12/23 - 12/26/41
Malaya
Alor Star falls but Operation Bug Out II was a partial success. I successfully evac'd @ 60% of the surrounded 6th & 15th Indian Brigades. Though I still need to get them off Sumatra. Details, details...
After my opponent invaded Mersing I was able to rail 3 or 4 units back to Singapore but there's still 200+ AV hopelessly cut off. Operation Bug Out III will try to fly out large portions of another brigade or two.
50K+ supplies at Singapore, but barely over 600 AV to defend it. [:(] Kudos to my opponent for keeping me continually off balance here and successfully attacking me piecemeal. Still sucks though...
China
SW of Chengchow, in clear territory, my Chinese troops were utterly CRUSHED.
Ground combat at 87,45 (near Chengchow)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 88279 troops, 788 guns, 581 vehicles, Assault Value = 3081
Defending force 42562 troops, 168 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1318
Japanese adjusted assault: 3433
Allied adjusted defense: 226
Japanese assault odds: 15 to 1
Combat modifiers
Defender: experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+)
Japanese ground losses:
5287 casualties reported
Squads: 22 destroyed, 513 disabled
Non Combat: 13 destroyed, 39 disabled
Engineers: 3 destroyed, 25 disabled
Vehicles lost 58 (46 destroyed, 12 disabled)
Units destroyed 1
Allied ground losses:
19776 casualties reported
Squads:
980 destroyed, 82 disabled
OUCH!!!
Non Combat: 325 destroyed, 120 disabled
Engineers: 23 destroyed, 18 disabled
Guns lost 71 (54 destroyed, 17 disabled)
Units retreated 7
Defeated Allied Units Retreating!
I didn't expect to hold here, but I certainly didn't expect these casualties either. While I'm trying to create some mischief with small forces around here I need to abandon both Chengchow & Loyang for now & head for safer territory. Between the two I believe that's 130 supply/day I'm abandoning. [:(]
I hate to give up the supplies but there's a silver lining - the loss of supplies is balanced by a lot fewer Chinese that need to be fed!
South Pac/SW Pac
While Rabaul held my opponent up for a few days he's subsequently been steamrolling the area with small ground troops. I hate to give this area up on the cheap but I haven't known how well his invasions have been covered.
Two reasons for that:
1. No good intel where 4 Jap fleet carriers are since @ Dec 10th or so (Car Divs 2 & 5).
2. Until two turns ago no naval search capability in the area other than what started at Port Moresby. On Dec 8th Admiral Bonnie told me I should send some AVs & AVDs to the theater ASAP. But did I listen to her? No...
Couple patrol bases operational now, at least.
I have two, soon to be three carrier TFs in the neighborhood. 1 NZ & 1 USN SAG as well. More than enough to stop a "cheap" invasion but I'm reluctant to commit them without better intel.
Noumea has only been reinforced with 1 NZ engineer unit which is building forts. More significant ground reinforcemnts are on ship but still 2+ weeks away.
In New Guinea the Aussie cruisers were sent to intercept an invasion of Milne Bay. They arrived too late to save the base but got some small retribution.
