Speedy vs Fabertong - time to smack back the Penguin

[Speedysteve]

It's kind of a weird situation since at Sea I'm now totally dominant with KB gone. By the time Faber get's the Unryu's/Taiho I'll have a nice batch of Essex class as well so I'll always be well ahead there. BUT I don't have the shipping to conduct a load of invasions at once at present so I'm still having to plan and time stuff in a synchronised fashion for now.

[Speedysteve]

Wow....was not expecting this......another substantial CV battle out of the blue during my raiding....more soon [;)]

[Smeulders]

1 Range CV Battle ? That'll be a painful surprise for the Japanese. The last of their CVs under the sea ?

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

I hereby enclose a summary of action 26-30th April.......

First off the CV Battle.....

29th April -

On the 29th April my CV Forces reached a position 276 miles ESE of Iwo Jima. Scouts located an enemy convoy docking off Iwo Jima and a force was despatched. 11 x AK and 2 x SC were sent to the bottom off the sea. About 20 enemy fighters (Zero/Tojo) were on CAP but little was shot down on either side (3 x Escorts and 1 x Tojo).

In return Japanese sweeps and a Betty raid were launched against my CV's. The Sweeps achieved little (12 x Jap losses vs 4 x US fighters) BUT they did disrupt my CAP so that when 33 x Betty arrived on the scene 27 of them got through to bomb! No hits were sustained though.

This made me realise though that despite having 4 x CV a series of repeated strikes would comfortably get through my CAP to cause destruction. As such I decided to send my CV's south to a position well NE of Pagan to attack any more enemy ships.........

-----------------------------------------

30th April -

Dawn revealed an overcast but the scouts went off. Within an hour reports came in of enemy carriers 46 miles to the SE! Jakes were also spotted overhead! 2 prize fighters slugged it out at close quarters......the CR's will suffice for the next part:

Morning Air attack on TF, near Haha-jima at 113,81

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 42 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 30
G4M1 Betty x 28



Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 14
F6F-3 Hellcat x 12


Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 8 destroyed, 7 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
BB Massachusetts
CV Hornet
CV Enterprise, Torpedo hits 1, on fire


--------

Morning Air attack on TF, near Haha-jima at 113,81

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 45 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 26
A6M5 Zero x 13
B5N2 Kate x 17
B6N1 Jill x 18
D3A1 Val x 12
D3A2 Val x 22
D4Y1 Judy x 27



Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 4
F6F-3 Hellcat x 6


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3a Zero: 1 destroyed
A6M5 Zero: 1 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 1 destroyed, 8 damaged
B6N1 Jill: 5 destroyed, 5 damaged
D3A1 Val: 1 damaged
D3A2 Val: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged
D4Y1 Judy: 1 damaged


Allied Ships
BB Washington, Bomb hits 9, on fire
BB Massachusetts, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1
CV Enterprise, Bomb hits 2, on fire
DD Meade
CA Quincy, Bomb hits 1
DD Hobby, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
CV Saratoga
CV Hornet, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA San Francisco
CV Lexington
DD Gillespie
BB South Dakota, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
DD Porter
CA Minneapolis, Bomb hits 2
DD Duncan
BB North Carolina, Torpedo hits 1


-----------

RETURN STRIKE:

Morning Air attack on TF, near Agrihan at 114,82

Weather in hex: Clear sky

Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 47 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 26
A6M5 Zero x 14



Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 11
F6F-3 Hellcat x 14
SBD-3 Dauntless x 131
TBF-1 Avenger x 54


No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed
F6F-3 Hellcat: 3 destroyed
SBD-3 Dauntless: 4 destroyed, 12 damaged
TBF-1 Avenger: 3 destroyed, 11 damaged

Japanese Ships
CV Hiyo, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires
CVE Hosho, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CV Junyo, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Kirishima, Bomb hits 10, heavy fires
CV Taiho, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires
CVL Ryuho, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Tokitsukaze, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Urakaze, Bomb hits 1
DD Oyashio, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Hamakaze, Bomb hits 1
DD Shiranui
CA Nachi, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Amatsukaze
CLAA Tatsuta, Bomb hits 2, on fire


------------

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Haha-jima at 113,81

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 42 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 5
A6M3a Zero x 47
A6M5 Zero x 6
G4M1 Betty x 12



Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 6
F6F-3 Hellcat x 9


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3a Zero: 2 destroyed
A6M5 Zero: 1 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 11 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed

Allied Ships
CV Lexington, Torpedo hits 1
CV Saratoga


------------

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Agrihan at 114,82

Weather in hex: Moderate rain

Raid spotted at 40 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes


Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 6
SBD-3 Dauntless x 56
TBF-1 Avenger x 29


Allied aircraft losses
SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
TBF-1 Avenger: 5 damaged

Japanese Ships
CV Taiho, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Kirishima, Bomb hits 5, on fire
CV Hiyo, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Urakaze
CV Junyo, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CLAA Tatsuta, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Hamakaze, Bomb hits 2, on fire
DD Amatsukaze
DD Tokitsukaze, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Nachi, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Shiranui


--------------------------

Post-script to follow

--------------------------

Submarine Warfare -

5 x Dud/missed attacks.

SS Tarpon left AK Fukko Maru dead in the water with a torpedo hit off Jesselton.

SS S-34 blew up SC CHa-15 off Shikuka.

SS Barb sank the large freighter Yamasimo Maru north of Sorong.

[Speedysteve]

Damaged ships.....BB South Dakota is in real trouble and is heading to Marcus. The rest are heading back to PH. I *THINK* my CV's will be ok unless hit again by air or submarine attack.......

[Alfred]

Change the speed from "Mission" to "Cruise", it will help in saving the South Dakota.

Alfred

[Speedysteve]

Air losses....must be honest been very UNIMPRESSED with the Hellcats so far. They lost more and shot down less compared to Wildcat's.

[Speedysteve]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Change the speed from "Mission" to "Cruise", it will help in saving the South Dakota.

Alfred

Already done. The above screen was purely to show all the damaged shps in 1 TF.

[paullus99]

Wow - he's got to have lot everything except Taiho (though historically it only took a single hit to put Taiho on the bottom). That's gotta hurt.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Change the speed from "Mission" to "Cruise", it will help in saving the South Dakota.

Alfred

Already done. The above screen was purely to show all the damaged shps in 1 TF.

Actually, it is the Hornet that is in the most danger due to the high sys damage, but I think you should be able to save them all. I think you pretty much eradicated the IJNs remaining carriers. The Taiho is the only one of that lot that can take some hits and survive and you may have nailed Taiho enough to do her in as well.

[anarchyintheuk]

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Air losses....must be honest been very UNIMPRESSED with the Hellcats so far. They lost more and shot down less compared to Wildcat's.

Your cap in general was, um, awful. Did you have any % resting?

A counterattack by his reduced KB was the last thing I was expecting to see. Good job of getting surprise by the penguinista. Glad you were ready and had those fbbs around as target magnets.

[Speedysteve]

Nope CAP was at 60% BUT 25% of the fighers were damaged from the previous days action! May decide to keep Wildcats rather than Hellcats from now on[;)]

I HOPE all my ships will be fine but we'll see....it's a long way to PH!

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Well. No need to point out what the highlight of the month was. Few land actions to note so the only things to mention was the destruction of a small Japanese convoy at Milne Bay, a larger one by my CV's at Iwo Jima and of course the slugfest CV battle.

May 1943 sees the arrival of the first P47D2 FG, production starts of FM1's, SB2C's and SBD6's. The shipping highlights include the CV Essex [:)], CL Newcastle, CVE Santee, the first ARD and 66 other ships.

------------------------------

Points:

Allies: +1409 points - clearly reflects Japanese CV losses in CV Battle BUT not yet reported/confirmed.
Japanese: +244 points


Bases:

Allies: 0 (+164 points)
Japanese: +1 (+56 points)


Planes:

Allies: +178 lost
Japanese: +200 lost


Troops:

Allies: +20 lost
Japanese: +20 lost


Ships:

Allies: 0
Japanese: +30 (+291 points. All from the 2 convoys destroyed and Submarine attacks. CV Battle losses not yet known/reported BUT clearly reflected in the overall points totals above.)

----------------------------

Sub Kills:

Similar success rate. 19 of 39 attacks were successful.

Dutch Boats:

PB - 4 (1 mine)
AK - 27 (+1)
TK - 4
CM - 3
DD - 4
TB - 1
DMS - 3
E - 1
APD - 1
ACM - 1

--------------------------

British Boats:

DD - 1 (1 mine)
AK - 3 (1 mine)
SC - 1
PB - 1
TK - 1
AO - 1

---------------------------

Fleet Boats:

AK - 76 (+5)
SC - 6 (+1)
AP - 2
PB - 12 (+1)
TK - 7 (+1)
AKE - 1 (+1)
CM - 3
ACM - 2
E - 1
APD - 1
DD - 3
CL - 2 (Kashima, Oi) (+1)

-------------------------

S-Boats:

AK - 14
AP - 2
CM - 1
PB - 3
DMS - 1
SC - 3 (+1)
TK - 1

Total = 198 ships = 43.33% of reported ships sunk total.

[crsutton]

You are going to love the P47. It is absolutely the best Allied fighter. It kills everything it meets and has a service rating of one. Just about the only Allied land fighter that you will see with this "one" rating. Of course, you never get enough of them.

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

You are going to love the P47. It is absolutely the best Allied fighter. It kills everything it meets and has a service rating of one. Just about the only Allied land fighter that you will see with this "one" rating. Of course, you never get enough of them.

and you won´t get any of them from mid 44 until mid 45... [:(]

[Speedysteve]

Now that is a shame [:(] Looking forward to trying them out on some IJAAF junk [;)]

[khyberbill]

Air losses....must be honest been very UNIMPRESSED with the Hellcats so far. They lost more and shot down less compared to Wildcat's.

They do quite well for me when exp is 70+. But I agree that they have not always been impressive when exp is in the 60's or less. Same with corsairs. My Marine corsairs have been shredded by George (by george!).

[Speedysteve]

Hi all,

Hi khyberbill - The average EXP of my CV VF's is 70 so a mix of pilots above and below.

------------------------

CentPac -

USN Forces continue to head back towards PH. CV's headed to Marcus Island initially to arrest any further flooding on Hornet. It turned out being at Marcus had no effect and Hornet damage and flooding levels have remained consistent. As such 3 days ago I ordered my 2 CV TF's to head back to PH. They've just past Wake and flooding remains the same. I would say unless an I-Boat intervenes they should be safe.

BB SoDak has done well and flooding has been brought totally under control. She's just left Marcus heading for PH.

------------------------

Other areas -

Forces continue to ready for SoPac Ops. CV Victorious will be ready from Refit in 15 days at Capetown.

My first P47's are loading up at San Fran and will head to Aus for use in New Guinea/Ambon.

My first ARD has arrived - question - I believe they remove all MJR FLT damage? How do they work and how do I enable that on a ship? At present she's moving from Seattle to PH.

-----------------------

Submarine Warfare -

A slow start to the month with fewer detections and attacks.

2 duds/misses.

SS Jack heavily damaged AK Fukko Maru off Cam Ranh Bay on the 5th.

SS Runner sank AK Kasuga Maru #2 over 2 attacks off Davao.

On the 10th SS Amberjack blew up AKL Bizen Maru off Soerabaja.

4 enemy subs have been reported heavily hit/sunk (2 by ASW forces off Marcus and 2 by SBD's from my CV's).

[castor troy]

with the current patch, you have to have an AR with the ARD to make it work. ARD "only" repairs flt damage but every ship fits in there. One ship per ARD so the 50000 capacity doesn´t mean you would be able to put a modern BB plus 15 subs into it. Only one BB or one sub (or any other ship).

Just disband the damaged ship in port with the ARD and put the damaged ship on "stood down / repair ship". My ARD are by far faster repairing major flt damge than my biggest shipyards, for whatever reason. Most often low/normal/high/critical just does nothing in a 200 point shipyard with one BB in there for repairs while the BB in an ARD can be extremely sped up by "critical".

[khyberbill]

The average EXP of my CV VF's is 70 so a mix of pilots above and below.

I should have been clearer, none of my squadrons that are doing well have pilots with exp less than 70, in fact, on my CV's most are in the 80's and a few in the 90's in late Sept 43. Pilots with less exp are on CVE's training and mopping up bypassed bases-when they get above 70 they go to a CV/CVL. I have one squadron that has 154 kills to 13 losses. I mainly fly Hellcats at 31k.