tocaff
Posts: 4781
Joined: 10/12/2006 From: USA now in Brasil Status: offline
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As to why Steve used CLs and not CAs, your guess is as good as mine. The IJN is stretched out over a huge area and it's possible that he's holding back heavier units for when they're needed. December 9, 1943 Marcus Island Intel 12th Heavy AA Battalion is located at Nagoya. 42nd AA Regiment is located at Seoul. 23rd Engineer Regiment is located at Inch'on. 10th Area Army is located at Chengting. 1st Guards Mixed Brigade is located at Tokyo. 5th Reserve AA Regiment is located at Taejon. 8th Construction Battalion is planning for an attack on Chungking. 13th Air Fleet is located at Truk. 11th Army is planning for an attack on Chungking. 217076 men are based at Ominato. 42nd AA Regiment is located at Seoul. 4347 men are based at Kadina. Recon PBY Catalina takes recon photos of Lunga 18 LCUs 22340/134/0 Pe-2R takes recon photos of Shikka 2 LCUs 19020/203/0 F-5C Lightning takes recon photos of Krung Thep 2 LCUs 4260/17/0 Combat Coastal guns on Kai Island continue to roar their defiance as they inflicted heavy casualties on the troops landing and also struck a pair of DDs. The SS Jack slipped in and tried to attack an AK, but failed to hit it. 34 X Judy, 39 X Jill and 19 X Zero attacked and a lone P-38J was aloft and between the plane and AA fire 6 X Judy were damaged and a Jill went down. Light damage was done to the airfield, a Corsair IV was destroyed on the ground and the troops had light casualties. 29 X B-25J, 35 X B-24D, 27 X Kittyhawk III and 6 X P-40N then roared in and attacked the Japanese shipping. The Japanese had 23 X Zeke up and 2 were destroyed and 3 damaged as the Allied planes had 8 X Mitchell damaged, 5 X Liberator damaged, 13 X Kittyhawk III shot down (1 damaged) and 3 X Warhawk destroyed. A CA and a CL were each hit by a bomb and the CL caught fire. Then 15 X B-24D made an attack on the TF and was met by 19 X Zeke. 4 of the Zekes were damaged and 4 bombers were shot down (4 damaged). The same CA, thought to be the Atago, took 2 more bomb hits. The Japanese shipping was still being protected by 19 X Zeke when 17 X B-25J, 11 X Kittyhawk III, 3 X P-40N and 3 X P-38J arrived on the scene. 3 X Zeke were destroyed (2 damaged) as 3 of the bombers were damaged, 3 X Kittyhawk III went down (another damaged), a Warhawk was scratched (1 damaged) and a Lightning was shot up. An AP was hit by a bomb causing it to burn and troops to jump off of her. A Japanese bombardment attack caused very few casualties and the Allies responded inflicting extremely light losses on the Japanese. The SS Rasher, 73 miles E of the Amami Group, failed to get in an attack on a juicy TK. The MSW and PC escorts then tried to attack the sub and they too failed. Mandalay was bombed by 113 X Liberator VI and they had 10 X Spitfire VIII and 5 X P-38J as escorts. A lone bomber was damaged by AA as the base was pasted for heavy damage. There were many secondary explosions observed and the troops took heavy losses. Myitkyina was attacked by 37 X B-24J, 7 of which were damaged by flak. The base had light damage, a couple of large secondary explosions were reported and the ground personnel had very light casualties. The USN made an air attack on Japanese shipping near Marcus Island with 29 X SBD, 18 X TBM and 39 X Hellcat. 3 X Zero and 3 X Zeke challenged the attackers and all of the Zeros were downed. No American planes were damaged as they dished out the following: AK Shogen Maru, Bomb hits 1, on fire AK Taga Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage AK Isuzugawa Maru, Bomb hits 7, sinks AK Taisei Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire AK Canton Maru, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage A second strike consisting of 82 X SBD, 26 X SB2C, 43 X TBF, 16 X TBM and their escort of 36 X Hellcats was attacked by a Zero and 6 Zekes. The Zero and 5 of the Zekes were splashed and again the Americans had no damage as they struck the shipping. AK Tsuneshima Maru, Bomb hits 8, on fire, heavy damage AK Assam, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage AK Taga Maru, Bomb hits 4, sinks AK Taisei Maru, Bomb hits 10, Torpedo hits 1, sinks AK Shogen Maru, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, sinks AK Canton Maru, Bomb hits 6, sinks Kweiyang was swept by 7 X Zero, 8 X Zeke, 19 X George, 23 X Jack, 32 X Tony and a Dinah along for a look. The Chinese met them with 25 X P-40N who downed a George, damaged a Jack and killed 9 X Tony at a cost of 21 Warhawks lost. Bill reads the reports that come in and nods knowing that the diversion of the fleet for this little side show has paid off. The Japanese have played an elusive game with the USN recently, but this will dent their plans, he thinks. Ed listens to his staff and reminds them to keep things simple because, “Once the stuff hits the fan to much can and will go wrong.” He reminds them that to much bombardment is never enough and not enough gets men killed. He actually is starting to have doubts as to the real value his ships contribute as the Japanese seem to be digging ever deeper the closer they get to Japan. Gil had a real scare today as first one engine quit and then another became balky on their way home. In terms of the old slang everything is Jake now that they are safely on the ground. Their airplane commander nursed the big bird home and the guys are starting to call him Jake. “Did you hear that we've been slated to ship out soon?” asks the new guys. Slim just shakes his head because he tries to ignore the rumors. He knows that they can't just sit on their behinds the rest of the war though and that sooner or later they'll be back in the thick of things. Sam is relieved to hear that they'll be getting off of the ship tomorrow. Except for combat this has to be the worst, he thinks. All noncoms have been summoned by the company CO for later today and Sam wonders what it's all about. Sandy writes to Bill telling him how cold, but beautiful everything looks with the fresh snowfall. She stops and wonders if he's OK and it hits her that it's possible that she's writing to him and he'll never see it. She tells herself to stop thinking like that because if something bad does happen it'll be her fault for thinking it. The Council of Freedom has been established in Denmark and was announced in Britain. Victory Points Japanese 28030 Allied 17966
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