View Single Post
Old 06-22-21, 10:01 AM   #63
Molon Labe
Silent Hunter
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Along the Watchtower
Posts: 3,810
Downloads: 27
Uploads: 5
Default

29 December 41
IJN disengaging in DEI

Dutch East Indies

A Dutch sub torpedoed a troop transport off Manado, 50/50 it goes down.

The big news is that the CVLBG is leaving--after finishing off my evac task force yesterday, it moved north through the Moluccas and turned east towards Truk. It's due for replenishment and refueling, plus one of those CVLs ate a torpedo awhile back. With how little activity is going on in the DEI, it might not be coming back. If the KB stays tied to Hawaii, it might want to try to disrupt my supply chain and bases in SouthPac.

It's not just the CVLBG that's gone, too. The ports at Ambon, Manado, and Ternate are mostly empty. A surface group left with the CVLBG. Except for one surface group still near the Moluccas, it doesn't appear that there are any surface threats east for Borneo, and the only air threats are fragments of Betty squadrons with no torpedo support.

West of Borneo, as Force Y pulled back from its raid, a heavy-cruiser escorted group invaded Billiton. One transport hit a mine. These guys have now advanced far south enough that my land based bombers are in range. They've had a few weeks to train--I wouldn't call them proficient just yet, but hopefully they aren't as useless as when the war started and their CVLs just parked off Surabaya and laughed at us.

What I presume to be the invasion forces scout planes snooped one of my troop convoys heading north near Palembang. This has the potential to be devastating. In hindsight maybe I should have ordered them to turn around, but I didn't. I split them into two groups based on speed and ordered them to sprint to Singapore. I think if they make it, they could tip the balance and let Singapore hold out until they allocate at least another division. So, they're scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Possibly, while under air attack.

The Ceres continues to limp to port from its torpedo damage. I don't think she's going to make it.

Oh, that reminds me. It's of little consequence, but the HMS Thanet is about to arrive in Surabaya. This little DD might be the luckiest ship afloat. Part of a group of 3 DD, it survived the air raids in Hong Kong, escaped the surface groups patrolling for Hong Kong evacuees, avoided the covering forces around Luzon, and got caught up in the rout in the Celebes Sea, where it came face to face with the Ise and Hyuga (Ise took a torpedo hit in this fight, so it's possible that if the Ise really did sink, maybe the Thanet was responsible), which sank one of its sister ships, and later the Soryu battlegroup, which sank the other sister ship. After disengaging from Soryu it was attacked by its Kates, evading their bombs in the morning only to take a critical hit in the afternoon, inflicting 88% flooding damage. That sinks most ships--the damage control teams need to get medals. It's been limping to Surabaya ever since at like 5 knots, and somehow, none of the surface groups, subs, or betties prowling the Celebes Sea or Makassar Strait ever found her. DC teams brought the flooding down to 62% enroute.

Malaya
My one dedicated recon aircraft is earning his paycheck. We've confirmed at least a Division is still up at Kota Baru. But Kuantan has only a few thousand troops, and it looks like mostly engineers.

I attacked his forces blocking the road outside Johore, but he got additional forces there in time to prevent me from having local superiority. It probably didn't help that I couldn't keep his bombers away, either. So, the road is theirs. I'm going to have my boys head back north to Malacca and then decide whether these troops are better used to keep him from putting his full force into Singapore or going after a vulnerable-looking Kuantan.

The air campaign favored me today, I traded one Buffalo for an Oscar and three Sallies.

Philippines
He bombed and sank an AKL waiting to take on evacuees from Cagayan. Looks like he's onto me. But, barring unforseen events, the majority of the Cagayan base forces are going to get out. The base force mostly lost yesterday was from Cebu, but trailing elements from them are also still evacuating--which means I might end up with enough to rebuild the unit from.

His air forces mostly took the day off with no raids in the north. By B-17s hit some units in the open headed towards Clark and Manila. I also probed his Clark forces and found that he pulled a Napoleon and moved a lot of them to Manila to get local superiority. Right now it appears its just the 65th Brigade in Clark, plus a few engineers.

China
The AVG suffered its first two losses of the war as Changsha was swept by Tojos. Most of the CAP here was focused on protecting frontline troops instead of the base itself, so we were outnumbered. Fortunately both pilots bailed out without injuries. EDIT: HA! I completely forgot about the Zero raid about a week ago that shot down a handful of AVG fighters!

We pursued the routing armies from Sinyang to the gates of Hangkow and dealt them another defeat in the open before they escaped into the city. I had been bombing Hangkow to use the BDA as a kind of recon, and it actually looks like I can take it. But, it's heavy urban terrain and probably well-fortified. I'm going to take my pound of flesh here and go home.

Thanks to this small victory, I actually gained VP on my enemy this turn, for the first time in the campaign.

In the south, the army that took Chaochow is now closing on on Swatow, and its size 3 airfield and port. Recon shows I have him outnumbered, and most of those troops are the broken troops I defeated a few days ago. My next move would be Amoy, but I expect I'll find more resistance there.

SouthPac
I think awhile back I mentioned a CL poking around Fiji (at about the same time as the CL at Pago if I didn't). Well, it's still there. And the task force is growing as it sits there, last reported as 2 CL + 3 other ships, also a sub hanging out to his west. If he's looking for a fight I might just give him one. Maybe after we make sure I'm not walking into battleships again like in Celebes, though. That sucked.

SigInt reports enemy activity just north of the scouting range of our PBYs at Pago. I wish I could say I have enough troops at Pago to hold it. But with 5 divisions deployed to the north I'm sure he had some to spare.

The supply situation here is starting to suck, thanks in no small part to Pearl being surrounded and enemy SAGs hanging out around Pago and Fiji, and of course, the capture of Canton Island.

West Coast
Yorktown has arrived and is now forming up with escorts. Lexington is about to complete repairs of its engineering casualty ahead of schedule--great timing. I've also got enough DDs available, and enough transports arriving after evacuating from all over the place, that I can start putting more troop convoys to sea to reinforce SouthPac and/or Australia.

Arizona and Nevada (the BBs damaged in the original 12/7 attacks that were the most seaworthy) have arrived in Seattle for repairs. Moving them was a bit risky because most Japanese players will try to finish them off with subs, but these guys had a quiet transit. But it takes pressure off the overburdened shipyards at Pearl, and fortuitously, out of the danger zone I had no idea PH was when I ordered these two to move out.

Speaking of PH, thunderstorms tomorrow. I'll just leave it at that.
__________________

Last edited by Molon Labe; 06-23-21 at 09:43 PM.
Molon Labe is offline   Reply With Quote