The Good The Bad & The Indifferent

[Rusty1961]

As of 8/1/43 my B24D1 losses are as follows

A2A:8
Flak:13
Ground:3
OP:14

6 months of using these planes.

[Canoerebel]

I lost dozens and dozens of B-24D1s flying missions at normal range over Port Moresby in 1943. The objective underlying those missions really wasn't suppressing the airfield, although I did.

The real objective was to draw and hold John's attention to Port Moresby and New Guinea while I snuck up behind him and grabbed him by the DEI. I'm pretty sure it worked.

There are many good ways to use bombers and there are some good ways to lose them.

[Rusty1961]

I was just pointing out why I think your B29 OP losses were on the high side as I think you're AIR values are contributing to the losses.

Take care.

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Rusty1961

I was just pointing out why I think your B29 OP losses were on the high side as I think you're AIR values are contributing to the losses.

Take care.

Rusty, how do you train your bomber pilots up in A2A?

Ops losses comes from running bombers at high plane fatigue/damage levels and can be the result of flak, air to air, small runways, lack of aviation support, weather, or simply too high an operational tempo. Plus lots more I bet. Balloons comes to mind too.

[Rusty1961]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Rusty1961

I was just pointing out why I think your B29 OP losses were on the high side as I think you're AIR values are contributing to the losses.

Take care.

Rusty, how do you train your bomber pilots up in A2A?

Ops losses comes from running bombers at high plane fatigue/damage levels and can be the result of flak, air to air, small runways, lack of aviation support, weather, or simply too high an operational tempo. Plus lots more I bet. Balloons comes to mind too.

That's simple...the best bomber pilot is a fighter pilot! Most of my USAAF in '42 up till August is training. Once you get the fighter pilots up to 60s in EXP and Air throw them into reserve than put them in a bomber group so they can get their bombing skills up. And the bomber pilots with high Ground Bombing skills rotate into them into the fighter groups to train up their Air.

I don't do much bombing until the B17 groups and expand to 12 planes in August of '42 than I start bombing him. At that point I take few bomber losses. My current opponent's only counter to my bombers was to Bombard with his BBs.

And yes, I make sure I have the support and good runways and only rarely bomb at extended range-rarely. To do other wise is to throw away valuable assets.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: Rusty1961
I was just pointing out why I think your B29 OP losses were on the high side as I think you're AIR values are contributing to the losses.

Take care.

A2A skill importance for anything else than F/FB looks like yet another urban legend
tm.asp?m=3093454

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Gents, my army crossing the Japanese held hexside did NOT trigger an auto-shock attack. The stack entered the hex without any combat occurring at all.

I take this to mean that as long as the Allies have sufficient units in a contested hex to avoid triggering a shock attack when newly arriving units cross a river, it doesn't matter if the hexside being crossed is friendly- or enemy-controlled.

This is so contrary to my notions of how this worked that I'm likely to forget it soon.

I had the same thing happen at Moulmein. I had flanked it and entered it from due east, which is not a river crossing.
I then had a large army cross the river from the north. Expecting it to trigger a shock attack I shock attacked with the units already in the hex and the large army crossing the river did not participate.
The result was NOT pretty.

I have noticed similar lack of shock attack and each time the unit crossing was on a first-class gray road, meaning the crossing was done on a bridge as opposed to a river ford. So it seem if you have a bridgehead on the other side, crossing a major bridge does not cause a shock attack.

[BBfanboy]

Re: your map notation in post 12170 about the IJA units not retreating through hex sides they control:

- this may indicate that Hanoi and Haiphong are out of supply since the retreat rule talks about a clear valid supply path enabling retreat. I.E., 0 supply invalidates the normal retreat to base path. Just a guess though ...

[Mike McCreery]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Gents, my army crossing the Japanese held hexside did NOT trigger an auto-shock attack. The stack entered the hex without any combat occurring at all.

I take this to mean that as long as the Allies have sufficient units in a contested hex to avoid triggering a shock attack when newly arriving units cross a river, it doesn't matter if the hexside being crossed is friendly- or enemy-controlled.

This is so contrary to my notions of how this worked that I'm likely to forget it soon.

I had the same thing happen at Moulmein. I had flanked it and entered it from due east, which is not a river crossing.
I then had a large army cross the river from the north. Expecting it to trigger a shock attack I shock attacked with the units already in the hex and the large army crossing the river did not participate.
The result was NOT pretty.

I have noticed similar lack of shock attack and each time the unit crossing was on a first-class gray road, meaning the crossing was done on a bridge as opposed to a river ford. So it seem if you have a bridgehead on the other side, crossing a major bridge does not cause a shock attack.

There is reference in the manual somewhere that sufficient forces in the target hex will prevent shock attacks on river crossings. Not sure what the ratio has to be though.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Wargmr

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: HansBolter





I had the same thing happen at Moulmein. I had flanked it and entered it from due east, which is not a river crossing.
I then had a large army cross the river from the north. Expecting it to trigger a shock attack I shock attacked with the units already in the hex and the large army crossing the river did not participate.
The result was NOT pretty.

I have noticed similar lack of shock attack and each time the unit crossing was on a first-class gray road, meaning the crossing was done on a bridge as opposed to a river ford. So it seem if you have a bridgehead on the other side, crossing a major bridge does not cause a shock attack.

There is reference in the manual somewhere that sufficient forces in the target hex will prevent shock attacks on river crossings. Not sure what the ratio has to be though.

That applies when crossing a hex side that some of your forces have already crossed through - i.e. there is a river ford with a bridgehead already established.

The situations above posit a first-time crossing at a point crossed by a major highway. It seems like the bridgehead established by friendly units that crossed via a different hex side may allow the road bridge crossing without a shock attack - the only way I can explain the lack of shock attack. I have seen this often enough to believe it is a thing!

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
Re: your map notation in post 12170 about the IJA units not retreating through hex sides they control:

- this may indicate that Hanoi and Haiphong are out of supply since the retreat rule talks about a clear valid supply path enabling retreat. I.E., 0 supply invalidates the normal retreat to base path. Just a guess though ...

Heavily beat up LCUs sometimes do not retreat at all, no matter supply paths. Means they are on the verge of surrender.
Also, I believe actual supply availability does not matter for supply path calculations and applications.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Rusty1961

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Rusty1961

I was just pointing out why I think your B29 OP losses were on the high side as I think you're AIR values are contributing to the losses.

Take care.

Rusty, how do you train your bomber pilots up in A2A?

Ops losses comes from running bombers at high plane fatigue/damage levels and can be the result of flak, air to air, small runways, lack of aviation support, weather, or simply too high an operational tempo. Plus lots more I bet. Balloons comes to mind too.

That's simple...the best bomber pilot is a fighter pilot! Most of my USAAF in '42 up till August is training. Once you get the fighter pilots up to 60s in EXP and Air throw them into reserve than put them in a bomber group so they can get their bombing skills up. And the bomber pilots with high Ground Bombing skills rotate into them into the fighter groups to train up their Air.

I don't do much bombing until the B17 groups and expand to 12 planes in August of '42 than I start bombing him. At that point I take few bomber losses. My current opponent's only counter to my bombers was to Bombard with his BBs.

And yes, I make sure I have the support and good runways and only rarely bomb at extended range-rarely. To do other wise is to throw away valuable assets.

Never thought to try this. Got plenty of trained fighter pilots and lots of them with bombing skills. Gonna take a look.

[Canoerebel]

11/29/44

Fancy Pants: Details on map.

[Lowpe]

What is all the shipping at Okinawa and Daito?

Once again China falls fast...you cracked it like an egg.

[Lovejoy]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

What is all the shipping at Okinawa and Daito?

I'd wager either they're reinforcement/supply convoys or being used to pull out LCUs for elsewhere.

[Canoerebel]

There's mostly riff-raff (MTBs, etc.) plus a Q-Ship CVE TF with no aircraft.

[Barb]

RE: B-29 (or other 4E) pilots

As far as I know the A2A pilot rating in bombers won't have any impact. The most relevant skills are:
EXP - survivability when damaged and/or bad weather
GND - affecting accuracy of bomb targeting
DEF - defensive maneuver/fire when under attack by another aircraft (defensive maneuver not really in place for 4Es in formation)

Other skills can be beneficial from time to time:
Low Gnd - if you intend to go in at 1000ft
NavS - if you are using them on Naval Search (PB4Y, Liberator GR marks) - this is also used when bombing ships located while on NavS mission
ASW - if you are using them on ASW (PB4Y, Liberator GR marks) - when used on ASW - also used when bombing the located sub
NavB/LowNavB - useful only when you are trying to bomb enemy ships at sea via Naval Attack mission.

So if you want your bombers to perform better when faced with enemy fighter defense, get the EXP and DEF up.

[Bearcat2]

Thanks for your excellent AAR; your explanations of your strategy and the fact that you post the results of all your battles, good and bad is greatly appreciated.

[Canoerebel]

Glad you're reading, Termite.

From my perspective as the Allied player in late 1944, the focus is on "the big picture," which means three things: Supply, Strategic Bombing and China. Most of my posts and diagrams focus on those things. Its pretty rare to go into smaller events like day-to-day sub ops or the ebb and flow of the air war on the periphry.

John is focusing on the big picture too - mainly on what he can do to delay the inevitable. For him, that's mostly about the small victories - an air ambush, a sub kill, trapping an isolated LCU and destroying it, etc.

[Canoerebel]

11/30/44

Last week, somebody (Paullus?) asked why I was scheduling daytime strategic bombing raids. This is why.

Raid on Shimizu: