October 4th, 1942
Major base captures in two theaters make today yet another big day in the history of the Empire.
India/Burma
With all the pieces in place, we launch our attack on Calcutta and manage a 5:1 result despite the presence of level 2 forts and the urban defense bonus. There were only four units remaining - F William, 3rd Indian Coastal Art and 23rd Indian Mtn Gun Regiments all retreat west. Eastern Command surrenders. We capture or kill 3,300 men, 74 guns and 6 vehicles. No enemy planes were present. The military facilities have no damage. The industry is only lightly damaged and we end up with 466 Light industry, 243 Heavy Industry, 57 Resources and 10 Repair Shipyards. We end the day with over 18,000 supplies in the city already, and tomorrow most of the resources at Chittagong will be railed to the large port facilities here.
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Calcutta will provide a large port for us to ship resources and supplies out of India.[/center]
The capture of Calcutta is a major victory, but the day had more victories in store.
On the other side of the river, the 2nd Division attacked again and today gets a 4:1 result capturing Howrah. In my efforts to seal off Calcutta's eastern side, I left a Howrah hexside open and the enemy troops retreated east. This is okay though as I can rotate some units around to trap these three enemy units. They lose 1,500 men, 42 guns and 74 vehicles on the retreat. Once these LCUs are destroyed that will be another Indian Division (the 19th) out of action for a while. Howrah's military facilities are also undamaged and we capture 38 of 40 light industry intact and 19 of 20 resources intact. One more place generating supplies for us.
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Battles at Howrah and Calcutta[/center]
With these two bases captured, we will send the 1st and 2nd Armored Divisions and the 2nd and 48th Infantry Divisions west to pursue the fleeing forces from Calcutta. They will eventually work their way northwest to surround the British troops at Jamshedpur so we can hopefully eliminate those 48,000 enemy troops as well. The 56th/C is making good progress with its air transport and I think we will be able to resist an attack if the enemy troops cross the river into Cuttack. With no enemy fighter bases in range, our bombers will be hammering the retreating Commonwealth forces as they move through the open terrain towards Cuttack.
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Situation in India[/center]
DEI/N Australia
On the other side of the equator, we launched another important attack at Darwin. Our troops there also did very well and captured the base with a 13:1 result against level 2 forts. The enemy troops retreated to the southeast so our armored units will move into the countryside to surround them and finish them off. In the retreat, the enemy lost 5,400 men, 94 guns and 56 vehicles. Darwin's resources were slightly damaged leaving us 17 of 20 still available. The facilities were also slightly damaged with port 15, service 2, and runway 8. Surprisingly, we find lots of airplanes parked at Darwin's fields. The haul includes 62x P-40E Warhawks, 17x Hudson I, 4x F4F-3 Wildcats and 2x DH-84 Dragons.
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Darwin is captured![/center]
China
We continue heavy bombing of the Chinese that fled Ichang. We can probably catch up and force them to retreat again.
We do a bombardment attack to see what is at Chungking. Combat reports indicate 198,535 troops, 511 guns and no vehicles. Listed AV for the enemy is 4,670. Currently we have about 85,000 men, 819 guns, and 108 vehicles for an AV of 1,900. I'm thinking we should get closer to parity in troops and AV before we start attacking.
Other
ML No. 201 is reported to have been sunk near Trivandrum on May 18, 1942
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