Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline
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17 May 43
Sub War
Not a lot of stuff, but it was exciting! First, the I-36 was patrolling to the east of the Aleutians, and caught the Mississippi limping back to the States with 1 DD for escort. She put another torpedo into that tough old bird! I had to hunt through my notes to find the details, but she was the BB that ate 3 sub torps during a bombardment mission to Adak on 30 Apr 43. In retaliation, the sub took a DC. Her damage is currently at 20-27(15)-5(1)-0. Normally, I would send her back for repairs, but the Miss is still afloat and she and another sub in the area are hoping to get another attack to put her down for good.
About 8 hexes east of Japan, the Akagi and Kaga, with a 2 DD escort are headed to the Aleutians. They ran over the Triton, who fired 6 torpedoes at Akagi, but fortunately missed. The DDs hit Triton with a DC, hopefully sending her home. I had made a mistake of not setting their 36 Judy dive bombers to ASW duty (they’re even trained for it!). I’ve rectified that and the TF is continuing on with its mission. Ted is a morning riser like me. He sent me an email. He definitely has a way with words: I ran the replay this morning. About choked on my coffee when I saw it. Six torpedoes too…. That would have left a mark.
5 Fleet
My Sally sentai bombed the American visitors at Adak causing a bit of disruption. Every bit helps! Also, I did my daily bombardment of them. Hopefully, it’s causing their supply to evaporate. When the separate infantry brigades were dropped off, supply had to have been dropped off as well because his AV has been increasing slowly despite my bombing and bombardment.
My bombardment TF is one day out of Etorofu, where it will resupply (I hope) and come back for another visit.
Ted did send 11 SBDs after some of my ships at Adak. Sixteen Oscar IIbs shot them all down! Very nice! Turns out the dive bombers were going after the TF with the artillery and mortar regiment reinforcements. I hope they complete their offload tomorrow and get the heck out of Dodge.
Adak currently has just under 15k supply with another 2700 on the reinforcement TF. They’re working on the forts, which are currently up to 5.08. No infrastructure damage. Two replenishment TFs totaling 56k fuel in support. Akagi and Kaga (72 VF, 36 VB, 45 TB) are 4-5 days out. KB (105 VF, 36 VB, 35 VT) is 6 hexes due south of Adak. Finally, the 71 Division and a medium (15 cm howitzers) artillery regiment is 1.5 days west of Adak along with 8900 additional supply. I also have the 19 Division with another 10k supply about 6 days out as well.
4 Fleet
Working on forts.
SE Fleet
The huge Allied Air Force is rearing its ugly head down here (which is better than anywhere else, I suppose). About 100 (I didn’t even try to count) 2E sorties went after Madang. There’s nothing there worth bombing, actually. He has a unit that has been marching overland and has made it there. Even if it’s got high disruption, it’ll still take the place. All I have there is a construction battalion and an AS unit.
Some Avengers out of Lae sank a couple of xAKLs on a supply run to Talasea. I don’t know why I had bothered sending them. At least the Avengers are here and not in the Aleutians.
His 4E bombers focused primarily on Rabaul, with small visits to Shortland and Lunga as well. After the initial attack at Rabaul of 48 bombers, each squadron after that came in individually about 3 squadrons of 6 each. The defenders were a few Zeros, and partial daitais of Oscars (IIb) and Tojos, totaling 49 aircraft. When it was all said and done, 3 of the beasts were shot down (with a few more lost most likely as op losses) to no fighters lost and about half a dozen planes destroyed on the ground. Damage to Rabaul is 0-29-2, not bad at all.
He also hit Hollandia, where I have some recon, naval search and a sentai of Helens (night bombing Merauke), all defended by a chutai of A6M5 Zeros. He sent two groups of PB4Y-1s, 6 then 7. They did get through to the airfield, but the Zeros shot down 3 of them! Damage to Hollandia is currently 0-38-26.
Ted still has his 3 CV TF, the invasion fleet and an ASW TF sitting in Munda’s hex. KB (126 VF, 54 VB, 72 VT) is still hanging around to the NE, undetected. I have split off the 4 fast BBs, Chikuma and 4 DDs, just in case he moves his carriers out. Ideally, he would begin to load the invasion troops (2 divisions, a combat engineer regiment and a HQ) and move his carriers out. I would love to tear into his APAs, partially (or fully!) loaded with my BBs. I doubt that happens though. The other question I have is, what is the garrison going to be? A full division? I have an airborne regiment sitting at Rabaul. If he pulls everything out, I’ll drop some of them in to take it back. Just for fun, of course…
SRA
Nothing going on here. I do have 2 bombardment TFs headed for Darwin, for purely a social visit. I’m moving some recon to check it out to make sure there are no unwanted surprises. The airfield there is at level 7. I hope to torch some brand new planes Ted may be stockpiling there.
I am trying to slowly build up my defenses there. If Ted knew how sparse the defenses really were, he’d be all over that place.
Burma
The only thing I have going on here is attrition of the RAF. It was wildly successful today! I started it off with a full 42 Tojo sweep of Akyab. They met 24 Hurricane IIcs and 23 P-40Ks and mauled them. I had the height advantage, coming in at 20k feet. For a loss of 4 Tojos (and their pilots), I shot down 7 Hurricanes and 14 P-40s. That sentai also gained 3 new elite pilots! Their commander, LGEN Anma, is a real hotshot with 13 kills, 90 experience and 80 air.
The second Tojo sentai sweep ran into 1 Hurricane which fled.
Only 66 of the 130 bombers flew today, unfortunately, and that was broken up into 3 separate attacks. They did light damage to the airfield, which is at 12% damage. I do see only 33 fighters now, with a few each at Akyab and Cox’s Bazaar and 27 at Chittagong.
China
Not much here, other than bombing Chungking and maneuvering for the next attacks. Some Oscars sweeping Chungking did shoot down 2x P-66 fighters.
Other Stuff
Not much to report here. I am getting back into my normal routine, checking the production front and making tweaks as necessary.
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