Spidery
Posts: 1821
Joined: 10/6/2012 From: Hampshire, UK Status: offline
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April 9th 1943 Air Losses: 29 Japanese, 46 Allied, 14 Pilots Japanese occupy: Allies occupy: Japanese land at: Allies land at: Sweeps of Ledo and Buin are bloody. At Buin the sweeping N1K1-J meet lots of Lightnings and Corsairs and come off worse. Between the two battles the losses are: 16 N1K1-J, 9 Ki-43-IIb, 3 Ki-44-IIc traded for 18 Hurricane IIc, 6 P-40E, 5 Kittyhawk 1, 4 Spitfire Vc, 4 Hurricane IIb, 3 P-38F, 3 F4U-1, 1 Martlet II that is 28 for 44. I think it went about 14 for 34 over Ledo and 14 for 10 against the Corsairs and Lightnings over Buin. Altogether a good trade but lost some good pilots. Fujita, R. died over Buin. Nagano U. got his 8th kill but failed to make it back and is MIA. At Katha, one IJN and an IJA pilot each make Ace status. Subs Ineffective ASW attacks on Finback and Tambor (by DD with Type 2 DC so I always hope for a bit of luck). Marshalls Quiet Solomons, etc. Air battle over Buin managed to down some of the Corsairs. 40 N1K1-J sweep against 35 Spitfire Vc, 14 P-38F, 50 P-38G, 32 F4U-1. Burma area Air battle over Ledo quite bloody. The first sweep is of only 3 N1K1-J and 10 Ki-43-IIb on LRCAP, for some reason the Oscars are reported as jettisoning ordance, is that LRCAP aircraft jettisoning drop tanks? Allies meet them with 159 Hurricane IIc, 75 P-40E and 53 other aircraft. Second sweep has 82 Ki-44-IIc and 10 Ki-43-IIb and there are still 275 aircraft against them. Third sweep is of 25 N1K1-J and 10 Ki-43-IIb, this does best. Using drop tanks to raid Ledo has put Katha back in the yellow so no more strikes against Ledo until get more supply there. Despite the urgent need for supply in Burma it looks like another few thousand supply has been transferred to China. A night strike by Emillies at Columbo port. Only 4 arrive and all miss. It is annoying that seem to need to strike at extended range to get the better bomb load. At Warazup a bombardment is reported as destroying 8 vehicles - hope they are tanks and not motorised support. China Quiet Australia & DEI Quiet Engineering Allies expand Torokina to 2, Buin to 3, Lahaina to 9, Charters Towers to 7. R&D Ki-84a to 9/43 Reinforcements SC CHa-12. SigInt A few turns ago I picked up sigint on the road South of Tennant Creek, now I have picked it up even further South, I suspect he is withdrawing the forces from Darwin area.
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