Lunacy In The Pacific Mogami Vs. Tom Hunter

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso
How about:
San Francisco supply watch: 999,999 supplies, 999,999 oil.[:D]

Maybe you could make a keyboard macro to save time![:'(]

LOL sounds like a real thriller [>:]

[Tom Hunter]

Manila Supply Watch:
March 9: 2874
March 10: 2720
March 11: 2573
March 12: 2432

I have been trying to load supply on subs at Brisbane but they won't take any. Anyone know why? Supply is dropping about 100 a day, subs will not save Manila but they might keep it in action a few more days. The fort is back up to L7, Mogami is bombarding and a very powerful Japanese army is sitting in place.

Bad days in the South Pacific, repeated Allied air attacks on KB failed to score hits and large numbers of Allied planes were shot down. Very frustrating. The Japanese also sent surface TFs into the Harbors of Nandi and Suva sinking over a dozen AKs, most were empty so not a huge problem, but unpleasant none the less.

There are two bright spots; a Marine Defense Battalion scored a lot of hits on IJN warships that attempted to bombard Luganville and the 51st BF has unloaded at Noumea. The Japanese CVs are now East of Luganville and Efate hanging around. As soon as they leave more BFs are going into those islands. With more air capacity the Allies will be able to launch the 100 to 200 plane strikes I need to hit KB instead of the 40 and 50 plane groups that are not scoring. So it has been an expensive week but things are improving.

Once the April refits occur I am moving the US CVs down to the area, they will be joined by the two British fleet carriers and that will give the Allies the option of hitting back at KB if Mogami tries another big raid.

In Burma the RAF continues to hound the Japanese. Because Mogami was careful about his advance I have not been able to bomb him daily until recently. So I am behind where I would like to be in raising the quality of the Allied fighter pilots. This screen shows most of the good quality planes available in India right now:




The quality is climbing, most of these units started in the 50s (or 40s for the Dutch) but 60s is still too low to really take the fight to the Japanese. They are climbing so hopefully they will be pushing high 60s and maybe a few in the 70s near the end of March. Over in Fear and Loathing the same shot would show all the groups over 70xp.

Training the Allies up before the storm really hits is a critical part of my plan, so these numbers are a big concern. Low pilot skill also helped Mogami a lot in the recent massacre of US aircraft in the South Pacific. If the US had airgroups in the 70s things would have been very different.

In China things are still going well. Mogami advanced 100,000 men towards Kaifeng, he is off the RR junction one hex to the West. He just found out that hex hex is also occupied by 240,000 thousand Chinese who are going to pound his troops at least twice as they run for cover. With luck I will catch him 3 times, run them down to zero supplies and inflict 20-30000 casualties. That will take the whole group out of the picture for a month or two and help China quite a bit. I may even be able to grab another city and some supplies.

The other really excellent news in China is the battle of Wuhan. I am not going to take Wunhan, the Chinese don't actually outnumber the Japanese there. But both sides are bombarding and my troop quality is already up 10-15% An army of XP 57 units is much more effective than an army of XP 42 units and these guys are headed for the 60s and maybe 70s if I can keep the rest of China under enough control to allow this battle to drag on for a while.

I cannot imagine that any of this is good for Mogami's supply situation. Nanking was under attack for a while, Peking is under attack now and Wuhan as well so none of them are producing. In addition he has already had 3 divisions and a number of other units chased around the countryside by angry Chinese. Resupplying those units when the find refuge burns thousands of supply. I doubt he is running out, but it would not suprise me if supply is low here and there causeing some inconvience to Japan.

[ADavidB]

I have been trying to load supply on subs at Brisbane but they won't take any. Anyone know why?

Are you disbanding your subs and reforming them into "fresh" sub-transport TFs? Also, make certain that you "replenish" your subs before you disband them, then wait one turn to make the fresh sub-transport TFs.

And if that doesn't work, sacrificing virgins still does the trick...[:D]

Dave Baranyi

[rtrapasso]

I have been trying to load supply on subs at Brisbane but they won't take any. Anyone know why?

Ah - i see someone has also been aflicted by this business.

THis happens to me every game. I can load about a total of 200 tons of supplies into sub transports, and then this happens - no more loading. Something similar also happens with troops, but since you get immediate feedback, you can sort of get around it. With supplies, you don't know anything bad has happened for a couple of turns.

I've sent saves into Frag (way back when) and he says it is not a a reproducible bug (?!!) but rather "sticky slots". I have not gotten around this with loading supplies, as it might take 7 or 8 turns to get things to work right.

You can TRY disbanding and reforming - and rarely this will work (in my experience). What i usually do is start forming NEW sub transport TFs. It seems that if you get a TF number that has NOT been used for that purpose, you can load it (well, troops at least). So, if you have 10 subs, put 1 in a new TF, try loading it. If that doesn't work, put a second in ANOTHER TF - try loading. Etc.

Early in the game, i might have to try 2 or 3 times to get it to work. Now (late May 1942) i might have to try 8 - 12 times. Again, this is with troops, so i get immediate feedback, and can try again in the same turn. With supplies, you are going to have to wait a turn between attempts since supplies are NOT loaded onto sub Transport TFs immediately. Saving immediately before trying this trick can be helpful sometimes (as other weird and annoying things can happen).

An alternate idea is to keep track of what numbers you have used for your sub TFs, but i think you'd probably have started doing this from Dec 7. Of course, once you find a number that works (i.e. - you can load TF 1123) PROBABLY any number >1123 is going to work.

Good luck.

[Tom Hunter]

Manila Supply Watch:
March 13: 2299
March 14: 2181

I moved some LB30s to China to try and fly in supply, so far it does not seem to have effect but I will give it a couple more turns. I am also trying ADavidB's suggestion. It would be nice to get a few hundred more supply in, the thought of this army getting back on transports gives me the willies[X(]

In the South Pacific Mogami has pulled KB back North, probabley out of fuel. Base forces, engineers, marine defense battalions and the Americal division are all moving into place. In a week the area will go from two level 3 bases, one level 2 and one level one with AV of 58, 30, 18 and 15 to AV of 172, 150, 30, 30 and base levels of 4, 4, 3, 2,. The air groups are rebuilding but most of my losses were in bombers or fighters that I have a big pool of like F4F3s. Later on I will post a map with force levels.

Mogami said he is going to come back because he saw 30,000 men at Noumea. I hope he will be unpleasantly suprised by the additional forces that will meet the next visit. Nandi and Suva are also being built up as a backup postition.

Burma is the same as the day before. There are over 800 AP in Mandalay behind a level 5 fort. I don't think Mogami can shift that force with what he has in theater but we will see.

In China the large army moving East from Kaifeng caught part of the Japanese army on March 12:
Allied Shock attack
Attacking force 202691 troops, 1557 guns, 75 vehicles
Defending force 21097 troops, 263 guns, 0 vehicles
Allied assault odds: 84 to 1
Japanese ground losses:
1107 casualties reported
Guns lost 31
Allied ground losses:
871 casualties reported
Guns lost 16
Vehicles lost 4
Japanese loss points went from 547 to 574, which has a nice symmetry to it, don't you think? That is 27 points which is about 3000 men.

The Japanese force was a division and some artillery units. On the 13th they got hit by air attack and a 0 to 1 deliberate attack by the Chinese armor unit. Chinese troops caught up and another shock attack has been ordered. It is not the big victory I had been hoping for, but it is more punishment for the Japanese. After bottling the Japanese up in Tentsin I may send a few divisions to grab the brewery at Tsingtao. That was founded by the Germans before WWI and still makes a nice beer. Hopefully there will be other supplies there as well, but if not at least moral will be good. [:)]

[Tom Hunter]

The LB30s in China seem to be having some effect:
Manila supply watch
March 15: 2182 +1 over the previous day!
March 16: 2178

I am unable to get subs to load supplies, I have been trying to disband a reform TFs in the hope that some will load but no luck yet. It would be a very good think if supply in Manila went up, the HQ units and base forces are fighting with zero supplies now, only the combat units have any in reserve.

The regular bombing in Burma continues, and the Allied airforce slowly gains experience. The 12th Bomber group just reached Bombay and converted from Bolo's to B25s. 864 AP are in Mandalay and the Japanese seem to be sitting around as targets right now.

In China I am switching over to the defensive. Mogami is concentrating and I want to be in forts when he attacks. Average unit XP in the Chinese army is now 60. I am still doing some attacking here and there, for example the units in South China are all being rotated through Wuhan to gain XP but it is time to husband supplies and build up.

KB is heading back to the South Pacific. He is a day or two earlier than I would like as you can see from the map units are unloading that the Allies need to have on shore. However the situtation is still better than it was a week or two ago.

This time the Allies are not setting any bombers on Naval as KB approaches. Instead fighters are concentrated for a large CAP over Luganville. With luck this will cause a repeat of the air battle over Noumea where 13 P40s shot down 20 or so Japanese CV planes. We will know it a day or two.

[Tom Hunter]

Manila supply watch:
March 17 2179
March 18 2204

Love those LB 30s
Still cannot get any subs anywhere in game to load supplies. Too bad, but I am still getting more time out of this force and that is all that matters.

In Burma some strange stuff happened. The Japanese retreated across the river and back South of Mandalay to Pagan. All my airstrikes were concentrated on the hex next to Mandalay but for some reason my Sweep went over Pagan and ran into Zeros:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 18
Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 22
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane II: 5 destroyed

Or maybe it was a ground attack mission. I am not sure which, but the result is pleasing, losing 5 to his 3 is not too bad. Today a massive sweep will be launched in hopes of causing another battle at better odds. Of course the Japanese retreat is a good thing, 500 additional supplies a day to China is nothing to sneeze at.

In China things are quiet for the moment except at Wuhan where we bombard eachother daily. There are still 6-8 Chinese units with XP below 50, they are rotating into the battle and XP 59 units are rotating out. So it is mid March and China has a better quality army with more troops and more bases and supply than at the start of the war. Not bad so far.

In the South Pacific I screwed up some and left the transports carrying the 71st base force home ported in Noumea. So instead of unloading they ran away, and a Jap sub bagged two of them. One sunk, the other is unloading on the dot under the words New Calidonia. The last two ships are unloading in Noumea, the BF will be flown in to Luganville by transports later.

Tactical screw ups aside strategically the Americans are much better prepared for this round. The map shows what is where. I am not going to launch an attack on KB until after hitting one of his airstrikes with CAP over a major base. That should both attrit and tire the Japanese and give the Americans an opening. The P40s at Koumac are there in part because the get pilots button is bugged, if I combine the group the pilot level drops to 46 and can't be raised, but if I have the group in one place and the fragment in another the group has 103 pilots and the fragment has full pilots too.

Lexington is at sea with a load of Buffalos. They will fly off to Kona and then fly down to the South Pacific and convert to F4F4s. Hermes is going to do shuttle duty too and bring KittyHawks in from Australia. Pretty soon everone will be in the act.

Finally Port Moresby is up to 57 AV and will soon get an Aussie division. Thursday Island is up to L2 airbase and Cooktown is L3 or 4. So that position is also coming along nicely, though not as well as the South Pacific, much less India or Hawaii.

Strategically I am counting the days till the US CV upgrades in April. The Pearl Harbor ARs are in Frisco waiting for the damage to show, once the ships fix up they are heading to SouthPac to join the RN CVs that are now South of Australia. If Mogami comes for the South Pacific he needs to win fast, but I don't think he can take out this many bases quickly enough to avoid getting hit by an Allied counter attack.

Still the hammer is going to fall somewhere after Manila finally goes under. So the longer it holds the better.

[Tom Hunter]

and the map

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter
Lexington is at sea with a load of Buffalos. They will fly off to Kona and then fly down to the South Pacific and convert to F4F4s.

Hmm? As Allied player I prefer to convert stuff at US bases, then ship them out. Converting spends supply. Better to spend abundant supply in US or Hawaii, than at some forward base where every bit of supply counts.

Also, if you convert at forward location you risk of major enemy strike coming while you have like 2 aircraft operational, 25 still repairing.... better to go thru that in US or PH.

Just a thought... (unrelated to "lunacy" series - I pay special attention not to ever post any "spoilers" here Tom)

O.

[Tom Hunter]

Oleg,

I did consider all the factors you raised, but the Buffalos have the range to fly down to the South Pacific, the F4F4s do not.

I have supply everywhere, in streams of small convoys, so that is not an issue. Conversion is sort of an issue but tactical flexibility is even more important to me. Plus when they get down to SouthPac there will be 48 F4F4s and 12 F4F3s in action, so I will be drawing on the F4 replacement pool which is very important for the Allies.

March 19 was a bloody turn, 25 Zeros went down but 51 Allied planes were lost as well. Since the Japanese outproduce the Allies this is a concern, but it does help take a chunk out of the Jap pilot pool.

[patrickl]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

After bottling the Japanese up in Tentsin I may send a few divisions to grab the brewery at Tsingtao. That was founded by the Germans before WWI and still makes a nice beer. Hopefully there will be other supplies there as well, but if not at least moral will be good. [:)]

Now, I can see you are both a Chinese and beer specialist! [:D][:)] Tsingtao - should it be Number 1 beer in China?[;)]

[Tom Hunter]

patrickl,

Sadly the Japanese put too many units in Tsingtao, I geuss they understand the value of the brewery too, so the number 1 beer in China remains in enemy hands. At least we know what we are fighting for.

I don't normally update every day but March 19 was an important day.

The Japanese launched another shock attack on Manila:
Japanese Shock attack
Attacking force 388843 troops, 3371 guns, 692 vehicles
Defending force 85629 troops, 717 guns, 203 vehicles
Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 7)
Japanese ground losses:
11223 casualties reported
Guns lost 287
Vehicles lost 42
Allied ground losses:
2797 casualties reported
Guns lost 32
Vehicles lost 1

Manila supply is 2138 down by about 40 since it was 2181 March 14th. Last time the Japanese launched this attack was March 3 and this was the result:
Japanese ground losses:
9742 casualties reported
Guns lost 207
Vehicles lost 46
Allied ground losses:
884 casualties reported
Guns lost 49
Vehicles lost 1

Though they also took the fort down one level, something they did not pull off this time. The higher casulaties for the Allies are not a good sign, but the place is holding on remarkably well. In the March 3 attack the Japanese army loss went up 24 points, this time in went up about 20. If Mogami needs another 2 weeks to recover then it will be April, but Allies will still have some supply and might hold off yet another attack.

What is really interesting for me is the way the various actions in the different parts of the Allied front come together.

In Burma we just fought repeated air battles over Pagan:

Day Air attack on Pagan , at 31,31

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 18

Allied aircraft
Hawk 75A x 6
Hurricane II x 62

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 6 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Hawk 75A: 3 destroyed
Hurricane II: 20 destroyed, 7 damaged

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Pagan , at 31,31

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 7

Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 9
Blenheim IV x 62
B-17E Fortress x 26

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane II: 4 destroyed, 1 damaged
Blenheim IV: 2 destroyed, 4 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
142 casualties reported
Guns lost 4

Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 11

I don't know why the big sweep did so poorly (the 62 Hurricanes were on sweep, looking for trouble) and then the escorts of the bombing raid did nearly 1 to 1. I was hoping the Sweep would do 1 to 1 and thinking the escorts would get hurt. But strategically it does not matter much, the important point is that Burma is holding, the Japanese have stopped trying to take Mandalay for the moment.

That is keeping the Ledo road open, sending 500 supply a day to Kumning, where 40 LB30s are based flying supply to Manila. We have already seen that supply in action, it is holding down 360,000 Japanese troops.

These troops are needed to take the South Pacific. Mogami has his CVs North of Lugaville, and he is trying to supress the American bases in the area:

Naval bombardment of Luganville, at 72,107 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!


Allied aircraft
no flights


Allied aircraft losses
A-24 Dauntless: 2 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 1 destroyed
PBY Catalina: 1 destroyed

62 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
DD Arare
DD Yamagumo
DD Arashio, Shell hits 11, on fire
DD Tokitsukaze
DD Isokaze
DD Akigumo
CL Isuzu, Shell hits 8
CL Nagara
CL Sendai
CA Kako
CA Furutaka
CA Aoba, Shell hits 7
CA Mikuma


Allied ground losses:
330 casualties reported
Guns lost 9
Vehicles lost 3

Airbase hits 14
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 26
Port hits 1

But as you can see it is not working very well. Those are 6" Marine CD guns, Arashio is a hurting ship and Isuzu may not be feeling well either. The loss of 4 aircraft is a small price to pay. If Mogami had 360,000 men on transports then he could invade the island and take it pretty easily. But instead he is engaged in a dangerous supression mission trying to balance the need to disrupt the Allied build up without having his CVs hit by the 200 odd bombers in the area, or his airgroups shot up by the 140+ fighters.

All the peices are working together pretty well at the moment. When Manila finally does go things are going to turn scary for the Allies, but every month that passes gives them a better chance of surviving the next big Japanese offensive.

The Japanese are stalemated in Burma, the weak links in the Allied front are China and the Phillipines. If Mogami launches an offensive in China supply levels could drop and that will end air supply for Manila. Likewise if Manila falls lots of resources become available for China. The inter-connectedness of it all makes the game interesting for me, even if many of the subroutines (air combat, naval combat) have problems.

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: patrickl

Now, I can see you are both a Chinese and beer specialist! [:D][:)] Tsingtao - should it be Number 1 beer in China?[;)]

Tsingtao beer is served as standard beer in just about every Chinese restaurant on the planet [:D] I didn't know it was Germans who started the brewery there though (one can learn many things on this board)

O.

[Tom Hunter]

Strategy changes

Mogami switches his airforce to port attack, scoring over 21 supply hits and taking Malina supply down to 1304, that is 800 supply in a day. Really bad news. I am unable to get my subs to load supply, shipping it in does not work any more and the enemy has finally figured out why they are not winning. Depending on weather, Japanese air attacks and luck Manila might make it to April, or it might fall in late March.

In Burma Mogami is retreating in the direction of Rangoon, probabley to let his troops recover from high disruption caused by air attack, the river crossing and Malaria.

In the South Pacific KB is now parked between Noumea and Luganville. I have set all my CAP to 1 hex and flown 64 B17s in, setting them to Naval attack at 5,000 feet. With some good luck they will hit something, and hopefully they will start fatiguing and killing the Zeros based on the CVs. March 21 may be an interesting day, or maybe the planes will just sit there. If they do then the altitude will be increased and we will try for a B17 Vs. Zero battle higher up in the sky.

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

Strategy changes

Mogami switches his airforce to port attack, scoring over 21 supply hits and taking Malina supply down to 1304, that is 800 supply in a day. Really bad news. I am unable to get my subs to load supply, shipping it in does not work any more and the enemy has finally figured out why they are not winning.

Although extremely knowledgable about this system, Mog is sometimes sloppy. If he would only put LRCAP over Manila for one day, he would notice he is downing your supply aircraft and realise what's going on... (and score points for downed transports too)

O.

[Tom Hunter]

Manila supply watch
March 21: 1413
March 22: 473

Another day of heavy port attacks pulls the supply number below 1,000 for the first time. Of course there is still supply in the ground units themselves, but there is not a whole lot. Manila is in trouble.

No action in China other than bombardment attacks at Wuhan. Bombardment attacks don't seem to get units past 59 XP, so I am sending 59 xp units back to Changsha and moving in the dozen or so lower XP units left in the Chinese army. By the end of April every Chinese unit will be XP 59 or higher.

Burma
The two armies have seperated, with the Japanese down in Rangoon recuperating. The British in Mandalay are launching 70 plane Hurricane raids on the Japanese airfields nearby in a bid to push their experience level higher. It is working, the whole RAF is in the 60s now.

South Pacific
KB is now near Noumea hanging out. Mogami is launching sweeps over my airbases to bait my CAP. On the 20th he achieved another massacre of the innocents:
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 79
D3A Val x 23
B5N Kate x 19

Allied aircraft
F4F-3 Wildcat x 7
F4F-4 Wildcat x 9
P-40E Warhawk x 39
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 12 destroyed
B5N Kate: 1 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat: 8 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 9 destroyed
P-40E Warhawk: 34 destroyed

Though I am not certain he was happy to lose 12 Zeros, I am sure I am unhappy about the 34 P40s.

On the 21st he flew a sweep over Efate
Day Air attack on Efate , at 73,109
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 27
E13A1 Jake x 1
Allied aircraft
P-39D Airacobra x 21
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
P-39D Airacobra: 5 destroyed

But mostly we stare at eachother. There are still 64 B17s at Noumea waiting for an excuse to launch, and another 44 are at Nadi. All my air groups are on training, fixing up damaged planes, another group of Marine buffalos is flying in, they are at Palmyra now, and the Hermes is about to fly off 16 Kittyhawks for Noumea.

I am seriously considering putting 50 fighters on escort out of Noumea to get the B17s to launch. I figure that I will lose the fighters, but the 17s may chew up the CAP over KB. I would love to have Buffalos for that purpose, when they arrive I will do it, or maybe I should have Hermes fly in some Wirraways. That would be so funny it is kind of inspired, watching the Zeros murder the escort, and then get riddled by the bombers. Now I am wondering if Mogami will hang around that long. Even if he does not I am going to set the airforce up to do that during his next raid.

There is more than one way to skin a cat, you just have to find it.

[Tom Hunter]

Manila Supply Watch
March 23: 123
March 24: 258

Many units are out of supply now, including some combat units. Mogami realized he was not planning for Manila which helped my defense a lot. But getting two ships with 11,500 supply fully unloaded did not hurt either. To my suprise and delight a pair of sub transport TFs at Pearl are actually loading supplies. If things last long enough they will land another 180 or so in a few weeks. It may be too late but I am still trying.

In China things are quiet. I don't feel that is a safe situation for the Chinese so another offensive move is planned. China is going to pin the Japanese at Peking, and the pass North of the city and hit the base on the rail line behind it. Here is a map of the planned operation:





There is some chance that the offensive that Mogami is planning will come the other way, but that would be acceptable as well since the re-deploment of troops from Kaifeng will bring AP in the Peking area up to 5,000+ from the current 2-3,000

In Burma the British continue training strikes, the average British Hurricane group is now 64 xp. As units hit 70 XP I pull them out of training, airbase attacks don't seem to push units much above 70.

In the South Pacific KB is back to a position North of Luganville. Mogami hit the base there with a 4 TF shore bombardment and disrupted every single squad on the island, they are well supplied but very shaken it will be a while before much gets done there. This time he did not bombard with escorts so the Marines did not shoot up any of the enemy ships. Argronaut is going to lay a mine field there soon, hopefully that will help things a bit.

This raid was much less effective than the last one, and by the time he comes back again I will have the obsolete fighter/B17 combo ready to ambush him. That is not the whole story, it is just round one. But I think it will hurt his CAP enough to make a second day of attacks with F4F4s and P40s a working proposition.

One the US West Coast many ships are sitting around waiting for the April upgrade. As soon as the repairs from that are complete the US CV force is heading for SouthPac. If I do manage to hurt KB with LBA I want to follow up in force.

Any bets on where the Army in the Phillipines will go after Manila falls? There are not enough VP in SouthPac for an auto victory. Russia, India or China?

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

In Burma the British continue training strikes, the average British Hurricane group is now 64 xp. As units hit 70 XP I pull them out of training, airbase attacks don't seem to push units much above 70.

Ground attacks do! [:)]

[Tom Hunter]

Manila supply watch:
March 25: 272
March 26th: 126

Another shock attack goes in at 0 to 1 odds, 9,000 Japanese casualties Vs 1700 Allied which is just about what happened last time Mogami did it. Mogami waited 6 days from the last big attack to recover so Manila may make it into April 42. That would be really nice.

In Burma Mogami put 36 Zeros over an airbase that I was bombing for training and shot down 51 planes [:@] . That was pretty painful and hurt my Hurricane pool which is down to 19 from 60 or so. From now on I will fly sweeps with the airfield attacks and try to attrit him some.

He is still keeping KB near Luganville, the Buffalos from the West Coast are in Nandi, and 20 Wirraways will fly off Hermes to Noumea in two days. If he is still hanging around I will use the obsolete planes to get the B17 in Noumea to fly. That ought to mess him up some, and then the more modern stuff will escort the twin engine bombers on day 2.

The Chinese are still moving around to launch the Peking operation.

In India the 4 city Calcutta-Dacca cluster is all at L9 forts, and the Madras-Hyderabad-Bangalore triangle is getting notabley stronger as well. Several of the Chinese divisions are in place and building up AP. I'm unhappy about the airforce losing so many fighters but the ground positions are coming together nicely.

For those wondering Karachi has the 2 big British infantry divisions, Bombay has a Chinese divison, and Indian division and a Brigade. All the rest has various combinations of troops usually a few hundred AP minimum. All the small ports have RN base forces and some limited number of mines. RN BFs have coastal guns, so there is no such thing as an unopposed landing site.

One strange thing is my supply is not moving inland from Chadpur (250K) and Daimond Harbor (300k) So I moved all the troops out into Calcutta and Dacca to see if it would draw. The last thing I want is for Mogami to take a huge supply dump when he grabs his first coastal city. Two days after the troop move the supply is still in place, hopefully it will move soon.

[Tom Hunter]

Manila is still there, but all the action was in the South Pacific

First the Japanese found the minefield layed by Argronaut a few days before:
TF 11 encounters mine field at Luganville (72,107)

Japanese Ships
BB Kongo, Mine hits 1

Then a stream of battleships got revenge by pounding the place to rubble (again).


Allied search planes spotted a Japanese transport TF one hex away from the island. Luganville was down, but Koumac, Noumea and Efate were all very much intact. Air raids started immediately:
Day Air attack on TF at 72,106


Allied aircraft
Beaufort V-IX x 12
A-24 Dauntless x 13


Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort V-IX: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
AP Tenzan Maru
DD Matsukaze
AP Sekko Maru
DD Kikuzuki
AP Nekka Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AP Kaifuku Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Japanese ground losses:
170 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

In the end most of the APs in the TF were by one or more bombs ranging from 500 to 1,000 pounds. This is the damage summary over the 3 raids that went in:
DD Matsukaze
DD Kikuzuki
DD Harukaze
AP Nekka Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AP Kaifuku Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
APD APD-35
AP Sekko Maru
AP Tenran Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Tenzan Maru
AP Kikukawa Maru
AP Michiyu Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AP Tama Maru, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
PG Chiyo Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
PG Koei Maru

With a bit of luck this will weaken the invasion enough to slow Mogami down some.

KB made some raids on Noumea, a group of 20 Kates came in without escort and were killed by Allied CAP, but then 50 Vals and Kates came in with 72 Zeros and the Zeros murdered the Allied CAP, taking out 40 or so planes to a loss of 3 or 4. Really ugly and not much else I could do, the cap was already stacked, diving on the Japanese and so on. If Luganville goes Japanese I may have to pull out of Noumea, I am not winning the air battles with Mogami at all.

On the other hand I finally won an air to sea fight, tomorrow will show if it is enough.