1 Oct 42 - I'm only 15 days behind. Yay!
Sub War
Nothing to report.
5 Fleet
Nothing to report.
4 Fleet
Nothing to report.
SE Fleet
The day in this AO started off with 27 B-17E/F bombing Tulagi's port sinking the ACM there. I still have 150 mines there but they will begin to degrade now.
Another Zero sweep of Woodlark Island netted 2 Lightnings and a Wildcat for no loss. Immediately after, the Tojos arrived and shot down 2 P-40Ks for no loss. Nice little operation here.
Elsewhere in this AO, I've been cleaning up the dot hexes so I don't have to deal with another Munda. Munda worked out well, but that's only because Ted chose to drop a para battalion in my midst, where I could deal with it relatively easily. I suspect the next "dot hex invasion" will be somewhere on the fringe of the Solomons (or vicinity) and it will be an amphibious assault, complete with a regiment/brigade (or larger) and lots of engineer, AS and supply and carrier support. He could build up quickly and there would be little I could do to stop it. He doesn't know this, but I have a division available (20 Division in Rabaul) but nowhere near enough lift capability to move it.
So, what happened to the BB (and CV) TF(s)? No clue. I saw the CV TF 2 days ago and the BB TF yesterday. Today? Nada. KB2 is currently 5 hexes SW of Ponape and headed SE. Shokaku only repaired 3 of its A6M3a, so has 24 available & 15 in maintenance (36+3 reserve). It looks like none of the damaged planes will be repaired by tomorrow.
I recall doing a lot of estimating of where the enemy TFs could possibly be based on estimated speeds of slow BBs and pre-war CVs. I have them out of range of where the enemy could possibly be and am counting on naval search. I have Ki-46-IIs based at Buin (formerly Tulagi) providing naval search to the south, so I can see if the enemy moved to within its range, 14 hexes. The arc is 120-210.
If KB2 moves its full distance, it'll be 12 hexes from Tulagi and 14 hexes from Munda, the two bases I determined (read: guessed) would be the most likely targets. So, I wait, impatiently and nervously.
Enemy bomber sorties:
Only the bombing attack described above. Resting them?
SRA
Nothing to report.
Burma
So, my Tojo sentai was set to LRCAP over the front line, probably intentionally. I think I wanted to attrit the Brits of their fighters, but to be honest, I don't recall (I'd make a good politician.
) Twenty-one Tojos met 18 enemy fighters, losing 3 of their number (1 WIA fortunately) for a solitary P-40E. The Tojo IIc can't come soon enough (11 Dec 42). Whether it was intent or stupidity, I have the sentai set to LRCAP again for tomorrow.
China
First thing this morning was a bombing raid of Chungking with 21 Sallies escorted by 8 Oscars. Where was my Zero sweep, the slackers! Anyway, 2 P-66s laid into them. The Oscars got lucky and shot one down but the other got through and shot down 3 Sallies.
The Zeros finally arrived finding 2 P-66s and shot down one.
Other Stuff
Reinforcement
26 Sentai (12 Nates), 2 Air Division, Kwangtung, training
26 Sentai Det A (12 Sonia), 2 Air Division, Kwangtung, training
26 Sentai Det A (12 Sonia), 2 Air Division, Kwangtung, training
The two dets can eventually convert to fighters and combine with the main body, but the earliest fighter they can convert to is the Ki-43-IIb, which doesn't appear until 2/43. They'll train bombers until then, then convert to the IIb, then convert to the Nate and combine with the main body. Pain in the butt.
The Ki-44-IIc R&D advanced to 10/43 and is estimated to become operational around 12/11/42. I have 7 R&D factories working and am producing 210 engines a day, so all of the production is going to R&D. The Ha-49-IIa is operational but I'm not producing any so all 7 R&D Tojo factories will be doubled. When the Tojo becomes operational, the idea was to build 90 Tojos and 60 Helens, using 210 engines per month. Four R&D factories would be reallocated to something else. Nothing else will use the Ha-34 engine so the pool would remain. What I have decided to do is to allow all 7x30 Tojo factories to become operational, using all of the Ha-34 production and allowing 7 Tojos a day to be built. The Helens will begin producing 60 per month. The net effect would be to draw down the pool by 120 per month. It will start around 11 Dec 42. I will maintain this until the end of March 43. At that time, 4x30 Tojo factories will be allocated to R&D (airframe to be determined). At that time, the Ha-34 pool should be around 60. By the end of March 43 (220 days) I'll have produced 1540 Tojos and 440 Helens. I estimate that, on the front line (3 and 5 Air Divisions), I'll need 240 Tojos and 78 Oscars. When the pool is drawn down at the end of March 43 and the 4 Tojo factories have shifted back to R&D, I'll be producing 90 Tojo IIc and 60 Helen IIa (210 Ha-34 engines needed per month) along with 60 of the newest model Oscar per month. That will remain constant until the Frank arrives at some unknown date.
