John 3rd -> RE: India Proposition (4/3/2009 7:11:07 PM)
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ORIGINAL: Nemo121 Canoerebel, Do you seriously believe what you say? How can you call this a success? They dissipated their forces, allowed their opponents to retreat in good order ( when a single axis advance north from the landing zone would have cut India into portions and prevented their opponents doing this, thus ensuring the collapse of Bombay and Karachi ), and are now in the position of possibly NOT TAKING the TWO MOST CRUCIAL BASES IN INDIA. I would hardly have called World War II a success if it hadn't ended up with either the Third Reich or the Japanese government falling. Sure the Allies toppled the Italian, Romanian and Hungarian governments but nothing is a success unless you secure the prime targets. Without the prime targets you are talking about mitigation of failure, not success. NZ, Suva and Pago Pago..... Well, taking them is nice but taking those at the cost of not taking Bombay is a terrible trade. Without Bombay and Karachi they stand to lose this war much earlier than if they took Bombay and Karachi. NZ, Suva and Pago Pago won't keep them in the war for that extra time. What can their opponents do? Tough game? I really don't think so. Here's the simple solution to this assuming John etc don't finish Bombay off: 1. Troops and supplies and fighters to Bombay to keep it open. 2. APs and FT TFs to Bombay in order to transport Brigade fragments to the coastal rail hexes east and south of Bombay. 3. Co-ordinate this with para drops of troops shipped in from CONUSA via Panama Canal and Atlantic etc. ( since Bombay is coastal these paras can be dropped up to 30 hexes away using PBYs. 4. Now use the large land army you have built up at Bombay to march out of Bombay behind the Japanese forces besieging Karachi. 5. Once the IJA pulls away from karachi in order to avoid being cut off then move out of Karachi and switch to a general pursuit down to Calcutta via Delhi. If the Allies are particularly ruthless they can achieve the same thing at Karachi by landing in the coastal hexes and Ahmadabad. Whatever IJA forces invest Karachi will be left with no lines of supply and will just be stuck without anywhere to move. Destroyed as surely as if they were killed to a man in battle. Whether their opponents are good enough to see this or not is a different matter but I would suggest that congratulating them for allowing this to happen through making strategic errors doesn't help them to improve their play. John and Q-Ball HAVE played well but let's not let that blind them or us to the mistakes they have made or they won't learn from them and improve. I tell you now that if I was the Allies in this position I would feel supremely confident of having India back fully in my control ( and several thousand IJA AV destroyed or in prison camps ) by the end of September 1942. Taking India except for Bombay and karachi is a serious over-extension. if you can't take at least Bombay then I think you should conduct an orderly retreat from India back into Burma +/- a force at Ceylon to delay the Allies. Enhance your calm Sir. The problem with our India attack was the division of our troops into 3 EQUAL-sized attack groups. This mistake allowed our opponents to cobble together a Normandy-like defense. We could push but not break until a concentration was achieved. The problem in the break-out---JUST LIKE COBRA---is that it was on the wrong flank. We broke out on the left flank where the race to dividing India was much longer then if we had broken out in the east. That was unfortunate... Had I realized we weren't going to capture those units fleeing from eastern India, then I would have recommended to Brad about charging towards Bombay. Instead we had a Brittany-like diversion of badly needed troops to clear out Madras, Trivandrum, Mandalore, Bangalore, and Pangrim. The best move would have been to leave all that, cut across the peninsula, and grab Bombay. Problem is that is hindsight thinking. Didn't even occur to me that we should do that. It was a serious mistake that we are now paying for. Reality is that WE MUST TAKE BOMBAY. It cannot become a Tobruk behind our lines. Brad is deploying Base forces and Engineering units as fast as possible to build-up the bases near Bombay. Poona, Pangrim, Mandalore, and Hyderabad will be expanded enough to allow for well over 1,000 planes. We desperately need our Tojos NOW! I have learned from Dan the value of multiple attacks over the same target. Sweep from nearby locations, Sweep from a more distant location, and then send in the Bombers! Gaining air control is priority number one...
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