Castles in the Sand - Spidery(J) vs MrKane(A) no MrKane please

[Spidery]

January 19th 1943

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 10 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Pacific

Quiet

Burma area

There are supply shortages all over the place. Partly this is caused by reinforcements moving through bases and upping their supply draws for a few days but there also seems a general shortage across the Asian land mass.

China

Quiet

Australia

4E hit Darwin airfield. Flak does very well shooting down 4 planes with another lost to ops. 4 planes are lost to ops supplying this offensive, I assume.

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

January 20th 1943

Air Losses: 3 Japanese, 6 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Pacific

Quiet

Burma area

Quiet

China

Quiet

Australia

4E hit Darwin airfield. Flak only gets one plane today. 2 new units look like they are reinforcing the attack.

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

January 21st 1943

Air Losses: 6 Japanese, 6 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

I-5 finds a large tanker convoy near Karachi but is driven off with minor damage.

Pacific

At night, reports of large number of ships at Munda. Some Mavis try an ineffective attack. By day, nothing is reported.

Some Nells try to bomb Lunga port at night from 10000 feet. Despite over 130 ships in port they are unable to hit a thing and 4 are lost, 2 to flak and 2 to ops.

MrKane seems to have decided Japanese night attacks are ineffective and no longer flies night CAP!

Burma area

Allies bomb Myitkyna airfield heavily. A small group of Oscars had been moved there and providing LRCAP over Warazup. They are flying too high and too far away to manage to engage most of the bombers. 1 Oscar is lost on the ground and one Wellington downed by flak.

Some Fulmars straf a regiment in the Jungle in the South.

I send some Tojos from Katha to sweep over an Allied force. 30 Ki-44-IIc find 3 B-339D and down two.

China

Two cut off Chinese corps surrender, a useful 50 VP.

Australia

Quiet

Engineering

Allies have built Warazup to level 1.

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

January 22nd 1943

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 5 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Pacific

Quiet

Burma area

Allies bomb Myitkyna airfield again, unescorted. I had guessed he wouldn't do that so had decided against flying LRCAP, bad guess[:(].

China

Still bashing away at isolated forces.

Australia

Darwin bombed

Engineering

Taihoku to 7, I am sure it will eventually be useful at 8 and that would allow extra basing so carry on.

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

January 23rd 1943

Air Losses: 19 Japanese, 32 Allied, 9 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

DMS W-4 is lost to a sub attack near Sakhalin[:(].

Pacific

4E bomb Rossel Island

Burma area

Allies sweep Myitkyna with Hurricanes that meet a few Tojo on LRCAP, 1 Hurricane is shot down.

Allies straf with Fulmars again and a couple of Oscars engage.

I launch a daylight raid on Ledo. The sweeps fail to materialise, although the LRCAP from the same base is present. Of the 81 Helens tasked only 15 arrive[:@]. Only 4 Allied plains are on CAP and cannot prevent the bombers getting through. 7 C-47 are destroyed on the ground along with 1 Martlet but 6 Helens are lost to flak or ops. What a missed opportunity[:@]!

China

Allies strike at Lanchow oil fields in the day. They knock out 10 points of production for the loss of 15 B-24D[:)]: 13 in air-air, 1 to flak and 1 to ops.

Australia

Darwin attacked and forts reduced, this does not look good[:(]:

Ground combat at Darwin (76,124)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 71200 troops, 1151 guns, 997 vehicles, Assault Value = 1960

Defending force 37036 troops, 452 guns, 370 vehicles, Assault Value = 960

Allied adjusted assault: 3742

Japanese adjusted defense: 2037

Allied assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 5)

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 4

Combat modifiers
Defender: forts(+), leaders(+)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
2566 casualties reported
Squads: 15 destroyed, 114 disabled
Non Combat: 22 destroyed, 97 disabled
Engineers: 7 destroyed, 31 disabled
Guns lost 74 (16 destroyed, 58 disabled)
Vehicles lost 22 (2 destroyed, 20 disabled)
Units destroyed 1 A tiny fragment left behind

Allied ground losses:
3767 casualties reported
Squads: 21 destroyed, 382 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 62 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 29 disabled
Guns lost 112 (25 destroyed, 87 disabled)
Vehicles lost 18 (1 destroyed, 17 disabled)

Assaulting units:
641st Towed Tank Destroyer Battalion
2nd Australian Division
24th Infantry Division
3rd Army Tank Brigade
5th Australian Division
25th Infantry Division
2/10th Armoured Regiment
4th Armoured Brigade
32nd Infantry Division
3rd Motor Brigade
3rd Australian Brigade
Northern Territory
95th Coast AA Regiment
2nd Medium Regiment
2nd Australian Hvy AA Regiment
1st Medium Regiment
III Australian
13th Field Regiment
21/22 Field Regiment
109th Anti Tank Regiment
II Australian
108th Anti Tank Regiment
94th Coast AA Regiment
2/16th Field Regiment
208th Coast AA Regiment
13th Australian Hvy AA Regiment

Defending units:
48th Division
56th Engineer Regiment
16th Division
14th Tank Regiment
1st Ind Engineer Regiment
12th Ind.AA Gun Co
31st Ind.AA Gun Co
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
31st Field AA Battalion
17th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Medium Field Artillery Regiment
205th Ship Eng Coy
5th Air Defense AA Regiment
88th JAAF AF Coy
47th Const Co /1
13th Ind.AA Gun Co
11th Ind.AA Gun Co
21st Ind.AA Gun Co
110th Ship Eng Coy
14th Army
21st Fld AA Gun Co
310th Ship Eng Coy
28th JNAF AF Unit /1

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Ki-84a to 12/43 (nice!)[:)]

Reinforcements

SO RO-103

[Spidery]

January 24th 1943

Air Losses: 6 Japanese, 22 Allied, 4 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

DD Nowaki drops a Type 2 DC onto SS Snapper near Truk with a full hit but it is not enough to sink her. However, she should be limping back to base.

The mystery of Allied subs continues. I begin to suspect that the forces I saw South of Formosa pulled back.

Pacific

4E bomb Rossel Island.

Allied naval search over New Britain is very good. I have a BB group and a CA group and they have to pull way back to avoid being spotted. It is going to be difficult to interfere with his next leap forward. On the other hand he may be attacking places where I can use Vals and Kates and not just the Nells and Betties (or if he delays long enough, Judies and Jills but the carriers have priority for the new aircraft).

Burma area

Hurricane sweeps run into Ki-44-IIc and fair badly. Fulmar straffing attack is hit by a motly force of A6M2, Ki-43-IIa and Ki-44-IIc. Overall, Brits lose 4 Hurricane IIc, 5 Hurricane IIb and 5 Fulmar in Air-Air for a loss of 2 A6M2, 3 Ki-44-IIc and 1 Ki-43-IIa with the Allies losing another 5 planes to ops. A nice day in the air over Burma[8D].

Recce shows the bombers have mostly left Ledo for a safer airbase but the auxiliaries are still there. Does that mean he is flying supply from Ledo? If so to where, or does he have the Chindits there and is readying for a dastardly air drop? I think I have all bases in Burma adaquately protected against a Chindit strike.

Allied fighters seem to be based at Kalemyo mostly. May try a night strike followed by sweeps.

China

Another isolated Chinese Corps succumbs to repeated attacks[:)].

Just decided, I'll send two divisions from China to Manchuko/Korea and change all the prep targets for the divisions in Manchuko/Korea to different bases of mine. This way, I should be able to mount a quick counter-invasion if opportunity presents (and have the PP available).

Australia

Quiet.

I am sending some cruisers and battleships to near Saumlaki. I will try and bombard Darwin with these. If I get lucky and hit him at the same time he launches an attack it could cause enough disruption for an attack to fail. I have some fighters that should be able to give some protection.

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

January 25th 1943

Air Losses: 9 Japanese, 13 Allied, 4 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

I-26 finds a big xAP off Ceylon, decides to only fire two torpedoes, and misses.

Pacific

4E bomb Rossel Island.

Burma area

Quiet

China

Quiet

Australia

Quiet.

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

D4Y4 to 10/43 (due April)
A6M5b to 7/43 (due May)

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

I am sending some cruisers and battleships to near Saumlaki. I will try and bombard Darwin with these. If I get lucky and hit him at the same time he launches an attack it could cause enough disruption for an attack to fail. I have some fighters that should be able to give some protection.

Drive those ships up onto the beaches to bombard when you do....but those guys are doomed, unfortunately.[:(]

Holding Darwin is tough!

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Spidery

I am sending some cruisers and battleships to near Saumlaki. I will try and bombard Darwin with these. If I get lucky and hit him at the same time he launches an attack it could cause enough disruption for an attack to fail. I have some fighters that should be able to give some protection.

Drive those ships up onto the beaches to bombard when you do....but those guys are doomed, unfortunately.[:(]

Holding Darwin is tough!

Holding is impossible, it is just about delay and using his assets.

The C-47s he has lost supplying the attack and the 4E downed amount to quite a lot of VP.

[Spidery]

January 26th 1943

Air Losses: 29 Japanese, 23 Allied, 13 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Pacific

4E bomb Rossel Island.

Burma area

A night strike at Kalemyo fails to materialise.

I sweep Kalemyo, he sweeps Myitkyna. In both cases the defender seems to come off better. Day air losses here, 13 Ki-44-IIc, 8 A6M5, 5 Ki-43-IIb for 9 Hurricane IIb and 9 Hurricane IIc about 3::2 in his favour so not good but better than 2::1.

China

A big Chinese Corps is destroyed netting 70 VP in land combat for the day, this has cleared a hex allowing to move on to the next cut off force.

Australia

Quiet. He continues to take C-47 losses. I expect he is conserving supply to get supply to the troops for the next attack. I have three bombardment task forces to hit him at Darwin, he has only low levels of DL on them so may not be clear what is going on. Still will be the risk of 4E low-level attacks.

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

N1K1-J to 2/43 and enters production in 5 days. Two factories will move to work on the N1K2-J and the other two will start expanding now to increase production when they come on line and avoid wasting HI on engine bonus.

[Lowpe]

I am so envious of your well thought out R&D plans.[&o]

[Spidery]

January 27th 1943

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 7 Allied, 4 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

I-170 finds a nice big xAK near Pearl Harbour and hits it, with a dud[:@]!

Pacific

4E bomb Rossel Island.

Burma area

A perfectly co-ordinated set of attacks are launched against the airfield at Kalemyo[:)]. Aircraft provide LRCAP, large sweeps come in first, and then the bombers, with escorts, all arrive as a single strike of 69 Helens. Unfortunately, there are no Allied planes in the air and the bombers score only damage on Hurricanes on the ground and no destroyed planes[:(]. 6 Helens are lost to flak or ops[:@].

China

A little British base force is destroyed[8D].

Australia

The bombardments hit the Darwin besiegers flawlessly. Total damage inflicted is okay, 16 devices destroyed and 149 disabled[:)]. With the disruption applied this should give the defenders a few days respite and allow them to recover their own disablements.

Allies expect something is happening and limit themselves to sweeping Darwin. First sighting of the Spitfire VC.

Engineering

Quiet

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

January 28th 1943

Air Losses: 1 Japanese, 4 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Allies score a dud on an xAK near Iwo Jima.

Pacific

[>:]

Burma area

[>:]

China

[>:]

Australia

[>:]Allies sweep Darwin.

Engineering

[>:]

R&D

[>:]

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

I am so envious of your well thought out R&D plans.[&o]

Umm, in comparison yes but there are lots of things I would do differently in retrospect.

R&D, the economy, China I am happy with. The rest is not so good...

[Spidery]

January 29th 1943

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 5 Allied, 1 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

[>:]

Subs

Various claimed hits by aircraft on Allied subs, no way of knowing if any are any effect.

Pacific

4E hit Rossel Island

Burma area

Quiet

China

Small attacks.

Australia

Quiet

Engineering

Allies have developed Munda airfield to 4.

R&D

Quiet

[Spidery]

January 30th 1943

Air Losses: 8 Japanese, 7 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy: Nabire(air drop)
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

I-170 is damaged near Pearl after failing to attack a TK convoy.

Allies score a dud near Davao, first sub sighted in that area.

Allies miss a shot at CA Haguro near Rabaul

Pacific

4E hit Rossel Island and are met by some A6M5 on LRCAP from Milne Bay. 4 B-24D for 4 A6M5, a fair swap[:)].

Burma area

An Indian Brigade near Myitkyina is attacked and collapses[8D]. Interesting that it has a supply(-). Allies must be having difficulty getting supply through the Jungle. I bombarded last turn so would have increased supply demand.

Ground combat at 65,42 (near Myitkyina)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 13875 troops, 130 guns, 77 vehicles, Assault Value = 492

Defending force 3125 troops, 6 guns, 44 vehicles, Assault Value = 121

Japanese adjusted assault: 410

Allied adjusted defense: 22

Japanese assault odds: 18 to 1

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), leaders(-), experience(-)
supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
19 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
1322 casualties reported
Squads: 36 destroyed, 50 disabled
Non Combat: 22 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 6 (2 destroyed, 4 disabled)
Vehicles lost 16 (6 destroyed, 10 disabled)
Units retreated 1

Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Assaulting units:
104th Division
46th Naval Guard Unit
Tonei Hvy Gun Regiment
15th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion

Defending units:
84th Indian Brigade

China

Small attacks.

Australia

Allies reduce forts at Darwin to 3[:(]

Ground combat at Darwin (76,124)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 69257 troops, 1130 guns, 995 vehicles, Assault Value = 1735

Defending force 36520 troops, 444 guns, 370 vehicles, Assault Value = 939

Allied adjusted assault: 2956

Japanese adjusted defense: 2391

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

Allied Assault reduces fortifications to 3

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

Japanese ground losses:
2214 casualties reported
Squads: 7 destroyed, 42 disabled
Non Combat: 52 destroyed, 35 disabled
Engineers: 24 destroyed, 20 disabled
Guns lost 80 (15 destroyed, 65 disabled)
Vehicles lost 27 (11 destroyed, 16 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

Allied ground losses:
5093 casualties reported
Squads: 38 destroyed, 475 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 110 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 35 disabled
Guns lost 92 (3 destroyed, 89 disabled)
Vehicles lost 42 (2 destroyed, 40 disabled)

Engineering

Port Blair forts reach 5.

R&D

A6M5c to 10/43

[setloz]

Allies reduce forts at Darwin to 3

Yes, but at what costs? The equivalent of a division is trashed...and unless he supplies Darwin by sea, he will take a long time to recover this losses.
I'd say this goes well towards your goal of delaying Darwin as much as possible.

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: setloz

Allies reduce forts at Darwin to 3

Yes, but at what costs? The equivalent of a division is trashed...and unless he supplies Darwin by sea, he will take a long time to recover this losses.
I'd say this goes well towards your goal of delaying Darwin as much as possible.

I'm not so optimistic.

He seems to be having some problems getting supply in but not that much. I think he is running a massive air-lift.

He lost about a quarter of his AV disabled. If that is spread around then he will recover quicker, if it is concentrated on one Division then he can pull that one and attack again as soon as he has supply for the others.

It will get interesting when he reduces forts to 2. If he bombs the airfields he will have difficulty getting the supply to continue the attacks. If he doesn't then I may be able to rebuild to 3 between attacks.

If they can hold for a couple of weeks then I should have N1K1-J available to base at Saumlaki which should be enough to protect that and then I can set up a regular bombardment run against his forces.

[Lowpe]

How is the morale of your troops at Darwin?

He attacked three days after your bombardment;7 days from his last attack. You might have 7 days...depends as you rightly point out the dispersal of damage done to Allied troops.

I would definitely try to get another bombardment in if you can.

[Spidery]

January 31st 1943

Air Losses: 62 Japanese, 30 Allied, 14 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Pacific

Quiet

Burma area

Massed Lightning sweeps hit Magwe with Hurricanes on LRCAP. Loss ratio is not good but there are still enough fighters on CAP at the end of the day's battles that he couldn't have risked bombing. Will move fighters from night to day and re-organise to have a good CAP up for the next day. Looked like sweeps were coming from Silchar and the LRCAP from Kalemyo, is it worth trying to hit either?

Seem to have shot down 20 Hurricane IIc, 3 Hurricane IIb, 2 P-38F, 1 P-38G for a loss of 23 A6M2, 12 Ki-43-IIb, 12 Ki-44-IIc, 6 A6M5, 4 Ki-43-1c a ratio below the 2::1 needed so not so good[:(].

China

Quiet

Australia

Darwin is bombed, flak is on good form and downs 3 planes.

2 more units seen approaching Darwin.

Engineering

Sapporo airfield to 8. Katha to 7. Buka forts to 4.

R&D

February brings the N1K1-J into production, initially have 71 but will expand this to 131. In about a week should be able to upgrade the first small unit.[:)]

Get a TOE upgrade for the tank regiments.[:)]

Kawasaki Ha-60 enters production but have no use for it.

Upgrades available for the Wakatake, Hashidate, and Kamikaze classes and the Chikuma can be fitted with radar.