July 10th to July 13th, 1943
Big update!
North Pacific
The only action has been the movement of supply to keep the islands topped up.
I intend to send some big shippments (around 30k supplies) to Onnekotan-jima and Paramushiro-jima, so that both bases have a good stockpile in the event that the Allies cut these bases off before I'm ready for it.
General Defence Command is going to be flown out to Shimishuri-jima in the next week or so. This will let me move the unrestricted 5th Fleet Command HQ to the Marianas, where I think it will be of more use.
Central Pacific
I decide that the Combined 8th SNLF will do more good on Tinian than Tarawa, they're currently loading onto ships to be move further back.
The Wake CD unit is being shipped to Guam from Truk as well. Let's review what we have defending the Marianas currently:
[center]
Not shown are some heavy AA units on Guam.[/center]
Elsewhere, I'm making a big ASW effort at Truk, to try to keep the waters clear of Allied subs. Allied long-range recon planes are also keeping Truk's DL level high, so I'm using it to make a show of how prepared I am: 150 aircraft, 60 of which are fighters should keep Lokasenna concerned about the Central Pacific for a while.
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The garrison at Truk. The AA guns are all heavy 10cm guns - I expect the Allies to blast the island into the stone age once they can get bombers within rage.[/center]
The Marshalls and Gilberts remain a back-water. I've made some use of the bases here as frontline training and rest stations for some of my air units.
I'm going to start a draw-down of troops from the Marshalls, seeing as they will be able to do more good further to the rear. I intend to send two or three of the tiny base forces in the region, plus a naval guard unit garrisoning a dot hex to Ulithi, where they can turn 3(3) port at Ulithi into a forward base. The base forces aren't really being used in the Marshalls, and they're small enough that three can fit on Ulithi and still leave 3k of the stacking limit free for garrison troops.
[center]
One of the small base forces I plan to send to Ulithi. With a stacking cost of 928, three of them should give me plenty of room to garrison the base and operate some small warships from it.[/center]
South-West Pacific
New Guinea/NE Oz
I get an interesting report from my recon planes flying over Portland Roads: two carriers and a crusier are sitting in the harbour, a report which is consistantly verified by other squadrons. The only problem: around 450 Allied fighters are reported in the hex: no free strike like at Normanton.
While I can't yet sink a carrier, I see it as a fantastic oppertunity to get the Allies on the defensive for a change, and I I promptly mass every IJA and IJN fighter unit in the theater that has the range to reach Portland Roads at Hansa Bay in preparation.
I need some small measure of revenge for Medan's oil wells, and July 11th is the day I hoped to get my revenge.
The Betty unit send to bomb the port at night gets distrupted by some Airacobra's on night CAP and get no hits.
The AM strike goes off pretty well, with the smaller strikes wearing down the inital Allied CAP, and opening the way up for the big IJN squadrons. It also marked the combat debut of the N1K1-J, which managed to score 9 kills for two lost.
The A6M3a is evidently too old for frontline service now, but the A6M5 still seems to have the edge needed to at least break even with the Americans. Pilot losses were easily absorbed by the replacement pools, and we got a few pilots creep over the 80EXP threshold.
A good day, but not a huge victory.
[center]
The result of air actions on the 11th of July. Discounting the losses of the outdated A6M3a, we came out ahead. 13 Spitefires destroyed is also a nice reward.[/center]
On the 12th and 13th, the Allies respond by hammering Buna. The joke's on them, however, as Buna is as big a flak-trap as I can manage, and for the first time, we have 25mm Type 96 AA guns joining in en-masse
12th July Attack
Morning Air attack on Buna , at 99,129
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid detected at 39 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes
Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 3
B-17D Fortress x 3
B-17E Fortress x 19
B-24D Liberator x 12
B-24D1 Liberator x 40
B-25C Mitchell x 21
PB4Y-1 Liberator x 9
Allied aircraft losses
B-17D Fortress: 1 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 2 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 7 damaged
B-24D1 Liberator: 13 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 4 damaged
PB4Y-1 Liberator: 1 damaged
PB4Y-1 Liberator: 1 destroyed by flak
Japanese ground losses:
6 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Airbase hits 57
Airbase supply hits 20
Runway hits 145
13th July Attack:
Morning Air attack on Buna , at 99,129
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 10,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes
Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 6
B-17D Fortress x 8
B-17E Fortress x 19
B-24D Liberator x 17
B-24D1 Liberator x 44
B-25C Mitchell x 28
PB4Y-1 Liberator x 8
Allied aircraft losses
B-17D Fortress: 1 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 4 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 14 damaged
B-24D1 Liberator: 12 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 4 damaged
Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 2
Runway hits 47
So, all in all, quite nice. I've Hansa Bay ready for the whirlwind, plenty of fighters on day and night CAP. I'll wait and stay defensive over Hansa Bay for another few days for all my air groups to get back to 100% TOE, then sweep Portland Roads again.
With the Jack and George reaching frontline service, the air war is going to start getting interesting...
Guadalcanal
US Army bombers manage to hit four destroyers I had patrolling off Guadalcanal. Various unescorted Allied bomber units have been making milk runs against the island for the past week or so, but this was the first anti-shipping strike. I had moved some Rufe's in to interfere with the strikes, but they were too few to save my destroyers.
Morning Air attack on TF, near Lunga at 114,138
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 11 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2-N Rufe x 3
Allied aircraft
B-25D1 Mitchell x 14
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2-N Rufe: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
B-25D1 Mitchell: 4 damaged
Japanese Ships
DD Murakumo, Shell hits 31, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Akatsuki, Shell hits 15, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DD Isonami
DD Uranami, Shell hits 11
Aircraft Attacking:
9 x B-25D1 Mitchell bombing and strafing from low level
Naval Attack: 6 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
5 x B-25D1 Mitchell bombing and strafing from low level
Naval Attack: 6 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
CAP engaged:
934 Ku S-1 with A6M2-N Rufe (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
3 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 7000 , scrambling fighters to 2000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 25 minutes
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Lunga at 114,138
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid spotted at 39 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 10 minutes
Allied aircraft
B-25D1 Mitchell x 6
Allied aircraft losses
B-25D1 Mitchell: 2 damaged
Japanese Ships
DD Murakumo, Shell hits 11, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
6 x B-25D1 Mitchell bombing and strafing from low level
Naval Attack: 6 x 500 lb GP Bomb
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Lunga at 114,138
Weather in hex: Light cloud
Raid detected at 32 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 8 minutes
Allied aircraft
B-25D1 Mitchell x 12
Allied aircraft losses
B-25D1 Mitchell: 1 damaged
B-25D1 Mitchell: 1 destroyed by flak
Japanese Ships
DD Isonami, Shell hits 4, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Murakumo, Shell hits 13, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
DD Akatsuki, Shell hits 9, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Uranami
Aircraft Attacking:
12 x B-25D1 Mitchell bombing and strafing from low level
Naval Attack: 6 x 500 lb SAP Bomb
The
Isonami and
Uranami limp away to live another day.
DEI
The KB finds itself in position for a chase of some Allied CV's!
[center]
The Allied raiders moved south after bombing Medan's oil.[/center]
The Allied carriers that bombed Medan are 31 hexes from KB1 (
Hiryu, Soryu, Shokaku, Zuikaku, Akagi. 318 Aircraft) and 33 hexes from KB2 (Kaga, Junyo, Hiyo and the CVL's).
What's even better, is that they're heading south-east - bound probably for Perth. The KB is nearly fully fueled, and so we're in a good position to try for an intercept.
A fuel convoy has been re-routed from Oosthaven to Christmas Island IO to act as a temporary refueling station for the carriers, so the carriers are kicking the engines into over-drive to see if they can't hunt down the raiders while a Mavis squadron is flown in to help keep track of the Allied carriers.
Hopefully, by two full speed runs, I can catch up with the Allied ships, engage and then fall back to Java to refuel and replenish.
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Location of the KB: the two Air Combat TF's east of Palembang.[/center]
Based on sightings and the CR from the bombing of Medan, I'd guess that the Allies have at least four fleet carriers and perhaps two CVE/L's. That's a force I'd be more than happy to send the full KB up against.
China-Burma-India
Stalemate in Western China: my tanks can't push the Chindits out of the Wasu hex, while the Chindits can't get rid of me either. This suits me.
Kashgar, the other Allied base in Western China, has been built up to a level 2 airbase. Looks like there's a air-bridge from India at work here...
Nuisance airstrikes on IJA ground units in Burma continue, but small strikes on units in the jungle don't deal much damage.
The overview of Burma. Nothing much has changed, but note the Japanese stack moving south down the dirt coastal road east of Akyab - that's the artillery destined for the Marianas.
With Allied carriers headed for Austrailia, I'm considering a raid on Ceylon with the full KB. 134 ships reported in Colombo port, but only 80 fighters reported overhead. I'll recon the whole of the island before anything goes any further, however.
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Top Japanese Aces. They've all been thrown into TRACOM in order to accelerate training and keep them safe for my planned squadrons of late-war super-planes flown by the best pilots I've got.[/center]
