Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
|
10 Mar 12 Sub War The I-28 caught a convoy headed toward Rangiroa (presumably) (about 8 hexes NNE) and put down a huge tanker, the Larry Doheny, a T2-SE-A class tanker of 12,600 tons. Very nice! She was loaded with fuel and burned like a torch. I definitely need more subs in this area. 5 Fleet More of my subs are headed this way. I’ll have 2x fleet subs and 2x Glen subs with 2 more fleet subs in reserve to replace them and 2 more fleet subs repairing. KB will refuel tomorrow and stay on station to the WSW. There is still no sight of any Allied ships. KB has not been sighted either. Not sure if Ted will return, but I have fuel to burn on the off chance something shows up. 4 Fleet I get a lot of Naval Guard units in a couple of days for 4 Fleet. Gotta figure out where to send them. I’m finally getting some garrisons for these bases. SE Fleet The Tulagi invasion force landed without incident today. It is composed of a Naval Guard and a naval construction battalion. It’ll take the base tomorrow then build up a level 2 airfield, then level 3 port, then forts. There was no opposition in the air today. 36 Zeros swept Pt. Moresby but no one came up to play. Lilys bombed Pt. Moresby causing minor runway damage and 4x Betties went after a very lucky AM that has been attacked numerous times by air and subs for no damage. Philippines The 16 Division has reached Clark Field and is headed to Bataan. When it arrives, I’ll attack to test the waters. It will attack along with the 48 Division and 65 Brigade. Hopefully, the Allied in Bataan will capitulate this month to free up 14 Army for other missions as yet undecided. I’m debating whether or not to do a shock attack. That could backfire but it could hasten the demise of the Allies here. China The single Chinese Corps surrounded 2 hexes east of Sinyang finally succumbed. 5440(615) Chinese surrendered. The victorious Japanese army will now move 1 hex over where there are 6 more surrounded Chinese units. Burma No Allied bombers visited Magwe today, so the oil facilities remain at 133/300. There was one sweep of 25x Hurricane IIb Trops vs. 13x Zeros, 22 Oscars and 7 Tojos. Here were the results: 2x Zeros De + 2 op losses – 2 WIA 1x Oscar De + 1 op loss – 1 WIA 1x Tojo De + 2 op losses – 1 WIA (Only 5 Tojos remain of the original 9 prototypes that started the war.) 8x Hurricane IIb Trop De + 2 op losses Ted moved practically all of his fighters out of Akyab. There are only a handful there. Now, he has fighters at Chittagong and fighters and bombers at Imphal. I’m considering using my naval bombardment TFs against Chittagong. Tomorrow, the CA and BB TFs will be within reach of both Akyab and Chittagong. I’ll make my final decision as to what to do then. Right now I’m leaning toward Chittagong because of all the bombers there (>70!). Sumatra Fuel is being sucked out of Palembang. A few days of this and I should be able to turn the refineries on there. Until then, I’ll just keep sucking fuel out. Java Forces are still moving toward Kalidjati. Not enough to attack yet, but we’re getting there. SRA Nothing new to report. Other Stuff I just got an email from Ted: “Well I think its time for a rest and refit for my guys up in India. Taking too many losses up there to justify the effort. Had to be done though...when I saw Magwe flip to you I knew I could get a few missions in to knock down the oil before you got decent fighters up there. Looks like it worked somewhat. And my Hurricanes are doing fairly well too, whats up with that ? In previous versions they were next to useless aircraft. Anyway, dont get too comfortable, my boys will be back :)” Interesting email. He’s got to be hurting in the fighter department. Probably some of his bombers as well. I’m pretty sure he’s out of Blenheim Is, not that that means much. His Blenheim IV pool should be low as well. That’s his staple bomber for a while and he doesn’t begin to get replacements for this model until May 42 and then only 12 per month. I can’t get to the game right now but I want to list the Allied air reinforcements to date to see what rough numbers of significant planes he has available (I have the replacement schedule). I’m thinking of hitting Chittagong tomorrow with the CA TF and then hitting Chittagong the next day with the BB TF and hitting Akyab with the CA TF the next day as well. My R&D factories are coming along nicely. I have 3x30 Rufe factories. Two of them have repaired completely and have upgraded to the A6M5. The third is at 28(2) and will remain a Rufe factory. There are 3x30 Helen Ia factories. Two are completely repaired and upgraded to the Helen IIa, the model I want. The third is also at 28(2) and will upgrade when it is completely repaired. The R&D for the Helen IIa is at 25%, which is wonderful. I expect it to be available in Jun 42, fully 3 months early.
_____________________________
Created by the amazing Dixie
|