Dutch AVP Arend: Scenario 1 Exploits

[WEXF]

All of Perth was abuzz as the results of the third strike on the coal fields of Bandjermasin were coming in. All of the planes and pilots returned safely with no damage reported. The coal facility had been almost totally damaged and it was considered to be beyond use unless the enemy was willing to divert large amounts of supplies to repairs. All 21 Mitchell bombers from all three squadrons had participated in the raid. As might have been expected the morale numbers for all of the squadrons dropped although the mission could not be viewed as anything but a success. Although current weather is listed as "partial cloud" the weather at the time of the raid was "clear sky".
LCDR Gorek was looking forward to seeing the details on the fatigue numbers for the pilots and planes but that would take awhile to pull together.

band7ma.jpg (36.09 KiB) Viewed 1023 times

3sqm7a.jpg (79.72 KiB) Viewed 1022 times

[WEXF]

2909FAFM67a.jpg (113.73 KiB) Viewed 1005 times

LCDR Gorek was really interested in getting a better understanding of pilot and airframe fatigue. He was soon to have a float plane on his ship and be relied on to support one or more squadrons of other aircraft. He was able to get the latest data on the squadrons of Mitchell bombers that had bombed the coal facilities and studied them closely. The data on one of the squadrons was typical.
There were 9 planes on the mission. The squadron had 10 pilots. Looking at the missions flown before and after the latest raid showed that Seevers and Van Erkel did not fly on the recent mission. Their fatigue levels dropped about 50%. For those pilots that did fly fatigue increased slightly. Several pilots increased their ground bombing skill levels.
The planes on the raid did increase their fatigue level between 2-5 points. No plane was damaged on the raid to the extent that it could not be repaired in time for the next days orders. Goerk (me) wondered if there was any way to know how much damage was actually received on the raid? He felt comfortable that he had a decent understanding of ship damage and repairs but for aircraft the process was a bit of a mystery. Perhaps there was someone around that could help?

[WEXF]

Details on the status of the repairs being done on Perth were very consistent with what had been expected.
AVP Arend was now at 0-43-0 22(53%)=41.5 having received all 30 of the repair points the Perth SY could have provided. She had been at 0-44-0 33(80%)=41.3.
DD Fortune had been at 3-0-1 and received all of the repair points at pier side that she needed to eliminate the remaining systems damage. She was now at 0-0-1 and needed to be transferred to the AR to deal with the final point of major engine damage.
O23 was now at 0-16-0 having received the 33 repair points needed from the AR to get rid of the last major engine damage. She had been at 0-16-1 22(40%)=55. O23 will need to be sent to the SY for work to continue on her repairs.
Going forward O23 and Arend will both be in the SY at "normal" but a decision will be made shortly on whether to put a priority back on O23 to get her back into action quickly.

3sps7ma.jpg (106.17 KiB) Viewed 982 times

Excellent news was also received on the progress of TF 236. No. 700 Squadron had been loaded on xAK Clan Macinness and the TF, now converted to "Air Transport" had sailed enroute to Perth. It will be a long trip taking 2-3 weeks but there was no rush as Arend will still be in the SY for at least that length of time.
A check of the status of the pilots in 700 Squadron showed some very interesting results. WO Hazard increased his ASW skill from 32>34 and his defensive rating from 52>54 despite the fact that the Walrus II float plane was crated on board the TF. He must have been studying the manuals! LCDR Gorek (me) was not aware that skills could be improved without flying.

tf236m7a.jpg (118.17 KiB) Viewed 981 times

pilot7ma.jpg (91.64 KiB) Viewed 980 times

[WEXF]

Early reports on the third consecutive day of bombing of Magwe showed that both the oil fields and the refinery were hit again. The latest intel has the refinery showing 12(89) and the oil field at 201(100). Recon also shows that the enemy is continuing to advance and has entered Mandalay. No decision has been made on whether further strikes on Magwe will be made. Time will tell.

mag7ma.jpg (158.73 KiB) Viewed 962 times

Other intel shows that only a single Blenheim IV bomber from 34 Squadron was lost in the raid. It had been hit by AA but made it back to base in a badly damaged state that caused it to be written off. The pilot survived.

wo34sqa.jpg (9.25 KiB) Viewed 961 times

airLa.jpg (20.49 KiB) Viewed 960 times

B4AAa.jpg (108.67 KiB) Viewed 959 times

Everything taken into account, Command was very pleased with the raids. Significant damage had been inflicted and losses had been far below what would have been expected. In all of the raids no pilots were lost and only a single plane was damaged beyond repair. Spare parts from that Blenheim IV will be used as needed. Some additional evaluations will be made on the data to see if anything else of value can be learned.

[WEXF]

As the orders for 8May were being written more good news arrived on the status of TF 236 enroute to Perth carrying the float plane for Arend. The ships have traveled about 240 miles (6 hexes) without any contact with the enemy. The trip still has 89 hexes to go but all looks fine. Both pilots assigned to Squadron 700 increased their ASW skill. WO Hazard is now at 37, an increase from 34 (wow!). and PO Caruthers is at 19, up from 18. WO Hazard has also improved his overall experience to 60, up from 59. It appears that skills are certainly improving despite the aircraft being loaded as cargo.

TF236m7a.jpg (83.9 KiB) Viewed 944 times

pilots7ma.jpg (90.41 KiB) Viewed 943 times

[WEXF]

Ship repairs at Perth have settled down as DD Fortune has been returned to service and both O23 and Arend are in the SY. With both set at "normal" Arend is now showing 30 days needed and O23 just 9. No changes will be made until O23 reaches 5 major flotation remaining. At that time O23 will be moved to the AR for the rest of the repairs leaving Arend to utilize the full effort of the SY. Of course something could always happen to change the plan!

2ships8Ma.jpg (101.08 KiB) Viewed 924 times

[WEXF]

Talk in the Perth Officer's Club covered lots of subjects. One of the latest was about the recent decisions by Command to change the Headquarters a number of bases were assigned to. Broken Hill, one of the most important mining locations in Australia for silver, lead and zinc, was originally assigned to Australia Command. 100 PP were spent to change the base to ABDA. Broken Hill already has an AF1 that can be expended to an AF9. The base is on a rail line connecting Perth with all of the major Australian cities. It appears that Broken Hill is being planned to accommodate Dutch air squadrons evacuating from Java and Sumatra.

BrokHilla.jpg (53.67 KiB) Viewed 915 times

BHABDA.jpg (540.85 KiB) Viewed 914 times

[WEXF]

As orders were being written for 10May information was received that 2 more bases had been transferred to ABDA Command. Corunna Downs and Cue, two "dot" bases were transferred at a zero PP cost. Both are inland bases and as AF are built at the locations they will be safe from naval bombardment and be able to support Dutch air squadrons evacuated from the DEI. Cue has rail connections to the rest of Australia.

Cuea.jpg (31.12 KiB) Viewed 895 times

CDa.jpg (39.92 KiB) Viewed 894 times

Info was also received on the status of TF 236. The ships are now just 83 hexes from Perth and have had no enemy contact or sustained any damage. The pilots of 700 Squadron have not had any additional improvement in their ASW skills.

pilots9Ma.jpg (60.06 KiB) Viewed 893 times

[WEXF]

A 4th bombing run on Magwe had over 60 bombers raiding the oil fields. Damage was extensive with oil production now reduced by around 60%. A single plane and pilot from No. 62 Squadron was lost to AA. The situation in the region is changing rapidly with Rangoon under attack and likely to fall soon. Command is considering the possibility of another air strike on Magwe but no decision has yet been made.

Magwe9Ma.jpg (217.9 KiB) Viewed 881 times

62sqm9a.jpg (179.34 KiB) Viewed 880 times

[WEXF]

The latest results of the repairs in the Perth SY on O23 and Arend were very interesting. Both ships were set at "normal".
Arend is showing 0-42-0 23(56%)=41.1. The previous day Arend was at 0-42-0 and did not show any numbers indicating progress toward the elimination of the next damage point. Taken together the two data points suggest that Arend received 23 of the 30 repair points possible from the SY. All of this makes perfect sense.

A9Ma.jpg (96.31 KiB) Viewed 869 times

Anorpa.jpg (111.55 KiB) Viewed 868 times

What is unclear is what happened with O23. O23 had just been moved into the SY. Like Arend O23 did not show any progress toward repair the previous day. The latest report has O23 at 0-13-0 30(54%)=55.6. I cannot account for where O23 received 30 repair points from the SY! My guess is that there had been some progress toward repair of a major flotation damage before O23 was moved previously out of the SY to address her systems damage. The 55.6 points needed to repair a single damage is consistent. It seems that roughly 25 more points are needed to get O23 to 0-12-0. Time will tell.

O239Ma.jpg (96.55 KiB) Viewed 866 times

[WEXF]

Although all seemed pretty quiet in Perth, everyone was concerned about the situation SE of Soerabaja. News had arrived telling of an attack by some PBY5A Catalinas against one of a number of enemy task forces near Banjoewangi. Reports have at least 3 different TF in the area including ships of all sizes from landing barges to light cruisers. Attacks on several APDs were not successful. Enemy ground forces in Banjoewangi have been identified to some degree. Intel has 720 troops and 20 guns in the base. One unit is known to be the Japanese 2nd Mortar BN (81mm mortars).

DEIinva.jpg (299.63 KiB) Viewed 855 times

[WEXF]

The morning report for May 10 showed that TF 236 was progressing toward Perth and had 76 more hexes to go, a trip that should take about 2 weeks. DD Nizam has developed a single point of system damage but that is of no concern. Once again, no improvement in air skills were reported for either pilot.

TF236M10a.jpg (83.85 KiB) Viewed 843 times

News from Burma was that a 5th bombing run had been made on the oil field at Magwe. Over 80 bombers of various types flew from multiple air bases. Damage at Magwe now stands at about 90% of the refinery and 75% of oil field production. Weather in the area is holding pretty well so a decision on further air strikes is being considered. In the latest runs only a single Swordfish was damaged by flak and had to be written off after returning safely to base. Pilot and airframe fatigue will need to be looked at closely.

Mag10Ma.jpg (87.34 KiB) Viewed 842 times

[BBfanboy]

Are you talking about the two 700 sqn pilots? Last you posted they were working on ASW skills - Air skill will not increase from that. They must train on escort or sweep to gain air skills, or do CAP missions (I don't think FPs can escort bombers). If you meant they did not gain more ASW skill points, that is normal - the points required to increase the skill also increase for each level. Keep an eye on the fatigue levels though - it is possible they could get too tired to get anything out of training. (I don't know if they simply don't fly or if they fly but don't get any training points out of it.)

[WEXF]

Are you talking about the two 700 sqn pilots? Last you posted they were working on ASW skills - Air skill will not increase from that. They must train on escort or sweep to gain air skills, or do CAP missions (I don't think FPs can escort bombers). If you meant they did not gain more ASW skill points, that is normal - the points required to increase the skill also increase for each level. Keep an eye on the fatigue levels though - it is possible they could get too tired to get anything out of training. (I don't know if they simply don't fly or if they fly but don't get any training points out of it.)

Yes, I am talking about the two 700 squadron pilots. My bad in that I was referring to all of the skills in my post but I was mainly watching the ASW skill that had increased in the first two days that TF 236 was enroute to Perth with the Walrus II.
Here is the data on the two pilots for this turn. Both have zero fatigue which makes sense as they cannot be flying the plane that is stored as cargo. The screen does show the Exp heading in green but the actual numbers in that category are not green. I expect that means there was some gain in the category but not enough to increase the actual numbers. The pilots are still "Training/ASW Patrol". It will be interesting to see what happens during the 2 more weeks that they are at sea.

pilot10Ma.jpg (93.1 KiB) Viewed 827 times

[BBfanboy]

Yes, pilots can train (with books and small model airplanes I guess) when they do not have planes to fly, but point gain is much slower and there may be a low upper limit to how much Experience/Skill points they can gain without flying. With my Chinese pilots, there are often only a couple of aircraft in the squadron so I do not fill all the pilot slots. I use 2X #of Aircraft for pilots so they will get enough air time to get their skills up faster. Better skills translates to better survivability, which saves aircraft too.

[WEXF]

Yes, pilots can train (with books and small model airplanes I guess) when they do not have planes to fly, but point gain is much slower and there may be a low upper limit to how much Experience/Skill points they can gain without flying. With my Chinese pilots, there are often only a couple of aircraft in the squadron so I do not fill all the pilot slots. I use 2X #of Aircraft for pilots so they will get enough air time to get their skills up faster. Better skills translates to better survivability, which saves aircraft too.

I agree with you. I have started using 1.5X the number of airframes as my pilot levels. I have also started to use the process of transferring pilots with a somewhat higher fatigue level to the "Group Reserve" to make sure they "rest" when the rest of the squadron is flying a mission. That works really well. When their fatigue level is reduced they can be activated immediately. That gives me the option of using the pilots with the best skills for the specific mission being ordered.
I am not certain if thee is a way to guarantee that an airframe with high fatigue can be rested. I set a % of the squadron to "rest" and hope the right airframes are the ones that don't fly.
Learning more every day! Thanks for the help.

[BBfanboy]

Rather than set individual pilots to rest, I look at the number of airframes with fatigue >10 and determine the % of the total aircraft present in the squadron. I set that % to rest, and the pilots and airframes both get the rest they need. The AI does a good job of picking the most fatigued pilots and aircraft to match the % ordered to rest. My ops losses are very low using this system. I will disregard fatigue to go all in if the target is valuable enough that loss of aircraft and pilots is not an issue.

[WEXF]

I will try that approach. It certainly seems simpler. I tend only to check the fatigue of airframes when a squadron is being ordered on an important mission but I probably should do a check more often.

[WEXF]

The results of the SY repairs on Arend and O23 were really spectacular but somewhat confusing.
Arend had been at 0-42-0 23(56%)= 41.1. She needed 18 repair points to get to 0-41-0. She is now at 0-41-0 5(12%)=41.7 which means that Arend got the 18 RP and an additional 5 for a total of 23 repair points. Taken by itself this is not surprising. The Perth SY3 has the ability to deliver up to 30 repair points each day.
What makes the results confusing?
O23 is also in the SY. She had been at 0-13-0 30(54%)=55.6. She needed 25 repair points to get to 0-12-0. She is now at 0-11-0 3(5%)=60 which means that O23 got the 25 RP to get to 0-12-0 plus another 55 repair points to get to 0-11-0 plus 3 additional points. That is a total of 25+55+3=83 repair points.
How is that possible? Only 7 were still available after Arend received 23!
That leaves 76 repair points coming from somewhere other than the Perth SY.
Could that possibly be the AR? According to the Ship Repair 101 guide only the SY repair points would be available to O23 while in the SY. The AR has the ability to deliver 83 RP to a ship that can use them but normally the AR can only work on major damage at 5 points or less. Is it possible that the AR helped out here?
If someone has another answer please post your thoughts.

A10Ma.jpg (155.46 KiB) Viewed 782 times

O2310Ma.jpg (149.3 KiB) Viewed 781 times

[WEXF]

Another day of repairs have been completed at the Perth SY and the results are almost identical to yesterday's data.
Arend was previously at: 0-41-0 5(12%)=41.7. She is now at 0-41-0 30(73%)=41.1. That means that Arend received 25 repair points. Yesterday she got 23 RP.
O23 was previously at 0-11-0 3(5%)=60. She is now at 0-10-0 32(58%)=55.2. That means that O23 received 52 repair points to get from 11>10 damage and another 32 toward getting to 9 damage. That is a total of 84 repair points. Yesterday she received 83.
Once again the two ships in the SY received about 80 repair points more than the SY alone could deliver. It supports the theory that the AR is helping the process. Repair points could be coming from other sources like the port itself, naval support, other repair ships at Perth or the ships crews but according to the 101 guide, none of these sources can have any effect on "major" flotation damage. A possible exception is the port itself. The AR clearly has the ability to work on major flotation damage but seemingly only when the level of major damage is not greater than 5. Perhaps the AR can "assist" in this situation as the heavy work is being done by the SY.

Am11a.jpg (160.14 KiB) Viewed 771 times

02311ma.jpg (155.49 KiB) Viewed 770 times