Hortlund
Posts: 2884
Joined: 10/13/2000 Status: offline
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Just a short post to say I have not forgotten about this AAR. I'm planning to pick it up again when 43 arrives. It seems there are plenty of AARs covering early 42, but not so many showing 43-44. I will highlight one thing though...the Japanese Dunkirk in Australia I knew the allied counterattack would start in Australia. It is only reasonable since he has reinforced Australia alot with US forces and there are plenty of "free" (ie restricted) Australian units. I also dont think it is possible to defend in open ground against the allies, so I never planned on holding firm down south. Instead I wanted to delay the inevitable offensive as long as possible by agressive airforce operations and by looking two sizes bigger than I really am in Australia. Things worked fine, I had 20-something units in Maryborough, including two full size divisions and 5-10 artillery and AAA each. The allies were bypassing the coastline by moving up the roads inland. I decided it was time to bail out, and ordered everyone except a rearguard to strat move north up towards Townsville. However, one tank unit moved alot faster than I had anticipated, and the shifting to strat mode combined with the two day turns we are playing meant that my units were intercepted between Maryborough and Bundaberg. There they were, sitting in the middle of nowhere in strat mode. At the same time, Bundaberg fell to allied tanks. Our forces were in grave danger of destruction. I managed to move the troops back into Maryborough, and caught in that pocket were practically all my forces on the east coast of Australia. Over 1400 AV if I remember correctly. This could be a complete disaster. Fortunately I had a large portion of the fleet stationed in Rabaul together with enough APs to lift more than four divisions (aka the counterinvasion force). The entire fleet set sail towards Maryborough. 4 CVs, 6 BBs including the Yamato, around 100 transports, dozens of destroyers. To rescue my troops (and to pick up all that heavy artillery aswell, I had alot of heavy guns from Manchuko there and I did not want to leave them behind) the transports would have to enter the port and stay there for several days while loading the heavy equipment. All this three hexes from the largest allied airbase on the east coast (Brisbane) and with P38s thick as flies in the sky. While I was gathering the fleet more allied forces closed in for the kill, and the B17s were pounding the airfield to dust. At this point I had no idea where the allied CVs were either, 2 of them were spotted two months ago in the Indian Ocean, but all of the others were unspotted. That meant I had to take into account that Halsey could come storming into the middle of the evacuation at any day. Some tense days followed, the KB took up position in the deep water just off Frasier Island, while several SCTFs took up blocking positions in the surrounding hexes. Fortunately he did not defend with anything more than PTs and he did not dare attack the KB (perhaps thanks to my psyops, telling him I had every carrier in the Imperial fleet in that hex). A small surface combat TF consisting of some CLs and DDs were turned back by my screening forces. All in all, the evacuation took 8 days. I had 4 different amphib TFs, two to load AAA and art (they went in first, days 1-4) and two to take the infantry. The allies had entered the hex, but their attack was unsuccessful, they only brought 1-1,5k AV and my infantry divisions could defend behind lvl 4 forts. After the guns had been evacuated, the mega-oversized amphib TFs (I think I had loading capacity for 3 divisions in each TF picking up a single division) pulled out the divisions. In the end I think I lost something like 1000 men, or around 30 AV. That is not bad considering that the pocket originally consisted of around 50k men and 1400 AV. Lesson learned though. Do not wait too long to pull back when you are attempting a fighting retreat.
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The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences..
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