Bloody Pacific: Pomphat (Allied) vs Amiral Laurent (Japan)

[goodboyladdie]

Hi Amiral

Have you got any idea what is causing your reformed air units to return with such good pilots? It could give the Jap player an unfair advantage. Your opponent is very lucky you are so honest, but given your strategic situation, I do not suppose waiting three months to use them affects you too badly.

Best regards

Carl

[AmiralLaurent]

31 December 1942

At the start of 1943, the score ratio in Japanese fighters is of 5.47 to 1 (44 586 to 8 202). So the game ended with an automatic Japanese victory.



No I’m kidding, the game will go on.

By the way I think the score ratio will continue to grow in Japanese favor until spring. Until this date the plan is to take Kungchang, Noumea, Luganville and Efate, destroy three US divisions and repulse 100 000 Chinese, build up the bases of Sining, Lanchow and Auckland and raid the Australian coast with the Kido Butai. I think that I will score around 3000 points in troops, probably more than 1000 in air and ship losses, 1000-1500 in bases and 1500-2000 in strategic points. At the same time my opponent will lose almost 2000 points of base (Noumea is worth 1900) and will score around 1000 points of Japanese losses, so the score will be around 50 000 to 7 000, a ratio of 7 to 1. And then it will be the end of the Japanese offensives outside China. After that there will only be counter-offensives, when and if possible.

Northern Pacific

The MLE sent to Eforotu Jima, Kuriles, arrived there and disbanded in the port. Four ML came with her and were sent to lay a minefield off Paramushiro Jima. Also the five submarines sent in the area reached this latter base, and the I-121 and I-124 left it to lay defensive minefields off Attu and Kiska, and will then come to Eforotu to refill.

Southern Pacific

Japanese engineers expanded Auckland airfield to size 8 (again + 150 points).

Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea

Rabaul was bombed in the afternoon by 15 B-24D from PM that scored 2 hits on the airbase and 14 on the runways and did 44 casualties.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

Seven Brewster 339D from Darwin sank a barge off Lautem, and this airfield was attacked by 38 B-25C that scored 5 hits on the runway and wounded 5 men.
The daily recon flights over NW Australia reported that the CAP over Darwin was reinforced by a Spitfire Vb squadron.

Southern Resource Area

A convoy loaded 17k resources in Toboali and another 14k resources in Batavia. Both will sail to Singapore.

Burma

The only raid of the day was by 24 Vengeance I and 8 Hurricane II from Imphal against Japanese troops SE of their base, under escort by 46 P-40B. They hit 16 men and 5 guns.

Apparently the Pacific was not the only place the Allied were living difficult times and Churchill asked for a British CV and two DDs to be sent back in January 1943.

China

In the north, 30 Ki-44 and 11 Ki-61 from Lanchow swept Sining skies but saw nothing. As forecast the RAF evacuated the base as soon as Japanese troops were reported nearby. The bombing raid planned from Yenen didn’t come and the attack of the 27th Div against the 8th Chinese Air Base Force only achieved a 2 to 1 ratio, reducing the fort level from 1 to 1 but failing to take the base. Japanese losses were 7 men, Chinese ones 78 men and 3 guns. The attack will continue tomorrow, and air support was again asked to Yenen airbase.
In Kungchang Japanese artillery hit 67 Chinese.
The start of repairs of industry, oil and resources centers was ordered in Lanchow.

In the south, the Chinese troops surrounded west of Kweilin were bombed by 50 Ki-48 from Canton escorted by 9 A6M2 and lost 39 men. They were then attacked by the Japanese 12th Army (made of the 60th, 69th and 70th Div) and put a poor show, probably by lack of support and supplies. Japanese troops advanced easily (at 205 to 1) and only lost 73 men and 7 guns. The 91st Chinese Corps surrendered and total Chinese losses were 5666 men. A Corps and a Division hid further into the woods, and the attack will continue tomorrow.

Japan

A new Zero Chutai was reformed in Osaka with a mean exp of 59. As the other it will be kept in Japan for some months for training.
As for the reason these units now came back with experienced pilots, I think it began with the version 1.8.0.1 of the game. Units disbanded were before shown in the ‘expected reinforcements’ list with 0 aircraft available and were reformed with no aircraft and no pilot. With this version, they are shown with their maximal number of aircraft, and when they return the game will give each aircraft a pilot with the normal rating (as a newly-created unit).

Eleven empty tankers (6 16k and 5 9k) left Sasebo and Nagoya towards the DEI to load oil here.

Two more Mitsubishi engine factories (size 60 and 40) were stopped, as the stockpile of these engines still continued to climb (and was above 6000). The production of the Ki-46-III and the Ki-45b was started in Japan.

[AmiralLaurent]

December 1942 Monthly report

Japanese score: 44 588 (+ 4 743)
Bases 12 625 (+ 2 700)
Aircraft 7 115 (+ 546)
Army 17 444 (+ 1 467)
Ship 7 180 (+ 20) 391 ships sunk (+ 2: 1 TK, 1 AK)
Scuttled ships 8 (+ 8)
Strategic 224 (+ 0)

Allied score: 8 206 (+ 192)
Bases 3 125 (- 70)
Aircraft 3 333 (+ 230)
Army 741 (+ 32)
Ship 1007 (+ 0) 104 ships sunk (+ 0)
Strategic 0

Economic situation (stocks rounded to the thousand):
Supplies : 4 340 000 (bases) + around 318 000 (TFs) = around 4 658 000 (+ 31 000)
Fuel : 3 952 000 (bases) + around 581 000 (TFs) = around 4 533 000 (- 37 000) (operations off New Zealand continue to use much)
Ressource centers : 18 510 (+ 296)
Ressources : 1 173 000 (bases) + 157 000 (TFs) = 1 330 000 (- 6 000, still decreasing with HI running at full power, repairs of resource centers will continue)
Oil centers : 2 716 (+ 107)
Oil: 1 576 000 (bases) + 259 000 (TFs) = 1 835 000 (+ 102 000)
Manpower centers : 815 (+ 1)
Manpower pool : 725 000 (+ 51 000)
Heavy industry: 13 772 (+ 82)
Heavy industry pool: 204 000 (+ 17 000)
Naval shipyard: 1278 (+ 0)
Merchant shipyard: 1000 (+ 0)
Repair shipyard: 905 (+ 7)
Armament industry: 683 (+ 0)
Armament stock: 125 000 (+ 11 000)
Vehicles industry: 113 (+ 0)
Vehicles stock: 5 300 (+ 1 400)
Aircraft engine factories: 1567 (+ 0)
Aircraft frames factories: 1194 (+ 48) (Ki-46-III and Ki-45b enter production)
Aircraft research: 51 (+ 16) (both versions of A6M5c)

Aircraft production:
263 A6M3a Zero (capacity 246), 173 Ki-43-IIa (159), 95 Ki-61 KAIc Tony (123, partly stopped), 67 Ki-44-IIb Tojo (57), 43 Ki-45 KAIa Nick (43), 25 Ki-49 Helen (23), 17 D3A Val (41, stopped during this month), 15 B5N Kate (40, stopped during this month), 11 L3Y Tina (5), 8 J1N1-R Irving (8), 6 G4M1 Betty (46, stopped during this month), 5 Ki-57 Topsy (10, restarted during this month), 4 MC-21 Sally (5), 0 A6M3 Zero (72, suspended), 0 Ki-51 Sonia (45, stopped), 0 Ki-48 (capacity 40, stopped), 0 H8K Emily (32, suspended), 0 Ki-46 Dinah (31, suspended), 0 E13A1 Jake (28, suspended), 0 Ki-21 Sally (20, suspended), 0 A6M-2 Rufe (14, suspended), 0 L2D2 Tabby (10, suspended), 0 E7K2 Alf (5, suspended), 0 H6K2-L Mavis (4, stopped during this month), 0 E14Y1 Glen (4, suspended)

Total: 732 aircraft (598 fighters, 43 night-fighters, 31 level bombers, 20 transport, 17 divebombers, 15 torpedo bombers, 8 recon)

[AmiralLaurent]

Well, it seems that my opponent is no more enjoying the game, the loss of New Zealand was the final strike and he don't see what to do for the next 6 months.

So I am searching a replacement opponent. Yes, he will propably not be able to counter-attack until the middle of 1943 but at least he will have good planes, trained units and so on.

If anybody is interested, please send me a PM. Do not read this AAR in details one last time, I think if you read that post you have an idea of the overall situation.

Here is the message giving the point of view of my current opponent, Pompack.

We have now played to AV. After careful consideration, I have decided not to continue the game. Although there are some interesting features to the current situation, I do not see any way to apply significant pressure on you for at least five more months. The most significant factor is the loss of NZ; prior to that it was remotely possible to send convoys with a/c from NA to Oz.

As it now sits, the only place where the enormous number of future Allied a/c can be applied is in the Aleutians; when the targets that you so graciously provided are retaken, the a/c will go back to sitting. Taking Paramishiro without carriers would be extremely unlikly. In fact, taking Paramishiro with carriers would be highly unlikely; at the very least it would be an opportunity to watch close to a million infantrymen fight on a small island under arctic conditions.

In Oz there are a large number (about 240) of 4e a/c, but there is little for them to target nor will their number increase. Running an offensive with land-based air through Rabaul is possible since about 210 fighter in the area can convert to p38 (eventually) and 16 more to F4U. However the problem here is lack of LCU. There are eleven division equivalents in Oz and the New Caledonia area which is adequate to hold Oz but not when I start stripping troops out to fight in the Solomons. Even worse, there are only 22 base units outside of North America or India and most are small. If I strip Oz of base units, I expose the coast to invasion; if I do not, I have only six base units for New Guinea and the Solomons. Trying to run an air attrition campaign in this area is tough with adequate bases; without them I will have to overstuff the bases with aircraft which will lead to high losses to air and naval bombardments as well as low availabilities for the attrition campaign.

And all of this assumes that you sit passively and await whatever I do; based upon past experience I consider this to be highly unlikely.

[George Patton]

ORIGINAL: AmiralLaurent

Well, it seems that my opponent is no more enjoying the game, the loss of New Zealand was the final strike and he don't see what to do for the next 6 months.

So I am searching a replacement opponent. Yes, he will propably not be able to counter-attack until the middle of 1943 but at least he will have good planes, trained units and so on.

If anybody is interested, please send me a PM. Do not read this AAR in details one last time, I think if you read that post you have an idea of the overall situation.

Here is the message giving the point of view of my current opponent, Pompack.

We have now played to AV. After careful consideration, I have decided not to continue the game. Although there are some interesting features to the current situation, I do not see any way to apply significant pressure on you for at least five more months. The most significant factor is the loss of NZ; prior to that it was remotely possible to send convoys with a/c from NA to Oz.

As it now sits, the only place where the enormous number of future Allied a/c can be applied is in the Aleutians; when the targets that you so graciously provided are retaken, the a/c will go back to sitting. Taking Paramishiro without carriers would be extremely unlikly. In fact, taking Paramishiro with carriers would be highly unlikely; at the very least it would be an opportunity to watch close to a million infantrymen fight on a small island under arctic conditions.

In Oz there are a large number (about 240) of 4e a/c, but there is little for them to target nor will their number increase. Running an offensive with land-based air through Rabaul is possible since about 210 fighter in the area can convert to p38 (eventually) and 16 more to F4U. However the problem here is lack of LCU. There are eleven division equivalents in Oz and the New Caledonia area which is adequate to hold Oz but not when I start stripping troops out to fight in the Solomons. Even worse, there are only 22 base units outside of North America or India and most are small. If I strip Oz of base units, I expose the coast to invasion; if I do not, I have only six base units for New Guinea and the Solomons. Trying to run an air attrition campaign in this area is tough with adequate bases; without them I will have to overstuff the bases with aircraft which will lead to high losses to air and naval bombardments as well as low availabilities for the attrition campaign.

And all of this assumes that you sit passively and await whatever I do; based upon past experience I consider this to be highly unlikely.

I'm intereseted. PM sent.

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: AmiralLaurent

Well, it seems that my opponent is no more enjoying the game, the loss of New Zealand was the final strike and he don't see what to do for the next 6 months.

So I am searching a replacement opponent. Yes, he will propably not be able to counter-attack until the middle of 1943 but at least he will have good planes, trained units and so on.

If anybody is interested, please send me a PM. Do not read this AAR in details one last time, I think if you read that post you have an idea of the overall situation.

Here is the message giving the point of view of my current opponent, Pompack.

We have now played to AV. After careful consideration, I have decided not to continue the game. Although there are some interesting features to the current situation, I do not see any way to apply significant pressure on you for at least five more months. The most significant factor is the loss of NZ; prior to that it was remotely possible to send convoys with a/c from NA to Oz.

As it now sits, the only place where the enormous number of future Allied a/c can be applied is in the Aleutians; when the targets that you so graciously provided are retaken, the a/c will go back to sitting. Taking Paramishiro without carriers would be extremely unlikly. In fact, taking Paramishiro with carriers would be highly unlikely; at the very least it would be an opportunity to watch close to a million infantrymen fight on a small island under arctic conditions.

In Oz there are a large number (about 240) of 4e a/c, but there is little for them to target nor will their number increase. Running an offensive with land-based air through Rabaul is possible since about 210 fighter in the area can convert to p38 (eventually) and 16 more to F4U. However the problem here is lack of LCU. There are eleven division equivalents in Oz and the New Caledonia area which is adequate to hold Oz but not when I start stripping troops out to fight in the Solomons. Even worse, there are only 22 base units outside of North America or India and most are small. If I strip Oz of base units, I expose the coast to invasion; if I do not, I have only six base units for New Guinea and the Solomons. Trying to run an air attrition campaign in this area is tough with adequate bases; without them I will have to overstuff the bases with aircraft which will lead to high losses to air and naval bombardments as well as low availabilities for the attrition campaign.

And all of this assumes that you sit passively and await whatever I do; based upon past experience I consider this to be highly unlikely.

Congrats on your victory!!!


BTW, I think that you should choose your next (3rd?) oppoennet very carefuly and wisely - please do not rush!

IMHO there is no need for rush and after you get few (and I think there will be plenty!) applications incoming (in, let's say, 7 days) - review them all and choose the most experienced player because this PBEM is one the the reasons WitP is great and it should be played to the end in best manner possible!!!


Leo "Apollo11"

[witpqs]

Great game - way to go!

[AmiralLaurent]

1-2 January 1943

It seems that the newspapers announcements of General Marshall’s retirement from the active military were exaggerated. The US government denied that it was linked to anything real and that Marshall only went to meet Roosevelt to wish him an happy New Year.

(What did really happen was that my opponent wrote me on Saturday, after two days thinking about it, that he recognized my victory and no more will to continue playing. So I replied that I myself was willing to continue and if he didn’t mind to give his password to ant taker willing to continue. On Sunday evening he wrote me back that as I wanted to continue, someone had to be my opponent and he will continue to be this guy. So everything goes on as before).

Southern Pacific

Four 16k TK loaded 64k fuel in Kwajalein and will bring it to New Zealand. There a convoy bringing 42k fuel arrived in the evening of the 2nd and will unload, enabling all warships based here (the whole KB) to fully refuel. Once it will be done, the Kido Butai will sail west to raid the Australian coast.

Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea

The 203 Sentai flew back from Truk to Rabaul with 29 Tonies on the 1st but no Allied raid or recon flight targeted this base for both days.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

On both days seven Brewster 339D from Darwin attacked without success barges off Lautem. This airfield was bombed on the 1st by 24 B-25C from Darwin that scored no hit, and by 31 on the 2nd when they hit 41 men and 1 gun and scored 1 hit on the airbase and 3 on the runway.

In the evening of the 2nd, the FT TF (2 CL and 2 DD) bringing supply from Kendari to Lautem since some weeks was disbanded in Kendari for repairs (SYS damage was between 2 and 6). Two AK, a big and a small, loaded supplies in Kendari respectively for Koepang and Dili.

Southern Resource Area

A convoy loaded 21k supplies in Bangkok for Rangoon.

Burma

On both mornings, the Japanese troops SE of Imphal were bombed by airmen from this base (for a total of 41 Vengeance I and 14 Hurricane II bombing sorties and 90 P-40B escort sorties) and lost 51 men and 2 guns in two days. On both afternoons, small raids with heavy escort targeted Japanese airfields, maybe to draw Japanese fighters to battle but to no avail. On the 1st 3 Hudson escorted by 25 P-40B raided Mandalay and scored 2 runway hits, the next day the same 3 Hudson and 30 P-40B attacked Akyab and scored 1 runway hit. Two P-40B were lost operationally in these operations (one each day).

On the 1st, PO2 Nakasawa R., an ace of F2/1st Daitai scored his 12th kill by shooting down a F-5A Lightning over Rangoon.

In the evening of the 2nd, Rangoon received reinforcements: 25 A6M2 from Yenen, China, and 66 Nells from Balikpapan and Bangkok (one Nell crashed on landing, killing its crew). They will attack in some days Dacca, where CAP was reported by last recons to be composed only of fighters leaking from nearby base. The targets will be the oil and resource centers.

China

Sining fell on the 1st. The 27th Div attacked again and took it (at 4 to 1) for the loss of 79 men and 3 guns. The Chinese garrison, the 8th Air Base Force, surrendered and Chinese losses were 3490 men and 2 guns. A regiment of the 27th Div remained there to guard the city until the planned garrison (a regiment of the 59th Div) will arrive. The other troops marched back to Lanchow and will keep this city while the rest of the units here will go to Kungchang and attack it. Three Div received on the 2nd their orders to leave Lanchow for Kungchang. There Japanese artillery fire hit 299 men in 2 days.

In the south the Chinese pocket in the woods west of Kweilin was eliminated after 3 days of battle (starting on the 31st) by the 3 divisions of the 12th Japanese Army. The 28th New Chinese Division surrendered on the 1st (attack at 335 to 1) and the 4th Chinese Corps the next day (attack at 2330 to 1). Japanese losses in two days were 232 men and 5 guns while 11487 Chinese were killed or captured.
All troops of the 12th Army will now march to Wuchow, I hope that will be enough to draw more than 10k supplies to this city so the HI and resource centers may be repaired. Troops holding the northern road from Wuchow to Kweilin will leave it and march back to Wuchow and Kweilin. Two small base forces left Wuchow for Kweilin.

[PzB74]

Good to hear that you're back on track again! [:)]

Should be excpect some desperate moves against PH by 44 and a lunge towards the Home Islands by late 45?
Personally I would go for the throat in the current situation as the Allies.

[AmiralLaurent]

ORIGINAL: PzB

Should be excpect some desperate moves against PH by 44 and a lunge towards the Home Islands by late 45?
Personally I would go for the throat in the current situation as the Allies.

I will do the same too, so my plan is to try to deny my opponent the possibility to do that. By mid 1943 Hawaii will be strongly garrisonned by at least 6 divisions, with fort 9 everywhere, mines everywhere (right now PH has 24000 mines, Lahaina 15000, Hilo and Kona between 3000 and 5000), a strong air force and the Imperial Navy ready around Johnson Island. At the same time the Southern conquests will be relatively lightly held, to attire the Allied counter-attack there rather than in Hawaii. If Hawaii is attacked I hope to be able to repulse an attack as you did in the Mariannas in your game.

By the way I will evacuate Hawaii in spring 1944 if it not been attacked before, leaving behind only 2 divisions in PH. I will rather put more troops on atolls like Wake and so on rather than defending non-atoll bases. The idea behind this strategy being to influence the Allied strategy by giving my opponent soft spots to attack easily where I want to... So PH will in a first time be a very powerful stronghold and I hoep won't be attacked, but in 1944 when my opponent will be occupied advancing in another part of the Pacific will become vulnerable again, but still will need a major operation (5-6 Div), and so will probably need a big modification of Allied plans.

The key here will be to avoid a surrounding of PH, so Midway and Johnson Island will have to be held in force.

3 January 1943

Northern Pacific

The I-123 and I-124 laid 50 mines respectively off Attu and Kiska, while 4 ML laid a bigger minefield off Paramushiro Jima (now more than 2000 mines here).

Southern Pacific

The convoy that arrived yesterday in Auckland with 42k fuel in Auckland unloaded it and enabled all warships in this port (8 CV, 4 CVL, 1 CVE, 5 BB, 8 CA, 11 CL, 1 CS, 56 DD) to fill their fuel tanks. 25k fuel remained after that, and so the order to launch the first raid against Australia was given.
The main part of the fleet will be the CV TF. Four were created, each with the same escort (a CA, two CL and 6 DD). The first CV TF was made of the Soryu, Hiryu and Kaga, had 187 aircraft and was led by Nagumo. Yamaguchi commanded the second, made of Zuikaku, Shokaku and Shoho (159 aircraft), and Yamada the third with the Junyo, Hiyo, Ryuho and Hosho (126 aircraft). The last comprised the Akagi, Ryujo and Zuiho, had 126 aircraft and was commanded by Ugaki. Total air strength of the KB was 296 A6M3a Zero, 149 D3A Val and 152 B5N Kate, a total of 607 aircraft.
These fleets were escorted by a BB TF led by Tanaka (BB Musashi, Ise and Hiei, 4 CA, 3 CL and 10 DD), and a small ASW TF (the last 2 DD with endurance 4000, all DD sailing for this operation have endurance 4000 or better) led by Nishimura (to have a second surface commander available if needed).
Two AO will load some of the remaining fuel in Auckland and follow the fleet under escort by 6 DD.
To reduce the chance of a detection of the KB by American submarines, Vals and Kates were ordered to not fly naval search (but naval attack range 4) and floatplanes were limited to range 2 for naval search).

The BB Yamato and Kirishima and 7 DD will also leave Auckland tonight but will sail to Japan via Suva for repairs and upgrades.

In Auckland, an A6M2 land-based units upgraded to the A6M3a.

Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea

In the afternoon, 53 B-24D from Port Moresby attacked Rabaul. The 203 Sentai based here scrambled 18 Ki-61 to intercept them and shot down 4 bombers while losing 4 aircraft (2 in the air and 2 on the ground) but only one pilot. One more B-24D was lost in a crash, while they hit 60 men and 2 guns and scored 11 hits on the airbase, 4 on supplies and 15 on the runway. Some of the American airmen captured this day were of the 90th BG, apparently a new unit (I didn’t remember seeing them before), while others were from the 7th BG, an old opponent of Japanese airmen over Kendari and Rabaul. In the evening the 203 Sentai again retreated from Rabaul to Truk.

In Truk, an AP convoy loaded the 2nd Parachute Rgt and will carry it to Suva via the Gilberts to avoid Allied bases. Two 7000-ton AK loaded supplies in the port to bring them to Rabaul and Kavieng.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

In the afternoon, 30 B-25C took off from Darwin to attack Lautem airfield but 18 didn’t find the target in bad weather and the 12 others hit nothing.

Southern Resource Area

A convoy started to load 64k oil in Palembang to bring them to Japan.

A convoy arrived in Songkhia, Siam, and unloaded two IJA Base Forces here. They will replace the two large Base Forces operating the bases of Alor Star and Kuala Lumpur, these two big units will go to other bases more important at this stage of the war (I have not chosen yet which, but probably one will go to Kweilin, China, and another to the Pacific).

Burma

Only recon flights were sent by both sides, without loss. For the Japanese it was a routine day. Forts continued to be built where they were not already at level 9, the usual barge convoy left Rangoon for Akyab with 800 supplies and the ML based in Singapore laid another minefield off Andaman Island, bringing the number of mines here to 1150. The air units gathered in Rangoon to raid Dacca will rest 1 or 2 more days.

Japanese SIGINT reported 84 Allied ships in Karachi port, the biggest being an APD.

China

Chinese troops in Kungchang were bombed by 46 Ki-21 and 36 Ki-49 from Yenen, escorted by 16 A6M2 and 12 Ki-44, and lost 86 men while a Helen was lost in a crash. They were then bombarded by Japanese artillery and lost 94 men.
Southeast of the town, half of the 5th Japanese Ind Bde was holding the road to Sian. An attack from across the river by the Chinese troops moving north trough the mountains was expected for some times and finally took place this day. The 93rd Chinese Corps and two HQ crossed the river but their attack was a failure at 0 to 1 (assault value of the Chinese was 119, adjusted value was 0, I have never seen that before). The Japanese had no loss while the Chinese lost 167 men and 2 guns.
One Chinese unit was still on the other side of the river SW of Kungchang and will probably cross it in the future. Five other were on the hex SW of the new battlefield and will also probably cross the river here. The 5th Bde troops were ordered to counterattack as soon as possible (tomorrow) to repulse the first Chinese units before the next arrived. They will be supported by Yenen airmen. The 3rd Tk Div, one of the units besieging Kungchang, was ordered to go west towards Yenen to then be able to move SW and join the new battlefield. 33 Ki-44 from Lanchow will LRCAP it tomorrow in case bombers from Ledo or elsewhere will try to support the Chinese attack.

In Shangai a new Sentai of Ki-27 upgraded to the Oscar II.

Japan

A convoy started to load 35k supplies in Osaka to bring them to Kendari.

[PzB74]

Your plan sounds almost too good Admiral, give the poor man a chance [;)]

[AmiralLaurent]

ORIGINAL: PzB

Your plan sounds almost too good Admiral, give the poor man a chance [;)]

Why ?

Seriously, my objective is to retain a part of strategic initiative, even after mid-1943. At this date I will no longer choose where I can attack, but I can choose what I can defend, and maybe influence what my opponent will attack.

4-5 January 1943

Northern Pacific

On both days Kiska was bombed by B-26B from Adak (24 on the 4th and 41 on the 5th) that scored a total of 12 hits on the empty airfield (1 on a building, 2 on supplies and 9 on the runway). Aleutian winter weather was not so bad: only 11 bombers got lost and didn’t find the target, and only one was lost in a crash.

Central Pacific

The convoy bringing the base force earmarked to defend Christmas Island arrived here on the 4th and began to unload troops.

Four submarines, carrying 3 Glens and all fully repaired, left PH towards California to replace the submarines surveying Allied activity here, that will sail back to PH to repair. Also in PH, the DD Hamakaze was the first of the Kagero class to receive the January 1943 upgrade (most of her sisterships were sailing with the KB and so won’t be upgraded in the near future).

Southern Pacific

Three ML detached from a convoy and laid 500 mines off Wellington, sailing then to Auckland where they will refill. They will mine off NZ bases in the next months.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

Lautem was bombed in the afternoon of the 5th by 30 B-25C from Darwin that scored only 1 hit, on the runway.

Southern Resource Area

A convoy started to load 32k oil in Singapore for Japan.

Burma

Japanese troops SE of Imphal were bombed on both morning by 24 Vengeance I and 8-9 Hurricane II from Imphal, escorted by 51-52 P-40B, and lost a total of 99 men and 2 guns while a P-40B was lost in a crash.

China

The Chinese troops that were SE of Kungchang (93rd Corps, 9th War Area and 7th Group Army) received no reinforcements on the 4th and were on the other hand first bombed by 43 Ki-49 and 40 Ki-21 from Yenen escorted by 12 Ki-44 and 8 A6M2, losing 104 men and 2 guns, and then attacked by the half of the 5th Ind Bde facing them that won the battle (at 13 to 1) and repulsed them towards Sian. Japanese losses were 23 men and 1 gun, Chinese ones 20 killed and wounded and over 1000 POWs during the retreat.
The next day, the Japanese troops didn’t pursue, waiting for the 3rd Tk Div coming from Kungchang via the hex east of the town. The tanks should join the 5th Ind/B Bde tomorrow or the day after. On the other hand, two more Chinese units joined the defeated forces north of Sian, probably coming from the latter city.
A Ki-44 Sentai based in Lanchow flew LRCAP over this battlefield for two days and lost 3 aircraft, but only one pilot.

Tomorrow, Japanese recon and bomber aircraft will fly recon in the area to try to identify as much enemy troops as possible. If Chinese troops continue to leave Sian northwards, Sian will be attacked from the south. The problem here is the lack of troops: only two divisions in Homan. So the garrison of Hsyniang (32nd Div and a small base force) received orders to sent reinforcements to Homan and sent an Inf Rgt and the BF.

Japanese artillery fire continued in Kungchang and hit 269 men in 2 days. Reinforcements coming from the north (3 Div, a half Bde, 2 Eng Rgt) will arrive next week and allow either troops to be sent more south, or a direct assault to be launched.

Japan

Six empty 16k-ton TKs left Osaka for Palembang.

[AmiralLaurent]

6 January 1943

Southern Pacific

The daily recon over new Caledonia reported for the first time some Wildcat here. Bad news, next month there will be Corsairs here….

More south the Kido Butai sailed round the NW end of New Zealand and continued to the SW. It will later turn towards Sydney and raid the area (see map below).

Burma

Japanese troops SE of Imphal were bombed by 24 Vengeance I and 11 Hurricane escorted by 52 P-40B and lost 28 men.

Tomorrow Rangoon airmen will attack Dacca (where no more Allied aircraft were reported by recon flights). 40 Nells will target the resource centers and 25 the oilfields, under escort by 38 A6M2 and 27 A6M3a.

China

Recon showed the disposition of Chinese forces in the north, one more unit left Sian northward. On the Japanese side the 3rd Tk Div reinforced the half Bde holding the road SE of Kungchang. In this city Japanese shells hit 94 men.

In Hong Kong, three big troopships embarked the 22nd Ind Mixed Bde and will carry it to Midway, while a convoy made of 13 medium and small AP loaded at the same time the 17th Div and will bring it to Bangkok. From there it will then march to Burma.

[AmiralLaurent]

7 January 1943

Northern Pacific

44 B-26B bombed Kiska and for the first time hit hard the empty airfield: 7 hits on airbase, 2 on supplies and 18 on the runway.

Southern Pacific

The Kido Butai continued to sail west of New Zealand and remained apparently unnoticed. To prepare the raid, recons will be flown. Two Mavis flew again to Norfolk Island and will fly recon over Brisbane, while the SS I-35 will sail to Sydney area and his Glen was ordered to fly recon but with no target set (Canberra, Sydney and Newcastle will be in range).

Two more AO left Auckland with 16k fuel to follow the KB.

Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea

Hudson I from Port Moresby flew again recon flights over Rabaul and one was shot down by AA fire. The other reported an AK unloading supplies.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

In the afternoon, Lautem was attacked by 32 B-25C from Darwin that scored 1 hit on a supply dump and 3 on the runway, while 7 Brewster 339D from Darwin strafed unsuccessfully barges off the base. One B-25C was lost in a crash.

Southern Resource Area

Three Japanese Special Base Forces held the nearby bases of Georgetown, Kuala Lumpur and Alor Star in Malaya since the invasion of the country, forgotten by all. Between two beach volley sessions, they built some fortifications just in case a general passed by. They were discovered one month ago, and were immediately noticed that the holidays were over. Two small IJA Base Forces were sent from Japan to hold Georgetown and Alor Star, while a Special Base Force will remain in Kuala Lumpur. This convoy arrived in Songkhia some days ago and finished unloading today. Both IJA Base Forces will go to the two planned bases, while one of the relieved Special BF will board the same convoy and sail to Canton Island, in the Pacific, and the other will go by train and road to Pagan, Burma.

A convoy started to load 21k supplies in Toboali for Rangoon.

Burma

The raid on Dacca wasn’t launched due to rainy weather (no thunderstorms today, yippee…). It will be attempted again tomorrow. The F-5A based in Imphal stopped some days ago to recon Rangoon, maybe because of their heavy losses the week before, and so the decrease of the Japanese CAP over this base was unnoticed. Light opposition will probably be encountered over Dacca, a recon aircraft today reported meeting 4 Spitfire Vb near the city.

China

Japanese artillery hit 158 Chinese men in Kungchang, which was reached by the first division coming from Lanchow. ASS ratio there is now at 2200 vs. 3905 in Japanese favour. An attacked will be launched as soon as the ratio will be above 2 to 1.

The regiment of the 32nd Div sent to Homan reached the city, allowing the 23rd Army (HQ, 2 Div and a half Bde) to leave it westward to advance towards Sian.

[AmiralLaurent]

8-10 January 1943

Northern Pacific

Four ML and two minelayer submarines replenished in Eforotu Jima on the 9th, and left to lay defensive minefield respectively off Paramushiro Jima, Attu and Kiska.

Central Pacific

Japanese SIGINT reported on the 8th 218 Allied ships and 52 units in San Francisco. The last report, in late December, showed there 57 units, so at least 5 were sent somewhere…

Southern Pacific

A convoy carrying 80k of fuel planned for NZ was rerouted to Suva, where the stock was not empty and should arrive in some days. The BB TF coming back from NZ for repairs in Japan will stop in Suva for refuelling.

The convoy carrying the 1st Para Rgt from Truk to NZ via this area was supposed to refuel in Suva. Due to garbled orders it started to unload troops there. It was ordered to reload them and continue to New Zealand.

Australia-New Zealand

Japanese airmen began to fly recon on the 8th with a Glen off Sydney and Newcastle and Mavis from Norfolk Island flying over Brisbane. The result of these 3 days of recon (that were flown without loss) was the following:
_ Sydney was the only place with CAP, reported as 17 P-40E, 10 F4F-4 and 10 Kittyhawk I. Several PT and SS were spotted off the base, and 54 docked ships counted in the port. Also 8 units were reported in the town.
_ Newcastle has no CAP, some aircraft based here, PT defending the port and one unit holding it.
_ Brisbane has no CAP, and 5 PT were reported off the base, but nothing more was learned.

In the same time, the recon flights over New Caledonia reported that no more P-38G were seen there, only F4F-4 (6 to 16, depending of the day). So it was thought possible that these fighters flew to Australia.

Anyway the Kido Butai continued to sail west and arrived in the evening of the 10th at 600 miles SE of Sydney apparently without being seen. This night and tomorrow it will sail directly towards Sydney and will launch a raid on this city from 180 miles off the target. 70 A6M3a will sweep the skies of the city then Kates escorted by 40% of the remaining Zeroes will hit the airfield. Vals units received orders to fly naval attack at range 2 so may attack any ship near Sydney but not in the port. Zero units had orders to fly 10% CAP for those taking part to the sweep, and 60% for the other. Floatplanes will recon Canberra, Sydney and Newcastle. The day after the target will be the industry and resources of Sydney, and the day after those of Newcastle.

On the 8th, a submarine was reported west of New Zealand and an ASW group (1 APD and 5 DD) left Auckland to attack it. This group didn’t find its target but detected in the morning of the 10th another submarine 240 miles WNW of Auckland and attacked her. The Dutch SS KXVIII was heavily damaged by 11 hits and near misses scored by the APD-1 and the DD Kawatake, but didn’t sink.

In Auckland, a convoy arrived on the 10th with 62k fuel. On the same day 4 ML left this base to lay a defensive minefield off Wellington, and 3 submarines also left, but towards the Australian coast.

Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea

Rabaul was bombed on the 8th and 10th by B-24D from Port Moresby (respectively 65 and 70 bombers) that scored 22 hits on the base, 9 on supplies and 59 on the runways. Japanese losses were 320 men and 6 guns. The first raid was without loss but during the latter coast two Liberators, one shot down by AA and another crashing into a mountain.

In the evening of the 10th, the 203 Sentai again left Truk with 32 Ki-61 and 32 pilots to fly to Kavieng. It will fly local defence for one day, and then will LRCAP Rabaul.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

Lautem was bombed each afternoon, by a total of 91 B-25C from Darwin that scored in 3 days 3 hits on the airbase, 2 on supplies and 12 on the runway and did 5 casualties. But the most interesting action in this period was the return of Allied bombers to Koepang. This base was attacked on the 8th by 39 B-25C from Derby, and by 50 on the 10th. In both raids, a B-25C was shot down by AA fire but they scored 5 hits on the airbase, 1 on supplies and 8 on the runway, disabled 20 men and 1 gun and stopped the work on the fortifications.

On the 8th the 5th Eng Rgt expanded fort of Soerabaja to level 8 and received orders to move to Koepang. The first elements boarded an AP the same day. This ship left the port in the evening of the 10th.

A MLE coming from the Pacific arrived on the 9th in Menado with a ML, which immediately was sent to reinforce the minefield off Amboina. Kendari had no minefield yet but won’t be the destination of this ML because of reported Allied submarine near by. Four ASW ships were sent from Soerabaja to chase them and allow mine laying operations in the area.

In Kendari a Ki-27 Sentai upgraded to the Oscar II. The Nells flying recon over Australian bases hadn’t reported any loss for a while, but on the 9th one was shot down over Darwin by an Allied fighter.

Southern Resource Area

The following convoys were organized in the period: 9k oil from Bankha to Singapore, 35k resources from Singapore to Japan, 35k resources from Palembang to Singapore, and 16k oil from Rangoon to Singapore.

Japanese engineers expanded the port of Batavia to size 7.

Burma

Bad weather again cancelled the planned raid on Dacca on the 8th, while recons reported a CAP as 5 Spitfire and 4 Mohawk. The raid was finally launched the next day, and this time there were no Allied fighters over the city. A good thing, as no Zero flew escort (despite having escorts to escort to Dacca, with CAP 0%, range 11, morale 99, fatigue 1-3, air HQ, etc…) but only 15 Oscar II. Anyway the 64 Nells bombed the city undisturbed and hit hard the resources centers, disabling 71 of the 150 of the city, and more lightly the oilfield, disabling 2 of the 25 centers of the town. One Nell and one Oscar II were lost to engine failure.

Allied airmen flew only once in 3 days, in the morning of the 8th Japanese troops SE of Imphal were bombed by 24 Vengeance I and 9 Hurricane escorted by 52 P-40B and lost 74 men and 2 guns. The next day these troops (the 81st Naval Guard Unit) marched back to the railway, leaving their outpost. The unit will be awarded R&R in Rangoon (current state is 52/88) and then will be shipped to Andaman Islands to reinforce the garrison here.
On the 10th, a patrolling B-25C bombed a barge convoy off Akyab and hit one, which was beached and abandoned by its crew.

China

In Kungchang, Japanese artillery hit 83 men on the 8th while two more divisions reached the city, bringing the ASS ratio to 4865 to 2197. With a ratio better than 2 to 1, it was decided to launch the final offensive. Air supported was supposed to be provide by 32 Ki-44 from Lanchow, 98 Ki-21/Ki-49 and 36 Ki-43 from Yenen and 49 Ki-21/Ki-48 from Homan, but in the two next days the Chinese troops at Kungchang were not attacked from the air even once. Weather was bad, but might not be the only reason.

By the way the Japanese troops attacked for two days without air support and achieved the following results:
_ on the 9th, attack achieved a ratio of 2 to 1 (ASS 4831 to 2098, adjusted 3602 vs. 1314) and reduced fort level from 8 to 7, but Japanese losses were heavy (5062 men, 152 guns, 1 tank) while the Chinese lost 1001 men.
_ the next day the exhausted Japanese troops only achieved a ratio of 1 to 1 (ASS 2649 vs. 1835, adjusted 1208 to 1135) and reduced again the fortification level by 1 (to 6) but again suffered heavier losses (3861 men, 158 guns, 2 tanks) than the Chinese (1119 men).
In the evening of the 10th the attack was stopped for a while to let the troops recover, and Eng Rgt arrive from Japan (1) and Lanchow (2).

SE of Homan the 23rd Army (HQ, 2 Div, a half Bde) advanced to 60 miles SE of the Chinese city, but then stopped. It will wait to see if more Chinese units left the city towards Kungchang, last reports showing 10 units in Sian, and if it is the case will advance to besiege the city.

Japan

After a quiet week there was again some action in Japanese waters. During the night of the 7th-8th, the Bonins ASW group chased unsuccessfully the SS Gurnard 120 miles NW of Bonins Islands. And in the morning of the 9th, the SS Sunfish tried to attack a TK convoy 180 miles west of Tori Shima but was unable to reach a good firing position and was detected and depth charged by an escort, but escaped undamaged.

13 empty TK left Osaka for the DEI, where they will load oil. The AK convoy that was ordered to take fuel in Korean ports arrived in the last one, Luda, and will load 40k fuel and bring them to Osaka. This operation allowed to bring a total of 160k of fuel to this port, about half of it having already been redispatched to Southern Pacific.

Some changes were made to the Japanese war production. Five RO submarines were stopped, while the CL Noshiro was accelerated (and should be released in late March). The Mitsubishi firm still produced more engines that were needed and three more factories were ordered to halt production in Matsuyama (size 80), Tayama (60) and Niigata (size 20).

[AmiralLaurent]

11-12 January 1943

In two days, 178 Allied aircraft and 62 Japanese were lost.

Central Pacific

While mining continued in Hawaii and around (with the minefield off PH now having more than 25 000 mines), SIGINT reported an increase of the Allied units in San Francisco, from 52 some days ago to 66 on the 11th.

Southern Pacific

On both days, Allied AA fire shot down a Betty over Noumea, but other crew reported 259 aircraft here: 103 fighter, 41 bombers, 115 other. So even if P-38 weren’t seen flying CAP (only some F4F-4) they probably were still there, resting or training.

Australia-New Zealand

The Kido Butai was slowed for an unknown reason during the night of the 10th-11th and was at dawn still 360 miles of Sydney and unable to launch the scheduled raid. It was also in a bad weather area, but anyway Allied patrol aircraft found and reported it, even if a Catalina was shot down by a Zero.
In the afternoon, the weather was good enough to launch the planned sweep against Sydney. 76 A6M3a were launched by the CVs and reported over the Australian city a CAP of 18 P-40E (one squadron of 343rd FG), 14 Kittyhawk I (132 Sqn RCAF) and 6 F4F-4 (of VMF-212). 12 Zeroes were shot down but they shot down most of their opponents, 14 Kittyhawk, 13 P-40E and 6 F4F-4 falling to their guns.
In the evening, Nagumo decided to apply the plan without change and to continue towards Sydney to launch in the morning a raid on the airfield with Kates, keeping the Vals to attack ships at sea, not in the port.

The night proved to be troublesome. Two American submarines, having probably left Auckland in emergency, tried to attack the fleet 240 and 180 miles SE of Sydney but were unable to reach a good firing position, and one, the Silversides, was seen during her second approach by the DD Mochizuki, depth charged and damaged by an hit and two near misses.
Morning recons showed that the Allied command had reacted to the raid of the previous day. Another RCAF Kittyhawk Sqn and the P-40E of the two other squadrons of 343rd FG had reinforced Sydney, while there was now a CAP over Brisbane (9 Dutch CW-21 and 2 Beaufighters reported by a Mavis from Norfolk Island). Also a submarine launched a Glen to fly recon over Melbourne and reported no CAP here.
Most interesting was the fact that several big Allied ships (CA-BB) were reported off Newcastle, and a ML off Sydney, with numerous PT and SS. Also more bombers were active and during the day the KB CAP shot down 6 Allied patrol planes (2 B-25C, 2 PBY and 2 SOC-3 Seagull, proof of the presence of big USN ships near by). But all these ships were out of range of the Vals units (limited to range 2 to avoid running into a base CAP).
Anyway the KB launched in the morning a big well co-ordinated raid of 133 Kates and 131 escort (112 A6M3a and 19 A6M3) against Sydney airfield. The raid was intercepted by 30 P-40E, 10 Kittyhawk I and 7 F4F-4 but the escort did it job perfectly and none of the Allied pilots reached the Kate, while 29 P-40, 9 Kittyhawk and the 7 Wildcats were shot down. But the cost was 10 A6M3 (this carrier capable unit was the only one of the fleet and suffered 50% losses during the day) and 9 A6M3a. One of the latter was the mount of the best remaining Japanese ace, PO1 Fujita S. (21 kills) of AI-1 that bailed out and was captured. The Kates bombed the airfield at 15k feet but heavy AA fire shot down 7 and damaged others, two of whom ditched later. The bombs destroyed 6 aircraft on the ground (2 Kittyhawk I, 1 P-40E, 1 B-25J, 1 PBY and 1 B-25C), disabled 11 men and 1 gun and scored 12 hits on the airbase, 7 on supplies and 90 on the runways.
At the same time Allied airmen were attacking the Kido Butai (4 CV TF, 1 BB TF, 1 ASW TF) that was covered by 123 A6M3a and 2 A6M3. The first raid was made by 8 B-25J of 18 Sqn RAAF with an escort of 21 P-40E, 9 F4F-4 and 8 Kittyhawk I and if all escorts were shot down (nothing unusual here against the Death Star), they shot down 3 A6M3a and 2 A6M3 and protected enough the bombers to get close to the CV. 6 B-25J were shot down by the CAP but the two remaining crews, veteran of the Timor raids, managed to score one hit on the CV Junyo… Japanese crews, convinced of their invulnerability, were shocked to see here burning.
The next Allied wave was made of 12 Dutch Martin 139, 4 B-25C and 3 B-25J and only escorted by 2 F4F-4 and 2 P-40E. At the cost of 3 A6M3a the CAP shot down all four escort, 10 Martin 139 and 2 B-25J but again let bombers get trough, 7 of them this time. They attacked the BB Ise and Musashi and missed them, losing a B-25J and a B-25C under AA fire.
The last morning raid on the KB saw 6 B-25C arrive unescorted and all were shot down by the CAP.
In the afternoon, 13 B-24D from Brisbane tried to attack the Japanese fleet but didn’t find it, while Sydney only sent 3 B-25J and 3 B-25C. The CAP shot down all 6 for the cost of another A6M3a shot down.
At the end of the day the Zero pilots of the Kido Butai had score 123 victories for 28 losses. The new top active Japanese ace was another AI-1 pilot, PO2 Minobe K, who scored his 20th kill in the battle over the CVs in the morning.

The map below is showing the battles on the 12th, the Allied TF seen and the air losses of both sides for the day.



The hit on the Junyo didn’t close her bridge but was serious enough (damage 23/7/13) to change Japanese plans. The uber-CAP didn’t work anymore…. And to separate her from the main fleet will leave her vulnerable to long-range heavy bombers.
Also the initial plan to use some DD to chase PT boats and then bombard the base with the BB TF next night was no more possible. Rather than half-a-dozen PT more than 20 were reported, with a dozen submarines, a ML that probably laid at least one minefield there, and a surface TF with at least CAs, and maybe BBs. So it was reduced to shorten the raid duration by one.
Tonight the whole fleet, Junyo included will sail to 120 miles ESE of Newcastle. A Zero unit will sweep this city while other Zero will fly 70% CAP. All Val units will bomb resource centers and heavy industry in Newcastle, while the Kates will fly naval attack to range 4. The surface ships won’t raid anything but will cover the CV TF.
The Junyo was ordered to fly all aircraft, but the game didn’t allow it to fly its AC to another CV in the same hex (no comment…). 17 A6M3a had the range to reach Auckland, and were replaced by 15 A6M3a arriving as reinforcements from this base on other CVs. 19 Vals remained aboard Junyo and will remain there.
On a site note, the Kido Butai left Auckland with 296 Zeroes, 151 Val and 155 Kate, it now had 255 Zeroes (-41), 151 Vals (no loss) and 146 Kates (-9), and was considered still in good shape but another CV hit will be very annoying off the Australian base, so the day after tomorrow the fleet will retire towards NZ.

During the battle, Japanese engineers continued to work in Auckland and expanded the airfield to size 9. They will now complete the fortifications (already level 6).

Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea

On the 11th, Rabaul was attacked by 55 B-24D from Port Moresby and reported 3 hits on the airbase, 3 on supplies and 36 on the runways and the loss of 119 men and 5 guns. The next day, again in the afternoon, 11 KI-61 of the 203 Sentai flying LRCAP from Kavieng intercepted 47 B-24D over Rabaul and shot down 6, with a 7th crashing due to the Flak and a 8th being lost in an accident. The bomber hit nevertheless the base, scoring 1 hit on a building, 2 on supplies and 51 on the runways and doing 92 casualties. No Tony was lost during the battle but two were lost with their pilots in an air collision.
Tomorrow the 203 Sentai will fly local CAP over Kavieng.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

On the 11th, a Kittyhawk shot down a Nell over Darwin while in the afternoon both Koepang and Lautem were bombed by B-25C respectively from Derby and Darwin. The first reported 39 attacking bombers, 96 casualties and 2 hits on the airbase, 2 on supplies and 23 on the runway, the second counted 32 bombers that scored 1 hit on a supply dump and one on the runway, doing 10 casualties. No raid were flown the next day, but again a Nell was shot down by an Allied fighter, this time over Derby.

Southern Resource Area

Two convoys were created on the 12th. One will carry 11k oil from Amboina to Tarakan, another 7k resources from Manila to Japan.

Burma

Recon and spies reported that the British repaired the damage to oil and mining installation in Dacca from the last Japanese raid. After a quiet day on the 11th where no raid was launched by any side, on the 12th 54 Nells from Rangoon attacked again Dacca under escort by 55 A6M2. They met no CAP but lost a Nell to AA fire and scored few hits, damaging only 1 resource center and 2 oil pits. This raid won’t be repeated, it is more successfull to raid undamaged targets. By the way if all damage is repaired, the two raids would have cost 100k supplies to the Allied.
On the 12th too, Myitkyina was attacked by 28 SB-2c and 6 B-25J (first known use of the type, before it was seen too off Sydney the same day) from Ledo, escorted by 22 P-40B. They scored 5 hits on the base, 6 on supplies and 16 on the runway but AA fire shot down a SB-2c.

China

On the 11th, Japanese airmen finally attacked the defenders of Kungchang with 16 Ki-48 and 15 Ki-21 from Homan, 29 Ki-44 from Lanchow and 38 Ki-21, 36 Ki-43 and 29 Ki-49 from Yenen escorted by 14 Ki-44 and hit 100 men and 2 guns for the loss of an Oscar in a crash. All troops has been ordered to stop the offensive but one engineer regiment attacked alone on this day (my fault, I had changed orders from attack to bombardment, this unit having no guns kept the deliberate attack orders… you should always set all troops to defence mode first). The unit was wrecked (reduced to one valid combat engineer squad) and ordered to march to Lanchow for R&R (and construction engineer squads will help build the base). Japanese casualties were 143, while Chinese losses were 173. The next day Chinese losses were only bombed by Japanese guns and lost 68 men.

In the south, the operational training units based in Wuchow began to move to Kweilin to get closer from enemy troops, but this new base had not yet enough air support to base all of them here. Part of the base forces now unnecessary in Wuchow will march to Kweilin.

Japan

In these two days (roughly the 400th turn of the game), numerous reinforcements were activated in Japan: 1 Aviation Unit, 7 HQs, 4 Sentais (2 bomber, 1 recon, 1 dive bomber), 2 floatplane Chutai, 2 SS, 1 AO, 1 PC, 2 MSW. Also two more Sentai were delayed by lack of available aircraft, one of Ki-45 and one of Ki-54. The KI-54 factory in Tokyo was restarted and will be converted to something else as soon as enough AC will be available for this Sentai.

Most of these reinforcements will receive orders in some days, except the Aviation Unit and 1 HQ sent to N Japan, and the two SS sent to Pearl Harbor. Also the 16 Sentai, the first Ki-45 unit, was transferred from Home Defence Command to the Southern Army and will fly to Kendari. Its first stop was Okinawa.

[AmiralLaurent]

13 January 1943

Australia-New Zealand

During the night, the Kido Butai sailed without being attacked or seen to the planned position, 120 miles ESE of Newcastle. In the morning Japanese patrols reported a dozen submarines at sea, mostly at the former position of the KB, and damaged there the USS Tarpon. Recon reported a small CAP over Sydney (5 P-40E, 2 Kittyhawk I), and during the day RCAF Kittyhawk shot down two Dave there. On the other hand, the KB CAP shot down during the day three Allied patrol planes: a Walrus, a SOC-3 Seagull and a PBY Catalina.
At dawn the KB launched 121 Vals that raided Newcastle under escort by 18 A6M3a and 3 A6M3. They targeted the city and disabled 61 resource and 46 HI centers, scoring 214 terror.. sorry, strategic points. One Val was lost to AA fire and another to engine failure. At the same time, 13 B-24D from Brisbane tried to attack the KB but didn’t find it. Two small raids were sent by Sydney (2 B-25J and then 2 B-25C) but were annihilated easily by the Japanese CAP (137 A6M3a and 6 A6M3).

In the afternoon, another American submarine, the Stingray, was damaged 180 miles SE of Sydney, this time by a Val. As in the morning, patrols only reported PT boats (at least 20 off Sydney and 10 off Newcastle) and the AVD Williamson off Newcastle, but again Nagumo preferred keeping his Kates in reserve. Brisbane again sent 13 B-24D that this time found the Kido Butai but were all shot down by the CAP (134 A6M3a and 6 A6M3). US gunners died fighting and shot down 4 A6M3a.

In the evening, Nagumo was pleased to see that the situation aboard Junyo was under control (damage 29/1/5). From the day’s reports, his opinion was that the BB and CA seen the day before were probably PT boats. Anyway with at least 30 PT and 15 submarines in the area it was time to leave, even if apparently no Allied air reinforcement had come to this area. But the air raid against Newcastle was disappointing and he was asked to raid it another time.
So the KB will sail tonight to a position 240 miles east of Newcastle and launch a full raid against it, the Vals targeting the resources and the Kates the HI. As usual a part of the Zeroes were ordered to sweep Newcastle skies first.
Both replenishment TF following the KB were entering the area covered by Allied patrol aircraft and were re-routed to avoid air attacks. They will wait for the KB to leave the area and will refuel it on the way to New Zealand.

This KB raid had been more difficult and dangerous than planned. I planned to repeat it, with troop convoys to seize easy targets, but I changed my mind. While the KB will return to NZ, troops there will began boarding ships to invade New Caledonia. They will seize Koumac and La Foa and then besiege Noumea, even if they are not yet 100% prepared for this target.
Then Efate and Luganville will be attacked with LBA support only. But the KB won’t return directly to Japan, it will sail to Palau and then SW to raid Darwin and sink the Allied warships patrolling off this port. I won’t have many more occasions to sink a bunch of Allied cruisers later.

Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea

In the afternoon, 36 B-24D from Port Moresby again bombed Rabaul, scoring 7 hits on the airbase, 1 on supplies and 26 on the runways, and doing 80 casualties. These raids did since several days more damage than what Japanese engineers may repair daily.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

In the afternoon a patrolling B-17E bombed and hit the small AK Tone Maru that was unloading supplies in Dili. With damage 25/22/14, the lonely transport immediately left the base to return to Kendari.

Tomorrow, or the day after, an AP will arrive in Koepang will the first part of the 5th Eng Rgt. To cover it, 36 Oscar II from Batavia and 36 Ki-44 from Kendari arrived in the evening in Koepang.

Southern Resource Area

A convoy started to load 17k resources in Soerabaja for Singapore.

Burma

Imphal launched an heavy raid against Mandalay: 31 B-17E, 28 Beaufort I, 27 Beaufort V-IX, 15 Blenheim IV, 15 Wellington III, 12 B-25J and 9 Liberator VI (first use of the type) escorted by 55 P-40B scored 11 hits on the airbase, 5 on supplies and 57 on the runways and did 28 casualties. 24 Vengeance I from the same base then attacked the 81st Naval Guard Unit that had reached Mandalay and hit 11 men. A Vengeance damaged by AA fire crashed later in the jungle and a P-40B was lost in an accident.
In the afternoon, 44 B-25C from Chandpur escorted by 14 P-40B raided Akyab and scored 1 hit on a supply dump and 15 on the runway, but the Japanese engineers repaired the damaged in some hours and continued to build fortifications (now level 6).

Five ML left in the evening Victoria Point to lay another minefield off Andaman Islands. This base lacked supplies (pink status) and two AK started to load 14k supplies in Kuala Lumpur to bring them here.

China

Chinese troops in Kungchang were bombed by 32 Ki-44 from Lanchow and 15 Ki-21 and 10 Ki-48 from Homan and lost 11 men, and then lost 79 more under the fire of the Japanese artillery, but apparently received supplies as both the number of able men and their ASS value increased today (60 580 men, +275, and 1878 ASS, +5).

Japan

The three HQs created two days ago in Tokyo that hadn’t received orders yet were assigned targets. The 9th Fleet and 4th Air Army will go to Rabaul, and the 4th Air Division to southern China. But only a dozen of AP were available in Japan, and none in Tokyo. All of these were ordered to go to the Japanese capital, while six more 3000-ton AP currently in Palau received orders to return to Japan. Most of the Japanese APs were used in the New Zealand operation and were still there, awaiting for the New Caledonia invasion.

[Fishbed]

Toujours aussi passionnant

[AmiralLaurent]

ORIGINAL: Fishbed

Toujours aussi passionnant

I'm pleased to read that. Are you back in China now ?

14 January 1943

Central Pacific

Four “fresh” submarines arrived off California and relieve the submarines patrolling there, which returned to Pearl Harbor.

Southern Pacific

A convoy unloaded all day fuel in Suva and the BB TF returning to Japan (Yamato, Kirishima and escort) refuelled and then sailed north again.

Australia-New Zealand

I discovered something today… It seems that in WITP Allied TF, or at least Allied submarines, moved before Japanese ones. Last turn 12-15 submarines were SW of the KB position, during the night phase all moved NE and scattered in the area the KB sailed through. Only one engaged Japanese ships, three times in fact. The USS Seal was first seen by the escort of a TF and depth charged by two DD that scored 2 near-misses, then searched by two other DD of the ASW group following the KB and then tried to attack a CA and a CL but was unable to find a firing position. This time the escort didn’t detect her.

Dawn found the Kido Butai 240 miles east of Newcastle as planned and a raid was launched against the city... but not as planned. Vals and Kates were supposed to attack it, but if Vals had the good target they were still limited to range 2. So only 140 Kates escorted by 33 A6M3a and 3 A6M3 arrived over the city and bombed the industrial area from 15 000 feet. They met no CAP and no AA and disabled 140 industrial buildings.
A Mavis flying recon over Brisbane reported that the CAP had been reinforced by 55 P-38G.

In the afternoon, the SS USS Pickerel was damaged by a Val near the Kido Butai and two small raids were launched against the Japanese fleet. Two Martin 139 took off from Sydney and 9 B-24D from Brisbane. 3 Liberators and the two Martin found the fleet and were all shot down without loss by the CAP (127 A6M3a and 5 A6M3). Also during the day the KB CAP shot down two PBY Catalina.

Now the Kido Butai will return to Auckland, meeting the two replenishment TF en route. All Val and Kate units were again ordered to fly naval attack range 4 as usual.

Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea

In the afternoon, Rabaul was as usual attacked by B-24D from Port Moresby but AA fire downed one of the 30 bombers. The other scored 1 hit on the airbase and 17 on the runways and disabled 30 men and 1 gun.
Tomorrow the 203 Sentai will again fly LRCAP over Rabaul from Kavieng.

A Ki-46 Chutai in Truk was the first to receive the new Ki-46-III version, with an extra range of 300 miles.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

The AP carrying the first part of the 5th Eng Rgt arrived off this base in the evening and will start unload tonight. The 72 fighters based here since yesterday will cover it.

An ASW TF of 6 ships left Kendari port to chase an American submarine east of the base.

Burma

It was a busy day in the Burmese skies. In the morning, Mandalay was attacked by 30 B-17E, 26 Beaufort V-IX, 25 Beaufort I, 15 Blenheim IV, 15 Wellington III, 12 Liberator VI and 12 B-25J from Imphal escorted by 55 P-40B that scored 14 hits on the airbase, 5 on supplies and 65 on the runways, doing 111 casualties, while Myitkyina was bombed by 25 SB-2c and 12 B-25J from Ledo escorted by 22 P-40B and reported 35 casualties, 6 hits on the airbase, 2 on supplies and 19 on the runway. Vengeance I from Imphal continued to chase the 81st Naval Guard Unit and 20 attacked it S of Mandalay, hitting 19 men and 2 guns.
In the afternoon, Mandalay was again raided, by 10 Liberator VI from Dacca that scored only one runway hit but destroyed a Dinah on the ground. A patrolling B-25C sank the drifting barge abandoned off Akyab and then this base was attacked by 42 B-25C from Chandpur escorted by 30 P-40B that scored 4 hits on the airbase, 2 on supplies and 9 on the runway and did 11 casualties.
Six Allied aircraft were lost to operational causes during these raids: 3 P-40B, 1 Liberator VI, 1 B-17E and 1 Vengeance I.

The only Japanese operation was an unplanned sweep of Dacca by 25 A6M2 from Rangoon. In the evening, the small recon units based in Myitkyina and Mandalay (where the runways were damaged at 72%, the services at 59%) flew to Rangoon to rest and replace lost aircraft.

China

Chinese troops in Kungchang were bombed by 32 Ki-44 from Lanchow (no damage), 20 Ki-21 and 16 Ki-48 from Homan (37 casualties) and by Japanese guns (85 casualties).

Tomorrow Japanese airmen will search transport aircraft in the skies of China. 30 Ki-44 will fly LRCAP over Kungchang and 16 A6M2 over Chengtu, both from Lanchow.

Japan

All new air units created two days ago were ordered to train, until their experience (currently 50-57) will reach 60.

[AmiralLaurent]

15 January 1943

Southern Pacific

The convoy carrying the 1st Para Rgt (that was preparing for a commando paradrop on Newcastle from Dunedin) was re-routed north to Suva. It will take part in the New Caledonia operation.
A convoy carrying 100k fuel arrived in Suva and was ordered to continue to Auckland, where stocks won’t be able to refuel the hundred of ships that will concentrate here in some days.

The Betties that were based in Auckland and flew the daily recon to Noumea flew back to Suva and will from there fly recon over New Caledonia, Efate and Luganville.

Australia-New Zealand

The Kido Butai was now sailing eastwards to Auckland and wasn’t attacked by submarines or bombers. An A6M3a of the CAP was shot down during the day by a PBY Catalina that avenged its comrades fallen the last days.

In New Zealand the preliminaries of the invasion of New Caledonia began. Wellington port was full of transports and emptied in one day. 8 transports left for Dunedin, carrying a Naval Guard Unit to keep the city and will load there the 65th Bde and a Tk Rgt. 25 other transports sailed for Christchurch and will load there the 13th Army (HQ, 18th and 53rd Div, 4th Tk Rgt, 27th Eng Rgt, an ART unit) that was preparing for Luganville. Plans were not validated as if it will land in Luganville while the other Japanese troops will land in New Caledonia (so having CV support), or if it will land in New Caledonia and invade Luganville later.
Also 2 damaged ships left Wellington and 2 other Dunedin, both TF heading for Japan with an escort each.
20 AKs will load 140k supplies in Wellington (where there are 200k) to support the New Caledonia operation. All other ships left at once Wellington to sail to Auckland, where the bulk of the Southern Army will be loaded aboard them.

Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea

The daily afternoon raid on Rabaul from Port Moresby was intercepted by 11 Ki-61 of the 203 Sentai flying LRCAP from Kavieng that shot down 4 B-24D and repulsed 3 other without loss. 25 bombers reached the base and scored 1 hit on the airbase, 2 on supplies and 21 on runways, but AA fire shot one more Liberator and also a Hudson I flying behind them to take pictures.

Southern Resource Area

Convoys loaded 21k resources in Kuala Lumpur for Singapore, 45k oil in Palembang for Japan, 14k resources in Balikpapan for Hong Kong and 18k oil in Brunei for Formosa.

Burma

In the morning, Myitkyina was bombed by 27 SB-2c and 16 B-25J escorted by 22 P-40B from Ledo that hit 28 men and 2 guns and scored 13 hits on the airbase, 2 on supplies and 40 on the runway.

On the Japanese side, the last squads of the 4th Eng Rgt were carried by air to Akyab and the transport Chutai was grounded and ordered to leave Rangoon for Bangkok. The 63 Nells based in Rangoon also left the base, 41 for Singapore and 22 for Bangkok. Only fighters and some recon remained in Rangoon in the evening. The arrival of the Liberator VI on the frontline might be followed by a heavy bomber raid on Rangoon, and I don’t want to have aircraft sitting there.

China

An A6M2 Zero Daitai based in Lanchow flew LRCAP over Chengtu and intercepted transport aircraft bringing supplies from India, shooting down 4 Dakota I and 1 C-60A Lodestar without loss.

The Chinese troops in Kungchang were bombed by 35 Oscar I, 34 Ki-21 and 34 Ki-49 escorted by 20 Ki-44 and 4 Ki-61 from Yenen (90 casualties, 1 Ki-61 lost in a crash) and then by Japanese artillery (151 casualties). But the most important thing was the advance of the Chinese units on the Sian-Kungchang road, two of them reaching the Japanese lines held SE of the besieged city by the 3rd Tk Div and half of the 5th Bde. These two units will launch a counter-attack tomorrow with air support from Yenen and Homan.
An attack was planned for tomorrow in Kungchang but it will be delayed until the end of the battle SE of the city to have air support.

The map below will show you the situation in China:



In the south a Naval Guard Unit that came from Manila to help holding the roads during the Kweilin campaign boarded ships in Hong Kong to return to its garrison.

Japan

There was no more fuel in Bonin Islands, and the ASW group based here sailed back to Tokyo. It will return with a convoy laden with fuel to continue its patrol. Even if it didn’t sink any Allied submarine in the last month, it engaged half a dozen of them and damaged 2-3.

Two CL and two DD were accelerated in Japanese shipyards.