SierraJuliet -> July 1944 (5/12/2012 12:59:11 PM)
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30 July 1944 The Thunderbolts (plus Spitfires and Lightnings) return and as I expected the results are devastating for my airman defending Bangkok. 32 Lightning, 23 Spitfire VIII and 32 Thunderbolt II turn up to play. 87 Allied fighters against my mixed CAP of 102 planes. At staggering 80 planes from the CAP are reported lost. In return my pilots claim 9 Spitfires, 2 Lightnings and 5 of the Thunderbolts destroyed. A dreadful return but in terms of the qualitative differences in pilots totally expected at this stage of the war. The Allies now follow up with the bombers. The CAP has cracked and only 2 George and 1 Zeke are in the air. 63 Mitchells, 159 Liberators and 48 B-29s escorted by a massive 77 Thunderbolts and 21 Lightnings lay waste to the port. Port damage at Bangkok is now 47. In the afternoon, for good measure, another raid of 36 Mitchell come in an target a convoy offloading troops of the 2nd Armoured Division and 32nd Army. The Marus Kiso, Yosida, Uragami, Heimei and Hukko and take between 3 and 7 bomb hits. Luckily many of the ground troops are off but even so 523 casualties, 6 guns and 23 vehicles are reported lost. Krung Thep also comes in for some attention as 26 Lightning take on my scratch force of 5 Zeke, 4 George and 9 Frank. 1 Frank and 2 George are reported destroyed in return for claiming 6 of the Lightnings destroyed. A very good return and WO Mitsumoto S. of 33rd Fighter Sentai flying a Frank claims 4 of the kills and now has 10 to his credit. And he has moved his experience up to 83. Probably the only fighter pilot in this area that I have with experience over 80. With Krung Thep missing out on the bomber attention fort construction has moved on to 56%. Over at Tavoy the forts have reached level 3. I have the distinct impression that Todd is now using this as a holding force and is preparing for a sea borne invasion further south. In New Guinea Hollandia is invaded. I have a detachment of the 1st South Seas Detachment there but do not hold out hope of them surviving for long. I bring back my fighter force from Krung Thep to bolster the sadly depleted air defence of Bangkok. I now have 115 fighters there but at present 74 of them are damaged. If Todd has the capacity to follow up with another big air strike straight away he may well break my ability to mount a reasonable air defence in the Bangkok – Krung Thep area.
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