RE: Battle of Kandavu Island

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RE: Battle of Kandavu Island - 11/26/2011 7:10:03 PM

kfsgo

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So, what next?

- The Japanese are unlikely to intervene in a major way against the immediate operations; the numbers just aren't there in the next couple of days, and that's when they'd need them. I'm happy with that as a result, although it's a shame the battlefleet wasn't around.

- Hornet & Yorktown will need some brief shipyard work to get themselves fully operational; figure two weeks not including transit time. Not critical; I had nothing constructive planned for them in that period, so they can stop off wherever. Everyone's in range of Pago Pago, so I swapped out a couple of depleted squadrons - the ones flying over Fiji, basically - for fresh ones from there. We have plenty of aircraft available, so that's not a major issue right now - and probably won't be until the escort carriers start showing up, I guess.

- Naval eyes now turn in two directions; firstly the Indian Ocean, where 1st Marine Division is almost ready to reoccupy Diego Garcia. CVE Long Island arrived at Cape Town today, taking on a Marine fighter squadron for advanced training; the RN will return to Cape Town from the South Pacific, and everything should be ready to go once they arrive. I anticipate the IJN will be screaming towards Fiji at warp 10 right now...hope they've got their refuelling ducks in a row. Secondly, Australia, where preparations for reentry into Port Moresby, Port Hedland and Milne Bay are starting to bubble. That's a few months off, although I'm going to be a pain and bomb Port Hedland a bit - I never built an airbase there, so the port's vulnerable & as a consequence it should take a while for the Japanese to establish one.

Ultimately the intention is to put on a sound and light show directed at Fiji and New Caledonia and then squeeze their supply line northwards from New Guinea; hopefully without involving too much shipping, which will have to keep itself fairly safe in order for the reoccupation of Ceylon etc to go off as hoped for. We'll see...

I commented to Saros in one of our e-mails that this "battle" was more of a live-fire training exercise than anything else; it's certainly been a very educational one, and I feel a lot more comfortable pushing the shipping and (dear god) logistical tails around than I was a couple of months ago. May there be many more...

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Post #: 151

RE: Battle of Kandavu Island - 11/26/2011 8:17:17 PM

Crackaces

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I think you have some Wildcat upgrades and the Hornet and Yorktown are due upgrades in July. So the time in the "pen' will be well spent. Plus you have some Wildcats to take on replacements.

I have a distain for Betty's for the very reasons stated here .. any number get through the CAP and they will results in a problem ...

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Post #: 152

RE: Battle of Kandavu Island - 11/26/2011 8:49:05 PM

kfsgo

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

I think you have some Wildcat upgrades and the Hornet and Yorktown are due upgrades in July. So the time in the "pen' will be well spent. Plus you have some Wildcats to take on replacements.

I think one squadron's still on Mk. 3As and the rest have modern ones. I'm not sure the Mk. 4 is an improvement on the Mk. 3 in offensive situations like we had over Fiji; the extra speed is certainly worth having, though whether it's worth two guns is an open question. The Marines are mostly still in Buffalos, but then the Buffalo isn't really that much worse than the Hellcat as a fighter and (critically, in this sort of basing situation) its transfer range is about twice as long), so I'm happy for them to remain that way. I think I have about 70 F-4s in stock at the moment.

quote:

I have a distain for Betty's for the very reasons stated here .. any number get through the CAP and they will results in a problem ...

Well, they've not had much of an impact so far - I've mostly stayed out of their way, so they haven't had a chance to do much but get shot down when flying beyond escort range. Whether these were the 'good' pilots - and whether there's much practical difference between the 'good' and 'ok' pilots I don't know. Oh well - hopefully we can catch a few more tomorrow. If they do launch they'll be facing more fighters much further from home...

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Post #: 153

RE: Battle of Kandavu Island - 11/28/2011 10:02:44 PM

kfsgo

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June. 14

Unfortunately, the Japanese launched no further air attacks against the carriers. Oh well. I guess I should have kept them a little closer to Fiji...the expected horde of submarines are closing; we moved southeast overnight and are now in the middle of the Tongas:

Lots of SBDs out on naval search; four of them managed to mess up carrier landings. I think someone may need extra training...

Presumed expectation on the part of the Japanese is that we'll go to Tahiti; that's been the big built-up base for so long, after all. Instead, since everyone's fairly ship-shape - Yorktown actually can fly aircraft, I just assumed it couldn't - silly assumption, since it recovered half a dozen of Hornet's fighters yesterday - we'll head northeast past Pago Pago and refuel off Penrhyn Island - we have two full tankers moving that way at the moment and will have three more tomorrow - then split the fleet - Americans to Pearl Harbour, Commonwealth to the Falklands and Cape Town. From there...well, who knows.

Landing force reaches Niue but just too late in the day to begin unloading. We have about 50 naval support there already and a bunch more with the landing, so it should be pretty quick. Cover force strong enough to stop anything short of battleships, and I don't think they'd dare.

Adak Island is fortifying. Coast Artillery Rgt and AA Rgt should unload on the 16th, along with an infantry Bn in 3-4 days and the rest of its Rgt in about a week. We should be ok here, I think...

First tranche of engineers are approaching Meekatharra, in Western Australia. From here, medium bombers - that's most bombers between Calcutta and San Francisco - can reach Port Hedland, Corunna Downs, Broome etc. Port Hedland itself is suffering cumulative damage from a small number of B-24s; if I can get Meeka operational before he can PH, I can probably keep it from being expanded for weeks, if not months. Which is sensible enough, really - imagine the Japanese trying to build an airfield there...

Cocos Islands - remember them? - have recovered damage due to a lull in bombardments, probably due to the IJN screeching off towards Fiji. AV of the defending forces is not far off what it was when the bombings started, though supplies are down to 6000t. Some ships have been sent from Cape Town to attempt to restock the place, while a long-range Catalina squadron will attempt to evacuate the remnants of the Dutch Armoured Bn, the only unit to suffer significant permanent losses. Handy little recon unit, that...could use it in Australia.

What else...usual Jap BB force approaching Chittagong; they'll wear out their guns at this rate. No moonlight and no aircraft to shoot at makes it amusing rather than threatening - at least I can keep tabs on them. Realised also that I let 134 ships accumulate at the US East Coast; when they all arrive at Cape Town the place will have about 1.5Mt of supplies and half that much fuel, so I think we're good to send more of them on-map - at the current rate I'll never clear Cape Town's backlog.

Matsonia, Monterey and Prez. Coolidge sail from Albany for India via CT with HQ 1st Australian Corps and two RAAF fighter squadrons. Might as well spread everyone around a bit...I Aus's two divisions are currently in India; it's not really necessary to shift it, but it feels appropriate to have them run by their own HQ.

Er...think that's it for today. May tomorrow bring few torpedoes...

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Post #: 154

RE: Battle of Kandavu Island - 11/30/2011 3:25:33 PM

kfsgo

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June. 15

Not much happened today. The Japanese submarines all went the wrong way, towards Tahiti rather than Samoa; I expect they'll sink a couple of transports at Niue tomorrow, but with all the destroyers in the taskforces we should get a couple in return, hopefully. Carriers are halfway between Fiji and Samoa. 9500 men are ashore on Niue already, and we should have a working airfield by tomorrow.

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Post #: 155

RE: Battle of Kandavu Island - 12/2/2011 12:50:51 AM

kfsgo

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June. 16

ASW searches running day and night, independent destroyer taskforces in the hex, and submarine I-175, spotted the previous night attacking another cruiser, torpedoes CL Honolulu in broad daylight, sinking it. The mind boggles...anyway, all the troops and 16kt of supplies are ashore at Niue with another 11kt left to unload, and we have a working airfield, so all that's left is to get one up on Raoul Island and we have an air link again! Didn't take long...

Japanese battleships hit Chittagong as usual, damaging a couple of water buffalo.

The engineer troupe are more or less done in southern India, I think - what infrastructure isn't present can be put together by base forces - so they're off back to the Burmese border. Next to mushroom is Comilla...from there heavy bombers can hit Rangoon without payload issues.

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Post #: 156

RE: Jakes of June - 12/3/2011 1:00:15 AM

kfsgo

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June. 17

Not much happens. Carriers are at Ta'u, two hexes west of Pago Pago; their first tanker, irritatingly, is one hex to the north. Hate it when that happens...which it usually does. A second submarine attempts to bother Niue and is chased off by HMAS Voyager; the transports are pretty much done unloading now, so naval forces can remove themselves.

The valiant defenders of Niue; I guess they pick who gets to fly it out of a hat.

Lots of fussing over the lack of Indian infantry squads. I'm tempted to disband 98th, 99th, 100th Bdes and use theirs to rebuild 9th and 11th Divs, but I worry that I'd miss them in 1944. Is rebuilding a disbanded unit possible? Well, we'll find out in a few days...I'm going to try it with a Brit MG Bn which is currently made up of a single support squad.

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Post #: 157

RE: Jakes of June - 12/3/2011 9:58:50 AM

kfsgo

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June. 18

Another fairly dull day. Lots of submarines chasing around the South Pacific; shots are taken at Hornet and a couple of destroyers, and we whack one or two down by the Tongas.

Yet another Japanese battleship force is approaching Chittagong. Don't these guys have anything better to do? Must be going through supplies like nobody's business...anyway, USAAF and RAF aircraft will attempt to attack them tomorrow, when they'll probably be in range; doubt they'll hit anything (I think the highest naval bombing skill among the level bombing lot is in the low teens) but it's ammunition they won't get to shoot at Chittagong, should give Saros a heart in mouth moment, and if they get really close they might catch a torpedo from one of the Beauforts or a 1000lber from one of the Dauntlesses. Here's hoping, eh?

Er...I think that's it, really.

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Post #: 158

RE: Jakes of June - 12/3/2011 7:09:25 PM

kfsgo

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June. 19

Boring. Looking over radio reports a large Japanese something left Rabaul yesterday or the day before, on a course towards...well, if you drew a line between Rabaul and a bit north of Fiji, you've got about the right idea; absent any better ideas, probably Japanese carriers looking for 'stragglers'. There are none, really, just scattered merchants sailing independently, so but for the fact that we're stretching tankerage to get everything where it needs to be, I'd be happy to take that fight; as things are with fuel, not so much. Everyone's taking on around Penrhyn Island at the moment, after which a cruiser force will move down to Tahiti, the Americans will head for the USA and the Brits for Panama. Between repairs and upgrades the USN carriers will be out for most of July, which will leave just Wasp doddering around for a few weeks. Time for the USAAF to earn its keep...

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Post #: 159

RE: Battle of Niue - 12/4/2011 2:38:15 PM

kfsgo

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June. 20-21

A short, sharp shock in the South Pacific. Japanese forces - thought to be a light cruiser and two destroyers - were observed moving towards Niue on the 20th, presumably on a bombardment mission; three USN destroyers (Meredith, Monssen and Gwin) set out late at night to intercept them. We didn't get off to a very good start; Gwin was torpedoed 45 miles north of the island by a Japanese submarine, and sank immediately; no contact was made overnight. Next morning, we found'em - cruisers Natori and Yura, along with destroyers Nenohi, Hatsuharu and Hatsushima. Not a very equal fight, but we managed to hold them at range for a couple of hours without sustaining or inflicting any damage. Then the USMC wing from Samoa arrived; 35 Vindicators and 15 Dauntlesses. End result is 4000lb of bombs into each of the two cruisers and two 500lbers into Hatsuharu. All three are believed sunk - at least, we didn't pick them up today. Meredith and Monssen both have a full load of 5in ammunition and minimal damage, so they'll attempt to catch the remaining destroyers tonight.

Elsewhere, not much going on; just the usual bombardments.

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Post #: 160

RE: Battle of Niue - 12/4/2011 6:19:23 PM

kfsgo

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Thinking about options in India...

At the moment, our troop commitment is as follows:

IV Corps (Arakan)

Forward:

20th Indian Div
23rd Indian Div
39th Indian Div
87th Mountain Rgt
43rd Cavalry Rgt
150th Armoured Rgt

Rear:

26th Indian Bde
75th Indian Bde
254th Armoured Bde

These guys can't go further than Akyab as that'd take them into Burma proper and they're mostly restricted. Focus at the moment is on building up Cox's Bazaar while pretending to try to build up Akyab. Can't do anything with surface naval forces, but I have a dozen submarines on the way to supplement the three currently in the area so if naval bombardments continue we can hopefully catch something.

Burma Corps (Manipur)

Forward:

17th Indian Div
18th Brit Div
45th Indian Bde
46th Indian Bde

Rear:

6th Australian Div
44th Indian Bde
3rd Indian Bde

Not much for them to do here. Base building in this area is still ongoing in preparation for the break of the monsoon.

XV Indian Corps (Bombay-Madras-Trivandrum)

70th Brit Div
Americal Div
23rd Indian Bde
98th Indian Bde
99th Indian Bde
100th Indian Bde
Dutch Bde

Dispersed, guarding against any Japanese raids along the coast of India. They're all preparing for Ceylon, so will be available whenever that goes ahead.

III Indian Corps (Reserve/planning for Ceylon)

26th Indian Div
7th Indian Div
7th Australian Div
40th US Div
2nd Brit Div (in about two weeks)
32nd US Div (in about two weeks)
7th Armoured Bde
14th Canadian Bde (eventually, at Cape Town pending PPs)
22nd African Bde (at Socotra)

Major force is at Allahabad, halfway up the Ganges between Calcutta and Delhi.

NCAC (Reserve, but China-focused)

36th Chinese Div
88th Chinese Div
96th Chinese Div
200th Chinese Div

54th Chinese Corps (in Yunnan)
66th Chinese Corps (in Yunnan)
22nd Chinese Div (in Yunnan)

Forces in India are at Rangpur. The Chinese are rather glum but are fairly experienced at this point.

Asiatic Fleet (At Cape Town, planning for Diego Garcia, Addu etc)

1st USMC Div
31st Infantry Rgt
147th Infantry Rgt
1st Marine Tank Bn
632nd Tank Destroyer Bn

Diego Garcia on its own isn't really that important, and I still hold Addu, so while we're planning the reoccupation of these places this force is at a bit of a loose end.

So, what to do...

Ceylon is a great barrier to naval movements into the Indian Ocean, so the obvious thing to do is to jump right in there and try to reoccupy. Costly in shipping, however, which makes me a little uncomfortable this early on. So, the question becomes - how badly do I need to get into the IO? I'm not sure it's critical; my engineering work on the Burmese border so far has enabled me to keep building stockpiles up during the monsoon season, meaning we should be good for army supply after it breaks, and the engineers have been away for a couple of months now - the first of them to get back will resume work on the airfield at Silchar in a couple of days. The opposing Japanese airfields - Lashio, Katha, Myitkyina and Warazup - have all been shut down by the USAAF and should remain so for a while. Also, while the Japanese hold Ceylon, it's absorbing ~4 Divs that aren't doing anything else, so I'm inclined to let them rot and just pretend to be interested for a little while.

Japanese garrison in Burma is estimated to be 7-8 Divs with, I don't know, maybe 3-4 more available unless Ceylon is abandoned. I can by that point put together about the equivalent of 16 without being cheeky with forces defending India, so I think the working plan from here on out will be to use them to go into Burma around Novemberish, aimed at getting back to Katha and perhaps Shwebo initially and then seeing how viable it is - hopefully it should be - to press on further. Ideally a good success here would precipitate a removal from Ceylon to less exposed positions, but I won't hold my breath; anyhow, if it does we can use early 1943's arrivals to take the place and if it doesn't we can flatten it after we've done all the flattening I need to in Burma - as long as I don't squander aircraft in the meantime I should be able to put up about 250 bombers a day by then...

That takes us into the period of Japanese pain; my 'timetable' is still Rangoon in 1943, then Singapore in 1944 and insertion of the fleet into the DEI through that route. Just gotta keep their attention elsewhere in the meantime...

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Post #: 161

RE: Battle of Niue - 12/6/2011 1:25:39 PM

kfsgo

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June. 22-23

Here we go...carelessness costs lives, as the Chinese are about to demonstrate:

That force that's now moved down into the plains is ten infantry corps, about 2800av. They were supposed to be a blocking force one hex northwest of where they currently are; I had a couple of depleted units moving down into the plain to be irritating and must have clicked the 'move all units' button or something a couple of weeks back without noticing. Not certain I can salvage this, though it's worth a try; RAF and USAAF units will fly into Chungking tonight and attempt to keep the Japanese in the mountains to the west in combat mode; if I can get into that hex before they can we should be ok, as I can always thread them back through the Japs. If I can't, the Chinese are likely buggered and Xi'an will be pretty much untenable, I think.

Usual battleship bombardment force approaching one of the Arakan bases; looks like Cox's Bazaar is getting hit this time. The submarines are just passing Ceylon at the moment, so there'll be a couple more of these before we can do much about them.

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Post #: 162

RE: Battle of Niue - 12/9/2011 4:25:18 PM

kfsgo

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June. 24

70 B-17s from Chungking bomb the Japanese force to the west; looks like four infantry divisions and maybe a tank regiment; if they don't have an armoured unit we should make the hills, if they do it's 50-50. Chungking can sustain bombing efforts for maybe 4-5 days before the mechanics are worked out, so that's our timeline. If the Japanese don't bomb CK at least once in that period I'll eat my hat - there probably won't be a better opportunity to catch damaged B-17s anywhere for months - but that is just something we will have to endure. We do have 120 fighters local, but no radar, meaning some attackers would likely get through regardless. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if it went off tomorrow - Changsha wasn't bombed, which is unusual.

Battleships hit Cox's Bazaar, hitting literally nothing at all. Elsewhere, pretty quiet. We now have an airfield at Meekatharra; some RAAF Hudsons will - hopefully - join in the bombing of Port Hedland tomorrow, while a Beaufighter squadron tries its hand at naval attack. On similar lines, a couple of fighter squadrons will play at bombing in Burma; they're in range and have nothing better to do, so might as well compensate for the B-17s not being around, eh?

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Post #: 163

RE: Battle of Sanmenxia - 12/11/2011 7:40:09 AM

kfsgo

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June. 25

Missions over the Japanese force scrubbed due to weather. The Japanese themselves bomb our lot, inflicting a couple hundred casualties and bumping the combat units into 'combat' mode. Due to a quirk in the way aircraft pick their targets, the HQs (there are about ten of these) aren't targetted, and are putting up a good pace; the first should enter the mountains the day after tomorrow, which should be earlier than the Japanese can do the reverse; so, we'll probably take a few knocks down on the plains, but should make it up into the hills intact.

Further west, a Japanese squadron sweeps Kunming; this catches out some low-flying Chinese, but their incompetence at least fills their remit for being there by keeping fighters off the entire SEAC air transport force, who are shuttling aviation support units into Chungking from India. Pilots are all fine, anyway, and the troops are all moved, so they'll head back to Calcutta to continue training. Even further west, the Japanese bomber force in Burma hits Ledo; 100 bombers fail to hit anything of note (not much of note there to hit) and slink off home minus half a dozen of their escort.

First trial of Hurricane and P-40 as level bombers seems to go ok; they get a few airfield hits at Katha, although the pilots aren't trained for it. Hurricane carries the same bombload as Blenheim, is much faster and is actually armed, so I am probably going to shift a couple of squadrons over to bombing full-time.

Medium bombers hit Port Hedland from Meekatharra for the first time; small size of the latter airfield will keep payloads low for the next week or so.

Lots of Japanese movements into South Pacific; Noum�a has now received a second infantry division, at least two major Japanese HQs are enroute to area and a significant resupply effort appears to be underway. Suits me...can't think of anywhere better for them, as a matter of fact.

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Post #: 164

RE: Raid on Shwebo - 12/11/2011 6:47:48 PM

kfsgo

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June. 26

110 Sqn RAF decides to raid Shwebo in broad daylight; I think they need their amphetamine ration cut down a bit. Results are about what you'd expect from Blenheims in daylight - that is, none return. There's a reason I only fly them at night...not sure what happened here that that got reset. Anyway, I have enough spare to make good the losses, so we'll be ok as long as it doesn't happen again. SEAF will attempt to bomb Shwebo tonight, purely as revenge. AA is expected to be moderate to heavy, but we'll make do.

In China, the lead HQ of the plains force ends the day 1 mile from the mountains; they should make it up tomorrow, barring any disasters, with the main force arriving in three days. B-17 force will head back to Calcutta as they have nothing more to contribute here, I think.

Two more RAAF squadrons reach Meekatharra; these have Beauforts, which can't quite reach Port Hedland, so they'll poke around for something to bomb to the south and switch over to Hudsons if there's nothing available.

Pacific is logistics central, as usual.

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Post #: 165

RE: Battle of Sanmenxia - 12/12/2011 3:39:06 AM

kfsgo

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June. 27

24 B-17s, along with 9 Blenheims and a dozen Hurricanes, hit Shwebo overnight, blowing up half a dozen Dinahs. This is, not unexpectedly, a high crime, and we now "must have" a house rule against night bombing below the stratosphere. I'm indifferent; I've been pretty restrained with night bombing so far, treating it as an occasional thing to do whenever an opportunity to be irritating arises; if we're to HR it the altitude will lessen effectiveness, but I'll do it more often, particularly in light of the situation in China. End result's about the same, I think.

This is interesting:

Not sure what their purpose is; there's nothing hit at Diamond Harbour, and Chittagong is much better approached up the coast (as the other group, which has battleships, is presumably doing), so they must be planning to head up the Hooghly. DH has 9 6in guns, and there are 84 mines there along with 64 at Calcutta...the latter is not a big number, but it's a river, so theoretically they should be pretty effective.

Theoretically. Since it's an untested theory, bombers have dispersed to Howrah and Comilla, from where they'll attempt to hit any ships they can see. None of them except a pair of USAAF dive-bomber squadrons are really trained for it, so we're unlikely to hit much, but we may give them a scare if they're still in range tomorrow. Fortunately I have so many overlapping air HQs in the area the fields can take it. 75 P-39s, which I've left at Calcutta, will also try - range with bombs is a bit short, so they're unlikely to catch anything not already crippled, but you never know. Shame this couldn't have happened tomorrow - two USMC dive-bomber squadrons and an FAA Sqn with Swordfish are due to arrive Calcutta tomorrow afternoon, of all the times!

Chinese force doesn't make it up into the hills, and are now in-hex with at least half a dozen Japanese divs. Don't think there's much salvaging them, really. The irritating thing is that I went back a couple of days and it turns out that I reset the movement on the units in the hexes either side of them (which are scrubby little fragments) but not the main body, since I was sure only the one remnant division was moving. Hell of a mistake to lose a war over...

HMS Thracian hits a submarine off Albany pretty hard, possibly sinking it.

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Post #: 166

RE: Battle of Sanmenxia - 12/12/2011 10:53:27 AM

kfsgo

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June. 28

Naval attacks were a bit of a damp squib, really - only a few B-17s flew, and hit about as much as expected (ie, nothing). Saros is wibbling on about how you're not the only one who can night bomb & oh watch out for night torpedo attacks etc ad nauseam; I think one of the Dinahs I blew up must have belonged to a relative - who knew one effective airfield raid a month could provoke this much emotion? I told him in an e-mail that I didn't find the IJAAF very threatening; the hope is that that gets him bombing Calcutta as an I'll-show-that-jerk sort of reaction. Seems strange, but the IJAAF seems very skittish at the moment - they won't come within 100 miles of any serious opposition. Anyway, I've sent the RAF and USAAF bomber forces up to Delhi for a while; I was going through the pilot lists and several of the USAAF groups particularly actually turned out to be full of morons - lots of sub-50 skill pilots. So - they're due some training time before the big push. The bases at Silchar and Comilla should be fully operational in about 3 weeks, at which point we'll recall them to theatre. In the meantime, fighter squadrons will do the necessary bombing.

1st Marine Div and hangers-on are embarking for Bombay. Decided Diego Garcia was/is a bit pointless - I don't have the naval base forces on this side of the map to make it an effective base, so they'd pretty much be stuck there once they'd taken it, it's only really relevant in the context of Ceylon, and I'm not going back there for a while unless it's abandoned. So, op scrubbed, troops ordered to get familiar with Burma instead. Feels a bit strange, but they're available and not desperately needed anywhere else, so what the heck. Australia will also be providing some extra troops - three armoured regiments and a coastal artillery regiment will ship out for India once I can get the political points to liberate them, equivalent US units having now arrived.

Lots of Japanese pontificating in the South Pacific. I am playing games with the Marine Raider units - whenever I land them somewhere Saros sends 100 or so bombers after them on day 1 and then drops paratroopers on them on day 2. I figure that's gotta cost about 500t of supplies a pop, so I'm going to keep doing it and hopefully get more stuff shipped down here. I don't really care about the islands involved as long as none of them have airfields - all I need's Niue and Raoul to keep things moving logistically.

First USN forces involved in operations off Fiji make Hawaii; the strain of all that high-speed running is definitely showing, and most ships will need at least a week's maintenance. Carriers should arrive in another day or three - all five of them will be due upgrades when they arrive, so July will not be a very exciting month in that respect.

I bought out a Canadian Bde and sent it to Adak; when it arrives that island will have about a Div's worth of troops. I can only guess at what's likely to be thrown at it (besides Guards Mixed Bde, obviously); hopefully not too much.

Chinese aren't attacked, just bombarded; opposition looks like ~8 Divs. No chance for them; all I can do is put reserves in position and hope for the best.

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Post #: 167

RE: Battle of Sanmenxia - 12/13/2011 5:36:57 PM

kfsgo

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June. 29

Chinese retreat the right way, putting them back where they started; casualties aren't too bad and should be recovered in a month or so - the saving grace is that we have some reserves to shift around up here, and it helps that a couple of new units will be arriving at Xi'an in a few days. Still a silly oversight, but could have been much worse. Danger now is of not having a month - the fascists may decide to press their luck and keep going; the issue is one of geography, really - if they for once decide to stray off the roads I will essentially be forced to give them a pathway onto the plains outside Xi'an. There's not much I can do about that before it happens, so I just have to hope it doesn't.

All this hyperactivity in China further underscores the need to reopen communications through Burma; on which note, the bombardment taskforce removing itself from Diamond Harbor is shot at twice by Dutch submarines; no hits, but we now have 11 submarines in the area with torpedoes that actually work (and a few without, which I'm using to run rum up the Arakan) so if the missions continue something will probably connect. I'm sending an Indian Bde to Delhi to be disbanded for six months, since it turns out that's a thing you can do; the infantry freed from that will allow me to bring 11th Indian Div up to something resembling useful strength, which is probably a better use of the troops right now.

Quiet day elsewhere; seems it wasn't really flying weather over much of the map. USN carriers will make Pearl Harbour tomorrow; I've flown off their aircraft; current thought is that a couple of groups will go play around Adak and Samoa while their hosts are upgrading, with the rest training up a class of new pilots. Yorktown and Hornet have each fixed about half of their systems damage at sea, so the hope is that they will both be serviceable by the time Lexington and Saratoga are done upgrading. Fighters from Niue will visit Vava'u tomorrow; there's no airfield there but some fighters are reported - likely floatplanes, which should be a bit of cheap experience.

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Post #: 168

RE: Jumping July - 12/16/2011 3:17:52 PM

kfsgo

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I've been doing some Experiments on my ability to supply forces in Burma. To cut a long story short, with our planned base situation for October 42, not only can I support the force I'm intending to use to put a brick through Shwebo's window, I can support another of pretty much the same size, along with full artillery rations for the whole shebang. Just a question of redirecting Japanese attention over the next three months...if I can arrange for the Japanese force to be at the appropriate strength (no more than 10 Divs) at the appropriate time (early November) we should be able to pirouette our way in. Should.

June. 30

Movement day in China and India both. Katha has apparently acquired 16 LCUs overnight; report is 2000 troops and 150 guns, so presumably mostly HAA and engineers. I think someone's getting catty about the airfield being shut down...I may have to recall the bomber force from training early. Mechanics and AA for the upkeep of Silchar are on the way from southern India, where they're surplus to requirements at the moment.

Carriers enter Pearl Harbour. Yorktown and Hornet stand down for repairs, Lexington and Saratoga stand down for upgrades; Enterprise will be playing aircraft ferry for a little while. First of the carrier air wings is off to the South Pacific to work from land bases for a few weeks.

Vava'u did contain floatplanes; Marine Buffalos made a mess of them. There seem to be some ships loitering about there - I think just patrol boats, but you never know - so we'll see about taking a crack at them tomorrow.

I think I must have completely wrecked Port Hedland as bombers are now refusing to fly there; recon reveals no units. An armoured car recon group will visit in a few weeks and play ferret.

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Post #: 169

RE: Jumping July - 12/17/2011 5:58:57 AM

kfsgo

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July. 1

I really need to arrange for a radar to be shipped into Chungking; CAF go 15-5 against Japanese fighter sweeps, mostly because the majority of aircraft never left the ground. Weren't the Chinese supposed to be fairly good at fighter direction? Another Japanese group overflies Silchar; a fighter group was there yesterday, which I moved out on a hunch. Since HIJMS seems to be in a playful mood, we'll see about catching the little turds out in a few days.

Japanese submarines invade New Zealand; a destroyer force off Wellington damages two, one heavily, and sinks a third outright including its floatplane. Can't imagine what the thought process was here; I'm not entirely sure I want to try.

Elsewhere, quiet.

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Post #: 170

RE: Jumping July - 12/17/2011 4:08:06 PM

Crackaces

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What Beta version are you using? starting with r1 Michealm made night bombing a little better by figuring in radar and the moonlight into the equation ..

I always wonder why the IJ with all that power have the most amount of Home Rules?

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Post #: 171

RE: Jumping July - 1/2/2012 10:16:19 PM

kfsgo

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July. 2

I hate these long breaks; I always forget what I'm doing, and what I'm planning to do. There again, that's why I write this thing...ok:

China: Japan decides to come at Chungking again; today the 'bait' - low-flying I-15s - is in position and we go 8-10 against, which is an acceptable performance from the CAF given the circumstances. We begin to take delivery of the first P-66s this month; while they're hardly stellar performers they're not substantially worse than the early P-40s, and by Chinese standards there's quite a lot of them. If this is the beginning of a dedicated campaign against the CAF I imagine it will be incapable of significant resistance within about a week, if that; since it's not really capable of significant resistance anyway and won't be for a long time even if left alone I am inclined to let the Japanese throw themselves at Chinese spears for a few more days.

Quiet in India and Burma. The air force in theatre is mostly stood down at the moment, with most of the bombers and half the fighters training up fresh pilots; there's little I could do with them anyway as most of the aviation support units are on the rails for a few more days; consequently the fighter force is at Calcutta and the bomber force at Delhi, where the poor mechanics have worked themselves into incoherence and are at 99 fatigue. Once the support apparatus at Silchar and Comilla is fit for purpose I have a few experiments to conduct; they will cost a few aircraft but may provide interesting results.

Also fairly quiet in and around Australia. Third regiment of "1st Australian Armoured Brigade" has moved to I Aus Corps command; just a coastal artillery regiment left to shift, after which they'll embark for India.

Large Japanese naval forces are operating between Fiji and the Tongas; we weren't able to detect them directly, so composition and destination are unknown, but at least three independent task units; their radio transmissions did the trick. Unsure what this could be about...the last effort to operate any further than they're poking around of course cost the Japanese two cruisers and a destroyer. Multiple taskforces is unusual; could be a couple of carriers, but the Kongos are all believed to be in the DEI and there seems to be a goose-and-gander thing going on with that lot, so probably not the main force. Anyway, the USN's are all in East Pacific - Wasp headed to the Aleutians, Enterprise at sea moving fighters and the rest in care of dockers.

South Pacific at this point is a bit of a balancing act; I essentially have everything I want from the area - ie an air route from Hawaii to Australia - but that being the case there's nowhere I'd like the Japanese to be more. So, I guess we have to make a show of resistance without doing anything that'd prove too successful; in fact a few "unsuccessful" attacks may be useful if I can give the impression they're significant failures. I'm aware New Caledonia recently received a second infantry division as garrison; hopefully we can induce further strengthening by application of colourful smoke and loud noises.

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Post #: 172

RE: Jumping July - 1/3/2012 6:29:19 PM

kfsgo

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July. 3

Fairly quiet day. Force around the Tongas seems to be a flotilla of converted fishing boats rather than anything big; perhaps one of them is carrying a Radio Tokyo rebroadcasting set to confuse our boffins. As we were going to be bombing Vava'u anyway we'll have a go at them - this will be the combat debut of the TBF, if everything behaves. Hopefully less painful than the real one...

In Burma I've decided to give in to opportunism and send a few dozen B-17s at Toungoo; there appear to be no fighters and no guns defending about 75 bombers, so assuming they don't fly - not guaranteed, but they haven't for a while - we might get a good catch. Most of the squadrons remain at Delhi, however...a lot of their pilots are still pretty undertrained.

No doubt along the same lines, an IJAAF base force is reportedly preparing for a landing at Busselton, south of Perth. As things stand any Japanese coming ashore in WA would get smeared back into the sea so hard it'd make their heads spin, so I can only hope and pray it's an actual plan.

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Post #: 173

RE: Jumping July - 1/4/2012 8:42:17 PM

kfsgo

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July. 4

Independence Day in the US. Celebrations were unfortunately curtailed by rain in most places...the only action today was over Chungking again, where we trade four P-40 for four A6M3.

Tomorrow may be cheerier...in belief Japanese are focused on Meekatharra and the threat to Port Hedland etc we're going to attempt to hit Daly Waters and Katherine. Tennant Creek has built up enough supplies over the last few weeks - Australia's engineering capacity was basically there from the beginning of the war, and mostly pulled out after the airfield hit L6 - to permit a few days of operations; I don't expect to be able to close the places down - we're going in blind, with no real recon, for the sake of surprise - but hopefully enough damage can be done to dissuade fighter basing on subsequent days. Total escort is one Sqn Beaufighters, so if I've misinterpreted Japanese fighter deployment locally it could be unpleasant. In theory around 50 aircraft should hit Katherine and 40 or so Daly - some from TC and some from Alice Springs - but half the Daly strike are Wirraways, so no great hopes there, heh.

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Post #: 174

RE: Jumping July - 1/5/2012 4:42:26 PM

kfsgo

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July. 5

To noone's surprise, Japanese raids over Chungking intensify - today the CAF has to face about 25 Oscar and 50 Zero. Per capita performance continues to exceed expectations - losses are about 25 aircraft each way. Lack of radar coverage remains a significant problem, however; it's obvious aircraft are not getting decent intercepts, lots of stumbling over altitudes etc. A set will arrive at Chungking in about two weeks; a couple of RAF base forces had to move into China a while back and have slowly been bumbling up from western Yunnan. Until it arrives, CAF will jump to Chengdu; CK will probably be bombed a bit, but with the army mostly at the front I'm not sure it matters much.

Our bombers are less successful; we missed the Japanese at Toungoo, didn't hit much at Katherine and Daly Waters was rained off. No bother from any fighters, at least. VB-2 did insert seven 1000lb bombs into a small Japanese freighter off the Tongas, which is some consolation if not necessarily an efficient use of supplies! I think I could keep at Katherine and close it, but the single day's operations for about half the bombers based at TC already used more supplies than I was expecting the whole force to use, so in a few days we'd start to have issues there. I do have 60 spare B-17s in pools, which of course can do the job from Alice Springs...there are a whole bunch of USAAF medium bomber squadrons in transit to Australia at the moment, the air route having opened, so I will take stock of things once they all concentrate and if it seems appropriate I can switch'em to heavies.

Tomorrow the bomber force will hit Katha; there seems to be a major effort ongoing to reopen the place, with 17 LCUs, 200+ guns (presumably mostly AA) etc. It's been obvious that Japanese AA capability is being overconcentrated in Burma for a while now - signals have been full of AA units at sea heading to Rangoon for weeks and weeks, so the least we can do is provide some encouragement for keeping up that job - should give us an easier shot at oil production on Java/Sumatra in a few months' time. At the same time, I'd like to keep Katha closed - it's much closer to our main structure in Assam than any of the other large airfields. So, we bomb. AA losses will probably be notable, but that's life, I guess - 16th and 42nd Fighter Sqns will also be in the area experimenting with a new operating method for their P-40s, so fighter cover should be good.

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Post #: 175

RE: Jumping July - 1/5/2012 7:12:03 PM

kfsgo

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So much to think about...mostly in Burma.

Current strength at Allahabad is 3076av. Main divisional units are Aus 6th and 7th, US 40th and Americal, Indian 7th, 26th and 11th. 11th Indian is making good progress towards reconstruction and with 98th Bde being disbanded should be at full strength except in artillery by the end of the month, which brings that up to about 3300. Growth in armoured Bde will bring it up to about 3450. Importantly the only large restricted unit among this lot is Indian 26th Div, which will need a month's worth of political pull to release. Several auxiliary units are restricted but I have been exceptionally miserly with replacements until now, so they can be had cheaply. Still, it'll take everything we get until at least late September to buy everything out.

Available for duty but at the front are 18th Brit and 17th Indian Divs; another 900av.

Brit 2nd Div is concentrating at Aden; last brigade is five days away. Approx. 500av.

US 32nd Infantry Div and large artillery complement is putting ashore at Karachi at the moment. 400av + big bang.

Two RAAF fighter squadrons are one week out, 1st Marine Div, 31st and 147th Infantry Rgts and their armour are two weeks out, along with 200kt of supplies. Aus armour is about five weeks out. ~1000av.

112th US Cavalry Rgt arrives SF in two weeks and will serve in India. 75av.

Chinese are working up at Rangpur. 500av now, maybe 800av by autumn.

Chinese are also working up in Yunnan. 800av now, maybe 1100av by autumn if air transport doesn't suffer too much. Have been using transport sqns on 30% rest which has cut ops losses dramatically - strength has been increasing although obv. at cost in supply throughput.

Two Chindit Bdes will be available by autumn. Maybe 250av.

So...250+1100+800+75+1000+400+500+900+3450...I make that 8475, but I could be wrong. Will probably be more, given growth in units. Suspect that's enough to bowl the Japanese over in Burma, if they can all be kept fed. I think they can, but it'll be a drain - if we do make Rangoon, which is the priority but an open question, doubt we will have the ability to go further before early 1944.

Have an operational plan, after a fashion, but ability to conduct it to full effectiveness will depend on supply situation. Will spill beans closer to time.

Remaining in India or a few days' march up the Arakan will be:

Burma Div, 14th, 19th, 20th, 23rd, 25th Indian Divs - maybe ~1500av between them.
1 Dutch, 1 US, 3 Brit, ~13 Indian Bdes, ~2350av between them.
Extra Brit Bde and 9th Aus Div if necessary in Jan. 43 - ~650av

Enough to be safe...I think. Will need to draw Japanese into Pacific to be sure.

How to deploy them is an open question. Ideally want to suck reinforcements at least to far DEI or less ideally Ceylon in leadup to opening Burma; may borrow a few USN transports and get one or two sunk to reinforce the illusion. Unfortunately Japanese have seemingly abandoned sub campaign in Indian Ocean after few successes and several losses so opportunities to "accidentally" lose ships here are few and far between. Pacific and Australia seeing many more subs; Niue, Pago Pago etc infested with them. Possible that J expect major operations from here?

Operations in Australia are Being Looked At; three infantry Divs available for seaward ops, maybe another by appropriate time depending on USMC. Can do more than that overland within Australia, but issue is of time taken getting to and from places & what happens to those places in meantime. Don't know what IJHQ knows about Australian garrison situation. Could be a good thing or a bad thing depending which way that determination swings. Do have free AA units to permit threatening Darwin overland, if not necessarily to permit taking it. Carrier force will likely head for Aus after refits as fuel situation is improving.

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RE: Jumping July - 1/6/2012 5:00:55 PM

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July. 6

Go away, rain. USAAF ops over Katha are put off by the monsoon. RAF, either braver or more stupid, manage to send two dozen Wellingtons over at night; flak is heavy but no losses and some good hits. No fighters, just recon aircraft. Hope is for improved weather tomorrow...movement of the air forces to forward bases is progressing, with Silchar and Comilla already hosting 12 squadrons each at present!

Mostly quiet in China. Two USAAF dive-bomber squadrons and one RAF Hudson sqn have jumped over to Kunming for a short holiday and will attempt to hit a tank regiment.

USN and USMC aircraft tangle with Japanese floatplanes over the Tongas, shooting down four for one Wildcat crashed on landing.

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RE: Jumping July - 1/7/2012 7:53:39 AM

kfsgo

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July. 7

Japanese finally get the gumption to launch an offensive mission over India; 150 or so Oscars sweep Comilla, losing about 15 aircraft in exchange for about 15 of ours. That's just fine - this being S1 there's no better time to get some Japs shot. The forward bases are paying dividends already...I've reinforced fighters slightly in hope Japanese will consider that a "success" and do more.

B-17s over Katha do ok, losing one aircraft to flak in exchange for about 50 hits. Suspect I will have to let it reopen...an opportunity has arisen elsewhere that's too good to pass up.

Pacific mostly quiet.

Bombers in China hit nothing at all; back to India, I think. Continuous bombing of Changsha has resumed over the last few days, after a long break; we're back to 150 bombers per day. Barometer's swinging...

Ok. Today's project is something I haven't really touched on much. Port Blair has been a very obvious 'central bastion' sort of place since about two days after the fall of Singapore - a bunch of construction units immediately put to sea headed for the place. All the same, I've been paying it relatively little heed - until recently Japanese ships seemed to be doing their rearming etc in northern Sumatra rather than there. Anyway, the RAF gets a few very long-range Mitchell reconnaisance aircraft; I've been keeping them out of squadron service for the most part because they're really an unmatched capability for the next five or six months and I need them for one-off special events. Like visits to the Andamans:

Port Blair is just - just, at the absolute limit - within B-17 range of Chittagong. We will give it a try; odds are the aircraft won't fly - on average they seem to dislike flying the day after switching bases, which is understandable to a degree - but if they do we should be able to whack a few destroyers, and maybe a cruiser. The bombers I care less about, so only one squadron will go after airfields. In theory. Fingers crossed...

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Post #: 178

RE: Jumping July - 1/7/2012 6:12:16 PM

kfsgo

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July. 8

It worked. Not exactly Pearl Harbour, but it'll do, I guess.

I was hoping they wouldn't over-focus on the battleships...obviously damage won't actually be significant; bloody things are bomb-proof. But...no losses among our aircraft, at maximum range from a barely-big-enough airfield, and Japanese shipping has fled en-masse, so regardless of whether you consider it a success it ain't a failure. Unsure whether to return tomorrow; can't imagine there wouldn't be fighters, but today's recon doesn't show any and does show an even larger number of bombers. Depends whether recon is a snapshot of the beginning of the day or the end of it, I suppose...ultra-aggressive option is to stage P-38s into Akyab and have them fly escort - they can just make it. Think I will hold off. May regret that later, but ultimately Japanese can just build more bombers and it'd be insane not to try to catch our aircraft at the limits of their ranges or at a staging field, ie Chittagong.

Absent need to cover bombers, USAAF will do their low-altitude fighter sweep experiment tomorrow; last attempt was interrupted by rain. Plan is - RAF will bomb Mandalay overnight - one of the Japanese fighter bases - and around 100 USAAF aircraft will sweep Shwebo at 1000-3000ft; I'd send them at Mandalay direct but they don't have the range. Theory is - low altitude gives the P-40s a better performance versus Oscar, Zero etc, and being on the offensive with Japanese early warning ability limited by low-level approach they should dictate altitude of engagement, up to a point. That's the theory...we'll see.

We are also entering a raider period; a convoy 800 miles off Perth gets first contact on a Japanese AMC. Close escort is four corvettes, cruiser Sumatra and predreadnought Surabaya; Sumatra will detach and attempt to engage independently and Surabaya will stay with the convoy as it attempts to evade. Cruiser Enterprise and four destroyers are six hours' steaming away bringing in another convoy, so they will also move to participate.

USN destroyers off Wellington insert depth charges into yet another Japanese submarine; what on earth is the point of all these things, beyond getting themselves blown up? Japanese submarines are also "blockading" Pago Pago and Niue:

They're so uselessly deployed that I've avoided attacking them - best left where they are, I think...

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Post #: 179

RE: Jumping July - 1/7/2012 8:20:37 PM

Crackaces

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quote:

bloody things are bomb-proof

But BB's are not fire proof ..

Just a thought as you know I am a newbie .. but I think the Hyuga with "heavy fires" might burn to the waterline in two or so days ? ..and her friends will need to make it back to the pen .. those are BB's that will take quite awhile to repair and not be bombarding the coast

My adversary has also decided to use Subs as a blockading force and with the same result .. I get ASW practice ...

< Message edited by Crackaces -- 1/7/2012 8:22:19 PM >

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Post #: 180