Did You Know I Used to Drive a Rollercoaster?: Apbarog(A) vs OPilot(J)

[apbarog]

24 Sep 42

5 US APDs got into and out of Kusaie Island and dropped off supply. On the way out, I-10 fired 2 torpedoes at APD Fox and missed. This was just southeast of the island. In that location, light cruiser Tatsuta and 8 destroyers intercepted the 5 APDs. Miraculously, the US ships evaded combat and continued retiring towards Tarawa. Visibility was 30,000 yards. The US ships spotted the enemy at 21,000 yards and then evaded. It turned out that enemy carriers are in that hex also.

Near Ponape, Flying Fish fired 4 torpedoes at destroyer Satsuki but missed. Battleship Hyuga is spotted.

Near Babar near Timor, Spearfish fired 2 torpedoes at xAKL Aiyo Maru and both hit. The first was a dud, but the second was not. The cargo ship is presumably sunk.

Allied bombers hit Cox's Bazar's port and cause moderate damage. B-26s hit the 55th infantry regiment there.

Derby in northern Australia is lost to part of the Yokosuka 1st SNLF.

Destroyer Worden (SYS 34/FLOT 87-57/ENG 23-16/FIRE 0) made it to Cooktown. It will do some repairs there at the pier and go south when damage isn't so critical. The ship is certainly seen there, and could be a target of Bettys, but I have 2 fighter squadrons there now. Saving this ship (so far) has been unexpected and gratifying.

Battleship Washington just finished a refit at Pearl Harbor, and unexpectedly immediately entered its next scheduled refit. I'd never encountered that situation before. I'm ok with it, though, as I had decided to do the same. I had been debating whether to hold off my Wake Island invasion 7 more days to wait for Washington, and I was going to anyway.

Remember the 4 British battleships ambushed by enemy carriers near Akyab when they were moving into position for a bombardment? They all were heavily damaged, and spent time at Diamond Harbour repairing, as well as moving to and repairing at Madras and Colombo before heading towards Capetown. Royal Sovereign (SYS 1/FLOT 33/ENG 0/FIRE 0) just arrived at Capetown and has 88 days of shipyard repair. Resolution (SYS 11/FLOT 5/ENG 0/FIRE 0) has 21 more days of repair at the pier, where it just moved from the shipyard. Revenge (SYS 1/FLOT 46/ENG 0/FIRE 0) and Ramilles (SYS 1/FLOT 41/ENG 26/FIRE 0) are still slowly moving off-map to Capetown. But all were saved.

I moved 37 B-17s to Chungking and ordered them to hit the airfield at Nanyang. Nanyang now has a huge airfield, and aircraft there are heavily supporting the enemy around Sian. Maybe I can get a surprise hit in.

I have an LB-30 squadron in Australia. I moved out the bomber pilots and moved in recon pilots. The squadron moved to Cloncurry where it will start daily recon flights over Darwin. I have enough move heavily protected bombers now, so I can spare these planes for recon. They have excellent range. And there are just a couple left in the pool.

ARD Dewey is now moving from Vava'u to Luganville.

[apbarog]

25 Sep 42

S-38 was transiting through a shallow hex east of Rabaul when found by enemy patrol boats. The sub was hit by a depth charge and several near misses.

Hyuga, Ise, Yamashiro and Fuso again bombard Kusaie Island. 540 casualties and moderate damage to the airfield. There's just 20 supply at the base, and that's due to Catalinas and transports flying in supply, and that 2 SSTs just unloaded. The 2 partial infantry regiments there are now showing a shortage of supply. It's a tough spot, but totally acceptable to me, unless there is a counter-invasion.

Pompano spotted carrier Junyo near Ponape and fired 6 torpedoes. 2 of the torpedoes hit, but both were duds. How disappointing! Lots of Allied subs in this area, including 3 Dutch subs, so as long as the enemy keeps coming to Kusaie, we'll keep rolling the dice trying to get good hits.

Sian got major enemy air activity, and that included lots of planes from Nanyang. So when my thiry-some B-17s arrived, there was no CAP. Surprise was achieved. Unfortunately, the enemy planes seemed to all be flying also, and the weather was heavy rain, so results were very poor. Minor airfield damage and just one Helen destroyed on the ground. The bombers head back to India.

Sallys with Oscars hit Comilla near Chittagong. Irrelevant to me. Just some recon there. No supply issues on the rail line.

2 B-25 squadrons hit the 51st Naval Guard on Makin, and cause very heavy casualties, over 300. I can bomb this unit out of existence with just medium bombers. Since I've lost units in this manner, I will do so.

Thirty-some B-17s also hit Horn Island, finding 27 A6M3 Zeros on CAP. One Zero was shot down and no Fortresses were lost. Base damage was light in thunderstorms, but one squadron lined up ships in the port.

Japanese Ships
APD Nadakaze, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Maikaze, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

The Allies attack south of Chittagong yet again, this time after adding a fresh British infantry division. Results were fairly even, and that is acceptable. I'll now bombard a day or two and wait as another British division moves in to replace an Indian division headed back to Chittagong.

Ground combat at 56,42 (near Chittagong)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 35707 troops, 575 guns, 567 vehicles, Assault Value = 877

Defending force 20314 troops, 304 guns, 171 vehicles, Assault Value = 357

Allied adjusted assault: 589

Japanese adjusted defense: 815

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
1107 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 82 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 25 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 29 (2 destroyed, 27 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
920 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 99 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 8 disabled
Guns lost 16 (1 destroyed, 15 disabled)
Vehicles lost 11 (1 destroyed, 10 disabled)

[apbarog]

26 Sep 42

Interesting. Sub Blackfish just recently took up station west of Wake Island. It fired 4 torpedoes at xAP Kobe Maru but missed. I have designs on Wake fairly soon. I hope this hasn't gotten too much attention. Odds are the Wake has been reinforced. OPilot may be starting to load up defensive positions. He hasn't seen my carriers in quite awhile.

Chittagong is bombarded again by 4 cruisers. 584 casualties and minor base damage. They probably got rearmed at Rangoon, but I'm going to do some recon of the dot base south of Akyab. It's possible support ships are there despite it being just a dot base. I'm considering a long range B-24 strike of Rangoon. I doubt that surprise would be achieved with this type of mission again, but who knows.

Sub Snapper fired 4 torpedoes at destroyer Yugao and missed. Yugau is escorting a minelayer between Timor and Darwin.

Off the coast of Burma, British sub Trusty fired 2 torpedoes at patrol boat Ayaha Maru. Both hit, but one was a dud. The one that hit, however, was enough to sink the ship.

A couple of Chinese squadrons had arrived at Chungking. One had P-66s, the other I upgraded to P-66s. The pilots I assigned are adequately trained in air to air but have low experience. Now there are fewer P-66s. 2 Oscar groups swept the capital, and the Chinese were no match. 12 Vanguards were lost and 1 Oscar didn't make it home. The enemy knew that many B-17s came from Chungking yesterday. I did fly out all of the operational Fortresses but there's still some damaged ones there. So another experiment with the Chinese Air Force ends as the previous ones did. I spent a handful of points to buy the units out and am sending them to India to train more.

Dutch B-25s have been bombing units just behind the lines near Cox's Bazar. Oscars were on LRCAP there for the first time today. 4 Mitchells were lost.

Similar activity over Makin. 3 Zeros were on LRCAP and got a Mitchell bombing troops.

The activity around Kusaie ramped up again today. Enemy carriers are now northwest of the island, and there appears to be more of them. They hit the airfield on Kusaie, doing minor damage. 95 Kates and 88 Vals with 69 Zeros on the raid. The airfield is badly damaged and there's no supply on the island. I continue to fly in bits of supply on Catalinas, and on transports when the airfield is open.

I could almost certainly force a carrier battle here if I wanted to. But I'm sticking to my plans and allowing OPilot to continue his activity around Kusaie. One concern is that Kusaie is pretty close to Wake Island. I'll need to do something to draw the enemy south before I go to Wake.

Interesting artillery attack. Bombardments usually aren't worth mentioning, but the high number of enemy casualties stood out to me with this attack.

Ground combat at 81,39 (near Tienshui)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 57588 troops, 508 guns, 162 vehicles, Assault Value = 1671

Defending force 41134 troops, 246 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 1236

Japanese ground losses:
284 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Assaulting units:
26th Division
8th Division
9th Division
14th Division

Defending units:
29th Chinese Corps
56th Chinese Corps
91st Chinese Corps
95th Chinese Corps
13th Group Army
18th Group Army
20th Artillery Regiment

In a break with my recent pattern, I won't continue with my every-other-day deliberate attacks south of Chittagong. We'll continue with artillery until the fresh British division and US division replaces exhausted units there. A huge Chinese corp remains in reserve. If the enemy continues to bombard Chittagong, I may want to move my recovering units further inland. We'll see. I'd like to keep them there to show a strong defense and discourage a Chittagong landing behind my lines. This is something I've done as the Japanese. In one game, I did it twice.

[apbarog]

27 Sep 42

Sub Halibut fired 4 torpedoes at xAK Horuriku Maru near Wewak. One hit but it was a dud.

Two big Oscar groups swept Chittagong but I had move my fighters out.

Sian still gets heavily bombed almost daily. The supply drain has lessened as I have just three Chinese corps there now. I'm not going to leave Sian completely. OPilot has positioned his strength to surround Sian, not to take it. I can hold it even out of supply against the forces he has adjacent to it on the same side of the river.

Three B-24 squadrons hit Horn Island's airfield and port. 21 A6M3 Zeros intercepted. 4 Liberators were lost but 7 Zeros were lost also, one on the ground. Minimal base damage in severe weather.

There's a big task force at Horn now. Many destroyers, not sure what else. With reduced CAP there, I moved several naval strike bombers to Normanton. The range is 10 so I'm using medium bombers, some trained in low level naval attack.

23 Nells from Timor bombed Derby's Base Force as it fled inland. 131 casualties of the 18 non-combat squads destroyed. The unit was completely eliminated by Nells.

A fresh British division has joined the line south of Chittagong. A depleted British division and a depleted Indian division are moving north to Chittagong to recover, but haven't left the hex yet, so I'm a bit overstacked for a couple of days. But supply is plentiful in India, and at Chittagong, so I'm not concerned. The troops will deliberately attack today. A fresh US infantry is moving into the line also, but it'll be a few days until it arrives. It will be ready for the attack after this one.

We're going to take Cox's Bazar and Akyab. The coastal offensive has already had an effect elsewhere in Burma. The 33rd Infantry Division, that did threaten the Ledo area, appears to be pulling back to the south to get to the rail line. It will probably head towards the coast.

What I'll call KB moved aggressively southeast of Kusaie Island after seeing my APDs once again approaching from the southeast. I moved the APDs to Nauru and they were 8 hexes from KB, so no strike. I had 2 fighter squadrons there. With Kusaie obviously now under an aggressive blockade by KB, I'm giving up on using APDs for now. They'll go to Brisbane for an upgrade. I continue to use 2 SSTs as well as aircraft ferrying in supply. But that is small bits and with every naval bombardment, all is lost. Still, KB is there being an irritant but not really contributing like it could be. This isn't my focus, but it is OPilot's.

Loading for the Wake Island operation from Pearl Harbor will be in about a week. Most of the rest of the US fleet is in the South Pacific, and many ships will upgrade at Sydney in a few days. They'll be out of action for most of October, but then things will get fast and furious. I plan rapid-fire back-to-back invasions of Port Moresby, Horn Island, islands east of Milne Bay, Buin and Shortlands, and a quick push past Horn Island to Gove, Wessel Island, Taberfane and Dobo. The troops will all be ready then. It will just be a matter of using the nice APs over and over. The 2 US carriers and 2 CVEs that will participate in the Wake Invasion will join the others for all of the action around New Guinea.

[apbarog]

28 Sep 42

Enemy battleship TF appears at Cooktown. I didn't see them coming. There were ships at Horn Island, and it may have been them. I'd just ordered AM Cessnock to start patrolling for mines up and down the coast south of Cooktown. Cessnock got to Cooktown for the first time and was greeted rudely by Hiei and Kirishima. The enemy then bombarded Cooktown, possibly drawn to the opportunity to finish off destroyer Worden. The bombardment is weak. A P-39 is destroyed on the ground, some others are damaged. Minimal damage to the airfield and no damage to the port. And Worden was not hit. Worden's FLOT went from 79 to 74. It should be leaving Cooktown in about a week.

4 enemy destroyers make a fast transport dropoff at Vangunu, just southeast of Munda. Munda is an enemy dot base with a small enemy unit. Vangunu was an unoccupied Allied dot base. It's close to Guadalcanal. Allied aircraft go after the enemy ships from Tassafronga and Lunga, surprised to see the ships still there during daylight. The weather was overcast.

16 SBDs miss.
12 Swordfish miss.
15 Albacores miss.

Finally

Morning Air attack on TF, near Vangunu at 111,135

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid spotted at 17 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes

Allied aircraft
Beaufighter Ic x 16

Allied aircraft losses
Beaufighter Ic: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
DD Hakaze, Shell hits 17, Bomb hits 1
DD Yukaze, Shell hits 11

Aircraft Attacking:
16 x Beaufighter Ic bombing from 100 feet
Naval Attack: 2 x 250 lb SAP Bomb

Then 16 SB2U-3s got one 1000 pound bomb hit on Yukaze, setting it on fire.

Against the right targets, these Beaufighters do well at 100 feet. The pilots are well trained in low naval attack and in strafing.

B-17s bombed Horn Island's airfield, destroying an A6M3 Zero on the ground. The attack was in heavy rain and did little base damage.

KB moved to the northeast of Kusaie Island, and again sent a big strike against the island's airfield and port. 95 Kates and 88 Vals with 71 Zeros.

Near Phuket, Dutch sub O20 fired 2 torpedoes at xAK Matsukawa Maru, and got hit. The ship is loaded with fuel and burns, sinking just after the replay. Probably pulling fuel from Rangoon to Singapore.

In the jungle of northern Luzon, 3 enemy armor units finish off the Philippine 21st Infantry Division. This was the last Allied unit in the Philippines.

The Allied attack south of Chittagong went rather poorly this time. An Indian and a British division did not participate and were heading north. A fresh British division did participate for the first time.

Ground combat at 56,42 (near Chittagong)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 25105 troops, 446 guns, 445 vehicles, Assault Value = 1259

Defending force 16826 troops, 266 guns, 171 vehicles, Assault Value = 286

Allied adjusted assault: 403

Japanese adjusted defense: 609

Allied assault odds: 1 to 2

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
416 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 44 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled

Allied ground losses:
1263 casualties reported
Squads: 19 destroyed, 95 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 12 disabled
Guns lost 63 (3 destroyed, 60 disabled)
Vehicles lost 24 (9 destroyed, 15 disabled)

The next attack will include a fresh US infantry division, on top of what attacked here.

[apbarog]

OPilot will be traveling until Sunday. I should get a turn tonight, and I will try to have the patience to do a little bit of it each day. I'll take a detailed look at everything, and I will post a region by region update, which is something I haven't done in awhile.

[apbarog]

29 Sep 42

AMc Patna has been patrolling Calcutta and Diamond Harbour looking for mines. Mines were discovered at Diamond Harbour. The 4 enemy cruisers and 6 destroyers reappeared at Chittagong for another bombardment. 364 casualties and no base damage. They bombarded Chittagong 3 days ago. That's not enough time to go back and forth from Rangoon, unless they are using full speed all the time, and I doubt that. This can only mean that the enemy has replenishment ships at Ramree Island. Ramree is just a dot base, but that doesn't prevent replenishment ships from being there. I'll be ordering up a massive heavy bomber strike immediately! I will also move all of the coastal guns I have in India (which aren't many) to Chittagong. Chittagong already has a nice static base force and a small CD unit that I moved there, but it isn't enough.

Allied ships bombard Horn Island, and I have to declare it to be a nuclear bombardment for having no battleships.

Night Naval bombardment of Horn Island at 91,128

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 22 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed on ground

Allied Ships
CA Exeter
CA Canberra
CA Australia
CL Enterprise
CL Hobart
CL Perth
CL Achilles
CL Leander
DD Express
DD Encounter
DD Nizam
DD Nestor
DD Stuart

Japanese ground losses:
1036 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 11 destroyed, 63 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 12 disabled
Guns lost 8 (2 destroyed, 6 disabled)

Airbase hits 14
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 50
Port hits 18
Port supply hits 10

No CAP was observed with later airstrikes, so the bombardment was effective. The task force then ran into tiny AMc Iwate Maru #5 just outside of Horn Island, but both sides evaded combat.

Kusaie Island is getting even more enemy attention now. 2 Bettys units bombed it from Truk, and another from Roi Namur, doing minor damage to the airfield in thunderstorms. KB is now a few hexes due northwest of the island, and something else is further out to the northwest. Could it be an invasion? I haven't loaded up the turn yet, so I don't know what the mouse-over shows.

B-17s hit Horn Island's airfield and port and did light damage to both. One or two A6M3 Zeros were destroyed and many were damaged.

West of Horn Island two or three hexes, an enemy cruiser force was spotted. A squadron of B-26s, one of Hudson IIIs, and one of B-25s all attacked the cruiser force and all bombs missed in light rain.

42 Zeros from Port Moresby swept Cooktown, finding about a dozen P-39s. It looked like about 4 P-39s were lost for the downing of one or two Zeros. A P-40 squadron is there but was on LRCAP of the cruiser force that bombarded Horn Island.

Chungking was bombed by 15 Helens, looking for the B-17s again. One already damaged plane was damaged again. The main units are all back in India.

B-26s bombed the enemy unit that just took Vangunu near Munda. The unit is I/19th Naval Guard Unit. Tiny. It will be bombed and bypassed.

With OPilot now traveling until next weekend, I'll work on this turn very slowly and look at every little detail. I will post a region by region update as the week goes on.

[apbarog]

29 Sep 42 - Aleutians

[apbarog]

29 Sep 42 - Marshall and Gilbert Islands

[apbarog]

29 Sep 42 - Solomons

[Wuffer]

This is an interesting read, apbarog.
It's quite seldom that I'm actually logged in, so it's a great opportunity to thank for this entertaining effort.

The only complain? It's looking so damned easy...

[apbarog]

Thanks Wuffer.

Guadalcanal was easier than expected. The Japanese did not contest the landings in the air or on the sea. The enemy troops were overwhelmed with 2 US divisions and didn't stand a chance without help. In that respect, the Solomons has been easier than expected. OPilot is paying a lot of attention to Kusaie Island still. KB remains there.

Once I show my updates for Burma and China, you'll see that everything is not so easy.

29 Sep 42 - Northern Australia and Timor

[apbarog]

29 Sep 42 - Burma

[apbarog]

29 Sep 42 - Northern China

[apbarog]

29 Sep 42 - Southern China

[apbarog]

29 Sep 42 - More Game Info

[apbarog]

29 Sep 42 - Ships Lost

[EDIT: Many lower point ships not listed]

[apbarog]

29 Sep 42 - Overall Map

[apbarog]

Upon further review, the call is reversed. Chittagong has been bombarded with heavy cruisers on 3 day intervals. I didn't think they could get to Rangoon and back in that time, but they can. I went ahead with the port bombings of Ramree and Moulmein, as well as Rangoon.

My detailed planning review is complete. To land 2 US divisions at Port Moresby, I'll need to use every good AP in the US Navy, just as I did at Lunga. Half of them, however, are at Pearl Harbor, and will be used in the Wake Invasion. Assuming no losses at Wake, they will then go to Australia. Wake loading will start within a week. Many US ships and carriers will upgrade at Sydney starting October 1, and will take 3 to 4 weeks for everything to finish. That will be enough time for the good APs at Pearl Harbor to get to Australia.

When I go to Port Moresby, the carriers will support. After unloading there, the good APs will go back to Townsville and load for Horn Island and maybe beyond Horn, as only one division will load for Horn. Invasions of the islands east of Milne Bay and also Shortlands and Buin will follow. I'm not sure on the order of those, or what carriers will support.

In my opinion, there's a great advantage to pushing northwest from Horn while still attacking in the Solomons (or near Kusaie, for that matter). KB can only be on one side of New Guinea or the other, and it's a long trip to go around New Guinea to get to the other. I will definitely attack where KB is not. And since if KB is still depleted from the earlier battle, at some point I'll seek a carrier fight. But the strategy is mainly to push the invasions with carrier support.

[apbarog]

30 Sep 42

An enemy cruiser force is spotted near Horn Island. It appears to have passed north of Horn Island and definitely ended up at Port Moresby. I will move my stronger cruiser force from Townsville to Cooktown today.

This is the second major task force to head east past Horn Island. A battleship task force did the same last week, headed to Rabaul. A bit of a reinforcement of the region, I think.

Speaking of battleships, Hyuga, Ise, Yamashiro and Fuso make another appearance at Kusaie Island, causing 369 casualties and more base damage. The island is basically out of supply every day now, despite SSTs unloading and Catalinas flying in supply. All ground units are now in the red. 2 Betty groups from Truk and another from Roi Namur bombed the airfield, and this is an everyday occurrence now that the airfield is down. KB is near Ponape.

And yet the US fleet is not coming.

I am starting to extract the Marine raider unit at Kusaie. All of it can be flown out by Catalinas.

Allied bombers hit Ramree Island's port but do minor damage in the rain. No ships in port here, based on recon.

Moulmein's port is bombed by B-24s also, with minor damage done. No ships here.

B-17s hit Rangoon's port and find about 12 Tojos on CAP. 5 bombers are lost and a Tojo is shot down but some hits are achieved with bombing the port at 6000 feet. Flak was heavy.

AG Irako, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAKL Shonan Maru #16, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
xAKL Matsutan Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
AKE Kashino, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Yes, that's where the cruisers that keep hitting Chittagong are rearming. In fact, they are spotted at Rangoon today.

B-26s hit enemy troops at Portland Roads. I notice that both the 4th/A Division and 4th/B Division are bombed, so at least parts of 2/3 of the division are here.

Allied troops bombard south of Chittagong. A fresh US infantry division will arrive and then we attack again.

Today is October 1, 1942. This is a big day for upgrades. Enterprise, Hornet and Wasp, along with 9 heavy cruisers and 5 light cruisers will upgrade at Sydney. All will take 21 days. The carrier and light cruiser upgrades are substantial. The carriers lose most of their 1.1 inch AA guns, replacing them with 40mm bofors, and add 14 20mm guns, as well as getting new radars.

Battleship Washington has one more day until finishing an upgrade at Pearl Harbor. Then we start loading there for the Wake Island invasion. I got a interesting bit of SigInt today about Wake Island. It said that the Wake Coastal Gun Battalion in on xAKL(s) and headed to Wake Island. This unit is not static, and is a very nice unit to be able to pick and choose where to put it. I'm almost positive that it appears on Wake Island sometime after the Japanese take the island. This SigInt almost certainly means that the unit is at Wake Island now but is loading up to go elsewhere. This would be good news for the upcoming invasion.

I noticed elsewhere on the forum a discussion about disbanding Indian troops. I've never done this, and hadn't seen the need to really, but I'm considering doing so. I could use more of the Indian 42 squads. I have 47 in the pool but only get 48 new ones per month. I have several unrestricted divisions that are just shells. Some were saved from Malaysia, another is the old 1st Burma Division that became an Indian divison. These need 1942 squads. I'm thinking that I could disband one or two restricted Indian divisions, and provide unrestricted divisions with their squads. One restricted division just got beat up south of Chittagong, and over half of the division's squads are disabled. I don't know for sure if disabled squads go into the pool when the unit is disbanded, but I would hope so.

With OPilot's return, it's good to be back in the war. A week is just too long to be away from it.