hi Castor... you may ask your honourable opponent for redo. I'm sure he will understand that. It is bug, and his attitude about that stuff is clear - redo. At least he that is what he said to me...
well Pauk, you may be right, but I really have to say I´m sick of redos. Unfortunately the "corrupt files" always pop up when major Japanese naval vessels get sunk. I remember Mogami posting that if a whole CV TF launches no CAP at all, then it´s a bug but hey...
the unbelievable fact about this is that Yorktown was damaged and you will see with my next post, Yorktown is now sunk, because a sub is able to put two torps into the ship (that has 0 float damage) and the CV sinks immediately two hexes off Brisbane. Never seen something like that in 2000+ PBEM turns. So far the dices roll very well for my opponent.
i really hate that i can not count on supposed movement rate (5/5 example), sometimes i get one, two or even three hexes less for unknown reasons...
Anyway, you are doing well IMHO...
I don´t know, a couple of turns ago I thought I would, at the moment it doesn´t look like I´m doing good. More on the loss of Yorktown tomorrow, when I will have time (at work! [;)]). It was a golden shot, something you won´t see more often than once in all my PBEM turns. Will post some screens. The movement of my carriers was something I just couldn´t influence, all was about 2 hexes. Then it would have been a Japanese disaster, in this case Hortlund can cheer about an Allied disaster. At the moment the one thing I´m really doing good are the aircraft losses, as it´s surely not bad to see the Japanese lost 1000 aircraft more than the Allied in mid July 42.
Yorktown is hit by two torps and immediately SINKS!!! Can you believe that? The carrier had 0 floatation damage and is 2 hexes off Brisbane, a level 9 port. Hortlund proves to be the master of the dice. Some facts: this sub is sitting in this hex a couple of days and was attacked by air ASW a couple of times. I have sent out a 6 DD ASW TF from Brisbane to hunt it - without success. At the moment of this attack there were 37!!!! DDs in this hex! It´s ridicoulos to see a single MSW preventing my subs from attacking some cargoes (and I move my subs DAILY) when 37 DDs aren´t able to guard my ships against a sub that was spotted and attacked several times. Hortlund didn´t even care to move it. [&:]
Well, in fact I was SUPER DUMB! How on earth could I not care about the fact that my CV TFs had to move through this hex where an all mighty IJN sub is sitting?
I could spin the wheel a bit further, just for fun... Yorktown was the carrier that was hit during the turn when one full CV TF didn´t launch a single fighter on Cap and therefore the Betties had it pretty easy. Yorktown ended up with nearly 30 sys dam (but she had NO float damage today) and perhaps this made her vulnerable to this sub attack. In fact I could say foul now, as my carrier suffered now from the damned bug 3 turns ago (not I´m saying this is a bug, Mogami posted that this is sometimes happening and this IS a BUG). I won´t, I just don´t care. We had to redo the turns that were "corrupt" when the IJN lost one BB in a very small TF, even though I saw this TF being huge before the "corrupt turn" (several spottings). I won´t blame the game, nor my opponent, though I still find those "corrupt turns" being very strange when they happen exactly when the IJN loses major vessels.
Oh well, I made myself clear and I doubt we won´t see any of those corrupt files anymore when there´s an expected major engagement.
Understandable, the Japanese will cheer this as a big victory and I have to live with something I´ve never seen before in 2000+ PBEM turns. A carrier immediately sunk from two torps without having float or fire damage before being hit. Must have been a super lucky die roll to even see the sub attacking (remember, 37DDs), then hitting and to top it off sinking the carrier immediately with two torps... 2 hexes off Brisbane. [8|]
When I would place a sub 2 hexes South of Tokyo, I wouldn´t move it, it would get attacked several times and the Japanese would move 37DDs into the hex and I still would be able to sink Zuikaku with two torps... I would just call it luck, nothing more. Unbelievable luck.
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Sub attack at 43,82
Japanese Ships
AK Cuba Maru
Allied Ships
SS Narwhal
Narwhal doesn´t even hit an unescorted slow AK...
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Day Air attack on Lashio , at 35,30
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 105
P-40E Warhawk x 24
Hurricane IIc x 32
Aircraft Attacking:
14 x Hurricane IIb bombing at 2000 feet
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Day Air attack on Lashio , at 35,30
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 83
P-40E Warhawk x 18
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
12 casualties reported
Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 11
Aircraft Attacking:
14 x Hurricane IIb bombing at 2000 feet
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 73
No Japanese losses
Airbase hits 2
Runway hits 3
Aircraft Attacking:
10 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 6000 feet
Hortlund started a training operation with his Betties. Range 7 hexes, he surely will suffer op losses sooner of later. I don´t care, high experienced fighter pilots are a problem, not high exp. bomber pilots. If I can effectively take out the escorts, the bombers will die anyway...
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Day Air attack on Port Moresby , at 53,91
Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 13
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 7
The proud USS Yorktown sinks after a succesful IJN sub attack... [:(]
USS Yorktown (CV-5), 1937-1942
USS Yorktown, a 19,800 ton aircraft carrier built at Newport News, Virginia, was commissioned on 30 September 1937. Operating in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas until April 1939, she then spent the next two years in the Pacific. In May 1941 Yorktown returned to the Atlantic, patrolling actively during the troubled months preceding the outbreak of war between the United States and the Axis powers.
Two weeks after the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Yorktown transited the Panama Canal to reinforce the badly damaged Pacific Fleet. The carrier's first combat operation was the Marshalls-Gilberts raid in early February 1942. Yorktown then steamed to the South Pacific, where she participated in a series of raids and other operations that climaxed in the Battle of Coral Sea in early May. In this action, in which she was damaged by enemy bombs, her planes attacked two Japanese aircraft carriers, helping to sink Shoho and damaging Shokaku.
Quick repairs at Pearl Harbor put Yorktown into good enough condition to participate in the Battle of Midway on 4-6 June 1942. During this great turning point of the Pacific War, her air group fatally damaged the Japanese aircraft carrier Soryu and shared in the destruction of the carrier Hiryu and cruiser Mikuma. However, successive strikes by dive bombers and torpedo planes from Hiryu seriously damaged Yorktown, causing her abandonment during the afternoon of 4 June. Two days later, while salvage efforts were underway, the Japanese submarine I-168 torpedoed both the damaged carrier and the destroyer Hammann (DD-412), sinking the latter immediately and Yorktown shortly after daybreak on 7 June 1942. USS Yorktown's wreck was discovered and examined in May 1998, in surprisingly good condition after fifty-six years beneath more than three miles of sea water.
With the loss of our two BBs, the CA that hit a mine and ended up in front of the Betties (how many mine hits will I suffer the whole campaign? Every US ship sunk because of a mine hit before?) and now Yorktown, we are again leading in points for ship losses. Though the IJN has still lost far more ships, so I´m not doing bad here, considering the date.
I think I´m doing really good when I compare the plane losses. Some agressive attacks of mine and really careless attacks of Hortlund made it possible that Hortlund has lost nearly 1000 aircraft more than we did. I bet that he has not hundreds of fighters in his pools and his aircraft industry must operate 100%. His IJN pilot pool should be down to around 250-300 so we expect it to run out in early 43 and then 75 Corsairs/month will arrive anyway.
Overall, looking at the points, the Japanese are as far from an autovictory like Austria is away from Australia... When I compare this with my game against Swift (early 7/42 also, I´m over 7:1 in victory points at the moment)... [8D] This means I caused Hortlund definetely some problems in this game.
I don´t know when Hortlund will return with his fighters to Burma but we will be ready. By then, our Hurricane groups will be filled up and we will have done some more training. The Wellington pool is further growing and soon we will get another 64 aircraft B-25 bomber group in India. This will boost our offensive strength to 300 bombers. We get 75 Hurricane IIb and 25 Hurricane IIc at the moment, 25 Spitfire Vb will start arriving from 8/42. Starting 10/42 we will also get 35 P-38 and 40 B-24 per month. The fighters will go to Australia though (and the bombers probably as well) as I need the long range there to attack Timor or New Guinea. I don´t need the P38s for the fight in Burma (I could need them though! [;)]) because all Northern Burmese airfields are in range of Warhawks, Hurricanes and Spitfires anyway. But I can´t attack New Guinea with my short ranged fighters. Same for Timor, only Lautern on the far East is in range of Tomahawks from Darwin, but with low exp pilots and a replacement rate of 10 P-40B this is a hopeless effort against 200 Japanese fighters that can be flown in within two days.
Aircraft Attacking:
14 x Hurricane IIb bombing at 2000 feet
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Day Air attack on Lashio , at 35,30
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 96
P-40E Warhawk x 21
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
11 casualties reported
Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 9
Aircraft Attacking:
13 x Hurricane IIb bombing at 2000 feet
as you can see, more than 200 Hurricanes are doing training runs at the moment. Some 70 Hurricanes are in reserve further West in the Madras, Colombo area. They are set on Cap to intercept possible unescorted long range Betty strikes against my ships in port.
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Aircraft Attacking:
15 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 6000 feet
also Sallies from Amboina join in the training runs on Kai island now... good to see that Hortlund´s bombers already need to do training runs at this date! Remember that there were 1300+ pilots in the IJN/IJA pool!
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Aircraft Attacking:
15 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 6000 feet
the Betties are coming from Kendari. Perhaps I will launch a 100 B-17 strike from Darwin at some point to catch some on the ground. Don´t know about fighter strenght at the moment, but there´s no place that I recon where I see more than 40 fighters in the air. Compare that with the huge numbers on Cap a couple of weeks before! [:D]
Hortlund knocked out, ähhhm sunk, Yorktown with my trip to New Guinea and he has been talking in his emails about the fact that he absolutely broke my offensive ability for the next 3-6 months! [X(][X(]
I´m sorry, but he must be absolutely living far from "game reality"... [:D] Here are my carriers that are now docked at Brisbane for some repairs and upgrades (most are already upgraded).
As you can see, without the CVL we can field CVs with a capacity of 455 aircraft! We have already upgraded two CV squadrons to Avengers, all are operating F4F4s and we will soon see the airgroup resize. This fleet can move out tomorrow if it needs to. Lexington left port for the New Guinea operation with sys dam 9 so she accumulated only 2 points more. CV Wasp is due to arrive in 3 weeks at Darwin, this will mean we will then have some 530 carrier based aircraft. Without the British CVL as this ship isn´t really combat effective anyway. So this isn´t looking like "losing all offensive capability". We have a house rule of max (around) 550 carrier based aircraft so I couldn´t put more CVs into one hex anyway. It would only be very handy if one CV could be left behind to reduce some damage, while the others are out on a mission. Oh well...
So after the airgroup resize and after Wasp has joined the fleet at Brisbane we will field even more Wildcats than before. This means we can easily take on the Japanese carriers, let alone the aircraft from one Japanese airbase. Of course we won´t move into range of 4 Japanese airfields like we did when we tried to save our BBs and with the same move, destroy the Japanese carriers. The British fought very well and are very valuable for me. Nearly 60 Martlets are on the two Brit CVs and the Albacores are able to put big wholes in IJN ships if they are escorted and don´t have to face a super Cap. IMO the British CVs are most times underestimated.
With our combined effort of the Navy, land and sea based aircraft, the Japanese lost more than 400 aircraft in three days, so that´s not too bad. Again, I won´t move in that far again, as there isn´t a reason to do so. This means with land based bombers (unescorted) and over 500 carrier based aircraft (with high experience) I can take out a good amount of Japanese aircraft if I wish to do so. More carrier losses at the moment could get severe though, after Wasp we have to wait 6 months for CV Essex. CV Yorktown will show up in 517 days again. What really surprised me though is the fact that ship based flak was far from a killer even though all our TFs had an AA value of around 5000! Most bombers were damaged but also most were able to drop their torps.
Ok, Yortown has been sunk, but you will get 7of9 Yorktown version. You don't need to force anything, just plan the Mother of all battles/Allied version on your terms. One such victory and tide will turn...
Ok, Yortown has been sunk, but you will get 7of9 Yorktown version. You don't need to force anything, just plan the Mother of all battles/Allied version on your terms. One such victory and tide will turn...
Movement problems? At the moment I don´t know what you mean. I have movement problems with my MSWs in Southern India as they just don´t want to move to the hex West of Akyab (even though they are using up fuel as if they would move every turn).
If you mean that my CVs didn´t move as far as they should, the reason for that one was the fact that the stupid game engine decided that it would be excellent to refuel the DDs even though they were still at 5000+. I told Hortlund that he was lucky because of this "feature", otherwise he would have lost Kaga (or was it Akagi) and one or two CVLs. This was annoying but that´s a "feature" of the game. The bug was more severe, I had one whole CV TF not launching a single fighter for Cap.
Aircraft Attacking:
6 x Wellington III bombing at 16000 feet
even 16.000 ft proves to be too low. We lose 4 Wellingtons today, something we can´t afford, we only get 30/month... we will just have to go further up...
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 75
Ki-49 Helen x 27
Aircraft Attacking:
6 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 6000 feet
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Aircraft Attacking:
18 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 11000 feet
amazingly, Hortlund doesn´t suffer ANY op losses at 7 hexes, day after day. Really amazing, so far his op losses aren´t severe and I have no clue how he´s doing that. As he doesn´t even rest his airgroups, he´s surely doing nothing, he just doesn´t care. So those must be just lucky die rolls. I suffer even more with my ALLIED aircraft doing short range training runs. Not to talk about the op losses I take when I´m doing Japanese on map training at 2 hexes range... [&:]
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Sub attack at 49,48
Japanese Ships
TK Moji Maru
DD Hatsukaze
Allied Ships
SS Gar
Japanese tankers have been super lucky so far. The medium size TK is missed with 4 torps...
the most annoying fact of the Japanese "offensive" without invasion against Northern Australia is that my subs now have to go all the way back to Brisbane instead of being stationed at Darwin. I think it will take a couple of months until they will return to Darwin. So probably it will be after 10/42 when they get their radar upgrade.
Aircraft Attacking:
14 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 6000 feet
more and more aircraft join in the training runs. One Helen, two Sallies lost to ops today...
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 137
No Japanese losses
Airbase hits 2
Runway hits 35
Aircraft Attacking:
24 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 11000 feet
again, the Betties at long range... again, not a single op loss... [&:]
Here´s the detailed list for total air losses:
1300 Japanese fighters lost, I also like the numbers of Betties lost. The Hurricane losses over Northern Australia were severe, as we could only field our 50 exp squadrons there and no chance to train them. But all my sqadrons in India have filled out, we need two dozen Hurricanes more for the Australian squadrons to fill out, but in Australia we´re now mostly relying on Canadian, Australian and New Zealand Kittyhawk squadrons. Unfortunately, the Australian Hurricane IIb squadrons can´t be upgraded to Kittyhawk I. We have some 150+ Kittyhawks in the pool and no squadrons to use them... [&:] The Warhawk pool is nearly empty though. And 70%+ of my USAAF squadrons are flying Mohawks or Airacobras... [:(] At the moment we only get 50 Warhawks, the only competitive USAAF fighter. With the P38 in 10/42 we will get a total of 85 competitive USAAF fighters a month. That´s it for a loooong time then.
one near miss is all we get from dozens of DCs dropped. Though RO-61 was later in the day sunk by carrier based SBDs with two 500lb bomb hits... After the lucky sinking of Yorktown just out of Brisbane more and more subs are sent to this area now. He won´t have such luck again and his subs will be victims of my air and ship based ASW...
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Day Air attack on Lashio , at 35,30
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 101
P-40E Warhawk x 24
Hurricane IIc x 3
No Allied losses
Japanese ground losses:
4 casualties reported
Runway hits 18
Aircraft Attacking:
14 x Hurricane IIb bombing at 2000 feet
after days of bad weather, we are finally able to launch a strike...
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 25
Ki-21 Sally x 73
Ki-49 Helen x 70
Aircraft Attacking:
10 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 6000 feet
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 27
G4M1 Betty x 107
No Japanese losses
Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 35
Aircraft Attacking:
20 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 11000 feet
I was wrong saying that the range of this mission is 7 hexes... it´s 9 hexes and still, flying day after day, those bombers take no op losses... [&:] I would never use bombers with fatigue of 40+ day after day as I would lose a minimum of 6 EVERY turn...
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Day Air attack on Lautem , at 33,78
Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 26
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 5
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 4
A-20B Boston x 4
B-25C Mitchell x 137
Aircraft Attacking:
10 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 16000 feet
we sent out the Mitchells again, just to keep Hortlund honest. There are 70+ bombers reported at Lautern, they mostly must be on nav search. 8 Mitchells are lost, we destroy 6 aircraft. But look at this hit rate!!! Amazing result from 16.000 ft...
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Day Air attack on Port Moresby Defense Brigade, at 54,92
Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 7
No Japanese losses
Aircraft Attacking:
7 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 16000 feet
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Day Air attack on No. 112 RAN Base Force, at 54,92
Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 8
No Japanese losses
Aircraft Attacking:
8 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 16000 feet
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Sub attack at 39,126
Aircraft Attacking:
10 x Hurricane IIb bombing at 2000 feet
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Day Air attack on Lashio , at 35,30
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb x 88
P-40E Warhawk x 24
Hurricane IIc x 5
No Allied losses
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 10
Aircraft Attacking:
14 x Hurricane IIb bombing at 2000 feet
after we spotted 169!!!!! Oscars on Cap over Rangoon (how many fighter do you need to see 169 on Cap), there are Oscars at Mandalay again now too. This means Hortlund will soon try to interdict my training runs. But this will also mean that we will wait for good weather and will do another massive sweep before our bombers will go in. Should result in some 50+ Hurricanes and 25 bombers lost for 100+ Oscars lost (in the air and hopefully a lot on the ground). Oscar production is somewhere over 130 I think so it would be a good result to torch the monthly Oscar production in one day! Losses in Warhawks, Wellingtons and British pilots will be a severe effect of this next attack though. We are short of all three of them. Though I expect to do even better than with our last attack (after that the IJA fled from Burma [:D]) as we now have more experienced pilots while dozens of IJA veterans should have died.
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Day Air attack on Myitkyina , at 36,28
Aircraft Attacking:
26 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 21000 feet
Excellent hit rate here also. If 21.000ft proves to be a height were 65+ exp crews will still hit the target with acceptable results, then this will be our attack height in the future.
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 45
Ki-21 Sally x 68
Ki-49 Helen x 84
Aircraft Attacking:
10 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 6000 feet
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Aircraft Attacking:
20 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 11000 feet
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Day Air attack on Port Moresby Defense Brigade, at 54,92
Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 17
No Japanese losses
Aircraft Attacking:
11 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 16000 feet
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Day Air attack on TF at 53,92
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 23
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Chowa Maru, Bomb hits 1
AP Kamo Maru
AP Waura Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AP Kanko Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
AP Hanakawa Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Nichiren Maru
Japanese ground losses:
252 casualties reported
Guns lost 4
Aircraft Attacking:
1 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 6000 feet
we spotted this TF already before in the last turns moving towards Port Moresby but were not able to launch any strikes. Two hexes off PM we start attacking the big troop transport. When looking at the spotted ships in this TF then this means Hortlund is moving massive reinforcements to Port Moresby.
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Day Air attack on TF at 53,92
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 11
B-25C Mitchell x 5
B-17E Fortress x 8
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Reiyo Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AP Matsukawa Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Otori
AP Kanko Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Nagano Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire
Japanese ground losses:
151 casualties reported
Guns lost 4
Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
some more hits on a TF that is moving two hexes behind the other one that is attacked. Nearly no escort, a huge TF and both TFs moved over 7 subs of mine without being even once attacked so far... [8|] seems my subs really need radar...
Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 6000 feet
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 23
G4M1 Betty x 97
No Japanese losses
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 11
Aircraft Attacking:
20 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 11000 feet
so far those daily Betty attacks at 9 hexes range suffered op losses in the 0,1% range... [8|]
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Day Air attack on Port Moresby Defense Brigade, at 54,92
Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 18
No Japanese losses
Allied ground losses:
25 casualties reported
Aircraft Attacking:
8 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 16000 feet
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Day Air attack on TF, near Port Moresby at 53,91
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 22
A6M3 Zero x 6
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 22
Japanese Ships
AP Reiyo Maru, Bomb hits 12, on fire, heavy damage
AP Hanakawa Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AP Nagano Maru, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
Japanese ground losses:
223 casualties reported
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
those three APs should be sunk but I think most of the troops are brought in anyway. 3 B-17s are shot down today...
It´s obvious that we can´t interdict IJN convoys with our LBA going to Port Moresby or Thursday island, let alone Gili Gili. But the more troops Hortlund, the more supplies he will need and the more troops are trapped. Especially Thursday island will be a death trap for the Japanese. If - a big if - I am able to close Port Moresby´s airfield (should be possible, seems only few eng there) AND Gili Gili´s airfield then Thursday Island´s troops are definetely doomed as no convoys would reach it as I could also send in my carriers. With only Lae as bigger airfield in range of my carriers, it wouldn´t be much of a threat to move them near PM again. Problem is, that Port Moresby and Gili Gili can only be reached by B-17s and Hudsons... and Hudsons are too fragile and I don´t have enough B-17s...
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ASW attack at 47,113
this is a mine layer sub, moving North, away from Brisbane... means probably sub laid mines at Brisbane. Some two dozen MSWs are searching for mines now...
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Port Moresby at 53,91
Japanese Ships
DD Otori, Shell hits 9, and is sunk
MSW Asahi Maru
AP Anzan Maru
AP Chowa Maru
AP Hasuna Maru
AP Kamo Maru
AP Kanko Maru, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kenzan Maru, Shell hits 1
AP Matsukawa Maru, Shell hits 2
AP Nichiai Maru
AP Nichiren Maru, Shell hits 2
AP Ryoyo Maru, Shell hits 22, on fire, heavy damage
AP Ryujo Maru
Like we´ve done all time in this campaign, we also sent in a surface TF this time. Goal was to sink a couple of ships and even more important, we wanted to force the enemy TF out of the base hex, so our bombers could attack the ships out on sea without having to run through the Cap over PM. Amazingly ALL our torps were fired (at 4000 yards) but we didn´t even score a single hit. At least we sunk this third class DD and another medium sized AP. Shell hits on our DDs were scored by Ryoyo Maru but are FOW.
The enemy TF ended up one hex South West of Port Moresby! I tracked our DD´s night experience. Hamman gained 8 points (from 49-57), Mustin gained 3 points (form 54-57), Walke gained no points (stayed at 59).
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TF 1018 encounters mine field at Brisbane (46,114)
Allied Ships
DMS Elliot
DMS Wasmuth
DMS Chandler
DMS Long
DMS Perry
DMS Dorsey
DMS Lamberton
DMS Boggs
I was sure that I-123 laid mines and voilà, here they are... Only one MSW TF swept mines, the other one did nothing... [8|]
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TF 97 encounters mine field at Andaman Island (23,34)
Japanese Ships
MSW W.18
PG Kamitsu Maru
Kamitsu Maru was lucky a couple of times already that she didn´t hit any of my mines...
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Sub attack at 53,92
Japanese Ships
AP Kenzan Maru
MSW Asahi Maru
Allied Ships
SS Grouper
The enemy TF that was forced out of PM. Grouper missed with 6 torps...
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 26
A6M3 Zero x 9
Ki-21 Sally x 71
Ki-49 Helen x 85
Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 6000 feet
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Day Air attack on Port Moresby Defense Brigade, at 54,92
Japanese aircraft
Ki-21 Sally x 20
No Japanese losses
Aircraft Attacking:
11 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 16000 feet
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Day Air attack on TF at 53,92
Allied aircraft
B-25C Mitchell x 6
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Kanko Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 6000 feet
only 6 out of 100+ Mitchells attack. We have a huge supply depot and are in range of a US air HQ...
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Day Air attack on TF at 53,92
Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 11
Allied aircraft
B-17E Fortress x 32
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
B-17E Fortress: 14 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Nichiai Maru
AP Kenzan Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Nichiren Maru
AP Hasuna Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AP Anzan Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Asahi Maru
AP Ryujo Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Chowa Maru
Aircraft Attacking:
4 x B-17E Fortress bombing at 6000 feet
the follow on attack of my B-17s met leaking Cap from Port Moresby. This is already in the afternoon, as in the morning phase our airfield was clouded... oh well...
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Day Air attack on TF, near Port Moresby at 53,91
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 20
A6M3 Zero x 8
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 7
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 2
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
Hudson I: 1 damaged
Japanese Ships
AP Hanakawa Maru, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x Hudson I bombing at 6000 feet
and the last attack, 2 Hudsons decided to attack the shipping that entered PM during the day movement phase...
Aircraft Attacking:
11 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 11000 feet
whopping number of 1 lost to ops... [8|]
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Day Air attack on Port Moresby Defense Brigade, at 54,92
Japanese aircraft
A6M3 Zero x 25
Ki-21 Sally x 17
No Japanese losses
Allied ground losses:
38 casualties reported
Aircraft Attacking:
6 x Ki-21 Sally bombing at 16000 feet
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Day Air attack on TF, near Dutch Harbor at 103,36
Allied aircraft
B-26B Marauder x 5
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Jinsan Maru, Bomb hits 1
Aircraft Attacking:
1 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet
wow, a bomb hit... I wonder that the bombers even launched...
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Day Air attack on TF, near Dutch Harbor at 103,36
Allied aircraft
B-26B Marauder x 4
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AK Nikkyu Maru
Aircraft Attacking:
4 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet
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Day Air attack on TF, near Port Moresby at 53,91
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 25
A6M3 Zero x 11
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 20
Allied aircraft
Martlet II x 18
F4F-4 Wildcat x 31
SBD Dauntless x 32
TBF Avenger x 18
Japanese Ships
AP Kenzan Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AP Ryujo Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x SBD Dauntless bombing at 2000 feet
now that was great... morning, no strikes... Cooktown clouded... afternoon, strike on the big TF fails to find the target despite dozens of sightings... great... then this strike goes in, my fighters are performing as if they would be totally drunk and then I sink a ship that was already dead before...
another goal of this mission was to not make Hortlund feeling too confident and to force him to bring some troops, supplies and aircraft to the front...
but still, absolutely disappointing result. Must have been one of my lucky turns like Hortlund always tells me...
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Sub attack near Port Moresby at 53,91
Japanese Ships
AP Nichiren Maru
MSW Asahi Maru
Allied Ships
SS Grouper
this is the BIG TF... we miss of course...
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ASW attack at 53,47
Japanese Ships
PG Kozan Maru
Allied Ships
SS Tautog
a single PG prevents us AGAIN from attacking the TF... 37 DDs weren´t able to guard Yorktown against a spotted, attacked and not moved sub...
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Sub attack at 62,140
we get a lot of messages of DD attacking submerged sub, but not a single DC is dropped. This is one hex South of Wellington. Again a sub that is spotted and not moved...
Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Ki-49 Helen bombing at 11000 feet
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Day Air attack on Kai Island , at 39,78
Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 27
G4M1 Betty x 60
No Japanese losses
Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 18
Aircraft Attacking:
18 x G4M1 Betty bombing at 11000 feet
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Day Air attack on Thursday Island , at 49,90
Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 27
B-25C Mitchell x 108
B-17E Fortress x 70
Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Hudson I bombing at 21000 feet
2 x B-25C Mitchell bombing at 21000 feet
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Day Air attack on TF at 102,35
Allied aircraft
B-26B Marauder x 5
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AK Renzan Maru, Bomb hits 1
Aircraft Attacking:
1 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet
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Day Air attack on TF, near Dutch Harbor at 103,36
Allied aircraft
B-26B Marauder x 6
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AK Nikkyu Maru
AK Suruga Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet
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Day Air attack on TF, near Dutch Harbor at 103,36
Allied aircraft
B-26B Marauder x 6
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AK Suruga Maru, on fire
Aircraft Attacking:
2 x B-26B Marauder bombing at 6000 feet
I may be wrong, but I don't think you've hit Thursday Is. for a while. Have you reconned it recently?
I haven´t hit it, but I´m doing recon with 2 Hudsons and 1 Catalina twice a day. For comparison: I´m doing recon with two Bostons every day at Myitkina and just recently 36 B-26 have achieved more than 40 hits on the runway (from the same height). And those bombers in Australia are the most experienced I have (US ones, the British Wellingtons are my best).
