LOST AT SEA – Sjohnson vs Spruance
Now that the war is in early 1943 and life is not so busy I thought I would take some time to begin an AAR. As I get later in the war with Japan, I have found my prior sins and possible overall lack of knowledge of how things work in WitP to be a hindrance. Hopefully some insight can be gained!
So, first things first. The game details and house rules.
The Scenario: CHS 158 Nik Mod w/Soviet Fleet.
The Date: March 16, 1943.
Opponents:
Me – Japan
Spruance – Allies
The Rules:
1) 50 a/c per AF level
2) Troop stacking limits:
75,000 on a one hex island
25,000 on an atoll
3) 4E – no naval bombing w/B29s; day city attacks at 15,000 ft+
4) AC that transfer greater than normal range (exception minimum of 9 hexes allowed) must rest the next turn
5) No sub invasions, ASW TFs to a max of 6 ships
6) Kwangtung army troops must pay PPs to use outside of Manchuria
7) And some others…
8) I offered one port strike; allowed Allied TFs to move; allowed up to 1/3 of small ships (DD and below) at ports to be deployed in TFs. KB would spend no more than 2 days off Pearl and would return to Japan before doing anything else if Pearl Harbor was bombed.
LOST AT SEA - sjohnson(J) vs Spruance (A)
Moderators: wdolson, Don Bowen, mogami
RE: LOST AT SEA - sjohnson(J) vs Spruance (A)
Current Front Lines
No real point in going into how we got to where we are, but, suffice it to say I have waged a very conservative war as the Japanese focused on achieving certain perimeters and fortifying fall back lines while maintaining and broadening the economy. See the following screenshot.
No real point in going into how we got to where we are, but, suffice it to say I have waged a very conservative war as the Japanese focused on achieving certain perimeters and fortifying fall back lines while maintaining and broadening the economy. See the following screenshot.
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- 1943March_..ationMap.jpg (141.65 KiB) Viewed 250 times
RE: LOST AT SEA - sjohnson(J) vs Spruance (A)
Armed Forces Status
Major fleet losses have been:
Allied 380 ships including 1 BB, 1 BC, ~15 cruisers, ~20 destroyers, ~35 subs
Japanese 181 ships including 1 CL, 9 DD, 1 DE, 4 APD, 11 subs
Air losses are about even, 4600 allied, 4500 japanese.
Army pt losses are 11,000 allied, 1,200 japanese.
The IJN is pretty fully concentrated and deployed en masse. This force includes many CAs, BBs and can cart 1,000+ planes in a pinch. We are looking for opportunities where the Allies may get overaggressive and try an offensive thrust without their full carrier support. If he does, will jump on it.
Most of the back level bases (the Bonins, Marianas, Carolines) are fortified to level 7-9. In addition, the last three months we have spent time massively fortifying and reinforcing the DEI and western New Guinea.
Particular focus has been paid to Timor, Amboina, and the islands just south of New Guinea. I am actually hoping for a thrust here bu Bill (Spruance) as I would welcome the opportunity to fight within range of many strong airbases as well as the full navy.
The Economy
I have spent a long time micromanaging this. Current stocks look like:
Supplies 3,500,000
Fuel 3,800,000
HI 1,100,000
Oil 2,100,000
Resources 1,000,000
Armaments 105,000
Vehicles 1,000
Engines ~8000 stored
Planes ~11,000 in pools
Naval and merchant points about 8,000 stored
Production:
Nakajima 1,200 (3,000 in pools)
Mitsubishi 700 (3,000 in pools)
Aichi 80 (800 in pools…plant is stopped)
Kawasaki 450 (2800 in pools)
Nissan 500 (1000n pools)
Toyoda 250 (still r/d)
Major Plane production
Ki-61 Tony, Ki-44 Tojo, J2M Jack, A6M3a ~300 each
Ki-45-Ib ~80
Ki-49, G4M1 ~250 each
DBs and TBs ~100 each
Other assorted to bring total to about 2,200 a/c assembly per month
With pools being sufficiently established, we don’t run plants very often.
Major fleet losses have been:
Allied 380 ships including 1 BB, 1 BC, ~15 cruisers, ~20 destroyers, ~35 subs
Japanese 181 ships including 1 CL, 9 DD, 1 DE, 4 APD, 11 subs
Air losses are about even, 4600 allied, 4500 japanese.
Army pt losses are 11,000 allied, 1,200 japanese.
The IJN is pretty fully concentrated and deployed en masse. This force includes many CAs, BBs and can cart 1,000+ planes in a pinch. We are looking for opportunities where the Allies may get overaggressive and try an offensive thrust without their full carrier support. If he does, will jump on it.
Most of the back level bases (the Bonins, Marianas, Carolines) are fortified to level 7-9. In addition, the last three months we have spent time massively fortifying and reinforcing the DEI and western New Guinea.
Particular focus has been paid to Timor, Amboina, and the islands just south of New Guinea. I am actually hoping for a thrust here bu Bill (Spruance) as I would welcome the opportunity to fight within range of many strong airbases as well as the full navy.
The Economy
I have spent a long time micromanaging this. Current stocks look like:
Supplies 3,500,000
Fuel 3,800,000
HI 1,100,000
Oil 2,100,000
Resources 1,000,000
Armaments 105,000
Vehicles 1,000
Engines ~8000 stored
Planes ~11,000 in pools
Naval and merchant points about 8,000 stored
Production:
Nakajima 1,200 (3,000 in pools)
Mitsubishi 700 (3,000 in pools)
Aichi 80 (800 in pools…plant is stopped)
Kawasaki 450 (2800 in pools)
Nissan 500 (1000n pools)
Toyoda 250 (still r/d)
Major Plane production
Ki-61 Tony, Ki-44 Tojo, J2M Jack, A6M3a ~300 each
Ki-45-Ib ~80
Ki-49, G4M1 ~250 each
DBs and TBs ~100 each
Other assorted to bring total to about 2,200 a/c assembly per month
With pools being sufficiently established, we don’t run plants very often.
RE: LOST AT SEA - sjohnson(J) vs Spruance (A)
This looks very promising and I like your strategy. You seem to be holding quite well for 43 and your economy is very intimidating. [:)]
I gather from the number of CV/L/Es that you've accelerated some ships?
I gather from the number of CV/L/Es that you've accelerated some ships?
RE: LOST AT SEA - sjohnson(J) vs Spruance (A)
Alikchi - thanks for the reply! I will be posting more on strategy and positions in the weeks ahead and look forward to the questions and comments.
Yes, we have accelerated some ships. I have stopped many merchant and transports and by carefully planning the economy you can actually achieve quite a bit. I also made the decision which sometimes I regret to stop BB Musashi - thus saving a lot of naval yard points. At the same time, I have tried to build up a small pool of yard points for merchants. Thus, the many ships I have stuck at 100-200 days out can be turned on very quickly and completed in short time if losses start to build up.
We are also accelerating PC class ships as they come available - they are cheap but the war built IJN PCs are good ASW platforms and the more escorts we have for our cargo convoys, the less merchant shipping we will need overall so it is a good investment. One PC is 250 yard points plus 250 to accelerate 50 days (1,500 heavy industry total). By contrast, one 5000 ton merchant is 4,000 yard points (12,000 heavy industry).
We have waged a good submarine campaign in the eastern Pacific as well. All of our subs have commanders with excellent naval skill. This tends to help quite a bit with survivability I have found. By using the larger I class boats with 30,000 endurance and small AOs we can maintain a concentration of about 40 subs on station in the shipping lanes between Pearl and the West Coast for about 75 days at a time. So far this campaign has yielded the following:
1 DD, 2 DM, 1 DMS
3 PT (by T88 mine), 1 SC, 1 PG, 1 PC, 4 MSW
4 AO, 15 TK
48 AK, 1 AP
1 AR, 2 AD, 1 AVD
total: 86 ships
for a total 6th fleet loss of:
11 subs (5 I boat, 2 I minelayers, 2 I transports, 2 RO boats). Albeit 3 of these losses were on transport missions and 2 on minelaying missions in the solomons. Total losses on anti-shipping patrols has been 6 subs (5 in the eastern pacific where about 75% of our kills have come).
Yes, we have accelerated some ships. I have stopped many merchant and transports and by carefully planning the economy you can actually achieve quite a bit. I also made the decision which sometimes I regret to stop BB Musashi - thus saving a lot of naval yard points. At the same time, I have tried to build up a small pool of yard points for merchants. Thus, the many ships I have stuck at 100-200 days out can be turned on very quickly and completed in short time if losses start to build up.
We are also accelerating PC class ships as they come available - they are cheap but the war built IJN PCs are good ASW platforms and the more escorts we have for our cargo convoys, the less merchant shipping we will need overall so it is a good investment. One PC is 250 yard points plus 250 to accelerate 50 days (1,500 heavy industry total). By contrast, one 5000 ton merchant is 4,000 yard points (12,000 heavy industry).
We have waged a good submarine campaign in the eastern Pacific as well. All of our subs have commanders with excellent naval skill. This tends to help quite a bit with survivability I have found. By using the larger I class boats with 30,000 endurance and small AOs we can maintain a concentration of about 40 subs on station in the shipping lanes between Pearl and the West Coast for about 75 days at a time. So far this campaign has yielded the following:
1 DD, 2 DM, 1 DMS
3 PT (by T88 mine), 1 SC, 1 PG, 1 PC, 4 MSW
4 AO, 15 TK
48 AK, 1 AP
1 AR, 2 AD, 1 AVD
total: 86 ships
for a total 6th fleet loss of:
11 subs (5 I boat, 2 I minelayers, 2 I transports, 2 RO boats). Albeit 3 of these losses were on transport missions and 2 on minelaying missions in the solomons. Total losses on anti-shipping patrols has been 6 subs (5 in the eastern pacific where about 75% of our kills have come).
RE: LOST AT SEA - sjohnson(J) vs Spruance (A)
Ahoy there sjohnson. I have been following this game quite closely from Spruances AAR, so it is interesting to see the Japanese point of view. You seem to be doing well, you have a strong carrier force, and a very impressive looking economy that should be able to fight through until late 1945 at least.
I am playing the same mod as you in the "Pathos in the Pacific" AAR, and am at a similar point in the game. I was wondering how the air to air side of the game is going? We are in January 1943, and yet the Japanese fighters are still utterly dominant, particularly the Zeroes and Oscars with their very high manouever values. Have you seen a similar thing?
Good luck in the future.
I am playing the same mod as you in the "Pathos in the Pacific" AAR, and am at a similar point in the game. I was wondering how the air to air side of the game is going? We are in January 1943, and yet the Japanese fighters are still utterly dominant, particularly the Zeroes and Oscars with their very high manouever values. Have you seen a similar thing?
Good luck in the future.
RE: LOST AT SEA - sjohnson(J) vs Spruance (A)
Hi Yubari. Thanks for the post, I look forward to reading your AAR. Yes, when we have fought air to air I have seen no real slaughter of planes on either side. Unfortunately, we have had very few engagements of a large sense in air to air. I have kept the Ki-43 Ic Oscar in reserve for training until now, but with the upgrade to the Ki-43-II I may try some engagements to see how they fare.
Neither Bill or I have really tried any aggressive raids. He tends to back out of air to air situations where it is obvious he doesn't have an advantage and I do the same.
The one area I am disappointed in the mod in versus 4E bombers. 200+ 4E bomber raids from mid-42 can pretty much shut down an airfield and the high durability and survivability of bombers in this mod make it tough to bring any of them down.
The Tojos and Tony have just MGs and these are of little use versus the B24s. On big raids deep into my territoy, the B24s fly up at 31,000 feet, above the max altitude of my cannon armed zeros so with almost impunity they can come to a target within 14 hexes of their base and destroy a good number of interceptors on the ground. In fact, about 35% of my losses so far, and most of my fighter losses, have been on the ground. Fortunately, this saves pilots though! My J2M Jacks are now coming on line so I am eager to see how they do with the 4 cannons.
Neither Bill or I have really tried any aggressive raids. He tends to back out of air to air situations where it is obvious he doesn't have an advantage and I do the same.
The one area I am disappointed in the mod in versus 4E bombers. 200+ 4E bomber raids from mid-42 can pretty much shut down an airfield and the high durability and survivability of bombers in this mod make it tough to bring any of them down.
The Tojos and Tony have just MGs and these are of little use versus the B24s. On big raids deep into my territoy, the B24s fly up at 31,000 feet, above the max altitude of my cannon armed zeros so with almost impunity they can come to a target within 14 hexes of their base and destroy a good number of interceptors on the ground. In fact, about 35% of my losses so far, and most of my fighter losses, have been on the ground. Fortunately, this saves pilots though! My J2M Jacks are now coming on line so I am eager to see how they do with the 4 cannons.
Situation in the Solomons
Here is the general situation in the solomons as of Mar 18, 1943. I am expecting a move on Madang in the next two weeks and probably within a month a drive on Wewak. Madang is a lost cause. Wewak is seeing some reinforcement though.
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- SolomonsJPG.jpg (165.38 KiB) Viewed 250 times
RE: Situation in the Solomons
Oscars are excellent in this mod, I recommend you get them into the fighting as soon as possible. In January 1943, they are consistently getting the best of anything the allies throw at them in Burma.
Stopping 4E bombers is difficult in this mod, but it can be done. The way that I have done it is to mix up the fighters defending the bases. If you have all Zeroes at a base, then the allies can simply attack at 30000 feet, so you need to include at least two squadrons of either Tojos or Nicks. You will take fighter losses on the ground, but you should be able to stop the allies from closing your bases.
Shooting the bombers down is difficult. You should be looking at damaging them so they cannot attack for a few days, which will give you time to repair any damage at the bombed airfield.
Are you playing with PDUs off? I havent found any fighter groups that upgrade to the Jack, and the first replacement squadrons that come in arrive about October 1943.
Where are you going to build your line in the sand to stop the current South Pacific advance? Buna can be built up to level 7, and has lots of supporting bases behind it. I would try to get a lot of fighters there quickly, including some of the high-altitude planes as above. If you can keep at least 200 engineers in supply, then they should be able to repair any damage caused by the high-altitude bombing.
Stopping 4E bombers is difficult in this mod, but it can be done. The way that I have done it is to mix up the fighters defending the bases. If you have all Zeroes at a base, then the allies can simply attack at 30000 feet, so you need to include at least two squadrons of either Tojos or Nicks. You will take fighter losses on the ground, but you should be able to stop the allies from closing your bases.
Shooting the bombers down is difficult. You should be looking at damaging them so they cannot attack for a few days, which will give you time to repair any damage at the bombed airfield.
Are you playing with PDUs off? I havent found any fighter groups that upgrade to the Jack, and the first replacement squadrons that come in arrive about October 1943.
Where are you going to build your line in the sand to stop the current South Pacific advance? Buna can be built up to level 7, and has lots of supporting bases behind it. I would try to get a lot of fighters there quickly, including some of the high-altitude planes as above. If you can keep at least 200 engineers in supply, then they should be able to repair any damage caused by the high-altitude bombing.
RE: Situation in the Solomons
Hi Yubari - good input on the Oscar IIs. They may get a trial in the skies here in the next few days.
As for 4E bombers - I have pretty much done just that on my fighter defenses. I will post details a little later, but Admiral Spruance ordered a raid from Mandalay on Hanoi on Mar 20. He hit with about 260 Liberators and B17Es and met about 90 interceptors (counting climbing CAP). The air to air losses show we tagged 11 Liberators and 6 Fortresses in air to air and ops from those two days of missions and we lost 19 interceptors (a couple to ops, the rest on the ground). The nice thing is flying high at 31,000 it is hard for them to hit accurately and the airbase has only 12 service damage to it. The Jacks performed well in particular - they damaged a lot of liberators and actually had all the "reported" air to air kills in the combat replay - ie the ones that show red (which is indeed a rare sight against a heavy bomber).
Summaries of Raids below...
Day One Raid on Hanoi - 268 Heavies @ 31,000 ft; 96 interceptors meet them (59 high altitude capable)
4 heavies killed and 96 damaged; 7 interceptors killed and 48 damaged
Airbase 7 hits; 2 supply hits; 28 runway hits
Day Two Raid on Hanoi - 209 Heavies @ 31,000 ft; 69 interceptors meet them (38 high altitude capable)
47 heavies damaged; 4 interceptors killed and 29 damaged
Airbase 5 hits; 1 supply hits; 14 runway hits
End result: 12 pts service damage on Hanoi.
3 Lib III lost a2a; 4 to ops
6 B17E lost a2a;
3 B24D lost a2a; 1 to ops
TOTAL: 17 heavies lost
7 Tojo gound; 1 to ops
3 Tony ground
5 Jack ground
2 Zero grouns; 1 to ops
TOTAL: 19 interceptors lost; only 1 pilot lost though
As for 4E bombers - I have pretty much done just that on my fighter defenses. I will post details a little later, but Admiral Spruance ordered a raid from Mandalay on Hanoi on Mar 20. He hit with about 260 Liberators and B17Es and met about 90 interceptors (counting climbing CAP). The air to air losses show we tagged 11 Liberators and 6 Fortresses in air to air and ops from those two days of missions and we lost 19 interceptors (a couple to ops, the rest on the ground). The nice thing is flying high at 31,000 it is hard for them to hit accurately and the airbase has only 12 service damage to it. The Jacks performed well in particular - they damaged a lot of liberators and actually had all the "reported" air to air kills in the combat replay - ie the ones that show red (which is indeed a rare sight against a heavy bomber).
Summaries of Raids below...
Day One Raid on Hanoi - 268 Heavies @ 31,000 ft; 96 interceptors meet them (59 high altitude capable)
4 heavies killed and 96 damaged; 7 interceptors killed and 48 damaged
Airbase 7 hits; 2 supply hits; 28 runway hits
Day Two Raid on Hanoi - 209 Heavies @ 31,000 ft; 69 interceptors meet them (38 high altitude capable)
47 heavies damaged; 4 interceptors killed and 29 damaged
Airbase 5 hits; 1 supply hits; 14 runway hits
End result: 12 pts service damage on Hanoi.
3 Lib III lost a2a; 4 to ops
6 B17E lost a2a;
3 B24D lost a2a; 1 to ops
TOTAL: 17 heavies lost
7 Tojo gound; 1 to ops
3 Tony ground
5 Jack ground
2 Zero grouns; 1 to ops
TOTAL: 19 interceptors lost; only 1 pilot lost though
RE: Situation in the Solomons
As far our line in the sand in New Guinea. Yes, our outposts at Wewak and Aitape are strong enough to force a strong landing. Hollandia is our first major defense base.
You are right, Biak (I am pretty sure you meant Biak) is our main base of resistance. It's fighter defenses our low right now but there are a lot of planes within easy transfer range. Morotai and Weda will both be at level 4 AF in one day and a number of airstrips have been developed to level 2 to support fighters (about 5 bases within range). Noemfoor is also about 2 days out from being level 4 AF.
3 divisions and two brigades sit in reserve within about 6-8 days sailing distance with transports available of all targets and of course the entire KB can be to any point here in about 2 days at high speed. A group of fleet oilers holds about 90,000 fuel ready to support operations.
We are pretty focused on building up defenses in two areas right now:
1) almost completed my defense network in Darwin and the islands just south of New Guinea (Kai, etc.) as well as Amboina. Airfields and resupply ports are at level 2/1 for most places and minefields are going in place from a large group of minelayers based in the region.
2) Sumatra, Malaya, Burma Coast. Port Blair is being built up defensively and Sabang should be at level 4 airfield shortly. Nicobar Is. is also at lvl 2 airfield and coming up in fortifications. Most of the Burma Coast is receiving infantry garrisons as well. I can bring a lot of airpower into this region in a hurry, but, if Bill tries to come here, I want him to have to land in significant strength.
The other area we are spending a good deal of time on now is the rear - the home islands Hokkaido, the Kuriles, Ryukus and Phillippines. I was a little shocked at Canoerebel's brilliant move to seize Iwo Jima in his game with John and, thus, while Iwo is already at lvl 9 forts and garrisoned, a long range strike is concerning enough to start preparing defenses. These will be shell forces requiring an in strength landing and thus probably allowing me to keep the airfield long enough to bring planes in from surrounding bases. At the same time, our system of floating/rotating reserves will be maintained.
The true floating army reserve is hard to emulate in the game. In real life, troops wouldn't stay on ships for extended periods of time. However, I tend to view this more as having equipment pre-loaded and the troops just walk on the boats to sail off when required.
You are right, Biak (I am pretty sure you meant Biak) is our main base of resistance. It's fighter defenses our low right now but there are a lot of planes within easy transfer range. Morotai and Weda will both be at level 4 AF in one day and a number of airstrips have been developed to level 2 to support fighters (about 5 bases within range). Noemfoor is also about 2 days out from being level 4 AF.
3 divisions and two brigades sit in reserve within about 6-8 days sailing distance with transports available of all targets and of course the entire KB can be to any point here in about 2 days at high speed. A group of fleet oilers holds about 90,000 fuel ready to support operations.
We are pretty focused on building up defenses in two areas right now:
1) almost completed my defense network in Darwin and the islands just south of New Guinea (Kai, etc.) as well as Amboina. Airfields and resupply ports are at level 2/1 for most places and minefields are going in place from a large group of minelayers based in the region.
2) Sumatra, Malaya, Burma Coast. Port Blair is being built up defensively and Sabang should be at level 4 airfield shortly. Nicobar Is. is also at lvl 2 airfield and coming up in fortifications. Most of the Burma Coast is receiving infantry garrisons as well. I can bring a lot of airpower into this region in a hurry, but, if Bill tries to come here, I want him to have to land in significant strength.
The other area we are spending a good deal of time on now is the rear - the home islands Hokkaido, the Kuriles, Ryukus and Phillippines. I was a little shocked at Canoerebel's brilliant move to seize Iwo Jima in his game with John and, thus, while Iwo is already at lvl 9 forts and garrisoned, a long range strike is concerning enough to start preparing defenses. These will be shell forces requiring an in strength landing and thus probably allowing me to keep the airfield long enough to bring planes in from surrounding bases. At the same time, our system of floating/rotating reserves will be maintained.
The true floating army reserve is hard to emulate in the game. In real life, troops wouldn't stay on ships for extended periods of time. However, I tend to view this more as having equipment pre-loaded and the troops just walk on the boats to sail off when required.
Hanoi Raids #3 and #4
Two more straight days of raids on Hanoi from Mandalay. No stopping the 4E bombers it seems. Despite damaging 150 in the last two days; on day three they strike again.
The Lightnings went one for one in air to air approximately. In the end after two days of the same thing the airbase is 48/48 in damage and 58 Japanese aircraft were destroyed on the ground. Flak was pretty much ineffective even with having 4 AA regiments in the hex; 1 small base force; and one large base force. I suppose the only positive in this is that I do not lose too many pilots.
Day Air attack on Hanoi , at 36,37
Japanese aircraft
J2M Jack x 9
A6M3a Zero x 12
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 11
Ki-45 KAIb Nick x 11
Ki-61-Ib Tony x 15
Allied aircraft
Liberator III x 122
P-38G Lightning x 48
B-24D Liberator x 75
Japanese aircraft losses
J2M Jack: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
A6M3a Zero: 5 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 11 destroyed
Ki-45 KAIb Nick: 10 destroyed
Ki-61-Ib Tony: 5 destroyed, 5 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Liberator III: 22 damaged
P-38G Lightning: 8 destroyed, 16 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 15 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
493 casualties reported
Guns lost 8
Airbase hits 13
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 78
Aircraft Attacking:
4 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 22000 feet...
The Lightnings went one for one in air to air approximately. In the end after two days of the same thing the airbase is 48/48 in damage and 58 Japanese aircraft were destroyed on the ground. Flak was pretty much ineffective even with having 4 AA regiments in the hex; 1 small base force; and one large base force. I suppose the only positive in this is that I do not lose too many pilots.
Day Air attack on Hanoi , at 36,37
Japanese aircraft
J2M Jack x 9
A6M3a Zero x 12
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 11
Ki-45 KAIb Nick x 11
Ki-61-Ib Tony x 15
Allied aircraft
Liberator III x 122
P-38G Lightning x 48
B-24D Liberator x 75
Japanese aircraft losses
J2M Jack: 2 destroyed, 5 damaged
A6M3a Zero: 5 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 11 destroyed
Ki-45 KAIb Nick: 10 destroyed
Ki-61-Ib Tony: 5 destroyed, 5 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Liberator III: 22 damaged
P-38G Lightning: 8 destroyed, 16 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 15 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
493 casualties reported
Guns lost 8
Airbase hits 13
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 78
Aircraft Attacking:
4 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 22000 feet...
RE: LOST AT SEA - sjohnson(J) vs Spruance (A)
MARCH 31 to APRIL 1, 1943
Indo-China Massive strikes against Hanoi again by about 200 Liberators out of Mandalay. This time, day 7 in a row, they came in again with P38G escorts, about 40. We launched a CAP of about 80 fighters on March 31st. The bombers came back again on April 1st - 160 heavies escorted by 25 Lightnings. About 65 interceptors rose to meet them. Losses were about equal in air to air - we lost about 25 fighters for about 10 bombers and 20 lightnings. However, the surviving bombers destroyed 162 resource centers.
Gilberts Bill landed in Makin, Nauru, and Abemana over the past week. We had left little there to contest him. A small Betty strike launched from Kwajalein a couple of days ago and attacked minesweepers around Tarawa - landing one torpedo into MSW Ceram and sinking her instantly.
China Small bombing raids here and there from the Japanese. Lines in China have pretty much stabilized, a screenshot coming later today. A limited offensive by the Japanese secured the open ground north of Sinyang. Bill has the advantage of watching those pesky little airfield symbols here and being able to figure out when and where I'm shifting airplanes and then react. Occasionally he challenges me in the air with large CAP and rips a few old dive bombers down.
The Convoy War Our ASW aircraft continue to do well. SS O24 was sunk in the South China Sea on April 1st and two other subs were hit, one by a Type 93 Mine at Truk. A couple of large convoys offload in the home islands a few hundred thousand tons of oil and 100,000 tons of resources and sortie again for the SRA. The first of our specialty ASW task forces left Tokyo to chase suspected Allied submarine contacts. This TF consists of a destroyer as leader, 2 patrol gunboats, and 3 of the new corvettes with extra depth charge racks and an A/S mortar. Another TF should be coming online soon as we have accelerated production of some of these high value ASW PCs.
April 1 Economic Update
Supplies - counting on ships about 3,400,00
Fuel - 3,700,000
HI - 1,150,000
Resources - 900,000
Oil - 2,200,000
Arms - 103,000
Vehicle - 1,500
Naval Yard - 10
Merchant Yard 2,300
Indo-China Massive strikes against Hanoi again by about 200 Liberators out of Mandalay. This time, day 7 in a row, they came in again with P38G escorts, about 40. We launched a CAP of about 80 fighters on March 31st. The bombers came back again on April 1st - 160 heavies escorted by 25 Lightnings. About 65 interceptors rose to meet them. Losses were about equal in air to air - we lost about 25 fighters for about 10 bombers and 20 lightnings. However, the surviving bombers destroyed 162 resource centers.
Gilberts Bill landed in Makin, Nauru, and Abemana over the past week. We had left little there to contest him. A small Betty strike launched from Kwajalein a couple of days ago and attacked minesweepers around Tarawa - landing one torpedo into MSW Ceram and sinking her instantly.
China Small bombing raids here and there from the Japanese. Lines in China have pretty much stabilized, a screenshot coming later today. A limited offensive by the Japanese secured the open ground north of Sinyang. Bill has the advantage of watching those pesky little airfield symbols here and being able to figure out when and where I'm shifting airplanes and then react. Occasionally he challenges me in the air with large CAP and rips a few old dive bombers down.
The Convoy War Our ASW aircraft continue to do well. SS O24 was sunk in the South China Sea on April 1st and two other subs were hit, one by a Type 93 Mine at Truk. A couple of large convoys offload in the home islands a few hundred thousand tons of oil and 100,000 tons of resources and sortie again for the SRA. The first of our specialty ASW task forces left Tokyo to chase suspected Allied submarine contacts. This TF consists of a destroyer as leader, 2 patrol gunboats, and 3 of the new corvettes with extra depth charge racks and an A/S mortar. Another TF should be coming online soon as we have accelerated production of some of these high value ASW PCs.
April 1 Economic Update
Supplies - counting on ships about 3,400,00
Fuel - 3,700,000
HI - 1,150,000
Resources - 900,000
Oil - 2,200,000
Arms - 103,000
Vehicle - 1,500
Naval Yard - 10
Merchant Yard 2,300