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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Uncommon Valor - Campaign for the South Pacific >> After Action Reports >> A work in progress. The Campaign.

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A work in progress. The Campaign. - 6/11/2002 5:53:20 PM

Avenger

Posts: 140
Joined: 6/8/2002
Status: offline

May 1, 1942 to June 17, 1942 (Campaign runs until Dec 1943). AAR by Avenger (33 hours so far).

If you want to understand history, or at the very least the history of World War II, then you've got to remember a few things. The most important thing is, in real life you are never THAT lucky. By THAT lucky, I refer to the myths of, "The Battle of Coral Sea" and "The Battle of Midway." In real life you, as the commander of SOPAC, know that the Japanese are more experienced in naval warfare than the Americans, and by a wide margin. They have more carriers than you, and you were probably wise not to force a confrontation so soon. So, remember as you read this story, that history is, as yet, unwritten.

As intelligence reported, the Japs made a thrust towards New Guinea. Their ultimate goal was Port Moresby, but my own intelligence forwarned me that they'd start with a thrust at Buna and Gili Gili. Defending Buna wasn't that difficult. I formed four squadrons of transport planes, nearly 100 transport planes, at Cooktown and just started sending troops to the makeshift airfield. By the time the 1200 Japs arrived in their landing craft, the once deserted airfield boasted nearly 3000 of the fightingest Aussies you ever saw. They cut down those Japs like wheat.
Defending Gili Gili was more difficult. The Japs had their 3 CV's stationed within striking distance of the base. Furthermore, Gili Gili has no airfield. There is also no serviceable road from Gili Gili to any other point on the tip of New Guinea. This would take some doing. First thing I did was load up a huge force of Aussies on Troop Transports. Nearly 10,000 men. The second thing I did was park these transports out of the striking range of those Jap CV's.
Now I had to play a waiting game. The couple of times that we had heavy rains, I lost sight of the Jap fleet, and those were very nervous times. On one such occassion I took a chance and sent three Heavy Cruisers to blockade the port at Gili Gili, and I had a real stroke of luck. Moments after the fleet pulled in, here comes the main Japanese invasion force. A sea battle! 3 CA's, 2 CL's and 5 DD's on my side, 2 DD's and 8 troop ships on their side. I indeed sank the whole thing. As soon as victory was declared, I got the heck out of dodge. With their forces in tatters, the Jap CV's pulled back. As soon as they did so my troop ships established a base at Gili Gili.
That wasn't even the end of my luck. I took all of the undefended bases on New Guinea without taking a scratch. I didn't press too far inland, and I couldn't gather enough troops to take Lea, but I had a very firm hold on New Guinea, after just two weeks. This was all too easy!
Pressing my advantage I mobilized huge amounts of troops and sent them to Guadalcanal. The bases at Tulagi and Lunga were building up nicely as I ferried more and more troops and supplies in. I was indeed changing history. The Japs would never take Guadalcanal from me.
This was nearly a month into the campaign, and then the worm turned. First thing, before I start talking about the worm, that you need to know is that my foothold in the south pacific wasn't all that firm. It wasn't nearly as easy as I've made out. My own fleet of 2 carriers couldn't travel north of Port Moresby. The Japanese VAL's are able to hit that far, all the way from Rabaul. They can hit to Port Moresby in the south, to Guadalcanal in the East. I was just playing at victory. My carriers saw very little action. There were moments of joy, as my Carriers sent a few strays to the bottom, but there were no great victories.
Now we'll begin with the worm. Recon of Lae, in New Guinea, showed that it was defended by less than 2000 Japs. This would be my dessert, or so I thought. I gathered 10,000 Aussies and grouped them with a couple of Destroyers. I then sent them around the north of New Guinea to make a landing at Lea. There was some pretty heavy damage to this fleet as it came in close to Lea, and the Japs hit it hard from Rabaul when they heard that it was there. I split off some 700 men and sent them to take the undefended base at Frenchurt. About 75 miles north of Lea. They took that base without a hiccup. Their troop transport, as it was returning, was sunk entire. A small loss. The other 8 troop ships took a beating. Only 5000 men survived to land at Lea. They landed in dribs and drabs, and when they landed it wasn't pretty. The recon was off by just a smidge. Instead of 1970 Japs defending Lea, there were nearly 40,000. They decimated my force. Only about 300 men were left as the fleet was sent packing. These 300 were quickly sent to a watery grave as the fleet was sunk as it retreated. Oh, a few ships weren't sunk outright, but before reaching Brisbane they'd all die. Fires, Damage, and faulty controls; one ship, the last, was in sight of Brisbane when the "floatation" damage reached a high enough level to sink her. So my whole fleet was eventually lost, just not all at once.
The next time I saw the Japanese Carrier group, they were cruising in, "the slot." My own carrier fleet was caught by them not once, but twice, and we were lucky to escape intact. Minor system damage and we ran like schoolgirls. This was the Japs catching us at their maximum range. My own planes couldn't reach them. The Japs would reach us with about 10 bombers. The Japs would eventually own the slot, but not before dishing out some heavy payback. They caught my supply convoys and my troop transports en route to Guadalcanal about a dozen times. They paid me some staggering losses. Millions of tons of supplies, ships and thousands of men. By the time I'd had enough to sortie my two carriers, at the beginning of June, the Japanese CV fleet had grown to FIVE carriers. They were pounding Guadalcanal, day and night. The Battleship group, headed by Kongo, was bombarding my base there. Their carrier group was at 40 total ships, and they were getting brave. They ventured south of the Slot and started pounding anything I brought near them. I'm desperately trying to hold onto Guadalcanal, but sooner or later it will fall. The Hornet, a very small CV (Jeep carrier), arrived a few days ago, but I fear that it isn't enough. The Jap pilots have alot of experience and my own pilots are green. As June staggers on I'm finding myself in a losing war. There will be no Midway. The battle is in this theater now. If only I had a plan! .

Post #: 1

- 6/11/2002 5:54:41 PM

Avenger

Posts: 140
Joined: 6/8/2002
Status: offline

The AAR continues. June 18, 1942 to July 30 1942 (Campaign runs until Dec, 1943)

After a few brief encounters at Guadalcanal the Japanese fleet pulled back completely. I really didn't understand why for several weeks. Since the Japs no longer seemed interested in Guadalcanal, I resumed operations to build up the base. I started by putting a seaplane tender on an island south of Lunga and transferring some Catalinas there. I should have done that ages before, as now my view was significantly increased. No longer would I be caught flat footed. With the extended visual range that the catalinas gave, I would be warned of incoming Carriers days in advance. Chalk this up to inexperience. I lost 30 transport ships for nothing. When this war is over a few heads will roll.
It seemed like ages with no combat. Weeks went by where nothing seemed to happen. My subs occassionally scored on Jap shipping and Jap destroyers occassionally sank one of my subs, but for the most part the next few weeks were pretty quiet. Of the events that took place over the few weeks of calm there were some significant milestones. I received three additonal aircraft carriers and a jeep carrier. The base on Guadalcanal and the base on Tulagi built up nicely. The base at Gili Gili was turning into a significant place. More vital than port Moresby. It would be a tough nut to crack to take any of these bases. Guadalcanal and Tulagi were vital to my forward observations and the aircraft based at Lunga could hit almost anywhere. I paid special attention to reinforcing Lunga. In addition to my efforts to secure Guadalcanal I laid mines all over the area. Some of my own ships have trouble navigating the checkerboard that is the Slot. Mostly they just avoid it altogether. The Slot is very dangerous. As of August the Japs wont even come close to the Slot. The minefields are THAT dense.
I made a few probing attacks at Shortland, but that little island is just too tough right now. It is on the edge of Japanese territory and they know too well the forces that I have nearby. The place is a fortress. The Japs don't stage many aircraft out of there, mostly because by B-17's hit that airfield daily. .
It was some time before I even got a hint of the Japanese plans. They were playing a strange game. A game that I simply did not understand. Instead of trying to take Guadalcanal, or in fact any of my bases, the Japs were digging in at the bases they currently held. They made very few air strikes, which I found strange, and just about all they ever did was ferry troops to Rabaul, Lea, and some of their puny islands. My intel is pretty rough on troop strengths, but I'd guess that they have 100k troops on Rabaul and Lea. It will be quite a while before I feel comfortable attacking either base.
During this time of quiet I took the opportunity to establish a base at Santa Cruz island. I just landed engineers at the beach and started building. It took over a month, but its a work in progress. I've got a nice little airfield there. An airfield big enough to host bombers out of now. In a year it could be a major base.
As July started winding down I started to get bored. I had 30,000 fuel stored at Port Moresby and Gili Gili, so I decided to send my four big task forces (carrier groups) into the area for some probing raids. They arrived without incident. I then gathered the Carriers, the surface groups and the support craft together and made a bee line straight for the Jap fortress at Rabaul. At top speed it would take three days to arrive. On the second day at sea we started seeing some major action.
As we pulled into seaplane range of Rabaul we saw transport craft, or what our seaplanes thought were troop ships, all over the area. In the port of Rabaul, north of Rabaul, in the sea lanes; they were all over the place. This was going to be a turkey shoot! I personally ordered several groups to detach from the fleet and sail directly into the harbour at top speed! These were my most powerful ships. Cruisers, Light Cruisers and Destroyer escorts. My Carriers would keep the CLAA (Light cruiers with quite a bit of AA firepower) and half the destroyers, and we too would move forward for some air strikes. This was going to be sweet.
As the day dawned the seaplanes were back on station. They reported that the harbour was a wee bit better defended than our previous days scouting had estimated. All the better. The forces there simply were no match for what I had set up. The bombers launched and we started sinking troop transports. They were sinking left and right. It was beautiful. As noon approached, we had scored over a dozen sinkings of troop ships. Everyone was estatic. Then the stupid, stupid hammer fell on us. I half expected it. Our fighter cap was total and we escorted none of our bomber raids. On the other side of new britain lay the Jap carrier force. The came at us like bees. Wave after wave, in the hundreds. The Carrier Saratoga and the Carrier Hornet were hit very hard. Fires were ragings and they were taking on water. The Destroyers Greyson and Phelps were sunk. The only thing that made this a good thing is that the Japanese lost over 100 planes. As the battle concluded I was treated to the Surface battle in the harbour of Rabaul (Switch scenes!). The surface battle was vicious. The Japanese lost the CS Nisshu, the CA Kinagasu, CL Kinu, CL Tenryu, four destroyers, four minesweepers and 10 transport ships. My own losses included Destroyers Monaghan and Alwin. The Salt lake City (Heavy cruiser) and the San Francisco (Heavy Cruiser) were on fire. The Patterson (DD) was taking on water.
A strategic withdrawal was in order. Everyone carefully made their way back towards Gili Gili. In a move that surprised me, the Japanese carrier fleet ran away like chickens. I just didn't connect it, at the time, to their loss of over 100 planes, but in retrospect I realized that that was half of their entire plane force. In all likelihood I could have moved forward and killed them all. Of my six carriers, four were in good condition, plus I still had my airplanes. Oh well, at that time I wanted to save my fleet.
Everyone made it back to Gili Gili, with the exception of one destroyer, who sank on the second day. The Cruisers began repairs and we refueled and rearmed. The damaged carriers spent several days in dry dock, but the base at Gili Gili couldn't handle the extensive repairs needed, so they eventually had to leave for Brisbane. As soon as we made sure the cruisers wouldn't sink, they too set sail for Brisbane. The rest of the fleet started a refit and repair operation and a few days of quiet ensued. I expect that the entire Jap navy is back in Truk, getting new airplanes for our next encounter. Some quiet days area ahead. .

(in reply to Avenger)

Post #: 2

Credit the Japs a Victory - 6/11/2002 8:07:56 PM

Gabby

Posts: 67
Joined: 4/26/2002
Status: offline

Very nice AAR Avenger.

Overall I would have to classify the Battle of New Britian as a slight Jap Victory(Get your PR staff working on the right spin, and you might not get hounded to bad in the press back home).

However considering the damage you inflicted on thier Merchants. and more importantly on thier Carrier pilots, they can not afford to many victories like that.

So far in the long scenrios it seems that the best US stragety is to be paitent. I know I can find that hard sometimes.

(in reply to Avenger)

Post #: 3

- 6/14/2002 1:00:16 PM

Avenger

Posts: 140
Joined: 6/8/2002
Status: offline

The AAR continues. August 1, 1942 to September 15, 1942 (Campaign runs until Dec 1943)

After a few days of spot repairs at Gili Gili the entire fleet set sail once more for Numea. They sat there for quite a few weeks making repairs. Some of the more hopeless ships, like the Salt Lake City, were sent back to Pearl for a complete refit. Some of the moderately damaged ships, like the Pensacola, were simply put into dry dock. After some patching had been done on the Saratoga and the Hornet, we once again set sail for Gili Gili with the entire carrier force. Six carriers and a Jeep Carrier are a powerful force.
While those nasty repairs were in progress, I was busily ferrying troops from Brisbane to Gili Gili. My next big battle would be a land battle. I was going to hit Lea, and I was going to hit it hard. It was quite a nice base, and it was in my territory. All of New Guinea is mine, and don't let the Jap commander tell you any different.
I noticed, while ferrying troops from Brisbane to Gili Gili, that some of my transport ships were slowing other ships in their task forces down. Some of the ships were significantly faster than others. I then spent several days regrouping the transport fleet into different speed ranges. Those days of micromanagement paid off nicely. Some of my transport fleets could go twice as far once I dumped out the ships that were slowing them down. So, while my carriers were busy with repairs, I just kept on staging troops at Gili Gili. Now back to those carriers...
The Carriers were repaired, for the most part, and about halfway to Gili Gili when the seaplanes noticed that the Kongo (BB) was in the Slot with a very large force of Cruisers and Destroyers. I could always make a little detour. My plans weren't all that important! Lea could wait. We made a course correction, and headed towards the Japanese base at Shortland. The wind was in our favor and we made a significant amount of progress, leaving us just 60 miles outside the base. A perfect distance for a strike, assuming the Jap carrier fleet wasn't around.
During the night the speedy Japanese fleet sprinted down the Slot, bombarded my base at Lunga (Guadalcanal) and ended up right back where she started from. I was impressed. Lunga was hit pretty hard. I was even more impressed that all those Japanese ships could go the entire length of the slot, forward and back, and not hit a single mine! The Slot looks like a checkerboard. The mines are dense. You could drive a Mercedes Benz from Guadalcanal to Shortland; the mines are that thick, but the Jap fleet managed to sail right through, at full speed, at night, unscathed. *sigh*
Now my air strike launched. We hit those Japanese ships pretty hard. The Kongo was damaged pretty badly. None were sunk, as my pilots just couldn't seem to stay focused on one target. They decided to hit each of the Japanese ships for just a little bit. I was moderately displeased. I ordered my carriers to stay put, and I detatched some Cruisers, Light Cruisers and Destroyers to sail into the port at Shortland. That's where I'd find that pesky fleet. I was sure of it.
The following day the Kongo and all of those cruisers were gone. Simply vanished! They had indeed gone to Shortland, but they had put themselves into drydock and my task force wouldn't shoot them. *sigh* All of my ships decided to sink a fleet of four transports instead. In the mean time my Surface Fleet in the Shortland port was pounded ruthlessly by land based bombers out of Rabaul. I gave up. My weakened surface fleet set sail for Nomea and my carriers continued towards Gili Gili. Chalk up another loss for the Americans. Even though the day was lost, I was going to take Lea.
Upon arrival at Gili Gili I loaded a significant number of transport ships with troops. My carrier pilots and most of the crew were given shore leave. Much to my dismay, as I was preparing for the invasion at Lea, Japanese forces were landing on the beaches at Hopei and Salamau. These beaches are just south and west of Lea. These beaches are also close to my bases.
When the transports were all loaded up, they set sail for Lea, but I wouldn't be making any mistakes this time. Well, not as many as I'd made before, at any rate. I ordered all of my Carriers to follow the transports and I watched carefully as they made a slow plod along the northern coast of New Guinea. All of the Japanese strikes on these transport ships were swatted down viciously by my carriers, so it was looking good so far. My fleet all stopped just short of Lea and we made some last minute decisions. I sent 3 transports to Finschafen (My base north of Lea) loaded with troops. I set up a bit of Air cover for them, then my transports hit the beaches at Lea. (I had forgotten to provide THESE transports with air cover). They were hit hard enough to significantly damage three and sink two troop ships. The rest of the troops landed without incident (Over the course of 5 days) and before another minute had passed, I sent air cover over them. Both from land and from sea based fighter squadrons.
The Japanese force that had landed at Hopei (Just south of my base at Finschafen) entered the outskirts of my base there. I was quite surprised. Were they intending an assault? Since the three transports that I had landed there had almost all unloaded, I attacked them before they could attack me. They were disrupted and confused from their long march, and retreated with minor causualties. Their force was larger than mine, which was also surprising. I guess they weren't quite ready for a fight at the time. I needed to remember to reinforce this position, but first I wanted to assault Lea.
When all the ships at Lea had unloaded, I assaulted. The assault was a well planned affair and it was carried out with precision. The Japs, of course, retreated. They either retreated towards Hopei or Salamau. My commanders weren't sure which. Now they had sizeable forces at either Hopei and Salamau. They already had forces at both beaches, but now one of those beaches was hosting an assault force. I needed to remember to get some recon photos. For the time being I chose to ignore them. My carriers headed back towards Gili Gili and my empty transports stayed right along side of them. Over the next several days I'd ferry troops and supplies to my new base, and I'd forward a command HQ by Transport plane. I'd do everything possible to solidify my hold on that base. It was mine now. Even though the Japs still had a couple of forces in the area.
When my carriers arrived back at Gili Gili I had to take stock of their damage levels. The Saratoga and the Hornet, even after all of their month long repair works, were once again, just from this brief cruise, back up over moderate damage. I decided that both of these Carriers simply had to return to Pearl. The Lexington and the Enterprise were close to moderate damage themselves. These ships would go into dock. That left me with just two reliable Carriers.
I ferryied troops and supplies around my bases in the area, and I watched and waited. My Submarines near Truk reported the sailing of 5 Jap Carriers today, but that will have to wait until our next episode.

(in reply to Avenger)

Post #: 4

- 6/18/2002 1:06:54 AM

Avenger

Posts: 140
Joined: 6/8/2002
Status: offline

The AAR continues. September 16, 1942 to November 26, 1942. (Campaign runs until Dec 1943)

Those five Japanese carriers that I mentioned in my last writing? The ones that my submarines spotted leaving the harbour at Truk? Well, they sailed into the Bismark Sea, just north of New Britain. They seemed content to just sit there in the sea and launch air strikes on my bases at Lea and Finschafen. If I wanted to engage these carriers then it meant sending my smaller force of carriers right up to the gates of Rabaal. American carrier planes just don't have the same range as the Jap planes. There was no way that I was going to send my strike force into what was a certain suicide. That was out of the question. I seldom send my carriers north of Gili Gili. The Jap base cover from Rabaal stretches just to Gili Gili in the south and Guadalcanal in the east. For me that was no mans land. No, I wasn't about to go looking for any more trouble, thank you very much. I did, however, order all of my B-17's, stationed at Port Moresby, to hit those Jap carriers. Flying at 35,000 feet the B-17 is close to invulnerable. It can't hit much of anything from that altitude, but not much can hit them either. So my B-17 force was dropping bombs into the sea of Bismark while the Japs continued to pound Lea and Finschafen.
I split some army forces, austrailians of course, from my garrison at Lea and ordered them to march on those isolated Jap forces at those beaches that I mentioned in my previous journal entry. It took them quite a while to arrive, but when they arrived they really tore those Japs up. The Jap force at Hopie was starving and surrendered quite easily. The Jap force at Salamanau retreated further up the beach. By the time my force caught up with them, they too were starving. I guess that when they retreated they forgot to take some food along. These marches took quite a long time, and they were really just incidental skirmishes. Much more was happening on the sea and in the air.
Those pesky Japs in the sea of Bismark were really ticking me off. There wasn't much that I could do about them, so I ordered my submarine commanders to swarm into the sea there and cause as much havoc as possible. This wasn't really a great decision. I sank about 10 Japanese transports in the course of a month, but I also lost my entire submarine force. Some of my subs were sunk. Most were just so badly damaged that I had to retire them to Pearl. I'm not talking about eighty percent or even ninety percent of my submarines. I'm talking every single sub that I had. All of them were either sunk or so badly damaged that they had to leave the theater. Other subs were on the way, but it is pretty nasty to lose every single one. No, I didn't even get a shot off on a CV. Their Destroyer escorts always caught my subs while I was trying to get into position.
Along about the end of the month something happened that can only be called a miracle. My B-17's that had been flying over the Jap carriers, they actually hit one. They not only hit it... it exploded. When I read their report my jaw hit the floor. The Junyo took a hit in a weapon storage area, from a single 1000 pound bomb, and it exploded on the spot. Confirmation of the kill would take several weeks, but it did indeed sink. The Japanese fleet returned to Truk just after the incident.
As I mentioned earlier, my B-17's are all based out of Port Moresby. I guess that I could station some of the Bombers at Guadalcanal, but for the time being Guadalcanal is almost totally fighters and fighter bombers. This is the place where I train young pilots in a do or die trial by fire. Every single day a Japanese flight of bombers leaves Shortland in a futile attempt to bomb Guadalcanal. They seldom, if ever, make it through the fighter cover. All of the American Aces and future aces are stationed on Guadalcanal. I believe that the best of the best is up to 19 confirmed kills. Most of the others rotate out of there before they get to 10 kills. The Japanese have lost most of their experienced crews by just flying against my base. Guadalcanal is a fortress and I'm pretty content with the way things are going there.
Speaking of Guadalcanal, in addition to the constant bomber raids, there is the Tokyo Express. The Tokyo Express starts just outside of the Japanese base at Shortland. Every few days a group of Japanese Battleships and Cruisers will all gather together there, and make a run down the slot. They start at dusk and arrive at the Lunga port (Guadalcanal) at midnight. They pound the airstrip, they pound the port and they sink any ships they can catch. By daybreak they are back at shortland. I've tried stationing my own Battleship force near Lunga to thwart these efforts, but when I have Battleships in the area, the Japs stop their midnight raids. No, the only credible defense that I have found are American PT boats. I have PT boats swarming the area. When the Japanese make a run on Lunga, American PT crews are fighting and dying to protect the base. I've lost many PT boats (react to enemy) over the course of the war, but I've also caused significant damage to Japanese cruiser groups.
On one such Japanese raid I had the good fortune to have my Main Surface Combat Fleet in the area. Commanded by Admiral Lee, who is a great commander, we had 2 Battleships, 5 Cruisers, 1 Light Cruier and 7 Destroyers all together when we got word that the Express was forming. Admiral Lee made full speed towards Lunga. At midnight the express arrived. They were four Heavy Cruisers. The first engagement was against a speedy fleet of six PT boats. As usual the PT boats damaged the Cruisers and two PT boats were lost. The Japanese fleet continued on. Next up were a group of three PT boats. Even more damage was caused, but the PT boats were forced to retreat. Upon arrival at the Port the Japanese faced five more obstacles. Three Destroyers and Two Subchasers. These crews were pretty green. They were all on a shakedown cruise that travels weekly between Noumea and Lunga to give young crews some experience. Unfortunately this experience was much more than they were prepered for. All souls were lost. They put up a good fight, but they were clearly overmatched. Last fight of the day belonged to Admiral Lee. He lined his fleet up at the harbour entrance and "crossed the T" as the four Japanese Cruisers were leaving. It was fairly spectacular. The Battleships opened up at 16,000 yards and by the end of the day they had emptied their guns. All four Japanese cruisers were sunk, and the American fleet only took minor damage. This battle was a sight to behold. (It ran over an hour with animations on).
This installment now ends with carrier action. Once again the Japanese fleet was on station in the Bismark sea, pounding the base at Lea, but this time there were only two carriers in the group. They had a smaller group that looked to be headed straight for Gili Gili. It was getting too close for my comfort. My fleet, stationed at Gili Gili, consisted of the Enterprise, the Wasp, the Yorktown and the Jeep Carrier Long Island. Surely I could at least best the smaller fleet? We all set sail and we stayed well east of the two carriers that were in the Bismark Sea. We didn't want to tangle with all of those carriers at once. We came just to our limit for a strike against the smaller force. The Kaga and the CVL Zuiho. I did everything right and still I came out on the short end of the stick. We launched, they launched and my groups all focused on the light carrier. Stupid air crews. We focused on the CVL Zuiho and they focused on the CV Yorktown. It was pretty ugly. At the end of the day the light carrier was sunk, a jap destroyer was sunk and the CV Yorktown was on fire. The Japanese Carrier Kaga was unscathed, but she retreated immediately. Of the American fleet, none were lost, but all of the following ships had to retire to Pearl for extensive repair work. CV Yorktown, CA Louisville, DD Woodworth and DD Fanning. After returning from previous repairs only days earlier, the Pensacola would once again enter dry dock at Noumea.
Now, the CV Saratoga and the CV Hornet are already at Pearl and wont be back for a while. Now add the CV Yorktown to the list of ships out of the action. The sixth American CV is still in dock at Noumea, and on station are the CV Wasp and the CV Enterprise. The CVL Long Island too. We need more carriers! The Japs have totally lost only a CV and a CVL.

(in reply to Avenger)

Post #: 5

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