Rumble in the Southwest witpqs-A vs Andav-J 2011-11-29 to 2017-02-08

[witpqs]

Today's ship losses. Notice that CL Agano is not reported lost even now!

[witpqs]

Intel screen.

[witpqs]

1944 October 27

The Empire captured:


The Allies captured:
Patani is occupied by the Allies
Allied forces CAPTURE Kwangchowan !!!

There were Imperial amphibious or airborne operations at:


There were Allied amphibious or airborne operations at:


Imperial Naval Bombardments


Allied Naval Bombardments:
Allied Ships Bombarding Daito Shoto


Our subs engaged in several battles.

Kwangchowan fell fast.

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Ground combat at Kwangchowan (73,60)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 24066 troops, 350 guns, 177 vehicles, Assault Value = 746

Defending force 4237 troops, 32 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 121

Allied adjusted assault: 770

Japanese adjusted defense: 18

Allied assault odds: 42 to 1 (fort level 3)

Allied forces CAPTURE Kwangchowan !!!

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

Japanese ground losses:
1321 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 74 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 11 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 29 (13 destroyed, 16 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
29 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled

Assaulting units:
7th Australian Division
2nd Australian Division

Defending units:
31st Ind.Mixed Regiment


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We flipped the hex side at the China-Indochina border at the road through Lang Son. All armor at Lang Son, three of the divisions, and the AA units are all heading full speed toward the forest in front of Wuchow.

An attack tomorrow on Sumatra, and a recon bombardment at Alor Star.

The bombardment at Lang Son gave a good fix on Imperial combat strength remaining.

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Ground combat at Lang Son (70,56)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 2634 troops, 238 guns, 220 vehicles, Assault Value = 3007

Defending force 32086 troops, 291 guns, 74 vehicles, Assault Value = 561

Japanese ground losses:
47 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 6 (1 destroyed, 5 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
Guns lost 5 (5 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 3 (2 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Assaulting units:
5th Australian Division
2/4th Armoured Regiment
775th Tank Battalion
671th Tank Destroyer Battalion
3rd New Chinese Corps
II Aus Corps Engineer Battalion
96th Infantry Division
I Corps Engr Grp
711th Tank Battalion
640th Tank Destroyer Battalion
706th Tank Battalion
8th New Chinese Corps
2/6th Armoured Regiment
192nd Tank Battalion
1st Australian Division
96th Chinese Division
36th Chinese Division
Provisionl Tank Brigade
27th Australian Brigade
22nd Australian Brigade
637th Tank Destroyer Battalion
632nd Tank Destroyer Battalion
9th Australian Division
85th Medium Regiment
2/11th Field Regiment
251st Field Artillery Battalion
2/1st Med Regiment
57th Australian Lt AA Regiment
1st Medium Regiment
2/9th Field Regiment
12th Indian Heavy AA Regiment
134th (East Ang) Regiment
87th Medium Regiment
163rd Light AA Regiment
2nd Medium Regiment
18th SP Field Artillery Regiment

Defending units:
37th Division
27th Division
58th Infantry Regiment
59th Infantry Brigade
34th/A Division
8th Recon Regiment
15th Tank Regiment
1st Mortar Battalion
2nd Ind. Field Artillery Regiment
3rd Mobile AA Battalion
11th Ind. Field Artillery Battalion
31st Mountain Gun Regiment


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As noted above Lang Son will be cleared by many units as quickly as possible. The assault units remaining will rest another day before attacking.

Guys still marching on Java. Will be a few more days before any combat other than air strikes.

There were several small air strikes against our troops at Nago but they had no effect. The troops at Naha are completely recovered and have been adding back AV, now at 2,822. Our ASW groups are beating up some Imperial subs near Daito Shoto. Agano entered the sunk ships list. An LSM succumbed to its wounds.

Another good bombardment of Daito Shoto.

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Night Naval bombardment of Daito Shoto at 98,69

Allied Ships
CL Columbia
CL Montpelier

Japanese ground losses:
177 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 15 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

OS2U-3 Kingfisher acting as spotter for CL Columbia
CL Columbia firing at 37th Ind.Mixed Brigade
CL Montpelier firing at 37th Ind.Mixed Brigade


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The invasion convoys will all be at the muster point tomorrow and then proceed on to the jump off point. The slow BB TFs are leaving Iwo Jima tomorrow to take station off Daito Shoto.

China.

[witpqs]

Malay Peninsula & Sumatra.

[witpqs]

Java Sea.

[witpqs]

Okinawa.

[zuluhour]

you print a pretty picture. [;)] How's the grunts holding up on Okinawa?
Ahh, I did not see any carriers........

[BBfanboy]

Several TFs and ships in port at Singers - do you have any intel on what they are?

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: zuluhour

you print a pretty picture. [;)] How's the grunts holding up on Okinawa?
Quite well since the "intervention". Rumor has it the Imperial bomber groups are in a 12 step program - 12 replacements per week.
Ahh, I did not see any carriers........
1 hex west of Daito Shoto: 2x fleet CV TF + 2x CVE TF; 1 hex southwest of Daito Shoto: 2x fleet CV TF + 2x CVE TF. The two fleet CV TF which did not replenish will soon make for Guam to do so. I don't think I need all 4 on station for Daito Shoto landings.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Several TFs and ships in port at Singers - do you have any intel on what they are?

Ships at Singapore fluctuate between 24 and 30. Recon shows lots of DD and such. The TFs are some cruisers and small patrol vessels. One CL seems to have slipped from Singapore to Palembang a day or two ago.

That kind of recon and naval search is notoriously bad. It's tough to know what's really there, but recall that Yamato came off the sunk ships list a while back! Here's hoping a feather could knock her over. And we are closing in with bases from which to hit the port. Singapore, though, does have a whole lot of guns...

[witpqs]

An APA convoy is being dispatched to Iwo Jima to pick up PacAO the minute that Daito Shoto is captured so minimum time will elapse til the first attack at Naha.

[Drakanel]

Those Lang Son zombies look like they might last a while. At least considering the track record of some other zombies you killed recently [:D]

About palembang, do you actually need all that fuel now, this late in the game? Because of its position relatively close to the front. Or are you already set with fuel stocks elsewhere?

[RogerJNeilson]

ORIGINAL: Drakanel

Those Lang Son zombies look like they might last a while. At least considering the track record of some other zombies you killed recently [:D]

About palembang, do you actually need all that fuel now, this late in the game? Because of its position relatively close to the front. Or are you already set with fuel stocks elsewhere?

Allied HQ in my game which is almost the same timing as this one has had long discussions with itself about whether we need to capture a lot of these places at the moment, expending effort and lives when we can sit and wait for them to get weaker and weaker before rolling in with some food supplies for what's left. The counter argument from the 'blood and guts' faction is get the place cleaned up and restored to the good guys and move the troops elsewhere. Each location requires the same discussion - some are more useful than others, some are useful simply because they are no longer of any use to the Imperials. Palembang comes into the 'isolated so stop the effort' category - Miri, Balikpapan, Tarakan, Medan etc supply all we need really. I currently have 32K of Imperials sitting there behind their entrenchments waiting for us to storm it...... That's a lot of units that cannot be used elsewhere.

I like self governing prison camps, I have a few others round the map. Hainan is one. Its rather similar to the effect in the War Between the States (*other names for the conflict are available) where an area called Kirby Smithdom existed after the fall of Vicksburg.

Roger

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Roger Neilson 3

ORIGINAL: Drakanel

Those Lang Son zombies look like they might last a while. At least considering the track record of some other zombies you killed recently [:D]

About palembang, do you actually need all that fuel now, this late in the game? Because of its position relatively close to the front. Or are you already set with fuel stocks elsewhere?

Allied HQ in my game which is almost the same timing as this one has had long discussions with itself about whether we need to capture a lot of these places at the moment, expending effort and lives when we can sit and wait for them to get weaker and weaker before rolling in with some food supplies for what's left. The counter argument from the 'blood and guts' faction is get the place cleaned up and restored to the good guys and move the troops elsewhere. Each location requires the same discussion - some are more useful than others, some are useful simply because they are no longer of any use to the Imperials. Palembang comes into the 'isolated so stop the effort' category - Miri, Balikpapan, Tarakan, Medan etc supply all we need really. I currently have 32K of Imperials sitting there behind their entrenchments waiting for us to storm it...... That's a lot of units that cannot be used elsewhere.

I like self governing prison camps, I have a few others round the map. Hainan is one. Its rather similar to the effect in the War Between the States (*other names for the conflict are available) where an area called Kirby Smithdom existed after the fall of Vicksburg.

Roger

That's exactly the decision process I've gone through. Even for Singapore, which has quite different numbers due to its value in various ways (points, 51,000 tons repair shipyard, transit of warships, major port on the rail net for dumping supplies from Asia/Cape Town/Aden).

In the case of Singapore taking it as quickly as possible makes the most sense. There is a substantial force pushing down the peninsula and an even larger contingent of infantry and artillery to join it for storming Singapore itself. There are small forces (as in Bns, depleted Rgts) to deal with pockets left along the way) and of course some support units.

Java and environs has been invested entirely by smaller units (Coys, Bns, Rgts), including 105 mm artillery that helped slowly reduce Ternate. Support units are building the port at Soerabaja to assist the 16,000 tons repair shipyard and will build airbases as far east as time allows so support the drive on Singapore.

Sumatra is being reduced by two divisions and one Bde. A Bn and Rgt now on Borneo are preparing for Oosthaven to speed things up. Palembang appears to have >14,000 troops and the forces assigned should be beyond any margin of safety.

Some small forces are preparing for the Philippines, and many of the small forces in the DEI now will move that that theater. The divisions on Sumatra will move to the main offensives in China/toward Japan, as will almost all the forces in Malaya. The Philippines campaign will be another slow, concurrent cleanup.

I agree the pocket in Lang Son could last a while, so I am taking steps to reduce them quickly while getting on with the main offensive. For one thing, they will not be allowed to move off the road!

[RogerJNeilson]

Will be interesting to see what you need to do to take Singers....

I will watch as much as I can, though a lot depends on my wifi at our holiday hotels.

Roger

[witpqs]

Turn rate is a bit slow and Singers is a little ways off. I originally figured we could get there by Dec 31, '44 and now I am wondering how much closer to Dec 1, '44.

[Lowpe]

Nice results recently for the Allies. Quite the bag of goodies you trapped at Lang Son, and Japanese LCU vp are climbing nicely for you.

Looking forward to Daito, and I hope the Japanese have lots of supply at Okinawa, but I am afraid it is a foregone conclusion there?

Are the enemy troops increasing at Okinawa? Decreasing?

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Nice results recently for the Allies. Quite the bag of goodies you trapped at Lang Son, and Japanese LCU vp are climbing nicely for you.
Yes, happy with that and with the LCU VP moving upward. Quite a hole to get out of there with a huge mass of Chinese Army units destroyed early on.

Looking forward to Daito, and I hope the Japanese have lots of supply at Okinawa, but I am afraid it is a foregone conclusion there?
I hope so (foregone conclusion at Daito Shoto). The troops total climbed back a couple of thousand last turn, which I interpret as simply the vagaries of recon. I have Daito Shoto very isolated. Prior bombardments, plenty of bombardments available for D-day, including a goody. Wisconsin is with the convoys. When they all arrive at the jump off point, the fast BB will be reallocated into two TF of 3 each. There will be 3x Iowas in one TF, and I hope to have them available to bombard on D-Day along with whatever else bombards. I just hope they can reload from the the 2,800 ton AKE ships at Iwo Jima. Maybe I'll bring up some big AE for the occasion. I've been holding those back a little so as not to risk them before they can do at-sea replenishment of AA ammo.

Are the enemy troops increasing at Okinawa? Decreasing?
Static, so far as I can tell. I figure that Okinawa has lots of supply, but I have no indicators yet. It looks good for Daito Shoto, and gives a solid shuttle bombardment base for Naha. So, yes, I think Okinawa is a forgone conclusion provided I am careful enough in preparing for that first attack, which I consider pivotal.

[BBfanboy]

The Iowa class need a 5400 ton AE to reload, or the appropriate port/naval support combo.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

The Iowa class need a 5400 ton AE to reload, or the appropriate port/naval support combo.

There is a couple of hundred naval support there plus the size 4 port, so maybe not needed, but I am sending them to be safe.