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[Erkki]

January 27th:

China: 2 fresh divisions and an armor regiment arrived at Chenghow. Loyang is now cut off, there are about 100,000 Chinese trapped there, 4000 of them died today.

Burma: G4Ms manage to sink xAK Birmingham Bay, missing the cruiser next to it. A fresh Japanese division arrives at the British Eastern flank, takes a few days for it to unpack and move out.

Malaya: Japanese at Singapore by tomorrow.

Dutch East Indies: Marines' attack at Sumatra halts, the Dutch have good defensive positions up the in the mountains. An armored battalion will flank them in a few days. At Kendari, first assault goes 1:1 - the defenders are mainly support units, and while their losses in men are pretty small, they lose a lot of equipment. Will probably fall tomorrow. Invasion fleet moves to Ternate, to pick up a Marine battalion to to reinforce Kendari.

Air action: 2 Hayabusas and a Zero(a 4-kill pilot though) are exchanged for 10 AVG Hawk H81s, 3 Hudsons and 2 139Ws.

Navy: Kido Butai refits at Hong Kong, full refit will take 7 days. Strength after refit is 6 Fleet Carriers, 2 light carriers, 450 aircraft, 30 search float planes. "Tanaka Squad" is formed under Reizo Tanaka, one of the greatest naval leaders ever born, with good part of IJN's cruiser force(including the torpedo cruisers Oi and Kitakami) and destroyers. Battleships form a squadron of their own, Hiei and Kirishima will continue to provide support to the KB. The old battleship Hyuga and its 2 short-ranged escort destroyers set sail to Ominata in the Northern Honshu, to act as a reserve against possible Allied Northern raids.

China in next post.

[Erkki]

Current situation in China, unfortunately what units are where and strengths cant be seen in the main map, but I've tried to show the general situation.

Spoiler: A huge picture! The China Incident on Jan 27th 1942 (click to show/hide)

[Zrk2]

If you take some of the forces in Hong Kong and push north-north east, and some from Nanchang and push south you could cut off those Chinese in the Southeast. Then those troops in Shanghai could mop them up as they run out of supplies.

[Erkki]

If you take some of the forces in Hong Kong and push north-north east, and some from Nanchang and push south you could cut off those Chinese in the Southeast. Then those troops in Shanghai could mop them up as they run out of supplies.

The 38th Division that captured Hong Kong is now in the Philippines... The artillery units and 2 separate brigades were used to take and now hold Wuchow.

[Erkki]

January 28th

Burma: 80 x G4Ms raid Moulmein, sink cruiser Caledon, 7 transports and put 2 torpedoes on the 8th. Banzai!

Malaya: First assault on Singapore... Some defenses are already breached, and defenders' losses are at least as heavy as ours! Stunning work. I expected a 2-month siege but now it takes about 3 days. 

Kendari: Assault 2 fails as well, but last static defenses are passed. Defenders are in very bad shape.

China: First assault on Loyang goes only 1:1 but defenses are passed, the defenders are very badly outmaneuvered, outnumbered and out performed. They shall meet their makers tomorrow. Far in the south at Foochow, the Chinese get through... not! Against all odds the Japanese Soldiers keeps on fighting the Invasive Aggressors and throws them back.

[Erkki]

Also, I think I know where the US carriers are. 3 Allied aircraft spotted over Kwajaleins, one of them reported to be a float plane(though this is under the FOW). Catalinas or even 4 engined recon from Wake? 3 sorties? I dont think so. The weather probably just hid them from Jap air patrols. Tomorrow might see a strike or 2, so I moved all combat worthy vessels out of anchor so the bombers will have somewhat harder time killing them.

[Sheb]

What are your plans to deal with them?

[Erkki]

What are your plans to deal with them?

Depends on what they are going to do... I can do absolutely nothing to stop them hitting Kwajalein, but if they do, I'll immediately move the Zeroes back from Rabaul. The odd 60 bombers I have at Kwajalein and further to the West at Truk(Kwajalein is just inside their range, lets hope they dont position themselves to the East) will try their luck. A5M fighters, all 40 I have at Truk, Kwajalein and nearby atolls are alerted at 60% CAP. Also 45 more Zeroes can be flown to Truk from Bedeloab so if they press on they will not fly without losses. Their strength is max 60-80 fighters and 100-120 bombers of assorted sorts. Kido Butai is now out of position, even if it set sail now it would need a week to get in range.


Meanwhile in KzB vs. Andy, situation is developing:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

URL: http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2324032&mpage=75

Thats the mother of all naval battles ever fought and not exactly a small land or air clash either, and after 2 weeks of fighting its about to culminate in a massive carrier duel tomorrow afternoon. 

[Erkki]

I wonder if he knows by signal intelligence that the KB is out and far? Doing a quick raid and then pulling back again. Or, he might be just trying his luck, he must have guessed the KB to have moved out.

But looking from his perspective, why would have Hong Kong or home islands been any more likely refit bases than, say, Truk? All 3 big bases the Japanese have in the Mid Pacific can provide both ordnance and ammo, as well as do the needed repairs. From Truk, the carriers could even chase the Amis down in 24 hours, and pretty much at will, by using the float planes and land based bombers to keep track of the US fleet while the Jap carriers themselves would stay "stealth mode on" and launch only beyond the Americans' launch range, without any warning whatsoever.

[Erkki]

January 29th 30th, I truly suck at keeping track of dates

Kind of a mixed results turn... Hmm.

China: Loyang falls to the Japanese, 15,000 Chinese KIA and more in the other battles and air raids. Foochow in the South falls to the Chinese, but now the Japanese units are in much better defensive positions, and at least they didn't suffer too heavy losses.

Burma: Blenheim bombers kill captain Ito-San's pet monkey.

Kendari: Defenders are reinforced by another Australian brigade, no progress.

Java invasion CANCELLED, Kendari is needed first! I might as well go Ambon too to flank Java and South Borneo. Invasion fleet is now 3 days away. Reinforces from Kendari need 3 days as well.

No enemy carriers sighted in the Mid Pacific. 3 more Allied recce sorties and a submarine.

[Erkki]

Air production now, theres a G3M2 factory as well but it doesn't show up in the list as its turned off. There are more than enough of them in the reserves for now, before the next model arrives.

Pool = number in pool
Bld = building per day
(month) = per month
repairing: factories repairing(still expanding)



edit: Now the pic works.

[Zrk2]

Ahhh... Massive carrier battles? Shall this be the defining moment of the campaign?

[inteuniso]

This is THE battle. If he destroys those carriers, America WON'T be able to recover.

I suggest you move to make the odds as good as possible for you. Submarines, Carriers, Bombers, anything. This is THE campaign battle. He has from what I can see his major carriers, etc.

good luck.

[Hyo]

This is THE battle. If he destroys those carriers, America WON'T be able to recover.

But I thought the whole point of America's strength was its superiority in its rate of manufacturing, was it not? Would those carriers be built again if destroyed even at this point?

[Fishbreath]

The US built a pretty good number of carriers (in the teens) over the course of the war. Knocking out 3-5 of them (as he might be able to do in this coming battle) pretty much guarantees him superiority for a very long time--until the US can replace not just one of those, but enough to challenge Kido Butai again. This sort of series of defeats in detail is exactly how Japan has to fight to win.