John 3rd
Posts: 17178
Joined: 9/8/2005 From: La Salle, Colorado Status: offline
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March 16, 1945 With school back in session I have a better opportunity to do real Reviews of the day-to-day action. Will cover March 16th and then, with later Posts, hit the major areas of action. KOREA Gunzan Hardly anything flies this day. Weather was pretty bad so we'll run with that. There were two Sweeps by 34 and 18 Tony Fighters flying at 30,000 Ft. They encounter 310 Fighters. The planes do pretty well--all things being equal--and win a 3:2 exchange in the air: 20 for roughly 30. Three anemic raids go in with 11 F 5 B (no survivors), 25 F 11 DB (no survivors), and 31 F 6 TB. Surprisingly all 6 Frances get thru and SINK APA Pres. Monroe with three hits. NICE! To get Dan to pull back troops, I ordered a brand new ID to advance on Gunzan from the South. It has caused Dan to pull troops from Taiyku and the hex between Gunzan and Keijo. He'll bombard it tomorrow and probably hit it with 200 B-24 but it has already served its purpose to distract him. Taiyku My opponent has pulled all but an ID and a Brigade from this base. Those units face three full strength Japanese ID and 9 AA units plus two Eng Reg. We will attack tomorrow and see if there is any chance in this hex. Keijo The ground between Gunzan and Keijo has 8-10 units in it. I move (very slowly) two weak Artillery units towards and into the hex--once again--to 'fix' Dan in place while I try to take Taiyku. Moppo Been using this as an air base and station for my Midget SS and PT Boats. The Brits pay it a visit with 2 CL and 5 DDs, fight thru two TFs of ML and PT then bombard the AF for moderate damage. There is CD and about 350 mines present here. Fast TF I am allowed--AGAIN--to run my APDs (10 of them) back to Fusan while racing 5 of the 1,000 supply PG thru to get to Tiensin in NE China. This exchange is now running for the 3rd time and each time the two TFs bring in 10,000 supply to what was a very supply-starved region. It is looking way better now. CHINA Haichow On the coast I have been using 50 Transport planes to bring in enough supply for the defenders to crush the single Chinese Corps here. Scored a 10-1 assault today and am position to make this Corps surrender fairly soon if nothing changes. 88,45 (SE Kaifeng) Two Japanese ID and a Brigade crush a Chinese Corps with a 20-1 assault. The Chinese are hit by nearly 50 bombers during the day and then lose 3,448 troops and 14 guns. I lose 322. This whole area around Kaifeng, the base NW of it, and Nanyang (to the SW) has seen a growing Japanese Offensive that has trashed at least four Chinese Corps and is set to take out at least 2-3 more. Tsinan This is a the big banana for the China Offensive. Dan has sent the vast majority of his troops SE to take Tsingtao. That base, delightfully, continues to hold by a shoestring and keeps his 5+ ID occupied while the 3rd Tank Div holds the road between Tsinan and Tsingtao. Yesterday saw the arrival of five Japanese IDs with 4 AA units and two Eng Reg. We shall attack tomorrow and am pretty sure we only face the 9th (re-built) Aussie ID and two Inf-Tk units I crushed taking the hex just outside the city. There is only a thin chance of taking the base but I wanted to try and get lucky. We'll know after tomorrow's attack. Malaya A group of 7 Lily DB smack down a small TF trying to run supplies into Victoria Point. An AM and 3 LSM are sunk for no loss. The enemy has just taken Singora and many troops will be trapped at Alor Star. We shall not allow them to be lost! A TF of Escorts and 20 AK/AKL depart Singers to evacuate most of the troops present. Plan to lift them off--under Fighter Cover--and then bring them back to Singers to refit before advancing north again. This delaying action in Malaya has been magnificent. It has taken him nearly six months to advance to this point for very little cost to the Japanese while keep the Northern/Central Sumatra oil facilities running full bore. Java Soerabaja A total of 48 Tankers are fully loaded with two CVEs and enough escorts to make each a 25 ship TF. These ships carry 417,154 Fuel and 76,466 Oil. Time to move tomorrow towards Balikpapan. The TFs shall be escorted by 3 CV and 2 CVL as they, once again, head for the Home Isles. West Coast For the first time in a year, a group of six long-range I-Boats will deploy near the Los Angeles area to see how lazy my opponent is with escorts. Three of the six are uselessly huge I-400 class. Had the points and said 'why not?' so I built them for this mission. They'll probably sink without hitting anything! Those are the events from around the map.
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