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Tsingtao falls to Chinese forces:

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 127439 troops, 894 guns, 77 vehicles

Defending force 16069 troops, 67 guns, 0 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 10 to 1 (fort level 5)

Allied forces CAPTURE Tsingtao base !!!
Japanese ground losses:
398 casualties reported
Guns lost 15
Allied ground losses:
597 casualties reported
Guns lost 23
Vehicles lost 4
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Japanese army losses went from just below 900 to 925 6 squads per point, 12 men per squad means that each point is 72 men, 25 or 27 points of losses are 16-1700 Japanese actually lost or about 10% of the force. China has a large margin of superiority in the area and the Chinese captured about 4000 supply in the city plus the famous brewery. Moral all of China is soaring![:D]

The next trick it to catch some of the other small Japanese troop concentrations in the area and inflict some more defeats.

Further South the Henchow army is advancing to clear two Japanese units and open the road to Changsha.

Japanese troops have crossed the river going North from Wuhan. The Hsyinyang army is still out of place in the trail hex but it has 45 miles on many of its units. If the Japanese go to Hsinyang they may take it, but they will be on the same side of the river as a big Chinese army so they may wish they hadn't.


India continues organizing, 200th Chinese SEAC division is almost 100% and will soon load ship from Karachi to Akyab. 55th Chinese is 100% and all but 1 howitzer have flown into Mandalay but for some reason the 1 howitzer is the parent unit.

The SeaBees on Lifou have the airbase 8% complete. An EAB unit and a Base force start unloading July 3.

Mogami pounds Port Moresby to no real effect since its got no planes.

A large P40B unit is at Noumea and flying airbase attack to gain some experience. When it is a bit better at air to air combat it will go to Thursday Island and put LR CAP over Port Moresby. That should be a good ambush when it finally comes.

In the Central Pacific Mogami cleans up his perimeter by taking Mankin (near Tarawa) and Nufatu, the island with the huge supplies of chicken sheet. A vital resource for any military, I am suprised the place does not count for more Victory Points.

In the Central Pacific Mogami cleans up his perimeter by taking Mankin (near Tarawa) and Nufatu, the island with the huge supplies of chicken sheet. A vital resource for any military, I am suprised the place does not count for more Victory Points.

lol[:D]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

In the Central Pacific Mogami cleans up his perimeter by taking Mankin (near Tarawa) and Nufatu, the island with the huge supplies of chicken sheet. A vital resource for any military, I am suprised the place does not count for more Victory Points.

And to think they didnt even give the island a reasource center [:D]

Less excitement so updates are a bit less fequent.

China: The Japanese shift thier army North to attack Hsinyang. Changsha has 25 Japanese units at the gates now instead of the 44 that attacked in June. 22 units are North of Wuhan.

Fortunately for China a large force of reinforcements has arrived at Hsinyang, with any luck the city will hold.

Chinese forces continue to make trouble on the coastal rail line. A Chinese corps is settling down in Tsingtao and the army has cleared the rail line. If the Japanese do no respond I hope to take the other small coastal city near Tsingtao and kick the Japanese units in the area around some as well.

India - Burma:

Akyab continues to build up, there are now armored units, artillery, engineers and several infantry brigades. All Chinese units have been pulled out of the front to fill out, various full strength British units have been flown in. At the rate things are going it will be August before I am ready to start moving forward but that is fine, better to be prepaird than to go off half cocked.

The Allies are continuing to build up strength in the air, in a short while the RAF will have 40 Spitfires flyable. They are going to go to China on a raid to get some kills, boost experience and try and move the balance of air losses in favor of the Allies. It will be nice to finally beat up the Japanese in the skies over Changsha.

South West Pacific

An invasion TF was attacked by the USS Dolphin South of New Guinea. The Dolphin was sunk for her troubles but so it goes.

Cooktown is an L5 airfield with 5th Airforce HQ and a B17 group in residence. They have orders to bomb Gili Gili. Port Moresby has 500 or so AP behind a 5 fort and 68,000 supply. We will see if that is enough to hold the enemy off or not. The final base in the area is Thursday Island with an L2 airfield, port and fort and 60 AV. I hope to attrit the Japanese some but the outcome of the campaign will really depend on how much force they send. If they send a lot PM is just going to fall.

South Pacific

New Caledonia is safe, La Foa is an L5 airbase and Koumac is not far behind, forts are 5 or higher and ports are being enlarged. I have switched 2 marine divisions, and Aussie divisions and various smaller units to plan for Efate. Transports are gathering as well.

Allied air and seapower bomb and bombard the Japanese at will. Supplies are good, my only problem is low fuel supply, I thought I would need more in Aukland than Noumea but tankers are as close as 2 days away now so the difficulty is temporary.

The key factor in the South Pacific is construction of Lifou airbase. I have a base force and 3 engineers on the island now, with another SeaBee unit arriving soon. The airfield is 23% complete expanding 2-5% a day. Because the construction rate is erratic I can't really tell when it will turn into an L2 base, but I am waiting for that day.

When Lifou opens the single engine air offensive will start against the Japanese and my fighter pilots will finally have the chance to get their quality levels into the 70s. 70 XP land based fighters are one of two things I need to launch invasions of the Japanese held islands in the South Pacific, the other is the return of the CV fleet.

Fleets:

The US CV fleet is approaching Pago Pago on its way to Pearl for refit.

North Carolina and Repulse are in the same area near Tongapatu, they are heading to Noumea to join Prince of Wales in a fast BB TF.

The RN CVs and slow BBs are in Aukland repairing sys damage and waiting for the arrival of the 3rd CV and 4th BB that are now South of Australia. Soon I will have 24 Seafires and the first fighter group will upgrade.

The strategic map is below. Summarizing the next month, we should see the usual running around in China, Allied buildups in Burma and the South Pacific with the intention of attacking in August or maybe September and the continuation of the Japanese offensive against Port Moresby.

China:

On the 9th Chinese troops clear a Japanese division off the Hengchow - Changsha rail line:

Ground combat at 46,36

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 67315 troops, 474 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 20802 troops, 230 guns, 7 vehicles
Allied assault odds: 115 to 1
Japanese ground losses:
931 casualties reported
Guns lost 55
Vehicles lost 2
Allied ground losses:
817 casualties reported
Guns lost 26
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

More Japanese units start heading for Hsinyang, and Changsha is mostly evacuated by the Japanese. What does it all mean? not much, it's hard to beleive that there could be such a thing as a mobile stalemate but that is what we have.

On the bright side with Changsha evacuated Chinese supply will go up.

Nothing to report on the Burma - India front.

SW Pacific

The Japanese invade Port Moresby.

Over 2000 casualties during the landing and some small damage to a few small ships. An Allied bombardment attack:

Ground combat at Port Moresby
Allied Bombardment attack
Attacking force 22757 troops, 242 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 39629 troops, 407 guns, 11 vehicles
Japanese ground losses:
18 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Identified the Imperial Gaurd and the 18th division plus an engineer unit. Not enough to take the place with but Mogami can certainly send more if he wants to.

Two days of shock attacks in China and the South Pacific. All the attacks by both Japan and China have one thing in common, failure.

First Japan hits Hsinyang:
Ground combat at Hsinyang

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 249797 troops, 2444 guns, 191 vehicles

Defending force 220815 troops, 1380 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 9)


Japanese ground losses:
15991 casualties reported
Guns lost 359
Vehicles lost 33

Allied ground losses:
1384 casualties reported
Guns lost 46

Hoping that serious disruption will disorganize the Japanese defense the Chinese hit back the next day:

Ground combat at Hsinyang

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 194422 troops, 1337 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 288790 troops, 2408 guns, 146 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 1 to 1


Japanese ground losses:
1578 casualties reported
Guns lost 77
Vehicles lost 1

Allied ground losses:
21348 casualties reported
Guns lost 396

So much for that.

More manuevering on the coast rail line. The Chinese advance to Haichow but find a few to many defenders and start pulling back. Japanese troops come South to occupy the rail junction, there will be more battles in the area soon.

2 Japanese divisions sieze Kweilin

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 47724 troops, 575 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 2997 troops, 12 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 3

Japanese assault odds: 41 to 1 (fort level 3)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Kweilin base !!!


Japanese ground losses:
74 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Allied ground losses:
178 casualties reported
Guns lost 6


Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

This is not really important though, there are many Chinese troops near by an the city can easily be recaptured. This is a serious problem we both face in China. Big armies are needed to hold key locations like Wuhan and Changsha so small armies are moving around grabbing less important locations like Kwielin and Tsingtao but the small armies are vunerable to attacks by the big armies and occassionally get wacked.

All this fighting has put the Japanese army losses over 1000 points, Allied losses are 5800 (I think) but moving in favor of the Allies.

40 Spitfires are now at Myitiykyna heading for China to try and reverse the loss ratio there. The Spits are all picked sqadrons with XP in the high sixties so they should do pretty well.

Finally all this combat continues to improve the quality of the Chinese army. Most units are in the 60s now, some are in the 70s and a few in the low 80s.





In the SW Pacific the Japanese try hard to capture Port Moresby:

Ground combat at Port Moresby

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 41387 troops, 424 guns, 11 vehicles

Defending force 29232 troops, 257 guns, 13 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 5)


Japanese ground losses:
1386 casualties reported
Guns lost 48
Vehicles lost 3

Allied ground losses:
281 casualties reported
Guns lost 8
Vehicles lost 1

But not hard enough. Looking at the picture above I am suprised that Mogami even launched this attack but glad he did. [:D]

Port Moresby has 65,000 supplies so the real question is can the Japanese get a large amount of additional firepower in to overwhelm the defenders.

On the 11th the RAAF sent a kittyhawk sweep over Port Moresby but only 10 planes out of the 44 available decided to fly. They ran into 30 Japanese fighters and lost 4 while killing 2. So that operation is on hold while the one group that flew recovers moral.

There are B17s and Hudsons at Cooktown (now an L5 strip) that fly a little bit but don't accomplish much. I suspect the only way to break the blockade is to send the whole Allied fleet and I am not ready to do that.

Which brings us to the South Pacific, current locations of the Allied fleet.

The British are at Aukland except for Prince of Wales which is in the larger port of Noumea repairing Sys damage. She is down to 4 sys which makes me very happy. North Carolina and Repulse are between Fiji and New Caledonia and the Colorado group is refueled and heading for Lifou, they will jump off from there and bombard either Efate or Luganville in a day or two.

The US CV fleet is moving North from a refueling stop at Pago Pago, they sucked up 50,000 fuel in a day, thirsty ships aren't they? In May I had several hundered thousand fuel in the South Pacific but relatively little en route, now I have about 120,000 split between Noumea, Aukland, Nandi, Suva and Pago Pago. I did not realize how high consuption would be, I figured 300,000+ would be plenty but obviously it is not. The miscalculation did not hurt me at all because I had a good sized buffer but you can assume that many of the small dots on the strategic map are tanker TFs heading for the South Pacific.

Lifou is now 33% to an L1 airbase, another SeaBee unit is unloading which will bring the forces there to 1 BF, 2 engineers and a USMC defense battalion. Another BF will be sent soon, and an SeaBee that was going to Australia may be diverted. I really want this base to go up fast, especially after it becomes an L1 base because Mogami may choose to try and smash it before it gets to L2. So I am trying to push the speed of construction over 5% a day.

In India the 5th Indian Division is loading for Akayb, 18th and 2nd UK are also in Chadpur getting ready to load up.

Here is a look at Allied strategy for the next 3 months

Allied operations are controlled by 3 things now.
The rate at which units are loaded and shipped to Akyab
The construction of the airfield on Lifou
The movement and refit of the US CV fleet

I have not counted things out but my gut feel is that the unit I need at Akyab will all be there in August, that Lifou will be level 2 by some time in mid August and the US CVs will be refitted and repaired in early August and back in action by Mid August.

As those things occur the Allies will start moving forward. There are 4 operations that may happen, 3 are certain one is possible.

The certain operations are the intesifying air offensive against Efate and Lugaville, the offensive to clear Burma and the invasion of Efate. All of these will happen as the forces get in place. The invasion will have the full support of the Allied fleet, it is not going without CV protection.

The possible operation is intervention against the Japanese offensive against Port Moresby. The Allies are sending more base forces to North Australia and increasing the Allied airpower in the area. If KB continues in direct support of the Japanese operations that will not make much difference but if they withdraw then Allied airpower will help the situation. Those efforts will continue no matter what.

A major offensive would consist of the 9 Allied fleet carriers plus Long Island and Hermes and 7 or 8 BBs fighting a convoy through. This will only happen if PM is still Allied in late August and if Thursday Island is operational and able to provide additional air support.

and the map

Port Moresby has 65,000 supplies so the real question is can the Japanese get a large amount of additional firepower in to overwhelm the defenders

This is the key - he has to kill the supply ( if the supply is dead the "defenders will follow suite ) .. major LBA bombing campaign against port ( and airbase but priority on port ) and uber BB bombardments daily if possible .. will drive the supply down to zero PDQ .. but he has to know this and be 100% focused on this ... the battle is for supply ... not so much AV ... but does he have the resources to conduct this type of campaign ? Daily ( or even near daily ) Uber BB bombardments will take hordes of fuel on his part and this needs to be nearby ( Rabaul or closer ) to be of any use ...


So, I'd rate your chances pretty high at this point !

There are about 550 AP at Port Moresby and supply has been as high as 82,000. Constant Japanese bombing attacks have driven it down to the 65,000 it is at now.

Mogami can bombard and he has Gili Gili so it is not a very long trip. But his fleet is somewhat reduced, Mutsu and Fuso are on the bottom, Ise and Haruna are damaged for certain by 14" shells and a mine respectively, and one other ship may be shot up I just don't remember any more.

PM has an L5 fort so the defenders have some benefit.

I think it is a question of supply and troops, he needs 3 or 4 divisions to fight the Division and 2 brigades I have, and more would be useful. Supply may run out, but it may not and if he sends too much stuff to PM I can push harder in the South Pacific.

He has done some damage to supply but not overly much. Obviously he did not realize I had as much force in PM or he would have sent more at the start. He may not realize how much supply I have either.

We are both intent on somewhat risky offensives, Japan aiming at PM and the Allies at Efate. Either one could end up being defeated by a major effort by the other sides fleet. We have some time to go before things heat up, but if Mogami fails to capture PM before the CVs come back things could get very violent.

The other thing to be aware of is the Allies have 5 big air concentrations. US West Coast (can't move) Hawaii, South Pacific, South West Pacific and India-Burma. At the moment the Hawaii force has to stay at Hawaii because I need a very strong air group available when the CVs are refitting. But after the refit ends I can move more planes to the front.

Number of TFs (little green dots) you have at sea at any given moment on those screenshots fascinates me. I never have 1/10th of what you have. Then again I assume ship for ship my TFs are 10x size of yours [:D]

O.

Seems like those IJA troops on the assault ought to be burning supplies faster than PM. Moreover hard to imagine where the fuel comes from to keep those ships loitering off of PM for more than a few days.

Might be a good time to hit his loitering TFs with a CV raid and run away.

If they are not 10X mine then you have one tenth of the supply and fuel I do. [;)] I think that is unlikely, and yes my typical convoy is 3 ships, with a few one and two ship groups and a very small number of larger convoys carrying troops.

Here is a veiw of the main convoy route, this the same map as above but with East Asia cut out and the main convoy route put in.





The main route runs from San Francisco to a point East of Pago Pago at which point the ships switch to a home port course. The return is to San Deigo where I repair ships before sending them back to Frisco to load. That is my method of keeping the repair points in Frisco focused on the damaged warships there.

The main advantage of this system is flexiblity are durability. It is extremely difficult to stop me from getting supplies to a destination, and you cannot spot troop convoys because they look no different from the supply convoys. Noumea has recieved supplies and ground units while KB was as few as 8 hexes away. A system of large convoys would never be able to accomplish the same thing because the enemy would know when to attack and the Allies could not actually stop a KB attack.

On the downside it takes a lot of time and effort to manage and requires a good memory and a certain systematic type of mind to manage well. Also I have lost parts of some units in transit, but only one complete unit an unlucky EAB battalion.

In China the Spitfires finally go into action over Hsinyang:

Day Air attack on 3rd War Area , at 49,33

Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 13
Ki-49 Helen x 16
Ki-46-II Dinah x 2
Allied aircraft
Spitfire Vb x 27
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 5 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 2 destroyed, 6 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Spitfire Vb: 8 damaged

There was an 8 Zero LR CAP that they never actually fought, and the kill number is low because they were coming down from 22,000 feet to 10,000 where the bombers were. Not a major victory but the kill ratio did move in favor of the Allies.

After this I have moved them to Changsha, Hsinyang is about to get attacked by 45 Japanese units, I don't want to lose these guys just as they join the battle. A Hurricane group is coming as well because I think their cannons will do more to the bombers.

Hit the wrong damn button again

The other major change in China is the pull out of the low XP RAF units. Burma is now a safer place to bomb than China so they are going there. I am also hoping to slow British losses so that my pilot pool catches up.

In SW Pac the Japanese transports have left Port Moresby and B17s are bombing the 2 divisions the Japanese left behind on a more or less daily basis. The Japanese bomb PM every day too, all is fair in love and war.

I put the screenshot in because it looks dramatic. Efate and Luganville are both being pounded to rubble by the USAAF. Navy ships hit them every few days as well, one of my ships actually went up to 57 night fighting skill so it is helping a bit, but not much.

Lifou is up to 43% complete on an L1 airbase. Another Seabee unit has just about finished unloading and another base force will arrive tomorrow. That will give the place 4 engineers and 2 BFs, hopefully they will speed up the pace of work.

Gee that's one to write down in the play book ... Espiritu Santos is in just exactly the right spot to be hit by coordinated srtikes from all three bases on New Caledonia !!!

mdiehl,

Mogami is not attacking PM, not even launching bombardment attacks. I am sure he has supply problems but my troops are not powerful or numerous enough to counter attack so I am bombarding him. We both send airstrikes, his are larger than mine but mine are growing. When Thursday reaches L3 things will get rough for the Japanese, right now it is all 4 engine bombers from Cooktown.

His CVs are sitting on top of a big force of tankers. Mine are way out of position, they are two days North East of Baker on thier way to Pearl right now. But I would not hit him anyway, I am not ready yet.

In the next few weeks I get to:
Add Wasp to the fleet
Upgrade to Avengers
Upgrade to 33 plane wildcat groups
Change the CV flak to 1054 from 522

Wasp has already left Frisco and upgraded to Avengers.
For reasons I don't understand Hornet has a 33 plane Wildcat group now and one of the other CV has 30. The CVs are all in good shape, nothing in the fleet has even 5 sys and Pearl is full of ARs. So the turnaround should be fast.

With a bit of luck the CV fleet will be back in the South Pacific by August 15th 42. That gives Mogami 30 days to take Port Moresby, and the SeaBees 30 days to get Lifou to an L2 airbase.

I hope to sieze Efate and relieve PM in August - September and then send the fleet off for another refit. Who knows maybe it will work.

China

On July 16th the Japanese move the focus of their air attacks from Hsinyang to Changsha because of casualties caused by Spitfires the previous day.

The RAF fearing a massive raid on Hsinyang had moved the Spits to Changsha, the result was heavy casualties for the Japanese raiders:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-48 Lily x 22

Allied aircraft
Spitfire Vb x 29

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-48 Lily: 13 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Spitfire Vb: 1 destroyed, 10 damaged

and another raid:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 23
Ki-30 Ann x 44
Ki-32 Mary x 20
Ki-48 Lily x 17

Allied aircraft
Spitfire Vb x 28

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 8 destroyed
Ki-30 Ann: 4 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-32 Mary: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-48 Lily: 1 destroyed, 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Spitfire Vb: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged

Japanese air casualties hit 25 that day, a nice win for the Allies.

Then the Ping Pong army, so named because it bounces back and forth from Changsha to Hsinyang, attacked Hsinyang for the second time in 2 months:

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 474530 troops, 4237 guns, 172 vehicles
Defending force 198470 troops, 872 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 9)
Japanese ground losses:
21253 casualties reported
Guns lost 332
Vehicles lost 54
Allied ground losses:
2964 casualties reported

On the 17th more insult for the IJA as a large force of Chinese catches a single Japanese division due East of Changsha:

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 193420 troops, 1226 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 14927 troops, 148 guns, 2 vehicles
Allied assault odds: 1970 to 1
Japanese ground losses:
1766 casualties reported
Guns lost 74
Vehicles lost 2
Allied ground losses:
1290 casualties reported
Guns lost 33
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

The Chinese are in pursuit down the rail line and these guys have been smashed up before so we may catch them and hit them one more time before they reach the safety of Nanchang.

A few days ago the Japanese attacked and sank and AVD at Baker island. Alert Allied search planes caught them preparing to do the same thing to Kiska and a group of B25s struck before the Japanese arrived:

Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 8


Allied aircraft losses
B-25C Mitchell: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Bomb hits 1
CL Jintsu

Not a major victory but the Japanese chose to retire to repaint the damage, no Allied ships were sunk in the battle of Kiska.


In the South West Pacific the Japanese moved another division into Port Moresby, the 56th took a few casualties when an AP hit a mine coming ashore but is basically intact. Japanese troop levels went from 39,000 to 51,000 both sides continue bombing attacks and KB is still sitting in the same place off the coast.

In the South Pacific the pace of air operations slowed as the Allied bombers stood down for some heavy weather. The Colorado group bombarded Efate and a CA gained 2 XP from 55 to 57. Lifou is now 48% complete with yet more engineers unloading.

On the West Coast the USS Wasp left San Francisco for Pearl along with a CLAA and 2 DDs. The US CVs are coming into Pearl and disbanding for refit, I know that leaders can vanish when you disband but I also know that they can vanish when you don't, the USS Saratoga was just found to be commanded by a nameless WO, second time in the last 2 months.

India and Burma are quiet but moving around a lot in prep for the coming offensive. The 5th Indian is unloaded at Akyab and the 18th division will soon be loading at Diamond Harbor.

223 RAF Aviation is taking the skytrain into Mandalay which will bring the area to 450 AV. That means that I can run a central airbase at Mandalay and set up large satalite fields as the army advances. Akayb will also become a maximum size airfield in support of these operations. Chindit units are flying into Mandalay and coming to Akyab by sea as well. When it is all ready there will be a pretty good sized offensive punch with 3 Divisions, 3-4 Chinese SEAC divisions and many brigades all at or near full stregth with hundreds of bombers in support.

I am going to start tracking vanishing leaders in this game.

Unlike my previous games this time I am actively managing leaders and trying to keep good leaders in charge of the important combat units. I have already found the Saratoga commanded by a WO on two occasions but anectdote is not the way to fix bugs so I am getting a bit more formal.

I check a large number of units every turn and if a leader is replaced with a WO or Staff officer I am going to log it in the excel spreadsheet below. In addition to that I am going to check a certain number of stacks as well. Today I checked Pearl, Noumea, a couple of armies in China and Akyab, Dacca, Calcutta and Mandalay.

I found a number of ships in port with no leader, this probabley reflect the tendency of leaders to vanish when TFs are disbanded.

Oddly the Saratoga seems to have gotten her leader back. She has one now and I remember leaving her leaderless because I was disbanding her for refit anyway. However I am not going to add this to tracking because my memory could be playing a trick on me.

I am not counting missplaced leaders like the US flight leader commanding a Chinese infantry division or the Japanese commanding the Free French DD. I don't care where a leader is from as long as he fulfills the role I need him for. I am tracking WOs and Staff Officers because they can mess up an important command. A good example of this is the HQ unit Indian III Corps. It had a handpicked general, though I nolonger remember who, and now it has a staff officer. This turn has already gone to Mogami so I cannot fix any of this but I will on July 21st.

Read and weep

China the Japanese stop all air attacks near Changsha. The RAF moves the SPits and Hurricanes to Hsinyang and will send them to interfere with Japanese raids on Kaigan in the North.

Japanese troops disengage from Hsinyang and Changsha, the only place the Japanese are in contact with the Chinese is Wuchow:

Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 104071 troops, 1195 guns, 148 vehicles
Defending force 23869 troops, 234 guns, 0 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 9)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 7

Japanese ground losses:
1830 casualties reported
Guns lost 31

Allied ground losses:
375 casualties reported
Guns lost 7

A large Chinese army is already on the way to save the town.

In India the 18th UK division is loading for Akayb.

South West Pacific

More action around Port Moresby. The Japanese put the 2nd division ashore and leave a large force of APs unloading supplies off shore. The Allied airforce responds:

First a sweep by Kittyhawks at Thursday Island kills an Oscar:
Day Air attack on Imperial Guards Division, at 53,91

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 5

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 27

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 1 damaged

Then the next day a large force of B17s and Hudsons attacks, two raids come in, one of 38 planes and one of 18. They fight through the few Oscars flying patrol and hit the shipping (results are consolidated):

AP Ayo Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AP Haguro Maru, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
AP Daaban Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Kuroshio Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage

There are at least 10 transports there, but these 4 will not be contributing much in the way of supplies.

Tomorrow 60 Kittyhawks will fly a sweep and the bombers will come back (I hope). There is also a group of 50+ B24s that will attempt to bomb Lae. I expect that Mogami will boost his long range CAP but hopefully the Kittyhawks will chew it up enough to get the bombers through.

The Japanese force at PM is up around 75,000 men not enough to take it unless they have plenty of supply so the bombing attacks are quite important.

In the South Pacific work on Lifou continues at a crawl. I have over 100 engineering veheilces and 140 engineers and they added 3% to the bases completion in the past day. There is also 20,000 supply sitting around on the beach.

The British have converted the 24 plane air group to Seafires, it will be possible to convert one of the 18 plane groups in early August. Repulse is now with Prince of Wales in Noumea, North Carolina is going out with Colorado on a training cruise to bombard Efate.

All 5 of the US CVs are in Pearl refitting. Several of them now have 36 plane Wildcat groups and Avenger Torpedo groups, I am hoping the rest of the Wildcat groups will go to 36 planes shorty.

Many of the ships in these TFs have 3-5 sys damage, I may sortie before it is all repaired but I am going to give the fleet a few days to get things spiffed up. They also need to wait for the Wasp which is 3 or 4 days from Pearl.