Rob Brennan UK
Posts: 3685
Joined: 8/24/2002
From: London UK
Status: offline
|
Sept 29th and 30th 1942
China.
Chinese forces withdrew in good order from changsha last night while japanese bombers continued to hammer the airfields. Japanese troops attacked at dawn to find the place deserted. Also on the aggenda in china is abandoning changteh (just n of changsha). Is a small resource loss but leave me with 3 less hexes to defend, allowing for better concentration of forces. How supply will work now is anyones guess.
Burma.
Japan again launched artillery attacks on the fortified city, allied counterbattery fire once again destroyed a large number of japanese support personell, field pieces and the odd truck.
29th
Ground combat at Mandalay (59,46)
Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 851 troops, 106 guns, 57 vehicles, Assault Value = 3329
Defending force 67866 troops, 1187 guns, 1535 vehicles, Assault Value = 2152
Japanese ground losses:
105 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 61 destroyed, 25 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 49 (22 destroyed, 27 disabled)
Vehicles lost 64 (58 destroyed, 6 disabled)
How the total losses relate to the rest of the report , i.e non combat destroyed etc ??? clueless. FOW perhaps ? either way allies lost nil compared to japanese casualties. shows the value of fortifications even in clear terrain.
Allied ground losses:
25 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
30th
Ground combat at Mandalay (59,46)
Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 334 troops, 98 guns, 17 vehicles, Assault Value = 3325
Defending force 67999 troops, 1191 guns, 1535 vehicles, Assault Value = 2156
Japanese ground losses:
61 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 33 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 34 (29 destroyed, 5 disabled)
Vehicles lost 13 (13 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
5 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
thats in total destroyed/damaged
combat squads 0/1
non combat squads 94/25
engineers 0/1
artillery 51/32
vehicles 71/6
That suggests a few things to me:-
1) Japans just attacking with arty units only , not combat units or the squads losses would be higher
2) the large number of destroyed in all 3 categories suggests a very heavy disablement situation even before attacks.
Is Japan getting frustrated here ? quite possibly since the flank march failed.
Allied units have moven into Akyab to threaten Japans western flank in burma now , Japan responded with medium army bomber raids but the allied AKL's dropping off supply (as trails suck badly for supply flow) all pretty much emptied out over 4 days with not whiff of anti shipping a/c. Given that australian AK's are running regularly from Perth to Darwin too without incident. where are the netties ? I have a strong suspicion that japans assets in the pacific will be well guarded as a result.
Speaking of frustrating for Japan , ground assault on Madeoin (java bastion) was repulsed with heavy casualties on the 29th too.
Ground combat at Madioen (54,104)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 29811 troops, 496 guns, 88 vehicles, Assault Value = 953
Defending force 34529 troops, 377 guns, 174 vehicles, Assault Value = 955
Japanese adjusted assault: 396
Allied adjusted defense: 4984
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 12 (fort level 4)
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), experience(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
4182 casualties reported
Squads: 14 destroyed, 236 disabled
Non Combat: 6 destroyed, 150 disabled
Engineers: 6 destroyed, 40 disabled
Vehicles lost 10 (1 destroyed, 9 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
597 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 63 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 65 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Madeoin still has over 35k supply left and at this rate will hold out till early 43.
now to discuss the CW now ex-plans for nov 42 , reinvasion Java now scrubbed for several reasons
1) one CV in CW service
2) japan can easily cut off and destroy and serious landings at this stage.
3) fragility of CW units is serious given the much lower replacements than US forces , any destroyed divs just wont be back for a very long time (if at all).
4) already heavy commitment to burma means that the CW would be stripping almost every combat capable unit from its territory to have a realistic chance to relieve Madeoin.
5) relieving the dutch , while a laudable goal, is in the long term pointless as no more dutch recuits to speak of. might as well die in place and tie down 2 divs + some tanks etc in java.
6) the longer madeoin holds, christmas and cocos become utter fortresses which can be used at any time to threaten Java at a later date.
7) much more sensibley would be a slow ozze back into the DEI (already started) under LBA from Darwin. Much much less risky and still has the same end result. Timor is ofc a distinct possibility so long as i can get some supporting airbases in place closeby before we rush in. I'll detail this a bit more next post.
Plans are still very fluid at present but units in OZ prepping for horn island (definate invasion later this year) while some restriceted aussie units prepping for PM as a target of opportunity (given the PP's for release). This is potentially planned with american support (PM , horn island we'll try for just LBA). american plans however are not for the foreign ministry to divunge at this moment.
TTFN . pics next turn
_____________________________
sorry for the spelling . English is my main language , I just can't type . and i'm too lazy to edit :)
|
Printable Version
RE: Yamamoto seems to be looking in the right spot... - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread