Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
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4/16/42 Today was a rough day redeemed by John's self-inflicted wounds. China in the Air: I set up a snazzy little fighter ambush. I guessed right - that John would focus his sweeps on Changsha while sending in mostly unescorted bombers to target my little army at his interior base. So, I moved my P-40Es from Chungking to Changsha, set them at 100% LRCAP over the interior base (two hexes distant). This way, my fighter wouldn't contest the sweeps over Changsha but would get cracks at his unescorted bombers. Only it didn't work that way. My "LRCAP" flew CAP over Changsha and got mangled by the sweeps - in fact, it looked like they performed extra poorly since they were set at LRCAP. Meanwhile, essentially none of them flew the actual LRCAP mission. So I lost a heckuva lot of good fighters for no purpose, other than to learn that such fancy configuring doesn't work well. That's a lesson worth learning, I suppose. China on the Ground: I was feeling most glum over these events, but John made me feel better by engaging in two bad attacks. A shock attack at Changsha cost him 135 squads destroyed and 150 disrupted (the Chinese lost about 7 with about an equal number disrupted). Then, in the adjacent hex, an IJ deliberate attack cost Japan 100 squads destroyed and 225 disrupted. The Chinese only lost 2 with 40 disrupted. John has five divisions in these two hexes. They are really taking it on the chin and aren't going to be worth anything for a long time (since this is just one in a prolonged series of low odds attacks; the fact that John doesn't have a road open to either hex - meaning low supply I hope - is adding to his woes here.) China Situation: The Japanese are reinforceing the interior base by air, bringing in most of an infantry regiment and some support units. I am hoping that the best John can do is to bring enough supply to make the base defensible but that his units won't have enough supply to go on the offensive. If so, the Chinese will be fine. John is reinforcing Changsha (which should be tantamount to reinforcing defeat) and he's trying to work something through the same gap to get to his interior base, but he doesn't have much to work with short term. Over at Nanning, the Chinese managed to open one hexside and will get another in a day or two, so that crisis seems averted. The Chinese are in the process of shifting perhaps 1500 AV from the Sian front (quite and secure) to the Chungking-and-then-forward front. Overall, the Chinese position seems pretty good and likely to improve short and medium term. Oz: Part of the KB remains at Port Headland. Nothing ominious around Melbourne/Sydney right now. DEI: Batavia finally falls (and I lose a USN sub that had disbanded in port there without asking me). India: No ominous developments yet. You know John is going to use Port Blair and the opening created in the Bay of Bengal when he took it to raid India. I will soon have Hornet, Indomitable and Formidable together and willing to take on any imprudently small carrier force (John's more likely to come fairly heavy than light, but you never know). Pacific: Quiet. I've changed prep of a number of RCT at Hawaii to various destinations - some in the Aluetians and some in the Marshalls. All over the map, the Allies are gearing up to be ready in case there's a chance to take the offensive without threat of the KB. Prep for a variety of places will be good starting in about one month. Prep for the Aleutians and Cocos Island are already good, though I have no short term plans of moving either way.
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