Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
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18 Jun 42 SE Fleet Pt. Moresby – 2x Kittyhawks and 4x P-40s for a loss of 4 Oscars. The 4E bombers hit Finschaven today, the last remaining undamaged frontline airfield. Not anymore. Finschaven is still serviceable but won’t be if it’s hit again. I suspect it will be hit again tomorrow. Frontline airfields are: Lae, Finschaven, Buna and Milne Bay. Behind them are Gasmata and Rabaul. I’ve been working on Hollandia’s airfield. It just reached level 2. I’m going to build it up to at least level 3 and base a 31 plane Helen sentai and a 27 plane Zero daitai there. Its goal is to trash Merauke, 8 hexes away. That’s within my range but outside of Ted’s fighter range. He probably could reach it with his B-17s though. *Sigh* Other Stuff IJN The A6M5 has advanced to Jun 43. It currently has 2x 30 factories working on R&D. It will receive 4 more fully functional R&D factories on ~10 Jul 42 from the A6M3a R&D, which will complete around that date. That should make the A6M5 operational on 1 Nov 42. Not bad! Then, all 6 of the R&D factories will switch to the A6M5b and then the A6M8. When the A6M3a becomes operational, I’ll have the following operational: A6M2: 100 A6M3a: 90 A6M2-N: 30 The A6M3a will fill out all of KB then MKB. That will be completed around the time that the A6M5 becomes operational. There will be only ~300 A6M3as produced. The land based Zeros will remain in A6M2s. I will probably shut off the A6M2 factories as KB/MKBs fighters are replaced. The KB/MKB A6M2s that are put into the pool should cover any needs, but I can turn on one or both of the A6M2 factories as needed. My goal is to keep the A6M2 pool as low as possible. Here are the fighter complements (as of Jul 42): KB Akagi: 27 Kaga: 27 Soryu: 23 Ryujo: 30 Shokaku: 27 Zuikaku: 27 Total: 161 MKB Junyo: 19 Hiyo: 19 Shoho: 21 Zuiho: 21 Hosho: 14 Taiyo: 9 Unyo: 0 Total: 103 Just about all of KB and MKB will be upgraded to the A6M3a. Eventually, the A6M5 will outfit KB and MKB as well. It will take a minimum of 3 months of A6M5 production to completely outfit KB and MKB. The remaining A6M3as will outfit all land based units. Eventually, the A6M2 will be completely replaced by the A6M3a and A6M5, with the A6M5 eventually pushing the others to training missions. I suspect that the A6M5b will be in production by that time and the shuffle will begin anew. The A6M2-N can upgrade to the A6M5. At some point I will upgrade this single size 30 factory so the A6M5 production will increase to 120. The A6M2 upgrades to the Sen Baku so it will eventually be shut off completely until the Sen Baku arrives in 1944. I’ll probably produce a few of them, mainly for Kamikazes and then upgrade those factories to the A6M5 and on to whatever model is current. That will give me a maximum production of 220 a month in 6 factories. I suspect I’ll need it by 1944 but we’ll see. Confusing? Actually, it’s pretty simple: A6M2 -> A6M3a -> A6M5 A6M2-N -> A6M5 Priority: 1. KB 2. MKB 3. Land Based frontline units 4. Training units As I get newer models, I push the older ones down the food chain. A7M3-J – 5 R&D (1, 0, 0, 0, 0), all will become operational. George – 6 R&D (11, 10, 9, 2, 0, 0), 3 will become operational and 3 will remain R&D. Norm – 2 R&D (1, 0) – one will become operational and the other will probably change to another R&D model. G4M2a – 2 R&D – will remain R&D. C6N1 – IJN night fighter. 3 R&D (2, 0, 0) – all will become operational. Grace – 4 R&D (4, 2, 1, 0) – all will become operational. D4Y1 – 2 R&D (13, 2) – 1 operational and 1 will remain R&D. IJA This is much simpler. The Tojo IIa will become operational on 1 Aug 42. They will supplement the frontline Oscar units. According to Pax, they aren’t much better than the Oscar Ic, but anything has to help. It’s a rare event to shoot down a B-17. His numbers are ~50 sorties per day and ever increasing. I’m shipping some 10 cm. AA guns to the SE Fleet area, but I don’t have high hopes for them. Like I said, it can’t hurt. Anyway, the Tojo and Oscar will both fly in frontline units for whatever mission suit them. I remember the Tojo being relatively good in A2A combat. We’ll see… The Oscar Ic has 128 production monthly and R&D of 3x30 (14, 11 &10 repaired currently) for the IIa. The R&D factories will remain R&C and move up the line to accelerate each model in succession. The Tojo IIa has 3x30 R&D factories (30, 30 & 29 repaired currently) and all will become operational. I just decided while typing this to add 3 more R&D factories that will remain R&D to accelerate the future models of the Tojo. The faster the better. In addition, I’m producing the Tony. I have 4 x30 R&D factories (14, 8, 5 & 2). One will become operational and the other 3 will remain R&D. There are 6x30 Frank R&D factories (15, 9, 8, 1, 0, 0). Three will become operational & 3 will remain R&D. Ki-201 – 3 R&D (0, 0, 0) and all will become operational. The Dinah III KAI will be my night fighter. One R&D factory (0) that will become operational. One Peggy T R&D (0) to become operational. The Helen is my bomber and will upgrade historically. I’m still producing the Sally IIa and will continue but will reduce production as the Helen takes over frontline service. The Sally will be relegated to the primary ASW weapon, to be augmented by 1E bombers that carry the 250kg bomb. I’m building out the Mary (85 engines available) for ASW. Intel from Ted: Ted told me that he gets the B-24 starting in Aug 42. He said he has 8 squadrons training for this moment. I’m pretty sure he gets only 15 a month so it’ll take 8-9 months with no losses to fill them out. Hopefully, my Tojos, Oscars and AA can whittle that down. I still have 50+ B-17s to contend with in addition to the B-24s, so it’s going to get more painful in PNG.
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