AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 08/18/42
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TF 4 encounters mine field at Akyab (30,29)
Japanese Ships
PG Eiko Maru
PG Eifuku Maru
PG Uji
AK Hitora Maru, Mine hits 1, on fire
PG Saga
PG Chosa Maru
my sub laid mines were worth bringing them there...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TF 44 encounters mine field at Akyab (30,29)
Japanese Ships
PC Ch 17
PC Takunan Maru #5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASW attack at 48,112
Japanese Ships
SS RO-65
Allied Ships
DD Buchanan
DD Aaron Ward
DD Monssen
DD Grayson
DD Gwin
DD Meredith
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Akyab , at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 37
A6M3 Zero x 16
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 58
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 80
CW-22 Falcon x 1
P-40E Warhawk x 101
Hurricane IIc x 16
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 11 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 5 damaged
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 44 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb: 60 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 24 destroyed, 53 damaged
Hurricane IIc: 6 destroyed, 4 damaged
It´s more than frustrating to see 50 Zeroes taking down 50 or your most experienced fighters when they lose 2 of their own... [8|]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 79
Ki-21 Sally x 22
Ki-48 Lily x 27
No Japanese losses
Runway hits 18
Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Ki-43-Ic Oscar bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 125th IJNAF Base Force, at 100,64
Allied aircraft
B-26B Marauder x 43
No Allied losses
Aircraft Attacking:
9 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 20000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Port Moresby Defense Brigade, at 54,92
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 26
A6M3 Zero x 5
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 5
No Japanese losses
Aircraft Attacking:
22 x A6M2 Zero bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 36
A6M3 Zero x 16
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 32
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 2
Wellington III x 6
P-40E Warhawk x 2
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 damaged
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb: 2 damaged
Wellington III: 1 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 1 destroyed
Japanese Ships
PG Eifuku Maru
PG Uji, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
the sacrifice of my fighters/fighter bombers with my sweep to Akyab makes it possible for my bombers to get to their targets... don´t know though if it was worth the destruction of nearly all my British fighter bomber squadrons...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 36
A6M3 Zero x 16
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 31
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 28
Beaufort I x 6
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 2 destroyed
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 10 destroyed, 3 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb: 6 destroyed, 16 damaged
Beaufort I: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
CL Natori
AP Kyokusei Maru, Torpedo hits 2
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x Beaufort I launching torpedoes at 200 feet
we have around 60 torp bombers at Chandpur, those 6 are the only that take off... [8|] ALL my other bombers in this region took off. The Beaforts are the most exp bombers I have there - all are above 80 exp and morale is mostly at 99.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 16
A6M3 Zero x 7
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 12
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 26
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Eihuku Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CL Natori, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Kyokusei Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kasui Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Miyadono Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Meiyo Maru
AP Tamatsu Maru
Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
CL Natori was hit by a 1000lb bomb. The high exp of my Wellingtons makes it possible that many 1000lb bombs are dropped and those bombs really do damage!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 16
A6M3 Zero x 7
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 12
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 6
A-20B Boston x 3
B-26B Marauder x 25
IL-4c x 13
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3 Zero: 2 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
B-26B Marauder: 2 damaged
Japanese Ships
CL Natori, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
AP Satsuma Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Zenyo Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire
AP Manila Maru
MSW Fumi Maru #2, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AP Sanko Maru
Japanese ground losses:
87 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Aircraft Attacking:
3 x IL-4c bombing at 6000 feet
3 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
Natori is hit by another 1000lb bomb, several 500lb GP bombs and a 250kg AP bomb from the Chinese bombers... she suffers a mag explosion from the last bomb hit and after that my bombers failed to locate her. CL Natori sunk!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 34
A6M3 Zero x 16
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 25
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 3
No Japanese losses
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
MSW W.14
Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 34
A6M3 Zero x 16
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 25
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 14
Wellington III x 51
P-40E Warhawk x 18
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb: 2 destroyed, 10 damaged
Wellington III: 3 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 2 destroyed, 12 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Oigawa Maru, Bomb hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
AK Totai Maru, Bomb hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
AK Bichu Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Kennichi Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AK Takegawa Maru, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
AK Tsukikawa Maru
AK Yuki Maru
PC Ch 17
Japanese ground losses:
108 casualties reported
Guns lost 5
Aircraft Attacking:
1 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
as you can see, another strike with a reasonable number of bombers. Can´t believe that Hortlund still thinks that I´m just a bit more lucky with my die rolls and it´s not a matter of the number of the TFs there. Again a couple of 1000lb bomb hits, I expect 4 ships to sink.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 33
A6M3 Zero x 15
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 23
Allied aircraft
A-20B Boston x 10
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
A-20B Boston: 2 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Katori Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
Japanese ground losses:
32 casualties reported
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x A-20B Boston bombing at 6000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 33
A6M3 Zero x 15
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 23
Allied aircraft
A-20B Boston x 11
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 1 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
A-20B Boston: 3 damaged
Japanese Ships
AK Hitora Maru, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
3 x A-20B Boston bombing at 6000 feet
this one´s dead also...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 33
A6M3 Zero x 15
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 23
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 3
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
AK Suez Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 28,30
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 3
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
ML Katoku, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
the already damaged ML is sunk...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 19
A6M3 Zero x 15
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 27
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 3
Wellington III x 72
P-40E Warhawk x 7
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 5 damaged
A6M3 Zero: 1 destroyed, 10 damaged
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 1 destroyed, 7 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Wellington III: 37 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 7 destroyed
Japanese Ships
AP Meiyo Maru, Bomb hits 1
AP Oridono Maru, Bomb hits 2
AP Kasui Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Maya Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Satsuma Maru, on fire
AP Eihuku Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AP Karachi Maru, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
CL Natori, on fire, heavy damage
AP Meikai Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Keisho Maru
AP Seizan Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
DD Nowaki
AP Kaifuku Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Tamatsu Maru
Japanese ground losses:
77 casualties reported
Guns lost 4
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
another big strike, instead of 12 small strikes. The Japanese fighters once again have severe problems taking down the Allied bombers. I agree with Hortlund that this is a problem of the mod, though he seems not to agree with me that it´s also a problem that the Zeroes take down 50 of my most exp pilots in the best fighters I can field for a loss of 4 or 5 Zeroes. I´ve got the feeling he wants to see losses on my side like they would be in stock but he can accept the changes of the mod if those are in his favour.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Akyab at 30,29
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 9
A6M3 Zero x 7
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 10
Allied aircraft
Wellington III x 7
A-20B Boston x 7
B-26B Marauder x 6
IL-4c x 7
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 4 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 4 damaged
A-20B Boston: 3 damaged
B-26B Marauder: 1 damaged
IL-4c: 3 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Kaifuku Maru, on fire, heavy damage
DD Nowaki
PC Ch 12
AP Miyadono Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
Aircraft Attacking:
3 x A-20B Boston bombing at 6000 feet
and that´s it! All in all, in the last two days we took severe losses within our fighter squadrons, the British pilot pool lost around 80-90 pilots, Hurricane pools are empty. P-40 pool is down to 20, losses in USAAF pilots are not as a problem like the losses of British pilots. We destroyed a lot of Japanese fighters also, but mostly IJA Oscars. The Zeroes with their pilots in the 80s are performing, comparable to 80 exp. Corsairs vs 70 exp Zeroes in stock. Unbelievable high kill rates which my forces just can´t sustain. I can´t afford losing 8-10 of my fighters for the loss of 1 Zero.
the last two turns saw us losing 241 aircraft vs. 220 Japanese aircraft lost! To be more precise, we lost:
115 Hurricane IIb
67 P-40 Warhawk
8 Hurricane IIc
8 Wellington III
15 Spitfire Vb
18 Marlet II
and a couple of other aircraft
the Japanese lost:
169 Oscar Ic (49 on the ground)
33 A6M-3 Zero (21 on the ground)
13 A6M-2 Zero
and 5 other aircraft
with the damage done to the enemy´s shipping this looks like it was a severe punch on the first looks. But as I´ve mentioned, the losses of British pilots are really severe and it will take one month to fill out and repair the squadrons and another 3 months to bring those 50 exp pilots back to 70 exp like those pilots that were lost in the last two days. With the numbers of ships (especially APs) I expect massive reinforcements of Akyab, for sure more AA. Our troops are already 70 miles away from Akyab and will enter the enemy base within a month. I´m not overcomitted here, so if he wants to defend this base, he will be able to do that, but he can NOT defend all other base with a couple of divisions then and a well planned massive invasion of one of the bases on Sumatra could cause him real problems. What we have to do is to bring more USAAF fighters to India. I could also bring in Marine fighter squadrons but I always found it strange to see Corsairs operating out of India. There are problems though. We have to send those USAAF fighters to India by ship through sub, CS, CVE infested waters on the map edge to India AND the P-40 replacement rate is 50, so it takes one and a half months to upgrade a 72 aircraft FG. This, if we take no losses to the existing squadrons, which won´t be possible.
What´s also interesting is a discussion Steve and I have at the moment as he thinks that Nikmod made the Japanese a piece of crap. I have the same mod going in my game against Swift and I can say from both sides, the Japanese are absolutely not a piece of crap in this mod. I even expect them to be stronger from 43 on compared to stock. As our battles so far showed, even 29 Betties, escorted by 50 Zeroes are able to score a couple of hits within your CV TFs, so the Uber cap is nearly solved. Of course this brings up the problems for the Japanese also, when the Japanese player sees nearly undestructable Allied bombers. But to overcompensate this, there is the Japanese super flak now, which can make 200 Allied bombers inoperational after one attack from an alt of 11-16.000 ft. Attacks from the standart attack alt in most other versions of WITP are only possible if there are no more than 1 or 2 IJA baseforces at a base.
One thing Steve mentioned was the Japanese aircraft industry, that was cut down. Yes, in the beginning you have far less aircraft in production than in stock. But it´s EASILY possible to ramp up production. You can ramp it up at will, there´s always enough supply lying around. It just takes a couple of months if you increase your output. I did that in my game against Swift and so I checked Hortlund´s output also. Guess what! I don´t know why he´s arguing about a crippled Japanese aircraft industry, he´s producing around 200 Oscars and 260 Zeroes at the moment!!! [X(] At this date, I didn´t even produce such numbers in stock - there´s no need for such a high production "capacity" anyway. In my game against Swift I ramped up production also, no question, but I´m not the one who´s saying that this isn´t possible.
So in fact, the losses my opponent took over Akyab are replaced easily, when we´re talking about the airframes. And I guess there are still more than 1000 pilots in the Japanese pool. This in a mod that completely crippled the Japanese! [:D]
. Well if he would send 4-6 medium sized TFs, who cares, but we have spotted some 16 TFs consisting of one, or two ships. If we spotted 16 it means there are most likely more than 2 dozen mini TFs going to Akyab. No Steve, your moves are never gamey... This is just exploiting the game engine! As you can see, no more attacks on ships today, even though we have more than 200 bombers set on naval attack and most of those TFs are in range. And we have 300+ escorts. IMO it´s really BS to see this operation, he knows exactly that my attacks will be completely broken up to ridicoulos numbers with 70 bombers with 2 escorts attacking a single MSW when he always has his full Cap over his base. It´s BS...[:-] Soon I will deliberately look for "Trollelites" that I can exploit to the max in this campaign, knowing to risk the game as my opponent is pretty sensitive, when he thinks that something is gamey (which only can be gamey if your opponent is doing that...).
