Schlussel
Posts: 384
Joined: 5/21/2007
From: Sacramento, California
Status: offline
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Week 12: Feb. 23rd – March 1st 1942
North Pacific: I have an engineer battalion and a small garrison unit heading for Adak to begin base expansion. I think Adak will make a good alternate sub base, since protecting Midway from CV strikes will be impossible until more fighter squadrons become available.
Central Pacific: Quiet….too quiet.
Southern Pacific: Yorktown (+escorts) heads to Tarawa to conduct a raid and scout out the defenses, afterwards, it will stay in the Canton/Baker island area, looking for IJN surface forces. Pago Pago and Canton continue building port and airfield facilities.
New Guinea/Solomons: The IJN sorties (amphib. TF with 2 CA’s & 2 DD’s) and attempts to invade Milne Bay. Intel had tipped me off a week prior, and I was able to position the Saratoga and Hermes in the area protecting supply convoys. The amphib. TF is wiped out (2 AP’s & 4 AK’s, approx. 6K casualties) while the escorting IJN surface forces are damaged (CA Tone heavily damaged by 4 bomb hits, others not hit). The following day a mini KB (KB Junior) is spotted heading SW from Rabaul. Not ready to go CV vs. CV right now, my Carriers high-tail it back to Noumea.
The Rabaul Airfield continues to target ships supplying Lunga and Port Moresby. PM has 2 squadrons of P-40’s and can hold its own , though these squadrons are due to withdraw on 3-15. I have Kittyhawks on their way to PM so they can replace the P-40’s when they have to be withdrawn. The Kittyhawk pilots are more experienced (approx 20 point higher), and I’m hoping that will offset the poorer performance of the Kittyhawks they are flying. Lunga finally gets its level 1 airfield and I waste no time transferring a squadron of Wildcats from the Saratoga, who was retreating due to enemy KB Jr. in the area.
DEI/Philippines:
A reported 100K IJA troops, 900 Guns, and 800 AFV’s are continuing the attack on Clark Field. The defenders are fighting valiantly, but the supply situation is critical. Currently both Clark and Bataan have no supply left, so it’s just a matter of time now.
The rest of the Philippines are being mopped up by Japanese forces.
In the DEI, the Japanese occupy all of Borneo (except Brunei), and Celebes. At the end of the week, the invasion of Java begins with an amphibious assault on Semarang. I have held my DEI air forces back and now unleash them on the Japanese ground forces at Semarang. Reports are vague about damage inflicted, but I’m sure it’s better than the results they would have got attacking IJN surface forces (anything is better than a 0% hit percentage).
SE Asia/China: IJN is still hammering Singapore from the ground and air. The supply situation is not quite critical, as I still have about 2 weeks worth; however, IJA shock attacks have ben constant the past week with no rest in between. In addition, I am now starting to take 1,000-1,500 casualties from every attack. The Japanese have similar losses, but this is one instance where high attrition doesn’t work in my favor (in the short term anyway).
In Burma, the IJA is still 45 miles SE of Rangoon, but a tick mark shows some of the forces are now marching toward the Burmese capital. The Japanese start the anticipated flanking movement and assault Toungoo…overwhelming the small rearguard I left there. The good news is it took the Japanese a few days to capture Toungoo, so my retreating forces got a bit of a head start in reaching Mandalay, my next defensive line.
In China, I am focusing on conserving as much supply as possible. I’m consolidating my position around Chengchow, as the IJA looks like it is also moving troops in that direction. Continuing to stay on the defensive due to supply.
KB Watch:
Enemy CV’s have are nowhere to be seen for most of the week. Only exceptions are below:
-On 2-28, SS Tambor (patrolling NW of Saipan) sights carrier aircraft, and Detection level is 10/10. No visual sightings, so # of CV’s is unknown.
-On 3-1, 4 CV’s (+escorts) are sighted near Rabaul heading SW towards Lae.
Notable Base Captures:
-Bandjermasin [Borneo] and Sambas [Borneo] captured by Japan (2/24)
-Sandakan [Borneo] and Samarinda [Borneo] captured by Japan (2/27)
-Ketapang [Borneo] and Toungoo [Burma] captured by Japan (3/1)
Campaign Overview:
Aircraft Losses to date [change]:
Allies: 728 [+74] Biggest Losses (#): Buffalo (109), P-40 (49), 139WH3 (45)
Japanese: 1130 [+76] Biggest Losses (#): Betty (220), Nate (124), Lily (123)
Ship Losses to date [change]:
Allies: 153 [+14] Notables: CA Portland, CA Adelaide, CL Durban, CL Sumatra
Japanese: 97 [+9] Notables: CVL Zuiho, CA Mogami, CA Mikuma, CA Suzya. 2 CVE’s are
assumed sunk, but not confirmed yet.
VP Totals [change]:
Allies: 14,295 [+285]
Japanese: 8,282 [+457]
Other Notes:
-Airacobras have short legs, I can’t air transfer them to Lunga like I had hoped (even from Efate). Guess I’ll have to do it old school on transports.
-Serious IJN attempt to assault Milne Bay was thwarted due to intel. I was able to commit some of my CV forces in time and had the benefit of PBY scouting. My forward PBY scouting bases in the SW PAC (PM, Milne Bay, Rossel, Lunga) are proving their worth, as they spotted the enemy KB Jr. before it got into striking range, and I was able to get my own CV’s away from the danger zone.
-After hearing a lot of good arguments here on the forums, I have decided to change my difficulty setting from “historical” to “hard”. Sounds like this will better assist the AI with supplying its forces.
< Message edited by Schlussel -- 9/10/2015 6:29:03 AM >
_____________________________
You say we're surrounded?
Excellent!
That means we can attack in any direction.
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