apbarog
Posts: 3769
Joined: 5/23/2002 Status: offline
|
2 Oct 43 Some turns just stand out in a game. This was one of those. It didn't have the big carrier battle, but it had some interesting and unique events that just make the game so enjoyable, regardless of how the results turn out. I sent every minesweeper at full speed to Soerabaja. 2 YMSs sweep 49 mines to start things out. Near Banjoewangi, a subchaser sinks an enemy midget sub. I won't list every midget sub encounter, but a total of 9 midget subs were sunk today. They were at Soerabaja, Banjoewangi, and in the channel in between. One midget sub was able to fire a torpedo at a DMS, but it missed. One was encountered at Soerabaja, and forced to surface, where it was fired on by a destroyer and battleship Pennsylvania. It was amazing to see that the final kill shot was a 14 inch shell from Pennsylvania! The two YMSs at Soerabaja then swept another 17 mines, but one hit a mine, and sank. The big Soerabaja invasion task force then arrived at Soerabaja: CL Helena, Mine hits 1 CL Leander, Mine hits 2 DD Monssen, Mine hits 1, heavy damage APA Wayne, Mine hits 1 APA Warren, Mine hits 1 APA Callaway, Mine hits 1 APA Bolivar, Mine hits 1 Damage is: CL Helena SYS 4/FLOT 14-8/ENG 2/FIRE 0 CL Leander SYS 13/FLOT 34-24/ENG 0/FIRE 0 DD Monssen SYS 16/FLOT 82-61/ENG 1/FIRE 0 APA Wayne SYS 11/FLOT 40-36/ENG 2-1/FIRE 0 APA Warren SYS 10/FLOT 43-31/ENG 14-11/FIRE 0 APA Callaway SYS 14/FLOT 14-7/ENG 0/FIRE 0 APA Bolivar SYS 7/FLOT 32-30/ENG 1-1/FIRE 0 DMS Hovey then swept another 11 mines. DD Conyngham then hit a mine. DD Conyngham SYS 25/FLOT 73-56/ENG 1/FIRE 0 3 PT boats then each hit a mine at Soerabaja. All sank. Battleship Pennsylvania then hit a mine. BB Pennsylvania SYS 11/FLOT 14-9/ENG 0/FIRE 0 2 LSTs grounded while landing supply. LST 449 SYS 4/FLOT 12-10/ENG 4-2/FIRE 0 LST 471 SYS 47/FLOT 42-18/ENG 37-16/FIRE 0 BB Pennsylvania then bombarded Soerabaja, causing 110 casualties, and found that the 38th Infantry Division is at Soerabaja. More than I had seen by recon. Troops then began to land at Soerabaja. By the end of the day, all troops except part of a HQ unit had completely unloaded. That was because the HQ unit was not on APAs. 76 more mines were then cleared. 9 P-38s swept Madioen, downing a couple of Zeros and Oscars while losing 2. B-24s bombed Soerabaja's airfield, finding no CAP and no planes there. All had flown and/or railed out. Some heavies bombed Madioen, doing almost no damage in thunderstorms. B-25s then bombed enemy troops at Soerabaja to good effect. Previous bombings had never spotted the 38th Division. I think it arrived very recently. About 50 heavies bombed Babeldaob, destroying 8 Tinas on the ground, and sinking the ACM there. The fragmented parts later found heavier CAP, and some heavies were lost. B-26s bombed the 2nd Field Artillery Regiment at Probolinggo. This is one of the two enemy units that retreated from Banjoewangi. Both are in bad shape. Some B-25s bombed enemy troops on Boela, to little effect. The Americal Division then attacked at 1 to 3 odds, with 339 enemy losses and 500 friendly. The other US division had been withdrawn and is recovering in Australia. If Americal can't wear the enemy down over time, that division will return at full strength and full prep. An armor battalion then began landing at Probolinggo. The most damaged LST at Soerabaja will move to Probolinggo and attempt to unload its supply before sinking. I list the default enemy bombardment attack at Soerabaja to highlight the units involved: Ground combat at Soerabaja (56,104) Japanese Bombardment attack Attacking force 714 troops, 40 guns, 84 vehicles, Assault Value = 474 Defending force 59520 troops, 639 guns, 914 vehicles, Assault Value = 2153 Japanese ground losses: Guns lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled) Vehicles lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled) Allied ground losses: 53 casualties reported Squads: 2 destroyed, 2 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Engineers: 2 destroyed, 0 disabled Vehicles lost 6 (4 destroyed, 2 disabled) Assaulting units: 38th Division 16th Recon Regiment 4th Tank Regiment 1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment 9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion Southwest Area Fleet 40th JNAF AF Unit 2nd Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion 104th Ship Eng Coy 91st JAAF AF Bn Defending units: 5th Indian Division 50th Cmbt Engineer Regiment 50th Tank Brigade 17th Indian Division 3rd Carabiniers Regiment 5th Chinese Corps XV Corps Engr Bn /2 602nd Field Artillery Battalion I Marine Amphib Corps 17th Indian Light AA Regiment At Soerabaja, the enemy's 38th Division is full strength. The 5th Chinese Corp is a monster, with 900 and some assault value. By the way, all enemy mines were swept. 3 PT boats and a YMS sunk by mines. 11 other ships hit mines. And finally, probably the most interesting event of the day. I dropped 75 C-47's worth of the Indian 14th LRP Brigade on unoccupied Tjepoe, northwest of Soerabaja. But when they landed, they found the enemy's 3rd Tank Division on trains moving to Soerabaja. Ground combat at Tjepoe (54,103) Allied Shock attack Attacking force 672 troops, 11 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 57 Defending force 7863 troops, 113 guns, 442 vehicles, Assault Value = 360 Allied adjusted assault: 14 Japanese adjusted defense: 61 Allied assault odds: 1 to 4 (fort level 2) Combat modifiers Defender: op mode(-), leaders(+), leaders(-), preparation(-) fatigue(-), experience(-) Attacker: shock(+), leaders(-) Japanese ground losses: 71 casualties reported Squads: 1 destroyed, 5 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Vehicles lost 11 (7 destroyed, 4 disabled) Allied ground losses: 80 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 19 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Assaulting units: 14th LRP Bde /1 Defending units: 3rd Tank Division The paras are vastly outnumbered here, but they've done a great service by stopping the tank division from getting to Soerabaja. A very big question, and one that I don't know the answer to, is with this combat, did the tank division get kicked automatically into Combat mode, or is it still in Strat mode? If it's immediately in combat mode, the paras are in immediate trouble. If it's still in Strat mode, Walker won't attack until he has switched them to Combat mode, giving me a day or two or three. The best part, is if they are in Strat mode still, he can't leave the hex in that mode while the paras are there too. Since just a fragment of the 14th LRP is now at Tjepoe, I decide to fly in more of them. I sent some fighter sweeps to clear any CAP that Walker may put up. I lost a few C-47s, but added another squadron of 12 to Mataram to fly in more paras. Maybe I can get their strength up enough to bog down the enemy for a bit. And maybe take Soerabaja, and rush up the road to rescue the paras at Arnhem. Uh, I mean Tjepoe. Timing. Timing is everything. Tjepoe was (probably) empty yesterday. The paras could have taken it. But then the tank division could have railed around the base and still gotten to Soerabaja. Very interesting turn, I thought. Everything at Soerabaja attacks today. A battleship will bombard the base again. Medium bombers will hit the troops, again. Maybe a whole infantry division can be defeated by the large army I have there. The Chinese unit is huge. The 3rd Carbabineers Regiment is a very large armor unit. Maybe it will be enough. Who knows what the fort level will be. This could come down to a race of reducing Soerabaja's defenses before the enemy tank division can dispose of the Indian paras at Tjepoe. US carriers will move a bit north, to a point 2 hexes from Soerabaja. This will be a bit more unpredictable than sitting 1 hex from the base. And I counted the hexes to Palembang. I could get in range of Palembang in just one day's steaming from that location. I'll be leaving the area very soon anyhow, once all of the landings are complete. Just considering Palembang, as long as it doesn't interfere with the next set of invasions, which will start loading as soon as the APAs get to Balikpapan.
Attachment (1)
< Message edited by apbarog -- 3/20/2017 2:41:29 AM >
|