Empire of the Rising Lemon? SqzMyLemon (Japan) v Smeulders (Allies)

[SqzMyLemon]

Too funny Damian, I have to wipe off my keyboard now. I should not have been drinking at the time, water everywhere!

By more detailed look, what is it you'd need to know to give a better opinion? I don't understand the Voodoo economics comment to be honest. Are you saying whether I accelerate or not the amount of points I use will be the same? I think I understand that actually, but I guess you're saying it's slow and steady, or spend and have the toys now kind of choice as either way it will all come out a wash in the end.

I'll post some tracker screenshots if you need some, just tell me which ones. I actually need to have an idea if I'm in good, so-so or bad shape production wise. I have no clue right now although I'm leaning towards so-so heading to poor. [:D]

[SqzMyLemon]

I've just read through my AAR again and one thought strikes me time and again...indecisive! No wonder I've struggled when I look at all the half measures and constant changes in operational plans which have made any overall strategic plan impossible to formulate. I have never really focused/realized until now just how much my emotions influence my decision making. With this now in mind I'm looking at how best to go forward from here.

I'll update what's been happening soon and get everyone back to speed. Essentially there are now two active theatres, China and Burma. China has been ongoing since the war started, but Burma is now showing signs of being where the Allies will first push back. Large Allied troop concentrations are moving to/from Akyab which appears to be the initial axis of advance. It's a conservative approach that requires little to no naval commitment on the part of the Allies and was predicted months ago as a likely early Allied theatre of operations.

Due to poor initial play I've limited myself to primarily defending a rather small perimeter with little chance to interdict Allied transport or fleet TF movements to date. Freedom of movement has allowed Allied troops/supplies/fuel to redeploy to forward bases and Australia with a minimal commitment of Allied surface ships as there has been no threat of interdiction from Japanese forces to date. An effort will be made to start probing Allied forward bases with the goal of drawing out Allied surface ships to defend against the disruption of further troop deployments and the stockpiling of supply/fuel.

Immediate strategic goals for the remainder of 1942.

1. Continued offensive operations in China to maintain pressure on Chinese forces, improve Japanese lines of communication, resource/fuel/oil extraction and creation of a strong defensive perimeter to allow redeployment of LCU's to the Pacific theatre.

2. Contain the Allied offensive in Burma by deployment of tactical reserves, limit air operations to defence of controlled territory and creation of a strategic reserve to allow an Anzio type landing at Akyab to isolate and destroy a portion of the Allied army if the opportunity presents itself.

3. Disruption of further Allied deployment of troops and material to forward bases in the Southeast Pacific. Force the Allies to commit substantial fleet assets to protecting these movements and destroy them.

4. Protecting Malasia, Sumatra, Java and the Celebes are the primary goal. Main line of defence in the Central Pacific will be the Mariana's and Caroline's. Mimimal defensive measures will be committed in defence of the Marshall's or Gilberts. The Solomon's will be defended by means of counterinvasions not a static defence. Defensive reserves to be deployed at Truk, Saipan, Babeldoab, Soerabja and Singapore. The Kuriles will be fortified and mimimal assests deployed in their defence as they are deemed a low priority target.

5. Imperial Fleet units will be deployed to Truk, Soerabaja, Singapore and Rangoon. KB will not be separated until the whereabouts of Allied CV's are confirmed. Raiding surface TF's will cruise Allied LOC's in order to draw out enemy surface/carrier forces.

6. Improve resource/fuel/oil flow to Japan proper. Stockpiles are woefully inadequate for long term production requirements of Japanese industry.

7. Use PP's to buy out as many support and combat LCU's as possible to create the strategic reserves needed for a counterinvasion defensive strategy. No air/sea/land unit commanders will be changed that require PP expenditure unless deemed critical. All PP's are reserved for the redeployment of air and LCU forces for offensive operations.

8. Submarines will be deployed defensively for recon and interdiction of Allied surface assests outside of LBA Allied ASW range for maximum concealment. Glen carrying fleet submarines will be used exclusively in cooperation with surface TF's in order to discover LOC's for naval interdiction.

More to come...

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon
5. Imperial Fleet units will be deployed to Truk, Soerabaja, Singapore and Rangoon. KB will not be separated until the whereabouts of Allied CV's are confirmed. Raiding surface TF's will cruise Allied LOC's in order to draw out enemy surface/carrier forces.

Hey Lemon, I'd be concerned about stationing elements of the fleet at Rangoon. That's pretty close to British bombers.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon
Strategy and Production of late:

My carriers have completed their latest upgrades at Kobe and are ready for redeployment. As there is absolutely no action anywhere I'm at a loss as to what to do with them. I am thinking of maybe an incursion into the Southeast Pacific to disrupt Allied base building efforts in the region, but I have to admit this doesn't excite me. I am loathe to risk a lucky torpedo hit on a carrier for the possible sinking of a few support and transport ships. I still feel it's best to just hunker down and await developments in light of no strategic opportunities at the moment.

China is going well. I think my planned offensive in Central China will go ahead as planned and my forces are weeks away from joining up at Pingsiang for moves against Hengyang and Changsha. Northern China is quiet with only local Japanese actions to shore up the line while the Chinese continue to do nothing. The capture of Tienshui will allow the rail line to be utilized to expedite movement of troops and resources in the area. Lanchow continues to repair and has reached 26(64) with oil and fuel moving as there is no stockpile building up.

I'm reorganizing Manchuria's defences and starting to buy out some garrison units to free up frontline units in China currently stuck on garrison duty. Air units continue to train and as they upgrade aircraft I will begin to redeploy them to the Pacific. I hope to reinforce China with another 1000 AV for frontline duty.

Raw material wise I am not doing so good. I have primarily shipped a lot of fuel to outlying bases for future fleet use and have neglected getting the oil/fuel back to the Home Islands. Japan's reserves in the Home Islands of fuel and oil are down to 123 and 175 days respectively. Resources are at a reserve of 165 days. Fuel dipped to as low as 1209567, but with renewed efforts I'm back up to 1518186. I use small tankers to ship fuel from Borneo and Sumatra to Singapore and have now created a mega fuel/oil TF that ships 200k worth of the black gold back to the Home Islands every trip. I mix it up between fuel and oil as I want as much of both not sitting idle and somewhere more protected and useful...Japan!

I've reduced my major resource outlets to Singapore, Port Aurthur, Fusan and Hakodate. Takao is a major hub for resources shipped from Singapore. I use the transports that can carry both resources and oil from Singapore to supplement the dedicated oil/fuel TF's. I figure an extra 8k of oil every trip heading towards the Home Islands a good thing. Shikuka will only provide an oil TF on occasion as it's a favourite hunting ground for Allied subs and I have a feeling a carrier raid will occur one day and I want them to find nothing. The priority right now is the maximum amount of fuel/oil/resources transported to the Home Islands and conserve fuel by avoiding major fleet movements unnecessarily and reducing the number of small inefficient resource TF's.

Engine and aircraft production is often turned off as non-existent air losses have allowed a great pool of engines and airframes to be built up. I turn the production off to ensure I don't waste further HI expenditure when I don't have to.

I have a question about Naval Shipyard Points. I currently have a pool of 34843 points built up and the Musashi is 90 days away from completion. I produce a surplus of almost 300 points per day. Question, should I start reducing Naval Shipyard activity to save the HI or is it important to keep a large pool built up and start accelerating ship production?

One expansion of note, I'm expanding Singapore's repair yard to 100k capacity in anticipation of the large numbers of ships I'll have damaged in that theatre when the Allies move. I think it will be strategically important to have that capacity in that theatre and not have to sail all the way to the Home Islands to repair the larger BB's and CV's. It may be a bit of a shock for the Allies to see them back in action sooner than anticipated [:D]. Does anyone else do a similar thing with other repair yards in other ports?

In conclusion, I muddle along and continue to prepare for the Allied opening moves while trying to maximise my production and resource flow.

I missed this one. (Yeah, I know, what a post to miss.) I agree with Damian, details are necessary before saying much. I just can't help myself though. [:D]

Carriers: Sometimes a fleet in being is the best defense. Especially a fleet your opponent can't see. He'll never know when it's going to show up. It'll give him ulcers. [:D]

Fuel: Keep your fleet where the fuel is - the SRA. If you station it in Japan, they'll suck critical fuel out of Japan into their tanks. Never ship fuel from Japan.

Naval build points: If you have an excess of 300 points per turn, accelerate some CVs and DDs. I like to accelerate DDs because you're going to need escorts when the Allied sub menage gets in gear. I can't believe you have 35k extra points. [X(] Use them! They don't cost anything to use. How's your HI pool looking? Post a shot of your stats. That'll tell a lot.

[SqzMyLemon]

Hi Mike! Thanks for posting.

I'll provide some numbers for you later when I get home tonight. I should clarify, Imperial Fleet assets will be based around Rangoon and certainly not disbanded in port to be fodder for Allied bombers on port attack. I do want to have some form of quick naval response ships in the area in case British Fleet forces make a special guest appearance.

I'm going to start accelerating DD's and Tanker's, as Damian has already pointed out to me privately that I've left things a little late to get more CV's into action sooner [:(]. I digress though and have a question for JFB's out there. [&:]

I have to admit something I'm rather embarrassed about, it's August of 1942 and I have no idea how to utilize my CVE's! Just where the heck do you find air units to operate on them? Considering most of the smaller naval fighter units are restricted and can't be enlarged to fill the capacity of 27 aircraft how do you provide planes for them? I'd like to start having the CVE's supprt KB for replacement of aircraft and pilots, not to mention have a few provide CAP for my soon to be roving surface raiders and important fuel TF's. Do you have to break up existing air units into their detachments to provide air units for them to utilize? Do they eventually get assigned air groups of their own? I have all my CVE's in ports sitting idle doing absolutely nada.

I need guidance.

[Mike Solli]

CVEs have several uses, but in AE it's limited. You're right that there are limited air units to put on them. I can come up with two possibilities (3 if you consider just letting them rust in port).

1. Put air units on them from damaged carriers while those carriers repair. Ithink this will happen pretty infrequently though. When a carrier is damaged, often it's from a carrier battle and the air complement is usually trashed. If you don't have enough planes and/or pilots to replace the losses, the air unit is usually training pilots. It is a possibility though.

2. Have the CVEs follow KB empty. Should things go sour, there are some spare flight decks for the now orphaned planes. I do this on occasion. I'll keep the CVEs a few hexes behind KB. At least that's what I did in WitP. I haven't done it in AE yet.

3. Let 'em rust in port.

Edit: The CVEs do not get air groups. [8|]

[SqzMyLemon]

I know you love to crunch numbers and really get into the production side of things Mike, so here you go. This should give you a pretty good idea of how the Rising Empire of Lemons [:D] is doing at the moment and should highlight any pending disasters.

All comments and suggestions will be appreciated from the peanut gallery, please note that I had little idea of the consequences/restrictions of playing with PDU off when starting the game, so initially my aircraft production was geared towards early upgrading of units to the latest models and anticipating much more air combat than has occurred to date.

The following information is current to Aug. 24/42

First off the WITP Chart:

[SqzMyLemon]

Industry Overview:

I never really look at this tab very often and I should as it contains a wealth of information! First off I've noticed three red flags immediately. There should be no LI, Manpower or Resource repairs occuring anywhere in the Empire, so I've obviously missed turning these off and that will be the first order of business.

Ha-35 engine production will be halted to conserve HI when the pool reaches 1000.

Armaments will be reduced further to roughly 250+ points/day to increase HI.

I neglected to turn Miri's oil/fuel facilities to repair 'on' until a week ago and that was a complete bonehead move wasting 6 months of repairs! [8|]

[SqzMyLemon]

I just accelerated a bunch of stuff last turn and I'll still get a projected +59 naval points added daily so I'll accelerate a few more to start running a deficit of points.

A question regarding the start building column. Does a negative number mean that the ship has been builidng for that many days and if positive mean it will start construction in that many days?

I'm not really sure how best to utilize ship acceleration and just how to interpret what I am seeing. Delay is the number of days till completion at normal while the Accelerate column is the number of days till completion while accelerated...correct?


Ship Production:

[SqzMyLemon]

And finally... Air Production:

Let's hear what people's thoughts are

[SqzMyLemon]

It's been awhile since I've posted anything operations wise. There have only been a few engagements worth mentioning over this period and I'll stick with those. China and Burma are going to both see action within days/weeks as my forces approach their kick off point in China , while the Allies are mounting their first large scale offensive in Burma .

Aug. 16/42:

Australia:

A small Allied TF of three ships was spotted by naval search heading inbound to Portland Roads in Northern Australia. Japanese naval LBA was ordered to intercept and attack the TF on the 17th and catch it as it arrived in port.

Aug. 17/42:

I love it when a plan comes together [:)]. A6M2 Zero's (18) from Buna swept over Portland Roads and interceptd Kittyhawk IA's (15) on CAP. Two Allied fighters were downed for the loss of one Zero. Then G4M1 Betty's (13) escorted by Zero's (21) based at Lae attacked the transports. Only four Kittyhawk's were on CAP and one was shot down for no loss to the escorts. The xAKL Caledon and xAKL Corrimal were sunk with 1 and 2 torpedo hits respectively and no Betty's were lost. The escort AM Dubbo was attacked but all torpedos missed. A small action with no bearing on the war, yet I was pleased to have set everything in motion and watch as the sweeps went in first, the escorts protected the bombers and the bombers nailed the target. A good days work and a notice to the Allies that I'm out there watching and waiting.

Aug. 21/42:

Sub Ops:

SS I-29 near Lifou spots an ASW TF and successfully sinks the DD Norman with one torpedo hit. Heavy fires and damage were reported followed by the sinking sound so I'm pretty sure she went down. I finally nailed a DD! SS-I-29 made good her escape suffering no damage.

China:

Japanese air units have been reorganized and about to start a sustained bombing campaign of the aifbases at Changsha and area. Siangtan was hit by Sally Ki-21-IIa' (40) and Ki-51 Sonia's (22) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's and caused 9 AB, 8 ABS and 48 Runway hits. The primary goal is to cause supply hits and scoring 8 was a nice start.

Burma:

Allied forces are on the move in the theatre signalling the start of what appears to be an Allied offensive. Akyab's airfield was bombed by Ki-21-IIa Sally's (28) causing 1 AB, 6 ABS and 13 Runway hits. Another raid of Ki-45 KAIa Nick's (12) attacked at 100' inflicting a further 3 AB and 6 Runway hits.

Aug 22-23/42:

China:

Changsha's airfield was bombed two consecutive days by Sally's and Sonia's supported by escorting and sweeping Oscar's and Nate's [:D]. The airfield Receiving a total of 9 AB, 1 ABS and 20 runway hits. Not stellar results by any means and the 29 units at Changsha must include many engineers as the damage is repaired quickly. There has been no sign of Allied CAP in the three days of Japanese air attacks.

My Chinese offensive against Hengyang is being re-evaluated in light of what's happened in cap_and_gowns AAR and my own concerns. I thin kth efocus of the offensive will shift to Kweilin as it's the weakest held point although in better defensive terrain. I like the fact that I can stay well supplied during my entire attack, I have no river crossing to undertake and I don't put myself in a position where I can be outflanked or out maneuvered. I will post a new screen showing the change of plan. This is not being indecisive, but stepping back and seeing a better operation that has better chance of success in my opinion and can really crack open the Chinese MLR.

Burma:

Japanese troops are ordered to move out to counter an Allied two pronged offensive in Burma. Screenshot of this theatre to follow. It looks like we have a war developing!

[SqzMyLemon]

We have reached Aug. 29/42 and things are heating up nicely, it looks like a war has started once again. [:D]. I will update the 24th to 28th individually tomorrow, but wanted to provide some screenshots of both Burma and Southern China to quickly bring things up to speed.

Happy and safe New Year to everyone!

Burma:

[SqzMyLemon]

Southern China:

[ny59giants]

Be careful that you don't accidentally reopen the Burma Road to China while you retreat from Myitkyina to Bhamo. Playing as Japan in early '43 with the Burma Road open will not help your cause.

[vicberg]

You don't have enough air in Burma...3 units of Oscar Cs aren't going to cut it....4Es or allied 2Es are going to wipe out your Oscars...no guns on those planes....as far as HI goes...will the carrier make a difference?  One carrier can, IMO...A bunch of HI in the pool won't, though I'm about as far away as a economics professor as anyone can get.  I do trade on the stock market though, if that gives me some standing

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Be careful that you don't accidentally reopen the Burma Road to China while you retreat from Myitkyina to Bhamo. Playing as Japan in early '43 with the Burma Road open will not help your cause.

Thanks for posting ny59giants!

I don't know if you are following along regularly or just commenting on the current situation, but I certainly appreciate any advice. Do you think it is a better decision then to hold the coast road and throw everything at retaking Myitkyina? I can hold the coast and hit the 18th British division eventually with 6 divisions including tank and engineer support, or try and retake Katha and isolate the 18th British division before too many more Allied units cross the jungle. If I hold Bhamo would this still not close the Burma road or would supplies now travel overland to Paoshan? I definitely want to keep my advantage in China with the Burma Road closed and no fuel getting to Chinese HI from controlling Sian and Lanchow.

The only fear I have is becoming isolated myself if both the Allies strike from Katha and the Chinese move out from Paoshan, Myitkyina can quickly become a trap for Japanese forces if I can't hold the Chinese flank. I'll recon Imphal and area to see what's headed my way. I have so far commited 8 Japanese divisions to Burma. Is this enough or too many? Needless to say I'm rather thin elsewhere. I have the 19th division in China that is assigned to the 15th Army available as well, but nearly a month away from reaching Burma.

Looking at it from that perspective it seems like holding the Burma Road is the more important strategic objective, rather than a complicated amphibious assault to net a few Allied LCU's. I'll sleep on it and decide in the morning. [>:] I definitely did not see the Burma Road angle. [&o]

[khyberbill]

Be careful that you don't accidentally reopen the Burma Road to China while you retreat from Myitkyina to Bhamo. Playing as Japan in early '43 with the Burma Road open will not help your cause.

I thought a supply line had to be traced from Rangoon to China for the Burma Road to be open.

[ny59giants]

per the manual - p. 254

15.8 Burma Road
For the Allies, if a rail/road/trail path free of Japanese units between Tsuyung and Ledo or between Tsuyung and Rangoon can be traced, than each day, 500 supply points per turn are added to Tsuyung.

My understanding (which could be wrong) the hexside ZOC is temporary unless there is an actual unit in it. Gone are the WITP days were it remained yours until the enemy took it over.

As to what to do in Burma, I would say you need more Level Bombers and use the superior manufacturing of Japan to pound on his troops in the jungle. Akyab is on the end of a trail from Chittagong and damaging the base should slow down the flow of supplies to his troops moving away from it. It is best to defend in the jungle rather than behind forts in clear terrain. See how PzB is doing it well vs Andy Mac. I hope you have expanded Rangoon to port 7 so you can reload your ships. I would first use your 4 minelaying subs to mine Akyab and then use CAs (don't forget to use your FPs to recon the base - set them to range 1 and make sure that at least one group is set on night) and smaller to bombard the hex. LRCAP the TF with Zero from Prome.

[khyberbill]

I didn't realize that. Goes to show how much I pay attention to China. Of course, I usually lose the other avenue early on in the conflict. After one of the patches, it became hard to keep allies supplied in Burma. I find it difficult to even keep Katha supplied.

[SqzMyLemon]

Recapping combat reports prior to the posting of the screenshots. they are noteworthy in terms of the developing air operations in both China and Burma.

Aug. 24/42:

Australia:

Darwin hit by Ki-21-IIa Sally's (33) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (20) for 2 AB, 1 ABS, 26 Runway and 1 Port hits.

Burma:

Akyab swept by Oscar's, no Allied CAP was present. Akyab's airfield was then hit by Ki-21-IIa Sally's (28) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (22) and damage to the airbase was 5 AB, 1 ABS and 15 Runway hits.

The 21st Australian Bde. and 18th British Division capture an undefended Katha.

China:

Changsha's airfield was bombed again today. The first morning raid consisted of Ki-21-IIa Sally's (17) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (25) and damage to the airbase was 2 AB, 1 ABS and 14 Runway hits.

Miscellaneous:

CL Katori taken out of commission to begin refit at Truk
CL Kashii taken out of commission to begin refit at Truk

Aug. 25/42:

Australia:

Darwin hit for only 1 AB and 6 Runway hits today, a poor result.

Burma:

I decided to test the RAF over Burma for a few days with sweep and bombing attacks to see how I fared and see if I could gain an advantage. Imphal was targeted first as it showed Allied fighters present. Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (24) of 1st Sentai swept Imphal at 18k and engaged Hurricane IIb Trop's (28) on CAP. Allied fighters from three squadrons were layered at 18k, 20k and 24k. Despite getting the dive/bounce my Oscar's performed horribly and nine were downed against only one Hurricane. Needless to say that sweep did not go well. It wasn't until I checked the unit post combat to learn why it had performed so poorly, moral had dropped to 46 despite the unit not being involved in any recent combat and droves of my fighters aborted. As mentioned earlier despite numerous dive attacks the poor armament of the Oscar's proved ineffective in downing the Allied fighters. Post sweep the 1st Sentai's morale had dropped to 26 and it was withdrawn to Bangkok for recuperation and training. The unit is mixed in terms of pilot experience and luckily it was mostly inexperienced pilots that paid the price for me sending in a unit that should not have been utilized with such a low morale.

Cox's Bazar was hit by Ki-21-IIa Sally's (26) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (22) and the damage to the airbase was 1 AB, 1 ABS and 12 Runway hits. No Allied CAP was present.

China:

Changsha was again bombed by Ki-21-IIa Sally's (40) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (7) and damage to the airbase was 7 AB. 3 ABS and 18 Runway hits. A second raid of Ki-51 Sonia's (27) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (6) caused a further 2 AB and 24 Runway hits.

Miscellaneous:

DD Kuroshio beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe
DD Hatsukaze beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe
DD Isokaze beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe
DD Hagikaze beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe
DD Tanikaze beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe
DD Nenohi beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe
DD Wakaba beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe

6th Tpt.Chutai converting to Ki-57-II Topsy

Aug. 26/42:

Sub Ops:

SS O20 in the South China Sea sinks the xAK Kinai Maru with one torpedo. No damage to the enemy submarine with a half-hearted DC attack.

Australia:

Daily air attack on Darwin resulted in 1 AB, 21 Runway and 1 Port hits.

Burma:

There was to be another sweep of Imphal today, but the fighters were grounded due to weather.

Cox's Bazar was bombed again, but my bombers lost their escort and went in unescorted. Luckily there was no Allied CAP and the airbase received 1 AB and 9 Runway hits.

China:

Changsha hit again by multiple raids for 5 AB, 10 ABS and 56 Runway hits. I'm happy to see the base supply hits, but recon shows very little damage to the airfield. With 29 Chinese units at Changsha I'm sure there are plenty of engineers quickly repairing the damage. Rather moot considering the airfield is not being used and there is no sign of the Chinese airforce.

Aug. 27/42:

Australia:

Darwin received another 1 AB and 15 Runway hits.

Burma:

Imphal was swept by two separate attacks with the first sweep underperforming while the second sweep fared much better. In both cases I dove on the Allied CAP, but the first raid performed very badly. Morale of the first raid was 99% and the unit experience was 65. The Oscar's are just too undergunned to be effective. [8|] The second sweep performed much better and had a morale of 99% and unit experience of 71.

First sweep: Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (26) engaged Hurricane IIb Trop's (25). Once again the CAP was layered at 18k, 20k and 24k while the sweep was increased to 20k. One Hurricane reported shot down against 3 Oscar's.

Second sweep: Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (22) engaged Hurricane IIb Trop's (12) and 3 Hurricanes were downed for no loss. The sweep was at 25k against the same CAP as previous.

Smeulders in an e-mail mentioned that he felt the results proved that height advantage didn't matter after seeing these results. In this case I have to agree, but not for the same resaons as I'm sure he's thinking. Both my sweeps had the height advantage and numerous times Japanese fighters dove on the enemy. In more cases than not an Allied fighter evaded or suffered sleight damage from the Oscar's in the first pass. This could be a result of excellent pilots on the Allied side resulting in the evasions, however the lack of outright kills is squarely to blame on the poor armament of the Oscar's. Had these been Tojo's the Allies would have been creamed.

The second sweep caught the Allied fighters having to climb to altitude and were picked off piecemeal. The intelligence report had total losses for the day of 17 Hurricane's lost A2A with another 5 as Ops losses, while 7 Oscar's were lost to A2A and 2 more to Ops. Quite a descepancy with the actual combat reports.

Cox's Bazar was hit by Sally's (28) once again and once again the escorts failed to show. The Allies had moved in a unit of P-40E Warhawk's, but they were set to training according to my opponent. The airbase received 1 AB and 3 Runway hits and one Warhawk was destroyed on the ground. My Sally's were lucky, they get the day off tomorrow. [:D]

China:

Changsha's airbase was further damaged with 5 AB and 33 Runway hits.

Aug. 28/42:

Sup Ops:

SS Halibut near Foochow sinks the xAK Hoeisan Maru with two torpedoes. That's two transports in as many days lost to Allied submarines.

Burma:

Cox's Bazar was swept by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (37) and engaged P-40E Warhawk's (43) on CAP. A second sweep of Oscar's (22) engaged P-40E Warhawk's (18)The combat report showed 10 Oscar's downed against 4 P-40E's. The CAP was at 15k while the sweeps went in at 20k. The intelligence report however put the losses at 8 P-40E's in A2A and 9 Ops losses, against 14 Oscar's downed A2A with 3 Ops losses. These losses are not acceptable to me. The Oscar's get a tactical advantage daily, but they just can't shoot down the armoured enemy fighters while they get lit up regularly. The Oscar's in my opinion suck big time. [:@]

Akyab's airfield is bombed for 5 AB, 2 ABS and 15 Runway hits. P-40E Warhawk's (2) on CAP from Cox's Bazar intercept and despite Ki-43-Ic's (20) on escort two Sally's are damaged and no P-40E's are downed.

China:

Changsha gets hit for 7 AB, 4 ABS and 21 Runway hits.

A small land combat between the Japanese 12th Tank Rgt. and the 8th New Chinese Corps and 13th Chinese Corps at 91,39 sees the Chinese forced to retreat suffering 7(9) infantry, 5(2) non-combat and 9 guns lost totalling 490 casualties, there were no Japanese losses.