Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

I also think Scott is gearing up to assault Singapore. As you can see, supply is down to critical levels. The city still produces a little bit, the air bridge flies in some but not nearly enough. I just hope I have some supply in the combat units when he comes across the river and has to shock attack me.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: John B.

MindMessing, I see what you're saying I'm trying it as an experiment and to leave myself at least a little bit of flexibility when it comes to fuel so I can use naval moves later on if an opportunity presents itself. On current consumption I run out of oil, and fuel, in early '45. Because my fuel runs out before 8/45 with HI on I should not lose out on actual supply production this way as I can always turn the HI back on and restart the production. It merely delays the production of those supply points.

I've found it productive to use the fuel sitting in merchant ships to siphon off for the IJN.

I'd strongly suggest turning that fuel in to supplies, as there's no assurances there will be HI factories to do it fuel tomorrow

[John B.]

Mindmessing. That is a very good point.

I've bee using the vast merchant ship surplus to get resources without refueling and then disbanding them once they are out of fuel. And, using the TKs and AOs that are not useless to refuel the AKs.

[John B.]

June 25th saw a series of savage air battles over Manila and some heavy 4 engine losses over Saigon. Heck, I even shot down 3 B-29s. I do like shooting down the big bomber boys because (a) they're worth 2 VP each and (b) that's one less heavy bomber to hit the HI. I suspect that Scott switched to his Hellcats over Manila because he has a whole lot of them in his pool and to soften me up for a bit P-47 Corsair smash. But, in the end, he lost more planes (and more VP) than I did this turn so it's a win.

[John B.]

Speaking of Saigon, it has been the airbridge to Singapore and he did knock out a number of my transports. There are still a few left flying and I don't think my supply situation there is too awful given that it has been cut off for a long time. I've been running in supply via sub as well but this will go downhill quickly once he gets a large number of ground troops in there.

[John B.]

Still holdling on at Rangoon. The poor divisions at Pegu are pounded every turn but still holding on. I'm losing about 6 squads per day but each day I keep Scott out of Rangoon is precious so I think that it's worth it. The two divisions in Rangoon are in good shape and fully supplied. They will pull back at the first sign of an invasion of Indochina or a move on Pegu.

[John B.]

And the big fight that is brewing at Manila. Scott has 13 units next to the city plus the ones moving up. It will be interesting to see how the artillery battle there takes place. I've got level 9 forts and a LOT of my super heavy guns. I also have over 200K supply so it should take Scott a long long time to lever me out of there. At least I hope it does.

[John B.]

Oh, if you see that TF in the upper right hand corner of the Philippines picture, if they keep going on their course they're going to get a nice Kamikaze surprise. [:D]

[John B.]

Another day, another day of savage air battles over Manila! This time it appear that I actually shot down more planes that I lost which is a clear win for the Japanase. Scott continues to use his F-6Fs mainly because (I'm sure) he has a whole lot of them but from my point of view a VP is a VP.

A shore bombardment of Singapore and bombing Pegu rounds out the action this turn.

[John B.]

No air battles this time, but Scott did drop on two northern cities on Luzon. I"m not too concerned about these attacks and I'll see if I can bomb these units out of existence. Scott does appear to have some ships heading that way and I"m not sure if they'll try to land or not. I do have a lot of Kamikazes over there so we'll see if he had CAP.

[John B.]

And, Scott finally crossed the straits and attacks Singapore. He did not take too many casualties, just a lot of disrupted. My airfield is a 100% service damage and 74% runway damage so the air transports are not getting through. It's just sub supply for now plus 17 per turn from the Light Industry that is still intact in the city.

[John B.]

Well, this time my lazy drunken airforce commanders get a big medal for not showing any initiative and not launching Kamikaze strikes. The TFs you see off of Northern Luzon turn out to be two large CV TFs. Last turn, the naval search did not show any CVs at all so the Kamikazes I had primed would have gone in without any escorts and hilarity would have ensued. [:-] But, the Kamikaze's did not launch so they live to die for the emperor another day.

In other news, the Japanese TF next to the carriers is a CL TF with the Razor in charge. For some reason Scott did not bomb them this time so there might (just might) be a surface action tonight and we'll see if the Razor can work any torpedo magic. No other real news. My supply convoy is unloading at Hanoi and Scott is marching into Manila.

[mind_messing]

Out of curiosity, from what range did those kami Irvings fly?

[John B.]

Mind_messing,

I don't remember. I think that they flew from either Saigon or Phnom Pneh (sp?) because I remember being surprised that there was an allied TF at Victoria Point where I hit them. An earlier attack by Irvings went from Manila to Legaspi which is only 5-6 hexes.

[John B.]

Well the battle of Manila is fully joined and it's going to be hard fought. A massive fighter sweep took place and the losses were almost exactly even. Assuming these numbers are correct, it was not a good day to fly a Frank or a P-47. I think in total Scott lost about 117 planes and I lost about 130. Good ratio for the Japanese. I do burn supply out of Manila rebuilding my fighters, but, if I was not doing that and Scott could bomb at will the supplies would likely be blown up faster. In any event, a large battle of attrition. I can't keep up these losses of Franks so Georges and Tojo IIcs will have to step in. I've also been flying in squadrons of Zero5bs from my carriers since those planes really aren't doing anything else.

[John B.]

On the ground I unleashed my first bombardment and I was a bit underwhelmed. I'm not sure it's worth the supply to do this and pick up 3 VP per turn. My artillery level is about 520 or so with many 24 cm, 28 cm, and 32 cm guns but I really thought I'd do more damage than this. I keep it up for a few turns to see if things get better.

In other news, the Tabby's are just in normal range of Manila from Taiwan. Each Tabby carries 5 supply points so I've got an airbridge set up to fly supplies in. I should be able to get 100 or more supply per turn in that way and Manila itself supplies 110 from its light industry. Anything to postpone the day when I"m oos.

[John B.]

In the meantime, Scott landed airborne in the north. I've shut down the airfield at Aparri and my own airborne assault will go in this turn. THen, I can pull my boys out by transport and airborne assault again in a couple of turn on his other units up there. It's evil, and I like it![:D]

I'm also shifting Kamikazes down to Saigon to see if I can attack his shipping on the side of the Malay peninsula with a nice strike.

[John B.]

It's not July 1st so 13 more months to hang on! As you can see, I still have a hefty lead in VP but that will change quickly and I lose Singapore/Rangoon and all the troops in Singapore. I do have a hefty stockpile of political points to rebuild units and release more units from China.

[John B.]

In the resource category, just more bleeding away of stockpiles. Still a lot of HI though so aircraft production should stay high for a long time.

[John B.]

Scott did his first assault on Singapore. Given that I'm very low on supply and he has been hitting it with shore bombardment and wave upon wave of B-24s and lighter bombers, I'm actually proud of my boys for putting some dents into his forces. But, the fort level went down so it's just going to get worse. I suspect in a week Singapore will be lost.