Wrangling Loki - Mind_Messing (J) vs Lokasenna (A)

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

L. is sort of playing your game in our game. Not risking the IJN yet. I need VPs and he's not showing some of the richest stores of them to me at this point.

I would caution against being so sure he'll batter himself on the Marianas. He recons the heck out of things and does the math. If you're too strong he'll take another route to 4E heaven. Formosa maybe.

If he goes around the Marianas, I'll consider that a small victory - doing so would leave a long logistics tail very, very exposed.

Still, it's worth considering. I'll be beefing up the garrison of the Bonin's and Luzon shortly. Formosa is going to need to wait for the present...

But for now the Tabis of the world don't cost him much, but don't get him much. In our game losing Chungking cost me almost 6000 VPs in base, troops, and the huge gifts gained from him building out the infrastructure. (One AF level is an absurd number of VPs. Very hurtful. Owwwww.) A lot of islands needed to get back 6000 beans.

We're just over 2:1 on the VP front, so Loka's need for VP's isn't really critical. Even so, what you say is true: he's been inching forward when he should be making the big jumps.

Re time, remember that in RL Tarawa didn't happen until nearly 1944 and less than two years later there was a party on the deck of USS Mizzou.

Well, that's true, but then again, the Japanese didn't have the entire KB in '44 either.

The rate of hardware and LCU arrivals for Loka not only accelerates in 1944--they become Niagara Falls.

Again true. I take some small comfort that I've started to get the first of my own LCU arrivals that will be bulking up my own defenses. I'm interested to see what Loka will do when he's confronted by division sized formations at every major target.

Ideally, I want to cause him a nice big botched landing: troops trapped ashore, carriers tied down trying to providing CAP, shipping exposed to naval and air attack. I can hope...

You're doing all the right things, but in the immortal words of Mr. Solo, "Great, kid! Don't get cocky!"

It's a long way to '45!

[JocMeister]

Keep in mind though regarding the Allied logistics that no way around is too long. While having the Marianas is nice and helpful its not a necessity. So Loka may very well bypass it. I took them as an afterthought for practice but never had a real need for it. The allies will almost never take any kind of consideration to the length of the logistics chain.

The Allies have so many xAKs in 44 you can easily go all the way around the Fijis and all the way up New Guinea and never ever suffer any shortage whatsoever. So don´t overdo the Marianas. There are many routes to the PIs and Loka is a bright man. He will take the easiest route. Or at least the one that looks the easiest... [:)]

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

Keep in mind though regarding the Allied logistics that no way around is too long. While having the Marianas is nice and helpful its not a necessity. So Loka may very well bypass it. I took them as an afterthought for practice but never had a real need for it. The allies will almost never take any kind of consideration to the length of the logistics chain.

The Allies have so many xAKs in 44 you can easily go all the way around the Fijis and all the way up New Guinea and never ever suffer any shortage whatsoever. So don´t overdo the Marianas. There are many routes to the PIs and Loka is a bright man. He will take the easiest route. Or at least the one that looks the easiest... [:)]

I'd hope to make the Allies consider the length of their logistics train if they do decide to go around the Marianas. A long logistics train is a hard to defend logistics train.

If Loka moves CentPac>NW New Guinea>Pillippines/DEI, then I'll base the KB and most of the IJ out of the Marianas and sit on his flank. In an ideal world, I'd send surface raiders to force him to commit some CVEs to escort duty, and then commit the KB to get some cheap VP's.

To be quite honest, I'm viewing the Marianas as a win/win for me: either he comes and takes it and pays the price, or he doesn't and exposes a long logistics train to KB raids.

I'm taking some comfort that my defences from Hansa Bay northwest towards the Phillippines are more or less complete. As with everywhere else, they need more troops, but the airbases and the forts are there, they just need planes and troops.

I just need to keep on holding on. The clocks running down, I get kamis soon, and the first late-war airframes are running off the production lines.

[Crackaces]

There is one nuance of the Marianna's from the Allied side .. especially with stacking limits .. the IJ have to keep
supplies flowing and the rate depends on how committed the IJ are to defending ... That creates a LOC from the HI
to the Marianna's that can be a target of attrition no matter what axis the Allies decide on and escorts take fuel
moving the combined fleet takes fuel ...etc ..

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

There is one nuance of the Marianna's from the Allied side .. especially with stacking limits .. the IJ have to keep
supplies flowing and the rate depends on how committed the IJ are to defending ... That creates a LOC from the HI
to the Marianna's that can be a target of attrition no matter what axis the Allies decide on and escorts take fuel
moving the combined fleet takes fuel ...etc ..

That's one thing I hadn't considered. There's a fair bit of open ocean between the HI and the Marianas, and though the Japanese get a good ring of picket bases, there's a big empty stretch of ocean ripe for roaming Fletcher squadrons.

I'll need to look into using Java and Balikipapan to feed the Marianas, at least for the purposes of building up some stockpiles.

[mind_messing]

Why does this AAR have nearly 20k hits?

For me, this ranks up around the big questions like "Are we alone in the universe?"

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

Why does this AAR have nearly 20k hits?

For me, this ranks up around the big questions like "Are we alone in the universe?"

[:D]

I heard there are aliens in here ... somewhere.

[mind_messing]

So, the turn is away.

I've either got the full KB in range of a small American CV force, or a dud.

I'll find out shortly.

[Lowpe]

Good luck!

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

Why does this AAR have nearly 20k hits?

For me, this ranks up around the big questions like "Are we alone in the universe?"

It has 1000 hits. And a very bored monkey who refreshes a lot.

[mind_messing]

A dud.

All the KB runs into is a squadron of Fletchers.

A short, sharp night knife fight ensues. Moderate damage to three destroyers, slight damage to some carriers. Daylight wiped the Fletchers out.

Allied carriers have ran away. KB will retire. Not a fun turn, especially when Fletchers have carriers in their sight.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

A dud.

All the KB runs into is a squadron of Fletchers.

A short, sharp night knife fight ensues. Moderate damage to three destroyers, slight damage to some carriers. Daylight wiped the Fletchers out.

Allied carriers have ran away. KB will retire. Not a fun turn, especially when Fletchers have carriers in their sight.

Any of your carriers actually shoot?

[mind_messing]

October 23rd to November 5th, 1943

Slow turns, as things have been very busy on my end.

North Pacific

Some nuisance raids on Paramushiro-jima sink some of the small auxiliary ships in the harbor. CAP is boosted so it doesn't happen again.

The Akagi is sitting in the shipyards in Tokyo repair the damage two torpedoes caused her, so I'm using her to resize the IJN training groups based in the Home Islands. Most of them are destined to sit up in NorPac and train. Loka has been fairly diligent in his recon efforts up here, but 300 planes looks like 300 planes, regardless of if they're rookies training or the best and brightest Japan has to offer.

Central Pacific

Things are warming up here since Tabiteuea fell. He has occupied the surrounding dot bases, and they're all being built up pretty heavily. Thankfully, it's not been easy for him to make further progress. A commando raid on Maiana was repulsed by the Naval Guard fragment acting as a garrison, and three Allied Seebee units land at Abemama under the assumption that it's empty. Instead they meet a full Naval Guard unit and are forced to withdraw.

There's a back-and-forth air battle raging in CentPac. Tarawa is already useless - the supplies there have been bombed to dust, and Makin is likely to follow shortly. There's little I can do to stop the rampant Fletcher bombardment runs on my bases south of Mili, so it's only a matter of time before I need to abandon them as offensive bases.

The good news is that there's been a steady attrition of Allied ships in the Gilberts - Lokasenna can't cover all his ships well enough to defend against IJN 2E strikes from the Marshalls, and I've managed to sink quite a few xAPs with troops on board. The KB is in the neighborhood, so I might swing them by to blast Tabitueua and sink some shipping before they exit the area.

[center]The situation in the Gilberts. I hope to keep hitting his shipping in the region while he's stuck with only one large airbase.[/center]

The main events here was the KB's sortie against Allied carriers off Kusaie. It came to nothing, but the Allies sent a suicide Fletcher force that had me worried for a bit:

ight Time Surface Combat, near Ponape at 119,116, Range 6,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CV Hiryu
CV Soryu
CV Shokaku
CV Zuikaku
CA Tone
CA Chikuma
DD Naganami
DD Tamanami
DD Suzunami
DD Fujinami
DD Hayanami

Allied Ships
DD Aulick, Shell hits 1
DD Foote
DD Jenkins, Shell hits 1
DD Strong
DD Trathen
DD Wadsworth, Shell hits 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Time Surface Combat, near Ponape at 120,116, Range 14,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CV Kaga
CV Junyo, Shell hits 2
CV Hiyo, Shell hits 4
CVL Ryujo, Shell hits 4
CVL Shoho, Shell hits 2
CVL Zuiho, Shell hits 1
CVL Ryuho, Shell hits 2, on fire
CVE Hosho
CLAA Tenryu
DD Hatsukaze, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Natsushio
DD Yukikaze, Shell hits 1, heavy fires
DD Hayashio
DD Maikaze
DD Isokaze, Shell hits 1
DD Hamakaze, Shell hits 2
DD Nowaki, Shell hits 4, on fire

Allied Ships
DD Aulick, Shell hits 9, heavy fires
DD Foote, Shell hits 1
DD Jenkins, Shell hits 1
DD Strong, Shell hits 2
DD Trathen, Shell hits 1
DD Wadsworth, Shell hits 2

Thankfully, the damage was completely trivial to all the IJN CV's, even though two DD's are out of action. Daylight found the Fletchers in range of the KB and we sank them all.

[center]Narau is being a pain for me, seeing as from there the Allies can make things difficult for me in terms of moving ships around. I'm ramming Kusaie full of supplies and troops, and Ponape won't be far behind.[/center]

The KB is now moving to cover a big amphib task force that is dropping troops and supply at Kusaie, and then I'll think about a raid on the Gilberts.

South-West Pacific

Allied CV's were spotted off Townsville at the start of Novebmer, and combined with CVE's floating about around Guadalcanal and various other task forces floating around, I think he's up to something here.

[center]You can see how the Allies are inching closer to Rabual. The good news is there's still some fight left for Japan in this theater, and if I go into 1944 still fighting in the Solomons, I'll consider myself well ahead of the game.[/center]

He's been piling the pressure on Shortlands, bombardments, mine sweeping, the works. Looks like it's his next move, so I've plenty of aircraft assembled at Rabual, plus two of the Kongo's, a heavy cruiser force and a light cruiser force. If/when he lands, I'll sortie them in the hope of a favorable night action followed by big daylight strikes from land-based air. I'm tempted to transfer the Yamato's down here, seeing as they'd massively outclass the opposition, but I've never seen an AAR where the Yamato's have fared well in the Solomons.

DEI

Calm here, not much going on. Still no move forward on Darwin, but the Allies have moved aircraft into Gove. I'm debating shifting some squadrons and mounting a big raid on the base, but I'll need to see what I can scrape from the barrel.

Burma

Still no real change here. The Allies bomb without much effect, and my troops march and countermarch to keep hex-sides closed.

There's a big Chinese force amassing in the North of Burma, but the Chinese track record is pretty poor - they look impressive from the recon reports, but in combat they've failed miserably against Japanese troops.

[center]The war moves at a glacial pace in Burma thanks to the poor infrastructure. You can see the two IJN task forces ready to raid Cox's Bazzar. Both are undetected, so hopefully they'll harvest some easy VP's![/center]

The Allies have moved some ships into Cox's Bazzar, so I'm sending a light cruiser force built around the Agano and some fast E-class ships in to raid, just to keep Lokasenna honest. I've moved the mini-KB up to Victoria Point as well, but I'm sending them back to Singapore as they're not really cut out for combat work in their current composition. The slow battleships are all sitting in reserve at Singapore as well.

Industry

I'll do a big update of this later, as things are starting to come online for the late war.

[Lowpe]

You be careful in northern Burma...he has gotta be looking at Tavoy and south or Sumatra.

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

You be careful in northern Burma...he has gotta be looking at Tavoy and south or Sumatra.

With 1944 only just around the corner, I'm starting to worry about this side of the map. Tavoy and the pan-handle is out of his reach I think, at least until he takes the Andamans.

Sumatra and Java are a different story. I've the airbases and plenty of garrison troops, but it's brittle. I've two brigades earmarked for Sumatra, and I'll scrounge up some extra aviation support to ship with them. I could do with more planes here as well, but I can't be strong everywhere, so Sumatra get's shortchanged bar some Nells flying NavSearch in the North and fighters in a ball of yarn patrol over Palembang.

[mind_messing]

November 6th to 9th, 1943

Very brief update.

North Pacific

One brigade arrives as reinforcement, so it's sent to a small base to act as garrison.

Central Pacific

Usual low level of combat here, the Allies bomb Tarawa and Makin while the Japanese float about around the fringes of Allied air cover.

The KB, having looped deep into the Marshalls, will return to Truk.

The Allies land a commando unit on the dot hex island south of Wake Island. IJA paratroopers are en-route to retake it.

Kusaie is rammed full of troops, and CD guns are on the way.

South-West Pacific

A single Australian division storms ashore at Shortlands. For reasons best known to the die gods, over 200 bombers fail to sortie, but from the combat replay Loka used his vast LCT fleet rather than the big APA boys. The Australians should take the base, the Japanese defenders have been starving for the past month or so.

At least one Allied carrier force is wandering about around Ontong Java.

DEI

Ain't nothing happening here...

Burma

The raid on Cox's Bazzar goes off perfectly, we bag an Allied convoy and are gone by daylight.

Allied bombers from India bomb industry in China. I can't be bothered to defend anything other than Chungking and Chengtu, so the rest is being abandoned to Allied firebombings. I've got a year or so out of the industry, so I'll consider myself ahead.

[mind_messing]

Industry Update

Current date: 10/11/43

Home Island Stockpile

Supply - 4,212,302
Fuel - 2,080,087
Resources - 10,889,748
Oil - 1,234,734

Fuel is dipping a bit low, seeing as I had a bottleneck at Singapore recently, but it's sorted, so we should hopefully see an increase in the next few weeks.

Oil is good, fuel is great, resources are stable.

Supply is great, considering I've been shipping massive quantities of it out to the front lines.
Production

HI Points: 1,897,911

On track for 2mil HI points, or thereabouts for 1944.

The first of the mid-to-late war airframes have started production.

Ki-100 Tony, Ki-84a, J2M2 and N1K1-J are all up and running.

I've turned off the Zero, Nell, Betty and Tojo production. I've 120 Tojo IIb factories off-line as well, which are waiting for the IIc model before being turned back on - I've heard good things about the IIc model so I'll keep the big assembly line for rear-area CAP or kami use.

R&D

The Ki-84r Frank now has 90 factories rushing it forward. P1Y2 Frances, the Zero night fighter and the Ki-46 night fighter are also being brought forward, and should be good to go in by mid '44. All of these will be very, very handy additions. I look forward to breaking the game even more by using the Zero night fighter to resize IJN night fighter groups to size 81 squadrons.

We should be getting the Peggy T in early '44 as well, so the IJA will get something better than the Lily for anti-shipping.

[mind_messing]

November 10th

Some turns just work out for you.

First we open with this:

Sub attack near Tabiteuea at 134,134

Japanese Ships
SS I-153, hits 3, heavy damage Sinks due to damage

Allied Ships
CVE Anzio, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CLAA Reno
CLAA Juneau
DD Woodworth
DD Lardner
DE Edward C. Daly
DD Doyle
DD Meade
DD Caldwell

Fuel storage explosion on CVE Anzio
Ammo storage explosion on CVE Anzio
SS I-153 launches 6 torpedoes at CVE Anzio
DD Doyle fails to find sub and abandons search
DD Meade fails to find sub and abandons search
DD Caldwell fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Caldwell fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Caldwell fails to find sub, continues to search...
DD Caldwell attacking submerged sub ....
Debris floats to surface in area of attack!
Escort abandons search for sub

Well, I'll trade submarines for CVE's. Fuel and ammo gone makes me think the Anzio is done for. Then again, I said the same about the Wasp, and that carrier is no longer on the sunk list...

I get a real surprise when the turn switches to the Solomons. I'd left the strike aircraft at Rabual on their attack settings for Shortlands in case Lokasenna left some destroyers to cover the lone Australian division.

Imagine my surprise when he starts landing more troops! I think his surprise was even bigger, when 81 Jills and a sizable fighter escort turn up to the party. They may have been late, but they made up for it!

Morning Air attack on TF, near Shortlands at 109,131

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 78 NM, estimated altitude 20,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 25 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M5b Zero x 10
B6N2 Jill x 81
J2M2 Jack x 16
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 16
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 14
Ki-45 KAIc Nick x 24

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk IV x 7
P-40K Warhawk x 7
F4F-4 Wildcat x 36
F4U-1 Corsair x 11

Japanese aircraft losses
B6N2 Jill: 2 damaged
J2M2 Jack: 2 destroyed
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 destroyed
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 1 destroyed
Ki-45 KAIc Nick: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk IV: 1 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 4 destroyed
F4U-1 Corsair: 2 destroyed

Allied Ships
LCI-445
DE Harold C. Thomas, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DE Carlson, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
PF Long Beach, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
LCI-444, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
LCI-446, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
APD Overton
AM Skylark, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AVD Half Moon, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
LCI-436
DE Bebas, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
LCI-448, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
LCI-447, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

The first strike of Jills ate all the escorting fighters, so the Judy dive bombers had to plod on without any fighter cover. Thankfully, the Allied LRCAP was already worn down, and what could have been an absolute slaughter turned into a bit of a bloody nose.

Morning Air attack on TF, near Shortlands at 109,131

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 71 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 18 minutes

Japanese aircraft
D4Y1 Judy x 48
D4Y2 Judy x 70

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk IV x 2
P-40K Warhawk x 5
F4F-4 Wildcat x 3
F4U-1 Corsair x 2

Japanese aircraft losses
D4Y1 Judy: 8 destroyed, 3 damaged
D4Y2 Judy: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged

No Allied losses

Allied Ships
LSD Belle Grove, Bomb hits 9, and is sunk
APA American Legion, Bomb hits 8, and is sunk
SC PC-580, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
SC PC-1084, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
LSD Carter Hall, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
SC PC-782, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
SC PC-781

With the PM phase, the IJA decided to get in on the act as well, sending some Lily's in to drop some more bombs.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Shortlands at 109,131

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid detected at 59 NM, estimated altitude 20,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 17 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 13
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 26
Ki-45 KAIc Nick x 15
Ki-48-IIb Lily x 17

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk IV x 5
P-40K Warhawk x 7
F4F-4 Wildcat x 19
F4U-1 Corsair x 6

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 3 destroyed
Ki-45 KAIc Nick: 3 destroyed
Ki-48-IIb Lily: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-48-IIb Lily: 1 destroyed by flak

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk IV: 1 destroyed
P-40K Warhawk: 1 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 5 destroyed

Allied Ships
AP Gen. T.H.Bliss, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
DD Ellet, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAP Dardanus, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied ground losses:
131 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 10 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled

And here's a look at what's going on at ground level in Shortlands:

Ground combat at Shortlands (109,131)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 9566 troops, 131 guns, 51 vehicles, Assault Value = 446

Defending force 13154 troops, 120 guns, 44 vehicles, Assault Value = 218

Assaulting units:
5th Australian Division
164th Infantry Rgt /1

Defending units:
26th Ind.Mixed Brigade
16th Naval Guard Unit
20th Ind. Engineer Regiment
37th Const Co
38th Road Const Co
42nd JNAF AF Unit
7th Air Division
13th JNAF AF Unit
60th JNAF AF Unit
101st JAAF AF Bn

The Japanese situation looks alright.

It isn't. No supply and lots of disruption. I've three PB's trying a suicide fast transport run to Torokina in the hope of getting some to the combat units in Shortlands, but it's a long shot. I might turn Boungainville into my Guadalcanal and try at least to hold Torokina. I like the idea - the geography of it works - Rabual and Kavieng are both very hard to reach with the Fletcher raiding forces that mark Lokasenna's advances...may as well fight there than anywhere else I suppose.

At the end of the day, I don't know. It's new ground to me. I want to run the clock down even more now that the Allies are inching forward. How is the question..

I decide it's not worth dashing a heavy cruiser force in to Shortlands in the hope of smashing some Allied surface units. The risk of IJN capital ships is not worth sinking LCI's and other minnows.

Sinking minnows sums up this turn quite nicely, but it's far better than sinking nothing.

[mind_messing]

November 11th to November 17th, 1943

Ups and downs.

North Pacific

All of the Kuriles bar Uruppu-jima now have at least a token garrison, and as I rebuilt Naval Guard units destroyed elsewhere, I'll send them up here to boost the defenses.

Central Pacific

We have a bit of a tough naval battle off Mili in the Marshalls, trying to beat down roaming Fletcher squadrons and Allied subs:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Mili at 136,121

Japanese Ships
CA Atago, Torpedo hits 1
CA Chokai
DD Shigure
DD Shiratsuyu
DD Asashimo

Allied Ships
SS Amberjack, hits 3

Day Time Surface Combat, near Mili at 136,121, Range 24,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Takao
CA Atago, Shell hits 14, heavy damage Manages to limp to Wotje, I'll try to get her back to Eniwetok for minor repairs.
CA Chokai, Shell hits 2
DD Hamanami, Shell hits 21, and is sunk
DD Asashimo, Shell hits 11, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Shiratsuyu, Shell hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Shigure, Shell hits 3, heavy fires

Allied Ships
DD Halford, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Harrison, Shell hits 6
DD Hutchins, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Pringle, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Renshaw, Shell hits 3, on fire

Not what I'd call a good rate of exchange, but sadly a requirement if I want to keep Mili an operational base.

Elsewhere, it's the usual run of bombing missions on Japanese held islands. It's getting to the point that the garrisons of Ocean Island and Tarawa are completely useless for combat. I'll try to spring a LRCAP trap on them for next turn, just to show that I'm paying attention.

South-West Pacific

My plans of making a fight for Torokina and Shortlands are ruined by the mother of all night strikes on November 13th. This is merely one attack, about eight more follow it:

Night Air attack on Rabaul , at 106,125

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 2,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes

Japanese aircraft
J1N1-S Irving x 12

Allied aircraft
B-17F Fortress x 7
B-24D1 Liberator x 5
B-24J Liberator x 8
PB4Y-1 Liberator x 9

Japanese aircraft losses
J1N1-S Irving: 12 damaged
J1N1-S Irving: 3 destroyed on ground
D4Y1 Judy: 2 destroyed on ground
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 2 destroyed on ground
Ki-45 KAIc Nick: 1 destroyed on ground
G4M1 Betty: 4 destroyed on ground
Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 4 destroyed on ground
D4Y2 Judy: 3 destroyed on ground
J2M2 Jack: 1 destroyed on ground
Ki-46-III Dinah: 1 destroyed on ground
G3M3 Nell: 1 destroyed on ground
A6M5b Zero: 1 destroyed on ground

Allied aircraft losses
B-17F Fortress: 1 destroyed by flak
B-24D1 Liberator: 2 damaged
B-24J Liberator: 5 damaged
B-24J Liberator: 1 destroyed by flak
PB4Y-1 Liberator: 7 damaged
PB4Y-1 Liberator: 1 destroyed by flak

Japanese ground losses:
8 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Airbase hits 2
Runway hits 33

This renders Rabaul useless as an airbase for several turns where it should have been spewing out bombers to smash Allied amphibious ships off Shortlands and Torokina.

The result of this is that Shortlands falls, and Torokina won't be far behind it. Lokasenna jumped about a month ahead of where I want him to be at this point.

Needless to say, I wasn't too happy. To say that I'm somewhat disappointed that a combination of flak, night fighters and barrage balloons did absolutely nothing productive in defending Rabual is a slight understatement, and I'll not mention the fact that the morale of nearly every air group in Rabual collapsed to the point that entire squadrons were being administered anti-depressants.

Short story: Rabual blitz at night, planes can't fly, Allies take Shortlands and will take Torokina without any serious losses.

But, the IJN didn't disappoint when I sent a fast cruiser force into Torokina for some prey on November 17th:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Torokina at 109,130, Range 11,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Mogami
CA Mikuma, Shell hits 2
CA Suzuya
DD Shinonome
DD Shirakumo
DD Isonami, Shell hits 2
DD Uranami
DD Akebono
DD Sazanami, Shell hits 1

Allied Ships
DD Bennett
DD Dashiell, Shell hits 4, on fire One 20cm hit that wrecked the engines, so one USN DD is out for a bit.
DD Fanning, Shell hits 1
DD Cummings
DD Conyngham
DD Reid
DD Flusser, Shell hits 1

A good result, considering the track record of Allied destroyers so far.

On the ground, I'm starting to re-drawn the lines. New Ireland and New Britain are now the frontline, and I'm pulling back a division from Buna to Lae, as I'm thinking Lokasenna intends to ignore Papua New Guinea in favor of flanking New Britain to the east.

[center]
The situation in the SWPAC area. Not good, not good at all.[/center]

The IJN will pull out, bar a heavy cruiser force to keep the Allies honest about any bombardments of Rabual and the submarines. I'm going to start pulling aircraft back to the support bases of Kaiveng and Manus Islands - both out of bombardment range of Fletcher groups. I'm also going to dig a small airbase at Namatanai, the dot hex east of Rabual, just so there's two bases that need to be blasted to dust rather than one.

Burma

The poor 104th IJA division gets blasted for days on end from the air as it tries to march across the open ground from the Central Burma plains into the jungle. I do what I can with LRCAP to support them, but Lokasenna is diligent in his sweeps with Lightnings and Thunderbolts. The division is about 50% disabled, but I need them in the jungle to help bolster a Thai division that's screening two Chinese units.

[center]
The poor 104th Division can be seen just NW of Schwebo.[/center]

I'll keep up with the LRCAP, as it's a great chance to attrition Lokasenna's bomber force and build my pilots experience levels.

China

In the far northern wastes of the map, the Chindits are trying to capture Urmuichi from an IJA cavalry unit and a tank regiment. They'll probably not succeed, but even if they do, there's a 1/3rd fragment of a division making the slow march up here, and that should be enough to turn the tide. If not, I'll divert one of the units that have arrived as reinforcements in China proper up here to overwhelm the Allies.

Behind the lines.

Forts. I'm building forts everywhere I can. The Home Islands, China, Burma, Indochina, Formosa, the Philippines, Java, Sumatra and everywhere else. I'll need them.

USN subs are really starting to be a pain. Besides two heavy cruisers eating a torpedo each, and the Akagi eating two torpedoes, there's a whole host of merchantmen that are suffering. The keenest losses are to my tankers and oilers plying the Balikipapan-Truk route. I've a hoard of 10 kt sub chasers en-route to this area from the Home Islands, so hopefully they'll keep the Allied submarine fleet honest, but I've no high hopes.

My motto is fast becoming "Hold on!". I've the Frank rolling off the production lines, and there's a lot more good stuff on the way.

[Lowpe]

I have been hit with far worse night attacks, albeit not at 2000 feet or lower.[X(]

Get some Petes on 10% CAP so that there is something degrading the subsequent bomber waves as Irvings run out of juice and ammo really quickly, best I have had is that they are present for two waves.

Still, you are doing super well, just be careful and don't do anything rash, like me.[;)]