ADavidB
Posts: 2464
Joined: 9/17/2001 From: Toronto, Canada Status: offline
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Well, as of August 24th it looks as if my planes at Malir have no intention of going off on ground attacks no matter what the conditions. Oh well, I'll send them off on an airbase raid. My planes at Karachi hit Bombay, but that doesn't really matter much at this point: Day Air attack on Bombay, at 20, 10 Allied aircraft Wellington III x 48 Hudson I x 15 B-24D Liberator x 40 Allied aircraft losses Wellington III: 1 damaged Japanese ground losses: 229 casualties reported Guns lost 2 Airbase hits 2 Runway hits 84 Port hits 5 Port supply hits 1 For some reason PzB didn't moved his troops into Malir proper. He's probably waiting for more troops. It looks as if my search planes under General Magoo in Colombo really blew it big time. So much for a transport TF going to the west - look what ended up to the west of Colombo: Day Air attack on TF at 3, 22 Japanese aircraft A6M2-N Rufe x 3 A6M2 Zero x 77 D3A Val x 65 B5N Kate x 83 No Japanese losses Allied Ships TK Empire Marvell, Bomb hits 13, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage AK Empire Oryx, Torpedo hits 4, on fire, heavy damage TK Empire Unity, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage TK Semiramis, Bomb hits 2, on fire TK Pleiodon, Torpedo hits 1, on fire TK Empire Collins, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage So I now know where part of the KB is sitting. This was a TF of damaged ships that I sent off from Karachi quite a while ago. I wanted the repairs in Karachi to be focussed on the damaged combat ships that I have there. These damaged transports then also acted as "canaries in a coal mine". I had a few other transports going south too - I'm sending them back to Karachi and sending the troops on the long march to Tibet. Not all the news was disappointing. As I had hoped, I did catch some planes on the ground in Kendari: Day Air attack on Kendari, at 33, 71 Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 7 Allied aircraft B-17E Fortress x 50 Japanese aircraft losses A6M2 Zero: 4 destroyed, 2 damaged L2D2 Tabby: 12 destroyed, 5 damaged G4M1 Betty: 2 destroyed, 2 damaged Allied aircraft losses B-17E Fortress: 3 destroyed, 17 damaged Airbase hits 3 Airbase supply hits 4 Runway hits 21 I presume that those Tabbys were what transported a few Japanese troops into Lautem: Ground combat at Lautem Allied Deliberate attack Attacking force 546 troops, 9 guns, 0 vehicles Defending force 103 troops, 2 guns, 0 vehicles Allied assault odds: 7 to 1 (fort level 0) Allied forces CAPTURE Lautem base !!! Japanese ground losses: 19 casualties reported Guns lost 1 Allied ground losses: 5 casualties reported Guns lost 1 Defeated Japanese Units Retreating! I find this almost impossible to believe - some of my troops actually defeated some Japanese troops! (My troops were Auzzies - goes to show you that I do have a few good troops around.) The only other relatively positive news that I received was that some of PzB's Bettys in Kwajalein went after a "juicy" target in Tarawa, with unhappy results for the bombers: Day Air attack on TF, near Tarawa at 85, 91 Japanese aircraft G4M1 Betty x 12 Allied aircraft F4F-4 Wildcat x 16 Japanese aircraft losses G4M1 Betty: 17 destroyed, 4 damaged Allied aircraft losses F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 damaged Allied Ships BB North Carolina This was tempered by the second "kick-at-the-can" by the Bettys which did hit a transport: Day Air attack on TF, near Tarawa at 85, 91 Japanese aircraft G4M1 Betty x 3 Allied aircraft F4F-4 Wildcat x 16 No Japanese losses No Allied losses Allied Ships AK Steel Voyager, Torpedo hits 1, on fire Yes, it looks like tough times ahead for a while. Dave Baranyi
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