Grotius -> 1942年1月4日 (3/25/2010 4:10:37 AM)
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1942年1月4日 Five thousand hornets wait at the Port of More Bees, but none of them fly --------------------------- Excellency, I cleverly forgot to move forward my battleship group, which is at Kavieng, so it is now a little behind the invasion force and Kido Butai. Perhaps it can catch up without slowing down the entire operation. I intend to use the surface group to cover the invasion and, probably, bombard. I have attached a map below. In other news, I have forced enemy fighters out of Clark Field, and now they sit on the ground at Manila, whose airfield is also becoming pockmarked. Thus the way is now clear for naval attacks on enemy shipping still there. My Ki-21 bombers damaged some ships in port at Manila, and one squadron of G4M torpedo bombers reportedly sank an enemy destroyer as well. I have started seeing more enemy ships fleeing through the Dutch East Indies, where I am now loading up to invade Sorong, Ternate, and surrounding bases. In Malaya, I took Taiping, cutting off Georgetown, and will begin the assault on Georgetown tomorrow. In Burma, I am marching north of Tavoy. In China, some small offensives to take poorly-defended resource centers, but my adversary and I are both relatively inactive there. I am mulling over aircraft production. Here are some current numbers. I intend to expand Zero production, switch Lily production to Ki21-IIa Sally or Zero, and phase out Oscar I-a and I-b. With the newly-discovered drag on our heavy industry from trainee pilots (this being the "Hakko Ichiu" scenario), I have thus far been somewhat conservative with factory expansion, but I recognize I must expand more soon. Ki-43-Ic Oscar: 28 in pool, 98 built/month, 14 repairing. A6M2 Zero: 56 in pool, 92/month, 2 repairing. I assume I need to expand this. Among other things, I still have at least 2 Claude squadrons to upgrade -- one on CVE Taiyo, one in the Marshall Islands. (The Claudes in the Home Islands are fine as trainers.) CVE Taiyo is at Palau, unable to upgrade yet. My handling of my CVLs/CVEs has been downright comical, but that is another haiku, excellency. Ki-21-IIa Sally: 13 in pool, 52/month, none repairing. I will want to try the Helen as well, but this is a very good medium bomber, and I foresee using many. E13A1 Jake: 55 in pool, 50/month, 4 repairing. PDU is on, and I intend to switch other float planes to this model. G4M1 Betty: 43 in pool, 50/month, 0 repairing. Ki-48-Ib Lily: 86 in pool, 34/month, 0 repairing. Past due time to convert this to something else: perhaps A6M2, D3A Val, or Ki-21-IIa Sally. The excuse for my procrastination has been the many Lily squadrons yet to arrive, but I don't need this many. D3A1 Val: 40 in pool, 24/month. I should expand this, or convert the Lily factory. G3M2 Nell: 92 in pool, 22/month. Should phase out in favor of G4M. Ki-56 Thalia: 0 in pool, 22/month. My army transport of choice. Ki-15-II Babs: 23 in pool, 21/month. My recon plane of choice. B5N1 Kate: 67 in pool, 20/month. Should phase this out and produce Val or B5N2 Kate. Ki-43-Ia Oscar: 11 in pool, 20/month. Likewise, should convert this to something else. B5N2 Kate: 67 in pool, 16/month. H6K4 Mavis: 21 in pool, 12/month. Ki-57 Topsy: 1 in pool, 12/month. Ki-46-II Dinah: 21 in pool, 11/month. E14Y1 Glen: 16 in pool, 9/month. (Even if I could upgrade these to Jakes, I wouldn't do so, for as I understand it the Jake couldn't operate on a submarine.) C5M2 Babs: 12 in pool, 7/month. L3Y1 Tina: 4 in pool 6/month. My navy transport of choice, until the Tabby. Ki-46-I Dinah: 8 in pool, 5/month. F1M2 Pete: 26 in pool, 3/month; not sure when to halt this in favor of Jake. I assume Pete squadrons can happily convert into Jake squadrons; I need to experiment to be sure. (Is it "gamey" to do this with ship-borne float planes? E.g., I always stuck with Glens in WITP for historical reasons.) Still researching both Tojo and Tony, though I prefer the Tojo and will probably mostly produce that. As for engines, my current under-produced models are: Nakajima Ha-35: 110 in pool, 226/month, 74 repairing. Still probably not enough. Mitsubishi Ha-32: 2 in pool, 118/month, 107 repairing. Possibly enough. Ha-33: 25 i pool, 93/month, 57 repairing. Probably not enough. All other engine models have large stockpiles and/or sufficient production for the time being. Here is the promised image from the South Pacific. The main force is at Green Island, escorted by Kido Butai and an ASW group. As I mentioned, battleships at Kavieng. A smaller Buna/Gasmata invasion force is nearing Rabaul. Other ships are delivering an Air HQ to Rabaul. Invasion of Hollandia imminent to the north. [image]local://upfiles/7808/DFCD56766978446FB85A6315ABE41735.jpg[/image]
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