jwilkerson(Jpn) Moses (Allies)

[jwilkerson]

4/12/43

Air War:
Total Losses(A/J): 56/35
AirToAir Losses(A/J): 39/15

A relatively slow day in the air, the "spike" was in China where uncoordinated strikes against "Wuhan" pitted several units of I-153 and unescorted B-25J against two Tony Chutai. The Tony's shot down 12+ of the attackers with no loss.

Burma:
Moses launced a probe attack against our positions at Akyab. He suffered a nominal 4000+ casualties. But this enabled him to know our fort level so he can plan the necessary force to reduce Akyab.
The attack on Akyab was supported by a planned bombardment against our troops. The CA Frobisher struck a mine and was unable to participate. In the event only 2xDDs made the bombardment run.
Our TK convoy with 112K of gas will unload next turn.
Two new Jack units (EXP 77 and 81) are prepping at Bangkok and Rangoon.
The 16 ID is enroute to Akyab.

Aleutians:
Our Navy continues dancing about to the NW of Amchitcha, we don't actually see the USN BB/CA force this turn.
The Kaiyo continues to steam North to Kiska to relieve the Hiryu. The Soryu should complete upgrade within about a week.

Northern Oz.
We see four Aussie divisions and two Bdes at Darwin. This turn Moses limited himself to bombarding.
Our Ise/Hyuga group bombarded the Aussie forces and will again this turn.
The 52 ID will reach Darwin and begin to unload this turn. This should relieve the emergency.
The Fuso/Yamashiro group will topoff at Kendari and proceed South to Darwin to relieve the Ise/Hyuga group. Both gas and supply are enroute to Darwin.
We rotated several Sally groups in and out of Darwin and will continue bombing the Aussie units.
There are enemy forces at both Derby and Wyndam, but they seem too small to be able to attack. We have reinforced our garrison at Broome which is now cutoff from Derby.
Broome, Derby and Darwin are level-9 forts, Wyndham is Level-7 and buildling up fast.

[jwilkerson]

4/14/43

Air War:
Total Losses(A/J) 29/38
AirToAir Losses(A/J) 15/19

Our most numerous single plane/cause loss was 8 Sallys due to flak at Darwin. We have 100+ Sallys bombing the attacking Aussies each day and they are taking some hits.

Northern Oz:
Moses launched a shock attack which included 4 Aussie Divisions, 1 Bde and some supporting troops. They didn't do badly. Nominal casualties were 1200+ for the Aussies and 500+ for the IJA. But our L9 forts held, no levels lost and our 54ID will unload at Darwin this turn thus (hopefully) ending the crisis. The Ise/Hyuga grp have been providing bombardment support at Darwin. They will be relieved by the Fuso/Yamashiro group.

[jwilkerson]

4/14/43

Burma:
We deployed a fresh EXP80 Jack unit to Pagan (2 hexes to the rear of Mandalay and Akyab) this turn and rotated out a beat up Jack unit. Another fresh Jack unit, EXP80 is readying itself at Rangoon.

Aleutians:
Moses is conspicuous by his absence this turn, we see only PT boats at Atka, so the USN Battleline has withdrawn to refuel perhaps. Our Mushashi/Nagato/Mutsu SAG is refueling at Kiska and will rejoin the fleet at Sea to the N of Amchitca this turn. The Kaiyo is to the West of Kiska, enroute to relieve the Hiryu.

[jwilkerson]

4/16/43

AirWar:
TotalLosses(A/J): 13/27
AirToAirLosses(A/J/): 2/4

Moses stood down much of his Indian based airforces today in honor of the Thunderstorms. Sally's continue to attrite over Darwin as we continue to bomb the Aussie forces there.

Northern Oz:
The 56ID has now unloaded at Darwin bringing our AV up over 1000. The 14AreaArmy HQ will unload at Wyndam next turn. Then we can focus on further reinforcements for Derby and Broome.
Moses did everything right in this attack, by threatening all 4 cities he forced me to spread out and defend all four (or lose one - which would enable him to bring in air power and cause the loss of all four). But because we happened to have two divisions (38ID and 56ID) already in motion we were able to massively and rapidly reinforce. A happy coincidence from our perspective. Th 38ID was headed to Burma, but now we have set the 31ID in motion to Burma instead. The 56ID was headed to Truk, it will have to be replaced by a different division.
Unless Moses can bring significant new forces up to Northern Oz, we are now stalemated except the Japanese have the ability to bomb his forces which hopefully will cause him to have to rotate them. I don't expect him to give up and withdraw. He would prefer to keep our troops tied down I suspect.

Burma:
The 16ID continues its march out to Akyab. Once it arrives we will rotate out the 11ID which has been pounded into dust.
The 18A HQ is almost ready to relive the 15A HQ at Akyab.
Four artillery units at Rangoon are also about ready to make the trip out to Akyab.
We finally got some gas at Rangoon and the Kongo/Haruna/Hiei group laid on another bombardment run to Akyab. There was no enemy interference.

Aleutians:
We still are not seeing the bulk of Moses fleet this turn, so we continue to cruise about NNW of Amchitka looking for opportunities.

[jwilkerson]

IJA Divisional Deployment April 1943

2ID - Northern Oz, 3xRCT split between Wyndam, Derby and Broome
4ID - Northern Oz, at Darwin
38ID - Northern Oz, at Wyndam
54ID - Northern Oz, at Darwin

5ID - Mytchina-Burma
33ID - Mytchina-Burma

IGID - Akyab-Burma
11ID - Akyab-Burma
56ID - Akyab Burma

20ID - Central Burma

16ID - Rangoon-Burma
55ID - Rangoon-Burma

14ID - Andaman

18ID - Port Moresby

31ID - Aboard ship off Palawan, enroute to Rangoon-Burma

All other divisions are in the Home Islands, China or Manchuko

[jwilkerson]

4/18/43

AirWar:
TotalLosses(A/J): 49/41
AirToAir)A/J): 28/24

Burma:
Our 16ID continues marching towards Akyab, 4 fresh arty units at Rangoon have now also begun the trek to Akyab.

NorthernOz:
Very surpriseingly Moses pulled back from all four of our Northern Oz bases. I don't know if he is withdrawing or just regrouping/recoverying. We are standing down all the Sally's giving them a rest. We will operate under the assumption that he will come right back at us shortly.

Aleutians:
Our Musashi/Nagato/Mutsu group did another surface sweep at Adak covering some supply barge unloading. Moses launched a decent sized airstrike on the withdrawing surface force and got some hits, but after reaching port at Kiska, Musashi has sysdmg=4 and no float or fire and N&M are even less damaged.
We will pull back the entire fleet to Kiska this turn, fuel in the oilers is running low, flak ammo on some of the ships is also running low and we need to regroup to fleet with the arrival of Kaiyo and the departure of Hiryu and resplenish the airgroups as well.
We do now see the USN battleline hovering to the East at Dutch Harbor. Moses might use the opportunity of our withdrawal to make another attack on Adak, but the supply situation at Adak is the best it has been since the Americans landed. All three units have full supply and these is 800 more on the ground.

[jwilkerson]

4/18/43

AirWar:
Total Losses(A/J): 71/78
AirToAir(A/J): 55/44

The air war was "interesting" enough today that I will use an annotated combat report. Too much action to do screen prints, sorry.

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 04/18/43

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Pagan , at 31,31

Japanese aircraft
J2M Jack x 37
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 5

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 36
B-24D Liberator x 29

Japanese aircraft losses
J2M Jack: 5 destroyed, 5 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 3 destroyed
Ki-46-III Dinah: 2 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 15 destroyed, 4 damaged Two new (81/77 EXP) Jack units make their debut
B-24D Liberator: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
70 casualties reported

Airbase hits 3
Airbase supply hits 1
Runway hits 30

Aircraft Attacking:
17 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 10000 feet
11 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 10000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Mandalay , at 33,30

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 24

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 18
Wellington III x 9
P-40E Warhawk x 24
P-47C Thunderbolt x 24

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 14 destroyed Most on the ground - but this is what we get for sleeping!

Allied aircraft losses
Wellington III: 1 destroyed, 5 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
P-47C Thunderbolt: 3 destroyed, 2 damaged The debut of the P47 does not bode well ...

Japanese ground losses:
12 casualties reported

Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 3

Aircraft Attacking:
6 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
2 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Akyab , at 30,29


Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 54


No Allied losses

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Akyab , at 30,29


Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 18 The Allies own the skies over Akyab


No Allied losses

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 11th Division, at 30,29


Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 6
Liberator VI x 7
Hudson I x 9
B-25C Mitchell x 12
B-26B Marauder x 37
B-17E Fortress x 24
LB-30 Liberator x 10


No Allied losses

Japanese ground losses:
129 casualties reported

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 11th Division, at 30,29


Allied aircraft
CW-21B Demon x 13
Blenheim I x 10
Blenheim IV x 10
Wellington III x 11
Liberator VI x 22
B-25C Mitchell x 20
B-17E Fortress x 35
LB-30 Liberator x 33


Allied aircraft losses
Blenheim I: 1 damaged
B-25C Mitchell: 1 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 1 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
150 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on 23rd AA Regiment, at 33,28


Allied aircraft
Lysander I x 9


Allied aircraft losses
Lysander I: 2 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
12 casualties reported

Aircraft Attacking:
9 x Lysander I bombing at 2000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Imperial Guards Division, at 30,29


Allied aircraft
Blenheim IV x 4


No Allied losses

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x Blenheim IV bombing at 10000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF at 99,37

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 25
G3M Nell x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell: 5 destroyed, 5 damaged

Allied Ships
BB North Carolina
BB Pennsylvania
BB Maryland, Torpedo hits 1, on fire At least we said HELLOOOO !!!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 04/19/43



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Pagan , at 31,31

Japanese aircraft
J2M Jack x 29
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 8

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 21
B-24D Liberator x 33

Japanese aircraft losses
J2M Jack: 5 destroyed, 7 damaged
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 7 destroyed
Ki-46-III Dinah: 1 destroyed

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 16 destroyed Took at few more with us ...
B-24D Liberator: 6 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
47 casualties reported

Airbase hits 9
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 20

Aircraft Attacking:
30 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 10000 feet
3 x B-24D Liberator bombing at 10000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Mandalay , at 33,30

Japanese aircraft
J2M Jack x 7
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 1
Ki-61 KAIc Tony x 9

Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 19
Wellington III x 6
P-40E Warhawk x 22
P-47C Thunderbolt x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
J2M Jack: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged Wow, we pulled in Jacks from Pagan/color]
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 3 destroyed
Ki-61 KAIc Tony: 7 destroyed And Tony's from lashio!

Not that either did us any good!

Allied aircraft losses
F4U-1 Corsair: 1 destroyed
Wellington III: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
P-40E Warhawk: 5 destroyed
P-47C Thunderbolt: 4 destroyed

Japanese ground losses:
24 casualties reported
Guns lost 1

Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 2

Aircraft Attacking:
3 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
2 x Wellington III bombing at 6000 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Akyab , at 30,29


Allied aircraft
F4U-1 Corsair x 38


No Allied losses

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Akyab , at 30,29


Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 17


No Allied losses

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on Myitkyina , at 36,28

Japanese aircraft
Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 9

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 22
Blenheim IV x 18
P-39D Airacobra x 8

Japanese aircraft losses
Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 3 destroyed, 1 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged
Blenheim IV: 2 damaged

Japanese ground losses:
13 casualties reported

Airbase hits 1
Runway hits 6

[jwilkerson]

April 1943

Strategic Thoughts


When I "back off" from the details of the game I'm playing and think about the "big picture" - and what should I do differently and where (if anywhere) will Moses be focusing his offensive "pushing" - I usually think in terms of my planes and my boats. Where do they need to be? But I've realized now - in part because of looking at Pauk's Tinian defense, that actually the most important "tactical" deployment consideration is not where are the planes and boats, but where are the DIVISIONS. Why is this so? Because it is harder to redeploy the Divisions than it is the boats and planes. Planes can fly across the map in a few turns. Boats can steam across the map in a few more turns. But moving a division from say Port Moresby to Akyab (as I did with the Imperial Guards recently) take many more than a few turns. Thus the redeployment of the "major land units" really needs to head to the top of the list in terms of matching your available combat forces up with the expected moves of your opponents. So at least for me, this is a useful conceptualization. The planes and boats can react in "days" but the Divisions usually take "weeks". Hence priority in thinking and acting upon divisional placement/redeployment is numero uno.

[jwilkerson]

4/20/43

Air War:
Total Losses)A/J): 84/31
AirToAir(A/J): 74/9

Big spike in the air battle today was Moses sent 100 x B24s after Buna and was meet by 2xJack units ... 43xB24s went down ... that was out of 56x4EB he lost during the turn. W'll call it a "good day" for a change.

Elsewhere - he still looks like he is pulling about from Northern Oz. There are T-storms over most of the map.

[ny59giants]

I think that many Allied players try to keep track of Japanese Divisions for the first 6 months or so to try to determine where the main trust are going and what may be coming. After that, the focus switches to the LBA battles and avoiding a costly CV vs. CV battle that could be shift the naval balance to one side or the other. Ground combat starts to look like trench warfare of WWI and doesn't have the glitz of the Air and Naval battles. 

[jwilkerson]

4/22/43

AirWar
Total Losses(A/J) 40/38
AirtoAirLosses(A/J) 25/26

Big event of the day was Moses made big attack on Adak, brought in more troops, lots of ships in support and he finally took Adak. We attacked with Nells and put 2 torps in the AZ and another torp in Penn.

Day Air attack on TF, near Adak Island at 98,36

Japanese aircraft
J2M Jack x 11
G3M Nell x 15

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 13
F4U-1 Corsair x 6
Kittyhawk I x 3

Japanese aircraft losses
J2M Jack: 1 destroyed
G3M Nell: 5 destroyed, 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed, 1 damaged
Kittyhawk I: 1 destroyed

Allied Ships
BB Arizona, Torpedo hits 2
BB North Carolina
BB Pennsylvania, Torpedo hits 1

[jwilkerson]

4/26/43

AirWar
Total Losses(A/J) 33/33
AirToAir Losses(A/J) 15/8

Moses still seems to be pulling back in Northern Oz.

In the Aleutians, he pulled all vessels, except PTs back from Adak.

[Rysyonok]

An excellent AAR. Keep it up

[jwilkerson]

Thanks

4/28/43


Air War
Total Losses(A/J): 51/16
Air To Air(A/J): 27/19

Pretty slow day overall ... Moses still seems to be pulling South with his large troop formations, away from our Northern Oz ports, so looks like an immedate return to the attack here is not indicated.

He continues to pile up the troops at Akyab. We ran another bombardment run by the 3 Kongos we have at Rangoon. And we are preparing to fly in some reinforcements to beef up our AV until the 16ID arrives. The 31ID is also enroute off Singapore. The 55ID is reconstituting at Rangoon.

[jwilkerson]

4/30/43

AirWar
Total Losses(A/J): 52/75
AirToAir(A/J): 30/56

Moses went "betty trolling" with his carriers SE of Lunga and bagged 17.

5/2/43

AirWar
Total Losses(A/J): 52/28
AirToAir(A/J): 28/13

We don't see an invasion (of Lunga) comming but I suppose he could be "gathering" his forces. The carriers seem to have withdrawn.

At Akyab Moses tried another probe, knocking our newly built level-7 back down to level-6 but disrupting himself a bit in the process. We flew the 1YOK out to stiffen our line. The 16ID advanced a hex and is now less than 60 miles from Akyab. The 55ID and 18A HQ are ready to move to Akyab as well. And the 31ID is approaching Rangoon.

[jwilkerson]

5/4/43

AirWar
TotalLosses(A/J): 33/29
AirToAir(A/J): 20/12

Fairly quiet day. I assume it is another "quiet before the storm".

On the production front, the next 60 days sees our big "mid-43" pile of LCUs roll in - we're checking our stocks of manpower, armaments and vehicles and they seem adequate, but we're firing up all the factories just in case. This "big run" is very critical for the Japanese and you don't wanna run short.

Otherwise we're ramping up R&D to 200 for the A6M5 and to 100 for the A6M5c ... and then 100 each for the Jills and Judy's .. so before year end we should be switched over to the next-gen carrier planes.

[jwilkerson]

5/6/43

AirWar
Total Losses(A/J): 27/32
AirToAir(A/J): 11/20


Burma:
We see what is probably a Brit Carrier Force several hexes (map) WNW of Rangoon, only one carrier seen but probably more than one in reality, if he will come out to play he would bring them all. We have one 27 plane Nell unit and a 27 Plane Betty unit on the ground at Rangoon with NavAttk 8 hexes, 10% search. We have readjust the fighter missions at Rangoon, we have 3 groups of Tojo (36 each) on 70% at 15000 and 25000. We have one small 13 plane A6M2 unit on 10% at 15000 with an 8 hex range. We broke down a 36 plane Tony unit sending 2 chutai to Andaman and putting the remaining chutai to cover the 31ID convoy which will be arriving next turn. We will also send a TF to sea to covery this convoy. At Andaman we flew in a 27 plane Val unit (from Nicobar) and have the Nell unit and Jake unit and the 2 Chutai of Tonys on 10% at 15000.

So if Moses comes in close enough to have a shot at the troop convoy (passing off Tavoy in the morning), he will face strikes from both Andaman and Rangoon.

On the other hand his purpose is to interdict the bombardment missions to Akyab and he is well placed to do that. We just aren't comming out right now. And he probably can't see the troop convoy anyway, it is currently off Victoria's point.

We sortied 8 "RO" boats that were waiting at Georgetown ... along with 3 "I-boats" in the AKyab vicinity .. these boats will saturate the beneficial area for the Brit carriers to sit to inderdict our bombardment runs. This will faciliate our LB bombers in attacking the RN carriers.

We are also moving addtional Naval force back to the Gulf of Martaban. Controlling this sea space is one of the keys to holding Rangoon which is the Burma POE.

We have moved 2 Tony and 1 Tojo units up to the front in Burma today (1x36 plane Tony unit to Lashio, a 20 plane Tony unit is still there) (another 1x36 plane Tony unit to Pagan, a 7 Plane Tojo unit pulled out of Pagan. One of the Tojo units at Rangoon is also new.

We are training up 2c36 plane IJA fighter units to "Pretorian" status - we will see if that is dedectable when they go into battle.


Aleutians:
We are sortie-ing the fleet this turn - I see a pile of Lxy piling up an Unmak. Probably either a transport run to Adak or an invasion farther West. We have the Taiyo/Unyo (with 27 A6M3a each) and the Hosho (5 Zero, 5 Kate) and the Kaiyo (9 Val, 9 Kate) along with the Musahi, Nagato and Mutsu and a number of escorting Cruisers and Destroyers.

CenPac and Northern Oz
Not much going on.

[jwilkerson]

Well as some have probably guessed, I've been too busy to post in my AAR, but the game has continued though at a reduced pace.

But this turns results were rather unique in being somewhat positive for the hard pressed imperial forces. I've snipped the combat report down to the interesting sector, which is in the central Solomons. Moses has been rapidly working his way up the chain. We've been opposing with mostly small LCU and the Betty/Zero strike force.

This turn we got a bit of the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" going by planting some subs in the area, driving off the warships with the Betty's and sneaking in a small cruiser force to chew up some transports. If we could do this every turn we might stop the Allies cold, but most likely luck like we had this turn will happen about once every 6 months.
[:D]

AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 06/15/43

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub attack near Munda at 64,95

Japanese Ships
SS I-169, hits 5 One of our subs leads off the Solomons action by putting a torp into the Juneau and taking a bunch of near misses in reply

Allied Ships
CLAA Juneau, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Paladin
DD Mahan
DD Fanning
DD Edwards


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Munda at 64,95

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 77
G4M1 Betty x 47

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 22

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3a Zero: 20 destroyed, 1 damaged
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 13 destroyed

Allied Ships messed up some minelayers anyway ...
ML Rigel, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
ML Pro Patria, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DM Preble, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
DM Tracy
ML Krakatau, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
ML Gouden Leeuw, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DM Sicard, Torpedo hits 1, on fire

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Munda at 64,95

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 31
G4M1 Betty x 38

Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 13

Japanese aircraft losses
A6M3a Zero: 7 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 3 destroyed, 21 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 10 destroyed

Allied Ships dinged em a bit anyway
CL Enterprise
DD Edwards
DD Gwin
DD Mahan, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
DD Aaron Ward
DD Fanning, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR 06/16/43


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Munda at 64,95

Japanese Ships Now the surface forces sneaks in to hit the transports!
CA Aoba
CA Kinugasa
CL Nagara
DD Hatsukari
DD Tomozuru
DD Otori
DD Hiyodori
DD Hayabusa

Allied Ships
AK Henry Dearborn
AK James B. McPherson, Shell hits 15, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
AK Juan Cabrillo, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AK Lew Wallace
AK Starr King, Shell hits 14, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Night Time Surface Combat, near Munda at 64,95

Japanese Ships Hit 'em again !!!
CA Aoba
CA Kinugasa, Shell hits 1
CL Nagara
DD Hatsukari
DD Tomozuru
DD Otori
DD Hiyodori, Shell hits 1
DD Hayabusa

Allied Ships
AP George F. Elliot, Shell hits 2, on fire
AP McCawley
AP Heywood, Shell hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
AP U.S. Grant, Shell hits 15, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
AP Henry T. Allen


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Russell Islands at 66,96

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 5

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged


Allied Ships
AK Henry Dearborn

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Russell Islands at 66,96

Japanese aircraft
G4M1 Betty x 6

Allied aircraft
Kittyhawk I x 15

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 1 destroyed, 4 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
Kittyhawk I: 3 damaged

Allied Ships
DD Fanning, on fire, heavy damage
DD Mahan, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage dinged one

Aircraft Attacking:
1 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Munda at 64,95

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 28
G4M1 Betty x 102 Got some hits!

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 9 damaged

Allied Ships
AK Robert C. Grier
AK William T. Sherman, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AK William Kent, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AK Morrison R. Waite, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AK William Windom, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AK William Williams
AK John Muir, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AK John P. Holland, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AK William P. McArthur, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
MSW Token
AK Peter V. Daniel, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
AK Rufus King, Torpedo hits 1
AK Lewis Cass, Torpedo hits 2, on fire
AK Joseph Holt, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
MSW Motive, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage


Allied ground losses:
630 casualties reported

Aircraft Attacking:
2 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day Air attack on TF, near Munda at 64,95

Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 24
G4M1 Betty x 86 Banged some up good this time ...

Japanese aircraft losses
G4M1 Betty: 4 damaged

Allied Ships
AK William T. Sherman, on fire, heavy damage
AK William P. McArthur, on fire
AK Morrison R. Waite, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Oracle, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AK John P. Holland, on fire, heavy damage
AK Robert C. Grier, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AK John Muir, on fire, heavy damage
AK Robert H. Harrison, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AK William Williams, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
AK Rufus King, Torpedo hits 2, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Motive, on fire, heavy damage
AK Lyman Beecher, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
AK William R. Davie


Allied ground losses:
208 casualties reported

Aircraft Attacking:
4 x G4M1 Betty launching torpedoes at 200 feet

[jwilkerson]

Had a bit of time on the plane, so worked up a few slides for the AAR.

6/29/43

Aleutians

After Kaiyo, Unyo and Hosho were damaged, we brought out the Chuyo and Shinyo to join the Taiyo. Nagato and Mutsu are currently accompanying the carriers while Yamato and Musashi are operating separately.

At Kiska, we have:
27xJack
36xTony
45xRufe
27xNell
36xVal
27xKate,
20xJake
9xIrving

Our mission here is to delay as long as possible, currently by acting aggressive with the Navy hoping that this forces the USN also to use major Navak forces to make progress. Currently we aren't seeing much activity, so we assume Moses is doing his usual stand down and waiting for us to go away.

[jwilkerson]

6/29/43

Solomons

Kido Butai are operating around New Britian waiting to intervene if the USN try to leap frog forward. We are also swapping out the worn out Betty and Zero units to improve the readiness of the land based striking force. And we have not seen any evidence of the USN carriers in some time.