Almost forgot, 3 Battleships bombarded Paotow, they destroyed all those pesky British torpedo boats and the area being clear, also killed about 400 Chinese troops in the garrison.
The US built a pretty good number of carriers (in the teens) over the course of the war. Knocking out 3-5 of them (as he might be able to do in this coming battle) pretty much guarantees him superiority for a very long time--until the US can replace not just one of those, but enough to challenge Kido Butai again. This sort of series of defeats in detail is exactly how Japan has to fight to win.
Yep, and especially the US carriers are important. They wont be getting too many (more) carriers until Spring 1943 which is 360 turns from now. Any carrier loss they are given NOW will push them back for months. Killing Enterprise and every single of its escort vessels, including 3 heavy cruisers, for the loss of just TWO planes was a major victory. But not enough, a second victory of that kind is needed to buy the time.
I was waiting for the Amis to react to the Rabaul invasion, which they never did. I had a discussion with my opponent, and apparently he had absolutely no idea the KB was in the area, and the raid to Aussieland's NE coast and Port Moresby came as a complete surprise. Probably he now still expects the KB to lurk somewhere in the vicinity and is afraid to commit his carriers. Unless he has moved them to the West Coast, they are probably somewhere around Fiji, or Pearl Harbour. Japanese submarines would have spotted the search planes if they were in Australia, and I don't think hes taking the risks of not using the search planes. Losing a carrier to a submarine would be too much.
Current
estimated carrier situation is,
Imperial Japanese Navy:
Kido Butai at Hong Kong, 4 days from (fully) ready to sortie:
CV Akagi, flag ship Red Castle
CV Kaga
CV Zuikaku
CV Soryu
CV Hiryu
CV Shokaku
CVL Ryujo
CVL Shoho
----------------
165 A6M2 Zero, 155 B5N, 130 D3A1
Mini-KB at Celebes Sea:
CVL Zuiho
CVE Hosho
----------------
20 A6M2 Zero at (12 more after refits), 20 B5N
Reserve at Kobe:
CVE Taiyo
----------------
no aircraft, one Zero unit moving to Home Islands for carrier operations training
USN:
TF 58:
CV Saratoga
CV Wasp
CV Yorktown
1-2 CVEs
-------------
~210 aircraft, absolute max. 270(but they dont have enough (adequate) planes and pilots to do that)
Wildcat, probably still some Buffaloes, SBD-2 and 3, TBT Vindicator(which is a useless junk)
Royal Navy:
CV Indomitable (?)
CVE Hermes
------------
max 70 aircraft in total, mostly hopelessly outdated models. Especially bombers are very poor.
Tactically, IJN's advantages are of course numerical superiority(for now), quality of pilots and planes(Japanese strike further with torpedoes and bring heavier bomb load further). USN CTF's only advantages are defensive position in which they might be able to use land based air units in the upcoming carrier battle, as well as their Fleet Carriers being faster. They can do 30 or 31 knots, where the Kido Butai has to go with the slowest carrier which is Kaga at 27 knots. However unlike the Japanese CVLs, the US escort carriers can only do 16-18 knots. If they want to use all their numbers, they will have to give up their speed advantage, and with some good Japanese planning, a max-range engagement can be forced to deny the Americans their ability to strike back.
British will move 2-3 more carriers to the Theatre during the next 5 months, Americans at least 1, and another CVE. That means we have max 5 months to force the carrier battle at our terms. Construction of CV Junyo is being hurried(expending 3 times the normal HI and NSY points for construction), and is 31 days away. Its a big carrier that can in theory hold 60 planes, it has belt and deck armour, good array of AAA guns, but can only do 25 knots. I'm still going to attach it to the KB, there just are never enough carriers... 3 months away is also its sister ship, the Hiyo.
But I thought the whole point of America's strength was its superiority in its rate of manufacturing, was it not? Would those carriers be built again if destroyed even at this point?
It is. From mid-43 onwards they build so many fighters alone that even the Japanese pilot training cant keep up. One year more and the really Big Gear kicks in, there is absolutely no hope of a long-term victory when they can replace ANY casualty given within months. Thats why its important to get early victories, move ahead as quick as possible, get the oil and resources to run the industry with, build pools and reserves and prepare to what will inevitably come.
When the US monster fleets with literally 50 carriers sail the seas with 800-1,000 Hellcats and Corsairs CAPing theres nothing left to do, but for now we can prevent them from keeping their carriers alive to actually build that fleet. Each loss they now receive puts the unstoppable monster fleet back at least 2 months.
EDIT: I'd have "better" uses for my land based bombers but I'm preparing for the carrier battle, so I already have bombers in Bedeloab, Truk, Kwajalein, and some fighters. If possible I want to use the land based air to support the carrier based... Even if they would go in before the carriers' squads and get slaughtered, there would be less fighters in the CAP waiting. KB will also always have the escort destroyers and a battleship squadron with it to give AAA support and draw fire. Any of the Japanese battleships can survive an attack by the whole current USN carrier based air force, but none of the carriers can, without cover, not even bad weather at enemy bombers' extreme range.
Also lots of reserve cruisers, destroyers and submarines at Truk and Kwajalein ready to react to whatever will come. I hope he doesnt strike quite yet, 7 days thank you.
edit 2: also Secret Operation "P" underway, the big day is Feb 2nd... It includes 8 submarines of various sizes, and lots of sake.
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Topic: War in the Pacific: AE PBEM - July 1st 1942 (Read 93485 times)