John 3rd -> Around the Horn (3/12/2012 4:56:21 PM)
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Combat Report January 15-17, 1942 Three excellent, result filled days for Dai Nippon. North Pacific No issues. I've got 24 FP operating out of Attu now and another Fast TF is carrying in 2 more Construction Bn. The AF there should go up to 1 within 5-6 days. Central Pacific No excitement. Mined Wake and have a tender there now. South Pacific Land at Milne Bay and Shortlands and grab both of them. Hit Port Moresby by an average of 27 Zero and 20+ Bombers each day. Am slowing building up damage on the AF. Still find the occasional Vindicator present here. Have the Lae Invasion Force put together. It will sail tomorrow from Rabaul. KB ACTION: Over these three days, the KB does a slow counterclockwise move around Suva sinking a number of targets. Refueled the empty ships (consuming over 20,000 Fuel and emptying my 3 AOs) so they are good to go for a week of operations. Results: Jan. 15th: Bad Weather cancels morning strikes but afternoon flies (23 Zero, 25 Vals, and 53 Kates) and sinks a PC and DD while damaging 7 AK, 2 AP and shooting down 5 American Fighters. Move to due south of Suva. Jan 16th: Two solid strikes fly (25 Zero, 50 Val, 26 kate and 23 Zero, 72 Val, 53 Kate) and shot down 6 American Fighters for 2 Zeros lost. A total of 10 AK, another DD, and an AG are sunk with 2 AK, a DD, and an AP hit. Many vehicles are destroyed aboard the ships. Move to east of Suva and close enough to Pago Pago to hit the Port. Jan. 17th: Hit Pago Pago with 21 Zero and 52 Kates hitting 4 AK and an AS within the Harbor. Am nearly OUT of sorties so it is time to get home. Order a retirement to Luganville while passing Suva for one last day of strikes. NICE WORK for the CVs. Over the four days of these attacks, a total of 18 ships are sunk with nearly two dozen damaged. Several units loaded on these ships were severely damaged and took real losses so that helps too. Taking off CA New Orleans, CL St Louis, and sinking 2 DDs help the cause nicely. Philippines Bataan: Order a Shock Attack on the 17th and DARNED NEAR get the entire hex! The result is a 2-1 attack (417--153) that drops the Forts to ZERO. The base will fall to my next assault. The 4 Inf Div are heavily disrupted (70+) due to overcrowding. They will sit for 2-3 days and then I will have Bataan. Mindanao: 65th Brigade and 90th Regiment are about to enter the Cagayan hex. Have all the comonents of 56th ID about to be at Cotobato. Will combine the ID and send it towards Cagayan as well to finish off this island. Java Looks like I am stalled in the west at Bandoeng. Attack and get a 1-2 on the 15th. Don't have anymore Infantry for the moment so will sit and try again in a few days. The 21st Brigade is moving out from the east and will enter the next town SE of Soerabaja tomorrow. 2nd ID will land tomorrow and join the fray pretty quickly. Cocos Isle Fighting here continues with my Betty--Nells hitting the AF everyday causing airframes to be destroyed on the ground. 16th: 2 CA and 9 DD sink two large AK and bombard the AF. 17th: 4 DD tangle with a KV and 6 AK sinking ALL of them! The totals for lost out of this convoy are pretty big: 124 Guns and 278 Vehicles. What the HECK was that? Still cannot figure out if he is pulling stuff out of bringing stuff in but this one HAS TO HURT! [sm=00000028.gif] Australia Have an invasion Force moving in on Corunna Downs area and my Paras shall take Derby tomorrow. CV Hiryu and Ryujo are NW of Perth about 15 hexes. They are not spotted and should see some action if there is any shipping in this area. Malaya Attack 10 units at Kuala Lumphur on the 17th. 18th ID nearly gets a 2-1 and drops Forts to ZERO. Tomorrow Imperial Guards will carry the attack with 18th ID set to pursue. Burma Just gathering the clans at Moulmein. China Movement everywhere as I shift stuff around for the Sian Campaign. Am approaching Nanyang with 4 Inf Div. SS Operations: 15th I-169 hits AK Steel Trader with 1TT on the 15th near Suva (sunk by air strike later in the day) 16th I-8 hits a mine at Suva on the 16th. APPEARS to be OK and can make it home. I-10 sinks AK Salamaua near Gau on Ro-34 puts in a STELLAR performance at Sabang, YUM! In one days she fires all of her TTs sinking AP Glenapp, and damaging AK Catrine and AP Khandetta. NICE! [sm=00000106.gif] Reinforcements: Have a batch of units meeting in Tokyo for shipping South. Will detail when I have them loaded and organized. DD Kazegumo arrives at Pt Arthur on the 15th. Engineering: 15th: Eniwetok AF-2, Mukden AF-7 16th: Jehol AF-7 17th: Paramushiro Jima AF-3, Kaifeng AF-4, Kota Bharu AF-5 SUMMARY: Cocos remains a fertile hunting ground and a bit of a mystery. The only way he can stop my attacks is commit CV Enterprise to the effort. If he does, I have 54 Zero, 54 Nell/Betty, and 30 Kates ready to fly. KB Raid: Nice productive work sinking and damaging ships as well as hurting reinforcing units. The Philippines look GREAT! Malaya will be solid as well. Decide to add an Inf Div from Luzon (upon Bataan Surrender) to help for a quick finish. Plan to move 4 ID east to Rabaul after Bataan Falls. They will form the Assault unit to hit near Sydney. Will add another Division to the Java Campaign after Mindanao is complete. I will now predict that the the DEI, Malaya, and Philippines shall be finished no later then February 15th. Damaged CVs: Soryu--Sys 20, Flot 36, Eng 3, Shoho--Sys 40, Flot 53, Eng 2, Zuiho--Sys 10, Flot 38, Eng 33, Zuikaku--Sys 21, Flot 2, Eng 4. Here is the convoy sunk off Cocos on the 17th: [image]local://upfiles/18041/3BB1A12C902244FEBB2EC5E45B899195.jpg[/image]
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