Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002
From: Northwestern Georgia, USA
Status: offline
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1/17/43
Battle of Sumatra: Massed IJAF sweeps return to Sabang, this time with Zeroes supplmenting the Tojos. The Allies get the best of things, but it's one of those pyrric victories - 80 enemy planes downed to 60 for the Allies; 48 Tojos downed and about 20 Zeroes; but 24 F4Fs downed and some very valuable P-40Ks.
John sent a four-DD TF raiding the port. In combat with the defending CL Achilles-flagged TF, neither side scores major damage. But it's telling that John came this far forward. CL Helena will arrive tomorrow.
Yesterday, a sub near Sinabang put a TT in CA Takao. That was nice. Even better, today KXIX put another torp in her side and sinking sounds immediately registered. I'm not absolutely certain she went under (it's one of those too-good-to-be-true events), but if so, a major Allied victory.
The Allies will have 1250 AV in the junble south of Langsa facing off against at least five IJA divisions. The key wll be whether Japanese air can cause disruption to troops in the jungle (and, by the same token, whether combat ships can do so on bombardment runs).
Battle of Burma: For some reason my B-25Cs refuse to fly again, leaving the ground troops to attack without elevated disruption levels vs. the enemy. The attack fails pretty badly.
Battle of India: I"m picking up various SigInt reports that John is prepping for an attack against Ceylon and/or eastern India. This is probably a ruse, though it can't be entirely discounted. One IJA division is preparing for Viz. I have an Indian division in reserve there. An Aussie division will arrive at Aden soon. Troop transports will arrive at the same time. This unit will be theater reserve briefly, though I'll commit her to Burma fairly quickly if possible.
On His Toes: I have a few "is John alert" type missions in the offing. One will be probing deep starting tomorrow. I'm interested in seeing what happens.
After Sumatra: While the Allies remain intent on defending Sumatra successfully if possible within reason, I am also thinking about "what ifs" should it fall. John will then be feeling frisky and would have five to ten divisions available to play with. I'm not positive he'd get aggressive deep this late, but if he does then Ceylon and India would be the most likely choices. I've been attending to defense in depth/fort building with this in mind, actually going back to before my two-year sabbatical. That's why an Indian division is sitting at Viz. I think he'd be most exited about the prospect of trapping the Allied army in Burma forward. So Ramree, Akyab, Cox's Bazaar, Chittagong, Imphal, Calcutta and Viz are each garrisoned fairly strongly. Smaller bases will get some of the smaller "destroyed" units I purchased a few days. They'll begin arriving at Karachi in 25 days or so. They'll be weak, but they'll be useful in garrisoning against para-drops and in adding units to key bases so that those bases appear stronger.
Monitor: I ran the turn at work on my very old, fat, ugly monitor. It sure works 1000 times better. I tried to follow some of the suggestions posted above by thoughtful people, but it's truly like reading Arapaho. For the life of me I don't find anything labeled "switches" on my computer, whether I right click on the AE shortcut, the screen itself, or anything else in sight.
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