Lokasenna
Posts: 9297
Joined: 3/3/2012 From: Iowan in MD/DC Status: offline
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May 15 More sub action in the SRA and near Japan. Some xAKs sunk. MM loses 216 planes in what looks to have been a sort of lucky air strike from Buna. Looks like an enormous Kate unit based there (prime reason I don't plan to fight near air complexes like this*) is what got through. CV Wasp is hit by 2 torpedoes and crippled, but not in immediate danger of sinking. The combat report lists heavy fires, heavy damage, but when I load the turn she only has 2 fires remaining. Damage is 34 / 58(33) / 13(1) / 2. She can still make 2 hexes per day even at cruising speed. CV Hornet is hit by 1 torpedo and her flight operations are knocked out. Initial damage is 14 / 43(25) / 3(1) / 0. CV Yorktown "suffers" a FOW torpedo hit. No damage. CVE Prince William continues to make a few hexes every few days, and damage is holding steady at 43 / 86(58) / 20(7). Sys has creeped up from 40, and flooding is actually up to 86 after decreasing to 84 last turn. Just a few more hexes to port. I lost 24 planes on the day to shoot down over 4 times that many Kates in air-to-air alone. 20 new Aces today, with 2 new Double Aces. 5 guys got Ace in a Day; both of the Double Aces achieved this. Huge EXP bumps on my pilots for this. I hope his pilot losses were horrendous: this is Scen 1 and he'll run out. VP ratio down to 2.331:1. *Moresby was just fruit hanging too low. Minimal defenders, and worth a ton of VPs. Plus if I have it, maybe I can use it to shunt my way up to Wewak/Hollandia eventually. May 16 Sick of Buna's airfield, and knowing that he lost a lot of fighters, I raid the place during the day with my full bomber strength from Portland Roads. 125 P-38s also take part. I plan to completely obliterate it, and I do. quote:
Morning Air attack on Buna , at 99,129 Weather in hex: Partial cloud Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet. Estimated time to target is 13 minutes Japanese aircraft A6M5 Zero x 68 Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 21 Ki-44-IIb Tojo x 25 Allied aircraft B-17E Fortress x 29 B-24D Liberator x 25 B-24D1 Liberator x 8 B-25C Mitchell x 3 B-25D1 Mitchell x 20 P-38G Lightning x 68 PB4Y-1 Liberator x 7 Japanese aircraft losses A6M5 Zero: 1 destroyed, 19 damaged A6M5 Zero: 4 destroyed on ground Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 21 damaged Ki-44-IIa Tojo: 25 destroyed on ground Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 15 damaged Ki-44-IIb Tojo: 7 destroyed on ground B5N2 Kate: 15 destroyed on ground Allied aircraft losses B-17E Fortress: 6 damaged B-24D Liberator: 3 damaged B-24D Liberator: 1 destroyed by flak B-24D1 Liberator: 1 damaged B-25D1 Mitchell: 10 damaged B-25D1 Mitchell: 1 destroyed by flak P-38G Lightning: 1 destroyed PB4Y-1 Liberator: 3 damaged Japanese Ships xAP Kokuryu Maru, heavy damage xAP Kitano Maru ....Huh? No Port strikes, why are these showing up? Japanese ground losses: 22 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Airbase hits 73 Airbase supply hits 7 Runway hits 145 Aircraft Attacking: 7 x PB4Y-1 Liberator bombing from 2000 feet Airfield Attack: 10 x 500 lb GP Bomb 3 x B-24D Liberator bombing from 2000 feet Airfield Attack: 10 x 500 lb GP Bomb 8 x B-25D1 Mitchell bombing and strafing from low level Airfield Attack: 6 x 500 lb GP Bomb 6 x B-25D1 Mitchell bombing and strafing from low level Airfield Attack: 6 x 500 lb GP Bomb 8 x B-24D1 Liberator bombing from 2000 feet Airfield Attack: 10 x 500 lb GP Bomb 6 x B-25D1 Mitchell bombing and strafing from low level Airfield Attack: 6 x 500 lb GP Bomb 8 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 2000 feet Airfield Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb 3 x B-24D Liberator bombing from 2000 feet Airfield Attack: 10 x 500 lb GP Bomb 8 x B-24D Liberator bombing from 2000 feet Airfield Attack: 10 x 500 lb GP Bomb 8 x B-24D Liberator bombing from 2000 feet Airfield Attack: 10 x 500 lb GP Bomb 3 x B-24D Liberator bombing from 2000 feet Airfield Attack: 10 x 500 lb GP Bomb 9 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 2000 feet Airfield Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb 12 x B-17E Fortress bombing from 2000 feet Airfield Attack: 8 x 500 lb GP Bomb 3 x B-25C Mitchell bombing from 2000 feet Airfield Attack: 6 x 500 lb GP Bomb CAP engaged: 248th Sentai with Ki-44-IIb Tojo (1 airborne, 0 on standby, 0 scrambling) (1 plane(s) diverted to support CAP in hex.) 1 plane(s) intercepting now. Group patrol altitude is 25000 , scrambling fighters between 0 and 25000. Raid is overhead 252 Ku S-1 with A6M5 Zero (1 airborne, 3 on standby, 16 scrambling) 1 plane(s) intercepting now. Group patrol altitude is 38000 , scrambling fighters between 1000 and 38000. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 40 minutes 251 Ku S-1 with A6M5 Zero (2 airborne, 6 on standby, 20 scrambling) 2 plane(s) intercepting now. Group patrol altitude is 38000 , scrambling fighters between 2000 and 38500. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 42 minutes 202 Ku S-1 with A6M5 Zero (1 airborne, 3 on standby, 16 scrambling) 1 plane(s) intercepting now. Group patrol altitude is 38000 , scrambling fighters between 1000 and 38500. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 40 minutes 1st Sentai with Ki-44-IIb Tojo (2 airborne, 5 on standby, 17 scrambling) 2 plane(s) intercepting now. Group patrol altitude is 36000 , scrambling fighters between 4000 and 36740. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 32 minutes 50th Sentai with Ki-44-IIa Tojo (2 airborne, 4 on standby, 15 scrambling) 2 plane(s) intercepting now. Group patrol altitude is 18000 , scrambling fighters between 3000 and 36740. Time for all group planes to reach interception is 30 minutes His turn to get hit by large intercept times. Looks like I really made him pay for having all his guys on Escort and low CAP percentages: look at the number scrambling! Other fragments of the raid trickle in. Beaufighters get completely shot down, and some B-25s go on their own to do some damage but take more. He loses 115 planes to my 45 this day. 87 of his are on the ground. Buna's AF is reported as 99% damaged the next day. Awesome! If I have my way, he'll never use it again. That's a huge strategic swing in this theater, as Milne Bay is already not safe for him, leaving Lae, Rabaul, and Hansa Bay as the only AFs bigger than 0 or 1. Revenge is sweet. In his thirst to get my CVs, he lost one of his few level 8 AFs, maybe for good. My losses are broken down as follows: 14x 4Es, about half to flak and half to ops; 14 B-25s, 9 to A2A; 9 Beaufighters, all to A2A; 1 P-38 to ops. Other 11 plane losses are Ops or flak elsewhere around the map. 21 P-38Fs sweep last, and meet empty skies. Cool! Interesting: movement dots sighted within the stack at Lunga, heading NW to Tass. Subs take another couple of xAKs from him this turn.
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