IdahoNYer
Posts: 2616
Joined: 9/6/2009 From: NYer living in Boise, ID Status: offline
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2-3 Feb 44 Highlights – Very heavy LBA strikes against shipping off Padang; Kai-eilanden taken Jpn ships sunk: DD: 1 (Okinami) SS: 1 (I-178) Allied ships sunk: DE: 1 (Babas) APA: 1 xAP: 1 (scuttled) Air loss: Jpn: 228 Allied: 87 Subwar: Jpn: 0 Attacks, 0 ships hit Allies: 2 Attacks, 1 ship hit (xAK dam) Jpn Amph Inv: None Allied Amph Inv: None Bases lost: None Bases Liberated: Talasea (SOPAC - flipped) Kai-eilanden (SWPAC) SIGINT/Intel: Once again, Jpn can mass for a major airstrike at their choosing. West Coast/Admin: NSTR. In NOPAC, NSTR. In CENPAC, NSTR. In SOPAC, Talasea on the west side of New Britain flips to Allied control which works well as the two units earmarked to amphib this base are currently engaged in the Lae area. Plus, always good to grab an undefended base with good fortifications. Will bring in engineers to secure and further expand the base. Otherwise its been quiet, no IJA attacks against Lae, although the naval bombardments went in as per schedule inflicted about 500 casualties. Major event next turn will be SOPAC Heavies hitting Boela on Ceram in SWPAC. P-38s out of Sarmi will also sweep, but all other fighters are out of range. By SWPAC taking Kaimana and neutralizing Boela, SOPAC should be able to resume its advance along the New Guinea northern coast, barring a visit by the IJN of course. In SWPAC, 1st CAV attacks at Kaimana and is held in it’s one attack, but inflicts 650 casualties to only 8 US. Unfortunately, the level 4 forts aren’t reduced, but the CAV is in good shape, and will resume attacks next turn. Also at Kaimana, a handful of escorted Bettys attack in daylight against a single AKA offloading supplies. CAP handles the raid easily, 8 Bettys down for no attacks. However, it just proves the necessity of neutralizing Boela. A single attack secures Kai-eilanden, and the remaining defenders are wiped out. With the base secure, engineers will begin to flow in to build up its AF. The big event for next turn is a full-court press against Boela AF - which appears to be packed with bombers in addition to about 75 fighters. CVEs will provide limited LRCAP with two squadrons of Hellcats, but primary fighter cover and sweeps will originate from Molu and Saumlaki. While the AF is hitting Boela, most of the Navy’s warships are at Darwin going through a quick repair before the next major move, landing on Timor at Lautem. Assault shipping is also gathering at Darwin, but it will take a few more days to finish up some engineer shuttling for enough transports to be ready. I was planning to support the Timor landings with the CV TF, but without the KB prowling the Banda Sea, the CVEs and the airfield at Saumlaki should be more than able to provide sufficient cover. I do have CV Bunker Hill with two CVLs at Exmouth as they were going to rendezvous with the fleet coming in from the IO, but for now, they are just standing by in port. While certainly available, right now I think they bring more risk than reward if committed. In China, the IJA finally makes an attack east of Kweiyang, pushing back a delaying action Chinese Corps covering Chihkiang. 4440 Chinese casualties lost for 1300 IJA. A necessary delay to build up the main line, and on that note, the East African Division has reached Kweiyang and is continuing east, so hopefully it will be in place before the next major IJA attack. What is surprising though is a total lack of airpower committed to support this IJA offensive - the small Allied contingent of fighters and the handful of B-25s have been even able to provide limited strikes against the IJA. In Burma, NSTR. In the IO, L_S_T launched a major effort by LBA against shipping at Padang. Over two days, 184 Frank/George sorties as sweepers supported strikes by 93 Jill, 57 Lily and 272 Oscar FB sorites which were escorted by 69 Zero and 208 Tojo sorties. Against these attacks, only three fighter squadrons were at Padang, a P-47, a F4U, and a Spit VIII, plus a few sorties of P-40s out of Siberoet. Fortunately, the target was limited to a small convoy of two APAs escorted by a DD and DE. And unfortunately for L_S_T’s carefully laid plans, the sweepers came in AFTER the strikes in AM phase of the first day. So, the first strike to meet the 82 planes stacked up on CAP were an unlucky 33 Zeros escorting 26 Jills, followed by another 12 Zeros and 13 Jills. Needless to say, these strikes were mauled. Next in were Oscar FBs escorted by Tojos. Heavily escorted, these raids started to get through, but strangely, the Oscars that got through the CAP just strafed and didn’t drop bombs. Again, lucky! In the afternoon, the sweepers came in to support and 6 Jills got through to torpedo the DE Bebas. Lilys joined the fray as well and started to score a few hits. The second day had better coordination with the sweepers, especially in afternoon attacks. While still costly, the CAP was just worn down to where single planes were opposing strikes. By the end of the two days, a DE and APA were sunk, the DD and other APA were damaged and should make port. CAP did extremely well - 38 Jills, 8 Lily, 28 Tojo, 25 Oscar, 16 George and 7 Franks shot down (not including OPs or Flak losses) to 17 F4Us, 13 P-47, 9 Spit and 4 P-40s lost. For the F4Us and the P-47s, it was a shooting gallery with those squadrons recording 72 and 41 kills respectively. Still, this just proves that a determined, massed air attack can, and WILL, get through CAP. Fortunately, the naval targets were minimal as a larger convoy carrying another Indian In Bde was just coming into Padang and wasn’t affected. However, that convoy is now just starting to offload, so the question is whether or not L_S_T elects to do this type of massed strike again next turn. At Padang, the P-47s and Spits are swapped out with fresh squadrons, P-40 and P-39 squadrons are brought in, and the F4Us are sent replacements, which of course won’t be immediately available. The CVs are heading AWAY from Padang, to provide cover for the Oosthaven landings, but will sortie a few Hellcats to provide LRCAP. A few P-38s can range from Medan, and Siberoet will also offer a few fighters in support. That said, that’s still at best about 125 fighters for CAP, so a massed raid will very likely be able to get through, especially if the sweepers come in first. Elsewhere, the ground attack continues to close in on Palembang, and air dropped mines claim an xAK at Palembang, but B-24s dropping the mines in daylight were vulnerable to CAP and lost 5 bombers. Two Brit subs drop mines off shore and additional air dropped mines will be laid at Muntok to hopefully steer ships toward the sub laid mines. Lastly, still plenty of convoys are still bringing in troops and supplies to numerous ports along the Sumatran coast, so the action at Padang could very well be repeated at any of a number of ports, each of which is defended by a only handful of fighters.
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