Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
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6 Feb 42 Sub War Nothing new to report. 5 Fleet Nothing new to report. 4 Fleet Nothing new to report. SE Fleet Two sweeps of Pt. Moresby occurred, one from Lae and the other from Gasmata. Total losses were 4x P-39Ds (along with a couple of op losses) to one Zero (0 pilots lost). Very good. He’s down to a handful of P-39s left there. I’ll continue to sweep. Elsewhere in the area, small invasion forces are enroute to their destinations. The most important of them is the invasion of Milne Bay. I’d like to build up a fighter strip there. The more fighter strips available to sweep Pt. Moresby the better. Right now he’s not in a position to place bombers at Pt. Moresby. I want to keep it that way. Right now I can sweep with ~60-70% of the fighters from each airfield. If I have to worry about bombers, that number of sweeps would be cut in half. I have 8x Ro class subs patrolling south of Pt. Moresby. I see the odd ship and try to engage it. Ted has a huge garrison there (~20k troops) but not a lot of convoys heading in and out of the port. I’m trying to determine a good way to cut supply off to starve them out for a while before invading at some point in the future. I’m considering stopping the subs from patrolling and just lining them up in a row to catch whatever convoys move to supply PM. I think I might try a row of 6 subs with the other 2 as replacements when fuel and/or torpedoes run low. What do you guys think? I think Ted has supply issues at Pt. Moresby. There is little building going on there (may be just a lack of engineers though). I suspect most of his supply is going to keeping his fighters in the air (for however a brief time they survive) and to feed his troops. I am going to start doing a LRCAP mission with a Zero chutai to kill off any potential TR missions. I haven’t seen any yet, but that could change. This is an air supremacy campaign over Pt. Moresby, along with denial of the Allied SLOC there. The only effective weapons he has in the area are his Dutch and S class subs. I wish I had an effective counter to that. Fortunately, there is little that his subs can do down there right now. The only ships I have at sea in the area are ASW TFs and a few small invasion TFs. Lately, his subs there have done nothing except be targets for my air ASW. I get several reported hits each day, but I doubt if many (or any) are real. They are keeping his sub’s heads down. China Nothing new to report. Malaya Nothing new to report. Burma Another DA of Rangoon is wearing down the defenders. A 1:1 attack reduced the fort to level 1 and caused 596(60) Allied losses to 789(10) Japanese losses. Another attack will occur tomorrow. Taung Gyi has been occupied by a JAAF AF Bn (24 AS). The airfield level is only one, but is being worked on to increase it. A construction battalion will arrive shortly to enhance the engineer capability. SRA Merak has been successfully invaded! There is a defender there. The 21 IMB will attack tomorrow. The rest of the invasion force is an independent engineer regiment and a JAAF AF Bn. The airfield is only level 1 but will be increased to 2. Until then, the Tojo chutai will occupy the airfield and perform CAP. The invasion fleet was completely unloaded today. Tomorrow the invasion fleet will head back to Tobali. The CAs will remain at Merak. Tomorrow the Oosterbeek Invasion fleet will sail to Merak, staging for the Oosterbeek invasion the next day, supported by the CAs. The Semarang Invasion fleet (central Java) is 4 hexes out from that base and will land tomorrow. It is escorted by a 4x BB, 1 DD TF with MKB (Zuiho, Shoho, Hosho and Chitose) providing cover. A couple of Allied subs have reared their ugly heads so I’m being cautious with MKB. MKB is a few hexes south of Balikpapan right now and will move NW hugging the coast of Borneo while supporting the invasion force. This invasion force is 1 brigade of 21 Division. It has 2 missions: 1. Gain a foothold in central Java. 2. Lure out the Allied ships (Repulse?) sitting in port at Soerabaja. Once the Allied BB is sunk, the full might of the Java invasion force will move in. Tandjoengselor (the base next to Tarakan) was finally taken. The Allied garrison (VII KNIL Bn and Tarakan Base Force) surrendered for no loss to the Japanese. The Nells hit the port of Soerabaja chipping the paint on CL Sumatra with 2x 60 kg bombs while losing one of their number. Sumatra is still showing as heavily damaged. Other Stuff Reinforcement: 38 JNAF AF Unit – Southern Area Army This month, I’m tracking the amount of fuel, oil and resources that are being shipped to Japan from sources outside the Home Islands. Here are the minimum monthly needs: Fuel: 240k Oil: 100k Resources: 1041k Here’s what’s shipped so far: Fuel: 81,200 Oil: 2,100 Resources: 296,910 I don’t expect to achieve the minimums until Summatra and Singapore are liberated. Keep in mind that the fuel produced at Balikpapan and Tarakan (and later, the Java excess) is used for fleet operations and is not going to Japan. So right now, I have only Miri and Brunei producing oil and fuel and resources coming out of C/M/K, along with a couple of other small bases. Miri still has 100 damaged oil centers. Everything else is fully operational. I still haven’t taken Magwe in Burma. I hope to have some fighters to protect it when I do take it. A JAAF AF Bn (along with some AA units) are enroute there so I can put defensive fighters there as soon as I take it. I recovered another missing pilot!
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