apbarog
Posts: 3769
Joined: 5/23/2002 Status: offline
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25 Jan 42 Sallys again attack Rangoon's airfield at night. I made an error here, moving in the wrong unit to CAP at night. I corrected my error for tomorrow night. No planes were lost on the ground, as the AVG was moved out. Batavia was attacked, and the Dutch Air Force defended. Morning Air attack on Batavia , at 49,98 Weather in hex: Heavy cloud Raid detected at 24 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 7 minutes Japanese aircraft Ki-43-Ic Oscar x 27 Ki-48-Ib Lily x 21 Allied aircraft B-339D x 6 CW-21B Demon x 5 75A-7 Hawk x 4 Japanese aircraft losses Ki-48-Ib Lily: 3 destroyed, 5 damaged Allied aircraft losses B-339D: 1 destroyed CW-21B Demon: 1 destroyed 75A-7 Hawk: 1 destroyed Aircraft Attacking: 17 x Ki-48-Ib Lily bombing from 10000 feet Port Attack: 4 x 100 kg GP Bomb Actual losses were 9 Lilys for the cost of 3 Dutch fighters, as shown above. 15 Nells attacked Wake Island's airfield, but severe storms caused the bombers to miss entirely. Bettys with Zeros attacked Soerabaja on their daily run. In the afternoon, what I will call KB launched against Wake Island's port: Afternoon Air attack on Wake Island , at 136,98 Weather in hex: Severe storms Raid detected at 118 NM, estimated altitude 17,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 44 minutes Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 54 D3A1 Val x 101 Japanese aircraft losses D3A1 Val: 11 damaged D3A1 Val: 1 destroyed by flak Allied ground losses: 9 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Port hits 3 Port fuel hits 1 Yesterday, my transports were hit by carrier planes and badly damaged during the replay, but sank later in the turn. OPilot went after the port thinking there might be damaged ships there, but there was not. I don't know if all of KB is here, but a significant part is. I think about half. At least half. The US minelayers moved one hex into Wake, dropped their mines, then moved 9 hexes (full speed) to the east northeast. They still ended up being 7 hexes from KB, but were once again hidden by weather. They will now make a circuitous route to Midway, going more north than necessary to avoid KB should it move east. Tandjoengbalai, Sumatra is invaded by 2 infantry regiments and support. It will be enough to roll north on the coast through Medan all the way to Sabang. Cebu is invaded by the 38th Infantry Division. I task a few float planes at Boela to fly out a fragment of the US 1st Port Maint Engineer Battalion. I'll reconstitute it in Australia. Moulmein is lost. The enemy has been flying bombing runs in northeastern China unopposed. I moved a fighter squadron to Yenan to contest a mountain hex 3 hexes to the east of town. The fighters didn't get there in time before the bombing, but they did catch the bombers on the way out. Morning Air attack on 3rd Prov Chinese Corps, at 91,37 , near Kweisui Weather in hex: Moderate rain Raid spotted at 4 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 1 minutes Japanese aircraft Ki-21-Ic Sally x 16 Allied aircraft P-40E Warhawk x 10 Japanese aircraft losses Ki-21-Ic Sally: 6 destroyed No Allied losses Allied ground losses: 16 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Aircraft Attacking: 16 x Ki-21-Ic Sally bombing from 6000 feet * Ground Attack: 2 x 250 kg GP Bomb 10 Sallys are shot down. 2LT S.C. Grashio becomes an ace here, flying with the 24th Pursuit Group/17th Pursuit Squadron. This unit came from the Philippines and is flying P-40s. The unit now has 33 kills. I move the unit back to Changsha to rest and wait for the next surprise opportunity. I'm trying something truly crazy, but I have to try. You may remember xAK Ethel Edwards. It fled Manila to the southwest and was caught with many of the other valuable ships by a cruiser force near Balabac. Ethel Edwards was badly damaged, and ducked into Kudat to hide. It stayed there for a bit, then moved to Balabac when Kudat was getting overrun. It was able to bring its SYS damage down some, but it had lots of FLOT damage. After quite awhile, I moved it back to Manila, slowly, with all its damage. It wasn't seen, and made it. Now, after a couple of weeks of repair in the shipyard, and no port bombing, it is fully repaired. The ARD that starts at Manila, ARD YFD-1 Dewey, is a drydock for ships up to 20,000 tons. Very nice. But it has been badly damaged in bombing, with SYS 54/FLOT 16/ENG 14/FIRE 0. I'm going to pair these ships up and try to make it to safety. It's impossible. The ARD can only move one hex a day, and it's very possible that it will accrue more damage. But I'm going to move it out past Bataan, then north around Luzon, being careful not to go through base hexes that are getting enemy recon. If it makes it unseen, it will continue east and try to run the gap between Iwo Jima and Japan. Crazy. The journey at one hex a day would take a long time, maybe 3 months. But I have to try. If the ships are spotted, Ethel Edwards will leave the ARD to its fate and continue the escape run, at a more reasonable speed of 6 hexes a day. It won't work. It can't work. But I have to try! If I save that ARD, I'll declare the war won right there and then! Now that I've explained it all, they'll probably move to Bataan tomorrow, be spotted, and be sunk by Bettys from Formosa...
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