Chungking Falls! (no rjopel, please!)

[nashvillen]

It is now a week later and Changteh has fallen. Numerous Chinese units in the open plains around Chungking are surrendering with significant attacks. We still have quite a few that are in the non-road wooded areas to the game south of Chungking. I have five armored units in Kunming with several divisions (16th and 23rd armies with HQs) there in a day or two. Airborne unit has cut Kunming off from the rest of the Burma area in Tsuyung. The 40th division will be cutting off the retreating Changteh defenders on the Changteh/Tsuyung road. Hopefully I will be able to chase them with the Changteh attackers and eliminate about half of the isolated Chinese units in China.

With Kunming isolated, I hope to take it and then roll on through Tsuyung, re-leaving the brave paras, and driving onto Burma. I am assembling the various parts of the 1st and 2nd Armored divisions and hope to have them assembled and ready to drive into what will be the rear of the attackers trying to drive onto Rangoon. I hold Magwe and Meiktila with 600+ AV each and level 4 forts. I have significant opposition in the form of Australian, British, and Indian divisions. I have 100+ Air Support points on the tracks from Chunghsa to Tuyun where they will detrain and go the 92 miles to Kweiyang where the Chinese have built a nice level 7 airfield for me. I will relocate some of my air there and then move more Air Support up and move more. This I will rinse and repeat up over the hump to support my operations as I go. I also have a large airfield with support at Hanoi providing recon and long range CAP over the moving units.

Overall, I am happy on this progress. I hope to be able to release the 16th Army for garrison of my outer islands shortly as the Americans are in Tarawa and Makin. I have met their newest carriers and have lost the Hosho and Zuihio, but am confident I have sunk 6 of their CVEs, one CVL, and one new Essex class. I suspect I have severely damaged two other Essex class. I have significant damage to my carriers with most of them needing yard time, but I don't expect them to sink (famous last words, I know) I haven't lost any since moving them at cruise speed instead of mission speed. I should be able to assemble a 4 CV group in the next couple of weeks for continued operations while the rest are repaired at Hiroshima/Kobe/Yokohama. It will also give me time to refit them to the latest AAA configuration.

I am keeping the fuel/oil/resources flowing with my extensive ASW campaign. I suspect I have sunk at least a third of the allied subs so far. I think another third are kept in a damaged condition. I am losing 1-2 merchant ships a week and putting out of my shipyards more than that. So, I am keeping up for now. I have concentrated on a interlocking ASW/naval search web from Singapore to the HI and also around all the significant resource/oil/fuel production areas.

I am putting in the HI bank over 4000 HI a day and am well on my way to my second million of banked HI. I hope it is enough to keep me in the war until the end.