Canoerebel
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Joined: 12/14/2002
From: Northwestern Georgia, USA
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4/12/42 (Preliminary Report)
Since I teased you guys with the "we'll know in eight hours" comment yesterday, I'll go ahead and tell you what happened around Sumatra. I've only seen the actual combat report to this point - I haven't watched the combat replay or seen the new turn file - so I only have the highlights. I'll say this - it was a good day for the Allies, though not exactly in ways I might have foreseen:
Invasion of Port Blair (?): There's nothing in the combat report about any Allied carriers going into action, nor about any enemy ships heading toward Port Blair or elsewhere. That's not a huge surprise as I didn't expect my carriers to be within range today. Until I open the turn file, I won't know if the enemy ships are still headed for Port Blair, retired back towards Singapore, took a left turn to round Sumatra, or took a right turn towards Rangoon. I also don't know if enemy patrols caught wind of the Allied carriers. I do know that enemy bombers didn't sortie against them and that they didn't have the bad luck to go into a surface engagement with enemy combat ships. I'll post more about this in a few hours, as soon as I've seen the combat and turn files.
Battle of Singapore: This was the scene of the major battle of the day. An Allied TF led by two CL and a handful of DDs raided this port and found it underprotected. The result was a decisive Allied victory as follows:
AFTER ACTION REPORTS FOR Apr 12, 42
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Night Time Surface Combat, near Singapore at 50,84, Range 2,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
PB Kyo Maru #11, Shell hits 4, and is sunk
PB Kyo Maru #12, Shell hits 2
AO Erimo, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
AO Notoro, Shell hits 7, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
Allied Ships
CL Capetown
CL Colombo
DD Barker
DD Bulmer
DD Paul Jones
DD Stewart
DD Stuart
Night Time Surface Combat, near Singapore at 50,84, Range 9,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
CL Kashii, Shell hits 2
CL Kitakami, Shell hits 15, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
DD Usugumo, Shell hits 7, on fire
DD Tachikaze, Shell hits 7, heavy fires, heavy damage
DD Wakatake, Shell hits 14, and is sunk
DD Hasu, Shell hits 4, on fire
TB Otori, Shell hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
PB Kyo Maru #2
AV Sagara Maru
xAK Enju Maru, Shell hits 2, heavy fires
xAK Hikosan Maru
xAK Hokko Maru, Shell hits 2, on fire
xAK Hokusho Maru, Shell hits 5, heavy fires, heavy damage
xAK Iwaki Maru, Shell hits 3
xAK Josho Maru
xAK Kurohime Maru, Shell hits 1, on fire
xAK Meisho Maru
xAK Midori Maru
xAK Nittei Maru
xAK Ryujo Maru
xAK Sanuki Maru
xAK Taibun Maru
xAK Tatsuho Maru, Shell hits 1, on fire
xAK Tone Maru
xAK Ume Maru
Allied Ships
CL Capetown, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
CL Colombo, Shell hits 1
DD Barker
DD Bulmer
DD Paul Jones
DD Stewart
DD Stuart
Enemy air later sortied against the brave little Allied ships, with this result:
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Muntok at 49,89
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid detected at 40 NM, estimated altitude 16,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 15 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 24
G3M2 Nell x 9
Allied aircraft
Hurricane IIb Trop x 6
P-39D Airacobra x 4
P-40E Warhawk x 16
F2A-3 Buffalo x 6
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 3 destroyed
G3M2 Nell: 4 destroyed
Allied aircraft losses
Hurricane IIb Trop: 1 destroyed
Allied Ships
CL Capetown, Torpedo hits 1, heavy damage
China: The Chinese attack at Loyang game in at Seven Billion to One odds as 2200 AV destroyed 100 squads of 101st NCPC Route Brigade. It looks like the Japanese are weak in this region, and Steve seems to be drawing down his Changsha stack to reinforce. Over the next few weeks, the Chinese will seek chances to overwhelm small Japanese units. Eventually, the Chinese will have to pull back and give up most of all of the advance bases reclaimed temporarily, but the Chinese army is growing strong enough on two fronts (Changsha and Sian) to continue this pattern of striking weak enemy armies.
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Printable Version
RE: Das darf nicht var sein! - 
This Port Blair operation is folly...plain and simple. If KB is indeed where you've indicated it is, it might as well be in the Atlantic for all the impact it's going to have. He's going to lose much of his battlefleet while his carriers are covering at best an invasion of Eastern Java. A needless sacrifice. 
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