MichaelU
Posts: 285
Joined: 9/8/2009
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Dec 10, 1941
The turns continue mixed.
The bad part continues through the night, as fleeing transports get butchered. He has at least two TFs operating southwest of Manila, and about the only thing they need to be worried about is running out of ammo. I am not going to post every combat report here -- it is too long and too depressing. Once this phase of the war is done, I’ll upload the list of lost ships.
Our subs though are doing a sterling job, and continue to take advantage of seas filled with juicy targets.
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Submarine attack near Kuantan at 53,79
Japanese Ships
xAK Kisogawa Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
Allied Ships
SS KXI
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Submarine attack near Singkawang at 54,86
Japanese Ships
xAK Ikushima Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
Allied Ships
SS O16
Japanese ground losses:
32 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Particularly like this last one, as those troops were heading somewhere, and now they are going to have to swim to get there.
But then disaster strikes. Houston, heavily damaged by Kates on turn 1, has been waiting for the swarm of transports to be thickest before trying to make a run out, but it is to no avail. The Mikuma takes some time off from sinking transports to put the finishing touches to the work started by the carriers. Ouch.
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Day Time Surface Combat, near Tawi Tawi at 71,89, Range 21,000 Yards
Allied aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft losses
SOC-1 Seagull: 1 destroyed
Japanese Ships
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 2
CL Ishikari
DD Fubuki
DD Shirayuki, Shell hits 1
Allied Ships
CA Houston, Shell hits 23, and is sunk
DD Pope, Shell hits 18, and is sunk.
And then the day starts, and the Allied aircraft get in on the action. The landings on northern Borneo on uncovered are still not covered, giving the torpedo bombers a free run at a lone transport.
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Brunei at 65,87
Weather in hex: Clear sky
Raid spotted at 8 NM, estimated altitude 7,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes
Allied aircraft
Vildebeest III x 5
B-339D x 5
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
xAK Aso Maru, Bomb hits 6, and is sunk
And then sweet revenge for the Houston, the torpedo bombers put two penetrating hits on the Mikuma. Burn baby burn. I imagine she is going to need a bit of yard time after that.
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Sandakan at 71,88
Weather in hex: Clear sky
Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes
Allied aircraft
Swordfish I x 3
Vildebeest III x 4
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
CA Mikuma, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
DD Shirayuki, Bomb hits 1
I’d also moved up two groups of Banshees from Darwin to Ambon in the hopes of picking off any transports venturing a little too far south. Despite having absolutely terrible pilots, and boy do I mean terrible, unloading transports are clearly an easy enough target even for these guys. I was hoping for one or two hits, but the lads come through beautifully. I’ve summarised four attacks into this one report.
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xAK Atago Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Meiyo Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
APD Hagi
xAK Santos Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAKL Raizan Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
xAK Atago Maru, heavy fires, heavy damage
TB Hayabusa
APD Hagi, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
APD Hagi, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Santos Maru, heavy fires
xAK Zyuyo Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
TB Hayabusa
APD Hagi, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
xAK Zyuyo Maru, on fire
xAK Meiyo Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Santos Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
Because of the Japanese unload bonus he seems to have been able to get all troops ashore before the transports got slammed, because there is not a single troop lost. Still, he is going to have send fresh transports to pick these guys up again. Those xAKs have got to be suffering after sucking up 1,000 lb bombs.
And now I have made a little mess of things. A Dutch CL group is creeping up the west coast of Borneo, looking for targets of opportunity, but strays too far north and comes within range of the light carriers covering Singapore.
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Pontianak at 56,90
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid spotted at 16 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes
Japanese aircraft
B5N2 Kate x 24
Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 2 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed by flak
Allied Ships
CL Java, Torpedo hits 1
CL Durban
CL Tromp
DD Van Nes
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Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Pontianak at 56,90
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid detected at 37 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 12
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 1 damaged
Allied Ships
DD Evertsen
CL Durban
CL Java, Bomb hits 1
End of turn reports shows Jave with just 23 float damage, so we got lucky. But we’ve been rumbled, so time to make scarce.
Japanese bombers hammer Clark Field, and for the first time US airplanes flying from adjacent fields rise to meet them. It’s a mere drop in the ocean, but the Warhawks down 5 Bettys and two Nells for no loss.
After being heavily skewed in the Japanese favour by the first round hammering, Japanese aircraft losses now exceed Allied. Helped along nicely by the 38 planes of Ryujo.
Ground combat phase, Hong Kong holds out for the turn, and the forts hold as well. Good casualties on the attackers.
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Ground combat at Hong Kong (77,61)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 21489 troops, 289 guns, 189 vehicles, Assault Value = 955
Defending force 8112 troops, 132 guns, 72 vehicles, Assault Value = 234
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2
Japanese adjusted assault: 227
Allied adjusted defense: 301
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 2)
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(-), experience(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
987 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 69 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 9 (2 destroyed, 7 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
255 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 20 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Assaulting units:
104th Division
38th Division
66th Infantry Regiment
19th Ind Com Engineer Regiment
20th Ind Com Engineer Regiment
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
2nd Mortar Battalion
10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
2nd RF Gun Battalion
5th RF Gun Battalion
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion
Defending units:
Rifles of Canada Battalion
Winnipeg Grenadiers Battalion
1st Middlesex Battalion
Kowloon Brigade
102nd RN Base Force
Hong Kong Fortress
And it looks like one Japanese tank regiment got a bit too keen, and jumps the Singapore straits ahead of its friends, getting mauled for its troubles.
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Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 378 troops, 0 guns, 70 vehicles, Assault Value = 38
Defending force 21538 troops, 261 guns, 143 vehicles, Assault Value = 151
Japanese adjusted assault: 6
Allied adjusted defense: 271
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 45 (fort level 0)
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), morale(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), leaders(-)
Japanese ground losses:
Vehicles lost 39 (8 destroyed, 31 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
8 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Assaulting units:
11th Tank Regiment
Defending units:
2nd Malay Battalion
2/17 Dogra Battalion
3rd Cavalry Regiment
SSVF Brigade
22nd Australian Brigade
2nd HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
1st Indian Heavy AA Regiment
224 Group RAF
1st HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
24th NZ Pioneer Coy
Singapore Fortress
III Indian Corps
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
Malayan Air Wing
Singapore Base Force
Malaya Army
29 Battery/3 HAA
112th RAF Adv Base Force
A third attack fails at Singkawang, at 1 to 3 odds, leaving this vital base for covering an invasion of Palembang in our hands for another turn. The hammering from Force Z must have really knocked the stuffing out of these guys, and I’m not sure he is going to be able to take it or Kuching without throwing in more resources.
We lose the base at Miri. We also lose Atimonan, cutting off Manila from the south. But our troops are already past this bottleneck, and Festung Manila will be happening soon.
What a pity we won’t have any forts, because we don’t have enough engineers to build any. Curse the designers of this mod and their hatred of massed engineers. I hope our Japanese opponent is suffering similarly.
There are landings at Davao and Cagayan in the southern Philippines, so he is moving quickly there as well.
But the most interesting development is the appearance of a very large Japanese Tf just off Palembang. There’s not too much we can do about it as Force Z is too far away, and he seems to have brought some battleships along to cover the landings. Hopefully one of them runs into the copious minefields we have planted.
The hard work will once again fall to the Vildebees, who are gathered at Oosthaven. There’s only 15 of them, and no torpedoes, so it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to achieve all that much. It should be interesting though because without Singkawang any air cover for the invasion is going to be flying a very long distance.
< Message edited by MichaelU -- 11/23/2017 1:01:52 PM >
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