War across the Atlantic - Smeulders (Allies) vs. SqzMyLemon (Japan)

[Smeulders]

Khyberbill: I'd like for Loyang to be a bit off a first test though, see how hard he wishes to push. If he tries to surround it, I'll probably retreat, but for now I'll keep enough forces to hold back any head on assaults.

18-19 January 42'

Malaya
Malacca has fallen, the Australians have evacuated Mersing, everything is now on the move to Singapore. It's taken him quite a while to get there, now let's hope the city itself can cause some more delays.

PI
Air bombardements have started over Bataan, but from about 20,000 feet the bombers aren't hitting much.

My PT-boats have managed to get in a punch, during the night of the 19th, they got in amongst a transport TF and torpedoed an xAK before the escorts (2 DD, 1 DMS and a PB) really knew what was happening. After that a melee ensued with PT boats machine gunning the decks of transports and destroyers alike and the escorts trying to get their revenge while dodging torpedoes. In the end one PT-boat was sunk, but not before a torpedo hit and sank the DMS. The fate of the transport is uncertain.

DEI
Another stroke of luck here for me, betties suddenly attacked the American cruiser force at Kendari, but no hits were scored. The ships were supposed to have auto-disbanded, but didn't. The following night, a BB group suddenly appeared at Kendari, but the cruisers were retiring to Soerabaja now that their position was known. Banshee planes stationed nearby failed to attack due to weather.

Recon
SigInt confirmed a BB moving to Truk and SigInt gathered radio transmissions of a TF steaming there. There's no word of troops loading though, but the next wave can't be far off.
In other news, the report that BB Kirishima was sunk in a collision is now considered wrong, no big surprise.

[Smeulders]

20-21 January 42'

A very short update, as the previous days were quite uneventful.

China
3 RGC divisions retake the dot base that was just evacuated, the corps is turning right around and going to fight it out, no way I'm going to flee from the only units worse then the Chinese.

Subs
Gar puts 2 live torpedoes in a smallish xAK, making 3 hits in 2 attacks when asked how he managed to get his torpedoes to explode, the captain's answer was quite cryptic. "Ask for Milo"

S-41 has a dud on a small PB.

It seems like the next waves of attacks is underway. Mini KB is sighted as it leaves Babeldaob for the DEI, many subs are in position to intercept.

[Smeulders]

22 January 42'

DEI
The main action here was around the Moluccas island. During the night USS Sculpin first intercepted Mini-KB and later on a support group containing an AO. Both time she attacked escorting DD resulting in a dud and one missed salvo. There are a lot more subs around here, mainly dutch and S-boat

In the morning, Banshees launched against enemy shipping seen in Ternate. It was a risky manoeuvre with Mini-KB coming in, but only 2 zeroes leaked from the CAP, they damaged some A-24s, but none were downed. Results weren't overwhelming though, only an xAKL and small PB were engaged, both are likely on the bottom of the harbour.

EDIT : Of course the image should read A-24 instead of B-24.
EDIT 2: And I'm not quite sure what the 'g' is doing in Sculpin, it seems that I'll have to pay a bit more attention to the map making.


Bismarck Sea
The Japanese showed up here and took a small dot base North of Kavieng, but that's probably only the prelude for a land grab here. There won't be much resistance, maybe raids from some DB, but there are nearly no land forces in the area, PM excluded and even that is weak. I'm also not committing many naval forces here, I'm fairly confident that the KB will be supporting actions here. (Maybe even the TF spotted by radio transmissions, I won't be surprised if CVs are more easily spotted this way)



Subs
One more sub action sees Tambor torpedoing a large AO some 100 miles West of Truk. It isn't showing up in the sunk ships report though, it seems that apart from faulty detonators, my torpedoes are also plagued by small payloads. Only about 40-50% of large/medium Japanese merchants are showing up on the sunk lists after as single single torpedo hit, I know a part of this is FOW, but it still seems low.

All in all I liked this turn, things will be heating up shortly.

[Smeulders]

23 January 42'

DEI
After the sighting of Mini-KB yesterday, it disappeared again, it may be heading for the Makassar straight. An intensive search patter is ordered in the area to try and re-establish contact.

Bismarck Sea
No further landings today, but 4 different, small TF are spotted. Likely there are even more in the area. A marine DB squadron is readied in PM to punish any landings on the New Guinea shores.

Malaya
Buffaloes flying CAP over retreating forces were caught by zeroes today and suffer a 1-3 defeat. They're being recalled to Java now.

Pacific
One more atoll in the Gilberts falls.

Subs
Seal and Permit attack a convoy in the East China seas, but no torpedoes detonate.
Shark is engaged by a SC of Formosa
A single Japanese DD runs into the sub swarm of Ternate and engages S-40
Cachalot has a good patrol, she now sinks the small tanker Sanraku Maru of Sakhalin Island in a surface action.

[khyberbill]

Khyberbill: I'd like for Loyang to be a bit off a first test though, see how hard he wishes to push. If he tries to surround it, I'll probably retreat, but for now I'll keep enough forces to hold back any head on assaults.

You will be surprised how fast Japanese armored units can move and thus surround your forces/cities, especially in Burma and China. You need to protect the road from Sian to Lanchow. IIRC Lanchow is the source of oil for your meagre supply machine in Chungking. IMHO the forces in Loyang are better deployed building forts up the line.

[Smeulders]

Khyberbill: You're probably correct on this, my opponent is already sending units to the West of the city, but this mainly seems to be to engage a new stack before it can enter Loyang. Tomorrow that stack at least will turn around, whether I abandon the city without a fight will then depend on his further movements. I think there is enough combat power in the city to engage his armoured units in a breakout if necessary.

24 January 42'

Bismarck sea
A BB and CA bombarded Rabaul before the landings. CD guns damaged a fair number of smaller PBs. The base will fall tomorrow as Lark Battalion has been withdrawn some time ago.

The KB is now positively located in this area. The TF is sighted East of New Ireland, covering the Rabaul landings from surface interventions.

DEI
Mini-KB is not seen again, but the AO that followed it is spotted South of Jolo, heading Northeast, I guess they're heading North of Borneo to reappear around Singapore. The banshees are moved to Balikpapan to strike Tarakan where a small TF is sighted or maybe even the AO if he ventures too close.

Lots of SigInt about the area reveals that he is loading troops headed for Balikpapan, Palembang and Java so the area will heat up soon enough.

PI
On Mindanao a group of PI troops surrender, only the isolated base on the West of the Island remains.

China
The AVG shoots up raids by Lillies and Sonias, this action gets the AVG the two leading allied pilots, Atkins with 8 and Jones with 5 kills.

Subs
KXV is attacked by an E West of Mindanao
Sculpin attacks the lone DD around the Moluccas, but the result is a dud.
Stingray attacks a convoy of the Indochinese coast, but also fires only duds

SigInt
My opponent seems to be moving troops to Moulmein by ship, the RN is keeping a close watch on the straights of Malacca and Indomitable will be sent to the Bay of Bengal to strike if the opportunity arises.

[Smeulders]

25 January 42'

Bismarck Sea
Numerous PB boats are again sunk during the unloading at Rabaul, the base does fall at the end of the day. KB is still in the area.

China
I've been warned (thanks Bill), but I didn't listen. While I was looking for an encircling move by the forces close to the city, the road towards Sian is now being cut by units far to the North. A map of the situation is below.



I have no intel on the strength of these units, but I do know that not too long ago at least 2 Japanese divisions were on that minor road. Small forces from Sian are going to try and hold the hex where he is trying the river crossing. If it are the two divisions, this won't be enough, but I can't send more without weakening Sian too much. The forces that are in Loyang are in no position to get back in time, so they must break out to the West. About 1000 AV is holding the hex at the moment, if they can hold, the 2000 AV from Loyang should be enough to break through to Nanyang.

In other news the AVG again had a field day, my opponent says he is escorting his bombers, but the escorts are refusing to fly.

Subs
The Dutch have duds as well, an xAK got lucky.
Stingray places a dud on target in the South Chinese sea
Sculpin finally gets lucky. After 3 days and 4 engagements, she torpedoes xAK Shinko Maru, again no confirmation of the kill. An added bonus is that the ship was carrying troops.

[khyberbill]

China
I've been warned (thanks Bill), but I didn't listen. While I was looking for an encircling move by the forces close to the city, the road towards Sian is now being cut by units far to the North. A map of the situation is below.

I have been trapped in Loyang too many times in AE and attempting to hold it accomplishes nothing. Judging by your map, you can try for Nanyang and then go from there. But, you need those troops north or Sian to protect your oil source.

[CarnageINC]

Hope you have better luck in china than me [;)]

[Smeulders]

Thanks for the kind words and advice, but I think I'm in deep trouble in China, read below for details.

26 January 42'

China
Guessing his forces were a bit spread out around Loyang, I started the move West. The bombardment attack on the 26th changed my mind though, 1800 AV are blocking the road!  On the 27th (replay is in, but the turn isn't) they easily routed my 1000 AV with horrendous casualties. The choices then where to either break out where he is weak, Nanyang with 4 units, or to go to Sian and be damned what he puts in the way. Nanyang could probably be reinforced before I could take it and even if I did, how to go from there ? Sian it is.

Trouble is brewing around Changsa as well, but more on that next post when I've got the turn.

All in all the situation looks painful, this game was started before the garrison requirements changed and that is reflected in the number of troops storming my way. At least it's all a good lesson.

PI
Bataan was reached and my opponent is bombarding, he's also mopping up bases on the other islands.

Subs
5 attacks, 5 duds, here is the list.
Grayling of Hokkaido
Gar twice of Honshu
Saifish and Stingray against the same convoy in the South China Sea

[Smeulders]

27 January 42'

China
As expected China was the major battle area today.
First there is the situation around Loyang, 1800 AV, consisting off 2 divisions, 3 brigades and 2 regiments make short work off the 5 corpses holding open the hex. The casualties speak for themselves.

Japanese ground losses:
      2624 casualties reported
         Squads: 8 destroyed, 195 disabled
         Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 101 disabled
         Engineers: 0 destroyed, 21 disabled
      Vehicles lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)
 
 
Allied ground losses:
      13900 casualties reported
         Squads: 198 destroyed, 174 disabled
         Non Combat: 466 destroyed, 280 disabled
         Engineers: 18 destroyed, 33 disabled
      Guns lost 8 (5 destroyed, 3 disabled)
      Units retreated 5

In an interesting twist, he is now leaving Loyang alone and is marching this bunch down to Nanyang, together with another stack coming up from Sinyang. There is 1400 AV in the city, not nearly enough to hold, so I'm retreating here as well. A part of the forces will move Northwest to guard the trail leading West, another part will go North.

A huge army is also marching on Changsha, 1600 AV is just East of the city, another 2200 at the dot hex to the South. Troops are marching down from Ichang as fast as they can. Everything to the South of Changsha is being moved North. There should be enough in the city soon to hold off a direct attack, but there isn't nearly enough to also hold the bases to the West, another encirclement is looming. Map of the situation is coming next post.

In total, there is a minimum of about 6000 AV attacking across China.

One minor piece of good news though, at Kweiteh a corps beats two RGC divisions.

Malaya
Johore Bahru falls, the siege of Singapore will begin.

Burma
His forces are moving at Moulmein, and I'm abandoning all positions at Pegu and Rangoon. An airstrike came in over Pegu, but the AVG and Hurricanes made short work of the escorting Nates.

DEI

2 TF spotted that may be heading for the Makassar straight, SigInt gave Balikpapan as a target earlier.

Subs
KXII has a dud on a DD of Ternate
Searaven hits and sinks DD Fubuki in the East China Sea, a nice prize.

[Smeulders]

Those reading the AAR may have noticed that a couple of days ago I complained a bit about my subs not getting kills even when they managed to hit with a functioning torpedo, but yesterday I got a very enlightening mail from Lemon in this regard.

[font="arial"]There’s karma for you, you miss all the escorts and transports yesterday and hit one of my favourite DD’s today.  DD’s are like gold for me. Did you know of my 49 ship losses you’ve sank 31 by sub, sure, factor in your duds, but I don’t think you are doing that badly with them. That’s a pretty good percentage, so you’ll see why I tend to get riled when another ship is lost to a sub and the majority are escorted, or even hitting the escort themselves.

Now I'm keeping a tally of my sub kills/hits and according to that I've got 20 'confirmed' kills (ships on the sunk list) and 12 hits. This means that my subs are very near a perfect 100% kill/hit ratio. (31/32).

The total of 49 ships sunk also leads me to believe that CD guns have accounted for about 10 of his ships in the various landings, otherwise I can't have gotten to almost 50 ships sunk on his end, another interesting piece of information.
[/font]

[Smeulders]

28-29 January 42'

Burma
Another short air battle over Pegu on the 28th. The 29th sees a sweep at Rangoon pulling some AVG fighters, but only damage results. A small raid even targets Mandalay, no CAP but little effect as well. The retreat off the units from Pegu does seem slow.

Bismarck Sea
Vindicators fly from PM against landings at Lea and likely sink two transports. Leaky CAP from KB does little, but flak claims one of the dive bombers. Gasmata on New Britain falls.

Makassar Straight
The invasion of Balikpapan is underway, but it's not going down without a fight. Banshees fly from the airfield and sink an approaching transport. The turn reveals a slew of TFs in the straights, with multiple BB and CA thrown in. At the same time betties attack the Balikpapan airfields. Both the Dutch and American cruiser forces are nearby and will sortie into the straight to hopefully catch one of invasion convoys.

China
As promised, here is the map of China, with the situation around Loyang again thrown in for good measure. I'm retreating in the Loyang/Nanyang area, even though I have slightly more AV in the area, the quality of troops is too low however, and the open terrain and dispersed troops can't stand up to a good offensive. At Ichang the forces are all underway to the Changsha area, more reinforcements are coming in from the West.

Air attacks over Changsha hurt the sweeping Nate, the escorted bomber attack is more succesfull and at least manage to take down 1 of the AVG fighters. Total loses are around 10 for the Japanese.


Subs
The Makassar straight has been flooded with subs, but this resulted in only 1 attack by S-36, she sank an xAKL

[khyberbill]

Now I'm keeping a tally of my sub kills/hits and according to that I've got 20 'confirmed' kills (ships on the sunk list) and 12 hits. This means that my subs are very near a perfect 100% kill/hit ratio. (31/32).

One torpedo hit will normally take care of a small warship or most any size merchant ship. At least mine sink fairly often!

[Smeulders]

30-31 January 42'

DEI - Makassar Straight
The battle in Makassar Straight was a non-event. Banshees flying on the 30th were caught by LRCAP from mini-KB, only a few of them were lost to the CAP and Flak, but this was enough to keep them limited to only one bomb hit on a small transport. They have retired to Soerabaja and Makassar as Balikpapan and Samrinda will fall. The sorties of the Dutch and Americans during the night came up empty, they had retreated back out of the straights by daybreak, a good thing with Mini-KB in the area. CD guns may have claimaed one or two victims though.

SWPAC - Bismarck Sea
KB remains in the area and Lea falls, not much that I can do at the moment. Rabaul already seems up and running as an enemy air base.
SigInt reveals troops loading for the Shortlands.

PI
Supply is being burned at an enormous rate in Bataan, 1000 a day, so all bombardments and fort building has stopped for the time being. I have 1400 AV behind lvl 4 forts here, my opponent only has 1200 so at this rate supply will kill me before the enemy does. More enemies are probably coming up from the rear though, he had much more than this on Luzon.

On Mindanao the isolated base of Zamboanga is taken

China
The 48th corps again won against the same 2 RGC divisions, but that was the only good news in China.

East of Sinyang a retreating corps was caught by a large enemy army, the shock attack destroyed the corps and East of Loyang I had sent 2 corps out to delay any forces following me to Sian, unfortunately I forgot about a river and the small corps shock attacked about 1000 enemy AV. This was the message on the combat report 'Assault collapses, attacking force wiped out'.

My opponent does seem to hesitate about assaulting Changsha head on.

Burma
Not much action, Oscars claim an AVG fighter on leaking CAP over Prome, 80 miles from where they are supposed to be.

Subs
Busy days, much to the annoyance of my opponent.
On the 30th, the 016 sinks Tosei Maru in the Makassar Straight, 023 hits xAK Giyu Maru, which is finished off by KXII. Both KX and KXVII had a shot at a DD, but one missed and the other was a dud. As you can see, the Makassar straight was flooded by my subs, thanks SigInt. Cuttlefish also got a dud of Honshu

On the 31st the Americans got in on the action, Swordfish's crew worked tirelessly at reloading torpedo tubes, during one phase she attacked and hit Calcutta Maru, Heito Maru and Ikoma Maru, but only the last one got a working torpedo. Cuttlefish again attacks and sinks xAK Nitimei Maru and finally Seal attacks an xAKL on the surface and damages her.

[Smeulders]

Shipping losses

Note that his xAK losses should be equal to mine according to his mail.

[Smeulders]

Air losses

Interesting is the large difference in Ops losses, not quite sure what is the cause of this, though he's probably forced to use his squadrons a lot more than me.


Let the record show that you do not wish to be a Buffalo pilot

[Smeulders]

Aircraft pools
Fighters


Level Bombers


On top of that there are still 35 SBD-3

EDIT ; It seems like these are a bit small to read, I'll try to make these screens larger for the end of February

[Smeulders]

Theatre by theatre

Burma
The 3 coastal bases have been taken and the enemy has started it's advance on Pegu. There have been a few air battles, with the AVG keeping it's own with support from the RAF.

China
The breakout from the Wenchow area was successful. Our opponents has started offensives that have forced us to abandon the Loyan/Nanyang area. Changsha is also under attack, I've abandoned Ichang to bring up more forces for the battle.

Malaya
We lost some forces to an encirclement action, but at the moment significant forces are in Singapore and will hopefully hold out long enough, 15th of February doesn't seem to crazy.

PI
Not much battle on Luzon during this time, after a defeat at Clark my opponent is a bit more conservative here. He may already be taking out units for other targets and hoping that a lack of supply instead of attacks will do me in. He's taking out base by base on the other islands, not much I can do there.

DEI
Not too much happening, some forward bases were taken, now he's brought in some serious forces to take Balikpapan and force the Makassar Straight.

SW Pacific
The first forays into the Bismarck Sea.

South Pacific
Some more islands are taken in the Gilberts

[Smeulders]

1 February 42'

A day for ground combat

DEI
Balikpapan and Samarinda fell.

China
In China an attack on Nanyang was held wonderfully by the Chinese, or at least with some luck. 1300-1500 in favour of the Chinese was reduced to only 1000-750, but the 1-1 attack ended in this:
Japanese ground losses:
      4752 casualties reported
         Squads: 186 destroyed, 168 disabled
         Non Combat: 130 destroyed, 190 disabled
         Engineers: 4 destroyed, 16 disabled
      Vehicles lost 13 (0 destroyed, 13 disabled)
 
 
Allied ground losses:
      1315 casualties reported
         Squads: 10 destroyed, 226 disabled
         Non Combat: 14 destroyed, 248 disabled
         Engineers: 0 destroyed, 17 disabled

A great victory for the Chinese

PI
Supply in Bataan is being burnt at improbable rates, some 1000 a day at the moment, without any bombardments or fort building. I'm hoping for a shock attack from him, but I may have to throw one myself if this keeps up.