Caution, it may be a trap for you.
Wasnt a trap, April 18th;
...and G4Ms went in again, 1 x 250kg bomb penetrated Enterprise's deck again. She was left burning, raid is done again tomorrow in hopes of finishing her off.
25 B-17s, 8 B-25s and 16 B-26s raid Darwin. They destroy 10 planes on the ground, hit the airfield facilities pretty well, and shoot down 1 Zero. Zeroes manage to shoot down 6 B-26s though it wasnt all one sided. The heavy AAA guided by 5 radars doesnt even scratch the reasonably low flying heavy bombers.
In 13 days the first Ki-45 rolls out of the factory. I will probably send first available units to New Britain, as I hate those bombers that the elite Zero pilots cant touch. 1 x 20mm cannon and 2 heavy machine guns is not exactly what I would call heavy armament, but at least they are mounted in the nose and the plane is fast and armoured.
I dont understand why the Allies dont fly in Burma, they might lose planes 1:1 and currently I can outproduce Ki-43s and Zeroes, but every lost plane is a lost elite pilot for Japan, and those I would not allow to survive to fly better fighters later. And each time escorting a bomber strike failed, they would get 20-30 Jap bombers, with equal elite pilots, killed for virtually no losses of their own. He thinks that losing 2 puny Blenheims out of 60, against 50 Ki-43s, is "unsustainable loss rate" or something.
I heard that the Zero also had tons of propaganda behind it as being the best fighter ever that no allied fighter could match. And the leadership started to believe their own lies and why replace the best thing ever?
I doubt they were that idiotic to be like that, although, er, it's an interesting possibility. Can't confirm it myself though.
In any case, just curious, does the game reflect the change in the Allies' tactics when it comes to aerial fighting? Initially, the Allies adopted the similar tactic of dogfighting as the Japanese, but they then switched to the dive-bombing... er, fighting(?), tactic later on, using their superior speed. I mean, that created a rather large drastic change in air superiority from what I know.
Speed is already the most important single quality. The USN doctrine change was not due to just finding out a better tactic(Zero outturns, outruns, out-accelerates and outclimbs the Wildcat), but due to converting to the much heavier F6F. USN simply guided its pilots somewhat along the lines: "Do not try to outturn a Zero for more than 90 degrees. Do not try to outclimb a Zero. Do not scissor a Zero other than to gain separation to outrun or outdive it. Do not follow Zero if it evades by Split-S-ing)". Your plane's performance in relative to the enemy's tells you the doctrine and tactics, not the other way around. Speed is the factor that all fighter manufacturers tried to improve the most during the war, as speed is life, and can be exchanged to altitude, which is options.
The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 had the same advantages over Spitfire as F6F has over Zero: speed, high speed elevator authority, rate of roll especially at high speeds, dive. Despite Luftwaffe pilots fighting against incredible numerical superiority, Fw 190 scored more than 10:1 against Spitfire V, and 1,5 to 2:1 against later marks, around 3:1 against first mark IXs. By American records F6F did somewhere around 15:1 against the Japanese(though usually F6Fs were in tactical advantage, had more numbers and better trained pilots), probably actually closer to 5-6:1 if kamikazes and non-fighter kills are counted out. Part of the more equal results is probably because they were operated from carriers, damaged planes usually suffered more at landing, were ditched in the sea, pilot bailed out over fleet and rescued, or the never reached home because of long flying distances.
Erkkii, do you invade empty islands around java with full squads of infantry, (this seems highly annoying to me since they lose like 25%+ of their strength drowning while unloading on an empty undefended island each time). I havent trained any of my infantry to do this since it takes 1 turn to land and 1 turn to deliberate attack.
Someone reccomended that i load a tf with a small infantry squad, then send each ship to capture an island like that more easily and simply.... still really annoying since theres no divide group button for fleets (ie divide into groups of 2 ships or something.)
Yeah I read that. I'll just secure the islands with airfields and/or ports now, all the small ones will be left for paratroopers or I dont bother at all with them. If the Allies want to occupy and build up one, let them do! Its just a prisoner camp as they cant build any of them into a big air field overnight, and carriers can freely slaughter supply efforts, if not even the initial effort. I actually hope him to try that with one of the small islands left between New Guinea and Timor.
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Topic: War in the Pacific: AE PBEM - July 1st 1942 (Read 93643 times)