Turnaround? Lowpe (J) vs Tiemanj (A) Stock

[Lowpe]

April 7th, 1944

No night bombing.

During the night, a freshly formed (and with new Captains) group of Es hunt down and put three penetrating hits onto another Yank sub near Formosa.

[Lowpe]

A long day...lots of air battles over Tokyo and Osaka.

Our fighter CAP does a good job, especially with the Spitfires over Tokyo, the sweeping Corsairs are now coming in in squadrons of 15 planes, but the Jugs squadrons are still full strength.

I had high hopes for this fight over Osaka, but once again the J2M2 is a disappointing bomber killer. George and Tonies are very superior....however the Jack does respond and get into position very fast.

The Oscars were flying at 2000 feet, and were there to draw the fighters down, but the Jugs sweeps target Jacks.

I also had my first ramming of a bomber today.

[Lowpe]

Lots of losses today; but I did knock down more B29s. Osaka burns again.

[Lowpe]

Up at Uttaradit, the Allied infantry storms across the river.

I have been waiting, and waiting for this to occur. I had to change movement orders to delay my retreat while we waited for him.

They got nailed good, and now I will try for a counterattack with about 500 assault value and troops in good shape.

[Lowpe]

Bangkok and Ayuthia under immediate attack!

Heavy air bombardments of both Ayuthia and Bangkok. Only 700 AV of troops in each, low on artillery. 1st Tank is in Bangkok.

[Lowpe]

More good news....invasion!

I think I may be able to hit him with a pretty good land based air attack...

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Drakanel

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Well, you can see with the arrival of all the troops from the hex of death, supply has dropped to a !

So I am unprepared to take advantage of castle Bangkok. Plus the forts are substandard. Black market no doubt. Or greed. Maybe incompetence.[:D]

Nah, this is clearly a case of Other Objectives Prioritized Supremely. Also knows as OOPS [:D]. in order to maximize the war effort results, obviously.

What kind of troops will you be able to deploy to defend the Vinh line?

Very good artillery, the rest is a big question mark. Two full infantry divisions are away, but it looks like a lot of troops are in trouble at Bangkok and Ayuthia. The 2nd tank division and three other divsions should make it back intact. I think.

[Lowpe]

I am sadly going to call off my counter attack at Uttaradit.

There are tanks moving from Pisanuloke, they were moving yesterday, and perhaps even from the day before that. I don't dare risk my infantry under those circumstances.

Shucks.

[Alfred]

You might want to give some more thought before abandoning the counter attack.  Your troops are not going to exit the base before the enemy arrives from Pisanuloke.  If the enemy reinforcements are that strong they are going to eject you very promptly.  If they are not that strong they may not suffice to successfully corset the disrupted units.  A Japanese shock attack which gets resolved before any Allied attack, may therefore still be able to force an Allied withdrawal, or at the very least buy enough time to allow an orderly withdrawal.
 
The two conditions under which a shock Japanese is inadvisable are:
 
1.  if the intention is to hold Uttaradit, which seems unlikely as you were withdrawing.  Mind you the value of staying on is not to be underestimated
 
2.  you think you can make an orderly withdrawal, which is only possible if the enemy forces after their reinforcement is not strong enough to force a retreat on you.
 
The point is that whatever you withdraw will take a long time to crawl through the jungle to the Vinh line whereas the unemployed Allied units can move down to Bangkok and beyond at a very rapid rate.  Thus it is a gamble but by this stage of the war you have no real option but to take certain calculated gambles otherwise you can never get the enemy to react to your actions, a point you have lamented on just recently.
 
Alfred

[Lowpe]

Turn is away and we are going to attack at Uttaradit. I sent some bombers in over Pisanuloke in the hopes that they can slow down whatever is coming. The runways there are still trashed, so I doubt there will be heavy air cover. I hope.

I evacuated all the artillery from Uttaradit, so this is mostly mixed brigades slugging it out. Perhaps I can do some damage here.

I am attacking the Malaya invasion. Perhaps I can do better this time attacking his shipping.[:)]

[Lowpe]

I am hoping not to see any tanks. I think it will be a slim chance...





Allied assault on Uttaradit...

[Lowpe]

The Japanese solution is 11 months away or so: The Lunge Mine!

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

The Japanese solution is 11 months away or so: The Lunge Mine!

I take it the troop in the picture is not expected to return?

[Alfred]

I think you are doing the right thing throwing the dice at Uttaradit.  It may turn out badly.  It will turn out badly if the reinforcements are substantial.  But ... on the other hand, this is the only opportunity you will have of benefiting from the good outcome the previous day.  The two regiments which had crossed the river had bad negative modifiers on disruption and supply which meant they were already deficient in those areas before they had even crossed the river.  Left by themselves they are vulnerable to a Japanese shock attack which has the real possibility of forcing them to retreat back across the river.  It all depends on whether the enemy tanks (you are certain they are tanks and not infantry?) from Pisanuloke arrive today, and if they do, in what strength (I see units at Pisanuloke heading south towards Ayuthia) and in what condition.
 
I also think you are right in striking at the Malay invasion.  The issue is what should you target.  You can target either the invasion armada or the landed troops but not both.  At this moment in time I lean towards conducting only Ground Attack missions.  However which is the better option depends on facts which your readers are not privy to.
 
1.  What are the types of aircraft available.  If you are lacking torpedo equipped aircraft with highly skilled pilots, there is no point sending the LBA against the enemy ships.
 
2.  Without a huge number of available fighters to escort the bombers, again there would be no point in sending the LBA against the enemy ships as most of the enemy CAP will be focussed on protecting ships, both combatants and the transports.
 
3.  You can't set LRCAP to target enemy TFs but you can set it to fly over your own surface TF racing in to get amongst the transports, or set it over your base.  This again is an argument for your LBA striking the beach rather than the enemy ships.  You can send in surface TF to draw away enemy aircraft away from opposing your LBA hitting the enemy grunts and more importantly the enemy aircraft are not hitting your own defending LCU.
 
4.  Enemy ships have manoeuvre ratings and crew experience levels which help them to dodge the ordnance from what ever has successfully got through their CAP.  They also have armour to help absorb the effect of your ordnance.  Enemy LCUs cannot dodge such ordnance nor will they have any fortifications to absorb the effects.
 
5.  Striking the enemy LCUs will increase their supply consumption at a time when they have no terrestrial supply depot to draw their daily rations from.
 
6.  In all likelihood, but as always there is no 100% guarantee, you will suffer fewer aircraft losses if you target the enemy LCUs rather than the enemy ships.  This means that your aerial strike power will last longer.
 
 
 
The assumption you must make is that the Allies have arrived in sufficient numbers to land and capture the base.  This realisation leads to the conclusion that what you should be trying to do is therefore not defeat the invasion but to delay the enemy capture of the base and the subsequent march onto the mainland.  That means operations must be focussed on aiding and abetting the resistance of your LCUs.
 
Alfred
 

[Crackaces]

This is a most interesting situation IMHO ...

Your opponent has landed armor on the Kuriles islands ... I do not know the port level but I am thinking it will be awhile before he pulls those forces off -- and regroups.
I am also thinking that your opponent has caught on that in early 1944 the Allies do not have the material yet for a "Mexican Knife Fight" ... thus a focus on the peripheral objectives. He might even started to think optimizing VP's ..

Now it looks like an "Italian" Campaign down the Malaysian Coast? I wonder how prepped this is .. if landing causalities are low then your opponent thought of this for awhile ..

[Lowpe]

I was looking at some Tracker data, which as I understand it is very close to real data on enemy plane losses. I did a little better in the air than the intel report led me to believe, which has been a trend lately. Who to believe?

We have exceeded 110 kills on the latest Jugs. He will get close to a 1000, and has 2-3 more months of production to go having finished his first month. I wonder if he is doing the downgrade, upgrade method of replenishing planes or simply adding from pools.

We have exceeded 440 Corsair (CV capable). That is a pretty big dent in those guys and I think we are beginning to see light here as both squadrons swept with but 14 planes last turn. It used to be six squadrons of 20+.

I tried a new tactic against his sweeps this turn. A squadron of Oscars down low at a very high percentage cap (80CAP/20Rest). The idea is that a larger number of Oscars down low will suck the attackers even lower, and allow the Frank/George/Tony/Jack to jump them. I set the percentage high, because I really only care that they are present for that first sweep or two.

After an engagement I will probably have to cycle them out anyhow. Just another different tactic tried.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I was looking at some Tracker data, which as I understand it is very close to real data on enemy plane losses. I did a little better in the air than the intel report led me to believe, which has been a trend lately. Who to believe?

We have exceeded 110 kills on the latest Jugs. He will get close to a 1000, and has 2-3 more months of production to go having finished his first month. I wonder if he is doing the downgrade, upgrade method of replenishing planes or simply adding from pools.

We have exceeded 440 Corsair (CV capable). That is a pretty big dent in those guys and I think we are beginning to see light here as both squadrons swept with but 14 planes last turn. It used to be six squadrons of 20+.

I tried a new tactic against his sweeps this turn. A squadron of Oscars down low at a very high percentage cap (80CAP/20Rest). The idea is that a larger number of Oscars down low will suck the attackers even lower, and allow the Frank/George/Tony/Jack to jump them. I set the percentage high, because I really only care that they are present for that first sweep or two.

After an engagement I will probably have to cycle them out anyhow. Just another different tactic tried.

Tracker data on air losses is 100% accurate.

[Lowpe]

April 8th, 1944

Night bombing of Osaka by Venturas. Irving Sa drop one, and prevent any damage.

During the day, Honshu quiet. Two sweeps by Spitfires and one by Jugs leaves equal losses, 20-20, although several of mine are Oscars. 17 Spitfires and 3 Jugs.

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 25 NM, estimated altitude 22,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
N1K1-J George x 15
Ki-43-IV Oscar x 6
Ki-84a Frank x 20

Allied aircraft
Spitfire VIII x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
N1K1-J George: 2 destroyed
Ki-43-IV Oscar: 2 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Spitfire VIII: 5 destroyed

[Lowpe]

The Allies bombard Etorofu, which held during an attack yesterday (but is doomed), and Georgetown.

Heavy Allied bombing at Bangkok and Ayuthia.

We manage to get in a lick at the invading Georgetown task forces. The CVs where one hex to the west in clouds...we also return in the afternoon for some more empty xAP hits.

[Lowpe]

I had a squadron of Vals hanging around, so I sent them out looking for some returning or arriving ships.

I wanted better.[:(]