Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
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1 May 43 Sub War This isn’t really sub related (but in a sense it may be), but the very first thing that happened this turn was that I heard sinking noises. I have no idea what ship sank, but my first thought (a hope, really) was that the Mississippi sank. I saw in the intel screen that 2 Kingfishers were op losses. Maybe it was the Mississippi. She’s not showing up as sunk. I guess I’ll find out in a few months. Anyhoo, SW of Horne Island, the I-158 caught and sank another xAKL, part of a supply convoy. SW of Los Angeles, the I-27 sank another xAK. That area is a very fertile hunting ground. I send only Glen subs there because, on occasion, ASW TFs venture out to try and get lucky. I usually spot them and can maneuver out of their path. 5 Fleet I made a tactical error which caused my heart to skip a few beats. Fortunately, the damage against me was less than the Allied damage so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. MKB (Zuiho, Shoho and Hosho) with about 50 Zeros and 15 or so Kates was positioned to the north of Adak, in case some enemy TF came in range. My mistake was that it was 7 hexes (my range set for my Kates) from Unmak Island, Ted’s air base in the region. As it turned out, the 2 US carriers were slowly withdrawing and were also 7 hexes away. Fortunately, they had taken substantial air losses but still had a lot of planes. I estimate they had about 50 Wildcats, a dozen Avengers and 40-50 Dauntlesses. In addition, Unmak was sporting a handful each of P-40Es and P-400s (state of the art stuff ). Several piecemeal attacks went in from both sides. Here they are in order: We hit first (if you want to call it that). A massive raid of 7 Kates escorted by 8 Zeros against a minor TF, ASW I think. Seven Wildcats, a P-400 and P-40E attacked them, shot down 2 Zeros and broke through to the Kates, shooting down 6. The lone survivor missed. No Allied fighters were lost. That was a great way to start things off. The next attack, also mine, was worse. Six Kates were escorted by 5 Zeros. I lost 2 Zeros and all the Kates. I’m not sure who they were attacking because none of the Kates survived the enemy fighters. There were 6 each P-400s and P-40Es. One of each was lost. Score: 16 Japanese to 2 Allied planes shot down. Now it was the Allied turn. The US carriers spotted and attacked MKB by a small force of 8 Dauntlesses and 6 Avengers escorted by 13 Wildcats. 22 Zeros defended my carriers. The Zeros broke through the Wildcats after shooting down 6, but downed only 1 Dauntless before they reached my carriers. (This is where my heart stopped beating.) Fortunately, they all missed, then my fighters shot down 4 Avengers on their way back home. Score 16 Japanese to 7 Allied planes shot down. (Getting a little better.) The final attack was 16 Dauntlesses (unescorted!) opposed by 13 Zeros. My Zeros shot down 12 of the Dauntlesses. Flak got one and the other 3 missed my carriers! Final Score: 16 Japanese to 20 Allied planes shot down. No ships hit on either side. MKB is heading west to meet up with their oilers and then will head to Japan to replenish and repair minor sys damage. As an afterthought, 11 enemy bombers attacked Adak’s airfield. Net damage increase was 1 runway. Adak: 60-59-81 with 15k supply. 4 Fleet Nothing to report. SE Fleet A couple of Allied sweeps of Gasmata netted us 3 more Allied fighters shot down for no loss. Ted’s 2E bombers went after Manus today. That’s fine with me. It gives Rabaul a chance to repair a bit. SRA Burma China Nothing to report. Other Stuff Reinforcement: 7 SNLF Company – rebuilt – will garrison Phnom Penh. Four CA and 3 DD completed refit in the Home Islands. All but 2 DD will steam for Truk. The remaining DDs will hang around until the CVs complete their refit. New aircraft models that are now available: B6N1 Jill: I will not build this model. I’m waiting for the B6N2, which will be available in June. In the meantime, I converted the B5N2 factory to the B6N1 and increased it to size 30. When 1 Jun 43 arrives, it’ll be fully repaired and I’ll upgrade it to the B6N2 and immediately begin producing them. N1K1-J George: I converted two old, unused A6M2 factories to size 30 and 60 and another unused factory to size 30. By the end of May, I’ll be producing 3 a day and by the end of June, 4 a day. I wish I could get them more quickly, but I’ll just have to wait. The only thing I don’t like about this model is the Service Rating of 3. My plan is to use them at large airfields with plenty of AS. They have armor! Ki-44-IIb Tojo: I will not produce this model. I want the Ki-44-IIc. Ki-44-IIc Tojo: I upgraded all 4x30 Ki-44-IIa through the IIb to this model. They have armor and an SR of 1! Ki-45 KAIc Nick: I will not produce this model. Ki-49-II KAI transport: I’m converting the Ki-57-II factory to this model and increasing it to size 15. This will be the IJA transport for the remainder of the war, for a couple of reasons. It frees up the Ki-57 engine factory (which is converting to the Ha-45). This uses the Ha-34. I have two Ha-34 factories, size 30 and 360. I’m converting the size 30 factory to the Ha-45. This gives me 360x Ha-34 engines a month allocated as follows: 120 for the Tojo, 180 for the Helen bomber and 30 for the Helen transport. There is a surplus of 30 engines a month for future needs. Also, there is no longer a need for R&D engines for this factory (which is why I converted the small factory). I have >500 engines in the pool so the Ha-34 engine factory is off until I draw the pool down to ~300 or so. I have high hopes for the Tojos and Georges. I’m confident the new Tojos will do well. The “a” model is doing well now. We’ll see how the Georges do.
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Created by the amazing Dixie
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