March 21st 1944
Things in the SoPac are winding down. I took Tulagi a few days ago on a shock attack. And I landed at Kavieng without issue. The Japanese recently sent over the
1st Guards Division to bolster defenses but without proper forts it fell easily enough:
Ground combat at Kavieng (106,122)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 40856 troops, 905 guns, 986 vehicles, Assault Value = 1503
Defending force 21557 troops, 210 guns, 20 vehicles, Assault Value = 465
Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 1
Allied adjusted assault: 543
Japanese adjusted defense: 151
Allied assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 1)
Allied forces CAPTURE Kavieng !!!
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), experience(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
5691 casualties reported
Squads: 188 destroyed, 70 disabled
Non Combat: 249 destroyed, 95 disabled
Engineers: 85 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 102 (95 destroyed, 7 disabled)
Vehicles lost 13 (13 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units retreated 6
Units destroyed 1
Allied ground losses:
585 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 70 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 11 disabled
Guns lost 8 (2 destroyed, 6 disabled)
Vehicles lost 45 (8 destroyed, 37 disabled)
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!
Assaulting units:
2nd USMC Tank Battalion
3rd Marine Division
1st USMC Tank Battalion
6th Infantry Division
754th Tank Battalion
1st USMC Amphb Tank Battalion
762nd Tank Battalion
9th Australian Division
8th Marine Defense Battalion
168th Field Artillery Regiment
7th USMC Field Artillery Battalion
Defending units:
1st Guards Division
4th Engineer Co
4th South Seas Det.
16th AA Regiment
Southeast Area Fleet
41st Field AA Battalion
3rd Shipping Engineer Regiment
25th JAAF AF Bn
And with things wrapping up here, I sent half my CVs to Darwin to get ready for more operations there. The Japanese detected my move as I was approaching the Torres Strait and sent subs to block my path. Well, sending subs into a narrow strait with shallow waters is a double edged sword. I held my fleets back today and instead sent in ASW fleets to find IJN subs:
Sub attack near Horn Island at 89,128
Japanese Ships
SS I-15, hits 14, heavy damage
Allied Ships
DD Braine
DD Dyson
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ASW attack near Horn Island at 90,129
Japanese Ships
SS I-17, hits 15, heavy damage
Allied Ships
DD Saufley
DD Luce
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ASW attack near Horn Island at 90,129
Japanese Ships
SS I-34, hits 13
Allied Ships
DD Bennett
DD Cogswell
DD Chevalier
Tomorrow I will send my fleets through the now weakened sub wall.
Having detected the shift in CVs, the Japanese brought the KB out of hiding...and into view of a submarine:
Sub attack near Gebe at 80,104
Japanese Ships
CV Renkaku, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage
CA Kurama
CA Chikuma
CA Hikari
DD Haruzuki
DD Shimozuki
DD Amatsukaze
DD Kagero
DD Fujinami
DD Natsuzuki
Allied Ships
SS Puffer, hits 3
One less CV to contend with here. And to add insult to injury, an unescorted squadron of torpedo bombers hit a CVE:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Kofiau at 78,107
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 27 minutes
Japanese aircraft
N1K2-J George x 38
Allied aircraft
Beaufort VIII x 9
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort VIII: 6 damaged
Beaufort VIII: 1 destroyed by flak
Japanese Ships
CVE Hosho, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CVL Chiyoda
CV Kaga
Notice the George's flying CAP for the mini-KB here. The reason my bombers got through so easily was that I had a couple of naval attacks against other fleets nearby (which got chewed up). I also hit the airbase at Ambon to good effect with B-25's destroying number of planes on the ground taking light losses while P-47s shot down Japanese fighters in the air. So things are starting off very well in the DEI having knocked out a CV and CVE in a single day. I am intending to land at Koepang by the end of March and I have a number of other invasions lined up after that.
Meanwhile in Burma I launched another attack on Rangoon:
Ground combat at Rangoon (54,53)
Allied Deliberate attack
Attacking force 182312 troops, 3276 guns, 2713 vehicles, Assault Value = 4713
Defending force 91541 troops, 1077 guns, 1059 vehicles, Assault Value = 3080
Allied engineers reduce fortifications to 2
Allied adjusted assault: 4111
Japanese adjusted defense: 8077
Allied assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 2)
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(+), disruption(-)
experience(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
1623 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 153 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 59 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 24 disabled
Guns lost 71 (3 destroyed, 68 disabled)
Vehicles lost 20 (2 destroyed, 18 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
2843 casualties reported
Squads: 22 destroyed, 667 disabled
Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 53 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 102 disabled
Guns lost 163 (12 destroyed, 151 disabled)
Vehicles lost 61 (5 destroyed, 56 disabled)
I only let IDs that were near full strength participate in the attack. That paid off really nicely in the low number of destroyed squads and devices. In the end I will need those division fragments, brigades, and regiments to give me enough AV to get a 2 to 1 to take the base. But at this point it looks far away. I have sent a pair of divisions from Akyab and Cox's Bazaar to march on Rangoon. It leaves my Burmese coastline very lightly defended but given the state of the Japanese fleet I think that is acceptable. They also won't reach Rangoon for a couple of months but as you can see from the battle progress I might just need it. At this point I think the only way I'm going to take Rangoon is by cutting off supply and letting the Japanese starve. So far attack and dive bombers have been used to good effect whenever I see merchant ships approaching.
I'm also preparing an invasion of Port Blair with a large contingent of African troops, many of them poorly equipped. Some of those African units don't even have artillery larger than mortars, though there is one African division that has QF 25 pounders. Covering the invasion I have 3 USN CVEs (en route now) and a pair of slow British CVLs. Should be enough to deal with LBA, though even then I expect to take some hits. With Port Blair in my hands keeping Rangoon under siege will be much easier. Furthermore, it opens up opportunities to outflank Japanese defenses. I don't intend to do so because the bulk of my forces will be tied up in Rangoon but the Japanese don't know that which will tie down some units guarding the coast. Eventually I may do so but not until I have Rangoon in my hands.
