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RE: 15 September 1942: carnage over Mandalay

 
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RE: 15 September 1942: carnage over Mandalay - 5/10/2006 6:36:38 PM   
Apollo11


Posts: 24082
Joined: 6/7/2001
From: Zagreb, Croatia
Status: offline 		Hi all,

Thanks for info!


Leo "Apollo11"

_____________________________



Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance!

A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF
P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE

(in reply to rtrapasso)
Post #: 331
16-20 September 1942: bad ideas - 5/18/2006 3:25:59 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		16-20 September 1942

Well, I apologize for the delay... Holidays and busy schedule in non-WITP life have reduced even more the pace of this game, but it should now resume a normal speed of 5-10 turns a week.

Northern Pacific

The convoy bringing the 22nd Eng Rgt and several AKs carrying fuel and supply arrived in Paramushiro Jima, that will be build as the main base in the area.

Central Pacific

Nothing to report.

Southern Pacific

For one reason, the Allied Command decided was Pago-Pago was an important place to mine. During these five days, the MSW W15 had swept an Allied minefield here and then discovered two new ones.

Allied engineers expanded the port of Efate to size 3. The SS I-122 left Suva to lay a minefield off this island.

Solomons-New Guinea

A convly left on the 16th Palau to bring a NLF and a Special Base Force to Kavieng. 22 A6M2 and 22 A6M3 arrived in Truk from Kendari and PH to assist the next Japanese operation, the capture of Rabaul, that will take place in the first part of October.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

Darwin-based Allied airmen continued their raids against resource and oil centers in the area. Bulla was bombed by 82 B-17E on the 16th and 68 on the 17th, while Sorong was bombed by 20 Lb-30 on the 16th, 28 on the 17th and 89 B-17E and 37 LB-30 on the 19th. The first was reduced to 4 usable resource centers, the second saw all oil center disabled but they began to repair one a day from the evening of the 19th. These raids costed the Allied 4 B-17E lost in crashes and 1 LB-30 shot down by AA fire.

More south tactical airmen also flying from Darwin continued to fly “training” missions against the near-empty Aru Island on the 16th, 17th, 18th and 20th (342 sorties: 214 B-25C, 47 P-40E, 43 Beaufort I, 39 Kittyhawk I, only one P-40E lost to engine failure), but also against Lautem that was bombed on the 20th by 7 T.IVa that scored one hit on the runway and lost one of their number to AA fire. They also operated against some barges evacuating the last Japanese troops of Aru Island: one was sunk on the 17th by patrol aircraft, another strafed on the 18th by 7 Brewster 339D (17 casualties).

The Japanese command was not totally inactive in this area. An AK was sent to Bulla to load the resources produced here, and twelve barges loaded in Sorong the 23rd NLF that landed in Babo, New Guina, on the 18th (72 landing casualties) and occupied the empty base the next day, before reboarding barges and sail again to Sorong.

But the main activity was the preparation of an air and sea raid against Derby. As more IJAAF fighters (36 Ki-61 and the last Ki-44 of the units already there) arrived in Kendari, brining the CAP here to 67 Ki-44, 63 Ki-27, 36 Ki-61 and 22 Ki-43, the IJNAF units became available for offensive missions. Koepang was now repaired and had enough supplies and air support to allow raids from there. The recon aircraft based on Koepang broke on the 18th and so delayed the raid but 52 A6M2 Zeroes flew from Kendari to Koepand this same day, while the naval part of the operation, 3 CA and 2 DD, left the same base to sail west of Timor. The Allied saw nothing during the two next days, while Japanese recon showed that the CAP over Derby was still reduced to 10 Kittyhawk.
In the evening of the 20th, with good weather forecast for the next day, the attack orders were given. 52 Zeroes from Koepang will sweep Derby skies before 64 Nells and 9 Betties from Kendari arrived to bombard the resource centers of the city (245 still usable). At the same time Mavis and Emilies will recon Broome and Wyndham, and the naval squadron will sail to 360 miles north of Derby. From there it will bombard the next day either Derby or Broome, or may turn back if the opposition is too strong.

Southern Ressource Area

The following cargoes left the area during the last five days: 16k oil from Bankha to Saigon, 46k oil from Palembang to Japan, 18k oil from Batavia to Japan, 21k fuel from Batavia to Kendari, 87k oil from Palembang to Japan, 28k resources from Toboali to Japan, 7k resource from Naga to Japan and 21k resources from Kuala Lumpur to Japan.

Burma

When this AAR stopped, I was thinking I could win air superiority over Burma. Well that didn’t last long. In the morning of the 16th the Allied bombers came back to Mandalay, reinforced by a full B-25C group and two squadrons of the AVG. 61 B-25C, 26 Blenheim IV, 16 B-17E, 5 Il-4c and 3 Wellington III escorted by 54 P-40B met over the target 16 Ki-61, 15 A6M2 and 9 A6M3. The P-40B shot down 2 Japanese fighters of each type while losing 10 of their number and then the Japanese pilots shot down 6 Blenheim, 3 B-25C and 1 B-17E at the cost of 2 more A6M2 and 1 A6M3. Then one more Blenheim was shot down by AA fire, but the airfield was pounded and 12 Japanese aircraft (6 Ki-61, 5 A6M3 and 1 Ki-46) were destroyed on the ground, 148 men hurt and 10 hits scored on the base, 5 on the supply dumps and 89 on the runways.
In the evening all flyable aircraft left Mandalay for Rangoon, one A6M3 being lost in a take-off accident with its pilot. 25 unserviceable fighters remained behind (10 A6M2, 9 Ki-61 and 6 A6M3). All Nells based in Rangoon received orders to fly to Bangkok in case the Allied airmen changed of targets, and one Nell crashed during the flight but the crew was saved.
The next morning, 49 B-25C, 27 Blenheim IV, 17 B-17E, 6 Il-4c and 3 Wellington III escorted by 46 P-40B flew again from Dacca to Mandalay and destroyed all 25 remaining Japanese aircraft here. 77 men were hurt and 14 hits scored on the airbase, 6 on supplies and 88 on the runways. There was no CAP and AA was inefficient but one B-25C was lost in an accident.
After the destruction of their aircraft, the last Japanese fighter pilots left Mandalay for Rangoon. That was the good news of the day. In three days, 61 Japanese aircraft had been lost in Burma but only 12-15 pilots. Among the top Japanese aces, only one had been wounded. On the other hand the Allied airforces lost 99 aircraft, 96 of them shot down by Japanese fighters. This evening the A6M2 of F1/3rd Daitai flew from Rangoon to Bangkok to receive replacement aircraft and rest here.
On the 18th, Mandalay was again bombed by 46 B-25C, 32 Blenheim IV, 19 B-17E, 9 Il-4c and 6 Wellington III escorted by 39 P-40B. There found no aircraft here but hit 96 men and 1 gun and scored 11 hits on the airbase, 4 on supplies and 126 on the runways.
The next day, the Allied airmen changed of target and 41 B-25C, 35 Blenheim IV, 21 B-17E, 8 Il-4c and 4 Wellington III escorted by 43 P-40B raided Myitkyina. The hurt 33 men and scored 7 hits on the airbase, 8 on supplies and 54 on runways but AA shot down a B-17E and a B-25C.
On the 20th, Mandalay was again bombed but this time in the afternoon by 48 Beauforts (25 V-IX and 23 I) from Chandpur. They scored 2 hits on the airbase and 24 on runways, doing 20 casualties, but again AA was accurate and shot done one Beaufort of each type.

More north, the 81st Naval Guard Unit was bombed daily by 9 Hurricane from nearby Imphal and lost 78 men and 3 guns in five day. The Allied Cap shot down a Ki-15 recon aircraft on the 18th in this area.

Philippines

Japanese troops continued to R&R here, while Japanese engineers expanded Manila airfield to size 5.

China

The period began well when the 30th Chinese Corps was repulsed on the 16th by the 40th and 41st Div south of Kungchang and retreated towards Sian, having lost more than 1000 killed, wounded and prisoners against 310 Japanese losses (attack at 132 to 1). The same day, Japanese troops in Lanchow were bombed by 38 Hurricanes and lost 81 men and 1 gun, while all Japanese bombers left Yenen for South China.
The next day 25 Zeroes from Yenen flew CAP over the area, losing two of their number to engine failure, but the Allied airmen (62 Hurricanes escorted by 4 Spitfire) were bombing the Japanese troops between Sining and Lanchow. This day the 69th Chinese Corps marched south from Sining to pursue Japanese troops, leaving again only a BF in Sining, and the Japanese Command hesitated to launch another para attack on Sining, with the remains of the units rebuilding in Yenen.
On the 18th, 46 Hurricanes bombed the troops facing the 69th Chinese Corps between Sining and Lanchow and hit 13 of them. The bombing was repeated the next day with 18 Hurricanes from Sining that hit 10 men and then the 69th Corps launched an attack against the Japanese troops (a regiment of the 59th Div and parts of the 2nd and 3rd Yokosuka SNLF). I thought the Japanese will held but the lack of supplies didn’t allow that. The Chinese attack succeeded at 124 to 1 and repulsed eastward the Japanese that lost more than 500 men against Chinese losses of 50 men and 2 guns.
The next day, the Japanese troops near Lanchow were again the Allied target, 69 Hurricanes from Sining and Lanchow hitting 80 men against one loss in an accident.
The main problem in the area for the Japanese forces is to bring supply to the Sining-Lanchow area. Troops still advanced to occupy the northern road but it won’t be totally controlled until several weeks. 25-30 transport aircraft have returned to Yenen to fly supplies to the Japanese troops NE of Lanchow.

The usual pounding took place at the 3 Chinese besieged cities with the following losses: 270 Chinese men and 1 gun in Kungchang, 174 Chinese in Wuchow and 69 Japanese and 5 guns in Lanchow.

Elsewhere, all Japanese rear bases in China received orders to expand fortifications with the engineers locally available.

Japan

Several convoys left Japan, all sailing to Pago-Pago or Suva to prepare the NZ operation, bringing 5 base forces, 55k fuel and 42k supplies. Another left Tokyo for Kendari with 25k supplies.

(in reply to Apollo11)
Post #: 332
RE: 15 September 1942: carnage over Mandalay - 5/18/2006 3:56:32 PM   
jumper

 

Posts: 489
Joined: 2/23/2006
Status: offline 		Great game AmiralLaurent

I´m enjyoing to follow your AAR a lot. And it´s great to see your dogs of war are released again..

I wish you luck!!!

(in reply to Apollo11)
Post #: 333
RE: 15 September 1942: carnage over Mandalay - 5/18/2006 4:51:41 PM   
veji1

 

Posts: 1019
Joined: 7/9/2005
Status: offline 		Glad to see it back on track....

(in reply to jumper)
Post #: 334
RE: 16-20 September 1942: bad ideas - 5/20/2006 5:22:56 PM   
Apollo11


Posts: 24082
Joined: 6/7/2001
From: Zagreb, Croatia
Status: offline 		Hi all,

Great to see you back!


Leo "Apollo11"


_____________________________



Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance!

A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF
P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 335
21-22 September 1942: Derby raided - 5/22/2006 8:23:39 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		Thanks to all for the kind words, sadly it seems that now that I have both time and will to play WITP, I have connexion problems at home. I was planning to do a turn this morning but was unable to download it.... Hope it will be OK tonight (I'm at work now).

21-22 September 1942

At least this week-end I had enough time to really plan the NZ operation, and start the concentration for it. Until now I did the turns rather quickly, telling me that all my troops, ships and air units really needed a break. Now most of them are OK, so it’s time to move on again.

The troops earmarked for the operations are the HQ Southern Army, 3 Army HQ, 8 Inf Div, 1 Tk Div, 2 Bdes, 2 Tk Rgts, 6 Eng Rgt, 6 artillery units, 1 Naval Guard unit, a big Base Force and three small ones. Two divisions were already sailing from Korea (1st Tk Div) and Japan (53rd Div), all other troops boarded ships on the 22nd in Hilo and Manila (see below for details). All ships used for carrying these troops are 3000- and 4500-ton ships.
New Zealand being far away from any Japanese base, the Kido Butai will be used to support the invasion. For the same reason the Japanese High Command plans to meet few fighters defending the island, but rather bombers, especially heavy ones. Land-based Navy aircraft will be concentrated in Suva and ready to jump to NZ once a base will be taken.
Before the NZ operation, the Kido Butai will be used to support the invasion of Rabaul by the 5th Div, currently in Truk. Japan has now 8 CV, 4 CVL and 2 CVE. The CV Kaga and Hiryu and CVL Shoho have still some SYS damage between 5 and 8, and the Kaga has not yet been upgraded so they will remain in PH and sail next month to join the NZ operation. All other CVs have been upgraded and have 0 SYS damage. There ships left on the 22nd Tokyo and PH to gather at Kwajalein. Again more details below.
Sadly not all of their air groups are not in the same good shape, and a part of them were left on PH to take part in the battle, so the meeting in Kwajalein will be used to dispatch the air groups once again aboard their respective ships.

Central Pacific

The Hawaii Islands became active again on the 22nd. Two CV, 3 CVL, 1 CVE, 1 BB, 8 CA, 1 CL and 8 DD left PH to go to Kwajalein and reform the Kido Butai here. Four submarines also sailed in the same direction and will refuel in Suva before taking part in the NZ operation. And 5 CL and 18 DD left the port to sail to Hilo, where transports escorted by 12 APD, PG and PC began to load the 2nd, 48th and 56th Div, all west rested after the battle of Hilo and preparing for attacking Auckland.

Southern Pacific

Still more minesweeping off Pago-Pago… The place was planned to be the refuelling place for all my fleet, but I may have to change this if Allied submarines continued to mine the hell of the place…

The Japanese Navy MLs started to be used from Truk and Suva on the 22nd and will lay defensive minefields on surrounding islands.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

The raid against Derby went as planned on the 21st and was a limited success. First 52 Zeroes from Koepang swept the skies and met 14 Kittyhawk I of 76 Sqn RAAF. The day of the “uber Zero” are over, 5 Zeroes were shot down against 5 Kittyhawks, and one more Zero was lost operationally. The 9 remaining Australian pilots then intercepted the 63 Nells and 8 Betties arriving from Kendari and shot down 5 Nells, but lost one of their number to return fire. All surviving bombers dropped their load on Derby’s resource centers from 10000 feet and disabled 17 resource centers. One bomber of each type ditched during the return leg due to AA damage.
All serviceable fighters left Koepang for Maumere and Kendari in the evening, leaving only the local Ki-46 unit and 7 damaged Zeroes there. Also most bombers left Kendari for Macassar. The next day heavy reprisal raids were feared by only 44 B-25s were sent from Derby against Koepang in the afternoon, and 20 get lost. The other met no Cap and destroyed a Zero on the ground, and scored 3 hits on supplies and 19 on the runways. At the same time a barge was bombed and damaged off the Japanese base by another B-25. This evening a small Japanese AK slipped into Koepang harbour and loaded the 6 remaining Zeroes.
The other aspect of this operation were recon by Japanese patrol aircraft of Broome (1 unit, no CAP) and Wyndham (5 units, 35 Hurricane/P-40E on CAP) and a raid by a small surface force. The latter was late in the evening of the 21st and couldn’t reach Broome or Derby during the next night. As one transport had been reported off Broome, it moved west to be ready to raid this port the next night. But recon on the 22nd failed to see any ship there anymore, and the numerous B-25 of Derby were too threatening to remain there, even if the TF had gone unnoticed so far, so the ships sailed north to Soerabaja in the evening of the 21st.

Tomorrow 21 Zeroes from Maumere will LRCAP Koepang to intercept any new Allied raid.

Southern Resource Area

It was decided to use the supplies produced in Toboali to repair the resource centers in Batavia. An AK convoy began to load them to ship them to Java.

Burma

The two quiet days saw only a raid on the 22nd by 9 Hurricane from Imphal against the Japanese unit SE of the city, that hit 27 men.

Philippines

The loading of the troops for the NZ operation started in Manila on the 22nd. Each unit boarded a separate convoy, the various TF will then be aggregated at sea. Four Div, 2 Bdes, 2 Tk Rgts, 4 Eng Rgt, 6 ART units, 3 Army HQ and the Southern Army HQ boarded ships here.

China

The usual bombing took place in Kungchang (183 Chinese and 2 guns hit) and Wuchow (79 men and 2 guns) while for some reason Chinese stopped to pound the starving Japanese in Lanchow….

The only air activity in two days was recon flights by Japanese and 18 Hurricane from Sining hitting Japanese troops NE of Lanchow on the 22nd and missing them.

Supplies level in China seemed to have decreased recently and two convoys were created in Osaka to bring 35 000 supplies to Shangai, and the same amount to Tientsin, hoping they will then reach the places they are needed, Wuhan, Homan and Yenen…

Japan

Four fleet CVs and 1 CVE escorted by 7 DDs left Tokyo for Kwajalein on the 22nd.

(in reply to Apollo11)
Post #: 336
RE: 21-22 September 1942: Derby raided - 5/22/2006 8:30:55 PM   
Apollo11


Posts: 24082
Joined: 6/7/2001
From: Zagreb, Croatia
Status: offline 		Hi all,

quote:

ORIGINAL: AmiralLaurent

All surviving bombers dropped their load on Derby’s resource centers from 10000 feet and disabled 17 resource centers


Are you trying to kill production in Australia and thus starve it (because without influx of supply from abroad, which you cutt off, the only thing left for Australia is its internal production)?


Leo "Apollo11"


P.S.
Keep up the great work!

< Message edited by Apollo11 -- 5/22/2006 8:31:56 PM >

_____________________________



Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance!

A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF
P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 337
RE: 21-22 September 1942: Derby raided - 5/22/2006 9:36:07 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

quote:

ORIGINAL: AmiralLaurent

All surviving bombers dropped their load on Derby’s resource centers from 10000 feet and disabled 17 resource centers


Are you trying to kill production in Australia and thus starve it (because without influx of supply from abroad, which you cutt off, the only thing left for Australia is its internal production)?


No, I am only trying to score points (in this case, I scored 34 for the factories + 6 for the Kittyhawks downed, vs 10 losses A2A, 2 to AA, 1 to ops and 1 on thr ground = 40 points scored vs 14 lost, a not to bad ratio).

I don't think starving Australia is possible with such raids. Once NZ is gone, I will raid Australia with KB and will do bigger damage but once again the idea is to score points, not starve it the way China is starving.

By the way Derby had still 238 of its 300 center, and Darwin, like all other Australian cities, is intact.

(in reply to Apollo11)
Post #: 338
RE: 8-14 September 1942 - 5/22/2006 10:10:06 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline
I said long ago I will answer this post

quote:

ORIGINAL: veji1
I can't wait for the next showdown !!!!!


I'm afraid I had you wait longer than expected...

quote:

ORIGINAL: veji1
How do you plan on using your airforce when it becomes more balanced, I guess this ambush in Burma is a one-shot thing, you'll probably try to avoid attrition on these theaters, and just bet on how long your bases can resist with level 9 forts and stacks of supply right ?


Well, in this case I went too greedy and was handed my a... on a plate the next day. But I originaly planned to be a one-day ambush. Things became bad when I decided to divide my fighter force between Rangoon and Mandalay. I have enough fighters to defend one base, not two...
On the other hand, Rangoon there and Kendari in the south are both able to sustain any Allied heavy bomber offensive. Losses for both sides are heavy, but fighting over my own base reduces the pilot losses and they are my main problem. On both theaters I plan to do occasional ambushes and raids when I think it safe... but I may be wrong . The Mandalay ambush and the Derby raid above being perfect examples of what I said.

quote:

ORIGINAL: veji1
Once NZ is done, if you manage to accomplish it, you will go on defensive mode right ? Where do you think he'll strike ? I guess he won't go for PH before mid 1944 now, before it is dangerous to say the least... So you are probably looking at northern route and Burma as his main attacking axis, Oz being a big flat-top from which he'll hassle the SRA...


One NZ is done (I'm quite sure of achieving it, I'm throwing 9 divisions there), I will raid Australia with CVs and if the SE of Australia is not well defended I will land here. The goal being to score points by killing troops and destroying factories, but also to reduce by half all factories in the area, and then redivide them when my opponent will retake them. That will reduce the ability of Australia to launch attacks.
After his defeat off Hawaii, I don't except any major move in the Pacific before mid-43 from my opponent. PH is now held by two divisions. And the Japanese LBA proved she may win the battle alone against US CVs.
So you are right, that leaves the Aleutians and Burma as his main attack axis.

quote:

ORIGINAL: veji1
How do you plan on resisting a very ambitious and massive northern route approach ? Will you let him take the whole aleutians and wait for him on your ground ( paramishiro jima and so ) or will you try to fight for the chain, risking a Fabertong like guadalcanal ?


I have units (Garnison units) training for Attu, Kiska and even Adak, but they will be sent to Paramushiro Jima. Had my opponent not attacked so early, I would have kept my CV around PH after the NZ operation and so they may have supported operations there. Now that is not in my plans and I will be totally defensive. But if Paramushiro Jima or any place in the area is invaded it will be another matter. I will immediatly stop any Australian plan.

quote:

ORIGINAL: veji1
IF he commits all his forces in Burma, you might find Malaya, ans Vietnam in danger quite quickly... how to you plan on dealing with that ?


Fort, fort, fort... Currently I'm buidling forts in Burma where they are not level 9 allready, and I am also buidling forts on the second line (Tavoy, Moulmein, Rahaeng) and putting BF with 40 INF squads in all bases in the area to avoid a successfull paradrop on my rear area.
I have 2 full Div, 3 Bdes, 4 Tk Rgt and a dozen of other units holding Burma. On the other hand hald a dozne of British Brigades and Chinese divisions were destroyed during the invasion of Burma and more were defeated, with a sizable part of the British Army repulsed into starving China. So I'm not afraid of any Allied offensive there... yet. By the way I have small units in the jungle to see the Allied coming. That will allow me two months to prepare a hot reception.

quote:

ORIGINAL: veji1
SO many questions and so little time for you to answer...

Great AAR anyway.


Thanks

quote:

ORIGINAL: veji1
edit : Stupid question of mine, from the August 12 map, it looks like the aleutians are pretty secure for the allies and probably being built up big time ( like the Anchorga build up leads to think )... Northern route is quite probable than...
What do you plan for NG, Solomons, Hebrides ?


About the Northern route, my opponent hadn't gone west of Adak yet, Attu and Kiska are empty.
As for NG, Solomons and Hebrides, well I plan nothing except taking Rabaul with one reinforced division in October and then occupying the Solomons if they are empty, as they probably are. If Australia is too well defended, or the NZ campain lasts longer than planned, I may use the 9 divisions of the NZ Invasion Army to take New Caledonia and the Hebrides instead of invading Australia. But it will need a major operation, there is at least an US Div in Noumea and another in Luganville.

Before evaluating where my opponent may attack, you have to remimber that he lost in Suva and Hawaii (both battles) 4 US Div (2nd Marine, 24th, 25th, 40th Inf), 3 RCT and a NZ Bde. I don't doubt he saved fragments but they will take a long time before being usable. More important are the score or supporting units he lost here and there, he should be especially short of US Tk Bns and CD units.

Right now I would say that the only place where my opponent may attack is around Timor. My forward positions are weak, and even if I have kept Navy troops and an Army Reserve (Imp Guard Div, 35th Bde and 4th Rgt) and a strong surface squadron with BBs, CAs and so on, he may retake some bases under aerial cover from Australia. That is if these units are not sent to PM or NZ to battle vs the KB, in this case I hope I will win the battle as I did the other times. The main problem my opponent has here is probably a lack of shipping.

(in reply to veji1)
Post #: 339
RE: 21-22 September 1942: Derby raided - 5/23/2006 10:06:21 AM   
Apollo11


Posts: 24082
Joined: 6/7/2001
From: Zagreb, Croatia
Status: offline 		Hi all,

Thanks for info!

BTW, we all can't wait to hear good news from "Down Under" when majestic imperial troops would crush those ANZAC mates...


Leo "Apollo11"

_____________________________



Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance!

A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF
P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 340
23 September 1942: reprisals on Koepang - 5/23/2006 6:43:27 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		23 September 1942

Southern Pacific

The MSW W15 continued her endless minesweeping off Pago-Pago night and day.

The Nells and Mavis based in Suva received orders to fly recon besides their usual naval search, to know more of the Allied positions in New Caledonia and the Hebrides.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

During the night, a rare event occurred. Yesterday an AR left Kendari toward Menado where a damaged AK was slowly sinking. She was escorted by 3 PC/PG and they saw an Allied submarine trying to attack 120 miles NE of Kendari and chased here without success. AFAIK it was the first Allied submarine attack since more than a month.

In the afternoon the expected reprisal raids hit Koepang. Ten A6M2 from Maumere were flying CAP but were unable to intercept the first raid (44 B-25 from Derby) and did not well against the second (33 B-17E and 27 LB-30 from Darwin). Three Zeroes were lost, 1 to return fire and 2 in accidents, for only one victory (a B-17E). Allied bombers disabled 55 men and 1 gun and scored 6 airbase, 1 supply and 34 runway hits. After this failure Zeroes left Maumere and flew to Balikpapan for R&R.
Darwin airmen launched two other raids at the same time. 10 Beaufort V-IX and 13 P-40E bombed and missed Aru Island under escort by 15 Kittyhawk I, one of the latter being lost to engine failure, while 68 B-25C attacked Lautem, hitting 6 men and 1 gun and scroring one hit on a building and 6 on the runway.

Burma

The daily recon found only one Hurricane flying CAP over Imphal and only a dozen of aircraft in the base. At the same time the daily recon of Trincomalee by Andamans-based Mavis reported Hurricanes over the base, also a new feature. Maybe the Allied command has withdrawn forces to Ceylon and South India in case Japanese forces attacked there. It was decided to increase the recon flights by Nells and Mavis over this area, just to keep the Allied commanders wondering.

Philippines

A base force was sent to Cagayan, Mindanao, and will support air units flying operational training mission against the Allied garrison of Cebu before it will be dispatched. Nine Zeroes will start these missions tomorrow, and 27 arrived today from Japan.

China

Again 17 Hurricane II from Sining bombed and missed Japanese troops NE of Lanchow. And again Chinese guns remained silent in Lanchow while Japanese ones hit 28 Chinese in Kungchang and 37 men and 2 guns in Wuchow.

Recon of Lanchow reported more than 120 aircraft here and only a dozen of Hurricane and Spitfire flying CAP. 34 Ki-21 and 27 Ki-49 returned from south China to Yenen and will bomb the airfield in some days to try to destroy as much as possible of the Allied AC on the ground. The local Zero force should be strong enough to get trough the CAP with probably equal losses in the air for both sides.

(in reply to Apollo11)
Post #: 341
RE: 23 September 1942: reprisals on Koepang - 6/11/2006 2:36:32 PM   
Apollo11


Posts: 24082
Joined: 6/7/2001
From: Zagreb, Croatia
Status: offline 		Hi all,

Any new developements in past 3 weeks of RealTime (tm)?


Leo "Apollo11"

_____________________________



Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance!

A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF
P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 342
24-28 September 1942: slowly going on - 6/14/2006 1:17:24 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		Hi, Leo

Well, this game is not dead, but is advancing rather slowly. For the last 3 weeks, I was either at work, or away touring France and seeing friends, or at home trying to repair my failing computer (it was down a full week). We managed to do about seven turns in the period.

Now, I should be able to come back to normal schedule (1-2 turns a day). October 1942 will see Japan launch new offensives.

24-28 September 1942

Northern Pacific

Japanese engineers opened an airfield (size 1) on Paramushiro Jima. Three Naval Garnison units, trained for Aleutians islands, boarded ships in Aomori to be carried to Paramushiro too to reinforce the base.

Central Pacific

The Japanese CVS sailing from PH to Kwajalein for the future operations in Southern Pacific sailed close of Johnston Island on the 25th and received aboard 24 Kates that were training in this base.

Six 1500-ton AP and two APD left PH on the 24th for Midway, to pick up there the two Construction Bn that had finished to build the base (all at max size and fort level 9). They will be brought to Hawaii and build secondary bases here.

Japanese intelligence identified two Allied ships scuttled during the second battle of Hawaii: the DD USS Flusser and the AK Walter Luckenbach, both being credited to the Kido Butai airmen.

Southern Pacific

The MSW W15 continued to sweep mines laid by Allied subs off Pago-Pago and didn’t finish the job. It will be helped by two other MSW in some days.

Nells and Emilies flew several recon flights of Noumea and reported there 12 units (31500 men, 450 guns, 60 vehicles), 45 ships anchored (9 AP) and 5 TF off the base (3 CA, 3 APD, 3 AP identified). There was no Cap the first day (the 24th) but then 4 Wildcats were seen daily. They didn’t shot down any Japanese aircraft but AA fire shot down an Emily and a Nell and only the latter continued to fly recon, and at max altitude.

Allied engineers expanded the port of Efate to size 4. On the Japanese side three ML and a minelayer submarine (I-122) based in Suva started on the 28th to lay defensive minefields off Nandi.

Solomons-New Guinea

Japanese patrols from Kavieng occupied the nearby islands of New Hanover and Tabar.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

Koepang was bombed on the 24th by 76 B-17E and 41 LB-30 from Darwin and daily from the 24th to the 28th by B-25s from Derby (for a total of 207 sorties). These raids destroyed on the ground 4 Ki-46, disabled 445 men and 8 guns and scored 23 hits on the airbase, 14 on supplies and 223 on runways for the loss of 2 B-25C and 1 B-17E to operational causes. On the other end of Timor, Lautem was bombed on the 24 by 57 B-25C from Darwin that hit 35 men and 1 gun and scored 3 hits on the base, 4 on supplies and 23 on the runway while losing one of their number to engine failure.

Japanese barges picked up the last men of the Imperial Guard Division remaining in Aru Island and brought them back to Sorong. An AP was waiting there and started on the 28th to load all men brought back to bring them to Soerabaja to join the main body of the unit. Patrolling bombers and Darwin-based Brewster 339D (21 sorties in 3 days) sank during this period 4 barges off Aru Island and 1 off Timor. Aru was also bombed on the 24th by 14 Beaufort V-IX and 12 P-40E from Darwin escorted by 16 Kittyhawk (one port hit) and on the 26th by 13 P-40E escorted by 8 Kittyhawk (no damage).

In Kendari a 7000-ton AK is loading resources to carry them to Japan.

Burma

On the 25th, Lashio airfield was attacked by 52 B-25C, 49 Blenheim IV, 32 B-17E, 8 Il-4c and 5 Wellington III from Dacca escorted by 60 P-40B. They scored 5 hits on the airbase, 5 on supplies and 24 on the runways, doing 24 casualties. A B-17E and a P-40B were lost in accidents. This raid was repeated two days later with 53 B-25C, 47 Blenheim IV, 31 B-17E, 8 Il-4c and 3 Wellington III escorted by 34 P-40B. This time they disabled 34 men and 2 guns and scored 4 hits on the airbase, 4 on supplies and 49 on the runways without loss.

The same day Allied intelligence learned that Japanse had repaired half of the oilfields in Mandalay and on the 28th they were attacked by 50 B-25C, 50 Blenheim IV, 29 B-17E, 11 Wellington III and 8 Il-4c from Dacca escorted by 47 P-40B. They scored 24 hits and disabled 19 of the 25 able oil centers. A Blenheim hit by AA crashed on the return leg while a Wellington III was lost in an accident.
The same day, 58 SB-2c, 25 Beaufort I and 25 Beaufort V-IX from Chandpur attacked Akyab, scoring 7 hits on the airbase, 3 on supplies and 31 on the runways and doing 12 casualties. One Beaufort V-IX ditched due to engine failure.
The Japanese Command decided to raid Chandpur in reprisals to catch on the ground these medium bombers. In the evening of the 28th arrived in Rangoon 21 Zeroes from Balikpapan and 27 from Bangkok. They will wait for a clear day to launch their raid. Chandpur will be reconned tomorrow to check the defences.

In the jungles of Northern Burma, the only Hurricane squadron remaining in Imphal bombed the 81st Naval Guard Unit just SE of this base on the 24th, 27th and 28th (29 sorties) and hit 102 men and 4 guns while losing one Hurricane in a crash.

Both sides continued to fly recon flights. In five days, Allied CAP shot down two Ki-46 while a F-5A Lightning was shot down by AA fire.

Philippines

Starting on the 24th, the 35th Bde boarded ships in Manila and sailed for Batavia to garrison the city.

The 8 A6M2 based in Cagayan flew training bombing sorties against the 81st PA Div in Cebu on the 25th and 28th but failed to hit anything.

China

In the north, Japanese troops continued to advance slowly along the northern road between Yenen and Lanchow to establish a valid supply line to this theater. British fighters based in Lanchow and Sining rested on the 24th but then attacked Japanese troops near Lanchow and NE of this town daily. A total of 239 Hurricane and 12 Spitfire Vb sorties were flown during this period, hitting 344 men, 7 guns and 1 tank without loss.
To try to reduce this activity, and in the hope of catching again Allied transport AC on the ground, the Japanese airmen of Yenen received in the evening of the 26th orders to bomb Lanchow airfield. They were grounded by bad weather on the 27th but flew the next day a full strength raid with 45 Zeroes, 34 Ki-21 and 27 Ki-49. 14 Hurricane and 7 Spitfire defended the Chinese base. The Zeroes defeated the Spitfires and shot down 6 for only one loss, but Hurricane did better and shot 8 Zeroes and 2 Ki-49 for 5 losses. Total A2A losses were 11 for each side. The bombers then destroyed one more Spitfire on the ground and scored 12 hits on the airbase, 5 on supplies and 45 on the runways. One Zero and one Spitfire were also lost on crashes.

The usual artillery fire took place in Kungchang (208 Chinese hit in five days) and Wuchow (310 men and 1 gun).

Japanese engineers expanded the airfield of Nanchang to size 5.

(in reply to Apollo11)
Post #: 343
RE: 24-28 September 1942: slowly going on - 6/15/2006 10:32:59 AM   
Apollo11


Posts: 24082
Joined: 6/7/2001
From: Zagreb, Croatia
Status: offline 		Hi all,

quote:

ORIGINAL: AmiralLaurent

Well, this game is not dead, but is advancing rather slowly. For the last 3 weeks, I was either at work, or away touring France and seeing friends, or at home trying to repair my failing computer (it was down a full week). We managed to do about seven turns in the period.


Thanks for info (and best of of luck with your PC)... BTW, we all thought that NZ has already fallen...


Leo "Apollo11"

_____________________________



Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance!

A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF
P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 344
RE: 24-28 September 1942: slowly going on - 6/15/2006 10:40:49 AM   
veji1

 

Posts: 1019
Joined: 7/9/2005
Status: offline 		Indeed, great to see it back on track... I can't wait to see what happens next fellow frenchman...

(in reply to Apollo11)
Post #: 345
29-30 September 1942: Tojo and Tony rule!!! - 6/15/2006 12:50:14 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		Actually NZ won't fall probably until well into the summer.... Troops convoys will gather around Suva between the 15 and 20 of October and will then sail south.

29-30 September 1942

Central Pacific

The destroyer HMS Paladin that was bombed on 3rd August 1942 east of Hawaii by the KB during the Second Hawaii Battle was confirmed to have been scuttled, bringing the total of known Allied DD losses to 35.

Southern Pacific

The MSW W15 continued to sweep mines laid by Allied subs off Pago-Pago and still didn’t finish the job.

The Suva base had been completed (max level of port and AF and fort level 9) and the engineer units (2 Eng Rgt and 2 Const Bn) received orders to march to Nandi and build fortifications here.

Solomons-New Guinea

The Rabaul operation will start soon. On the 29th a convoy arrived in Truk and started unloading the 1st and 2nd Parachute Regiment. 23 Tinas and 7 Tospies flew from Clark Field to Truk to carry them. On the same day, the first CV TF (from PH) arrived in Kwajalein and refuelled there, but used all available fuel without replenishing totally. The next day the CV TF from Japan arrived too but were unable to refuel. A TK convoy was diverted on the 29th from its former destination of Pago-Pago and will arrive tomorrow.

Tomorrow will also see the start of the Rabaul operation with a raid against this base by 9 Betties and 27 Zeroes from Truk.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

In the afternoon of the 29th Darwin heavy bombers tried again to raid Kendari with 72 B-17E and 32 LB-30. This was the first raid since the IJAAF received orders to defend the base and the American crews had the nasty surprise to be intercepted by 53 Nates, 46 Tojos, 32 Tonies, 27 Oscars and 23 A6M2. The air battle was bloody. 17 Japanese fighters were lost (9 Ki-27, 3 Ki-43, 2 Ki-61, 2 A6M2 and 1 Ki-44) but they shot down 41 B-17E and 14 LB-30 and repulsed 25 more B-17E (5 hit by fighters crashed on return) and all remaining LB-30 (one hit by fighters crashed on return). The most successful Japanese units, were the 68th Sentai, whose Ki-61s claimed 24 victories for two losses, and the 29th Sentai, whose Ki-44s shot down 13 heavy bombers without loss. On the other hand the Nates and Oscars will be sent to the rear area soon. Maybe they may be used against Allied medium bombers and fighter-bombers in Burma and China.
Only 6 B-17E of the raid reached the target and AA fire shot down one and hit the five other. They only scored 2 runway hits.
The total result of the raid was 62 Allied heavy bombers lost (59% loss) against 17 Japanese fighters.

Derby B-25C raided Koepang on both days (41 on the 29th and 21 on the 30th) and destroyed a Ki-46 on the ground, hit 87 men and 4 guns and scored 3 hits on the base and 61 on runways. The Ki-46 Chutai based here left for Kendari in the evening of the 30th.

Southern Resource Area

Japan-bound convoys loaded 21 000 t of resources in Palembang and 80 000 t of oil in Brunei and 34 000 in Balikpapan. A 9000-ton TK loaded oil in Miri for Hong Kong.

Burma

Mandalay oilfields were again bombed on the 29th by 40 B-25C, 31 Blenheim IV, 30 B-17E, 8 Il-4c and 7 Wellington III from Dacca escorted by 50 P-40B that disabled all oil centers without loss. One center was repaired in the evening but then the order was given to stop repairing them.

On both days, Akyab was attacked in the afternoon by Chandpur-based medium bombers (55 Sb-2c, 25 Beaufort I and 22 V-IX on the 29th, 44, 26 and 25 on the 30th). They disabled 15 men and 2 guns and scored 9 airbase hits, 6 on supplies and 61 on runways while losing a SB-2c and 1 Beaufort V-IX in crashes.
It was decide to try to ambush these bombers and in the evening of the 29th 36 Ki-43, 27 A6M2 and 7 Ki-27 flew from Rangoon to Pagan. On the 30th they flew local CAP 100% and rested. They will wait for a clear day (or a no thunderstorms day) to fly LRCAP over Akyab.

In the jungles of Northern Burma, the only Hurricane squadron remaining in Imphal bombed the 81st Naval Guard Unit just SE of this base on both days (18 sorties) and hit 26 men.

On the 29th an Allied unit appeared on the trail north of Myitkyina. Japanese recon aircraft were ordered to identify it but didn’t fly on the 30th due to bad weather. It is probably only a recon unit. Myitkyina is held by the 21st Bde, 2 Tk Rgts, 2 ART units and 2 Base Forces.

The British Admiralty had required for the month of September a CV and 2 DD. Probably all surviving British ships were on the West Coast and they were not released, so my opponent paid a penalty of 2600 PP….

Philippines

On the 29th 8 A6M2 from Cagayan flew a training bombing mission against the 81st PA Div in Cebu and missed it. This evening 27 other A6M2 of a training unit (exp 41) arrived here from Japan and received same orders. Rain grounded them on the 30th.

In the evening of the 30th, the Japanese 17th Div started to board transports in Manila. It will invade Iloilo, one of the two remaining Allied bases in the area and eliminate the PA Div holding it.

China

Allied fighters didn’t fly on the 29th. The next day 34 Hurricane and 2 Spitfire from Lanchow bombed the 6th Div near this city, hitting 32 men and 1 gun, and 30 Hurricane from Sining bombed Japanese troops NE of Lanchow, wounding 3 men.

The usual artillery fire took place in Kungchang (83 Chinese hit in two days) and Wuchow (61 men).

Japanese engineers expanded the airfield of Nanchang to size 6 and of Canton to size 5.

Japan

A submarine was seen on the 29th in the Bonin Island area. This was the first such sighting since the beginning of the year 1942. Until now there had been zero attack on Japanese internal shipping, the only Allied activity had been on the frontline or just behind it.

A convoy started to load 45 000 fuel and 35 000 supplies in Nagoya on the 30th for Kwajalein.

(in reply to veji1)
Post #: 346
RE: 29-30 September 1942: Tojo and Tony rule!!! - 6/15/2006 1:04:35 PM   
VSWG


Posts: 3432
Joined: 5/31/2006
From: Germany
Status: offline 		Great to see this excellent AAR back!

quote:

The total result of the raid was 62 Allied heavy bombers lost (59% loss) against 17 Japanese fighters.




Congrats!

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 347
September 1942 Monthly report - 6/17/2006 1:24:15 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		Hi all, here is the monthly report of September 1942. If you go back one page, you will find that I set at the right place the monthly report of August 1942 (I left an empty post for that... two months ago)

Monthly report September 1942

Japanese score: 37 363 (+ 2 151)
Bases 9 485 (+ 297)
Aircraft 5 758 (+ 411)
Army 15 011 (+ 1 409)
Ship 6 901 (+ 47) 380 ships sunk (+ 5)
Scuttled ships 0 (- 45)
Strategic 208 (+ 34)

Allied score: 7 191 (+ 328)
Bases 2 878 (+ -2)
Aircraft 2 672 (+ 270)
Army 636 (+ 60)
Ship 1005 (+ 0) 103 ships sunk (+ 0)
Strategic 0

Economic situation (stocks rounded to the thousand):
Supplies : 3 777 000 (bases) + around 455 000 (TFs) = around 4 232 000 (+ 234 000)
Fuel : 4 235 000 (bases) + around 362 000 (TFs) = around 4 597 000 (+ 46 000)
Ressource centers : 17 937 (- 18)
Ressources : 1 272 000 (bases) + 100 000 (TFs) = 1 372 000 (- 9 000)
Oil centers : 2 602 (- 16)
Oil: 1 309 000 (bases) + 348 000 (TFs) = 1 657 000 (+ 56 000)
Manpower centers : 813 (+ 2)
Manpower pool : 557 000 (+ 64 000)
Heavy industry: 13 660 (+ 23)
Heavy industry pool: 152 000 (- 8 000) (still going down, I will have to watch this)
Naval shipyard: 1278 (+ 0)
Merchant shipyard: 1000 (+ 0)
Repair shipyard: 898 (+ 0)
Armament industry: 683 (+ 14)
Armament stock: 92 000 (+ 13 000)
Vehicles industry: 113 (+ 0)
Vehicles stock: 7 700 (+ 3 300)
Aircraft engine factories: 1567 (+ 0)
Aircraft frames factories: 953 (+ 0)
Aircraft research: 159 (+ 3)

Aircraft production:
140 A6M2 Zero (capacity 247, partly suspended), 32 A6M3 Zero (capacity 72, suspended round the 15th), 59 Ki-61 KAIc Tony (123), 43 G4M1 Betty (46), 47 D3A Val (41), 47 B5N Kate (40), 42 Ki-48 (40), 37 Ki-44-IIb Tojo (38), 32 Ki-46 Dinah (31), 24 Ki-49 Helen (23), 7 MC-21 Sally (5), 5 L3Y Tina (5), 5 H6K2-L Mavis (4), 5 C5M Babs (4), 0 Ki-51 Sonia (45, stopped), 0 H8K Emily (32, suspended), 0 E13A1 Jake (28, suspended), 0 Ki-21 Sally (20, suspended), 0 A6M-2 Rufe (14, suspended), 0 Ki-57 Topsy (10, suspended), 0 L2D2 Tabby (10, suspended), 0 E7K2 Alf (5, suspended), 0 E14Y1 Glen (4, suspended)

Total: 525 aircraft (268 fighters, 109 level bombers, 47 torpedo bombers, 47 divebombers, 37 recon, 17 transport)

OK, the above confirms that I have not have any time t odeal with the industry for two months. The fact that the HI pool is already decreasing is annoying, I will have to check oil/ressource supplies for all bases. Also I am using more ressources than I am producing and that is a problem. The fall of Lanchow may solve that but it has been delayed by months after my last defeats here...

It is now time to launch the research for the aircraft arriving in 1943, but I will try to cure the HI problem before. I will stop some factories (the Ki-48 for example.... I just can't believe it is still working, the pool is over 300 Ki-48s) and check why I produce only half Ki-61 as I should with the number of available factories.

You may note that 450 000 supplies and 350 000 fuel are aboard transports at sea... 80% of it are in convoys gathering for the New Zealand operation.

(in reply to VSWG)
Post #: 348
1-2 October 1942: reorganization - 6/18/2006 12:48:12 AM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		1-2 October 1942

Central Pacific

The convoy that was sent to Midway to pick up the two Const Bn here loaded them and then sailed for Hilo in the evening of the 1st.

Southern Pacific

The three MSW off Pago-Pago swept the last Allied mine on the afternoon of the 2nd, but in the aerly hours of the same day the ML Sokuten returning from laying a minefield off Nandi hit an Allied mine off Suva and was beached wit heavy damage (FLT 75). The 6 MSW based here were ordered to sweep this minefield.

Bismarcks-Solomons Islands

On the 1st the planned raid on Rabaul was done, but only 3 Betties and 3 Zeroes reached the target and hit nothing. Orders had been issued correctly both full units should have flown and the raid was not repeated.

Three TK arrived at Kwajalein on the 1st and unloaded enough fuel to replenish both CV TF. Their air units were reorganized and several training units (total of 7 Chutais) were disbanded to reinforce the CV air units. When both CV TF left on the evening of the 2nd toward Truk, they carried 191 A6M2 Zero (mean exp 78), 186 B5N Kates (mean exp 68) and 90 Vals (mean exp 81).

Timor-Amboina-Australia

On both days, Koepang was bombed by B-25Cs from Derby (31 on the 1st, AA shot down one, and 34 on the 2nd, destroying on teh ground a KI-46, hitting a total of 109 men and 1 gun and scoring 2 hist on teh base, 1 on supplies and 54 on runways) and Lautem by Darwin bombers (41 B-25C, 18 B-17E and 15 LB-30 on the 1st, 60, 42 and 26 on the 2nd: 50 casualties, 10 airbase hits, 5 on supplies, 29 on runways; one B-25C lost in a crash).

Barges brought supplies to Lautem and were attacked twice by Brewster 339 D from Darwin without damage but one was heavily damaged by a patrolling LB-30 and left off Lautem.

In the evening of the 2nd, 28 Oscars left Kendari for Maumer, NW of Timor. They will rest one day and then fly LRCAP over Koepang.

Burma

Japanese recon flew over Chandpur to see if a raid against it would be a good idea and reported 20 Spitfire and 20 Hurricane flying CAP on the 1st. The same day the Allied unit that had advanced north of Myitkyina was identified as the 49th Chinese Division. On the 2nd the Mavis flying the daily recon over Colombo, Ceylon, was shot down by AA fire and 9 Hurricanes from Imphal bombed the 81st Naval Unit SE of the unit, hitting 15 men.

Good weather (overcast) was forecast for the 3rd and 12 Oscars left Pagan for Myitkyina and will fly LRCAP over the 81st Naval Unit. Other Pagan fighters (27 Zeroes, 24 Oscars and 7 Nates) wil lfly LRCAP over Akyab.

Philippines

To prepare the invasion of Iloilo, 20 Ki-21s were sent on the 1st from Manila to Legaspi and started the next day to bomb the 61st PA Div there, hitting 15 men.

Training flights continued there. The 81st PA DIv in Cebu was bombed both days (respectively by 32 and 24 Zeroes from Cagayan) and lost seven men.

China

Troops NE of Lanchow were bombed by 30 Hurricanes from Sining on the 1st and lost 90 men and 1 gun. The same day the Allied CAP shot down a Ki-15 over Lanchow.

Japanese artillery fire hit 99 men in Kungchang and 41 in Wuchow in two days. The Chinese 30th Corps again left its position north of Sian and marched north on the 1st, reaching the Japanese positions S of Kungchang. As before it was beaten the next day by the Japanese force holding the road, the 40th and 41th Div and half of the 5th Bde, and retreated southward, having lost 338 killed and wounded and around 500 POW, Japanese loses being 126 men and 3 guns.
Overcast weather was forecast for the 3rd and 18 Zeroes from Yenen will LRCAP the troops at Lanchow tomorrow. Also the Yenen bombers will bomb the ressources of Sian (33 centers remaining here).

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 349
3-4 October 1942: air ambushes - 6/19/2006 1:51:24 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		3-4 October 1942

Southern Pacific

Six MSW swept all Allied mines off Suva in two days, but several submarine sightings in the area were done and probably other minefields were or will be laid. The CS Mizuho was ordered to cruise south of Suva to chase Allied submarines with its seaplanes.

Japanese engineers expanded the airfield of Nandi to size 4 and will now build fortifications here.

Solomons-New Guinea

On the evening of the 4th, the Rabaul invasion convoy was formed and troops (5th Div, 7th and 15th Eng Rgt and 24th Special Base Force) started to board it. Tomorrow 30 transport aircraft will begin to carry the 21st Special Base Force from Truk to Kavieng, enabling fighters to be based here latter in the operation.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

Lautem was bombed twice by Darwin bombers (on the 3rd by 56 B-25C, 21 B-17E and 12 LB-30, on the 4th by 63, 47 and 26, with a LB-30 lost to engine failure) and 72 men and 1 gun were disabled while 5 hits were scored on the airbase, 6 on supplies and 57 on the runway. The damaged barge drifiting off Lautem was sunk on the 4th by patrolling bombers, while 7 Brewster 339D unsuccessfully strafed more barges north of it the same day.
Koepang was bombed on the 3rd by 30 B-25C from Derby that destroyed a Ki-46 on the ground , wounded 10 men and scored 20 runway hits. 23 returned the next day but were this time intercepted by 7 Oscars of 59 Sentai flying LRCAP from Maumere. 10 B-25C turned back, the other reached the target in disorder and only scored 1 runway hit while AA shot down one.

Southern Resource Area


Burma

On the 3rd, Japanese fighters flew LRCAP over Akyab. The morning was uneventful but in the afternoon a heavy Allied raid arrived. The CAP (14 Oscars, 12 A6M2 and 3 Nates) attacked, but for once the Akyab raid was escorted. The 60 SB-2c, 26 Beaufort I, 26 Beaufort V-IX and 12 Vengeance I (first use of this type) were escorted by 24 P-40B of two squadrons of the AVG that shot down 11 Oscars, 3 Zeroes and 1 Nate. Allied losses in the air battle were 4 SB-2c, 2 P-40B, 2 Beaufort I and 1 Beaufort V-IX, most of them falling to Zeroes. The only good news of the day was that all aces of F1/3rd survived unhurt and that the best Japanese pilot, ENS Sugio S of 1/3rd, claimed one more kill, his 28th, during this battle. One Zero and one P-40B were also lost operationally during these operations. The bombers hit Akyab airfield, scoring 5 hits on the base, 2 on supplies and 52 on the runways and doing 31 casualties. This evening all Japanese fighters left Pagan to return to Rangoon but no reprisal raid took place the next day.

In the north 12 Ki-43 based in Myitkyina flew for two days LRCAP over the Naval Unit SE of Imphal but it was not attacked by the usual Hurricane raids.

The Burma Army commander decided to chase the 49th Chinese Div from its new position NE of Myitkyina and the 4th Rgt was ordered to march from Mandalay to this city to keep it while the local forces will march in the jungle and engage the Chinese. In the evening of the 4th, the 21st Bde, 6th Tk Rgt and 3rd Montain Gun Rgt left the city northward without waiting the arrival of the 4th Rgt.
The same evening, the 8th Tk Rgt left Rangoon where it has rested and rolled toward Lashio. From there it will go eastwards and do a reconnaissance in Yunnan. No Allied units were reported in this area until the base of Yunan itself.

The Japanese recon flights by Nells and Mavis over Ceylon and southern India fulfilled apparently their diversion role. Hurricane appeared in this area several days ago and Allied engineers expanded Bangalore airfield to size 2 on the 4th.

Philippines

Training missions continued. On both day Ki-21 from Legaspi bombed the 61st PA Div in Iloilo (total 28 sorties, 54 men hit) and A6M2 from Cagayan the 81st PA Div (total 48 sorties, 8 men hit).

Around 3500 Allied men were reported in Iloilo. The convoy carrying the 17th Div to invade this base left Manila on the 3rd and will reach it on the 5th. The landing will be supported by aircraft from Legaspi and Cagayan.

China

On the 3th, the 33 remaining resource centers in Sian were bombed by 31 Ki-21 and 25 Ki-49 from Yenen and all were disabled. At the same time, 11 A6M2, also based in Yenen, intercepted over Lanchow 42 Hurricane and 3 Spitfire from this base attacking the Japanese troops here. The Japanese pilots shot down 1 Spitfire and 12 Hurricane without combat loss but a Zero was lost in an accident. The remaining Allied pilots hit 10 men and 1 gun.
The next day Japanese airmen rested while Japanese troops at Lanchow were bombed by 44 Hurricane (8 casualties) and those NE of the city by 18 Hurricane from Sining (53 men hit).

The usual artillery fire took place in Kungchang (97 Chinese and 1 gun hit in two days) and Wuchow (19 men and 1 gun). The two best Japanese divisions in Wuchow, the 104th and 116th, marched south on the 3rd and will go round the city and cross the river NW of it to chase the 28th Chinese New Div and surround the city. A Ki-43 Chutai upgraded to Ki-61 in Canton. In the north the 40th and 41st Div were ordered the same day to march south and occupy the hex north of Sian, helf only by the badly battered 30th Chinese Corps.

Japan

A convoy left Osaka on the 3rd with 36 000 fuel for Suva.

A Glen was lost during a training flight in Tokyo Bay but the crew was saved.

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 350
5 October 1942: Japanese Production Minister fired!! - 6/19/2006 2:34:28 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		5 October 1942

The last survey of the Japanese economy was done on 1st August and things have not gone well at all... It's time to repair the mess.

Southern Pacific

The ML Sokuten that hit a mine off Suva some days ago sank during the day in Suva port. The first convoys of the New Zeland operation began to arrive in Suva, while several empty APs left this base to go to Pago-Pago and pick-up the Eng Rgt working here, as it will also take part in the New Zealand operation.

Solomons-New Guinea

60 air support squads were carried to Kavieng during the day by transport aircraft. All of these will now carry supplies to the base, as will do 15 barges and a FT TF of 4 DDs.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

Maumere-based Oscars of 59 Sentai continued to fly LRCAP over Koepang and in the afternoon 8 of them intercept two Allied raids. First they scattered 26 B-25C from Derby. All turned back and two damaged by the Japanese pilots ditched on return. Then they intercepted 52 B-17E and 31 LB-30 from Darwin and lost two Oscars to return fire but hit several bombers, a B-17E heavily damaged crashing later. So their ultimate score was 3 victories for two losses, a very good performance for Oscars in WITP (IMOO they are the aircraft type the most underestimated in the game). The heavy bombers destroyed a Ki-46 on the ground, hit 95 men and 2 guns and scored 4 hits on the base, 4 on supplies and 24 on runways. At the same time 54 B-25C from Darwin attacked Lautem, doing 12 casualties and scoring 2 hits on the airbase and 8 on the runways. These three raid saw 3 B-25C, 1 B-17E and 1 LB-30 also lost in accidents. In the evening, the 59 Sentai left Maumere and flew back to Kendari.

Burma

A new raid hit Akyab, 9 Vengeance I from Dacca escorted by 35 P-40B. They met no CAP and scored a runway hit.

Philippines

During the night and day, the 17th Div started to land in Iloilo and reported no Allied gunfire at all, but 1657 “casualties” in landing operations. The 61st PA Div holding this base was bombed by 15 Ki-21 from Legaspi and 24 Zeroes from Cagayan and lost 37 men. Tomorrow, the 17th Div will continue to land and bombard the Allied defenders to assess their strength.

China

The softening air attacks on the 28th New Chinese Div NW of Wuchow began with a raid by 32 Nates from Wuchow that hit 7 men.
In the north 32 Hurricane from Sining bombed Japanese troops NE of Lanchow and hit 95 men but two of them collided and crashed.

The usual artillery fire took place in Kungchang (12 Chinese hit) and Wuchow (15 men hit).

Japan

A convoy left Nagoya with 21 000 fuel to Saipan. The idea is to create a refuelling stop there, in the middle of the Japanese bases in the Pacific.

Economic survey

A detailer inspection of the Japanese industry showed no real shortage of oil and resources, except in one Chinese base, but showed low stocks of oil in Bangkok, China and Manchouoko/Korea, and low stocks of resources in Formosa and northern China. In Japan, most of the resources were found in Aomori (150k), Sapporo (140k) and Wakkanai (25k), all in the north, while the biggest oil depots were in Sabeso (300k), Osaka (240k) and Sendai (70k). The biggest supplies depots were in Toyama, Aomori and Kitakyushu and the biggest oil dumps in Maizuru, Kitakyushu and Nagasaki.

The merchant Navy minister received orders to use all available ships to correct this mess. Oil will be shipped (either by convoys diverted from Japan or by new ones) to Bangkok, Shangai, Tientsin and Hungnam (Korea), while resources will be shipped to Formosa and Tientsin. On the other hand tens of AKs were sent to Japanese ports and will carry resources and oil from port to port in the country to equalize the stocks. That should solve the problem of the heavy industry production decreasing.

But the other main Japanese economical problem is the lack of resources, and it will be more serious once the whole industry will run as it should. It was decided to repair all possible resource centers. Supplies are not a problem, resources are, so spending half a million of the first to have more of the latter is a good idea.
A survey of the resource centers of the Empire shot that the following bases had disabled resource centers and were not under direct threat by Allied bombers: Tarakan 293, Batavia 225, Balikpapan 72, Clark Field 40, Naga 28, Tugueragao 20, Alor Star 19, Hong Kong 12. Kendari has 261 disabled centers but is not considered as safe from air threat. As much as possible will be repaired. Convoys were sent immediately to Alor Star (28k of supplies from Singapore), Batavia (28k from Palembang) and Tarakan (30k diverted from Kendari).
Also AKs will ship more resources to Japan. 14k were ordered to be loaded in Balikpapan, 7k in San Marcelino and 7k in Tugueragao as AKs were available there.

Small convoys (two 3500-ton AK each) were sent from Osaka to Korean ports, Luda, Pusan and Hungnam and will carry automatically (CS convoys) supplies from there to Osaka to enable a better concentration. Such convoy already sailed from Port Arthur, Sapporo and Aomori to Osaka or Tokyo.

All these studies show that the Japanese navy has no shortage of AP or AK, but is a bit short of TK (despite having had no loss I can remember) and so all TKs currently in the shipyards were accelerated. Supplying fleet operations in the deep Pacific requires a lot of TK, that are then not available for domestic shipping.
On a sidenote, the BB Ise in Tokyo and Haruna in Singapore receive orders to upgrade to the 10/42 standard. Other BB are either too damaged to be upgraded, at sea or ready to sail for the NZ operation and won’t take new damage.

The Japanese aircraft industry will not yet receive orders to start research programs for the 1943 aircraft type. The production of the Ki-46 and Ki-48 was suspended, as stocks are high enough, while for the same reason the production of the A6M2 and G4M1 was reduced. It was discovered that a Ki-61 factory of size 62 (the former Ki-43 factory) was halted, and it was restarted at once.

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 351
6 October 1942: Map included - 6/19/2006 10:09:52 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		6 October 1942

Solomons-New Guinea

The Rabaul invasion convoy (25 transports and 4 escorts carrying 37 000 men) left in the evening Truk with a MSW group (4 MSW) and under cover by both groups of the KB (6 CV, 3 CVL, 2 CVE, 1 BB, 8 CA, 1 CL, 15 DD, 226 Zeroes, 118 Vals, 167 Kates).
The number of aircraft carried by the KB are not the same as some day ago because:
_ v1.801 (the game converted two turns ago) allowed me to add some more aircraft to some units having more pilots than AC.
_ previous numbers were false, I counted a Val unit as Kate.
_ a land-based unit, the ace unit F1/Tainan, boarded an empty CVE to take part in the invasion.

All AP available in Kwajalein left this base for Truk and will load there the Naval Units preparing to invade and hold the Solomons. This will allow them to sail in this area roughly at the same time as the KB and so to encounter probably very few opposition.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

Koepang was again bombed twice in the afternoon, first by 25 B-25C from Derby and then by 40 B-17E and 26 LB-30 from Darwin. One Ki-46 was destroyed on the ground again, 27 men and 1 gun disabled and 1 hit scored on the base, 2 on supplies and 24 on runways. At the same time, 44 B-25C from Darwin raided Lautem and scored 2 hits on supplies and 16 on the runway, wounding 5 men. But during these raids 3 B-25C and 1 B-17E were lost to operational accidents.

The AK that was sent to Bulla to load resources had spent weeks loading slowly them in the tiny port but was undisturbed and left this evening with 7000 resources.

Burma

9 Vengeance I from Dacca escorted by 28 P-40B raided Akyab and scored 2 runway hits but one was lost in an accident. And now that there was no more LRCAP, 9 Hurricane from Imphal attacked the 81st Naval Guard Unit SE of their base and hit 5 men.

The 21st Bde and 6th Tk Rgt reached the Chinese positions in the jungle on the trail north of Myitkyina and will bombard the 49th Chinese Div tomorrow while waiting for the artillery reinforcements.

Philippines

The 17th Div finished to land in Iloilo in the night and the morning (185 more “casualties”) and bombarded the 61st PA Div, hitting 77 men and reporting only 1113 able defenders remaining on the island. They were bombed during the day by 8 Ki-21s from Legaspi and 24 Zeroes from Cagayan. The Japanese troops were fully supplies and organized in the evening and were ordered to launch a deliberate attack, still support by the same aircraft, tomorrow.

China

In the north, Japanese troops in Lanchow were attacked by 40 Hurricane escorted by 3 Spitfire and lost 26 men, 3 guns and 1 tank, while those NE of the town were attacked by 31 Hurricanes from Sining and lost 18 men. In the south, 32 Nates from canton attacked the 28th New Chinese Div NW of Wuchow and hit two men.
The usual artillery fire took place in Kungchang (4 Chinese hit) and Wuchow (77 men hit).

Japan

A convoy left Japan with 60 000 supplies for Batavia, to repair resource centers here. Another left Osaka and was made from empty AP. It will sail to Taan, where the 22nd Ind Bde will be created in about ten days, and then will ship it to China to take part in the Wuchow campaign. This unit will then be sent to Burma.

The “map of the day”




Well, it has been a long time since there was a map on this AAR. Here is the strategic map at 0h01 on October 7, 1942.

In orange, you can see the operations currently underway:
A) concentration of ships carrying troops, supplies and fuel in Suva and Pago-Pago from Manila, Japan and Hawaii.
B) the Rabaul invasion, under cover by the KB.
C) the reduction by the 17th Div of the last Philippine units
D) the small-scale offensive in Burma against the 49th Chinese division
E) the offensive to surround Wuchow, and maybe take it.
F) the main offensive in China, against Lanchow, Sining and Kungchang (in the order where the cities will be attacked). The northern road is now almost fully under control and supplies will soon reach units in Lanchow, enabling them probably to take the city.

In black, the next operations:
G) the occupation of the Solomons (apparently empty) by naval troops from Truk
H) the move southward of the KB that will cover the Solomon operation, raid New Caledonia (or at least do a feint there) and then sail sout hand cover the New Zealand operation
I) the new Zealand operation itself. The plan is to land in the middle of the country (south of the Northern Island and north of the Southern) and then to take the other bases by way of land.

I also added in yellow the ‘commercial roads’ used by the Japanese merchant navy from the SRA to Japan and Korea.


Attachment (1)

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 352
7-8 October 1942: Japan advancing everywhere - 6/20/2006 2:00:59 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		7-8 October 1942

The title is a little propaganda, but Japanese armies and fleets are currently active in PI, Burma, China, Solomons and preparing for NZ operation, and so are far more busy and agressive than of late.

Central Pacific

On the 7th, at least four Allied submarines were reported off Midway and probably laid a minefield here. Three MSW were sent from PH to sweep it.

Southern Pacific

On the 7th, the Dutch ML Rigel was identified off Noumea by an Emily from Suva. The Allied Command is probably busy reinforcing the place. This ML came probably from Australia.

A special operation has been planned against Norfolk Island, the tiny island between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. Its size 1 AF may be used to ferry aircraft when NZ will be attacked and it has been decided to attack it with a sub-carried commando. This base being an atoll, they may take it in one day if it is not or lightly defended. Four submarines left in the evening of the 8th Kwajalein with 96 men of a SNLF. Other submarines will leave in some days Suva with elements of a Base Force to enable patrol planes to be based here.

Solomons-New Guinea

On the 8th, a Rabaul-based Catalina saw the incoming Japanese invasion fleet north of Kavieng. The same day one of the Tinas flying supplies from Truk to Kavieng was lost in a crash. In the evening, some Ki-46 flew from Truk to Kavieng and will recon Rabaul tomorrow.

The attack will begin tomorrow, with 4 transport Chutais (3 of Tinas and 1 of Topsies) dropping each a company of the 1st Parachute Rgt into Gasmata, Sag Sag, Talasea and Arawe, to take all bases of New Britain outside Rabaul and so leave no escape for its garrison.

More north, 5 DD left Truk to join the invasion fleet, and 4 AO arrived in Truk and started to load fuel before following the KB.

SIGINT reported 48 ships, including 6 SS and 1 AP, in Sidney.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

Koepang was bombed on the 7th and 8th by B-25C from derby for a total of 52 sorties, 17 casualties, 1 hit on the airbase, 1 on supplies and 14 on runways. Lautem was also bombed on the 7th, by 33 B-25C from Lautem that disabled 11 men and scored 1 hit on the airbase, 2 on supplies and 7 on runways.

Southern Resource Area

Convoys left Toboali (21 000 resources fro Japan), Balikpapan (86 000 oil for Shangai) and Saigon (42 000 resources for Japan). Also another convoy left Palembang with 42 000 supplies to repair resource centers in Batavia.

Burma

North of Myitkyine, Japanese troops (21st Bde, 6th Tk Rgt, 3rd Mtn Gun Rgt) bombed the 49th Chinese Div on the 7th (hitting 58 men and 2 guns but losing 9 men and 2 guns to counterbattery fire) and felt confident enough to launche the next day a deliberate attack, that succeeded at 3 to 1. The battle cost the Japanese 103 men, 6 guns and 2 tanks, while the Chinese lost 2 guns, 114 killed and wounded and more than 500 POWs. The Tk Rgt will remain there on the trail to keep an eye on Allied moves, the other troops will march back to Myitkyina.

Both days the 81st Naval Guard Unit was bombed by 9 Hurricane from Imphal, losing a total of 54 men and 1 gun.

On the 8th, Japanese engineers expanded the airfield of Myitkyina to size 4, ending the build-up of this base (that has already fort level 9). The 4th Eng Rgt will march back to Mandalay and help to finish to build fortifications here.

Philippines

On the 7th, the 61st PA Div at Iloilo was bombed by 23 A6M2 from Cagayan and 11 Ki-21 from Legaspi without loss but was then attacked by the 17th Div and surrendered almost without fighting (at 640 to 1). Only two Japanese men were hurt and they rounded up 1366 prisoners.
All Japanese attention in the area will now be devoted to the reduction of the last Allied base, Cebu. The 17th Div will prepare for it and aircraft will bomb it.

China

In the north, Hurricanes from Sining and Lanchow flew 108 sorties in two days against troops at Lanchow and NE of it, hitting 115 men and 3 guns. On the 7th a Hurricane was lost in the crash, the next day Zeroes from Yenen flew LRCAp over Lanchow and attacked 396 Hurricane escorted by 4 Spitfire but only shot down one of each type, while losing of their number to engine failure.
But the good new of the day was that the northern road was now fully under Japanese control and supplies finally reached the troops in Lanchow in the evening of the 7th. They were allowed one more day of rest and were ordered on the evening of the 8th to launch a deliberate attack the next day. See the map below for more details.

NW of Wuchow, the 28th New Chinese Div was bombed on the 7th by 32 Nates and on the 8th by 62 Ki-48s, 35 Ki-27 and 21 Ki-49s, all flying from Canton, and lost 30 men while a Ki-48 was lost in a crash. The 104th and 116th Div arrived on the 7th west of Wuchow and were ordered to cross the river to the NE and attack the 28th Chinese Div, but for some reasons marched SE and were the next day S of Wuchow (game mechanics decided they will go round Wuchow trough forest rather than crossing the river). So the offensive plans were changed. The two Eng Rgt currently in front of Wuchow will join the two divisions and they will advance to Kweilin to check it (recon reported 8 Chinese units). Canton bombers will bombard Kweilin tomorrow.

The usual artillery fire took place in Kungchang (26 Chinese hit in two days) and Wuchow (47 men hit).

Japan

Convoys left Sasebo for Hungnam and Tientsin with respectively 64k and 9k of oil to provide enough for the local industry. 18k of oil were unloaded in Shangai but were scattered in the whole of China at once.

A convoy loaded 35 000 supplies in Taipei, Formosa, and will bring them to Tarakan to repair resources centers.

The upgrades of the BB Kongo and Ise gave them low SYS damaged (3 and 4) and it was agreed to upgrade the BB Hiei in PH, even if she will be sailing in one week to the southern Pacific.

The map of the day: China & Burma






Attachment (1)

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 353
9-12 October 1942: Rabaul, at last - 6/22/2006 7:26:44 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		9-12 October 1942

Northern Pacific

The buildup of the base of Paramushiro Jima continued. The airfield was expanded to size 2 and fort level 4. Both fuel and supplies dumps are above 10 000, and ML operating out of Tokyo have laid more than 2500 mines here. The garrison has more than 200 ASS points now.
Repeated recon of the islands of Attu, Kiska and Amchitka by Mavis based failed to report any Allied activity. Very probably the closest Allied unit is in Adak, and this base is too strong for the limited Japanese forces in the area, so they will remain in Paramushiro Jima and continue to survey the Aleutians Islands.

Central Pacific

The two Const Bn coming from Midway arrived in Hilo and will help build fortifications here.

Southern Pacific

Japanese TFs continued to arrive in Suva. A new Allied minefield was detected there on the 10th and swept then by 6 MSW but has not been eliminated yet. Eight TK finished unloading fuel here and sailed for the SRA via Jaluit and Palau to avoid Allied bases.

In Pago-Pago, the five APs sent from Suva arrived and loaded the 1st Eng Rgt to include it in the NZ invasion convoy.

Allied engineers expanded the port of Efate to size 5.

Solomons-New Guinea

The operation against Rabaul started really on the 9th, when the other four bases of New Britain (Sag Sag, Arawe, Talasea and Gasmata) were all taken each by a company of the 1st Parachute Regiment dropped by transport aircraft from Truk. The same day, the KB Cap shot down a Catalina I from Rabaul.
On the 10th the first Japanese ships (4 MSW) reached Rabaul, reporting no minefield, while the KB and the invasion convoy waited 60 miles NW of the target. This day Japanese recon units reported that 3 Allied units held the base and that all Allied aircraft had left it. Another company of the 1st Para Rgt was dropped over the undefended Green Island, north of Bougainville, and took it. In the evening, 4 CA and 3 DD joined the invasion convoy to provide more support gunfire for the landing, and it sailed to Rabaul, while the KB continued to patrol in the same area. 24 A6M2 from the KB were ordered to LRCAP Rabaul, while 24 A6M3 flew from Truk to Kavieng to do the same.
The landing began during the night of the 10-11. While approaching the beaches, mines were encountered and 6 MSW, 3 DD and 1 PC swept some but one destroyed was very heavily damaged by a VH2 mine. The landing was lightly opposed, with 349 Allied shells fired on troops and ships during the night and the day, but they hit no ship and Japanese losses were limited to 1284 men and 1 gun. The only Allied aircraft seen were patrol planes. Allied troops bombarded the invading troops (5th Div, two Eng Rgt and 1 Special Base Force) in the evening and hit 7 men while losing 8 men and 1 gun. The base was held by 3 Allied units: the NGVR Bn, the Lark Force Bn and the 101 RAAF BF, the same garrison as on 7 Dec 1941.
The next night and day, the 6 MSW patrolling off Rabaul didn’t sweep any mines, while several DD and PC continued to sweep some. During the night and day the landing continued, with 994 men and 1 gun disabled while a PC was hit by one of the 244 shells fired by the Allied defenders. Both sides exchanged artillery fire and 43 Australian and 9 Japanese fell during the day. Again there was no Allied air raid but one A6M3 was lost to a crash near Kavieng.
Japanese troops will finish to land in Rabaul tomorrow and the softening of Rabaul will start the same day. 1 BB and 4 CA will bombard the base tonight, and all Kates of KB will then bomb Allied troops during the day.
To be sure that Japanese troops in Rabaul won’t lack supplies three AK loaded with 21 000 supplies left Truk. At the same time, the AP convoy sent from Kwajalein arrived (all local AP had been sent to Rabaul) and started to load the troops of the 1st wave of Solomons occupation: 2 SNLF and 2 NLF.

During the period, Japanese engineers expanded the airfield of Hollandia to size 5. They will now only expand fortifications.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

Allied airmen continued to bomb Koepang and Derby each afternoon. First was hit by a total of 84 B-25C from Derby and suffered 4 hits on the airbase and 64 on runways and the loss of 114 men and 2 guns, the second was attacked by a total of 218 B-25C from Darwin, that scored 4 hits on the base, 5 on supplies and 67 on runways, disabling 108 men and 1 gun. Their only loss was a B-25C shot down by AA fire on the 10th.

Japanese continued minor operations in this area. A submarine was seen NE of Kendari and 40 Nells and Ki-21 moved there from Macassar to track it without success. Four ML laid a defensive minefield in Amboina, but will now have to sail to Soerabaja to reload. Two APs were sent to Kendari to pick up the two Const Bn being here, useless now that the base is finished. Barges continued to bring supplies to Timor, and on the 12th seven Brewster 339D from Darwin attacked such a group off Lautem and sank one but lost one of their number when it hit the sea.

The closest thing to an offensive move done by the Japanese in this area was to send two small groups of barges loaded with a company of a SNLF each to the villages of Nabile and Kiamana, in Dutch New Guinea, to round up the few Western people being here. Both groups reached the villages on the 12th and suffered each about 30 disabled men during the landing. Both villages will be occupied tomorrow and all white people will be “taken care of”.

Southern Resource Area

The following convoys were created: 28k resources from Bangkok to Japan, 10k supplies from Pontaniak to Batavia, 14k resources from Toboali to Singapore, 28k resources from Camranh Bay to Japan, 17k resources from Foochow, China, to Japan and 14k resources from Manila to Formosa.

Burma

10 Vengeance I escorted by 42 P-40B from Dacca raided Akyab on the 9th but AA shot down two while they scored only 3 hits on the airbase and runways. There was no raid the next day, but Akyab was then bombed on the 11th by 55 SB-2c, 25 Beaufort V-IX and 21 Beaufort I escorted by 24 P-40B from Chandpur, and the next day by 58 SB-2c, 24 Beaufort I, 19 Beaufort V-IX and 23 P-40B. In two days they only wounded 5 men and scored 12 hits on the airbase, 6 on supplies and 63 on the runways, while losing a SB-2c to AA fire and 1 Beaufort I, 1 Beaufort V-IX and 1 P-40B in crashes. The main effect of these raids (outside providing experience to Allied airmen) is to slow or stop the building of fortifications in Akyab (currently level 3) and I will have to send more engineers here to accelerate it.

The 81st Naval Guard Unit SE of Imphal was bombed on the 10th, 11th and 12th, each day by 9 Hurricanes, and lost 36 men and 2 guns. On the 11th seven Oscars of a Chutai flying LRCAP from Myitkyina intercepted them but only damaged one Hurricane and left the same evening for Rangoon to avoid a massive Allied bombing raid.

Allied engineers expanded the airfield of Kohima to size 4.

Philippines

The 81st PA Div in Cebu Island was the target of training missions by Zeroes from Cagayan on all four days (23 AC each day) and lost 53 men. This will not last long, as the 17th Div began to board again ships in Iloilo on the 10th to land there. Two small AKs were sent to Legaspi to load more supplies for the operation and will join the invasion convoy off Cebu.
The inhabitants of Dumaguete, NW of Cebu, were bright enough to surrender to Japan before being invaded.

China

In the north, Japanese troops in Lanchow (6th and 35th Div, 2 Rgt of 27th Div, 2 Tk Rgt, 2 Eng Rgt) launched a deliberate attack on the city on the 9th but the Chinese defenders (5th New Corps and 6th Air Base Force behind fortifications level 7) repulsed them at 0 to 1. Japanese losses were 1092 men and 23 guns, Chinese ones 153 men and 10 guns. After this failure, both regiments of 27th Div, both Tk Rgt and 1 Eng Rgt were ordered to leave the area to the NE via the Yenen road. One Tk Rgt was ordered to move to Yenen to be rebuilt, the other will be used against Sining. But none of these units had moved enough to leave the hex before the Chinese Corps between Sining and Lanchow moved east and reached the road, so denying them the ability of move.
This hex is held by the Kyuko Naval Guard Unit and the remnants of two Para SNLFs. These troops were attacked on the 11th by 64 Hurricanes from Lanchow and Sining (49 cas, 1 Hurricane lost in a crash) and on the 12th by 55 from Lanchow (45 cas).
They are not strong enough to repulse an attack by the Chinese Corps, even in makeshift fortifications (level 3) in woods, but an half Bde is marching to this point on the Yenen road and should arrive tomorrow... or the next day (15 miles to go). Yenen airmen had been ordered to give full support to this spot and 36 Zeroes will fly LRCAP over the place while bombers will bomb Chinese troops without escort. It is a calculated risk…
This Chinese move means that no more Chinese reinforcements are available near Sining, that is still held by only a Chinese Base Force. The three para SNLF had been rebuilt at more than 50% in Yenen and will be dropped on Sining again. In the evening of the 12th all available transport AC were ordered to this base. 82 arrived, 35 will arrive tomorrow after an intermediary stop and 1 (a Ki-57) was lost in a crash en route. 12 Tonies from Canton and 36 Oscars from Wuhan also flew in.
South of Kungchang, the 40th and 41st Div reached on the 9th the hex north of Sian and repulsed the next day the 30th Chinese Corps (deliberate attack at 1030 to 1…) to Sian with support of 33 Ki-21 and 16 Ki-49 from Yenen that hit 84 men and 1 gun. The Japanese lost in the ground battle 34 men and 2 guns, the Chinese 479 killed and wounded, 1 gun and more than 200 prisoners. The two next days, three Chinese units left Sian westwards (leaving 21 in Sian) and will probably stop on the hex west of Sian to defend it (Japanese troops should cross a river to reach it and won’t try). On the 11th, 25 Ki-49 and 24 Ki-21 from Yenen bombed a Chinese Corps in Sian, hitting 28 men, but they had just not received orders to stand down after the ground attack of the day before.
In Kungchang, Japanese artillery hit 155 men and 1 gun in 4 days.

In Central China, Japanese engineers expanded the airfield of Wuhan to size 9. In the evening of the 10th, Wuhan bombers (44 Ki-48, 21 Ki-21 and 16 Betties) received again orders to bomb Chinese resources in Changsha (133 remaining) and Chungking (76). Only one raid was flown, targeting Changsha on the 12th with 33 Ki-48 and disabling 10 resource centers without loss.

In the south, Kweilin was bombed on the 9th, 10th and 12th by Canton airmen for a total of 330 bombers ( 259 by Ki-48 and 71 by Ki-49) and 33 escort (by Ki-61) sorties. They scored 29 hits on the airbase, 10 on supplies and 206 on runways and did 34 casualties. Operational losses were 3 Ki-48s, 1 Ki-49 and 1 Ki-61. Recon flights reported 8 Chinese units there, far enough to repel any probing attack, but the Japanese troops continued to gather SW of the city as a diversion.
Canton Nates continued also to fly training missions against the 28th New Chiense Div NW of Wuchow but hit only 14 men in 4 days and 91 sorties while losing three of their numbers in accidents.
Japanese artillery hit 130 men in Wuchow in 4 days.

Japan

The main concern around Japan was still domestic shipping of resources, oil and supplies. Japanese engineers expanded the port of Hungnam, Korea, to size 5. Two convoys left Japan for overseas bases, one carrying 45 000 fuel from Nagoya to Truk, the other 28 000 supplies from Sendai to Manila.

The 149th IJN Base Force was created in Tokyo and ordered to prepare to be based in the Bonin Islands. This will allow ASW aircraft to be there, as all these islands are currently empty.

The Japanese aircraft industry achieved a major success by advancing the release date of the Oscar II of one month (just kidding… in fact I wonder if Nates are not better than Oscars… at least they are more successful in this game, including against heavy bombers… not that is difficult…. ). More important was that the Ki-36 factory in Tokyo (that was stopped at the start of the war) was converted to produce Ki-44 Tojo, as the current production was too low. Also the increased Ki-61 production allowed converting a Home Defense group of Ki-27. Needless to say, this group will change command and be sent overseas as soon as the conversion will be ended.

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 354
RE: 9-12 October 1942: Rabaul, at last - 6/24/2006 10:10:34 AM   
Apollo11


Posts: 24082
Joined: 6/7/2001
From: Zagreb, Croatia
Status: offline 		Hi all,

Thanks for the updates "AmiralLaurent"!


Leo "Apollo11"

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(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 355
13-15 October 1942: another paradrop on Sining - 6/30/2006 8:05:32 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		13-15 October 1942

I spent three days hiking in mountains at the Spanish border, and then my opponent disappeared for some days as he had a new granddaugther (well, actually a new grandchild and his 1st granddaugther).

Northern Pacific

A Heavy AA Bn allocated to Home Defense was changed to Northern Command in Aomori, boarded AP with the second echelon of the 3 Naval Guard Units having been shipped to Paramushiro Jima and will be sailed there too, as the first danger for this bases will be Allied heavy bombers.

Central Pacific

Three MSW arrived off Midway on the 13th and as was thought after the seeing of Allied subs off this base they discovered an Allied minefield and began to sweep it, but had not yet finished.

Also on the 13th, the CV Kaga, Hiryu and Shoho, the BB Yamato, Hiei and Kirishima, the CA Chokai and 6 DD left PH for Suva. They had remained behind when the KB left some weeks ago to try to repair some more damage. The Kaga has not received the 9/42 upgrade, and is the only Japanese CV that wasn’t upgraded, but I think it will be more useful off NZ than in a port.

Southern Pacific

The Allied minefield off Suva on the 13th was swept but not before a troop-laden convoy arrived in the morning and an AP hit a Mk 10 mine. The ship won’t sink but won’t be able to sail to New Zealand either and troops were landed in Suva and will reboard another ship.

Convoys continued to sail to Suva. The new expected date of the landing in New Zealand is the 20 November, and the campaign is expected to last into January. Allied engineers just expanded the port of Christchurch to size 7. All bases here should have level 9 fortifications, but enough troops will be landed to seize them.

Also my opponent scored 100 easy points by expanding Noumea port to size 7.

Solomons-New Guinea

The landing of Japanese troops continued in Rabaul and ended only in the morning of the 15th. Escorts continued to sweep Allied mines while MSW TF didn’t for an unknown reason, while only one AK was slightly hit by an Allied shell (on the 13th). Total landing casualties in 3 days were 482 men.
Japanese forces began to soften the base before attacking it during the night of the 12th-13th, when Rabaul was bombarded by the BB Mutsu and 4 CAs that hit 299 men and 3 guns and scored 33 hits on the airfield and 19 on the port. During the 13th and the 14th, bad weather cancelled the planned KB airraid against Allied troops. Also during these two days, both sides exchanged artillery fire and 13 Japanese men and 2 guns and 6 Allied men were hit. There was no Allied air or submarine attack, their only activity was by patrol planes and a Catalina was shot down on the 13th by an A6M3 flying LRCAP from Kavieng.
In the evening of the 14th, the troops ashore were ready to launch a first attack and they did so the next day with all available support. During the night the Mutsu, 6 CA and 5 DD bombarded the base and scored 52 hits on the airfield and 23 on the port, disabling 181 men and 1 gun, before sailing north to Truk for rearm and refuel. Later in the day 139 Kates and 103 Vals escorted by 42 Zeroes took off from the Japanese CVs 60 miles NW of Rabaul and attacked all the 101st RAAF BF, hitting 205 men and 2 guns but losing one Val and one Kate to AA fire. The Japanese deliberate attack saw the Japanese engineers reduce the fortifications to level 4 and achieved a 1 to 1 ratio. Japanese losses were 375 men, 5 guns and 1 tank, Australian ones 358 men and 7 guns.
Tomorrow the attack will continue with again air support from the KB (I just hope that several units will be hit this time….) and the help of more troops of the 1st Para Rgt that will be dropped on the base from Truk to confuse the defenders.

Around Rabaul, some barges from Kavieng picked up the paratroops that had taken Gasmata, Arawe and Sag Sag, while a patrol from Green Island occupied the empty base of Buka on the 14th.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

These three quiet days saw detachments of the Japanese 23rd NLF occupy the villages (spots) of Nabire and Kiamana in Dutch New Guinea and then reboard barges and return to Sorong, while the only Allied activity was B-25 raid on Koepang (from Derby, 12 on the 13th scoring 13 runways hits and 37 on the 14th destroying a Ki-46, disabling 37 men and 1 gun and scoring 2 hits on the base, 1 on supplies and 13 on runways) and Lautem (45 from Darwin on the 14th scored 1 hit on supplies and 8 on the runway, doing 8 casualties).

36 Ki-44 flew on the 14th from Kendari to Maumere and after a day rest received in the evening of the 15th the order to fly LRCAP over Koepang the next day.

APs loaded the two Const Bn doing nothing in Kendari and will bring them to Amboina to help build fortifications here.

Southern Resource Area

A convoy loaded 63k of oil in Palembang fro Japan, another 24k of resources in Soerabaja for Singapore

Burma

Akyab was bombed by Chandpur airmen in the afternoon of the 13th (51 SB-2c, 22 Beaufort V-IX, 14 Beaufort I escorted by 24 P-40B), 14th (59 SB, 26 Beaufort I, 23 V-IX, 23 P-40) and 15th (45 SB, 17 Beaufort I, 23 P-40). They lost a total of two Beaufort V-IX and a SB-2c in accidents while scoring 15 hits on the base, 5 on supplies and 119 on runways, but doing nil casualties.
Mandalay was bombed in the morning of the 15th by 60 B-25C, 32 Blenheim IV, 12 Wellington III and 11 Il-4c escorted by 48 P-40B from Dacca. 12 men were hit, and 7 hits scored on the airbase, 2 on supplies and 13 on runways. The same day 31 B-17E from Dacca attacked without escort Lashio and scored 1 hit on a building and 7 on the runways, while in the afternoon 12 Beaufort V-IX from Chandpur attacked alone Mandalay (probably in error) and hit nothing.
In the north, the 81st Naval Guard SE of Imphal was bombed on the 13th and 15th, each time by 9 Hurricanes, and lost 16 men and 2 guns.

On the Japanese side, it is seriously thought to set a big air ambush over Akyab one of those days but no date had been chosen. Japanese engineers finished their work in Mandalay (AF 4, fort 9) and marched to other places: the 4th Eng Rgt to Rangoon, one Const Bn to Lashio and another to Taung Gyi.

Philippines

The 17th Div continued to prepare to invade Cebu and load supplies. Bad weather cancelled training flights except on the 14th where 23 A6M2 from Cagayan bombed and missed the 81st PA Div in Cebu.

A convoy loaded 17k resources in Lamon Bay for Takao, another 28k resources in Manila for Japan.

China

The goal of Japanese forces on the 13th was to stop the Chinese advance NE of Lanchow to allow the fore guard of the 3rd Bde to march in this day or the next. So both A6M2 units from Yenen were flying LRCAP over the Japanese forces here (the Kyuko Naval Guard Unit and around 200 paratroops remaining from the Sining attack). 56 Hurricane from Lanchow under escort by 4 Spitfire Vb attacked and were intercepted by 12 Zeroes. One unit that was trained in China had no success but the experienced pilots of F2/Genzan, veterans of Burma, shot down 1 Spitfire and 6 Hurricane without loss. Another Hurricane was lost in an accident but their bombs hit 62 men and 1 gun. And the 69th Chinese Corps attacked before the arrival of Japanese reinforcements and repulsed to the NE the Japanese (at 8 to 1). Japanese casualties were 18 men and 1 gun during the battle and around 250 men during the retreat while Chinese lost 21 men.
This local defeat allowed nevertheless the Japanese command to attempt a new paratroops attack on Sining. On the 13th, 23 more transport AC arrived in Sining, bringing the total to 93, while the 3 Para SNLF here were at 70-80% of OOB and 100% prepared for Sining, a total of 77 ASS points.
On the 14th, troops and airmen rested on the Japanese side, while 18 Hurricane from Sining attacked the retreating Japanese troops 120 miles NE of Lanchow, hitting 11 men, while 54 Hurricane and 3 Spitfire from Lanchow attacked the 35th Div besieging their base and hit 84 men and 2 guns. This same day half of the 3rd Bde arrived near the 69th Chinese Corps NE of Lanchow, one day late…
The attack on Sining was launched on the 15th. The plan was that 33 Ki-21 will bomb the defending troops in the morning and 25 Ki-49 will attack the airfield in the afternoon, both being escorted by A6M2s (Sining being at range 7 from Yenen, no IJAAF fighter may be used). These two raids were supposed to decimate the CAP and allow the transports to drop the paratroops in the evening.
The morning raid was cancelled by bad weather, in the afternoon 25 Ki-49 escorted by 37 A6M2 (a full effort) attacked Sining and met a CAP of 11 Hurricanes. Again only the veterans of F2/Genzan claimed, shooting down 5 Hurricane. The Japanese bombers only scored 2 runway hits, wounding 7 men, but no Japanese aircraft was lost and the scattered Hurricane were then unable to attack the transports. Chinese AA fire was more efficient and shot down 3 transports (a Tabby, a Ki-57 and a Ki-59). The paratroops attacked the 8th Chinese Air Base Force and destroyed the only level of fortifications that had been rebuilt here (at 1 to 1) but lost 135 men and 2 guns while Chinese losses were 43 men and 2 guns.
NE of Lanchow, the 69th Chinese Corps, now used to repulse tired and out-of-supply Japanese units, launched a deliberate attack against half of the 3rd Ind Bde but only achieved a 1 to 1 ratio and lost 711 men and 14 guns while only disabling 53 Japanese men and 1 gun.
Orders for tomorrow are the same as today, with two bomber raids and then transports bringing more troops (support ones, as all assault squads landed with the first wave).

Elsewhere in China, Japanese airmen met no opposition in the air. On the 14th, Changsha was bombed by 45 Ki-48s from Wuhan, that did no new damage to the resources of the town, while 24 Ki-21s and 18 Betties from Wuhan flew a similar raid against Chungking and here disabled one resource center. Canton airmen bombed on the 14th Kweilin, scoring 5 hits on the airbase, 5 on supplies and 69 on the runways, and the next day attacked Wuchow, scoring 5 hits on the airbase, 1 on supplies and 27 on the runways. Two training missions, each by 29 Nates, were flown from Canton against the 28th New Chinese Div NW of Wuchow but hit nothing. Japanese engineers expanded the airfield of Nanchang to size 7 and of Canton to size 6.

The usual artillery fire took place in Kungchang (63 Chinese and 1 gun hit in two days) and Wuchow (122 men and 1 gun hit).

The 22nd Ind Mixed Bde was formed at Taan on the 13th with 76% of the OOB. It is allocated to the Burma Army but will first be used in Wuchow area.

Japan

The research of the A6M5 and A6M5c was launched respectively in Gumma and Okayama. The C5M factory in Nagasaki had been (automatically) converted to J1N1-R Irving on the 1st of this month and will see its size doubled (from 4 to 8).

The 21st Ftr Sentai was created in Nagasaki with Ki-27, but will be the first unit to convert to Ki-45 at the end of the year. It was sent at once to China to train there before converting. The Ki-45Ia factory in Kyoto was ordered to be repaired, as the model will be released in December.

(in reply to Apollo11)
Post #: 356
16 October 1942 - 7/1/2006 5:42:45 PM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		16 October 1942

Northern Pacific

Twelve new barges were launched off Paramushiro Jima, bringing the total here to 16. I may use them to take Attu and Kiska, and set outposts on them, just to know when the Allied troops will move in. Right now they are used to bring supplies anf fuel from other Kuriles Island to both bases I intend to hold, Paramushiro and Erofotu Jima.

Central Pacific

All Allied mines were swept off Midway by the 3 MSW sent there. 27 A6M2 based in PH left the area for more training in China (exp of the unit is 54 with the new pilots).

Southern Pacific

The commando sent by submarine to attack Norfolk Island will arrive in some days and another TF of 6 submarines left Suva with base force personnel to be able to base patrol AC here.

Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea

The KB was still at the same place 60 miles NW of Rabaul and was supposed to bomb Australian troops to supported a new attack on the base but faield to send a raid and the Dutch submarine KXV was seen nearby the CVs and chased by a Kate. There was still no Allied attack in the area but an A6M3 flying LRCAP over Rabaul from Kavieng was lost to engine failure.
Transport AC from Truk dropped over Rabaul troops of the 2nd Para Rgt and Allied AA shot down a H6K2-L Mavis. The paras didn't change much of the situation, the results were the same as the day before. Japanese engineers reduce the fort level by 1, to 3, and the attack achieved a 1 to 1 ratio. Japanese losses were 415 men and 16 guns, Allied ones 178 men and 3 guns.

The Mutsu TF refuelled in Truk and then sailed south again. The KB received orders to change of location and will sail round New Ireland via Kavieng and launch a groudn attack raid on Rabaul defenders from 120 miles east of Rabaul. Here both the paradrops and deliberate attack by Japanese troops will continue.

Two small base forces (from Japan and Java) and supplies (from Palau) are sailing to Wewak and the base here will be built.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

The daily raid from Derby to Koepang was today flown by 42 B-25C but they were met by 7 Ki-44s of the 29 Sentai flying LRCAp from Maumere, that shot down two of them without loss. The other bombed the airfield and scored 1 hit on the airbase and 27 on the runway, doing 27 casualties. These Ki-44 returned to Kendari in the evening. Even if seaplanes are based all the time in Koepang, Dili and Maumere to hide my air units moves, Maumere is the logical place to base my LRCAP fighters and will one day be bombed by Allied heavy bombers.

Burma

In the morning, 9 Hurricane from Imphal attacked the 81st Naval Guard Unit SE of the town and hit 20 men and 1 gun. In the afternoon, 23 unescorted Beaufort V-IX from Chandpur bombed Mandalay, scoring 2 hits on supplies and 2 on a runway, while 57 SB-2c and 25 Beaufort I escorted by 24 P-40B from Chandpur too attacked Akyab, scoring 4 hits on the airbase and 40 on the runway while losing a Chinese bomber in a crash.

Philippines

The 17th Div had finished boarding transports in Iloilo and the convoy was joined by the two AKs that had loaded supplies in Kendari, so the TF saield in the evening to Cebu, to reduce the last Allied base in the area

China

In the north, the 8th Chinese Air Base Force in Sining was bombed by 33 Ki-21 in the morning and lost 102 men and 2 guns. The 18 escorting A6M2 Zeroes met no CAP, and reported the RAF had evacuated the airfield, but lost two of their number in a collision in clouds. 58 Hurricane and 4 SPitfire from Lanchow attacked one of the Parachute SNLF in Sining, hitting 48 men and 1 gun but also losing 3 Hurricanes in the bad weather.
Japanese transport AC from Yenen brought the second wave of paratroops (support troops) in Sining without losses, but the lack of supplies reduced the ratio of the shock attack to 0 to 1 here today. 9 Japanese and 17 Chinese fell in this battle.
NE of Lanchow, the Chinese commander of the 69th Corps, incensed by the failure of his troops the day before, had ordered a shock attack (hoping to achieve a 2 to 1 ratio, as the deliberate attack the day before was a t 1 to 1) but had probably underestimated the losses suffered the day before, and the firepower of the Japanese defenders. The charge failed at 0 to 1 and Chinese losses were 762 men and 13 guns, while Japanese ones were only 36 men and 1 gun. The Japanese unit facing it, half of the 3rd Ind Bde, will bombard the Chinese tomorrow and wait for the arrival of a regiment of the 59th Div before trying an attack.

33 Ki-48 and 12 Ki-49 from Canton bombed Wuchow, scoring 2 hits on the airbase, 4 on supplies and 14 on the runways, but losing a Lily in a crash. 29 Nates from the same base attacked the 28th New Chinese Div NW of Wuchow but failed to hit anything.
In Taan, the 22nd Ind Mixed Bde boarded APs that will bring it to Canton, and it will take part to operations in this area for some months before being shipped to Burma.

Japanese artillery fire hit 54 men in Kungchang and 73 men and 1 gun in Wuchow. You will find below the effect of months of siege and artillery fire on the Chinese defenders of these both places.
Kungchang
1/7 : 115 188 able men, ? ASS points.
1/8 : 118 626 able men, ? ASS points.
1/9 : 112 589 able men, ? ASS points.
15/9 : 108 818 able men, 3355 ASS points.
1/10 : 103 445 able men, 3243 ASS points.
16/10 : 97 657 able men, 3085 ASS points.
Wuchow
1/8 : 72 781 able men, ? ASS points.
1/8 : 67 787 able men, ? ASS points.
1/9 : 65 391 able men, ? ASS points.
15/9 : 62 340 able men, 1669 ASS points.
1/10 : 59 482 able men, 1607 ASS points.
16/10 : 57 395 able men, 1567 ASS points.
In the last weeks, the defenders of Kungchang deteriorated faster, and those of Wuchow slower. The last isn't surrounded so the little amount of supply China is still able to produce may arrive there, while Kungchang is cut from any supply source except by air, and Japanese fighters flying from time to time LRCAP over the city or Japanese recon aircraft and intelligence service hadn't reported any Allied transport aircraft over this part of China for more than a month.

Tomorrow, the transport aircraft from Yenen will bring supplies to Sining, where the paratroops will rest for one day before attacking again. All bombers based in Yenen will bombard Japanese troops, while 19 Zeroes will fly LRCAP against the Lanchow Hurricanes. Also 12 Ki-61 from Yenen lacking the range to reach Sining will fly a sweep over Lanchow. 27 Ki-49 and 24 Ki-21 arrived in Yenen in the evening from Canton and Wuhan and will rest tomorrow. One Ki-49 was lost in a landing accident.

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 357
RE: 16 October 1942 - 7/2/2006 2:06:23 AM   
PzB74


Posts: 5076
Joined: 10/3/2000
From: No(r)way
Status: offline 		Great AAR Admiral 

Due to the great detail in report I haven't been able to read it all, but I've been through the highlights!
A truly fascinating story - also hail to Pomphat for sticking in there. Must be hard to take such a beating, it will be
very hard for him to get anywhere before 1944.

Will try to follow the game from now on - really need another life for wargaming only ...plus one for work, one for women and 2 for family!




_____________________________



"The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without"
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 358
17 October 1942: Rabaul taken - 7/2/2006 11:53:18 AM   
AmiralLaurent

 

Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline 		Thanks PzB, I 100% agree that Pomphat is a worthy opponent, and he won't drop until the Japanese flag will be rising over California...

As for the lack of time, that is why I play only two PBEM. At least when I don't have a turn to do, I am able to not play WITP.

17 October 1942

Central Pacific

600 miles WSW of San Francisco, the SS I-7 had been patrolling since weeks without any sighting but in the late morning she saw a convoy. While closing she was detected by the escort (2 PG and 13 SC) and chased by 3 SC, scoring 1 hit with a Mk 6 depth charge and 7 near misses. Layter she was again chased and depth charged by a Canadian PG and 2 SC and again hit once and near missed 6 times. The total damage at the end of the day was 40 SYS, 31 FLT, so she sailed for PH. She reported that the convoy had at least 7 AKs and was sailing SW, in the direction of Hawaii!

That was an amazing piece of news for the Japanese Command. A new attack on Hawaii was not thought possible after the earlier Allied defeat. The Allied knew that the KB was near Rabaul, but nevertheless they were beaten last time by LBA and PH has still 150 bombers and 54 experienced Zeroes. More fighters will be sent there.
Right now the only Japanese reaction was a set of orders to the submarines in the area. Six submarines were patrolling off California, mostly south of it to report convoys sailing to Southern Pacific. The damaged I-7 and two others with SYS damaged will sail to PH, 2 with Glens with sail to the convoy area and one will remain S of California. Three more will sail from PH, two of them with Glens, and will also try to shadow the convoy.

Hawaii had been extensively mined since the last battle. Both Lahaina and PH have more than 20 000 mines, Hilo more than 5 000 and all other bases more than 3 000. The dozen of ML operating there will lay another load of mines off Hilo and then retreat just in case.

Southern Pacific

A convoy sailing close by Tongatapu detected a minefield here and two MSW were sent from Pago-Pago to sweep it.

Bismarcks-Solomons-New Guinea

The KN, now east of New Ireland, launched two raids against the Australian defenders of Rabaul with a total of 149 Kates, 103 Vals and 59 A6M2. AA fire shot down 2 Vals and 1 Kate, while 2 A6M2 and 1 Val were lost in accidents. But the bombing was accurate, the Lark Force losing 78 men and 2 guns and the 101 RAAF BF 163 men, 1 gun and 1 vehicle. Allied AA guns also shot down a Tina dropping more paratroops and a Kavieng-based A6M3 was lost to engine failure while flying LRCAP over the area, but the Allied defenders finally collapsed under the new Japanese deliberate attack (12 to 1, fort reduced by engineers to 2) and surrendered. The Japanese lost 249 men and 8 guns and the first reports indicated 3747 Australian casualties and 16 guns (the NGVR Bn, Lark Force Bn and 101 RAAF BF) but might be wrong, as I scored 158 troops points this turn (normal daily Allied losses are 8 points, so that is 150 points for Rabaul = 450 squads = 5400 men?).
At the end of the day, Rabaul airfield was intact and 9 Betties flew in from Truk to fly naval search and recon of PM. 41 Allied mines remained of the base and will be swept by 4 MSWs. The port was damaged at 20% but Japanese engineers (370 squads available) should repair it quickly and will then work in increasing the airfield and building fortifications. All big warships that were still there, 2 CA and 3 DDs lest eastward to join the Solomon operation.

The convoy carrying the four naval units for this operation will arrive tomorrow north of Choiseul Island and will be joined by the KB, and later by a resplenishment TF and the Mutsu TF. It will then disperse and the bases of Shortlands, Munda, Russel Islands and Lunga will be invaded each by a Japanese unit. There will probably be no opposition, but the KB will sail across Solomons during this phase and then sail south toward Hebrides and New Caledonia.

Timor-Amboina-Australia

Despite the intercept of the day before, there was no Allied reaction. Koepang was again raided by 35 B-25C from Derby, that disabled 60 men and 1 gun and scored one hit on the airbase, one on supplies and 27 on the runways.

Burma

As usual nine Hurricane from Imphal bombed the nearby 81st Naval Guard Unit and hit 16 men.

Philippines

The 17th Div landed in Cebu during the night and day and lost 1659 casualties in the ill-prepared operation. The 81st PA Div holding the base was bombed by 23 A6M2 from Cagayan and 8 Ki-21s from Legaspi and lost 24 men. The landing will continue tomorrow, while Japanese troops will bombard Allied ones to judge their strength.

The A6M2 based in Cagayan were declared operationnal and ordered to fly to Hawaii, just in case something happens there. The KI-21 Sentai in Legaspi moved to Cagayan to provide better support at Cebu.

China

The day began with a sweep of the 12 Tonies of the 10th Ftr Chutai from Yenen to Lanchow. They met a CAP far more powerful than what was planned, 28 Hurricanes and 10 Spitfires, and lost 5 of their numbers (and 4 pilots) while shooting down 4 Hurricanes.
In Sining the Hurricanes of 136 Sqn RAF had returned to the base and 5 of them intercepted the Japanese bombers (21 Ki-21 and 16 Ki-49) from Yenen who bombed the 8th Chinese Air BF, but they shot down only one Ki-21 and the bombs hit 19 Chinese. The same squadron sent 7 Hurricane to attack Japanese paratroops around the airfield but they met 8 Zeroes of F2/Genzan flying LRCAP and two Hurricane were shot down while the other hit nothing. Two of these Zeroes ran out of fuel during the return to Yenen bu their pilots bailed out and returned to the unit.
Sadly the transport AC in Yenen didn't fly to Sining to carry supplies to the paratroop here, either because of the weather or the Allied fighters is not known. Despite the lack of supplies the para will attack tomorrow again in Sining. Two Sentais of Ki-21 and two of Ki-49 escorted by 20 Zeroes will support them from Yenen, while 19 other Zeroes will LRCAP them. Transport AC were ordered again to drop supplies to them.

Elsewhere in China, the activity was limited to artillery fire in Kungchang (37 Chinese hit), Wuchow (58 Chinese hit) and NE of Lanchow (the Chinese 69th Corps lost 4 men, both sides are of equal strength here for the moment).

Japan

The BB Musashi was commissioned at Tokyo. Among the audience was the Admiral Yamamoto and the whole Japanese government, and the news of the fall of Rabaul arriving during the ceremony was seen as a good omen for the ship. She sailed the same evening with her escort to Osaka, where she will be joined by the upgraded BB Ise and then sailed to Southern Pacific with 3 CL and 7 DD.

The last running A6M2 factory had been ordered to stop production. The pool is at 503 and the production of the A6M3a will start next month. In a little over 10 months, 801 A6M2 have been lost.

The map of the day: Rabaul and Solomons






Attachment (1)

(in reply to PzB74)
Post #: 359
RE: 17 October 1942: Rabaul taken - 7/3/2006 3:18:58 PM   
Apollo11


Posts: 24082
Joined: 6/7/2001
From: Zagreb, Croatia
Status: offline 		Hi all,

quote:

ORIGINAL: AmiralLaurent

17 October 1942

Central Pacific

600 miles WSW of San Francisco, the SS I-7 had been patrolling since weeks without any sighting but in the late morning she saw a convoy. While closing she was detected by the escort (2 PG and 13 SC) and chased by 3 SC, scoring 1 hit with a Mk 6 depth charge and 7 near misses. Layter she was again chased and depth charged by a Canadian PG and 2 SC and again hit once and near missed 6 times. The total damage at the end of the day was 40 SYS, 31 FLT, so she sailed for PH. She reported that the convoy had at least 7 AKs and was sailing SW, in the direction of Hawaii!

That was an amazing piece of news for the Japanese Command. A new attack on Hawaii was not thought possible after the earlier Allied defeat. The Allied knew that the KB was near Rabaul, but nevertheless they were beaten last time by LBA and PH has still 150 bombers and 54 experienced Zeroes. More fighters will be sent there.
Right now the only Japanese reaction was a set of orders to the submarines in the area. Six submarines were patrolling off California, mostly south of it to report convoys sailing to Southern Pacific. The damaged I-7 and two others with SYS damaged will sail to PH, 2 with Glens with sail to the convoy area and one will remain S of California. Three more will sail from PH, two of them with Glens, and will also try to shadow the convoy.

Hawaii had been extensively mined since the last battle. Both Lahaina and PH have more than 20 000 mines, Hilo more than 5 000 and all other bases more than 3 000. The dozen of ML operating there will lay another load of mines off Hilo and then retreat just in case.


I think this is just a convoy that would later go south... he can't be planning on attacking Hawaii again... it would be 100% suicide and even further ruin all Allied plans for possible victory in 1943/1944 when new CVs arrive...


Leo "Apollo11"

_____________________________



Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance!

A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF
P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE

(in reply to AmiralLaurent)
Post #: 360
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