Quisling! An AFB does Japan (No PanzerKat)

[John B.]

It's mid-April and here's a piece of good news. It looks like I got an extra CVE during the carrier battle in late February. That would make the tally 7 of those annoying pests. And, my subs near San Fran. bagged an American AK this turn. So far, my large convoys that are few and far between have avoided significant losses to US subs but that will get worse and worse as time goes on. but, everyone of his merchant ships I can sink is all the more VP he must double to win.

[John B.]

And, my Tojo IIbs made their debut and bagged 7 B-17s. I can't believe that I actually shot down some heavy bombers! Sadly, the zero losses were my fault for leaving those old model planes on patrol over Rangoon. It's interesting that Scott seems to have withdrawn in Bruma. That may mean a push on Sumatra in the near future to go right after the oil. That would be bad!

All of my CVs are in refit but for just about another week or so. I did screw up the switch over in Japanese naval air. My carriers still have to original airframes from 1941 on them. The new factories are there, they are just taking their time switching over.

[John B.]

Small sea battle off the northern coast of New Guinea. One of my torpedoes found a home and some additional hits on the Dutch CLs.

[John B.]

Scott is showing a LOT of interest in the DEI area. But, my Tojo IIbs give another good account of themselves taking down more B-17s and a couple of B-24s.

There may be a sea battle at Darwin tonight, I have a fast transport convoy there unloading supplies and he has some CLs just to the north of Darwin. I have CAs heading south but they are too far away to stop a night battle so I've sent them to the east of Darwin in an attempt to catch his surface TF after it has shot off its ammunition.

[John B.]

Sometimes your plans work out, and then, rather than admit you're just lucky, you get to write memoirs about how you're a visionary naval genius. This time, my naval plan seems to have worked. There was a series of running fights with my CL TF and an allied TF of three CAs and one DD. I got the better of that one with the CL damaged and for the apparent loss of a US DD.

But, then Scott ran into my CA TF. As you can see, it appears that he was mainly out of ammo. I know that the one CA went down, but, according to the air loss screen he lost enough float planes to justify the conclusion that he actually lost two CAs. The steady naval attrition continues and we each need carriers in the mix to really fix the other guy. Mine are all still getting their upgrades.

I did put a torpedo into a CL on the north coast of New Guinea but I lost 8 Betties in doing so since P-38Gs were there on extended CAP. Again, an incident that may not make it into my memoirs.

On a sadder note, and clearly will not be mentioned in my memoirs, Scott took out one of my big 18 point tankers. And, it was loaded with oil.

The mini tank assault went in on Chungking. I lost one tank, he lost about 30 devices and squads and, I hope, it interfered with any reorganization his units would have been able to fix while my infantry divisions got another turn off.

[John B.]

Well there seems to be quite the little gudalcanal developing at Manokwari. Scott has landed a number of troops there and he has built the airbase up to a level one. I'm not helped by the fact that my betties don't want to do night raids. [:@] In any event, we are locked in a swirling round of naval combats as Scott keeps surface ships there to prevent me from bombarding. My strategy is to send in multiple TFs, at least one per night, because he is far away from ammo resupply. To keep hitting and to wear him out to the point where I can start to bombard the airfield and shut it down.

[John B.]

Tonight will be the DD TF you see in the previous post (4 DDs). Tomorrow it will be the turn of this TF.

[John B.]

But, I am taking battle damage! I ordinarily would be sending the Maya back for time in the yards but time is awasting and Japan expects every man to do his duty!

[John B.]

I do think that Scott is getting the worst of these battles. Here is last night fray. The CL DD combo got into the transports and did some damage. I did hear sinking sounds after the fight and the report said that the Chicago went down. I kind of doubt that given that it's a CA, but it would not surprise me if he lost at least one AP.

[John B.]

As for the Japanese TF, not cheap, but, barring subs these boys should be able to get back to Manila for some time in the yards. I'm just glad that none of them are on fire.

As I said, I think he's too far away from support and, without carriers, he'll take a lot of losses for that airfield. The question is, who will get carriers into the fight first?

[John B.]

The next night was anti-climactic. My 4 DD TF got there, dropped some shells on the airfield, and headed for home. But, my shore bombardment can keep that airfield shut down until he brings up his CVs. Of course, that risks my surface ships since he'll see my surface TF coming and I won't see his CVs until it's too late so in the end he'll get his base here. But, delay delay delay!

[Capt. Harlock]

I did hear sinking sounds after the fight and the report said that the Chicago went down. I kind of doubt that given that it's a CA,

On the other hand, Chicago was one of the less well-armored of the American CA's. Interesting to see her in the same TF as Wichita, a decidedly more modern ship.

[John B.]

It was basically a bad couple of days for US CAs.

[John B.]

The bad news is that the Chicago did not go down after the surface fight. The good news is that the Chicago did go down after two torpedo hits. [:D]

[John B.]

Time for the twice per month assault on Chungking. His losses get to be more each time, this time they're worth about 300 VP and I"m up to 2-1 with no forts left. My troops are slightly less disrupted so it may be one less day before the next all out attack. I do have the five tank regiments who did not attack. They are going to attack this turn but as deliberate and not as shock.

Barring some divine intervention it really is a matter of time for Chungking to go and when it does I'm going to get a whole lot of base VPs plus dead squad VPs.

I did lose a bunch of zeros over New Guinea and I really should just stop using them altogether.

[Capt. Harlock]

Barring some divine intervention it really is a matter of time for Chungking to go and when it does I'm going to get a whole lot of base VPs plus dead squad VPs.

It looks to me as if you should already be getting a decent bag of VP's. 33 units destroyed?[X(]

[John B.]

Each assault has killed 15-33 units and thus far I'm sure I've wracked up nearly 1,000 VP from my assaults on chungking. I'm not trying to farm VP points here, I'll be happy when the siege is over and I can move those troops elsewhere, but the Chinese army is going to help me avoid a VP defeat.

[John B.]

In sadder news, Scott did to me what I did to him and intercepted bombarding ships after they had shot off their shells. Two nice DDs went down. [:(] I'm pretty sure this is a war crime!

[FlyByKnight]

ORIGINAL: John B.

In sadder news, Scott did to me what I did to him and intercepted bombarding ships after they had shot off their shells. Two nice DDs went down. [:(] I'm pretty sure this is a war crime!

The proper phrasing in 'Wah crime!' as we've all learned from Cap Mandrake.
But at least the cruisers got out okay. And your guys crossed his T so it could've gone even worse.

[John B.]

[;)] The cruisers were untouched which was a nice result!