ITAKLinus
Posts: 630
Joined: 2/22/2018 From: Italy Status: offline
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25-26 JANUARY 1942 TURN 50-51 I.NOPAC Guess what? Nothing happens. II.SOPAC On the 25th I launch various incursions over the enemy TF coming from Noumea and I discover it has more CAs than my NavS told me. 4 IJN CAs are quite a heavy escort. A USN DD sinks near Rabaul and another one is blown up by the CA TF using their nasty long lance. It's fine: the more they use on my small ships and the better for when I'll engage them with my own heavy cruisers. A IJN APD is sunk in Rabaul's harbor, also. Then, two Allied CLs engage again the enemy TF and the good CL Honolulu, Brooklyn-Class, places some well-aimed shots on the CA Maya which has "heavy fires" and is detached from the TF at the end of the turn. The NZ CL Leander gets hit few times and doesn't score any hit on the enemy. Then, the Honolulu gets plastered by 203mm hits and sinks badly. On the 26th, I miss the chance to engage enemy TFs with my own heavy cruiser TF assembled the day before and they're now almost in Tulagi. However, what makes me think is that there are 2 Pete and 1 Jake as ground losses and I suspect the enemy cruiser went down. It would somehow explain the total amount of ships my NavS tells me are around. We'll see. Omar is very silent on the matter. If I've sunk it, I'm running a nice 2-1 in CA sunk-lost, which ain't that bad for the Allies in January 1942. III.CENPAC Nothing relevant to point out. I wonder whether it makes sense to send some small reinforcements to Baker Island and the Ellice Islands in order to encircle the forward position of Canton Island, which I aim to retake soon. I would go straight for it, but I have no unrestricted and prepped troops. Soon, I'll buy out the Marines from the West Coast, but they are meant to go to Midway. I suppose, I'll leave everything as it is for the time being and organize a landing in a month or so. IV.DEI While the Kido Butai (minus the two Shokaku-Class) covers the landings in Timor, a Kongo-Class BB and a IJN DD hit mines in Ambon. It seems like the DD is badly damaged. On the 26th, I reveal my move and make a carrier strike on Singapore. I have been approaching the coast of Sumatra for a while, always unspotted. I figured out he's using his Nells for NavS, recon and bombing, clearly reducing their effectiveness. I go in full speed and place myself just 5 hexes away from the intended target, carefully avoiding range settings which would put me in striking range to the heavily covered Palembang. My initial sweep of Wildcats kills the enemy CAP of Nates and then my bombers get in. And they fail. Morning Air attack on TF, near Singapore at 50,84 Weather in hex: Moderate rain Raid spotted at 40 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 21 minutes Allied aircraft Fulmar II x 15 F2A-3 Buffalo x 21 SBC-4 Helldiver x 12 SBD-2 Dauntless x 16 SBD-3 Dauntless x 46 TBD-1 Devastator x 32 Allied aircraft losses SBD-2 Dauntless: 1 damaged SBD-3 Dauntless: 5 damaged SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 destroyed by flak Japanese Ships xAK Nissyu Maru xAK Tamahoko Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage BB Fuso BB Hyuga, Bomb hits 1 BB Ise, Bomb hits 1 DD Asagumo CL Kiso xAK Ryuzan Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire xAK Seizan Maru, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage BB Yamashiro, Bomb hits 3, on fire CL Oi, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires xAKL Kasui Maru, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk CL Abukuma xAK Mogamigawa Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Yahiko Maru DD Ariake I lose one DB and sink maybe a couple of small cargoes. My bombers focused mostly on the BBs, which have bounced the bombs as if they were confetti. My strategic aim was to strike at the large naval forces assemblying in Singapore for what's obviously another leap forward. I failed. In my wildest dreams, I would have found his CVE/CVLs in the harbor since they are bizzarrely placed in Singkawang and they've been doing back and forth in the area for quite a while. I couldn't delay my strike any further and I had to go and hope for his fingers to order a "return to Singapore" to his AirCombatTF. They werent' there, obviously. On the positive side, my embarked airgroups have gathered a very decent amount of exp and Omar is probably shaken by the view of a carrier strike on his rear-base Singapore. Now, we'll go back. No point in staying there any longer and he will cover his ships. In Timor itself, I think he's landed insufficient forces to get Koepang, which is defended by 51AV. In Luzon he smashes my units SOUTH of Manila and I am now consolidating my remaining 1,700AV in Clark Field, which boasts lvl3 forts and some supplies. V.CBI In Burma, everything is so far quiet. I expect an acceleration from his side very soon. In China, I lose massive quantitites of troops on the 25th near Sian: Ground combat at 84,40 (near Sian) Japanese Shock attack Attacking force 31349 troops, 272 guns, 702 vehicles, Assault Value = 984 Defending force 54657 troops, 303 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 934 Japanese adjusted assault: 655 Allied adjusted defense: 189 Japanese assault odds: 3 to 1 Combat modifiers Defender: leaders(+), disruption(-), experience(-) Attacker: shock(+), disruption(-) Japanese ground losses: 1141 casualties reported Squads: 3 destroyed, 91 disabled Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 39 disabled Engineers: 1 destroyed, 14 disabled Vehicles lost 51 (21 destroyed, 30 disabled) Allied ground losses: 24550 casualties reported Squads: 846 destroyed, 24 disabled Non Combat: 1111 destroyed, 23 disabled Engineers: 45 destroyed, 30 disabled Guns lost 89 (45 destroyed, 44 disabled) Units retreated 16 Defeated Allied Units Retreating! What's interesting is the fact that I somehow managed to block his thrust toward Chungking from Patung and I'm currently in the process of understanding what is he doing with the troops coming from Ankang. In India everything goes fairly well and I decided to reinforce Diego Garcia and Addu. Hopefully, they'll be covered within a week. Hope to have enough time. Calcutta and Madras are heavily defended. Within a month I should get the 7th Australian Division ready, while the 6th is already around. UK and Indian divisions are still very weak, but we do with what we have. VI.OTHER Soon, a convoy of M3 Lee tanks will arrive in Cape Town and they should help. Vickers Tankettes are useless but they'll upgrade to the Valentine III tank and I decided time ago to send them in China. A couple of units will reach Chungking soon and that's a very positive news. The first bunch of Valentine IIIs will arrive in few months and I suspect I'll be able to upgrade the tankettes in June '42, which is awfully far from now but also a relatively reachable date. There are various 3,7" mountain guns around and I think I'll airlift a couple of units in China. Their value of 25 a/arm is horrible, but they can somehow help the Chinese troops, always lacking of artillery. At this regard, I screwd up with the Chinese 105mm Howitzers. I decided to upgrade a Cavalry Corps from the 75mm to the 105mm and two parts of it did so. However, instead of drawing ONE 105mm each as per-TOE, they drew TWO. Bottom line: I have A and B parts of the unit with 2x105mm each and the third one with none. Considering the production rate of 4 tubes per-month, it's gonna be a long journey, I guess. Still, I need to make these Cavalry Corps fight more for various reasons: they have decent amounts of AT guns in their TOEs and the Cavalry Squads are much better than the normal Chinese infantry (5 a/arm + 14 a/soft vs 1 a/arm + 11 a/soft); moreover, I have 66 of those in pool, while 0 rifle squads. I don't really know how, but I've been able to use 600 Chinese Inf Squads in little bit more than 50 turns. For sure the two Corps in India are getting many replacements, but it seems quite high nevertheless. Also, I permanently have 0 Support in pool. I have used almost 2,000 Support devices so far in 50 turns. I guess it's how it is meant to be for the Allies right now? Finally, the Australians. I have 60 CMF Inf Section in pool and I wonder what should I do. In Feb'42 I get rid of all the random Australian squads and start producing the relatively valid AIF Inf Section 42. I am quite lost with the Australian infantry pools. Supposedly, my target is to upgrade my LCUs between now and late summer '42 but I am quite puzzled by the process. I guess I'll figure it out sooner or later. Here the situation around Singapore:
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Francesco
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