Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
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I did this at lunch yesterday. The R&D is definitely a work in progress. I haven't had any time to think about it since then......
14 Jan 42
Sub War
The I-156 saw and missed an AVD off Cold Bay in the Aleutians. Looks like Ted wants some recon up there to keep tabs on me. I need some Glen subs up there. I have 6 fleet subs allocated to that area but usually only 2 are patrolling at any one time. The others are in port or in between the two areas. This area will be the first to get Glen reinforcements.
5 Fleet
Working on airfield level 2.
4 Fleet
Nothing new to report.
SE Fleet
I had set up an ambush of sorts. I am aware that Ted has some A-24s at Pt. Moresby. They carry 1000 lbers so I want to get rid of them. I figure there were about 16 and had destroyed 3 yesterday leaving 13. I sent a small invasion TF to Buna composed of 2 xAKLs and 1 PB hauling a NG company. I will take Buna eventually, so I figured I’d send this TF in to draw out the A-24s. I know Ted has no fighters at PM so I figure I could slaughter them with Zeros on LRCAP over the TF. It didn’t quite work that way. The A-24s went for Lae, 7 of them. My CAP there shot down 6 so I figure there are about half a dozen left. The LRCAP was at 15k feet over the TF and in came 3x Do-24s, I think rather low. They blew one of the xAKLs to smithereens. The other one landed the remains of the company (about 60%) and they will take Buna tomorrow. So, it worked out, but not the way I had planned. I got a bunch of them at the cost of an xAKL and about half a dozen squads. No big deal really.
This morning Ted told me that the invasion TF sailed through about twice as many subs as the Hiryu incident. Never saw one. Go figure.
There was one other incident in this area. Two more Do-24s flew into Rabaul looking for shipping and found the TF unloading the 144 Regiment (back from taking Lae) and sank an xAKL. Again, my CAP (at 15k feet) just watched. I reset my CAP for tomorrow at 15k, 10k and 6k feet to see if that will make a difference.
Philippines
Nothing new to report.
China
Nothing new to report.
Java
The Yamada Det caught 3x B-339Ds over Kalidjati and shot two of them down. Another pilot achieved elite status and went off to TRACOM. He was replaced by another 80 experience pilot. Keeping the 18 plane daitai at 60% LRCAP and 40% rest with 24 pilots in the unit is working well keeping the fatigue down around ten or so. Eleven planes typically fly each day. Note that I keep the plane reserve full as well. IJN TRACOM is currently at 7 or 8 (don’t remember if I wrote that down before or after I put the new pilot into TRACOM).
Malaya
The 3 assault divisions are down to about 30 disruption and fatigue. All is good waiting for the last third of the IG division to arrive at Johore Bharu so the division can recombine and the rest of the assault force can begin movement.
Burma
Pt. Blair’s airfield will reach level 2 in a day or two. Then I can put some Nells and recon there to start having fun.
Other Stuff
I did my first cull of pilots. There wasn’t a lot. I pull them out of training when they reach 50+ experience and 70+ stat and check twice a month. It’s been basically a month and I figure it’ll take 2-3 months to get them to that level. I got a total of 2 IJN TB pilots (trained in NavT and NavB), 4 IJA bomber pilots and 1 IJA fighter pilot. A lot are close and should be available by the end of the month though.
Reinforcements: 2 Raiding Sentai (27x Ki-57-I) – These pilots are not trained transport pilots (or anything else for that matter). I’m going to pull the best transport pilots from the 4 chutai training transport pilots and put these clowns in training. They won’t be up to the 70 stat requirement, but that’s ok for transport pilots.
I also got an xAK, xAKL and the CHa-26.
If you’ve gotten this far, you know I’ve been wrestling with R&D, something new for me. Here are some brief comments on what I plan on doing. Note that this is not even close to being complete.
Helen Ia (Apr 42) – I have 2x 30 factories and will add a third. I will keep it on this plane until each factory is fully repaired then change to the Helen IIa (Sep 42) hoping to get this model a month early. This will become my primary IJA frontline bomber. The Sally will be relegated to ASW duties at that time.
Tojo IIa (Sep 42) – I have 1x 30 factory and will add a second. Once they become operational, I will convert an Oscar factory to this bringing them up to 90. The Oscar will then be at 96. If needed, I’ll convert an additional Oscar factory to the Tojo bringing the Tojo to 120 operational and the Oscar to 64 operational.
Tony – I’m probably not going to build any.
Nick FB – I don’t know what to do here but I need to decide real soon. Maybe 1x 30 of the KAIb (Dec 42)? The KAIa arrives in May 42.
A6M3 (Jun 42) – 1x 60 factory which will become operational. Yeah, I know I should have done 2x 30 but did this early on before I knew the ramifications. In addition, I will convert 3 factories to this and when they are repaired to 30 will change to the A6M3a (Dec 42). I want the A6M3a as soon as possible because it is carrier capable. These 3 will become operational.
A6M5 (Aug 43) – I’ll use 3x 30 to work on getting this model early if possible. I’ll convert these factories to either the A6M5c or the A6M8. Gotta check the stats on these models to see what would be more beneficial.
Lily – This model is history…..eventually. I’ll keep it around until the Helen comes on board. Then I’ll phase it out and replace it with Sallys. The Lily will be a training plane in Manchuoko. The factory is off right now and will remain so until I run out of planes in the pool (currently at ~48). That will ease the need for Ha-35 engines for a little bit. Also, with the focus on Tojos vs. the Oscar, the extra engines will be available for the Zero series.
Night Fighters – I’m not sure if they are worth building. I’ll probably build some J1N1-S Irving, mainly because they are the first to become operational. At any rate, I’ll decide later and make sure not to convert this factory to something else for the time being.
IJN TB – Right now I have a size 16 factory each for the B5N1 and B5N2. The N1 will build until the engines for it are gone. The N2 will build until there are ~50 in the pool and then stop. Not sure I’ll try to accelerate the Jill much. I’ll probably increase the Jill B6N1 and B6N2 factories to 30 and convert them to the Grace before they become operational. The operational Kate factories do not upgrade to anything so one or both will upgrade to the Jill eventually. My goal is to work on the Grace. The Grace factory will increase to 30 and will get the additional benefit of the two Jill factories. I’d love to get the Grace in early 44. The Grace factories will then become operational.
IJN DB – I’m skipping the D3A2 and will wait for the Judy. No acceleration here. I’ll probably upgrade the Val factory and convert the Judy R&D factories to something else.
IJN 2E Bombers – I’ll keep both the Nell and Betty and let them upgrade as they become available. No acceleration here.
I did a little calculating. Without the SRA, the Japanese Empire produces ~25k supply a day, or 9 million a year. About 7.6 million is produced in the Home Islands. Now that will decrease once the oil glut is burned through. With the SRA intact, you get almost 30k a day, or 11 million supply a year. If one were to increase all R&D factories to 30, the cost would be about 1.7 million supply. Has anyone considered doing that with the R&D factories? Then you could focus on the airframes you want to accelerate and keep converting them to the next ones you want. Crazy thought but I wonder if it is plausible.
More on this later….
Ted thinks I’m marching across the Owen-Stanley mountains toward Pt. Moresby. Let him focus on that. I’m not. I plan on sending a couple of divisions from the SRA to Pt. Moresby in a month or so. That’s the plan anyway.
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