Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
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11/19/42 - D+9, Operation Des Wallace My experience has been that alot of things that just sound good in the dark of the night take on an entirely different aspect in the light of day. A cool plan you conceive of one day ends up looking very risky as D-Day approaches 60 days later, etc. Popping the Allied carriers into the South China Sea or Java Sea would be pretty much playing Russian Roulette with five of the six chambers loaded. On Land: Almost! Almost! The Allied attack at Sibolga comes off at 3:1, drops forts to 2, and destroys something like 25 squads. I think the base will fall tomorrow, but it is agonizing to wait as the chance of a fast transport mission coming in seems high. The CA Quincy group hung back last night (why, I dunno) but looks primed to visit the port tonight, so hopefully no fast transport can come in. 27th USA Div. looks to be in pretty good shape and will shock attack at Langsa tomorrow. I think the odds are favorable, but even if this fails, two more divisions are a few hexes away and will reach Langsa in five days or so. John's early "counter attack" moves against Singora appear to consist of Thai units. In the Air: Another devastating Allied bombardment run vs. VP - I think John has had to vacate the field. And two fast BBs unleash the first bombardment vs. Georgetown, which also has good results. Nevertheless, Japanese air becoming very pestering now. Lots of Kates (no torps) from Singapore, etc. picked off more AKs plus two nice AMC that had just finished the FT run to Langsa. Netties from Port Blair reached out farther than I expected to pick off more ships - some empty xAKs but also some xAPs loaded with an Indian division (that hurts). The LOC between Sabang and Colombo has a big jog to the west to avoid Port Blair, but some TFs keep refusing to obey waypoint instructions. Sabang airfield goes to 4.46, in increase of .24 on the day, so this base should go to level 5 in three days. At Sea: No sign of the KB (yet). Lots of Allied ships continue the retrograde to Colombo and thence to other places. I'm going to have half a dozen lightly to moderately damaged DDs at Colombo within a few day and the yards are already crammed with CAs and CLs still repairing from the Second Battle of Assam and later action (Pensacola and New Orleans are there along with Boise and Mauritius). Japanese Plans/Allied Plans: I believe John has one of two choices: (1) to institute some kind of Dunkirk operation for Burma, using his carriers. I don't think that's an attractive option to John because it puts his carriers in a tight corner, (2) to win a carrier battle that allows him to impose a blockade of Sumatra and just continue on with the ground war in Burma. To me that's the much more attractive option. I think John is therefore in the position of having to seek and having to win a carrier battle. I think the Allies are in the position of having to avoid losing a carrier battle. So I can play around, jousting and parrying while seeking an advantage. One possible advantage will be if the KB skewers itself on LBA (hey, I can hope, can't I?).
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