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I am not lowering myself to that level










yet [:D]

Come on Dixie, we need a basis for comparison [;)][:D]

Lower away, my boy!  [:D]

Great stuff, Dixie!  I'm really enjoying your work!  [8D]

OK then, here's what my troops are fighting for [;)]



Go get 'em boys [:D]

Hmmm, the US troops will fight harder [:D]

ORIGINAL: Dixie

OK then, here's what my troops are fighting for [;)]



Go get 'em boys [:D]

I'm really rooting for you Dixie, but I have to admit that Yava's choice is better. Come on, you gotta have a better pic than this one. [;)]

may i suggest this as a better alternative? [;)]
 

Does this meet with your approval? [:D]

Much better, guys. [:)]

[8D]

[;)]

15th December 1941

Busy, busy, busy day today [:D]

Not too much happened during the night, Yava's didn't try to stop the invasion bearing down on Tarakan, good job for him really [:D]. The sole action occured on the beaches of Manado where troops from the 3rd, 21st and 23rd NLFs. Day break found the Tarakan invasion 120 miles east of their target surrounded by the ships of the Aoba TF.

Daylight saw a lot of action, and some serious carnage I might actually keep this replay for the bad times in '44 [;)]
As soon as the sun started to rise search planes were ordered aloft to search for Yava's cruisers in case they were hanging about to attack the transports tomorrow. Instead they were found a mere 60 miles from the carriers, Banzai! [:D] The USS Houston was the first ship located by the Kates, the brave fliers managed to hit the fleeing cruiser with 2 torpedoes blowing her bow off and causing her to sink [:D] The Boise was located in the early afternoon and hit with 2 torpedoes as well, however she wasn't sunk and was last seen limping away with a serious list. She won't make it back to the nearest Allied base at Balikpapan, I doubt she will be out of range of the Zuiho's Kates by daybreak tomorrow [:D]
Yava's bombers atttempted to put my carriers out of commission throughout the day, but his Dutch bombers were not up to the task, however my Claudes on CAP didn't fare much better, with only half a dozen Allied planes damaged throughout the day I need to invest in some Zeros for the TF fairly soon I think.



There was plenty of action around Malaya and Northern Borneo today as well. A naval bombardment of Kuantan destroyed 4 bombers and cratered the runway heavily. In Malaya an RAF air raid was repulsed with heavy losses to the British fliers, my brave fliers claimed 6 Buffaloes shot down in just a couple of minutes, and when the bomber leader was damaged the Blenheims gave up and buggered off home. Meanwhile the naval losses continued to rack up for Mr Yava [8D] A search plane from Kuching located a TF of destroyers off the western coast of Borneo, in a series of attacks by Betties and Nells Yava lost the destroyers HMS Express, USS Edsen and USS Alden [:D] To add insult to injury the USS Marblehead was hit by a torpedo at Balikpapan, and one of her escorts, USS Stewart, was sunk by a torpedo hit.

On the downside I had a transport torpedoed by a Dutch sub, and the crippled transport from the Tarakan TF was sunk by PT boats operating out of the Philippines as she tried to limp to a friendly base. The day was brought to a close by the Nagato TF sinking a solitary tanker at Manado.

Today's scorecard:
Yava: 1 transport damaged, 1 sunk
Dixie: 1 cruiser sunk, 1 probably sunk, 1 damaged, 4 destroyers sunk, 1 tanker sunk

An overview of the Northern SRA region

The 'Hall of Fame'. Yava's major ship losses, only cruisers or larger in here. My pilots claimed the Langley as a CV though [;)]



If someone would like to help me out please and post this in Yava's AAR...[:)]
[font="Times New Roman"]

TOKYO RADIO, 15th December 1941
The forces of the United Nations continue to be pushed back across the Pacific and Southern Resource Area regions. Japanese forces have landed at several locations, defeating the weakling imperialist defenders wherever they have tried to stand and fight. In a series of surface and air battles two American cruisers and an aircraft carrier have been sunk south of Borneo whilst trying to attack our naval forces. In the Northern Java Sea 5 enemy destroyers were sunk without loss by valiant crews of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force.
We offer you this chance men of the Allied armies, surrender now before it is too late. Malaya is surrounded, there can be no reinforcements for you. Give up now and you will live. There is no escape, there shall be no Dunkirk at Singapore....

[/font]

OK then, it's time to explain my future plans.

The SRA/Malaya area is taking care of itself for now. The 6th Tank Rgt will reach port in about 3-4 days and will join the main drive down the Malayan Peninsula. I am planning to land an engineer regiment at Singora to join with the assault in the Georgetown region, this might convince Yava that I am actually trying in this area.

The 81st and 91st Naval Gd units are prepping for their operation. I envision them going in about a week from now, to capture the AF in preparation for the Palembang invasion (approx 2.5 weeks transit time [>:]) A base force will be following a day behind.

The bombers at Kuching will be rotated out as fatigue rises and morale drops, but I want at least 3 units there to persuade Yava to keep his nose out [;)] The destruction of his destroyer TF should keep him away for a while. Generally I haven't seen much of the Royal Navy, are they preparing to defend Java? Or are the pulling out altogether? A wholesale withdrawl wouldn't bother me too much, but I would like to at least cripple the Repulse....

Further south the Zuiho will track down the Boise and Marblehead if Yava has kept her at Balikpapan. The KB has almost reached Truk, logic says I should send it to the SRA to help out. However I am considering a few other plans
1) Back to Pearl Harbor to try and catch Yava out
2) To the SRA to support the operations there
3) To the Central Pacific to support landings in the islands
4) A PH style raid on Sydney or Brisbane to smash the RAN

I am also considering splitting the KB to spread the damage a bit more, possibly sending one part to raid Oz whilst the other attacks through the CENTPAC towards Canton Island/Pago Pago where I think Yava has based his cruisers, another goal would be Fiji. If only I had more ground troops here [:(]

ORIGINAL: Dixie

If someone would like to help me out please and post this in Yava's AAR...[:)]

Done.

Not much left to the US Asiatic Fleet...

You are not pulling any punches are you...[:D]

MALAYA
The hours of darkness saw the battleships Kongo and Haruna bombard Kuantan again, this time the damage was less severe than the previous night's work, a few more craters in the runway .
Daylight in Malaya saw several raids winging their way to Georgetown. The first raid was by Ki-51 bombers from the 27th Ly Sentai at Alor Star, in a sharp aerial combat escorting Ki-43 fighters claimed 3 defending RAF machines shot down without loss. This success was tempered by the fact that 6 dive bombers were shot down by the airfield defences, including the unit commander. This loss has seen morale plummet, and the unit is to be withdrawn from the front line shortly. Soon after a raid by 43 Ki-38 bombers swept in, the aircrew on the raid claiming 4 twin engine types destroyed on the airfield. Four of my bombers failed to return from this mission, and most of the rest were damaged. A final raid was performed by a Daitai of Nells destroying another Blenheim and Buffalo on the ground.
27 Nells were also ordered to Kuantan were 2 Hudsons were destroyed on the ground for no Japanese losses. A sweep by 18 A6Ms resulted in 4 damaged Buffaloes, a waste of time really. The final act for the day was the long range strike mission by the G2/Genzan Daitai which torpedoed 2 tankers 120 miles west of Sumatra.
The RAF weren't idle though, a series of small raids was directed at shipping massed at Kota Bharu, once again the bombing was ineffective, as were my interceptors.
The 18th Division is about halfway to it's destination hex, followed closely by the 4th Mixed Rgt. Yava's defenders seem to have stopped fleeing although I am not expecting much resistance when I do catch them...


[font="Times New Roman"]
WO Kanaye Iwaya tried to suppress a smile. Since he was a small boy he had wanted to fly, and now here he was, a pilot in the IJAAF. His smile was even broader as he had gained his first kill today, an RAF fighter over the Malayan jungle. The foreigner had not even seen his killer as Kanaye opened fire; the fighter had spun into the jungle canopy thousands of feet below and exploded. Perhaps the 3 victories the 64th Sentai had claimed today would close the gap with the naval pilots at Kota Bharu. He shook his head, those pilots flew like demons, almost as though there was an unseen helper…[/font]

The Plan For Malaya

Overall things are proceeding fairly well here, apart from the awful losses suffered to flak during the day. The light bombers are being withdrawn for now to rest and repair, their place will be taken by several Sentai of Sallies. The damage at Singapore is almost repaired now, so a fresh wave of air raids will be sent against the city, according to my recon Yava has 50+ planes still based there as well as 30 or so ships.
The 6th Tank Rgt is expected to land tomorrow and they will join the march 'down country' ASAP. The Malayan operation has officialy been assigned to the command of the 25th Army, and LGEN Yamashita's command is boarding their transports in Saigon.
Naval movement by Yava seems to have almost halted, presumably due to the torpedo bombers overflying the approaches to Yava's bases [:D]

THE SRA

The main action overnight would have been the landing at Tarakan where troops from four NLF units stormed ashore in the early morning. Instead the main action took place further south, where the USS Boise managed to surprise the light carrier TF. Quite how a crippled burning wreck managed to surprise them is a mystery, the lookouts on duty are facing severe disciplinary measures when the fleet returns to base. In a short engagement the Boise was sunk, but not before severely damaging the light cruiser Kitikami (Did I mention I hate the Boise?) By the time my cruiser reaches Palau she will need some serious yard time in the HI to be seaworthy again [:@]
Between them the Boise and Houston have taken 2 CA, 2 CL and 1 DD out of the fleet for serious repairs [:@]
After yesterday's successful air strikes today was in many ways a let-down. A strike was sent out from Kuching against the sole survivor from the destroyer TF attacked yesterday near Pontianak, however HMS Electra seems to be a lucky ship and she escaped without any damage. Another long range mission to Balikpapan was more successful, sinking a minelayer and a transport. The Kate's from the carrier TF spent their day attacking (and missing) the airfields at Tarakan and Balikpapan, in an attempt to stop the scattered allied raids against the carriers. Again the Dutch bombers sortied out to attack the Zuiho, and again the bombing was poor and no damage was done.
On the ground things could still go wrong, the Tarakan force will make a shock attack today, after a naval bombardment by the supporting cruiser TF. At Manado the NLF units are going to bombard the Allied positions, I think that I may have underestimated the forces needed to take this base [8|]
The Zuiho TF is going to head East for a day or so before turning back to the west in an effort to persuade Yava they are going to RTB. If the plan works I might be able to pull some of his other naval assets into battle

THE SOLOMONS, NEW BRITAIN & NEW GUINEA

The KB has reached port at Truk, the plan is to split it into two smaller TFs. One part will contain Akagi, Hiryu and Soryu. This TF will be sent to raid the Australian mainland and interdict any shipping, starting with Sydney. The other carriers will be sent to support landings in the Central Pacific island chains. If Yava won't some out to play then this TF will be sent to attack Fiji.
An attack at Rabaul has brought the forts down to lvl 1, the troops here are going to bombard the allies for a day or two before the final assault. At Truk the 4th Base Force is boarding transports in preperation for their move to Rabaul.
Along the northern coast of New Guinea the 5th NLF is preparing to make a series of landings against the weakly held bases along the coast. Hollandia is the first target with it's small resource production.
Buin was captured today by the 81st Naval Gd unit, the troops will make the short hop to Shortlands and take control there in the next few days. After that they will probably move to land at Gasmate and cut off the defenders from Rabaul as they attempt to fall back.
Most of my coastal RO subs will be sent to operate in this region, the first boats have already set off for their patrol areas on the approaches to Port Moresby and off the Australian coast.

EVEYWHERE ELSE
It's been fairly low intensity in China so far, yesterday saw a few clashes between Japanese and USAAF fighters. In a series of clashes between P-40Es and Nates and Zeroes 1 Nate was lost with 4 P-40s shot down. On the ground things are proceeding slowly. NE of Sinyang the 3rd Division has run in heavy resistance from 2 Chinese units, the 40th Div is on it's way to reinforce them and push the Chinese off the road.

My forces in The Philippines are advancing slowly, the Shuzan Naval Guard unit has reached San Fernando, they will pause here and wait for following reinforcements before they attack. The 14th Army and 21st Engineer Regt will soon be moving into the islands, the last major reinforcements planned for a while. In the air the USAAF seems to have almost vanished. The daily bombing raids have encountered a total of 3 fighters for most of the last week, and one of these (a P-26) was shot down by the Betties raiding Clark Field.

In the Central Pacific the 6th Base Force has started it's move to Wake. The airfield here will be expanded to make torpedo operation possible, then it's forts, forts and more forts. Plus mines in the future. Wake represents an ideal raiding target for Yava, so there will be plenty of Zeros waiting here for him if he does turn up
The Ryujo is out hunting [s]wabbits[/s] cruisers. She is currently SW of Tarawa, heading south towards the Ellice Islands.
The first wave of I-boats is also about to reach Kwajalein, from here they will be split into groups:
Group 1: Will relieve the boats attempting to blockade the US-Hawaii shipping lanes
Group 2: Will patrol the South Pacific Islands, from Noumea through to Canton Island
Group 3: Will be redeployed to Truk for long range operations against Australia and NZ

[font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]Since the start of the war Tokyo radio had been full of reports about the glorious battles being waged across the Pacific. Western resistance had crumbled in the face of the Japanese advances, and the news broadcaster was reporting a string of naval victories which had resulted in the sinking of two major American warships. Despite the great victories Azami Doikawa couldn't help worrying. Her youngest son, Sadao, had gone off to fight as a bomber pilot.[/font]


Anyone want to see any maps etc, or any questions?