The Turning Point: floydg (A) & Coach Z (J) -- Luganville liberated

[floydg]

December 25, 1942

Highlights: Attu bombing continues; Japanese break stalemate in China

• 16xVengeance make an ill-advised unescorted attack on the airfield at Mandalay. 59 Japanese fighters intercept and down 11 of the planes. One does make it through a plants a bomb on the runway.
• 6xB-17E bomb the airfield at Attu and the 34-plane CAP takes on the 30 escorts. Nine Allied escorts are downed to just 2 Japanese and superficial damage is done to the airbase. This is followed soon after by 171xB-24D, which take down 13 fighters on the ground and in the air and do major damage to the airbase, losing 8 bombers in the process.
• Near the Aleutians, the SS Trout locates the AK Kinugasa Maru and connects with a torpedo. The ship was reportedly carrying troops.
• Northwest of Canton, the Japanese attack the Chinese and force them to retreat west.
• Japanese continue to be rooted out at Funafuti, La Foa and Luganville.
• Chinese spies report that the Japanese engineers expanded the port at Hong Kong to level 8.

Analysis: Lost a bunch of Vengance when they made a "daring" run on Mandalay. I don't know why they flew with no escorts...
Attu continues to get plastered. A few more days and he'll stop basing planes here for sure.
In China, a battle that has been raging since the beginning of the scenario on May 1st has finally ended. I kept pulling out Chinese units and he kept adding units, so it was bound to happen. Now he's threatening Wuchow or Nanning, since my troops retreated west.
Not sure what he's up to in the Aleutians with troops moving around, but I'm guessing that it's engineers moving in to bolster the forts.

[floydg]

December 26, 1942

Highlights: Bombs over Mandalay

• Japanese make several bombing runs on Wuchow, causing moderate damage to the airbase.
• Allies bomb Mandalay with 85 bombers and 85 escorts. The Japanese put up a CAP of 69. The Japanese lose 32 planes in the air and on the ground, while the Allies lose 45. The airbase takes minor damage. A second attack by 75 unescorted bombers are met by a CAP of only 22. 11 bombers are downed to 6 Japanese planes and additional minor damage is done to the airbase.
• 15 Betty escorted by 24 Zero hit some MSW at Luganville. 26xF4F-4 intercept and the Japanese down 13 of the American planes to only 2 Zero. The Betty's connect with two torpedoes into the MSW Katoomba, sinking her.
• Near Wallis Island, a DD ASW TF locates the SS I-17 and scores two direct hits and numerous minor hits on the sub.
• Japanese are rooted out at Luganville and Funafuti. The Japanese at Funafuti are eliminated.
• The Allies attack at Efate and the Japanese are too well dug-in.
• The airfield at Dacca expands to level 7.

Analysis: Looks like he may be making a thrust towards Wuchow, now that he's begun bombing it to reduce the supplies. I'll move some units back in his hex to try to slow him down.
Mandalay took a decent amount of damage and I may be forcing him to shift his bombers back towards Rangoon now. Hopefully. He has 70+ fighters over Port Moresby and I haven't even considered bombing there. I don't know why he doesn't re-deploy; it's just a waste of fighters he could use elsewhere to turn the tide in Burma.
Betty's from Lunga sunk a MSW. Now I know I need to protect the ships better. But I thought I had enough CAP, but his escorts cut them to shreds.
Looks like I took out another sub. [:D]
Attack at Efate was 0-on-1, so I'll need to bring in more troops once Luganville is cleared.
Funafuti was cleared of the last Japanese, so now his operation is a complete failure. He's not been doing well on his invasions. But I think it means that next time he tries something, it will be massive. [X(]

[floydg]

December 27, 1942

Highlights: Attu airbase closed

• Northeast of Noumea, six MSW locate the SS RO-63 and score two direct depth charge hits on her.
• Allies begin unloading the US 8th Army HQ at Efate.
• Japanese bomb Wuchow again, causing minor damage to add to the current damage.
• Allies bomb Mandalay again, this time with 69 unescorted bombers. The 50-plane CAP downs 26 bombers, the remainder of which do only minor damage to the airfield.
• Attu Island is bombed with 149xB-24D, closing the airbase.
• West of Attu, the SS Gurnard puts a torpedo into the AK Ryuko Maru. In around the same area, the SS Trout takes a direct depth charge hit.
• Japanese move a division SE of Kweilin and attack. The Japanese attack fails and the Chinese defenders hold.
• Spies report that the Japanese expand the airfield at Ichang to level 5 and Port Moresby to level 7.
• The port at Hilo expands to level 5.

Analysis: Attu's airbase is closed again. It only took a few days. Now I'll begin pounding his ground forces for a while and then I'll make an invasion attempt. I'm getting too antsy not to. Of course, he'll react like he's done before and did a number on my BB's. I have three CVE's in the area to hopefully deter him a bit (or force him to bring in his CV's as well).
I moved in a HQ unit to Efate to hopefully boost that operation a bit. I suppose I could have just unloaded them at Luganville and used the range, but I also wanted to force him to bombard, which actually cause him more casualties to himself than to me.
Around the Wuchow/Kweilin area, he's up to something. But that's okay, as I'm up to something around Hengchow/Changsha...