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Pilot quality means a lot...

What plans about Mersing and Malaya?

ORIGINAL: adarbrauner

What plans about Mersing and Malaya?

Grinding attritional fight.

July 15, 1942

More carnage in the air...pretty pleased with this Oscar group sweeping around Borneo.

Japan is cleaning up in the PI, while Allies continue to dump everything into Malaya. All subs and ARD destroyed at Manila, while Allies return the favor sinking a cripple at Georgetown and 6 planes on the ground there.

Morning Air attack on Sambas , at 57,88

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 18 NM, estimated altitude 34,940 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 30

Allied aircraft
Beaufighter Ic x 3
P-40B Warhawk x 20

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-40B Warhawk: 3 destroyed

Aircraft Attacking:
19 x Ki-43-Ic Oscar sweeping at 30940 feet

CAP engaged:
No.30 Sqn RAAF with Beaufighter Ic (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 3 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 10000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 39 minutes
51st FG/16th FS with P-40B Warhawk (0 airborne, 4 on standby, 5 scrambling)
2 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 10000 , scrambling fighters between 10000 and 28700.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 37 minutes
18th FG/44th FS with P-40B Warhawk (0 airborne, 4 on standby, 4 scrambling)
1 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 15000 , scrambling fighters between 15000 and 28000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 17 minutes

1st Sentai with Tojo IIa and 42 planes reaches Malaya, my third Tojo converted sentai but more importantly they have decent pilots and will be able to start sweeping. There is a fourth Sentai but they are flying protection over Tokyo.

Fighter strength shortfall is now down to -177 planes. Much better than the -400 planes two months ago, and this with a substantial resizing of zero groups to 36 to 45.

July 16, 1942

Kind of a quiet day...a few Japanese attacks in the PI, Allies are quiet in the air and miss my traps.

1st Sentai will sweep tomorrow...raising the number of sweeping Tojo sentais to 2 in Malaya.

A cargo ship hit, but not sunk by Allied subs...

This training cruiser had three soviet torps a while back and managed to limp into a no account island but the crew cannot pump out the counter flooding for fear of capsizing. An AR in enroute and should help, the ship will go into pierside mode once the AR arrives.

Another wrong turn in the inbox today...Obvert's dance schedule is certainly full.[;)]

July 17,1942

3 Tojo lost (1 to ops) and 9 Allied fighters downed.

This guy has absorbed 20-30 bomb hits and won't sink.

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

July 17,1942

3 Tojo lost (1 to ops) and 9 Allied fighters downed.

Definitely turning the tide ... Enough to survive '43? Still an open question ... Can you support ~350/month fighter production and ~2000 fighters in operation?
If you have enough economy to do that, then I think you can make it through '43. If he has damaged your economy where you cannot support that ... then ... not so sure.

Not suggesting that is the only metric, but I think it a pretty critical one with Bear active. If you can control the air, then you have a chance for force a stalemate on the land in MAN. Maybe even allow you to take the DEI for a few months ....

Finally found the time to get up to speed with the thread. Real life commitments... [:D] Hopefully less busy now for a while.

I am amazed at your resilience when facing this situation. Surely Obvert is a competent and aggressive player, but still your defense is certainly spirited. Hats off to you Lowpe [&o]

July 19, 1942

ABDA forces keep pushing forward....

Hm.,

For shame...

You already had 2 SSX torp hits more than most of us ever had!
I thought their only purpose was to empty the Allies ASW ammo stores.

ORIGINAL: Mahrgell

You already had 2 SSX torp hits more than most of us ever had!
I thought their only purpose was to empty the Allies ASW ammo stores.

I once sank a CVE with one, once. Considering said CVE was worth 80 odd VP's and the midgets are worth 2, I like to think that was the karma for the dozens I've lost to no effect.

They're like the lottery - can't win if you don't play!

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

ORIGINAL: Mahrgell

You already had 2 SSX torp hits more than most of us ever had!
I thought their only purpose was to empty the Allies ASW ammo stores.

I once sank a CVE with one, once. Considering said CVE was worth 80 odd VP's and the midgets are worth 2, I like to think that was the karma for the dozens I've lost to no effect.

They're like the lottery - can't win if you don't play!

You're off by a factor of 2 [:'(]

I think 3 or 4 times as Allies I had seen an SSX sink a battleship in Pearl Harbor on turn 1.

ORIGINAL: witpqs

I think 3 or 4 times as Allies I had seen an SSX sink a battleship in Pearl Harbor on turn 1.

That's maybe not quite so bad (from the Allied perspective) since most or all of the PH battleships will get blasted anyway.

I didn't list several other attacks on small fry, or when the midgets got spotted...but I didn't lose a midget and here is the other attack of note.

Sub attack near Alor Star at 49,73

Japanese Ships
SSX Ha-20, hits 1

Allied Ships
CL Achilles
CL Perth, on fire, heavy damage
DD Litchfield
DD King
DD Hotspur

SSX Ha-20 launches 2 torpedoes at CL Achilles