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Just a bombardment attack on the Ankang road...

Chengtu HI failed yesterday and today...not good.

We are fluctuating between 20-22K supply in China. All building is off, all reinforcements is off.





Look at the off road movement near Ankgang...1 Div + 2 Bde, plus more moving off road.

Townsville

One Command HQ prepping for Townsville, another for Darwin.

Lack of bombers we will get aggressive again with our tanks...

The Hump: Death and Salvation on the Aluminum Trail

https://www.historynet.com/salvation-hump-wwii.htm

An interesting article.

May 21, 1942

Held another day...but the end is close for these guys.

Ground combat at 83,45 (near Nanyang)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 28777 troops, 268 guns, 588 vehicles, Assault Value = 989

Defending force 26547 troops, 146 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 244

Japanese adjusted assault: 568

Allied adjusted defense: 589

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
184 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 13 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 36 (4 destroyed, 32 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
1157 casualties reported
Squads: 9 destroyed, 163 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled

Assaulting units:
3rd Tank Regiment
40th Division
10th Tank Regiment
13th Tank Regiment
23rd Tank Regiment
36th Division
9th Tank Regiment
15th Tank Regiment
5th Tank Regiment
11th Tank Regiment
52nd Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
13th Army
51st Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
11th Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
30th Chinese Corps
41st Chinese Corps
77th Chinese Corps

P40s went in first on their sweep in Australia, and didn't do as well as the Wildcats later...but still acceptable.

May 21, 1942

The KB goes hunting submarines.

First Ankang road festung broken...I managed to retreat 2 of the 4 Corp in good order, of the remaining two one was in resrve no pursuit mode moving out, and the other was rearguard. Hopefully the rear guard took the brunt of the losses. Looking at the lost guns, I think this is the case.

No tanks were in pursuit mode...and the big worry is not overstacking the next hex too much....and of course getting supplies in.

The big challenge is getting the next festung to hold and prevent a snowball effect up the Ankang road.

Ground combat at 83,45 (near Nanyang)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 28614 troops, 268 guns, 584 vehicles, Assault Value = 960

Defending force 20980 troops, 108 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 114

Japanese adjusted assault: 736

Allied adjusted defense: 280

Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
10 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 26 (2 destroyed, 24 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
7921 casualties reported
Squads: 304 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 242 destroyed, 49 disabled
Engineers: 7 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 26 (20 destroyed, 6 disabled)
Units retreated 2

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
3rd Tank Regiment
9th Tank Regiment
13th Tank Regiment
23rd Tank Regiment
5th Tank Regiment
40th Division
10th Tank Regiment
36th Division
15th Tank Regiment
11th Tank Regiment
51st Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
13th Army
52nd Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion
11th Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
30th Chinese Corps
41st Chinese Corps





218 supplies delivered to China today

A fragment, good sized, of the 65th Brigade gets rounded up by our Matildas and Stuarts. All of a sudden I have 80 Matildas in the pools, 60 Valentines, 30 Lee/Grants and 20 or so Stuarts (Commonwealth).

The Valentines go to Burma and I can't figure out how to get each Australian unit Matildas from the pools, and not Stuarts which are needed in Burma other than selectively turning off and on replacements and stockpiling.

No sinking sounds, so I believe our R Class BB made Bombay and disbanded, while the damaged Canberra oh so long ago (Feb 8th) at Brisbane (and acted as a magnet to bleed IJ air power since then) will be one day away from Sydney (she has 64 flood).

Of our nasty naval clashes with IJN off Bundaberg...all but one ship is now fully repaired. Pensacola will take a little longer and she is at drydock in Sydney. Our fuel situation in Australia has improved, but made the decision to fuel the submarines over the Cruiser/DD sags...and with the KB here can't be too adventurous.









Ground combat at 94,149 (near Bowen)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 3486 troops, 143 guns, 495 vehicles, Assault Value = 1517

Defending force 1420 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2

Allied adjusted assault: 158

Japanese adjusted defense: 1

Allied assault odds: 158 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
994 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 186 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Units destroyed 1

Assaulting units:
3rd Motor Brigade
41st Infantry Division
2nd Australian Division
2/9th Armoured Regiment
132nd Infantry Regiment
30th Australian Brigade
193rd Tank Battalion
182nd Infantry Regiment
754th Tank Battalion
2/7th Armoured Regiment
13th Australian Brigade
2/6th Armoured Regiment
6th Aus Cav Brigade
97th Coast AA Regiment
2/16th Field Regiment
2nd Medium Regiment
108th Anti Tank Regiment
I Australian Corps
1st Medium Regiment
21/22 Field Regiment

Defending units:
65th Bde /14

One of the advantages of concentration for the Japanese player is that they can really hurt resupply efforts of fuel and supplies for Oz if they concentrate on it

The KB floating around in the middle of the Coral Sea is doing exactly what you want it to do

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

A fragment, good sized, of the 65th Brigade gets rounded up by our Matildas and Stuarts. All of a sudden I have 80 Matildas in the pools, 60 Valentines, 30 Lee/Grants and 20 or so Stuarts (Commonwealth).

The Valentines go to Burma and I can't figure out how to get each Australian unit Matildas from the pools, and not Stuarts which are needed in Burma other than selectively turning off and on replacements and stockpiling.

Use tracker to look at those Devices and their upgrade paths. It will help to sort by name so that different devices with identical names show up. In those cases you can figure out which units has which by clicking on Pool History.

ORIGINAL: Encircled


The KB floating around in the middle of the Coral Sea is doing exactly what you want it to do

+1

My strong CA/DD forces at Marysborough has to worry him...but having the KB there to guard it is simply overkill.

June is coming, and Shokaku and Zuikaku both get radar upgrades...perhaps a good time for a CV clash.

Starting to ponder how to take Perth back...already started on Darwin. Probably need to take that back in the next 2-3 months if I can.

I want to push on several fronts, Burma, Ceylon, Baker Island, Australia to keep Japan busy while slowly building up elsewhere. I am close to being able to take Addu west of Ceylon....

The danger point, can my next position hold the tanks? I will have 30+ Stuarts, about a dozen Jungle guns and 900 slightly dug in Chinese troops in good terrain...my hope would be for the tanks to attack without artillery or infantry support which would be two days of movement and one day to attack...

Japan timed their assault badly if he wants to snowball up the road, still might do it, but without tanks in pursuit he might lose the overstacking bonus...time will tell.

Getting supplies here along the Ankang road is a royal pain.





215 supplies flown into China today

The final defenders on the first Ankang road position...

The evacuation continues...

Starting to ponder how to take Perth back...already started on Darwin. Probably need to take that back in the next 2-3 months if I can.

I would say that Perth is more important than than Darwin to get back as it pushes his flank out further and makes getting things into Australia from Cape Town easier. Of course, the capture of Kalgoorlie is the key as it allows rail movement of troops into that area. My first attempt was just landing at Esperance and rely upon that one AF was a disaster. If you go there, I would say land at both Esperance and Albany, which I did against Nathan and it worked well. [:)]

Going for Darwin first rather than Perth...actually, Broome then Darwin unless the IJ run.

Taking Broome will help to make thing perilous for the IJ in Perth I think. I can live with the longer convoy routes to Australia...better than Japan can live with the SRA being threatened.[:)]

Troops are already on their way, HQs assigned, and we will need plenty of engineers.

May 23, 1942

A quiet movement day.

237 supplies flown into China.

May 24, 1942

Our subs launch torpedoes and miss two juicy AO and one troop laden AMC off Australia...

One of IJN's Iboats finds some lone xakls running resources to Pearl and sinks both of them in surface actions (2vp ships).

Japan is pushing on the northern resource route...I am making a token effort of defending it.

A bit of luck here as pursuing tanks catch another IJ unit...and then the whole spearhead pursues the fleeing Japanese troopers, some units making as much as 23 miles. Will be in Bowen tomorrow in force!

Note the supply malus for the Japanese.

Ground combat at 94,148 (near Bowen)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 3516 troops, 143 guns, 499 vehicles, Assault Value = 1527

Defending force 1922 troops, 10 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 10

Allied adjusted assault: 116

Japanese adjusted defense: 6

Allied assault odds: 19 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: leaders(+), fatigue(-), supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1052 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 29 destroyed, 39 disabled
Engineers: 6 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 10 (6 destroyed, 4 disabled)
Units retreated 1

Allied ground losses:
Units pursuing 15

Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!




Really enjoying the luxury of having 20K+ supply in all forward bases here in Australia. [:)]

Can't trust Chinese recon and have to assume that large stack of 50K IJA troopers is still moving inland, doubly so since there is another IJ unit behind it moving to catch up...

Japanese tank spearhead of 8 units faces off against 30 Stuarts (which if history is any measure will get 100% disabled in the upcoming attack) and two medium Chinese Corp with two partial units of Jungle Guns and a stronger Corp marching to their aid, while two shattered corp (totaling 50AV) continue their long retreat back up the Ankang road.