AmiralLaurent
Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003 From: Near Paris, France Status: offline
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26 May 1943 This day Japanese aircraft losses were higher than the Allied ones, and it was the fault of the Japanese commander... Northern Pacific A Japanese submarine finally reported an Allied convoy (2+ transports) south of Kodiak, just in range for a night interception by the BB Yamashiro and here escort. This convoy will be attacked during the night. New Guinea-New Britain- Solomon Islands During the night, the BB Kongo, 5 CA and 3 DD returned off Gili Gili to attack any Allied TF that would not have turned back. The APD and the other surface TF reported apparently had both fled but a barge TF of 55 LCT had continued to the new Allied base with fuel and supplies aboard. The Japanese sailors enjoyed the easy shooting, sinking 19 barges, heavily damaging two other and hitting slightly a last one. 14in shells, torpedoes and everything else were used on the barges, and no return fire was experienced. The Japanese ships then sailed east at full speed. Few crew gained night experience for this slaughter (Konga 69 to 70, Takao 72 to 73 and Nachi 76 to 78). The Japanese TF was not attacked during the day but an A6M2 was lost operationally while LRCAPing it. Between Kavieng and Truk, the SS USS Lapon was attacked three times during the day by an ASW group and finally hit on the third time and damaged by a hit and 12 near-misses scored with Type 95 DC by the PC Ch 21 and the DD Suzukaze. In the evening the port commander in SHortlands reported that the CL and the 5 DD that arrived during the day from the first attack on Gili Gili used all the fuel available there. So the Kongo TF was ordered to sail directly to Truk, and a convoy was formed in the latter base to carry 10k fuel to Shortlands. The Kongo TF will no more be covered by LRCAP. Zeroes from Lunga will rest while the Oscar II detached in Rabaul flew back to Truk in the evening. Timor-DEI-Australia Timor continued to be hard hit by Allied airmen. Koepang was attacked by 93 B-25C and 56 B-25J from Derby and reported 3 hits on the airbase, 1 on supplies and 110 on runways, and the loss of 36 men and 1 guns. Dili was bombed by 113 B-17 and 43 B-24D from Darwin escorted by 12 P-40N and reported 2 hits on the airbase, 2 on supplies and 55 on runways, and the loss of 48 men. And Lautem was the target of 12 Beaufighter Mk 21 and later 50 B-25C from Darwin and of 7 PB4Y from Wyndham and reported 1 hits on the airbase and 8 on runways, and the loss of 32 men. Allied losses were a B-25C shot down by AA and a B-17E, a B-25C and a B-25J in accidents. In the evening the 77 Sentai, based in Kendari with 29 Oscar II, received orders to fly LRCAP over Lautem tomorrow. SRA In the morning, the SS USS Shad was tracked by 6 DD 120 miles SE of Takao but escaped without being depth charged. A little more west, the SS USS Tresher saw in the evening a little convoy escorted by a MSW 120 miles north of Vigan but was unable to reach a firing position. She was not detected by the Japanese. Burma The previous evening, 188 fighters had flown from Rangoon to Mandalay. The plan was this concentration couldn’t escape the Allied commanders’ attention and heavy raids will target the city but the heavy CAP will be able to decimate them. Well, two things were not planned. The first was that despite good weather forecasts, Imphal, Kohima and Ledo were closed by clouds and so no attack was launched from there. The two active Allied bases, Chandpur and Dacca, both launched most of the available aircraft against Mandalay. And there is the second point. The orders given to the advancing Japanese fighter units were garbled and three full units (one of Ki-61, one of A6M3a and one of A6M3) had orders to rest… so depriving the CAP of 45% of its strength and giving the bombers plenty of targets on the ground. A bad move on my part… The first raid was flown by 63 B-25C, 24 Blenheim IV, 14 B-25J and 12 Beaufighter VIF from Chandpur escorted by 19 P-40E. The CAP at the time was flown by 31 Ki-61, 21 A6M3, 20 Ki-44 and 3 A6M3a. They shot down 16 P-40E, 12 Blenheim IV, 11 B-25C, 10 Beaufighter VIF and 8 B-25J for the loss of 2 Ki-44, 2 Ki-61 and 1 A6M3, but didn’t stop the bombers. AA shot down another B-25C but then the bombs began to fall on the base and destroyed 47 aircraft (16 Ki-61, 16 A6M3a, 8 A6M3, 5 Ki-44 and 2 J1N1-R Irving), disabled 62 men and 1 gun and scored 3 hits on the airbase, 2 on supplies and 80 on runways. Just after they left, a new raid arrived with 52 Liberator VI from Dacca escorted by 22 P-40N. 14 Ki-61, 10 A6M3, 9 Ki-44 and 1 A6M3a tried to intercept but suffered heavy losses. The P-40 shot down 4 Tojos, 3 Tonies, 3 A6M3 and 1 A6M3a for only two losses. The Japanese pilots were only able to shot down two Liberators and lost one more A6M3 to return fire. The RAF bombers then destroyed 8 more aircraft on the ground (3 A6M3a, 2 J1N1-R Irving, 1 A6M3, 1 Ki-44 and 1 Ki-61), disabled 49 men and scored 4 hits on the airbase, 4 on supplies and 40 on runways. During these battles, a Tony and a B-25C were also lost in accidents. A smaller raid was also launched from Chandpur against Akyab airfield with 14 Beaufighter VIC and 3 P-40E. They scored 2 hits on the airbase, 1 on supplies and 4 on runways, and wounded 9 men. The evening report showed that Mandalay airfield couldn’t be held as was the original plan. The losses of the various units were as follows: 65 Sentai (didn’t fly): 15 Ki-61, 7 pilots 78 Sentai (did fly): 9 Ki-61, 3 pilots 85 Sentai (did fly): 12 Ki-44, 6 pilots F1/281st Daitai (did fly): 5 A6M3, 3 pilots F1/6th Daitai (didn’t fly): 9 A6M3, no pilot F3/Yokosuka Daitai (didn’t fly): 14 A6M3a, 1 pilot F4/Chitose Chutai (did fly): 6 A6M3a, 1 pilot R3/Yamada Chutai (did fly): 4 J1N1-R Irving, no pilot Except the two units with the less damage (78 Sentai and F1/281st), all fighters were evacuated in the evening by air and train to Bangkok and will be recompleted there. The two other units flew back to Rangoon at the same time. The evening report gave the airfield status as: Taung Gyi 75/0 (system/runway), Mandalay 53/72, Lashio 59/49, Myitkyina 63/29, other bases undamaged. The furious commander of the Burma air force couldn’t wait to avenge his losses and ordered that Imphal (where 459 Allied aircraft (123/117/219) were reported by recons, with a CAP of 10-20 fighters) was attacked the next day by Rangoon airmen. 102 Betties, 57 Ki-21 and 26 Nell will fly the raid under escort by 68 A6M3, 47 A6M3a and 17 Oscar II. China 140 Japanese aircraft flew an operational training mission from Wuhan against Chinese troops NW of Changsha and hit 117 men but lost 3 aircraft (a Nick, a Kate and an Oscar II) in crashes. Japan After a one-week long cruise at normal speed between Nagasaki and Wakkanai and back, none of the 20 warships used in the experiment didn’t gain any experience either at day or night. Another attempt will be done at max speed, but my guess is that training of warships didn’t work like that at all. In Osaka port, a new AK was converted to AR.
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