August 29th to October 10th, 1944
1944 is fun! More than a full game-month since my last update, and the map has changed drastically!
New Guinea/Eastern DEI
I may as well start with the front where the news is best. The Allies are still stationary around Sorong, and although they have taken Waigeo after a hard fight. Ambon falls into Allied hands as well, but the Allies seem to be in no rush to push past New Guinea and deal with the airbase complexes at Kendrai/Makassar or the Moluccas.
A reckless move on my part leads to be moving the CL Abukuma and escorting DD's to attempt to interdict Allied shipping off Ambon. They run right in to an Allied heavy cruiser force and get whacked. Scratch another IJN CL.
Supply shortages on Timor has caused the smaller artillery units to disapear, but the big combat units are in good condition and well dug in, so the situation is fairly stable here. Troops are being flown out from Timor to Makassar to help defend the Celebes.
This theatre is rapidly becoming a backwater with the Allied focus evident elsewhere.
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Central Pacific
The Allies break months of monotonous milk raids on isolated Japanese garrisons by landing at Ponope. Excellent timing, as I'd finished flying most of the good combat troops back to Truk.
The division that I'd garrisoned on Truk for the majority of the war has also been withdrawn. Instead of dying defending Truk, they'll die defending Takao on Formosa.
China
The Chinese troops that attempted to take Chungking have been beaten and are ruthlessly being hunted down.
A division and a regiment have been withdrawn from Urmuchi in northern China to help shore up the defenses of the mountain passes around Paoshan. While this front is in no danger at present, it's very open to the suicide attacks Loka likes to make with a couple corps of Chinese. A thousand AV, even Chinese AV and without supply, can still cause a great many problems...
Malaya/Western DEI
As expected, the Allies roll down the Malay Peninsular without much difficulty and seize Singapore. I took the decision to reinforce Palembang over Singapore as I felt that the chances of prolonged resistance on Sumatra were much higher than trying to hold Singapore. I think I've made the right call here, as the Allied advance on Sumatra seems to be stalling out around Padang, against three IJA divisions and a handful of Mixed Brigades.
Singapore has been transformed to a major Allied naval and air hub. 500 + fighters reported regularly by recon flights, as well as some 200 ships in the docks.
The naval and air battles around Singapore have been brutal. Japanese sweeps can't make much of a dent in the strong Allied CAP, and the IJN is slowly suffering a constant level of attrition that will soon lead to outright death.
The skies above Palembang are bitterly contested. The initial Allied bomber raid on the base came off as a rough draw, though damage to both airbase and IJN fighter groups was heavy. However, a combination of rotating air groups and LRCAP has managed to give me some breathing space to get repairs going, and additional engineers, as well as extra AA units are being shifted from Java to Sumatra.
Naval battles have developed a pattern, with IJN ships based from Palembang attempting to fend off raids from USN Fletchers. Usually the outcome is favourable to the IJN, however losses are starting to mount.
The only offensive action by the IJN consisted of an aggressive raid on Singapore with all the available IJN heavy cruisers - the results were disappointing - the IJN lost 3 heavy cruisers (Ashigari, Nachi, Myoko) in exchange for the Australian CL Perth and severely damaging the US BB South Dakota (40 shell hits, 3 torpedo hits: I suspect Allied DC efforts saved her). The losses of USN Fletchers in these surface engagements and to naval mines off Palembang probably evens out the destroyer losses.
The three remaining operational IJN heavy cruisers are laagered in Palembang behind dense minefields, while the Furutaka is getting a turret replaced in Batavia. The Musashi is sitting off Batavia as a reserve force to counter any Allied moves towards Oosthaven.
Singkawang still remains in Japanese hands, thanks to an extensive airlift from Java and Sumatra. However, the Allies were able to move troops beyond Sinkawang, landing at Miri, Brunei and Jesselton while their deathstar carrier fleet provided cover. These bases are or will soon be in Allied hands, but they lack support troops and are not built up, so have been kept suppressed by Japanese air raids from Balikipapan or the Philippines.
Most importantly, however, the oil and fuel is still flowing! The bottleneck is Ooosthaven at present, but there are still tankers moving from the DEI to Japan, and long may it continue! How long this will continue is open to questioning, but I'm counting every day as a blessing!
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Vietnam
The organized retreat from Thailand to Vietnam quickly developed into a rout as the Allied bomber force went to town on exposed Japanese units. Most of the IJA units managed to make a good getaway, but outright losses worked out at around 6 divisions and countless smaller artillery and support units.
I'm trying to make good these losses by swapping the bought-back remnants of the destroyed units with Home Island garrison divisions, backed up by reinforcements from China and Manchuria. I get a rush of reinforcements in early 1945, so I should have enough to form a sizeable blocking force to Allied movements by then.
The frontline is stable at Vinh, for now. The units cut off south of Vinh should make it out, despite the best efforts of the Chinese and Indian units running rampant in the area. If they can't march north to safety, I'm prepared to move them off by sea north to Hanoi, where I'm trying to dig a second defensive line.
Hanian has a token garrison and some aviation support to give it the appearance of being defended, but once the Allied air support catches up with the spearheads then it's game over for Hanian as a defensive bastion.
I doubt I'll be able to keep the Allied hordes out of China, but at the very least I will have till the end of the month while the Allied conduct mopping up operations in Thailand to dig fortifications and reinforce battered units.
The big fear I have here is a deep Allied landing at Pakhoi or on the open Chinese coast to the east, to cut off the units in Vietnam. I'm rushing troops to Hong Kong, and I have my operational carriers sitting at Pescaodres in case the Allied do attempt such a venture. It will be a risky venture, considering Canton, Hong Kong and Takao are all level 9 airbases, but it's well within the Allies capabilities at this point.
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IJN Attrition
To give you an idea of the slow death of the IJN, here are the ships I have left.
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Capital ships of the IJN available for combat operations. Most of the KB is in Hiroshima for repairs and upgrades[/center]
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IJN captial ships repairing or upgrading. I've done a good job of keeping the BB's out of harms way, but this had led to the heavy cruiser force suffering.[/center]
I plan to keep the KB and the BB's in reserve for that final decisive battle on the outer perimiter. To my mind, that's Luzon, Formosa or the Ryukyu's. Hopefully they'll get a good trade.
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