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Hey folks,


After not doing any Witp for over a year i've started a PBEM with my brother.
i did the guadalcanal scenario as a short warm-up to get back in business.

I'm going to be Japan, have never done any production before, but have been reading up on;
John III's School for Japanese production students [&o] [&o] [&o]

the game is
stock
PDU on
No real rules otherwise, we speak/discus stuff from time to time when he comes over
so there may or may not be additional rules if we feel it to be nesceserry (damn what a word..?? [X(] did i mention we're Dutch?)

a short tactical description of my brother;
Me & my brother have been wargaming for as long as i can remember, a while back
(probably 1 or 2 years i'd say, but might be longer) he came along with some game
called WITP, but back then i found it to be to much detail and to much planning for a turn based PBEM game.
this seems to have changed lately since im now hooked onto WITP & the forum [8D]

He's a proffesional logistical planner IRL, (me being active in the dairyfarming sector)
That will probably give him a HUGE edge over me (i bet it's why he likes WITP [8|])

He knows the Japanese system well, He's allready finished a full SC 15 PBEM as Japan taking (western)India AND effectively cutting off & laying siege to pearl. The opponent gave up when he lost US CV's and pearl ran out of supply.
I don't think either side ran an AAR on that, and i didn't follow his entire campaign in detail.

so all in all, i think he is a very good opponent who will give me a hard time trying to conquer the world [:D]


Jaco, als je nou nog aan het lezen bent is het tijd om weg te klikken [:-]
(time to turn away, mr. Biggles!!)

Overall war plan;

This being my first game as japan i'm trying to do the first couple of weeks at slow pace, moving to fast will surely
make me fall into unneeded traps. The enemy general is most of the time a very agressive one, so i expect that he'll
be stinging wherever he can right from the start

In the long term i plan on invading India, jumping over Burma, which will fall after the supply situation runs dry.
Perhaps if there are enough troops left to spend a landing at northern OZ might be considered, but this depends on
PI, DEI and my India Campaign.

PI is to be landed on from turn 1 (@ vigan, appari & legaspi) but after making a beachhead to provide airsupport
only a garrison (roughly 1.000 AV) will stay. Most of the troops usually commited will move passed this theatre to be invading India, or helping out at singapore/ DEI untill the time is ready.


first turn objectives;
PI (allready mentioned)
mersing
khota baru
Jolo
Amboina
Gilbert (nauru invaded later)
most of the Solomon (including Lae and rabaul)
Wake
Midway (awfull long distance, dont know if its manageble?)

7/12/41 !!

first things first!

Bombing Pearl;

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 12/07/41

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Pearl Harbor , at 112,68

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 76
D3A Val x 126
B5N Kate x 143

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 6
P-26A x 3
P-36A Mohawk x 3
P-40B Tomahawk x 16

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
D3A Val: 5 destroyed, 35 damaged
B5N Kate: 2 destroyed, 23 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat: 8 destroyed
P-26A: 4 destroyed
P-36A Mohawk: 14 destroyed
P-40B Tomahawk: 37 destroyed
B-18A Bolo: 10 destroyed
PBY Catalina: 16 destroyed
B-17E Fortress: 3 destroyed
SBD Dauntless: 6 destroyed
A-20B Boston: 3 destroyed

Allied Ships
BB California, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 1
BB Oklahoma, Bomb hits 11, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AV Wright, Bomb hits 1
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 9, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
BB Maryland, Bomb hits 9, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
BB Tennessee, Bomb hits 11, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Detroit, Bomb hits 1
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 2, on fire
DMS Zane, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Nevada, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
CL St. Louis, Bomb hits 2
BB West Virginia, Bomb hits 10, on fire
DD Schley, Bomb hits 1
AP St. Mihel, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Phoenix, Bomb hits 1
DM Tracy, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Honolulu, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Mauna Loa, Bomb hits 1
DD Chew, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AD Dobbin, Bomb hits 1, on fire


Allied ground losses:
258 casualties reported
Guns lost 3

Airbase hits 43
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 204

this would have been the first wave, but after there were several cloudy hours the commander of KB
seemed to have lost fate in his pilots and ordered not to send in another wave of deadly bombers..

and so it was to become the one wave that hit Pearl Harbor.

conclusion;
US BB's will be swarming the pacific soon, lets hope i can catch some of those US carriers in time to compensate for the mishap over here..

As you can see most Malaya objectives are besieged by turn 1.
the big piles of assault value however got stuck loading supplies
Should have spent some more energy in reading the turn 1 must reads..

This happened on several other places, including PI, and rabaul
Midway did move to the max, but is still 2 turns out, starting to wonder on the whereabouts of the allied CV's.. [&:]

The objective was to land at Khota bharu and support the mersing landing with air cover from turn 2/3 (depending on airfield damage). Day 1 has seen CL Kashi take a torp hit at Mersing because of the lack of air support she's fine & heading for port with 26 0 12

Khota baru doesnt manage to take over the town, disruption flies up & i'll have to wait for a couple of turns before trying again, because of this i am starting to load a base force for mersing and starting to fly in an aviation unit by transport.

a baseforce from Sonkhia supports just enough Aviation for cap over Khota baru, to hold off bombers from disrupting the force even more.


as for the Chinese movements, both Cantonese Divisions had moved to Hongkong, 1 is moving back to Canton,
the shock attack did a nice job lowering fortresses, but Hongkong isn't meant to last long anyways.

more tomorrow, have played out several turns, but hadn't had time to post anything 'till now...

Wow, you think your brother would be the more experienced and you still take the Japanese then? Kudos Sir, really bold! [&o][;)]

I am honored and humbled to be referenced in your opening post.  Thank you Sir.

Your PH attack looks quite nice:  only 9 planes lost, all BBs hit reasonably hard, solid aircraft destruction on the ground, and good secondary ship hits.  I tend to judge the PH attack not on BB Damage but on CA/CL hits.  The Americans need them immediately for the CVs and taking a few out early helps strain the American Escorts.  You hit all 4 CLs in port and that is good work.

I'll be reading and enjoying!

BANZAI!!! 

ORIGINAL: castor troy

Wow, you think your brother would be the more experienced and you still take the Japanese then? Kudos Sir, really bold! [&o][;)]

thnx
well what can i say; im in for a challenge, and i have been gaining some ground on him (took me almost over a decade to do so [X(] )

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

I am honored and humbled to be referenced in your opening post. Thank you Sir.

Your PH attack looks quite nice: only 9 planes lost, all BBs hit reasonably hard, solid aircraft destruction on the ground, and good secondary ship hits. I tend to judge the PH attack not on BB Damage but on CA/CL hits. The Americans need them immediately for the CVs and taking a few out early helps strain the American Escorts. You hit all 4 CLs in port and that is good work.

I'll be reading and enjoying!

BANZAI!!!

Didn't look at the CL's really, but that does indeed give it a nice spin I'm gambleing that he will run several ship to west coast pretty soon, so there might still be a nice bit of extra firework to add to the mission.

thnx for the quick replies, didn't expect any readers this early on [8D]

aye, nice PH attack indeed.

although i am more and more a fan of the "manila first" strategy. in my PBEM as allied, my opponent historiker attacked manila instead of peal with LBA and KB and sunk not less then 30! subs there which i now miss. the result is, that in mid 1942, he can ship around DEI without any allied sub attacks.

i (like john) am intrested about the outcome of this familiy battle.[;)]

I truly agree with hitting Manila in some way, shape, or form on Dec 7th.  We have sunk well over 25 SS in the First Team Campaign and damaged a bunch more.  Sure lakes life a little easier...

some surface action @ Kuching;

Force Z interupts unloading of supplies, all troop formations had been unloaded earlier on,
so no significant damage was done to the landing force and Kuching is taken as planned.

A Baseforce is part of the landing and there will be several squadrons ordered towards Kuching to try and make Force Z's retreat as misserable as possible.

Allied propaganda claims a great victory and that there was no damage done to the Royal Fleet
The torpedo was probably made in china or something .. [&:]

On its retreat Force Z comes upon a Sub and BC repulse is accounted hit, 1 torp down the hull [:D]

The battle in China is starting to take form;


Nanning is still under siege, with +/- 500 chinese AV vs 275 japanese AV
The vietnamese border is taken back, the division + 2 vietnamese units received because of its bordercrossing
shocked over the river, with the 2 defending units not standing a chance.

the vietnamese units will push trough to Nanning, adding up to the total AV in order to stabilize,
after the shock attack i decided to rest the division in Hanoi, and then move to haiphong for shipping towards
Pakhoi, in order to make more speed in bulstering the defences.

In the Chinese retreat hex of Nanning there have been 2 units since the start of the battle, since the 2nd day all things are quiet at Nanning, Chinese forces couldnt bring out more then a 0-1 result. Because there has been no further try to disrupt or take (no reinforcements to the starting 5 units) the town i believe that he will try to starve them out.

I'm suspecting the 2 units to the right to be moving on Pakhoi directly, to erase the last supply line to Nanning.
Luckily i didn't underestimate his trying in China (i know he's an aggresive commander and expect a heavy fight in China).

On the 9th of december i expected trouble around Nanning and redirected 3 NLF units headed for Saigon. Added up with the division i'm loading at Haiphong after driving the enemy out of Vietnam it would seem enough to at least hold Nanning and hopefully to also drive the enemy out.

lots of thext for such a small theatre to fight over [:D]



Canton
Hongkong surrendered on the 15th, it went very quick after the initial assault with 2 divisions (of which 1 had to retreat to canton to prevent being boxed in)
Now a big stack is standing in Canton, i'm not really sure what he is doing there atm, its a city hex so it gives him a defensive bonus. a shock attack from my side gave me a 0-1 and severe disruption (losses werent a big problem)

We're bombarding the place now, its a battle i dont really care for, except for the fact that there are non china command units tied up there (after taking hongkong i transfered a engeneer reg to southeast command, but i dont really plan to take it out yet).

My objective is to tie up as much of his forces in the south so they can't defend Chungking. So that one is working pretty well [8D]
To make sure he doesn't feel to comfortable in Canton i transfered a bombardment force to canton (5 BB + escort)
they will be making sure there is disruption and add some losses as well. bombardment started at 12/19/41 with a opening round of 750 cassualties & 15 guns downed.

so all in all i can say that the Canton front runs very good as it is.

Taking over China;
As stated i plan on taking Chunking (and the places behind that) witout fighting all fronts at the same time.
* in Canton i can manage with minimal troop investment (though with severe naval activities)
* Yenen goes nicely, with AV rushing in i'm now at 2500 AV & another 500 on its way
* in Ichang troop movement is slow, plenty of AV (3300) to to what needs to be done.

Chinese counteroffensive
As i expected there is a Chinese counteroffensive;
Changsa's troops are moving on Wuhan and troops from Homan are pushing me off of the road crossing.
This results in him trying to cut supply to my main assault on Ichang, a great problem if he succeeds, but i'm not really planning to let him.

Countering this move will draw forces from my Yenen assault to liberate the roadcrossing, but once Yenen has been liberated from communism it hopefully takes less AV to push on the little heap of disrupted Chinese forces.
(as of then it will turn into a race against the clock, if i can hold long enough at my Ichang offensive the Homan counteroffensive will be cut of from supply itself)

Not entirely sure if the situation around the counteroffensive is stabile, but there are plenty of troops to re-route if needed.

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

I truly agree with hitting Manila in some way, shape, or form on Dec 7th.  We have sunk well over 25 SS in the First Team Campaign and damaged a bunch more.  Sure lakes life a little easier...

Subs would have been a good thing to bomb on turn 1

ATM Jolo is swathed in subs (around 10 counted within 2 hexes), a little refueling problem there ( [8|] ) prevents me from proper ASW but since there are no ships in the area atm all bombers are set to ASW registering multiple hits every turn.

The same goes for malaya
to start of with subs, he mined saigon [X(]
and there is a 10+ sub marine "fleet" that is moving fragments out of malaya... cant do much about that.. (except for killing many troops in other places to make sure they don't rebuild to quick )
in this place i have loads of squadrons set to ASW, all lilly & sallys have been ASW-ing for 3 turns now.
they will move on to bombing allied troops soon since my troops are getting into place.

question on air ASW missions
does a air ASW hit do more damage then a navy ASW hit?
the way i figured it, air ASW drops a direct hit when reporting hits, so thats a 250 AP bomb on a sub right?
anyone got a idea on how much damage an air hit does?



onto my campaign;
in the picture shown the operation is still evolving, but atm Singapore has allready fallen.
singapore was empty, except for 4 units (fort, HQ + 2 eng), i dont think i suprised him with a speedy operation, so
he is planning his fight somwhere else. I believe it to be the hex connected to both Georgetown & Alor star (dont know the name atm..)

I'm currently holding Bankha & alor star, there are aprox. 6 allied units near kuantan. With the division from Khota bharu moving on Kuantan and a fragment from my main army from Bankha closing retreat lines this group will be destroyed first.

only thing i don't know yet is wether he is 100% prepped & will try to stand in his centre hex, or if he will try to brake out & try to corner/ destroy a unit of mine. i dont know why he didn't move for singapore, but he sure is up to something
(a retreat towards Rangoon is impossible, as my burma army is about to cross the last river for Rangoon)


I have taken all the towns between Malaya & Rangoon with air drops, dropping a fragment & picking it up afterwards.
at Moulmein i had done this on a larger scale, flying in both 1st & 2nd para reg. it fell after 2 turns and i opened up an airbridge, flying in aviation and NLF's.
after 2 turns there was over 250 aviation and 110 assault value in the hex, i made it into a heavy bomber & fighter
airfield, but there were no targets to be bombed, Allied bombers are based at mandalay allready & recon on rangoon shows only a few units. So he's pulling back towards india allready (he knows i want it). after this analysis i moved all aircraft to singapore/ mersing for ASW duty as mentioned above.

So far all goes smooth (except the khota baru landing, but even there we are now on the move) i'm kinda wondering where he will put up his first stand, and where he will commit the AVG, my guess would be China, but so far nothing..

Force Z is brought to battle!

or actually, mini KB does all the battleing [8D]



I'll be looking into size of these micro words

BC repulse is headed for Macassar
BB POW is unaccounted for...
a massed CA sighting is headed for Bali

i believe he wants me to chase the sinking BC in order to save POW,
but it might have sunk just as well

remember that both battleships had taken a torpedo earlier on (although propaganda claimed these were ineffective)
we want to finish off these ladies, but i am unsure of the enemies airstrength and unwilling to folow behind java with mini KB..

Update on CV's




on the 19th Shokaku & Zuikaku ran into a tanker and troop transport, sinking fragments of a coastal AA regiment (whatever that may be...)

Allied CV's have moved into battle speed and are believed to be heading for Rabaul, an allied CA TF @ lunga is believed to have joined them.


After taking Kavieng an aviation unit was established there. i am gathering aprox 100 zero's there, with a single PG as bait
only disadvantage is that we have no significant bombers in the area (45 Nells at Truk but no escort left and no LVL 4 airport at Kavieng..)

KB is still to rejoin with Kaga and is +/- 1.5 day out of kwajalijn. after replenishment they will set a course towars Noumea, in order to try to intercept the Allied CV's who will be low on fighters/bombers after running sorties against Kavieng/ rabaul.

The 20th dec sees more of what we expected

allied CV's moving on rabaul
they are actually within strike range of the bait PG but didn't launch, perhaps they'll be bombing the groundassault units
in rabaul which should get in their decisive round of combat this turn (last turn fort went to 0 with a 2-1 result)
Bombardment TF is headed towards palau in order to stay out of range.

1 troop transport is stuck around shortlands (3 hexes SW), sure hope they dont run into the cv's
they are now moving South-east and set to disband in Tulagi until KB arrives. it holds approx 100 AV which would be very handy to have, above the sea level


China is remaining a bit of a gamble, Nanning is now besieged with 8 units.. chinese movement suprised me in speed,
so reinforcements are delayed, but will arrive (or the Nanning garrison will be joining at Pakhoi..)

The main offensive in China is also rerouted as the defence of Hsinyang will drain to many troops and we might be able
to counter his counter offensive in a way that speeds up our main offensive

In Burma we are still trying to close in the main Rangoon garrison and ran into the AVG in the process

Things are starting to look very awkward in the Chinese mainland ..

Wuhan is being besieged by 800 Chinese AV, with another 5 units inbound (of which 1 or 2 will probably stay behind to guard the retreat)
Stationed in Wuhan is about 350 Japanese AV, which will probably not be enough to hold long term.
If Wuhan falls, my main assault of approx. 3300 AV will be running out of supplies within 2 or 3 turns.

Besides that Wuhan is the Main Japanese airfield in China, with over 250 AV. To make a last stand/ time stalling
move there were 150 dive bombers & 60 LB ordered in. They are defended by 125 Fighters and will try to heavily disrupt the enemy before the main assault starts.
Added to that is every transport in The southern area. These are flying in the
38th division from Canton. (i had to switch command of one of the engeneering units in Wuhan in order to get the air planes on a troop transporting mission..)

The AVG was stationed at mandalay last turn, to cut supply to my Tau Gi front base (100AV composed of 2 para & 2 NLF units), so hopefully the mission will function well, without heavy losses to the air fleet.


In between battleing over Wuhan the main Japanese rerouted push trough the centre will likely meet in 2 to 3 days with the Chinese offensive that moved past the crossroad @ Homan. a detachment of the force will be reinforcing Wuhan, for otherwise it will very likely not hold (i'm hoping on disruption & the city hex bonus to be enough to hold out 'till reinforcements arrive )

Nanning was lost, but the disruption of the assault will likely buy enough time to get another division into pakhoi from the sea and therefor save the situation.


Canton was reliefed for a brief second, after the BB's bombed several thousands of Chinese over the last days.
This in combination with a shock attack managed a 2:1 result, with severe losses & disruption to only the japanese side.
On the next turn however 5 new units had moved in and we will be starting this drill again (not trying a shock attack for at least a month...)
Canton will very likely remain a front until the fall of China (still guessing on the centre push, but the assault at Jemen will probably arrive at the same time), until then it will remain [/i]"the place to bomb little china-men"[/i] from the sea.



China kinda soaks up all my attention,

KB's still moving towards the solomons, with allied CV's moving south of rabaul,
devastating my landingforce's morale with groundbombing. Cap from Kavieng turned up with only 10 zero's, killing off a couple of planes for no losses, but not preventing what they were brought in for.

Japanese production is partly halted at Tokyo, because of an extremely low level of supply which hadn't been climbing.
Armament, navy, merchant & repair docks were halted and Tokyo did show a 1K higher level of supply ( growing to 6.500 supplies) this turn, for which i'm glad.
Supply levels all over homelands have been raising from ca. 13K to 15K on average, this isn't much, nor is it great, but after shipping out a lot of it i was afraid it would come to an overall halt..

In DEI i've come to the conclusion that i have no overall expansion plan, for the main islands i'm picking up several NLF's dropped at the northern Borneo production sites for more conquest.
Amboina is repairing its airfield and Kendari is waiting for aviation units, until these moves have been completed all that is happening is bombers flying ASW missions and taking over Davao, where i've landed about 800 AV to make sure that it falls quickly.

in PI 50 fighers are desperatly fighting over my beachhead. the opposition; 10 fortresses & about 30 P40 will be flying over 2 AA units soon, and as soon as a further claude squadron upgrades to zero's they will be crushing the PI airfields in combination with my ASW flying bombers (with between 3 and 5 hits per turn i guess he'll be falling back with his subs around Jolo & singapore soon).


Force Z wasn't sighted again, Kuching is flying torpedo ranged attacks to see if they'r moving past Java, but i can't imagine he would. most likely would be that they are heading for OZ to pump out the water first, Mini KB stopped pursuit after Ryujo ran low on sorties and the 100 zero's were ordered to Kavieng (to catch a strike from allied cv's).

screenshot of China will be posted tomorrow..

China stabilizes after a heavy Chinese offensive

unlike expectations there were no serious assaults this turn.
On the railroad crossing from Homan most troops are reforming, with garrisons of 2 units left behind,
the main push into Kaifeng hasn't been made, and i doubt if he will do so anytime soon.
In the meantime, some mongolian cavalry and a tank reg bought out of manchuria are moving to Kaifeng to add up to the AV (they are outnumbered in AV by about 1:1.5 )

Wuhan seems a dud as well, with the 5 units next to wuhan remaining in place and the other units not doing anything.
The Japanese airforce is stationing at Wuhan & disrupting a good amount of men. Most of the dive bombers are upgrading to sally's ( mary => Lily => Sally ) to add a bit to the punch.

By doing so i concluded that the Lily itself is also obsolete (after checking its stats for a last time) so i'm stopping lily production alltogether (50% going into sally-production, the rest into R&D)

In Yenen i'm still waiting for HQ's to arrive (those Chinese roads must be more like trails, judging by the speed of movement..) gathering about 2900 AV vs 1500. a small part of the northern front moves south to aid the Homan offensive.

Canton is left by all Chinese forces, he sees that there is no sense in staying with the BB's in town

The BB's are ordered to move west (or south, since the map is rotated to its normal angle??) to Pakhoi, because i believe the chinese units to be moving into that theatre to try & finish the units that are now encirceled.

The vietnamese units are moving back to Hanoi, to protect it against a nasty chinese unit moving up the trail (which, by doing so, also gave me a 3th VM div [8D]) but also to prevent being smacked up by the units at Nanning.

I figure he wont invade into Vietnam with the massed units because i can cut off his supply, but there's nothing stopping him from making smaller attacks, that cripple the units in the neighbouring hexes.

The first division is now 2 days out of Pakhoi, moving next to Taan, with the new units pouring in i finally feel like regaining controle over China, lets hope there are no surprises until these units are in place.




other stuff happening;

Malaya
Most of the Allied units are now moving into Georgetown, with 2 being cut off on the railroad, and 6 at Kuantan.
intel shows 16 units in Georgetown, feels like a lot of units, but we'll soon find out what we can muster.

Rangoon
Intel shows no troops in Rangoon, after the Tau Gi para invasion, the Allied army moved backwards in order to not be cut off on the retreat. Can't keep up with the main army, 3 div + support is chasing the army, but hasn't been in contact..

CA Houston
On the beginning of the PI invasion CA Houston was moving north along the coastline to disrupt the landing forces,
it was sighted by mini KB that was moving south along the PI to intercept shipping. The heavy cruiser had taken a torpedo hit and was forced back into manilla's port for repair. Today on the 22th of december she moved out again.
As she moved out of the safety of the port a transporting TF was sighted, actually shipping a large part of the 16th Div.

Moving in to intercept the ship captain fails to make out the heavy escort that has allready spotted the CA before combat begins. Without the element of surprise and heavily outnumbered the cruiser doesn't stand a chance and receives several fatal hits within minutes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat at 41,51

Japanese Ships
CL Naka, Shell hits 1
DD Yudachi, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Tomozuru, Shell hits 1
PG Shotoku Maru
PC Sonan Maru #5, Shell hits 1
PC Sonan Maru #6
AP Aiyo Maru
AP Arizana Maru
AP Juko Maru
AP Marsue Maru
AP Monji Maru
AP Nichiai Maru
AP Shinko Maru
AP Shirogane Maru
AP Tafuku Maru
AK Venice Maru

Allied Ships
CA Houston, Shell hits 55, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Midway
The fast transport that was planned for midway several days ago was finally reached by a supply transport. heading for midway as well. The fast transport ran low on fuel and was ordered to wait & escort the other ships.
Today however a submarine commander spotted a TF heading north-west from Pearl Harbour. The submarine was sunk after the sighting,
but the TF is still headed towards Midway.

Shokaku & Zuikaku, who are positioned North East of PH have shifted course to head west and assist the midway invasion earlier on, so they might intercept the Allied TF with a little luck.

The CV TF was last spotted one turn ago, after finishing off the last remnants of a tanker TF and the Luckenbach transports heading towards PH from the North. At that time the CV's were heading South East, so the enemy is unaware of our position and might be in for a surprise when he get to Midway (or if he doesnt even get that far [:D])


KB partially makes port @ Kwajalijn and waits for the rejoining of the other carrier, they will then move towards the solomon isl. to do battle with the Allied CV's that are positioned 1 hex out of Buna (near Lae).

Not only are the allied CV's in the solomons, there are also 2 CA transports over there. (the OZ CA's & several US CA's that split off from the CV TF) The Australian CA's accidently met the troop transport fleeing from the CV's
they ran into eachother 2 hexes southeast of Lunga.
all escort ships are destroyed, accounting to 4 DD's & 3 PG's
Their sacrifices however enabled all troop transports to flee undamaged (alltough a supply transporter had to be scuttled as well)
This transport TF will head for Kwajalijn into safety of the KB, sure hope they'll make it that far [&o]


BB sighting @ Palmyra
no clue as to what this is, but the 35 Nells stationed at Kwajalijn will be having fun once they'll be coming closer.
(there has been a transport TF sighted at Baker, which is within range but they haven't managed to spot it themselves...)

with a little luck the Allied CV's will be setting up an early operation against the gilberts with the sighted BB and run right into KB, that would be a very lucky move, but isnt extremely likely to happen.
My brother isnt aware that KB is at Kwajalijn, i told him of Kaga moving east after he spotted it off of Midway, but the major KB carriers moved south between Midway & Pearl without ever being spotted [8D]


The hunt continues

Like the use of your CVs!  Fine Style...

Thnx John,

i was wondering if it might be a bit to impulsive, responding to lots of sightings and not so much using them as
a supporting unit (more like hunter/seekers). But on the other hand, i'd never get those Allied CV killed if i wouldn't

The Allied CV's are doing some real damage to my Rabaul landing, if the KB would have been there this would not have been the case (instead of heading north for 2 turns i could have been passed Kwajalijn allready).

But on the other hand ... would i have set them to "not load supplies" on turn 1, they would have allready taken it long before an allied CV could have turned up.. [8|]
Rabaul will need to be taken with reinforcement from several smaller NLF's from the region, otherwise i'm afraid they'll be stuck for a while..



I like the use of the CV's up till now as well, Mini KB however is something i dont really have function for, inbetween landing at Dutch beachheads. They'r to frail to move everywhere and to slow to get out of trouble if needed. If Kaga would have joined up with mini KB as initially planned they would have packed a lot more punch (and i wouldn't have had to fear old stuff like wildebeasts & swordfishes...)

At the moment i added a BB to mini KB, to function as a bomb catcher, might save me at a given time, but i hope i won't need it, toghether with several CA's it will also be able to carry out some heavy bombardment missions.


KB's position was revealed today as a Val spotted a sub near Kwajalijn..... thats gonna be a lesson i wont forget
and the Allied CV's werent sighted today. several of the CA TF were spotted, so i figure the CV's will stay close (he's within Betty range afterall)



In China things are starting to develop;
Wuhan now has 7 units, with 1150 Chinese AV, vs about 500 Jap AV
The chinese units have been bombed for a couple of days, that in combination with the city hex is hopefully enough to hold out untill reinforcements arrive from the north.

Yenen will see an attack tomorrow, hopefully better than last one, now there is approx. 500 extra AV and the 2 HQ's have arrived (3rd one still on the move)

Homan stabilized, as the main Ichang line went towards Homan the Chinese are also reforming, but are outnumbered,
with the units that split of from the Yenen force the Japanese forces will be able to push the Chinese into retreat at this location as well.

The Chinese forces at Nanning are standing still, i've retreated the 400 AV to the west to feint a retreat towards Hanoi,
they are moving back in 2 days however, hopefully the Chinese will take the chance and invade Pakhoi, so that i can push them out of Nanning with minimal effort.

in Ichang where Japanese forces have been bombarding for a while now there will be a deliberate attack, but expectations are small.
Canton is left by the enemy and i am moving some units up to the front to pressure the Nanning supply line (they are also supplied by trails, but surely he prefers railroad)


Here's a picture of the battle vs the UK forces


The spotting of the Andaman islands makes me feel like he's making short transport runs with his subs, that would probably be the only reason for a 0 gun spotting during recon. but i dont want to run into a trap either so i'll focus on Burma before reacting on the Andaman's with para's or Naval activity.

Akyab will be neglected untill most of the fight in western India is over, once the BB's return they'll come close to the place and bomb it for a defenitive battle, Calcutta and the other city's are to be taken by land, dont want to get stuck in a beachhead over there.



The DEI will be handled by 1 full division, several NLF's and 3 80 AV units and of course 3 para regiments!
this should be enough. I'm starting recon on Southern Borneo to secure an airfield close to the beachhead on Java.
This will probably become Kragen, nice isolated location, and splitting the enemy up in 2 directions.

I'm still in doubt if Timor should fall first to move mini KB behind Java to cut off retreat from Tjilitjap.
Recon shows 3 units & CAP (15 buffalo) in Lautern but not a lot of activity. I'm assuming that there are either OZ or Singapore regiments on Timor, to make the fight last longer.


Ryujo will move north first to pick up its original fighter squadron as it upgrades within a few days, it has been moving around with several smaller zero squadrons from other commands which will be used to escort bombing runs in the DEI when the KB's are at India or CEN/SO PAC.
upon its return a descision will be made to wether we move to Timor or if it will be left for a later point, when more troops are available.


anyone have any opinions about Timor/ mini KB for a flanking move behind DEI?

Not a lot of things happening lately;

China is stabilized, the offensive against Wuhand was met by 900 AV, which was enough to give a solid 0-1 result

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Ground combat at Wuhan

Allied Shock attack

Attacking force 66575 troops, 491 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 2023
Defending force 52780 troops, 618 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 969

Allied max assault: 3710 - adjusted assault: 2244
Japanese max defense: 976 - adjusted defense: 3805

Allied assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 3)


Japanese ground losses:
86 casualties reported
Guns lost 7

Allied ground losses:
6506 casualties reported
Guns lost 140

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this ends all fears in China and sounds in the start of my counter offensive!!
Yenen lost its 1 fortress last turn, in a couple of days the assault will be taking over the Northern Chinese route


operations around the Chinese coastline are in preparation,
2 Chinese units entered Pakhoi today, with 900 Japanese AV in the town it will hold, even if the majority of the
other chinese units move in (which would come down to approx. 1150 AV)
The BB's are 2 hexes out of Pakhoi, and will bring a nice surprise to the enemy units that were "so glad to finally see the sea once more"

Within 4 days there will be just about 1,000 AV dropped to the west of Nanning, which will drive the Chinese units out of the Coast zone.

PI
On the main island the beachhead stands unopposed, with a minimum of AV (750) the aviaton centre will be secured until
my invasion of India is finished. At the moment i'm setting up an airfield bombing raid, because the Fortresses are still attacking shipping in the Canal.

The southern island will be dealt with in several days, about 800 AV is to make a quick sweep to wipe the island clean.
The small island in between with AV will be used as a training base for fighters / bombers. to make sure i dont run into the AVG in China.

Burma is going well, crossed the river next to Rangoon today, which went well.
Thanx to the landing in Tau Gy the British forces are spread and fail to make a stand, now the main force is disrupted which will make the rest of the offensive even easier [8D]

Malaya is also a stage that is in progress, all needed troops will arrive in kuantan today to destroy the 6 units there
and the rest of the allied forces are surrounded in Georgetown where my forces are gathering for a final assault. (they might want to wait for the AV from Kuantan to add a bit of punch)

The first units in Malaya have started to ship to other positions, aviation units are moving out to Kuching for cover on the Java invasion.


DEI
An assault group is forming in Kuching, with about 300 AV, another 80 AV unit from Malaya will join the fight and 1 div from the southern Philipines will aid in the assault of Java. I'm expecting several Malayan units in Java, so there will be some heavy fighting, for this reason i'll try to land in Kragen, to split these forces in half.

First i will secure a couple of aviation centres closer (Palembang & western Borneo) to Java to prevent the bombardment & landing force being eaten by those TB's in the DEI.

Mini KB was having trouble replenishing, no clue as to why this was the case, but it is stalling them from further movement into DEI atm.. they will stay in Amboina for 2 or 3 days to receive an extra upgraded zero squadron, this will suport enough protection to move closer to the larger airfields.


KB is moving towards Guadal canal, depending on the movement of the Allied CV's contact will commence in about 2 days.
Until then the allied CV's will be pounding transports that by now have dropped off their units on the smaller islands surrounding Lunga, to prevent being sunk with the troops on the water.

New AV is arriving around Truk to renew the attack on Rabaul, where 2 units are stuck atm, but these will wait for the result of the planned carrier battle.

At about the same time Shokaku & Zuikaku will hit Midway to finally take it after half a month of unsuccesfull conquest.
The fast transport mission to midway was shot op pretty bad by the CD. another DD was scuttled.

loss of DD's is starting to grow in numbers, lost 10 to 15 of them allready, so i'll have to start looking after the smaller ships a bit more (or start escorting more with PG's & PC's)

A question to my readers (if they'r still hanging around [8|])
 
The year is about to turn to '42
 
Malaya will likely fall in the first week of '42, this will free up about 2000 AV and lots of supporting units (3x arm, 2x eng, 2 HQ, 4 or 5x art)
 
In another heavy fight; China, i'm planning my Major Push from the southern sealine, in the first half of 1/42, after this Offensive, the southern front will halt and "non-china command" units will move to other theatres, this involves;
4 VM units (600 AV, which if properly rested will easily be double that amount) 
3 div
2 Tank regs (originally Kwangtung, but currently in central China after buying them out)
Burma HQ
 
 
So in The second half of 1/42 There will be over 4.000 AV freed up and ready for assault
 
 
These are the minor battles that are being ran by troops that are allready in place, and which should be enough;
* SRA; 1.5 DIV + numerous NLF & NAV guard units accounting for a total of 1.000 to 1.250 AV
* Burma; There is now about 1.100 AV over there, with the help of paradrops i disrupted the defenceline and the UK forces aren't going to be able to regroup before Mandalay.
* Pac Situation will be evaluated after the staged Carrier battle ETA 2 Days (i'm actually moving around an allied CL/DD group with KB to strike at the unsuspecting allied CV's which are finishing of the last victims of an earlier raid of theirs)
 
Northern Burma is seen as an uninteresting theatre, to which i will turn after the fall of India, as it is easier to enclose the forces with the Northern route being cut off. This includes everything to the North of Mandalay.
 
 
This leaves the philipine islands (and Northern Australia, but i'm unsure what to do with that..)
There is momentarily a Beachhead of 1K AV in Aparri, supported by a aviation unit with 110 fighters (1 zero squadron) & 40 bombers.
 
Seeing some PI armies rampage against the Jap landing does create some reason to doubt if 1K AV is enough for a safe Beachhead, to this i could add the BB's which are momentarilly bombing Chinese back to the stoneage (shot down approx 900 + 40 guns this turn at Pakhoi [8D]) But the BB's are needed for an Indian Invasion as well.
 
 
 
Options i'm looking at are;
1# Invade PI with an overwhelming strength from all other AV & theatres
since i allready have a beachhead disruption shouldn't be a problem and with plenty of support even Manilla should fall within half a month (from day of landing to end of mannilla's surrender)
 
2# Invade India and reinforce the PI Beachhead
A quick War against western India, after which a small part of the force will return to PI to start the siege of Manilla
and the rest of the army will march against eastern India/ Norther Burma.
 
3# Invade India and not reinforce the PI  (this is not really an option i believe, since i believe 1K AV is inadequate)
 
4# Other Suggestions?
something with OZ could be in the plan, but i'm not over confident of fighting both in India AND in Northern OZ?