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The 23rd Aussie Bgd. is in the game at Darwin, along with Sparrow force. I believe If you are going to have Sparrow force then the rest of the Bgd should be broken down to its Historic component parts, Sparrow, Gull and Lark forces. None of which should be in the "restricted" Australian Command being that historically Sparrow force was deployed to Timore, Gull Force to Ambon and Lark force to Rabaul. The Bn at Rabaul should be part of 23rd Bgd. As it is there is a duplication of force of two Bns.

Otherwise it would be better to get rid of Sparrow force and keep a 2/3rds strength 23rd Bgd at Darwin and allow the player to choose to break it down or not.

Hex 4550 on Luzon Island Philippines is nothing at all. This is a significant strategic error. It should be labled Baguio City. It is an airfield. It is a significant resource hex.
Aside from mines (the biggest copper mine in Asia is here, and gold mines, and enough rice to support an army group for years), it is a difficult hex to attack because of mountains. Gen. Yamashita used this as his HQ and it was a lot more clever than Bataan - no malaria or denge fever and lots of food in a good position. It is a strategic issue that this hex cannot be used as Yamashita did. There is no point in retreating to this hex in the game when, in fact, it is the best place on Luzon, and in the entire Philippines. Note this hex contains the Philippine MIlitary Academy (it was at Teacher Camp in 1942 and is at Fort John Hay today. Fort John Hay was also a base then.

Beside it is a hex labeled Viggan. This is indeed a small airfield and a historical landing site. But the hex should be labled San Fernando. San Fernando is an a ctual city, has a much better airfield, and a good harbor/port. This hex is a bit too big but it includes the main Japanese landing sites and it also contains the significant road up the mountains to Baguio city.

I am balikbayan. That word does not translate. It means I am Filipino kind of by adoption. While I am a US citizen, I do not enter the country via the foreigner line at customs. In my case because I have a Filipino family. They are from the Baguio and San Fernando hexes and I am very familiar with this area. And its history. There is a museum at Fort John Hay, in Baguio, and the house Yamashita used to surrender is still US territory there.

There was also an understrength Philippine Scout battalion stationed at Baguio - Companies A and B of 1st/43rd (PS).

Don

ORIGINAL: ycwang
BTW, many city names in China on the map look weird to me. For example, Homan, Yenen, etc. I cannot understand which cities they are meant to be. (I am a native Mandarin speaker.) I don't know where do those spellings come from. [&:] Double check on all of the city names in China will be a prudent act.

Yeah, I pointed out that some Chinese cities have different Romanizations that we are used to today. For example, "Chengdu" is spelled "Chengtu" on the map. After doing a search on the internet I actually found some old maps that spell it with a 't' but I think it still looks weird. I will try to change it on my map. I've been to Chengdu but I've never been to Chengtu.

Hi all,

Tjillitjap(sp?) in south Java should have no airfield whatsoever in the hex. American aircraft unloaded there had to be trucked to an airbase. Many aircraft were captured there in crates when the Japanese took the city.

Mike

ORIGINAL: Lemurs!

Hi all,

Tjillitjap(sp?) in south Java should have no airfield whatsoever in the hex. American aircraft unloaded there had to be trucked to an airbase. Many aircraft were captured there in crates when the Japanese took the city.

Mike

Yup, you are quite correct there was no airfield at Tjillatjap, but you have to remember they are 60 mile hexes and IIRC I am pretty sure there was a airfield witin 60 miles. I know for sure they trucked some Hurricanes and DB-7s from the port to an airfield just inland.

do you know the name of the field?
I am not doubting you at all; my close up map of Java was hand drawn by the British during the war and i am not sure how accurate it is.

mike

Totals for Oahu Coast Defense Guns on 7 Dec 1942 are;

4 x 16 inch
2 x 14 inch
26 x 12 inch
8 x 8 inch
2 x 5 inch
4 x 3 inch
66 x 155mm
20 x 240 mm

There was also a coast defense battery on Hilo. It is described in Burl Burlinggame's Advance Force Pearl Harbor. He, a museum curator, put me in contact with the association related to coast defense artillery, from whose list of batteries I compiled the above list.

Someone wrote that the Alaska Class cruisers are wrongly classified as CA, and should be rated as battlecruisers instead. But they are not battlecruisers either - they are
CB - Class B cruisers - or very heavy cruisers.

While the IJN Kongos were indeed built as battlecruisers, they were rebuilt in the 1930s as fast battleships, and are properly classified as such. So the only potential battlecruisers in the Pacific are the British ones: Repulse and Renown.

Hi Chaps

just looking at some AArs and some folks bemoning the lack of range on the hurricanes The Mark II was provisioned for 2 45 gallon drop tanks doubling its internal fuel capacity of 94 gallons. I have seen a memoir of RAF ground staff in Burm and India in 43 confirming the use of drop tanks ( they were using them as mini napalm bombs untill they were told to stop as they were using more than any other squadron in the area)

I dont know if sea hurricanes had these tanks (no evidence to hand) but normal Hurricanes used them taking off from carriers when flying to malta

cheers

Unless this is the most powerful Light Cruiser in WW2, the HMS Enterprise upgrade class 1416 has 118x 20mm AA Guns.

In Scenario 15 the Il-2 have a firing arc of BT which should probably be TR.

ORIGINAL: McNaughton

Unless this is the most powerful Light Cruiser in WW2, the HMS Enterprise upgrade class 1416 has 118x 20mm AA Guns.

Typo, no doubt. Should be "18". Thanks. Keep checking please.[:)]

Time for a new keyboard methinks.[:@][8|]

For those mad enough to consider adding the German U Boats that operated in the far east into the game, here is a list of the boats with their arrival date in East Asia (usually Penang), type and CO:

(Aust style dates)

This is a shortened list, as some of the boats did not stay long in the East before leaving for Europe again. I haven't yet figured out how the editor works, so I have no idea whether these can be added into the game. A few new submarine classes need to be added (with artwork), as well as the boats themselves.

It also seems that there was an Italian naval vessel acting as a type of submarine tender as well. See this website: http://www.regiamarina.net/others/farea ... ast_us.htm


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And you can add the German raiders (Thor and Michel in 1942-43 era) and also a little-known unit flying Arado 196 floatplanes from Penang for ASW patrols.

The map has a railroad/highway running northwest from Rangoon towards Akyab, but no troops can use it to cross the rivers betwween the two. If you turn on "show hexside details" these particualr hexsides can only be crossed by naval units. If this is the case, why have the railraod/highway? It seems to be just teasing my troops who would like to escape the Rangoon trap.

That is considered a bridge crossing ... really bad spot to fight at.

Troops *can* move through it.

I was trying to move troops across it and was unable to do so (trying to send them towards Akyab, but they can't cross the rivers).

checking here ... does the units move get reset to none each turn?

The Java class Light crusiers CL are listed as having 59in/50 QF Guns Wow!

59in Gun!!! I think this should be 5.9in/50 QF Gun!