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Get some forces to defend the coast of India... in case of an Penguin coming from the deep... [;)]

ORIGINAL: VSWG

Can you fly some recon? Or ground attack missions? Are guns reported at this base? Anyway, I say go for it - and maybe send some transports to evacuate the surviving elements.

If you're really gutsy, you can send some troops from India to northern Malaya - some tanks would be ideal. This would delay the fall of Singapore considerably. I tried something like this in my PBEM, but I did it too early, and with not enough troops. I still had an intact air force in Malaya at that time though (Singapore wasn't closed), and that would be a prerequesite for such an invasion, methinks.

Can you post a screenshot of Malaya?

Here's Malaya for you. As you can see, there is not much left that is not cooped up in Singapore. I have the Martins flying recon over Songkhia but I'm not getting much info. Maybe because theyer not dedicated recce aircraft.

I don't see any way or reason either reinforce or evacuate these forces. Faber has a strong air presence both in Malaya and in Rangoon in Burma, so any ship within range will get pounded. Aside from that, there is not much that several hundred tanks, should they survive to land, would be able to accomplish against masses infantry.

So what’s the Dutch version of the CMH? Somebody is getting one.

1/23/42

The O19 struck not one but 2 APs off Borneo. The Sanura Maru was hit by one torp, and the Fukko Maru was hit by two.

The Soerabaja based Martins have finally struck gold and vindicated the deaths of their comrades who had died in the attempts to hit the IJN Taiyo. The Japanese CVE was struck by 3 250lb bombs by a raid of 7 Martins who were greeted by no CAP. Its unlikely that any serious damage was caused but it feels good nonetheless. Maybe the submarines can finish the job.

The situation in Singapore is not encouraging. Faber sent in an attack that, although repulsed, knocked the forts down to 4 and achieved 2:1 odds. The casualties were even more galling. I lost more than 3000 men to slightly more that 1100 penguins.

The pursuit of the Khota infantry has resolved itself. It seems that I'm being chased by the 81st Guard unit with more than 2500 infantry.



1/24/42

The day began with the sub KX bouncing a dud off the side of an AP. Dutch get duds too? [X(]

The Nagato and friends paid another visit to Singkawang. Its quite discouraging the way they just hop over the subs I have stacked on the approaches.

All this was followed by the usual air activity over Clark, Singapore, Lautem and Yenen. Added to that, some 24 Anns from Songkhia hit my infantry. There was also some shuffling of fighter units in China. Faber seems to have a habit of using them up pretty fast.

Another charge at Singapore dropped the forts to 3. I lost 2000 guys to 1600 penguins at 2:1 odds. The sad end is near. [:(]

Tilitjap has fallen. The paras needed an entire infantry division to help.

Behind the scenes things are solidifying. The infantry has begun unloading at Midway. Given a few more days and I will have no worries about Faber ever being able to take it short of a 2 division assault. And even that would cost him dear.

The 41st BG, now converted to Bostons, has reached Darwin by rail. There are long days of reassembly ahead, but I now feel confident that Northern Australia is secure.

The 27th ID convoy is arriving at Pago Pago. Now, I have no clue about what to do with them. Its going to take a goodly chunk of PP to convert them from CentPac command, but there is really no place in CentPac for them to go besides PH. I think that I'm going to send them to India via the scenic route through Perth. By the time they get there, I think I'll have enough PP to convert them. Besides, out of any place on the map, India needs them the most.

The massive supply and fuel convoys are about halfway to OZ. With them are the Yorkie TF, and the convoys carrying the 35th FG of Aircobras and the 51st AV Rgt.

In the Pago area, besides the 27th ID are the convoys bearing the 2nd MarDiv/2nd USMC Para and the 808th EAB. The former will be heading to Noumea and the 808th to PM for airfield construction.

A bit north of that, inbound from PH, is a convoy consisting of a bunch of DMs, the ML Oglala and an AK carrying the 11th BG, armed with B-26s. And northeast of that convoy is another, consisting of the Colorado, CAs Portland and Northampton, CLs Concord and Phoenix an AVD, several PC/PGs and a bunch of DMSs. The minelayers will be useful in fortifying the region, while the DMSs will be used to clear the area between Pago and Noumea of Japanese submarines. The surface forces are a token response force to be stationed at Noumea just in case.

Several hundred miles south of Suva are two convoys. One is carrying the 49th FG of P-40Es. I'm anxious to get this unit on the ground and assembled as I am expecting it to be the primary fighter unit in PM and get the under strength 18th FG out and to OZ for conversion out of P-40Bs. The other TF is carrying the 8th FG, armed with Aircobras. I must confess that I'm in no hurry to get them into action. Maybe the Russians could find some way of putting those flying crates to good use but I doubt that I can. With a range of only 3 hexes, there is not much they can reach. And even if they can, they'll be slaughtered by any Japanese fighter.

The 14th NZ Bde is now about 240 miles southwest of Noumea. The base now has 35k supplies, another 20k still to be offloaded, a squadron of Marine F4Fs and 2 full squadrons of New Zealand Hudsons. Cant say that the base will be secure until the 2nd MarDiv arrives, but its getting there.

Somewhat west of Noumea is a convoy with the 90th BS of 16 B-25s. These guys will be off to Moresby as soon as theyre put back together. In Moresby itself, the 1st Australian Brigade is now fully ashore and settling in. The convoy carrying 21k supplies is about 150 miles off. The air strength stands at 30 P-40Bs of the 18th FG, the 13 and 14 RAAF squadrons at almost full strength, flying Hudsons. The 7 RAAF at full strength, armed with Beau V-IX, the 232nd VMSB with 16 SBDs and a patrol squadron with 12 Catalinas. There is another VP backing them up from Cairns. The rest of the Australian coast is pretty bare. The most acute shortage is being felt in BFs.

However, Darwin is living pretty rich. The Darwin Naval Squadron consists of the CAs Louisville, Pensacola and Indianapolis and 6DDs of various nationalities led by the USS Marblehead. There are the 1st Australian Division, Darwin Bde, Gull and Sparrow (both now above 70% effective) forces as well as the 26th FAB for defense. There are 6BFs in various states of disrepair and 4 more in cadre form. The air forces consist of:

2, 22 and 25 RAAF still in Throwaways (just not enough Hurricanes to go around, cant wait for Kittyhawks).

The backbone of the CAP is being provided by the 78th FS flying Mohawks and the 23 RAAF in Hurricanes.

There are about 30 working Hudsons of the 6, 2/6 (by the way, can anyone explain to me why a flight of the 6th and the 6th squadron exist as separate entities, because the 6th is capped at 16 planes?) and 2 RAAF.

2nd flight of the 23 RAAF is armed with 8 Beaus.

The 5th BG, still engaged in working over Lautem currently stands at 42 effectives.

There is also now the 41st BG armed with Bostons being unpacked as well as 6 Catalina Is of the 20th RAAF.

The rest of northern OZ looks like this:

Wyndam is defended by the 2nd Australian Division and only a half dozen Catalina Is of the 11 RAAF as well as two shattered Dutch Martin units (1 aircraft apiece, but like the legendary Phoenix they will be reborn, with B-25s).

Derby is the other major naval base (for the virtue of the fact of being further away from marauding Nells). The North Australian Naval Squadron consists of the CAs Australia and Canberra, the CLs Adelaide, Achilles, Perth, Hobart and Leander and 19 DDs of various nationalities. The ground defenses are manned by the 13th Australian Brigade and the air is protected by the Hurricanes of the 12 RAAF. Also on the airfield is the 2nd flight of the 13 RAAF which escaped from doomed Batavia by cramming what was left of its last 5 crews into the sole surviving Hudson.

Broome is being called the "City of the Dead" among the sharp-witted Americans because it houses most of the beaten and broken air units that had escaped from the DEI and as far away as Singapore. Among these shattered and rebuilding units are:

36 and 100 UK Squadrons of Vildebeests from Singapore. The 100 has been built back up to strength of 16 aircraft, but 36 Squadron is still armed with the 2 planes it escaped with and the reinforcements are hard to come by.

The formerly elite Dutch torpedo squadrons have found their way here as well. Although GVT 12 is at 8 planes and GVT 14 at 6, there are very few of the old pilots left. Since the fall of Java will come by land, not by sea, I dont see any reason to move them north.

GVT 16 has one remaining Catalina. Of all the silly things, I just cannot understand why the Dutch fighter units are allowed to upgrade to Kittyhawks and the bombers can upgrade to B-25s but the patrols units cannot upgrade to US Catalinas. [:@]

Finally, F1/V and F3/V both have 1 Brewster 339 apiece. Although there are enough Dutch fighters in the pool, there are not enough pilots and I'm in to hurry here.

That was my periodic theater update. Let me know what you would like to hear about next, or if there are no requests, I'll do India next.

ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo


Several hundred miles south of Suva are two convoys. One is carrying the 49th FG of P-40Es. I'm anxious to get this unit on the ground and assembled as I am expecting it to be the primary fighter unit in PM and get the under strength 18th FG out and to OZ for conversion out of P-40Bs. The other TF is carrying the 8th FG, armed with Aircobras. I must confess that I'm in no hurry to get them into action. Maybe the Russians could find some way of putting those flying crates to good use but I doubt that I can. With a range of only 3 hexes, there is not much they can reach. And even if they can, they'll be slaughtered by any Japanese fighter.



GVT 16 has one remaining Catalina. Of all the silly things, I just cannot understand why the Dutch fighter units are allowed to upgrade to Kittyhawks and the bombers can upgrade to B-25s but the patrols units cannot upgrade to US Catalinas. [:@]

Finally, F1/V and F3/V both have 1 Brewster 339 apiece. Although there are enough Dutch fighters in the pool, there are not enough pilots and I'm in to hurry here.

That was my periodic theater update. Let me know what you would like to hear about next, or if there are no requests, I'll do India next.

Historically, the Russians used the P-39 as a fighter-bomber, and with a 37mm in the nose, it did fairly well. (The P-400 version had only a 20mm, which was why it was pawned off on the Marines.) My thought is that they would do well if you could get them to the CBI theatre and have them work over the advancing Japanese ground troops. They would also force the Penguin to use something better than Nates.

I don't suppose the Dutch can use the Sunderland?

India sounds fine for the next report in detail.

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock
Historically, the Russians used the P-39 as a fighter-bomber, and with a 37mm in the nose, it did fairly well. (The P-400 version had only a 20mm, which was why it was pawned off on the Marines.) My thought is that they would do well if you could get them to the CBI theatre and have them work over the advancing Japanese ground troops. They would also force the Penguin to use something better than Nates.

I don't suppose the Dutch can use the Sunderland?

India sounds fine for the next report in detail.

Yes, but no. The Russians used them primarily as fighter bombers, but in a pinch, and they had plenty of pinches, they used it as a fighter as well. Look for my posts in The Thread...I posted about a fellow named Pokrishkin who got a good chunk of his 70-80 kills in an Aircobra.

As for the CBI...I doubt I could reach anywhere. It would seem that he's done with Burma and will stop at Mytkina. At least I hope he is. If he presses north, I dont have a heck of a lot to stop him with and no amount of 39s will help if he does.

Dutch..Sunderland? No, its either the Cat I or the Do24. Besides, its not like the Sunderland reinforces in any great numbers.

The black smoke from the burning warehouses and docks still rose on the horizon as the few heartbroken residents of Singapore stood among the rubble of the city's ruined streets to watch the once proud army march by. The Australians, Indians and Malays of the shattered brigades walked an in an endless procession of misery and defeat. Wounded soldiers, clearly visible in the crowd with their blood soaked white bandages were being supported by their buddies. But for all that, they walked as soldiers, defeated, disarmed, but proud of their units and their achievements. Officers led the way.

Japanese infantry, with rifles and ungainly, long bayonets stood alongside the road or marched with the column. They looked haughty but exhausted. They had fought long and hard to get here. These tattered, bandaged men they now convoyed had given them a fight every step of their way.

They had gotten onto the island easily enough, kicking aside a few companies of Indians in the dead of night. But after that, the going got progressively harder. British infantry fought for every street and building, from windows, doorways and behind sandbag emplacements. Few Japanese soldiers has expected such ferocity from the fat, decadent imperialists. And yet they lost. Street by street Singapore fell to the advancing Japanese until only a small part of the island remained in British hands, the huge guns of the fortress pointing uselessly out to sea. The hospitals were overflowing with wounded and dying men, doctors going insane, spattered with blood, surrounded by death, pain and agony. Ammunition, food and water were fast running out. No semblance of command was possible above squad level. Groups of men, in cellars, dugouts and shell holes resisted alone.

Finally, the surrender order went out. There was no hope of relief or escape, no hope of salvaging the situation. all that remained was to save what was left and to march into captivity as men. Reluctantly, disbelievingly, dirty, bleeding and exhausted men emerged from crevices to surrender. They were still strong, they wanted to fight, but they no longer had the means. And besides, they had their orders.

In all, almost 78000 soldiers of the empire went into captivity that day. They had fought a good, valiant fight, and yet they lost. They were not betrayed, nor were they forgotten. Not for the first time in this war, the enemy had gotten the better of them and their leaders. But they will be avenged. Others will rise in their place, and some day soon, the proud lines of soldiers under the colors of the Union Jack will march down the streets of Singapore.

1/26/42

A sad day for Britain. Besides the fall of Singapore, however, not much happened.

Nagato and 2 CAs stopped by Takloebang as if there was something there to bombard.

Chinese fighters took more losses over Yenen. I'm thinking of just pulling them out because I cannot sustain these losses, XP or no XP. Betties and Nells from Rabaul attacked my supply convoy in PM and sank the DMS Hopkins.

My Khota escapees are in real trouble now. Although they've managed to knock the entrenchment dont to 0, somehow Fabers infantry wound up in Alor without taking Taiping (see pic). [X(][:@] If snyone can explain that to me, I'll be heap grateful.

Aside from that, nothing to report.

India, by popular demand. [;)]



On the road to Ledo.

Southern group: 102 and 103 RAF BF and Rangoon CD
Northern Group: 101 and 104 RAF BFs, 103 RN BF, BAF AA, 1 and 2 Burma Rifles, 13 and 16 Indian Bdes, BFF, 221 RAF HQ.

Ledo: 1 India BF (IBF) and two squadrons of Dutch transports.

Kohima: 20 Indian Div at 28/43 (gotta pull them back into some supply. Their state is pityful)

Imphal: 17 Ind Div (41/45..like a well kept brigade, no?), and 3 IBF.
R1/IV with 8 Falcon recce planes and the 21 RAAF with 16 Hurricanes.

Jarhat: 34th FS with 24 Mohawks, 2 IBF

Dimapur (main defensive line): 18 UK ID, 21, 24 and 25 Mountain Arty, 1 and 5 FA Regts, 225 Tank Bde, 3rd Carabiners, 4 IBF. The forts are in sad shape at just a tad over 2, but the manpower just arrived, si I expect this to imporove.

Dacca (main defensive line): 60 and 62 Squadrons with 16 and 12 Blen Is respectively. 34 Squardon qith 16 Blen IVs, 605 Squadron with 16 Mohawks.
254 Iank Bde, 221 RAF AV Regt, 5 IBF, 225 RAF HQ.
As there are some units in Chandopur and Calcutta, I am keeping them there. I can always move them if Dacca is threatened. In the meantime, I'll use the engineers to build forts.

Chandpur: 3rd FS with 14 P-40Bs. I will rearm them with Mohawks as soon as I have enough in pool. Probably another few turns.
14 Indian Div 43/45, Chandpur BF

Calcutta: 19th BG with 18 B-17Cs. It'll be a few more turns before I can rearm them with Es In the mean time, these guys do rather well, but 18 effectives out of 48 possible is a waste. 7th BG...37 effectives left and 6 more in the fender shop. 221 Squardon with 12 Blen IVs. 84 Squadron with 16 Wellington IIIs. 453 RAAF with 16 Hurricanes.
45 Indian Bde (90/100...thats what we want to see), 7 IBF, 105 RAF BF.

Diamond Harbor: 6th FS with 24 Mohawks and VP-102 fresh from Baatan with 13 Catalinas and 5 still in the PI.
44 Indian Bde (93/100), Diamond BF, 101 RN BF ( or whats left of it, 4 Vickers MGs and an AV supp.).

Madras: 205 Squadron with 6 Catalina Is, 232 Squadron with 16 Huris, 1 RAAF with 16 Beaufort V-IX.
A'FA Regt (what is that anyway?), Madras BF and whats left of the 27th Australian Bde.

Ceylon: Far East Naval Squadron:

Trincomalee: BB Revenge, CA Cornwall, CLs Dauntless, Enterprise and Glasgow, CLAAs Ceres, Capetown and Columbo.

Columbo: CV Indomitable, CVL Hermes, BB Royal Sovereign, CA Dorsetshire, CLAA Caledon, CLs Mauritus (with 19 sys dmg), Dragon (with 32 sys dmg), 9 DDs.

There is really no rhyme or season with ship dispositions. I largely left things where they were. I figure that if push comes to shove, the Indomitable, both CAs, all CLAAs and a few DDs will make one TF, the BBs and the CLs with the rest of the DDs the other. The Hermes is useless. Maybe give it a DD and call that cannon fodd....errr, task force.

Trincomalee: 17 Squadron with 16 Hurricanes, 27 Squadron with 16 Blenheim IF night FBs, 4 AACU with 12 Swordfish. VP-101 with 12 Catalinas.

Columbo: 273 Squadron with 12 Vildebeests, 67 Squadron 15 Buffalos.
SE Asia HQ, 222 RAF HQ, Columbo BF and the remnants of 110 and 113 RAF BFs.

ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo

My Khota escapees are in real trouble now. Although they've managed to knock the entrenchment dont to 0, somehow Fabers infantry wound up in Alor without taking Taiping (see pic). [X(][:@] If anyone can explain that to me, I'll be heap grateful.

Paradrop? Those can be easy to miss while the turn's being executed.

ORIGINAL: Terminus

ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo

My Khota escapees are in real trouble now. Although they've managed to knock the entrenchment dont to 0, somehow Fabers infantry wound up in Alor without taking Taiping (see pic). [X(][:@] If anyone can explain that to me, I'll be heap grateful.

Paradrop? Those can be easy to miss while the turn's being executed.

In one turn? And where did his guys in Kuala go then?

India Part 2 (The Indian backwater)



Hyderabad: 23 Squadron with 12 winged coffins, em, Lysanders, B2/I or whats left of it with 2 Martins.
11 IBF

Lucknow: 243 Squadron with 16 Buffalos, 135 Squadron with 15 Hurricanes
8 IBF and 221 RAF BF is just passing through..probably to Dacca or Dimapur.

Panaji: GVT-1 with 3 remainig Do24s, 488 Squadron with 16 Buffalos
Panaji BF

Dehli: 20 Squadron with 16 Lysanders (Thread almighty I cant wait for the upgrade block to lift)
Indian III Corps HQ, 26 Indian Div (33/33), 6 US Med Arty, 9 IBF

Bombay: W Flight RAF with 8 Whirraways, 242 Squadron with 14 Mohawks
23 Indian Div. (36/36), 28 FA Rgt, Bombay BF

Karachi: 24th FG with 71 P-40Es (almost ready for action...YAY!!!!!), AVG with 56 P-40Bs and 4 more still in Dacca (not so ready for action. Hopefully I'll fill them out once I get the 3rd FS out of their Bs). The air units are here for the supply.
Karachi BF

ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo

ORIGINAL: Terminus

ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo

My Khota escapees are in real trouble now. Although they've managed to knock the entrenchment dont to 0, somehow Fabers infantry wound up in Alor without taking Taiping (see pic). [X(][:@] If anyone can explain that to me, I'll be heap grateful.

Paradrop? Those can be easy to miss while the turn's being executed.

In one turn? And where did his guys in Kuala go then?

Hey, you asked...

ORIGINAL: Terminus
Hey, you asked...

I asked Faber. When he sent me the next turn he replied that he could march straight through it since I didnt have ZOC. But how? I only took the place 2 turns ago. [X(][&:]

None of your units have teleported away?

1/27/42

The map is looking distinctly emptier since Singers fell. [:(]

The other problem is, since Singers is no longer a target, all that air power was free to pound the snot out of my units at Songkhia. The result is that at 0 forts and what must be at least a 3:1 ratio in combat infantry I got 0:1 odds. The pursuit posse is hot on my heels. Looks like the jig is up. [:(]

The Fuso, Yamashiro and 3 CAs bombarded Kragen. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. I'm sure that Fabers air recon has told him that the place was empty. The strike, launched at dawn acheived only one 250 lb bomb hit on the Fuso which merrily bounced off a turret. The big hopes were on the Beaufort V-IXs. Five of these flew, but given the difficulty of the target and the greeness of the crews, they got no hits. I lost a Beau and a Martin and 7 planes damaged.

Faber's Zeros from Rabaul are ripping the 18th FG Tomahawks to shreds. I lost 3 fighters today for 1 Betty. I'm going to lose the DMS Dorsey and suffered a torpedo each to 2 transports still loaded with supplies. I disbanded the TF to combat the flt damage and get them out of sight of the Bettys. It looks as if I'll have to wait until I can get some decent CAP into PM before I try to resupply it again....maybe 2 weeks.

Clark Field repulsed another attack, killing 2500 penguins to 1900 of my boys.

Faber took Mytkina. Lets see what happens now.

ORIGINAL: Terminus

None of your units have teleported away?

Que?

Sometimes things have been known to disappear and reappear elsewhere; most of it has been taken care of, but still...

ORIGINAL: Terminus

Sometimes things have been known to disappear and reappear elsewhere; most of it has been taken care of, but still...

Hmm...not to my knowledge. AFAIK the only bug we've has was the cync issue which Faber has squashed.

My compliments on your vivid prose. Did you at least get to destroy some of the supply stockpiles?

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

My compliments on your vivid prose. Did you at least get to destroy some of the supply stockpiles?

I thought they never included that in the system. How do you do that? [X(]