Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: treespider

On the plus side the units in Kweilin and Hengchow are still receiving 1500 supply points per month.

If you consider them lost anyway - why not launch a counterattack out of Kweilin to the hex SW adjacent to Wuchow and cut his supply line?

With India lost and his ability to bring extra units into China ....China will be a foregone conclusion anyway...


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ORIGINAL: Andy Mac

Hmmmmm how strong is the RN Fleet at Aden now ?

Is it time to send another couple of solo AK's in to annoy him.....

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ORIGINAL: Gen.Hoepner
however i couldn't see why he risked so much....for not a real target...i didn't have any important ship anchored at Eniwetok...

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ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

I agree, the loss of Japanese pilots is always a good thing, but they were most likely the carrier capable units that lost most of the pilots.

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The other problem is that with almost 300 air to air victories, Japan’s remaining pilots just got a LOT better. I’d guess each pilot probably went up an average of 2-5 experience points.

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The real danger is in the short term. The allied air squadrons involved in the battle will have their morale in the tank for at least a week or two after such a devastating hit. Now is a critical time as he’s exposed to a naval invasion. Even if he gets to attack the incoming fleets without KB’s LRCAP, his pilots won’t hit a thing due to low morale, if they even fly at all.

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ORIGINAL: Bogo Mil

Since fighters don't fly escort missions outside normal rage (afaik),

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ORIGINAL: Bogo Mil

If you set an enemy base as target hex, fighters fly escort to that base. But against task forces somewhere on the ocean? I'm not sure... I thought you have to set a target hex for escort sorties at extended range.

If they fly extended range, you are nowhere save from Malir. Zeros from Ahmadabad and Bombay might join (but that's really at the edge of their capabilities, then).

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ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

I agree, the loss of Japanese pilots is always a good thing, but they were most likely the carrier capable units that lost most of the pilots. The other problem is that with almost 300 air to air victories, Japan’s remaining pilots just got a LOT better. I’d guess each pilot probably went up an average of 2-5 experience points.

The real danger is in the short term. The allied air squadrons involved in the battle will have their morale in the tank for at least a week or two after such a devastating hit. Now is a critical time as he’s exposed to a naval invasion. Even if he gets to attack the incoming fleets without KB’s LRCAP, his pilots won’t hit a thing due to low morale, if they even fly at all.

Hopefully this was just a raid in reaction to a bogus CV report or just a raid to kill his air power. If it’s an invasion, he’s very exposed due to no other supporting airfields nearby.

Jim

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ORIGINAL: ctangus

I don't know if I'd be that pessimistic myself. The allied losses certainly hurt, but many of the plane losses are easily replacable airframes (P-39s, B-25s, B-26s, F4F-4s, SBDs, etc.) Even the TBDs - their replacement rate sucks, but TBFs start coming on line in the next month IIRC.

The IJN lost 53 Zeros, over the KB. So maybe they lost 20-30 crack pilots. Not a lot compared to the 300+ on CAP, but still significant. And with a little luck maybe one small enemy flight deck out of operation. I'd count on Zui (certainly) and Hiryu (probably) still being operational.

I'd still rate it a tactical IJN victory. But if the General can stage 2-3 more raids like that, weakening the IJN each time, the KB will sooner or later have to be afraid of allied LBA.

So, IMO, a tactical IJ victory, but I also see reason for mild optimism by the allies.

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ORIGINAL: Feinder

  I'd trade a two sky-lights for 300 enemy aircraft. 

-F-

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ORIGINAL: fcam1387

The war has been raging for around 6 months and I see Japan is down nearly 3000 planes. Isn't that quite massive for the middle of 1942?

Even if his economy is powering along and he's producing many planes, Japan's pilot training program would not be able to produce adequate pilots to keep up with losses. He must be attriting himself... Are you noticing any qualitative decline in his air combat capabillty?

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ORIGINAL: jumper

I would be afraid of a bombardment run now.. BTW if you check the operational report, you should be able to recognize how many carrier capable units he is using on his CV.

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ORIGINAL: Bogo Mil

An ASW-campaign is a good idea. And until the threat is gone you should use at least one destroyer in every TF with troops or other valuable assets. These Australian MSWs are nice, but a destroyer crew is usually twice as experienced and a DD captain is a better TF leader.

Do you have a corps or two in Chungking now? If yes, then I would cross the river and assault that tank unit with them. That's the fastest way to open that road.

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ORIGINAL: Bogo Mil

I think one DD for every troop carrying TF west of Hawaii should be possible. You don't have dozens of such TFs, do you? Your ASW-campaign needs one DD in each TF, too. The quality of the DD is not that important - you can use those obsolete Dutch DDs and others which are not so useful to protect the warships. (Rule of thumb: Look at the endurance of the ship. Good destroyers usually have high endurance et vice versa. Everything lower than 4000 should be prefered for merchant escort and ASW duties.)