Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A)

[Lowpe]

NF: Myrt isn't bad at all, and seriously over performs from what you would think. Irving-s and -sa can see till they arrrive ok, as long as you make lots and fill out all possible NF squadrons.

Dinah I think is junk. I like Nicks much better early, and still untested for me the Peggy. Randy comes late, their radar never activates till very late. Army NF aren't great because of no radar.

Frances-s is probably the best realistic NF to get....but you really need max Army and Navy NF. Quantity overcomes their poor quality.

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Sam-J is a bomber killer. Those up mounted cannons are great against B29, but you will be missing the A7M2 on your carriers all of the 2nd half of 44 till the end. But if you lose your KB prior, then no worries just go George![:D] Think if the fuel you will save.[:D]

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[Mike Solli]

Good idea Michael. Two problems though, there is a US bombardment fleet sitting in Unmak, 3 BB, 1 CA, 3 DD. Second, my bombardment fleet is 1.5 days out of resupply. Then 3 days back to the AO. I will keep it in mind. I might do the sweep to cut down on the enemy fighters. Might scare off his BBs. If not, I might get a shot at them with my carrier DB/TB. About 5 days until Akagi & Kaga reinforce.

Lowpe, you're always full of good news. Still no idea what to do with the NF....

I'm working the turn. In Burma, Akyab is my focus. 139 IJA 2E bombers with 80 escorting fighters preceded by 80 sweeping Tojos. Should be fun.

Much, much more to come. [;)]

[ny59giants]

How much moonlight is there? Maybe a SC TF of just DDs.

[Mike Solli]

Moonlight is 96%. That's bad for Japanese, right? I've forgotten all about moonlight.

[ny59giants]

Yes, Japan wants low moonlight. The reason for just DD is you stated he has only 3 DDs in that TF. I would try to go with 6 to 8 DDs, if possible.

[MakeeLearn]

36 DD are great in moonlight or no moon... or even at noon.

[Insano]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn



36 DD are great in moonlight or no moon... or even at noon.

You’re not talking about destroyers anymore are you?

[Lowpe]

Hey, you have Grace, George and Frank....just need how to figure out Sam.[;)]

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Hey, you have Grace, George and Frank....just need how to figure out Sam.[;)]

Is Sam short for Samantha? [:D]
Why didn't the allies name a plane Ingrid (Bergman) or Greta (Garbo)?

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

NF: Quantity overcomes their poor quality.

+1

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

NF: Myrt isn't bad at all, and seriously over performs from what you would think.

+1

Its a 1E, fast, decent armaments. This is where the quantity can really help. Its cheap to build so easier to keep the air groups full ...

[BrucePowers]

Mike I retired from Boeing in July of 2015 after spending four years in the Pacific Northwest. I am home in Florida and I love retirement. I highly recommend it.

[Mike Solli]

I value your recommendation, Bruce. A few more years and I'll be there with you. [:)]

Been reviewing things and I just realized that monsoon started a couple of days ago in Burma. I guess we'll see how the bombing attack goes and then I'll wind down for the floods.

Still waiting for Ted to finish the turn. As I type, he's down south at the Auburn-Georgia game. Pretty good game so far.

[Bif1961]

40-17 Auburn, that means he is in my neck of the of the woods, I live 25 miles from Auburn.

[Mike Solli]

You could probably almost hear the roar of the crowd after that game. Nothing like mixing up the rankings for the national championship. [:D]

[rustysi]

and I love retirement. I highly recommend it.

Not quite two months for me, but yes, I highly recommend it.

[rustysi]

Been reviewing things and I just realized that monsoon started a couple of days ago in Burma. I guess we'll see how the bombing attack goes and then I'll wind down for the floods.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program... Yes, monsoon May 15th to Nov(?) 15th. While it may impact air ops and supply is restricted as noted in the base 'supply pull', things may still proceed in a pretty normal fashion in my experience. So don't wind down too much, unless you choose to for some other reason .

[Mike Solli]

Congrats on the retirement Rusty. Definitely looking forward to it. And thanks for the info on monsoons. For some reason, that never sticks with me.

[Mike Solli]

17 May 43

Sub War

Not a lot of stuff, but it was exciting! First, the I-36 was patrolling to the east of the Aleutians, and caught the Mississippi limping back to the States with 1 DD for escort. She put another torpedo into that tough old bird! I had to hunt through my notes to find the details, but she was the BB that ate 3 sub torps during a bombardment mission to Adak on 30 Apr 43. In retaliation, the sub took a DC. Her damage is currently at 20-27(15)-5(1)-0. Normally, I would send her back for repairs, but the Miss is still afloat and she and another sub in the area are hoping to get another attack to put her down for good.

About 8 hexes east of Japan, the Akagi and Kaga, with a 2 DD escort are headed to the Aleutians. They ran over the Triton, who fired 6 torpedoes at Akagi, but fortunately missed. The DDs hit Triton with a DC, hopefully sending her home. I had made a mistake of not setting their 36 Judy dive bombers to ASW duty (they’re even trained for it!). I’ve rectified that and the TF is continuing on with its mission. Ted is a morning riser like me. He sent me an email. He definitely has a way with words: I ran the replay this morning. About choked on my coffee when I saw it. Six torpedoes too…. That would have left a mark.

5 Fleet

My Sally sentai bombed the American visitors at Adak causing a bit of disruption. Every bit helps! Also, I did my daily bombardment of them. Hopefully, it’s causing their supply to evaporate. When the separate infantry brigades were dropped off, supply had to have been dropped off as well because his AV has been increasing slowly despite my bombing and bombardment.

My bombardment TF is one day out of Etorofu, where it will resupply (I hope) and come back for another visit.

Ted did send 11 SBDs after some of my ships at Adak. Sixteen Oscar IIbs shot them all down! Very nice! Turns out the dive bombers were going after the TF with the artillery and mortar regiment reinforcements. I hope they complete their offload tomorrow and get the heck out of Dodge.

Adak currently has just under 15k supply with another 2700 on the reinforcement TF. They’re working on the forts, which are currently up to 5.08. No infrastructure damage. Two replenishment TFs totaling 56k fuel in support. Akagi and Kaga (72 VF, 36 VB, 45 TB) are 4-5 days out. KB (105 VF, 36 VB, 35 VT) is 6 hexes due south of Adak. Finally, the 71 Division and a medium (15 cm howitzers) artillery regiment is 1.5 days west of Adak along with 8900 additional supply. I also have the 19 Division with another 10k supply about 6 days out as well.

4 Fleet

Working on forts.

SE Fleet

The huge Allied Air Force is rearing its ugly head down here (which is better than anywhere else, I suppose). About 100 (I didn’t even try to count) 2E sorties went after Madang. There’s nothing there worth bombing, actually. He has a unit that has been marching overland and has made it there. Even if it’s got high disruption, it’ll still take the place. All I have there is a construction battalion and an AS unit.

Some Avengers out of Lae sank a couple of xAKLs on a supply run to Talasea. I don’t know why I had bothered sending them. At least the Avengers are here and not in the Aleutians.

His 4E bombers focused primarily on Rabaul, with small visits to Shortland and Lunga as well. After the initial attack at Rabaul of 48 bombers, each squadron after that came in individually about 3 squadrons of 6 each. The defenders were a few Zeros, and partial daitais of Oscars (IIb) and Tojos, totaling 49 aircraft. When it was all said and done, 3 of the beasts were shot down (with a few more lost most likely as op losses) to no fighters lost and about half a dozen planes destroyed on the ground. Damage to Rabaul is 0-29-2, not bad at all.

He also hit Hollandia, where I have some recon, naval search and a sentai of Helens (night bombing Merauke), all defended by a chutai of A6M5 Zeros. He sent two groups of PB4Y-1s, 6 then 7. They did get through to the airfield, but the Zeros shot down 3 of them! Damage to Hollandia is currently 0-38-26.

Ted still has his 3 CV TF, the invasion fleet and an ASW TF sitting in Munda’s hex. KB (126 VF, 54 VB, 72 VT) is still hanging around to the NE, undetected. I have split off the 4 fast BBs, Chikuma and 4 DDs, just in case he moves his carriers out. Ideally, he would begin to load the invasion troops (2 divisions, a combat engineer regiment and a HQ) and move his carriers out. I would love to tear into his APAs, partially (or fully!) loaded with my BBs. I doubt that happens though. The other question I have is, what is the garrison going to be? A full division? I have an airborne regiment sitting at Rabaul. If he pulls everything out, I’ll drop some of them in to take it back. Just for fun, of course…

SRA

Nothing going on here. I do have 2 bombardment TFs headed for Darwin, for purely a social visit. I’m moving some recon to check it out to make sure there are no unwanted surprises. The airfield there is at level 7. I hope to torch some brand new planes Ted may be stockpiling there.

I am trying to slowly build up my defenses there. If Ted knew how sparse the defenses really were, he’d be all over that place.

Burma

The only thing I have going on here is attrition of the RAF. It was wildly successful today! I started it off with a full 42 Tojo sweep of Akyab. They met 24 Hurricane IIcs and 23 P-40Ks and mauled them. I had the height advantage, coming in at 20k feet. For a loss of 4 Tojos (and their pilots), I shot down 7 Hurricanes and 14 P-40s. That sentai also gained 3 new elite pilots! Their commander, LGEN Anma, is a real hotshot with 13 kills, 90 experience and 80 air.

The second Tojo sentai sweep ran into 1 Hurricane which fled.

Only 66 of the 130 bombers flew today, unfortunately, and that was broken up into 3 separate attacks. They did light damage to the airfield, which is at 12% damage. I do see only 33 fighters now, with a few each at Akyab and Cox’s Bazaar and 27 at Chittagong.

China

Not much here, other than bombing Chungking and maneuvering for the next attacks. Some Oscars sweeping Chungking did shoot down 2x P-66 fighters.

Other Stuff

Not much to report here. I am getting back into my normal routine, checking the production front and making tweaks as necessary.

[rustysi]

I am trying to slowly build up my defenses there. If Ted knew how sparse the defenses really were, he’d be all over that place.

Impossible for Japan to be strong everywhere.

For a loss of 4 Tojos (and their pilots), I shot down 7 Hurricanes and 14 P-40s.

Nice shootin' Tex.[:D]