Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline
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27 Mar 42
Sub War
Nothing new to report.
5 Fleet
Today was an interesting day. Well, the BB bombardment TF did its thing today and pummeled the defenders, destroying 15 squads and disabling another 50. The shock attack met little resistance, wiping out the defenders. Here’s the result, which was sprinkled with FOW:
Ground combat at Dutch Harbor (171,50)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 6218 troops, 50 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 219
Defending force 2424 troops, 22 guns, 103 vehicles, Assault Value = 12
Japanese adjusted assault: 159
Allied adjusted defense: 5
Japanese assault odds: 31 to 1 (fort level 0)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Dutch Harbor !!!
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)
Japanese ground losses:
12 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Allied ground losses:
1437 casualties reported
Squads: 14 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 296 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 17 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 16 (16 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 150 (150 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 2
Assaulting units:
74th Infantry Regiment
65th Naval Guard Unit
67th Naval Guard Unit
Defending units:
103rd USN Base Force
2/250th Coastal Artillery Battalion
150 vehicles?! I wish! I’ll pull out the infantry regiment and one Naval Guard. I’m going to try and send an engineer company from Kwantung Army there to build some forts. I’d like to make Ted pay to retake this rock.
KB moved to a few hexes south of Dutch Harbor to ambush the TK TF spotted yesterday. What did they find? There was a small supply TF of an xAKL escorted by the PG Charleston. 21 Vals put down the xAKL and put 8x 250 kg bombs into the Charleston. The PG didn’t show up as sunk but I’m sure she did or soon will go down. So, what happened to this TK I was so hot to sink? At first I thought this supply convoy was the “TK TF” I spotted yesterday, but after I had a chance to check things out I discovered there is an Allied TF at Dutch Harbor! Unfortunately, I have no info at all on it but I suspect it’s the TK TF. I haven’t sent the turn yet so I need to decide what to do with KB and the 4x Kongos. The Kongos have moved toward Adak and KB is still sitting 3 hexes south of Dutch Harbor. My sub screen east of the Aleutians is showing no sign of any Allied ships. Gotta think about it some more.
4 Fleet
Nothing new to report.
SE Fleet
Ted still won’t come out and play over Pt. Moresby. I have decided to use one of my Betty daitai to assist the Lily sentai in bombing PM. I hate to do it, but this is an opportunity I won’t have for long. I need to accept the risk to my pilots and set PM back a bit (and hopefully kill some fighters on the ground).
Ted is now sending ~20 B-17s to visit Milne Bay daily. Today he went after the port, causing a little damage and sinking the one ACM in port. I had hoped to mine that base. I still may do it. We’ll see.
Speaking of mines, I’ve not mined many of my bases, nor have I mined many of Ted’s bases either. I need to spend some time reallocating my minelayers to start deploying mines. I have a lot of mines in my pool and a lot of spare ACMs just sitting around rusting (or rotting if they’re made of wood).
I still have a nice offensive force sitting doing nothing: Gds Bde, 90 Inf Reg and 144 Inf Reg (of 55 Division in Burma). Eventually, the 144 Reg will head to Burma to allow the 55 Division to combine. I’d like to use them offensively, but I’m not sure of the target yet. I have several potential targets in mind, but they all have pros and cons:
Pt. Moresby – Unlikely. Ted has ~30k troops there. This force does not have the strength to take it.
Luganville – Good possibility. I like this base. It’s pretty far out from the Solomons but it makes a nice OP to keep tabs on Allied shipping. If I take it, it will ultimately fall to the Allies.
Noumea – Unlikely. It’s very far and easy for the Allies to isolate. Whatever garrisons that island ultimately will be destroyed.
Cookville – This is tempting. It would get Ted’s attention. I couldn’t hold it long but I may get lucky and destroy some Allied aircraft on the ground. It would be a spoiling attack and nothing more.
Philippines
Just bombing. I still need another day or two of rest for my infantry before I perform another DA.
China
Sian is surrounded on 4 of 6 sides. I’ll continue to move forces around that base while my main assault force closes in on Sian.
Burma
No less than 5 sweeps and 2 bombing runs pummeled Akyab today. Total losses were as follows:
1 Zero shot down (+ 1 op loss)
1 Oscar shot down (+ 1 op loss)
2 P-40Es shot down
1 H81-A3 shot down + 1 destroyed on the ground
1 Vildebeest destroyed on the ground
In addition, airfield damage remains on Akyab and Chittagong.
I am moving forces to attempt to attack Imphal. That is the one airbase that Ted thinks is relatively safe. The other option is an air campaign against it but I still can’t put enough fighters over it to ensure success. Of the 5 divisions currently in Burma, 4 of them will close in on Imphal. The 55 Division (-) will guard the west flank, in the vicinity of Akyab. Some artillery (4 units I believe) are about to arrive at Rangoon from Singapore to support the attack on Imphal.
Over the past few days, Ted has been sweeping Warazup with 12 Hurricane IIbs at 15k ft. Not sure why. I’m considering sending a couple dozen Zeros at 20k ft to take them on.
I’ve been chasing around the 1 Burma Division since the fall of Rangoon. I finally caught it a hex NE of Prome in a SA (over the river) by the 33 Division and 2x artillery regiments. It got pummeled. Losses were 377(0) Japanese to 1592(104) Burmese. It retreated NW over the river to the road to Akyab. It was trashed in this attack and made combat ineffective. It would take me quite a while to move a unit there so I may let it go, possibly bombing is along the way. I’m not sure how many Burmese infantry squads Ted gets, but that unit would most likely suck them all up for a long time. Air bombardment is my best option right now because of all the disrupted squads in the division. I can kill more squads as it attempts to run. Ted has the option of running in move or combat mode. Neither one is a good option for him. If he goes in move mode, the air attacks will be more effective, killing more squads. If he goes in combat mode, he’ll be there for a long time, allowing my bombers to extract a heavy toll. Either way, the 1 Burma Division is going to be hurting.
Sumatra
The cleanup force in Sumatra consists of the 2 and 4 Divisions. The 2 Division is pushing the rabble up the east coast and the 4 Division is pushing the rabble up the center and west coast. I’d love to replace them with some tank regiments but they are all tied up at Batavia. As soon as Batavia falls, I’ll move them to Sumatra to speed things up.
I haven’t been mentioning the attacks in Sumatra because it’s basically elite Japanese infantry against Dutch remnants. For example, the 2 Division shock attacked (over a river) some rabble on the road north of Langsa and caused 199(16) casualties to 28(0) Japanese casualties. The defenders were pushed farther up the road. One was destroyed. Here’s a list of the defenders before the attack:
Van Aaran Garrison Battalion
Langsa Base Force
Medan Base Force
Java
My forces investing Batavia aren’t getting the supply they need to attack. I’ve allowed Soerabaja to hoard supply to make sure it keeps enough to keep repairing the infrastructure. Right now there is about 100k supply in Soerabaja. I turned off supply hoarding so some of that supply will move to the Batavia assault force. I need to kill off the Batavia defenders so I can move on with phase II (whatever that turns out to be).
SRA
Since Palembang was liberated (8 Mar), I started tracking the oil and fuel that has been shipped to the Home Islands. Here’s what has shipped:
Oil: 86,650 (100k needed per month)
Fuel: 132,800 (240k needed per month)
That’s over less than 19 days, so I figure I’ll easily hit my goals next month. I haven’t been tracking the resources. I figure I’m doing fine there.
Other Stuff
Reinforcement: 46 JNAF AF Unit – Headed to SE Fleet
Ted sent me an interesting email the other day:
I'll be interested to see how long that PM meat grinder lasts. You've run through my P-40 pools easily but boy those Kittyhawks are really holding the line. Very surprising. You're not in Northern Oz....another surprise. And you're in the Aleutians, yet another surprise. What next ?
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RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 
I haven't a clue. I've never been on the receiving end at the beginning of the war. 
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