Spanking Lowpe (NJP72 vs Lowpe (A))

[Lowpe]

I vote for taking Mandalay to start a trickle of supply along the road to China (I know, it won't be the 500 extra supply for having a clear Burma Road, but a trickle from Northern Burma is possible and every bit helps in China).

Hmmm: I decided to head for Magwe with the armored unit shocking across the river to open up a supply hex...don't really want to shock across the river into Mandalay with a huge Chinese Division. It came down to that and opening up hexsides.

[Lowpe]

Jan 18th, 1943

a.jpg (875.66 KiB) Viewed 1573 times

[CaptBeefheart]

Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but on that Nauru invasion I see you also had a supply malus. This is where LSTs come in handy--they dump supply in one phase (I think--definitely within a day). Before you get LSTs, you really need a lot of xAKs and xAKLs to make medium to large invasions work (amphtracs and boat guys also help).

As I mentioned before, once you can bring enough supply to the party you don't have to worry as much about overstacking either, and Nauru looked like it needed a division and a half, a corps HQ and a few arty and tank battalions to take.

Cheers,
CB

[Lowpe]

I had three dedicated xaks with supply only, but only a half day unloading so it wasn't enough supply. What is that...around 125 supply per ship with no help from the APs or AKs either....might have to dedicate an AK to supply until the LSTS show up (LSTs are slow however).

[Lowpe]

Jan 21, 1943

Probing attack at Magwe...Japan cutting off Chungking with strong armored forces in rough terrain...

Shot down another 7 Zeroes for 0 losses over Burma...

a.jpg (845.92 KiB) Viewed 1428 times

[Lowpe]

Lack of landing craft and fast transport hinders our forward movement...but it is getting better every day.

a.jpg (808.32 KiB) Viewed 1424 times

[Lowpe]

Progress in west Australia...shipping lines open...

a.jpg (404.47 KiB) Viewed 1420 times

[Lowpe]

Noumea will fall soon:

a.jpg (262.22 KiB) Viewed 1417 times

Ground combat at Noumea (115,160)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 7989 troops, 119 guns, 178 vehicles, Assault Value = 327

Defending force 3483 troops, 22 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 80

Allied adjusted assault: 191

Japanese adjusted defense: 91

Allied assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 3)

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), disruption(-), preparation(-)
experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
469 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 30 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 16 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 6 disabled
Guns lost 5 (1 destroyed, 4 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
35 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 7 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Assaulting units:
3rd USMC Tank Battalion
164th Infantry Regiment
14th NZ Brigade
134th Field Artillery Battalion

Defending units:
1st Raiding Regiment
Kure 2nd SNLF
21st Air Flotilla

[Lowpe]

Jan 22, 1943

Managed to pick up 13 IJ fighter losses for 0 Allied over Burma skies...

Noumea taken. I moved some troops down the island even though they weren't really needed to get some experience. They participated in two attacks plus todays cleanup.

Starting to supply the Solomons from Australia...

a.jpg (393.46 KiB) Viewed 1349 times

[Lowpe]

Jan 23, 1943

Banzai charge at Noumea.......

a.jpg (380.27 KiB) Viewed 1315 times

[Lowpe]

Jan 24th, 1943

British, Dutch and US warships went into Akyab looking for a fight...and found one! We were hoping the IJN Battleships weren't there....but they were. The first fight goes very badly:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Akyab at 54,45, Range 7,000 Yards

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
Seagull V: 1 destroyed

Japanese Ships
BB Yamashiro
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 3
DD Natsugumo, Shell hits 3, heavy fires
DD Suzukaze, Shell hits 1
DD Oboro
DD Oite, Shell hits 2

Allied Ships
CL Hobart, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
CL Capetown, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
DD Nepal, Shell hits 2
DD Van Galen, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage

And the other fights go pretty well:

a.jpg (288.36 KiB) Viewed 1246 times

Night Time Surface Combat, near Akyab at 54,45, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Jintsu, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Tokitsukaze
DD Shirayuki
DD Akebono, Shell hits 3, heavy fires
DD Asakaze, Shell hits 2, on fire

Allied Ships
CA Devonshire, Shell hits 1
CA Cornwall
CA Hawkins, Shell hits 3
CL Birmingham
CL Caradoc
DD Meredith
DD Grayson, Shell hits 1
DD Monssen, Shell hits 1
DD Mustin
DD Arunta

Improved night sighting under 92% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions and 92% moonlight: 11,000 yards
Range closes to 23,000 yards...

[Lowpe]

We had low threat tolerances set but not the other setting, and our ships stuck around which was not what I wanted to accomplish...Abukuma goes down.

Night Time Surface Combat, near Akyab at 54,45, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CL Natori, Shell hits 1
CL Abukuma, Shell hits 11, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Yubari, Shell hits 1
DD Usugumo, Shell hits 1
DD Uranami, Shell hits 18, and is sunk
DD Harukaze, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
CA Devonshire
CA Cornwall, Shell hits 3
CA Hawkins, Shell hits 3
CL Birmingham
CL Caradoc
DD Meredith
DD Grayson, Shell hits 1
DD Monssen, Shell hits 3, heavy fires
DD Mustin
DD Arunta, Shell hits 1

Improved night sighting under 92% moonlight

[Lowpe]

Our last task force in finds the merchant shipping:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Akyab at 54,45, Range 10,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DD Nowaki
DD Arashio
DD Arare
DD Hakaze
PB Shonon Maru #10, Shell hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Showa Maru #3, Shell hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK China Maru, Shell hits 1
xAK Nikki Maru, Shell hits 3, on fire
xAK Cheribon Maru
xAK Daifuku Maru
xAK Hokuriku Maru, Shell hits 5, on fire
xAK Koyo Maru, Shell hits 2
xAK Kuraido Maru
xAK Soyo Maru
xAK Shofuku Maru

Allied Ships
CL Ceres, Shell hits 1
DD Jupiter, Shell hits 2, on fire

A PBY later in the day torpedoes a merchant a little south of Ramree:

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Bassein at 52,51

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid spotted at 2 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 1 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 1

Allied aircraft
PBY-5 Catalina x 7

No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
PBY-5 Catalina: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
xAK Fukuzan Maru, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
xAK Nagara Maru

[Lowpe]

Night naval attacks home in on the burning ships...but fail to score any hits as they flew without torpedoes in horrible weather....but the maneuvering dooms the Abukuma:

Night Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 54,45

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 23,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes

Allied aircraft
Albacore I x 12

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
CL Abukuma, heavy fires, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
12 x Albacore I bombing from 20000 feet
Naval Attack: 2 x 500 lb GP Bomb

Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CL Abukuma

[Lowpe]

Bad weather spoils our torpedo runs on the big girls....

Night Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 54,45

Weather in hex: Severe storms

Raid spotted at 29 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 19 minutes

Allied aircraft
Swordfish I x 5

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
BB Hyuga
BB Yamashiro

Aircraft Attacking:
5 x Swordfish I launching torpedoes at 200 feet
Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Mk XII Torpedo

[Lowpe]

And then our local commanders let us down, as they stick around...

Night Time Surface Combat, near Akyab at 54,45, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 1
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 6
DD Suzukaze, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Oboro
DD Oite

Allied Ships
CA Devonshire
CA Cornwall
CA Hawkins, Shell hits 15, and is sunk
CL Birmingham, Shell hits 2
CL Caradoc, Shell hits 1
DD Meredith, Shell hits 1
DD Grayson, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Mustin

Improved night sighting under 89% moonlight
Maximum visibility in Partly Cloudy Conditions and 89% moonlight: 11,000 yards
Range closes to 23,000 yards...

[Lowpe]

It is a little dicey in Burma...but I think our overall strategy will work nicely, forcing a huge chunk of IJA to retreat away from Rangoon or fight in the plains...either option I will take as we cut the rail lines. Unless Japan makes a full scale retreat from Mandalay....I suspect the blood thirsty nature of Japan is focusing on trying to destroy the 3 Allied divisions at Magwe as he is reinforcing there. Sometimes you just have to dangle some bait and hope you can weather the storm!

a.jpg (452.13 KiB) Viewed 1233 times

[Lowpe]

China

All those Japanese Tank Divisions causing havoc....better here than in Burma I guess.

a.jpg (459.19 KiB) Viewed 1227 times

[Lowpe]

Jan 25th, 1943

Bingo!

a.jpg (354.21 KiB) Viewed 1171 times

Elsewhere...our full Tank Spearhead along with 3 infantry divisions is surging across the plains of Magwe to cut the rail lines and break a supply line into Magwe, while Magwe is being surrounded to eventually prevent Japanese movements in unwanted directions. Touch and go here!

Our first Chinese attack in a long long time...as the 1st New Chinese Corp tries to break out southeast of Chungking...

[Lowpe]

Jan 26th , 1943

Ouch!!!

a.jpg (627 KiB) Viewed 1124 times