Marianas
The usual mix of good and bad. This turn almost all good! Lets start with the bad news...
Sub attack near Tinian at 108,95
Japanese Ships
SS I-173
Allied Ships
CV Yggdrasil, Torpedo hits 2 [:@]
CLAA Reno
CLAA San Juan
CLAA Juneau
DD Lang
DD Kalk
DD Cassin
DD Tucker
DD Fanning
DD Stack
This is just tiresome. I don´t think I need to tell how much ASW is in that hex. In addition I have almost 50 Avengers flying ASW. [:(]
On to the good news. As I expected after drawing in my strikes on his PB/xAKLs on the 8th Erik now flew in his strike planes. A lot of his escorts and some of the strike planes were wiped out by the naval bombardment of Tinian during the night though! This turned out to be a blessing later in the day!
Night Naval bombardment of Tinian at 108,94
Japanese aircraft
no flights
Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 15 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 3 destroyed on ground
A6M5 Zero: 69 damaged
A6M5 Zero: 3 destroyed on ground
B6N2a Jill: 16 damaged
B6N2a Jill: 3 destroyed on ground
N1K2-J George: 58 damaged
N1K2-J George: 7 destroyed on ground
Allied Ships
BB Queen Elizabeth
BB Valiant
BB Mississippi
BB Idaho
BC Renown
Night Naval bombardment of Tinian at 108,94
Japanese aircraft
no flights
Japanese aircraft losses
N1K2-J George: 12 damaged
N1K2-J George: 1 destroyed on ground
B5N2 Kate: 2 damaged
A6M5 Zero: 21 damaged
A6M5 Zero: 2 destroyed on ground
B6N2a Jill: 6 damaged
B6N2a Jill: 1 destroyed on ground
Allied Ships
BB California
BB Arizona
BB Nevada
BB Maryland
Japanese ground losses:
396 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 9 disabled
Non Combat: 10 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 5 destroyed, 5 disabled
Guns lost 13 (7 destroyed, 6 disabled)
There were some night strikes that failed to hit anything. Later in the day a big strike attacked the invasion fleet at Tinian. Notice the lack of escorts for this one.
Morning Air attack on TF, near Tinian at 108,94
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 119 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 30 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 28
D4Y2 Judy x 24
D4Y3 Judy x 14
J2M3 Jack x 28
N1K1-J George x 10
Ki-84a Frank x 12
Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 29
Hellcat I x 24
F6F-3 Hellcat x 221
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 9 destroyed
D4Y2 Judy: 9 destroyed
D4Y3 Judy: 9 destroyed
D4Y3 Judy: 1 destroyed by flak
J2M3 Jack: 8 destroyed
N1K1-J George: 3 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 13 destroyed
Allied Ships
CVE Copahee
CVE Corregidor
CVE White Plains
Then a second strike went in.
Morning Air attack on TF, near Tinian at 108,94
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 115 NM, estimated altitude 4,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 34 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 6
P1Y1 Frances x 9
Ki-43-IIIa Oscar x 13
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 24
Ki-84a Frank x 10
Allied aircraft
Corsair II x 22
Hellcat I x 20
F6F-3 Hellcat x 140
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 3 destroyed
P1Y1 Frances: 4 destroyed
Ki-43-IIIa Oscar: 7 destroyed
Ki-84a Frank: 2 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Hellcat I: 1 destroyed
F6F-3 Hellcat: 6 destroyed
The second strike didn´t penetrate the CAP at all. Knowing the KB wasn´t around I switched some of the Squadrons on escort to Sweep Guam and Saipan. Two of them did very well and two didn´t do well at all. All in all during the day 250 Japanese planes are lost for only 100 Allied. Have to be happy with that! [&o]
One the 9th the CVs withdrew to cover the amphibs withdrawing back to Wake. This day wasn´t as happy as Erik set up another CAP trap at Saipan using a few AMc. I had four strikes going in after the AMc into a massive CAP. This is one of them.
Morning Air attack on TF, near Saipan at 108,93
Weather in hex: Partial cloud
Raid detected at 76 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 33 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M5 Zero x 75
A6M5b Zero x 33
J2M3 Jack x 34
N1K1 Rex x 6
N1K1-J George x 3
N1K2-J George x 5
Ki-43-IIIa Oscar x 21
Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 37
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 19
Ki-84a Frank x 57
Allied aircraft
F6F-3 Hellcat x 158
SB2C-1C Helldiver x 33
TBM-1C Avenger x 14
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M5 Zero: 2 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 10 destroyed
SB2C-1C Helldiver: 8 destroyed, 6 damaged
TBM-1C Avenger: 6 destroyed
Japanese Ships
AMc Chokai Maru, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
ACM Daido Maru, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
AMc Kensyo Maru
This was a bit too much to stomach. He basically massed all available CAP in the Marianas at Saipan and created a small TF of AMc. I know this because the TF wasn´t there yesterday. Looks very intentional to me. [:(] I told Erik in an email this morning that from now on I expect to see proper combat ships (DDs and upwards) in his CAP traps. His CAP traps has cost me almost 400 planes over 3 days for the price of 2 PBs, 2xAKLs and 2AMc. Stuff like this can easily ruin the game. So I hope he complies.
The only positive things about the losses is that I can support them. Navy pilots and aircraft pools are overflowing. This will take a good chunk out of the Hellcat pool though. But next month I get the second generation of Hellcats (20 knots faster) and a bump from 130 to 180 per month.
First attack on Tinian is ordered tomorrow. I have high hopes for this. I already have the BFs standing by on TFs outside the Marianas. If the attack looks promising they will hang around. If it looks like it will take time I will withdraw the fleet to Wake and replenish the CVs.
Burma
Troops keep on moving. Even though troop number indicate 140.000 troops in the hex only 5 divisions are identified (so far) and the rest looks like Brigades and smaller units. That is hopeful as the smaller units seem to deteriorate quickly when facing divisions. Only 1500 Guns and 1500 AFVs are listed by recon! I on the other hand have 3000 Guns and 4000 AFVs. Many of my AFVs are heavy tanks. 4 more days before arriving. Tense, tense...
OZ
Continuing to Sweep and bomb AFs. Erik is holding back and has actually split the KB. 1/3rd is covering Biak and 2/3rds are covering the DEI.
Biak
Erik sent in a bombardment during the night. As usual mines have no effect.
Night Naval bombardment of Biak at 87,110 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
Allied aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft losses
F6F-3 Hellcat: 18 damaged
F6F-3 Hellcat: 3 destroyed on ground
PBY-5 Catalina: 5 damaged
PBY-5 Catalina: 1 destroyed on ground
11 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
BB Hyuga
BB Mutsu
DD Kisaragi
DD Mutsuki
DD Matsu
DD Makinami
Allied ground losses:
249 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Non Combat: 10 destroyed, 14 disabled
Engineers: 7 destroyed, 6 disabled
Guns lost 5 (3 destroyed, 2 disabled)
Vehicles lost 9 (6 destroyed, 3 disabled)
Bit disappointed the CD guns didn´t do much. In a few days though I will strike back. Erik is being a bit cocky with his his mini KB lingering just 3 hexes from Biak. If he hangs around he could loose some carriers tomorrow as I moved in 120 DBs and set every Fighter on Escort.
NOPAC
Erik decided to send some strike planes up here. Much rather here then at the Marianas! [:)] He sends some strikes in over two days lightly damaging two CVEs. They are still able to conduct flight OPS but will have to go to Seattle to get patched up after this. I have 6 new CVEs already on the way from Portland to replace them.
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