Bettys in the sky with diamonds- Gladiatt (A) vs John_Smid (J). No John please

[gladiatt]

i see i have still a few readers, so hopefully it incite me to keep writing [;)]

11th march - 12th march

SoPac

At Koumac, the small airforce based in Noumea keep raiding the japs TF; on 11th march, 5 P-39 and 2 B-17 are lost, no hits are scored on the japanese ships.
The land fight is higly favorable to the 2nd USMC Div: an deliberate attack cost 250 japanese casulaties for 65 allies. Obviously the japanese evacuate in hurry: the only remaining units are 14th NLF and Sasebo 2nd NLF, with 4500 mens. But this retreat let me in doubt about the ongoing manoeuver...

On 12th march, 8 kates raid the positions of 2nd USMC Div, and that mean that they are targetting the land rather than the sea...
The daily raids costed 1 Beaufort, 8 Airacobra and 1 B-17, but this time CVL Shoho is hit with 2 bombs and seems in fire. An AP is also hit.
At the end of the day, all japanese units had evacuated Koumac.





Malaya
12th march is a good day for Singapore's Flack, wich destroy 2 sallys.

DEI
11th march at Malang, 6 swordfish trying to attack the port are all destroyed by the Zero CAP. 9 Vildebeest try to attack BB Fuso, and loose 8 planes from the same CAP and the ship's flack. Same day at Soerebaja, 3 Hawk and 1 P-40 are destroyed by Zeros.

12th march, at Soerebaja, 2 zeros are destroyed, and 3 dutch fighters and 1 P-40.
The land bombardement at Soerebaja cause very few casualties.

Burma
In 2 days, 2 Blenheims and 4 Hurricanes are lost for no japanese planes above Mandalay.
Artillery duel still ongoing.

Ceylon
11th march, KB launch another strike on Colombo: 68 zeros and 220 bombers; they face 15 fighters and 12 Blenheim IF (night fighters). 12 fighters and all the Blenheim IF are destroyed by the dreaded zeros of KB; 6 zeros and 6 bombers are destroyed. The damages on the ships are tremendous.
The raid is doubled with an incoming strike of 72 Nells and 37 Bettys coming from Rangoon or Bangkok. They avoid the CAP of the 4 surviving allied fighters, and add more damages to the ships in port. 3 bombers are downed by flack.
As usual, my land based bombers don't attack...

On 12th march, another strike target Colombo. 41 zeros and 200 bombers attack and face my CAP of 19 allied fighters. 8 allied fighters are destroyed for 3 zeros and 12 bombers.
Then come the double strike with 92 twin-engine bombers; 3 are destroyed, they score more than 46 bombs hits on the ships in the port.
At the end of the day, after suffering 3 torpedos and 21 bomb in two days, BB Revenge SINK in port.
BC Repulse suffer the same fate after 4 torpedoes and 26 bombs hits.
And KB is still very hungry.....

[gladiatt]

Summarie of DEI campaign

[gladiatt]

13th march -14th march

NoPac
MSW Oriole, south of Dutch Harbor, hunt the SS I-18 in vain.
Much to the East, near Kodiak, SS I-28 find a convoy with 811th EAR and hit AK Trento with a torpedo, and then escape any retaliation from the small escort. Fortunately, the freighter won't sink.

CentPac
13th march, at Johnston, 39th BG (40 B-17E) and 12th BG (42 LB-30) attack the airfield facing 20 zero. 3 B-17 and 4 LB-30 are destroyed on the allies side; 2 Zeros, 3 betty, 1 Alf and 1 Val on japanese side. Even if these raids are costly and don't achieve too much on the base, the goal is to harass the japanese wherever it is possible.

PI
1 Kate is desroyed above Manila on 13th march. One other Kate is destroyed at Clark on 14th, but now the japanese try to deprive me from the supply by the ressources centers. 4 points are knocked by the raid.

Malaya
Singapore still holding. 1 sally is destroyed by flak on 14th march.

DEI
Air war over Soerebaja costed 14 allied planes in these two days for 1 japanese plane. The place is holding under land bombardement.

CEYLON
13th march, at Colombo, a sweep of 24 zero encounter 11 allied fighter on CAP; 1 zero and 3 allied fighters are destroyed. Latter this morning, north of Trivandrum, 43 zeros escort 19 kate attacking a convoy of 6 AK. A second raid of 35 bombers keep hammering the freighters, with an escort of 15 zero.
This mean a lack of escort for the incoming raid on Colombo. 120 bombers (Vals and Kate) attack the port. 50 bombers are destroyed by the CAP; but the damages are very heavy on the ships in port.



Then a raid of 80 twin-engine bombers came to add more damages. 16 bombers are destroyed by flak or CAP.
At the end of day, BB Royal Soveign sink in Colombo harbor.

But KB has still not finish to hurt.
A new serie of raid come on 14th march.
The sweep of 41 zero face only 13 allied fighters. 2 zero are destroyed for 7 allied fighters. Once again, to the dismay of my opponant, the zero escort the CV's bombers achieving the AK near Trivandrum.
And once again 120 bombers come without escort attacking Colombo. 20 are destroyed by Flak or CAP. The twin engine bombers come in numbers (45 Nells and Bettys), and avoid the CAP.
All the warships of a size bigger than CL are very heavily damaged, and no one are battle worthy. It seem that Jan (my opponant) is about to wippe Royal Navy from Pacific theater.

But at least these raids are very costly to the KB. FO Reed and SL Count Czernim compete in the kills above Colombo. Reed score 8 kills in two days ( achieving a total of 15) but is wounded. Czernim down 7 planes (one is a Zero, that is sure). The pilot disappear on the next day, (without being KIA) so i pretend he took a command in Europe. 2nd LT Landry score 5 kills in these two days, for a total of 12 Kills, but is wounded also. (There will be a "Top pilot" screen at the end of march).

Eventually my bombers attack KB; a bunch of 5 swordsfish (3 destroyed), 9 Blenheims (4 destroyed) 5 B-17 (1 destroyed), 17 LB-30 (2 destroyed), 4 wirraways (all destroyed), 10 P-40B of AVG/A (3 downed) face a CAP of 42 zeros (6 downed). CV Shokaku suffer a bomb hit.
(next post).

[gladiatt]

Here is the strike on Shokaku





don't miss next post, with CV involved in battle....

[stuman]

Just dropping by to say hello [:)]

[gladiatt]

Thanks for the "pop'in " ! [:)]

[gladiatt]

13th march- 14th march

SoPac

The japanese are evacuating Koumac after being repulsed by 2nd USMC Div.
North of New Caledonia, 2 AP are heavily hit by a mix of New Zeland Beaufort, and US B-17.
At the end od 13th march, the allies HQ is in doubt. The manoeuver of 2 CV are a failure, for just one day of delay.
The race of my CV from Christmas Island was too long...Or so i thought.
But a try should be given....
See this summarie first

[gladiatt]

On 14th march, the CV Hornet of Cpt Mitscher and CV Enterprise of Cdt Murray catch the japanese totaly unaware.
The rest of the day is a one sided battle, and this time it is in my advantage !
For the loss of 2 Dauntless, the results are high:




DD Kurushio torpedo 1, fire, damage
DD Asagani, bomb 2 , fire damage
DD Harukaze bomb 1
DD Nagatsuki, bomb 1 fire damages
CL Tenryu bomb 3 fire, damages
Most of all :
CVL Shoho take 16 bombs (1000lb kind of bomb)and sink outright. CVL Ryujo take 3 bombs and 1 torpedo, the devastator being close enough to use their weapons. CVL Ryujo will sink on 15th march trying to reach safety of Guadalcanal.

Altough it could be nice to pursuit the numerous jap ships, ib order to slaughter much of them, it seem highly wiser to go south: the airbalance of Lunga suddenly raised from 250 points to 750 points. This level 4 airfield surely host thousands of Bettys, so i prefered to send my CV to refuel in Noumea.
This small victory is of many profit: first of all, it detter the japanese to land on New Caledonia and to install a base wich could have threaten all the area. Second, the loss of the CVL make it harder for him to extand it's airpower over the Santa Cruz or Hebrides Island.
And that's a new small defeat for him.

[gladiatt]

15th march - 16th march

NoPac
On 16th march, MSW Oriole is once again on the hunt of I-18 but score no hits.

PI
On 16th march, a japanese deliberate attack at Manila fail, although the japanese had 95000 mens against the 22000 allied soldiers. These are a few more days earned on the allied side.
At Clark Field, the japanese carry on with the attack of the ressources center, knocking down 2 of them, and loosing 1 kate in the process.

Malaya
On 15th march, a japanese deliberate attack reduce the forts to level 6 but fail to overwhelm the defenders.

DEI
At Soerebaja, 3 allied fighters (one being a P-40 of 24th FG) are destroyed for 1 zero.
The japanese launch a deliberate attack on 16th march, wich reduce the forts to level 5 and cause 1700 japanese casualties for 400 allied. But the city resist.

North of Sumatra, during a few days, squadrons are seen flying and transferring from one base to another, depleted and obsolete, and leaving the DEI for India, thus living to fight another day. There are still a few squadrons in Batavia or Soerebaja, for those wich had a few planes in the pool, but many kind of plane are destroyed much more quickly than they are built (and some are not build like Do-24 ).

Ceylon
Eventually on 15th march, my planes dare to attack KB. A CAP of 30 zeros try to stop 3 swordfish (1 destroyed), 5 B-17, 29 LB-30, 3 Blenheim (1 destroyed) and 9 P-40 (4destroyed). 1 zero is downed by a LB-30.
CV Kaga is hit by a bomb wich bounce on it's armored deck. CV Hiryu take 4 bombs and is seen on fire. CV Soryu is hit by only one bomb, but it fall straight in the Magazine ! BB Hiei suffer a torpedo hit from an obsolete swordfish.






Meanwhile, KB launch a raid on Colombo.
53 zeros, 50 Val, 41 Kate face 30 HurricanesII; 17 Hurricanes are downed for 8 Zeros and 5 bombers. No less than 10 bombs and 5 torpedos made great damages to the cruisers in the harbor.
50 Nells and Bettys attack to add to the damages, loosing 7 planes in the operation.
At the end of day, CL Dauntless sink.

ON 16th March, the KB launch a new raid. 10 japanese planes are destroyed for 6 allied; 9 bombs hits the warships. The second wave by Bettys and Nell loose 3 planes and score 2 bombs hits.
At the end of day, CL Tromp Sink.

[gladiatt]

17th March - 18th March

NoPac & CentPac
Nothing.

SoPac
After the battle of Koumac 4 days ago, i thought i was in comfort for a short time; but on 18th march, a Jake recon Noumea. Fearing of an incoming raider TF, i gather my CV (still in the area) to protect a huge convoy coming from Suva (Fiji). No threat get confirmed.

China
After a quick race, the japanese land Death Start that took Yenen reach Kuchang on 16th march, bombard it on 17th, and seize it on 18th march !! [X(] No time to breathe !
The chinese unit retreat toward Lanchow, north and isolated, not south toward Sian. Godamm !
In the incoming weeks, China will become my main concern: is there a way to prevent the fall of all China in the following months ??






PI
At Manila, a japanese deliberate attack is repulsed on 17th march: 1300 japanese casualties for 1000 allied.
At Clark Field, 5 resources point are destroyed in 2 days for the losse of 1 Kate.

Malaya
On 17th march, a TF of 2 AK cruise near Sinkep Island; the LRCAP of the dutch brewster, although it cost 6 planes, prevent the freighters to be harm by Nells, and on 18th march they are close to Singapore awaiting these badly needed supplies.
The Flak of Singapore destroy 1 bomber and damges 10 more.

DEI
On 17th march, AK Empire Scout is sunk at Batavia by SS I-122, trying to evacuate some resources.
On 17th march, 5 PT Boat rush from Tjilitjap in Malang, and sink 1 MSW before retiring slowly, out of fuel.
Tjilitjap is heavily bombarded each day.
At Soerebaja, the daily zero sweep destroy 1 hawk.
Land bombardement at Soerebaja.

CEYLON

After the bleeding of KB planes, the raids on Colombo are now made by Nells and Bettys flying from Bangkok (or so it seems). Some come by night, causing no damages.
But on 18th march, 50 of thoses long range nuisance come in daylight, without escort. 10 are destroyed by CAP or Flak, setting afire an AP and damaging the port facilities.
Same day, a raid of my own planes reach KB still in the vicinity, and loosing 3 planes (of 22) manage to score a hit on CV Soryu, seen on fire.

[FeurerKrieg]

Hi gladiatt -

Just skimmed over the last several posts - nice work.

I'd love to sit and read more, but foolish thing like work are getting in the way.

[gladiatt]

Hi Feurer.
Thanks for the compliment (right english word ??)
Although i am not sure that it is about the result of my game so far, or the AAR form, but in either way in appreciate [:)].

Well guys, as i am in a "Beattles'fashion-AAR", i could quote another of their song:

"I can make it longer
if you like the style
i can change it all
but i wannabee
a paperback writer
paperback writer....."

so if my reader (i see i have a few, that's great !!) like the kind of AAR, if you would like to see something more/less, feel free to tell, i will try to please you !
After all, the pleasure to write such thing can only be hold by the pleasure of the readers (people writing things will understand, and one of our most known good writer on this forum is of course Cuttlefish [&o] ).

[gladiatt]

19th march - 21th March

CentPac
On 20th of march, a raid is launched against Johnston. 3 datais of zeros defending the place gather 32 planes against my 90 4-engine bombers. 8 of my planes are destroyed for 6 zeros, 1 mavis, 1 alf and 3 hits on airbase and 13 on runway.

SoPac
19th march, 7 US DD try to destroy SS RO-68 but only score 1 indirect hit. They are part of the escort of CV Hornet.
The big convoy coming from Suva is now under LRCAP escort of my CV.

China
Nothing particular, i would like to guess where the Land Death Star is going...

PI
19th march, 16 kate flying from Aparri manage to score a hit against the resources in Clark Field.
Manila still holding

Malaya
On 19th march, AK Empire Lake manage to reach Singapore un start unloading it's supply, until 21th march, when a raid of sally set it afire.
A deliberate attack on Singapore on 20th march reduce the fort to level 6 but fail to seize the place.

DEI
Tjilitjap is raided daily. The port and the supply dump suffer, and the repair time play against the building of fort. 1 hawk lost against Zeros, 1 betty lost to flak.
At Soerebaja, 24th FG still give a fight, and is able to bite ! on 19th march, a raid of 18 sally without escort loose 5 of them to my 8 P-40.
But when zero appear, the dutch Groep suffer (and even the US P-40 ). 8 allied planes are destroyed in 3 days for 6 japanese planes (except the 5 sallys above, so a total of 11 planes). The flak down a good part of the bombers.
The few Blenheim of 34 squadron attack the japanese troops on ground, but don't score any particular result.

Burma
Over Mandalay, the meatball fighters have the upper hand against the few Blenheim trying to bomb the japanese troops, and the Hurricanes escorting. In these 3 days, 5 blenheim are damaged by oscars (thanks to their lack of firepower), 1 hurricane is destroyed.

Ceylon

Jan, my estimed Czech opponant, really intend to destroy the Royal Navy.
The raids on Colombo seem to be everlasting !
Raids from KB on 19th and 20th march score 13 bombs and 4 torpedos hits, damaging the cruiser and many auxiliarys. The planes losses amount to 20 allied fighters, for 8 zeros and 18 bombers. You will see the state of my remaining ships with the screenshot at the end of march: a real mess !!
At Trincomalee, Nells and Bettys change of target, now hammering the few ships in port.
Raids on 19th and 21th march score 10 bombs hits, siking 1 MSW (more destruction will follow...). 8 bombers are destroyed by my CAP.
KB raid Trincomalee on 21th march with 45 CV bombers, adding more damage, but loosing more planes (11 bombers, no japanese fighters are lost ).

[gladiatt]

22th March 1942 - 23 th March 1942

SoPac
22th march, near Noumea, 4 US DD find and attack SS RO-68. DD Fox score the direct hit that sink it.

Raids on Gili Gili lead to the loss of 1 Boston, for 1 runway hits. On 23th, the airfield grow to size 3. I lack the power to close this base...maybe in 6 months ?

China
At Sian, 23th march, a sweep of 26 oscar encounter 18 chinese Polykarpov. 3 oscar are downed for 6 chinese planes, and i am in fact pleased with the result !
Nanning is under daily raids by 20 sonia or so.

PI
On 23th march, 24 Kate raid the resources at Clark, knocking 3 points and loosing 2 planes, thus depriving me more and more of supplies.

Malaya
AK Empire Lake wich bringed supplies in Singapore 2 days ago is finished and sinked by a raid of 20 Sallys. The base still hold.

DEI
After days of travel from Soerebaja to Tjilitjap via Batavia, 2 groups of dutch PT Boat see action
On 22th march, 5 PT raid the harbor of Malang, sinking a MSW and then retiring slowly, low on fuel. On 23th, the second TF with 6 PT encounter 3AK and 2 AP warded by 4 PG; one PT is sinken by a PG, but an AP is striken by a torpedo (no news of it's fate for now).

On 22th march, at Koepang, AK Empire Success is surprised (not me) and sunk by CL Kinu, Kitakami, Yubari and 6 DD; a part of it's cargo of supplies had been unloaded in the base where i try to build a kind of glacis.

At Soerebaja, 2 days of airbattle see destruction of 1 Hawk75 and 5 P-40, 1 zero, 1 oscar, 1 sally. A band of 3 blenheim bomb without result the Imperial Guard.
Tjilitjap is raided by Nells and Bettys, sinking a freighter already damaged since weeks.
Soerebaja still under siege.

Burma
22th march, over Mandalay, the air fight is fierce; the Blenheim of RAF suffer from the Oscar: 4 out of 10 are destroyed by the oscar CAPing the 33rd japanese div. 1 oscar is downed by the 9 Hurricanes of the escort.
On 23th, a new raid give 2 Blenheim destroyed for no japanese loss and no result on ground.
The artillery duel cause 110 allied casualties in 2 days, and 470 japanese; but the situation seems in a no-go. I'll stay happy with this if it could last for months !

CEYLON
Colombo is the target of KB on 22th and 23th march, with raids of 66 and 47 bombers respectively, with escort of 25 zeros each time. They roughly face 20 allied fighters. The allied ships suffer 7 bombs hits and 8 torpedos hits. CA Houston [:(] and ML Prins of Oranj are sunked. The allied loose 12 fighters in these 2 days, KB loose 5 zeros and 16 bombers.

Trincomalee is also targeted by KB on 22th march. 2 vals are destroyed and 2 hurricanes. Then a raid of 100 twin-engine bombers score 11 bombs hits on the auxiliaries in harbor, loosing 2 Nells. ML Rigel sink. On 23th, the twin-engine bombers raid gather 95 planes. A MSW and a PG are sunk, the docks are damaged badly. 3 Nells are lost.

On 22th march, a counter strike is launched from Colombo, at last !
A first wave with 8 swordfish and 12 liberators face 48 zeros. 2 zeros are destroyed, 6 swordfish and 6 liberators. CVL Zuiho is hit by a torpedo !




This explain why Jan really hate these obsolete planes wich had hurt him so much since beginning of this war.

A second wave of 5 wirraways, 3 buffalos, 5 P-40 of AVG, 6 B-17, 3 Blenheim and 9 liberators manage to destroy 7 zeros, loosing 7 fighters and 2 bombers but scoring no hits on the ships.

In the night of 23th march, the 2 PT-boat warding Trincomalee entrance manage to find KB !
They are both sunk, but one of them manage to score 2 torpedos hits on DD Hamakaze !!
On 23th march, KB withdraw toward Rangoon....Will it come back ?
(just how many attack exactly the Great White Shark does in Jaws ???)

[gladiatt]

24th march 42 - 26th march 42

SoPac
In order to secure the Hebrides, to flank New Caledonia, and to lay the foundation of future operations against Solomons, the Americal Div and 31st base force are landed in allied Luganville. The jap is aware of this move.
On 24th march, a raid of 9 Nells and 13 Bettys attack the ASW escort of my convoy:
APD Colhoun and APD Stringham are sunk, APD Little is heavily damaged.
No CAP can reach Luganville from Noumea, and i don't want to risk my CV still in the area.



On 25th march, 30 sorties by bettys hit 3 AK with a torpedo each, sinking 2; the troops are ashore without losses, but the supplies is still in the ships.
On 26th march, in the night, Imperial Navy join the slaughter : see next post for screenshot

[gladiatt]

24th march - 26th march - part two [;)]





4 AK are sunken.
A new raid of Bettys in the morning hits 4 AK more, sinking 2 more.
This time a squadron of P-39 from 8th FG/A try to react, but the escort of zero are too powerful: 8 airacobra are downed for 1 betty.

Elsewhere in SoPac, near Rabaul,SS Sailfish trying to evacuate the 101st RAAF base force, but is disturbed by a bunch of japanese PC; anyway, SS Sailfish skipper is quite aggressive, and shoot a torpedo at PC Shonon Maru, sinking it !

China
At Sian, a Datai of Oscar sweep daily the place, tangling with the chinese fighters. In 3 days, 10 chinese fighters are lost, for 10 Oscar ! No bad result for these obsolete planes !
-Daily raids at Nanning by Sonia from Hanoi.

PI
Daily raids on Manila

Malaya
Port attack on Singapore on 24th march make great damages and reduce supply. 1 sally is downed by flak.
Singapore is now under the 20.000 supply level.

DEI
For 3 days, the fight is quite fierce over Soerebaja. The loss amount to 4 Blenheims, 3 allied fighters, 1 zero, 1 sally.
On 26th march, at Tjilitjap, 20 Nate launch a strike at 100 feet, against my PT Boats.
11 dutch fighters surprise me because they down 4 Nates.

Burma
On 24th march, at Mandalay, 1st chinese Tank Regiment of NHC Command try a local counter attack, but the losses and disruption are not worth it: at 0/1 , 120 japanese casualties for 160 chinese and 3 tanks.
A single raid of Blenheim on 4th mixed bde score only 24 casualties as a result, the CAP of 9 oscar damage 4 of them without destrying them.

At Andaman, 8 vals of KB (wich is slowly sailing toward Rangoon) raids without result the 2 PT Boats warding the harbor...Wich give me an idea.....
Stay tuned

[gladiatt]

time for a little update.

27th march - 31th march

Centpac
-31th march, a raid of 44 B-17e of 19th BG attack Johnston airfield. They fly at maximum ceiling to avoid the CAP of 55 Zeros ( 3 datai identified), but achieve no results.
Later the same day, SS Tautog laying mines avoid an ASW TF of 6 PG;

SoPac
At Luganville, 27th march, IJN invite itself to a slaughter ( i thought i had a screenshot, but no, sorry). 3 CA,5CL,16DD sink in 3 combat no less than 12AK and 1 AP; the troops are ashore, safe, but a lot of supplies are lost.
So close of Guadalcanal airfield, i don't intend to commit surface assets, as i feel they would not have the upper hand with IJN and that my planes won't cover them properly. So for now, i loose many many freighters in much of my operations around the pacific theater.

SS Narwhal sunk by a TF of 8 DD while trying to evacuate 101 RAAF base force near Rabaul.

China
Air battle over Sian advantage the japanese. Oscar datai are sweeping the place. In 5 days, 21 chinese fighters are lost for 1 oscar (and i didn't realize at what point it was ugly before writting this post !).
North of Yenen, 99th corps is hammered by japanese ground troops and bombers, forced to withdraw toward Mongolia, and dying of attrition.

There are raids on Nanning and Changsa. Flak is not as accurate as it was: no jap losses.
Lanchow under attack of 25 japs units. After 4 days of battle, the place is lost, my 5 corps retreat toward Sining, thus isolating themselves. Great !

South of Nanning, 2nd jap Tk Reg try to outflank me, attacking one chinese corps from 28th to 30th march. On 30th march, arriving of a second chinese corps from Nanning manage to repulse the japanese.

PI
Manila under daily raid; flak shoot nothing.
Clark under daily raid; flak shoot nothing. 10 resources knocked.

Malaya
2 AK at Singapore (those having deliver something like 5000 supplies) sunked by japanese bombers.
4 japanese planes shot by Flak.
Still holding.

DEI

Tjilitjap raided and straffed by japanese planes to reduce my PT Boats. 1 of them sinked. 1 dutch fighter shot by zero, 1 shot by flak.
A raid of 4 PT Boat at Malang hit an AP with a torp, but one PT Sinked by one of the 4 PG of escort (look like a previous raid, no ?).
From 30th march, 4 SNLF besiege the place.

Soerebaja. 34th squadron (Blenheim) escorted by 24th FG (P-40) try to attack Imperial Guard Div. Light casualties, losse of 3 Blenheim and 1 P-40 from the zero cap.
Artillery duel cause in 5 days 93 allied casualties for 36 japanese. Fort are rising...slowly.
Flak don't shoot anything (but damage a bunch of japanese bombers).

Burma

The japanese is CAPing Mandalay, so my try to disrupt his troops cost me 3 Blenheim.
Artillery duel cause in this week 250 allied casualties for 700 japanese. Too bad these are only disabled squads ! [:(]
Pagan raided 3 days by a squadron of Wellington. 4 resources knocked, 2 planes destroyed by flak (but who pretend the japanese flak to lack results ????).

Bay of Bengal
Remenber my 2 PT Boat warding Andaman island, and under attack by Vals from KB ?
Rather then let them dying and training KB pilots, i decided to give a try:
hoping to catch KB sailing from Ceylon toward Rangoon, i sent them to raid the port; in fact encounter occurs in open sea.
Look this



One of the PT is sunk, but Akagi took a torp and was seen on fire !!

The map sigint then showed in the following days 2 CV disbanded in Rangoon port, and KB docked. (Of course i knew this could be all but accurate sigint).
A bunch of dutch and british subs gather around Rangoon waiting for the lucky strike...wich will not come.
On 29th march, i tried a night port attack with 19th BG/B, but only 3 B-17 flew, scoring no hits.
So on 30th march, in daylight, 2 squadrons send 8 B-17 (only !! [:@] ) at 36600 feet over Rangoon. They avoid the CAP of 20 zeros but score no hits.
Another raid of 9 planes on 31th march achieve no more.
Datai spotted are AII BI EI CI CII...

[gladiatt]

Naval losses on 31th march

Allied Japanese
24 DD 16 DD
2 APD 0
19 MSW 5
4 SS 4
4 BB 2
3 CA 7
11 CL 1
1 CLAA 1 CS
1 CVL 2 CVL
0 1 CVE
1 CV 0
5 PG/PC 8
205 AK/AP/TK 5 AK/AP

[gladiatt]

PLANES LOSSES

[gladiatt]

PILOTS