apbarog
Posts: 3769
Joined: 5/23/2002 Status: offline
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5 Aug 43 My recent sub minefields have not been successful. Walker is now clearing the mines south of Osaka, and he immediately found the new field dropped at Bataan, and found it with a small minesweeper. So he is actively looking for them at the likely locations. 22 P-47s swept Ternate. About 8 Tojos downed, for the loss of about 4 P-47s. I could tell that these Tojos are still manned by good pilots. Another sweep occurred at Madang, on New Guinea. 22 P-47s found 5 Zeros and 14 Oscars, and did very well, downing over 10 planes for no loss. There were two big stories today. The first is that the Japanese started strategic bombing in China. This hadn't happened before. The entire Chinese air force is in India, where many units have trained. This has also helped preserve the supply in China. Now a number of units are back in China. A Japanese strategic bombing campaign in China will hurt Chinese supply. I've managed to keep China almost adequately supplied. A couple of cities are undersupplied. The capital is always supplied, with a level around 15,000 supply. I'm doing just enough with transports flying the Hump. Now I'm increasing my supply flights. I do start to wonder if Walker has a ground offensive planned in China. I have seen heavy activity in SigInt at Shanghai, but I thought nothing of it. I know from playing the Japanese that it is tempting to have an offensive in China when you've pretty much run out of offensive options anywhere else. I will be watchful. Today Kates bombed Kukong, hitting resources. Jills and Sallys bombed Liuchow, hitting light industry and resources. Sonias also bombed Kukong, knocking out more resources. Helens hit Kweilin, hitting light industry. Sonias hit Changsha, hitting light industry. Sallys bombed Shaoyang, causing 11758 fires and hitting 43 manpower. There were no escorts and no sweeps with any of these surprise attacks. Back in Burma, Wellingtons and Mitchells bombed the enemy stack on the road east of Cox Bazar. Zeros were on CAP, but no bombers were lost. 3 Zeros were. Then more Wellingtons arrived with P-40 escorts, downing more Zeros. Heavy bombers hit Coz Bazar and Akyab. Akyab had Zeros over it, and Zeros destroyed on the airfield. Heavy bombers hit Boela, then others hit Ternate. Tojos were still over Ternate after the P-47 sweep, but fewer, and they weren't effective. I tried a surprise port strike at Rangoon with B-24s, but it had good CAP, with Zeros, Oscars, and Nicks. A bunch of bombers downed with no port hits. Artillery attacks continued at Koepang and Kendari. Then came the big attack in Burma. The Japanese tank division lasted just 2 days. Ground combat at 55,43 (near Cox's Bazar) Allied Deliberate attack Attacking force 33269 troops, 475 guns, 736 vehicles, Assault Value = 1101 Defending force 13434 troops, 195 guns, 427 vehicles, Assault Value = 339 Allied adjusted assault: 845 Japanese adjusted defense: 323 Allied assault odds: 2 to 1 Combat modifiers Defender: terrain(+), experience(-) Attacker: Japanese ground losses: 2651 casualties reported Squads: 44 destroyed, 40 disabled Non Combat: 119 destroyed, 102 disabled Engineers: 13 destroyed, 14 disabled Guns lost 79 (53 destroyed, 26 disabled) Vehicles lost 159 (87 destroyed, 72 disabled) Units retreated 5 Allied ground losses: 214 casualties reported Squads: 1 destroyed, 22 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled Engineers: 1 destroyed, 15 disabled Defeated Japanese Units Retreating! Assaulting units: 9th Indian Division 14th Indian Division 3rd USMC Tank Battalion 268th Motorised Brigade 641st Towed Tank Destroyer Battalion 255th Armoured Brigade 26th Indian Division XXXIII Indian Corps 78th Light AA Regiment Defending units: 1st Tank Division Imperial Guards/A Division 5th Field Construction Battalion 5th Mortar Battalion 8th RF Gun Battalion 15th Army /1 One more unit to clear from that hex, then on to Cox Bazar. I do see enemy movement coming north from Akyab now. I will try to bomb these troops on the move today. With the ARD question now answered, I put the ARD into pier mode repair, and it should be ready to start repairing Saratoga tomorrow. Americal Division and support starts to load at Darwin, to invade Boela shortly. Troops at Fenton and Katherine start to move to Darwin, to be ready to load for Manado and Ternate.
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