War in the Pacific AAR Thread: ML (Japan) vs. Leo (Allies)

[Molon Labe]

18 February 1942

Philippines
I used the Fuso and Nagato to support my rather small force (2 SNLF companies) in taking Bacolod, allowing them to overcome the shellshocked garrison regiment easily.

I made an attack on Bataan. Forts down to Level 1. Casualties are favoring me with squads destroyed/disabled to 224 of mine to 434, and I already outnumber him 2-to-1 so that's twice as bad as it looks. I did take significant engineer casualties though (42 squads destroyed!), and with his forts reduced so low I don't really need them anymore, so they're pulling out. I'm thinking 2 more attacks should do it.


SouthPAC
Only 2 P-40s on patrol over Noumea today, and they managed to escape my sweep.


China
The enemy force that had blocked my advance in the southeast has retreated toward Kwelin. I'm now advancing again toward Kukong. But, I wouldn't be that surprised if the reason he's pulling back is to consolidate enough troops to make a push here, so my gains may be temporary.

In the mountains near Chenting, we finally dislodged the enemy troop concentration ,201 devices destroyed to 1.


Java and Banda Sea
I'm preparing the ground for an invasion of Java. A sweep of Surabaya took down 2 Buffalos, while 2 Demons escaped.


Burma
I tried something a little different--my frontline Oscars ordered to Naval Attack. They attacked a minesweeper and an HDML near Rangoon with no success...except for shooting down 1 Buffalo that tried to protect them.


Reinforcements
12th Base Force arrives at Saigon - Frees up a "special base force" to go to Singapore to help with port activities.

[Molon Labe]

19 February 1942

Bay of Bengal and Burma

When my bombers finished off the Columbo and two merchants in Rangoon, I decided my submarine blockade was no longer needed there and sent my subs to patrol off Ceylon and the Indian coast. They arrived today, with one sinking an unescorted cargo ship in a night surface torpedo attack.

The Oscars made their 2nd naval attack attempt, hitting the minesweeper outside Rangoon with 2 30kg bombs, starting a raging fire.

Rangoon's bombers once again tried to attack my invading forces at Moulmein, costing them a Hurricane with no gain.

A Kate from Zuiho claimed a hit on a British sub outside Port Blair.


Java
I swept Batavia from Palembang with Oscars, shooting down 4 of 8 Buffalo on patrol. This was followed by a Betty raid on Kalidjati, which appeared to have a bomber concentration. We destroyed at least 1 L-212 and 1 FK-51 on the ground, while the escorting Zeroes shot down 1 of 3 Buffalo on CAP. Damage to the airbase was moderate. I'm probably not going to follow this up as I'm going to want to take this airbase intact. Surabaya also took a Nell raid from Makassar, resulting in light facility damage, 1 Do-24K destroyed on the ground, and 1 Demon shot down (the only aircraft on CAP).


Sumatra
Yet another rout of the former Madang garrison by my paratroopers.


SouthPAC
Another sweep of Noumea, 2 of 3 P-40s on patrol go down.
B-17s attacked my advancing armies at La Foa instead of going after Luganville. I didn't anticipate this, but fortunately this was close enough to the covering force that the LRCAP was able to help out. Neither side lost aircraft, but the harrassment made the B-17s' bombing inaccurate. Also there were only 3 of them, and flying with a reduced load from too small an airbase. Regardless, La Foa is ours, and that was the last stop before Noumea. Before I ever played WITP, I recall players discussing how the capture of Noumea means the Allies are in a really bad position, so this may be a significant win if (when) I take it.


China
In the east, we routed the enemy force near Nanchang (84th Corps) once again. I'm surprised these guys haven't just surrendered yet.

[Molon Labe]

20 February 1942

Bay of Bengal
A sub off Colombo picked off another unescorted Allied cargo ship.


Java
No joy in an Oscar sweep over Batavia. Nell raid on Surabaya caused moderate facility damage with several bombers damaged on the ground. Again, no CAP. Does this mean he's running out of fighters, or is he moving them somewhere to keep safe for an attack on my transports?


SouthPAC
The B-17s went back to Luganville, just 5, meeting a wall of Zeroes, which shot down 2, then flak took care of a third. 3 of them survived long enough to drop their bombs, but did no damage. Intel says the enemy lost all five.


Philippines
An artillery bombardment of Bataan caused 23 devices to be destroyed, which is extraordinarily high for this kind of attack. The enemy has to be in dismal shape.


Reinforcements
SS I-27 arrives at Hiroshima/Kure - assigned to Indian Ocean


Industry and Strategic Outlook
I'm really disappointed in myself for not being on Java yet, I didn't realize taking Sumatra first was going to cause this great of a delay. I have two task forces ready to go, but I'm expecting enough resistance on the west side of the island that I want to gather as much as I can from Sumatra, which is probably going to take another 2 days or so. I'd say it was a mistake to make this a 2-pronged operation, I'd have been better off just approaching from Sumatra. I have to give serious thought to my next conquest after Java and be ready to do it with speed and efficiency to give myself a chance at an autovictory at the end of the year. I need 4 to 1 victory points for that. I'm at 1.75 to 1 right now.

I also noticed an error in my industry setup--I'm underproducing aircraft engines. I'd gone through the trouble of setting this all up on spreadsheets to make sure I had enough for my planned aircraft production, itself based on expected losses plus new units arriving that needed to be outfitted, plus building up a 500 engine reserve to get an R&D bonus in the 6-12 month range. It appears that while I remembered to check in frequently to make sure my aircraft production was where it needed to be, I forgot to check the engines at some point and never expanded my factories to the extent I needed to. It's probably been about 2 weeks since the expansion I did order stopped. It's possible this has been to my benefit, because the industrial expansion was causing supply shortages all over the home islands, which was preventing research and development centers from coming online. But my engine production has been high enough to support my aircraft production, just not high enough to get that 500-engine cushion for the R&D bonus--which does me no good if I have supply shortages. Anyway, I'm restarting my engine factory expansion, and since that's the only thing expanding my supply situation will hopefully stay stable.

[Molon Labe]

21 February 1942

Bay of Bengal and Burma
Our subs took out another AKL off the Columbo coast overnight.

Oscars made a low altitude attack on an HDML outside Rangoon, shooting down one Buffalo sent to intercept them and likely sinking the HDML with a bomb hit.


China
In the southeast, I'm starting to put some pressure on Liuchow just in case there is going to be a counteroffensive down here. That opened with a sweep by Oscars opposed by 4 Hawk 75M fighters. We got 2 of them, no losses. Meanwhile our army is headed northeast toward Kukong, away from the army that had been blocking us that is now retreating west towards Liuchow. A pair of I-15 fighters appeared over the Nanyang stack, but no shootdowns resulted.

We made a deliberate attack on the Nanyang stack, getting the familiar result of relatively even casualties, but with device destruction heavily skewed in our favor. The stack once had 150k troops reported; in this combat they were down to 68k, so those destroyed devices are clearly adding up. Or maybe a few units quietly retreated. In any case, it's a slog, but it's a slog we're winning.

Much further northwest, way up the roads leading away from Sian, we took Kiuchuan away from its meager garrison. There are some minor bases with some oil/resources worth capturing up here, and I'm hoping to accomplish that with a token force--2 cavalry brigades and an armored car company. We'll see how far I get.



SOPAC
Our now-regular sweep of Efate downed 2 of 5 P-40s, no losses. No joy over Noumea.

The allegedly crippled I-172, transiting near Horn Island on its way home for repairs, encountered an AKL and sank her with a torpedo attack.

An Ann light bomber claimed a hit on a Dutch sub outside Port Moresby.


Java
An Oscar sweep of Bandoeng downed a single B-339 of 2 defending. meanwhile a strike on Surabaya was unopposed and destroyed at least one more Buffalo on the ground and damaging several more aircraft.


Reinforcements
15th Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Osaka/Kyoto
41st JNAF AF Unit arrives at Tokyo

[Molon Labe]

22 February 1942
Noumea Captured

Sumatra
I tried to break through the blocking force near Medan by shelling it with a pair of heavy cruisers and attacking immediately to capitalize on the disruption, but they held us off anyways.


Java
The east prong of my invasion forces is getting close. Probably still 2 days off. West prong a day behind.

We swept and bombed Tjilatjap as it appeared that was now where the enemy air forces were concentrated. The sweep downed 5 of 8 Buffalo on CAP with no losses. The strike destroyed a pair of Vildebeests on the ground while damaging several medium bombers. Looks like I picked the right target this time.



Burma
I resumed strikes on Rangoon, this time targeting their airbase. The main goal is to try to prevent further fortification. I'm not sure it's going to be worth it.... We lost an Oscar and a Sally to the CAP, and another Sally to flak. No victories. Very slight damage to the base.

The enemy made a strike of his own, 3 unescorted Blenheims to Rahaeng, where they were intercepted by 4 Tojos that shot all 3 of them down.




SOPAC
Resistance to our sweeps was down to a single P-40 in Efate, which managed to escape.

Our pair of divisions was no match for Noumea's garrison, which had apparently not been reinforced with anything significant. Just 2 base forces and 3 artillery units in addition to the basic garrison. As a bonus, the S-34 was scuttled in port. I'm moving to exploit this as quickly as possible, I've already had a pair of destroyers trying to sanitize Luganville; a task force is headed there to move construction engineers from there to Noumea. I've also got an AirHQ rebasing from Lunga to Luganville; they'll bump to Noumea as soon as the airbase is big enough. For now, the invasion forces included enough aviation support to base Zeroes there for their own protection and to support some scoutplanes.

Fuel is a little bit of an issue, my oilers are close to empty from sustaining this. I've got some help running small tankers to Lunga, and I also had a pair of my oilers leave station to fill back up at Rabaul, they should be back in the main TF in another day. Should be enough to gas the KB back up for its next assignment.



Philippines
We captured Baybay in the central islands. As far as I know, those are the last troops outside Bataan. There are still several bases officially in American hands, but I believe they're unprotected.


Reinforcements
39th JNAF AF Unit arrives at Tokyo

[mapuc]

Going to be interesting following you, to see if you can do what Japan couldn't - win the war.

Markus

[Molon Labe]

23 February 1942
KIX sinks one of the Kido Butai's oilers, and the Lexington and Enterprise raid the Marshalls


SOPAC
Remember that pair of oilers I sent to Rabaul to top off and then rejoin the replenishment group? The KIX intercepted them on the way back, hitting the Toho Maru with a single torpedo, but that's all that's needed when the ship is a huge tub of highly flammable liquid. That's the most valuable ship he's sunk so far in the war. Operationally, I don't think it matters--the replenishment group is rather large and wasn't empty, and it now includes one ship that's 100% full. But I won't be trying to shuttle these off on their own; after I refuel the KB, the whole task force is going back to Rabaul to fill up.

As for the KB, I was sending it around Noumea to the south, but Kates spotted 3 submarines in her path. And that's just what I see, there are probably more. So I'm going to head north first... quicker to refuel that way anyway.

3 Banshees escorted by a single P-40 attempted an attack on my ships picking up construction units from Luganville. We wiped them out. A few B-17s followed that up, one of them took down a Zero, while flak got one of the bombers. The first wave of B-17s came in at 5000 feet, violating a house rule giving most 4-engine bombers a hard deck of 10k feet for naval attacks. (I should probably mention that to my opponent now that I remember.)


China
A single I-15 somehow managed to shoot down a pair of Oscars over the Sinyang stack. The way his air war is going, I hope they give that guy a medal.

A deliberate attack on Wenchow, with pretty much all available reinforcements now contributing, failed to overcome the garrison. But as we often see, the enemy had many more squads destroyed than I did even though total casualties looked even or in his favor. So I'm willing to try again after resting.

Near Nanchang, we took our last swing at the retreating 7th and 84th Corps, inflicting 129 destroyed devices at them as they fled to the other side of the Gan River.



CENTPAC
Taking advantage of knowing the KB is deployed well southwest of the Marshalls, Enterprise and Lexington reappeared, attacking an ASW patrol and the airbase at Maloelap. The naval attack sank 2 of 3 PBs in an ASW task force, while the attack on was mostly ineffective, causing moderate facility damage but completely missing the Claudes and Mavises based there.


Java
D-day -1. We bombed Tjilatjap, destroying another medium bomber on the ground. On the east side of Java, Betties found a minesweeper to attack and blow up, and another was destroyed by a sub lurking of Denpasar.

Despite the several raids targeting their airbases, the enemy managed to spot one of my trailing invasion task forces and sent 7 medium bombers after it. Because this group hadn't caught up with the main force yet, it did not have fighter cover. But, the bombers missed. The fact that both main invasion forces will be landing tomorrow but have not yet been detected speaks volumes about the current state of the Dutch Air Force.


Industry
The Devilish Mr. Lodrik stopped by my subchannel on Jochen Heiden's discord to chat about the Marshalls raid. Eventually we talked about my industry status and he pointed out an error that in hindsight seems rather obvious. It's a little in the weeds if you haven't managed Japan's economy in WITP, but the short version is that my R&D plan for Zeroes was suboptimal due to my error. It's too late to truly fix anything but I did make an adjustment to try to make it a little better. At least I know for next time.


Repairs and Reinforcements
Repair of the I-1 has completed, she's headed back to her old station near Hawaii.
Yokohama Ku T-1 Det arrives at Yokohama/Yokosuka - a pair of Emily flying boats, I sent them to Wake to spy on shipping lanes near Midway
45th I.F.Chutai arrives at Keijo - 12 Idas; training squadron