Logistics in the Pacific - USSAmerica (A), Mike (J)

[Mike Solli]

27 Dec 41

Sub War

A whole lot of misses on both sides.

5 Fleet

Well, I found the US carrier TF, which is still tooling around in the Aleutian Islands. It’s 3 hexes north of Kiska Island and is composed of this:

CV Lexington
CV Saratoga
CV Enterprise
CA Chicago
CA Astoria
CA San Francisco
DD Dunlap
DD Fanning
DD Mahan
DD Drayton
DD Lamson
DD Flusser
DD Porter
DD Balch

A badly damaged xAK from the day before was trying to make landfall at Buldir Island (the dot hex between Attu and Kiska) and ran into them. She later sank from her wounds without landing her half of the AS battalion headed for Amchitka. The other badly damaged xAK did make Kiska and unloaded her troops, 38% of the 36 JNAF AF Unit before succumbing to the bombs of Dauntlesses later in the day. The PB escort is still alive, amazingly, but heavily damaged and will try to escape to the SE tomorrow.

Unfortunately, none of the Marines in the unit survived so they can’t even take the island.

I have 5 subs (2 almost bingo fuel) that are closing in on the US carriers. I’d love to get a shot on them.

4 Fleet

The I/84 Naval Guard landed at Guam today and will attack along with the other 2 units there tomorrow. *Sigh*

Makin was taken today completing the initial invasions in and around the Marshalls.

SE Fleet

I’ve spotted 3 Allied subs in a straight line to the SW of Truk toward Rabaul. Hmm, wonder what they’re up to? I’m sending an ASW TF to patrol along that line. They only have Type 95 DCs, so I don’t expect much, but maybe it’ll make Mike think twice.

KB was planning on using that route to get to Truk, but they’ve been diverted and will use a route a few hexes to the west.

4 Division completed loading today and will head west with the new destination of Ambon. It’s amazing how fast they loaded! Those xAPs are wonderful!

Not much happening down here right now. I have small units snatching up prime real estate. I’m waiting for the engineers companies to arrive from Manchukuo

SRA

Philippines: I did my daily air and artillery bombardment of Clark Field and reduced the Allied AV from 160 to 139. Then, I believe Mike made an error in judgment. I can only speculate as to why though. He saw, as I did, that his AV was decreasing by about 20 a day, so the end was in sight. He decided to do a deliberate attack!

Ground combat at Clark Field (79,76)

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 3292 troops, 57 guns, 266 vehicles, Assault Value = 191
Defending force 13970 troops, 236 guns, 279 vehicles, Assault Value = 268

Allied adjusted assault: 40
Japanese adjusted defense: 625
Allied assault odds: 1 to 15

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:

164 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 18 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 31 (5 destroyed, 26 disabled)
Vehicles lost 25 (6 destroyed, 19 disabled)

Allied ground losses:

401 casualties reported
Squads: 13 destroyed, 16 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 22 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 11 disabled
Guns lost 18 (3 destroyed, 15 disabled)
Vehicles lost 34 (4 destroyed, 30 disabled)

Assaulting units:

21st PA Infantry Division – AV reduced from 38 to 25
26th PS Cavalry Regiment – AV reduced from 38 to 0
192nd Tank Battalion – AV reduced from 38 to 9
194th Tank Battalion – AV reduced from 46 to 30
Cavite USN Base Force – AV 0
86th PS Coastal Artillery Battalion – AV 0
Subic Bay Defenses – AV 0

Defending units:

65th Brigade – AV reduced from 252 to 246
14th Army
15th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
8th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
10th Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
1st Medium Field Artillery Regiment
3rd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
9th Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
20th Ind. Mtn Gun Battalion
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
56th Const Co
2nd Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion
2nd Mortar Battalion
2nd Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion
9th Field AF Construction Battalion
3rd Engineer Construction Battalion

My “losses” were 5 AA guns, a handful of tractors and one support squad. Only one artillery piece is disabled. The 65 Brigade has 6 disabled infantry squads. I’m doing a deliberate attack tomorrow. We’ll see if we can pull this off.

Mindanao: Dadjangas was liberated in a deliberate attack. The 1 & 2/101 PA Regiment were trashed but not destroyed. The SNLF will chase them down and destroy them.

Borneo: Troops landed at Tarakan today successfully. The 2 SNLFs and 2 independent engineer regiments will attack tomorrow. The enemy CD guns were especially accurate and sank a Husimi class xAK. A Lima will probably go down tomorrow (91 fires) and an Ehime has 61 fires and is unlikely to survive. Expensive, but necessary.

Java: The Dutch Air Force lost 7 fighters and 8 bombers shot down for no Japanese loss or damage to our ships. I estimate the Dutch are down to 12 fighters, 48 bombers and around 60 or so float planes/flying boats. Intel estimates effective planes at 0/22/9 at Batavia and 0/4/9 at Soerabaja with a few flying boats at Palembang.

The 21, 56 (-), 38 and 2 Divisions are spreading out. 1 JAAF AF Base Force has landed at Kalidjati to join 22 Air Flotilla. There are now 35 Zeros, 31 Nells, 27 Betties and 9 Babs stationed there.

Sumatra: 2 Tank Regiment and 48 Division are rapidly moving north. Most of 8 Tank Regiment has landed and is moving north. The two independent engineer regiments and 23 AA Regiment are waiting their turn to land. Things are looking good here so far. I still see no ground units at Benkoelen and 3 at Palembang.

Malaya: IG Division will rail into Johore Bahru tomorrow and the 33 Division will complete their march there in 2-3 days. The Singapore invasion force will FINALLY advance soon.

In Singapore, the sweeping Oscars shot down 1 of 2 remaining Buffalos. Singapore also sent out 11 bomber sorties. Some were in range of friendly CAP and 5 bombers were shot down.

Over Georgetown, 2 fighters flew against the daily Nate sweep. Both were damaged but none shot down. Guess I’ll see them again tomorrow.

Other Places: The second error in judgment I believe Mike made was at Manado. He shock attacked here! The SNLF that invaded was down to 24(24) infantry squads at the end of yesterday. After the attack, it was 21(27). I’m attempting a deliberate attack tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes. I figure the defending garrison battalion is pretty heavily disrupted. Maybe experience can win out.

Burma

The 2 RTA Division just bombarded the British riff raff (to no effect), waiting for the rest of the army to show up.

China

There were no major attacks today. Just bombardments and air bombing.

Other Stuff

I just received 184k fuel at the Home Islands from Hong Kong. When I liberated the place, there was about 300k fuel sitting there. I figured it would be a good time to ship some home.

[Mike Solli]

28 Dec 41

Sub War

A Dutch sub sank an empty xAKL north of Singkawang.

I currently see 4 subs 6-8 hexes north of Singkawang. It’s all shallow hexes and I’m trying to flood the area with ASW TFs. There were also a number of subs visible during the turn (but not now) off Takao. Those are deep-water hexes so my ASW forces aren’t as effective but I’ll try and irritate them enough that they leave.

5 Fleet

The US carriers are now 3 hexes NW of Adak. They bombed Attu causing 37% port damage. It appears they are going to head east now. I should be able to get 3-4 subs in their path tomorrow. Let’s see what happens.

4 Fleet

Nothing much happened today. The Guam “invasion” force is waiting a couple more days for another company of NG to show up at Saipan to add to the force there.

SE Fleet

A slice of Lark Battalion (apparently some were pulled out) moved into Rabaul only to be trashed by 144 Regiment and pushed back out.

SRA

Philippines: My attack by 65 Brigade on the Clark Field defenders wasn’t enough to take the place. It ended up being a 1:2 attack with level 1 forts. I’ll continue with bombardment for a while. Allied raw AV is down to 59. The 65 Brigade didn’t lose any squads but 32 infantry squads are disabled.

Mindanao: Japanese forces are moving to engage the remnants of the Allied troops.

Borneo: Two SNLFs and 2 independent engineer regiments weren’t quite enough to oust the defenders of Tarakan. The attack was 2:1 but the level 1 forts were the difference maker. The forts were reduced. I anticipate taking the base and oil tomorrow.

I/143 Infantry Regiment wasn’t enough to take Kuching. The attack was only 1:1. They’ll try again after resting a day or two.

Java: Today’s tally of Dutch planes was 4 fighters and a bomber shot down for no Japanese loss.

Banoeng will be attacked by 2 infantry and 1 artillery regiments of 56 Division tomorrow. I suspect they will be successful.

Sumatra: The invasion forces are moving north with no enemy resistance.

Malaya: One Blenheim IF rose over Georgetown and was damaged by the daily Nate sweep.

Other Places: Dot hexes are being taken with 4 separate small units.

Burma

Moulmein will be attacked again tomorrow. The 2 RTA Division has been reinforced by 112 Infantry Regiment, 21 Medium FA Battalion and 15 Army HQ.

China

Kukong was liberated today. Their infrastructure is almost intact: Res 39(1).

Wenchow is close to being surrounded. That base will be attacked when the 100 Chinese Corps is cut off.

In the north, the 12 and 15 Tank Regiments pushed the Chinese rabble another hex toward Lanchow.

Other Stuff

A total of 184k fuel has successfully been unloaded at the Home Islands from Hong Kong.

[Mike Solli]

29 Dec 41

Sub War

Just south of Jolo, the SC Ch 17 took a Dutch torpedo and went down. Same place as the last one a little while ago.

5 Fleet

The US carriers move to a point 6 hexes south of Adak and hit its port today. The port is at 34% damage. We did shoot down a Dauntless though! In addition, every day there are a few op losses. I suspect the TF is running low on fuel. I expect them to leave soon.

4 Fleet

Nothing much going on here.

SE Fleet

Well, I screwed up. I should have stuck with my original plan of sending KB past Horn Island to escort the 4 Division TF into the SRA. Instead, I sent KB north to Truk (where it arrived today) and sent the 4 ID TF hugging the south shore of PNG without an escort. Dumb, dumb, dumb. They were caught by the Tromp and 2 Dutch DDs. The Tromp and a DD took some damage, but they hit the TF rather hard. Most of the ships took light to moderate damage, but two xAPs and a Shimushu class are probably goners. They’re headed back to Merauke and they’ll most like make it. The rest of the TF is headed north and eventually will land at Ambon. They have one more day to survive before a TF of 2 BB, 1 CA and 4 DD catches up with them (a day out of Babeldaob right now) and they’ll have support.

I should have figured Mike had Cat support flying out of Darwin. It was probably the Asiatic Fleet Cats. Dumb mistake. If the TF makes it through tomorrow unmolested, it’ll be ok. We’ll see.

SRA

Philippines: I moved an SNLF into San Fernando where the 11 PA Division is isolated, pretty much from the start of the war. They have no supply and have been the recipient of daily bombing from 61 Anns. The SNLF will do a deliberate attack to see what kind of shape the 11th is in. Hopefully they just surrender.

Today’s bombardment of Clark Field reduced the Raw AV to 75. More of the same tomorrow.

Mindanao: A shock attack by 2 Japanese tank regiments at Cotabato destroyed the 4 defenders there. There are 4 remaining Allied units (2 former defenders of Zamboanga rotting in the jungle and 2 battalions of 102 PA regiment also rotting in the jungle). The only base still in Allied hands is Oroquieta. A tank regiment is headed there to liberate it.

Borneo: The assault on Tarakan just missed the 2:1 needed to liberate those oil fields. They’ll do a shock attack tomorrow. Hopefully that’ll do the trick.

Java: The Air Force pissed me off today. The bombers flew before the sweeps. The net result was 3 Betties shot down for little damage to Batavia’s airfield.

Over Soerabaja, a single Hawk was spotted and shot down. Intel says there are 0/11/22 planes at Soerabaja and 0/15/4 at Batavia. The sweeps and bombings will continue.

Batavia is surrounded on all but the SE side by Japanese troops (2+ divisions). Once that is done, all will enter Batavia to begin the attack.

Bandoeng and Djokjakarta were liberated. Bandoeng’s garrision was destroyed. Djokjakarta was undefended.

There are 23 units surrounded in Batavia.

The 56 Recon Regiment arrived at Tjilatjap to find the 5 Coastal Gun Battalion as a garrison. They’ll wait for (most of) the rest of 56 Division (2 infantry regiments and the divisional artillery), the victors of Bandoeng, to arrive to root out the defenders.

At Merak, 7 Dutch bombers tried (unsuccessfully) to hit some shipping. Only 1 Zero was on CAP there (the slackers) and they shot down one bomber. No damage to my shipping, fortunately.

Sumatra: Japanese armor will enter Lahat (the dot hex 2 hexes to the SW of Palembang) tomorrow. The 48 Division, 8 Tank Regiment and other forces are further back. All are heading north unmolested.

Malaya: Today, 3 Buffalos flew against the Nate sweep. He’s got to be low on Buffalos, but they keep getting repaired and launched the next day. No losses to either side today, but the Buffalos were driven off. Again.

Same at Singapore, but it was 1 Buffalo and Oscars. Same result.

The Singapore assault force is finally all at Johore Bahru. We’re just waiting for the IG Division to detrain. Two days and the assault will commence.

The handful of bombers remaining at Singapore still fly out to attack enemy shipping. They don’t hit anything and occasionally lose one to flak. No enemy losses today, but they were damaged in the attempt.

Other Places: The attack at Manado was unsuccessful, although the Dutch are slowly being worn down. I need to find additional troops to commit here to hasten the Dutch departure.

Burma

Moulmein was liberated today, pushing the CW defenders north:

Rangoon BAF Battalion
Tenasserim BAF Battalion
3rd Burma Rifles Battalion
108th RAF Base Force

They joined a force a 3 units just over the river to the NE. Combat engineers and more artillery are a day or two out from Moulmein. Once they arrive, the entire force will force a river crossing.

China

The 2 Chinese Corps on the minor east-west rail line north of Loyang were hit again. Their remnants were pushed to the clear hex 2 hexes east of Sian. The 2 Japanese divisions will continue to pursue.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements: AMC Akagi Maru, Osaka
AS Heian Maru, Kobe

In the past two days, I received the following conversions:

8 AKE
30 Ansyu PB

[Mike Solli]

30 Dec 41

Sub War

Off Iba, the Sturgeon caught an empty Gozan class and put a torpedo into her. She sank later in the day. Guess Sturgeon has the good torpedoes. That's at least her second kill.

5 Fleet

The US carriers disappeared. I’m still keeping my shipping clear of the area, just in case.

4 Fleet

I got another SNLF company at Saigon today that is loading and headed for Guam. Sheesh.

SE Fleet

Namatani was liberated. I now control the entire small island just east of Rabaul.

I am continuing to spread out here. More engineers are headed for the area to build airfields. It’s been quiet.

SRA

Philippines: The daily bombardment of Clark Field reduced the Allied AV from 105 to 75. It ended at 75 yesterday so no net gain there, but a couple squads and a tank were destroyed, so they are being worn down. The 65 Brigade is slowly recovering its disabled squads for the final attack at some point in the future.

The SNLF at San Fernando attacked the 11 PA Infantry Division, which has been isolated just about the entire war and has been bombed by light bombers every day. I was curious to see what state the Allies were in. They’re in bad shape, but are still too numerous for the little SNLF to take them. It was close though. The odds were 1.45:1. There was a fort, but it was reduced to 0. I found that interesting. The SNLF has no engineers. I thought engineers were required to drop forts. At any rate, I’ll continue to bomb them. The SNLF lost a gun and had a quarter of its infantry disabled. They’ll rest while the light bombers continue to get more experience.

Mindanao: Oroquieta is the only remaining Allied base on the island. A tank regiment is headed there to liberate it. Only 4 Allied units remain, all beat up and without supply. This operation is basically over.

146/56 Division is loading at Butuan today. They, along with most of the Tarakan assault force, will land at Balikpapan. Then, they and the 2 independent engineer regiments will move to Java to help complete the conquest there.

Borneo: I liberated Tarakan today, capturing all the infrastructure intact: Oil: 90(0), Refinery: 90(0). Nice!

Java: The Zeros escorting the Betty airfield strike on Batavia managed to shoot down 1 of 2 Dutch fighters.

The daily sweep of Soerabaja netted 1 of 2 Hawks. I just can’t see to get rid of the pesky Dutch Air Force.

The Dutch bombers finally hit something. They put a 300 kg bomb into an LSD. She’s not too badly damaged (she's a big ship) but she will need time in the fender shop. Had that been just about any other ship, she’d have sunk.

The ground campaign is going well. Buitenzorg (undefended) was liberated today. Batavia is now surrounded and the troops are beginning to invest it. I have 21 and 38 Division along with 56 Division engineers moving in. The rest of 56 Division that is there is either in Tjilatjap or moving there to wrest it from a Dutch CD unit defending the place. Once that operation is complete, they will move to Batavia. By that time, the last regiment should have arrived at Java so the 56 Division will be able to combine. The Dutch have 23 units at Batavia, so I expect a prolonged fight. I’m toying with the idea of having 56 Division team up with 2 Division discussed below.

2 Division has taken Semarang and Djokjakarta and will take the dot hex to the east tomorrow. They will continue to clear the island and take Soerabaja. If I use 56 Division in this operation, that will speed up the end of the Dutch in the south, thus freeing up both divisions for use at Batavia. Yes, I've decided that I will do that.

I see only 5 units at Soerabaja and 23 at Batavia. It’s interesting that Mike chose to put the bastion at Batavia. Maybe he thought he could keep the airfield repaired enough to bomb Palembang once I take it? Probably.

Sumatra: 2 Tank Regiment and 48 Recon Regiment have arrived at the dot hex 2 hexes SW of Palembang and will liberate it tomorrow. Then the tanks will move toward Benkoelen and the recon will move to Praboemoelih (the base SW of Palembang). The remainder of the assault force is moving north along the rail line.

Malaya: A lone Buffalo continues to attempt to guard the skies over Singapore. The Oscar Ib sweep was only able to damage it again. Have I said recently that I hate Oscars?

Singapore still has a handful of bombers remaining. Today I saw 3 Blenheim I and 6 Hudsons. At a cost of one of the Blenheims shot down, they hit the APD Tade at a dot hex in the western South China Sea sinking her. She had already deposited her troops to take the dot hex. They still can bite on occasion.

The 41/30 Division attacked 22 Indian Brigade, an LAA Regiment and a Base Force sitting on the western rail line just south of Taiping. The 14 Tank Regiment was set to pursue. They handed them a nasty defeat, chewing them up pretty badly and pushing 2 of the 3 units into the jungle to the west. One unit remains in the hex, probably the 22 Indian Brigade. I’m attacking them tomorrow and hope the tank regiment pursues so I can hit the entire stack again the day after.

The Singapore assault force is waiting one more day for IG Division to finish disembarking from the train then will move south from Johore Bahru.

Other Places: Remember my stupid mistake with the 4 Division Amphibious TF near Merauke yesterday? There were 2 xAPs and an E that weren’t going to make it so I sent them to Merauke, the nearest base, to drop off the troops they had aboard. They didn’t make it. They were caught by Tromp and 4 DDs and put out of their misery. Too bad. The rest of the TF made it almost to Dobo. Tomorrow, a surface TF composed of Fuso, Hyuga, a CA and 4 DD will meet them and escort them the rest of the way to Ambon (in 2 days). After they take Ambon, they’ll take Kendari and then move to Java where they’ll reinforce the assault force there and then become part of the garrison (and rebuild).

Burma

Mike is the master of making me herd cats. Everywhere he has forces that are doomed, he moves them onto my rail lines when possible. Or, he’ll just move them to try and attack me where he thinks I may be weak. He’s constantly moving forces on my rail lines in China. The Lark Battalion moved back into Rabaul after being ousted. Here, I ran into the 13 Burma Rifles Battalion 2 hexes SE of Chiang Mai. Fortunately, I had a regiment of 7 RTA Division crawling up that road with the ultimate destination of Taung Gyi. Another battle of the giants. I know 13 Burma Rifles Battalion wasn’t good at all, but I didn’t expect a lot from the 7th. I was pleasantly surprised that the Burma Rifles were soundly trashed, killing 10 Burmese squads to only 1 Thai squad disabled. My intel says there are only 140 men left in the unit. The RTA guys are “chasing” them.

China

I made a deliberate attack in the hex to the SE of Changsha with 2 divisions. I don’t know what I was thinking. There were 5 Chinese Corps there. I ended up losing 13 squads to a few Chinese. Pretty dumb move.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements: 28 Mtn Gun Reg, Kwantung Army, 28 Division component
Maizuru 2 SNLF, 4 Fleet, platoon sized slice of main at Wake
II/84 Naval Guard, 4 Fleet, Saipan, headed to Guam
Hong Kong Det, temporary AS unit at Hong Kong
31 Special Base Force, Southern Fleet, Hong Kong garrision
Wotje Base Force
Kwajalein Base Force
Jaluit Base Force
Maleolap Base Force
50 JNAF Company, Southern Army, AS for naval search/ASW patrol along shipping lane

[Uncivil Engineer]

The SNLF at San Fernando attacked the 11 PA Infantry Division, which has been isolated just about the entire war and has been bombed by light bombers every day. I was curious to see what state the Allies were in. They’re in bad shape, but are still too numerous for the little SNLF to take them. It was close though. The odds were 1.45:1. There was a fort, but it was reduced to 0. I found that interesting. The SNLF has no engineers. I thought engineers were required to drop forts. At any rate, I’ll continue to bomb them. The SNLF lost a gun and had a quarter of its infantry disabled. They’ll rest while the light bombers continue to get more experience.

The 1 to 1 attack dropped the forts. Engineers can drop forts (at random) for any attack result, even 1 to 3!

Edit to add: See para 8.4.2.2 last paragraph - "Fortifications can be reduced in level by enemy ground attacks; the Fortification Level of a hex drops by one if the combat odds are 1 to 1 or greater."

The last sentence in that paragraph adds the detail about engineers.

[btd64]

The SNLF at San Fernando attacked the 11 PA Infantry Division, which has been isolated just about the entire war and has been bombed by light bombers every day. I was curious to see what state the Allies were in. They’re in bad shape, but are still too numerous for the little SNLF to take them. It was close though. The odds were 1.45:1. There was a fort, but it was reduced to 0. I found that interesting. The SNLF has no engineers. I thought engineers were required to drop forts. At any rate, I’ll continue to bomb them. The SNLF lost a gun and had a quarter of its infantry disabled. They’ll rest while the light bombers continue to get more experience.

The 1 to 1 attack dropped the forts. Engineers can drop forts (at random) for any attack result, even 1 to 3!

But he didn't have any engineers....GP

[Uncivil Engineer]

The SNLF at San Fernando attacked the 11 PA Infantry Division, which has been isolated just about the entire war and has been bombed by light bombers every day. I was curious to see what state the Allies were in. They’re in bad shape, but are still too numerous for the little SNLF to take them. It was close though. The odds were 1.45:1. There was a fort, but it was reduced to 0. I found that interesting. The SNLF has no engineers. I thought engineers were required to drop forts. At any rate, I’ll continue to bomb them. The SNLF lost a gun and had a quarter of its infantry disabled. They’ll rest while the light bombers continue to get more experience.

The 1 to 1 attack dropped the forts. Engineers can drop forts (at random) for any attack result, even 1 to 3!

But he didn't have any engineers....GP

He doesn't need any engineers! See my edited comment immediately before yours.

[Mike Solli]

Thanks for the info, guys! After all these years, I keep learning new things.

[Mike Solli]

31 Dec 41

Sub War

That lousy Sturgeon sailed into Lingayen harbor and shot up an xAK, and had to have used up the rest of her torpedoes. They all either missed or were duds. The cargo ship (empty and headed home) got shot up by gunfire and disbanded in port. She’ll survive, but it’ll take over a year to repair the non-major damage. She’ll sit there until Luzon is cleared and then move to Manila. She should be able to make it that far.

The S-41 torpedoed the empty TK San Luis Maru. She’s one of 8x 7950 capacity tankers that will spend their days hauling fuel from Balikpapan to Truk. Her damage is 26-47(23)-2-10. She’ll make Davao tomorrow then repair enough damage to get to a real port.

The Dutch sub KX had a field day today sinking an entire TF composed of a Gozan class transport escorted by a Kiso PB. The Gozan was hauling the 42 Road Construction Company, headed to Tarakan. The unit will be rebuilt.

5 Fleet

Still no sign of the US carriers. I’m cautiously moving an infantry battalion to Adak to reinforce it.

4 Fleet

I’m moving a reinforcing infantry company to Guam. They should land there tomorrow and all 4 units will attack the day after.

SE Fleet

Troops landed at Tulagi and will take it tomorrow.

SRA

Philippines: The daily bombardment of Clark Field killed 4 squads and disabled a handful more.

Mindanao: Nothing to report.

Borneo: Nothing to report.

Java: Three Dutch fighters and a bomber were shot down today. There are at least 2 fighters and 27 bombers left on Java.

Soerakarta was taken intact (M – 1(1), Res – 20(0), LI – 20(0)).

I’m moving some AS down to Tjepoe (35 oil there) so I can put fighters there to protect the oil from the Dutch bombers. I anticipate taking it soon, but I’d rather hold off. It’s undefended, so it can switch sides at any time.

Sumatra: The armor took Lahat, the dot hex 2 hexes to the SW of Palembang. The rest of the army is still heading north from Oosthaven.

Malaya: 41/30 Division beat up 22 Indian Brigade just SW of Taiping. The 14 Tank Regiment pursued the remnants west into the jungle and will attack tomorrow.

The Yokosuka 3 SNLF (para) attacked the remnants of 8 Indian and FMSV Brigades (still alive!) just to the NW of Kuantan (which is still Allied held). That small battalion chewed them up for no loss. One brigade retreated to Kuantan and the other didn’t move. The paras will attack again tomorrow. Hopefully, they’ll finally kill them off.

The Singapore assault force is FINALLY moving on Singapore. Its composition:

25 Army HQ
IG Division
5 Division
18 Division
33 Division
1 Tank Regiment
6 Tank Regiment
3 Medium FA Regiment
18 Medium FA Regiment
3 Independent Mountain Gun Regiment
14 Independent Artillery Mortar Battalion
3 Mortar Battalion
5 Mortar Battalion
4 Independent Engineer Regiment
15 Independent Engineer Regiment
23 Independent Engineer Regiment

There are also various engineer and AA units that will move there after Singapore is liberated.

Other Places: Palawan Island (the long island between Borneo and Luzon) was finally cleared of enemy troops.

Burma

I’m advancing the “15 Army” north out of Moulmein. It’s just the following right now:

Elements of 55 Division:
112 Regiment
55 Engineer Regiment
55 Mountain Gun Regiment
and
15 Army HQ
2 RTA Division
21 Medium FA Battalion

There’s more stuff still crawling toward Moulmein, but the force above should be able to handle the 2300 troops on the other side of the river (in cultivated terrain).

China

Cleaning up some enemy forces in the rear areas. A Chinese Corps was destroyed by bombers north of Paotow. Another Corps was badly beat up a couple hexes SW of Suchow. They’re being pursued by their attackers and will be hit by bombers tomorrow. There’s another unit that’s sitting at Hwaiwin, a dot hex to hexes to the NE of Nanking. They still control the base and have been there since the war started. I’ll get to them next.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements: xAK Toko Maru, Toho class, converting to troop carrier (like all the Tohos)
SC Cha-25, ASW

By halting the Yamato for the time being, I’m able to accelerate all six Unryus and 9 DDs (all that I can so far). The Naval Shipyard points increased to 964 today (up 8) and I still have 3 points of Naval Shipyards to repair. I hope that by the time Hiyo arrives (7/31/42), I’ll be able to restart Yamato. During that time, I’ll have also received Junyo and Shoho, 8 subs and at least 7 accelerated DDs. Of course other ships will begin using points by then, but I hope I’m at or close to the 233 extra a day needed for Yamato. I really like her and Musashi. Yes, they’re gas guzzlers, but they do pack a nice punch.

Edit: The 964 Naval Shipyard points are in the pool. I'm producing 1498 a turn and it will increase by 2 tomorrow and 1 the day after bringing it to 1501.

[Mike Solli]

1 Jan 42

Sub War

Nuttin.

5 Fleet

Quiet here today. I’m moving I/90 Battalion to garrison Adak cautiously from the NW. They’ll arrive in a couple of days.

The damage at Adak has been repaired and the engineers are continuing work on the airfield. Attu’s port damage is down to 2%. Once that’s repaired, work will begin on the airfield there. The goal is level 2.

4 Fleet

I landed II/84 NG at Guam to beef up the inept assault force there. These clowns managed to lose an infantry squad in the process. I’m going to wait for the III/84 NG to arrive tomorrow at Saipan and then move them to Guam. Hopefully, that’ll do the trick.

SE Fleet

Tulagi and Manus were liberated today. Both will work on airfields.

SRA

Philippines: Clark’s daily bombardment managed to drop the Allied raw AV from 89 (end of yesterday) to 83 today. I’ll attack once it’s down to ~50.

Mindanao: Only Oroquieta remains in Allied hands. The 7 Tank Regiment arrived there today and will take it tomorrow.

It looks like Mike placed some sub laid mines at Davao. A 7950 capacity TK ate one. Not bad damage but she’ll need some yard work. I’m going to move my AR there to assist. I'm also sending an AMc TF there to get rid of them and keep any more out in the future. Finally, I'm sending an ACM there and will lay my own minefield later.

Four Allied units remain, 2 NE of Zamboanga (bomber target practice) and 2 NW of Dadjangas. An SNLF is crawling there to put them out of their misery.

Borneo: Nothing new to report. Miri and Brunei are repairing their oil nicely (153(147) and 17(3)). They have fighter cover and ASW (air and naval). An ACM and AMc are enroute. Mines will be laid later. They will also eventually get some naval search to assist with spotting subs. The TK TFs are staying in the shallow hexes even though that takes longer. They are moving fuel and oil to CRB where it will be moved to the Home Islands.

Java: A Dutch bomber managed to plant a 300 kg bomb on an empty Lima class xAK off Tobali. Amazingly, she didn’t sink and her damage is only 1-13(7)-0-0. She’s still in the convoy and will head to Saigon for repairs.

Then, a Blenheim flying out of Singapore put 2x 250 lb bombs into an Akasi. She’ll sink tomorrow.

Madioen (undefended) will be liberated tomorrow.

Sumatra: Still spreading north.

Malaya: At the beginning of this turn, outside of Singapore and Georgetown (both surrounded), there were 6 “cats” that I’m trying to herd that were running around the countryside. I was able to attack 5 of them today. Three were just SE of Taiping and were hit by 14 Tank Regiment. Two of those units (22 Indian Bde and 1 ISF BF) retreated east and the last (3 HS&K LAA Reg) remained in the hex to be attacked again tomorrow. That attack cost the Allies over 100 squads destroyed. They’re still alive though.

The 3 ISF BF was sitting in the jungle between Taiping and Kota Bharu. II/143 Regiment made that attack after taking forever crawling through the jungle to get there. This attack managed to cause no casualties to either side. Hmm… Guess I’ll try it again tomorrow.

The Yokosuka 3 SNLF (para) shock attacked FMSV Bde over the river just NW of Kuantan and finally destroyed that brigade. 5 to go…

The last Allied unit is 8 Indian Brigade in Kuantan and moving up the road toward Yokosuka 3 SNLF.

Other Places: The 4 Division landed at Ambon. This was the TF that was hit by the Dutch ships a couple days ago and lost about 30% of its strength. They’ll attack tomorrow. They managed to lose a dozen combat squads landing. After taking Ambon, they’ll take Kendari then move to Pamakasen (2 hexes SE of Soerabaja) to move up that peninsula to assist in taking Soerabaja. That will cut the Soerabaja garrison escape route. The Soerabaja garrison is 7 units, about 14.4k troops. That base will be taken by 2, 56 and 4 Divisions.

Burma

Mike has been bombing Moulmein’s airfield with ~4 Blenheims escorted by 8 Buffalos. I moved 11 Sentai up to Chiang Mai. They were the first sentai upgraded to the Oscar Ic. They’re an elite unit with average experience at 71 and A2A at 70. I’m having them LRCAP (100%) to ambush the Brits.

I also have 1 Raiding Regiment at Chiang Mai as the para support for Burma. I’m going to recon Tongoo to see what ground strength is there. If it’s weak enough (or if there’s nothing there) I’ll move up a bunch of transports and drop the regiment there to take Tongoo and cut off the only rail line out of Rangoon.

China

North: There is an “army” (Mongol Garrison Army actually) composed of 2 tank regiments with a cavalry brigade attempting to catch up. More forces will be allocated. The tank regiments caught the Chinese Corps 9 hexes (along the minor road) from Lanchow (their goal). One will attack tomorrow and the other will pursue. I suspect this will eventually pull strength from the center toward Lanchow.

North Center: 1 Army (2 divisions and 1 artillery regiment with an additional 2 divisions trying to catch up) will reach the cultivated hex 2 hexes E of Sian tomorrow and then attack the 3 units there (~3500 troops). This Army’s immediate goal is to cut the rail line coming out of Sian to the SE and the 3 cultivated hexes to the NW, NE and E. This will cut off Sian from the world.

Center: 12 Army (3 divisions and 3 IMBs) is working to surround Loyang.

South Center: 13 Army (3 divisions, 1 mortar battalion) has almost surrounded Wenchow. When that happens, they’ll attack and liberate the place. Then they’ll move to attack the rear of the Changsha complex from the SW of that complex. There are a number of divisions and brigades that are holding Chinese forces in place to the NE, E and SE of Changsha. They are spread out and unable to advance much, but are doing a nice job of holding superior enemy forces in place.

South: 23 Army (hodge poge of units). 104 Division just shock attacked a Chinese Corps across the river from Canton trashing the unit and sending it scurrying north toward Wuchow. The 104 Division will pursue. The main body of 23 Army (an infantry group, a regiment of an RCA division and a mortar battalion took Kukong recently and is moving along the minor road toward Wuchow. I have another regiment of the same RCA division currently in Wuchow holding a Chinese Corps in place.

I get 6 brigades in a month in China. They all are the second unit needed to upgrade 6 existing brigades to divisions. They're pretty weak divisions compared to most of the divisions on map, but they will be most welcome.

Other Stuff

I need forces for SE Fleet AO. Some SNLFs and NGs are reinforcements that will soon arrive, but I need something with more meat. The biggest force in the area is 144/55 Division, sitting at Rabaul. That regiment is needed to round out 55 Division, in Burma. I have decided to allocate 20 Division (Korea Army) to SE Fleet. Fortunately, it's still broken down into its component units. I just spend most of my PPs on 80 Regiment. They're loading up to head to Rabaul to replace 144 Regiment, which will then load on those transports and move to Burma.

That brings up another topic. A division can't combine unless all of the components are assigned to the same HQ. 2 Division's 4 Regiment (still broken down into battalions) are with Southern Army, but the rest of the division is with 16 Army. They are first on the priority list to switch, which should be done ~12 January. Then comes 146/56 Division, switching from 16 to 25 Army around 20 January. That'll allow both 2 and 56 Divisions to combine for the coming combat in Java. Then, around the end of January, 144/55 Division will change to 15 Army near when they should be arriving in Burma to combine 55 Division. Next on the list is 79/20 Division, so it can move from Korea to SE Fleet. And so on....

[Mike Solli]

2 Jan 42

Sub War

A resupply TF at Iba was stalked by a US sub. The PBs escorting the TF managed to do some light damage to the sub. The sub missed, fortunately.

5 Fleet

I/90 Regiment should land at Adak tomorrow. The coast looks clear.

4 Fleet

Waiting for the last company of 84 Naval Guard (which just arrived today at Saipan) to go to Guam to finally clear that place of the pesky Americans.

SE Fleet

All quiet down here. I have a daitai of Betties that are doing a little naval search and bombing the former Pt. Moresby garrison, now dying in the jungle.

SRA

Philippines: Today’s bombardment at Clark field reduced the enemy AV from 83 to 78. I anticipate another attack in a week.

Mindanao: Nothing exciting.

Borneo: Gathering 146/56 Division and 1 & 20 Independent Engineer Regiments for assaulting Balikpapan. They are meeting at Jolo. Once that operation is successfully completed, all 3 units will head to Java.

Java: All of my bombers arrived before my sweeps (both in Java and Malaya). Lovely. They were all escorted but my bombers should never have seen enemy fighters. Over Batavia, I lost a bomber to enemy fighters, one to Flak, and managed to shoot down only 1 of 5 enemy fighters. The bombers did no damage to the airfield.

Over Soerabaja, my vaunted Zeros managed to damage the only Hawk that rose to oppose them.

I bombarded Batavia to get intel. Here are the defenders:

4th KNIL Landstorm Battalion
4th KNIL Regiment
1st KNIL Landstorm Battalion
2nd KNIL Landstorm Battalion
Lijfwacht Cav Sqn
1st Regt Cavalerie
Barisan KNIL Regiment
1st KNIL Regiment
3rd KNIL Landstorm Battalion
2nd KNIL Regiment
Batavia Coastal Gun Battalion
6th KNIL Regiment
South Java Base Force
3rd KNIL AA Battalion
Far East Cmd (ABDA)
1st KNIL AA Battalion
Tjilitap Base Force
1 ML-KNIL Aviation
ML-KNIL
KNIL Army Command
North Java Base Force
Batavia Base Force
Bandoeng Base Force

Their total AV is 676. I’ll have 4 divisions available when I attack that base. Soerabaja will be liberated first.

Madioen (2 hexes W of Soerabaja) was liberated undefended with its infrastructure intact: Manpower 1(1), Resources 20(0). 2 Recon (2 Division) will continue SE to liberate the remaining bases while the rest of 2 Division will invest Soerabaja.

I am waiting a couple more days to take Tjepoe (with 35 Oil) until some AS arrives at Soerakarta and them moves in with the assault forces. I want to station some Zeros there to guard against the inevitable Dutch attack on the oil.

Intel says there is the following Allied air at:

Batavia: 5/32/5
Soerabaja: 0/13/26

Tomorrow, I’m resting my bombers and just sweeping both bases. Where is he getting these aircraft?

Sumatra: Praboemoelih (the base SW of Palembang was liberated undefended today. The victorious Japanese forces continue to flow northward and will soon cut Palembang off from the rest of Sumatra.

Malaya: Two Buffalos rose against the Sallies bombing Singapore’s airfield. They were ineffective, but Flak got two bombers. The bombers were pretty effective today and there is existing damage on the airfield.

A Buffalo and Blenheim fighter rose against the Lilys hitting Georgetown, shooting down 2 bombers. The sweeps really pissed me off today. To add insult to injury, later in the day the sweep of 18 Nates came into Georgetown and lost one to no enemy loss.

The assault force is halfway to Singapore. I changed them to combat mode. I really don’t want them to shock attack in move mode. 2-3 days out?

The Blenheim Is continue to fly out of Singapore. Three of them found a surface TF heading south near Singkawang and put a bomb into Mikuma. She suffered only 3 points of sys damage, but did have an AA gun turret knocked out. She did manage to shoot down 1 Blenheim though.

3 HK&S LAA Regiment was pushed into the rail hex just SW of Kota Bharu, as was 3 ISF Base Force. Both took heavy losses to no Japanese losses. They are now in that hex with 22 Indian Brigade and 1 ISF Base Force. All of these Allied units are very weak. The 124/30 Division is moving up the rail line and is 38 miles out. The 14 Tank Regiment is in the jungle to the west and moving toward them, but that will take awhile. Finally, II/143 Regiment is in the jungle west of Kota Bharu and is moving toward that base. That’ll take awhile also. Hopefully 124/30 Division does the killing blow for these units soon.

Yesterday, I said there were 5 Allied cats I was trying to herd. Four are in the hex discussed above, 8 Indian Brigade is in Kuantan marching toward Yokosuka 3 SNLF and guess what? There’s a 6th just NE of Malacca on the rail line! 91 NG was moving north along the rail line and found them. 1 Mysore Battalion maybe? I think so. Anyway, I didn’t even notice them and already sent the turn off. I doubt that the enemy attacks, but 91 NG is sitting there in move mode. They’ll attack the day after tomorrow.

Other Places: Forces landed at Billiton today.

4 Division attacked Ambon today. It was a fiasco. While they only took 1 squad disabled, they only disabled 10 enemy steps. They should have wiped them off the map. That’s when I realized the 4 Division is being commanded by a second rate Colonel. He’s now digging a latrine for the new commander. They’ll try again tomorrow.

Burma

Of a 42 plane sentai on 100% LRCAP at a range of 4 hexes, only 11 Oscars made it. They caught 8 Buffalos escorting 5 Blenheim I bombers and ravaged them. At a cost of 1 Oscar shot down (pilot KIA) they shot down 5 Buffalos and 4 bombers. That remaining Blenheim managed to cause a couple points of damage on the airfield.

My recon of Toungoo gave me some good intel. I see one unit of 400 troops there, with no guns or AFVs. That tells me it’s one of those understrength British Base Forces (or maybe that AVG avn unit?). Either way, I’m sending the 1 Raiding Regiment in by air transport tomorrow. I have 83 transports available, which should be enough to transport the entire regiment along with a little supply. Half of the Oscars will escort the transports while the remainder will fly CAP. I give this operation a high chance of success. Should it succeed and Toungoo be liberated, the only rail line out of Rangoon will be cut. Will that cut the 500 supply per day to China? I don’t know. At any rate, assuming success, I have a construction company available that I can fly in the day after to help the para-engineers work on forts. Eventually, Toungoo will become one of my major airbases in Burma.

This actually happened in neighboring Thailand, but is close enough to Burma. A Burmese cat, 6 Burma Rifles Battalion, was destroyed at Ayuthia, 1 hex NE of Bangkok by a regiment of the glorious RTA Cavalry Division.

China

Mongol Garrison Army: One of the 2 tank regiments shredded the 81 Chinese Corps, which retreated. The other tank regiment pursued and will attack tomorrow.

13 Army: Wenchow is completely surrounded. The forces will attack the third of 100 Chinese Corps that is still in the city.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: III/84 Naval Guard at Saipan. Heading to Guam.

Fubuki I and DMS are upgrading as they reach port. So far, 5 of 8 Fubukis and about half of the DMS are in process.

[Mike Solli]

3 Jan 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

I/90 Regiment is unloading at Adak.

4 Fleet

I’m trying another Shock attack at Guam tomorrow.

SE Fleet

Nothing exciting. Four engineer companies will arrive at Truk tomorrow. They’ll head south to their designated based to assist in construction.

SRA

Philippines: More bombardment at Clark Field.

Mindanao: Nothing to report.

Borneo: The Balikpapan invasion force (infantry regiment & 2 independent engineer regiments) is waiting at Jolo for a couple BBs as escorts. The BBs are 3 days out.

Java: The lone Hawk over Soerabaja was shot down. I think (famous last words) that may be the last fighter there. I’ll continue to sweep anyway.

Three of 4 enemy fighters were shot down over Batavia. Mike is using some fighters as escorts for his remaining bombers. They have free reign over the TFs in the area. I have a surface TF a hex south of Oosterhaven, just in case Mike decides to do something nefarious with his warships. That TF gets multiple attacks a day. They haven’t been hit, yet, but tomorrow I’m going to LRCAP the TF with some Zeros to try and whittle the Dutch bombers down.

Intel reports the Dutch Air Force is the following:

Batavia: 2/27/5
Soerabaja: 0/7/18

Naval Flak got 3 bombers today. I hope my LRCAP tomorrow whittles the bombers down faster.

Tjilatjap was liberated destroying the 5 Coastal Gun Battalion in the process. The noose is tightening around Soerabaja with 2 and 56 Divisions.

Based on knowing what Dutch ground forces are in Batavia and what I’ve destroyed, here is what I think is in Soerabaja:

1ML-KNIL Aviation
Artilleriecommando CD Battalion
Commandement Marine
Marinier Battalion (~39 AV)
MLD
Soerabaja Base Force (~40 AV)
Tjilatjap KNIL Battalion (~68 AV)

So, around 150 AV. I figure there will be substantial forts (3-4?) I’ll have 2 and 56 Division, plus maybe 4 Division if I can get transports to Ambon to pick them up. So, minimum of 900 AV plus possibly 210 more from 4 Division. Hope that does the trick.

Sumatra: Benkoelen was captured undefended by 2 Tank Regiment. It, along with 8 Tank Regiment will continue north to capture the remainder of the bases there.

48 Divison and a couple of independent engineer regiments are surrounding Palembang.

Malaya: The cat herd is showing as 6 units. I’m attacking one tomorrow. I think it’s 1 Mysore Battalion.

The Singapore Assault force is 2 days out.

Other Places: Ambon was liberated destroying the 2 Dutch units there.

Ternate was captured, destroying the Base Force there.

Muntok was liberated, completing the capture of Bangka island.

Billiton was captured with the Resources intact at 20(0).

Burma

Mike did exactly what I though he’d do. He swept Moulmein with all three AVG squadrons. None of my planes were anywhere near there. They were on another mission.

The air assault on Toungoo by 1 Raiding Regiment was an outstanding success. Things were a little different than I thought though. The defenders weren’t an understrength British base force. It was the 10 Burma Rifles Battalion. No matter. The elite Raider Regiment trashed them and pushed them toward Rangoon, and my guys took no losses. The one thing I feared happened though. The engineer company of the Raiders never flew even though there were enough transports for the entire regiment. I recall this happening in the past too. Anyway, I’m flying in the 43 Construction Company tomorrow, along with some supply. I’m also trying one more time to move the engineers there one more time using Sally transports (3000 capacity). I’m going to try and scrounge up some more infantry to get in there.

I anticipate the AVG showing up there tomorrow. At least the fight will be over my base.

Another cat was herded today, this time 2 hexes east of Chiang Mai. The 13 Burma Rifles Battalion was pushed north after being trashed by a regiment of 7 RTA Division. They’ll chase them down.

China

Wenchow was successfully liberated killing off the brigade of 100 Chinese Corps. The infrastructure is as intact as I could have hoped:

Manpower: 1(1)
Resources: 59(1)
HI: 10(1)
LI: 78(2)

Nothing is going to be repaired.

1 Army pushed the rabble that was 2 hexes east of Sian closer to Sian. 1 Army will pursue them.

Other Stuff

Supply production is currently at 25,220. Supply usage for upgrades is 25k. This was expected and will finally shift to the good soon. Tomorrow, 2 are done and the day after, 10 more will finish. Then costs will decrease to 13k per day. By mid-January, it’ll have dropped to 6k. Finally. There will be more factory increases, but it’ll be only 1 or 2 at a time. The goal is to keep it at a max of 5k or so.

[Mike Solli]

4 Jan 42

Sub War

Mike is having amazing success off the west cost of Luzon. Today, the Sculpin hit an Aden class heavily damaging her. I expect her to sink tomorrow. I’m surprised she didn’t go down today.

Later in the day, just a hex from the above attack, the Seadragon torpedoed a Gozan class. She went down later in the day.

Those faulty torpedoes are not.

5 Fleet

I/90 Regiment successfully landed at Adak, giving the island a little more defensive power. The other two battalions of the regiment are moving in to begin taking the western Aleutians.

4 Fleet

Guam was finally liberated. That has to be a record. Transports are heading there to pick up the troops and send them east to guard various islands.

SE Fleet

The 4 engineer companies have been dispatched from Truk to their destinations.

The 80/20 Division is loaded on transports and will finish loading supply tomorrow. They are headed to Rabaul as its garrison (for now). They’ll arrive in about 2 weeks. They will replace 144/55 Division, which will load up on those same transports to move to the Burma AO and catch up with the rest of 55 Division. The next regiment of 20 Division is slated to leave Keijo around 9 Feb, when PPs are allocated for it. That regiment will most likely become the Pt. Moresby garrison.

SRA

Philippines: The Sasebo 1 SNLF, facing off against 11 PA Infantry Division, has fully recovered and will deliberate attack again tomorrow. The Allied troops have no supply and are being bombed by about 60 Anns a day. I’d love to see an SNLF battalion take out a division.

The daily bombardment of Clark Field reduced the Allied raw AV from 84 to 77. The infantry, in particular, is wasting away. The current raw AV for 65 Brigade is 227.

Mindanao: Three AMcs cleared most of the mines at Davao. They’ll continue to clear them and then send one each to Tarakan and (eventually) Balikpapan.

Borneo: Brunei’s oil is fully repaired at 20(0). Miri is repairing nicely and is currently at 156(144). Supply is flowing in and fuel and oil are flowing out.

Java: There was a nice naval bombardment of Batavia this morning:

Night Naval bombardment of Batavia at 49,98 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
Do-24K-1: 1 damaged
Do-24K-1: 1 destroyed on ground
139WH-3: 11 damaged
139WH-3: 1 destroyed on ground
PBY-5 Catalina: 2 damaged

32 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 2
CA Mogami
DD Michishio
DD Hagikaze
DD Arashi
DD Maikaze

Allied ground losses:
206 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 31 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

Manpower hits 2
Fires 352
Airbase hits 10
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 34
Port hits 4
Port fuel hits 4

I’m not worried about any damage caused by the fires. The only thing I really want to save is the HI there, with the LI as a secondary thought. Fires were down to 52 by the end of the turn. I’m sure it hurt the ground troops in preparation for the attack (which isn’t coming for awhile).

The CAP trap over the surface TF off Oosthaven worked like a charm. Nine Zeros participated. The first attack was 5 139WH-3s escorted by 2 B339Ds. They shot down a fighter, drove the other one off, then were able to shoot down one bomber before the others fled. Their morale must be pretty low.

The next attack was 3 Falcons. Again one was shot down and the rest fled.

A third attack found 3 bombers sneak in at 1000 feet. They avoided the fighters but did no damage.

The final attack was 2 bombers escorted by a single fighter. One of each was shot down and the remaining bomber fled.

A sweep of Batavia resulted in the loss of the only fighter that rose against them.

Three bombers snuck into Oosthaven and were able to hit an Ansyu PB, badly damaging her. She’s still afloat, but with 61 fires, its doubtful that she survives.

Intel says there are 2/14/1 planes at Batavia and 0/18/18 planes at Soerabaja.

Sumatra: The red wave continues to flow north.

Malaya: The 91 Naval Guard attacked the 1 Hyberdad Battalion (I thought incorrectly it was 1 Mysore) a hex NE of Malacca. Unfortunately, that particular cat wasn’t destroyed. The remnants fled west. 91 NG will hunt them down.

The Singapore assault force crosses the river tomorrow.

Other Places: Nothing to report.

Burma

The 15 Army, such as it is, shock attacked over the river north from Moulmein into the teeth of the CW defenders and had their way with them. They were pushed back to Pegu and even managed to destroy the Rangoon BAF Battalion.

The 1 Raiding Regiment in Toungoo was reinforced by their engineer company and the 43 Construction Battalion. Fortunately, the transports were unmolested by the AVG, which didn’t fly at all today. I will continue to fly supply in to them and work on forts. I’ve begun moving 1 Raiding Regiment to the NW to cut the road out of Rangoon. I’m not sure I’ll do that or if it is just a ploy. We’ll see how Mike reacts with his forces.

China

Mongol Garrison Army: The 15 Tank Regiment finally destroyed 81 Chinese Corps, 8 hexes from Lanchow. I see no other forces up there (but I also have no recon up there either). The army will proceed along the minor road to Lanchow.

With 1 Army flowing toward Sian and 12 Army gathering SW of Chengchow, it looks like the Chinese defense of Loyang is becoming increasingly likely to be cut off. I anticipate the Chinese withdrawal of Loyang within a few turns. If not, it’ll become a nice POW camp. I’ll bomb out their LI and let them starve.

13 Army: It is gathering from the successful attack on Wenchow and will head west.

23 Army: There is a 2 pronged assault closing in on Wuchow.

Other Stuff

Supply spent for infrastructure finally is lower than supply production. Today, it used 23k supply and 25,222 supply was produced. Yeah, I know, I’m not accounting for other usage. That’s not the point. Tomorrow, infrastructure costs will drop to 13k. Maybe after that happens, I’ll actually see supply start to increase. That would be nice.

[Mike Solli]

5 Jan 42

Sub War

The xAK Victoria Maru succumbed from sub torpedo damage sustained yesterday.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Lae was liberated from the small Aussie garrison, which was trashed and pushed inland.

SRA

Philippines: The bombardment of Clark Field is making good progress. The Allied raw AV dropped 16 from yesterday to 61. Of that, 16 is infantry and the remainder is from the two tank battalions.

The Sasebo 1 SNLF attacked the badly beat up 11 PA Infantry Division, cut off at San Fernando since the start of the war. The sad remnant of a division quickly surrendered to the victorious Marines without a fight. The SNLF is now on its way to Clark Field. When they arrive, they’ll attack that garrison with 65 Brigade.

Mindanao: The mines were finally cleared from Davao after damaging a TK a few days ago.

Borneo: Nothing to report.

Java: There is still one Hawk held together with tape that is flying over Soerabaja. The Zero sweep damaged it yet again.

A successful bombing raid of Soerabaja’s airfield destroyed a couple bombers and damaged another dozen planes (including that Hawk again), while doing more damage to the airfield than could be repaired.

The Dutch bombers went after the surface TF off Oosthaven again today. Three bombers were met by Zeros, who got one. Flak got another.

2 and 56 Divisions are closing in on Soerabaja. 4 Division (resting and rebuilding at Ambon) is awaiting transport and will move to Pamekasan (tip of the peninsula SE from Soerabaja). They will then move north to complete the encirclement of Soerabaja.

Sumatra: Red tide still flowing north.

Malaya: The Nate sweep of Georgetown netted another Buffalo (of 2 that rose).

The pre-shock attack bombing run of Singapore was mistakenly allocated to the airfield, where it did a good amount of damage. I should have set them to ground, to soften them up a bit.

Then the vaunted shock attack of Singapore occurred. Something happened that I had never seen before. That initial shock attack won the battle! 5:1 odds with level 2 forts:

Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 56830 troops, 602 guns, 444 vehicles, Assault Value = 1994
Defending force 26796 troops, 327 guns, 222 vehicles, Assault Value = 416
Japanese adjusted assault: 2085
Allied adjusted defense: 417
Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Singapore !!!

Allied aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft losses
S.19 Singapore III: 1 destroyed
Blenheim I: 2 destroyed
Buffalo I: 1 destroyed

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
2120 casualties reported
Squads: 9 destroyed, 143 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 24 disabled
Engineers: 8 destroyed, 107 disabled
Guns lost 7 (1 destroyed, 6 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
31780 casualties reported
Squads: 540 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1607 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 94 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 311 (311 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Vehicles lost 114 (114 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Units destroyed 31

Assaulting units:
15th Ind. Engineer Regiment
18th Division
4th Ind. Engineer Regiment
5th Division
23rd Ind. Engineer Regiment
Imperial Guards Division
1st Tank Regiment
33rd Division
6th Tank Regiment
5th Mortar Battalion
3rd Ind. Mountain Gun Regiment
25th Army
3rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
18th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
3rd Mortar Battalion
14th Ind.Art.Mortar Battalion

Defending units:
2/17 Dogra Battalion
2nd Malay Battalion
2nd Gordons Battalion
SSVF Brigade
22nd Australian Brigade
3rd Cavalry Regiment
27th Australian Brigade
2nd Loyal Battalion
1st Malay Battalion
1st Manchester Battalion
12th Indian Brigade
Singapore Fortress
Malayan Air Wing
Singapore Base Force
224 Group RAF
2nd ISF Base Force
3rd Heavy AA Regiment
AHQ Far East
109th RN Base Force
III Indian Corps
1st HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
Malaya Army
24th NZ Pioneer Coy
112th RAF Base Force
272/273rd Bty 80th AT Gun Regiment
22nd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
223 Group RAF
2nd HK&S Heavy AA Regiment
111th RAF Base Force
1st Indian Heavy AA Regiment
5th Field Regiment

It’s interesting that both side’s adjusted AVs were almost identical to their raw AVs. My losses were just a handful of squads. Three of the 4 divisions had high disruption and fatigue. The IG Division, which led the attack, was practically unscathed. They’re loading up on trains to lead the attack on Georgetown.

This was the last thing I expected to happen. Most of my DMS are upgrading right now and there are a pile of mines in the port. I have 4 DMS that are headed there to sweep mines. They’ll arrive in a couple of days. I expected the norm, trashed assault forces that have to rest for a week or so before attacking again. I guess all that time waiting for the forces to assemble was good for them.

Here’s the infrastructure status:
Manpower: 2(1) – no repairs
Resources: 17(3) – no repairs
HI: 29(6) – no repairs, but if I expand HI, this is one location I’ll do it.
LI: 33(6) – no repairs
Shipyard: 41(9) – being repaired to 50.

So, what’s next for this army? More on that below. In the mean time, the 3 divisions and 2 tank regiments will rest a couple of days to recover their disruption and fatigue.

Other Places: Nothing to report.

Burma

Toungoo is safely under my control. The first fort will complete tomorrow. The only Allied movement I see is the 10 Burma Rifles Battalion (that was ousted from Toungoo) moving back toward the base. I see 7 units each at Pegu and Rangoon, and none of them appear to be moving. Interesting.

I’m flying more supply into the base daily.

China

One hex SW of Suchow, a Chinese cat was caught and destroyed.

A hex to the east of Hankow was a Chinese Corps and a regiment of 14 RGC Temp Division (a real powerhouse). The Chinese are cut off from the main Chinese line, but they attacked anyway, destroying the little detachment. I’m curious to see what those Chinese do now.

Other Stuff

So, what next for 25 Army? It is currently composed of 4 divisions, 2 tank regiments, 3 independent engineer regiments and 6 artillery units. I am thinking of a raid on Ceylon. Here’s the initial plan:

Koggala: 2 divisions, 1 engineer regiment, 3 artillery units and a tank regiment.
Trincomalee: 1 division, 1 engineer regiment, 2 artillery units and a tank regiment.
Jaffna: 1 division, 1 engineer regiment and an artillery unit.

I’ll stay there with them for a while. In 50 days, I get the 10 and 11 Garrison Units. They both withdraw in about 1.5 years. They’ll be the final garrisons for Ceylon. I don’t care if they’re destroyed. (Don’t tell them that!) I may buy out another garrison unit from Kwantung too. I’ll withdraw 25 Army and send them to the SRA or Burma, where they’ll finish the war. The goal here is to draw Mike’s attention (thinking an invasion of India is next on the agenda) and kill off the Indian formations there. MKB (with Kaga) will assist, along with the surface assets I have assigned to the SRA. Also, 3 Air Division and 22 Air Flotilla will assist.

What do you think?

Finally, I had 3x Ha-43 and 4x Ha-45 factories complete their repairs (making 4 and 5 fully repaired, respectively). All R&D factories are fully repaired now. Here’s when I anticipate the engines will become operational:

Ha-43: May 43
Ha-45: September 42
Ha-60: July 42

[madflava13]

An invasion of Ceylon sounds like a good idea and will definitely draw serious reinforcements to the theater - which cannot then attack you elsewhere. I like your plan of taking the bases, then pulling the combat power back.

[Mike Solli]

Madflava, that's what I hope happens. I want to keep Mike reacting to me as long as possible in the hopes that his forces end up spending most of their time shifting from AO to AO and never really doing anything effective.

[Mike Solli]

6 Jan 42

Sub War

The I-15 caught the Dutch AVP Pollux in the deep water hex 3 hexes SE of Soerabaja. Finally, one of our subs did something.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

Transports are headed to Guam to drop off supply and pick up the infantry companies to move them east.

SE Fleet

Nothing to report.

SRA

Philippines: Today’s bombardment of Clark Field wasn’t as effective as recent days. Allied AV ended at 82 today. Sasebo 1 SNLF (victors of 11 PA Division) are still 3-4 days out from Clark Field. I’ll continue to bombard by air and artillery (12 units now) until they arrive to bolster 65 Brigade. I’m very curious to see where the Allies retreat once I defeat them. I really hope it’s Manila, but I suspect it’ll be Bataan. Either way, they’ll just be a drain on supplies and won’t add much to the defense.

Mindanao: Nothing to report.

Borneo: Nothing to report.

Java: The single Hawk was damaged by Zeros again today over Soerabaja. That guy must be a hotshot...or a coward.

The were a variety of ships that were sitting in Soerabaja and they chose to flee today. Nells on naval attack torpedoed and sank 3 AMcs along with the AVP that was torpedoed above.

A couple Zeros intercepted 3 Falcons over the surface fleet SW of Oosthaven shooting down one of the bombers. The two surviving bombers fled.

Malang (SW of Soerabaja) was liberated today and was undefended. I expect to move into Soerabaja to begin the investment of that base within a few days and to move into Tjepoe (35 oil, undefended) in a couple of days. There is a JAAF BF in the assault forces and will move Zeros there to defend the oil once I gain control of it. I see about 30 Dutch bombers split between Soerabaja and Batavia and expect them all to go after the oil. We’ll see how that works. The one thing I have in my favor is that those Dutch bombers have low morale and will flee quickly when attacked by Zeros.

Sumatra: The red tide flows north.

Malaya: Only 1 DMS made it to Singapore today and 16 mines were cleared. Four more are enroute, so it’ll be awhile.

A Blenheim IF showed up over Georgetown today. The Nates couldn’t shoot it down.

Other Places: Today, Darwin’s airfield hit level 4. I’m going to have to pop it with some ships to slow things down a bit. I’m also planning an invasion of Saumlaki to build up a nice base there to engage any aircraft that happen to be at Darwin.

Burma

Four of our Oscar Ics mixed it up with with 6 Blenheim Is escorted by 10 H81-A3s. There was no damage to either side’s planes and the bombers managed to bomb the 15 Army (such as it is) SE of Pegu. There was no damage there either.

The 13 Burma Rifles Battalion was finally destroyed by a regiment of 7 RTA Division 3 hexes NE of Chiang Mai. They will head up the minor road toward their destination of Taung Gyi. Right behind them is the 55 Recon Regiment (55 Division).

China

Mongol Garrison Army: I see nothing between them and Lanchow. Their lead elements are still 7 hexes from Lanchow, but they’ve got their sights set on the oil there.

1 & 12 Army: 1 Army will assault the cultivated hex (over the river) just east of Sian tomorrow. Then they will head SW to cut Sian from Loyang and Nanyang. Right now I see only 3 units (1260 troops) in the hex I’m going to shock attack tomorrow along with 7 units (50k troops) in Loyang, 7 units (55k troops) in Nanyang, and 4 more units spread out over 3 minor road hexes west of Loyang. I also see 16 units (90k troops) in Sian. It’s interesting that I can see the troops in Nanyang and Sian withdrawing westward but the Loyang troops and the troops on the road are staying put. 12 Army is in the process of surrounding Loyang. I like the way things are progressing in this area.

23 Army: The 104 Division caught up with 2 Provincial Chinese Corps a hex SW of Wuchow and beat it up for a second time. The Chinese withdrew to the west so 104 Division had a dilemma. They could either move west to chase down the 2nd again, or move NE over the river and assault Wuchow. They chose the latter. After Wuchow is liberated, they’ll move west again to chase down their nemesis. Right now, there is a regiment of an RGC division sitting in Wuchow. The “main body” of 23 Army is 2 hexes NE of Wuchow and is composed of another regiment of that same RGC division, an infantry group and some mortars and AT guns.

Other Stuff

The aircraft R&D is progressing pretty slowly. I usually only have 3-4 factories increase each day. The Helen Ia factory is stuck at 24. The best are the Rufe factories at 9,8,7,7,6.

[IdahoNYer]

Nicely done at Singers!!!

I can't recall reading about an earlier timeframe Singers fell or one that happened on the initial assault!!!

If you go for Ceylon with the KB, what problems can the US CVs cause to other endeavors, or have you accomplished what you want against the US/Aus?

[madflava13]

Good question re: US CVNs - I presume you've got all your outer base defenses planned? Betty/Air HQs planned out?

[anarchyintheuk]

Invading Ceylon usually delays the formation/start of the Allied Burma steamroller as well.