Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
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21 Dec 43 Sub War It was really weird. There was no sub/ASW activity at all by either side today. There was basically no night phase at all. 5 Fleet So, today was the big day. I sent everyone in to assault Umnak Island. But, before that happened, my Sally sentai went in to soften the defenders up a bit. Later in the day, that US carrier fleet, far south of Umnak, sent in 22 Dauntlesses and 68 Avengers, their entire bomber inventory, to soften me up. I had 4x Oscar IIIas on LRCAP, and all they managed to do was to shoot one down. Apparently another crashed on the way home. Here’s what happened: Ground combat at Umnak Island (169,51) Japanese Deliberate attack Attacking force 10238 troops, 152 guns, 180 vehicles, Assault Value = 294 Defending force 8183 troops, 41 guns, 165 vehicles, Assault Value = 68 Japanese adjusted assault: 120 Allied adjusted defense: 23 Japanese assault odds: 5 to 1 (fort level 0) Japanese forces CAPTURE Umnak Island !!! Allied aircraft no flights Allied aircraft losses Bolingbroke IV: 1 destroyed P-400 Airacobra: 1 destroyed C-47 Skytrain: 5 destroyed Combat modifiers Defender: terrain(+), disruption(-), preparation(-), experience(-) supply(-) Attacker: Japanese ground losses: 187 casualties reported Squads: 2 destroyed, 12 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled Allied ground losses: 7768 casualties reported Squads: 133 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 835 destroyed, 0 disabled Engineers: 22 destroyed, 0 disabled Guns lost 39 (39 destroyed, 0 disabled) Vehicles lost 189 (189 destroyed, 0 disabled) Units destroyed 5 Assaulting units: 19th/B Division 23rd Tank Regiment 19th/A Division 19th/C Division 4th Medium Field Artillery Regiment Defending units: 201st(Sep) Infantry Regiment 106th USN Base Force North Pacific Eleventh USAAF 802nd Engineer Aviation Battalion Banzai! I suspect he pulled slices out of the units, but that’s still a lot of steps destroyed. I estimate this netted me over 500 VPs. I have a garrison and AS unit heading there. I’ll station a few fighters and 9 Judies to harass Dutch Harbor. I’m pulling out the division and tanks but will leave the artillery to support the garrison. The airfield and port are trashed (thanks Yamato TF!) so it’ll be a while before I can station the planes there. The US carrier TF is heading SE toward Pearl. I have some subs vectoring in to try and get a shot off. It’s definitely worth the risk. 4 Fleet I heard sinking sounds first thing and learned it was one of my xAPs that was torpedoed. Apparently it sank 1 hex shy of Saipan. I have all of KB collecting 10 hexes east of Saipan. They’ll configure into 2 TF, and will be the most powerful carrier TF I’ve had to date. It is composed of 7 CVs and 2 CVLs. They have 282 Zeros (all armored), 117 Judies (18 are Y1, the rest Y3) and 138 Jills for 537 aircraft, with 73 reserve aircraft. They’re loaded for bear! I also have a replenishment fleet of 108k fuel to support them. Once everyone arrives (2 days) and refuels, they’ll disappear in the Pacific and wait. SE Fleet Almost 100 Allied bomber sorties hit Hollandia’s troops, disabling 5 squads. Not really worth it to me. Truk’s airfield was hit multiple times with some 200 sorties. Apparently, Ted wants to keep the airfield out of commission. My flak did kill 3x 4E bombers. On the down side, about 20 fighters were destroyed on the ground. I’ve written them off but it still pains me to see them destroyed in such a way. SRA Nothing to report. I continue to build defenses. Burma Over Akyab, 37 Tojos met 20 Hurricane IIcs. I lost 3 to his 8. I replaced that sentai with a Frank sentai for tomorrow. That should be a pleasant surprise for the Allies. Nineteen Franks visited Kalemyo shooting down 3 of the remaining 7 Allied fighters (a mixture of Spitfire VIII, Hurricane IIc and Kittyhawk III). China My bombers flew, destroying 27 squads (2 infantry) and disabling another 227. The artillery bombardment added another 24 destroyed (21 infantry) and 31 disabled. Yesterday’s attack (and possibly today’s bombardment/bombing) destroyed the following units: Infantry: 76 remaining (-3) Base force: 14 (-3) Artillery: 0 (-1) AT: 1 (no change) AA: 2 (no change) Construction: 0 (-1) HQ: 10 (-12!) They have 4 Corps (Group Army) HQs remaining, CAF (air) and 5 higher level HQs. Once I kill off either of the two categories, that will reduce the Chinese combat power. Here are the Japanese army stats: Fatigue: 72.1, -8.4 Disruption: 25.9, -14.0 Disablements: 15.5, -1.5 I don’t care about fatigue. They can rest when they die or conquer Chungking. Disruption is coming down nicely. My only concern is disablements. So far, I’ve been losing very few troops but this next attack is going to include everyone regardless of their state. I want as much power as I can muster. Tomorrow I’ll bomb/bombard, but probably will attack the day after. Other Stuff Reinforcement: DD Akishimo, (Yugumo class), KB escort The Ki-84r R&D advanced to 5/44 (will become operational 2/44). I got confirmation that the Grenadier sank off Truk on 8/17/43. I have 3 IJN fighter sentai (all George) (Burma, Singapore and Saipan) that are front line fighters with 50+ experience, 70+ Air and 70+ def. They all are on 100% CAP, range 0, which boosts their experience nicely. When they get a pilot whose experience reaches 70, I pull him out and replace him with another, to build more experience. Those pilots are reserved for KB. I draw the pilots from the bottom of that pool for the land based fighters (and the top for KB). My goal going forward is to minimize the use of IJN LB fighters as much as possible. I need to start building up my IJN fighter pool. Its ok, but a couple big carrier battles will wipe it out. (And I know they are coming.) I am excited about getting 4 new IJN fighter units in about 10 days. More trainers!
< Message edited by Mike Solli -- 2/11/2019 2:04:41 PM >
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