GreyJoy
Posts: 6750
Joined: 3/18/2011 Status: offline
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Aug 18-19, 43 Days are running fast lately, with not much happening. The Japs have abbandoned the idea of defending Rabaul and New Britain, so the Allies are rushing in everywhere they could. on the 17th a Motorized Bde landed at Finishtafen, which was empty. His fighters are already covering the skies over there and his troops are now marching to Lae in a piercing movement with the Australian Division arriving from Terapo. We are doing our best to save what we can. Most of the Aviation support has been lifted out and we're now trying to save a couple of Bdes left behind. In the last two days we managed to fought back a but, ambushing the american bombers in two different locations. At first, 30 Georges and 15 Zeros ambushed the usual daily bombing run at Tarawa (they take off from Tabiutea), killing some 27 enemy planes (F4F3s and B-25Cs mostly), losing only a couple of Zeros. Then, on the 19th, a group of 90 Japanese fighters (KI-45s, KI-44s and N1K1s) ambushed the 4Es over Aitape. We downed 15 Liberators and 14 P-38s, losing only 2 Nicks. Nothing to write home about, but these little battles keep my morale up and i hope that make Brad feel a bit less confident. My KB (well, basically only 6 CVs plus 3 CVLs) are stationing in the middle of the ocean west of Rabaul. We are ready to move to the DEI but i'm not fully convinced yet. Haven't spotted the american CVs at Darwin...and i really don't know where are they... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Aitape , at 95,118 Weather in hex: Light rain Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 6 minutes Japanese aircraft N1K1-J George x 22 Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 59 Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 24 Allied aircraft B-17E Fortress x 9 B-24D Liberator x 9 B-24D1 Liberator x 48 P-38E Lightning x 12 P-38G Lightning x 25 Japanese aircraft losses Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 1 destroyed Ki-57-II Topsy: 3 destroyed on ground Allied aircraft losses B-17E Fortress: 1 damaged B-24D1 Liberator: 3 destroyed, 10 damaged P-38E Lightning: 1 destroyed P-38G Lightning: 2 destroyed Airbase hits 5 Airbase supply hits 4 Runway hits 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Aitape , at 95,118 Weather in hex: Light rain Raid spotted at 15 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 5 minutes Japanese aircraft N1K1-J George x 12 Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 36 Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 7 Allied aircraft B-24D1 Liberator x 6 Japanese aircraft losses N1K1-J George: 1 destroyed Allied aircraft losses B-24D1 Liberator: 2 destroyed, 3 damaged
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