apbarog
Posts: 3769
Joined: 5/23/2002 Status: offline
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7 Jan 42 Destroyer Amagiri spots Argonaut's mines north of Horn Island. No mine hits as the enemy carriers and surface group steams through. But Horn Island does put up a fight against the invaders. At least the coastal guns do. Here's a listing of the CD gun results: Round 1: CL Tama, Shell hits 6, on fire DD Numakaze xAP Ukishima Maru DD Yuzuki Round 2: DD Tachikaze, Shell hits 2, on fire DD Namikaze Round 3: xAP Brazil Maru, Shell hits 3, on fire CL Tama DD Yuzuki xAP Kobe Maru xAP Ukishima Maru Near Taberfane, sub Shark spots a convoy heading SE, and fires 4 torpedoes at big AV Kamikawa Maru, but misses. This AV has been attacked before, but no hits so far. You can bet it is loaded with troops. Sadly, poor little PC Formalhaut is sunk by RO-66 just south of Milne Bay. Formalhaut had escaped the Philippines to the east and then southeast, then came south east of New Guinea. It made it to Milne Bay, rounded third base and headed for home at Townsville, but was found. Sallys bomb Batavia's port. There were a couple of already damaged ships there, ones too damaged and with too short of a range to go anywhere safe. An AGP and AG is sunk, as well as an HDML. The airbase at Port Moresby is bombed by the usual 90 Kates from the carriers. I expect this treatment to be given to Australian bases very soon. He used 28 Zeros. With so few fighters in Australia now, and almost no decent pilots, it will be tough to counter, but we shall try. Darwin is lost. Horn Island is lost to a shock attack. I forgot about that occurring due to the island size. 4 Catalinas are lost on the ground. An enemy attack at Pontianak, Borneo almost succeeds. This base is about to fall. The Sasebo 2nd SNFL moves from Balikpapan to Samarinda, crossing a river and shock attacking. It goes off as a 1 to 2 attack against level 1 forts. 303 enemy casualties and 158 Allied. Will need more troops to take it. Or bombing. Now the dilemma about what to do with the enemy carriers between Horn Island and Port Moresby. 3 US carriers refueled today at Auckland. They would be outnumbered and outclassed by the enemy carriers, so I cannot engage. I don't know, right now, what the enemy's intentions are. Could be just covering a Port Moresby invasion, but I doubt that. They are in striking range of Townsville now, with just one's days move. This could be the start to what one reader referred to as "the world tour", where the Japanese carriers visit all the Australian bases north to south, driving everything before them. I have to assume that this could happen. Most ships had already left Townsville. The few remaining left today. US carriers will move to the northern tip of New Zealand today, limited by having just fueled, then they will head toward the southeastern part of Australia. If the enemy carriers go on the world tour, I will fly the carrier planes to Australia, and have the carriers leave the area. They would have a fighting chance against the carriers from land. And it could be an unpleasant surprise for the enemy. However, this would be a bad move if the carriers don't go down the Australian coast, and head toward Luganville or Noumea. Getting my big convoys to Australia is a high priority right now, and an enemy rush south would interdict them. So it is a tense time. If I have to, I will reroute convoys to New Zealand, but that could keep some valuable air units from getting to Australia, where they almost certainly will be needed.
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