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gladiatt -> DISAPOINTING BURMA (8/26/2010 5:20:33 PM)
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1st - 10th february 1943
- 1st february, weather grounded ALL my planes in Burma/India....[8|];
(did i ever tell you that i hate the weather in India/Burma ??? Oh yes, i think i already told you [8|][;)] ).
-2nd february. A raid on Rangoon Port was aiming the 2 unindentified ship in it.
Only the 4E from Dacca fly the mission: the B-25C bomber group from Akyab stayed on ground (weather, or moral ?)
The raid gathered 132 4E and 38 fighters....and encounter a huge CAP of 14 Tojo, 15 Nick and 118 Tony [X(][sm=scared0008.gif].
Fortunately, with luck, it did not turn to a one sided slaughter: 5 P-40E, 18 P-38, 2 F5A (Ouch, i don't have any left in the pool) and 15 4E are destroyed. But 1 Tojo, 7 nick and 38 Tony are destroyed !!
Sadly, no ships are hits in the port.
1 LT Conroy of 6th FS score 4 kills, reaching 8; and CPT Liles of 23th FG/B score 4 kills, reaching 6.
- 3rd february, once again, the weather ground my planes.
- 4th, the brits LBA harass the japs along the Irrawaddy frontline.
- 5th, nearly no mission are flown because of weather.
- 6th february, south Irrawaddy, 15 Liberators VI fly unescorted in the claws of a CAP of 9 Tojo, and managed to get through unharmed. But the following raid suffer from this lak of luck and coordination.
A raid of 30 LB-30 loose 3 planes; than 20 B-25 from Akyab, still unescorted, loose 5 planes.
- 7th, 8th and 9th february see most allied bombers flying without opposition , scoring some lights results on the japs ground units.
The weather prevent most of my LBA to fly.
ON GROUND
The south tip of my forces, still stucked by the japs ZOC, start to suffer some lack of supply. Hence, i ordered one half of the units to stop land bombardement, trying to save some supply.
Despite this fact, on 10th february, 3rd Carabiniers regiment of Col Lejeune launch an attack (this is the only unit of the stack to do so). While the odds are 0/1, it cause 200 japs casualties for 63 allied.
The japs maybe start to suffer lack of supply too: in these 10 days, the artillery bombardement from the japs cause 300 allied casualties only on the 2 hex of the frontline. My own forces cause 2300 japs casualties by bombardement.
ANDAMAN
I take advantage of the fact that, in order to protect this new base, the japs must fly LRCAP from Victoria Point, 5 hexes away, and thus having a CAP not too powerful.
- On 3rd february, 9 B-24 encounter 8 A6M3a. 1 zero is downed, 2 hits are scored on runway.
- On 4th february, 6 B-24 encounter 6 zeros and 5 Nick. 1 zero is downed. 1 hit scored on runway.
- On 5th, 16 B-24 get through the CAP and score 2 hits on runway.
- On 6th, 10 B-24 score 1 hit on airbase and 1 on runway.
Although the raids are not costly, this kind of results won't help me in shutting this base.
And this is important, because allowing Bettys to fly from here would put at risk every TF from Diamond Harbor to Colombo.
- At last, on 7th february, the weather allow me to send a big raid. 56 4E bombers get through the CAP, but score only 1 hit on base and 8 on runway. Disapointing.
LUANG PRABANG
This base once more host japanese planes on 8th february. This base is now a level 5 airfield !! [X(]. But i can't see the use of such a level, except raising the Base Victory point of Jan.
On 9th, a sweep of 16 P-38 of AVG/A from Yunan has nothing to clear. A raid of 21 LB-30 from Dacca destroy 2 zeros on ground and score 10 hits on the runway.
But on 10th, for some reason, the sweep came after....30 LB-30 tangle with 19 Tony, loosing 3 planes for no results on the ground.
Finaly, 14 P-38 of AVG/A down 11 of the 12 Tony on CAP !
AVG/A is really a legendary unit !
[image]local://upfiles/28894/4B1411AF3DDC44D79BA533EF35438EA8.gif[/image]
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