Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline
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6 May 43
Sub War
I have 4 midget subs hanging out at Adak. I finally figured out how to use them properly. Should they fire their subs and survive, I’ll disband them back into the pool. They then will be available a couple weeks or so later. Anyhoo, the Ha-40 found a small resupply convoy of 3x LSI(L)s and put a torpedo into one, heavily damaging her. She didn’t sink (yet) because after the turn, I saw what I think is her limping to the east. I did hear sinking sounds immediately after. I’ll explain what I think it is in the 5 Fleet section.
5 Fleet
A minesweeping TF of 4x AMs swept 34 mines at Adak, leaving 21. I have a minelaying TF heading to lay its eggs at Adak, but with all the Allied TFs hanging out, they may not get a chance to reach port. The 4x AMs all were heavily damaged by the CD guns. I believe the sinking sounds I heard was an AM sinking. Later in the day, I heard more sinking sounds, probably another AM. How many AMs do the Allies get? He seems to have an unending supply!
The two remaining LSI(L)s dropped their supply, which sucks. I’m hoping the 41 Division is disrupted enough that it can’t attack, even with the supply. It didn’t attack today.
Rereading this, maybe this extra supply for the Allies is a blessing in disguise for the Japanese. With ample supply, Ted may attack again against rested, full strength Japanese forces with ample supply (currently 14k) and in level 6 forts. I’ll take those odds!
In the air, 4x B-24s and 3x B-25s attacked my troops at Adak. No Canadian Bolingbrokes (which I learned are the Canadian version of the Blenheim IV) flew today. Twenty Oscars intercepted, shooting down 2x B-25s and a B-24, while flak got another B-24 at a cost of a single Oscar. Banzai!
In the afternoon, my Judys got in on the action, attacking a TF in a dot hex 5 hexes to the east of Adak. Three Judys, escorted by 13 Oscars ran into 22 Wildcats. Hmm… The Oscars held off the Wildcats losing 5 of their number. The 3 Judys dropped on the Hornet! Unfortunately, they missed and a Judy was lost to flak.
My “intel” says there are 4 CVs in that TF. I suspect it’s only the Hornet because only 22 Wildcats intercepted. Intel says there are 29 fighters, 58 bombers and 4 auxiliary aircraft in the TF. Those numbers sound about right if the Lex left the AO. I estimate the bombers to be 10 Avengers and 48 Dauntlesses and that the Lex left most of her DBs and fighters on the Hornet. One TB squadron was entirely wiped out on 24 April. I hope she hangs around because the Junyo and Hiyo are heading north from Truk, but they are still 5-6 days out. They have 54 Zeros, 36 Vals and 18 Kates. That should be enough to overwhelm the Hornet. They’re heading north to come to a launch position 7 hexes to the SW of Hornet.
Adak’s damage is down to just 11 port. I don’t expect his BBs to show up given 1 of the 8 ate 3 sub torpedoes (and sank, I believe) and a second ate one torpedo. Maybe they will come back. We’ll see.
All of the troops are at 100% strength (or more in the case of the tank regiment) with only a couple squads and ~10 or so tanks disabled. My reinforcement of 2x divisions, 4x 15cm artillery regiments and 1x 90mm mortar regiment are loading, but it’ll be awhile before they get there. I suspect the carrier battle will be over long before they arrive. That will actually work out well. Should I prevail, I’ll have carrier support (KB2 and MKB2) in the vicinity to protect the transports as they arrive. Should Ted prevail, my reinforcements will not go in. It’s pretty simple. Should be exciting.
4 Fleet
Nothing to report.
SE Fleet
Enemy fighters swept Rabaul and Gasmata with a handful of B-25s hitting Tulagi ineffectively. Total losses were 6 fighters on each side.
Other than that, all was quiet in this AO.
Rabaul’s damage is down to 14-11-0 and Tulagi’s damage is fully repaired.
SRA
Burma
Nothing to report.
China
My troops continue to maneuver. A nice air bombardment of Chungking destroyed a couple Chinese fighters while damaging another half dozen planes.
Some of the Great Yellow Horde appeared just south of Chungking. I suspect they’ll move into Chungking.
Other Stuff
Engine, airframe and stuff pools are all looking good. The Ha-45 pool is up to 390, increasing by a dozen or more each day. I’ll hit 500 by mid-May so then my Frank, George and Francis R&D will double.
My naval ship point pool is allowing me to accelerate 3x CVs every other day. Those 3 CVs are all currently scheduled to arrive on 13 Dec 43. At that rate, they should arrive in September 1943. It will be nice to get another 200 aircraft capacity for KB. That’ll leave 3 more CVs that I am building. They are all scheduled to arrive sometime in 1944. I’ll look at them tonight to see if they’re worth accelerating when the first 3 are finished or whether I should just shut them off. I’m tempted to keep building them because to date, I’ve lost only the Hiryu. On the other side, Ted hasn’t lost any carriers at all.
So far, there has been no large carrier battle. The most recent exchange up north was between 3x Japanese CVLs and 2x US CVs. The Lex took some damage (1 torp and a 500kg bomb) that will require a few weeks in the yard to repair. My carriers took no damage. The Hornet is still hanging around providing cover to all the little TFs floating around up there. I’m hoping to take Hornet out in a week, should she stick around.
KB1 is currently composed of only 2 CVs (Soryu and Ryujo) located at Truk. The other 4 CVs (Akagi, Kaga, Shokaku and Zuikaku) are in refit at the Home Islands. Two will complete tomorrow and the other 2 will complete in about 4-5 days. That was a risk I was willing to take because I knew Ted was anxious to upgrade his Wildcats to Hellcats and that will take to the end of May. When KB1 is reconstituted, It’ll have a total of 201 Zeros, 54 Vals, 36 Judys and 117 Kates. In June, I’ll begin to upgrade the Kates with Jills (N2 model). That is in addition to KB2, MKB1 and MKB2, which have a total of 117 Zeros, 54 Vals and 60 Kates. I also have a CVE on TK escort duty with 27x Vals. I am going to upgrade them with Judys. A 500kg bomb will ruin a subs day.
If KB1 were to launch against Ted’s carriers, I think they could do a number on them. I keep my CAP set at 60% of my fighters, so the offensive potential is 54 Vals at range 6 and 36 Judys and 117 Kates at range 7 escorted by 80 Zeros with 120 Zeros for fleet defense. Very nice.
The Chitose, Chiyoda, Mizuho and Nisshin are all converting to CVLs. When they are done in a few months, they’ll add 84 Zeros and 36 Kates to the mix. By September 1943, assuming no carrier losses, my total carrier strength will be almost 1000 aircraft.
There are quite a few new models arriving in the coming months, to include:
June 43
B6N2 Jill – Carrier TB – 30/month
E15K1 Norm – New FP – 30/month
July 43
Ki-43-IIIa Oscar – 128/month
Ki-100-II Tony – 120/month
A6M5c Zero – Armor! – 120/month – land based, maybe some on carriers for CAP.
H8K2-L Emily (TR) – 4/month
N1K1 Rex (FF) – Not sure I’ll build these.
August 43
P1Y1 Francis – 30/month
September 43
N1K2-J George – 120/month
Ki-49-IIb Helen – 90/month
October 43
J1N1-S Irving (NF) – Not sure I’ll build any of these.
November 43
D4Y3 Judy – Carrier DB – 30/month
I currently have the best Tojo model building (Ki-44-IIc). I’m almost to the point where I can field a sentai. They will go to SE Fleet AO to upgrade the Tojos down there. The Ki-44-IIa is holding its own there (and in Burma) so I expect a lot from this new model. I hope to turn the tide a bit with my new fighters (Tojo, George, Zero and Tony) over the next few months. I may outfit a couple of my carriers with the A6M5c Zero for CAP. By using them in that way, their short range will not hamper offensive operations. I’ll take a closer look at their stats as well as field any comments (as always) on what model of Zero should be used on carriers for offensive ops.
Finally, I’m going to use a Judy recon chutai (maybe 2) on 1-2 of my carriers for naval search purposes to free up some of my bombers for their primary mission. I need to check to see what units are available. I suspect it’ll be a training unit. I’m doing well with naval search pilots in the pool so I can afford to release a naval search chutai.
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RE: Once Again into the Breech - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 
Anyway, there were damaged ships sitting in port from a previous raid. The bombers sank 2 ACM, a PB, 4 small cargo ships and the AS Rio de Janero. Only the AS was really worth something, 23 VP for those who care about such things. The Allied bombers were unescorted. I could have really hurt them if my fighters had more than 13 minutes to react. Only a handful of the 96 fighters actually attacked, and they shot down only a couple of 2E bombers. 
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