cap_and_gown(j) v witpqs(a) - no witpqs

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: bklooste

I also have doubts they will react to Hosho as it is a piece of crap...

Speaking of which if you know he will be close why not park 30 subs there... He wont be flying much ASW or intensive close range Naval search. If teh subs get lucky come in with KB.


Is it worth luring him away and than striking the landings ? ala Leyte Gulf .

If he is landing in Fiji, then I really don't care. It would be nice, I suppose, to kill a bunch of landing ships. OTOH, if they are covered by BBs then I could lose my own capital ships.

The most important thing I want right now is to hit his carriers before the Essex class start showing up in large numbers which should be starting in June. I will be at my maximum relative carrier superiority in May. Therefore I want to bring his carriers to battle during that time frame before I lose my edge. At Leyte the Japanese were aiming for the landing. This will be more like (and more successful I hope) the Philippines Sea.

I will send out some subs. But they were particularly ineffective when he invaded Somoa. All I got were 3 sunk subs, lots of damaged ones for only 3 cargo ships. I would not expect the subs to be able to deliver. Maybe they can rescue some of my pilots. [8|]

[CapAndGown]

May 1, 1943

Today was a day when new airframes became available.

First was the Oscar IIb. I switched over a Tojo factory to begin producing this plane. I will now be producing 140 Tojo's a month and 50 Oscars (once the factory is repaired.)

Next up, the transport version of the Helen. One Helen factory was switched over and the Thalia factory as well. 130 Helen bombers will now be produced per month and 50 Helen transports.

The Jill also became available. The Kate factory was switched over and we will be making 60 Jills a month.

In two days all our April upgrades will be completed and the Combined fleet will sail for the Solomons. Once there they will find 200,000 tons of fuel waiting for them at Rabaul, along with a replenishment TF with 150,000 tons. Fuel will not be a problem, at least for a while. All our CVs except Junyo and Hiyo have upgraded their Vals for Judy's.

From there we will be seeking out the enemy fleet and will attempt to bring it to battle. I am also getting ready to evacuate the New Hebrides. Once the Combined Fleet arrives in the Solomons, it can cover this evacuation.

[CapAndGown]

May 2, 1943

The fleet has sailed.

Perhaps the largest concentration of warships in the world has set sail today from Singapore. They are heading to Hollandia where they will be joined by additional ships of the Combined Fleet coming down from the Home Islands. Hollandia was chosen as a rally point because it is not infested with those infernal coast watchers and because it is somewhat removed from the normal patrol pattern of allied subs. The fleet is not completely organized because of the need to add in the ships from Honshu. Once everyone reaches Hollandia I will carefully assess the TF and ship commanders as well as air group commanders. After that, the fleet will look for an opportunity to bring the allied CVs to battle either by intercepting an invasion of Fiji, or making a demonstration there with its surface components.

[CapAndGown]

May 3, 1943

Savusavu was invaded today. Two allied divisions face two Naval Guard units and some base forces. Level 3 forts and Jungle-Rough terrain. Japanese supply has dwindled to almost nothing from the constant supply hits from his bombers.
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Ground combat at Savusavu (134,159)
Japanese Bombardment attack
Attacking force 2737 troops, 18 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 146
Defending force 13862 troops, 422 guns, 286 vehicles, Assault Value = 606

Assaulting units:
52nd Naval Guard Unit
62nd Naval Guard Unit
50th JNAF AF Unit
36th JNAF AF Unit
4th JAAF AF Bn

Defending units:
27th Infantry Div /546
41st Infantry Div /541

Fortunately, I have cadres of all these units at Rabaul waiting to be rebuilt as soon as their parent units die. I was actually worried that witpqs might bypass some of the islands down in Fiji meaning I would not get to rebuild these guys. I am eager to see them die! [:D]

Sigint reported heavy radio transmissions coming from TF a few hexes east of Pearl Harbor. Hard to know what this might be. BBs returning to Pearl after being repaired on the west coast? A very, very large convoy? Or, perhaps, the arrival the the Essex! We are playing with variable reinforcement, so maybe the Essex has already arrived. This would give the US 7 fleet carriers. While this would mean my carrier superiority would not be as great as it was, this could also be a positive development. Perhaps it will increase my opponent's confidence and make him more eager to engage in a carrier battle. OTOH, it will make the use of "bait" carrier even more necessary since instead of potentially facing 207 fighters on CAP, we could be facing 243 unless some of them are drawn off to escort strikes. In addition, his fighter contingent will increasingly be made up of Hellcats rather than Wildcats. This will mean I will have an even tougher time fighting through the CAP. Anything that will reduce that CAP will be beneficial.

[Kwik E Mart]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

Defending units:
27th Infantry Div /546
41st Infantry Div /541

quick question...what does /546 and /541 signify?

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: Kwik E Mart

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

Defending units:
27th Infantry Div /546
41st Infantry Div /541

quick question...what does /546 and /541 signify?

It means they have not yet fully unloaded. The parent unit is still on board the ships. These are the "fragments" you get when ever you load a unit on more than one ship or unload a unit before it is fully unloaded.

[CapAndGown]

May 4, 1943

It was another bloody day over Magwe. Allied losses were not as bad this time as last, yet were still over twice those of the Japanese.

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Morning Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid spotted at 10 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 2 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 59
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 42
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 16
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Raid detected at 15 NM, estimated altitude 33,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 55
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 41
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 16
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 21 NM, estimated altitude 33,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 43
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 36
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 16
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 14 NM, estimated altitude 33,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 3 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 31
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 31
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 16
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 19 NM, estimated altitude 35,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 4 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 26
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 22
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 16
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 38 NM, estimated altitude 32,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 21
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 19
Allied aircraft
P-40K Warhawk x 25
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Raid detected at 25 NM, estimated altitude 30,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 8 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 11
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 13
Allied aircraft
P-40K Warhawk x 25
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Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 31 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 6
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 8
Allied aircraft
Vengeance I x 48
P-40K Warhawk x 25
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Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 41 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 3
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 1
Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 29
Wellington Ic x 11
B-25C Mitchell x 32
P-40E Warhawk x 25
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 47 minutes

Allied aircraft
Vengeance I x 16
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Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 47 minutes

Allied aircraft
Vengeance I x 16
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Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 46 minutes

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb Trop x 16
Liberator II x 28
Wellington Ic x 16
B-24D1 Liberator x 12
B-25C Mitchell x 16
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes

Allied aircraft
B-24D1 Liberator x 24
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Raid detected at 160 NM, estimated altitude 34,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 55 minutes

Allied aircraft
P-40K Warhawk x 25
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Raid detected at 28 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 16

I count a total of 112 Hurricanes in 7 groups and 125 P-40s in 5 groups. 39 Hurricanes are reported lost and 27 P-40s as against 13 Nicks and 10 Tojos. Our fighter Sentai's claim a total of 39 kills while losing 2 pilots MIA, 7 WIA, and 4 KIA. Again, the target of the attacks was the oil centers. This time, however, only 15 oil centers were hit, leaving 63 operational.

Observations:
1) All except one of the high altitude sweeps were detected only about 20-40 NM away while the low altitude attacks were generally detected 120 NM away. This is pointing in the direction of a problem with the logic of the code. It also would seem to indicate that Kamikaze attacks should be conducted at super-high altitude.
2) Tojo's did better than Nicks, and P-40s did better than Hurricanes. While there may be some experience factors at play here (The Nick pilots are somewhat lower in experience than the Tojo pilots) the deciding factor seems to be speed. The faster plane will do better than the slower one on average. This has been the case since stock WitP, though it has been toned down some. Indeed, speed seems to trump durability and armor as a survivability factor. The Nicks are very durable and have armor, yet were more likely to be shot down than the Tojo's even though there were many more Tojo's. All the armor in the world is not going to help if an allied plane, with it very heavy armament, gets a bead on you.

I feel that witpqs is taking the wrong approach in this attempt to take out my oil. Were I him, I would flatten the airfields first, then take the oil at my leisure. The experience at Fiji has shown that Japanese airfields, even multiple airfields, can be shut down with relative ease. Since I only have two airfields operational in central Burma it would be relatively simple to shut them down and then bomb the oil centers unopposed.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

I feel that witpqs is taking the wrong approach in this attempt to take out my oil. Were I him, I would flatten the airfields first, then take the oil at my leisure. The experience at Fiji has shown that Japanese airfields, even multiple airfields, can be shut down with relative ease. Since I only have two airfields operational in central Burma it would be relatively simple to shut them down and then bomb the oil centers unopposed.

Absolutely, even a half dead airfield will put up fighters with lower morale and cause more operational losses. He is doing this all wrong. Lead with the heavies, then sweep with fighters and pound with the mediums. Rinse and repeat.

[CapAndGown]

May 5, 1943

No let up in the attacks on Magwe. I was expecting a break. Apparently, the allies had a few fresh formations. They may have also reran some formations that attacked yesterday. Certainly the fighter cover was not as heavy this time. A number of the lighter bombers were shot down.

We lost 4 pilots MIA, 3 WIA, and 6 KIA, while our Sentai's claimed 54 kills. Several new aces were created and several new 80+ experience pilots will soon be graduated to TRACOM as soon as replacements arrive.

The oil center did not take too many hits. 50 are still operational.

Again, note the behaviour of the radar: long detection distances for medium level attacks, short detection distances for high level attacks.
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Raid detected at 48 NM, estimated altitude 32,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 16 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 54
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 28
Allied aircraft
P-40K Warhawk x 25
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 38 NM, estimated altitude 33,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 51
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 22
Allied aircraft
P-40K Warhawk x 22
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 41 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 39
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 20
Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 14
Hurricane IIb Trop x 16
Hurricane IIc Trop x 8
Liberator II x 16
B-24D1 Liberator x 23
B-25C Mitchell x 32
P-40E Warhawk x 25
P-40K Warhawk x 7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 30 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 10
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 9
Allied aircraft
Wellington Ic x 11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 46 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 8
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 7
Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 15
Wellington Ic x 16
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 5
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 2
Allied aircraft
Liberator II x 12
B-24D1 Liberator x 12
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 2
Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 16

The first allied deliberate attack at Savusavu achieve 1-2 odds and dropped the forts from 3 to 2. Japanese casualties are much higher than allied. I suppose the base will fall tomorrow.

[Chickenboy]

CNG,

Nice work on the exchange ratio. I hope I can do as well against the gaijin in 1943. [&o]

[Kwik E Mart]

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

ORIGINAL: Kwik E Mart

ORIGINAL: cap_and_gown

Defending units:
27th Infantry Div /546
41st Infantry Div /541

quick question...what does /546 and /541 signify?

thanks...so you have at least 546 fragments floating around?

It means they have not yet fully unloaded. The parent unit is still on board the ships. These are the "fragments" you get when ever you load a unit on more than one ship or unload a unit before it is fully unloaded.

[CapAndGown]

I have no idea how the fragment thing works, particularly when unloading.

[CapAndGown]

May 9, 1943

Savusavu was captured today.

B-17s and B-24s have been regularly pounding my Naval Guard unit at Horn Island. Today it was completely destroyed. I pulled out a fragment earlier and it is now at Rabaul rebuilding. I imagine there will be a paradrop there soon. I am afraid the heavies are next going to turn their attention to New Guinea.

To get ready for the allied turn to New Guinea and the Solomons, I am evacuating everyone that is left in the New Hebredies and New Caledonia. A huge fleet just set sail from Rabaul so that I can pick everyone up very quickly and have them spread across multiple ships should we run into subs. There are 8 aviation battalions, 1 air flotilla, 3 AAA units with Ta-Chi 7 radar, 3 engineer units, 3 SNLF units, and an infantry regiment down there. Adding these forces to the Solomons will significantly strengthen my defenses.

Lessons learned from allied conquest of Fiji:

One of the main reasons I had to give up on Fiji is because the allies got bases within range from which they could sweep my bases with Corsairs. Between the 4E bombing and the sweeps, my fighter formations were no match. They had to pull out or be destroyed. This is not really a lesson, simply an explanation of one of the problems I faced in Fiji.

As to lessons learned, I found that even multiple bases can be shut down by allied 4E if there is not adequate engineering support. Therefore, I am grabbing additional engineers from places where I judge their presence less vital and moving them to the Solomons/New Guinea.

I will also have more, and more closely interlocking bases in the Solomons/New Guinea than in Fiji. This way spill over CAP from one base can support a base under attack.

Radar was another issue. I was not getting adequate warning of raids to have my fighters intercepting the bombers before they released their loads. To deal with this, I am going to be installing Ta-Chi 7 equipped units at as many bases as possible.

Another lesson that was not really applicable to the Fiji situation, but was nonetheless emphasized by the results there, is the necessity of surface naval forces to protect my airbases. I did not choose to commit surface naval forces in Fiji and looking back, I would still have made that choice. Fiji is not vital and I was not going to risk high value assets to defend it. This is not the case with New Guinea/Solomons. There I will have a large commitment of surface naval forces. These forces can intercept invasion fleets and bombard enemy air bases.

The value of concentration was also driven home. More bases, more fighters and more aviation support.

The ability to reinforce threatened bases was not tested in the Fiji operation. Part of my plan of defense for the Solomons and the DEI is to have ready reaction forces set to sail at a moment's notice when an enemy invasion materializes. I have a division in reserve at Rabaul. Another division is in reserve at Singapore. And I plan to have another division in reserve at Kendari in the near future. This concept, however, was not tested and so I cannot say if it will work. Also, the idea of flying in paratrooper units as reinforcements was not tested, which is also part of my defensive plan.

One area that was successfully tested was the ability of LBA to atrit allied carrier CAP. Although we only achieved one hit on a CVE, our Tojo's did very well at shooting down carrier based Wildcats. Of course, in the future we will be facing Hellcats instead of Wildcats. Yet it still seems that our LBA should be able erode allied carrier CAP before our own CVs are committed.

[PaxMondo]

Watching and reading with great attention.  I like you review of lessons learned from Fiji ... even better how you used Fiji as a test ground to see how your opponent will be attacking.

[CapAndGown]

May 15, 1943

As I suspected, 4E raids on New Guinea have commenced. Milne Bay was attacked first by P-38s on sweep and then by B-17s. Supposedly 13 P-38s were lost and 4 B-17s while 10 Tojo's were destroyed.

It would have been nice if I had a few more days. I have aviation support coming up from the New Hebrides to install on the bases around Milne Bay to increase the defenses there. They are about 5 days away from establishing fighter strips there. Already, engineers are working on fortifications; I don't want the strips to go active until I have aviation support in place, so I stopped building the airfields just as they were almost done. As soon as the aviation support arrives it will only take one or two turns to have operational air strips.

So far the evacuation of the New Hebrides has gone off without a hitch. The convoys mate up tomorrow just west of Luganville and then everyone heads for the Solomons where some will take the aviation battalions over to the Milne Bay area to establish my new fighter strips. Others are going to the Guadacanal area which I expect to come under attack after the allies set up bases in the Santa Cruz Islands.

The Combined Fleet has been thoroughly reorganized at Hollandia. I spent a lot of PPs getting all my ship captains up to stuff, including even destroyer captain. The Fleet is now sailing for Rabual where the last of the Val units will be upgraded to Judy's. From there I am thinking of sailing south where I expect the allies to launch their next invasion, most likely at Fiji, but also possibly at Noumea.

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

Watching and reading with great attention.  I like you review of lessons learned from Fiji ... even better how you used Fiji as a test ground to see how your opponent will be attacking.

Thanks for the feedback.

[FatR]

A good delaying action. Southern Pacific islands certainly served as useful forefield there, even if because your opponent decided to be conservative. Can you give us a rough estimate of air losses taken by Japan and Allies over Samoa and Fiji, as well as Japanese pilot losses.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: FatR

A good delaying action. Southern Pacific islands certainly served as useful forefield there, even if because your opponent decided to be conservative. Can you give us a rough estimate of air losses taken by Japan and Allies over Samoa and Fiji, as well as Japanese pilot losses.

I am afraid I don't really know how much I lost down around Fiji. A number of bomber pilots were lost when I tried naval attacks. Fortunately, I have lots of trained bomber pilots, both IJA and IJN.

My over all loses are:
KIA: 499
MIA: 275
WIA: 271

Most of the WIA will probably come back, so only about 750 have been permanently lost.

I try to keep pilot losses down by fighting over my own bases. My idea is to make him come to me. There have been very few instances where I will go to him so far.

Currently, I have about 500 pilots in the IJN reserve pool, and 350 pilots in the IJA reserve pool. The IJA has been doing most of the fighting since they have the better plane, the Tojo, and I had been trying to hold back IJN pilots for anti-shipping purposes. Now that my reserves in IJN pilots is greater than IJA pilots, I would like to see the IJN take over more of the workload. The problem is the Zero is just too fragile and slow. Until the George and Jack come on line it is hard to see the IJN playing much of a role in the LBA war.

[FatR]

Excellent work at preserving your pilots. I'll be happy if I lose only as much after four months of the war as Japan.

[CapAndGown]

May 16, 1943

As expected, 4E raids continued over Milne Bay. Today it was B-17F's (yesterday it was the E model) Two were shot down. Tomorrow I am expecting B-24's. Not sure if the P-38's will be back tomorrow or the next day. I expect a concerted effort to try to shut down Milne Bay.

In a few days that strategy will no longer be of much use as I will have 3 more airfields set up adjacent to Milne Bay. The evacuation convoy from the New Hebrides has set sail and many of those forces will be going to the eastern tip of New Guinea. The SS Gar did manage to torpedo one of my escorts, but the troops ships are still intact. I imagine we will run into at least one other sub as we make the crossing from the New Hebrides to the Solomons.

I just got my first 4 escort ships equipped with anti-sub mortars. They just finished refit at Singapore and are heading up to the Home Islands as a dedicated ASW force, my first. Indeed, I paid some PPs giving them good captains and a good TF commander. There are beau coup allied subs up around the home islands, so it should be a good hunting ground to test this new anti-sub weapon. Their only drawback is their rather low experience which is only 45 both day and night.

Finished tweaking the KB. Today I went through and checked on squadron commanders, changing those that were not so good. I also set up the squadrons with the settings I want so that they are ready to go. Basically, each cardiv has around 3 CV with A6M3a's set at 15k, 20k, and 25k, with a max range of 15 hexes (using drop tanks). Judy's are set at 10k with a max range of 14 hexes (using drop tanks), while one set of Kate's are set at 14k while another is set at 19k. Kates are set with a max range of 7 hexes so they will only fly if they can use their torpedoes. I am looking to have both a layered CAP and a multi-level strike package.

[CapAndGown]

May 17, 1943

Due to my evacuation of New Caledonia and the New Hebrides, I no longer have land based search capability down around Fiji. The runways down there are shutdown, so it would be pointless to fly anybody in. To make up for this deficit, I sent four subs with Glens down to Fiji to alert me if something is up. Well I just got a spotting report that may indicate carriers are at Savusavu. The rollover indicates CAs, but the audio from the spotting had the "send main body" message which is usually associated with carriers. So I am not sure what the deal is, but there is something down there probably worth taking a shot at.

The Combined Fleet reached Rabaul today. We topped up the tanks and converted some more Vals to Judy's. Only one squadron of carrier based Vals remains to be upgraded. After this top up, the fleet was ordered to set sail for the southern Pacific. If I am lucky, my fleet will show up just as an invasion is in progress. It is a shame I can't use Luganville as a forward fleet base, but I didn't want to wait too long before proceeding with the evacuation.