wobbly
Posts: 1095
Joined: 10/16/2002
From: Christchurch, New Zealand
Status: offline
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Hi Dave - yes I am at a short straw as far as plane numbers go. The loss of the replacements
for the Chinese was a real blow - even if they aren't that capable. I have no P-40B or E
types in the pot and spitfires are only just starting to make headway in numbers again. I have many Hurricanes and many of the lesser variants but the best planes are in high demand. I think I have done well on the ground and that is in no small extent to the defense of the
ground troops by these fighters. The Chinese bomber force is now a well oiled machine with no
unit below 72 Experience!! It is not possible to make Herb react to me a bit in China without
getting the call wrong a few times. Another point though is that Herb appears to have moved
away from Burma again so if I can supress Rangoon and keep it down then I can start to move
the defensive figters back to China again.
2 Days and a shot of the situation in China - where it is all starting to happen.
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/04/42
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Day Air attack on Nanning , at 40,38
Allied aircraft
SB-2c x 11
No Allied losses
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 3
More softening up to give me a chance in the next day when I attack.
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Day Air attack on Port Moresby , at 53,91
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 36
B-24D Liberator x 36
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 5 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 3 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
452 casualties reported
Guns lost 9
Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 54
Aircraft Attacking:
15 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 12000 feet
I attack from a little lower this time and still get some serious casualty figures from the
men stationed there - I loose a Liberator.
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Day Air attack on 70th Division, at 45,34
Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 5
IL-4c x 14
SB-2c x 21
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
47 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
THe 70th Division is on its way towards Chungking and I want them gone so a bit of
preparatory bombardment before the attack in the afternoon.
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Day Air attack on 29th Chinese Division, at 45,34
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 21
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 32
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 20
Ki-21 Sally x 61
Ki-49 Helen x 19
Allied aircraft
P-40B Tomahawk x 9
Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 2 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Tomahawk: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged
Allied ground losses:
112 casualties reported
Herb is trying the same thing on my chinese. They are defended by the AVG who manage to get
amongst the bombers despite a hefty escort. 1 more of these priceless pilots falls to Jap
cannons though.
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Ground combat at 45,34
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 36323 troops, 190 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 14978 troops, 181 guns, 0 vehicles
Allied assault odds: 3 to 1
Japanese ground losses:
105 casualties reported
Guns lost 6
Allied ground losses:
332 casualties reported
Guns lost 10
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!
With losses, again the Japs are forced back to the South by my Chungking blocking force.
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Ground combat at 48,30
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 9232 troops, 66 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 1897 troops, 20 guns, 0 vehicles
Allied assault odds: 18 to 1
Japanese ground losses:
79 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Allied ground losses:
10 casualties reported
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!
The Paras below Sian are sent packing and they retreat to a hex by themselves - supplies can
get back to Homan now.
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Ground combat at Homan
Allied Bombardment attack
Attacking force 103318 troops, 712 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 131727 troops, 1154 guns, 133 vehicles
Japanese ground losses:
268 casualties reported
Guns lost 8
Vehicles lost 1
The allied Artillery is doing a better job again without Jap aerial intervention.
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Well in the next turn I will shock attack Nanning - I now know what is there but I shall
leave it to the next report. Herb is pushing very hard to outflank my units in China and I am
doing my best to do the same to him. Problem being that he has much better units to do it
with. Both of us need to keep a good number together to get local superiority and this is
also the greatest weakness of success. You have to split defensive forces off to guard major
intesections and supply routes or risk being cut off. The units Herb is moving on Chungking I
think are ripe for this type of problem - the same with the ones trying to go around Homan.
IN Burma the 1st Burma rifles are shock attacking the small blocking force on the way to
Akyab. Most of the allied bombing capability will be softening the target.
In the Gilberts you may remember I saw some transport ships heading for Tarawa. Nothing
scouted by my carriers that rushed into position. I split off two DDs to go in and have another scout and keep the carriers here for one more day. Baker Island supply has nearly finished unloading.
DAY TWO
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 09/05/42
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Tarawa at 85,91
Japanese Ships
MSW W.12, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
MSW Asahi Maru #2
MSW Kyo Maru #3, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
PG Tamo Maru #6
PG Edo Maru, Shell hits 1, on fire
PG Magan Maru
AK Nikkyu Maru
AK Ina Maru
Allied Ships
DD Smith, Shell hits 1
DD Cassin, Shell hits 18, on fire, heavy damage
Ahaa - there is someone at Tarawa! The MSWs and PGs are not at all defenseless though. The hits to Cassin are with 4.7 inch shells and she has to be scuttled at the beginning of the next day.
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Day Air attack on 48th Construction Battalion, at 30,27
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 39
B-24D Liberator x 33
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
168 casualties reported
It's this construction battalion barring the way to Akyab - they pay for their cheekiness.
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Day Air attack on 56th Division, at 30,30
Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 20
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
22 casualties reported
I have started to use the fact I have targets one hex away from airfields to allow bombing
runs for training.
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Day Air attack on 20th Chinese Corps, at 49,30
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 5
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 29
Ki-21 Sally x 26
Ki-49 Helen x 14
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 1 damaged
Allied ground losses:
60 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Herb mounted about 7 splintered attacks on Homan. All aimed at troops. They do reasonably
well damaging them. The other side of the coin is that I get about 10 damaged planes repaired
and out to Chungking because he relaxed his attacks on the airfield.
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Day Air attack on TF, near Tarawa at 85,91
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 17
SBD Dauntless x 28
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
PG Magan Maru, Bomb hits 7, on fire, heavy damage
AK Ina Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Asahi Maru #2, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
This is the only attack mounted by my carriers against the Tarawa force. Very disappointing
but mainly the weather's fault - socked in during the morning.
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Ground combat at Nanning
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 97686 troops, 699 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 14572 troops, 184 guns, 0 vehicles
Allied assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 5)
Japanese ground losses:
309 casualties reported
Guns lost 18
Allied ground losses:
544 casualties reported
Guns lost 26
And there we are.... 9 units cannot budge one through the 5 forts at Nanning. All Chinese
units are now badly fatigued and disrupted. I decide to retire gracefully to my own forts. As
expected, if there was a combat unit, and with the lack of engineers in Chinese units, I was
going to have alot of trouble piercing the protection.
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Ground combat at 30,27
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 4852 troops, 44 guns, 0 vehicles
Defending force 454 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles
Allied assault odds: 186 to 1
Japanese ground losses:
10 casualties reported
Allied ground losses:
16 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!
That's one blocking force moved along. They retire towards Pagan which equals deep into the
jungle. That is one way to wreck a combat engineering unit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 1st Burma rifles continues down the mud track to its next target and hopefully also to
restoring land based supplies to Akyab. It is important to note that now the Japanese have
two units moving towards Akyab from the South. I know one of these is the 56th Division. If the other is another Divisional unit I might have trouble holding Akyab!. The 14th Indian Division is Chandpur waiting for Fast transport if necessary and I am moving the 13th Chindits back to Chandpur for aerial delivery. That along with 3 base units and a Tank regiment should be able to hang on. In the next turn Akyab should become a level 3 port and from there I will concentrate on forts (currently at level 2).
The Bombers revert to hitting ground units - especially this southern threat - for the next
turn. Once I get to level 3 port I will look to move in more supplies and then also move in
the Heavy bombers to hit Rangoon - fun fun fun!
Lets skip down south and return to China with our added picture. In the Gilberts I order the
carriers to scarper south. They have loitered for long enough. I am obviously running from
the KB! It hasn't been sighted but it often gets sighted at very inopportune times... like
now would be bad. So Spruance runs south and most of the other shipping about these parts
also takes a detour.
The other two carriers of the Pacific fleet: Lexington and Hornet have now left Sydney with a
view to cover a raiding party to Port Moresby. If my Heavy bombers can get in there and wreck
the place it would be nice to add to the carnage with the BBs from Brisbane.
OK China - in the North you can see the enemy units to the NE of Homan trying to go around. I have started to move units south from Yenen with the understanding that they can cut off these outflankers. He has 9 units in this merry band. If I can move about 5 down to threaten he will have to leave about 3 or 4 to hold. Doing this means the outflanking units should be
watered down to the point I can hold against them when they either try to take Sian or cut
off Homan.
In the centre you can see the threat of the 7 units now on my blocking force south of
Chungking. Obviously loosing the capital is not an option. These blockers are all at 3 forts
and I am going to start bombing the threat heavily. Thankfully Herbie-san was a bit
unorganised with his move forward and allowed me to repulse 2 of his units. They should not
be much help to him for a week or so. I can also look to cut him off if he moves too many
units up by moving more of my own along the trail out to the west. The units out that way
have already been forced to retreat once though and are therefore not very well.
Herb is also trying to outflank me at Kweilin. This will be harder to oust as he has bought 2 units and mine in Kweilin itself are not well endowed with supplies. This will obviously get worse if I don't open the trails!
Down to the South and you can see my Nanning attack force. These guys are going to retreat.
They have ruptured themselves against the walls and just do not have enough engineers to get
passed. Herb has tried to cut me off with forces from Canton but you can see I have plenty of options to getting back and I may even be able to repluse his block force to Canton.
So China really is a quagmire!
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