Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
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28 Mar 43 Sub War The I-28 caught and sank the xAK Corinda SW of Victoria. There was another incident, but it is part of some other incidents and I’ll explain it below in sequence. 5 Fleet It’s amazing how quickly thing can go to hell. I wish I had sent MKB a few days sooner, but that didn’t happen, so this happened… The US bombardment DS hit Adak today. It was larger than previously thought: 10 BB, CA, 4 CLAA & 9 DD. Before it hit, it encountered 2x Japanese MTBs. They evaded (the slouches). I guess I would have needed to change my shorts if I was in one of those two boats and saw that fleet coming at me. Anyway, they encountered each other again and one of them was hit by a 16” shell. There weren’t even matchsticks left! The other one hightailed it out of there. Next the I-20 found the bombardment DS and shot at a DD. She got away without damage to either side. Then the DS did its thing and plastered the airfield and port causing 14 airfield, 6 airfield supply, 30 runway, 3 port, 1 port fuel and 1 port supply damage, along with fatal damage to an ACM monitoring the minefield. My DP guns fired back but did no damage. Five of the ground units ended up taking 2-10% damage (the other 6 took no damage at all). The Base Force took only 2% damage, losing 1 gun. Overall, not bad at all. I suspect the level 6 forts helped a bit. Oh yeah, about a dozen Oscars were turned into cinders and 1 pilot was KIA and 3 were WIA. I flew the remaining non-damaged planes to Attu. Then, the I-20 took another shot at a DD and was pummeled, taking 2 direct hits causing 31-47(20)-7(3)-0 damage. Not too bad, considering. What was the I-20 doing in Adak’s hex? Well, the midget sub that sank an AM couldn’t reload, so the I-20 was bringing a replacement midget sub to Adak and was going to take the other midget sub back to Kwajalein to rearm. She just got there today. So, the I-20 dropped off the new midget sub, picked up the empty midget sub and is headed to Japan for repairs. All is well (sort of). Ted is definitely headed for Adak. He also had a minesweeping TF in Adak attempting to sweep some mines. That didn’t happen. He said in an email that he’s afraid of my mines. Good! I see a large TF of LCTs at Unmak Island. Invasion fleet? I hope he holds off a few days for MKB2 to arrive. They have only 24 Kates and 42 torpedoes though. Wish I had sent Junyo and Hiyo with them, but I want to keep them for use in the south with KB. I do have a dozen Judies at Amchitka, but that airfield is only level 1.78. Unless Adak’s airfield is repaired, the Judies are useless. I do have 110 engineers and 4 engineer vehicles at Adak, so hopefully the repairs will be quick. What a mess! Oh yeah, Adak’s damage is currently at 23-75-97. I’m really glad that the airfield damage repairs first. We’ll see how fast those engineers can do the job. One final worry: The US bombardment DS is still sitting at Adak. 4 Fleet Nothing to report. SE Fleet Twelve Betties went after Woodlark and, you guessed it, missed. Allied bomber target for today: Rossel Island! Yay! In several raids, a total of 60x 4E and 27x 2E sorties hit Rossel Island, further battering the base. Supply is gone, so I’m using my 6x Mavis transports to haul a bit of supply there. No matter. They are expendable, but I won’t tell the commander that. I hope he bombs it another week (or more) before invading. I may try airdropping some mines. Can you do that to a friendly port? We’ll see. If I can’t, I’ll drop them on Woodlark. By the way, I sent a midget sub to Woodlark. We’ll see if anything happens… Ted sent 32 B-24D sorties to visit Tulagi. I have 2x Chutai of Zeros (18) who managed to shoot down 2 of the beasts. Only minor damage was done to the airfield. Current damage: Gasmata – 0-22-0 – Back in business! All damage should be repaired tomorrow, assuming no more bombing here. Talasea – 0-39-33 Rossel Island – 45-57-94 – I’m surprised it isn't all 99s. SRA Nothing to report. Burma 117 Japanese 2E sorties hit the Chindits at Ramree Island again causing more disruption. They have to have headaches now. They’re still moving east. Yay! China Japanese bombers hit Chungking’s airfield today causing minor damage and damaging a handful of planes. Other Stuff The E15K1 Norm R&D advanced to 7/43. The Ki-44-IIc R&D advanced to 5/43. It is now complete. I could advance it to 4/43, but that would happen in April and I’m concerned that the R&D factories would become operational. I’ve had that happen in the past so I’ll wait a month. Anyway, the 3x30 factories were converted to George and increased back to size 30. The George R&D is now up to a stunning 9 factories (5x30, 1x 29, 3x0). The George N1K1-J is currently at 7/43, but will actually become operational in 5/43. I expect all the R&D factories to be completely repaired by then. Then the remaining models will zoom through R&D (once I get the Ha-45 pool to 500) and the last model will be operational this November/December. The service rating isn’t the best, but I hope they burn through the Allied 4E bombers better than I’m doing now. My IJN fighter pool is currently at 238. Somewhere between a third and half have 70+ experience. I am pulling 70+ experience out of the line units (doing this with the IJAAF too) and replacing them with 50+ experience pilots to train them up more (trial by fire). I try to keep ~a third of the pilots in the front-line units with 70+ experience, along with a couple of elite pilots too. In the coming months, I will get more R&D factories available to be converted to other models: The 2x30 E15K1 Norm R&D factories will become available in late April. Three of the 6x30 Ki-100-II R&D factories will become available in mid-July. Three B6N2a R&D factories will become available at the end of July. I haven’t decided what to do with these 5 factories yet. I’m realizing that only 1 R&D factory really doesn’t do much to advance a model. I have 3 models that have only 1 R&D factory: P1Y1 Francis (11/43, factory at 30) Ki-67-Ia Peggy (4/44, factory at 12) Ki-46-III KAI Dinah NF (10/44, factory at 16) I’m leaning toward giving 2, 1 and 1 factories to the 3 models above in order. Then I’ll probably give the remaining 3 factories to the Frank. Here is what the Frank currently looks like: Ki-84a Frank (4/44, 6 R&D factories at 51(of 55), 28, 27, 26, 16, 14) I still have a little time, so I’ll ponder it a bit more. The R&D factories are going to start to pile up on not a lot of remaining R&D models over the next 6-12 months. Things will begin to accelerate even more with time. After what has been happening recently, I am going to need these new planes, and soon.
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