SierraJuliet
Posts: 2319
Joined: 2/23/2009
From: Brisbane, Australia
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29 March 1942 Malaya Air: At Singapore 7 Martin 139 make an attack. A CAP of 17 Zero and 12 Oscar is ready for them. 4 Martin are destroyed and no damage is inflicted. Burma Air: At Imphal 47 Zero take on 6 Buffalo I and 9 Hurricane II. 1 Zero goes down but reports come in of all 6 Buffalo and 5 of the Hurricanes being destroyed. Near Mandalay 31 Betty and 11 Helen bomb 2nd Burma Rifles Brigade and cause 40 casualties. China Land: Japanese bombardment at Ichang causes 271 casualties and 1 gun lost. Air: Northeast of Hanoi 19 Sally bomb 50th Chinese Corps and cause 108 casualties and 2 guns lost. At Ichang 12 Ann bomb 70th Chinese Corps and cause 21 casualties and 1 gun lost. South Eastern Pacific Air: At Port Moresby 49 Zero escort 49 Betty. A CAP of 13 Kittyhawk I rise up to meet this force. 4 Zeros are destroyed whilst the Allied defenders return to the ground minus 6 Kittyhawks. The airbase supply takes 1 hit and the runway takes 9 hits. DEI Sea: At Lombok a Dutch bombardment task force lights up my anti submarine task force with nasty results for the patrol craft.
Night Time Surface Combat, near Lombok at 24,69 Japanese Ships PC Kyo Maru #2, Shell hits 5, and is sunk PC Kyo Maru #12 PC Shonan Maru #17, Shell hits 3, on fire PC Takunan Maru #5, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk PC Ch 13 PC Ch 14, Shell hits 8, and is sunk Allied Ships CL Java CL De Ruyter CL Tromp DD Banckert DD Van Nes DD Witte de With DD Evertsen DD Kortenaer DD Piet Hein, Shell hits 1 DD Van Ghent Alerted to the nearby action a Japanese surface action task force (of 4 destroyers) races in to lend their support to the patrol craft. A slightly better result but Kuroshio looks to be in serious trouble. Night Time Surface Combat, near Lombok at 24,69 Japanese Ships DD Kuroshio, Shell hits 10, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage DD Nowaki DD Hagikaze DD Natsugumo, Shell hits 2, on fire Allied Ships CL Java, Shell hits 1 CL De Ruyter, Torpedo hits 1 CL Tromp, Shell hits 2 DD Banckert, Shell hits 1, on fire DD Van Nes DD Witte de With DD Evertsen DD Kortenaer DD Piet Hein DD Van Ghent After brushing aside the slender opposition the Dutch pay some attention to the troops on the ground at Lombok. The bombardment causes 53 casualties and 4 guns lost to the invading Japanese force. De Ruyter is not in the bombarding group so hopefully that 1 torpedo did some serious damage. At the end of this action Kuroshio is a 99 98 30 and bravely attempting to steam back to Soerabaja and Natsugumo is at 14 00 06. PC Shonan Maru #7 is at 45 44 25. Air: At Batavia 14 Nell bomb A-III-Ld AA Battalion and cause 6 casualties and 2 guns lost. Land: Japanese bombardment at Batavia causes 174 Dutch casualties and 9 guns lost. The undefended base at Tomini is captured by Japanese forces. Subs After their mauling at Lombok the 3 remaining PC get a sniff of SS Pike but are unable to score any hits. Naval Losses for the Day PCs Kyo Maru # 2, Takunan Maru #5, Ch 14, ML Sokuten (at Wake Island after hitting a mine a couple of days previous) Comments Gutsy move there by Todd and one that appears to have paid off handsomely. He hinted a few emails ago that something was in the wind but he’d stuffed something up and this had put things back a few days. I’m guessing that the Lombok bombardment is what he was referring to and I should have taken more notice to his comment of hoping the Miss Nell and Betty would not be at home. As it turns out Nells are in the vicinity but in my complacency all eyes were focused on the action at Batavia. Needless to say things will be tweaked here in the hope of catching up with De Ruyter. I’m guessing Todd noticed that the bulk of the IJN had recently moved from Soerabaja back to Singapore (mini KB) or headed north on the trek across to Rabaul (most of the battle fleet). In a way I’m glad they still weren’t at Soerabaja as it would have meant the Dutch fleet getting in and out right under the nose of the IJN – much embarrassing that would have been. Sadly this loss of ships has seen Japanese shipping losses outnumber the Allied with 68 Japanese ships sunk to 65 Allied ships. Not all is doom and gloom though as this turn saw one of the best aerial action days for the Japanese in this game. At the end of the day air to air results stood at Japan 5 shot down and Allied 22 shot down. Ace number 8, ENS T. Sasai, on board Hosho,  becomes an ace after shooting down all 4 of the Martin bombers shot down over Singapore. Most of the ships in mini KB are in port but all fighters had been left on 100% CAP over what is left of the task force so a very decent CAP rose up to meet the bombers. Also on the air to air front; today saw the 100th Buffalo claimed in aerial combat. The tally now stands at 105. Other notable tallies for air to air combat are Brewster 339D 48, Hurricane II 18 and Martin 139 36. Zero figures stand at 46 lost in air to air combat. Overall Japan has lost a total of 94 planes in air to air whilst the Allies have lost 406 in air to air combat. To balance this out Japan has lost a total of 420 planes to operational loses whilst the Allies have lost are mere 89 to operational loses. I’m slowly getting the hang of addressing this problem and have just managed to move 2 daitai of Zeros from Chengting to Nanning without losing a single plane – thanks for the previous advice on this guys. The intention is to use these seasoned flyers to have a go at the AVG force based at Kweiyang. To finish the aerial topic the Allied capability is awesome. So far the Allies have flown 414 988 sorties in comparison to 342 660 Japanese sorties. I’m just keeping my nose in front in the loss department with 670 Japanese planes lost to all causes compared to 751 Allied planes. Question now is which base/s is the Dutch fleet operating out of and can I do something about them.
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Kido Butai, although powerful, was a raiding force, and this is exactly how the Japanese understood its usage. 'Shattered Sword'
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