The Italian Job 2- Gen.Hoepner(J)-vs.-Mc3744

[David Falkayn]

Yours and your opponent's AARs caused this old grognard to get off the pot and buy this game this afternoon. Reading your AARs has also given me some insights in how to play this complex and what looks like incredibly enjoyable game.

I'm looking forward to reading more and to receiving many dirty looks from "She Who Must Be Obeyed" (I see gifts of flowers and dinners out in my future) as I enjoy this and the other Matrix games...

[Gen.Hoepner]

Wow guys...your words are better than a nice, goodlooking girl...no, ok, i tend to exagerate[:D]
Btw, thanks, really.
The tide is already changing...the allies are comming back in forces[:@]
My reports will be a bit shorter than usual 'cause i'm not at home and i'm using an expensive and sloooooooooooow dial-up connection[:(]









AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 04/09/42

21 more zeros destroyed in 2 massive night bombing. 8 pilots died. Cannto go on like this. It's a suicide!!!
Will try something different. I moved back my fighters from Mandalay to Rangoon and from Daily to Darwin. Will move them back tomorrow,hoping to hambush him at daylight
It's always the same with MC...he loves night bombing and when he finds the clue for it he switchs completely from day to nightbombing attacks:-((((

More bad news. At Nanoumea my APs transporting the Imperial division were attacked by PT boats. My escort was 1 day far away:-(((
2 sunk APs brought with them 1500 japanese heroes grgrgrgrgrgrg...i'm an idiot!

He's deploying his subs around Nanoumea. probably he wants to look for my CVs....all my carriers now have their planes on ASW. Hope to sink some of those 7 subs that are lurking around.

In China his recon unit south of Ichang has been repulsed with heavy losses.
At Lanchow my units crossed the river, and after a shock attack ( with no results) managed to establish a bridgehead on the other side. Tomorrow i'll have 6 units there and with his eastern flank blocked i'll start the attacks at the city tomorrow!

At Chengtu the operations for airlifting the Ind Bde are going well. Now i have 350 Assault points there and some eng to build forts.

What else?...nothing more...i'm a bit pissed because Burma front is already screwed by his bombers and i cannot stop them....had to go for the mini-hangover probably instead of RAG in the pacific-_-''

...ah yes...the PI. I took an abbandoned Naga today. Tomorrow we'll start attacking Manila!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Daly Waters , at 35,90

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 28
LB-30 Liberator x 20

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 3 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 1 damaged
LB-30 Liberator: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
67 casualties reported

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 5

Aircraft Attacking:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Mandalay , at 33,29

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 46
LB-30 Liberator x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 5 destroyed
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 3 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
86 casualties reported

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 10

Aircraft Attacking:

A total of 27 planes destroyed on the ground today.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat at 85,103

Japanese Ships
AK Asakasan Maru
AP Astuga Maru
AP Atsuta Maru
AP Awa Maru, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AP Chihaya Maru, Torpedo hits 1
AP Eihuku Maru, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1
AP Gyoko Maru, Shell hits 8, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
AP Hakka Maru
AP Hakone Maru, Shell hits 119, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AK Hokkai Maru, Shell hits 5
AP Kyokusei Maru
AP Oigawa Maru
AP Sunten Maru
AK Takao Maru
AP Iburi Maru
AP Konsan Maru
AP Saiho Maru

Allied Ships
PT PT-44
PT PT-45
PT PT-46
PT PT-47
PT PT-48, Shell hits 15, and is sunk
PT PT-59
PT PT-60
PT PT-61, Shell hits 3, on fire

Japanese ground losses:
1520 casualties reported
Guns lost 4

Oh MY GOD!....



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack at 89,103

Japanese Ships
AK Kusuyama Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
PC Ch 30
PG Unkai Maru #1
PG Shinko Maru #1
PG Okuyo Maru
PG Magan Maru
PG Hong Kong Maru
PG Heijo Maru
PG Busho Maru
APD APD-46
DD Nagatsuki
DD Hatsushima

Allied Ships
SS Trigger


ok...this is not my day


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack at 86,103

Japanese Ships
AK Yahiko Maru, Shell hits 5, on fire

Allied Ships
SS Silversides

Japanese ground losses:
66 casualties reported


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Naga

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 4426 troops, 30 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 0 troops, 0 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 85 to 1 (fort level 3)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Naga base !!!

This is the only good news of today

[Gen.Hoepner]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 04/10/42

not a good day today.
MC is using his subs to evacuate Nanoumea Garrison. I've placed all the carriers' planes on ASW...let's see what i can sink
3 days and i'll be unloading my exausted divisions there. His PTs attack of yesterday made me lose one day[:@]

He kept nightbombing, but today he found very few planes to destroy both at Mandalay and at Daily. I'll wait till tomorrow and see if he swithces to daylight bombing ( i'm scared for Rangoon BTW).

At Manila and Lanchow the first two attacks didn't go well. 0-1 in both of the attempts...[:@] Will wait few more days for more units to come in. It's quite incredible the result of Lanchow...only 300 enemies killed...[:-] What's wrong with my men? Tomorrow will attack on his flank however...hope this will force him to move back...[&:]



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Manila

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 113030 troops, 1288 guns, 337 vehicles

Defending force 84991 troops, 534 guns, 185 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 5)


Japanese ground losses:
6483 casualties reported
Guns lost 188
Vehicles lost 29

Allied ground losses:
1704 casualties reported
Guns lost 45
Vehicles lost 3


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Lanchow

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 246986 troops, 2727 guns, 27 vehicles

Defending force 99178 troops, 654 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 4)


Japanese ground losses:
3381 casualties reported
Guns lost 66
Vehicles lost 1

Allied ground losses:
300 casualties reported[:@][:@][:@][:@][:@]
Guns lost 11

[Tom Hunter]

[quote]ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner

At Manila and Lanchow the first two attacks didn't go well. 0-1 in both of the attempts...[:@] Will wait few more days for more units to come in. It's quite incredible the result of Lanchow...only 300 enemies killed...[:-] What's wrong with my men?


Just a guess Hoepner but they seem to be dead.





Glad I could be of assistance[:D]

[Gen.Hoepner]

LOL...[:D]
Thanks Tom, that's really helpfull[:)]

I think the problem is related with the terrain. Altough he's almost out of supplies and in a inferior number, he has 5 forts and above all he's defending on a mountain terrain...i'll have to go for a sourrounding. I'll try to place some LRCAP over there just to see if he's sending supplies with an airlift.

I forgot to say that at Chengtu i have placed 17000 men now, with some more 55 squads arriving with the airbridge from Sian....I'll bomb Chungking another time just to be sure that he doesn't have enough supplies to attack there...but if i do not manage to take out Lanchow i'll be in real troubles[:(]

At Manila it's probably a problem of support. the 5th Division is now unloading at S.Marcelino. One more tank regiment is arriving along with the 5th Eng regiment and the 25th Army HQ....hope it will be enough

[Gen.Hoepner]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 04/11/42

Yes, it's clear: my time is running out. The tide is changing.
Another bad day.
In central pac, one of my BB division tried to smash the PTs that are defending Nanoumea ( where his subs managed to get away-_-'')....result was 2 PTs sunk but 2 fishes in the stomach of Yamashiro ( 20 sys, 30 float[:(][:(][:(])...she's now trying to get to kwalajein where 2 ARs are waiting for here...really hope i can save her...it would be a disaster to lose her!!
Tomorrow a DD division will try to destroy those damned PTs, while my transports are almost ready to unload...one more day.

His liberators were stopped at Diamond due to bad weather, while at Daily the night bombings continued.
I'll try to payback this time. Altough bad weather is foreseen in Burma, i've placed 120 bombers at Mandalay, along with 170 fighters. The target is Chandupur where he has more than 200 planes. I do not care a lot about results...i just wanna make his feel a bit less confident! Let's see.... Btw 80 oscars will CAP while the zeros will escort the bombers at 3 different altitudes ( 6000, 10000 and 16000 fts).
At Daily i will LRCAP from Darwin with 3 zeros daitais.

In China...well...at Lenchow no good results. I managed to clean his left flank but he doesn't seem to be moving out, fearing the encirlement[:@].

No other interesting news



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Nanumea at 84,103

Japanese Ships
BB Haruna
BB Hiei
BB Yamashiro, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 2[:@][:@][:@][:@]
BB Ise
CA Atago
CA Chokai
CA Aoba
DD Asashio
DD Oshio
DD Michishio
DD Arare, Shell hits 2
DD Hatsuharu

Allied Ships
PT PT-44
PT PT-45, Shell hits 6, and is sunk
PT PT-46, Shell hits 15, and is sunk
PT PT-47
PT PT-59
PT PT-60
PT PT-61

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Lanchow

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 244474 troops, 2660 guns, 166 vehicles

Defending force 99011 troops, 635 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 4) [:(]


Japanese ground losses:
5557 casualties reported[:@]
Guns lost 218
Vehicles lost 14

Allied ground losses:
1218 casualties reported
Guns lost 23



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at 47,24

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 37095 troops, 440 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 8256 troops, 28 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 139 to 1


Japanese ground losses:
225 casualties reported
Guns lost 11

Allied ground losses:
271 casualties reported
Guns lost 13


Defeated Allied Units Retreating!

Ok, now there's only one retreat hex for his troops at lanchow...

[Gen.Hoepner]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 04/12/42

Another terrible day.

I do not know how, but probably he spotted my bombers at Mandalay. No more bombers or grounded planes at Chandupur, but hundreds of fighters capping:-((((
My losses were unbelievable and i did not manage to kill any of his bombers. While he keeps destroying my planes on the ground at night. Now both at Rangoon and Mandalay.
What can i do?! Any suggestion?

In China Lanchow, altough sourronded and without any supply route keeps fighting back any of my attempts to demolish the forts, while 5 more chinese divisions are reaching Chengtu...and his AFs are being built in every chinese base!

In Oz he keeps nightbombing Daily:-((

In Central Pac my DD division managed to destroy his damned PTs at Nanoumea. Tomorrow naval bombings and landings.

BB Yamashiro is trying to reach Kwalajein, but the floating damage is growing ( 40 )...

Seems that by mid April 42 i'm already forced on the defensive almost everywhere.



At the moment China and Burma are two nightmares..and things can only go worse



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Daly Waters , at 35,90

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 39
LB-30 Liberator x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 4 damaged
LB-30 Liberator: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
64 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 12

Aircraft Attacking:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Air attack on Mandalay , at 33,29

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 17
LB-30 Liberator x 21

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-21 Sally: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 1 damaged
LB-30 Liberator: 5 damaged

Runway hits 2

Aircraft Attacking:
15 x LB-30 Liberator bombing at 6000 feet
13 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 6000 feet
4 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 6000 feet
6 x LB-30 Liberator bombing at 6000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Chandpur , at 31,25

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 88
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 40
Ki-21 Sally x 84
Ki-49 Helen x 48
Ki-15 Babs x 7

Allied aircraft
Mohawk IV x 16
Hurricane II x 71
Kittyhawk I x 13
P-40B Tomahawk x 17

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 22 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 19 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 2 destroyed, 9 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged
Ki-15 Babs: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Mohawk IV: 14 destroyed
Hurricane II: 63 destroyed
Kittyhawk I: 12 destroyed
P-40B Tomahawk: 13 destroyed
Lysander I: 1 destroyed
CW-22 Falcon: 2 destroyed
Blenheim I: 2 destroyed
PBY Catalina: 3 destroyed
Catalina I: 1 destroyed
I-153c: 2 destroyed


Allied ground losses:
151 casualties reported
Guns lost 7

Airbase hits 16
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 99

[Gen.Hoepner]

Must admit that after a short night of nightmares, this morning the overall situation does not look any better.

In China i'm stuck at Lanchow and ready to be kicked out from Chengtu.
In Burma my bases are bombed everynight and my planes ( and PILOTS!) destroyed, while at daylight he keeps sendings his blenheims destroying my res.centers.
In Central Pac i'm nearly losing a BB and almost every single ship has its fuel in red.
In Oz there's no way to stop his 4E bombers.

The real key is his ability to bomb my bases without risking anything and forcing me to move back my squadrons facing only two chances: stay there and gradually lose pilots and tons of planes ( consider that only in the last month i've lost 130 zeros on the ground at Daily and Mandalay).

Now i hope to finish the PI camp soon enough to be able to use those division to strike back somewhere. I'd like to force him to a decisive battle somewhere in the pacific.

Now i'll go to the beach and will think about it...[:'(]

[BPRE]

Looks to me like your attack on Chandpur wasn't too bad. You certainly cleared out a lot of his Hurricane's.
I suppose the problem is the attrition on your air units but 2,5:1 in losses, and I would guess those were quite good units since they seemed to be waiting for you, is not a winning result for him either.
I think you need to try to keep up an air offensive like that for at least 2-3 days to see the results. The initial day would almost always be rather bloody but if you're successful you should see an improvement day two already. If not.....

Good luck with Burma and Yamashiro
/BPRE

[kaiser73]

You are losing too many pilots fighting in Burma. It's just not worth the effort.

Why you want to defend the 100 resources at Mandalay? it's really nothing compared to the pilots you losing.
Every japanese player should think first at his pilots and then at anything else. losing 15-20 zeroes in a raid is worth only if the target are CV or to stop an invasion. surely not to bomb chadpur. he wil replace his aircrafts and pilot in a week, it will take you 1 month to get back 20 pilots. it's just someting Japan can't afford.

Same in North Australia. North Australia should be taken after SRA not before. if you do it first then you lose 2 divs and brigades for the whole SRA campaign just to keep what you taken (and btw north australia is useless for Allies in Andrew map so don't understand why taking it as first objective).

My advice: withdraw all airforces from Burma and let him bomb your airfields and resources. he will gain nothing. develope all the airfields south of Rangoon (if he will try a sea invasion he will prolly land south of rangoon anyway).
After SRA is conquered, train some tojos and zeroes and when they are at 70 skill, move all of them in burma. keep them as reserve and use them only when invasion is close.
move some engineers and divs (after june you will have some) in rangoon and mandalay. they should be able to keep airfields opened if allies stop bombing for 2 days.

your pilots is the most vluable thing for Japan. if you lose them by tens in raids, you won't be able to stop allies.

[kkoovvoo]

I agree with Kaiser.
Evacuate planes from airfields he is bombing at night.

You could try to prevent his blenheims attacking your res. centers in daylight through LR CAP from various minor bases (lashio, taung gyi, pagan). Play cat and mouse.

Be prepared for invasion - most of Allied fighters
- have short range (spits hurricanes mohawksm, P40E)
- are obsolete (buffalos, demons)

and he wont be able to LR CAP invasion force effectively.

He will have to sacrify valuable P40B for such misions or CVs CAP (fulmars).

I know you dont like the idea of loosing initiative but this is reasonable way how to handle situation I think.

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: kaiser73

You are losing too many pilots fighting in Burma. It's just not worth the effort.

Why you want to defend the 100 resources at Mandalay? it's really nothing compared to the pilots you losing.
Every japanese player should think first at his pilots and then at anything else. losing 15-20 zeroes in a raid is worth only if the target are CV or to stop an invasion. surely not to bomb chadpur. he wil replace his aircrafts and pilot in a week, it will take you 1 month to get back 20 pilots. it's just someting Japan can't afford.

Same in North Australia. North Australia should be taken after SRA not before. if you do it first then you lose 2 divs and brigades for the whole SRA campaign just to keep what you taken (and btw north australia is useless for Allies in Andrew map so don't understand why taking it as first objective).

My advice: withdraw all airforces from Burma and let him bomb your airfields and resources. he will gain nothing. develope all the airfields south of Rangoon (if he will try a sea invasion he will prolly land south of rangoon anyway).
After SRA is conquered, train some tojos and zeroes and when they are at 70 skill, move all of them in burma. keep them as reserve and use them only when invasion is close.
move some engineers and divs (after june you will have some) in rangoon and mandalay. they should be able to keep airfields opened if allies stop bombing for 2 days.

your pilots is the most vluable thing for Japan. if you lose them by tens in raids, you won't be able to stop allies.

If you lose ANY more than 20 pilots in a month ( Naval that is ) then it takes far longer than 1 month to get the others back .. more like 3-6 and this just gets them back to 70 ( from the 30 they come in as ... with the "extra" 3 months being if you spend the 90 days through using the disband option ). It is this training cycle that shuts the Japanese down. The "battle for the pilots" is the battle.

[Gen.Hoepner]

Thanks for supporting guys.
The problem, in the way i see it, isn't Burma's resources or HI. The problem is that if i evacuate completely from Burma he will be able to transfer his planes in China or to bomb Hanoi and Bankok. These are two things i cannot allow him to do.
If the threat of a japanese payback on Western India AFs lingers in the air his main obj will be to destroy this threat.
It's also sure that i cannot sustain anymore of these losses. So i will go on and play cat and mouse, trying to remain as flexible as i can there.
For a possible invasion...i do not think he's going for it. Not at the moment howver. BTW there are 150 Nells available at Bankok and 200 fighters in the area. If i need i can tranfer in one day 250 bombers from China and more 100 fighters.
The 55th division is unloading at Singapore and will be marching towards Rangoon.
More units will arrive from Tokyo in the next month.

In Oz...well, i think it has been a succesful move Kaiser. I got him completely surprised and i managed to keep his bombers away from DEI. As long as i hold Darwin, my resources centers in DEI will be safe....

[Gen.Hoepner]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 04/13/42


Unloading operations at Nanoumea. A straong counterbattery fire pinned my men on the beach. 1 US RCT and one divisional regiment are defending the place. Got only a 1-1 ratio but tomorrow things should go better and the atoll should be mine.

The main news of the day is the changing strategy in China. He's making 3 more units marching towards Chengtu. It makes 3+5+3 Chinese corps that have been moved away from Chungking. At Ichan there are still 37 units...so....only 65.000 men at Chungking. This is an opportunity that i cannot miss. He doesn't seem to move back from Lanchow, so, being the city sourrounded and out of supplies, i'll leave there 2000 APs and will move back to Sian 3000s: two entire armies. These units will march on the trails that connect Sian to Chungking. at the same time my men at Henkov will move towards Ichan to force him there.
Let's see....the last chance in China[:o]

The usual night bombings in Burma and Daily.
Moved back all my air groups at the moment.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Nanumea

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 35842 troops, 278 guns, 4 vehicles

Defending force 13812 troops, 147 guns, 3 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 2)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 1


Japanese ground losses:
741 casualties reported
Guns lost 21
Vehicles lost 1

Allied ground losses:
810 casualties reported
Guns lost 27

[kkoovvoo]

ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner


If the threat of a japanese payback on Western India AFs lingers in the air his main obj will be to destroy this threat.

GH,
if you want to maintain some "decoy" at mandalay to "feed" mc3744, you should move there some previously disbanded fighter units, which arrived with low experienced pilots. Switch them to night operations. They will be ineffective against heavies but you will loss fewer planes than on the ground for sure. And pilots...well, who cares about those green dilettantes [:D] - you have unlimited resources of them.

I tested night fighting a lot in tutorial and I think this might help.

Maybe then he will try to catch your fighters on the ground during daylights ops - and thats chance for your LRCAPing veterans.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

ORIGINAL: kaiser73

You are losing too many pilots fighting in Burma. It's just not worth the effort.

Why you want to defend the 100 resources at Mandalay? it's really nothing compared to the pilots you losing.
Every japanese player should think first at his pilots and then at anything else. losing 15-20 zeroes in a raid is worth only if the target are CV or to stop an invasion. surely not to bomb chadpur. he wil replace his aircrafts and pilot in a week, it will take you 1 month to get back 20 pilots. it's just someting Japan can't afford.

Same in North Australia. North Australia should be taken after SRA not before. if you do it first then you lose 2 divs and brigades for the whole SRA campaign just to keep what you taken (and btw north australia is useless for Allies in Andrew map so don't understand why taking it as first objective).

My advice: withdraw all airforces from Burma and let him bomb your airfields and resources. he will gain nothing. develope all the airfields south of Rangoon (if he will try a sea invasion he will prolly land south of rangoon anyway).
After SRA is conquered, train some tojos and zeroes and when they are at 70 skill, move all of them in burma. keep them as reserve and use them only when invasion is close.
move some engineers and divs (after june you will have some) in rangoon and mandalay. they should be able to keep airfields opened if allies stop bombing for 2 days.

your pilots is the most vluable thing for Japan. if you lose them by tens in raids, you won't be able to stop allies.

If you lose ANY more than 20 pilots in a month ( Naval that is ) then it takes far longer than 1 month to get the others back .. more like 3-6 and this just gets them back to 70 ( from the 30 they come in as ... with the "extra" 3 months being if you spend the 90 days through using the disband option ). It is this training cycle that shuts the Japanese down. The "battle for the pilots" is the battle.

Good analysis..thx

[Gen.Hoepner]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 04/14/42

A busy day.
He finally switched to daylight bombings both in Burma and Oz.
He bombed Magwe badly. I had there only 9 babs. He clearly wants to shut down every single operative AF in the area.
At Daily he managed to damage the strip ( 40 runaway and 40 airbase) but the base is still somehow operative. 60 oscars are now there, while my Zeros will LRCAP from Darwin. I MUST keep the place open, cause as soon as the AF will be closed he will have the means to attack with his LCUs

At Nanoumea only a 2-1.... forts are gone but he still holds the base. My divisions are completely annihilated after 3 months of costant fightings....need to rest them. Tomorrow the KB will perform a ground attack, supporting the final assault....let's hope will be enough!

In China nothing new except for the fact that i manage to intercept and shoot down 5 Dakotas over Sining.

A strange empty TF of 15 AKs was moving from Townsville towards Gili Gili. Attacked by my bombers at PM. many ships badly damaged and 3 sunk.

What else? oh yes, 3 brand new zeros daitais arrived today. 2 will be moved to Burma, while the 3rd towards Darwin.

From his mails i have the feeling that he's ready to conunterattack somewhere. He's really confident. Just have to understand where.....probably he'll wait untill i retire my units from Central Pac...or he'll go for Daily and Darwin....[&:]


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Daly Waters , at 35,90

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 4
B-17E Fortress x 72
LB-30 Liberator x 31

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 1 destroyed
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 4 damaged
LB-30 Liberator: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
370 casualties reported
Guns lost 4

Airbase hits 20
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 126

Aircraft Attacking:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Magwe , at 31,29

Japanese aircraft
no flights

Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 77
LB-30 Liberator x 57

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 2 damaged
LB-30 Liberator: 3 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
44 casualties reported

Airbase hits 1
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 33

Aircraft Attacking:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 55,99

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 10
G4M1 Betty x 22

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 1 damaged

Allied Ships
AK Harpoon, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AK American Leader
AK Timber Rush, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AK Nightingale, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AK Sea Thrush, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AK Red Jacket

Aircraft Attacking:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 55,99

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 12
G4M1 Betty x 17

No Japanese losses

Allied Ships
AK Nightingale, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AK Harpoon, on fire, heavy damage
AK Timber Rush, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground combat at Nanumea

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 38522 troops, 377 guns, 3 vehicles

Defending force 12894 troops, 110 guns, 6 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 1) [:(][:(]

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 0


Japanese ground losses:
998 casualties reported
Guns lost 18
Vehicles lost 1

Allied ground losses:
702 casualties reported
Guns lost 36
Vehicles lost 5

[Gen.Hoepner]

ORIGINAL: kkoovvoo

ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner


If the threat of a japanese payback on Western India AFs lingers in the air his main obj will be to destroy this threat.

GH,
if you want to maintain some "decoy" at mandalay to "feed" mc3744, you should move there some previously disbanded fighter units, which arrived with low experienced pilots. Switch them to night operations. They will be ineffective against heavies but you will loss fewer planes than on the ground for sure. And pilots...well, who cares about those green dilettantes [:D] - you have unlimited resources of them.

I tested night fighting a lot in tutorial and I think this might help.

Maybe then he will try to catch your fighters on the ground during daylights ops - and thats chance for your LRCAPing veterans.

That's not a bad idea, thanks!
The only point is that i'm not following the Mogami training program this time. I always keep replacements on and when one of my daitais goes under the 70s i move it to the rear areas and start to train it back. This allows me to have, if needed a bunch of 60-70s exp daitais ready in the back if the conditions require a massive air effort ( like an invasion).
So i do not have any green daitai ready at the moment. I'll use some of the oscars sentais that are on their 60s.




Post scriptum:

i'm sorry if i do not post anymore good screenshot and if my reports are somehow less interesting in these days, but till semptember i'll only have a 56k dialup connection, very slow and very expensive, so i have very limited time to send the turns ( which takes me 30 minutes everytime-_-) and to post the AAR....

[kkoovvoo]

GH,
for night CAP - decoy
1/ try to use fighters with better durability and some armor (i know you posses only few tojos now)
2/ set such attitude that not many of your fighters will engage his bombers (1000 ft)

When I tested nightfighting with daytime fighters, I observed that:
1/ bombers get more shots on fighters than fighters on bombers
2/ FM-2 Wildcats were shot down rarely by Franceses, Bettys and Emilys - all equipped with cannons ( I estiamte 4:1 for Wildcats), but plenty of Wildcats were damaged. Most of Japan bombers counted as "shot down" were only damaged during fight and crashed at landing. I think losses would be much lower for Japan, but bombers were attacking from Palau and Guam to Satawal (12-15 hexes)
3/ a lots of low experienced Zekes were lost to B-29s and Liberators (I estimate 8:1 for superfortresses)

But generally, the losses were very low. I think if you night CAP with your fighters you will loose one or two of them I hope. Oscars have lowest durability I am afraid. Thats why I advice to keep them on low attitude

I will try some tests when I get home and I will let you know.

[timtom]

50,000 guys fighting for their live on this speck-of-an-island [8|]

Sorry GH, couldn't help it[:)]