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

[Mike Solli]

31 May 43

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Another sweep of Unmak netted both enemy fighters that rose to meet my Zeros. MKB didn’t launch against Dutch Harbor. Weather I suspect.

Overall, it was very quiet here.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Rabaul was once again the target of Ted’s 4E force. There was 1 sweep and 3 bombing runs totaling 3 Corsairs and 60x 4E sorties with 42 Japanese fighters defending. Five bombers were shot down along with 2 fighters on each side with an additional 7 Japanese planes destroyed on the ground. Gasmata’s damage is now totally repaired but Rabaul’s damage increased a bit to 17-44-16.

Lunga was attacked again, and they held out one more day! The 4:1 attack reduced the forts from 4 to 3. Japanese losses were 424(6) to 32(0) US losses. Banzai!

SRA
Burma
China

Nothing to report.

Other Stuff

Pretty quiet turn.

Reinforcements:
261 Ku S-1 (A6M2 changed to A5M) – 13 Air Flotilla, fighter training
SC Cha-59 – ASW

[Mike Solli]

1 June 43

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

There finally was some action here. First off, the daily sweep of Unmak found 6 enemy fighters. Three were shot down and the remainder driven off. Then, MKB finally sent off a port attack against Dutch Harbor. It included 59 Kates, 35 Vals and 26 Judys, all escorted by 42 Zeros. There was no opposition in the air and little flak. In addition to a little bit of port damage and some torched fuel, they sank 2 subs (Tunny and S-35), an AM, the SC Dash and 7x LCTs for no loss to my planes. A few other small ships were damaged or possibly sunk. I definitely have the upper hand here. He has a few subs tooling around the area but are unable to get a shot off. My ships and planes have free reign right now.

The BB bombardment TF is entering the area and will be close enough tomorrow to be in position to do “something” the day after. When they reach that point, they’ll have several options:

-Bombard Adak.
-Bombard Unmak Island.
-Bombard Dutch Harbor.
-Sail into Dutch Harbor to clean up the shipping there.

I’ll make the decision on the target tomorrow. Note that right now the moonlight is 0% so a surface attack sounds really good. Also, if they do a surface attack, there should also be enough ammo left to bombard Adak the next day and maybe do a deliberate attack to clean up the US troops there.

4 Fleet

Nothing to report.

SE Fleet

Only one 4E attack on Rabaul today, and a small one at that. 17x 4E sorties, unescorted, went after Rabaul’s port, catching the RO-108 and sinking her. Three bombers failed to return and no Japanese fighters were lost. On the plus side, while there was more damage to the port, the airfield did repair somewhat: 30-29-0 (was 17-44-16 yesterday). I’ll take that.

The 2 Marine Division (and a combat engineer regiment) attacked my small defense force at Lunga and finally pushed them out to Tassafronga. About half the infantry is still in decent shape. I suspect the US Marines will move overland to take the other half of the island, but that’ll take a while.

SRA
Burma

Nothing to report.

China

There was more cleaning up of Chinese rabble. A beat up group of 2x Chinese Corps and a BF, a hex to the west of Chungking was pushed back into Chungking losing 5328(313) to minor Japanese losses. More beat up Chinese mouths to feed (and little food to feed them).

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: TK Ryusho Maru – Type-1 TM (8150 capacity)

A total of 211 IJA and 128 IJN pilots accelerated training. Also, the B6N2 Jill and E15K1 Norm became operational.

An Allied TK and AM were confirmed sunk from earlier in the year.

The N1K2-J George R&D advanced to 8/44 (estimated operational date of 8/43).

An APD and 2x E entered refit (better DCs) at Singapore.

[Mike Solli]

2 June 43

Sub War

Nothing to report.

5 Fleet

Not much happened here today. MKB has withdrawn to the south and has refueled. They’ll be back in action by the day after tomorrow. Akagi has no torpedoes left, but the other carriers still have at least 1 load of torpedoes for their Kates. There are plenty of bomb sorties remaining.

The BB bombardment fleet (4 BB, 2 CL, 6 DD) is in a position to hit anything in the Aleutians. I have decided to send them as a surface fleet into Dutch Harbor to clean up the Allied shipping tomorrow. There are a dozen or so small ships hanging out there. Then, the day after, I’ll bombard Adak, hit them with my carrier bombers and attack it with my ground forces. Hopefully that triple punch will be enough to force them to surrender. The Allied AV there is constantly dropping. Over the past 4 days, it has dropped to: 481, 471, 463 and finally 455. My AV is maxed out at 1285.

Amchitka’s airfield has finally reached level 4. I have a Sally sentai bombing Adak daily. They’ve been using 2x 250kg bombs per plane. Now it just increased to 4 bombs each, doubling the payload. Finally!

SE Fleet

Ted’s 4E bombers are either refusing to fly or he’s standing them down. I think it’s the former because one flight of 6x PB4Y-1s flew against Rabaul. Only 1 returned.

SRA

Nothing to report.

Burma

I’ve been sweeping Akyab off and on with 1-2 Tojo sentai. Today I sent 2 sentai to sweep Cox’s Bazaar. That turned out to be a mistake. Ted’s fighters were higher than mine and the battle ended up in a draw, which is a win for Ted. In the end, I lost 11 Tojos (+1 op loss) to 10 Allied fighters shot down (+5 op losses). Eleven of my pilots were lost too.

China

Another Chinese Corps was caught on the road 2 hexes south of Chungking and battered. Losses were 129(4) Japanese to 1549(67) Chinese. The rabble retreated toward Chungking.

Other Stuff

Reinforcement: 90 JAAF AF Battalion (Southern Army)

[Mike Solli]

I just got the next turn. I'm tempted to run it but 0430 comes awfully fast in the morning. I'm curious if you guys think I should do a deliberate or shock attack against the US forces stranded at Adak? My AV is ~3:1. That's before all the modifiers.

[PaxMondo]

you lost your sig again. [:(]

[Mike Solli]

That's odd. I see it. [&:]

Well, I ran the turn. Not a lot happened. I killed a bunch of little ships at Dutch Harbor. Ready to attack the Americanos at Adak tomorrow. Still don't know whether to do deliberate or shock attack. Raw AV is 1284 to 444. They'll be hit by the BBs, Sallies and MKB's bombers before the attack, so the AV will be lower, hopefully much lower.

Less than 6 hours to the alarm going off. Off to bed. I'll post an update tomorrow.

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

That's odd. I see it. [&:]

[ny59giants]

Adak: Shock "ONLY" if you think you will be facing troops with high disruption levels. Double check your major combat and HQ units to make sure their leaders haven't wondered off and got themselves killed. [:-]

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: Mike Solli

That's odd. I see it. [&:]

Now that's really weird!

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: ny59giants

Adak: Shock "ONLY" if you think you will be facing troops with high disruption levels. Double check your major combat and HQ units to make sure their leaders haven't wondered off and got themselves killed. [:-]

I "think" they have high disruption levels. Their AV continues to decrease each day and they aren't firing AAA, but they may not have any. I need to open the Allied side to see what those units composition is. I'll probably do a deliberate attack just to be safe.

I didn't realize the commanders can "wander off". Learn something new every day. Also, can a fleet HQ assist with combat?

[Mike Solli]

I have decided to do a deliberate assault at Adak. The 19 and 71 Divisions, along with 4 Garrison unit and the tank regiment (can't remember which one) will attack. I am not going to attack with a Naval Guard or SNLF unit, both with 48 squads. I've found that small units get trashed in combat with large units. I'm not concerned with the garrison unit because it goes away in 6 months. In addition to a smattering of Type 97 "tanks", the tank regiment has Type 98A tanks and is eligible to be upgraded to the Type 1. After the US forces surrender, I'll upgrade the tanks (if I can). Also, the unit has 55 tanks and is over strength. The TOE calls for only 31. I'm afraid if I upgrade now I'd get the better tank but only 31, not 55. I'm all for quantity in this attack.

All of my forces are at full strength (or better) with 0 disrupted squads. Ted's forces are currently:

41 Division - 200 AV
58 SEP IN Bde - 62 AV
153 SEP IN Bde - 83 AV
151 Combat EN Bde - 22 AV

The total AV was 444. Yeah, it doesn't add up, but that's FOW for you. [:D]

Keeping fingers crossed.

[ny59giants]

Naval HQs: I think 5th Fleet (NE Fleet) is a Command HQ, so it could influence your attack.

[Mike Solli]

That's good news! Thanks, Michael!

[Mike Solli]

Yes, 5 Fleet HQ is a command HQ, but it's only at 11% for Adak. I only moved it in range and set it for Adak recently. So I don't expect any help from them. [8|]

For support, I have a number of artillery units totaling 104x 15cm guns and 36x 90mm mortars. That's in addition to all the little stuff in the small units and what's available in the assault formations.

[anarchyintheuk]

You can always shock with the tank regiment if you want to help it 'reorganize' back to its TOE max. Deliberate attack with everyone else.

[Mike Solli]

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

You can always shock with the tank regiment if you want to help it 'reorganize' back to its TOE max. Deliberate attack with everyone else.

I considered that briefly but decided not to intentionally destroy the unit. I figure a deliberate attack would be bad enough on it. I changed out the commander to one that was less aggressive in the hopes that it would help a bit but not just impale itself on US bayonets.

Turn is off.

[rustysi]

I'm pulling the Oscar IIa out because it's no longer viable for the most part. The IIIa will be out in July. We'll see what it can do.

This being the case I would wait for the IV if that's at all possible. It has the 2 CL 20mm cannon and should prove more effective than the IIIa.

[rustysi]

When it comes to direct/shock attacks I look for more destroyed devices vs disablement's when I bombard, bomb, or naval bombard. This indicates to me that he's done and ready for the shock attack. IOW he'll have little/no supply and many disablement's already. Just been my observations.

[rustysi]

In addition to a smattering of Type 97 "tanks", the tank regiment has Type 98A tanks and is eligible to be upgraded to the Type 1.

The difference with these tanks here seems to be their survivablity. The Type-1 has twice the armor rating of the Type-97 and four times that of the Type-89a. How much actual effect that means game-wise I've no idea. In addition your unit is over-sized and adds another factor.

Edit: Remember the replaced tanks will return to the pools and I have found them quite useful in China where the Chinese AT factor is virtually non-existent.

[rustysi]

Less than 6 hours to the alarm going off. Off to bed. I'll post an update tomorrow.

Oh, I remember those days, brutal.[:D]