11-12 January 1943
In two days, 178 Allied aircraft and 62 Japanese were lost.
Central Pacific
While mining continued in Hawaii and around (with the minefield off PH now having more than 25 000 mines), SIGINT reported an increase of the Allied units in San Francisco, from 52 some days ago to 66 on the 11th.
Southern Pacific
On both days, Allied AA fire shot down a Betty over Noumea, but other crew reported 259 aircraft here: 103 fighter, 41 bombers, 115 other. So even if P-38 weren’t seen flying CAP (only some F4F-4) they probably were still there, resting or training.
Australia-New Zealand
The Kido Butai was slowed for an unknown reason during the night of the 10th-11th and was at dawn still 360 miles of Sydney and unable to launch the scheduled raid. It was also in a bad weather area, but anyway Allied patrol aircraft found and reported it, even if a Catalina was shot down by a Zero.
In the afternoon, the weather was good enough to launch the planned sweep against Sydney. 76 A6M3a were launched by the CVs and reported over the Australian city a CAP of 18 P-40E (one squadron of 343rd FG), 14 Kittyhawk I (132 Sqn RCAF) and 6 F4F-4 (of VMF-212). 12 Zeroes were shot down but they shot down most of their opponents, 14 Kittyhawk, 13 P-40E and 6 F4F-4 falling to their guns.
In the evening, Nagumo decided to apply the plan without change and to continue towards Sydney to launch in the morning a raid on the airfield with Kates, keeping the Vals to attack ships at sea, not in the port.
The night proved to be troublesome. Two American submarines, having probably left Auckland in emergency, tried to attack the fleet 240 and 180 miles SE of Sydney but were unable to reach a good firing position, and one, the Silversides, was seen during her second approach by the DD Mochizuki, depth charged and damaged by an hit and two near misses.
Morning recons showed that the Allied command had reacted to the raid of the previous day. Another RCAF Kittyhawk Sqn and the P-40E of the two other squadrons of 343rd FG had reinforced Sydney, while there was now a CAP over Brisbane (9 Dutch CW-21 and 2 Beaufighters reported by a Mavis from Norfolk Island). Also a submarine launched a Glen to fly recon over Melbourne and reported no CAP here.
Most interesting was the fact that several big Allied ships (CA-BB) were reported off Newcastle, and a ML off Sydney, with numerous PT and SS. Also more bombers were active and during the day the KB CAP shot down 6 Allied patrol planes (2 B-25C, 2 PBY and 2 SOC-3 Seagull, proof of the presence of big USN ships near by). But all these ships were out of range of the Vals units (limited to range 2 to avoid running into a base CAP).
Anyway the KB launched in the morning a big well co-ordinated raid of 133 Kates and 131 escort (112 A6M3a and 19 A6M3) against Sydney airfield. The raid was intercepted by 30 P-40E, 10 Kittyhawk I and 7 F4F-4 but the escort did it job perfectly and none of the Allied pilots reached the Kate, while 29 P-40, 9 Kittyhawk and the 7 Wildcats were shot down. But the cost was 10 A6M3 (this carrier capable unit was the only one of the fleet and suffered 50% losses during the day) and 9 A6M3a. One of the latter was the mount of the best remaining Japanese ace, PO1 Fujita S. (21 kills) of AI-1 that bailed out and was captured. The Kates bombed the airfield at 15k feet but heavy AA fire shot down 7 and damaged others, two of whom ditched later. The bombs destroyed 6 aircraft on the ground (2 Kittyhawk I, 1 P-40E, 1 B-25J, 1 PBY and 1 B-25C), disabled 11 men and 1 gun and scored 12 hits on the airbase, 7 on supplies and 90 on the runways.
At the same time Allied airmen were attacking the Kido Butai (4 CV TF, 1 BB TF, 1 ASW TF) that was covered by 123 A6M3a and 2 A6M3. The first raid was made by 8 B-25J of 18 Sqn RAAF with an escort of 21 P-40E, 9 F4F-4 and 8 Kittyhawk I and if all escorts were shot down (nothing unusual here against the Death Star), they shot down 3 A6M3a and 2 A6M3 and protected enough the bombers to get close to the CV. 6 B-25J were shot down by the CAP but the two remaining crews, veteran of the Timor raids, managed to score one hit on the CV Junyo… Japanese crews, convinced of their invulnerability, were shocked to see here burning.
The next Allied wave was made of 12 Dutch Martin 139, 4 B-25C and 3 B-25J and only escorted by 2 F4F-4 and 2 P-40E. At the cost of 3 A6M3a the CAP shot down all four escort, 10 Martin 139 and 2 B-25J but again let bombers get trough, 7 of them this time. They attacked the BB Ise and Musashi and missed them, losing a B-25J and a B-25C under AA fire.
The last morning raid on the KB saw 6 B-25C arrive unescorted and all were shot down by the CAP.
In the afternoon, 13 B-24D from Brisbane tried to attack the Japanese fleet but didn’t find it, while Sydney only sent 3 B-25J and 3 B-25C. The CAP shot down all 6 for the cost of another A6M3a shot down.
At the end of the day the Zero pilots of the Kido Butai had score 123 victories for 28 losses. The new top active Japanese ace was another AI-1 pilot, PO2 Minobe K, who scored his 20th kill in the battle over the CVs in the morning.
The map below is showing the battles on the 12th, the Allied TF seen and the air losses of both sides for the day.
The hit on the Junyo didn’t close her bridge but was serious enough (damage 23/7/13) to change Japanese plans. The uber-CAP didn’t work anymore…. And to separate her from the main fleet will leave her vulnerable to long-range heavy bombers.
Also the initial plan to use some DD to chase PT boats and then bombard the base with the BB TF next night was no more possible. Rather than half-a-dozen PT more than 20 were reported, with a dozen submarines, a ML that probably laid at least one minefield there, and a surface TF with at least CAs, and maybe BBs. So it was reduced to shorten the raid duration by one.
Tonight the whole fleet, Junyo included will sail to 120 miles ESE of Newcastle. A Zero unit will sweep this city while other Zero will fly 70% CAP. All Val units will bomb resource centers and heavy industry in Newcastle, while the Kates will fly naval attack to range 4. The surface ships won’t raid anything but will cover the CV TF.
The Junyo was ordered to fly all aircraft, but the game didn’t allow it to fly its AC to another CV in the same hex (no comment…). 17 A6M3a had the range to reach Auckland, and were replaced by 15 A6M3a arriving as reinforcements from this base on other CVs. 19 Vals remained aboard Junyo and will remain there.
On a site note, the Kido Butai left Auckland with 296 Zeroes, 151 Val and 155 Kate, it now had 255 Zeroes (-41), 151 Vals (no loss) and 146 Kates (-9), and was considered still in good shape but another CV hit will be very annoying off the Australian base, so the day after tomorrow the fleet will retire towards NZ.
During the battle, Japanese engineers continued to work in Auckland and expanded the airfield to size 9. They will now complete the fortifications (already level 6).
Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea
On the 11th, Rabaul was attacked by 55 B-24D from Port Moresby and reported 3 hits on the airbase, 3 on supplies and 36 on the runways and the loss of 119 men and 5 guns. The next day, again in the afternoon, 11 KI-61 of the 203 Sentai flying LRCAP from Kavieng intercepted 47 B-24D over Rabaul and shot down 6, with a 7th crashing due to the Flak and a 8th being lost in an accident. The bomber hit nevertheless the base, scoring 1 hit on a building, 2 on supplies and 51 on the runways and doing 92 casualties. No Tony was lost during the battle but two were lost with their pilots in an air collision.
Tomorrow the 203 Sentai will fly local CAP over Kavieng.
Timor-Amboina-Australia
On the 11th, a Kittyhawk shot down a Nell over Darwin while in the afternoon both Koepang and Lautem were bombed by B-25C respectively from Derby and Darwin. The first reported 39 attacking bombers, 96 casualties and 2 hits on the airbase, 2 on supplies and 23 on the runway, the second counted 32 bombers that scored 1 hit on a supply dump and one on the runway, doing 10 casualties. No raid were flown the next day, but again a Nell was shot down by an Allied fighter, this time over Derby.
Southern Resource Area
Two convoys were created on the 12th. One will carry 11k oil from Amboina to Tarakan, another 7k resources from Manila to Japan.
Burma
Recon and spies reported that the British repaired the damage to oil and mining installation in Dacca from the last Japanese raid. After a quiet day on the 11th where no raid was launched by any side, on the 12th 54 Nells from Rangoon attacked again Dacca under escort by 55 A6M2. They met no CAP but lost a Nell to AA fire and scored few hits, damaging only 1 resource center and 2 oil pits. This raid won’t be repeated, it is more successfull to raid undamaged targets. By the way if all damage is repaired, the two raids would have cost 100k supplies to the Allied.
On the 12th too, Myitkyina was attacked by 28 SB-2c and 6 B-25J (first known use of the type, before it was seen too off Sydney the same day) from Ledo, escorted by 22 P-40B. They scored 5 hits on the base, 6 on supplies and 16 on the runway but AA fire shot down a SB-2c.
China
On the 11th, Japanese airmen finally attacked the defenders of Kungchang with 16 Ki-48 and 15 Ki-21 from Homan, 29 Ki-44 from Lanchow and 38 Ki-21, 36 Ki-43 and 29 Ki-49 from Yenen escorted by 14 Ki-44 and hit 100 men and 2 guns for the loss of an Oscar in a crash. All troops has been ordered to stop the offensive but one engineer regiment attacked alone on this day (my fault, I had changed orders from attack to bombardment, this unit having no guns kept the deliberate attack orders… you should always set all troops to defence mode first). The unit was wrecked (reduced to one valid combat engineer squad) and ordered to march to Lanchow for R&R (and construction engineer squads will help build the base). Japanese casualties were 143, while Chinese losses were 173. The next day Chinese losses were only bombed by Japanese guns and lost 68 men.
In the south, the operational training units based in Wuchow began to move to Kweilin to get closer from enemy troops, but this new base had not yet enough air support to base all of them here. Part of the base forces now unnecessary in Wuchow will march to Kweilin.
Japan
In these two days (roughly the 400th turn of the game), numerous reinforcements were activated in Japan: 1 Aviation Unit, 7 HQs, 4 Sentais (2 bomber, 1 recon, 1 dive bomber), 2 floatplane Chutai, 2 SS, 1 AO, 1 PC, 2 MSW. Also two more Sentai were delayed by lack of available aircraft, one of Ki-45 and one of Ki-54. The KI-54 factory in Tokyo was restarted and will be converted to something else as soon as enough AC will be available for this Sentai.
Most of these reinforcements will receive orders in some days, except the Aviation Unit and 1 HQ sent to N Japan, and the two SS sent to Pearl Harbor. Also the 16 Sentai, the first Ki-45 unit, was transferred from Home Defence Command to the Southern Army and will fly to Kendari. Its first stop was Okinawa.
