Not much happened today. A couple dozen 2E sorties against Milne Bay caused minor troop damage.
SRA
[>:]
Burma
Ted didn't fly. I hit Cox's Bazaar causing some airfield damage. I also hit Kalemyo, where a squadron of Allied fighters are stationed, but caused no damage. [8|]
Ted completed moving all but 1 unit of the Akyab garrison to combine with his main army. He bombarded a couple of days later, so I saw what was there. It's showing below. To the NE, Ted has 5 rather weak Indian Divisions against 1 Japanese division. I will bomb Akyabs troops tomorrow and will find that the garrison is down to the 46 Indian Brigade. I'm confident the 8 Division, when it arrives, will push them out. I also have troops to the E and SE of Akyab that you can't see in the screen shot.
China
My tank regiment attacked Ted's Chinese base force at Hami, in the northern part of China. They battered them, pushing them out and causing 562(37) Chinese casualties to no Japanese losses. I'll chase them and attack them again. Best of all, I caught 3 Chinese air units on the ground, destroying them. About 3 dozen planes were caught, SBIII, I-16III and I-15III. Wow, amazing planes. [X(] That's 3 dozen pilots that are gone, which is the best part.
Eighteen Allied sorties against Adak for no damage. I was going to send MKB up here to replace KB1 but opted to send it to Truk to reinforce KB2 (still about 4 days north of Truk). Ted is showing signs of life down in SE Fleet area. There's a small TF with some small transports tooling around to the east of Dutch Harbor. If it sails west, I'll nail it with KB1. If not, I'll nail the Allied bombers and then send KB1 home.
4 Fleet
[>:]
SE Fleet
A cruiser TF showed up at Milne Bay. Not sure what they were doing there, but they didn't bombard. Maybe Ted thought I was still sending resupply cargos there. I haven't done that in quite a while. Now, Milne Bay is being resupplied exclusively by air transports flying out of Rabaul. There are only a few remnants of units I pulled out of there a month or more ago. Anyway, a TF containing CA Portland, CA Vincennes, CA Indianapolis, CL Helena, DD Hull and DD MacDonough pulled into the hex. I've had a sub in the straight just to the south of there and she never saw them. [:(] Anyway, the 45 plane Betty daitai that I pulled out of Shortlands Island (due to B-17 bombing), was sitting in Rabaul and attacked! Sixteen Betties flew and lost 4 planes to AA for no hits. [:@] Damn IJNAF prima donnas! Anyway, another 16 flew in the afternoon and put 2 torpedoes into Vincennes! Banzai! There was no report of her sinking though. She had to be badly damaged, so I moved a few more subs between Milne Bay and Pt. Moresby to catch her. Overall, I lost 6 Betties and 6 pilots for a badly damaged CA. I'll take it!
Oh yeah, I had a major victory with a midget sub in Milne Bay as well. The Ha-34 had been sitting there for a while when the 2 DDs found her and attacked. She survived! She still has her torpedoes, so she's staying.
I had put a sentai of Oscars over Buna and took out a P-40K. I'll take every kill I can get.
SRA
[>:]
Burma
No Allied planes flew, but my Helens hit Chittagong again destroying a Hurricane and damaging several others as well as the airfield.
On occasion, Ted gets the upper hand under the sea. (It’s only going to become more frequent soon.) The RO-61, patrolling off Cairns, was caught by DE Peary and hit twice. These little RO boats are pretty tough. Her damage is 29-68(37)-18(11)-0. She’ll head back to Rabaul for repairs.
5 Fleet
31 sorties against Adak.
4 Fleet
[>:]
SE Fleet
23 Helen sorties against Pt. Moresby for no effect.
SRA
[>:]
Burma
My bombers hit Chittagong again causing a little bit of airfield damage and destroying a Hurricane while damaging a dozen or more on the ground. No Allied opposition in the skies.
SW of Pt. Blair is Little Andaman Island. I built the airfield up to level 2 and have decided to divert the 6 Air Division HQ there. I am going to post a Betty daitai there, along with some Zeros. The Betties will provide more defense against any fleets that happen to wander in range. All I need to do now is find some infantry to defend the place. Maybe one of those garrison units… I’ll have to see what’s available.
I bombed the 1 Allied ground unit in Akyab. It turns out to be the 46 Indian Brigade. I have no doubt that the 8 Division (when it arrives) can take it.
China
Nothing exciting. Just moving armies around to further constrict the Chinese.
Other Stuff
Reinforcement: SC Ch-38 – ASW
The CA Vincennes was reported to have sunk. That was false. The way to tell is to track the ships sunk & the number of points. Even though the Vincennes was reported to have sunk, the total number of ships sunk did not increase. It only increases when the sinking actually happens.
The midget sub Ha-34 took a shot at the CA Indianapolis off Milne Bay. Unfortunately, she missed. She’ll head back to Gasmata to rearm and refuel. There are a couple more midget subs patrolling off Gasmata. One of them will head to Milne Bay to replace the Ha-34.
5 Fleet
32 Allied sorties hit Adak’s port again. Port damage is 73%. I’ve decided to ambush them with KB1’s fighters tomorrow.
4 Fleet
[>:]
SE Fleet
My night attack on Pt. Moresby hit pay dirt today. The bombers didn’t do a lot of airfield damage but they did destroy a P-40K and a B-17F while damaging 8 more planes.
More excitement off Milne Bay today. That Allied cruiser TF (3 CA, 1 CL, 3 DD identified) was still hanging around doing nothing but being targets. There were a total of 73 Betty sorties from three different attacks. Seventy-three torpedoes and all they managed to put a torpedo into the Indianapolis and Portland. Sheesh. Fortunately, only 2 bombers (and 1 op loss) were lost. Portland was reported sunk (false). So far, they’ve managed to hit all 3 CAs and nothing else (Vincennes was hit by 2 torps a couple days ago). Ted made a comment about how lousy his escorts were doing. So far, I haven’t see any. I hope it stays that way.
Ted sent a pretty large bombing force against Rabaul. There were 21x B-17E and 15 B-17F escorted by 16 P-38G. Forty A6M2 were flying CAP. They managed to shoot down 8 P-38s for no loss but the bombers got through. They got 10 airfield, 2 supply and 41 runway hits and destroyed 11 planes on the ground. Remaining damage after the turn was over was 21% runway and 17% service. I have a lot of engineers there. I pulled a Tojo sentai from Gasmata to reinforce the CAP.
I’d noticed a PG sitting at Buna for a couple of days. I send 4x DDs from Truk to investigate and they found an xAKL, which they promptly sunk. Supply mission, no doubt. Apparently, the division at Buna isn’t getting enough supply overland. That’s probably the reason why it isn’t moving to attack Lae.
SRA
[>:]
Burma
My nightly bombing of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar did little damage. My daily Tojo sweep of Chittagong found 2x Hurricanes and a P-40K and shot down 1 of each.
Just south of Hami, the 12 tank regiment caught up with the Chinese base force it had ousted from Hami and hit it again. This time losses were 489(33) Chinese to, again, no Japanese losses. They will continue to chase and attack the base force until it is no more.
Just to the NE of Changteh, my army caught up with the remnants of the Chinese army it had mangled earlier and hit them again. Losses were 240(10) Japanese to 14462(1023) Chinese, destroying 1 Chinese Corps. The remaining 10 Corps and 2 HQ retreated across the river into Changteh. My army will make a river crossing to attack them again. It appears that there are about 32k fresh troops that were sitting in Changteh, so the next attack may have a little resistance.
It appears that Ted is keeping Merauke supplied by xAKL. I see them moving around quite often, usually in single or small convoys. Today, the I-157 caught one and sank her. Hopefully, she was full.
5 Fleet
KB1 is composed of Akagi (36 A6M3a), Kaga (36 A6M3a) and Ryujo (30 A6M3a). I moved KB1 to 4 hexes west of Adak and set all 3 fighter daitai to LRCAP of Adak. 59 were present when the daily Adak raids arrived.
The first was composed of 2x A-29, 9x B-24D and 12x SBD. Both A-29s, 4x B-24s and 9x SBDs (the other 3 fled) were shot down. The second had 7x B-25C and 2x B-26B, and all were shot down. Losses were a bit higher than the first time with Kaga losing 3 pilots and 4 planes, Akagi losing 2 pilots and 12 planes (lots of write-offs) and Ryujo losing just 1 plane. I think the difference Ryujo and Akagi/Kaga was that Akagi/Kaga’s pilots were rather fatigued. Lesson learned. I’m moving KB1 back to the west. We’ll see what happens over the next couple of days. One new elite pilot came out of this battle.
Adak’s port damage dropped a couple % to 71%. I’m still using 9x Emilies to keep Adak supplied. I’ve sent an Ansyu-C PB on a fast transport mission with 1000 supply to try and resupply Adak. She should arrive in a couple days. Keeping fingers crossed that she’ll make it. I’ve got high hopes that she will with the decimation of the Allied aircraft once again. Unfortunately, Ted seems to have unlimited aircraft replacements. Hopefully, his pilot experience situation is poor.
4 Fleet
[>:]
SE Fleet
[>:]
SRA
[>:]
Burma
My night bombing raids did little. In the air over Chittagong, I lost 3 Tojos to 4 Allied fighters.
Ted hit Mandalay today with 120 2/4E bombers. I’d been enjoying my apparent air superiority in this region and neglected to keep CAP over Mandalay, which housed 2 Tojo sentai. I got real lucky here, because my total CAP was 3 Tojos. They managed to shoot down 4x Blenheims for no loss. The Allied bombers suffered from poor targeting, because they destroyed 1 Tojo on the ground and the airbase damage is only 6% service and 14% runway. I changed things around a bit. Now, 1 Tojo sentai will sweep Chittagong and the other will provide CAP to the airbase. In addition, I moved an Oscar sentai here and set them to CAP. I hope he comes again. This time he’ll meet some 60-70 fighters with experienced pilots. That should put a dent in those bombers.
I’m writing this at lunch so I can’t remember who made a comment that KB should have more fighters. Sorry about that. Anyway, here’s my current composition:
That’s 46% fighters. What do you recommend? I don’t intend on using any of these alone in serious combat. I broke them up this way based on ship speed and with an attempt to keep them ~200 aircraft per TF. As much as possible, I’ll keep them grouped when possible. Also, I’d really like to keep MKB away from Allied carriers if possible. If I have a chance to ambush Allied carriers, then I’ll use everything I can get my hands on. I’d gladly sacrifice a few CVEs for Allied CVs.
The only adjustment I can see is to reduce the Kates on Akagi, Shokaku and Zuikaku by 12 each and increase their fighters to 48 each. That would change the total to:
Total – 360 – 180 – 159
That would increase the fighters to 52%. The only issue I have with that is if you reduce the number of Kates too much, what’s the point? There’s not enough offensive power. I’m curious what you guys do.
The Shark has been hanging around Davao, my SRA hub second only to Singapore, as well as my main base for KB (currently absent) and the Combined fleet. She caught a Kiso PB looking the other way and put a torpedo into her sinking her.
The I-19 was returning to Kwajalein from the US west coast for replenishment when she contacted a convoy ~20 hexes NE of Hawaii headed SW. I think I found another SLOC. She torpedoed and sank an xAK. I sent a Glen carrying sub to patrol along the grid there that travels NE-SW. Hopefully, I can start to make an impact on the convoys to Hawaii, which has been hit or miss so far.
If that is the case, I’ll have found the routes out of San Francisco and to eastern Australia, as well as Hawaii now. My next goal is to find the routes in the IO, which could possibly make an impact on Ted’s oil/fuel supplies. I need to allocate some subs for that purpose. I suspect I’ll need half a dozen or so, but I don’t currently have any available. All are allocated.
5 Fleet
There were no attacks on Adak today! The port damage there dropped from 71% to 52%! The Ansyu-C PB fast transport will reach Adak in a couple days. I’m going to see how long it takes to drop off the supply and then set up about 6-8 Ansyu-Cs in 1 ship fast transport convoys spread out by that number of days to get some supply built up there.
I want to get the forts built up to level 6 (at least). They are currently at ~5.50.
KB1 will hang around to the west for a few more days, just to see if Ted tries anything. If he resumes bombing, I’ll hit them one more time then depart. I suspect Ted knows the vicinity of KB1, so I don’t want to stay there very long. If I were him, I’d be sending a bunch of subs to flood the area. At any rate, KB1 will depart in a few days for Truk.
4 Fleet.
[>:]
SE Fleet
I think Ted is up to something down here. He keeps focusing on Milne Bay, which is fine with me. But, he’s been using his 2/4E bombers to attack my air bases. I also keep getting intel of “heavy radio traffic” at many of the major ports in the area.
I have 5 major air bases in the region: Truk, Rabaul, Gasmata, Hollandia and Shortland Is. Truk has quite a few planes, but it’s primarily for rest, refit and training. Rabaul is the major forward air base. I usually have ~3 fighter units and 2 Helen sentai, as well as transport and recon elements. Gasmata has Fighters and recon. Shortland has 1 Tojo sentai and (sometimes) a Betty daitai (but not now due to recent bombing). Finally, Hollandia has some fighters, recon and a Helen sentai for bombing Merauke.
I still have a shortage of AS down here, but I just received the 25 Special Base Force (forgot to mention it yesterday), that is assigned to SE Fleet HQ. It’s coming down here, but I still haven’t figured out where to station it. I’ll get it on transports tomorrow and figure it out at that time.
The air war is definitely heating up here, so I’d like to find a fighter unit (IJAAF) to send here. The problem is that my air replacement pool probably can’t support another frontline fighter sentai. Gotta look at that more closely and crunch some numbers.
Anyway, there was action at Pt. Moresby, Lae, Shortland Island and Rabaul. The first action was by my Helens in their nightly raid of Pt. Moresby’s airfield. It was a poor showing with only 5 sorties leaving no lasting damage and damaging a plane.
During the day, Ted hit the other 3 airfields. Lae was hit by a squadron of P-40Ks, and I had some CAP leak there, only 5 Oscar Ic. Two of my planes were shot down for no Allied loss, but no pilots were lost.
Next, 11x B-25Cs went after Shortland Island and were met by my 13 Tojos. My Tojos did a great job shooting down 7 of the B-25s for no loss and no damage to the airfield. Banzai!
Finally, the big raid happened over Rabaul. A total of 52x 4E and 15x 2E bombers hit, opposed by 36x A6M2s and 23 Tojos. Plane losses were light, 1 of each of my fighters and 1x B-25 and 1x B-24D. I lost 7 planes on the ground and had some additional damage to my airfield (34% service, 9% runway). If I can hold him off for a day or 2, I can repair that damage, because I have quite a few engineers there. Ted did take 4-5 4E bomber op losses though. I’m not sure how many B-24 replacement aircraft he has, but he has to be running low on B-17s. If he continues to take 2-3 4E bomber losses a day, he won’t be able to sustain his bomber strength (I think).
I have KB2 and most of MKB arriving at Truk tomorrow. That’s the Soryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Junyo, Hiyo, Ryuho, Shoho, Zuiho and Hosho, a total of 222 Zeros, 90 Vals and 132 Kates. I’ve upgraded the Shokaku and Zuikaku’s fighters with the A6M5 and the rest will have the A6M3a, if they don’t already. I also have the fast replenishment fleet (77k capacity) there filling up. I’ve been sending all of the fuel from Balikpapan to Truk and have a reserve of ~150k tons. SE Fleet has 3 CA, 5 CL and 18 Fubukis. I’m toying with the idea of sending 4 BBs, to include Yamato and Musashi along with 4 CA, the Kitakami and Oi, and a dozen DDs. That’ll cost a lot of fuel, but I want them in place if they can catch an invasion fleet.
I have quite a bit of land based air too. On the IJNAF side, there’s 90 Zeros, 81 Betties and recon. On the IJAAF side, there’s ~160 Helens/Sallies, ~200 Oscars/Tojos and recon, plus ~80 light bombers trained for ASW.
I’m confident I can hurt any invasion force regardless of what escorts it. I guess worst case, all 6 US CVs come along for the party. That’s what, 216 Wildcats. If he pulls out some SBDs and replaces them with Marine Wildcats, the number may rise to 324. If it’s in my land based air umbrella, I can cause some harm. Ted’s been trying to shut down my air umbrella, but has been unsuccessful so far.
I can bring over 500 fighters to bear here vs his 324, plus land based air, and all of mine are very highly trained. Ted’s carrier fighters have been training for a year, but they haven’t seen any combat.
SRA
Nothing much going on here. I see no enemy activity, not even subs, other than the occasional sub off Davao. I’m surprised that Ted isn’t placing subs along the obvious oil transport routes. Not that I’m complaining…
Burma
More air war today. I tried something new and it was a smashing success! I had noticed that Kalemyo had a squadron of fighters stationed there (Hurricane IIc) and that the airfield was level 1. There are a couple of units there, so I suspect he’s building up the airfield so he can us it offensively as a forward fighter field. I assigned a Helen sentai to perform night bombing and also assigned an Oscar IIa sentai to strafe and a Tojo sentai to sweep. The Oscar pilots hadn’t trained in strafe, so the average was ~40 or so. The Helen raid was dismal, with only 8 Helen sorties and no damage. In the morning, the Oscars went in and made a mess of things there. They destroyed 3 Hurricanes on the ground and damaged another 7 for the loss of 1 plane and pilot. The airfield had 7% airfield damage, which means the engineers aren’t building the airfield, they’re repairing damage. The Tojos found no enemy planes flying. Intel showed only 2 fighters at the airfield. I’m doing it again tomorrow. My goal is to batter the airfield to the point where Ted doesn’t think he can get the airfield to level 2.
Chittagong: 33 Helen sorties (1 shot down) caused minor damage to the airfield and destroyed a couple fighters on the ground. Airfield currently has no damage. Air to air cost 1 Tojo and 1 P-40K shot down. Japanese pilot WIA.
Cox’s Bazaar: 15 Helen sorties caused minor airfield damage. Airfield at 63%.
Akyab: Airfield at 99%, Port at 100%.
Mandalay: Ted sent a nice bomber force of 29x 4E and 42x 2E bombers to take out the airfield. Twelve Oscars and 43 Tojos met them. They took out 15x Wellington Ics and 2x B-25Cs. The 4E bombers took a tremendous amount of damage but kept on flying. They’re going to be a problem. Fortunately, damage to the airfield was light. Unrepaired damage was 9 service and 14 runway. I’m expecting a return tomorrow. It was nice seeing all those Wellingtons go down. Their numbers should dwindle. He’ll get only ~20 more replacements. But, there are other newer models to take their place.
Four artillery regiments just arrived by ship and will begin unloading at Rangoon tomorrow. The 8 Division is 2 days out. They will move to take Akyab from the 46 Indian Bde when completely unloaded.
China
Up north, the 12 tank regiment hit the Chinese base force it’s been chasing once again. This time, Chinese casualties were 406(39). It’s still not dead, but it’s almost there.
I made a mistake at Changteh. My army was moving across the river and I left it in move mode because I didn’t expect it to complete the move this turn. It did. Oops. Losses were worse than I had hoped but they were mainly disablements. Japanese losses were 9145(255) vs. 3102(139) Chinese, but actual Japanese losses weren’t that bad. Only one division was trashed and one had ~50% disablements. The others aren’t that bad, but they need time to repair and for supply to catch up. Fortunately, none of the artillery was damaged. I’ll continue to bombard by artillery and air while the ground troops rest a bit. I did get 1:1 odds and reduced the fort to level 2.
3 Tank Division has combined and is at 86%. I have to force myself to let them gain more replacements before sending them north.
Other Stuff
Not much. I spent a lot of time babbling above. I am attempting to pre-position naval assets to be able to hit an invasion before it reaches its target. I know Ted is on the verge of going on the offensive somewhere and, based on the current attacks, expect it to be in the SE Fleet area. The other option is 5 Fleet Area, but I believe that is minimized due to his air assets being decimated twice. I’m confident he can replace the losses, but it will pull from his pilot reserves, and I suspect he doesn’t want to do that.
Air R&D Update
I currently have 6 different airframes undergoing R&D:
Oscar: My current model is the Ki-43-IIa. The IIb becomes operational on 1 Jan 43. I will upgrade my 4 factories producing 128 (64, 32, 32). I have 3x30 R&D factories working on the IIIa (10/44) increasing 6% per day. I have a 4th at 22(8) that is working on the IIb. Once it reaches 30 repaired, it’ll upgrade to the IIIa, increasing R&D to 8% per day.
Tojo: My current model is the Ki-44-IIa. I have 3x30 R&D factories working on the IIc gaining 6% per day. I have 4x30 operational factories.
Tony: I have no operational models and won’t until the Ki-100-II becomes operational. I have 5x30 R&D factories for the Ki-100-II (8/45), increasing 10% per day and one at 29(1) working on the Ki-61-Ib. When it repairs to 30, it’ll upgrade to the Ki-100-II.
Zero: My current model is the A6M5. I have 4x30 operational factories. I have 6x30 R&D factories increasing R&D 12% per day on the A6M5b (12/43).
George: I have no operational factories. I have 1x30 R&D factory increasing 1% per day the N1K1-J (9/43) and 5 additional factories (24, 16, 16, 14, 12) that are repairing to 30.
Judy: I have no operational factories. I have 2x30 R&D factories increasing 4% per day the D4Y1 and 1factory (12) repairing to 30.
All of my other R&D factories are not yet at 30.
Here are the other R&D airframes and the number of factories allocated:
Think you're probably right, those raids on around Rabaul look a bit bold. It could be simply an attrition war he's after, but he's lost a number of bombers (probably a lot of ops losses) and P-38s and continues despite knowing you have plenty of fighters in the area. Plus there is the sig intel, something must be afoot...
Where are his bombers flying from? PM? Merauke? Australian Coast? or a combination? Is it possible to tell where his recon planes are focusing?
Hi Jace. I haven't focused on recon. I'll try to pay attention to that. I know some of his B-17s are stationed at Pt. Moresby. I've destroyed a few from bombing. The rest have to be coming from the Australian coast, probably up north around Townsville. He's got a couple of airfields up to level 7 up there. I don't think it's Merauke. I've only seen fighters and the occasional SBDs. I don't think he can keep it supplied well enough.
No contact at all by either side. I can see several convoys around the globe and am attempting to intercept.
5 Fleet
No Allied bombing of Adak today! Port damage decreased from 52% to 44%. My first Ansyu-C fast transport convoy arrives tomorrow. I’m setting up a hub from Etorofu (my northern sub base) to use to supply Adak. I have 3 more Ansyu-C PBs headed there, as well as a pile of supply. I really want to get some supply to Adak. The ground forces are: 2x Naval Guard Units, 2x engineer units, 1x Base Force. The engineers have full supply and 1 NG has some supply, but the other 2 units have no supply and are suffering. Assuming the 1000 supply gets through, they should all be full or pretty close. The goal is at least 10k supply, preferably 20k supply there.
Once I’m confident the PB fast transport tactic works, I’ll pull that Emily chutai out of Paramushiro Jima and use it for naval search, which I desperately need.
KB1 is still there. I’m going to LRCAP the PB (just a few planes), to help her survival, just in case. KB1 will probably head out to Truk in a few days. If Ted does invade in SE Fleet area, I want as many carriers there as possible. I want to overwhelm him. If I can do that from the (relative) safety of being under cover of my LBA, so much the better.
4 Fleet
Tinian’s forts reached level 6 today. That’s 2 of the 4 islands there at 6+. Saipan is working toward level 7. The other 2 are level 5+. I have a LOT of engineers there. That’s a really important place that can’t fall into enemy hands.
SE Fleet
Bad news. The 25 Special Base Force only has 12 AS. That sucks. I was hoping for more. Right now, both Rabaul and Truk have more planes than AS. I need to spend some time next turn to rearrange my air units. Ted is making an effort to close down Rabaul. He’s taking 4E losses, but it’s working.
Rabaul: 39x 4E bombers hit Rabaul again. I opposed them with 13x A6M2 and 33 Tojos. Six of the big bombers went down to 2 Zero op losses. They destroyed 12 planes on the ground (easily replaced), but, unfortunately, increased Rabaul’s airfield damage from 9% runway, 34% service to 30% runway, 52% service. I moved a sentai of Tonys (from Gasmata) there to reinforce the CAP. I should have just used LRCAP from Gasmata.
Shortland Island is repairing its damage. If Ted doesn’t bomb there for another day or 2, I’ll move the Betties back there. Also, Gasmata is my main fighter base. He hasn’t touched that base. He can hit Gasmata with 2E bombers and P-38s but he doesn’t have a lot of P-38s available (I usually see only 1 squadron every now and then), and unescorted 2E bombers will get slaughtered.
I also have a level 2 airfield at the (former) dot hex to the north of Gasmata on the north coast (can’t remember the name). Right now I have the “Special Attack Unit” composed of 12x Ki-44 KAIb FB and 6x Ki-46 KAI fighters. Neither plane is very good. Better than nothing, I guess.
KB2 and MKB both arrived at Truk today. I pulled out all the damaged ships to repair. The last of them will be completely repaired in 5 days. By then I’ll also be able to upgrade the Ryujo’s 30 A6M3a with the A6M5, giving KB2 A6M5s. Of MKB, only Shoho still has the A6M2. The rest have the A6M3b, which the Shoho will receive in a few days.
I’m still waiting to send a BB/CA force from Davao to Truk, just in case. I would have sent them yesterday, but a sub showed up just off Davao. I sent some ASW TFs to prosecute that sub. Once I drive her off or sink her, I’ll send the surface TF to Truk.
The fast replenishment TF is almost completely filled at Truk. The damaged ships are also repairing. One TK will take 8 days to completely repair. I don’t think I have that much time, but we’ll see.
Tomorrow, I’m going to adjust my naval search to try and cover as much area to the south and SE of Rabaul as I can. I am going to place some flying boats at Nauru to search south from there, just in case Ted decides to do an end around. I hope he does, then I can decimate his fleet in the middle of the open ocean with no friendly port nearby. I don’t expect that to happen though.
Finally, I’m going to see if I can get an Emily to recon Noumea. I get reports of heavy radio activity there almost every day. I have a Glen sub just a couple hexes NE of Noumea but the Glen rarely spots anything.
SRA
Nothing of interest to report.
Burma
Ted is getting frisky here too. He’s building up his ground forces. The one division I have cutting his road (just to the east of Cox’s Bazaar) is now opposed by 5x Indian and 1x British divisions. Most of the Indians are relatively weak. He can get ~3:1 in raw AV. My division (33 Division, I think) is very experienced and sitting at ~93/98 strength. My main army, a hex to the SW (just NE of Akyab) is opposed by the majority of his army and (I believe) can easily hold that army off.
The 4 artillery units completely unloaded at Rangoon today. I put them in move mode and started them down the long road to Akyab. The 8 Division will arrive in Rangoon tomorrow and begin unloading. They’ll follow the artillery. Ahead of the artillery is the 77 Infantry Regiment, the future Akyab garrison. They will not participate in the attack. I’ve found that small units tend to get trashed easily in combat against larger units.
I had a 30 plane fighter sentai (part of 3 Air Division) training in Singapore. I upgraded them back to Oscars and shipped them north to Burma. I also had a 45 plane Zero daitai that I flew north to Burma. I plan on using overwhelming air power to decimate his bomber force in Burma.
Now the daily air raids:
Kalemyo: 11 Helens hit that air base again, causing more damage to add to what already was there. My fighter sentai set to strafe didn’t fly.
Cox’s Bazaar: My bombers did no additional damage.
Chittagong: Twenty Helens caught the airfield again doing additional damage and damaging a few fighters on the ground.
Magwe!: This is my oil field in this region. Early in the war Ted bombed it from 300 to 133 then left it alone for many months. I’ve gotten much more oil from here than I had ever expected. Well, he went after it again today. He sent a total of 119x 2E and 35x 4E sorties. I opposed them with 10 Oscars and 36 Tojos. I did well here, losing only 1 Tojo op loss and 1 pilot WIA. Ted lost 28x 2E and a 4E bomber. He did hit my oil fields, causing 6 points of damage and bringing my oil fields down to 127. Now I think I know why he’s been hitting Mandalay. I have 2x fighter sentai stationed there at all times and he figured (I think) that if he could close down that airfield, he could hit my oil. What he didn’t realize is that Magwe’s airfield is just as big, has a couple fighter sentai and lots of AA (not that the AA does much).
China
The army sitting at Changteh will rest a few more days before attempting to oust the Chinese defenders. Most of the Chinese army there is the battered remnants that have been attacked over and over. There are 4x HQ, 12 Corps (only 2 fresh, the rest are AV 0-2) and 2 construction engineers.
Other Stuff
Reinforcements:
SC CHa-48 – ASW
AMc Wa-7
It was confirmed that the xAKL Kanchow sank on 29 Dec 41. Well, that makes me sleep better at night.
I am 100% sure that when Ted invades, he’ll use his carriers and not rely only on his LBA. He’s painfully aware that his losses are usually pretty severe. He may do well on occasion, but overall, his losses are worse than mine. To date, he’s lost 4359 aircraft to 4253 Japanese, from all losses. His air to air losses are almost 50% higher than mine.
If I can sink or badly damage 3 of his US CVs, I’m confident I’ll postpone his offensive for 3-6 months. Every now and then, he’ll try something with a small fleet. Take the small surface TF (3 CA, 1 CL, 3 DD) that, for some unknown reason, sat for a few days at Milne Bay. I ended up putting 4 torpedoes into the 3 CAs. I don’t have reports of any of them sinking, but now they’re out of the war for a while. The one thing that bothers me about that is that I never saw them arrive and I never saw them leave. That actually really irritates me. I currently have a midget and RO sub in the hex. They’re just not there. Philadelphia Experiment comes to mind….
Here’s when I expect some of my fighters to become operational:
A6M5b: 1 Mar 43
Ki-44-IIc: 15 Apr 43
Ki-43-IIIa: 1 Jul 43
A6M5c: 12 Jul 43
A6M8: 1 Dec 43
Ki-43-IV: 2 Jan 44
I practically always assign my TKs by type. For example, my Std-A TKs (I have only a few) are all used in the same TF and ship oil from Davao to the Home Islands. That TF was on its way back to Davao (just a few hexes away) and had a brand new Std-C TK with it when it ran over a US sub. Of course, that particular sub happened to have a torpedo that worked. One hit and down went the TK. Glad it was empty. I was lucky though. The Musashi, Ryuho, Agano and a DD were all just ahead of the TK TF and made it to Davao safely.
By the way, now I can see 2 US subs off Davao. I’ve got every available DD & E hunting them. No luck hitting either one so far.
5 Fleet
No action again today. Adak’s port damage reduced from 44% to 42%. I lied about the fast transport PB. It didn’t make it to Adak today. It’s still a few hexes out but it should make it tomorrow morning. Finally, I’ll start getting some supply there. I wish I had realized earlier that the Ansyu-C PBs could perform fast transport missions. Now I have to decide whether to use them as escorts or in FT missions. That’s going to be a tough choice.
KB1 still hovers to the west.
I have another decision to make. I have 8 subs (I-1 through I-8) allocated to KB/Combined Fleet for recon ahead of either when necessary. I vowed at the beginning of the war to save them for that mission, but when neither fleet did anything for months on end, I sent them up to the Aleutians to support the subs up there. Now, 2 are damaged and repairing minor damage at Etorofu before heading to Japan to repair the major damage. I-5 just finished repairs in Japan and is headed to Truk. The other 5 are around Adak. Do I send them to Truk or keep them in the Aleutians? The 5 Fleet is composed of 5 fleet and 3 Glen subs, with a couple currently damaged. I’m probably going to send them south because I do not want to have KB without sub recon in a battle. I do have 8 RO subs (2 are damaged) down around Milne Bay but they have other missions to perform.
4 Fleet
Nothing to report.
SE Fleet
Ted’s fighters flew over Lae, Buna, Goodenough Island and Milne Bay, but I did not contest them. His bombers did not fly. He made a comment about rain and that it was a good time to rest them. I took the opportunity to rebuild and repair. The only airbase with damage is Rabaul, with 8% runway and 52% service. Shortland Island is completely repaired. I’m also sending xAKLs out to many of my small outposts to replenish/increase my supply at those bases. One xAKL with a small PB escort can usually get in and out without issue. I have a constant convoy sending supply and fuel to Rabaul, which is the hub for the region.
Up at Truk, KB2 will be completely outfitted with the A6M5 in 3 days, when I get enough in the pool to upgrade Soryu’s 27 fighters. MKB still has Hosho, with 15 A6M2s. The A6M3as, formerly of KB2, are slowly moving to the pool. I’ll upgrade Hosho’s fighters in a day or 2. Then my carrier force will be ready for missions.
The Combined Fleet is still locked in Davao. Not sure when I can begin their movement to Truk.
The fuel situation at Truk is pretty good. After fueling KB and MKB and filling the AOs in the replenishment fleet, I still have 88k fuel there, with another 32k about a day’s sail out. Over 100k supply with another 50k coming from Japan. I’m ready.
SRA
I’m going to move my oil/resource hub from Davao to Babeldaob for a bit. Ted’s locked onto Davao with some subs. It’s easy to hem that port in. It only takes 2 subs.
Burma
No Allied bombing happened today. In the air, I did minor damage to the usual bases and shot down 6x P-40Ks for the loss of a Tojo over Mandalay. Mandalay has repaired all airfield damage. Damage to Allied bases:
The 12 tank regiment hit the Chinese base force remnant once again. 26:1 odds, 170(16) Chinese to 0 Japanese and they are still alive. I’m continuing to chase them down the road.
Other Stuff
I found a(nother) mistake in my R&D several days ago. I had 3x30 factories working on the Myrt NF, or so I thought. I was researching the C6N1 Myrt recon plane. Dumb mistake. What I needed was the C6N1-S Myrt NF. So, I changed all 3 factories, increased them back to 30 each, and started over. They’re still all at 0(30), and probably will be for the time being. I’m not sure it’s worth it to R&D this aircraft. I’ll think about it for a bit more and make my final decision.
A US fleet sub and a Dutch sub are prowling around Davao. The Shark took a few near misses. Hopefully it's enough to send her home.
5 Fleet
Still no Allied bombing. I defused it, for the time being. I suspect he's shipping some fighters to Unmak Island that can reach Adak, and then he'll resume the bombing. In the mean time, the Ansyu-C PB carrying 1k supply arrived and unloaded it's cargo. Banzai! Adak how has 523 supply and all of the units are full up with supply. The port damage reduced from 42 to 21%! Tomorrow I will move the Emily chutai that is flying supply in from Paramushiro Jima to somewhere where they can perform their true mission, naval search. Marcus Island is a possibility.
I sent KB1 and the slow replenishment fleet back to Truk today. When they arrive, all of KB and MKB (minus 2x CVEs and Ryuho, still at Davao) will be at Truk. I still have an inkling that SE Fleet is where an invasion is going to occur.
4 Fleet
[>:]
SE Fleet
I moved a 6 plane Emily det from the Marshalls to Shortland Island to recon Noumea. They aren't well trained in recon, but anything is better than nothing. Noumea is showing heavy radio traffic every day. I also have a Glen boat keeping an eye out for convoys there. I often see a couple of DDs, probably an ASW TF.
Ted took one from my book. He sent 6x Mitchell bombers to hit Rabaul at night. He destroyed a Tojo on the ground. I have a chutai of Dinah fighters. I've put them on night CAP to see if they will do anything. I doubt it, but we'll see.
The only other Allied planes I've seen were a squadron of P-40Ks over Lae and Goodenough Island.
Rabaul's airfield damage has been reduced to 38% service.
SRA
[>:]
Burma
No bombing on Ted's part. I guess it's not worth the losses yet.
The only fighting was over Chittagong. Total losses were 4 Tojos (+2 op losses) to 8 Allied fighters.
My tank regiment will hit the remnants of the Chinese base force again tomorrow.
Other Stuff
The Ki-43-IIIa advanced to 9/44.
Not much else. I need to focus more on my defenses in the SRA. I've been ignoring that area. I could be in a world of hurt if Ted decides to do something down there.
A US sub has been hanging around in the deep water 1 hex to the NW of Pescadores. My convoys go through Pescadores hex bypassing that deep water hex. I have FPs stationed at Pescadores and on the Chinese mainland sweeping that hex as well as an ASW TF sitting in the hex. No luck sinking her so far, but I did get some near misses today. I'll keep prosecuting.
5 Fleet
I realized that the 9 plane Emily chutai is restricted so I changed them to naval search and left them at Paramushiro Jima. The 2 plane det is from 24 Naval Flotilla, so I sent them to Marcus Island to search to the NE. All quiet at Adak. The forts are increasing slowly and are at 5.62.
4 Fleet
[>:]
SE Fleet
42x 4E bombers hit Shortland Island today. My Tojo sentai was horrible. They didn't lose any planes, but they didn't cause any damage to the bombers either. Fortunately, they're focusing on one of the less important air bases. Damage was bad, at 50% runway and 29% services.
8x SBDs stationed out of Pt. Moresby sank an xAKL trying to dump supply at Milne Bay. Now I know he has SBDs there.
My Helens at Hollandia have been flying night port missions against Merauke because there are ships stationed there. I caught an AM with a 250kg bomb. No word of her sinking.
SRA
[>:]
Burma
Same old thing today. Losses over Chittagong were 2 Tojos (+2 op losses) to 4 Allied fighters.
I deliberate attacked Changteh, getting 1:1 odds and reducing the forts from 2 to 1. Losses were 1502(13) Japanese to 2072(33) Chinese. More rest then I'll try again.
The tank regiment hit the base force up north again. I still didn't kill it! Losses were Chinese 113(8) to no Japanese. I'll follow them and attack again.
Other Stuff
Reinforcement: 19 Army HQ - Part of 2 Area Army, stationed in Java, this HQ will go to Palembang.
Hi Zorch, I've been meaning to give an AO by AO update with maps. I just can't find the free time. Every time I try, a turn comes in. The turns have to come first. I'll get there.
Not a good day for the Imperial Japanese Submarine Force. It all started with some US DDs catching the I-169 near Norfolk Island, an area where I sank numerous Allied merchant shipping. They hit her twice and down she went. Too bad. She was a very effective sub.
Then, 2 hexes south of Rabaul, the S-41 put a torpedo into the RO-61. She was limping back from DC damage she received this additional damage and went down. Rats.
5 Fleet
Quiet.
4 Fleet
Quiet.
SE Fleet
Bad day down here. I tried ambushing the P-40K squadron run over Lae. It didn’t work out very well. I lost 5 fighters to 4 Allied fighters.
Even worse, Ted hit Rabaul with 41x 4E bombers. Even though he lost 9 of them, he plastered the airfield destroying some 30 planes on the ground and increasing the damage to 30% runway and 29% service damage. Ouch. I didn’t lose any planes in the air though, and lost only 1 pilot to the bombing.
SRA
The BB fleet escaped from Davao without being sighted by the US subs. Ted and I harass each other regularly by email during the day. He made a comment yesterday about something being up with Davao because he get blasted every time he sends a sub there. I’m going to (temporarily) move my hub from Davao to Manila. The oil and resources that are currently sitting in Davao will stay there until the subs clear out (or sink).
Burma
The typical air to air combats occurred. Total losses were 4 Japanese fighters and a Helen (flak) to 7 Allied fighters. Very few of my bombers flew.
China
That damn Chinese base force still lives. I hit it again with my tank regiment, causing 50(8) casualties for no Japanese losses. The tanks haven’t lost a man (or tank) in this long lived running battle. The Chinese have withdrawn into Ansi. I’ll liberate that town soon and hopefully kill the base force.
The 3 Tank Division is taking replacements very slowly. I put it in strat mode and sent it to the same base as the CEA HQ (which is what the division is attached to). Hopefully, it’ll take replacements faster so I can send it north to liberate that part of China.
I found a(nother) mistake in my R&D several days ago. I had 3x30 factories working on the Myrt NF, or so I thought. I was researching the C6N1 Myrt recon plane. Dumb mistake. What I needed was the C6N1-S Myrt NF. So, I changed all 3 factories, increased them back to 30 each, and started over. They’re still all at 0(30), and probably will be for the time being. I’m not sure it’s worth it to R&D this aircraft. I’ll think about it for a bit more and make my final decision.
Did a bit of homework for you Mike (hope I'm not overstepping). Based on the 63% figure from time of rerpair on R&D factories and the A/C due date these factories should be 100% by ~7/44. Myrt NF available 5/45. Advancement should put you in production 12/44-1/45. If you can manage 500+ Ha-45's in pool take off a couple months. Hey, ya need something to help throw off his aim, and this plane has armor and radar which the Dinah doesn't have. The only other NF that I would produce is the Randy, and I think you're a bit late for that one. Just MHO. Hope this helps.
It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once. Hume
In every party there is one member who by his all-too-devout pronouncement of the party principles provokes the others to apostasy. Nietzsche
Rustysi, you're never overstepping here. One of the main reasons for this AAR is for JFBs to chime in with their ideas. I love hearing other JFBs thoughts. Right now I've got 3x Myrt NF factories, at 2, 1 & 0. It'll be awhile. Just to let you know, I'm also working on the Randy, which has 3x factories at 10, 7 & 4 currently. My plan is to increase the factories for these & other R&D models as some other models reach operational phase and I have too many R&D factories for that model. I'll just switch those extra R&D factories to other models. Yeah, I know, they have to start over, but that's ok.
By the way, I have completed turns up to 23 Dec, but haven't had the time to post them. I'm with my daughter through early afternoon while she completes her scuba certification. No internet though. Nothing to do but sit around and write up the turns. If Ted gets me the turn before I leave, I'll do the next turn.
Rustysi, you're never overstepping here. One of the main reasons for this AAR is for JFBs to chime in with their ideas. I love hearing other JFBs thoughts. Right now I've got 3x Myrt NF factories, at 2, 1 & 0. It'll be awhile. Just to let you know, I'm also working on the Randy, which has 3x factories at 10, 7 & 4 currently. My plan is to increase the factories for these & other R&D models as some other models reach operational phase and I have too many R&D factories for that model. I'll just switch those extra R&D factories to other models. Yeah, I know, they have to start over, but that's ok.
By the way, I have completed turns up to 23 Dec, but haven't had the time to post them. I'm with my daughter through early afternoon while she completes her scuba certification. No internet though. Nothing to do but sit around and write up the turns. If Ted gets me the turn before I leave, I'll do the next turn.
Later!
Any idea how much supply you've spent on aircraft/engine expansion? I added mine up for my game against Bullwinkle and am curious how it stacks up against yours. We're at similar points in time, however I'm in Scen 2.
I want to say that my total aircraft/engine expansion expenditure (not counting factories that start damaged) is around 1.6-2M (that spreadsheet is at work [:D]). When I say the number, it seems high, however when I think about what I'm doing (30-size R&D factories, low production [only 75 A6M2 until the A6M5 came online!], etc.) it seems like I may actually be doing less than some other folks here.
