apbarog
Posts: 3769
Joined: 5/23/2002 Status: offline
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31 Aug 42 Nothing flys to Diamond Harbour today due to weather. The Burma/India border got a lot more interesting today. The enemy attacked in the contested hex a bit southwest of Ledo, in the jungle. This is the hex that I had isolated by owning all hexsides, but I didn't have enough forces to keep the enemy from reinforcing. Now the 33rd Division entered the contested hex, and joined the attack. This is the first full enemy division committed in the area. The enemy attack comes off at 1-2. My units were low on supply despite nearby bases. The enemy has a longer supply trail here than I do. Allied losses were about double the enemy, but combat troops lost were about the same. I may lose this hex. This raises the alarm. I want to keep Ledo, which means keeping the open hex just west of Ledo also. The enemy is adjacent to that hex. I start a big movement of troops to the area, including the Brit division that recently went to Chittagong. I start to LR CAP the hex, as well as sweep the hex, looking for enemy transports dropping supply. I try to drop supply for myself. I'll hold off bombing here for this turn, anyhow. *************** Ground combat at 63,39 (near Jorhat) Japanese Deliberate attack Attacking force 16954 troops, 140 guns, 4 vehicles, Assault Value = 520 Defending force 7068 troops, 42 guns, 20 vehicles, Assault Value = 244 Japanese adjusted assault: 450 Allied adjusted defense: 796 Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 Combat modifiers Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), experience(-), supply(-) Attacker: Japanese ground losses: 364 casualties reported Squads: 2 destroyed, 71 disabled Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 5 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled Allied ground losses: 617 casualties reported Squads: 1 destroyed, 62 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled Engineers: 1 destroyed, 18 disabled Guns lost 9 (3 destroyed, 6 disabled) Vehicles lost 5 (1 destroyed, 4 disabled) Assaulting units: 33rd Division 144th Infantry Regiment Defending units: 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion 36th Indian Brigade 3rd Indian Brigade ************* The other notable event today is that I see 2 enemy task forces approaching Diego Garcia. They each ran over a couple of my subs, and all I spotted in each task force was 2 destroyers. The mouseover on the map shows more ships. The detection levels on my subs are very low, so most likely, there aren't carriers. One task force ended up one hex from Diego. This was odd. I could have hammered these ships if I had divebombers here. The other task force is about 9 hexes east. I decide that this is probably just a reaction to seeing my big cargo task force here a few days ago. I didn't have divebombers within transfer range, and I don't send any new planes here. I have some fighters and a bomber group that is specialized in searching, not naval bombing. So we'll just sit for a day and see what happens. Elsewhere, Kwajalein is reported to have heavy activity for 2 days in a row. I had a sub just west of there get a 10/10 detection level yesterday. KB maybe? The enemy could be thinking of striking behind the lines. May be frustrated with the last fishing expedition that netted nothing, despite going almost all the way to Koumac. I considered sending out the carriers from Auckland towards Pago Pago, but decided against it. Another big transport task force loads on the West Coast. 4 more big base forces and 5 construction units. This batch will go to Australia to beef up the far northeast bases. I need to present a bigger threat to Port Moresby, whether I go there or not in the future.
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