Bettys in the sky with diamonds- Gladiatt (A) vs John_Smid (J). No John please

[gladiatt]

Yunan - end of march 1943

The japs are always in their goal to close the airfield AND hinder any repair of the land fortifications.
On 28th march 7 P-38 of 34th FS are still defending the base , downing 3 japs for 1 of them.
But at the end of the day, the airfield is so much damaged that i withdraw all the planes that i can.

On 29th march a japanese deliberate attack reduce my forts to level 7 but with odds 0/1. There are 11000 japs casualties for 2500 chinese.
Probably fearing my CAP that has costed them so much, the japs conduct sweeps above Yunan for 2 days, on 29th and 30th march, and there is no bombing of the airfield.
These 2 days are enough to repair a bit. 79th RAF squadron (SpitVb) and remnants of VMO 251 (Corsairs) are back to try to defend.
The jap sweep of 31th march, 55 fighters, loose 13 planes for 3 Spitfire, and another 3 sallys are downed by my fighters.

On 1st April, the japs results are better, several raids costed me 2 Corsairs and 8 Spitfire for 9 japs fighters and 3 bombers, despite terrible odds against me.
Another deliberate attack reduce my forts to level 6, but the japs suffer 6800 casualties for 1500 chinese

[gladiatt]

ORIGINAL: sprior

Nice intercept. Are his pilots suffering from a loss of quality?

i suspect yes. There are only a few area where his pilots are very skilled, but there is a quit obvious fall in result of his airforce. Stay tuned, i have planned to post the Victory point of March, it is instructing....

[gladiatt]

LUANG PRABANG

A pat of the japs raids against Yunan came from Luang Prabang, so i decided to target this airfield.
Well, Mr Weather prevented it for 3 days (i am not really sure, did i ever tell you that i HATE weather in India ??)
On 30th march, 102 4E from India score 72 hits on runway, encountering no CAP;
on 31th march, 21 B-25C of 341BG are added to the raids from Dacca (90 4E). At the end of the day, the airfield is damaged 60% and empty of planes.
ON 1st april, 12 Vengeance and 29 B-25C score a few hits on the base, but the 4E are again grounded by weather.

[gladiatt]

End of march

These 2 islands are raided daily by small squadrons of Helens and Sallys, with very rarely an escort of Zeros.
These bombers are straffing my PT Boats. The flak of these small boats is powerful enough to damage several japs planes !
On 31th march, 1 PT is sinked, but my dutch Brewster 339 on CAP destroy 3 japs bombers.

These island are still unable to host planes. For now, the japs efforts seems a bit weak (but caution !).


ANDAMAN
Raided 29th, 30th and 31th march, by a dozen of B-24 each time. The Nick on LRCAP can't stop me. A few hits are scored on the base, wich is supposed still near 100% damaged.

Koepang
is raided 28th and 31th march by dutch B-25. 3 bombers are lost for 1 jap fighter, the base is supposed near 100% damaged.

FUNAFUTI & NUKUFETAU
Around these island, my subs sink 3 barges and 1 AK. They are trying to spot KB, wich disapear on 31th march (according to Airbalance value of these base).
On 30th march, 26 B-24 from Pago bom Funafuti, but scoring only 1 hit on runway and 1 on airbase.

[gladiatt]

OPPORTUNITY STRIKE

Seing that Rabaul and Gasmata airfield were kept closed, and that the japs was not trying any more to send ships in range of Port Moresby firepower, i decided to try something, ready to abort at the first problem/

Loading from several australians harbor, a handful of units sailed toward Port Moresby in the last days of march.
On 29th march, my TF crossed the straight at Kiriwina Island at night. A jap sub was hunted by my ASW TF. At day, i was sailing toward Buna.
The heavy surface TF that should protect my transport, for some reason, had stropped at Kiriwina !! (and they had "not refueling" orders, so what ?? [&:] ).
So i had to wait all day long that my BB catch again my transport, on 30th march.

On 31th march ( 1 ) 8 japs DD raid Kiriwina at night , and find an isolated TF of 3 AK , sinking 2 of them.
When daylight come, these ships had sailed back so quickly that i cannot spot them by air patrol !!
Anyway, 2 TF start shelling Gasmata , and my troops start to unload (37th ID, 31th US RCT, 8 th Australian Tk Rg, Ist US HQ Corps, and a base force).
A bunch of mine sink a PT Boat, but my APD, MSW and DD clear paths in these fields;
During the day (2 ) bettys from Guadalcanal come scattered. Weather has grounded my P-38 from Port Moresby, and i can relly only on my Flak, but even AK have now a bit of firepower.
1 AP, 1 AD, 2 AK, 1 MSW, 1 APD and more important 2 AO are sinked by the sorties of 54 bettys. 20 of them are supposed damaged.
Most of my troops are already ashore, so losses are not too heavy.

1st April is really April Fool !!
A TF of BB withdrawn despite my orders ( "do not withdrawn, you stupid captain!" ), and at dailight, is at Woodlark Island, without aircover. The bettys from Guadalcanal manage to hit BB New Mexico (1 torp) and Pennsylvannia ( 2 torps), and CL Raleigh ( 1 torp), but all these ships should reach safety in 1 or 2 days without sinking; they are out of war for some time, but at least they are not lost.

At the end of the day, GASMATA IS CAPTURED !!! the amount of damages of the base is far much greater than what my reccon showed me.

[gladiatt]

Tally of the month : the jap airforce seem to have suffer ....

[sprior]

Ouch, he can't keep up those losses for too long.

[Arstavidios]

Hi, I've just read your AAR
Some comments:
In my opinion you're too reckless in the way you use your forces and you've suffered too many needless losses.
For exemple you've sent a huge number of AK on suicide resupply runs that could have been avoided altogether.
either by evacuating the bases altogether or ussing your air units to ressupply.

You've got plenty of transports patrol aircraft and bombers that can all fly supply. Transports and patrol aircraft can also fly troops in and out. Use them massively. you can move enormous amounts of troops and supplies without risking a single ship.

When you really have no choice only risk single ship TF with a single small AK.
This way you should avoid most of your AK losses

about the air war: in my opinion you've wasting your air assets in too many small raids that have suffered heavy losses especially in fighters. Until 1943  you're quite tight on fighters so you should use them carefully.
also CAP inflicts proportionately more losses than air raids. So basically you're feeding his elite fighter force with live target while he keeps his bombers safe. Also a lot of his elite pilots will survive. He can afford to lose planes not pilots. You can afford to lose pilots but not fighters, until later in the war. As you can see Your CAP will kill almost any of his raids to the last plane. Even the KB will suffer massive losses on such a raid. Also your fighters have short legs. P40s ans P38s are precious to support your offensives. No point in wasting them in raids with no strategic value. Spitfires and hurricanes are killers.

Also most anzac bombers can be converted to Beaufort. beauforts ARE killers. Whatever comes within 4 hexes of them will die.

The Pacific is defenseless pretty much defenseless. You should save your assets and build up for offensive instead of wasting your transports and airforce one useless attrition runs that work to the Japanese advantage. Stop playing into the hands of the japanese.

by now you should have at least 20 divisions worth of troops in the Pacific.

[Arstavidios]

I wrote an AAR one of my pbem ampaigns. it was a May campaign but it could give you some ideas: it's fairly old but you should find it.

it's called "a dough nut to crack"

here's the link, i think it's an interesting read. Old AAR so some things changed with patches.
printable.asp?m=825057&mpage=1

Unfortunately I had two japanese opponents drop off.

[gladiatt]

a few answers

ORIGINAL: Arstavidios
For exemple you've sent a huge number of AK on suicide resupply runs that could have been avoided altogether.
either by evacuating the bases altogether or ussing your air units to ressupply.
You've got plenty of transports patrol aircraft and bombers that can all fly supply. Transports and patrol aircraft can also fly troops in and out. Use them massively. you can move enormous amounts of troops and supplies without risking a single ship.
When you really have no choice only risk single ship TF with a single small AK.
This way you should avoid most of your AK losses

- The use of bombers, patrol planes or transport planes is not a discovery for me, it was used since the first day of the war.
But an AK bring much more troop/supply than a squadron of plane in 15 days.
Resupplying forward base was feel as necessary to avoid lack of supply; a lone AK was doomed, many AK together could let me hope a few supply would be bring were needed.



about the air war: in my opinion you've wasting your air assets in too many small raids that have suffered heavy losses especially in fighters. Until 1943  you're quite tight on fighters so you should use them carefully.
also CAP inflicts proportionately more losses than air raids. So basically you're feeding his elite fighter force with live target while he keeps his bombers safe. Also a lot of his elite pilots will survive. He can afford to lose planes not pilots. You can afford to lose pilots but not fighters, until later in the war. As you can see Your CAP will kill almost any of his raids to the last plane. Even the KB will suffer massive losses on such a raid. Also your fighters have short legs. P40s ans P38s are precious to support your offensives. No point in wasting them in raids with no strategic value. Spitfires and hurricanes are killers.

- first of all: Hurricanes are no more killers: 320 mph for speed made them obsolete facing Tony or Tojos.
Than, it took me time to realize that a plane lost a lot of firepower when flying far away from base. I have probably not enough AIR HQ because the time to repair/refill squadrons seem huge. Anyway, i always try to make useful raids. I don't volontarily make useless raid, it is more probably a mistake of judgement.


Also most anzac bombers can be converted to Beaufort. beauforts ARE killers. Whatever comes within 4 hexes of them will die.

- Right, and my Beauforts have nailed some japs ships; but 4 hexes is now too short legged to catch something.

The Pacific is defenseless pretty much defenseless. You should save your assets and build up for offensive instead of wasting your transports and airforce one useless attrition runs that work to the Japanese advantage. Stop playing into the hands of the japanese.

- you are probably much more wiser than me, but i still try to build my offensive, in the medium or long term. Time will tell if i was stupid or i made things correctly. By the way, even if i still take losses in the air, i seem to remenber that the attrition in the air is in my favor...


by now you should have at least 20 divisions worth of troops in the Pacific.

- Yes, and then ? Divisions are walking. Pacific is an ocean; if there would be a long island, one hex wide, walking toward Japan, i would try to conquer it . But as the map is for now, i need base and planes to cover my ships to bring divisions for invasion.
No point in bringing 1 or 5 divisions by sea if 90% of the transport are sunk....

[gladiatt]

1st April 1943 - 7th april

CHINA

Yunan raid after raid, and despite my try to defend, the japs reduce my airfield to useless rubbles.
Between 1st and 7th april, the japs launch 16 raids, gathering 458 sorties of fighters and 439 sorties of bombers.

Losses amount to 54 japs fighters, 26 japs bombers (one half claimed by flak), for 47 allied fighters.

On 6th april, i could not keep fighters on Yunan airfield...so, on 7th april, AVG/B, back to front, made a LRCAP above Yunan, but get wipped by the japs Tony. 18 P-38 are lost for 16 japs planes. OUCH;

And during this week, weather stucked my own bombers 5 days in a row [:@]. Next game i play, i ask to remove weather effect, i can't imagine a area in the world with 137% of days with rain or thunderstorms [:@].

On ground , the japs launch 2 deliberate attacks on 1st and 6th april, causing a total of 17000 japs casualties for 4200 chineses. No fort reduction is suffered . Despite the odds , i still hold the place.


CHUNGKING
On 3rd april, a jap raid of 62 japs planes face my 28 fighters. My old Polykarpov I-16 suffer, loosing 16 planes, along with 5 Spit.
The japs lost 8 Tojo and 1 sally.

On ground, for some reasons i can't guess, my land bombardement are no longer harassing the japs: i cause 10 to 20 casualties a day ( it was 100 to 200 weeks ago).

[gladiatt]

LUANG PRABANG 1st april 1943 - 7th april 1943



Still in the idea to close this airfield, i launched several raids, but between bad coordination, no fighters giving cover (despite orders and range well set), or weather grounding my planes, this is a costly week, probably useless according to some readers advice.

8 raids are laucnhed by my bombers, gathering 355 sorties. My losses amount to 25 planes, for probably not even 1 jap losses.
The jap airfield is closed without planes since 4th april, but there are still jap LRCAP; the damages are repairing too quickly to my taste, and it don't stop the jap from bombing Yunan.
Now, i have NO IDEA how to handle the japs airforce in China.
Surrender maybe because lack of intelligence ? Well, if really i lack intelligence, i won't surrender [8|]

[gladiatt]

AKYAB

No more day raids by the japs: as usual, Jan is trying night raids.
On 1st april, 86 japs bomber bomb the port, scoing no result and having 10 planes damaged.
On 7th april, 53 japs bombers encounters my night fighters. The Beaufighters are not really craks, 1 bomber is downed by my planes, 2 others destroyed by flak, and 17 damaged.




ANDAMAN

4 raids keep this base to roughly 100% airfield damages (according to recon), and there are no more jap LRCAP.

SUBS

2 subs on patrol near Andaman had been hit by japs patrol planes.
I have now 22 subs (British, Dutch, US) repairing in India, but none are able to get back to sea .... [8|]

[gladiatt]

KOEPANG

2nd and 3rd april, two raids are launched by my dutch B-25; but the japs LRCAP is more effective than usual (not more planes)
i made 64 sorties, loosing 18 bombers. The airfield is not any more 100% damaged, now around 65%....
So this one is a useless raid indeed.

[gladiatt]

GASMATA 1st - 7th april 1943

On 3rd april, japs bettys from Truck and Guadalcanal made 90 sorties, scoring 24 torpedos hits, sinking 6 AK and damaging another 3, and DMS Long.
The LRCAP provided by P-38 from 24th FG/A and B is covering more important assets, the BB and CL hit previously toward safety.

On 4th, nothing.

On 5th, bettys made 80 sorties around Gasmata, but also near Normandy Island : some AK sailed back from Gasmata, despite orders of "don't withdraw", and were catch near these island.
In the day, 6 AK are hits, 3 sink in the day.

A part of my CAP is covering Buna, were a part of my transport ships had seek refuge, and Boomerangs down 1 betty.

As soon as 6th april, Gasmata airfield is repaired, and host planes
76th RAAF squadron (Kittyhawk I) claim 14 bettys in two days ( 6th and 7th april) whith no loss, and "only" 2 AK hits.

Rabaul is bombed from Gasmata by 16 SBD from VMSB 144, but flak from this fortress is still powerful, all Dauntlesses are damaged.
I will let my heavys reduce the place a little bit more.

[gladiatt]

Funafuti , 6th april 1943






[:o][:o] I don't learn.

I was trying to "monitoring" the airbalance over Funafuti, Nukufetau and surrounding places.
When it seemed that KB was far away, i sent a fast cruiser TF to bomb the place. It did it on 5th april.

And on 6th, some japs CV showed, reacting with lightning speed !
There were only 17 japs bombers (Kates and Vals). 5 of them are downed by my flak, CA Salt Lake City take one bomb, but is able to flee at full speed with all the TF.

What annoy me is : shore bombardement seems more effective than bombers to cause damages to the airfield that i try to stop building at Funafuti.
Will have to think about this problem, and find someting: abandonning my LOC between West Coast and Australia could be a good idea to protect my shipping lanes, but i have the feeling that it won't help me deliver supply to the front lines [8|]
But TF seems in harm ways there.

[Arstavidios]

hi,
It's hard to close airfields using airpower. And repairs occur rapidly a soon as you stop bombing. 4E bombers can be pretty efficient though. But after a few days a lot of planes get damaged as they rey repair quite slowly.

Naval bombardment does massive damage in comparison.

Accroche toi, tu vas finir par avoir sa peau [:D]

[gladiatt]

ORIGINAL: Arstavidios

Accroche toi, tu vas finir par avoir sa peau [:D]

Je l'aurais un jour, je l'aurais !![:D]

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: Arstavidios

hi,
It's hard to close airfields using airpower. And repairs occur rapidly a soon as you stop bombing. 4E bombers can be pretty efficient though. But after a few days a lot of planes get damaged as they rey repair quite slowly.

Actually, when you (gladiatt) were complaining that you "only" had 65% damage on the airfield, that is a good thing! Anything OVER 50% is going to close down the airfield (except for transferring stuff OUT of the field).

Of course, Fog of War might give you false numbers of what percentage of the airfield is ACTUALLY damaged, but you want to keep damage at above 50%.

Not only does that keep the airfield closed, it prevents any fortifications from being built.

[gladiatt]

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

ORIGINAL: Arstavidios

hi,
It's hard to close airfields using airpower. And repairs occur rapidly a soon as you stop bombing. 4E bombers can be pretty efficient though. But after a few days a lot of planes get damaged as they rey repair quite slowly.

Actually, when you (gladiatt) were complaining that you "only" had 65% damage on the airfield, that is a good thing! Anything OVER 50% is going to close down the airfield (except for transferring stuff OUT of the field).

Of course, Fog of War might give you false numbers of what percentage of the airfield is ACTUALLY damaged, but you want to keep damage at above 50%.

Not only does that keep the airfield closed, it prevents any fortifications from being built.

Robert, thanks for the useful information about the 50% damaged airfield ! This i did not know, and it will help me.

And 10.000 hits for my AAR
Thanks to all. Maybe there are some interest in it ???