CapAndGown
Posts: 3206
Joined: 3/6/2001 From: Virginia, USA Status: offline
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April 4, 1942 Today was an awful, horrible, terrible, no-good day for the allies. They came in droves for the oil. And they died in droves. For the cost of 10 Nicks and 4 Tojo's, the Japanese destroyed about 140-150 allied AC. Between 111 and 127 were lost A2A. Our fighter sentai's claimed 118 kills between them. Two new aces were created today, and 5-7 pilots graduated to TRACOM. The only good news for the allies was that they destroyed about 100 oil centers at Magwe, leaving only about 78 operational. First came the sweeps: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47 Weather in hex: Clear sky Raid detected at 46 NM, estimated altitude 35,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 11 minutes Japanese aircraft Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 59 Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 42 Allied aircraft Hurricane IIc Trop x 16 Japanese aircraft losses Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 1 destroyed Allied aircraft losses Hurricane IIc Trop: 3 destroyed -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47 Weather in hex: Clear sky Raid detected at 43 NM, estimated altitude 34,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 14 minutes Japanese aircraft Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 52 Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 40 Allied aircraft P-40K Warhawk x 25 Japanese aircraft losses Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 1 destroyed Allied aircraft losses P-40K Warhawk: 7 destroyed Next came the bombers with extremely heavy escort -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47 Weather in hex: Clear sky Raid detected at 160 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 63 minutes Japanese aircraft Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 48 Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 35 Allied aircraft Hurricane IIb Trop x 16 Hurricane IIc Trop x 64 Vengeance I x 80 P-40K Warhawk x 50 No Japanese losses Allied aircraft losses Hurricane IIb Trop: 1 destroyed Hurricane IIc Trop: 11 destroyed Vengeance I: 6 destroyed, 9 damaged P-40K Warhawk: 10 destroyed Oil hits 60 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47 Weather in hex: Clear sky Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 41 minutes Japanese aircraft Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 20 Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 11 Allied aircraft Blenheim IV x 32 Liberator II x 28 Wellington Ic x 16 B-25C Mitchell x 48 P-40E Warhawk x 25 P-40K Warhawk x 25 No Japanese losses Allied aircraft losses Blenheim IV: 1 destroyed, 1 damaged Liberator II: 1 damaged B-25C Mitchell: 1 damaged P-40E Warhawk: 3 destroyed Oil hits 51 By now, our CAP is getting rather thin -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morning Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47 Weather in hex: Clear sky Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 15 minutes Japanese aircraft Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 4 Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 3 Allied aircraft Hurricane IIc Trop x 16 Wellington Ic x 12 Japanese aircraft losses Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 1 destroyed Allied aircraft losses Hurricane IIc Trop: 1 destroyed Wellington Ic: 1 destroyed, 2 damaged Oil hits 1 Interestingly, the allies came again in the afternoon. This, in my view, was a mistake, since it let our CAP reorganize in-between phases. It also meant, I believe, that his escorts were especially vulnerable in the afternoon because of the fatigue they had accumulated in the morning. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Afternoon Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47 Weather in hex: Partial cloud Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 27 minutes Japanese aircraft Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 46 Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 24 Allied aircraft Hurricane IIb Trop x 5 Hurricane IIc Trop x 33 B-24D1 Liberator x 24 P-40K Warhawk x 43 No Japanese losses Allied aircraft losses Hurricane IIc Trop: 4 destroyed B-24D1 Liberator: 3 damaged P-40K Warhawk: 7 destroyed Oil hits 9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Afternoon Air attack on Magwe , at 57,47 Weather in hex: Partial cloud Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 15,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 41 minutes Japanese aircraft Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 20 Ki-45 KAIa Nick x 13 Allied aircraft Hurricane IIc Trop x 13 B-24D1 Liberator x 12 P-40E Warhawk x 20 Japanese aircraft losses Ki-45 KAIa Nick: 1 destroyed Allied aircraft losses Hurricane IIc Trop: 2 destroyed B-24D1 Liberator: 5 damaged P-40E Warhawk: 4 destroyed Oil hits 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few side observations: witpqs obviously waited for a good weather forecast before striking. As in the last raid, the lower level raids are detected further out than the high level raids. Could the logic be reversed in the code? Also, the strategic bombing capability is definitely overrated. OTOH, the model for escorting bombers seems to be somewhat off. Surely his escorts need not have suffered this badly and should have been able to hurt my boys somewhat more? Perhaps there is a skill level difference here since at least two of my Tojo sentai's have high experience. (not skill - - no one graduates from my training program until their air skill is 70 and their defense skill is 50.)
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