Rising Sun over the Rockies - F.K. vs OSO - Wake captured by US

[FeurerKrieg]

June 1st, 1942
A new month, and several ships in Singapore and the Home Islands begin remodeling to add more AA guns as the threat from enemy airplanes become more and more clear.

Zeros with three Nell bombers attack CV Yorktown at Dutch Harbor. One F4F-4 Wildcat is shot down, but the Nells don't score any hits. Amazingly, the DD Ikazuchi's damage control team is able to keep the ship from sinking, and the weather gods keep the B-25C's away. The ship is at Adak and will head west, but it is not in the clear yet. B-25C's could still catch the tough little ship. No Zeros can fly CAP as we are doing our best to hit the US carriers.
[center]
Attacks continue in the North Pacific.[/center]

Off the coast of Burma, another enemy sub is hit, the SS Truant is hit by a Ki-51 Sonia Dive Bomber.

At Colombo, our attack had the desired side effect - more enemy planes were spotted on Patrol by our Mavis patrols - Buffalos now were flying with the Wirraways.

Manokwari, (northern New Guinea) opened an airfield today. (sz 1)

[FeurerKrieg]

June 2nd, 1942
In New Zealand, Kittyhawks fly sweep over Picton, but our Zeros chase them away. Also, Gisborne expands to accommodate Betty torpedo bombers. (sz 4) The construction crews there will now move to Hamilton to develop that base, as it is inland and safe from Naval bombardments.

North pacific:
More action today. 13 escorted Nells attacks the CV Enterprise and CA Chicago. They missed the CV, but put a torpedo into the heavy cruiser. Also, 3 F4F-4's were shot down along with 4 Zeros lost. A second strike fared worse. 3 Nells missed all targets, but 6 of the escorting Zeros were lost for only 1 F4F-4. The losses are not good, but at least we are attriting carrier pilots with our LBA.
[center]
CA Chicago is hit[/center]
[center]
Heavy Cruiser Chicago[/center]

AP Mormachawk, hit a couple days back at Dutch Harbor was reported sunk today. With the continuing activity in the area, several long range submarines have been ordered to gather at Tokyo and then they will redeploy along the western Canada coast to try and catch any damaged ships heading back towards the large West Coast US ports. Also, B-25c's did indeed find DD Ikazuchi today and put four bombs into the ship. That was more than it could handle and it was sunk.
[center]
Ikazuchi's luck runs out[/center]

Wallis Island airfield expanded today. (sz 2)

[FeurerKrieg]

June 3rd, 1942

North Pacific:
Today the B-25Cs hit Adak, destroying a Zero and a Jake on the ground. Other than that it was quiet in the area, the US CVs seem to have left again.
[center]
Adak (left, airfield foreground) and Dutch Harbor (right, under attack)[/center]

Nells and Liz bombers hit Darwin airfields today, destroying about half a dozen enemy aircraft on the ground. The airbase at Dili, on Timor, expanded today also. (sz 2)

The I-28 was hit by a B-17E flying out of Pearl. The sub is pretty heavily damaged and may not make it home. While on the subject of subs, the last few days have seen many sub sightings. Thankfully nearly all our convoys have escorts and thus far, we have not had an increase in losses from these enemy subs. But it is clear they are hunting in force now.

In New Zealand, the enemy fighter are becoming desperate to inflict some damage before their bases are captured. Kittyhawks attack ground force near Christchurch and flew sweeps over Picton and Gisborne. Several of the enemy planes were shot down. In total the Allies lost 20 aircraft today, while we lost 10.
[center]
Kittyhawk brought down by ground fire[/center]

[traskott]

Amazing AAR !!

[X(]

I'm glad not to be Allied on this PBEM....Too much headache...

[FeurerKrieg]

Hi traskott, thanks for the compliment - let's hope you are right and the headaches continue for my opponent for a long time to come!

[Durbik]

your screenshots are indeed amazing, enjoying this AAR from the start

[FeurerKrieg]

June 4th, 1942
Scattered Kittyhawk attacks in New Zealand. Our Helens continue to bomb Auckland.

SS KIX was hit and sunk today. SS Rover, hit a couple days ago, was reported sunk also.
[center]
Dutch sub is sunk[/center]

Papaete airfield was completed today (sz 4) and construction will switch to fortifications. Meiktila also expanded today. (sz 3)

The enemy air attacks in Burma seem to be subsiing at the moment.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 5th, 1942

New Zealand
Our forces today took up position around Auckland. Additional troops and command elements are still on the way, first (and hopefully only) major push is planned for June 7th. The 25th Army attacked Christchurch today, nearly taking the base (4 to 1, forts 5 -> 4). The 56th Division will arrive there tomorrow so the base will fall then. Helens at Wellington will also fly ground support attack to help with the push. Kittyhawks continue there attacks, five are shot down over Gisborne today.

North Pacific
B-25C's hit our cargo ships unloading supplies at Adak. A Naval Guard unit was unloaded yesterday under cloudy skies. Three ships are damaged, but they should make it back to Tokyo okay if they can avoid further attack.
[center]
Transports hit[/center]

Another Dutch sub is hit off of Tavoy today by a Lily bomber.
[center]
KXII, hit near Tavoy today[/center]

Milne Bay airfield is completed. (sz 4)

[FeurerKrieg]

June 6th, 1942
In china, the IJA takes up positions around Lanchow in the mountains. The base will be assaulted tomorrow. We are conifdent we heavily outnumber the defenders, but the mountain terrain may make the attack difficult. P-43A Lancers return to Changsha, but our bombers are always escorted there now. Some of the P-43As are shot down today.

Our attack on Christchurch fails to take the base today (4 to 1, forts 4 -> 3). The 56th Div is in place now though, and it should definitely fall tomorrow.
[center]
Kittyhawks drop over Gisborne[/center]

Three big attacks tomorrow - Christchurch, Auckland and Lanchow.

Darwin is hit by Zero sweep and Liz bombers. Between the two attacks, 4 Wirraways, 1 P-40E, 2 Kittyhawks and 1 Hudson are destroyed.

Savaii expands its airfield (sz 3) and Rabaul port is expanded (sz 5). The ports at Rabaul will not be expanded any further.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 7th, 1942
The combined power of the 14th and 16th armies assaulted the dug in defenders of Auckland today. Although the enemy forces were strong, the were no match for 700 Japanese tanks and 160,000 Japanese troops. The defenders realized their situation was hopeless and surrendered the city. (8 to 1, forts 7 -> 6) 35,000 Allied POW's were taken. In addition to the fighting units present, New Zealand Command and South Pacific Command headquarters were both captured. 12 Kittyhawk fighters were also captured. At Christchurch, the 25th Army took that base, capturing 4,000 enemy troops. The rest retreated towards Dunedin, the only remaining NZ base until Allied control.
[center]

Auckland and Christchurch are added to the Empire[/center]

The higher capacity transports from the invasion (currently at Suva) will put to sea to head to Auckland to pick up our troops.


In China, our attack on Lanchow moved forward, although our troops will need to rest for a bit before the next push. Additional troops and HQ is on the way in the next couple days and that should help. (0 to 1, forts 3 -> 2)
[center]
Assault on Lanchow[/center]

From a game perspective, the victory point ratio is current 5.38:1 in Japan's favor. I suspect that this will be as high as it gets this game, but still a pretty decent ratio I think, given that I haven't taken China, Australia or India.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 8th, 1942
Our Oscars did well over Changsha today, shooting down 7 P-43A Lancers. Another was destroyed on the ground by the bombers.
[center]
Chinese fighters shot down[/center]

The 4th NEIAF Base Force was wiped out near Sawahloento. There is still one more unit in the jungle that we are working on flushing out.

Hamilton airbase expanded (sz 2) and Dobdura, on the east coast of New Guinea, was completed. (sz 4)

[FeurerKrieg]

June 9th, 1942
Mostly quiet today. Enemy air attacks in Burma, the P-43As left Changsha, Helens continue to attack Dunedin as the 25th Army heads down the coast.

The transports that had carried the 25th Army arrived in Auckland and loaded up 3 Tank Regiments, 2 Divisions, 2 Engineer units and all three HQ groups (SAA, 14th and 16th army). The 25th Army will be left in charge of New Zealand once Dunedin is captured. I'm thinking 4 or 5 tank units, plus about 3 divisions should be enough to ensure two or three divisions or more are needed for any landing by the Allies against New Zealand since the Armor can move pretty quickly to a threatened landing zone. One division will probably stay in Auckland, and then the other split over Wellington and Gisborne. Another Division can split up and garrison South Island's three bases. A significant load of oil will be brought to Auckland, so that in the event Zew Zealand is bypassed and isolated by the Allies, it will continue producing HI for a long time.

Also noticed several TF's in Pearl Harbor. Could this be an invasion group loading up, or just more west coast reinforcements arriving? Johnson island has all the troops it can hold (20k). Bombers and Fighters from Wake and the Line Island can all reinforce the base in a hurry if needed as well, in addition to the 100 planes already stationed there. Recon flights from Pearl also started flying over Johnston yesterday. An AMC minelayer is enroute to Johnston to add to the mines already there.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 10th, 1942
Main news of the day is the capture of Lanchow. Not only were we able to capture all the resource facilities (HI, Oil, Res, MP) 100% intact, we captured a huge stock of oil (40K) that will help out tremendously with our production balances in China. This oil alone will allow north and eastern China to not need oil imports for almost two years. The enemy units retreated to Sining. Our army will rest a day or two and then pursue. An Armor unit will leave the mountains and attempt to encircle the enemy troops before they reach the base by moving quickly across the desert flatlands.
[center]
A resource rich area is captured[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

I forgot to mention in the last post, that I was wrong about my VP point prediction. Capturing Lanchow pushed the VP ratio up to 5.51:1. That will be pretty close to as high as it goes, barring some major naval victory.

[bigbaba]

very nice AAR, krieg.

good too read and also with a great presentation. keep it alive.[&o]

edit:
just finished reading your wonderfull AAR.

[FeurerKrieg]

Thanks, bigbaba!

June 11th, 1942
Air attacks in Burma. We bomb Changsha. Troops continue moving down South Island.
[center]
Allied last stand in New Zealand[/center]

With the supplies building up in the Home Islands, and no more major offensives planned, I've expanded some more naval shipyards to help keep our naval strength growing as fast as possible.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 12th, 1942
Zero sweep and Betty/Liz raid on Darwin kills a few planes. 3 Kittyhawks, 3 Wirraways, 2 Hudsons, 2 PBY Catalinas, and 1 P-40E are killed in the air or on the ground.

A new Naval Guard unit arrives at Palmyra in the next day or two, and another will arrive at Christmas Island in a few days.

The bulk of the fleet arrived at Noumea today and refueled and resupplied. Our 4 seaplane cruisers and 2 CVE's (and 2 CA's and some DD's) will head to Soerabaja to guard the against convoys moving through the Indian Ocean, and any invasions directed towards Timor or Malaya. The rest of the fleet heads to Truk for now, until after Dunedin is captured and the KB returns to Truk.

Then we will figure out how to arrange the fleet. Currently Yamato and some cruisers are sitting in Kwajalein. Our CVLs (at Noumea, enroute to Truk) will likely replace fleet carriers in the KB as they begin to head in for upgrades starting in July. Hiyo will be coming out of the shipyards in late July also. Kirishima and Mutsu are currently sitting in Singapore. One of our CVE's just upgraded at Auckland, and that one will move to Truk and finish repairs there.

[center]
CAP over Pearl Harbor[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

June 13th, 1942
Bombings at Changsha and Darwin. 4 Wirraways and 1 Hudson destroyed at Darwin.

One of the AK's hit by B-25C's at Adak sunk today.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 14th, 1942
One Wirraway downed at Darwin today.

The army made a push on Changsha today, but made little progress. Once the campaign in the north is finished, the Northern China Army may come down through Ichang and try to cut off Changsha from the other side of the river. If not cut it off, at least force a retreat of the enemy units there.

The other AK hit at Adak sunk today also.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 15th, 1942
Bombings over Changsha and Darwin. At Darwin, 1 Zero is exchanged for 1 Kittyhawk.

Between Noumea and Auckland, a few US subs were spotted a week ago, so three DD's and an APD were sent to investigate. Today they found the S-39, although they failed to connect with any depth charges.
[center]
S-39[/center]

Some troops reached Dunedin today, with two more divisions scheduled to arrive tomorrow. We will then attack and hopefully that will bring a successful ending to Operation Sakura.

The KB is slowly moving back to the north, undetected by search aircraft all this time. My current thinking is to send Zuikaku and Shokaku in for July upgrades and keep Soryu on station until Z & S return. I might just send all three in though, to get them done.

In Burma, all our major combat units have reached Mandalay, leaving only a SNLF unit as a tripwire on the trail coming from Imphal. Two more aviation regiments have set sail to Burma to prepare for the next couple months when our Tonies and Tojos arrive and we will make a stand against the enemy 4E bombers.