RIDERS ON THE STORM-THANK YOU

[Gen.Hoepner]

For what concerns pacific, nothing much has happened in the last week, a part from those 4 subs hit by mines and Vals at Truk.
We're massing our forces, keeping an eye well open on our back...do not want to be caught off guard at Wake, Canton Isl. or Tarawa.
Finally the engeeneers are arriving and the bases newly conquered are being building up quite fast.
Now i'm gonna wait for Eniwetok to be built, then we'll start bombing Ponape.
At the same time we'll keep on training our air crews at Kwalajein.
It's amazing how Japan can easily master thousands of planes in India and China and at the same time having 200 fighters at Formosa and more 300 planes at Truk... at the moment i simply cannot compete with those numbers...

[Gen.Hoepner]

In Luzon i have 2000 AVs. Not very well experienced as you know, but not even that bad, considering that he won't probably use his BBs here...with almost 8 forts it will be a pain for him to try to siege the city once i'll had moved back everyone to there.
Manila will last for some time.
Karachi is another thing i fear...his BBs can really change the course of the war there...But i cannot do much more now anyway, so i just have to wait and see....

[jumper]

Hi,
maybe you could move your main combat units out of Karachii to avoid bombardment too (at least for now, when you still have the space).. But considering the way he is using paradrops, it might be too risky..

[Elladan]

Take a look at which units take the pounding from BBs. If I remember right it will be base forces that suffer, not combat ones. You may also want to divide your Australian and British divisions, so they are not that much vulnerable to bombardment. Every little helps in your situation.

[Gen.Hoepner]

ORIGINAL: Elladan

Take a look at which units take the pounding from BBs. If I remember right it will be base forces that suffer, not combat ones. You may also want to divide your Australian and British divisions, so they are not that much vulnerable to bombardment. Every little helps in your situation.

Yes, BBs tend to pound mainly base forces, engeneers, Arty, AA, CD units and HQs, but very slightly the combat units.
Yes, i'll switch to three regiments both our 2 divisions there...Thx for remembering![;)]

However...tomorrow will be the first bombardment run day...i bet it will be a massacre!

And as Jumper said, moving up and down my units from Karachi to Malir can be really risky due to the para drops that can catapult my units to the desert...so i will probably not do that

[Gen.Hoepner]

Now i've moved my Manila Air Force (MAF) to China. these 3 fighter units will have to rest a bit, refill their ranks and possibly we'll start ambush here and there his bombing missions in China, where he has so many targets that if he wants to escort everyone of them he'll need to spare a lot of fighters in this theatre! My Manila bombers will be moved to Chunking. Also these guys, after some rest and refitt, will cause some problems to the damned Japanese advance towards Changsha...Let's see what we can do.
It's a very tough war, but the allies are far from being beaten and my morale is far from being low!
 
BONSAI![:D]

[Gen.Hoepner]

The MAF is composed by 2nd and 3rd AVG group and by the 53th fighters group. I'd really like to have some more P-40s in my pools...if only i could sustain more than 1 day of heavy fighting i could have some hope to hold a given position...but with so few i really cannot hope to do anything more than some nuiance...[:@]

[witpqs]

Just a caution - he might have LCU's with those BB's and the KB.

A bright note - Zero Bonus will expire soon. When he gets back to the Pacific, the odds are evened out!

[eloso]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Just a caution - he might have LCU's with those BB's and the KB.

A bright note - Zero Bonus will expire soon. When he gets back to the Pacific, the odds are evened out!

The zero bonus doesn't exist in this version of CHS. Allied pilot experience is reduced across the board to compensate.

[Gen.Hoepner]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 03/11/42


What a turn!!!!

Storms everywhere in India...not a single plane, mine or his, was able to take off in the morning.
My Catalinas reported the enemy KB getting closer to Karachi escorting the BBs....
He sent during the night a SCTF to sink the poor MLE that was trying to leave Karachi harbour...and a DD got a mine in her stomache[:D]
Always during the night some of my night-fighter bombers managed to lunch a strike against his CVs...nothing achieved but it's good to see these guys doing something sometimes!
But the show starts in the afternoon...
Sky over Malir is clear again...
firstly 2 unescorted raids that crushed on 266 zeros CAP!!..none of my planes survived to these raid...
Then the main one...escorted by some 70 allied fighters! The last big raid i could effort...was sure that after today he would have destroyed the RAF...(with Ademabad built up to level 4 along with Jaipur...)...and my bombers got through!!!
The sacrifice of my brave fighters was well worth!!!
3 ammo storage explosion of 2 CVEs and on CV Kaga!!![:D][:D][:D][:D] The mighty power of the KB finally gets hurt somehow!!
My subs are immediately detached to hunt down to Bombay the damaged carriers...let's cross the fingers!

I know this is not resolutive...tomorrow my Indian Air Force will be wiped out from the skies...but it's however a great victory imho!! A day we've been waiting for 4 long months of war....

We've lost 156 planes today...against 40 zeros...a bad trade off but more 40 of his crack zeros are gone! and more important 2CVEs are out of action along with a CV!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TF 52 encounters mine field at Karachi (21,3)

Japanese Ships
DD Ayanami, Mine hits 1[8D]

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Night Air attack on TF at 19,5


Allied aircraft
Blenheim IF x 6


Allied aircraft losses
Blenheim IF: 4 damaged

Japanese Ships
CV Zuikaku
CV Soryu

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x Blenheim IF bombing at 2000 feet
4 x Blenheim IF bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Karachi at 21,3

Japanese Ships
CL Natori
DD Shikinami
DD Ayanami

Allied Ships
MLE Prome, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 19,5

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 232

Allied aircraft
Buffalo I x 2
Martin 139 x 5
Hudson I x 3
P-40B Tomahawk x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 14 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Buffalo I: 2 destroyed
Martin 139: 5 destroyed
Hudson I: 3 destroyed
P-40B Tomahawk: 8 destroyed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 19,5

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 232

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 2
Blenheim I x 8
Blenheim IV x 6
Martin 139 x 2
A-20B Boston x 6
B-25C Mitchell x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 16 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb: 2 destroyed
Blenheim I: 8 destroyed
Blenheim IV: 6 destroyed
Martin 139: 2 destroyed
A-20B Boston: 6 destroyed
B-25C Mitchell: 3 destroyed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 20,6

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 40

Allied aircraft
Blenheim I x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Blenheim I: 2 destroyed

Japanese Ships
DD Ayanami

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x Blenheim I bombing at 11000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 19,5

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 184

Allied aircraft
Swordfish x 12
Wirraway x 3
Hurricane IIb x 32
Blenheim I x 14
Blenheim IV x 42
Hudson I x 3
P-39D Airacobra x 12
P-40B Tomahawk x 13
P-40E Warhawk x 15
A-20B Boston x 23
B-25C Mitchell x 14
B-17E Fortress x 6
P-43A Lancer x 4

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 38 destroyed, 38 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Swordfish: 5 destroyed, 2 damaged
Wirraway: 3 destroyed
Hurricane IIb: 26 destroyed
Blenheim I: 6 destroyed, 2 damaged
Blenheim IV: 8 destroyed, 24 damaged
Hudson I: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
P-39D Airacobra: 11 destroyed
P-40B Tomahawk: 13 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 13 destroyed
A-20B Boston: 6 destroyed, 10 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 3 destroyed, 4 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 6 damaged
P-43A Lancer: 4 destroyed

Japanese Ships
BB Ise
CVE Taiyo, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
CV Kaga, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CVE Hosho, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
CVL Ryujo
[:D][:D][:D][:D]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Gen.Hoepner]

a 500lb bomb penetrates the Kaga's deck...

[Gen.Hoepner]

The air losses...a carnage!

[cantona2]

GH the whole of the free loving people's of this world stand behind you
 
great strike [:D]
 
any comments from the troll yet?

[Elladan]

Congrats mate Kaga's explosion might be a FoW but you can scrap those 2 CVEs. I wouldn't be surprised if they show on sunken list soon. Nice morale booster for defenders of Karachi
He has lost a bloody lot of IJN pilots, his squadrons must be full of rookies by this time. Is he training his crews somewhere?

[witpqs]

Great strike, yes! Optimistically, maybe Kaga had some flooding damage and got slowed down by system damage too - go submarines, go!

I am expecting some lamentations in the "The relative strength of both sides in WITP" thread in the main forum.

[Hortlund]

ORIGINAL: Elladan

Congrats mate Kaga's explosion might be a FoW but you can scrap those 2 CVEs. I wouldn't be surprised if they show on sunken list soon. Nice morale booster for defenders of Karachi
He has lost a bloody lot of IJN pilots, his squadrons must be full of rookies by this time. Is he training his crews somewhere?

Its early enough in the game to have good enough replacement pilots. I dont think his average experience is below 75-80.

[Hortlund]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Great strike, yes! Optimistically, maybe Kaga had some flooding damage and got slowed down by system damage too - go submarines, go!

I am expecting some lamentations in the "The relative strength of both sides in WITP" thread in the main forum.

Check his last post in his own AAR-thread. That guy is really something.

[Gen.Hoepner]

Hi all. He's training his crews in China and in India(here against the sorrounded units left behind during my retreat). However i've seen very few claudes/zeros on training. Almost all of the active IJN sentais are in the front lines (Formosa, India, Luzon and Truk).
However i do not care much about those pilots (despite is damned feeling good to have them downed). The good thing is that the KB will be a bit less mighty in the next months, with the Kaga probably staying in port for some months and 2 CVEs hopefully out of action (if not sunk) for even more!
This engagement prooved however that even against a strong CAP with this experimental mod the leakers to work pretty well and many bandits get through....gotta pay attention in the future...this means also no allied DS and TONS of Kamikaze hits!!

[Gen.Hoepner]

Lex and Saratoga are going back to PH and West Coast in order to get their march upgrades, along with some more naval assets. At the same time troops and planes keep on flowing to the Marshalls... think i can send my CVs back quite safely now. They've done a very good work and their crews need some rest after 2 months constantly on the seas...

[cantona2]

ORIGINAL: Panzerjaeger Hortlund

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Great strike, yes! Optimistically, maybe Kaga had some flooding damage and got slowed down by system damage too - go submarines, go!

I am expecting some lamentations in the "The relative strength of both sides in WITP" thread in the main forum.

Check his last post in his own AAR-thread. That guy is really something.

he doesnt take the biscuit, he takes the whole damn packet!!!!