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

[FeurerKrieg]

June 16th, 1942
The submarine detected yesterday was again attacked today, but our APD with its heavy DC load was able to get a couple solid hits on the submarine. It is fairly distant from a friendly port so with luck it will not make it home.

I-168, near Perth, took a shot at enemy minesweepers but missed.

Bettys from Sabang attacked Colombo port from a fairly high altitude (21,000 ft). They managed to fight through the Buffalos without loss, but they didn't hit any of the ships in the harbor.

A new British bomber was spotted in Burma today, intelligence indicated it is a B-24D bomber built by the Americans, but used by the British, the Liberator III.
[center]
New bomber spotted in Burma[/center]

[center]
Liberator III (British operated B-24D)[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

June 17th, 1942
Allied LBA hit Myitkina in Burma today doing extensive damage to the airfield there. Due to a command mixup, there were no AA gun units present. Two unitsa re moving in from Mandalay and Rangoon immediately.

In New Zealand, Operation Sakura was officially completed today when Dunedin surrendered to the 25th Army. Over 15,000 POWs were taken and 13 Kittyhawk aircraft were captured on the ground.

[center]
Dunedin - 1934[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

Well, I think this operation can be called a success.

May 2nd, 1942 - First ships leave Noumea.
May 4th, 1942 - Ships leave Suva.
May 15th, 1942 - 14th and 16th Armies begin landing at Gisborne.
May 16th, 1942 - Gisborne captured.
May 27th, 1942 - Wellington captured.
May 28th, 1942 - 25th Army begins landing at Picton.
May 29th, 1942 - Picton captured.
May 30th, 1942 - Hamilton captured.
June 7th, 1942 - Auckland and Christchurch captured.
June 17th, 1942 - Dunedin captured.

Over 60,000 Allied casualties (mostly POWs).
5 Minesweepers sunk
Over 50 enemy aircraft destroyed.
All factories and resource production in Auckland captured intact.

No ships lost in the entire process, probably less than 20 of our own aircraft lost to all causes.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 18th, 1942
The 5th Dutch Naval Base Force comes out of the jungle at Sawahloento and surrenders. It is the last of the Dutch units on the island of Sumatra.

Myitkina is hit hard again by Allied bombers. More supplies, AA and engineers are on the way. I am still not willing to commit many fighters to Burma defense. The Tojo will be in service next month and our experienced Army pilots can do much better in the Tojos than in Oscars.

[center]
Myitkina airfield take heavy damage.[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

June 19th, 1942
Betty's from Sabang hit Colombo again, this time hitting the minelayer Kung Wo. Four Bettys were lost to flak, since they flew in low at 3,000 ft to come in under the CAP. The CAP was dodged, but the flak was pretty effective.
[center]
Long range port attack[/center]

Hurricanes flew sweep over Mandalay and Oscars from Meiktila engaged. Six Oscars were lost and only two Hurricanes were damaged.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 20th, 1942
Hurricanes returned to Mandalay, and our Oscars redeemed themselves a bit, shotting down 2 Hurricanes and a Lysander, but losing two of their own. 12 B-25C and 21 B-17Ds bombed Manadalay later in the day, and our AA guns did some damage to those aircraft. Damage to the airbase was light. The Oscars at Meiktila will rebase to Bangkok for a rest, while we continue to wait for our Tojo factories to come online.
[center]
Air skirmishes over Mandalay.[/center]

Airfields at Kiska Island and Hollandia expanded today. (Sz 3 and 2)

[FeurerKrieg]

June 21st, 1942
I-168 was attacked near Perth and is damaged but should be able to return to Soerabaja. Apparently, there are some good ASW minesweepers around, these ones were tossing four depth charges at a time.
[center]
I-168 is damaged.[/center]

A squad of Hurricanes attacked the SNLF unit guarding the trail into Burma from Ledo.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 22nd, 1942
Hurricanes sweep over Mandalay in advance of another large bombing run. This one does more damage to the airfield and also destroys seven Ki-15 Recon planes on the ground. The sweep was smaller than previously, perhaps the RAF pilots are getting tired. Tomorrow our well rested A6M3 groups in Rangoon and Moulmein will fly LRCAP patrol over Manadalay and see if we can bring down some enemy planes.
[center]
Mandalay hit again[/center]

KB reached Noumea today.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 23rd, 1942
Our plan worked well in Burma today. Our A6M3 units, which usually have a tough time again the RAF Hurricanes, performed expertly, probably due to the fact they have been resting for several weeks while their enemy has been flying daily for the same weeks.

Approximately twenty A6M3's over Mandalay extracted a high toll today, shooting down 20 Hurricanes when they came on their sweep. The bombers arrived shortly afterwards, and the A6M3 present at that point damaged over 40 bombers and shot down 6 Blenheim IV's, 4 B-25C's, 3 B-26B's, and 2 Wellington III's. So 35 enemy aircraft brought down and only 7 of our own A6M3's lost. Of those 7, two of the pilots made it home to fight again.
[center]
35 enemy planes drop over Mandalay today[/center]

Our Zeros will rest tomorrow. We are also starting a small operation to bomb Dacca with our own Liz and Betty bombers. Within the week we should be ready to attempt this attack against the enemy airfield where so many large bombers are based.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 24th, 1942
Today 154 B-17 bombers attacked Johnston Island at an altitude higher than our Zero's could reach (35,000ft). Almost all of their bombs missed the airfield but a couple did hit, one of which destroyed a Zero on the ground.

No attacks from the enemy in Burma today, probably they are recovering from yesterday's fight. Our planes continue to move around in Burma. Magwe airfield is nearly expanded (to sz 4). Provided no Allied LBA attacks change our plans, three Sentai of A6M3's will move to Magwe and fly sweep over Dacca. Then over 100 Bettys and Liz bombers (approximately 50 each) will fly from Rangoon to bomb the base. On this flight, a Sentai of A6M2's will escort since they have the range to make it. At Magwe, 100 or so Army bombers will also bomb Dacca, these will be escort by a Sentai of A6M3's.

The A6M2 Sentai is new to the field, and tomorrow it will fly sweep over Chungking to get some combat practice against the Chinese airforce. This attack on Dacca will hopefully go off in a few days, weather permitting.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 25th, 1942
Today, our newly formed Sentai blooded itself on the Chinese air force. They are trained pilots, but do not have combat experience (70-80 experience). They performed well, downing 6 I-16c, 4 P-43a, and 3 I-153c. One pilot made a fatal error and let a P-43a get a shot off on him, but even so - 13 enemy pilots killed for the loss of 1 of our own.
[center]
Zero pilots get some training*[/center]

Also in China, our Armor unit has surrounded Sining, and now will wait while four divisions cross the river out of Lanchow and destroy the Chinese units between Lanchow and Sining. This should occur in the next one to three days.

*If you have read my HR's you'll see that ground attacks aren't an acceptable method of training, so this is the closest I get to 'easy' training. These guys are already trained, but a couple extra xp points can't hurt since they will be fighting the RAF at extreme range in a couple days.

[FeurerKrieg]

Had a look at the database and it look like the Ki-45 KAIa Nick will be able to catch those B-17's at 35,000 feet. Hopefully I still have Johnson Island by then. Tojo's can get close also, 34,750, but I'll be using those in Burma.

The Nicks will be good for that role anyways, since those bombers in the Pacific will be (hopefully) unescorted.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 26th, 1942
Our Zeros got some more practice today, this time over Chengtu. 1 I-16c and 1 I-153c were shot down, no Zero's were lost.
[center]
More training against the Chinese[/center]

Most aircraft are in place for our attack on Dacca. Another day or two of rest and we might attack. Not looking for anything decisive, but if we can delay bombings in Burma a few days, that gives us more time to get our Tojos into the theater.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 27th, 1942
S-47 was chased away from Kongo in the Solomons today. Also, S-39, hit a few days ago, was reported sunk. There have been several subs spotted near Bali heading into the SRA around Celebes. All aircraft in that area are now flying ASW patrol.

Hamilton and Wellington both expanded their airfields today. Wellington AF construction will stop, but Hamilton will continue. (sz 4 AF for both).

[FeurerKrieg]

June 28th, 1942
Not much action today. Our troops attacked the Chinese trapped in the mountains near Sining. Another Division is on the way. Also, a brigade has headed out of the mountains to join the armor unit guarding Sining. That brigade may be sufficient force to capture the base.
[center]
Winding down in North China.[/center]

Tomorrow we will attempt a massive attack on Dacca with over 100 naval bombers, 80 army bombers, and around 150 naval fighters. 200 Oscar fighters will LRCAP Magwe in case the Allies manage an attack on our base before our bombers take to the air. Forecast is for bad weather, so the operation may get scrubbed, but we will take that chance. Almost 400 enemy aircraft are reported at Dacca.

[FeurerKrieg]

June 29th, 1942
The weather killed our plans in Burma today. Rangoon was hammered by storms and all air activity was shut down at the base. Magwe was also shut down by bad weather. The allied recon spotted our Oscars on LRCAP so I'm sure they know something was up. Our planes will pull back to their staging positions (bombers in Bangkok, fighters in Rangoon/Moulmein) until we get a better weather forecast.

100 B-17E's again attacked Johnston today at 35,000 feet, but all bombs missed. Approximately 20 recon planes also came along, and our flak was able to bring a couple of those down.

Rarotonga and Madang expanded airfields today. (sz 3 and sz 2)

[scott64]

[FeurerKrieg]

Hi all - looking for some thoughts again.

Sakura finished faster than I expected, which is good. My original plan was to then send those Divisions mostly to Burma, but split up a two or three of them and send them to the more important based across the Pacific.

Now, I'm thinking I might have 4-6 weeks with which to use the divisions planned for SE Asia in China for a bit, to attack Liuchow. My divisions from the northern campaign are heading to Ichang and they will eventually attempt a slow crawl through the swamps and fields west of the river so they can cut off Changsha from the west. But I'm thinking, that maybe, around the same time, or slightly earlier, four or five SAA divisions can break Liuchow, and then move east from there to provide two directions of attack on the supply lines of Changsha. He'll be hard pressed to defend both directions, and he'll either have to pull out of Changsha, which means I capture it (the main goal) or he stays in Changsha and has a huge pocket get cut off and starved. Once Liuchow is captured, those divisions could pull out and head Burma.

The thing I'm not clear on, is when do the Allies have enough ground troops to launch a counterattack in Burma? My front line bases in the Pacific are all manned to the max allowed by our atoll HR's, and the fleet is sitting there also, so not much to do there. But these divisions could certainly be useful in Burma if a July or August offensive from India into Burma is a possibility.

Any thoughts as to Allied capabilities in SE Asia around 3rd quarter 1942?

[FeurerKrieg]

June 30th, 1942
I-156 lost its fight against damage and sunk a hundred miles from Rangoon.

In China, approximately 10,000 Chinese troops surrendered in the mountains near Sining. A command units is still holding out, but they should give up tomorrow. With this surrender, all other units in Lanchow and Sian have begun to march towards Inchang where they will rest for a bit before our next major operation in China. This operation is still in planning stages, but will hopefully allow us to quickly advance the front in China, while still providing the timely arrival of reinforcements to Burma.
[center]
Troops captured in Northwest China.[/center]

Also, the last front line units of Ki-48-I Lily's (which are in China) were upgraded to Ki-48-II's today. The Ki-48-I will only be used as a training aircraft now.

Also, our Ki-44 Tojo factories are now online! Production is currently at 2-3 aircraft per day. In a couple weeks, our first unit should be active in Burma!
[center]
Ki-44 "Tojo"[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

Aside from China, this is probably the Japanese high water mark in this version of World War II.


[center]



[/center]