CapAndGown
Posts: 3206
Joined: 3/6/2001
From: Virginia, USA
Status: offline
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June 3, 1942
Efate was invaded. Looks like Witpqs is moving very quickly to fill in the vacuum. He is using battalion sized units for these invasions, mostly paratroopers and raiders.
The bombardment of Broome was a disaster from the allied point of view. 10 P-47s and 6 P-40s were destroyed on the ground. I guess those P-47s were early arrivals since when I checked on the plane replacement pool for the allied side, they are not supposed to arrive until 7/43. Perhaps even worse for the allies, since they can replace the planes, was a reported 32 supply hits. Apparently armed forces in the Pacific stacked up their supplies on the beaches and covered them with big orange tarps so that they would be visible to the enemy from miles away. I am sure Milo cut a deal with somebody to arrange this. Anyway, that has got to suck since he had just unloaded a shipment of supply there. Trying to resupply those northern Australia bases can pretty much only be done by sea. So those supplies will be hard to replace.
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Naval bombardment of Broome at 62,127
Allied aircraft losses
P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 5 destroyed on ground
P-40K Warhawk: 3 destroyed on ground
Japanese Ships
CA Aoba
CA Haguro
CA Myoko
CL Naka
CL Noshiro
CL Agano
DD Yuzuki
DD Mochizuki
DD Mikazuki
DD Wakazuki
DD Niizuki
DD Hatsuzuki
Allied ground losses:
151 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 28 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Airbase hits 25
Airbase supply hits 32
Runway hits 240
Hopefully this will slow down any plans he may have for the development of northern Oz.
The combined fleet is pulling out of Nauru. First we head west. Next we may head south. In checking the reinforcement queue for the allies, I see that their big influx of CVs is not due until July. I thought it was June. The question here is twofold: where are the CVs now? and will he use what he has now or wait for reinforcements? Might the allied CVs be transiting to the Indian Ocean in preparation for an invasion of Malaya/DEI? That is a concern. If not, will they come out to counter a raid by my own fleet? Unknown. So I face a question of positioning the fleet so it can deal with invasions of either the Marshals/Solomons or Malaya. That argues for a basing at Sorong or Hollandia. Alternatively, a raid could draw out his carriers thus clarifying where his next offensive might be headed and result in a carrier battle before the July reinforcements. Right now the fleet is heading directly west from Nauru to the Solomons. From there the decision will have to be made whether to turn it south or north: south for a raid on his ships invading the New Hebrides, or north in order to rebase to a more central location and hide the position of the fleet. Decisions, decisions.
The presence of P-47s at Broome was quite a shock. None of my planes are a match for this monster. As a result, I reworked by R&D. I basically took every R&D factory that didn't look like it was going to produce anything in the way of useable research points (i.e. only 2 factories producing, or researching a plane that will show up in a few months anyway) and switched them over to the Tojo IIb. Why? Well the IIb is due in July. My experience has shown that when a factory is less than a month away from being production ready, the factories basically repair one point per day. So a 16 point R&D factory will generally repair in 16 days. So by the end of June, those IIb factories should be totally repaired. At that point, I can switch them over to researching the IIc model which is the one I really want. What I have also found is that if you switch a factory producing one model to the next model in its upgrade path, the factories are not damaged. They remain fully operational and don't need to be repaired. Thus, if this works out the way I think it will, I can have dozens of factories researching the Tojo IIc.
My plans, then, are to be producing Franks, Tojo IIc's, and Tony Id's in early 44 or late 43. The Franks because they are the fastest and most well armed plan the IJA has until 1946. The Tojo's because they have a service rating of one. And the Tony's because they have a service rating of two but better armament than the Tojo's.
As to the George and Jack: I think the Jack might actually be better than the George because it is faster. I have found at least one unrestricted squadron that can upgrade to the George (the 202). Two more in the Home Islands can upgrade to it. More importantly, there are reinforcements coming that can use the plane. And even though the 1 model has a service rating of 3, the 2 model has a service rating of 2. Same with the Jack. So I think it pays to research these guys. But don't waste the R&D factories by letting them convert to production factories. Switch them to the later model before the factory becomes active. You can then convert over an existing production factory (in my case an A6M3 factory is slated to be converted to the George) to produce the new plane. Since there are not that many groups that use it initially, you don't need to engage in a big expansion, just enough to outfit a couple of squadrons.
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Printable Version
RE: Counter Moves - 
What bad timing! One more day and they would not have been there. At any rate, they are heading south to the central Solomons to await developments. 
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