LoBaron + Robbrennan vs Offenceman, allied secret AAR

[Rob Brennan UK]

Secondly Kukong , given the disparity of AV its safe as houses behind lvl 4 forts , and should japan try and outflank i can afford to send men out to counter without weakening the defences too badly.


Ground combat at Kukong (79,57)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 28066 troops, 267 guns, 42 vehicles, Assault Value = 1786

Defending force 62963 troops, 332 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2118

Japanese ground losses:
101 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

[Rob Brennan UK]

Nanning ! .

Its definately a bit out on a limb , but i'll not retreat yet as japan still has to either show more force or cut the road supply line east of the city.


Ground combat at Nanning (72,55)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 12009 troops, 107 guns, 13 vehicles, Assault Value = 435

Defending force 14346 troops, 76 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 403

Japanese ground losses:
12 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled



for some odd reason these pics taken during the combat phase do not show most of my troops .. ( guess thats FOW for japan) , but there are 3 units covering the road east of here in case of a flanking manouvre.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Nanyang area up next . This is the hex that the defeated units retreated to a couple of weeks back . china has reinforced with some better str corps and the eng/BF's are a mistake on my part and are heading to Sian (vv slowly).


Ground combat at 85,43

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 49158 troops, 428 guns, 180 vehicles, Assault Value = 1683

Defending force 46624 troops, 326 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1417

Japanese ground losses:
11 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

[Rob Brennan UK]

85,44 ..

Again We are holding here fine, but given the hex is near to a rail linked city im loathe to move out too much as japan could rush in with overwhelming force. As it is we have stopped at least 3 attacks here from game start and i dont plan on pulling back up the road unless i see a huge stack in Nanyang.


Ground combat at 85,44

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 49441 troops, 610 guns, 138 vehicles, Assault Value = 1583

Defending force 68126 troops, 351 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2365

Japanese ground losses:
17 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled


Allied ground losses:
27 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

[Rob Brennan UK]

Lastly , japan bombards Tsaitao <sp> regularly . Its not visible on map but we have 2 corps and an hq Holding the mountain hez just NE of here and japan has one Div confirmed holding the dot city one hex east of Tsaitao.


Ground combat at Tsiaotso (88,42)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 33608 troops, 276 guns, 66 vehicles, Assault Value = 1227

Defending force 36601 troops, 175 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1307



Assaulting units:
59th Infantry Brigade
35th/B Division
41st Division
35th/A Division
3rd Ind.Mixed Brigade
35th/C Division

Defending units:
43rd Chinese Corps
93rd Chinese Corps
27th Chinese Corps
61st Chinese Corps
80th Chinese Corps
5th New Chinese Corps
1st War Area
8th Group Army

Supply isnt great here (in the yellow) but it does seem to come in over the mountains.







I think this is all the main japanese units now accounted for along with some of the Kwantung artillery which has been bought out legally with PP's. china's supply level is dropping and im worried that i'll run out as these attacks do seem to drain my supply badly. what its doing to Japanese supply is dread to think. No chinese units in china have replacemnts on ( and havnt much since day1) and non combat are generally in rest mode both to save supply and train up. I've tried to cover all the remaining dot cities in case of jap paras cutting supply lines and could split those units to allow more frontline troops if necessary but i'd prefer to have at least a semblance of a reserve. the badly mauled corps/divs i send back to chungking/sian for lots of rest in the hope of reviving the damaged squads, it does seem a very very lenghty process.

I really should use tracker more and get into the habit of firing it up when i get a turn , but sadly my grey matter is starting to match my hair colour and multi tasking is out of the question [;)] .

EDIT , forgot the true north .. I'll do that next turn but as im pulling back to where i can get some supply (it was horrendous ) i am leaving the road open for japan to maybe do some mischief up top if you look at the rahter skewed map.

[Rob Brennan UK]

North china .. tad late.

Beginning of April 1942 and a lot of US DD refits appear , 21 days too ! yikes had 2 in Soerbaja with refit on .. whoops. the refits only seem to rip out the old AA weapons and install some 20mm Oerlikons ,, i want more DC's [;)].

Not much else to report , still airlifting out the indian 9th div from singapore and now have the chinese DC-2 unit helping out , should increase the transport amount considerably.

China .. AVG .. oddly flew over a wrong LRCAP hex and got hammered by oscars .. lost 7 P40B's .. and no idea why ?? standing down today. The pilot loss was not too bad but everyone in that unit is 65+ air and great exp and def too. how they lost to escorting Oscars when before i have chopped them from the sky i have no idea .. very confusing.

TTFN




PaoTow was useful to take early on as it prevents the japanese from advancing up the long long roads to the 'interior' of china. the bad news was that supply just was not reaching here and the units were at 20% supply. Hence the withdrawl to places where i can get supplied. annoyingly as soon as they left the city , bingo supplied. but too slow to move back. japan has one big hammer here in the 49th Div , can't stop it in open terrain and need cover, hence the withdrawl. Retreat ? never .. [:D]

[Rob Brennan UK]

10th April 1942

Still no movement into singapore by Japan ? we have been throwing out ideas about this , anyone care to comment ?

1) Japanese Training base for bombers ? given japan is bombing with c 200 a/c day and losing quite a few to AA this seems a possibility.

2) spotted me moving men out and is withdrawing its own men just to blockade it and move in when supply runs out.

NB .. got 80% of the 9th indian Div out now. I'll wait 2-4 days then swop to the 11th Division. Might as well save as many as i can, also reduces suppy demand in singapore as a bonus side effect.

Frankly neither make much sense but who arent in japans shoes.

also under discussion has been the complete lack of KB appearences for weeks now. Its Japans biggest hammer and nowhere to be seen. America is wary of doing any CV ops with no knowledge of KB but the Commonwealth and allies are basically ignoring KB and will take any suprise on the chin as the cost of being sgressive. Better to do sometthing while KB is away imo. although i dont have many CV's to worry about. and i have nearby bases and LBA to try and hide behind [;)]

speaking of Brit Carriers and a lot of BB's now.. Allied fleet command will be sent to the cocos islands shortly for javanese defence ops. Its close enough to aid java but far enough to run away unless KB sneaks past timor unseen.

anyhoo , only real combats apart from the incessant japanese artillery in china, has been another daring ambush by the AVG over china, we got lucky with some leaky CAP but even with escorts the japanese didnt fare too well.

[LoBaron]

Only a fast newsflash during a couple of otherwise very quie turns. Offenseman still seems to struggle with the initial faulty settings
of his industry and ressource allocation (which an good Allied commander should not take for granted) so its still quiet on all frontlines
while we are waiting for Mike to initiate phase two of the Japanese expansion and consolidate our rear areas.

Today, Apr 19, 42, Singapore has finally fallen.

My partner in evil plans, Rob, has left only token forces there, as can be seen on the final Allied losses.
We were both starting to wonder what took Mike so long to take the City, he did not enter the hex until Apr 18 and bombed the airfield and port
with raids counting several 100´s of bombers for weeks, while losing 1-5 per day to flak.
Was it a training programme? I tended to think so, but considering the high loss rates he would have been better off turning Chinese rice fields
into moon surface, so, why?
Additionally this enabled Rob to pull a nearly intact indian division out which will for sure see better use in the area than silently dying in Singapore.

Mike could probably have taken the city 1-2 months earlier. Why did he wait so long?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 69741 troops, 828 guns, 624 vehicles, Assault Value = 2213

Defending force 16909 troops, 189 guns, 116 vehicles, Assault Value = 340

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 0

Japanese adjusted assault: 2944

Allied adjusted defense: 405

Japanese assault odds: 7 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Singapore !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
4449 casualties reported
Squads: 11 destroyed, 241 disabled
Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 132 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 36 disabled
Vehicles lost 53 (6 destroyed, 47 disabled)


Allied ground losses:
19914 casualties reported
Squads: 675 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1641 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 83 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 207 (207 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 128 (128 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 15

[Rob Brennan UK]

Just some thoughts from me for now as the games stalled over thankgiving weekend [;)]. which reminds me "happy thanksgiving to any american cousins reading this".

Jave/DEI

Ok Japans slow here , Ive decided not to send in 2-3 Divs to java , basivally im a coward but there is an opportunity in burma which is a lot less risky for me while still keeping the pressure up on japan. All dutch units are now upto exp 45 min from training and most are also upto 100% TOE too ! ive spread the troops around to cover against para drops but that precudes a solid defence vs any amphib operations. So im trying to dely japan an easy para drop and a free back door. When japn does invade the dutch bombare have been heavily training and upgrading for naval attack both lowN and Nav , with some additional UK fighters we still dont have near enough fighters in the area but i am so short on fighters its like a desert !

Back to the plan .. we have all goodunits and HQ's prepped for Madoein as the final stand , not relying on the obvious batavia/soerbaja option, hopefully i'll catch japan unprepped for this base which is heavily building up (from turn1 i planned on this) , finally moved in some CW engineers + vechicles to speed up fort building. also just behind Java are the islands of christmas (60k max ) and cocos 30k max. cocos is heavily defended with 2 indian brigades trained upto 45-60 exp and a lot of ex dutch garrison units. the limited airfield and port are a pain but i plan on having lots of AKl's in port with 1k supply loaded for a long term siege. Christmas island ill build up too and plan on changing both islands to ABDA command so the restricted dutch airforce can retreat here after the battle of java. Additional assets are available in india for transport to here as well. The entire CW nave will also move to cocos after i've sorted out the daft plane loading on brit carriers , the 'spare' planes are just too much and the groups need resizing badly. I'll do this in colombo before we move donw to help java lock stock and barrel ! .. any US CV's based in the SW pac are welcome to come join the party once it starts too [;)]. I hope to have lots of surface naval engagements here while we both stand off with CV units as i'll have a lot of ground based units to supplement the CV air. Even CVL Hermes has a full compliment of fulmars with good pilots. And a new CV arrived in Cpe town with the british wildcats .. hoorah.

end of todays rambling .. ill ramble on about india burma soon. Chinas in a stale mate for now but im going to throw a LOT of AC forward soon in another attempt to nobble jap training for a week or 2 .

Quick commenst on Burma , Japans Moved to mandalay , I was not expecting to hold here but the delay has allowed 7th Armored to arrive so im confident we can face off for now , lashio has been lost and the allied airforce is heaving engaged bombing enemy positions around mandalay , Japanese fighters are in theatre in numbers too but do seem to come off worst vs my v good hurricane units but the average US P40's are suffering. More Later




As Lenny alrady commented i got a LOT of men and material out of Singapore before it fell , As a huge bonus i'd swopped Gen alexander out and put Wavell back 1 turn before we collapsed. HOORAH ! !!!!!!.. some of the Base uints are in java/Cocos etc to help beef up alternative airfields. the 9th indian was 80% withdrawn and heading back to india , the 11th about 30% has been salvaged , railing from palembang to the southern port for AP shipping to india. I'll hopefully rebuild both these divisions. meanwhile combined they can release either the good aussie div or a CW one for use use in either Burma or even Java if i fell it'll make a big differance.

TTFN (finally)

[Rob Brennan UK]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Apr 24, 42

so much for a large scare air war in china , 2 days of crap weather and my planes still flew up and pilots have over 25 fatigue , back for a rest now. bah humbug.

Some interesting events near Java , heres what i think is a Bombard group heading to batavia , i've moved out all fighters and most of the bombers , bar a few vildebeest and some scouts just in case.



A Japanese DMS came scouting around Merak and my HDMLs were utter rubbish as usual.

Day Time Surface Combat, near Merak at 48,97, Range 12,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
DMS W-13

Allied Ships
HDML Pahalwan, Shell hits 3
HDML Panglima, Shell hits 1
HDML Pennigat
HDML Panji
HDML 1063, Shell hits 2, and is sunk
HDML 1096, Shell hits 1, and is sunk

fortunately the Dutch air force is a lot better now !

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Oosthaven at 48,96

Weather in hex: Severe storms even in bad weather we sink the scout DD

Raid spotted at 15 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes


Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb Trop x 5
Hurricane IIb Trop x 4
DB-7B x 6


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
DMS W-13, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk ( had recieved one egg earlier)



Aircraft Attacking:
6 x DB-7B bombing from 8000 feet
Naval Attack: 4 x 250 kg SAP Bomb


Burma ,, now japanese fighters have gone away the allied bombers are doing a great job indeed against the troops besieging mandalay.

Heres just 2 examples

Afternoon Air attack on 55th Mountain Gun Regiment, at 59,46 (Mandalay)

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid spotted at 31 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes


Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIa Trop x 2
Hurricane IIb Trop x 8
Wellington Ic x 16
B-18A Bolo x 9
P-40E Warhawk x 13


Allied aircraft losses
Wellington Ic: 3 damaged
B-18A Bolo: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
76 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 22 (2 destroyed, 20 disabled) Flipping marvellous ! well done boys


Morning Air attack on 1st RTA Division, at 59,46 (Mandalay)

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid spotted at 27 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 9 minutes


Allied aircraft
A-29A Hudson x 7
Blenheim I x 14
Blenheim IV x 12
Hurricane IIa Trop x 1
Hurricane IIb Trop x 2
Wellington Ic x 16
B-17D Fortress x 12
LB-30 Liberator x 13
P-40E Warhawk x 8


Allied aircraft losses
Wellington Ic: 4 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
277 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 19 disabled NICE
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 30 disabled NICE
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Guns lost 10 (1 destroyed, 9 disabled) Not Complaining


Thats some hard hitting airpower , i've moved up the chinese AF too but thats wont be operating untill its in range in imphal (4-6 days). Thats a lot of SB3's with some very good ground attack crews.

Thats all for now folks

[Rob Brennan UK]

Well the japanese surface fleet sailed around a bit then left ?? but we did find an ASW group off Sumatra , sank one PB with AIR and another with O24 ,, i love working torpedoes.

AIR china reset today , one defensive mission is pretty important , i need a screenie to explain though or i might get 5 corps cut off , been walking out of trouble at 2 miles/day for 10 days so far and my retreat route is under heavy threat.

[LoBaron]

Well I on the other hand hate duds...still 9 month to go till I can shoot anything that makes kaboom.

Nothing sensational to report from the US side except that the IJN managed to put her first torp
into a more essential USN vessel (except the occasionally sunk Ysomething):

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submarine attack near San Francisco  at 217,72

Japanese Ships
     SS I-6

Allied Ships
     TK H. M. Storey, Torpedo hits 1



TK H. M. Storey is sighted by SS I-6
SS I-6 launches 4 torpedoes at TK H. M. Storey



H.M.Storey will be in the yard for a month or so but is in no danger.
On the whole I am quite happy with the performance of my ASW forces and the fact
that until now I managed to evade the more troublesome sub concetrations.
I am not sinking subs, but I don´t need to. Drive em down, damage em, drive em away and keep
em busy battling the sub hunters is all I need to do to pull the teeth of the IJN silent hunters
at the moment.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Headlines :- Japan invades Java

Just in time too as its the end of april and end of freebie amphib ops. I was rather hopeing our opponent would forget about this date but he's too smart.

Dutch air was very limited and unescorted via Zero escorts , it was a mess, all 7 vildebeest shot down as well. More allied planes have been rushed to batavia but we are not flying cap , 100% escort so the fields are vulnerable if japan hits them hard enough. Lets see what happens,



Over in china the allies had a hard time against oscar escorts and hit v few bombers. We also lost a few of the chinese pilots which was a shame but there are plenty in the reserves now.

SS trusty was the luckiest sub alive as it dodged between japanese TF's and tried a few torps vs a DD but missed while spotted and attacked 8-9 times oin one day ! and she didnt even get scratched , hoorah . O24 however was DC'd by DD's escorting the AP's and may or may not make it back to Soerbaja. 3 local allied subs vectored to where i think the escorting japanese carriers are located.

One rather bad thing is this attack has utterly messed up the evacuation of the indian 11th div from sumatra , we have ships and escorts in the right port but given japanese surface domination and planes we're stuck there for a while.

The RN has finally sortied to cocos , wish i'd done this ages ago but i have been messing around with CV airgroup sizes ,, silly me .. still IF/when we arrive the CW battleline should be fun vs its japanese opposition. lets hope air isnt too overpowering here or japan shoots its torps vs the odd AK im sailing around to attract CV attacks away from important ports.

More to come no doubt

[Rob Brennan UK]

something rather differant now , a pic by pic defence of java slew of posts. I cant copy any of the combat reports yet as they havnt been generated , i'm literally posting this as i watch the turn and take screenshots. So neither you or I know what'll happen next.


quick background , the entire dutch AF and some CW are involved here , either in bomber/spotting/escort roles. all bombers are at 4k and trained in low lvl Naval , skills are on average good at 60-70, fighters are skilled 60-70 but the dutch lack exp.

Attack 1 was 4 lone hurricanes fly over oosthaven and get shot down .. bah .

2nd attack :-here

Demons damage 3 zeros 2 of which drop away on fire , buffaloes are targets , 1 bomber makes it through and misses the CV Junyo. the relentless dive and attack from behind was horrible but once down and mixed up the demons did quite well.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Next 5 mitchells go for the landing TF's .

The mitchells do a really really good job defending themselves with either a LOT of damaged zeros or one really really shot up one [;)]. Combat action indicated several zeros abort due damage and the petes are hopeless.

3 mitchells make it through to bomb the Hyuga .. bugger.. all miss and 2 shot down by flak. on leaving the lone B25 damages 7 zeroes and 1 pete , allowing a clean getaway.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Next 3 Mitchells with an escort of 14 P40's attack !

the escort is shredded by zero CAP but all 3 bomberes make it through and attack the CA suzayama, all miss ! this is becoming predictable , so much for the trained up dutch AF.

Radar spots a huge incoming wave of japanese bombers heading to batavia , the port is in ruins and the merchants based there a wreck. fortunatley he didnt hit the runways OR the port of oosthaven where the allies have 4 valuable DD's which i'll try and extricate next turn.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Merek in N java falls , i was hopeing he'd rest for 2 days as i tied to pull the dutch brigade out , sadly thats one good combat unit rendered useless for quite some time , I'll send it to a base with HQ and lots of supplies and try and recover what i can.

[Rob Brennan UK]

Day 2

SS trusty finds a target , is it a CV ? a troop ship ? even a CA ? , no its a poxy patrol boat, we sink it out of contempt [;)]

Lets hope the dutch can get thier act together and launch a decent strike today , they have plenty of bombers but a lot less escorts now they have been frittered away, it'll be bloody but lets hope for some consolation prize as defeat is staring the dutch in the face right now with 2 divs in java and 1 +2/3rds in sumatra. Next game i'm going to mine differant places as the 'sneaky' ones i did place he uttery avoided , along with my worst nightmare ( an invasion mid java to cut it in half. So i'm thankful for that but the CD guns would have been better elsewhere .. c'est la guerre.

Fingers crossed now !

[Rob Brennan UK]

Well sods law strikes once again and batavia is covered in cloud , some Dutch 139's fly in from oosthaven and get killed to a man by Zeros . this isnt good

[Rob Brennan UK]

at last an escorted raid ! ,, the 2 huricanes are the Nzealanders who got whipped yesterday but they did kill a zero before leaving the fight, the P40's duked it out well and got 2 kills for 4 losses , the bombers got through bat 1 DB7 downed by late arriving zeros.

Tatgets

Big juicy AP ,, 1 beaufort .. missed
Smaller but good AP .. 4 DB7's missed
BB hyuga .. the rest .. bah

Needless to say everyone missed ! . so much for low level nav 60-70 skills , next gamr ill train up normal nav bombing and come in higher as low level doesnt seem to get in under radar/detection and flaks worse.