Lunacy In The Pacific Mogami Vs. Tom Hunter

[Andy Mac]

The RAF pilot pool is a real pain in all my games (except the PZB one where the RAF doesnt exist [:D][:D][:D])

How bad is it at the moment do you have any trained pilots at all ?

Andy

[Tom Hunter]

Andy,

Funny you should ask about this, I have just started to focus on this problem.

I never have any replacement pilots for the RAF. The RAAF is in a better situation and I have several fighter squadrons of RAAF now so I am in the process of getting those units organized to be the tip of the spear.

The actual pilot quality of my airforce in SE Asia is pretty good because I keep sending small units out to drop bombs in China. The four sets below are pretty typical of my fighter groups:

The group headed up by Middleton is a 65 XP RAAF Hurri II group
Shannon is a 54 XP RAF Mohawk group
Trent is a 71 RAF Spitfire group
Ashby is a 63 XP RAF Hurri II group


The groups that are higher in XP did not get that way as Spitfires, they got that way as Wirraways and Lysanders dropping small bombs on Japanese troops in China. That was lots of hard work but I now have a large number of XP 60+ air groups flying Spits and Hurricanes. The last of the Lysanders and Wirraways are being converted now, any additional OJT will be in good quality planes.

I am hoping that the Spitfires will even the odds enough so that Mogami will not be able to ambush my airforce any more. Back in Feb and March he sometimes jumped the Hurricanes with Zeros and inflicted 5 and 6 to one casualties. The last few times he tried that casualties were more like 1.5 to one which is better but not winning. Recently I have ambushed him and inflicted 7 to 1 and 12 to 1 but that was not against Zeros.

[Tom Hunter]

China:

Fighting gets serious on land and in the air as the British and the Japanese both do well and the Chinese teeter at the edge of defeat in Wuchow.

The Chinese recapture Kwelin, it was empty and the same base force the Japanese ejected a month before returned and retook it.

On the 21st the RAF sprung an ambush at Kaigan scoring another victory over the Japanese:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 27
Ki-30 Ann x 16
Ki-32 Mary x 21

Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 5
Spitfire Vb x 21

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 12 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-30 Ann: 5 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-32 Mary: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane II: 1 damaged
Spitfire Vb: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged

Mogami sent Zeros to accompany the raids on Changsha but there was no opposition there.

Then the Japanese hit Wuchow with another big shock attack:

Ground combat at Wuchow

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 101680 troops, 1142 guns, 148 vehicles

Defending force 23518 troops, 220 guns, 0 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 7)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 5


Japanese ground losses:
2425 casualties reported
Guns lost 55
Vehicles lost 2

Allied ground losses:
456 casualties reported
Guns lost 16

A major cause for concern, fortunately there are 2 Chinese corp 15 miles away and more corps and HQ units 15 miles behind them so Wuchow will get re-inforced just in the nick of time.

India - Burma

Mandalay is now an L6 airbase with 427 AV (and 800 AP behind an L9 fort for those who care), a 48 plan LB30 group just moved up to join the 3 Wellington groups that have orders to attack Hanoi. The Wellingtons have never launched the city attack and I don't know why, anyone have insight? Hanoi is reconned every day and has no CAP at all and the bases near hit have no CAP either.

A final observation about both China and India -Burma is the over all situtation in the air. It is moving in favor of the Allies, recently the Japanese have been suffering the devastating ambushes that the Allies suffered in the early war. Allied fighter concentrations are strong enough to fight several days of battles with the Japs now. Also it is harder for the Japanese to avoid combat, Allied planes are starting to show up in places the Japanese need.

South West Pacific

Radio intercepts put Japans 16th ARmy group on an AP heading for Port Moresby. I am sending a lot of subs to the area in the hopes of intercepting something good, though I may just lose a lot of subs.

Allied bombers hit Lae on the 20th Destroying a number of planes on the ground.

llied aircraft
B-24D Liberator x 35

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-49 Helen: 2 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 2 destroyed
Ki-46-II Dinah: 1 destroyed
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
B-24D Liberator: 5 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
62 casualties reported
Guns lost 2

A combination of this raid and nasty weather give Port Moresby 2 days without any bombing at all. The runway is fully repaired but the service is not. There are about 100 P40E, 24 P40Bs, 30 P36s, 60 P39s in Australia plus 60 Kittyhawks on Thursday Island. A group of Wildcats and a 45 plan P40B group are loading at Noumea heading to Brisbane. If I can get the airfield well enough repaired I will put P40 Bs on LRCAP over PM and various allied fighters in it to try and regain control of the air over the town.

The Japanese launch another fruitless assualt on the town July 20th:
Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 75525 troops, 728 guns, 16 vehicles

Defending force 28654 troops, 254 guns, 13 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 5)


Japanese ground losses:
2619 casualties reported
Guns lost 74
Vehicles lost 7

Allied ground losses:
332 casualties reported
Guns lost 12

Then Mogami makes a mistake and leaves a convoy set to RTB to Manila. It steams towards Thursday Island (the shortest route) and the Allies go beserk in a desperate effort to save Thursday from bieng invaded by a convoy that we later learn is empty[8|]

Day 1:

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 4
B-17E Fortress x 15


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AP Kokuryu Maru
PG Seikai Maru
PG Nikkai Maru
AP Shinai Maru
AP Tatsujin Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AP Tarushima Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 12
B-17E Fortress x 17


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AP Sumiyoshi Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Shirashika Maru, Bomb hits 1
AP Taian Maru
AP Kokuryu Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Taimei Maru, Bomb hits 1
AP Sumanoura Maru
AP Haisho Maru
AP Tsuiba Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 3


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AP Tarushima Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

Day 2:
A little Xp for the Kittyhawks:
Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 43
No Allied losses
Japanese Ships
AP Kokuryu Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AP Sumiyoshi Maru, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Tsuiba Maru

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 15
B-17E Fortress x 25


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AP Kokuryu Maru, Bomb hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AP Tsuiba Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Sumiyoshi Maru, on fire, heavy damage


In the South Pacific the North Carolina joined the Colorado in a bombardment run against Luganville. They did about 2000 casualties, the last attack by Colorado alone was on Efate and did about 400. This makes me think Efate has a significantly weaker garrison, it also is causing a small change in Allied bombing strategy some planes will be set to ground attack from now on. There is no way the Japanese have enough supply, and the steady pounding of the ports and airfields has certainly reduced it a lot. So some of the effort will start towards softening up the ground units.

USS Wasp arrives at Pearl Harbor. Enterpise is the worst damaged CV with 8 Sys after her refit, and two CVs still have 27 plane fighter groups, the sys number has to be brought down and the fighter numbers pushed up before the fleet can head South again.

In 3 weeks the additional P40s and Wildcats will be operational in Australia and Cooktown may be an L6 airfield by then as well. After that the Allies will have enough planes and ships to go after KB with some prospect of success. With luck the 7th Australian division will hold the line long enough and Port Moresby will be the high water mark of the Japanese offensive.

[Andy Mac]

Lots of Wo's kicking about do you still think Mogami will try for Russia or have you headed that one off ?

Andy

[Tom Hunter]

I started doing this because several people including Erik R. said that the leader bug did not occur very often. My gut feel was that it does occur often but no one had any evidence so I thought I would start trying to keep track.

Mogami has said that he is now focused on the defensive. I think the attack on PM is a final effort to secure his peremeter.

He is pushing hard in China but not having much luck. My best geuss is that he wants to get the Chinese off the rail line (off both rail lines actually [:D]) and cripple them enough to make China a backwater. Then he can either turn on Russia if he is feeling lucky or send troops to Burma to hold the line.

But I doubt he will ever go for Russia in this game.

But Port Moresby is turning out to be a tough nut to crack and China is not going anywhere at all. The British and Americans are getting ready to launch their first counter offensives, pretty soon the initiative is going to pass from Japan to the Allies.

I would like to hold Port Moresby it will make moving back into the Solomons and New Ireland much easier.

[Tom Hunter]

China

For the first time ever Allied heavy bombers hit Japanese industry. 48 LB30s bomb Hanoi and do 6 hits.

On the 22nd there is another air battle over Kaigan resulting in another resounding win for the RAF
Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 16
Ki-30 Ann x 10
Ki-32 Mary x 15

Allied aircraft
Hurricane II x 10
Spitfire Vb x 26

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 8 destroyed
Ki-30 Ann: 2 destroyed
Ki-32 Mary: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
Spitfire Vb: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged

This ends the Japanese air offensive over Kaigan, but the Japanese effort against Changsha continues.

Further South at Wuchow the Japanese withdraw as the Chinese reinforcements arrive. The Chinese manage to catch a pair of Japanese Brigades that don't leave quite fast enough:

Allied Deliberate attack

Attacking force 59905 troops, 456 guns, 0 vehicles

Defending force 14705 troops, 166 guns, 0 vehicles

Allied assault odds: 2 to 1


Japanese ground losses:
161 casualties reported
Guns lost 12

Allied ground losses:
893 casualties reported
Guns lost 31


Defeated Japanese Units Retreating!

Not a huge victory but China gets to keep Wuchow and those two units will need some time and supplies to become fully effective again.

Japan has been bombing the daylights out of Changsha causing 100 or more runway hits every day but there are so many Chinese engineers in the city that everything is fully repaired by the next morning. On the 25th the RAF, RAAF and Dutch airforce flew in 35 Spitfires, 30 Hurricanes and 16 Demons. This may cause a huge air battle over Changsha next turn.

India-Burma

On the 25th 2 divisions, 2 armored brigades and a number of artillery, HQ and BF units started moving from Akyab to the river hex next to Mandalay. They will join the army at Mandalay and start driving South. I estimate they will cross the river into Japanese held territory about August 30th 1942.

More troops are on the way including another UK divisions and 3 filled out Chinese SEAC divisions. As we get closer to moving into action I will post a plan.

South West Pacific.

Hard fighting around Port Moresby. Numerous Allied air attacks on Japanese shipping has pushed the Japanese ship sunk total into the mid 60s. On the 23rd the Japanese unloaded yet more troops at Port Moresby. The airfield was in good enough shape for the Allies to try basing some planes there and the day was very combat intense:


First the Japanese stormed ashore during the night:
Coastal Guns at Port Moresby, 53,91, firing at TF 7
TF 7 troops unloading over beach at Port Moresby, 53,91


1814 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
PG Taiko Maru, Shell hits 5
PG Chosa Maru, Shell hits 1
PG Keijo Maru, Shell hits 3, on fire
PG Chohakusan Maru, Shell hits 3
PG Eiko Maru, Shell hits 11
AP Mikage Maru #2, Shell hits 3
PG Hong Kong Maru

Japanese ground losses:
2543 casualties reported
Guns lost 12
Vehicles lost 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coastal Guns at Port Moresby, 53,91, firing at TF 7
TF 7 troops unloading over beach at Port Moresby, 53,91


1994 Coastal gun shots fired in defense.
Japanese Ships
PG Chohakusan Maru
PG Keijo Maru, Shell hits 1, on fire
PG Chosa Maru, Shell hits 4
PG Taiko Maru, Shell hits 7
PG Eiko Maru

Japanese ground losses:
1153 casualties reported
Guns lost 6


Then the 30 Beuforts at the airfield took off looking for revenge:

Day Air attack on TF at 52,92


Allied aircraft
Beaufort V-IX x 11


Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort V-IX: 8 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Hiei
BB Kirishima, Torpedo hits 2 (they got it)

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Beaufort V-IX launching torpedoes at 200 feet
4 x Beaufort V-IX launching torpedoes at 200 feet
4 x Beaufort V-IX launching torpedoes at 200 feet

Day Air attack on TF, near Port Moresby at 53,91


Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 23
Beaufort V-IX x 17


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AP Unkai Maru #6
AP Kyuden Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Koshu Maru #2, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
PG Taiko Maru
PG Keijo Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kikukawa Maru

The next night 3 Japanese BBs attacked to put down the airfield. Fortunately most of the Allied planes have fled and the bombardment does not cause much damage:

Naval bombardment of Port Moresby, at 53,91

Japanese Ships
DD Michishio
DD Oshio
DD Asashio
CL Kiso
CL Naka
CA Mogami
BB Hyuga
BB Hiei
BB Haruna


Allied ground losses:
466 casualties reported
Guns lost 21
Vehicles lost 4

Airbase hits 2
Runway hits 2
Port hits 1
Port supply hits 1

Look no Kirishima [:D]

Then the Japanese airforce shows up to shut things down. I'm not going to post the damage just the attacking forces. Suffice to say they succeeded in their mission:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 11
D3A Val x 158

A6M2 Zero x 74
G3M Nell x 87
G4M1 Betty x 65

I am glad I did not try to fight for the place, that many Zeros would have murderd my Kittyhawks especially after a shore bombarment mission hit the night before.

Then the Japanese tried to take the town. They did not succeed but did come closer this time. Allied bombers at Thursday and Cooktown have ground attack orders now to try and disrupt these guys some.

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 89451 troops, 823 guns, 8 vehicles

Defending force 27264 troops, 219 guns, 9 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 5)

Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 4


Japanese ground losses:
1329 casualties reported
Guns lost 47
Vehicles lost 2

Allied ground losses:
383 casualties reported
Guns lost 5


PM has over 60,000 supply so that is not a problem, the question is can the Japanese send so many troops that they simply overwhelm the defenders?

In the South Pacific Lifou is 65% of the way to an L1 airfield. Progress is so slow that I decided to start work on the port too in the hopes that it would somehow speed things up. No luck there but things did not slow down either so I am going to keep at it.

Lots of bombs fell on the Japanese and the Colorado and North Carolina bombarded again. Some very small night combat XP gains have occurred but nothing important. I am sending a single MSW to bombard Efate, if it does not get shelled to peices I will start the DDs in the Colorado group bombarding as well.

The USS Long Island is finding a purpose too. She is going to load up with some USMC Wildcats, park 2 hexes from Efate and send them on ground attack missions. If I can't build an airfield close enough I can always park one nearby.

The Pacific fleet is at Pearl refitting. 2 US CVs are at 7 sys, everything else is below that. All the CVs have 36 plane Wildcat groups now except for Wasp which has 30. In a few more days I will be able to convert another torpedo group to Avengers.

I hope to shave a couple more sys points off the ships and then start South. It is unclear wether Port Morsby will hold long enough for them to interviene but I think a relief effort might rate. I can get 200 LBA fighters and over 130 longer range bombers into action and the fleet would look like this:
6 USN and 3 RN CVs plus Long Island and Hermes
3 Fast BBs
5 Slow BBs
Many, Many Cruisers and DDs and a small number of PT boats as well.

Of course if PM falls it becomes a moot point.

[Tom Hunter]

No major battles anywhere but one starts brewing in the Central Pacific.

Two days ago Allied intel picked up a unit planning for an attack on Wake. A Candian Wellington group at Pearl transferred to Midway and then the Allied command got distracted by his wifes report of getting straight A's in her first semester at NorthEastern U.'s MBA program so the Wellington's stayed at Midway.

Today a Japanese fleet of AKs (as far as we can tell) was picked up a day or two out from the Island.

The Canadians have flown in, a PBY group was set to night attack, 22 B26 flew to Midway and Wasp and Lexington have started a full speed run towards the island. Wake is an L3 airbase with a 6 fort, no new units have been added but replacements are on and the existing force is more or less full strength.

KB is still down near Port Moresby, so maybe we will have a massacre.

[Oleg Mastruko]

I bet you a (virtual) CA it's not invasion. It's just Mog running Kwajalein Tokyo conwoys without taking any care to hide them from view.

I had a scare like this, and evacuated Wake altogether, then I realized he does this routinely. In my game I now reoccupied Wake in strength and Mog will have major problems with this. Wake is excellent jump-off point for Allies - I have no idea why he didn't take it in the first month of lunacy games.

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

I bet you a (virtual) CA it's not invasion. It's just Mog running Kwajalein Tokyo conwoys without taking any care to hide them from view.

I had a scare like this, and evacuated Wake altogether, then I realized he does this routinely. In my game I now reoccupied Wake in strength and Mog will have major problems with this. Wake is excellent jump-off point for Allies - I have no idea why he didn't take it in the first month of lunacy games.

I realize my last post can be perceived as "spoiler". I apologize. It wasn't meant that way [:D]

Tom, you treat this just like it's full sized invasion, that is the smartest thing to do no matter what, don't pay attention to what I say - one way or another you'll find out what his intentions are in a day or two [8D]

O.

[Tom Hunter]

.

[Tom Hunter]

Oleg,

You were correct, no invasion came though at least one unit is thinking about it. Regardless you did not spoil anything, I did not see your post until now, 5 days later and long after the convoy disappeared and my CVs went elsewhere.

Wake did get a bomber group and a new mine field because of the intel report.

China:

No important combats, the Japanese are bombing Hsinyang and Wuchow, the RAF and AVG are in Changsha and the Japanese are staying away except for a group of 25 Vals that came in without Escort, 7 got home. Several of the better Spitfire units are heading back to Burma now that they are in the low 70s XP wise. On the 31st two Mohawk groups moved into Kweilin in the hopes of smacking up the Oscar escorted dive bombers that have been pounding the ground units there.





Burma-India

On July 26th Oscars from Raheng interecpted a Sweep over Pagan. The Oscars were lucky, 30 Hurricanes, 48 Mohawks and 16 Spits from Mandalay were also supposed to come along but they did not, casualties were pretty heavy on both sides:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 17

Allied aircraft
Lysander I x 16
Wirraway x 2
Mohawk IV x 2
Hurricane II x 27
Spitfire Vb x 2
CW-22 Falcon x 2
I-16c x 5

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 5 destroyed, 3 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Lysander I: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
Wirraway: 2 damaged
Hurricane II: 4 destroyed, 9 damaged
I-16c: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged

The Allies have a pretty large air offensive going on, airbases near Mandalay are hit regularly and LB30s are chipping away at Hanoi, so far no intercepts at all.

Finally Allied army at Akayb is slowly moving towards Mandalay.

South West Pacific

A steady string of battles as Japan tries to get more troops and supplies to Port Moresby and the Allies try to stop them.

On the 26th S-39 put two torpedos into an AP and Walrus's bombed Japanese troops at PM. On the 27th Japan launched a shock attack to try an take the city but had no luck:

Attacking force 88571 troops, 737 guns, 5 vehicles

Defending force 26648 troops, 207 guns, 8 vehicles

Japanese assault odds: 0 to 1 (fort level 4)


Japanese ground losses:
1074 casualties reported
Guns lost 48
Vehicles lost 2

Allied ground losses:
317 casualties reported
Guns lost 6
Vehicles lost 1

On the 28th and 29th the Japanese bombed PM to little effect, on the 30th they unloaded yet more troops losing an AP to two mine hits and suffering a bit more from bombing by Kittyhawks later in the day.

Because of a combination of bad weather and Japanese strikes on ground troops the airfield at PM is once again in good repair though the support is damaged. The Allies flew in 16 Kittyhawks, 32 P36s and 32 Beauforts, Cooktown has 100 4 engine bombers and another 40 Hudsons set for Naval. Weather is supposed to be good tomorrow maybe we will get a big air sea battle on August 1st.

Further South things are in full swing for the invasion of Efate. A single MSW made a shore bombardment attack on the island and nothing fired back so the last 3 rounds of shore bombardment have been with everything firing. The first USMC division (or maybe the second, I don't remember) and the 4th Australian are loading on transports now. Supply convoys are already prepared to support them.

4 US CVs are nearing Canton Island, the two others that ran for Wake are a few days behind and the Royal Navy is coming up from New Zealand. The convoys will start moving in two days and the invasion should hit between August 3 and 5.

Efate has been bombed, strafed and bombarded for months, there are few signs of resistance left so the operation should go well.

The engineers on Lifou are 79% complete with an L1 airfield, by the time it is done we will be ready to abandon it since Efate will be Allied.

[Belphegor]

HI Tom,

Quick question about this (yes I'm way behind in my reading), you already answered it for Indian III corps. I have a number of ships that arrive with no leader. Are the ones on your list ships that have lost leaders (confirmed) or you have found without and could have arrived without(unknown cause)?

ORIGINAL: Tom Hunter

I am going to start tracking vanishing leaders in this game.

Unlike my previous games this time I am actively managing leaders and trying to keep good leaders in charge of the important combat units. I have already found the Saratoga commanded by a WO on two occasions but anectdote is not the way to fix bugs so I am getting a bit more formal.

I check a large number of units every turn and if a leader is replaced with a WO or Staff officer I am going to log it in the excel spreadsheet below. In addition to that I am going to check a certain number of stacks as well. Today I checked Pearl, Noumea, a couple of armies in China and Akyab, Dacca, Calcutta and Mandalay.

I found a number of ships in port with no leader, this probabley reflect the tendency of leaders to vanish when TFs are disbanded.

Oddly the Saratoga seems to have gotten her leader back. She has one now and I remember leaving her leaderless because I was disbanding her for refit anyway. However I am not going to add this to tracking because my memory could be playing a trick on me.

I am not counting missplaced leaders like the US flight leader commanding a Chinese infantry division or the Japanese commanding the Free French DD. I don't care where a leader is from as long as he fulfills the role I need him for. I am tracking WOs and Staff Officers because they can mess up an important command. A good example of this is the HQ unit Indian III Corps. It had a handpicked general, though I nolonger remember who, and now it has a staff officer. This turn has already gone to Mogami so I cannot fix any of this but I will on July 21st.

Read and weep

[Tom Hunter]

The CLAA may have arrived without a leader, she came directly from San Francisco and I may not have checked. The DDs at Pearl were in CV TFs that I hand picked the leaders for, so at one time they all had Captains. I do not know if the captains vanished when I disbanded or before. As the chart below shows I put new leaders into all of them when I had the CVs sortie from Pearl, so if a leader goes missing from any ship in the US CV fleet we know it happened after they left Pearl.

Also as time passes I am checking more and more often so we will get a better measure of how often the bug occurs at least in this particular game. Lately the combat has been way out of phase with what Mogami is seeing, I wonder if there is a connection?

Here is the latest:

[Tom Hunter]

August 1st is a day of carnage in the air, Japan loses 107 planes, the Allies lose 78 in battles ranging from China to Port Moresby.

China

August starts with two huge air battles over Changsha, here is the second one:

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 24
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 35
Ki-30 Ann x 35
Ki-32 Mary x 16
Ki-48 Lily x 50

Allied aircraft
CW-21B Demon x 9
Hurricane II x 19
Spitfire Vb x 9
P-40B Tomahawk x 23

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 12 destroyed
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 31 destroyed
Ki-30 Ann: 9 destroyed, 2 damaged
Ki-32 Mary: 5 destroyed, 1 damaged
Ki-48 Lily: 7 destroyed, 2 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
CW-21B Demon: 5 destroyed
Hurricane II: 9 destroyed, 2 damaged
P-40B Tomahawk: 13 destroyed


India -Burma has no changes other than the steady march through the Jungle. Logistically things are coming together well with 90,000 supply at Akyab and over 40,000 at Mandalay. The Allied Skytrain can move an entire Chinese division in a day if the weather is good, and the Allied fighters rule the sky everywhere they can reach.

Fighting around Port Moreby got hot as well. Japan continues to move additional troops in, the Japanese have over 90,000 soldiers in the hex.

Allied aircraft at PM were set for Naval strikes in an effort to hit the Carriers loitering off the coast. A few stayed over PM as CAP and did fairly well when a Japanese bombing strike came along:

Japanese aircraft
Ki-43-Ib Oscar x 50
Ki-21 Sally x 33
Ki-49 Helen x 15
Ki-46-II Dinah x 1

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 3
Kittyhawk I x 1
P-36A Mohawk x 9

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-43-Ib Oscar: 3 destroyed
Ki-21 Sally: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged
Ki-49 Helen: 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed
P-36A Mohawk: 2 destroyed, 4 damaged

Then the first attack came in on a convoy unloading supplies:
Allied aircraft
Beaufort V-IX x 11
P-36A Mohawk x 3


Allied aircraft losses
Beaufort V-IX: 1 damaged

Japanese Ships
AP Koei Maru
AP Katsuragisan Maru
PC Fumi Maru
AP Hino Maru #3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Unfortunately the attack on KB was a failure:
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 94

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 11
Beaufort V-IX x 15
P-36A Mohawk x 18

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 6 destroyed
Beaufort V-IX: 8 destroyed
P-36A Mohawk: 15 destroyed

Japanese Ships
CV Hiryu
CV Soryu
DD Isokaze

Still no strike coordination, if 30 Beauforts had hit KB they might have scored, as it was 11 of them did drop bombs but no hits.

Then 3 more Beauforts hit a solo AP:
Allied aircraft
Beaufort V-IX x 3


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
AP Katsuragisan Maru, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage

And finally a really big raid came out of Cooktown and smashed into the Japanese transport fleet:

Allied aircraft
Hudson I x 44
B-17E Fortress x 92


No Allied losses

Japanese Ships
PC Gamitsu Maru #1
PC Ch 11
AP Hino Maru #3, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kakyu Maru
AP Hiyoshi Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kiri Maru
MSW Hakata Maru #7, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kisaragi Maru
AP Heiku Maru, Bomb hits 17, on fire, heavy damage
AP Katsuragisan Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AP Koei Maru, Bomb hits 5, on fire, heavy damage
AP Kenshin Maru
PC Ch 10, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Tasei Maru, Bomb hits 6, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Fukeui Maru #7, Bomb hits 9, on fire, heavy damage

These kind of strikes are not going to win the war but they are messing up the Japanese supply situation which ought to help the defenders of PM some.

In the South Pacific invasion convoys and shore bombardment support have all left Noumea and are approaching Efate. The Invasion should come ashore the night of August 4th.

[jrlans]

what do you think your chances of holding PM are? It would seem that Mog is going to rush in enough troops to crush the place and you cant do too much about it.

If thats the case are you considering pulling fragments out by air so that the units can rebuild themselves?

[Tom Hunter]

Mogami is definetely sending everything he can to take the place with sheer brute force. He is up over 100,000 men now. Recently the air attacks have been hitting some units before they unload which should increase his disruption.

The Australians have plenty of supply and an L4 fort. For reasons that I don't understand the fort will not build it is stuck at 17% even with supply in abundance and light or no air attacks.

I have had the same problem at Thursday Island, the airbase stopped construction for days and days though recently by turning it off and on I was able to get it going again and its is now L2 69%. Anyone else have this kind of problem?

I have not started pulling fragments out but I did put a fragment of a USMC raider battalion into the hex next to Port Moresby in the hopes of giving the Aussies a place to retreat to. If they do retreat then I will do sub evacuations for as many troops as possible.

Also Thursday Island is a fair sized base in itself, this battle is not over with the fall of Port Moresby though that would be a major win for Japan. The US CV fleet is passing Pago Pago on its way to a fuel stop at Suva, and Allied troops are ashore at Efate. Depending on Circumstances I might counter attack into the PM area even if it is lost in the next few days.

[rtrapasso]

I have had the same problem at Thursday Island, the airbase stopped construction for days and days though recently by turning it off and on I was able to get it going again and its is now L2 69%. Anyone else have this kind of problem?

I've had problems where the base won't START building forts. Some base in India took forever to get it moving. Finally i resorted to the trick you tried: turned off building the fort for a day or so, then restarted it. After that, it worked ok.

[mdiehl]

Mogami is definetely sending everything he can to take the place with sheer brute force. He is up over 100,000 men now. Recently the air attacks have been hitting some units before they unload which should increase his disruption.

If he doesn't control the port from where are these guys drawing supply?

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: mdiehl

Mogami is definetely sending everything he can to take the place with sheer brute force. He is up over 100,000 men now. Recently the air attacks have been hitting some units before they unload which should increase his disruption.

If he doesn't control the port from where are these guys drawing supply?

You can have supply in hex even if you don't control the base. Supply, like invading troops, is offloaded over the beach. Otherwise invasions would not be possible [;)]

O.

[mdiehl]

Supply, like invading troops, is offloaded over the beach. Otherwise invasions would not be possible.

Yes but Mogami must have his hands full trying to keep them in supply. The image of 100K+ guys attempting to draw sustained supply off a beachhead is odd. Unless the premise is that several days worth of rations for 100k+ men landed on the beach with the assault troops...