War in the Pacific AAR Thread - ML vs JFranzen

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

Sounds as if the Battle for Hawaii is about to end, and while it has been a pain in the behind for you while it lasted it's a terrible disaster for your opponent in the end. He lost insane amounts of troops, ships, planes and supplies, and in the end has nothing to show for, because he couldn't capitalize on you not being able to fully utilize Pearl Harbor.

Yep. I'm thinking we'll be done mopping it up in 3 days. The only major benefit he got from occupying Hawaii was depleting the US Army Air Corps fighter reserves and the Navy's SBD reserves, along with sinking a few high-value tenders. I'm still working on getting replacement aircraft to all those empty squadrons. Logistically, it was a pain in the ass, but I was still able to get fuel, troops, and supplies to the south Pacific and Australia, and we didn't have enough naval battles that not being able to use Pearl's shipyards ever became a major factor. Most of my submarine operations are based out of the Aleutians or Australia, so losing Pearl as a sub base didn't even hurt at all. Midway actually hurt more on that front.

His losses of 3 battleships hurt, although I think he lost those late enough in the war that their value was decreasing rapidly (he's not doing a lot of amphibious operations anymore). Losing probably 2 divisions worth of troops hurt him very badly, though. And I suspect this has a lot to do with his pilot attrition problem--the KB took significant losses in the early days of the war sweeping Pearl, and got so depleted during the evacuation that I actually tried to attack them with my carriers, I just missed by a day or two. And of course, time--he'd have taken Sumatra months ago if the troops went there instead, and Singapore never would have held out. He'd probably be on the offensive in Burma instead of on defense in Thailand, too--and that would probably be making a big difference in China.

In hindsight, the Naval Battle of Oahu looks like this war's Midway. It seems like our victory there convinced my opponent that the occupation of Oahu could not succeed, and if not for that he probably would have taken Oahu and then used those troops to take Sumatra and Singapore months ago.

[mapuc]

Are you aiming at Air superiority ?

I know it will be a while before this can be archieved

Markus

[Molon Labe]

October 2 1942
Luganville D-day -1, surprise lost to submarine picket, 3 enemy submarines severely damaged, 1-2 believed sunk

Burma
The light cruiser task force continues to bombard Tavoy--and our squadrons at Moulmein haven't recovered enough to do anything about it.

We're bombing the enemy army south of Raheng quite hard, I don't normally report routine bombing missions but this resulted in 123 enemy casualties, and they're in contact with my armies, so this sort of loss could help our troops beat them.


Luganville Operation/Solomons
The heavy covering force for the invasion fleet was nearly attacked by an enemy sub as it headed north past Efate, but was spotted before it was able to fire. Three destroyers (Nizam, Stuart, Reid) split off the prosecute it, with Stuart and Reid taking turns attacking, and their accuracy was solid. The sub was forced to surface after sustaining severe damage and was gunned down.

Destroyers escorting the amphibious group spotted a sub and engaged before it could present a threat. It managed to dive and evade the destroyers for a bit, but eventually one of my older tin cans--USS Ward of minor Pearl Harbor fame--reacquired it, but wasn't able to score any hits. The Wickes class only has 2 aft depth charge launchers, compared to 4 launchers (Mahan class) and 5 launchers (Admiralty-leader class) on the 2 destroyers that attacked the first sub. So I think pattern size is making a big difference.

After that sub gave us the slip, it spotted the covering force and took a shot at the destroyer Stuart, missing it. The same 3 destroyers from before broke off and prosecuted this sub, this time Nizam connecting solidly. The enemy sub got away, but was badly damaged.

Yet another sub was badly damaged near Noumea, as once again our Wirraways successfully bombed a surfaced sub--getting two hits this time. Intel reported an enemy sub was scuttled near Efate, it doesn't appear to have been either of these two subs that were damaged, but maybe another one that was recently bombed went down. I'm impressed with the accuracy of this Wirraway squadron, and I really think I need to get these guys better planes with something bigger than 100lb bombs so that the subs they're hitting start going down more. So, I'm transitioning a Port Moresby Hudson squadron to Mitchells. Once things around Noumea calm down, they'll inherit the Hudsons. So we'll get more range, radar, and a bombload of 4x250lb instead of 2x100lb.

A B-26 was lost to flak over Luganville. Not a good sign--logistically, they're probably ready for us.

On the other end of the Solomons, a few P-38s strafed a subchaser at the Shortlands, causing minor damage.


China
We had a coordination SNAFU and the Hudson bombers ended up over Chenchow unescorted. One was lost to Oscars.

To the east, near Foochow, the Liberator and Wellington bombers interdicting the approaching army ran into 8 Zeroes on CAP, but there were no losses on either side. I'm going to reassign some commands down here to try to make sure we get some fighter escorts tomorrow. Regardless, the bombers did great--over 240 enemy casualties reported on the ground.

I might have mentioned this before, but in case I didn't--when I moved the Lysanders into Amoy, I noticed that these seemingly useless bombers are equipped with recon cameras. And I know I've mentioned more than once that I wish I had more recon in China. So I've moved another squadron into the central region, and I've made training recon a new priority for British bomber training.

Reinforcements and logistics
TK William Strachan arrives at Abadan - 12 knot slowpoke, will be assigned to Colombo route when the convoy returns
165 Wing arrives at Aden - full strength aviation support--headed to India once escort available

The F4F-4 is now capable of carrying drop tanks.
The P-38G is now in production--only 20 per month, though. Clearly a better model than the E or Fs currently in service--Es have too high a service rating (lots of maintenance needed) and the Fs have less range.

I've noticed that I have an abundance of cargo ships and a shortage of troop transports as I'm surging troops from the west coast, so I'm converting a few cargo ships to transports at Alemeda, CA.

Capetown, South Africa is ceasing to be a reliable source of off-map fuel, as the reserves don't seem to be getting replenished by the automatic supply convoys. Fuel shipments from Captetown to Australia have stopped, and I may rebase the tankers here to Colombo or Abadan. At this time, the fuel situation in Australia is fine so this is not an immediate problem. He can cut off Colombo/Abadan shipments to Perth pretty much any time he wants, though. US shipments to Sydney may have to resume--but all my escorts are busy with the troop surge for the moment.

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Are you aiming at Air superiority ?

I know it will be a while before this can be archieved

Markus

I need to try to get local air superiority anywhere I'm trying to take territory. My Canton Island op failed because the KB was able to park there and stay there, preventing reinforcements and supplies from arriving while also bombing the hell out of my Marines and killing their morale. I'm hoping Luganville will be different because I'm going to have a wall of fighters--2 P-38 squadrons, 1 P-40E squadron, 28 F4F-4s from a CVE, and probably an extra 10-15 fighters from Wasp. That should give me the cover I need to get the marines and tanks ashore without being blown away by Betties/Nells from Guadalcanal, plus, if the KB decides to take up residence here, the airspace will be contested instead of just plain owned by him.

Unfortunately, until I deal with the KB, local air superiority is always potentially temporary.

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by Molon Labe

Unfortunately, until I deal with the KB, local air superiority is always potentially temporary.

On the other hand the KB is basically the only offensive tool he has left. Once he loses the KB (even if only temporary) he should never again be able to go on the offensive.

[Molon Labe]

3 October 1942
Massive air battle over Luganville - 40 enemy planes shot down, USS Colorado, Copahee hit by torpedoes

Luganville Invasion
USS Ward got another chance to get a sub but missed. There are at least 2 subs prowling close by Luganville.

We faced 5 waves of air attack. Our fighters were dominant in the kill column, but the enemy fighters mostly succeeded in keeping our fighters away from the bombers, so damage was done:

Wave 1: 20 Zeroes, 30 Oscars, 7 Nells, 8 Betties; CAP: 17 P-38, 5 P-40, 32 F4F.
Losses: 8 Oscars, 6 Zeroes, 1 Betty -- 3 F4F
BB Colorado: hit twice
CVE Copahee: hit once. Air ops knocked out, airborne F4Fs land at Efate.

Wave 2: 6 Zeroes, 6 Nells -- CAP: 6 P-38, 1 P-40, 13 F4F
Losses: 3 Zeroes, 1 Nell, 1 F4F

Wave 3: 4 Betties -- CAP: 5 P-38s, 1 P-40, 9 F4F
Losses: 2 Betties (1 to flak) - these guys mostly snuck in.
BB Colorado: hit once

Wave 4: 7 Zeroes, 7 Oscars, 8 Nells, 3 Betties -- CAP: 16 P-38, 4 P-40, 4 F4F
Losses: 5 Zeroes, 5 Oscars, 6 Nells -- 1 F4F
(7 bombers attacked Copahee and missed)

Wave 5: 6 Oscars, 3 Nells, 6 Betties -- CAP: 10 P-38, 1 P-40
Losses: 2 Oscars, 1 Nell (flak)
(8 bombers attacking Warspite, Colorado, and Copahee; all missed)

Total losses: 15 Oscars, 14 Zeroes, 3 Betties, 8 Nells, 5 F4F

We also lost a Hudson near the Shortlands that was trying to attack a PB and got bounced by Oscars.

In spite of this resistance, our amphibious boats hit the beach and started unloading--that will continue overnight. Bombers from Efate and Noumea hit the enemy troops to support the landings--no enemy fighters intervened in that. Copeahee and Colorado are retiring due to the damage. Copahee isn't hit that badly, but Colorado's flooding is critical and she has enough engine damage that she's almost dead in the water. Breaking them off is breaking up our destroyers, which makes me a little nervous due to the number of enemy subs around.

Thailand
40 Oscars swept the battlefield south of Raheng, driving off 5 fighters we had there. The next sweep was 87 planes, fortunately no one was there to see that. But after that we sent in our raid, 12 medium bombers escorted by 6 P-40s, and a second wave of 8 Hurricanes and 12 B-25s. Losses were pretty bad, 2 P-40s, 3 B-25s and 6 Blenheims; we got 2 Oscars.

China
In spite of reassigning nearby fighters to the same command as the bombers, the bombers flying near Foochow did not receive escorts. 1 Wellington was shot down by Zeroes.

CENTPAC
The last enemy troops at Hilo have been eliminated. A few thousand at Lahaina to go and Hawaii will be clear.

Reinforcements
7th BG/9th BS arrives at Aden - 12/12 B-24s, headed to India, then Burma

[Molon Labe]

4 October 1942
USS Colorado finished off, tanks still unloading at Luganville

Luzon Strait
An enemy destroyer hit a mine at Batan Island. Intel believes the ship went down on the way to Manila. The minesweepers the destroyer was with managed to clear the rest of my mines out of here.

Also at Batan, the USS Sunfish was caught by an ASW group comprised of PBs and subchasers. The Sunfish was eventually forced to surface and got into a running battle with the rather slow enemy ships, shooting torpedoes to try to get away. The sub went under again, involuntarily---but the damage control teams saved the boat, for now. I don't think its odds of making it back to base are great.

Luganville Invasion
There are at least 5 enemy submarines trying to attack my phibs. One tried to attack a destroyer and missed, we managed only managed light damage to the sub before it got away. A second was spotted by a destroyer and driven off. The other contacts are all being reported via floatplanes and have been kept at a distance for now.

Guadalcanal managed 4 waves today trying to stop the invasion:

Wave 1: 36 Zeroes, 3 Nells, 4 Mavis -- 27 P-38, 4 P-40, 13 F4F
Losses: 17 Zeroes, 1 Nell
All 7 bombers went after HMS Warspite and missed. Really disappointed that we tore through the Zeroes like this but couldn't hurt the bombers.

Wave 2: 7 Zeroes, 3 Betties -- 4 P-40, 4 F4F
Attacking the Colorado as it retired instead of the main force
Losses: none, we barely got to these guys. The bombers got one hit on Colorado, finishing it off.

Wave 3: 6 Zero, 3 Mavis -- 18 P-38, 1 P-40, 6 F4F
Losses: 5 Zeroes, 2 Mavis (and the third turned around without attacking)

Wave 4: 12 Zeroes, 8 Betties -- 16 P-38, 1 P-40, 5 F4F
Losses: 1 P-40; again, we mostly missed these guys.
HMS Warspite took a torpedo hit

Total losses: 22 Zeroes, 2 Mavis, 1 Nell, 1 P-40, 1 F4F (at some point in the battle, an F4F headed home with damage was picked off)

I also tried to slow Guadalcanal down a little bit with a heavy bomber raid--12 B-17s and 11 B-24s. We ended up losing four of each to the Nicks on CAP, and that includes aircraft lost to damage on the way back and/or written off at base. We caused only light facility damage, destroyed 2 aircraft on the ground, and shot down and/or caused the writeoff of 4 Nicks. Not worth it.

Another enemy sub tried to attack after the airstrikes, HMAS Nizam ran itself out of depth charges trying to kill it, managing only moderate damage.

After two days of unloading, we appear to outnumber the enemy but not necessarily enough to overcome fortifications. We still have a lot of tanks on the ships. Unfortunately, none of these ships are true amphibious assault ships, and all but two of them aren't even military transports, they're just civilian ships pressed into service with a few guns bolted on. So they're not good at this. I organized this fleet before he moved 100 fighters into Guadalcanal, so before that changed, this fleet would have been fine. But it's going to need a 3rd day to get enough ashore to do the job. Another day of airstrikes.

Warspite is retiring and its taking the 2 military transports with it, since they're already done unloading.



Thailand
53 Oscars swept the skies over the battlefield south of Raheng. We had only 10 fighters protecting the troops; we lost 2, they lost 1. I meant to cancel all my bombing here, but I left the orders on a B-25 squadron. Fortunately, they slipped in, hit the target, and slipped out without being engaged. Our armies attacked and routed the enemy, casualties 1293 to 188. We're turning around now, we're too close to Bangkok and the next engagement will end up being a much more powerful force.

Our armies at Tavoy have had their supplies cut off by splinters from the main garrison at Tavoy, but they don't have a supply route behind my lines either so that's probably a wash. I'm going to have my Tavoy attackers back up a bit to clear the road.

China
If my fighters won't coordinate with my bombers, I'll order them to sweep. It worked. 12 former AVG P-40s flown by Chinese Air Force pilots swept over the armies advancing on Foochow and shot down 2 Zeroes, routing the rest. The bombers had clear skies when they arrived to hit the troops.

I'm feeling evil. I'm building up a few airbases that would but the B-24 within easy range of Nagasaki. And when I looked at that, I noticed I already have a base in northeastern China close enough to hit Port Arthur, Korea--home to a major refinery and a fuel and resource shipping hub. I'm thinking if 3 squadrons of Liberators suddenly appear over that port, he won't be ready for it. The third squadron is coming online in India right now, so we'll need a few days.

Reinforcements and logistics
9th Marine Defense Battalion arrives at Eastern USA (full strength, unrestricted. Future pacific island garrison)
9 RAAF Aviation Rgt arrives at Sydney (full strength, unrestricted)
Port Blair RN Det arrives at Aden (hollow unit, unrestricted. Probably being reformed after being lost when Port Blair was invaded)
14th Indian Light AA Regiment arrives at Aden (full strength, unrestricted. Will send to Colombo when escorts are available)

I'm sending a major tanker convoy from LA to Sydney to make sure there's no fuel supply interruption due to Capetown drying up. I'm also transferring a pair of large, fast tankers from LA to Abadan along with a destroyer escort, to help keep the route from there viable.

[Molon Labe]

5 October 1942
Still unloading at Luganville - Japan rests their pilots; Hawaii cleared of all enemy troops

Luganville Invasion
We now hold 12 submarine contacts around Luganville--and some of them look like they're after the Wasp. Two subs made attack attempts, both were spotted by escorts and driven off--one with some depth charge damage.

There were no enemy airstrikes today. They probably don't have all that many operational aircraft, so taking a day off gives them time to get damaged airframes back in service, pull some replacements from the pool, and rest their pilots. Pilot fatigue is a very large factor when they have to fly long distances, and that's the case for both of us. Since I'm still flying my long-range CAPs, my pilots didn't rest today. So that's very bad if he attacks tomorrow. I'm assigning extra pilots to my fighter squadrons and putting my most fatigued pilots on reserve to mitigate this somewhat.

We're not done unloading, but I'm pulling the ships back for now. We might already have enough, and I think my best option right now is to unload these ships someplace safe and transfer what didn't get dropped on Luganville to military transports, including the two that already finished unloading and pulled out (giggity).

Thailand
Enemy sweeps over the army south of Raheng resulted in 1 Oscar downed and 1 Hurricane. The only other aircraft shot down anywhere in theatre were recon aircraft.

China
Some of the armies advancing on Foochow turned around. The P-40s followed the retreating ones and did not encounter any Zeroes. Then the Wellingtons went after the advancing ones and ran into 9 Zeroes. Fortunately we got away with just a few shot up planes.

The paratroopers for the Hainan Island op have arrived in Calcutta by rail and are now being flown in hops toward southern China. First stop, central Burma. One more day until the 3rd B-24 squadron is ready to move to China. We have 2 more B-24 squadrons probably 10-14 days away from arriving in India. I'm also making a move on Sinyang, a bit south of Chengchow.

Banda Sea
I have an encroachment operation similar to the one in the Solomons about to kick off here, the ships are moving and will probably be ready to land in 4-5 days. Recon indicates the target islands are clear of enemy troops, so it's just aircraft we need to worry about. We have P-38s ready to cover the landings. Once these islands are taken and built up, the enemy oil ports in the eastern DEI will be in range of Beaufighters and P-38s, which will be far more effective than the B-17s that have been trying to interdict tankers. We'll also be able to get P-38s over all of Timor, and Ambon airbase to the north.



CentPAC
The last IJN troops in Hawaii made their last stand. It's finally over.


Reinforcements
AD Prairie arrives at Cristobal
AM Token arrives at Balboa

[Molon Labe]

6 October 1942
US Marines advance on enemy in Luganville, enjoy superior firepower

CENTPAC
We shelled Canton Island with 2 CA and 3 DD, causing about 50 enemy casualties and wrecking the small airfield and port facilities there.

Japan
USS Gar torpedoed and sank a subchaser that was trying to clear my subs out of the gap east of Okinawa. One of its partners attempted a depth charge attack but missed. These subchasers have the deep-reaching depth charges, so that's good news and bad news--that was a pretty valuable SC, but eventually this area might get too hot to keep subs in.

Malaya
Haven't checked in here in awhile. They've been bombing Singapore continuously. Today I counted 242 bomber sorties here (mostly Sallies). No joke. Imagine if he took some of his troops up around Bangkok and put them in Singapore, and took some of these bombers to Bangkok (along with the 100+ fighters already up there) and bombed my troops with them. Such a huge allocation of airpower that isn't accomplishing anything.

Thailand and Burma
10 Oscars swept over our armies south of Raheng against 7 of our fighters, and ended up with 5 Oscars lost with just 1 P-40 shot down (plus one damaged Mohawk that didn't make it back). I may have inaccurately stated the numbers of enemy planes in prior reports here. It looks like there is a swarm of enemy aircraft on CAP (about 40 planes this turn) nearby ready to respond to my raids, but a smaller group that's actually attacking, trying to get rid of my CAP. So this isn't as lopsided here as it looked.

I just noticed that repairs at Moulmein are painfully slow, and it's because the aviation support unit there has airplane mechanics but not construction engineers, so we don't have the right personnel there to repair the base. Sending engineers from Rangoon to deal with this.

Luganville Invasion
No air-to-air combat today, the invasion task force has safely withdrawn to Efate. Our marines began their assault on the enemy fortifications, we're currently well short of what we need to overrun their position, but the massive amount of firepower we brought (2 partially-delivered tank battalions) caused 491 enemy casualties vs our 75--that's 17% of their force. Usually the attacker takes disproportionately high casualties, so this is a GREAT result. I'd give it 4 days--without having to finish landing the intended amount of forces.

Refits and Reinforcements
BB Arizona beginning refit in shipyard at Pearl Harbor (major overhaul-4 months to complete)
SS S-47 taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor
AM Pirie arrives at Brisbane
VMO-155 arrives at Pago Pago (2/18 Helldivers - Helldivers are out of production, we're only building SBD-3s now, and it might be awhile before I have enough to transition and fill this unit)
27th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme
119th RAF Base Force arrives at Aden

[Molon Labe]

7 October 1942
Everyone takes a day off

Pretty much nothing happened today. We flew our usual bomber sortie against the armies advancing towards Foochow. We did a recon-in-force bombing of Sinyang--looks like the enemy has more than we expected there but they're retreating instead of reinforcing. Lost a Hudson to flak there. We bombed the paratroopers and marines still behind our lines in western Burma. And of course, we bombed the enemy marines in Luganville and Canton Island.

I don't think the enemy flew any bomber sorties. They tried to sweep Roussel Island, but we didn't have any fighters there for them to play with. That will change tomorrow, since we now have some phibs dropping off engineers there to build up the fledgling airstrip into an air base.

No land combat at all today - our Marines in Luganville have high fatigue so I didn't order an attack.

Recon of Guadalcanal says they're back up to 100 fighters, so he's assigning replacement aircraft there in large numbers. There are also a bunch of landing barges sailing from the Solomons towards Luganville--not sure of those are reinforcements or intended for an evacuation. Either way, I've assigned a portion of a P-38 squadron to strafing missions.

USS Washington has completed its upgrade at Pearl, I'll have it switch places with the South Dakota in the Wasp's battle group. As the Wasp heads back to Pearl it will pick up a few recon Wildcat variants, and after the battleship swap we're going to snoop Midway with the recon planes.

I've changed my mind about upgrading Noumea's Wirraway squadron to Hudsons. They're probably going to get Beauforts instead, which lack the range and radar of the long-range Hudson variants. This is because an Australian squadron that arrived at Aden has been moved to Calcutta and can make its way into China. If I give these guys the Hudsons, I can have them take over for the Lysanders patroling the Taiwan Strait--and they'll make it all the way across the Luzon Strait, too. I have yet to find any tanker traffic to or from Palembang, so this should be a big help. Anything they spot will be a contact report for the US subs patrolling below.

Reinforcements
9th Marine Regiment arrives at San Francisco (empty command)
25th Indian Division arrives at Madras (~70%, restricted)
168 Wing arrives at Aden (full strength, unrestricted, headed to India)

USS Cuttlefish has been withdrawn from theatre. It had a mostly uneventful career, with one successful attack against a troop-carrying cargo ship, which is believed to have survived the torpedo hit.

[Molon Labe]

8 October 1942
Two airbases in Burma trashed, Tooth-to-tail problems in Burma and Luganville, Guadalcanal reinforced

Burma
Our airbases at Moulmein and Rangoon itself were shelled by battleships and heavy cruisers, respectively. I didn't think he could get heavy cruisers up the channel into Rangoon and that I was protecting my assets by splitting them between the two bases. So much for that. Facility damage is severe at both bases, effectively knocking them both out of action. And because I was sending a construction unit from Rangoon to Moulmein, it's between bases now and can't repair either. This is exposing some logistical unpreparedness on my part. A lot of my base forces are forward with my stalled offensive forces, intended to build and operate new airbases. And that's left my rear echelon bases with insufficient engineer support. And with Port Blair in enemy hands, there's no good way to move more in. I'll settle for a bad way--I've got an engineer unit traveling by rail to the Burma-India border, they'll drive though the wilderness a few hexes to get back to the rail system, and then finally to Rangoon. Going to take weeks.

I'd like to move some of these planes off the coastal hexes, but that requires building more inland bases--so, same problem, not enough engineers.

China
The enemy armies made another shock attack on Chengchow. They weren't significantly stronger than they were at the beginning of the last push, and my forts are rebuilt to level 3. So, same result; attack held off, casualties 12947 to 5981 favoring me. Plus an angry email about how it's unrealistic that the Chinese can hold off the Japanese army.

Luganville Invasion
All bad news here today. My marines still have high fatigue--and it's because I cut the unloading short. We landed the infantry first, support units last--and for a lot of them, not at all. The support units would be helping the troops recover from fatigue and re-activate disabled squads and devices.

Those landing barges weren't hit--looks like weather interfered with a strike. And I don't think they're headed for Luganville, but for Ndeni. The garrison there is small and vulnerable. So, I'm going to try to get another airstrike on these guys, but I'm also sending my fastest 4 destroyers from Efate to Ndeni with orders to shell Ndeni (on the assumption they've landed) and on a course that should intercept them, either on the beach or right next to it. No guarantee they arrive in time. The destroyers will draw some air cover, but probably not enough to defeat enemy air raids if they push hard. At least they're small, fast, and hard to hit.

Speaking of air raids, the enemy airbase is now reportedly up to 120 fighters and 70 bombers. Given how successful they were with only about 30 bombers a few days ago, that's disturbing.

I'm moving an armed merchant cruiser from Noumea to Efate which is going to be the last of 3 ships I'll need to hopefully finish off the delivery of troops to Luganville. But I'm not looking forward to the airstrike they're going to face on the beach in 2 days or so.

Intel
The Akagi is back on the killed list. They say it went down in Toyko harbor now. Yeah, right.

Reinforcements
SS Pogy arrives at Balboa
43rd Infantry Division arrives at San Francisco (restricted)
35th USN Naval Construction Battalion arrives at Port Hueneme (unrestricted)

[mapuc]

"Plus an angry email about how it's unrealistic that the Chinese can hold off the Japanese army."

Shouldn't he address this to those who developed this game ?

Markus

[Molon Labe]

Originally Posted by mapuc

"Plus an angry email about how it's unrealistic that the Chinese can hold off the Japanese army."

Shouldn't he address this to those who developed this game ?

Markus

Yes, but they're not going to listen, either. He's throwing large waves of men across a river against a fortified position. Whether they're crossing on pontoons or small boats or using actual bridges, they're doing it under fire. That I'm holding out and he's taking large casualties is "functioning as intended."

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by Molon Labe

Yes, but they're not going to listen, either. He's throwing large waves of men across a river against a fortified position. Whether they're crossing on pontoons or small boats or using actual bridges, they're doing it under fire. That I'm holding out and he's taking large casualties is "functioning as intended."

Well, I don't see a problem here, river crossings always heavily favor the one who does not have to cross, and even a comparatively small army with inferior weapons can hold against that.

[Molon Labe]

9 October 1942
Destroyer group destroys Japan's Ndeni invasion flotilla

Luganville Invasion/New Hebrides/Espiritu Santo
The destroyers that sortied from Efate succeeded in intercepting the enemy landing barges before they reached Ndeni. Many of the barges appeared to be in poor condition--maybe they ran out of fuel? The barges' (12 total) only escort was a coastal minesweeper, my 4 destroyers tore through them without any significant resistance. 680 enemy troop casualties were reported. The destroyers were never spotted by anyone other than their victims, so there was no attempted airstrike on them.

My troops on Luganville have recovered enough that I'm willing to order an attack this turn. The AMC arrived at Efate and is loading. The 3 military transports are a little short of what I need to bring the remaining fragments to Luganville, but it will be most of it. I'll probably order the re-invasion tomorrow, to take place overnight. While they load, the light cruisers assigned to escort them are running up to Luganville to shell the enemy troops. I have a heavy cruiser as well, but the port at Efate wasn't big enough to rearm it, so it's headed to Noumea for ammo so it can hopefully participate in the landings.

The enemy bombed Luganville with a few Betties; we had a few P-38s on station that tried to intervene, but there were no losses on either side. The bombings were ineffective.

We spotted a task force of 4 light cruisers between the Solomons and Ndeni, headed east towards the Gilberts. I suppose if I start moving into the Gilberts or Marshalls I should expect a surface threat.

Burma
Our Tavoy invasion force succeeded in clearing the enemy blocking force off the road and was immediately resupplied. Casualties 1282 to 63.

Reinforcements
No.11 Sqn RAF arrives at Aden (0/16 Blenheims)
110th RAF Base Force arrives at Aden (hollow unrestricted unit)
13th Armoured Division arrives at San Luis Obispo (full strength, restricted)