Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
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John just returned the turn file for June 14, 1944 and I "guessed right" that Nagasaki wouldn't be heavily defended. The results of the raid, which involved hundreds of 4EB from China, Iwo Jima, and Sikhalin Island: 1) Iwo's compliment was the first to arrive, with 65 P-38Js, 100 B-24s, and 22 B-17Gs faced a CAP of 38 Zeke, 27 Tojo, and 1 Rufe. In the battle between fighters, the Japs lost 12 Zeke, 14 Tojo, and a Rufe while the Allies lost just a single P-38 and then two B-24s. The bombers were targeting Repair Shipyard, Naval Shipyard, and Frank Aircraft Factory and scored against the first two, reducing the Naval Shipytard from 293 (0) to 242 (51), and reducing the Frank Factory from 20 (19) to 13 (26). 2) Next came 38 B-29s from Changsha facingt 14 Tojo and 21 Zeke, which managed to destroy one of the big bombers. The Superforts targeted the port facilities and hit paydirt: CA Mogami 9 hits "heavy damage"; CA Aoba 3 hits "on fire"; ML Hoho 1 hit "on fire"; AR Liverpool Maru 1 hit "on fire"; and AR Shiganoura Maru 2 hits. 3) Only 21 B-29s sortied from Shikuka (the other 100 decided to take the day off), destroyed 1 Tojo, and didn't seem to score any hits (they had been assigned to resources and port facilities). 4) The shorter-legged bombers from Shikuka hit Sendai's Resources: 51 PBY Liberators, 30 B-17Gs and 34 B-24Gs preceded by 20 P-38s making a fighter sweep (losing 5 while the Japs lost 7 Tony, 2 Zeke, and 3 Jack). The bombers were escorted by 21 P-38s which tangled with the fighter CAP, 11 P-38s and 2 PBYs going down to 1 Jack, 4 Zeke, and 2 Tony for the Allies. The bombers scored 21 Resource hits. 5) Far to the South, the Japs had been using Camranh Bay's airfield to raid Hue, so the Allies scheduled a big raid from Rangoon: 34 B-29, 3 B-17, 20 Liberator III, and 9 B-24s faced 12 George and 11 Zeke. The Allies lost 1 B-29 and destroyed 17 aircraft on the ground. Primarily as a result of these raids, the Japs lost 74 aircraft on the day (51 a2a, 17 field, 6 ops) to 43 for the Allies (33 a2a, 4 flak, 6 ops). The Allies now have 5,484 Strategic Bombing Points. For the first time, the point spread dropped below 2,000. The Japs now lead 53,591 to 51,658. This was just a single day in the Strategic Bombing campaign. The Allies were fortunate to guess right and hit a lightly defended target. Some days John will guess right. But the Strategic Bombing is having a huge impact in the game and I think John has to come up with something to address it. His CAP isn't sufficient, it appears, so I think he has to hit either Iwo or Sikhalin Island; I'm guessing the former. This also illustrates why the entire Allied strategy focused on getting these bases in the first place, and now focuses on protecting them.
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