Canoerebel
Posts: 21100
Joined: 12/14/2002 From: Northwestern Georgia, USA Status: offline
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8/7/43 Circus: Allied strike aircraft and escorts target enemy shipping and CAP at Amchitka. The escorts don't do well in that capacity. Consequently, Allied air losses are high (35 SBDs and 26 good fighters vs. 9 enemy fighters). But plenty of strike aircraft get through, scoring one hit on xAP Montevideo Maru, multiple hits on three xAK (Arizona Maru confirmed sunk), and multiple hits on two LSDs, which both report "heavy fires, heavy damage.") That's a pretty steep price to nick enemy shipping, but if memory serves LSDs are significant Japanese assets. More importantly, this raid my force John to think carefully about an invasion of Ulak or points east. Despite the power he has in the Aleutians, he has to work hard to neutralize Allied air. On the other hand, that may be one reason he wants Ulak so bad. Roller Coaster: The big Japanese combat TF retired west, but a DD TF penetrated into the open water east of the Marshalls, from which it should be able to savage some vulnerable xAKs. PBY Liberators targeted this group, but missed. The biggest news is a strong carrier TF eight hexes SW of Tabituea. I'll post a screen shot shortly. Allied shipping is beginning to organize at Pearl for the upcoming Operation Thin Man, which is one part invasion of Kwaj and Roi-Namur and one part supply run to the other islands. It really is kind of funny. The amount of amphibs in this op will be relatively small and dwarfed by the amount of supply ships, combat ships, and carriers. This puts things into the proper perspective - the real objective is enemy shipping. 18th Canadian Brigade arrived at Pearl. I'm going to let it upgrade a day or two before loading (the carriers are still five days from being ready). A US RCT prepping for Kwaj is about two days from Pearl. Two Canadian battalions prepping for Kwaj are about four days out (the latter will have to play catch up, because the main amphibs will leave Pearl in three days). The main USN combat TF will consist of BB North Carolina, BB Massachusetts, CA Salt Lake City, CL Montpelier, CLAA Juneau, and eight Fletchers. Each captain has been vetted and Bull Halsey commands this TF. There will be another combat TF of Fletchers and some cruisers. There will be two CVE TFs. There will be three CV TFs, each comprised of three CV and a CVL. That leaves me with one CV (Victorious) extra. I'll have to figure out what to do with her. BB Resolution Quandary: This BB suffered light/moderate damage during Roller Coaster and retired to San Fran to repair and upgrade. Sadly, the upgrade takes about 70 days (all RN ships seem to take a long, long, long time). She still has 69 days to complete upgrades and she's due for withdrawal in 39 days. The math doesn't work well for me. I checked, and I don't have the option to withdraw her. Am I screwed? I'm probably screwed, right?
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< Message edited by Canoerebel -- 4/23/2016 6:11:57 PM >
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