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16/02/42

There was a Val sighting from a sub South of Okinawa. After this turn I am pretty sure I know where three Jap CV forces are, so I am hoping that the Val was land based and that there isn't a fourth one skulking about...

Exmouth in North Western Australia created a size 1 port and airfield.

S-27 was attacked twice actually in the lagoon at Kwajalein. She was only near missed, but has damage of 11/3/0. She was able to identify a number of task forces (see screenie). USS Cachalot was attacked (9/0/0) by a force of 7 DDs East of Kwajalein. As we have a house rule that the max size of ASW task forces is 6, I am assuming that an element of the KB is heading East towards Johnston. Ships heading for Johnston have turned around.

Another element of the KB is inbound for the Line Islands. The direct course is for Christmas Island, so the transports unloading supplies for the newly arrived Infantry Regiment are running North with over 17,000 tons on board. They will head NE before heading for Hawaii, as will the 2 transports that were either at or approaching Palmyra. The 3 SWPAC B-17 squadrons on Palmyra had their planned rest day cancelled and flew directly to Charter Towers in Australia. I could have used them for a strike, but they were very vulnerable where they were. I also felt that it would be gamey as they were configured for ferrying and Palmyra does not have the supplies to be able to operate heavy bombers. All B-17s arrived safely, but fatigue is over 100%! Existing damage at Johnston and Christmas stands at 0/16/0 and 0/49/38 respectively. I resisted the temptation to fly air units in. I must keep concentrated to have any chance of doing damage to the KB and it's airgroups and cannot afford to waste airframes in piecemeal gambles.

AK Arizonan (sys 5) and AP West Point (sys 7) completed their move to Portland from SF to take advantage of the empty yards there.

The Jap New Guinea task force is now East of Rabaul, so I am starting to move some air units back to the DEI. The Townsville surface force will return to base and the Hermes tf will head back to Kendari. 733 FAA sqn will remain at Port Moresby for the time being. 5 replacement planes have been ferried to Cairns from Melbourne and will join next turn.

Ramillies and Royal Sovereign bombarded the Japs at Singapore, causing relatively minor casualties (67/2). They have been ordered to return tonight.

The Japs bombed Singapore and Manila. Manila cost Mike at least 6 Vals again. My attacks on Singapore and Rangoon were fruitless apart from some minor AF damage at Rangoon. The Dutch ML at Pontianak was scuttled after flooding went up to 90. An Anglo-US ASW tf has been sent to patrol Teloekbetoeng as a Jap sub has been spotted heading West toward the (Sunda?) Strait. The fast Dutch ASW boats have scrambled from Batavia to head to the subs current position just in case. A cadre fragment from IA 6th Brigade loaded onto an AK at Palembang with orders for Madras. If they get through, these cadres will sit in the rear rebuilding while providing anti-para garrisons.

BB Anson was withdrawn at Aden (hooray - it worked!) and 4 large (10,000 ton capacity) AKs have been released from reserve at Aden and are heading to the South Atlantic.

The mini KB is still at Palau.

The Japs carried out a deliberate attack at Manila...

The AVG/3 Ace Lt Wirth was wounded in action, but Aces Berg and Johnson, also of AVG/3, got kills 6 and 7 respectively. The battle over Honan saw 5 Oscars downed in return for 2 P-40Es.

My shock attack at Kiungshan failed with 383/10 casualties to 140/10 Japs, but Xuwen fell to my other shock attack, so I can now extricate my cut off units, hopefully before Mike's reinforcements arrive to cause a retreat. The Division has been given orders for Pakhoi, while the Field Army will join the blocking force at Xuwen.

The last Guerilla unit in the North retreated as expected when the Japs assaulted.

A Mavis was intercepted over Xuwen in the transport phase. After more unexplained losses (see screenie - I did not see a single P-40B downed...) I have begun the withdrawal of the AVG to Chungking to rebuild and possibly re-equip with P-40Es. It was necessary to commit them against the Jap CAP protecting the transport run in order to support the relief of the cut off units, but it has cost about 20 planes and 10 pilots (including an Ace).

While I am waiting for Mike to get his map problem sorted, here is an illustration from Tracker showing how hard the invisible Xuwen battles have been for the main body of the AVG...

17/02/42

Noumea has expanded it's port and airfield to size 4.

I am only getting Jake and Alf sightings at Kwajalein now, so either no carriers are now present or Mike has cleaned up his act. DMS Kachijo sank USS Cuttlefish off Kwajalein. She was the 100th vessel the Allies have lost. 7th Air Force is continuing to unload at PH, while 7th Infantry Division unloads at Hilo. Johnston is 0/5/0, while Christmas is 0/36/49. Christmas Island is, however, about to receive another love tap from the KB. This time there is a lot more light flak in place, so hopefully Mike's Val losses will hurt him.

41st Infantry Division is loading at SF for Kona. 2 AVs are sailing for the South Pacific, to allow me to push my scouting line forward. Hopefully they'll be in place before Mike's intentions become readily apparent. I have no idea why it took me so long to send them...

10,000 tons of oil from the South Atlantic arrived at Melbourne. The 5500 ton/13,500 nm/12 knot AK Allara arrived at Sydney and is sailing for Capetown.

USS Grayback, laying mines at the Pescadores, twice attacked DM Asadori, with no result.

The second bombardment by the RN BBs at Singapore accomplished even less than the first. My B-17s are definitely just wasting their time coming in at 30,000 ft, so this turn they will attack at 15,000 ft, as will the 2 squadrons of Dutch Martin 139s at Palembang. The Jap raids at Singapore are coming in at 10,000 ft, which cost Mike at least 3 Sallys and a Mary this turn. 4 Vals and a Betty fell in Jap raids on Manila.

A fragment of IA 15th Brigade is loading onto a small AK at Palembang for Madras. HMS Truant, with sys damage of 11, disbanded for repair at Colombo.

Here is the current state of the Manila defences...

In today's battle over Honan, 2 Aces were created. 1 LT K Irwin for AVG/3 and WO W Ohashi for the Jap 54th Sentai. 2 Nates and 4 Oscars fell in return for a P-40E and an I-16 mod 24.

A Jap deliberate attack North of Swatow swept my fixed guerilla unit aside and has exposed the retreat path of all the units marching East towards Kan Hsien. A Field Army will head to the crossroads North of Swatow to try to hold the line of retreat open. A small Jap unit was airlifted into Xuwen but was wiped out. It did however reset the retreat of my units at Kiungshan to zero!

3,000 tons of supplies from Seattle are unloading at Petropavlovsk.

ORIGINAL: goodboyladdie

17/02/42

41st Infantry Division is loading at SF for Kona. 2 AVs are sailing for the South Pacific, to allow me to push my scouting line forward. Hopefully they'll be in place before Mike's intentions become readily apparent. I have no idea why it took me so long to send them...

Friction, ol' chap, friction! Always fall back on Clausewitz. [;)]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: goodboyladdie

17/02/42

41st Infantry Division is loading at SF for Kona. 2 AVs are sailing for the South Pacific, to allow me to push my scouting line forward. Hopefully they'll be in place before Mike's intentions become readily apparent. I have no idea why it took me so long to send them...

Friction, ol' chap, friction! Always fall back on Clausewitz. [;)]

And there was me thinking it was because I was being a dickhead! I should have remembered that it's always better to blame a German...[;)]

18/02/42

USS Cachalot had her system damage put up to 15 points after being attacked by the DD Arare near Kwajalein. S-28 was attacked to the East by 7 DDs, but is unscathed. I am not sure if these 7 DDs are an overly large (for our rules) ASW tf or it is a passing encounter with the screen of something more sinister. USS Barracuda aarived back at PH with sys damage of 15 and sailed for repair at San Diego.

The KB is still approaching Christmas Island, which is at 0/34/49 damage. Johnston is fully repaired. I have pulled VP-44 from Christmas to Palmyra as their morale (21) means they would struggle to recover from being blasted on the ground again. Another tf is reported appraoching Canton Island. PBYs assessed it as travelling at 11 knots, but as it only just showed up and it is well withing search range, it must be travelling faster. I have decided to risk an attack and gamble that it has little or no organic air cover. I have moved 13th (B-25D) and 58th (A-20B) Bombardment Squadrons in to Canton Island from PH.

7th AF has completed unloading at PH, so hopefully my long range bombers will get a chance to fly against the KB. 7th Div is still unloading at Hilo. 2000 tons of supplies are being unloaded at Kona.

I have decided to move more air units to Hawaii in order to be ready for when Hilo and Lahaina are up to size, as well as to give me the reserves to be able to attempt some form of defence of the Line Islands. 42nd and 431st BS at PH upgraded from the B-18 to the B-25. These were the last B-18 units on Oahu. 4 fast AKs are loading the B-26s of 33rd, 405th, 406th and 408th BS at San Francisco, bound for PH. 2 A-20B units flew to PH from CONUS. All bomber units in Hawaii are now assigned to USN Pacific Fleet Command.

Further to the South No 4 RNZAF flew their Hudsons from Suva to Pago Pago to be able to support Canton Island (albeit at extreme range). AK Corregidor (sys 39) and TK Agwiworld (sys 37) disbanded for repair at Capetown. CL Adelaide now has 4 points of system damage and will cruise to Noumea from Suva to disband for repairs. Her role as a hit and run scout means her detection level must be as low as possible.

RAAF 32 Sqn (newly arrived) flew from Sydney to Darwin. US Army 28th BS flew their B-25s back to Soerabaya from Brisbane. RAAF 13 Sqn flew it's 7 remaining Hudsons from PM to Brisbane to take on a replacement plane. US Army 183rd FA Rgt is unloading at Townsville and Pp 8th BF is being moved from Darwin to Merauke to enable better ASW cover of the Torres Strait and potentially assist the defence of PM.

My Brunei raid caused no damage and the 2 raids mounted on Jap troops at Singapore only caused 7 casualties. The Japs hit Manila and Singapore with a Mary, a Lily and a Helen going down over an Indian Infantry Brigade at Singapore. The Japs mounted small bombardment attacks at both Manila and Singapore, to no effect.

Pp 3/62 Bn made it across the ferry into Legaspi. It's such a small unit that I did not risk an attack. They will just sit there blocking the movement of supplies North until displaced. Hopefully Mike will then think he has dealt with any danger and the 2 Divisions heading there will cause him later headaches.

US Army 427th BS flew their B-25s into Balikpapan on the offchance that they'll be able to hit some of the Naval units off Miri/Brunei.

A fragment of IA 28th Brigade loaded at Palembang for Madras. The 6000 ton/10000 nm/11kt AK Empire Flamingo sailed from Aden for Capetown.

In China FO K Peck of AVG/3 got kill 6 and FO E Gray, also of AVG/3 got kill number 8. As you'll see from the Tracker screenie, another Ace was wounded.

In the first battle over Honan 3 Nates and an Oscar fell for the loss of an I-16 mod 24. Then a Zeke sweep arrived and 4 P-40Es and 3 I-16s were downed. A Babs was caught by a P-40 later in the day. All my units at Honan have stood down. I am thinking I should have moved what could fly out of the way this turn...

Elements of a third unit (IJA Raiding Brigade) have been identified to the West of Xuwen. ROCAF 28th FS will attempt LRCAP over the hex to try to stop more troops being flown in and the bombing of these units will continue. 2 IL-4Cs were damaged as my units attempted to hit shipping off Taan and Bako.

Here is the current Ace List. Edit I should probably mention that the Ace 1 Lt Conkling also had to bail out today, but was unhurt. That must have been a seriously good Zeke unit!

19/02/42

S-28 was hit by DMS Hachijo East of Kwajalein. She has damage of 30/40/0 and is running for Pearl Harbor. These Jap destroyer-minesweepers are bloody dangerous - it was one of these that sank Cuttlefish a couple of turns back...
Edit Looking at the screenie I just realised I forgot to check what the task force further East was - Doh!

It looks like I fell for a classic displacement move at Christmas Island. Mike kicked me in my left leg twice and when he approached the 3rd time I moved my leg before the blow that never came... The removal of my PBY squadron from Christmas seems to have allowed to the KB to rush Eastwards through the gap. VP-24 flew in from Palmyra, but all shipping in the area has either turned back or is speeding away.

AS Griffin and 3 escorting DDs disbanded at PH. Another 2000 tons of supplies was unloading at Kona, but I have moved the ship on to Hilo.

The fast aircraft transport Hammondsport arrived at Noumea and discharged her 2 F4F-3 squadrons (VMF-111 and VMF-121), the Vindicators of VMSB-131 and the SBDs of VMSB-132. Also unloading are US Army 193rd Tank Bn, 205th Coastal AA Rgt and USMC 1st Air Wing. The arrival of the USMC Aviation Wing has allowed 105th RAAF BF to move North to Koumac. 9 RNZAF squadron has flown their Beauforts to Suva and transferred to SOPAC in preparation for potentially getting involved in the air battles around Canton/Christmas Islands.

The damaged Dutch ML Bangkalan (26 sys) disbanded at Sydney. 14th BS flew their B-17Es to Soerabaya from Brisbane, losing an aircraft on landing.

The Jap airfield at Kota Bharu expanded to size 7, while that at Ye became a size 2.

SS Grenadier has sys damage of 4 after a tussle with DD Yukikaze at Takao.

Mike lost 4 Vals and a Betty in the course of 2 raids on Manila AF. He thought he had run my supplies down, but found out to his cost that I still have plenty (see screenie). He also lost 3 Sallys and a Nell over Singapore. My Singapore raids caused a total of 41/2 casulaties.

My Philippine Bn at Legaspi was kicked back across the strait, but I have found out what sort of strength Mike has there. However, by the time my other units arrive this intelligence will be well out of date...

VP-101 has rested and will begin evacuating more of 4th USAAF BF from Manila to Kendari.

Here are the Jap troops now present at Singapore as Mike (slowly) builds up...