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

[FeurerKrieg]

April 20th, 1943
A bit of a surprise today when 41 P-40N Warhawks out of Chungking flew a sweep over Changsha. Nothing was there to meet them, as our own fighters were flying over Chungking!

Our Tonys are now on the scene and even with 50xp pilots they seemed to do okay today, taking down 7 P-40Ns and 2 P-43As, while losing 5 of their own. 3 of those pilots were rescued.
[center]
Combat training[/center]

This sweep makes me think they may try a bombing run, so our planes will stay at high alert (90% cap) over Changsha for the next 2 or 3 days.

Two more waves of bombers hit our NLF unit in Burma.

Rossel Island finishes its airfield today. (sz 4) This is somewhat significant as it is the point farthest into the Coral Sea that I have developed, and now can support torpedo armed Bettys. Should help with spotting any attacks from Australia towards the Solomons.

And finally, we shot down another SB-2c with our AA guns at Chungking.

[FeurerKrieg]

April 21st, 1943
The Allies fly some sweeps in Burma today.

19 P-40E Warhawks hit Magwe, and meet 25 Tonys. Both sides lose 2 fighters.

At Lashio, 37 Warhawks show up (19 -E, 18 -N) against 19 Tonys. Two Es and one N go down along with two more Tonys.

[center]
Sweeps in Burma[/center]

The AVG quality seems to be slipping.. lets hope our pilot XP can stay up better than theirs. Of the 4 planes lost in Burma today, 3 pilots were rescued.

[FeurerKrieg]

April 22nd, 1943
Today, I-121, while traveling near Ceylon enroute to Bombay to lay mines, was encountered by an ASW group and took a hit. The sub should be able to make it back to Rangoon provided it isn't hit again.
[center]
I-121's journey is cut short[/center]

A bit of good news, the APD Whipple sunk off the northwest coast of Australia. The ship was hit several days ago trying to make a run past Timor.

No attack on Changsha yet. I will probably fly a sweep over Chungking myself in the next couple days if the Allies don't launch an attack first.

[FeurerKrieg]

April 23rd, 1943
This was a lively day! Lots of action in new places.

The Allies have elevated the war to a new level today, sending their heavy bombers deep into our territory and killing innocent members of the Co-Prosperity sphere as they worked their factory jobs.

First, in Hanoi, 76 B-24D Liberators hit the large factories there, scoring 22 hits which left 76 of 250 Industry damaged. A unit of A6M3 will be moved here from Changsha immediately.
[center]
Hanoi factories attacked[/center]

At Bangkok, a small group of 3 B-24D Liberators came in and were met by some of our new night fighter airplanes on daytime CAP orders. One B-24D was damaged, but they otherwise made it to target scoring 2 hits, which left 6 of 60 HI damaged.
[center]
Bangkok attacked also[/center]

At Rangoon, 9 B-24D flew in and dropped mines in the approaches to the port.

While the Allies may have got some licks in, we had a surprise of our own planned today. A couple days ago, intel reported over 30 ships in port at Kodiak and no CAP. An Emily floatplane flew over the next day and confirmed the intel. Today, 58 Betty bombers from Adak flew to the limits of their range and dropped bombs on the port. Unfortunately the AK Yukon was the only ship struck, but it is possible that the enemy will keep more fighters back at Kodiak to keep the base safe, and thus dilute his front line strength.
[center]
Long range attack[/center]

In Burma, our NLF unit was attacked as usual. But then 11 Spitfires flew over Akyab - it is unclear if they were on sweep or just escorting recon planes, but this could be a probe to check our defenses there. I do not intend to fight over Akyab much, given that LRCAPs over the base will cause high pilot attrition. If he attacks via the Bay though, we will attempt to get some attacks in on the enemy ships.

And finally, to top off a day of fun, in China, the enemy P-40N Warhawks flew a sweep over Changsha. Our fighters were ready and itching for a fight over their own airbase. The results were 9:1 losses to our favor. 36 P-40N Warhawks went down for the loss of only 2 Tony, 1 A6M2 and 1 A6M3. A great victory these days - and the kills are a nice boost to these rookies' experience.

[center]
Warhawks are smashed by our CAP[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

April 24th, 1943
Today, enemy bombers in Burma hit our ground troops in Akyab. They didn't suffer many casualties, but this might be the sign of an offensive move starting up. Hurricane FBs continued to attack our NLF unit, which is now about 20 miles from Akyab.

[center]
Attacks on Akyab[/center]

At Kodiak, as hoped, the CAP was increased today. Our Emily spotted about 14 P-40E and 9 P-38G Lightnings, as compared to the measly 4 Warhawks on CAP there yesterday.

[FeurerKrieg]

April 25th, 1943
At Attu Island, while our ASW group hunted for a sub, the SS Snook decided not to cooperate and put a torpedo into PG Daido Maru. The ship will dock and should be okay.

28 Liberator IIIs hit the factories at Kunming in China, scoring 1 hit, damaging 4 HI. I will not repair these, as I haven't been able to get oil to flow to that base anyways, so those factories have been idle for some time.

B-24D's dropped mines at Rangoon. Our minesweeper on station there will move out to clear those mines tomorrow.

The airfield at Akyab was hit heavily today by Wellington IIIs and Blenheim IVs. Mitchells and FBs hit our NLF unit.

Also in Burma, the AVG flew a sweep over Lashio, meeting resistance. 21 P-40E and 21 P-40N met 16 Tojos and 43 Tonys. We did well today, downing 15 Es and 9 Ns, while losing only 2 Tojo and 5 Tony. Of those seven pilots, 3 were rescued.

[center]
AVG over Lashio[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

April 26th, 1943
Today 104 B-24D Liberators, 35 Blenheim IVs and 38 Wellington IIIs hit the airbase at Akyab, shutting it down for sure. Some Vengeance dive bombers and B-26s hit the ground troops there.

At Chungking, our planes fly sweep and take down 19 P-40Ns and 13 P-43As while losing 9 Tonys and no Zeros.
[center]
Combat training[/center]

At Umnak, our Bettys made an unescorted run at the enemy ships there. 41 P-40Es on CAP shot some down, but most got through and hit two cargo ships, 1 torp on one and 2 on the other. The one that took two sunk immediately. A second strike of 9 Bettys did not fair as well and missed all targets. For the day, 10 Bettys were lost.

[center]
Enemy ships hit[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

April 27th, 1943
I got quite a scare today - the screenshot says it all.

[center]
Yikes![/center]

SS Amberjack got the shot off, and was then chased by about 12 destroyers. Later in the evening, SS Gato was found before it could get a shot and chased away.

In the north, our 3 remaining PGs chased SS Snook to Kiska Island and dropped DCs. In the daylight, 17 B-25C Mitchells attacked the ASW force, but thankfully they all missed. The PGs will head back to Attu Island.

[hosho]

hm, definitely too close for comfort! [X(]

[FeurerKrieg]

April 28th, 1943
Three waves of bombers hit the ground troops at Akyab. They are holding up fairly well, fatigue is getting up there, but disruption is staying reasonably low.

In China, our planes flew a sweep over Chungking and took down 6 P-40Ns and 4 P-43As, while losing 2 Tonys and 1 A6M3. Only 1 pilot was lost though.

[center]
Keeping the enemy fighters down[/center]

In two days I plan to split the force and send about half on sweep and half on LRCAP to catch bombers and C-47s. Today, our flak brought down 4 of the SB-2cs.

[FeurerKrieg]

April 29th, 1943
The air attacks against Burma intensify. The AVG quality seems to definitely be suffering now, but the heavy bombers are, as always, very tough to bring down.

Several Allied fighter sweeps start the day.

Magwe: 28 Tony vs 17 P40E. Losses: 3 Tony, 7 P-40E
Mandalay: 9 Tony vs 8 Spit Vb, 11 P-40E. Losses: 3 Tony, 4 P-40E
Lashio: 23 Tojo, 23 Tony vs 36 P-40N. Losses: 2 Tojo, 3 Tony, 21 P-40N

[center]
Allied fighter sweeps[/center]

After those, a wave of 10 B-17D and 38 B-17E hit Lashio. Our Tony and Tojo fighters remaining on CAP from the sweep managed to damage several, but could not bring down any. Following that, a raid of 56 Liberator IIIs hit the base. The airbase was only moderately damaged, and if there isn't another attack for a day or two the place should be fixed up. 5 Tojos and 6 Tonys were destroyed on the ground, but no pilots were lost. Incidentally, for the day I think only 3 or 4 pilots were lost in Burma. I may soon bring one of the Zero units out of Changsha and put them in Jacks for Burma. Tomorrow though, the Changsha fighters will try a split LRCAP and sweep over Chungking.

[FeurerKrieg]

April 30th, 1943
Another busy day in the air. The war seems to be definitely heating up a bit. Likely the Allies are getting ready for the arrival of some good planes in the summer - Hellcats, P-47Cs and Corsairs for the Brits unless I am mistaken.

Today our split sweep/cap over Chungking worked out well. The sweep took down 10 P-40Ns and 4 P-43A Lancers, losing 2 Tonys. Then, our LRCAP of 8 Tony and 14 A6M2 took out 3 Sb-2cs, turning away several more and then took down 3 C-47 Transports. One A6M2 was lost in the process though.

Weather scrubbed missions in the bases where the AVG resides in Burma, so it isn't clear whether they planned a sweep over Lashio or not, but 10 B-17D bombers came unescorted from Calcutta and met our fresh CAP. 2 Of the bombers were shot down by our fighters, and 1 more went down from CAP. The bombers largely missed, but one lucky bomb hit two Tonys parked close together. The engineers have fixed a lot of the damage from yesterday, but repair of damaged aircraft is going slower. For tomorrow, three new Sentai of fighters have been flown in - 1 Jack, 1 Tony and 1 A6M3. The cannons on the Jack and Zeros should do better on those heavies if they attack again. There are now about 190 fighters at Lashio, but a good 30-40 are damaged from the past two days of fighting. All the same, our reserves are strong and the enemy fighters, if they come, are still fighting at long range.

[center]
What every Japanese airman loves to see - a dying 4EB[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

May 1st, 1943
After the last few days of action, today was a quiet one.

I-32 was hit by a PBM Mariner near Christmas Island and will attempt to make it back to Canton Island and then Tarawa.

The SS Argonaught struck Japanese mine at Wake, hopefully that sub will be out of commission for a bit.

No air attacks in Burma today. We'll keep our CAP up tomorrow. Thunderstorms forecast, so either no attack will come, or maybe we will see some partial or uncoordinated attacks. Lashio's runway is now completely fixed and the facilities are being repaired now.

[bigbaba]

nice air situation over burma, krieg. it seems that you shot down much more allied pilots and save most of your own because of the defensive typ of the missions over your own base.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 2nd, 1943
Another reasonably quiet day, probably somewhat due to the rainy weather in Burma/India. A group of 35 B-17Es bombed the fields at Mandalay. Only one Chutai of recon planes there, and none of them were hit. The airfield was lightly damaged. 7 Tonys on CAP, and the many AA guns there, damaged 80% of the bombers, but they all did make it home.

I-17 was hit by a Mousetrap tossed by a subchaser near Palmyra. Thankfully it was jus a glancing blow and damage was very light.

A couple base forces are arriving over the next two days. The IJNAF one will go to the Philippines and the IJN one will probably go to Woleai.

[FeurerKrieg]

Hi bigbaba. It does seem that way, and hopefully we can keep it up. If we can take down 10-20 Allied planes, and only lose 1-4 pilots, I think that is about the best I can hope for given that it is now May 1943.

The whole defensive plan I put in place will soon be tested I think. Lots of AA guns in the bases where I don't put my planes. Lots of engineers to keep the fields repair in case I want to fly in fighters and try and ambush. Lots of AV support for the same reason. And all the Burma bases are fort level 9. Will it be enough? Time will tell...

[FeurerKrieg]

May 3rd, 1943
The Allies came to Lashio, and we were ready this time.

The first wave consisted of 55 unescorted Liberator IIIs. Our defense can be seen in the screen shot below. With the 20mm canons of the Zeros and Jacks added to our Army fighters, they dropped a lot of bombers and turned a couple back. The ones that got through did not do that much damage, but did destroy a couple airframes on the ground. The Jacks especially earned their pay, accounting for about half of the enemy planes that went down.

The next wave was larger and escorted. 14 P-66's escored 102 B-24Ds. Our fighters dropped the escorts like they were nothing, and then set into the bombers. They managed to do fairly well, but given the fight with the Liberators early, they could only do so much. About 90 of the B-24Ds got through and they plastered the airfield, closing it down. (77 runway, 44 service).

[center]
Large attack on Lashio[/center]

Even with the ground losses, the Allies lost more planes than we did today, and all of their losses were A2A and likely killed the pilots. In total, we had 4 Army pilots KIA and 3 Navy pilots KIA. Another three pilots were WIA but they will return to battle someday.

Losses
Allies
Liberator III - 33
B-24D - 19
P-66 Vanguard - 10
Total: 62

Japan (A2A/Ground)
Ki-61-Ib Tony - 1/19
Ki-44-IIb Tojo - 0/17
J2M Jack - 4/5
A6M3 Zero - 3/0
Total: 49

With the airfield closed, our air units have been moved by rail to Moulmein and will fix up there. A few Nicks have been put on LRCAP over Lashio. If the Allies want to keep it closed, they will have to continue to bomb it. If they do that, they won't be able to spend as much time bombing somewhere else. If they switch targets, our engineers in Lashio will open the place up and our fighters will move back in.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 4th, 1943
Quiet today. No air attacks anywhere. Maybe the Allied bombers need to lick their wounds. The repairs at Lashio continue. More fighters (including one J2M sentai) have been moved into Meiktila in case the enemy attacks there next.

[FeurerKrieg]

May 5th, 1943
Several waves of medium and dive bombers hit Akyab in Burma, but no attacks elsewhere.

At Lashio, the engineers continue to work repairing the airfield. An additional Construction Bn was airlifted in from Changsha to speed repairs. (Runway 44, Service 44)

[FeurerKrieg]

May 6th, 1943
Today our fighters sweep Changsha and meet only 6 P-43A. 5 of them are shot down for no losses to our rookies.

Akyab is attacked by only one wave of bombers today.

And for another day, Lashio is left alone and repairs progress. If not attacked tomorrow, the runway will be fully repaired. (14/44)