes]

Over the two days, KB launches around 10 raids of various sizes. I lose about a dozen expendable ships (AKs, DDs, YPs) and the USAAF has a field day. They fight through the zeroes and do some serious damage vs. the carrier bombers. I lose about 40 fighters but the KB is down around 120 planes.

For the 24th, I have my remaining 50 some fighters on 100% cap. My carriers are gonna stop at Pearl and load up on planes and fuel. If KB hangs around and loses more planes, I’ll likely head South and engage him in a carrier battle. If it was me, I’d pull KB back but my opponent has proven himself very aggressive so far in this game. My worst case is he sweeps Christmas and stands down his bombers until he attrits my fighters. KB has to be just about out of torpedoes and sorties must be getting low…

[Jzanes]

January 24-25, 1942

KB launches no further attacks and appears to be retiring.

Things are getting tense around Changsha. My defense is hinged on the two forest hexes adjacent to the city. The Japanese have at least 60,000 troops at each hex with more on the way. He attacked me in the north hex on the 24th and was stopped with 1:2 odds. I have another 1,000 AV heading there which will give me 2,000 AV in each hex. I am trying to retain a reserve and still hold the hexes at the same time. If either hex falls, it’s gonna get ugly fast.

The good news is that my Sian blocking force seems to have enough strength to stop him. I may send another couple corps over the mountains to help the south. Gonna wait a bit first though.

I have moved my B17 force to Chungking and will do a little strategic bombing from there. Next turn, they are ordered to hit the Hong Kong heavy industry facilities. I am also moving the Flying Tigers to Chungking to provide airfield defense or maybe move to Changsha and ambush some lightly defended air raids. My opponent appears to have kept a large fraction of the Japanese army airforce in China. I suspect he has gotten used to milk runs and doesn’t seem to be using much of a fighter escort on his raids.

[Jzanes]

January 26-February 2, 1942

Over the last week, the Japanese have captured Singapore and started to heavily bomb Palembang and Java. They have commenced an invasion of Java at the easternmost (South on the map). I chose not to contest the landing and am massing about 300 AV at the mountain hex outside Soerabaja (Malang? I think that’s it). I will use the Dutch bombers on ground attack and hope he doesn’t LR cap his troops. I will try to delay in Java to give Palembang more time to build up. I’m up to 600 AV at Palembang and my primary goal is to maximize the likelihood that the facilities are trashed when the city falls.

A couple Japanese CLs are harassing my West Coast-Hawaii sea routes. Several transports have been sunk. I have two separate CV TFs roaming the area looking for them. KB has disappeared for over a week now and I wouldn’t be surprised if it has been sneaking around into my rear. I figure worse case I lose a CV. One CV lost I can live with.

Here’s the latest score summary.

[Jzanes]

B17s based out of Chungking hit Hong Kong and Nanking heavy industry hard. The Japanese mounted large retaliatory raids vs. the air base but were badly chewed up by the flying tigers. I then moved the tigers to Hengyang and LR capped the forest hexes outside Changsha and shot up a couple ground attack raids. I have now pulled my bombers back to Calutta for R&R and the fighters to Tuyuan (using the railway for quick rebasing) for regrouping.

[Jzanes]

Meanwhile, the ground battle outside Changsha is raging. He has mounted deliberate attacks vs. each wooded hex on several occasions. He has gotten no better than 1:2 odds and we are both taking heavy casualties. The trend is in my favor with the Japanese getting farther and farther away from 1:1 odds. The Japanese supply situation has to be poor. I have scraps of units blocking most of the supply to the front line. I anticipate he’ll either move troops from one hex to the other and try to overwhelm me or try to flank my position to the South. I can’t imagine there can be many more mobile divisions left in China. I’ve spotted at least 15-20 divisions in the area already.

Here’s the latest result from the northern wooded hex.

[Jzanes]

And the latest result from the southern wooded hex.

[Jzanes]

In summary,

China – For the time being, the Japanese have been held in the north and south. My line is fragile though and real disaster may still be unavoidable.

Phillipines – bottled up at Clark/Bataan. About 18K supply remaining.

DEI – Still in control of Java and Sumatra. Both will fall soon but I have a good chance at leaving some oil fields trashed.

India/Burma – Ceylon built up nicely. Starting to build up the Calcutta-Chittagong area. Burma quiet but will fall easily once he comes for it. I will try to get in a couple licks with my Hurricanes. I’ve got about 6 squadrons training at Chittagong ready to fly into Burma when a good opportunity comes up. 6 chinese divisions have been flown into India and are building up at Calcutta. Royal Navy safely anchored at Bombay.

Australia – I Aus Corps starting to arrive at Perth. I used my catalina’s to fly out almost all the new guinea troops. They are building back up at Townsville. Australia quiet now but I need to start working on getting some USAAF planes to back up the aussies.

South Seas – Hawaii and the line islands are fairly strong now. I’m thinking of making a leap and starting to build up Pago Pago, Savaii, and Fiji. The fear of getting jumped by the KB is holding me back though. I will probably just send out a baseforce to Penrhyn Island and setup a Catalina “early warning” base.

As you may recall, Lt. John Brownewell shot down 7 japanese planes in the Phillipines before getting evacced. He has joined the AVG and just got his 8th kill. He’s the top allied pilot as of now. He’s resting with the rest of the group in the Chinese rear areas.

[Jzanes]

February 3-10, 1941

The main event over this period is the Battle of Palembang. Over the 6 days of the battle, the Japanese land over 6 divisions and capture the facilities with minimal damage (about 100 points down to the oil and refinery centers). My 600 AV of troops did delay the Japanese a couple extra days which allowed my bombers and CD guns to sink a total of about 10 PBs and transports. I have sent the RAF airforce to Burma now and the Dutch are down to Java defended by only their own planes.

In the China theatre, the Japanese have made no futher gains in the north or south. They have been doing some strategic bombing of the meager Chinese industry. In a way I see this as a good sign, as it’s a “long-term” strategy for victory and may suggest he has given up hope of major offensives for the time being. The flying tigers continue to rest at Tuyun and are ready for another hit and run attack if the opportunity arises. The Japanese have several squadrons of zeroes sweeping various Chinese airfields hoping to catch me in the air. Again, a good sign. I’d rather have zeroes in China than out on the frontlines.

The question is where will the Japanese go next. Sigint hasn’t given me any clues as to whether he plans to expand into Australia, NZ, India, Ceylon, or the South Pacific (past Noumea). I will continue to build up each of these areas until he plays his cards.

Here’s a map of what’s left in the DEI. The Phillipine army is bottled up in Bataan. Burma is quiet with a small force holding Tavoy. My main force is back at Moulmein-Pegu-Rangoon. No signs of much Japanese activity in Burma (yet).

[Jzanes]

February 11-16, 1942

Over the last 3 days, the KB has ravaged Melbourne harbour. I’ve lost CA Canberra, CL Adelaide, and about 20 small (1-5 VPs) transports and other small craft. I’ve been shooting down a couple planes using the provisional USAAF fighter squadrons. They are the only fighters I have in Australia and they are due to be withdrawn in mid-March. Might as well use them up before they go.

I’ve been taking advantage of knowing where the KB is, to send out reinforcements to Penhryn, Canton, and Pago Pago. The plan is to hold Christmas Island with strong army forces and move the Marines up to Pago Pago and Fiji.