From Here to Eternity 1275psi (J) vs Cantona2 (A)

[cantona2]

The situation in the SOPAC area of operations is as follows (apologies for the immense screenie)

[cantona2]

There has been little Japanese movement in this area since the first turn. Such is the level of inactivity that the USS Penguin was able to depart Guam, sink a small transport enroute and dock in Townsville with no bother at all. There have no moves on Rabaul or on the Marshalls. Scouting submarines report 0 contact with aircraft and maritime traffic off Truk and Kwajalein is non-existent! A vertiable 'ghost ocean!'

I'm at a loss as what to do. I was able to evacuate Nauru and Ocean Islands and redployed those units to the Northern Santa Cruz Islands and the first reinforcement convoys from the West Coast have arrived and I do not know where to better deploy them.

Should I stick to the usual Noumea/Suva/Luganville/Efate plan or deploy the further forward into the Solomons and steal a march on the Japs?

The following units are in theatre:

I US Amphibious Corps
34th Infantry Regiment
8th Marines Regiment
198th FA Batallion
56th Coastal Artillery Battalion
2nd Marine Defence Battalion
101st/11th USN Base Forces
110th/125th USAAF Base Forces
47th Construction Regiment
C Port Detachment USN
808th EAB
31st Pursuit Group (P-39s)

Need to come up with a plan quick for all this hardware.

[cantona2]

The first day of the month is also 'Graduation Day' from the many training squadrons across the map. I tend to move pilots that have 50> Exp and 50> in their trained skill into the General Reserve pool before a transfer to a front line unit.

1st Janaury 1942 has the seen the following reinforcements across the baord:

USAAF: 96 pilots
USMC: 26 pilots
USN: 4 pilots
RAF: 3 pilots

Most pilots have 'graduated' from fighter squadrons.

[RangerJoe]

My suggestion would be to build up farther back and don't go too far forward. Until you know where the KB is operating and the Japanese amphibious bonus is over, anywhere is vulnerable. He could invade behind you and then you will have difficulty supplying and/or evacuation units without significant losses and/or resources when he outnumbers you.

[cantona2]

Thanks for the input RangerJoe, as it turned out SS Thresher made contact with a transport leaving Truk, a heading could not bee stablished but this is the first contact in and around Truk since 7th December

[cantona2]

1st January 1942

If intelligence suspected that the main Japanese carrier force was operating in the Java Sea, confirmation was definitely made by a PT boat squadron that was rebasing to Ketapang that bumped into the enemy carriers in the dead of night. Discretion was the better part of valour and the PTs stole away into the darkness as the heavy guns of battleships and crusiers made a run on the carriers an impossibility. That said the contact was sent off and duly picked up by the listening stations at Batavia and Soreabja.

1) Later in the day an attack by 139WH-3's out of Batvaia located the carrier's fleet train off Sangka. Submarines are poised to try an interception tomorrow.

[cantona2]

SIGINT services have also been picking up signals for a week now detailing the movement of the 144th Infantry Regiment to Bangkok on a number of different transport ships. Solid contact was finally made by patrolling submarines in the Gulf of Siam as a large convoy was spotted off Chanthaburi heading towards the Thai capital.

Two boats that had been waiting exactly for this moment are poised to intercept and attack. It is clear that the 144th Regiment is moving into Burma from Thailand and indeed the first movements on the Thai-Burma border have been observed by outposts at Moulmein.

[cantona2]

3rd January 1942

Kido Butai moves further along the Java Sea as if it were on pre-war maneouvers. Several nightime strikes fail to make contact but thankfull a tropical storm front keeps her decks closes as the Java Sea is buffeted with high winds and seas and driving torrential rain. It favours small, sleek craft however and two PT squadrons sortie out the night of the 2nd January. The Soreabja based unit makes contact in the dead of night and despite closing to 3000 yards and launching torpedoes they fail to strike any enemy vessels. I guess honour must be sated in that it took the Kirishima to sink one:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Soerabaja at 57,102, Range 5,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CV Kaga
CV Hiryu
CV Soryu
CV Shokaku
CV Zuikaku
CV Akagi
BB Hiei
BB Kirishima
CA Tone
CA Chikuma
CL Abukuma
DD Akigumo
DD Kagero
DD Isokaze
DD Shiranui
DD Urakaze
DD Hamakaze
DD Tanikaze
DD Arare
DD Kasumi

Allied Ships
PT TM-13
PT TM-14
PT TM-15, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mid-afternoon on the 3rd saw the enemy carries just off the southern Borneo coast near Balikpapan. The weather had been abating since day break and finally the Japanese carriers had decks free of foul weather and up when her birds. Four different strikes sunk three AMcs, a couple of coastal minesweeper and the USS Heron that was making use of the weather front to escape the enemy's attention. Small fry compared to what could have been lost!

[cantona2]

Reports were also coming in from the Thailand-Burma border that enemy units were making moves against the border. Several recon flights detected movement on the Bangkok-Chiang-Mai rail lines and SIGINT suggested the movement of collaborationist Thai units probing forwards. We know that the 33rd Infantry Division and the 144th Infantry Regiment were moving towards Burma so the enemy may be about to open a new front. Incidentally the planned submarine interdiction in the Gulf of Siam came to nothing.

[cantona2]

End of December SitRep

The end of December saw Herb advancing at a much slower rate than in any of our previous three games. This maybe as a result of the fact we are playing a historical start for the first time or as he intimated a few weeks agao, 'I've had a bad start.' Japanese forces have just entered the suburbs of Manila and are approaching Kuala Lumpur. Manila is heavily garrisoned and sports Level 3 fortifications. Likewise Singapore is heavily manned with over 1000AV at the moment.

The Japs also made a lighting landing on Sumatra securing Palembang and its oil before I could reroute enough engineers to create any substantial damage. He has aslo secured the oil ports in Northern Borneo with only Jesselton holding on.

In Mindanao he has taken Jolo and Davao but has been stopped short at Cagayan and he will need to reinforce here. The start of January has also seen the first Japanese moves against the Celebes at Manado.

The South and Central Pacific have been eeriely quiet with no moves on Rabaul or Tarawa. Probes by destroyers and submarines have confirmed the lack of even aerial patrol though Truk has lately seen some movement. It seems he is concentrating in the DEI-PIs-Malaya area for now. That said I was able to evacuate most of the shipping from the DEIs and most of the high value targets from Luzon.

China has been quiet as Chinese units in the hinterland move to stronger positions in the West. Ichang was qucikly retaken and most recently the 11th RGC Brigade has been mauled south on Nanyang. Herb tends to start quietly in China and gradually build steam. I hope to concentrate enough force to hold until supply and US aircraft appear in theatre.

The first major reinforcement convoys have reached SOPAC with Noumea receiving the first US ground troops in the Pacific with a second convoy steaming past Suva. That said howevr, there are several major concentration of enemy submarines around Sydney, Brisbane and New Caledonia. The race to setup bases to host ASW assets is on.

In Pearl Harbour a much maligned United States Navy Carrier arm sets a course to hope and resotre some honour and faith...

Major Japanese moves December 1941

[T Rav]

I don't write much, but I am a loyal reader.

Thanks,
T Rav

[cantona2]

ORIGINAL: T Rav

I don't write much, but I am a loyal reader.

Thanks,
T Rav

Appreciated!

[cantona2]

4th January 1942

Japanese forces begin landing on Tarakan, whose coastal defences handle themselves well setting the light cruiser Katori on fire as well as heavily damaging two of the transports ferrying troops of the 53rd Infantry Division ashore. Its defending minefields also claimed a Japanese destroyer as it approached to support the landings. The base itself is lost as the 53rd is more than enough to affect its conquest thus it is hoped the coastal batteries can once again make the Japs pay tomorrow.

Elsewhere in the DEIs the Kido Butai once again launched anti-shipping strikes sinking the small coastal tanker SS Angelina at Balikpapan and a two ship anti-submarine task force off Soerabaja. Dutch fighters, however, were aloft and damaged several Zeroes and Vals. They did, however, cover themselves in glory against an afternoon strike of B5N2's escorted by 20 Zeroes. KNIL Brewsters sold themselves hard against the crack Japanese Navy pilots in order to give the CW-21B's of the 2-Vl. G. IV a free at the bombers and they tore into them with aplomb splashing 13 enemy planes. One of the Kido Butai's carriers has had its spear somewhat blunted!

[cantona2]

8th January 1942

Japanese forces continue their assault on the Dutch East Indies by spreading across Sumatra, mopping up on Borneo and consolidating their gains in the Tarakan area. Search planes continued to shadow the enemy's main carrier force as it moved up the Makassar Strait and then into the Celebes Sea. Its heading was consistently North East and a wolf pack of both USN and Dutch submarines awaited the Kido Butai in the passages either side of Jolo Island.

This however was not to be as HNMS KX reported sighting three enemy carries off Manado on a south easterly heading! Were they going to support operations against the Celebs or were they targetting allied shipping that had been hiding at Taberfane in the hope of carrying out a flanking attack on any incoming invasion task forces? The group of ships, a truly ABDA force had been discovered and attacked by G3M2s from Babeldaob yesterday; an ineffectual high level bombing attack but all element of surprise had been lost. Darwin has been put on high alert and we shall see what the morrow brings.

[cantona2]

11th January 1942

Japanese forces seem to be taking a breath after 4 weeks of intense action. Japanese carriers are moving south towards Ambon as invasion task forces mop up behind them. Subs have failed to interdict the carriers but they will shadow in the hope of stirking gold in the restricted waterways of the Ceram Sea.

Shipping in ports around the Celebes as well as further South has began to disperse.

[cantona2]

Much further to the West a very delicate operation is closing on its destination...

[cantona2]

13th January 1942

The Japanese octopus continues to spread its unsightly tentacles across the Pacific. It gripens its grip on the Dutch holdings in the Celebes and finishes off the garrison at Cagayan and that erodes the last resistance on Mindanao. Though they have reinforced their troops at Manila I feel they do not have enough AV for a quick resoltuion on Luzon. Intell suggestsa division is heading on ships to Iba as a reinforcement from the mainland. PTs and submarines are on standby and ambush positions to intercept once the task force is sighted.

In China two divisions spearhead a move to the south of Chengchow with both the 32nd Infantry and 110th Infantry Divisions either engagin Chinese troops or moving up to the line. (As an aside what does RGC Temp Division mean?)

The KB, meanwhile, has moved into the Banda Sea and now lies 13 hexes north of Darwin, that has received some very timely fighter reinforcements in the shape of the P-39s of the 31st Pursuit Squadron, the first US planes based on Australian soil. The Japanese have also established torpedo support in their recently acquired bases in the Celebes as an AMc squadron at Dili was obliterated last turn. A waste of torpedoes no doubt!

[cantona2]

A new theatre of operations has also been opened with Japaneses auxiliary cruisers being active in the Bering Sea. Two small patrol boats on anti-submarine warfare patrols radioed SOS messages to Dutch Harbour reporting they were under attack by enemy surface vessels. In a day long running battle in and out of the blizzards and heavy seas so prevalent this time of year, the assailant was finally identified as the Aikoku maru. As of 14:35 nothing more has been heard from out patrol ships...

[BBfanboy]

Waste of torpedoes? Those TBs got experience/skill boost in NavT with little chance of being shot down. I would consider that worth the LBA torpedo (supply) expenditure. But not so for carrier torpedo expenditure which is more finite and could mean a long trip/fuel use to go back and restock the carrier.

[cantona2]

The arrival of the Pacific Battleship Squadron into any of the West Coast ports would have normally been a day of great fanfare in the 1930s. Crowds would have lined the approaches waving at the smart lines of white uniformed sailors lining the gunwhales of the mighty ships. The ships themselves would be in tiptop shape, polished to the nines, banners furling in the wind. Bands would herald their docking at the berths as sailors would then disgorge into San Francisco or Los Angeles where the local economy would boom but military and local law authorities would have their hands full come sun down. Ships would be open for the public to view and recruiting stations would note an upturn in visitors coming in through thier doors.

Today, however was not the heyday of the 1930s but rather the dark gloom of January 1942. Three battered and damaged battleships limped into San Francisco seeking its well furnished dry docks and repair yards. The hulls of the ships betrayed the carnage these vessels had witnessed on 7th Decmember. Scorched marks showed where fire had scarred their once pristine hulks. Impact craters evidence of the killing power of aerially delivered ship killing ordnance. These ships were riding low in the water, some almost to their gunwhales and it was only by the hardwork of their crews in shifts lasting 12 hours and under the watchful eye of the USS Vestal that they made the two week journey from Pearl to San Francisco. Yet depite the odds they had made it and into dry dock they went. Their crews replaced by hundreds of dock workers whose weapons were not bombs and guns but rather welders and hammers. These mighty sisters would one day return and dish out revenge for those still lying under the calm waters of Ohau.