Matrix Games Forums

07/02/42

Katherine (South of Darwin) expanded it's airfield to size 2.

MLs and DMs based at Hawaii continue to lay mines pretty much everywhere. 71st Aviation Regiment is unloading at Hilo. Johnston and Christmas Islands' damage stands at 0/65/48 and 0/49/56 respectively. 111th Infantry is completely unloaded at Palmyra and is at work helping the base force to build defences.

My secret weapon (an allied AV that can operate an airgroup) is now at San Francisco and will probably escort the Americal convoy whenever it is eventually ready. I have limited sealift capacity and the screenie shows it is not set to improve in the short term. 153rd Infantry, currently at Seward (South of Anchorage), has been given orders to plan for Umnak, which has no infantry protecing what will be a major air base providing cover for Dutch Harbor. Transports on their way back to SF have been diverted.

10,000 tons of supplies from Capetown is unloading at Sydney.

SigInt places IJA 45th Heavy AA Bn on AK Maya Maru on their way to Brunei. My B-17 raids must really be upsetting Mike.

RO-67, which sank the TK Angelina, was attacked by a small group of Dutch MSWs out of Soerabaya, which started a small fire. The fire was out later in the day when 4 USN 4 stackers arrived and sank her in a storm of depth charges.

Rangoon (1 Nell) and Singapore (at least 1 Zeke and 1 Sally in an attack on facilities and 2 on ground troops) were bombed by the Japs. In reply Taan suffered a port hit and Kuala Lumpur an oil hit. A Jap LCU has entered Davao which is protected by the Pp 101st Div.

AK Bicol did her job at Singapore and attracted 3 more bombs (99/61/4). Other AKs are unloading supplies and resources. The Dutch PT TM-11 has arrived at Balikpapan. The coast defence ship Soerabaya will return to Soerabaya.

Here is a screenie showing TK Angelina's journey (with the aid of the latest Tracker improvements). I was very surprised how much being damaged the first time increased crew experience levels.

A Jap deliberate attack destroyed my last remaining small unit behind Jap lines.

Xuwen fell, which is a pain as the units retreating there from Kiungshan reset after having made about 20 miles. They will start again and a Field Army is rushing down from Pakhoi to retake Xuwen. I must remember to push more of my reserves down here. If Mike gets a substantial force across from Hainan he will do a lot of damage to my overall defence plan, unhinging my main defence line and threatening the Burma Road.

08/02/42

Johnston and Christmas Islands' damage now stands at 0/65/37 and 0/49/54 respectively. 46th Engineers are unloading at Hilo and 115th USN BF is moving from Hilo to Kona. 2000 tons of supplies from PH are being unloaded at Midway.

US 153rd Infantry has embarked and is sailing from Seward to Umnak Island.

HMAS Adelaide will sail from Noumea to scout Tarawa.

10,000 tons of oil from CONUS has arrived at Melbourne and 6,000 tons of supplies from Capetown have arrived at Perth.

Here is a screenie showing the current garrisons for Southern Australia. Once the strategic situation settles these will obviously be thinned out. Currently they are covering an end run into the vulnerable underside of Oz and acting as a strategic reserve.

Madras expanded it's airfield to size 5, while Aden became a size 4 port. The slow loading at Aden is a real PITA so I am very glad.

Rangoon AF was bombed once, while ground troops were bombed twice. At least 1 Nell fell in these attacks. The airfields and troops at Singapore were also hit, at the cost of at least 6 Zekes and 3 Sallys. AK Bicol was sunk by 28 shell hits and a further 15 bombs. Her sacrifice did allow another 2 AKs to get in and out unmolested. The damaged ML at Pontianak is still in a bad way (96/82/0). Davao was bombarded by Jap surface units (I think - my notes do not seem that clear to me now...)

My raid on Kuala Lumpur scored 2 oil hits and Brunei took another.

O-16 (sys 10) will lay mines at Mersing before heading to Bombay for repair. The last US 4 stacker to undergo ASW upgrade has left Bombay for Batavia. The damaged Q-Ship Botlea has disbanded at Karachi.

In China my units at Kiungshan are trapped. I have detached a further Field Army and Artillery Rgt from central reserve at Chungking. There are no Jap units at Xuwen that I can see, so this is really annoying. My little gamble to try to flummox Mike and catch his aircraft on the ground has definitely backfired!

shouldn't you be busy (trying) to kick my American arss ...... [&:]

ORIGINAL: scout1

shouldn't you be busy (trying) to kick my American arss ...... [&:]

The evidence suggests I am doing more than trying...[:'(]

I sent CHS this morning. Did you not get it? The Big B game will be coming tomorrow morning.

got chs ...... battlewagons planning an ambush .,,...

ORIGINAL: scout1

got chs ...... battlewagons planning an ambush .,,...

Yeah, cos that always works well...

Next time bring 'em a little closer so my torpedo boys get a go!

09/02/42

Mike is complaining about some very slow moving units. I have had a few, but always over difficult terrain so am moderately happy. He is wondering if we have some incompatible files. I think that only a mismatch in PWhex files would cause something like that. Does anyone have any opinions they could share with us, please? Edit Actually, it's worse than that - his I-124 subs are not minelayers in his version, but they seem to be in mine (I will have to check Tracker!).

Sub reports would seem to place the KB at Kwajalein still. DD Hayate struck a mine there and is heavily damaged.

Johnston is 0/65/26 and Christmas is 0/49/52. On the West Coast 41st Infantry Division changed commands to Pac Flt and is planning for Kona. They should be in San Francisco within the week. A Soviet TK is loading 6000 tons of oil for the Motherland at Seattle. I am having a lot of trouble moving the oil to where it needs to be in Russia. The new Flower class corvette HMCS Dundas left Victoria for SF. The damaged AVD that moved down from Prince Rupert disbanded at Vancouver.

10,000 tons of fuel from CONUS arrived at Sydney. A further 2,000 tons of supplies from Capetown arrived at Perth.

Next month I start to get 60 Kittyhawk I's a month. All CW units will start using them.

SigInt reveals IJA 21st Yobiecki Engineer Rgt is aboard AP Monji Maru heading for Palau. Mike is definitely building up for something in the Central Pacific and also the South/South West Pacific. Aparri expanded it's airfield to size 4.

Allied raids on Kuala Lumpur scored an oil hit, with 8 centres now damaged. Brunei has 107 damaged centres. Singapore had an airfield raid, followed by 1 on troops. At least 3 Sallys fell to flak. The Dutch ML at Pontianak is now 96/77/0. Coast defence ship Soerabaya made it back to her home port safely. 4 DDs (including 3 4 stackers) sailed from Batavia after a sub off Merak.

Mike bombed Kuching recently - I am wondering if it was preparatory to invasion as this convoy has shown up. HMS Formidable will join Force Z soon, so an ambush may be possible...

Davao was raided twice. The second raid was by 6 Zekes and 16 Kates, so I am wondering if the task force in the screenie is the mini KB.

In China SigInt has revealed JAAF 17th Air Sect HQ Engineer Avn Bn is planning for Nanchang.

Carl,

The Japanese are peace loving people..... The only conquest they desire is your electronics industry ..... So lay back and enjoy it ........[;)]

ORIGINAL: scout1

Carl,

The Japanese are peace loving people..... The only conquest they desire is your electronics industry ..... So lay back and enjoy it ........[;)]

They can have all that when we have won...[:'(]

10/02/42

Alice Springs AF is now size 2.

USS Bonita, laying mines at Kwajalein, was attacked by Jap DDs and is heading back to PH with damage 39/27/0. AD Dixie arrived at PH and anchored to support locally based DDs. 600 tons of supplies from PH arrived at Johnston Island, where damage now stands at 0/65/15. Christmas Island damage is now 0/49/50.

10,000 tons of supplies arrived at Darwin from Capetown, while another 3,000 arrived from Kendari. The screenie gives a more in depth look at Perth.

Singapore AF took 2 raids and troops at Rangoon were also bombed at the cost of a Mary. Kuala Lumpur was bombed in return, but no hits were achieved.

In a bad day for Allied bombers 7 Blenheim IVs were shot down over IJS 56th "Div" Brigade at Rangoon by a LRCAP of Zekes. 4 Beauforts out of Manila fell to Zekes while trying to torpedo Jap ships at Laoag.

The Dutch ML at Pontianak is now 96/68/0.

As the screenie shows, the presence of at least one flat top off Davao has been confirmed, although no raids were flown today.

In China a V-92C fell over Kiungshan fortress.

The screenie shows why I have decided to keep going after Sinyang instead of pulling units back into reserve (the reserves at Chungking can be seen at the bottom). The railway in this area needs to be blocked as it allows the Japs to switch units between North and South and drop them right in the action...

11/02/42

A second SigInt flash was intercepted about 1st Guards Mixed Brigade proceeding to Palau.

S-23 was attacked by a large number of DDs East of Kwajalein, indicating that the KB was coming out again. There seem to be 2 task forces involved on divergent headings. If the NE heading turns out to be true it could indicate an attack on Midway. The convoy carrying 71st BF has increased speed to hopefully have all those lovely AA guns unloaded and ready for the KB to arrive. The 7th Div convoy heading for Hilo has increased speed, as has the 102nd Infantry convoy on it's way to Christmas Island. Christmas Island damge is now 0/49/48, while that at Johnston Island is 0/65/4.

S-41, fleeing from the Philippines with system damage of 49, has arrived at Auckland for repairs. 7th AIF Div was amongst todays arrivals and is awaiting transport to India at Sydney. 32nd Brigade arrived at Newcastle, allowing C Brigade of 2nd CMF Div to return to Sydney. B Brigade of the same unit will be relieved at Port Kembla by 31st Brigade, allowing 2nd CMF Div to reunite at Sydney.

The only newly arrived US unit that is ready for movement was 7th AF HQ, which was assigned to Pac Flt. It loaded onto 3 fast (20 knot plus) APs at PH for a speed run to PH. The presence of an air HQ may help actually get some raids off against the KB...

Calcutta AF expanded to size 6.

Rangoon, Singapore, Manila and Davao were bombed by the Japs, with an oil hit being scored at Brunei in return (still 107 centres damaged). A Martin B-139 was shot down over Legaspi.

VP-102 at Kendari has switched from transport to Naval Search to try to reveal the true make up of the CV task force off Daavo (see screenie). The tf I thought might be heading for Kuching is at Brunei. The plight of the Dutch ML at Pontianak has worsened and is now 96/84/0. K XIV (sys 11) will mine Medan before heading to Colombo from Soerabaya for repair.
HMS Formidable arrived at Batavia and Force Z is now formed up as 2 fast Air Combat tfs and a slower Surface/Bombardment tf. The decoy force based on HMS Hermes is still at Kendari in supoort of the US/Dutch strike force.

222 RAF Aviation is loading at Aden for Colombo. All other units will be shiped to Bombay before being deployed across India. 810 and 827 Sqns FAA arrived at Colombo. I will have to explore the upgrade options for these units at some point, although if Mike attacks India before May it won't matter!