As my esteemed Ally has posted , this was a good turn for the allied air.
Initially the newly arrived Spits/sea hurricanes and P39's did excellent work defending PM airfields and got the Netty kills along with most of the Helens. The few A6M3a's escorting the Netties were of extreme experience and performed excellently even on escort. But the allied weight of numbers triumphed.
In china the Chinese nationalist AF along with American allies tried to contest the airspace over Kweiyang (the Chinese supply sink of a city). The Tojo sweep hurt the P66 vanguards badly (those planes are terrible but numbers matter and that's all the Chinese have to use frankly). The Tonys first appearance as escorts was a bit of a disappointment for Japan as they did not perform well and went chasing off after the low level P40's leaving the Lancers and P38's to maul the bombers. Follow up Oscar sweeps were 1-1 on losses and that's not good for china. although the plan to engage Japan all over the map is now commencing.
Burma saw its share of air use too with allied bombers hitting the Japanese troops surrounding Mandalay and causing some significant damage. Allied artillery openeed up for the fist time in ages while supply levels were good.
Example air combat in china .. 1 of 3
Afternoon Air attack on Kweiyang , at 74,49
Weather in hex: Severe storms
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 12 minutes
Japanese aircraft
Ki-49-IIa Helen x 38
Ki-61-Ia Tony x 12
Allied aircraft
P-40E Warhawk x 1
P-43A-1 Lancer x 5
P-66 Vanguard x 7
P-38E Lightning x 7
P-40E Warhawk x 3
Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-49-IIa Helen: 9 destroyed, 8 damaged
Ki-61-Ia Tony: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
P-66 Vanguard: 1 destroyed
while in Burma :-
Afternoon Air attack on 4th RTA Division, at 59,46 (Mandalay)
Weather in hex: Thunderstorms
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 14 minutes
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIc Trop x 10
Liberator II x 12
Wellington Ic x 12
B-17E Fortress x 17
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 4 damaged
Japanese ground losses:
77 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 3 (1 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Vehicles lost 15 (3 destroyed, 12 disabled)
And the Allied bombardments :-
Ground combat at Mandalay (59,46)
Allied Bombardment attack
Attacking force 38396 troops, 842 guns, 1259 vehicles, Assault Value = 3383
Defending force 97016 troops, 925 guns, 776 vehicles, Assault Value = 3489
Japanese ground losses:
147 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 7 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 13 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 15 (2 destroyed, 13 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
154 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 19 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Vehicles lost 11 (2 destroyed, 9 disabled)
Given the games preference for the defenders in this sort of attack 1-1 isn't bad on losses. We will continue the air attacks but stop the artillery (bar one unit as a test) to save supply and try to convert the bombers disablements into solid kills.
The Dutch subs sank an oil filled AK as a bonus off of the southern Philippines.
Sub attack near Dadjangas at 80,94
Japanese Ships
xAK Tatutaki Maru, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Kenan Maru
PB Kogyoku Maru
PB Kamitu Maru
AO Sata
AO Iro
TK Tonan Maru #3
TK Tonan Maru #2
TK Kyokuyo Maru
xAK Noto Maru
xAK Tatukami Maru
xAK Kagu Maru
PB Okuyo Maru #2
PB Okiyu Maru
PB Ginyo Maru
PB Ronsan Maru
Allied Ships
SS O16
Lets see what happens tomorrow.
