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Sub attack near Donggala at 70,96
Japanese Ships
PB Seki Maru
PB Shintohoku Maru
Allied Ships
SS Sculpin
SS Sculpin launches 4 torpedoes at PB Seki Maru
PB Shintohoku Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Shintohoku Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Shintohoku Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Shintohoku Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
PB Shintohoku Maru fails to find sub, continues to search...
Escort abandons search for sub
D U D
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Morning Air attack on 17th RAAF Base Force, at 75,137
Weather in hex: Clear sky
Raid spotted at 37 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 45
No Japanese losses
Allied ground losses:
131 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 22 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Vehicles lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Aircraft Attacking:
45 x G4M1 Betty bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb, 4 x 60 kg GP Bomb
combined Betty strike again... will take a couple of weeks more to get those two trashed base forces back to Alice Springs... seriously doubt that the Betty strikes will be able to completely destroy them so it´s not really severe... the only thing I´m lacking are flak guns for the base forces and those two units here nearly don´t have any anyway, things like support squads, eng or eng vehicles are plenty in the pool...
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Morning Air attack on 56th Chinese Corps, at 76,54 (Kweilin)
Weather in hex: Partial cloud
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-36 Ida x 17
Ki-43-Ia Oscar x 8
Ki-48-Ib Lily x 8
Ki-51 Sonia x 18
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-51 Sonia: 2 damaged
Allied ground losses:
5 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Aircraft Attacking:
18 x Ki-51 Sonia bombing from 6000 feet *
Ground Attack: 2 x 50 kg GP Bomb
17 x Ki-36 Ida bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 30 kg GP Bomb
8 x Ki-48-Ib Lily bombing from 6000 feet
Ground Attack: 4 x 100 kg GP Bomb
Also attacking 62nd Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 8th Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 2nd Prov Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 64th Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 14th Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 56th Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 62nd Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 56th Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 62nd Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 8th Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 2nd Prov Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 64th Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 56th Chinese Corps ...
Also attacking 62nd Chinese Corps ...
air attacks in China are becoming more intense but the aircraft employed are mostly total garbage... can´t the Japanese upgrade those Sonias and Idas to something useful? [&:]
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Lae at 99,126
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 2
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 3
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 33
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 14 damaged [8|]
Japanese Ships
DD Akigumo
DD Shiratsuyu
DD Murasame, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
DD Shigure
DD Nowaki
DD Tanikaze
Japanese ground losses:
9 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 4 (3 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Aircraft Attacking:
10 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
10 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
6 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
4 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
CAP engaged:
1st Ku S-1 with A6M2 Zero (2 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(4 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 10000
Raid is overhead
264th Sentai with Ki-45 KAIa Nick (3 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
3 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 10000
Raid is overhead
that´s an interesting one... I got sigint about an AA rgt being moved on a Momi class DD to Lae and therefore I kept my B-17 on nav attack with a Lightning recon squadron over Lae daily. Today the fast transport TF arrived (good move to use a fast TF instead of some freighters) and Cairns launched a big strike in the morning already... what really pisses me off in this case is this new "feature" that enables IJN TFs to put up SEVERE flak fire BEFORE even the Cap attacks and before the real bombing runs start with the flak firing again of course. As many people pointed out on the forum, this is completely unrealistic and unhistorical because what the game tries to model is main gun fire right into the sea to create some splashes to alert the Cap and to "direct" them to the spotted attackers. What the game gives the Japanese though is a huge flak barrage even before the Cap attacks and even before the real bombing begins. This is just nuts. It also damages/takes down your fighters of course if there are any. In this case, out of the 20 damaged bombers, HALVE of it was damaged with this "directional" AA fire! Stupid, nothing else. Either there´s a bug that gives the IJN TFs the ability to use their full AA value during this phase or the routine is completely wrong giving this "directional" fire far too much effect. Noone can seriously be thinking that this kind of AA fire would damage as many of my bombers as 5 enemy fighters and the "real" AA fire from the TF afterwards can do. Wrong, completely wrong. If there was this rare incident when such kind of AA fire took out a low flying torp bomber then ok, but water splashes usually don´t reach up 6000ft to damage a B-17. I´m also ok with a DD being away from the main force putting up AA fire on the incoming strike, but this single DD hardly would have enough AA firepower with a couple of 25mm and 13mm guns to damage nearly a dozen incoming bombers. As it stands now, this idea of incorporating early warning AA fire for the Japanese is nice, but like it is implemented, it´s totally BS. Sorry, for this bad word again. It really looks like the Japanese would get their full AA potential during this early warning phase and therefore get their AA fire twice...
even if it´s not the full AA value, in any case, it´s BY FAR too high as it stands now. In this case, this early warning AA fire would perhaps damage one bomber or two if one of the DDs would have a real lucky day. Not damaging a dozen, then the Cap engages and during the bombing run another halve dozen bombers damaged. Means the early warning fire was as effective as the Cap and the real flak phase together. Strange?Unfortunetely for us it was a rainy day again and this kept the hit rate of our bombers low but a 500lb bomb into a DD is nothing you can complain about... ground losses tell that this is a fast transport...
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Morning Air attack on Katherine , at 76,128
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid spotted at 14 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 3
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 12
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 1 damaged
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 1
Aircraft Attacking:
6 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 11000 feet
Airfield Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb
3 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 11000 feet
Airfield Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb
3 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 11000 feet
Airfield Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb
CAP engaged:
Tainan Ku S-1 Det B with A6M2 Zero (3 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
3 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 25000
Raid is overhead
more thunderstorms in the Australian desert (at least these are all desert hexes) and our hit rate is awful... I kept my bombers 5000ft higher than the usual 6000ft as I noticed quite some flak fire here in previous attacks... I should just leave the staging base of the Zeroes alone and keep my B-17 flying escort to Tennant Creek as it´s easier for the bombers to take the Zeroes down A2A than hitting them on the ground due to the awful weather all the time... ehanced weather on... [;)]
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Morning Air attack on Katherine , at 76,128
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid spotted at 36 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 1
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 9
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 3 damaged
Aircraft Attacking:
9 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 11000 feet
Airfield Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb
CAP engaged:
Tainan Ku S-1 Det B with A6M2 Zero (1 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 25000
Raid is overhead
a full series of piece meal strikes worth nothing due to weather today...
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Morning Air attack on Katherine , at 76,128
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 12
No Allied losses
Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 2
Aircraft Attacking:
12 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 11000 feet
Airfield Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb
how many more "strike packs"?
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Morning Air attack on Katherine , at 76,128
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 9
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 1 damaged
Runway hits 4
Aircraft Attacking:
9 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 11000 feet
Airfield Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb
one more... five in total today, coming from the same base, going to the same target...
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Lae at 99,126
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid spotted at 14 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 1
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 6
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged
Japanese Ships
DD Akigumo, Bomb hits 1
Japanese ground losses:
7 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (0 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Aircraft Attacking:
6 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
CAP engaged:
264th Sentai with Ki-45 KAIa Nick (1 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 10000
Raid is overhead
we also launch more strikes from Cairns against the DDs at Lae... Akigumo was hit but no further damage was noticed... even though there are ground casualties, I´m not sure this really was a hit...
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Lae at 99,126
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid spotted at 30 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 8 minutes
Allied aircraft
B-17D Fortress x 6
Allied aircraft losses
B-17D Fortress: 3 damaged
Japanese Ships
DD Murasame, heavy fires
DD Nowaki
Aircraft Attacking:
6 x B-17D Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Murasame
morning wasn´t over yet and this is the last strike pack going to Lae... only a sightseeing flight that confirms damage on DD Murasame...
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Afternoon Air attack on Wenchow , at 89,58
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid spotted at 45 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-21-Ic Sally x 13
No Japanese losses
Airbase hits 2
Runway hits 8
Aircraft Attacking:
13 x Ki-21-Ic Sally bombing from 6000 feet
Airfield Attack: 4 x 250 kg GP Bomb
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Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Lae at 99,126
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 2
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 3
Allied aircraft
B-17D Fortress x 5
B-17E Fortress x 27
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
B-17D Fortress: 3 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 20 damaged
Japanese Ships
DD Akigumo
DD Shiratsuyu, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Tanikaze
DD Murasame, on fire
DD Nowaki
Japanese ground losses:
12 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 6 (3 destroyed, 3 disabled)
Aircraft Attacking:
8 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
10 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
6 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
5 x B-17D Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
3 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
CAP engaged:
1st Ku S-1 with A6M2 Zero (2 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(4 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
2 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 10000
Raid is overhead
264th Sentai with Ki-45 KAIa Nick (3 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
3 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 10000
Raid is overhead
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Shiratsuyu
we also launch strikes in the afternoon, though now the weather is even worse... from moderate rain it has changed to thunderstorms now... nevertheless another DD is hit by a 500lb bomb and reported heavily damaged... would love to see one or two DDs being sunk, DDs are one of the Japanese bottlenecks IMO... and just like in the morning attacks, the warning AA fire was murderous, damaging most of the attacking bombers even before the Cap engaged... holy god, how could this have been agreed on during testing? I guess there was no agreement and one party prevailed? [;)] In none of the books I know of is this warning AA fire described as as "deadly" as the normal AA fire a Japanese TF was able to put up... well, perhaps those books are highly biased towards the Allied side...
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Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Lae at 99,126
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 1
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 3
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 2 damaged
Japanese Ships
DD Shigure
Aircraft Attacking:
3 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 6000 feet
Naval Attack: 8 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
CAP engaged:
264th Sentai with Ki-45 KAIa Nick (1 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
1 plane(s) intercepting now.
Group patrol altitude is 10000
Raid is overhead
in total we score three hits on the IJN DDs, one causing heavy damage, one causing heavy fires and one not causing notable damage... doubt that a DD will go down... we suffered dozens of damaged bombers today, their morale is pummeled now (mostly due to the magic warning AA fire) and I will swap out some of the Cairns´ squadrons with the Alice Springs´ squadrons... Lae has received some more flak guns and I guess we will soon have to adjust our attack alt from low level to medium alt attacks. Evne though our bombers looked like Swiss cheece when they returned to Cairns, only two were actually lost. One didn´t return with the crew missing and one was written off. The heavy bombers really are beasts, with their numbers growing in late 42 this will be a real problem for the Japanese. Our medium bombers are another story though...
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ASW attack near Akyab at 54,44
Japanese Ships
SS I-156, hits 10, heavy damage
Allied Ships
DD Napier
DD Tjerk Hiddes
DD Nizam
SS I-156 launches 8 torpedoes at DD Napier
I-156 bottoming out ....
DD Nizam attacking submerged sub ....
Underwater explosion, debris and oil appear on surface!
Escort abandons search for sub
a wrong 8 torp salvo from the sub that sunk a small freigher earlier but this time at the wrong target... the British DDs stay killers and DD Nizam dropped 95% of her depth charges, the sub is reported to be sunk and I´m pretty sure this is correct. Another one of those really dangerous 8 fwd torp tube subs gone...
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Ground combat at Choiseul Bay (111,132)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 290 troops, 3 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 8
Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 0
Japanese adjusted assault: 2
Allied adjusted defense: 1
Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 0)
Japanese forces CAPTURE Choiseul Bay !!!
Combat modifiers
Attacker: leaders(-), disruption(-)
Assaulting units:
III/66th Naval Guard Unit
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Ground combat at Akyab (54,45)
Allied Bombardment attack
Attacking force 1278 troops, 115 guns, 56 vehicles, Assault Value = 1173
Defending force 68650 troops, 731 guns, 441 vehicles, Assault Value = 2351
Japanese ground losses:
114 casualties reported
Squads: 4 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Guns lost 2 (0 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Vehicles lost 2 (1 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
5 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Assaulting units:
1st Burma Division
3rd Carabiniers Regiment
20th Indian Division
1st Indian Coastal Artillery Regiment
7th Armoured Brigade
45th Indian Brigade
44th Indian Brigade
26th Indian Brigade
103rd RN Base Force
21st Light AA Regiment
24th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
20th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
106th RAF Base Force
25th Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
1st Bombay Construction Battalion
23rd Indian Mountain Gun Regiment
100th RAF Base Force
102nd RAF Base Force
101st RAF Base Force
104th RAF Base Force
1st South India Base Force
RAF 223 Group Wing
1st Burma Auxiliary AA Regiment
1st Madras Construction Battalion
108th RAF Base Force
RAF 221 Group Base Force
1st Bengal Construction Battalion
95th Heavy AA Regiment
Burma Corps
103rd RAF Base Force
107th RAF Base Force
223 Group RAF
6th Medium Regiment
4th NW Frontier Base Force
Pathan Construction Battalion
Defending units:
9th Tank Regiment
48th Division
21st Ind.Mixed Brigade
38th Division
Imperial Guards Division
11th Tank Regiment
9th Division
5th Guards Division
35th Field AA Battalion
1st Hvy.Artillery Regiment
27th JAAF AF Bn
