Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
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25 Dec 41 Sub War Well, I lost my first sub. The valiant Ro-65 boldly steamed into Pt. Moresby harbor and confirmed what I had thought. My nasty old opponent had laid a minefield there. The Ro-65 graciously swept two of them for me and promptly sank. 5 Fleet Nothing new to report. 4 Fleet The engineer battalion at Wake is slowly repairing the airfield damage (to the tune of a whopping 18 points today). The current damage is 73 points of port damage, 45 points of service damage and 14 points of runway damage. At this rate, it'll take over a week to repair before they can start working on forts. Maybe another engineer battalion is in order. Truk is getting 3x naval construction battalions tomorrow. I'll probably ship one to Wake temporarily. The Nauru Invasion force has left Jaluit and will arrive in 2 days. Nauru and Ocean Islands produce resources which I will ship to Truk and then to the Home Islands when a convoy is leaving Truk for that destination. I'll place an SNLF Co as a garrison for each location as well as an AS company and some recon at Nauru. They are merely early warning speed bumps. SE Fleet Rabaul has been liberated by our victorious forces. We lost 326(2) troops to 711(67) Aussies. The B/NG Rifle Company was destroyed but the Lark Det and the Rabaul Base Force retreated into the jungle. Three Hudsons were destroyed on the ground. I'm leaving the Maizuru 1 SNLF as a garrison along with a Base Force, which landed with the invasion troops. The 23 Air Flotilla HQ will land tomorrow. I have already stationed 45 Zeros, 27 Bettys and 6 naval Babs there, with most of the remainder of the flotilla's planes to fly in shortly. The remainder of the invasion force is loading up for Pt. Moresby. The 90 Infantry Regiment is still enroute and will join the invasion fleet wherever they may be. KB launched several attacks against Pt. Moresby and the surrounding area shooting down 4 P-40Es (of 12 spotted) and sinking 3x xAKLs and an xAP, all empty unfortunately. I lost 1 Val and it's pilot. I don't think Ted could have put anything in Pt. Moresby that can hold off my invasion. The worst thing that will happen is a loss of shipping to mines. There's really nothing I can do about it, so I'll just hold my breath when they go in. The BB TF is meant for cover and will not enter Pt. Moresby. Hopefully, Ted will flee at the sight of KB. If not, he'll just lose more ships. In addition to it's anti shipping mission, KB is sending 2 daitai of Zeros on a sweep mission over Pt. Moresby, hopefully to kill off the rest of the P-40s there. An extra elite pilot or two wouldn't hurt either. China Nothing new to report. Burma The build up of Pt. Blair continues. In addition to most of the 1 Raiding Regiment, a construction company has been flown in. Next on the agenda is an AS unit so I can put some fighters over the place to protect it. The invasion force is only 29 miles away from Moulmein. The 33 Division is still unloading at Bangkok but should be entirely aboard the train in a day or two. Borneo Zuiho's Claudes shot down 3 more attacking 139WH-3s today. Just think what they will do when they can find a port and upgrade to Zeros! The 21 Division continues to load to head to Balikpapan. Mindanao Nothing new to report. Philippines More bombardment of Clark Field. I am keeping track of the 6 Allied combat units in the hex. Most of them grow continually weaker each day from the bombardment. Here's the list: 3/45 PA Bn - This unit is almost destroyed with an AV <10. 57 PS Infantry Regiment - AV of 45 but slowly losing ground. 71 PA Division - Losing 5-8 AV a day. Currently at 29. 91 PA Division - Similar to 71st. Currently at 30. 1 Constabulary Regiment - Steady at 52. 2 Constabulary Regiment - Steady at 71. The artillery will begin unloading tomorrow at Iba (largest port at 2). We'll see how long this takes..... Malaya Georgetown was captured, destroying 3 units and getting 2 Buffalos on the ground. The manpower there is 1(1) and the HI is 4(1). I'm going to repair that last HI and will leave it until the area is secure. Then I'll decide whether or not to increase HI here. That leaves 5 units isolated north of Singapore. I will continue to build up as well as destroy these units. The 5 Division is crawling from Mersing to Johore Bharu. It's taking forever. Tomorrow, I am sweeping Singapore with 18 Zeros from Yamada. There are no more than 12 Buffalos left, and they are all at Singapore. Once the RAF is destroyed, I'll send in the Sallys. I have 70 at Alor Star currently bombing the interior troops. Once I capture Mersing (5 Div is 33 miles away), I'll set up a fighter base there and relocate the Sallys to Kuantan. Then I'll start airfield bombardment of Singapore to prevent additional fort building. Other Stuff My fighters are gaining experience very rapidly. Right now, I have 1 IJA and 1 IJN pilot in TRACOM. The IJN land based fighters have 5 elite pilot, IJN carrier based fighters have 13 elite pilots and the IJA fighters have 15(!) elite pilots. After Malaya and Java are captured, I'll move some of the pilots to training units and some will go to TRACOM. I have a horde of pilots that are currently at 80 as well so I expect more elite pilots in the days to come. Of particular note is the Kaga fighter daitai, with 5 elite pilots! The turn is back. Gotta go!
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