Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
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25 May 43 Sub War Well, the I-29 found the Mississippi and put another torpedo into her. That’s torpedo #5 (or 6 maybe). I heard sinking sounds immediately afterward. I’m pretty sure she went down finally. I have no idea how many torpedoes I expended on her. Probably a whole sub’s worth. My elation was short lived, however. I had the RO-35 hanging out off Perth hoping to catch something. She did, and it was several depth charges and a watery grave. Less than 2 months old. I have another headed down there but she’ll keep moving around in an effort to stay alive and possibly cause some damage. 5 Fleet Interesting day today. At first, I was a bit miffed, but the more I think about it, I realized it was better strategically. I positioned my carriers so they would be available to strike Dutch Harbor but not Unmak. I forgot that the CAP over Unmak will leak the two hexes to Dutch Harbor. Sheesh. Anyhoo, I found the US BB TF, composed of at least 6 BBs. They launched 36 Judies (normal range so carrying 500kg bombs – yeah!) and 18 Kates carrying torpedoes. That’s 54 of 140+ bombers. Really? Well, at a cost of 3 Kates and 5 Judies, they put 2 torpedoes into the Pennsylvania, a torpedo into the New Mexico and Indiana and a penetrating bomb into Maryland. The other two (South Dakota and Arizona) each took 2 non-penetrating bombs. Kind of disappointing but better than nothing. Oh yeah, they were escorted by 55 Zeros! What a waste of fighters. Then, another attack went after a bunch of small TFs at Dutch Harbor. It was composed of 27 Kates escorted by only 14 Zeros. They were received by 14x P-400s and 16x P-40Es. Crap planes, right? I think Ted put the best pilots available in this trash. They shot down 5 Zeros for a loss of 3x P-40s then tore into the Kates, killing 15. No enemy ships were hit. *Sigh* I know, I need to sweep to kill them off. Lesson learned. My carriers were south of Unmak/Dutch Harbor and his BBs were west (yes, west) of my carriers. I figured he’d send the BBs after my carriers so I shifted them 4 hexes south for tomorrow. The 19 Division arrived and began unloading at Adak. They should be completely unloaded in a day or two. 4 Fleet Nothing to report. SE Fleet Ted continues to focus on Gasmata and Rabaul. By dividing his air strength between the two (plus small raids against Lunga, Tulagi, north eastern PNG and Shortlands), he is unable to effectively close down any of the major airfields. I don’t really care about the others. They are just targets. First was a sweep of 14x Kittyhawk IIIs against 23 Japanese fighters at Gasmata. Eight Kittyhawks went down to no Japanese losses. A second sweep of 8 more Kittyhawks resulted in 2 more of them and 2 Tojos going down. Another 4 Kittyhawks were op losses. So far so good, but my plane numbers keep reducing from damage, and low fuel and ammo. Fortunately, no bombers targeted Gasmata. Rabaul got 4 attacks, totaling 65x 4E and 34x 2E sorties with no fighter escorts against 34 Japanese fighters. Damage to the airfield was surprisingly light (+3 planes destroyed on the ground) and losses were 8 Allied bombers to 3 Japanese fighters shot down, 4 op losses and 3 planes destroyed on the ground. Not bad considering the number of sorties. Finally, I set up a CAP trap over Shortlands Island. A whopping 5 Japanese fighters showed up for the party against two attacks totaling 25 SBDs. Six DBs were shot down for no Japanese loss. I expect Ted to take more bases in this area. The longer he spends in this area, the better. SRA Burma Nothing to report. China The 3 Tank Division attacked the former Chengtu garrison trashing them some more. For no Japanese losses, the Chinese lost 1846(226) and retreated south. The 15 Tank regiment pursued. Other Stuff Oscar IIIa R&D advanced to 9/43. This model is expected to become operational on 7/43.
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