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Make sure the Oscar IV is your first choice for escorts. They have an insanely high cruise speed, and I have seen them sweep ahead of the bombers, perform a sweep and are still there escorting the bombers in. Very nice.

I may be making a mistake but I hardly ever bomb. Allied AA is so destructive that it is costly and I get few hits. Also, I don't have the fighter groups available to provide escort and don't have the air support or bases available to set up a bombing group.

August 20th

No air action apart from Allied training runs against Buka.

E Hoko is lost near Woleai.

I-5 foolishly launches only 2 torpedoes at xAK City of Lille near Karachi, one hits but fails to sink her.

I-40 arrives

Java Situation as of August 21st (about 10 days from current game time).

August 21st

Allies night bomb Soerabaja starting fires that destroy 36 oil wells and still burn. 8 Ki-43-IV lost but 5 B-24D and 2 B-17F lost to ops or flak, older models but still worth downing.

An Aden class xAK is lost to SS Scamp off Mindanao, it was carrying troops, most of an AA unit.

Allies clear minefield at Kavieng.

August 22nd

Allies night bomb Balikpapan. 7 A6M5 and 1 Ki-84a traded for 6 B-24D, 4 B-17F, 1 B-24D1. Excellent!

Allies day bomb Djambi and the LRCAP from Singapore failed to arrive.

I-32 sinks xAK Bandra near Karachi.

15 oil lost at Soerabaja to fires, 38 at Balikpapan, and 156 at Djambi (ouch!).

Bombardment reveals 1 division and 1 brigade at Cheribon, 1 division and some artilley at Benkoelen, 2 divisions plus a lot of tanks have arrived at Semarang.

August 23rd

Bombardment at Semarang is set to 17000 yards but still gets hung up. Lost the CA Nachi, also lose lots of N1K1-J and fail to prevent the bombers flattening the troops. Semarang falls. Attack at Cheribon, bombers fail to fly and achieve only a 1::1 result.

Will pull the troops on Eastern Java back to Banjoewangi and Soerabaja and start evacuating some of them.

Last CVE arrives. Merchant yards are all off.

Allies try a small night strike at Lanchow, no losses.

Was sending my carriers to try LRCAP over his regular bombing of Buka but they have been spotted before reaching Truk and are now turned around.

August 24th

Night bombing hits Palembang.

Something allied sinks.

At Cheribon the Allies are driven back. Combat report indicates 400+ devices destroyed but Land VP goes up only by 60 so looks more like less than half of that. Unfortunately, the enemy retreats inland - had they retreated down the coast I might have been able to surround the troops at Benkoelen.

August Summary

Allies have started working away at the oil production, have broken the defense on Java, and I have made some mistakes with the Navy so not really the best of months. Retrograde advance is proceeding will with bases being established throughout the Southern PI and defensive forces deploying to the China/Indo-China border and the Chinese coast.

August Industry

More decrease in oil as oil wells are destroyed. Slight increase in fuel saved as cut some convoys and much of the navy is in the yards. Massive drop in supply saved due to expansion of Ha-43 production. Big increase in HI saved as merchant yards are off and some armaments. Big drop in armaments saved as some turned off but already have about 100,000 above future demands.

Ships sunk in July.

The intel guys claim 3 BB, 1 CA, 2 CL, 1 CM, 6 DD, 5 SS, 2 PT.

However, the VP awarded suggests I need to trim 57 VP off this. So it is more likely 3 BB, 1 CA, 1 CL, 1 CM, 5 DD, 2 SS, 1 PT.

My losses: 4 BB, 4 CA, 6 CL, 13 DD, 3 SS, 9 E, 7 PB, 3 ACM, 2 AMc, 1 APD, 2 AO, 4 xAP, 17 xAKL, 6 xAK, 4 AK

Dont take it as personal, but why do you report 1 week old turns? You dont suspect your oppenent to read this AAR, do you? And i see no other reason to do this...it must be even bothering for you to dig through old turns and comment them.

It makes this AAR also less attractive for readers, as they already now whats gonna happen.

Sorry for being a bit negative, otherwise your and MrKane's game is fun to watch.

August 25th

Night bombing hits Palembang, AA continues to be ineffective.

Allied CV planes strike at Cheribon, a few fighters were left on LRCAP but damage is surprisingly light.

RO-60 and RO-106 are damaged near Java and RTB.

RO-104 arrives.

In every dual AAR I have read there have been inadvertent leaks of information between the AARs as a result of comments made within the AARs. To try and reduce the impact of that I have adopted the approach of delayed reports. I write the reports as each turn unfolds but just enter them later.

I don't mind the delay at all, Spidery. I know I'm often behind my game simply because it takes time to write the reports. Time that is often spent running another turn or doing real life stuff.

That is one nasty, well coordinated raid! Glad it did little damage. Pity those poor Oscar pilots!

August 26th

Allies drop mines at night at Palembang.

At Cheribon, 2 small Dutch units have strayed forward and are attacked. Surprisingly, there is a supply(-) for the defender.

Port Arthur is short of oil - this matters not at all as everywhere will be short of oil in 1944.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

That is one nasty, well coordinated raid! Glad it did little damage. Pity those poor Oscar pilots!

It is coming from carriers so typical but his day strikes are usually well co-ordinated. Sometimes the sweeps come in last though.

I think the Oscar pilots got off lightly. They had been at Kalidjati with LRCAP over Cheribon but I moved them to Billiton and forgot to reset their orders.

August 27th

An Allied sub hits a mine at Banjoewangi.

2 AMc clear about 100 mines at Palembang but there are still more to clear.

5 Jills are lost on search when Allied forces show up at Kusaie island, I expect the defenders (6 motorized support squads, 1 radar and 2 searchlights) to put up a tremendous fight[:D].

Allies sweep Billiton and a few N1K1-J on duty do well against the Hellcats and not so well against the Lightnings. Then the 4E arrive and put 60 bombs into Haruna and sink her along with DD Hatsukaze[:(]. Both of these had been badly damaged and under repair. Hatsukaze was coming off pier side and would have sailed in a couple of days, Haruna still had major flood damage and massive system damage.

A lone Allied tank destroyer unit at Soerakarta is driven back by a divisional strength attack but it has delayed the retreat.

I abandoned Djokjakarta and it auto-flips.

Ki-46-III KAI Dinah to 7/44

SC CHa-59 and SC CHa-42 arrive (I'm not seeing the point of all these Type 95 armed sub chasers. Used in convoy escort they slow the convoy down; they can run ASW at ports but he rarely enters shallow waters where their DC might be of use. A lot of the E class ships are more fuel efficient and better armed.)

Interesting to look at comparative fuel efficiency of various escorts. For example:

The Etorufu class E boats (I have 8) use 1.5 fuel/hex and mount 6 Type 2 DC. They are good for hunting.
The Hirashima class E boats (I have 6) use 6.7 fuel/hex and mount only 2 Type 95 Mod-2 DC.
The Momi class E boats (I have 6) use 3.25 fuel/hex have 4 Mod2 DC and radar so they make fair escorts.
The Kujira PB are the most fuel efficient of all (0.44) but only have 2 Type 95 DC.
The Ch-13 SC with radar, 4 Type 2, and 2.43 fuel/hex are good but have a slow cruise speed of 10.

August 28th

An AMc is sunk by carrier strike at Banjoewangi.

Allies land at Kusaie Island and the bombardment destroys all defenders.

Allied carrier planes strike at Ponape naval fortress and disable half the CD guns.

Allied bombers obliterate the 30th recon regiment at Tjepoe (buy it back for 3 PP).

Minefields at Palembang are cleared.

Chengtu airfield to 9 for the VP.