FatR
Posts: 2522
Joined: 10/23/2009
From: St.Petersburg, Russia
Status: offline
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May 1-5: Feints and Strikes
Hawaii
Lihue fell on May 1, but the main event occured on 5th:
Ground combat at Hilo (183,111)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 40239 troops, 389 guns, 247 vehicles, Assault Value = 1416
Defending force 9050 troops, 331 guns, 370 vehicles, Assault Value = 269
Japanese adjusted assault: 1127
Allied adjusted defense: 364
Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1 (fort level 0)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Hilo !!!
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)
Japanese ground losses:
5019 casualties reported
Squads: 99 destroyed, 132 disabled
Non Combat: 82 destroyed, 119 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 20 disabled
Guns lost 13 (1 destroyed, 12 disabled)
Vehicles lost 7 (1 destroyed, 6 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
6383 casualties reported
Squads: 283 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 673 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 88 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 417 (417 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 392 (392 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 12
Assaulting units:
5th Ind. Engineer Regiment
17th Infantry Regiment
38th Division
65th Naval Guard Unit
24th Infantry Regiment
48th Division
42nd Naval Guard Unit
27th Electric Engineer Regiment
16th Infantry Regiment
67th Naval Guard Unit
11th JAAF Base Force
Defending units:
2nd Marine Regiment
2nd USMC Engineer Regiment
754th Tank Battalion
1st/298th Infantry Battalion
1st/102nd Infantry Battalion
21st Infantry Rgt /1
109th USN Base Force
1st Marine Defense Battalion
808th Engineer Aviation Battalion
70th Coast AA Regiment
810th Engineer Aviation Battalion
205th Field Artillery Battalion
17th Regiment got wasted (again), other units are in pretty good shape. I think even if Yubari saved fragments from destroyed units, these fragments still should be on Hawaii. Unfortunately, all destroyed infantry units were parts of bigger units, so none of them is really gone. Overall, Japanese likely have lost more squads at Hilo than Americans, but much less vehicles and guns. This already reminds of the siege of Port Arthur - hopefully the end result will be similar too, though. A horde of engineers is marching from Kona to start working on building a level 5 port (I'm not landing anything on Lahaina until it is a cratered ruin). And the fact that now we'll be able to spread planes between two CAP-interlocking airbases will make the Japanese position much stronger too.
In other good news, a huge succession of convoys, carrying three divisions, fleet and army HQs, supplies and fuel either made it to Kona already or is within our Betty patrol zone. I rerouted them to the south of Johnston, to where KBs retreated after their raid. The latter, meanwhile, approach Kwajalein.
Solomons
USN Cruisers retreated promptly after their detection on 31st. In their place appeared Dutch ships, who attempted to bombard Port Moresby. Jakes from PM bombed them on the inbound leg (May 1), scoring a single non-penetrating hit on CL Sumatra. The bombardment was completely ineffective (Yubari complained that his planes failed to sortie againt PM, so that was supposed to be a combined arms attack), and on May 2 Betties from Lae struck the Allied TF at Cooktown. Four planes and three pilots were lost to Allied fighters, but a torpedo hit De Ruyter, and the cruiser was disbanded in the port. On the next day Yubari tried to move her out. Maybe De Ruyter managed to reach safety, but suspicious sinking sounds on the night of 3th-4th give me hope that she floundered. While this is probably the crummiest cruiser in the game, it always good to take out a capital ship at minimal cost. Oscars from Lae (then from PM) also tangled with Allied CAP over Cooktown when escorting raid on 2nd (they lost contact and arrived before it, though), and in a sweep on 3rd, taking down about 10 Allied planes in exchange for 3 or 4 planes and 3 pilots of their own.
My cautious attempt to move a light TF to Australian coast and intercept retreating Dutch ended in no contact with the enemy whatsoever. I also moved my DEI cruiser squadron towards Horn Island, and it burned quite a lot of fuel and suffered serious system damage on the way, which very negatively impacted the disposition of my forces for the next major event.
Port Blair
On May 4, Nells from Port Blair spotted what looked like the entire RN, plus invasion convoys approaching the island. I decided to take a risk, flying 50th Sentai (Ki-43-Ic) and some Vals to Port Blair, in hopes that the former will provide air cover for Netty raids from Rangoon and Bangcock. Unfortunately, none of these bases had an Air HQ. So my bombers sortied on May 5, losing 6 planes to Fulmars and Martlets (but thankfully only one pilot missing and two wounded) despite air cover from Hayabusas on CAP from Port Blair - and scored only one minor hit on a xAK. And Vals did not fly. Yubari is landing 17th Indian Division, and I have only 1st Raiding Regiment and an AF Company, so, seeing how my land attackers utterly failed to score, and I have very little in terms of surface assets around, I'm airlifting my troops out right now. It is frustrating to lose an important perimeter point, but fighting at a severe disadvantage makes no sense.
The loss won't be permanent, anyway. Yubari is overconfident, if he thinks that the British air force - or, indeed, the combined Allied airforce - can challenge my land-based air might at the moment, particularly from an isolated island airfield. 26th Air Flotilla just arrived in the theater (22nd got blasted by a sub while being transported to Padang, but will revive soon), and I will place it at Victoria Point (a ready lvl 4 airfield), with other air support units, and I'll launch a bombing campaign to demolish all that can be demolished in Allied-held Port Blair. If Yubari keeps a small garrizon, I'll retake the base once I have a proper force to invade and hold. Ih he keeps a large force (hopefully), I'll keep Netties threatening the area from Victoria Point, and then I'll land on Small Andaman, and build it up into a divebomber airfield, to keep Port Blair extra safely blockaded. And then I'll retake it sometime in late 1942, once the garrizon is properly starved.
China
Lots of action. See the map below.
(1): Japanese troops continue marching to Sian, across the both roads leading to it from the east. Armored spearheads drive stragglers before them. Unfortunately, they have completely destroyed 83rd Chinese corps in the process. The defending forces seem mighty, and I'm not looking forward to a river crossing attack, but at least my main body is about to reach open terrain. Cutting off Sian from the north and strong air attacks will likely be the key to victory.
(2): Yubari launched a strong probe towards Nanyang and started to pull back after seeing that the garrizon is strong. My forces are in pursuit.
(3): Nanchang is threatened too, but with level 5 forts and over 800 AV it is now safe.
(4): My southern army marches with all due haste to the zone #5, clearing stragglers on the way with independent regiments.
(5): The former Chuhsien force is quite slow in its move to safety, even though only a recon regiment blocks the way. The latter will soon be joined by an infantry regiment, though (should have moved it earlier). Chinese should have no supply whatsoever, so I hope to catch up with them and crush them. An air group is detached to slow them down further.
(6): The main action zone is around Canton/Hong Kong. Almost all of IJAAF bomber groups were flying there on May 2-4, but on 5th my entire air force in China decided to take a break... I hope they disrupted the Chinese force quite a bit, though, because things look dangerous. Canton is under no immediate threat, with 2-3k Chinese AV at most, including those on the way. On 4th and 5th Chinese corps elements attempted river crossing shock attacks in Canton. Needless to say, Pearl River carried a lot of corpses to the sea, and these strange attacks did not make any dent in almost 700 Japanese AV and level 5 forts. In Hong Kong, though, forts are only at level 3, and Yubari brought there almost 5000 AV against 500. Even in heavy urban terrain this just might be too much. Two tank regiments hopefully will unload tomorrow, and 4th brigade convoy is approaching Formosa, but will they be in time? My main DEI surface fleet even moved there, to help in the desperate effort, although the results of the first coast bombardment by Nagatos on May 5 were fairly disappoining.
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< Message edited by FatR -- 9/30/2010 4:02:33 PM >
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RE: Ocean of Blood. FatR (J) vs. yubari (A) - no yubari... - 
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