AmiralLaurent
Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003
From: Near Paris, France
Status: offline
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Hi, Leo
Game date is currently 23 January 1944, so AAR is way behind, but is advancing faster now.
28 November 1943: the Allied fleet returned to the Kuriles
Northern Pacific
During the night the American submarine USS Sand Lance sank another barge off OJ with gunfire.
But the piece of news of the day was the report of an Emily that saw a big Allied fleet 240 miles west of Attu, and sailing westwards. It was able to identify the CV Franklin, a new addition to the ever-growing Allied CV force, but was then shot down by the Allied CAP.0.
In the afternoon, 60 B-24D and 59 B-24J from Attu escorted by 24 P-38J raided PJ, destroyed three Ki-49 on the ground, did 177 casualties, disabled 3 guns and scored 12 hits on the airbase, 8 on supplies and 111 on the runways. A B-24D, a B-24J and a P-38J were lost operationally.
On the ground at PJ, both sides exchanged artillery fire. Allied losses were 11 men, Japanese ones 99 men and 3 guns. Allied troops on the island numbered 258 408 men (+308), 2813 guns (+8) and 595 vehicles (-) for 5010 AV (+4) against 124 953 men (-251), 1091 guns (+6) and 9 tankettes (-) for 2386 AV (-5).
The evening report of PJ showed damage of 54/58/0 (airbase/runway/port) and 620 (-1) engineers repairing it and building fortifications (level 5, 62% (+0%)). The base had 35 424 supplies (-1458), and 23 aircraft (18 available). 231 mines were remaining off the base.
At OJ engineers worked on the port expansion (size 2, 96% (+5%)). The base had 25 923 supplies (-430). 74 mines were remaining off the base.
Nine Allied TFs were reported 360 miles east of PJ: 3 CV TF, 2 surface TF, a TK TF, 2 convoys and a “CA/PT” TF. It seemed that the Allied were returning to PJ and Japanese forces reacted immediately to this new threat… except that the KB was no more in the area…
Five submarines patrolling in the area were ordered to gather well south of the path of the Allied armada, ready to sail north to attack damaged ships sailing back to the Aleutians. All surface ships in the area were ordered to sail out of the area and the ports of Etoforo Jima, Shikka and Toyahara were emptied as all ships left in big convoys towards Japan.
There was little that Japanese forces could do against the US Navy, and little will be attempted. Mines and land-based bombers will be the main weapons used against Allied ships, with submarines to finish the damaged ships on the way back.
There were not many bombers available: three Ki-49 Sentai gathered in Shikka with 59 bombers and experienced crews, and 110 G4M2 Betty gathered in Toyohara. The area was lacking fighters, but by flying reinforcements from as far as Saipan, 87 Oscar II and 13 A6M3a were made available to escort bombers from Sakhalin bases to OJ or PJ, while 71 A6M5 (one more crashed on the way) and 23 Tojo will defend Japanese rear bases, but had not enough range to escort the bombers.
The chosen tactic was to ignore Allied carriers and stop naval search the day of the attack, so only ships off PJ or OJ will be detected and so attacked. Both OJ and PJ should be able to resist Allied attacks, as it was deemed improbable that the Allied will have enough reinforcements to take any of these two bases. On the other hand, it was thought possible that the Allied will finally evacuate their beachhead on PJ.
New Guinea-New Britain-Solomon Islands
Allied airmen flew only one raid and 48 sorties today, but without loss: Wewak was attacked by 33 B-25J from Lae escorted by 15 P-38J, and reported 2 casualties, one hit on supplies and 15 on the runways.
Rabaul reported damage of 72/13/28 (airbase/runway/port) and still no supplies (+0) for 3114 (-552) required, Wewak 100/1/0 and had 8 (-1) supplies for 2255 (-3) required, Kavieng was fully repaired and had 42 supplies (-0) for 424 (-96) required and Truk had damage 93/74/0.
A Chutai of Emily flew from Palau to Biak and will fly naval search from here. The position of this seaplane base will allow detecting Allied naval moves both off New Guinea and Australia.
Four AP and two escorts arrived off Lunga. Three AP loaded in some hours the last part of an Air HQ and a fragment of a Const Bn and sailed for Kwajalein. The last AP sailed alone northwards and will try to reach Green Island and pick up troops there.
Timor-DEI-Australia
Allied airmen flew 172 sorties today with one operational loss (a P-38J):
_ Amboina was attacked by 33 B-17E, 27 B-24J, 20 B-24D and 9 B-25C from Kai Island escorted by 22 P-38J and reported 11 casualties, 4 hits on the airbase, 5 on supplies and 78 on the runways.
_ Koepang was attacked by 16 B-25C from Derby and reported 17 casualties, one hit on the airbase and 11 on the runways.
_ Sorong was attacked by 13 Beaufighter MK 21 from Kai Island escorted by 32 P-38J that scored 3 hits on the runway.
The evening area report listed the airfield status as: Maumere was OK (fort 6, 90% (+5%)), Koepang was OK and had fort 7, 28% (+2%), Dili was OK, Kendari reported damage 47/0/0 (system/runway/port), Amboina 64/98/0, other bases were undamaged.
Patrol and recon aircraft reported an AP off Lautem and three TF (a convoy, a surface TF and an APD TF) off Darwin.
Another blockade runner arrived off Kendari and started to load resources. The first that left several days ago arrived safely today in Tarakan.
SRA
During the day the submarine USS Greenling reported a success against a “Japanese destroyer” 240 miles ENE of Legaspi, Luzon, and then went missing, never to be heard again. What happened was that she met one of the ASW groups escorting a Japanese Gold Convoy towards Japan and managed to sink the APD-33 with one torpedo. She then escaped undetected while another APD dropped depth charges around. But the Greenling’s skipper also saw the big convoy and tried to attack it at dusk. This time it was seen, attacked and sunk by the PC Ch 15 that scored a direct hit on her with a depth charge.
After these attacks, both Japanese convoys cruising east of Luzon (the Gold convoy sailing to Japan and an empty big convoy sailing to the SRA via Legaspi) were rerouted to avoid other reported submarines, while two ASW groups were sent to chase one of them.
Burma
Before dawn, 109 G4M2 Betty took off from Rangoon airfields and flew over the Bengal Gulf where they were joined later by 66 A6M3a. They reached in the morning their target, Diamond Harbor. Over the port 16 old Mohawk IV were flying CAP and engaged the Japanese armada, shooting down one Zero before being bounced and scattered by others. Two British pilots managed to escape by diving into clouds, and returned to base. They were the only ones, the 14 other were shot down. The bombers never saw any Allied fighter and bombed the port undisturbed by the weak AA fire. They destroyed two PT boats, heavily damaged an AK (hit by 3 bombs) and set another on fire. So far everything had run well, but on the return leg 3 more A6M3a and 3 G4M2 were lost operationally.
Allied airmen flew 550 offensive sorties today and lost 3 aircraft: one to AA fire (a P-40N over Katha) and two operationally (a Liberator VI and a P-47C):
_ 21 B-24D from Imphal bombed Lashio, and scored 9 hits on the airbase and 30 on the runways
_ 40 B-17E, 39 Blenheim IV and 26 B-25J from Chandpur escorted by 32 fighters bombed Akyab, destroying a J1N1-R Irving on the ground and scoring 6 hits on the airbase, 4 on supplies and 32 on the runways
_ 140 fighter-bombers, 103 bombers and 35 escorts from Jorhat and Dacca attacked three of the Japanese units at Katha and hit 331 men and 8 guns.
_ 50 fighter-bomber and 16 escort from Imphal and Kohima attacked the SNLF in the jungle SE of Imphal and hit 47 men.
_ 14 Beaufighter VIC from Chandpur attacked the 55th Div holding Akyab and hit 13 men and one gun.
_ 34 fighters flew LRCAP over Katha and near Myitkyina.
On the ground, Allied guns continued to pound Japanese positions in Katha and hit 629 men and one gun. 1182 Japanese AV (-1) faced 4032 Allied (+226).
Mandalay reported damage 100/62 (airbase/runway), Pagan 100/79, Akyab 57/66, Lashio 31/33 and Taung Gyi 72/92. Given the pounding done by Allied bombers, Akyab airfield was left by both Chutai based here while only one of the 3 recon Chutai based in Lashio remained there.
A 41st Allied unit arrived in Katha, another was still on the railway between the new battlefield and Myitkyina, where a squadron of P-40N was reported by Japanese airmen.
Rangoon airmen rejoiced about the success of their raid but will now rest and remain on the defensive for some days. The base had now 346 fighters and night-fighters flying CAP and that was thought to be enough to defeat any Allied raid launched from India. So the Betty remained there, and switched to rest and naval search.
China
Japanese airmen bombed the besieged city of Kunming for the fourth day in a row, but with reduced strength. 19 Ki-49 from Kweiyang escorted by 21 A6M3a and 7 Oscar II scored one hit on the airbase, 3 on supplies and 11 on the runways and did 11 casualties, without loss.
On the ground, the Japanese Southern China Army bombarded the Chinese positions and hit 232 men. The Japanese AV here was now 3180 (+40) and the Chinese one 2284 (+18).
34 training and 30 escort sorties were flown from Wuhan against Chinese troops NW of Changsha and hit 27 men for no loss.
Tomorrow all bombers based in Kweiyang will bomb the Chinese units in Kunming that will be again attacked by Japanese troops.
25 Val crews having finished their operational training left Changsha and flew south to Clark Field, their final destination being Palau to join the KB.
Japan
Three AK left Sendai to bring 21k supplies to Tinian, another AK convoy loaded 49k supplies in Kitakyushu and will sail to Saipan once loaded.
A Gold Convoy left Osaka with 12 TK, 15 big AK and 5 escorts towards the SRA. This was the convoy that arrived there some days ago and that just finished unloading today.
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< Message edited by AmiralLaurent -- 4/11/2009 12:12:50 PM >
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10 November 1943: Allied airmen bombed Truk for the fir... - 
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