CapAndGown
Posts: 3206
Joined: 3/6/2001
From: Virginia, USA
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Sept. 12, 1943
My plan worked.
quote:
ORIGINAL: aprezto
Does this approach not contradict your goal of confronting and heavily damaging the US carriers as first target, and instead damage your attack ACs against whatever defends Wotje?
I kind of like the approach, but it just seems to contradict your previous goal is all.
I had the opportunity to strike at the allies without them striking back. While we paid a steep price in carrier AC and pilots, sinking 1 BB, 2-3 CL/CLAA, 3 CVE, and numerous AKA/APA along with the troops on board without suffering any ship losses ourselves was, I believe, a good move.
More on that in a moment: First though, I thought I would mention that PT 109 was sunk today in our raid against Merauke:
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Merauke at 89,124, Range 9,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
CA Takao
CA Atago
CA Chokai
CL Oyodo
DD Akebono
DD Ushio
DD Kikuzuki
E Otori
E Hato
E Sagi
E Kamo
Allied Ships
PT-62
PT-63
PT-107, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-109, Shell hits 1, and is sunk
PT-110, Shell hits 1
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Night Naval bombardment of Merauke at 89,124
Allied aircraft losses
PBY-5 Catalina: 1 destroyed on ground
P-39N1 Airacobra: 1 destroyed on ground
P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 1 destroyed on ground
Japanese Ships
CA Chokai
CA Atago
CA Takao
CL Oyodo
DD Kikuzuki
DD Ushio
DD Akebono
E Sagi
E Hato
E Otori
Allied ground losses:
167 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 12 disabled
Engineers: 4 destroyed, 9 disabled
Vehicles lost 4 (4 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 4
Runway hits 33
Port hits 16
Port fuel hits 1
Port supply hits 4
Now on to the main action!
This is the main strike in the morning Generally, we did very well with coordination, with only a few broken raids coming in late. I will not post those since none of them got through.
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Wotje at 135,115
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid detected at 160 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 41 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 70
A6M5 Zero x 80
A6M5b Zero x 16
B5N2 Kate x 36
B6N1 Jill x 67
B6N2 Jill x 21
D4Y1 Judy x 196
D4Y3 Judy x 11
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 39
Allied aircraft
Martlet IV x 4
F4F-3 Wildcat x 4
F4F-4 Wildcat x 73
F6F-3 Hellcat x 193 Mary, Mother of God!
Allied Ships
CVE Sangamon, Bomb hits 10, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVE Suwannee, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
CVE Chenango, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
BB Pennsylvania, Bomb hits 9, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
BB New Mexico, Bomb hits 6, on fire
BB Mississippi, Bomb hits 5, on fire
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 11, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires
CL Concord
CL Nashville
CL Honolulu, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CLAA Reno, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
CLAA Oakland, Torpedo hits 1
DD Renshaw
DD Ringgold
DD Saufley, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Spence, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
DD Radford, Bomb hits 1
DD Laffey, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
DD Ralph Talbot, Bomb hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
DD Carmick
APA Zeilin, Bomb hits 3, on fire
APA George F. Elliot, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
AKA Libra, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Adelong, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
xAK Echunga, Bomb hits 1
xAK Macedon, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Dardanus, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Iron Warrior, Bomb hits 1, on fire
xAK Tambua, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Dilga, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
xAK Dundula, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage
AM Exploit
AM Dynamic
AM Firm, Bomb hits 3, and is sunk
AM Force, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
PC Travis, Bomb hits 1, and is sunk
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CVE Chenango
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring BB New Mexico
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring xAK Adelong
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring xAK Macedon
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CVE Sangamon
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CVE Suwannee
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Laffey
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Ralph Talbot
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring BB Arizona
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring AM Force
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring DD Spence
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Morning Air attack on TF, near Wotje at 135,115
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid detected at 120 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 31 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 40
A6M3a Zero x 17
A6M5b Zero x 14
A6M5c Zero x 14
D4Y1 Judy x 35
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 114
Allied aircraft
Martlet IV x 2
F4F-3 Wildcat x 2
F4F-4 Wildcat x 61
F6F-3 Hellcat x 135
Allied Ships
BB Arizona, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires
CLAA Reno, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CVE Chenango, Bomb hits 2, and is sunk
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring BB Arizona
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CLAA Reno
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CVE Chenango
Here is the major raid in the afternoon Notice that the allies suffered a number of ground unit casualties. More on that in a minute. Also note the absence of any BBs or CVEs. One of the BBs and all three CVEs, I am fairly sure, were sunk. But where did the other CLAAs and BBs go? They may have been split off into an escort TF, but wouldn't that still be in the same hex? Certainly, 500kg bombs are not going to sink a BB unless the fires were totally out of control, which I doubt.
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Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Wotje at 135,115
Weather in hex: Moderate rain
Raid detected at 160 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 41 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 37
A6M3a Zero x 100
A6M5 Zero x 25
A6M5b Zero x 9
B5N2 Kate x 33
B6N1 Jill x 5
B6N2 Jill x 18
D4Y1 Judy x 86
D4Y3 Judy x 11
Allied aircraft
Martlet IV x 4
F4F-3 Wildcat x 2
F4F-4 Wildcat x 23
F6F-3 Hellcat x 143
Allied Ships
CL Nashville, Bomb hits 2
CL Concord, Bomb hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
APA Leonard Wood, Bomb hits 1, on fire
APA J. Franklin Bell, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires
APA W.A. Holbrook, Bomb hits 1
SC PC-776
AM Dynamic, Bomb hits 4, and is sunk
AM Exploit, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Dardanus, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Aeon, Bomb hits 1
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring APA J. Franklin Bell
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring a Luckenbach Cargo class xAK
Heavy smoke from fires obscuring CL Concord
Allied ground losses:
73 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 2 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Besides my own attack on the allied task forces at Wotje, the allies again launched small bombing raids against both Wotje and Maleolap. I was surprised to see that I had a CAP up over Maleolap since everyone had been order to LRCAP Wotje. I guess this was spill over CAP from Wotje. Our LRCAP ended up shooting down all the Avengers.
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Morning Air attack on Wotje Naval Fortress, at 135,115 (Wotje)
Weather in hex: Heavy cloud
Raid spotted at 16 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 7 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M3a Zero x 44
Ki-44-IIa Tojo x 54
Allied aircraft
Martlet IV x 1
F4F-3 Wildcat x 5
F4F-4 Wildcat x 19
F6F-3 Hellcat x 37
TBF-1 Avenger x 9
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Morning Air attack on Maloelap Naval Fortress, at 136,117 (Maloelap)
Weather in hex: Heavy rain
Raid spotted at 34 NM, estimated altitude 11,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 16 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 38
Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 8
FM-1 Wildcat x 9
TBF-1 Avenger x 8
I mentioned that the allied troop losses were interesting. That is because witpqs had pulled out some of the regiments he landed on both Wotje and Maleolap. He has left behind 1 regiment and 1 combat engineer unit on each atoll. I assume he did this because of the supply problems he was having, as indicated by his posting in the main forum. Turns out he picked the wrong turn to pull them out of Wotje since many of them ended up drowning!
Over all, the toll in allied ships was quite heavy. The intelligence screen only hints at the total number of allied ships lost today. More will be showing up as the days go by. I count the day's operation a success, although the KB will now need to retire and rebuild its air groups. On a note related to that, the CV Aso arrived today and the Ikuma will arrive in 4 more days. Thus, the KB is about to be augmented by 3 more CVs and 2 more CVLs.
 Attachment (1)
< Message edited by cap_and_gown -- 8/27/2010 5:15:09 PM >
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Printable Version
RE: Here we go! - 
I have duplicated this "split level attack" thing for a group of Helens and Tojo's based at Mili. 
I must say, I am not optimistic about the outcome of a straight up battle since I am out numbered at the moment. 
Oookaaay. 
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