A Good Place to Start - Matthew (A) v Fokko (J) - Bottlenecks Mod

[M Peaston]

I forgot to add.....

SUBMARINE WARFARE

Allied subs were very active, but didn't score any successes. In return a Japanese sub torpedoed and sunk KVIII off Singapore.

Another bad day for the allied submarine fleet.

[M Peaston]

20th December 1941

CHINA
Continued heavy air raids and a Japanese Deliberate attack again reduce Hong Kong’s forts down to zero and this time they weren’t built back up. Morale, fatigue and disruption aren’t too bad amongst the defenders, but the number of disabled units is rising. I don’t think Hong Kong will be holding out much longer.

MALAYA
Japanese bombers concentrate against Georgetown again. I wonder what he’s worried I might be doing there – it makes me think that perhaps I should be doing whatever it is. Oscars sweep over Kuantan, shooting down three Buffalos diverted from the Kuala Lumpur CAP for the loss of one of their own. I’ve reduced the Buffalos’ range now; I’m not going to contest the air over Kuantan.

PHILIPPINES
Japan consolidates its hold over southern Luzon, and in the north captures Vigan. Nells sink an xAKL from a small convoy running supplies to Bataan. Once Fokko moves air units into southern Luzon I’m going have to stop these supply runs / civilian evacuations through the Sulu Sea.

DEI
Dutch bombers strike at the oil facilities at Miri for one hit. It’s better than nothing. Sparrow Bn is digging in at Ambon; 2/4 AIF Pioneers have arrived there and are about to debark. Gull Bn is at Darwin embarking for Kendari. 53rd Bde of the British 18th Division is loading at Cape Town for Koepang. The 109th RN BF from Malaya will also go to Koepang.

SOLOMONS
Canberra and Louisville stepped into a dragon’s den all right! They were caught by surprise by the Battleships Nagato and Mutsu and five accompanying Destroyers off Buka. Louisville and DD Voyager were sunk, but not before Louisville peppered Mutsu with 8in shells. Most did not penetrate her armour, but there were several superstructure hits and at least one turret hit. Canberra was badly damaged and is making her way back to port with DD Stuart. Canberra’s flotation damage is 73 and system 35, but at least the fires are out. She might just make it – if the Japanese leave her alone now.

Enterprise has refuelled at Luganville and is heading to the Solomons at full speed. She should be in strike range tomorrow – if Fokko hangs around. Lexington will refuel at Luganville and then head north along the south-east side of the Solomons. The plan is for Enterprise to have one strike (if lucky) and scuttle away. Lexington won’t get involved; I just want her in a position to intervene over the next couple of days if necessary. I did think about waiting until Enterprise and Lexington could join together, but even with a short delay the opportunity may have gone. I don’t know where the Japanese carriers are so I am taking a risk here, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take to try and slow the Japanese down in the South Pacific. I do have some search assets at Rabaul and Tulagi, Achilles is patrolling the gap between the Santa Cruz and Gilbert Islands, and there were no air attacks on Canberra, but there are gaps where his carriers could be lurking….

CENTRAL PACIFIC
Northampton’s flotation damage is down to 88 and her speed has increased to 1 knot. Fingers crossed!
I haven’t set anything in motion yet, but I have decided to send the 34th and 161st Rgts (which are now at Pearl Harbour) to reinforce Palmyra and Christmas Is. The 4th Marine Defence Bn at Pearl will go to Canton Is, it’s place will be taken by the 2nd Marine Defence Bn currently at San Francisco.

SUBMARINE WARFARE
There is nothing much to report. A few pot-shots from each side – no damage recorded.

[M Peaston]

LOGISTICS.

My favourite subject (ahem…not…)

This is a rough idea of how I intend to run the logistic side of things.


North Pacific - will receive supply/fuel/reinforcements from Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert is on the rail network and can be expanded to a level 9 port.

Hawaii/Central Pacific will receive supply/fuel from Seattle/Vancouver. This is a slightly longer route than using San Francisco but keeps San Francisco free.

Australia/New Zealand will receive supply/fuel from Los Angeles. Australia will also receive fuel from Abadan, and some supply from Cape Town (primarily using the faster, longer-ranged cargo ships as suggested by Ranger Joe). Destination ports will vary depending on circumstances, but most likely will be Aukland/Sydney/Melbourne from the east, and Perth/Melbourne from the west. Supplying Australia through both the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean means that should Japan cut one route, the other route is already running and won’t have to start from scratch.

India/Ceylon will receive fuel and supplies from Abadan/Cape Town respectively. Destination ports to be Colombo, Bombay and Karachi.

Reinforcements heading to Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia will depart from San Francisco.

The rationale for having multiple departure points for convoys from the USA is as follows:

1. It reduces the risk of congestion at ports - something I’m much more wary of after my experience at Darwin.
2. It makes it easier to ensure shipping/escorts are dedicated to each supply route - especially the escorts. Centralisation has advantages in efficiency, but its disadvantage is that lower priority areas can end up being neglected completely.
3. It reduces the consequences of a West Coast carrier strike. Assets will be dispersed amongst several ports, and if a port gets put out of action I’ll already have a logistics operation running out of other ports that should be able to take up some of the slack.

The disadvantages are:
1. Loss of efficiency and flexibility in not having a single pool of shipping/escorts.
2. Having to provide sufficient AA/fighter cover for multiple ports.

I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, but we’ll see.

Convoy doctrine.
I’ll probably run convoys of about 10-30 ships (plus escorts). Too many ships risks congestion at the destination port (am I becoming a little paranoid about this?) and difficulties with different ship speeds. Too many small convoys risks overstretching the available escorts. I”m striving to ensure each convoy has escorts with an ASW capability. Larger convoys, especially significant reinforcement convoys, will ideally contain a cruiser or older battleship in case of raiders. I don’t intend to use fleet carriers for escort work unless a ‘Pedestal’ type situation develops.

The only exception to escorted convoys will be the Cape Town to Australia run, which for the moment will use groups of 1-3 unescorted fast cargo ships.

I’m not going to worry too much about Japanese subs interdicting my sea-lanes. His subs can go where they please as far as I’m concerned - if they want to achieve anything they’ll have to attack escorted convoys. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep my losses down to acceptable levels.

The downside of this approach is that I’ll have lot less Destroyers (if any in the early days) available for aggressive patrolling than I’d like.


Off-map routes - so far this is just supplies from UK to Cape Town (backhauling resources), and fuel from the Caribbean to Cape Town. I need to study LST’s design notes, Ranger Joe’s advice and do some number-crunching on resources, Light Industry, fuel and a strategy for Industry ‘expansion’ (i.e. repair). My head is already hurting at the thought…..

[RangerJoe]

East Coast to Cape Town is faster plus the USA gets a lot more supplies and fuel.

Send the fuel from Abadan to Karachi only. Then take fuel from a port near Columbo and send it to Columbo. Don't build up too many supplies in Ceylon because it could be captured. With that as a concern, only make relatively quick repairs to ships there when Rangoon is captured to prevent them from being caught in port. Build up Karachi with a strong defense as well as higher fortifications. Even consider having supplies stockpiled there in case India is a target but only after Karachi is strongly defended. But if he attacks Karachi with a sea invasion, it will release extra forces for you to play with.

I have not looked at the mod, are there industries in the UK? If not, don't send resources there.

Send all of the fuel from the DEI to Australia plus any oil that you can. Australia has excess refinery capacity but send it fuel first.

Later on when you get your ships together better, you can organize supply task forces by type but for now, speed may be better. I believe that the C1A cargo class has enough ships to convert to xAPs so an entire division can be moved. All of the C2 class that can be converted to AEs should be converted. It is better to have too many of those than too few. But also convert ships to AKEs as well as AGs. All of those can be instantly loaded while sitting in port and not docked, plus the AGs can be dropped off at your refueling ports along the way to Australia to assist in repairs to your small escorts as well as rearming them.

[M Peaston]

Thanks once again, Ranger Joe. In this mod the UK has Light Industry, but no resources. Also the US A has much industry which needs repairing (to simulate industrial expansion), making supply rather scarce in the USA to start with.
I hadn’t thought about sending fuel to Karachi, letting it flow south through the rail network, and shipping it on. Thanks also for the tips on defending Karachi; I’ve been giving some thought to how to defend India, but hadn’t reached any conclusions.

I’ve started converting a few ships to AKEs/AGs – in this mod conversion takes about three months and ties up shipyard space (many more upgrades/conversions take up yard space, but don’t take as long) so I’m just doing a little at a time. I haven’t really got my head around which class converts to what type, so it’s good to know I need to look for the C2 class for AEs.

21st December 1941

CHINA
Hong Kong survives another round of Japanese air attacks and a deliberate ground assault. The defenders are starting to look a bit battered now though, I don’t think they’ll be able to hold out until the 25th.


MALAYA
Japan continues to advance down the west coast railway. I sent the 27th AIF Bde by rail to reinforce the defenders at Kuala Kubu, so I was a little surprised when they arrived at Jerantur instead. A bit of a boo-boo there. They’re still entrained so they should arrive at Kuala Kubu tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll get away with it. This turn I remembered to reduce the range of the Buffalos on CAP at Kuala Lumpur so they wouldn’t be diverted to intercept the Oscars sweeping Kuantan. Wirraways and Blenheims bombed the advancing Imperial Guards Division, with Buffalos ordered to sweep. This of course, increased the Buffalos’ range, allowing the CAP to divert to Kuantan…..such is life…..

Again, Japanese bombers concentrated on Georgetown.


PHILIPPINES/DEI
Japanese aircraft sink another xAKL in the Bataan-bound convoy. Two xAKLs reach Bataan unloading a total of 1,400 supply. Dutch bombers inflict another point of damage to the Miri oil wells.


SOLOMONS/SOUTH PACIFIC
The Japanese BB TF pursued and sank the retreating Canberra – and almost bumped into Enterprise. Enterprise launched air strikes against the two BBs, scoring about 13 bomb hits on Mutsu and Nagato, most of which didn’t penetrate their armour, and also two torpedo hits on Mutsu, which was reported as being on fire with heavy damage.

I was tempted, very, very tempted, to pursue the battleships and finish Mutsu off – but each day I hang around increases the risk of retaliation from Fokko’s carriers, and Enterprise is now low on torpedoes. Also I think Mutsu will probably be out of action for a while during this crucial period of Japanese expansion. Enterprise is therefore going to continue through the Torres strait and rearm/refuel at Soerabaja; Lexington will stay in the South Pacific and will go to Aukland for now.

From the reinforcement convoy I despatched from the West Coast on 21st December I’ve had to detach two AKs and return them to San Francisco. When forming up the convoy I failed to notice that these two ships had a cruise speed of 8 knots rather than the 10+ of the others. Two knots may not sound a lot, but by my rough calculations it makes the difference between the convoy arriving in Aukland approximately 22nd January rather than 30th January – eight days. The down side is that these two AKs were carrying desperately needed P39s. I intend to repack them and ship them off to the South Pacific at the earliest opportunity. The CO of 31st Pursuit Group is not happy though; as any commander/manager knows, once an asset is taken off you, however temporarily, you rarely get it back again….who knows where the P39s will end up...?


CENTRAL PACIFIC
A herring gull landed on Northampton’s deck, increasing her list and causing her to take on more water. Flotation damage has gone back up to 91….


SUBMARINE WARFARE
SS Seal torpedoed and damaged an xAK at Babeldaob, and sunk xAKL Iwate Maru with gunfire there.
SS I-157 torpedoed and sank AG Canopus in the Java Sea.

[M Peaston]

22nd December 1941


CHINA

Japan captures Hong Kong. Apparently most of the facilities were captured intact. There was little other activity in China; a couple of minor air raids, and a Chinese gunboat bombarded Ichang. Intel indicates there is now two Japanese units at Huaishang, so I’ve called off the attack until reinforcements arrive.


MALAYA/THAILAND

Another heavy Japanese air raid on Georgetown. Bleinheims, Hudsons and Wirraways attacked the Japanese advance guard at Ipoh; I lost five Buffalos but the bombers all got through and made it back. I’m sending my battered fighter squadrons to Singapore to recuperate, and bringing up a fresh New Zealand Buffalo squadron currently at Singapore. They’ll sweep the newly-established Japanese airfield at Taiping; my bombers will be split between Taiping and Ipoh. After that I’ll probably curtail any air attacks until the Japanese reach my main defence at Kuala Kubu, which won’t be long now. The 27th AIF Bde still has not reached Kuala Kubu; I hope the delay isn’t going to cost me.

B17Ds from Rangoon bombed the port at Bangkok, sinking a Patrol Boat, Torpedo Boat and damaging a Destroyer-Minesweeper. Unsurprisingly, this drew a rebuke from the Thai Government (anachronistically delivered by email):

“The Thai government strongly protest to the unprovoked attack by the allied forces on their capital.
Therefore they now reserve the right to retaliate this act of aggression and will defend against any further attacks”

The Allies responded:

"The Allied powers note with dismay that the armed forces of the Japanese Empire are using Thai territory to further their war of aggression against the Allied Powers.  We are also concerned about reports that the Royal Thai Navy is now in practice acting under the operational control of the Imperial Japanese Navy.  We shall take whatever measures are necessary, including the bombing of military targets in Thailand such as ports, airfields and shipping likely to be of use to the Japanese war effort.  We will seek to respect Thai neutrality and sovereignty, so far as this is consistent with the defence requirements of Allied possessions in the Far East."

If the Allies judge that the ‘defence requirements’ of their possessions calls for a full-blooded invasion of Thailand then so be it
Not that the Allies are in any position to follow through on any threats at the moment - not anywhere.


DEI

Batavia is now crammed with refugees; I seriously underestimated how much shipping I’d need ferrying from Batavia to Madras.


SOLOMONS/SOUTH PACIFIC

Enterprise detached a DB squadron to operate from Rabaul in the hope of getting another swipe at Fokko’s retreating TFs. They bombed the Nagato, but none of the hits penetrated her deck armour. I’ll leave the squadron at Rabaul one more day, then it’ll rejoin Enterprise. Lexington is heading for Brisbane, not Aukland as previously stated. The old grey cells are not what they used to be, but you’d think that at least have some sort of idea of what my carriers are doing, if nothing else….


SUBMARINE WARFARE

RO-34 sank two small transports in the Makassar strait.
Pickerel torpedoed an xAP in the Yellow Sea, but the torpedo failed to explode. I wonder what the transport was doing there? Bringing units out of China possibly?

[LargeSlowTarget]

Hi Matthew, I just realised there is another Bottlenecks game going on. Thanks for your comments! I will follow this AAR from now on and take notes - I'll check out that glitch at Kluang for example. Which scenario do you use?

[M Peaston]

Thanks LST. It's scenario 59.

'Bottlenecks' mod seems to be in fashion at the moment.

[M Peaston]

You can always tell when I’m waiting for the next turn - I start rambling on about my great strategic choice of whether to send ‘B’ Coy, Canvey Island Fusiliers to Mombassa or Winnipeg, and how if make the correct decision this could be a war-winning move…..


CENTRAL PACIFIC

It seemed to take me a while to wake up to the fact that Pacific atolls weren’t exempt from stacking limits, and that I perhaps ought to pay some attention to these limits. 34th Rgt was due for Palmyra, but would take it way over the limit so it has been diverted to Canton Island. Instead the 4th Marine Defence Bn is going to Palmyra. 8th Port Maintenance Bn well on its way to Canton Island and should help with the unloading there.

Sending an infantry Rgt (to be precise, an RCT) to Canton Is doesn’t leave space for a nice balance of forces - there’s no room for a BF or AA for example. Also, should Japan attack in force I’ll lose an entire Rgt, (which I’m not keen on). However, 34th Rgt should be sufficient to prevent a quick ‘smash and grab’, should hopefully be able to delay any more serious Japanese assault in this area (giving me more time to strengthen my defences in the Central/South Pacific) and, crucially, is in a position to make it to Canton Island fairly quickly. This fits in with my overall strategy by a) helping to protect communications between the USA and Australia/NZ, and b) later on using the Central Pacific as a basis for attacking the Marianas. In essence, I’m allowing strategic considerations to override tactical ones in this instance.

Speaking of a future attack on the Marianas, as yet Fokko has made no move on Wake Island yet, so I’m thinking about whether I could reinforce Wake. Retaining Wake would be great, but I don’t think I’ve got anything to send. Pearl Harbour is already woefully underdefended in my view. With 161st Rgt earmarked for Christmas Is, Pearl’s defence at the moment is largely down to two understrength divisions and a number of fighter squadrons (mostly P40Bs). Enterprise and Lexington are in the South Pacific, Saratoga is at San Diego and Yorktown is off-map. Maryland, Pensylvania and Tennessee are on their way to the repair yards at Mare Island, and it’ll be weeks yet before West Virginia, Nevada and California are capable of making the journey. Oklahoma and Arizona are staying where they are, on the harbour floor. Most of my remaining cruisers and destroyers are busy escorting convoys/troopships, leaving only a small light cruiser squadron at Pearl Harbour.

Leaving Pearl Harbour vulnerable is a risk, but one I’m willing to take at this time.
1. There are no signs that Fokko is interested in an early move in this direction. There’ve been no moves on Wake, Midway or Johnston, and Japanese recon in these areas has been negligible or non-existent.
2. I should be able to send air, land and sea reinforcements soon, so the window of vulnerability should be fairly short.
3. Losing Hawaii would be a major setback, but not a war-losing disaster.

[RangerJoe]

Unless you know where the enemy aircraft carriers are, you can't do much. Once your carriers are spotted, he can position his to try and hit your carriers or take advantage of knowing where they are to attack elsewhere. I would just keep training your air crews. Beware of the 8 hex Kate attack with two 250 kg bombs . . .

If you put a unit somewhere for defense and the base is then overstacked, remove a little part of each unit and hide it in a safer place in case you lose the main units, they will instantly become the main unit and then can start rebuilding. Have minelayers, even DMs handy, in case you see enemy TFs approaching to lay minefields. Especially invasion TFs coming.

Christmas Island is a nice base which can be built up and it may be able to help protect Palmyra. For other bases with low stacking limits if they have an adjacent dot base, that is a nice place to put float planes with ether some air support squads or an AVD/AVP.

[M Peaston]

I find that the Motor Transport Officer normally takes care of leaving a unit fragment (normally motorised support) safely tucked away in some obscure place in case the unit needs rebuilding without me having to think about it

I had a couple of seaplane tenders heading for Canton Is. I’ve diverted them to a nearby dot base now, and I’m looking at doing similar in the DEI and other places. I never thought about doing that before.


23rd December 1941


MALAYA.

The 27th AIF Bde has finally arrived at Kuala Kubu, but will take three days to detrain. Meanwhile the Japanese advance guard (1st Tank Rgt, 14th Tank Rgt and 5th Recon Rgt) has taken Kampar and is now a mere 40 miles away, with the Imperial Guards Division following on behind. Percival is absolutely furious with III Indian Corps commander, Heath, about the delay - these Indian Army officers just don’t know what they are doing. Heath, meanwhile, points the finger firmly at Bennett and 8th AIF Division’s shoddy staff work. Bennett, a resentful man at the best of times, knows exactly who to blame for stripping away half of his division and risking them getting smashed up before they’ve even had a chance to deploy. Admittedly, he has a low opinion of everybody, especially the regular army officers of the AIF. However, he holds a special contempt for III Indian Corps and Malaya Command HQ. As far as Bennett’s concerned, they’re all a bunch of flamin’ drongos, including Percivial - especially Percival! Bennett flew down to Singapore so he can have the pleasure of telling Percival to his face. Percival isn’t quite sure what a drongo is, isn’t it a bird of some sort? But there was something about the way Bennett roared the word out, spittle flying across Percival’s desk and accompanied by other words that he thought perhaps ought not to be recorded in the war diary, that suggested it was not intended as a compliment. Percival would love to have Bennett relieved of command, but he can’t – he’s Australian, and only the Australian Government can remove him. Considering the already strained relations between Britain and Australia now might not be the best time to ask. Oh, the joys of trying to keep a coalition army together…

Percival was not looking forward to the afternoon’s meeting with Brooke-Popham. Brooke-Popham wouldn’t be as overtly aggressive as Bennett was, but he knew he would bring in to the conversation how many RAF pilots had died in yesterday’s raids, ordered to buy Malaya Command the time it needed to correct its mistakes. Percival did not relish being admonished with that admixture of genteel civility and cutting sarcasm that the British upper class seem to be so adept at. Percival, however, was very surprised that Brooke-Popham didn’t mention it at all. All the more surprising considering how important the RAF was to him. Still, the old man has been getting a little forgetful lately, and Percival was just relieved that for once something had gone his way.

Brooke-Popham had his reasons for not mentioning the RAF’s casualties for the previous day’s air attacks, and it was nothing to do with his memory. There were no casualties; not because of any great flying skill, but because there were no raids. No raids at all. Not a single Blenheim, Buffalo, Hudson or Wirraway flew; not a single British, Australian or New Zealand pilot took to the air. As the CO at NORGROUP, Williams, explained - it seems all the pilots were mysteriously taken ill. Brooke-Popham wondered if the pre-Christmas ‘do’ at Raffles the previous night had anything to do with this ‘mystery’. Williams conceded the possibility, and opined that it might have been something they ate there. It’s more likely something they drank, thought Brooke-Popham, with quantity rather than quality being the issue. Brooke-Popham told Williams he’d asked the Dutch to send a bomber squadron to Medan to harry the advancing Japanese: “I want to inject some Dutch courage into this campaign” he said. “Yes, more Dutch courage” replied Williams gleefully, before ending the call and heading off to issue his orders. Brooke-Popham paused for thought. Hold on a minute! More Dutch courage?! No, wait!....


I’m concentrating the majority of III Indian Corps a Kuala Kubu. This might not be the best terrain to make a stand (jungle) as opposed to Kampar (1 hex NE) which is jungle/rough and behind a minor river. However, I chose the Kuantan-Jerantur- Kuala Kubu line to defend because the road connecting the three allows me to shift forces laterally much quicker than Japan can in central Malaya. There is no overland threat to Kuantan developing along the east coast, and the Japanese 18th Div advance along the central route is making slow progress. I can concentrate along the western route at Kuala Kubu much quicker than I can at Kampar.

Why defend in central Malaya at all? My thinking is to keep the airfields of central Malaya out of Japanese hands as long as possible to try and protect Singapore as best I can from air attacks, giving me longer to build up fort levels and supplies in Singapore. Given Fokko’s seeming reluctance to launch long-range or unprotected raids against Singapore I think this was the correct decision; whether I can execute it is another matter…

[M Peaston]

Central Malaya.png (1.28 MiB) Viewed 1682 times

[M Peaston]

23rd December 1941 Continued......

CHINA

A quiet turn; a couple of small Japanese air raids.


PHILIPPINES/DEI.

Japan’s light/escort carriers leave Babeldaob heading towards the Celebes sea; Japanese patrol boats enter the Sulu sea. These are Japan’s first naval forays in this area since the first days of the war.


SOUTH/SOUTH WEST PACIFIC

Japan’s fleet carriers have appeared NE of the Bismarcks - just as well Enterprise didn’t hang around!


SUBMARINE WARFARE

I lost two xAKLs in the Java Sea; in return the Allies torpedoed a German Blockade runner south of Japan.

[M Peaston]

24th December 1941.

Another fairly quiet turn, but things are starting to bubble up under the surface.



CHINA

I’ve been having a good look around China the last few turns, and started to develop some ideas….


MALAYA

My bombers flew today all right. Dutch, Australian and British pilots in their Blenheims, Wirraways B10s and Hudsons attacked the advancing Japanese forces at Kampar and Ipoh, and returned without loss. I did lose three Buffalos to Zeros sweeping Kuala Lumpar. Meanwhile four RN gunboats bombarded Taiping, claiming three Oscars damaged and minor damage to the airfield. That was the impact of 4” and 5” guns - I wonder about 14” and 16”? Probably not worth the risk. Anyway, I can’t spare Force Z at the moment, things look like they’re moving in the DEI.

I’m a little puzzled by the air war here. RAF Malaya is very fragile; I was expecting it to have been broken by now - especially with the fiasco at Kuantan. Yet I’ve been able to bomb his advancing troops pretty much at will, with the only constraints being logistical and my own ineptitude rather than anything the Japanese have done. Of my three main airbases ‘up country’, he’s only swept Kuala Lumpar and Kuantan, and ignored Kluang altogether. Yes, the sweeps have caused me Buffalo losses, but nothing I can’t sustain in the short term (and let’s face it, there is no ‘long term’ for RAF Malaya). My troops have been able to move around and dig in pretty much unhindered from the air. And yet Japan bombs Georgetown every day - 28 Lily’s visited today.

By 15th December I had 28 aircraft at Kuantan damaged or out for maintenance, and they were repairing at most one a day. I couldn’t run any operations out of Kuantan (not even CAP) as it was simply adding to the repair backlog. (Whenever anything like this goes wrong I blame LST - it’s his mod, it must be something he’s done to it. It can’t possibly be my incompetence at trying to run a major air campaign out of an airfield with little Aviation Support, 100 Service damage and few engineers to repair it.) Today I was able to repair and fly out another 6 aircraft, with 10 Buffalos and 2 Blenheims remaining at Kuantan. Just one moderate air raid in the last 10 days and Japan would have bagged the lot. Even if this happens tomorrow, I feel I have been let off the hook. Of course, I don’t expect Fokko to know the difficulties I’ve been having at Kuantan, but it indicates just how little pressure he’s applied to RAF Malaya.

The only things I can think are that:

a) He wants to keep his air losses to an absolute minimum to preserve his air force for the future.
b) My air operations are having such little impact that he doesn’t think it’s worth the effort.
c) He doesn’t want to cause damage to airbases he is likely to want to support operations against Singapore and the DEI.
d) He’s having the same logistical problems I am.
e) He can’t imagine that anyone would be so daft as to try defending as far up the Malay peninsular as I am.



PHILIPPINES

Air-raids continue on Manila and Bataan. Japanese forces approach Manila from the South; farther north Philippine forces hold against a deliberate assault on San Fernando. I think I’m doing a poor job in defending the Philippines so I’m going to just quietly move on to the next theatre without saying very much…..


DEI

Multiple Japanese TFs have entered the Sulu sea - it looks like an invasion force, i.e. a TF of xAPs, APDs, DDs, a covering force of CLs, an ASW/AM TF etc. There are also multiple unidentified TFs south of Davao (possibly including the light/escort carriers spotted yesterday). I wonder where they are heading? Tarakan possibly? Philippine Islands? If Fokko intends to try and force the Makassar strait, or move southwest of Manado then I’ll fight; otherwise I’ll probably let him get on with whatever he’s up to. Force Z is at Soerabaja, Hermes is just west of Java heading for Soerabaja, and I can bring some stringbags down from Singapore if necessary.


SOUTH PACIFIC.

KB is now east of the Solomons, with other unidentified TFs northeast of the Bismarcks. I dithered on whether to evacuate the Base Force and AIF Bn at Rabaul - I think that decision has been made for me now. I wonder where KB is heading? There’s not much I can do about whatever mischief Fokko is up to.

Rabaul is on its own now, the fight for the Solomons is over as far as I’m concerned. What did I achieve in the Solomons? I inflicted fairly heavy (as far as I could tell) damage on 2 AMCs, a Light Cruiser, several PBs and at least one Battleship. In return I lost two Heavy Cruisers - painful. Did I manage to slow the Japanese down? It’s hard to tell; I may never know. Was he forced to divert forces from elsewhere to here? Has he had to delay something elsewhere? More importantly, if I have managed to inflict a delay, am I putting the time I’ve bought to good use?


CENTRAL PACIFIC

I transferred a squadron of Catalinas from Pearl Harbour to Suva via Palmyra. Unfortunately I forgot to stand it down, so it carried on flying naval search during the stopover. Pilot fatigue was high and I lost three planes on the final leg.


SUBMARINE WARFARE

Motor Launches damage SS I-121 near Singapore. In return I-121 sinks a coastal minesweeper and SS I-122 sinks a small transport near Batavia. My submarine captains have found an enterprising way of dealing with the dud torpedoes. Just don’t hit anything with them - then whether or not the torpedoes actually work becomes irrelevant. Genius eh?

[M Peaston]

Japanese invasion fleet in the Sulu Sea. PT31 is in a bit of a tight spot. MacArthur wouldn’t normally be over anxious about the fate of a single PT boat, but he is worried about this one – after all, he is on board…

Sulu Sea.png (2.31 MiB) Viewed 1611 times

[BBfanboy]

Balikpapan and Tarakan are likely targets of the Sulu Sea shipping. The Japanese want to capture oil and especially fuel early on so they can refuel their ships nearby the expansion front.

And KB approaching Rabaul and heading west from there would indicate he is hunting Force Z. Soerabaja is a trap because the islands form a pocket with predictable exit points. Darwin is even worse. If you get any intel on KB or MiniKB heading to the area north of Java, bug out for Colombo or Perth (Torres Strait is easily mined and patrolled by subs). If you are seeking an engagement before fleeing, move Force Z to an obscure small port that is unlikely to be reconned and has sea room to flee from too strong an opposition.

[M Peaston]

Thanks BB Fanboy. I have already been thinking that Soerabaja is too obvious a location for Force Z, but I never considered ‘escapability’ as a factor at Soerabaja or anywhere else. There are so many nuances to this game that would just never occur to me unless pointed out. This game is a sharp learning curve.

[RangerJoe]

Have bombers ready to make city attacks on oil. Don't worry about targeting refineries, there is an oil shortage.

[M Peaston]

Thanks Ranger Joe, I’ve got a squadron of B17Ds at Kendari (stood down for repair and maintenance at the moment), and an HQ squadron at Singapore due to hit the oil production at Miri this turn. The Dutch bombers have been chipping away here too. I do listen to advice - occasionally There’s more B17s at Rangoon and Charters Towers; they could operate out of Palembang and Soerabaja respectively. I’ll need to look at the aviation support though; it seems so much harder to keep anything flying in this mod (though it might just be my imagination). I’ve been thinking about building up some of these airfields to level 5. I don’t like the idea of building up bases just to hand them over to the Japanese, but they could be very useful to me in the meantime, and if Fokko wants to he’ll just build them up anyway once he captures them.


More thoughts on China

Strategically, the objective for the China front is to tie down as many Japanese land and air units as possible. Obviously, this means mounting a successful defence to maintain China as a viable front, but paradoxically not being too successful (fat chance of that!) because if Japan goes or remains on the defensive in China then that too may free up Japanese forces for other fronts. Fokko is yet to show his hand in China, taking a few dot bases and a few probing attacks, and I’ve done relatively little up to now; pulling a few units back to better terrain is probably the most I’ve done so far.

Straight off the bat I moved the two cavalry armies near Paotow back towards the Chinese cities and positions north-east. My thinking was that if Japan attacks in this area I’d rather have them defending at the end of a long Japanese supply line. However, I realise now this was a mistake as I’ve seen what looks like Japan moving troops away from Paotow, presumably for use elsewhere, which probably wouldn’t have happened had I left my cavalry in place. (I might send them back to Paotow in the spring and try and make out it was a clever ruse on my part to draw his forces away from the area).

I think I don’t need to do too much at the moment; it is a long war and we’re less than three weeks in. I do however need to ‘signal’ that China is not going to be a quiet front, so I’m making a couple of probing attacks south of Ichang, threatening the railway there. I had previously dismissed the idea of trying to take Ichang. It seemed a bit of a tactical dead-end to me; you take it, Japan can easily retake it, what has been gained? But strategically I think it might serve this purpose. Also this general area is (I think, I don’t have the map in front of me) within range of the AVG currently at Changsha, so if Fokko wants to use his air power he’ll have to bring fighters too.

I want to keep a close eye out for any signs of Japanese units leaving China. At the moment I’ve got a submarine in the Yellow Sea and one near Shanghai for this purpose, but I know I’ll need to deploy more if I want to even just keep up this meagre level of surveillance. It will be interesting to see where the Hong Kong force goes. If it does look like he’s pulling forces out of China then I’ll need to be a lot more aggressive. Maybe I should be more aggressive before he starts pulling units out….decisions, decisions……

Tactically I want to try and concentrate on Fokko’s Chinese auxiliary units, so I’m paying close attention to sigint reports in China.

[RangerJoe]

This might sound strange, but be aggressive but in a cautious way.

Don't waste a lot of supplies attacking in China. That said, if you can hit the enemie's Chinese units only, smash them. Use your supplies to dig in, and to get disabled squads and devices ready. Chinese HQs don't help units outside of bases, try to keep them in bases where the Chinese units can recover. Don't take Chinese infantry replacements now, your units don't have the support. You need to get as many supplies into China as you can, even Blenheims would help.

As far as the AVG and any other air units in China, keep them on the rail lines and try to have AAA capabilities to help them. Then let the opponent play "Whack-a-mole" as your fighters move around so they don't get caught on the ground. B-25s on Low Naval could do some shipping damage or bring in A-24s to have fun. Hit once and then move.

Be ready to attack behind his surface combat TF, hit them after they bombard and are lower on ammo and fuel. There are plenty of dot bases to hide in.