Q-Ball
Posts: 7336
Joined: 6/25/2002 From: Chicago, Illinois Status: offline
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12-3-43: Battle of Molu Turns have been slow due to Greyjoy's RL issues at work, but the last couple turns we have done featured a rather large naval battle off Molu. Situation: Greyjoy had lost 1500 aircraft over the preceeding few days; I landed an Army Corps at Kai Island the day before. This featured 400 IJN aircraft being shot down over the transports, and a field day for my guys. Afterwards, my air units were a bit tired; the plan was to rest a day, then advance with new transports to land at Babo, which already fell to para assault. So, I moved my surface ships to Molu, to cover a TF loading there, and moved my CVs back just a bit; there were alot of subs in the area, so I set my DBs to 40% ASW to clean them out. Plan was to do that, then advance on the 5th. Night Phase: To my surprise, Greyjoy attacked all the shipping around Molu! I think he planned a bombardment, followed by airstrikes. Here are the combat reports with my comments: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 2,000 Yards Japanese Ships CL Naka CL Jintsu CL Nagara, Shell hits 2, and is sunk CL Natori CL Abukuma, Shell hits 4 DD Yugumo DD Hagikaze DD Hatsushima DD Shikinami, Shell hits 1, and is sunk Allied Ships BB Washington, Shell hits 2, Torpedo hits 1 BB Massachusetts, Shell hits 10 DD Bullard DD Chevalier DD Barton, Shell hits 4 DD Warrington, Shell hits 7, on fire, heavy damage Those CLs did a good job; took on BB shells, even got a torp hit, without suffering too much damage. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 3,000 Yards Allied aircraft no flights Allied aircraft losses OS2U-3 Kingfisher: 2 destroyed Japanese Ships BB Nagato, Shell hits 2 BB Mutsu, Shell hits 1, on fire BB Hyuga, Shell hits 2, heavy fires CA Chokai CA Kumano CA Aoba CA Kinugasa CA Furutaka CA Kako, Shell hits 1, on fire DD Fuyuzuki DD Tamanami DD Onami DD Hamanami DD Asashimo DD Hayashimo DD Akishimo, Shell hits 1 DD Arashi DD Tanikaze Allied Ships BB Washington, Shell hits 14, heavy fires BB Massachusetts, Shell hits 30, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk DD Bullard DD Chevalier, Shell hits 2 Low visibility due to Thunderstorms with 39% moonlight Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 39% moonlight: 2,000 yards Range closes to 24,000 yards... Range closes to 18,000 yards... Range closes to 12,000 yards... CONTACT: Japanese radar detects Allied task force at 12,000 yards Range closes to 9,000 yards... CONTACT: Japanese radar detects Allied task force at 9,000 yards Range closes to 7,000 yards... CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 7,000 yards Range closes to 5,000 yards... Range closes to 3,000 yards... CONTACT: Allies radar detects Japanese task force at 3,000 yards Lee, Willis "Ching crosses the 'T' BB Massachusetts engages BB Hyuga at 3,000 yards BB Mutsu engages BB Washington at 3,000 yards DD Chevalier engages BB Mutsu at 3,000 yards BB Massachusetts engages CA Kako at 3,000 yards BB Massachusetts engages DD Tamanami at 3,000 yards DD Chevalier engages DD Fuyuzuki at 3,000 yards Range closes to 2,000 yards BB Massachusetts engages BB Mutsu at 2,000 yards BB Mutsu engages BB Washington at 2,000 yards BB Nagato engages DD Chevalier at 2,000 yards DD Fuyuzuki engages DD Bullard at 2,000 yards BB Massachusetts engages CA Furutaka at 2,000 yards Range increases to 4,000 yards BB Massachusetts engages BB Hyuga at 4,000 yards BB Massachusetts engages BB Mutsu at 4,000 yards BB Nagato engages BB Massachusetts at 4,000 yards CA Kako engages BB Massachusetts at 4,000 yards Range increases to 5,000 yards BB Massachusetts engages BB Hyuga at 5,000 yards BB Mutsu engages BB Washington at 5,000 yards DD Fuyuzuki engages DD Chevalier at 5,000 yards BB Massachusetts engages CA Kako at 5,000 yards DD Chevalier engages DD Akishimo at 5,000 yards Range increases to 6,000 yards BB Massachusetts sunk by BB Mutsu at 6,000 yards BB Nagato engages DD Chevalier at 6,000 yards Lee, Willis "Ching orders Allied TF to disengage Range increases to 7,000 yards BB Washington engages BB Hyuga at 7,000 yards DD Chevalier engages DD Fuyuzuki at 7,000 yards BB Nagato engages BB Washington at 7,000 yards BB Washington engages CA Kumano at 7,000 yards DD Hamanami engages DD Bullard at 7,000 yards Task forces break off... My somewhat weakened BB TF under Ching Lee then SUFFERED; MASSACHUSETTS sunk outright, and WASH damaged. This was a VERY large IJN TF, and they did well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 2,000 Yards Japanese Ships BB Nagato, Shell hits 10, Torpedo hits 3, heavy damage CA Kumano CA Aoba CA Kinugasa CA Furutaka, Shell hits 3, on fire CA Kako, on fire DD Fuyuzuki DD Tamanami DD Onami DD Hamanami DD Asashimo DD Hayashimo DD Akishimo, on fire DD Arashi Allied Ships CA Minneapolis CA Sussex, Shell hits 15, and is sunk DD Anthony DD Duncan, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk DD Frazier SUSSEX sinks, but no big deal; she was due to withdraw anyway. Good damage on NAGATO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 1,000 Yards Japanese Ships CA Kumano, Shell hits 4 CA Aoba CA Kinugasa CA Furutaka, Shell hits 7, on fire DD Fuyuzuki DD Tamanami DD Onami DD Hamanami DD Asashimo DD Akishimo, on fire Allied Ships DD Bailey, Shell hits 5 DD Henley, Shell hits 1 DD Warramunga, Shell hits 10, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk DD Kortenaer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 2,000 Yards Japanese Ships CA Kumano CA Aoba, Shell hits 1 CA Kinugasa CA Furutaka, Shell hits 1, on fire DD Fuyuzuki, Shell hits 3, on fire DD Tamanami DD Onami DD Hamanami DD Asashimo DD Akishimo, on fire Allied Ships DD Fletcher DD Abbot DD Brown, Shell hits 6, heavy fires -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TF 254 encounters mine field at Molu (79,116) Japanese Ships DD Asashimo, Mine hits 1, heavy damage -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 3,000 Yards Japanese Ships CA Kumano CA Aoba, Shell hits 10, heavy fires, heavy damage CA Kinugasa, Shell hits 2 DD Fuyuzuki, on fire DD Tamanami DD Onami Allied Ships CL Honolulu CL Montpelier, Shell hits 2, on fire CL Birmingham CL Mobile DD Chauncey DD Cotten DD Kidd, Shell hits 2, on fire DD Gansevoort The number of our TFs are starting to tell; AOBA sank. No real damage for us. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 2,000 Yards Japanese Ships BB Nagato, heavy damage CA Kako, Shell hits 5, on fire DD Hayashimo DD Arashi Allied Ships BB South Dakota, Shell hits 2 BB Alabama, Shell hits 2 DD Aulick DD Bache, Shell hits 1 DD Beale, Shell hits 1 DD Brownson, Shell hits 4, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage Considering that his ships were already in round 4 or so, and mine were fresh, bad shooting by my guys -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 30,000 Yards Japanese Ships CA Furutaka DD Hamanami DD Asashimo, heavy damage DD Akishimo Allied Ships BB South Dakota BB Alabama DD Aulick DD Bache DD Beale DD Brownson, on fire, heavy damage Reduced visibility due to Thunderstorms with 50% moonlight Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 50% moonlight: 2,000 yards Range increases to 30,000 yards... Range increases to 30,000 yards... Both Task Forces evade combat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 29,000 Yards Japanese Ships BB Mutsu BB Hyuga, on fire CA Chokai DD Tanikaze Allied Ships BB South Dakota BB Alabama DD Aulick DD Bache DD Beale DD Brownson, on fire, heavy damage Reduced visibility due to Thunderstorms with 50% moonlight Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 50% moonlight: 2,000 yards Range increases to 29,000 yards... Range increases to 29,000 yards... Both Task Forces evade combat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Night Time Surface Combat, near Molu at 79,116, Range 29,000 Yards Japanese Ships BB Mutsu BB Hyuga, on fire CA Chokai DD Tanikaze Allied Ships BB South Dakota BB Alabama DD Aulick DD Bache DD Beale DD Brownson, on fire, heavy damage Poor visibility due to Thunderstorms with 50% moonlight Maximum visibility in Thunderstorms and 50% moonlight: 2,000 yards Range closes to 26,000 yards... Range increases to 29,000 yards... Range increases to 29,000 yards... Both Task Forces evade combat All in all, my guys I think could have done better; the TF commander of SOUTH DAKOTA was Daniel Callaghan, not sure why he kept trying to break off; would have loved for him to unload on those ships!
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