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July 2, 42:

Day two of the Allied air offensive in India sees large air battles over Cocanada and Vizagapatnam. Andre executes a CAP trap over Australian 6th Division, but I think my P-39's and Hurricanes perform as well as can be expected. My big Hurricane losses occurred sweeping over Cocanada.

On the day the Allies lose 26 aircraft (14 Hurricanes, 6 P-40E's and 6 P-39's), Japan 46 (20+ Oscar's, 20+ Zero's and a handful of Nick's). More importantly, the Allied bombers reached their targets and suffered almost no losses to enemy interdiction. Both airbases suffered substantial damage. AAR's of the raids follows:

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Morning Air attack on Cocanada , at 41,37

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 19 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 5 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 5
Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 14
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 2

Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb Trop x 14
B-17D Fortress x 15
B-17E Fortress x 40
P-38E Lightning x 6
P-40E Warhawk x 16

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged
E7K2 Alf: 2 destroyed on ground

Allied aircraft losses
B-17D Fortress: 1 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
12 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Airbase hits 12
Airbase supply hits 5
Runway hits 53

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Morning Air attack on Vizagapatnam , at 42,37

Weather in hex: Partial cloud

Raid spotted at 40 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 13 minutes

Japanese aircraft
Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 3

Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 55

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 3 damaged

No Allied losses

Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 6
Runway hits 21

Aircraft Attacking:
15 x Blenheim IV bombing from 10000 feet
Airfield Attack: 4 x 250 lb GP Bomb
11 x Blenheim IV bombing from 10000 feet
Airfield Attack: 4 x 250 lb GP Bomb
14 x Blenheim IV bombing from 10000 feet
Airfield Attack: 4 x 250 lb GP Bomb
15 x Blenheim IV bombing from 10000 feet
Airfield Attack: 4 x 250 lb GP Bomb

CAP engaged:
264th Sentai with Ki-45 KAIa Nick (0 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling)
(3 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.)
3 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 0 out of immediate contact.
Group patrol altitude is 15000 , scrambling fighters to 30000.
Time for all group planes to reach interception is 25 minutes

The Allied air force is ordered to stand down for a day to allow fatigue to drop and some repairs. I am close to being able to send 100 B-17's against the next target (Bezwada), but need a few days for the bombers to be ready.

I think Andre is surprised I have so many B-17's in India. The comment was "55 B-17's? Really?" [:D] Wait till I hit him with everything in a few days. I could have close to 200 bombers flying.

I have to admit, I'm liking the Allied bomber force. I know it is fragile, with few replacements, but so far I've limited my losses and seeing quite an effective bomber force coming into it's own.

Yeah. If the Japanese go for India it makes the most sense to have them here and to spend fighters to make them worthwhile. Looks like you really played these turns well to both get bombers through and still get nearly 2:1 with your fighters using all first generation airframes.

It is fragile, but you don't want to use the 4Es daily. They're for strategic missions, and if the strategic goal is to shut these bases, you hoard them up and strike big and often until the mission is accomplished, then use the expendable 2Es to maintain the damage after and keep disruption up on his forces until the 4Es are again ready. Sounds you already have most of it sorted out though. [:)]

PS - Don't respond to his psych. games with the 'Really?' comments. He knows that's actually nothing. I'm sure at some point he's had 200 Sallys flying over a target in China. Maybe daily. 55 x 8 is actually a bit less than 200 x 4. [;)]

A B-17E could carry up to 17,600 pounds, while a Sally had a bomb load of 2,200 pounds. So the B-17E had 8 times the bomb load of a Sally. 55 x 17,600 = 968,000 pounds of bombs vice 200 x 2,200 = 440,000 pounds of bombs. So by bomb load 55 B-17Es are more than twice as much as 200 sallys.

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

A B-17E could carry up to 17,600 pounds, while a Sally had a bomb load of 2,200 pounds. So the B-17E had 8 times the bomb load of a Sally. 55 x 17,600 = 968,000 pounds of bombs vice 200 x 2,200 = 440,000 pounds of bombs. So by bomb load 55 B-17Es are more than twice as much as 200 sallys.

That does not account for range or fuel, does it?

At any rate, it's the bomb load in the game that makes the comparison.

ORIGINAL: Bif1961

A B-17E could carry up to 17,600 pounds, while a Sally had a bomb load of 2,200 pounds. So the B-17E had 8 times the bomb load of a Sally. 55 x 17,600 = 968,000 pounds of bombs vice 200 x 2,200 = 440,000 pounds of bombs. So by bomb load 55 B-17Es are more than twice as much as 200 sallys.

It's all about what we're given to use in game [:)]

The practical bomb load of a B-17 was never 17,600 pounds though. Have a look at some typical loads in Europe. By most accounts the loads were most often between 4-5k pounds, but several missions of up to 8k pounds were run also.

http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=1505

If you want to even get more precise, in WITP-AE, you'd calculate for the 250kg bomb, which is heavier than a 500 pounder.

July 3/42:

A quiet day with no air activity in India by either side.

Allied targets for the 4th are airbases at Bezwada and Vizagapatnam. Japanese ground forces number 20 units at Bezwada, so once the airbase is neutralized the bombers will concentrate on ground troops and put those 500 pounders to work.

Andre made a comment about the activity he's noticed at Cape Town. I told him straight out it was my Ceylon amphibious forces beginning to arrive and nothing to worry about. Let's see if telling him the truth can be an effective form of Maskirovka. [:D]

After an almost two week hiatus a turn arrived from Andre, whose been busy with family and travel, so updates should start to appear periodically once again.

Not much to report on the turn. The only action of note was the first bombing missions against Bezwada's airbase. Results were mixed. Air losses were almost even with the slight edge to the Allies, but severe storms limited the effectiveness of the bombers who faced little resistance. My fighters on LRCAP over Bezwada performed much better against the Tojo's this time, but the P-39's and Hurricane's on escort suffered moderate losses.

So here is a question for those who may be following. I have five American and 2 British CV's available and I'm contemplating a raid against Colombo. With almost 100% of Japanese CV strength in the Central Pacific I'd be facing only LBA, and perhaps a couple of CVL's or CVE's. I believe Andre has surface assets worth hitting at Colombo, including BB Yamato. I just wonder if this would be considered a risk I shouldn't take at this time? With the planned invasion of Ceylon on the table, would it be best to hold off? The thought is if I raid Colombo and Andre reacts by sending KB to the IO, I could redeploy my CV's to Australia and strike at New Caledonia or Fiji instead of Ceylon later in the year.

Any thoughts?

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

After an almost two week hiatus a turn arrived from Andre, whose been busy with family and travel, so updates should start to appear periodically once again.

Not much to report on the turn. The only action of note was the first bombing missions against Bezwada's airbase. Results were mixed. Air losses were almost even with the slight edge to the Allies, but severe storms limited the effectiveness of the bombers who faced little resistance. My fighters on LRCAP over Bezwada performed much better against the Tojo's this time, but the P-39's and Hurricane's on escort suffered moderate losses.

So here is a question for those who may be following. I have five American and 2 British CV's available and I'm contemplating a raid against Colombo. With almost 100% of Japanese CV strength in the Central Pacific I'd be facing only LBA, and perhaps a couple of CVL's or CVE's. I believe Andre has surface assets worth hitting at Colombo, including BB Yamato. I just wonder if this would be considered a risk I shouldn't take at this time? With the planned invasion of Ceylon on the table, would it be best to hold off? The thought is if I raid Colombo and Andre reacts by sending KB to the IO, I could redeploy my CV's to Australia and strike at New Caledonia or Fiji instead of Ceylon later in the year.

Any thoughts?

I'll start at the end... the trouble with the last bit is that you have to move around the outside of his circle and he can move within it - a much shorter distance that he has to cover if he wants to reposition his CVs again once yours disappear from the IO... Which is not to say that it's a good idea, just that it's not a given that he'll still be near the SRA or IO with KB in the month that it takes you to drive your CVs to the east coast of Australia. It's only a 2-week transit time from Singapore to Rabaul, if that.


As for raiding Colombo... if you have a solid picture of his LBA there and think it weak, you could come at him from the south at high speed and cross your fingers. If there is a decent level of airfields and Av Support on Ceylon, though... you'll only have a single day's raid to do it. Unless you knock out an airfield with your raid also, but that diverts from your stated objective of sinking shipping. More intel needed, I think. As for how it would affect your reinvasion of Ceylon, depending on the results of your raid you would accomplish one of two things: either alerting him that you're coming here (if your raid is weak or delivers poor results) or convincing him that he can't hold here (if your raid gets good results). Those outcomes are dependent somewhat on luck, sure, but also upon what he has on the island as that will determine your degree of success more than anything else. So... again, more intel needed [:D].

July 6/42:

Oucho. A bad day for Allied air over Bezwada. The previous day's raid was well coordinated and supported by sweeps, that was not the case today.

I decided to rely on escorts and LRCAP and paid the price for my complacency. Raids were not coordinated and the first group of Blenheim's arrived with only P-39's and Hurricane IIb's for escort, with no high cover LRCAP appearing, and get hammered. It looks like there were six Japanese fighter units assigned to LRCAP of Bezwada and despite the escorts having roughly even numbers...it got ugly. Follow up raids with smaller groups of Blenheim's and the main raid of B-17's were supported by LRCAP and escorts so losses were far lower than the first raid. On the day, only 15 Japanese planes are lost compared to 49 Allied aircraft, mainly P-39's, Hurricane's and Blenheim's. I should have swept the base first to degrade the CAP as well, but didn't this time and the results were predictable.

I may have to stop using the 2E bombers and weaker fighters in the short term. Pools are ok, but another day or two of losses like these and there will be no replacements for these airframes. Unfortunately, the 2E's need escort to get through without horrendous losses, but the fighters assigned get massacred as a result. I'm going to have to change my tactics and use the 2E's only when I know they will face limited opposition. The 4E's will have to carry the load and luckily another two bomber squadrons will arrive in India within a week.

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

As for raiding Colombo... if you have a solid picture of his LBA there and think it weak, you could come at him from the south at high speed and cross your fingers. If there is a decent level of airfields and Av Support on Ceylon, though... you'll only have a single day's raid to do it. Unless you knock out an airfield with your raid also, but that diverts from your stated objective of sinking shipping. More intel needed, I think.

I received solid recon information on both Madras and Colombo last turn, July 7th. Colombo has 30 auxiliary and 82 bomber aircraft...no fighters. 30 ships are reported in port and 10 surface ships consisting of CA's, CL's and DD's at sea. So there are plenty of targets. Madras sports 144 Japanese fighter aircraft and all other fighters are located at forward airbases. If this is the case, and remains so for the next few weeks, a raid on Colombo could be completely unexpected.

To further your query regarding the airbase, the plan is to use both Bellary and Hyderabad to base 4E's with the intention of performing a simultaneous strike against the airbase at Colombo. I will have roughly 15 bomber squadrons available totalling 120 B-17's.

I've ordered the CV's to move out from Cape Town, so it will come down to remaining undetected on the approach Ceylon for the raid to go ahead.

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

As for raiding Colombo... if you have a solid picture of his LBA there and think it weak, you could come at him from the south at high speed and cross your fingers. If there is a decent level of airfields and Av Support on Ceylon, though... you'll only have a single day's raid to do it. Unless you knock out an airfield with your raid also, but that diverts from your stated objective of sinking shipping. More intel needed, I think.

I received solid recon information on both Madras and Colombo last turn, July 7th. Colombo has 30 auxiliary and 82 bomber aircraft...no fighters. 30 ships are reported in port and 10 surface ships consisting of CA's, CL's and DD's at sea. So there are plenty of targets. Madras sports 144 Japanese fighter aircraft and all other fighters are located at forward airbases. If this is the case, and remains so for the next few weeks, a raid on Colombo could be completely unexpected.

To further your query regarding the airbase, the plan is to use both Bellary and Hyderabad to base 4E's with the intention of performing a simultaneous strike against the airbase at Colombo. I will have roughly 15 bomber squadrons available totalling 120 B-17's.

I've ordered the CV's to move out from Cape Town, so it will come down to remaining undetected on the approach Ceylon for the raid to go ahead.

Sounds good. Will be watching.

Well now. Things just got interesting...

Japanese forces invade Diego Garcia. I should have clued in earlier when Andre took Addu, but I figured Diego Garcia was secure and didn't further reinforce the base, hindsight is 20/20. This now poses an interesting dilemma for Andre. Will he reinforce, or rely on a string of naval bombardments to pound the defenders? Either way, how's this for timing? I think there's a good chance to bloody his nose if I time things right considering what I just put into motion.

AAR's of the action at Diego Garcia follow:

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Night Naval bombardment of Diego Garcia at 11,62 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!

5 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
BB Yamato, Shell hits 1
BB Kongo
CA Chokai
CL Kinu
CL Natori

Allied ground losses:
51 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 5 destroyed, 11 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 6 (2 destroyed, 4 disabled)

Port hits 11
Port fuel hits 6
Port supply hits 3

E13A1 Jake acting as spotter for BB Yamato
BB Yamato firing at DG RN Detachment
DG RN Detachment firing at BB Yamato
E13A1 Jake acting as spotter for BB Kongo
BB Kongo firing at Diego Garcia
CA Chokai firing at Diego Garcia
CL Kinu firing at Diego Garcia
CL Natori firing at Diego Garcia

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Pre-Invasion action off Diego Garcia (11,62)

15 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.

Japanese Ships
BB Mutsu
DD Kuretake
AMC Kiyosumi Maru

Japanese ground losses:
11 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
93 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 7 disabled
Non Combat: 3 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 5 (3 destroyed, 2 disabled)

BB Mutsu firing at 46th Indian Brigade
DD Kuretake firing at 46th Indian Brigade
Defensive Guns fire at approaching troops in landing craft at 6,000 yards
Defensive Guns fire at approaching troops in landing craft at 1,000 yards

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Amphibious Assault at Diego Garcia (11,62)

TF 402 troops unloading over beach at Diego Garcia, 11,62

Japanese ground losses:
186 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 35 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 7 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 5 (0 destroyed, 5 disabled)

19 troops of a IJA Infantry Squad lost in surf during unload of 14th Guards Rgt

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Ground combat at Diego Garcia (11,62)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 1920 troops, 16 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 71

Defending force 3761 troops, 13 guns, 154 vehicles, Assault Value = 184

Japanese adjusted assault: 2

Allied adjusted defense: 137

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 68 (fort level 3)

Combat modifiers
Defender: forts(+), leaders(-), disruption(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), leaders(-), disruption(-), fatigue(-)

Japanese ground losses:
574 casualties reported
Squads: 5 destroyed, 40 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 0 disabled

Allied ground losses:
12 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled

Assaulting units:
14th Guards Rgt /1

Defending units:
754th Tank Battalion
46th Indian Brigade
DG RN Detachment

Diego Garcia was mined, and it's unfortunate that I couldn't get a single mine hit, especially against an amphibious TF off the beaches.

And what does that do for your plans to raid Ceylon?

On the other hand, if you move in quickly before he has a chance to really get set up at Diego...it could be extra surprise for him?

This could get interesting, but be careful too!!

I think the chance to sink some battleships and cruisers at sea trumps trying a raid on Colombo to sink a number of submarines and transports. Last turn, naval search indicated a large number of TF's at Colombo, which I presume to be follow up supporting TF's which will head to Diego Garcia. It doesn't make sense to just land a regiment on Diego Garcia and not make it a search platform to secure Ceylon's flank.

My CV's will arrive on map in six days at mission speed. The timing could be perfect to catch a large number of transport TF's and possibly a retiring bombardment BB force.

I think the chance of encountering Japanese CV's is minimal. System damage had accumulated enough on Andre's raid at Christmas Island to cause smoking on all ships encountered during various combat replays. Factor in CV Zuikaku needing some yard time, after taking a torpedo hit near Christmas Island, it isn't likely Andre can get them all the way to the IO in time without adding more system damage. I do worry about Japanese LBA on Ceylon, especially Betty/Nell torpedo bombers, but recon still indicates a lack of fighters on Ceylon so if they do fly, I don't anticipate any escorts. We all know what happens to unescorted Japanese torpedo bombers.

It definitely might get interesting, all comes down to timing and if Andre will cooperate as I hope he will. That man loves to use BB's on naval bombardment missions. [:D]

Hoping your ambush works as planned!
Have you got a bead on mini-KB? It could stand against two US carriers (not sure how many you have coming to the party).

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Hoping your ambush works as planned!
Have you got a bead on mini-KB? It could stand against two US carriers (not sure how many you have coming to the party).

There is no mini-KB. At best there might be a couple of CVL's and CVE's in the theatre. Andre committed practically his entire CV force on the raid in the Central Pacific.

I am bringing two British and five American CV's to this particular party.

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Hoping your ambush works as planned!
Have you got a bead on mini-KB? It could stand against two US carriers (not sure how many you have coming to the party).

There is no mini-KB. At best there might be a couple of CVL's and CVE's in the theatre. Andre committed practically his entire CV force on the raid in the Central Pacific.

I am bringing two British and five American CV's to this particular party.

Sounds like a flashmob! Something tells me there is going to be some destructive partying! [:)]

I forgot to mention that I also have reinforcements already en route to Diego Garcia. A regiment of U.S. 40th Division, another BF and a Naval Construction Bn. Supply, fuel are also inbound. Andre's operation preceded my reinforcing the base by about 10 days, go figure!

July 10/42:

Lost a couple of unescorted transports today near Socotra. I don't tend to send transports unescorted, so I must have forgot about these two. They were valuable 5500 and 6400 ton capacity, stupid!

Well, I didn't think of option 3 for Andre at Diego Garcia. He is pulling out. Will he try again, who knows? Something tells me he won't. He's also got at least one CV southeast of the base, as he launched 27 Kate's against the port to hit a docked PG. Damn, I'm still five days away and it would be awesome to bag a CV, but I think there will be empty Ocean when I arrive. This means the Colombo raid could still be in play though. There are definitely tons of Japanese naval assets in the area.