gladiatt -> RE: THE EMPIRE STRIKE BACK (3/5/2010 10:17:52 AM)
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July 1942 ; 1st to 5th july. Burma Battle at Mandalay ongoing, but failure on my side. Look at the previous map; the outflanking by 22nd chinese div is not enough (well, it seem so) to deprive supply to 55th and 33rd jap div. After 5 day of deliberate attack, my troops are disrupted and exausted. The weather is on japanese side: no raids took off from India in 5 days !! With no air support, my local counterstrike stall.... Andaman. Another supply convoy slaughtered. Once again, weather is on japanese side : with thunderstorms in Bay of Bengal, i tought i could try to send a convoy of 5 AK; reaching Andaman on 4th of july, it is attacked by Nells/bettys spotting the ships despite the clouds !! My Buffalos (488 sqdr) and Hurricanes (20th sqdr) take off to defend my freighters. Buffalos are downed by the zeros and oscar escorting the bettys, but 20th sqdr do a good job. PO C.Baker down 3 oscar on 5th of july. The 2 days cost me 3 AK (the 2 others won't float for long) and 7 buffalos, 1 hawk for 8 oscar and 1 zero A6M2. Of the 35000 supplies from the freighters, roughly 1500 are unloaded in Andaman, rest is burned..... SoPac. Weather still on japanese side. May be i should start to make offering to the god of storms and clouds, or dance for sun and clear weather ??? For 3 days, no raids hammered the airfields of Koumac and Efate. With luck ,these were so damaged that when i was able to strike once again on 5th of July, no japanese flight defend these base. Also flak seem non existant (lack of supply??). Now, about my BB TF BB Nevada was left alone because too slow for the others ships. On 4th july, the ship was under a cover of clouds and escaped any japanese raid. But on 5th of July, 32 Kate and 5 vals attack it. My AA ammo was 0, so no flak did counter these planes...after 1 bomb and 5 torpedoes (and already 3 torpedoes received 2nd of july) the ship sink.... North of Nevada, another TF try to reach cover. BB Maryland, Arizona and West Virginia are attacked on 4th of july by 35 kates. No F4F from Noumea managed to cover the TF: bad weather prevented to take off [:@]. BB Arizona take 2 bombs, BB Maryland 6 and BB West Virginia 2; as for Nevada, my AA ammo are 0, nil, nada, niet, rien, nothing. My ships are harmless. On 5th of july, VMF 221 manageto give cover to the TF; a raid of 4 zeros, 10 Vals and 33 kate is countered by 5 F4F; 4 vals and 5 kate are downed, and only 1 bomb hit is scored on BB Arizona. 1st Lt Clark score 3 kills (for a total of 4). Anyway, these ships, even if very endurant, could sink before reaching port.... [image]local://upfiles/28894/0CDD34CDAB04409283978815AC15EED4.gif[/image] The japs CV are at striking range from Noumea. 65 bombers are ready to attack....but weather is on japanese side, and no attack occur [8|].
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