Bullwinkle58
Posts: 11302
Joined: 2/24/2009 Status: offline
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May 31, 1942 End Of The Merry Month Of May Time marches on. Another month down finds the Allies in not bad shape, although there are pressure points on the map, particularly in a place I never expected, the high mountains exiting China. 1) Starting there, the lone Chinese corps arrived from the west (Paoshan), opening the hexside into the conflict hex the Big Stack is slowly moving into from the other side, just above Tsuyung. Ideally I would have waited to better coordinate arrivals, but I was afraid, with 25ish LCUs in the conflict hex, the Japanese would come west with some, boot it backwards, and I would lose the hexside. That may happen anyway, now. The battle was a rout for the Chinese LCU, which surrendered, but I now know what's in the stack. The BS is going to come on anyway--the supply situation demands it--but if it loses the battle there may be no retreat route open. Which would be a disaster in the short run. For now, Chungking will get a 1/3 strength corps by and by. And I have intel. The BS won't make the conflict hex for about three weeks and a lot could happen in that time. Ground combat at 67,45 (near Tsuyung) Japanese Shock attack Attacking force 117297 troops, 1201 guns, 314 vehicles, Assault Value = 4224 Defending force 4175 troops, 33 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 137 Japanese adjusted assault: 7029 Allied adjusted defense: 1 Japanese assault odds: 7029 to 1 Combat modifiers Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), disruption(-), fatigue(-) experience(-), supply(-) Attacker: shock(+) Japanese ground losses: 1030 casualties reported Squads: 1 destroyed, 82 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 15 disabled Allied ground losses: 5427 casualties reported Squads: 206 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 176 destroyed, 0 disabled Engineers: 27 destroyed, 0 disabled Guns lost 48 (48 destroyed, 0 disabled) Units destroyed 1 Assaulting units: 39th Division 116th Division 13th Division 34th Division 3rd Division 13th Tank Regiment 17th Division 9th Armored Car Co 51st Engineer Regiment 6th Division 40th Division 35th Division 8th Ind. Engineer Regiment 14th Medium Field Artillery Regiment 15th Ind.Medium Field Artillery Regiment 51st Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion 1st Mortar Battalion 52nd Road Const Co 2nd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment 52nd Ind.Mtn.Gun Battalion 4th Mortar Battalion 2nd Ind. Engineer Regiment 2nd RF Gun Battalion 11th Army 21st Mortar Battalion 5th RF Gun Battalion Defending units: 33rd Chinese Corps 2) At Chungking the Chinese put up a CAP of Lancers in a gamble the Sallys will come unescorted. Bad bet as sweeping Oscars arrive first. Three Lancers are lost. 3) 2E bombers hit Kendari TF unloading. CA Kako is showing heavy black smoke. One Oscar is shot down, but no hits on ships. The Allied CA Escort TF has a bit more system damage than I thought, but about the level of flooding a Long Lance usually deals. The third CA is nearly back to Soerbaja where slightly damaged CL and APD/DDs are ready for a second try if it presents itself. 4) On the Sumatra west coast Japan took vacant Benkoelen two days ago, and today the dot base to the east. There are now multiple ways open to march on PBang from the IO side. I suspect he is trying to take the base on the RR from Oosthaven where there is a light Allied garrison. I don't think any force coming is heavy enough to take this and hold it given how close PBang is. The US Army ID on the way is three days out of CT today. As naval activity around SW Sumatra is picking up I will need to escort this one in. Colombo has plenty of assets to do that. A little north, search finds a TF I thought was a further landing force, but instead seems to be a barrier patrol. Attackers from PBang attack it twice, putting a 500lb SAP bomb into CL Kashima. The only other ship sighted is DD Minegumo. This bears watching. I suspect but do not know that right now Japan "feels" powerful in the IO and Bay of B. To my knowledge the USN injections have not been sighted. Wasp, North Carolina, and several CLAA and DDs arrive in nine days and right now will be sent to Asia. 5) Allied strat bombing mostly is ineffective. Two strikes on Balikpapan by B-17s chew up the CAP quite a bit but score no oil hits. Rangoon Manpower continue to live a charmed life as nothing gets through at night. Kweiyang takes 8 Manpower hits and 3190 Fires. 6) Rounding out the month, at Bataan the Allies bombard again, inflicting 91 casualties. Getting to June with the PI still unconquered (Cebu and several other mid-PI bases are still Allied too) was a goal. Against my usual practice I plan to haul some sub supplies into Bataan in the next two weeks. A game-play aside, FWIW: I have six pilots in TRACOM. My understanding has always been that it takes a minimum of 20 to accelerate any pipeline nuggets. Today I got some Chinese pilots accelerated. May be a different piece of code, but still interesting. Accelerated training for 9 Chinese pilots from month-cycle 10 Accelerated training for 3 Chinese pilots from month-cycle 9 Accelerated training for 7 Chinese pilots from month-cycle 7
< Message edited by Bullwinkle58 -- 6/20/2013 7:16:29 PM >
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The Moose
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