String vs. Andy Mac - Futile attempts at world domination

[ny59giants]

We also took Nauru and Ocean Island. Nauru has a large amount of resources (phosphates) that will be most welcome. Getting them out with the tiny port that the island has will be a major logistical challenge.

There are two BF in Japan (29th & 34th) with organic Naval Support (Aviation Support - 24). Add in a Shipping Engineer to the base. I think I will end up using those Shipping Engineer at smaller ports to expedite loading of Oil/Resources.

[String]

ny59giants: thanks, I'll take a look

I forgot to post the map..



* Blue line: Dec 7 1941
* Yellow line: Jan 2 1942
* Red line: Jan 31 1942
* White/Grey line: Plans and thoughts

[veji1]

I don't know which plan is the best, but looking at other AARs it seems that Burma is very vulnerable quite early; whether attacking in India/Ceylon can help against that or it just means that you need to set up a strong defense early with more stuff than in WITP I don't know, but it's something you want to keep in mind..

[String]

Sorry for the long delay, I'll try an extensive AAR report later tonight, but as a teaser I can say that I went with plan 1 and I am about 1-2 days away from landing at Ceylon.

[String]

Rejoice boys and girls! It's an update!

02/01/1942 - 03/15/1942

As you can see a month and a half has passed since I posted the last update, a lot has happened in the game since then. I'll cover the general strategic situation at first and then I will go over the areas in detail.

After careful consideration, and some recon flights from my submarines and land bases near potential targets I decided to go for Plan 1, meaning Ceylon. The main reasons being:

a) After Singapore fell it was easy to achieve without early allied detection, unlike Plan 2 which required the capture of Java beforehand
b) Most of the necessary ground assets were present at Singapore and in the near area.
c) Kido Butai was easy to deploy there
d) I had the necessary transport capacity avilable in the region.
e) Perhaps most importantly, it seemed that the allies had reinforced the area heavily. It might seem counterintuitive but it's actually a good thing. We are still in a period where, if I bring my full force to bear, the Japanese can destroy pretty much any force concentration that the allies throw at them, except perhaps Pearl Harbour with enemy carrier support. This is a good way to knock out allied units from the war and bring labourers for various Japanese public construction projects aimed at furthering the cause of the Greater Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Elsewhere the advance would continue despite this operation.



Map detailing the advance so far. Blue line, start of war, Red line, current situation.

[String]

Events by areas

Pacific:

There has been no major action in the pacific. The allies tried to raid my landings at Horn Island (between Australia and PNG in the Torres straits) with a cruiser force but failed to achieve an interception. They managed to retreat out of my bomber range by morning. Aside from that we've been occupying small atolls and bases in southern pacific with no opposition. The most notable being Funafuti which brings us into search plane range of Suva.

Philippines:

After the capture of Bataan there has been no major or even minor action here. Almost all of the forces fighting on Luzon were shipped for Java or Ceylon and we'll deal with the smaller islands at a later date.


DEI:

We started our thrust down the Makassar straits and towards Java right after the fall of Bataan. On the other side of Borneo the fall of Singapore was the trigger for the invasion of Sumatra. Paratroops captured Medan and are currently working their way towards the northern tip of Sumatra and we took Palembang (with 0 damage to the oil facilities there) with overwhelming sea and air support. Opposition has been generally light.

We landed at Java between Batavia and Soerabaja and proceeded to cut the island in two, although some units managed to escape from Batavia. Currently the western half of the island is in our hands and our forces are pursuing the dutch towards Soerabaja.

The Dutch positions on Java and on the northern tip of Sumatra are the last serious obstacles in DEI. The rest are just empty bases to occupy.

We also took Christmas Island when we invaded Java.


Malaya:

The conquest of Malaya ended with the fall of Singapore on the 13th of February. It became apparent that my opponent had evacuated most of the units there, probably to either Ceylon or Perth. I was not pleased.


China:

Nothing serious has happened here. We have advanced here and there, routing a few chinese units, but nothing major.


Burma:

We have advanced into Burma and as far as Mandalay. The allies have evacuated towards the Indian border and aside from a small battle near Rangoon there has been absolutely no opposition. Neither at land nor from Air.

India:

This is where the major action has happened.

Our operation for the attack on Ceylon involves the following forces:

Ground units

• 25th Army HQ
• 33rd, 6th Guards ,5th and Imperial Guards infantry divisions
• 41st, 112th, 113th and 148th infantry regiments
• 1st and 14th Tank regiments and 2 recon regiments
• 19 different independent artillery units
• Various different engineering and support units
• 14th Infantry division and 16th Guards regiment for reserves (about a week out)

Naval support

• 7 CV
• 5 CVL/CVE
• 3 CS
• 8 BB
• 10 CA
• 3 CL
• 35 DD

Invasion convoys & Direct support

• 185 Transport ships of various shapes and sizes
• 13 different escort craft
• 15 DD
• 10 CL
• 5 CA
• 1 BB

In addition a small convoy of minelayers and destoyers was tasked with transporting an infantry batallion to Addu atoll, south of India.

So as you can see pretty much the whole of IJN is involved, except for some light cruisers and destroyers, detailed to other tasks. In terms of air support, in addition to carrier air, we have several army fighter units ready to fly in, numbering about 200 in total.

While the behind the scenes preparation, such as the gathering of necessary shipping and naval forces, started even before the fall of Singapore, the first major clash of arms was on the 20th February. I had sent the Baby KB (the light carriers) to raid the sealanes between Colombo and the rest of the world in hopes of perhaps catching a juicy convoy (my opponent later stated that I had missed one by two days). The results in the end were less than stellar. Our carrier strikes went in and sank two auxiliary minelayers and two merchants near Colombo, but a large number of British fighters on CAP (mostly Hurricanes) managed to shoot down over 20 Zeroes for the loss of about 7-8 of their own numbers. This has been the first defeat in air for IJN so far.

I then sent my carriers to raid along the western coast of India, but found nothing, and then sailed them around near the southern tip of India (but out of strike range) to prevent any allied reinforcements. I finally withdrew them southwards out of allied search range to refuel them form a fleet oiler flotilla.

A period of deceptive calm followed, and the storm finally broke on the 7th of March. Pretty much all of the IJN tasked with naval support made a high-speed run on Colombo. The major surface combatants went in to bombard Colombo while the carriers provided air support and swept the skies above. The air battle was a resounding success, with over 80 allied aircraft shot down for about 20 Japanese planes lost. The bombardments didn't go as well though. We did find and sink a british light cruiser, 5 large troop transports (empty) and two dutch destroyers in Colombo harbour, but we lost a destroyer to a mine and CA Kako was damaged enough by 6" coastal gun fire to lag behind the fleet and she was sunk by enemy aircraft.

During the next few days the carriers swept the area and sank scores of enemy transports, while the transports arrived and started unloading at Koggala. The base was defended by two Indian brigades which were easily routed.

Minor action continued for a few days, mostly in the air, with the allies continuing to send ineffective strikes against our carriers and invasion convoys.

On the 13th of March our submarine sighted an allied cruiser force moving south from Bombay. Suspecting that they might try and hit our landings I decided to send my carriers on a high-speed strike north to try and nail the cruisers before they arrived.

The dawn of 14th of March was probably one of the scariest moments in the game so far, when the Kido Butai found itself right in the sights of the allied cruiser force

Day Time Surface Combat, near Cochin at 26,41, Range 15,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CV Kaga, Shell hits 6
CV Hiryu
CV Soryu, Shell hits 1
CV Shokaku, Shell hits 2
CV Zuikaku
CV Akagi
CS Nisshin, Shell hits 1
CS Chiyoda, Shell hits 9, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Hiei
BB Kirishima, Shell hits 1
DD Akigumo
DD Kagero
DD Shiranui, Shell hits 2
DD Urakaze, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Michishio
DD Arashio
DD Arare

Allied Ships
CA Cornwall
CA Exeter, Shell hits 1
CL Enterprise
CL Emerald
CL Dauntless
CL Glasgow
CL Caledon
CL Colombo
DD Tjerk Hiddes, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
DD Evertsen, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Napier
DD Nestor, Shell hits 12, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Nizam, Shell hits 3, heavy fires

Considering that the allies managed to surprise our ships we got off lightly. The shell hits on our carriers were ineffective, however CS Chiyoda was lost the next day when a lone allied bomber on naval search managed to hit her with a bomb. Definetly the most painful loss in this operation, as she was an invaluable search platform and could have been converted to a CVL in 1943.

The enemy cruisers then proceeded to Colombo harbour, where we had two of our heavy cruisers waiting.

Day Time Surface Combat, near Colombo at 29,48, Range 18,000 Yards

Japanese Ships
CA Tone, Shell hits 25, on fire
CA Chikuma, Shell hits 3, on fire
DD Isokaze
DD Hamakaze, Shell hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage

Allied Ships
CA Cornwall, Shell hits 7, heavy fires
CA Exeter
CL Enterprise, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
CL Emerald, Shell hits 4, on fire
CL Dauntless, Shell hits 1, on fire
CL Glasgow
CL Caledon, Shell hits 1
CL Colombo
DD Evertsen, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk

Our heavy cruisers made out okay, but Tone was hit by a dive bomber later and suffered heavy damage. They both made it to Koggala harbour however and should survive.

The cruisers were later nailed by a KB airstrike, although sadly the planes concentrated on the already doomed ships. Exter and Caledon were sunk later.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Colombo at 28,47

Weather in hex: Light rain

Raid detected at 160 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 60 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 40
B5N2 Kate x 105
D3A1 Val x 119



Allied aircraft
H81-A3 x 6


Japanese aircraft losses
B5N2 Kate: 13 damaged
D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed, 23 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
H81-A3: 3 destroyed

Allied Ships
CL Enterprise, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Caledon, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
CL Dauntless, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CL Emerald, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CA Cornwall, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 5, and is sunk
CA Exeter, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
CL Colombo, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CL Glasgow, Bomb hits 2, on fire

Our troops have mostly landed, with just a few artillery units still unloading, and we are starting to move on Colombo.



Total losses so far in the whole campaign:
(note, enemy losses are subject to FoW and might be 10-20% smaller)

• Allies:
• Battleships: 6
• Heavy cruisers: 5
• Light cruisers: 11
• Destroyers: 22
• Minesweepers: 15
• Minelayers: 6
• Auxiliaries: 12
• Merchants: 101
• Troop transports: 20
• Tankers/Oilers: 21
• Patrol craft: 68
• Submarines: 9

• Japanese:
• Heavy cruisers: 1
• Scout cruisers: 1
• Destroyers: 4
• Minesweepers: 5
• Auxiliaries: 2
• Merchants: 37
• Patrol craft: 14
• Submarines: 5
• Mini Submarines: 6

[String]

We captured Trincomalee at Ceylon today. The only unit offering resistance was the Trincomalee fortress, which fell quickly.

[d0mbo]

Enjoying your AAR as it is written rom a strategic point of view instead of the copy and pasting of many battlereports./ A nice change of pace!
 
Could you, if you are willing to, shed some liht on your decisions you made with regards to Japanese industry?
 
What does your convoy scheme look like? What airplanes are you producing and which aren't being produced? Did you speed up production on ships?
 
Hope you are willing to share some thoughts!
 
d0mbo.
 
 

[String]

ORIGINAL: d0mbo

Enjoying your AAR as it is written rom a strategic point of view instead of the copy and pasting of many battlereports./ A nice change of pace!

Could you, if you are willing to, shed some liht on your decisions you made with regards to Japanese industry?

What does your convoy scheme look like? What airplanes are you producing and which aren't being produced? Did you speed up production on ships?

Hope you are willing to share some thoughts!

d0mbo.

Thankyou, I'll do it later tonight

[String]

03/29/1942


The massive air battles over Ceylon are finally winding down. The allies sent massive, yet fragmented fighter sweeps, over Koggala for several weeks. Following them were heavy and medium bombers of various types. As this has been pretty much the only air combat zone on the map during the last month I can give you rough estimates on the total losses. Take note that the operational losses cover the whole map and are not indicative of the battle alone, although it's safe to assume that atleast a third of the losses occurred over Ceylon. Number of total losses during the campaign is in parentheses.

Air losses from 03/07 to 03/29

Allies

• Air to air: 418 (899)
• Ground: 48 (320)
• Flak: 7 (14)
• Operational: 121 (466)
• Total: 594 (1706)

Japanese

• Air to air: 87 (286)
• Ground: 53 (55)
• Flak: 27 (275)
• Operational: 145 (718)
• Total: 312 (1334)

Aircraft losses by type

PS: I also lost Tone to fires that went out of control [:@]

[String]

Aircraft production:

I decided early on to limit my airplane types to streamline production. In that light i've canceled the production of various aircraft, such as the Sonias, all transports except Topsies and Tinas and so on. I went a bit overboard with factory expansion and I'm currently severely short of engines. This problem should be solved by mid 42 however.

Army aircraft:

Fighters: I will concentrate my production towards Oscars. Tony will not be researched or built, except, perhaps in a very small amount to take advantage of any airgroups that arrive. I'm still undecided on the Tojo, I'll probably use a few groups for testing. Almost all of my R&D efforts are going towards the Frank. This is the only aircraft capable of competing with the allied fighters that is available at a reasonable date (1/44 atm,I hope to advance it a month or two).

Fighter Bombers: Not much of a choice here. I'll try to keep the Nicks off frontlines.

Bombers: I've concentrated on the Sallies and Lilies at the moment, but from 9/42 onwards I'll switch all of my production to the armoured version of the Helen. I'll do another switchover when the torpedo carrying Peggy arrives. By that date the ground attack role will be semi-useless for Japan anyway.

Night Fighters, Recons, Transports: Not much to choose from here, I'll just go with the historic types as they become available.

Navy aircraft:


Carrier aircraft: Nothing to choose from concerning the carrier ac until late 44 when the Grace comes online.

Fighters: I'm still undecided but I'll probably go with the George, instead of Jack.

Bombers: Strangely enough the G3M3 Nell is superior to the Betties until late 45, when an armoured version of the Betty comes online.

Floatplanes: I'm switching all of them (except glens on submarines) over to Jakes. It's going to take a while, even with 60+ produced each month.

Patrols: Emilies, naturally.


Ship production:

I've decided to accelerate as many carriers as possible. With that in mind I've expanded the naval yards up to 1421 and I've halted all of my submarine production. It was a hard decision, considering how effective the IJN subs are early in the game, but I need carriers more. Yamato and Musashi will be built as normal.

I currently have CV Hiyo (due to arrive in 1 week) and 3 Unryus accelerated (due to arrive in april and june 43). When Hiyo and Yamato finish production I'll accelerate the rest of the Unryus and perhaps even Taiho. Shinano is also Taiho class in this scenario, but as it's so expensive to build it's difficult to decide whether to accelerate her or not.

[d0mbo]

Great info, thanks!
 
What makes you choose the George, insetad of the Jack? Not critisizing, just curious
 
 
 

[String]

ORIGINAL: d0mbo

Great info, thanks!

What makes you choose the George, insetad of the Jack? Not critisizing, just curious

Well, after checking I'm not too sure. I thought it had better stats all around , but it only has better range and firepower (which is nothing to sniff at). It also has superior high altitude maneuvereability. But it's mostly the range, I need to escort my bombers further out than 6-7 hexes with a capable fighter.

[castor troy]

ORIGINAL: String

ORIGINAL: d0mbo

Great info, thanks!

What makes you choose the George, insetad of the Jack? Not critisizing, just curious

Well, after checking I'm not too sure. I thought it had better stats all around , but it only has better range and firepower (which is nothing to sniff at). It also has superior high altitude maneuvereability. But it's mostly the range, I need to escort my bombers further out than 6-7 hexes with a capable fighter.

the George has a better range than the Jack in AE? What was all wrong in WITP? [:D]

[String]

It has been a long time without an update but the game has continued.


[center]06/01/1942

[/center]

Pacific:

Not a lot has happened in the pacific in terms of land grabbing. I have landed small parties on various undeveloped islands close to my own to occupy them to keep an eye on possible enemy advances, but nothing more. Our subs have scored a few minor successes, against small merchants and their minor escorts.

The highlight was a carrier raid a week ago when my two CV's (Hiyo & Junyo) and three CVE's managed to penetrate allied search screen undetected and ambushed a troop convoy sailing towards NZ from Fiji. Sadly it was empty but we did sink about 10 xAP's, all of them of the larger and faster types. So it did pay off. In return we lost 5-6 planes.



Philippines and DEI

We have surrounded the dutch forces in Java at Malang, a mountainous area just south of Soerabaja. There are a few artillery units and about a division worth of troops keeping them under siege. I have released a division from China which will help in cleaning them out.

In the Philippines an amphibious brigade is cleaning out the central islands and after that will be joined by another division from China to finally clean out Mindanao.

Australia

All is quiet. We have sunk a few merchant ships off Perth with submarines and the light cruiser HMS Capetown also took two torpedoes, and hopefully sank.

India & Ceylon

In a rather unexpected turn of events our troops broke through the defences at Colombo and captured the base on 11th of April 1942. Both the Allies and Japanese were caught off guard by this, as a result 66000 British, Indian and Australian troops marched off into captivity, about 100 planes were torched on ground and the staff, equipment and support personell of several allied fighter units were captured.

The allies quickly pulled back their air units from nearby bases in India and it has been quiet ever since.

As it was unexpected for our side as well our transport capability was a bit out of position and it took us some time to extract the excess troops from Ceylon. As of right now about two divisions worth of troops and a large force of AA guns are stationed there, along with about 200 fighters and about 50 Betty bombers.

Burma has been very very quiet.

China

We have advanced slowly in southeastern china. The long term plan is to open the roads to Hong Kong first and then the railroad to Indo-China. That will require the capture of Changsha, which might be more than the IJA in china is capable of.

[String]

We just had a massive carrier battle. Details later today

[String]

[center][font="Arial"]The Battle of Suva - 06.12.1942[/font]
________


Japanese carrier Akagi launching A6M fighters[/center]


The allied carriers were detected far enough south of Fiji that I could steam south at full speed during the night and be out of LBA range from Suva again by morning. The allies had also steamed north during the night and by morning our carriers were just 80 miles from each other. Search planes indicated that all the American carriers and also atleast one british carrier was present.

[center]
Allied strike. There were more Zeroes on cap actually, but an improved air model in AE doesn't have all the planes in combat at the same time[/center]

The allies airstrike came in first. It was a bit scary seeing the 170+ bombers flying towards us but our CAP managed to chew through their escorts and downed a reasonable amount of bombers, throwing the allied bomber formations into disarray.

[center]
CVE Taiyo is hit by british torpedo bombers[/center]

In the end only CVE Taiyo was damaged enough to suspend air operations. CV Hiyo suffered only minor damage as one of the bombs was a dud and CVE Hosho was still able to continue operations.



[font="Courier New"]Morning Air attack on TF, near Kandavu Island at 128,168

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 21 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 133



Allied aircraft
Albacore I x 11
Martlet II x 14
F4F-3A Wildcat x 13
F4F-3 Wildcat x 13
F4F-4 Wildcat x 44
SBD-2 Dauntless x 15
SBD-1 Dauntless x 17
SBD-3 Dauntless x 81
TBD-1 Devastator x 41
TBF-1 Avenger x 14


No Japanese losses

Allied aircraft losses
Albacore I: 1 destroyed, 9 damaged
Martlet II: 4 destroyed
F4F-3A Wildcat: 1 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat: 2 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 7 destroyed
SBD-2 Dauntless: 2 destroyed, 7 damaged
SBD-1 Dauntless: 2 destroyed, 13 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 10 destroyed, 64 damaged
TBD-1 Devastator: 6 destroyed, 22 damaged
TBF-1 Avenger: 3 destroyed, 9 damaged

Japanese Ships
CVL Shoho
CV Zuikaku
CV Shokaku
CV Akagi
CV Hiryu
CV Soryu
CV Hiyo, Bomb hits 2
CV Junyo
CVE Unyo
CVE Taiyo, Torpedo hits 1
DD Uranami
CV Kaga
CVL Zuiho
CVE Hosho, Torpedo hits 1
CS Chitose
CA Suzuya
CA Chikuma[/font]

[center]_______


Japanese strike at allied carriers[/center]

The Japanese strike was already in air by that time and it hit the allied carriers hard. The allied carriers were in separate task forces scattered over a large area and therefore the main strike concentrated on Yorktown, Saratoga and their escorts.

[center]
Yorktown torpedoed by B5N bombers from CVL Zuiho[/center]

Our strike had little trouble getting through allied CAP, although about a dozen bombers were shot down by fighters.

[font="Courier New"]Morning Air attack on TF, near Kandavu Island at 129,167

Weather in hex: Thunderstorms

Raid detected at 160 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 60 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 84
B5N1 Kate x 53
B5N2 Kate x 183
D3A1 Val x 161



Allied aircraft
Martlet II x 15
F4F-3A Wildcat x 13
F4F-3 Wildcat x 14
F4F-4 Wildcat x 38


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 5 destroyed
B5N1 Kate: 4 destroyed, 7 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 10 destroyed, 39 damaged
D3A1 Val: 4 destroyed, 63 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Martlet II: 1 destroyed
F4F-3A Wildcat: 1 destroyed
F4F-3 Wildcat: 2 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 3 destroyed

Allied Ships
CA Vincennes, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CV Saratoga, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 2, heavy damage
CA Louisville, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
CV Yorktown, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CA Chester, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL St. Louis, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Pensacola, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Lamson
DD Case
CL Helena, Bomb hits 1
DD Vendetta
CL Trenton
DD Flusser
DD Clark
DD Shaw
CA Chicago, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
DD Perkins
CL Raleigh
CL Nashville
DD Conyngham
DD Cushing, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
DD Preston
DD Porter
DD Dent[/font]
[center]
________


Japanese afternoon strike[/center]

In the afternoon we managed to get our attack over enemy carriers first. The results were devastating, in addition to damaging CV Saratoga even further and leaving CV Hornet in a crippled condition our planes attacked and damaged many escorting cruisers.
[center]

CV Saratoga recieves a devastating bomb hit[/center]

[font="Courier New"]Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Kandavu Island at 129,167

Weather in hex: Heavy cloud

Raid detected at 160 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 69 minutes

Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 64
B5N1 Kate x 43
B5N2 Kate x 149
D3A1 Val x 139



Allied aircraft
Martlet II x 6
F4F-3A Wildcat x 5
F4F-3 Wildcat x 5
F4F-4 Wildcat x 10


Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 1 destroyed
B5N1 Kate: 1 destroyed, 10 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 3 destroyed, 35 damaged
D3A1 Val: 4 destroyed, 62 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3A Wildcat: 1 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
DD Dent, Bomb hits 1
CL Trenton, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CV Saratoga, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Vincennes, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CV Hornet, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Mauritius, Bomb hits 1
CA Salt Lake City, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CA Canberra, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
CA Northampton, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CA Astoria, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Mahan, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CL Concord, Bomb hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Van Ghent, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
CA Louisville, on fire
DD Vampire
DD Meredith
CL Raleigh, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CA San Francisco, Bomb hits 1
CL Nashville, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Sims
DD Smith
CA Minneapolis, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk
DD Hammann
DD Cummings
DD Voyager, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Walke
CL Honolulu, Bomb hits 2[/font]

[center]
The allies try to return the favour[/size][/center]

The American carrier strike in return was weak and the thirty or so bombers that got through scored no hits.

[Grfin Zeppelin]

*giggles*

[String]

[center][font="Arial"]Final score after day 1[/font]


Dive bombers launching from Akagi[/center]



[font="Arial"]Air losses[/font]

• Allies: 268 planes
• Japanese: 99 planes

Breakdown by type

Allies

• 69 F4F Wildcats of various types
• 68 SBD Dauntlesses of various types
• 60 TBD Devastators
• 16 TBF Avengers
• 16 Albacores

Japanese

• 23 A6M2 Zeroes
• 21 D3A Vals
• 24 B5N Kates
• 18 E13A Jake scout floatplanes

The allies lost about two dozen Kingfisher and Seagull floatplanes as well, in addition to a few long range bombers from Suva. Overall, I'm pleased with these results, as the allied numbers represent about half of their current possible carrier strength.


Naval Losses

Japanese losses

• CVE Taiyo - Unable to operate aircraft and slowed down, but not in sinking contition
• CVE Hosho - Moderate damage but able to operate aircraft.

Those two ships are probably the least important of Japanese carriers. Still i hope to save them

Allied losses

• CV Yorktown - sunk
• CA Salt Lake city - sunk
• CA Northampton - sunk
• CA Minneapolis - sunk
• DD Mahan - sunk
  _______
• CV Saratoga - heavy damage
• CV Hornet - heavy damage
• CA Vincennes - heavy damage
• CA Chester - heavy damage
• CA Louisville - heavy damage
• CA Pensacola - heavy damage
• CA Chicago - heavy damage
• CA Canberra - heavy damage
• CA Astoria - heavy damage
• CL Concord - heavy damage
• CL St. Louis - heavy damage
• DD Cushing - heavy damage
  _______
• CA San Francisco - light damage
• CL Trenton - light damage
• CL Mauritius - light damage
• CL Raleigh - light damage
• CL Honolulu - light damage
• DD Voyager - light damage
• DD Dent - light damage

We should be able to finish off any heavily damaged ships tomorrow if they aren't scuttled or don't sink tonight. I don't entertain any hopes about the lightly damaged ships, they'll probably get away unless they run in a wrong direction or hit a sub.

[jwilkerson]

Good job String - that should give you carrier superiority at least for another 9-12 months!!!