Lorks-a-lordy, my Empire is on fire! GBL vs 1EyedJacks - Nemo's mod

[goodboyladdie]

Yenan was bombed again. I think I am attempting an ambush here next turn.

Another huge raid on Nanchang cost Mike 3 Marys as my Chinese and Philippine pilots got in amongst the Japs. It's such a shame that I have such poor planes.

Over Honan my 3 squadrons downed 2 Nates and a Lily.

Over Wuchow Mikle lost an Oscar and 3 Sonias in return for a P-39. The P-39s only accounted for 2 of the kills. The others went to Chinese Lancers.

My SB-2M raid on Taan only achieved the loss of a plane to fighters.

I forgot to cancel my shock attack at 48,36. It cost me 1908/72 casualties to Mike's 98/3. If he attacks this turn my three Field Armies are so disrupted they'll probabaly retreat, unhinging the flank of my forces in Nanchang. Even with the replacements the Chinese get I can't afford stupid mistakes...

[goodboyladdie]

The Japs have rushed across the ferry at Xuwen. Life should be interesting as my nearest reinforcements are over 120 miles away and the major ones are probably two weeks behind that. I will launch a bombardment attack to see what I am up against.

A Soviet TK arrived at Petropavlovsk with 6000 tons of oil from Seattle. She will move on to Vladivostock.

[ny59giants]

I would withdraw some Dutch BF to Darwin and then spread them south towards Alice Springs. Then, place a Wirra-coffin squadron on then as CAP. This will help defend against any Para drop on them to cut off your retreat from Darwin.

PBYs from Lautem can reach into Mindanao to evac some Philippine Divisions. Then use your shorter ranged transports from Darwin to get them across. Unless you consider it gamey, I would use some Ducth patrol planes also to get bypassed Philippine troops to Darwin. I had over TWO divisions get there this way (plus some BF).

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

I would withdraw some Dutch BF to Darwin and then spread them south towards Alice Springs. Then, place a Wirra-coffin squadron on then as CAP. This will help defend against any Para drop on them to cut off your retreat from Darwin.

PBYs from Lautem can reach into Mindanao to evac some Philippine Divisions. Then use your shorter ranged transports from Darwin to get them across. Unless you consider it gamey, I would use some Ducth patrol planes also to get bypassed Philippine troops to Darwin. I had over TWO divisions get there this way (plus some BF).

I am considering something similar. You'll see from the screenie I post next turn that I already have garrisons to the South. I am trying to decide how many Philippine troops I can get out before it gets gamey. I figure that a cadre from one of each type is explainable, with the replacements rationalised as people escaping to join the exiles in the fight for their homeland (a la Poland et al). At the moment the two Divisons not on Luzon are marching and using ferries to get into a position to attack Legaspi from the South. I figure this will really twist Mike's tail and if I am lucky destroy some planes and ships...

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: goodboyladdie

I figure that a cadre from one of each type is explainable, with the replacements rationalised as people escaping to join the exiles in the fight for their homeland (a la Poland et al).

And ex-patriots making their way to sign up.

[goodboyladdie]

As per Michael's request here is a screenie showing the defences of Northern Australia. A company is on it's way to Broome. Further to the South 2nd Cav Div is split to cover three bases in the interior (including Alice Springs), with a base force also at Alice Springs.

It will probably be tomorrow before I can update the AAR...

[goodboyladdie]

As a taster, here is the end of month summary. The ouch factor of today's air to air losses will be explained when I get the time to do the update...

[goodboyladdie]

28/02/42

Cairns airfield is now size 4.

There were plenty of Kate sighting reports from subs near Kwajalein, so the first KB tf is there. The second tf is still just in PBY range.

TK Chas Kurz, from the same convoy that was hit before, was hit by a torpedo from I-4 at 135,87. She is on fire and heading for Hilo with damage 26/12/49. This convoy is single handedly using up all the torpedoes from Mike's sub patrol line...

Lexington, Saratoga, Astoria, San Francisco and Minneapolis have disbanded for upgrade at PH. New Orleans is awaiting upgrade at Victoria, in Canada. VP-44 transferred to Johnston Island from Palmyra. Damage at Christmas Island is 58/58/43.

DD Bailey arrived at Panama. She already has her 4/42 upgrade. All my Fletchers arrive with their 1943 upgrades (I think) so they have a nice big AA suite and Mk 9 depth charges. This is nice, as my cruiser AA is pants and the Jap subs are more of a pain. VMSB-241 arrived at San Diego. They transferred to SF and loaded onto AKs along with 68th PS for transport to Hilo.

98th BS at Brisbane flew their A-20Bs to Darwin, losing one of their number on the way. 51st US BF and 78th Coast AA are unloading at Cooktown. US 19th Engineers are unloading at Port Moresby. The gunboats Moth and Mindanao arrived at Darwin with 3 minesweepers. All fuel at Darwin has now been used up. It will be well over a week until I can get some more. 3,000 tons of supplies from Capetown are unloading at Exmouth.

[goodboyladdie]

The overnight bombardment of Singapore only caused 62/4/2 casualties and the ships stopped to replenish ammunition again. They are only one hex from Singapore at dawn and I am not going to risk them ending there for a third day running. I-122 missed AK Benkalis just off Singapore. 2 Dutch PCs will head to the spot. A Jap sub has been spotted West of Teloekbetoeng. Many ASW task forces have been given orders to attack it.

The massive Jap raid on Singapore lost a Mary and a Sally. My raid on Jap troops there cost me a B-17E for 4 Jap casualties on the ground. Singapore now has 99,836 tons of supplies. My raids on the Japs at Prome were costly. The Vildebeest out of Akyab lost 23 of their number to Zekes of the RTAF. The two following raids by Blenheims suffered no losses and damaged 8 Zekes. I will shift all my Blenheims onto the Jap force to the East which has advanced quickly up the railroad.

[goodboyladdie]

WO Inuzuka of RTAF 1st Air Wing got his 6th kill over Prome.

I am moving my forces from Magwe to Schwebo in the face of Mike's advance. The Brigade and BF will join the Brigade already there. The Chinese Division on it's way to Schwebo will now not get there in time. 20th Indian Division will move it's 3 Brigades forward to Imphal and Kohima. They were waiting to be relieved by the Chinese 1st Cav Div, but have moved early through necessity.

My supply planes to Singapore lost 5 of their number to CAP so have stopped flying. RCAF 413 sqn arrived at Aden and flew it's PBYs to Colombo to start naval search operations. ROCAF 22nd and 23rd sqns arrived at Karachi and moved my train to Ledo. 3,500 tons of supplies arrived at Diamond Harbour.

[goodboyladdie]

The Japs again mounted three raids on Manila, losing 2 Bettys. Manila has 44176 tons of supplies.

I am mounting Op Mousetrap from Kendari. The US/Dutch Strike Force, supported by the Hermes task force will head North to bombard Cotabato. I am hoping the mini KB will replenish and come back to try to catch this force. The 2 Fleet CVs of Force Z will head up from Soerabaya to try to catch Mike's CVEs. Mike has heavily committed his air forces elsewhere so I hope to not get minced by Nells and Bettys...

[goodboyladdie]

The Jap airbase at Harbin increased to size 9. What is Mike planning up there?

In a large airbattle over the Jap force at Xuwen 1 Lt Draper of AVG/3 got kills 8, 9 and 10, while FO Vebber got kill number 5. My first raid cost 6 Zekes, 6 P-40Es, 4 I-16 mod 24s and 2 SB-2s. The next cost 1 Zeke, a Lancer and 4 SB-2Ms. I have stood these attacks down as I cannot afford to lose the airframes. The P-39s at Kweilin have withdrawn for the same reason after losing 2 of their number over Wuchow in return for 3 Sonias.

A huge raid on Nanchang, consisting of 124 Marys, 79 Lilys and 12 Sallys lost 2 Marys, a Lily and a Sally to my Chinese and Philippine fighters.

The Japs lost a Mary to Lancers over Pucheng and I lost 4 IL-4Cs to Zekes over Laoag.

[ny59giants]

I hear that Mike doesn't like your "Unrestricted Mine Warfare." Keep up the good work!!  

[goodboyladdie]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

I hear that Mike doesn't like your "Unrestricted Mine Warfare." Keep up the good work!!  

He is not meant to! [:D]

As I haven't got torpedoes that work and I fully expected to be under the cosh right from the start, I decided to work with what I had. I agonised over the decision as I genuinely feel that I have too many mines available, but then again, so does Mike - and too many torpedoes too...

[goodboyladdie]

01/03/42

DD Natsugumo hit a mine at Palau and is reported to be heavily damaged. The mines were laid in a daring penetration of the main harbour by HMS Trusty.

I now have Seafire IIs (20 pcm), Kittyhawk Is (60 pcm) and LaGG-3s (20 pcm). The most important thing for Mike this month is the arrival of the Ki-109E Mike, a licensed copy of the Bf-109E.

VMF-211 has joined the Lexington airgroup and VMF-221 has joined that of Saratoga. Currently they fly the dash 3 Wildcat. I will probably have to change this because the folding wing dash 4 is more realistic following the increase number of spaces for aircraft.

Christmas Island is now 58/58/41. SS Sculpin (sys 45), another refugee from Manila, has disbanded for repair at San Diego.

10,000 tons of fuel arrived at Brisbane from CONUS. The other 10,000 tons from this convoy is on it's way to Townsville. RAAF 34 sqn arrived at Brisbane with the Anson. I have converted them to the Dakota I.

Here is a before/after for Lexington, prior to the addition of another fighter squadron.

[goodboyladdie]

DEI/PI/India

SigInt revealed that JNAF 243 EAB is aboard AK Momokawa Maru bound for Legaspi. I have a sub mining run heading for the same place...

A patrolling Do-24K hit Kunashiri at 33,56. I must remember to try to find out what sort of ship she is. Chittagong airfield is now size 3.

My Dutch fast ASW patrol boats found RO-68 and kept her submerged without being able to prosecute. Later in the day my US DDs arrived on the scene and USS Peary and USS Parrott sank her with 20 hits or near misses.

My raid on Ye caused no damage and the four seperate Blenheim IV raids on IJA 55th "Div" Brig at Toungoo only caused 13/1 casualties. Prome and Toungoo fell later. The Japs lost a Helen in two raids on Singapore and a Betty in three raids over Manila.

The damaged AK Toradja at Singapore was hit by a patrolling Lily in the morning and sunk by three torpedoes from Nells in the afternoon. Supplies at Sinagpore: 99473 tons.

A Jap deliberate attack at Manila reduced forts to 0. The Japs suffered 2419/78/15 casualties to my 187/16/1. Manila has 40881 tons of supplies left.

10,000 tons of oil are unloading at Calcutta. 222 RAF Base Force and a HAA and LAA Rgt are moving from Bombay to Madras. The other HAA and LAA Regiments are on their way to Dacca.

My forces for Op Mousetrap are on the way - no Jap reaction has been detected (see screenie).

China

Yangku (Japanese) has increased it's airbase to size 4.

A Mary and a Nate fell to my fighters over Nanchang. 2 Lilys were downed over Honan. I forgot to cancel my Wuwen raid out of Chungking and 4 Lnacers and 5 SB-2Ms fell to Zekes. Most Chinese air ops are being cancelled to conserve supplies.

A US AO is unloading it's remaining fuel cargo at Okha.

[goodboyladdie]

02/03/42

Port Moresby airfield is now size 4.

The damaged TK Chilbar finally sank. S-28, damaged at Kwajalein (now 30/24) docked at Johnston Island to control flooding before heading for San Diego. Christmas Island damage is now 58/58/39.

19 15kt/10,000 ton TKs and 2 DDs are sailing to San Diego from San Francisco. They will move 190,000 tons of fuel to SOPAC/SWPAC. Newly arrived 91st Engineers transferred to SWPAC and is loading onto an 18kt AP for transport to Brisbane. 96th Engineers transferred to Pac Flt and is heading to Midway to give an experience boost to the defenders (70). AK Virginian (sys 12) disbanded at Prince Rupert to complete repairs. 2,000 tons of supplies arrived at Anchorage.

10,000 tons of supplies from the South Atlantic arrived at Suva. These should take Suva above 20,000 tons for the first time.

35 sqn RAAF (Dakota I) arrived at Melbourne and moved to Brisbane to start supply runs to Rockhampton. 2 RN PTs completed repairs at Sydney and will move to Perth via Adelaide, escorted by DMS Dorsey. The last damaged RN PT at Perth is now fully repaired. RCAF 115sqn moved North from Brisbane to Charter Towers. 98th BS flew into Kendari with Naval Attack orders. CA Houston and 2 DMSs arrived at Townsville.

The Japs are landing from barges at Admiralty Islands.

Here are my current pilot pools...

[goodboyladdie]

Meiktila in Burma was occupied by the Japanese.

My raid on Ye again accomplished nothing. 2 Blenheim raids on IJA 55th "Div" Brig at Toungoo caused 13 casualties. The Japs attacked Singapore twice, losing a Mary, a Sally and a Nell. They later launched a deliberate attack: 1491 (526) assault points against 1085 (1773). They suffered 1752/47/8 casualties to my 457/33. Manila was bombed three times. I forgot to note the supplies at Singapore and Manila (sorry the other Michael).

The Japs appear to have taken the Op Mousetrap bait. Mike's Kates hit Davao, but the approach is further to the South than normal, so I reckon he is after the US/Dutch Striking Force, but forgot to check his settings. I imagine they will now be on Naval attack. The Striking Force and Hermes are running towards Bandjermasin, while Force Z is just passing Balikpapan and have altered course to the South. I have many medium/torpedo bombers ready to intervene too (see screenie).

7th Armoured Brigade is moving into Western reserve at Hyderabad. IA 255th Tank Brigade is moving from Bombay to Imphal. US Army Pursuit Squadrons 25 and 26 arrived at Madras after a three month journey from CONUS. They only have 12 P-40Bs each, so I will have to wait to get them into battle.

[goodboyladdie]

Uel Kal in North Eastern Siberia expanded to a size 1 airfield. I will leave it at that as I only want it as a potential Patrol plane base in case I ever need search coverage of that area. The Japs expanded the port at Takao to size 7.

Yenan, Nanchang, Wuchow (2 Sonias lost to flak), Pucheng and Sinyang were all bombed by the Japs. I will attempt ambushes over Sinyang and Yenan next turn.

Here is a comparison between the latest fighters fielded by combatant nations.

[goodboyladdie]

03/03/42

Koumac now has a size 1 airfield. I will leave it at that for now and concentrate on fortifications.

The Japs have captured the Admiralty Islands.

A Jap sub has been spotted ahead of the Americal convoy by a Seagull from the escorting AV. 2 DDs have detached to investigate/prosecute while all other ships have been diverted (see screenie).

AR Vestal has disbanded in PH to assist with repair/upgrade work. VP-72 has flown in to Christmas Island to let the squadron there rest (low morale). Damage is 58/58/37. The last part of 110th USN BF is unloading at Cold Bay.

AK Meroendoeng has disbanded at Capetown with system damage of 50. I have followed some of the other Michael's advice and moved 4 sqn RAAF and their Wirraways north to provide a weak anti-para CAP south of Darwin. 12 sqn RAAF is already up there. 115 sqn RCAF moved to Darwin from Charter Towers in case there is an opportunity to participate in the coming battle off Mindanao. The final Philippine PT boat is fully repaired at Townsville and has joined the patrol squadron.