War in the Pacific AAR Thread: ML (Japan) vs. Leo (Allies)

[Molon Labe]

2 April 1942

Western Australian Coast
My little hunter-killer group found another ASW ship to try to kill, the HMS Isis...but after a few skirmishes, neither side was able to hit each other. After breaking off, we found a pair of AKLs and sank them. That's going to do it for these guys, ordered to RTB.


CENTPAC
I also have a similar SAG operating near Baker Island (3 CL, 1 DD). They were investigating contacts around Baker that began with a SIGINT hit a few days ago. We found an American AVD and engaged it unsuccessfully. It turned out this enemy activity had some surface cover... USS Nashville (light cruiser) and USS Monssen (destroyer) moved in immediately to retaliate. We traded a few hits in the night battle, but overall it was inconclusive except for Monssen being damaged badly enough to retire. Even though this is 3 CLs vs. 1, American CLs are just so much better (and I'm low enough on ammo) that I'd rather pack it in. This group also ordered to RTB.


Bay of Bengal
Pretty quiet here after some major activity in prior days. I'd allowed one of my CVE-based Kate squadrons to go back to naval attack orders out of concerns that there could be a powerful enemy SAG based in to the north in Madras. I'd previously made contact with some cruisers there, and if such a group did exist it might explain why the Formidable and Resolution moved south of my forces. Unlike Admiral Halsey in Leyte Gulf, though, I left strong forces guarding my invasion forces, those Kates being a small portion of that. Anyway, I neglected to range-restrict them, so we got some contacts near Cochin and Trivandium on the mainland, and a few small strikes went to hit them...nowhere near enough to deal with the Hurricanes on CAP up there. So that cost me 4 Zeroes and 3 Kates with no victories. Ooops.

We've captured Dambulla with 3 tank regiments. The only resistance there were the former Trincomalee garrison. No losses, 111 enemy devices destroyed. My tanks will now turn north to capture the only base on my right flank, while the infantry and artillery proceed towards Colombo.


Java
I've captured Merak (the furthest western base). We had no squads destroyed; we destroyed 985 of the enemy's. This is the last base on Java's main island held by the enemy; only one pocket of enemy troops remains--and they're beginning to surrender (164 squads today). There is a minefield here blocking access to the Indian Ocean--a minesweeper is on its way.

[Molon Labe]

Aircraft Development

This seems like a good time to talk about R&D and how that fits into my overall plans for world domination, now that I'm starting to have new aircraft come online.


Carrier-based fighters
Unfortunately, the Zero is the only game in town until the A7M Sam arrives, which is scheduled for Sept 1945--too late to do me much good. R&D can accelerate this, but aircraft this far off are hard to get R&D to make progress towards. It's also far more efficient to research aircraft that are part of the same developmental line than it is to research something new. So my basic plan is to get the best Zeroes I can first, then switch R&D to the Sam when I judge there to be no benefit of further Zero research (after I get the M5).


IMO, there are two variants of the Zero that offer significant advantages. The A6M3a, scheduled for Dec 1942, offers significantly improved peformance in the 16-20k altitude range, which is the optimal altitude for the F4F to engage the A6M2, my current Zero variant. It's also the longest-ranged version of the Zero, which makes it a good Betty escort. At this time, I consider this only a marginal improvement, so I don't plan to research the A6M3a--I'll just produce a limited run when it becomes available naturally.


The A6M5, available in August 1943 I consider the best Zero version. Somewhat less manueverable than the M3a and shorter ranged, it's significantly faster. It's still long-ranged enough to escort any attack aircraft flying from a carrier and more maneuverable than its Allied adversaries. So that speed increase helps offset the main advantage the Allies will get as they upgrade from F4Fs to F4Us and F6Fs. After the A6M5 there are other Zero variants, but what they sacrifice isn't worth the gain IMO. For example, the A6M8 has armor, but can't escort Jills out to their maximum range, and might be at extended range when escorting Judies. The A6M5 is a research priority, so hopefully I'll get it significantly prior to 8/1943.


Carrier based Attack
This seems sort of obvious, because the Vals and Kates are so slow they're rapidly becoming obsolete, that we need Judies (April 1943) and Jills (May 1943) ASAP. These are both very high research priorities. For the Judy, early versions have a terrible service rating, so getting to the D4Y3 variant is a very high priority. The Jill may not completely replace the Kate in service because they don't get radars until the N2a1 variant (November 1944), while the current version of the Kate will get a radar at some point.


Maritime Patrol and Area Denial
There doesn't appear to be much value in researching the Betty line. At the moment, the Betty is better than the Nell, but starting with the G3M3 Nell (May 1942) the Nell has the better range, and also has a radar (although I'm not sure when the radar actually gets installed). Later models of the Betty get faster, but nowhere near as fast as the Frances (November 1943). So, my plan is to gradually phase out the Betty in favor of the G3M3 Nell, but I'm not researching the Nell, I'll get it in May as scheduled. I am, however, researching the Frances in hopes to get it early. The Frances lacks the Nell's and Betty's range, so it's not ideally suited to take over patrol duties. But, the Frances is so much faster than the Betty/Nell that its survivability against improving Allied fighters and AAA will make a huge difference. So as the Frances comes online, Nells would continue to operate where long-range patrol is a priority, while Frances would deploy areas likely to be invaded with carrier support. I could even mix the squadrons in some cases.


Escort services would be provided by Zeroes, preferably the A6M3a, which can escort the Frances out to its maximum torpedo-carrying range. Any other fighter would have to sacrifice range. The George is schedule to arrive in September 1943, and while it can't provide the full range of the Zero, it's faster, more durable, and better armed, so overall a better matchup against Allied fighters. The George is a research priority as well. Frances escorted by Georges should be a major threat, even to American CVBGs protected by Hellcats.


ASW
I'm actually mostly done already. Currently, ASW is being handled by "extra" floatplanes as well as light bombers, mostly from the 5th Air Division. The Ki-49-Ia Helen is now in production, and I intend for it to replace the Sally in Army service and perhaps eventually the light bombers of the 5th Air Division as well (at a cost of political points). The Helen has greater range than the Sally and carries a MAD. Later versions of the Helen will not have a MAD, so I'll continue to operate the -Ia even as later versions replace medium bomber squadrons not assigned to ASW.


Betties/Nells could also be used for ASW, but between their maritime patrol and naval strike duties, this is a big ask for a limited number of squadrons. It's also hard to maintain a corps of naval bomber pilots that have ASW training in addition to naval bombing, naval search, torpedo bombing, and land bombing. For now, my navy bomber pilots that have ASW training get priority assignment to carrier-based Kate squadrons. If I ever get plentiful navy ASW pilots, I might start using Nells/Bettys for ASW more. Their range would make them superior to the Helen.


Army Fighters
I really dislike the Oscar because it's kind of a dead end, fated to be owned by increasingly faster, more durable, and better armed Allied aircraft. I'm making getting to the Tojo (September 1942) a priority, with the earliest models available faster than the latest Oscar variants. The Tojo's armament is still kind of crappy, though, and it gives up a lot of maneuverability, so it's still not a great bomber interceptor and it's only going to delay the superiority of Allied fighters in general.


The Nick fighter-bomber will be available in about 2 weeks, and it's part of my answer. The Nick is faster than the Oscar and much better armed, making it a good bomber interceptor--something badly needed to counter B-17s and B-24s. It's still going to lose to most Allied fighters, though, so it cannot completely replace the Oscar. It's strike role is also significant. Carrying two 250kg bombs, this is potentially more dangerous to enemy ships than Vals. So, as the Nick comes online, it will partially replace the Oscar for bomber interception, AND will have a naval strike role to compliment the Betties and Nells. And a nice synergy will exist between the Nick and the Oscar, because the Oscar excels at low altitude combat, so using Nicks in a strike role will bait enemy fighters down to where the Oscar likes to play.


More long term, the research priority if the Frank, scheduled for April 1944. The Frank is faster, more durable, and better armed than the Tojo, without sacrificing maneuverability. It's faster and more maneuverable than the Hellcat. If I can get these in large numbers while still having enough living, skilled pilots to fly them, the Allies will have a serious problem.

[Molon Labe]

3 April 1942
Seas quiet as IJA advances on Columbo

CENTPAC
We didn't quite make a clear getaway from Baker Island. USS Nashville chased us down and we traded a few minor hits before we broke off.


SOPAC
The small island of Tanna (between Noumea and Fiji) will be the site of a small recon base for me. I now have marines there and I'll soon be delivering construction engineers. An enemy sub is poking around trying to interfere but escorting destroyers are keeping it away.


China
Oscar sweeps downed an I-16 over Sian. An enemy airstrike of 6 Hudsons hit out troops in Sian, disabling 13 vehicles. Going to have to put a CAP up for that. Otherwise quiet as our troops reorganize for another attack and medium bombers continue to pound the enemy troops.


Bay of Bengal
Still no contact on the Formidable CVBG - but we have a good track on the Resolution (heading west towards Diego Garcia) and hit it with another strike. For whatever reason, very few Kates actually found the target, and those that did failed to connect with any torpedoes. So we just had 6 more bomb hits, nothing that got through the armor.

I'm going to send the skimmers in to finish the job. The system damage on this ship should be bad enough that she'll be on the receiving end of everything. My CVBG will retire temporarily to take some fuel.

The base force that suffered attrition when a transport was sunk just received one of our first radars, so that's pretty cool. Should help with aircraft interception if they try to raid our new territory.


Sumatra
We've captured Medan. All oil facilities intact. I think the enemy concentrated what they had left here, so it should be pretty smooth sailing to mop up what's left.

[Molon Labe]

4 April 1942
Paying the price for Sian


CENTPAC
A minesweeper patroling Kwajelien in the Marshalls was a sniper with her depth charges, scoring a solid hit and two damaging near misses with just 3 patterns on the Pompano. Enough to put her in the yard for a few weeks.


China
My CAP over Sian was only 2 aircraft due to the range they had to fly. The Hudsons returned and got through - 5 squads disabled on the ground.

We made our second assault on Sian, this time bringing the forts down to level 2. Assault odds were a little below 1 to 1 this time, which is discouraging...we're having too many squads disabled. Totals disabled/destroyed this turn were 1020 for me and 833 for him, with device destruction titled in my favor. We'll need to rest a bit...and that's going to be enforced by the enemy, because the Nanyang stack is back on the road again. I'm moving units held in reserve from Nanyang up to deal with them.


SOPAC
A flight of 3 B-17s tried to attack ships at Noumea. Zeroes took down two, and the last was taken down by flak at is approached its target.


Bay of Bengal
After reducing my Kates' allowed strike range yesterday, they still found ships near ports to attack--this time, a sub tender in Colombo. 3 aircraft hit it with 5 bombs.


Reinforcements
Genzan Ku S-1 arrives at Chiba - Zero squadron, these guys will be replacing fighters due to withdraw from the Indian Ocean theare.

[Molon Labe]

5 April 1942
Resolution finished off; intel analysis concludes Formidable down as well


CENTPAC
I-26 torpedoed and sank the destroyer-transport Whipple overnight near Pago Pago. (Edit: Whipple survived)


Bay of Bengal
After attempting an intercept yesterday and missing, the heavy covering force led by Kongo and Haruna tracked down the Resolution, which was indeed off on her own. They finished her off with a long lance hit and plenty of 36cm fire. Resolution was mostly incapacitated prior to the engagement so she didn't get many shots off, scoring a single secondary battery hit on Haruna for inconsequential damage.

But there was another screwup on my part--I allowed Betties recently moving to Trincomalee to have naval attack missions, and once again forgot that he has small task forces on the mainland coast that were going to bait me. Between two small attacks that faced Hurricanes in large numbers, I lost 5 Zeroes and 9 Betties for no gain.


I didn't do the analysis until after the next turn, but might as well just say it now: I'm about 95% sure Formidable went down. Partly because with three torpedo hits, she shouldn't have been able to vacate the area quickly enough to evade me. But also, intel reported 3 Martlets destroyed "on the ground" sometime after 1 April, and I just failed to notice it at the time. We haven't actually destroyed any of these while bombing airbases, including the shelling of Columbo on April 1-so that appears to be confirmation that Formidable sank.

Reinforcements
Kisarazu Ku K-1 arrives at Chiba - 45 Nells for training/homeland defense
26th Air Flotilla arrives at Yokohama/Yokosuka - AirHQ unit. We could use another one of these in the Indian Ocean, I'd say.

[Molon Labe]

6 April 1942
Decent performance by RAF resisting sweep at Cochin, Wenchow captured


Solomon Sea
I've begun several small operations to take over small bases that I've bypassed along the way to my major objectives. In New Britain, I'm landing troops at Gasmata, south of Rabaul. Apparently the enemy predicted this... the sub KVII was waiting for me and picked off a pair of landing barges with its deck gun before the PB nearby was able to respond. The troops had already disembarked.


Bay of Bengal
I-162 sank a fuel-laden cargo ship at Diego Garcia in a night surface attack.
Seeking payback for the loss of aircraft over the southern Indian coast, I swept Cochin with Oscars and a few leftover Zeroes. The enemy actually got the better of me with the initial arrivals... with 12 Oscars facing down 25 Hurricanes, I lost 5 while killing only 3. By the time all sorties had completed, the score was 7 Oscars lost to 10 Hurricanes killed.

On land, our tanks cleared out the former Trincomalee garrison from our right flank. They've retreated to the only base on that side, so our tanks are headed there next. Infantry & artillery still en route to Colombo as planned.


China
The reduction of the enemy forts at Sian appears to be paying off as my bombers are causing heavier casualties than before. The Oscars flying long-range CAP over Sian did better this turn too, splashing 1 of 6 Hudsons that came to bomb my troops. The remaining 5 were able to disable a single support squad with their strike.

The reinforcements I moved to the resting armies at Chusien proved sufficient to take Wenchow, in a renewed assault we took Wenchow with a single attack. It might have helped that Mary light bombers have been hitting this base every day since we pulled out. I'm going to chase the enemy army for a bit, then head west to link up with the forces that got stopped at Kukong. Those troops are already about to receive reinforcement thanks to two garrisons on the coast being relieved recently. There's a decent chance that, with the enemy putting so much into trying to defend Sian (IMO a bad place to make a stand anyway), the southern central area will be ripe for the taking, and I might even be in position to make a move on the high-value central bases including Changsha.

Wouldn't that be fun if he left himself vulnerable defending Sian, and then lost the battle for Sian too, resulting in a complete collapse? It looks like that's on the table.

[Molon Labe]

7 April 1942
KB detected near Canton Island, sinks USS Porter


Solomon Sea
The PB acting as a mobile gas station for the barges landing at Gasmata detected another sub and prosecuted it rather successfully, causing significant depth charge damage before running itself so low on ammo that it's now headed for Rabaul to rearm. The Dutch sub stuck around and sank another barge. The troops that landed began to engage enemy troops here, element from the Lark Battalion.


Bay of Bengal and Burma
Lost a Betty to flak over Rangoon as I ordered another port strike due to intermittent recon reports of a cruiser in port.


CENTPAC
In anticipation of an enemy strike on Noumea, I deployed the KB north of Fiji and started sending it further east, trying to get north of Pago Pago. It was detected by scoutplanes. It also spotted the USS Porter on picket duty, and launched 2 strikes of Vals at it, scoring 6 bomb hits -- overkill for a destroyer.


Sumatra
My northern force failed to rout the enemy it had already evicted from Medan. What a slog.

[Molon Labe]

8 April 1942
KB breaks contact as it displaces to the east; significant Oscar losses over Cochin

CENTPAC
Having detected the KB northwest of Pago Pago yesterday, today my opponent evacuated Pago--right into some submarines I'd positioned for this contingency. One ship caught was the APD Whipple, thought to have already been sunk by a torpedo hit a few days ago. We finished her off with two hits. The same sub was then run over by an undamaged destroyer that was able to prosecute her with some success, scoring a solid depth charge pattern hit for moderate damage. I somewhat reluctantly ordered that sub to RTB for repairs.

The KB is moving off to the east rather than make a move on Pago just yet. Enemy scoutplanes did not spot the KB this turn.


Solomon Sea
The KVII's campaign against my barges continued, with another 2 barges sunk by gunfire. The troops we landed at Gasmata successfully took the base from the Lark battalion elements.

SOPAC
The I-18 torpedoed a large tanker off the southeastern Australian coast, setting it ablaze and almost certainly sinking it.

China
We're wearing down the enemy's Hudsons a bit at Sian. One more shot down this turn, several more sent home full of holes, no damage to our ground forces.


Bay of Bengal
We splashed 3 Audax light bombers trying to bomb our troops advancing on Colombo.

But the bad news is that the enemy fighter force at Cochin is apparently the real deal, as they repeated their early success against our sweeps as they did a few days ago, but without allowing us to bounce back later in the day. We lost 7 Oscars and a Zero while shooting down just 3 Hurricanes.

Our tank regiments have captured Jafna, the base on our right flank. We still have enemy troops in that area.


Reinforcements
Yokohama Ku S-1 arrives at Yokohama/Yokosuka - recently withdrawn Zero squadron re-forming.

[Molon Labe]

9 April 1942
More Blenheims thrown away over Ceylon

Bay of Bengal
We turned away several waves of air raids over our troops and ships today, although it did get a little dangerous at times. Overall the enemy lost 10 Hurricanes, 8 Blenheims, 2 Albacore, and a Hudson, with only 2 downed Oscars to show for it. But that Albacore raid was 3 planes, and one of them did manage to launch a torpedo at a cargo ship. I have some pretty valuable AOs here to sustain my presence, and a torpedo hit on one of those would have been an easy kill. Accordingly, I'm adding some more fighters here and I'm going to be much more conservative with my sweeps.


A Betty raid on Rangoon sank a cargo ship in port and damaged/sank a minesweeper.


CENTPAC
Kido Butai has been spotted again, north of Pago Pago. I'll be sweeping Pago tomorrow to get a feel for its defenses.

[Molon Labe]

10 April 1942
Pago Pago sweep encounters strong enemy fighter presence

Bay of Bengal
I shelled Rangoon with a pair of heavy cruisers. Not much result, moderate casualties, some facility damage, some fires. No aircraft or ships reported damaged. There doesn't seem to be much there besides troops.

My CVBG launched a small raid on Diego Garcia that found nothing of value there.


CENTPAC
The KB's sweep of Pago caused an 18 vs 53 engagement in the enemy's favor. We ended up losing 6 Zeroes while shooting down 1 P-40 and 2 P-39s, considering how badly we were outnumbered I don't think that was that bad. I'd been hoping to make a raid here, but clearly the enemy's evacuated most of their ships, so even if I went back in with force I don't see much to gain. And it's risky... If I allocate enough fighters to get past theirs, I'd leave my own ships vulnerable to his CVBGs if they're lurking nearby.

Pago launched a counterattack of 7 B-17s -- I'm glad it wasn't dive bombers-- which shot down 2 Zeroes while they lost 1 to our CAP and a 2nd to flak. They tried to attack Akagi and missed.

Speaking of which, 1 CV was reported sighted by a sub-based floatplane near Pearl. That's probably the Hornet reporting into theatre. Pretty good odds the Saratoga is back in service by now too, so right now the lineup is probably Lex-Sara-Enterprise-Hornet, with Yorktown being repaired in Alameda.


China
I probed the blockading force outside Sian, and it looks like its enough to hold out against my reserves thanks to the mountainous terrain. I'm sending my tanks in Sian back down the road to help out.


Sumatra
We defeated the enemy base garrisons outside Medan.

[Molon Labe]

11 April 1942
Nothing worth reporting... quiet as it gets.


12 April 1942
Sian roadblock holds


China
A single Hawk fighter appeared over Kanshein, which I've been bombing pretty much daily in preparation for my troops to arrive. Our raid was unescorted; 2 Maries were shot down. I've cancelled these raids for the time being while I transition some more Nate squadrons to Oscars.

The reverse force south of Sian, combined with the armor detached from my main force, attempted to dislodge the blocking force but failed. As we've seen many times before, the number of units destroyed sharply favored us. I'm still not thrilled about taking the casualties though, so I'm just going to have my main force back up and finish these guys.


SOPAC
A Betty on ASW patrol out of Noumea claimed a hit on an enemy sub.


Industry
The Ki-45 Nick is now in production, a few weeks early--they normally arrive in May. Probably not worth the R&D cost, I'll do something else with these R&D plants next time.

[Molon Labe]

13 April 1942
Lackluster bombardment results at Cochin

Indian Ocean and Ceylon
Thinking I had a chance to neutralize an enemy fighter concentration due to the absence of ASUW threats, I used my carriers' heavy covering force to shell Cochin, with 2 BB and 2 CA firing at somewhat standoffish range with their primary batteries. The bombardment caused moderate airbase damage and destroyed 3 Hurricanes on the ground...out of at least 30. We sank a minesweeper and a corvette on the way in, at least one other minesweeper was present but managed to stay out of our way.

In hindsight... the weather was poor and I didn't assign a floatplane to be a spotter so maybe I could have done better.

Our tanks have eliminated the enemy garrisons to the north of our line of advance on Colombo--the only enemies left are in front of me now.


China
The former garrison forces from coastal bases that I'd recently relieved are now closing in on Kanhsien. I allowed some of the garrison forces at Kukong to move out one hex to try to dislodge a small enemy force between Kukong and Kanhsien to try to stop them from reinforcing Kahnsien, but we weren't able to overcome the terrain bonus to overrun them. I had 71 combat squads disabled, him just 39.

I also have a pair of fresh divisions entering the Sian front area, one that I pulled from garrison duty in the central areas and another recently purchased with political points and pulled from Manchukuo. This should allow me to rotate some beat up divisions back to Sinyang to recuperate, hopefully, after Sian falls, allowing us to continue our advance into the oil-producing northwest region.

[Molon Labe]

14 April 1942

CENTPAC
An AKL the was presumably evacuated from Pago when the KB drew close was sunk by one of my subs when it tried to return to port. Night surface gun/torpedo attack.
Recon aircraft are now surveilling Fiji, standing by for force estimates.



China

He's trying to be sneaky around Kokong, thinking he can take it back from me while I'm trying to grab Kanshien. I will have to pull back a bit but I think this ends with me taking Kanshien anyways while he sends troops into the meat grinder for me. I've adjusted bomber assignments to try to slow down the troops approaching from the northwest just in case.

Part of his adjustment here was calling five bombers in to hit by troops between the two bases, so I'm pulling some fighters into LRCAP duties over the troops.

Bay of Bengal

My carriers attempted a limited strike on a minesweeper displaced during the shelling of Cochin, but missed. 2 Hurricanes were on patrol but no aircraft were lost in the skirmish.

16 Blenheims hit our troops in Colombo, which somehow weren't covered by an LRCAP. I'll fix that tomorrow obviously. Fortunately this raid was ineffective.

Industry

A little snag with Nick deployments--very few fighter units are eligible to receive them, just bomber squadrons for the most part. So I might be transitioning some of the light bomber units--currently assigned to ASW duty--to fulfill the ASUW/interceptor role. Which then means I'd have to pull medium bombers from ground support missions to fulfill the ASW role, or I'd just have to pay political points to pull training units to frontline service. Nothing insurmountable, just tedious.

[Molon Labe]

15 April 1942
Recon reveals significant fighter presence on Fiji; American subs beginning patrols in Luzon Strait?

Luzon Strait
USS Drum hit a troop-carrying cargo ship with a torpedo at night in the Luzon Strait--fortunately, a dud. I believe this is the first time I've seen an enemy sub here since my conquest of Luzon concluded, so this may indicate a strategy shift away from trying to use subs as naval combattants and more towards the traditional anti-merchant role.

I've been gradually moving ASW assets towards places where his subs have actually been appearing, so due to the lack of subs in the Luzon Strait, ASW coverage here is relatively light for the moment--pretty decent air patrols but no surface assets. I'm about to have four subchasers complete their deep-water depth charge refits in Singapore, so they'll be headed here. I have already-upgraded SCs operating off Cam Rahn Bay and in the Makassar Strait that I could pull if I need to, but so far both of those areas have had more frequent enemy sub patrols.


China
I successfully CAP-trapped the enemy bombers that tried to interdict my troops near Kahnsien yesterday (and again today), splashing 2 SB-IIIs and 1 Husdon. 2 bombers made it through to the target but missed.

The Chinese got a single I-16 fighter up over Sian, which was felled by Oscars escorting my bomber packages.


Bay of Bengal
Speaking of CAP traps, we kind of got away with one in the channel between India and Sri Lanka as we attacked a wayward minesweeper with Betties. They had 14 Hurricanes flying cover over it, while our escort was just 9 Zeroes. We ended up killing the AM while shooting down 2 Hurricanes, with the loss of just 1 Zero.

The main motivation for having these Betties on naval attack orders right now is that recon is reporting a heavy cruiser present in Colombo, and we've had little to no success with port strikes due to heavy flak. We're probably going to take Colombo in a matter of days, though, which means that cruiser is about to make a run for it, and when it does, I want my Betties to pounce.

I've added to the number of Oscars flying out of Trincomalee so that I can resume sweeps of Cochin to try to reduce those Hurricane numbers, but weather scrubbed the sweep ordered for today.

A probing attack on Colombo shows we have about 3x their strength, not enough to make this easy but enough to get started. We attack tomorrow.


CENTPAC
Recon of Fiji shows 45 fighters, 17 bombers (probably dive bombers, standard dive bomber squadron size is 18) and a CA in port. So, another force concentration like Pago.


Upgrades and reinforcements
All 4 Chidori-class torpedo boats have completed their conversion to Kaibokans at Saigon. Two will be delivering militarized merchant ships to SOPAC as we'll need these ships more with the amphibious bonus having expired. The other two are reporting to Palembang where they will relieve destroyers and DMSs from tanker escort duty.

5th Ku S-1 arrives at Takao (2/9 Rufes, unrestricted - we're producing these very slowly so it will be awhile before this gets to strength. They're eligible to upgrade to A6M5s so this is potentially a useful small Betty escort unit in the future)
38th Sentai arrives at Sapporo - (2/27 Dinah recon aircraft ,restricted - a very useful pickup because I need more recon training, although I'm a little short on aircraft to give them because I reduced Dinah production to stockpile engines.)
94th Sentai arrives at Tokyo (2/27 Sally - restricted unit, more bomber training doesn't hurt, especially if I'm going to need to purchase some of my bomber training units to use as Nick squadrons on the frontline)

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by Molon Labe

Industry

A little snag with Nick deployments--very few fighter units are eligible to receive them, just bomber squadrons for the most part. So I might be transitioning some of the light bomber units--currently assigned to ASW duty--to fulfill the ASUW/interceptor role. Which then means I'd have to pull medium bombers from ground support missions to fulfill the ASW role, or I'd just have to pay political points to pull training units to frontline service. Nothing insurmountable, just tedious.

This actually doesn't surprise me, as the Nick (Ki-45) was a twin engined heavy fighter, like the P-38 Lightning or the BF 110. I was already wondering about this when you mentioned the Nick first, a few days ago. If it's modelled correctly in the game it should be inferior to contemporary single-engined fighters.