Hornblower
Posts: 1361
Joined: 9/10/2003 From: New York'er relocated to Chicago Status: offline
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And I thought I was doing well. Although the IJN/IJA was advancing, I was able to bleed them, and in many instances, delay there advance southward. For instance, I had stationed at Balkipapan five 4 pipers, Houston & Marblehead. The had managed to react to a number of Japanese moves Makarassar st. area, to such a degree that the IJN hadn’t been able to get a foothold on the eastern side of Borneo, or Celebes for that matter. I had managed to save the vast majority of the P-40’s and B-17’s from Clark and stationed them in Darwin or Timor. IJA’s advances in Mindanowa are stalled; the USAEF has held its own at the Bataan/clark/Manila area. AK losses are heavy but not debilitating. POW and Repulse are still afloat, and it’s the end of January- or nearing so. Aircombat isn’t completely one sides, and ABDA’s are getting some successes- enough to give Hope. And remember Hope is a 4 letter word. Then BAMMMM!!! What the flippen just happened?????  A couple of IJN CVL’s enter the Celebes Sea, and put torps into the Houston & Marblehead- don’t sink em, but damage them enough so they need to get to Darwin for Repairs. The 4 Pipers react to what turns out to be a heavily escorted Invasion force, and all go down.. Tarakan falls, Manado goes – although I managed to get the Buffalo’s out in time. Br. Borneo is completely gone, and LBA’s now stationed there is making life extremely difficult for anything in the Java Sea. Dutch fighters try to hold the fort, but are too few. The Java ports almost over night become battle grounds. IJN moves into southern Sumatra despite the effort of some CL’s and DD’s- most of which are then too damaged for effective operations. Sea lanes to Singapore are effectively cut. IJA apparently has managed to equip itself with a division of Bradley’s and Abrahms as they are littlerly “RUNNING” to Singapore knocking back the Brits as if they weren’t even there. All this in like a week!! What the heck?!?!?!!? A few more turns, and for all intent and purposes there little hope of holding to any part of Borneo. Dutch air Units are spent – Balkipapan has been pounded to rubble. Anything sent north to run supplies dies… I pull what I can out to Java, southern Celebes, and Timor. The outcome at Singapore is obvious now. I pull out the Allied LBA’s and replace them with those fighters I can scrape together for operation “Get the Aussies the Frig out of dodge” I load up the Aussies on the AP’s I had left in port, and with a escort of a pitiful number of CL’s and DD’s, and with all the LCAP I can muster, send them south (after spending the necessary PP’s) past Java- as its obviously next on the hit list- on to Timor. Somehow I manage to get both brigades out with only a bomb hit on a CL, and a torp on an AP- bad weather no doubt helped. I move the airgroups out of Singapore, POW & Repulse- both damaged- make a run for it.. and the next day it falls. It’s only the 5th of Feb at this point. I knew I couldn’t hold out forever, but I didn’t expect such a dramatic swing of events?! Plan of action is to delay the Japanese as the best I can in what’s left of Borneo and Southern Celebes. Main line of resistance will be Java, and Timor. Timor being the ultimate fallback point. I have relocated any surviving units from overrun bases to there. And Nagumo’s carriers haven’t made an appearance yet. I can only hope that the p-40’s I’ve saved can mitigate the damage I expect to receive from there raids… Luzon is still the same, and I am attempting a counterattack in Mindanao in hopes of “distracting” my opponent, and I am 100% certain I have hurt the IJN, but how much I will be able to save or even delay in the DEI is totally unkown.. I need a drink…… Whomever in the Forum said “bend over” was right Geeze, make that 2 drinks….
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