December 7th Combat Report and Theater Planning
Please feel free to criticize the following maps if need be, still experimenting.
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Burma: [/font]
Burma will start out modestly with 1 Division, 1 Brigade, and 1 Regiment being used. Their first objective will be Rangoon, it shouldn't be too difficult. Once Rangoon falls the next major Burma objective is Mandalay, but that offensive will be postponed until more reinforcements arrive.
Obviously no reports for this theater, only some recon missions.
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China: [/font]
Moving units from places that do not need to be garrisoned to the front line, will plan my offensive later. The general goal is to push Chinese forces into it's interior around Chungking.
The first assault on Hong Kong was quite successful with 1-1 odds. Will do another shock attack for next turn. I've set up my dive bombers to begin ground attacks along the line.
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Malaysia/East Indies[/font]
In Malaysia the major objective is to conquer the entire peninsula and destroy all British forces in the area. Singapore will be the most important location, due to it's defensibility and large port/airfield.
As seen on the Burma map 2 divisions, 1 armor regiment, and 1 Army HQ will be moving in from the North into Malaysia by railroad. They will join up with a third division that is landing in Songkhla. From there they can start sweeping down the western coast of Malaysia towards Singapore.
One division is landing in Khota Bharu, once another wave of troops lands they'll start assaulting the moderate British resistance. This will also serve as a new airbase once captured, so an engineer base force is en route. A new brigade will also be moving in to land at Kuantan. There should be only light resistance so once it falls the brigade will move westwards to Bankha to surround any British forces still in northern Malaysia. Will require coordination with the division at Khota Bharu so that the British forces located there do not retreat towards Kuantan.. which would be troublesome.
The strike on Singapore was fairly successful with 22 British planes destroyed, with no losses for me. It depends on Marky's air strategy but I think, if practical, it will be important to shut down Singapore's airfield to prevent strikes against my land and naval forces, and so he won't be able to have much of a CAP to defend against my strikes. Therefore I'll run some more large airfield attacks on Singapore (as a secondary attack, naval attacks are first priority) to see what my losses are like.
North Borneo should fall quickly from a swift assault of smaller regiment sized forces. My BB task force in the region will watch their flank to keep the British battle force, Force Z, in check, if they even stay. Java is the most heavily defended area of the Dutch east indies, and I plan to isolate it before invading. Once North Borneo falls I'll sweep Western and Southern Borneo as well as Sumatra and establish some powerful airfields with bombers in these areas. This should give me a powerful hold around Java and Singapore--primarily protecting my ships and keeping allied ships in check, or at the bottom of the ocean.
Two more battleships will be moving to this theater from Hiroshima-- they'll add some more force to defend my ships and provide deadly land bombardments. From Hainan a substantial number of engineers, armored regiments, and combat engineers will start transfering to Saigon to support operations across this theater as well as Burma.
A Fleet HQ, Brigade, and some engineers will be moving to Saigon and leaving Camnrah Bay almost bare so that Saigon will become the major base to start operations from. Once arriving I'll have two full mixed brigades in reserve in Saigon ready to move against any desired targets. I just need to wait for the ships transporting troops at the east Malaysian coast to return.
The far southern areas of the East Indies, primarily Sulwasi, and the New Guinea are very lightly defended and will also be targeted in this opening offensive. If a major airfield such as Kendari can be secured quickly it would help prevent any allied evacuations into Australia.
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The Phillipines[/font]
Phillipines is another early war objective, but will require substantial number of troops. 2 Divisions have made the initial landing in northern Phillipines with 4 more divisions and artillery from the homeland being prepared to join them. From Taiwan a large force of support units and supplies, adding up to 30,000 men, will also be joining. It includes 2 armor regiments, several battery's of artillery, 2 combat engineer regiments, a few small combat elements and various HQ and base force/construction engineer units.
Once all 6 divisions and support units are coordinated together in the northern Phillipines they should eventually wipe out this main area of allied resistance.
Air support will be provided throughout most of the Phillipine campaign. Their first objective it to destroy allied air presence, and then proceed with ground attacks against allied ground units.
The first airfield attack on Clark Field was a good success with 32 planes destroyed. I'll continue airfield attacks in an attempt to knock out this airfield if the allied aircraft doesn't evacuate.
In the southern Phillipines the main assault force will be one brigade landing in Davao and one parachute regiment that will be air assaulting Cagayan. Working together they should be able to conquer the rest of the South Phillipine island.
Many marine units will also be operating around the Phillipines to take the outlying Phillipine islands as quickly as possible before moving to operate in other theaters. Strongholds such as Iloilo and Cebu islands will be left alone for other units to conquer it.
2 CAs, 2 CLs, and 13 DDs will be operating in several task forces around the Phillipines as surface combat to destroy as many allied ships in the area that may try to evacuate. A Light Carrier TF of 1 CVL will also be operating here to accomplish the same objective, but from the air. Another CVL and 2 CVE will be moving to this theater to join the Light Carrier TF, which should create a powerful mobile air force across this theater and future theaters. 2 Battleships, along will several cruisers and destroyers, will also join this theater to help with surface combat and any bombardment missions. Once all allied surface ships in the theater are destroyed or driven out most of these combat units will most likely move to the Malaysia/East Indies theater to help with operations.
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The Solomons/Central Pacific[/font]
In the Solomons several small marine units will begin conquering bases north of Rabaul and bases across the island of Rabaul. Once this is accomplished these forces will wait for reinforcements before making an assault on Rabaul itself.
In the Central Pacific marine units will begin conquering as many islands south and south west towards Noumea. Engineer units will also be organized from the home islands to move to several important bases that are conquered to start building them up. Various cruisers and DDs will help with this.
Wake Island fell on the first assault! Going to move in some engineers to build up the airfield and set up some patrol planes.
And finally, here's the strike on Pearl Harbour:
Allied aircraft was destroyed quite nicely with very few losses on my part. Honestly though I'm not very happy with the results against their ships. Only four BBs heavily damaged. I'm running another strike to try and do some more damage, and then I'll be returning to Tokyo to refit.
