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Mike Solli -> RE: Logistics in the Pacific - USSAmerica (A), Mike (J) (1/23/2022 1:59:41 PM)
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18 Dec 41
Sub War
Nothing to report.
5 Fleet
The Adak invasion force is fully landed (7 Base Force and 5 JNAF AF Unit). Their 36 engineers will work on the airfield for starters. The 3 infantry battalions of 90 IR are fully loaded at Rashin but are still loading supply. Tentatively, they are scheduled to land at Adak, Umnak and Dutch Harbor. The last 2 are still tentative. We’ll see if Mike decides to offer any opposition up there. At any rate, once they do move out, it’ll be about 9 days steam to get there. Once Adak’s airfield reaches level 1 I’ll buy out some fighters and after level 2, they’ll get some naval search. Again, everything is tentative there. I have few assets available right now.
4 Fleet
So, the 2 Independent SNLF Company was going to show the I/33 IR how to take Guam, right? Yeah, right… The result was high disruption of the Marines and no losses. [8|] The slackers. Tomorrow, the IJA infantry will try for a shock attack. This is getting ridiculous. I’m going to take Guam even if it takes every last soldier of I/33 IR. (They withdraw in 164 days.)
SE Fleet
Landings continued at Rabaul. The Aussie 6” guns did good work badly damaging a couple of xAKs (Yusen-N and Husimi). They would both sink later in the day, one of them still carrying a 60% of the 7 Naval Construction Battalion. [:@] The rest of the invasion force landed successfully and took Rabaul. Fighters and Betty bombers were flown in to help secure the area.
Rabaul was liberated easily by 144 Regiment. Fortunately, that nasty Rabaul Det. Base Force with the nasty 6” guns was destroyed. The two infantry units were trashed and scurried off into the jungle, where they will eventually starve. The Betties stationed at Rabaul have a secondary mission of ground attack and will hasten their departure.
Oh yeah, there are 2 more ships that are burning furiously sitting in port. I hope they unload some of their supply before they sink. [8|]
There were successful landings at Gasmata. It will be liberated tomorrow. This is where I will station 11 Air Fleet HQ, with torpedoes. That will allow all the bases within 5 hexes of Gasmata to have torpedoes available. Then I won’t have to keep all my Betties in one basket. [sm=happy0065.gif]
Lots more going on here too. KB is currently 5 hexes east of Rabaul, and still unspotted. Tomorrow, they will move to a spot 3 hexes east of Woodlark Island. There they will secure the southern flank of the current operations and the upcoming invasion of Pt. Moresby.
The Pt. Moresby invasion force (4 ID and 1 Maizuru SNLF [garrison]) is currently 3 hexes NE of Lae. It will move to a point 2 hexes SW of Gasmata where the BB cover force (2 BB, 1 CL, 2 DD – currently at Gasmata) will join it. They will then move toward Pt. Moresby and arrive 2-3 days later.
There are also two small invasion TFs. The first will land at Finschaven tomorrow and the second will land at Lae in 2 days.
There are also 7 subs helping cover the southern flank.
There are a series of supply and fuel TFs headed toward Rabaul from Truk. Shipping will be allocated to move some of it to the newly secured bases in the area. I am also sending fuel and supply from Japan to replenish Truk. This is NOT something I plan on doing again. Future supply and fuel will come from the SRA.
SRA
Philippines: Dot Base Clean-up TF #1 invaded Laoag and will liberate it tomorrow.
Dot Base Clean-up TF #2 liberated Kudat.
5 Air Division HQ is landing so more of their planes can be based in Luzon. 23 Air Flotilla HQ and planes are moving to SE Fleet AO. 5 Air Division planes will take over the beat down of Bataan (and Manila and Clark Field while still enemy held).
About 15k troops are moving into Clark Field. While probably not enough to take it, they have 5 artillery units that will start wearing them down, along with the bombers. There are also an additional 6 heavy artillery units enroute from the liberation of Hong Kong. This additional artillery will arrive in a couple of days.
The recon regiment and an infantry regiment of 16 Division have arrived in Manila. The remainder of the division will arrive there over the next few days (it’ll combine as soon as everything arrives). 16 Division definitely can’t take Manila, but it’ll keep their attention.
I am in no hurry to take Luzon. They aren’t going anywhere. It’ll be good experience for the IJA bomber force.
Malaya: A 9 plane Zero sweep of Singapore met 9 Buffalos, shooting down 4 and damaging the rest at a cost of 1 Zero (and pilot) lost. Intel says 3 of the 5 damaged planes crashed. I see no fighters and 19 bombers in Singapore. I’ll continue the sweeps. Then, 59 Sallies plastered the airfield destroying 2 bombers and damaging another 3. There is still a little airfield damage so I know Mike’s not working on forts there today. The bombings will continue.
Over Georgetown, 18 Nates met a Buffalo and 2 Blenheim IFs, driving them off. I had moved my recon from there to Taiping (dumb mistake) so I don’t know what enemy aircraft are still there. I’ll continue the sweep and daily bombings.
The coup of the day was the 1 Raiding Regiment para drop and liberation of Taiping. [sm=happy0005.gif] The IG division is in strat mode and sitting in Alor Star. It will rail to Taiping tomorrow. The last hurdle is the liberation of Kuala Lumpur. That will allow them to rail down to Johore Bahru to join the Singapore Liberation Army, also known as the 25 Army.
One house rule prevents us from using small slices of units for invasions and air drops. Since I used a chunk of 1 Raiding Regiment in the para drop on Taiping, I can’t use it elsewhere while it’s there. I do have 3 Yokosuka SNLF available though. They both are sitting in Bangkok (other than the “liberators of Taiping”). The longest ranged transport is the Tina at 16 hexes, but Kuala Lumpur is 17 hexes from Bangkok. Ah well. I’m moving 3 Yokosuka SNLF to Kompong Trach today and will drop them on Kuala Lumpur tomorrow. Then, IG Division is off to the races (I hope).
25 Army is sitting in Johore Bahru waiting for IG division goofing off up north and 33 Division still unloading at Mersing. Once everything arrives, the assault force will be composed of:
25 Army HQ
IG Division
5 Division
18 Division
33 Division
1 Tank Regiment
6 Tank Regiment
4 Independent Engineer Regiment
15 Independent Engineer Regiment
23 Independent Engineer Regiment
3 Medium FA Regiment
18 Medium FA Regiment
3 Independent Mountain Gun Regiment
14 Independent Artillery Mortar Regiment
3 Mortar Battalion
5 Mortar Battalion
Java: I had set 36 Nells and 27 Betties on a night bombing raid on Batavia, where my intel told me there were 26 Dutch fighters and 58 bombers stationed. Exactly 5 Betties flew, killing a bomber and damaging 2 more and doing light damage to the airfield, which was easily repaired. [8|] This is just a delaying measure. I’m planning an attack on Merak and Kaldjati and then Oosthaven. I had mentioned this earlier but have changed around my forces slightly. I am also invading Tobali as a forward fighter and recon (and possibly light bomber) base. Here are the allocated forces:
Tobali:
III/143 IR
21 IJNAF AF Unit
25 IJNAF AF Unit
8 Field AF Construction Battalion
Merak:
21 Division
Yokosuka 4 SNLF (garrison)
Kaldjati:
56 Division
22 Air Flotilla HQ
1 JAAF AF BF
(This will obviously be where I station fighters and bombers to prosecute the air war.)
Oosthaven:
48 Division
2 Tank Regiment
8 Tank Regiment
3 Independent Engineer Regiment
21 Independent Engineer Regiment
Reserve to be sent where needed:
2 Division
More forces will be allocated later, but these are in the first wave.
Just about everyone is loaded and at or within a day’s steam of Cam Ranh Bay or Singkawang. They’ll head out tomorrow.
Other Areas: A small TF composed of CL Nagara and 2 DDs sank an xAKL and an AG in two separate attacks between Ambon and Saumlaki.
Two DDs caught another AG and sank her 4 hexes south of Kendari.
Those two small Japanese TFs (and others) were a concern of mine because of the possible presence of the Dutch and Asiatic Fleets. I soon found out where the Asiatic fleet was hiding. [X(]
I had sent two fleets to Ambon because of a presence of several small Allied TFs there. The first, composed of BBs Nagato, Fuso, Ise and Hyuga, with 2 escorting DDs, found 3 AMs there and quickly dispatched them.
Then, the second fleet of 2 CA and 5 DD bombarded Ambon doing nothing. [8|]
Next, the Asiatic Fleet, composed of Houston, Boise, Marblehead and 6 DDs showed up at Ambon and took on the BB TF! This event was basically volume of fire vs. weight of shell. I wasn’t too worried about the 6” and down shells (unless they hit my DDs or BB superstructure). It turned out Houston never hit anything with an 8” shell. Here’s the result:
Japanese Ships
BB Nagato, Shell hits 9 (24-0-3-0) – damage from the superstructure hits
BB Fuso, Shell hits 2 (2-0-0-0)
BB Ise, Shell hits 9 (14-0-1-0) – damage from the superstructure hits
BB Hyuga, Shell hits 6 (1-0-1-0)
DD Asagumo (1-0-0-0)
DD Mikazuki, Shell hits (0-2-0-0)
Allied Ships
CA Houston, Shell hits 3, on fire
CL Marblehead, Shell hits 8, and is sunk
CL Boise, Shell hits 7, heavy fires
DD Barker, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Edsall, Shell hits 4, heavy fires
DD John D. Edwards
DD Paul Jones, Shell hits 1
DD Parrott, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
DD Stewart, Shell hits 1
Of the surviving US ships, 3 are 2 hexes south of Ambon (probably Houston, Boise and Edsall) and the remaining 4 are 4 hexes south of Ambon. I don’t have any ships in the area that have enough ammo. At any rate, I don’t want to expose any smaller ships to the 8” and 6” guns. I have several subs in the area moving in hoping to get a shot at the damaged ships. The only carrier I have that has a remote shot at being in range of them is Hosho, and she has only 6 Kates and (15 Claudes) aboard. Her escorts don’t have enough fuel to pursue, so she’ll head back to Babeldaob to refuel and pick up Taiyo (12 Claudes, 12 Vals, 3 Kates) and probably Chitose (24 FP) then head out for more mayhem.
Burma
Still plodding forward.
I still see 92 fighters at Rangoon, undoubtedly the AVG. I’m sending some bombers on a night mission to piss them off.
China
Four bombing raids destroyed 26 infantry and 18 other squads.
There were various attacks.
Chuhsien was liberated unopposed. The 20 resources were undamaged.
Puching was also liberated unopposed.
Tsiaotso, in the north was also hit. The Chinese Corps barely held on, with the forts being reduced to 0. The attacking division and independent mixed brigade (IMB) were reinforced with another IMB and will attack again tomorrow. This base has 40 R and 40 LI, which I want to deny to the enemy. If I capture it intact, all the better!
The mountainous hex to the NE of Tsiaotso was also attacked and cleared of the enemy. Two divisions with artillery support cleared the mountains of 2 Chinese corps and a HQ inflicting heavy losses. They will pursue the remnants to the west to continue the rout.
Other Stuff
Phase II is beginning very soon. If you don’t recall, I still haven’t taken any oil producing bases. I want to decimate the Dutch bomber force. I think they’re mainly in Java now, which puts Miri, Brunei and Tarakan out of their reach. I’m loading the invasion forces for the first two today from CRB. They’ll load in a couple of days and take a few more to reach their targets. I also have 3x 10k supply TFs ready to head to Miri from CRB to start on the 150+ oil that needs to be repaired. I’ll keep the small supply TFs headed there every 10 days or so.
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