Rising Sun over the Rockies - F.K. vs OSO - Wake captured by US

[FeurerKrieg]

November 25th, 1942
Chungking air raid nailed two I-153Cs today.

Major development in the Pacific: Large convoy spotted at Laysan Island, east of Midway. Near the island a carrier force was spotted, but its planes were mostly unable to fly due to poor weather. Several waves of Nell and Betty bombers attacked the enemy ships. PC Sonoma was hit and sunk. PG Taney, APD Calhoun and AP Waiwera were all hit. The AP was loaded with troops. 6 F4F-4 Wildcats attempted to defend the ships, but our A6M2's were able to keep them off the bombers. 3 Wildcats were destroyed, and one Betty was lost.
[center]
Enemy ships near Midway[/center]

This enemy fleet is either on the way to Midway (unlikely as the fleet seems too small) or unloading at Layshan with the intent to build an airstrip there so P-38s can support an invasion of Midway at a later date. Zeros and Bettys will be cycled into Midway in an attempt to attrit the enemy carrier fighters. Generally we avoid attrition, but LBA versus carrier air is a good time to do it. Losses will likely be heavy in the next couple days. Once the enemy carriers retreat (assuming they do), Liz bombers will come to Midway and constantly bomb the island to slow airfield construction as long as possible. In the Home Island, training units are being converted to A6M2s and G4M1s to prepare to replace losses at Midway.

[scott64]

[:-][:-][:)]

[thegreatwent]

This enemy fleet is either on the way to Midway (unlikely as the fleet seems too small) or unloading at Layshan with the intent to build an airstrip there so P-38s can support an invasion of Midway at a later date. Zeros and Bettys will be cycled into Midway in an attempt to attrit the enemy carrier fighters. Generally we avoid attrition, but LBA versus carrier air is a good time to do it. Losses will likely be heavy in the next couple days. Once the enemy carriers retreat (assuming they do), Liz bombers will come to Midway and constantly bomb the island to slow airfield construction as long as possible. In the Home Island, training units are being converted to A6M2s and G4M1s to prepare to replace losses at Midway.

So you are accepting a battle of attrition at Midway? If that is the case I would use Army planes and save Navy pilots for the carriers. Just my 2 cents.

[FeurerKrieg]

ORIGINAL: thegreatwent

This enemy fleet is either on the way to Midway (unlikely as the fleet seems too small) or unloading at Layshan with the intent to build an airstrip there so P-38s can support an invasion of Midway at a later date. Zeros and Bettys will be cycled into Midway in an attempt to attrit the enemy carrier fighters. Generally we avoid attrition, but LBA versus carrier air is a good time to do it. Losses will likely be heavy in the next couple days. Once the enemy carriers retreat (assuming they do), Liz bombers will come to Midway and constantly bomb the island to slow airfield construction as long as possible. In the Home Island, training units are being converted to A6M2s and G4M1s to prepare to replace losses at Midway.

So you are accepting a battle of attrition at Midway? If that is the case I would use Army planes and save Navy pilots for the carriers. Just my 2 cents.

That's the plan in the long run, for the next week we'll chew up a lot of A6M2's, which are obsolete anyways. Most of the pilots are my trained replacements - 50-60 experience. The 70+ exp guys all go to the carriers. The Oscar IIa is the only army fighter I have that can reach Laysan from Midway (7 hexes). I'll bring in a couple Sentai of those shortly and they will escort Liz and Sally bombers - once the enemy ships leave. While the enemy ships are there, Bettys and Nells will be flying.

We've made it almost all the way through 1942 without taking any heavy losses air losses, other than the carrier battle at Johnston Island - if the losses here slow down any offensive against Midway, I think it is a good place to spend them. I agree though - army losses are better than navy losses - and Army planes will be at Midway within the next 2 weeks I'm sure.

[thegreatwent]

I hate losing Navy pilots and in my game (late 43) I am out of trained ones and am being pressed hard enough that all my units are seeing decreased efficiency. If I could do over I would be much more conservative with my naval aviators. That's the reason I was kinda wondering about your Midway plans[:)].

[FeurerKrieg]

I could be wrong of course, but hopefully I'll have time to build them back up. At present all my carrier fighters are full, so I do have a well trained navy pilot I can put into these Zeros every other day. I have lots of 40-60 pilots in Claudes training at Osaka, so most likely I'll clear out those units and fill them up with 30 exp guys. Once they hit 50-60 they don't gain much from training missions anyways.

I'm at Dec 2nd now, and I think I lost about 200 A6M2's over the course of the week. Took down a fair bit of F4F-4s and knocked out some ships as well. If his carriers come out to cover Laysan again in the next week or so, my KB should have a good XP edge since he lost many fighters at Johnson not so long ago, plus the fighters he lost this week.

Anyone have opinions on whether Musashi and Yamato should stay together or should once go to the Pacific and one head up the fleet at Singapore?

[thegreatwent]

I tend to split them up and have operate as bullet sponges for Japan slower carrier groups.

[Alikchi2]

I always keep one with Kaga and one with Fuso. Just going by speed.

[FeurerKrieg]

Kaga, as in the carrier?

I think I'll split them up, but keep them in surface combat groups for now. I have enough faster battleships and cruisers to escort carriers.

[FeurerKrieg]

Okay - so here is how I have arranged some of these big ships -

Yamato will head over to Singapore, and there will be matched up with Mutsu and the CA's Maya and Myoko. Maya is a Chokai class which just upgraded and now has an AA rating of 1218!! So that group will have good AA, plus 18" and 16" guns.

Mushashi will head to Kwajelein. Also, Kirishima, currently at Singapore, will go to Kwajelein, since it is a fast battleship and can be used to form an air combat TF. With Ryujo arriving I think I have 5 CVs and 5 CVLs at Kwaj. Chitose and Chiyoda just arrived at Osaka so they are all set to go into dry dock on Dec 31 for conversion to CVLs. I also expanded shipyards by 40 points to help cover the conversion of those two carriers.

I also have one of the Fuso's and a couple CA's at Rabaul in case some ships try to come up that way from Australia.

Some 30 destroyers are due for upgrades in January, so I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get those upgraded. Usually I send everything in ASAP, but that is a lot of destroyers to take out of action for 2 weeks. I might have to do them in two groups.

I should be able to get back to the daily updates this weekend.

[Alikchi2]

Yeah, the carrier - I like to throw Yamato in with the slow CV, since she (Yamato/Musashi) has a huge AA value, and the SBDs love to waste bombs on her. However I think you're a bit more clever than me, and can put her to better use than a giant floating target/AA platform. [:)]

[FeurerKrieg]

I don't know about more clever. It sure is nice to have that battleship and Ryujo out of the production queue though. I was able to accelerate another Unryu CV, startup some Glen subs and get all my destroys back underway.

I'll probably need to cut back again in January when Chitose and Chiyoda begin their conversion.

4 Months until Unryu is done!! Once those start to come out of the queue I might have enough free points to get Shinano going.

[FeurerKrieg]

November 26th, 1942

The fun continues at Laysan Island. Today's attack went right for the capital ships - 54 A6M2, 6 Nell and 24 Betty fly into a CAP of 180 F4F-4 Wildcats. Only 3 Bettys managed to get through, and they missed a couple heavy cruisers.

Losses:
47 A6M2
25 F4F-4

Slightly better than 1:2. More Zeros and Bettys are arriving to keep up the attacks. We may not hit the carriers, but at least we'll take down some naval pilots.

17 Betty and 4 Nell were also lost.

[center]

Air strike against enemy ships[/center]

At Palmyra, SS Plunger attacked the MSW there a couple times, and missed both. The two have been playing cat and mouse for several days. Sometimes the MSW attacks, sometimes the sub attacks.

[FeurerKrieg]

November 27th, 1942

A better day at Laysan today. First a small strike of 3 Zero and 9 Helen attacked the transports at Laysan. 52 F4F-4's met them and 7 of the Helens made it through. Unfortunately they all missed.

The next strike was bigger, with 43 A6M2, 11 Nell, 20 Betty and 14 Helens against the same CAP. The CAP, being slightly disorganized from the two strikes, did not do as well today and many bombers made it through. 3 AP and 2 AK were all hit by one torpedo each and the AK Barry took a couple 250kg AP bombs from the Helens. Some of these ships still had troops on board.

Losses
15 A6M2
12 F4F-4

Almost 1 to 1 today!

5 Helen
2 Betty

Much lighter bomber losses than I expected. I'm sure this won't last though.

[center]
Air battle at Laysan[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

November 28th, 1942

Today's Laysan attacks consisted of 4 strikes. One was of 3 lone Bettys that turned back when they encountered the enemy fighters. The rest all got bombers through the CAP although not all of them landed hits. AP Chaumont took 3 torpedoes, AP Ormiston and AP William Ward Burrows each took 1 torpedo. AK Barry was reported sunk.

Losses
46 A6M2
21 F4F-4

Slight worse than 1:2, but I'll take it. Quite a few of these Zero pilots are being rescued thankfully. And most of the ones dying are my lower exp guys.

5 Nells
3 Helen
2 Betty


3 B-24 Liberators from Johnston decided to attack our MSW at Palmyra. They ran into a strong CAP and none of the heavy bombers made it home.

[center]
Some Liberators make an unwise attack[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

November 29th, 1942

Two strikes against Laysan today, the larger second strike made it through the CAP and put 3 torpedoes into PG Onondaga, which sunk, and 2 torpedoes into AP Westralia.

Losses
17 A6M2
6 F4F-4

1:3 today - the enemy CAP does seem to be weakening though, and more of our bombers are getting through.

5 Betty
3 Helen
1 Nell
[center]

Air attack at Laysan[/center]

Some of the Chinese units that retreated from Kunming a while back have moved onto the road between Kweiyang and Chungking. Today our forces attacked and one of those units surrendered, giving us 4000 POWs. There are 2 more units left.

[thegreatwent]

A punishing battle but you seem to have the upper hand at the moment[:)]

[FeurerKrieg]

November 30th, 1942

Attack at Laysan made it through the CAP although we lost several Zeros along the way. AK Demodocus and AK Castor took two torpedoes each. A small strike of 3 Bettys found the AP Westralia without cover some 120 miles east of Laysan and put a torpedo into the already damaged ship.

Losses
A6M2 23
F4F-4 6

Helen 1

Odd are getting worse, but I expect the carriers will be leaving soon, and then we can swap in some Army units and start hitting the enemy ground forces, while our Navy units restock with our replacement pilots that are at the Home Islands training in Claudes.

[center]
Air strike at Laysan[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

ORIGINAL: thegreatwent

A punishing battle but you seem to have the upper hand at the moment[:)]

Hopefully it will stay that way.

I still like the changes made in this mod/scenario 160. Bombers get through CAP unless you have really large numbers of fighters up in the air. So, as long as my bombers are getting to take shots at enemy ships, I can't complain.

[FeurerKrieg]

December 1st, 1942

SS Plunger struck a type 93 mine at Palmyra and sunk today. That will teach those enemy subs to snoop around our base.

Another Chinese unit surrendered on the road to Chungking today, 3000 POWs were taken. Our troops are in place at Chengtu and began shelling the base today. Tomorrow they will launch the first serious assault.

No enemy planes or ships at Laysan today, so I think the first phase of that battle is over. Oscar IIs and Helen are on the way to the base, as are two Sentai of Liz 4E bombers. Next we will try to pound the ground troops so their engineers are not able to build the airbase. If an airbase is constructed (it is currently 0 port, 0 AF) then we will start bombing that airfield to ensure it doesn't get bigger.