18 July 42 - 19 July 42 Executive Summary
He continues to clean up the Philippines and the NEI. There the air war in Rangoon is on hold still, but the ground bombardment is underway. The KB heads south not east!!!!
Raiding
ASW attack near Vanikoro SSX Ha-10 vs CM Prins van Oranje, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
(sinks, but it did drop off it's mines 1st)
TF 128 encounters mine field at Vanikoro SSX Ha-10, Mine hits 1, heavy damage
Sub attack near Vanikoro SS RO-64 vs PC Swan, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
(sinks, allows SSX Ha-10 a free shot at the CMs)
Allied Naval Forces
Fleet of Doom: USN CAR DIV 1 (Hornet), USN CAR DIV 2 (Yorktown), CAR Div 4 (Wasp) Force H (Illustrious and Formidable), Force Z (Repulse and North Carolina) are south of Canton replenishing from the replenishment taffy.
CAR DIV 3 (Enterprise): Reaping at Pearl has 41 days in the yard to repair her battle damage. CAR DIV 5 and 6 will be formed from the Lexington and Saratoga and will depart this turn from Pearl Harbor to Baker Island.
The USN 1st Bat Div (Maryland, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Warspite): At Luganville to support operations in the SWPAC area. The Santa Cruz Force is also at Luganville (Chester, Quincy and six Dutch DDs).
Force X (Revenge, Royal Sovereign, Ramillies, Resolution): At Colombo.
Mini-Doom: The small CVE fleet, in two separate taffys has been formed. Currently it comprises the Long Island with 17 Marine F2A-3 Buffalo fighters (speed 16) in one. The second one contains the CL Hermes (speed 25) with 20 Sea Hurricane Ib. Both of these south of Canton Island with the Fleet of Doom.
KB and Mini-KB
Went south not east (see image below for details). Unfortunately for him there are no large convoys in the area at this time.As I see it he has four options (1) Return to Truk or Rabul for no real gain (so far two xAKLs sunk). (2) Continue south and port strike something my xAP, ADPs and xAK (ready to lift for Apple Jacks)at Suva, or the xAKLs, DMs, AR, AOs, AGs, and xAPs at Pago Pago. (3) Head west and engage my surface forces under fighter cover at Luganville. 4) Hit the Fleet of Doom and Mini-Fleet of Doom south of Canton.
After this is done he will either withdraw to Rabaul (most likely) or Truk. We are going to go for an intercept of the fleet as he returns to base if he picks option 2 or 3 and returns to Truk. I doubt I will be able to pull this off as we need to wait for the Saratoga and Lexington to catch up and he needs to withdraw to Truk but it's worth a try.
China
He has continued to bombard from the ground and air at Wenchow to work to burn off my supplies and damage the airfield, supplies stand at 1.4K (steady). We also have 32K troops in the max stacking of 40K. The air force has withdrawn for now. The CAP game of cat and mouse now has a pause by both sides. Will wait a turn or two before we send the air force back.
His army is also prepping for a 42/43 offensive once Wenchow falls. Moving units to hold the areas he is prepping to attack and protect against any Flanking maneuvers. Targets he is prepping for are: Sian, Wuchow, Changsha and Chenchow.
Burma
The ground bombardment continues. Intel Monkey shows the 55th Infantry Bde, 33rd Division, 204th Ship Eng Coy, 21st Med FA Bn, 15th Army, 55th Eng Reg, 112th Infantry Reg and 14th Ind. Art. Mortar Bn prepping for Rangoon.
At Rangoon to oppose them I have the 1st Burma Infantry Division, the 17th Indian Infantry Division, three Burma Infantry Bn, three base force Bn, the Burma Corps HQc, 27K of Supplies, Fort 4-07%, two P-40E ACU, and four British fighter ACUs. We have 19 more air frames and the base then we can handle with aviation support but air combat swill reduce this at some point. There are four HDML's to provide bombardment cover. He has twenty Land units in Rangoon.
At Mandalay there are 36K of supplies, three Burma Infantry Bn, two base force and Forts 4 - 06%. Three poorly equipped Indian Armored Cav Rgts, the 7th Armored Bde, and the Burma Inf Bde are making their way south to smash from Armored Tank Rgts of his moving toward Mandalay.
At Port Blair there are four HDML, 1 ACM, 148 mines, 2 Base Forces and the 45th Indian Bde, 38K of Supplies and Fort 3-84%. All land units are 100% prep'd and the leader of the 45ht has been upgraded.
The air force is bombing the two Armored Reg moving north of his and has damaged the air field at Toungoo to 61% as it seems he moved in an engineer unit to repair the field.
Operation Apple Jacks
One day late and a dollar short, so it is now a battle of attrition to regain Ndeni. The goal is to turn this into a front where we can bring the same amount or more force into play and drain him of planes, supplies and pilots. I want to see if I can use up my current model airplanes before they cannot be used on the front lines in early 1943.
At Vanikoro is a Port level 1, the Airfield 4-84% and the Fort 3, 12 PT Boats, one ACM and one AGP. Looking to scrounge up 150 mines. The 1st Marine Raider Bn and the 8th Marine Def Bn, 1st US Naval Construction Bn , 13th MAG HQ, 2nd USMC Parachute Bn, 2/7 Commando Bn, 3rd Naval Const Bn, 9th Cst AA Rgt and the Del Monte AAF Base Force are at this location. There is one P-39D ACU, two A-24 ACUs, one F4F-3P ACU, one F2A-2 Buffalo ACU, one F4F-3A Wildcat, and one one SB2U-3 Vindicator. Additional Marine Fighter and Dive Bomber ACUs are ready to rotate in or base here as the airfield expands.
Luganville is safe with Forts Level 3, Airfield 7-35% two CD LCUs, one ACM, the 2nd Marine Divion + a lot of friends and 148 mines. If I can come up with the PT boats I will also add some here but this may take a while as I have a bunch of them in the Line Islands. The island has 284 Aviation Support and one Air HQ. six B-17E ACUs and one B-17D ACU ready to bomb the Level 2 Airfield at Tulagi (there is one LB-30 ACU that can also hit Tulagi from Koumac along with an F-4 for recon). The air units are standing down to rest for the next round, have three more B-17 ACUs in route and will resume when they are in place. One PBY-5 to the base for Naval Search.
In the next 30 days or sooner the following will occur to support the advance on Ndeni in Phase 2:
1) The medium range bombers from Pago Pago will deploy to Lugnaville to smash the airfields or Ports that are built on Ndeni, as airfield space is created.
2) The 1st Marine Division, 641st Towed TD Bn, 1 USMC Parachute BN and one FA BN that are now prepping for Ndeni (50% and counting) based at Suva.
3) A trickle down of fighters to the four Marine ACUs at Pago Pago has started. As ACUs with the F2A-2 Buffalo's are filled out they will be added to the air war over the Santa Cruz Islands.
4) There are two US 25 Figher ACU's located at Suva and Pago Pago that can be rotated in as needed for air cover --- along with four 25 Fighter ACU's located at Noumea.
The needed lift is in place in Suva, waiting for the USN 1st Bat Div to arrive to provide surface cover. Once the KB withdraws this operation gets the green light.
Operation Honeycomb
The 147th Sep Inf Reg and the 318th Base Group hold Baker Island. Waiting to see how the possible carrier battle plays out. One aviation Eng Bn will also be sent to the island.
Operation Mr. T
The retaking of the Ellice Islands: Vaitupu and Funafuti. Allied high command wants to make sure we keep the pressure on him from both the Southwest and Central Pacific. I think I am going to fall into a very historical Left-Right attack along the MacArthur and Nimitz lines of advance.
From Nadi the 4 FA Bn, 32nd Infantry Div and the 192nd Tank Bn will attack Funafuti, preparation in the mid 80’s. The 754th Tank Bn, Americal Inf Div and the 205th FA Bn will attack from Koumac and take Vaitupu - ~50% prepped and climbing.
Operation Cookie-Crisp
The landing at Tabiteuea and Tarawa. Forces will stage from Pearl will take these islands. At this point it is just planning and prepping. I don’t expect to be able to do this until all the carriers have completed their upgrades.
For Tabiteuea the 27th Infantry Division, the 181st FA Bn, 763rd Tank Bn and the 134th Cmbt Engr Bn are all prepping for this in the low-70s.
For Tarawa the 21st Infantry Rgt (Restricted), 34th Infantry Rgt and the 34th Combat Engr Rgt are all prepping in the mid-70’s.
Operation Super Golden Crisp
Given he now controls Attu as of June 20th 1942, I have decided on an operation to evict him as quickly as possible before the winter sets in. The main purpose of this is more maskirovka than anything else. I want AirGriff to feel threatened in the north in the hopes he starts diverting resources and units to the defensive line in the Kurile's.
The 3rd Marine Division and 3rs Pioneer Bn are in route to Seattle and are prepping for the landing. I may need to scrounge up some additional forces depending on what we find that is guarding the base. These forces will be paired with the landing ships from the Baker Island campaign and the will move to Dutch Harbor for staging. The Fleet of Doom will support the landing from Pearl Harbor to make as much noise as possible.
1. At Anchorage we have one B-17E ACU, one B-25B ACU and one C-47 ACU.
2. ComAirNoPac HQ-A will relocate from Anchorage to Dutch Harbor and then to Adak.
3. Move two AA units to Adak.
4. Add ACM and 150 mines to Adak.
Japanese Amphibious Landings:
Amphibious Assault at Stewart Island (116,139)
Japan Conquerors the Following Bases:
Stewart Island
Allies Amphibious Landings:
None.
Allies Conquerors the Following Bases:
None.
