tocaff
Posts: 4781
Joined: 10/12/2006 From: USA now in Brasil Status: offline
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The game is now approximately 3 months ahead of the AAR as Steve and I got lots of 2 a days in lately. He's now off on a bicycle tour so the AAR will do some catching up. April 28, 1944 Iwo Jima Intel 6th Heavy AA Battalion is located at Heiho. 264865 men are based at Truk. 5907 men are based at Arshaan. 120 aircraft are based at Changchun. 9th Ind. Brigade is located at Changsha. 7th AF Construction Battalion is located at Soerabaja. 65th Division is located at Nanning. 72nd Division is located at Sendai. 11th Army is located at Nanning. 1st Air Division is planning for an attack on Chungking. 4th Air Division is located at Koepang. 5844 men are based at Takamatsu. 2694 men are based at Taejon. 5904 men are based at Arshaan. Radio transmissions detected at Prince Rupert. Recon Pe-2 takes recon photos of Heiho 9 LCUs Pe-2 takes recon photos of Mishan 7 LCUs 9620/118/139 Pe-2R takes recon photos of Chiamussu 5 LCUs 18620/146/66 Pe-2R takes recon photos of Mutanchiang 23 fighters, 8 bombers, 27 aux, 4 LCUs 3460/7/0 Pe-2R takes recon photos of Arshaan 2 LCUs 3140/49/0 Mosquito PR.IX takes recon photos of Saigon 25 fighters, 37 aux, 1 LCU 6160/31/0 F-5C Lightning takes recon photos of Victoria Point 4 bombers, 4 aux, 4 LCUs 16440/124/0 SOC-3 Seagull takes recon photos of Iwo Jima 4 LCUs 37760/351/0 PB2Y Coronado takes recon photos of Marcus Island 12 LCUs 23880/73/0 PBM Mariner takes recon photos of Palau 6 LCUs 18680/88/0 Mosquito PR.IX takes recon photos of Merauke vacant F-5A Lightning takes recon photos of Gili Gili 11 LCUs 52700/404/10 F-5C Lightning takes recon photos of Dili 4 LCUs 5540/23/250 Combat A Judy attacked the SS Lionfish 21 miles E of Batan Island and the sub reported in as having been hit. With moderate damage to her systems and a serious flooding problem the sub is making for Ulithi. The SS Trident, 19 miles NW of Malacca, was attacked by 4 DDs after hitting 1 of them with a torpedo. A naval bombardment of Iwo Jima inflicted very heavy casualties on the defenders and the coastal guns hit the BBs West Virginia 3 times and Maryland once. Americans troops stormed ashore taking extremely heavy losses and the coastal guns hit 2 DDs a couple of times each, an APD once and 2 LSTs twice each. The O'Bannon was one of the DDs struck and Phil was unlucky enough to have taken a splinter in his arm. As the landings continued the casualties rose rapidly and an AP was hit as were 2 DDs, one of which was the O'Bannon getting hit 2 more times. Not to be deterred the Americans continued to come ashore despite the withering artillery, mortar and machine gun fire. The losses have been staggering, but the men continue to come. A couple more DDs were hit, one of which took 9 hits, an LST was struck, a DMS was clobbered and 2 LCIs were brutalized. 26 X SBD, 28 X SB2C, 85 X TBF, 87 X TBM (1 damaged), 25 X F4F-4, 45 X FM-2 and 92 X F6F Hellcat attacked, adding to the mayhem below. The airfield was lightly damaged as was the port, a few secondary explosions were claimed, a Jake was left burning and troop losses were very light. The Japanese threw an artillery barrage at the American troops, inflicting extremely light losses. The SS Aspro, 21 miles E of Davao, attacked a lone AK and hit it with a torpedo, inflicting heavy damage and setting it ablaze. Tavoy was attacked by 105 X Liberator VI (1 downed, 2 damaged), 46 X B-25J (1 damaged), 35 X B-24J, 47 X B-29 and 13 X Corsair IV. The airfield was flattened, the port was heavily damaged, there were a great number of secondary explosions and troop losses were moderate. The IJA 30th Division was attacked by 40 X Thunderbolt II (4 damaged), 19 X P-38J (1 damaged) and 9 X Spitfire VIII. The Japanese had moderate losses. Not to far away, at almost the same time the IJA 49th Division was jumped by 39 X Thunderbolt II (3 damaged), 117 X P-38J (2 damaged) and 8 X Spitfire VIII. The unit had heavy casualties. Kai Island's airfield was hammered for moderate damage, many secondary explosions and moderate casualties by 141 X B-25J (1 destroyed, 7 damaged), 24 X Kittyhawk III and 15 X P-40N. Yap was targeted by 24 X P-39D who did very light damage to the airfield. 12 X SBD came on a short time later and contributed light damage to the airstrip. Jaluit was paid a visit by 60 X B-25J and 44 X P-38J. The port was lightly damaged. Port Moresby was bombed by 48 X B-17 E (4 damaged), 48 X B-24D (6 damaged) and 85 X B-24J (6 damaged). The airfield took extremely heavy damage, many secondary explosions were reported and the troops had very heavy casualties. The 145th IJA Base Force, near Rahaeng, was struck by 9 X Mosquito FB.VI for moderate losses. The 5th New Chinese Corps, stuck in place and starving was attacked by 7 Helens who inflicted light losses on the helpless Chinese. Dili was hit by 30 X B-24J who did light damage to the port. Kwajalein was raided by 33 X PB4Y (1 damaged) and they did light damage to the airfield and caused a couple of secondary explosions. A Japanese AK 73 miles E of Ponage was attacked by 3 PB4Ys, 1 of which was damaged. The ship took a couple of bomb hits and was burning. Sam is in a state of shock, but somehow still functioning. He is pushing his squad inland, knowing that the beach is a place for the dead and those soon to die. There is a rain of shells and bullets zipping through the air and he wonders how anyone can survive this. Eniwetok was a cakewalk and Saipan was tough, but this place is a meat grinder. Unlike Saipan there seems to be a lack of supplies ashore and Sam prays that this is taken care of quickly. Phil refused to leave the bridge when he was wounded saying that, “I'll be damned if I'll leave my girl when she needs me the most.” Frank tried to convince him to leave, but failed and Phil sat in a sheltered corner of the damaged bridge with a pharmacist's mate caring for him. “Son can you please pull that piece of crap out of me?” The sailor mutters that he'll do his best and manages to remove it, at the same time increasing the flow of blood. The man tended to the wound and finally stopped the bleeding and suggested to his skipper that he needs to lie down and rest. “I'm fine and I'll continue to fight my ship from here, OK?” Frank again tries to talk some sense into Phil who will have none of it. As soon as he feels able Frank and a sailor help Phil to his feet and steady him. “I'm fine go back to your posts,” Phil says. No sooner do these words leave his lips than the ship was hit again. “Those bastards will pay for hurting my girl,” mutters Phil. With that he passes out and is carried to his cabin, where he can rest. Frank reports the ship's status to the TF commander as soon as all stations reported into him. O'Bannon will retire to the Marianas with other damaged vessels to be patched up. She has moderate damage to her systems so a trip to Pearl could be in the offing. It's a given that the O'Bannon and her skipper need time to lick their wounds. The SS Cobia continues to struggle towards Saipan, but the flooding has worsened a bit and the skipper, the exec and chief of the boat meet quietly and whisper about their chances, which aren't looking to good now. “As long as we have the slightest chance we'll continue to fight the flooding. Have regular position and situation reports sent out so that if we do need to abandon then help won't be to far away,” says her skipper. The lookouts silently pray for a PBY or PBM to appear, but they're a bit far out yet. Gil has decided to tempt fate by delaying his departure from Pittsburgh. He figures that nothing can be worse than an upset female. When given the news Elaine says, “Instead of putting me through this you could've done it this way from the beginning.” Gil thinks that he'll never understand her, but he can't help himself as he's in love. The PMs of South Africa and Rhodesia arrived in London for the Imperial Conference. Victory Points Japanese 31556 Allied 29061
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