16Dec 41 Commander Yoshi Yashiba

What next, oh yes, the E class: Shimushu (7) commissioned between 6/40 and 3/41. These are 1000 ton ocean going escorts. Their role: escort convoys, Only 7, we need 70. We are on the hunt for the tooling now. 77.7m long with a 9.1m beam and 3.05m draft. Their ...

They had both steam engines and diesel engines hooked to the same shafts. They were used as HQ ships for various fleets and squadrons, including submarines. Considering their various uses, they could have some conversions including some rather quick ones such as something like an amphibious HQ ...

16Dec 41 Commander Yoshi Yashiba

He was starting to get a bit bleary eyed, but he still had another roll to review … DD’s.

IJN DD.jpg

It may seem like a long list, but the reality as he well knew was that war was very hard on this class. He knew they needed a LOT more, but what did he have ...

They had both steam engines and diesel engines hooked to the same shafts. They were used as HQ ships for various fleets and squadrons, including submarines. Considering their various uses, they could have some conversions including some rather quick ones such as something like an amphibious HQ ...

And CL Kashii as well. Historically, they were "drafted" into the war ... of course they didn't do very much or very well, but that is history ...

But they were built hulls, similar size as Sendai or Kumi class, and that is how they will be treated. Maybe we add/update the engineering spaces, maybe ...

Watch your supply expenditure ... it is your Achilles heel.

I try to set my factories once at the game start and then rarely ever change them. However, there are always a FEW exceptions to this rule, but generally less than 10 factories, and often the plan is only 3 - 4. And Mike is even thriftier ...

16Dec 41 Commander Yoshi Yashiba

The next sheet in Yoshi’s roll was also the last sheet for the Capital ships and dismal was not even the beginning of it.

CL’s
Lot’s of classes, lot’s of very old and very marginal ships, all told 20 ships total. In summary, the classes and their commissioning ...

16Dec 41 Commander Yoshi Yashiba

The next roll of work he had to review: Capital Ships: Surface Action. This, he already knew, was going to be short. The short version is this: what we have is what we will have; the lead time on building these is such that if we haven't already got them going ...

16Dec 41 Commander Yoshi Yashiba

So in summary, what l this mean to Isoroku? Not particularly good news.

Starting on Dec 7, the IJN had:
CV’s: 6 totaling 431 max AC
CVL’s: 2 totaling 78 AC
CVE’s: 2 totaling 47 AC
CS's: 3 totaling 68 AC
AV’s: 8 totaling 72 AC

Then in the current pipeline:
1942
CV ...

Time for an update?

9 Mar 42

Burma

Nine Lilys made a night bombing raid on Mandalay, causing a measly 1 airbase hit. :roll:

The air war began in earnest at dawn. The first enemy squadron to arrive at Magwe were 15 Hurricane IIas. The IIa already? I don't know what the replacement rate is for IIa and IIb, but I ...

16Dec 41 Commander Yoshi Yashiba

Ship specific Design Notes Continued:
There were still a number of Aviation Ships in the docks, most of these would continue … sadly in many cases.

CV’s
Junyo Class CV: These would continue as they were almost finished. These were examples of what we could not ...

Agree with most of your thoughts ... all yet to follow ...

16Dec 41 Commander Yoshi Yashiba

Ship specific Design Notes

Yoshi looked at the thick sheaf of paper in his hands … his staff’s first pass at the Aviation ship designs based upon his guidance … let’s see how well they had paid attention.

CV: UNRYU CLASS
Yes, a derivative of the Soryu class, but ...

RangerJoe wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 9:20 am You are welcome. Similar words but different meanings!

Middle of the night spell checker got me ...

RangerJoe wrote: Tue Oct 14, 2025 3:14 am "Adapted" as in modified or "adopted" as in first taken into service?

Ach, typo. Thanks for the catch!

Burma

So, two bad things happened today. First, I sent the wrong Oscar sentai to Magwe. It was the Oscar Ib model, not the Ic. Not much difference but coupled with the other bad thing, it was pretty bad. Ted sent his Hurricanes in at 21k ft, which allowed them to dive on my planes. Ouch ...

16Dec 41 Commander Yoshi Yashiba

Ship AA armaments:
The 12.7/40 T89 was the current standard naval AA gun which had been adopted in 1932:
Max Alt: 30800 ft
Max Range: 16000yds
RoF: 14 rpm max, effective was closer to 6 [5]

The 80/60 Type 98 was just going into service:
Max Alt: 29850 ft
Max Range ...

16Dec41 Commander Yoshi Yashiba

The first pass of the production plan arrived from Shigeji, almost 12M tons to be built between now and 1946. A starting point.

Yoshi and his team were still deep in reviewing mission profiles and matching those up to ship classes, in other words still validating ...

Build-up at Biak

There is a lot of activity around Biak, and the base is maxed out on both port and airfield.

He is flying Recon over Babeldoab and Peleliu.

So perhaps he favours this route rather than coming straight at the Marianas from Ponape/Eniwetok?

Not much I can do to stop this if Ye ...