Turnaround? Lowpe (J) vs Tiemanj (A) Stock

[Lowpe]

I want to try and hit some Allied shipping with long range torpedo attacks using Emily.

My thought:

Turn off all search in the Marshalls. Use one squadron of Emilies to search in an arc that avoids Allied fighter bases and set the other squadrons to naval attack: torpedoes.

Throw some subs into the target area too.

Is this too dangerous or worth doing?

[Lowpe]

May 18, 1943

Night bombing by Allied planes near Magwe, during the day all the Allied bombers hit Magwe closing the base. Again. 1 week to repair.

The US AM Skylark clears 3 mines at Nauru before being hit 5 times and getting heavy fires from the coastal guns there....lots of interest in Nauru.

No DL on my fighters at Raheng complex in Indochina. Monsoons cause nice fatigue bump with the fighters there.

An RO is lost at Akyab to a trio of Allied destroyers. An Iboat is damaged at Akyab but plants her mines.

China: It seems some Chinese units are fleeing Changsha to the northeast and southwest. Attacking there again today...IJNAF fighter sweeps to no opposition. Chinese fighters are now at Chungking.

The last troops are fast transported out of Darwin. Darwin is size 3 AF; so it will be a while for the Allies to build it up.

[Lowpe]

Burma:

I am starting to pull some units out of northern Burma...especially ENG units. I need construction units to rebuild the air fields and some aviation support but not tons of it. If I strike from Magwe after the strike I simply fly out the surviving planes and rail the remainder to Lashio for repair.

The Magwe push troops are moving off the Jungle Ridge and returning to defend Magwe across the river. They are the most exposed troops I have in theater (other than the whole Army, lols).

[Lowpe]

After mulling it over for almost a month, I decided to allocate one factory to R&D the Ki-102a fighter. Although it comes relatively late (3/45) and is slow (370+), it can fly very high (44K).

George will advance a month...yippee! I should get this plane in July sometime which is a jump up from the A6M5c although the high SR will make it somewhat painful to use with my air doctrine. We will see.

Rough guess I will be getting Oscar IV in late June early July and the Irving NF in July making that time frame kind of interesting.

I experimented with moving light bombers into the fighter bomber upgrade path – this costs PP – I was trying to see if this would unlock the Nick NF but no joy. But it is a way to get more FB up over the HI in the end game if that is important. I did this on a separate save file so nothing actually spent.

Spent a fair amount of time rejiggering my bombers. I am moving more IJA bombers to ASW/NavSearch work and transferring TB into a strike platform. Right now I am collecting bombers for anti-invasion work at Saigon, Manila and Singers. I have about 200 Betties; 120 Vals; 60 Kates; 150 Lilly Iib. The Vals are worrisome because they have such short legs. I think I will collect some larger fighter Sentai for the longer legged escort fighters to give me a fast reaction bombing force.

[Lowpe]

I am fleshing out my defensive strategies more right now:

1. Withdrawing all bus skeleton forces from the Solomons. I have some nice air bases clusters and could hit the Americans pretty hard here; but they aren't cooperating. I fear the area simply being bypassed, so falling back to an NG to Rabaul line and then working on back filling from there so I could hit potential invasion fleets.

2. Withdrawing support units from Burma; moving support units into Indochina (which is a tough area to defend. Pulling at least one full division out of Burma now, and perhaps a second. Establishing bomber bases which can feed front line strike bases against invasions.

3. Establishing aerial highway bases that can easily handle transiting bombers from Indochina to Sumatra to New Guinea/Solomons. I need bases that can handle the shorter range Vals.

4. I need more fighter squadrons -- there are some units (one transport, one bomber) that can upgrade to fighters. I will take advantage of that. I am also pondering converting more squadrons to FB.

5. I am looking at bases to build max airfields on. Pretty key.

6. I am going to move the super heavy BB to Singers/Sumatra. I have some strong bases, a fair amount of troops and air fields built up there in the Kuriles...

[mind_messing]

My only suggestion for Burma would to be to try to keep Pegu's airbase open to mount anti-shipping strikes incase Tiemanj tries to run ships into Rangoon.

I'd also withdraw everything north of Shwebo to Magwe - that area seems a backwater, and the only thing of value in Burma other than Rangoon is Magwe.

[Lowpe]

May 19th, 1943

No night aerial attacks.

During the day the full might of the Allies bomber forces hits Pegu. There are 4 10cm equipped AA Independent Gun Companies there and they do pretty well destroying bombers.

No losses to submarines and Destroyers near Singers punish two American submarines until their ammo is exhausted. One of the submarine has its forward torpedo tubes damaged.[:)]

[Lowpe]

In a surprising move, Changsha surrenders to the inevitable about two attacks early. Forts were reduced from 2 to 1 and a 3-1 attack breaks the back of the defenders who break and run to the northeast across the river leaving all their heavy guns. This fight marked my first battle with a fully built up Chinese Corp.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

My only suggestion for Burma would to be to try to keep Pegu's airbase open to mount anti-shipping strikes incase Tiemanj tries to run ships into Rangoon.

Too late! Pegu closed today. The Raheng air complex triangle is my main strike base for Rangoon/Moulmein. Three level 6 air bases...

I'd also withdraw everything north of Shwebo to Magwe - that area seems a backwater, and the only thing of value in Burma other than Rangoon is Magwe.

I have been mulling this over.

Thanks!

[Lowpe]

Economic notes:

Oil:

Cam Ranh Bay: 140K
Hong Kong: 110K
Shanghai: 6K
Port Arthur: 208K
Fusan: 45K
Swatow, Amoy and Foochow no stockpiles (get oil from Manila and Formosa)

Pretty pleased with oil shipments lately. Just takes persistence.

[Lowpe]

Night Fighter update:

I invested early in the Irving NF, and a third size 30 factory repaired today.[:)] With the engine bonus helping I should now have Irvings in late June early July. If I recall correctly there are only two Squadrons that can upgraded to the Irving this early, plus the Endo Det. A third full squadron comes as a reinforcement sometime in September.

They will join my IJAAF KAI Dinah squadrons (2 squadrons broken into thirds; 6 units).

Although they won't shoot down a lot of night bombers, they will be able to cover a fair number of bases and provide the ever important disruption. Combined with flak, I am hoping to minimize night bombing damage done to the Empire.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

I'd also withdraw everything north of Shwebo to Magwe - that area seems a backwater, and the only thing of value in Burma other than Rangoon is Magwe.

I have been thinking more on this, and I would like to replace the troops I have forward with light trip wire forces that can load on to trains in 1 day rather than 3. Right now they are watched over by junky RTA 1/3rds.

I am hesitant to just give the British these bases as they do provide a screen for Lashio which severs the Burma road.

I am making solid progress in China and look to sever the Burma road from that side too...but I need time.

[Spidery]

I have been thinking more on this, and I would like to replace the troops I have forward with light trip wire forces that can load on to trains in 1 day rather than 3

I think Admin skill effects how long it takes to pack. I had a number of identical nav guard units arrive at the same time and noticed some took 1 day to pack and others 2. The faster packing ones correlated with higher admin skill.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery
I think Admin skill effects how long it takes to pack. I had a number of identical nav guard units arrive at the same time and noticed some took 1 day to pack and others 2. The faster packing ones correlated with higher admin skill.

That sure seems to be the case! Many thanks.[&o]

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

I'd also withdraw everything north of Shwebo to Magwe - that area seems a backwater, and the only thing of value in Burma other than Rangoon is Magwe.

I have been thinking more on this, and I would like to replace the troops I have forward with light trip wire forces that can load on to trains in 1 day rather than 3. Right now they are watched over by junky RTA 1/3rds.

I am hesitant to just give the British these bases as they do provide a screen for Lashio which severs the Burma road.

I am making solid progress in China and look to sever the Burma road from that side too...but I need time.

The Thai units are as good as any for tripwire forces. It's that or garrison duty for them. Plus, they're going to quit the war next year anyways, so you may get some use out of them now.

The Burma Road is severed provided you keep your lodgement around Rangoon that blocks the road/rail link between Rangoon and Tsuyung. There are two bottlenecks - Rangoon (with the road/rail leading NE and the road/rail to Pegu) and the hex directly east of Lashio.

See Alfred's post, #18: tm.asp?m=3415396&mpage=1&key=&#3415396

That only accounts for auto-generated supply. If the Allies clear out Burma supply may flow in the normal manner from Burma to China, so you're right in your efforts to keep the region screened.

[Lowpe]

I didn't do much at all this turn, most units at Changsha are heading north to nail the retreating Chinese Corps some more so that they retreat again, and then will move south to capture the two remaining bases in the Changsha Industrial triangle.

Estimate about 10 days to get it all done; then off to Kweiyang with other groups and then into the mountains. China should begin to look very different in about a month or so.

Absolutely no supply at Changsha; however not once did the Chinese suffer from a supply malus...organic supply of 160 I think.

The Allies are very fond of using one ship task forces, and I want to nail some of them without risking normal strike planes, and I also have noticed a reluctance of bombers to fly against the smallish ships. Not so for fighters strafing however, and I flew some Oscars into Wake in an attempt to hit this one scout ship. Unfortunately, I left the drop tanks on (which replace the bombs[:-]) so if they do engage it will only be with 12.7 mgs. I should have sent some Nicks...which can use drop tanks and bombs.

Speaking of fighter bombers, I am pretty sure I will be converting over more squadrons to the fighter bomber role out of the medium bomber role. I seem to have an insatiable thirst for fighters...

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing
The Thai units are as good as any for tripwire forces. It's that or garrison duty for them. Plus, they're going to quit the war next year anyways, so you may get some use out of them now.

The Burma Road is severed provided you keep your lodgement around Rangoon that blocks the road/rail link between Rangoon and Tsuyung. There are two bottlenecks - Rangoon (with the road/rail leading NE and the road/rail to Pegu) and the hex directly east of Lashio.

See Alfred's post, #18: tm.asp?m=3415396&mpage=1&key=�

That only accounts for auto-generated supply. If the Allies clear out Burma supply may flow in the normal manner from Burma to China, so you're right in your efforts to keep the region screened.

Thanks....I am worried about regular supply flowing thru the Burma road. Read elsewhere that once the road opens up from Lashio to China that in 90 days the Chinese forces can start to be worrisome. Want to delay that day for as long as possible.

I flew some Sonias up north to see if there are any sneaking troops up there, and I noticed that Ledo is very lightly held...I have three paratroop units in the area and it would be fun to capture the base and the empty base to the west. Don't think I could grab the Ledo, but the base to west is empty...

[Lowpe]

Hmm., undetected. Excellent.

[Lowpe]

And finally, enemy submarines have all but vanished.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

And finally, enemy submarines have all but vanished.

Time to start putting lots of float planes in your convoys...if he's going for "deep" attacks, between coverage areas, you'll need them.

I'd also look out during any fleet engagements. He could just have decided to give up on hitting your bases, and instead decided that he wants to swarm your fleet during battles. Don't forget to set some planes to night search to help spoil attacks on naval assets.