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28/1/44

The AV I have operating off the indian coast sinks a AK, hits a tanker hard, and has to run away

Lost todays notes, so we move on

OK, its been a while since we posted, but I have news -a japanese victory is on the horizon, lots of turns to post, been on holidays, and its rained every day, so what else to do but play!
A few defeats too -but a small win all the same[8|][:'(]

29/1/44
The lautern landing has potential
Enemy ss sink a msw near lautern

The AV of the indian coast is doomed -ceylon spews no less than 4 CV and 6 BB!

The 1st air battles over Timor, 9 tony, 11 Jack and 32 oscar escorted 21 helen, he has 3 spits and 6 corsairs. 12 oscars go down, no hits.
The plan is to slowly build up the pressure, fatigue his fighters, gget the division marching to lautern to the cursed place.

He pounds rabual -its next
12 havoc hit madang, 11 zeke shoot down 6!

And then the british CVs sink the AV super quick[8|][:(], amazingly 1 jake hits the royal sov. The bomb bounces.
21 sally -high exp ones, suicide against tenibar fighters. Curses
LRCAP kill c46's over the base.
This will be a battle.

30/1/44
Bangkok resources are pounded today, very badly hurt.
he's strangling me.
But I still think he could push quicker.
Rabual recieves 200 plus heavies, and countless mediums -all Jap players in late 43, 44 know what I mean[:'(]

This is perfect!!!!!
An invasion of rabual -he thinks its a fortess when in fact its just hollow fake, will need a major CV prescence I think
Therefore KB, and the full wieght of the fleet heads towards Luatern, I intend to win here.

In Burma the allies shock on the road to Pisanuloke, 5 chinese corps on the road driving a base force ahead of them.
If I can hold Thialand until mid 44 I will be lucky.
malaya another 2 months after that..

I will be happy with that though.

31/1/44
the plan is simple, under cover of KB, I will fast transport the troops into Timor, and win, at the least I want to suck some assetts from the south west pacific to here.
I want to buy time.

tabpub admits the invasion jumped the gun by 3 months.
I move a recon group to merauke, lets see what wicked comes my way

Over timor -27 Jack, 20 jack, 53 helen from kendari -14 p38, 8 spits, 13 oscars, 2 kittyhawks meet them
25 oscars, 20 helens lost.
OUCH -this is going to be painful, just 1 enemy s/d

The first fleet elements are arriving, tomorrow several TFs go in!

1/2/44
BB Kongo, Kirishima, CL Sendai and 3 dd vs 4 pt at Lautern.
NO HITS iether way!!!!!! (his PTs out of fuel Im told)[:'(]
The naval bombardment is OK, 208 casos, but only 1 runway hit, 2 port hits

SS are savage to the north, and in the waters around balikapapan, sinking no less than 5 ships in 2 days, all carrying supplies to this battle[:(]
Rabual, rabual, more bombing of rabual, and bases in the area.

In the PM phase, tenibar island now shows some DDs, AKs and the such, a reaction force.
8 liberators from Derby hit dili, wewak also hit.
More c47 shot down.
I move in more air power for Timor, and the fleet is getting closer

Ponape in the pacific ceases resistance after nearly a month.
Vale my brave indomitable electronic warriors!

We mark febuary with troop convoys to various bases in the phillipines -they are very, very well developed, bases all over the place.
Iwo Jima gets a brigade too.

Around lautern am going to send a single damaged DD south as a lure, as the fleet is re organised into its bombardment groups.
The airforce will sweep the place -at very high altitudes, lets fatigue him!

2/2/44
3 emily night bomb darwin, shoot down a havoc on CAP[:'(]
The sweeps begin, Kupang sweps , 48 zeke, 1spit, 3 corsair
4 zeke lost, 2 enemy s/d.

Rabual continues to be pounded.
He attacks the fleet, now 4 hexes north of lautern.
84 zeke on CAP -31 p38j, 2 kittyhawk, 28 buefighters.
47 lost! 7 s/d 1s/d 11 s/d
The bues strafe 3 dds carrying the first troops, many casos!

9 libs vs 15 tony Dili, no hurt

A tanker supporting KB is torped by a ss -bad.

This was the first skirmish.
Tomorrow we try to unload the troops at lautern.
KB is replenished with fighters, I have 3 spare groups following at Mendano!

At madang, the forts go down to 8, the ghost div must be starving
rabual -cannot be long!

3/2/44
naval engagement!

BB ISE, 3 DDs vs 4Pts.
No torp hits, but the PTs are obviously superior , more stable, and better directed warships than what I remember destroyers ever were,[8|][:@] and there gunfire tears the dds into wrecks, 2 badly damaged.

Troops fail to unload too![:(][&:] (which turns out to be operator error[X(]

Kupang gets into gear
105 zeke sweep, 17 jack,LRCAP, and 20 helen attack too.
2 spits, 3 corsair shoot down 10 , 1 spit down. Only 1 hit though.

An AV is on the job in the area as well -her jakes attack tenibar, 6 lost, his CAP is light -interesting!

The counter attack is poor
4 avengers, 10 spits,10 kittyhawks,24 p38j attack ISE group, the DDs are straffed again., more casos.

In the solomons 2 betty kami miss the BB Penny.
Dili is lightly bombed again
Forts to 7 at madang

In China, the enemy is at
Hong Kong
Swatow
Nanchang
Kuikawg
Wuhan - and right along the RR to Hsingyang, homan, chenting and tatung.

Tomorrow is a huge day
KB on 90% CAP will sail up to lautern
many zeros on 100ft naval attack
naval TFs -surface combat formed, TF numbers lower than the bombardment to follow, lower than the fast transports coming
Tenibar also targetted!
Tomorrow will be huge
BB ISE orderd BACK -and unload this time![:@]

A second naval bombardment of rabual
Who cares -not me!

DD fubuki hits a mine at Lautern
DD Hibiki is a SS killer -gets another one north of L

CA Huagro and 3 DDs (one smoking bad) vs 4 pt
1 dd 2 hits

then vs 4pt
1 DD 8 hits, 1 pt sunk
then vs 3 pt, 2 of which are sunk.
Good, I detest the little splits.

BB ISE unloads her troops
A ss sinks a DD protecting KB
AM Phase
-26 tony,20 jack -4 spit, 8 corsair
5 s/d 1s/d 1s/d
28 zeke , 20 jack, 17 helen go in, 7 zeke lost, 1 spit down.
He is definately fatigued

Another raid, 18 helen, oscars go in, no losses, no interception!

Again the buefighters go after the ISE group DDs, 12 escorted by 4 fighters, 14 zeke shoot down 4 , again he strafs -they will not be sunk though!

The 14 zeke try to defend against 26 liberators, and 37 medium bombers -the ISE shakes off 4 bombs, she is hurt -but will fight on.

And then the shock for Tabpub -25 planes attack KB, 469 zekes make sure none return

More attacks -BB Hiei is hit by 2 bombs, no hurt
36 zeke attack 1 lousy PT boat, sink her.
65 zeke and 27 kate attack tenibar -and are slaughterd
I lose about 75 planes today, to his 40 odd, the battles are all over the place.

In the PM phase, more attacks, overall, I have 1 DD sunk, Haguro is scratched, the AV is scratched, and I think I break his bombers offensive moral, a lot of buefighters are shot down today.

At laurtern his AV is 76 to my 8

More troops coming, and the fleet is really to get involved yet!

5/2/44
CA Mogami hits a mine -and not damaged!
1 DD vs 1 pt off lautern -niether hurt(anymore than they are already[:D])

CA Ashigara
CA Nachi
CA Atago
5DD sweep into action

vs 5pt
2 pt sunk

vs 3pt
1 dd sunk -1pt sunk

vs 4 pt
1pt sunk

the way is cleared
BB haranua, BB Hiei, CL Abukuma, 4 DD
sink a LCT at tenibar
sink 5 PT in 3 engagements there, 1 DD torped -so we lose 2 DD for 9 PTs

At lautern, the way cleared, is nuked
BB Mushia
BB yamato
BB Nagato
BB Fuso
CA Chikuma
CA Susaya
CA Chokia
CA mogama
7 DD - 66 hits, 7 port hits, 18 supply hits, 5 Airbase supply hits, 10 Airbase hits, 839 casos

BB Heie also bombards tenibar -a miss though.
And the troops are swarming ashore from anothe CA task force.
There is no air action over lautern during the day, nor are any ships attacked! in the AM phase

Huge bombing burma, shortlands, admiralties, oh and 29 oscar kami a airfield at tenibar [:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@][:@]
9 oscar do ram a PT though


In the PM phase -invasion Rabual!
he deliberates at lautern -AV 55 to 46.
His Aussies are doomed.

OK, KB to get out of dodge!

6/2/44

a poor day, SS sink 2 DD today as the fleet retires
More troops landed

Invasion at rabual is huge by the looks

Its time to withdraw -lost 6 DDs in this fight, about 250 planes to his 60 odd.
More troops to go in tonight.

7/2/44
Interesting turn
CVs, .many CVs coming through the timor straight!!!
Invasion of Merauke!
52 betties lose about half their numbers attacking from holliandia -they miss 4 CAs, but sink 2 AKs.
Usual bombing all over the map
Heavy air engagement over Lautern, , I lose 50 planes to his single one -as his crack P38J move in

Its too late though, I shock attack and destroy the darwin defence brigade, and a base force.
Timor is retaken[:'(]

The fleet is moving away, airgroups already re organising, some training to do, formations to reform.

By the time his CVs arrive, my division will have arived at lautern
Timor is more secure than before I hope.

Now Rabual is going to go -but it was written of ages ago.
I think Tabpub time table is slowing.
I may be slowly being crushed to death, but Im encouraged.
Every single time I have chosed to fight, I have won, or severly dented him.
KB still can influence this war, and as long as she lives, he must be cautious.
She will be "expended" somewhere on the inner perimeter.
But not yet.
Not yet!

This little duck will fight on!

I love this AAR, the slow pace of it all, and the scarcity of ressources for japan avoids the "bulldozer" or "over-producing" flaws of WITP... Really great.

8/2/44
Well a stocktake of forces shows Tony, Tojo, oscar pools empty
all transport pools empty
300 zekes
200 judys
no jills
300 zeros
400 george -but production stalled

Fuel state terrible, the fleet will reach davao, and there remain for at least a month until some scraped up can be delivered.
Actually amount of fuel available no longer an issue, shipping it is

a bad day, CV Hiryu takes 2 torps from a SS near menando -she is 40 system.
damn
Planes flying all over the map, tp what bases that have supplies enough to rebuild them.

Normal bombing today, plus Holliandia is swept by P38s, the zekes die
a unit of kami oscars leave wewak for merauke -all miss the DDs there, betties will try a conventional attack tomorrow.

The empire creaks and groans
tabpub tells me CHINA, LOOK, CHINA!
and i say -YES, I KNOW!, but what can i do about it, absolutely no reserves left in china!
Im a bit like a bubble, once you penetrate the skin, deflation comes quick!

9/2/44

The empire is in shock

rabual has fallen

derby is size 7 -its easy to see where the B 29s are going to be deployed.[:(]

10/2/44

little to report action wise.

Just the painful process of rebuilding airgroups.

If you play japan you know what i mean.

11/2/44
the betties at wewak had a go at CAs near mearuke (missed), its depressing to se ships that you sunk earlier on, as the enemy power just grows.

For me today, 5 new regiments arrived on map.
One of them, and another i just bought will go to the northern command, i have a very bad feeling about there.

the rest, and some following in a few weeks , are all going to one central point, probably Palua, where they will form a counter attack force.
Would be great to do another lautern, but on a much bigger scale.
This will be the guttenberg battle, he invades some base at the reach of his LBA, and I will try to turn it into some sort of morass.
he keeps complaining that his timetable is slipping, and really, I have not fought him with a big, big effort for a long time, lautern excepted.
.

12/2/44

The bombing of truk has begun
Ive lost it as Japan against wobbly, not sure I want to lose it here quite so easily.

Tabpub continues his bombing all over the Map as he prepares for the next steps forward

I now have to reconsider the situation in Malaya -I was going to train pilots out of singapore (I bomb that island just south) but I suspect singas might be in Liberator range.

So I loaded up a large base force for Palembang, and set sail

None of it arrived -SS on the way, and mines in palembang ensured a watery grave for the 12th base force.
I am running out of ships fast!, the transports used already had 20-35 system damage, just to show whats happening to my merchant fleet.

Other than that disaster, I am still trying to gather the fleet at Davao -with enough fuel to actually go anywhere.

13/2/44

More bombing, he gets forts down to 5 at madang.

I finally can detach troops to Northern Command, and 4 regiments are loading into my last AP convoys for Davao.
Essentially these will have to unload, then get back to Japan for the next troop reinforcements.
I calculate a full 3 div lift left to me, if I concentrate all the APs .

Still going through the pain of rebuilding the CV airgroups. The fllet is at Davao -but it does not have enough supply to allow plane group restocking, the groups had to fly to soerabaya to restock, and are now coming back -with the usual dribbles.

Painful.
Just love the micro management[:'(]

14/2/44

Madang falls.
The ghost imperial division retreats, still cannot give it orders though

Heavy bombing of Wake, Truk, the Admiralties.

I reckon Wake must be next, no problems there, cannot afford the fuel to defend that now redundant outpost

China the pressure increases, allied deliberate at tatung is barely held I feel.
When the front cracks in China it will be dramatic.
I predict Tabpub will commence strategic bombing of Japan from there in 4 months time.

15/2/44
The fleet rebuild continues.

I have been reading the AARs about overstacking and atolls and forts ect.
Told all my opponents that they could expect only realistic levels of troops from myself, a Division plus numbers of NGs or SNLFs for each island in the Marianas, and regiment size forces elsewhere.

Tabpub says he don't care, If I stack a base he just bombs it into oblivion (he has never spent less than 2 months bombing a base before invasion) or will go around it and take something else.

Still, what I would actually like is for Tabpub too think that the Marianas is a fair ask to take.
I am especially keen for this

for several reasons.
1/ A chance for some real battles, out from under his LBA umbrella
2/ The marianas is the most interesting scenerio to play, and we could have a wopper.
3/ I have practiced this battle head to head, on the stand alone scenerio several times, and most times it is possible to hit the transports , if the plan works.
4/ A real chance for KB -still 1000 planes strong, to go out in a worthwhile way.

So, I let him and my opponents know, lets fight realistically -Ill make it hard but doable, and tabpub, you can come out from under your LBA sledgehammer -and lets see really how good you are[:@][:@][:@][:'(][:'(][:)][:D]


eleswhere today70- P38j sweep Kendari -a bloody battle, 50 rookies go down, for 10 of his, the Tonies just do not cut it anymore, I need Franks!

Fleet 3 days away from filling up the airgroups with the dribs and drabs, some fuel 2 days out, then we redeploy for the marianas -high command declares that this will be the next
deployment, a inner circle battle.

Hiryu is still battling her flooding, 40 odd system, 20 flood still.
her airgroups will be used on a CVE probably.