Nomad
Posts: 5905
Joined: 9/5/2001 From: West Yellowstone, Montana Status: offline
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March 23, 1943 Well, KB went in a different direction than I expected. KB is now 5 hexes East of Manus. My DS did not move, I didn't give it orders to move. Now I have to decided what to do. Some of my B-25D1 launched but they were devestated. Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Emirau Island at 106,119 Weather in hex: Partial cloud Raid detected at 73 NM, estimated altitude 8,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 20 minutes Japanese aircraft A6M3a Zero x 55 A6M5c Zero x 72 Allied aircraft B-25D1 Mitchell x 16 No Japanese losses Allied aircraft losses B-25D1 Mitchell: 10 destroyed CAP engaged: Kaga-1 with A6M3a Zero (5 airborne, 11 on standby, 0 scrambling) 5 plane(s) intercepting now. Group patrol altitude is 17000 , scrambling fighters between 1000 and 17000. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 7 minutes Soryu-1 with A6M3a Zero (7 airborne, 14 on standby, 0 scrambling) 7 plane(s) intercepting now. Group patrol altitude is 17000 , scrambling fighters between 6000 and 17000. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 11 minutes Hiryu-1 with A6M3a Zero (4 airborne, 12 on standby, 0 scrambling) 4 plane(s) intercepting now. 0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 2 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 7000 , scrambling fighters between 4000 and 7000. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 23 minutes Ryujo-1 with A6M5c Zero (12 airborne, 26 on standby, 0 scrambling) 12 plane(s) intercepting now. Group patrol altitude is 12000 , scrambling fighters between 3000 and 12000. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 9 minutes Shoho-1 with A6M5c Zero (7 airborne, 23 on standby, 0 scrambling) 7 plane(s) intercepting now. 0 plane(s) not yet engaged, 0 being recalled, 4 out of immediate contact. Group patrol altitude is 17000 , scrambling fighters between 1000 and 17000. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 28 minutes I am not sure why, but my escorts did not launch even though they were given a range of 10 along with the Attack bombers, who only traveled 9 hexes for their attack. =============================================== At Kachin Hills he bombed me again and my Hurricanes did not do enough I will have to try and move out of the hex. =============================================== I had a minesweeper TF that went into Rabaul, I thought they would go in to the port at night and then move back out towards Milne Bay, but they took both the night and day naval movement phases, didn't find any mines and then were sunk by KB and friends. Morning Air attack on TF, near Rabaul at 106,125 Weather in hex: Partial cloud Raid spotted at 20 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 7 minutes Japanese aircraft G3M3 Nell x 6 No Japanese losses Allied Ships AM Castlemaine, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk Aircraft Attacking: 6 x G3M3 Nell launching torpedoes at 200 feet Naval Attack: 1 x 18in Type 91 Torpedo --------------------------------------------- Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Rabaul at 106,125 Weather in hex: Severe storms Raid spotted at 18 NM, estimated altitude 18,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 6 minutes Japanese aircraft A6M3a Zero x 36 D3A1 Val x 25 Japanese aircraft losses D3A1 Val: 2 damaged Allied Ships AM Cairns, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk AM Tamworth, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk AM Horsham, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk Aircraft Attacking: 10 x D3A1 Val releasing from 2000' Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb 11 x D3A1 Val releasing from 1000' Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb 4 x D3A1 Val releasing from 3000' Naval Attack: 1 x 250 kg SAP Bomb Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AM Cairns Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AM Tamworth Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AM Horsham ========================================================= I am still thinking about what I should do. There are two big questions right now 1. Where is KB going to move to? 2. Does he know I am in the area with a strong CV presence? Looking at #2, my TF 1, the DS, has a detection of 1/1, so he may still not know I am about. None of the others have any detection. He might conclude that there is a single TF in the area and it could almost anything. He did get a 1/1 detection on a different TF last turn. As to #1, I doubt he is moving to Rabaul, there does not seem to be much of a reason for that. He could move to Kavieng or Manus. He could also return to Truk. It depends on what he has in mind. He might see the presence of the minesweepers for what it was, a prelude to an invasion of Rabaul. In that case he might stay around the area hoping to launch against my landing ships/forces. In that case I would think that Truk is too far away from the possible coming action. I have the option to move my DS and CV escort TFs to be in a position to launch against KB either at Kavieng or Manus. I note that he only had 125 fighters on CAP. I would be sending 252 SBDs escorted by 234 F6F-3s.For defense I have 205 F4F-4s, 186 F6F-3s and a lot of AA fire. Andy Mac put the DBB AAA stats in this version of scenario 2. I have about 50,000 AAA in the hex. I have decided to temporize for one turn. I am going to move a few hexes to the NW. Depending on where he actually goes, if I try to do an intercept this turn I could end up 8 hexes away from him. That could prove to be a disaster. I will move a bit closer and see just where he goes. If he spots me and leaves the next turn that might be a good thing also. But I have a window now that I might be able to win a CV battle, I have a lot of F6F-3s and they are better that any of the A6Ms he has available. I should probably revise the last paragraph. I will move closer to Kavieng, so if moves there I will be in range with no problems. If he moves to Manus I will be far out of range. It is the possible move to Manus that could cause a problem if I
< Message edited by Nomad -- 1/28/2022 4:01:55 AM >
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