JocMeister
Posts: 8262
Joined: 7/29/2009 From: Sweden Status: offline
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Destination Okinawa - Day Four ______________________________________________________________________________ During the night the B29s drop another load of mines over Shanghai. The mining operation have cost me 8 B29s so far. No sounds of anything hitting mines. But strangely Erik doesn´t seem to have swept any mines during the night either. Did he neglect to bring minesweepers to Shanghai? The fleet assembles three hexes outside Naha. I choose to move to the east. This takes me away from the level 9 AFs at Formosa and it might fool Erik about the target since I moved past Naha. Fearing a myriad of AMc and other small vessels to pop up all over the map I sent in 4 ship Fletcher TFs to every available airfield within range. None where found so shame on me for expecting it. But to my defense this HAS happened before. This cost me the first naval casualty of the operation as one of the DDs TFs at Naha hang around. This cost me DD Pickings who were sunk in a Kamikaze attack. 3 other were heavily damaged and might not make it. Erik did NOT move the Fleet from Shanghai. I do not know if this is because the sub and mine threat or if he never intended to do so. Or he is still waiting... But a pretty big raid was launched from Naha striking the allied fleet. I´m happy to report only 3 bombers made it through the quite impressive CAP. All three bombers were shot down by flak. I was aiming for 1000 planes on CAP and got 1200. Quite happy with that. But also quite disturbed that 3 bombers did get through even with such a big CAP. quote:
Morning Air attack on TF, near Naha at 95,69 Weather in hex: Heavy cloud Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 36 minutes Japanese aircraft A6M5b Zero x 44 D4Y4 Judy x 67 N1K2-J George x 35 Ki-44-IIc Tojo x 45 Ki-84r Frank x 22 Ki-100-I Tony x 24 Allied aircraft Corsair II x 113 Corsair IV x 63 Hellcat I x 10 Seafire IIC x 18 Seafire L.III x 5 F4U-1A Corsair x 66 F4U-1D Corsair x 492 F6F-3 Hellcat x 175 F6F-5 Hellcat x 251 Japanese aircraft losses A6M5b Zero: 10 destroyed D4Y4 Judy: 33 destroyed D4Y4 Judy: 2 destroyed by flak N1K2-J George: 7 destroyed Ki-44-IIc Tojo: 12 destroyed Ki-84r Frank: 7 destroyed Ki-100-I Tony: 10 destroyed Allied aircraft losses Corsair II: 1 destroyed F4U-1A Corsair: 1 destroyed F4U-1D Corsair: 2 destroyed F6F-3 Hellcat: 2 destroyed F6F-5 Hellcat: 3 destroyed Two smaller raids also flew that was wiped out. The allied only flew one strike against a TF at Daito Shoto. quote:
Morning Air attack on TF, near Daito Shoto at 98,69 Weather in hex: Moderate rain Raid detected at 73 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 31 minutes Japanese aircraft A7M2 Sam x 23 Allied aircraft F6F-5 Hellcat x 82 SB2C-4 Helldiver x 55 Japanese aircraft losses A7M2 Sam: 2 destroyed Allied aircraft losses F6F-5 Hellcat: 4 destroyed Japanese Ships xAK Hankow Maru, Bomb hits 5, and is sunk E No.186, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk E No.192, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk E No.190, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk E No.154, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk Tomorrow is obviously the big day as we attempt to land. I still very uncertain if Erik will risk his fleet. If he does he will try the 8 hex silliness again I´m sure. And how will I play this? I´m very reluctant to split my CVE TFs from the CVs and give cover directly at Naha. So I think I´m going to stand off just outside Naha 1 hex to the west hopefully soaking any strikes coming for the Amphibs. This means I will have to rely on leaky CAP or provide LRCAP over Naha. Not sure which alternative is best? I will also do some naval bombardment on Naha itself to rough up the airfield. I´m not going to start on the actual turn just yet so any advice or thought as appreciated!
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< Message edited by JocMeister -- 11/28/2013 5:40:53 AM >
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