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CHINA

What is the saying ? One draw is always better than one speach ?

before a next update front by front , here is a map about KB.


After spotting KB near Baker, this jap TF headed for Canton Island.
But on 2nd february, it disapeared south of Christmas Island.....
And i tried to guess if it had sailed back toward Tarawa ( doubtful) or directly East toward my Line of Communication between
West Coast and Australia.

Than, on 8th feb, i found KB....



Edit:
damned, there is no target on this screenshot.
It was 2 AK that 47 Vals and 17 Kate sinked . Empty....the AK were empty [:D]

global map of this encounter .

I must precise that i don't feel ready to tangle with KB.
My CV are so small, so young. They didn't reach adulthood ( i mean Hellcats [;)] ).
So once more, all my assets avoid the japs CV Fleet ....

and i noticed your minefield of 300 at the Andaman isl.
I usually pack all of my (IJN) ML into 2 or 3 TF's and pack about 1000-1500 mines on a place, having 300 isnt really worth the hassle (i believe the Allies have fewer ML's, but to counter that, they have an abundance of lvl 9 ports to replenish from)

think of all the time & fuel he spends with KB being in the middle of nowhere, that also brings along some oportunities (depending on where you'r cv's are)

ORIGINAL: flaggelant

and i noticed your minefield of 300 at the Andaman isl.
I usually pack all of my (IJN) ML into 2 or 3 TF's and pack about 1000-1500 mines on a place, having 300 isnt really worth the hassle (i believe the Allies have fewer ML's, but to counter that, they have an abundance of lvl 9 ports to replenish from)

think of all the time & fuel he spends with KB being in the middle of nowhere, that also brings along some oportunities (depending on where you'r cv's are)

Hey Jens, happy to see you there.
A few comments:

1) about mines at Andaman: 300 mines was all i could do with my subs: i had no more ML in this theater of operation since KB raid in Indian Ocean in March/April 1942. So i made my best to keep this level, but this was not easy.
Now there is a particular area filled with 1500/2000 mines that i'd like a jap fleet to try....

2) KB is indeed spending lot of fuel for a hunt that only gave him 2 empty AK; Jan (my Czech opponant) had already made others raids like this , scoring not much (except in september 42, sinking 2 CV).
But with nearly all the oil of the DEI (there was nearly no damages to the base with oil centers), may be he can afford this.

Catching KB NOW would be nice: he is far away from a port. A damaged ship would have hard time going back to safety.
But he has packed 9 CV together, a tremendous power that i don't feel ready to fight.
And as i stated in a previous mail, what is incredible is that my CV are always far away of his raids : i never manage to get close to him [&:]. And having run in every corner of the pacific with my CV fleet has pump dry many base of fuel. I now must wait for my TK to resupply many bases....but with KB in the middle of my lines, i must wait that this monster disapear.

Having suffered some setbacks, i don't have the guts now to fight him.
This time will come; probably around november, when all my CV will be upgraded to Hellcats, and provided i don't loose some by stupids acting.

Thanks for reading [:)]

good points there

I was more thinking of a offensive action against a naval base instead of KB. with all the cv's on the other side of the map a response would come purely from aviation support from a specific place (most likely an island), which musters a much smaller threat to you landing force/cv's than a battle with KB.
But with a lack of fuel this can be very hard to realise to, seems waiting could be one of the better choices at the moment indeed.

on the 9 cv's; have you been able to notice any of his R&R rotations within the cv formation? could be important information to determine your moment to strike.

have corsairs arrived yet -you will enjoy them in stock sooooooooooooooooo much!

ORIGINAL: 1275psi

have corsairs arrived yet -you will enjoy them in stock sooooooooooooooooo much!

The pool is building. The rate is good (150 each months), but the repair after upgrading is slow.
For now only 1 VMF have upgraded, and does not have fully repaired all it's new planes (1 plane repaired per day is damn too slow [:@] )
And i would like to surprise my opponant, but this is not easy: no CV can fill with Corsair (i mean, i don't mess the OOB of each CV right now); and F4U have a short range, so i must plann very carefully any appearance.

For now, opponant is going on hollidays untill 6th september.
I have an update to make running from 1st to 9th february, stay tunned

1st- 10th february 1943

SOPAC


Gili Gili is bombed quite daily. Weather often prevent this these days, but base is still closed.

Efate. Same thing here: bombed from time to time to keep it closed.
Japs subs are still spotted, and still unharmed, wich is a pity. Don't know what they are doing: mining ? Supplying ? Evacuating ?
No news from the 2 japs subs hits by patrol planes last month, i assume they did not sank.

Port Moresby
- 1st february, jap raid. 34 Zeros and 24 Bettys against 20 Kittyhawk I, 24 P-39 and 6 P-38. 2 allied fighters destroyed for 20 zeros and 8 bettys. MSW Townsville sinked by 2 torpedoes.
- 3rd february, new jap raid cost me 4 fighters for 12 zeros and 12 bettys; this time no australians MSW hit.

- 4th february, a jap TF of ML is attacked just north of Gili Gili. 90 sorties of my bombers manage to score 10 bombs hits and many shells hits (attack at 100 feet) on 6 ML; 9 zeros on CAP are downed for 5 Kittyhawk and a dutch B-25J.
ML Ishisaki and Saishu sink the next days, but the others reach Gili Gili. The weather prevent another attack on 5th february [:(].
Then the TF head back for Rabaul.
What was the goal of this TF ? I can't be sure. Probably mining Gili Gili shores in order to prevent an assaut of my forces on it. As i am not ready for offensive, this is useless.

- 5th february, night bombing by bettys on Port Moresby resume for 5 days without any effect appart some ops losses for the jap.

Humor
Jan wrote me : " i am sad thinking that now every village near Port Moresby have japanese aluminium roof".





CENTPAC

Funafuti. Despite the few losses i suffered on the previous week, i still intent to slow down the building of this jap base.
On 8th and 9th february, a Bomber Group of B-24 from Pago Pago fly 2 raids (55 sorties ).
They had to face a CAP of 3 Rufe and 6 Zeros each time. 1 B-24 is destroyed, 12 damaged. There are few results on the airfield: 2 hits on airbase, 19 on runway; but reccon show no damages to tge base.

KB
See previous post about the loss of AK West Ivis and Harry Luckenbach.
Only 3 CV have been identified : datais from AI, AII and BI; of course, the small size of the target (a TF of 2 AK) could explain the few number of planes attacking. And i doubt Jan has come so deep in my LOC with only 3 CV.

1st- 10 th february 1943

DEI

Koepang-Timor

Until i am ready for offensive (wich should be not before august 1943), i intent to slow the repair of this base.
- 1st february, allied raid of 103 bombers against 37 jap fighters. 6 allied bombers goes down for 2 zeros, but the base suffer a bit: 136 runway hits and 14 airbase hits are sure to slow the repairs.
- This raid is doubled on 2nd february. 90 allied bombers loose 5 planes for 1 Tojo. 81 runway hits and 3 airbase hits are scored.
- 3rd february, 6 dutch B-25C goes all alone: i forget to set them to rest with the others bombers [:o].
Fortunately, none are shot directly (although of the 4 damaged, 2 are lost on the way back).

- New raid on 6th february. 91 bombers against 26 japs fighters. 2 zeros and 2 B-17 shot down. 2 hits are scored on the airbase and 30 on the runway.

- on 10th february, for the first time, a decent escort is given to the "Koepang Party". 16 P-38 of 24th FG/A.
5 Lightnings are destroyed, but they down 7 japs fighters and the bombers get through unharmed, scoring 6 hits on airbase and 51 on runway.

ILOILO
After the setback suffered by 23rd SNLF on 18th november, the island has been regularily bombed, thus giving a good training field for the japs pilots, and slowly grinding my forces here.
On 3rd february, a jap landing started at Iloilo, unopposed, and lasted till 5th february.
After a quick bombardement on 5th to test my defenses, the japs launch it's attack on 6th, capturing the base and destroying 61st Philippines Div.
That is not a big deal.
Cebu is probably the next target, as air bombing has started there.

SUB WAR

It seem the sub war had more luck in the beginning of january.

1st to 10th february stats:
- 12 subs attacks, 4 ASW attacks.
- 6 targets hits.
- Sunk: 1 AK; 1PG; 1 MSW; 1 AD
- Sub hits by ASW TF: 1
- Subs hits by patrol planes: 10 !! [X(]
- subs lost: SS Kingfish. SS O-21 hit a jap mine and sank outright while laying mines at Akyab.

1st - 10th february 1943

- 1st february, weather grounded ALL my planes in Burma/India....[8|];
(did i ever tell you that i hate the weather in India/Burma ??? Oh yes, i think i already told you [8|][;)] ).

-2nd february. A raid on Rangoon Port was aiming the 2 unindentified ship in it.
Only the 4E from Dacca fly the mission: the B-25C bomber group from Akyab stayed on ground (weather, or moral ?)
The raid gathered 132 4E and 38 fighters....and encounter a huge CAP of 14 Tojo, 15 Nick and 118 Tony [X(].

Fortunately, with luck, it did not turn to a one sided slaughter: 5 P-40E, 18 P-38, 2 F5A (Ouch, i don't have any left in the pool) and 15 4E are destroyed. But 1 Tojo, 7 nick and 38 Tony are destroyed !!
Sadly, no ships are hits in the port.
1 LT Conroy of 6th FS score 4 kills, reaching 8; and CPT Liles of 23th FG/B score 4 kills, reaching 6.

- 3rd february, once again, the weather ground my planes.
- 4th, the brits LBA harass the japs along the Irrawaddy frontline.
- 5th, nearly no mission are flown because of weather.

- 6th february, south Irrawaddy, 15 Liberators VI fly unescorted in the claws of a CAP of 9 Tojo, and managed to get through unharmed. But the following raid suffer from this lak of luck and coordination.
A raid of 30 LB-30 loose 3 planes; than 20 B-25 from Akyab, still unescorted, loose 5 planes.

- 7th, 8th and 9th february see most allied bombers flying without opposition , scoring some lights results on the japs ground units.
The weather prevent most of my LBA to fly.

ON GROUND

The south tip of my forces, still stucked by the japs ZOC, start to suffer some lack of supply. Hence, i ordered one half of the units to stop land bombardement, trying to save some supply.
Despite this fact, on 10th february, 3rd Carabiniers regiment of Col Lejeune launch an attack (this is the only unit of the stack to do so). While the odds are 0/1, it cause 200 japs casualties for 63 allied.

The japs maybe start to suffer lack of supply too: in these 10 days, the artillery bombardement from the japs cause 300 allied casualties only on the 2 hex of the frontline. My own forces cause 2300 japs casualties by bombardement.







ANDAMAN

I take advantage of the fact that, in order to protect this new base, the japs must fly LRCAP from Victoria Point, 5 hexes away, and thus having a CAP not too powerful.
- On 3rd february, 9 B-24 encounter 8 A6M3a. 1 zero is downed, 2 hits are scored on runway.
- On 4th february, 6 B-24 encounter 6 zeros and 5 Nick. 1 zero is downed. 1 hit scored on runway.
- On 5th, 16 B-24 get through the CAP and score 2 hits on runway.
- On 6th, 10 B-24 score 1 hit on airbase and 1 on runway.

Although the raids are not costly, this kind of results won't help me in shutting this base.
And this is important, because allowing Bettys to fly from here would put at risk every TF from Diamond Harbor to Colombo.

- At last, on 7th february, the weather allow me to send a big raid. 56 4E bombers get through the CAP, but score only 1 hit on base and 8 on runway. Disapointing.

LUANG PRABANG

This base once more host japanese planes on 8th february. This base is now a level 5 airfield !! [X(]. But i can't see the use of such a level, except raising the Base Victory point of Jan.
On 9th, a sweep of 16 P-38 of AVG/A from Yunan has nothing to clear. A raid of 21 LB-30 from Dacca destroy 2 zeros on ground and score 10 hits on the runway.
But on 10th, for some reason, the sweep came after....30 LB-30 tangle with 19 Tony, loosing 3 planes for no results on the ground.
Finaly, 14 P-38 of AVG/A down 11 of the 12 Tony on CAP !
AVG/A is really a legendary unit !

Just have a look at the Kills of the units: it is nearly 12% of the A2A kills of my forces, and 5% of all japs losses !!

Of course there had been many planes lost, and also a good bunch of pilots, but i am convinced the result is HIGHLY positive.
I like this squadron [8D]

1st - 10th february 1943

CHINA

The Great Escape- Part II

On 2nd february, 2 others jap tank regiments reach the vicinity of Chungking.
Despite a slight harassement by my chinese bombers (18 sorties causing 80 casualties and 4 vehicules), these 4 units make a strong push on 3rd february, repulsing the chinese Kampfgruppe warding the place, causing 700 casualties.
( i can no longer call a chinese corps with 120 squads and no guns a Corps, so i decided i could call them Kampfgruppen; or Warbands. Or Whatever).
The escaping stack of 6 chinese whatever being close, i thought they could still enter the hex, and i would then try to repulse the 4 japs tank regiments.
BUT, surprise !! the pathfinder of this stack decided to cross the river just NE of Chungking [X(] .
As walking out of this mountain hex is not quick [:@], i send 3 warbands just north of Chungking , trying to cover the path.
If this fail, these 6 warbands would just have to head for Chengtu and die there.

Kunming
The air war goes the wrong way. There are too many failure in coordination and attack.
Chinese B -25J attaking from Yunan try to harass the jap stack at Kunming, covered by I-153, I-16, Spitfire Vb of 605th sq and AVG/A (or thus is it ordered).
-But on 1st february, neither 605th or AVG/A provide escort, 8 allied planes are lost against the jap CAP above Kunming.
- On 2nd, 605 provide cover: 8 japs fighters are downed for 4 chinese planes (no brits losses); but AVG didn't fly.
- 3rd, 4th, 5th, no mission fly, wether from morale or weather troubles.

Relying on this, the japs launch several attack on 3rd, 4th and 5th, reducing my forts level from level 7 to 5.
The casualties amount to 7000 chinese (90 guns) for 12000 japs (290 guns). Too bad these japs losses are not direct KIA.
The last attack, failing at 0/1, the foe troops rest one day, and launch another attack on 7th, wich also fail at 0/1 (3900 japs casualties for 1100 chinese), reducing the forts to level 4.
Nethertheless, the japs are smelling victory, and an assaut on 10th down my forts to level 3, achieve 1/1, and cause 4800 japs casualties for 2000 chinese.
Stay tuned for 11th february....

In the sky, the lack of coordination mean that the allies missions went scattered (or even don't fly), some without escort.
This costed me 9 bombers and 4 fighters for 8 japs fighters. AVG never fly these missions.
FLT Cheshire of 605th sq reach 20 kills. Too bad the Spit are so short-legged, they are good Tony killers.
On 9th and 10th, no allied missions flown to harass the japs.

REINFORCEMENTS

Despite Mongol_Horde advice (hey guy, thank you), i tried in vain to fill the ranks of my troops in a base with a supply level in white.
3 units were sent from Chungking to Chengtu, with the hope they could slowly raise their strengh, but the precise monitoring of these 3 units (and the 2 already at Chengtu) showed that none of these 5 units received any kind of remplacement in infantery squad, mortar, AT Gun, Howitzer or else....
May be there is a double condition ??? [&:] : white supply level and 20000 supply ?
If this is the case, i am really doomed in short terms in China: the huge pool of squad won't make any difference.
That is a pity because even if loosing troops and units (something i cannot do anything against it), i would have buy time and may be i would have costed a few troops to the japs.

Holly Crap , nearly 400 hits since my last update [X(].

Guys, i think it's because it's one of the latest AAR of old Witp, i can't believe it's me that is interesting [&:][:-].

Hey, dear reader, keep patience a little bit more, my opponant had just came back from hollidays and he is still having some real life issues (nothing to worry about, just things time-consuming). Hold on, we are going back to this war in a few days.
Thanks for reading, and as usual, if you want to see something particular, ask, and i will try to show you, unless it is TOP SECRET.

May be there is a double condition ??? : white supply level and 20000 supply ?

You have to have access to 20K supply... and being "in the white" is very useful (although i am not sure it is strictly necessary)... if one or the other conditions is not met, well, don't count on getting much in the way of replacements.

If you can, use transports (or even bombers) to fly supplies into a base connecting to Chungking (or even Chungking). Just don't fly to somewhere that has Japanese in the hex (or no supplies will actually move - this is a game glitch).

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

May be there is a double condition ??? : white supply level and 20000 supply ?

You have to have access to 20K supply... and being "in the white" is very useful (although i am not sure it is strictly necessary)... if one or the other conditions is not met, well, don't count on getting much in the way of replacements.

If you can, use transports (or even bombers) to fly supplies into a base connecting to Chungking (or even Chungking). Just don't fly to somewhere that has Japanese in the hex (or no supplies will actually move - this is a game glitch).

Robert, thanks for information.
I keep 3 base in China [:(][8|].
None of these meet the conditions for having reinforcements. Not good for the fighting in China !

Kunming fall in japanese hands on 14 february after 4 days of assaults. The amount of losses are 8200 chinese troops, and 10000 japanese soldiers.
There was no jap bombers in these assaut, but a usual LRCAP of Tony and Tojo costed 6 chinese B-25J, 7 I-16 and 5 P-38G that were trying to support the town. There was in fact too few sorties to have a real influence. The japs loosed 16 Tony above Kunming.

VMO-251 was sent a long time ago in India Theater. Can't remenber when exactly, but probably one or two month after the second KB raid on Colombo (april 42).
At this time i intended to have some US reinforcements (du to big production rate of F4F Wildcats and big rate of pilots for US Marines) in Ceylon. And to upgrade to Corsair latter.
Hence, the first upgrade was for this unit, because Burma is, with China, one of the most intense front.

The first fight was 15 february, sweeping Luang Prabang.
24 F4U encounter 10 Tony, downed one for no loss but suffering a ops losses at landing.
Second fight on 16 february, escorting bombers to Luang Prabang, 13 F4U against 13 Tony, one planes downed on each side.

Two fights, 2 kills, 2 losses ....[8|]
In two fights, the "fabulous corsair" didn't desearve a nick name like "Whistling death". It is just a dispointement.



Edited: just received game file for 19th february.
Sweep of 23 F4U against 39 Tony. 11 Tony destroyed for 9 Corsairs.
What am i supposed to do now ???????
I have read many AAR where the Corsair make a huge difference (for example Andy Mac vs PzB ) in A2A.
If i don't have the same results, i can't even think of covering my TF, i can't keep of going on offensive without huge losses.
That would mean throwing the towel [:@]

Looking at the experience of you unit being 61, you might want to try and train them for a while?
(plenty of time to do so if they were there since June)

If you can pit them in a fight with equeal XP i'd say your odds will shoot up sky high

ORIGINAL: flaggelant

Looking at the experience of you unit being 61, you might want to try and train them for a while?
(plenty of time to do so if they were there since June)

If you can pit them in a fight with equeal XP i'd say your odds will shoot up sky high

Can't "train" in the normal way above 60... you could have them bomb enemy troops, etc. to get more experience.

Gladiatt, remember: you thought P-38s were horrible when you first got them, now they are pretty useful... a couple of encounters at the beginning of an airplane's career is probably not going to tell you how well the plane will perform in the long run... give it some more time.