EUBanana
Posts: 4552
Joined: 9/30/2003
From: Little England
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Long delay in writing this up. Still going, just havn't been in the mood to write AARs. Also we had some computer issues, and Uamaga had a week off.
But progress is good, its now a month since the last update - 9th July, 1942.
So this will sum up a whole month.
...Fortunately its been generally quiet, though over a month of course stuff has been happening.
BURMA/INDIA
Air superiority has been gained over Tavoy in a month of fighting. The decisive factor here was the introduction of the B24D Liberator bomber, with its heavier bombload. The Wellingtons are a bit too vulnerable to enemy fighters and most of the bomber raids have been unescorted. One day early in mid June about 50 mixed Liberators/Fortresses hit the place and must have rolled well, as they really did a number on it, taking out about 25 Japs on the ground and wrecking the airfield for a week. He has since repaired the damage but declined to reinforce, he does have the odd Tojo or Zero there but in general he has given up fighting for Tavoy.
I am unable to capitalise on this however because Rangoon and Moulmein are both coastal hexes. Any effort to rebase the Allied airforces there, to bomb bases further behind enemy lines, comes to a swift end as a Japanese cruiser SAG is apparently based at Victoria Point and bombards the airfield repeatedly from the sea with usually devastatating effect. So the net result is kindof a stalemate.
Port Blair was unfortunately taken by the Japanese almost bloodlessly due to very unfortunate timing on my part. I rotated out Rangoon Force, and in the 3-4 day window he had before my Gurkha brigade would be dropped off there, he happened to invade it.  He himself was surprised by how light the defences were. I guess I shoulda dropped off the reinforcements before removing the garrison... Oops.
A large convoy on the way to Australia carrying supplies and troops and containing an AS intended to be based at Perth was intercepted NW of Australia, well out of LBA range, by a lone Japanese carrier in mid June (just after the last update). Rapidly a nightmare journey for the convoy, the battles raged on for a whole week due to the convoy scattering. He was merciless in chasing down the convoy with everything he had, and with the carriers around it was completely defenceless (biggest defending ship was a PG). I t hink 40 out of 50 ships were lost, including the AS. However, the British merchant marine in the India area is humungous, far bigger than I need, so while a harrowing experience the loss of the convoy likely won't have much strategic impact.
Another convoy of equal size made it unscathed and continued on to Sydney, as its the Pacific in need of transports really.
And just yesterday (8th July) I made a very grave error. An Allied submarine spotted a Jap convoy just south of Port Blair headed north. I wanted to catch this if at all possible so the three R class battleships of the RN - who were on station not far from Port Blair - cruised on in, set to bombard (I figured, if the convoy is there they'll trash it, and if it isnt, I'd rather not waste the somewhat risky move by doing nothing at all). Unfortunately I didnt set them to retire! The Nells at Victoria Point were surprised to see three battleships anchored within easy range. One BB took 5 torpedoes, the others one each. The single hits are not really damaged at all, so I got off lightly. The 5 is on 37 sys and 80 flot, and limping home. May make it, may not. In either case - oops.
Plans for the future - basically I need land units to make any more hay than I've already done, specifically, I need to capture Tavoy. Recon tells me he has half a dozen units there, I suspect he's in divisional strength. I do, however, have about 500 AV of Chinese in Burma, and about 300 AV of Commonwealth. All the Chindit Brigades are on the trails to Burma, I think all this lot together might be adequate. I'm loathe to strip India Command of any units, though.
CHINA
Yet more disaster here! Wherever the supposedly large Chinese army goes, they are outnumbered and outgunned. Honan has been submerged beneath a wave of Japanese troops - he must have 20-30 units up here in total, and he's managed that apparently without stripping units from anywhere else (he's got 20 odd units in the Hong Kong area alone). Japanese armour was present as well and surprised me by blitzing the road behind Honan - the slow Chinese were unable to push them away before the infantry moved up. There is going to be a long and potentially disastrous siege for the Chinese at Honan (3000 AV of troops there), and Sian may well be threatened as well as he apparently outnumbers me hugely as already mentioned.
Units now reconstituted from the early year thrashing the Chinese took at Wenchow were ordered to reinforce the rather weak NE a while ago, but they are still on the trail between Chungking and Sian. Its pretty hefty reinforcements - about 1800 AV - so I really don't know what will happen here in the next few months. He has the whip hand though, as always the Chinese are the underdog.
The Dutch bombers are making their presence felt, the extra 50 Mitchells in China have helped noticeably, but given the total lack of decent fighters in China and the very bad experience of the Dutch pilots there havn't been any amazing success stories from here. Japanese bombing in the Yenen/Sian/Honan area is very heavy and forces the Chinese to base in the quiet SW.
AUSTRALIA
He may well be abandoning the continent. The Aussie airforce now based at Tennant Creek regularly raids Daly Waters, which is in fighter range and a fairly sizable Japanese airbase. a2a casualties are 2:1 in his favour with the Kittyhawk Is, but the bombers (Mitchells) often make up for that. It is an attritional struggle I'm happy to continue as the Kittyhawk pool is full (80 a/c). Recon of the north coast is spotty but the amount of Jap shipping at Darwin has reduced drastically (he maintains of the order of 15-20 ships there now) and it looks like the ground units committed have been reduced drastically too, making me think he's lifted them off elsewhere.
This makes me cagey. So I have not advanced beyond Tennant Creek, and indeed have ordered my main ANZAC units (2 divisions) back to Sydney again. The east coast of Aus is pretty bare now with NZ reinforced, makes me paranoid. (Ditto India, which is why my reinforcement of Burma mentioned above is very hesitant).
That said the east coast of Aus has been very quiet, aside from Catalinas at Cairns evacuating Port Moresby remnants now they made it to the beaches of PNG. The Anzac Brigade, in particular, has been evacuated by air almost in its entirety, which I consider quite a coup. Its in Sydney recovering.
Also in Sydney are three British CVs. I've kept these guys out of the way a bit because I dont' want him to know where the RN is. Also the ships are a bit ragged (PoW is on 8 sys) so I dont want to move them unduly.
SOPAC
He has moved up to Noumea finally though he has not assaulted. His force is /huge/. Of the order of 1800 AV at Noumea itself and he apparently has a lot of units elsewhere on New Caledonia as well. The defenders (Americal + RCT are the core) have only 600 AV, and fort level 6, so they are just a speedbump. Cadres have been evacuated to Sydney but given the reality of the replacement rate of US infantry squads, Americal Division is going to be out of the war until 1944 probably.
The KB is welded to Noumea like a limpet. Battleships bombard it every third day. This really is max effort on his part. Allied response has been by necessity limited to submarines and mining - the subs havn't hit a thing, the mines did claim a couple of patrol craft and cargo ships, which is better than nothing I guess.
Allied worries have moved on - after Noumea, what next? New Zealand has been heavily reinforced, there is about 1800 AV on North Island, and Hamilton has been built up to a level 5 airfield - important, as it is a) inland b) all ports are within Beaufort range of it. A USMC CD detachment is dug in at Gisborne which means all ports on North Island have CD defences. All the US carriers are based at Wellington, and there are three battleships at Auckland (every so often I shell Jap held Norfolk Island, to try and tempt KB away from Noumea so my ships at Fiji might be able to do something. He doesn't rise to the bait though). I may have over-reinforced, and for that reason there are plenty of APs at Wellington as well, so if Australia is the target, I can move around fairly quickly.
South Island has not been reinforced. I don't consider this to be a particularly desirable target for him. Allied heavy bombers could too easily trash it from North Island.
Fiji is his other big target. And I'm a bit more worried here as Fiji only has about the same defensive strength as Noumea, ie about 650 AV. It could turn into another speed bump. However,
a) Fiji has been the recipient of the entire Pacific mining effort, and is up to 5000 mines at Suva and 3000 at Nandi
b) Fiji and Nandi both have strong CD detachment
c) Nandi is being built to a level 4 airfield
ie, unlike New Caledonia, any Japanese landing will be quite heavily contested and there are 2 airfields, not 1, for him to shut down.
He has a long history of loving the envelop completely/destroy mode of combat (hence why he took Norfolk Island - so the US P-40s at Noumea were stuck, to be wiped out). To that end, Tonga is being reinforced by a US RCT and is my get out of Dodge clause. If he wants to isolate Fiji he'll have to try a little harder than last time.
CENTPAC/NORPAC havn't seen any action at all. Total backwaters. CENTPAC has not been stripped, a single RCT from NORPAC is goign to the South Pacific but its not even reached Pearl yet.
Allied prognosis - not good. I'm extremely concerned about where those units freed from Australia are going. If the answer is "New Zealand" I'm not happy. If the answer is "Eastern Australia" or "Fiji" i'm even less happy. If the answer is India, I say "Bring it!" but I doubt it will be.
Allied ground reinforcements are pathetic! I don't get another full size division for a whole year - and thats an ANZAC Command division. Basically what I got is It, and it seems woefully inadequate to deal with the Japanese Army. The exception is India, which has a pretty big army and reinforcements incoming. I become more certain as time goes on that any Allied offensives in 1943 will start there.
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RE: Merry May - 
), and now has 2000 AV of troops facing 650 AV at Noumea. He has not yet attacked, oddly. Allied bombardment kills 75 Japs a day - odd really, the Chinese bombardments do nothing despite much more even numbers - I guess this is down to US firepower. KB remains around Noumea but the base is so trashed even Catalinas have been forced to vacate, so I am blind. 
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