Q-Ball
Posts: 7336
Joined: 6/25/2002 From: Chicago, Illinois Status: offline
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Combat Report, Sept 30, 1942 All of the action this day is over the Banda Sea, where the multiple convoys of REPRISAL are steaming toward their final destinations. Tommorow, barring intervention by the IJN, the ramps will go down and our troops shall wade ashore to liberate the southern DEI. Carrier Battle: Baby KB, consisting of Ryujo, Shoho, Zuiho, put in an appearance. The result was inconclusive. The Japanese launched a strike at a range of 7 at our Carriers; they ran into a CAP of over 150 Wildcats. 34 Kates were shot down, and nothing got through to launch. Unfortunately, I had forgot to re-set the max range on my TBMs, so we launched them unescorted at Baby KB! Predicitbly, most of them were shot down. Not good, but at least we have our SBDs, which are more important. For the remaining TBMs, those ranges are now set to 6. MY BAD! I expect Baby KB to retire, so I will not pursue, but rather stay close to the transports. Lesson learned there. It's too bad they didn't come 1 hex closer, because if my 7 CVs had launched, I'm pretty sure I would have crushed all 3 CVLs. As it is, I'm OK with it. Air Bombardments: The P-38s did so badly they stayed home; the B-17s/24s went in without escort and did OK. The number of Zeros on CAP over Koepang is reduced today, and the airstrip is starting to get pretty beat-up. Tonight, 2 USN BBs are going to bombard the place, which won't help the airstrip any either. D-Day!: D-Day is tommorow at Koepang, as well as Maumere and Endeh. I don't expect any opposition at the last two, but Koepang I do expect some. I think I have plenty to swamp it though, 2 1/2 Divisions, 2 Tank Bns, 2 Art Bns, and 1 Combat Eng Bn are all landing tommorow. That should be enough to take it on one attack. All of these landings are covered by a Surface Combat TF. I fear an intervention by the IJN Surface Fleet, but I can't cover everything.
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