4/29/2023 0 Comments Air combat maneuvers requiemI have begun the campaign to take Lashio. DW has not used his air force either offensively or defensively in weeks, though that is about to change I am sure. The three US arty bns quickly disabled enough of the inexperienced division squads, forcing me to rotate those units out for veteran divisions and bring in some 15cm batteries. Like the French at Diem Bein Phu, this was a mistake. I initially landed a couple of inexperienced divisions with only mountain guns for artillery support, thinking big guns would be too difficult to get through the jungle and tricky to try and land intact by amphibious assault. Use experienced divisions with adequate artillery for difficult tasks. It was not until my first division (+) bombarded that I realized he had over 600 AV and three artillery bns dug in. I underestimated his strength at PM significantly. Again, judicious use of CAP could have caught a lot of my transport aircraft and even a few of the ten or so submarines (all his S Boats) that were patrolling off PM should have been a few hundred miles east off Buna. ![]() Building up Buna and pumping in supply, along with supply drops from transport aircraft meant logistics were not a constraint to the IJA. Essentially all the forces involved walked over the Kokoda Trail and arrived at full strength. LRCAP from Buna never ran into transports or patrol aircraft at any altitude.ĭW did a nice job of getting the 6" guns from Rabaul to PM, mining the harbor and massing his submarines, making a direct amphibious assault expensive however, he made no effort to hold Buna or interdict the IJA landings there. He made no attempt to resupply, reinforce or evacuate the garrison that I could detect, though possibly he was using submarines. I am guessing the commanding generals of Eastern Command and the 8th Australian Division were not amused that the Yankee flyboys did not want to risk an air battle. Still, there were plenty of instances when the damage would have allowed CAP. I had 110 Zeros supporting the four sentai of Sally's that hit the airfield and ground troops as often as weather permitted, which was almost daily. They did not challenge my bombers or fighters over PM even once. ![]() He has 150 P40Es in Australia that have been training-up for months. There were some puzzling aspects of the campaign. The IJA can claim a clear victory, but the IJN suffered a defeat in support. Without the ship kills it would have been a clear Allied defeat. In return he did get those ships he sank with that fragmented fleet attack or however I should call it. 500 av is not all that much but it was still not that late when you landed though. In this case it doesn't seem to be either of it as it's the perfect way to destroy Allied ground units. I would not want to lose such an amout of troops, to me it's either to defend a place (and hold it) or not to.
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