Supplement to Zuluhours To young to die..

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Skygge

It is the Utradite area I intend to fight for.

I have more than 500 Franks in the area , and reserve pool of that aircraft is close to 1.100 now, so I can play attrition.

I have though of starting doing figther sweeps with the Frank. The allied CAP at Rangoon is mostly P-40´s supplemented with
CW Hurriacanes at 14.000 feet and below - to guard against my Nick FB´s attacking his shipping going for Rangoon

We play with free altitude settings so i can go in at max altitude. Any experience with Franks on sweep?

Frank A on sweep...you can do well depending upon what you run into. Try sweeping at your best manuever band, with Georges on LRCAP above his CAP. George should be able to do well sweeping in these circumstances too above the defenders.

Use 70/70 air/def pilots if possible and go in with lots of planes. Punish him...grind him, wear him down.

[Skygge]

Roger that.

Engines warming up

More than 500 Frank´s and 150 George will tomorrow go for Rangoon. First 180 Helens will try fatigue the allied pilots by night bombing their airfields.

[Skygge]

The Air offensive is postponed for a few weeks because of the following reasons :

1. The main air fields from where the offensive is to be launched are just about to expand
Uttaradit to level 8, Pitsanlok to level 7 & Bangkok to level 9
Bangkok can then be used to launch loads of Helens in night bombing raids to fatigue the allied aircrews.

2. More airbase units are now shuffling into place to boost ground maintenance.

3. Bases has been set to draw much more supply, so as to make sure fighters will not suddenly be without drop tanks.

4. The N1K5 has now gone into production, so I want to upgrade as many units as I can.



The air war over Burma is however not quiet. The allied is throwing in more bombers and lots of P-47´s and P-38´s.

Some days are better than others for the Allied. This was not one of them.

[Skygge]

Kavieng is about to fall.

Allied attacks have taken down forts to level 2.
Battleships and Cruisers regular bombard the base at night and the Bombers come during the day.

Lately though they seem to hit no troops but only crater real estate.

12 allied units now besiege the base and 5 more allied units are moving up the island for the final assault.

It will be the final assault as base is now only defended by 19 truck drivers. I hope these 19 drivers will meet their demise with their bellies full of fish in soya and drunk on sake.
They should be able to, as base still have 35.000 supplies - a gross miscalculation from my part on supply distribution.

Their comrades from the crack 38th division have been airlifted to Truk - even bringing along their light tanks. The Emily transport is a magnificent plane for such a task.


One curious thing is that looking at the unit it says fort level 7 - which is true for Truk but not Kavieng.

[Skygge]

A boost to KB CAP is near :

[Skygge]

And in the same day Research is brought to 100% and 4 planes are actually produced.
I guess excess research is carried over into the next level.

[Skygge]

July 25th 1944

My proclaimed air offensive in Burma has still not yet come off.
Reason is supply issues. I simply cannot pull enough supply to Pisanuloke and Uttradite to start the air offensive.

I have loads of supply in Bangkok and three times that in Singapore. The infrastructure seem to simply not being able carry enough forward to both support the large Japanese Army in the area and
At the same time accumulate supply at the bases. I suspect that the Monsoon has its influence - though I am not sure on exactly how. Maybe when the Monsoon is over - come October / November things will be better.
-- then again same will apply for the allied, so more rain please, as the allied seem bogged down chasing down my outpost units.
Good thing is that my land units do not seem to lack in supply.

[Skygge]

The air war continues tough, mostly with allied fighter sweeps and some bomber raids, but the Frank hold the line.
Kurt has so far not carried out a sustained bomber offensive against any of my main bases. Defense has been consistent and determined.

I think an instance where he tried lock down Pisanuloke made him vary. For once the P-47 sweeps came in late, the bombers not.

The P-47´s get good kill rates, but still they take losses and I see fewer and fewer of them - maybe his force pool is getting low.
I now see more sweeps with other fighter´s, but sweeps with P-38´s, P-51B´s and Spitfires have all been bloody affairs for the allied.

I have said it before, and must say it again : The Frank is a damn good plane. It is rugged and can deal out damage.
Reserve pool is about 1.200 Franks right now.

My pilot losses are manageable. The purely defensive fighting helps with this. I can keep up replacing the good front line pilots with other good pilots.
- but only just. If I had to fight on more fronts I can see that I will run into a decline in pilot quality. I will not run out of them, but replacements will soon not have 70 in both air and defense skill.
I am sure a sustained and more widespread allied effort can force me to commit less skilled pilots.

Air losses clearly show which Japanese plane carry the most

[Skygge]

In the South Pacific Kurt is cleaning up.

I really have no stronghold left here besides Rabaul. I now wait for Kurt´s next move here.

The Inner defense ring is heavily defended :

Rabaul 472 AV with level 7 forts
Ponape 505 AV with level 7 forts
Truk 936 AV with level 8 forts
Guam 1.317 AV with level 8 forts
Rota 734 AV with level 6 forts and building
Tinian 1.164 AV with level 6 forts and building
Saipan 1.288 AV with level 7 forts and building
Pagan 810 AV with level 6 forts and building
Iwo Jima 575 AV with level 6 forts

I am more and more convinced that Kurt would like to carry out an island campaign though the Marianna's to the Philippines or Formosa, so hence my main effort has moved to here.
This has of course left me thin in other areas - so I will need rely on help from the Imperial Navy to counter an allied efforts here.


The KB is at Yokohama getting the mid 1944 upgrades in radar and AAA ...........and AAA rockets
It will soon move to Mindanao to help counter an allied advance along the Northern coast of Guinea or up from Australia into the DEI.

An allied advance towards the Marianna´s will probably be led by massive CV TF´s. These I do not want to meet head-on with the KB, but I will need bide my time and strike only when I feel I have the advantage
And can choose my targets, so I need hold the KB back anyhow to start with, and from Mindanao it can quickly assist against any advance towards the Dei.

Fighters have all upgraded to A7M2-Sam and soon all strike aircraft will be Grace´s only.

The Grace I find will have a better survivability than the Judy D4Y4.
It has 20 miles better cruising speed - which may reduce reaction time for the defenders, It is a bit more maneuverable and has a higher durability - and lastly this plane has a 13mm gun covering the rear

[Skygge]

August 1944.

I am now of the opinion that Kurt´s strategy is a two fold approach through two strong offensives.
One Naval up from the Solomon´s across the ocean towards the Philippines, Formosa or the Ryukus.
One land down from Burma through Thailand towards Malaya.


Naval Advance :
I have already done what I can for now to oppose the Naval advance. The Island garrisons are as mentioned quite strong and behind heavy fortifications.
Still the allied can in late 1944 here overwhelm any point of their choosing, all I can do is try to turn any amphibious landing into a major affair, that requires a lot of planning and deployment of overwhelming force,
and give nothing away cheap. Any success will be measured in time gained more than in VP.

I find it hard to find forces to strengthen any island further, with so many island´s to cover, but must rather be ready to try shuttle forces already in the area to any focus points. Here the large air fleet of Emily´s together with a strong fighter
protection will be needed. With my islands out of reach of any effective allied land based fighters, Kurt will need rely on naval air.

As Kurt seem quite meticulous in his way of doing things, I doubt he will bypass the Marianna’s. He will want these islands for his bombers and naval bases here for a further advance, or at least some of them.
I do not think he find the thought of me threatening his supply lines from here acceptable. He may first go for some smaller islands first like Woleai to establish bases for Naval search.

I predict that any amphioxus landing in the Marianna´s will start with several Allied CV task forces swooping in to clear the area and draw any bombers into a hailstorm of 50 cal. from the CAP. Also I suspect allied carriers to have much larger fighter groups than historically so. To meet this I will do nothing. I will keep my air force grounded and scattered. I have plenty good airfields in transfer range of the major island. Next will come BB´s and CA´s to soften up defenses. Here I hope PT boats and cost defense
guns can soak up much of this allied effort.

When target for the allied forces has been identified I will see if I can draw the allied into a reverse CAP trap by sending In agile destroyers and transfer in substantial fighter forces to cover them. The naval forces will go to islands close to the focus point, and will have the aid of minefields, PT boats and mini subs to try help counter allied surface groups. Two days of this should give me time to have more surface groups close by for a quick dart in and for KB to have taken up position.
If the allied has focused on fighter strength on his carriers and if I have weakened his strength in attack planes, then my surface groups can go in for the surface battles they have been build for and possible cause some mayhem.

This could possible give the KB´s 23 carriers a chance to nip at the sides of the allied, or for land based air to go in to do some naval attack with range set to 0 or 1.

KB is still at Yokohama with some 35 day still to go before the larger fleet carriers come out of the mid 1944 upgrade – but then they will be bristling with Radar and AAA. I need Kurt to spend another month in cleaning in PNG.
In a week 16 of the smaller carriers are all ready and will go to Manado, which is now a major air and naval base.

Speculative – yes. Lot´s of if´s and other variables, but isn’t that what we deal in?


Land Advance :
So far so good. The allied is booged down in Northern Thailand and the Thai Army has all gone home.
Still I feel a mounting pressure here with allied columns probing to find weak spots in the defense lines, and what now seem like endless bomber streams.
So I have decided to pull out 2 ID´s from DEI to bolster the Burma/Thai front – I want to hold out here until at least start 1945 – after that I do not know what is possible.

Weaken the southern front will require me to be even more ready to shift remaining forced around, but with no apparent threat coming from Northern Australia, all allied bases here still seem rather undeveloped and very few
blockade runners have been observed getting through. My airbases in the area are well build out and with The KB and 10 BB´s close by, I feel this to be a right decision.

The Air War here has been very bloody lately – for both sides. Of course many more Japanese planes going down than allied, but I hope ratio of killed pilot´s is better, but I must continue trading planes and pilots for time.
The Japanese Army is intact, strong in fortified positions and well supplied.

What miscalculations have I undertaken that will come back to haunt me in my dreams (at work)?
What to defend and what not to?
Aye there is the rub.

[Skygge]

The Ki-100 II Tony is now operational.
Two size 59 units have now been equipped with it : 1st and 11th. I plan to equip about 1/3 of all Army fighter groups with it.

My plan with this plane has been two fold. First it will be used as very high altitude CAP, as its celling of 36.300 feet makes it competitive with most allied planes.
It´s maneuver rating at high altitude matches the P-51B and is better than on the P-51D.
Supposedly this was one of the few Aix planes that could match allied fighter´s in dive speed. If this is worked into the game I cannot say, but I look forward how to see it in action.
CAP will then be Franks and Georges down low to bear the brunt of the fighting, and at 36.300 feet the Tony will lurk. Then I will need see if I get dive attacks.

Secondly it has a service rating of 1, so it can be used in the end game defense where you need everything atop that can possible go up

[Skygge]

This one I hope to get flying early 1945

[Skygge]

Air production is as follows.

Not that I produce all these planes each month. On some like the D4Y4 Judy I have halted production as force pool of it is enough for now.

[Skygge]

Air losses status August 1944

[Sangeli]

Wow the plane losses on each side are relatively small! My game is a full 8 months behind yours yet each side has ~50% more plane losses than in your game.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Sangeli

Wow the plane losses on each side are relatively small! My game is a full 8 months behind yours yet each side has ~50% more plane losses than in your game.

Heck, I have 300 percent more losses at about the same time.[X(]

But one thing hasn't changed. Skytrains always take it on the chin.[:D]

[Skygge]

Wow the plane losses on each side are relatively small! My game is a full 8 months behind yours yet each side has ~50% more plane losses than in your game.

Each game has its own rythmn.
In this game I have been quite passive since the fall of China. There has been very little extension of the empire beyond
the historical one.
Kurt on his part has mostly commited only the best of his aircraft on the offensive, as the few time he has tried offensivly to use Spitfires and P-40K´s and other such planes. they have been severly punished by the Frank and George.

[Skygge]

But one thing hasn't changed. Skytrains always take it on the chin

Yes, they do. In this game there has been very little opportunity to make an airlift into China, as I invaded China through
the Burmese backdoor and took the bases the closest to India fairly soon. Losses I think come from Kurt sustaining an airlift from India into Burma. So yes, they take it on the chin where ever they fly

[Skygge]

Last day of my vacation in southern Spain – such a wonderful country. Today is dedicated to total relaxation.
With everybody else lounging in the pool I can go to my oasis: WITPAE
So I have time for updating while sipping beer – well we have to clean out the fridge and we all have to chip in.

Burma mid-January 1945
Mid-autumn 1944 the allied almost broke the Japanese defense line in the hex NW of Rehang. Two IJA Div. (40th and 70th) held back an allied break though attempt – but only just so it was an interesting battle resolution to watch. With Japanese lines of communication being shorter, then the Japanese units were resupplied quicker than the allied units, and Japanese reinforcement had fewer miles to leg than the allied- also many Japanese units were already on the move as allied movement towards the hex had been spotted.
The allied tried another attack later, but this time the line held with ease. Since then the front has been static.

In December the allied landed some units on the small island of Little Andaman´s. 3 units of Grace bombers escorted by Frank´s flew the 10 hexes to attack the invasion force, but were savaged by the allied CAP provided by CW carriers.
This allied move I find to be of little threat and a diversion.

[Skygge]

Pacific mid-January 1945

The allied overran Ponape in October in a well-executed amphibious assault. Though well defended by a crack IJA div with some supporting armor and artillery in level 7 forts they were overrun in just 4 days. Only the CD guns seemed to offer any real resistance. The allied force was well balanced with lot of supporting armor.

It makes me think defending hexes with only Rough Terrain will be difficult as the Japanese from 1944 and onwards.

Next the allied targeted Truk for fighter sweeps and 4E bomber attacked. I tried defend with fighters but stacking limits from just the one level 7 airfield made it hard to compete with the allied as I need to have both Night fighter`s (2E) as well as day fighters, so after a few weeks of allied sweeps and day and night bombings I had to pull back my air cover.
Since then air defense has been left to the AA units on the island.

Two IJA Divisions have dug in with level 8 forts – and then of course there is the wonderful CD unit there. Emily´s and sub transports keep Truk supplied.