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

[Molon Labe]

Well, I gave you Youtube AAR thing a try. It was too time consuming. It seems doing AARs in forum was the way to go all along. So here we go again... my third WITP campaign (and hopefully the first complete one as the Japanese), picking up in February 1942.


Jochen Heiden's discord server: discord.gg/v4A9STzW7R
The thread for campaign #1 is here:
https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...d.php?t=249520
Campaign #2 (incomplete due to opponent ragequit): [


And the video AARs for this campaign through 29 December 1941: [


Which obviously leaves a bit of a gap in January 1942. So, a quick summary of the road so far.


China

My focus has been on moving into the north central area, taking bases such as Sian and Lanchow. I think this is generally called "the Northern Strategy". Most of December 1941 was about cleaning up stray Chinese units that started behind our lines while consolidating our control over the coastline, including capturing Hong Kong. We are currently focused on defeating a 100,000-strong "stack" of troops that we recently pushed out of Nanyang. They are now camped along the forest hex on the road between Nanyang and Sian. We've outflanked them with a mostly-armored advance through the roads to the north and we expect supply shortages will start hitting them pretty hard. In the east, we're closing in on Wenchow after chasing some consolidated enemy armies west across the Xiang river. It isn't clear at this time that we have enough troops to actually take Wenchow.


Philippines

We've had a very successful campaign in Luzon. We principally landed at Vigan and moved mostly directly towards Clark. We were briefly delayed by a pocket of enemy troops and armor that took refuge in the mountains on our east flank that proved difficult to dislodge. We also landed about a division of troops south of Manila which eventually became the primary force taking Manila, which fell 13 January. Our force in the Philippines was reinforced by a division coming from Japan that I originally wanted to sent to Burma, but it became available around the same time as Hong Kong fell, so sending these two divisions I had hoped would end the Luzon campaign quickly. It was probably the right move... Clark was a hard nut to crack (it fell 30 January) and I wouldn't have been able to do it without those two divisions. At this time, all the US still controls is the Bataan penninsula and a few other scattered garrisons throughout the central and southern islands.


Malaya

We had a mostly successful campaign here, including pulling off the Mersing Gambit. Rapidly setting up airbases at Kota Bharu, Kuantan, and Kuching prevented any naval reinforcement of Singapore and Sumatra. We ended up fighting a major battle at Johore Bahru before moving onto Singapore. My opponent apparently neglected to build fortifications at Singapore, resulting in an anticlimactic seizing of Singapore itself in 17 January in the initial shock attack over the channel with minimal losses.

As recon showed Palembang was mostly undefended, after two days rest we immediately began an invasion of Sumatra, with Palembang invaded on 29 January and falling on 1 February. Resistance on land was token; air resistance limited to medium bombers, with a total loss of about 30 bombers with no result. There are at least 3 enemy submarines trying to stalk our forces, including light and escort carriers, but so far with no success. Landings on Java are being staged with transports currently arriving at Singapore as of 2 February and beginning to load.


A very likely hot spot for CV vs CV conflict as we are pushing southward aggressively. We've taken Luganville resulting is some pushback from the Americans, with a small force delivering support units being wiped out by American cruisers on 1 January. And on 27-28 January, there was a raid on Luganville by Force Z and a CVBG including Lexington and Enterprise.

Carrier Status
Carrier Division 2 (Hiryu, Soryu) was originally tasked to support the opening attacks on Manila, then mostly patrolled the Sulu Sea picking off enemy ships trying to evacuate the area. It then made a series of raids in the Dutch East Indies and Darwin. Currently, CARDIV2 has been recombined with the KB and is deployed in the Solomons theatre.


The main KB was deployed to Pearl for the opening attacks, and has stayed in the Solomons area ever since, including making raids on the northeastern Australian coast and Noumea. The raid on Noumea resulting in an S-boat scoring a MK10 hit on the Kaga around 8 January, causing a secondary ammunition explosion. Kaga is currently in Japan for repairs which are expected to take 3-4 months. The remaining 5 carriers of the KB are remaining in the Solomons area to support a planned invasion of New Caledonia and further raids on Australia.


Our light and escort carriers ("the mini KB") have mostly been operating in the eastern DEI, intercepting evacuating Allied shipping. They are currently deployed in support of the Palembang invasion. Shoho joined the fleet around 31 January and is currently still in Japan, resizing some training squadrons.


* * *

On 6 January, USS Saratoga was hit by two torpedoes fired by I-9 west of Hawaii. The damage didn't appear critical but I think we probably put her away for at least 2 months.


Attrition



We're doing well as far as managing losses goes. The Allies haven't really been pushing back very hard so far, so we are mostly picking off weaker areas without paying very much for them. In the above chart, I find it remarkable that the Zero is only #4 in losses--I expect it to be #1 because unlike the Allies, my fighter losses aren't spread out over many airframe types, the Zero carries the majority of the load. The AVG in particular has been beaten down to a shadow of its former self trying to defend Rangoon from Oscar sweeps. MAJ Boyington has already been killed.


For ships, the attrition is nearly all in my favor. Based on Tracker data, here are the numbers:


Japan
CL: 1 (Jintsu)
DD: 1
PB: 6
SS: 1
SSX:5
DMS: 2
AK: 14
AKL: 4


Allies
BB: 2 (Tennessee, Arizona)
CA: 2
CL: 3
DD:12
PG: 3
PC: 3
PT/MTB: 27
ML/HDML: 24
SS: 21
CM/CMc: 3
AM: 17
AMc: 12
AS: 1
AV: 1
AVD: 2
AVP: 7
AGP: 4
AG: 3
AO: 3
YP: 1
AP: 22
AK: 35
AKL: 49

[Molon Labe]

2 February 1942

China
We fought a significant land battle on the road between Sian and Nanyang, getting the better of a stack of about 30k troops with mostly armored units of our own. I expect we'll break the enemy tomorrow. Once that happens, the amount of supply reaching the main stack outside Sinyang should plummet, and we should get our breakthrough.


DEI
We have paratroopers at Tarakan trying to take the base. We shelled the base with battleships and hit them with bombers as well in support of the para's attack this turn. We didn't take the base but didn't take a lot of casualties either.

We're also repairing a captured base at Koepang and building a base at Babar to use to attack Darwin. There may still be a significant fleet based there that's been intimitated from leaving the base between attacks by CARDIV2 and the Nells operating from captured airbases.


Sumatra
We detected a likely sub-laid minefield at Palembang and cleared with with destroyer-minesweepers. We hold contact on just one enemy sub now; the CVLBG is pulling back as most of the ships they were covering are already back in Singapore. I hope to have base forces delivered in 2 days.


Burma
The Hurricane made its combat debut today, holding off a sweep of Tojos and an attack by Oscar escorted Sallies targeting their port. We shot down just 1 Hurricane while losing a Tojo, 2 Oscars, and 4 Sallies. According to recon, there are several transports and cruisers in port at Rangoon; we have subs waiting for them outside the harbor and Betties based in Bangkok ready to torpedo them if they head out to sea, and over the past several weeks we've been working over the fighters at Rangoon to try to clear the way for port strikes. So far enemy fighter casualties have been high but we've had little success delivering bombs on target.

I'm staging to take Port Blair, an island and potential airbase outside Rangoon. Once I take that, delivery of supplies and troops to Rangoon will be nearly impossible for the Allies, accomplishing a major strategic objective.


Solomons/Coral Sea area
IJN Mutsu was torpedoed today, but fortunately took only light damage and is remaining on station protecting a troop convoy near Port Moresby. This convoy, along with another departing Truk, is intended for New Caledonia. The successful enemy sub attack was probably made possible by my decision 2 turns ago to pause loading at Port Moreseby due to a sighting of 4 unidentified ships at Horn Island, which could have been light cruisers escaping from Darwin and were a threat to the troop convoy. The Mutsu along with several other combattants were brought in to counter the threat, and the subs were waiting.

At Luganville, a few SOC-1s attacked an amphibious task force delivering construction engineers. I want a size 2 airbase on Luganville to support the New Caledonia invasion. I don't know if the Seaguls came from Efate or from American cruisers, but Efate seems more likely as I should have sufficient maritime surveillance to detect cruisers that close to Luganville. The KB and a heavy surface task force are standing by in the area, outside anticipated PBY search areas, waiting to see if the Americans attempt another raid on Luganville.

Off the coast of Brisbane, one of our subs picked off a minesweeper.
I have two midget-sub equipped subs and one floatplane-carrying sub on the way to Sydney. The floatplane will hopefully tell me when there are ships in harbor so I time the attack properly.


Reinforcements
40th Ku T-1 arrives at Chiba. Val squadron; they'll be assigned to pilot training for now.

[Molon Labe]

3 February 1942
Pretty uneventful. The one thing that did matter today was the Dutch bombed their own oil fields in Palembang with their remaining medium bombers, probably flying from Batavia. With just 5 hits they disabled 25 points worth of oil production. I'll have Oscars flying long-range CAP from Singapore tomorrow.

[Molon Labe]

4 February 1942

China
Major land battle outside Nanyang, we took significant casualties but it was mostly squad disablements, while Chinese casualties included a lot of squads destroyed. They're breaking.


Dutch East Indies
We had a long-range CAP out of Singapore trying to protect Palembang from the Dutch scorched-earth bombing raids. We only shot down 1 and the enemy managed to get another Oil hit. But better than the 5 hits we took yesterday. I'm moving in fighters to Palembang itself to protect this better; aviation support is being airlifted from Singkawang in addition to the incoming base forces (we're packing up from Kuching to rebase everything there to Palembang).

The Java invasion is planned to have two prongs, and the task force for the eastern group is nearly done loading at Singapore. We're probably something like 7-10 days from launching that operation.

We've captured Tarakan with an over-the-river shock attack. There were paratroops there trying to take the base but the conventional army caught up with them.


Coral Sea/Solomons/New Caledonia
A pair of bogeys showed up at Horn Island again, but this time I had surface assets nearby, so I rushed them. Was just 2 AKLs, both sunk.

The Port Moresby-to-New Caledonia task force finished loading and is ordered to rendezvous with another invasion force heading south from Truk. I expect them to land together at the north end of New Caledonia in 5 days.


Home Islands
The enemy has built up Adak Island to port size 2, which may be a sign of a fledgling forward sub base being built. Up to this point, there has been no US submarine activity near the home islands, but it looks like that's going to change. Hopefully I've got at least another month so that I'll have suitable deep-water depth charges on my subchasers and enough floatplanes and ASW-trained pilots to support them.

[Molon Labe]

5 February 1942

Santa Cruz Islands



4 bogeys popped up close enough to the KB that I'm surprised we didn't launch an airstrike. My best guess is that the Nagumo has better classification information than I do and doesn't think they're worth revealing the KB for. Fair enough. I'm backing the KB off slightly while moving the already-spotted heavy surface force in.


Burma
We had a fairly large air battle over Rangoon as a sweep of 21 Oscars was met by 10 Hurricanes, 4 Buffalos, and 3 P-40s. We lost 3 Oscars while shooting down 3 Hurricanes, 2 Buffalos, and 1 P-40.


Dutch East Indies
I accidentally forgot to turn off a Nell squadron's ground attack orders after we captured Tarakan, so they attacked a target of their own choosing: Surabaya. We got away with it... We had 19 escorting Zeroes to deal with their CAP of 6 Buffalos and 4 Demons. 3 of each type of enemy fighter went down with no IJN losses. The Nells did pretty good damage on the ground too.

Surprisingly, there were no raids on Palembang this turn.


China
The armored force just outside Sian attacked the Chinese army units there again. Once again, we failed to break through, but casualties were extremely disproportionate favoring us.


Reinforcements
LSD Akitsu Maru arrives at Osaka/Kyoto
12th Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Osaka/Kyoto

[Molon Labe]

6 February 1942
HMAS Australia, USS Marblehead sunk by IJN Kirishima and Hiei

Burma
Rangoon sweeps result in 1 Oscar and 2 Buffalos going down. The enemy is also bombing an armored column of mine just south of Moulmein, I'll CAP them next turn.


New Britain/Papua New Guinea
The enemy has responded to me pulling a division out of Port Moresby by ordering his former garrison back in. Due to operations on the north end of PNG taking longer than expected, my replacement garrison hasn't arrived yet and is still at least 2 days out. I've pulled a recon squadron out of PM just in case the enemy gets there first. I"ll be having Betties bomb them to try to slow them down, with Anns working their way here from Truk to free up the Betties.


Santa Cruz Islands
I was successful intercepting the bogeys overnight without needing to use the BK. The task force was the CA Australia, CL Marblehead, and a DD. Our task force included the battleships Kirishima and Hiei and we completely overpowered them, scoring BB main battery hits on all of them in the course of 2 engagements. We had 3 DD hit by their DD, resulting in fires and one damaged badly enough that I've ordered it back to Truk for repairs.


Recon flying from Luganville to Nomea reports the base has only about 5000-6000 defenders, plus

13 fighters, 17 bombers, 2 DD, 1 AP, and a sub spotted offshore. I probably don't need both divisions.

[Ostfriese]

Will of course continue reading here. I understand that the videos took too much time - was wondering about that myself. But still: the videos were great as well.

[Molon Labe]

7 February 1942

Dutch East Indies
I have a pair of DMSs working on the minefield at Tarakan. Will still need to find some base engineers to get this one online though. And supply to repair the damaged oil facilities.

5 Hudson bombers attacked Babar's port, evading 3 Oscars on patrol but scoring no hits.


SouthPAC
The O24 torpedoed and sank a pair of AKs bringing a relief garrison to Port Moresby. Fortunately, it was one ship from each of two units, so we didn't have a unit wiped out.

Zeroes swept Noumea from Luganville, shooting down 9 P-40s with no losses. This was an 8 on 12 engagement in his favor, so this outcome is quite shocking. The Zero is only slightly superior to the P-40. We may have another pilot training problem like we did in my first campaign.

B-17s attacked a cargo ship offloading supply/support at Luganville; they scored no hits and one was shot down by Zeroes.


China
The Sian-Nanyang meat grinder continues; a deliberate attack outside Sian caused 142 destroyed devices for the enemy but just 1 for me. Outside Nanyang the result was 219 destroyed for him and 27 for me. I've got a small force advancing towards the "twin cities" of Loyang and Chenchow as well.

On the coast, I did a probing bombardment attack on Wenchow, which shows I have a little less than twice his strength there. Probably not enough since he'll get a defensive bonus. I have another regiment on the way so I can wait.


Philippines
Deliberate attack on the last US bastion on Luzon. Enemy forts reportedly "reduced" to 3, so he actually had Level 4? That's impressive. But kind of wasted by holding onto Clark for so long. Anyway, we took the worst of this one with 439 devices destroyed/disabled and just 285 for him. But fret not, for his supplies will dwindle and he will not be able to reactivate disabled units, while I am swimming in captured supply from Manila, and these results will skew towards me the more the engineers bring down the forts.


Sumatra
We've captured Tandjoengbalai with an amphibious assault, and paratroopers dropped behind Palembang have marched to and taken Benkoelen. Oosthaven is really the only thing left in the south; I expect nothing more than token resistance in the north. This invasion was over before it started.


Burma
I have about a division's worth of troops staging outside Moulmein. I have no intention of making a move on Rangoon yet, but Moulmein I'd like to take just so the enemy has to make a river crossing if he decides to try to invade Thailand. The enemy showed his displeasure at my advance by sending 10 Blenheim bombers escorted with Buffalos and Hurricanes. 4 Oscars intercepted; 2 Buffalos didn't make it back and the bombing was ineffective.


Reinforcements
40th Ku T-2 arrives at Chiba (6 Kates, should be able to resize for training)
58th Infantry Brigade arrives at Shanghai - perfect, even more troops for Wenchow if I need them.

[Molon Labe]

8 February 1942

SouthPAC
It looks like the former Port Moresby garrison has given up on trying to return. One less problem for me to worry about I guess. I'd rather have the Anns I moved in here on ASW duty anyway.

B-17s raided Luganville again, targeting and missing the airbase while being harassed by Zeroes.

Efate's airbase has expanded to size 2 and is now an offensive threat to my New Caledonia operation. Of course that also means I can take it from him and make it a threat to him instead. Maybe after the initial landings when I have a ton of empty ships sitting around.


Burma
Port strike on Rangoon...air battle resulted in 1 Oscar lost, with the enemy losing a P-40 and 3 Hurricanes. In the first raid, 25 Sallies dropped 100 250kg bombs on the port--resulting in a single hit on the cruiser Colombo. A second raid of Betties hit the Colombo again, but I'm pretty sure it was just a 60kg bomb that didn't get through the armor. The third and final raid was 30 more Sallies, this time hitting the Colombo yet again and a transport twice. A transport that was not hit during the raid was seen sinking while the aircraft were present. There was a fourth raid of Betties, too, but they hit nothing.


Java and Sumatra
Betties recently rebased to Palembang attacked a minesweeper at Merak; a lone Buffalo tried to defend it and was shot down by escorting Zeroes. The Betties, equipped with bombs as their AirHQ has not yet arrived with their torpedoes, missed.

Eight medium bombers from west Java attacked my forces advancing towards Oosthaven, patrolling Oscars splashed two but the rest went on to cause some light casualties.


Dutch East Indies
9 Hudson bombers tried to attack a pair of cargo ships unloading at Babar, 3 didn't make it back thanks to Oscars on CAP. No hits on the ships.


Reinforcements
65th Naval Guard Unit arrives at Tokyo - sending the straight to Truk




9 February 1942
Well, that didn't take long...

Hawaii
I-3 took down an enemy destroyer.


Burma
3 Hurricanes tried to raid my ground forces outside Moulmein. We shot down 1, the rest retreated. 1 Blenheim was shot down in a later raid, our troops were unharmed by the bombing.

Raids on Rangoon resulted in 2 Buffalo and 1 Hurricane shot down by escorting fighters; we lost 1 Sally to flak and scored one more hit on the Colombo and just light facility damage.


SouthPAC
Luganville was targeted by several raids today, at least two of which were from the recently-upgraded Efate. First was a sweep by 5 P-40s, which was a fruitless one-way trip for them. A pair of B-26s snuck past the Zeroes next, attacking the airbase ineffectively. Next up were 6 B-17s, which scored 1 hit on the runway, but managed to draw a lot of attention from my remaining Zeroes on CAP. There was only 1 Zero left when their best strike arrived, 11 A-24 Banshees with 1 P-40 escort. The single Zero shot down the P-40 and one of the Banshees, but the remaining bombers put three thousand-pounders into a cargo ship unloading in the port, sinking it.

We're probably 2 days from landing on New Caledonia. Both amphibious task forces have been spotted. The KB hasn't technically been spotted, but he had 2 subs inside the KB's ASW search area, so if he's paying any attention he's noticed a lot of Kate sightings in his operations reports.


Java
13 Zeroes from Makassar swept Surabaya, shooting down all 5 fighters on CAP (2 Demon, 3 Buffalo) without loss.


China
We attacked outside Sian again, and this time finally routed them. We lost 1 tank (plus several device disablements) while destroying 612 devices in the rout. Sian is too well protected now, with about 150k troops hanging out there, so this force is going to head south down the road to join the battle outside Nanyang. We'll turn that into a slaughter too. Then take Sian.


Reinforcements and withdrawals
Kawai Detachment (Clades at Babeldoap) withdraws.
SC CHa-27 arrives at Toyama - sent to Nagasaki to use for shallow water patrols.

[Molon Labe]

10 February 1942
Stage set for possible carrier battle in New Caledonia


SouthPAC
A PB escorting the garrison delivery convoy spotted and swept a mine. They're leaving soon anyway and I won't have any immediate need to return, so these mines are going to get to sit here for awhile.

At Luganville, the S-34 picked off one of my DMSs. Which are some of my better ASW platforms right now.

Zeroes from Luganville swept Efate, shooting down 1 P-40.
Then B-17s tried to hit Luganville, but failed to score any hits as they were being attacked by Zeroes. A pair of B-26s snuck in and scored a single runway hit.

Finally, the Banshee dive bombers got their turn. Our Zeroes were somewhat depleted from dealing with the B-17s, so we only got 2 of them (of 9). But they also failed to score any hits.

Mavises flying long range patrols out of Ndeni spotted two task forces, including two ships reported as CVEs and with aircraft numbers implying 1-2 carriers. Based on prior activity in this area, I believe these are actually the Lexington and Enterprise, and the 2nd task force is Force Z. They are sitting in a good position to advance slightly to defend Efate or New Caledonia from an invasion attempt. Which is great news for me because the KB is here ready to tear them apart. The amphibious task forces have been spotted. The KB is officially "undetected" but its Kates generated at least 7 submarine spotting reports for me. So how many times did his subs spot my Kates?


One slight problem is that I detoured the KB slightly west to avoid some subs last turn, so I'm slightly out of position to defend the amphibious task forces this turn. I am in fact quite lucky that I was not attacked this turn. But it does limit my options this turn. I have two divisions loaded up on those task forces, so I can't/won't pull a Halsey and leave them flapping in the breeze while I go off chasing the carriers. Which means if the enemy figured out I have carriers here and chooses to avoid battle, he can. I also have to contend with the possibility that Force Z will charge the expected landing area. My transports are slow enough that he can beat me there. (Recall the January appearance of the Lex/Enterprise/Force Z; Force Z rushed Luganville while the carriers supported with raids) Which means just rushing the beach is probably not the best move for me. So I'll be standing off for a turn, with my heavy covering force ready to intercept any night rush, and my carriers repositioning to bring the amphibs under its umbrella where they belong. If the enemy tries to intervene in the landings, we should be able to launch a devastating strike during daylight.


Hawaii
The I-23 was hit a few times by a destroyer outside Pearl. The damage wasn't serious, but it was enough that I chose to send her home for repairs rather than be at greater risk of a more serious hit.




Java and Banda Sea
Zeroes from Makassar swept Madioen at extended range, splashing 1 Demon and 4 Buffalos with no losses.

Betties flew from Palembang with torpedoes this time, sinking a pair of minesweepers at Merak.

Babar was attacked by Hudsons from Darwin, we shot down 2. No damage on the ground. There Hudson attacks are also consistently targeting Saumlaki just to the east of Babar, but I'm not using that as a base so other than now I'm not mentioning it.

A Dutch sub torpedoed and sank one of my cargo ships at Babar. I believe it had just dropped off construction engineers.


Sumatra
139WH-3 bombers flying from Java attacked my troops outside Oosthaven; Oscars shot down 1 of them. The bombing was ineffective.

Using the 21st Ind. Mixed Brigade landed at Medan to work on the northern areas, we again fought the enemy we beat at Medan but they might have been reinforced as this time they got the better of us, 48 squads disabled/destroyed vs just 2. I have some idle heavies staging at Singapore, and these guys are on the coast, so I think I know how to break through here.


Burma
Blenheim raid on my advancing troops intercepted by Oscars, they turned around and ran, no losses.
Port strikes on Rangoon continued, with Betties scoring a single hit on a cargo ship.


China
We fought one of the few remaining stray Chinese units behind our lines near Chengting in the northwestern mountains. We got the worst of hit due to the terrain benefitting the defender, 28 squads disabled/destroyed to 11. But we'll be working them over with bombers and they'll be desperate for supplies. We'll get 'em.


Reinforcements
52nd Infantry Brigade arrives at Shanghai

[Molon Labe]

11 February 1942
Tactical blue balls...

CENTPAC
I-10 sank a cargo ship off the Samoa Islands in a night surface attack.


Java and Banda Sea, SRA, etc.
I spent so much time thinking about the possible carrier battle that I forgot to turn off the Sweep of Madioen. Oh well. There were 2 Demons left, we got one.

Splashed another pair of Hudsons over Babar. Seems to me these unescorted raids are a mistake.

A minesweeper of mine hit an uncharted rock near Babeldoab and sank.


Burma
Another Blenheim raid on my advancing troops near Moulmein. Splashed one, no damage on the ground.
A port strike on Rangoon hit the Colombo again. How is that ship still afloat?


SouthPAC
No major battle here today. We did not see any searchplanes following our fleets, and our searchplanes didn't find his. There are plenty of thunderstorms and heavy overcast areas though, so I honestly don't know if he ran off or if our forces are intermingled and we just don't know it yet.

Anyway, there were still skirmishes. B-26s again raided Luganville, with flak taking down one. No damage to the base. Which I'm happy for, because I just moved in about two dozen more Zeroes to help suppress Efate, and they could have been caught on the ground. The 11 remaining Banshees then attacked, but since they arrived before B-17s my Zeroes were fresh and ready for them. 3 of the newly arrived Zeroes managed to join in. They lost 6 to my Zeroes then another 3 to flak. I think we can credit prior sweeps of Efate to making these Banshee's efforts wasted, as we basically wiped out the P-40s that should have been escorting them.

One of Hiryu's Kates is claiming a hit on a submarine.

The landings at New Caledonia will now proceed. I'm also going to use a second heavy surface task force to shell Efate, using the extra Zeroes at Luganville to protect them from possible carrier attack. Hopefully this will remove some of the bomber threat in the area.


Sumatra
The Betties from Palembang flew again, this time sinking a minesweeper at Oosthaven.

Their medium bombers attempted another raid on my troops advancing on Oosthaven, this time we were only able to get 1 Oscar this far south and didn't shoot anyone down. The raid was still ineffective regardless.


China
Some enemy units were passing by Nanchang (eastern central area) in open territory, trying to get back to their own lines, so I sallied some excess garrison out to beat on them a little while working them over with light bombers. Round 1 resulted in light casualties to both sides. But by now you know to expect that the longer these skirmishes with isolated units last, the more it tips in my favor.

I also was able to find some spare units to send to Chengchow while the main event is taking place Nanyang. We found Chengchow virtually abandoned, as expected, and took it with minimal losses. But, this was a mistake. The enemy was retreating at my arrival; I could have just let him leave without attacking. During the rout, the enemy destroyed a majority of the light industry in the hex. The cost of repairing these facilities is unlikely to be repaid by their production within the expected time scale of the war, so this damage is, for practical purposes, permanent.


Reinforcements
62nd Naval Guard Unit arrives at Tokyo - another one for Truk to aid our expansion in SouthPAC.

[Molon Labe]

12 February 1942

Sumatra
IJN Kongo and Takao shelled the enemy troops north of Medan that were giving me problems a few days ago. Casualties were light, but hopefully disruption is high and they won't be much of a problem tomorrow.

The regular medium bomber raid on our troops near Oosthaven was successful this time, inflicting a single squad disablement at the cost of one bomber.


SouthPAC
I-172 sank a minesweeper off the coast of Sydney with a torpedo attack, while I-170 attacked a light cargo ship with gunfire on the surface, leaving it an inferno and very likely sinking it before it got to port.

I swept Noumea from Luganville, taking out 5 of 6 defending P-40s with no losses.

B-17s hit Luganville again, flak took down 1. No hits on the airbase. A second raid scored a single runway hit.

The KB unzipped its fly by attacking two singleton picket destroyers, one on each side of New Caledonia. The strikes all missed (save for one scoutplane claiming a hit on one of them).

Landings at the northern end of New Caledonia have begun.

Scoutplanes spotted a large enemy task force near Suva heading east, probably one of the two main TFs we spotted on the 10th. It ran over one of my subs that I put in the path of their likely retreat, but we failed to engage.


China
The enemy is creating a bit of a problem for me in the main battlefield between Nanyang and Sian. Our armored force has run into a superior concentration of enemies prior to reaching the main enemy force. So we actually can't attack or reach the main enemy force. To play it safe, I'll be retreating before he sallies troops out of Sian to envelop us. But, I think the cost of this is going to be reduced strength on the front line with my main force, which was gradually tipping in our favor anyway. So I expect to break through pretty soon.

We've also started to see enemy I-15 fighters start to intervene, and apparently with very well-trained pilots. They shot down an Oscar over Sian and and Oscar and a Lily outside Nanyang with no victories for us.

The second day of attack outside Nanchang resulted in a rout of the enemy. 288 devices destroyed to 2 of mine lost. I also attacked the enemy unit in the northern mountains again, casualties there were light but slightly worse for them, so better than last time.


Java and Banda Sea
I've moved my Zeroes and Betties from Makassar to Koepang temporarily for a strike on Darwin. Ships are still being reported in port, including a "CVE" which I've long doubted but recon is insisting on it so much that maybe the Hermes really is here. No fighters reported. But to be safe, this turn I swept Darwin with Oscars from Babar--clear skies.


Philippines
I'm noting a lack of flak on my airstrikes on Bataan. Because of this, I'm going to try reducing the bombing altitude of one of my bomber squadrons and see what happens. If there's still no flak I'll move everyone down in phases to increase bombing effectiveness. Ground attack tomorrow also, I'm well rested and if he's low on supply maybe I can end it here.


Burma
Port strike on Rangoon damages an AK and an AP, one defending Hurricane shot down. We've reached Moulmien and our forces appear superior. Ordering an attack tomorrow. One enemy Blenheim shot down trying to interdict.

We have an amphibious task force just outside Port Blair. Recon says resistance will be minimal.


CENTPAC
A curious development in the Gilberts, a few bogeys popped up at a dot base/atoll south of Tarawa. My best initial guess was these are aviation tenders looking to secretly set up a Catalina base to spy on my traffic in the Marshalls. But then I saw that Tarawa had reported being overflown by a "torpedo bomber" and a Kingfisher. So this might actually be a CVBG or cruisers. I'm ordering a recon flight of the atoll to see if I can detect any floatplanes at the atoll and/or aviation tenders disbanded. I've also dispatched a light surface combat task force from Truk to attack any aviation tenders we do spot. (I'd have sent one from the Marshalls, but they're all in Tokyo right now for refits)

[Molon Labe]

13 February 1942

Burma/Andaman Sea
Amphibious landings at Port Blair have begun. Our covering force destroyed an HDML and a minesweeper prior to the landings.

We lost a Sally and a Betty over Rangoon to flak but hit a cargo ship and the Colombo in port.

We captured Moulmein, destroying 58 squads with just one of ours disabled.


CENTPAC
The bogeys moved north, so we can rule out that they were trying to set up a scoutplane base. They're probably just testing my reaction. Still no classification, but because of the scoutplane activity we can safely say they're cruisers.


SouthPAC
Kirishima and Hiei pounded Efate to little effect.

S-172 took a serious depth charge hit from a minesweeper outside Sydney and is returning to base for repairs.

Sweeps over Noumea took down 4 P-40s, no Zeroes lost.

I screwed up my CAP coverage for the amphibs landing at New Caledonia, and several enemy bombers attempted raids on them without interference. However, the were mostly level bombers, which were as ineffective as always. There were a few Banshees, but they've suffered so much attrition that they could not attack in numbers and were also ineffective.

There are something like 6 enemy subs converging on the landing site. The S-34 was spotted approaching chased off by destroyers.



Java and Banda Sea Area
A Dutch sub picked off yet another cargo ship at Babar; this one was offloading supplies. I'm moving in extra floatplanes to Babar to try to counter the subs.

I made a port strike on Darwin with Nells flying from Koepang but the raid was ineffective due to bad weather.


Sumatra
We're still stuck at Medan with a failed attack today. 18 devices disabled for us, 8 for him. Hopefully the coastal shelling and aerial bombing will get us past him soon.

We've captured Oosthaven and Ketapang (across the strait on Borneo) with minimal resistance and no losses, and our paratroopers once again routed the former base force they're chasing up the southwestern coast.


Philippines
The reduced altitude of my bombers did not result in flak being fired at Bataan. Bringing everyone down for future raids.

I made a deliberate attack, but in spite of the supply shortage I took the worst of it, 354 devices destroyed/disabled to 311. But his losses skewed towards destroyed rather than disabled, and due to his supply shortage he won't be reactivating disabled units that much. We're getting close.


Intel
HMAS Adelaide is reported sunk at Townsville. Very credible report.

[Molon Labe]

14 February 1942

SouthPAC
I detached 2 CA and 2 DD from the New Caledonia covering force to bombard Noumea. It ran into a DM outside the base and sank it easily. The bombardment destroyed at least 5 aircraft on the ground, along with moderate facility damage to the base itself.

My enemy had the same idea: two cruisers shelled Luganville and got away before the KB could hit them with an airstrike. Fortunately they were no more effective than our battleships were yesterday.

Meanwhile the S-34 continued to try to penetrate the landing site, and ended up getting depth charged for at least moderate damage. I've moved the KB a bit closer and set an narrow ASW search arc to protect the 'phibs from the closing submarine swarm. The KB hasn't been sighted for a few turns so she should be OK without broad coverage.


Java and Banda Sea, etc.
Our second day of raiding Darwin's port resulted in a hit on a British destroyer. Clear skies this time.


Burma and Andaman Sea
Port strike on Rangoon resulted in 1 Buffalo and 1 Oscar shot down, plus a Sally lost to flak. But we finally got the hits we were looking for. Columbo was hit four times, and we also got hits on a transport and a cargo ship. All 3 confirmed sunk. Anything left in port probably isn't worth the flak losses.

Blenheims tried to interdict our marines at Port Blair, Zeroes went after them but failed to intercept. The bombers missed anyway.

My marines attempted to take the base but were thwarted by high disruption; apparently they needed another day after landing to get their **** together. 2 squads disabled on each side.


Sumatra
Dutch bombers raided Palembang. Bad move. We got 4 out of 5 them, no damage.


China
Outside Nanyang, I tried to take advantage of the enemy moving some of its forces north, away from the main group, but our attack still failed to achieve a breakthrough. Squad destruction heavily favoring me, 14 to 182, although total disabled/destroyed was a less lopsided 253 to 453. I'm starting to feel some pressure on my northern armored group now, there's a risk they could be defeated in detail if I can't break the southern group quickly.

In the mountains near Chengting we had a surprisingly bad outcome, acheiving 2 to 1 adjusted assault odds but still suffering worse attrition with 20 of our devices destroyed to 2 of his.

Loyang was vacated by the enemy, we raised our flag there today.


Philippines
I attacked the small island garrison at Bacolod, supported by Vals flying out of Mindanao; we failed to achieve a breakthough. Light casualties on both sides. This probably calls for a naval bombardment.


Reinforcements
91st I.F.Chutai arrives at Tokyo
64th Naval Guard Unit arrives at Tokyo
67th Naval Guard Unit arrives at Tokyo

[Molon Labe]

15 February 1942

Hawaii
I-2 sustained minor depth charge damage from a destroyer, she's remaining on station.


SouthPAC
Sweep of Efate took care of 3 more P-40s, no losses.


Burma
Dumb mistake on my part. I turned off all the Rangoon strikes...I thought. One squadron of Sallies still had attack orders and flew unescorted. I lost 6 to fighters and another to flak.


Philippines
Landed troops at Tacloban. I could be wrong, but I think this means I have troops on every island the US has troops on.


China
By reinforced army at Wenchow attacked again, and failed again, 286 devices destroyed/disabled to 209 of theirs. I have one more unit on the way. If that doesn't make the difference I may have to spend some political points to move something big here.

My armored stack between Nanyang and Sian suffered a rare Allied attack, but with the defensive bonus now on our side, we held them off, just 28 devices destroyed disabled vs 618 of theirs. That probably ends the threat of this stack being defeated in detail, but I'll continue to try to get the main force up here in a hurry.


Intel and Reinforcements
Previous report of sinking of CV Saratoga incorrect. Intelligence reports ship is still in service -- no ****.
42nd I.F.Chutai arrives at Sapporo