Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
|
12/12/41 and 12/13/41 NoPac: An IJN carrier force is loitering south of Dutch Harbor. No enemy landings yet, but SigInt report an invasion force heading for Umnak. The Allies aren't thinking that far ahead. A Marine regiment at Seattle is loading for Coal Harbor. A second will be "bought" in about a week and then moved to Kodiak, if the path is still open. John nearly always goes heavy for the Aleutians, but so far it doesn't look like he was particularly emboldened by PzH's grabs in my previous game. Coal Harbor is just about secure now, and that means John will not be able to apply a lethal strike in that region. CenPac: Wake fell immediately to some kind of beefed up amphibious brigade, but not before the Allies used it to help speed three PBY squadrons from Hawaii to the DEI. The KB loitered in plain view up until the 13th and then moved out of sight, heading south as if for Kwajalein or Truk. As reported previously, Enterprise strike aircraft finished off a small invasion fleet heading for Baker. A small USN CL TF met two armed merchant cruisers, doing enough damage to send that TF scurrying back to Kwaj. As noted previously, the enemy strike against Pearl was effective, but only if it had been followed up. The USN only lost Arizona. That's a poor tally if John is looking for auto vic points. SoPac and SWPac: Ent and Lex have been steaming generally SW, engaging a variety of small enemy amphibious TFs in the vicinity of the Solomon Islands. French DD Triomphant finished off two xAKL just after they landed a force at Ocean Island. Overall, the Allies probably temporarily stopped the "rush" to seize forward bases in the Solomons. The Allies landed two Aussie battalions, a Marine CD, and two small base forces at Lunga. This is probably too ambitious a position, but it should pose a challenge for John at some point in the next few months. DEI: BC Repulse, with 87 FLT damage, disbanded on the dot hex island between Billiton and Pontianak, somehow avoiding two powerful enemy combat TFs in the process. I don't see how Repulse can make it to Soerabaja and thence to Perth or Capetown or Colombo, but we'll try. Kuching fell on the 13th. Palembang has 170 AV. I should be able to get this up to about 200 or 250. Singapore has 65k supplies (merchant ships from Batavia and Soerabaja brought in 14k before enemy air power closed down that port). The retreat down the Malay peninsula is going well. No enemy incursions in the eastern DEI yet. Some support units are landing at Cocos. Two UK brigades are perhaps 12 days out (that's going to be a stout garrison of this island). Philippines: John did a remarkable job of hunting down and destroying the ships fleeing from Manila. No matter which way they fled, he had ships positioned to squash them. Only a couple out of about 100 made it. PG Isbel made it to Palembang. India: Troops have landed at Diego (100 AV) and are about five days away from Port Blair. China: Nothing major yet. Two IJ divisions beat up on a CHinese corps northeast of Changsha, then four Chinese corps in a wooded hex stopped those divisions cold.
|