AmiralLaurent
Posts: 3351
Joined: 3/11/2003 From: Near Paris, France Status: offline
|
OK, enough teasing. Here is the resume of the battle, from the combat report and my notes. I will post this evening the orders for tomorrow. And now, really back to work... 1 August 1942 Central Pacific The night was totally quiet, both sides waiting for dawn to unleash their aircraft. Even the Allied DMS and MSW didn’t move during the day. After dawn, 8 DMS swept numerous mines off Lahaina. And a Japanese PG detected Allied mines off Midway. Dawn patrols took off from Pearl Harbor and reported that the Allied fleet didn’t move. BB and transports were reported off Hilo, while the Allied CVs and a total of 5-7 TFs were just east of this base. Both CV TF and the BB TF of the Kido Butai were at the planned place, 60 miles SW of Pearl. So everybody was in range of everybody. The sky was cloudless in the whole area and hundred of aircraft took off…. The first raid was a sweep of 7 Zeroes from Pearl to Hilo. They met 13 F4F-4 of three Marine squadrons flying CAP and lost an A6M2 in a quick bounce. And then came the Allied attacks against the Kido Butai. Coming from three different TF and from two navies, the Allied airmen arrived piecemeal over the Japanese carriers and were slaugthered by the CAP of 139 A6M2 Zeroes (note: all carrier units) and 6 Rufes. The first raid that reached the target had 23 SBD and 8 TBF escorted by 8 Fulmars and 8 F4F-4 and was annihilated. One SBD and 3 Fulmars turned back and were the only survivors. No Japanese fighter was lost. Then arrived 15 unescorted Swordfish. Two Zero Daitais bounced them and shot down 13 in some minutes, the two survivors dropping their torpedo in the sea and flying on the deck. They were part of a larger strike that had become seperated in flight. The remaining 33 Swordfish, with an escort of 4 Fulmars and 4 Widcats arrived some minutes later and were also swept from the sky, but this time managed to shot down 3 Zeroes and 3 Rufes. Only 3 Swordfish survived, because they turned back before reaching the target. The following raid was 100% American. 27 SBD, 12 TBF and 2 F4F-4 again were scattered and torn apart. At a cost of 2 Zeroes, the CAP shot down all Wildcats and all SBD, and 9 TBF, but the last 3 Allied aircraft got trough and attacked the CV Hiyo with torpedoes. One was shot down by AA fire before launching, and the Japanese CV dodged the incoming torpedoes with ease. But the Japanese pilots were furious and from the next formation (28 SBD and 4 F4F-4) there was no survivor. One more Zero fell. The last Allied raid saw 3 P-39D try to attack Japanese ships. All three were shot down by the CAP but they managed to shot down a Zero in return. The bilan of these Allied attacks was devastating: 67 SBD, 43 Swordfish, 18 TBF, 18 F4F-4, 9 Fulmars and 3 P-39D were lost, 5 Swordish, 3 Fulmars, 2 TBF and 1 SBD survived. The offensive power of the Allied CV fleet was spent, and had achieved nothing, except shooting down 7 Zeroes and 3 Rufes. So far a good day for Japan, but now it was the turn of Japan to attack and I was anxious to see my pilots commited in small groups and get slaugthered. It was not the case. Pearl Harbor launched a concentrated strike with 49 Betties and 13 Nells escorted by 87 A6M2 and 20 A6M3. Rather than attack the 3 Allied CV TF, the local commander decided to attack the most powerful of the three. 58 F4F-4 Wildcat and 41 Fulmars were defending the target. Usually in WITP this large battle finished with the annihilation of one side. Today it was the Allied side that lost but there were some survivors. After a long dogfight, 57 Wildcats and 21 Fulmars were shot down against losses of 30 A6M2 and 8 A6M3. Some Fulmars also fled and that left only 1 Wildcat and 12 Fulmars in the air at the end of the battle. They were unable to reach any of the Japanese bombers. The latter then attacked the Allied ships. At the middle of the formation sailed the CV USS Saratoga, the only American survivor of the first CV battle of the war, and USS Hornet. The BB North Carolina was sailing close by to cover them with her AA fire. All Japanese crews attacked these three ships. AA fire shot down 6 Betties and 3 Nells but that was not sufficient to stop Japanese crews (Allied AA is still bearable in 1942). The North Carolina was hit by the first Japanese bomber but that didn’t reduced much her comabt ability and she then dodged all missiles. The Hornet managed to evade all torpedoes but the Saratoga was not so successful and was struck by five torpedoes and was burning and listing rapidly when Japanese crew left the area. I then waited for the Kates based in Pearl Harbor to fly and attack the fleet that had no more CAP, but they didn’t. So far a very good day for Japan. The afternoon was not so brilliant. It began with a Rufe shooting down a Walrus near the Kido Butai. A total of four Walruses were lost to Japanese fighters this day. Also a special note should be made for the 9 Rufes flying with the KB: they suffered during the day 3 losses but shot down 3 Fulmars, 2 SBD and at least one Walrus. The Allied CV launched their last bolt against the KB but the tiny raid (9 TBF, 6 Swordifh, 4 Fulmars and 2 Wildcats) was intercepted by 120 Zeroes and 3 Rufes. One Fulmar managed to shot down a Zero before all Allied aircraft were shot down… And then things began to go wrong (I’m not complaining, they may very well have gone wrong earlier). The Pearl Harbor commander had about 50 undamaged naval bombers, 80 Zeroes and 64 intact and fresh Kates at his disposal. 180 miles from him were transports and surface TF off Hilo, 60 miles more far were 5 intact Allied CVs with only some fighters remaining to cover them, both in range of all his aircraft. He did the usual in WITP. He sent all fighters against one target and most of the bombers against the other. 12 Wildcats of VMF-223, VMF-224 and VMO-251 were flying CAP over Hilo. These pilots were green some days before, this was their first battle, and they probably didn’t think that half of them will be aces at the end of the day. Well they were delighted to see small raids arrive one after the other toward them. First came 3 Betties, one was shot down and the 2 other turned back. Then 9 Kates were seen and 8 shot down, the last one missing an AK. Then 23 Ki-51s were seen flying higher and two were shot down before the other turned back and fled. The next raid (13 Kates) was 100% destroyed, even if a Wildcat was hit for the first time by return fire. Then came 6 Kates, 4 were shot down by the Marines but two managed to reach the CA Quincy. They missed and one was shot down by AA fire. Then it was the return of land-based bombers, 4 Betties being engaged and turning back after one was shot down, and then 6 Nells turning back as soon they were intercepted. The tired American pilots were then unable to stop the 7 next Kates, only shootong down one, and the AK Regulus was torpedoed and heavily damaged. Then 3 lost Ki-51 wandered over Hilo and two were shot down by the CAP, the last managed to escape. 9 of the 16 next Kates were shot down by the Marines, the survivor attacked the CA Louisville but scored only a dud hit and lost one more to AA fire. Then arrived 4 Kates. Wildcats shot down 3, the last one missed a DMS. American pilots were unable to intercept the last raid of 6 Kates, that hit the AK Liberty Go with a torpedo. So a dozen of American pilots shot down 38 Kates, 4 Sonias and 2 Betties without loss. At the same time (in game in alternance with the above), the Allied fleet east of Hilo was also attacked. 13 Fulmars and 3 Wildcats were flying CAP when the first raid arrived. It was small (4 Betties, 4 A6M2 and 2 A6M3) and was repulsed. One Betty and one Fulmar were shot down, 3 more Fulmars broke contact. That ramined only 9 Fulmars and 3 F4F-4 and they were overwhelmed by the next raid: 6 Betties, but escorted by 63 A6M2 and 13 A6M3. The Zeroes shot down all Fulmars and 2 Wildcats, and the bombers attacked an intact CV TF. In a perfect attack they managed to score a torpedo hit on each of the CV of the TF, the Indomitable (ammo storage explosion) and the Wasp, leaving both on fire. AA fire shot down two of them. 3 Nells and 8 Betties then attacked in 3 small unescorted groups. The first hit the AO Sabina and left her burning, the other missed a SC and a DD. So the game mechanisms allowed me a huge victory in the morning and costed me half of my available Kates in the afternoon. The Saratoga sank in the afternoon. The Indomitable and Wasp, the BB North Carolina, two AK and an AO were also torpedoed. No Japanese ship was hit. The air score is 287 to 112 for the whole day, and 282 (281 air, 1 AA) to 112 (98 air, 14 AA) for this battle only. Allied side lost 79 F4F-4, 77 SBD, 49 Swordfish, 44 Fulmars, 26 TBF, 4 Walrus and 3 P-39D. Japan lost 40 Kates, 40 A6M2, 14 Betties, 8 A6M3, 4 Ki-51, 3 Nells and 3 Rufes. Here are the score of the Japanese fighter units 1) Kido Butai AII- 1: 11 victories for one loss BI-1: 49 victories for 2 losses DI-1: 22 victories for 1 loss DIII-1: 10 victories for no loss EI-1: 43 victories for 1 loss EII-1: 40 victories for 3 losses FI-1: 2 victories for no loss FF6/Yokohama (Rufe): 4 victories for 2 losses FF7/Yokohama (Rufe): 2 victories for 1 loss 2) Pearl Harbor AI-1: 30 victories for 3 losses F1/Tainan: 11 victories for 8 losses F2/Tainan: 5 victories for 2 losses F1/Omura: 2 victories for 1 loss F2/Yamada: 13 victories for 9 losses F3/Chitose: 9 victories for 3 losses F1/2nd (A6M3): 20 victories for 8 loss A chutai of F2/3rd: no victory for 4 losses (maybe a bad leader for this unit) Southern Pacific Noumea was reconed by Nells and Emilies from Suva. Timor-Amboina-Australia The SS I-165 that was hit by a B-17E in Banda Sea some days ago sank off Raba, where the crew was trying to patch her to complete the trip to Soerabaja. In the afternoon, while the whole world was watching events in Hawaii, Timor was raided as usual. 34 B-25C from Derby attacked Koepang and hit 59 men and 1 gun, scoring 1 on hit on the airbase, 3 on supplies and 14 on runways. Lautem suffered as usual, 67 B-17E, 60 B-25C, 30 LB-30 and 7 T.IVa from Darwin scoring 9 hits on the base, 4 on supplies and 83 on runways. 9 Japanese men were also hit. Two B-25C were lost in accident during these raids. Philippines 36 Ki-48s, 19 Ki-21s and 18 Ki-49s bombed Manila airfield, scoring 1 hit on the airbase and 46 on the runways and wounding 10 men, while the 41st PA Div lost 56 men and 3 guns under attack by 41 Zeroes, 28 Vals and 23 Kates. Japanese shells then disabled 199 more, the lack of supplies 95 more. China Nine Vals from Yenen bombed again the 30th Chinese Corps 120 miles SW of the town and hit 28 men and 1 gun. Artillery fire hit 43 Chinese in Kungchang and 32 in Wuchow.
|