Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline
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9 Dec 41
Sub War
LOTS of action today, mainly between Singapore and Batavia.
I-122 off Muntok: Put a torpedo into TK Semiramis, leaving her burning furiously and heavily damaged. No report of her sinking.
I-153 off Pontianak: Two torpedoes and 6 shells into TK Manvantara. Sinking sounds heard immediately after the attack.
I-154 near Pontianak: Six shells into an xAKL.
I-155 SW of Singapore: Two torpedoes into the same xAKL I-154 just shelled sinking her.
I-122 off Muntok: One torpedo into TK Strix. Sinking sounds heard immediately after.
I-155 off Billiton: Seven shells into an xAKL, and received 3 shell hits in return. Damage was slight at 2-2-0-0.
I-121 NE of Batavia: A torpedo into xAK Silverbeech heavily damaging her. Sinking sounds heard right after.
I-154 near Billiton: One shell into an xAKL leaving her with heavy fires.
5 Fleet
The Adak invasion force finally finished loading at Ominato and left port. The invasion is in 7 days.
4 Fleet
KB is 8 hexes west of French Frigate Shoals and is still being snooped by Allied Cats. It’s 2 days out of Wake, as is the Wake invasion force.
Tabiteuea was invaded and taken in a shock attack. I’ll leave the NG there and drop off a small engineer company to build up some forts.
A midget sub attempted to penetrate the port of Johnston Island but grounded and was lost. Two left…
There are little invasion forces moving around, but it’s the usual stuff. I’ll mention it as it happens.
SE Fleet
I did some poor planning with 4 Division (the Pt. Moresby invasion force). I’m using xAPs for the invasion, and I’m still short one to do the invasion. Basically, 4 Division is still sitting in Osaka. That last xAP (2 actually) will arrive tomorrow and will begin loading. Then they’ll start the long trek to Pt. Moresby. That’s a 10 day trip. So, I hope to have Pt. Moresby (first time ever!) around Christmas.
The Kavieng invasion force is 2 days out.
The Shortlands Islands invasion force is about a week out. It’s still loading.
The Rabaul invasion force (144 Regiment & 15 BF) is 8 days out, as is the Gasmata invasion force. I may hold off on Gasmata’s TF a couple of days depending on what is in the area. KB will be in the area by then, so that should clear out the enemy surface ships (one way or another).
A big change I’m doing is pushing more AS and engineers to this AO earlier than ever before. The 11 Air Fleet HQ is destined for Gasmata, where it can cover many air bases so I can move my Nells and Betties around and still have torpedo availability. At a minimum, I plan on having level 4+ airfields at Kavieng, Manus, Rabaul, Gasmata, Lae, Buna, Pt. Moresby, Shortlands Islands, Milne Bay and Kiriwina Island (dot hex 2 hexes NE of Milne Bay). That will create a nice net of airfields as a bastion in this area. 23 Air Flotilla (90 Zeros, 54 Betties, 15 Babs) reinforced with some flying boats, and 5 Air Division (78 fighters, 58 2E bombers, 61 1E bombers, 24 recon), plus additional reinforcement air units later.
I also have the Mutsu, Yamashiro, 4 Aobas and some CLs and DDs headed down here for support, along with KB.
SRA
Six US PT boats attempted to engage an invasion fleet at San Fernando, but both evaded. I suspect the PT boats were out of torpedoes.
One of my numerous, small clean-up TFs (3 DD) sank an xAKL 2 hexes SW of Swatow. She was probably running from Hong Kong.
Another small TF (CL, 4 DD) sank xAK Hanyang a couple hexes NW of Laoag. Then they found an xAKL and put her under. Then, at Lingayan, they engaged 3 US Q boats sinking 1.
Minesweepers cleared the mines out of Merak and Singkawang.
Four DDs took out xAK Capillo just west of the island of Panay.
From now on, I’ll just list what was sunk from the Allied ships doing a nice impersonation of rats fleeing a sinking ship.
No sweeps anywhere in Luzon unfortunately, but a sentai of 27 Anns hit the 11 PA Division at San Fernando (cut off from the main US Army). They were escorted by 15 Zeros and attacked by 5x P35, 4x P-40B and 14x P-40E. The end result was 2 P35 and 4 P-40E shot down for the loss of a Zero and 4 Anns, with another 2 Anns lost after the attack. I still see 58 enemy fighters split among Clark Field, Manila and Bataan.
For the second day in a row, none of my 117 Nells/Betties stationed in Formosa flew even though they were set to naval attack and had multiple targets in range. And yes, they all have some planes on naval search.
Kaga and Ryujo finally merged and did their bit, though inefficiently. Kaga sent 25 Vals against AO Trinity sinking her with 13 hits! Then Kaga sent 27 Kates (with torpedoes!) against xAK Yu Sang, sinking her with 3 hits. *Sigh* Finally, Zuiho’s 12 Kates launched torpedoes against AM Quail and Whippoorwill, sinking them both.
The dozen Nells and Mabels at Jolo didn’t launch because supply there is low. Why is supply low? Good question. There are ships there with 49k supply that unloaded nothing. Maybe they’re nervous about all the fleeing cargo ships that are running past Jolo. I even have a surface fleet of 2 CA, 1 CL and 6 DD there protecting the base. I split off a small group of cargo ships and docked it in port hoping they drop off some supply tomorrow.
Three Vildebeests (from Hong Kong) snuck in at Lingayan and torpedoed a damaged Toho class sinking her. An xAKL succumbed to her wounds from old 155 mm gunfire at Lingayan also.
The RAF split their fighters pretty evenly between Georgetown and Singapore (40+ each). I decided to focus on the fighters at Georgetown, because I have >150 fighters stationed at Singora and Patani. About 100 were set to sweep and then the bombers were set to go in, to kill damaged fighters on the ground and trash the airfield. First, 18 Zeros went in shooting down 7 for the loss of a Zero. Then, a sentai of Nates went in driving off the remaining 3 fighters and the last Nate went in finding nothing. Some 136 bomber sorties dropped their loads unhindered, trashing the airfield and destroying 2 fighters on the ground while damaging another 10. I now see no fighters at Georgetown. (Maybe damaged fighters don’t show up?) Georgetown’s detection level is 9/10. Today’s losses show 10 Buffalos (37 total) and 2 Blenheim IFs (4 total).
The RAF (along with some Aussies and New Zealanders) struck back with several piecemeal attacks:
9 Hudsons over Mersing: 3 shot down, no damage done.
4 Blenheim IB, 2 Wirraway, 23 Vildebeasts over Mersing: 5 Vildebeasts shot down + 1 flak loss. DD Murakumo was hit by a torpedo – 6-45(34)-19(11)-0. She’s still able to go fast enough to escort the last of the Mersing invasion ships, that will leave for home tomorrow. Mersing has 62k supply, which is sufficient for now, hopefully for the duration. There is still 66k supply on ships in this final TF and the other TFs that have already left. I need to start preparing for Phase II and need the ships to do it.
7 Swordfish over Mersing: 4 shot down and the remaining 3 lost to flak. Nice shootin’, Tex!
The four Japanese armored units (2 tank regiments and 2 recon regiments) attempted a shock attack at Johore Bahru:
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 3565 troops, 6 guns, 316 vehicles, Assault Value = 209
Defending force 8499 troops, 104 guns, 99 vehicles, Assault Value = 196
Japanese adjusted assault: 219
Allied adjusted defense: 97
Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 1)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), morale(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+)
Japanese ground losses:
252 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 19 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 6 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 25 (3 destroyed, 22 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
741 casualties reported
Squads: 8 destroyed, 82 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 41 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 7 disabled
Guns lost 25 (4 destroyed, 21 disabled)
Vehicles lost 7 (1 destroyed, 6 disabled)
Assaulting units:
5th Recon Regiment
1st Tank Regiment
22nd Recon Regiment
6th Tank Regiment
Defending units:
27th Australian Brigade
22nd Australian Brigade
2nd Argylls Battalion
5/2nd Punjab Battalion
1st HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
29 Battery/3 HAA
III Indian Corps
30 Battery/3 HAA
11 Battery/3 HAA
112th RAF Base Force
111th RAF Base Force
I lost a tank and a MG squad with another 22 combat squads disabled. My average disruption is 9 and average fatigue is 20. I’m trying again tomorrow with another shock attack. I’m hoping that the 82 disabled infantry squads is close to accurate and that I can do it this time.
By the way, that pursuing infantry regiment is 14 miles from Johore Bahru. The rest of the army is 33 miles away.
I dropped some paratroopers on Victoria point in a failed attempt to take it. I’ll try again tomorrow. Victoria Point is necessary for the capture of Pt. Blair. I have an infantry battalion and AS battalion marching there (still 27 miles out – 2 days march). Once I take Victoria point, I’ll move the remainder of the paratroopers there (if that isn’t already done). Then I’ll fly some transports in and do the drop on Pt. Blair. I’ll eventually move an infantry regiment/brigade as a garrison along with some AS and station some Zeros, Betties and flying boats there. It’s a nice place to help guard the Burma western flank.
Burma
The AVG is still showing up at Rangoon.
China
About 95 Japanese bomber sorties hit Hong Kong, along with a ground bombardment there in preparation for tomorrow’s ground assault by 38 Division.
Other Stuff
I am slowly building up my R&D factories to size 30. I do several a day as supply allows.
Not much else going on at the moment.
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