JeffroK
Posts: 6391
Joined: 1/26/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Schlemiel While I certainly agree that those theatres become useless to Japan with your positions, I wouldn't automatically write off an operation towards Singapore. It provides a very valuable forward base if it can be reasonably take, as well as securing your flanks from smaller raids out of there (presuming Chez has fuel, he can get enough to Singapore to support raiders and such by rail). The real question, which I trust to your analysis, would be the cost/benefit of such a move. To my mind, it depends on how firm his line of resistance is at Cam Rahn Bay, Samah, eastern Borneo, and the islands east of Manilla. If other posters are right and Chez tends to rely on a defensive game along a strong MLR, it's possible Singapore could be had on the relative cheap to give you an even better staging base than Oosthaven. If I were Chez, right now, I'd basically try to stall you with small garrisons in Burma (with a decent defense at Pegu) while I tested you in Sumatra. If Sumatra holds (and it should), I'd pull back to the jungle line at Moulmein for defensive purposes and pull some extra troops toward Indochina to fortify the clear coast. You'll have a lot of issues suppressing that with just bombers at this point in the war, with bases in Borneo. Shrinking parts of the Empire which can't be held makes a lot of sense. Of course, I'd also be basically scrapping naval construction to save the economy and focusing on air R&D and creating layered defenses in the territory I had. He can still make the conquest of Japan incredibly tough on you. I think we have been through the "Test Sumatra" stage, thats why there are a few IJA Divs surrounded at Padang. However the line of approach to the HI from here is a hard one, major lines of resistance can be built on Borneo/Vietnam, Phillipines, Formosa, Okinawa. All which can be overcome but time consuming and maybe expensive. This is why approaches from the north or the Pacific are popular as they chew up distance quicklyand dont require major land battles.
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