Never Thought I'd Start Another One - tc464 (A) vs. Mike (J)

[Mike Solli]

Been back home since Sunday. The grandkids took over again. And, again, I'm behind...

25 Oct 42

Sub War

Pompano is hanging out at Adak and launched 4 torpedoes at an xAP, which missed or were duds. Later in the day, she attacked an xAK unsuccessfully and was hit by a DC by an escorting PB.

5 Fleet

Troops continue to land at Adak.

The DDs at Adak continue to clear the mines slowly. Unfortunately, Shiratsuyu cleared one with her hull and took heavy damage: 43-83(67-12(8)-0. She'll join the string of badly damaged ships limping toward Attu.

BBs Fuso and Yamashiro bombarded Adak causing significant damage to the airfield (up to 54% now), beat up the troops and killed a PBY and 2 P-40Es on the ground while damaging 8 and 42(!) respectively. Ouch. It turns out that the AKEs at Paramushiro-jima can replenish BBs. Nice! There are now 3 groups of BBs and they will shuttle back and forth with a bombardment every couple of days. That should give the US troops a headache and keep their disruption up.

The BB group still at Adak protecting the amphibious TFs is composed of Yamato, Nagato and Mutsu. The 5 remaining US PT boats attacked them and lost 2 more.

Ted bombarded my troops at Adak. More Allied supply gone forever.

KB1 and KB2 still have not been spotted.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Some B-17s decided to hit Tulagi's airfield. Now, both the port and airfield are heavily damaged. I have no planes there, so I'll take the damage.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

MKB launched full deck loads against the port at Diamond Harbor looking for Illustrious and Valiant, which were spotted there some days ago. Apparently, they're no longer there. Maybe they're in Calcutta Harbor? At any rate, 4 Hurricanes tangled with the shooting 2 Zeros down (2 MIA). At 42:2 odds? Really? They caught and sank an AMc and damaged the port. Two Vals were lost to flak.

In the afternoon, a small flight of 6 Kates escorted by 10 Zeros hit Diamond Harbor's port again. Two more Zeros were lost (KIA, WIA) but they managed to shoot down a Hurricane. All they did was a couple of port supply hits. Big deal.

China

Bombers continue to hit Chungking and Lanchow's airfields. I attacked Lanchow causing light losses on both sides, but the forts were reduced from 2 to 1. We're getting there...

Other Stuff

The Ha-43 engine R&D advanced to 5/44 and will become operational 7/43.

[Mike Solli]

26 Oct 42

Sub War

The Tambor is also showing up at Adak but was driven off by a surface fleet after being hit by a DC. The TF is guarding the transports still there. Later in the day, a DD guarding some transports hit Tambor with another DC. Banzai!

5 Fleet

The last 3 PT boats were finally sunk by a surface fleet of a CL and 7 DDs. They were pretty irritating.

All the troops have landed and now the transports are just dumping additional supply.

The DDs are still clearing the mine or two. I really need some minesweepers there. I have a DMS and an AMc headed to Adak, but they're still a way out.

xAP Manzyu Maru was hit by shore fire while dropping off supply. Fortunately, her damage isn't too bad at 30-9(9)-8(4)-22 but I was very concerned about the fires. Fortunately, they'll go out in a couple of days.

Torpedo carrying PBYs attacked my shipping at Adak today. The first group of 5 missed the BBs, but the second group of 3 put a torpedo into an xAP, leaving her with 54 fires. She'll linger on a couple of days and then the fires will get her.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Eerily quiet here today.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

I got confirmation that Truant was sunk at Cox's Bazaar back on 25 Aug 42.

MKB hit some TFs at Madras again today sinking 3 of 5 AMcs.

China

Bombing and maneuvering...

Other Stuff

The N1K1-J R&D advanced to 6/43. I'm still not sure when they will become operational. Only 2 of the 18 factories have completed their repairs, so at this point I'm gaining 4% a day with the engine acceleration.

[Mike Solli]

27 Oct 42

Sub War

Reports say Pompano sank a few hexes east of Adak. I'm not sure that happened but she was hit by some DCs a few days ago.

5 Fleet

The DDs at Adak destroy a handful of mines. I suspect there are still a lot here. There were 7 ACMs when I landed and still are 5 there. A DMS will arrive at Adak tomorrow with an AMc behind and 4 more DMS farther behind. I'm going after the port with KB1 tomorrow to try and get rid of the ACMs.

The PBYs returned and put 2 torpedoes into Nagato. Her damage wasn't too bad, but she's out of commission for a long time: 18-43(30)-20(9)-0. At least there are no fires. Another ship added to the stream of damaged ships heading to Attu.

In the afternoon, 6 more PBYs returned and put a bomb on tough old Mutsu, causing very minor damage. One PBY was downed by flak.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Thirty-two B-17s hit Tulagi's airfield again. Definitely out of commission now.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

MKB went after shipping in the Madras area again. They damaged a PG and PC. I'm going after the port tomorrow. There's quite a bit of shipping there.

China

Bombing and maneuvering.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement
xAP Teibi Maru, a replacement for the 2 lost at Adak so far.

[Mike Solli]

28 Oct 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

The invasion TFs have all retired to Attu or Yokosuka. Yamato and Mutsu, along with Kitakami and Oi bombarded Adak then retired to Paramuashiro-jima to replenish. They caused great destruction:

PBY-5: 2 destroyed, 14 damaged
P-40E: 2 destroyed, 24 damaged
297 casualties including 19 destroyed and 39 disabled.
7 airbase, 22 runway and 1 port hit (airbase is 90% damaged). The planes there are doomed.

DMS-21 destroyed 40 mines. Yay!

KB1 sent 42 Vals to hit Adak's port putting a bomb into 4 different ACMs (of 5 located there). I see 4 now so apparently only 1 sank. I'll try again even though 6 Vals were lost to flak. I have plenty of Val pilots and planes, so it's not an issue.

I attacked Adak to test the waters. The 1:2 attack was against level 5 forts. This will take awhile. I need to keep bombarding until the supply is gone. My forces took moderate damage, but were disrupted, so they'll have to rest awhile. My BBs can bombard every couple of days, so their disruption will remain high. Also, their experience is pretty low too.

To date, the Aleutians invasion has cost me 2 Momi class DDs, 3 xAPs and an xAK. In addition, the following ships are damaged:

DD Akatsuki: 21-87(75)-26(15)-0, still 5 days from Attu.
DD Shiratsuyu: 43-78(67)-12(8)-0, still 2 days from Attu.
DD Hibiki: 18-56(53)-1(1)-0, at Attu repairing non-major damage.
DD Yugiri: 30-58(54)-1-0, at Attu repairing non-major damage.
BB Nagato: 18-39(30)-20(9)-0, will reach Attu tomorrow.
xAP Hakozaki Maru: 3-28(28)-0-0, at Attu repairing non-major damage.
xAP Manzu Maru: 33-9(9)-10(4)-0, at Attu repairing non-major damage.
xAP Kitano Maru: 14-27(27)-2(1)-0, 5 days from Yokosuka for repairs.
LSD Akitsu Maru: 5-3(1)-1(1)-0, 5 days from Yokosuka for repairs.

Overall, less than I expected. The battle is far from over though...

KB2 is refueling from the fast oilers (reserved only for KB) then will replace KB1 for operations to allow KB1 to refuel.

Here's how things look:

Aleutians.jpg (484.44 KiB) Viewed 460 times

You can see that some subs haven't reached their stations yet. They're still 3 days out. I do have a line of Glen subs off map to the south (along with Chitose) keeping an eye out for anything coming up from Pearl. There are also a couple of Glen subs keeping an eye on Pearl itself. So far, nothing.

Edit: Oh yeah, that Allied surface fleet to the east is showing up as 6 ships including 4 KVs. Keeping an eye on it. If it comes in range of KB, the Kates are allocated on the naval attack mission with torpedoes.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Thirty-four B-17s hit Tulagi's beat up airfield again.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

In the morning, 13 unescorted Albacores torpedoed 3 xAKs dropping off supply at Cox's Bazaar, sinking one and heavily damaging the other 2. I hope they come back tomorrow. If so, they'll meet a sentai of Tojos.

MKB launched a full deck load of 55 Zeros, 36 Vals and 54 Kates against Madras' port. They were attacked by 26 Martlets. When it was all said and done, 8 Martlets were shot down at a cost of 5 Vals and 4 Kates. They outright sank an xAKL and heavily damaged:

1 PG
1 PC
2 xAKL
3 xAK
1 AKE

At least 2 more ships sank. I'm hitting the port again tomorrow.

China

Bombing and maneuvering.

Other Stuff

Nothing to report.

[sfatula]

Mike,

What condo/resort were you staying at? Just got back from Mallorca, Paris, and Normandy where my Dad invaded in WW2. Spent 4 days there learning and poking around at museums, talking to folks, etc.

[Mike Solli]

Mike,

What condo/resort were you staying at? Just got back from Mallorca, Paris, and Normandy where my Dad invaded in WW2. Spent 4 days there learning and poking around at museums, talking to folks, etc.

I envy you. I always wanted to visit Normandy. My Dad landed at Utah beach a few weeks after D-Day. The Germans were still shelling the beach when he landed. I have a couple of pics of his LST reaching shore with shells landing all around it.

I stayed at a place called Club Wyndham Ocean Boulevard. We bought into it 25 years ago and have stayed at many different resorts they have. It works well for us. Now that we're retired, we travel a lot. We're still young and healthy enough to drive all over the eastern and central US.

[PaxMondo]

28 Oct 42

SE Fleet

Thirty-four B-17s hit Tulagi's beat up airfield again.

I'm still trying to figure out Ted's plan here. Late '42, he's gonna lose Adak which he had invested quite heavily, but didn't invest around it. So, only a speed bump for you, and you won't make the same mistake(s) so when/if he wants it back it will cost him.

He was hitting the lower SRA with 4E's, but now he has shifted to the Solomon's. His 4E's are one of his biggest hammers, so is he prepping for a move North from Rabaul (Solomons => Caroline's => Mariana's)? If so, why signal it so soon? He won't be ready to seriously make a move for another 6 - 8 months. These 4E's wouldn't really help him in the Aleutians as he didn't prep enough bases, but over is India, yeah, they could cause mayhem with your plans there.

Just not seeing it yet ...

[sfatula]

I envy you. I always wanted to visit Normandy. My Dad landed at Utah beach a few weeks after D-Day. The Germans were still shelling the beach when he landed. I have a couple of pics of his LST reaching shore with shells landing all around it.

I stayed at a place called Club Wyndham Ocean Boulevard. We bought into it 25 years ago and have stayed at many different resorts they have. It works well for us. Now that we're retired, we travel a lot. We're still young and healthy enough to drive all over the eastern and central US.

Yeah, I own Marriott and we've been traveling for 26 years on it all over the world. Quite familiar with Wyndham.

My Dad was in the 29th Div, 116th Infantry and invaded second wave Omaha Beach right behind the Bedford boys and also got mostly annihilated. He got the only functional weapon that could shoot back ashore from his entire company, what was left of them, an M1917. A guy in his company was the consultant for Saving Private Ryan and wrote some good books on the invasion and war, Robert (Bob) Slaughter, often focusing on my Dads unit. I had the privilege of meeting the survivors and replacements many times. The stories were just terrible.

The D-Day museum there had a plaque and a quote from the 116th Major Bingham, it said "Everything... was done in small groups... Very few were decorated chiefly because no one was left to tell about what they did". Another from Sergeant Valance of the 116th said "The bodies of my buddies were washing ashore and I was the one live body amongst so many of my friends, all of whom were dead, in many cases very severely blown to pieces".

Don't want to pollute your AAR but at least it's WW2 related.

[PaxMondo]

Respect.

To your Father and all the others from that day.

[Mike Solli]

sfatula, thanks for sharing. That is most definitely sobering. We all sit in front of our computers playing these games. We need to be reminded of what actually happened. I appreciate it.

[Mike Solli]

28 Oct 42

SE Fleet

Thirty-four B-17s hit Tulagi's beat up airfield again.

I'm still trying to figure out Ted's plan here. Late '42, he's gonna lose Adak which he had invested quite heavily, but didn't invest around it. So, only a speed bump for you, and you won't make the same mistake(s) so when/if he wants it back it will cost him.

He was hitting the lower SRA with 4E's, but now he has shifted to the Solomon's. His 4E's are one of his biggest hammers, so is he prepping for a move North from Rabaul (Solomons => Caroline's => Mariana's)? If so, why signal it so soon? He won't be ready to seriously make a move for another 6 - 8 months. These 4E's wouldn't really help him in the Aleutians as he didn't prep enough bases, but over is India, yeah, they could cause mayhem with your plans there.

Just not seeing it yet ...

Yeah, I agree with you, Pax. I'm not sure what he's doing in the Solomons. I welcome his attention down there. I do think he's moving some of his 4E bombers to Burma where he has the airfields to support them. That could pose a problem. I've begun whittling down his fighter strength again. My problem is that I don't have any decent fighters to oppose him there. The Tojo IIa is ok, but I'm not producing any right now. I'm focusing on getting the Tojo IIc in December.

You're right, he focused on Adak to the exclusion of everything else in the Aleutians other than Attu, which was garrisoned by only a construction regiment. Adak is going to take some time, but it'll fall. He didn't even work on Unmak which surprised me a lot. Anyway, more on that with the next entry coming soon. Off to my Saturday morning play test of a battalion level initial attack by the Germans against France in May 1940. Been doing play testing since 2014. Fun stuff!

[PaxMondo]

... I do think he's moving some of his 4E bombers to Burma where he has the airfields to support them. That could pose a problem. I've begun whittling down his fighter strength again. My problem is that I don't have any decent fighters to oppose him there. The Tojo IIa is ok, but I'm not producing any right now. I'm focusing on getting the Tojo IIc in December.
...

Well, Dec is only 1 month away, so your Tojo IIc will arrive soon enough. It will be fine against the allied fighters until P47/F4U arrive, but it doesn't fare well against the 4E's: doesn't have the 20mm cannons you need for them. But, no worries, the N1K isn't far behind. Until then, you have to rely on the Nick.

[Mike Solli]

... I do think he's moving some of his 4E bombers to Burma where he has the airfields to support them. That could pose a problem. I've begun whittling down his fighter strength again. My problem is that I don't have any decent fighters to oppose him there. The Tojo IIa is ok, but I'm not producing any right now. I'm focusing on getting the Tojo IIc in December.
...

Well, Dec is only 1 month away, so your Tojo IIc will arrive soon enough. It will be fine against the allied fighters until P47/F4U arrive, but it doesn't fare well against the 4E's: doesn't have the 20mm cannons you need for them. But, no worries, the N1K isn't far behind. Until then, you have to rely on the Nick.

Pax, I want to thank you for convincing me to increase the Nick to 60 per month. I have 2 sentai in SE Fleet AO doing good work and a third training pilots. Getting 2 per day is really good. I'm trying to figure out a way to get a sentai in Burma. That would stress my replacement rate, but it would help out there. So far, I've seen one B-24D attack in Burma. They've been quiet since then. That's why I think he's moving some 4E bombers there. I think he wants to pummel me there, which he'd be able to do.

[Mike Solli]

29 Oct 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

DMS W-21 cleared 80 mines today! There still are a bunch more, I'm sure. An AMc will arrive at Adak tomorrow and 4 DMS are about 6 days out.

BBs Ise and Hyuga bombarded today adding to the Allied mayhem. They killed a P-40E and PBY-5 and damaged 2 and 8 more respectively. The airfield damage is at 90%. The remaining planes will never fly again. Yay! They also killed 9 squads and disabled 60 more.

Fuso and Yamashiro will arrive tomorrow to bombard.

KB2 refueled and is moving NE to cover Adak. They may be in range of the 4 Allied KVs tooling around. KB1 is retiring to refuel tomorrow. Both are finally spotted, one at 5/5 and the other at 4/4.

It appears there are 3 subs (that I can see) at Adak. They take potshots when they can, but the only ship there is W-21. I've dropped off just about all of the supply. My troops need 3k supply and there is 12.8k supply in the hex. I'm good there. Also, my troops are recovering nicely from yesterday's attack. They gained 172 AV back.

There is no sign of enemy ships headed my way up here, but I am being vigilant and cautious. I see subs floating around and am doing everything I can to avoid them. The last thing I need is a lucky torpedo in the side of one of my carriers.

No shipping has been lost or damaged in this AO today. The damaged ships are still headed to or at Attu. An AV will arrive at Attu tomorrow to assist where possible.

Finally, Ted didn't barrage today. Is he running short on supply? Don't know.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Tulagi was hit by 3 squadrons of B-17E/Fs, 17, 8 then 10 sorties. I'm going to ambush them tomorrow with a sentai of Nicks flying out of Buin.

SRA

I had spotted 3 Wildcats at Darwin and sent an LRCAP mission of 18 Oscar IIas. They had a good day shooting down 2 and causing the 3rd to crash on the way home.

Burma

I had a 42 plane Tojo sentai provide CAP out over Cox's Bazaar and the frontline. Ted sent several sweep missions to Cox's Bazaar, to clear the path for the Albacores to go after the supply convoy at Cox's Bazaar. The first sweep of 16 Hurricane IIc and 6 P-40E was mauled by the Tojos. For no loss, they shot down 3 Hurricanes and 2 P-40s.

The second sweep of 16 Hurricanes met 35 Tojos and mauled the Tojos. For a loss of 1 Hurricane, 5 Tojos were shot down.

The third sweep went in my favor, 28 Tojos vs. 16 Hurricanes. 1 Tojo lost for 4 Hurricanes.

Finally, 12 Albacores came in escorted by 7 Hurricanes vs 10 Tojos that were still flying. The Tojos lost nothing and shot down 2 Hurricanes before getting through to the Albacores, shooting down 4. The remaining Albacores hit nothing.

Overall, at a cost of 6 Tojos (5 KIA) plus 3 op losses, they downed 2 P-40Es (+1 op loss), 10 Hurricane IIc (+8 op loss) and 4 Albacores (+1 op loss). I can afford the IJA pilots (over 100 70+/70+ in the pool) and still have Tojos in the pool to replace the losses. I've reduced the Tojo sentai CAP to defend just Akyab tomorrow.

MKB launched a small flight of 12 Kates escorted by 23 Zeros against some shipping at Madras. There were 8 Martlets defending. The Zeros screened the Kates and shot down 1 Martlet, but after the attack, one Kate was shot down. They sank an AMc and heavily damaged 2 more.

In the afternoon, a large flight of 32 Vals and 42 Kates escorted by 48 Zeros went after Madras' port. Six Martlets were flying. The bombers were screened costing 1 Zero for 2 Martlets. The bombers did good work leaving the following burning fiercely and heavily damaged:

3 PG
1 PC
1 xAP
5 xAK
3 xAKL

There were multiple sinking sounds throughout the day. I'll hit the port again tomorrow to try and finish off the ships. By the way, I've not use any torpedoes yet.

China

Chungking and Lanchow both have significant airfield damage.

23 Army, composed of 1 Tank Division and 2 tank regiments is heading to Neikiang then will head to Chengtu to invest that base. Each of those bases has only about 15k troops.

13 Army, with 10 divisions and 10 artillery units, is pushing the former Kweiyang garrison north into Chungking. That Chinese force, once 180k strong is now down to 106k troops remaining. They will be pushed into Chungking's garrison, 195k strong. I'm considering surrounding the 106k, but that'll use 2 divisions to do it. The more I think about it, the more I like that idea.

Other Stuff

Next turn just arrived...

[sfatula]

Now that I am caught up after the trip, I can see your Nicks have been doing amazing work lately! Pretty much what you have to do if you are going to attrit the 4Es.

Glad to see you are up there in Alaska areas now. That's definitely a major win for you, assuming you take Adak (eventually). I don't understand why he had all those planes there and no way to get them out, a mistake. You really needed to do this.

Keep killing those 4Es!

[Mike Solli]

Now that I am caught up after the trip, I can see your Nicks have been doing amazing work lately! Pretty much what you have to do if you are going to attrit the 4Es.

Glad to see you are up there in Alaska areas now. That's definitely a major win for you, assuming you take Adak (eventually). I don't understand why he had all those planes there and no way to get them out, a mistake. You really needed to do this.

Keep killing those 4Es!

I'm pretty sure Adak will fall to me. It may take awhile though. He's stopped barraging, I suspect to save supply. His airfield is totally trashed and I have 3 bombardment TFs, each of 2 BBs who are steaming back and forth from Paramushiro-jima to replenish their main armament. Those bombardments are doing really good work. I also am sending some AS to Attu and working on increasing the airfield to level 4 (it's 3 right now). I have two Sally sentai who are part of 5 Air Division (SE Fleet AO) but still at the Home Islands. (They were recent reinforcements.) Once I get some AS to Attu, they'll station themselves there to start a bombing campaign of the Allied troops.

The Aleutian campaign is going well so far, but I'm on my guard.

[Mike Solli]

30 Oct 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

DMS W-21 cleared 80 mines today. There still are mines there.

Again, there was no Allied bombardment. I have no way of tracking the AV of the defenders other than the troop/gun/AFV count when I hover over them or if I bombard or attack them. I'm going to let my troops recover a little more, but their AV did increase by 172 yesterday (the day after the attack) and another 27 today. Their raw AV is 891. I'll attack again when it increases over 1000.

No ships were lost here today, and all of the badly damaged ships are actually recovering flot damage!

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Twenty-seven Nicks met 5 B-17Es over Lunga and couldn't bring down a single one. They all went home full of bullet holes though. Then, the 11 remaining Nicks met 6 more B-17s, again shooting none down but damaging them all. Finally, the last B-17/B24 sortie (29 bombers) were met by the last 3 Nicks. These got through pretty much unscathed. The last sortie of 9 B-17s met no resistance. I was pretty disappointed with the Nick's effort today.

So, 49x 4E sorties today. Fifty bombers are missing. He has spent a lot of time focusing on Lunga. Is that his target? Right now he knows where all my carriers are (KB in the Aleutians and MKB in the Indian Ocean). He could take it easily. All I have there is a NG battalion. His CVs have been spotted south of Lunga several times. I suspect they are still down there. His BBs are beat up, but the carriers are pristine, along with just about all of his CAs and CLs. I'm considering putting more troops down there along with some engineers to build the forts to a level or 2.

The other Nick sentai ambushed the P-39Ds that were strafing Lae. Only 11 Nicks showed up and they found 51 P-39s. For a loss of 1 Nick (WIA), they managed to shoot down 7 P-39Ds.

SRA

Eighteen Oscars (IIa) swept Darwin shooting down 1 of 2 Wildcats. Easy experience for an already experienced unit.

Burma

MKB launched a full deck load against Madras' port. There were 33 Vals and 42 Kates escorted by 43 Zeros. Five Martlets were on CAP and 2 were shot down. They sank an AMc and damaged the following, all heavily:

2 PG
1 AKE
5 xAK
1 xAKL

I heard sinking sounds a couple of times, so I suspect some of these ships were lost. Not really a big deal, but I would like to kill off the AKE.

A Toho class xAK succumbed to an Albacore torpedo today.

China

Lanchow and Chungking's airfields received some IJAAF bomber love.

23 Army, including 1 Tank Division and 2 tank regiments will reach Neikiang (base 2 hexes NW of Chungking) tomorrow and attack the day after. Last time I checked, there was 1 unit there of about 15k troops. No clue on forts.

The 100k troops that are the remains of the 180k Kweiyang garrison (a hex north of that base) are just sitting there. I've decided to surround them. That'll take 2 divisions to accomplish, but it'll prevent them from retreating back to Chungking, which has a garrison of 195k troops. I keep going back and forth on pushing them north and surrounding them.

Other Stuff

The Ki-44-IIc Tojo R&D advanced to 6/43 and is expected to become operational 12/42.

the B6N1 Jill R&D has advanced to 11/42 and will become operational 11/42. I am not building any of this model because it uses the Ha-44 engine and I am not building any. The R&D factories have advanced to the B6N2, which is currently at 10/43 and is expected to become operational 2/43. I will build this model.

Reinforcements
CL Agano, Agano class, KB escort, mainly because of its endurance (6380).
DD Tamanami, Yugumo class, KB escort.

[Mike Solli]

31 Oct 42

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

The AMc showed up at Adak and cleared the last 14 mines there. Finally!

Fuso and Yamashiro bombarded causing 243 casualties.

It appears there are 3 enemy subs at Adak including Haddock and Tunny. I'm going to leave the minesweeping ships there to try and hit them with DCs.

My troops gained 32 AV and are up to 923 total AV.

Tomorrow, 21 Division invades Dutch Harbor. Interestingly, its port is only 4(3). He really did focus primarily on Adak. I think that was a major mistake. That's one I won't make. I won't put a lot into upgrades, but there will be some.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Thirty-three 4E bombers hit Tulagi today. Where are the other 60-70?

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

Another full deck load from MKB (43 Z, 33 V, 41 K) was met by 6 Martlets. The Zeros were magnificent shooting down 4 of the Martlets for no loss.

The bombing run only hit 3 ships. The AKE took 2 more bombs and is hurting and an xAK was sunk and another was heavily damaged. An enemy ship sank as soon as the turn started. I suspect it was from here.

MKB is headed home to refuel and replenish as well as get replacement aircraft and pilots. In all, they'll need:

Zero: 13 planes, 6 pilots
Val: 7 planes, 3 pilots
Kate: 10 planes, 6 pilots

Only the Zero pilots are of concern (and not much). I have plenty of the other pilots. Planes are no concern at all.

MKB is heading for the barn. Fuel is a concern and both oiler fleets are up in the Aleutians. I should have kept a couple back for MKB.

At the front line, Ted bombards every day and it never goes well for him. Here's an example from today:

Ground combat at 55,43 (near Cox's Bazar)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 50529 troops, 1015 guns, 715 vehicles, Assault Value = 1154

Defending force 32402 troops, 502 guns, 360 vehicles, Assault Value = 665

Japanese ground losses:
27 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
317 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 12 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 5 disabled
Guns lost 20 (6 destroyed, 14 disabled)
Vehicles lost 3 (2 destroyed, 1 disabled)

I know it's most likely inaccurate, but it is still many times worse than my losses.

China

Bombing and maneuvering...

Other Stuff

The A6M5b Zero R&D advanced to advanced to 2/44 and is expected to become operational 2/43.

Reinforcements
253 Ku T-1 (6 Babs), 11 Air Flotilla (restricted), arrived in Rabaul, changed HQ to 23 Air Flotilla.
Sasebo Ku S-1, (4 Claude), 12 Air Flotilla (restricted), increases to 18 in Apr 43, will train defense.
DD Shimikaze, the one and only Shimikaze class, really fast at 38 kts. Will join the surface fleet. Wish I had more of them.

[sfatula]

That was a terrible day for the Nicks against the 4Es, at least they got a bunch of P-39s in the other attack. Even your Oscars got a few kills.

Yeah Adak only was bad. You're going to get a lot of free "kills" on those planes! Taking the Aleutians was n important victory for you.

The 4E's almost certainly have moved. Expect a surprise before long.

I wouldn't build any B6N1 either, kind of wasteful due to the engine.

[PaxMondo]

30 Oct 42
Twenty-seven Nicks met 5 B-17Es over Lunga and couldn't bring down a single one. They all went home full of bullet holes though. Then, the 11 remaining Nicks met 6 more B-17s, again shooting none down but damaging them all. Finally, the last B-17/B24 sortie (29 bombers) were met by the last 3 Nicks. These got through pretty much unscathed. The last sortie of 9 B-17s met no resistance. I was pretty disappointed with the Nick's effort today.

So were the 4E's coming in higher than your Nicks?

So, 49x 4E sorties today. Fifty bombers are missing. He has spent a lot of time focusing on Lunga. Is that his target?

Yeah, I agree, where are they and is Lunga a target or a maskirovka?

The other Nick sentai ambushed the P-39Ds that were strafing Lae. Only 11 Nicks showed up and they found 51 P-39s. For a loss of 1 Nick (WIA), they managed to shoot down 7 P-39Ds.

I will bet that the Nicks got the dive bonus here. With their weapons and the dive bonus they are a real terror.

the B6N1 Jill R&D has advanced to 11/42 and will become operational 11/42. I am not building any of this model because it uses the Ha-44 engine and I am not building any. The R&D factories have advanced to the B6N2, which is currently at 10/43 and is expected to become operational 2/43. I will build this model.

I struggle with Jill period. A little faster (very little in terms of fighter speeds), basically same loadout, and a little more range. I do build them, my MKB generally is on xAK/xAP hunt, the TB's are set for ~6000-8000ft and bombs. They can do great damage. But for a CV v CV attack, any range beyond the DB's is pointless unless you have removed the DB's a replaced them with TB's. You need the bombers of some type, you can't attack with only 50% of your bombers ... so, I struggle with Jill. Or maybe better to say, I REALLY struggle with Judy's terrible range and the mismatch it has with Jill/Zeke.