Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline
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Thanks, sanch. Interesting.
15 Jan 43
Sub War
My subs in the Aleutians continue to take a beating. I have 8 (surviving) subs allocated here and began this turn down to 2 undamaged subs and a third that has some minor damage (the I-31, who sank the WV). My goal is to keep an eye on Allied shipping in the area. I keep the subs moving, but that turned out to be a bad thing today. The I-159 moved into a hex containing an Allied ASW TF composed of 3x AMs. She took two direct hits and was forced to surface. The AMs all took potshots at her, but never hit! I figured she was a goner and listened for the sinking sounds and the report that she sank, but never received it. She survived! I’ve never seen a sub that was forced to the surface survive the contact. Amazing. Her damage is 23-62(43)-1-0. She’s headed to Etorofu for emergency repairs. It’ll take 2 weeks to get there.
The SSX Ha-32 was abandon at Gasmata for some unknown reason. Hmm…
The Dutch O24 nosed into Gasmata, probably hunting a small supply convoy there, and ate a mine. She showed up as sunk, but she isn’t. I’m sure she’s limping back to port, which is almost as good.
5 Fleet
Well, the contact that basically wasn’t seems to be over, but I’m assuming Ted is out there somewhere. If he is planning something, he’ll be cautious because he knows my carriers are about. It was a quiet day here so I took advantage of it.
KB2 and the cruiser TF refueled. The cruisers are heading back to Truk. I don’t see a need for them. KB1 & KB3 are 1-2 days out from their rendezvous with KB2. My sub force remnants still see some shipping at and around Dutch Harbor. I want to send all of KB there for one massive attack (309 Zeros, 126 Vals, 141 Kates) against the local shipping and port, just for fun. Actually, I’m hoping the invasion fleet is there. If it is, I’m sure the troops are unloaded, but I’d love to sink some of the shipping he had allocated for an invasion. If it is there and the troops are still aboard, all the better! It’ll be one attack and skedaddle back to Truk. Ted has subs around there, probably to the west though. Once he sees Japanese carriers, every sub for miles around will move in. I’ll set the bombers to naval attack with a secondary port attack on Dutch Harbor.
I’m toying with the idea of risking a sub to move through Unmak Island to make sure there aren’t any mines there. If there aren’t, I may risk sending the 3 Kongos (Hiei collided with Wakaba back on 29 Dec and both are still repairing at Truk) and 4 CAs to bombard Unmak Island. This would coincide with the air attack.
At Adak, the damage went down a nice amount: Port 100%, Airfield Service 100%, Runway 39% (down from 57%) with 884 supply present. The troops are still repairing, but no new squads arrived. The CM TF dropped off 150 mines (now 185 present) and the ACM disbanded in port to tend the mines. The xAK with a slice of the 23 Tank Regiment arrived and began unloading. Exactly 1 Type 95 tank unloaded. I docked the ship in port today hoping the offload goes a little more quickly. I’m not exactly sure what 100% port damage actually means.
I still have the remainder of the tank regiment, along with a garrison unit and artillery battalion waiting to unload at Adak. They’re carrying with them ~12k supply, which will help tremendously.
Ted and I discussed weather quite a bit yesterday. He did make a comment about how the weather affected him adversely, more than he expected. I’m relatively confident that he won’t try anything up here before March. That’s nice because it’ll give me 45 days to repair damage, dump more troops and supply, and get the fort up to level 6 (currently at 5.68). I still have the Hiryu fighter daitai sitting at Etorofu. I may move them to Adak for CAP when the airfield repairs are complete. I expect the airfield to be fully repaired in a week and the port in another 5-6 days. That’s assuming no visits from Ted, of course.
4 Fleet
Nothing to report.
SE Fleet
No Allied fighter sweeps today. Only my bombing of Pt. Moresby, which damaged half a dozen 4E bombers.
I wonder if the O24 incident was merely to go after my shipping or to scout out a potential invasion site. I can see the merit of invading Gasmata. Readymade airfield (level 4) and a little port. I have to check tonight to see how many troops are stationed there. I may have to add to that. I have the 90 Infantry Regiment available, but it’s sitting at Davao. Months ago, it was part of an invasion plan for Merauke, which obviously didn’t pan out. It’s still at full strength with 80 experience. I will move it to Gasmata to bolster the garrison. I’ll also send in some SNLFs from Truk. I have quite a stack of them sitting there.
SRA
I have a daitai and chutai of Nells (40 aircraft) sitting at Ambon along with the 21 Air Flotilla HQ, so they have torpedo capability. That base is too far back from the front line to be able to do much useful (especially with torpedoes), but today they engaged a couple of xAKs (unsuccessfully) near Wessel Island (which I still control). The airbase at Saumlaki reached level 2. I have some AS there and moved the daitai there. It’s much closer to the action but can only use bombs from that location. I’m hoping to attack the convoy that traverses that area regularly from Saumlaki airbase. (I think it moves between Horn Island and Darwin, supplying Darwin.) I am tempted to move the 21 Air Flotilla HQ to Saumlaki so I have torpedo capability, but I hate having that HQ right on the front line. I may look around for another HQ with torpedo capability that I can move there. I’ll check that tonight. If I can get another HQ there, I’ll station all of the Nells there and also station a chutai of Rufes there. (They are the only fighters I have in the SRA other than some at Palembang.) Those guys fought pretty well early in the war, shooting down a number of planes (for no loss) at Wessel Island and gaining some nice experience.
Burma
I learned something valuable today. First, increasing my target height for my fighters did wonders. In battles over Magwe and Shwebo, I netted 7 Allied fighters shot down for no Japanese losses. However, Ted sent in a handful of bombers to bomb Shwebo’s troops at low level and my fighters didn’t respond. I guess I’ll have to have fighters at multiple levels. That’ll increase my losses to his fighters but I’ll be able to wear down his bombers. I’ll test it out to see what happens and try to figure out an optimal solution. The other alternative is to battle his fighters and ignore the bombers. I’ll keep my fighter strength up and wear his fighter strength down more quickly. Gotta think about that.
China
I took Kweiyang in a deliberate assault today. The 3:1 attack (fort level 1) netted 4966(504) Chinese casualties to 1363(6) Japanese. The infrastructure: Manpower 1(1), Resources 52(8), LI 35(5). I will not repair anything. Forty less LI for the Chinese!
Other Stuff
Reinforcement:
4 Independent SNLF Company: Rebuilt – Will garrison one of the resource producing islands south of the Philippines that still needs a garrison.
I fielded the Ki-43-IIb for the first time in Burma. We’ll see how they fare. I suspect it won’t be any better than the older models.
Aircraft R&D Update. First those that are actually accelerating:
Ki-43-IIIa – 4x30 – 7/44 (10% to next acceleration)
Ki-44-IIc – 3x30 – 10/43 – These factories will convert to another model when the Tojo upgrades are complete in mid-43. (74%)
Ki-100-II – 6x30 – 5/45 (4/45 tomorrow) (100%)
A6M5b – 6x30 – 8/43 (17%)
N1K1-J – 22,27,30,21,18,19 – 9/43 (51%)
B6N2 – 1x30 – 10/43(12%)
D4Y2 – 2x30 – 4/44 (9%)
And those still working their way to the magic 30:
Ki-84a – 41(size 55 factory),10,22,26,12,22 – 4/44
Ki-201 – 3,4,0,1,4,6 – 3/46
Ki-102b – 8,10,5 – 11/44
Ki-67-Ia – 10 – 9/44
Ki-46-III KAI – 11 – 10/44
A7M3-J – 5,3,5,5,4 – 1/46
E15K1 – 29,23 – 8/43
G4M2a – 19,5 – 6/44
B6N1 – 12,21 – 5/43 (factory upgrades to the N2 when it reaches 30)
P1Y1 – 20 – 11/43
C6N1-S – 2,0,3 – 11/45
D4Y1 – 29 – 2/43 (factory upgrades to the Y2 when it reaches 30)
B7A2 – 8,12,6,12 – 4/44
A few notes:
-Most of the R&D factories will not become operational. They’ll upgrade to something else, probably relatively close to completion so it repairs rather quickly.
-The Ha-35 engine pool hovers around 502-509 each day. Some days, the Oscar &/or Zero do not have enough engines available to get magic 2% per R&D factory for all the factories. Only some of them get the bonus. My current Ha-35 production is 450 and I will not increase if further just to get the 2% per factory per day. Current monthly needs for the Ha-35 are:
A6M5 production: 120
Ki-43-IIb production: 128
Ki-45 KAIb production: 30
A6M5b R&D: 180
Ki-43-IIIa R&D: 120
Or 258 production and 300 R&D per month. The production comes off the top leaving 192 left for R&D or about 2/3 (actually a bit more) of the R&D factories get the bonus each month. I can live with that. Late war, I expect to need the Ha-35 only for the Oscar IV (128 a month). I will not spend the additional 100k supply needed for an additional 100 Ha-35 engine factories that I won’t need later. I can use that supply for other purposes. I do shut off the Nick production most of the time because I have only 1 unit fielding this plane (at Rabaul). I keep only 10 in the pool and lose few of them.
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