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Roundup, August 16-18, 1944

In addition to the just-reported developments with Gibbet...

Hangman:
On the 16th, we grab Soc Trang and Kratie (2 hexes NE of Saigon). We also attempted a blind landing at Lang Son, but there's a brigade there. Japanese units are moving down from Hanoi to Vinh, where I am now building forts as supplies sprinkle in via transport plane. I don't think he realizes how much stuff marched through the jungle, but who knows.

On the 17th, we capture Hue, which completes the railroad link to Cam Ranh Bay from Vinh. I will send one large Chinese Corps and 1 HQ down to Dalat as soon as CRB is cleared of the IJN unit fragment. Saigon is looking mighty tasty... We also scooped up Luangprabang finally, as well as Kompong Trach and Siem Reap. We retook the Nakhon outside of Bangkok to cut his rail and generally be a pest. On the 18th, we switch to just transporting some supplies. The CRB Fortress finally dies to attrition as well.

Gibbet:
Attacks on the 17th and 18th capture Sibolga. Taiping and Alor Star remain in Japanese hands, although I think I'll be able to capture Alor Star. A unit is moving from Georgetown to Taiping, which I suspect is about regiment-sized. This is actually really great news for me.

On the 18th, with Sibolga able to function on its own as the CVEs move to the hex to cover the last of the unloading, I raid the Palembang area with my CVs. At least medium strength CAP was expected, but we do lose a fair chunk of aircraft (from memory, 84). In exchange, I sunk a gaggle of 2-VP TKs, 1 TK worth 10 VPs, and a few small PBs/xAKs. Not worth it in terms of VPs, but it is nice to take out some of his fuel extraction effort. Combined with the subs occasionally sinking a TK or xAK loaded with fuel outside of Singapore, I'm happy with it.

Timor and the Ceram Sea:
I've started bombarding at Lautem. I think his supply situation is getting worrisome. I haven't seen ships attempt to make it to Timor in quite some time, and over the first few bombardments his AV begins to wear down and not be recovered. This is a good sign, but I'm still not going to be able to take this place anytime soon. I'm content to just use subs to feed my guys and I'll move around him. He has an enormous stack of units sitting here.

Sorong is finally captured on the 18th, meaning the entirety of New Guinea is now in Allied hands. Onward!

Randoms:
Continuing to bomb the northern Marshalls to get some more USAAF pilots trained up. This takes forever. I don't actually have any ships to spare to land here, and I have some divisions wasting time on Kusaie, Tabiteuea, and Tarawa. I want to rectify this soon, but shipping is sparse. It's all... elsewhere.

Subs were sent to Sapporo/Ominato and have been finding targets, at first completely unescorted. I can dig it. A half dozen or 10 or so are sunk over the course of a week.

The attack at Taiping is frustrating. I must have gotten some really, really bad rolls.

I suspect that the defenders' guns made a big difference. In a shock attack the attackers are exposed to an extra round of fire by the defenders' guns.

ORIGINAL: witpqs

The attack at Taiping is frustrating. I must have gotten some really, really bad rolls.

I suspect that the defenders' guns made a big difference. In a shock attack the attackers are exposed to an extra round of fire by the defenders' guns.

An enormous difference. I even changed out the fragment's leader for a guy with 60 Land to see if I could do better. Just no dice. Oh well. It's been a worthy distraction, and I may yet save them from death.

August 19 - 21, 1944

The ships from Gibbet begin arriving back at Colombo. Only a few need repairs. The rest are just need to refuel and then they're ready to set out again.

Gibbet:
Langsa, down the coast from Sabang, is captured on the 21st. Armoured units from Sibolga are pushing east towards Tandjoengbalai, and will encircle Medan from the south eventually. Almost to the mopping up phase already. NZ Brigades are heading south to post up outside Padang, just to keep him honest.

A couple of full USN Base Forces, coming up from the SW in company of CVL Monterey (fresh from repairs at Sydney), were originally intended for Sinabang [Port 1(0)] due to their naval support but are going to be diverted elsewhere.

Alor Star is captured on the 21st as well, and it turns out that it's an Ind.Mixed Brigade that was at Georgetown. I've dropped some supply to the paratroops at Taiping, and they're holding so far thanks to the terrain. Paratroops from Port Blair take Surat Thani, Phuket, and Singora. We'll take Nakhon Si Thammarat for good measure, but will need to use the paratroops from Phuket to do so. I had originally intended to make Phuket a major air base, but at the pace I'm moving I don't think I'll need it. I didn't anticipate the existence of Hangman.

The CVs move off to refuel. One of the TFs is running with a high level of System damage, but nothing to be done about it right now. I need them. They can rest in a month or so.

Hangman:
Japan begins to retake eastern Thailand. A unit (presumably the hurting 33rd Division) crosses to Vientiane in Indochina. On our end, we begin railing the Chinese and HQ to Dalat (3 hexes E of Saigon). Recon confirms there are only 3000 troops in 2 units at Saigon - I think just the static fortress, which is small, and a weak battalion. I'm not sure if 560-600 AV of Chinese will be enough to take the place, but I'm going to try. We took Bien Hoa, just to the NE of Saigon, during this time.

Uttaradit and Pisanuloke are abandoned by Japan sometime around now. I didn't feel like shocking across the river and his guys are in a tight spot already - just not roughed up enough for me to shock with low supplies. I do start moving SE from the jungle outside of Rahaeng, though. Hopefully a few units of his move out towards Bangkok and I catch a partial stack with my attack.

It appears that the units from Uttaradit moved east into the jungle rough, towards Indochina. I can't do anything about them, so regardless of what happens with Gibbet & Hangman they will escape to China if he wants them to.

Oh yeah, and he finally left Moulmein. It's ours now. Forts there were at level 5, which is lower than I was expecting but still high enough that a shock attack could have been disastrous for me. His southeastern blocking force is also heading to the SW, towards the road to Bangkok. I moved 1900 AV over and bombarded, but he had 1800 AV of his own. I'll head back E and then south. He can have the jungle. My goal is to stop whatever is currently in Bangkok or west of it from getting to Udon Thani and out of the theater.

August 19-21, 1944

Ceram Sea
I'm not doing a whole lot here beyond landing at Boela, but I'm going to start using some small Catalina units and some paratroops to take some of the minor bases, just to make the strat map look a bit more pretty.

B-29s
I have about 100 of them sitting at Shemya Island. I could use them for some extended range attacks on Hokkaido, but I don't really want to pull any of his fighters up here in exchange for only a couple hundred VPs at most. I guess they'll just sit on training for now. I've got plans for the north as soon as more shipping arrives from the queue.

China
The backdoor operation for Chengtu turns out to be a failure. He did see me outside of Neikiang, and transferred a bunch of bombers from Bangkok to Chungking. He's now bombing daily, and the mission has changed from the Hail Mary recapture of Chengtu to liberate 16,000 AV of Chinese Zombies to just harassment and tying up Japanese assets away from Malaysia. I am going to try to keep the 3 Chinese Corps alive as long as possible for that purpose, preserving a retreat route from Chengtu. Maybe I'll take Kienko, who knows.

Randoms
A CA/DD TF of his continues to be spotted, mysteriously, moving E/NE from Taiwan towards Japan. I think this might be Ise and a DD - the timing would be about right. I probably won't see her again until summer of 1945, if at all.

Continuing the shipyard shuffle at Cape Town. New Jersey's repairs are accelerating at a decent pace, and California/Fanshaw Bay are almost back in action. The BBs in particular will be useful for the next phase of the war. There are going to be several large coastal areas that I'm going to need to suppress. To that end, the 12 AKEs I have rusting at Gove, near Darwin, will need to move somewhere else soon.

August 23 - 25, 1944

Pertinent SIGINT:
23rd Ind.Mixed Brigade is reported as moving to Kota Bharu, so for the 22nd I order 1 CV TF to move to 7 hexes NW of the place - a TF is already spotted there, but it turns out not to be the one carrying this unit as it is still reported to be moving there on a later date. SIGINT history shows this unit was destroyed and bought back, and moved out from Fukuoka a short time ago.

14th Air Fleet is reported to be moving to Singapore, previously based at Soerabaja. I actually love this development. Singapore isn't going to be useful to him for much longer.

36th Ind.Mixed Brigade is reported as moving to Singapore. I think this is a fresh unit, recently arrived from the queue.

102nd Division is moving to Palembang, from Buitenzorg on Java. This will bring his land strength on Sumatra back up to 2 divisions - 1 at Palembang and 1 at Benkoelen. I have no intention of marching down the island. I don't need the oil, and I can deny it to him just by contesting the ocean.

Gibbet:
The combat phase of this operation is nearing completion. The second phase is the construction of a platform of bases to subjugate everything north of Palembang and west of Miri.

There are some annoying little MTBs, SCs, and Es hanging out between Medan and Malacca, sometimes venturing up towards Sabang. I send a Fletcher to deal with some, and bag a few.

Some raids on Sibolga are shot down on the 22nd. I transferred in some CAP right away, and between them and the CVEs we do pretty well.

On the 24th, we replenish some CV aircraft that were lost in the Kota Bharu raid. Almost back to full complement.

Hangman:
I'm beginning to conduct aerial raids on ground troops now, but occasionally get caught by CAP. Sometimes this is because I forget to stand everything down because they're flying from just so many bases (Rangoon, Pegu, Toungoo, Chiang Mai, etc.). My Beaufighter pools pay a toll here, as do some B-25 pools.

Kwangchowan, all the way over in China, is captured for giggles. And Kiungshan, on the island of Hainan, the day after that. He immediately retakes Kwangchowan with his own paratroops.

On the 25th, our forces shock across outside Ayuthia/Pisanuloke after days of bombing with Liberators, B-29s, and so forth (sometimes contested):


Posse:
Operation Posse, the followup to Gibbet and Hangman, begins forming up in a big patch of blue ocean. Pretty soon, there will be over 450 ships concentrated in one hex (which near as I can tell is something like 1000 square miles).

Ceram Sea:
Taking little bases worth 2 VPs each outside Koepang and Dili. Will have to move on to dot bases next. I do send paratroops from Manokwari to take the 2 remaining dot bases on New Guinea. I think I'll just leave Babo to rot.

Boela is captured on the 24th. The only sign of IJ aerial resistance here is some night strikes from Manado, although there are 200+ fighters and 150+ bombers based there daily. The Moluccas airfields are empty except for some search planes on occasion.

Ambon, Dili, Lautem, and Koepang are all being bombed regularly to discourage the use of their airbases, and to drop supply stockpiles.

Subs:
I sent some subs from near Cocos, hanging out there in case he sent CAs to Cocos again when he spotted my xAKs, towards Batavia. 2 of them hit mines at Merak, and 1 of them sinks on the way towards Cam Ranh Bay. The other 2 will just hang out outside Oosthaven, which he is using to get additional fuel out of Sumatra.

August 26 - 27, 1944

After the 25th, VPs are finally in our favor! 63638:63605, a ratio of 1.001:1. LCU VPs (about 170 this turn), mostly from New Guinea, pushed us over the top. Just one more milestone now... his permanent VPs are about 48000 so I have at least 60K VPs to go.

Gibbet:
Continuing to march around northern Sumatra. 2 of Medan's 4 hex sides will be closed when the turn is loaded for the 29th, but we've already begun attacks to wear down the forts.

Some aircraft (Liberator recon, Hudsons, etc.) are transferring to Sinabang and Sibolga via Exmouth-Cocos Islands, which is back in supply after over a year of being dormant.

Heavy Frank-a sweeps hit Sibolga on the 27th, shooting down a lot of FM-2's in my layered CAP. The P-40s and British Thunderbolts are alright... I'll just stand down the fighters for R&R for a day or two. His units are about to be a lot busier fighting something else anyway and I don't expect him to bomb the Sibolga airfield.

In an interesting development, BBs Kongo and Hiei, with CL Nagara and a couple of DDs, come to Medan to bombard. I forgot to turn off one of my CV TF's DBs and TBs (now escorting Operation Posse), and they strike the IJN bombardment force in the daytime, knocking out both radar sets and a bunch of AA on both BBs:

Naval bombardment of Medan at 46,76

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei
BB Kongo
CL Nagara
DD Shigure
DD Maikaze
DD Fujinami

Allied ground losses:
65 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

BB Hiei firing at 36th Indian Division
BB Kongo firing at 25th Infantry Division
CL Nagara firing at 25th Infantry Division
DD Shigure firing at 36th Indian Division
DD Maikaze firing at 36th Indian Division
DD Fujinami firing at 25th Infantry Division

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on TF, near Medan at 46,76

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 79 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 34 minutes

Allied aircraft
SB2C-1C Helldiver x 24
SB2C-3 Helldiver x 36
TBM-1C Avenger x 33

Allied aircraft losses
SB2C-1C Helldiver: 1 damaged
SB2C-3 Helldiver: 1 damaged
TBM-1C Avenger: 3 damaged
TBM-1C Avenger: 1 destroyed by flak

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo, Bomb hits 20, on fire
BB Hiei, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 2, on fire
CL Nagara, Bomb hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Fujinami
DD Maikaze
DD Shigure

The first torpedo hit on Hiei appeared to be light damage, while the second listed Listing, Counter-Flooding, so I think damage is in the upper-30s or low-40s. Unfortunately, I'm not willing to risk my fast BBs chasing them on this particular day. I'll just hope a sub can pick Hiei off as she retreats. I am pretty sure Nagara will sink - most bomb hits were 1000's.

Hangman:
The Chinese arrive at Dalat and begin unpacking for the march to Saigon. IJA Tanks are on the way from Battambang, so it will be something of a race. I'm dropping as much supply as I can directly at Dalat to get this unit back into 100% supply... almost there. IJA tanks also retake Ubon and are now heading to Pakse, where I have some 55-Exp Indian squads but no forts - hoping the terrain stops them on his forced shock attack over the river. I do have supply here.

Judys have been bombing my troops at Vinh from Haiphong. More of a nuisance than anything else, but I suppose they are using up my supply. Forts are almost to level 2 at Vinh. Some units are in the white for supply - hopefully enough to hold back what I think is 2-4 of the Ind.Mixed Brigades.

There is some light IJAAF bombing of my troops now in the open outside Ayuthia. I am using the open terrain movement to head SE to the jungle major road hex. I debating chasing for 1 hex and then moving SE, but decided I didn't want to chance getting hung up and wanted to spend less time under the open sky. I can't LRCAP this far away until I get Rahaeng in good supply. Speaking of which, the trail from Moulmein to Rahaeng is now clear of IJA units so supply should begin to flow a bit better.

On second thought and after a glance at the map, I should change my movement to go SW, which has the added bonus of perhaps making him think I'm going to siege Bangkok conventionally.

Ceram Sea:
Units at Sorong and Boela begin to be destroyed. I think he still likes to buy them back because he marches them from the jungle back to my new bases as soon as he can. I like getting the VPs sooner rather than later, and not having to keep as large of a garrison present for as long.

NORPAC:
An enormous convoy carrying 100K troops arrives at Adak, but we need to move the NORPAC command HQ over from Dutch Harbor. Got a lot of devices in need of upgrade.

Operation Posse - August 27, 1944

I had a bit of invasion regret after the reaction to Gibbet. When I landed, I realized I should've just gone ahead with this operation and done Gibbet afterwards to backfill some supporting bases, although the test with the AGC+HQm and its unload bonus at Sabang was key in being able to bring as much as possible for this landing. Posse is a giant landing with multiple goals:

1) Finalize the cutting off of Singapore from Asia. Malaysia is very weakly defended, relatively speaking, and half of the peninsula is already pretty much in Allied hands! Then, we capture Singapore. I debated landing there directly after Georgetown but decided on marching down the west side of the peninsula.

2) Use Singapore to project power into the SCS (helped along by the stunning, if lightweight, success of Hangman), attempting to accomplish two things:
a) Contest the extraction of fuel/oil from Palembang, shortening the life of the Empire.
b) Prevent a seaborne retreat from Bangkok of a large portion of the IJA.


To those ends, I'm going to need to get Medan up and running as a refueling/replenishment point, although Georgetown will also work for DDs to bombard Singapore. I'm going to need to transfer a large number of aircraft this way from the Darwin area as well. Needless to say, capturing Saigon with the Chinese would make the followup to Posse a lot easier. Thankfully, Sabang will immediately become a backfield base with the capture of Georgetown and Kota Bharu. I will only need to keep a small number of fighters there to prevent unescorted strikes from Bangkok, and can transfer the bulk of my air power from Rangoon down to Alor Star and Georgetown.

Operation Posse

The final numbers on the Operation Posse load. All TFs are 5 hexes due NW of Sabang. A couple stragglers not in this hex will need to stop at Sabang first, but they are minor. Base forces and the like.

Major ships present:
10 CV
8 CVL
19 CVE
10 BB
1 BC
2 CA
12 CL
72 DD

LCUs:
1st Marine Division
2nd Marine Division
4th Marine Division
24th USA Infantry Division
32nd USA Infantry Division
18th British Division

I Corps Combt Engr Rgt (a 252-squad unit)

Plus a dozen AA/CD units, a half dozen regiments (including 2 USMC with their 3rd arriving in Pearl soon), a few tank units, a bunch of engineers, several hundred air support, and supply out the ears.



120K more supply is on the way, but lagging behind.

Got the replay and combat report text back. Nothing like 27 consecutive amphibious TF unloading animations [:D].

Been struggling just to have time to do turns lately. Am almost caught up and might have time tomorrow to do some updates. Lots of developments - we're up to September 9. Things are unfolding rapidly in all of Southeast Asia.

Before getting to the good bits for Operation Posse, we'll start with the smaller potatoes... August 28, 1944

Gibbet
Attacking at Medan, and closing the southern gate for the Medan/Sabang garrisons. Armor is at Tandjoengbalai and will push its minimal defenders north towards Medan, using superior speed to corral them all at the refineries where they will be surrounded and killed off.

Have some forces marching south towards Padang - 2 NZ Brigades for now, and a few others marching for Bengkalis and the nearby dot base of Pakanbaroe.

Ground combat at Medan (46,76)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 35406 troops, 626 guns, 514 vehicles, Assault Value = 1366

Defending force 9816 troops, 140 guns, 36 vehicles, Assault Value = 184

Allied adjusted assault: 428

Japanese adjusted defense: 282

Allied assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 4)

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 3

Combat modifiers
Defender: forts(+), experience(-)
Attacker: disruption(-)

Japanese ground losses:
1179 casualties reported
Squads: 15 destroyed, 45 disabled
Non Combat: 64 destroyed, 17 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 4 disabled
Guns lost 47 (9 destroyed, 38 disabled)
Vehicles lost 6 (2 destroyed, 4 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
360 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 41 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 8 disabled

Assaulting units:
Provisionl Tank Brigade
25th Infantry Division
81st (West African) Division
11th PAVO Regiment
36th Indian Division

Defending units:
70th Division
12th Garrison Unit
31st Field AA Battalion
64th Field AA Battalion
20th AA Regiment
65th JNAF AF Unit
64th JNAF AF Unit
15th Ind. Engineer Regiment
23rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
4th JAAF AF Coy

Hangman

A large Chinese Corps (about 570 AV) railed down from Vinh to Dalat, outside of Cam Ranh Bay. They're now marching on Saigon with an Indian HQc, as the city is only lightly defended. It looks like the static base force plus something like an SNLF or Naval Guards unit. I'm going to try to keep my hands on the coast of Indochina to deny him the rails if he manages to get his troops extricated from the Bangkok/Tavoy area. I'm fairly confident I can hold Vinh against the forces he currently has in northern Indochina and against at least a little of what is in eastern Thailand, making its way over/up and around. Forts and supplies will be key.

The crazy offshoot of Hangman, the Chinese heading up to try to stealthily retake Chengtu, is getting obliterated by IJAAF 2E bombing. But at least they're in China and not bombing my guys in Thailand, where I don't have the supplies to conduct LRCAP.

The IJN is using DDs and even "super E's" to conduct bombardments of Vinh, from Haiphong. Nothing I can do about this, and thankfully they aren't causing much damage at all. Just disruption, it seems.

Posse
The fun stuff! All 27 TFs unload at Georgetown and Alor Star in the afternoon (Alor Star is still in our hands from paratroop actions, which is great for our hex control). There isn't even an automatic bombardment at Georgetown, which tells me there are no bombard-capable guns there. I doubt the base is still in Japanese hands come tomorrow. Over 3300 AV was landed (6 divisions plus auxiliaries and supporting units), along with just 9K supply as none of the supply-only TFs began unloading due to ops. Tomorrow that number should skyrocket to the hundreds of thousands.

CVEs are at Georgetown itself, and CVs are standing 1 hex off. One CV TF is running with lots of system damage, which is unfortunate given that I don't see a time anywhere in the near future when I will be able to give them yard time - which only extends the length of time they'll need for refit and repair.

During the day, we shoot down a bunch of Japanese planes at/outside of Georgetown:

Japanese aircraft
J2M3 Jack x 9
P1Y2 Frances x 22
Ki-84a Frank x 45

Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 7
Wildcat V x 10
F4F-4 Wildcat x 12
FM-2 Wildcat x 99
F4U-1A Corsair x 23
F6F-3 Hellcat x 128

Japanese aircraft losses
P1Y2 Frances: 12 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 6 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
FM-2 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
CVE Hoggatt Bay
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Japanese aircraft
N1K2-J George x 17
Ki-43-IIIa Oscar x 39
Ki-67-Ia (T) Peggy x 9

Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 7
Wildcat V x 10
F4F-4 Wildcat x 12
FM-2 Wildcat x 86
F4U-1A Corsair x 20
F6F-3 Hellcat x 121

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIIa Oscar: 9 destroyed
Ki-67-Ia (T) Peggy: 6 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
FM-2 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

August 29-30, 1944

Some MTBs interfere with things in the Strait of Malacca in general, but don't deal any damage. Our subs are beginning to get more attacks off on LSTs, xAPs, and AKs in the inner empire - looks like troop movements to adjust to this set of invasions. Lots of troop ships between Luzon and Taiwan, with others south of Shikoku/Kyushu.

We also laid some mines at Bataan. I think those ended up bagging 1-2 TKs and at least 1 E-class vessel.

New Guinea

Don't remember if I was labeling this with an operational name. We're just trundling along, slowly scooping up bases. Every now and then I send a group or three of Fletchers to roam/raid. On the 30th, we bombarded Manado and got a few planes as well as sank a few SC CHa-class. They're only 1 point apiece and only carry Type 95 DCs, but I'll still happily shoot them up.

We do lose some Fletchers to Lilys and Peggy-t's, though.

Gibbet

Tandjoengbalai was captured on the 29th, and the armour is pushing the IJA up to Medan as planned. Waiting to actually take Medan until we have the small tank unit to the west, to deny the final retreat path. I'd rather not have to leave garrisons up here or have to mop up in the jungle itself.

Hangman

We're marching towards Nakhon Ratchasima now, although we'll also station a large chunk of army outside Ayuthia in case he abandons the place.

Lots of IJA movement dots to the north and east here... I'm concerned that he'll get everything out of Bangkok to Udon Thani, and then retake Vinh. That would be problematic. He's currently working on retaking Prachuap, the base SW of Bangkok, to rescue via railroad his division at Chumphon. Nothing much I can do about it.

All told, 107 IJA units are spotted west of Vinh and north of Ubon (not counting those at Vinh itself). Not sure how many I will be able to trap and kill. Our huge stack from the Chiang Mai offensive is going to head east from Pisanuloke to the dirt road and follow his stack that way. It's probably my only way of getting to Udon Thani before his Bangkok-area forces, which will at least force them to go further south.

At this point, I don't think he can risk any ships to Bangkok. He hasn't sent any there in a while. It's why Saigon is so important - without Saigon, CRB, or Bangkok to evacuate from, he will have to walk or take a plane (and he appears to be engaged in an aerial withdrawal, albeit a very slow one, from Timor).



Posse

Easy pickings for the moment. Just waiting on march times... The plan is to march across to Kota Bharu with some minor forces, and then down along the rail line. Most of what was landed at Georgetown will just push straight south for Singapore, which appears lightly defended and should prove a swift conquest.

As expected after the capture of Georgetown, he sweeps the place but not with enough - just 77 Franks in total, over 4 sweeps. They traded about even, but the CAP is still fine.

Elsewhere

The last unit at Boela is mopped up. We'll move on to Ambon next. Not much else at the moment, besides some logistics prepping for next steps in the Pacific and Celebes-area.

August 31 - September 1, 1944

Gibbet
Medan is captured on September 1.

Our sub-laid minefield just outside of Palembang nets some hits on a few TKs, but mostly just LBs that aren't worth anything really.

Posse
Paratroops capture Kuantan. A battle outside Georgetown to kill some more IJA, and they retreat towards Kota Bharu.

Two nice picket lines of subs east of Malaysia and south of Saigon/CRB should give nice warning for a KB approach, but he's still replacing aircraft I would imagine. I think I have a week or more of free movement.

Various IJN icons are spotted decently S/SE of Singapore. Looks like xAKs fleeing the area.

Took too much supply to Georgetown. I'm getting spoilage [:D].

Hangman
No real changes, except that some Japanese are moving SW of Vinh from Thailand. I think he's trying to cut supply lines. I should be fine as I'm subsisting entirely on airdropped supplies for now, plus the rare shipment in (I got one recently, which was awesome). The Chinese are 2 hexes outside Saigon now.

Prachuap falls to the 2nd Tank Division, so his units from Victoria Point are now clear to move up to Bangkok/beyond. Once he evacuates the bases on the coast, I'll land at them. I have minor forces prepped (regiments, base forces) but nothing that could have taken the bases against what he had garrisoned there.

Others
Jolo (that nice little island between Davao and Tarakan) is reconned and found to be empty. We'll send our recently repaired SST Nautilus there with some paratroopers, just because. Recon all around this region has actually informed a good post-Posse strategy.

We've also begun using Catalinas from Manokwari (near Biak) to drop paratroops at various undefended dots to clean up my strat map, and remove any possibility of some hiding AVs or something. We'll do the same around Malaysia when the time comes.

Back on the 29th, we sent a big raid against Kendari with B-24s. Over 100 hit the place, wrecking the airfield and destroying a huge number of planes on the ground. 25+ Transports - a solid hint that he's trying to fly troops out of Lautem/Dili and possibly Koepang/Roti. We've already seen Southern Army/1 at Lautem, which definitely means air transport. If I had a couple CVEs to spare I'd just park there when I knew KB was elsewhere...

SIGINT
Getting lots of hits right now:

54th Division has moved out from Benkoelen, thoughts are that it is moving to Palembang.
A couple of Ind.Mixed Brigades are heading to Batavia and Manila.
102nd Division heading to Palembang, previous at Buitenzorg on Java (just outside Batavia)
36th Ind.Mixed Brigade heading to Singapore
14th Air Fleet with a destination of Singapore

He stayed on Timor way, way too long. It's biting time.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

He stayed on Timor way, way too long. It's biting time.

It wasn't just Timor. It was the superstack outside Ramree, and then at Moulmein. And everything at the front... that entire north coast of Borneo is completely empty, except for the stuff he's just now dropping at Singkawang and 2 minor units at Miri. That's the consequence of having everything at the front and resisting extremely hard - once the line is broken, the penetration is deep. I guess it's the age-old defense in depth or in strength tradeoff. FWIW, as I look at my next moves, I do see some networks of bases that could give me some troubles, so it's not like he had no depth - I'd just be surprised if there were major combat forces at some of those places yet.

We're in early October now, and I'll update accordingly as I have the time... but I expect to be able to take everything from Singapore to Jesselton, and up to Vinh, without having to conduct another major operation. Not that I don't have any LCUs prepping for some targets...


Edit: Ah, should mention that in thinking about this I think this penetration is different, because in the Pacific with its interlocking islands it's much harder to break through to this extent. There are a couple of places...but it depends on the force allocations. I couldn't have done what Canoe Rebel did in his game, for example.

I'm so far behind... we just hit December 1, 1944. I have the turn and will do it tonight, however I have a question for any readers...

On January 1, USN CVs get a 4th group (Corsairs) and lose a fair number of strike craft. I want to say that the resulting configuration (without changing any upgrades) is 36 Hellcats, 36 Corsairs, and then 15 each of DBs/TBs. Given that the only large carrier I've sunk is Shokaku, I feel this leaves me extremely light on strike craft. Has anyone else been in this position? What did you do?

My initial thoughts are to disallow the DB and TB resizes, and then get creative with some unit splitting (running 36 Hellcat, 12 Corsair, 32 DB, 18 TB for example). This puts me really close to the flight ops limit, however (98 out of 103 maximum). I don't know that I'll ever be operating out of flight range of a friendly airfield from here on out, so that might not be a huge deal. Mostly I'm concerned with having enough counterpunch to actually sink some CVs the next time there's a possibility of a clash (should be relatively soon - early 1945 I'm thinking).

I suppose the other thing I could do is allow all of the units to arrive and do their resizes, which I think might be the final resizes, and then do some manual resizing for a more customized layout (36 Hellcat, 20 Corsair, 24 DB, 18 TB for example).

Whatever I do, I'd prefer to have only 1 or 2 setups for all CVs (save Wasp). So either 1 setup that's the same across all CVs, or 2 setups where I run roughly half and half.

The reason was to counter kamikaze attacks and more fighters were required after the Japanese carrier threat was no longer valid. You are refighting history and your historic reality is different then the historic record. You must adjust your carriers air groups as best deals with the threat you are facing.

Alright, let's update. I have some sparse save files sitting around. Will jump in 2-week intervals, more or less, until I get closer to the current date (January 2, 1945). If sometime big happens in there, I'll stray from that pattern... here we go.

September 17, 1944
Posse and Gibbet pictured, with TFs for a new operation -

Posse
In a reversal of the early war, pretty much all of Malaya is captured by the Allies in about 2 weeks. We're marching towards Bangkok in the north and Singapore in the south... neither is heavily defended at this point.

Gibbet
Marching down Sumatra (slowly), but some of our forces were shuttled over to Malaya to fight on the mainland. I hope we've left enough here to make progress, but in reality I don't need to capture everything here. I just need to . It would be nice if I could take Palembang's industry intact, but we could have a reverse Fortress Palembang situation here. Not optimistic of taking it if he doesn't let me trash his units before I get to PBang.

Corral
Just SE of Singapore, one large CV TF and CVEs, along with surface forces and amphibs, are heading for Singkawang and Miri. Just west of Singapore, 2 more CV TFs and another amphib group are heading for Jesselton with heavy surface elements. Looking to close up the South China Sea and prevent Japan from setting these up as a line of bases for me to have to deal with after Singapore. Closing the SCS will force any/all traffic to/from PBang/Java to use the Makassar Strait, which I am close to closing off from the east. After landing at these locations, we'll come back to Singapore (which might be ours by then) and load up some more units for bases a bit further east. I would like to take Puerto Princesa if I can, even though it is in easy range of Manila. Just denying him the use of that location as an airbase would be valuable as it would provide me with relative safety for transiting between Singapore and New Guinea very quickly.

Hangman
I think the screenshot for this warrants another post after this one.

Elsewhere
The Allies land at Ambon, Boela, and Waigeo - plodding forward here. It seems like everything is being pulled back to the Philippines at least, with Manado guarding the southern flank as well as it can. That will change when I shift my naval attention back this way. There is a little festung in the Moluccas that is kind of annoying, but the airfields are not that large so keeping them a risky place to base bombers is my goal right now.

September 17, 1944 - Operation Hangman

The goal here is to bottle up and kill all of the IJA southwest of Vinh. It's a hex side race in some cases (eastern Thailand), and simply waiting for units to march in other cases (Bangkok/Tavoy area). I'm pretty confident that his forces trapped down around Saigon/Cam Ranh Bay can't make it out before I close it off from the north.

Some of the IJA that was in Thailand managed to make it to the rails in Indochina and get up to Vinh. Disappointing, but this was something of a rush play. If I'd managed to bottle everything up, it would have been miraculous. I'll settle for what I did manage to trap. It looks to be somewhere in the vicinity of 12-20 divisions, plus supporting units like HQs, air support, and artillery (although not as much artillery as I would have liked to trap).

At this point in time, Vinh is somewhat of a hardfought thing. He seems to want to retake it, but hasn't been able to dislodge my units - 3 Chinese Corps and 1 Indian armored unit totaling 1600 AV on the 17th. Lots of IJNAF/IJAAF bombing of Vinh, as well as ASW E's on bombardment missions (which is amusing). Occasionally, heavier IJN makes a run (CAs Chikuma/Tone, or some Kongo BBs). The heavier forces tempted me to use my CVs on a full speed run up from Miri/Jesselton once those landings have concluded. They are running a somewhat regular schedule (every 3-4 days) and I might be able to anticipate their movements.

On the 13th, the IJA tries a Deliberate attack at Vinh and gets 1:2 odds, but drops my forts to 2. The raw AV was 2177 to 1758, and the casualties ended up at 8170 IJA to 1035 Chinese. On the next day, the bombardment reveals that it is now 1548 IJA AV to our 1690. We like this development.

He attacks again on 15th and gets another 1:2, dropping the forts to 1. Another 5462 IJA casualties to just 827 Chinese. I'm not sure what he's attempting with these attacks - perhaps just attriting my forces? Why? Or is he actually trying to take the base with inferior forces (IJA and Chinese squads are roughly evenly matched at this point, and mine have OK experience)?

We have a large stack of 3800 AV about to move into Udon Thani. They should meet only 1 IJA Division, and then it's onwards to Vinh and reinforcing it. I do need to regain control of the southern hexsides of Vinh in order to stop any more IJA from making it out of Indochina by simply marching through the base while my defenders are forced to sit behind their forts, waving.