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

[Mike Solli]

2 Oct 43

Sub War

The Hayashio hit the Sculpin with a couple of depth charges off Saipan heavily damaging her.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

Those 6 subs are still chasing that carrier group around. The US carriers slipped the net once again and launched another attack. I have a 40 plane Zero unit stationed at Roi-Namur that was training defense on some pretty well trained pilots. I had hoped the carriers would attack Roi-Namur and/or Kwajalein. I set the unit on 100% CAP at 1 hex range to protect both bases. I was not disappointed.

The first attack was was against Roi-Namur. My 40 A6M5cs were pitted against 15 SBD-5s and 16 Avengers, escorted by 17 Hellcats. The Hellcats put up a good fight losing one of their number and downing 2 Zeros before the Zeros broke through to the bombers. They downed 6 Dauntlesses and 6 Avengers. The remaining bombers did no damage.

The second attack was against Kwajalein. 30 Zeros rose against 28 Helldivers escorted by 9 Hellcats. Again, 1 Hellcat and 2 Zeros were shot down before reaching the bombers. 10 Helldivers were shot down and no damage was caused. Apparently, half a dozen Hellcats and a Helldiver were op losses.

I lost 2 pilots KIA and 2 more WIA. I suspect that'll drive the carriers away but we'll see...

SE Fleet

My CA bombardment group composed of Mikuma, Suzuya and Kumano, escorted by 4 Yugumos arrived at Manus in the middle of the night for a bombardment. Instead, they found ships:

Night Time Surface Combat, near Manus at 101,119, Range 9,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Mikuma
CA Suzuya
CA Kumano
DD Yugumo, Shell hits 1
DD Kazegumo
DD Makinami
DD Hayanami

Allied Ships
DD Morris, Shell hits 14, and is sunk
DD Smith, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
APA Henry T. Allen, Shell hits 11, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
AKA Alcyon, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk

Allied ground losses:
Guns lost 10 (3 destroyed, 7 disabled)
Vehicles lost 62 (48 destroyed, 14 disabled)

Guns and vehicles don't swim well.

Then the bombardment proceeded. I've never seen a bombardment like this:

Night Naval bombardment of Manus at 101,119

Japanese Ships
CA Kumano
CA Suzuya
CA Mikuma

E15K1 Norm acting as spotter for CA Kumano
CA Kumano firing at 43rd Infantry Division
E8N2 Dave acting as spotter for CA Suzuya
CA Suzuya firing at 37th Infantry Division
CA Mikuma firing at 43rd Infantry Division

Yep, that's it. Nothing at all. Really weird.

Note that Manus' port and airfield both hit level 4 today.

39x 2E sorties was it today.

SRA
Burma
China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

SS I-183, earmarked for the Central Pacific.
88 Naval Guard, rebuilt after being destroyed. It arrived almost completely built! Just a few AA guns and heavy squads was all it needs. It's heading for Sorong.

[ny59giants]

The US carriers launched 16 Avengers against Maleolap, then 28 SB2Cs against Wotje and finally 15 SBDs against Maleolap. No lasting damage to either side. Beside any CAP and bombers reserved for anti-ship duty, the US has available 27 Hellcats, 28 Helldivers, 15 Dauntlesses and 15 Avengers. I can't figure out what types of carriers are playing here.

Early war American CVEs have 16 plane capacity (Long Island). The 28 plane could be from another CVE (Replenishment CVEs have 2 x 28 plane groups on 28 capacity decks). I often take one group off.

Looks like a CVE TF out there. 21F and 9TBs are the CVLs.

[Lokasenna]

OR....

Some of the TBFs are on ASW or Search duty (or Rest), and therefore not participating in strikes.

What was the number at the bottom of the combat report for "8x TBF Avenger bombing from X000 feet"? If it was 16, then they were from one unit. If it was several numbers that added up to 16, then it was multiple units. Note that this does not apply if the planes are attacking ships, as the numbers listed will be individual "wings" of aircraft rather than a whole unit.

[Mike Solli]

Makes sense, guys. Looks like it was one Avenger unit:

10 x TBF-1 Avenger bombing from 11000 feet
Airfield Attack: 2 x 500 lb GP Bomb

But it was multiple for the dive bombers:

1 x SBD-5 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
4 x SBD-5 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
4 x SBD-5 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb

and

8 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 2000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb GP Bomb
6 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 3000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb GP Bomb
4 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 4000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb GP Bomb

[Mike Solli]

On another topic, I just finished off a 70 page notebook keeping notes for each turn. I write really tiny too, 3 rows for every line in the notebook.

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

On another topic, I just finished off a 70 page notebook keeping notes for each turn. I write really tiny too, 3 rows for every line in the notebook.

A cinch to climb the Best Seller lists, at least among people on this forum.

[Mike Solli]

Not so sure about that, Zorch. It's really just notes from each turn, with my weird shorthand.

f = fire
F = heavy fires
17 F6F3-2 = 17 Hellcats, 2 shot down
20-2E 133(2-12) = 20x 2E bombers attacking troops, 133 casualties, 2 squads destroyed, 12 squads disabled

Stuff like that.

[Zorch]

Let's see...70 pages x 16 lines on a notebook page x 3 of your lines = 3360 lines of writing.
You've dome almost 100 turns, so that's ~30 lines per turn.

[Mike Solli]

Tiny math error. Try 665 turns so far. The 70 page notebook had 56 pages. (The notebook was either used or I ripped some pages out over the years, probably both.). 56 pages double sided, 26 lines per side so 26*112/665=4.37 lines per day. That's 13 lines of writing per day. The days's have been anywhere from 1 line (rare) to about 8 or so (also rare). The average is about 3-5 notebook lines.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Makes sense, guys. Looks like it was one Avenger unit:

10 x TBF-1 Avenger bombing from 11000 feet
Airfield Attack: 2 x 500 lb GP Bomb

But it was multiple for the dive bombers:

1 x SBD-5 Dauntless releasing from 4000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
4 x SBD-5 Dauntless releasing from 2000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb
4 x SBD-5 Dauntless releasing from 3000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb

and

8 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 2000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb GP Bomb
6 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 3000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb GP Bomb
4 x SB2C-1C Helldiver releasing from 4000'
Airfield Attack: 1 x 1000 lb GP Bomb, 2 x 250 lb GP Bomb

Actually, because they're divebombing... their release altitude is random. It's probably 2 units of DBs.

So that looks like one carrier wing on strike to me.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

On another topic, I just finished off a 70 page notebook keeping notes for each turn. I write really tiny too, 3 rows for every line in the notebook.

Try MS Word

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

Tiny math error. Try 665 turns so far. The 70 page notebook had 56 pages. (The notebook was either used or I ripped some pages out over the years, probably both.). 56 pages double sided, 26 lines per side so 26*112/665=4.37 lines per day. That's 13 lines of writing per day. The days's have been anywhere from 1 line (rare) to about 8 or so (also rare). The average is about 3-5 notebook lines.

Now you know why I switched majors from math to economics.

[rustysi]

Too bad that last APA got away.

What do you want, everything?[:D]

QUESTION: Do night fighters need to train at night?

ANSWER: No.

[rustysi]

The US carriers launched 16 Avengers against Maleolap, then 28 SB2Cs against Wotje and finally 15 SBDs against Maleolap. No lasting damage to either side. Beside any CAP and bombers reserved for anti-ship duty, the US has available 27 Hellcats, 28 Helldivers, 15 Dauntlesses and 15 Avengers. I can't figure out what types of carriers are playing here.

CVE's? Looks like he's trying to increase the experience levels of some of his pilots.

[rustysi]

Allied ground losses:
5957 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 203 destroyed, 132 disabled
Engineers: 190 destroyed, 191 disabled
Vehicles lost 179 (177 destroyed, 2 disabled)

Looks like a whole bunch of stuff that would have increased the size of, and supported that base.

[rustysi]

I write really tiny too, 3 rows for every line in the notebook.

Oh, that would be too much for my eyes.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Too bad that last APA got away.

What do you want, everything?[:D]

QUESTION: Do night fighters need to train at night?

ANSWER: No.

There is only one air phase at night, so pilots train faster it new day, where there are two phases.

[Mike Solli]

Way behind in the AAR again...

3 Oct 43

Sub War
5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

The US carriers hit Eniwetok today with 10 Avengers doing a couple of points of airfield damage. Now I'm up to 8 subs chasing the TF around but I can't catch it. Pretty comical.

SE Fleet

A total of 41x 2E sorties scattered over Talasea, Hollandia and Rabaul. Everything else rested.

SRA
Burma
China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

The N1K5-J George R&D advanced to 7/45 (will become operational 5/44).

The Hiyo is repairing in the Home Islands and will be ready 10/20/43.

[Mike Solli]

4 Oct 43

Sub War

The Hatsukaze hit the Tuna once off Rota.

The I-40 got hit once SE of Gasmata. That area is becoming pretty dangerous. Her damage is 21-46(28)-1-0. She's heading home.

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

The US carriers hit Eniwetok again, this time with 15 SB2Cs, 10 SBDs and 10 Avengers. Again, little damage. My subs still can't connect with the TF. [8|]

SE Fleet

Only 21x 2E bombers today...

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

I've been seeing a LOT of Allied transport op losses for quite a while. I figured they were flying supply to Chungking, but wasn't sure. I put LRCAP over Chungking to no avail. So, I decided to recon Ledo over the past couple of days. Yep, lots of auxiliary aircraft there and nothing else. I moved a couple of Helen sentai in range to bomb it tomorrow.

China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Reinforcements:

503 Ku K-1 - 27 DB - training Kamikazes
503 Ku T-1 - 6 Recon - training.
43 Independent AA Company rebuild

The B6N2a R&D advanced to 3/44 (will become operational 12/43).

[Mike Solli]

5 Oct 43

Sub War

The Natsushio caught the Cod near Saipan and hit her twice. No report of her sinking. The Cod is near and dear to my heart. She's docked on Lake Erie in Cleveland as a museum. I must have crawled through her a thousand times in my childhood. I almost hope she makes it......almost. [:D]

5 Fleet

Nothing to report.

4 Fleet

The US carrier TF is heading east now and is east of my thundering herd of subs. Damn! I'm still going to try and catch it so I'm sending all of the subs due east in the hex row the carriers are on. We'll see...

SE Fleet

KB1 is still hanging around to the NW of Aitape, in case there is an invasion there. Seven B-26s raided Hollandia, and were intercepted by 8x carrier based Zeros, shooting down all the bombers for no loss. Hopefully, Ted will think they were stationed there and not on carriers.

There were an additional 33x 2E bombers that hit Talasea. Everything else rested again.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

A total of 52 Helens hit Ledo unopposed destroying a transport on the ground and damaging a dozen more. There was light damage to airfield as well. Tomorrow, I'll hit Ledo again with 4 sentai this time.

China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

The Ki-46-III KAI night fighter finally completed an R&D factory. It's the only R&D factory for this model. With acceleration, it will become operational 6/44. I'll probably add another R&D factory or two later on when some are freed up.