SqzMyLemon
Posts: 4239
Joined: 10/30/2009 From: Alberta, Canada Status: offline
|
Recapping combat reports prior to the posting of the screenshots. they are noteworthy in terms of the developing air operations in both China and Burma. Aug. 24/42: Australia: Darwin hit by Ki-21-IIa Sally's (33) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (20) for 2 AB, 1 ABS, 26 Runway and 1 Port hits. Burma: Akyab swept by Oscar's, no Allied CAP was present. Akyab's airfield was then hit by Ki-21-IIa Sally's (28) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (22) and damage to the airbase was 5 AB, 1 ABS and 15 Runway hits. The 21st Australian Bde. and 18th British Division capture an undefended Katha. China: Changsha's airfield was bombed again today. The first morning raid consisted of Ki-21-IIa Sally's (17) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (25) and damage to the airbase was 2 AB, 1 ABS and 14 Runway hits. Miscellaneous: CL Katori taken out of commission to begin refit at Truk CL Kashii taken out of commission to begin refit at Truk Aug. 25/42: Australia: Darwin hit for only 1 AB and 6 Runway hits today, a poor result. Burma: I decided to test the RAF over Burma for a few days with sweep and bombing attacks to see how I fared and see if I could gain an advantage. Imphal was targeted first as it showed Allied fighters present. Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (24) of 1st Sentai swept Imphal at 18k and engaged Hurricane IIb Trop's (28) on CAP. Allied fighters from three squadrons were layered at 18k, 20k and 24k. Despite getting the dive/bounce my Oscar's performed horribly and nine were downed against only one Hurricane. Needless to say that sweep did not go well. It wasn't until I checked the unit post combat to learn why it had performed so poorly, moral had dropped to 46 despite the unit not being involved in any recent combat and droves of my fighters aborted. As mentioned earlier despite numerous dive attacks the poor armament of the Oscar's proved ineffective in downing the Allied fighters. Post sweep the 1st Sentai's morale had dropped to 26 and it was withdrawn to Bangkok for recuperation and training. The unit is mixed in terms of pilot experience and luckily it was mostly inexperienced pilots that paid the price for me sending in a unit that should not have been utilized with such a low morale. Cox's Bazar was hit by Ki-21-IIa Sally's (26) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (22) and the damage to the airbase was 1 AB, 1 ABS and 12 Runway hits. No Allied CAP was present. China: Changsha was again bombed by Ki-21-IIa Sally's (40) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (7) and damage to the airbase was 7 AB. 3 ABS and 18 Runway hits. A second raid of Ki-51 Sonia's (27) escorted by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (6) caused a further 2 AB and 24 Runway hits. Miscellaneous: DD Kuroshio beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe DD Hatsukaze beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe DD Isokaze beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe DD Hagikaze beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe DD Tanikaze beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe DD Nenohi beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe DD Wakaba beginning refit in shipyard at Kobe 6th Tpt.Chutai converting to Ki-57-II Topsy Aug. 26/42: Sub Ops: SS O20 in the South China Sea sinks the xAK Kinai Maru with one torpedo. No damage to the enemy submarine with a half-hearted DC attack. Australia: Daily air attack on Darwin resulted in 1 AB, 21 Runway and 1 Port hits. Burma: There was to be another sweep of Imphal today, but the fighters were grounded due to weather. Cox's Bazar was bombed again, but my bombers lost their escort and went in unescorted. Luckily there was no Allied CAP and the airbase received 1 AB and 9 Runway hits. China: Changsha hit again by multiple raids for 5 AB, 10 ABS and 56 Runway hits. I'm happy to see the base supply hits, but recon shows very little damage to the airfield. With 29 Chinese units at Changsha I'm sure there are plenty of engineers quickly repairing the damage. Rather moot considering the airfield is not being used and there is no sign of the Chinese airforce. Aug. 27/42: Australia: Darwin received another 1 AB and 15 Runway hits. Burma: Imphal was swept by two separate attacks with the first sweep underperforming while the second sweep fared much better. In both cases I dove on the Allied CAP, but the first raid performed very badly. Morale of the first raid was 99% and the unit experience was 65. The Oscar's are just too undergunned to be effective. The second sweep performed much better and had a morale of 99% and unit experience of 71. First sweep: Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (26) engaged Hurricane IIb Trop's (25). Once again the CAP was layered at 18k, 20k and 24k while the sweep was increased to 20k. One Hurricane reported shot down against 3 Oscar's. Second sweep: Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (22) engaged Hurricane IIb Trop's (12) and 3 Hurricanes were downed for no loss. The sweep was at 25k against the same CAP as previous. Smeulders in an e-mail mentioned that he felt the results proved that height advantage didn't matter after seeing these results. In this case I have to agree, but not for the same resaons as I'm sure he's thinking. Both my sweeps had the height advantage and numerous times Japanese fighters dove on the enemy. In more cases than not an Allied fighter evaded or suffered sleight damage from the Oscar's in the first pass. This could be a result of excellent pilots on the Allied side resulting in the evasions, however the lack of outright kills is squarely to blame on the poor armament of the Oscar's. Had these been Tojo's the Allies would have been creamed. The second sweep caught the Allied fighters having to climb to altitude and were picked off piecemeal. The intelligence report had total losses for the day of 17 Hurricane's lost A2A with another 5 as Ops losses, while 7 Oscar's were lost to A2A and 2 more to Ops. Quite a descepancy with the actual combat reports. Cox's Bazar was hit by Sally's (28) once again and once again the escorts failed to show. The Allies had moved in a unit of P-40E Warhawk's, but they were set to training according to my opponent. The airbase received 1 AB and 3 Runway hits and one Warhawk was destroyed on the ground. My Sally's were lucky, they get the day off tomorrow. China: Changsha's airbase was further damaged with 5 AB and 33 Runway hits. Aug. 28/42: Sup Ops: SS Halibut near Foochow sinks the xAK Hoeisan Maru with two torpedoes. That's two transports in as many days lost to Allied submarines. Burma: Cox's Bazar was swept by Ki-43-Ic Oscar's (37) and engaged P-40E Warhawk's (43) on CAP. A second sweep of Oscar's (22) engaged P-40E Warhawk's (18)The combat report showed 10 Oscar's downed against 4 P-40E's. The CAP was at 15k while the sweeps went in at 20k. The intelligence report however put the losses at 8 P-40E's in A2A and 9 Ops losses, against 14 Oscar's downed A2A with 3 Ops losses. These losses are not acceptable to me. The Oscar's get a tactical advantage daily, but they just can't shoot down the armoured enemy fighters while they get lit up regularly. The Oscar's in my opinion suck big time. Akyab's airfield is bombed for 5 AB, 2 ABS and 15 Runway hits. P-40E Warhawk's (2) on CAP from Cox's Bazar intercept and despite Ki-43-Ic's (20) on escort two Sally's are damaged and no P-40E's are downed. China: Changsha gets hit for 7 AB, 4 ABS and 21 Runway hits. A small land combat between the Japanese 12th Tank Rgt. and the 8th New Chinese Corps and 13th Chinese Corps at 91,39 sees the Chinese forced to retreat suffering 7(9) infantry, 5(2) non-combat and 9 guns lost totalling 490 casualties, there were no Japanese losses.
|