Alpha77
Posts: 2116
Joined: 9/24/2010 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: rustysi Even in bombardment TF's, if I expect/suspect enemy SCTF's to be in the area, they will not go in to engage. I will either have to take care of the area in question with my air power or withdraw. It seems to me the OP is talking early '42 here, a time in which he should still have adequate air superiority any place he wishes to impose it. Now I'm talking about LBA here. That to me is the answer to maintaining dominance is the Solomons in 1942. In addition if needed the the KB at this time is still the 600lb. gorilla in the room. She can mop-up what's left, all the time being under her own protection of additional LBA. a) Air power, he has more at Ndeni and Kira, I do not use Lunga field I can not protect it. I have ca. 70-80 fighter at Tassa, they get sweeped now for 3 turns or so. I do not want to use eg. Betties from Shortlands as the escort is too unreliable, they might fly against small AKLs etc. I also had some Vals at Tulagi, but they got caught by 30-35 or so fighters with 10 Zero escort and half shot down, they however sank an AM and an AKL, so targets worthy for 20 planes lost Yes, mostly some bombers might get through, but if you lose 30 highly trained Netties for 2 AKs sunk, might not be the best deal, or is it? Shortlands is a bit far away imho also. Ok I have Munda which reached 4 airfield, maybe I try the air approach later. But the failed bombardement mission ofc should hit his masses of fighters, as it failed I would say in this area the air belongs more to him..only if the air from Tassa (not including it) in direction Rabaul/Milne belongs to me. But he will not sail there for sure lol He made however an error imho not preventing me from repairing / bulding forts at Lunga, it should be very difficult to expell us from this position now (Tassa has 4 forts too meanwhile, and some stranded Allies are still sitting there, but still to strong to push out among them 2 marine regs and 2 tk bats) b) KB is/was in repair/update in the HI, I have 2 updated CVs at Truk now. But I will not send them near the masses of fighters he has in the area Kira/Ndeni (probably Luganville too). Also remember Allies now have good torp bombers aka Avengers, 2-3 lucky ones might get through and my CVs need to burn more time and fuel to get to a shipyard. Also note 3-4 bomb hits by Allied DBs are often enough to threaten IJN CVs to sink. Eg. Junyio only had 3-4 bomb hits for 30 sys, only 20 float, but 80 fires.. she sank in the night after.
< Message edited by Alpha77 -- 2/7/2017 7:02:49 PM >
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