Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline
|
23 Dec 41
Another quiet day today...
Our submarine corps had another good one. The I-1, patrolling SW of Hawaii was attacked by a TF escort and escaped unharmed. Then she came back and put 2 torpedoes into an xAKL. Troops were seen jumping overboard as the ship was reported sunk. Later, the I-123 found another xAKL a hex NW of Darwin and put 3 torps into her. She was also reported as sunk. The I-123 then proceeded to lay a minefield in that hex and is proceeding home to Saigon for her next mission.
I attacked Clark Field and Hong Kong as planned. Neither achieved what I hoped. 
The Clark field attack was terrible. The 1:8 attack caused us 894 casualties to 361 Allied casualties. I will bombard (air and ground) until infantry reinforcements arrive. Currently, those reinforcements are cleaning up the 2 Allied units trapped in the northern part of Luzon.
In Hong Kong, the Japanese attack yielded only 1:2 odds, with 173 Japanese casualties to 473 British. Their fort level jumped back up to 2. More bombardment is required there as well.
The I-123 took a turn for the worse today, with her sys damage increaseing by 2 and her flot damage increasing by 16 to 30-87(71)-16(9)-0. I've diverted her to Davao, 7 days sail away, vs. Babeldaob, 16 days sail away. You'll note that I still do not own Davao. The invasion force will land there tomorrow. Fingers and toes are now crossed for her.
I've increased Tokyo's repair yard to 20. The final goal is 80 which I will do in stages. My supply is currently >160k higher than 7 Dec, so this 10k splurge is acceptable. I figure I'll need it later.
The Kongo is as repaired as she can be at 0-28(28)-0-0. She's leaving the yard at Cam Ranh Bay and will be available in 3 days to be escorted to the Home Islands for complete repairs.
I'll be transferring the 3 infantry regiments from Kwantung to 5th Fleet in the next day or two. They are almost at the coastal port where they will be transferred to strategic islands for defense. The transports are waiting for them. (No, I haven't figured out where they're going yet.) In additon, a couple of engineer units are headed that way too. One of them will go to Kushiro to begin work on increasing that port to level 4. I expect to transfer 5-6 engineer units to 5th Fleet.
What's Ted doing?
Basically, he's hiding and attempting to form a perimeter, his line in the sand. I haven't seen Force Z or any of his carriers (with the exception of the new fish condo, Enterprise). The PoW took a torpedo on 7 Dec 41. She's still showing up as sunk, but I don't think that's the case. I suspect Ted's pulled back everything he could for the defense of Java. He has this nasty habit of hit and run raids with cruisers to distupt my invasions. He did that with Houston and Boise early on, losing Houston in return for damage to Ryujo and a DD, as well as light damage to a CA (which will be repaired in a week or so). I plan on escorting every invasion with BBs and/or CAs, which will limit my invasions to 3-4 at a time, max. The available carriers are currently Hosho and Zuiho. They're a couple of days sail from Formosa, where they will upgrade their planes. After Pt. Moresby falls, KB will head west past Thursday Island into the SRA. It'll angle north and refuel from the replenishment TF and stop off for more torpedoes. Not sure what I'll do with KB. Either support the invasions or disappear for awhile.
The only ship I see in the SRA is a 4 stack DD attempting to make the run from Manila toward Balikpapan. I have a CA TF in between to hopefully catch and dispatch her. I hope those mid-ocean intercepts work as well for me as they have for Ted.
Phase 2 Goals
I want to take Hong Kong as soon as possible. It's a great shipyard. Then, Singapore is the next priority, with the Philippines a distant third. It's unlikely I'll invade Java until the Philippines falls, but we'll see how long the Philippines take.
I've just about finished unloading the 33 Division at Bangkok where they'll make the long trek to Burma. Right now, Burma has only the 55 Division (2/3 strength) and some support units. The 55 Division is one hex away from Moulmein and still crawling along the trail.
The air assault of Pt. Blair is only a few days away. Everything is in position except for the 1 Raiding Regiment, which is one hex from it's deployment hex.
I'm hoping to invade Pt. Moresby by the end of the month. I'm waiting for the 90 Infantry Regiment, which is currently loading in an amphibious TF at Truk. It'll begin sailing south in a day or two. The rest of the invasion force is resting at Rabaul and will begin loading tomorrow.
What else do I want to do in that area? Not sure yet. I'm not interested in heading to Noumea or SE of the Solomons. I'll most likely take the Solomons and then set up an aggressive defense. In WitP, Ted ignored the area and did nothing but bomb Rabaul into the stone age (and taking horrendous air losses doing it). It was vanilla and he had huge plane pools. I'll be surprised if he does anything different, but this time he won't have PM. By the way, I'm in the process of transferring the 23 Air Flotilla to the SE Fleet. That will be the backbone of my defense. There will also be a CA Division and DD Squadron as the major surface force, along with a bunch of subs.
_____________________________
 Created by the amazing Dixie
|
Printable Version
RE: Here we go again! tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J) - No tc464 - 
), but mortal damage to one AMC and moderate damage to the other by the supporting DD. For 20-25 VPs, I'll take a CA or even a CL. 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread