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RE: Jumping July - 1/7/2012 9:13:51 PM

kfsgo

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

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 ...

Well, obviously it's not no damage, but we're only talking 500lb bombs here - I'm sure they're all a bit scorched, but I doubt there's anything that won't buff out - maybe a couple weeks for the three, or a month for Hyuga. Can't see anything more than that unless a submarine tags one on the way back to Singapore.

The submarines might be reasonably effective if they didn't only cover direct paths from forward bases to the next ones back - as it is I just go a couple of hexes closer to the Japanese bases overnight and avoid the submarines entirely. The same principle has been operating around Australia, India etc - Saros seems to have no conception of indirect routing.

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Post #: 181

RE: Jumping July - 1/8/2012 4:56:44 AM

kfsgo

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July. 9

Tracked as the sun set by a Fokker from Sumatra, Kiyosumi Maru meets a quiet end in the dark:

Sumatra and Enterprise have met up at sea; each will take one destroyer and patrol. Unidentified aircraft continue to buzz them throughout today, so presumably there's at least one more raider out there. Merchants are mostly some distance away by this point and should be ok - though of course there are no guarantees...

USAAF offensive operations over Burma go reasonably well; we lose 16 aircraft for 12 Jap. On the face of it that seems poor - the details are more encouraging, however. Only two squadrons of the five tasked flew; both approached Shwebo at 1000ft. 16th FS, led by a very bright & aggressive spark, performed well and gave better than they got - this at the extreme of their range -; 42nd FS, led by a bit of a chimp, did poorly. The low altitude approach seems to have worked for the first and not the second; clearly it's not a universal solution, but it's a good data point. Now I just have to figure out whether it's preferable to the high-altitude fights, bearing in mind performance of P-40E at altitude...we'll see, over the next few days.

Had to laugh at the day in South Pacific - after rabbiting on about ineffective submarines yesterday, today one tags a destroyer doing 35kts off Niue! I think I'll keep my mouth shut in future...incidentally, it seems another of yesterday's questions was answered - a washed-up midget submarine was found outside Wellington; apparently it failed to get in on the 29th of June. What a waste of a good midget...nowt there but some old freighters.

Am going to be cheeky in Australia and take a shot at Darwin, along with a second shot at Katherine; there seem to be no fighters at all in northern Australia so aircraft will stage into Tennant Creek again, where the airfield has just upgraded, and have a go. This time we've even done some reconnaisance! Conceptually if I can close Darwin we might be able to reoccupy with minimal force...we'll see. Am working on an airfield at Normanton from where B-17s can hit the place without being a big fat load on the outback supply net, anyway, and of course the new B-24 can do it from Alice Springs.

In China, Japanese seem to be concentrating around Changsha; we're up to eight divisions. Not the first time...usually they show up, bombard for a few days and then leave; four divisions are a 'permanent' force kept there, the rest floating. Whether this can be relied upon in future...

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Post #: 182

RE: Jumping July - 1/8/2012 9:58:38 AM

kfsgo

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July. 10

Rain day in Burma. The B-17 groups, having stood down, are more or less out of the fight for a few days; I guess they'd been skimping on ongoing maintenance.

An exceptional day for flak claims; apparently we shot down five Dinahs and two...Babses? Babs? Anyway, two of those.

No detections in the Indian Ocean. Perhaps the second raider decided the odds were against it. Question is...does this mean no more raiding in future, or does it mean raiding with something more dangerous than an armed freighter? I want to hope #1, but I have to plan for #2; HMS Hermes will serve as 'flagship' of anti-raider patrols on return from Pacific, as shipping to Australia is going to have to pick up significantly over the next few months. Sumatra is up to 60 night experience after demolishing the Kiyosumi Maru; not bad, having entered the battle at 45.

Air attacks on Darwin and Katherine are a significant success. No aerial opposition at either base; all squadrons staged into TC fly; no aircraft lost to any causes. Darwin's airfields are heavily damaged; another day of attacks should hopefully close them. Katherine is less so; less heavily bombed and more of a ground crew present. This is the combat debut of the B-26, though fragments of the squadrons are still dispersed from Alaska through Hawaii through the South Pacific where aircraft have gone tech. We'll go again tomorrow; whether we'll find fighters at either base is an open question.

Also, apparently someone put a literal, bike-horn-and-big-shoes clown in charge of the USN's 1944 program. Combined Chiefs of Staff deny all knowledge:

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Post #: 183

RE: Jumping July - 1/10/2012 10:54:06 AM

kfsgo

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July. 11

Rained off in Burma again. Port Blair shows 30 fighters and 50 bombers, but allegedly one battleship and one destroyer remain in port - perhaps as bait, perhaps more heavily damaged than I thought. Dare we try the same trick twice? 30 is not a huge number by local standards...weather forecast for tomorrow is awful, so I guess I'll sleep on it. Unfortunately P-38 actually can't make it from Akyab - I thought it could, but it's just one hex too far.

More raids in Australia. Darwin and Katherine are both effectively closed; Japanese aviation seems to have abandoned the area. One squadron will start work on Darwin port tomorrow, and a couple of newcomers flying from Alice Springs will attack Japanese ground troops at Katherine. Though a large number of aircraft are on station at the base, supply actually increased slightly from yesterday...I think this, or at least a slightly reduced analogue, may actually be sustainable, particularly as three more USMC transport squadrons have made it as far as New Zealand with the opening of Raoul Island as an airfield.

Questionably quiet in South Pacific. USS Sturgeon is detected by aircraft 250 miles east of Luganville; cruiser or convoy? 10 ships are reported around the Tongas...I have a sneaking suspicion they're barges, though I'm not sure. We'll find out tomorrow. May equally be a bombardment run aimed at Niue, in which case we'll lose some aircraft, but if it is, it is...nothing I can do about it now.

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Post #: 184

RE: Jumping July - 1/12/2012 2:51:08 AM

kfsgo

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July. 12

Rain. Rain. Rain. Even in northern Australia, where it's supposed to be the dry season. Only about 1/4 of aircraft out of Tennant flew, though they did creditably well all the same. The danger is that one of these rain days will coincide with Japanese fighters staging in - either floatplanes or on carriers - though with 60% damage reported at Katherine, 95% at Darwin, and this:

the risk is probably limited for the time being. A motorised force has set off for a forward position from Alice Springs, just in case the Japanese bug out. Tennant Creek is keeping all the supply it gets now, so impact on operations should come there none.

Elsewhere, dull.

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Post #: 185

RE: Jumping July - 1/14/2012 5:43:42 AM

kfsgo

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July. 13

More Australian aircraft fly today; Damage to Port Darwin reportedly significant. On continuera...

RAF raid on Meiktila overnight blows up a Dinah. Having lost two more to flak, the Japanese have now lost 120 of these aircraft - which feels like a big number. No doubt the recon schools will be having some turnover...we'll repeat tomorrow.

Japanese escort carrier force detected off Mindanao; reportedly three carriers with around 90 aircraft. I have no idea why they're there or how exactly we spotted them, but, y'know, something to register.

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Post #: 186

RE: Jumping July - 1/14/2012 9:16:12 AM

kfsgo

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July. 14

First Mk. 14 that's worked for weeks...a 'Tokyo Express' style force is approaching the Tongas. Unsure whether it's picking up or dropping off...we've been giving Vava'u a bit of a pounding recently. TBFs from Niue may attack them if they're still around tomorrow.

RAF raid Meiktila again, except tonight instead of bombing a Japanese airfield they blow up a herd of water buffalo. Flak claims six Dinahs today, in addition to two Babs...es. What the hell are they doing, buzzing Fort William?

HMS Indomitable is four days out from Cape Town, from where it'll return to the Mediterranean. Formidable, Illustrious and Hermes leave Port Stanley today; the first will go to Cape Town and then on to the Med, the other two to the Indian Ocean. Yorktown (or Hornet?) is out of shipyard and all fixed; the other one should be done by the time everyone's upgrades are finished. Enterprise will go in for upgrades once it gets back from the Line Islands.

There is apparently a degree of skepticism in Tokyo about my ability to supply a force up the road from Alice Springs towards Darwin; I guess Aus Armd Div has been noticed moving northwards somehow. I've gone over this elsewhere, but supplying it per se isn't actually a problem at all - LCUs and indeed bases will draw supply that far. The trouble is that it doesn't happen often - LCU supply draw happens once per week, base draw twice. So, a force as small as I'm sending isn't really capable of bulling its way right up to the top end - it'd get pushed away after making an attack. The purpose of it is to draw a Japanese commitment forwards - or at the least to keep the forces currently in place where they are. Those aren't huge - an IJN naval base guard unit and a ton of engineers at Katherine, 4th Div and some unknown bits at Darwin, and probably some worthless dregs at Daly Waters, Fenton etc. The Katherine lot were bombed today by aircraft from Tennant Creek and lost 200 men; that's with most aircraft hitting airfields. Loss rate will increase in a couple of weeks once the infrastructure at Normanton is workable, at which point the Japanese have to either take some decisive action, accept the gradual reduction and eventual destruction of the force there, or leave, none of which are really good options. The danger remains commitment of aircraft carriers to reopen Darwin...but then that's basically a victory in itself, heh.

Tennant Creek, out of curiousity, is currently going through about 3500t of supply per week and drawing about 3200t per week forwards, between land movement and air supply. So, it's right on the cusp of being able to sustain the sort of effort I'm putting in at the moment permanently - and that's with more transport aircraft on the way and base construction still ongoing, meaning supply numbers are only going to increase. I hope to be able to get as far as Daly Waters with the force currently committed - the Japanese have been nice enough to build up the infrastructure for us - which taking will make the shutdown of Darwin essentially permanent short of commitment of full-scale carrier forces.

China quiet, but we do add two new fairly large infantry corps today. With the Japanese quiet (or, rather, moving), the supply situation isn't absolutely terrible at the moment; we have enough to keep everyone doing what they need to be doing. Chungking will have a radar in a few days, at which point the US China Air Taskforce can gradually start to be a presence. On thinking about it it's clearly a much more profitable job for them than sitting around India doing nothing useful until November...just have to keep supply flow up.

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Post #: 187

RE: Jumping July - 1/15/2012 9:18:50 AM

kfsgo

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July. 15

Tokyo Express is dropping off, apparently - troop numbers at Vava'u up to 6000 from 4000, units 6 to 4. Not complaining...hopefully we can get some combat units sucked in. We trade one F4F for three Rufes over the same.

Air force in India bomb Japanese at Prome; pilots report an enormous flash and pillar of smoke from the ground, visible for miles. Their counterparts in Australia have another half day due to rain; only the Darwin force flew, to usual results.

USN light combatants are finally starting to show up; the sub-chasers will be handy in the South Pacific once I can get them down there. We also add BB Valiant and CL Caradoc at Cape Town, which are departing immediately with a convoy for Australia. RAAF squadrons are on map off India and have overtaken transports carrying 1st Marine Div; they should make Karachi in a couple of days. The Australians have a lot more P-40s than they need just at the moment, so intention is that they'll join CATF units in China for a couple of months.

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Post #: 188

RE: Jumping July - 1/16/2012 6:26:22 AM

kfsgo

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July. 16

First appearance of Japanese fighters over Darwin - a dozen aircraft, between Oscar and Zero, intercept one of today's raids. We lose three Hudsons; defensive fire from B-17s takes out two Oscar and one Zero. Assume these guys are flying from Timor; actually it's kind of obvious, since they took off for home after the first raid. Nothing to worry about while it remains at this scale - I switched the Hudsons with a B-17 squadron that was hitting Katherine and everything else involved is capable of shooting back more or less effectively. Worst case I can move some P-38s up - they can reach Darwin. Troops at Katherine are fleeing, both northwards and southwards - I can understand going north, but not so much the other way. Bombing caught 250 of them today, so it makes sense that they'd leave in one direction or another - another week of this and one of my pilots could probably land and arrest them all.

The situation at Darwin has certainly aroused attention, anyway; we've got signals of multiple ships and even more previously restricted AA units headed for the place. So far so good...if we ever get to the point of being able to bomb Taiwan etc from Changsha someone's going to feel rather silly.

Four fighter squadrons - one RAF, three USAAF - stage into Yunnan unobserved. They'll proceed to Chungking tomorrow, where a radar set will join them, and will remain in China for the duration, absent any dire emergencies.

S-35 whiffs a shot at a tanker squadron east of Ndeni; apparently I haven't been pushing my submarines far enough east.

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Post #: 189

RE: Jumping July - 1/17/2012 6:45:27 PM

kfsgo

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July. 17

First appearance of Japanese carriers over Darwin, on timeframe approximately as expected given earlier spotting of the light carriers around Leyte; ~35 fighters from Zuiho and 3rd Ku (known to be on a light carrier) rise to meet today's raid, unfortunately much reduced in size by bad weather. We trade four B-17 (one hit a balloon - whoops) and two B-25 for three Zero. The reason for the losses becomes apparent when I look at the pilots in the B-17 squadrons - ground bombing skills are reasonably high (50s-60s) but defensive skills are uniformly terrible - 25 is downright stellar by local standards! Not sure what's gone on there...I've ordered a partial pause while some competent tailgunners are flown in; the medium bombers already have competent crews and will switch over to night attacks for a couple of days, not really possessing the numbers to go it alone in daylight.

The carriers themselves are likely close, so we have some Catalinas out of Normanton looking for them - no guarantees, but the area to be searched is pretty small. If we do find them, one of the four KM submarines nearby may get lucky...or sunk, on past performance, heh. Shame K-13 is working out of Calcutta...that's the one that got Ryujo, along with more merchant tonnage than the entire USN at this point, I think.

First elements of Aus Armd Div arrive at Tennant Creek; they'll hold for the tanks and support units to catch up. No rush...

China Air Taskforce enters China; sent'em to Changsha instead of CK as the runways at the former were for once clear by the end of the day and the radar still hasn't arrived at the latter, making it a bit of a moot point. Usual daily bombing raid is around 120 bombers escorted by around 35 fighters; we now have about 80 fighters en pointe. Expect some losses on ground tomorrow but if luck holds we should catch a few dozen Japanese.

Japanese cruiser squadron picked up between Raoul Island and Fiji; heading, speed etc unknown. We have two forces available to intercept if they try anything profound, but fuel is a limiting factor around here - NZ has 3300t total. More is on the way from US but has only made it to Tahiti so far - I am establishing these things from the rear up, so Christmas Island has a bunch etc. Australia is much better off with around 250,000t at present, with several large shipments being due to Perth/Albany shortly, so will probably get a couple of tankers doing trans-Tasman trips. Have Sunchaser and at least one other one hidden away somewhere...

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RE: Jumping July - 1/18/2012 6:51:48 PM

kfsgo

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July. 18

Where are the Japanese carriers? The world wond- oh, there they are:

None of the KM submarines were spotted and our naval search coverage is good (24 Catalina and 15 Hudson), so we might get a bang tomorrow. Fingers crossed...

Thunderstorms over Darwin prevent much from happening there in the air. Not unexpectedly, raid on Katherine gets interceptors over from the carriers; I switched the Beaufighters over to escort yesterday on the assumption this'd be the case and they do a good job shepherding their charges, with only one B-26 lost out of around 50 aircraft. We will have 15 P-38 at Tennant Creek tomorrow; in recognition of that, of the fact that a lot of the new B-17s are still in shipping crates, of the likelihood that troops at Katherine may clear the hex tomorrow dragging bombers with them and of the fact that facilities at Darwin and Katherine are both pretty well plastered, the bombers will have a day off and resume Darwin on the 20th, weather permitting.

USS Enterprise enters Pearl Harbour for a brief refit; HMS Indomitable departs for the Med. Gremlins at Cape Town seem to have removed the aircraft, though...very suspicious. They'll head for Australia as compensation for the loss of the two RAAF squadrons which disembarked in India overnight. Rest of Eastern Fleet is a couple of days out.

Japanese cruisers are still loitering around between Raoul Island and Fiji. Perhaps they're planning to try a bombardment...the local USMC Defense Bn has eight 6in guns, so that may not do too much. Of course, there ain't exactly much there to bombard beyond a few Catalinas and a four-aircraft fighter detachment - it's just a transit stop, after all.

A few interesting signals today; the Wake Coastal Gun unit, the one with the 8in guns that seems to pop up at every other base in some games, is at Noum�a; further suggestion that that's where we're expected to be heading next.

Nothing comes of China. In India, Silchar moves up to AF Lv. 9; engineers will proceed to Dimapur to repeat that acheivement there, after which Kohima, Imphal etc.

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RE: Jumping July - 1/19/2012 10:11:03 AM

kfsgo

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July. 19

Well, you tell me:

Only one torpedo hit, so not a sinking - sister ship Taiyo took three torpedoes earlier in the war and remained afloat. The other two submarines still haven't been spotted per se, though K-IX whiffed a shot at a destroyer. Still, mustn't complain...bombing of Darwin will resume, this time preceded by a small fighter sweep. We'll see how that goes; expect I will lose a few of both, but that's the price of keeping things disordered up here.

Brit 2nd Div and US Corps disembark Karachi. If not for the monsoon and political issues, we could probably be inside Burma by August...

Fighters in China concentrate at Chungking. Radar is unpacked and should be working now, so any sweeps should come at a cost. P-38 sqn will buzz Wuhan; B-17 sqn will bomb Haiphong at high altitude as a "hey, pay attention to me" move. I should have a radar set at Changsha in another fortnight or so, after which a small number of aircraft will base there for special duties.

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Post #: 192

RE: Jumping July - 1/20/2012 10:27:46 AM

kfsgo

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July. 20

Blah. A 'blah' day; practically no-one did anything, despite good weather.

A portion of an RAF base force reaches Changsha; this has no radar but does have 16 Bofors LAA, which should come in handy as the Japanese are big fans of 6000ft bombing here. The two Chinese AA regiments will arrive on the 23rd, expanding that further.

The 'special duties' I have in mind for Changsha are, essentially, naval - B-25 and Hudson can reach the other side of Taiwan from here, while Catalina and Liberator can make it out towards Okinawa. So far, my submarines in the China Sea have been completely ineffective - it's a long way from Hawaii, their targets are occasional enormous convoys that they never spot in the first place and I think they've sunk two or maybe three ships between Luzon and Japan since the war began. The hope is that, given a bit of aerial assistance, that will change - we should be able to attack larger convoys with flights of aircraft small enough to dodge interception, forcing them to either remain large - and suffer more air attacks - or split up and suffer more submarine attacks. I'm also working on an advance outpost at Midway so the sub trip isn't so cripplingly long. The trick, of course, is keeping the aircraft from being destroyed on the ground too often - which is where the CATF fighter crew come in. Initial deployment will be one USAAF (attack) and one RAF (search) Hudson squadron whenever the radar set arrives from Kunming, so we'll see how that goes.

This will also hopefully have the side effect of drawing Japanese attention to attacking the Changsha area, where I'm in a better logistical position to hurt them in the process than up in middle-of-nowhere Shaanxi or Mongolia. My ability to supply aircraft is sort of dependent on what they do; if there's some major ground campaign going on that will take up all the supplies, and if there isn't I have enough to keep aircraft moving and AA guns firing, if only just.

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Post #: 193

RE: Jumping July - 1/20/2012 12:48:24 PM

kfsgo

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July. 21

Definitely not a blah day.

China; CATF P-38s over Ichang shoot down four Oscars for no loss. B-17s then hammer airfields, destroying at least two Japanese recon aircraft. No raids over Changsha today. Funny, that; suspect desire on part of IJHQ to hit at bomber force at Chungking but concerns about losses. Japanese are broadly unwilling to attack defended areas - sensible, in one sense, but dangerous in others.

While this is going on, another Japanese army is approaching Changsha (naturally, once I start talking about it); this may be the recurring force which keeps approaching Changsha, bombarding for a day and then leaving, or it may be a draft from up north. We'll find out soon, I guess...Changsha has a 3000av garrison, another 3000av as 2-day reserve, L6 forts and "enough" supplies, so attacking it directly would be an...'interesting' approach.

We again raid Darwin. As I mentioned a few days ago, the heavy squadrons have undergone some really severe pilot picking here, with defensive skills being given the priority due to our inability to provide realistic fighter escort until the basing situation improves. Today those picks pay off - the raid is met by 70 Japanese fighters, including 35 locally based Oscars, and loses three bombers while shooting down around 10 fighters. More importantly, the airfield is again closed, so the based fighter group is now a bit stuck.

Katherine is also hit again. It's evident that combat troops have pulled out and abandoned the civvies; we claim to have inflicted 350 casualties, all to non-combat and engineering troops. Suspect the base may be low on supplies; the troops certainly aren't recovering from disruption effectively, with no noticeable repairs having been made to the airfield in the last week.

Support units for Northforce are about a week away from Tennant Creek. Once they're all together, they'll set off for Daly Waters as a group; no sense in sending the armoured units ahead as the Japanese would just do to me what I've been doing to them, ie bomb everything to paste. This is going to be the great challenge here - not getting them up there or taking DW or perhaps even Katherine, but trying to get those bases operational on a painfully small engineering and supply budget.

Japanese bombers do raid Cochin, the first time they've dared leave Ceylon in weeks; sum total of shipping in port is one tiny Dutch auxiliary, which is hit by a small bomb.

Few interesting signals, though a Kwantung tank regiment is at sea headed for Singapore. Presumably Burma-bound...I wonder how the Russians would feel about the asset-stripping?

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RE: Jumping July - 1/21/2012 8:22:39 AM

kfsgo

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July. 22

A day in which a lot of things resolve themselves.

Japanese army is in force at Changsha; this is 6900av in 15 divisions and four IMBs, with another one or two on the way. Our force is as stated above; CATF fighters will jump in to Changsha for a couple of days to enable a reserve to proceed into the city without excessive air harrassment, while the bombers will attack in support. Bomber force will have to head back in India in a few days; Chungking has been stockpiling supplies for them and I will need to release that for Changsha. Believe we can hold, though obviously won't know until we do. I need to stop starting to talk about these places...

Japanese have an offensive day in the air in Burma, attacking...Silchar, where half the SEAC fighter force is based. Can't figure that one out - anyway, we essentially traded fighter for fighter, which is just fine. Engineers have all made Dimapur.

Japanese finally finish construction of airfield at Vava'u, basing around 25 Zeros there; these shoot down a few escorting Wildcats but hardly touch the bombers. We will have a day or two of sweeps to clear the air and then resume bombing, except this time of the airfield rather than the port. At least we've got someone's attention down here...

No opposition in the air over Darwin; we burn several Oscars on the ground. The Japanese carriers are heading back down towards it so likely there will be some tomorrow.

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Post #: 195

RE: Jumping July - 1/22/2012 8:48:28 AM

kfsgo

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July. 23

The Japanese Army beats itself half to death in front of Changsha, with 19000 casualties to our 5000 - about 1/3rd of the force engaged was disabled. Not even a cursory attempt was made at bombing - the IJAAF chose to go after some stragglers in the middle of nowhere. Of course, we didn't manage anything either, Chungking being hemmed in by fog. I've sent in the Hudson squadrons for a day to see what they can actually see out to sea (heh) - Japanese fighters are swarming at Wuhan so I expect some attempt will be made to attack our fighters shortly, but the airfield being bombed seems less likely.

The supply situation at Changsha is now bad, in the sense that the place is demanding larger allotments, but not really worse than it was before the attack - they seem to have found some bits somewhere. Unit supply is...good?

e: also I think I forgot to stand down the B-17s when I sent them back to India. Oops. That could end badly...

Not sure what the Japs do next - they can keep beating, I suppose, but more probably they will go try somewhere else. All other routes but one are fairly heavily guarded...will be interesting to see which is picked. Fundamentally I don't understand the train of thought - from my end it seems like the thought process was [have to destroy Chinese] > [Changsha is where the largest concentration of Chinese is] > [attack Changsha], which is just...ugh.

Darwin is bombed and kept closed. Katherine is bombed and another 500 engineers disabled. The last of these have now fled to Darwin, leaving Katherine empty. We lose a few Beaufighters escorting the latter flight, but they keep their bombers safe as ever. Will start the clear-out of Daly Waters tomorrow.

Offensive flights in South Pacific go relatively poorly; mixed P-40/Wildcat flight do ok as a whole but Japanese attention focuses on P-40s. I think they went about 15-3 against, while the Wildcats managed about 3 losses for 6 kills. Still, they've done their job - namely, dragging out some bait for the P-38s that finally arrived from Australia today. Tomorrow should be fun...

< Message edited by kfsgo -- 1/22/2012 9:18:39 AM >

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Post #: 196

RE: Jumping July - 1/22/2012 12:29:02 PM

kfsgo

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July. 24

Or not. Japanese run away in SoPac, so nothing much happens beyond some unenthusiastic bombing.

Darwin bombed again. Daly Waters bombed, preceded by P-38s, shaving about 1/6th off the single unit there. This one has no railway to flee on, so it's dead meat unless the airfields at Darwin reopen - and probably even then. I have set the armoured units off northwards, the commanders having promised not to stray too far from friendly fighter cover; AA is still a couple of days behind. The "appearance" of P-38s here and over Tonga has prompted some grumbling from IJHQ; of course, the ones in Australia have been there a while and can't go further than Daly due to drop tank supply issues - the B-17s need a huge reserve, which cuts everyone else off from extra tankage. Normanton is at L4, so in a week or so we can operate them out of there...but at a payload cost, so they'll get less done. Choices, choices...

Out in the Coral Sea, USS Gar torpedoes two Japanese seaplane support ships out of a convoy of at least seven of the things; they're only 500 miles east of Townsville and reportedly heading west, so who knows what's going on there. Probably headed for Moresby by way of Cape "alarm the Australians", I guess?

Changsha is raided as expected; we trade a dozen Kittyhawks and a couple of Hurricanes for a dozen Zeros and an Oscar. Am content to maintain this level of action for the time being, though squadrons will need to be rotated in and out as morale fluctuates; I guess flying out of Stalingrad wasn't much fun either. Radar set is on the road and will be here in a few days. No land attacks, and the Japanese seem to be scuttling back towards Wuhan.

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Post #: 197

RE: Jumping July - 1/23/2012 7:11:29 PM

kfsgo

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July. 25

Japanese return to Vava'u; we trade 15 Wildcats and two P-38s for about a dozen Japanese aircraft. Most losses as usual are aircraft escorting bombers...the Wildcat is not a good aircraft, but it's at least marginally usable when not tied to a flight of Avengers. When it is tied to a flight of Avengers...not so great. Will have to pause for a few days - performance is ok but squadrons are not dragging replacement aircraft forwards fast enough - VMF-211 is down to three aircraft, 221 four, VF-2 21 (of 36). Our pilot recovery rate at least is good as we have a submarine on station.

Some lower-intensity scruffling over Changsha, with attendant lower-intensity results. Hudsons do pick up at least one small convoy off Taiwan, but no attacks eventuate. I get the sense that the situation here is being looked at as a sort of "ah-HA! time to DO SOME DAMAGE" situation in Tokyo; at the least, it's had the effect of drawing 100 new fighters into China. Fundamentally, it's getting some pilots shot, so I can't complain...we have the aircraft reserves to last out August at about this rate, after which replacements pick up in quantity and quality. There does exist the possibility I will have to retire in about a week or so, depending on whether the Ki-44 rollout goes ahead in August or September; I hate the thing, but moreso I hate the fact that I know in advance that I'm going to be seeing little else for the next year and a half. At least they have short legs by Japanese standards...

Some interesting signals...Jap 33rd Div is at sea heading for Batavia; since it was last seen at Batavia just a couple of months ago and is known to be planning to hit the Cocos the assumption is the invasion of that atoll is imminent. Given the practical impossibility of resupply on the necessary timescale I've been slowly drawing down troop levels there over the last few weeks - I still have a few PBY-4 which can fly them out to Carnarvon in Australia - and nearly all the combat units are either there or heading down towards Sydney. By disbanding them, and taking advantage of the fact that I have a whole load of KNIL equipment that I never used, I will be able to assemble one and at least most of a second Dutch Bde in Australia; having no replacements they're not really useful for offensive operations, but they will be handy for peace of mind as a garrison once operations from Australia start to accelerate. It's a shame more couldn't be done here - unfortunately, none of the Dutch base units carry much in the way of naval support around, so once the port was damaged that was pretty much the end of it as supply unloading was taking far longer than the ships had available between bombardments.

Also, a second unit has been picked up preparing for a move on Adak - a Kwantung electrical engineer regiment, of all things. I am downright drowning the place in supplies, on the assumption that if something does kick off it will be challenging to get more through for a while. It's a pretty short trip from Prince Rupert, so this doesn't take much shipping. If nothing's happened up here by mid-September or so I will install a small garrison on Shemya (I think - the small one at the western end) for eventual snooping purposes.

USN assault shipping is back off the map from Karachi, and will head to Australia from Cape Town on arrival there. By the time they arrive I should have the fleet and fuel required to make a small splash...

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Post #: 198

RE: Jumping July - 1/27/2012 3:14:38 PM

kfsgo

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July. 26

Hey, I called it - one and a half Japanese divisions land at the Cocos, losing more squads to drowning than we still have as a garrison. A shame, but there it is - most of the irreplaceable stuff made it off, so it could've been much worse. Will be interesting to see where the half-dozen battleships that've been tied to the place since Batavia fell decide to go.

Usual bombing of Darwin, Daly Waters etc. Odd that there has been no fighter opposition for several days; surely one of the squads of Oscars from Timor on LR patrol would provide a good return on effort invested, even if the # of engagements was limited. Mustn't complain...advance armoured units will reach Daly Waters in around two weeks, depending on whether any bombing of them eventuates, after which - assuming no major problems - I'll fly in some engineers. Going beyond that to Katherine will likely be more challenging, despite the shorter distance...at least the Japanese have done me the service of building the airfields.

Also in the air, the Battle of Changsha continues; today we trade around 10 aircraft in the air and a couple on the ground for around 20 Japanese fighters and 5 or so bombers. Usual squadron rotation faff...the squadron that lost aircraft on the ground is Not Happy about it and needs a week off to write angry letters or something.

Not much elsewhere; a Catalina pilot claims to have hit a Japanese cruiser with a bomb off Fiji, but I have my doubts.

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Post #: 199

RE: Jumping July - 2/4/2012 2:10:20 AM

kfsgo

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July. 27

HIJMS was moving house, apparently, hence yet another break.

Nothing much substantial actually happened today, which makes the long wait a little irritating; most flights in Australia grounded due to weather ("what dry season?"), while we burn up half a dozen Japs over Changsha. Japanese submarine-floatplane activity is a little accelerated over the usual, with flights over Adak, Townsville and Brisbane in addition to the half-dozen daily overflights of the usual places. The latter two will have nothing new to show, but the former is the first actual reconnaisance the Japanese have performed up in the Aleutians as far as I'm aware. Likely reaction to the substantial garrison..."uncertain". Very much a place on everyone's mind at the moment, of course; the current troop commitment is about what the place is getting for a while, however.

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Post #: 200

RE: Jumping July - 2/4/2012 2:01:05 PM

kfsgo

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July. 28

Battle of Changsha continues; we knock down about a dozen fighters and a couple of bombers for the loss of about a dozen fighters. Japanese troops continue to yo-yo in and out of Changsha; they march in, turn right around and march one hex east, then march back in again. I'm not sure what the point of it is...I'm assuming there is one, beyond faintly incomprehensible theatre.

Light carrier force returns to the Timor Sea; a maximum-effort CAP from them and Timorese land bases puts about 25 fighters over Darwin, which shoot up a couple each of LB-30s and B-25. Fortunately nothing substantial, and K-XII, the submarine on station, was able to recover all but one of the downed crews...I suspect tomorrow will be somewhat more intensive as the ships will likely be closer in. It's a shame groups get a little wonky if you overload them with pilots; I have enough USAAF bods who know what a ship looks like that it'd be practical to load for bear for a day and go after them. Unfortunately the situation will just have to be tolerated for another week or so; advance units are about 8-9 days out of Daly Waters, with AA, artillery etc another week or so behind them. On inspection I am fairly comfortable about the usability of Daly as the only airfields within IJA bomber range of the place is...Darwin, so as long as we can keep that down until we have Daly we should be ok. The supply situation remains the point of potential problem, but there's not really anything I can do about that until I have the place beyond hoping that the Japs left some behind.

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Post #: 201

RE: Jumping July - 2/6/2012 12:30:57 AM

kfsgo

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July. 29

Well, that's one way of doing it...

It went down, taking its aircraft with it; I think the Pearl Harbour AA crews got another one, with more popping up at Dutch Harbour, Rarotonga, Cairns. Interesting that the things are so much more active all of a sudden.

Anyway, pretty much everywhere else was rained off, so our only losses are a couple of Hudsons over Taiwan - apparently groups with their schedules filled up with rest and naval search duties will still fly naval attacks. Who knew...

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Post #: 202

RE: Jumping July - 2/6/2012 11:35:37 PM

kfsgo

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July. 30

More submarines, off Brisbane, Townsville, Rarotonga...yet another one torpedoes destroyer Cassin off Hawaii. About half a dozen of them are still "blockading" Niue...which is kinda funny, since so many ships went in without incident in the days after the landing that the place has supplies for months yet. Beats doing anything useful with them, I guess?

Darwin is opposed again; today we get an answer to the question of where the seaplane carriers were going a week ago, as the raid is met by over two dozen float fighters. Unfortunately (for the Japanese) a B-17 is a little bit faster than those hunks of junk, so we're just down a couple of straggling B-25s and another LB-30. The real danger in these interceptions is not the trickle of lost aircraft (which is no great problem, having hoarded bombers for months) but the disruption to bombing - absent the capture of Daly Waters I think Darwin would essentially reopen (albeit perhaps intermittently) in about half a dozen raids disrupted more heavily; there's clearly a lot of engineers. Beyond the floatplane carriers and at least one "proper" light aircraft carrier playing chicken with O-24 off to the northeast there seem to be a fair few freighters in harbour - wonder whether they're picking up or dropping off?

What I find really inexplicable is that the Japanese have made no effort to attack Tennant Creek; place is overstacked to hell and has been since this little game started. Only thing that can reach it are some of the Navy bombers, but Broome has an airfield large enough to host them, and night attacks would at least be extremely disruptive...best not to complain, I guess.

Burma mostly quiet, except for smearing a Japanese recon detachment at Katha over their airfield. China similarly quiet; I was basically told "I'm waiting for the Tojo" so I guess a dozen pilots a day wasn't considered a sustainable loss rate over Changsha. Shame, really...the radar sets should make it in tomorrow. About half the Japanese force seems to have left Changsha; a single 4-aircraft RAF Lysander detachment are the only reliable recon aircraft local and they can't keep track of everything, so I don't "know" where they went (back to Wuhan, though, since I'd have noticed otherwise). Fortunately the Japanese haven't made a big thing of bombardments here. I think I may regret making Changsha too hard a nut whenever they get where they're going...

Jap 55th Div is reported planning up for a landing at Adak; it was previously operating on Java, then on Mindanao. That raises known potential commitment there to about a division and a half, while also suggesting that if 55th Div is involved it probably won't happen for another couple of weeks at least. I expect outright capture of the place would require around twice that commitment on the part of the Japanese (if not more), given the accessibility of the island to West Coast-restricted forces - as in, I can fly in 300 men a day from Anchorage if it comes down to that. Supply stockpiles on the island are just tipping six digits, and a US Army base force (to cater to the support needs of any airportable forces, since they won't be able to bring their trucks along) and a 12-gun artillery regiment are currently offloading. Dutch Harbour is a little less strongly held, but is also closer to Alaska. The eternal problem with these things - is it better to give the impression of strength, confidence, solidity etc and deter attack, or to flail about like an injured rabbit and invite the oppo. to do something stupid? I can't think of anywhere I'd like a Japanese Div. to be more right now, save perhaps Fiji...

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Post #: 203

RE: Jumping July - 2/7/2012 8:57:06 PM

kfsgo

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July. 31

Darwin rained off again. Apparently the place averages 0.5 rainy days per month in July and August...I think we've had about 10 this month. One thing that people who prattle on about the SW monsoon tend to miss is that there's an Australian monsoon, too - even places like New Guinea and the Solomons, which seem to be generally thought of as being sort of consistently rainy. Anyway, estimated Japanese troop and gun numbers are half what they were yesterday, so I guess it was an evacuation; at a guess the infantry division. Bad or good will depend on where they go - I'd like to entertain the conceit that it's the first step of a full-scale evacuation, since that'd pretty much get me 1000 miles closer to Java in the time it takes to drive to Darwin...but I can't imagine that sort of thing would slip quietly into night. We'll see, anyway - we should have Daly Waters in four days.

Quiet elsewhere. An SBD claims to have inserted a bomb into a Japanese merchant cruiser off the Tongas, though I have my doubts. Interestingly, I noticed the Japanese never bothered occupying Batan Island, between Luzon and Taiwan - handy place, given presence of a reasonable airfield and a large enough supply stockpile to run a few offensive missions. I think I can do Things with it, if it's left undisturbed for a month or so...

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Post #: 204

RE: August Alert - 2/10/2012 12:10:05 AM

kfsgo

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August. 1

Darwin rained off. Again. This is becoming a real problem.

One of a slightly different sort appears off Western Australia; if you look back to July 9th there's the first raiding attempt with Kiyosumi Maru, which accomplished nothing; we now have a large group, with at least one aircraft carrier and at least two cruisers heading southwards about 1000 miles west of Perth. Situation is this:

HMS Valiant is further southwest with an Adelaide convoy but fuel is an issue there. Actually fuel is an issue everywhere - it's a long trip and the old ships don't really have the range to play escort and fight. One or the other, sure...USS Mississippi and HMS Danae will enter map with another convoy in six days. Japanese attacks on a Dutch freighter yesterday featured Vals only; air group claimed as coming from Ryujo, which was definitely sunk off Malaya. None of the covoys has been spotted, so the Japanese will be rolling the dice as far as attempting to intercept one.

This is a puzzle; I am unsure whether there are more carriers involved. If there are, attempting to get cute will be dangerous; if there aren't, well, it'd probably come down to a surface engagement. Given what I know I don't know (more carriers? torpedo bombers? secondary cruiser force?) least worst option seems to be:

- Slow convoys will head back into the Indian Ocean while we deal with things; they're all close enough to the map edge to do so without too much danger, and have the battleships as overwatch.
- Fast convoy will split in four; one part to head southeast and then towards Adelaide, one to head southwest and decide on destination tomorrow, one to head due west, while Birmingham attempts to put the wind up the carrier force. Realistically I suppose that guarantees one part will be attacked, but, well, them's the breaks. I've lost a grand total of three merchants in the last two months, so I guess I'm due a few, heh.
- Portland, Indianapolis and destroyers will collect to the southeast of where they currently are to be in a position to interfere with any attempts to go beyond the Albany lane.
- Enterprise, Ceres and destroyers will hang about 300 miles off Australia and we'll see whether they're needed or not.

It's a shame Illustrious, Hermes, Formidable etc aren't around yet - they and a separate cruiser force are already heading into the IO to guard against exactly this sort of situation, but got delayed in the Atlantic coming over from Port Stanley and won't be on map until it's kinda late. Fortunately there's nothing critical on the line, in any case - couple of tankers here and there, but mostly just smaller freighters lugging fuel around.

Meanwhile, in Fiji...

Yeah, five parachute drops by fragments of the same unit. We had a rule against this at one point, but Saros ignored it so many times I just gave up bringing it up.

Quiet elsewhere. The calm before the storm...

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Post #: 205

RE: August Alert - 2/11/2012 7:54:36 PM

derp

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I managed to lock myself out of my account in changing the e-mail address. Turns out if you bugger up the address it sends an e-mail off to the wrong place, and there's no way of reverting the change. Oops. Hopefully will be fixed at some point...the perils of ancient forum software, I guess.

August. 2

Darwin not rained off. A total of 99 aircraft fly, meeting minimal opposition in the air. Bomber gunners dubiously claim two Oscar; these and a Dinah are the only aircraft losses anywhere today. I think 99 is a record; certainly the recent squadron resize has helped. It does appear 4th (? - I forget) Infantry Div has been removed, leaving only engineers etc as a garrison. Suspicion from observed sea traffic is that the unit may go over to Broome or Port Hedland rather than Timor or wherever - I actually thought it was headed for Wyndham as some Japanese ships were approaching that base yesterday, but they seem to have had second thoughts. I wonder what the engineers left behind think of it? They've been stood up by the army several times now...

No action in Indian Ocean. Unsure whether this is a nerve issue (Japanese withdraw due to early detection) or a speed issue (Japanese carrier involved slow and so not yet in range of anything). If a fast one had kept going I would have expected some sort of meeting. In any case, we didn't spot them today. A relief, but also a slight disappointment; if they're still out there the cruisers should find them tomorrow.

USMC Parachute Bde is coming ashore in Australia. Intention is for use around NW Queensland; Horn Island, Mornington Is etc, though not for a little while yet. Also debarking is a regular Marine Rgt and a Def Bn; US Army reinf convoy is about a week away with 100 or so tanks and a whole trainwreck of engineers. 2nd Marine Div will be hopping over to the continent over the next 3-4 weeks; have decided to remove them from Tahiti as troops to replace them are available, fortifications extreme and Japanese interest negligible.

61st Infantry Group is reported preparing for Adak; that would bring commitment up to ~2 Divs. Mustn't complain...can't help but wonder at the point of it, though.

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Post #: 206

RE: August Alert - 2/13/2012 10:47:04 PM

derp

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August. 3

No sign of carrier/s. I guess they went home? Will keep looking in any case...

Another rain day over Darwin; instead of grounding everyone rain just grounds 75% of everyone, so we're down half a dozen Mitchells and a couple of B-17s due to poor defensive ability of small formations. Will miss being in Daly Waters by two miles tomorrow, so we should be in on the 5th and in control on the 6th. The first day will be critical - the armoured units have very few engineers so construction, aviation support etc bods for the first few weeks of operations will all have to fly in - no problem, as long as the airfield doesn't get broken on day 1. Can't see that it will - no IJAAF airfields in range, and IJNAF bombers have long ceased to get involved in that sort of thing, but you never know...

China inscrutable. At least part of the force that was at Changsha is shooting off back towards the north; another part of it is back to the usual deranged see-saw movement into and out of Changsha. I don't think there'll be another attack here, at least for a while; the reason why is plastered over a few dozen units in the city:

Maybe not the most experienced units on the map, but they sure ain't rabble any more...

Supply situation in Changsha is actually ok - all the units have full supply - but every bombardment cycles 1000t or so through stockpiles, which isn't sustainable beyond short term as long as Rangoon remains closed. Fortunately the bombardments are sporadic...up north is liable to be less good, as supply sources are smaller. I do have a couple of small caches in out-of-the-way places that I've been sitting on for a while, which can be released if absolutely necessary. I was downright ruthless with the Chinese for the first few months of the war - lots of full-corps suicide charges just to keep Japanese engaged away from anywhere important for a few days etc. The wisdom of that in the long term is questionable, but at the back of my mind was the idea that, relieved of the need to un-disable eighteen trillion squads, the Chinese supply situation would be much improved. That seems to have worked out - there's essentially no dead weight in the NRA, so although the units are smaller they are using less supplies and fighting better. Is it better to have a large army, or a smaller army and an air force? Guess we'll see...

Interestingly, there are 55 ships in harbour at Shanghai - add to that at least 250 at Singapore. Obviously not a very stressed logistical system on the other side of the fence...I guess having elves capable of teleporting 10,000t of oil 3000 miles every other day helps with that. Would certainly explain why there appears to be no significant traffic in the South China Sea.

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Post #: 207

RE: August Alert - 2/17/2012 4:30:51 AM

derp

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August. 4

Essentially nothing interesting today. Darwin rained off, everything in Burma rained off, nothing in China, nothing off Australia. About the only substantial things that happened were an actual IJAAF bombing raid in Burma (against perenially undefended Akyab, which is kind of irrelevant - I think someone mistook aircraft over Bangkok and Rangoon (flying from Comilla) for me basing aircraft there) and another multiple-island drop by fascist 1st Raiding Regiment; 'only' three separate islands received two squads apiece today. Sure hope IJHQ's prepared to have to garrison every little dot base between Darwin and Balikpapan six months from now...

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Post #: 208

RE: August Alert - 2/17/2012 9:12:32 PM

derp

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August. 5

Another pretty dim day, really, though we do manage to hit Darwin. We are in Daly Waters but not yet in control. Should be tomorrow...I'm giving the air forces a day off in consequence - no sense in bombing tomorrow when they should have fighter cover after a night's rest.

Japanese submarine force has given up on Niue and Samoa; they're all heading back towards Fiji. Whether it's just a refuelling trip or whether they're off to actually do something useful I have no idea.

Incidentally, if you're staring at your patrol/transport operational losses and thinking 'dear god, how the hell am I supposed to build up these numbers when they keep crashing', czech this out:

Since I told half of them to take the day off every day, which was a decent while ago, I think I've lost...two or three? The only US transport squadrons that aren't at or near full strength are the USMC ones in Australia, which just don't get enough replacements period. Effectively I'm flying the same amount of stuff as I would be giving them no rest, since I have twice the number of aircraft as I would have, and I can go even higher in an emergency.

Same applies to the Catalinas - they basically only crash on base moves now. That still adds up to a fair few, given how they jump around all over the place, but there's no squadrons lingering along with three or four aircraft any more...

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Post #: 209

RE: August Alert - 2/19/2012 4:40:53 AM

derp

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August. 6

Let's see...

- We occupy Daly Waters with L3 forts intact. Absolutely key moment - supply flow will be twice what I was expecting. Seems a little was left behind, too - enough for operations to start immediately. Good thing I never bombed the airfield here, eh? There is a significant Japanese merchant group spotted out in the Timor Sea headed for Darwin, so I am going to kick in some USMC dive-bombers for one day - hopefully to intercept whatever's sailing in, but mostly to give the impression of being able to keep a bomber group flying out of Daly. I don't think that's realistic at the moment - they'll certainly have to go back down tomorrow - but IJHQ doesn't need to know that.

- USS S-32 torpedoes armed merchant Akagi Maru off Fiji.

- 80 Japanese fighters come at Changsha; CATF aircraft rise to intercept in the first radar-guided engagement ever conducted in China. I think it's fair to say the Japanese didn't distinguish themselves - we claim around two dozen reliable and another dozen questionable kills for around a dozen losses. Japanese morale seems poor; a number of aircraft turned away from engagements rather than prosecuting the fight. No sign of the promised Tojos, either...maybe tomorrow. We also acquire the first Chinese ace - the CAF is very much a capable force at this point, aided by the P-43 being one of the better fighters available to anyone at the moment. Shame replacements are about to dry up...

_____________________________

was kfsgo, managed to lock myself out of acct. oops.

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Post #: 210