Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Mike Solli]

9 Jan 43

Sub War

The SSX Ha-32 had been sitting at Milne Bay for awhile when she spotted an xAKL dropping off supply there and took a shot. She missed, but lived to fight another day. She's going back to Gasmata to rearm while a midget sub there is moving to Milne Bay to replace her.

The I-15, patrolling off San Francisco, spotted an xAK and put a torpedo into her. No report of sinking, but she's got to be hurting.

A brand new TK that was moving (just got her yesterday) took a torpedo while moving to Nagasaki. Her damage isn't too bad (19-32(18)-5(5)-0). She'll continue to Nagasaki where she'll repair her damage.

There's a bit more but it's part of a longer story, so I'll discuss it below.

5 Fleet

Lots of moving parts here. A PB moved to Adak to drop off supply. Also, the I-124 entered Adak to drop off 40 mines. It just so happened that the Allied bombardment TF (4 BB, 2 CLAA, 3 DD) came back to Adak to bombard. They all ended up at Adak at the same time. The bombardment fleet caught the PB and badly damaged her. She sank later in the day. It was amazing that she survived that TF. Then, the I-124 put two torpedoes into the BB West Virginia! Banzai!! [:D] A destroyer prosecuted her causing light damage (28-8-0-0). She'll head back to Yokohama for repairs. The Allied TF stuck around and bombarded Adak causing no damage. Not a bad day at all.

My carriers were slower than expected. KB1 (returning to Truk) is still 9 hexes away. By tomorrow it'll be at Truk and refueled and rearmed. I'll replace aircraft and send them on their way north. KB2 missed its rendezvous with the tankers by a hex. They'll rendezvous 5 hexes north of where they are now and refuel. KB2 will be 19 hexes SW of Adak, 1 day away possibly. I sent the slow replenishment fleet out from Truk to head north today. All the parts are moving north albeit slowly. Hopefully, they'll all be able to participate.

Oh yeah, Junyo, Hiyo and Hosho are at Truk and will head north with KB1 tomorrow. I'll probably split them off and send them separately. They didn't leave today because I don't have any DDs to escort them. They'll get a few from KB1. They will add 66 Zeros, 36 Vals and 24 Kates to the mix if they make it in time.

4 Fleet

Nothing but building forts…

SE Fleet

The only excitement was the midget sub attack described above.

SRA

[>:]

Burma

A little bit of bombing of Cox's Bazaar and Chittagong that caused little damage was all that occurred.

The Akyab invasion force continues to collect. Just a few more days…

China

[>:]

Other Stuff

Nothing.

[Mike Solli]

10 Jan 43

Sub War

I think I have the record for the shortest lived ship. The TK Kyoie Maru (Type-1 TM, 8150 capacity) was completed on 8 Jan 43 at Nagoya and sailed for Nagasaki that day. On 9 Jan 43, she took a torpedo from the Tambor. She was moderately damaged and continued on the Nagasaki. On 10 Jan 43, she took another torpedo, this time from Permit. Down she went. Sheesh. What a waste. [:(]

The S-42 is still hanging out at Adak. She took a shot, and hit, a PB bringing in supply. The PB survived and offloaded just about all her supply. She’ll stay and drop the rest tomorrow.

5 Fleet

It’s a quiet day, but the battle isn’t over, it’s just beginning. I can see the US bombardment TF sitting in a dot hex a few hexes to the east of Adak. There’s another TF with it, but I’m not sure what it really is. I hope it isn’t the US carriers. My intel doesn’t show any Allied aircraft there, which is good. There are also a couple of ASW TFs around Dutch Harbor. I’m down to just a few subs left in the area, as most of them have taken damage are being repaired or limping back for repairs.

KB2 (Kaga, Ryujo, Shoho, Zuiho) refueled today and will steam north. If they steam the full 9 hexes available (they used some OP points to refuel), they may be just in range to hit the bombardment TF. I doubt it though. The cruiser TF (4 CA, 4 CL, 4 DD) will refuel tomorrow. All this refueling is being done from the fast replenishment fleet, which has >50k fuel left.

KB1 (Akagi, Soryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku) and KB3 (Junyo, Hiyo, Hosho) left Truk today in separate TFs, and are ~70 hexes away from the action. Say, 6 days. Yesterday, the slow replenishment fleet (49k fuel) left Truk heading north as well.

Adak is up to 1436 supply. The ground units are recovering their disabled squads and slowly accepting replacements. Damage is 100% Port, 94% service and 65% runway. The base force there is 35 days from a TOE change, where it gets CD guns. I really would like to get those guns. We’ll see if Adak survives long enough for that to happen. I’m curious to see how much supply is required in the hex for to be able to create the guns.

Other forces in the area:

Amchitka Island (I finally looked up the spelling): I have most of an AS unit there slowly building up the airfield (not even level 1 yet). I do have a 9 Emily chutai flying out of there providing excellent naval search to the east. I have an AV with 9 Jakes that will reach there tomorrow. The only real reason I have her there is to provide seaplane support for the Emilies so the AS can be used for other purposes. The Jakes will provide naval search or ASW as needed.

Attu: There currently is nothing there, but an AS unit is enroute for air support, if needed. The AV was there until a couple of days ago.

Etorofu: This is the sub base for 5 Fleet. It is also where I have the fast transport TFs originate. The Hiryu fighter daitai is hanging out here waiting for Amchitka’s airfield to reach level 1. Then they will fly in to provide CAP until the airfield reaches level 2 and other missions become available. Should Ted’s carriers appear, I will most likely swap out some carrier Vals for these fighters. If these fighters remain at Amchitka, they’ll fly LRCAP over Adak, since Ted has resumed flying ~10-15 sorties a day. I have noted that he is no longer using his SBDs for this bombing mission. I suspect he’s got them on naval attack from Unmak Island. I’ll stay out of SBD range (7 normal, 8 extended), just to be safe. If things go my way, I may just pull the Kongs (escorting my carriers) into a surface fleet and move them 8 hexes from Unmak Island with heavy LRCAP support, just to see if I can ambush the SBDs. That’s just a little thought in the back of my mind, and would only happen if I am wildly successful.

Amchitka Island has been changed to General Defense Army, so I can fly Nells here (from Japan) if I think they can be used effectively.

The additional ground forces are arriving, but I won’t send them in to Adak as long as the US BBs are around. Once my carriers make their grand appearance, I don’t think they’ll stick around. Hopefully, some will be on the bottom of the ocean. The ground forces include: a tank regiment, a garrison unit & an artillery unit.

I have 4x CMs a few days out. If they have a chance, they’ll drop off their 150 mines (to add to the 40 sub mines). An ACM is enroute as well. She’ll disband in port. We’ll see how long she survives.

4 Fleet

Forts, forts, forts! [:D]

SE Fleet

Terapo was hit by my bombers, destroying/damaging a few fighters. They were P-39Ds and Kittyhawk IAs. Yeah, impressive stuff. [8|]

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

My bombers did their usual night bombing. They’ve been taking 2-3 losses a day, in addition to some OP losses. I’ve decided to stand them all down for a few days. They’re losing more planes than they’re killing and Ted refuses to fly his fighters. I’ll continue to sweep his airfields and gather strength for the inevitable British/Indian attacks.

China

A week or two ago, Ted moved his forces at Nanchang (4x HQ, 5x Corps, 4x Base Forces) to Liuchow. I had 2/3 of an infantry division there. He attacked unsuccessfully. I moved another division (5 Division, an elite unit) there. They just arrived, over a river, so they performed a shock attack. The odds were only 1:2, but the losses were definitely on my side. I lost 981(2) Japanese to 1992(145) Chinese. They lost a lot of infantry. I’ll let the 5 Division rest a few days to recover disruption and disabled squads, then I’ll attack with everyone.

Other Stuff

So, here’s the final tally sheet of planes:

KB2: 108 F, 18 DB, 54 TB (108 torpedoes)
KB1: 135 F, 72 DB, 81 TB (171 torpedoes)
KB3: 66 F, 36 DB, 24 TB (42 torpedoes)

Allied:
2 CVs available: 72 F, 36 DB, 30 TB
4 CVs available: 144 F, 72 DB, 60 TB

I think there are only 2 US CVs present, but I’ll assume 4.

The positioning is tricky. Here are ranges of the aircraft involved:

Plane: Normal/Extended
F4F-4: 5/6
F4F-4(drop tanks): 8/9
SBD-3: 7/8
TBF-1: 6/8

A6M3a: 8/9
A6M3a (drop tanks): 12/15
A6M5: 7/8
A6M5 (drop tanks): 10/12
D3A1: 6/7
B5N1/2: 7/9

Here are some critical distances:

0-6 hexes: US torp, Val 250kg
7 hexes: US 1000lb, Kate torp, Max Val range
8 hexes: Max US DB/TB range
9 hexes: Max Kate range

If I come against only the BB TF, I want to be at 6 hexes. The Vals might get lucky and go after the escorts. Otherwise, 7 hexes for torpedoes.

If I come against the US CVs, 9 hexes is a thought. Only my Kates will fly, but they will carry 2x 250kg bombs. Several of those hits and the carriers are burning hulks, with his bombers stuck on the flight deck. That could be fun.

So, what am I willing to trade for, potentially, 2-4 CV and 3-4 BB, plus escorts? Ideally, just planes. Initially, I will be very conservative with KB2. Carriers, in general, are fragile, but Japanese CVL/Es are extremely fragile. I’ve got 3 of them in this TF. If I have a sniff of US carriers, my goal is 9 hexes. Their goal will be to damage the US carriers with the carrier bombers stuck on the flight deck. That will set everything up for KB1, the hard hitters. They’ll arrive to clean up whatever they can catch.

[Mike Solli]

Production Update (based on 1 Jan numbers)

Ok, it’s the new year. I look at the beginning of 1943 as a new phase in the war. The most critical event to happen is that the US torpedoes get a lot better. They’ll get even better later in the year, but they’re a lot better than they were yesterday. This will soon create havoc with my SLOC. I write this after the 10 Jan turn, and his US subs have already sunk 3x xAK, 1x xAKL and 1x TK, as well as damaging a modern DD. I hope he doesn’t continue to sink an average of 1 ship every other day. That’ll get old.

I have learned one critical lesson that I will attempt to rectify this game, and will definitely change in future games. Japanese ASW begins with the Type 95 DC, and progresses through the Type 95 Mod 2 to the Type 2. I now know that the Type 95 should be used exclusively in shallow hexes because of its limited maximum depth, which is higher than Allied subs can dive. Some Japanese escorts never get anything better than the Type 95. In deep hexes, they do nothing except waste supply. This weekend, I hope to work at moving my ASW forces to work to their strengths, but it’s going to take a while to fix it. In the meantime, my obsolete ASW forces will probably continue to kill fish.

The raw stats are at the bottom.

Supply: Going in the right direction, albeit slowly. My monthly production is just over 850k. It seems like a lot, but apparently it isn’t. My goal from here out is to increase it by at least 50k a month. That’ll get me to 4 million by mid-44. I’d like half of it to be in Japan.

Fuel: It’s doing pretty well. I expect it to go down by 1 Feb. I’m doing some major fleet operations, mainly up in the Aleutians (as if you didn’t know). The majority of KB and a good chunk of the Combined Fleet is burning lots of fuel up there. The goal is to have 3 million in Japan by mid-43.

Manpower: Chugging along.

Heavy Industry: My goal was 7500, and I exceeded it. I increased the HI at Singapore and Hong Kong modestly and increased Java’s HI to support the fuel produced there as well as the resources in the area. The rest came from China. I expect it to possibly increase a little more from some bases I’ll liberate in China over the next couple of months. The end result will be a slight increase in fuel, but I’ll get more HI too, so it’s all good. I am currently stockpiling ~4600 HI per day, but that will decrease each month this year as the increased pilot training program goes into full swing. My goal is still an increase of at least 100k HI per month in the pool or 2.8-3 million HI by mid-43.

Light Industry: I keep what I take and repair none. With my excess of resources, It is supply in the bank.

Refinery: I have 90 shut off at Loyang and 300 shut off in Burma. That is to prevent them from producing fuel that will move and lose some to wastage. I prefer the oil movement – no wastage. It means slightly less supply in the short term (2700/month in China and 3990/month in Burma –only 133 oil remaining in Burma) but the oil will eventually make its way to Japan and be converted there.

Resources: No problems here. I’m shipping it to Japan as quickly as I can.

Oil: Oil is slowly pretty stable right now (the past month was unusual). I expect the oil to remain constant at 2.6-2.7 million until Ted starts to work over my SLOC from Singapore. So far, he has only tested it just west of Japan in the deep hexes. That area has quite a few ASW TFs in it, but most of the ships have the Type 95 DC. That is top priority to fix.

Naval Shipyards: They’re chugging along. I have 6 (I think) CVs and 1 CVL accelerated. Shinano is off and Taiho is normal. I also have 4 DDs accelerated, which is all that are available to be accelerated. All of my SSTs are off. I occasionally switch a CV to normal because I use slightly more points than I get each day. That will eventually turn around and I’ll have extra points. I’ll probably eventually accelerate the Taiho (assuming I keep KB healthy and not swimming with the fishes).

Merchant Shipyards: They’re chugging along as well. I have nothing accelerated but quite a bit shut off. Right now I’m dropping 90 points a day. I’m going to go through and shut some more stuff off.

Armament points: I currently have 500 of the 620 points shut off. The pool is very slightly rising. I got some ground units in early January and the pool dropped to 94-5k, but it’s on the rise again. If it drops to 90k, I’ll turn everything back on for a week to pump it back up.

Vehicle points: I have all 150 factories producing. I’ll keep them on, probably for the duration. They are keeping up with use. I am very critical of what I upgrade, especially tank units.

TRACOM: My goal for January is 100 IJA and 120 IJN pilots in the pool. Right now I have a lot of elite pilots in KB right now (77). After the Aleutians battles are over, I’ll move some into TRACOM. I want a lot here to (hopefully) accelerate some pilots through their training in order to reduce HI expenditures there.

KIA/WIA/MIA: Losses are still less than graduates from pilot training.

Pilot Training: You can see that the 1-3 month training numbers have jumped significantly. That’s the beginning of the increase in pilot training. We’re going to need those extra pilots in a year.

Political Points: I have sufficient numbers of political points to do what I need to do. Still I keep an eye on my expenditures.

Score: I don’t really care about the score. The ratio is slightly >2:1, for those who care.

Lost Planes: The numbers are pretty even, but I hold a significant edge in Air-to-Air combat. I’ve got more of the other 3 categories. It’s only going to get worse.

Lost Troops: It looks bad for the Allies, and it is. Don’t worry, AFBs, it’ll get “better” for you when Ted begins his offensives, especially against islands and he starts killing off my units.

Ships Sunk: It wasn’t too bad last month. I did lose 2 subs and a midget sub. Ted lost a lot of cargo ships and at least one TK. Nothing extraordinary.





Edit: I accidentally cut off some stuff at the bottom:

Allied Ship Points 0 2,581 2,703 122 2,703
Japan Ships Sunk 0 178 188 10 188
Japan Ship Points 0 1,574 1,629 55 1,629

[Lokasenna]

Hey Mike,

Can you send me that spreadsheet, and I'll enter my own numbers? I'm curious.

I'm Scen 2 instead of Scen 1, but it would still be nice to compare.

[Lowpe]

Do you think that is enough Supply -- 4 million in mid 44? Well, I guess the answer is yes, but could you elaborate a little on how you got there?

[Mike Solli]

Lowpe, I have no idea what really is needed, but here is my "math" and "logic". I'm planning on my SLOC from the SRA to Japan will be cut in mid-44, let's say 30 Jun 44.

I am assuming I will be able to move excess resources and oil from Fusan to Honshu and excess stuff from the other Home Islands to Honshu, even after the SLOC from the SRA is cut. Given that assumption, I will need certain amounts of stuff to get me an additional 18 months to the economy:

Oil: 2.5 million
Resources: 5.8 million
Fuel: 3 million
Supply: 1.8 million

The supply is to supplement what is produced by the HI, LI and refineries, about 100k a month. The supply part is pure guesswork. If the remainder of the empire is cut off from Japan, only Japan needs to be supplied from Japan. So, given the HI, LI and refineries in the Home Islands producing, they will produce about 635k supply a month, plus the 100k stockpiled is 735k supply a month or 24500 supply a day. Is that enough to survive? I honestly have no idea, but that's the initial plan.

[Lowpe]

Thanks. Very interesting. Having target goals for the economy can be tough for Japan.

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Lowpe, I have no idea what really is needed, but here is my "math" and "logic". I'm planning on my SLOC from the SRA to Japan will be cut in mid-44, let's say 30 Jun 44.

I am assuming I will be able to move excess resources and oil from Fusan to Honshu and excess stuff from the other Home Islands to Honshu, even after the SLOC from the SRA is cut. Given that assumption, I will need certain amounts of stuff to get me an additional 18 months to the economy:

Oil: 2.5 million
Resources: 5.8 million
Fuel: 3 million
Supply: 1.8 million

The supply is to supplement what is produced by the HI, LI and refineries, about 100k a month. The supply part is pure guesswork. If the remainder of the empire is cut off from Japan, only Japan needs to be supplied from Japan. So, given the HI, LI and refineries in the Home Islands producing, they will produce about 635k supply a month, plus the 100k stockpiled is 735k supply a month or 24500 supply a day. Is that enough to survive? I honestly have no idea, but that's the initial plan.

Yes, very interesting. It sounds like enough supply, given that it's the end-of-the-world.

At what point (if ever) do you stop caring about anything except the home islands? And build no planes except fighters and kamikazes? Do you plan to expend your surface fleet in 1 way attacks like the Yamato did, or keep the remnants around to attract bombs that might otherwise be targeted at more valuable things? Should you seek a 'decisive battle' when the Allies attack the Marianas, knowing that even a big victory will only delay them a few months?

[Mike Solli]

Very good questions. I don't have any good answers. I've never gotten past mid-43, and that was with the old WitP.

I won't ever stop caring about the fringe. If I can do something to slow Ted somewhere, I'll do it, given the fact that the Home Islands are key. If there is a location that is producing HI (Java comes to mind), I'll do what I can to keep it going. If he chooses to bypass Java, that could be a lot of HI produced for the war effort.

Only fighters and Kamikazes? Anything is (and will be) a Kamikaze. I'll continue to build planes that can become good Kamikazes as long as I can. I'll probably figure that out as time goes on.

I am of the "fleet in being" mentality. If I have something out there that can destroy an invasion fleet, I'll keep it alive, if only to keep Ted guessing. That's not to say I won't use ships if I can do important damage with them. Killing off a few cruisers is unimportant, unless I can do it with aircraft from a distance. Then it's worth it. A surface battle is a waste. Even if you win, your ships take damage, which effectively removes them for quite a while.

The Marianas are, in my opinion, one of the key pieces of real estate. 2 of the 4 bases are at fort 6+ and the other two will reach level 6 soon. I'm going to pack them with troops and supply, along with substantial AS. I will fight for those islands. He probably will take them in the end, but he won't like it. [;)]

A decisive battle? No, but I want to pick him to death. Right now, there's stuff going on in the Aleutians of all places. I have an opportunity to sink some capital ships and possibly some carriers. I'm using a lot of fuel to do this, but I think it's one of those battles that is most likely stacked in my favor. I should take minimal ship damage. Only aircraft and valuable pilots, but I have a nice pool of IJN pilot replacements with more being added monthly. Will this materially affect the Allies? No, but it will make him pause the next time he attacks. If I can kill a couple of carriers, I'll have a nice carrier advantage for most of 1943. That give me more of what I need: time. There will eventually come a time where he has to attack, or he won't have the time to do what he needs to do to defeat me.

[ny59giants]

Aleutians - During each turn I would click on hexes you are moving your CV/CVLs to get an idea what the weather will be for the next day along with where your opponents TFs are at. We both know that this isn't always accurate, but it can help. Since you are in the middle of winter up here, this factor could be decisive. During the four months of winter, invasions are very, very risky even with 100% prep. I think you will need to take some calculated risk up here with your CVs as you have just a few more months until the Hellcats come out and they can stand up to your Zeros.I would place a few subs on potential retreat paths of his CV if they get damaged to try to finish them off. Good luck my friend!!

[Mike Solli]

Very good advice as always, Michael. I never think of checking the weather. I also hadn't realized it was winter. What are the winter months?

[Zorch]

Thanks Mike. I agree with your Aleutian logic. If this was '44, the risk might not be worth it. But now, as you say you can cripple or seriously retard Allied operations in '43. My guess is that you may wind up taking damage to 1-2 of your big CVs and losing 100 pilots, in exchange for sinking 2 of his.

[Lowpe]

Fighting in the north is always tough, let alone in the winter where invasions are super tough and the wear and tear on ships escalates...I had a mini-sub blow up because of a battery failure (actually that probably didn't have anything to do with the winter, but it is nice to think that it may have).

Land based air is unreliabe, floats even worse. Frustration abounds.

You are in winter now, I believe. November to March I seem to recall. Now, quick when is Monsoon season?

[Mike Solli]

Monsoon I have written down: 15 May to 15 Oct. I need to pay more attention to dates.

[ny59giants]

You are in winter now, I believe. November to March I seem to recall. Now, quick when is Monsoon season?

Off here slightly, winter Nov 1st thru Feb 28th. See pages 223-4 or rule 12.0

Ships moving in Cold Zones during winter will suffer operational system damage at double the normal rate.
All base construction in Cold Zones during winter takes twice as long.
Air units will fly 25% less aircraft on strike type mission.
Ground units unloading at an enemy base or into a non-base hex with enemy unit will suffer roughly three times the losses they would normally suffer

Thus, moving some support ships (ARs, ADs) may help when they are in port. Second, the amount of air power will be reduce for both sides.

[Mike Solli]

Thanks Michael. I haven't dug out the manual since I came back from deployment. Time to do that.

11 Jan 43

Sub War

[>:]

5 Fleet

The two Allied fleets still sat on the dot hex 3 hexes to the east of Adak. KB2 was in range of TBs using bombs, but none flew. I think that was for the best. When they launch, I want them carrying torpedoes. The only offensive action in this region today was a visit by 6x B-24Ds and 7x B-25Cs. Note that his SBDs didn't fly. I'm sure they're on naval attack. He may have a sniff some of my ships being in the area, but noting has spotted them.

KB1, KB3 and the slow replenishment fleet continue north.

4 Fleet

[>:]

SE Fleet

My nightly bombing, causing a few planes to be damaged/destroyed and a bit of airfield damage.

SRA

[>:]

Burma

[>:]

China

I destroyed a couple of badly battered Chinese Corps just south of Kweiyang.

Other Stuff

A DMS entered conversion to an E at Tokyo.

Tomorrow may be the day up in the Aleutians. KB2 will definitely be in range, dependent on whether Ted withdraws (doubtful) and the weather being good (again doubtful). Lots of heavy overcast and blizzards in the area. We'll see.

I haven't seen Ted's carriers up there since they made that attack on Adak that gave them away on 8 Jan.

[Mike Solli]

12 Jan 43

Sub War

[>:] - I'm beginning to like putting this here. More and more subs are popping up around the map. Still nothing along the SLOC from Singapore though.

5 Fleet

Today was an exciting and boring turn, all at the same time. KB2 parked itself 4 hexes to the SE of Adak. The US bombardment TF hit Adak again, but this time showed up with 9 BB, 3 CLAA and an unknown number of DDs. [X(] They did minor airfield damage (there wasn't much left to damage [:D]) and killed a few troops. Overall, it probably wasn't worth the effort. That's when I got excited. I figured that putting some torpedoes into those lumbering hulks would make them, well, hulks. The night phase ended and I saw something else that make me pretty excited, air bombing of Adak with 27 Wildcats, 30 SBDs and 20 Avengers, all from that dot hex 3 hexes to the east of Adak. US carriers!

So now, I see 9 BBs 4 hexes to the east of KB2 and 2-4 CVs 7 hexes to the east of KB2. That made me jumpy for the rest of the turn. The turn proceeded on and on, and never went back to the Aleutians. No one flew!

After the turn, I saw that KB2 and the bombardment fleet were in extreme overcast and the US carriers were in the clear! Too bad my planes couldn't launch. Ah well, such is life.

I'm moving KB2 4 hexes due east of Adak for tomorrow. My intel says the carriers have 62 fighters, 82 bombers and 10 auxiliary aircraft. It is also showing 4 CVs in the hex, but I take those sightings with a grain of salt. There are 2-4 carriers there, because I know there were 2 at Noumea at the beginning of the month.

4 Fleet

[>:]

SE Fleet

Half a dozen P-38Gs visited Rabaul and were overwhelmed by 3 dozen Japanese fighters. Four P-38 were lost in exchange for 1 Zero. Eight more P-38s swept Gasmata. Only 11 Japanese fighters responded, and 1 Zero was lost here too.

SRA

[>:]

Burma

I had planned a sneaky little invasion, pretty much to harass Ted and turn his attention elsewhere. I had moved (by air) the 4 Parachute Regiment (Battalion strength unit) to Shwebo to invade Rangpur. That dot base is on the only railroad line to supply Chittagong and that area. Anyway, Ted must have noticed 80 transport planes at Shwebo because he swept that base with 18x P-40Ks. Neighboring CAP protected the transports at a cost of 5 Japanese fighters (about 3 WIA pilots) to 1 Allied fighter. Tomorrow, I'll fly in supply and then get the transports out of there.

China

[>:]

Other Stuff

Nothing exciting to talk about. Just impatiently waiting for the next turn….

[Lowpe]

Fighting in winter is frustrating!

Where is he rearming and refueling those thirsty BBs? Perhaps a few subs around there might net you a tanker or a BB?

[ny59giants]

The Allies have ONLY two AEs big enough to reload BBs. I guard mine heavily.

[Mike Solli]

I suspect he's rearming/refueling the BBs at Dutch Harbor. There's no place else close enough. But, the BB TF will leave a couple days later. We ran 2 turns. I'll write them up tomorrow. Interesting events happening.

Only 2 AEs? Interesting. Gotta keep an eye out for them.