Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000
From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku
Status: offline
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Still no turn from Ted.  Time to give him a holler. Either he's really busy or he's discouraged with the game. I hope the former. If it is the latter, then that means he probably took a beating with his carriers. Anyway, here's the most recent turn:
16 Aug 43
Sub War
5 Fleet
Nothing to report.
4 Fleet
The Allied ships sitting at Vaitupu finally vacated the area. My two subs are sitting there looking at each other through their periscopes. My little surface fleet of 1 CA, 2 CL and 3 DD that was headed there for a visit is now headed toward SE Fleet area where there are a couple of Allied TFs that are begging to be victims of Long Lances.
SE Fleet
The 2 DD that were detached from the TF above are within striking distance of the APA TF sitting at Namatani (the dot base 1 hex east of Rabaul). Full speed!
An Allied TF composed of 7 CA, 6 CL and 5 DD bombarded Rabaul today (oh joy) trashing the place. The CA Minneapolis ate a mine on the way out. I’m determined to give away nothing cheaply.
The Allied bombers spread themselves around bombing everything in sight destroying a couple dozen planes on the ground in the process. Current damage is pretty bad:
Manus: 81-59-59
Kavieng: 83-73-95
Rabaul: 49-100-98
Talasea: 0-97-71
KB1 (Akagi, Kaga and Zuikaku) will be within 5 hexes of Namatani (the APA TF) and 7 hexes of the Allied carrier TF. I think the carriers are the 3 surviving CVEs. They have 50+ fighters and 20 bombers. If that’s the case, my carriers could do a number on them tomorrow. I have 136 fighters, 28 Judies, 36 Jills and 18 Kates. There aren’t a lot of bombers, but it should be enough to wreck them. I’m hoping to kill or drive off the carriers tomorrow so I can safely (relative term here) drop off some much needed supply at Rabaul (~18k) protecting my cargo ships with my carrier fighters.
This won’t stop the Allied bombers from wreaking havoc but with the Allied fleet out of the way, I’ll be able to control the seas more easily. The goal is to ship more supply to my beleaguered bases in the area.
SRA
Timoeka finally repaired all the damage (I caused) and completed level 1 forts. A couple more levels and that base should be good to go.
Burma
Four fighters showed up over Warazup (LRCAP and not a lot of supply) and shot down 4 bombers. The other 135 bombers sorties did no real damage to the tank regiment sitting there staring at the Chindits. I am going ahead with the operation to oust the Chindits. The 1 and 2 Tank Divisions and 5 Division (along with 18 Army HQ) are de-training in the base to the south and will move there in a few days. I can’t pass up on an opportunity to execute an operation where the odds are stacked in my favor. Every squad I kill delays the Brits that much more.
Just so you guys don't flip out, I'm beginning to pull back some of my frontline units to road hexes so they can more easily move about. It takes forever to move units out of jungle hexes and I really don't want them to get cut off.
China
The Chungking force finally got some supply so the artillery will bombard tomorrow. In the mean-time, about 135 2E bombers continue with their daily bombing raid of Chungking.
Other Stuff
So, the month of August has been a pretty successful month for the IJN. We have finally met the Allied carrier force and soundly defeated them for relatively small cost to ourselves.
Three days of carrier battles started on 8/1/43 with an Allied CV TF of CVs Hornet and Gettysburg (cool name for a CV  ) and CVLs Independence and Princeton catching the Junyo, Hiyo, Shoho and Zuiho sinking the Junyo and Zuiho and trashing Hiyo and Shoho for basically no damage to the Allied carriers. Total Allied cost was 19 aircraft. Not a good start. KB was to the west out of range. I recall spending a lot of time trying to decide whether to continue the battle or head for the hills. I knew there were more Allied carriers TFs out there in addition to this one too.
I chose to charge forward, mainly to try and save Hiyo and Shoho. On 8/6/43, my combined KB caught a CVE TF. The final tally was CVEs Anzio and Santee along with BB New Mexico and two DEs sunk. In addition, 10 other ships were damaged to varying degrees, a few severely. Total Japanese cost was 20 planes.
The other Allied CV TFs were still moving around. It seemed like a chess match. On 8/7/43, KB (2 full CV TFs) caught a single US CV TF heavily damaging the Saratoga and Wasp and lightly damaging Yorktown. The US retaliation was unsuccessful, with heavy losses on their part. My afternoon raid put more holes in the three US carriers. There were small raids on both sides that did little, but I did get a few more licks in on the remnants of the CVE TF. I have gotten confirmation of the sinking of Saratoga only. I don’t know the fate of the other 2 Allied CVs but they’re out of the fight for a long time if they survived. Total losses to the Japanese were about 65 aircraft, but only about half that number of pilots.
Here's what I know of the Allied carriers:
CV:
Hornet, 3x5” on 8/5/43, last spotted on 8/5/43, operational.
Gettysburg, last spotted 8/5/43, operational.
Wolverine (in honor of Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State’s nemesis  ), not spotted, operational.
Lexington, 1 sub torpedo, 1x500kg on 4/27/43, fuel storage explosion, last spotted on 4/27/43, should be repaired?
Enterprise, 1 aerial torpedo on 6/22/43, last spotted on 6/22/43, expected return end of August 43.
Essex, 1 sub torpedo on 6/26/43, expected return end of August 43.
Yorktown, 2x500, 1x250 on 8/7/43, fuel storage explosion, last spotted on 8/7/43, sunk or badly damaged.
Wasp, 2 aerial torpedoes, 2x500, 1x250 on 8/7/43, fuel storage explosion, sunk or badly damaged.
CVL:
Independence, last spotted 8/5/43, operational.
Princeton, 1x5” on 8/5/43, last spotted 8/5/43, operational.
Belleau Wood, not spotted, operational.
CVE:
Sangamon, not spotted, operational, part of the TF currently south of Rabaul?
Suwannee, not spotted, operational, part of the TF currently south of Rabaul?
Barnes, not spotted, operational, part of the TF currently south of Rabaul?
Corregidor, 2 sub torpedoes on 8/15/43, last spotted 8/15/43, sunk or badly damaged.
CVE-R:
Copahee, not spotted, operational.
Nassau, not spotted, operational.
Prince William, not spotted, operational.
Altamaha, not spotted, operational.
Breton, not spotted, operational.
Casablanca, not spotted, operational.
So, I see 3 CV, 3 CVL and 3 CVE (not counting the CVE-Rs) currently known to be operational with a potential 3 additional CV repaired soon. By the end of the year, another 2 CV, 4 CVL and 6 CVE are arriving.
Still long odds.
I have the following:
KB:
Akagi, operational.
Kaga, operational.
Soryu, operational.
Ryujo, operational.
Shokaku, operational.
Zuikaku, operational.
MKB:
Ryuho, operational.
Hosho, operational.
Chuyo, operational.
Unyo, operational.
Shoho, operational in Sep 43.
Taiyo, operational in Sep 43.
Hiyo, operational in Jan 44.
Plus, a few brand spanking new carriers…
By the end of Aug 43:
CVL Chitose, KB?
CVL Chiyoda, KB?
By the end of Sep 43:
CV Katsuragi, KB
CV Amagi, KB
CV Unryu, KB
CVL Mizuho, KB?
CVL Nisshin, MKB
That should be a surprise to Ted.
So, with no losses to either side, carrier capacity on 1/1/44 will be about 1173 Allied air capacity to 870 Japanese air capacity. Ouch. Hopefully, the losses and damage has made Ted a little guy shy.
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RE: Once Again into the Breach - Mike (J) vs. tc464 (A) - 
Bad for my attack, but not so bad for my CAP. Anyway, my Zeros shielded the bombers as well as they could. I lost 23 of 94 Zeros before the Hellcats broke through. The Hellcats didn't have a lot of time to ravage my bombers, shooting down 7 (of 27) Judies, 4 (of 27) Jills and 2 (of 9) Kates. Then my bombers went to work, mainly missing, with a few notable exceptions. 
I doubt she sinks but unless it's FOW, she'll need a repair yard too. 
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