Castles in the Sand - Spidery(J) vs MrKane(A) no MrKane please

[JocMeister]

Cool, thanks for the info. [:)]

[Spidery]

June 5th 1943

Air Losses: 4 Japanese, 0 Allied, 2 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Solomons

Quiet

Burma

Night strikes at Kalemyo have no effect.

Engineering

Iwo-Jima forts to 5. Allies expand Darwin airfield to 7.

Production

Mitsubishi Ha-43 to 11/43

Reinforcements

Quiet

Other

I'm taking too many ops losses, need to find out why.

The PB at Jolo makes 1 hex and float goes from 70 to 96. Will head for Zamboanga and send an ARD there.

[Spidery]

June 6th 1943

Air Losses: 0 Japanese, 0 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

It is so quiet, the combat report:

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Jun 07, 43
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ground combat at 75,39 (near Chengtu)

Japanese Bombardment attack

Attacking force 900 troops, 66 guns, 57 vehicles, Assault Value = 410

Defending force 44111 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 577

Allied ground losses:
149 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 3 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Assaulting units:
32nd Division
9th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
6th Medium Field Artillery Regiment
1st Ind.Hvy.Art. Battalion

Defending units:
42nd Chinese Corps
13th Chinese Corps
93rd Chinese Corps
94th Chinese Corps
2nd Chinese Corps
16th Chinese Corps
19th Chinese Corps

[Spidery]

June 8th 1943

Air Losses: 28 Japanese, 12 Allied, 9 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Solomons

Miserable day at Rabaul.

At night, Liberators bomb the port. Badly damaged DD Shinonome is sunk along with the 3 ACM tending the minefields. The last J1N1-S of the Endo Det. is shot down along with 5 Ki-44-IIc. 4 B-24D1 are downed by flak or ops.

In the morning, big sweep by Thunderbolts supported by Corsairs and Wildcats on LRCAP and the defense does poorly. In the afternoon 12 PB4Y-1 come in at 3000 feet with P-38G, F4F-4 and F4U-1 covering. The 130 N1K1-J on CAP fail to get through to the bombers and lose out in the air. CA Nachi takes 2 bomb hits and CA Chokai takes 1 but damage is trivial, except for an AA mount lost on CA Nachi.

Air loss for the day air-air 22 N1K1-J versus 4 F4U-1, 2 P-38G, 1 F4F-4, 1 P-47D2.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Boela airfield to 5.

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Spidery]

June 9th 1943

Air Losses: 3 Japanese, 1 Allied, 3 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Lost an 8150 capacity TK to SS Runner near Rabaul.

Solomons

Quiet

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

SC CHa-23

[Spidery]

June 10th 1943

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 0 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Solomons

Quiet

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Laoag airfield to 4. Manus airfield to 1.

Production

Ki-84r to 4/45.

Reinforcements

An 11,600 capacity tanker.

[Spidery]

Allied planes have vanished from Kalemyo and Silchar.

Looking to see if he has moved them elsewhere on the Indian border or is redeploying them.

[Spidery]

June 11th 1943

Air Losses: 151 Japanese, 147 Allied, 26 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

Quiet

Solomons

Bloodiest day of the war in the air for a long time as Liberators supported by P-38G, F4F-4, P-39D and F4U-1 hit Rabaul during the morning. By good fortune, the P-47D2 sweep comes in after the bombers.

In the air it is a clear win but 67 planes (22 B6N2, 15 G4M1, 13 D4Y4, 11 Ki-44-IIc, 3 N1K1-J, 2 D4Y1, 1 Ki-46-III) are lost on the ground. Completely gutting the bomber force poised to strike at an Allied invasion.

Flak downs 11 B-24D1.

Air and Ops losses: 55 N1K1-J, 21 Ki-44-IIc for 43 F4F-4, 25 P-39D, 26 P-38G, 8 F4U-1, 2 P-47D, 32 B-24D1.

Rabaul has 69 service and 88 runway damage. It is a level 9 field with about 200 engineer equivalents - how long to re-open it?

In total he lost 43 B-24D1 on the day - I think that is about a month's worth. Most of his fighter losses are obsolete aircraft, probably flown by inexperienced pilots, being used as escorts. Still it all helps on the VP ratio.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery
Rabaul has 69 service and 88 runway damage. It is a level 9 field with about 200 engineer equivalents - how long to re-open it?

Wow, I was contemplating making a snarky comment about no action and then this....watch out for an invasion somewhere...

I have found to re-open damaged airfields you need dedicated construction engineers. The engineers in AF base or coy don't help much unless there are no planes there. Even then it is the construction engineers that fix runways.

So the question is how many are construction engineers?

The flak was so effective because it is shooting at damaged bombers, I think.

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Spidery
Rabaul has 69 service and 88 runway damage. It is a level 9 field with about 200 engineer equivalents - how long to re-open it?

Wow, I was contemplating making a snarky comment about no action and then this....watch out for an invasion somewhere...

Or he could be planning to launch mass naval strikes to hit my ships. I've pulled the valuable ships back a bit and left just some AMc and PB there. I think I should have pulled back more, bet he sends the carriers forward...

I've been expecting an invasion for a while, will be interesting to see where it comes.

I have found to re-open damaged airfields you need dedicated construction engineers. The engineers in AF base or coy don't help much unless there are no planes there. Even then it is the construction engineers that fix runways.

So the question is how many are construction engineers?

There are a couple of constructions battalions, some combat engineer units and the engineers in the divisions etc. so maybe 120 to 140 not in the AF units.

The flak was so effective because it is shooting at damaged bombers, I think.

He came in at 3000 feet! I thought balloons were supposed to be more effective. It is a level 9 airfield with level 6 forts so there should be good balloon coverage. There were about 60 heavy AA so it seems a poor showing.

I watched some of the replay and the N1K1-J didn't leave many damaged bombers but the Ki-44-IIc were just damaging more than half the time. Most of the defense was N1K1-J.

[Lowpe]

50 construction equivalents engineers can fix runway, in my case size 7, from 69 to 0 in 5 days. 4 Days it was at 12.

Disablements, fatigue, disruption, slows it down.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Spidery
He came in at 3000 feet! I thought balloons were supposed to be more effective. It is a level 9 airfield with level 6 forts so there should be good balloon coverage. There were about 60 heavy AA so it seems a poor showing.

Mr. Kane likes low air attacks. That is how he trashed Oz in Joc's game, until the AA showed up that is.

People bemoan the machine cannon AA units, but I really like them, at 3000 feet they would have put a hurt on him. At 11 points they are cheap...no reason not to use them. I don't think your ENG units have them yet...toe upgrade.

I have been very disappointed in the effectiveness of Japanese balloons. I guess we suffered from a helium shortage...although hydrogen filled balloons might be just as good!

[Spidery]

June 12th 1943

Air Losses: 2 Japanese, 2 Allied, 0 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Back to Sitzkreig.

Subs

SS Runner sinks a 2 VP xAKL off Aitape, after she delivered some supply there. Later, SS Runner attacks the same task force again and scores a hit on another small xAKL but the crew breath a massed sigh of relief as it just makes a dull thump.

Solomons

No attack.

I send a PB in a fast transport task force with supply to Buna and she isn't attacked.

Engineers fix 17 points of runway damage, so could be about a week to completely fix.

Supply at Rabaul has dropped by 3000 in the last two days, and is down below 20,000. Another 50,000 points are en route and 4 days away.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Ketoi-Jima airfield to 2.

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet

[Spidery]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Spidery
He came in at 3000 feet! I thought balloons were supposed to be more effective. It is a level 9 airfield with level 6 forts so there should be good balloon coverage. There were about 60 heavy AA so it seems a poor showing.

Mr. Kane likes low air attacks. That is how he trashed Oz in Joc's game, until the AA showed up that is.

People bemoan the machine cannon AA units, but I really like them, at 3000 feet they would have put a hurt on him. At 11 points they are cheap...no reason not to use them. I don't think your ENG units have them yet...toe upgrade.

I have been very disappointed in the effectiveness of Japanese balloons. I guess we suffered from a helium shortage...although hydrogen filled balloons might be just as good!

He mixes up the altitudes a lot. 3000 feet is quite common but he also uses 15000 feet quite often and sometimes 9000 feet or so.

Most of the light AA units are protecting the oil-fields and industry in China. Coming in at 3000 feet even the heavy MG of the units should have engaged.

The AF units and base forces have the single-barrel 40mm or 25mm AA gun. Upgrade to the twin-barreled is about a year away.

[Spidery]

What affects the morale of air groups?

The groups at Rabaul that were bombed without fighting back had their morale plummet - not surprising.
The fighter groups had a small morale drop, they dished out more damage than they took so fair enough.

However, this turn the fighter groups took morale hits. For example, the 253 Ku S-1 dropped from 80 to 65 the turn before and then to 48 this turn. Is it being based at a damaged airfield? Or is it having damaged aircraft in the group?

[Spidery]

June 13th 1943

Air Losses: 44 Japanese, 53 Allied, 7 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

I-17 locates BB Washington and North Carolina near Lord Howe Island heading to Sydney. Fails to penetrate the screen of 9 DD.

Solomons

Liberators return to Rabaul, from 10000 feet, flak only downs 2 B-24D1. Thunderbolt sweep again comes in after the bombers and with very little CAP still up. Not sure if I had more CAP than he expected but nice results: 21 planes on the ground (11 Ki-44-IIc, 5 N1K1-J, 3 Ki-43-IIb, 2 G4M1).

In the air: 16 N1K1-J, 8 Ki-44-IIc for 28 F4F-4, 19 B-24D1.

Rabaul is now 84 service and 84 runway damage.

Burma

Quiet

Engineering

Quiet

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

SS I-181, SC CHa-22

[Spidery]

Tracker suggests I have shot down 84 B-24D1 so far.

I think he has been getting these since February at the rate of 48 a month so that is about 220 so far.

Only 136 to go[:D]

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: Spidery

Tracker suggests I have shot down 84 B-24D1 so far.

I think he has been getting these since February at the rate of 48 a month so that is about 220 so far.

Only 136 to go[:D]

Keep in mind some arrive via reinforcing squadrons too. Don´t know how many but it could be a lot!

[Lowpe]

You are correct: flying out of damaged runways is not good for pilot morale.

[Spidery]

June 14th 1943

Air Losses: 27 Japanese, 4 Allied, 5 Pilots
Japanese occupy:
Allies occupy:
Japanese land at:
Allies land at:

Subs

I-32 sinks the xAK Scottish Chief (6100 tons, 11 VP) near Karachi.

I-36 is lost near Sydney but get confirmation of CVE or CVL and BB heading for Sydney but no sighting of fleet carriers. Two task forces, one reports as 2CVE: 30 fighters, 5 bombers the other as 1 CVL: 23 fighters, 34 bombers, 5 auxiliary. In neither case is a full 10 ships spotted so I suspect DL is fairly poor.

DD Minegumo gets two good Type 2 DC hits on the SS Runner near Aitape and reports as inflicting heavy damage. Intel claim this as a sinking.

Solomons

Corsairs sweep Rabaul. With mostly Oscars and Tojos on CAP losses are bad. 18 Ki-43-IIb, 3 Ki-44-IIc for 4 F4U-1. Rabaul damage is now 84/63 but I have run out of flight-worthy fighters to defend it.

Burma

Looks like Allied airforce has pulled back to Calcutta - 401 fighters, 138 bombers, 134 auxiliary.

Poking around to see if there is a gap in air search I can sneak a raid up to the Arabian Sea. A PB gets 4/4 DL some 8 hexes from Diego Garcia so looks like he has cover there.

Engineering

Haha-Jima forts to 5.

Production

Quiet

Reinforcements

Quiet