The Leader Bug strikes - BigB 1.5 Japanese version

[Rainer79]

July 13th - 17th, 1942:

Burma: Meiktila's resources continue to get destroyed. The addition of an AA regiment here will hopefully increase the damage to the allied bombers.


Australia: On the 15th an attack by 78 B-17Es against Katherine was met by 50 Zeroes and finally yielded some good results. The Americans lost 15 planes (with many more damaged) and several bomber groups aborted their attacks due to bad morale. 6 Zeroes were shot down and 9 more torched on the runway. Damage to the base facilities was minimal. The Fortresses haven't been back yet...


China: Finally Changsha was liberated from the evil Chinese. 600 resource centers and 90 HI will now be put to use for the glory of the empire. [:D]

Sadly 2 divisions crossed the river into Hengchow prematurely and were promptly shock-attacked out of the city. It will take a while before they will become combat-effective again. Sometimes I hate the land movement routine that schedules the arrival of practically identical units...

Henchow and its rail junction will remain the next objective though. Once the city is cleared the troops will have earned a few weeks of R&R.

At least the trail between Changsha and Ichang was cleared without a problem. 2 Chinese corps and a division now enjoy a nice holiday in the countryside.

BTW strategic bombing has slowly been effective and 20 oil centers at Langchow are damaged.

[Rainer79]

July 18th - 21st, 1942:

Not much to report. The IJAAF is waiting for its new fighters while the Allies do only some strategic bombing in Burma. Meiktila is pretty much bombed out now. The other theatres are fairly quiet.

Near Kwajalein SS Skipjack was sunk by a combination of type 91 depth charges and a Val's 250 kg AP bomb. The other subs seem to have left the area.

In China the troops sitting in Changsha are preparing to cross the river into Hengchow. The attack order should be coming within the next few days.

Here is also a screenshot of total air losses so far. The daily exchange ratios are getting closer to 1:1 but hopefully the Tony/Tojo will do better again. At least until the newer P-38s arrive...

[Rainer79]

July 22nd - 24th, 1942:

The Allies bomb Burma, the IJAAF bombs China.
[>:]

The troops in Changsha have received their movement orders to advance into Hengchow. They should arrive more or less simultaneously with the tanks cutting the Chinese's retreat path.

Also the first pair of carriers have completed their upgrades and are heading back to rejoin the KB. Hiryu and Shokaku will be sent home next.

Just for fun I took a look at the ops losses in the campaign so far.

Allies: 564 ops losses / 742743 campaign sorties --> 0,076% to lose a plane on a sortie
Japanese: 432 ops losses / 508979 campaign sorties --> 0,085% to lose a plane on a sortie

That numbers are a lot lower than I expected (both sides lost less than 1 plane per 1000 sorties) and while the chance for the Japanese planes to fall out of the sky is higher it is not as bad as my gut feeling would have told me. It would be interesting to see what other people's experiences (and numbers!) are.

[Rainer79]

July 25th - 30th, 1942:

Finally a bit of action.

Burma: Routine Allied strategic bombing. Daniel really seems to want to kill the two last remaining resource centers at Meiktila.


Aleutians: Adak was the focus of some allied attention in the region. First ~50 Mitchells visited the base but did not achieve much against the A6M3s guarding the base.

Later a bombardment task force consisting of BBs Colorado and California and 2 CAs shelled the island for minimal effect. On the way back to Dutch Harbor 18 Betties finally launched to engage them and scored a single torpedo hit on Colorado. The Allies remain lucky - both regarding the number of bombers launched and the fact that there were more duds than exploding torpedoes.

The subs in the region were vectored in to try and engage the retreating capital ships but the only effect was that SS I-32 received a couple of depth charge near misses from DD Cummings.


China: Finally the encirclement of Hengchow is complete and the troops are getting ready for their shock attack across the river (see screenshot). Note that the hex NW of the city already has a Japanese ZOC marker so they can't escape that way either.


Industry: The Japanese research efforts have finally paid off and the production of the Tojo started on the 30th - a fantastic two days early. [&o]

[Rainer79]

July 31st + August 1st, 1942:

CV Hiyo joined the fleet and will head to Singapore to link up with Junyo. Her airgroups do need some work but land-based Kate and Val chutais have already been prepared to provide the necessary pilots.


ASW: SS Growler fired several torpedo salvoes at a hunter-killer group about 120 miles off Tokyo but thankfully missed. Unfortunately the counter-attacks were also pretty useless.

A small AK hit a sub-laid Mk. 10 mine at Saipan. Despite being immediately disbanded the ship would sink later.


Southeast Fleet: While this theatre has been relatively quiet so far, that might be about to change. There has been an increased allied recon activity in the region (targets included PM, Milne Bay, Lunga and Buna). Also CA Portland and several DDs were spotted off the Australian east coast. A possible hint to the location of the allied CVs?


China: After more or less surrendering the Chinese airspace for a while several modern fighters were spotted on CAP over Kunming. A Sally sentai had been visiting the base in the past to regularly torch a few Chinese bombers on the ground so that could have been a trap for them. A group of 81 Zeroes took off from Rangoon to discourage this practice. The attack found 6 Kittyhawks and 17 Hurricanes on CAP and proceeded to shoot down 18 allied planes. 6 A6M2s failed to return to base.

On the ground an army crossed the river from Changsha into Hengchow. The immediate shock attack came off at 0:1 and didn't touch the level 9 forts. Still, I am optimistic. The attack will have burned a lot of supplies and regular bombing should also reduce the remaining stockpile nicely.

Another attack succeeded though. At 44,35 (the wooden hex NW of Changsha) 4 Chinese corps suffered their second forced retreat and retreated northeast into the countryside. The assault troops are in bad shape though and will head back to Changsha to rest.

[Rainer79]

August 2nd - August 5th, 1942:

Indochina: Chinese Il-4c have begun to bomb Hanoi's airfield in retaliation for the attacks on Kumning. The ~20 Oscars there are enough to send most of the attackers back home but a couple of bombers tend to get through. I think I'll continue to ignore that for now. Anything that burns Chinese supplies (and essentially does no damage) is a good thing in my book.


Australia: B-17Es from Alice Springs restarted their ground attack missions against the troops at Tennant Creek. Thanks to their Lightning escort they won't be opposed at the moment. Decent ops and flak losses (at 5k feet there is quite a lot of it) is what I hope for.


Southeast Fleet: In addition to the new recon activity the Allies have been running several TFs into Luganville. 26 Betties from Lunga decided to pay them a visit and attacked a transport squadron. The 20 P-40Bs guarding the base only managed to shoot down a single escorting Zero after which the bombers sank AK Lancaster with 4 torpedoes and damaged AK Admiral Halstead with another hit.


China: The second stack crossed the river into Hengchow and a combined attack also managed to only score another 0:1 without touching the forts. About 5000 AV face the 6 defending units (~2000 AV). Still, flak fire has lessened considerably so their supply situation is likely to be bad.

A couple of Oscars sweeping Chungking also shot down 18 more Chinese fighters in exchange of 5 of their own.


Burma: In what might be the start of an allied counter-attack a single Indian brigade moved towards Akyab. Recon showed 5 more units at Cox and 13 at Chittagong (unchanged compared to earlier visits). The RAF also shut down the runway which cost them a couple of Beauforts.

While I won't commit several divisions to Akyab thanks to the difficulty of supplying the base Daniel will have to commit more than a single brigade to make me relinquish control.

[Rainer79]

August 6th + 7th, 1942:

ASW: I-30 tried to attack an allied DD near Luganville and was immediately sunk.

<insert rant about exaggerated Allied ASW capabilities here>

I-30 is the second Glen-equipped sub to be lost so far and the 9th SS loss overall.

At least I-32 got lucky in the Aleutians and sank PG Vancouver.


Burma: The 16th Indian brigade is still sitting on its own one hex away from Akyab while British bombers are conducting low-level strikes against the airfield. The runway remains open but it prevents the forts from being built up (currently at 7 / 54%). At least the Beauforts are suffering a bit.

A FT task force also delivered 1000+ supplies to Akyab without being spotted. I'll probably run more of them in the near future as the area is far too dangerous for normal AKs.


China: The troops at Hengchow are still recovering disruption and fatigue while the artillery units have begun to soften up the enemy. The Chinese AV is going down by ~10 points per turn which is a very encouraging sign. Without supplies their ajusted AV should be much more manageable.

[Rainer79]

August 8th, 1942:

I-boats: After sinking the PG I-32's skipper orders another attack in the Aleutians. The torpedoes miss DD Dunlap and the resulting counter-attack leaves the sub heavily damaged. A single direct hit results in 73 flotation damage. No comment. [:@]

Near Norfolk Island I-22 tries to attack CL Trenton but also misses. CA Portland and 3 DDs are also part of the same task force and of course the allied DDs do their magic. The boat will have to retire to Truk but the damage is not that severe.


Luganville: More important is the sighting of BC Repulse at Luganville though. The enemy CAP over the island has been reinforced by a Wildcat VMF but the Betties from Lunga attacked nevertheless. At a cost of 10 precious pilots they scored 2 torpedo hits on the British battlecruiser, leaving the ship burning and heavily damaged. Since Luganville is a level 3 port I don't expect the ship to sink but the Repulse will be hopefully out of the war for a while.

[Rainer79]

After a small cease-fire the war erupts again.

August 9th + 10th, 1942:

Aleutians: I-32 is probably dead. Flotation damage is up to 92 and Kiska (the closest lvl. 3 port) is still 2-3 days away.

A small supply convoy to Adak was attacked by 25 allied planes. I had thought I had provided LRCAP support but forgot to actually do it. Thankfully the allied bombers all missed.


China: A deliberate attack at Hengchow went better than expected. It yielded a decent 2:1 result and lowered the forts to 8. Casualties are severe though. At least the Chinese adjusted AV looks absolutely atrocious.

In the air a sweep over Chungking was another lopsided victory for the IJAAF when 63 Oscars tangled with 24 Chinese fighters. 2 Oscars were show down while their comrades took out 16 Chinese.

The CAF suffered more losses during the regular bombing of Kumning. It is nice to see those Il-4cs torched on the runway.


Luganville: It seems that Renown has left the base for some fairer harbors but there is still plenty of activity at that base. I hope to be able to arrange a surprise here soon....

[Rainer79]

August 11th, 1942:

I forgot to mention during the last report that a TK hit a sublaid mine at Dutch Harbor. Today a group of MSW showed up to sweep the minefield but I hope that the fuel delivery here has been cut short.

Today however was a great day for the IJN. [:D]

After having spotted the allied activity around Luganville I decided to sortie the KB to take a closer look. They were scheduled to arrive hopefully together with a transport convoy that had been stalked by a Glen-equipped sub.

4 fleet carriers (minus Hiryu and Shokaku which are receiving their upgrades in the HI) and 3 CVLs ended up in range today and attacked the shipping around the island. Instead of a few transport convoys most of the USN was spotted. [X(]

The American LBA attacked first when 11 Mitchells and 6 P-40B sortied against our fleet. A single bomber got through and missed the DD Naganami.

Then a strong strike of 67 Zeroes, 44 Vals and 84 Kates attacked an American CV taskforce sotheast of Luganville. 27 F4F-4s were not enough to stop the strike and CV Yorktown was shredded by 7 bomb and 4 torpedo hits. CA Portland and CL Trenton were also both lightly damaged. BANZAI!

Our own LBA from Lunga also tried to intervene but more or less bravely died over Luganville's port. A single torpedo hit was scored on CL Nashville while 20 planes were lost. Definitely not a good ratio.

In the afternoon phase a second small strike impaled itself on the KB's CAP as 5 more American planes failed to return to base (1 B25C, 4 P-40B).

The KB also launched a second strike. The target was not the Yorktown but rather a strong SAG east of Luganville. 3 BBs and 5 CAs were attacked with mixed results. BB Oklahoma could be in trouble after suffering 4 torpedo hits. BB Arizona got hit by 3 bombs and 3 torpedoes but did not show up as heavily damaged. From the cruisers units only CA Vincennes received a single bomb hit.

At the end of the day "only" CV Yorktown is confirmed sunk. The KB itself suffered no damage but the state of the airgroups could be better. The Zeroes are in very good shape but especially the Kates suffered. Quite a few of them have been shot down or damaged by AA fire.

So, what's next?
In the end I plotted a move a few hexes to the NE of the current position. A high-speed run is not possible in any case as all TFs refueled their DDs today. I have a feeling that Yorktown's friends are nearby - it doesn't make much sense to assemble such an armada and leave the carriers at home - and I expect that every available USAAF plane in range will be transferred to Luganville ASAP making another shot at the BBs expensive. While only P-40Bs escorted the B-25C strikes already today P-38E/Fs and Marine F4F-4s guarded the airfield. If the USN will give chase we might see another battle but hopefully one with minimal LBA interference.