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[Fishbreath]

The accuracy seems a bit surprising. It's hard to hit anything with bombs at night.

[Journier]

even so your bombers still get the experience and night bombing reduces bomber losses as well so it can be a good training method.

[Erkki]

But, that's like cheating, isn't it? If the RL Japanese had to suffer from those bombing raids, by all means, you should righteously suffer too, eh?

In any case, what about the submarine blockade on the home islands? How is that going?

Yep, I dont think theres a single real life example. Even the RAF in the high-action Western Europe, very late in the war, and with radio navigation(Oboe) and radars didnt attack air fields. They had enough trouble hitting city sized targets....

The sub block is still there, but theres a pretty good search coverage so that most convoys that go norther than Kyushu can go around them. The only 2 losses I have had against those subs were months ago now.

even so your bombers still get the experience and night bombing reduces bomber losses as well so it can be a good training method.

We agreed with rules that severaly restrict night bombing. Should be better now that I dont lose about 75% of my daily air production to a few B-17s night bombing.



May 14th, and 15th

Not much happened on either day... But heres a summary:

Burma: nothing at all, but my AAA, tank and engineer reinforcements finally arrived at Bangkok. More still coming, and everything should be placed within a few weeks.

Java: Reinforcements at Soerebaja, attack planned for 17th... I will first test how those hundreds of artillery pieces work!

New Guinea:

Allies land at Gasmata, close to Rabaul!

Now this wasnt really expected, and the landing unit(s) seem to be unprepared as lots of casualties are reported to the surf.

USAAF tries to protect the landing beaches and unloading ships(no transports or landing craft, just destroyers and mine ships...!). Japanese G3M, G4Ms with Zero escort attack from Rabaul.

Over the course of the day, at least 31 P-40s and P-39s are confirmed shot down. 3 Zeros are lost to P-40s, and 3 more as OPS-losses(2 damaged by P-40s, 1 by P-39s), but only one pilot was actually wounded. SignInt says 38 Allied fighters lost, cannot be sure of the actual figure but in addition to those 31 shot down right away many of those dozens damaged must have crashed, as they had a long way home...

3 G4Ms are lost to AAA fire as is 1 G3M, and the single, damaged, P-40 that got through the escorts shot down 2 more G3Ms before running out of ammo. Of course the gunners didnt shoot back... Had they been any Allied bombers that P-40 would have been shot down...

However those bombers that got through managed to sink 1 destroyer (the Voyager), a DMS mine destroyer (Hopkins) and 2 APD assault/transport destroyers (Colhoun and Little). All in all, a very good day for the Japanese air units, and I dont think that infantry unit that landed is worth any... We will see tomorrow. Looks like the enemy is projecting as much of his might to the Solomons as he can, and I'm perfectly fine with this, with the carrier superiority... 

[Erkki]

Also, lots of Allied recon/search planes over Vella Lavella and Munda... And reportedly 3 big war ships spotted at Tulagi just a little to the south.

In response to this, Carrier Division I departs Kendari for New Britain and Rabaul's torpedo bombers are set to longer range search & attack. A Zero unit is set to provide escort... It might be another invasion force, a cruiser sweep, a bombardment task force or even carriers. If they close in Rabaul tomorrow they will get attacked.

[Erkki]

CarDiv I will reach the action zone in in 5 days.

CarDiv II and III will stay at Singapore, their reorganization will require 6 days...


CarDiv I:
Akagi
Soryu
Hiryu
Zuikaku
Shokaku

II:
Kaga
Shoho
Zuiho

III:
Junyo
Hosho
Taiyo

CVE Unyo ready in 3 days, she'll sail to Singapore to join the CarDiv III. After Unyo, and now Taiyo, have joined the Kido Butai, its strength will have gone up by 26 Zeroes, 8 B5Ns and 12 D3As. I have 3 more units I'm planning to carrier train, but not yet.

[Erkki]

May 16th

No sign of Allied surface forces today in the Solomons, they must have freaked out seeing those torpedo bombers.

Another good day for Japanese submarines: I-6 scores 2 kills near Sydney(a medium and a large cargo ship) and another submarine sinks a small cargo ship with the deck gun at the Alaskan coast.


There has recently been lots of SignInt reported radio activity at the Aleutians as well as at least 3 convoys... Submarines have sighted no war ships but I'm preparing for a possible invasion of the Kuriles. My initial defensive plans against an invasion below. I'm not planning any offensive operations of my own here, at least not yet...

Spoiler: Huge image! Kuriles and Northern Home Islands, May 16th 1942 (click to show/hide)

[Hyo]

Eh..? The Allies are planning on running Operation Downfall this early into the game? Wow...

Speaking of which, would it be possible to attack, not just the Kuriles but Hokkaido or Honshu through the Aleutians? How far do TP ranges go?

[Zrk2]

BUM BUM BUM.

Are we ready for the war to ramp up another notch? How is our production holding up?

[Erkki]

Eh..? The Allies are planning on running Operation Downfall this early into the game? Wow...

Speaking of which, would it be possible to attack, not just the Kuriles but Hokkaido or Honshu through the Aleutians? How far do TP ranges go?

If theres going to be an attack, it is to gain an island or two to set up bomber bases... They dont have a snowballs chance in hell should I react in full force, and they need time to build those bases once an island is secured(at least a month!), so that attack is primarily targeting to divert my forces from offensive to defensive. This is exactly why the Huyga is at Ominato and I have moved several fighter and bomber pilot schools as well as a well trained Zero wing to the North and those H8Ks to Paramushimo-Jima. I also have a wing of A6M2-N floatplane fighters ready to fly in if needed... They are crap fighters and I dont have many of them, but as long as they dont need to fight carrier based fighters(and I doubt he will risk his carriers any more) they will do pretty OK against search planes, dive bombers etc.

BUM BUM BUM.

Are we ready for the war to ramp up another notch? How is our production holding up?

Oh yes we are, very soon. With the forces freed from Java I'm going to secure the rest of the East Indies' islands and reinforce the North-West coast of New Guinea as well as New Britain. The only reason why I hold to that area is to keep the Allies burning(P-40s and P-39s now mainly...) and to act as a speed bump I'm hoping to keep for a year at least. They cant advance on the Marshall Islands, Carolines, Palaus or Marianas before they have that area, and they cant launch any raids against my shipping routes either.


May 17th

Soerebaja falls! The oil, refineries and factories are approximately 1/3 damaged.

In Burma, we strike Rangoon's again and 2 hits are scored on a transport ship. There are still reportedly 8 ships at Rangoon so we are going to continue with these raids...

B-17s, B-26s and B-25s keep bombing the troops in New Britain... Zeros shoot down 8 P-40s but I also lose 4+2, fortunately again just 1 pilot is wounded. Those P-40 pilots probably were all KIA or MIA.

The airfield at Kavieng should be usable tomorrow, I'm moving a new Zero squadron in right away. That will rise our Zero strength in the area to 4 groups, 144 planes.


CVE Unyo arrives! She gets escorts and departs immediately for Singapore to join her sister Taiyo in the CarDiv III.

[Erkki]

How is our production holding up?

Forgot this!

Besides the CV battles, the part I have been most satisfied with is the fact I havent (yet) crashed the economy/industry...

Naval industry:



As you can see, BB Yamato is ready in 2 days. She will free up 233 HI points/day worth of capacity... Theres about 130 NSY capacity = 360 HIP/day being converted but that will take some time. Immediate changes once the Yamato is out will be starting everything "queued" in this list. That is 1 CV, 1 CVL, 2 CL and 4 DD. With the NSYs being converted, that will make the daily points go +-0 with them slowly increasing... Those points will be (desperately) needed once the new CVs get laid and accelerating them costs 3 times the normal rate.

In the merchant yards, some big, fast, fleet oilers have been moved up the queue and started early, but I'm planning to use the existing pool and just halt/abort later projects. There are more than enough transports already, only the support ships and escort carriers are really needed... CVEs Shinyo, Chuyo and Kayo are being built, last one of them is ready in March of 1943.

Air industry is what it is... Navy has plenty of Zeros, bombers and search planes in the pool, only G4M has 0 reserves but at least the units are all full. Army would desperately need hundreds of fighters and bombers more as more than half of the units still fly obsolescent aircraft... The situation will start improving in a few months when the Ki-49 bomber and Ki-44 fighter enter production.

EDIT: to make the current Naval production program possible, I have halted 8 submarines(of 6 are smaller RO boats, however) and the Shinano. I'm hoping to continue building 2 of those submarines later but really, compared to even destroyers they are pretty much 0 priority. The Japanese submarines may be big and long ranged, but they are also expensive to build, and have IMHO poor price/quality ratio...

[Hyo]

Well, at least subs make good scouts...


In any case, I don't understand why ships are still in Rangoon being blown ot bits, when you've been already doing that for days. Shouldn't the Allies have moved them out by now?

[Erkki]

Well, at least subs make good scouts...


In any case, I don't understand why ships are still in Rangoon being blown ot bits, when you've been already doing that for days. Shouldn't the Allies have moved them out by now?

Over a month now.  I dont think they can move. They have plenty of ships so they dont really _need_ them and can afford losing them, and since those G4Ms dont have better things to do right now, we might as well bomb Rangoon.

EDIT: the subs are pretty slow and very expensive to be just scouts... I'm going to build all the ones that have search plane capacity and that can be built fairly soon(before mid 1944), ie. types A2, AM, B1, B2, B3, in all 15 submarines, or at least the 10 most useful and quickest to built ones, the B1 and B2s.


May 18th

The last Chinese unit is thrown out from blocking the road from Shanghai to Canton/Hong Kong "pocket" in the south, opening the land route for supplies and troop movements. I'm hoping to clear road further and into Japanese-held Indochina in 2 months... That will significantly help with the logistics as well as the economy.

Allies keep bombing in New Britain, today we lose 3 Zeros(and again 1 pilot as WIA) to 4 P-39s with the main attack. The follow-on raid of 6 B-26s meets 5 Zeroes that shoot down 4 of the bombers... B-26s have been really unlucky through the campaign!

Kavieng's airfield is ready and the elite Zero unit Genzan Ku S-1 is moved in. The unit is ordered to sweep Gasmata tomorrow, as the enemy is expected to set up an LRCAP trap for the G3Ms that bombed it today, but those bombers will, tomorrow, instead bomb the Allied airfield at Buna, Chitose Ku S-1 from Rabaul providing the escorts. I'm expecting to see some P-40s and possibly P-39s or Wildcats in the CAP, and to catch some planes on the ground, hopefully at least medium bombers... I hope it'll work out, at least the enemy should later keep back more of his fighters to defend his fields.

[Sheb]

What are the E? (Yasoshima class)

[Erkki]

What are the E? (Yasoshima class)

E stands for escort... The class has everything from small patrol boats to old, slow modified destroyers with depth charges added later.



The Yasoshimas are light escort destroyers.. Somewhat lacking in anti-aircraft defenses but ok number of depth charge launchers a radar set.

[Erkki]

May 19th

The air war plan in New Guinea works pretty well! Americans sweep with P-40s over the Japanese troops, and in these series of battles(Americans also bomb but Zeroes never get through the escorts) 4 Zeroes are lost(and 4 more written off/ops) to 18 confirmed P-40 kills. Intel estimates 18+1+5 P-40s destroyed today, and Corporal Doikawa scored 3, his tally now being pretty nice 11 kills!

G3Ms with Zero escort hit Buna airfield, and surprise! Theres no CAP! The field is not hit very well but at least 1 P-40 is torched on the ground, and there is no AAA fire whatsoever.

Tomorrow:

- Zeroes sweep Buna(expecting heavy CAP, easy kills for the Elite Zero unit Genzan Ku S-1), Tainan Ku S-1 from Rabaul LRCAP's over troops, Chitose group CAPs and provides escort for bombers if they find naval targets: 5 ships are off Guadalcanal, a submarine is there early hours tomorrow, and bombers are allowed to strike to maximum range. Banzai!

- A heavy fighter wing of 9 Ki-45s is now at Truk, and it will fly to Rabaul tomorrow. They should be able to make B-17 strikes somewhat more costly to the Enemy... A second wing of 9, A6M2-N floatplane fighters, is also at Truk and will fly to the shore base next to Rabaul. They will, as well, provide CAP/LRCAP as I dont expect them to do too well against actual single engine fighters.

- BB Yamato completed. She will head to Singapore!