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RE: January Looms

 
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RE: January Looms - 3/3/2011 2:23:18 PM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Jan. 21-22

Frantic diplomatic exchanges with the Thai government indicate that country's army will primarily operate east of the Salween, and a batallion of Burma Rifles are consequently halted just a day's march from Chiang Mai. Both sides seem to think they've got the better deal here; in any case, the Chinese contingent will return to Rangoon from the front, where they'll resume introducing themselves to lend-lease supplies. Everything now depends on what the Imperial Guards do; if they go down the frontal assault route alone things may get very ugly for them, and if they attempt to go around the Salween block I should be able to get 17th Indian Div into position to stop them. Should. Might. Anyway, the panic in Rangoon has subsided a little. Rangoon has also seen the first Tojos of the war, though they're scarcely an improvement over other Japanese types considering the opposition.

Japanese occupation of New Caledonia has been completed with the capture of La Foa and Koumac; the three USN Catalina squadrons which were evacuating Fiji have shifted up to Townsville and are collecting the surprisingly numerous survivors of the Port Moresby 'campaign', who've finally reached the coast. Once that's done they'll spread some base forces around the Solomon Islands - since most of them have been ignored keeping tabs on the Japanese from them seems the least I can do. Horn Island bombed with heavy casualties; possibly it's next on the list. Not preventable if it is - it's not like shipping was using the Torres Strait, anyway.

US and Phillipine forces continue effective resistance at Clark Field despite six infantry divisions and all the tanks and artillery the Japanese can spare being thrown at them. Supply stocks are down to 20,000t; although their days are obviously numbered they've actually gained strength compared to a few weeks ago (when I thought resistance past mid-January was unlikely) and if nothing else they've taken a bandsaw to the Japanese parachute force, most of which has been dropped into the area over the last month with, apparently, very few survivors. Japanese forces have not landed anywhere else in the Phillipines except Luzon, bar the one trainwreck of an attempt to seize Iloilo, and III Phillipine Corps is holed up in the mountains of central Mindanao with supplies for several weeks' combat. My kingdom for a squadron of DC-4s...

Japanese forces have advanced from Nanyang up into the hills; this particular force (1000av) is up against about twice its number in Chinese, who've been digging in for a while now, so they're not going to get anywhere. Size of the main force advancing from Loyang is yet to be determined but may eventually include the diverted northern force, so it'll at least be bigger.

Balikpapan falls, the landing force having outnumbered the defenders by about 5-1.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 31
RE: January Looms - 3/4/2011 4:19:28 PM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Jan. 23

Thinking too hard about stuff is dangerous if you're me. Nothing much happened anywhere on the map today - the most exciting revelation is that a Japanese parachute regiment is on its way to Bangkok, presumably to be dropped either into Burma or the Andamans - and I ended up parked over Truk, wishing that I could at least take a crack at the 80 or so Japanese ships reported there. This was meant to have happened weeks ago, when I still held Rabaul, but the B-17s intended for the mission ended up having to bug out for a while courtesy of some battleships. So, I got to thinking:

- There are, give or take, 150 Catalinas of varying models scattered around the map. I haven't been flying them particularly hard, so although their pilots have nevertheless managed to crash about as many as have been produced since the game began they're in fairly good shape, numbers-wise.

- There are, at last report, six Japanese fighters and about 36 heavy AA guns at Truk. That's quite a lot if you're a Catalina pilot, but it's not so many that they'd doom any offensive mission.

- The Japanese have been in such a hurry to get to Fiji that the only places they've taken between Truk and the New Hebrides are Port Moresby, Rabaul, Tulagi and Kavieng. That leaves a pretty encouraging number of scrubby little islands within 500 miles or so of Truk untouched and (so far) unobserved.

- There are just over 30 B-17s in Australia; their range is just a hair too short to hit anything worth hitting from the continent itself, so they're not doing much right now, but they could fly enough supplies into said scrubby little islands for a one-shot raid.

- There are also a couple of base forces, lately of Port Moresby, that are light on heavy equipment and relatively heavy on aviation support.

I'm pretty sure you can guess where this is headed. The aircraft are moving - they're being replaced by B-17s locally, most of which have been training for naval searches since day 1; whether this will end badly or catastrophically depends on whether anything new turns up at Truk or Scrubby Island A in the next week or so, I suppose.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 32
RE: January Looms - 3/6/2011 2:32:59 PM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Jan. 24-27

Japanese carriers detected off the coast of Antarctica - they materialized a few hundred miles away from and detected Convoy CX.1, headed to Christchurch along the southern map edge with one and a half US Divs plus extras on board. The resolution of this is still up in the air - the convoy was as heavily escorted as was practical for such an early departure (CA, 3 CL, 3DD), and air attacks yesterday torpedoed CLs Trenton and Leander but didn't hit (or detect) the merchants. Australia, Achilles and the destroyers (all of which are undamaged) will attempt a night intercept as they're not far away; merchants have "scattered" as best they can - not well, since they have fuel to reach Christchurch and not a drop more - and are making for various New Zealand ports. Everything now depends on tonight; if the carriers can be forced to retire or at least hang back things will proceed as previously, and if they can't Plan B will go into effect. Unfortunately the Pacific Fleet is two days north of Tahiti - I'd detected what I thought was KB heading northwest from Fiji a couple of days ago, so they were headed up to meet CX.2 and take it in, the assumption being that CX.1 would be ok. Assumptions, eh? At least they took half a dozen Kates with them...

Eastern Fleet accidentally went into action - four destroyers got the wrong orders and headed up to Ketapang in Borneo. (the entire force was going to go, but I changed my mind midway through the turn - someone didn't get the memo) Anyway, since they met 18 Jap ships, including four heavy cruisers, in daylight, you can imagine how that went. Naval forces in this area are, at this point, too heavy for any battle to have a positive outcome - in addition to the four cruisers at Ketapang there are at least four more off Celebes, plus six battleships moving south from Sarawak, so the fleet is heading back out into the Indian Ocean. If it comes down to it I'm prepared to leave the area entirely - will depend on how the events off New Zealand turn out. Ultimately the forces to invade Java - or even Palembang, I think - just aren't there right now, so a big standup fight does nothing useful.

Elsewhere, "quiet". Major Japanese land forces now up to eight (seriously) divisions assaulting Clark Field, four (though split into their sep. regiments) at Singapore, about 2.5 equivalents in SNLFs in the South Pacific, about 1.5 equivalents in SNLFs in Indonesia, and Imperial Guards at Moulmein, staring across the Salween. 7th Armoured Bde and an Indian Cav Rgt have set off from Imphal, direction Burma. 17th Indian Div should be forming up in a few days, and 18th Div will begin its crossing tomorrow. Two large Chinese corps are also headed for the Burmese border, since the Japanese are actively pulling troops out of China; their place in the line will be taken by a reconstructed corps moving down from Chungking. The AVG will be fully equipped with US-standard aircraft tomorrow, and will be in action as soon as they're flyable; the Chinese AF is putting together a couple of squadrons with competent pilots, which will make use of the released H-81s. Why bother? Well, P-39s and P-40s carry droptanks, and H-81s don't; means they can get in and out of China or Burma quicker and (more importantly) are less likely to be spotted in the process.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 33
RE: January Looms - 3/6/2011 11:22:17 PM   
kfsgo

 

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Intercepts fail to come off - heaven knows how, since range between the taskforces was 1 hex. Australia and Achilles absorb most of the Japanese air power; they're both down, but they did their job. Several sub-units from CX.1 were attacked, with fascist aircraft sinking four tankers and two freighters; most of a Div's trucks and an artillery Rgt (thankfully, 75mm guns rather than 155s!) went down with them. If strikes continue tomorrow they'll be very bloody - there is literally nothing the ships can do but keep to their current courses and speeds, since the overall fuel situation is so critical.

Still, here and there a ray of sunshine peeks through the clouds:



Don't think it sank - though odds aren't bad that it will later - but every little helps. If it does go down the Dutch submarine force will outscore everyone else put together, I think - haven't counted up for a while, but they've definitely been the stars of the show. Tradeoff is that they're not out hunting merchants, of course...

Eastern Fleet is out into the Indian Ocean, having passed by at least four or five Japanese submarines without being detected. Course set is for Diego Garcia, where they'll rendezvous with, er...the Eastern Fleet. You know what I mean.

Catforce is forming up at Townsville - I think we're up to about 100 or so, with another dozen in the pools and a couple of units still winding their way across the Pacific. B-17s have been reconning Port Moresby to get Saros used to aircraft overhead, and also dropping supplies on Island A at a rate of about 30 tons a day.

Finally, Plan B is on. All unoccupied merchant shipping (and there's a lot of it - I don't send shipping out without adequate escorts, and there ain't a lot of those around at the moment) in the Pacific is headed for the Panama Canal, along with the Pacific Fleet (can I still call it that?); all troop movements will be worked (and heavily escorted, hence the carriers) via the Cape until I can take care of the fascist carrier force. That is a pretty high priority, even though you might not think it looking at what I've been doing so far - if my carriers had headed southwest from Tahiti (which was the original plan - bloody annoying) instead of northeast to pick up CX.2 I would have sent them in to engage the Japanese, "too early" be damned, and if an opportunity arises I will take it - none of this hiding into 1943.


(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 34
RE: January Looms - 3/7/2011 8:56:34 PM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		blargh - wrote all this eight hours ago but clicked 'refresh' by mistake.

Jan. 29-30

Attacks on CX.1 persisted up to about 200 miles off New Zealand; broadly, the liners made it in and the freighters didn't. Lots of truck-based reefs in the area in years to come, I suspect, but the outlines of the force (including the majority of the actual combat troops) made it ashore, and the US has enough 'stuff' that the artillery, AA guns etc can be made up at least the once.

While very damaging, this whole display has demonstrated a few things:

- Japanese carriers will operate 'independently'; they split into two groups of three, each with minimal escort (a solitary destroyer tossed some torpedoes at I think Shokaku today - missed, sadly, but got away with it) for these attacks, and operated several hundred miles apart at all times. Very unfortunate that the Pacific Fleet went for CX.2 instead - chances are one of the groups could have been picked off if they hadn't.

- Safety of shipping across the South Pacific can't be guaranteed. I'm not running things as a numbers game in this area - if the ships can't be protected they won't be sent, so shipping and troop movements will use the Cape and Indian Ocean route for the time being. Happily I do have the shipping spare to pull this off - between ships waiting for escorts so they can sail from the West Coast and those waiting at Panama or Cape Town for incoming stuff upwards of a hundred are 'available', including numerous fast liners. Those independent sailings from Panama that have already left for New Zealand will continue, and more will probably take place here and there (probably just using the ships currently running them for the same trips), but nothing large-scale.

- Caveat to the above - Cape Town to [Perth/Albany/Adelaide] is not all that much less exposed than Tahiti to Christchurch, so the Pacific Fleet carriers are headed for Panama and then CT. They need fixing up anyway - most of the ships have been at sea since December 7th barring a few days here and there - and they'll be due fancy electronic gizmos and new aircraft soon anyway.

- I've been falling into the trap of assuming that since I wouldn't do something (like sending KB to Antarctica in January 1942, say - I do find it fairly risible, but, well, tough crap, eh?) it won't happen - CX.1 was heavily escorted out of ultimately fairly nebulous worries about AMCs or maybe a destroyer or two, not aircraft carriers. A little more forethought never hurt anyone, after all...

Elsewhere...

Resistance at Clark Field is on its last legs; combat strength has gone from 1400 to 1050 in days, with eight Japanese divisions and change attacking ceaselessly and upwards of a hundred aircraft bombing "airfields" (which is to say, inhibiting fortification - I'm sure the results work ok, but it don't half look weird) daily. Movement into Bataan has been ordered - there's no downside, as far as I can tell - but I doubt they'll make it. Still, the force has put up an extremely creditable defence considering what's been arrayed against them, so I have no complaints.

Resistance at Singapore is still "ok"; we'd be good but for 9th Div's buggy movement, but casualties are still ~3-1 in our favour, which works out ok given a 2-1 Japanese numbers advantage. Not a comfortable situation, though!

Burma: Imperial Guards, a few tanks and three Thai divs forced the Salween; the Thais were a surprise, given that I was explicitly told a couple of days ago that they wouldn't be involved! Burcorps (1st Burma Div + BFF Bde) did a fantastic job on defence, inflicting 130av+95s in casualties to 14av+14s of their own; force balance here is 420av friendly to 1010 (well, 880 now) opposing; if it weren't for the Thais I'd be fairly comfortable, but as it is things could go either way. 1st Burma Div has been digging in for weeks, however, so in theory it should take some shifting - all the casualties bar one squad (!) today were in BFF. 17th Indian Div should form up in 3-4 days, at which point we'll have to see how the balance sits down there. 7th Armoured Bde, 18th Div and "45th" Div (44/45/46 Bdes) are crossing over from Imphal, with 6th Aus due to launch in about a week. With prospects for low-risk offensive moves in the South Pacific being fairly poor (or rather, I suppose, not hugely dependent on overwhelming troop numbers vice naval control) Burma will receive the next US Div (44th, in about a month) to arrive, in addition to the Americal already shipping out. I would like to try and hold Shwebo so as to avoid having to slog through the jungle when it comes time to get moving forwards; the caveat is that I have to do it quietly, since if the Japanese realise what's being thrown at Burma they can drown me out.

Ten Japanese cruisers, +- nine (given accuracy of spotting reports so far) loiter 45 miles from Timor; no transports spotted, but past experience suggests about three times as many Japanese as the garrison they'll face will land tomorrow. USAAF groups at Alice Springs are about competent, so they may head up to Darwin for a little while.

Catforce continues to form up at Townsville; the first aviation troops are flying out to Island A today. I may launch before everyone's here - Japanese backfilling has begun, though focus so far has been entirely south of Rabaul.

So, that's today. The overall 'plan' (insofar as you can call it a plan):

- Hold in Burma through the monsoon, as far as Shwebo if possible. Aim for Rangoon no later than March 1943; if that can be done, operations in the direction of Singapore to take place with a view to getting shipping right down the Straits and into the East Indies. If it can't, repeat the exercise with twice the force next season.

- South Pacific doesn't actually give Japan anything useful if I don't use the South Pacific in the first place - just a long, thin supply line. Aim will be cutting this particular dive off right at the neck - New Caledonia (if garrison is light enough, to clear searches up) and New Guinea (playing Medusa) to be the targets in that order. Contingent on shipping from CT-Perth-Townsville being practical, I suppose. I have a lot of handy Dutch mini-merchants, so will see about pairing them up with gobs of naval support to allow the fast assault shipping to go elsewhere.

- If the Japanese put their carriers out anywhere they can be zapped, I'll go for it, having seen what I've seen over the past few days - none of this "hide until 1944" business. Obviously a lot will depend on how that works out - if I can pull off a Midway, I may just go at Malaya directly - no faffing around in Thailand. Anyway, that's for another year.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 35
RE: February Frights - 3/8/2011 11:41:56 AM   
kfsgo

 

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Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Jan. 31 - Feb. 2

Japanese shock attack again at Clark today - all seemed to be going well and then someone sneezed on a portrait of the Emperor or something, I guess, as the final result cost the Japanese about 450 disablements. Disruption is reportedly very high, so we might make Bataan after all. Moving out of the better terrain is of course a problem, but when you factor in the extra time it'll take the Japanese to get in and out of the place at this point I think we'll end up gaining a couple of days this way. While the full-force approach here has accelerated things, it's cost the Japanese a lot of casualties - I think it's the 53rd Div that's under 100av effective, and most of the others are showing varying degrees of strain. I guess when you're tossing upwards of 100,000 troops at a target you can afford some stragglers?

Koepang and Bandjermasin invaded; timing and force compositions were bang on what I thought they'd be, though absent any real ability to do anything about them that's small comfort. KP is still holding out as of today, but a breakthrough is expected tomorrow.

B-17 overflights over Port Moresby have definitely been noticed; apparently Saros thinks I'm preparing to try and reinvade. They'll bomb the place tomorrow; hopefully I can get any fighters at Truk moved down here. The last of the Catalinas arrived in Australia today; they'll fly up to Townsville tomorrow and launch for Truk as soon as the submarine Triton arrives to provide us with some recon - northern New Guinea has been partially occupied, so it's a bit of a race against time.

Jap carriers raided Auckland on the 31st; another dozen or so Kate pilots frittered away to sink a couple of AKLs. The poor buggers on minesweeping trawlers keep catching full-size carrier strikes - the two patrolling Auckland were jumped by about two dozen Vals each.

Lots of movement around Xi'an; the Japanese main force is advancing into the mountains, the only question being which way it'll go. Each route has - in theory - enough force to hold but no more than that, with a large reserve sitting halfway. I remain unsure of the exact number of Japanese up here, so there may be some tense moments once they arrive.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 36
RE: February Frights - 3/9/2011 1:09:08 AM   
kfsgo

 

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Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Feb. 3

Air battles over Batavia at last; Zeroes flying from Ketapang (this is in itself fairly impressive - three days ago there wasn't an airfield there!) do a reasonable job, shooting down...I forget how many, but total air losses for the day were 30 v 17; total air losses for the war are about 250 in our favour, if the statisticians are to be believed. (would you believe I tend to write these things after I've sent the turn off? I'm sure you'd never guess...). The IJN has been very careful to stay 9 hexes or more away from Dutch bombers, and with good reason - they're theoretically pretty hot pilots by now. Unfortunately what they're not likely to have is much in the way of escorts once the time to use them comes - wish I could pack'em up and ship them to Ceylon, but it weren't to be.

The AVG and four British Hurricane squadrons are in Rangoon for a one-day event; I don't have the aviation support to keep them operating there for long (or the aircraft for attritional warfare, at this point) but the same Japanese squadrons have been flying the same missions for about two weeks now, and the strain's starting to show - fighters are ditching the bombers they're supposed to be escorting about 75% of the time, I'd say, which leaves a potential opening on some Nells. I expect Rangoon to be closed down in retaliation tomorrow, so everyone'll bugger off via air and rail for Katha, where there's a support network for them. This will mark the combat debut of the Hurricane and the P-39 in the Pacific - will be interesting to see how they do in the hands of what are about the best guys we've got. A first Chinese squadron is training up on the P-40 at Calcutta; a couple more, stuffed with all the reasonably competent pilots that could be found in China, should be converting in a couple of days.

Similarly, Catforce is complete and about prepped for launch; 155 aircraft will leave for a vacation spot not too far from Manus tomorrow, assuming the sub gets us the required data. They're all flying out supplies tonight - hopefully that plus the stuff the B-17s dropped will be enough for one day. Supplies permitting I'd like to stay for two - daylight raid on day 1, night raid on day 2, then back to Australia, but we'll see - I have no idea what the actual consumption will be. B-17s will hit Port Moresby from high altitude tomorrow - no real aim beyond giving the Japanese something shiny to look at.

The two Eastern Fleets have combined at Diego Garcia - those ships newly arrived from Java all need varying degrees of maintenance, having been run hard and almost exclusively kept at sea over the last two months, so the whole show's off to Colombo for some time off. Dutch cruiser Sumatra is the last to leave - the threatening situation on her activation compelled a quick departure for Australia, where she'll be the guardship at Perth for a little while. Oddly enough despite being the oldest Dutch cruisers Java and Sumatra are probably the most useful in the long term - none of them have guns that are of much use, but the oldies do at least have enough armour to put up with 6in guns and below.

Another dozen or so fast transports are headed for East Timor - I wish I'd saved a screenshot of the retiring Koepang group as there were about 25 assorted TBs and APDs in there. After this, it's Australia or bust - enough mobile forces to punish an SNLF or two landing at one of the outports are on the way, but the supply situation is obviously tenuous at best.

On the ground, pretty quiet.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 37
RE: February Frights - 3/9/2011 10:39:44 AM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
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Status: offline 		Feb. 4

Triton's getting a new ice cream machine if she makes it back - the sub has reached Truk and is waiting to pick up anyone shot down, having attacked three! destroyers and CL Kiso today without being damaged in return. Unfortunately the recon, while excellent, isn't so positive - 109 ships in port, but fighter strength at Truk has gone from 7 at the last report to 70, so it'll have to be a night raid. Still, the Catalinas have flown out to Rambutyo; we'll just have to see how they do in the dark.

Air battles continue over Java; the Dutch did rather better today, shooting down nine Zeros for six losses. Bombers will launch at shipping tomorrow - it's clear the net's closing in, so although it's very tempting to imagine burning invasion fleets the reality is that opposition in the air is just going to get heavier. Naval search arcs have been tailored such that they should attack as far away from Japanese fighters as possible, but I expect tomorrow will be very ugly...

Fighters out of Rangoon were also busy; they met Oscars over Burma Corps and, broadly, took them to pieces - "only" eight shot down, but most of the rest were sent home smoking. 24 unescorted Nells followed, but the fighters were out of position by that point so only managed to get five of them.

Lautem invaded - 24 destroyer transports in this landing TF and nothing else. Hell of a story there...

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Post #: 38
RE: February Frights - 3/9/2011 3:56:34 PM   
kfsgo

 

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Status: offline 		Feb. 5

No Catalina flights - maybe they were fogged in. They haven't been spotted, as far as I can tell, so I'll give'em another day.

Dutch bombers fly out from Surabaya, and attack minesweeping destroyers off Bandjermasin - the entire force of 70 or so aircraft flew, meeting no opposition in the air, end result being one DMS and one freighter bombed. Not impressed! Losses at least total one Martin bomber shot down by AA fire from Ise, which was also hanging out there.

In China, the Japanese advance on Xi'an is resolving itself; 14 infantry divisions, totalling over 6000av, attack a Chinese force about 1/3 of that size in the mountains northwest of Nanyang. Japanese force here was 1800av the day before yesterday, so everyone's arrived and launched straight off the march; the air recon pilots aren't getting any medals, though I do feel better about moving an RAF PRU in from Rangoon to Changsha. Simultaneously, 4 infantry divisions advance to contact northwest of Loyang; here the force balance is less perilous, with 1828av in Japs facing 1300 or so Chinese. The Nanyang vector forced about half the defending force to retreat, although losses weren't too heavy; true to form, the two Communist corps, Zhu De's and Peng Dehuai's, held; they'll be buggered up tomorrow, but it's another day for the reserves to get into position. At least two more Japanese divisions and some armoured units are local but not yet engaged, so we'll see how they position over the coming days. So, twenty infantry divisions and heaven knows what else that I haven't seen yet. That makes current known deployments:

20x moving on Xi'an
8x at Clark Field (though they're pretty beaten up)
4x at Singapore
at least 2x at Wuchang
1x in Burma
1x on Fiji (still?)

Plus...three, maybe four equivalents in SNLF troops scattered around.

Truth be told, I'm not at all comfortable with the situation; I'd estimated the total Japanese advance force at about half that, so a major part of the armies up here are several days' march away. I can hold the 6000 - I think - the problem that emerges is holding whatever decides to go around the block. It does mean that the rest of China has been heavily stripped - at least two divisions from Shanghai have been added to the force on Luzon - so the provincial armies are moving to get some cheap kicks in while they can. Ultimately it's more issues with expectations management - "well, I wouldn't send twenty divisions up a goat track, so surely he won't" sort of thing.

Japanese parachute troops land at and capture Port Blair - not a surprise, signals having pointed out their arrival in Bangkok a while back. 17th Indian Div has formed up and is packing for Rangoon; Imperial Guards have been passive ever since their crossing, presumably bringing more forces forwards; difficult to say how things will go down here at present. 18th and 45th Divs are about two weeks out from Katha; 6th Aus Div has formed up in Assam and is on the road to Imphal; 23rd Indian Div is available in an emergency, though it's not really combat-ready at this point. I'm a little torn here; there's a significant chance Xi'an will fall, and if it goes Lanzhou will follow - if this happens the Burma Road will be the only thing even half-way keeping China afloat. Can Rangoon be held, never mind retaken later? Inquiring minds want to know...

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 39
RE: February Frights - 3/11/2011 3:18:38 PM   
kfsgo

 

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Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Planning in a Vacuum

Saros is moving from Christchurch to Wellington yesterday and today (can't imagine why), and heaven knows I have nothing better to do on a Friday afternoon, so I thought I'd lay out how things have been progressing over the last...gosh, it's been nearly two months...if only so I can come back and look it up a few months from now. Anyway:

Key Losses in the Air: 

174 Army 2E    140 Nell + Betty    124 Zero    114 Nate    111 Kate    82 Val    53 Oscar
vs
148 Buffalo    107 P-40            66 Catalina (all! to crashes or capture)      ~60 2E Bombers (all but 6 Hudson, Martin 139)    22 P-35    16 F4F    ~45 Other Fighter    16 B-17


Intelligence estimate of total aircraft losses is 910 Japanese to 646 UN. I have no idea what the 'average' is for losses by this point, but I'll take it. I haven't particularly been avoiding fights except in Burma - the air forces in the PI, Malaya and Java have all stood their ground, and by and large I'd say they've performed pretty well, particularly considering the numbers they've been up against. Notably, nearly all the UN losses have been in the air - however well or badly they've been doing, they have been getting some shots in in return, rather than being bombed on the ground.

Key Losses at Sea


- CV/CVL: Ryujo, Taiyo (75 a/c equiv, both to Dutch subs) vs N/A
- BB, BC: None
- CA, CL: Kashii (no giggling!) vs Australia, Leander, Achilles, Concord (all lost defending CX.1)
- DD, DE, TB, DMS, APD: 4-8 (only identified is Kagero, but I've been complained at for several by mines, patrol aircraft etc); vs 14 (two modern USN, 11 old USN, 1 old Brit)
- Merchant: anywhere from 8-25 (a fair amount of damages, but few observed sinkings vs around 100 (most in the Phillipines, Australia and New Zealand)
- Subs: 7 (2 at sea, 4 to mines, 1 to a/c) vs 8 (2 at sea, 6 bombed in port - bloody things keep going into Surabaya...)

Known significant damage:
- two Japanese CA (one bombed and badly damaged off Kuching, last identified repairing at Hong Kong; one bombed with unknown damage off Celebes but not seen since)
- CL Mauritius (torpedoed off Singapore on Dec. 8, now back in tip-top shape at Cape Town.


Largest merchant known to have been sunk is the 10,000t tanker L.P St. Clair, lost in the CX.1 debacle; notably over half the merchant losses in that 100 are xAKLs, with the four tankers (CX.1), two AOs (PI), two military AKs and two fast (though small) xAPs being the only 'critical' losses.

So, not a very 'bloody' game so far (unless you're on a merchant ship of 1000t or less). The situation in the DEI has been odd - I've mostly been keeping naval forces on the 'wrong' side of Java waiting for an opportunity to dart in; Saros has mostly been keeping very heavy escort forces between invasion sites and Allied airbases, juuust out of range of airstrikes. End result - lots of posturing, lots of wear and tear, but not much actual action. Suits me, I guess - the head says it's a bad thing, but the heart likes it.


(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 40
Five Weeks Later - 4/16/2011 7:46:51 PM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Continuing along...apparently movers in New Zealand aren't up to too much, since Saros's PC got cracked in half in his jump between cities. Meanwhile, I've been in Wales and Ireland for the better part of three weeks looking at rocks. Astonishingly, despite being outdoors 9-5 just about every day we got rained on properly all of once, for about 15 minutes - what are the odds of that?

Game-wise, I have no real specific memories of what was going where after five busy weeks away, so I expect to make some entertainingly dumb mistakes over the next couple of days.

Feb. 6

Japanese forces take a crack at Singapore, and with twice the force of the defenders they take just over twice the casualties in the attack.

Fighter sweeps over Rangoon, Surabaya, Clark etc hit air; the IJAAF is bolder in China, where Nates have been playing at being ground attack aircraft for a while. They're not bad at it, actually - Chinese infantry corps are so completely devoid of AA equipment that they can't even hurt fighters flying at 100ft. A little silly - you'd expect the odd splatter here and there just from enough guys with rifles at that sort of altitude - but rien fait.

The IJA deathstar continues its blitzkrieg through the mountains towards Xi'an, pushing back the two Communist corps as expected; the roads in their direction are good enough that the next fight will probably occur before any reinforcements make it into the hex, making it ~1600 vs ~6000. Not good odds, even if you're not the National Revolutionary Army. There are no really significant forces anywhere between Xi'an and the Szechuan basin, and there is as far as I'm aware no contingency plan for a Chinese collapse; it'd be particularly damaging considering I'd hoped to make a show of Burma - the release of such a mass of Japanese land forces would make that impracticable.

A number of Japanese construction and airbase units make landfall at Lautem in East Timor; there'll be hell to pay from the Portuguese, that's for sure! More practically, it suggests this'll be the main point of origin for aircraft attacking Darwin.

Eastern Fleet will make Colombo tomorrow; those ships that need yard time will get it, while the destroyers play whack-a-mole with the dozen or so Japanese submarines that have shown up between Colombo and Cochin in the last couple of days. The situation as regards supplying Ceylon is a little strange - rather than running tankers straight into Colombo I've been unloading everything at Karachi and just using ships for the last leg, from Madras to Trincomalee. Less efficient, and theoretically the ships are at risk of being boxed into the Bay of Bengal, but there's only a few of them and they're getting enough cargo over unobserved and unmolested to keep everyone happy, while the Japanese sub force stalks around with nothing to shoot torpedoes at.

Still no Catalina flights from whatever the island was called; I guess either it's a supply issue (which would take either a ship or weeks to fix, neither of which are available) or a support issue (which would be fixable, but would also leave a lot of people dangling in the breeze). Either way, it's not worked out, so they're shoving off for the mainland. Lesson learned - I still like the idea, however, so I think I'll mostly keep them together, give them a little more bombing practice and then let them loose on targets in range of the Australian mainland, of which there should be a few by the time they're ready.

Another SNLF fragment is signalled en route to another South Pacific island; the way the range of the PBY-4 works out, I can just get a load of troops to oppose this one, while retaining the ability to get them out safely. Should be interesting to see what the response will be, assuming they don't arrive before the airliners do.

Construction and defense batallions approach Penryhn and Malden islands; I'm a little concerned here insofar as that a B-17 gave me a (very dodgy and so far unconfirmed) report of three Japanese ships hanging around Christmas Island, so the potential for harm exists. They're all escorted, up to a point, but...

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 41
RE: Five Weeks Later - 4/18/2011 1:28:12 PM   
kfsgo

 

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Thai-Japanese attacks on Burma Corps take place; outnumbered 4-1, 1st Burma Div still manages to inflict more casualties than it takes. I'd send them off for tea and medals, but 'more' isn't enough given the numbers arrayed against them. BFF Bde has taken a few casualties and is now entirely out of combat, though substantially intact; conceptually I suppose they all buggered off into the jungle. I do feel a tiny little bit hard done by here, given that the Thais weren't supposed to be crossing any borders in the first place, but it's too late to do anything about it now. 17th Indian Div ordered to Shwebo instead of Rangoon to start digging; forces at Rangoon will bug out once 1BD is pushed over the Sittang, which will probably be tomorrow or the day after.

Unloading at Malden and Penrhyn Is begins; ETA on the airfields is uncertain, but hopefully won't be too long - there's plenty of construction equipment coming ashore.

Two Japanese ships are spotted heading for Savaii (100 or so miles NW of Pago Pago); the last attempt to contest one of these didn't go off as the aircraft orders somehow didn't take; this time I've triple-checked them, so a combined US-NZ force should be in place to oppose the landing. Pago Pago is obviously the current objective for the Japanese down here; it's reasonably well supplied, but could definitely be taken, especially with the amphib bonus around.

Catalinas finally fly, hitting...Rabaul and Port Moresby? The mind boggles. They're headed back to Australia now, anyway.

Everywhere else is quiet. A number of collisions will take place in China over the next week or so, but for the moment it's all movement.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 42
The All-Java Sausagemaking Industry Association's 45th ... - 4/20/2011 7:45:44 PM   
kfsgo

 

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Status: offline 		Feb. 9

Today was an interesting demonstration of how having unreliable aircraft can, very, very occasionally, be useful. IJNAF fighters have been buzzing Batavia for a while now; usually they've been doing 'ok' rather than 'well', but despite fairly acceptable losses on our part the number of fighters rising to meet them has been dropping pretty steadily as Buffalos drop out of the line for a while to get their engines replaced. So, apparently, today marked the next phase of the plan:



This wasn't the only raid; the next one was escorted, though the escorts only managed to stick in combat for a few minutes. Maybe operating at long range isn't ideal, even given that you theoretically can? Anyway, tally for the day was 54-45 (claimed/sensible estimate) bombers shot down over Java in exchange for a couple of Buffalos. Not complaining...

Japanese light carriers - or rather, what's left of them - have pushed through the Malay Barrier and are headed...well, I don't know where they're headed, but given past performance I suspect it's Perth, given that that's the only place between Christchurch and Colombo with enough shipping traffic to merit dangling carriers out like this.



Well, when I say 'suspect', what I actually mean is 'hope':



Really, really hope. Actually shipping to W.A is mostly (70/30 or so) going into Albany rather than Perth, the former being unbothered by submarines, but Perth is still pretty busy. Other possibilities are hitting Java (low-risk, but why bother with carriers?) or Ceylon (a heck of a long way and just as heavily armed as W.A); or, on an outside guess, maybe putting ashore a few half-starved naval infantrymen at Port Hedland, Exmouth etc. Nothing to do now but wait, anyway.

Burma Corps continues to resist attacks on the Sittang; casualties continue to be comparable for both sides despite a 4-1 numbers match. BFF Bde has extracted itself from the battle area and is setting off for India; it'll be a while before it's useful (currently 0/100 squads are combat-ready), but it'll get there eventually.

SS Pompano is attacked by Kates three separate times off Nauru, which would seem to locate at least some fraction of Japanese carrier strength in the Pacific. It's possible this is just Hosho, but it's also possible it's the whole pod, which would be nice.

Pacific Fleet cruisers are on approach to Tahiti; they will attempt to demonstrate a presence, hopefully by intercepting a couple of cheapie landings, without doing anything too rash.

Pacific Fleet carriers are three weeks out from Cape Town. Crikey, imagine if I had them in the East Indies right now, eh?

Light comedy as the Japanese guess incorrectly (I went for the dot hex for this exact reason) while hunting Catalinas:



Two aircraft and a few dozen base force staff remain; hopefully they'll be out by tomorrow.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 43
RE: The All-Java Sausagemaking Industry Association's 4... - 4/23/2011 2:34:38 PM   
kfsgo

 

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Disappointment reigns in Batavia; Japanese light carriers turned north to follow the coast of Java, jumped up into range of aircraft flying from Bandung for just long enough to get my hopes of hitting them up, then turned for home. As yet, no aircraft have flown off any of them.

Catforce is in Pago Pago at the moment, having got their claws out earlier in the morning to sink large seaplane carrier Kamikawa Maru and a patrol boat. Two more AV-PB pairs appear to be operating around Norfolk Island, so we'll attempt a raid on Suva (reported contents: half a dozen Japanese ships, including three AS, along with all of two aircraft) tomorrow and then move back towards New Zealand.

Forces at Bataan are recovering, slowly, having passed back up through 1000av today; the Japanese are making no attempt to follow us in, which suggests Saros finally worked out that burning half his army up to take the place wasn't too bright. Shame. With the extra forts I can practically build here the defenses should actually be a little stronger than they were at Clark, but we're down to 5000t of supplies, which ain't enough to get anything done.

1st Burma Div continues to hold out against what's now five times their number on the Sittang line, though they're now down to 200av or so. Bloody marvellous performance by them - support units have all made it out safely, forces at Rangoon are ready to rail north the moment the river line falls, and significant land forces to include the Chinese 66th Corps (450av), 18th Brit Div (450av), 6th Aus Div (500av), "45th Ind Div" (360av) and 7th Armoured Bde (150av) will join 17th Ind Div (345av) and Chinese 5th Corps (~320av, dispersed) look like they'll be in position in time to do their respective things. Really is a shame about the Thais...

7th Aus Div will begin loading tomorrow, destined for Burma also. This leaves Australia a little (!) short on defences; don't think Canberra's going to be too happy, although several US pursuit sqns will reach Adelaide over the next few weeks.

China's been busy today:

- Japanese main force runs into around half the Chinese forces moving to oppose them southeast of Xi'an; at the end of the day, J are down 750av and C are down 450, for somewhere around 5500:2400av. Reinforcements are 5-6 days away, so the outcome here will probably depend on how furious the Japanese feel like being. Ideally they'd be just furious enough to burn out their army and not quite enough to break through...

- Chinese movements into Wuhan meet enough force to prevent the twin cities from falling, but not enough to kick them out; the force north of the river has a Japanese armoured group a few days away from its entry point, however, and the forces guarding the way out aren't really up for AT work, so will have to pull back. Shouldn't be a problem as they were IDed early enough - the RAF P.R.U at Changsha has been an absolute lifesaver so far.

- Nanchang changes hands for the third time in as many weeks, as Japanese forces here pull back in the face of a much larger force. Usefully, almost 6000t of supplies were captured along with the base (which had been set to draw extra supply - oops!) - that about justifies the movement on its own down here.

- AVG fighters, 2/3 on P-39s and 1/3 on P-40s, arrive Changsha today. Should put an end to Nates playing the strafing game for a while, if nothing else...

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 44
RE: The All-China Sausagemaking Industry Association's ... - 4/24/2011 10:32:21 AM   
kfsgo

 

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Status: offline 		Feb. 14

Catalinas refused to fly at Suva, for the second time in three days; today's failure was probably a good thing, however, Japanese fighter cover having at last arrived. They'll shift down to Waipapakauri and attempt to catch the AV still lingering around Norfolk Island tomorrow.

1BD finally shoved off the river line today; forces at Rangoon have been ordered to push off for Shwebo. Whether they'll make it probably depends on the order the system processes movement orders in...

The AVG announces its presence with a bang; four Nates and 26-34 Sonias (realistic/claimed) go down over Nanchang. Suspect China will see an influx of modern Japanese fighters to "balance" things out, but at least they'd be in China rather than Burma, Java etc.

In among the usual joke Colombo, Pearl Harbour etc unit planning intercepts there is one of an artillery regiment for Darwin; no guesses as to where the horde currently on Timor are going.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 45
RE: The All-China Sausagemaking Industry Association's ... - 4/30/2011 1:08:49 PM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
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Status: offline 		Feb. 15-16

Japanese troops land at Norfolk Island. Two Australian commando companies (20av) are up against an SNLF (28av). Will probably fly some more in if things get dicey, but the troops currently there have enough supplies to last them several months, so I'm happy to just let the Japanese stew a bit for once.

Two CVs reported in harbor at Suva and the emails that come along with my turns keep hinting at "something big", so that's possibly an invasion of Pago Pago. The garrison there has been growing a little lately, with about 2/3rds of an infantry Rgt yet to arrive (the other 1/3 going to Savaii, next door). Interestingly shipping to Pago Pago hasn't been bothered at any point, so supplies are relatively plentiful here. Ultimately with the amphibious bonus in effect there's little I can do about it if the clown car that disgorged at Fiji shows up, but if something smaller arrives it could be fun.

Another thing these emails have been doing a lot lately is crowing about the two battleships that sank in transit from Hawaii to the USA - apparently they've shown up as a points loss in Tracker and everything. Needless to say I'm not discouraging the idea, but the PH 8 are all fine - six of them are a few days out from San Francisco, and two of them are staying put as it's quicker to fix them in place.

Elsewhere, pretty boring - just stuff moving around.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 46
RE: The All-China Sausagemaking Industry Association's ... - 4/30/2011 4:52:41 PM   
kfsgo

 

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A G4M squadron shows up over NorIs, hitting one of the commando companies so hard it's entirely useless in the combat phase. They all seem to have recovered now, though, and their colleagues held off another Japanese attack with no casualties. Two detachments from a USAAF P-40 squadron have flown into Norfolk, and a bunch of aviation support along with a significant fraction of 8th NZ Bde will land overnight; hopefully the Japanese go all out tomorrow.

A large convoy reaches Tahiti; half a dozen Japanese submarines make attacks on it in the Tahiti hex alone - and this with over a dozen destroyers, eight PTs and assorted YP, YMS, AMc etc floating around entirely independently of the convoy. Only one small ship is hit, but it was the one (out of 40 or so?) carrying 17 P-43s. A couple of other fighter units unload, however, along with four Coast AA Rgts, some 6" guns, a Marine Bde and tank Rgt, 180 aircrafts' worth of aviation support and a bunch of other stuff I forget offhand. Hopefully we'll have a carrier raid on Tahiti at some point in the near future!

Imperial Guards Div zips across the Sittang and into Pegu; 1st Burma Div retires into Rangoon. Still pretty pissed off about the whole thing - absent the Thai rule being broken, then the new Thai rule being broken, this would have taken several more weeks. Still, everything not nailed down got out of Rangoon and up-country safely, so it could have been worse. Expectation is that an armoured unit will attempt to force Toungoo while the infantry take Rangoon; an independent AT unit have completed the march across from Imphal to Burma, but they're a couple of days away from a railhead - we'll see how that works out.

A Japanese battleship squadron is displaying plumage in front of Billiton; objective is unknown. My naval search in the Java area is minimal at the moment as there is not much I can do with the information.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 47
RE: The All-Australia Sausagemaking Industry Associatio... - 5/3/2011 1:05:40 AM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Actual Feb. 17 (I got a day ahead again somehow)

G4Ms hit Norfolk Island, like yesterday. Unlike yesterday, 2/3 of a squadron of P-40s are up in the air today; 11 aircraft fail to return to Noumea. 600 men of 8th NZ Bde also made it in overnight, but there were no attacks on land; we'll attempt to move the Japanese seawards after another day's reinforcements are in.

Battleships Nagato and Hyuga bombard Batavia, destroying one Hurricane on the ground but otherwise not doing much. Unfortunately the CD guns here top out at 4.7"; not really up to zapping battleships. They're far out of range of aircraft by morning.

With all unloading complete, there are 120,000t of supplies at Tahiti and about enough troops to stop anything up to and including a full Japanese division from taking the place. Transports are moving off to return to Panama, while cruisers retire towards Anchorage A - rather than keeping all the support ships at Tahiti itself, I've stashed them out of sight a few islands over. Also notable is that 30,000t have made it into NZ over the last few days - the potential for raids is there, so I'm not putting any huge convoys through, but single ships are making the voyage.

Troops at Bataan are about out of supply; artillery bombardments are reducing the active force by about 20av per day with no return casualties, so even absent any more attacks the clock is ticking. Singapore still has 50,000t of Stuff and forces there have actually recovered somewhat recently; if nothing else they're up a couple of days on the 'historical' time of collapse, and this after all that confusion on the peninsula with the loss of a bunch of valuable stuff. Absent Japanese reinforcements these guys could probably go for weeks yet, but of course reinforcements there will be. I got my first 'X prepping for Palembang' intercept today, too, so that looks to be going ahead soon; there's about 200 Dutch AV at PB - I haven't overreinforced it for the simple reason that I don't want the game to end in May! - which is reasonable enough, but there ain't much in the way of engineering capability around so it's not a heavily fortified sort of place.

< Message edited by kfsgo -- 5/3/2011 1:15:54 AM >

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 48
RE: The All-Australia Sausagemaking Industry Associatio... - 5/3/2011 2:06:46 AM   
Blackhorse


Posts: 1983
Joined: 8/20/2000
From: Eastern US
Status: offline 		Just checking in to say that I'm enjoying the read . . . I'm intrigued by your CatForce. Are you solely trying night attacks, or day attacks as well if you think there will be no fighter cover? And are you trying to match torpedo-cabable headquarters with the 'Cats, or are you ok sending them in as bombers? Finally, what are you doing for search assets with all your Catalinas otherwise employed?

_____________________________

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Oddball: Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?
Moriarty: Crap!

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 49
RE: The All-Australia Sausagemaking Industry Associatio... - 5/3/2011 2:55:14 AM   
kfsgo

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse

Just checking in to say that I'm enjoying the read . . . I'm intrigued by your CatForce. Are you solely trying night attacks, or day attacks as well if you think there will be no fighter cover? And are you trying to match torpedo-cabable headquarters with the 'Cats, or are you ok sending them in as bombers? Finally, what are you doing for search assets with all your Catalinas otherwise employed?


There hasn't been much daytime flying (well, there hasn't been much flying at all, really - range issues, I guess) but they've been attempting to fly in the day where fighters are non-existent or minimal - Truk reportedly had eight I think when I was putting that together, so 10-15 is probably about the cutoff point for day raids - I don't get many of the things, after all. Not too fussed with torpedoes, to be honest - the crews have been training bombing vs torps as a lot of what I've been trying to do is direct port strikes and conceptually bombing would be more useful if and when they got back to being patrol aircraft.

LR Search assets otherwise are a couple of 'spare' Catalina squadrons (the PBY-4s are all flying as searchers - Tahiti, Pago Pago, Auckland and somewhere else, plus the -5s at Kodiak) but mostly B-17s - the USAFFE B-17D squadrons got battleshipped on the ground on Mindanao a few days into the war, to the point where the squadrons had to withdraw back to the US; this released the aircraft themselves (since they were just disabled, rather than being destroyed) and I sent them to Hawaii, Midway, Xmas Is etc rather than the front. I can get away with this since there's a limited amount of shipping to actually protect in the Pacific - currently there's a convoy heading for Hawaii, another for Tahiti from LA and a third returning from Tahiti for Panama, and other than that it's just independent sailings.

It seems to be working out so far, anyway - anecdotally the B-17s seem to suffer a lot less ops losses on VLR naval searches, so from that perspective using them is helpful; the fact that we're fighting deep in the Pacific is also a bit of a blessing in disguise as there are coastwatchers absolutely everywhere - never mind faffing around with recon aircraft, I can just listen to the radio! and having the Catalinas vs pure bombers is immensely helpful around all the tiny little islands as they spend about half their time flitting troops around - I can shift about 650 per day, and that's with the squadrons running at about 2/3 strength (since there's not the av. support to keep all the aircraft running in most places as it is).

So, yeah. It's an interesting little game to play - my understanding is that this mix is basically what the USN wanted the Catalina for, only to have the performance not permit much combat flying in practice; for the time being, there are so few Japanese aircraft in the area (1xG4M at Noumea, 1x?fighter at Suva and beyond some recon stuff that's about it) that they can do what they like. I'm a little annoyed at Norfolk Island happening now, actually, in that there's been at least one CV reported at Suva for the past three days and I could really do with taking a crack at it!

(in reply to Blackhorse)
Post #: 50
RE: The All-Australia Sausagemaking Industry Associatio... - 5/7/2011 3:50:23 PM   
kfsgo

 

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Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Feb. 18-19



Saros still hasn't worked out that the mere fact that a unit is planning to make an opposed landing at Colombo, Auckland, Pearl etc doesn't mean I can't figure out they're not actually planning to do so. Or, er, something like that. Not that I'm going to tell him...

Japanese 'fast' transports deposit the other half of the SNLF on Norfolk Island, bringing its strength up to 40av. Opposing it are 70av of Australian and New Zealand troops; a Japanese attack today was a fiasco (adjusted av something like 15:90), so we'll attempt to give them a kick tomorrow. Japanese fighters from Noumea are attempting to intercept the Catalinas flying in; since N.I. is in the middle of nowhere with two friendly fighter squadrons based there, they're having limited success. The US Navy has had its first live torpedo for several weeks, with a large AMC and a 4500t fast minelayer falling victim to S-23 while streaking away from Norfolk.

Another Japanese attempt at Singapore failed; what may be reinforcements are massing across the Johore Strait, but there's at least some fight left in the place.

AVG aircraft operating out of Changsha pay a visit to Wuhan, trading one P-40 for eight Nates. The day after, a Zero squadron 'accidentally' swept Nanchang. I'm sure it was a coincidence. Job done, the Americans are headed back to Burma; I may need them there over the next few weeks.

A full US fighter group (P-39) arrived at Adelaide today, with a full bombardment group (B-26) and two AA Rgts due in Bombay tomorrow. That brings US strength up to, nominally, 200 fighters and 30 or so bombers in Australia and 57 bombers and 75 fighters in India, with more on the way to both places.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 51
RE: Norfolk Turkeys - 5/7/2011 10:32:34 PM   
kfsgo

 

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Saros is very confused as to why I'm fighting hard for Norfolk Island, of all places, having I guess expected yet another painless occupation, and thinks the point of doing it is to delay his invasion of Pago Pago - nice to hear these that from the horse's mouth, at least. There's a grain of truth in it, in that the reinforcements for this invasion will have been getting ready for something, but what I really want to do is try and get him to dump as much of an army as deep into the map as possible - the hope is that he'll want to stick to a timetable, and bring more toys down into the middle of nowhere to acheive that. That means a bit of attrition and some "demoralising defeats" (heh) for me in the short term, but it should hopefully be useful further down the line.

USS Skipjack has an entertaining duel with a Japanese freighter north of Rabaul; it's left disarmed, riddled with holes and burning heavily, but managing that used up Skipjack's entire torpedo complement (24; no detonations) and every single 3" shell carried. Yyyyyyyyyep.

Norfolk Island invasion is reinforced by the Japanese 146th Rgt; USS Benham, the only real warship between Perth and the Cook Islands (barring HMAS Adelaide, which I'm keeping in hand for the moment) misses out on intercepting the landing by a few hours. An attempt will be made to catch the transports as they scuttle back to Fiji, but I'm not sending the ship out too far - it's also the radar station for Norfolk Island, where fighters (this time with the competent guys flying) will be going up again today, and having it there is the difference between 3 and 30 minute warnings of incoming raids. Absent a major collapse in my ability to get aircraft in and out or big guns showing up on bombardment duty (both of which are possible), it ought to take another Rgt to shift the forces here, at least until supplies run out (3wks, assuming no further resupply).

45th Indian Div and the non-motorised parts of 18th Brit Div are out of the jungle and should hit Katha in a day or two. 6th Aus Div will start walking from Kalemyo in about a week or so, when 7th Aus arrives; they'll be going direct to Shwebo, which is an easier trek than the one the Katha-bound lot have been put through; meanwhile, 6th is building up its supply line. A single Japanese tank Rgt is burbling its way up Burma; I may send the shiny new B-26s over to say hello to it in a day or two.

Forces at Bataan stood up to an all-out Japanese assault, somehow - 3200av against 800 of Filipinos armed, at this point in the supply 'game', with rocks, and casualties were still about 2.5:1 in our favour. One or two more assaults will crack things here, however. (I remember thinking that back in December!) Still - it means they're not on Java or Sumatra, and Singapore is now five days 'late' and counting.

There is some movement around Hankow that may (or, equally, may not) be the first rumblings of an attempt to take Changsha directly; the 'big' army is still up in the hills outside Xi'an, having gone all quiet after their one attack didn't quite get through. The forces opposing them are all dug in now, too, which they weren't before...

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 52
RE: Norfolk Turkeys - 5/8/2011 11:48:50 AM   
kfsgo

 

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The B-17 makes its first 'proper' combat debut, with 17 aircraft (plus five B-24s) bombing troops at Norfolk Island over two days. Because the Japanese units involved have essentially no AA capability, I sent them in at 5000ft - end result, the Japanese are down 24av (plus several Zeros that failed to bump through the P-40 CAP to get at the bombers - since the bombers are going at 5000, the Zeros, which are on LRCAP, aim for that - then our CAP comes down on them. They haven't even made it through CAP yet!). More aircraft are on the way - since it's within normal flying range from Auckland, I can keep them running these raids for a while, and at this rate the Japanese on the island will be a gibbering mess by this time next week...unless they get reinforced, which is the idea. I live in hope.

Damaged USN BBs make San Francisco safely; longest repair estimate is 50 days. There are currently nine of the things loitering around SF Bay in various places - truth be told, I don't feel as though I have much for them to do just at the moment.

Java may be (lightly) invaded tomorrow; a couple of APDs are reported headed for the coast between Surabaya and Semarang. Wonder what took so long...

Elsewhere, lots of maneuvers but nothing meaningful.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 53
RE: "Phase 2" - 5/9/2011 10:01:56 PM   
kfsgo

 

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Busy day. Notably, resistance collapses at Bataan - the nominal 38,000 (by now down to 800av) defenders can no longer stop 110,000 (3400av) Japanese (!) from pushing through to the end of the peninsula, thus ending fighting on Luzon. Literally nowhere else in the archipelago has been occupied - I have 480av behind L3 forts up in the mountains of Mindanao, though they don't have the supplies for anything but 'passive' resistance, and there are 'divisions' on Panay and Cebu. Good thing the Japanese know I can't move them, eh? Wish I had a wing of DC-3s - could easily put together 900av on Mindanao given the forces scattered around the southern islands.

Rangoon also falls; the remnant 1st Burma Div wasn't able to hold it against Imperial Guards Div, despite L3 forts. They're essentially doomed, having retreated northwest to Bassein, with Japanese airbone infantry also capturing Prome. A single DC-3 (no giggling in the back!) will attempt to extract a few bits.

Singapore...doesn't fall. Casualties on today's attack were 3:1 in our favour, though fortifications have been stripped and are unlikely to rebuilt. Conceptually, I suppose, at this point the Japanese are on the island itself, threatening to move on the heights overlooking what was then the city; General Percival is reportedly dithering as regards what to do.

Bombers raid Norfolk Island again, from which effort the Japanese are down 29av today. USS Benham reports being spotted by a Jake, and P-40s claim that's what the bird they shot down over the island was; if I'm not mistaken those are mostly carried by J cruisers, but on the off chance it's not an approaching bombardment group - and against my better judgement - Benham will stay for at least another day. What I do know is that US sub Skipjack - heading back to Brisbane for torpedoes after that ridiculous slapfight with a freighter - bumped into four Japanese battleships halfway between Milne Bay and New Caledonia. That puts a life-expectancy on Norfolk Island simply because I have nothing to stop them nuking the place once they get there (3-5 days?), but it does mean they won't be bothering me anywhere important.

Signals deliver an indication of Japanese priorities, I think - 183 ships are reported at Truk. Didn't know they had that many...

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 54
RE: "Phase 2" - 5/10/2011 5:17:29 PM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Feb. 24-26

I'm beginning to wonder if my better judgement is really up to much; Japanese attempt to reinforce the island was undone a little as the troop transports - a large AMC and two patrol boats - arrived before the escorting warships, and, well...

quote:


Japanese Ships
PB Nagata Maru, Shell hits 6, on fire
AMC Kinryu Maru, Shell hits 8, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Hirota Maru, Shell hits 6, heavy fires

Allied Ships
DD Benham

Japanese ground losses:
182 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 16 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled


Unfortunately the Benham decided to hang around the next day - somehow its home port got reset to Norfolk Island, notwithstanding that it was supposed to be going back to Auckland - Abukuma and two destroyers got in the way of any further attacks on transports and put a torpedo into it at 7,000yds, sinking the ship immediately. Still, a good effort! The Japanese battleship force is now south of New Caledonia, heading for Norfolk; three submarines are between them and the island, and Catalinas will attempt to put some explosives into something come tomorrow, but those aircraft that are flyable have left - I can't physically stop them from blowing the place into the sea. Fortunately the place is - just - within standard range of New Zealand for P-40s, so I should be able to get most of them out whether the supplies are burnt up or not. B-17s are continuing to disable 20-30av of Japanese troops every day; given a couple of dozen more aircraft I can make Norfolk a deathtrap even absent any friendly troops. There have been cautious attacks flying backwards and forwards most days for the last week, but I haven't been reporting them as most of them haven't really got anywhere much. Casualties from these have been pretty light for everyone involved, I'm guessing due to the fact that there's not much heavy weaponry around.

The invasion of Java began with a (very small) bang yesterday as a couple of APDs dropped off a naval garrison unit at Yogyakarta, on the south coast of the island; the main (?) effort will land at Semarang tomorrow, having set the city on fire today. The intention seems to be to cut the island in half; sensible, although as 95% of the KNIL has concentrated in West Java a little unnecessary. I'm attempting, rather belatedly, to build an airfield out in the Cocos Islands, just to give the local Japanese something to do once they open the Straits beyond throwing everything they have at Darwin and Mandalay.

Limited action elsewhere. Pacific Fleet carriers will reach Cape Town tomorrow, where Lexington and Saratoga will immediately go in to refit; Enterprise and Yorktown are both in need of some engine work, so will join them for a little while and then see if there's much time to do anything fun before they go in themselves. The 'Americal' Div (daft bloody name, if you ask me) and bonus artillery has put off for Bombay, from where it'll head to Kalemyo and (eventually) to the front in Burma; my intention is to use UK, Indian and Australian formations as one 'grouping' and US & Chinese formation as the other; I'm pushing the bounds of political credibility here as it is, so it seems like the least I can do. Another 4x US Div is on its way to Cape Town, though it'll be a while before I can send it anywhere beyond that.

I'm as yet undecided as to what to do with Eastern Fleet in the meantime; until the Americans are done with their refits they can't really stand up to any Japanese raids - and they would be raids, realistically - without putting a lot of high-tech shipping at risk for potentially very limited rewards. Suspect I will actually end up bookin' it for Kilindini, as someone's sig puts it - or at least the far side of Addu Island - for a few weeks just as a precaution, but in the meantime the fleet is off to Bombay to collect Prince of Wales, which is in dock getting a nose job.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 55
RE: "Phase 2" - 5/13/2011 2:03:56 PM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Feb. 27-28

The bombardment force - eventually, BBs Mutsu and Yamashiro, plus CLs Yubari, Tenryu, Kitakami, Kiso - hit Norfolk and set fire to the supply dump, burning up all 2000t overnight. Aircraft and troops weren't touched, so between that, air supply, the fact that the LCUs themselves have plenty and continued air raids on the Japanese we should be good to go for a little while longer. The ships are heading to Fiji to resupply - I'm assuming there's an AKE there - but tragically the US cruiser force, currently poking around east of Fiji trying to work out what there is in terms of naval search in the area (so far: bugger all) is about 150 miles short of being able to intercept them before they arrive.

Invasion of Java continues; about 600av in SNLF units - and only SNLF units so far - have been sprayed over East Java. The Dutch air force will attempt to bomb the oilworks at Tjepoe tonight, that being about the only useful thing they can do at the moment. Plans have been made for the MLD patrol groups, currently shuttling engineers into Christmas Island, to remove themselves to Diego Garcia if necessary; they get a whole bunch of Catalinas that I could really use up there.

Singapore capitulates at midnight on the 28th of Feb. 21,000 troops - all that's left of the forces initially in Malaya - are taken prisoner, having done a fine job to hold on so long unaided. Whether the Japanese will see it that way remains to be seen...

18th and 45th Divs are boarding trains for Shwebo. That'll give me 3 Div equivalents there, plus 6th and 7th Australian in about a week and a half. HIJMS knows about the 18th, but not the others; I expect a big hammer up here, but whether it'll be big enough remains to be seen. RAF and USAAF units in India are also expecting an enormous catfight, with the IJAAF units already in Burma likely to be joined by most if not all the air forces that were hammering Singapore and Luzon; it's unlikely to be pretty, but then this isn't Scen. 2 - I do want to make the buggers push hard, for all that I hate taking losses. The supply situation in Burma is 'ok' for the moment; it will likely improve over the next month, even bearing in mind the extra troops yet to arrive.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 56
RE: Champ de March - 5/13/2011 4:30:29 PM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Mar. 1

Batavia is bombarded again, with the IJN battleships managing to hit the airfield this time; the Dutch are down a couple dozen aircraft, though as luck would have it losses were all useless Falcons etc. Several of the aircraft destroyed were apparently off bombing Tjepoe while the bombardment was going on; not sure how that works. CD guns were of no use to anyone again, but moving the dozen Dutch PT boats to Batavia paid off - they were also of no use in combat whatsoever, being spotted at 11,000yds at night, but managed to lead two of the destroyers chasing after them into a minefield, which they don't appear to have made it out of.

A fourth SNLF puts ashore at Norfolk Island; this one should acheive a little more than the last ones, given the decreasing viability of Norfolk as a fighter base, but it is, again, an SNLF not doing anything actually useful. As an aside: how many of the bloody things do the Japanese have? There's at least two divisions' worth of them on Java, a similar amount in the South Pacific, some in Burma, some in China...the mind boggles.

In other news, the most powerful weapon in the world arrived today:


(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 57
RE: Champ de March - 5/15/2011 10:07:42 AM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Mar. 2



You can tell which of them are new for today, can't you? Maizuru 1st didn't quite make it in intact, the AMC carrying most of it having run into four (!) torpedoes from S-3something. They miiiiight just manage to take the place at that, however, because...

Odd snickering noises can be heard reverberating around government offices in Washington, London, and New Delhi; Kido Butai has revealed itself - off Auckland! Again! If anything the raid accomplished even less this time, blowing up two minesweepers in harbour and drilling a few holes in the airfields but failing to hit a single aircraft. I expect they'll stick around for at least another day, which should give them a few B-17s (I decided to keep them flying for Norfolk given the fresh screaming hordes), but while they're doing their bull-in-china-shop thing down in the middle of nowhere Enterprise and Yorktown are headed to Indonesia; Indomitable and Hermes will join them, objective being to bag some low-risk shipping if then available, failing that to blow up some oil facilities if that can be done, and hang around out to sea if neither's workable. Shame about L&S going into refit yesterday...wish you could cancel them as would increase my options a bit!

Sub K-7 attempted to torpedo DD Michishio, retiring from Batavia with mine damage - this is the third destroyer missing from yesterday's bombardment, which puts that down as expensive - and misses; the depthcharging from accompanying Natsugumo forces the sub to the surface, at which point it puts three torpedoes into Michishio, presumably as a little ****-you before sinking.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 58
RE: Champ de March - 5/15/2011 9:23:59 PM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Mar. 3-4

Japanese banzai charges on Norfolk Island continue. These days they're inflicting as many casualties as they take - not a sustainable situation, given troop numbers are hovering around 2000:8000. I'm just amused at the way this whole thing has turned out - half a brigade of troops and a couple of dozen fighters have absorbed the equivalent of most of a Japanese division, just about every Japanese warship that isn't working over Java and now the carriers, which are spending their third day ineffectually bombing Auckland. Saros I think just wants the whole thing over quickly, which is understandable considering this ridiculous 'battle' has been going on for over two weeks now. I think I'll begin to bring 8th NZ back home tomorrow, if they're still going - gotta figure they'll need a rest.

Darwin by contrast *is* being evacuated; Japanese aircraft have been bombing it since the day before yesterday, but supplies ran out entirely about a week and a half ago; I've been waiting to see whether anything at all would move up from the south and the answer is 'no', apparently, despite the best efforts of various engineering units, so the garrison's buggering off. A shame, but there's no sense in trying to fight off the Japanese with rocks, and I didn't really put as much effort into sea supply as I should have back in the early days of the war. I know Saros is planning to land here at some point, so this will probably accelerate that movement a little, but the end result will be better this way.

Engineering works at Shwebo have picked up speed since the 18th Div arrived; we're currently shipping 1250t per indefinite time unit, with more to come. Don't know if it'll be enough once the shooting starts, but we'll find out then, I suppose. Australian Corps will set off in two days, with artillery, engineers and AA to follow in a week or so.

Enterprise and Yorktown will reach Diego Garcia in 9 days. Too late for Surabaya, which is being overrun by a dozen SNLF units and will likely fall tomorrow, but there should still be something for them to do when they get here.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 59
RE: Champ de March - 5/19/2011 10:20:29 AM   
kfsgo

 

Posts: 446
Joined: 9/16/2010
Status: offline 		Mar. 5-8

Norfolk Island falls on the 8th; most of the combat power of the 8th Bde (appropriate, in the end) on the island was extracted overnight (there's those Catalinas again!), so actual casualties were minimal and it's still good to go as a force. Expectation is that there'll be a quick landing on Lord Howe Island, the caveat there being that it doesn't have an airfield and is within Hudson range of Australia - lots of potential for targets if that happens, so here's hoping. Carriers are moving off towards Noumea, probably to restock after wasting all their ammunition bombing Auckland.

A major reinforcement convoy is approaching Tahiti, which should make landfall tonight. Engineers, Marine combat units and another fighter squadron will all be handy, though not all of them'll be staying for too long. Two other convoys, one with two fighter squadrons and some engineers and one with the other two thirds of the units that arrive at Bora Bora, are a little further out. Bora Bora itself is currently pupating, end objective being to act as a reliever for the facilities on Tahiti. I should really draw up a map around here...

China, Burma and even Java are eerily quiet. You could almost be forgiven for thinking the Japanese aren't going to bother with northern Burma, in that there have been no moves by any Japanese north from Toungoo by land, sea or air. A second RAF PRU just got back from China today, however, so we'll see what we can see. If nothing else it's an opportunity to give those US fighter units recently arrived - II Fighter Cmd has settled in at Dacca - a bit of extra training. Suspect they'll need it. Chinese 66th Army is crossing the border, agreement for its release having been reached with the Generalissimo.

Cocos Islands are becoming a practical concern, fed by troops pushed out of their bases by the Japanese and subsequently ignored. The airfield should be up tomorrow, at which point a significant fraction of the ML will jump over for a few days' rest. I'm trying to get supplies in now, as the place will obviously be bombed and bombarded to pieces once Java falls, which effort is helped by the arrival of 130,000t of supply at Cape Town direct from the UK.

(in reply to kfsgo)
Post #: 60
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