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The roar of tanks, the confusion of battles as the Japanese forces sally forth from their forts, their bunkers, a breakthru happens, and the tanks exploit...and the killing begins in earnest.

The British, the Commonwealth, the Allies abandon their equipment in fear and run for their lives back to the jungle and the mosquitoes and malaria.

Its a bloodbath!



My hunch here is there is a lot of battle victory inflation here in the losses reported.

Ouch [X(]

"LOOK AT THEM RUN, SIR!"

The terrain even looks right![:)]

Japanese unit destroyed at Magwe. 2 PP to recall. The Allies lose an American TD unit.

Timing was critical here...catching the Allied forces in movement mode of some type....but it was a narrow victory (roughly only 50 AV over the 2-1 ratio needed).

Whey weren't the Allied troops better prepared on their objective. One can only guess that they are marching around without a goal other than exploitation. Perhaps they were really prepped for Prome?

Why are the Allied troops inexperienced? They have been fighting in India for a long time...the 1st and 2nd Tank Divisions are complete rebuilds from the attack on Hollywood.

13 planes were lost on the day, half of them here (2 nicks and a few 2E bombers)...


Ground combat at Magwe (57,47)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 33973 troops, 537 guns, 998 vehicles, Assault Value = 1416

Defending force 47326 troops, 782 guns, 1306 vehicles, Assault Value = 1780

Japanese adjusted assault: 967

Allied adjusted defense: 456

Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: op mode(-), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1207 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 93 disabled
Non Combat: 44 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 22 disabled
Guns lost 23 (1 destroyed, 22 disabled)
Vehicles lost 106 (76 destroyed, 30 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Allied ground losses:
12489 casualties reported
Squads: 338 destroyed, 145 disabled
Non Combat: 522 destroyed, 245 disabled
Engineers: 31 destroyed, 47 disabled
Guns lost 106 (50 destroyed, 56 disabled)
Vehicles lost 426 (303 destroyed, 123 disabled)
Units retreated 7
Units destroyed 1

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
14th Tank Regiment
3rd Tank/B Division
25th Division
2nd RTA/B Division
2nd Tank Division
1st Tank Division
3rd Tank/C Division
17th JAAF AF Bn
3rd Air Division
35th JAAF AF Bn
21st Medium Field Artillery Battalion
3rd RF Gun Battalion
4th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
25th Air Defense AA Regiment
22nd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st JAAF Base Force
34th Field AA Battalion
94th JAAF AF Bn

Defending units:
632nd Tank Destroyer Battalion
254th Armoured Brigade
Gardner's Horse Regiment
18th British Division
637th Tank Destroyer Battalion
255th Armoured Brigade
19th Indian Division
2nd British Division

Remember that the modifiers you see in the combat report were applied to 1+ unit.

It's entirely possible that only Gardner's Horse suffered the experience(-), for example, while the rest had great experience.

As I mentioned before, I don't know why he went up that way. There's nothing for him there, except death apparently. If he pushed SW, you were not in a position to do anything useful about it and your units at Magwe/Mandalay become overextended.

Yes, you could follow him out onto the plains and try to cut him off from the rear, but if he's paying attention he bombs the crap out of you with 4E's while you do so and renders your units ineffective, so it's a win-win for him. Instead, he went NE. Wonder what he was trying to do.

Japanese commanders were very nervous when the intel from this raid came back...3 Divisions spotted![X(]

Morning Air attack on 2nd British Division, at 57,47 (Magwe)

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid spotted at 18 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5c Zero x 3
Ki-21-IIa Sally x 19
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 8
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 7
Ki-49-IIa Helen x 30
Ki-61-Ia Tony x 8
Ki-84a Frank x 44

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21-IIa Sally: 3 damaged
Ki-49-IIa Helen: 1 damaged

Allied ground losses:
154 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 10 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Aircraft Attacking:
19 x Ki-21-IIa Sally bombing from 12000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
30 x Ki-49-IIa Helen bombing from 12000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb

Also attacking 18th British Division ...
Also attacking 19th Indian Division ...
Also attacking 2nd British Division ...
Also attacking 19th Indian Division ...
Also attacking 2nd British Division ...
Also attacking 18th British Division ...
Also attacking 19th Indian Division ...
Also attacking 18th British Division ...
Also attacking 2nd British Division ...
Also attacking 18th British Division ...
Also attacking 2nd British Division ...
Also attacking 19th Indian Division ...
Also attacking 18th British Division ...

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Remember that the modifiers you see in the combat report were applied to 1+ unit.

It's entirely possible that only Gardner's Horse suffered the experience(-), for example, while the rest had great experience.

As I mentioned before, I don't know why he went up that way. There's nothing for him there, except death apparently. If he pushed SW, you were not in a position to do anything useful about it and your units at Magwe/Mandalay become overextended.

Yes, you could follow him out onto the plains and try to cut him off from the rear, but if he's paying attention he bombs the crap out of you with 4E's while you do so and renders your units ineffective, so it's a win-win for him. Instead, he went NE. Wonder what he was trying to do.

Right, again.[8|]

Yes, most likely one of the armored units...as I believe I my Nicks took out a lot of tanks in them as they wandered on the plains. If the battle reports are to be believed.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
As I mentioned before, I don't know why he went up that way. There's nothing for him there, except death apparently. If he pushed SW, you were not in a position to do anything useful about it and your units at Magwe/Mandalay become overextended.

Yes, you could follow him out onto the plains and try to cut him off from the rear, but if he's paying attention he bombs the crap out of you with 4E's while you do so and renders your units ineffective, so it's a win-win for him. Instead, he went NE. Wonder what he was trying to do.

Yep, to meander in clear terrain, away from an airfield with 350 Franks Oscars and Tojo, would be simple suicide. Bombed to death, and my best fighters at a clear disadvantage.

The Allies have shown an unwillingness to fly into heavy CAP...one of the reasons why the AA is on the light side now.

I fear night air raids now....

This is the largest group of Nicks attacking, and here I used them as level bombers (a skill they don't excel at). They did quite well, but look at the delta of the incoming altitude and bombing altitude. I don't recall ever seeing it that big before.



Morning Air attack on 2nd British Division, at 57,47 (Magwe)

Weather in hex: Heavy rain

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 8
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 7
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 63
Ki-61-Ia Tony x 36
Ki-84a Frank x 32

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 2 damaged

Allied ground losses:
148 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 10 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Aircraft Attacking:
30 x Ki-45 KAIa Nick bombing from 10000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb
33 x Ki-45 KAIa Nick bombing from 10000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb

Also attacking 19th Indian Division ...
Also attacking 2nd British Division ...
Also attacking 19th Indian Division ...

So, the question is now...will the Allies use their overwhelming fighter presence to LRCAP the beaten troops...or will he let me continue bombing them?

The cream of the British Army in CBI dealt a spanking. [&o]

Burma...

Some pretty good little stings for the Allies over the last three weeks.

October 16, 1943

Franks!

Instead, we get four unopposed bombing runs on this Indian Division...look at those Allied forces run away![:)]

Ground combat yields a surprising attack on Katha...the Allies simply aren't coordinating ground attacks with his air force lately as there were no bombing runs prior.

In other ground combat, the Allies reinforce a day or two ago at Kodiak and attack today getting a 1-10 result.[:)] And down in Rabaul a full regiment arrives to bolster the defense plus more mountain guns to counter the American artillery bombardments...and they cut the damage down by 2/3rds. And for good measure two IJN Heavy Cruisers bombarded the Americans for light damage...but every little bit counts.

The Nicks flew by mistake into battered Allied troops retreating from Magwe, but didn't suffer too much.

Overall, a banner day...but it won't last.[;)]