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

[FeurerKrieg]

July 22nd, 1943

Mostly quiet today.

The Allied planes continued to hit Akyab today, with 3 waves coming in.

No major air attacks int he Aleutians.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 23rd, 1943
Today 8 battleships pounded the survivors on Adak. Also, 22 P-39D fighter-bombers bombed our troops there. Later in the day, 30 medium and 77 heavy bombers also added to the carnage. Several of our units at Adak have now ceased to exist, although they are being reorganized back at PJ and OJ. There are still about a 1000 troops left, but they will likely be wiped out tomorrow.

In the Kuriles, SS Gunnel was hit by a Betty.

In Burma, no Allied attacks were launched.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 24th, 1943
Allied heavy bombers hit Akyab today without interference from our fighters.

All survivors were wiped out at Adak today. All units except for one construction group will be reformed over the next several weeks.

One again, the KB was spotted by an enemy submarine, the SS Hoe. The sub as damaged by depth charges. Given the continuing bad weather in the region, and the loss of any element of surprise, the KB will head west and go to Tokyo for some R&R and wait for the enemy's next move.

[center]
KB is spotted again[/center]

Our cruiser force was also spotted a few hundred miles from Attu. Instead of retreating to Paramushiro Jima, it will this time head south and rendezvous with a small AO group. From there it will head east and see if it can sneak in and do some damage at Adak or one of the now rear area bases near there. The weather is no good for air combat, so we will try the surface approach again.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 25th, 1943
Some attacks on Akyab today.

No major attacks elsewhere, but for the first time in a few days now, the US troops at Attu made a push and succeeded in gaining a bit of ground, although they took 10 times the casualties that we did and will likely need to rest a few more days again. (0 to 1, forts 7 -> 6)

[center]
Enemy troops held for now[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

July 26th, 1943
Kiska is shelled heavily and a couple of our units lose their cohesion. The Naval Guard units are still holding together, though they won't last much longer.

Our cruiser/destroyer raiders were spotted heading farther south. Not sure if the enemy will pursue, but we will continue to work our way around to try and strike at Adak or nearby there.

[center]
Our ships are spotted[/center]

Akyab was bombed by 73 Liberator IIIs.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 27th, 1943
Today Kiska was hit with bombers and fighter bombers, but no battleships. Our last units bravely charged the enemy lines in a last sacrifice for the Emperor.

Our cruiser/destroy group was spotted again as it moved closer to its target. The weather continues to stay rough and help cover our surface ships.

In the Kuriles, the SS Growler was hit by a Ki-32 Mary dive bomber.

[center]
Our troops at Kiska go out fighting[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

July 28th, 1943
A rough day for our subs. I-1 is heavily damaged by DC attack near Attu and then later in the day bombed by a Seagull floatplane. The I-17 is also hit, this one near Amchitka. It suffers less damage though, and may be able to make it home.

Hoping that the enemy carriers might be off chasing our raiders, 13 Bettys attempt to attack shipping near Kiska. However the enemy CAP is still significant and 10 of the Bettys are lost before the remaining three head for home.

Our ships are again spotted, but so far the enemy still doesn't seem to be making a move to attack them.

Akyab is hit by four waves of bombers.

[center]
Tough CAP at Kiska[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

July 29th, 1943
A good day!

First at Adak, CL Tama and company managed to find some target at last. Although it may be not the big game they were hunting, something is better than nothing. Four ships attempted to stop our ships incursion, and three of them were sunk (1 MSW, 1 SC and 1 PC). Once past those sentries, a large group of landing craft was found and six of them were hit, with 4 left on fire. Our ships then had to high tail it out of the area and by the time they were spotted by enemy patrol planes the next day, they were nearly 360 miles south of Adak and under cloud cover.

[center]
Fighting past the guards...[/center]
[center]

...to get to the easier targets[/center]

Around the same time, at Attu, 13 battleships were shelling the island. Meanwhile, I-32 managed to sneak up on the bombardment group and put two torpedoes into the side of the Battleship Washington! While this ship will likely not sink, it will be in the repair yards for some time.

[center]
A terrific job by the I-32![/center]

In the Kuriles, the SS Herring was hit by a Ki-32 Mary DB.

At Akyab, 3 waves of enemy planes hit the base today.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 30th, 1943
Enemy troops begin unloading at Attu. Many, many ships are seen unloading. The battleships present (less Washington) stick around and continue to work over the defenders. During the day, several waves of bomber hit the island also.

Several small Betty attacks are launched from Paramushiro Jima, but none of them can find any holes through the 50 Hellcats and 40 Wildcats on CAP over the island. In all, 25 Bettys are lost.

Even with the help of a submarine tender, I-25 can not be fully repaired and is written off as a lost at Paramushiro Jima.

Akyab is hit by enemy planes as usual.

[FeurerKrieg]

July 31st, 1943
As CL Tama and company retreat towards Tokyo, the SS Hoe takes a shot at DD Oite, but the torpedoes are duds. The SS Hoe's bad luck continues, as later in the evening, the refueling ships following Tama come by and AO Naruto is attacked, but again the torpedoes are duds.

Limited air attacks against Attu today, probably due to the bad weather. Many troops continue to land on the island, but still no attack is launched yet.

The airfield at Yap island is completed today. (sz 4)

[Alikchi2]

Nice hits on Washington. An the sub got away? in 1943? Pretty impressive.

I've noticed that your reports of airfield and base construction are trailing off. Are you starting to be satisfied with your infrastructure?

Also - just out of curiosity - what does the garrison in NZ look like now?

[FeurerKrieg]

The submarine did indeed get away. It is now sitting in Nagasaki fixing up. Several submarines are at Japan after running them hard for the entire Aleutian campaign. Full speed for several weeks can certainly rack up the system damage.

The entire Pacific is pretty much where I want it in terms of build up. Almost all the bases that can get there are now at Size 4. There are some bases on the northern coast of New Guinea that are still being built up. Game is at Aug 22 now, and I have moved about 12 construction units up from the far south pacific into the Kuriles to build up my bases there.

New Zealand pretty much has the same garrision is has had since it was captured. Two infantry division, both split into threes, three or four tank regiments and some 7 base forces. There are some token air units there as well. The main airbase is at Hamilton which is inland and cannot be bombarded by battleships, so in a pinch I could pull some air units from the Solomons and points farther east into the fray. Depending on when any attack against New Zealand happens though, I might not do that. Certainly once it gets late enough in the war, I'll probably evacuate the entire continent as the troops can be more useful closer to home.

[FeurerKrieg]

July was a decent month in the air battle. Overall the enemy lost more planes than us. More importantly, A2A losses were the bulk of the enemy losses, while air craft destroyed on the ground were ours. Thus our pilot quality is still largely intact for yet another month. Next month the new Navy fighter, the A6M5 Zeke will begin production. Once the A6M3 and A6M3a factories are retooled, we will be able to build these planes rapidly. Land based units will have plenty of stock of the A6M3a's to use now, around 1400 have been produced and only 103 have been lost in combat thus far.

On the downside, the Empire has shrunk a bit as the Aleutians are being taken over by the Americans. Attu is certain to fall in August, but at least we end July with it still under our control. A build-up is under way in the Kuriles, but the inner ring of the Pacific is not being neglected either. About 1 division per month is coming out of China and going to various islands from the Kuriles to Truk.

[center]



July 31, 1943















[/center]

[Local Yokel]

I'm enormously impressed by your continuing accomplishments in this game. The fact that you still hold a VP ratio better than 3:1 two thirds of the way through 1943 is testimony to this.

Do you feel that the extent of your conquests in the Central and Southern Pacific has compelled your opponent to focus attention on the 'Northern Route' more than you would have wished? The proximity of the Aleutians to Metropolitan Japan must make such a focus a tempting prospect compared to that of a series of bloody atoll assaults. How content are you with the state of your defences and forces in the Kuriles and Sakhalin if he makes a big push there, and for how long are you hoping to hold him at Attu?

I've also found your aero-engine/aircraft production display interesting. You seem to have only the initial Toyoda factories ready to come on stream on 1st August, but a great many Mitsubishi factories still to hand. You should have enough Toyoda factories to cover the Shiden-11 production that will now belatedly begin, but I see no capacity for the P1Y Ginga - will you simply accept the production resulting from switchover of G4M production? And what are your plans for switching over to production of the later engines required for such models as the Ginga and the Hayate?

[FeurerKrieg]

Thanks for the comments!

As far as the northern route, I'm sure my opponent has been focused on this route. I do not expect to hold Attu very long at all. However, knowing that he has to go that way for a faster victory also enables me to concentrate my defenses in that area.

From the limited intel I have, it seems his fleet has headed back to southern California, probably for upgrades or repairs from being underway in bad weather for many weeks. This contributes significantly to a key element of my northern defense - making it to winter. Once the winter season arrives, any landings in the cold zone suffer horribly. That combined with the proximity to many large airbases means that any offensive in that area before spring would have a tough time. So, provided I can make it to winter, the I have four months following that to continue to build up the northern approached. All the units, save a construction unit, were successfully evacuated from the Aleutians are are rebuilding very fast in Osaka. The KB is sitting in Tokyo well rested and now (late August) nearly fully switched over to A6M5 fighters.

So any assault on the Kuriles in the next 8 weeks will have to deal with a lot of high experienced LBA as well as all our carriers. Also, another CV is due off the slips in late Sept so that will help too. If an assault doesn't occur in 8 weeks, then it will have to deal with many more LCU's come spring.

Once the winter season arrives, if no attack occur, I'll move the KB farther south in case an offensives occur in the central or south Pacific.

Production: I'll have to take a look at this later tonight and maybe I'll post more then. I have been very conservative on factory expansion, and given the lack of fighting I've been able to enjoy, I have had probably 50% of my aircraft production sitting idle for the past year. As such, I have a massive amount of supplies on the Home Islands now, and if any Mitsu factories need converted to other engine types, I'm confident that I can switch those over pretty quickly. I do look ahead at what engines will be required before I need them.

[FeurerKrieg]

August 1st, 1943
Enemy troops continue to unload at Attu Island. 20 Bettys attack the enemy ships there, and most are turned back. Two managed to make a run on the Battleship Indiana, but Indiana's AA guns bring both of them down. Other smaller waves of Bettys attack, but most turn back before many are shot down.

[center]
Heavy AA from this battleship[/center]

The enemy troops finally launch an attack and the reinforcements change things a fair amount as the enemy moves forward faster than previously. (3 to 1, forts 6 -> 5).

[center]
Attu begins slipping away[/center]

The submarine I-1 sinks about 100 miles from Paramushiro Jima.

In Burma, things go better. Several of our heavier fighters are moved into Magwe and fly CAP over Akyab to challenge the enemies constant bombing of the base. They are not disappointed as a large force escorted only by a dozen P-66's arrived. For the loss of only 1 A6M3a and two Nicks, our fighters bring down 7 P-66, 14 Wellington III, and 19 Blenheim IV. Our planes will likely stick around this time as we have enough aircraft now to cover Meiktila, Rangoon, Moulmein, Lashio and Magwe. Our lowest experience pilots will be stationed at Magwe so they can fly light patrols over Akyab and gain some experience attacking the enemy bombers. Also, if the enemy launches a mass sweep at Magwe (possible even for the RAF given the short range to enemy bases), it won't be our crack pilots that end up going down.

[center]
Enemy bombers caught over Akyab[/center]

[FeurerKrieg]

August 2nd, 1943
Several air attacks and battleships pound the ground forces at Attu. Enemy troops continue to unload, and our remaining shore guns manage to hit two LCIs. The massive assault by the Americans takes over the airfield and pushes our troops into the rough terrain. (9 to 1 against 4 forts)

In Burma, the Allies launch a massive aerial assault on Meiktila. Although losses were heavy, our air forces performed incredibly well.

1st Wave: A large wave of Liberators and Vengeance dive bombers comes in with a fairly light escort. Our CAP is at full alert and augmented by some CAP from the forces stationed at Magwe. Our fighter tear through the enemy escorting P-40Ns and P-47Cs and proceed to savage the bombers. All but 7 Liberator III bombers are turned away before they drop their bombs. A couple bombs from those 7 hit the airbase but do virtually no damage. This is one of the first large bomber waves that we have been able to turn back, and it is a nice sight to see.

2nd Wave: A smaller group of medium bombers comes in this time with modest escort of about 40 fighters. We manage to take down several of the bombers, but given the workout the CAP had on the previous raid, 20 B-25G/H and 3 B-26B's still get through to drop their payloads.

3rd Wave: Our CAP has been put through the ringer by now, but still they fight! A massive wave of 50 B-17E Fortresses and 108 B-24D Liberators comes in with 16 P-38Gs. Our fighters manage to take down 9 of the P-38's and several of the bombers, but the bulk gets through and does enough damage to shut down the airfield. (60 serv/85 runway).

Total non-ground losses for the day:
Japan
Ki-61-Ib Tony: 24
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 21
Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 6
J2M Jack: 4

Total 55

Allies
P-40N Warhawk: 34
Kittyhawk III: 24
P-47C Thunderbolt: 18
Beaufighter VIC: 12
P-38G Lightning: 9

Liberator III: 46
B-24D Liberator: 18
Vengeance I: 16
B-26B Marauder: 9
B-25G/H Mitchell: 8
B-17E Fortress: 2

Total 196 (97 fighters/99 bombers)

We also lost 34 planes on the ground. Approximately 30 Army pilots were lost, but only 1 Navy pilot was lost. Meanwhile, many of our pilots, including some of the newer boys gained important experience in air to air combat.

[center]
Heavy air attack on Meiktila[/center]

[thegreatwent]

How are your Nicks doing as bomber killers? They don't do very well in stock but CHS might make them more useful.

The reason I ask is I am thinking AE will be more like CHS than vanilla WitP and I am considering build strategies.

[FeurerKrieg]

I never got that far in stock, but they don't do very well in CHS. I have recently put them into a training role, since with the higher durability they should, in theory, have lower ops losses. The Nick b units can't switch to regular fighters so they are still on the front lines, but again they don't do that great. They don't die very often, but they don't kill much either.

On a side note, the turn I ran today (Sept 3rd), had a big air battle over Rangoon and my J1N1-S night fighters (which I put on daytime CAP) actually were getting behind P-38's and killed three of them!

[FeurerKrieg]

August 3rd, 1943
A more quiet day today.

Enemy air attacks our remaining force on Attu while Allied engineers work to fix the base up.

Elsewhere there is no action.