Oleg Mastruko
Posts: 4921
Joined: 10/21/2000
Status: offline
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30th Dec, I continue attacks vs Tarawa:
Day Air attack on Tarawa , at 85,91
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 11
Allied aircraft
P-38G Lightning x 83
F-5A Lightning x 7
B-17E Fortress x 75
B-24D Liberator x 72
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 19 destroyed
H8K Emily: 1 destroyed
G4M1 Betty: 19 destroyed
B5N Kate: 10 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
P-38G Lightning: 2 damaged
B-17E Fortress: 7 damaged
B-24D Liberator: 2 damaged
Japanese Ships
SS I-6, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
Japanese ground losses:
98 casualties reported
Guns lost 2
Airbase hits 14
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 96
Port hits 1
Port fuel hits 1
Port supply hits 4
BTW it's 9 hexes Baker to Tarawa, so B25s, which I have in abundance, can't make it, I may use only 4E heavies. I noted he has some ship in port (damaged sub) so I redirected some bombers to port attack, and sunk his sub.
His comment:
"This is so frustrating... my untrained zero pilots can do NOTHING against P-38s...
experience is around high 40s for the entirety of the IJN fighter AF... "
My reply:
"Well it's your fault, at least partially. It is my opinion you used your Zeros quite wastefully (since I took over, and then i "extrapolated" this to previous situation as well, because if you were so wasteful vs me, then I assumed you were certainly as wasteful before). For example using Zeros and Bettys en masse in air atrikes vs PM. What is the purpose of those strikes, unless you plan to invade PM? No matter how many Kittyhawks and Marauders you manage to destroy in the air and on the ground, I'll always get more, and you lose IJN pilots - for nothing (because you don't plan to invade nothing).
We had one very huge battle over Gili Gili - you, apparently, sent CV Zero squadrons to defend the place, I sent the massive strike, and that day I lost like 130 aircraft (mostly P-40), you lost 80+ Zeros - 90% of them in AA combat (which means pilot is usually dead).
My reasoning may be wrong, but that day is marked as the day you wasted your CV fighter pilots for practically no long term use.
To tell the truth, my P-40 production is not that big, and after some PM battles my 72-aircraft groups were down to 15 aircraft, with replacement pool down to 0. You almost wiped out my complete Australian-based P40 force, at what must be huge cost in Zeros and Betties, but unless you plan to capitalize on that and invade, there's no purpose.
As IJN I never send strikes unless I plan to invade very soon. (Or as maskirovka feint to make my opponent believe I will invade, but I'd take care not to lose 50 Zeros + pilots just to trick him into believing :o)
For quite a some time I explain in my AAR that I believe your Zero force (landbased and on CVs) must be paper tiger, with low EXP pilots, that will be crushed as soon as I manage to scrape together some CV force (and find guts to actually use it :o)
But, even after EXP gets low, Japanese can fight if they use mass of fighters, even if they are low EXP. This is what you do over Rangoon and I do in my other games as IJN. This works OK, but you can't mass fighters all over the map, just couple bases max. Also, it would take many days for your to transfer IJA aircraft to some remote Pacific island (leaving Indochina undefended, risking a lot).
Lets see what will London ask for this time..... I gave them an old cruiser back this month, but refused to give away DDs."
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RE: Bloody Shambles: BossGnome vs. Oleg - 
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