Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[Bif1961]

Might be time for a major counter-offensive in Sumatra since he major reinforcements are now fish food and he will be once bitten twice shy about taking the short route to bring in more.

[John B.]

Bif, sadly Sumatra is a lost cause. With the extinction of the Palembang airfield Scott can bomb me at will and any ships attempting to bring in reinforcements would lie at the bottom of Palembang harbor. There is an outside chance I'll get a little more oil out of Medan but, for now, Japan is on stockpiles.

Scott has 4 regiments on Sumatra. The units that went under I suspect are British units and not needed for Sumatra. Scott still has the US divisions he used on Java to reinforce Sumatra if he needs to.

[John B.]

The next turn was much more 1944 like. Very heavy air losses. These were the result of two mistakes that I made. First, I flew more air units into Palembang even though the runway was in bad shape. None of the new air units flew, but they got to be nice target practice for the waves of bombers that came over Palembang. I got a few out but for now my land based air arm is not in good shape. Singapore is now high on the list of places that I need to get my navy out of.

Speaking of the navy, there is high drama there.

[John B.]

The second mistake that I made is that I moved my light carrier force up to Medan to help out the KB. The light carrier planes all decided to attack the American main CV force and essentially wiped out (the second mistake I made yesterday). Meanwhile, the main KB is north of the Straits of Malacca but decided it needed to use up its movement points for this turn so one of my two CV TFs has a movement of 1/0. Not good with the American CVs close by. I'm sending the KB due east to try to keep distance from the American carriers and sending the light CV TF up to meet them to (a) provide alternative targets to the main CV force and (b) offer what scant fighter protection they still have. It depends a great deal on how much Scott wants to push to try to catch me. I've set all of my strike aircraft on ASW and my fighters at 80% CAP with a 1 range.

We'll see if I can get out of here with the carriers intact.

In what might be good news, my VP for killing Allied ground force went up by 41 from the previous turn. Perhaps another 160 squads/devices lie at the bottom of the Indian Ocean? There were a lot of sinking sounds overnight. Here's hoping that my CVs don't make sinking sounds soon.

[RangerJoe]

When you set your CVs to run away, set to "no refuel" so they won't stop to fill up the DDs and waste OP points. Let them refuel later.

[John B.]

I usually do that but this time I did not and I'm paying the price!

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe
When you set your CVs to run away, set to "no refuel" so they won't stop to fill up the DDs and waste OP points. Let them refuel later.

This does not help. "No refuel" prevents refuelling from a port, but not refuelling of escorts.
If you absolutely need to run it is advisable to put low-fuel escorts in a separate TF to fend for themselves

[John B.]

That probably would have been a better idea. The ones that were in the red got put into their own TF to go to Georgetown to refuel and I merged the ASW TF into the CV TF to replace the destroyers that were lost to go refuel.

[John B.]

The next turn has come and gone. A nice night of bombing Oosthaven. I think Scott has too many planes stacked on that level 2 airbase so I got a few extra ones. It's always nice to kill P-47s on the ground.

[John B.]

In more significant news, Scott has made a major landing at Padang. Perhaps this was the target of his huge troop convoy. I'm not sure of the usefulness of this attack. Once you have Sumatra closed off by air/naval I'm not sure that it's worth the effort to take it since it has so few VP on it. I have identified a Chindit brigade and an anti-tank unit but that's it so far.

[John B.]

The most serious matter is the KB. Almost every IJN carrier is at or next to Phuket. For this turn, the most important fact is that both hexes containing carriers are 8 (count em out) hexes away from the American CV TFs. So there were no air raids on me this turn. Next turn, I'll be heading south. My speed is listed at 8/4 so, if I go a total of 12 hexes I'll be next to the name Sumatra. If I go less, I'll be further north. My guess is that Scott will run down the west coast of Sumatra to try to catch me for a carrier clash over the island. I have my fighters all set at 80% CAP and the bombers/torpedo planes set at ASW. I don't want to attack his CVs without torpedoes (they were all used up sinking transports) so I'll have as many planes as possible over my TF (including long range CAP from both Medan and Singapore) and hope that Scott saves a bunch of his fighters for his own unnecessary CAP.

If I make it through this next turn the KB is ok. If I get down close to the Sumatra name then damaged carriers have a good shot of making it to Singapore. Stay tuned!

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: John B.
In more significant news, Scott has made a major landing at Padang. Perhaps this was the target of his huge troop convoy. I'm not sure of the usefulness of this attack.

Maybe he wants to build up it or some of the neighbour bases for the siege of Singapore?

Why won't you do a full-speed run into Singapore? Not enough fuel? Or park in Alor Star for the turn and bring some CAP there with the intention of hopping to Singers the next turn.
Also, why not put some fighters into Malacca airfield, the closest one to your intended KB position? Range is a very important factor for LRCAP, and avsupport does not matter in a one-turn affair on the rail line.

[John B.]

GetAsssta,

I just did a high speed run two turns ago to get up to the mouth of the straits so no fuel for another sprint. If he want to put all that time and effort into building up Sumatra he can be my guest. I'd be very happy for him to keep nibbling at the perimeter for a few more months. He has 22.5 months to go.

I don't want to be in a base with the KB before I get to Singapore as that cuts way down on the CAP the CVs provide (I think it's a 50% reduction. Not a bad idea on moving air units to Malacca but, unfortunately, my mistake from two turns ago has shredded my land based air. If I make it past the valley of the shadow of the coming turn I'll be ok.

BTW I had an idea on conserving fuel for the HI. I have 250+ AKs sitting around that have never done anything. I plan on just using up the fuel in each one getting the necessary resources and then parking them with their empty fuel bunkers in port and using up the next batch. I just need to be really careful about the full refuel option.

[John B.]

Well, it looks like the KB will make it back to Singapore! In the middle, Scott took Djambi in an airborne assault. I guess he captures the oil fields that way but it does not really matter. I wasn't getting that oil out at any point in the near future. In the south, an armored battalion crossed the river, and, despite the fact that it attacked at 1-50 into the swamp with level 5 forts it took no losses (I did have 47 mm AT guns there so it's not like I was helpless).

Two plans for the near future. First, once the KB is refueled its 6 hexes to Padang where there is a whole lot of allied shipping but all of the CVs are off the coast. So, mass sweep from Singapore along with anti ship strikes from LBA and the KB (with the ranges set so that they can only attack Padang) and I might be able to reap some additional allied merchant ships and surface units. Second, this turn, mass LBA bombing at very low altitude along with sweeps over the base hex next to Palembang. And, I'll bombard the armor unit in Palembang to try to shock attack it out of there.

Fuel is a concern now since I have no source for it. I'm sending another big shipment to the HI but I'll probably only have 30K or so in Singapore. No more long range raids for me!

[John B.]

Not much in the air. Killed more P-47s on the ground in night bombing attacks. I lost 5 bombers doing this but if my bombers are killing his P-47s at a positive ratio that is a real win!

[John B.]

My carriers made it back to the barn and Scott suffered the consequences of some British carrier planes with their range set too far. Not as many albacores and FM-1s as there used to be.[:D]

Minor issues like that aside, I had a ambush all set for Scott at Padang and the turn the KB set sail to make it happen Scott left the hex. How many perfect plans ruined by a single day!

But, the counter attack at Palembang worked and pushed Scott out of the hex. It looks like he's not going to assault across the river but, instead, to go the long way around. This will be a bit bitter sweet for me as the fuel will pile up in Palembang and I won't be able to get it out unless he keeps leaving the airfield alone. I took too much fuel out of Singapore and it's down to just 6K while 120K is heading back to the HI. So, very short trips for the KB. I've converted Medan to fuel production so I'll see if I can get some there. Also, Miri continues to make a little fuel so I'm trying to sneak some out of there with an AO.

My plan for the next couple of turns is to try to shut down his new airfields at Pedang and Bengkalis before they get to be too strong. The KB may have to sail to provide some extra push to that especially for Pedang which is building fast and must have scads of engineers, support squads, and AA.

The limited counter offensive in Burma continues to gather.

[John B.]

A couple of turns have passed and the only real excitement has been the fact that I got 85 of my Helens shot down over Padang. If you guess that my carriers not flying planes because of bad weather helped a great deal to make this massacre possible it shows that you've been paying attention to this thread.

Here is the situation at Singapore. I'm getting some hydrocarbons out of Medan but Singapore is low on supply and not likely to get more in the near future. Just trying to stall here as long as possible!

[John B.]

In better news, Scott has stopped pushing in Burma and I don't think he's been paying a lot of attention. So, I have a nice little ambush set up for him.

[John B.]

I moved three infantry and one armored division in this turn so Scott will not be able to get away before the shock attack hits. The AA may take down some of his planes if he opts to try to bomb me to save his troops. Fingers crossed!

[John B.]

Ambush worked!