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[Sheb]

Ouch, last week was underwhelming. Do you have plan to prevent the allies from falling back on Rangoon?

[Erkki]

Ouch, last week was underwhelming. Do you have plan to prevent the allies from falling back on Rangoon?

Yeah, we should be able to advance via rail and dirt roads way, way faster than they can retreat through mountainous jungle while they're being bombed... I dont expect to be encircle more than maybe half a division equivalent and beat another one mano et mano, but after that they're at Pegu which is clear terrain, and where we can bomb them to dust... Unless they retreat to Rangoon where they can be encircled.

[Sheb]

So we might actually end up with Rangoon? Are we still blockading it?

[Hyo]

Ouchie, that raid on Australia really, really sucked. Especially considering the hype.

But this one seems to be of more hopeful tone. If I'm not wrong, capturing Rangoon and being able to hold it would be a major achievement in Burma, correct?

[Erkki]

So we might actually end up with Rangoon? Are we still blockading it?

Yes, we're still blockading Rangoon. During the last month he only sent one 3-ship suicide convoy, that was sunk before it unloaded a single tea bag...

I'm hoping to get Rangoon(in 1,5 to 2 months), but it might prove impossible. At the least I'm hoping to force him to retreat locally, push the front forward and deny him Chiang Mai he can now supply via paved roads... And once its ours, it can be supplied via rail from Bangkok.


June 22nd


China: Japanese troops open a new supply road to the North: 90,000 Japanese troops assault over a river in mountainous terrain against what is(/now was) a full Chinese corps: Chinese losses are over 5,000, and this unit lost almost all of its equipment and probably over 99% of its strength for the cost of just 100 Japanese troops. The Chinese were forced to retreat in the forests, across a river, and suffered even more losses. This battle is a tactical victory that opened us the path into the central Chinese plains, and we now directly threaten the Chinese captal, Chunking.



Burma: 2nd Raiders fights gallantly against the superior enemy! The last still working AT gun's crew destroys a British tank today. Reinforcements are still a week from arriving... 7 Hurricanes try to achieve local air superiority, but Ki-43s shoot 3 of them down(+ at least heavily damaging 2 Hurricanes more) to no Japanese loss.


South Pacific: Japanese submarine finds an Allied convoy off Fiji:

      DD Aaron Ward
      BB North Carolina
      CA Minneapolis
      CA Louisville
      CA Northampton
      CA Indianapolis
      CL Nashville
      CL Helena
      CL St. Louis
      CLAA San Juan
      CLAA Atlanta
      DD Gilmer
      DD Worden
      DD Hull

Well well.. OK. Looks like the Indianapolis survived the torpedo hit it suffered 3 months ago, and is now back in action. Also Japanese SignInt finally confirms the CV Enterprise to be still afloat, as I though... That still makes 3 confirmed CV kills: Lexington, Saratoga and Yorktown. I am csure that the Prince of Wales is still in the area, as are probably the British carriers and the surviving American ones, at least the Hornet. The Imperial Strategic HQ is unsure if the Wasp, that left the Mediterranean 2 months ago, has yet made it to the Pacific.

This indicident confirms the enemy to be reinforcing the area, possibly in preparations of an amphibious operation somewhere in the Solomons, or even Gilberts... I'm not going to react, even as Carrier Division I now at Truk might be able to catch this force, but I have decided to not, yet, upgrade the Shokaku, but instead reform the original "Big Six": Kaga, Shoho and Zuiho with heavy escorts will depart Singapore for Truk this evening, and the already loaded replenishment oilers now spread around the Indonesia will be moved to either Truk or Hollandia on the northern coast of New Guinea, to keep them safe from enemy submarines.

Zuikaku's upgrade is ready in 7 days, and she'll be back at Truk by July 15th. The Carrier Divisions I and II will then have 6 fleet CVs and 2 CVLs, and we are again ready to hit the enemy, hit him hard.

[Sheb]

Ahah, if every time he assemble a force of more than a couple destroyer it get crushed by the Kido Butai, he'll get discourage very fast.

What happen if you take Chongkin?

[Erkki]

Ahah, if every time he assemble a force of more than a couple destroyer it get crushed by the Kido Butai, he'll get discourage very fast.

What happen if you take Chongkin?

Ideal situation would be Allied reinforcement convoy to Guadalcanal or Tulagi, or amphibious operation in the same area supported by his CVs and BBs vs. Kido Butai + 200 land-based bombers and 200 land based fighters.. Tulagi is just in range of the Zero! 

[Erkki]

June 23rd

Burma: 2nd Raiders barely holding... The enemy brought a whole tank regiment. They have the firepower but they sunk in rocky jungle. Despite rated 27:1 odds they didnt break the crack paratroopers!

Air war:

Our bombers(50% of them, actually) fly today over Burma. Estimated damage to enemy is only minor, however...

4 P-400 Airacobras hit Moulmein's port: the sole Ki-43 guided to intercept damages 2, and the AAA 2 more. They achieve nothing. Now what was this?!?

Our air attack on Buna is a success: there are only 12 P-40Bs, probably from Port Moresby, patrolling. At least 6 of them are shot down with 5 damaged(3 heavy damage, so likely kills), we losing 4 Zeroes and 3 pilots, all reasonably low trained, and from the unit that was assigned to escort the bombers(as opposed to sweeping ahead). The runway and facilities damage is probably fixed quick, but we also got 5 Hudsons as confirmed and at least damaged 30-ish planes more.

B-17s hit Manus island in all their might. Even as low as 8,000ft against no AAA fire, all 40 of them score only 10 hits in port facilities and supply dumps. I know that flying an offensive sortie with a B-17 means using 6 tons of supply... So he used 240 tons of supplies, + maybe 100 for aircraft maintenance, to bomb perhaps 5 tons of mine. I hope he lost a bomber or 2 for operational reasons... 

[Sheb]

Hey, you didn't answer about Chongkin. Does loosing it is really bad for the Chinese? Can you force a separate Chinese surrender?

[Erkki]

Hey, you didn't answer about Chongkin. Does loosing it is really bad for the Chinese? Can you force a separate Chinese surrender?

Ops, sry... Chungking as a city isnt more important than, say, Sian I already captured. Industry in it generates supply, but the heavy industry in all of China will probably be shut down within half a year as I own their oil, or the roads there, at least. Light industry will keep rolling.

All Chinese reinforcements will arrive at Chungking, so yeah, getting it would be nice. But its still a long way there and will at minimum take 3-4 months, and I'm expecting heavy resistance, possibly even British or American units from India and Burma.

[Sheb]

Still nice. And any American or British unit there is a unit that's not defending Burma.

[Erkki]

June 24th

Burma: 2nd Raiders finally gets attrited. Tomorrow we will have cut Chiang Mai from supplies, other than what they can bring through 120 nautical miles of mountainous rain forest.

China: more local victories... During the past week the Chinese must have lost perhaps 2 months' worth of infantry squads alone, while all our losses are quickly replaceable.

Java: Merak in the northernmost tip of the island falls to the Japanese, in the south, the big stack of surviving Dutch units is pushed to the extreme southernmost peninsula. They will be dealth with within a week. 

Other news: The USN destroyer DD Blue is now confirmed to have been sunk by IJN carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku at Luganville during the Fiji-Espiritu Santo raid 3 weeks ago.

2 new aircraft enter production in 4 weeks. These are the new, armored Ki-49 "Donryu" bomber and the A6M3a, A6M3's carrier capable version. (Dont let the arrival dates in the Tracker screenshots confuse you, A6M3a enters production by July 20th or 21st, Ki-49 earlier, first week of July).

As you can see, the Ki-49 is considerably better choice if any fighter opposition or AAA is expected(as its faster, has more guns and especially armor)... It also has slightly better range, and shares the same engine with the Ki-44 fighter that we will begin to product in August. The Ki-21-IIa will stay in production for at least a couple of months more.

Spoiler: Ki-21 vs. Ki-49 (click to show/hide)

The A6M3a has nice range, even longer than M2, and while speed drops marginally from M3, the maneuverability is higher by 1 and is so its still overall easily the better fighter. It also uses a better type of 20mm cannons, and is carrier capable. The M2 will be phased from production and front-line use ASAP, as the M3a enters mass production. There are some 600 Zeroes in operational squadrons so the conversion will take some time... Comparison with M2 below.

Spoiler: M2 vs. M3a, M2 vs. M3 is 3-4 pages, or so, back (click to show/hide)

edit: fixed screenshots..

[OAMP]

Been following this, and made a new account (cause I forgot my old one) to reply.  Made me start playing as well.  I must say, pretty impressed with your progress.

Any chance a fighter pilot spot is still open?  Preferably on one of the new carriers.

[Erkki]

Been following this, and made a new account (cause I forgot my old one) to reply.  Made me start playing as well.  I must say, pretty impressed with your progress.

Any chance a fighter pilot spot is still open?  Preferably on one of the new carriers.

I'll look one for you aboard Hiyo, or one of the fresh replacements to "older" carriers that are now going through refits... I'm also going to resize the units to take max advantage of on-board torpedoes and aircraft capacity - and I'm going to need a lot of fighter pilots doing that.

Related to our carriers.. The floatplane cruiser CS Nisshin is also on her way to Truk. Just to keep my opponent on his toes, I think I'm going to burn up some fuel, raiding with carriers. Probably in 3 squadrons of 2... Shoho and Zuiho counting as one carrier. If I dont lose any of the oilers that are now on their way to Truk, we can go beyond Hawaiian islands and stay there for quite a while. As we dont have to expect enemy carriers we can drop the fuel-hog battleships too. Nisshin's and her 20 float planes will, in the initial plans, sweep ahead with a small cruiser surface action raider squadron or 2, heavies behind them.

I'd like to go Fiji-Hawaii or Australia-Fiji-Samoa (halfway to Hawaii) first as its guaranteed to have traffic, and we might run into that big BB force that was spotted yesterday. Maybe even carriers. Having the surprise will be essential, so we cant afford getting spotted by Catalinas or other search aircraft, and infiltrating into the Southern Coral Sea might prove to be difficult. I'm going to try it any way.

[OAMP]

Thanks.  Also that's kind of ironic, just played a turn and popped out to look up what exactly a CS was (I sank one).