'Tis light as a feather... No Panzerjaeger Hortlund

[vaned74]

That is odd. I just ran a test on Scenario 14 Downfall and they upgraded fine, but, only when in rest training mode with replacements on. With replacements on and in combat mode they did not upgrade TOE. Units will upgrade devices with replacements on, but, it does not appear the TOEs (at least on these units) will upgrade unless they are in rest training mode.

[Smeulders]

They will upgrade devices just fine in combat mode, maybe that is what Nemo is referring to ? TOE doesn't upgrade without being in rest mode I think.

[Nemo121]

Hmm, so how do I tell which have a valid TO&E upgrade?

I am getting device upgrades but I just assumed TO&Es upgraded.... As it is I can't find any way to figure out if a unit has a TO&E upgrade or not...


Obviously I can check the editor for these two units but I can't check the editor for every unit... Is there some onscreen hint I am unaware of?

[Smeulders]

If you are looking at the TOE of a unit in-game you will have the following line on top. "The TOE of this unit includes". If it is white, the unit has no TOE upgrades. If it is yellow, the TOE can upgrade. Once you click on the line, the upgraded TOE will be shown. On top you will now either see 'the TOE of this unit can upgrade now' or 'Upgrade TOE (x days).

[vaned74]

Good info Smeulders - I did not know this! I just found out about the BFs looking around the editor one day.

[Nemo121]

Smeulders, Vaned...

Well I had a look at a saved game from 12th September 45 and what you say is right....

1. The yellow line does signify the possibility of a TO&E upgrade and

2. Units appear to need to be in REST/TRAINING mode to upgrade. I found this out by checking my units in Korea where I had a lot of units resting in order to repair disabled squads and found quite a few of them had upgraded not only their devices ( which is good cause the IJA 1945 pattern infantry squads are much better vs armour than the previous squads ) but had also upgraded their TO&E to the 1945/46 pattern for Infantry Divisions ( this new pattern basically removed lots of the extraneous 70mm howitzers etc ) and focussed on standardising on 75mm field guns, 47mm AT guns and 40mm AAA guns as well as, proportionally, more support squads.


So,since Korea has begun, inadvertently, upgrading I'll finish the upgrading there, then move it into Hokkaido and finally the rest of the Home Islands. China will be last as once the resources and oil are out of China I actually have no reason to remain there at all.

[beppi]

ORIGINAL: Nemo121

Thanks Damian, so basically I can get 72,000 tons of transports loaded in Shanghai in a single day and that's the practical limit of my TFs at Shanghai.

72,000 tons = 12 x 6,000 ton xAKs and I can, if I commit, a 240 Naval Support Fleet HQ load 6,000 tons+ per ship per day.

That means I should be aiming to export 72,000 tons of supply or resources per day from Shanghai. I'm getting about half of that - but I don't have a Fleet HQ in place. I'm going to make that a major priority next turn. Logistics, logistics, logistics.

As additional info, if you use TFs in Amphip mode with enough Naval Support there is no daily load limit depending on the port size when loading fuel or supplies, but there seems to be a limit for ressources and oil.

An just to be shure i just tested it, port 0, 1500 Naval support loads 400k supply a turn and around 280k fuel a turn to a amphip tf constisting of xAKs. But at maximum of around 5k for the large xAKs.

[Nemo121]

Ah I wish I'd known that two weeks ago beppi... It would have helped me move stuff by now. Ah well, maybe next time.


Today saw the beginning of pinprick raids by my PTs into the waters around Okinawa - using Amami Oshima as a base - and PH sending a CL TF into the waters in between Japan and Shanghai. My TFs managed to mostly evade him although 3 SCs escorting a damaged tanker got caught and all 4 ships were sunk.

I'm in the process of re-organising my transport TFs on the basis of info from this thread so I'll leave things as they are for a week or so, convert a few more units to kamikazes and then begin sortieing convoys again except this time they'll have strong IJN escorts and significant submarine and torpedo-bomber cover. I'm sure he is LRCAPing his TFs but I am confident I can break through LRCAP at a range of 10+ hexes from Okinawa.

In other news he sank about 6 or 7 damaged ships in Shanghai harbour with B-29s and is destroying the defences of Ishigaki island with B-17s.


It'll be interesting to see how he develops this front once he has Ishigaki and the Okinawan islands all in his hands... I think he may go for Formosa as a decoy and then go for the Kuriles with his main force. Of course prudence requires that I plan for other eventualities and that is most assuredly taking place.


This talk of the A7M3J caused me to check upgrade paths of the IJNAAF and I found that FAR fewer IJAAF planes could upgrade to the J7W1 than I had previously thought. It looks like the A7M2 will have to remain in use throughout the end of the war. Indeed I'll even have to increase production about 50%. The A7M2 doesn't upgrade to the A7M3J - which is, I think an error I'll fix, so it looks like the land-based IJNAF units can fly either A7M3Js or J7W1s. From what I can see the J7W1 should be superior as it has four centreline 30mm cannon while the A7M3Js four forward-firing cannons are in the wings and thus have half the accuracy. The A7M3J has a schrage musik installation but I'm not convinced with how well that will work during the daytime to be honest. It seems to me the B-29s and B-17s have bottom turrets capable of blasting the A7M3Js apart. I wonder if the good results being reported are just the result of having 4 x 30mm cannon. If that's so then the J7W1s should be even better. Ah well, we'll soon find out.

Overall though just shuttling more troops into the Kuriles and waiting for the Ki-94 and J7W1 and trying to fine-tune the upgrade process so I get enough of what I need. I'm also concentrating my strategic reserve ( all my armoured units and a couple of the few full-strength IJA infantry divisions ) and plotting how to get it to the threatened region as quickly as possible.

I also finished my first cull of pilots from training units today.... I basically culled some 2,000 IJAAF and IJNAF pilots with A2A skill in excess of 70 and have them in the general reserve. I also pulled some 500 or so pilots with either ground bombing or torpedo attack skill in excess of 70. Many of these pilots were guys in these units who began the game with 60+ Exp so this is the largest cull I'm going to be able to make for the entire war. Still, I hope to keep up with demand through the judicious use of small amounts of fighters to withstand larger enemy formations on the most favourable terms possible ( thus guaranteeing that my pilots return even when shot down ).

Kamikaze training is coming along nicely. It looks like they might make 20 Low Naval Attack Exp per month which would mean that they'd get from 10 Exp to 50 Exp in 2 months. At that rate I should graduate around 2,000 trained kamikaze pilots per month. That's good as I can probably expend roughly that number per month once we really get going.

In terms of purely kamikaze production I will soon be making 192 Ki-74s, 320 Ki-43IIIs, 400 Ohkas and 24 Ki-115s per month. That's 940 planes. Throw in a portion of the 188 D4Y4s, 148 B7A2s and 104 Ki-67 Ts ( 440 daylight-only strike planes ) and the Ki-84rs once they become completely outmoded in aerial combat ( 250 per month ) and you can see that at a minimum I'll be looking to expend 940 kamikazes per month and could be expending 1630 per month quite easily.

[Nemo121]

Well PH mounted a fairly daring raid into the Yellow Sea with a CL TF. He stayed there for two days and managed to catch 3 or 4 convoys. End result - about 30 Japanese SC and small xAKs and TKs sunk. It was a very nice move on his part and quite aggressive. I got quite a few submarine shots at the ships and also sortied some Jills and Betties but, unfortunately, none hit.


I've been actively hunting his CVEs recently and today got rewarded with the third solid sub attack on a CVE when I-151 got a Type 95 torpedo into the CVE Corregidor. There was a massive fuel explosion and so I'm hopeful the Corregidor will be destroyed. Unfortunately she was very close to port so she may have ported at Vigan etc. I'll check for her there and try some port attacks if I spot her.

Minor kamikaze raids continued with Ki-43IIIs getting through and sinking a couple of USN SCs and 3 more Patsys running into 200-strong CAP over Okinawa.


Evacuation of two areas - both of which will significantly surprise PH - have begun and a moderate reinforcement of another region has also begun.

In other news: I'm continuing to count down until the arrival of the Ki-94II and PH sent in a "small" B29 raid on Tsingtao - one of my "sacrificial training bases". I had forgotten I had based 2 x Frances units there and I regret losing 40 of them on the ground. Apart from that though I lost about 300 trainers ( Willows etc ) which are worthless. I thanked PH for destroying them. He can't figure out why. The key, of course, is supply usage.

I put these planes in China to invite bomber raids destroying them on the ground. These training groups were costing me 25,000 tons of supply per month. Now my requirement is down to 2,000 tons of supplies. PH has just saved my training programme from costing me an additional 328,000 tons of supplies over the next fourteen months. I based the planes in China to:
a) use up supplies in China instead of the Home Islands and
b) be bombed down to a more manageable supply usage before being brought back to the Home Islands.

I can still train as many pilots with 1 plane in the squadron as when I have 36. The supply cost just gets reduced by over 97% So, it cost me 300 useless planes and 40 useful ones ( by accident ) but it has saved me a LOT of supplies in the long run. Its a good day for the IJNAF. Now all I need to do is get him to do the same for the IJAAF and I'll be set and can bring them home to train within the Home Islands also.


In other news I told PH my solution for the heavy bomber issue in AE as heavy bombers are, perhaps, a bit too durable but are definitely far too lethal to enemy fighters. B-17s regularly are better at sweeping an IJAAF base than USAAF fighters are. My solution is not to fiddle with durability but, instead, change weapon accuracy for the bombers on the basis of 3 turret types:
1. Hand-aimed MG not in a turret ( side fuselage mounting on B17s ) Gets a K of 0.125.

2. Turret-mounted MGs in basic turrets ( rear-seat gunners in Judys, B7A2s, the tail gunner in the B-17 etc ). Get a K of 0.25

3. Turret-mounted MGs in hydraulic turrets with proper sights etc etc All of the turrets in the B-29, the ball and top turrets in the B-17 etc. Get a K of 0.5


Overall this reduction in accuracy doesn't prevent the bomber frightening fighters off with defensive fire but it does prevent them from destroying and crippling as many. This gives the fighters more passes and the end result seems to be a lot more bombers damaged over time while about as many fighters get damaged ( but over the course of more firing passes ).

Bombers are still very durable and many survive multiple hits but they don't slaughter fighters as easily. Overall combats tend to go a bit more like Bombing The Reich and history than they currently do.

I'll have to check the K values in-play etc obviously so PH has agreed to test the solution in this game. I'll also take the opportunity, with his permission, to fix the Ohkas so they can be air-launched... Those are the only two changes we're making. I still won't make much use of Ohkas as they require a different skillset than I am training my bombers crews in but it'll be nice to have the option of having them work somewhat reasonably.

[Nemo121]

So, as of yesterday the Allies have lost 3 CVEs - almost certainly complete with their fighters even though the last two weren't accompanied by commensurate ops losses of CV-based fighters. I'm launching about 20 kamis per day of which about 7 or 8 are getting through and getting an average of 2 hits per day. A significant percentage of these hits are hitting USN BBs and wasting themselves on belt armour though. Why? Simple, the ones which get through tend to be the low-level kamis as they are spotted late by radar and so are intercepted by fewer fighters. Low altitude kamis, rightly, tend to hit belt armour rather than deck armour while plunging kamis diving down from maximum altitude tend to hit the deck. Still, it keeps the pressure on and that's good.

Ishigaki Island looks like it will be invaded over the next 3 or 4 days so I've stopped flying any troops in. I've gotten about 1/3rd of a Mixed Brigade there as well as 2 or 3 squads of 2 other units. It looks like a significant investment but, really, it is just a distraction.


The Ki-84r is coming off the production lines in good numbers now, 6 to 7 planes per day and this has allowed me to upgrade an additional 2 units to Ki-84rs while still using the Ki-84as and bs to carry the brunt of the fighting and expend themselves as I await the arrival of the next generation of fighters. Ki-43 III numbers are also building nicely. I currently have 920 of them in the pool with about 500 on-map. So, by the end of next month I should have a pool of 2,000 Ki-43 IIIs which can be dedicated purely to kamikaze attacks.


PH is also beginning to get a bit adventurous over Southern Japan. He has noted that my defences only really begin around Nagasaki/Fukuoka etc. So I've set a little trap for him.... It has all the subtlety of a chainsaw massacre in a phonebox and it'll cost me more than it costs him but the goal isn't to win a cheap victory, the goal is to convince him to step back a little because Japan has teeth, claws and a bad disposition. He gets some 200 P-51Hs per month. I've downed about 50 and I'm looking to get another 150 by the end of the month no matter the cost. If I can stop the P-51Hs from building up their numbers I am confident I can handle the P-51Ds and P-47Ns pretty easily. The key is killing the P-51Hs.

I've also been looking at his bombers and while the B-29-25s are formidable the B-29Bs only have two rear MGs and so are pretty vulnerable to interception. He gets something like 50 x B-29-25s and 40 x B-29Bs per month. This means that 40 of the B-29s he gets are easy meat for fighters, relatively speaking, if only I can intercept them. Given that he has lost some 40 B-29s already to ops, FlAK and a couple of fighter interceptions even a single good mob ambush could bring him to a month's worth of B-29 losses ( 90 planes ). Again, the goal is to prevent B-29 experience and numbers increasing beyond the level at which he feels he can simply mob rush Tokyo or Osaka and accept 150 bomber losses in return for destroying a significant proportion of my HI.


In other news: It seems that the data updates to turreted weapons cannot be included in this game. That's a pity as it is a significant improvement on stock IMO. Ah well, we play the game we have.... which includes the rather strange lack of replacements for Allied night fighters - which I'm exploiting by running night attacks in order to attrit the few P-61s he does have such that in 1946 I'll have freedom from interception and can then unleash a slightly larger number of Ki-264s ( I doubt I'll ever be able to afford to build more than 12 per month. With that said, if those 12 can fly 8 times a month and put bombs in 3 or 4 USN ships each of those nights then that investment of 2592HI ( the cost of 12 bombers - equivalent to 72 fighters ) will yield a significant return and force the USN to base farther back than Okinawa/the Kuriles whenever they get around to capturing one of those islands.

I'll run the rest of them, have a final check over the data - which won't fix the upgrades as I think some of those represent an interesting strategic choice: push in the first two to three weeks with less force while your enemy might have most of his force docked for upgrading or wait and when you do push in 3 weeks time have much more effective units going forward ---- and then look into getting it hosted somewhere.

[Nemo121]

Today, 18th September 1945, saw the first real Japanese resistance towards Allied fighter sweeps over Japan. Basically two squadrons of Ki-84As and N1K5Js opposed a sweep by 60 P-51Hs over south-eastern Japan. Previously the P-51Hs have absolutely butchered any of my fighters which ran sweeps over Allied bases while my fighters did reasonably well vs them once I put high-experience squadrons up. When I put medium-experience squadrons up ( as I did over SHanghai ) then the P-51Hs butchered them.

Today I downed 16 P-51s in return for 9 Japanese fighters. So, a 1.7 to 1 exchange rate in my favour and counting on the fact that far more of my pilots will survive it is probably over 2:1 in my favour in terms of pilot losses.


In other news the Allies are on Ishigaki Island and it will fall within 2 days or so. Once that happens he'll come for Formosa, which I am busily trying to evacuate... I need another month to evacuate it properly but I doubt I'll get that time. If I can't pull the heavy equipment out of Formosa then I'll just pull out the infantry and then fly those infantry into Southern Japan and Korea to rebuild.

Right now my problem is low manpower levels, not low armament levels.


Still, overall, the key points today were that I blunted a P-51H squadron which is pretty much the best fighter he gets until the end of the year. He gets something like 200 per month so a loss of 16 isn't huge BUT it shows he can't just sweep with 50 P-51Hs and then send in B-29s. That's important.

Most of my important cities now have 200 to 300 fighters in attendance with very important cities having 400+ fighters in attendance. Many aren't great fighters ( eg. Mg-armed Ki-61s etc ) but pretty soon they'll upgrade - I'm making 200 Ki-84s per month and 80 A7M2s, 50 N1K5Js and another 50 Ki-100s - to better-armed and more capable version.

My pilot reserve ( all pilots, bomber, fighter etc including the IJAAF and IJNAF is now just over 3,500 pilots ). So, things are beginning to look up. In another fortnight I'll begin building my kamikaze divisions.

[Nemo121]

19th September..

Night-time bmbing raids resulted in a bomb in the AS Griffin and another in the AGP Antigone. Only my Ki-264 unit is achieving many hits. That is because the other units committed are sacrificial and only have 40 to 50 Exp pilots. Their lack of hits is, hopefully, being interpreted as a sign of the failure of night-bombing to be truly dangerous to ships in port. In time I intend to unleash a few 30 x strong Ki-264 raids and do some serious damage with 70 to 80 ground attack skill pilots. Not now though, not until he has his first landing against my inner ring of defences and is putting ships into port to recover from damage sustained therein.

I also sortied 43 torpedo bombers at night and they attacked 5 CVEs, the BB Arkansas and the CL Trenton. I lost 9 of the bombers to 14 of the bombers to AAA - seriously, how much more effective is AAA supposed to be? It looks pretty right to me right now... Unfortunately none of the torpedoes hit. Ah well, over time some will.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning Air attack on TF, near Orchid Island at 86,68

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 160 NM, estimated altitude 40,750 feet.

The Ki-43s flew in above the ceiling of the Hellcats and got to make undisturbed attacks. A few were shot down by AAA but roughly 1/3rd made successful crash dives.

Estimated time to target is 40 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIb Oscar x 16



Allied aircraft
F6F-5 Hellcat x 4


Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIb Oscar: 11 destroyed


Allied Ships
CL Marblehead
DD Algonquin
CL Uganda, Kamikaze hits 1
CL Ontario, Kamikaze hits 3, on fire
LSD Epping Forest, Kamikaze hits 1, on fire
CL Concord
AKA Tyrell, Kamikaze hits 1, on fire
DD Barfleur



Aircraft Attacking:
16 x Ki-43-IIb Oscar flying as kamikaze
Kamikaze: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb

So, 6 x 250 Kg bombs into Uganda. Each hit penetrated the deck armour. That must put it out of action for the next phase. It won't sink but it'll be out of action for a while anyway. Hitting the LSD is also a nice bonus.

Again with a low naval skill of 30 roughly 30% of the kamis got hits. Assuming this linearity continues I should be good to go with my Ki-94 kami squadrons once the trainees hit 50 low naval skill although I'm thinking of committing a few training squadrons just to Ki-94 kamis and using them to churn out 60+ Exp kamis so as to get the most benefit from the uninterceptable Ki-94s.


In other news Formosa is now being hit very hard and Ishigaki fell = the use of literally 800 bopmbers to ground attack for multiple days in succession just at eup the supplies and left the units very brittle. Still, they did their job, they are delaying the Allies and buying me precious days. Soon though we'll see more fighter sweeps over Japan and the invasion of Formosa.


Well, that's all the news that is fit to print. The Ki-94, Ki-74 and J7W still haven't advanced. Hurry up guys, I can't fight this conventionally and win...

[Nemo121]

20th September...


Lots of bad weather everywhere so there was very little air activity. The Allies did finally land at Palembang and since the Imperial Guards Division is at only 1/3rd strength and without air cover Palembang should fall rather quickly.

In other news the various evacuations and re-allocations continue apace. In other news I expended 2 Ohkas and destroyed a USN subchaser. The next battle will be for Formosa - albeit not in the way he expects.


In terms of production I am repairing 21 engine and 26 aircraft assembly factories per day and experiencing a deficit of 72,000 tons per day overall. I need to sutain that loss rate for another 15 days or so, burning through an additional 1,000,000 tons of supplies and reducing my starting stockpile of 5 million tons of supplies to just over 2.5 million. At that point I can stop the massive industrial expansion I began and focus on rebuilding my supply stockpiles.

In terms of HI - I have reduced my HI consumption almost to sustenance levels and am building a reasonable stockpile. Total HI production is 8,760 per turn abd I am saving a significant percentage of that. I won't say what, precisely, as I think that is too sensitive given the previous leak.

[Nemo121]

September 21st...

Well the effects of fatigue are huge in-game... I had forgotten to retire the fighters at Fukuoka from my LRCAP ambush at Kagoshima with the end result that after 4 days or so of 100% LRCAP those extremely fatigued pilots ( 40 to 50 fatigue for every pilot in the N1K5J groups ) ran into fresh P-47s. The end result was something like 4 or 5 P-47s downed in return for 44 N1K5Js. Fortunately I only lost about 20 pilots from the Georges so it isn't an utter disaster.

In other news the Ohkas finally killed the 4th subchaser in the ASW flotilla cruising off southern Formosa while I managed some nice high level kamikaze attacks. I get two A6M7s to crash into the deck armour of two USN CAs operating around Formosa and managed to put 2 x Ki-74s into the deck armour of the USS Pennsylvania.

Elsewhere the first Shinyo attack of the war failed when the leader of the TF decided to abort the raid despite coming across an LST/ LSI convoy. An aggression of 19 surely didn't help. He has been replaced and the attack will go in again tomorrow.


Operation Continue Production Even After Nukes (OCPEAN) is really picking up pace. As of right now I am making 8,760 HI per turn and am saving 49.2% of that HI per turn. Basically my goal is to be able to survive to the end of the game even if total Japanese HI is reduced to nothing by the end of June 1946. I'm planning for the long-term and assuming zero HI production from 1st July 1946. Under the current circumstances I should be able to maintain a credible defence right to the end of the game even in those circumstances. My weak point will be supply but I also have options for dealing with that.


Tomorrow the first offensive amphibious operations of the current campaign will be carried out. A half division's worth of troops will make a small thrust into the Aleutians. It is a pinprick but observing his response and evolving amphibious doctrine should prove interesting.

[FatR]

I'm at a loss why an Allied player should respond at all (beyond maybe using light forces staged there already) to Japanese offensive moves in Aleutians, instead of jumping with joy that his opponent burns fuel and commits troops to strategic nowhere (I'm not familiar with Allied disposition, but, based on RL, even a Curiles invasion must probably use Central Pacific as the staging point). Well, except as a kneejerk reaction. The most important result will be showing whether your opponent is prone to these.

[Nemo121]

FatR,

A few things:

1. Knowing if your opponent is prone to easy manipulation and distraction is hugely important if you're going to try to play with his OODA cycle.

2. Knowing that he isn't is just as important [8D]

3. My establishing floatplane bases in the Aleutians will force him to base his invasion forces in Hawaii and forcing him to base farther away can only help me - as well as allowing me to spot any invasion TFs farther out and prepare for them a bit better.

4. So, if he is serious about the Kuriles he'll have to respond. If he doesn't respond forcefully then I'll know he isn't going for the Kuriles.


Obviously if he sends counter-invasion force these can be either:
1. A serious attempt to clear the Aleutians cause he wants to invade the Kuriles or

2. A maskirovka to maintain a pretence of seriousness about invading the Kuriles or

3. A feint within a larger deception.

Once I see what he commits and how I'll be better able to tell precisely what his intentions regarding the Kuriles are.



Right now my absolute strategic priority is to determine the location of his thrust. Since I cannot move troops ships around under the might of his airpower I have to rely on prepositioning of forces to ensure I have enough available on whatever islands he invades in order to hold him off - or delay him depending on my plan for the region. I can't put enough force everywhere so I need to try to determine his plans and pre-position forces accordingly. Losing the guts of half a division to do so is well worth the cost to me. My assessment is that the Aleutians is the only place I can invade cheaply which will show me whether or not he is serious about the Kuriles and at what level his strategic deceptions operate ( the latter might be even more important information than the former ).

You're right though. Strategically in a positional or attritional sense an invasion of the Aleutians isn't a great move.... but I'm making a gambit to gain information, not position.

[Nemo121]

22nd September.

More night-time torpedo raids on the USN fleets around Okinawa yield nothing but misses, and a few dead B6N2as. Shinyos attempted to intervene also but were swept aside by a USN SC TF of 2 BB, 2 CA and multiple DDs.

3 x Ki-264s sortie and manage to put a bomb into an AVD. The 12 x Ki-264s have done so well that I have decided to actually begin building some. I'm looking into building an average of 24 per month whilst cutting the number of G9Ms produced to just 12 per month. This will require an expenditure of 192 engines per month. Currently I'm making 64 but will expand production a little to cover the number of Ki-264s I wish to build. Over the last 22 days I've lost 5 x Ki-264s. Over time I'd expect my loss rate to stabilise at about 6 Ki-264s per month.


5 Ki-74 sortied and one managed to hit the BB Pennsylvania. It didn't penetrate the armour but every bit helps.

The real news of the day was the first proper full-strength kamikaze attack by a Ki-43 III Sentai. I have found the key to be putting in aggressive commanders. Aggressive commanders with a high naval skill really result in noticeably more sorties and hits.
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Iba at 78,75

Weather in hex: Overcast

Raid detected at 160 NM, estimated altitude 39,750 feet.
Estimated time to target is 40 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-IIIa Oscar x 36



Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-IIIa Oscar: 23 destroyed

Allied Ships
CL Marblehead, Kamikaze hits 2
CL Concord, Kamikaze hits 1
CL Ontario
DD McKee, Kamikaze hits 1
DD McCord, Kamikaze hits 1
LSD Carter Hall
CL Amsterdam
CL Uganda, Kamikaze hits 4
DD Barfleur, Kamikaze hits 1, heavy damage
DD Southerland, Kamikaze hits 1
DD McNair
AKA New Hanover
AKA Cepheus

Aircraft Attacking:
36 x Ki-43-IIIa Oscar flying as kamikaze

My pilots claim the DD Barfleur and a Royal Navy pattern CL as kills. I'm not so sure about the CL but I would imagine the Barfleur is toast and the Uganda will be in dock for quite a while as will an additional 3 DDs. A nice return on 36 outdated airframes - especially when I soon aim to be making 280 of them per month.


In other news 2 US Divisions land on Amami Oshima and suffer 604 disabled combat squads, 482 disabled non-combat squads, 292 disabled vehicles and 117 guns disabled. OUCH!!!

Amami Oshima will definitely fall tomorrow or, at worst, the day after. That's fine, it was never going to hold anyways.


In terms of other news... I landed at Ulak and captured it. Tomorrow I land at the base beside it. I may base Ki-74s there as per my previous plan.

The main news of the day is that the Ki-74 began production, 8 days early and the J7W1 has moved up again to be available in October 1945. That's GREAT news... Once October rolls around my production numbers of capable fighters is going to skyrocket and I'll actually have a chance of going toe to toe with the USAAF over southern Japan.

[FatR]

I'm surprized by pathetic damage from these kamikaze attacks, particularly against armored targets. 4 hits by normal 250-kg bombs would have been crippling, possibly even immediately fatal, for a CL.

[Xxzard]

I had not thought much of it before, but shouldn't you get greatly reduced intel from strikes made by kamikazes? It would make sense that kamikaze attacks should suffer from extreme fog of war if all the planes of a strike group are destroyed. I have not heard of any such rule or code, but it would make sense. Historically, I have heard one reason for sometimes ineffective kamikaze tactics was a lack of feedback on the effectiveness of attacks.

[Nemo121]

Aye, I think the issue may be FOW. If I had to guess I'd say that a large number of the attacks which are reported as being successful aren't. I suggest that you ask PH just how many hits are actually occurring vs what my guys are reporting. At least then you'll know what the true ratio is.

FWIW each Ki-43 carries TWO x 250Kg bombs, not one so that CL was hit by 8 x 250 Kg bombs today, if my pilots are to be believed. This is why I believe I didn't get 4 kamis to hit but, instead, maybe got another hit and got 3 FOW hits.

It wouldn't surprise me if you get more accurate feedback if you have escorts who don't kami escorting the raid so someone returns back with the results of the raid than if you send in nothing but kamis and they all die.