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Just sent the turn. Some surprises for Gary:

Kendari: all combat ships within reach are heading for Kendari. Some TFs are low on ops (refueling), but at least some should engage the convoy. The AIF Aussie Brigade from Darwin is underway, not sure if I'm going to use it. Gary has already landed 7.000 troops...

Malaya: for the first time after turn 1, my torpedo bombers are back in Malaya. I pulled them out to northern Sumatra to reduce fatifue (which they did) and morale (whixh they did not). Now they are ordered to hit merchants at Singora from Georgetown and Taiping. Some Buffaloes are escorting them.

A lone British DD is sailing full steam from Singapore to Kuching: lots of transports, but no combat vessels have been reported here. Weather forecast is thunderstorms, so she might even survive...

Manila: supply is increasing very slowly, now around 24.000 - but I have replacements on for combat units, they are filling out nicely! Not sure if I should turn it off though, maybe it is better to conserve the supplies for the siege. What's the common opinion on this: increase assault value, or increase supply level?

No email from Gary in my inbox this morning. And now he just sent an email, subject: "Bloody Kendari"... with yesterdays files!

He's killing me.

*checks inbox frantically

The worst thing happened at Kendari - nothing. No surface combat at all. Gary moved the damaged DDs north and the transports (covered by CL Nagara) sout), and the whole ABDA fleet watched them sail away.

 [:@]

To add insult to injury, Kendari fell to the first deliberate Japanese attack, and of course there are already planes on the airfield. So now my ships are on top of an enemy level 4 airbase with Nells/Bettys. Just great... At least the weather forecast predicts thunderstorms, so I'm trying to catch the the transports anyway - see screenshot. Two of the damaged DDs are confirmed sunk, and a T.IVa from Makassar scored a torpedo hit on an AP.



If someone can shed some light on the issue of initiating surface combat action with both sides in the same hex at the start of the turn, please do so. The settings of my TFs were: docked, full speed, destination: Kendari, homeport: Kendari. Two TFs (Repulse TF, 4 Dutch DDs) were one hex east of Kendari, same settings - no combat either.

On the bright side, the British torpedo bombers did a great job at Singora:

AM:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 9
 
Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 12
Vildebeest IV x 17
 
No Japanese losses
 
Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 2 destroyed
Vildebeest IV: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged
 
Japanese Ships
PG Sozan Maru
AK Goryu Maru
CL Kashii, Torpedo hits 2,  on fire,  heavy damage
AK Hukuei Maru, Torpedo hits 2,  on fire,  heavy damage
PG Uji
 
Aircraft Attacking:
 1 x Vildebeest IV launching torpedoes at 200 feet

PM phase:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 8
 
Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 5
Vildebeest IV x 10
 
No Japanese losses
 
Allied aircraft losses
Vildebeest IV: 2 destroyed, 4 damaged
 
Japanese Ships
CL Kashii, Torpedo hits 1,  on fire,  heavy damage
PG Sozan Maru

The first submarine sunk by ASW is an Allied one:

ASW attack near Miri  at 32,56
 
Japanese Ships
APD Patrol Boat No. 37
APD Patrol Boat No. 33
APD Patrol Boat No. 39
APD Patrol Boat No. 38
APD Patrol Boat No. 36
APD Patrol Boat No. 35
APD Patrol Boat No. 34
APD Patrol Boat No. 32
APD Patrol Boat No. 2
APD Patrol Boat No. 1
 
Allied Ships
SS KXV, hits 9,  on fire,  heavy damage. (three penetrating hits)

My own ASW TF at Singapore (set to auto-disband after retiring) fails to even find one of the several subs lurking just outside of the harbor.

Zeros sweep Manila, discouraging results:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 61
 
Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 21
 
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 5 destroyed
 
Allied aircraft losses
P-40E Warhawk: 11 destroyed

Singapore, on the other hand, wasn't contested.
 
Other news:

• 100 Nells attack Balikpapan, trying to finish BB Prince of Wales. Luckily, all torpedoes missed, but she suffered 7 bomb hits, and is now at 70 floating damage again. She's doomed...
• Wewak falls
• Nells torpedo a tanker at Tarakan
• CL Dragon damaged by a bomb (Nell from Manado), 17 sys damage
• other Nells from Manado score two bomb hits on a tanker at Amboina, minor damage
• small Japanese air raids in China, not much damage
• 2 Chinese Infantry Corps are kicked out of Nanchang, which they prematurely entered during the retreat of all southern forces to Changsha
• Alor Star (evacuate the turn before) conquered. 5th Division, 2 tank brigades and combat engineers identified as part of the Japanes Army in Malaya
• AK Lanakai, a small 350 cap. schooner, was sunk by I-159 - using 2 torpedoes and several shell hits - overkill

For tomorrow, I orded the first air raid on the airbase at Kota Bharu from Singapore. To increase the detection level, I finally payed the PPs for one of the smaller Dutch recuon squadrons and sent it to Georgetown. Alor Star will be bombarded by a small TF around BB Revenge.

I finally made up my mind concerning China. Here's a map with lots of arrows. Say what you want about my map fetish, but issuing orders to China Command now takes no more than 5 minutes. [:)]



So put it simple: I'm retreating to more defensible lines all over the place. Southern China will be abandoned, and I'm disengaging around Ichang. No (land) offensives planned until late 1943. The Yenan / Honan area is the most precarious part of my front, as both cities can be easily cut off. In order to shorten my intended front line (red line on the map), I'll try to hold the wooden hex to the northeast of Honan. The problem is that there is no road across the river from Honan, so the Japanese have the advantage of a much better supply line. If Gary kickes me out of this hex, I'll probably retreat from Honan, too; there's no point in being pinned down there.

From the 10 Artilley Regiments at Chungking, 4 go to Changsha, 3 to Nanning (reserve for southern China) and 3 stay at Chungking (in case of a Japanese offensive on the Ichang-Chungking road).

All Infantry Division assigned to Southeast Asia Command started moving to Mandalay on turn 1.

The Guerilla Corps are ordered to cut enemy supply lines.

Philippines:
AK Anshun, trying to load some superfluous supplies from Lucena before its imminent capture by the Japanase, was sunk by a bombardment TF centered ariund BB Fuso / Yamashiro. The battleships then proceeded to bombard Lucena, which was captured by the Japanese troops later that day. The troops retreated to Manila with few losses. Looks like Manila will be invaded from the south; no enemy troops are seen near Clark Field.

Another Zero sweep at Manila:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 55
 
Allied aircraft
P-26A x 1
P-40E Warhawk x 26
 
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged
 
Allied aircraft losses
P-26A: 1 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 14 destroyed

Heavy losses, but morale and fatigue are still OK. I'll try to maintain the CAP over Manila, hoping that his Zero pilots are now tired after zwo days of combat over a far away base (the Zeros are stationed on Formosa, no planes on Luzon so far).

I've scrounged every ton of supplies from the Philippine bases and put it into Manila (save for some combat supplies on islands with Inf-LCUs). The combat engineers and the aviation regiment + all base forces not on Luzon have been completely evacuated.  From Luzon, small cadres of the USAFFE HQ and from all base forces are underway to Soerabaja (with float planes to Jolo, then by transport to Java). The AKs already in the Philippines are now running out of things to do, as I don't want to ship out large chunks of troops from Manila just yet. I'm considering transporting some outlying Inf-LCUs to Manila, but it depends whether I need the PPs somewhere else. For now, they will be disbanded into Manila port for later evacuation missions, while transports from south Borneo and Soerabaja will try to transport more supplies to Manila.

DEI:
T.IVa's put another 2 torpedoes into Japanese DDs at Kendari! [:)] Furthermore, 5 Hudsons score 3 bomb hits on DD Umikaze! In contrast, Gary's Nells from Kenari fail to inflict any damage on the Allied surface combat TFs, which couldn't locate the enemy convoy (again) and are now retreating towards Darwin and Soerabaja.

Losses on shipping continues to be high:

• AK Abbekerk, already damaged from Gary's Pontianak raid, was hit by another torpedo. Heavy damage, dispanded into port.
• AK Sibolga (3000 tons cap.), already damaged last turn, sufferes 3 more torpedo hits by Nells at Pontianak. Sunk.
• AK Pangkor (890 tons cap.) hit by 2 torpedoes from Nells south of Singapore.
• TK JMG den Hartog torpedoed by Nells south of Balikpapan. Will make it to Soerabaja, but lost its oil cargo from Tarakan.
• AO Pecos, filled to the brim with fuel from Manila, is torpedoed by a Nell near Samarinda. All cargo lost, but will make it to safety (unless attacked again).

And then there was this attack just south of Singapore:

Japanese Ships
SS I-155
 
Allied Ships
AK Kedah, Shell hits 1, Torpedo hits 5,  on fire,  heavy damage

Kedah has a capacity of 890 tons.

I think we can safely assume that Japanese sub doctrine is, indeed, off. [;)]

China:
Air raids on Yenan and Nanyang. The Chinese air force is resting in Chungking and Chengtu, recovering fatigue and morale before engaging the enemy.

Pearl Harbor:
Lexington and Enterprise will enter PH tomorrow. After Dec. 7th, they went first south, then east and then north, now entering the port from the east. I opted against an early CentPac raid, as this is what most players do, and I assumed Gary would set up a trap: Mini KB, reinforced by a either a large number of LBA or a carrier from KB, could easily defeat the 2 American carriers.

West Coast:
Al large convoy with supplies, fuel and oil is gathering at San Francisco. Ten 5.0000-ton AKs with supplies are already underway to Pearl Harbor with 5 DDs as escort. They are acting as a probe before I send the large convoy, maybe there is a large wolfpack of subs (or even a split off part of KB) waiting somewhere between SF and PH. A tanker and some AKs with supplies have already left Panama. All AKs with AA<10 and all APs with AA<50 have left the West Coast, destination Panama. I will use them for the less dangerous supply runs from Panama to the West Coast, Pearl Harbor and the South Pacific.

Not much is happening right now - merchant shipping losses in the DEI continue to be high, though:

Hits on merchant shipping in the DEI (all by Nells carrying torpedoes):

• 4 medium sized AKs damaged
• 2 small AKs sunk near Toboali
• a tanker damaged by 2 torpedoes at Palembang
• a tanker and its escorting PC damaged south of Singapore (this one hurt, the tanker carried 2000 oil which was badly needed in Singapore)
• the tiny AK Mapia caught a torpedo at Muntok
• AO Pecos (already damaged) finished off by 4 torpedoes

Some ships had been already hit in the last turns, but those losses are getting out of hand nevertheless. Fortunately, most of the supplies and troops are now in place - in the Philippines, for instance, all supplies are now in Manila.

2 CLs from my ABDA surface fleet got caught near Timor by Nells from Kuching:

CL Durban, Torpedo hits 4,&nbsp; on fire,&nbsp; heavy damage (sunk)
CL Marblehead, Torpedo hits 1 (damage: 18/38/2)

The first Allied bombardment hit Alor Star today, the result is satisfying:

Naval bombardment of Alor Star, at 24,44
&nbsp;
Allied Ships
CL Enterprise
CL Glasgow
CL Columbo
CL Capetown
CL Ceres
CA Cornwall
BB Revenge
&nbsp;
Japanese ground losses:
2316 casualties reported
Guns lost 13
&nbsp;
Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 6
Port hits 1
Port fuel hits 2
Port supply hits 3

I'm retreating my ground forces at Taiping towards Kuala Lumpur, as a Japanese division is advancing on the Kota Bharu - Singapore road. I should be able to stop this lone division on the mountain hex though, I have enough assault value at hand and started bombarding the unit from the air.

The heavies from Singapore finally started bombing Japanese airfields in nothern Malaya, first stop Kota Bharu:

Day Air attack on Kota Bharu , at 24,45
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 16
Blenheim I x 9
Hudson I x 15
B-17D Fortress x 18
B-17E Fortress x 9
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
No Allied losses
&nbsp;
Japanese ground losses:
26 casualties reported
&nbsp;
Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 19

Weather forecast predicts thunderstorms north of Singapore, so I ordered an attack on Kuching AF this turn (partly cloudy here).



Central/South Pacific:

SS Triton got overrun by an intersting mix of DDs a few hexes northeast of Kwajalein:

ASW attack at 86,82
&nbsp;
Japanese Ships
DD Mochizuki
DD Yayoi
DD Kisaragi
DD Ariake
DD Yugure
DD Shigure
DD Shiratsuyu
&nbsp;
Allied Ships
SS Triton, hits 1,&nbsp; on fire

Those DDs don't start the game as Kido Butais escorts, but some of them have good AA and endurance values. Maybe Gary reformed his carriers at Kwajalein, and they are now part of his destroyer screen - in this case, some carriers would be heading back northeast. More subs are moving in, Triton is unlikely to survive (float damage in the 80s).

A large convoy appeared 4 hexes east of Rabaul last turn, but didn't move much, now it is three hexes to the southwest. I'm hesitating to intercept it with my fleet of combined CL/CAs at Noumea because Kido Butai was last seen in Kwajalein and is probably covering this convoy. They are moving northwest at cruise speed (no fuel in the area yet), in case an opportunity arises.

Nauru was taken today, paratroopers (!?) took the undefended island by naval invasion.



Another fort came down in Hong Kong:

Japanese Deliberate attack
&nbsp;
Attacking force 23906 troops, 128 guns, 4 vehicles, Assault Value = 471&nbsp;
Defending force 25427 troops, 114 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 302
&nbsp;
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 3
&nbsp;
Japanese max assault: 409 - adjusted assault: 336 &nbsp;
Allied max defense: 309 - adjusted defense: 991
&nbsp;
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 3)
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Japanese ground losses:
683 casualties reported
Guns lost 19
Vehicles lost 1
&nbsp;
Allied ground losses:
98 casualties reported
Guns lost 3

If someone can shed some light on the issue of initiating surface combat action with both sides in the same hex at the start of the turn, please do so. The settings of my TFs were: docked, full speed, destination: Kendari, homeport: Kendari. Two TFs (Repulse TF, 4 Dutch DDs) were one hex east of Kendari, same settings - no combat either.

the problem lies with the sequence of play, which is as follows: naval movement then Surface combat. Therefore even though the Japanese were in the same hex as you in the beginning of the turn, they first moved....then if you happened to still be in the same hex as the Japanese...surface combat was initiated. Obviously Gary wasn't gonna stick around in the same hex (at Kendari) as your surfaces forces, therefore he moved them out. In order to engage a moving TF, you would've had to guess where the ships would have gone after the 1st movement phase. Since you have a 1 and 10 shot of guessing the correct hex, the best option in your case would have been to split your TF's into groups of 2 ships each, and cover as much area as possible around Kendari.

Real life is causing some troubles for Gary, so I don't know when the next turn will arrive. I'm going to use my dedicated WitP time to create some maps, so that I know what I was doing when returning to this PBEM. Besides, I'm bored...

I already covered China, next is India.

South Coast: I'll concentrate my forces at the south coast of India. Ceylon and Assam will be only weakly defended, as I don't have enough forces to defend everything. Madras and Calcutta are the main hubs here. Southeast Asia HQ and the 222 Group RAF HQ are already on their way from Colombo to Calcutta; India Command is marching from Dehli to Madras. Calcutta and Madras will be defended by 1 division, the tank units and smaller artillery units. The probable landing sites on the south coast (Trivandrum, Mannargudi, Vizagapatam, Diamond Harbor, Chittagong) will be all defended by 2 brigades and 1 artillery unit (CD substitutes) each. This should be a nasty surprise for Gary should he decide to invade the mainland, but I doubt that it will stop his invasion cold - if he's going to invade, he'll bring a lot of stuff to India. Therefore I'm only aiming at inflicting some serious losses on his invasion party while the other troops retreat towards Bombay / Dehli.
A lot of AA units will arrive in Aden in the next months, and they will go (1 HAA and 1 LAA each) to Calcutta, Madras, Vizagapatam, Chittagong, Mannargudi and Trivandrum - in this order. The 7th Armoured Brigade arrives in Feb. 1942, and it will go (together with a tank regt. from Calcutta) to Vizagapatam - they will act as fire extinguishers.

Ceylon: For now, only defended by the Ceylon Infantry Brigade (Colombo) + the Gurkha Brigade is on its way to Trincomalee. The latter is the only unit I can load on transports without paying PPs. I was thinking about withdrawing those two units, too, but if Gary recons Ceylon and sees that only 1 unit is present he will know that it can only be a base force (airfield icon!), and will launch a cheap Ceylon invasion. Anyway, the island is my weak spot, and this will not change unit the 2 excellent Australian AIF divisions arrive in Feb./March 1942 - they will go to Colombo and Trincomalee. By then, an invasion of India should become very unlikely.

The 2nd British Division will act as reserve in Bombay as soon as it arrives (March 1942). The city is now only defended by a brigade - I don't think Gary will strike this deep. Bombay is the home of Eastern Fleet HQ now. It has a smaller repair yard than Colombo, but I don't think Ceylon is a safe place for the British fleet after Singapore falls. Bombay is also the main port for convoys to and from Aden, so the HQ will also speed up the (un)loading process of my AKs/APs.

Assam: Only base forces, 1 brigade of the 20th Indian Division (Ledo) and the Assam Rifles (Kohima) will defend this area. I hope they can deal with possible paradrops for now. The 75th Indian Brigade will join them after its arrival in Mai 1942, and most of the units I can extract from Burma / Malaya.




I'm still torn on the issue of defending Ceylon. It could be argued that landings at Trivandrum and Mannargudi are highly unlikely with Ceylon in Allied hands, as the invasion convoy would be surrounded by good Allied airfields. The conclusion would be to move the units from the southern tip of India to Ceylon, but the island can be isolated so easily...

ORIGINAL: KDonovan
the problem lies with the sequence of play, which is as follows: naval movement then Surface combat. Therefore even though the Japanese were in the same hex as you in the beginning of the turn, they first moved....then if you happened to still be in the same hex as the Japanese...surface combat was initiated. Obviously Gary wasn't gonna stick around in the same hex (at Kendari) as your surfaces forces, therefore he moved them out. In order to engage a moving TF, you would've had to guess where the ships would have gone after the 1st movement phase. Since you have a 1 and 10 shot of guessing the correct hex, the best option in your case would have been to split your TF's into groups of 2 ships each, and cover as much area as possible around Kendari.

Thanks for the reply, KDonovan. I have a similar understanding of the sequence of play, but I thought it is possible to initiate surface combat in the movement phase, too - albeit at lower odds. I've read on this forum that ASW and submarine attacks can happen when two TFs pass each other in the movement phase, and I thought the same would also apply to surface combat. Either I'm wrong, and surface combat can only be initiated when both TFs end their phase in the same hex, or I had some terrible bad luck...

Gary is back! [:)]

Malaya:
My first small victory here: Georgetown holds after BB Revenge shelled the attackers! This will buy me some time for an organised retreat.

A SC TF is moving towards Singapore, lets see what Gary's up to.
AVG is still in uncontested control of Singapore's sky, as 50 Zeros swept Mersing last turn. [&:] 1 AVG squadron swept Kuching fron Singkawang to clear the way for the LB from Singapore (which were only modestly successful, at best). 8 Oscars managed to shoot down a P40 for no loss. [:(]



Philippines:
Mini KB finally appears southwest of Mindanao. Bad luck at Puerta Princesa: this base was a hub for my merchant shipping since game start, and I had a feeling that Gary would sent some combat ships. So I scattered all ships but one last turn, but two 350cap. AKs passed the hex at night on their way to deliver supplies to Manila.

The situation in Manila is very good, the city should be hard to take.



SWPac:
1 SNFL + 2 NFL landed at Rabaul this turn, 500 casualties. Large parts of all units from Rabaul and Kavieng have been evacuated, so the city should fall immediately. A SC TF with BB Ise is in the vicinity.

SoPac:
No contact with KB since several turns. Discomforting.

Some general stats:
Looking good in the air, losses would be almost 1-1 without the ground losses. The losses in combat ships are ridiculously low for both sides. PoW is heavily damaged at Balikpapan, 1 DD virtually dead at Hong Kong.

I'll post some data on auxilliaries and transports next turn, with a situation far worse for me: the Allied sunk ships screen for AP/AKs is waaay too long to post... [:(]. Todays losses have been heavy again, especially at Palembang.

38 AKs with a combined capacity of 94.620 have been sunk so far. That's an average of 2490 per AK, so you can see that most of my losses have been small and medium sized AKs. Damaged: 14 AKs with more than 20 sys damage. Damaged tonnage: 41.550. On average, 6 AKs have been hit every day. This will not change soon, as there are still many AKs in the Philippines and around Borneo, transporting supplies/resources and troops around.

Those losses are actually quite accceptable considering the amount of shipping in the Philippines and the DEI - especially as quite a number of those ships started near the Chinese coast. The absense of Mini KB until last turn cost Gary a lot of opportunities.

I lost 4 APs so far (13.600 capacity):

• AP President Harrison in Chinese waters
• AP Jagersfontein and AP William Ward Burrows sunk by KB near Pearl Harbor
• AP Rochussen near Pontianak

Damaged: 4 medium sized APs in the DEI (11,740 cap.). Few losses, good.

6 TK/AO with a combined tonnage of 39.010 have been sunk:

• TK Robert E Hopkins (12010 cap.) near Makassar
• AO Pecos (9000) near Balikpapan
• TK Ebonol (2000) near Manila
• Robert L. Barnes (12000) scuttled at Guam (yeah, I forgot)
• TK J. D. Schreijers (2000) near Palembang
• TK JMG den Hartog (2000) near Makassar

TK/AO losses don't sound too bad so far - BUT: 12 more have sys damage >20, almost all of them >50 with float damage and within TB range - so they are virtually sunk. Add 82.700 to lost tonnage, total: 112.710! [:(]

Almost all damaged and sunk TKs/AOs were full to the brim with oil/fuel from forward bases, so this also means 100.000 fuel/oil less for Gary. Hooray! [8|]

Tankers at Tarakan and Palembang are hit almost daily by Nells from northern Borneo despite a CAP by Dutch fighters. The USAFFE P40s will take over their job as soon as Gary seriously attempts to destroy my CAP over Manila. Meanwhile, they will keep sucking up every drop of oil in the DEI even in face of such losses. Palembang is at 32.000 oil and now sinking, Balikpapan at 10.000, Tarakan is empty, Soerabaja almost. I'm not sure how long I can keep this up. Now if torpedoes were limited in this game...


And now the Japanese losses:

So far I managed to sink one (1) lousy, stinking AK near Kota Bharu! Yeah, I suck at merchant raiding. [:'(]

What are the experiences of other CHS players? Has someone managed to lose more TKs than me? [:D]

Three turn summary after a short summer vacation.&nbsp;[8D]

Malaya:

AVG got clobbered at Singapore. [:(] Time to pull out and rebuild in India. I never thought I could maintain air superiority over Singapore indefinitely, but I'm disappointed that 60 Zeros could do the job in 2 days. At least AVG shot down lots of unescorted Nells before the day the massacre started. The three relevant combat reports:

12/16/41
Day Air attack on Singapore

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 84
Ki-46-II Dinah x 5

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 12
P-40B Tomahawk x 41

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 12 destroyed, 13 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Tomahawk: 8 damaged

Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 2

12/17/41
Day Air attack on Singapore

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 57
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 13
P-40B Tomahawk x 42
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 6 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 5 destroyed, 2 damaged
P-40B Tomahawk: 22 destroyed

12/18/41
Day Air attack on Singapore

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 62
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 36
P-40B Tomahawk x 29

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 26 destroyed
P-40B Tomahawk: 15 destroyed

I should have pulled out after the first day, but I was hoping for increasing fatigue (the Zeros came from Kendari) and numerical superiority after transfering all Buffalos to Singapore. The Japanese planes kept bouncing my fighters even on day 2, when AVG was set to maximum altitude. I need AVG in P40Es with their higher max altitude, but the pools are empty.

Supply wise, the situation is looking good at Singapore: finally a TK with 6.000 oil managed to survive the trip from Palembang to Singapore! The HI points are working again, and the tanker will try to evacuate the produced fuel.

At Georgetown, the brigade that delayed the Japanese advance retreated and the city is now Japanese. Taiping (empty) will be conquered next turn by the larger part of the IJA in Malaya, while the lone Japanese divison at the east coast delayed its advance in face of several fortified Allied units on the mountain hex to the northwest of Kuantan.

DEI:

DD Barker sunk by Nells at Palembang. Some TFs between Saigon and Kuching made me believe an invasion of Mersing was imminent. Parts of the ABDA fleet were orderd to Palembang for a possible interception. But Mersing was only bombarded by a Japanese TF, and DD Barker caught 2, DD Vampire 1 torpedo. All surface combat ships in the DEI are now at Christmas Island (with a full AO waiting) on stand by.

Mini KB appeard in the Celebes Sea and then moved towards Soerabaja. AS Holland, AV Langley and AP Ariadne Moller are the victims worth mentioning. Coincidentally, dozens of Allied subs are in the area after transporting fragments from the PI to Java. [:)] I've split the subs into three groups: one group will gather west of Pontianak, one will move to Balikpapan (in case Mini KB retreats to the east) and the third will attemt an incerception in the Java sea. The following turns should be interesting!



Other news:

• Rabaul is holding, despite being pounded by 4 BBs every turn.
• Hong Kong survived another deliberate attack, but the units are running out of supply.
• SS KXIV sunk an AP with troops near Saigon but was hit hard by the escorts.
• SigInt reports 1 sub between SF and Pearl Harbor. I redirected the first West Coast convoys (more details later), and an ASW TF will hit the hex next turn
• Jolo Island saw some action today, see screenshot:

Probably just a sweep to get rid of the PTs (sighted every turn by his planes), but Boise will nevertheless move to Jolo together with anothe PT boat group from Mindanao. Perhaps an invasion is imminent.

Very Nice AAR!!!
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
It really looks that the Japanese will have hard time coming through DEI! Have you moved torpedo bombers in the area too?

Thank you, aztez! Gary's advance in the DEI is somewhat slower than in other AARs, as he is careful and thoroughly (the Kendari invasion being the exception). He is effectively minimizing his losses: so far he lost only 14 ships!! This strategy will pay off later; I'll be facing a strong IJN in 1943/44.

Torpedo Bombers? I wish!! There's one British squadron (11 Vildebeests) from India on it's way, but other than that I don't have any TBs elsewhere I could move to the DEI! 8 Swordfish, 7 T.IVa's and 15 Vildebeests are all I have in the DEI. And the pools are empty, of course. But see below for their impact... [;)]

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

Thunderstorms in the DEI/PI caused a rather quiet day. Today's highlight:

Day Air attack on TF at 40,62 (retreating from Jolo Island after the PT boat encounter)

Allied aircraft
T.IVa x 3

No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
DD Asakaze, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage (sunk) [:D] [:D] Nice hit rate! [:)]

DEI:

Several AKs hit by Nells/Bettys, and 1 torpedo hit on a ML at Kragen. The MLE fron India arrived at Soerabaja several turns ago, all my MLs are busy mining Java. Three Hudsons from Ambonia scored two hits on a PC at Kendari despite a CAP by 8 Oscars. Good job!

Thunderstorms over Mini KB, no air strikes launched. Only 1 sub reported contact with the carrier escorts, no damage to the sub:



Maybe I have more luck tomorrow.

Malaya:

Taiping captured, and 4 units are already in the hex southwest of the city! The CW troops will make a short stand at Kuala Lumpur before retreating towards Singapore.
AVG evacuated. It will reform in India.

China:

Several air raids hit Hong Kong today, but they remain ineffective and many planes are damaged.

Day Air attack on Hong Kong Fortress, at 43,42

Japanese aircraft
Ki-30 Ann x 7
Ki-51 Sonia x 19
Ki-48-I Lily x 5
Ki-15 Babs x 1
Ki-27 Nate x 24
Ki-21-II Sally x 28

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-30 Ann: 7 damaged
Ki-51 Sonia: 3 destroyed, 13 damaged
Ki-48-I Lily: 1 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 1 destroyed, 8 damaged
Ki-21-II Sally: 4 damaged

Allied ground losses:
40 casualties reported

The Japanese troops are readying themselves for the final assault. Supply levels are critical.

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 2568 troops, 40 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 401
Defending force 24920 troops, 104 guns, 2 vehicles, Assault Value = 276

Allied ground losses:
10 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Some movement in southern China: several unidentified Japanese units from Canton have entered Wuchow, but are idle for now. Two divisions from Indochina attacked the Chinese Corps on the wooden hex at the Chinese border but were defeated last turn. First small air raids by the Chinese air force.

Pacific:

Another bombardment attack at Rabaul. The city is still in Allied hands, exceeding all my expectations.

After a "probing" convoy with 50.000 supplies for Pearl Harbor has found no enemy presence between the West Coast and Hawaii (SigInt reports one radio transmission in the area), a large US convoy covered by CV Saratoga and 15 DDs has left the San Francisco two days ago. 170.000 fuel, 100.000 supplies, 36.000 oil and the 2nd Marines are on their way to the Pacific. The convoy will break up east of Hawaii, with most of the supplies and the Marines going to the Hawaiian Islands. Smaller convoys will head for the Islands between Palmyra and Pago Pago. The oil will go to Australia. I was tempted to send the Marines farther south, but I don't think that Pearl Harbor is already safe. Furthermore, the unit isn't fully ready yet, and it can repair its disabled squads faster at Pearl Harbor. In several weeks, they will embark for the South Pacific (probably Pago Pago or Suva) again. In general, I'm going to build up my position from behind, from as far as Papaete and Phenrhyn Island, ignoring Noumea and Canton for now.

DEI:

Gary skillfully evaded all my subs by moving Mini KB due south. Nice move, quite unexpected! [:o] A replenishment TF appeared west of Kendari, and I'm moving some subs to the area between his carriers and the tankers. Three submarines will patrol the Makassar Strait, in case the tankers are just a diversion and Mini KB will head to Tarakan. Here, an invasion TF suddenly appeared last turn, and enemy troops started unloading this night. 6 PT boats from Jolo Island will join the party tonight, only weak escorts are reported.



All subs near Pontianak will hold their position, in case Mini KB rushes north. There's a large enemy fleet halfway between Saigon and Singapore, too - a possible Mersing, West Borneo or Palembang invasion.

Mini KB's Kates torpedoed 2 MLs of my Minelaying TF at Soerabaja, which where ordered to auto-disband into the port, but didn't. Lots of Kates are now damaged though, and Gary's not flying any Naval/ASW search missions, so he's not aware of my massive submarine concentration around his light carrier division.

Malaya:

All planes in Malaya flew ground attack missions - with sub-optimal results:

Day Air attack on 18th Division, at 24,46

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 17
Blenheim IV x 13
Hudson I x 14
B-17D Fortress x 26
B-17E Fortress x 8

Allied aircraft losses
B-17D Fortress: 1 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
114 casualties reported
Guns lost 3

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 8000 feet

Several smaller strikes from Johore Bahru and Kuala Lumpur failed to inflict any damage. Hopefully those air strikes will delay the enemy advance anyway.

Two more 3300 TKs with oil from Palembang arrived at Singapore!! This increases the local oil stocks to 12.000, more than enough to keep Singapore's 300 HI points running until the enemy arrives (actually it's too much, I expected one TK to sink). The supply situation at Singapore (now 35.000) is looking very good, but Manila is even better: 45.000!

More auto-disband silliness: the small ASW-TF that was operating out of Singapore since day 1 didn't auto-disband this turn and was massacred by Nells:

Day Air attack on TF, near Singapore at 22,51

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 47

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged

Allied Ships
MSW Burnie, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Goulburn, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Encounter, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
PC Circe
PC Albatros, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

This TF was remarkably ineffective: only once they slightly damaged one of the several enemy submarines that sunk one AK/TK after another right next to Singapore. Don't know why it didn't auto-disband this turn, no combat happened and it had only traveled 1 hex and back at night at full speed.

70 Zeros from Kendari found no opposition over Singapore. Someone in the Scenario Design Forum confirmed my assumption that AVG's anti-Zero bonus does not apply in CHS, so it's not a good idea to contest those sweeps with AVG and some Buffalos alone. I'm not quite ready to give up air superiority of Singapore yet, though, so the P40Bs will stay near Malaya. Maybe if the P40Es from Manila join them...

SWPac:

Another deliberate attack on Rabaul, another Allied victory - at least for now. Forts are still at 3.

The CW/NZ/Aus/FF (light) cruiser TF was on its way from Port Moresby (refuelling) to the Coral Sea, looking for potential invasion convoys to intercept (not Rabaul, I smell a trap here). Suddenly the float planes started to report one submarine after another! The Kingsfisher gave away the position of my surface assets in this area, so I will retreat.



CentPac:

Things are getting interesting here: I had sent some DDs from San Francisco as preemtive ASW TF towards Pearl Harbor several turns ago, and they hit the position of yesterdays SigInt report ("Radio transmission detected") last night: 1 penetrating belt armor hit on I-9 + forward torpedo tubes damaged. Excellent. The large convoy escorted by Saratoga is hugging the impassable terrain blocking the direct route to Panama and will soon meet BB Nevada and escorts on their way to San Francisco.

Dec. 21st, 1941

Malaya:

The large convoy (destination unknown) in the South China Sea drew the attention of my LB from Singapore:



1 lousy bouncing hit, several planes damaged, low morale, high fatigue and lots of burned supplies. [:@] Range for naval attacks has been reduced to 2, I'm only going to attack a Mersing / Johore Bahru landing from now on. But there's also good news to report from Singapore: 2 more TK with 3300 oil each arrived from Palembang last turn, bringing the oil storage more than 12.000! That's enough oil to keep the 300 HI points running until the enemy arrives (it's too much actually, I expected to loose one tanker to subs/Nells).

72 Zeros from Kuching visited Singapore again but found no opposition. AVG's anti-Zero bonus does not apply in CHS (confirmed in the scenario forum), so I retreated them - but not too far, I might reinforce AVG with the P40Es from Manila soon and then try to regain air superiority.

Philippines:

USAFFE is now on its own: all ships and planes have left the Philippines. The last 9 AKs flee to the east and south. 3 AKs escorted by PG Tulsa encountered 3 Japanese destroyers east of Luzon, which attacked and sunk 1 AK. Another 2 AK and a TK were lost to Nells and I-boats. Business as usual in the DEI...

Fun with PTs: [:D]



The experience level of some of those little buggers is quite high: 70+!

DEI:

More fun with PTs: [:D] [:D]



The Tarakan invasion convoy was driven out of the hex. 2 PTs have torpedoes left, and another group left Manila today, but probably won't arrive in time. I managed to pull all oil and fuel out of Tarakan.

Mini KB evaded all my subs again and is now to the west of Java. He has to refuel sometime, so I'm gathering my subs around his replenishment TF, which is now at one of the small islands between Java and Timor. His carriers were socked in by bad weather, but Nells from Kuching found some cripples at Tijlitjap:

Day Air attack on TF, near Tjilitjap at 20,63

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 27

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 10 damaged

Allied Ships
CL Dragon, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CL Mauritius, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Pillsbury
DD Peary

Mauritius is at 84 floating damage, not bad after catching 4 fish! Mini KB is very close, so those cripples (all with 20 or more sys damage) might not make it.

There's another TF lingering to the north of Ambonia, but they came from Kendari, so this might not be an invasion. On the other hand, they didn't move this turn, maybe they are waiting for reinforcements? Some Hudsons used the opportunity and put two bombs into an AP.

China:

Wuchow is under siege, I hope the city will hold until reinforcements arrive.

Gary is blocking my retreat from southeastern China by moving a unit out of Nanchang (so far my units travelled through the city on their way west). I'll probably have to counter-attack from Changsha...



In general, supply levels are rising throughout China (soon 20.000 in Chungking) and I have replacements turned on. Small Japanese air raids against my LCUs are routine in China, but no large scale resource bombing campaigns or training missions so far.

CentPac:

I found a picket line of I-boats between Pearl Harbor and the West Coast - or did they find me? Yesterday an ASW-TF heavily damaged an I-boat, today a Dauntless from Saratoga spotted a sub north of the convoy while the convoy's escorts took care of a third submarine (1 penetrating hit). Now Gary knows that a carrier is operating here, and probably suspects that the attacking DDs were part of a large convoy (although the sub didn't get so see any transport). 1 smaller westbound convoy and an empty convoy from PH to SF are in the area, too; hopefully these "pawns" draw most of the attention. The damaged BB Nevada on her way to SF is also close to the Saratoga TF (which wasn't supposed to leave the convoy), but I might detour her to SF via the northern Panama route.



I'll try to keep the pressure on the I-boats, so my ASW-TF will refuel from one of the convoy's AOs + more destroyers are on their way from Pearl Harbor. I'm praying that those subs aren't mere scouts for a fleet carrier division...
[&o]

What's the Japanese strength in the hex between Canton & Wuchow? I would think it worth your while to send a Corps or two there to cut his supply line. Even if he eventually bounces you out of the hex, it should buy you time to get more troops into Wuchow.

At the least I'd recommend detailing some troops to dig in to the east of Wuchow to forestall a flanking move in that direction. His Hong Kong troops will probably go to Wuchow once HK falls and you could use those troops to cut him off then.

BTW, I like your screenshots a lot.

The situation at Wuchow increased considerably this turn! [:)]

Japanese Shock attack
&nbsp;
Attacking force 47128 troops, 279 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1010&nbsp;
Defending force 31084 troops, 176 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 751
&nbsp;
Japanese max assault: 2074 - adjusted assault: 184 &nbsp;
Allied max defense: 797 - adjusted defense: 413
&nbsp;
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 3) &nbsp;
&nbsp;
Japanese ground losses:
4093 casualties reported
Guns lost 30
&nbsp;
Allied ground losses:
266 casualties reported
Guns lost 3

Meanwhile, the reinforcement corps has arrived at Wuchow, and so have his units (unknown strength). I'm not worried about the city anymore. More troops are on their way from Changsha, and then I'll try to cut the road to Canton. Maybe I can trap those units at Wuchow! There's only 1 Div. + 1 Art. Reg. at Hong Kong, and they are still struggeling taking the city, so the situation is looking good in southern China.

Thanks for the kind words, I'll post some more screenshots of the current turn later - it's a lot of work though. Things are starting to get very interesting in Malaya...

Nice. Look at his adjusted assault value compared to the max - he must be unprepped & low on supply. It might take a few weeks before you can get the troops together but you should be able to bounce him out of there.

I'm almost regretting giving you advice against Gary since he seems like a very nice guy, but we AFB's have to stick together! [;)]

His troops must be in bad shape after that assault on Wuchow. I would assume that distrubtion and fatigue are high.
&nbsp;
I think you can hold that base unless he has more reinforcements arriving. Those 4000 casualties are hurting him for time being.