), take a glance at it between the turns and think about it. It is not from my own head, I had read number of documents about air operations in north africa, italy, france, burma, new guinea, guadalcanal. Also Air division compositon as I designed them are based partialy on their real organization and use.Missions of Airpower (in exactly that order):
1. Air Superiority
To achieve air superiority you need to:
a. decrease enemy planes production (directly by bombing factories or indirectly by denying resources to build them)
b. kill enemy planes at transport on ships (few subs properly positioned could get lucky shot resulting in whole enemy squadron lost)
c. make enemy bases in the area inoperable (most cost-effective and rewarding in witp)
d. kill enemy planes on ground (side effect of previous tactic)
e. kill enemy planes in the air (lest cost-effective as you are basically trading 1:1)
f. killl enemy pilots (just what I am trying to achieve as this is the weakest spot for the Japs)
In other words as Japan in early phases I would:
a. constitute Air Divisions/fleets of 2+x Fighter sentai/Daitai , 2x Level Bomber Sentai/Daitai, few Recon Chutais
b. use them following way: 2x bomber units +1 escort will be bombing enemy airfields, 1 fighter unit will be free CAP, LRCAP, Sweep, Rest (switch escorting and sweeping units once in a time)
c. target enemy airfields in range to harass your naval/ground operations - they will be abandoned or enemy has to accept loses on ground
d. select 4+ size airfield in range of more enemy bases so you could /switch/ between them
e. Switch targeted airfields often to suppres more airfields and be hard to counterattack
f. When enemy planes are detected on airfield, bomb it for 2 days but not more.
g. dont fly every turn - rest bombers in Rain/Storm, fighters on CAP not to be catched on ground
h. Use best planes in this Air Divisions (Zero/Oscar for escort, Betty, Sally)
i. if base is coastal, use submarine to ease pilot losses
j. Use as primary Air superiority force - Striking force
result: 50 bomber + 25 fighter escorts + another 25 on sweep can deny enemy 2-6 airfields in few turns at longer ranges. In case of Betty/Zero combination this force is enough to take care of at least 2 allied carriers.
a. constitute few Air Divisions of 2+x Fighter sentai/Daitai, 2x Light/Dive bomber, few recon Chutais
b. use them following way: 2x bomber units + 1 escort will be bombing enemy airfields or ground units, other fighter unit will be available for CAP, LRCAP, Sweep, Rest
c. /switch/ targets
d. dont fly every turn - rest bombers in Rain/Storm, fighters on CAP not to be catched on ground
e. Use not the best planes you have: Nate, Claude, Ann, Mary, Lily ...
f. you could try 2 fields from which to operate allowing you to hit two different units
g. you could try to set bombers to operate separately in AM or PM phase
h. Use as Primary Air interdiction/Close Air Support and second-line Air superiority force
result: 50 light bombers + 25-50 fighter escorts can hurt 2 Divisions in ground combat or deny enemy 2-4 airfields close to front line. Also great for bombing places like Singapore, Manila, Mandalay for example. They will eat supplies just as big bombers do and are not so jeopardized as you are pushing forward with your striking force.
a. constitute few Fighter Regiments of 2+x Figter Sentai/Daitai
b. employ your Nates, Claudes here
c. Their mission is to provide you with CAP, LRCAP on forward places
d. You could use them in Low altitude Airfield attacks (fighters suffer smaller "destroyed" proportion to bombers and similar numbers of damaged - I tested this on P-47 and A-20/B-25)
e. When using on Airfield attacks use only one Sentai/Daitai on attack, other use to sweep or escort.
f, Use primary Defensively so they will not be in the point of your attack suffering bulk of your loses.
result: CAP, LRCAP and only 1-2 BF needed
My intention is to use Long range fighters to escort, best fighters to sweep (Sweep is better than CAP) and to use worse and short-legged planes to CAP (as CAP is better than escort).
For US i would use P-38 as escorts, P51 for sweeps and F4U/P-47 as fighter bombers, CAP and short range escorts.
One of your early target should be Kuching (AF4) and not Brunei (AF3). It allow Bettys to carry torpedos, is closer to Singapore, allows you to control Java Sea and free Malaya airfields for army planes.
Also Davao/Cagayan, Jolo, Tarakan Airfields are AF4 effectively cutting of Philipines and covering Malacca strait, Celebes Sea and Malacca Sea.
Think about Airpower as war-winner. All other forces are subordinated to this - navy to supply distant positions and support invasions and army to occupy/garrison airfields.
In the begining of game Japan poses: air initiative, superiority in numbers, superiority in pilots quality, superiority in planes quality. Do not force yourself to deploy your best fighters defensively.
Do not use only your first line Air force in secondary/defensive duties leaving second line air force unoccupied.
Hit-and-run sorties are just what is needed in air-inferiority situation. You will not be carefull when losing say 3 planes a day in a month. But when you loose 1 plane a day in a month and then suddenly lose 60 planes on just one day it is hard not to be carefull. (example: Battle of Britain. In whole BoB Luftwaffe lost 16,7 planes a day at average. On 15 September Luftwaffe lost 60 planes.) Unfortunately allies are not able to use this tactic to my advantage in Burma beacause of Hurricanes short leggs.
2. Air Interdiction
Interdiction is always allowed by air supperiority. Interdiction in air-inferiority situation is not possible in long terms, but could be used when necessary Interdiction mission is to put enemy lines of communications under pressure.
As we have no trains or supply columns in WITP this could be achieved by attacking naval lines of communication and supply usage by whatever means. You have to suck enemy supplies in repairs of Airfields/resources/oil. As the additional by-product of bombing airfields to suck supplies this will also result in uselessness of the airfields targeted.
Naval lines of communications air interdiction will not get into play early because Japs are pushing allies back and no followup supply convoys comes into play while allies am in strike range. But It will come into play later when you will be fighting close-quarter (as IRL happened in Burma, New guinea-Solomons area).
3. Close Air Support
Close air support is the least effective form of offensive capabilities of air power. It helps ground forces directly in their mission, but have no direct effect in the air. Also each plane directed to CAS could be more efficiently employed in Interdiction which have greater effect. One bomb can kill the tank, squad or a gun. But the same bomb can sink a ship with battalion on interdiction. The same bomb could destroy 30 days rations or 15 days combat ammunition for that tank/gun/squad (in witp). In a base with 10,000 supplies (enough to keep Division supplied for 10 month rest or 5 months of combat) just one Supply hit results in destruction of 100 supplies (Divisions 3 days of rest or 1,5 days of combat). Do this for month and you just shortened supplies for division by 3 months rest and 1,5 months of combat in addition tu supplies sucked in airfields repairs.
In witp you could use CAS when deliberately or shock attacking, or to slow enemy down when pursuing (raising disruption slows movement), in invasion preparation to disrupt ground troops (note coastal defences are better destroyed by Port Attack) or in case you dont have enough artillery to maintain pressure. It can be also effectively used when enemy is forced to river-crossing. You can slow one or two of his big units enough, they will not be able to cross with other units resulting in piecemeal crossing. Or those units could have much higher disruption after the crossing and get their asses kicked.
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In our current witp game my Japanese opponent is using brutal force (6BBs and 8 CAs in one atomic blast TF, 8Division+support in china, ...) which can be effective until comparable brutal force come to place. Unfortunately for him, Japan is not the one who will end up with bigger brutal force.
All that brutal force mean that he can push forward only in the limited number of areas where this force is employed - so he is slow in capturing vital objectives. And time is not the thing Japs have in surplus.
There is no need to employ Brutal force of 6BBs and 8CAs in area where he could barely meet 2CAs, 5CLs, 14DDs. 4BBs are enough to close an airfield and 4 CAs to cover invasion force. With Betty/Zero Air division as described above in cover, he dont have to worry much about enemies heavy surface forces.
There is also no need to deploy 4 Divisions on Java when 2,66 were enough IRL. Japanese have only limited assets and to employ them effectively and economicaly is Japanese main task.
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I was writing this to my oponent so you could find places with "you/your/yours" phrasing. I play the allies and I am whining about his Airpower employment. Little bit odd, dont you think? [:D] Feel free to make your comments...
