Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline
|
14 Dec 41
Sub War
My perimeter of subs continues to pay off. Today, the I-155, lurking off Palembang, caught an xAP and put her under. Unfortunately, she was empty.
5 Fleet
The Adak invasion fleet heads in and will land tomorrow. Still no sight of the enemy. Once taken, more troops and engineers will be landed and Adak will be built up. Air power in the form of fighters and recon will be sent. Not sure whether they’ll be IJA or IJN yet nor where they will come from.
4 Fleet
The lost AMC in the Wake invasion fleet caused more problems than originally thought. A good portion of the SNLF was on that ship. The SA upon landing wasn’t able to muster any more than 1:1 odds with bad casualties to the surviving SNLF members and the NG assisting them. I took 320(3) to 80(3) US losses. I’m going to attempt a DA tomorrow after another CA bombardment and (hopefully) full deckloads from KB. Today, KB was socked in by rain and didn’t launch. I’m hoping for the best but expecting the worst so I’ve sent the NG allocated to attack Tarawa up north to assist. It’ll take a few days to get there unfortunately.
SE Fleet
The 144 Regiment and Maizuru 1 SNLF are at Truk reloading for the Rabaul invasion. The Gds Bde is still enroute. Supporting them is a surface force of 2 BBs, Kitakami and Oi and some DDs. I will not bombard with BBs. That ends up taking that threat out of the battle for a time. It’s just too hard to replenish them on the fringe without an AKE available. There isn’t one in this area yet.
I am taking all the dot hexes I can in this (and every other) theater. Sorry, but I probably won’t list them unless it’s something critical.
China
Nothing new to report.
Hong Kong
Air and ground bombardment continues today. Two of the Allied battalions are almost completely combat ineffective and the third is about half its original strength. Only the Kowloon Brigade is hanging in there. Another DA will occur tomorrow.
Manchuoko
Today was the start of the 2 Air Division Chinese Air Offensive. I finally got enough AS at Jehol to support the 3 Sally Sentai (81 planes) from this air division. They flew their first mission against Chinese troops in range. More AS is arriving and I’ll add the Lily Sentai (31 planes) when I can. 51 Sallys flew causing 222(0) casualties. I won’t mention this again unless something critical happens. I just mention this tactic because it is a wonderful way to train up INAAF bomber pilots. I use the Ki-21-Ic airframes for this mission. They’re not bad planes and there are 46 in the pool in addition to the 81 in the 3 sentai. All are reserved strictly for this mission.
Philippines
Laoag fell to the Rowboat Corps.
Ted’s forces are pretty much evenly split between Clark Field and Bataan (in addition to the 3 cut off units in the southern peninsula. Japanese forces at Clark Field are the victors of Iba (an infantry regiment of 48 Div, an SNLF and support) vs. the following Allied forces:
71st PA Infantry Division
91st PA Infantry Division
1st PA Constabulary Regiment
2nd PA Constabulary Regiment
57th PS Infantry Regimental Combat Team
3rd/45th PS Inf Battalion
Asiatic Fleet
USAFFE
1st PI Base Force
South Luzon Force
Subic Bay Defenses
I like this. So far, I’ve destroyed 3 PA divisions. I have the opportunity to trash the above forces and have their remnants withdraw into Bataan. I believe there are 9(?) divisions on Luzon. I also believe one is isolated to the south, leaving 5 remaining, 2 at Clark Field and 3 at Bataan. If I can trash these two (plus the other infantry units here), then I can probably reduce the remainder rather quickly. Once Mindanao is liberated, I’ll move 16 Division back to Luzon to expedite the surrender of the Rabble of Bataan. (If I remember correctly, there were 10 PA divisions and the regular army division. One was on Mindinao and one on another island – Cebu maybe, leaving 9 divisions on Luzon.)
The 48 Div (-) and 65 Bde and their support are marching to the sound of the guns at Clark Field. Once they arrive, I’ll combine the 48 Div and begin to reduce these guys. That should start in a day or two. Until then, ground and air bombardment continues.
The 23 Air Flotilla HQ is loaded aboard xAKs and is headed to Truk. The air units assigned to them will begin the move (by air) to Truk as well. There just isn’t a need for them around the Philippines any longer. The 21 Air Flotilla will continue to support the Philippines (if needed) and will begin to move toward Kendari and Ambon where they will set up security against Allied shipping attempting to evacuate or warships attempting to enter from that area. The 5 Air Division is tasked with bombing the Rabble of Bataan to oblivion. Once the US Air Force is eliminated from the Philippines, I’ll give the bomber units of the 5 Air Division rookies (in excess of their normal, trained airmen) to train additional bomber crews. With no fear of enemy fighters, this works well.
As I fly the 23 Air Flotilla planes to SE Fleet, they will stop over at Babeldaob. I’m going to set up an ambush there. Ted has been attempting to bomb the airfield there every other day or so with B-17s, flying from Borneo I believe. The only fighters there are the Kawai Det, currently flying Claudes. I’m going to pack as many Zeros as will fit there for a bit to see if I can catch one of those raids and possibly shoot down one or two. Just a little pinprick to demoralize him a bit more.
Mindanao
The invasion of Butuan started today with the 146/56 and 2x tank regiments. The 16 Division will land at the base in the NW corner of the island in 2 days. The BB TF and a CA TF are to the west of these invasion fleets screening these forces from potential enemies. I can see only 1 enemy ship near Tarakan apparently heading west, but it may be the Houston or Boise. I hope it is one of them. It’ll be dead meat if it comes.
Burma
Still plodding along…
Currently, the “invasion” consists of 55 Division (-) with 33 Division still loading at Nagasaki. That’ll be a whopping 2 divisions. Not nearly enough. My goal is 4-5 infantry divisions by spring of 42 along with the two tank divisions which form around Jun 42. I will probably send 2 divisions from the 25 Army (I’m thinking 56 & IG Divs) after Singapore and Palembang are liberated. At that point I expect Rangoon to be liberated and can probably ship them. That’ll leave 5 & 18 Divs to defend Sumatra and Malaya. The Burma Army will increase with time as I get more infantry through reinforcements and PP buys.
Then there’s the Royal Thai Army (RTA). One of our house rules is that restricted units must pay to cross national borders. This prevents these guys from leaving Thailand. They’ll be used to garrison Thai cities and the remainder will garrison the Thai/Burma frontier.
The 1 Raiding Regiment is being air transported to Bangkok in preparation for its air assault of Pt. Blair. Once Singapore falls, the 21 IMB will be shipped to Pt. Blair as the garrison.
Malaya
Ted is in full flight everywhere except Georgetown, Kota Bharu and Kuantan. The Aussies in Mersing are fleeing as well. I had moved the invasion fleets to within 2 days sail of Malaya and this turn moved them to within 1 day of all 3 coastal bases. I had initially planned on invading Kota Bharu and Kuantan but now that he’s moving the Aussies out of Mersing, I’m considering invading Mersing and Kuantan. The RAF bomber force is very weak. I estimate he has ~6-9 Blenheim IVs, and a dozen Vildebeest/Swordfish, along with 75-80 Buffalos. I need to make that decision when I get my next turn. If I go with Mersing, I’ll LRCAP it with mini KB and Yamada/Oscars will LRCAP Kuantan. I’ll also escort the Mersing invasion with the 4 CA TF and Kuantan with the 2 CA TF. Once Kuantan is liberated, I’ll station Yamada, Tojos and Oscars there and begin the destruction of the RAF in Malaya through sweeps of Singapore, where the majority of the Buffalos are stationed.
The 3 Air Division HQ will arrive in Alor Star in the next day or two. This will allow me to station the Sallys and Lilys of that Air Division there to begin the bombing of the fleeing ground forces.
Other Stuff
The West Virginia showed up as sunk now! I’m seeing 6 US BBs on the sunk list. I know some are incorrect, so I’m assuming 3, with an outside chance of 4. Either way, that’s still good news.
I’ve been starting conversion of the Ansyu-C xAKLs to PBs as they become available from other missions. I’m down to 8 remaining (of 54!) that have yet to begin conversion. Once complete, I’ll have over 100 of them. It’s interesting that I haven’t seen much at all in the way of Allied subs. I wonder where he’s hiding them???
Just a reminder of my air training program – I train pilots to 50+ experience and 70+ in whatever skill that unit is training. I check the training units on the 15th and last day of the month, except Dec 41, where I’ll just check on the last day of the month. When I check, I’ll cull the trained pilots and replace them with rookies. With one exception, I train each pilot in one skill. The one exception is IJNAF TB pilots. I’m training them in NavT and NavB skills even though it’ll take twice as long. Often, these guys don’t have torpedoes available for whatever reason. I want them to be able to actually hit a ship with a bomb. A bomb is better than nothing….
I usually withdraw my IJAAF bombers from bombing enemy ground forces/airfields in mid to late 42 (for the most part) due to heavy losses. Then they focus on ASW. I’m training ASW and GrdB right now. Later, I’ll add in LowB to prepare for the Kamikazes of 44+.
I converted 12x Toho and 12x Ehime to the –t for troop movement. They’re headed to Cam Ranh Bay to be dispersed out as needed. I intend to convert an additional 24x Toho to the –t soon. About 10-12 of them are enough to transport a division easily. The 14 kt speed of the Toho is very nice too, and can be escorted by the numerous Ansyu-C PBs. I’ll station them with my reserve divisions/brigades around the map for quick movement. I’m thinking Ominato, Truk, Saipan, Singapore and Kendari for reserves. Just initial thoughts. My xAPs will do most of the movement of reinforcements from the Home Islands to major hubs.
I took a look at elite pilots. There aren’t many at this early date. I’m hoping that the 3 AD and 22 Air Flotilla gain some during the air reduction campaigns of Malaya and Java. There aren’t a lot of IJAAF fighters that I want to commit though. The Nates will be used for CAP over friendly airbases and cautious use in Burma. The Oscar Ia goes to Burma. That leaves the Oscar Ib and Ic, the Tojo and Zeros for Singapore. Here are the land based aircraft available:
Oscar Ib: 30
Oscar Ic: 24 (2x 12 plane chutai have been converted to date)
Tojo: 9
Zero: 27 (+9 more from Kawai det which is still at Babeldaob & needs to upgrade to Zeros)
That makes for a total of 90 fighters (+9 additional coming shortly) vs. 75-80 Buffalos. That should do the trick.
_____________________________
 Created by the amazing Dixie
|
Printable Version
RE: Once More into the Breach - 
She needs 8" guns ammo and the only 'safe' ports to get them from are Singapore and Soerabaja. She could go to Manila, but that probably isn't an option. 
Two of the CAs took a 1000 lber each suffering some damage and an AMC took 2 of those monsters. She won't survive to offload her troops. Too bad. The invasion goes in tomorrow. 
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