John 3rd
Posts: 17178
Joined: 9/8/2005 From: La Salle, Colorado Status: offline
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January 5-6, 1943 Combat Report The game is back up and rolling. CRAZY jumping into a game over two years dead. It is like Turn ONE but far more chaotic. Burma The Japanese position is tenuous to say the least. There are a TON of Allied troops stuck on the west side of the Irrawaddy. Japanese and Allied moves are presently underway trying to change the situation. 1. Allied: Presently a stack of four units is moving to cross the river in the location marked on the screenshot. Opposing them is a full strength ID behind Lvl-3 Forts. There is a Brigade and four Artillery units on the way to help this Infantry Division. Bombers hit the targets and it appears to be an Aussie ID and two Tank Regiments. Starting next turn we'll place CAP over the hex because it makes sense for his bombers to begin softening up his target. 2. Japanese: Two ID, 3 TK Reg, and 3 Eng Reg are moving to enter into the far southern end of the Irrawaddy hexes. There is a beat-up American ID, Brit Brigade, and two TK Reg present there. These units are being hit every turn by 80-100 bombers. Ramree Isle: This whole disaster began when Dan landed at Ramree and immediately worked it into a MONSTER base. Don't know if anyone remembers but this move touched off a firestorm of discussion within the Forum and made sure to lesson Ramree's expansion possibilities in ALL my mods after that. Don't remember what the final consensus was but I went with that number for AF/Pt in all later RA and Between the Storms variations. Japanese Bettys are operating out of Rangoon and sink any AKs that work their way down to either Akyab or Ramree. We have command of the air in this theatre due to EVERYTHING Allied and flyable moving to Sabang. It has really helped tilt the playing field closer to even in Burma. There are a monstrous number of Allied troops present and I probably cannot drive them back. We shall try however... Bay of Bengal As expected, the deteriorating Allied CAP situation over Sabang finally forces the Allies to sortie a large number of vessels fleeing the coming doom. KB is perfectly positioned to do some serious damage! January 5th: Perfectly positioned so....NOTHING HAPPENS! Weather closes down Japanese decks and the Allies get a day of running in before we can fire up the bombers. January 6th: The KB is ordered to move three hexes NE and, in the process, gets tangled up with two Allied STF. 1. My CVLs (Ryujo, Zuiho, Shoho, and Rhujo, a CA, 2 CL, and 9 DD) tangle with CA Frombisher, CLAA Van Heemskerck, CL Sumatra, and DD Balch. Each CVL takes a shell or two but no real damage (thankfully) occurs and the Allies lose Balch with Frobisher seriously hit by 8 shells. 2. CARDIV1 (Akagi, Kaga, Hiyo, 1 CA, 2 CL, and 8 DDs) take on CL Columbia and a DD. Akagi and Kaga each score three hits on Columbia for no appreciable damage in return. These CVs fly no sorties during the day due Ops limits. CARDIV2/5 are able to go to work though. These were...shall I say...STRESSFUL moments! During the day a number of Japanese sorties are flown and nice work is done. It appears that 12 AK, CLAA Van Heemskerck, and CA Frobisher are sunk. Damage is done to other ships as well. Elect to stay put and see what else can be hit before moving South to crush Sabang. Staying puts me in range to hit this first wave of exodus AND smack anything else coming out of Sumatra. Shokaku--Zuikaku--Soryu--Hiryu have their Kates set to bombs due to wanting Torps available for Sabang. Should note that I sotted American CVs farther north in the Bay of Bengal. Considering the greatly reduced number of Wildcats I fought on the 6th, it is obvious that Dan flew them out to his CVs. Good move on his part but their morale must be crap and he'll need a good number of replacements for those I shot down over the last few days. Judge the likelihood of him engaging with his CVs pretty minimal presently. Port Blair There has been a real brawl over the skies of this base. The Allied 4EB have been active here trying to shutdown the base. There are six heavy AA units based here as well as fighters and both days see a decent number of B-17s and B-24s damaged/shot down. They'll get a surprise tomorrow. Move the 4 CVL to a hex SW of Blair and set CAP at 30% and 50% LRCAP. We'll see if those 4EB can but smacked and forced to rest a bit. Really need this base open for power projection and to cutoff Sabang.
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< Message edited by John 3rd -- 12/17/2015 4:53:15 PM >
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