China
More small air raids. 32 Mohawks and 16 Hawks are planning to sweep Nanchang. Last we checked there were 12 Oscars flying CAP.
India/Burma No changes. I have started to count forces that could be used to counter attack. I am thinking that I could send 3 divisions, 3 armored brigades, 3 infantry brigades, a bunch of artillery and a few divisions of Chinese. This would leave India strong but it is not a huge force. This effort would start after it was clear that Mogami was pushing in the South Pacific.
Russia : Nothing going on but I still get messages saying that the Japanese are planning to attack the place.
South Pacific
Still the place where the action is. KB is sailing around but not near New Caledonia. The Allies are still slipping troops and supplies in, the last CD unit starts unloading at Koumac in a day or two. No air combat and no sea combat planned. The US CV fleet is South of Nandi heading South West no way am I fighting a CV battle now. The British CVs and the Hermes-Long Island group will meet the US CVs soon.
Prince of Wales is in Aukland with 8 sys damage, there are a number of ships there with over 5 sys that I am hoping will repair at least a little.
The Japanese neglected to bomb Port Moresby for a few days and the engineers fully repaired the base and support. There is now 111 AV there so the Allies flew in 90 fighters.
On the 15th the Japanese returned for thier regular bombing raid. It did not go according to plan.
Day Air attack on Port Moresby , at 53,91
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 50
G3M Nell x 73
G4M1 Betty x 84
Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 27
P-36A Mohawk x 39
P-40E Warhawk x 18
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 24 destroyed, 1 damaged
G3M Nell: 10 destroyed, 11 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 22 destroyed, 11 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 13 destroyed, 1 damaged
P-36A Mohawk: 8 destroyed, 21 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 9 destroyed
Allied ground losses:
15 casualties reported
Guns lost 1
Airbase hits 5
Airbase supply hits 7
Runway hits 32
Actual air losses for both sides were 31 Allied, 60 Japanese over the day and almost all of them were at PM. The Allies are kind of scraping the bottom here, a group of P35s was flown in to push the numbers back up, but the Japanese can't really afford this either. 24 of thier losses were Zeros which is a good chunk of the 50 planes that flew as escort.
This is the first clear cut Allied victory in air to air combat so far in the game. Though it is only a tactical victory is shows that the clock is ticking for Japan. It also keeps me on track to destroy more planes than I lose in May. That is another sign that the Allies are starting to put things together.
I am not sure I can maintain air superiority over PM, but if the Japanese take heavy casualties fighting over New Guinea then they will not have the XP 90 airgroups they need to gain control of the air over New Caledonia. We will see if the Japanese come back with more on the 16th or if they choose to give me control of the air over PM.
In the Phillipines the number of ships in Manila bay is reported to be 164. US subs have tracked convoys going North past Luzon and a few inconclusive attacks have been launched by submarines and Japanese ASW forces.
